Giantesses of the ApocalypsePart 2: RosebudBy AstrogatorKing was just finishing up his morning workout when Thuvia brought in the newman. He had run five miles on the treadmill, did 150 pushups, then did an easyfifty laps in the pool to cool off. King sat on the edge of the pool for amoment to catch his breath, then took a towel and dried himself in front of themirror. As always he studied himself in the mirror appraisingly. A pleasuremale's body was his most important asset, he reflected, and for the most part heliked what he saw. His eyes ran over the bulging biceps, the well developedpectorals, the massive thighs, the hard, flat stomach. The gray at his templesworried him a little. He wondered: How old am I? There was no way to figure timein this place where he was, but he must have been here for years. He guessed hisage at no more than forty, but he could not be sure.
The ceiling suddenly creaked and swung back as Thuvia opened the lid of themalehouse. King turned away from the mirror startled and looked up at thebeautiful giantess kneeling over him. Thuvia's sixty foot frame was draped inthe usual loose white netting which from a distance looked like diaphanous silk.
Her golden hair was tied behind her head and one shoulder was bare, yielding thetotal effect of a colossal statue of a Grecian goddess come to life. At firstKing assumed that it was feeding time, for she held a dish in her left hand, asmall saucer about ten feet in diameter. The giantess set the dish on the floorof the cage and continued to look down at it.
There was no food on the dish, however, but only the slim nude figure of ayoung man, curled up into the foetal position and moaning. King studied theyouth for a moment, then looked up into Thuvia's vast green eyes. He heardThuvia's thought speech forming words in his head. "Teach him, " she said.
"Train him."King suspected why the young man had been brought, and he did not wish toobey. He tried to push the negative thoughts from his head but you could notconceal anything from Thuvia. Aloud he said, "I will teach him well." Thuviacould not hear his voice, but rather his thoughts which were like an open bookto her.
She spoke to him again. The words came into his head as a low, feminine voiceand they were angry in tone. "You disappoint me, little one. Nevertheless, Iknow you will obey." The tone of her thought speech softened and she said,"Train him and teach him all the tricks you know, and you will make Thuvia veryhappy." She reached out slowly with one hand and caressed the side of his bodywith one finger. "But do not work too hard today, my strong man. Tonight, Thuviawill need you very much." Her eyes suddenly took on a distracted look and shehurried away, leaving the malehouse lid open.
King was shaken. Thuvia had rebuked him unfairly, just because of a fleetingthought that was beyond his control. In spite of the brief caress, he wascertain that she had not forgiven him, that she no longer loved him. Most menpretend to love their goddesses, but their devotions are selfish, born out offear and a desire to prolong their own lives. He must show her that his love wastrue and pure and the only way to do that was to sacrifice his own life to giveher a daughter.
He imagined how it would be afterward. Thuvia would be surprised at first,perhaps a little annoyed at being impregnated unexpectedly, but mainly she wouldbe delighted and she would be very pleased with him and would smile when shethought of him. A daughter would grow inside of Thuvia, and one day Thuvia wouldgive birth to a young goddess who would grow up to look down on the world from agreat height through vast green eyes. And in her veins would flow the blood ofWinston King. Perhaps Thuvia would tell his daughter about him, and of the onegreat true love she had known. She would feel sorry that she had not been kinderto him while he was alive.
Suddenly a wave of nausea swept through King's stomach and he ran to thetoilet and retched repeatedly. "Snap out of it, " he said to himself betweenheaves. "Your thinking suicide again." When he brought his stomach under controlagain, King sat down on a bench and held his head down between his knees.
He recognized that nausea as the nausea of fear. You can fool your mind, hereflected, but not your body.
After a few minutes, King rose and walked to where the young man still laysniveling and kicked him in the rump. "Get up, you little wimp. You've got workto do."The youth rolled over and stared at King with fear crazed eyes. "What's thematter, don't you understand English?" King demanded roughly. That's all heneeded, he thought, a trainee he could not even communicate with. He took theyoung man's arm and dragged him to his feet.
"Leave me alone, " said the youth, shaking his arm loose from the older man'sgrip. He cringed away from King and stood hunched over, cowering and trembling.
"So you can talk!" King exclaimed happily. "We should thank the goddess forsmall favors!"The youth regarded King's powerfully built body. He noted that they were bothnude and looked around anxiously at the pool, the weights, and the exercisetreadmill. "Does...hell...look like...a YMCA?" he asked.
King's mouth dropped open in dismay. "Did you make a joke, boy?"The young man emitted a nervous giggle. "I...I...guess I did.""You are going to be allright, kid. Now you just listen to Winston King andeverything will be just great." King clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Toanswer your question, this is not hell, but it might as well be.""Is it coming back?" the young man asked.
"It? It is a she, boy, and she is coming back. But don't worry, she won'thurt you. She is the giantess Thuvia, and she has more important things on hermind than making trouble for little old you.""I guess that's your job."King was exasperated. "Believe it or not, I am trying to help you, boy.""Don't call me boy.""Then why the hell won't you tell me your name so I'll know what in hell tocall you!" King exploded.
The youth backed away a step but he said, "Oh...my name is Oliver Rose. Justdon't call me Rosebud.""Rosebud, I like that, " said King maliciously. "Okay, Rosebud, get in thepool and clean yourself up. The next thing we need to do is police up the area abit before Thuvia gets back. She likes us to keep this place clean, and we wantto keep Thuvia happy."Rosebud went meekly to the pool without further protest. King noted the lidwas open and the outdoor breeze was chilling their quarters. He grabbed a robefrom a peg on the wall and slipped it over himself, then started by cleaning upthe dish on which Rosebud had arrived. A few minutes later, Rosebud and King setto work with mops and pails cleaning the floor of the malehouse, in their whiterobes and bare feet.
As they worked, King told Rosebud the facts of life. "The cosmos belongs tothe giantesses," he explained. "All the stars, all the planets, and all thepeople.""We are their slaves?" asked Rosebud.
"Not slaves, " King told him. "Would you have any use for a slave the size ofone of your fingers? No, we are sort of like family. The giantesses are notsupernatural beings at all. They are born, they grow old, they die, just like wedo, but there are some important differences. They are much bigger than we are,they are longer lived, and a hell of a lot smarter." "So what do they want with us?"King stopped working for a moment and leaned on his mop. "We are males,aren't we? And they are females. They need us to make baby giantesses."Rosebud pulled up short and stared at King. "But, how...."King resumed mopping. "We'll get to that later. Here's the important thing.
Everytime you make one baby giantess, you scratch one male. That's why there areall those nice little women our size; to make sure that there will always beenough surplus males to make baby giantesses.""That's screwy, " protested Rosebud, following King across the floor.
"Thing's just don't work like that.""You went to school, didn't you?" asked King, looking back over his shoulderas he mopped. "There are more weird things in nature than you can put in a book.
Didn't you ever hear about ants, and bees, and spiders?""Yeah, " acknowledged Rosebud. "But those are all insects.""Not spiders, " laughed King. "They have eight legs, and insects have sixlegs. And what about Kangaroos? When a baby kangaroo is born it looks like alittle worm about an inch long. It has to climb up its mother's belly and getinto her pouch or it will die. Mother Nature is the cruelest giantess of all, myfriend. Look at baby alligators. Most of them get eaten by their parents beforethey get a chance to grow up. Mother Nature only cares about getting the jobdone."Thuvia suddenly appeared, standing erect beside the malehouse, towering 60feet into the sky and casting a shadow over them. Rosebud fled to a corner andcringed there. There was something gleaming in the goddess's hand, which shelowered toward Rosebud slowly. She held the object a few feet over the youth'shead and there was a brilliant flash of light. Thuvia straightened up.
"What is she doing?" the frightened Rosebud asked.
"She just took your picture, boy, " said King. "Nothing to worry about."For a moment, Thuvia stood looking at the gleaming object in her hand, andfrowning. Then she knelt and stared down at Rosebud. Rosebud suddenly gave a cryof pain and clapped his hands to his skull. "My head, " he screamed. "Somethingis roaring inside my head.""It's the thought speech, " King shouted. "She is trying to talk to you. Ittakes awhile to get the knack of understanding it. I guess she just tried toohard."Apparently Thuvia was growing impatient, for she put out her hand towardRosebud and attempted to pick him up. Rosebud scrambled away from her reachinghand and darted first one way and then another as she tried to catch him. "Stopthat, you idiot, " warned King. "She might accidently hurt you if you make herchase you!"Thuvia suddenly desisted and turned her eyes toward King. She spoke brieflyin the thought speech and King relayed the message. "She wants you to take offyour clothes.""Why?""She wants a nude shot!"Thuvia was standing once more, holding the gleaming object. The youth slippedoff his robe and stood cowering and shivering. "Straighten up and smile,Rosebud, " said King. "This is for the family album. Someday yourgiantess-daughter will want to know what you looked like."Rosebud did his best. The camera flashed once more and Thuvia went awaysatisfied. As he slipped back into his robe, he asked, "What will my daughter belike?""She'll be a lot like Thuvia, " King told him. "And maybe a little like you.""But I die when her life begins?""I am afraid that's the way it breaks down."Rosebud tightened up the belt of his robe and settled himself on a bench. Hesat there in silence for several minutes. "My own daughter...a goddess, " hesuddenly said. "How long will she live?"King answered from across the room. "Seven, eight thousand years, probably."Oliver Rose pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them. "Imagine that," he said. "Imagine that."***Several days later, King and Rose were working out in the pool. Rose waslying spread-eagled face down in the water with King's hands supporting him atthe waist. "The most important technique is the back thrust, " said King.
"Normally you are inserted into the vagina head first. When the contractionstarts, it will try to shove you forward, toward the glory hole. Don't let it.
As soon as you feel it, push backward into the contraction and let it grip yourbody instead of pushing against you. The worst thing you can do is recoil fromit.""What happens if it pushes me into the glory hole?" asked Rose.
"If that happens, you become a father, " King told him. "Now, practicethrusting backward. Push your feet back, straight out behind you and pushyourself backward with your hands. Try it."For an hour King coached Rose in the back thrust until the young man wasexhausted. Then they sat on the edge of the pool and talked. King contemplatedthe youngster's slender build worriedly. "One thing we need to do is put somebeef on you, " he said. "It takes strength as well as endurance to fight thecontractions. I just hope we have enough time to build you up with the weightsbefore Thuvia decides to take you to bed.""If she wants to conceive with me in her, there is not much I can do aboutit, is there?" asked Rose breathing heavily. "Like you said, if she uses thejelly on me, I'm done.""That's right, " King replied. "I don't think she intends to get pregnantright away, but accidents do happen and even goddesses are subject to whims.
We'll just have to hope there is time. As soon as you get your breath back we'lldo some bench presses and clean and jerk." King stood, walked to a shelf andcame back with some printed plastic sheets which he laid on the floor in frontof Rose.
"This is a diagram of a woman's body, " said King, pointing. "The giantessesare built almost exactly the same, except they are bigger. I'm going tell youexactly what happens if you mess up. Here you are in the vagina. You get tired,you don't time a contraction right, you get squirted right into the glory hole."He pointed on the diagram to the cervix. "This leads into the womb, or uterus asit says here. The muscles in the womb are much stronger than those in thevagina.""Women don't have muscles in the vagina," interjected Rose.
"Yes they do," King told him. "Once you get into the womb, you can't get out.
The glory hole tightens up behind you and the womb muscles contract. You getsqueezed into the upper portion of the womb near the egg. The wall of the wombattaches itself to you, a tube grows out from it and forces its way down yourthroat to bring you food and air. You get a huge dose of hormones that sends youinto a glory state and steps up sperm production.""What's a glory state?" asked Rose.
"Endless orgasm. The sperm is drained steadily from your body as fast as youcan make it. Your whole metabolism speeds up to provide energy for acceleratedsperm production." King leaned back. "What I have told you is nature's solutionto the problem of mating a male with a female who weighs a thousand times asmuch as he does. Straightforward, cruel, and beautiful. The male simply deliversthe sperm right to the site of the egg. As a bonus for his services, heexperiences several days of delirious exquisite pleasure.""Then he dies?""As soon as the egg is fertilized, " said King, "air and food are withdrawn.
The male dies, his body gradually shrivels and disappears."Rose was thoughtful. King waited for him to ask a question, but when nonecame he suggested they get on to the bench presses.
All day they continued with the workouts, and Rose was almost totally silentexcept for an occasional grunted "yes" or "no." That evening Thuvia came andlooked in on them but she took no one to bed with her. Rose had overcome histerror of the giantess finally and stood looking up at her respectfully as sheknelt over them and spoke a few stroking words in thought speech.
When Thuvia went away Rose remarked, "I heard her clearly that time, Winston.
She called me her little rosebud.""I thought you didn't like that nickname, " said King.
"I did not say I liked it, " Rose pointed out. "All I said was, she called meby it.""No she didn't," King shot back. "She sent you a caressing, motherly thought.
Your own brain supplied the words. That's how thought speech works. She sendspure ideas and your mind translates them into the right words for you.""She really likes me," said Rose with awe. "She really cares about me.""You better hope she doesn't get to liking you too much. She might decide tohave your daughter.""I think I would like that," Rose admitted.
"Well don't get your hopes up." King was a little concerned as he regardedthe young man. Was he talking suicide or just being whimsical? "Thuvia is fullof love and kindness and affection, but she cares about you about as much as anormal woman cares about a flower. Think of the size of that brain behind thosebig green eyes, and don't imagine you can hope to understand what is going on inher head. You and I are a very, very small part of her life."Rose suddenly seemed to have resolved something in his mind. They were lyingon their blankets, ready for sleep, when Rose sprang up to a sitting position.
"We are the giantesses!" he said.
"It suddenly came to me just now, " said Rose. "We are the giantesses! Whenwe fertilize the egg and die, our spirit goes into the body of thegiantess-daughter. We become giantesses after we die!""I think you are cracking up, " said King. "When you're dead you're dead andthat's all there is to it. Now quit talking like an idiot and go to sleep."***But Rose would not give up on the idea. He continued to talk about it fordays and began to neglect his workouts. King decided it was time for aheart-to-heart.
"Listen, Rosebud." King had returned from running on the treadmill and foundRose idling on his blanket. "You had better get back on the program or yourfirst time in the box is going to be your last. Thuvia told me to train you as apleasure male, and that is what I intend to do.""You are training me not to father a giantess-daughter, " Rose repliedindolently. "But that is just what I want to do. Someday Thuvia will come andtake me to her bed as she has done with you many times since I have been here.
You tickle her insides a little and the next morning she washes you and bringsyou back. That's not what I want. I want to go down that glory hole.""You are talking suicide, " King said to him.
"It is not suicide, " was Rose' reply. "It's the beginning of a new life asone of them.""That's baloney, " said King and rolled over on his blanket. "I don't want tohear any more of this stupid talk.""It's the only way out of here, " Rose observed. "Down the glory hole."King sat up on his blanket, exasperated. "You are absolutely right. That isthe only way out of here. But there is something you are forgetting. It is notup to you when it happens. Thuvia has no intention of becoming pregnant rightnow. She is training you as a pleasure male. She may be planning to give you toa friend of hers who does not have a pleasure male. The point is, Thuvia or someother giantess will decide when it is time for you to become a father.""All I have to do is relax and let it happen, " said Rose. "The first timeThuvia takes me, that is what I am going to do.""She can read your mind, you idiot. If she doesn't want to become pregnant,she'll never let you near her box.""I don't think she can read my mind as well as she can yours," rejoined Rose.
"Not yet, anyway. I had a lot of trouble hearing thought speech at first,remember. It still isn't always clear. Just maybe I can fool her long enough toget my chance.""But I know," King pointed out. "She can read my mind like a book. She willlook into my mind to find out if you are ready. I'm your trainer. She will wantto know if I think you are ready.""You did not want to train me at first, did you?" said Rose. "You werejealous of me when she brought me here. You thought maybe I was to be yourreplacement.""Maybe you are."Rose continued. "She must have seen that. I could tell, and I can't read yourmind at all. She knows you are a reluctant trainer and that you would like tosee me go down the glory hole. Maybe she won't trust what she sees in your mind.
Maybe she will misinterpret what she sees. It is worth a try. You've got to helpme!"King sat quietly on the blanket a long time, staring at Rose in the waninglight. Finally he said, "You are nuts. It won't work. But I am not going to tryto stop you. Let me give you some advice, though. Thuvia will never be fooled ifyou don't finish your training. A pleasure male has to look like a pleasuremale. You'll have to get back on the weights.""Agreed," said Rose.
Rose kept his part of the bargain, and did get back to his exercises. As theweeks passed, he began to develop the massive musclature of the trained pleasuremale. When Thuvia came to look in on them, to bring food or supplies, shenoticed Rose' progress and expressed her pleasure to King. As far as they couldtell, she noticed nothing amiss in either Rose' mind or King's.
One evening, just before the hour when Thuvia normally came, King said toRose, "I don't know if you are still planning on going through with thisharebrained idea of yours and I don't want to know. The fact is, you are readynow. I have taught you all I can, but there is one thing I haven't bothered totell you because it usually isn't necessary. Thuvia will need a little help tobecome aroused. She has to sense fear on your part.""It can't be true!" exclaimed Rose. "Not Thuvia! She is a kind and gentlegiantess. There is no sadism in her!""It is not sadism, " King told him. "It is a survival adaptation. A normal,untrained male in the hands of a randy giantess will feel a lot of fear. Shesenses this, both physically and mentally and desires to comfort the male in themost intimate way, which unfortunately for the male happens to be the thing hefears most. Between males and females caring leads to love which leads to sex.
That's true for men, women, and giantesses. In the case of these giantesses, theharder she tries, the scareder he gets, and the harder she tries. It's all bodyjuices, boy. They get into your blood and you do what they tell you. If youdidn't, well, we wouldn't be here, or anywhere else, for that matter.""I think I understand," mused Rose. "But don't worry. I think I'll be plentyscared."An hour later, Thuvia came and took Rose away quickly. She did not pause tocommunicate with King and he felt hopeful that she had not sensed what was inhis mind.
The next morning, Thuvia did not come, nor that night or all the next day.
King was not inconvenienced because the malehouse was well stocked withblankets, towels, clothes, food, and had running water. When Rose was notreturned, King immediately began to worry. Had Rose achieved his goal? How wouldThuvia react? Would she blame him for an unwanted pregnancy? Do giantesses haveabortions, and would the fruit of Rose's sacrifice be wasted? While he waiteduneasily for Thuvia's return, he continued with the routine of housekeeping,exercise, preparing meals, exercise, washing and sleeping.
Then the next evening, at bedtime, Thuvia came. She took King to her bedroom,washed him, and set him on her stomach in the bed. She did not communicate withhim in any way. Her face was unexpressive and her thought speech was withheld,until that moment.
Then she lowered her eyes toward King and poured out at him the most terriblescolding he had ever experienced. "You do not love Thuvia, " she said. "You donot want Thuvia to be happy. You do not want Thuvia to have pleasure after youdie. You are not a good man."As King listened to these words forming in his mind, he fell forward abjectlyon his hands and knees and put his head down on her warm olive skin. He coweredthere trembling, waiting for death. He had never seen anything to match Thuvia'senormous wrath, and he knew she was pregnant, that she blamed him, and that shewas going to punish him in some terrible way. And he knew that he deserved it.
He could feel the increasing tempo of the rise and fall of her breast as shebegan to breath faster, and he dared raise his head and look into her vast greeneyes.
He saw those eyes liquid with desire, and he suddenly knew that she was notpregnant and that all was well. He felt her hands close gently around him andpush him slowly down her stomach toward the warmth between her legs.
For Thuvia, it was a most excellent sexual experience. For King, he had theconsolation of knowing that he had given one of the most satisfactoryperformances of his long career as a pleasure male. Afterward, as he lay besideher on the bed, he congratulated himself on the quality of his work. He had usedevery trick he knew to heighten her state of arousal and prolong it, even at therisk of his own life. He had taken chances he had never dared take before, andwould probably never dare take again.
Thuvia spoke tenderly to King as he lay there beside her.
"Thuvia is not ready to bear a child again, " she told him. "Dejah, thesister of Thuvia will have Rosebud's daughter. Tonight Rosebud will be afather." The next thought could not be put into words in the thought speech, butKing understood it just the same. He sensed the condescending amusement of avast intellect at the presumption of an inferior one. He felt the blood rushinginto his skin as he blushed all over with embarassment. Even though he wasalready nude, it was only then that he felt truly naked.
***It was to be many lifetimes of a man before Thuvia felt the desire to onceagain bear a child. As the years passed, Thuvia acquired other pleasure males,and took King to her bed less and less. Yet she refused to part with him, andthe end of his prime came and went. Thuvia moved him to a special male house ina back corner of her garden. It was shaped and painted to resemble an Englishcountry cottage. There was a door that he could open and close himself, realfurniture, even real books on the shelves. There were no hinges on the roof sothat it could be opened from above by a goddess' hand.
He could go out into the garden and walk among the trees whenever he wished.
Sometimes, King would walk to the old malehouse near the front of the garden andstare at its windowless, doorless walls. On nice days, when the lid was leftopen, he could hear the whir of the treadmill, the clang of weights, and theearnest voices of young men speaking languages he did not understand.
Sometimes, early in the morning, or late in the evening, he would see Thuviaworking in the garden, moving steamshovel loads of earth with each turn of hermighty trowel, crouching magnificently over full grown trees, or admiring theponderosa pine that she had brought from Earth as seedlings and planted herselfmany centuries ago. On extremely rare occasions, she would notice King watchingher and send a caressing thought toward him.
As King grew older, and less able to get around, Thuvia would occasionallycome to visit him at the cottage. She would seat herself on the ground in frontof the house and tap on the door with a finger until he came out. Then she wouldtake him in her hands and stroke him with her thoughts. Many weeks would go bybetween these visits, and King cherished every one. Sometimes, when Thuvia wasin a contemplative mood, she would share with King some of the details of herown life beyond this garden and her own house. Much of it was beyond hisunderstanding, but still he learned many things about the world of thegiantesses, about their society, and he resolved to write it down.
One day, when King was a very old man, and had taken to spending most of theday sitting in the sun in front of his house, Thuvia came toward the cottageleading a very young giantess child by the hand. The giantess child was quitesmall, standing a mere twenty feet on bare legs. Thuvia knelt down in front ofKing and placed the child beside her. "This is Thera, Daughter of Thuvia'ssister, Dejah." Thera looked up at Thuvia, and knelt down in the same position.
This brought her head almost down to King's level when he rose up from hisbench.
King extended his hand in greeting and said, "Hello, Thera, daughter of Dejah."His hand was enclosed by Thera's big chubby fist and the child laughed. Thuvialeaned close and whispered something in her ear which made Thera laugh oncemore.
"Thera is too young for thought speech, " said Thuvia to King. "She greetsthe friend of her little father." Thuvia took something from the pocket of hergown and handed it to the child. Thera laid the object on the ground in front ofKing and pointed.
When King looked down he saw a full color, three dimensional photograph ofOliver Rose, as a young nude man, staring anxiously up at the camera. A strangedeep voice suddenly said, "Rosebud!"King looked up and saw that it was Thera speaking, not through thoughts, butwith her mouth. "Rosebud! Rosebud!" the child repeated, and each time she puther hand on her chest. King looked up at Thuvia hoping she would read in hismind the need for an explanation, and supply it. Instead, Thuvia touched Kinggently with one finger, then put the photograph away, hoisted the child in herarms and carried her back toward her house.
King never saw the child again, but he pondered the meaning of that day manytimes. Was the child trying to say that Rosebud was her father? Or was thatOliver Rose, trying to communicate with him, to tell him what lay on the otherside of the glory hole?
