The giant stared at us, and he gulped hard. I could tell because he had an Adam’s apple the size of an anvil. You could almost classify him as gaunt. Yes, he was absolutely massive, as tall as a building, and he had huge bones, but he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him.
And, his eyes were sunken enough, his cheekbones were so high, he had a perpetual resting anger face. So, yeah, as Proctor and I laid there, absolutely terrified, I definitely had the idea we were about to be ground into paste under one of his Volkswagen sized fists.
When he did eventually open his massive mouth, his voice was as deep and thick as you’d expect. The sound reminded me of Andre the Giant’s voice, albeit without the thick French accent.
“Who are you?” The giant asked.
Then, emerging from the black cave, hovering near the giant’s lower leg, was a small woman we’d seen at the hiring fair, his mother, Mora. A welcome sight.
“You be nice to these folks,” Mora said to her gargantuan son. “They’ve traveled a good distance to see you.”
He pursed his nearly purple fat lips together at the assertion.
“You’ve come to see me?” He said. His voice so baritone it made my skull rattle.
I was completely outside of myself. I’d never encountered someone this size, obviously. Sure, you see outliers of humanity. Your Shaquille O’Neals, Yao Mings, and the various people in the Guinness Book… but this person was twice the height of Robert Wadlow. And, probably twice as wide.
I nodded, and caught a bit of drool about to drop from the corner of my mouth. I’d been so frightened I forgot to swallow my own spit.
“We have,” I said.
Proctor laid there next to me, his chest heaving just like mine.
“Why?” Asked the behemoth.
“Oh, son,” Mora said. “I told you, these men would like you to come and work with them. Go on then and introduce yourself. Be polite. Look at them, they’re scared to death.”
The giant put his hand to his chest as he towered over us.
“Trevor,” he said.
Then a small orange critter rubbed against the Trevor’s foot. It was an orange cat! A moment of absolute terror struck me, worried the large man might snatch up the poor creature and eat it, but instead he delicately lifted the kitty on his index finger, and the cat loudly purred. I could see he loved this little cat, and it immediately humanized him.
I sat up with my elbows on my knees. “I’m Adam,” I said. “That’s Proctor.”
My compatriot still appeared beyond possessing the ability to speak.
“And this is Hammy,” Trevor said, and he smiled.
Wouldn’t you know it? The giant appeared to have all of his teeth.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said.
Trevor smiled sheepishly.
“You’ll have to forgive him,” Mora said. “He’s always been a shy boy.”
The cute orange cat was having a great time leaping from each of Trevor’s fingers. Then Trevor moved his other hand beneath so the cat could jump to it.
“He likes to sleep on my shoulder,” Trevor said. “Sometimes he climbs up there.”
“He’s a good kitty,” Mora said. “Had him a few years now. If it wasn’t for Hammy, don’t know how I’d ever get my dear boy outside.”
Proctor’s breathing returned to normal, as did mine, and it wasn’t long before we felt at ease around this humongous man, and his mother. Given the reaction of villagers to our even meeting Trevor in the first place, I had to question their judgment, or maybe their motives.
“If you don’t mind my asking,” I said. “Why do you live all this way away from Moonlight?”
Trevor seemed a bit uncomfortable, and he looked this mother with a shrug.
“They’re jealous,” Mora said.
Trevor smiled uncomfortably. “I don’t know, mother,” he said.
“It’s true,” Mora said. “We’ve had run ins.”
“What kind of run ins?” I said.
“The people in Moonlight, out of fear, have tried to bully my son,” Mora said. “They’ve tried to hurt him in the past. They’re afraid of his power. He can be quite powerful when pushed. But, they never would listen to me when it came to him. They never wanted to understand. Only saw him as a threat. I’m talking about the ones who only seek power and control. They’ve never wanted to see my son for who he is. He’s gentle. He’s always been a thoughtful, kind hearted boy.”
“But why are you here?” Trevor said. “I’ve not seen you before. Are you new to Moonlight? You have strange clothes. Sorry, if that offends.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “We are new. You’ve heard of this thing that’s happened. I understand your entire village was visited by a strange being with a message for you? About a thing called the System?”
He nodded. “Talking about this thing called baseball,” Trevor said. “I’d not heard of such a thing before. You are here for that?”
“We both are,” I said. And, I pointed at Proctor who was also seated in such a way that you might at a camp fire.
Trevor sat himself down on some dead trees, and even then he was so large you could picture yourself climbing on him like he’s a jungle gym.
Also, worth mentioning, when I mentally clicked the [+] in my peripheral vision, nothing happened. There was no way for me to view the giant’s potential for playing baseball. I surmised that was the System’s way of telling me this enormous person was outside the physical parameters for anyone who could play for the team. My hope was this standard was applied to other team franchise owners in other villages, towns, and cities as well. We would have to see.
“We’ve come to ask you if you would consider working for us,” I said. “We have a need to secure the village.”
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Trevor’s face dropped from cautious optimism to what I perceived as fear. His head shook a little, and his mother reached up to him.
“I know, son,” she said. “Please hear him out.”
“We’re putting a team of people together,” I said. “A team who can act as lookouts for the village, who can warn against threats. We’re talking about the large creatures, those things you call thunder lizards, and I guess there’s other things called crawlies, I don’t know what those are.”
“Terrible things,” Trevor said. “I’ve killed one before.”
“They’re awful,” Mora agreed. “It’s good you’re making an effort to keep Moonlight free of them.”
“I don’t know,” Trevor said. “I don’t know I could help. And, the people there, they don’t want me to help. They hate me.”
“They don’t understand you,” Mora said. “But, these men, they will get to know you in a different way. A better way.”
“That’s right,” I said. “We would like to partner with you, wouldn’t we, Proctor?”
He nodded. “Yes,” Proctor said. “You could be of great help. And we would pay you, of course.”
That caused Trevor’s eyebrows to raise. “Gold?” He said.
Proctor and I nodded in unison.
“We’re going to build a wall too,” I said.
“What kind of wall?” Trevor said. “You mean, around the village? You don’t mean that, do you?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what we’re planning,” I said.
“It’s too much,” Trevor said. “That would require too many people. The materials you would need. The time.”
“We already have a builder in place,” I said, thinking of the little man we’d met in the woods, Kestrel. “With your help, we could get it done faster.”
The cat had climbed up to Trevor’s shoulder, and he laid there looking completely satisfied, and relaxed as he glared down at us like royalty in the way only a cat could. A look of disappointment crossed Trevor’s face.
“I don’t think I can,” Trevor said.
Mora tried to convince her son, but for the first few minutes of this, he seemed set in his decision. He was simply too afraid of the villagers, and worried what their reaction might be if he came into Moonlight to work there in the long term.
We went back and forth like this for probably fifteen or twenty minutes before making headway when I’d suggested Trevor instead work as a personal security guard to Proctor and myself.
“Like a bodyguard,” Trevor said.
“It’d be exactly like that,” I said. And, I had a pang of excitement at the back of my mind, thinking of having this pleasant person of such size and power as personal security. “I would pay you well. We could set up house for you. Good meals. Clean water.”
I was improvising, but I was sure all of it would be done once we’d worked out the details of our business. I kept saying ‘our’, and ‘we’, it was my franchise, my business according to the System, but I liked to include Proctor because he was such a key piece to it all. Proctor agreed with me though, in the end I was the person in charge, and all decisions basically stopped with me.
Thankfully, Trevor the giant seemed eager to work as a personal bodyguard, and it felt good to have him place his trust in me. I couldn’t ever imagine mistreating this gentle man, and it bothered me to think of how people in the village had treated him in the past. I felt a strange form of guilt, as though it was up to me to represent the rest of humanity, and to show him we’re not all that way, we’re capable of being more, and better.
What’s better is Trevor’s mother was able to convince her son to accompany us back to Moonlight, and I promised to set up a good living situation for him once we’d gotten there. I had something in mind toward the village’s outskirts near where we’d left Slate and Math in the cavern under the tree. I wondered if Trevor might hit it off with Gak the barbarian, and maybe have a roommate situation between them.
Trevor told us, he hadn’t left the area surrounding his and his mother’s cave in over a year. He’d grown accustomed to living as a recluse. He was nervous to return to Moonlight, but felt better that we were going to be there with him. Mora kissed her son goodbye, and said she’d be checking in on him regularly. He smiled at her with genuine warmth, and when he left with Proctor and I, he glowed with an aura of excitement. You could feel the enthusiasm, and yearning for adventure radiate from him. No one in the village had ever given him a chance. Such a shame.
I’ll spare you the details of our entire wooded journey back to Moonlight, but I will say it was a lot easier going the other way. Not only because there was more descending than ascending as we had done on the way to Trevor’s cave, but also because this large man cut a wide swath through the brush and branches which made for easier sledding for Proctor and I both. His broad shoulders pushed trees away, and his massive feet swept the trail of impediments. If we’d given him a machete he’d have been our own version of Paul Bunyan.
So, we made good time getting back, and with the ground rumbling beneath Trevor’s heavy steps, we didn’t get attacked by bears or wolves or whatever else lived in this chilly world that might seek our blood and our flesh.
You should have seen the gawking slack jawed villagers once we’d reached Moonlight’s outer edges with their few scattered homesteads. Once out of the trees, Trevor was visible from a long way away. I felt bad because I could tell by his slouching he was self conscious. He said in times where he felt so put upon he’d always seek comfort in his cat, but Mora had insisted he leave Hammy with her at the cave for the little critter’s own protection. I agreed it was a good idea, but Mora also told her son she would bring Hammy with her now and again so Trevor could see him.
I liked the idea of setting up a residence for Trevor where Hammy, and Mora could both live with him full time if that was something they all wanted. It remained to be seen.
Anyway, once we’d passed enough of the murmuring, staring locals, we closed in on the village bank they all called ‘The Givers’. I had said to Proctor I agreed with his assessment before about the androids, about needing to get them up and running. I wanted to try his idea of a hard boot up, if it was possible.
To my surprise, while Proctor and Trevor waited in the muddy road outside, the snooty staff inside the Givers granted me access to their secret little room once again, and I went through to find the slumbering android, Flint.
And, he wasn’t there.
Yeah, I panicked a little. I could taste acid at the back of my throat. Where had he gone? How was it possible he went anywhere when he didn’t have that cartridge mole thingy? Immediately, my mind jumped to the idea of someone in the village removing him, stealing him, and holding him for their own purposes.
But, who? And, for what? No one in this stone age reality would understand the concept of an android. I barely understood the concept myself. No one in Moonlight would know what he was, or what his capabilities were, or how they might control the machine man.
When I left the secret chamber, and exited to the road. Proctor’s eyes widened. He was worried.
“Still unconscious?” Proctor said. “No means of waking him?”
“Gone,” I said.
Yep, Proctor became just as worried as I was. How the heck were we going to find him? Trevor appeared confused, but it was something I’d have to explain to him later. Especially, as when we walked away from the Givers, we could see a half dozen villagers running while staring back at us, and they were running in the same direction we were walking, toward the inn.
Strange.
But, as we drew closer to the inn, we were soon confronted with why we’d seen all these people running in that direction.
We could hear it first. Alarming.
“Stop,” I said. Still a few hundred yards from the Moonlight Inn & Ale.
We stood there listening for a moment.
Chants. Shouting. That unmistakable raucous noise only a large crowd can generate. Each of us were scared to proceed. Yet you hear a gathering like that, and it has this odd way of drawing you toward it, out of curiosity.
Slowly we progressed, and we saw more and more villagers scurrying like rodents toward the inn at the center of Moonlight.
A hundred yards out the horror grabbed me.
A huge mob filled the road, and the gathering space in front of the inn. I could see smoke rise into the frigid sky. Then we saw torches.
Good on Trevor for not immediately running away, and before we could even think of turning back, and huge rush of people swelled like tidewater behind us, and we were enclosed.
“Out!” Chanted many of the locals, like they were shouting at a football match. “Be gone newcomers! Be gone! Be gone!”
They rose and fell around us, pulsating like an organism unto itself. The crowd was a throbbing thumb feeding on its own fury.
The mass jumbled behind us made us feel compelled to move forward until we were standing in the midst of the mob at the front of the inn. Everyone around us looked angry. And, there at the steps of the inn stood Mayor Judith, and her councilors. Near them were the criminal brothers Vaz and Taz. But, then a truly arresting sight.
The mob had Zane and Chai in ropes! Aubrey was nowhere to be seen. They had a bunch of dirty villagers clutched onto them. Zane and Chai, held captive. They couldn’t move.
“Are you alright?” I shouted to Zane.
“Does it look like it?”