Chapter 14: Feeling A Little Dangerous Again

As I heard the sound of my roof getting torn off, I slowly opened my eyes to abandon my dream world, and I was greeted back to reality with Jesse's big face staring through the gaping hole he just created, his vibrant emerald eyes focused on my small body laying on the familiar fabric surface that was my bed.

"Good morning, Petra." My towering boyfriend beamed at me.

I let out a yawn as my vision and urge to move around came back to me, and I simply replied "Good morning, Jesse. I see that you gladly put me back in my little house."

"Yeah, you sorta fell asleep in my hands last night so I figured I'd get you to bed." He laughed, placing his hand behind his head.

"Thank you, Jesse." I complimented the giant brunette as I laughed along with him, getting out of bed as I did so. "I'm sorry for running off yesterday, by the way."

"Hey, I'm just glad you didn't die out there." Jesse smiled, giving me a hulking plate with a big carrot on it. "The world's pretty big... And you're pretty small."

"Yeah, I know." I chuckled, jumping onto the white round platform that is the plate, digging into the large carrot, taking small bites out of the gigantic food, chewing the teeny mouthfuls and swallowing them as I continued to talk to Jesse, who was watching my tiny form munch away at the big carrot.

"So what do you want to do today?" I asked my giant sweetheart out of curiosity. "I was thinking that maybe we could have another walk outside Beacontown and find an epic cave or something..."

"Well, I do kinda want to say 'no'..." Jesse pondered, looking skeptical about my idea.

"What? Why 'no'? What do you mean?" I asked him back.

"Well, I mean... You did say that you almost got yourself killed by a wolf yesterday." Jesse bought up the past incident like he was still that worried about me.

"But still..." I started to refute the brunette's point. "My chances of running into a wolf like that were very slim..."

"Yeah... You do kinda have a point there..." Jesse admitted, scratching the back of his head a bit. "I guess I could take you outside again." He laid his open hand out on the floor for me to walk onto it.

"Just give me a second please." I said, wanting to finish the large carrot that my giant friend gave me for my breakfast. Not feeling defeated by my titanic first meal of the day just yet, I shoved the last bits of the healthy vegetable into my mouth and chewed them at a relatively slow pace, wanting my taste buds to savour every last nutrient of the food. I swallowed the samples down my throat and into my stomach, my belly completely satisfied as I pat it and walked onto the centre of Jesse's palm, which prompt him to bring me up to his adorable smiling face.

"Remember, Petra..." My giant super best friend started. "If you see any landmarks that grasp your attention, just let me know."

"Sure do." I answered, nodding my head. He slid me down into the pocket of his white shirt as he finished his sentence.

"Woooooo!" I yelled in excitement with my hands held up in the air as I slid into the deep, restricted yet soft interior of Jesse's shirt pocket.

"I bet it feels good sliding down in there, huh Petra?" Jesse asked, opening his shirt pocket with one of his fingers and peeking inside it.

"It sure does!" I proudly proclaimed. "Sure, I'm not really a big fan of the cramped, restricted space of it, but certainly feels good to slide into it! You really do a good job at making a drift into your pocket feel like an amusement park ride!"

The huge brunette I was hiding in then laughed lightly at my compliment as he closed up his shirt pocket, walking out of my bedroom and into the corridor where everyone else's rooms were.

After walking through the quiet and barren corridor, Jesse and I found ourselves in the main hall, where Lukas, Radar, Axel and Olivia were just sitting there in front of the large glass window, and all of them were waiting for Jesse it seemed.

"Good morning, Jesse!" Radar exclaimed as he stood up and waved at him, the excitement in his body as clear as day. This also caused the rest of our friends to stand up as well.

Jesse forced a playful laugh and replied "Good morning, Radar" to the cute brown childish intern. "And good morning to the rest of you guys too." He said to the remainder of his friends, waving back at them. "Sorry for acting all distraught and hysterical by the way. I just had a pretty rough day yesterday."

Radar gave Jesse a hesitant giggle and said "Don't worry, Jesse. I get those kind of days too sometimes." He started fiddling with his notepad and pen as he said this.

"Oh, by the way, Jesse..." Lukas started to ask, which seemed to have caught the brown-haired brunette's attention since he fixated his focus on the blonde man who was standing next to Radar. "Have you seen Petra anywhere? She doesn't seem to be around Beacontown anymore... It's almost like she's become a ghost or something... Like she doesn't even exist anymore..."

"Yeah, I get it, Lukas." Jesse chuckled anxiously. "But no, I haven't seen Petra anywhere. Are you trying to say that she ran away? That doesn't seem like something she would do. It's not like she would want to leave us anytime soon."

"Well, if you see her anywhere, just let us know." Lukas said, beaming his shiny set of teeth at Jesse.

"So what do you want to do today, Jesse?" Axel, the big hunk stood up from his spot as he asked my hiding man. "Do you want to go start a riot in Boom Town or have sort of a play fight with Magnus?"

"Don't give him any ideas, Axel..." Olivia tugged his arm as she called Axel out.

Jesse chuckled as he watched Olivia pull at Axel's body part, and the movement of the brunette's body as he did so made me shift and turn in his pocket a bit. "No thanks, Axel. I think I'll just wander out of Beacontown for a bit. After all, a mayor's gotta take his break sooner or later." He began to walk away from his friends as he neared the big door behind him.

"Hey, Jesse..." Lukas pondered.

"Yes, Lukas?" Jesse inquired in response, planting both of his feet on the ground, stopping in his tracks and turning around to pay attention to what Lukas had say.

"I don't know if you've noticed yourself..." The blonde-haired diary writer continued, walking up to Jesse. "But the way you're pretty much wording everything you say... It seems like you're trying to hide something from us."

"Is this true, Jesse?" Olivia joined in, walking over to Jesse too. "You know you shouldn't be hiding secrets from us. Not from your best friends. Whatever it is you've got on your mind, we can help you get over it."

"Yeah!" Radar joined in too, placing his notepad and pen underneath his green jacket and sandwiching himself in-between Lukas and Olivia. "Take me for example! At first, I thought I was going to do a terrible job at being your personal assistant, but ever since you and your friends convinced me that I'm nowhere near as useless as I thought I was, I'm not even anxious about anything now! For the most part anyway... " Radar scratched the back of his head as he made that last bit sound more like a confession than anything. "And I didn't even have to tell you anything about my anxiety! So what are you hiding, Jesse? Come on, tell us. You know we won't bite." Radar held Jesse's hands as the innocent intern reassured his master.

Oh crap, this is going to be the place where the truth finally comes out... Come on Jesse, don't blow this for me...

"I don't know what you guys are talking about..." Jesse started, lightly swatting Radar's hands away from his own. "Honestly, I don't have anything to hide. I think you're all just worrying a bit too much about me... Besides, you now know that my paranoid attitude was only a one-day thing."

"Well, okay... If you say so..." Lukas said with uncertainty in his voice. "But what's that in your pocket?" He pointed his index finger towards the noticeable shape I was making in his pouch. Now I was screwed...

"Uhh... Flowers! For Stacy!" Jesse quickly made up on the spot.

"Really? I always thought that pumpkin pie was more of Stacy's thing, but I guess that all girls in general like flowers anyway..." Lukas replied, buying Jesse's lie and placing one hand on his shoulder. "Deliver those flowers to Stacy and take all the time outside Beacontown you need, Jesse."

"Will do! I'll see you guys later!" Jesse proclaimed as he started running towards the big door again, waving 'goodbye for now' to his friends.

"Don't stay out there for long, Jesse!" Radar exclaimed, proudly waving back at his master in red suspenders.

"I know, Radar!" Jesse shouted back to his assistant as he ran out of the Order Hall.

When Jesse was a good distance away from the Order Hall, he reached into his shirt pocket and took me out when not many people were around to see me at the size of a rabbit.

"That was a close one, huh Petra?" Jesse asked me.

"Yeah... When I saw Lukas stick out his finger to poke me, I thought my size-related secret would be no more..." I muttered as I ran my hand through my long, red hair.

"Well, it's a good thing that I can always find a way to get out of sticky situations, huh?" Jesse inquired rhetorically with a laugh.

I laughed along with the suspender titan as I gave my word on his rhetorical statement. "It sure is, Jesse."

"You big ol' softy." He taunted me with a playful tone in his voice as he tickled my face with his index finger. The feeling of his hook caressing my skin made me convulse and burst out into an uncontrollable laughing fit.

"Didn't I tell you to stop that like three or four days ago?!" I guffawed in joy and amusement, trying desperately to shove his finger away from me. My gargantuan boyfriend finally bought his fingers away from my tiny body to give me a chance to regain the breath that I lost from his tickling session.

"Good morning, Jesse!" I heard a child-like voice exclaim as Jesse turned his head to divert his attention to the source of the voice. I climbed up on my knees after I regained my breath to see that Stampy was over there waving at Jesse with a huge grin on his face and Stacy standing by the hyperactive adult's side.

"G'day, Stampy!" Jesse greeted the overzealous individual.

"I didn't know you were familiar with Australian phrases, Jesse." I wisecracked in a joyful manner. The huge man in red suspenders just casually chuckled at my somewhat forced banter.

"And... Petra?" Stacy noticed my presence, her somewhat bright emeralds for eyes fixated on my tiny body standing on Jesse's open palm.

"Hello, Petra!" The man-kid in the orange cat hoodie greeted me, closing his eyes with a grin and swinging his free hand from left to right.

"Greetings, Stampy." I welcomed him back, just showing off my open hand without even waving it.

"What are you doing today?" Stampy asked me, trying to make his eyes just as wide open as an actual cat. "Will it involve Jesse the Gentle Giant over here?"

I gave a heartlighted laugh at Stampy's new nickname for my tall boyfriend. "You're a funny boy, Stampy. You know that?" I asked him rhetorically.

"Yeah, I know. I just like to think that it's a natural habit of mine." Stampy giggled at my proclamation, looking down at his own feet as he did so, only to see that his shoelaces had untied themselves again.

"Uhh... Stacy?" Stampy requested his companion, pointing down at his unfastened laces. Stacy sighed as she complied to fasten Stampy's laces for him.

"So yeah, like Stampy asked you... Where are you guys doing today?" Stacy asked us out of curiosity as she was tying Stampy's shoes.

"Petra and I are thinking about going outside Beacontown for a quick walk." Jesse established our desire for me.

"Just be careful you don't step on Petra by accident, Jesse!" Stampy joked with his signature cheerful laugh.

"Yeah, like you unawarely did to me?" I bought that event up like it only happened to me an hour ago.

"It was just an accident!" Stampy retorted, not losing his good-natured voice one bit.

"I don't care, try looking where you're going next time!" I rebutted in a slightly mischievous manner, which caused Stampy to laugh even more. By the time he stopped laughing, Stacy had finished tying his shoelaces.

"There. Hopefully they'll stay like that this time." Stacy declared, getting back up from her knees.

"Thank you, Stacy." Stampy praised his friend. "I wish I could do that by myself, but I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Perhaps you could give a step-by-step tutorial on how to tie my shoes?"

"Sure. Anything for my loveable dork." Stacy cooed, playing with Stampy's face in her hands, which again, caused the adorable manchild to laugh seemingly uncontrollably. "I hope you two have a good time out there!" Stampy's female partner wished us, waving one of her hands to the sky.

"Thank you, Stacy! See you and Stampy later!" I waved at the two good friends as Jesse put me back in his shirt pocket and walked over to the big red gate that was separating us from the big, vast outside world.

"Do you see any places you'd like to check out, Petra?" Jesse asked me as he kept walking forward and looked up at my small being holding onto a few chunks of his brown hair.

"Not yet I don't." I asserted, making eye contact with his bright emerald eyeballs and back to the large, open environment around us. "Keep looking. You never know, we could find a village or a desert temple..."

Jesse kept walking around the endless plains of grass and huge trees as I continued to scan the environment for noticeable structures with my chocolate brown eyes. After a few minutes of searching our surroundings, Jesse and I both found a large hole in the never-ending field of green that mostly lead to a cave of some sort.

"Now that's the sort of place that I'm talking about!" I exclaimed in excitement, pointing to the large tunnel.

"Whoa! Are you sure, Petra?" Jesse asked me, coming off as an overprotective father figure again, his emerald eyes making contact with me yet again. "There's no doubt that these caves could be way dangerous than they already were at normal size."

"Oh, come on Jesse!" I reassured the large brunette I was sitting on. "You don't have be so overprotective of me! You know I can handle myself just fine! Besides, I guess you could say that I'm feeling a little dangerous again..."

"Well, okay..." He considered. "But if you really want to explore this cave at the size of a flea, it's your funeral." Even then it seemed like he was joking with the "it's your funeral" part, I knew he wasn't lying about it. Regardless of this however, I gave a buoyant snicker and proceeded to climb off of his large head, white shirt and blue trousers, landing safely on the tall grass. Jesse and I then started to walk into the intimidating tunnel, with me staying right behind Jesse's bulky black shoes every step of the way...