#flamo

“P-p-please,” he managed, walking between his treasure and the giant, “Please don’t it.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” the giant lifted both its hands and backed away, Flamo couldn’t understand the reason, “I won’t do anything, don’t get angry at me. I was just asking in case you want to paint them?”

The confusion on Flamo’s face was certainly too clear because the human started to explain itself.

“Listen, okay, I’m just, I’m not saying you don’t understand things or anything, I’m just telling you how this works, you can tell me to stop and I’ll, okay?” Tom said, nervously shaking its hands, Flamo felt that nodding was the right response so he did so.

“We like to build things here, mother though us this kind of stuff a lot, and when we like to paint the wood things we make. So…” Tom lowered its voice and looked down hesitantly, “I’m just asking with you want some... paint and stuff.”

Flamo carefully looked up, looking for any sign of anger or something that meant a threat, he didn’t find any. But maybe Tom hide it well? No, it was really clear in its anger up until now. Whatever it was planning, Flamo better obey, right?

“Hmm, T-tom?” he tried, backing away more when the giant’s eyebrow arched in surprise, “I don’t… I don’t...know what paint means…” Flamo covered his head, maybe ‘paint’ is just another word for ‘pain’, but this all is just a fancy way to say Flamo will be hurt.

“Oh? I should’ve thought that, sorry, here let me…” it looked around until its eyes landed on a small wooden bird on a shelf, when the giant took it the bird felt more threatening than any real bird Flamo had ever seen, “This is blue, see?”

Flamo nodded, there was not enough air in his lungs to verbally agree, and even if there was, he didn’t have enough courage to utter a single word now.

“And wood is not blue, I mean, this is paint. We make them color things,” the giant said, and even if vaguely related, Flamo recalled the fountain and the apple pie, humans seem to like to make things out of other things just for the fun of it. “What is your favorite color?”

Flamo knew this answer and after a feel second it manages to say a weak, “yellow,” and after a couple more times he continued, “like honey.”

Do humans know honey? Bees don’t get along with giants, do them? Maybe he should have said something easier? Maybe he-

“That’s great, do you want to make it with me?”

“...honey?” is it a giant bee?

“no, I meant paint.”

“s-sorry, sorry I I’m sorry I didn’t understand and I-”

“It’s okay, I wasn’t clear,” Tom said hurriedly, if Flamo didn’t know better he would say Tom was scared. “Want to make paint with me? You don’t need to use it on your new cup now, you can learn with other wooden things and stuff, so… want to try?”

He thought about it, even when he should’ve agreed on the spot he still thought about what he wanted… What did he want? Did he want to paint the cups? To learn how to make useless things like coloring? He did, he wanted it.

Flamo nodded.

“Great! I’ll…” Tom looked around again, and placed the wooden bird near Flamo, “I left the materials outside, I’ll be right back.”

As Tom walked away Flamo looked around at the blue “paint” on the wooden thing —which wasn’t threatening now since it wasn’t in the hands of a human anymore—, the paint thing was curious, and Flamo had no idea how it worked. Is this a kind of dust? It didn’t seem so.

Flamo looked around the room with new eyes now, focusing on several colorful things all around, he wanted to paint wood too! he wanted to be included again! He realized that, under all his fear, part of him wanted Tom to come back faster.

=-=

“What in the hell are you planning?” They shouted, getting up, “Just say what you want already!”, The creature looked up in shock, and for a second it didn’t look terrifying, it looked frightened.

“So-sorry,” It said, curling into itself, it looked so defenseless, and Joana was right, she did raise her children to be kind, and Tom felt bad for a second.

NO! They shook their head, They asked to be brought here.

“I I sho-shouldn’t say your names wi-without asking, sorry,” the creature said in a small voice, trying to disappear under the handkerchief, it almost looked real and Tom had to shake their head, it asked to be here.

“You thought Mom was my name, little guy?” Joana asked with a smile. The fairy froze for a few seconds before and nodded weakly, “Oh, sweet, Mom is not a name, my name is-”

“MOM!” the twins shouted at once.

“Okay, you say it then”, Joana said, it was really a bad idea to say her name this easily, the twins didn’t react this time, “It was rude of me not to introduce myself, I’m the mother of those two, Tom is the loud and angry one.” she said gesturing to Tom, “And Tim usually can’t shut up, he is just quiet today.”

“Mom…” Tom tried, looking between her and the small creature, Joana glared at them for a second, “Damn… her name is Joana,”, they said angrily, scared.

“Don’t you know what mother is, little one?”, Joana asked and the fairy looked up at her, confused, “Okay, let me explain.”

- - -

Flamo eyes widened when Joana explained; it was a progenitor, and the other giants were its cubs, Flamo felt his blood on his face and he looked down in shame, “s-sorry, I d-didn’t mean to, I’m sorry”, The giant called Tom was glaring at him, Flamo wanted to disappear, for fear and shame, to be somewhere else, Joana said it was okay, it told Tom to sit down again and told Flamo he should eat now.

Flamo did, he put the now not-so-hot thing in his mouth and it was delicious, maybe it was because he was so hungry or maybe the pie thing was really that good, it was sweet and soft, it have apples but so much more too.

Tom was still looking at him, but he tried to focus on eating, on doing what Joana told him to.

- - -

Tom waited for the creature to finish eating, it liked the pie, of course it did, Joana’s pie was simply perf- not the point, the fairy looked scared, but it couldn’t be scared, it has no reason to, “So, what do you want?” they asked the creature, when everyone finished eating, “You asked to come here, you must want something.”

Joana didn’t stop them this time, she was curious too, so she just smiled at the little fairy and waited.

- - -

No! I didn’t! Flamo wanted to shout, but he couldn’t, should he tell the truth? should he tell that he was left behind? Maybe the humans wanted to keep him in order to attract more fairies, but it wouldn’t work, and they would be so mad if they found it out later.

Flamo didn’t know what else he could say, he had managed to go this far, to stay alive this long, but he didn’t know what else he could do, and he was so tired, the fear was exhausting, the day was too long.

“I-I’m… b-b-broken,” he hid under the red thing, he should just tell everything and get over with it, “I-I-I have no no wings a-a-and t-t-they l-l-eft me and and,” he started to cry again, “please.”

He felt a hand approaching him and flinched, “N-no, please, please don’t,” he didn’t see the look on the humans’ faces, “please,” he started sobbing again, “P-p-please b-be fast.”

=-=