#folddddd

I’m the hero of my village, and today, I’m going to save everyone! For the longest time, an evil wizard has lived in the tower overlooking my village, terrorizing us with his magic. I’ve been training for years, growing strong enough to eventually take him down. I’ve had some doubts, but just an hour ago, a magic, talking map flew down from the sky right into my hands! He said his name is Mr. Map, and that he’s here to guide me on my journey. He reassured me that I’m ready for anything — my master has told me, too, that the first step to being prepared is believing that you are. So I took him up on his offer to help me; we’re going to save my village!

But that brings me to just a few hours ago. We were walking through the dense forest, sunlight barely breaking the green canopy to light the way forward. Even then, it was difficult to see where I was going… and harder, still, to see Map. He was verbally speaking instructions to me to combat this, and yet I found myself tripping over tree roots and rocks that littered the winding dirt path. He was definitely growing frustrated with me — I could hear it in his voice. Not one to take punches, I started arguing with him about which way we should go. I had taken this path dozens of times before, scouting out the tower, of course I knew where we were going!

And then we realized we were both lost.

“Great! Just great! How did you even manage this?!” He shouted, which was pretty loud for just a piece of paper, honestly. “You have a freaking map!”

“Yeah, a map that clearly doesn’t know where he’s going”, I fired back, actively exploring different pathways. “You’re lucky there are no enemies until we reach the base of the tower, otherwise they might’ve eaten you!”

“That sounds preferable to hearing you talk”, he muttered under his breath.

I sighed, stopping in my tracks to glare down at him. “You know what? You’re right. Stop talking to me. I’m gonna take my own notes, since you’ll only get us lost.” I flipped him over and took out a pencil, beginning to hurriedly scribble a landmark on the back.

He protested as I did so, confused and a little worried. “Hey! What are y- EEP!” He squawked loudly as the pencil made its marks, the entire map rustling and messing up my drawing of a particularly massive rock.

“Could you hold still?” I asked in exasperation, struggling to straighten him out as he fidgeted. I huffed as I saw the arching line shooting out from the rock from how fast he had jerked.

“You’re really messing things up for me right now…” I began gently erasing the long mark, not bothering to stop as the paper began shaking again. What was he doing? Had he never been written on before? Suddenly, the entire paper folded in on itself and snapped shut by where I was holding him at the bottom, panicked giggles streaming out from somewhere inside.

I held him awkwardly for a moment, pencil poised to keep erasing. We fell into silence.

“Are you ticklish?”

The question made the paper rustle again. He stuttered, struggling to force out his words.

“Wh-WHAT? What kind of question even is that?!” He shrieked as I jabbed him with the sharp end. “I’M NOT!”

“Riiight. Then hold still.” Even while he was partially folded over, I attempted to draw the rock again. He gasped and began practically vibrating, muffled giggles barely audible. After a few more seconds, he gave out, snapping violently inwards into a tiny square of paper, giggles erupting.

“Come on, just one rock!” I was getting frustrated, but even then, I had to admit this was oddly cute. A piece of paper too sensitive to be written on? He was pretty bad at his job. Every time the pencil would hit the surface, he’d giggle and fold in on himself further.

“You can’t keep this up forever”, I mumbled, the pencil following him each and every time. He eventually started laughing, then begging.

“No, wait! EEP! WAIHAIT! QUIT IT!” The tiny piece of paper in my hands was eventually no more than 2 inches on each side. Surely he couldn’t fold further than that? As my pencil hit the surface one last time, and he attempted to fold, I was proven right, the paper instead jerking violently in my hands. It was enough that I completely let go of him, and he began unfolding. And unfolding. And unfolding… holy shit, how tall was he?!

“THAT’S IT!” He shouted, now in the shape of a humanoid origami figure. He started approaching me, clawed fingers poised, pissed off and brimming with intent. “Let’s see how YOU LIKE IT!” My eyes widened and I dropped my pencil as he darted forward, taking a step back before turning and booking it back down the path. This definitely wasn’t just a map. What even was he?

I squeaked as I tripped over a tree root in the near-darkness… and grunted as I heard him do the exact same, falling on top of me. I couldn’t believe the map I was holding before had grown to be so heavy. I attempted to crawl out from under him, but he pinned me down by sitting on my legs, immediately shoving his claws under my arms. I shrieked and burst out laughing, fingers raking through the dirt as I reached for another tree root — this guy was clearly not holding back. I guess I did kind of deserve it…

“HA! See?! Not so fun, is it?!” He crowed loudly, testing different spots and honing in on the ones that got a big reaction out of me.

“Map!” I whined between giggles, twisting and turning beneath him what little I could. “This is soho not faihair!”

“Not fair? I think you’re right!” He echoed. The weight across my legs was lifted before a set of claws wrapped around my waist, turning me over onto my back. “There! Now I can reach HERE” – He quickly spidered across my stomach – “and HERE” – his hands darted to my ribs, and so on. I shrieked and protested, uselessly batting at his hands, which were extremely difficult to grab given their lack of dimension. I was a blushing mess from his teasing, and it only got worse.

“Th-that’s nahat what I meaheant!” I barely managed to say.

“Hmm… I think I see your point. I’m not using the same technique!” He began drawing random patterns with a single finger on each side, giggling evilly at my increasingly flustered reactions. “Hold still! Don’t tell me you can’t handle me drawing on you?”

“You’re gohonna kill meheheee!” I wailed, tossing back and forth, losing all composure as I laughed uncontrollably.

“Oh, stop being so dramatic.” He finally let up, and I gasped for breath, covering my heated face as he stood. Once I finally recovered, I peeked from between my hands to see him awkwardly offering his. After he helped me to my feet, he threw me a defensive scowl as I refused to let him go.

“What?”

“Where did you come from?” His singular eye widened – he didn’t respond, and I decided I should clarify as I fixed him with a more serious expression. “You can’t be from here… I’ve never seen anyone like you around before. Who are you?”

“Doesn’t matter!” He tore his arm from my grip, and it shockingly didn’t shred. He dusted himself off and crossed his arms, glaring down at me. “I’m here to help; that’s all you need to know.”

My eyes narrowed. We stood in silence for a moment longer before he broke it by jabbing me in the side. “Come on, get going! We gotta find our wait out of-” He screeched as I raked my fingers down his back once he turned away.

“I’m not going anywhere until I get my answer.” We mirrored each other’s stances, the air growing thicker with tension by the second. Clearly we weren’t leaving here until someone admitted defeat through their laughter. As I darted forward, he dodged by zipping to the side, and I swore to myself I wouldn’t lose.