Mila's World, Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Next chapter of "The Shrink" on the way in the next few days! <3

Chapter 4

For what seemed like a very long time, neither of them spoke.  The only sound that passed between them was the light whisper of the cool breeze as it dipped and bent through the gnarled oak tree branch that hung over them…or, more accurately, that hung over Adam.  Mila’s head rose up as tall as a good number of the branches, even taller than a few of them.  During this lengthy silence, both of them opened their mouths, attempting to say something, but nothing came out.  It was clear, after a while, that both of them seemed to be biding their time, waiting for the moment when they would snap out of this dream and appear back in Mila’s dining room.

‘Did we…did we both get knocked out or something?’ Mila thought desperately to herself, ‘Like, did…we get struck by lightning?  Or maybe just me?  Am I…am I…dead!?’

She felt herself starting to panic at the thought, and she could feel her heart beginning to race in her chest.  But in the midst of this trajectory of panic, something made her pause.  Everything was too real.  The breeze, the slightly moist, heavy feel of the air, the overcast sky, the woody creaks of the tree branches around her, and off to her right in the immense forest that extended out to the horizon as far as she could see.  But most of all, it was the reality of Adam in front of her that made her feel like this couldn’t be the mirage of some terrible death-throes.  Even though he only stood as high as her hip, it was definitely him – there was no mistaking that youthful, precious face, that short, sandy-brown hair, and those bright blue eyes.  And despite the fact that Adam’s face was etched with fear (an emotion Mila had never seen him express before), it was precisely this fear that conveyed to her the reality of the situation.  Of course he was scared…just like she was…because they were both actually HERE, wherever “here” was.

“So you…you’re feeling ok?” ventured Adam, who was obviously making a valiant attempt to keep the tremor out of his voice.  “You’re alright?”

“Y-Yeah…I’m…I’m ok,” Mila responded unsteadily, not able to disguise how shaken she felt.  The deeper, more resonant sound of her voice sounded strange in her ears, especially compared to the relative softness of Adam’s voice.  Mila didn’t like the discrepancy, just as she didn’t like the fact that she was almost twice as tall as he was.  She couldn’t help but think that, if only the sizes were reversed, she would feel a lot more reassured.

“Okay, well…there’s that, then,” Adam replied, nodding in encouragement.  He looked around them, first at the dark forest that stretched out to their right, then out at the wildflower-dotted field to their left, and then finally to the distant thatched roofs and turrets of some sort of town on the horizon.  “So I don’t…uhm, know where we are or why we’re…like this…but at least…at least we’re not hurt, right!”

Mila stepped gingerly over to the trunk of the ancient oak tree next to them.  All of this was just too much…too much to handle, and in any case, she really didn’t like looming over Adam like some kind of grotesque…monster, or something.  She turned her back to the tree and then sank down into a sitting position.  At least this way, he was taller than her now, as she was staring straight into his chest.

“Light-headed?” Adam asked in a concerned voice, walking up to her.

“Kind of…I don’t know,” murmured Mila quietly.  “I just…I just need to gather myself a little here.  Catch my breath a little.”

“Heh, me too,” Adam chuckled, and much to Mila’s discouragement, he plopped down next to her against the tree trunk.  Now she felt like a giant monster again – but Mila made a conscious effort to try not to fixate so much on these feelings.  Besides, there was far more to occupy her mind than such negative thoughts.  Another long silence passed between them, or at least it seemed long to Mila.  In reality, it was actually less than a minute – but the sheer novelty of what had happened made time seem artificially elongated.

“So,” Adam said, speaking first again as his small hands chopped at the air, “Let’s…let’s get a few things straight, now that we know we’re both ok.”

“Alright,” nodded Mila, creasing her brow as she looked down at Adam.  She felt a warm surge of affection for him.  Despite whatever that had happened, Adam hadn’t lost a bit of his confident personality.  He was taking charge.

“We were at your place, right?” Adam began, “Right after we ate dinner at that Italian place?”

“Yeah,” replied Mila, nodding her head again.

“And we were playing D&D?”

“Mhmm…”

“And then there were those two purple dice…we both had one…crazy coincidence?”

“Yes…”  Mila was already starting to think that it wasn’t a coincidence at all, but she didn’t say anything else.

“And then we were rolling for our ability scores?”

“Right…and then – ”

“Then I got a 1, and…”  He pointed up at Mila expectantly; their eyes met, and in that moment, Mila could tell that the immense size difference between the two of them was having at least some effect on him too.  The way his eyes blinked when she looked down at him…it was like he was having to adjust himself.  For an instant, he looked intimidated.  But it was only an instant, and Mila remembered that it was her turn to speak now.

“A-And…And I rolled a 20!” she added excitedly, “And then –”

“Poof!” exclaimed Adam, miming an explosion with his two hands.  “A big flash of white light…that’s what you saw too, right?”

“Yeah,” said Mila, “And then I was just…we were both just…”

“Here,” finished Adam.  The breeze kicked up around them as they sat for a moment in silence, still processing the reality of what had happened.

“And I’m…I’m apparently a little dwarf now,” Adam chuckled, spreading his arms out wide as he looked up at Mila.

“You mean I’m a huge ugly giant now,” Mila responded immediately, hating how sullen she sounded but not being able to stop herself.

“A…what!?  Milaaaaa,” chided Adam, reaching over to touch her bare arm.  She shivered and shrank from his touch at first, since the feel of his small hand made her feel even more self-conscious than she already did.  But after it became clear that he was determined to comfort her, and that he would not allow her to shake him off, she relented and relaxed into his touch.  It did feel good…it was still Adam touching her, after all.

“You might be…well, I might be small compared to you,” he continued, squeezing her arm, “But you’re NOT ugly, Mila.  You look the same as you did before – very pretty!”

Mila opened her mouth to argue with him, but she sighed and closed it without saying anything.  She would accept what he said, even though she didn’t believe it.  He was just being nice…just like he always acted toward her.  But they were alone in this…this strange world, this unfamiliar land, and the last thing she wanted to do was make it all about her and her own self-doubts.

“Well…you’re sweet,” she replied softly, and suddenly, she perked up a little, smiling down at him.  “And you – you look as handsome as ever.”

“What, does this green hood really do it for me?” Adam joked, throwing it over his head before quickly taking it off again.

“It’s super-cute on you,” Emma giggled.

“Well it fits, at least,” Adam observed, “And it looks like your clothes do too.  I wonder why they fit us so…oh…Ohhhhhhhhhh wait a second…WOW.”

“What!?” asked Mila earnestly, leaning in closer towards him anxiously.  “What is it!?”

“I know why our clothes fit,” Adam began in a deadpan voice, staring straight ahead, before turning to look up at Mila excitedly.  He leapt to hit feet, smacking himself in the head in the process.  “I know where we are!  Oh my god, I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before!”

“Wh-Where!?” asked Mila, startled and intrigued.  “Where are we??”

“Okay, so…this is gonna sound crazy,” Adam began, pacing quickly back and forth in front of Mila as she continued to sit with her back to the tree.  She followed his animated body with her eyes, and blinked as she felt another warm stab of affection towards him.  He just looked so…cute…especially pacing back and forth like that, with his small green hood bouncing behind his little head.

“But we’re…we’re IN your D&D game, Mila.”

Adam stopped, staring at her, gauging her ration with wide eyes.  Mila blinked again, letting his words sink in.

“Just think about it!” Adam continued excitedly.  “My green hood…your orange tunic…your orange boots…they’re exactly what –”

“What our characters were wearing!” finished Mila.  Her heart sped up as she started putting it all together.  “And…that forest over there…I…I MADE those trees with my 3D printer!”

“And you painted the flowers in the field over there!” persisted Adam, pointing.  “And…and that town in the distance, with the castle –”

“With the four battlements!” cried Mila.  “I can see them from here!  Next to the village!  Oh my GOD how did I not notice all that before!?”

“Haha well, we were both kinda…kinda shook-up, I think,” Adam chuckled, “So I think we can, uhm, cut ourselves a little slack.”

They both basked for a few moments in the crazy reality they had uncovered.  It seemed impossible, and yet, everything that Mila saw now proved that they were inside the game, beyond a shadow of a doubt.  She even saw the little mudpit by the forest that she had painted herself, months before – it looked as real and convincing as could be.  It was all there.

“This is just…this is so crazy!” she murmured.  “How…how could this possibly have happened!?”

“I don’t know,” Adam replied, doing little toe-raises in his ranger boots, “But…uh, now that we’re here, do you know if there’s…haha, well, anything we should look out for?”

“Huh?” asked Mila, puzzled.  “What do you mean?”  She was still distracted by how small and cute Adam looked that she wasn’t quite thinking straight.

“I mean like…are there any monsters in that forest over there?” Adam asked, pointing to the thick, dark trees to their right.  “Or, like…is there a sorcerer or something who lives in that castle?”

Mila was about to ask why Adam thought she knew the answers to these questions, but then it all fell into place in her head and she understood: she had CREATED this world, after all, so of course it followed that she would know a thing or two about what was in it.

“I…might have put some, uhh, some werewolves in the forest,” she admitted, blushing a little.

“Ohhhh wonderful,” laughed Adam, his sarcasm non-acerbic and light.

“But that’s…that’s about it,” she finished.  “I don’t think I had anyone specific living in the castle…but that doesn’t mean that, you know…that no one lives there.”

Right on cue, a deep, tolling bell sounded from the distant village, making them both start a little in surprise.

“Well I guess that’s the monastery,” Mila surmised, chuckling.  She had noticed that Adam had jumped towards her when the bell had tolled, grabbing ahold of her arm instinctively.  In a strange moment of clarity, she felt glad that she could make him feel safer, even as she craved that same feeling of protection from him.

“And that,” said a deep, feminine voice from behind them, “Is an excellent guess.”

Both Mila and Adam spun around, with Adam clinging even tighter to Mila’s arm.  In an automatic gesture of protection, Mila used her other arm to shield him from whatever it was they were turning to face.  She wasn’t thinking about her protective instincts right now, though, because she too had been startled.  In front of them was a tall, beautiful woman with flowing blond hair that went down to the middle of her back.  She was wearing a black medieval-style dress that came down to just above her knees, showing off her shapely legs, wrapped to her upper-calves in black leather boots.  A rugged-looking knapsack hung from her shoulder, and attached to her belt was a long, heavy-looking sword.  Neither Mila nor Adam doubted this woman’s ability to wield such a sword, however, since, in addition to her curvy, athletic build, she stood nearly 7 feet tall, about a foot shorter than Mila.

The mysterious woman smiled amiably at them, and both Mila and Adam relaxed a bit…but not too much.  This woman sure was pleasant to look at, but they still didn’t know why she was.

“I’m sorry to startle you,” said the woman in her pleasing voice, “But I can’t seem to resist just sneaking up on people when they pop into this world, haha.”

Mila and Adam just stood there staring, not knowing what to say in response.  The cool breeze kicked up again, and the overcast clouds seemed denser all of a sudden.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” continued the woman, sweeping her leg back and collapsing into an impressive curtsy, “My name is Tara, and I’ve been sent to help you both in the genesis of your quest.”

“T-Tara?” stammered Mila.  She was the biggest person here, and yet all she could manage was to make sure she had gotten the woman’s name right.  Inwardly, Mila chastised herself.  ‘Adam’s counting on you to stand up for him,’ she told herself savagely, ‘So stand tall and at least act like you’re not afraid!’

“Well, that’s really just the first part of my name,” Tara laughed, with a flip of her blond hair, “If you actually wanted to know, my full name is Taratearra Teshathivi Tabassum Ridhima-muk-Busayarah Via…but you can just call me Tara.”

She laughed again, an enchanting, musical laugh that again served to put Mila and Adam at ease.  In the midst of her laugh, Tara stepped a little sideways into a mud puddle, making her stumble slightly.  She seemed to be used to this kind of thing, though, because, in the midst of her stumbling, she rolled her eyes at herself and shook her head in mock-disparagement.

“Oooop!  I always turn into a klutz when they send me into the countryside…gotta take time getting used to this soft ground…heheh aaaaanyway, I suppose you two…Mila and Adam…are wondering what I’m doing here?”

Mila and Adam both nodded, clearly amazed that this woman they had never met before knew their names.  Adam had stopped squeezing so tightly onto Mila’s arm, and had stepped out in front of her, eying Tara curiously.  Mila already missed their physical closeness, even if it had been because they had both been afraid.  She also felt guilty that Adam was the one stepping out in front…but she still didn’t feel like she had the confidence to assert herself that way.

“How…do you know our names?” Adam ventured, inclining his head up at Tara.  She seemed to appreciate Adam’s forwardness and gave him a broad, rosy smile.

“I know a lot more than that about the two of you,” Tara replied, chuckling, “But never mind about that now.  What’s important is that I have been sent…by the powers that be…by the…heheh, well, let’s not get into that just yet…by the powers that be, yes!  To inaugurate your quest!”

Tara’s apparently lighthearted and playful tone of voice had reassured Mila and Adam that they weren’t dealing with someone threatening, but this tone seemed to contrast with the more serious concept of a “quest.”  What did she mean by it!?  Adam turned around to look up at Mila, and the two of them shared a confused glance.  Mila blinked and Adam shrugged and gave her a smile, as if to say, ‘Well, may as well go on ahead with whatever this is, since we’re stuck here.’  Mila felt a warm affection for him – even though he was so tiny now, he still was able to maintain his plucky, independent spirit.  She admired him for it so much, and wished that she could emulate it.

“So…this quest…” Adam began, stepping forward to Tara (with Mila following close behind him, taking one step for every three Adam took), “What’s…uhm…what is it, exactly?”

“Well you see, I can’t really tell you,” Tara replied, putting her hands on her knees and bending over, so she could address Adam more directly, “Because I don’t know everything that it will entail.  I mean, I know a few things here and there, little tidbits of information and secrets along the way that you’ll find MOST helpful.  But as to the true nature of the quest…” And here, she rose up impressively, cocking her head to the side as her blue eyes sparkled mysteriously, “The two of you will have to figure that out for yourselves.  But you WILL need this.”

Reaching into her knapsack, Tara took out something and handed it down to Adam, giving Mila a quick glance as she did so.  Adam reached out both of his hands and accepted the parcel.  It was wrapped in a leather sack that had a large drawstring around, which Adam undid.  Mila unconsciously sank to her knees next to him to get a better look at what it was.  She registered that her knees were getting a bit muddy, but she cared more about the intrigue of this mysterious parcel than that.

Adam pulled out what was inside – it was a large, ancient-looking book, with a hard, pockmarked cover that seemed like it had been through a lot, given the several dark stains, burns, and even slash marks that covered its surface.  It looked humorously large in Adam’s hands, even though he didn’t seem to be having too much trouble holding it up.

“What is it?” Adam asked, looking up at Tara.  The tall blond grinned at him and arched an eyebrow.

“Open it,” Tara replied simply.

Adam obliged, and in doing so, the momentum from the heavy pages made him stumble to the side a little.  Mila reached out and steadied him with her arm, feeling her large hand easily wrap around his hip.  It was unnerving, just how much bigger she was than him…once she had helped him maintain his balance, she pulled her hand back carefully.  He was so small compared to her that she couldn’t touch him without being afraid that she would accidentally hurt him.

But now, along with Adam, she was looking down at the book’s open pages.  They were full of strange, arcane symbols…ancient runes, cabalistic and labyrinthine diagrams, random blocks of numbers, miniature maps, drawings of floor plans, astrological charts, and on and on.  With a bit of difficulty, Adam flipped through the pages – he didn’t so much “flip” the pages as “lift” them with his little hands.  Mila wanted to help, since she wouldn’t have had any problem flipping through them, but she said nothing, letting Adam take the lead.

“Wow, this is…huh…this is…a lot!” Adam exclaimed.  “I don’t, uhm…heheh, how are we…are we supposed to…understand all this?”

“You’re such an eager little adventurer, Adam!” laughed Tara, throwing her head back and shaking her long blond hair again in the breeze.  Mila was beginning to think that Tara enjoyed flaunting herself just a bit too much, and she felt strangely heartened that SHE was the bigger, taller woman.  Her thoughts snapped back to the present moment, however, when a sudden lick of purple flame leapt out from the pages of the book with an audible burst, flashing dangerously close to Adam’s face.  Jerking his head back, he closed the book shut, falling backwards into Mila, who caught him effortlessly.

“But don’t you get too ahead of yourself,” laughed Tara, obviously amused at the whole spectacle.  “If I were you two, I would start on the first page.  The Prayana Gati is a funny little book – you’ll find that its contents have a habit of changing themselves, switching up, becoming invisible, bleeding through, haha, even springing up out of the page and nipping you in the nose or singing your eyebrows!  So use caution when opening it.”

“You could have told him that before he opened it!” Mila heard herself saying indignantly.  She wasn’t in the habit of being so forward with her emotions, but she felt protective of Adam, and was annoyed at Tara for seemingly playing around with them.

“No harm done, no harm,” chuckled Tara reassuringly as she straightened herself up and heaved a deep breath.  “And now, I must be off.  So much more to get done…a busy little bee like me can never linger for too long, especially when the High Basileus is so impatient for me drumming up support for his campaign against the cutthroat tribes of the…heheh, well…I suppose that doesn’t really concern you two now, does it?”

Mila and Adam just stared blankly at Tara, not knowing what to say.

“Yes, yes, don’t worry about all that,” Tara laughed, waving her hand, “And just focus on following the instructions in that book.  Just remember two things,” – and here, she held up two fingers, and became quite serious – “First, go page by page…do NOT skip ahead…and second, and most importantly, the greatest tool, the greatest weapon, the greatest asset BOTH of you have…is each other.  Never forget that.”

Right on cue, the bells of the monastery rang out again, causing Tara to smile.

“Perfect timing!” she sang out, pointing towards the town, “Mark well the sound of those bells – they will take on new meaning for you both…if you follow the book.”

Mila and Adam had turned towards the town, towards the sound of the bells, and then when they looked back, they saw that Tara was gone.  She had vanished just as abruptly as she had appeared.

“Oh!” exclaimed Adam, pointing to where Tara had been, “Uhhhh…she just…wow.  She’s gone.  Do you see her anywhere?”

“No,” said Mila, looking around for any sign of her.  “I guess she just…uhm…I guess she’s gone.”

A strange moment of silence passed between them; neither of them knew what to think or to make of this whole conundrum that they had been thrust into unawares.

“You, uhh…you sure we’re both still awake?” Adam quipped, looking up at Mila and grinning.

“Heheh, I guess so,” Mila chuckled appreciatively.  They both shared an ironic laugh, together expressing the same sentiment: this situation was so outlandish, so crazy, that it deserved a little laugh.

“Ok,” said Adam, “So I guess…we’re here…and we should just…start on page one, huh?”

“I guess so,” Mila nodded, shuffling up closer to Adam on her knees.  She was again struck by how much bigger she was than him – even on her knees, she was almost a full head taller – but she made an effort to push these thoughts into the back of her mind.  Adam was already in “go mode” for the start of whatever this “quest” was, and she told herself that she at least owed it to him to keep pace.

Adam slipped his finger under the heavy cover and started opening it.

“Careful,” whispered Mila, and she held her huge hand poised in the air, ready to shield his face from any flames or sparks that might fly up.  But fortunately, none of that happened this time, and the book simply opened to the first page.  On the yellowed parchment, in long, flowing letters, was a riddle, which Adam read out loud:

“A container without hinges, lock, or lid,

which Adam’s partner was forbid,

Look up I say, and you shall find,

A most useful seed confined.”

They both read it over a few more times, and lapsed into a pondering silence.  Mila didn’t feel like she was good with riddles, but the cadence of this particular one reminded her of something.

“It’s kinda like that scene in The Hobbit, right?” she observed, “When Bilbo is in the cave with Gollum?”

“Haha YES!  I knew it sounded familiar!” exclaimed Adam.

“Except the punchline to that riddle is “eggs,”” continued Mila, “Hmmm…It was an unexpected answer, because no one would expect an egg to be called a “container”...makes me wonder if it’s some kind of a food or something…”

“Especially considering the “seed” part at the end,” added Adam, nodding.  “Like, a fruit…”  The two of them thought some more, until Adam piped up again:

“Which my partner was forbid?  Huh…my partner forbid…I guess this book knows my name too.”

“I wonder why it mentions you specifically,” mused Mila.  “And…I guess me too, as your, uhm…partner.”  She felt a little tingle of electricity go over her, but she did her best to ignore it.

“Yeah, because it seems like…wait…wait, hold on a sec,” Adam said, his voice starting to rise in excitement.  “Maybe by “Adam” it doesn’t mean ME exactly, and by “Adam’s partner” it doesn’t mean YOU…”

“What do you mean?” asked Mila, puzzled.

“Like, in the biblical story,” Adam continued, gesturing with his hands, since Eve was holding the book now (since it was much easier for her to hold it), “Who’s Adam’s partner?”

“Uhhh…oh…oh!  You mean Eve?” asked Mila.

“Yeah!” nodded Adam energetically, “And what is Eve forbidden to do, but end up doing anyway?”

“Eat the apple!  Ah, right, I see where you’re going with this!” smiled Mila.  “And it would make sense too, considering the, uhm…the seed part at the end…”

“Right!” said Adam, “And…and I guess, uhm…”

“We should look up?” Mila finished uncertainly, and the two of them did just that in unison looking up into the tree that was above them.  Through the gnarled branches, and the full, green leaves, something red glinted down at them from the top of the tree: a single red apple.

“Ha!!” cried Adam triumphantly, pointing, “Look!  Look, there it is!!”

“Well…that wasn’t too hard!” laughed Mila, feeling a warm jolt of encouragement.

“Except…it’s way up there,” Adam said, craning his head, “Even too tall for you to reach.”

“Not if I reach with you,” Mila blurted out.  As soon as she had seen the apple, her mind had quickly worked out how to reach it.

“Huh?” asked Adam.  It was his turn to be confused.

“Heheh, I-I mean…what if I hold you up there,” Mila explained, blushing, “And…and you reach out and…and pick it?  That way we’d be using…uhm…the combined…you know…”

“Ohhhhh I see!” grinned Adam, “Haha, sorry, I didn’t…I hadn’t even thought of that.  So you could…you could pick me up like that?”

Mila couldn’t help but laugh a little in response, even though she felt strange doing so.  “Haha, I think it’ll be easy,” she chuckled, spreading her arms out to him, “I mean, I’m like twice your size, right?”

“Well…yeah, you are,” smiled Adam, “Just…I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Pssssh, I’ll be fine,” grinned Mila, surprising even herself with her confidence.  “Here…uhm, just…let me just…pick you up here…”

Just a few moments later, Mila was holding Adam high up into the tree, with her hands wrapped around his hips.  She marveled at how tiny he felt – her hands easily spanned over halfway around his whole body, and even more strikingly, it didn’t even feel like she was lifting anything at all.

“Still good down there?” Adam asked from within the leaves and branches.

“You’re light as a feather!” Mila laughed.  Even though it felt odd to be touching Adam in this way (nothing like the fantasies of him dominating her in bed, like she used to have back in the real world), Mila still enjoyed the contact immensely.  It just felt strange to be holding him like this…like he was a child.

“Aaaalmost…aaaaand…I got it!” Adam called down to her.  Mila lowered him back down, and moments later she was back on her knees, looking down at the perfectly glossy, deep red apple in Adam’s hands.

“Wow,” murmured Mila, “That’s…like, the prettiest apple I’ve ever seen.”

“I know, right?” agreed Adam, “I’ve never wanted to bite into an apple so much in my life.”

“But…but maybe we shouldn’t eat it?” Mila offered cautiously.  “I’m not really sure about…uhh, about this world…maybe it’s poisonous or something.”

“But we need to get inside it,” Adam pondered, “Hmmm, maybe we find a rock to smash it with?  It’s way too big for me to break with my hands.”

“Maybe for you,” Mila chuckled, “But not for me.”

“Oh!  Haha, you’re right,” Adam smiled, handing her the apple.  The fruit had looked quite large in Adam’s hands, but now that Mila was holding it, it almost looked like the size of a plum.

“Well…” she breathed out, “Here goes…”

She squeezed the apple in her hand.  Instantly, a flood of dark purple juices spilled in between her fingers, and, far from the expected white fruit inside, they saw that the interior of this apple was a deep violet.  Mila kept squeezing, and it only took her another second to completely decimate the apple’s structure.

“Woah!” blurted out Adam, “That was…impressive!”

“Haha, thanks,” Mila blushed, but just then, their attention was drawn to what had been in the middle of the apple.  Instead of seeds, a single golden key lay in Mila’s hand, winking up at them.