You never really planned to go and investigate the walking trail. To travel all that distance, across hostile terrain and beset by unknown horrors, for a mere chance at seeing a human being? Impractical. Risky. Wasteful.
And yet...
And yet, you have rolled over the possibility in your head. Many times, over the months, you've thought over the possible sights... Clearly, the ability to view such a monster without any risk to yourself is all win-win.
No risk, as lesser creatures like chipmunks or spiders dare not get so close to such an alpha predator. Even you, with your evolved, intelligent brain, have to fight against primal fear to look across at the crouched immensity those vast metres away.
She rummages in that village-sized backpack of hers, facing away from you as you slowly pace closer. Simple movements from the being crash across to you like thunder, and that is just the movement of her hands and fingers!
What could she have come here for? You, as a child, climbed the worldtree oak even now shading the two of you, and perhaps this being has a similar nostalgic link to this remote glade. There's certainly little else here, unless she's merely here to take a break from her hiking.
At the foot of the slope now, you cross onto flatter ground, realising with a shudder the reason for this level field. Ahead of you for some hundred and seventy feet, nearly a third of that across, the grass that once towered over you like a jungle canopy has been stomped flat, the footprint of one step from the woman's hiking boot having found no resistance there. You stumble on more timidly, seeing the resilient plantlife already beginning to spring back to shape, only the weakest stalks dead and bleeding sap. Would that you could bounce back from such an impact.
Still, you walk closer, watching the back of this colossus, nerves a-tingle at the thrill that she may rise and move at any moment, speed and power beyond you - she could be upon you like she was upon the grass before you knew it, obliterating you, your hopes and your chances of saving the world in an instant.
That doesn't stop you walking, though. You need to understand her, to see just what a goliath like this is capable of. Even your most optimistic predictions of a miniaturised future population admit that a class of 'standard'-sized humans would be useful for protection and labour. Not too many, but definitely some. Observing this stranger definitely feels less creepy than watching your only family for such purposes.
She moves! You jump back, for all the good those fractions of an inch would do, and watch as her hands emerge from the bag, clasped together. They grasp a structure, a tower some hundred and fifty feet tall, and one hand twists it at its summit. It lifts further, her hair falling back as she tilts her head, the bottle meeting her lips and a gurgling cascade of liquid crashing into her mouth.
That thing must have a capacity in excess of a tenth of a ton! And here you are, having trouble carrying a single droplet of water!
Wait, where did you leave that water?
In a sudden panic, you rush back up the slope, the din of the woman drinking a backing track as you scour the countryside for your container. Luckily, its rotund form has not rolled too far from where you dropped it. You should not let your fascinations overcome you! You'll store this batch away before you properly inspect the giant, and once she's moved on resume your water rush.
You open the hatch, descending as the earth quakes around you, the woman clearly on the move. Don't go! you will. Not yet! Wait for me, please!
You place the barrel down the first opportunity you get, not willing to let this rare sight escape you. Back to the exit, you re-emerge into open air to see what the woman has done in your absence:
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