“Oh man, my head hurts.”

I bring my hand up to my forehead and rub it slowly. I’ve got a splitting headache.

I open my eyes and see an orange glow. My vision is still blurry, and my head is pounding, but I think I can make out some noises… Screaming? What’s going on?

I close my hands and start rubbing my eyes, trying to get them to adjust. Opening them again, I’m able to discern my surroundings a little better. I can see the orange glow get brighter and I notice it in my peripheral vision. It’s surrounding me, and I can feel an intense heat. I’m in… a fire. My entire body can feel the warmth, so the fire must be everywhere around me.

I can feel something cold wrapped around my left ankle. I try to look closer, but I can’t make anything out, my vision is still far too blurry to see clear details. But I can see the outlines of my legs. They look so small and short. I’m not wearing pants? I observe my hands and begin to open and close them. Their outline is small, and it feels unnatural. Am I… a kid?

THUD!

My attention is brought to the noise I heard just behind me, a wooden support beam fell to the ground, engulfed in flames. I remember this place. I hated being here. I hated the people who lived here.

“Kid, what are you doing?! Stand up, we’ve gotta get out of here!” I hear a panicky deep voice say.

I turn around and see the blurry outline of a man, rushing over to me, with some type of tool in his hands.

“Watch out, I need to cut it!” He shouts out to me.

“No, please!” I yell to him, but he continues.

He gets right in front of me, his big form nothing more than a silhouette. I watch as he raises his arms, the tool in hand preparing to strike it down on me. I close my eyes and look away.

CRASH!

---

Nathan wakes up with jolt, his eyes opening and darting around. He looks disoriented and realizes he’s panting heavily. He’s covered in sweat looks terrified. A sudden swaying feeling makes itself apparent and he wonders what’s going on.

“Where… Where am I?” He mutters, trying to move his arms.

They don’t move an inch before Nathan realizes he’s bounded tightly with some kind of rope? He struggles and starts wiggling his head around, trying to create a gap of space to release himself.

“You’re awake, huh?” He hears a feminine voice boom above him.

He freezes in place, his eyes wide as dinner plates. It all comes back to him, the crash, the kid and the giant girl. His muscles stay frozen, and his mouth quivers as he tries to find any words to speak.

“Don’t think about trying to get out, I’m not sure you’d survive that fall.” She says.

Nathan slowly tilts his head downward, getting a glimpse of that fate would befall him if he were to wiggle out. He saw a massive nauseating distance between where he hung, and where the ground was. He brought his bead back up and looked around. The sun wasn’t high in the sky as it was when he got to the crash site, instead it looked about less than halfway to setting over the mountain covered horizon.

“I’ve been out for hours?” He thinks to himself, shocked at the fact that he’d been asleep for so long.

He looks up behind him, and sees the left side of the girl’s face, and notices her golden hair coming right behind his head, continuing just out of his view. Steadily, he turns his head around to follow the trail of hair, leading him to discover what he’s tied up in.

“Her hair?! She tied me up with her hair? You’ve got to be kidding me!” He thinks, scoffing to himself in disbelief at the situation.

The swaying and bouncing he felt earlier, which had never stopped, made sense now. She kidnapped him and is taking him with her. He looks downwards again, catching sight of her long olive-skinned legs walking, each stride tens of feet long. Her bare feet crash into the ground over and over, leaving imprints of her massive soles behind.

“What did you do? Where are we?!” Nathan asks, demanding for an answer from his kidnapper.

“I don’t know, I just followed the sign that read Veran. That is the place with the ships, right?” She replied.

Nathan felt his heart sink as his face turned pale.

“You’re… you’re kidding right?” He whispers, his voice hoarse.

“A sign was still up, and it read that Veran was this way. I assume the road has been destroyed over time, but we should still make it there.” She said.

“No, we have to turn back! My bike, it’s still in the city!” He said, thrashing his body around.

She bent her left arm and brought her hand to Nathan. With only her thumb and first two fingers, she clamped them around the panicking Nathan, putting a swift end to his struggling.

“Stop it. It’ll still be there when you get back, so stop wiggling around.” She said strictly.

“You don’t understand, it has all by gear on it! My food, water, supplies! We have to go back now!” He shouted, still tightly trapped in her grip.

Her grip tightened on him, reminding him again how powerless he was in the situation.

“Like I just said, it will still be there. Once we get that ship, I’ll drop you off and you can get your precious ‘supplies’ back.” She said.

“What do you mean ‘once you get the ship’? You don’t even know if there’s anything there!” He replied, anger present in his tone.

Her body stopped moving the instant he finished his sentence. Her hand moved slightly, pointing Nathan’s entire body to face her face.

“Did you lie to me about the ship?” She questioned.

“No, of course not,” he blurted nervously, “I’m just not certain if there’s any in working order.”

She looked away disapprovingly and began to walk again, “Well for your sake, I hope there are.”

Nathan gulped and slowly brought his gaze down to stare at the ground.

“Isabel,” he heard a voice call out, “don’t we have to find somewhere to stay for the night? It’s getting dark and you know I don’t like staying outside at night.”

Nathan perked his head up, “Isabel, huh?” he thought to himself.

Isabel sighed in annoyance, “Don’t worry Wesley, we’ll find somewhere to spend the night.”

Silence overcame all three as Isabel continued to walk. Her legs were feeling sore from the hours she’s been walking to city and she just wanted to find somewhere safe to rest. From all the miles she’s traveled today, she didn’t see a single building anywhere. Most likely, they’d have to find a cave or rock formation of some sort.

From what she had seen so far, Isabel guessed Cansara was a desert planet more than anything.

“If this place is such a desert world, why would Opuls bother to colonize it? There doesn’t seem to be anything worthwhile here. There’s something this guy isn’t telling me.” She thought, secretly shooting Nathan an untrusting look.

Meanwhile, Nathan managed to switch his focus from his bike. Instead, he began to think about the dream he had.

“I’ve never had a dream like that. Everything felt so incredibly real. It couldn’t have been just a dream, or a nightmare. Was it… real?” He thought to himself, searching his brain for any memories even remotely similar. Alas, nothing came up, so he just brushed it off and focused again on his present situation.

“Wesley is right. It’s going to get dark soon and we should find a safe place to stay. Many of the creatures on this planet hunt at night.” Nathan said.

“C-creatures?” Wesley yelped.

“What do you mean creatures?” Isabel asked Nathan with an eyebrow raised.

“Don’t you remember what I told you earlier? Whatever the Opuls screwed up, it mutated the wildlife, and they proliferated.” Nathan replied.

“What kind of animals?” Isabel asked.

“Well I don’t expect us to run into any all the way out here, but even then, with your size you can handle pretty much everything on this planet. Even if you’ve kidnapped me and are holding me prisoner, at least I can get a good night’s rest with you around.

“Hey, you see that? I think we’re nearing one of the smaller, in-between cities!” Nathan exclaimed, pointing his chin forward.

Both Isabel and Wesley looked in the direction Nathan pointed to and saw it as well. The last rays of light the sun was giving were glimmering against the glass and metal of the city’s buildings. The shape of the city became clearer and clearer, due to Isabel increasing her speed. She was desperate to lay down and rest after walking all this way.

“That’s not Veran?” Isabel asked, with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

“No, it’s one of the smaller cities, Isino, I believe. We should be able to find a place there to spend the night, maybe the buildings could give us some cover too. I really don’t want any of those animals to come find us tonight.” Nathan said.

Isabel sighed, she was too hopeful to believe that they’d find Veran so quickly. She turned her head to the right to check on her brother. He was sitting on her shoulder and clinging tightly to her golden hair. He had an optimistic look on his eyes, and she could tell he was happy they wouldn’t be sleeping out in the desert. She turned her head the other way to check on Nathan. He had his eyes trained on the city, squinting to see it clearly. She noticed something strange on the back of his neck. It was on his skin, ending just before the collar of his shirt. She leaned in closer to get a better look at it.

Nathan turned his head around to look up to Isabel, “Hey I don-“ he stopped and watched her whip her head away, her cheeks flush.

Nathan knew he had just caught her staring at him, but he knew he wasn’t on great terms with the giant girl, so he decided to not mention it at all. But it did make his heart flutter, if only for a moment.

“I don’t know if there’s going to be any food or water for your brother in Isino, have you got that situation figured out?” He asked.

“Yes,” she coughed, “he has a backpack with supplies in it. He’ll be fine.” She said. Nathan nodded and turned back around to view the approaching city. “Thanks for asking.” She added.

Isabel scolded herself in her head, “Why did I say that last part, it sounded so dumb!” She felt the heat of her blushing cheeks even more and she kept her gaze away from Nathan. She didn’t know why she was feeling so nervous, she wasn’t afraid of anyone, especially not Nathan, who she could crush with only one finger.

A few minutes passed by from the awkward ending of the conversation and she found herself looking back down to Nathan. Though most of his body was obscured from her hair, wrapped around his small body, she still admired his physique. He had buff arms and a strong jaw. His black hair looked wavy and soft. She had to stop herself from putting her finger tip on his scalp, just to feel it. It was so tempting.

Isabel shook her head softly and focused back on the city. It was right in front of them. The road came back into view in the entrance of the city, the sand no longer covered it. It led to ramp leaving the even ground of the planet and onto a solid foundation that raised the city several feet above natural sea level. The entrance of the city held a sign that read “Isino” and further the single road turned into many different branching paths. There were a handful of skyscrapers, many of them had shattered windows and furniture hanging out of several floors. The roads below were littered with trash and piles of sand, stalled out cars decorated the streets.

The entire place had an eerie feel to it. Isabel continued through the city, taking the first left she could, putting her on a winding road that she followed the middle of the city. A massive warehouse stood, albeit empty. The entrance had a large door that had been pulled up, and it looked like it stayed up for all this time.

“That place looks good for now. It’s big enough to hold you inside comfortably. Maybe I can bring the door down if I find a control panel.” Nathan said.

Isabel laughed and looked down at the tiny prisoner, “Now suddenly you want to help? You really think I’m going to let you go so you can ‘find a control panel’?”

In all honesty, Nathan hadn’t even thought about escaping yet, he just really wanted to ensure their safety, but this reminded him that he still had none of their trust. On the other side, they didn’t have his trust either.

“Fine.” He said with downcast eyes.

Isabel walked her way to the warehouse building, and when she got to the entrance, she crouched, and shuffled inside. Her bare soles slapped against the cold cement and she inched her way into the building. Once she was completely inside, she used both of her hands to grab hold of the roll up door. Her fingers clenched onto the bottom ledge of it and she pulled it down. Her newfound immense strength made quick work of it, sending the door down to the ground with the sound of screeching metal. The door touched the ground and sealed with a thud. They were safely inside now.

Isabel let out a breath of relief and with her left hand, she scooped Wesley up into her palm. With her free hand, she began to scoot herself backwards, to make room for her legs when she laid down. She scooted herself down until she was satisfied with the amount of space she had. With care not to bump her head on anything, she slowly laid down. Her head met with the ground softly. Her feet were upright, standing a little shorter than the door and roof of the building, and her head was a few feet away from the opposite side of the building. She barely fit comfortably.

Her feet were throbbing with pain and it felt nice to finally be laying down. She lowered Wesley onto her chest, the baggy fabric of her sweater softened the landing for him.

“Just lay there Wesley, it’s time to go to bed.” She said.

With her left hand that had just held Wesley, she draped it over him, acting almost like a blanket. Wesley felt the warm palm of his sister lower onto his body, gently smothering him in the soft skin. He was laying on her chest, somewhat between her enormous breasts, but he paid that fact no mind.

Isabel lifted her head up and brought her other arm to rest underneath it. She was extremely tired and wanted to just knock out immediately. She looked down to her left to observe Nathan. He wasn’t struggling, instead he was just lying peacefully on the bed of her hair.

“Don’t try anything funny, alright Nathan?” She said sternly.

They both knew that the trip back to Sedicus would be days for Nathan, and even if he tried to escape, Isabel would catch up to him in no time in the morning. Nathan knew the dangers of trying to travel at night, alone, would most likely end up with him inside of a creature’s stomach. For now, it was in Nathan’s best interest to just stick with the only thing big enough to protect him.

“I know, I know. I won’t try anything.” Nathan replied dejectedly.

“Good.” She said with a smirk on her face.

He was finally learning his place. Isabel yawned and felt her eyelids getting heavier. Her muscles relaxed, and she felt herself starting to drift.

“Goodnight Isabel. I love you.” Wesley whispered.

“Goodnight Wesley.” She said, unsure if she wanted to repeat the last part.

With that, all three of them closed their eyes, and drifted into sleep.