Fairly sure he knew the way, Sothe proceeded down the forest path. He didn't know the area as well as he knew the streets of Nevassa, so he was tense. Micaiah's state wasn't making things any easier either. He glanced down at the tiny woman in his hand. Her size seemed static at first, but if he concentrated he could see she was subtly diminishing in size. He briefly considered stowing her in a pouch, but decided against it. At least he could keep an eye on her if he had her in hand.
There was a rustle ahead. Hearing the noise, Sothe moved to the edge of the path. One hand holding Micaiah, the other went for his knife. He waited, ready to run. Though fairly skilled in battle, he couldn't afford to fight while holding the shrunken silver-haired girl. He stood less of a chance with only one free hand. Worse, he could end up dropping Micaiah. His best option was to stick to the shadows.
Sothe spied a shape in the distance. The smallest of movements had betrayed its position. Dead still, it observed Sothe. Its shape was far from human. Sothe relaxed when he realized it was a deer. When he moved towards its position, it quickly fled. However, a more worrying thought occurred to the man. Deer were no problem, but what about other animals? At Micaiah's reduced size, she could be easy prey for the predators of the forest. Sothe tightened his grip on her still sleeping form. He would have to protect her, the same as always. He would just have to be even more careful than usual.
After a tense half hour, Sothe was nearing the meeting point. He near jumped at even the slightest sound, growing increasingly paranoid. They had been lucky so far though, with no threats to be found. He had even found a few strange herbs, their coloring unlike any he had ever seen before. Thinking they could play a part in restoring Micaiah's size, he picked some of them. Now his pouch was near full with the plants, though they might not prove useful.
Suddenly there was a small noise from below. Sothe immediately looked down to see Micaiah stirring in his hand.
"Micaiah!" Sothe whispered.
"...Mm..." Still sleepy, she rubbed her eyes.
Sothe sighed in relief. At least she was awake now, even if she had become smaller than a doll by this point. He was unsure what to say to her, so remained quiet.
"Sothe..?" Micaiah opened her eyes. She saw Sothe looking down at her, a mixture of relief and worry on his face. But there was something strange about him. "...Huh?"
"I'm glad you're awake." He said, his voice loud even though he seemed to be whispering. "But, um... Something's happened."
"What do you..." Micaiah started, before she saw it. Sothe seemed to be very big, yet far away, like a mountain of some sort. There were trees surrounding her, but they too were oddly large. And the ground felt like... Skin?
"Eek!" Micaiah curled up instinctively, not knowing what to do. "What is this?!"
"C-calm down, Micaiah!" Sothe nearly shouted, causing the tiny woman to flinch. "You've just, um... You're really small somehow!"
"W-what?" Panicked, Micaiah glanced around. Everything looked very strange, as if distorted somehow. But she could identify everything she saw, it was all just... Bigger, somehow. Save for the ground she was sat on. She studied the strange fleshy surface, complete with a bridge that stretched out towards Sothe. To one side there was a big drop, and to the other... Was that a thumb?
"Y-your hand... I'm in your hand!" Micaiah squeaked.
"I'm sorry Micaiah, but it's true." Sothe said softly.
Only now did his previous words sink in. The only logical conclusion, as impossible as it may sound, was that she had somehow become tiny.
"H-how..." She asked, looking up into the huge face far off into the distance.
"I don't know." Sothe answered. "You used Sacrifice to heal that boy, then passed out. You started getting smaller not long after that."
"I... see..." Micaiah breathed. The last thing she remembered was healing the boy, so Sothe's story made sense. Except for the part where she became so small!
"I told you not to use Sacrifice so much..." Sothe grumbled. Micaiah could feel his voice resonating down his arm and into his hand.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before..." Micaiah commented, studying her body. She appeared to be the same as always, even her clothes, apart from her size. To her, it seemed more like everything else had become gigantic.
"We know so little about your power." Sothe pointed out. "Perhaps it was only a matter of time before something like this happened."
Micaiah nodded. She had never met anyone else with powers like hers in her whole life.
"Do you have any idea how to fix this?" Sothe asked, though he thought he knew the answer.
"No." Micaiah replied. "I don't have a clue. I had no idea this could happen!"
"Damn." Sothe cursed. He stared down at her intently, making her feel uncomfortable.
"Sothe..?"
"I think you're still getting smaller." Sothe said. "This just gets worse and worse!"
"Let's just... Not worry about this too much for now." Micaiah said, trying to calm him down. "Where are the others?"
"They went ahead." Sothe told her.
"Then let's meet up with them first." Micaiah suggested. "They can help us fix this."
"Alright." Sothe nodded. At her angle, his head looked like a boulder about to roll off the side of a mountain. She shuffled back in his hand instinctively. He started to move, making her lose balance. She wobbled about a bit in his palm, before grabbing onto one of his fingers.
Sothe kept a fast pace, though not so fast that he would drop Micaiah. It was odd seeing Micaiah so small, but even stranger seeing her move. She was so tiny that she didn't even seem human. But her mannerisms were just like the woman he knew, even having the same air of authority he had always known. Though she was somewhat hard to take seriously at her knew size, having become even cuter than before.
Micaiah gripped tighter onto Sothe's finger. It all seemed like a dream, the girl expecting to wake up at any moment. The air was a bit overwhelming for the tiny woman, so she looked down at the ground.
This is Sothe's hand... She reminded herself. It's so big... His hands were so small when we first met...
She heard a bird chirping in the distance. A very familiar sound, one she recognized even when she had been downsized.
"Sothe! Wait a moment!" She called up to him.
"Huh?" He stopped straight away, then looked down at her. "What is it?"
"Did you hear that?" There was another, louder chirp, then fluttering. A small, orange bird perched on Sothe's shoulder.
"Yune! It's you!" Micaiah shouted to the bird. It looked down at her, briefly appearing confused, before chirping happily at her.
"Where have you been?" Sothe asked. It hopped off his shoulder, and into his hand. Micaiah stood, and she and the bird examined each other.
"You're so big now..." She gasped with wonder. She was still quite a bit taller than the bird, though it seemed a bit chunkier than she was.
"I never thought I'd get to see you so close!" Micaiah marveled, briefly forgetting the seriousness of her predicament. Yune seemed very happy to see its human friend, even though she was much smaller than normal. If anything, it seemed even happier than normal.
I'm probably too big to ride on Yune's back... Micaiah thought. Though maybe, if I get a bit smaller...
"We should go." Sothe said.
"Oh, right." Micaiah agreed. She didn't notice that the whole time Yune had been in his hand, his other hand had been poised to swipe at the bird. He had been worried that Yune might attack her. But Micaiah trusted the bird.
"Yune, go and perch on Sothe's shoulder!" Micaiah instructed. "Give me some space, please!"
The bird obeyed, fluttering up to Sothe's shoulder. The little bird had always been very intelligent, almost unnaturally so...
A while later, Sothe reached the edge of the forest. He kept going, following the edge of the cliff. Being bigger, and having sharp vision, he spotted the others before his little passenger did.
"There they are!" Sothe announced. Some good luck at last, though hopefully Micaiah's condition wouldn't get any worse...
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
