Planet of the Giants

Chapter Four: The Close Call

You have a hard time falling asleep as you can hardly contain your excitement from seeing a real life giant, let alone one that actually enjoys the presence of a human as well. It reminds you of the numerous giant-tiny role-playing scenerios you've had online with people of the same interest, except with an actual, physical giant. Despite having being held and prodded around like an action figure, enjoying being diminutive compared to hands the size of a house, you still crave for more interaction with the impressively massive frame of his.

You get up and walk to the window. It is mostly dark outside with a faint glow from a night light that allows you to barely make out the silhouette of objects in the tremendous room. Even though your bedroom is on the third floor of the house, every object outside still towers high above you. On the scale of the To'kustars, your third-floor viewpoint is pretty much the same as just standing on the ground. Then there is of course, Kai'shu himself sleeping on a futon some distance away from you. He is sleeping on his back; his head facing away from your location, giving you full view of the underside of his feet.

Upon opening the window, you hear a low rumble accompanied by a weighty yet drawn out sound of air suction, followed by a reversal in the direction of air gushing out at a distance, at which point the cycle repeats. The amount of air breathed in by a creature that large must be mind-boggling, you thought. This is also evident from how long a cycle of a single breath by the To'kustar takes compared to a human.

While you admire his sleeping form, a thought popped up in your head: wouldn't it be great to explore his body while he sleeps? Kai'shu hasn't moved at all during his sleep. Perhaps he is a deep sleeper. With the knowledge that To'kustars are always mindful of the tiny humans walking around them as a result of their downward facing pair of eyes, this may be the only time to be able to approach one that is not aware of your presence.

Despite being cognizant that an unconscious movement by Kai'shu may inadvertently flatten you, your adventurous desire superseded your logical thinking, and you make your way outside the house and toward the colossal alien. The first obstacle on your way though, was the futon's mattress he was sleeping on. Though just a thin pad for him, turned out to be quite a climb for you. Fortunately, the cover provided an anchor for you to grab on and to hoist yourself over.

Once on the mattress, you first walk up to his towering feet, as you believe this is the safest place to explore first. Even laying down, both his feet looms high above you like monoliths, resting at an angle. You approximate them being 15 times your height. Their imposing dominance doesn't intimidate you, but instead propelled you forward. This may be your only chance seeing it up close, short of you shamefully asking for it.

A closer examination shows a lot of debris and crushed rubble stuck to the bright red padding of the soles, as expected since To'kustars don't wear shoes. The thick paddings themselves are fully biological, and evolved for obvious reasons. Both seem a bit worn from the considerable abuse they have to endure. Although flexible and compresses when he walks, the surface is rock solid to you, even when you try to push with all your might. You know they need to be durable to support their immense weight, nonetheless they feel so impenetrable that you doubt a To'kustar would even feel a thing if they unwittingly stepped on a human. Doubled by the fact that they have more than enough mass to outright pulverize anything caught underneath, a To'kustar might just continue their day without ever being aware they've just committed a homicide.

Still with no movement coming from Kai'shu after your first stop, you walk around his feet to the left. Being well aware that a To'kustar's feet is all you can reach if they were standing upright, you waste no time on this rare opportunity to check out the rest of his body. You wanted to climb on top of Kai'shu, but even when laying down, in a position that should be most accessible to you, the upper surface of the sleeping giant is still well out of your reach. Far ahead though, you see the blanket that Kai'shu is using just barely covers his stomach, and extends down to his side under his right arm. You figured you could use it to climb on top of his body.