“So let me see if I have this straight.” Pierce told the enormous girl sitting in front of him. “You’re telling me that you- you Titans have been keeping Earth safe from outside threats and that I was abducted from Earth by some giant monster cockroaches, or something, that managed to slip past your security. Have I got that right so far?” 

After Pierce had awakened, Tylum had contacted her sister to find out just what was going on. Zara had neglected to mention in her note that Pierce was an Earth human, although that went a long way in explaining his initial reaction upon awakening from being cryogenically frozen. 

Zara had given them the whole story, about how Pierce was part of a shipment of captive humans stolen from Earth by insectoids, and how the security force on Titan Station had stopped the smugglers and offloaded Pierce and the other humans in the animal emporium. 

Tylum blinked. “Well, I don’t really know what a cockroach is, but I’ll assume the description is accurate, so yes.” 

“Uh huh…” Pierce muttered. “And now that I’m here, you’re telling me those same rules that keep the bug dudes out are also preventing me from going home.” 

“Yes.” Tylum sighed, before chewing her lip nervously.

“And for some weird reason, you speak English.” 

“What? No.” Tylum shook her head. “I’m speaking Archavian. It’s likely you were implanted with a simple translation chip by the people who rescued you or something. It wouldn’t be very helpful if you couldn’t understand Titans, now would it.”

“I can’t believe this.” Pierce groaned, burying his face in his arms and fisting his fingers in his green hair. “I shouldn’t have been out on that road. All because I wanted to draw. Stupid. Just stupid.” 

Tylum shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to say.

“And now you’re telling me that as far as you’re concerned, I’m just some pet.” The human muttered bitterly. 

“No!” Tylum exclaimed, eyes widening. “Not at all. I don’t think of you as a pet and I never will.” 

“But the rest of you Titans…?” Pierce shot back angrily. 

Tylum sighed and nodded. 

“That’s what I thought.” He moaned despondently. “This can’t be happening. It makes no sense. Giant aliens? No, this can’t be real it’s a prank or a hallucination or something.” Pierce had risen to his feet and was pacing on the top of Tylum’s desk. 

“Pierce, you aren’t…” 

“Or a coma!” Pierce suddenly stopped. “That must be it. I hit my head when I fell out of the truck and now I’m in a coma.” 

Tylum’s brow creased as she tried to follow this sudden leap in logic. “Pierce, you’re not in a coma.” 

The tiny human suddenly stopped and turned his gaze up at her, an angry and suspicious expression on his face. 

“And why should I believe you?!” He asked hotly. “Why should I believe anything you’ve told me? For all I know, you Titans were the ones that took me from my home.” 

“What?! That’s absurd!” Tylum responded, while trying to keep things from escalating by maintaining a calm voice. “What possible reason would I have to lie to you?” 

“I don’t know, you’re an alien, how should I know what your thought process is?” Pierce snapped. 

Tylum scowled and shook her head, taking a deep breath.

“Look.” She finally said after a moment of awkward silence. “I know something horrible has happened to you, more horrible than I can even begin to understand… but I promise you, I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Pierce angrily kicked at the top of her desk. 

Tylum sighed. “All right. I’m going to leave you alone for a bit, okay? Do you need anything before I go? Are you hungry? Thirsty?” 

Pierce stared at his feet and didn’t respond. After an awkward moment of silence, Tylum sighed pushed herself to her feet and left the room.

Pierce sat in sullen silence for a moment after Tylum left, before he began to nervously pace across the desktop. 

“What am I going to do now?” He muttered anxiously. “I hate this place; I just want to go home.” 

He sat down on the desktop and pulled his knees to his chest. He felt something press into his side and he reached into his pocket to see what it was. 

His phone. He pulled it out and turned it on, pleased to see that it was still working. He scrolled down to the pictures he had saved on it and opened up the file. The smiling faces of his friends and family appeared before him. Dozens of pictures that he’d taken and never got around to uploading onto his computer. He was suddenly glad he didn’t. There was his dad and little sisters on their recent trip to the Grand Canyon, and his mom lounging by their neighbor’s pool. There were even a few pictures of his ex-girlfriend.

Okay those he could take or leave. 

He felt a sudden pang of grief when he realized he’d likely never see them again. A sudden panicked thought occurred to him and his eyes slid up to the top of the screen where the battery life indicator was. He had a full charge at the moment, but who knew how long that would last? And he no longer had a way to recharge the battery. When this charge was gone, all the pictures of his family would disappear forever. 

He quickly turned off his phone and stashed it back into his pocket. 

Suddenly, despite the vastness of the room around him, Pierce was overcome with a feeling of claustrophobia. He looked around himself nervously and his heart thumped as he realized that Tylum had left him trapped on top of her desk, probably fifty or sixty feet in the air. 

Cautiously, he stepped to the edge of the desk and looked down. It was quite a drop to the floor… but the seat of the chair in front of the desk wasn’t quite as far… and it was padded… 

“No. That’s stupid.” Pierce grumbled. “That’s the last thing I need, being trapped in a giant alien world with a broken leg or something.” 

He stepped back, but the temptation didn’t go away. He remembered when he was younger how he and his cousins would jump from the loft of his uncle’s barn into the pile of hay below. This was a bit higher than that had been but… 

Pierce stood at the edge of the desk, shifting his weight indecisively. 

“Screw it.” He muttered, right before leaping over the edge.

*.*.*.*.*.* 

“So how’s the human?” Myona asked Tylum excitedly as the latter reached the bottom of the stairs. 

Tylum sighed and rubbed her face in frustration. “He’s… he’s not taking this very well. He’s from Earth.” 

“An Earth human?” Fara gasped. “Those are supposed to be illegal.” 

“Well, he was, technically.” Tylum slumped down on the couch next to Daz, who looked up with a scowl before turning her attention back to the data pad in her hand. “Apparently he and several other humans were all abducted from Earth by a bunch of insectoids smugglers. They got stopped by station security and apparently decided the best course of action would be to sell them.” 

“Well sure, what else were they supposed to do?” Myona chirped from over at the kitchen counter. 

“Send them home?” Tylum replied archly. 

Myona didn’t respond, but her brow creased thoughtfully. 

“Tylum… If you want, I could look him over and put the chip in for him. I’m qualified enough to do that, at least.” 

Tylum blanched. “Oh well, uh, I’m not sure a chip is a good idea right now… he’s a little on edge.” 

“Oh, but Tylum, the law says…” 

“I know Fara.” The young woman sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “But, please, can’t this wait until he gets used to things, at least?” 

Fara chewed her lip. “Well, I suppose… But I really should vaccinate him at least, there are a number of diseases humans can catch that he’s probably never been exposed to…” 

Tylum weighed her options. She supposed she could convince Pierce to get vaccinated. That made sense, and wasn’t treating him like an animal. …As long as she didn’t tell him Fara was a vet-in-training. 

“Okay. I’ll talk to him tonight, see what he says.” She finally replied. 

“Geez Tylum.” Daz snorted. “Who’s the pet here, you or him?” 

“Neither of us.” Tylum retorted irritably. 

“Uh huh.” Daz muttered, rolling her eyes. 

*.*.*.*.*.*

Pierce landed on the chairs cushion with a thud, knocking the wind out of him momentarily. 

Other than that he was, surprisingly, completely fine. After a few moments he was able to push himself to his feet and have a look around. 

The chair underneath him radiated warmth from Tylum’s residual body heat. That was a little disturbing so Pierce chose not to dwell on it. Instead he stepped over to the edge of the chair and looked down. 

The drop didn’t seem quite as intimidating as it had before, especially since he’d apparently had no problem dropping the twenty to thirty feet from the desktop to the chair. 

Without giving himself a chance to rethink it, Pierce leaped towards the floor, hoping the carpet below would cushion his landing.

He fell for what seemed like several minutes, but was probably only a few seconds. He landed and fell into a roll that cushioned his fall. His back and legs felt a little sore but otherwise he was fine. 

“Huh.” He muttered, staring up at the chair that he’d just jumped off of. “Well, I guess there are some advantages to this place after all.” Rolling his neck, he looked around the vast carpeted plain he now found himself on. 

“All right Pierce.” He muttered to himself. “You’ve made it to the floor. …Now what?” 

Not really having any other goal in mind, Pierce made his way to the door of the room. The large wooden monolith rose above him the nearer he got to it. Fortunately, the door had been left slightly ajar and Pierce was able to easily pass through it. 

He found himself in a long hallway that seemed to stretch for miles. Along the hall, a number of doors stood like silent sentinels. Presumably, these were the bedrooms of the other giants that lived here. 

Pierce suppressed a shudder as the image of the three giant women looking down on him came unbidden into his mind. He still couldn’t quite believe what had happened to him. 

But there was no time to dwell on that now, he had to find a hiding spot or something, then he could begin to plan a way to get out of here and hopefully find a way home. 

With a resigned sigh he began to trudge his way down the long hallway towards the staircase he could see at the end. The walk seemed never ending, and after several minutes he didn’t seem to be any closer than when he began. 

But, eventually he did manage to reach the staircase. He stood and looked down into the entrance to the first floor. He could hear several feminine voices wafting up from below. Occasionally, he managed to make out what sounded like his own name. Tylum and her roommates must be discussing what to do with him. 

Suddenly, the ground underneath him began to shake. He looked down and saw the top of a red hair-covered head rising towards him. The vibrations of the Titaness’s footsteps as she ascended the stair case caused Pierce to fall to the floor. He watched as the red hair floated past him, followed by the head it was attached to and, step by step, the rest of her body. 

Then her massive sandal covered feet pounded down next to him. The air displaced from under the sandal washed over Pierce and he threw himself to the side with a yelp that went unheard by the giantess above him. 

He watched, unseen by the giant girl, as her steps carried her over his head and she practically skipped down the hallway- traversing the distance in a mere fraction of the time it had taken him- before she disappeared into one of the bedrooms. 

Pierce was left sitting on the floor, gasping for breath and trying to slow his pounding heart. 

“Holy shit.” He muttered. “She was fucking huge.” 

Up until this point, he’d only seen Tylum (and, briefly, two other titans) from what was at most the waist up. He’d known, intellectually, that the women were massive, but until he found himself down on the floor at the feet of one of these giants, it hadn’t quite occurred to him just how big they really were. 

That delusion had, quite effectively, been shattered. 

“She didn’t see me at all.” He muttered, suddenly shaking uncontrollably. “I almost died. She could have crushed me without even knowing about it until it was too late.”

After taking a series of deep breaths to try and calm himself down, Pierce shakily climbed back to his feet and considered the staircase that lay below him. 

Each step was only about seven or eight feet high, and after surviving the falls that got him off the desktop, he had absolutely no fear of the stairs. He jumped down onto the first step and, having accomplished that successfully, quickly made his way down the rest of the staircase to the first floor below. 

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

“I really think you should consider letting me have a look at him Tylum.” Fara said quietly. She sat across the table from Tylum, who was holding her head in her hands with a worried look on her face. 

“I don’t know Fara…” Tylum muttered. “To say he’s a little upset right now would be an understatement. I’m not sure introducing him to another Titan would be a good idea right now…” 

“But he might get sick.” Fara persisted. “And besides, if he’s going to be living here, he’s going to have to get used to all of us, right?” 

Tylum chewed her lip for a moment as she considered. “I suppose you’re right.” She finally sighed. “But just you, for now. I think it’s best that he’s introduced to the rest of you one at a time, and Daz is clearly uninterested.” Tylum jerked her head over to the couch where the brunette woman had fallen asleep and was snoring softly. 

“And as much as I like Myona…” Tylum’s attention turned to the staircase where the redheaded young woman had disappeared. “She can be a little… excitable. And I don’t think that would be a good thing for Pierce right now.” 

“No probably not.” Fara agreed, as she pushed her chair out and stood up. “Shall we go then?” 

Tylum nodded and stood up as well. “Yeah I suppose.” 

The two started walking towards the staircase, just as Pierce hopped off the last step. 

As he landed on the floor, Pierce was rocked again by a series of tremors. He looked up just in time to see the two titanic women heading straight for him. 

Pierce’s eyes locked on the two pairs of massive feet- one pair in brown leather boots, the other in what almost looked like sneakers, heading straight for him. He was momentarily frozen, like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck, before his self-preservation instincts kicked in and he dashed away from the staircase and hid himself in the corner, huddled down so the two giantesses wouldn’t see him. 

He watched as they passed by him, completely unaware of his cowering form at their feet. This time he was ready for the experience, however, and it only left him slightly panicked, rather than outright terrified. 

“I’m still not really sure this was a good idea.” Pierce muttered to himself. “But it might be too late now…” 

He picked himself off and brushed the light coating of dust he managed to acquire from the corner. He looked around the vast living room, and the edificial pieces of furniture that dotted the landscape in front of him. 

In the distance, he heard a sound that reminded him of the diesel engine truck his uncle had owned years ago. Curiosity overcame him and he made his way towards the sound. 

*.*.*.*.*.*

“Okay now, just… just don’t spook him okay.” 

“Tylum…” Fara sighed with gentle exasperation. “I’ve been around humans before. I know how not to frighten them.” 

“Right. I know but… well, he’s from Earth. I was the first Titan he’d ever seen before…” 

Fara rolled her eyes and quietly pushed the door open.

“Pierce?” Tylum kept her voice gentle as she called out. “There’s somebody here who wants to meet…” Her voice went silent as her eyes fell on the desktop where she’d left Pierce. 

Which was now empty. 

“He’s gone!” Tylum gasped. “He was right here, and now he’s gone!” 

“Okay, don’t panic.” Fara reassured her, as she dropped to her knees. “I’m sure he can’t have gone far. Maybe he just jumped off the desk.” The dark haired young woman began looking under the furniture. 

“Oh no… what if he’s lost or hurt or scared?” Tylum muttered. “What if he gets stepped on? What if I stepped on him?!” She lifted up her shoes and checked the soles.

“Don’t be silly.” Fara replied as she peered under the bed. “If you stepped on him, you’d know it. He’s too big.” 

“Good point.” Tylum sighed in relief.

“Now, let’s just stay calm and we can look for him, okay?” Fara rose back to her feet and brushed her pants off. “It doesn’t look like he’s in here, so think; Did you leave the door open?” 

Tylum thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yes.” 

“Okay.” Fara stuck her head out the bedroom door and looked down the hallway. “All the other doors are shut tight, so the only place for him to have gone would be downstairs.” 

“Right.” Tylum nodded. “That makes sense. Let’s go. …and watch where you step.”