A Study in Curiosity
Chapter 1
It was cold as a witch’s tit when Aubrey made the executive decision to go on a hike, and she spent more time than was probably normal looking at the puffs her breath made in front of her as she walked. It was that infamous week between Christmas and the new year, and the crisp winter air rendered the cold, barren branches in extreme detail as she rounded the bend into one of her favorite spots. The cluster of boulders was a place she liked to come sometimes, though she was never able to visit it regularly. She enjoyed walking around, and climbing on the massive rocks, it made her feel very small sometimes. She had been there for about a half hour, hands in the sleeves of her jacket to avoid the cold, when she heard a very small grunting sound, which surprised her quite a bit. Thinking it was some small creature she had woken from hibernation, she got up and started looking around to find the source.
Shai was not having a good day, to say the least. As she scrabbled at the rock that held her pinned, snippets of the earlier events that had led to this situation came to the front of her mind. The experiment, the error, the trial. She remembered the face of the judge as he had told her that her punishment was to go through the portal she had created, effectively imploding the rift behind her. She remembered her lover, teary-eyed as they said their final farewell. It was too much, and as it became apparent that the rock on her leg was not going to budge, she flopped back against the ground and resolved to cry. She never should have tried to come to the human world, literally everyone had warned that her curiosity would have consequences. And now here she was, stuck under a boulder, probably until she died. Her sobs only got worse as she felt the ground start to shake.
It was coming from the base of a nearby tree, but as she got closer Aubrey realized that it didn’t sound like any animal she had heard before. It sounded… sniffly? She wasn’t sure if that was a word but whoever was making this sound, they were crying. Aubrey came around the tree, and stopped for a full second as her mind processed what she was seeing. It was a tiny person, maybe half a foot tall, with their leg pinned by a rock, about the size of Aubrey’s fist, that had fallen on their leg. Not entirely sure of what to do, Aubrey went on cruise control as she scrambled for something to say.
“Hi there, how’s it going?”
The person in front of her was big. Like big big. Shai had read about humans in history books, and had visualized what it would be like to meet one, but seeing the giant before her in person was entirely mind numbing. The human had asked a question, a question that even sounded like it was in words she knew, but her mind was too preoccupied to interpret the meaning. She just continued to cry.
Slowly, Aubrey’s mind began to catch up with what was happening, and she realized that “how’s it going” was not the ideal introduction in this situation. “Oh, my gosh, right. Sorry. Do you need help? That looks like it hurts.” She kneeled down and rolled the small rock off of the person’s leg, giving her a clear view of the person, who just curled up into a ball and continued to cry.
“Are you okay?” On instinct Aubrey reached out to comfort the woman, but she scrambled away from her hand as she did so, clearly terrified. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Is your leg okay?” The lady didn’t respond, clearly still panicked. She was small, she looked like she might be about the size of Aubrey’s phone, which fascinated her, but the woman clearly had stuff going on, and Aubrey didn’t want to be rude and focus on appearances, so she didn’t bring it up.
Aubrey had no idea what series of events had brought this person here, but it had clearly been upsetting, and Aubrey felt like someone several times her size looming over her would do little to help her emotional state, so she decided to sit down, and make herself as non-threatening as possible. “It’s okay, this seems very stressful for you, I can wait.”
This was not how Shai had imagined her first meeting with a human going. While she had been working on opening the rift she had imagined being a diplomat between the two peoples, calm and eloquent, but here she was, having been found pinned under a boulder after barely an hour in their world and struggling to string together enough sounds to form a word. While the panic in her ribs kept her from speaking for the longest time, her mind was running a million thoughts a second. The human spoke the same language they had before the gates were closed, so at least she could understand what the giant woman was saying. She seemed remarkably unsurprised to find a fae, had she somehow met one before? Overall she was being very considerate, she had sat what to her was probably a few feet away and was waiting patiently. As her train of thought caught up with the current situation, Shai realized that she really should say something.
“I-uh. Yes. Thank you very much for the help, I should be fine now.”
The giant woman, looking mildly surprised to hear Shai speak, took a moment to respond. “Oh, ok. Are you sure? Your leg seems like, very broken.”
Shai looked down at her, admittedly broken, limb appraisingly. “Well yes, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple days for me to fix.”
The human seemed somewhat skeptical of this, but evidently decided she wasn’t an expert, so she let it be, instead saying “do you have anyone to look after you while you do heal?” A question that Shai really couldn’t consider at this moment. Her thoughts went spiraling back to everything she had lost, how she was now lost and alone, except for this humongous stranger that had stumbled upon her, in a world she knew nothing about. Seeing the stress her question was causing Shai, the human made an attempt to backpedal. “I mean, it doesn’t seem safe to leave you here alone, I could bring you back down the mountain with me?”
Shai stopped for a moment, considering the offer. She had literally just met this human, and had no idea of her trustworthiness, but it was true that she had no one else to look after her, and any human was certainly more trustworthy than a raccoon, right? Having considered, she said “that would actually be great, I don’t really… have a place to go right now.”
The human’s massive face fell at this admission and, as if on instinct, she said “well you can stay with me if you like, that must be hard.” She extended her hand, a hand just under the length of Shai’s own body, towards her in offering. “My name’s Aubrey, what’s yours?”
Steeling her heart, Shai reached forward and took one of Aubrey’s fingers in her hand. “I am Shai.” Aubrey chuckled, a sound that shook the entirety of her arm down to her shoulder.
“Well I could tell that much already.” There were a few moments of silence as it became clear that the joke didn’t really land. Aubrey coughed a little, before seeming to consider something, as if she were trying to find the right way to tackle an issue. When she spoke, she seemed embarrassed. “I, uh. I don’t know if this is rude or anything, but you seem much smaller than most people I’ve met, are you… not human?”
Shai became aware that she had been smiling somewhat awkwardly, as when the human asked this question, the expression froze on her face.
“So you - you haven’t met anyone… like me, before?”
Aubrey chuckled a little bit, which was evidently something she did to express discomfort, rather than happiness. “I don’t think so? Why? Is that weird?”
Shai sighed, trying not to let the disappointment get to her. “No, it’s probably not, I don’t think we’re very common here. Is it okay if I just sit for a moment? I uh - A lot has happened today, and I really need to catch my breath.”
“Yeah, of course! Let me just-” Aubrey - the giant, as she was quickly reminded - pivoted on her hip so that she went from sitting cross legged to laying on her stomach, a movement that caused Shai to stumble back a little as it brought Aubrey’s face much, much closer. Her eyes were massive, Shai could get lost in them without much effort. “There we go! Let me know when you’re ready to head out?”
Aubrey lay there, and as there were no immediate happenings, her mind finally started to question this scenario. Shai, the woman in front of her, could easily fit in the palm of her hand. That was weird, right? It wasn’t just her? She had kind of skirted the question on whether or not she was human, but Aubrey couldn’t really interpret what that avoidance meant. She was about to come home with her, did she have some mode of transportation? Did she want Aubrey to carry her? Should she ask? Aubrey felt as if she’d already scared the tiny woman too much. Concerns kept piling up, but Aubrey didn’t want to voice them, as she felt it might make Shai uncomfortable. So she let them bounce around her head, becoming increasingly intense as the wait stretched on for what felt like a very long fifteen minutes.
Shai seemed to be making efficient use of the time, now that Aubrey was closer to the ground she could see that the diminutive woman had started some kind of set breathing pattern, and she seemed to visibly relax in just a few cycles. That relaxation evaporated almost immediately when she opened her eyes, and met Aubrey’s own. Aubrey quickly blushed, and looked down. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare I just- I mean- you’re uh, really small, it’s kind of captivating. Sorry.”
Shai made an attempt to sigh nonchalantly, but it was clear Aubrey had surprised her. Her breath was shaky again. “No, I guess that’s understandable, this is probably more surprising for you than it is for me.”
Aubrey blinked at that, saying “how so? I think I’m pretty big from your perspective, that must be scary.”
Shai processed that for a moment, decided that yes, scared was how she was feeling, she just hadn’t connected her emotions to the word until Aubrey said it. Still, based on Aubrey’s reaction (and very little else), it seemed as though she hadn’t heard at all about her people, had humanity forgotten about them in their absence? (Was that idea comforting to her, or concerning? Shai couldn’t tell.) That would make this encounter very surprising indeed for Aubrey. All these thoughts shot through Shai’s head in a second and what she said was, “you might actually have a point there, I think I am very scared. But, I also think I’ve gathered myself enough to leave. If that’s ok with you, of course.”
Aubrey nodded, rolled back around so she was sitting and gosh, how could someone so big be so balanced, even as her movements shook the earth? And smiled at her a little awkwardly before speaking.
“So uh, this might be a weird thing to ask, but uh. It doesn’t look like you can really get around as fast as me, and your leg is broken. Do you want me to… carry you?”
Shai blinked once. Twice. The first words she came up with after Aubrey asked that question came directly to her lips, without passing through any actual thought first. “I. Being entirely honest, I hadn’t considered that.” She certainly didn’t want to be carried, but it was true she wouldn’t be able to move nearly as fast as a human even if her leg wasn’t broken.
Aubrey, looking awkward as she had for most of their encounter, put her hand out timidly, saying “If it would be better for you, I could put you in my hood? That might be safer, you wouldn’t get jostled as much…'' Shai looked and saw that, indeed, the human’s outer layer had a fuzzy-looking hood on it, which prompted a round of unbidden inquisitive thoughts - how much has their society changed? They still don’t have magic, obviously, but their fashion has changed massively. How much of what we know still applies to humans? - that weren’t very useful at the moment. The hood seemed like it would be her best option, so she just nodded once, making the movement large enough for Aubrey to see. At that, the human knelt down, laying her hand awkwardly on the ground near Shai. She appreciated for a moment how considerate the human was being, before slowly rolling over into the massive palm.
Aubrey panicked a little as she held Shai in her hand. Her body fit snugly into the crook of her palm, she was so tiny and could she really trust herself to hold something so fragile and precious as a life and how could Shai put that level of trust in her just after their meeting and oh god she must be feeling like she’s being forced into this, I must have been too forward and-
And Aubrey took a long steady breath, recognizing the worry she felt and putting it back in its place in her head. None of that would help now, so she lifted her hand and put it next to her hood. She could feel as Shai scrambled into the pocket, and hear as she said “I’m all settled now.” So she stood the rest of the way up, and began to walk home.
Go back to the first chapter here, or read the next chapter of the story here!