Where the Giants Roam

The bright blue sky offered quite a bit of promise for this day, unfortunately that meant it was bound to mislead. While the sun was bright and cheery, the wind was strong and unforgiving. The harshness almost match that of the wake of a hurricane, though it lacked the strength and the funnel for that. For those who could get past the deafening and whirling winds the sun at least offered its warmth. That meant nothing to Tem though.

Upon leaving the police terminal, a handful of wanted posters in her grasp she was sent out to place the pictures around town. She had been delaying this task for too long so she was ordered to get the task done by the end of the day, no excuses. She groaned it off and did as she was told even in the bad weather. Ever since she had captured Miller and sent him off to an off island court there wasn’t much left to do around the Port anymore, or so it seemed. She had been assigned to that task for so long that even she could recognise the ridiculousness of its length. It was over now though, it felt like a giant release.

The pseudo storm blew off bits of her body, but it did very little to degrade her structure as a whole. She wandered the streets with the papers in her hand searching for a place to plaster them up and be done with this abysmal task. As she wandered though, an unpredictably powerful gust of wind pounded against her closed fist and sent both her hand and the pages she had off into the sky. She stared at the floating pages in a rather annoyed manner. She was done.

Her bulky Amazonian figure bloated and inflated until the point she was back in her original inhuman golem form. She stomped through the village and quickly slipped into the forest where she couldn’t be seen or bothered by humans.

Tem was getting sick of conforming to human ways of living. She may have been dealing with it for over a thousand years by now, but the more she stayed around this port the more she grew a detest for humans. She already hated the mortals as is, it was their society that only pushed her over the edge. She was growing more and more tired of having to do things their way and not getting her way even though she could probably tear down the entire village if she so pleased.

She continued her subtle stampede through the forest, only knocking down the trees that were unfortunate to get under her feet. It looked more like a lumbering giant waddling through the woods rather than a rampaging animal, but a creature of her size and property would most likely capture any wander’s interest. She was hoping that didn’t happen though.

Zakarie's face stung as his hair assaulted him once more in this harsh wind, and he half-contemplated improvising a hair tie instead of choosing the logical course of returning to his safe, comfortable room to do unsafe, uncomfortable things.

While Zak was typically the type of person that preferred mild weather on the days he ventured outside, a peculiar trance had washed over him today after the previous night's elaborate and lengthy dream. In it, he had been wandering a different forest, with trees less tall and thin and more thick and unyielding, scouring the ground for bits and parts and branches and feathers. The leaves that descended in still air were half natural half machine, and the few animals he spotted were more metal than fur. In his dream he wandered endlessly, finding so many new and interesting parts and pieces for potential projects that it seemed as though he'd never have to go scavenging again.

But this was real life, not a dream. While, upon awakening, the idea of replicating his dream and looking for useful objects seemed like a good idea, now that he was deep in the land of trees he was starting to think going home was the better idea. Even without the wind blowing hair and leaves and sticks into his face, his wrist was beginning to hurt and his legs were growing tired from running and crouching and falling. And now, with his normal company of birds grown silent and the sound of thumping and snapping approaching from the distance, Zak even more began to feel that he had made a mistake this morning. But that didn't mean he was going to leave.

Taking off his backpack, Zak searched for something that would provide him with a little protection from the wind. Suddenly remembering his hasty packing this morning, he searched the bottom of the bag and pulled out a knit hat, stuck with feathers and twigs and all sorts of pokey objects. After taking a moment to remove some of the larger items from the fabric, he pulled the hat on over his head and adjusted his lengthy hair underneath it. It was about time for a cut, he decided.

After his quest for a head covering was completed, Zak's attention snapped back to the world outside of himself, the crashing and snapping now too close for comfort. He replaced his bag and spun around, searching for the source of the noise, before stopping to see a giant, lumbering beast in what would have been directly behind him. As the creature smashed all in its path, Zak's ears attuned to the violent squawks and panicked fluttering of a family of fish crows whose nest had been disturbed. He ran over to them, trying to calm them with his own replicated squawks and caws, before gulping and shouting at whatever creature was intruding on the birds' space.

"Hey, you!" he shouted nervously, fists clenched and hair slapping his face as a strong gust of wind attacked once more. "I-if you can understand me! Watch where you're going! There are animals that live here, you know!" The birds circled around him, squawking in encouragement. One landed on his shoulder and screeched at the nearby beast.

The titanic sand skinned being continued its aimless wander through the brush, airing out whatever replacement she had for a mind. Humans, such a grievance of a species. There were times that she wished she never left her tomb and this was one of those times. She could have continued to be an unthinking guardian, massacring any being that chose to invade her space but no curiosity got the better of her. The scorpions were a much better species to spend time with, sure they stung and snipped at any who displeased them, but at least none of those actions didn’t hurt her much. Humans could kill her, they were smarter creatures and more creative at that, those aspects caught her interest, but the rest that made them up was revolting. So weak, so demanding, so paranoid. Here least favourite combination.

The wind that knocked against her body continued to steal small chunks of her, but she allowed it. It was too much strain for her to reinforce her pull on all the particles that made up her body, besides they would come back eventually, perhaps after the gusts died down.

Tem’s roughly humanoid figure finally came across something, a different noise after she accidently knocked over a tree in her wake. It wasn’t the creaking of the wood, no it was more so the creaking of a child. She had spent too much time at that school to be able to identify it as that. The mighty sand golem’s body did not move further, in fact it didn’t even bend down to observe the brave soul that attempted to command her. The ‘eyes’ of the great being disappeared into her body and reappeared on where one could assume to be its hip, eye level with the boy. The simmering emeralds stared at the boy analyzing his features. Most humans looked similar to Tem, but this one’s face seemed more familiar. It could have just been a student from the school and she could have easily just recognised him from one of her undercover investigations.

The student commanded her to stop. Normally she had to appreciate the guts that came with such a command, but today it only annoyed her. How could such a feeble creature command her to do anything and expect her to feel threatened? She began to create a model windpipe within her sandy bits and began to regulate airflow so that she could speak with this creature. “So?” she rudely replied. In conjunction to that, the creature’s oak-like arm bashed another tree, causing it to fall over. “Their short life is meaningless, as is yours” the eyes burrowed back into the creature’s body and the being continued on its way, almost forgetting that the interact happened at all.

Zak nearly jumped as the creature paused and emeralds shot out and gleamed in his direction. This just upset the normally crows more and Zak had to calm them down when the creature replied and continued on its way. Feeling particularly more stupid than normal, he chased after the beast, the crows that would normally have avoided him staying close by. "Just because I'm not some illimitable being like you doesn't mean my life or theirs is without worth," he shouted as he followed. The crows screeched in agreement, one with a particularly strong death wish flying up and pecking away the sand that made up the titan, causing it to be carried away by the wind. A second crow joined in and Zak had to whistle at them to stop.

"Crows always remember a face, and they'll pass it on to all their comrades. You'd best not walk a mile near a nest if you're going to continue upsetting these creatures," Zak warned as one of the crows parted from the group and flew off. "They're quite territorial, as well. Their lives are all forfeit for the good of the group, and unlike humans, they're undaunted by brutes such as yourself." A death wish is definitely what the male seemed to have today. Oh well. It wasn't like there was much to live for anyway, Zak decided. He swallowed and squinted up at the great beast, sand and leaves flying into his face in another great gust. Whatever its response was, he was sure it wasn't going to be something he'd like. He just hoped it didn't involve broken bones.

To be expected from a pesky human, he did not quit his pursuits just yet. Perhaps she should have dealt with him kindly and walked off so that she didn’t have to deal with shaking him off. She could let her body be absorbed into the wind currents, but then again getting out would be troublesome given how strong they were today. On top of that they could lead her straight into the ocean and that would be a very annoying hassle to trudge through. Even then, her bottomless pit of rage got the best of her. Despite living longer than most humans, she didn’t have the control of her emotions that most did, but mostly the rage part. Her other emotions rarely got in the way during her other endeavours.

The crows began to attack her, pecking little bits of sand off of her and letting them be taken into the wind. In return she lashed her gigantic arm in their direction, most likely missing since she was slow in her huge form and crows tended to be more agile than her. In the moment that she heard the boy chirping yet again, she turned toward him, not bothering to reposition her eyes on a different part of her body. Her tiny gem eyes honed in on him yet again, her simplistic and monolithic body facing his own.

“They are without worth to me” her voice boomed. How could a timeless creature even consider worth to something that had a limited time to live? She had met very many varieties of people over the many years that she had been alive, outlived them significantly and felt no remorse toward it. She had never actually grown attached to people, and those she had she has long forgotten or still knows to this very day.

“Pft, why should I be afraid of pesky little creatures? They should be afraid of me, I’m also territorial and if I find their nest I’ll demolish it. I fear nothing little human, now quit pestering me before I squash you” the goliath stated in a rather ticked tone and trying to use its almost godly status as a way of intimidation. While the creature was upset about the bindings and restrictions that humans had set upon her, she wasn’t going to kill one of them out of rage just yet. Though if there was a time to test that limit it might just be now.

Zak took a deep breath and held it, waving the birds surrounding him back as they looked ready to strike again. While he was genuinely fearful, the stupidity that his current state brought him to held him back from panic. This being was stronger than him, he knew, but if worse came to worse he could likely convince the birds to pull as many grains of sand as possible off the beast's body. That was assuming, of course, that he couldn't convince the beast itself to not annihilate him.

While Zak was typically a very persuasive person, he wasn't quite sure of the effect his words would- if they possibly could- have on this inhuman, seemingly immortal creature. Every time he considered his chances of survival, he reminded himself just how stupid he was being at the moment- not that it stopped him from continuing on this course of self-destruction. He didn't have all that much to live for at this point, anyway. Might as well die to some giant undying creature than to something weak and trivial.

Looking up at the great emeralds he assumed to be the being's mode of sight, Zak took a deep breath of wind, taking off his hat, and spoke. "I understand you are far stronger than myself and my companions, but this wind is strong, your sand molders, and birds don't have the same concept of strength as humans do. I'm not a man of threats but I still highly recommend you remain your calm in this strong wind else who knows how many pieces you'll be in, between the crows and the gusts." As his wavy hair slapped his face, he put his hat back on. "I do not pester, I merely suggest. For the good of your convenience and the safety of my feathered friends. I'd prefer you not crumble to bits just as much as I'd rather not be... squashed."

Zak nodded as he finished his words and whistled in an attempt to calm the still-livid birds around him. After a few moments, a couple flew up to nearby trees while two rested on each of Zak's shoulders. He was still astounded these crows were even cooperating with him, much less resting on him. Normally they hated him.

"See? I can keep them from separating your bits further if you can be reasonable and not destroy their homes."

Considering Tem’s current irrational behaviour she continued to go against the boy’s words. Not necessarily because she believed the opposite, but because she had the tolerance level of a stubborn child right about now, refusing to believe or agree with any reasonable arguments that the boy had to provide. She didn’t want to follow the rules set by humans, she down right refused to view them as her superiors and began to tire of their customs.

The gargantuan beast slammed her foot on the ground next to the boy, her mass slightly rattling the nearby earth, but not to an extensive rate. Her slowly degrading body was now slightly looming over the student, her shadow absorbing the light around him. Her gem stones did not falter away from him. “You do not wish my wellbeing, why would you? You humans are always looking for routes to protect yourselves and your tiny speck of life. Groveling is my least favourite tactic” the creature continued her aggressive speech, becoming more and more irritated by the lack of fear that the boy appeared to hold. She was the size of a two story house and could hit with the force of a bus, he should be running away in absolute terror.

Again though, the boy made reference to the birds as though she should fear them. They were no more than rats with wings, she could fight them. It might be a bit more difficult with the blasts of wind coming from just about every direction, but she could still give a reason to why a flock of crows were called a murder. “I could do more damage to those creatures than they could ever hope to inflict on me. The birds can find new homes, I don’t care.”

The golem began to consider the fact that she may have to resort to more direct tactics in order to annunciate her annoyance with the boy to scare him off and allow her to run rampant. She could try to advance forward anyway, but the kid would probably still pursue her. The boldness he had was really grinding her gears.

As the giant slammed her foot, rattling the earth nearby, Zak lost his balance and fell on his behind, continuing to stare up at the great beast as the birds on his shoulders flew away. Some sort of massive fear really should have hit him by now, but he was still stuck in what was best described as a trance, unable to waver from his apparent disregard for his own life. "Fine, fine," he sighed almost in defeat, fear still not reaching him. He leaned completely backwards and lay out in front of the beast, closing his eyes. He croaked and cawed for a few moments, before sighing once again.

"Alright, go ahead, do your damage," he finally said, although he was almost completely sure that the creature would do nothing. He at least assumed that it was smart enough to not kill him or anything similar. As he lay on the ground, all the birds that were once missing, excepting the still-present crows, amassed in the skies and trees. All but a few were silent, and after a few squawks, he sighed again. "Ignore them. Do your damage," he repeated.

He had absolutely no idea what he was thinking. What if the beast did kill him? Well, it wasn't like he would particularly mind. But what would other people think? Would they even realise he was gone? No matter, he had made up his mind, and due to his current bout of insanity and ill thinking his fate was up to the giant monster before him. "You have no concern for me, and when I attempt to show concern for you, you brush it off. I truly don't care how powerful you seem believe you are, o omnipotent beast. All I know is that science shows all beings have their weaknesses- including you." He laughed, eyes still closed. "And my weakness is being squashed. Go ahead! Have your way! I'm unprotected! Just as you prefer!" He laughed louder still, realising his own complete stupidity but unable to stop himself.

The tiny speck of a being finally submitted to her. Tem didn’t have the confidence to think that it would only be a matter of time, but she had the arrogance to believe that she could have done it faster. With his righteous behaviour out of the way she could finally continue on her angst filled romp through the forest. She withdrew her foot and slowly began to shift her attention back towards the depths of the forest. Before she could begin to make her movements forward the boy continued to make some sort of noise. He was still speaking about something.

The human challenged her. Challenged her to her big talk. The being faced him once more, frozen by this turn of events. Tem had built a reputation about herself, not only to this boy but to just about everyone she met. A higher being that gave little regard for human life and while she was never the gentlest and tended to test their physical limits she was never truly intent on killing. She might pin that on a couple things, like her job as an officer, one that she would unlikely keep if she committed a crime or the fact that if she did go on a rampage people would eventually try to kill her and over time succeed. She went down that road in the past, a monster roaming the country side and destroying whatever she pleased. That was a different time though, a less matured Tem and one that had even less of a grasp on the world as a whole.

If she wanted to be taken as a serious threat though, she had her chance. She knew how much the press would latch onto another case of a dead student. Though this island was her home, it wasn’t her old tomb, but she still felt a similar obligation to protect it. Not so much the people, but they were still a part of the place. She was a golem after all, a creature made solely for the purpose to protect, not destroy. Though she was also a brute, a person who had to show off their strength in order to still hold some sort of intimidation factor. She couldn’t make it seem as though she had gone soft, could she? As her mind played with the thought, her stump sized foot loomed over the boy, readying itself to do the deed if she decided for it.

Her foot was left raised over the boy’s body for seconds that felt like minutes. Time had never seemed so slow to her before. Ultimately though, her entire body crumbled. Like a mighty sand castle hit by a stray beach ball, she reduced herself to a large mound of dirt not too distant from Zak. A small putter released from the sand hill, her voice muttering the word “weak” in a somewhat spiteful way, assuming to be directed toward herself.

Zak continued laughing as he lay on the ground, the sound of his cackling echoing through the trees and being imitated by a few of the birds that inhabited them. After a minute or so of laughter, his voice died down and he slowly opened his eyes, noting that he was not, in fact, dead. Amazing.

He lay still with his eyes open for a minute or so before finally sitting up, looking around to find the trees were clear once more. He whistled to no response. After another moment of observing his surroundings, he stood, brushing sand off of his clothing and re-adjusting his backpack.

"Interesting," Zak noted aloud as he approached the giant mound the beast had reduced itself to. He kneeled over and ran the sand through his fingers, intrigued as to how this creature managed to stay together. Perhaps this was why his dream had led him out here? There had to be a scientific explanation. He grabbed a handful of sand once again, letting most fall through his fingers. He looked again at what was left, but saw no visible hint of what was keeping this creature together.

"I wonder if I could see anything on a microscopic level," he wondered out loud, debating taking some of the sand home with him to look at. However, he assumed he would upset the golem if he were to do that without permission. A gust of wind struck again, blowing sand, hair and leaves in his face, and as he brushed off his clothing he greatly considering bothering this already agitated creature to see if he could take a sample.

Despite falling to pieces and letting the boy off the hook, he continued to laugh. If Tem had any regard toward the boy she would be quite concerned by this, but that was not the case. It seemed to be that the guy was just as crazy as she was. Given that he tested the will of the giant he must have been. Either that or he outsmarted her and predicted that she wouldn’t kill him in the end, though that was jumping to conclusions. The boy was obviously not right in the head.

He began to move in closer. He bested her already, why didn’t he just leave her alone? Instead he began to run his fingers through her sand in the same way that monkeys groomed one each other. Tem was somewhat disgusted by this, the human getting his grubby hands all over her. She wondered whether or not if she admitted to identifying as female would get his hands out of her, though given that it was a teenage boy he would probably smother her even more. Needless to say, Tem did not have a good sense of how humans acted sexually.

“Why must you humans always defy me?” she muttered as the boy continued to play with her as though she was sand at the beach. She couldn’t just have one day where she feel as power as she is? Humans always found a way to ruin her mood, making bad ones even worse. A state of blind rage changed gears to a sort of melancholy, all because a boy demanded her to kill him and she failed to even do that. Curse her golem instincts.

“All you would see is sand. Now let go of me” the creature stated in return. The blob of sand began to stretch out in order to shorten its mound since being closer to the ground meant the less wind resistance. Tem wasn’t even attempting to keep herself together anymore, she just allowed herself to become a limp hill of sand because she wasn’t in the mood to be some sort of structure. In fact, she felt like beginning her week long slumber right about now. It was tempting, but there was still the boy to contend with and she didn’t trust to leave herself alone with him. Either he would have his birds peck her apart or he would run some sort of scientific tests on her.

Zak stood up and backed off a bit as the creature flattened its mound of sand, then kneeled once it was back in place, this time keeping his hands at his chest, folded. "Are you sure? Sometimes traces of magic show under a microscope. It's quite interesting, actually. They have their own molecular forms, like you would see in any chemical compound, like sugar or water. Not that you could actually see the individual molecules without an AFM, of course but they have a kind of... glow? And it's extremely concentrated. They always seem more concentrated and in larger clusters the stronger the magic is," he responded as he watched the sand shimmer. Suddenly remembering that this creature had just attempted to kill him and likely wouldn't care about his science or reasoning, he shook his head and stood once again.

Although he had a sincere desire to see at least a grain under a microscope, he wouldn't test this creature again, his senses slowly coming back to him (but at a crawling pace enough to keep him from running far away from the beast). He'd looked at plenty of magical properties under his Compound microscope, one he had begged his parents to help him buy even before he came to Foresta. He'd looked at magic trinkets and pendants, fur and feathers from magic animals, and he'd even convinced a friend with elemental powers to let him look at his hand under a microscope. What he wanted most of all was to document magic properties under an Atomic Force Microscope, one that was strong enough to see molecules, but those cost tens of thousands of dollars and he barely had a thousand saved.

He looked at the sand pile and sighed. What wondrous magic this creature must be held together with! But he had received his warning, and his common sense was returning, so he clasped his hands behind his back and backed off further, trying not to provoke the golem.

Tem could not follow the words that the boy was saying anymore. He could have replaced every word in his sentence with ‘science science science science’ and she would follow just as well. Her upbringing was long before the technological age, so most of the concepts she fell behind on. As far as she could tell, science was magic. Nothing more, nothing less. She had plenty of time to catch up on these ‘new’ concepts but frankly she didn’t care. The field of science wasn’t never something she needed to concern herself with. All she could really think about as the boy droned on about his science concepts was how much more insane the boy would seem now that he was just speaking with a puddle of sand.

This boy was not the first that wanted to run tests on her. Plenty in the past that even offered a great wealth of money, not that money was something she needed to concern herself with anyway. This boy had nothing to offer. He broke whatever sense of dignity and intimidation factor she held, so he was even less in her favour. She wanted nothing to do with any sort of experiment, the faster the humans learned het anatomy the faster they would be able to put an end to her. She had seen it happen in the past many times over, she wasn’t going to let these creatures dissect her.

“Nerd” the blob muttered in a dismissive manner. “It’s magic and that’s all you need to know. You waste your precious time with your scientific brain. You won’t figure the world out before you die. Your struggles are meaningless. Go breed and eat like you were made to.”

"Hey, not all of us enjoy eating and breeding!" Zak responded defensively, crossing his arms. "Maybe I should just generalize your peoples, too. I bet your kind just likes murder and sarcasm." He stuck his tongue out at the pile of sand, then realising how ridiculous he would have looked to anyone else, shook his head and sighed, letting his bangs flop over his eyes.

Zak's brain was slowly returning to its normal, logical state, but his quest of finding odd bits and pieces in the forest was gradually taking over again, keeping him from simply going home. He watched the sand for another moment then scanned the ground around the beast, shifting his backpack over his shoulder as he considered what he should do next.

"Ugh, whatever. Good luck being large and aggressive," he waved, becoming frustrated with his own thoughts and quickly growing tired at the idea of sticking around to have his life threatened once more. Wind picking up again, he considered what to do and where to go as his hair slapped his face. Once he decided that returning home was likely the best option, he turned and began walking in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, however, a branch found its way underfoot, causing the grumpy teen to fall flat on his face with a yell as he bit his lip.

Lip bleeding and too embarrassed to move, Zak lie perfectly still before grumbling out a quiet, "kill me".

((this is literally two months late and im sorry pls forgive me))

The large pile of dirt laughed off the human as he continued to throw anger and bitterness back at her. It was like a puppy trying to bite a person in anger, it didn’t hurt much and it was so adorable to watch it try to best something that was marginally stronger than itself. “Pft, you know nothing of my kind. They are few and on top of that ones with sentience are even rarer. If that wasn’t the case your race would’ve been over thrown and extinguished before your creation.”

With that though it seemed that the boy was finally driven off. It was about time, finally she could be left alone. She would have preferred he done that before she embarrassed herself with the failed attempt at killing him, but perhaps he’ll get lost in the woods and the story of her failing to kill another living being wouldn’t get out. Considering that she struck fear into criminals with her overwhelming power she would hope that something like this would never reach the ears of civilians. Especially since she will be hearing about it for many years to come.

As the boy attempted his aggressive saunter away from her, he immediately tripped on a branch. She had another good laugh at this until the boy mumbled something. With the wind and the quiet tone of his voice Tem couldn’t pick up what it was. Her sand began to shift and move about, slithering toward the boy. The string of sand ripped the branch away from the path and began to build up underneath the boy’s body. “So fragile, I can’t believe your race is the dominant one. Get up” the sand being stated in an annoyed manner. The sand began to push the boy’s body up from the ground, more specifically to try and get him back onto his feet.