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The sun was high in the sky, obscured by only a few drifting clouds, and a light breeze blew here and there through the grassy hills. A small storm loomed in the distance over gray, misty mountain peaks. It was a perfect day, and Colby held a human being in his hand.

His nerves had calmed quickly as he and Danny got used to talking this way, but he had a hard time not staring down at his little friend. He was so small, the size of a toy, but so cool. He was dressed in a blue and orange American football jersey with the name “Wolfe” on the back and black cargo shorts. He had a desert camo backpack slung over his shoulder, and his head was constantly turning and looking around at the TDP. He had something glistening around his neck, but Colby didn’t dare look too close. Maybe he could ask about it later.

Danny asked question after question.

“I’ve heard the TDPs all over the world are different. Is there anything weird about this one?”

“This TDP is one of the tamer ones, really, so there are a lot of Esdreel living here,” Colby’s dad, Alan, answered. “Sadly, we still haven’t found much here for archaeology’s sake. In the mountains, we can see some rock formations that look like large bird carvings, but no one can get to them. That’s one of the main weird things about all TDPs: The farther you travel from an opening in the dimentional fabric, the more strange things tend to happen. A sort of vortex effect keeps us from traveling into the mountains or too deeply into the forest.”

BOOM! Danny gasped. Looking down he saw that one of Mrs. Suriel’s feet had stepped off the stone walkway they had been on. As all the giants stepped off and into the grassy field, he heard and felt more BOOM BOOM BOOM coming from their feet.

Melina Suriel, Colby’s mom, looked warily at him. “Are you all right, Danny? We probably should have warned you that we were getting off the kineticrete. We’ll only be walking through the grass for a short while.”

Danny’s expression showed three dots and a question mark, but Colby filled him in.

“Kineticrete … it’s kind of like ‘vibranium’ in Captain America, you know? Most of our floors and walkways and stuff are made from it. It absorbs kinetic energy.”

Danny looked up into his friend’s huge, sparkling, green eyes. “I’d forgotten about stuff like that,” he said, trying to ignore the tremors. “I remember learning in school that your dimension has a lot of things that don’t exist in our dimension because of how radiation works differently or something.” He absent-mindedly tapped on Colby’s thumb. “It would be awesome to explore all kinds of places like this. I remember reading there’s a TDP in Tokyo that’s full of weird cat-themed artifacts.”

“I’ve been to that one,” Melina said. “It’s bizarre, and the sun stays fixed at a noonday position. Drives you crazy after a while.”

Colby lifted Danny up closer to his face and whispered, “Mom’s been everywhere. If you ever get into trouble, just talk about this kind of stuff and she’ll be distracted for hours. She loves to talk about it.”

Danny smiled and saw Colby’s mom smirk. She had obviously heard her son’s words, even though Danny was still struggling to listen through the sounds of the giant family’s thunderous footfalls.

“Here we are!” Alan proclaimed. They stopped at the top of a small hill in a grove bracketed by red pines and magnolia trees. Next to one of the tallest magnolias was a box as big as a Del Taco, if not bigger. Alan opened the lid and brought out a sky-blue mat, three bottles of semitransparent green liquid, and three black bento boxes — all, of course, to his scale. He laid the mat out flat, and the whole family proceeded to sit down. The mat must have been made from something like the kineticrete, because little sound came from their descending.

“Finally!” Colby said. “I’ve been so hungry all morning.”

“That’s what needlessly freaking out does to you,” Alan said, and received an elbow in the ribs from his wife.

Colby stared hard at his dad, silently pleading with him not to say anything embarrassing. He’d definitely anticipated Danny’s arrival with no small amount of consternation. He looked at Danny, but the human still seemed to be in awe of his surroundings.

“Danny?” Colby said. “I’m going to go ahead and set you down, now, OK?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Danny said, but as he descended an alien feeling swept over him. When his feet met the blue mat’s material, he couldn’t help finally realizing just how vast and foreign this place was and how humongous Colby was, even at a seated position. He turned away and looked at the trees. The trees were just like trees in his world, but maybe a bit taller. On the edge of the mat, he could see tangles of grass leading into a sea of green. The grass here was just like normal grass, but heavily overgrown. Taking a few deep breaths, he pulled himself together and sat down about ten feet from his friend’s enormous leg, and he finally noticed that Colby was wearing blue soccer shorts much like his favorite pair back home, and for some reason this fact calmed him.

“Dude, I have shorts just like those, except, you know, not huge,” he said, and pulled a Clif bar out of his backpack.

Colby smiled and chomped on what looked like a giant French toast stick. “That’s cool,” he said. “Who’s ‘Wolfe’?”

“Wolfe? On my jersey? That’s for Derek Wolfe. He’s a player for the Denver Broncos. American football. I’m not really that into the Broncos, but whatever. My cousin gave this to me,” Danny said, crunching away on his bar. He reached into his backpack again and pulled out a granny smith apple and a chocolate milk.

Colby sighed. “That’s one thing I really wish I could do, is go see some human sports. I watch soccer all the time on TV, but it would be neat to be there, you know?”

“Maybe if you get your human interaction license, you could go to a game. My dad says it’s happening more and more, that giants have visited some places in Europe,” Danny said, and then turned red. “I mean Esdreel. Sorry.”

The whole family gave him a “no problem” smile and kept eating.

Melina spoke up. “Colby, maybe when we get to the house, you can show Danny some of your wrestling matches? We’ve got all of them recorded.”

“Yeah, maybe later,” Colby said, and took a swig of his beverage. It was just a courteous answer for his mother — he had already planned out the whole day in his mind.

Danny chuckled. He and the family wiled away the time, enjoying their lunches. He was making good progress on his apple when he finally said, “You know, I was thinking of bringing my soccer ball, but then I realized that might not really work out.”

Colby grinned and leaned over slightly, looking down at his friend. For Danny, it was like watching a building almost fall on him, but he suppressed any reaction.

“We can’t play soccer, but there’s other stuff we can do,” Colby said. “Are you almost done with your lunch? There’s a park nearby that I’d like to show you.”

Danny took one last bite of his apple and put it with the rest of his trash into a plastic bag and stuffed in his backpack. “I’m done now!” he said. “Where’s the park?”

Carefully, Colby allowed Danny to enter his hand and then stood up to his full height.

“It’s just a couple kilometers from here,” he said. “Can you see it?”

He held Danny higher than his head, and for the human it was like an amusement park ride. He surveyed the landscape of hills and trees, and thought he saw a pad of kineticrete in the distance, out of which bloomed jungle-gym-style bars and poles. Extremely tall trees partially hid it from view. In the farther distance, he could see sets of enormous, blocky houses.

“Yeah, I think I see it,” he said, and laughed. “You know, it’s a really good thing I’m not afraid of heights.”

Colby brought him back down to face level and smiled, giving his friend an admiring look. He didn’t really know how to say it, but he had already been convinced in just the very short time they’d been together that Danny was a supremely brave person.

“We can go there and hang out, and no other kids will be there at this time of day,” Colby said. “I’m the only kid my age in our area. The rest of them are all younger, and they’re still in school.”

Melina and Alan also stood up and started gathering the remains of the picnic.

“Well, you guys can go ahead and go if you want, just don’t stay out here too long,” Alan said. “It was good to finally meet you, Danny. I’ll need to go back to work now, so I may not see you until much later.”

“Yeah, I need to run back to work to finish something, too,” Melina said. “But I won’t be gone too long. I’ll see you at the house.”

Danny was about to ask what their jobs were exactly, but Colby didn’t give him a chance. With a quick breath, the giant said, “Brace yourself, little guy!” and started running.

For Danny it was thrilling and overwhelming at the same time. He was locked in Colby’s hand, pressed against the boy’s chest. As Colby’s feet went BOOM BOOM BOOM, launching them through space over green hills and meadows at a frightening speed, he could clearly hear his friend’s breathing above him, and behind his back, through layers of thick flesh, he could feel the thumping of a giant heart.

It only took Colby a few minutes to cross the distance — even at human scale, he would have been an exceptional runner for his age — and when he stopped at the park, Danny was left speechless. The experience was amazing, and he kind of wanted to do it again, but he felt that asking Colby to run him around might be considered childish.

The park, surrounded by huge pines, was a pretty simple affair. It had monkey bars, a hive-like jungle gym, parallel bars, a see-saw, and a merry-go-round. Everything seemed to be made of the same dark metal that Danny had seen in the giant buildings they’d passed before. Colby stepped onto the kineticrete, which ended the booming footsteps, and, to the human’s surprise, slowly set Danny down upon the ground.

Now, he was standing next to the full-on, towering height of a 47-foot-tall 12 year old. Danny’s stomach did a flip, but with the roller coaster rides of the day so far, he had mostly gotten beyond fear. Now, his mouth hung open from the coolness of it all. He couldn’t keep silent.

“I can’t believe how huge you are, man,” Danny said. “I’m pretty sure you’re taller than my apartment bulding.” He felt kind of like an idiot saying these things, but he couldn’t help it. The situation was unbelievable, and he was still processing it all.

Colby just blushed and walked a little bit toward one of the pull-up bars. His steps on the kineticrete made only small “thoom” sounds.

“You know how a couple weeks ago we were chatting about your gym class?” he asked. “I remember you said you were the best in your class at pull-ups.”

Danny nodded his head and set his backpack down by his feet. He realized that his head nod was probably too hard to see, so he said, “Yes. I was able to do 17. Ty Phillips — one of the other kids, he’s on the basketball team — could only do 15, but he beat me in pushups and sit-ups.”

“I can do a lot of pull-ups, too,” Colby said, and proceeded to demonstrate. He jumped up and hung from the pull-up bar, and with a small grunt each time, he powered through 20 pull-ups. When he was finished and landed back on the ground, he walked a little ways up to Danny and crouched in front of him. Danny noticed that the workout didn’t seem to take that much out of him.

“That’s really good,” Danny said, not really knowing how to respond. It didn’t seem like Colby to show off and be cocky about things — he was mostly shy and nice — but Danny noticed in the look on his friend’s face that he didn’t seem arrogant at all. Maybe he was just showing off so Danny would think he was cool.

“You know, my dad was a really good athlete when he was young,” Colby said. “He thinks the air in this TDP is really good for exercise. Like it has more oxygen or something.”

Shifting his weight onto his knees, the giant reached into his left pocket and pulled out what looked like, to his scale, a wicket — just a metal bar bent into the shape of a square-ish “U”. Startling Danny a bit, he rammed it into the ground with a loud “SHUNK!” It was a human-size pull-up bar. Once again, Danny was amazed at his friend’s size and strength, but kept it to himself.

“I made this just yesterday,” Colby said. “How many pull-ups do you think you could do now?”

Danny shrugged his shoulders and walked up to the bar. He noticed it was a little high for him, and tried to jump up and grab it, but couldn’t reach. Colby frowned a bit.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Here, I’ll give you a boost.”

He lightly grabbed Danny around the waist and lifted him up to the bar. Danny grabbed on, but felt a little embarrassed that he needed help. He tried not to make that apparent, knowing that the sensitive giant would probably be hurt, but he still couldn’t help feeling it.

Danny took a deep breath and started pulling up. Very quickly, more quickly than he was used to, he was powering through rep after rep. To his surprise, he kept going until he could do no more at number 26. He dropped down and rubbed his shoulders. Looking up, he saw Colby grinning like a fool.

“I think your dad’s right,” Danny said. “That’s way more than I’ve ever been able to do.” But, without saying anything, Danny noticed something again: After doing all of his pull-ups, he had gotten tired, but Colby had shown no fatigue at all.

Before Danny’s thought could really complete itself, Colby had already shifted around to a planking position with his chest facing down. Little by little, Danny was getting used to the incredibly fast movements of the giants’ huge bodies, but he was still a little shocked.

“How many pushups can you do?” Colby asked.

“Umm … last time I tried, I could do a good amount without stopping. I think it was around 175 … ?” Danny replied, with some feigned uncertainty. In reality, he knew that his last exact amount was 182, and he was very proud of this, but he didn’t want to seem overeager.

“That’s a good amount,” Colby said with an inscrutable smile, his eyes gleaming. “Let’s see which of us can get to 50 pushups the fastest.”

“You got it!” Danny said, and got down into position. This was the kind of thing he liked to do, and it was made especially fun by the fact that he was competing with someone who was moving the mass of a blue whale at extraordinary speeds. “I’m ready when you are! Just say ‘done’ when you’re done.”

“OK, go!” Colby said, and they were off, doing pushups as fast as they could. Colby’s giant body was displacing big puffs of air as he worked, and this kept a steady wind going at Danny, but he wasn’t bothered at all. At his 50th pushup, Danny yelled, “Done!”

Only about a half-second later, Colby also said “Done!” He forgot to keep his voice in check and hurt Danny’s ears a little bit, but didn’t realize it.

“You beat me,” Colby said, still smiling fervently while he got back up onto his knees. “You’re really fast.”

Danny was kind of winded from the workout, but noticed again that Colby showed no tiredness at all. His suspicion grew.

“Dude, how many pushups can you do without stopping? Let’s have a contest,” Danny said. He saw that Colby’s smile faltered just a little.

Colby agreed, and they agreed to have a contest. Danny thought he wouldn’t reach his previous maximum after having already done some pushups, but he forgot the effect of the TDP’s air. He was delighted to find that he could make it all the way to 254 pushups — unheard of for any kids he had ever known! Shortly after he finished, Colby finished his at 265. He still showed no sign of real exertion.

Danny decided to play his hunch. “Colby, you don’t need to pretend around me, you know.”

Colby, now lying with his face resting on his folded arms, frowned a bit. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Danny said, choosing his words carefully, “You don’t look tired at all. And I promise I’m not insulted or anything, but, you know, in my culture, if you let someone win, it’s normally kind of insulting to them. When you have a competition, you always show what you’ve really got.”

Colby wasn’t smiling anymore. “But I didn’t let you win. I did more pushups than you.”

In the back of Danny’s mind, a tiny version of himself was shouting, “Don’t push it! Don’t forget he’s a freaking huge person! His feet are as big as cars! Don’t mess with his emotions!" But, for some reason, Danny knew something strange was going on. It was like some force was guiding him, and he kept talking.

“Colby … you know, I don’t care if you’re better than me at stuff. I don’t care if you’re way better than me at stuff. It won’t make me jealous. I’m still your friend. Are you sure you can’t do more pushups than that?”

The giant’s eyes just stared at him intently for an uncomfortable amount of time. Colby was unreadable, and he made Danny feel more than a little uneasy when he suddenly shifted around to sit criss-cross in front of him.

“I promise, you really won the 50 pushup contest,” Colby said. “But yeah, I can do more pull-ups and push-ups than that.”

Danny nodded his head and smiled. “OK, I thought so,” he said softly.

“But,” Colby continued before his friend could keep talking, “There’s something else you should know.” And he became solemn. “Danny, do you have a lot of friends at school?”

Danny gave him a concerned look. “I have a few. I don’t know if I’d be considered popular, exactly. I … kind of stopped hanging out with people as much as I used to, but I have a few good friends. Why?”

Colby’s massive green eyes burned, and he swallowed. This was a pain he had swallowed often.

“I have no friends at school,” he said. “I don’t have any friends because I’m different … in a way they don’t like.”

Danny remained silent, at a loss for words.

“I’ll go ahead and tell you now,” Colby continued. “And … I’m sorry I tried to fake you out and everything. I guess it’s habit. But I know you like stuff like the Avengers, and other superheroes. Did you know a lot of Esdreel kids do a lot of Earth culture things, but almost nobody is interested in superheroes? Anyway … how do I tell you this? Maybe I should just show you.”

With a few quiet “thoom” noises, Colby got up from the ground and walked over to the giant pull-up bar.

“Danny, I don’t know how many pushups or pull-ups I can do because I’ve never felt like stopping when I did them. I just keep on going,” Colby said.

He then reached up to the pull-up bar with both hands.

“You might want to cover your ears.”

Danny obeyed.

WRRREEEEEENNNNCH!!!!!

Colby bent the pull-up bar, and then WRRRWWWWNCH!!! He straightened it out again. He did it so nonchalantly, once again not showing any exertion, and Danny was awestruck. He stood up.

“So ... so Colby, what are you saying? You’re super strong or something?” Danny asked. “That’s awesome!”

Colby smiled down at him, but it was a pained smile. “See, I knew you’d react that way! I knew it. I know Earth has a lot of wars and everything, but … I wish Esdreel and humans were more alike in some ways.”

He sighed and started to get down next to Danny again, but then stopped. “Danny, can I pick you up? I’m kind of tired of being on the ground.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Let me get my backpack,” Danny said, and after he did, gentle as ever, Colby picked him up and went over to the merry-go-round, where he sat.

“I want to get a human interaction license for a lot of reasons,” Colby said, hunched over with his elbows on his knees, his friend sitting comfortably in his hand. “I’d like to explore, to be a diplomat or something like that when I grow up. I just think humans are so cool, because you’re all so different from each other. I guess every Esdreel is different, too, but you guys have different languages and different hair color, even. Every Esdreel’s hair is dark brown or black, and we mostly have green or red eyes.”

“Red eyes?!” Danny thought, and decided he was glad Colby didn’t look like a vampire.

“Anyway, a lot of Esdreel don’t trust me or like me,” Colby continued, “And it’s not even like they do it on purpose most of the time. It’s just a part of our culture. Only 1 in about 3,000 Esdreel is born with strength like mine, and in our history, it’s explained by the Zarakiel, the slavers. They apparently bred us this way so they could use us to … hurt our own people. And it’s been almost 100 years since the slavers disappeared, but there are some elders who still remember.”

Danny just looked at Colby and tried to think of something comforting to say. Normally he was pretty good at it, but he was really out of his element here. What would his mom have said? He looked down at his own hands and struggled to come up with something, but as he did this, he noticed a huge shape coming closer to him.

Colby was bringing his face closer and closer to the human, staring hard at him. Danny’s heart jumped.

“Dude, what are you doing?” Danny asked, a little shaken.

“I’m trying to see what color your eyes are,” Colby said, and turned a little red, realizing he’d freaked his friend out a little bit.

“Oh, they’re brown,” Danny said. “Not very interesting, sorry. You got a mostly brown kid, here. I’m half Italian, a quarter Mexican, and a quarter Irish. Makes me pretty good at soccer. (Not the Irish part.)”

Colby chuckled and smiled. “I think that’s interesting. And hey, man, give the Irish a chance!” he said.

Danny found the words he was looking for. “Colby, you’re a good person no matter what. Anybody who talks to you for a little bit knows that about you. Maybe some of the other giants … I mean Esdreel kids … maybe they don’t give you a chance. But I’m sure if you stay positive, you’ll find somebody in school to hang out with. I only know three Esdreel, but I feel like it’s a general rule of the universe. You’ve got to give people a chance to give you a chance.”

Colby smiled a half smile, but sighed again and said, “Maybe you’re right, but you’re sounding a little like my mom.”

“If I sound like your mom, then your mom sounds like my mom,” Danny said, serious as a heart attack, and then wondered if that made sense, but Colby understood, and based on previous conversations with Danny online, he knew this was something he could not argue about.

Boom! And Thoom! Sounds could be heard in the distance, and Danny was about to speak, when Colby’s eyes went wide.

“Crap! Danny, I need you to be quiet and cover your ears!” he whispered. “I’m sorry about this …”

Colby stood up, and Danny experienced another rollercoaster ride for the day as his giant friend moved him down and placed him gently in the right pocket of his shorts. It was yet another bizarre feeling as the human boy found himself in a very dark, very silky prison heated by his friend’s giant thigh.

“Hi, Colby!”

Through his hands over his ears he was hearing the resounding voice of a humongous little girl. To be exact, she was 34-feet-tall, which by Esdreel standards is not humongous.

Colby stood up and turned around to watch his eight-year-old neighbor scramble up onto the merry-go-round.

“Hi, Teeny. What are you doing out here? Don’t you have school today?” he asked.

“I’m sick today,” she said, and then proceeded to flip over one of the bars on the merry-go-round. Her curly hair bounced around as she played. “Did you have something in your hands? I thought I saw something.”

“No, I didn’t have anything in my hands,” Colby said, but he had never been a good liar, and his eyes went all shifty. “Teeny, if you’re too sick to go to school, aren’t you too sick to come to the park?”

“I’m feeling better now,” she said, and then hopped off the playground equipment. “I thought I saw you holding something. Is it something secret? I can keep a secret.”

“I didn’t have anything, Teeny,” Colby said, starting to get defensive, and he turned to walk away.

“Oh, come on! Stay here with me! I’m bored! And you can tell me what you have!” Teeny said, and ran up next to him. An idea entered her head, and she gasped. “Is it a bear?” she whispered. “My friend Luke said he found a bear in the woods here once, and do you know what he DID??”

Colby shuddered to think. He didn’t believe at all that Luke Garaz, one of the neighborhood’s more rascally seven-year-olds, had really found a bear. All the wildlife in the TDP stayed far away from any civilization.

“He said he ATE IT!” Teeny exclaimed, scandal written all over her face.

Colby rolled his eyes, and his heart sank. He silently hoped that Danny was covering his ears hard enough to not hear that. This was so embarrassing. “Teeny, I don’t think you should believe him. Luke is a pretty crazy guy, but I don’t he’s that bad of a kid. His family doesn’t eat meat.”

Teeny pouted. “That’s what he said, and I think it’s true. He is a bad kid.” She traipsed back over to the merry-go-round.

“Well, Teeny, I do have to go home now, so I’ll see you later, OK?” Colby said, and he lightly touched the bulge in his right pocket, mostly for his own peace of mind.

“Can’t you just spin me on the merry-go-round one time?” Teeny whined. But then she caught herself and frowned. She remembered something, and looked with a little distrust at Colby. Slowly she got up and stood in the middle of the piece of playground equipment. “I’ll be OK by myself, actually. See you later, Colby.”

He recognized that look. Her parents must have told her about him, and now she was afraid he might spin her too fast. Such things had happened many times before. He said his last goodbyes and walked away.

After achieving a safe distance from the park and holding his pocket out so it wouldn’t smash against his leg, Colby finally reached inside and retrieved Danny, who was sweating profusely. The giant was beside himself.

“I’m so sorry, Danny!” he said. “I had to hide you! She was supposed to be at school! Teeny’s pretty excitable, and I didn’t think it would be very safe for you to meet her.”

“I understand totally, dude,” Danny said while wiping his face and hair with his jersey (which, sadly, was none too absorbent). “But, uh, please don’t ever put me in your pocket again. I am melting here.”

Colby held his friend up and waved his left hand, creating enough wind to cool the human off considerably.

“Wow, thanks! That really works,” Danny said. “So, bears in the TDP, huh? That’s … weird.”

Colby looked mortified. “Most Esdreel don’t eat meat hardly at all. I promise you, that kid didn’t catch a bear. That’s ridiculous,” Colby said. “My family only eats meat when we visit Esdras. And even then … “

“Dude! Dude! I don’t really care!” Danny said, laughing. “Even if the kid ate a bear, yeah, that’s gross, I mean, all the bones and raw meat and everything, but dude, heh heh, it’s OK.”

Colby smiled back. He was thinking Danny might be horrified at the thought of a giant seven-year-old eating something from a species that, he knew, had been known for eating some humans, but he realized that he should have known better. Things having calmed down, he and his passenger casually walked with booming footsteps over to his house.

It was fall, and the days on Earth were already growing shorter. Soon, Danny would have to go back to school for the year, and Colby, for his age group, wouldn’t start school again until just before winter. Danny was a little put off by the way the sun moved in the TDP — it seemed to be already getting close to setting, even though he knew they had eaten a noon lunch only a short while ago. It was, however, beautiful as it illuminated the windows of Colby’s gigantic, austere block of a house.

Colby bent down to the ground and grabbed the front door’s handle. He then pulled it up, and the door rolled up like a projector screen on a classroom wall. In front of them, Danny saw a small foyer, decorated with a red flower-patterned tile floor and cream-colored walls. He was a little startled when Colby suddenly bent over and set him down on the ground.

He watched the giant cross the threshold of the building and take off his shoes, which were like huge leather moccasins. From way up high, Colby spoke.

“It’s our tradition that when we have a visitor, we must invite them in politely and they must cross the threshold of the house on their own,” he said. “Danny Murray, I happily invite you into my home.”

Danny smiled, adjusted his backpack on his shoulder, and stepped forward.