Page 110 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

“I’m sorry.”

“Try to get up again and you certainly will be. Now, tell me everything.”

Maren took a deep breath and regaled me with a story that seemed as though it could only have come out of a fairytale book, yet I knew better. I knew every word was true and I stayed silent and listened, while a hope that I had long ago dismissed as unlikely, came bubbling to life in my chest once more.

“And then she gave me a seed and said I should plant it and, well, I kinda like the thought of having more freedom and I like to plant things, so it didn’t seem like much of a hardship.”

I nodded. “That makes sense.”

Sort of.

Of course, I’m a man whose life experiences include being turned into a very green giant. So, while most of what she was saying required a heavy dose of blind faith to believe, my ability to suspend my disbelief had some serious feet on it.

She was looking at me, trying surreptitiously to take in the full size and bulk of me. I’ll admit it. I took some suspension of disbelief too, but being a lean, green, muscle machine now, I was fairly confident she’d get over the shock of me fairly quickly.

“I think I’m going to go home now,” she said instead and stood up.

"You fell out of the sky," I reminded her dryly. “Your house is up there," I said, pointing into the clouds above us. "And your village is down there." I pointed at the clouds beneath my feet. "Where are you going to go exactly, and how do you plan to get there?"

"Do you not see the giant vine?" she asked sarcastically, pulling herself into a sitting position. She tried to stand, but I stopped her. I was truthfully worried about her health, but also, I just didn't want her to leave.

"Stay put," I said forcefully, pushing her down onto the pillow again with one finger. "I'm not going to tell you again. I will help you figure out how you got here and how to get home, but not until I know that you are not hurt or in shock."

"You're kind of bossy and domineering, you know that?" the girl said, glaring at me with narrowed eyes and pinched lips.

"I've been told that a time or two," I conceded. "I imagine I haven't changed much, aside from being huge and green and taking up residence in the clouds."

"So... you haven't always been huge and green? Or lived up here? In the clouds? Or wherever we are?"

“Not hardly," I scoffed. "I reckon it's been two years, maybe three."

"Can you tell me how you got here?"

"I will, eventually. Right now, I don't even know your name." I stuck my giant hand out and waited for her to take it. "I'm Todd."

"Maren." She stuck her tiny hand into my large one, and I shook it, careful to not crush her.

"Maren," I repeated, letting it roll over my tongue. Maybe it was the fact that she was the first human I had seen in god knew how long, or maybe it was the fact that she was just so damn cute, but I honestly thought it was the prettiest name I had ever heard. "Well, Maren, as I said before, I'll help you get home if I can, just as soon as I am sure you are well and strong enough to make the journey."

"Journey! Pft! All I have to do is climb down the vine. You are rather a dramatic sort, aren't you?"

"And you are rather a sassy sort. Okay, so all you have to do is climb down the vine? Let me ask you this. How far is it? How long will it take? How far up are we? If you fall, will you die?"

She frowned at my questions, opening and closing her mouth as she searched for answers she didn't have.

"That's what I thought. Now humor me. I'm going to go into the kitchen and make us some breakfast, and you are going to stay put. I hope you like green beans."

Chapter Three

Green beans for breakfast? Obviously, everyone had been wrong for hundreds of years, and hell was really in the sky, surrounded by bossy green giants and green beans, not under the ground, with flames and horned red guys.

"Um, excuse me," I called nicely from behind him as he made his way into the kitchen. "I don't mean to be a bother, but I don't really care for green beans. Could I get something else?"

The giant, Todd, turned on his heel and regarded me with an odd expression, one eyebrow raised.

"Look around, little dreamer, it’s green beans or nothing. And nothing is not an option."

He left me there sputtering and confused about his answer. Were green beans really all he had to eat? If so, I really was in hell.

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