It was as normal a day as any in the colony; food was scavenged from wherever it could be found by gatherers, and the workers went about their duties. The bustling population of the colony shifted from place to place adorned in their attire made of the grass imported from outside the walls. Life was simple yet somewhat harsh for the people of the valley of marble. With not many natural food sources around, the people depended mostly on scavenging and the imports of more rich land. Great caravans would take the arduous journey from the thick grass forest over to the marble valley. Beasts of six legs that had been bred to work were used to take the supplies from one city to the other.
With a gift said to be sent down by the gods themselves the people were able to communicate with beasts in a sort of ways. They called this gift “The Meld.” Beasts were not the main concern of those in the caravan though, there were many other troubles. Raiders who lived along the road could ride out at any moment on beasts of their own and take whatever supplies in the caravan for themselves.
One of the men in one such caravan, Killian, sat atop one of the great beasts since it was no longer his duty to stand guard on the ground. They had been making the journey for what seemed to be a week now. He looked out across the barren landscape and saw nothing around for miles, only the hard white stone of the ground that stretched onward for what seemed to be forever.
“Why would they want to live in here? Do you ever wonder my friend?” A strong hand grasped Killian’s shoulder after the question. It was the hand of his closest friend Mero. The big man cut Killian off before he could answer the previous question and added, “You know, if it wasn’t for us, the people here would be left to feed only on whatever the great one left over.”
Killian looked out to the town so close now and then to the barren land around and gave a jest, “It seems the great one is not as generous as she used to be. By the look of it, she hasn’t left much for them lately.”
With a bark of laughter, Mero thundered, “Ha! You think she leaves it for them on purpose? I have seen her many times, never up close, gods be good, but you know it is always a wondrous sight. I wonder sometimes you know, I don’t think she even acknowledges our existence.” With that Mero jumped down off the beast to begin his patrol on the ground and left Killian there to think about Her.
It was the most humbling experience in Killian’s life the first time he laid eyes on Her. He had been a headstrong boy ready to leave the safeties of his faraway colony and join the caravan service, but on the first day he felt the ground rumble and the whole caravan ceased to a halt. He could barely stand let alone walk, yet when the rumbling ceased and he regained his stance, he was frozen in his place as he looked up. She looked like them but magnified to an unimaginable size. Killian’s gaze went from the bottom of her feet, to the tops of her toes, to the powerful and shapely curves of her legs, past the waist, up to the “mountains” that hung firm and supple from her chest, until he craned his neck to see the features of her heavenly face. He saw how beautiful she was from the large hazel eyes, and wavy brown hair that fell in a torrent down to her shoulders and back. The full lips of her face made him wonder how it would be to be with a woman, as he had not yet been with one.
He was snapped out of the trance she put him in when she suddenly walked away causing great tremors yet again. One massive foot moved to another position, pushed off the ground with ease, and came thundering down. Her other foot did the same until she was out of the group’s sight. Her otherworldly rear was on full display for Killian to see as she finally made her exit. Killian had never seen beauty like hers in all his life, yet he reminded himself that she was a being far beyond him. With a simple movement she could have exterminated the entire caravan underfoot without even knowing they were there. Remembering the first time he laid eyes on her always made Killian remind himself that everything he saw was her realm, and he was just a small, insignificant piece of dust trying to stay out from under her path. Mero’s right, she doesn’t even know we exist because we are nothing to her, Killian thought to himself, I can’t say I want to know what would happen if she did know we exist. Killian shuddered and dozed off to sleep knowing he would dream of the titanic beauty.
“Wake up Killi!” shouted Mero, booming as ever, “We are here, but the job isn’t finished yet.” The behemoth of a man hoisted up a crate that would normally require two men to lift and tossed it down. He looked back over to Killian again, more impatiently this time, “C’mon, let’s get this done so we can get into the city.”
“You mean so you can go get into some girls, don’t you?” a wide grin found itself on Killian’s face as he walked over to help his friend. “Alright, I won’t keep you from them.”
“Good, it would be a horrible crime to rob the girls of the pleasure, I plan to…” The shock of a sudden quake that reverberated all around them scarred the beast they were on. The creature sent Killian and Mero tumbling off of its back and to the ground. Both of them knew immediately what had caused the shakes. Tremors always heralded the titaness’ arrival. She appeared to have just woken up, although her radiance was still full as ever. She had some sort of food in her hand, but Killian did not know what it was. A black exterior held some form of white paste on both sides. Her strides were uncaring and random; she was just having a small morning trot. That walk translated to horror on the scale of Killian.
She walked to the left of where they were standing and suddenly shifted her steps to the right. Killian had noticed the coat of blue coloring that adorned the great toes on the ends of her feet whenever she stepped. He was entranced by the sight of her just as he had been the first time he saw her. His wrist was yanked on by Mero trying to speak sense into him. “What are you doing we have to run,” screamed his large companion.
Killian snapped out of it and agreed, “Let’s go then, leave the beast,” he said as he ran with Mero to the direction of the town. The constant thud of each of her titanic steps made it hard for them to keep upright. When he looked back, he dreaded what he saw. The great one’s right foot left where it was and was traveling through the air towards the caravan. With a great boom the foot impacted on the ground sending an almost gale force wind to all its sides. Killian and Mero were propelled into the air like all the other helpless workers around them. Even some of the caravan beasts who were too close to the foot were sent flying. One was sent careening onto a crowd of about twenty men and snuffed out most of their lives immediately.
When Killian was able to stand he was sore all over his body. He looked around to see what had become of his associates. Crates and supplies lay dispersed everywhere next to some of the broken men who did not land as fortunately as he and Mero had. He saw with horror the beast that had landed on the group of twenty men and how its struggles only caused more suffering to the men who lay crushed beneath it. Other Beasts ran in all directions just trying to get out of the woman’s vicinity, Mero tried to meld with them to calm them down but it seemed to not have an effect.
“They’re too afraid Killi, it isn’t working,” Mero shouted as horrified as the beasts.
“Let me try,” said Killian in a voice that was calm despite his own feelings of terror. Killian’s meld had been the strongest anyone had ever seen and it grew more powerful as he aged. If anyone could sooth the beasts running around, it was him. “Calm yourselves,” he said to the beasts and they followed. He could feel their terror yet they stopped when he asked them to. Killian was able to even calm the beast that had landed on the men, not all of them had died but all were gravely injured.
With most of the chaos quelled, Killian gazed upon the culprit. Killian had never been so close to her, but all he really could see was her monolithic foot. He stood near the middle of the fleshy wall; it extended out in two directions to the left and right of him as far as he could see. Only some of the grooves on the side of her foot were visible but seeing them made Killian uncomfortable. He could lose himself exploring every ridge and path. He felt heat radiate off her body as a result of how close he was to her. Killian shuddered to think of how powerful she was. She had caused death and destruction by just walking near them. Her foot didn’t even land on the caravan, just the force and wind it exerted alone sent men and beast alike flying. That was the scariest thought to Killian, a slight step killed nearly forty men just now and none were even killed by the foot itself.
Mero was helping a group of men but he had a desperation about his actions that was plain for all to see. All he cared for now was saving whoever he could. Killian helped a man who had a shattered leg from the fall to his feet. Mero came over to Killian to help him with the man. Just when all the chaos had subsided an object fell from a staggering height, it was some piece of food the veritable Goddess had unknowingly dropped. It fell at a staggering velocity towards a group of men who were only just now regaining consciousness. Killian screamed at them to get them out of the way but it was too late. The piece collided with the ground instantly crushing them all with an audible squelch. Smaller pieces shattered off the larger than a boulder sized crumb. One flew at a great enough speed to take the head clean off a man standing only six feet away from Killian.
All the workers were lost and terrified at this moment. Their fear was brought on by realizing their own mortality and helplessness. It was a reminder to them all of just what they were to this being, nothing. The smallest of crumbs had slipped from the food in the titan’s fingers and killed ten men. It was so large to them yet to the Goddess it could not even be said if she would even notice or care of such a small crumb. Even scarier was that she obviously did not notice nor care of all the death she had caused by just being. All Killian was reminded of was the world that he lived in. If he forgot he was taught once more today, it wasn’t his world, it was hers. He was nothing to this titaness, all of them were nothing to her, they were less than dust under her feet.