There was indeed a commotion in the village, and as soon as I arrived matters only became worse. It seems a minor rebellion of sorts had begun, led by none other than Fott Orisel. They were, obviously, upset about the fact that I was staying on in the vicinity, and they had swept up against Carn Cosell, who led the majority who wanted me to stay. I put down the boys on the outskirts of the village and headed on in alone. Things hadn’t come to blows yet, but they might have had I not arrived at that moment. As soon as everyone saw me, all the arguing and in-fighting stopped, and I was greeted by the stares of the tiny folk.

“Hi, everyone,” I said cheerfully. “I just dropped by for a short visit, you know, just to say ‘hi’. I’ve set up my camp over by the lake, so I guess you’ll all be seeing me a lot more from now on. By the way, what’s going on here? Did I miss anything?”

“You unholy monster!” came the cry from one of the…well, I guess I could call them the Anti-Katie Movement. “Leave now, and don’t dare come back!”

That seemed to spur them on, and soon the place was echoing with screams of “Leave now!”, “Go away!” and “Begone!”. Some of the friendly townsfolk tried to stop the stampede, but they were shoved aside as the mob, mostly men, came charging at me. They yelled and waved their weapons, but when the front row reached my feet, they stopped and hesitated. It looked like they’d actually forgotten that I was over twenty times taller and thousands of times stronger than them, and that I couldn’t be frightened, intimidated or coerced by a hundred miniature bullies who stood no higher than my ankles. The noise quieted down, and I smirked at their futile effort.

“Whoops, not so tough now, are you?” I said, and was pleased to see the impotent anger on their faces. “All that screaming and yelling and running, and you’re not even gonna try and attack me? Pathetic!”

“How dare you mock these brave men!” came a voice from way, way at the back of the mob. It was Fott; I could tell from listening, since I couldn’t see him clearly. “None of us are afraid of you – it is you who’s too cowardly to make the first move!”

“Say what? The ‘first move’? You think I came here to pick a fight, is that it? Didn’t I tell you over and over again that I’m your friend – or at least I would like to be. I came here to deliver my friends, Sai and Ryu, safely home, and to get to know more of you people. We’ve had a wonderful time at the lake – ask them, if you don’t believe me – and if anyone tries to get at them for being friends with me, it won’t end well, believe me! Now, if you’ve quite finished all this nonsense, I’d like to talk to your chief, Carn. Is he here right now?”

An affirmative shout came from the other side of the crowd. Several people began pushing their way through towards me. Fott and his followers offered resistance, but when they saw me taking off my sandals and getting ready to squash them beneath my feet , they wisely backed down. (I was kinda disappointed. I’d been hoping to at least get as far as actually pressing some of them down with me bare feet before letting them go – it would have been fun to see their faces afterwards!) I saw Carn and picked him up, then took a few steps away from the crowd. I sat down in an open, grassy area, still holding him in my hand, and we began to talk.

“Looks like things are getting out of hand here,” I said. “Is there anything I can do to help? I’m thinking that, if these people hate me so much, maybe they should just pack up and leave. Go and live somewhere else, maybe.”

“I agree with you, Katie,” Carn said. “Unfortunately, there are risks. The city of Penton is not far from here, and they consider us traitors for trying to start a new life here, away from their evil rule. But if Fott and his followers were to leave and head back to Penton, they might be pardoned if they could provide the ruler of the city with information. Our location, for example, or the fact that there is a giant – you, that is – living nearby.”

“Yeah…you’re right, I guess. But what are you gonna do, then? Please don’t tell me you’re going to execute them all or something – I don’t want that to happen because of me. I’d rather leave myself.”

Carn thought for a while before answering.

“We could keep them here, confined to their homes. Of course, that would require constant vigilance on our part, as there will certainly be escape attempts. Perhaps, the longer you stay here, the more accustomed they’ll become to having someone like you around. Just maintain a respectful attitude when interacting with them, and they may come to like you.”

“What? I’m supposed to be respectful towards them? Why? I wasn’t the one who started all this!”

“But you are the object of their animosity…”

“Hmpf! I couldn’t care less what a bunch of ignorant twerps like them think of me! I’d rather hang out with the more open-minded people, if you don’t mind. By the way, I was going to offer my services as ‘protector’ of the village. I had to fight off an ishiloo today, and I managed to chase it away, so I figured that there’s probably a lot I can help you little folks with. I need some help from your side too: I don’t know where to find food, or which plants to eat and which not to eat, or how to catch animals for meat, which I want to learn how to do, ‘cause I’m not gonna go vegan. And I’d like to know where all these ‘evil cities’ are, so I don’t accidentally walk into their sight. But that’s only going to happen if people stop thinking I’m some kind of demon or monster, or whatever they think I am.”

I put the little man on the ground next to my feet. He looked puny and helpless, not at all like a leader. But he was one, and his people looked up to him, not to me. Many of the non-hostile villagers had come closer as well, including the three boys I’d spent the day with. I also recognized the girl I’d almost swallowed yesterday, Katia. She was hanging out with two or three other girls, and seemed eager to come closer and talk to me again. I gave her, and the guys as well, a smile.

“You’ve been really good to me so far,” I said to them. “Please, let me stay here and repay you somehow. I can’t just go and live by myself somewhere, I wouldn’t be able to deal with that!”

“I understand,” Carn said. “Very well, Katie, you can stay. From tonight on, you are welcome in this place anytime. It won’t be easy for us – for most of us – to accept you, a young and innocent girl, as our protector…but if the worst should happen, and there is nothing any of us can do…well, I suppose no-one here would object to your assistance.”

“Thanks, that’s really sweet, little guy…uh, I mean, thank you, sir! Thank you, all of you, for giving me a chance to prove myself. I’ll try my best to help out wherever I can…”

I really couldn’t think of anything else to say. I f there were any among them who still distrusted me, I didn’t think I’d ever win them over to my side. Besides, it was already dark, and the only light came from all the torches and fire which were being lit up in the village. I decided to head back home – I already thought of my tent as home, even though I haven’t as yet actually lived in it – so I got up slowly, careful not to tread on anyone in the crowd.

“Good night, then, everyone!” I said. “See you tomorrow, I guess.”

“Are you leaving already?” asked a female voice. It was Carn’s wife, Eleret, standing next to her husband. “Don’t you want to stay and eat first?”

“Eat? You mean, here? I…I would love to, but…well, I didn’t think you had enough food for me.”

“I’m sure we can organize something,” Carn said. “It’s too late to go hunting or gathering in the forest, but perhaps our reserves would be enough to provide you with one meal. We can show you how to find your own food tomorrow, but tonight, please let us provide you with supper, to show that there is no strife between us.”

I was led into the village center, and the preparations began. While I sat and waited, I got together with Ryu, Sai and Emmon again. The three boys climbed into my open hand and I put them down on my curled-up leg. We were chatting about what we did that day, when, just as I’d predicted, Katia approached and began talking to me.

“H-hello, Katie,” she said nervously. “I…it’s me…Katia…you remember?”

“How could I forget?” I laughed. “You almost became part of my first meal here, didn’t you? Come here, don’t be shy! I look a lot scarier than I am, really!”

I delicately picked her up as well. Soon she was sitting on my leg, amongst the guys. They weren’t too happy about her joining us, but I told them to shut up and make friends with her. A small group of boys and girls was forming by my bare feet, and every now and then one of them would dart forward to touch me. When one poor girl tried rubbing my sole with her hands, it tickled so much that I jerked my foot upwards, knocking her back a good ten feet.

“Oh, shit!” I exclaimed. “I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean to do that, you just startled me!”

I bent forwards and scooped the frightened girl up with my hand. She wasn’t hurt badly – just a few bruises, she said in a whimper – but I still felt like a jerk, so I held her by my bosom and gently hugged her.

“You can come closer, if you want,” I told all the remaining young people. “Climb up and join your buddies in my lap. It’s really not that bad a place to be.”

They didn’t need to be told twice. Soon I had at least twenty teenagers, along with a few kids both older and younger, clambering onto my denim jeans. I had to stretch my legs out just to make room for them all. I put the girl I was holding down next to Katia, and marveled at the sight of two dozen tiny people sitting on my legs and looking back up at me. I was so much bigger than them that it was a bit scary. I wondered how many of their men it would take to beat me in a tug-of-war. A few hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? Maybe I ought to challenge them – the whole village – to a contest of strength, just for fun.

“Talk about girl power!” I thought amusedly. “I could be the strongest thing – or, at least, the strongest person – on Earth now. Me, sweet little Katie, who used to be a shopaholic cheerleader who liked to party every weekend, has become a goddess…”

But this goddess still needed to eat, and my supper was soon ready. It consisted mostly of one creature – a lusomog, cooked in its shell. It looked a little bit like an armadillo, though it was a reptile, and it had a really plump body and legs tucked underneath its eight-inch long turtle-like shell. It looked pretty unappetizing, but once I took the first bite I had to admit it was delicious. There were fruits and vegetables too, all eaten raw, and all tasty and, I hoped, healthy. It turned out there was actually too much for me to eat, so naturally I let the tiny townsfolk finish what I couldn’t. As a final treat I was given a cup filled with a liquid extracted from a tree trunk, I was told. It was sublimely sweet, and I thanked the women of the village who’d gone to the trouble of preparing it for me.

But it was getting late, and, while I would have loved to stay and talk and make new friends, I was incredibly tired after the day’s exertions. I’d made quite a few new friends in any case, and Carn gave me his word that any people who still hated me, elders included, would be kept under guard. No-one would come and disturb me at my tent, he promised. I said thanks and then goodnight to all my friends. When I was about to leave, I took out my flashlight and switched it on. This led to exclamations of wonder among the villagers, and my return home was delayed for fifteen minutes as I explained how it worked. I also promised to show them all the other examples of long-forgotten technology I had brought with me from the distant past.

I managed to find my way back safely, without any hostile beasts attacking me. I went to bed almost immediately, so tired was I. This was what my life would be like from now on, I realized. How long would I be able to live here, without succumbing to boredom or loneliness, without any people like me to talk to or spend time with? How long would a restless person like me be able to stay here, in one place, following the same routine every day, for years? I sighed and tried to get rid of the homesickness which I knew could never be cured. It was up to me to make my new life worthwhile, and I would try my very best. If the tiny people I’d met so far have managed to survive in this strange world, and to find satisfaction, then I could too.