Sizeran Dilemma chapter 4

The Sizeran Dilemma chapter 4

Alicila shivered as she creaked the door to her apartment open. “Ok. I will just dash down to this little meeting place and be back before Cassandra knows what happened. She won’t have to know that I possibly left the place at the mercy of the people who have been trashing the block for the past week.”

She blew her bangs to the side. “Besides, what would she even do to me? I can grow over twice her size. I don’t have anything to worry about.” Alicila grew a few inches from stress. “Oh, who am I kidding? I could never hurt Cassandra. She is like family.”

Alicila ran her hands through her hair as she stepped out into the hallway. “I need to calm down and just focus.” She forced herself back to her original height. “If I can’t keep calm, who knows what size issues I will have tonight.” She took a deep breath. “I am going to find out what is going on. What Cassandra and everyone else seems to be dancing around lately.”

She rubbed her forehead as she walked toward the stairwell. “Like seriously, why are people acting so strangely all of a sudden. It is like some strange joke that no one wants to let me in on.” Alicila rolled her eyes as she descended the dark stairwell. “Like, why is it so hard for Cassandra to tell me why people would attack her place of business or the damn cops in this town might not want to help?

Do they look at me like I am dumb?”

She put her hands into her pockets.

“Sure, I tend to hide away in my studies for the most part, but I can see when something is wrong. I am not naive. I think.”

She sighed as she walked across the dilapidated lobby floor. “Wow, they really should try and fix this place up. Every year I see more mold on the ceiling. But just thinking about trying to tell that chiseled manager about trying to fix this place up.” She shivered and shrank a few inches as she pushed the door open and walked outside.

“But I don’t know why everyone looks at me and thinks I need some kind of special care with what is going on. I am sick of it. I can handle things.” She forced herself to maintain her normal height. “Well, I will find out just what is going on.” She pulled the note out of her pocket. “I just need to be careful. I am not sure that I trust these weird people.” She sighed. “But I am going to have to travel quite a bit to reach the burrows.” She crushed the note in her hand. “Well, I will hurry there, see what this is about, and hurry back.”

She dashed off into the darkness.

***

Alicila noticed a few fires and put her hands into her pockets. “Umm, I hope this is the right place.” A young man with a scarred bald head stepped out. “Umm, hello?”

“Your meeting note?” He flexed his hand, showing off his muscles.

Alicila winced as she reached into her pocket. “Here.” He snatched the note from her hand.  Creep.

“Ahh, welcome.” He raised an eyebrow, his dull brown eyes staring into her soul. “I don’t recognize you. But a guest of Lulvix is welcome here.”

“Who.”

He waved her on. “Just go. I can’t keep you company all night. I have to check the others that come through here and keep the riff-raff out.” He wiped the snot from his nose. “We can’t have people like that ruining our meeting, right?”

“Umm, right.” She walked down the alley and shivered.  That guy has three broken teeth and eyes that will keep me up at night.

I don’t want to think of what he considers riff-raff.

Alicila turned a corner and walked up on a massive crowd of Humans, Dwarfs, and what she thought were Talrian’s, a subspecies of elves with more human features. “What is going on here?”

A stout-looking Dwarf looked up at her and tugged at his beard. “We are waiting for Lulvix to come on and speak.”

“Who?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Hey, that is funny. Just be quiet and listen. We are here to learn, not make crappy jokes.”

Alicila sighed and slid her hands into her pockets.

I was just trying to figure out what was going on here. Why does everyone have some kind of stick up their ass?

She watched as a tall thin man in a blue suit walked up onto a stage at the other end of the alley. Alicila took a deep breath as he picked up a microphone and started to speak. “Hello, and thank you all for coming. I understand that there are some new people with us tonight. That warms my heart that you have come here in our hour of need.”

He paced from one end of the rotted wooden stage to the other. “My friends, we are in dire straights. Look around us. Do you not see the poor conditions that we have to wallow in?” He pointed at the dilapidated buildings around him. “It has been like this for the last hundred years, has it not? Generation after generation suffering down here, scraping to get by.”

Alicila looked back and forth as angry murmurs rose up from the crowd. “What is this man talking about?” She kept her voice low so no one would hear her. “People have done everything they could to help the people in this part of the city.”

“And what do they do as they sit in their pristine thrones as they watch down on our suffering?”

“They laugh at us, Lulvix!”

“They spit on us. They did that to my kid the other day!”

“They toss us in jail.”

Lulvix held up his hands. “Yes. They do all of this and more. All thanks to the Domra, who looks down on us from her seat of gold and does nothing.

She would rather let us squabble amongst ourselves than take action.”

“Ya, she would let our children starve.”

Luvlix held up his hand. “So what are we going to do?”

A small voice rose out of the crowd. “Well, there is the election in a few months. You could run Lulvix.”

He smiled and adjusted his suit, his dark hair shining in the dim firelight. “While I would be flattered, can you all really wait a few months?” He looked around at their worried faces. “Hasn’t our leader, Patrosa, done enough to you already?”

“Ya.”

“You are right. I am sick of being pushed around by her. I don’t deserve to be stuck in these slums.”

Lulvix smiled. “That is right. We can’t wait months for change. That is why we are going to do something about it now.” He walked down from the stage, the rickey foundation wobbling as he did so. “You see, tomorrow we are going to be staging a little surprise for the people who have been mistreating us. If you want to participate, meet us at Foundation Square at five. Those who come will be greatly rewarded.”

Cheers went up from the crowd, and Alicila gulped.

What in the living hells did I stumble across. Alicila took a deep breath.  Stay calm.

Just head home like you said you would.

Don’t stress out now.  A bead of sweat traveled down her neck, and she did everything she could not to change in size.  Just back away.  “Ouff.”

She turned around and looked up at a mountain of a man. “Hey, where are you going?” He grabbed her by her shoulders. “Lulvix isn’t done speaking yet. So you would walk out on him?”

She laughed. “I need to find a place to use the restroom.”

“With something this important, you should just go where you stand. You can’t miss this.”

“Are you nuts?” She gulped as she saw the look in his eyes. “Ok, yes, you are.” She shivered and shrank a few inches. “I am sorry to have asked.”

His eyes widened, and he dropped her. “What in the living hells? How did you do that?”

Alicila gulped. “Do what?”

He grabbed her again, this time his grip almost breaking her in two. “Lulvix.

We have a situation!”