The three humans kept their spears levelled at him. They barked at him in a strange language while keeping up a softer stream of similarly unrecognisable commentary amongst themselves.

The Giant recognised that it was fear of him that was driving the actions of the humans. Nonetheless, their spears had wickedly sharp looking tips and he was loth to feel those pieces of metal pierce his skin.

His heart hammered and he began to sweat profusely as his body entered fight- or-flight mode. Almost mechanically he kept his hands raised in a placating motion while softly cooing at the humans.

After a tense but short period of time, the humans seemed to demote his threat level and began backing away from him slowly. The Giant stayed put to avoid any change in the detente.

When the humans had put almost a hundred feet between themselves and the Giant, they had a short conversation amongst themselves, their spears still raised and their eyes still fixed on the Giant. One of the humans, a female, lay down her spear and quickly moved to the river to scoop some water into a flask slung over her shoulders. The entire action was almost choreographed and was very rapid. Her two companions, both males, seemed to urge her to work fast. Soon, the champion water-collector recovered her spear and resumed her spear-at-alert position alongside her comrades.

They continued to backtrack over and above the river embankment until the Giant could no longer see them anym­ore. By then he had calmed down as well. The entire episode had left him feeling scared and aggrieved. He had wanted to converse with these humans, the only sentient beings he had seen since waking up amidst a literal pyramid of corpses. He was hungry and near-nude. He wanted to rest and recover. He wanted help. He wanted someone to recognise him or his situation and tell him what was going on.

Robbed off his chance to interact with other sentient, he stayed half submerged in the river, despondent and lost in his thoughts. After some time, his stomach burbled loudly and forced him out of his reverie. He drank another mouthful of water, ignoring the likelihood of germs in the river and contemplated his situation.

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He needed to eat. That had to be his first and foremost priority. But to his knowledge he had no outdoor survi­val skills. and even if he did, hunting and foraging would take too long. His body would likely collapse by that point. Ultimately he came to the conclusion that the fearful humans were his best chance of getting food. He had to follow them and see what he could get out of the situation.

When he finally emerged from the em­bankment and came back onto the dusty path, the humans were nowhere to be seen. However, he could still see their tracks and really there was only one direction to follow.

He managed to keep up a steady pace despite the increasing heat. The drink and soak had done him a world of good. Although he still recognised his hunger, he no longer felt on the brink of collapse.

The humans turned out to be surpr­isingly easy to catch up to. He had just started settling into a foster walking pace when he spotted three figures in the distance. He had caught up to them in no time, despite the fact that they seemed to have been jogging.

He came to a halt as he thought about his next step. He couldn't very well accost them for fear of sparking a violent confrontation. He would have to keep his distance and hope that whatever settlement they were headed to wo­uld be more amenable to helping him. He wandered off the main path and kept up a slower pace while navigat­ing through the sparse trees that lined the dirt path.

The day wore on, and the Giant became more and more hungry. The earlier wear­iness had returned and the Giant's desperation began to increase. When the humans finally halted, they did so to set up camp. The Giant almost wailed in despair at the sight of the humans foregoing any meal and settling down for the night with a single watch.

Driven to a daze by his hunger, the Giant roamed around the thicket of tress wondering whether to try and raid the makeshift human camp to see it they were carrying anything edible. In his wanderings, he came to stand before a peculiar shrub. It had thick, pointy, dark green leaves. And in between those leaves... were berries. Massive, juicy berries. He did not stop to think at all. His hands moved on their own, ripped the berries off the shrub and stuffed them into his mouth.

Only after a few minutes of chewing and swallowing did his mind emerge from its daze and realise that the berries were extremely bitter. As he staggered back from the shrub, his stomach warbled in protest. A tightness rose in his-chest and started spreading throughout his body, freeing all muscles and sparking off nerve endings. He teetered backwards like a felled tree and collapsed into the loamy ground. His consciousness fled soon after.