Author's Note: So I decided to continue Family Business and with it, Artwork too.
The Man and The Giant
The Skies
The Sky Palace
"Holy smokes, this can't be real, could it?" Albert asked himself, in awe of his new surroundings.
Beautiful furnishing filled the interior of this sky palace, except everything was super-sized. Everything had a great degree of gold and silver attached to it or made from it. Long towering arch windows lined the walls of the palace that looked out into the vastness of the Earth's skies.
The pearlescent marble wall and floors were reflective enough for Albert to see his reflection on the floor as he followed her. Seats made of shimmering gold, silver, and bronze, including a rug made from priceless silk furnished the foyer. Paintings hanging from the walls, depicted various images of nature such as snowcapped mountains, endless forests, and volcanoes. There were hardly any of her majesty, except for one located at the top of the second-floor staircase.
There was a total of four floors inside the palace, all massive in size and only accessible via stairs carved out of pure silver, which beamed in the light of the sun that penetrated through the windows.
Something else that caught Albert's attention was maids and butlers made from white fog. One of them passed him carrying some towels in hand; they solidified when they passed him, resembling porcelain dolls, except they had had no eyes or lips. They had noses though, why exactly was unclear to him. Another observation he noted was that they were tall, between eight and ten feet tall.
He followed the sky queen until they reached the fourth floor. God only knew how many rooms there were on each floor alone, maybe thousands. Didn't she get lonely up here? How did she pass her time.
"What did you say your name was again?" she asked him softly, brushing some of her hair behind her shoulder.
"It's Albert DeSanto. It's a pleasure to meet you, your sky highness?" he said sheepishly and bowed.
She giggled softly at his awkward salutation. "Human names are always so short and simple. I can't give you my name because only my betrothed can know and speak my name. If it pleases you, you may call me Kinowa; that is my middle name."
"That's a pretty name. You said you were a Sky Queen, right?"
"That's correct but why do you ask?"
"Just curious. Is everything inside and outside of the palace a part of your domain? Where are your subjects? I thought every monarch has loyal subjects."
"You already saw my subjects. Those maids and butler's downstairs are all my subjects. I created them using magic."
Albert wondered about something as he watched Kinowa. "My mother talked to me about the Nephilim, but she never told me if there were any female Nephilim. would you happen to be--"
"I'm going to have to stop you right there, Albert. I need to explain the differences between my kind and the giants you know as The Nephilim. Unlike my kind, The Nephilim are terrestrial giants made of flesh and spirit. Sky Giants and Thunder Giants by extensions are the weather-given physical form. We are not flesh and spirit, for flesh dies. We do not die by aging but we can still be killed by beings stronger than us. We can also choose to procreate if we choose to."
"So let me get this straight, Kinowa. You, along with these other giants, are the physical personifications of the weather then? Whoa. That's pretty awesome."
"Each Sky Giant, male and female, is responsible for establishing their kingdom in the skies; this area is mine. We've made it darling."
Albert and Kinowa stopped in front of a large pair of twenty-five-foot-tall doors made of gleaming silver. He marbled at the ornate designs on the doors from top to bottom--scenes depicting life, love, and war, including letterings from an unknown alphabet decorated the entrance. Albert tried and pretended to understand what the words spoke about but to no avail.
Kinowa pushed the doors ever so slightly using just the tips of her fingers. The massive hulking doors opened forward slowly. As the doors opened for both, Albert gazed in awe at the enormous quantity of gold, silver, bronze, and diamonds and jewels inside of this titanic size bed-chamber. The walls were carved from pure gold--the ceiling from silver. The frame of the bed, which was large enough to fit three African elephants, was fashioned from lapis lazuli. Every single item inside Kinowa's bed-chamber was priceless.
"I hate to be so blunt with you since I just met you, Kinowa, but have you had much sex before?"
She blushed, stifling back laughter. Albert blushed and laughed nervously, wondering why he would ask this giant woman such a vulgar question.
"Contrary to what I told you outside, sky giants are notoriously polyamorous when we are not married. After marriage, extreme monogamy becomes the rule, not the exception. To answer your question more directly, young Elioud, yes, I have had sex before, with men and women from different races ranging from giants to a handful of terrestrial races. Today will be the eleven hundredth year I have been alive. I have known many lovers in that time but none I can call my soulmate."
Albert had a thought. He felt terrible thinking about it, but he wanted to come out and ask her.
"Kinowa, can I ask you a question. Have you ever lain with a fallen angel masquerading as a human woman?"
"A fallen angel that masquerades as a woman?" she repeated, thinking about the question.
Albert took out his phone from inside his pocket and showed her a photo of his mother. She took hold of the tiny rectangular object in her hand and had to bring the ten-inch-tall screen up close to her eye so she could get a clearer image.
"I recognize this one. This woman is indeed one of the fallen. She's an angel in disguise. I supposed to non-supernatural races; she appears as an ordinary human woman. But I never had any personal history with her. I've seen her flying around only two times, once when I was one hundred years old and again when I was three hundred. Sky giants and angels have never been on good terms with each other and never will be. We're not necessarily enemies, but we're not friends either. Angels fly through our domain day and night doing God's will. By nature we're very territorial, and we will fight them if we can get our grips on their pretty faces. But because they have God's protection and favor, we always lose and must tolerate their pretty faces flying in and out of our domains."
