Gentle Giant

Shera was so focused on avoiding the dips and bumps along the path that she nearly jumped out of her own skin when she heard the voice. Her heart was beating in her ears as she raised the beam of the light to what she thought was the source of the noise. No one in the town would talk to her like that, even if they were just joking.

“Tell me who you are first, lady.” Loz took a bold few steps in the strange woman’s direction. The pebbled pavement crunched beneath his boots. With the night being so silent, it sounded more like gnashing chunks of concrete beneath his weight. He was close enough now to establish their drastic height difference. The flashlight she was..somewhat...holding illuminated the dark mass of Loz’s front, and then, glared in his dilated eyes.

“I’m not gonna put you in anything dumb,” Alak reassured him. “You’ll have the final say in what you wear.  Anyway, I do have some stuff in your size already, or near enough.  The measurements are so I can tailor them to your body. Otherwise they might sit weird, since you’ve got all those muscles.”

“You have to promise, okay? Pinky promise?” Loz supposed that he was meant to stand still and follow instructions for taking proper measurements. After Lak had had a chance to step up, and somewhat, even his height, he held out his smallest finger. Loz’s face held a very serious and official expression. Of course, pinky promises meant business. “Promise me nothing dumb....you okay?”

“I am telling you, Ciara, there is someone outside my house! I bet it was one of those damned boys out there trying to do something to my garden again! They are the ones that killed poor Mr. Whiskers. Natural causes my wrinkly old a–”

Loz smelled the stranger before he saw them coming. The handle of his Dual Hound snapped in place, in precaution, beneath his palm and he tightly gripped it. His ears trained on light footsteps on worn down dirt road. They were coming closer? Were they following him? Of all people? 

It was late, but it was Shera’s night for neighborhood watch so she sat up a little longer than usual. Cid had headed out to Midgar for some part or other for another one of his projects or they would be doing a split shift instead. Instead it all fell onto her to keep awake until at least midnight in case something exciting actually did happen.

Loz wiped a thin layer of dirt from his cheeks and squinted in the dark. The lights around town had long been snapped off leaving his eyes to adjust to vague figures and Rocket Town street corners. Running out of room on his gloves to rid the dirt and grime from hours of riding, he pulled off the leather garments and hopped off the seat of his bike. “What is all of this..?” He grumbled to himself and placed a now bare hand on his stomach. Loz was tired for once in his short life, but it certainly wasn’t the first time he found himself hungry. This was a place where people gathered, right? Maybe there was somewhere where he could have something to eat and drink. 

“What, running a business?  Yeah, I guess,” Alak said, deliberately misinterpreting Loz’s question. “But I’ve been doing it since I was fourteen, so…” He shrugged. “And I’ve been making clothes since I–” He stopped, frowning. How long had he known how to sew? “For a long time,” he amended.

Loz stooped in his tracks. He was a little apprehensive at the sight of the bright yellow tape in Alak’s hands. He tried not to fidget while he took measurements of his waist and arms. Loz didn’t know how he was going to reach his shoulders.