It wasn’t that Elena was afraid of Titans.

She wasn’t.

She’d been living among them for… well, she wasn’t really sure how long it had been. Months, anyway. She’d been dodging Titan feet for a while, anyway. She was used to them.

But the fact of the matter was she’d never been directly under a Titan’s gaze like that before. The closest she’d come was when the woman had been chasing after Mihiya and Oteo. But, even then, she hadn’t been the one they were looking for.

But when the strange titan woman had turned her orange eyes on Elena, she’d felt a bit overwhelmed.

So, she fainted.

She wasn’t out for long. It only felt like a few minutes before her eyes opened and she looked up into the concerned faces of Mihiya and the stranger who’d brought them there.

“You okay?” Mihiya asked, concerned. At least Elena was beginning to pick up on the language, a little bit at a time.

Elena nodded and accepted the hand the stranger offered to help her back to her feet.

“It okay.” The man spoke slowly. “Essni is πpιjonм.”

Elena’s eyes narrowed and she tried to discern whether she was being made fun of or not. But then he smiled and clapped her lightly on the shoulder. Despite herself, Elena found she couldn’t help but smile back at him.

Then, a shadow fell over them and Elena was reminded again of the vast presence looming over them. She swallowed nervously, but forced her gaze upward to meet the orange-eyed giant woman.

The giant spoke, her voice soft and friendly, but too fast for Elena to make sense of. A vast hand was lowered to the surface they stood on. Without thinking twice, the stranger left over the log-sized fingers and clambered into the woman’s palm. He turned and faced them both expectantly, gesturing for them to follow.

Elena looked over at Mihiya. Her friend had a wary look in her eyes, but shrugged resignedly. She reached out and took Elena’s hand and led her towards the offered palm.

Elena had never been brave enough to try and touch one of the giants before. She was therefore unprepared for the sensation of stepping into the fleshy platform. The skin underneath her feet moved like nothing she’d ever tried to walk on before.

The closest approximation her mind could come up with was warm leather upholstery covering a mattress of jello.

It wasn’t exactly an accurate assessment, but it was the best Elena’s mind could come up with. Especially as she was just this side of having a panic attack.

Still, as she lowered herself into a seated position, Mihiya squeezed her hand in a way that was at least somewhat reassuring.

Her stomach fell to her feet as the hand was raised into the sky. Elena wondered briefly why she’d consented to climbing into the Titan’s grasp, but it was too late. The Titan woman turned and walked away.

*.*.*.*

“Tell me about Avalon, Oteo.”

Kiri still wasn’t positive she believed the human when he claimed to be from the private moon of Pryvani Tarsuss. She didn’t know much about the enigmatic world where a free human colony supposedly resided. There’d been rumors, of course, and Naskia and Niall had let slip a few details… but beyond that there was little to be known for sure.

But the main reason Kiri was skeptical about the claim was that humans rarely left the moon, and even when they did they were always escorted by Titans.

Of course, if Oteo had somehow found his way off the moon, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising that he’d found himself in a human shelter.

But still… If Oteo was telling the truth, this presented a golden opportunity for Kiri to learn about what kind of civilization existed on Avalon without the filter of any subterfuge from Pryvani Tarsuss.

Oteo blinked and scratched his head. “I… what do you want to know?”

Kiri suppressed an irritated sigh. She supposed it was a rather open-ended question to begin starting with. Very well, she would start with specifics and work outward.

“You believe that there are gods living on Avalon, don’t you?” She asked instead.

“Of course.” Oteo replied after a short pause. “I have seen… well, I’ve seen one of them anyway. She was performing a miracle in the town square.”

That caught Kiri’s attention. She filed that away for further discussion at a later time.

“And, do you believe me to be a goddess, Oteo?”

Oteo didn’t respond at first. In fact he took nearly a minute to ponder the question, during which Kiri waited patiently for his answer. She was careful to keep her expression neutral, to keep from swaying him one way or the other.

Finally, he drew in a deep breath and answered.

“No. I don’t believe you are.”

There was a small part of Kiri that felt insulted by that answer. Of course, then she was amused that she felt that way.

“You don’t?” Kiri said, keeping her tone of voice neutral. “Then am I some sort of demon or evil monster?”

“No I don’t think that’s the case either.” This time Oteo answered without any hesitation. “I… I don’t know what you are.”

“What’s the difference between me and the gods you’re familiar with on Avalon.” Kiri asked leaning forward. “I am the same size as they are, after all.”

Oteo scratched the back of his head. Kiri’s existence didn’t fit into his worldview, and that confused him.

“There are some… many people who live in Atlantis… who say that the gods are merely giant beings, the same as humans, only bigger. I didn’t believe this when I was on Avalon… but ever since coming to this place… there are so many who are like you, Dr. Miroppi, and it’s hard to think that there could be that many gods in existence.”

“I see.”

“But at the same time…” Oteo continued, rising to his feet and pacing on the top of Kiri’s desk. “I… I saw a miracle in the streets of Atlantis. The goddess… She was called Myona… she made wonderous things appear out of thin air.”

“Out of thin air…” Kiri muttered to herself. It took a moment before it clicked. “I see…”

She jotted a note on her pad and rose, abruptly, from her chair.

“Oteo, wait a moment, will you?” She said before stepping away from her desk and out of the door.

“…Where am I going to go?” Oteo wondered incredulously.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long before Dr. Miroppi returned carrying a boxy metal device in one hand.

“Okay Oteo, you do not believe that I am a goddess, correct?”

“I…” Oteo hesitated. “No. I don’t believe so.”

“And you claim that you witnessed a miracle on the streets of Atlantis?” Kiri asked as she returned to her desk chair and set the small metal device on the desktop between herself and Oteo.

“It certainly appeared that way.”

Kiri’s eyes lit up and she pressed a button on the side of the machine. “Did it look like this?”

Oteo’s eyes widened as a light appeared on the front of the box. A split second later, as if suddenly sprouting from the wood grain of the desktop, an entire grassy field complete with wildflowers burst into view.

“I…” Oteo mumbled, shocked. “Yes… it did look like that.”

Kiri put her elbow on the desktop and rested her chin in the palm of her hand, gazing down at the human in front of her.

“So I suppose you have two choices here, Oteo. You either have to assume that I, too, am divine in some way… or you must admit that the being you saw in Atlantis is just as mortal as you yourself are.”

Oteo swallowed. “I… um…”

Kiri shifted back and then leaned forward to make eye contact with the subject of her scrutiny. “Let me give you a little help. I’ve met Myona Barreda, briefly. She is many things: excitable, exuberant, brilliant within her own sphere… but she is not a goddess.”

“I see.” Oteo responded quietly. “You… you’ve given me a lot to think about today.”

“Yes I have.” Kiri agreed, lowering a hand to the desktop and waiting for Oteo to claim into her palm. “And that being the case, I think we should call an end to our session for the day.”

*.*.*.*

“What is this place?”

Andimem grinned at Mihiya and leaned back against Essni’s thumb, which gently stroked at his back. “This is home.”

Mihiya peered over the edge of the giant hand in which they all sat at the room around them.

“Well yes, but I mean… what is going on here?”

Andimem shrugged. “We’re misfits, really. Some of us found our way here from outside the station, others are freed or lost pets, like yourself. Heck, a couple of us were even born here. But the point is, for the most part we come and go as we please, and Essni keeps us safe from the rest of the Titans, and out of the shelters.”

Mihiya glanced up at the enormous woman’s face. She didn’t seem to be listening, but she found it hard to believe the giant couldn’t hear them.

“Oh, Toj’s group is back.” Essni’s voice rumbled above them. She turned and lowered her hand to another shelf and allowed the humans in her hand to climb out onto the wooden surface.

Mihiya and Elena watched the woman’s large form cross the room and kneel down to where another group of three humans was climbing out of the ventilation shaft.

“She’s the reason I found you, by the way.” Andimem mentioned as he watched her converse with the newcomers. “She heard on the station’s radio system that they were looking for some escaped pets and sent me into the vents to find you. I’m sorry I didn’t get there in time to keep your friend from being recaptured.”

“I just hope Oteo is okay, wherever he is.” Mihiya sighed. “So what does Essni get out of it?”

“Out of what?”

Mihiya nodded towards where the newly returned people were emptying out the bags on their backs. “This arrangement.”

Andimem shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, she takes all the junk that we find but can’t use from us, and in return she brings us food and cloth. You know, useful stuff.”

“What kind of junk?”

“Bits of rock and metal. Plastic pieces. I don’t know what she does with them but, they make her happy. See, look, stuff like that.”

Mihiya looked where the man was pointing and saw one of the other humans holding up a flat piece of clear plastic. Stamped on the front was a reflective image that Mihiya recognized as the Imperial Seal.

“What is that thing?” She asked as Essni slipped the item into her pocket.

“I’m not sure. Whenever I ask Essni, she just tells me not to worry about it. But she gets really happy whenever we find one. She usually brings us something good afterwards though, so we try to pick them up whenever we can.”

“Well, Elena and I have gotten pretty good at scavenging.” Mihiya told him, not without a hint of pride in her voice.

“Yeah, you did pretty good back there.” Andimem agreed. “Not great, but if you stick around, we’ll show you everything you need to know.”

“I thought that was up to whatever Essni decided.” Mihiya asked, throwing an arm around Elena’s shoulders.

“Well you needn’t worry about that, my dears.”

Mihiya started and turned around to find the Titan woman had rejoined them.

“You’ll let us stay then?” She asked, craning her neck up to see the giant’s smiling face.

“Of course!” Essni gushed. “As if I’d toss a sweet pair of girls like yourselves out to fend for themselves.”

Mihiya glanced at Elena, who was looking back at her with a questioning look. Not for the first time, she lamented their inability to communicate properly. She wished she could ask her opinion. Still, Mihiya doubted Elena would object to staying with these people. At least they were human, mostly.

“Yes.” Mihiya eventually answered, looking up again. “I… I think we’d like to stay.”

“Well then my dears,” A large grin split Essni’s face and she lowered a hand for the two of them to climb into. “Consider yourselves at home.”