Standing In the Shoulders of Giants

by Adrian Ward

“Lotta rain clouds today,” Teru says. I look up to find him standing on the balcony, spyglass pressed to his face.

I walk over, lean on the railing next to him, follow his gaze down to the clouds. It doesn’t take a spyglass to see the tides of dark gray, swirling where Iapetus’ legs disturb them. Vedimar hawks, made tiny by distance, circle somewhere around the titan’s stomach, picking at anyone foolish enough to poke their head out. As I watch, a hawk’s body drops, then slowly rolls towards Iapetus, snagged on a reelbow line that’s too thin to see from up here. Its fellows circle angrily, then scatter as a redtail drake pierces through the cloud bank and takes aim at them.

I point it out to Teru, and he begins rattling off facts about the drake, excited to the point of stumbling over his words. He wanted to be a biologist at one point, but failed the university entrance exams. I wanted to be a copter tech, but Iapetus makes everything small, even dreams. I think that’s a half-clever line, and I start to tell it to Teru, but he’s not paying me any mind. He whoops, grabs me by the arm and shakes it, points eagerly as the redtail drake dives. It comes up clutching a hawk, tears its wings to shreds before plummeting back through the clouds, meal in tow. (Continue Reading…)