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!”