Planet of the Titans

Chapter 13

Leo made his way through the giant town in the middle of the night, following the map that had been transmitted to him by the giant woman who was helping him escape. The distance was five miles on his scale, so it wasn't too far. The giantess who gave him the device that helped him escape had said that the giantess who lived farther away was a better choice, but Logan had chosen to seek out the giantess who lived closer, because he was tired from walking back and forth to and from the Crestwood University campus after he had escaped from Darian.

Leo couldn't help wondering if he was making a mistake, the giantess had said that Melina couldn't be trusted one hundred percent, because she was new to the resistance movement. Still, Leo decided to trust her, because how could she have gotten to know the resistance if she was a traitor? It didn't make sense that she would help tinies if she was planning to betray them.

When Leo got to the address he was looking for, a giantess was waiting outside the house in the yard, standing there. There were several normal-size people at her feet, and they saw Leo first. They waved to him.

"So this must be Melina!" said Leo as he walked across the street to introduce himself to the giantess. She had long brown hair and a light brown complexion. She wasn't extremely skinny, but she wasn't overweight, she struck a fine balance between those two extremes. Melina was wearing an ultra-short mini-skirt with pink spandex leggings that disappeared into mid-calf boots. She also wore a tank top. She was extremely cute.

"You must be Leo!" said Melina, as she knelt down. "Welcome to the sanctuary! Follow the other tinies inside and we'll get you a meal!"

Leo followed the other tinies through a secret door that led through a tunnel that led into the giant house. There was a room built to their scale, with a table and chairs. The six other tinies sat down and invited Leo to eat with them. The giantess set down plates of food for the tiny people, because there was no ceiling or roof in the little room that had been built for them. On the table were plates of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and several plates of vegetables. There was a pitcher of water and glasses for them to drink out of.

One of the men served Leo, and he began to eat ravenously. After finishing his meal, Leo sat back satisfied for the first time since his arrival on Thanatar.

"That was excellent!" said Leo.

"There is a bedroom where you can retire for the night," said the man who had served Leo his dinner. "A bed has been prepared for you!"

"That sounds perfect!" said Leo. "I'm exhausted!"

The man led Leo to his bed, and Leo collapsed and fell right asleep.

The next morning, in Zima's dorm, Zima woke up and went to her habitation module. She took the dome off, and woke up her captives.

"Are any of you good at art?" said Zima. "I need an artist."

Nolan raised his hand. "I'm a graduate of the Joe Kubert school of art! Class of 2013!"

Zima reached in and grabbed Nolan, then set him on her dresser and used her shrink-ray pistol to enlarge him to giant-size again. Nolan stood there on Zima's scale, and jumped down onto the floor, where Zima hugged him and gave him a kiss.

"I studied sequential art at the Kubert school," said Nolan. "Is that okay?"

"Part of my general education requirement was to take an art class," said Zima, as she led Nolan to a canvas that was set up with paints and art supplies. "I need to do a painting, but I'm not good with a paint brush."

"I was horrible with a brush before I went to art school," said Nolan, "but I got proficient at using a sable hair brush for inking. I can handle a brush pretty well now."

"Do a painting of me at Arcadia," said Zima. "I have to paint something from a day in my life that happened recently."

As Nolan began painting, Zima leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I had a crazy night the other night!" said Zima. "I went to a bar with Darian and I played a drinking game with someone and I swallowed like three or four captives! I won the drinking game, but it left me wondering about something."

"What's that?" Nolan asked.

"Do you think a person should feel guilty for swallowing tiny people?" Zima asked.

"Most people from Earth would feel that it is wrong," said Nolan as he painted.

"I don't even feel like it's wrong," said Zima. "Sometimes I wonder what will happen to me in the afterlife if I'm so evil!"

"What religion do you have here on Thanatar?" Nolan asked.

"Octavian Ortega, the guy I told you about who founded our society, was Catholic, and that is the official religion of our society."

"Catholic?" said Nolan. "Then how does your society justify cannibalizing smaller people?"

"People who are into cannibalism make up a slight majority of our society, and it's mostly younger people who are into that. When people get older, they get baptized and stop eating tiny people."

"So this Octavian guy founded this society more than five-thousand years ago?" Nolan asked. "Jesus was alive two-thousand years ago, how could you have a Catholic religion before Christ was even born?"

"It seems ironic," said Zima, "but the people alive before the time of Christ knew about his life and his miracles, even though the life of Christ was a future event at that time. Since Octavian was a time traveler, they knew what would eventually come to pass."

"So when you get baptized, are you going to give up swallowing tiny people?" Nolan asked.

"Yes," said Zima, "I have to get baptized before I can get married, and when you get baptized, you're supposed to give up your sinful life."

"Can you do that?" Nolan asked. "You seem like the more evil of you and Darian. I find it hard to imagine you giving up swallowing tinies!"

"I'm young," said Zima. "I just need to get it out of my system."

"What happens when you're married and you have a daughter of your own who wants to swallow tiny people?" Nolan asked.

"When she's away at college she can do whatever she wants, but while she's at home, she won't be allowed to." said Zima. "That's why college is so popular with women on Thanatar, so many women want to break away from the rules of their parents and experience what it's like to dominate tiny people from Earth, and devour them. For most young women, they wouldn't be able to do that at home with their parents."

"Any ideas on who you want to marry?" Nolan asked.

"Darian told me you want to marry me," said Zima. "Is that true?" Zima tilted her head so she could look into Nolan's eyes while her head still leaned on his shoulder. Zima smiled.

"What would it take for you to marry me?" Nolan asked. "Could I ever win your hand?"

"It isn't unheard of for a woman from Thanatar to marry a man from Earth," said Zima. "The thing is, if you married me, I would demand that you remain as my slave for as long as you are alive. You would never be a citizen. Would you agree to those terms?"

"I would do whatever it takes to marry you!" said Nolan. "I'm in love with you!"

"There's a problem," said Zima, "there's a guy named Adonis who is pursuing me. He wants to marry me. He's twenty-one and studying to be a cop. If I married him, he would be a full citizen, and I'd rather be married to a slave like you, so I can boss you around!"

"Is he your boyfriend?" Nolan asked.

"Not exactly," said Zima, "but my parents approve of him and they want me to marry him. I'll invite him over here for you to meet him, but don't say anything about me drinking beer at that bar, because I'm underage and he would tell my parents."

After Zima made a phone call on her cell phone, Adonis showed up. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was younger than Nolan and handsome, but not quite as muscular as Nolan.

Zima introduced the two men. "Adonis, this is Nolan, Nolan, this is Adonis!" The two men shook hands.

"Nolan is a captive from Earth that I enlarged," said Zima. "Adonis, guess what the two of you have in common?"

"What?" Adonis asked.

"Both of you want to marry me." said Zima. "My parents want me to marry you Adonis, but I want to marry Nolan, because he's a slave from Earth."

"So how are you going to decide?" Adonis asked.

"I'll give you both a challenge. Whoever makes the greatest sacrifice for me will win my hand!"

"What kind of sacrifice?" Nolan asked.

"It could be anything!" said Zima. "Adonis, for instance, you could shrink yourself down for one day and become one of my game pieces on Arcadia! Nolan, I haven't figured out what you could do yet!"

"Nolan, will you help me?" Adonis asked.

"Why would I help you?" Nolan asked.

"If you helped him, that could be your sacrifice," said Zima.

"Okay, I guess so!" said Nolan. "What do you want me to do?"

"What team sport are you good at?" Adonis asked.

"I used to be good at horse, but that's not really a team sport." said Nolan.

"What's horse?" Adonis asked.

"It's kind of like basketball," said Nolan.

"I'm good at basketball!" said Adonis.

"I can go buy a miniature basketball court for the two of you to practice with!" said Zima. "You two stay here, I'll be back soon!" Zima left, and Nolan and Adonis stayed behind in her dorm.

"Now that Zima is gone," said Adonis, "I want to tell you something. I know Zima likes you, but I've known her longer and her parents approve of me. Our marriage was arranged before you even arrived on Thanatar. I'm going to win this challenge and win Zima's hand in marriage. You do realize that, being from Earth, if you lose this challenge and I end up marrying her, you'll end up in her belly?"

"I would die for Zima!" said Nolan. "So if she didn't want to marry me, I would willingly sacrifice myself to her!"

"I would never sacrifice myself to Zima!" said Adonis. "I'm not even in love with her, this is a relationship of convenience for me. And don't think you can win that way, the sacrifice has to be done in a way so you can present it to her, if you die in her belly, you'll still lose the challenge, regardless of whether your sacrifice is greater than mine!"

"And I just want you to know that I plan on winning this challenge," said Nolan, "because my love for Zima is greater than yours!"

At that exact moment, back at Melina's, Leo was just waking up.

"You slept in late today, you must've been tired!" said one of the tiny men who stood the same size as Leo.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name last night!" said Leo as he stood up to shake the man's hand. "I'm Leo Tanner!"

"Jake Bowman!" said the man. "I think you're going to fit in well around here if you managed to escape from the giantess who conquered you. All of us are escapees, too."

Jake introduced Logan to the other men. Each of them told Leo of their narrow escapes, and how they came under the care of Melina. There was a ladder leading up to the dining room table that was built to Leo's scale. Leo followed Jake up the ladder, and saw that Melina was sitting down with her arms on the table.

"Welcome to the resistance, Leo!" said Melina.

"What exactly is it you people do here, Melina?" Leo asked.

"We help other tiny people escape from their mistresses! I'm going to need you guys to break into homes of giantesses and break out other captives for me. Are you willing to do that?"

"Sure!" said Leo, without thinking.

"I know of some tiny people who are trapped in a house not far from here," said Melina. "We can't expect captives to escape and come to us, so we have to go to them. Right after you eat, I'll have Jake look at the plan I have written down on paper, then I'll send you on your mission!"

There was a smaller table built to Leo's scale on the giant table, with chairs around it. Leo and the other six escapees sat down to eat their meal. Leo wondered if their mission would be successful.