* * * * *
Mr. G sprang to his feet at the sight of his long-lost associate.
"So! You're finally back."
Racym Iocc smirked.
"Believe it or not, I do have _other_ literary irons in the metaphorical fire!"
Whereupon, he waved his hand and summoned the usual tulpa of a computer keyboard. And, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Mr. G looked over the former's right shoulder at the first few paragraphs.
"Another variation of your screen name?!" he exclaimed: "People are going to start thinking you're full of yourself."
"All authors are vain, to one degree or another," replied Iocc: "Otherwise, they wouldn't be authors in the first place! And, the ones who claim they have zero vanity are victims of self-delusion. Surely, the worst vanity of them, all."
"Sad, but true," Mr. G (grudgingly) admitted with a chuckle: "But, don't call me 'Shirley.' "
* * * * *
EARTH-08112009
(3.75 MONTHS EARLIER)
The spaceship was shaped like a tear drop. Yet, Vanessa had never seen a tear drop the size of Lake Superior! And the moisture emanating from her eyes, at the dust being kicked up by the ship's landing, made her somewhat of an expert on the subject, right at that moment.
Finally, however, the dust devils subsided enough that the blonde GTS-goddess could look up as the ship's sole occupant disembarked.
"Hello, Bubla. Welcome to my world."
The expatriate Morpher took on the semblance of a six hundred foot-giantess with pale skin and red hair. As a result, her hostess could now look Bubla in the eye...except for one thing.
Bubla's simulated eyes had no pupils. And Vanessa suspected the omission was deliberate.
"Is it true?" the former bluntly demanded: "What Crusher told me? You have devoured a counterpart of the Reluctant One?"
Vanessa shamelessly grinned and nodded. Demonstrating the veracity of the aforementioned claim by instantly growing to ten thousand feet!
Bubla's maximum height.
The latter instantly matched it, however, and demanded further proof.
"Can you reach _her_ maximum height?"
Vanessa's only response was to instantly become a five mile-high giantess.
"I now have _all_ of Valerie Arcoymicc's abilities! Minus the diurnal limitation."
"And, in return for smuggling you away from your place of exile," Bubla continued (though now having to shout upwards): "...I get what, exactly?"
Vanessa's grin became positively feral.
"An end to your own!"
The giant she-Morpher was still dubious.
"The Green One is amenable to staying here, in your stead?"
Vanessa pointed to her right. More specifically; at a mountain range that used to be a drab brownish-gray. But, which GTS-goddess Verta had now spent the past three months...
...re-greening.
"Very well," replied Bubla: "Shrink back down, so we can depart."
Five minutes later, the only sentient being on the planet was Verta, herself.
* * * * *
THE PLANET ARCHAVIA
(3.75 MONTHS LATER)
RAY VENN'S P.O.V.
I don't know how much longer it was before I awoke. But, I knew right away I wasn't still at the Imperial palace. Not when I had a bunch of seven foot-tall lemurs standing around me wearing hospital scrubs that were a brighter shade of blue than their fur!
"At the risk of sounding like a cliche'..." I began.
"You are in a private room of the Capital City Hospital," intoned one of the lemurs: "Captain Lavrem of Imperial Security called for medical assistance, for you, immediately after notifying her own people about the abduction from the palace. That is why she is not here, herself."
"Oh," I replied: "I see. And, what's the diagnosis, Doc?"
"Fortunately, you have not sustained any concussions. Merely a bruised jaw and a slight lump on the rear epidermis of your cranium."
"Really? Then, why the bedside symposium?"
I used my chin to indicate the other blue lemurs.
"My subordinates and I were merely expressing our fascination over your genetic readings. You see, they seem to indicate that you are of partially human origin. Yet, your present height...!"
"Oh, brother!" I thought to myself: "I have to do another mini-lecture on Sizeloans?"
Luckily, I was saved from that chore by a beautiful angel. Well, that's who I thought she was, for a second. Because, the beauteous giantess who suddenly appeared to the right of my hospital bed had hair the same shade of blue as the doctors' fur!
"Please, Doctor. Could he satisfy your curiosity, another day?"
"Oh, my! Yes, of course, Miss Tarsuss! My apologies."
"Quite understandable," replied the azure-haired angel.
Then, after they left, she turned to me and smiled.
"Mr. Venn? My name is Pryvani Tarsuss. And I understand, from Captain Lavrem, that we have a mutual friend...of sorts."
"We do?" was the best come-back I could think of as I sat up in bed.
She nodded. Whereupon, she reached into the right-hand pocket of what I took to be the Archavian equivalent of a designer leather jacket, and withdrew something. Or, should I say, "someone?" Because, the figure she put on her right shoulder was most definitely Earth-human in shape. And a male human, at that!
Judging by the Irish brogue that came wafting down to me.
"Greetings, boyo! The name's Niall Freeman, and I hear you've been lookin' for me."
To be continued (hopefully, in a much shorter timespan than six months).
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
ISLE OF THE GOD-TEACHERS