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.Land of the Giants: The Ferals	By : keithcompany Category: G through L > Land of the Giants Views: 2357 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Land Of The Giants series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
"I want to," Gessy insisted.

"Can't be done," Deckett said, sliding another box of film into the case.

"I want to," she repeated.

"Can't be done," he said. He examined the results, then started taking everything out to restack the contents.

"I want to!" she added a whine.

"Can't be done," he said, as patiently as ever.

"I want to!" She knew her giant didn't usually reward tantrums, but she was very close to stomping on her foot.

He finally paused packing for their next trip and turned to look down on his little person. "Gessy, I want you to listen very closely to me, when I say I want to, it means I really want to."

"Can't be done," she said, falling right back into the rhythm.

"But I want to," he replied.

"Can't be done!" she said, this time stomping a foot.

Deckett raised both hands, palms out to ward off her anger. "Alright, alright. If you say it can't be done, and you feel strongly about it-"

"HEY!"

"Then it can't be done and we'll say no more about it." He stood and walked off to the spare bedroom to get a second camera lens case. He started shoving that into place.

"MEANY!" Gessy shouted. Deckett's jaw dropped.

"I'm not being mean!" he protested. "You want to take gifts to ferals!"

"They're my friends!" she pouted. "And it's what Thrombeldinbar would want us to do." She turned and ran across the table, jumping down to the little platform mounted on the corner leg. The cushion had hardly collapsed before she was rolling to drop to the next one, then to the floor.

Before her owner could get up out of his seat, she was through the bedroom door, headed to her thinking place under the middle of the giant's bed. He called after her, but she just went on running.

She knelt in the exact center and sulked. She didn't like to sulk. It only worked when she was away from her giant and she really liked her giant.

But she really liked Valerie and Betty. And Barry and Fitzhugh. And Chipper! Chipper was a tripper, as Barry would say. And she kinda liked Dan. And she knew Valerie and Betty liked Steve and Mark, so she would treat them like they were likeable. Just not like real friends.

She was trying to decide if she should tell everyone she was giving some people a cold shoulder or tell Valerie, first, to see what she thought. Then she remembered she wouldn't get any chance to do either because Deckett wasn't going to let her go into the forest for a visit.

They'd released Valerie and Betty, and burned the fire-brush, and they weren't supposed to ever never see the castaways never again.

Even if Deckett could be trusted, and he really really could, SID meanies might follow them to the forest and put the Little People in danger.

And even if that never happened, the Little Feral People could be dangerous to GESSY! But she thought they'd figured that one out. The number of people on the Spindrift that wanted to tie her up were less than the number that knew Deckett would rip the forest apart to find-

"Gessy." He was kneeling by the bed. Face on the floor. His voice was so, so low. She glanced back to see his expression, then looked away. "Gessy, I don't want my favorite Earthling in the whole world to call me a meany."

"Then don't be mean," she said. She had a hard time sounding hard. She didn't want to call him a meany. But then she asked, What Would Valerie Do? Valerie would kick his a-

"Okay. Okay, we'll get Thrombeldinbar gifts for the Earthlings. IF it's that important to you, that you'll leave me over it..."

"What?" she gasped, shocked. She turned and ran towards her giant. "I'd never leave you! I just won't like you for a long time."

"Same thing," he shrugged. He picked her up. "So. Vitamins and food. What else do you give the shipwreck who has nothing?"

-------

Even after countless trips into the wilderness to get pics and samples and specimens, this was the biggest load she'd every carried on one trip.

Deckett had even built her a travel barrow. A triangle with two wheels, it was loaded down with gifts for the humans. She giggled. The other humans. It was a bit harder to get across roots and things, but it was long and skinny and she could never carry so much stuff without it.

She followed the path Valerie had led her on the first time they visited the Spindrift. She had a perfect memory of the trip, even going around plants that had grown up or across empty spots they'd been torn down in the time since.

She'd never told Deckett or Steve that she had a perfect memory for getting around in forests. Neither would be comfortable with knowing the other knew she knew exactly how to find them.

So she'd never tell!

Quite a bit before she came into the camp, she bumped into Barry. Literally, the kid was trying to coax his dog out from under a fallen log and didn't hear her walk up.

Gessy saw him bent over and snuck up behind him. "GOTCHA!" she shouted. He screamed and tried to jump away and turn to face her at the same time. His legs went out in all directions and she laughed to see him fall and flop.

Then Chipper jumped out of the hole he was hiding in and ran across Barry to run up and smile at the other pet. She greeted him, rubbing his ears and jaw and sides. "Hey, Chipper! You let me sneak up on your owner! But that's okay. We pets have to stick together!"

"Gessy! You came back!" Barry's eyes lit up. "Did you run away?"

----------

Barry helped her drag the travois to camp. "I probably shouldn't," he said, "not without Steve's permission. But you have been there before, I guess."

"I guess," she said. "And if I was going to lead my giant in here with seven sample cases and a big net, I'd have done it months ago while he was still so pissed at Mark." Barry gasped and staggered a bit. Gessy caught him and stood him back up. "I was joking, Barry," she said. She tried hard not to laugh at his gaping-fish expression.

"Oh. Well. That's... That's fine, then." She was not experienced with teenaged boys, or she'd have had to laugh at his efforts not to tell the pretty girl that she'd crossed a line or done anything wrong. She just smiled and started pulling the gifts again.

"Yeah, just a joke," she said. "He's still pissed at Mark." This time she did laugh at his expression. She loved sharing jokes with Earthlings.

Once they made it to camp, they found that no one was there. "Must all be out hunting for food," Barry said. He invited Gessy to sit on the log bench with him. "They'll be surprised to see how much food you brought."

"If they're hunting, won't this be too much though?" she asked, worried.

"Oh, no, no. They often only have barely enough," he assured her. She nodded and started playing fetch with Chipper. They sat together. For Gessy, it was a companionable silence.   For Barry, it was one abortive attempt at conversation after another.

He finally decided to go with the 'you must not know many humans' line he'd practiced since her visit. "You, uh.. Do you know many people?"

"Oh, lots. Deckett introduces me to everyone. Editors AND human beings." She laughed lightly. "That's a joke," she explained.

He laughed, far too late. "Ah, a-hahaha. Funny. Kinda the way Betty talks about two kinds of passengers. The nice ones and the ones that actually show up. Ah, hahaha."

"I don't get it?" she said.

Barry tried to explain and ended up just confusing the girl further. They lapsed into silence once more. He tried again. "Gessy? Have you ever.... Kissed... anyone?"

She had discovered Chipper's favorite scratch spot and was making a friend for life. She didn't look up to answer. "I kiss Deckett all the time," she said.

He scooted closer to her, just a bit, using Chipper as an excuse. "He really likes it right....here...."

"Oh! Is he broken?"

"No, no, dogs' legs do that when they're really happy."

"Oh. Well, then good boy!" She scratched vigorously.

He leaned back a bit and suavely went on. "No, Gessy, I was going to ask if you'd ever kissed... Well, an Earthling?"

"Just Valerie," she said, far too matter-of-factly for the teenager. She looked up as he made the noises she was starting to associate with jokes. "I wasn't joking!" she protested. He just gulped louder at the air. "Stop it!"

She stood up as he rolled backwards over the top of the log, falling to thrash around in the dirt. "Good gosh, Barry! What's so funny about the idea of me and Valerie kissing? STOP IT!"

A sound in the brushes drew her attention. She turned to see the copilot, Dan, rush into camp. "We need the bottle of gas! Where...? Oh. Hi, Gessy."

"Hi, Dan. I brought presents!" She pointed. He barely glanced.

"That's good, Gessy, thanks, Merry Christmas. But, see, we've got something going on."

She was used to Deckett and his friends not having time for silly pets. There wasn't even a flash of resentment that he didn't ask what was in there for him. She expected no better. "Oh, sure, Dan, I came as a surprise, I know.

"What, uh, what's going on?" She followed him into the spacecraft and to the back of the cabin. He grabbed some torches and started stacking them in her arms. She grabbed them willingly. Barry limped in from outside and grabbed a metal can that looked to be made from part of a toy.

"Fitzhugh's caught in some sort of ant pile," Dan said. "We're building a fire to smoke them out."

"Oh! Well, yeah!" Gessy said. "I can help with that."

"And you're welcome to help," Dan said. "It's a big ant nest, we're going to need everyone."

"Big?" she asked. "Um... How big?"

----------

A bottle of alcohol was standing in the middle of the forest. It was about half full of a clear fluid. Fitzhugh was uncomfortably perched on the iconic handle. He'd been trying to tie a rope around it to tip it over and access the contents.

He wasn't normally athletic enough to do this alone, but he'd figured he'd do better to get the hard work done before asking Steve's permission to have liquor in camp.

Something he'd done had agitated a nearby nest of insect, though. The area around the bottle was carpeted with a writhing mass of tiny bodies, furiously piling dirt up around the bottle. They looked to be trying to bury it.

The castaways had started building a bonfire on the side that seemed to be the farthest from the ant's nest. If they could smoke them away, Fitzhugh would be able to get down.

"Oh, no," Gessy said when she saw the insects.

"What's she doing here!?!" Mark shouted.

"She helped carry the torches," Dan said.

"We need all the help we can get, Mark," Betty pointed out. Valerie dragged some sticks over to the pile of tinder, gave Gessy a brief hug, and went back.

"We don't need her," Mark said. Gessy saw he was still ticked that she'd rejected his brainwashing attempt. Well, that was too bad.

"What you don't need is the fire," she said in a soft voice.

"See!" Mark shouted, "she doesn't want us to rescue Fitzhugh."

"But these aren't ANTS. They're down-grubbers."

"I don't care what the giants call ants," Mark said.

"Um, hold on," Steve tried to say.

"Look, she's happy with the giants, she wants us all to be with giants-"

Pluck you!" Gessy shouted. She flipped both of her ring fingers at the engineer. No one moved to correct either expression. "I LIKE Fitzhugh! I like all of you. Mostly! But knowing the difference between down-grubbers and ants is MY JOB!"

She pointed at the bonfire where Steve stood, poised to strike flint to steel. "Light that fire and Fitzhugh will DIE!"

"Why should we trust you?" Mark sneered. He marched close to where the domestic stood. The people around the two paused, unsure who to trust.

Up on the bottle, Fitzhugh went with the biologically trained local. "I vote for the pretty one!" he shouted. Mark turned around to tell the victim to shut up and stay out of it.

Gessy kicked him in the fork.

The men groaned, the women gasped and Fitzhugh smiled through a wince. Mark dropped to the ground. Gessy took one step away from him and pointed to the insects swarming a few human yards away.

"Down-grubbers have wings, people. They only use them in mating season and to escape FOREST FIRES. When they smell smoke, they unfold their wings and migrate."

"Then shouldn't we-?" Steve started to ask. The captain was watching Gessy intently and had not moved any closer to her or to the engineer who was just moving back up into a kneeling position.

"The first thing migrating down-grubbers do," she said, in the tone of one delivering a lecture, "is to strip the local area of any and all food. The eat their stores so they won't lose them. They fill their bellies so they can travel without having to forage. And they strip the area bare of any rivals."

She kicked a torch away from the bonfire. "Light that, and the last thing you'll see of Fitzhugh is, maybe, his shoe. They don't always stop after the food's gone. Oh, and they'll probably try to eat all of you. Me? I'll be running for the horizon."

"So, uh, what can we do?" Dan asked her. Steve was nonchalantly pocketing his fire starting kit.   Valerie and Betty were kicking the kindling away from the careful pile.

"They need to be calmed down. They need a slow, gentle rhythm."

"Like?" Valerie asked.

Gessy picked up a stick and started to pound the ground at a slow, deliberate pace. Betty and Barry immediately copied her, Dan a moment later. Valerie took a moment to hand sticks to Steve and Mark. Steve gave a wry smile and fell in obediently. Mark snatched the stick but paused.

Standing over him, Valerie threatened his skull with an unlit torch. "Gessy? Does it matter where, exactly, I do the beating?"

"No," the domestic said absently. She was watching the swarm, not the drama going on to her left. Mark finally shrugged and started beating the ground. When Valerie was satisfied with his pace, she started her own.

The effect was almost instantaneous. The construction stopped, then the bugs milled around. Not quite aimless, they just stopped building.

Then, very slowly, almost possible to miss entirely, they moved back towards their burrow. One or two slipped away, then groups and pairs. Then a clump of thirty.

Gessy visibly relaxed when the crowd moved. "It's working!" She looked around. Several people had unconsciously sped up at the apparent victory. "Slow down! Slow! You'll set them off! Like this." Barry was watching her closely and had never deviated from the beat she set. She flashed him a big smile. He nearly beat himself in the face.

After most of the bugs were gone, Gessy told some of the others to rest. "Save your strength, so you can take over in a minute. Barry and I for now, then you guys can start a gain in a minute."

The others stopped. Mark looked curious. "Why you two?"

"Old people need their rest," she said.   Valerie laughed as Mark grumbled. He was going to join in again, but his muscles complained after his stop.

Much, much later, Gessy pronounced the swarm 'safe.' Or safe enough. She told Fitzhugh to slip down the bottle and slide to the ground. "And everyone pound the dirt when he hits," she said. "So they don't know it's just one guy."

Then he was down and running for the trees. He flashed the young woman a smile as he went by. Gessy released the beaters one at a time, backing away and tapering off.

Then they were stumbling back to the camp. "Good thing someone brought food today," Dan said.

"Food?" Steve asked. "There's food in the camp?"

"Happy Thrombeldinbar," Gessy croaked shyly. Steve managed to clumsily wrap an arm around her shoulders.

"There's nothing I wanted more for today," he said. "Well, that and a safe Fitzhugh."

"I'm glad to help," she said shyly.

---------

They put her in the softest chair, lifted her feet and made her dinner. She was not only the center of attention once more, she was the heroine of the hour. Fitzhugh made sure she understood how deeply he was in her debt.

Dan rubbed her shoulders and Barry kept her drink filled and Steve never once made the slightest comment about how she was going to contact her giant when all this was over.

Mark still nursed a grudge, and a limp, but was far too smart to risk getting the entire camp to jump on him for making a remark. He and Gessy just ignored each other. At least, until he found the battery cells in the pile of gifts. He gave her a short but sincere nod. Then left her alone.

Gessy got all caught up on the Earthling's lives and escapes and contacts with other Earthlings and giants that could maybe almost be nearly trusted. Sort of. She mentioned new projects Deckett had accepted and travel they'd done.

And there was a lot of quiet.

After two days, Steve pulled up a chair and handed Gessy a drink. "Once more, thanks for your help. We'd have really messed up the down-grubs."

"Down-grubbers," she corrected instantly, then shrugged, dropping her eyes to the ground. "Whatever. And you're welcome."

"See, that reminds me of my mother," he said.

"Your...mother?" She risked a glance up to his face, then looked down again.

"My parents had seven boys," he said.

"Wow."

"Yeah. Well. Mom was kinda outnumbered. She ran the house, but never really put forward her opinion."

"Why not?"

"She didn't think her opinion mattered," he said, staring off into the forest. "It did, and, well, she'd answer if we asked, but she was quiet. Almost mousy."

"Mouse?" Gessy asked. "She went pee inside?"

"No!" he laughed, then explained the word. She nodded.

"Thing was," he said, "one day the neighbor came over. She was very, very pregnant, and the car broke down, and she was alone and going to have her baby."

"Oh, NO!" Gessy said, eyes wide.

"Mom... She just exploded. She came into the room where eight men were hemming and hawing and doing nothing useful and started giving orders."

"Good for her!"

"Exactly," he said with a smile. "Mom put Dad in charge of getting the paramedics. I was on mop, Damon on towels, Kerry and Terry on handholding, Jeff on stopwatch... Oh, I forget what all. But she whipped us into a crack baby-delivering unit just by her voice."

"Like... Like, um." She stopped trying to suggest a recent comparison.

"Just like you did with the Gessy Rescue Unit," he said. He stood up, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "Somewhere inside you is steel, Gessy. I think you need to know that. I suspect Deckett would even like to see it." He walked away. She watched him leave, a thoughtful smile on her face.

---------

Gessy ended up visiting for two nights. Barry gave up his seat so she could sleep on it. Chipper saw no reason to join his owner on the floor, so she had a nice warm fuzzy cuddle to make her feel welcome all night long.

Every adult smiled at least once at the way Barry gazed up at the girl, long after he tucked her in.

On the third day, Valerie took her aside and suggested a goodbye kiss. Gessy puckered up and reached out her hands.

"Not me!" Valerie hissed, taking a step backwards. "Barry."

"Oh." She thought about that for a moment. "That... That's like when Deckett kisses his kissing friends?" she asked.

"Kind of," Valerie admitted.

"Okay." She skipped off to stop Barry's heart. Then it was time to say goodbye. Everyone got a hug, everyone but Barry got a kiss. Betty said something about spontaneous combustion which sounded bad, and probably pretty messy, so Gessy just gave Fitzhugh two kisses, with orders to give one to Barry later.

And everyone laughed at that.

Then she got to Mark. He looked down at the ground when she stepped up to him, still trying to decide if she was going to kiss him.

"Gessy," he said. "I'm sorry. I was... I was wrong. You've never done anything to threaten any of us, or betray us to your giant... I'm sorry."

"I accept your apology, Mark," she said. Then she stepped up and gave him a warm hug. Gessy liked happy goodbyes. She pat him on the back, then stepped away.

"Gessy?" he asked. She blinked. "I, uh, I said I'm sorry for what _I_ did." She blinked again. "Do, uh, do you want to say anything to me?" Her lips quirked to one side. She thought.

"Happy Thrombeldinbar, Mark?" she guessed.

"Thanks, but, well.... Anything about... about... Kicking me?" he pressed.

"No, I don't think so," she said. He looked confused for a second. Then finally his expression cleared.

"Okay. I guess I deserved it," he said. "Happy Thrombeldinbar, Gessy." She smiled, then stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek.

Then she was walking towards where her giant would be waiting. Betty and Valerie went with her. The men drifted along some distance behind the girls.

"What are they doing?" Gessy asked softly.

"Watching over us, to keep us safe," Betty said just as softly.

"Oh." Gessy walked along for a minute. "Who's going to watch over them, then?"

"Oh, we will," Valerie said. "You will," she added, with a quick hug.

Deckett was waiting right where he'd agreed to wait, watching the time. Gessy drifted to a stop just short of where she'd be visible to him. The others ducked behind bushes. He was clearly an impatient giant. "Okay," he said slowly. "Okay, if you're out there, Gessy, your time is up. You're officially late."

His foot bounced up and down, his knee hopping under his hands. He sucked air through his teeth. "If your friends are testing me, see? I'm behaving. I'm sitting right here, not worried that you've been kidnapped again. Waiting, waiting, waiting."

He check his watch three more times in as many minutes. "Now you're five minutes overdue. Surely, no one, not even a paranoid Earthling would begrudge me a check." He stood up. Gessy squealed happily and ran out into the wide spot in the pathway.

"I'm here! I’m here!" she cried. "I am SO proud of you, Deckett! You waited ten whole minutes more than I thought you would!" He knelt to scoop her up, not even glancing towards where feral Earthlings might be hiding.

"Ten? You're only five minutes late," he pointed out.

"Valerie said she had dinnertime last night in the pool," Gessy replied. He lifted her up to kiss her, then held her before his eyes.

"Gessy! What happened to your hair?"

"You like it?" she asked, turning back and forth. "I had it done like Betty's. I think it's more...grownup than the ribbons."

"Oh," he said. "You... You look..."

"NICE!" a voice suggested from the undergrowth.

Deckett glanced to the ground, then back to his pet. No dummy, he agreed with the disembodied suggestion. "You look VERY nice, Gessy."

She smiled and preened. He held her up to wave goodbye, then started walking towards the car. She described her weekend, including the down-grubbers.

"SMOKE them out?" he asked, scandalized. "That would have been messy."

"I KNOW," she said. "And I saved them."

"That's my girl," he said. He passed a ranger, stopping to show his ID, his forest pass, his domestic license, her ID and the other paperwork. The ranger wished them a nice day and sent them on.

Gessy finished her tale when he reached the car. HE certainly found her comments about Barry's attentiveness amusing. He settled her in the car and headed out for their traditional holiday meal.

She didn't relax in her usual spot, but crawled up his shirt to nest against his shoulder. "What's up, Gessy?"

"You get job offers for work in the Windy Side Forest, right?"

"Yeah," he admitted slowly. "Medgrusham's hot for someone to get pictures of the drop-bug plants on the coast. They're a little different. But I always turn him down. Too dangerous."

"The drop-bug plants aren't dangerous," she said. "And the forest isn't all that dangerous."

He shifted uncomfortably as she kept on talking. "Well, individually, no. But together, they, uh, the risk-"

"You're afraid of the big feral human population in the area," she said. It wasn't a question. He didn't reply. "I think we should take those jobs. No one can do a survey like we can. And we'll put the money aside for your retirement."

"Mine?" he asked. "Not ours?"

"Well, you're old," she pointed out. He was silent for a moment. "And I think I can handle myself around ferals," she finished.

"You, uh... You aren't hoping to give me one last contract, then find yourself a feral colony to join?" he asked softly.

"What?" she squeaked, scandalized. "You're trying to get RID of me?"

"What? No, no. You just, you spent time in the wild. With people like you..."

"Fitzhugh says there's no one like me, sir."

"Ain't that three servings of truth," he muttered. "But... Do you want to spend time? Out there? With... Earthlings?"

"Maybe to visit," she said with a shrug. "And... Maybe to see if they'll help us. Maybe we can help them." She idly examined her fingernails as he shifted lanes. "You're having a hard time with me suggesting work?" she asked.

"The contract, the visit, the gifts... The hair," he listed, lifting a finger for each item. "Yeah, it's a little hard to take. To figure out what you're doing."

He didn't say, to figure out what you're doing to the bond between us. He pulled into their favorite restaurant. The one where the headwaiter knew how she took her dumpling. They sat for a moment, contemplating the front windshield, and the future out there somewhere.

"You, uh, you ought to know, Deckett. There's something that hasn't changed by my visit with wild humans in their natural setting."

"What's that?" he asked, perking up slightly.

"I'm still ticklish." She sat perfectly still for a moment. Then she could hear his face move as a grin spread across it.

"Oh, you are, are you?" he asked. The fabric of his shirt tugged as his far arm started to move. She squealed and jumped to the upholstery. He spun to grab at her. The chase was on.
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.Land of the Giants: The Ferals