Big Bend (g/t)

Interviews

Easton

I took a deep breath, looking over at John. The much smaller IMA Agent raised an eyebrow.

"You good?" He asked.

"Yeah. Just nervous," I replied. If I was honest, I was more than nervous. It was the first day I would actually, officially be working with the public. It had been decided that there would be a formal introduction, a press conference, and then a meet and greet with the general public. Any one of those things alone felt nerve-wracking. All of them together, and I had been considering pretending to be sick. I hadn't, of course, knowing I'd have to get this over with sooner than later. Dressed in the classic park ranger's uniform, hair pulled back in a low ponytail, I looked like any other park employee.

Except for the small part of being dozens of times larger than any of the other rangers, I thought.
I wondered what the general reaction would be. Hopefully closer to the two kayakers' response than fear. I'd much rather answer endless questions than see fear glittering in the humans' eyes, which was saying something given how much I was not looking forward to answering some of the questions that would inevitably come up.

Like whether or not we really eat humans.

I recalled Dave's quick departure the other day, and felt guilt creep up my spine again. I'd picked up on Dave's lack of comfort around me pretty quickly. I had been trying to be as friendly and reassuring as possible any time we worked together. And I had thought it was going okay, until the bonfire the other day.
Since then, I'd been mentally kicking myself for well, pretty much everything I'd said. John had attempted to reassure me several times that I hadn't said anything wrong, but I remained unconvinced.

You didn't need to mention the whole instincts thing. Or bring up food at all. You could have just laughed at Gus's joke and changed the subject, you idiot, I chided myself.
And you really didn't need to make the psych eval joke.

I'd intended it in a "self deprecating joke about mental illness and always being sad" sense. Based on Dave's reaction, it hadn't been taken that way.

Can't imagine why he was freaked out by the fucking giant saying he was crazy, I thought.

I'd been expressly trying to avoid doing or saying anything that could be perceived as threatening by the humans, including mentioning anything about eating, thanks to the less than friendly rumors about man-eating giants. The thought alone made my stomach turn. I knew there was unfortunately actual historic precedent, either with Aphirials or the smaller species of giants. At the same time, I couldn't fathom doing anything like that. Humans were people. And they were so small. So fragile. Defenseless. Hurting one would feel like kicking a kitten, or something, I thought.

That was also why I felt like I couldn't really fault the ones that were scared of me, as much as it hurt to be stared at like a monster. They were probably even more aware of the power difference than I was. I wasn't the one liable to end up badly injured, or worse, after all.

Still, it was a relief when they weren't terrified of me. I'd grown to greatly appreciate that with John. The IMA Agent hadn't so much as flinched around me, and seemed to have no problems giving me orders. It made sense, as John had likely worked with countless other non-human beings.