When Elijah first walked through the towering arch of the kitchen's entrance, his sole purpose at the time was to get his mind off Sam. The nagging in the back of his brain told him it would be impossible to forget how upset he was over not being able to properly meet his friend, but Eli hoped that for once in his life, he was wrong.
Thank god for hope.
"Guys?!" He screamed out to his friends, his voice teetering on the edge of panicking at the sight before him. "Please come here right now...please." He added the last plea as an afterthought, whispering it to himself as if it would help calm him down.
Because in all his attempts to wrap his mind around what he was seeing, the only thing that went through his mind was one word:
What?!?!
A tiny...person. Hanging by a...wire? On the edge of the countertop. A tiny person.
A tiny person.
A tiny person.
Right. He wasn't going insane, it was right in front of him, and it was...
Crying?
Why was the tiny person crying? Why wasn't it opening its eyes?
What was happening?!?!
Leo and Skip burst into the kitchen at the same time, both out of breath from the short sprint, watching Elijah with careful eyes to see what was wrong. Elijah pointed a shaking finger at the tiny person and took a much needed gulp of air.
"What?" Skip asked out loud, his eyes seeing exactly 'what' but not comprehending it. Did the tiny person-
"Is that a tail?" Elijah burst out. He didn't mean to say that. Why couldn't he control his own speech?
Was it really that big of a deal?
Sure, it was a tiny person hanging by a wire from the countertop and he didn't know what it was or how it got there or what it was going to do next but-
But it was crying.
By the looks of it, he was crying. And while Elijah took pride in being the comedic relief in the group, there was an overwhelming need to help the poor person before any more sobs rippled from his chest. Especially before the tiny person eventually lost his grip on the wire and fell to the floor by accident.
No, Elijah wouldn't stand for a crying person, no matter how tiny they were. Even if said person had a tiny tail and tiny hair and he might be freaking out because this was absolutely not what he expected from the kitchen trip but at least he was distracted and-
He took another deep breath in and then stepped forward. When the person didn't react to his footsteps, Elijah inched closer even more, until he was just a foot away from the wire and the person to accompany it.
"What are you doing?" Skip hissed from far away, still at the archway and not intent on moving. For all he knew, that thing had rabies.
Elijah simply swatted away his suspicious energy and raised a hand to rest below the dangling, crying person. There was no change, except maybe a few more tears that shed at alarming speeds.
"It's okay," He whispered, watching in awe at his breath brushing the hair out of the person's eyes. He was even more stunned to find a pair of elvish ears, tucked amongst the mess of ebony hair that stuck straight up from the roots and tossed about, as if it were slicked back by water but never stayed that way. "It's okay, just let go. I'll catch you."
The tiny person, who Elijah deemed only a bit younger than himself if his face was anything to go by, snapped his eyes shut even further, until he relaxed his eyebrows altogether and released his grip as if on cue.
Elijah let out an indistinguishable gasp at the sudden release, and then another at the feeling of such a small, warm life in his palm.
The tiny person could not have been more than three inches, dwarfed by his fingers that seemed to loom over him until he laid his hand flat out.
"It's alright," He repeated, more to himself than to the tiny person. Said person still kept his eyes screwed shut, but the sobs lessened to a more consolable degree. While Elijah was still in shock, there was something incredibly special going on, and he refused to pass it up just because it freaked him out a little.
The boy's tail wrapped around Elijah's pinkie finger as if on instinct, and Eli had never felt the urge to coo out as much as he did in that moment. The crying continued to dwell down into quiet tears dripping from his cheeks, his palms digging into his eyes with such a harsh ferocity, Elijah feared they might pop out.
"Why were you crying?" Eli asked him, holding the other hand underneath his palm as if it would allow for more stability.
The minuscule boy only continued to rub at his face, wiping away the stray tears until his fingers were drenched. Not that Eli could even see them without lifting his hand closer to his face, which did not seem appropriate at the moment. He took his time to watch the tiny person, eying every movement with awe because it was just so human, and maybe the boy had been human once?
But the tail and pointed ears told a different story, and it was one Eli was dying to know of.
"Dude," Skip once again called out from the entrance of the kitchen. He had less desperation in his eyes than before, but there was still confusion amidst his mind. "What the hell?"
"I don't know!" Eli whispered back to him, careful not to raise his voice with such micro ears nearby. Who knew how easily a normal speaking voice might hurt him?
'Maybe that's why he was crying' Thought Elijah and as if he had been burned, he shoved his hands away from him.
The boy sitting in his palm lurched backwards with the movement, falling on his elbows against the soft skin and curling his tail even tighter around the pinkie finger until even Elijah could feel it with a lack of circulation.
In an attempt to know why exactly the human's hands had pulled away, Sam opened his eyes, and nearly let out a scream at the sight before him.
This was Elijah, his friend, but seeing him so gigantic up close was enough to break him. It was hard enough being caught in his hands when he didn't want to be, but having the humongous chest fill up his vision and distract him from everything else was too much. He couldn't close his eyes now, though; it was far too late for that.
"I'm so sorry if I hurt you," Eli whispered, the air from his breath feeling more like a fan rotating warm air into his face.
At least he didn't have bad breath.
Sam couldn't help but wonder why Elijah was under the impression that he had been hurt by his hands. There were no injuries, or evidence of injuries, except for the consistent-
The tears. Of course.
Eli saw Sam crying, sobbing into his hands, and assumed he was hurt because of it. Sam wasn't hurt, unless you could count 'emotionally vulnerable and terrified' as being injured. No, Sam was purely scared of what death would fall upon him, feeling his bucket list go down the drain as he dropped into the human's hands. So, to at least relieve some of the tension laying through the air, he shook his head at his friend.
Elijah couldn't help but raise his thin brows at the sight. Such a tiny shake of the tiny head in his direction, but there were so many implications behind it. For one, the tiny person could understand him. And while it seemed obvious from the first request to drop into his hand, there was an underlying revelation that he could respond back. Which meant Elijah could get some answers, and help the little guy in the process.
"I didn't hurt you?" He clarified for extra measure. When the small head shook once more, Elijah let out a sigh and held his hands a little closer to his chest. It was a relief knowing the boy wasn't hurt, but there was so far to go from here.
"Okay, I'm gonna stand up now. I'll go slow, alright?"
He didn't receive a response, other than the tail tightening its grip on his finger and tiny hands grasping at the thin wrinkles of his skin. Elijah's heart swelled to the size of the moon.
He stood up, slow as a turtle at first, but a little quicker as time passed by and the small creature in his palms only shut his eyes once again. Eli was starting to see a pattern in his behavior, only closing his eyes when he was scared or unsure. As if he couldn't bear to look at what was happening, and Eli felt the need to shoot down some reinforcements.
"You're okay, you're doing great, just a little further..."
And when they finally reached Elijah's maximum of sixty six inches, Elijah was even slower to swivel his body around so he was able to face his two friends gaping at him with open mouths. Everything stayed quiet for a moment, until it didn't.
"Maybe we should go to the living room?" Skip offered, the first helpful thing he suggested all day. Eli nodded, never taking his eyes off the life in his hands, and continued walking forward with every step as careful as possible.
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A/N: Part 10, aka the part where I get to play favorites and have Eli show off how good of a person he is. Also, surprise, this was one of my favorite parts to write LOL. More havoc coming Sam's way soon.
I also added a new title page to go with the story! I love drawing just as much as writing, so I hope you all enjoy the little silhouette of Sam!
As always, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think! Thank you for reading! :)
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Fantasy"Out of all four boys that were a part of the unlikely friend group, only three of them were human."
