“I am used to giants, but I didn’t expect to find a giantess here,” said the lad, “I’m Oyshwan, and pleased to meet you.”

“It’s my pleasure too,” said Louise, “I’m Louise Grande, the headmistress of that giant girls’ school over there. What’s the matter? You look surprised.”

“I didn’t mean to look so startled, Miss Grande. It’s just that you don’t look old enough to be a headmistress.”

“It’s Mrs Grande, but you’re welcome to call me Louise. I’m a widow in my 30s, and I’m originally from present day earth’s normal sized country of England.”

“But you’re a giantess.”

“I came here by different means to you, and acquired the power to grow to giant size on the way. None of my staff or students know about that. I used to be a teacher in England, until I discovered the way into this land, and now I’m the headmistress here. I haven’t been back to England since I invited one of my former students here for a picnic lunch.”

“That would have been nice,” said Oyshwan.

“It was supposed to be, for me,” said Louise, “He managed to run away before I could eat him. I’d caught him stealing money from me years earlier, when I was his teacher on earth, and excused it on the understanding that he would make it up to me later. When I told him he was to do it by becoming a nice lunch for me, he dishonoured the deal and eluded me until he found the means to enlarge himself too. He actually had the nerve to court me for a while, and then his giant size wore off. I had him for dinner not long ago.”

“That’s quite a story,” said Oyshwan.

Now he understood what he had sensed about the look in the giant woman’s eyes. The severity of her claim on her former student had been far more demanding on the boy than an original punishment would have been at school. She had obviously chosen it for her own pleasure, and was not concerned with his loss.

“It was at that,” said Louise, “I didn’t expect to see another boy of your size for a while. How old are you, young man?”

“I’m 16.”

“That’s pleasing to know. Boys your age are nice and shy and tender,” said Louise, “Isn’t it ironic that you escaped the end of the world and travelled back here, where you’re going to be eaten hundreds of years before you were born?”

“But you’ve no reason to eat me,” said Oyshwan, “I never stole anything from you.”

“I’m sure I can think of a reason, since you look so mouth-watering,” said Louise, “I’d been watching you walking through the garden for a while, before you saw me. Come to think of it, you are technically trespassing on school property.”

Oyshwan remembered the legends of Kayte on his own giant world, and of her many attempts to eat young boys purely for the pleasure of it. He understood that the look on Louise’s face was not one of an outraged headmistress having caught a trespasser, but that of an amused giantess pronouncing a fate of gobbling on a helpless visitor. There simply wasn’t any point in reminding her of her own deduction that he’d been unaware of his location.