She was unusually dressed for a woman, at least in his world. Her yellow shirt was tight-fitting and revealed the skin of her arms and navel (how indecent!) and she wore pants of a strange blue material. Her hair was short and messy, her eyes brown and bleary, like she'd only woken up a few minutes ago. Most important of all, she was incredibly huge compared to him. So huge that he barely came up to half the size of her little toe. She could easily squash him just like a bug if she felt like it!
The wizard eventually decided that even though she looked very strange, she HAD answered his plea to the fates for assistance. Beggars couldn't be choosers.
Old Perdu cleared his throat. "Ahem, excuse me, fair giant lady?" he asked her, speaking as loud as he possibly could.
But the giant didn't hear him. She was too busy looking all around the forest in wide-eyed amazement and stomping about everywhere, causing a terrible earthquake that made his bones rattle.
Oh dear. How was he supposed to get her attention?
Gigi could barely believe it. She had walked straight through the weird portal thing, and was now in another large field in clear, sunny daylight, the ground feeling prickly beneath her bare feet.
Hold on a minute, why was she barefoot all of a sudden? She distinctly remembered wearing flip-flops before... Oh right, the tornado. Her shoes must have flown right off her feet, and she hadn't even noticed it until she'd started walking on this sharp grass.
But wait. When she looked closely at the ground, it didn't look like grass at all. It seemed as if she were walking on top of tiny model pine trees.
Gigi crouched down and plucked one of the minuscule trees under her foot that she had just squashed to the ground. She examined it carefully, frowning. It wasn't just a model tree. It felt like a real plant, and smelled fresh and alive like one too. How could this be?
"Hello?! Hello now, can you hear me?!"
Gigi dropped the tree in her surprise, looking about wildly for the source of the sudden voice.
"Ah, very good, very good, yes! Now we are getting somewhere, now that I'm speaking loud enough for you!"
"Uh, I'm sorry, but..." Gigi started to ask who was speaking, but the voice interrupted her.
"No, no! Too loud! You speak much too loud, giant!"
Oh, so whoever was talking to her was very small? What was this, Horton Hears a Who? "Sorry," she whispered compliantly. "Who are you? And more importantly, *where* are you?"
"That's much better, m'lady! Er, if you would please take a few steps forward towards my voice?! And do take care to watch where you step, else you'll destroy the Fantazian Forest!"
For some reason, whomever was speaking to Gigi sounded pretty familiar. It almost sounded like the voice she'd heard just before that white portal had appeared, only this voice wasn't nearly as impressive.
She stood straight up and did as the voice asked her to, walking forward slowly and carefully. She tried her best to step in such a way that she didn't crush too many trees, though there was always one or two that just got unlucky.
"Alright, that's far enough! Halt!" the voice shouted just as she was about to put one of her feet down. "Don't come any closer! You'll flatten me!"
Gigi froze and kept good balance on her left leg as her right foot hovered over the ground. After a moment, she cautiously brought her foot backward and stood with her legs together, awaiting more instructions.
"Very good! Now I'm right down here, if you'll just bring your eyes down to my level and know me properly!"
Slowly Gigi backed up and went into a crouch, coming down on her hands and knees to peer into the miniature forest for the voice's owner. For a while she couldn't find anyone. It was like hunting for an ant in a green shag rug.
"Alright, now I'm right over here! No, no, look this way! Getting warmer... Come now, you just missed me!"
She searched and searched for the source of the voice, until finally her eyes caught sight of a tiny little man dressed entirely in blue robes. In fact, even his skin and hair had a slight blue tinge to it as well. Was he a Smurf? No, he was much too small, and he didn't have the white pants or funny hat for it.
"Yes! Very good! Greetings, and well done, Great Giant!"
It was difficult to see very well, but Gigi saw that the man was touching a little stick to his throat, which perhaps was what made him sound louder than he ever possibly could have been without it.
"My name isn't..." She saw the tiny blue man quickly cover his ears, and remembered to speak softer than normal. "My name isn't giant. It's just Gigi."
"Ah, forgive me, oh Great and Just Gigi the Giant!" said the wizard, making a low, polite bow to her. "Welcome, and thank you so much for coming to my aid! I am the wizard known as Perdu!"
Gigi blinked in surprise. So he was a little wizard? Like the one in Oz? No, that stick thing he was holding must be his wand. So he was a real, legitimate wizard, like in Harry Potter! How interesting... And how weird that she was so much bigger than him. She was sure the giants in the books couldn't have been this big... could they?
"You're a wizard? So... You're the one who brought me here?" whispered Gigi as quietly as possible.
The tiny blue Perdu nodded.
"But how come this world is so small? Uh... I mean, how come I'm so big?"
The wizard shook his head and lifted one of his arms in a confused shrug, keeping the other hand pointing the wand to his throat. "I'm not sure of the answer myself! I did not exactly expect someone of your size!"
"Huh." Gigi frowned. "Well, do you think you can maybe wave your wand and make me small, like you?"
"Ahh, I'm afraid I don't know any spell for that! I could try making a shrinking potion, but it would take too long to get the necessary ingredients together, and for a creature of your stature you'd need to drink an entire lake of potion before you became a proper size, and unfortunately we don't have very much time for that!"
Gigi rolled her eyes. "Alright, I get it. So what's the problem? Why am I even here?"
"Like I said, very little time! If you would, Great and Just Gigi, lower your hand so I may walk onto your palm, and you can take me back to The Great Library?!"
The library? But that's just where Gigi had come from. "Uh, sure, I guess. Hop on." If going to the library meant she could go back to where she came from and everything could go back to normal, she'd do as he asked. She lowered her hand carefully and slowly in between the trees to rest on the ground at the wizard Perdu's feet.
It turned out, however, that her fingers were too steep for him to climb up, so he stepped onto one of her nails (which were thankfully long) and she carefully lifted him up, putting her other hand beneath him so he could step down onto her wide open palm. He must have been only a millimeter or two. Carefully she stood up with him in her hand and was able to straighten up to her full height.
"Thank you, m'lady! Now go forth that way!" The wizard pointed out the direction she had to go in. "I shall explain everything as well as I can as we go! And please, take care of the forest as you go!"
"Well, I'll try," whispered Gigi, and she carefully started marching in the direction he'd gestured, hoping that everything would soon become clear.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment