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Thomas wasn’t quite sure how this happened.
They had all been camping. Him and his sides decided to take a little get away, just the five of them to relax and unwind (It had been Patton’s idea). They decided on a secluded part of the forest and set up camp there. It really was the perfect spot. With a river close by, a big enough clearing and even a hill to go hiking.
There was also a cave.
Thomas had found it while out gathering firewood. It was a large and dark cave. So dark that Thomas couldn’t see a few feet past where the cave started. He called the others, showing them what he had found.
Roman had wanted to go and explore, maybe find some beasts to slay. Patton had been all for it as well, until Virgil had mentioned spiders. Virgil himself did not want to go anywhere near the thing and Logan was adamant on it being a bad idea.
“We do not posses the proper equipment to go searching around in a cave.” The logical trait had said. Roman had been bummed, but reluctantly accepted the fact. Already talking about the things they could bring for their next trip.
Thomas, however, couldn’t simply ignore the cave. For some reason, it felt like it was pulling at him to come inside, explore, discover. He ignored it though and followed the others back to camp. Setting up a fire and telling stories, eating marshmallows and just overall having a good time.
When night fell, Thomas was the last one awake.
He had gotten out of his tent and started heading toward the cave, flashlight in hand. When he reached it’s mouth, he hesitated. In the back of his mind he could hear Logan explaining why it was a bad idea and he almost turned around. But then he felt another hard tug and he was stepping inside the cave.
After that, he couldn’t really remember anything. The next thing he remembered was waking up. He was outside the cave, lying on his back. He blinked at the harsh morning sun, confused. His brain was fuzzy and something didn’t seem quite right.
And then he heard a scream.
He shot up and immediately froze when he noticed his surroundings. Those were…trees. Right? They looked like trees, but they were almost the size of him. And…was that the cave? It couldn’t be, it looked too much like a small burrow then a cave.
“Thomas?” A small voice practically squeaked out below him and Thomas looked down. His eyes widened in both shock and disbelief. His sides stood before him, smaller than the size of his hand. They all looked up at him with shock, concern, and even fear. Thomas felt his heart ache at that.
And that was where they were now.
They were trapped in a staring contest. Wide brown eyes, meeting 4 smaller identical ones. For the life of him, Thomas couldn’t figure out who had spoken. They all had their own tone of voice, but when spoken so softly as it had been, it was hard to distinguish. Besides, whoever had spoken certainly didn’t feel like doing it again.
“Guys?” Thomas finally spoke, breaking the silence. He was still hoping this was some sort of weird dream. “What…what’s going on?” He asked. The others blinked and finally took their eyes off him, well everyone except Virgil, who was still staring up at him with wide fear filled eyes behind Roman. Thomas felt another pang go through his heart.
“We…don’t know.” Logan said, cautiously and slow. As if he was still trying to wrap his head around it. Thomas could relate.
“We just found you like this kiddo!” Patton shouted, concern evident in his tone. “Did you do anything?” The emotional trait was looking him up and down, hands fidgeting with worry.
“Yes, what happened last night?” Roman added on and Thomas scratched his head, trying to think back on it. The movement caught the others off guard and he noticed them stiffen before backing a few steps away. Thomas did his best to ignore that.
“I remember getting up last night and going to the cave. I went inside, but after that I can’t remember anything.” Thomas replayed unhelpfully. Logan bit his lip.
“This sounds crazy, but perhaps it was something in the cave that did this to you.” Logan suggested and Virgil grit his teeth.
“I knew that cave was a bad idea! Why don’t you ever listen to me!” Virgil shouted up at his host. Thomas blinked and looked away guiltily.
“I’m sorry, but it was like I couldn’t help it! The cave was like…drawing me in.” Thomas tried to explain, not knowing how to describe the tugging he had felt. Speaking of, he didn’t feel it anymore. Strange…did that have something to do with him being big now?”
“Like…a pull in your chest?” Patton asked and Thomas looked at him in surprise.
“Yeah! How did you know?” He pointed to his chest.
“I felt it to, but it seems like it was less than what you felt.” Roman raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I certainly didn’t feel anything. Did you?” He asked, turning to Logan and Virgil. They both shook their heads.
“The feeling was primarily in your chest, correct?” Logan asked and Thomas nodded. “That might be why Patton felt it. He is your heart after all.”
“Why didn’t the rest of us feel the pull?” Virgil asked and Logan mulled it over.
“It…could be because we aren’t human.” The others blinked and looked at each other. It wasn’t often that they brought up the fact they weren’t human. It didn’t affect them much, but it was still sort of a weird topic to talk about.
“That could be it. Even though I felt the tug, I didn’t feel the need to go anywhere.” Patton spoke up. Logan hummed.
“So, whatever this is.” He looked at Thomas. “It seems to only affect humans.” Thomas frowned and furrowed his eyebrows.
“That’s…okay, but how is this even possible?” He said, motioning down to himself. He was a giant in comparison to the rest of them. He could easily reach over and scoop them all up into his hand. His heart beat faster at the thought and he paused.
The thought of grabbing them, holding them in his hand sent a feeling of power flowing through him. But then, another wave of feeling. This one negative, when he thought about how dangerous he was to them now. He could crush them without even knowing, without any effort at all.
He looked down to see the others looking at him with concern, except for Virgil. His eyes were wide and his breathing was fast and Thomas knew why. He was starting to panic, which meant Virgil was starting to panic with the added panic of his own. Thomas tried to control his breathing, to help ease Virgil.
“Maybe we should look in the cave, to see if we can find what did this.” Roman suggested and started walking up to the cave. A sinking feeling settled in Thomas’ gut and without thinking he reached his hand over and practically slammed it in front of the creative side.
“No!” Roman flailed away, eyes wide with fear and hand going to the hilt of his sword. The others flinched back as well, and Thomas winced at what he had just done.
“I’m sorry, but something is telling me you really don’t want to go in that cave.” Thomas explained, he hesitated slightly before lifting his hand away, settling it on his lap so it was away from the others. Roman blinked and tried to regain his posture, but he still looked frazzled.
“R-right.” He stuttered and walked back over to the others.
“So what do we do?” Patton asked after a few minutes of tense silence.
“Thomas can’t go home like this, and we can’t leave without having Thomas with us, so essentially we are stuck here.” Logan said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Virgil stepped more out in the open.
“But we only brought enough food for 3 days. And that was when hewas normal sized!” He pointed up at Thomas. “We can’t afford to be stuck here!”
Suddenly a loud rumbling noise echoed around them, sounding almost like a deep growl. The others gave each other wide looks before looking at Thomas. They seemed to realize what the noise was when Thomas placed a hand on his stomach. At the mention of food, his stomach had answered in turn.
“Yeah, we might want to do something about that, cause I am really hungry right now.” Thomas admitted. The look the others gave him made him regret the noise, even if he had no control over it. They were looking at him like…like he was gonna…
“Guys?” That seemed to pull them back, away from those types of thoughts, at least for now. Good thing too cause Thomas did not want to think about it either. The fact that they would even think that was…anyway.
“Right, well.” Logan said after clearing his throat, gaining everyone’s attention. “I suppose the only thing we can do for now is hope this is only temporary. I say we wait a solid 24 hours before furthering discussion on what to do.” Logan looked around for agreement, getting nods from all the others, except Virgil.
“Virgil? Did you have an objection?” Logan asked and Virgil grit his teeth and he tried hard to avoid looking at Thomas.
“Yeah, what if it’s one of those things that becomes permanent in 24 hours. As much as I hate to admit it, that cave holds the answers. We can’t just put this off and hope.” Virgil was using his ‘big bad anxiety’ voice in order to get through to them all. Though most especially Thomas. He hadn’t forgotten how his host had stopped Roman earlier.
“Emo Nightmare has a point. We don’t know the basis of, well, whatever this is. A curse, by the looks of it.” Roman added, looking Thomas up and down. He was the most familiar with magic and curses, seeing a few himself whenever he was in his ‘room’ in Thomas’ mind. Even though he could admit those were fake and this was very, very real.
“Well then, maybe we should take a look in the cave.” Patton suggested. He was a little scared to go inside, still thinking about all the spiders that could be crawling within. But he would do anything for Thomas. They all would.
Thomas tensed when talk of going into the cave started. He didn’t know why, but the thought made him sick. And in some twisted way, almost protective. Not of his sides, he realized, but of the cave itself. He tried to fight back against the feeling, telling himself that maybe them going into the cave was their best solution. But the feeling only seemed to grow.
“I…suppose we shouldn’t take any risks of this being permanent.” Logan said, hand on his chin in deep thought. “If no one else objects then exploring the cave might be our best option for helping Thomas.” He looked around at his fellow sides, this time none of them speaking out against the idea.
“Then, it is settled.” Logan turned to look up at Thomas and the now giant willed himself to relax. Still battling with the strange feelings.
“Thomas, will you allow us entrance into the cave?” Thomas swallowed as he forced himself to nod.
“Yeah, of course.” He shifted so he was out of the way, even though everything in him was screaming not to let them in. He did his best to hold himself back as he watched his sides turn to each other.
“Alright everyone! Let us do this!” Roman shouted, hiding his fear behind a mask of cool confidence. The others were more reluctant, but willing to do anything to help their host get back to normal. For both Thomas’ sake and their own.
As they started off and walked closer to the cave’s entrance, the feeling was replaced with fire. The pull in his chest had returned at full force, but this time it wasn’t telling him to go into the cave. Thomas tried to hold back, let his sides enter the cave, but the pull was clouding his judgement. Just like the night before. He sucked in a sharp breath and before he realized what he was doing, he saw his hands reach out in front of him.
His sides didn’t notice in time and Thomas had his hands around them before they could react. He scooped them all up, his fingers twitching to curl around them, but he kept them open. Instead, allowing them to sit in his cupped hands as he brought them close to his chest and away from the cave.
“What the hell!?” Came Virgil’s panicked cry. They were all squirming for a way out until they actually looked at Thomas and froze.
“K-Kiddo? What–?” Patton stuttered, not knowing how to form his thoughts in that moment. Thomas felt a mixture of guilt and…was that, what, pride? Maybe? Accomplishment? Something along those lines. Whatever it was it definitely shouldn’t have been there. But it was and it just confused Thomas even more.
“I’m-I’m sorry, I just, the pull came back. I can’t, couldn’t let you go into the cave, I–”
“Your eyes…” Logan interrupted him and Thomas stopped apologizing to send him a confused yet concerned look.
“What?” An audible gulp came from someone on the right, either Roman or Virgil, he couldn’t tell. But Roman was the one to speak up.
“They’re glowing.” Thomas’ eyes widened.
“Oh.”