Weekend at Sofia's: Eyes on the prize

Dylan  became acutely aware of his height deficiency the moment he stepped out of Moon Coffee. The cozy coffee shops confines were stocked with  comfortably close counters and everything had a polite nearness to it.  He had been aware of his height loss while talking with the collie, but  now that he was back on the street the meaning of the term “the world at large,” hit him like a tonne of bricks. The sidewalk extended out like a  train platform and the street was a fast flowing river of asphalt and  zooming cars. Lamp posts craned up like tree trunks and the overcast of  awnings and balconies felt a lot more like distal canopy of a jungle  than casual adverts and urban sprawl. 

Most disconcerting of all was how his new altitude was  affecting his street side perspective. The hare was used to being able  to spot everything at a glance. It was just a look up from his phone to  know who and how many the crowd numbered. Now he felt like he’d have to  stand tip toe just to see over the shortest shoulders in the  meandering crowd. Everything was a flash of fur and torsos. A  multi-color menagerie of business suits and casual attire of a post work  day populace trudging along. The bun bit his lip, having to look up at  the dissimilar sea of faces that couldn’t be bothered to look down, and  felt a quiet panic well in his chest when he couldn’t immediately spot  the collie. 

“Sofia?” he hesitated with a croaky little voice that he  was pretty sure got swallowed up by the sheer mass of the street. Not  wanting to be left behind he stepped into the current of commuters.  Almost immediately the crowd seemed to slow around him – or at least  behind him. Like he’d dropped a great big stone into a river. He looked  up and caught the contemptuous gaze of passersby as they hurried around  him. He wondered what their problem was when he noticed the red locks of  a familiar canine ahead.
Pushing his way through the crowd he hugged at the dog with a gratified “Sofia! – there you ar – ah?” 

An Irish setter with a firey mane of red hair and a rather  worn suit looked down at him with a perplexed orange eyed gaze. A male irish setter. “Mate, wat didcha call me?’ he barked with annoyed  briskness, holding his phone away from his face to glare down at the  rabbit.
“Oh – shit um – sorry I ah..” Dylan stumbled, stepping back  moment as a dual sense of absolute abject shame fought with a dizzying  clawing of vertigo gripping at his senses. Oh no. He huffed. Trying very  much not to shrink right now, infront of the irritated stranger in the  middle of a busy street. Trying and failing. He felt a few inches bleed  off him like the sweat rolling down his back when a bark of familiar  laughter sounded behind him. 

Spinning around he saw Sofia, leaning against a lamp post  with a cigarette as the amorous hound viewed the scene. She waved him  over and he was very happy to scuttle away from the angry hound near  him. The rabbit hugged her tightly. The familiar anchor enough for him  to stabilize his thoughts and slow his shrinking to a stop again. He  watched her cock an eyebrow before fuzzling him between the ears. 

“Where did you go! I thought you’d be right here,” 

“I was right here. You did a little run around and then gave that gent a squeeze. I was wondering what you were up to,”
Sofia pressed on his noggin a moment and smirked. “Not up to very much from the feel of it,” 

“I got.. a  little worried. I couldn’t see you.” He pouted, feeling a bit stupid for getting so worked up.
“Goodness  I try to sneak a smoke and you have a little panic attack? You’re all  fuzzy frazzled already. Mm. well maybe we shouldn’t dawdle too much  then,” she surmised, putting her cigarette out against the side of the  lamp post and flicking it into a nearby ash-bin. 

Not exactly keen to lose sight of his lifeline again,  Dylan followed after the collie as she plunged them both into the busy  traffic again. Hurrying after her, he became acutely aware of the  developing difference in their stride. The number of pip-pap-plaps of  his own steps rushing to keep pace with her lazy stride varied between  two, three and far too often, four. It was annoyingly strenuous and he  became increasingly aware of the stares he was receiving for it. His  hurried pace just wasn’t moving fast enough for most people, who seemed  to make it a point to brush past him to go that extra step faster.
The  combination of side glances and curious looks at a lapine at his height  started to gather to a worrying sum as Dylan tried to keep up with the  collie. He figured horses and long legged wolves rushing by him to  shorter folks – but they watched him with curious bemusement. Then it  was the other rabbits that seemed amused at his head and a half  shortness under the species par. Silently cursing himself for deciding  to wear such a high visibility pink shirt on today of all days, he tried  not to meet the gaze of a tall mouse girl, who couldn’t seem to  tear her gaze away from the 7th blunder of the world in front of her.  The anxiety of being a street side attraction started to pull at his  height again – and his loss of precious inches in the middle of a public  street probably didn’t make him any less of a spectacle. 

In an effort to distract himself he tried to focus on the  collie, which revealed the one mild boon his depleted status; there was a  lot of collie to focus on. The canine was pleasantly curvaceous; with  her trim attire hugging well to those assets. Her stride didn’t do much  to hide those eye catching features either. Satchel swaying pace with a  purposeful strut that devoured the sidewalk to a pace he had to hustle  to match, the leather bagged bopped against her bountiful bottom. Plush  cheeks cupped by designer fabric and a pendulum tail that always seemed  to swish at just the right angle to highlight those assets. Dylan cut a  cheeky smile, and imagined the height loss wasn’t so bad if he had  vistas like this to look forward to. 

At least until the doggy abruptly stopped and his full  throttle acceleration carried him forward. With an ‘eep’ of surprise he  found himself rushing toward the doggy’s bum. Thankfully her cushions  cushioned his impact – bringing the stumblebun to a halt as he got a  face-full of puppy backside. Maybe not so thankfully. Sofia felt warm  against him – and a flush of embarrassment burned at his cheeks as he  stumbled back. He fumbled for an apology which died on his lips as he  gawked up… and UP at her. The skyward hound cast a smirking glance over a  shoulder. He felt like he was kneeling down – but here he stood on his  own two feet. Had he really shrunk that much while following her?

“Goodness Dylan,” she admonished him with a cheeky sway,  resting her hand on her hip as she looked back at him. “You’ll get  plenty of that when we get home. So impatient.” She teased, somehow  making him feel even smaller than he already was. Grinning no less  smugly, the dog made a show of bending over to press a summons button  for the side walk, behind sure to let her long tail brush right against  his face in the process. He flustered a moment – not wanting to make a  scene right there on the side walk as the puppy posterior swallowed his  vision. 

Dylan bit his lip and whimpered, trying not to lose more inches because of a distracting of devious doggy’s derriere.