Chapter 4: Playful Giant Redheads Are Cheeky

————

"Petra? Petra? PETRA!"

Letting out an abrupt snort, Petra's humongous chocolate eyes suddenly darted open to see the teensy-tiny Jesse standing in front of her vision and in the blanket of grass blades.

Rubbing her eyes, Petra yawned right in front of Jesse, knocking him off his feet and tumbling backwards like a ball. Seeing Jesse collapse on his back, Petra just realised what she did and rapidly jumped up to her feet.

"Jesse?!" She exclaimed, crouching down to pick up the ant-sized brunette in her shaking hands. He began to stand up with a damaged groan, but the poor guy started screaming in terror when he realised what was happening.

"I'm so sorry, Jesse! I didn't notice you were right there in front of me!" Petra shrieked, shaking along with him as she brought him up to her giant oval-shaped face.

"Petra, please don't scream so loud!" Jesse shouted, covering his ears with his hands and cringing. The sound of her booming giantess voice was too much for his sensitive ears to handle.

"Sorry, Jesse!" Petra hastily whispered through her teeth, putting him back on the grass in front of her big feet.

"Ow, that's something you don't want in your ear at half seven..." Jesse groaned quietly, pointing his face down at the grass. He stopped holding his hands against his ears, looked up at Petra like a magnificent living building, and with a casual look on his face, climbed up on the biggest toe on her left foot, parking his bottom on the black nail polish.

Slowly slamming her bum down on the grass and bringing her feet up, Jesse exclaimed in joy for once and went for a short ride down Petra's foot. The ride ended quite abruptly when he skid to a halt on her leg and she picked him up with her big fingers. He really looked like he enjoyed himself when Petra brought him up to her face again. He was laughing and smiling almost uncontrollably, but he got ahold of himself and diverted his attention on Petra.

"Good morning, Petra. How's your new life as a giant woman treating you?" Jesse asked, breaking his arms out of the fist Petra started to clench her hand into, which she didn't want to clench too hard since she would end up crushing him to death that way.

"I'm not too sure, Jesse..." The redhead hesitated, looking back at the village where everyone waved at her with smiles on their faces. "I mean, I may have made good friends with an entire village and got them to feed me but... what I did back at Beacontown was inexcusable of me. And how did you find me?"

"Oh, I just followed your footprints." Jesse replied, looking at some of the footprints she left behind in the soil that Petra walked on. Bringing her right foot up for a brief examination, Petra giggled a bit when she saw just how dirty the sole was from walking on all that dry land.

"Well, at least I'm not a difficult target for you to lose now." She laughed at Jesse, nuzzling his brown locks with one of her fingers. Jesse's cheeks turned a deep shade of tomato red and the adorable brunette in her giant hand snickered.

"So, Petra... I just want to know... Do you want to come back to Beacontown with me?" Jesse asked, his inner furnace cooling down as his cheeks turned back to normal.

"Jesse... I don't think I want to..." Petra sighed in disappointment. "You saw what happened yesterday, right? Everyone cast me off as an evil giant whose only desire in life is to feast on innocent citizens for no good reason."

"Petra, please don't say that about yourself! You know that's not true!" Jesse tried to convince her, attempting to squirm out of Petra's fist.

"But people judged me before they even got to know the new me!" Petra abruptly shouted, laying Jesse back down on the grass.

"Everyone... They... Th— They..." Petra sniffled as tears began to leak out of her brown eyes. "They no longer saw me as the brave warrior who would jump in and save their lives..." She looked down at the palms of her hands. "They just chose to see me as this destructive, malicious monster!" Petra let her tears loose and began to cry in front of her tiny boyfriend.

"Whoa!" Jesse exclaimed, jumping out of the way of Petra's humongous tears. What were simply insignificant drops of salty water to her were like splashing atom bombs of death to him. "Petra, don't cry!"

Petra choked up and continued to let her tears flow down her cheeks like waterfalls. She curled up into a ball and let her knees get stained with her own liquids of misery. "Why do people judge me just because I'm taller than them?!" The crying giantess sobbed. "It's not fair! I just wanna get back to normal again!"

"PETRA!" Jesse shouted at the miserable goddess. This caused Petra to turn off her waterfalls for a brief period of time and focus her eyes on the small brunette. She wiped some of her tears away as she choked again.

"Please don't cry, Petra. You know I hate seeing you so sad like this." Jesse said, pressing his hands against her leg.

Petra closed her eyes and put her clenched fist up against her nose, sniffling into it. "I'm sorry for crying, Jesse..." Her voice cracked as she tried to fight her tears. "But... everyone I've met has been judging me before they got to know me... All they do is just take one look at me and assume I'm an evil giant..."

"Come on, Petra, don't look on the dark side of things." Jesse replied, rubbing Petra's silky skin. "You're not an evil giant. Some people just never learned not to judge people for how they look. Those people who were calling you "evil"? They were just a minority. Come with me. I'll take you to Beacontown and we'll all welcome you back with tiny open arms."

Wiping her salty tears away again, Petra sniffled before letting out her response. "You will?" She choked up, trying to get rid of her frown.

"Of course we will, Petra! I mean, everything you did yesterday was just an accident!" Jesse laughed, walking from Petra's leg to the patch of grass in front of her feet. "It's not like we'd all hate you just because you broke a few things out of shock and confusion. Even the people who wanted you gone have started to regret that a bit!"

Finally, Petra stopped crying and her waterfalls turned off. Her smile finally returned as she picked Jesse up in her huge hands. "Thank you." She said, letting the tiny brunette hug her giant cheek.

"Mmmm... your cheek feels so warm..." Jesse sighed, nuzzling his face into Petra's heated skin. "I'd even go as far to say you're like a giant human radiator..." This amusing compliment was enough to get a giggle out of her.

"You don't wanna walk too close to my sun, Jesse." Petra laughed, laying him back down on the grass.

"So what do you say, Petra? Are you coming back to Beacontown with me? I'd say everyone's started to miss having you around regardless of your size." Jesse beamed at Petra with a grin and wink.

"Oh yeah, I'm definitely coming, Jesse!" The gigantic woman exclaimed in joy, getting up on her feet again. "Just give me a few seconds to stretch and I'll follow you there!"

"Good to know!" Jesse replied, turning his back on Petra and staring off into space.

That's when Petra had a delightfully devilish idea for a joke. Donning an evil smirk on her face, the devious redhead crouched down and went in to grab Jesse. Her hand clenched into a fist around him and Jesse reacted in shock and fear.

"Aaaaaaah!" Jesse screamed, drips of sweat starting to come down his forehead. "PETRA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

She then decided to let out an evil laugh all while slowly bringing the hand she caught Jesse in closer to her mouth. "Mmmm... I think I'll have a bit of Jesse Delight for the main course..." Petra slurped, licking the area of her closed mouth with her tongue. In an effort to scare Jesse even more, Petra opened her mouth to reveal her dark, slimy, scary cavern full of her sticky saliva.

"PETRA, STOP! HOW AM I GONNA GET YOU BACK TO BEACONTOWN IF YOU'RE GONNA EAT ME?!" Jesse shrieked, trying to break out of Petra's fist. She licked the top row of her teeth with her tongue, ready to chow down on her first human. At least, that's what he thought Petra was going to do.

Jesse was just centimetres from being thrown inside Petra's mouth now, and the terrified tiny man in red suspenders was so desperate to escape. "PETRA, NO!" He shouted as Petra took him inside her black humid cavern. "DON'T EAT ME PLEASE!" And right when he said that on cue, Petra dipped him onto her slimy tongue, trap him by curving it in a spiral-like shape and gathering up a bunch of her saliva before finally spitting him back out onto her hand to laugh at how scared he was.

"Petra, what the heck is so funny?!" The saliva-drenched man frowned at the chortling giantess, still trying to escape from her firm grip.

"Oh my god, Jesse!" Petra hollered, wiping away her tears of joy. "You should've seen the look on your face when you thought I was gonna eat you!"

"That wasn't funny, Petra!" Jesse shouted back at her. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Haha! I'm sorry, Jesse! I only wanted to mess with you a bit!" Petra laughed before putting Jesse back on the grass. The wet boy started to wipe her saliva off his body and clothes.

"Ewwww..." Jesse cringed, trying to make himself a clean man again. "Petra, what the heck were you thinking? And god... it really stunk in there! Whatever happened to you taking mints every morning?!"

"Don't get mad, Jesse! It was only a joke!" Petra chuckled, laying down on her stomach to observe the tiny brunette trying to clean himself.

"But there was still no good reason for you to scare me like that!" Jesse replied in an annoyed tone.

"Hahaha... Come on, Jesse... Let's get you cleaned up." Petra snickered, grabbing her angry slimy boyfriend in her hand. "I mean, what are your friends gonna say if you show up all slimy and sticky?" Petra got up and started searching her surroundings for the nearest patch of water she could find...

————

After walking around aimlessly for a large patch of water, Petra finally noticed a lake of salty sea water in front of her and Jesse. The tiny brunette was sitting on her hand, still disgusted at how drenched he was in her saliva.

"Yuck..." She could hear him say as he continued to wipe it off his clothes.

"Hey, Jesse! I found us a lake we can bathe in!" Petra exclaimed, running over towards it with big booming stomps on the ground.

"Uhh, Petra? Really? Bathing in a lake? Don't you think this seems a bit indecent?" Jesse asked as Petra looked down at the lake and dipped one of her toes into it.

"Hey, nothing's indecent as long as it gets you nice and clean." She smiled at Jesse, sliding him off her hand and into the lake.

"PEEEEEEETRA!" Jesse screamed at the top of his lungs before he hit the water with a loud splash! After a few seconds, he burst up from the blue pool, coughing and spluttering as he looked up and waved his fist at the hulking girl.

"You think you could've took my wet clothes off before you dipped me into the lake?!" He yelled in an irate fit of rage. "Now look at the extra effort I'm gonna have to do! I mean, just look at me! This shirt and my jeans are dry clean only!"

Petra couldn't help but let out a small giggle at Jesse's frustration. "I'm sorry, Jesse..." She snickered, adding in a blush on her cheeks. "I didn't really think about that..."

"Oh, shut up!" Jesse exploded, swatting the water with his hand. "And why don't you get in as well?! I mean, look at the state of your feet! They're filthy!"

"Are they now?" Petra giggled. She brought her right foot up, and truth be told, Jesse wasn't lying. Every inch of her sole was covered in grubby dirt. For the sake of better inspection, she decided to take it up to her nose and sniff it. Sure enough, it wasn't pretty to take a whiff at.

"Ugh! You're not kidding, Jesse! They do really stink!" Petra cringed, holding her nostrils. The careless giant gave in to Jesse's demands and dipped her mucky feet into the lake. They sunk all the way down to the bottom of the sandy ocean floor, leaving only the top of her chest and head present in the open.

"Mmmm... This feels quite nice..." Petra sighed in satisfaction, walking a good distance away from Jesse and kicking her feet up. She was aiming to lay back first on the water but she just ended up sinking through it.

"Whoa!" Petra exclaimed through the water, her reaction lost in bubbles. She hit the ocean floor with a hard thump but she quickly swam back up as fast as she sank through it, accidentally getting Jesse wet as she shook the water droplets off her body. Petra's fiery auburn hair was wet through and so was the rest of her.

"Make sure to watch where you shake, Petra." Jesse laughed, wiping the water droplets off his face. Petra also joined in on the laughter as she began to scrape the dirt off her feet underwater.

For a good amount of time, Petra and Jesse just swam all over the lake aiming on getting themselves clean. Jesse dived underwater not only to eliminate the smell of her saliva but also for the sake of fun, and Petra continued to scrape her big feet on the ocean floor and against one another to get the grimy dirt off them.

"You know what, Petra? I actually take back what I took out on you earlier. This actually feels quite nice." Jesse smiled, performing backflips in the water to impress his titanic girlfriend.

"Haha, I know right?" Petra laughed in response to Jesse's statement. She diverted her attention to the ocean floor and proceeded to stomp randomly on it. "Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Haha! Being a giant is so much fun!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Petra." Jesse giggled. "What if you accidentally killed a bunch of innocent fish doing that?"

"Sorry, Jesse." Petra snickered, bringing her underwater tremors to a stop and refusing to stomp on the sandy surface anymore. Instead, she just held her breath and went for a brief dip underwater. She swam right underneath Jesse's kicking legs and emerged from behind him.

"Marco!" Petra exclaimed in joy, arms spread wide with a smile on her face.

"Polo!" Jesse shouted, turning towards Petra and also spreading his arms out.

This cycle ended up going on for quite a while, and they didn't get out of the lake until a good five minutes of playing nothing but Marco Polo.

Afterwards, Jesse and Petra both dragged themselves out of the lake and back onto the grass. They were both wet all over, dripping water from their hair and bodies. Petra brought her right foot up again to see that the sole is now completely clean and had no dirt on it.

"Much better..." Petra sighed, putting her foot down to pick Jesse up in her hands. "Haha... wasn't that fun, Jesse?" She blew on her tiny boyfriend to stop him from dripping. His brown hair went flying against Petra's strong breeze.

"It sure was, Petra." He smiled. For a guy who seemed to hate getting wet unless he went swimming with Petra or even his friends, he eventually seemed to handle his scenario in the lake quite well. He sniffed the air in front of him, probably just to smell how Petra did now. "Man... you smell like a brand new woman from here."

"Tehe... Thank you..." The tomboy giggled, feeling her cheeks heat up and turn red when he gave her this compliment. Feeling a little giddy inside from Jesse's kind words, Petra brought her index finger close to his nose and he seemed to erupt from laughter, falling onto her palm and kicking his legs while he laughed out loud.

"Petra, don't do that! I'm very ticklish, you know!" He cried tears of joy, trying to contain himself. Naturally, Petra got a good laugh out of his reaction and decided to tickle his tummy this time. The tiny brunette exploded into another laughing fit, rolling on her palm and trying to escape the wrath of her tickling finger. "Petra, you can stop now! Hahahahaha!"

Naturally, Petra did what Jesse told her to and stopped her tickling rampage, giving him some time to stop laughing and stand up properly. Jesse let out a sigh of relief as he rubbed his sides and sat down on Petra's palm, eager to guide her back to Beacontown.

"Come on, Jesse. Show me the way to Beacontown. I'm sure everyone's missed having us around there." Petra smiled at the tiny man resting on her hand. He pointed straight forward and she simply decided to follow his directions from there.