She’d been so focused on freeing the two people that were now following her through the spaceport vents that Elena hadn’t really considered what to do about after.

The young woman spared a glance over her shoulder at the two new companions she’d acquired. The two of them were whispering to each other and occasionally one would glance behind them. No doubt they expected their giant captors to appear to reclaim them.

Elena wasn’t really worried about that. While she reasoned that the giants might think to look for them in the vent shafts, she knew from personal experience that there were kilometers of ventilation that would need to be covered in order for the giant beings to ever find them.

Really, Elena’s only regret so far was the water she hadn’t been able to bring back with her.

“Alright, home sweet home, I guess.” Elena called back to her companions as she crossed the threshold of her lair. “Feel free to have a seat somewhere.”

The two refugees looked around at the home Elena had carved out for herself. The male muttered something to the woman who responded tersely. He shook his head and sat down in the corner.

“Are you hungry?” Elena asked for want of anything else to say to fill the silence. I think I still have some bread left over from my last scavenging trip.”

Her question was met with the woman’s face taking only a confused look.

“Right.” Elena sighed. “You don’t understand Spanish. We’ll have to fix that.”

Of course, now that they were away from danger, Elena was reminded of her guests’ nudity.

“First things first though.” She muttered as her face suddenly got very hot. She dug around in the piles of cloth she’d accumulated until she found two lengths that were suitable as coverings. With a warm smile she handed one of them to each of her guests and gestured to her own covering to show what she intended for them to do with the clothes.

Much to her relief, they got the message and their nudity was soon no longer an issue.

Now that that was out of the way, Elena felt a bit more ready to tackle the communication problem. She decided to start with the girl, who seemed a bit more relaxed and friendly towards Elena.

Elena gently reached out and took the girl by the wrist. Reflexively, the girl jerked back a bit, but Elena’s grip remained steady and she led her over to another corner of the room, before sitting down and guiding the other woman to the floor.

“Me llamo Elena.” She spoke slow, deliberately and separated each syllable. “Elena.”

The girl’s brow knit in confusion.

Elena bit back a groan of frustration. This looked so much easier in the Tarzan movies.

“¿Como te llamas?” Elena asked.

“Elena.” The girl responded.

Elena snorted, amused despite herself. “No, that’s me. Let’s try this again.” She pressed her hand to her own chest. “Elena.” Then pointed at the girl.

“Mihiya.”

Elena’s brow furrowed. Had she just received the answer to her question?

“Elena. Mihiya.” The girl repeated, pointing first to Elena then back to herself.

Elena grinned. “Just like in Tarzan.” She whispered happily.

The girl, or Mihiya, turned and pointed to her male companion. “Oteo.”

The young man looked up at his name and pulled himself to his feet. He crossed the room to sit next to Mihiya on the floor.

“Oteo.” Mihiya turned towards him and spoke a few words that Elena didn’t catch. She did hear her own name somewhere in the statement so she assumed that Mhiya was introducing her.

“Do you want some food now?” Elena asked as she climbed back to her feet. “I have some fruit that I managed to swipe from the cafeteria earlier today, so they haven’t over ripened yet.”

Elena dug through her stash until she came up with a couple of soft berries the size of melons.

“Here.” Elena said, handing them each a part of one of the berries and taking a third for herself. “Comida.”

“Παмnα” Mihiya said slowly.

“Patna.” Elena repeated. She wasn’t sure if she was saying ‘fruit’ or ‘food’ or ‘berry’ or possibly even the type of fruit that they were eating, but Mihiya seemed pleased with her response all the same.

“Let’s see, what else?” Elena muttered, looking around the room. She gripped the front of her robe and pulled the fabric up a little. “Túnica.”

“Tooneeca” Oteo said slowly. Then, pointing to Elena’s shirt said: “Bfpvx.”

“Bh-ruz.” Elena repeated, grinning.

They went back and forth, pointing at various items around the room and trading the words in their respective languages for them. At least, Elena assumed that’s what they were doing. They were beginning to run out of things to name however.

Mihiya glanced around the room, biting her bottom lip as she tried to find something they hadn’t already named. After a moment, her eyes lit up. She bent forward and scrawled an image in the dusty floor beneath them. It took a second for Elena to realize what she was doing, but then she realized Mihiya had drawn a pair of crude stick figures, one much larger than the other.

“Anθpαnαp.” She said, pointing at the smaller figure.

Elena nodded. “Humano.”

Mihiya grinned and repeated the word, before moving her finger to point at the much larger figure. “Mιмαn.”

Elena drew back in surprise. At first, she thought she’d misheard Mihiya, or that perhaps Elena had told her the word beforehand and had forgotten it.

But, no… based on the expectant look on the girl’s face, she was waiting for Elena’s translation.

“T…Titán.” She responded.

“Jα, Mιмαn.” Mihiya smiled patiently, but still looked as if she were waiting for a translation. She didn’t seem to realize that Elena had given her the Spanish word… they just happened to be the same word. Elena repeated herself again, but Mihiya just nodded patiently and continued to try and pull the vocabulary from her friend.

Elena shook off her confusion. That mystery would have to wait for later. Neither of them had the vocabulary to ask the questions she wanted to know the answer to. “Um… Gigante.”

Elena was about to offer another word for translation when a loud grinding noise ripped through the air around them, echoing off the metal walls.

They yelled out in surprise and clamped their hands to their ears in an attempt to block out the horrible sound. Vibrations rumbled the floor beneath them and before any of them could react a bright light stabbed into the darkness around them, momentarily blinding them.

When the light cleared, they saw the pale face of a giant woman looking in from a hole in the paneling that hadn’t been there before. She smiled at them and brushed a lock of her blonde hair away from her dark green eyes.

“Eκ αҍαnεκεvδfα мvf αnθpαnαp!” She yelled down to the ground below.

There was an answering shout, but Elena couldn’t make out the words, not that she’d understand them. She knew that she should probably run. Her mind was screaming at her that she was being an idiot and needed to get out of there right that second. But this was the closest she’d been to one of the giants. One of the… Titans. Before, they’d been like living monuments. Big, noticeable, but she had taken comfort in the fact that she was invisible to them. It made them easier to dismiss, somehow.

Now? One had looked directly at her. Acknowledged her. She was seen, exposed. It felt… wrong, somehow.

“мpαjαэ!” The woman yelled, in response to whatever question had been asked of her.

“Jα мpαjαэ!”

Elena felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, despite herself. She turned to see Mihiya with a tense look on her face, pointing towards the ventilation shaft. Elena didn’t need to speak her language to know what she meant. They needed to leave.

Elena glanced back at the giant, who was looking down at whatever companion waited on the ground. She wasn’t looking at them, this was their chance.

She grabbed Mihiya by the wrist and pulled the girl through the darkness of the ventilation shaft. Oteo quickly followed after the two women.

Behind them, they heard an indignant squawk as the giant woman watched them dash away. Elena spared a glance over her shoulder. Her eyes grew wide with panic as she saw the woman’s giant hand reach into the space they’d vacated; reaching for them like a predatory animal.

Elena was certain they were out of the woman’s grasp, when Oteo let out a grunt and stumbled over a loose bolt in the floor. Elena heard the woman’s exclamation of triumph as her palm fell over the fallen human and her fingers coiled around his body.

“Oteo!” Mihiya skidded to a stop and turned around abruptly, but Oteo shook his head and said shouted something to her that Elena didn’t really feel the need to translate. He had time to urgently wave her onward before he was pulled into the light of the outside by the woman’s hand.

This time, it was Elena who snapped Mihiya out of her trance. They didn’t have time for her to mourn her captured friend. Not if they wanted to avoid the same fate.

Elena’s chest heaved as she and Mihiya ran full out down the metal corridor of the ventilation shaft. Her breath came in gasps of panic. She didn’t know what the giants intended for them, but she didn’t want to find out either.

Beside her, Mihiya stared grimly ahead. Her mouth was a thin line and even in the dim light, Elena could see the pain etched on her face.

Vibrations rumbled in the floor below them and the light behind them went out as the panel the giant woman had removed to find them was replaced.

Elena didn’t think for a moment that that would be the end of it though. Sparse light that bled through the cracks and vents were the only illumination they had to go on. Fortunately, Elena had one major advantage in that she had spent the majority of her time since awakening in this place memorizing the way through the vents.

“This way!” She said to Mihiya, taking a sudden sharp corner. The other girl scrabbled to keep up at the sudden change in direction.

Mihiya attempted to say something, but between the language barrier and the girl’s ragged breathing Elena had no hope of figuring out what her erstwhile companion was trying to say.

Elena was forced to stop as another horrible noise ripped through the air. The panel in front of them was pulled away and the blonde giant’s face leaned in, followed by her hand, which was reaching for them.

“Jojαt!” The giant said cheerfully, even as her hand reached for them.

“Back, back back!” Elena yelped, jogging backwards for a few paces before wheeling around and heading back the way they came.

“How… is…she…finding… us?!” Elena yelled in frustration, cutting another corner and dragging Mihiya after her.

A frustrated sigh echoed through the ventilation shaft from behind them, and after a moment Elena heard the sound of the panel being replaced.

A sudden realization struck Elena and she skidded to a stop. Mihiya yelped and narrowly avoiding plowing right into her.

“Oh no…” Elena moaned. She looked down through the nearest vent slats, but that only confirmed her worst fears.

In her panic, she’d lost track of how far they’d run, and how many turns they’d taken. A peek down at the ground below confirmed that she no longer had any idea where they were.

She caught some movement out of the corner of her eye. Down on the floor, a large machine was rumbling over the ground. It was being driven by a blonde giant who was now very familiar.

“Must be some kind of cherry-picker.” Elena muttered before smacking herself in the forehead.

“Right, that’s not really the important detail right now.” She shook herself. “Okay, we have to keep moving. I’ll… I’ll figure out where we are after we lose the blondie..

She grabbed Mihiya’s hand and pulled her along.

“Come on!”