A Giant's Grace

Chapter 3

Aaden walked over to the kitchen, wondering what someone who's four inches tall could eat. He saw some tomato soup in the fridge and realized that that would work perfectly. He grabbed the leftover soup and poured a small amount into a spoon. Aaden also grabbed a paper towel to rest the spoon on top of. He realized then that he had no utensils for the little woman. But he had an idea. He sent the blueprints for a scaled down spoon from his phone to his 3D printer. While he waited for it to print, he went back to the living room to go check on the miniature lady. When he got there, he heard quiet whimpering, but the girl was nowhere in sight.

"I came to check on you. I'm not going to hurt you," he announced, trying not to startle the tiny girl. Aaden heard the whimpering become louder and more fearful. Shit. He had terrified her. Not knowing what to do to comfort her, Aaden crouched by the open storage cabinet. "It's okay, you can come out. I'm not going to hurt you."

"P-please I-I...w-will you h-h-hurt me i-if I stay h-here?" Grace wondered why she was even asking; the giants were deceptive. No matter what, the vile behemoth of a creature would end up abusing her.

"No, no no. You can stay there if you want to. I'm not going to hurt you." Grace was surprised by his decision, but realized it must be part of a larger scheme. After a couple moments, Aaden walked back to his room to see if the 3D printer was done running. It was. He grabbed the spoon off the base of the printer. He also went back to the kitchen to grab the soup spoon and the paper towel. He deposited the three items onto the ground in front of the storage cabinet, resting the soup spoon and the tiny spoon on top of the paper towel. "I got some food for you." Aaden sat down, prepared to wait patiently for as long as it took for the girl to come out of her hiding. At this point, Aaden knew exactly where Grace was, but he didn't want to scare her or violate her privacy by grabbing her or lifting her "tent" up. That would make her alarmed.

Grace, meanwhile, was infinitely grateful that Aaden hadn't made any move to kill or incapacitate her. She knew that she could become his pet, prey, or toy at any moment, yet he hadn't tortured or even hurt her in any way. It made her even more terrified that she had no idea what he planned to do with her. Despite her overwhelming fear, Grace figured she should probably eat the food that the giant had given her rather than the food in her backpack. It wouldn't be worth it to anger the giant by insulting his food. Besides, the berries in her backpack could end up helping if the giant tried to starve her later. Grace tried to collect her bearings as she sucked in a deep breath.

She lifted up the blanket she was hiding under and walked out. Her every instinct was screaming at her to run, to never look back. But in her mind, Grace knew she stood no chance against the beast towering over her. She trudged warily over to the spoon with soup in it and picked up her utensil. Before she took her first sip, Grace briefly wondered if the soup was poisoned. She quickly realized that she would have to drink it either way, so as to not not anger the giant. When nothing happened after the first sip, the tension in Grace's shoulders visibly eased. Aaden took notice of this. Grace continued drinking the soup. In all honesty, she enjoyed the creamy orange liquid. "Do you like it?" Aaden asked.

Grace froze like a deer in headlights at the sound of Aden's booming voice and looked up at the giant.

"Y-yes. Th-th-thank you s-sir." As Grace spoke, Aaden looked into her eyes. He wanted to comfort her with a calm composure, and his eyes would reflect that the most. He noticed that Grace's eyes were a striking ocean blue.

"I'm glad. Also, just call me Aaden," he spoke gently, "may I ask your name, if you don't mind sharing it with me?" Grace was stunned. A giant had asked her to call him by his first name, and had asked her if she was comfortable with sharing her name rather than making a demand. Grace was starting to think that some of the stories she had been told about giants were probably exaggerated. But Grace recognized that she shouldn't jump to such wild conclusions. The giant could still betray her, he could still harm her at a moment's notice.

For some reason, Grace still decided to give the giant her name. Part of it was out of fear, but the other part came from a bold, reckless side of her.

"I'm G-Grace." Aaden smiled.

"That's a beautiful name. Nice to meet you, Grace."