Aleena stuck the index finger of her right hand through two of the bars, and Darren touched the tip of her finger. The bars were so close together that she could only touch the area between two of the bars without her finger protruding. From the perspective of the giants, Darren was slightly smaller than one of those green plastic toy army men that are popular with boys. From Darren's point of view, the distance between the bars was about five or six inches. From Aleena's perspective, the distance was less than a fifth of an inch.

Aleena's mother went to hook the horses up to their carriage as Aleena continued to talk to Darren.

"Do you have a name?" Aleena asked.

"I'm Darren! I'm from a world in another universe. A woman named Raleigh sent my space shuttle to your world. I'm from Earth!"

"Space shuttle?" Aleena asked. "What's that?"

"It's a vehicle for traveling into space. It crashed into that lake not far from this house!"

Aleena looked perplexed. "Aleena!" came the voice of her mother from outside, and Aleena picked up the cage and carried Darren to the carriage and got in. Greta held the reins as Aleena sat in the passenger seat. As the horses drew the carriage from the dirt driveway onto the cobblestone street, the cobblestones rattled the carriage, sending vibrations through Darren's body. As they drove past houses on their way into town, Darren got a sense of the scale of this massive world. From the cage on Aleena's lap he could see Dutch houses and trees that were thirty-six times bigger than they would've been on Earth. Two story houses that were about thirty feet high to the Asgardians were in the vicinity of a thousand feet tall to Darren.

Darren was able to see the townspeople of the town Aleena lived in, and saw that the average height of these people was between one-hundred-eighty and two-hundred feet tall. Even the children who were running around stood about a hundred and fifty feet tall, and these were the younger ones. There was a stable the townspeople used to park their carriages, and Greta pulled in and parked the carriage, and tied the horses. Aleena took the cage and followed her mother out of the stable, toward a two story building. A sign hanging from a wrought-iron frame had the word "Magistrate" printed on it, and Aleena followed Greta into the building.

The magistrate was about sixty with gray hair and a goatee and moustache. He was busy with another customer, but he was soon finished and the other customer left. He ushered Greta and Aleena over to his desk, and Aleena set Darren's cage down in an area free of clutter. To Darren, the office looked like a movie set for a film about the eighteenth or nineteenth century. He could picture Ebeneezer Scrooge chastening Bob Cratchet for putting too many coals on the fire. The inkwell on the desk was as tall as Darren, and the crow-quill pen was at least three times as long as Darren was tall.

"My daughter Aleena found him," said Greta, "we want to register him in my daughter's name. Hopefully, nobody will come to claim him."

"Her name?" the magistrate asked, as he pulled a roll of parchment from a shelf and unfurled it.

"Aleena Vandenberg!" said Greta.

"Her age?" the magistrate asked.

"She's fourteen."

"I'm going to need you and Aleena to sign this document."

Greta signed the document, followed by Aleena.

"As long as nobody claims him within thirty days of today's date, then he will belong to Aleena!"

The magistrate wished them a nice day, and Aleena took the cage and followed her mother out the front door onto the cobblestone street.

"Now we have to buy some clothes and a bed for him!" said Greta.

Aleena carried the cage as the two of them entered a shop that carried supplies for captives. Greta and Aleena split up. Greta found a bed, a toilet, and a bathtub, while Aleena shopped for clothes for Darren. Aleena picked out six changes of pants, shirts, underwear, and socks, as well as a jacket. When Greta paid for the clothes and the other things, she got out the key to the cage and opened it after Aleena set the cage down on the counter. Aleena set the bed, toilet, and bathtub inside the cage, then she put the clothes inside.

"You forgot to get him towels," Greta said, and Aleena went and got some towels for Darren, and Greta paid for them.

"Now we need to go to the jewelry store," said Greta.

"What for, momma?" Aleena asked.

"You'll see!" Greta replied with a smile on her face.

As Aleena carried Darren's cage and followed her mother to the nearby jewelry store, Darren quickly got out of his wet flight suit and stripped naked without Aleena or her mother taking notice. He put on a pair of the underwear Aleena had gotten for him, and slipped on a pair of the pants and a shirt. After being soaking wet in this northern latitude, it felt luxurious to put on warm, dry clothes. Darren tried on the jacket, and it fit comfortably. The pants, however, were one size fits all, and they were kind of loose. Luckily, Darren had been wearing a belt when he had gone up into orbit, and these pants Aleena had bought for him had belt loops that were the right size for his belt to fit through. By the time Darren was dressed, Aleena and her mother were at the jewelry store.

"We're getting you a gold necklace!" Greta proclaimed.

"Momma, I don't need a necklace! You and father must pay the bills! I don't need something that extravagant!"

"I disagree, and I'm in charge of making the decisions around here. You need a chain to keep your key on! I wouldn't want you to lose it! Now pick one out!"

Aleena went to the glass cases and looked at the necklaces. Some were gold and some were silver. Aleena found a thin silver necklace, and pointed it out to her mother.

"We'll take this one!" Greta said to the man behind the counter. He got the necklace out and handed it to Aleena. Greta gave the key to Aleena, then paid for the necklace. Aleena unhooked the back of the necklace and slid the necklace chain through the hole in the handle of the key. After getting her change, Greta helped Aleena put the necklace on.

After exiting the jewelry store, Aleena spotted her best friend across the street.

"Mom, there's Inga! I want to go over to her house and show her my captive! I'll walk home from here!"

"Okay, but don't come home too late!" Greta said, and the two parted. Greta returned to the stable, and Aleena walked across the street to talk to her friend. When Darren saw the other girl, he noted that she was about the same height as Aleena. Darren found himself still trying to mentally calculate the height of any giants he encountered.

"Inga, I've got my own captive now! It looks like Wes and Vashti are going to have some company whenever I come over to your house to visit you!"

Aleena held the cage up so her friend could see it. Inga took the cage, and looked at Darren. He could see that she had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like Aleena. Inga was extremely pretty, just like Aleena.

"He's cute!" said Inga, handing the cage back to Aleena. "Where did you get him?"

"I was churning butter when I spotted him, but he didn't know I saw him. I ran inside the house through the back door so he wouldn't hear me, then I grabbed a jar and hunted him down. Catching him was child's play!"

"You'd better get him registered, he probably belongs to somebody."

"I already did, that's where I'm coming from now. Can I take him to your house to meet your captives?"

"Yeah, that's where I'm going right now!"

Aleena held the cage from a handle on the top of it, so Darren was about at mid-thigh elevation as the two giantesses walked. Darren became accustomed to the sway of the motion as the cage swung gently back and forth as Aleena swung her arms as she walked.

"Do you know Heidi?" Inga asked Aleena.

"The rich girl? Of course!" said Aleena.

"She celebrated her birthday the other day. I wasn't there, but I heard from someone that she got ten captives for her birthday. Do you know what she did with them?"

"What?" Aleena asked.

"She swallowed seven of them. A couple of hours after her birthday party was over, her mother went into her room and found only three of them, plus the five other captives she already had."

"Did she get in trouble with her parents?" Aleena asked.

"No! Heidi's a spoiled brat. I'm lucky to have just two captives, and she gets fifteen and swallows seven of them!"

"I've never had a captive before," said Aleena, "so I couldn't imagine swallowing one. They're two inches tall, isn't that a little too big too swallow?"

"Not really," said Inga. "A lot of people have swallowed captives. It's practically an epidemic! In Amsterdam rich people have parties where they swallow captives. When I become an adult, I want to go to one of those parties!"

"How would you get in?" Aleena asked.

"I'll just marry a rich man! Of course, he'll have to be cute, too!"

The two girls laughed as they stepped up onto Inga's front porch. Once inside, Aleena showed Darren to Inga's parents, then they went to Inga's bedroom. There was a table in the center of the room with two chairs on either side. Aleena set Darren's cage down on the table, while Inga got another cage that was slightly bigger than Darren's and set it next to it.

Inga wore a gold necklace that she took off over her head. A key was looped onto the gold chain, which Inga used to unlock the cage. Aleena did the same with Darren's cage. Inga reached in and grasped her two captives, and dropped them onto the table. Aleena did the same with Darren. When Aleena unclenched her fist, Darren dropped to the table and saw two other people his size, a man and a woman. The man was a tan dark-haired gentleman in his early twenties, and the woman appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, and in her late teens or early twenties. The two captives looked like they were happy to receive visitors. Their happiness was short-lived, however, because Inga's fist slammed down onto the table.

"Toys," Inga said in a loud, authoritative tone of voice, "I have allowed you to have a companion for the day. He is owned by my friend Aleena. What do you have to say for yourselves?"

The man and woman got down on their knees and bowed low to their owner, and the man spoke: "You honor us with this great privilege, great goddess. We thank you for your kindness."

When Inga was satisfied with his words of praise, her eyes shifted over to Aleena. "They must continually be reminded to mind their manners. Don't let your captive get away with having bad manners, Aleena. They get spoiled and forget their place. It just isn't proper!"

Inga turned and looked at Darren. "Tiny one, what is your name?"

"I'm Darren, Darren Dale!"

"Captives take the surname of their captor!" Inga replied. "If Darren is your first name, then your last name is Vandenberg, Aleena's last name! Tell, me, where did you come from when Aleena captured you?"

"My space shuttle splashed down in the lake near Aleena's house. I'm from a parallel universe!"

Aleena looked at Inga, and said, "That's the story he first told me. He claims he traveled here in a vessel that travels through the sky."

"I find that hard to believe," said Inga, "but if his story is true, then you won't have to worry about anyone claiming him! I'm going to get some strudel my mother just made. I'll be right back."

While Inga was in the kitchen, the male captive introduced himself to Darren. "I'm Wes, and this is my companion Vashti."

Darren shook hands with Wes, and was astounded by Vashti's beauty.

"Vashti and I were purchased as a pair. We're expected by our mistress to have offspring. We're protesting our captivity by refusing to have sex."

Darren wanted to ask Wes about the chances of a successful escape attempt, but with Aleena observing them and listening to their every word, it wouldn't have been wise. Inga returned with the strudel. As the girls ripped into the strudel, Darren approached them.

"Can I have some?" Darren asked.

"Captives aren't supposed to speak unless spoken to!" said Inga. "Aleena, you really must train this slave better!" Inga turned to look at Darren again. "Strudel is the food of the gods! Captives are forbidden! But if you were my captive, I'd make you eat strudel that had been chewed up in my mouth!" Inga stuck her tongue out at Darren, revealing a mouthful of chewed-up strudel.

Aleena laughed at this, and took a bite of strudel and chewed on it for a few moments. When it was ground into a thick saliva-strewn paste, Aleena stuck her right index finger into her mouth and scooped out a chunk of strudel and offered it to Darren.

"Do you want some, Darren?" Aleena asked.

Darren stood there and said nothing.

"In that case," said Aleena, "I command you to eat some of this, or you'll be punished!"

Darren took some of the chewed up strudel and ate some of it. Darren had been in the Marine Corps, so he was trained to handle anything. In spite of how disgusting it was, Darren managed to consume the chewed up strudel without gagging, and even took a second helping. Inga slammed her fist down onto the table.

"This is an outrage! He's not even sickened by it! This was supposed to be a punishment! Aleena, give him to me!"

Inga grabbed Darren, and held him so only his head protruded from her fist. "I can swallow you, and I will, even if it takes me six months of hard labor to pay Aleena back for you, so don't tempt me! Regardless of what Aleena says about the matter, if I am angered, I will swallow you! Here's a small sample of what I'm capable of!"

Inga stuffed Darren into her mouth, and sealed her lips. Her warm breath washed over Darren. As she exhaled carbon dioxide, Darren slowly lost oxygen. Aleena was amused as she observed Inga with a determined look on her face as Darren was helplessly contained within her mouth.

"Inga, you'd better not swallow my captive!" Aleena said.