Pitton had heard much about humans as a kid. Giants a hundred times a man's size, they were—dumb, hulking brutes who might off you as soon as they saw you for no more reason than a hatred of all things small. Yet they guarded the most wonderful treasures, like spears which never broke and could pierce anything no matter how tough, or seeds which grew overnight into huge trees whose fruits could feed a whole tribe for years.
Since becoming an adult, he had thought them no more than fanciful stories made up by parents to entertain their kids. Certainly no one he knew could say that they had ever seen a human. Only the oldest among them could talk of their grandparents having known something that might have seen a human once. But as he saw the colossal structure, tall as a tree, towering off in the distance, it was for him as if all the stories had come to life right before his eyes. He gawked like seeing something straight out of a dream, his mind filled with images of all the incredible wonders that might dwell inside such a place.
Wonder was soon tempered by wariness as he recalled the dangers of wandering too close to a human's home. Simple death by crushing was common enough in the stories, but not even the worst outcome they spoke of. Even being this close to the human's home might put him in danger of such a fate already. Yet, despite the dangers, Pitton chose to step forward, right near the edge of the clearing which surrounded that titanic structure, fingering his dagger's hilt for comfort.
The human home was an unseemly shade of yellow, with a sloped roof that might have been as much as fifty times his own height at its peak. Yet, if that was the entrance he saw there, tall and rectangular, then the humans who dwelt here couldn't even be thirty times his size. A far cry from the numbers given in the stories, but whether thirty or a hundred times his size, the prospect of running into something that much bigger than him was chilling.
Pitton started circling around the place, keeping just beyond the clearing, careful not to make a sound as he moved over the forest floor. He used the low undergrowth for cover, his leaf-fashioned attire blending into the leaves littering the ground. Even as he moved he kept an eye on that structure, watching keenly those strange openings on its walls which seemed unobstructed yet shimmered oddly at certain angles, suggesting some barely-seen barrier.
It was his ears which gave him the first sign of danger. Before he had even rounded the first of the structure's corners, he heard sounds coming from the opposite side. Movement, mainly, but also a droning which he eventually realized was someone humming a song.
The moment he heard those sounds he ducked and all but froze, only turning his head in the direction of all the noise. Was a human coming this way? No, he soon decided. The noise was sometimes closer and sometimes farther, but it seemed to be staying in generally the same place. Whatever they were doing certainly had them busy.
He should have run away, he knew. If he didn't do it now, he might not get the chance later. But he ignored that warning tickling the back of his head and made his way forward, circling around, not even retreating any further back into the forest.
He had gone perhaps halfway around to the other side when a series of plants come into view. Fruit bearing plants one and all, at least so far as he could see; trees from whose branches hung bright yellow things, mostly rounded in appearance, the likes of which he'd never before seen. The further he went, the more kinds of plants he saw, some growing in rows, others standing alone some distance from all the others. Most bore fruits of some kind or another, none of which he had ever before seen.
Everyone had heard stories about the wealth of food that could be found in human dwellings, but these plants put to shame all those pictures he'd had in his mind as a little boy lying in his family's nest with all his brothers and sisters while, listening to his their grandparents share with them the stories of brave young men wandering into human dwellings to bring back food for their whole village. More than once he'd dreamed of being one such brave soul, and saving the village in its time of need. A bitter thing to know, now that he had found such a fantastical thing, that it was already too late to make those youthful dreams come true.
But when Pitton found the human, all thought of the food and village disappeared as he found himself staring from beneath the dewy clovers at the being crouched among the myriad plants.
It was... not quite as he had imagined, though it was just as described in the stories; aside from its size, it looked exactly like one of his own kind. He had thought, however, that there would be some awful, horrible, terrifying quality to it. All the stories spoke of how monstrous humans could be, and in his mind it had always colored how they were supposed to look.
This one looked like a woman so far as he could tell with its back turned to him. Long hair ran down her shoulders, dark unlike that of his people. Only once as a child had Pitton seen such a shade, when a man had visited from another tribe. Clothing in many colors covered every part of her body, with brown on her hands and feet, blue and white from her waist to her neck and running down to her wrists, dark green covering her legs up to her waist, and a big hat on her head the color of dried grass. In fact, it looked like it might be made of just that. Horrible, horrible camouflage, he thought, but then, at that size maybe humans had no need for it.
She wielded some object against the earth, so it seemed, though he couldn't see from this distance what it was or what she did with it. Then, after a moment, she pulled something up and he saw in her hand an odd plant, many long stems sprouting from a muddied reddish-yellow root. She put it in a basket which already held other fruits and plants, and, after pulling up a couple more of those roots, she carried it all into her home, closing the door behind her.
Pitton hadn't realized how tense he had been the whole time until she disappeared from sight. He started standing up again, but when he saw her face appear in one of those not-quite-open openings that were all over her home, he froze again until it was clear she wasn't paying attention. Soon enough her face disappeared again, and he hurried away from that place, circling further around towards all those fruits and roots and other plants.
Again some part of him said not to mess with those things. Not all the heroes in his stories had gotten away with taking the humans' food, and the stories were very clear on what happened to them when they failed. But the sight of all those succulent-looking fruits just hanging there, calling to him, was too much to resist.
Pitton hadn't had a bite to eat since two nights ago. The pack of food he'd brought when leaving the tribe had already run out, and while he had found plenty of berry bushes in his path, they had been all but picked clean.
It was those pesky new birds that had first shown up about a decade ago. There had been only a few of them at first, but as the years passed and their numbers grew, the nuts and berries that Pitton and his people had survived on for as long as anyone could remember had become scarcer and scarcer as those birds got to them before the tribe could. It hadn't been so bad this year, now that the tribe had figured out to hide nuts and berries with leaves until they ripened. It didn't work perfectly—the birds were clever and could find the food with a little digging around—but this way they could have enough for everyone to eat. Well, almost everyone.
Out here, though, away from the tribe's territory, food was as scarce as ever. Pitton had just about resigned himself to having nothing to eat again today before he found this bounty. With this he could eat until he was full, and stock up on as much food as he could carry. That alone would last him a few good days as he traveled further along the forest.
Eagerly he ran up to the plant nearest at hand—a relatively small one, only about ten times his height. With one last look around towards the human's home to make sure she wasn't looking, he climbed up the stem and along its branch to one of the odd red fruits, long and uneven in shape. He had no idea what they were, but if the human was growing these here then they must surely be food, right?
Wrapping his legs around the fruit's cap to sit on it, he took out his rat-tooth dagger and thrust it thrice into the food to cut out a small wedge. He raised it to his mouth and eagerly took a bite, yet as soon as his teeth closed around it and the fruit's juices flowed into his mouth, Pitton let out a cry and spit the thing out, tossing the rest of it away.
By the gods, but how this thing burned! And he'd thought it was food? A trap, that's what it was! A trick set up by the humans to punish anyone who thought to take their food. He looked around for water, and found some dew drops sparkling on the leaves. He climbed up to them, his weight bending the supple stems lower to the ground. If the human were to look out she couldn't fail to see him, but that was the furthest thing from his mind just now. What use avoiding death by human if this horrid fire burning within him killed him all the same? He cupped the dewdrop in his hand and brought it to his mouth. He sucked it into his mouth, but even water barely quenched the fire. It might even have gotten worse, or at least a different kind of horrible.
He swallowed. Shakily he dropped to the soft humid ground and lay in the shadow of that demonic plant, breathing through his mouth to help cool the burning. It barely made a difference. He was feeling sick now, and thought the thing must have been poison. Was he about to die here? Damn that foul fruit! And damn him for ever thinking to try it!
But in time the pain and the illness receded, until all that remained was a slight stinging and a foul feeling in his stomach. Pitton thanked his gods he hadn't swallowed more than a drop of the thing's juices—surely a horrible and agonizing death would have awaited him if he'd actually eaten any of it. Though now that it was wearing off, he had to wonder if there was anything at all in this place that he could eat. For all he knew, it was all as poisonous as this one had been.
Still, he needed badly to eat something and he wasn't about to leave until he made sure there wasn't anything he knew to be safe. He went around between the rows of plants, searching for any plant he recognized, but the roots and berries he had known all his life were absent from this place.
Having finished making the rounds, he was about to leave this place when he caught a whiff of something unlike anything he'd ever smelled before—something that made his mouth water and soothed away his tension.
More stories returned to him then, stories about delicious smells that drove men out of their wits and sent them skulking into the humans' homes in search of those unseen meals, where unless they came back to their senses they were without fail captured and killed, and sometimes added to the very meals they had been after.
The thought of ending up a humans' meal made Pitton shudder, shaking off the trance into which that delicious aroma had brought him. Yet even now his stomach still growled and his mouth still watered at that heavenly smell. Going inside was dangerous, he knew, but if he simply kept his wits about him, then surely there would be nothing wrong with it. The only question was how to make it inside.
The door was obviously closed, and the gap beneath it was too slim for him to fit through. There were two other openings on this wall, one to either side of it, but both had that strange half-visible barrier covering them. Pitton further examined the human home, and after rounding a corner he found one opening which lacked that translucent barrier, at least on its lowest part. The white curtains that hung on the other side were moving in the wind, billowing ever so slightly outwards at times. Now it was only a matter of climbing up and in
With a running start, he jumped up the wall and scurried upwards, clawing at any crack large enough for his fingers or toes to grip as he made his way upwards, until near the apex of his climb, perhaps a third of the way up, he thrust his dagger into one of the cracks on the yellow surface to steady himself, balancing carefully on the minute footholds he had found. The surface had turned out much too smooth to simply climb up it as he might climb up a tree, and he needed to make liberal use of his dagger to help him up higher, carefully planning out his route in advance.
In time, he had reached the lower lip of the opening. Still using his dagger to steady himself, he carefully leaned over the edge and peered inside. The room that met his eyes was strange and filled with strange objects the likes of which he'd never seen, but there were no humans. Finally he jumped onto the lip and took another look. From an open door to the left came the sound of the human woman's humming, together with a bubbling noise and that delicious smell.
He looked around again. Were there any other humans here? She was the only one he'd seen or heard, but there might be one hiding somewhere inside. Still, the route to the human food was short enough that he didn't expect to be running into any if there were. Egged onwards by his growling stomach, he jumped off and landed softly on the floor. There was a slight noise at his landing, and he hurried to hide under one of the strange objects in the room in case he'd been heard, but there was no reaction whatsoever. The other sounds must have masked his landing, he thought.
Getting back out again, he made his way towards the smells and sounds. The closer he got to the door, the clearer they all were, and he started hearing other sounds that told him the human was close. Right around the corner, in fact. He peered into the other room, but he didn't see the human at all. There was another, shorter wall, or perhaps some other object, obstructing his view to the right, blocking off most of the room. He had started moving towards it stealthily as he could when the human's head came into view above that wall, and he hurriedly scampered to press himself against the wall. He gripped his dagger fiercely, ready to fight back if need be. She hadn't been looking at him when he ducked out of view, but that didn't mean she hadn't seen him. He knew he, at least, would have noticed any such movement in her position. But again there was no reaction, not even a change to the speed or tone of her humming.
He couldn't see her looking up, but the heavy thumping of her feet against the floor was all he needed to know she was close. He thought he might safely peek around the corner, yet... he didn't dare. Not when he was so close to her. He decided to wait for a better chance. But as he was waiting, he saw something skitter around the corner. A roach it was, about half as long as himself. Its hairy legs brought it haltingly along the side of the wall, antennae wagging wildly ahead to scout its surroundings.
Had he found the thing yesterday, he would have taken it for a good catch. Roaches didn't taste the best, but they were meaty enough and not too hard to kill if you managed to sneak up on them. Here and now, though, it was an unwelcome visitor, likely to draw attention to him. As it crept towards him, he swatted its antennae away, prompting it to scurry down the wall and away along the floor.
“Ah!” The human cried, and she rapidly made her way towards the thing, her boots thumping powerfully against the floor. As she approached it, the thing started to skitter away, but before it could crawl under the door to maybe buy itself more time, her foot came down with an earth-shaking stomp, rattling him where he stood. She made disgusted noises as she moved her foot aside and looked at its remains, while Pitton watched in horror, knowing that powerful foot was more than strong enough to crush him the same as that. He didn't dare move with her standing right overhead. But as he waited, his eyes were drawn towards her face, where they met with her own, looking right back at him.
He ran away, back into the first room, while above the human made a swing at him, thick fingers swiping the air to try and capture him. He nimbly dodged them and ran, his feet momentarily slipping along the floor as she made a sharp turn around the corner to hide under one of the objects that decorated this place, crawling underneath it just as the human entered the room.
She called out in a strange, harsh-sounding language, all its words foreign to him. Was she ordering him out? Beckoning him closer? Calling to another human for help catching him? He watched and waited as she crouched just beyond his hiding place. A moment later, her fingers appeared beneath the edge and gripped it, as though preparing to lift. He readied himself to run. But her fingers let go after a moment and she stood up, walking across the room. There was a click, and then a door opened—a door to the outside.
His heart skipped a beat. That was his way out, he knew. Climbing back out the opening he'd come in through would take too long, leave him too vulnerable. It had to be the door. But surely this was a trap, no? She knew he would have to leave that way, so she would stand somewhere nearby and wait for him to make a run for it. Well, he wasn't about to fall for such a trick. He was no fool roach, and wouldn't end up under her boot.
Silently he waited to see her next move. He followed her steps, watching her as she came back this way, and shuffled away from her. Then, he watched as she went into that second room and... closed the door.
Was she... gone? Had she really left him the door open for him to leave? She... No. No, that couldn't be right. There was another door out from that room she was in, he remembered. She would exit through it and make her way around to this door so she could wait for him to try to leave, then catch him as soon as he set foot outside. It was the only explanation.
But even minutes afterwards he could still hear her in that other room, walking around and humming and even singing. It was like she was signaling to him that she was still in there. She was letting him go? Truly?
Pitton waited for some trap to spring. There had to be one. A human would never let him leave after he'd stolen into their home. There must have been another human. Yes, that was surely it. As soon as he went out they would snatch him up and eat him.
But he didn't have to go out that way, did he? No, there was another option: the very same opening he had come in through. Hastily he ran towards it and jumped up, making a slow and painstaking climb until he could peer outside. There was no sign of any human out there, and he quickly vaulted over the wall and dropped down to run towards the forest. Only when he was safely behind several trees did he pause to take a breather, looking back over his shoulder to make sure there was no one coming after him. There wasn't.
Out of curiosity he rounded the house to see if there had been another human waiting to catch him after all. Again, there wasn't; the way was totally clear. He even peered in through the open door from this distance to see if there was anyone inside, but there wasn't anyone there either. So then, had this all been genuine? Had the human really been letting him go, no traps or tricks in it at all? And why? That wasn't like their kind at all. For the life of him, he couldn't even guess.
Giantess World
Story Notes:
A story I wrote some four months ago, intending to make a short series out of it. That didn't quite pan out and I dropped it in disappointment, but I revisited it today and found it was still fit to publish with some minor changes, so here it is. Not much in the way of interaction but hope people enjoy it anyways.