Winter was finally over and Dary was out hunting for berries, his village stores running low after the long winter. Being tiny out in the forest always came with risks when he went hunting or gathering. He was more adventurous than most, going further and further out from the village each trip to find bugs, rodents, herbs and berries to collect for the village. He trekked through the underbrush, peering up at the rustling trees, the wind starting to pick up. “Could be a storm later…” he said wary. He continued side stepping some roots before he found a bush of berries, just beginning to ripen. “Jackpot!”
He climbed up the berry bush’s branches, thin but just able to withstand Dary’s minimal weight from his 2-inch body. Nimble and skilled enough to get to the berries, he deposited it into his pack. “Alright, time to get back to-”
Something didn’t feel right to Dary, like he was being watched. He peered around, making sure his movements wouldn’t tip off what saw him. Left side, clear. Right side, he saw it, two hungry looking eyes, shining green with a nose sniffing him out with hungry looking fangs sticking out. The orange fur told him he was dealing with a fox, and a hungry one. He started to think frantically. ‘Maybe behind the berries… I don’t know what is behind that but I see no other openings.’
With his plan he slid down inside the interior of the berry bush, the branches blocking the fox’s advance. He started running, not looking back knowing he could fall. He had to rely on his hearing. He heard the fox panting, the dirt kicked up by its paws, the branches above hit around as he rushed for the tree nearby as temporary cover. The land turned downhill making his feet go faster than he was capable, he tripped on a stone, tumbling hard downhill the land becoming flatter to stop his roll.
Panting hard, his head dizzy from the rolling, body sore from the rocks (pebbles) he hit. Dary looked up and saw a giant paw coming down, too fast to react knocking him down. Most of the weight of the paw coming down on his legs. He yelled out as his legs were broken by the weight, the pain making him squirm fruitlessly. The fox made sure its prey couldn’t get away as he withered in pain. ‘This is how my life ends? Eaten by a fox, no one knowing what happened to me?’ Dary thought as he turned his head, seeing the fox baring its fangs, drool about to fall out of the maw, salivating for its prey. He wasn’t ready for death, but he hoped that it was quick and painless at least.
A loud noise came from the right, making the fox turn that direction. Dary in his delirium of his pain couldn’t tell what the noise was, only that it assaulted his ears making him wince. Bounding out from some bushes was a dog with golden hair and kind looking brown eyes coming up quick on the smaller fox. The dog bounding towards the fox with its tongue out, and in a fight or flight moment the fox bounded off in the bushes away from the confused dog, letting the tiny go. Dary stared up seeing the dog look a bit disappointed in losing a possible playmate. He tried to carefully crawl away from the dog, its shadow overtaking him as he felt the air around him change with the dog sniffing and breathing around him changing the air around him with a slight warmth.
The sound of bushes and twigs rustled and snapping came, strong stomps shaking the ground for Dary, making his heart beat faster. Something bigger and more dangerous than the fox was coming. The dog didn’t seem scared instead it looked over to the newcomer. Dary eyes met with two big boots of what was undoubtedly the dog’s master. ‘Oh no…’ He thought in horror. He looked up and up at the tall form of the human, looking seemingly endless with long legs, his vision of the face blocked by two large breasts budding out from her chest. She wore some strange looking plaid design in colours Dary never saw any other tribe member had only using the materials of the forest like leaves, roots and bark for clothes. Humans instead had a foreign fabric with many colours making them easy to spot and hide from.
The female human crouched down one hand on the dog petting it softly speaking to it in a strange language Dary could not understand. Then her eyes looked directly at him, seeing what her dog had been interested in. With her crouched, Dary could get a clear look of her now. Her eyes sparkling blue in the sun, long pretty eyelashes, her hair long and golden in colour tied back in a ponytail, her face pretty with pouty looking lips and soft cheeks. Her skin fair and pale compared to his brown skin, but still tanned somewhat from frequent trips outdoors. Her body fit with some nice curves to her, obviously a young adult in age. Dary probably would’ve been attracted to her if he wasn’t so scared of her size as she towered over him with strength and grace emanating from her body.
Her voice boomed but based on her soft smile it seemed to show concern for him, her hand came down towards him, the other holding the inquisitive dog back. Everything Dary knew about humans was their destructive behaviour, their ease to cruelty and how big they were compared to his people in the legends. It was the first time he saw a human and all the legends about their size were true. He tried to show a brave face as sky-blue painted nails came towards him but when the outstretched ring finger was within reach to touch him, he flinched, losing his cool as the fear overtook him. He groaned as the pain in his legs flamed up his spine, forcing him to curl up tears brimming down his cheeks. He was regretting his decision earlier to crawl a bit, since it did nothing to get away from these predators.
The finger of the human moved away when he flinched, confusing him. Did she think he would bite? No, he never bared his teeth and only showed weakness to her. She seemed to pause and move towards him again the finger coming down to stroke his back before she made a soft “shhhh” noise. He looked up and saw her eyes looking towards his mangled legs that he now noticed how they were bent in unnatural angles that made them useless for now. He nearly threw up when he noticed some bone poking out of the shin of his right leg, and looked away crying out as the pain rolled through him again.
The human said something above and started to stroke his hair, the nail going through his messy hair. It seemed to sound like sympathy. Dary didn’t expect the human to pity him, only just malicious intent. The human then moved her other hand to his legs but didn’t touch them, as if looking over the condition inspecting them with worry. Unlike Dary she didn’t seem to get sick at the sight of his injuries, she just looked determined before turning her gentle blue eyes to look at him and spoke something to him. He didn’t understand but the fingers came to his legs and started to fix them into proper place gently. But no matter how gentle she could be, it was excruciating for Dary as he screamed out in agony nearly biting the tip of his tongue off in the moment grinding his teeth to stay strong as the human worked.
After a few minutes his misery was over, he was keeled over sweating and panting but some of the lingering pain was gone as he looked down to see his legs back in place but he was still bleeding so the human had ripped some fabric from her plaid button up and started to gently tend to him. Her other hand stroking his hair while her voice cooed gently speaking to him in her foreign human language, trying to keep him calm. It worked as he enjoyed her soft touch and delicate speaking. When she was finished Dary opened his eyes seeing her smiling gently to him with those pretty pouty lips, both looking softer than his bed. Her blue eyes he could get lost in for hours. “Th-Thank you” he said in his language, knowing she wouldn’t understand him, but wanted to convey his thanks. She nodded, seeming to understand what he said.
The human began to look, her face frowning with some worry as she looked around seeing the dog had began to wander off while she worked on him. Dary didn’t understand what she was looking for, why she looked so concerned. He was just a tiny of the forest, why would she care? After looking around for a little bit the human sighed and looked down to him with a serious expression, her hand coming to her chin as she contemplated about something. He didn’t know what she was thinking about, but it made him nervous so he tried to get up but the moment he put any weight on a leg he groaned and went back prone on the dirt. He looked back up at the human she wasn’t thinking any more, her mind was made up. It made him uneasy.
Her hands came down for Dary, gently scooping him up into her soft palm, big enough to carry multiple tinies like himself if she wanted so it was spacious for him. She got up, the rise making his head spin and stomach flip. He was confused why she would pick him up but there was little he could do to fight back. She called out making him cover his ears, obviously to the dog since it came running to her after sniffing around. Satisfied the dog was following she started to walk through the forest. He noticed she was going to opposite direction of where his tribe was. He didn’t want to show the location of the tribe but didn’t want to go further away in his condition. He tapped her hand to get her attention trying to stop her. She did, looking down at him as he spoke trying to motion the other way or letting him go down to the ground. “Please, just let me go!”
She sighed shaking her head to his plea, saying something to him gently using her thumb in the hand he was in to stroke his head. Thinking it would calm him down as she started to walk again. It only angered him more shrugging off the thumb. “Stop! Please you’re going the wrong way!” He yelled trying to get her to stop but she now ignored his tiny voice, not understanding his pleas. As they went further out of the deep forest, making it to some sort of human trail he realized she was taking him away. Back to her home presumably.
“I need to go home! Please let me go!” he yelled pounding his fist on her palm, feeling feeble and useless. With no legs to escape, he was trapped on the giant palm with no hope to escape. In her benevolence, she was taking him away from his home. Dary had no idea if he would return home as he started to weep curled up in her palm as he thought of his family, friends, elders, the girl she liked and wondered if he would ever see them again. The girl had stopped petting him as she strides through the forest, a sad look on her pretty face seeing Dary weep openly.