With all the care I could muster, I placed Ava into the center of the sand castle. Before letting her wake up though, I thought about what I was going to do. Not the moral or ethical problems of course, but rather the logistical ones. You see, I didn't really want Ava know I was the one that shrink her. After thinking for a but,I had a game plan.
"I wish that while my eyes are closed, I'll be able to see any area nearby that I chose from any angle." I said, hoping that would cover it, then I closed my eyes... Only to see nothing. After a few seconds of thinking, I realized that I had to have the intention to see something. Without opening my eyes, I imagined being eye level with Ava, or what would be eye level one she stood up, and immediately almost fell over. It was disorienting, but I got the hang of it fast enough. After practicing moving the view around for a bit. I lay down where I was before, closed my eyes (pretending to sleep of course!), and concentrated on Ava waking up.
The change was almost immediate, the faint sound of her breathing changed, her face kept the peaceful, angelic look though. After a short time, just as I was getting bored, Ava rolled over. The looked on her face changed from one of piece to one of confusion, then surprise as her eyes shout open. She jumped up and immediately covered herself, she looked adorable! She started mumbling something to herself and I moved the view closer in order to hear, or at least I tried to until I realized I didn't wish for sound, only sight. Oh well, it looked like she was saying "keep calm" to herself or something. Anyway, while I was thinking about this, Ava was looking around. "Hello?", she asked tentatively, "anyone there?" She peeked around a bit more before carefully heading towards the door and sticking her head out. What followed was Ava shrieking as I tried my best not to smile. Either I did a better job that I think I did, or Ava was too busy falling on her butt to notice, regardless, she took a few deep breaths before peeking outside again. Modesty forgotten, Ava crept forward silently and looked around before deciding to head for my face.
One she reached my face, she paused for a second, clearly unsure of what to do. After waiting for nearly a minute, I decided to make her job more difficult. I slowly took a giant breath through my nose, then blew ask the speed air at Ava. It took all I had not top laugh as Ava tumbled backwards. At this points I guess this was the straw that broke the camel's back, because after sitting there for a few moments, Ava started crying. It was the most heartwrenching thing I've ever seen. I mean, remember what I said about her being like a puppy at that size? Imagine a puppy giving you puppy dog eyes when you scold it, now multiply that by a thousand. That's how it felt to watch Ava. At that moment I resolved, no more until after I had comforted Ava. I also resolved to not let Ava know it's me, no way do I want this sadness to turn into anger!
I silently encouraged Ava to do something, anything that I could use as an excuse to wake up. "Please.." said Ava, almost whispering, "please wake up..." My running dialogue in my head at that moment was something akin to, "louder Ava, louder!" "WAKE UP" Ava shouted loudly, well, err, as loudly as she could... Anyway, it was good enough for me. I blinked a few times, pretending to wake up, "who..? Whoa!" At this point Ava almost collapsed with relief, "Is that you Ava?" I asked "What happened, are you alright?" As I asked her all that, her sobbing increased, her expression one off relief, "Come here," I said and started to reach for her until she jerked away and scrambled backward a bit. "I'm not going to hurt you Ava, Ok?" I asked, "O.. o.. ok..." She whimpered. Moving as slowly as I could, I cupped her in my hands and brought her to my chest, feeling her warm body and her movements in my hand as I rocked my hand slightly, "Everything's going to be alright Ava" I murmured, "just calm down, I've got you, I'll keep you safe..."
After a while of this, the sobbing stopped and I checked on her. She was asleep again! I guess her brain needed some time to process what happened. Not wanting to see Ava like that again, I carefully paced Ava on my chest do as not to wake her, then put my audiobook back on and covered her with my hands.
Not ten minutes had passed when I felt her stirring. "Ava?" I asked her tentatively, "you ok?" This was followed by her body going still for a moment, then a sudden blitz of motion. "Ava, it's me, calm down!!!" I said, "I'm not going to let you get hurt Ava, I won't let you go until you calm down so you can't hurt yourself." She went still then, after a few moments, I heard, "I, I'm ok.." "you sure?" I asked, "yea... I think so" she stuttered in response. "Alright, I'm lifting my hands up now" I said. Ava slowly got up, blinking in the sunlight. For a few moments she just stood there, "Ava?" I asked, "I'm fine" she said. "Alright" I said, "I'm going to lay my hands down so you can climb onto then, Ok?" "Why?" was her immediate response. "Because your on my chest and it's kind of hard to talk when I can't see you.." "Oh.. That's a good reason I guess.." She replied. I carefully put my hands on my chest and waited until she had climbed on to cover her with my other hand and lift her up slowly as I sat up.
When I got her to eye level we just looked at rather for a few moments, I mean, it was one thing to have her in my hands asleep, but quite another to have her in my hands, conscious and awake. For her part, Ava seemed to look at me a few seconds before self consciously looking down at herself. Based off of the yelp and her scramble to cover herself, I'd say this was when Ava noticed she was naked. I let Ava be uncomfortable for a bit longer before changing the subject, "Sooo... Do you know how you shrunk?" I asked, "I have no clue" Ava replied, looking glad to actually talk, "the last thing I remember was falling asleep next to you, then I woke up in the sand castle." This was the point at which I had one of those eureka moments, "wait," I said, "before you fell asleep you said that you wished that there was a way the sand castle could be bigger and grander, do you think that might have had something to do with it?" "Maybe" Ava said thoughtfully, "but it seems like last time was I said was misinterpreted, if I try it, I should be careful that what I say can only be thought of one way." I love Ava, she's by far the smartest person I know, in this case though she's to smart for her own good, she keeps giving me more ideas!
"Alright, let's brainstorm!" I yelled. "Actually, could you put me down for a second?" Ava said, her face turning red. "Why?" I asked, hey any chance to see her squirm is one I'll take, she's just to adorable! "I... Umm.. I have to go to the bathroom..." She mumbled, looking down at my hand. Stifling laughter, I lowered my hand down to the ground, "you can go in the sand castle, do you want me to help you dig a hole?" I asked, you should have seen her squirm! "No.. I'll.. Umm... Be fine..." She then proceeded to attempt to get of my hand whilst covering herself, she had crawled most of the way of before realizing I had a great view of her butt, and her attempt at restarting to the doorway was a mess! Anyway, it face me the time that I needed to set up my next plan. "I wish that I can make wishes without speaking any words, but only when I'm intentionally trying to make a wish." I murmured as quietly as I could. I decided to test it out real quick, I mentally wished that Ava would ask for my help. "Umm can I get a little help..." Came Ava voice from the entrance. Laughing to myself, I peeked inside and saw the problem. It looks like when Ava was digging her hole, she destabilized part of the wall and caused a small collapse. "You have to be more careful," I say to Ava as I dig her out easily. To add insult to injury I take her out of the sand castle and brush the sand off of her, taking no notice when she tries to block my hands to protect her modesty. Satisfied she's sand free, I place her down. "Ok..." She says as she started at the ground, "I just don't want you getting hurt." I say truthfully. "Here" I say as I drill a hole with my fingertip. "I'll leave you alone now".
After Ava finished her business and came out, I picked her up again and asked, "alright, so what are you going to try to wish for?" "I was thinking the best course of action might to be to figure out the rules to the wishing." She responded. It always amazes me how she thinks of these things, in fact I should probably do that myself. "How are you going to phrase it?" I asked deciding to hear what Ava has to say before doing it myself. "I was going to say, without the necessary words of course, 'that I knew all rules limitations and other aspects which might have some impact off wishing'" thinking that sounded pretty good I immediately wished it and got an answer of no limitations whatsoever.
"Sounds good to me" I said, "try it!"
Ava repeated the words she told me and I made a wish that's shed get the response, "you make a wish, it comes true in some way". "Well that was rather unhelpful," she replied, "no limitations though." Looking thoughtful, she said, "I'm going to try to return to normal now, could you put me down?" I lowered her to the ground and watched her do the awkward shuffle again tho get off. Then she made her wish, "I wish I would change back into my normal self over the next minute." Rather than try too find a loophole, I just decided to wish that she'd become a tiger person. I don't know what caused me to wish that, but I had it all envisioned in my head; a digitgrade tiger with a mostly human face, but furry and with a snout, bipedal, really almost human except for the fur.
Ava closed her eyes and waited but I watched closely. I could see as fur began too poke out of her skin. "Umm.. Ava.." I said in order to not look suspicious. She looked at me, then at herself and yipped. Not yelp, but yip. We watched as her change competed. She looked miffed, to put it mildly. "Grrr.. I wish I knew how this happened!" She screamed, then clapped her hand over her mouth. On my part, I just wished that she would be given a loophole that ended up in this result. "Oh..." She sighed grumpily. "What?" I asked motioning for her to get back on my hand. "This is me as I normally am, in a different universe..." As Ava started to do the awkward scramble to get back onto my hand, I took pity, "Ava, you don't have to work so hard to cover yourself now, your fur covers you." Looking down at herself, then hesitantly back at me, she replied "my fur..?" "Yea, I can't see anything now and as I see the options, either you keep trying to cover yourself until we get you clothes, which really just makes it look worse, you could try to wish for clothes, which I think would probably not be the best idea after what we've seen so far, or you could just stop covering yourself and let your fur do it for you!" "Ok.." She said, "I guess that makes sense, could you just look away for a moment.. Please..." I turn around only to hear her say, "I wish I had a mirror" this time, I just give her a mirror, a nice big full body one which will disappear once she's done with it, and put it in the sand castle again. "You done yet?" I ask, closing my eyes to see what she's doing. "You can turn around, don't look in the castle though." She says as she turns around a couple of times in front of the mirror. I open my eyes as she heads towards the door, only to see only her head peek out. "Come on, get it over with" I say "it's ask covered and regardless, I probably saw it all earlier when you didn't realize you were naked yet." She turns bright red, but steps out anyway. "See, that want so bad" I say add I offer my hand. She jumps on it with little hesitation now, she definitely looks embarrassed, but not scared. That's much better than earlier. My thoughts are interrupted by Ava's common sense, "We should probably leave the beach soon, it's starting to get dark and it'll get cold soon." I decide to push it and give Ava a kiss, she looks a little surprised, but not scared, "That's a good idea, let's go to...."