A Giant's Grace

Chapter 4

Aaden and Grace sat in silence as Grace finished her soup. Aaden was a bit disappointed that Grace hadn't made any conversation, but of course it was completely expected, not to mention reasonable.

When Grace finished eating, Aaden bent forward and reached out to pick up the spoon, but didn't realize the mistake he made. Grace saw his hand reaching out to grab her and immediately scampered back, whimpering. Aaden instantly pulled his hand back.

"Sorry, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Aaden continued to apologize profusely, his face reddened. "I was just going to pick up the spoon, I'm so sorry." Grace was flustered. Why was this giant apologizing to her? Did he not realize that he was the one with all the power here? Or was she the one who had been wrong by misjudging the giant?

"It's f-f-fine. I-I'm alright."

"I'm sorry. I can be so fucking ignorant sometimes. Thank goodness that you're alright. I promise it won't happen again." Grace thought about saying something like "it better not" as a joke, but decided against it. While Aaden may not have hurt her, she didn't want to find out if he would when he became angry. Instead she leaned against the wall behind her and sighed. Aaden reached down for the spoons and paper towel again, this time deliberate and careful. Grace, while watching Aaden do this, suddenly realized that she had considered joking with a giant. What the fuck had gotten into her? She knew what the giant could do; the power he held over her.

But at the same time, Aaden hadn't hurt her. Wouldn't he have hurt her already if he planned to at all? And now, looking up at his soft brown eyes and handsome pompadour as he came back from the kitchen, she could see the kindness emanating from his face. Aaden caught Grace staring out of the corner of his eye, but decided not to stare back or confront her. He felt that it would scare the already frightened girl even more. Instead, he decided to make conversation. "So, uh, where are you from?"

Grace's mind froze. She had to be as vague as possible. She couldn't let Aaden, no matter how nice he was acting, expose her entire race to the giants.

"T-the f-forest," she answered.

"How old are you?" Aaden asked. "I'm 24," he added, realizing he sounded a bit creepy. He hoped sharing his age would make Grace less likely to think of him that way.

"I-I-I'm 23."

"Oh, cool." Aaden waited for Grace to speak up, not wanting to dominate the conversation by continuing to pepper the little woman with questions. It took a while, but she eventually spoke up. Her voice sounded shaky.

"A-a-a-are y-you gonna h-hurt me?"

"Hurt you?" Grace nodded hesitantly. "No, no of course not." He was about to add "What made you think that?" but he realized how stupid and obtuse the question would be. He opted for "I'm sorry I gave you that impression," instead.

Once again, Grace was bewildered by the giant's behavior. Why was he apologizing? Why was he telling her that he wouldn't hurt her? It's not like she could do anything about it if he wanted to maim her. He had all the power here. "Are you...do you want to be alone for a bit?" Aaden asked, biting his lip. Now that he was aware of how intimidated Grace was of him, he wanted to give her some space.

"Y-yes. Th-thank you."

"Alright. Just call out if you need something." Aaden walked back over to the living room. He realized that he had been so invested in caring for Grace that he had forgotten to eat his own breakfast. He grabbed some eggs and other ingredients from the fridge to make an omelet.

While the omelet cooked, Aaden thought about how ridiculous this whole situation was. There was a tiny human. In his home. And he had talked to her. Maybe there was an entire civilization of them. Aaden considered announcing them to the public. Couldn't you get rich from discovering something this huge? He quickly dismissed the greedy thought, disappointed in himself. Knowing humans, they would probably make the tiny people into pets, regardless of their sentience. Besides, there was a point to Grace's people keeping their existence secret. For obvious reasons, they didn't want to be enslaved by people more than 15 times taller than themselves.

Meanwhile, Grace was hatching an escape plan. It seemed to be underdeveloped and currently had an extremely low chance of success. Her biggest issue was that it would be an extremely slow process. It might take time that Grace wouldn't have. But it would have to do for now. Her plan was broken down into four steps.

Scout the house while Aaden isn't looking.

Find the most accessible exit.

Escape while Aaden is preoccupied or not present.

Run back home, following the berry bush.

Another major issue was that it was almost winter. After the first snowfall, the entrance to Grace's tree hollow would likely be buried in snow. She would have to hope that if it did snow soon, it would be a very light snow. Thankfully, the first snow was almost always a light snowfall. Grace just hoped she could make it home before it was too late.