As I’m rolling down the hill I start worrying about how to stop myself, what if I need to do something to keep myself from crashing into a wall?

*CRASH*

And turns out I was right, as when I reach the bottom of the hill I find myself embedded into a dirt wall.

“Hey! You alright!? We don’t get a lot of visitors down here so I forgot you weren’t one of us!”

I release the solidification around me which in turn makes me smaller than the hole in the wall, letting me fall out of it.

I get up, slightly shaken by the impact, and see Charlie bowing towards me.

‘I’m fine. I think.’

I then turn around to look at the dirt wall, to see whether it looks expensive enough for them to be able to demand reimbursement, and see another one of Charlie’s species on top of the wall, this one wearing robes and holding a fairly large wand.

He’s surrounded by blue light, which I’ve now started associating with energy, and looking at where I crashed into the wall I can see the wall repairing itself, the hardened dirt inside the hole which was a result of me pushing it inwards when I crashed into it is flowing back out, making the wall very soft, almost like snow.

Looking to my sides I see more robe wearing people standing further along the wall as well as loads of other… people?

‘Hey Charlie, what can I even call you guys?’

“Just call us Pickits”

Well I could see loads of other pickits rolling into the wall just as we had done and climbing back out as the apparent wizards repaired it.

‘That’s odd, there was no one else at the top except for the guards so where are all of these coming from?’

I look back up to the top of the hill and see that there are actually lots of holes in it and that there’s a fairly constant stream of pickits rolling out of them.

‘Oh. Charlie, should we get going? Frankly it doesn’t look safe to stay here.’

“You’re right. Follow me.”

She then starts using her claws to climb up the wall of dirt and I follow by using Hunting Claws, once we’re on the other side she stops with wide eyes and looks at me.

“I’m sorry! I forgot that you weren’t one of us again!” She says as she closes her eyes and bows again.

‘What?’

She then stands up straight again, and looks at me with wide eyes, again.

“Wait, you’re already here? How did you climb the wall with soft hands like those…?”

I then hold out my hands and use Hunting Claws on them, making them look white and matte like bone.

‘Speaking of doing things, how did you do that with your hair?’

I look towards her hair which had by now turned back to the same glossy brown that it was before.

“Ehm, that was a skill called Hardening, it lets me harden my body like stone. I already know that the skill you used is called Hunting Claws, but how did you roll down the hill even?”

‘That’s a secret.’

“Okay… Well let’s get going!”

After she says that we both start walking down the street we had entered.

‘How many of you pickits are there even down here?’

“Each of our habits has a good few thousand.”

‘Habits?’

“Err… you guys call them countries?”

‘Wait, does that means there's more of these habits?’

“Yup, there’s got loads.”

‘Huh, that’s gotta be a lot of pickits then, though I guess it makes sense, up top you guys are known as spirits of the mountains, not mountain.”

“Yeah we’ve done a lot to keep up that reputation.”

‘Speaking of, is it true that you guys kill anything with flesh?’

“No, that’s just a cover-up to help keep the rumors of ‘spirits of the mountains’ going, you see that big house over there?”

I look towards where she’s pointing and see that amidst the small pickit sized houses there’s a couple of normal sized houses.

“Actually when we...Err… “Squash” people we actually pick them up inside the dirt we’re controlling and take them down here, then they get asked whether they want to stay here and live an easier live than up-top, most agree but the few who don’t are sent back outside and are bound by a magical contract to pretend that the person who got “squashed” by us was a doppelganger and to not tell anyone about us.”

‘But how do you guys make the “squashing” seem realistic when you’re just picking them up?’

“Oh that’s done with illusions, but we’re here now so let’s enter.”

As she says that we turn the corner and come across one of the human sized houses and Charlie opens the door, only to have only a small part of the door open, just large enough for pickit use.

We enter the house and walk around few a couple of rooms, eventually coming across another pickit sized door, and entering that door we find ourselves inside of a pickit sized apartment.

“Since dads in charge of making sure the outsiders are contented with their conditions his house is inside theirs.”

She then takes a deep breath and-

“DAD!!!”

-shouts.

“I’M COMING CHARLIE!” Could be heard from above, since pickits are only a third of the size of humans I guess they can have a three story apartment on just one human floor.

Eventually another pickit comes rushing down the stairs while dressed in an old suit.

“Geez, what’s so important that you need to shou-” He stops in his tracks and looks at me.

‘Hello.’

“Hello.”

We stare at each other for a while longer.

“Dad, why are you staring so much, you said you’d already met Plush, right?”

“Ah, yes, I just wasn’t expecting him to arrive so soon, it’s only been a bit over a week since I told you about him.”

“Well he’s here now, so I’ll go get some tea ready and you two can talk.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Charlie then walk off, presumably to the kitchen.

“Well then Plush, how’ve you been?” Asks Charlton as we start walking to a different room.

‘I’ve been doing well, it’s nice to see you again. Or is this technically the first time I see you?”

*sigh* “Plush I’m sorry for tricking you like that before, us pickits have had this horrible past where we were used as free labor machines by humans before we went underground, so please understand that we can’t show ourselves to anyone outside of this place.”

At this point we both sit down on an L shaped couch next to a table.

‘No that’s alright, people are pricks so I understand. But I’m still curious about why you guys are pretending to be boulders whenever you go outside, wouldn’t it just be easier to not go outside at all?’

“No, us pickits love the outside as much as we love our homes, so we had to come up with some way of being able to be outside, and our ancestors figured the best option would be the one that made people stay away from us.”

‘I guess that makes sense. But aside from that, Charlie said that you wanted to meet me again, has something happened?’

“Tea!”

Both of us turn towards the doorway and see Charlie coming in with a tray with three cups on.

‘I’m sorry but I don’t drink tea.’

“Really? Well more for me then, want me to get you something else?”

‘No, I don’t really drink anything actually, sort of don’t have a mouth you see.’

“OH! Right! I’m sorry!” She says as she bows again after having put down the tray on the table.

“You guys sound like you’re discussing something important so I’ll go up to my room.”

She puts two of the cups back on the tray and picks it up.

“No, this involves you too, besides, even if you went to your room you would be eavesdropping through the floor and hearing us either way.”

She puts the tray back down while looking embarrassed due to having been found out and sits next to Charlton.

“Plush, us pickits have lived underground for more than a thousand years by now, and I think that it is due time to find out whether we’ve been forgotten enough to go back to the surface.”

‘Okay, but how can I help with that?’

“We needed someone we can trust, and although I’ve met a lot of people due to *cough* abducting *cough* them, I’ve never met someone who has actually meant what they think when they speak, however you never speak anything dishonest, you always tell the truth, which is why I think we can trust you.”

‘Okay, so you think I can be trusted, but I still don’t know what I could do to help.’

“Due to believing that you can be trusted, as well as you having lived on the surface world, I, the leader of this city, humbly ask you to bring a group of us pickits to the top and let them see how the world outside of this mountain and forest has changed since we shied away from it.”

‘Wait, leader? You’re the leader of this city!?’

“Oh, I must have forgotten to mention it.”

“Uhm” Charlie stretches her hand upwards as though she’s in class.

“Yes?”

“What does this have to do with me…?”

“You’ve always said you wanted to see the outside world, right?” Answers Charlton while smiling mildly.

“!” Her eyes widen yet again.

“I’ll go pack my stuff!!!”

She then runs up the stairs while squealing in glee.

‘Are you sure about that? She’s your daughter right?’

“As much as I want her to stay away from the topside and be down here where safety is guaranteed as a father, it’s also a part of a father’s duties to let his children grow up and do what they strive for.” As Charlton says that he takes a sip of his tea while closing his eyes calmly.

Once he puts down his cup I decide to ask him,

‘You said a handful, right? When will I be meeting the others?’

“Oh I’ll make them gather at the gate and wait there for you and Charlie to get ready.”

He then finishes his cup and hums a bit.

“Speaking of the rest, I need to go let them now to prepare themselves, just ask Charlie to lead you to the same tunnel you entered from when she’s done upstairs.”

He then carries the cup to the kitchen and proceeds to leave through the front door.

“I’m ready! Huh? Where’s dad?”

A short while after Charlton left Charlie comes back down the stairs with two shoulder bags and a backpack.

‘He went to let the others know that we’ll be leaving soon, he told me to tell you that we could start heading towards the gate we entered through and await them there, say, do you need help with all of that?’

“Well I don’t necessarily need it, but it would be appreciated.”

I stretch out one of my arms and she gives me one of her shoulder bags, making us match since we’re both wearing shoulder bags and a backpack (though mine’s a book).