Hurricane #26: The Break (Patreon)

“Pretty nice for a dorm room.” Serrano glanced around. It wasn’t as richly appointed as the hotel suite, but it was probably larger, with a small but full kitchen rather than a kitchenette.

“It’s a guest apartment. We keep a few staff units furnished for visiting faculty or family members.”

Serrano lifted her brows. “Staff live on campus?”

“Some of us littles do, yes, and all the giants.”

“Huh. Well, yeah, that makes sense.”

Sarah dropped onto the couch, glowering. “If we can’t leave, it’s still a prison.”

Irsaw sighed. “We both know how difficult it would be to physically prevent either of you from leaving if you put your minds to it, Miss Wylde. I can only beseech you to stay on campus for now, at least through the night, while I consult other faculty on how we can best address both the situation with local law enforcement and with your off-world enemies.”

“Fine, fine.” The wolf raised her hands over her head. “I don’t think we had any plans anyway. So what’s there to do on this campus?”

“You already know about the library, of course, but there’s a lot to take in at the Student Union building. Game parlors, a coffee shop, a food court for people our scale…oh, and the new pizza pub just opened. It’s surprisingly good, and I’m something of a pizza snob.”

“You don’t look the type.”

“I’m sure you’ll find something.” Irsaw set a key on the coffee table, then walked to the door. “You have both my number and Mrs. Webb’s if you need assistance.”

After Irsaw left, Serrano looked over at the wolf. “So, what are you up for?”

“A prison break.”

The coyote snorted. “Look, you said yourself we didn’t have plans tonight, and we are probably safer here than in your hotel room.”

Sarah gave her a doleful look. “Serrano, we’re who everybody else needs to stay safe from. If you’re just humoring Professor Irsaw because you think you owe them—”

“I do owe them, just like I owe other people on this campus. Without them, I’d not only have no idea what’s been going on to turn my life upside down, I’d probably be dead, unless Ulohne really was intervening to protect me.” Serrano tilted her head. “Hell, you might have been the one who killed me.”

Sarah’s ears folded back, and she looked down at the floor.

Serrano slid toward the wolf on the couch and touched her shoulder. “Look, it’s your job, or divine role, or whatever. I get it. It’s fine. I mean, it wouldn’t have been fine, although you’d probably have somehow made it hot.”

Sarah didn’t look up. “You’re a very weird coyote.”

“Yep. So, wanna go find the pizza place?”

Sarah nodded after a moment, smiling slightly, and they headed for the door.

The “staff apartments” comprised a three-story building within sight of a far more massive one-story building that, as far as Serrano could tell, served as a giant-scale counterpart. Irsaw had just dropped them off in their car; it was a five-minute walk just to get to the bus stop.

After checking the bus status board—the next one wouldn’t arrive for twelve minutes—Sarah looked over at Serrano. “Want to just walk there?”

“That’ll take forever.”

“Not if we’re both giant.”

“I can’t—” Serrano waved her hands at herself. “I mean, I guess I have figured out how to make myself giant, but only when I call down a rainstorm and burst out of my clothes. Also, so far only as a taur.”

“Let me do it, then.”

“You can do that?”

Sarah rolled her eyes.

“Right, stupid question.” She took the wolf’s offered hand.

This time, there was no lightning crack, no special effects, barely even a blur. She was just—big. “Three Lords. It’s weird to be giant but not quadruped. How tall are we?”

Sarah shrugged. “I kept the same relative size between us, so I’m about a hundred feet high, and you’re, I don’t know, not quite ninety. So which way is this Student Union building?”

Serrano pointed. “Pretty sure it’s that way. Follow the sidewalk.”

“The…” Sarah looked. “Oh. Huh. I thought that was another road, but it’s a sidewalk for us, isn’t it? Clever.”

“It is.” Serrano walked ahead, looking up out of habit, then adjusting her gaze to look down. Mostly. “I can’t believe I’ve lived in this city for over three years and I didn’t know this place was here. I mean, I knew, but I didn’t know know. Probably another stupid question, but have you ever seen anything like this?”

“Across other dimensions?” Sarah shrugged. “Sure. Mixing magic and technology like this is unusual, though. So is this, hmm, half-in and half-out of the mundane world. Usually, when magic exists in a world, it’s either commonplace or incredibly hidden. And mixing sizes isn’t unheard of, but it’s usually a bunch of different worlds, each with one dominant species at a different scale, coming together galaxy-wide.”

“Galactic empires are a real thing?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Serrano shook her head, grinning, then waved a hand. “But wait. All those things—the magic/tech mix, the college itself, the mixing sizes, all happening on a single world with multiple species—when you put it all together, have you seen anything like Mensura?”

Sarah fell silent a few seconds as she walked, then admitted, “No.”

The Union building stood nearly two stories high on their current scale, set into the side of a hill; the “little” sidewalks and roads went around toward the higher part of the building, with the giant entrance standing alone on this one. When they entered, the design became clear: littles entered onto a separate level about thigh-high to giants, visible as one of several balconies running along the side of the entrance foyer for Sarah and Serrano—a foyer full of giant-sized furniture, and a handful of giant students. “Wow.”

“Okay.” Sarah grinned a little, putting a hand on her hip. “It’s impressive work.”

“Is the pizza pub for littles or giants?”

“I don’t know if Irsaw said. I guess for littles.”

A raccoon woman walking past—shorter than both of them but still at least seventy feet tall, wide but wearing her size extremely well—looked down. “The Beanstalk? It’s for both sizes, sugar.”

“Really. Is that safe?”

The woman grinned as she kept walking. “The sign still says ‘zero patrons eaten today,’ so it must be.” She pointed off to the left. “Just down the hall.”

Serrano blinked rapidly. Sarah covered a smirk. “So should we go make them change the number?”

“I’ll stick with bacon and pineapple.”

“Pineapple? You monster.”

Serrano laughed.

When they found the Beanstalk, both of them stopped, staring around. Serrano had only been on one other college campus, and its “restaurant” was a glorified cafeteria. This looked like something from a theme park. Booths and tables at giant scale looked like they were nestled in and around huge, stylized trees; branches and vines were catwalks for littles running to their own sets of tables and booths on multiple levels, some entirely separate but most actually sitting on the giant tabletops. Waitstaff of both sizes walked around, the littles seemingly appearing and disappearing from hidden doors in the “trees.” And, yes, the sign the raccoon had mentioned hung behind the bar. That was a wry sense of humor.

“This is a trip.” Serrano glanced up, her eyes settling on partially hidden speakers. Banks and banks of them. “Whoa.” She pointed. “See those?”

“Yeah?”

“Those are the kinds of speakers they use for stadium concerts.”

“Now’s your chance.”

Serrano smiled, but didn’t reply as they took a seat at the bar. A tiger came over and took their order, a small pizza split between Serrano’s bacon and pineapple and Sarah’s sausage and mushroom.

After their beers came, Sarah tilted her head. “You seem pensive.”

“Nah. Well…” She shrugged, gesturing at the speaker bank, then lowered her voice and looked sidelong at Sarah. “Maybe I actually won’t have a chance.”

Sarah put her hand on the coyote’s shoulder. “We’re going to beat them, Serrano.”

“But even if we do, what am I going to be at the end? I’m afraid I’m starting to think like Ulohne. Maybe I’ve always been kind of an asshole, but I haven’t been the kind of asshole who’d think ‘eh, just a mortal, whatever,’ and—” She stomped her paw against the floor.

Sarah moved her hand. “The kind of asshole like me, you mean.”

“No, no. I just…ugh.” She rubbed her face.

“No, I understand. I’m not the best role model for a new immortal.” She sipped her beer and smiled wryly. “Especially one who’s going to be as powerful as I suspect you are.”

“In some ways you’re a great role model. But you probably wouldn’t talk me out of, I don’t know, seeing how big a storm I could make. Seeing what skyscrapers feel like crumbling against a paw pad.”

“Should I?”

Serrano looked back up at Sarah’s expression, which was earnestly confused. She laughed, shaking her head. “Yes, you definitely fucking should.”

Sarah coughed. “I’ll make a note.”

The pizza arrived. She nodded thanks to the waiter and picked up a piece. “I know this might be a real selfish take on this, but it’s pretty fucking hard to imagine Ulohne grabbing a microphone on stage, right? I just can’t…I’m not ready to give that dream up.”

“Can you imagine me grabbing one?”

She looked the wolf up and down. “I mean, aesthetically, yeah. Why, have you? You’ve said you sometimes sing.”

“That’s my point. There’s no rule of the universe that says you can’t be a storm god and a rock star.” She picked up a piece of her pizza and started munching, eating it very fast with a pleased expression. “This is good. I don’t know a lot about pizza, but this is good pizza, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.” Serrano grinned, and finished her piece.

Sarah finished hers, then took a deep breath, turning toward the coyote. “Serrano, me being here, helping you, isn’t just ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ It’s not just a temporary truce.”

Serrano smiled lopsidedly. “Good.”

Sarah nodded. “Good.” She leaned forward a few inches, eyes meeting Serrano’s. “What would you do if I kissed you?”

She blinked slowly, looking into the wolf’s intense gaze. “I think I’d kiss you back,” she murmured.

The wolf hesitated, then touched her lips to the coyote’s.

Serrano put her hands on Sarah’s shoulders and pulled her closer, turning the light kiss into a firm one.