( In reference to this post )
#12: “Please don’t be afraid of me. I’m not dangerous, I’m just big.” with Jacob Andris of Fairy Tales: Bowman of Wellwood.
“Ah,” he muttered quietly, moving to hold up a placating hand. Jacob, in his curiosity, had all but trapped the tiny sprite by the rocks. She couldn’t risk slipping into the deeper waters without putting herself closer to him.
He remembered how terrified Bowman was of him when they first met. And, ruefully, he remembered how often Bowman scolded him for the simple crime of being tall. He tried to crouch down farther, but knew there was no hope for it.
“Please don’t be scared of me,” he said quietly, earnestly. His brown eyes remained fixed on the tiny aquatic woman’s shivering form. “I’m not dangerous. I’m just big.”
The shimmery little girl put her hands over her face. Jacob’s worried frown deepened. He never wanted his size to scare someone so much. With sprites, it was difficult. They were extra tiny in a world full of obstacles. Clearly, water sprites were just as skittish as wood sprites.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he muttered, in a voice barely more than a whisper. She didn’t move. “It happens sometimes. My wood sprite friends tell me I stomp around too much. Not much I can do, I tell them. There’s a whole lotta me to carry around.”
That drew more of a reaction from her. Tiny hands, as silvery as the rest of her, slowly dropped until her widened eyes peeked up at him from behind her bangs. Jacob smiled softly and shrugged. The action caused her back fins to flinch, but she didn’t try to hide her face again.
A tiny voice mumbled at him. The girl kept her hands over her mouth, masking the words and leaving Jacob unsure of whether they were fearful, pleading, or just plain curious.
“I’m … sorry, miss,” he answerred, still muttering. “I can’t hear you very well.”
She blinked up at him before hesitantly lowering her hands. “You have wood sprite friends?”
He nodded. “Yep. My best friend is a wood sprite. His name is Bowman. The wood sprites I know all live in a different forest.”
She was still pressed against the rock, but something in her bearing relaxed. “Oh, I see,” she answered. “How … you’re so big …”
Jacob chuckled. “That’s true. Bowman tells me so, too. It was all kinda tough at first. He was really nervous and I wasn’t as calm about finding him, either,” he admitted.
“But now he’s your best friend,” she echoed, and Jacob nodded. “And you won’t … you won’t hurt me or try to catch me?”
“Miss, I will never do that,” Jacob intoned seriously. “I promise. I know sprites are people just like I am, even though they’re smaller.” Her eyes were wide and she simply stared at him. Jacob smiled again. “If I were to guess, I’d say you must be a water sprite?”
She nodded and finally stopped pressing herself into the rock behind her. Her fins rippled and she stepped forward with the water lapping around her legs and the fins growing from them.
“Y-yes, sir,” she replied. Her fins fanned a lot like the butterfly wings they seemed to mimic. “My name is Kadmianika Greyfin, sir.”
Jacob smiled in greeting, inwardly amazed by her appearance. She was so like the wood sprites and yet so different. “You don’t have to call me ‘sir’,” he told her. “I’m Jacob, and it’s really nice to meet you, Kad… Kad-mi-anika.” He had to say it slowly, but he managed to say her name correctly. She seemed pleased.
Bowman will never believe me.
Writerly Things 