Tom ran into the courtyard only to behold the Giant Armor yet again. Its golden armor flashed in the sunlight. It stood there, proud.

It looked a little more real now. It stood amid a courtyard littered with stuff. A bouquet of metal poles blossomed out of a barrel. A coffin-sized box overflowed with wooden gears of every size. Large pieces of armor lay in a neat row along one castle wall. And everywhere was littered hammers and crowbars.

Out of a doorway on the other side of the courtyard strode a tall, black-haired girl of about eighteen. White silks flowed around her body like water over smooth river pebbles. She had a soft face, and she looked eagerly at Tom. He decided the best course of action was to just wait and observe. He didn’t want to break some ancient custom and get them all angry.

When she got close, she stopped, clasped her hands in front of her, and bowed slightly, then straightened and said, “I am Alyas, the High Priestess of Kaloon. I am the one who cast the summoning spell that brought you here. I am glad to see that you are well, and that your journey was not too hard of a strain.”

Tom’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why? Did you expect it to be?”

She pulled back slightly in surprise. “No! It can be…tiring, though. Were you hurt in some way?” Her voice rose in concern.

“…No,” Tom replied. “I just…I’m fine. Really.” He paused. “Thanks.”

She smiled again, though her face still carried a hint of concern. Now Tom was embarrassed at acting so suspicious.

“I am here to bless Hope,” she said. “You may climb into it now.”

Tom paused. “Hope?”

“That is the name of your Giant Armor,” she replied, gesturing smoothly at the giant suit next to them. “Because it is our last hope.”

Tom couldn’t think of anything to reply, so he tried his usual tactic: He said nothing and just looked at her. Her eyes bored into his, as if looking for something, and she leaned forward suddenly.

“So…you have decided to accept as Hope’s pilot?”

Tom thought for a moment about evading the question, then replied, “No. But that…Bask guy said I could at least fly it around a bit, since I…since I’m here.” He paused, searching for the right words to explain himself. “I’m just not sure about all this yet.”

She nodded and smiled a bit, as if relieved. Her muscles relaxed. “I thought as much,” she said, conversationally.

“What do you mean?” Tom asked.

She looked puzzled. “We brought you to our world, without warning. You have no family here, no country, and no allegiance. Why would you agree to fight for us?”

Tom frowned. “Well, that’s not the point,” he said. “Everyone here’s in trouble. You’re supposed to help other people if they’re in trouble.”

She gave him a genuinely puzzled look, and as she opened her mouth to reply someone ran full-speed out of the door from which she had entered.

It was a muscular boy in his mid-teens, with a shock of black hair and wearing loose, plain brown clothes. He came near and slammed to a halt as soon as he saw Alyas, bowed to her awkwardly, then turned to Tom and stuck out his hand. He said, “Hi. I’m Taka. I take care of Hope.”

Tom smiled and gripped his hand. Taka let his hand go quickly and started to blush under Alyas’ simple smile at the two of them.

“What do you mean by ‘take care’ of it?” Tom asked.

“Oh, repairs, replacing armor, that kind of thing.” He laughed nervously. “Mistress Alyas here found a whole load of spare parts along with them.”

“Them? There are other Giant Armors?” asked Tom.

“One,” said Taka, “but it’s out patrolling for Trych. Won’t be back for a little while. You can go ahead and get in. I’ll get a ladder.” With that, he walked over to a nearby pile of wood, leaned down, and heaved out a twenty-foot ladder, which he pulled up in front of the gleaming Giant Armor so that the head of the ladder leaned against the Armor’s stomach.

Now that Tom got a good look at it, he could see that there was an opening in its stomach, just big enough for Tom to fit into. He grabbed onto the ladder and began hauling himself up. As he got about ten feet off the ground, Taka stepped forward and gripped the ladder to keep it from wobbling or shifting.

From the ground, Alyas called to him, “I will bless Hope, so that it will live for you.”

Tom looked back at her and said, “Um, OK.”

Tom climbed up to the top of the ladder and peered inside. The smell of centuries-old dust wafted out of the big sphere in its stomach, which was plenty large enough for him. Inside was what looked like a bicycle seat, with holes on either side for his legs. There was plenty of space for his arms, but he couldn’t figure out how to get inside. He peered at the edge of the entrance and saw several handles embedded around it. He grabbed one and used it to lever himself inside, facing forward, then tucked his legs beneath him and stuck them into the holes. He sat down on the bicycle seat, then used another handle to steady himself.

But there were no controls! It was nothing but an empty shell, as far as he could see. He looked for anything he could use like a joystick or even a steering wheel, but there was nothing except more handles like the ones around the entrance hole. He sighed and leaned forward to shout down a request for help.

He caught himself as he noticed that Alyas was now standing in front of the Armor, her eyes closed and her hands clasped to her chest. She seemed to be praying. Tom really didn’t want to interrupt her, but he knew praying wasn’t going to do much of anything.

Then, it did.

Tom noticed a low hum, which grew louder by the second. The wood and metal around him began to glow with a dim light. Then the Armor began to fade away, showing first the blue sky above, then the thick stone of the castle walls around him, then the courtyard. Taka and Alyas were still down there, looking up at him. As the last of the armor faded away, he saw the metal around the entrance hole spin closed. The Giant Armor’s giant arms hung suspended in space next to him, as though not attached to anything.

Tom reached up an arm to wave at the two below, and the entire armor shook as it shifted balance. He saw the arm reach up and wave stiffly. He realized the armor must be copying his movements. He made a mental note to pray more often.

He crouched down like a quarterback, stamping his feet. The Giant Armor did the same thing, a little more slowly and stiffly, its feet hitting the ground like sledgehammers. Tom bounced around, and he found himself gripping random handles, but it wasn’t painful. He knew he could get used to this.

He decided to try flying. He stood there for a second, wondering what to do. He stood tall on his toes and arched his back, stretching upwards, hoping that something, maybe rockets, would activate. Nothing special happened. He was disappointed for a moment, then he felt his feet leave the ground. This got his attention; how could he feel his feet leave the ground?

This worried him for a moment, then he remembered: he had been flying.

He tried it again, standing on his toes and arching his back and generally pushing himself upward. He felt himself float up slightly. He turned to one side and felt the armor turn in the air, as if he was hanging from a string. He pushed himself up, and it was like the Armor was responding to his thoughts now. He just had to want to fly, and he could fly. He looked down at the people in the courtyard, and grinned.

He flew up, straight up into the sky, then slowed to a halt and looked around. Beautiful green forest stretched for miles and miles in every direction. To his right, the forest rolled like a crumpled comforter towards distant grey mountains. He dove back down towards the castle, and now he could really see it: three interconnected rings of stone wall, each corner a copper-covered tower. As he neared, he could see people running around, and as he angled towards the ground and zoomed past he could see people motioning him to come back. Not just yet, he wouldn’t. Besides, he figured, he was in a Giant Armor. Even if he ran into trouble, he could deal with it.

He skimmed a few dozen feet above the treetops, feeling like a bird skimming along the sea. The trees became thinner and more spread out until they were wide enough apart that the Giant Armor could comfortably fit between them. He dipped closer to the treetops.

Something grey flashed up from the trees ahead of him. Tom screeched to a halt as the thing flew right up to him and slammed into the front of Hope.

It was a Trych. The bug screamed and grabbed Tom. He yelled in horror and backed away, but the thing had a strong hold. Its other claw banged into thin air in front of Tom, and a distant part of his brain reassured him that it was banging against Hope’s front armor. It was pitiful reassurance as the thing squealed again and continued banging its claw against the unyielding armor.

Tom heard snapping and breaking, and looked behind himself to realize that he was dipping down into the trees. He couldn’t get any additional lift out of the Armor. He descended into the trees and slammed against trunks, smashing them to pieces. The Armor shuddered around him.

He came to a grinding halt and was about to swipe the bug off when he was overwhelmed with a low-pitched buzz, and out of the cool darkness of the forest came more bugs. Dozens of them, just like the one on his front, swarmed all over his Armor, clawing and banging away, squealing. Tom tried to rise again, but the bugs were holding him down now. He could barely move his arms with the number of bugs climbing all over him. He swiped uselessly at one of his arms.

Then, as if by a signal, they all flew away in a flurry of thin wings. As they pulled back, Tom heard a much louder buzz, low and sinister. Then a nightmare descended into the trees.

It looked like a Trych, but it was nearly as big as Tom’s Giant Armor. It was made of a dull grey metal, but it was all curves and spikes and spines. Each arm held a long blade that curved along its forearm. Its head was a smooth silvery oval with alien yellow eyes and a mouth that opened sideways. It hunkered down, spreading its legs and arms like a wrestler.

Tom immediately launched himself at it. He had no hope of defeating it if he waited for it to attack. He slammed into the Giant Trych; he could feel the impact in every bone and joint. They careened back into the trees, which broke like cardboard.

The Giant Trych leaned to one side and swung out of the way, then dug in one leg and launched itself into the air, flinging its arms wide. At the top of its leap, it seemed to hover, the long, curved blades on its arms glinting wickedly in the sun.

Tom rolled to the side, crushing trees like toothpicks. The Trych couldn’t change its direction in mid-air, so it came down with a slam that made Tom’s teeth rattle, less than thirty yards from where he was now rolling. He put out a hand and stopped abruptly, facing the Trych. It turned its head and looked at him, its compound yellow eyes unreadable.

Then suddenly Tom was aware of a loud thrumming noise, like a nearing motorcycle engine. The ground began to shudder.

To his astonishment, the Giant Trych began sidling away from him. The noise grew louder. Something blocked the sun above, and Tom looked up to see a large shape descending towards him. As it descended, Tom realized it was another Giant Armor, similar to Hope but silvery white instead of Hope’s gold-copper-brass. Tom looked back to the Giant Trych, which was even now unfolding four thin wings. The wings flittered at a dizzying speed, and the Giant Trych zipped backwards, away towards the mountains, much faster than Tom could have followed.

The front of the other Armor popped open, and out of it climbed a brown-haired boy about Tom’s age. He leaned out at Tom and, with a relieved smile, yelled, “Hi, newbie!”

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