Luke groaned awake, his stomach growling and crying out to be fed. He lay staring up at the indented metal ceiling and rubbed his hands on his eyes trying to clear the gloom from his vision. He breathed out a long, slow sigh as he pressed his hands into his forehead. His head was pounding he was so hungry. Luke sat up wearily and forced himself to stand up.

The scrawny man walked over to a now full basin of water under the leaky pipe. He hadn’t the energy to move it. He dunked his head in to try to force himself to wake, drinking deeply as he did so.

“Ahhh…at least I have plenty of water…” he said to himself.

Luke pulled on a cloth rag shirt before venturing out into the well of the grate. He stopped and listened to make sure it was safe. All seemed quiet up above in the canteen and Luke climbed the wall. He waited at the top as he poked his head through the metal making one last check to ensure he was alone.

He hauled himself up in to the canteen and stopped to rest. Luke was beyond tired. He’d slept three times since he last ventured into the canteen and had eaten his last meal. He had to eat tonight, he had no choice. If he didn’t he would surely be done for. He slowly trudged up the aisle of tables no longer having the energy to rush about. He knew he was short on time but only an energetic man could rush and Luke was no longer an energetic man.

“Oh…sweet…holy…cheeseburger…” Luke spoke as he spotted something not far ahead of him. A whole burger missing only one titanic bite. He rushed towards the mountain of food. The starving man wasn’t going to waste any time gathering food up this time. He was going eat, stuff himself silly until he was ready to burst.

“Mmm…this is good…” Luke said through a mouth loud of meat.

“Ohhh six more days!” Aisell thought to herself. “Six more days of stupid cleaning and then I get to go home, it’s been far too long.”

Aisell walked through the empty bazaar towards the canteen, carrying the decon unit behind her. She was following her usual routine of starting in the canteen before working her way down the sprawling market. As Aisell entered the canteen she stopped in her tracks and held her breath trying not to make any sound.

In the centre of the aisle getting stuck into a meal many times larger than he was, was the Human she had seen the night before. She could see it was a male. He had dark scruffy hair and was wearing cut up rags. Aisell could see his little arms tearing out clumps of meat from the burger. She quietly lowered herself down to her knees, she didn’t want the little guy being startled by her presence if he turned around. He’d seemed terrified of her when she first saw him.

“How can a Human survive on his own here…the pest control people must be lazy…” she thought. Aisell knew Humans well, she had grown up with pets. She had spent most of her life isolated on rural Archavia on her parent’s fruit farm. It was one of the reasons she’d taken up as a cabin girl when she left school. She’d spent the last year travelling around the Empire, drinking its sights and various different customs and cultures. It had been an eye opening experience but now she was tired, broke and ready to go home. For now though she was taken by the sight of one lone Human, lost and all alone in a world much larger than himself.

“He’s a bit like me…” she thought.

“Ohhhh I’m not sure which god I should be thanking so I want all of you to know I am VERY grateful for keeping that damned woman away tonight!” Luke said looking up to the metal ceiling high above.

Barely had he uttered those words when he heard a creak come from behind him and jumped with fright. He turned round to see the towering, blonde Titaness on her knees staring directly at him. She had gone rather red, quite embarrassed that he had caught her staring at him.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck….” Luke muttered panicking. Not only had he been caught bang to rights by his nemesis but she was kneeling down on top of his grate. He was trapped. He could run but she would be on him quickly. He didn’t know what she had planned for him. Stomping on him, zapping him with that contraption of hers, crushing him in her fist. Would she eat him? He didn’t think so. These people seemed to like similar food to Humans and he wouldn’t eat a little person.

Luke’s eyes darted around, never leaving the giant girl for more than a second as he tried to think of a way to escape.

“Oh no…he looks terrified!” Aisell’s voice inside her head spoke. She could see the little man’s head moving around looking for a place to hide. She could see his eyes looking towards her and then down to her knees on the floor. Aisell looked down and realised what he was looking at.

“Sorry little fella…” she said as softly as she could. “This is your home isn’t it?”

She waited for him to say something but there was no response.

“Don’t be afraid I won’t hurt you, I’m just going to stand up…” Aisell raised her hands and showed her palms trying to show she meant him no harm.

Luke just watched her totally terrified. He knew what she was saying, he’d gradually picked up the language over the many months he’d been here. He even found himself talking to himself in it. He couldn’t believe she was talking to him. No one had spoken to him since Charlie. He may have been the most annoying man alive but at least he was some company. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to have a conversation with someone. His heart skipped a beat as the gigantic girl pushed herself to her feet. She was no more than a few paces away at her scale and could be on him in moments.

“I usually start here but I see you’re still eating. I’ll start from the other side of the market tonight and I’ll come back in a few hours.” Aisell said hopefully. She waited for a response but still there was no reply. “Can you understand me?”

Luke could understand her very well. He didn’t know what to say. What do you say to a mountain of a woman who’s species had tried to kill you many times just for existing?

“Well I’ll leave you to it little guy. My name is Aisell by the way…maybe you could say hi sometime?”

Luke’s heart was in his mouth. His eyes following the blonde woman as she walked off round the market and out of sight.

“She talked to me…she didn’t try to kill me…” he said out loud sinking back in to the burger. “I can think about this later…I need to get out of here!”

Luke dug his hands in deep to meat and pulled out as much of it as possible and loading it into his new sack. Once it was full he carefully crept into the shadows, watching for the giantess as he went. He couldn’t see her or hear her, she must have been on the other side of the market. He quickly darted out from under the table and down through the metal grate to safety.

“Phew…” He said breathing deeply and sitting back against the wall. “Well that was new!”

Luke lay back, half dozing in his bed. His belly was full for the first time in a very long time. He should have been quite happy but his mind was occupied elsewhere. His nemesis, who he now knew was called Aisell, was uppermost in his thoughts. She had been kind to him, she could have taken him and done what she pleased with him but she didn’t. He was exposed and she sat on top of his only sanctuary. She knew this and instead she had backed off and left him to eat in peace. Was she being nice to him to lure him out so she could take him? Was it a game to her? Or was she genuinely concerned for his wellbeing?

“She has to be messing with me, she’s kept me starving for so long. She has to be playing a game. Trying to make me come to her rather than just trying to catch me.” Luke whispered into the gloom.

He couldn’t help but see her in his mind as he thought. The moment he had first realised she was watching him, staring at him with those huge, soft of eyes of her. Terrifyingly large, easily bigger than his head the two deep icy blue pools called to him. He’d been too afraid to notice at the time but now thinking back she really did seem quite sweet despite her humungous stature. Even kneeling she was easily taller than the five storey dorm he used to live in before all this began.

Luke slowly sat up in his bed. He could hear something above him, moving around the entrance to his home. The light dropped to near darkness as a titanic figure stood over his sanctuary, blocking the small slits in the ceiling. He looked around warily as he heard rustling coming from above and then several thuds coming from just outside the crack in his wall.

The frightened man jumped out of bed and ran over to the pipes at the back of the room, squeezing his slight frame underneath the bottommost one. He was sure she had come for him, any second now she would rip the metal grate from its frame and her hand would come searching for him. Luke waited for a few seconds for the onslaught but none came, only a voice ringing through the grate outside.

“Hey little guy…” Aisell spoke. Her voice wasn’t high but it was slightly above average in pitch. It was delicate and graceful, like she spent extra effort to ensure each word was perfectly crafted. As much as Luke enjoyed the sweet sound of her voice he did hate being called “little guy”.

“…I thought you might get bored of eating icky leftovers so I’ve dropped some mosaberries down for you. They’re not poisonous and I know lots of Humans really like them…”

“Humans?!” Luke thought. “So if she isn’t Human…what is she?” And then the obvious. “How does she know what Humans like to eat..?”

“…I’m going away now but if you need anything else you just say to me tomorrow. Bye now…”

Luke saw the light in his room come up and heard the floor creak as she pressed her weight down into it as she walked. He waited until he was sure she had gone before crawling out from under the pipe and creeping towards the entrance to his room. He looked out to see several large, red, bumpy pieces of fruit. Each one was about the size of his head, one of the berries alone could have fed him for two days.

He ventured out past the door and knelt down over the soft, red fruit. He gave it a good sniff, searching for any trace of a trickery or poison. The berry smelled very sweet and inviting. What little food Luke had eaten over the last few months was usually stale and greasy. The berry was the opposite of that, fresh, sweet and juicy. Luke was sorely tempted to throw caution into the wind and tear into it with both hands. He poked its delicate skin with a finger, puncturing it causing red juice to spill out from the torn skin.

Luke gingerly licked some of the juice from his fingertip and groaned. It had a full, sweet, slightly bitter flavour. It reminded him of passion fruit. “Ohhhh wow that is tasty. If she really is trying to kill me she is going about it the right way.”

He could not hold back any longer. Luke grabbed a handful of the juicy fruit and stuffed it into his mouth, opaque red juice ran down his chin and on to his ragged shirt. “Mmmm…I may have to marry this girl…”

Luke slowly blinked awake, he rolled on to his side and pulled the covers up over his shoulders. It took him a moment to remember he wasn’t back in his snug, warm bed at home in Colorado. His belly was full and he was feeling a lot better. He had eaten well for the last few sleep cycles and night had once again returned to the market. He pushed the covers back and began his daily routine. He found his mind was sharper, faster. Carrying his bucket of water was a lot less strenuous than it had been just a few days ago.

He was wondering just what the evening would have in store for him. He was half tempted to deliberately allow himself to stumble into his former nemesis again, this time maybe he could string a sentence together. She had been kind to him but he hadn’t survived this long by being careless. He couldn’t let some nice words and a few berries buy him off. As he climbed up the rungs towards the lid of the grate he resolved that he would carry on as normal, if the two bumped into each other then so be it.

Luke poked his head through the grate and looked around. At first everything looked normal but as he turned his head towards the canteen area he noticed something was very, very wrong. Less than ten feet from the grate was mixed stack of leftover food laid out like a spread for him. He pulled himself through the grate, keeping low behind the stack of food as tall as he was. There was all kinds of food here, bread, greasy meat and bits of fruit. All of it he knew he could eat. Whoever put it here for him had knowledge of Human dietary needs. Luke crept up to the pile of food and peeked his head over it, looking for any sign of his benefactor.

At the opposite end of the aisle he saw her. She was keenly focused on the pile of food she had set out. Luke wasn’t sure if she had arrived extra early to set it up for him or if he had overslept now his stomach was no longer waking him up early. It looked like she was sitting far enough away that he would easily have enough time to dive back down into the grate before she was upon him. He was in a bind. Wait for her to go away and hope she left the food or take what he could get now and hope he wasn’t spotted.

The pile of food had been stacked with the largest items at the bottom and the smaller items on top, including a precariously balanced mosaberry. Luke dug his hands into a burger and started to pull out the grease soaked meat. He would have much preferred something healthier but he would risk unbalancing the stack of food. After half filling his bag he moved on to a clump of squashed vegetables. He pulled on a long, thin, red vegetable. It was squishy and moist from having been cooked. He braced his foot against the pile and tugged on the vegetable in his hand trying to either tear it for pull it loose.

Luke fell back with a thud, the long, red vegetable successfully pried loose from the clump. He looked up and his eyes widened as the clump of mixed vegetables collapsed in on itself and fell into a spread of varying shapes and colours. He sat up and looked straight ahead of him, directly down towards the gigantic blonde woman who was now staring directly at him.

“Fuck…” Luke muttered realising he had been caught red handed by her for a second time.