Chapter 12: Big and Small

Helemys was too angry to be afraid: until Bula let go. At that point, her body fell with a thump to land on the fae settlement.

The silver-haired copper-skinned elf fell back down across a good dozen sprite homes. She had heard screams snuff out with her landing. The elf quickly sat up, and realized the bottom bit of her nature-made outfit was rimmed by a layer of debris. Her bare feet were soles down and stretched out, and she felt some crushed homes there too.

Horrified at what she had unintentionally done, the beautiful elf woman quickly stood up.

“I’m sorry!”, she said. “I didn’t mean to, Bula threw me here!”

The many sprites and fewer pixies were too busy dodging the chaos to do much. Helemys had, without really thinking, shifted her slender feet to adjust her posture. In the process, those peds cleaved through a few more homes.

“I’m sorry! Please forgive me. I wanted to help you, I-”

Her attention, Miraddella’s, and the attention of most of the sprites and pixies turned towards Bula. The ground rumbled as the giant troll moved back to a front-laying position again. Her chin rested on her crossed arms, and her crossed legs kicked through the air once or twice.

As a consequence of the movement, those fae stuck in the piercing prison were also stuck in the dark. With Bula’s belly to the ground, no sun reached them. Their screams never escaped from underneath her massive form, though there was air enough for them to survive of course.

The troll woman’s face loomed over Helemys, and over the entire city as well. It occurred to Helemys that, since the sprites were an inch tall, she herself would seem over 500ft tall to them as an elf. The buildings of the settlement, too, were designed with the sprites in mind.

In that sense, she was to the sprites much like Bula was to her: a giant menace, whether she wanted to be by not. Helemys herself would seem under an inch to Bula, she figured. So, she figured the troll must’ve seemed more than 5 miles to the sprites. With Bula being huge to her now, she wondered how that troll would look if she were a sprite.

Helemys had often envied the fae for their magical prowess and flight, but right now she was happy she wasn’t as small as them. Even the pixies didn’t come up to her knee. Bula, to them, must’ve looked like something else. A living mountain.

A mountain that was smiling.

Bula’s eyes were right on Helemys and the bits of the settlement her feet were set on. Those giant green eyes ignored Miraddella for the moment, and the shroom-treant was still at a lost for words regardless. Helemys took a quick look at that mushroom woman to see her face glum and stour. A curt, throaty chuckle from Bula grabbed the elf’s attention again fast though.

“Go ahead.”, said Bula. “Attack me. Save this village if you think it’s worth getting feisty about.”

Helemys looked to Bula, then down at her feet. She lifted one foot to see bits of debris caught to her sole, as well as a few sprites. Shocked, she hurriedly brushed it off her sole to the city below. In the process, she nearly lost her balance and tumbled again. Thankfully, she instead managed to hop on one foot to regain that balance, albeit stomping an empty sprite home in the process.

The elf woman set her foot back down where there was already a print in the debris. This way, she managed her damage. She was at a lost for words, but knew it was unwise to try and stop that woman now. She’d cause too much damage.

Bula saw clearly that Helemys didn’t want to wreck the sprite city more than she already did. But, the giant troll wanted to at least witness a feeble attempt on the elf’s part. So, she egged the silver-haired elf on. She spoke.

“C’mon, you were talking so big before. Maybe you even feel pretty big what with all those sprites down at your toes. Did you step on any by mistake? Hard for me to see, but I bet ya’ did.”

Bula had a smug grin on her face. The giant troll notice Helemys getting irked by it.

“Don’t you want to avenge your elven friends? Your people? Your weak, feeble, delicious people? I’m right here, face bared and undefended. I’m the troll that ruined your little village. I’m the one that ate your squirmer of a lover. Come on, is this how you honor their memory, by standing still like a coward? Those elves died for you. Those delicious, squirmy little elves that wiggled right down my throat. Mmmmm~”

Bula stuck her tongue out and obnoxiously dragged it across her lips. That did it.

Visibly enraged, Helemys walked closer. She actually took two normal steps before remembering where she was. Those two steps squished some sprites flat, and took out a good few homes. Other fae dodged just in time out from under those slender, copper-skinned feet.

Helemys frowned, sorrow hitting her again and mixing with the unpleasant stew of emotions.

“I’m sorry.”, she said. “But I have to at least try and stop her. Surly you can understand, fierce as you are sprites. I’m sorry all this happened. Please, clear the way for me though.”

Moving more carefully Helemys proceeded through the city back towards the border. Past that edge the smug visage of Bula still loomed. Her fingers rested on her spotted cheek now as she watched the ‘entertainment’.

The sprites and pixies cleared the way for Helemys’s slow walk over. The elf raised her foot, and the fae cleared from its shadow. Of course, any buildings stuck underneath were gone: flattened beneath the elf’s sole in a sensation she found more than a tad disconcerting.

Still, the fae cooperated much as they could. The sprites detested that troll too. They wouldn’t deny the elf a chance to strike. Perhaps someone as big as the elf might be able to do a bit of damage to the overconfident troll. They were foolish in that notion, of course, but they hadn’t seen the battle earlier. There, Bula single-handedly leveled the elven village and the trees supporting it, too.

Helemys approached, crunching a few more homes in the process. She was near the edge of the city, about ready to run and pound at the dark-green lips of that smug smile. However, Bula’s face shifted. A sudden, loud vibration of a noise rung out.

From deep within Bula’s belly came a gurgle. A loud and ominous one.