Turning it off and on again did no good, now Ben was really on his own. Throwing a few choice curses to the canopy above, he slipped the phone into his back pocket and let out a desperate sigh; now he had to admire the scenery and that was no good to him.
A delicious aroma of freshly fallen pine cones filled up his nostrils, but never quite reached his awareness; Ben could only imagine how nature itself must have infested his phone, draining away those precious bars. He had been hoping to wile the time away fiddling with his smart device, it was so unfair Ava had dragged him out here when she knew full well he hated the place. At least he had lost her, ditched the girl at the first chance he got as she fell to distraction about half a mile back.
He passed a clump of mushrooms, bright red with speckly white spots, thinking little of them beyond how high he could get if he took a bite out. He had always been fascinated with snails too, and he noted an especially small one scaling slowly up a tree trunk. How could they live like that? A smirk slipped across his face, the thought of superiority, even mild pride with himself, that he could make that distance up the tree in no time at all, and it had probably taken this slimy thing all day. The shell was the most striking thing, Ben had never seen a bright cyan snail before. Plucking it from the bark with ease, he proceeded to inspect and taunt it, a kind of little vengeance against mother nature.
Whatre you gonna do? he muttered half-consciously, sneering at the creature. Ben dropped the snail to the forest floor, kicking it over to the foot of the tree. Now it could start its journey all over again, it was the least it deserved in Bens mind. Heaving another great sigh, he turned back to the path and continued his walk. Now slipping his phone out again, he hoped, prayed, maybe a single bar had come back a flash served to distract him, like the headlights of a car blasting bright suddenly, except these headlights were a dazzling blue. Ben spun around with more energy than he had mustered all day.
As the light subsided, in the place of the hapless snail stood a woman, hardly older than Ben, with blush-red skin and beaming blue hair. Her dress was nothing to scoff at, a winding mass of sky blue vines that wrapped gently to form the skirt and top, the colours undulating as though alive. The brightest and bluest feature, two piercing eyes, smacked Bens attention and the beautiful being glared him down. All he could do was stare back.
For a while the two just exchanged looks, the woman considerably calmer than he. Finally some semblance of self-consciousness returned to him, Ben shut his gaping mouth than thought it wise to act cool.
W-well
hi there, he stammered. The womans eyebrows rose a little.
Are you serious? her voiced was soothing and quiet, yet communicated displeasure all the same, As a snail you cruelly plucked at me and threw me about like I was nothing, only now I get a greeting because I look just like you?
Bens heart skipped, this was the snail? How could that be?
Y-you
are you
Im what youd probably call a fairy, she said, ambling across the forest floor towards him in a way he hardly noticed, her bare feet gently touching, barely touching, the ground. It was as if she hovered. She lowered her head and gazed deep into Bens soul.
You dont belong here, you have no place in my forest, her voice was still smooth but her words cut like thorns, Only the wise and kind may come here.
I Im sorry
No you arent, youre scared
and she was right, Ben hadnt noticed it but sweat scrawled down his face. He calculated his next words, at least as carefully as he could seeing as most his mental faculties had abandoned him.
I
I will leave, Im sorry, he stuttered, less than convincingly. She remained quiet for a moment, the colours and lights in her dress dimming slightly, the tone of her hair shifting from bright blue to a deeper shade. Just then, she did something that made Ben jump; a simple touch, a glide of her hand, she did nothing but slide a loose hair strand behind his ear. The tips of her fingers lightly touched his temple like a lover cutely adjusting Bens hair. Her steady hand fell to his shoulder, and without clutching it tight she pulled him close to her face.
No, she whispered, the word hitting his cheek in a breath of warm air. Before another moment passed, Ben felt the ground give way, his vision blurring in a pulse of blue light. It was over before he knew it began.
The fairy brought him still closer to his face, her breathing hot and unavoidable. Bens eyes darted down and around, at least that was the order he gave, instead it took a long while for his body to respond as though his whole being was trapped in a pit of thick mud. He was dangling above the forest floor, his legs were nowhere to be seen then each side he registered two great columns of blush skin, they conjoined to form a giant hand that held him firm between its fingers.
You, the fairy said, stealing back Bens attention, You are not going anywhere.
He tried to budge, fight back a little, but his limbs did not respond. Every inch he writhed was painfully slow and delayed, like reality itself was lagging. Even his breathing was slow, and every breath was pronounced by a slick slurping noise. Not even his mouth responded to action, not a single word came out, not that he even knew where his mouth was anymore.
An explosion of air sent Bens mind into full panic mode. He watched as his vision sped downwards, the floor of the forest hurtling closer before smashing all hope of a soft landing into a oblivion. Pieces of dirt and stone and leaf flung up around him, some spraying into his eyes and all over his body as tiny pinching bullets. Ben tried to catch his breath but a clump of hard soil choked his airways.
Instructing his blurry eyes to look up and around, Ben noted the scale of the forest, each tree like a skyscraper wrapping up and around him, the expanse of autumnal debris stretching out as far as the eye could see like a vast an unending desert. A good distance away like two huge mountains bright and red, the fairys feet dominated half his view. Ben struggled to look up, to comprehend how far up she went, and as he came to realise his limbs were just not responded, he could only make out one conclusion: he didnt have any.
She smiled for the first time, leaning over just slightly to let Ben see her distant face. Her eyes rested on a pithy snail, dirt-brown in colour, fumbling hopelessly at her toes. The creature slid with heaving effort up to her foot and tapped its stalks against the flush skin. She nudged a toe a little, and the snails feeler dipped suddenly into its body with fright.
As it struggled to find its bearing, she nudged the snail up to the base of a tree, clumps of dirt blinding the creature momentarily in the flurry. All Ben could take in was the horrific sight of those reddish hills, kicking the air out of him and shoving his shelled form to the edge of a looming steep cliff. Which was taller, the tree or the woman? Down here it was impossible to tell. The huge form of the fairy, glowing brighter blue than ever now and wearing a wider, scarier smile, leaned down to its knees and closed in on Ben.
The floor is no place for a snail, she whispered, Climb to higher ground, you should be safer there. Otherwise someone might step on you, little one. Bens heart exploded into a panic, this couldnt mean what he thought it did. It was too cruel. Without a chance to exclaim his anxiety to her, the fairy had leaped back to her feet, the stormy wind sending yet more debris into Bens eyes and face, at least what little of it remained after his sudden transformation.
Her foot collided with the ground mere inches from the creature, a planned manoeuvre or honest mistake, the result was still an unrivaled sense of sheer terror in Bens little bug soul. Impulsively he tried to run or jump back but neither came to pass, instead he had to wait a minute for his slick, heavy body to comply. His stalks creaked around to see the blue fairy woman strut far away and out of view, making progress down the path at such a speed he could only dream of, every step a thousand times quicker than his top speed.
Before he knew it, he was alone. His phone, still barless, lay a blurry a few metres away, and every scratch, peck, and bird chirp suddenly seemed a threat of imminent danger. Ava would never find him like this, not in a hundred years, not if he tried to scream with all his might if she passed.
Without a sense of what to do next, where he was going, or what his goal was, Ben knew he only had one hope left in the world. If he was going to make it, whatever making it meant, the last words of the fairy were all he could trust in. Heaving his laggy body away from the path and forcing it through the undergrowth, struggling over every tiny pebble and branch, the trek forward was frustratingly slow, plenty of time for him to consider everything, and consider it again.
Ben slowly made his way up the tree.
Giantess World
