“What do you suppose she’s going to do to us?”

Oteo turned to look at Lishda. The young woman was curled up in the corner of their carrier with her knees pressed to her chest.

Oteo scratched the back of his neck. “I… I don’t know.” He mumbled, a bit apprehensively. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, we’ll just have to sit tight until we can escape.”

“You already tried that once.” Lishda scoffed acidly. “Worked out really well for you, didn’t it?”

“It worked for Mihiya!” Oteo snapped. “I got caught, but she’s free now. So I guess I’ll just have to try again, and maybe that time I too will be free. And if not, I will try again. And again, and again.”

Lishda frowned but didn’t say anything.

Several minutes passed in depressed silence, broken only by the metronomic tapping of the giant woman’s shoes on the ground below.

“I don’t… I don’t want to escape.”

Oteo perked up at the sound of Lishda’s voice and turned towards her. “What was that?”

“I said I don’t want to escape.” The woman repeated in a voice that was louder, but no more forceful than before. “I don’t want to be some wild human running around on my own… I just want to go home.”

“And… where’s home for you, Lishda?” Oteo asked softly.

Lishda scowled. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does.” Oteo insisted. “Come on, wherever we’re going, we’re in it together. We need to trust each other.”

“My home is… is… with Tahnis…” Lishda swallowed and swiped at her eyes furiously. “But it doesn’t matter.”

“Was he… did he own you?”

“Yes…” Lishda sniffed. “But he… he loved me. He took care of me. And then… he had to go to his ship. Said he had to follow orders. He said he’d come back before I knew it… and…”

Lishda swallowed again and shook her head.

“He didn’t come back, did he?”

Lishda shook her head. “I… they didn’t tell me anything. But I overheard his sisters talking. His ship… something happened. An accident, there was an accident and… he said he’d come back for me, but he didn’t.”

The two of them sat in silence for a long time, before Lishda continued her tale. “His sisters didn’t pay much attention to me, after that. Too busy dealing with Tahnis being gone. I don’t blame them for that, after all I was just his pet human. But… after… well, they decided Danae would take care of me. But… she didn’t like me very much.”

Oteo nodded. He could guess the rest of the story from there.

He looked out through the transparent wall of their cage. He wasn’t sure what sort of beings he found himself ensnared by, but it didn’t seem like these “Titans” had much in common with the gods and goddesses he’d known.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud click, the sound of the latch on the cage door being undone. Fresh air wafted into the enclosure as the giant who held them in her possession pulled down the wall and peered in on them.

“You may come out now.” The woman said imperiously. “I’d like to get a look at you.”

Oteo and Lishda glanced at each other before Oteo pushed himself to his feet and then turned to help Lishda to stand.

Together, the two humans stepped into the light and found themselves under the scrutiny of the giant woman’s calculating brown eyes.

“I was hoping for a third test subject.” The woman muttered, seemingly to herself; “But I suppose you two will have to do for now.”

Her eyes flicked over to Oteo and narrowed. Without any warning she leaned down to get a closer look at him. “Do you have a name?”

“Yes… um… It’s Oteo… ma’am…”

“You both should address me as Dr. Miroppi.” She said. “The volunteers at the shelter you came from told me that you claim to be from Avalon, is that correct?”

“I don’t claim to be from there.” Oteo answered. “It’s the truth.”

Dr. Miroppi raised an eyebrow. “I see.”

“What… what are you going to do with us?” Lishda asked, as she stepped forward to stand next to Oteo.

“You can relax.” The giant woman assured them. “I don’t intend to harm you. I’m only hoping to study human intelligence. There is a member of your species who is… unusually bright, let’s say. I want to know if his mental capacities are a fluke, or not.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Oteo sighed.

A slight tugging at the corner of her lips was the only reaction Kiri Miroppi allowed to show on her face.

“Of course not.” She said, as she rose back to her full height and stared down at the humans in front of her. “I’m not some kind of monster, after all.”

*.*.*

“¿Estás despierto Mihiya?”

Mihiya rolled over and sat up. The barest hint of light was creeping through the cracks in the walls of their new hideaway.

She wasn’t sure how long it had been since Elena had freed her and Oteo from the cage they’d been trapped in, but Mihiya was still struggling to comprehend the other woman’s strange language. Still, she and Elena seemed to have a rapport going; so while communication between the two of them was difficult, it wasn’t impossible either.

Elena smiled when she saw her friend stirring and handed her a piece of the bread they’d gathered earlier in the day. “¿Te gustaría desayunar?”

“Thank you.” Mihiya responded, before taking a bite from the bread. She ate quickly and then carefully climbed from the small nest of fabric that she had spent the night in. As she rose to her feet, she felt a sharp pain in her back. The scar that had resulted from having her chip removed had healed, but not as cleanly as she would have liked. The scar tissue had a tendency to pull in a painful way if she moved wrong.

Mihiya bit her lip to hold back the small gasp. She didn’t want to worry Elena. She quickly pulled on her clothes and did her best to hide the scar. She wasn’t exactly sure how successful she’d been, however.

But, if Elena noticed anything amiss, she seemed willing to ignore it. The young woman hefted her gathering pouch and handed the second one she’d created to Mihiya.

“All set. Shall we go, Elena?”

Elena smiled and walked towards the vent shaft that led out into the junctions of the wider spaceport.

After being chased by the Titans, the two of them (after a bit of pantomime and non-verbal communication to communicate their thoughts) had decided to abandon Elena’s former hideout and move elsewhere. They’d waited roughly a full Archavian day before stealing back to ransack whatever supplies they could find.

There hadn’t been much, but Elena had managed to recover her belt, along with a few of the scrap cloth sacks she’d made. Mihiya suspected the Titans had cleaned out the rest of the “vermin nest” that Elena had built.

They stepped out of their lair and into the shaft. Mihiya led the way, and she decided that today they’d try exploring new territory. The spaceport was vast, and while they both had their preferred spots to score needed supplies, it never hurt to see what was around the next bend in the ventilation shaft.

They travelled in near silence for at least an hour before they reached the edge of the area they had previously explored. Mihiya looked out through the grate at the teeming mass of titans that walked through the corridor ahead of them.

There was a part of her that was disappointed. This area of the space station looked the same as all the rest and Mihiya had sort of expected to find something different.

Still, there was plenty for them to investigate.

“Should… we… go?” Elena asked, speaking slowly as she sorted through her Archavian vocabulary that was still a bit limited.

Mihiya nodded and carefully slipped through the slats on the vent. “Yeah… let’s see what we can find.”

They kept close to the wall, both to avoid being seen (or stepped on) by the giants and to keep as close as possible to an escape route should the need arise.

Up ahead, they spotted a possible target. At one of the terminals, a woman and a young girl appeared to be waiting for their ship to arrive. The woman was leaning up against the wall, while the girl was sitting in a chair in front of her. The only thing that Mihiya and Elena were concerned about, however, was the (relatively) small bag on the floor by the girl’s chair, which had fallen over onto its side.

Even from this distance, they could tell the bag was slightly open.

Mihiya caught Elena’s eye and nodded towards the bag. Elena smirked and winked. They both knew it was a risky proposition, spelunking into a Titan’s luggage, but the potential rewards were worth the risk.

Carefully, the two small women made their way along the baseboard of the wall towards the adult woman’s boots, which were tapping idly as she waited.

As they got closer, Mihiya kept her eye on the adult woman, searching for any sign that they had been spotted. She wasn’t terribly worried about the girl, who seemed to be absorbed in whatever was on the screen of her data pad. The woman, however, was looking around the terminal in a way that was almost… vigilant.

But, fortunately for them, she wasn’t looking down. Soon enough the two of them had made it to the relative safety beneath the girl’s chair.

“You check out the bag.” Mihiya said, pointing. “I’ll keep a watch.”

Elena nodded, and ducked into the interior of the bag.

“How come you’re coming with me?”

Mihiya nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the voice resonating above her. After nearly succumbing to a heart attack, she realized the girl was not talking to her. She waved reassuringly to Elena, who had stuck her head out of the bag to see what the noise is about.

“Because your sister asked me to.” The adult responded in a mild tone of voice.

“Sorry you have to babysit me.” The child sighed. Mihiya watched tensely as Elena reappeared holding a piece of dried fruit under each arm. She quickly passed these over and, before Mihiya could stop her, ducked back into the bag.

Mihiya bit her lip, but shoved the dried fruit in her bag. She really hoped Elena wasn’t pushing her luck.

“I’m not babysitting.” The woman responded, though there was a note of amusement. “And it’s not that she doesn’t trust you to travel on your own… she just worries about you.”

“I know…” The girl sighed. There was a long pause before the girl spoke again. “Do you think I’ll like the school?”

“I don’t know.” Came a sigh from above them. Elena reappeared, this time dragging a length of bright green string behind her, which she quickly coiled around her arm and threw it over her neck. “I’ve never been to a private school before. I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends though. Who wouldn’t like you?”

The girl snorted. “You’re just saying that.”

Elena looked like she was about to go back for another run when Mihiya grabbed her by the shoulder. Elena looked behind her inquisitively, but Mihiya shook her head.

“Come on, I think they’re about ready to start boarding. Grab your bag.”

A hand with short thin fingers and light purple nail polish appeared in their view and grabbed the strap of the bag, before hoisting it in the air.

The ground trembled underneath them as the woman’s massive black boots pushed away from the wall and walked towards the terminal door, guiding the younger titan in front of her.

“Not the greatest haul we ever had.” Mihiya muttered to herself. “But not too bad for a first look.”

“I don’t know, seemed okay to me.”

Beside her, Elena let out a small yelp of surprise. The women whipped around to see that they weren’t alone in the shadow of the seat above them.

It took Mihiya a moment to recognize the scruffy haired face of the man in front of them, but after wracking her brain for a moment she realized it was the man who’d ripped the tracking chip from her back.

“You!” She gasped, eyes widening with recognition. “It’s you!”

“It’s me.” He smiled wryly. “My names Andimem. It’s taken me a while to find you two. Suppose I should have figured you’d move on after the titans found you the first time.”

“Why were you looking for us in the first place?” Mihiya asked suspiciously.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Andimem shrugged. “We humans gotta stick together.”

“There’s more?” Mihiya gasped. “More humans?”

“Yeah.” Andimem grinned. “Not many. Bout forty or fifty, I’d say. Enough for us to get by okay though. Say, uh, your friend there doesn’t talk much, does she?”

“Elena?” Mihiya placed a hand on the other woman’s shoulder and squeezed. “She does. But she doesn’t speak Archavian. Some language I’ve never heard before. She’s learning though.”

“Savage talk?” Andimem asked, peering at Elena with narrowed eyes.

“No.” Mihiya responded. “It’s a language. She’s even taught me some. It’s just something I’ve never heard before.”

Andimem shrugged indifferently. “Well, either way, we probably shouldn’t hang around here much longer. Shuttle just took off, which means the cleaners will be about soon.”

“And I suppose you mean to bring us back with you?” Mihiya asked archly.

“If you want.” Andimem shrugged, even as he turned to make his way to the ventilation grate. “I’ll show you, but I can’t guarantee you’ll be allowed to stay. That’d be up to what Essni decides.”

“And who is she?” Mihiya asked, as she and Elena made to follow him.

“Our leader.”

*.*.*.*

They seemed to travel endlessly through the dusty vents. Andimem stayed just close enough to them that they couldn’t lose him in the darkness… but only just.

“Almost there.” He called back to them. “Just beyond this next turn here.”

Mihiya was pretty sure he’d said that already, but nevertheless this time it proved to be true. They rounded the corner and found themselves faced with a grate that was half open. Beyond which was a bright light.

“Through there?” Mihiya asked skeptically.

“Yeah, don’t worry, it’s completely safe.” Andimem assured her, before disappearing into the light.

Mihiya glanced at Elena, who shrugged and followed after.

They stepped through the grate and found themselves standing atop a large wooden desk, in a room that was small by Titan standards, but was pretty vast to the two humans. The source of light was a large window in the far wall.

Mihiya’s eyes widened as she saw that Andimem had been correct. Around them a few dozen humans were milling about. Eating, playing, even a few that were wrestling.

“Welcome to my home.” Andimem said to the two women.

“You live here?” Mihiya asked incredulously. “Out… in the open?”

“It’s okay, nobody’s going to bother us here.”

Just then the door slowly swung open.

Mihiya’s heart pounded in her chest as an outline of a Titan appeared in the doorframe. Her muscles tensed as she readied herself to run. Her hand grabbed Elena’s wrist, preparing to drag her along if she had to.

The giant woman stepped into the room. She was a curvy woman. Probably short by Titan standards, with long dark brown hair and large orange eyes.

The odd thing was, she didn’t appear to be at all shocked by the collection of humans arrayed in front of her.

“Well hello Andimem!” She said in a smooth voice. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”

The woman bent down, and seemed to notice Elena and Mihiya for the first time. “Who’s this you brought with you?”

“Essni, this is Elena and Mihiya.” Andimem replied before turning to face them. “This is Fancy Essni Gnika, our leader.”

“Essni’s just fine, you little scoundrel.” The Titan’s lip twitched upward.

“Oh, didn’t I mention she was a titan?” Andimem grinned at the shocked looks on Mihiya and Elena’s faces. “I always seem to forget that part.”

And that’s when Elena fainted.