No Way Out Part 10

Part 10

"So you wait until NOW to try another language?" Maia, momentarily losing any shred of

fear, spat out.

"What do you mean? I am speaking the same as I was before." Jacob, still stunned with

amazement, answered.

"But I….I can understand you!" Her voice rang in disbelief.

"This is amazing…" His voice rose with excitement. Imagine this! They could speak! There

were so many things he wanted to communicate all at once.

"Please don't talk so loudly, you're hurting my ears."

"Oh….sorry. This is incredible though. How is this possible? What just happened? Can your

friend speak? Why were those other little ones so angry? How did you get so small? What

are you?"

  Maia, forgetting for a moment just where she was situated, struggled to stand up on his

unsteady palm in order to face his barrage of questioning. However, once again she

stumbled and Jace gently closed his fingers around her, wrapping her in a loose,

protective fist. The sound of his low chuckle reverberated in the air.

"Sorry for having to do that. I'd just really rather you not fall…again."


  Blushing a bit at his amusement, she tried to clear her head, but once again didn't get

a chance to answer him. Jace had glanced down to check on Acadia, only to see her backing

away rather quickly. From her vantage point she couldn't make anything of the recent

exchange and only saw him catch a falling and screaming Maia and then trap her within his

grasp again. Confused and wondering if this was a time she could sneak away and get help

(although from where she didn't know), she had begun backing away.


"Whoa there, little one. I'm not going to hurt ya, but I can't let you wonder off." Jace

pinned the back of her retreating dress between thumb and forefinger and then proceeded

to whisk an unwilling Acadia into the palm of his free hand. Strangely enough, she didn't

seem to respond to his words, just as before.

Maia looked over at her flailing sibling across the gulf of space between Jace's hands.

"Acadia! Don't worry, it will be okay." She tried to offer some calming words.

Acadia slumped over in defeat and turned as much as she could to face away from her

captor. Maia turned back to Jace.


"You have some questions to answer yourself! Who are you? And we are not small, you are

the one that is gigantic. Most importantly, why did you save us? What are you going to do

with us??"

"I couldn't just leave you to die. I've never seen anything like you two and I still

don't know what is going on, but I'm not just going to turn my back on anything that is

living when I can help it out. Wouldn't you do the same? And….I don't know. I mean, don't

worry, I'm not ever going to hurt you….but I hadn't really thought very far ahead after

saving you. I thought I could just take you back, but now it seems that you are stuck

with me." He explained, shrugging his massive shoulders.

   Acadia's eyes grew wide at the exchange before her.

"Maia? Are you speaking with him? You can understand him?"

"Yes, can't you?"

"No! Not at all! He sounds just the same as he always has. How can you?"

"I….I don't know….." Maia trailed off.


It was Jace's turn to be on the outside of the exchange. The small girls chattered back

and forth, but he was only getting one side of the conversation.

"I can't understand her either." He admitted, guessing the source behind Acadia's

unintelligible outburst.

"What changed? Why is it just me and you?" Maia pondered. Then she recalled the heat, the

pain that had come from their mutual touch. It had spread through her body like wildfire

and then instantly disappeared.

"Do you think….." She began slowly, still deep in thought. Jace's face dipped forward in

expectation and Maia flinched at his sudden movement.

"Well….do I think what?" Jace, unaware that he was still intimidating to Maia, was eager

to shed any light on the newfound mysteries. Maia gulped and steadied herself.

"Did you feel that pain too? Or was it just me?"

"Yes, I did. Do you think it had something to do with it? If it did, why would it happen

now instead of the first time I touched you? And even more so, why wouldn't it happen

with her too?" He nodded his head towards Acadia, who still shifted uncomfortably in his

hand.

"You are one for questions, that's for sure!" Maia quipped, still trying to make sense of

the bizarre situation, " Well….the only difference I can think of between her and I…and

from before….is that I decided….."

"Decided what?" Jace prodded.

"Will you calm down? Its hard for me to get my thoughts together in this sort of

predicament."

"I'm sorry, this is just so exciting! I can hardly believe that you are real, and now we

are talking! There is just so much that has been going through my mind since I've found

you two."

"….the only thing I can think of is that….I decided to trust you."

For a moment Jacob actually remained speechless as he absorbed the small revelation. The

moment was broken by Acadia's reaction.

"Trust him?! Are you nuts? You must have fried one too many brain cells in the desert!"

Jace smirked, once again guessing her intent.

"I take it that she doesn't?"

"No. She is just scared, that is all." Maia stated, ignoring Acadia's glare.

"Scared? But why? I'm not going to hurt you guys or anything."

"Ha…why do you think? Look at you and look at us! Even if you mean well, you still are

incredibly intimidating. Imagine yourself in our shoes!"

"I'm sorry, I'm doing my best to not seem scary." Jace said with a look of sadness.

Maia's heart softened at the impossibly large giant's disappointment.

"Look, its ok. It's not your fault. Thank you for saving us by the way." Said Maia as she

patted his finger. Why did she already so much about his feelings? And maybe Acadia was

right about trusting him, especially so soon. But something deep within Maia just

couldn't help it.

The corners of Jace's lips turned up a bit at the feel of Maia's tiny hand.

"So, for bizarre reasons unknown, Acadia here will have to trust me too before we can

understand each other?"

"That's the theory at least. You might not want to hold your breath too long for that."

"Can you tell her not to run away? That way I can at least put her down and stop making

her so uncomfortable."

Acadia still gave her sister a weird look, but nodded her head at Maia's translated

instructions. Anything to get her out of such an uncomfortable situation was welcome.

Jacob's eyes followed Acadia as she quickly ducked behind a stone, out of his line of

vision. She was starting to make Jacob feel self conscious. Could he really be that

frightening? He turned his attention back to Maia and gazed at her for a moment. She did

look extremely fragile, engulfed by his hand. At least she trusted him.

"Well, I am guessing that we have enough to discuss that we could talk all day and into

the night. Before we get too wrapped up in conversation…..would you two like a bath?"

Jace said as he gestured to the stream beside them. Maia instantly stiffened at the

suggestion and he felt the tension in his hand.

"What? What is it?"

"You're….you're not going to try to….bathe us, are you?" Maia was afraid of what he had

in mind.

Jace immediately caught her train of thought and laughed.

"No! Gosh no, I wouldn't do such a thing. Besides, there is no need to get all nervous.

Even if I do start to do something you don't like, you can just tell me. I'll listen."

He promised, his brown eyes looking deeply into hers. Maia breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Oh, ok. Sorry, it's just…I really have no idea of what to expect, you know?"

"Yeah, this is a rather unique situation. I still can't believe this is real, but here

you are, right in the palm of my hand. Anyways, I can set up something private for you

two so you can bathe properly. My only concern is that you might try and run away…..and

don't take me the wrong way! I'm not trying to keep you prisoner or anything. It is just

that I don't think you would be able to survive on your own…..I don't know, I just feel

like I should protect you." Jace nervously admitted his strange urges to the tiny girls

he barely knew.

"We won't go anywhere. I already said that I trusted you and I'll talk to Acadia. I

suppose we could use a little help right now, seeing as our track record looks pretty

terrible when we are on our own." Maia smirked. As Jace grinned, Maia noticed that her

heart was feeling an odd sensation towards the huge being that she barely knew.