Chapter 1: A New World
To say she was nervous, when she and Nod met the following afternoon, was an understatement.
It had taken her over two hours to decide on an outfit and how to style her hair. She didn't even know herself, why she had been so concerned about such trivial stuff. Nod liked her for herself, not for what she was wearing. But still. M.K. wanted to look particularly nice this day.
A red dress, light and flowing, gladiator sandals, hair loose, an occasional braided strand on the left side.
When they finally met and he told her she looked beautiful - she knew it was all worth it.
Heartbeat going faster than usual, M.K. entered one of the bigger forest glades, where Queen Mari had agreed to meet her and Nod.
The young leafman didn't wear his uniform today, but comfortable clothes, and he jumped from her shoulder, when he saw Ronin with some of the other warriors, joining them on a wide branch of an acorn tree.
M.K. saw them lining up, preparing for the queen's arrival. She looked around, but could hardly spot any more leafmen, though she knew they were there. Hiding in the shadows, under the leaves, ready to attack and defend their people in case of any unexpected ambush.
Nod was talking to Ronin and M.K. tried to calm down, but it was no use. One look at her boyfriend and her heart started racing again, breathe going faster, a nervous knot forming in her stomach, making her wish all this would progress faster.
She didn't had to wait long, for suddenly the forest grew eerily quiet, a white glowing thing appearing behind the tree, floating around it and landing smoothly between the two lines of warriors.
The glowing wore off and Queen Mari paced towards Nod, who immediately kneeled down, bowing his head.
"My queen. It is such an honor. Words cannot express my gratitude."
She laughed and stood right before him, taking one of his hands, pulling him upwards.
"You know, this is an exception," she said, "but you and M.K. have done so much, I think you deserve a little timeout in this form."
"Thank you, your majesty."
"Well then. I hope you bid farewell to your friends for the next two weeks, because..."
Instead of finishing the sentence, Mari touched her right temple, pointing into Nod's direction with her free hand and the glowing started again.
"Hey, wait a minute, I actually— woah! Hey... what?!"
All of a sudden, he was yanked up in the air by an invisible force. An ever growing ball of gleaming white surrounding him, so bright M.K. had to step back and cover her eyes.
.
As it slowly subsided, she let her hands sink and her eyes went big, when Nod was standing not far from her, inspecting his body - astonished about his own height.
He looked up and his surprised face changed into admiration at what he saw.
"M.K.," it was all he was able to say.
A second later she had pulled him into her arms, crashing their bodies together, holding onto him like a drowning person on the open sea.
He answered her embrace, holding her just as tight, happy to finally be able to do so again.
It's been too long already.
.
And while the tiny warriors silently retreated, Ronin and Mari watched them for a few more moments before taking off together.
.
"Nod," she sighed right next to his ear. "I've missed you so much."
"But we've seen each other almost every day," he jokingly replied and she halfheartedly hit his shoulder.
"You know what I mean."
Reluctantly he broke the embrace and looked into her eyes.
"I do."
They smiled at each other.
"But look at you," she said to cheer him up even more. "You're finally taller than me again."
"Just like it should be," he answered, smug grin on his face.
M.K. laughed. "Come now. My dad is waiting for us. He even prepared dinner. You're gonna love this."
With only living on berries, nuts, mushrooms and roots, a real human meal surely was something special for the leafman.
The way back to her house took longer than expected.
Nod wanted to inspect absolutely everything. Several times he just paused, marvelling about all the things he could reach from this height.
However he was disappointed to find out, he couldn't jump higher than probably one meter.
"What is this? How do you get around?"
"Oh, I get around," she answered, chuckling to herself.
It was adorable to watch him exploring a whole new world, picking up ladybugs and worms, trying to catch a butterfly - and failing. He fell into the unmown grass not far from her house.
"This is unbelievable," he said, shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun.
Carefully M.K. settled down next to him, before lying down and watching the clouds fly by.
He rolled onto his side, looking at her profile. Lazily she turned her head.
"Aren't you hungry?" she asked, voice low.
"Not really," came the reply, just as quiet.
She smirked and sat up. "We should go anyway. As I said, dad is expecting us."
.
As they entered the old house, Ozzie already ran straight towards the door and M.K. easily picked him up, petting him and trying to keep his tongue away from her face.
"Ozzie, say hello to Nod. You remember him, right?"
She shoved the dog into her surprised boyfriend's arms, who reluctantly took him and held him at arm's length away, one eyebrow raised.
"Heeey... Ozzie. Well, well. Aren't you just as terrifying and slimy in mini version?!"
"Oh, give him a break," she laughed. "He likes you. Let him pick up your scent properly."
A few steps into the hall, M.K. took a look around. "Daaad, we're home. Where are you?"
There was a pot with soup simmering on the stove and the kitchen table was ready laid with lots of things Nod probably had never tasted.
Looking around for her father, M.K. realized the ajar cellar door at the end of the hall. Leaving Nod to deal with her dog by himself, she opened the door fully, leaning into the small stairway.
"Dad? Are you down there?"
"Oh, hey M.K.. Yeah, I just... I was just looking for... oh, so you're here already, great. So did everything go well?"
"Yeah. Come up and say hello."
She slightly flinched, when a sudden loud rumbling could be heard from below.
"Dad, are you alright? You need any help?"
"Oh, damn. I—no. I just tripped, give me a moment... ah! There it is... okay, I'm coming."
Taking a step back and casting Nod an apologetic glance, M.K. waited for her father to climb up the stairs.
He appeared before them, dusty and slightly dishevelled. A rusty, old thing in his hands.
With one finger of his right hand, he pushed his glasses back up, before closing the door behind him.
"Sorry, I needed this old generator and—wow! Is that him?"
"Dad!" she exclaimed, hitting her forehead.
Nod appeared slightly lost while watching the scene and M.K. reached for his forearm, pulling him closer.
Ozzie ran around them in circles, making happy panting noises.
"Dad, this is Nod. Nod - my dad, who's hobby it is to embarrass me."
Nod cleared his throat and offered his right hand.
"Professor Bomba, it's a pleasure to finally meet you at eye level."
"Oh please," the older man laughed, enthusiastically shaking hands with him. "Call me Jason. Hey, I hope you're hungry. M.K. told me, you never had soup or bread before. Not even cheese or yoghurt, there's lots of things—"
"Dad, slow down," she said, forcing their hands apart, since her father wouldn't let go. "Let's just go into the kitchen."
Minutes later they all sat around the small table, with Ozzie lying not far from them, noisily chewing on a toy.
Nod stared at his plate, which was loaden with all kinds of different food. A bowl of steaming soup next to it.
He reached for the glass of water and drank half of it.
"You don't have to eat up, of course, if you don't like it," M.K. said, casting her dad a glance, who was responsible for the chaos on his plate. "If you'd rather like to continue with your... your usual food, this can be arranged, no big deal."
Nod picked up a small woodland strawberry and looked at it from all sides, turning it between his fingers.
This was so weird. Only yesterday he had one of these - and had shared it with two of his friends. They had been stuffed for hours.
Hesitantly he shoved it in his mouth and chewed. It tasted the same as he remembered, only it was... so small. Gone in a matter of seconds.
"Are you okay?" M.K. asked, noticing the thoughtful look on his face.
"Ah... sure," he replied, smiling again. "It's just new from this perspective."
She nodded and pointed out the bread with cheese. "Try that. It's made from milk and is slightly nutty in taste. I think you might like it."
.
And he did.
Nod tried lots of various things and in the end it turned out, that he liked vegetable soup, bread, cheese, marmalade, yoghurt, cake, cookies, cereals and basically anything vegetarian. The thought of eating dead meat had squicked him out, though he'd tried it nevertheless.
Once bitten, twice shy.
.
After dinner they continued sitting there, talking for hours, laughing together.
The sun had long disappeared and the moon was rising into a night sky full of sparkling stars.
M.K. yawned. "We should probably go to bed soon. Tomorrow I wanna show you the city."
"The city?" he asked. "The place with all the big houses and lots of people?"
"Yep. So we need some rest. It'll be a long day tomorrow."
They cleared the table, said goodnight to Jason and went upstairs together.
"So, we got a mattress and put it on the floor in my room. Is that okay with you? If you'd rather sleep in a bed or on a couch, or even outside, I could—"
"M.K.," he interrupted her, laughing. "Relax. It's all fine. Don't worry about it."
They climbed up the rest of the stairs in silence and her heart was pounding faster again. Why was she so nervous? There was no reason to be.
When she finally pushed open the door to her room, her stomach started aching. Not because she had eaten too much. Rather due to the feeling of uncertain excitement.
"Well, here we are..."
The door closed with a low thud, darkness surrounded them. The next moment, she felt his arms wrapped around her from behind. She was pulled to his chest with her back and could feel him taking in the scent of her hair.
"Nod..."
"What about my welcome-kiss?" he whispered next to her ear.
She turned around in his arms and tried to recognize his face features in the dark. Her hands made their way up his body, ghosting over his neck until they reached his cheeks, pulling him down for a kiss...
tbc~
Thank you all, for your kind feedback and all the follows and favs. You're such sweethearts and it makes me happy, that people are interested in this at all. You rock!
About the names - since the new queen was a marigold flower, I decided to name her Queen Mari. And I couldn't find anything about the prof's given name, so I named him Jason, after the actor who voiced him. Please correct me, if their actual names are stated anywhere.
Lummy~