Chapter 20

A young man in a prim suit was rushing down the dimly-lit hallway of an office building. Every open door he passed sent a slight breeze into the adjoining offices, emphasizing the speed and urgency of his mission. When he finally reached the closed door at the end of the hallway, he rapped imperatively on the door, and then proceeded to open the door without receiving an affirmative answer. 

“Excuse me!” barked the major general, who was at his desk with his hands folded, clearly in the middle of an online meeting, from the numerous squares of people dotting his computer screen, “There is no —”

“She hurt him, sir!” breathed the young man, catching his breath as he stood there in the open doorway. 

“She hurt who?” the general repeated, turning slightly in his chair. 

“Her boyfriend,” nodded the man, taking a moment to swallow before resuming. “Our drone…captured the footage. She didn’t mean to, but…his neck…his legs. She’s…losing control. And her family’s upset with her.”

“How is she taking it?” asked the general, now facing the young man completely and leaning forward into his desk. 

“She’s…upset too,” said the man, shifting his weight slightly. 

“What does that look like?” asked the general immediately. “Has she become purposefully violent yet?” 

“No,” answered the man, “But…but she just screamed at them…the drone measured it at 102 decibels… and…just walked off, away from them. She’s…she’s alone now, sir.”

The general just sat there for a few moments, his hands still folded on his desk, seemingly deep in thought. All the people in the online chat apparently had heard the young man’s report, and were silent, seeming to grasp the gravity of the situation. 

“Should we put it all in motion, sir?” asked the young man after a long pause. He seemed nervous and apprehensive. A strange gravity hung in the air. The seconds ticked by, and after what seemed like an excruciatingly long pause, the general looked up. 

“No,” he said firmly. “Not yet. We can’t go in yet, until…until she’s done something.” 

“But sir,” protested the man, “If you’re suggesting that we wait until —”

“I know perfectly well what I’m suggesting, Captain Casey,” interrupted the general gruffly, leaning back in his chair. The placid demeanor of his face contrasted with the gravel of his voice. “And I happen to believe that she won’t let herself go in the way that many of you believe. In any case, what I said before still holds: if we go in before there’s apparent and ample cause to be “thwarting” something dangerous, then I DO think that she will react violently. And I DO think we may lose some of our men at that point. Is that what you want, Captain?” 

“Of course not General Garrick,” replied Casey immediately. “It’s just…the situation is becoming more and more volatile, sir.” 

“As we always knew it would,” nodded Garrick, “Ever since she left the Institute. But you all have to trust me on this. Take the drone and follow her wherever she goes. If possible, I want a report from a 20-foot hover above her. Measurements of vitals…the whole nine yards.” 

“20 feet?” asked Casey, his eyes going wide. “If she finds out that we’re watching her, sir, then —”

“Then what, Captain?” interrupted Garrick again, this time leaning forward in his seat. “What will she be able to deduce from a single drone?”

“It might…agitate her even more,” said Casey. 

Garrick leaned back again in his chair and raised his eyebrows, his hard blue eyes staring straight up into the younger man’s light brown: 

“Good.” 

Hundreds of miles away, Emma was walking alone down a country road. The bright, clear air of the mid-morning was beginning to heat up slightly, as the climbing sun shone down on the fresh landscape of vibrant greenery. The birds were singing in the trees that lined the dirt road, and a normal-sized person would have been able to enjoy the heavy, earthy smell of the road itself, mixed with the rich, verdant scent of the freshly-cut meadow, dotted with wildflowers.

But being as high up off the ground as she was now, just under 17-and-a-half feet, Emma could only get a faint whiff of the meadow grass. She was still drying off from the pond, and even though she was already a mile away from the farm, anyone would have been able to easily follow the trail in the dirt road of huge water droplets, back to where she had come from before. The rip in the white toga sheet down her right hip was becoming slightly more pronounced, bit by bit, with every step. She was hardly aware of this, however, since so much was echoing and buzzing and tumbling in on itself in her mind. She was trying to tune it all out — this was why she had gone for a walk in the first place…to just…let it all rest. But it was hard to ignore: everyone had just teamed up on her. Her entire family…looking up at her like she had done something horrible. She had only been playing around with Daniel! Surely…surely he was ok. just a little roughhousing was…all it was. 

Emma swallowed as her mind jumped back to the bruise on Daniel’s neck. It went all the way around his neck…it had come from her. And when she had reached down to help him, he had flinched away from her. He hadn’t meant to; he was just afraid of her. She once more fought the urge to burst into tears, and she looked up at the sky, blinking the gathering moisture rapidly away from her eyes. It was such a nice day…such a lovely day. How could she possibly be feeling so terrible on a day like this?! Had she really messed everything up so badly? She was just trying to have fun, trying to act like she wasn’t in the midst of some horrific nightmare that had gone on for months and months on end. She was just trying to be herself. It was becoming harder and harder for her to do that without disturbing everything around her, without hurting people. But she didn’t hurt people — she was a good person…a simple person, really, who just wanted a quiet life for herself and her sweetheart, her smart, techie little boyfriend who was always…always ready to hug her when she came home from work…getting up out of that chair of his in front of the computer. 

Emma suddenly found herself thinking back, seemingly eons into the past, to a time when everything was normal again. She was at her desk, at her old marketing job…what was the company called again!? Scheuster! That’s what it was…

“Oh my god,” whispered Emma to herself, starting to feel lightheaded. The flashback was almost too surreal to bear. She could smell that glossy paper in her office. And her co-worker was peeking her head around the open doorway…who was it again…? Monica! Oh goodness, all those women she used to work with! And…and Stacy…and that awkward guy Keith…! Monica was asking her if she could reach the coffee pot, since the other girls were too short. 

Emma was breathing heavily now as her great chest rose and fell; she was overcome with the insane unreality of the memory. She stumbled a bit off the dirt road and had to lean her outstretched arm against a large oak tree, bending down slightly as she attempted to catch her breath and slow her mind down a little. She barely even noticed how the birds and squirrels in the tree were all freeing their previous sanctuary, scampering and flying away from this sudden and strange new threat that was literally beginning to uproot their home. As Emma leaned against the tree, her mind struggling mightily with the surreal and sudden memories to months past, when everything had been normal, she didn’t realize that her weight was slowly beginning to push the large oak tree to the side, so much so that the roots closest to her were beginning to break through the ground into the air. 

“Has this all just…been some kind of crazy dream?” Emma murmured to herself out loud, watching the absconding birds flying out into the lively midmorning sunlight. Her head felt like it was on fire as a leaping flame of searing images flared in her brain: the images of her injured boyfriend, her angry older sister coddling him as she glared up at Emma, her timid and worried parents, the hole in the roof of their old house that the fire department had made, those huge boots Daniel had bought for her, and his funny little face underneath her foot as she played with him on their green lawn, all that Chinese food she had eaten, and…and IGOR…his big hands, god she hadn’t thought about him in forever…those terrified little doctors in their pathetic little white lab coats…but then the kind, benevolent face of Dr. Hartman, and next to him the sweet caring smile of Ms. Bisset…and her old coworkers, looking askance at her as she crammed her growing thighs under her tiny desk, trying to sit in that stupid little tiny chair…the coffee pot! Monica asking her to reach for it, since she was the tallest out of all of them…! 

Emma felt a great bubble of emotion welling up inside her. She was alone…and it was going to come out. She felt it rising up from her loins, through her stomach, and then up still farther through her big chest, behind her breasts. Her face twisted and tensed in preparation for whatever was coming, and her eyes glistened with moisture. Just at the moment when she felt like she was going to faint, when she felt like she was about to be overcome by the crushing deluge of all the memories that led back to a time immemorial, but that led forward to NOW…Emma leaned forward even harder into the tree, and the exposed roots began popping and snapping loudly, sending little dirt clods flying out into the air…she had started laughing. Tears were trickling down her face as she took a step back from the tree, looking at it sideways as she admired her unconscious handiwork. The tree itself now faced away from the road at a 130-degree angle, looking for all the world like it had been nearly uprooted by a tornado that had just passed through. Now Emma did catch a whiff of the earthy smell of the freshly-splintered roots, and it just made her body shake and jiggle more as she laughed harder. 

“I can pull trees out of the ground!” she giggled, her eyes going wide as she shook her head with undisguised mirthful resignation, still staring sideways at the half-uprooted tree. “I’m bigger and stronger than…anyone…anyone in the world!” 

She was actually speaking out loud now, and her voice, though spoken more to herself than anything else, carried out across the fields, its sound waves echoing through the crops, the grass, and the other trees that lined the dirt road. Everything was vibrating with her energy. Emma had no idea why her body was shaking with her heaving emotions, what her tears meant, or whether she was having some kind of bizarre nervous fit. All she knew was that, for the first time in a long, long time — perhaps since her whole ordeal began — she wasn't afraid anymore. 

And in that moment, something shifted in Emma’s head, something that had been teetering on the brink for some time. As the tears continued streaming down her face, and as her body continued to heave and spasm with her spontaneous bubbles of laughter, she suddenly stood up straight, to her full height…17’5. Her body was still tingling from the aftereffects of the most recent growth spurt, but Emma wasn’t focused on that. Instead, she was staring towards the climbing sun, not looking directly at it, but close enough to it where she could feel the star’s warming rays heating the full extent of her face. She had stopped laughing, and she inhaled mightily, her huge body swelling in the confines of her white sheet. The tear in the toga, down her right hip, widened and lengthened, exposing still more of the strong swerve of her upper thigh. Emma closed her eyes and turned her face directly into the sun’s glare. The back of her eyelids glowed a bright orange, tinged with red. 

“I’m a giantess,” she whispered to herself. “And I’m only getting bigger. There’s no end…no end in sight. I’m gonna keep getting bigger…and bigger…and BIGGER.” 

She wasn’t speaking with consternation or despair this time. THIS time, she was speaking with conviction…and excitement. That change in her brain…Emma didn’t know why it had happened, but there was no denying its effects on her now. She WANTED to get bigger. She was LOOKING FORWARD to getting bigger. The sheer fun of novelty aside, she realized that she didn’t have anything really to worry about, at least not in terms of “ordinary” people. Oh sure, there were little issues she would have to deal with — she had to be a little more careful around Daniel (even though he was probably a little more fragile than she would’ve liked for a man, but whatever!), and sure, she had to make sure that she was getting enough to eat, but all that was easily taken care of! All the other things that people had to worry about…she didn’t. 

“I’m not like them,” she whispered to herself, her eyes still closed, her face towards the sun. “I used to be…but I’m not anymore. I’m…something else. Something different. Not…really…human. Something…more.” 

Emma knew that she wasn’t really feeling “superior” per se, but it was something close to it. How could she not be thinking this way, after all!? She was almost 18 feet tall, and weighed god knows how much at this point. The very earth shook when she walked, and whenever she spoke, she could see how the sound of her voice affected everything around her. She was just…more….and she loved it. She wanted more of it. 

“I DO want it,” she breathed out towards the sun, reaching her arms up over her head and spreading them. “I DO want to get bigger!” She thought of what Daniel would look like when she was 20…30…50 feet tall…how cute and nervous and adorable he’d look when his little face looked way, way up at hers as she loomed over him. She would be able to hold him in the palm of her hand! She could have soooooo much fun playing with his little body! And there wouldn’t be anything he could do to stop her — she knew that he would want it, deep down, even if he was scared of how huge she had become. 

“He’s my little guy,” she whispered to herself, “He knows he is. And no matter how big I get, he’ll always…always…be mine.” 

She lowered her head away from the sun, her soul glowing with warmth and excitement. She was going to go back and apologize to him, kiss his bruises, and make it clear that she would be more careful in the future. And then she was going to take him into the barn and make him cum. 

She opened her eyes and looked down. A middle-aged man, with his dog on a leash, was standing about 30 feet away from her, seemingly frozen in place, staring up at her with a look of utter bewilderment and fear. Emma quickly saw that the man had just joined the main dirt road from a smaller adjacent path, and because of the tall 40-foot trees lining the road’s side, he hadn’t realized that he was about to walk straight into the path of this giantess. And now that he had seen her, he didn’t seem to be able to move. His dog, a husky Rottweiler, looked similarly intimidated; the two of them were standing in place, their eyes upturned in wonder. 

In the past, Emma might have been annoyed at their expressions, or she might have felt gawked-at or insecure because of the unexpected attention, especially considering that she had been having an immensely intense private moment just seconds before. But she felt like she had opened her eyes to a new world, and when she saw the tiny man and his miniature little dog staring up at her like children, a huge smile broke over her face, and she put her hands on her knees, peering down at them exuberantly. 

“Hi there!” she exclaimed happily, the mighty boom of her voice resounding across the country fields. “Nice morning we’re having, huh?” 

Emma was excited to interact with this man and his dog, but her ordinary-sounding greeting did nothing to reveal the ecstasy of the inner ebullience and freedom she was feeling right now. She had no idea what this exchange would look like…whether she was going to pick the man up or pet him and his dog or dangle him upside down for fun…she had no idea. But whatever was going to happen was just…going to happen. Almost immediately, the outward reality began to reflect Emma’s inward reality, as the motion of bending down flexed her thighs and hips and signaled the last straw for the white sheet wrapped around her. The tear down her right hip widened and lengthened further still, ripping all the way up and down her right side until the sheet itself came undone from her body, its tatters fluttering in the light breeze. 

“Oh, whoopsie!” Emma laughed, glancing down at her shredded clothes, “Guess THAT was gonna happen eventually, haha! Oh well, no better day than this, I guess…GOD it feels good this morning, doesn’t it?” 

As Emma was speaking, she was ripping off the remnants of the sheet around her body. It hadn’t quite dried yet from the pond, so big flecks and sprays of water shot out in all directions as she ripped and tore the fabric with her fingers. In a matter of seconds, Emma was standing there, totally nude, stretching her arms up to the sun as she closed her eyes again, reveling in the newfound feeling of liberation. She wasn’t even thinking about social protocols…she had gone beyond that now. 

“Just…WOW…that feels amazing!” laughed Emma, half to the man, and half to herself, as she opened her eyes and once more peered down at the man and his dog. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to just…get rid of that thing, haha! I’ve been wearing it for god knows how long…how long has it been…? Oh whatever, who cares…anyway, you look pretty cute down there, mister. Nice dog too! What kind of dog are you, little guy, hrmmm?”

“Y-you’re…h-how…how d-did you get…s-so big, ma’m?!” stuttered the man, finding his voice at last. 

“Oh, if you only knew!” laughed Emma, miming whimsy as she shook her head at the man, her hands on her knees as she peered down. She stopped herself and glanced upward at nothing in particular. “Actually…haha, if only I knew…if only anyone knew, really…nobody does know, you see…not even the little doctors, haha! But…heh, I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter, you see? I mean, who cares, really!? The whole point is I AM this big…and it’s…it’s…heheh, it’s kinda fun, don’t you think?” 

“I…I-I don’t know!” exclaimed the man genuinely, his voice rising up a little to an octave of desperation. Emma saw that he was clearly overwhelmed, and that he had started to tremble. She tilted her head to the side as she continued staring down at him, marveling at how easy it was for her to set a grown man shaking with fear. She suddenly realized how amazing it felt to have her big breasts free of that tiresome, clingy toga; she mindlessly brought her hands up to her boobs, cupping underneath them and bobbing them up and down, delighting in how free and fresh she felt. The light morning breeze kicked up a bit, breathing on her still-damp skin and whisking the moisture Emmafully away. Emma sighed in pleasure as she continued looking down at the man. 

‘God, he’s terrified,’ she thought amusedly. ‘And I’m literally just standing here…imagine how he would react if I did something crazy? Haha…no, no, take it easy, Emmiee…just…go easy on the poor man.’

“Say!” she blurted out pleasantly, making the man jump, “That’s a super cute dog ya got there! What’s her name?”

“Uh-hhhh…h-his name? His name is, uh, Duke,” answered the man, blinking in disbelief at the apparently innocuous conversation. 

“Duke! Aww, that’s a good name for him!” said Emma brightly, bending down still more as she peered closer. Emma hadn’t realized it, but she had walked a couple steps toward the man, clearing the 30-foot distance between them in a couple strides. And now, as she regarded him amiably from high above, Emma noticed that everything about the man and his cute little dog was somehow darkened…she was puzzled until she realized that she had shrouded them both in her shadow. 

‘God, it just swallows them up!’ she thought to herself, chuckling and goggling at how huge her shadow looked as it extended over the man and his dog, and far beyond them in all directions. ‘If this guy and his whole family were here, I’d still cover them all!’ Emma laughed inside her head. She also couldn’t help but gawk at how minuscule this man and his dog looked. It was almost like they were…what was it exactly…stuffed animals!? Emma bent down even more, letting out a little exhale of laughter as she took stock of how her bending knees were still higher than the man’s head. Her thick, full thighs loomed high above the man’s head, to say nothing of the free nudity of her swerving hips, her vigorous torso, and of course her huge breasts that were jiggling and swaying gently, over 7 feet above his head. 

‘Can he even see my face!?’ Emma thought, swinging her breasts lightly back and forth for fun. ‘Or is it like there are literally two breasts in the sky?’ She couldn't see his face from this position, and she arched herself a little more, peeking over her twin mounds to analyze his expression. She was so close to him now that she could only see the top of his head…and she suddenly realized that neither the man nor his dog had moved since their interaction had begun. 

‘Aw right, they’re both terrified,’ Emma reminded herself, and backed up, feeling a new kind of pleasurable jolt go through her. It wasn’t that she was particularly intoxicated with the idea of this stranger and his little dog being terrified of her…it was more that, without even TRYING, she could inspire this reaction. She didn’t even have to think about it. That’s how imposing she was now…and she was truly beginning to love it. 

Now that she had backed up, she could see that the man was looking up at her in a kind of helpless, pleading way. Duke’s innocent eyes ventured up to Emma’s face — somehow the dog knew to look all the way up — and then drifted back down to the ground, and then over and up to his owner’s face, sensing the fear, and looking to him to see what to do next. Emma saw all of this and her heart melted. They really were such an adorable little couple. 

‘I should do something to chill them both out,’ Emma thought, and then almost instantly arrived at the answer. 

“Heyyyyy, can I pet him?” Emma asked, giving the man a toothy grin. “He looks precious!” 

“I…s-sure,” said the man, feeling immensely intimidated, both by the sheer form of this young, nude, pretty giantess in front of him, and by the enormity of the incoming hand that was already beginning to descend towards him and his dog. Emma hummed softly in the back of her throat as she reached down, feeling a kind of surreal spark as she spread her fingers eagerly in anticipation. She hadn’t pet an animal in…god knows how long it had been…half a year!? Longer?? Whenever the last time had been, it was definitely before she had started getting bigger. And now she was about to pet this cute little mini dog that may as well have been a little toy: a stuffed animal or…or an action figure or something. 

Duke’s eyes widened and darted back and forth, between the furthest point of Emma’s thumb and the tip of her pinkie finger, and he began to whimper, sounding out feebly in a high-pitched, repeated cry as he shrank to his owner’s side, trying to hide behind the man’s leg. Emma saw how scared the dog was, and she understood perfectly well that she alone was the source of the animal's distress. Before, this knowledge would have made her hold back, or would have even caused her to straighten up and feel bad about herself, her position in the world, the fact that she couldn’t even be intimate with other animals, and on and on and on down into the old dismal emotional spiral. But something had changed in her, and the dog’s recoiling from her only made it seem cuter. 

“Awww, come here, little thing,” Emma cooed down at the animal as it continued to whine and whimper. “Come here…I wanna pet you.” It was clear to both the man and Emma that Duke did not want to be pet, but nothing was going to change what was going to happen. Emma’s hand continued to descend until it alighted down on top of Duke’s back, easily covering it completely with her palm; the dog had been whimpering and shaking as Emma’s hand approached, but now that she was actually encompassing him, it became completely silent…but it was still trembling under the weight of Emma’s huge hand. 

“Heheh, look at that!” laughed Emma. Her mouth was cracked open in amusement — she could tell, by the comparison between the dog and its owner, that the animal was not particularly small. If anything, it was a larger-than-average dog…and yet, Emma was completely covering it with her hand. If she closed her fingers, she couldn’t even see the dog at all. She played this game a couple times, chuckling, before she started lightly scratching the dog’s back with her fingernails, taking care to remember how tiny it was compared to her. 

‘I’ve already hurt enough things by accident,’ she thought, her mind going back to Daniel. She was reminded, with a pleasant jolt, that he was waiting for her at the farm…to come back. And she’d definitely come back…right after she was done petting this adorable little animal. 

“Oooooh, he’s just soooo sweet,” Emma cooed, her huge fingers gently massaging the dog’s back. “And he’s so warm too! I can feel his skin under his fur here….haha, god, I haven’t pet a dog in forever!” 

“Ahhh, uh, heh…y-uyess,” stumbled the man. Emma saw that he was trying desperately to look for an escape route, and again, she was struck by how differently she was reacting to this potentially-upsetting information. Before, she would have taken the hint that she wasn’t wanted, that she was being rejected…and she would’ve gone away, maybe even with tears in her eyes as, once again, her outcast role had been underlined by another bad encounter. But she just didn’t feel this way anymore. She saw the man’s fear, his trepidation, his desperation to get away from her…but she didn’t really think much of it. If anything, she thought it was cute…and maybe even an avenue into further conversation. 

“Heh…you’re scared of me, aren’t you?” Emma said suddenly. “You and your dog here.” 

“Wh-what?!” choked the man. Emma didn’t quite understand his behavior, but she knew it had something to do with her close proximity to him. She was literally brushing his cheek with the top part of her wrist as she pet his dog. She had completely forgotten that she was naked. 

“The two of you…a couple of little fraidy cats,” chuckled Emma. And then she did something that to her was innocuous…something that she had been thinking about ever since she had first laid eyes on the two of them: she picked up the dog in one hand, easily lacing her fingers around its underbelly…and then she picked up the man as well, wrapping her hand around his chest, with her fingers going nearly all the way around it as she lifted them both without effort off the ground. In an involuntary paroxysm of fear, the man let go of his dog’s leash as he put his hands up in an indication of surrender. This way, Emma was able to hold him in one hand, and Duke in another, without having to gently wrest the leash away from the man herself.

“Wh-what are you d-doing?!” cried the man, starting to shake himself. Duke was yipping and whining as he looked over towards his owner, his lithe body wriggling and squirming in Emma’s hand. But neither the man nor his dog were going anywhere — they were completely at Emma’s mercy, and she wasn’t even trying. The way Duke was squirming around in her hand made Emma giggle; his short hair tickled the inside of her palm…it almost felt to her like there was a guinea pig or…or a large hamster in her hand, or something…but not a dog, though. 

“Just breaking the ice, is all,” giggled Emma, bringing the man up close to her face and staring directly into his eyes, making hers go wide for a kind of shocking effect. “You and Duke were clearly super nervous, so I’m just making it easier for you, haha…a little more casual! See? Nothing to be afraid of!” 

Emma had just turned both of them upside down, inverting both of her hands at the same time. The man found himself dangling more than 15 feet off the ground, upside down, in the hot, invincible grip of this giantess, with his yelping dog in her other hand, his tongue hanging out of his mouth in distress. 

“P-put me down, pleeeeease!” begged the man. “Put us both down, I...I’m begging you!” 

“Aww but then you’ll just run away!” laughed Emma, knowing that she was precisely correct. She didn’t really care one way or the other what happened, but she was enjoying this moment of realizing that she didn’t have to get all bent out of shape when these tiny little things got scared of her. She could SHOW them that she was all ok…while, of course, showing them that she had the power to make them do whatever she wanted. It was a strange new cocktail of emotions she was consuming now, and it was making her feel almost drunk. Her emotional tolerance for this kind of confident self-liberation was dangerously low. 

Emma dangled the man and his dog in front of her face for a little while longer…how much longer, she couldn’t really be sure. She was vaguely aware of the man begging and pleading with her a little more, and she was only conscious enough of his words to realize that he had given up a minute or two after he had begun. She tried a few little fun things: she raised them both up, high over her head, and lowered them back down to her face-level. She turned them right-side-up, and then turned them upside down again, taking care not to go too abruptly. She heard the sound of gagging, and then of something splatting onto the ground far below her. She subconsciously understood that the man had thrown up, but again, she didn’t think much of it. She was too engaged in the novelty of holding these entire bodies in her hands, lightly squeezing them and prodding them with her enormous fingers. 

Emma briefly considered playing with their bodies with her huge tongue, and she had gone so far as to extend out the pink tip and lick her lips at the man suggestively, before she suddenly decided that she was starting to miss Daniel, and that she needed to nurse him back to health. She dropped the man from 15 feet toward the ground, and quickly remembered that she needed to catch him on his way down, since to him, a fall from that height might hurt a little. Emma giggled at the man’s choking, guttural yells as she caught him, and then she took special delight in pairing him back up with his dog once they were both back on the ground. For a few moments, she was confused, since the man and his dog seemed to be stumbling into each other, barely able to keep their feet. Then it occurred to her that they were probably a little discombobulated. 

‘Guess I scrambled their brains a little, huh?’ she thought, laughing to herself. They really were so cute…especially now that the man was making a woozy, disoriented dash away from her, down off the dirt road and out across the country fields that surrounded them. Duke stumbled and jerked after his owner as best he could, fueled by the same primal energy to escape. 

‘And I barely even paid attention to them!’ thought Emma, shaking her head in amazed disbelief as she watched them flee. A sea of warmth seemed to be spreading out over her body, starting at the outer layer of her skin, and penetrating deep into her muscles and bones. The sun was now at the highest point in the sky, and it was baking its rays into her skin, browning it slightly and reminding her that she was totally nude. 

“Oh my god! Ahahaha, totally forgot about that!” she cried, laughing out to the sky as she clutched her sides. “No wonder that guy was all weird!”

In her mirth, her eyes fell back on the tree that she had partially uprooted — there it was, as if windblown by a mighty hurricane, at a 130-degree angle to the ground, its snapped roots exposed. Emma suddenly had the urge to uproot the tree totally, and she even stepped towards it with outstretched hands before she stopped herself. 

“No,” she said softly out loud, “I want it to stay here…as…as a monument…a monument to my…to my…uhhh…”

A buzzing sound from overhead was distracting her. Emma thought it was a bee at first, but she quickly realized that it was too loud to be a bee. She looked up quickly and saw it hovering there, about 8 feet above her…slightly in the way of the sun’s disk…directly above her head. 

Without thinking, Emma jumped up, extending her hand towards the object. Something in her subconscious told her to try and catch it. She had heard something…something like it before…in her sleep or something…when she had been sleeping in the barn. Her hand closed over it as she leapt in midair — it had been that easy…little things were whirring and spinning fruitlessly against her fingers. What kind of insect was it!? Emma didn’t know…but somehow, it didn’t quite feel that way…it didn’t quite feel…alive. 

She landed back down on her feet, and the earth shook for hundreds of feet in either direction. But Emma wasn’t focused on that; instead, she was looking closely at the little thing in her hand, which she held firmly with her fingers. The propellers spun and whirred in vain against the tough flesh of her hand…a sudden beeping, as if from some kind of an alarm, began issuing from the…the object. Emma narrowed her eyes and held it up even closer to her face. Then she exhaled in recognition, her eyebrows going up. It was a drone. And it had a camera strapped to it, a camera which was trained directly onto her face.