Chapter 4
The Giant and the Girl
"Be warned," the Tree warned the Giant. "there are only humans on Earth. And unlike our realm where humans and other races live in harmony, the humans of Earth are intolerable of difference. I cannot speak for all of Earth's people, but many will be blind to the goodness in you and may see you as a monster. Many humans on Earth cannot even stand the difference between themselves."
"That is . . . a rather sad thing," the Giant said, eyes cast down in sorrow.
"Indeed," said the Tree. "And dangerous. In their ignorance, the people of Earth may seek to destroy you. As such, you must avoid contact with them as much as possible. Not only for your safety, but theirs as well. As I said earlier, there will be other forces chasing after the power of the Pearl of Fate. Anyone you meet on Earth could get mixed up in the conflict and be put in grave danger.
"So I also have this order: DO NOT LET ANY PEOPLE OF EARTH SEE YOU!"
End flashback . . .
The Giant and the Girl stared at each other.
The Tree's words flashed in his mind. "DO NOT LET ANY PEOPLE OF EARTH SEE YOU! See you . . . see you . . ."
So much for that, the Giant thought bitterly. Not one minute had passed since he first set foot in this world, and he's already been seen by a local. He was never very good at being sneaky. So now what do I do?
By the looks of it, the human before him appeared to be a child. She looked too clean to be a homeless orphan or runaway living in this obviously long-abandoned area.
She's probably just here to explore, the Giant presumed. So there are children that like to do that here too. This might be a whole other world, but some things still stay the same no matter the place or time.
This reminded the Giant of his own childhood when he used to sneak into abandoned houses to look for ghosts.
That's it!
Inspired by his memories, the Giant formed a plan and put it into action.
"Ahem!" The Giant held his hands up beside his face and wriggled his fingers. "Oooh! I am a ghooost! Begone, trespasser! Or suffer my cuuurse!"
The Girl said nothing, but she raised an eyebrow and looked at the Giant funny.
The Giant stopped wriggling his fingers, frowned, and then told the Girl, "Get out before I get the grownups here and get you in trouble."
The Girl turned and ran.
"Well, that takes care of that," the Giant mumbled to himself. "Now onto more important business."
He reached into a pouch hanging off the side of his belt and pulled out a metal, square plate with a glass ball in the center. Light shined from the ball as if it contained its own sun or star and shined over the words etched on the four sides and four corners around it.
"If working right, this compass should show me the way to the Pearl." The Giant continued to mutter to himself as he stared intently at the glass ball.
He expected a beam of gold light to shoot out of the glass ball which he could then follow, but nothing happened. The glass ball in the center of the compass just passively shimmered and pointed nowhere.
"Tch!" Annoyed, the Giant clicked his tongue and put the compass away before sitting down with a sigh.
With the compass no good, his only choice was to go out and look for the Pearl on foot. But going out when it was still daylight probably wasn't a good idea. Even if the whole neighborhood was abandoned, there was still a chance he'd run into more humans. And it might not be a quiet child next time but a ruckus-making adult.
Speaking of quiet children . . .
"I hope that child makes it home okay." As he mumbled to himself, the Giant glanced at the opened gate. It and the surrounding walls had turned gold beneath the afternoon light and cast a cool shadow outside. "Well, regardless, I won't be seeing her again."
Or so he thought.
But the very next day, he found himself once more staring at the little Girl at the exact same spot in the courtyard outside of the house. His eye twitched.
"What do you think you are doing here, child?" he gruffly asked.
The Girl just stared and said nothing.
He sighed and wondered, Are all children in this world like this? Or is just her?
Mostly to himself, he grumbled, "I really don't have the energy for this."
He had spent all night exploring his new surroundings for signs of the Pearl and hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. Needless to say, all he got for his efforts was a big fat nothing. The Giant was just about to take a quick nap to recharge when he sensed a presence and spotted the little Girl loitering at the gate.
Suddenly, the Girl asked, "How'd you get so big?"
The Giant sniffed and put his hands to his hips. "So you CAN talk! And to answer your question, I eat plenty of vegetables."
"Is that also why your skin's green like a broccoli and your hair's all red like a tomato?"
"No, I was born like that. Wait, no! Enough!" The Giant knelt down so his face was closer to the Girl's. "Child, didn't your parents tell you to be wary of strangers? Or to stay away from abandoned places?"
The Girl replied, "My mom says to stay away from vagrants, but you don't look like a vagrant. You do smell kind of stinky though."
The Giant made a growl and then barked, "Just go home. This area is still too dangerous for a child to be roaming around like its their own playground."
But the Girl argued, "It's not dangerous. As long as you don't go inside the houses."
"And what you're doing now doesn't count?"
The Girl looked around and then shook her head.
The Giant shook his own head but for a different reason, and then sighed again.
"What about you?" asked the Girl. "If this place is so dangerous, why are you here?"
The Giant straightened up, puffed out his chest and answered, "Because I am a grownup with a job to do here."
Curious, the Girl asked, "What kind of job?"
"I'm on a mission to look for something," said the Giant. "Wait, why am I telling you this? Just go home already! And don't come back! I'm serious now: Do. Not. Come. Back. Here!"
The next day . . .
The Giant stood in the courtyard with a hand pressed over his downcast face. And right in front of him was the Girl, looking up at him.
"Seriously, what part of 'Do not come back here,' do you not understand?"
"I heard shouting," the Girl said. "And you smell even more stinky now."
"I was just doing my morning exercises," the Giant said.
Every morning, he practiced his punches, kicks and various other combat techniques. He's never skipped a day of training since his rookie days, and it was more important now to keep up so that he was always in prime condition for the battles ahead.
"Oh," went the Girl. "So that's why you're so sweaty. And stinky."
The Giant scowled. "I get it already!"
"Does this mean you know Kung Fu?" asked the Girl.
"I guess some would call my fighting style that," the Giant said. "Why? Are you interested?"
The Girl shrugged. "I just see a lot of it on TV. Does this also mean you can shoot lasers out of your hands and fly?"
"I have no idea what a TV is, nor lasers," said the Giant. "Flying is more a mystic art than a fighting one, but I suppose the two are practically one and the same since martial arts have long been used to control mystic energy."
"Can I fly if I learn Kung Fu?" asked the Girl.
"Doubt it," the Giant replied bluntly. "That'd require tapping into mystic energies that you don't have."
"How come I don't have that mystic whatever?" asked the Girl.
The Giant snapped, "Because you just don't!"
That's actually a lie. Mystic energies could be found within all living things, regardless of time and place. The existence of sorcerers in this world proves that. But there's no telling what sort of trouble the child would find herself in if she ever learned to unlock those mystic energies. And she's already in enough trouble just talking with the Giant.
Besides, the Giant silently thought, I'm in no position to take an apprentice. Nor am I interested in being anyone's mentor.
Despite that, over the next couple of days, mentoring the child was exactly what he ended up doing. Every morning from then on, the Girl joined the Giant in morning exercises, mimicking all the moves he made. The Giant couldn't help himself and corrected the child every time she made an error. Before long, he was teaching the girl martial arts in the same way he had been taught when he was her age.
And as a side note, the Giant also began bathing more every day. With his mystic powers, it was easy for him to make a bathtub in the house's second sitting room by digging a hole in the floor and filling it with supernaturally heated water.
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