Tense filled the air around the three girls waiting for Sena’s return. Of course, they always wanted an optimistic outcome. But after witnessing such size difference between themselves and this ‘normal human’ that they’ve been reading about for years, it’s hard to not feel something could gone wrong anytime soon.
Azumi currently sorting out the fruits on the storage section in the living room. Unlike with her usual cheerful vibe, her face seems a bit tense than usual.
“…Azumi?”
“WHOA!!” Azumi jumps in shock as someone tapped her shoulder from behind.
“Hey! Calm down! It’s just me here!” Marina put both of her arms on Azumi’s shoulder. “You okay? You’ve been silent for a while now,”
“No, I… I’m okay,”
“Doesn’t look okay to me,” Marina raised her eyebrows. “It’s Sena, isn’t it? you’re worried?”
Azumi nods softly.
“Just remember this, she’s the strongest in our packs. Believe me that she’ll be okay, she’s maybe careless at times, but one thing for sure is that she’s not stupid enough to let herself fall into danger,”
Marina’s words managed to calm Azumi a little. Still though, a little concern is there in the corner of her heart knowing this unpredictable predicament that they never encounter before in their lives…
+++
Time stands still inside a room of the motel.
It has been a full minute, yet nobody even broke eye contact between the two. Sena clearly terrified and frozen in place as the two eyeballs bigger than a marble currently locked on right on her tiny body. Then there’s the giant, just staring with his mouth parted a little still in disbelief trying to register the events just a few minutes ago. Instinctively, the giant’s right hand lifts up and trying to reach for the tiny girl, but Sena quickly cowered in fear, forcing the giant to retracts her right hand trying to calm her down.
That’s it; there’s no use to stay here like this. The giant sees her move, he already felt her body up close, at the very least he could already conclude one thing: this girl is a human being as well. His lips parted…
“Are you okay?”
The giant’s voice ease Sena a little. The loud voice ringing in her ear and much to her surprise, the giant actually spoke the same language that Sena and her friends has been learning since they were little. Meanwhile, the giant seems to notice how Sena started to ease up hearing him speak.
“Do. You. Understand. Me?”
He spoke the same language… Sena tried her best to trust him by gently nodded. She knows that if this giant wasn’t that nice there’s no way this conversation would happen.
She nodded… okay, so this tiny girl understood English language. Let’s see… well, the giant knows that he’s the bigger one here and the tiny girl already scared shitless, it’s all his fault. Maybe he could continue to ease her up by doing something else…
“My name is… Jack,”
Jack… the giant has a name. Now the tiny girl thinks what should be the best response?
“S… Sena…”
“Um… I’m sorry?” Jack lowered his head a little toward the desk.
“Sena!” the tiny girl raised her voice a little.
“Sena… that’s your name then?”
The tiny girl nodded.
“Okay… uh…” the introduction finally done, now what? Jack tried to find a way to really completely ease up the atmosphere here. Then the giant noticed the tiny girl tried to stood up…
“AH!” unexpectedly, Sena tumbles back down, she holds her left ankle with her face grimacing. Jack observes the whole thing; is she hurt? He somehow understands it right away.
“What’s wrong? You’re holding your left ankle there, you hurt?”
Still grimacing, Sena nodded.
“Um…” now this is new; he wanted to help the poor girl, but… how to help a three-centimeter girl? He never done this before! Jack calm himself down, stabilize his breath, thinking and thinking… right, she’s tiny yet still a living breathing human being as he previously checked. “May I help? Maybe… maybe I could do something,”
Sena slowed down her move; allowing the giant to touch her? Should she? The pain of her left ankle urging her to do so, she couldn’t even escape with this injury anyway.
“Y… yes…” the tiny lips muttered an approval for the giant to help her.
“O-okay then! Hold on…” the giant grinds his gear inside trying to think how to handle this one. She’s hurting, yes, but a careless handling would only adding problems probably. “Now please just loosened your body, straighten it up,”
Her left ankle, alright. Carefully his right thumb and index finger wrapped around the delicate left leg of the tomboy. As soon as both skins made contact, Sena’s face turn red a bit, her heartbeat rapidly rises beyond normal; the sensitive yet gentle touch of the tip of his finger grazing her smooth thigh send shivers throughout her body as she covers her face using her tiny hands. Of course, she’s no stranger about skin contact between humans, but when the other party turned out to be more than a hundred feet tall? There’s a certain indescribable feeling of excitement that runs wild inside her mind.
“Does it hurt?”
Sena shook her head. Okay, so her left shin is alright. The giant lifts it off the ground just a little. Now comes the critical part; Jack didn’t want to hurt the innocent tiny girl here, but when even he had to squint just to be safe and precise, it didn’t make the job any easier. Gently, his left thumb and index finger pinched the bottom part of the shoe.
“Urgh…” slight moan of pain escaped Sena’s mouth.
“Please just hold a little, I need to remove this so I could check,”
Sena nodded. Even if there’s small part of her still being cautious about the giant, she knows logically if he’s not a kind one, he won’t put any effort to help her like this. However, her thought suddenly interrupted as her left shoe being removed by the giant fingers. Slight tiny yelp reaches Jack’s ear.
There it is, the exposed bare left sole of Sena. It’s a funny yet cute sight for Jack to witness a tiny foot even smaller than a newborn baby. Fascinating, the curves of her sole, those toes just slightly bigger than a grain of salt, the tiny noticeable details in that sweaty skin of hers. There’s no visible bruise though, maybe just a light sprain?
“How does your ankle feel right now? Explain to me as detailed as possible,” Jack asked.
“Uh… even the slightest twist hurts, and when I tried to walk earlier… it also hurts,” Sena tried her best.
“But when you’re not moving it doesn’t?”
“Not really, no,”
Probably just a light sprained ankle, Jack thought. He already knew what to do though; moving away from the desk, Jack browse through his backpack, searching for anything that he needs to heal the injured tiny girl here. Moving back to the desk, Jack placed a few things in front of Sena: an ointment tube, a roll of bandage with scissors attached to it, and a few tiny pillow-like cottons. The size of these stuffs intimidates tiny Sena a little.
“Uh… Sena, right? Now please get yourself comfortable, lay down and let loose,” Jack pick up one of the white round cotton between her fingers. “Here, use this as your pillow,”
Sena picked it up and placed it behind her before resting her head on it, trying to obey the giant’s instruction. Now she could only observes what the giant going to do with her as he picked up the ointment tube and squeeze it with his left hand as white paste squirts out into her awaiting right index finger before rubbing it all over between his thumb and index finger.
“It’s a specialized ointment that could cool down your body like an ice pack, don’t worry,”
Delicately, Jack once again with her left thumb and index finger pinched Sena’s left leg and raise it up a little and finally rubbing her naked left sole of Sena using the ointment on his right thumb and index finger. The ticklish sensation seems to titillate Sena once more, it’s a strange yet charming feeling when her left foot being lightly rubbed by a finger the size of a trunk. Then the cold sensation creeping inside her left foot, the hurting left ankle slowly relaxed…
Jack picked up the roll of bandage and removed the scissors. Now this is confusing; what’s the right length he had to cut it? Usually it’s easy to measure it, but not when the patient is only three centimeters tall! How small he had to cut the bandage to fit her size? The confusion really shown in his face that Sena unexpectedly lets out a chuckle seeing the weird face that Jack makes.
Maybe this is enough? Jack cuts just a little fiber from it resulting in a gauze only as long as a matchstick. Squinting his eyes once again, Jack carefully wrapped the bandage around the tiny left ankle of the injured girl. It’s more difficult than he thought, Jack didn’t want it to be too tight or too loose, but how can he measure it? is it how the kids feel playing nurses with those dolls?
There, the tiny left ankle bandaged real nice. For the final touch, Jack put another cotton ball beneath and putting her left ankle on top of it, making sure that the injured ankle is elevated above the level of the heart just to reduce the swelling. Finally done with the process, Jack pulled herself back from the desk and leans on his bed, tired once again after learning how to handle an injured tiny, something that he didn’t expect to do it in his life.
Nah, screw that; how the heck there’s a human being only a few centimeters tall? Is he going crazy after all that long journey? But he already touched her, feel her; she’s real, she’s authentic, she breathes, she could talk… there’s no doubt.
There’s just so many questions piling up in his mind for the tiny girl, but he knows that she need to rest for a while. Better let her relax for now as Jack took another shut eye…