Back with Chase and his new giant buddy. Jacob has no clue what’s going on, either, Chase, give him a break!
Keep up on Chase In Lilliput here
Chase hesitated, seated on a giant palm with his hands braced against it to prop himself up. He was wholly outmatched by this Jacob, but at least the guy hadn’t done anything to hurt him so far. Even if he hadn’t put him down, either. “I’m Chase,” he replied glibly. “And I’m not a giant, so what do ya say about putting me down so I’m not so high in the air?”
Jacob’s eyebrows shot up again. As if on reflex, his fingers curled closer and Chase thought for a moment that he would be enveloped in a fist. Instead, Jacob merely glanced from his hand to the ground.
“Um. Right. Sorry,” he stammered. His hand moved, a living platform, and Chase wished he had something to hang onto as he dropped towards the ground. “Weren’t you on me? What’d you do, climb up?”
The hand reached the beach sand, and Chase scrambled to his feet and stepped down to much more solid ground. Once there, he turned around to keep his eyes on the giant, stepping back so he didn’t need to crane his neck so much. “I didn’t climb up!” he protested. He pointed at the cliffs again, noting the place where he’d fallen. “I slipped and rolled over the stupid cliff, I was trying to get out of the way before you woke up.”
Jacob turned his head and leaned towards the cliff. Chase heard a thoughtful sigh escape those massive lungs, and then a hand reached up towards the edge. While he watched with wide eyes, Jacob nudged at some of the trees and underbrush at the edge of the cliff, examining the spot where Chase had rolled over the side.
A sudden notion struck him. The giant wasn’t looking his way, and he wasn’t in hand. Before he could really stop to think about it, Chase turned and bolted.
He ran parallel to the beach, his lungs already complaining. Chase didn’t even know where he planned to go, but the part of him still wary about what a giant could do egged him on.
It didn’t last.
“Woah, wait!” Jacob blurted, his voice echoing off the cliffs and shooting a dart of surprise right through Chase’s heart. The ground shook, and soon enough a shadow swept over Chase and he skidded to a halt. Not a second later, a pair of giant hands dropped down in his path, walling around him.
Chase turned around, his eyes wide once again, to find a worried look on Jacob’s face even as he loomed overhead. “Chase … I’m really sorry that I grabbed you before, and if I hurt you I really didn’t mean that,” he said. He breathed a sigh that could have reversed a wave on the shore. “I was just surprised, I swear. But … I don’t really know where I am.”
The last sentence didn’t come with a tone of pleading or making an excuse. Chase was surprised to hear uncertainty and fear, of all things, out of someone so huge. Jacob couldn’t hide anything on his face. Chase believed him, despite his nerves around someone so huge. Someone who had just proven he could easily keep Chase from leaving if he wanted to.
He sighed. That face was way too convincing, and Chase found himself shuffling one of his shoes in the sand. “Okay, okay,” he relented. “I’ll forgive it, I guess. Just don’t go doing stuff like that again, okay? I thought I was gonna lose my legs or something!”
Jacob winced, but then his expression became hopeful. “I swear. I don’t wanna hurt ya. I really was just surprised.”
Chase rolled his eyes and smacked the back of his hand against one of Jacob’s nearby palms. “You think you’re surprised, huh? Imagine rolling off a cliff and landing on a giant. What business does anyone have being so tall, anyway?”
Jacob’s mouth twitched in a half-smile. “Wouldja believe I’ve been asked that before? ‘Cept I wasn’t this big compared to the last person who asked,” he quipped.
Chase tilted his head and gave the giant a bemused look, before grinning wider. “You’re an odd one, aren’t ya, Jake?”
Jacob stifled a snicker, and one of his huge hands shifted. He nudged at Chase’s side with a fingertip, and though it sent Chase’s heart into his throat for a split second, the fear subsided quickly. Somehow, he had managed to fall on the biggest and gentlest giant Lilliput had ever seen.
“I guess I do kinda stand out here,” Jacob admitted. Then, with Chase no longer bolting away from him, he hesitantly drew his hands back to stop crowding him. The hands, so huge and powerful, were settled on his knees with nothing better to do, and Jacob slouched where he sat. Chase could swear he was trying to look smaller than he was.
Good luck on that one, buddy, he thought to himself.
Writerly Things 