FirstLineFiction beta

from Contest #10

We were both up early when the big day came.  People say "big day" to mean a lot of different things, but to us the big day was quite literal.

You see, we're little people. Leprechauns. My name is Gene, and I stand a mere 21" tall.  My wife Sondra is 19" tall.  To us, every day is filled with challenges, the main one being reaching things. Most little people live in the forest amongst their own kind, and rarely have contact with humans. They live in tiny houses, have miniature horses, grow tiny gardens, and eat little food.

My wife and I, though, work and live amongst the humans. We live in a small town, not far from the edge of the forest, and only rarely go back to the little people's village to visit.  The humans in the town have accepted our tiny presence and view us as equals.

My wife works as a receptionist in the local police department, typing up reports and doing standard secretarial tasks. Now, to give just one of example of what I mean about reaching things, for Sondra, pressing the keys on the computer is a real workout, because she can only press one key at a time. She still manages to type an impressive 17 words a minute, and can run the fax machine, answer standard telephones, etc.

And me?  I work as a police detective in the same building where Sondra works. My job as a policeman is even more difficult for a small person than Sondra's job, and of course, if a criminal really wanted to get away from me, I'd stand no chance of catching him or beating him in hand to hand combat. But the town is a peaceful place for the most part, except for the occasional troll, and we little people happen to have a knack for dealing with trolls.

But let me tell you about our big day. About a month ago, a circus came to town. Sondra and I and our friends Fred and Elizabeth, (who are full-sized) decided to go to the circus for the afternoon. As we strolled along the midway we came to a fortune teller's tent, and we all decided to have our fortunes told.

When Sondra and I went in, we were pleasantly surprised to find the medium was a little. That is to say, she was a Leprechaun, like us. We visited for a time, and then she said, "Although I tell fortunes for the humans, my magic is limited on the futures of little people. But I can offer you something better. Would you like to have a big day?"

This puzzled us, so she explained. "There is a way little people can become big for a day, just to see what it's like. Haven't you ever wanted to?"

We were intrigued, and asked many questions of the little medium.  "There is one drawback you have to know about," she warned. "If you aren't back at the changing place precisely at daybreak, you'll stay big."

"Would that be so terrible?"

"You can be big for one day and it won't hurt you, but after that you will become fully human and your lifespan will be that of a human --70 to 80 years."

Leprechauns, as you may know, commonly live to be 300 years old, or even older. In fact, my wife and I were already well past 150, middle-aged for a little person.

"But, we're already older than that," I protested.

"Yes, and that's the risk. If you go past 24 hours as a human, your life will be drastically shortened."

This was a concern, and Sondra and I decided to take a few days to think about it before making our big decision. The idea was intriguing, but was it really worth the risk, just to see how humans lived?

On the other hand, what would it be like to reach the sink without a stool, or to be able to type using one finger per key, instead of having to push each key with your whole hand? 

As we contemplated the many things humans can do and take for granted, we became more and more dissatisfied with our smallness, and more and more envious of the big people around us. Even Fred and Elizabeth, our best friends who also worked with us in the police department, seemed now to be talking down to us.

"Let's do it, Gene," insisted Sondra. "Let's have a big day."

"But remember," I said, "we must follow the rules exactly, or we'll lose our lives. Is it worth the risk?"

"There's no risk if we follow the rules, and what reason would we have for not following the rules?"  Sondra was very convincing with her argument.

 

And so, on the last day the circus was in town, Sondra and I returned to the fortune teller's tent and told her we wanted our big day.

"You'll love it," she said, and set us up with the necessary magic to change the very next day.

So we were both up early when the big day came. We excitedly scrambled to the changing spot, an enchanted tree stump at the forest's edge, to wait for sunrise, as the time of our changing was to be when the sun's rays hit the stump over the lake's calm waters.

We sat on the stump quivering with excitement, and could barely contain ourselves. And then the magic began to swirl around us and we could feel ourselves growing. As the medium had explained, the magic worked not only on us, but on our clothes and shoes as well. "Be sure to wear the clothes you'll need for the day," she'd explained, "for they are the only ones that will fit you that day."

In moments, we more than tripled in size. Suddenly I was 5'-9" tall (still not a large man, but huge to me) and my wife was 5'-3".

With wonder we began jumping about gleefully. It seemed we could see forever, miles and miles, as if we had climbed a tree. 

Sondra and I walked back to the police station, beaming, anxious to see the looks on the faces of our co-workers.

In retrospect, of course, we should have told them.  It was a horrible shock to our best friends to see us as gigantic versions of ourselves. Elizabeth was the first to spot us. He mouth dropped open and she was unable to speak. She pointed and stared ... "Wha ... How?" was all she could get out.

Then Fred came around the corner. He glanced up at me, said, "Hi Gene," then did a double-take, dropped his coffee, and slipped in the liquid on the hard tile floor. He fell, hard, and hit his head on the floor.

Elizabeth and I rushed to his side and knelt, unsure what to do. Sondra ran into the other room to get smelling salts from the medicine chest, marveling that she didn’t need to fetch a stool to reach them.

With the smelling salts, Fred came to and we explained what was happening.  He said, “I’m glad you are having an adventure, but we can’t have the pair of you running around the town scaring folks all day. Take the day off, get out of town, and don’t come back until you’re regular-sized -- I mean, small again!”

That seemed like good advice, so we decided to go for a walk into the forest, where we wouldn’t likely see any of the villagers. Sondra and I are no strangers to the forest, as that is where we grew up and spent the first 80 years of our lives.  We knew if we went to the Leprechaun village we'd cause as much havoc there as we had in the human village, so we purposely headed in the opposite direction.

It's surprising how much ground one can cover when you're over five feet tall. We walked for at least an hour at a leisurely pace into a part of the woods we'd never been in before.

There was one flaw in our thinking, though. By heading away from the Leprechaun village, we were walking straight into Elf territory. 

Suddenly, I tripped and found myself being tied up with tiny ropes by Elves! Sondra too was in their grasp, and before we could fight back we were bound quite firmly.

Elves have a reputation of being cute, cuddly, and helpful creatures, but let me tell you, I don't care for them much. For my money, they're distrustful, conniving little brats, about half the size of Leprechauns.

So, there Sondra and I were, deep in the forest, tied up by Elves and totally helpless, and darkness was beginning to fall.

"Please let us go," I begged.

"Humans can never know where the Elves live," said one who seemed to be in charge. "If we let you go, soon your fellow humans will be here to dig up our silver!"

"But we're not humans," Sondra exclaimed. "We're Leprechauns!"

Well, you should have heard their evil Elfish laughter!  By now there were at least fifty of them all around us, and the laughter was all-encompassing.

"Wicked!"  "Liars!" "Nasty, stupid humans," they jeered.

"Do they think we can't recognize a human when we see one?"

"Please," I begged. "Can you please let me speak to the Elfin King, MacManus?"

A hush fell over them at this.

"How do you know the King's name, wicked human?" they wanted to know. "No one but forest creatures should know the King's name!"

Through gritted teeth, I exclaimed again, "I told you, we're not humans!"

Sondra then did something that probably saved our lives. She spoke to them in the Elfish language.

"Brackna buthinya hoorovna. MacManus olivia nomnally en folliblus Nanuk."

You could have heard a pin drop. There was deathly silence for a full 20 seconds. Then the leader found his voice. "Get the king," he said.

I don't speak Elfish, but Sondra had learned the language from a friend as a child. What she had said was, roughly translated, "MacManus is the King of the Elves as Nanuk is the Sovereign of the Leprechauns. If you kill us, you will start a war between the two that will last a thousand years."

 

Several hours passed before we heard approaching hoof beats of tiny Elfish ponies. MacManus had arrived.

The Elves had not untied us, but they had allowed us to sit back to back, and had provided us water and food. The moon was high in the sky and although we couldn’t be sure, it must have been near midnight.

The king hobbled over to us, leaning on his cane, and spoke. The other Elves all bowed to him.

"What human dares to speak in the Elfish tongue?" he demanded.

"Please, your majesty, we are not humans, but Leprechauns under a spell," I said. "We are from the Leprechaun village on the other side of the forest, and if you will send a messenger to Nanuk and tell him that Sondra and Gene are here having been made large by magic, he will personally vouch for us."

MacManus listened to our tale, asked some questions, and then asked for food and wine.  By the time he had finished his meal it had grown very late indeed. 

Finally, he spoke. "I'll send a messenger to the Leprechaun village in the morning, to check with Nanuk. In the meantime, we will sleep."

"But sir, the spell will end at daybreak, and if we're not back at the enchanted stump by the lake, we'll surely die!"

"Silence!" he thundered, or at least it was as close as his tiny throat could get to a thunder. "I have spoken!"

Sondra and I, back to back, couldn't look into each other's eyes, but I could hear her sobbing. "It’s my fault," she said softly.  "I'm the one who wanted this. Why wasn't I just satisfied being me?  Why did I have to try to be something I'm not?"

"It's okay, love," I consoled. "We'll get out of this somehow. But even if we don't, know that I will always love you. I don't regret our decision to try a big day, even if it hasn't gone as planned."

 

Finally, MacManus and most of the other Elves wandered away, and only two Elves were left to guard us. I began to hope for the first time.

You see, unbeknownst to the Elves, I had a small knife in my back pocket, a very sharp one. And during the past few hours, I'd managed to saw more than halfway through my bonds. Only a few threads remained.

I had no hope of overpowering 50 Elves, but one or two sleepy guards may be another story.

Elves are industrious little creatures, but they have their limitations. First one, and then the other guard dozed off about a half hour after MacManus and the others had departed.

Quickly I cut the remaining few threads of my bonds, whispered "Shhh, don't say anything!" to Sondra, and turned and untied her.

Our legs were stiff after so many hours of inactivity, but we wasted no time making our getaway. We ran like the wind as soon as we were clear of the Elves' thicket. We were in a race now, not against the guards, but against the sun itself, for the sky was becoming decidedly grey in the East. Our time was running out!

As we burst out of the forest we could see the rays of sun creeping slowly across the meadow towards the enchanted stump. Sondra was ahead of me, and she turned as if to wait for me. "Go!" I screamed at her. "Run!"

Sondra did a fine imitation of a baseball runner heading for home base as she threw herself toward the stump, sliding in with arms outstretched. Her hand connected with the stump just as the sun's rays hit the other side of it, and the magic began to circle around her.

Lagging behind only a few feet, I followed her lead and slid in alongside, reaching for the stump, but my hands were a scant few inches too far away. I could not reach the stump, so in desperation I grabbed her jacket, hoping the magic would transfer. As she began to shrink in size, I held on for dear life, being dragged roughly across the earth a few inches at a time.

After a few minutes, Sondra was her regular self again. I, however, was still big. I had not transformed. What would happen now?  Sondra and I were beside ourselves with worry. I sat on the stump, and Sondra climbed on my knee like she was my child instead of my wife.

"Do you think I'll age in a few days, or do you think it'll take a few weeks or months?" I asked, with a quiver in my voice.

"Oh Gene," she sobbed, "don't talk like that. There has to be another way. We - we'll find the circus and talk to the medium again. Perhaps there's another spell she can cast."

I nodded, but didn't hold out much hope. Suddenly, a strange thing happened. My jacket ripped down the back.

"What the ..." I began.  I placed Sondra delicately on the ground and stood. My pants split and my shoes were suddenly painful so that I stripped them off quickly. My socks promptly shredded as they were too small for my feet!

"Am I getting bigger?" I asked, for I really couldn't tell.

"I don't think so," said Sondra. "I think your clothes are shrinking!" And they were. My clothes were shrinking back to their Leprechaun size, and soon enough I was reduced only to my underwear, and those were ripping! I quickly dove into the water before I was completely nude.

It seemed that there had been enough magic in my grasping Sondra's clothes to change my clothes back, but not me. "You'll have to go into town and get some clothes from Fred," I said. “He should be near enough to my size."

Sondra nodded and left for the town. While she was gone, I had little to do but worry. In a few minutes, the water had risen to cover my chin.  I took a step closer to shore, but the water rose to cover my chin again. Suddenly I couldn’t reach the bottom.  I was shrinking!  Yes, I was definitely shrinking!

By the time Sondra returned with Fred and Elizabeth, I was back to my regular size. The clothes they had brought were far too large, but there was a blanket in the back of the police car, and they wrapped me in that so that I could get home.

 

Fred and Elizabeth took us to our house, and we fell into a deep sleep, exhausted from our big day. When we awoke in the evening we had a very nice meal and celebration with Fred and Elizabeth. 

And what, you may be asking, about McManus?  Through Nanuk we got a message to him that we really were Leprechauns under a spell, and that they had nothing to fear from the humans. 

The story of our big day was one we would never forget, and we vowed that although we might live another 150 years, we would never again try to be something we’re not!

back to Contest #10