Emma knew at once when she saw it what the situation was she’d been asked to help with. A great crowd of people, maybe a hundred of them, were standing around a large whale that had run aground on the beach. Emma had never seen a living whale before, though she had read a lot about them and had sometimes dreamed about someday swimming with a group of whales, something she knew was probably never going to happen in real life. Looking at the stranded animal, she saw that a thick, lengthy rope had been tied around its tail fluke, and that the other end was attached to a large motorboat. Dozens of people were lined up along the rope as well, as if they were about to pull the whale back into the sea. She asked the people she was carrying if that was what was going on.
“Yes, I’m afraid so,” Olivia answered. “Of course it’s far from an ideal solution, but it was the only option we had until Dennis and I got the idea to go looking for you or the other giant girl. We saw the two of you going for a swim yesterday and, well, you’re kinda easy to find. So do you think you could help us return him to the sea?”
Emma nodded, although she still looked uncertain.
“He probably ended up here on the beach last night, during the rough weather we were having then,” Dennis explained. “He’s an almost fully-grown male humpback whale, and I reckon he’s got to weigh at least 25, maybe 30 tons. By now he’s been lying here for hours, and he’s probably extremely stressed and in the process of suffocating slowly due to his unsupported weight. We don’t even know if we’d be able to drag him out to sea with the number of people we have…”
“It’s okay, I’ll try my best to help,” Emma said. “I’ll be as careful as possible, I promise.” She wasn’t worried about the size of the whale – she herself weighed almost 300 tons, so picking up 25 tons would be easy for her. But she didn’t want to injure or distress the unfortunate creature even more than it already has been.
She put Dennis and Olivia down on the beach and they quickly ran up ahead to warn the other people that Emma was coming. A few moments later and they’d managed to untie the rope from the whale’s tail, then they all made way as Emma took a few steps forward. She knelt down next to the humpback whale, which, despite it being a member of one of the largest mammal species on the planet, was only about half as long as she was tall. It was during moments such as this that Emma was once again reminded how incomparably huge she and Susie were compared to everyone and everything around them. The large crowd gathered around her was getting very excited by now, and of course there were numerous phones and cameras being held aloft, recording her and taking pictures. Emma knew she had to succeed, with so much attention focussed on her, or else she’d never hear the end of it. She dug both her arms into the sand beneath the whale’s body.
“I’m sorry about this,” she whispered to the whale, which wasn’t moving and barely seemed alive. “I’m really trying to help, that’s all. This won’t take long, I swear.”
She pushed herself back onto her feet and lifted the huge animal, then began walking towards the sea, cradling the whale in her arms as though it were large pet dog. It was covered in sand on its underside, which made it a lot less slippery and easier for Emma to carry. When she’d reached a suitable depth of water (up to her shoulders), she lowered the whale carefully into the water. At first it just hovered in the waters, as motionless as it had been on land, but then it rolled onto its side, splashing Emma with its fins and tail. Soon afterwards there erupted a fountain of mist from its blowhole, and before long the whale was heading back into deeper waters. It lifted up its tail fluke as it dived and Emma, feeling immensely relieved, actually waved back.
Back on the beach, she was greeted with a loud chorus of cheers and applause. The crowd of onlookers, which had grown in size quite a bit, all thronged around her, having seemingly lost their trepidation of her. It was a reaction Emma was well-used-to by now, whenever she did something ‘heroic’ like this. But today it felt extra-special, as she very well may have just saved a life – not a human life, but that didn’t matter to her. She found an open patch of sand and lay down on it, resting her head on her arms and curling up her legs. People of all ages approached her, many of them still applauding, but most of them simply recording her on their phones or begging her for the opportunity of taking a selfie with her. Emma couldn’t say no, though she was a little overwhelmed by all of this sudden attention. She saw Dennis and Olivia and beckoned them to come closer. When they walked up to her, she scooped them up in her hand and gave them a little hug.
“Oh my God, you really did it!” Olivia exclaimed. “You actually managed to save him! Thank you so much!”
“That was incredible!” Dennis added. “You know, you should really come and work for us someday. We’re marine biologists, you see, and we encounter this sort of thing regularly. Having someone like you around to help…not just with rescuing stranded whales, but with all kinds of marine conservation work…well, that would make things a whole lot easier for us.”
“I’ll…think about it,” Emma said. “I’m only twelve years old, actually, so I’d need to ask my parents about it first…”
“Oh, he didn’t mean right away, sweetie!” Olivia interrupted. “But one day, when you’re grown up and you don’t know what you want to do in life…or do you have something else you’re planning on doing then?”
Emma was about to answer when a small group of TV reporters, with cameras and microphones in tow, approached her, eager for an interview. She apologized to the couple in her hand and put them down, then turned to the cameras and listened to the reporters as they yelled out their questions. This was another part of being a giantess she was familiar with by now and she enjoyed it a lot less than she did the cheering and clapping. But she didn’t want to seem rude, and if being on TV again helped people to realize even more clearly that she was a friendly, helpful person and not something to fear, then she didn’t mind doing a few interviews. She wanted to keep this short, though: she still had her life-sized sandcastle to return to, and hopefully before all of the kids she’d invited to play with her completely wrecked it.
That night, the two girls, and Jake as well, were back at their tent, eating a basic supper and unwinding after a long day – a long day of mostly doing nothing but relaxing and playing, but a long day nevertheless. Their campsite was a very simple setup: one tent just big enough for the two giantesses to sleep in, with another, more basic-looking tent nearby containing a small bathtub which had its water supplied from a nearby freshwater pond (which also supplied the girls’ drinking water). Jake had his own little tent, some distance away from the two giant tents. Inside their tent, Susie and Emma had most of the necessities they needed for going camping like this, all of it magnified to their own scale.
After supper, the three of them decided to play some cards. Susie had a deck of cards, each six feet in size, which was specially made for her by the manufacturer in exchange for doing a short promotional ad for them. This was great for her and Emma, but for Jake it made playing any game of cards rather difficult. He had to lift up each card individually to look at his ‘hand’, and moving a single card in order to put it on a pile or something like that required quite a bit of legwork. He was a good sport about it, though, and the girls enjoyed watching him struggle a bit, giggling at him attempting to do what was a very simple task for them. They were also discussing their exploits of earlier today, and Emma mentioned the offer she’d been given to work for the marine conservationists.
“I haven’t told Mom and Dad about it yet,” she said. “And I know we’re only gonna be here for another few days, so maybe not now…but it does sound like it could be fun. What do you think, Susie?”
“Yeah, it sounds great, Emma. You should go for it.”
Susie was busy watching Jake and not really paying attention, and Emma realized she probably wanted some time alone with him. Jake was only staying one more day before he had to leave for home. So, after they’d finished their game, Emma made up an excuse to go for a walk outside and look at the stars. She invited her friends to come as well, even though she knew they wouldn’t come along. Once Emma had left the tent, Susie picked up her boyfriend and sat up, holding him in her cupped hand. She stroked his back lightly, as if he were a beloved pet – but of course he was much more than that to her.
“I’m so happy you’re in my life, Jake,” she said. “I know it hasn’t been easy for you, being with me all this time, with everything that’s been going on around me and Emma, but I’m so grateful you’re still with me.”
Jake sighed contentedly. It was moments like this one that reminded him of why he’d fallen for Susie in the first place. He still had no idea if the two of them would ever be able to have a so-called ‘normal life’, or a normal relationship. But being held in her hand and caressed by her, while she smiled down at him, was enough for now. He took hold of her fingertip with both arms and tugged it towards his face, and she obliged him by moving it closer. Then he kissed it, over and over, until she eventually lifted him up to her lips and gave him a kiss back. Soon he was being pressed into those moist, supple lips, which gave his whole body a vigorous massage. It wasn’t their first kiss, of course, but to Jake it felt a lot more intense than usual. He surrendered himself to her lips, trusting in her to make him happy and not to hurt him or anything like that. When she stopped for a moment, she let him rest against her cheek, where he rubbed his arms and face against her soft skin.
“I really, really love you, Jake,” she whispered. “I truly do, with all my heart.”
“So do I, Susie…love you, I mean.”
She giggled softly. Then her voice became more serious.
“Jake…baby…I’ve been meaning to ask you…would you…would you save yourself for me?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” he replied, taking a step back to look up and into her eyes.
“You know what I mean. When you’re away and you’re at college…and if, maybe, I don’t know, you’re at a party or something, and there’re other girls there, and…”
“Oh God, no! Susie…no, I’m not gonna cheat on you or anything like that! Don’t even think that! No…why would you think I’d do something like that?”
“I don’t know! I just thought…I mean, I wouldn’t blame you if you did…”
“Well, I won’t, okay? You must think I’m a really shitty boyfriend if you believe I’d do something like that!”
“Jake, I’m sorry…”
She sounded as if she was about to start crying, so Jake immediately changed his tone.
“No…I’m sorry, Susie. You don’t have to apologize, I was being a dick just now and I’m sorry. I know you still have doubts about us…about whether we could stay together, and that’s okay, ‘cause I sometimes wonder the same thing.”
“I just don’t want to lose you, Jake! You mean so much to me, and I don’t want to lose you! I’m sorry I can’t be the kind of girl who can go anywhere with you, or do anything you want with you, or…”
At that moment, Jake gave her a big kiss on the cheek. As he pressed his face against hers, he felt a giant teardrop land on his head, soaking him. He felt so sorry for Susie, that she could never live a normal life, but he didn’t want her to be anyone else than the person she was right now. Despite being a powerful giantess, she was still a teenage girl, insecure and unsure of herself, sometimes shy and sometimes impulsive. These ‘faults’, however, just made Jake love her even more. They were what made her human – not some mighty goddess or superbeing, just a girl who happened to be 100 feet tall and with the same needs and desires and fears as all of her fellow humans. And they gave Jake a reason to stay with her and be able to support and help her. He wanted to be with her too. So what if they couldn’t go on normal dates, or if he couldn’t hug her and carry her in his arms, or if she took a little longer to ready herself for the possibility of a more intimate relationship with him? She’d saved his life, in more ways than one, and he would never abandon her.
Later that night, as the two giantesses slept in their giant-sized tent, Jake lay in his own little tent and wondered what was going to happen to him and Susie going forward. Once he was away at college, he wouldn’t see her for some months – perhaps not before winter – unless she came to visit him, and he didn’t know if that was possible. But whenever it was they would meet again, he knew it would be time for him to take the next step. Susie was obviously very conflicted about their relationship and very scared of the possibility that he might leave her for someone more ‘normal’…
“I want to be with her…the rest of my life,” he thought to himself as he tried to fall asleep. “Is that normal? I’ve only known her for a year or so…but she’s everything I want in a girl. She always makes me feel safe and special and she’s always so fun to hang out with…and damn it, I love her! Just be patient for a while longer, Susie, and then we can get married, and then you’ll never have to worry about me leaving you or feeling alone again.”