A Human Among Giants

Chapter 1

Austin turned the key in the lock, opening the apartment door as he stepped into the darkened room. His hand felt around the wall for a moment before finding the light switch, filling the space with a warm glow as he closed the door behind him. He tugged off his shoes and left them on the knee-height shelf in the entryway, noticing that his dad's shoes were still absent. Stepping out of the entryway and into the kitchen, Austin further noted an absence of the usual assortment of half-empty mugs that his dad had a habit of leaving out.

"Hey dad," Austin's voice carried through the apartment but was met with no response, "I'm home."

The kitchen was positioned to the right of the front door, the entryway leading directly into it, with the sink, fridge, and other various appliances surrounded by wooden countertops. An island counter and two barstools separated the kitchen from the living room, occupied by nothing more than an old couch, a television, and an industrial style coffee table that didn't match a single other piece of furniture. The left wall contained three doors, one for Austin's bedroom, one for his dad's, and one for the bathroom, and the right wall held a single framed picture. Neither of the side walls had any windows, being a centre unit in an apartment block, but the far one was an entire window wall with a sliding glass door leading out onto the balcony that overlooked the street below.

Austin double checked the time on his phone, frowning when he saw it was nearly four in the afternoon. He busied himself by preparing a cup of noodles, trying not to get frustrated that his dad was running late. Worse still, Austin wasn't surprised by the tardiness. It had become the standard since his dad, Bradley, had started a new engineering contract a little under two years prior and worked on-site six days every fortnight. Bradley would fly out Thursday evening, work the next five days with a half day on Wednesday, and was due to arrive back home while Austin was at school.

Austin could count on one hand the number of times this had actually happened.

Bradley would walk in the door late in the evening, sometimes even the following morning, with an excuse about needing to stay late and a promise that it wouldn't happen again.

With the cup noodles in one hand, Austin sat himself at the island counter and placed his bag on the bench. He pulled out a stack of papers at least a centimetre thick and laid them out in front of him. It was only halfway through the second second week of the school term, but since Austin was in his final year all of his teachers had already begun to crack down on homework and practice tests. At the end of the year, students' final results would determine what universities they could apply for so everyone was studying hard. Everyone, except Austin, who could barely bring himself to open the papers. He found it hard to focus on results for the end of the year, because that's when his dad was going to move them both to Immensus, the giant planet.

Earth was the name of the small, dirt moon where most humans lived and it orbited the much larger planet called Immensus. The two shared a lot of features, nearly identical in their makeup of atmosphere and environments, even the people that inhabited Immensus were similar in genetics and anatomy. The only difference was the great disparity in size, with the humans on Earth being less than a tenth of the height of the giants on Immensus, only coming up to about the height of a giant's ankle.

When Austin's dad had failed to find suitable work on Earth, he had inquired at an engineering firm on Immensus years ago and they had practically begged him to work in their human sector. He had all the usual qualifications, but the number of humans who actually lived on Immensus was so minimal that Bradley had been offered the job almost immediately. The only part of the contract he couldn't negotiate was the few days a week he was required to work in person. He had agreed not to disrupt Austin's studies so he worked a fly-in fly-out job between the two planets, leaving his son on Earth for the six days he was away. It was at this firm that Bradley had met Siobhan, a giant who had offered him an alternative to the constant transport; moving in with her and her daughter. Austin's dad had eagerly accepted the offer, making plans to move once Austin had graduated from school.

Austin grabbed one of the worksheets he'd been given and pulled it toward himself, slowly filling it out for ten minutes, then twenty, then an hour. It was a little after five when the front door opened once more, Austin's dad in the doorway and brushing past the shoe rack without taking off his work boots. Austin glanced down at the paper in front of him, only having completed half of it in the hour he'd been sitting down, before hurrying over to his bedroom.

"Hey, Austin." Bradley said as Austin brushed past him.

"Hi, dad," Austin responded without stopping, "welcome home."

Austin opened the door to his room and made his way to his bed, and glanced back when he saw his dad had followed. Bradley hovered in the doorway, his large frame occupying most of the space. Their height was the only thing Austin and Bradley had in common. His dad had broad shoulders and a tall, stocky build with fair hair and brown eyes, a week's worth of stubble on his chin. Austin was smaller than his dad, a half head shorter and much thinner with his mother's dark hair and blue eyes.

"Austin, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"Is it about Siobhan?"

"In a way. It's more about our plans to move to Immensus." Bradley crossed the room as he talked, sitting down next to Austin.

"At the end of the year."

"At the end of the year, right. Well I was talking to, uh, working with Siobhan the other day and she said that we could move in sooner if we wanted. Austin, what do you think about moving over there by the end of the month instead?"

Austin was on his feet. "End of the month? What? Dad, I'm still in school!"

"There are plenty of schools on Immensus. Siobhan told me that the one her daughter goes to allows human students there as well, you two could attend together."

"But all of my friends are here on Earth."

"You'll make new ones. Life is all about experiences."

"Well then," Austin stammered, crossing his arms, "what if I say no?"

"You'd be stuck here on your own. I don't think you would be able to afford that, would you?"

Tears stung in Austin's eyes as he turned away from his dad, curling his hands into fists and bringing them up to his face. "You've already booked it, haven't you?"

"Yes."

Austin walked away, refusing to look at his dad, and came to a stop at his bedroom door. He faced out into the living room and stared at the single frame on the wall, a family portrait of a young couple with a toddler in their arms. The brunette lady in the photo smiled back at him, her blue eyes the only thing of her that Austin could remember.

"When do we leave?"

"A little under two weeks. Our last day is next friday."