So You'd Like to be an Adventurer?

Chapter 2 - Little Guy

For the second time today it had felt like I was hurled into my body at the speed of sound.
It was beginning to annoy me.
I opened my eyes to find that before me was standing a hulking giant of a man, easily double my height!
I was taken aback by this, completely and utterly shocked that a being so large could exist, but his next words threw me into even further confusion.

The man smiled and asked, “So you'd like to be an adventurer?”
This was the second time I had heard those words spoken in the exact same way, as if what I was heard now an exact recording of what I had heard within the darkness.
Those simple word's had pulled great excitement from deep within me.
But this excitement coupled with my intense anxiety and fear resulted in my mind turning to a state of panic.

Why is the giant asking me this? Is he going to kill me? Am I going to have to suffer that horrible feeling of dying again?
My legs turned to jelly as I asked myself those questions and many more, but even my confusion and panic was interrupted when the giant asked me, “Well kiddo?” in a tone that seemed to demand a reply.
However, whatever my reply might have been, the giant would never find out...
I had fainted right there and then. After all that had happened to me today, it was more surprising that it had not happened sooner.

I awoke to find myself lying in a rather large bed that was not my own.
When I had attempted to get up, I was assaulted by a searing pain to the back of my head, causing me to groan in pain.
I clutched my head, which in turn resulted in more pain.
A painful cycle of stupidity...

The door cracked open, someone walked over to the side of the bed at which I was lying down.
The looming silence was broken with a woman's voice asking, “Orion, are you awake?”
She had renamed me Orion?! I wanted to retort but doing so would blow my cover.
The moment I heard the door creaking open I had assumed my most well practised childhood skill; Pretending to sleep.
And pretend well I did.
If ever a human pretended to sleep it would have been me at this moment, I laid on my back, my arms flailed, one at my side and the other slung over my head, my mouth hung open.
I had assumed my secret technique and simply waited in hope that the woman would simply go away.

Why run you ask? Because I had been captured by giants!
The house I was currently in had a door taller than the first giant that I saw upon opening my eyes.
This fact alone proved that the house was inhabited by the hulking humans, but that was not all, everything in the room they had put me in had clearly been meant for a larger person than myself, the bed itself was very big, there was a bed side table that would take me to my waist, a large clothing cupboard that I would never hope to reach the top of even if I had climbing gear and the ceiling itself was elevated a good meter above the doorway.

I heard the door creak open and then shut once more.
I ever so slightly opened my eye and surveyed my surroundings.
The woman had left.
Then I slowly got up being careful not to hurt my head, which was tightly wrapped in a crude bandage of sorts.
My feet struggled to reach the floor, but it was possible.
Standing solidly, proud of my ability to avoid self harm, I immediately looked for any means of escape.

There was a window on the wall opposite the door, the bed was positioned snugly in the corner of the room, leaving plenty of empty area in the middle.
The clothing cupboard was to the right of the door also positioned in a corner.
There was a wooden desk, and large wooden chair to the left of the door.
The desk hugged the wall well.
Overall the room was very much to my liking, or it would have been had everything not been giant sized!

I walked to the window and looked out, the distance to the ground make it seem like I was on the third floor.
However, I had already come to understand that the house was built for giants so this was only the second floor, but consequently, it was still a height from which I was not confident in falling.
The window was not an option.
I then began carefully inspecting the cupboard, but to my great surprise what I found inside was not clothing that would fit a giant, but rather clothes that seemed to be made for normal sized humans, albeit they were of poor quality.
Must be hard for them to make such tiny clothes with their big hands. I thought to myself as I picked out a pair of black socks and put them on.
I then found a pair of crude shoes that too fit on my first choice.
It was almost as if they had acquired these clothes just for me... Had they planned to keep me as a pet? I shuddered at the thought.

I then came up with my escape plan and waited for my chance to arrive.
Night came quickly and soon the door creaked open once more, and from behind it came a giant of a woman walking right to the pillows that I propped beneath the cotton blanket.
I did not wait any longer and ran out from behind the door running right behind the woman and out the room.
I was in a hallway and I quickly found the staircase leading down.
So far so good. I thought to myself as I made my way down the staircase.
It would have been cool to side down the railings.
However, from a height like that I wasn't willing to risk it.
Not to mention that I was not even sure that I could make it up there in the first place.
I reached the bottom of the staircase and stumbled slightly but quickly found my footing, making a quick turn to the next place of interest, the large wooden door.

It looked to be the same height as the other doors I've seen in the house, however the handle on this door was far more intricate than the ones on the other doors, leading me to believe that it was the door to my freedom.
I ran for the door with all of my might.
However, the door opened up before me, and the giant man from before surfaced from behind it, and announced his presence, “I'm home-”
I am already too close to stop now. I'll need to push through! I had thought at the time and rushed at the exit with even more gusto than before.
However, before I could even get close enough to smell the fresh air from outside, the hulking man had crouched down and caught me in his embrace.

“Hey there little guy! Are you feeling better now?” said the giant while ruffling my hair.
I had attempted to escape, but the man held me like a spider web would a fly.
My fate was sealed.