IDK, You Tell Me

I suppose I should have predicted this conundrum. The forest creatures switching erratically from their usual location, the strange but subtle tremors around the mountains near the cabin, hell, even the air felt slightly different for weeks. As if the forest itself was preparing to inhabit an enormous presence. 

Huge blue orbs were glued on to me, blinking slowly, almost waiting to see if I’d react. It felt as if time slowed down as my gaze studied this … creature that was above me. Its head tilted with curiosity.

The tremors resumed stronger this time breaking my focus from the entity. I realized soon enough that it was shifting its position, as I felt the knot in my throat growing tighter by the second. Through the vibrations I stiffly noticed that it was lowering itself down closer to the ground… closer to me.

“Run.” I internally screamed. My thoughts were travelling at the speed of light, and that was the only one I could grasp.

I never expected my life to end like this. I just went yesterday to the market at the human town nearby. It took me weeks, but I finally had enough money to buy some cute plates. It´s sad really, I never got to use them.

An earthquake caused me to leave the not so stable ground for an instant. And then, its head landed on the ground. In that moment I understood that the huge gusts of wind, were its breathing.

Ironically enough, they provided me with warmth I desperately needed.

As it descended with ease and speed an animal it size shouldn’t logically have. I had to use an absurd amount of focus to not faint, surely, it just wanted to study its prey. Perhaps even toy with it, though I wasn’t entirely sure if a withered fairy would even count as a snack for this… whatever it was. 

“Run.” My mind kept ordering the rest of my body. It was a rather simple order.

At this level, I could finally analyze this imposing being, it was blinking slowly. My anxiety ran wildly as those huge orbs cautiously observed my every gesture with an odd tranquility. My wings fluttered for a second out of instinct, only creating more unwanted attention. 

“For the love of Earth, please run!”. My logic begged my shaking legs, but to no avail. I was paralyzed.

If it decided to toy with me before devouring me, I concluded that the only possible option was to find out what creature was going to end with my mediocre excuse of a life.

A fairy with a broken wing, pretending to be something she’s not. 

Covered in dirt, from the mountains it emerged from. It had what I could only assume was dark hair, a beard covering a strong jaw, olive skin, a stretched out tattered … shirt? those huge eyes that wouldn’t break contact with me… as if… I was the first thing it was seeing after emerging, tree trunk like fingers that were between its chin and the ground.

…

It was a giant.

A male one.

And I was his whole center of attention. 

My body was still stubbornly not moving an inch, but I felt a single teardrop falling on my cheek, as I accepted my fate. His curious expression slightly changed, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly to what.

Why wasn’t he doing anything other than looking at me?!

I was well aware that humans were naturally cruel, that’s the whole reason I shifted my size to try and blend in.  But this … man was no human, his head was taller than my whole body. Hell, I bet I was even shorter than his nose. My brain couldn’t even begin to grasp how absurdly tiny I must look from his perspective, even though I wasn’t even on my regular form.

Back in my original size I had the … misfortune of encountering humans. They were huge, imposing and of course, absolutely terrifying. But this … being, his presence alone was overwhelming in a level my head couldn’t wrap itself around it. I never knew this extension of fear. My heart was pounding erratically, and I couldn’t keep the pace.

I gulped, shut my eyes and waited for anything to happen while I desperately tried to keep my head from spinning, suddenly I felt a new gust of wind to my left. And then something … leathery touched me.

Wiping my tears away…

My entire vision field was his, while his enormous finger was excruciatingly slowly lifting my chin. 

Why were his eyes filled with worry? 

-

Finch groggily emerged from his mountain. His skin was immediately met with the warmth of a setting sun. He missed that, as well as soaking his body on the lake nearby, being the only body of water he could use as a bath. He recognized he definitely needed one now, being covered in dirt and all. As he woke up from his usual hibernation, he wasn’t entirely aware how many years had passed this time around.

However, he was subconsciously calm knowing that no human on their right mind would settle this close to the magical forest.

Yet, as his gaze was getting used to the long-forgotten light, he slowly focused on a tiny figure below him. When his view finally adjusted, he immediately became petrified.

He caught a glimpse of a cute tiny house and felt a huge wave of relief knowing that he didn’t accidentally crush it by waking up. However, when he scanned the area closer, he saw her.

A tiny. Tiny. Diminutive woman.

Staring right at him in terror.  

Finch recognized her expression immediately. She was frozen in fear. Of course she was, he probably looked monstrous from her perspective, a monster covered in dirt. But why in the world was someone so small this near to the mountain range? His heart crushed at the sight, but he managed to maintain a calm expression in a pathetic attempt to look harmless.

He couldn’t even begin to fathom the tiny woman’s reaction if he were to stand up, this was one of those times he desperately wished he was smaller. He deduced the best option was to lower himself, and hopefully Finch could make her understand he absolutely meant no harm. Perhaps, they could even become friends in the future?

… who was he kidding? On his whole long, lonely life he had only met one human who was bold enough to give him a chance. He sulked for a second as he realized Charlie had probably passed away during his hibernation. Humans were so delicate and fascinating, but compared to a giant like Finch, they only lived for a blink of an eye. 

As he painstakingly shifted his arms to lower his head on the ground, he heard the delicate sound of fluttering for an instant. His expression remained calm, yet curiousness slowly appeared on his features. 

This woman was no human either. But a breathtakingly beautiful fairy.  

It boggled his mind to be able to witness a fairy for the first time. From what he knew, fairies were shockingly smaller than humans, which seemed impossible. Through his perspective he conceived they probably would be the size of a firefly. So why was this fairy human-sized?

Pupils dilated, Finch observed the precious creature in front of him. Her resting translucent wings looked absolutely lovely, reflecting hues of pink and green of the remaining sunlight. Her long light brown curls captivated the mountain giant as they danced along the light fabric of her white dress. Framing a soft face, her gold olive eyes were painted with dread. 

For an instant, Finch had forgotten that his mere presence caused the woman to tremble in horror as his heart proceeded to gradually ache with remorse. She looked so pale, and most likely about to pass out. Yet, when the little thing closed her eyes shut, he noticed a small tear falling along her cheek, his guilt couldn’t take it anymore, it was heartbreaking. It took an immense amount of strength to restrain himself from crying.

His whole life he had to suppress his emotions to coexist with other creatures, it had to be second nature for him. 

And despite that, he unconsciously began to reach towards her…

- P-PLEASE … DON’T CRY …

-

The giant’s voice boomed, he croaked gruffly as if he hadn’t used his vocal cords in a long, long time. The strong vibrations and immense volume caused me to instinctively cover my ears. My mind started racing even more. 

Giants could talk?! I genuinely believed they were too brute to have speech ability.

Up until this moment, I’d never encountered one, thus I was clearly unaware about the fact these creatures emerged from the freaking earth! I was almost certain their race had gone extinct. Probably because they couldn’t sustain themselves from such smaller animals. However, my knowledge of them was extremely limited.

A guttural deep voice caught my attention once again as I trembled with more intensity.

- I’m so so sorry … please don’t be …. scared. - The immense man begged in a whisper, though it still reverberated. Slowly, he retracted his hand from my body.

Why was he apologizing?

I remained frozen and I began to feel even more dizzy while my heart was beating like crazy. 

Was this some type of psychological torture giants applied before devouring their prey? It was impossible for me to imagine he had nothing but good intentions. Humans were vicious, self-centered creatures, that constantly tortured magic beings for their own benefit. Why would a man a hundred times my size be worried about my well-being?

Even so, I couldn’t deny his gaze was filled with … anguish. And somehow it seemed as if he tried to appear smaller by laying his stomach on the ground. If he wanted to eat me …

Wouldn’t he’d done it already?

- May I ask … what’s your name? - I wasn’t able to detect any malice in his hoarse deep voice. However, his immense presence and the vibrations of his tone were incredibly overwhelming. My body began to fail me, and the bubbling fear was too much. 

My limbs went numb.