previous part here: https://jordynsaelor.com/2026/09/17/have-a-gander/
all parts here: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
I’d never lived among
people shorter than me.
These brown people
weren’t even that much shorter,
just
half a head or so
but standing with my eyes
above the people
made me feel less safe
than when everyone stood higher than me.
Less safe,
with more power,
I know it doesn’t make sense
but
my mother
loomed
so I shrunk
to avoid her;
the demons
towered
so I slipped out of their school like a rat,
the caricaurs
and trees
carried me
instead of killing me
since they couldn’t mistake me for an
honest threat–
I’d never been
a danger
by my size
or the strength
of my body,
I’d escaped
through the cracks
all of my life,
but now I didn’t know what to do
with this control,
the way
people looked up
slightly afraid of me,
intimidated
of what I might do–
not that I actually would
or even could
do much of anything.
Why,
Dracans and demons could fly,
while I could barely walk.
My mother and demons knew magic
when I did not.
Who was I?
Just a weak little adventurer
scrapping by
according to a god’s pleasure,
scrapping by
inside years learning runes
I hadn’t even wanted to learn in the first place–
yet here
I was
an oddity,
not a
little oddity.
I was the stranger looming,
not
the tiny helpless thing.
I was
above
for the first time
in my life.
Except maybe with Mrflfip.
So that counted
for like
five minutes,
but Mrflfip
also worked for a deity
so that was different.
What
did I do
with a whole city
slightly afraid of me?
I didn’t ask for this power,
I didn’t want people
to fear me–
***
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