Where the Giants Roam

Zak groaned as the sand shifted under him, partially afraid she would take this moment to strangle or squeeze or commit some other violent act against him, but partially hopeful that she would do these things. He wasn't necessarily embarassed- he couldn't care less about what someone he didn't know thought of him, much less some immortal sand being- but the fall had set his brain back into something more normal, if normal was an anxious, depressive state.

"Just end it. I'm done," he grumbled as he was slowly lifted, the blood from the cut on his lip seeping both into his mouth and to the sand below. As the moment of the fall drifted into the past, he found that the hand he had tried to use to catch his fall hurt tremendously with the passage of time. He hoped his right wrist wouldn't end up as unreliable as his left. Hopefully the searing pain was just some sharp objects that had perforated his skin, not his bones disagreeing with one another.

After the sand placed the boy back onto his own two feet, Tem began to bunch herself into a pile in front of the boy. This time though she didn’t stay as a stagnant pile of dirt. No, she began to build herself up, a couple sprits of sand were absorbed by the wind, but she could collect those later. Her form began to replicate that of a human, taking shape into her preferred humanoid shape. On top of that she added some colour to her body in order to seem more natural and less like a sand sculpture.

The boy continued to degrade himself, obviously with no help from her considering that she spent the entire time talking to him as though he was less than dirt. “End what? Your existence? You humans can’t even bother to kill yourselves? You have a short lifespan as it is, why should I cut it short for you? Buck up and live it out, it won’t take you long” Tem explained to him while still trying to recover the tough demeanor she might’ve lost previously for not killing the boy.

After getting another close look at the kid, Tem was actually able to recognise his face. She couldn’t place a name since her memory was lackluster at best, but she could remember the moments when she had seen him. It was during that time period when she disguised herself as Miller when he disappeared for a couple months. Yeah, this was the kid that bothered her during class and that time that she was cleaning out Miller’s room. She didn’t know if any of that would apply to her current situation, but at least she knew him sort of.

As he was lifted Zak sighed slowly, gently opening his eyes to keep dirt from falling into them. Once on his feet he checked out his hand before watching the sand transform into a human, picking a few pine needles out of his hand before wincing and removing a small shard of glass. At least the pain would be temporary. He wiped the blood off his lip with the back of his hurt hand before wiping both sides on his jeans. He then wiped the dirt off of his face with his sweater sleeves. Almost immediately his lip was bleeding again, and he pulled it into his mouth to try to stop it.

"Says the magical sand monster who threatened my life mere minutes ago. What a dramatic creature you are," he scoffed, then sighed again. He stared at the now-definitively-her for a moment, curious as to her shapeshifting powers but familiar enough with the creature now to know it was better not to inquire. "So what are you pretending to be, then? A police officer?" He squinted as the wind blew harder, his hair smacking his cheeks once again. "Dumb question. Of course. Is that why no one from the school has attempted to thwart your mighty power or however you'd prefer it put?" In a normal situation Zak would have shown some hint of jest, a smirk or a laugh or something of that sort, but he was tired and depressed and mentally exhausted from the whole situation.

The boy continued to call Tem out for her inconsistencies, which was rightfully so since she had been doing nothing but telling the boy how worthless he is and was now trying to convince him not to kill himself otherwise. It was some very weak reasoning, but it was an attempt none the less. Trying to convince Tem that a human had more worth than any other animal on the planet was tough. Yes her job as a police officer stopped her from doing the things she said she would do, but on top of that being a golem that has been naturally programmed to protect made that even harder. The trees in the area may disagree with that one, but a couple of minutes ago she wasn’t in the best of moods and rampaging was the only copping mechanism she knew.

The sand being crossed her arms as she continued to listen to his banter, trying to figure out ways to mock him further through his use of words. So far it’s been putting her in a much better mood than the beginning of her day so naturally she wanted to continue doing just that. “Fine then, I’ll admit it I don’t want to see you creatures die” she replied in a forcefully reluctant manner, in a way that would immediately indicate to anyone that she refused to admit that ever. “Not because I like your race, it’s more of a pity thing for how pathetic you are. I even need to disguise as one of you in order to stop your brethren from running away in terror” she was quick to add on to stop any sort of misunderstandings from coming up and also to again re-establish her superior level of toughness.

The boy was quick to pick up on her being a cop, she wasn’t sure how. She didn’t morph her uniform over her body did she? She had to investigate her person and noticed that her badge was sticking out. Tem silently groaned and shoved the chunk of metal back into her body. She really hated it when that happened, she was better off leaving that thing at home. “Pft, regardless of my status no one at that school would dare to challenge me. The moment that the first punch is thrown this island is as good as mine” she boasted.

Zak patted his lip with his palm to check for blood again, and seeing it was red he pulled it back in his mouth once more. He listened to the creature speak, half-distracted by his bleeding lip and hand. "And I'm sure your race is no joy either, as superior as you are," he scoffed when he was afforded the chance to respond, rolling his eyes and feeding into the bait the golem was giving him, partly out of irritation and partly out of a desire to not go home.

"I admit most would be terrified, but that doesn't mean we are weak. Different beings have different strengths. Your strength is being large, brutish, and sarcastic, while ours is being small, creative, and inventive." He watched his cut palm as he spoke, curling and uncurling his fingers before looking at Tem once more with a squint. He had no idea why he was continuing to debate with this large, shapeshifting, grumpy being, but he kept on anyway.

He watched as she hid her badge, the faintest smile appearing on his face as she looked irritated at his observational talent. "I never claimed it would be a good idea to challenge you. I'm just stating the fact that if you didn't assume a human form, people would come after you. That doesn't mean it's a bright idea." He shrugged at her, pausing to watch his hand bleed once more, then remembered he kept band-aids in his bag. He pulled his backpack off and opened it, scouring through twigs and feathers and metal trinkets before finding a package of bandages and pulling them out, counting five out to cover his wounds.

Tem being in her human disguise quickly changed the course of their conversation considering that she was able to make facial expressions, since you know she has a face now. It didn’t add much other than a prominent low bearing grumpy brow and the occasional smug smirk after she insulted the fact that the boy was human. She even gave a bit of a smile when he admitted to her race being superior (even though it was likely a jab at her rather than applauding it, but she would take it as a compliment anyway).

“Yes, your race is so diverse that you could only use two words that mean the same thing to describe them in a positive light. I think you forgot to add whiny, paranoid, thieving, and controlling. A mighty golem has to disguise as one of you in order to be accepted in your society, even then one such as me can only be accepted in human form at a place like this” she added rather matter-of-factly.

She continued to absently listen to the boy as he continued to bather on about something, she was more so focusing on the colour of her shirt to try and find a nice hue to leave it at. Her upper torso shifted rather subtly between a slightly darker yellow to a more medium. It really didn’t matter in all honesty, but it was a bit more interesting to her than whatever the boy was talking about. She really only needed to hear a few keywords in order to create her backup argument. “Well of course, if I wasn’t something familiar then I would be chased out of town. Riots would break loose about ‘slaying the demon’ and how I eat their children. Not that it would matter.” Stray thoughts of the past came to her mind as she spoke about that, most of what she said being straight from memory rather than being hyperboles. She didn’t even have a stomach, how could she possibly eat children? Stupid centuries old humans.

Zak rolled his eyes at the creature as she spoke, pouring water from his bottle over turehis hand to clean it and placing bandages over each gash. He would likely have to change them out when he got home. He didn't think he was going to see the nurse this time. Belonging to the minority of students without some sort of aggressive power, his trips to get his injuries fixed up were often spent explaining some experiment or clumsiness or something of the sort, and he simply didn't feel like he could explain this situation.

When he had finished, the other was done speaking. He had only half-heard her words, too busy focusing on his injuries and the future, and when he looked at the female figure and saw how disinterested she was he decided he was done. "Whatever," Zak scoffed, putting his things away and replacing his bag on his back. "It was lovely making your acquaintance, your secret is safe, blah blah blah. I believe this is over." If she were more cooperative he would have enjoyed the company, but Zak found the sand golem irritating and pretentious, and her continuing rudeness had finally sealed the deal for his departure.

The wind blew strongly once more, his hair and clothes slapping his skin violently, and he squinted at the woman before looking off in the direction of the school. He had gone very far. It would be a long walk, and as his senses were returning he realised he was hungry. The town was far closer, he realised as he looked in the other direction. Maybe it wasn't time to go home just yet. "Won't you look suspicious just... popping out of the trees?" he thought aloud, not really intending for her to answer. He shifted his bag on his shoulder. "I suppose I'd be suspicious as well, though." He gave the shapeshifter another look before beginning to walk in the direction of town.

The sand monster stood tall and fixed. Her arms tightly wrapped together and placed over her chest and her eyes glaring at the boy as he finally took his leave. She made no response to the boy, seeing no reason to whatsoever and continuing to radiate her tough demeanor despite not feeling that way in the moment. It was strange, but she paid no mind to it. She expressed her superiority and held it firmly throughout the conversation, except for a few minor hiccups. How could she not feel proud? It felt more like livid grumpiness, like boasting herself was adding fuel to her rage-filled fire. As it would seem though, she overheated that fire leaving no path but toward burning out.

Once the boy finally left her sight she crumbled exactly as she did a couple of minutes ago, reducing herself to a moody pile of litter. Now there was just an emptiness to her. Tem truly couldn’t remember the last time she had railed so hard on humans like that before. Sure she’s made passing comments at how much more inferior humans were, but she never went on for such a long and full blown conversation on the matter. She could absently remember the moment in time where she had met the boy she used as her outlet. Back when she was acting like Miller and searching through his room and how nicely he acted then. Even going so far as to bestow her with a useless glove. Then again, now and then were two completely different times. She wasn’t acting like the alpha dog dominant then, more acting like Miller. Whatever, the damage was done. The boy hated her and that was going to be the way it stayed.

Tem began to bunch up a collection of sand into a larger pile, creating a mold or blank slate rather. She enjoyed making things out of her body, she also enjoyed manmade structures, and she felt that a bit of that could lighten her mood slightly. She decided on one of her favourites, the Roman Coliseum. So simple yet elegant and epic in scale. Her version would be much smaller.

As she tried her hand at arts and crafts, memories began to flood through her head. Ones that spawned from the words of the boy before he left. The time he mentioned how she required the guise of a human being. That child cursed her with memories, ones that she had tried to forget as best as she could. They were ones that would never go away though.

She began to sculpt the basic shape of the arena.

The memory, it was of a simpler time, back before she had escaped her tomb. It was actually the time in which her curiosity for the outside world had peaked, nearly two hundred or so years ago. She spent a lot of time in that tomb, sworn to protect it with all that was at her disposal. A sentient guard that would protect the trophies of the mighty pharaoh for eons to come. For two and a half thousand years she hadn’t even considered leaving, hadn’t even thought of an outside world. For her first thousand years of life she barely could think at all. She thought she was ready though, so the mighty golem broke free of her home.

She curved the edges and smoothened them out. Then started to make it more of a bowl shape.

Tem remembered the walk was long, but didn’t remember the walk itself. Her memory isn’t the greatest, but considering she was a being that lived for a couple thousand years it was understandable. Her wander through the desert eventually found her a village. Her first human contact ever since her creation. She dwarfed any building she approached. In fact, she was much larger back then, significantly so. So large that it was more than anything a human living in that time period could possibly imagine.

With the finer details of the outside wall finished, she moved on to the seating, manufacturing each chair carefully.

Afterwards her memory becomes a bit foggier. The village she had entered was apparently very well armed, the most she could remember was being pelted with any weapon that could be thrown at her. It wasn’t until the fire came into play that it took a tide for the worst. Her memories amount to nothing more than flashes of her body being engulfed in flames. The sizzling sound of sand roasting, the scorching sun piling on more heat. Her ‘skin’ hardening and crackling as she was chased out of the vicinity of the city.

A stray yet strong current of wind bashed against the side of her wall like a bully at the beach.

She lost so much of her bonded sand that day. In fact it was one of the largest causes of her becoming as small as she was this day. Bonded sand is the ‘flesh’ of her body that was originally enchanted on her, unfortunately it cannot be replaced by regular sand as the bonded sand will piece together with her naturally, other sand she would have to force it to keep it attached to her which would use up more of her energy quicker. This experience alone wasn’t her only bad one with humans, but it was the one she recalled best at the time.

She let the remains of the structure fall, not caring about it anymore. Tem was too somber at the time to get upset about it and throw another fit. No, her pile of sand laid there, absently getting swept up in the wind as it passed by. “Humans…” she muttered in monotone. She had had enough of this day, she decided to rest there and attempt to forget that anything happened today. In fact, this would be the start of her week long slumber.