Rhei's Unlikely Guardian /for ChrisWK/

[ZeldaFan64]

It's been nearly six months since December, the festive month of the year. Mistletoe, wine, snow, presents, everything that brought a smile to people's faces... only to be wiped over by the start of January. But, what happens to those decorations? They were either thrown away in the garbage or placed into the storage for next year. An atificial tree was inside an attic, along with some tinsel, baubles, and anything else that was festive.

Only that this attic belonged to an old wizard called Merlin, where his was situated in a world called the Radiant Garden, and that world was home to a young man named Rhei. The spiky-haired young teen, clothed in a red robe, found the very room and went to explore, finding the decorations that he remembered adoring.

However, as he came closer to the tree, he felt a sinking feeling inside, one that made him feel small. In fact, he was right! He literally shrunk down to the size of a mouse! Oh, this wasn't good! Not at all! He had to get out of here and he had to do it fast. So without hesitating, he grabbed the fake bark trunk of the Christmas tree and made his way up. The journey was easy without struggle, for the bark had many small holes to climb upon. On the way, he passed baubles that were left behind, toy soldiers that were around his height, until he got to the top...

[ChrisWk]

Despite this being a normal artificial christmas tree with rather normal decorations, being the attic of a wizard, there was definitely going to be something unusual about it, and it most certainly was. In fact, the most unusual part of this christmas tree, was the decorations, some of them were normal, some were not. One of these unusual decorations was a wooden angel, which was in fact alive, and had just spotted a red robe climbing upwards through some of the branches.

The small wooden angel was by no means large, but it was a fair bit taller than Rhei, in his current state. She couldn't remember seeing any red robed decorations before, so she decided to follow it. Before long, she had caught up to the kid. "Hey you there, what are you doing up here?" the angel asked before realizing that this was no normal decoration or toy, it was a tiny human. "A human?! What on earth is a human child like yourself doing up here?!" she asked with a somewhat confused and frustrated voice.

This tree was restricted to decorations only, not only that but she couldn't figure out what a human was doing up here, surely for someone who couldn't fly, this wasn't safe at all. The fall down wasn't more than around two meters, but when you're the size of a mouse, two meters is a rather long fall.

[ZeldaFan64]

Rhei was careful enough to not cut his hands on the bark, as he didn't want to hurt himself and fall. He wanted to get to the top of this tree so he could get a better view of how to get to the door. Everything such as the boxes and wires were humongous compared to the tiny teen tot. So, he took small jumps from one branch to another, swinging his body over so his feet would connect with the bark.

He was almost teaching the top, which felt like forever. He was slowly getting tired, but would try to continue. That's when he heard the voice of a female. It didn't sound booming as if it came from a human, but it did startle him. Did someone else shrink to his size upon entering this attic? He looked over to see a benevolent figure, pausing in his stance to take in this situation where he was talking to-

"An angel?" Yes, and no. She was made of wood. "A wooden one. Uhh, you look familiar... hey! You're the one on the top of the tree! I do remember you! But, uh, as for who I am, my name is Rhei, and I recently shrunk to this size. Right now, I'm climbing up this tree to get a better look. I mean, you obviously know that it looks so small from up above, but down there, it's like the big city."

[ChrisWk]

The wooden angel wasn't exactly happy about seeing a tiny human in her tree, not because she didn't like the kid, she was more worried about him hurting himself. It was really dangerous to climb all this way without any form of security, if he were to fall, he'd get seriously injured, if not worse. Although she was a tiny bit frustrated, she couldn't help but worry about the tiny human. The angel made her way to a rather thick and large branch just below Rhei.

"Get down here, climbing carelessely like that is dangerous!" the wooden angel instructed with a somewhat sharp tone to her voice, she was certainly not happy about Rhei's carelessness. She was indeed right, he didn't have much to hold on to at all. She was prepared to catch the kid if he were to fall.

[ZeldaFan64]

Rhei could have summoned his Glider to keep him from dying, but he never thought he would have enough time to take out his transportation, balance himself upon it and float like a spacecraft. Judging by the angel's tone, she certainly didn't sound happy about a young and reckless human climbing on the tree as if it was a normal one.

His eyes slightly widened when she commanded him to climb down the tree, before he rolled his eyes. "Oh calm down and don't get your 'wings' ruffled up. I've done this before, it's not like I'm gonna-" fall? Yes. Yes, he would. He was going to fall down as his toes missed a branch and therefore made the young teen stumble...

It all happened too fast, while his heart skipped a beat in shere horror...

[ChrisWk]

The angel quickly reacted and grabbed his arm, pulling him up to the branch she was standing on. She knew this would happen, and was certainly not happy about it. Not only that but the young teen hadn't exactly responded nicely to someone who was worried about him. She was on the verge to teaching him a lesson he wouldn't forget.

"I told you it was dangerous, imagine what would've happened if I hadn't been here to catch you. You shouldn't go climbing like that alone, not at your age. Where are your parents or guardians?" the wooden angel asked with a stern tone. She couldn't believe that the boy was being so reckless, did he not care for his own life at all?

She placed him infront of her, she was quite a bit taller than the boy.

[ZeldaFan64]

He felt his arm could have been taken out of his socket, but he was light enough for the being to save him from falling. Okay, maybe climbing here was a bad idea? But how else could he find a way out of this attic? He would have gotten himself lost down there anyway! So with a sigh, he faced the living decoration in her smooth face made out of wood, his green eyes looking into her golden ones.

Rhei was shorter than her, probably around the same height as those little wooden drummer boys on the twigs. "Uh, thanks for the save. My parents are down there... like know," he pointed to the floor. "DOWN there, below that floor! This isn't my house. It's somebody else's that I visit most the time."

He awkwardly rubbed his shoe against the floor. "Sooo... can you show me the way? Those wings of yours can be a great help."

[ChrisWk]

The angel sighed as she looked down at the young teen. She understood very well that he needed to make his way down from her, but why was he so tiny? Did Merlin use his magic on him and leave him up here? That would be kind of strange, so how did he manage to shrink himself to this size?

The wooden angel completely ignored his question, as she had other things on her mind. "How come you're so tiny? You're way too small for a normal human" she stated with a curious voice. She wasn't even sure if Merlin was home or not, and why was his parents here? "What is your parent's business here? Why aren't they looking for you?" she asked curiously, she was basically drowning him in questions.

[ZeldaFan64]

Indeed, why was he so small? The teen didn't know that. It JUST happened. Merlin wouldn't have shrunk him for no particular reason. But seeing the situation now, it looked that he wasn't going to leave the angel's sight. Guess he was stuck here to play her game of 20 Questions.

"My parents are in another house, I tend to come over to this house because my friends stay here. It's kind of a long story but I'll just say that I used to be here. They know I'm here, but they don't know I'm, well, here here, like in this room." Now he was getting confused. "As for the shrinking, it... just happened. Nothing else, it happened just like that. No warning, no nothing, poof, I'm little. I don't think Merlin would shrink me, so I guess some of his magic is here...?" He gave a delicate shrug, before looking down and back at her.

"So, you're going to fly me down? We're kinda killing time up here."

[ChrisWk]

The angel would get to the bottom of this, the teen wouldn't just shrink to the size of a mouse for no reason. The young boy in the red robe didn't seemed to be lying by the looks of it, his emerald eyes were definitely honest ones, she could easily tell when someone was lying.

"I see, but you couldn't have shrunk to this size for no reason. Is there anything you could've done which would shrink you? Potions, spells, anything? It could've been a delayed reaction." she continued to question Rhei with a bit calmer voice now, as she understood why he was up there. Despite understanding why he was up there, she didn't approve of it, as he had risked his life in doing so.

"I can't fly that far, and I doubt I'd be able to fly at all with you under my arm." she added, she wasn't joking either. Although the angel had wings, they didn't allow her to fly like a bird or plane. She could glide from branch to branch, but that was about it.