"Calm down, man. I understand you're upset and all but no one is here to hurt you.." His voice seemed to fade away as my head began to crowd with thoughts. His voice sounded kind and caring.. but it probably wouldn't be later when he's cooking us up in some stew or using us as slaves. My trust for this kid was a little low right now.

  With the blazing anger inside of me, I whipped my head around to see his face looming over me, just barely a foot away. At first, it caused anxiety to flair, but I pushed it away as I glared straight into his eyes. He slowly stopped talking, knowing I hadn't heard a word he said.

  "I don't care who you are or what the hell it is you plan to do with us, but if you dare lay a finger on any-" I fumed before being silenced by a giant finger. The kid just gave me a look like I was some weirdo.

  Even though I tried to move his massive finger away, he didn't even seem like he was going to let me talk. Instead, he stood up and started to walk in some direction.

  "Okay. Let me start over. My name is Troy Acres. I don't have any intentions of hurting you or any of your friends, but I can see why you thought I would considering the circumstances.. Um. Anyways, I brought you all here so you'd have a place to live other than that dump of a store. Sadly.. there weren't many of you guys left and some were very injured. They're doing alright now. So.. I guess this is your new home?" Troy gently released me to sit on his palm. I gave him a huff before looking out to the room beyond. A wave of unsureness swept through me as I saw the entire room full of hundreds of tinies like me, though the room itself was almost like a giant city. Oddly structure dbuildings in some parts and a lot of houses. Some houses seemed to be in the wall on one side of the room. It gave me such a homey feeling that even though I was still fearful or upset, I wanted to go down there to see what it was like.

  "It's cool isn't it?"

  I tensed a little before glancing back at Troy before hesitantly giving him a nod then turned my attention back to the 'city'.

  "Most of the people down there I found either abandoned or in really sketchy places. Though there are a lot of people I had to buy to rescue.." He stopped for a moment, letting out a slight exhale but I could hear the smile in his voice as he continued, "But it was worth every cent."
Just like that, Troy started to walk away from the mini-land, and, being the clumsy tiny I am, I nearly fell off the side of his palm as I tried to keep looking at the city.

  "Careful bud." Troy gently scooted me back to the middle of his hand. Though I was uneasy by the touch, I said nothing. Instead, I allowed myself to let out a shaky sigh.

  Troy had continued to walk, soon entering a kitchen type area. As he approached one of the cupboards, he briskly slid me into his shirt pocket without giving me time to respond other than a quiet yelp. Struggling with the occasionally muttered words, I managed to grab a hold of the top and lookout. I watched in silence as Troy seemed to make himself a cup of coffee. Odd.. I had thought this was a serious situation and this guy was just making coffee. Definitely not something I was expecting.

  "You want anything to eat? I doubt you've been given any decent food in that place." He asked with a hushed tone, without looking down at me.

  "Um.. sure." I stammered. Mentally I cursed myself. When was the last time I actually struggled to speak?

  "Anything specific?"

  "Eh.. No. Thanks.."

  Childish as I apparently had become, I decided to wallow away and sink into the pocket. Maybe I was overthinking it? He could be a good guy I suppose.. but I've never met a 'good' guy before. Or maybe I was too ignorant to pay attention before.

  While my thoughts continued to rage, I wrapped my arms around myself and closed my eyes for a moment.

  Poor Kila and Ging.. I wonder if they're okay. They've gotta be, right? Kila might have been brought here. Honestly, I had begun to hope she was. Never got the chance to meet her yet. She was actually the only girl I had ever 'met' in any way, other than my mother of course.
Before Troy had even finished his coffee, I had fallen asleep only to be awoken to somebody pushing me awake. I grumbled, trying to ignore whoever it was.

  "Reb! Wake up-"

  Hearing Ging's voice, I sighed and rolled over to face him.

  "What?" I muttered in a groggy voice. Then it dawned on me that I was somewhere completely different. A room, but it was tiny sized, like me.

  Ging didn't respond right away. He seemed unsure of how to start the conversation, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was confused.

  I got up off the bed and Ging stood up with me.

  "Questions?" I asked, instantly getting a nod from my friend so I continued with a sigh, "Me too."

  "What do we do?" Ging asked, following me as I headed towards the door of the room.

  "I don't know right now.. but maybe we should stick around for a bit. If we have shelter, a place to sleep, and food then we'll be fine. If something does happen, we'll get out of here." After I spoke, Ging gave me a look of unsureness but hesitantly nodded. My response was a feeble smile and opened the door to see somebody walk past. My eyes widened for a moment, taken aback by the person. After a second, I remembered that this was all supposed to be normal around here.

  "Do you know if anyone else from the shop is here?" I asked, heading into the long hallway. Ging nodded, quickly following me.

  "Malcolm said that everybody was brought here. It was very alarming at first.. but then it didn't seem so bad when he brought us to this place." Ging explained.

  We must've had similar experiences, so I stayed silent for a moment. It began to seem as though this 'place' was like a haven for tinies like me.

  "Who's Malcolm?" I asked. The hallway of numbered doors had finally led to a spiral staircase that led downwards which then led us downwards to whatever floor was below.

  "Oh, right.. He is that one guy that took us out of the box. He's quite nice actually."

  Though the thought of this new person made me skeptical, I nodded at his remark. Maybe he was a nice fellow, but right now my head was still jumbled from all the activity. Then a similar thought dawned on me and I stopped dead in my tracks on the stairs.

  "Everyone was brought here.. Right?" I asked, turning to face Ging. He nodded with a confused look but it caused a bit of hope to flicker in me.

  "Then Kila has to be here too."

  And with that I was rushing down the stairs, hoping that maybe she was nearby. Ging followed closely behind, very confused but also curious since he didn't know who Kila was. Why would he? She was only reachable through my 'cell' at the shop so he wouldn't have even known she existed.

  Soon we reached the very bottom floor and were racing to the front of the building. It was like a house of rooms or something.. Every single door was numbered and most of them seemed to be occupied.

  I burst through the doors in front and was greeted with the bright light that loomed on the far ceiling above, but also the hundreds of buildings that lined walkways and paths. There were tinies everywhere.. talking, walking, eating food, and just enjoying themselves..

  This truly was.. a haven. I had never believed in something like this, but now.. There wasn't any doubt in my mind that this place was safe.

  If I hadn't had a set goal of finding Kila, I would have probably admired the scenery a bit more and possibly even shed a tear. Right now, I had to make sure Kila was okay or at least here.

  "They bring the newcomers to the building we were just in.. She could be there." Ging said, setting his hand on my shoulder. I turned to him and nodded, following him back into the building.

  Ging briskly walked up to the front desk and asked the person behind it some questions. There was a lot of nodding and communication, but I was too distracted by the thoughts in my own brain.

  Kila is out there somewhere. There is a whole world in front of me. And for the first time in forever, I don't want to leave. Even though I might not trust Troy or whoever Malcolm is.. I could still count on Kila and Ging.. And if they trust the humans, that's their choice.

  "She says somebody named Kila did come in today and is in room 80. She said it'd be the room on the left side at the end of the hallway we had just come from." Ging explained, knocking me out of my thoughts. I nodded quickly and followed him back down the hallway. The numbers went from 45 to 79 really fast and suddenly I felt anxious to meet Kila. Shaking away the feeling, I knocked on the door and waited for a response.

  After a few moments of silence, I was tempted to knock again but it began to open and soon I saw a girl peek out from the crack and stare at Ging and I.

  "What do you want?" She asked with a hard tone.

  "To talk." I responded, watching her expression change. Maybe she recognized my voice, but maybe we got the wrong room.

  "Who are you?" She opened the door a little more, but not much.

  "I'm Reb Hilk and this is Ging. The lady at the front desk said this room belonged to someone named Kila." I explained.

  She opened her door all the way and looked up into my eyes.

  "Finally after all these months, I get to meet you. I thought maybe you weren't here and to be honest, I started to doubt that you were going to be." She stated with relief, allowing us to enter the room.

  "I felt the same.. but turns out everyone from the shop was brought here. I figured you were here somewhere." I said with a small smile. She smiled back, but it only lasted as she turned away to look out her window.

  "This place sure is something else, isn't it? I mean.. There is so much detail and I was told this place was made by hand. So much work went into this.. this.. Home of a people." Kila sat on the bed, still gazing out the window. Ging was looking around, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he did so.

  I approached Kila and stood beside her, looking out the window as well.

  "Yeah. I think this is a great place." I explained softly. Kila looked up at me with a confused look.

  "You do? How can you be so sure?"

  "I haven't been given a reason to dislike it. That's how. I may not trust Troy or whatever other being lives in this grand house, but the people here seem content, so I have no reason to not like it." I explained, hesitantly sitting down on the bed beside Kila. She nodded at my statement, then sighed slightly.

  "So.. I take it you're going to stay then?

  "Yea. That's the plan. I'd rather not go back to that filthy store or live in the wild." 

  Kila nodded again and turned towards Ging.

  "What about you? You staying?"

  Ging looked up at her as if called out in class.

  "Yes.. I think Malcolm is cool and Reb is staying so.." He stuttered, fiddling with his fingers.

  After she nodded in understanding, there was a silence between the three of us as if we were all thinking the same thing. What was Kila going to do?

  Now, if she were to decide to attempt an escape, I wouldn't try to stop her but I wouldn't try to help her either. I'd rather not mess with the authority anyways. I'd just wish her safe travels and whatnot.

  "I guess you guys leave me no choice then, huh?" She said with a laugh. I smiled slightly, but Ging seemed so confused.

  "I'll stay."