Tiny Heroes

Chapter 1 Preparations

By: Major144

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

In the woods of Danbury, Connecticut a man named Professor Radcliffe Fitzgerald "Randy" Bomba was out exploring the forest.

Randy had a thin build, reddish hair, small green eyes, a long nose, and somewhat ridged teeth. He dressed in a long sleeved beige shirt along with brown trousers and brown shoes. Randy wore round glasses and a small brown watch. On his head was an odd helmet like contraption with various gadgets, including telescopic lens and advanced audio and camera features for his work. Randy also wore a green vest in which he kept different items he needed for his work as well as some survival gear.

Randy was a scientist who specialized in botany, zoology, entomology, mycology, dendrology, geology, and petrology. He had been a fairly successful researcher and professor at the local universities and had a loving wife and daughter, until he had made a discovery that had unfortunately lead to a bit of a downhill spiral. It had happened roughly ten years ago, when

Randy had been out exploring the local woods, when he witnessed something unusual. A hummingbird and a raven were flying about as if locked in some kind of battle. Randy thought was very unusual and at one point he sword he saw something tiny leap from the back of the hummingbird and onto the raven's back before the raven knocked the hummingbird down to the ground below with it's wings. Randy who had been standing not too far away jumped forward and stretched his arm out catching the little bird. He got up and examined the bird, who didn't appear to be seriously injured and then noticed something odd on it's back. It looked like a tiny saddle made out of leaves and grass. Randy carefully removed the saddle and examined it with interest. He first thought it was some kind of toy, but the material that made the saddle was from actually nature and not plastic. Randy knew no one who was capable of making something like this, so he let the bird free and returned to his him to examine the saddle and do some research.

Randy did some exploring online to examine toy saddles, but nothing he pulled up looked anything like the saddle he had found. There was also nothing online about saddles for birds as small as hummingbirds. Randy researched art projects to see if there were any artists who made little saddles for birds for art projects, but that was a dead lead as well. The only thing he found was just drawings of cowboys riding birds. No real leads there. Randy took a new direction with his research, that being stories of folk lore and fairy tales. One tale Randy found talked about a tribe and civilization of tiny humanoids that protected nature from creatures of rot who wanted to upset the balance of nature. There was some old illustrations from a folk book of tiny men and women who rode birds and squirrels. Randy was a bit dumbfounded by this. He looked at the saddle and wondered if he had found actually proof found proof of this tribes existence?

In the months that followed Randy went back into the woods determined to find more proof of the tiny humanoids. He would spend days in the woods camping out looking for any evidence of the tiny people with a various degree of success. Some trips he found nothing, while other days he found little odd traces of the tiny civilization. A little arrow made of wood, a sword made of some sort of metal-like ore, some tiny boot prints, and little pieces of armor that were made of grass, leafs, and wood. Randy became obsessed with finding proof of the tiny people and unfortunately his long trips and treks in the woods began to take a strain on his marriage and his relationship with his daughter.

Things got worse when Randy tried to present his evidence with the governing board of directors at his university and they though he was joking. Randy got mad and argued with the directors, which did not go well. He then tried to present his evidence to the public, but was met with much ridicule from the public and his reputation went downhill. Randy's wife, Susan became angry and annoyed with Randy and later divorced him and took their daughter Margaret Katherine, "Mary" with her.

Randy had become depressed and desperately tried to find more evidence of the little people or someone who would believe him and fund his research to help repair his reputation, but his best efforts work out and after a few years of very little leads, Randy realized he needed to get his life back in order. Randy turned down his obsession of the little people, though he still searched for signs and evidence of them in his spare time or when he was out in the woods on other projects. He then apologized to the board of directors at the university and managed to repair his reputation a bit and got a job teaching classes in the summer and managed to get a job that allowed him to work in the woods to collect plant and mold samples, as well as report on the animal and plant life.

Randy then reached out to Susan and apologized to her. Susan didn't want to get back with Randy, though the two were still friendly with each other. Mary wasn't interested in her father, due to teasing she had gotten from other kids about her father's obsession with the tiny people. Years later Susan came down with cancer and it wasn't looking good for her. Susan told Randy, she wanted Mary, who now went by MK to go live with Randy and for the two of them to work things out. Randy agreed to do so.

Susan passed away and Randy attended the funeral, he tried to speak with MK, but she was grieving and dealing with her mother's death. Randy told his daughter that he would look after her and everything would be alright.

That was a few days ago. MK was packing her belongings at the home she shared with her mother and would be heading to live with Randy. Randy checked the forest to see if there were any unusual anomalies, when his phone gave him an alert telling him that MK would be arriving soon. He turned and headed back to his house, which was fairly close to the woods on a large hill overlooking a small neighborhood. Randy checked his watch and saw he had some time to check on a anthill not too far away from his home. He walked past his home and went about a hundred feet to the left, where he saw the anthill.

All the ants were going about their business collecting food. Randy found the ants' skills and organization very interesting. He watched them for a few minutes then looked over to one of his neighbors houses to see the Nickle family loading up into their car. There was the mother and father Doreen and Fred, the grandmother Mommo, and the two ten year old twins Lucas and Tiffany. Randy waved to the family as they drove off and headed to his house. He was greeted by his elderly three legged pug did Ozzi. Randy gave Ozzi a pat and then headed off to clean himself off for MK's arrival.

To be continued.