Chapter I

"Help... Please... Someone help me..." Whimpers leave my mouth as I look around in the darkness. the moon was hidden by clouds and shadows danced in my vision. Every time a leaves rustled I stopped breathing, afraid that man would be close to me and drag me back to that place. I've always gotten scared easy, and I've always jumped when someone said, 'Boo' behind my back, but those were just harmless little jokes. Not like this. This is real. tears swelled in my eyes, blurring my vision. I wiped them once, then again and again. The tears just wouldn't stop. Every inch of my body burned with pain every time I moved. I just let the tears fall and put my hands down as the exhaustion filled my body as my eyes slowly closed.

Birds chirping woke me up. At first I thought everything was a dream. We were in the woods camping, my friends and I. Since it was the last week before going back to our respective universities. When I sat up to stretch, pain exploded through my body. Everything wasn't a dream. we were kidnapped by five men in black. Our campsite was left in a mess. We escaped when they left two guys there and we killed them before escaping through the woods. Although I wasn't so lucky. I twisted my ankle while running. I told them t keep running since we were close to the road.

When I caught up to them, there was a guy trying to take them. I had jumped on his back while pushing them into the truck and kicking the door closed behind them. He hit my head on the ground by throwing me off then I blacked out. I had awoken later tied to a chair and voices arguing out side the door followed by two gun shots. Blood pooled under the door and a man wearing all black. His face was very handsome, but the evil glint in his eye made me think of a demon in human skin. He said it was a pity that my friends had gotten away, I was happy that they were safe, but then he said I was the prettiest one out of them all. I didn't even need him to tell me what was going to happen to me, it was written on his face. Thus began the weeks of torturer, until he left the door open and I ran out.

I looked under the leaf I was hiding under. I didn't notice but now, that everything larger than the regular norm. I slowly inched my way out and stayed on my hands and knees , crawling through the dense plants. After crawling through many puddles and mud, I made it to a clearing. Not far from the clearing was what looked like a village. There were people walking about and children playing. I could hear their laughter from here. I shakily stand on my feet and was about to run to them when hands clamped on my mouth and dragged me back into the forest.

I screamed and kicked and tried to grab a hold of the branches but the man would just yank me from them. "We had so much fun together. Why did you run away?" He whispered in my ear. If he were a normal man, I'd be delighted to sleep with him, but he's not. He's a psychopathic maniac. That I'd with would just die already. I bite his hand and at the same time, elbow him in his side and kick his back with my leg. He crashes on the ground and starts swearing at my running figure.

I push through the pain and run as fast as I could while thanking God I was a sport addict. His footsteps almost sound like thunder in my ears as he gains on me. Given that he only had a few bruises and I had so many aches and pains, it didn't surprise me that he was gaining, but I was already cutting back into the open field and was running to the village. I felt a slight breeze brush past my hair and speed up.

"HELP!" , I wave my arms in the air hoping to catch their attention. I scream again when he tackles me from behind and punches my face. I was dazed when a shadow figure flashes past my vision and the weight is off of me.

"Are you alright? Can you hear me? Cala, I don't think she can hear me."

"Move aside. Hello dear, can you tell me your name? Oh my, she's hurt. Marcus.... Not that, the..." I slowly fell unconscious as the voices faded away softly.

********

I groaned and sat up. My body didn't hurt anymore, besides my head, everything was fine. I stretch my limbs before slowly standing up and stretching my back. It felt like I was bed for years. I look around the unfamiliar room. It looked like a room right out of a movie. Bed was plush and on a wooden stand. There was a candle on the nightstand that was half burnt out and there was a blanket for a door. My clothes had been switched to a scratchy wool dress and my armpits smelled grotesque. I sneezed after smelling them.

Voices passed by the room and I froze. All I could remember was a shadow passing over me in a flash and two voices. Hope rose in my chest and my breath sped up. I lifted the side of the blanket, peeking out. I slowly step out of the room and look down the corridor and go right. Right when I was about to turn the corner I clashed into... a rock?

I fell on the ground and rubbed my head. I stared in shock as I looked to see what thing I bumped into when it was a tall, very, very tall man. He stared at me with cold eyes, that soon filled with warmth as he bent down and picked me up. I didn't know what to do. This old man was so tall, at least ten feet, and towered over me like a giant. I was like a child when he picked me up.

"Aww, there there little girl. Don't worry, Uncle Marcus won't hurt you. Can you tell me your name?" I almost wanted to laugh at him treating me like a child. I was twenty-two years old. Not a little girl no more. Although, I did wonder why he was so tall.

"M-my name is Jackalynn. How are you so tall?", I said as I stared at the man. He smiled and put me down.

"What a lovely name, and I'm not so tall. There are others who are taller then me." I wanted to say something, but my stomach growled loudly making the man laugh. "Looks like your hungry, let's get you something to eat before anything else, you can ask me questions there." I follow him, but he was just to tall and I ended up running to catch up to him. " Here, let me." He picked me up again and walked outside.

I covered my eyes before pinching my cheek. Almost everything was made of metal, and not just one type of metal. Then I noticed everyone I saw was tall and had some shade of silver in their eyes. There were beautiful plants and flours that seemed to be mad out of metal. It was a town made of all kinds of metals, copper,silver, gold, iron and more.

"Let's go to Cala's. She makes the best darn food you'll ever taste little Jack" I didn't say anything when he called me Jack, just thought about where I was and why everyone was freakishly tall, or did I just get short. "Here we are little Jack. The best place you'll ever eat. Cala's din."

The smell of food brought me from my thoughts and my stomach growled. He set me down and held my hand leading me into the restaurant. I forgot about being twenty two years old, and just liked the feeling of being a child once more.

"Cala, I brought a guest. Give us your finest dish." Uncle Marcus yelled and led my to a table and placing me on the chair. I still had to sit on my knees to put my arms on the table. It wasn't even a minuet before food was placed in front of me. I looked up and saw an old lady with a kind smile on her face. "Cala, this is Jackalynn. Jackalynn, this is Cala."

"Hello dear, you were out for a while. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, thank you. But, I don't have any money." I tell her looking at the food. It was still hot and sparkled in the light.

"That's okay dear. Just eat. You can tell us what happened when your done." I nod my head and start stuffing my face while thoughts filter around my head. How was I going to tell them that I was an adult? How about me shrinking, or them being giants. My thoughts were interrupted when a shadow stood over me. I looked up and almost chocked on my food. There was a man that would have been a child if next to the taller one's. He was about six seven and just stared at me unblinkingly.

"Hello?" I ask him with my mouth full of food.

"That guy... Do you want him dead?" I stare at the kid, eyes wide. My heart skips a beat as I think of it. His life is in my hands. I should kill him, I WANT to kill him, but why is he asking me this?

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Well," Cala, said as she sat next to me, "When we gave you to our doctor, he saw all the wounds you had and he examined your body... So we know, or at least have an idea of what happened to you." They knew. They knew what happened to me, or the jist of it. I stared into space and almost couldn't believe what I had said next,

"Can I torturer him first?" They stared at me, then Uncle Marcus nodded his head and started laughing.

"That's a good girl. Hahaha! If you wouldn't of volunteered, I would have. Your a good one little Jack." He ruffled my hair and smiled, passing me a jug of alcohol. "Here, only take a small drink. Your practically grown already."

"I'm twenty-two years old. I am grown." He stopped laughing, then they all started to laugh at me.

"I'm thirty years old. It's when you get to fifty six, that your considered an adult here. Where'd you come from anyway? That forest is the place of no return." He asked curiously. I just shrugged my shoulders and ate ore of my food. Cala left to place some more orders and the guy who's name was Daniel. I finished my food when a snack was placed in front of me. I looked at Daniel who had the same thing , he just ate his food without saying a word.

When we all finished, Uncle Marcus picked me up and placed me on his shoulders before going to the chief of the village. On the way there, he stopped at almost every place and introduced me to the people. I lost all their names from him telling me practically everyone's name and what they do. where they work. and their hobbies. I was thankful when we reached the chiefs building, which was more like a big house.

A girl who came up to Uncle Marcus's chest greeted us and led us to the chiefs room where he was writing something down. I looked around the room and marveled at how everything was so much taller and larger than what I was used to . Uncle Marcus took me off his shoulders and set me in a chair next to the one he sat in.

"So... You escaped form a man who kidnapped you and ran through the dark forest and found our village, but before you could make all the way here he attacked you once again, but you were luckily seen by Cala and Marcus who saved you. Correct." His high pitched voice shocked me considering his imposing aura and weird stare. I couldn't answer and only nodded my head so I wouldn't laugh. He stared at me for a moment before getting up and walking to the tallest book shelf I've ever seen in my life and grabbed a thick book that had both old and new pages in it. " If, you would like. You can stay here under the care of Marcus Hymns or, we could send you to a different village that is more... you size." He looked me up and down while saying the later part.

"You will not be able to return to wherever you came form. I'm not going to lie, when people from other areas find out where you came from their going to be terrified. No one has ever came out of that forest alive. The only reason I'm allowing you the choice to stay in this village is because of that, and the fact that your obviously have the same blood as we do, well, half of what we do.

I held my silver eye confused, I had noticed that everyone has some type of silver in their eyes, but I just thought it was something normal since it's just an eye color, although you don't see it often in my old town. Noticing my confusion, he grabbed another book off of his shelf and handed it to me.

"This is what we are," he pointed to Uncle Marcus and his self, "-and you are half of what we are. I take it you've never met one of our kind before. We are dwarfs, and as dwarfs, our specialty is metal. It's in our blood. We can shrink into the short humans, which is possibly what you are half of, but I can't be to sure because of your light brown eye is that of an elf while your height is similar to that of a human. You are a very confusing race, dwarfs are short when breed with humans, same with the elves, but somehow, your tall for one. Not even elves and dwarfs combined are your height, I'm assuming your all three until we get the blood work back."

"Where can I stay? If i stay here."

"What's with the silly question Jack? Your staying with me of course, can't have a child staying by yourself. What kind of adult would I be? Besides, my wife always wanted a little girl, seven sons and still no girl."

"Then i'll stay. I guess." My chest tightened when I breathed and forced myself to relax. Uncle Marcus didn't make me feel odd, but the chief did. It was like a predator watching his prey. I didn't know why he made me feel that way, but he did.

"It's settled then. You can stay with him and he'll be responsible for you and your schooling."

"school? i'm-"

"Not a child, but in our eyes. Your just a baby." He cut me off and handed Uncle Marcus some paperwork. I couldn't see what it said because I was to short. It wasn't a lot because he finished it after five minutes. They shook hands and Uncle Marcus picked me up and placed me on his shoulders once more, before going to his house.

It was dark by the time we reached his house, he had shrunken down to six ft so I could walk on my own, the house was smaller than I thought it would be. It was slightly larger than a modern house, but not to by much. I could hear laughter from the fence that surrounded the house which oddly looked like a log cabin. Uncle Marcus opened the door and yelled, "Honey, I'm home!"

"Shut up yelling Marcus!" A voice greeted him back oh so nice. "I swear, you'll be the death of me. Why are you back so late?" A women came from a corner in the house and asked walking down the hall to us. Worry lined her beautiful face and shown s bright as day in her light blue-silver eyes. "And who is this young cutie."

Despite me being two inches shorter than her, she bent slightly and showed me a smile, "Hello there hun, I'm Halo. What's your name?"

"Honey, this is Jackalynn. Our new daughter." I wanted to face palm. Black lines spread over the woman's face as she stared at him. Not noticing anything wrong, he continued, "I found her so were keeping her. You always wanted a daughter anyways-"

WACK!!!

I flinched at the angry red mark on his face and backed away from the lady. She then turned to me and smiled, "Sorry about that dear. Welcome to the family."

"..." I think I choose the wrong option.