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Post by natalie on Apr 26, 2011 0:25:18 GMT -5
Great cliffhanger, can hardly wait to read what happens next!!
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Post by biali on Apr 26, 2011 18:37:43 GMT -5
PART II
Just like every day, Captain Hannes Petersen moved a ferry full of tourists to the small dock of the island. This was not half as exciting or challenging as his previous job on the "Riese 3", but at least he was still in contact with the project "Riese", even if only remotely. When the ship had successfully docked andthe tourists slowly went ashore, he briefly lifted his blue cap and looked at the island in front of him. Even after almost 12 years, the huge concrete building was still standing there. Of course, it still was a lot more weathered now, and the large metal door that had once served the children as a huge entrance, was fairly rusty by now. However, the flower garden, which Dr. Helena Henning created a few years ago, was very well maintained. Besides the huge steel door was a very much smaller entrance, above which hung a simple plastic sign with the words "giant museum." The small crowd of visitors was led by a woman of middle age, whose straw blond hair was bound back a bit too strictly. This seemed a bit odd compared to her otherwise fairly casual clothes, which consisted of a wide jeans and a light blue windbreaker. Hannes came from the bridge, out onto the upper deck and lit his pipe. The tour would take a while, so he had enough time to relax a little, after all, he was not the youngest anymore.
"Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome on the famous 'Giant Island'.“ In fact, this island never had an official name, but was named like this only due to the somewhat unusual residents after this. ",began the tour guide to tell, and her tone gave away a little that she had said these phrases a few times in the same way before. "In fact, the whole island became a little smaller, because the ocean current carries away more and more sand over the time. Scientists suspect that in twenty years, only the house will stick out of the wate, if notthing will be actually done for coastal protection. ", she added and made a hand motion that instructed the tourists to look upward. "The building is about 98 feet high and consists almost entirely of reinforced concrete. Of course, the walls are slightly thicker than in normal houses, because the children also now and then had to lean against them, and thus had to withstand their weight. But this home was hiding some construction problems. Actually it was much too heavy for the soft ground, it sank down almost a meter per year. Therefore, they had built it on a high pedestal as a precaution. The entrance, which is now at ground level, was about ten meters above the ground when it was constructed. The fact that the children now for 12 years are no longer present, makes it sink considerably more slowly, but sooner or later it will probably be inaccessible. " she led the people now to the door and unlocked it. "But don'T worry. Until now we can enter the house without any problems." One of tourists rose his hand and asked: "How did the great door open, anyway?" "In two ways. The children were able to push it open with muscle strength, but only if it was unlocked. There is also a motor that opens the door like the entrance of a hangar. But this takes very long. ", She replied patiently before they entered the huge living room through the door.
In all the years not much had changed here. The few pieces oversized furniture were still in place. The sofa, which was provided with several supporting pillars and cross bracing was at the rear wall, and the six-meter-high coffee table was still in its original place in front of it. The design was a little over-cautious. The sofa was so stable that it could withstand the weight of about six giants at a time. But it was really difficult at first to determine the weight of the children, so they just wanted to play safe. They were quite surprised afterwards, as they found out how light they actually were. Their bone structure was very much lighter than that of a normal sized human, so they probably did not suffer so much under their own weight.
Patiently, the tour guide lead the visitors through every room and answered every question as detailed as possible. After nearly two hours, the tour stopped and the people went back to the ship, where they would eat their lunch and go on to their next destination.
On the pier, captain Petersen sat on his folding chair and gleefully sucked on his pipe. As the tour guide came up to him, he nodded to her kindly and said: "Well, Inga? Did you fill the landlubbers with knowledge again? " She sighed a little exhausted and loosened her much too tight ponytail. "It's my job." She replied and looked anything but pleased. "It's funny that everything here now is to be regarded as a museum. It seems almost as if they were dead, and did not just left to go home. " "It's just a long time ago, that the little ones were here." The captain replied pragmatically, but Inga knew that he also was not happy about this. The old man glanced at his old silver watch and frowned. "I have to get moving now, if not, the ebb tide will be getting in my way. "he finally said, and got up with a groan. "And you also should hurry to get home. This was the last load for today. ", he added, tucked his folding chair under his arm and went back on board. Inga watched yet, as the ferry moved away and then went back to lock the door. But then she heard the sound og an engine and it was approaching very fast. It was probably not a big vehicle, but also not a small boat as her, that was waiting for her at the dock.
A little curious, she walked to the shore and looked out. Inga soon spotted the small motor yacht, that came closer to the Island and held at the dock. There was only one person on board: a young girl with chin-length light brown hair, which was held back with a blue hair band. She took off her life jacket and got out of the boat onto the dock. Inga had the feeling that this girl looked somewhat familiar, but she could not tell why. "Oh Moin, Moin. I did not think that anyone is here. "the girl said cheerfully and steched out a hand towards Inga. "Moin ... I do not want to sound rude, but you know that you are not allowed to enter the island without permission, right? Only project members or visitors with a guided tour can come here. " "Oh yes, I know. I have an ID. Here. "The girl said eagerly, and showed her a laminated photo ID from the project. Inga stopped short of breath, "You are ..." "... Amalia Henning. I know. Seems a bit silly if you get the card, just because you're related to the project managers. But I wanted to look at everything just to sniff a bit of history. ", she interrupted with a quick tempo of speech. Inga grimaced a bit. She had no great desire to give another tour now. "Oh ... I've probably hit the wrong moment ... I'm really sorry, was really not my intention. ", the young visitor apologized hurriedly, as she saw Inga's grim expression. "Well ... It is really inconvenient, I just did a tour and I wanted to go home before the ebb tide comes. " "You live on the holm, right?" Amalia asked conversationally. "Um ... yes. How do you know? ",she asked a little confused. "The tide comes in an hour. To the holm you need 15 minutes, but over an hour to the mainland. If you were to come from the mainland, you would not make it home on time ... Which is actually the case for me. If I do go now, I would run aground on the half way. "She said lightly, looking back at the house. "You can leave of course. I got the key and will stay until I have enough water under the keel again. Don't worry, I won't break anything, I swear. "She assured. Inga hesitated. Could she leave such a young girl all alone here? But she seemed pretty confident and since she had an ID card, the project was informed about her being heret. "All right. If there are problems, you can reach the holm by radio. The frequencies are all in the register in the office. I really gotta go. "Inga said somewhat coldly. She was not the sociable person, and that Amalia was a little too cocky for her northern soul.
Amalia joyfully entered the huge house through the front door of the museum. She let out a surprised whistle at the sight of the enormous space. It was hard to believe that the giants had suffered any lack of space in here. But of course she was well informed. The oldest of them, Parin, had been already sixty feet tall and had not even reached adulthood. For a moment she closed her eyes and imagined how the four world-famous giants walked around and shook the earth with their huge feet. Any normal person would have felt fear perhaps, but for Amalia it was only a pleasant tingling sensation.
Whistling, she crossed the room, whose floor was made of rubber, which was probably good for the large resident's joints. The architects of this house had really thought of almost everything. Of course, the relatively small size of the building was a pretty big flaw. But the girl knew that this was not necessarily the main reason why four had to leave this world at that time. As far as she knew, nobody could benefit sufficiently from the children. At least no one made enough profit. But also their foster parents had exerted some pressure to make sure that everything was done to send them back home. It was better for the four to live in a world in which they could move freely.
Soon she reached the sofa at the other end of the room and stood there for a moment. Amalia smiling turned her eyes up and saw in her mind's eye, how two huge gray-orange eyes looked at her. It was one of those images that burn forever ones memory. To date, she was not quite sure if she had connected this image with something negative or positive.
Next to the oversized piece of furniture there was a steel door in human size, which was painted a little sloppily in the same color as the walls: a rather dull white.
Behind it, she knew, the realm of the giants ended. But she also knew that there had been some interesting things happening back then. The girls dug out the entrusted keychain from the pocket of her blue hooded jacket and opened the door. The disappointed sigh that escaped her, echoed through the empty room that presented itself to her. They really did not leave anything here, which would have triggered any memory. Even the soft carpet, which she could still remember so well, had been ripped out and her sneakers now were squeaking on the smooth, gray PVC. "Some people really have a talent for making things boring." ,she murmured, and continued her way through another door that led only to other, empty rooms. Only the last room was sparsely filled with a few gray filing cabinets, a desk with computer, control console and a radio. In the corner was still an old, shabby sofa that looked not very inviting. In the same room she found a heavy steel door that led outside to the west side of the island. Since there was not much interesting to see in the house, she went down to the beach and enjoyed the harsh wind that pushed the grass on the dunes to the ground.
It was not easy to kill the time until the next high tide. Amalia was not necessarily the type of person who spend hours basking motionless on the beach. She preferred to remain in constant motion and walked around the island. The girl also walked through the huge house and looked at everything curiously. But it all happened to be more sparsely furnished, so there was really not much to admire.
It was already dark when the water had finally reached the level necessary to return to the mainland. With springy steps, Amalia ran back to the pier and climbed back on board the yacht and started the engine. She glanced at the open sea and the full moon that rose above it. Something should seem strange in this picture. But she could not say right now what exactly.
Then she saw something in the distance.
Amalia gasped in alarm. Out there on the moonlit sea, she saw the silhouette of a man. And although it was so far away, yet it seemed huge. Incredulous, she ran to the railing and leaned over it with narrowed eyes. "This can not be." ,she whispered.
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Okay, as you may have guessed, there was a big leap in time here. 12 years to be exact.
Hope you enjoy the read.
And don't worry, I'm also still working on "The Golden Rules"
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Post by Amayasama on Apr 26, 2011 19:01:57 GMT -5
o.o .....D: Biali! How you like to tease me with these cliffhangers XD I enjoy this story very much, can't wait to see more dear~
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Post by natalie on Apr 27, 2011 0:28:20 GMT -5
I really like all the details, descriptions and dialogue. Awesome story!! I like it a lot!! Keep up the great work!!
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Post by biali on Jun 20, 2011 14:46:03 GMT -5
For a few minutes she just stood there quietly listening to the water that more and more struck against the vessel's wall, and stared at the massive silhouette , which seemed to get even bigger with each second. Whatever was out there, it came closer. A tingling sensation shot through Amalia. Logically, fear would have been a natural reaction to such a sight, but the girl felt something entirely different. It was joy. This thing out there on the sea had to be a giant. All her life she had hoped to see one, since she could barely remember the last time.
After a few minutes she became impatient. This guy took incredibly long to to come here! Suddenly, the waves slapping against the boat were getting louder. At first she thought they would be caused by the approaching giant. But then a huge black cloud blocked the full moon and it started to rain. The boat was shaken more powerful now and Amalia had to cling to the railing. "Of course! Full moon! Storm surge ", shot through her head. As fast as possible she climbed out of the swaying boat, that jumped up and down on the troubled water. Again she looked to the sea, but without the moonlight she could not see anything. The rain was getting stronger now and she was already soaked completely. She could not stay outside. The shallow bank offered no protection against the wind, which now almost blew her away.
Quickly she ran back to the house, opened the museum's entrance with rain-soaked fingers and closed the door hurriedly behind her. She gasped a little and wiped the rain water from her face. In here she would be safe.
But then she thought of the great shadow out there ... he had nothing to hide from the storm. He was lost out there. What could she do to help him? Then it hit her.
In a quick sprint she ran through the room and into the office with the control panel. Hastily she looked for a switch for the headlights, which were down at the dock. She found it quite quickly and immediately the screen of the surveillance camera showed that the beach was now brightly lit. Now she could only wait and hope.
Amalia was so hoping that it was one of them. It had to be. What other giant should show up exactly here in this area? But why was it really only one? Why not all four? Amalia brooded about it, but was startled when she heard a loud, metallic hammering noise. She looked at the screen of the surveillance camera, but due to the heavy rain she could see nothing useful. The pounding came again and again, only now it was followed by a dark rumble. It took her some time before she understood what was going on.
The giant knocked.
"It must be one of them ... who else would knock here ", she thought, and went to the control panel to look for a button that opened the lock. Only after several attempts, which caused that several lights went on and off, she heard a creaking of metal. After that, the huge gate was pushed open. Now it was time! As fast as her legs could carry her, she ran through the empty rooms into the giant's living room. What she saw left her almost breathless.
Two giant hands slid the heavy steel door to the side which creaked horribly loud because of its rusty state. She stood rooted to the spot, when the mighty man squeezed through the resulting crack in the door and shut it again to shut out the wind and downpouring rain. Amalia could still not see much of him because he wore a red raincoat with a hood and his legs were in rubber pants. In any case, he had adapted well to bad weather.
When the door was closed again, he put down a bulging backpack, and leaned against the gate with a loud sigh before he slid down to the ground, causing it to tremble a bit.
Panting, he pulled the hood from his head and revealed his thick blond and curly hair. His face was framed by a beard that ran along his sideburns, under the chin. His round cheeks gave away that he was well fed and his tired eyes seemed very friendly. It was hard to tell how big he was exactly, but while standing, he did not nearly reach the 30 meters high ceiling. Amalia, who had still not moved, was staring at the newcomer with big eyes. "Blond, curly hair, eye color ... this must be Eris. "She said to herself. And she was genuinely surprised. She never would have imagined that the once frail eight-year old boy would develop into such a bearded, rather corpulent man.
The giant looked around now, as if searching for something. "Hello? Is anyone there? "He asked in a loud, very deep voice. The girl was about to answer. But she could not speak. It was not necessarily fear that held her back. She just did not know to exactly react right now, so her body behaved just passive. "Um. Thanks for opening. I ... I'm really sorry that I just kinda burst in here. But unfortunately I could not send a message. "Again he looked around. "Whoever is here: I won't do any harm. I just want to talk. "He stammered, as he still got no answer. "Come on, move, move now!," she said to herself, and in fact her legs finally responded. With each meter that Amalia came closer to him, her body filled with adrenaline and a huge grin formed on her face. As she was only twenty meters away from him, he finally spotted her.
She was electrified when his big eyes locked on her and lit up with joy. "Ah! So there is someone in here." For a few seconds Amalia said nothing and tried to process that the little boy, whose face and appearance was shown in hundreds of newspaper photographs and television reports, was now a grown man. But then she quickly realized that he looked at her expectantly. The girl took a confident posture and said: "Hello Eris. Welcome home. " At first he seemed a little confused. He probably had not quite expected such words. "Hello ... Thank you. I had honestly never thought that anyone would recognize me. ", He said.
"That was not very hard to guess. After all, you were the only male blonde of the four. ",said Amalia and wiggled a little back and forth on her feet. She had to pull herself together so she would not explode with joy and excitement. "Haha. Right, you've got a point there.. But since you now already know who I am, can I ask with whom I have the pleasure? " "Me? Oh. I'm Amelia Henning. I-" "Henning? Does that mean you're related to Karl and Helena? "
She was about to answer, but suddenly she felt that her socks were suddenly soaked with water. A little confused she looked down and realized that a vast puddle had formed around Eris, which was caused by the water that ran down from his rain-proof clothing. Even the giant had noticed this and was about to sit up. "Oh I'm sorry. Maybe I should should get rid of the stuff first before we talk further. I... I'll just use bathroom if you don't mind. "He apologized and got up to disappear to the bathroom.
Amalia walked a few steps backwards to get to the dry part of the floor. She took off her shoes and socks and shook her head. It was incredible that they had such huge luck. Him appearing when she was visiting this place must have been fate.
After a few endless minutes, during which she heard a loud rustling and mumbling from the direction of the bathroom, Eris finally reentered the room. He had rid himself of the raincoat and rubber pants, and now wore a thick gray wool sweater and a long light blue trousers, somehow similar to jeans. The sweater was a little tight and let his small belly stick out a bit. He looked down at her with a now satisfied look on his face.
" That's much better," Then he looked at the puddle he had caused and said: ". Perhaps we should look for another place to talk," He looked over to the couch and his face lit up even more: " Oh man! The old thing still exists! I did not think that they would just let it stand there. "He took a few steps toward it, but then looked back down to Amalia. "Um. Did you perhaps mind if we talk over there then? I would really like to sit on something comfortable. " The girl had to giggle a little. It was almost cute, how he rediscovered his old home. "Of course not. Take a seat. ", she said and quickly walked there behind him. She flinched a bit, as the sofa was creaking audibly, when Eris sat down on it. But it was built strong enough and made no move to give in on his weight. "Some things never change. Back then it also creaked that way. ", He said, almost cheerfully, and looked down to Amalia, who looked at him smiling. "Must be pretty exciting to come back to all of this, huh? It's also been a while for me, too. "she said, wondering really how she managed to talk to him so causally. "Oh yes. But I did not expect that this house would still exist at all. But tell me: Isn't it a bit uncomfortable to look up all the time? " Amalia nodded. It really was not very pleasant, to crane back her head like that. She looked over to the huge coffee table that stood in front of Eris and found a ladder that was attached to it. "Indeed. Wait a minute. I'll be right up. "She replied, and ran, perhaps a bit too eager, over to the ladder and climbed up swiftly. She could feel how he watched her while doing that and it felt very strange but also familiar to be observed by these large orange-gray eyes.
When she reached the big gray table top, she sat down a few feet away from the edge and pulled off her wet windbreaker, so she now only had her bright blue T-shirt on.
Eris had leaned forward a little and rested his arms on his knees. "I know it's probably because I've become much larger. But I really don't remember humans being this small. "He said abruptly, and tilted his head a little. Amalia had to laugh at this. "Well, I am also not one of the tallest people. And I guess you have not seen any of us in the last twelve years, right? " "Yes. You are the first that I have met so far, since I arrived ... Amalia was the name, right? Now are you really related to Helena and Karl? That would at least explain why you're here ... " "Yes, even directly related. The two are my parents. "She said, grinning broadly and Eris' face froze. "You are ... you're their daughter? But your name is Amalia ... how old are you? "he asked, clearly puzzled. "I'm sixteen, at least this for this last month." She announced almost proudly. "Sixteen ... but then you have to be as old as Ronja. "he stammered, and Amalia's eyes widened.
"Ronja? Haha! It's been ages since anyone called me that! Mutti always called me that because my hair always looked so tousled, like the hair of Ronja, the Robber's Daughter ... this character from the children's book." she said giggling, pointing to her short hair that still seemed extremely hard to tame. But Eris did not seem amused, he looked more as if someone just poured a bucket of cold water over him. "Is everything all right? Hello? "She asked, and waved her hand a little to get his attention back.
Then he moved so quickly, that she first did not realize what was really happening. A large hand shot up to her and closed around her. And before she knew it, she was pressed against a large, bearded cheek and felt like her shirt getting soaked with water. "H-hey. What-", she stammered, trying to gain some breathing room, but his grip was quite strong.
When he noticed that she did not feel comfortable in that position, he moved his hand away from his face and let her now sit on his palm. Now she could see he had big tears in his eyes and sniffed rather loudly. After he had wiped his eyes with his free hand, he said: "I'm sorry. I know I should not do that. But I'm just so happy ... I was hoping for so long to see my family again. And now I meet you. Oh I'm so sorry if I scared you. ", he apologized, still sniffling.
Amelia stared at him first, and only once had to get over that she was sitting on the hand of a giant. Although it was not the first time in her life, she could not really remember the last time. In addition, she was now much closer to his face and could feel the warm breath that blew upon her on constantly. She had never imagined that this could actually happen.
Actually she had decided to visit this place to revive some memories that lay dormant in her. But that she would actually meet a giant here was something she would not have dared to hope for. But now she was here. In the palm of a giant man, who thought she was his little sister. Although she had known all these years, which relationship her parents had had with the four huge children, but had never really been aware that she had also been a part of this constellation.
She looked into his worried face that looked as if he wanted to apologize again. But Amalia shook her head and her confused face soon changed into a loving smile. "Don't worry ... I was just a bit shocked. I was not prepared for such ... big hugs. That ... that's all. ",she reassured him and his anxious eyes brightened. "You have grown much since then." He finally said, trying to push back the tears of joy, who wanted to gather in his eyes again. "Oh ... Just a minute ago you pointed out how small I am. "she said with feigned outrage and crossed her arms over her chest "What? Oh id did not mean-" "Haha! Don't panic. Just kidding. I guess both of us gained some, uh... size. "She said, leaning forward a bit to look over the edge of his palm, down to his belly. In his sitting position it stuck out a bit more now.
Eris followed her gaze, and looked back at her again, a little red in the face. "Hey ... While I was here I only got enough food to cover what was necessary ... So one can lose their restraint once they can finally eat enough to fill them.",he defended himself and tugged a little on his sweater to cover the problem zone a bit. „No reason to be so nervous. I think Mutti will be happy when she sees how well you're fed "She said with a grin, and if he wouldn't have been out of reach, Amelia would have liked to affectionately pinch his cheeks.
"Wh- Where are Mama and Papa now? "He asked now carefully, almost as if he was afraid of the answer. Amalia laid her head slightly askew. It seemed a bit strange to her that someone else but her addressed her parents with 'Mama and Papa'. She had suspected that he had found his birth parents in the last twelve years, But she did not want to dig deeper into that subject. Maybe he would have considered it rude. "Uhm. As far as I know they are both in Hamburg. They are still working in the project, you know. "She said. "Hamburg? That's not very far from here. "He muttered, and dropped his hand on which she sat a little. His eyes seemed strangely determined and he looked almost as if he would want to take off to the seaport right now. "Yes, by boat, it is really not far. But with the storm, you really should not go outside. ", she interjected , and then he seemed to relax a little. "Oh yes, the storm ... "He said somehow absent and a bit disappointed.
Amalia had the feeling that maybe they should change the subject before he really decided to go outside. "Uhm... by the way. Where are the others? "she asked, and tried to sound as casual as possible. "The others?" "Yes. You know: Parin, Tito and Naina. They did not come with you as it seems. " "Oh. Well, yes...no. They wanted to come. But they didn't make it. "He replied with a rather sad expression. "Didn't make it? You don't mean... " "Oh no, no. They're just fine. But they got stuck in a traffic jam and the portal can be opened only at a certain time. So I came alone. "He said hastily. "Ah okay. The way you said it, I thought that something bad had happened ... But what really interests me is how it looks like in your world actually. What did you do the whole twelve years?" ,she asked, now very curious. This issue had preoccupied her family for some time. Often she had heard her parents talk about the four and wondered what became of them. Eris just wanted to give her an answer, but then stopped and glanced over to his backpack, which was still standing at the door.
"This might take a little longer to explain. Maybe we can make ourselves a bit more comfortable first? "He suggested, but did not wait on her response and quickly put her down next to him on the sofa, so she was rolling down from his hand onto the big cushion before he got up and walked over to the entrance. "I've brought a lot good things with me. I'm sure you'll like some of that." ,he said cheerfully.
Amalia did not look quite so enthusiastic. She was quite dizzy by the sudden downward movement. Actually her parents had always told her how gentle the four giants had been with humans. Apparently, Eris had lost some restraint in dealing with small people over the years. "Oh man, I guess Mutti will give him a tongue lashing about that." She murmured while holding her head.
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Post by Amayasama on Jun 20, 2011 16:48:37 GMT -5
x3 I commented on DA about this but I love it so much I read it again XD ♥
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