I yawned and stretched as I sat up from the cot I had slept in the previous night. The generous stranger who had lent me it was nowhere to be seen, but there were traces that he’d been here recently.

  I slowly got out of the cot, my legs dangled over the side before I dismounted it, landing on the floor flawlessly. My new height was evident as I stood next to the towers of boxes, they were more like skyscrapers to me.

  To my knowledge I was the around the same size as I had been when I'd went to sleep the previous night. Luckily, my shrinking problem didn't seem to be worsening, hopefully I'd return to normal naturally.

  I walked over to the entrance and peeked my head out the flap, the man was squatting near the water pool, washing his clothing.

  He noticed my stare and looked back, when he saw my eyes meet his, he smiled and waved before dropping what he was doing and turning toward me. He walked up the sandy hill to the tent as I backed into it. We didn’t stay in the tent for long though as he grabbed my sidearm and grabbed my hand. He led me by my hand to the rear of the tent and faced a dune in the opposing direction.

  He released my hand and put himself in a firing stance, he’d obviously handled some kind of firearm in the past. Pointing the weapon at the bottom of the dune ahead, he squeezed the trigger. The weapon glowed a vibrant blue as it whirred up to power. Once it had been readied to full force, a short beam of blue light zoomed into the sand, turning it to glass instantly and making a distinct sound.

  He looked at the sidearm and then looked back at me, trying to put together why a little girl would have such a dangerous weapon. Cautiously, he put his hand on the outer casing of the barrel, imagining it would be hot. However, the weapon was the same temperature as it had been, they use a compact power-cooling design after all. The man’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas, receiving the toy they’d waited for patiently the whole year.

  Unexpectedly, he turned to me and crouched down to my level. Practicing good firearm safety, he put the weapon into my hands. He then got behind me and put his hands over mine, helping me to get into a firing position. Obviously, I knew how to handle my own weapons, but the help was appreciated in getting my small hands to cooperate. He helped me aim and squeeze the trigger, our aim was true and hit just above his previous shot, the shockwave shattering the glass beneath it. With this, the man seemed satisfied and led me by my hand back to the tent.

  For some reason, I didn’t feel demeaned by any of this, and I didn’t have the excuse of being tired this time. I was starting to get worried that those mushrooms messed with my mental state a bit too.

  He didn’t take the weapon back from me and instead seemed to command me to stay at the tent while he left. Of course, I wouldn’t be following those directions, since I could use the language-barrier as a 'get out of jail free' card. Instead, I followed behind him at a short distance.

  He moved slowly and went up the sand dunes to the side of the tent. I made sure to hide behind anything I could, using my new body as an advantage to achieve this, keeping myself from discovery. At some point along our travel, I saw another one of those red and yellow lizards, like I had before eating those mushrooms. In the time I spent gawking at the lizard, the man had disappeared from my sight. I looked around to see if I could find him, but I didn’t see anyone.

  Then I was grabbed from behind, my mouth covered and my body brought close to my captor. I immediately recognized this grip, though, it was the same one that had held me last night. Suddenly, I was thrown to the ground and stripped of my firearm. The man put the firearm into an empty holster on his belt before picking me up off the ground.

  After ensuring that no injuries were had, he set me down and I think he began to scold me. No matter what it was, it made a pit in my stomach. For some reason I felt really embarrassed, like I had disappointed my commanding officer, or worse yet, my father.

  As the man continued his lecture in an unknown dialect to me, my eyes began to feel wet. Some kind of foreign liquid streamed from my eyes and down my cheeks. I thought it was raining for a moment until I realized that the event was localized to just my face. I was crying? For some reason, I felt the need to bawl my eyes out at the harsh words that I didn’t know for sure I was receiving.

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  At this, the man’s tone became a lot gentler, and he helped me wipe the tears off my face before saying something that sounded apologetic. This calmed my emotions and I felt a lot better. For some reason I craved this man’s good graces.

  The man patted me on my head before grabbing my hand and leading me with him. After going for a short while, he stopped suddenly and pulled me behind a boulder. He was looking off down the side of a nearby dune for some reason. Moving my head so I could see around his muscular frame, I saw what he was staring at immediately.

  A mass of blue light was floating just above the ground, only tens of meters away. Sand was flying up from the ground into the mass, forming itself around it. After a few moments of this, the sand had begun to take a shape, some kind of four legged animal. Finally, the sand took its finished form, it looked like a massive boar, made completely from the dunes surrounding it. Its eyes glowed with the same color as the light previously had.

  The boar smacked its hoof into the sandy ground beneath it, kicking up a bunch of it into the air. The boar, now feeling comfortable with its body, began to sniff audibly. In a split second, the boar stopped sniffing and threw its head in our direction.

  It readied itself and began charging us. Yaeleth pulled my firearm out of his holster and got into position. Not used to the delay between trigger squeeze and discharge, he wasn’t able to get a shot off before being shoved into the boulder that was now positioned behind him.

  There wasn’t much I’d be able to do in this situation without a weapon of my own, heck I’d never even seen a boar made out of freaking sand before. In that moment of distress, I decided the best option would be to run like hell. My little legs lurched forward and I attempted an Olympian sprint, but speed was not on my side.

  As soon as the boar set its glowing eyes on me, it had begun its charge. Desperately, I tried to think of a solution to this newfound problem, but not much came to mind. I looked around and finally, I stumbled upon my answer.

  The boar clearly had a physical form, as it demonstrated when it tossed that hunk of man into a rock twice his size. My plan, then, was this, I’d simply run to the nearest boulder and climb it as fast as possible. Then, as the boar continued its mad charge, it would crash into the rock and, if all things went well, disperse into a cloud of sand.

  Not having any better ideas, I went with it. The nearest boulder was still a long way away for my little legs, but I had no choice. Running with all my might, I reached the rock and began my ascent, paying no mind to the beast approaching at a rapid rate. I could tell that I wasn’t climbing fast enough though, looking back I saw the boar was about to hit me. There was no time left, it was time to submit to my fate.

  Warm liquid ran down my legs as the boar was mere centimeters away. I closed my eyes and readied myself for the wall of pain that was about to hit me. Instead, I heard the sound of a plasma-based weapon discharging and I felt heat radiating from the air around me.

  I opened my eyes to see a clear object. A perfect sculpture of a boar, made from glass, with eyes glowing blue and a core of pure blue light. It was frozen in place, and as I stared at it, cracks began to form. The masterpiece then shattered, forming a pile of broken glass. The mass of light, however, still hovered in the same place, calling out to me.

  Yaeleth limped toward me, gripping his abdomen, he crossed the same short path that I had run just seconds prior. I saw him look toward me and smile in my peripheral vision as I stared upon the glorious light in front of me. I dared not touch it, however, I knew who the kill belonged to.

  As the man made it to the light, he lifted his shirt up, revealing a gash caused by the enemy he had just defeated. My eyes widened, seeing that injury reminded me that I would be in agony right now if it weren’t for the protector in front of me.

  He reached out his hand toward the light and then performed an action, seeming to beckon the light to himself. To my surprise, the light obliged his request and traveled into the wound on his stomach. The wound closed itself up rather quickly and all that remained as evidence was a scar. Even just what I could see of his stomach revealed many scars, I’d say there was more scar tissue than healthy skin.

  Before I knew it was happening, my hand reached out and touched the location where his wound had just been. My eyes did not deceive me, there was, in fact, no wound there anymore. All of the sudden, the man’s hand appeared on top of mine, assuring me that he was just fine. I looked up and as my eyes met his he moved his hand to pat me on the head.

  For some reason, my eyes once again filled with tears. This foreign feeling was becoming all too common for my liking, but then again, these tears were filled with overwhelming joy. Not only was I glad that he had saved my life, but that his own was spared as well. I quickly wrapped my arms around his legs. He was shocked for a second, but he soon returned the gesture and hugged me back.

  At that moment I knew that I’d be safe as long as I was with him, and that this desert wouldn’t take my life anytime soon. I’d only just met this man, but he felt like a stronghold that I’d never had, and a comfort for my built up traumas...