Locked in his
fleshy prison, with his back pressed into the enormous breasts of the harpy, Ryan
was terrified in his bones. The girl was moving, but he could barely see where
they were going, his vision obscured by the black cloth in front of him, a
strong heat emanating from behind him.
He felt that
whatever luck he had had up to this moment, that made him escape death by a
hair multiple times, had run out: He was at the mercy of a gigantic brat, who
even seemed a few years younger than him, adding insult to injury, and which
would undoubtedly eat him when she got bored of her little plaything.
He felt a heavy
lump in his throat at these thoughts. It wasn’t fair, he hadn’t done anything
to deserve that, all because of a stupid incident and a stupid mob boss, and
some stupid money. He was just a simple guy, trying to get by, just like
thousands of other people in the city did, why did the gods do this to him?
As he was mourning
his fate, he felt the pressure on his chest being lifted off, and his body
moved a little, no longer held tight against her bosom. She had stopped. Before
he could understand why, a sliver of light filtered from above, and he looked
up, seeing two enormous, clawed fingers descending towards him, easily grabbing
his form and dislodging him from his position, and he felt himself rising
upward slowly, the fingers of her hand curling around him, completely obscuring
his visual.
The movement lasted only a few seconds before he felt the hand stopping, and
the finger uncurling, leaving the comparatively tiny form of Ryan resting in an
open palm. His vision was blurry, his eyes taking a couple of moments to adjust
to the sudden light, but when they did, the sight made him freeze in place.
Standing in front
of him was the 250-foot-long reptilian snout of a massive, purple-haired lizardgirl,
that was staring right at him, her face looming above the mousemin like a goddess enacting her divine judgment upon him.
He had thought that
the harpy was huge, but this girl here was absolutely, mind-boggling
gargantuan, her face covering more than half of his field of view, a mouth big
enough to swallow half a dozen buildings at the same time directly in front of
him, the slightly open lips revealing her white sharp fangs behind. As she came
into view, he immediately felt a rush of cold hair sucking his hair and fur
inward, followed by an equally strong wind blowing outward, and he trembled as
he realized that it came from her nostrils, each one probably wide enough to
fit a house inside.
He immediately used
his right arm to grab ahold of the palm’s flesh, fearful that her breath could
blow him away, or worse, suck him in one of those cave-like orifices, when he heard
a booming “WHAT…” coming from the maw, and immediately, he saw the city
block-sized snout descending towards him, getting closer and closer.
His primal survival
instinct kicked in, and he scrambled to get away from the approaching face,
crawling backward as fast as his seated position allowed, until he felt his
hand dropping into the vacuum. He turned his face to the ground, to see that he
was on the edge of the palm; with a pale face he realized that, had he taken
another step, he would have plummeted several hundred feet below. Slowly, he
turned back around, a wall of light amethyst occupying his whole field of view,
dozens upon dozens of scales surrounding what appeared to be a blue eye, 5 to 6
times his size. There he stayed,
completely frozen by fear, the 10 ft long vertical pupil at the center of the
pool-size eye staring at him. As the eyelid beat, he felt his crotch getting
wet, and a hot liquid slowly dripping from his pants.
Completely
dumbstruck, he watched as the pupil of the massive eye twitched, the eyelids
departing, revealing the full round shape of the ocular organ, and he heard a
thunderous, almost unintelligible voice from below him, loud enough to make his
whole body vibrate, as if he was standing directly in front of the speaker at a
rave party.
Convinced that this
was his doom, he silently prayed, putting himself in the gods’ hands, hoping
that he would find solace in the afterlife.
For her part, Ayla
was amazed at the sight, a mixture of awe and disbelief as she looked at the
diminutive person on Rhea’s palm. She of course knew that mousemins existed,
but they were rare in her homeland and preferred to live in settlements
underground, where the comparatively massive surface predators couldn’t reach
them. The few that lived above ground preferred to dwell in the outskirts of
towns, where they often had to resort to scavenging to survive, not rarely
forced to rummage through the trash of the larger races.
From what people
have told her, even in Reidsville, they, along with the other tiny inhabitants
of the city, tended to stay mostly by themselves, knowing that contact with the
bigger races could easily get dangerous. The same was true at the campus, where
there were dedicated classrooms and facilities for students of each size, with only
a few mixed-size areas.
This was the first
time she had seen a mousemin in years, and certainly never this close, and she
was very excited about this discovery, understanding that this was a great occasion
for her studies.
She couldn’t help
but stare at him, trying to take in every little particular of his appearance, almost
oblivious to the various wounds and scars that he bore and the absolutely
terrified expression on his face; at least, until she noticed the smallest
droplets of liquid falling from his shorts.
The dragongirl
frowned, and looked intently at that strange phenomenon, not understanding what
it was, when the realization suddenly hit her, making her cheeks blush a bit.
“I… I think he peed
his pants.”
“Ewwww….” Rhea
said, almost shaking her hand out of instinct, before realizing that the
gesture would spell doom for the tiny man on it. Besides, she hadn’t even felt
it. “It’s fine…Poor little thing, he must be terrified.”
“Terrified of
what?”
“I mean, I don’t
know you, but if I woke up in a giant house with a massive lizard looking
directly at me, I would probably be pretty scared!”
“…You’re right,”
Ayla said, backing away a little from the mousemin, feeling guilty. “I’m sorry,
mister, didn’t mean to scare you” she whispered, in the quietest voice she
could muster.
Then, she addressed her roommate: “Where did you find him?”
“Well, that’s the
tough part. It was standing beside one of your shoes, I think he was inside”
“Wha…you mean she was in my shoe??” The dragongirl gasped “How could have he
gotten inside it, and why?”
“Well, those look like training clothes, so he probably got in the gym. Maybe
you had it in your shoe the entire way home”
Her eyes widened as
she turned again towards the little man.
Suddenly, everything made sense to her. His appearance; his left arm, limp at
his side; the look of absolute, manic fear in his eyes.
She felt a heavy
lump in her throat. She could have easily killed him, in a split second he
could have died, crushed under her foot, or sliced in two by her toe claws, and
she would have been none of the wiser, completely unaware of having taken
another person’s life.
She had almost
murdered a person.
Tears started raining
down her cheeks, a pang of deep, profound guilt in her. He had all the right to
be scared, she was a monster. She deserved his fear and mistrust. She finally
understood why other people didn’t trust her species, how can you trust someone
who can kill you in the blink of an eye without even noticing?
Such were her thoughts as she continued to cry, managing to articulate only a
few words between the sobs.
“I’m sorry…I didn’t
mean to… it’s all my fault…The arm, it looks very bad...I’m terribly sorry!”
“Shhhhh, there,
there Ayla, it wasn’t your fault...you didn’t know that he was there…calm down
please”
“It doesn’t matter…”
Ayla said, still sobbing “I should have checked…I’ve almost killed a person…no
wonder he’s scared…I’m a monster.”
Still sitting in
Rhea’s hand, looking up at the dragongirl, Ryan was completely flabbergasted.
Of all the reactions he thought that his sight would cause in the huge reptilian,
this was certainly the least expected. Was she really crying?
He started to feel
sorry for the girl; Now that he thought about it, Spike had mentioned that they
wanted to look like an incident and wondered what would happen to his killer.
He knew that sadly, there were plenty of accidental killings of smaller people
by the bigger folks, but she would still face a murder trial, and, seeing her
crying like that, he doubted that she would be able to withstand a jury.
Fighting the
rational voice inside of his mind, that told him that harpies were tricksy and
devious creatures and that trusting them could end only with him in one of the
two colossal girls’ gullets, he opened his mouth, yelling at the top of his
lungs to make himself heard.
“Hey, hey, …I’m fine, just a bit bruised. No worries, I’m
good. It isn’t the first time that I've gotten inside a shoe haha, I know my
way around it” He lied, reasoning that even though being stepped on was a
common risk he faced, he had never had to fight for his life inside of
footwear, especially one as big as the sneaker he had just come out of.
The two girls
blinked, immediately turning their gaze at him, tears still crossing the eye of
the bigger girl, while the harpy spoke in a soft tone, still very loud for the
mousemin’s ears:
“Are you sure about
it? That arm looks broken…”
He turned towards the reptilian girl, resisting the primal fear that her sheer
size caused in the back of his mind: “No, no, it’s fine, it wasn’t really your
fault, no worries!”
He immediately bit his tongue. Why had he told them that?
The reptilian girl sniffled heavily, the air ruffling his fur a bit, and gazed
at him, a slightly more relaxed expression on her reddened eyes.
“What…what do you
mean? I...I didn’t do it?”
Shit, he knew that
they would ask him about it now. He had said it out of guilt, he couldn’t stand
the girl crying and taking the blame for a thing that she for the most wasn’t
guilty of. Still, what should he do now?
He wasn’t still sure that the harpy was completely honest, she could have pretended
to appear kind and amicable only to make him lower his guard, but he didn’t
know… perhaps they really were genuine in their intents, and maybe they could even
help him.
On the other hand,
was this true, he couldn’t get two innocent girls, moreover two strangers to
him, in trouble with Spike and his associates, they were dangerous people.
He had to come up
with a convincing story, and fast.
“Well, you see….I
had a bad football accident a few months back, where I broke my arm; It was my
first time in a gym after that, and maybe my bones weren’t fully healed, and
I’ve had a relapse”
He trembled a bit as
he turned, seeing the amber eyes of the harpy staring at him, her head slightly
tilted:
“Uhm…it wasn’t a
great idea to go the gym in your state,” She said, a hint of doubt in her
voice.
“Hahaha, it really
wasn’t…” He answered, his lips curling in his best attempt at a smile, while he
used his sane arm to stroke the back of his head.
He saw the other
girl’s eyes widening, and her lips erupting in a loud GASP, the
volume startling him a little.
“You mean that you
were healing and had a relapse? But this is almost worse! We should go to the
hospital right now, who knows what could happen in this situation? You could
lose the use of your arm!” She said, a worried expression on her face.
He paled at her
words, his ears ringing a bit at the sheer power of the drakonid’s full voice.
Fuck, going to the hospital was the worst thing to do with the mob at his
heels, they would leave records of his presence there, and Spike and his
friends would realize that he had survived. No, he needed to leave them in the
dark about his fate for as long as he could, it was the only advantage he had
on them.
He turned towards
the massive snout of his interlocutor, her blue eyes still fixated on him.
“No, that’s fine,
thank you, but I’m sure is not needed. I just need to rest a bit” As he
finished this sentence, a sudden jolt of pain came from his side, the strongest
one yet, and he couldn’t hide the pained expression that had crossed his face.
Shit, maybe the situation was worse than he thought.
The girl holding
him curled her fingers a bit, and she moved her face slightly closer to her
hand.
“What do you mean
is fine? From what we know, you could have several internal bleeding. We’re
carrying you there right now!”
Still feeling the
pain at his side, the mousemin stumbled on his feet, managing to stand on his
legs with great difficulty.
“I said I’m good,
you don’t need to worry this much for….” His reply was interrupted by a sharp
headache, a sudden sense of tiredness overtaking him. All his muscles began
aching simultaneously, and he couldn’t stifle a pained moan. As he stumbled
forward, he made only a couple of steps, before his vision blurred, his head
becoming light before he fell unconscious for the third time that day, dropping
face first on the harpy’s palm.
As they saw his
unconscious form lying on Rhea’s hand, the two girls began panicking, and
Ayla’s eyes began tearing again, her voice trembling:
“Oh gods….please,
please wake up! What do we do?”
“No-no panic,” Rhea
said, stuttering as she tried to hold her hand as still as possible “I’m sure
he’ll li-live, but we need to get help soon. The-there is a small people’s
clinic on the other side of the di-district, a friend of A-Alex works there, I
think. Take him, you should be able to reach it faster than me, and I don’t
have pockets where to keep him. I don’t
wanna put him in my bag, he could get hu-hurt.”
“O..Okay” Ayla replied, and extended her right hand
towards her roommate, As the harpy gently tilted her claw, making the mousemin
slowly slide into the bigger girl’s hand, Ayla marveled again at his utterly
minuscule form. He was probably as tall as half of one of her scales were long,
almost invisible in her palm.
He pinched his
little form in between the tip of her thumb and index nails, realizing that
maybe a dozen of them would have fitted under her two-inch claws, and proceeded
to move him towards the small pocket in front of her jeans, as slowly and as
gently as she could, releasing him when she felt sure that the fabric would
cushion his fall.
“Okay...I hope that
is safe for him like this…lead the way then.”
“I just texted
Alex’s friend, he will wait for us in the ambulance parking lot, near the
entrance. Let’s go!”
They moved swiftly,
quickly traversing the streets of the neighborhood, arriving in sight of the clinic
in a matter of minutes. The clinic itself was a simple, 4-story building, with
white walls and large windows, unimpressive even in a neighborhood of mostly
Small low-rises.
Upon reaching the
parking lot, Ayla stopped, and scanned her surroundings at her feet, looking
for the guy that Alex had indicated. She
saw that their arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed: the 8 or so nurses and paramedics
that were in front of the entrance had turned their attention to the big
newcomers, especially at the drakonid.
The fact that
Ayla’s shoe-covered feet occupied a sizable portion of the parking lot, like
badly parked 18-wheelers, was certainly not helping in making her
inconspicuous.
The harpy was the
first to notice that amongst the startled employees, one of them had started
gesturing for them, flailing his arms up in the air in his best effort to get
their attention: It was a young-looking grey-furred catfolk, dressed in a light
blue v-neck shirt and red pants, one of the only two that wore working boots
instead of clogs.
“I think that’s the
guy!” she said to her friend, pointing at the paramedic.
At her remark, Ayla
moved a hand towards her pocket, slowly extracting the mousemin within it. He
was still unconscious and looked a bit pale, but for the rest, it seemed no
different than a few minutes before, she could also see him breathing. She
sighed, relieved that he was still...fine maybe?
Putting him in the
center of her open palm, which could probably fit a few dozen of them, Ayla
slowly crouched, trying her best to keep their hand steady, realizing that a
drop from this height would probably be fatal for the guy.
“He’s hurt… we
found it near my shoe…it has a lot of bruises…a broken arm…he fell unconscious before
and has been like this since…ple-please help him!” She said, blabbering out of
panic as she lowered her palm, the back of her hand touching the ground as a
couple of sniffles escaped her lips.
At the sight of the
injured tiny, the clinic personnel awoke from their stupor, immediately trying
to climb what to them was a foot-tall step formed by the digits, carefully
putting the mousemin on an appropriately sized stretcher, checking the
condition of the wounded mousemin, rapidly putting him on an appropriately
sized stretcher, and arranging an oxygen mask for him to breathe in.
The catfolk, who
introduced himself as Will, grabbed one of the stretcher’s handles, taking a
quick look at the unconscious Ryan.
“So, tell me what
happened, miss…?”
“Sniff…Ayla
Jorgensen” Ayla said, suppressing a sob.
“Miss Ayla, tell me what happened.
“I don’t know…Rhea found
it near my shoe when I got home from the gym...I suppose he must have fallen
there somehow…he said the arm was an old injury, but I don’t know, it looks
limp…then he fell unconscious… I swear it was an accident…I wasn’t trying to
hurt anyone...I didn’t notice him”
Will looked at the
girl. Like most people in the city, he hadn’t met a lot of drakonids, but it
was pretty evident that her stepping on him wasn’t a trivial matter. The guy
was lucky to be alive.
He also knew that, even in cities like Reidsville, where the coexistence
between races was harmonious for the most part, many of the big races loved to
“mess around” with the smaller inhabitants, resulting in many “accidental”
broken limbs, strained ankles and cracked ribs.
Furthermore, for whatever reason, the hospital had been flooded with
emergencies like this in the last couple of months, and, for a moment, he
wondered if that was one of those cases. He, along with the rest of the
employees, was fed up with the blatant bullying that Small and Tinys had to
withstand from careless or utterly malevolent bigs. He was gonna tell them to
go to hell.
Then, he looked at
her better: Her eyes were red, she had cried, and her body was shaking. This,
combined with her panicked voice, reassured the paramedic that she was sincere
in her apologetic behavior and that her worry for the mousemin was genuine.
More than that, she looked on the verge of a panic attack, the situation must
have troubled her a lot.
His lips turned in a wide, warm smile, and he spoke in a much more comforting
voice.
“It’s okay, these
things happen sometimes. Don’t worry, we are equipped to deal with such
accidents, you can stay assured we will help him as best as we can.”
“Dunno if it helps,
but he seemed in an utter state of shock” added Rhea, crouching to get on the
same level with her interlocutor. “He was almost frothing at the mouth on a
couple of occasions, before losing conscience”
“ I can imagine it, it must have been traumatic for him,” Will said, biting his
tongue immediately as he saw the deathly worried expression of the reptilian
girl.
“At least you got here quickly, that will help the doctors. Are you okay, Miss
Jorgensen?”
Ayla audibly gulped at the question “Ye-yes, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
Will asked, trying to ascertain if the girl could handle herself.
The drakonid nervously nodded, her nose drooling a bit.
“Good. Fear not, we
will get him checked immediately, just wait here please.”
With that, the
paramedic moved towards the entrance door, opening the door to allow the
stretcher to pass through, closing it then behind him, giving a quick nod at
the two girls.
Now alone with her
roommate, Ayla stood up, voicing her concern to her friend.
“Do you think they
can do something? This is bad, this is bad, this is bad…what if he’s seriously
hurt….what if he has some permanent injury…what if he remains paralyzed, or
worse…” Ayla couldn’t finish her last sentence, feeling her eyes tearing up again.
The two nurses that had remained on watch outside heard what sounded like heavy
rain; as they looked up, they were flabbergasted as they discovered that it
came from a stream of liter-worth tears that were slowly falling from her
cheeks.
Rhea looked at her
with a worried expression, taking off, reaching the drakonid face in a couple
of wingbeats, grabbing the two sides of Ayla’s snout in her hands as best as
she could.
“Hey, hey, stop
crying! As the guy said, they can help him here, don’t worry. I’m sure it all
will be fine. Try to calm down now, I’m here with you.”
“Are…are you sure?”
“I’m positive” Rhea
answered, smiling warmly at her. “It will all end well!”
“O..okay then” Ayla
breathed in, putting a hand on her chest, seeming able to calm down “I’m sorry,
I’m always such a crybaby…”
“No, you aren’t,
you’re just sensitive and caring, and that is a good thing. That means you care
about people.”
Ayla looked back at
her, managing to crack up a weak smile, as she instinctively grabbed the harpy,
guiding her into her chest for a hug.
“Thank you, Rhea,
you’re a great friend!” she said, putting her hand behind her friend's back,
pressing her gently into her torso.
“Don’t get too used
to it, you lizard face” Rhea said, extending her arms around the expansive
torso, her head brushing the underside of the dragon’s chest. “This feels nice
though” she cooed, as she rested her head into her friend’s shirt for some
time, longer than she did usually, before slipping away from her embrace, and looking
at the sky. It looked like there was maybe an hour before sunset.
“You know what? Why
don’t we get ice cream on the way back home when we’re done here?”
“That would be
lovely, yes” the drakonid agreed, nodding happily.
After a couple of
minutes, the door opened again, and the familiar face of Will appeared. As he
approached the two girls, Rhea was reassured by his demeanor, much calmer than
before.
“Okay, the guy had
it rough, some of the cuts and lacerations were pretty deep, he had a strained
knee, and the left arm was fractured, but he will live. Dr. Edwards is visiting
him right now, I told him to call you when he’s done”
“Oh…that’s a
relief…thank you”. Ayla sighed, a massive weight being lifted off of her chest.
“See, I told you!”
Rhea said, smiling as she got engulfed in another bear hug by her friend.
Their embrace was
interrupted by the paramedic's voice.
“On an unrelated
note…miss, I feel you need to move away from that spot there, you’re kinda
blocking the smaller ambulances from passing through” he said in a serious, if
embarrassed, tone.
“Uh?” She suddenly
became aware of the faint honking noise that came from her foot. She looked
down, and she saw that it came from two tiny ambulances, that were standing in
front of the parking, their road blocked by the leftmost toe of her left foot, which
looked around 4 to 5 times their length.
She immediately got
beet red, managing to utter a weak apology while lifting her foot.
“So-sorry!”
The first
sensations that Ryan had when he woke up, even before regaining his consciousness
completely, were the great headache he felt, and a strange taste in his mouth,
along with the smell of disinfectant that permeated the air.
As he opened his
eyes, he saw a white ceiling above his head, and he felt a comfy cushion behind
his back.
As he sat up, he
noticed immediately that his left shoulder felt a bit stiff and the arm seemed
more difficult to move, as if it was fixed in his pace. Curious, he turned to
look at it, seeing that his arm was covered in a cast up to two-thirds of its
length.
Looks like they had brought him to the hospital in the end, but when?
He tried to focus,
to see what it could remember, but he must have blacked out at some point.
Maybe the girls got scared, and that’s when they brought him there.
Shit, he thought,
this meant that he was recorded somewhere. He had had his gym badge around his
neck all this time, and they were surely able to find out who he was.
At this point, he
could only hope that Spike’s dogs wouldn’t go check here…Wherever here was…
As he went to look outside
the window, to try and understand in which neighborhood he was, he heard a male
voice coming from behind his head.
“Oh, you’re awake I
see. How are you feeling, Mr…?”
“Jackson” Ryan groaned
instinctively as he turned around, seeing a middle-aged black-furred weaselian,
dressed in a long-sleeved lab coat, who was looking at him from above a pair of
square-lensed glasses. Judging by the tone of voice and the occasional grey
patches of fur, he was probably around his mid-50s.
Ryan looked up,
taking a moment to answer in his cotton-mouthed state.
“Urgh…I could live
without the headache, and I have a strange taste on my tongue, Dr…”
“…Edwards; and that must have been the painkiller we gave you. Don’t worry, the
effect should be over in around 20 minutes. “Dr. Edwards said, looking at his
smartwatch: “So, young boy, mind telling me what happened? The two girls that
brought you here told me it was an accident, that they found you inside one of
their shoes by chance, is that true?”
Something in his
tone made Ryan understand that he was quite skeptical of this version, he
wanted to know more.
“Tha-that would be
what happened, yes”
“You could talk freely here, don’t worry. We’re here to help you.”
“Okay, but as they
said, it was an accident”
Dr Edwards moved towards the foot of the bed and took the medical chart that
was hanging from it. As he flipped through the pages, he resumed speaking.
“I apologize if I
am being blunt, but we have had cases of Giants and Titans harassing smaller
people, and some of your injuries correspond to what we usually find in these
cases. For instance, looks like the arm was hit repeatedly with a heavy blunt object.
Moreover, there are a lot of cuts and bruises that look purposely inflicted all
over your body. I will just say that you don’t need to be afraid, and you can tell
us if those girls have harassed you, we are able to help” Dr Edwards said in a
serious tone.
He hated to do that when the patient was still in bed, but they had told him
that the girls were waiting outside, and he wanted to know if the mousemin was
in danger.
“Wait, what?”
Ryan’s eyes widened in disbelief “They brought me here, why would they do
that?”
“Maybe they didn’t want to hurt you, they thought it was just a game, bigs tend
to do that, they underestimate how strong they are and how much they can hurt
the smaller folks. If that is the case, please tell us, and we will try our
best to keep them away from you.”
“That-that’s not
true…it was an accident, it wasn’t theirs, or nobody’s, fault” At the last
word, he gulped audibly. For a moment, he wondered if it wasn’t better to tell
them exactly whose fault this whole situation was, but he kept his mouth shut,
fearing certain retaliation.
“Okay…I deeply
apologize for that, but as I said, size-related harassment and violence have been
rampant in the area lately, and so we wanted to know if we had to send them
away.”
“Don’t worry, that’s fine” Ryan couldn’t believe what he was saying. Just an
hour ago he was screaming and trying his damnest to escape the two girls, and
now it was taking their defence.
In the end, he
reasoned, he was only telling the truth, or, at least, the truth about the role
that those two girls had in his bruises. He didn’t want people to get in trouble,
even more so judging how they had helped him and how shocked they seemed about the
whole situation, especially the reptilian girl.
Even though a big’s
assault was probably the easiest way to justify his bruises, the girls didn’t
deserve that.
His train of
thought stopped when he noticed that Dr. Edwards, after briefly reading through
his medical record, had resumed talking.
“Anyway… according
to your record, you had multiple lacerations and hematomas, and the left radius
was fractured. Considering that most of the lacerations were superficial and
that the hematomas seem to be already reabsorbing, we will keep you here a
couple of days, and, if complications don’t emerge, you’re free to go on Tuesday
morning.”
“Okay, thank you”
“I suggest you get some rest now, tomorrow you will probably feel better.” Dr
Edwards said, smiling.
“Have a good night,
Mr Jackson”
He proceeded to walk towards the door, closing it behind his back.
Ryan tried his best to smile, even if
there wasn’t anything to smile about. Sure, he was fine, but the mob would have
ample time to get back at him…
Still, what could
he do? He could try to escape the room at night, but he had nowhere to go. They
knew his address, and, considering where they had found him, they presumably
knew the places he frequented, including his friends’ homes. He would need another place.
Besides, today had been exhausting, to put it mildly, and now he felt as if he
had been run over by a truck…. he couldn’t even think straight in this state,
better to follow the doctor’s advice.
He stretched out,
put his head on the pillow, and closed his eyes, immediately falling into a
deep slumber.
Outside of the
hospital, Rhea and Ayla had moved to a small park just on the other side of the
road, sitting down in the grass, the smaller girls sitting on top of the
dragongirl’s knee, her legs straddling the thick limb.
Here, the harpy had
rapidly noticed that the drakonid was fidgeting with a hair band, casting
nervous glances at the hospital from time to time.
“Still not at ease,
hey?”
“Not really…It’s just that…the guy was in rough shape...I hope he’s doing fine”
“Yeah, he was. It will probably take some time to recover, that’s why they
haven’t called us yet. “
As she said that,
she put a finger on her chin, her head slightly tilted in a pensive expression.
“Besides, we didn’t get to know how he managed to get stuck there. What was he
doing in the Titan’s female changing room?”
Ayla’s brow
furrowed, her gaze moving to her right side slightly
“I…don’t know. Maybe… it was some kind of a prank, or a dare? Maybe his friends
challenged him to sneak in.”
“Or maybe it was a peeping Tom” the harpy
answered, her tone slightly annoyed. “uhhhgg…why do guys have to be like this...”
“The thing that I don’t understand is that the gym has a pretty strict
timesheet. If you violate it, you risk getting banned. And this seems a very
dumb reason to get in trouble for.”
“Not to mention
that you could have easily squished him under one of your big, fat toes without
noticing.” Rhea giggled
“…Thanks, I just needed to be reminded of that.” The drakonid said in a dead
tone.
“Come on, it was
just a joke! Just to cheer you up a little bit!” the harpy replied, a goofy
grin on her face.
“Ha-ha…so funny.”
At that moment,
they glanced at the other side of the road, just in time to see the hospital's
main door opening, and a female calico catfolk nurse exiting from it, appearing
to be hastily scribbling something on a notebook. It took the two girls a
couple of moments to notice the smaller figure at the nurse’s side, reaching
around her mid-thigh in height. His facial features were not easy to
distinguish from a distance, but the long-sleeved lab coat that he wore on top
of a greyish shirt qualified him as a doctor. The two girls watched as the
nurse turned her gaze at them, gesturing for them to come closer.
Immediately, Ayla rose
from her seated position, her movement so sudden that it caught the harpy off
guard, making her fall towards the ground briefly before she managed to catch
herself, flapping her wings to stabilize in the air.
“HEY, what the hell was that?”
Ayla didn’t answer,
already halfway through what to her was a 20-foot distance that separated her
previous seating spot from the hospital’s parking.
When she reached
the two small people, she was finally able to take a good look at the third of
an inch-tall doctor, recognizing that it was a middle-aged weaselian. She
concluded that this was probably the doctor that was taking care of the
mousemin.
On the other side, Dr Edwards was startled. It had been a couple of years since
he had seen a drakonid up close, and while Will had informed him of the nature
of the girls waiting outside, seeing it in person was another thing. /He
couldn’t help but gulp nervously as he glanced at her shoe, realizing that it
probably wasn’t much smaller than the Tiny section of the hospital/ He gulped
nervously as tried his best to maintain his composure, proceeding to greet her
in the calmest tone he could manage.
Realizing that
despite her keen senses, she could not understand what the doctor was trying to
say to her from her lofty point of view, the drakonid interrupted the man.
“Sorry mister, I
can’t exactly hear you from here…let me get a bit closer” she whispered, proceeding to get on her
knees, her movements slow and deliberate to avoid damaging the parking lot or
knocking down the couple with her right knee, lowering herself until the bottom
of her head was hanging at about a foot above the ground, in a way that they
could look at each other comfortably.
She immediately
noticed that the nurse, a girl probably no older than her, with green eyes and
long brown hair, was hopping from one foot to the other, trembling slightly.
“Go...good
afternoon mi-miss!” the nurse managed to articulate, before turning again
toward the notebook, avoiding further eye contact.
“Well, Miss Gray,
why don’t you go back to your workplace inside? I can handle the situation from
here, thanks” the doctor’s crisp voice said, looking up and smiling at the
nurse.
“Su-sure, Dr
Edwards...as you say. Have a nice day, miss!” She said, smiling weakly as she
turned around, stumbling back toward the entrance of the hospital.
“Thanks, you too!” Ayla answered in a cheerful tone, loud and clear even if she
was whispering.
“I…deeply apologize
for my staff behavior, we are just not used to seeing drakonids around here”
“Don’t worry, I’m used to such reactions” the girl sighed, glancing at her
side, seeing Rhea approach behind her shoulder, landing just at her left, her
gaze darting between her friend and the doctor.
“I suppose you are Miss Jorgensen, aren’t you? I’m Doctor Blaine Edwards, I’ve
been visiting your friend”
At the mention of the mousemin, Ayla’s eyes widened, the worry making her
forget the mental note she had taken about whispering in front of the tinies.
“Really?? Is he
fine? Has he got injuries? Will he live??“
Slowly and
methodically, Dr. Edwards put a hand inside his shirt pocket, taking out a
handkerchief, gently rubbing it on his glasses’ lenses to remove it from the
spit that the drakonid had sprayed all over his face, before answering
“Of course, he will
live, he had numerous lacerations, and the arm was indeed broken, but we put it
in a cast, and luckily, we managed to stop his internal bleeding. In a couple
of days, we can let him out, and in three weeks to a month he will recover
completely”
She smiled
sheepishly as she resumed her whispering, muttering an embarrassed apology
“Sorry about that…praise the gods, I’m so happy to hear that he’s fine.”
She then bit her
lower lip, looking at the ground.
“Doc, may I ask for
a favor?”
“Of course, what is it?”
“Well…I feel really guilty about this whole thing…could I please see him? I
would love to apologize to him directly, if that’s possible“ She muttered
meekly.
“Well, my dear…the hospital is not really set to accommodate people like you,
but come again tomorrow around 5 p.m., and we will see what we can do, okay?” Dr.Edwards
said with an unconvincing smile.
“Oh..okay, thanks!”
She responded, the tone of her voice doing little to hide her disappointment at
the doctor’s words.
“Do not worry
however, I will send him your apology, and hopefully in a couple of days he
will be out” He then looked at his wrist, taking note of the time “Well, I hope
you can pardon me, but I have to finish my round of visits before the evening,
so I must bid you farewell. Hope you
both have a nice evening”
He then turned around and walked away at a calm pace, the doors of the hospital
opening to allow him to enter.
Now alone, the two
girls stood up, until Ayla’s knee felt something small grazing against her
knee. Looking down, she saw a parked grey estate car that looked out of
position, its nose well outside the delimitation. Taking a better look, she saw
a noticeable dent on the bonnet. She immediately moved her knee out of the way,
rising as carefully as possible to avoid further accidents.
“Uhh…I’m sure they don’t mind that” Rhea said, glancing at the parking lot
while she flew up to Ayla’s face. “Well, it went well, didn’t it? In the end,
it was like I said! No reason to be worried!”
“I suppose you were
right” Ayla smiled “We got lucky he was mostly unscathed”
“We will come to check on him tomorrow, don’t worry.”
At that point,
Ayla’s phone vibrated. It was Daphne.
Hey, where are
you guys? Why did you leave a mess in the living room?
Ayla looked up, the
sun low on the horizon. The afternoon was coming to an end.
“Let’s go home
now…I want to get that ice cream and work on my assignment before dinner, and
you have to finish cleaning up” She said, pointing at the harpy, who answered
with an annoyed frown, before turning around and starting to follow her friend,
the couple turning towards the main road.
When the two girls
arrived home, they were greeted by Daphne, dressed in tight jeans and a
wide-neck t-shirt, a fancy-looking bikini visible underneath, and a miffed
expression on her large green eyes.
“Where did you guys
go? Why is there a hoodie on the couch?”
“Sorry, Daphne…
that’s mine…” Rhea said as she zoomed past her to recover her clothes.
At 27, Daphne was
the oldest of them, and sometimes felt like their big sister, disciplining them
and controlling what they did. She focused extra attention on making sure that
they kept the house tidy and clean, having a strong contempt for mess and
clutter.
“Hey, Daphne” Ayla
greeted the sphinx, moving closer to her “How was the shoot?”
“It was good, lots
of good shots. I can’t wait to let you see the set when they print it” Daphne
said while looking up at her friend, the sphinx barely able to clear her crotch
in her high-heeled sandals.
“That’s great to
hear” the drakonid mused as she unceremoniously crashed on a chair. She was
suddenly feeling very tired.
“What about you
two, what have you been up to? Don’t tell me you went to get ice cream without
waiting for me!” Dafne inquired, jokingly pouting at the end of the last
sentence, pointing at the chocolate residues on Ayla’s face.
“Well…about
that…something happened…can you come to take a seat? It’s a long story”
Furrowing her brow a
little, in the expression of someone wanting to investigate further, she walked
towards the table, sliding out a chair to sit in front of the drakonid.
“What happened? Is
there something wrong?
As Ayla proceeded
to recount the last events under Daphne's attentive gaze, the lump in her
throat reappeared. She still felt somewhat at fault for the fate of the
mousemin…if only she had checked….
At the end of her
tale, she was practically sobbing, so much so that the Sphinx slinked past the
dining table, putting a hand on the larger girl's shoulder.
“I think you did
the sensible thing. Don’t worry, he will be fine, as you already saw.”
“You’re probably
right…still…”
“No still, it wasn’t
your fault, I said stop worrying about it! Now let’s go get something to eat
and then you will get changed, because we’re going out!”