A Little Adventure

By CalextheNeko

“Honestly, I'd really like it if I could just have a little adventure in my life. You know, nothing too big…" Those were the words that had gotten Carlos into this mess. Now he was climbing out of his own shirt sleeve and standing naked in the dirt surrounded by blades of grass that towered over him like trees. He was probably only about three inches tall now… She had certainly got the little part now. He glanced upward scanning for any sign of the fairy who had offered to grant him a wish. He could just make out a glowing light somewhere above the grass that was flying away. He was pretty sure he heard her giggling at him. She had left him stranded like this.

So, today was a day. He had suddenly learned that magic was real, fairies were jerks and the world looked a lot more intimidating when you were the size of a mouse. At least it wasn't a dull experience. Silver lining. But what did he do now? He wasn't exactly confident he could walk back home like this.

Carlos was interrupted from his thoughts as a loud crackling noise rang out through the forest. A few moments later a massive behemoth emerged from between the roots of a nearby tree. It was a brown fur covered beast with a short thin tail. It was just a chipmunk, but it was almost three times Carlos size in his current state. The chipmunk looked at him curiously for a moment and then ignored him. A tiny human was certainly a strange sight, but something that small was no threat to it. It turned its back on Carlos as it began to search around the base of the tree for fallen nuts.

“… I think I'm getting a stupid idea." Carlos watched the chipmunk as he thought about how much faster it could get through the forest. This was probably going to end poorly. He took a deep breath and ran across the forest floor before leaping onto the chipmunk's back. “HI HOOOOO SILVER!" He gave a shout as he grabbed two handfuls of fur.

“SQUEEEEEEEEEEAK!" Whereas the rodent hadn't noticed him before, this got it moving. The chipmunk took off sprinting at full speed, straight up the tree. Carlos clung to the chipmunk's fur with all his strength refusing to let go as his body bounced against the rodent's back. High up atop a branch the chipmunk finally stopped moving. Carlos wasn't sure if it forgot he was there or what… But was just thankful for a reprieve. He looked over the edge of the creature's back and immediately felt sick and had wished he hadn't. From atop the branch the forest floor now seemed to be an impossible distance away, further than he could even see. He really the rodent didn't manage to dislodge him and send him tumbling.

“Okay… Probably should have expected that. You'll obviously need some training…" Carlos slowly stood up straight on the creatures back but paused as he did. The chipmunk had not been large enough for him to stan dup like this when he first encountered it. Yet now he could stand in the very center of his back with enough room to pace left and right slightly. He swallowed nervously as he looked from the chipmunk's ears down to its tail. There was no question about it… It looked bigger now. Probably ten times as big as him now. That could only mean one thing… He had gotten even smaller. Perhaps that was why the chipmunk had calmed down, it could no longer feel his weight and thought he had been dislodged.

“This is a problem…" Carlos crossed his arms across his bare chest and tried to think. He had no idea how small he'd get at this point… Or how he might try to control the chipmunk to get it to carry him home. Then what would he even do if he got home? Well… One problem at a time right now.

For now he decided to try to climb up to the chipmunk's head. He was going to have a hard time seeing where it was going anyway from its back now… Maybe he could ride on its head and steer it by tugging its ears! Unlikely, but he was in an unlikely scenario. He slowly walked up the chipmunk's back being careful to tread lightly and avoid spooking it. Grabbing handfuls of fur he began to climb up its neck towards its head. As he climbed the clumps of fur he was grabbing were getting bigger in his hand. He was still getting smaller no question about it. Probably smaller than an ant by now. No wonder the chipmunk didn't notice him. After awhile he reached what he assumed was the top of the chipmunk's head. It was hard to be sure… By this point he was so small he was lost in a maze of its fur, walking along the chipmunk's skin as strands of hair shout of the ground like lampposts on either side of him. He hoped he was atop the head… Tugging on its ears were probably out of the question at this point… But he forgot about that as he saw something else.

It was… Some kind of bug! A grotesque thing with a brown shell and strange hairs sticking out of it. Its insectoid head twitched, two long antennae swishing around as it examined its areas… It was just a flea… But it was as big as Carlos' head.

The flea looked around and then began to nibble at the skin of the chipmunk.

“HEY!" Carlos acted without thinking. He ran forward and slammed his barefoot into the flea kicking it away. “Leave the 'munk alone! He's my friend now… Sort of. Maybe. Working on the loyal steed thing! But don't you um… bother… him…" Carlos paused as the flea he had kicked was starting to look a lot bigger… So he hadn't stopped shrinking yet. Now it was half his size… He didn't think he could punt it again. He nervously took a step back as the flea let out some kind of high pitched clicking noise… And then it ran off and he gave a sigh of relief. “Yeah! You better run!" He laughed nervously to himself happy he had chased it off. Of course… He was left wondering what to do now. Getting home seemed unlikely… Or really traveling anywhere beyond the chipmunk's body. He supposed if he was stuck living here he could at least try to keep the place flea and parasite flea as payment for the little… erm big guy giving him shelter in its fur.

Suddenly a loud chorus of several clicking noises rung through the air. This made Carlos freeze in place. More fleas began to emerge from between the forest of giant brown hairs… And now they had gone from half Carlos' size to twice his size.

“I can't just have one win huh?" Carlos sighed. There were a lot of them… And thanks to his current size and the fact he was still shrinking it was doubtful he'd be able to get rid of them. “You're not mad about the whole kicking thing, are you?" He grinned sheepishly. The fleas didn't understand him; but responded with another chorus of clicking noise. Right… Running away it was.

Running from something twice your size was hard. Carlos needed twice the amount of steps as the fleas… And they had three times as many legs! Talk about unfair! Worse… They were getting visibly bigger as they chased after him. It wasn't long before they caught up with him… And soon were over him! The fleas had become gigantic, each of their individual legs now the side of a tree trunk! Carlos wasn't even sure if the fleas still knew he was there as a giant leg slammed into the ground next to him nearly knocking him over from the shockwave. Outrunning them was no good… But if he was this small he could escape another way if he could avoid being stepped on! He did a 180, running in the direction the fleas were coming from now as he looked up trying to avoid the insect's enormous legs. He had a few close calls he couldn't want to talk about… And at one point managed to just barely dive out of the way as a leg the size of a mountain came down close to him. And then… Like that they were gone, having moved on.

“Beneath the notice of even a flea huh…" Carlos picked himself up and brushed himself off. Then he paused as he floated upwards into the air a little. He felt… Almost weightless, it was as if he was underwater now. He had to be really small, microscopic even. There were…. Other things that were visible now too. He wasn't sure he could call them creatures… They were blobish things. Maybe cells, or amoebas or something? They were all over the place. He really was microscopic. Carlos couldn't help but laugh.

“Man, that fairy is a jerk…" He couldn't help but grin. It was so ridiculous… To be stuck so small. “So this is my life now…" He looked around unsure of what to do at first. He supposed finding a source of food was probably the most important thing. And there weren't a ton of options here… Carlos the amoeba hunter! That was what he was going to do. “Well… I guess it beats working on the phones all day… Still it's really a bit much." He took a deep breath as he tried to focus his resolve. All things considered, it was kind of an amazing experience. He had to be seeing things with his own eyes no one else ever had. In a lot of ways… It was a worthy adventure. It was just a shame there would probably never be a way for him to share it with anyone… Not unless the shrinking wore off or someone else had also wound up this small.

Still… If he was going to be stuck like this… He was going to try to make it work.

“Alright… Let's go cell hunting." With that he began to swim towards the strange blobs and his new life of little adventures.

The End