Chapter Text
No matter what she tried, Lexi just couldn’t get her snake to eat. She sighed, making a face as she left the thawed mouse corpse in the terrarium in hopes that it would get hungry when she wasn’t looking. A watched snake never feeds, after all. She smirked slightly at the thought, knowing that while amusing, it was certainly not true. Noodle didn’t have a problem with audiences before; what Noodle had always had a problem with was her, let’s face it, subpar tong puppetry skills. Feeding had always been an ordeal, even since it was a baby. “A strong personality” was how it had been pitched by the previous owner, but to be less diplomatic, Noodle was a total princess. Lexi could swear she could feel disappointment gazing at her from behind those inky black eyes, disdain in every tongue flick as Noodle ignored whatever food was offered to it in the tongs, electing instead to stare directly at her and silently judge her terrible job making the mouse look alive.
Lexi sighed again and made her way over to the sink in the bathroom, stripping off her sterile blue nitrile gloves and disposing of them carefully before washing her hands extra thoroughly. Even though she had been careful not to touch the mouse corpse directly, she still felt dirty. The death that coated it, matting its fur thickly like oil, soaking and saturating the corpse so heavily that it oozed out, it had crawled up the tongs and through her gloves and it was burrowing its way into her skin. She had to scrub harder, to get it all out. Lexi loved Noodle dearly and would do anything to keep it happy and healthy, but this was one aspect of snake ownership she could do without. She had never been the most comfortable with death, even as far back as her days of crying in kindergarten when the other boys in her class would crush snails underfoot on purpose. It had become obvious to her, then, that she did not fit in with them. Even those boys who weren’t cruel enough to do it themselves merely stood by and watched as the meaner boys played their awful games. She was the odd one out, sobbing and screaming at them to stop and leave the poor little ones alone. That was when the bullying had really kicked into full gear. It didn’t improve when she grew up to be the type of girl whose preferred pets lived in terrariums.
Lexi started absentmindedly chewing at her lip, toweling off her hands and pondering the meaning of life and death. It felt rather silly, for such a small and insignificant girl to ponder such an enormous question. Was there even an answer? If there was, and she discovered it, then what? What even was there to do with such an enormous responsibility, such a heavy burden of knowledge? The world was such a big thing, time such a swiftly flowing river, never stopping for just one little girl. She was surer than ever that spacetime was not a fabric, but a fluid. No fabric could ever flow between her dainty fingers this smoothly, slip away so easily. Lexi felt a stinging as she tore off a little more skin than she intended with her teeth, faint brushes of copper dancing on the tip of her tongue as she gently ran it across her newly raw lip. She tried to push the topic out of her mind completely, but she knew it was no use. Noodle still needed to be fed, she knew without checking the terrarium that there was no way it had actually taken the dead mouse behind her back, and if it wouldn’t accept something already dead then something new would have to die. No matter the meaning of the ordeal, it was an observable fact that in order for her predator to eat, prey must be eaten. Trading the extension of one life for the ending of another was as natural as the sun rising. Lexi swallowed hard as she grabbed her keys from beside the door and headed for her car, feeling no better about her role in this artificial nature she was creating for her snake.
##
Lexi sat in the parking lot of the shopping complex, her hands on her steering wheel as she took a final moment to collect herself before heading inside. The world was so big, so busy, everything moved so quickly and loudly, and none of it would ever stop for a girl so small and insignificant as her. She gripped the wheel tightly, feeling the textured surface bite gently into the soft flesh of her palm, and closed her eyes. She breathed deep as she tried to shut out as many senses as she could, focusing on pushing her proprioception outwards and through the massive frame of steel surrounding her. For a moment everything else was blocked out, and she felt only herself, steel and all. And she was large, and she was powerful, and she was significant. She slowly released the breath that had started to burn at the edges of her lungs, opened her eyes, stepped out of the car, and she was herself again. Just her this time, naked like a hermit crab stripped of its metal shell. She took another deep breath, reminding herself that she was friendly with the owner of the pet shop and everything was going to be fine, and made her way into the shop.
A bell tinkled as she entered the door, a charming touch that she appreciated in an age where so many shops opted instead for obnoxious electronic chimes. Instantly she was hit in the face by a wave of warm air that smelled of sawdust and what she could only describe as “animal.” It was a rather pleasant scent, something Lexi attributed to the level of care each of the critters received, and one of the major reasons she had started going to this place to begin with. The bigger pet stores near her all stank of neglect, the poor animals’ stress thick in the air.
“Be with you in a moment!” A cheery voice called out from somewhere out of sight, obscured by one of the many shelves of various pet supplies arranged somewhat haphazardly all over the footprint of the small shop. Heavy, booted footfalls quickly followed the voice, weaving their way through the aisles. A short, thickset woman with tattoos crawling across her upper arms appeared, dressed casually in cargo pants and a gray tank top that clung to her in a way that brought a small blush to Lexi’s features. Gorgeous green eyes sparkled in recognition, the corners creasing as a warm smile broke out across the woman’s face. Lexi couldn’t help but return a small smile of her own, swept up in the genuine kindness emanating from the older woman. “Lexi! How are you sugar? How’s Noodle?” This was another major reason she elected to go to this smaller pet store: the warm, welcoming, personal feeling that could never hope to be matched by the corporate-enforced facade of cheer that service workers were required to wear during work hours. That, and she couldn’t pretend she didn’t have a little crush. Just a little one. Definitely.
“Hey there Jo! I’m doing alright, and Noodle is a disdainful princess as always.” She shrugged and grinned, spreading her hands in a what can you do gesture. “That’s actually why I’m here today. It just refuses to eat.”
“Well that’s a shame! She finally get sick of my secret feeding technique?” She winked conspiratorially then chuckled a bit, running a hand through her short, fluffy hair, streaks of gray intermingling with the natural jet-black color that still dominated her head. Lexi giggled, but felt a small pang of jealousy streak through her, landing in that familiar heavy place in her guts. She wished she could pull off a boyish haircut like that, but she knew well enough from experience that she needed to display every possible signifier of femininity if she wanted a chance at being gendered correctly. She swallowed the feeling and reinforced her smile; Jo wasn’t here to listen to her issues, but if she noticed Lexi looking sad she would most certainly ask if she needed to talk about anything. Lexi didn’t want to put that burden on her.
“Yeah, as much as I don’t want to, I think I might have to try live-feeding it. I don’t want it to get hurt but, well...” She shrugged again. “It won’t eat dead prey, and it needs to eat something. I’m worried about it.”
“Oh Lexi, you and your non-binary snake.” Jo winked again and reached up to tousle Lexi’s already messy hair, making her immediately weak in the knees as she playfully fended off the attempts. Lexi tried to suppress the whimper that leapt into her mouth unbidden, and hopefully succeeded. Jo had to know what they were doing, right? This had to be on purpose, there’s no way they didn’t notice how Lexi reacted every time, and this went a bit beyond the bounds of customer service in her view. She felt her face burn much hotter than before, and she knew there was no way it wasn’t painfully obvious.
“What!?” She protested jokingly. “It’s never been exposed to the horrors of gender before, that little bitty brain is so blissfully unaware of it all! I can’t take that from it!” She noticed Jo as their eyes wandered from her weak knees up to her burning face, noticing her right back. A sharp glint had entered their eyes, joining the friendly twinkle from before that had never quite faded. Lexi was sure now that Jo knew precisely what they were doing, and that they were enjoying it.
“Mmm, I see...” Jo was downright purring at this point, clearly drinking in all of her embarrassment and savoring every bit. “And why it/its for your little non-binary Noodle?” They withdrew a bit from Lexi’s personal space, allowing her a moment to catch her breath and making her realize just how close they had been before.
“It’s like they/them for girls,” Lexi giggled back nervously, her voice hardly above a whisper as she barely managed to get her well-used joke out. She shifted her weight between her feet, nervously trying to figure out what to do with her hands, feeling painfully aware that she looked like a high schooler with a crush. She burned again at the mental image, feeling small and insignificant in a whole new and vastly more pleasant way.
“Right, of course.” Jo’s face was a stone mask of seriousness and reverence as they nodded sagely. “Thank you for keeping me updated on the latest innovations in pronoun technology, I would be lost among the newer generations without your wisdom.” The mask cracked as they reached up to tousle Lexi’s hair again, this time successfully dodging around her hands and mussing up her already messy hair.
“Heyyy, not fair!” Lexi whined without a drop of sincerity. Another glint of something flashed across Jo’s eyes at that. “Sh-shouldn’t you be trying to sell me something? This shop’s gonna go out of business if this is how you’re treating all your customers!” She tittered in anxious giddiness. Jo pounced on the opening Lexi had given her.
“Who says this is how I treat all my customers?” They purred, winking again. Lexi could swear she felt steam coming out of her ears, or maybe she had gotten so flustered and overheated that her brain had finally melted and was leaking out. “Oh but you’re right, you’re not here just to visit little old me.” She let out an exaggerated sigh as she turned around, gesturing for Lexi to follow. “Come with me, I have the perfect thing for Noodle.” Lexi followed a bit behind Jo, trying to breathe and calm her racing heart a bit. She would process whatever had just happened later, when her head wasn’t spinning anymore. Jo started talking again as they made their way to the small mammals section of the store. “So, obviously the primary risk with live feeding is injury to your little friend, those mice you usually feed it have vicious little claws and awfully sharp teeth.” They pulled an unfamiliar enclosure off the shelf, it being little more than a semi-opaque plastic bin with air holes drilled into the top and a bedding layer of shredded newspaper. A label made up of a strip of masking tape and a messy scrawl in sharpie declared this box contained “Micros.” Micro-whats? Lexi wondered to herself. That’s a strangely vague name. Some smaller species of mouse maybe? Jo had paused her monologue as she undid the fastenings on the lid of the box, taking it off to reveal... what looked like little people?
“What the fuck?” Lexi blinked in shock and utter confusion. She could feel the muscles in her face screw themselves up, and she cocked her head like a confused dog. She was utterly unprepared for this to be what “micro” referred to, not that she was sure there was much that could’ve prepared her for that in any case. There were maybe two dozen of them in the bin, ranging in size between 1.5 to 3 inches each. Their body types were seemingly about as varied as real people’s, though all of them were on the lithe side and quite feminine to boot. Their hair seemed a bit matted and dirty, and their skin was slightly grimy, but other than that they looked in good enough health. Lexi blinked hard again, like it would clear the little tiny humanoids from her vision and they would go back to being mice or something. After a few blinks, she had to admit to herself that the little critters weren’t going anywhere. “What the fuck,” she breathed again, mostly to herself this time. She caught a glimpse of Jo in the corner of her eye, grinning wide and clearly enjoying Lexi’s shock at the situation.
“They’re micros! A kind of pest, really. I just found these ones in a nest in my shed recently, thought I’d keep them and try breeding them. Like I was telling you before, they’re great for live-feeding snakes because they don’t have the claws or sharp teeth of mice. Even if they somehow manage to scratch Noodle right on the cornea, it’ll be such a superficial wound that it should heal just fine on its own. And that’s assuming that they leave one at all, which is unlikely to begin with. Ideal for all sorts of small predators, really! I bet Noodle would love one.” As they talked, they plucked one out of the bin and held it tight while they put together a little cardboard carrying box with air holes cut in it. It screamed and squirmed as it was moved, thrashing and trying to sink its tiny teeth into the enormous hand that was squeezing it tight to prevent escape, rendering it powerless. “Sorry for not warning you, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for a reaction like this.” They giggled a bit. “They don’t have these where you come from if I’m not mistaken, so I was praying you somehow hadn’t heard of them yet.” Lexi chuckled nervously as she continued staring in disbelief at the tiny figures in the milky plastic bin.
“Well, um, I suppose you were right about that one. I can’t believe nobody ever told me about these things!” Lexi felt somewhat strange and uncomfortable watching the tiny girl Jo was... non-binaryhandling? being casually placed into the cardboard box like a trinket being packaged, and was silently grateful it was opaque when the top closed. It seemed to calm in the darkness, the shrieks fading away and being replaced with a noise that sounded strangely like sniffling. Maybe it was getting to know the smell of its new enclosure? Lexi forcefully accepted that thought and resolutely refused to think on the matter further. She started chewing on her lip again, flinching when her teeth found purchase on the raw spot she had made earlier. “Any other surprises I should know about?” She asked. Jo made a bit of a face at that one, and awkwardly cleared their throat before responding.
“Well... yes, actually. It’s a bit unpleasant, but... you may want to put it in the cage and leave, when it’s time for feeding. I know that feeding is an aspect of snake ownership you’re not quite fond of, and, well, with a live micro, it might be... extra distressing.” They were stumbling over their words a bit, trailing off as they searched for the right way to phrase things.
“Distressing?” Lexi asked, raising an eyebrow and cocking her head again.
“Well, they don’t just look like people, they sorta... sound like them, too.” They breathlessly rushed into their next sentence before Lexi could respond. “It’s kinda like a parrot, you know? They live in close proximity to people, so they learn to mimic us. They have no idea what they’re saying, it’s just an evolved defense mechanism, like their appearance.”
“I... I see.” Lexi gulped, trying to push the thought of that out of her mind. She once again closed off her mind before she could reconsider. Noodle needed to eat, and this was the safest way to get that done. Besides, if she thought about it, the mouse would be screaming and crying for her not to feed it to a snake too. It just didn’t have the privilege of being able to make pleas in a language Lexi understood. That thought honestly only made her feel worse. She changed the subject, hoping to take her mind off of this incredibly overwhelming experience and wrench it back to some semblance of normalcy. “So uh...how much for it?”
Jo waved her hand dismissively. “Please, for Noodle? This one is on the house. You know how much I love that feisty little princess, I only wish I could feed it to her myself!” She flashed a brilliant smile, those emerald eyes twinkling with mirth and creasing at the corners again, and Lexi suddenly found it a little easier to take her mind off everything. She felt a little wave of giddiness crest in her, rising higher and higher until she felt herself about to do something very stupid.
“Well uh, maybe you could come by and visit it sometime! I’m sure it would love to see you, hell maybe with your secret skills you could even make it eat one- uh, a thawed mouse!” Her breath caught in her throat as she barely managed to finish getting the proposition out, her erstwhile giddiness wave crashing against the cliffs of her anxiety, splashing and dissipating into foam in her chest. Stupid. Why did I say that? I have to save this somehow. “O-or I could bring it here, maybe you could give me another demonstration? What- whatever works for you!” The burning had returned to her cheeks with a fury, and Lexi began to worry that if she didn’t get out of here soon she may burst every blood vessel in her face.
“Oh my, so very forward of you!” The glint had seemingly also returned to Jo’s eyes with a vengeance, and Lexi could tell they were enjoying tormenting her very much. The thought made her shiver, and she noticed Jo had begun slowly but surely inching towards her, practically pinning her to the wall with their mere presence. “You know, most women have to take me out on a couple dates before they can get me back to their place, but for a pretty little thing like you?” Their fingers carefully placed an errant lock of Lexi’s hair back in place, fiery need erupting across her scalp from every spot that the thick and calloused yet perfectly gentle fingers brushed against. “I suppose I could make an exception this one time...”
Lexi definitely failed to contain her whimper this time, and Jo laughed again, but this was different than her warm chuckles or amused giggles from earlier. This laugh was a low, sultry thing that flowed like cool honey down her spine, making her shiver. Lexi opened her mouth to protest, to apologize, to respond in any way, but nothing came out. She merely stood there stock still, gaping at Jo like some fish-deer chimera staring at oncoming headlights.
“Oh, I’m so very cruel to you, aren’t I?” Jo breathed into the extremely narrow space between them. “It’s not entirely my fault, you know. You really do make this far too easy for me.” Then all at once, she leaned back, restoring the space between them and letting Lexi exhale the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding all along. They gave her a wry smile as they looked her up and down again, drinking in the fruits of their relentless teasing. “Unfortunately for both of us, I have quite a busy day ahead of me today. What about next week? Micros are pretty small, go figure, so I bet Noodle will have worked her appetite back up by then!” Lexi tried to pick her jaw up off the floor and start thinking again so she could come up with any kind of response.
“Yes” she whispered. She coughed in an attempt at cover, acting like her voice had gotten caught in her throat rather than escaping in a moment of desperation. “Yes, that would work for me! Um, I look forward to it, bye!” Lexi grabbed the carrying box off the counter in a panic and quickly made her way to the door.
“Forgetting something, sugar?” Jo’s lilting voice called out after her. Lexi paused for a moment, tapping herself down and checking for phone, wallet, keys. They were all there. She turned around in confusion, wondering what she could possibly be forgetting, and was startled by the sight of Jo standing right beside her holding a receipt. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she had somehow not heard the heavy boots hitting the tile floor behind her this time.
“I didn’t pay..?” Lexi’s question died in her throat as she noticed the phone number scrawled on the blank receipt paper. “Oh, um. Right, that’s probably a good idea, I’ll text you with details later okay bye!” The bell above the door tinkled loudly as she pulled it open more forcefully than intended, walking so quickly back out to her car she may as well have started running. She heard the teasing voice of Jo call out a farewell of their own behind her as she pulled out her keys and fumbled with them, dropping them almost instantly. Not the only thing I fumbled just now, she thought bitterly. She had certainly not handled that situation with anything approaching grace or poise, but at the same time, what the hell had just happened? Jo had always been friendly, maybe even a little friendlier than usual lately, but that? What had gotten into them? She picked up her keys with shaking fingers and tried to force breath into her lungs. She stayed bent over for a split second longer than she needed to, letting gravity assist her heart in pulling blood to her brain. Passing out in the parking lot would only make this situation more awkward and overwhelming.
Lexi stepped into her car and slammed the door behind her, dropping the box in the seat next to her and putting the seat belt over it. She placed her hands firmly on the wheel again, closing her eyes and concentrating. She needed to be large, powerful. The tornado of thoughts in her brain slowed gradually as she breathed deep, and her heart finally began to properly slow. Her silent reverie was interrupted by a muffled sound coming from the cardboard box. She felt morbidly curious, deciding against her better judgment to investigate it. The folded top of the box came undone easily, and she opened it up a bit to peer inside. She was intellectually prepared for what would be inside, but nothing could prepare her for the emotional gut punch of those tiny eyes filled with scared tears peering back up at her through matted bangs that were a bit too long. She saw the little girl not a little girl, it’s not a person, it’s a pest mouth something at her, and she heard the faintest hint of a whisper, but whatever it had said was too quiet and distant for her to hear. Lexi quickly shut the carrying case again, feeling that guilty silent gratitude that she wasn’t able to understand what it had said. It didn’t even know what the words meant anyway.
##
Lexi sat on the edge of her bed facing her snake enclosure, the micro’s box on the bed next to her and her head buried in her hands. She hated live feeding. It was horrible. She knew it was a part of nature, but still... this was not nature. This was an artificial world created by her, for her benefit. This micro, this little life, it was not going to end because of random happenstance, a random tragedy in a world of chaos where nature abides by no rules but its own. Neither would it be like the religious claimed, a soul being returned to the life beyond this one because of the edict of some divine being of cosmic power. This would be a violent ending of a life, a real living creature meeting its end so she could continue enjoying her pet. It would be by her edict; she was the one who held this tiny creature’s life in her relatively enormous palms.
She wondered if this is what it was like to be a god. Holding this incredible power and ability in the very essence of her very being, the responsibility that came with it. Lexi didn’t know if she could bear it. Her mind wandered back to the stories of the Greek deities she had been so obsessed with as a child. She could remember them only faintly, but from what she could remember they certainly hadn’t been very responsible. They had been selfish, impulsive, quick to anger and always eager to involve themselves in mortal affairs, no matter how many fragile lives they ended. She thought of the Trojan war, an entire region thrown into a conflict of countless casualties over their jealousy. She chuckled humorlessly to herself. Perhaps abdicating the responsibility that came with one’s power was intrinsic to godhood.
Her mind kept drifting as she pulled her head out of her hands, staring at her palms vacantly and trying to imagine that she was seeing them from the micro’s perspective. How enormous and terrifying they must be, forces of nature in and of themselves. Lexi thought of the christian god, the stories of him that she learned growing up in the church. All of the damage and death that had been wrought, the suffering endured to serve his supposed divine will; but what was it that made his will divine? Perhaps her will was divine, too, in the face of such lowly creatures. She knew that she was hardly the first person to ask this question, it was a question so old and famous that it had its own name. But still, the question remained: is the holy loved by gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by the gods? Lexi shook her head and tried again to push the unwanted thoughts out of her mind. She had been doing that far too much today, and all the mental debris had begun piling up.
“It is holy because it is loved by the gods,” she intoned aloud to nobody in particular. She stood abruptly, grabbing the carrying container as she let her momentum swing her out of bed. That was quick enough to jostle the contents of the box, and some muffled squeaks of surprise made their way out through the air holes. She placed it down on the dresser, directly next to the snake’s terrarium, and removed the lid. Noodle was glaring up at her as usual, its tongue flicking the air as it faced pointedly away from the mouse you had left in its cage earlier. “Guess you didn’t want it after all, huh sweetie?” She asked in a slightly frustrated voice. She was really hoping to be able to put this off. Then again, with the suffering she was about to inflict on a tiny, helpless creature, maybe she deserved to hurt in some measure too.
She couldn’t put this off any longer. Lexi opened the micro’s box again, steeling herself as best as she could against what she knew was coming. Those tear-streaked brown eyes were gazing up at her in again, frozen in shock and fear. She reached down into the box to grab the micro, and her heart sank when she noticed that while the micro screwed its eyes shut as tight as it could and flinched away from her grasp, it didn’t really try to evade her enormous hand. It seemed resigned to its fate as she removed it from the box. Lexi felt sick. She looked away, staring instead at Noodle. Its tapered head was like an arrow pointing in curiosity at the wiggling form of the micro half-heartedly thrashing against Lexi’s hand. Its beautiful diamond scales slid over each other hypnotically as the snake shifted its position to get a better look at the micro and flicked its tongue in anticipation. Well, at least it seems hungry now.
“Please. Please don’t do this.” Lexi was startled by the tiny, choked voice coming from her fist. It doesn’t know what it’s saying. It’s parroting words as a defense mechanism. Lexi found herself responding anyway.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered to the struggling figure as she squeezed tighter. “I have to feed my snake something, nothing wants to be eaten but something has to be, I’m so sorry it’s you I’m so sorry but it hastobeyou-” Lexi had started sobbing at some point while the barely connected sentences fell uncontrollably from her lips. She released her grasp on the tiny girl, and watched her fall into the sediment of her terrarium’s cage, collapsing into a heap of limbs on impact.
“NO NO NONONO PLEASE DON’T!” the fragile, helpless girl screamed as she desperately tried to pull herself away from the enormous predator. Noodle’s scales began sliding over each other again as it stealthily pulled its body into a tensed coil, ready to strike at its prey. Time seemed to move in slow motion as the hypnotic pattern on its scales shifted, irregular patches of dark brown scales ringed by lighter, off-white scales on its back sliding across the duller gray that made up the rest of its body.
“PLEASE, I DON’T WANT TO DIE, HELP ME!” The tiny shriek echoed in the plexiglass enclosure, and Lexi felt her stomach turn. She couldn’t do this, she couldn’t just stand by and watch this terrified girl get eaten. She thrust her arm into the enclosure as quickly as she could, barely managing to trap the micro under her hand before Noodle struck. Twin pains shot through her forearm as Noodle’s fangs found no prey, sinking deep into her forearm instead. She hissed through gritted teeth as she formed a fist around the helpless micro, the pain intensifying as her muscle flexed around the needle-like fangs, cutting fresh muscle and widening the wounds.She slowly and carefully lifted the her fist from the terrarium and opened her hand, inspecting the terrified micro frozen on her palm.
“Are you okay little one? I didn’t crush you or anything, did I?” The micro’s wide eyes flicked from the pained attempt at a smile on Lexi’s face to the angry snake still hanging from her forearm. It let out a little yelp and scooted backwards as quickly as it could, then gave the slightest trembling nod. “Okay sweetie I, um- I’m gonna close my hand again now while I deal with... this, please don’t be scared.” She could feel the tiny thing curl into a ball in her fist, its whole body trembling terribly. With that dealt with temporarily, she turned her attention back to the more immediate problem that was the fangs currently buried in her arm. Noodle was glaring hatefully at her, clearly extremely mad to have been denied its prey. She stares back at it resolutely, lowering her arm back into the terrarium. The staring match continued for a while longer until Noodle finally relented, releasing the hold its fangs had on Lexi’s arm. “Little brat,” she muttered.
She walked to the bathroom, trying to limit as best she could the amount of blood that dripped onto her floor. It was only when she was rinsing the blood down the drain in the sink that Lexi remembered the tiny creature in her hand. She switched the cool water off and watched as blood immediately began trickling from the wound again. She sighed heavily and opened her palm. The tiny figure cupped in her hand was still curled up in a ball, her eyes screwed tight.
“Sweetie? It’s okay now. It’s safe, you’re safe. The snake is gone and I promise I won’t hurt you.” ...again, her mind finished for her. She sighed and closed her eyes, tilting her head back and rubbing the bridge of her nose above her glasses. “What am I even doing? This thing has no idea what I’m saying,” She whispered to herself. She rubbed her nose a little harder than was comfortable, then asked out loud “What am I gonna do with you, sweetie?” A tickle on her forearm prompted Lexi to open her eyes and look down. The micro was crawling wordlessly up its length, eyes fixed firmly on the thin red trickles running down the sides into the sink basin. When it reached the puncture wounds, about as far apart as it was wide, it stopped. Lexi cocked her head as she watched, not quite understanding what was happening. At least for now it didn’t seem like the thing was trying to escape. Small, silent tears sprang to her eyes as she watched the tiny, fragile little girl bend down on all fours, gently pressing her soft lips against each one of the puncture wounds reverently. When it was done, it crawled farther up her arm until it was resting in the crook of her elbow held against her chest. The innocent little thing gazed up at her in awe, with lips stained red and wide eyes full of far too much trust.
“It is loved by the gods because it is holy,” Lexi whispered to the tiny form. She tried again to imagine she was the micro, curled up in the crook of her elbow, nestled against her chest. She imagined the warmth, the soft texture of her skin, the thrumming of her pulse through her vein synced with the powerful thuds of her massive heart beating so close by. The awful power imbued in her very essence raring against the delicate body resting against her, utterly trusting. If she must have this power over life and death, creation and destruction, then perhaps it was her responsibility to wield it carefully. A rueful smile crept across her face. Perhaps she wasn’t cut out to be a goddess after all. Or maybe, an egotistical part of her mind whispered, I’m just a better goddess than all those Greek assholes. She mentally laughed off the conceited thought, focusing her mind back in her own body. The quivering micro curled up on her had finally begun to calm down, seeming to take comfort from her warmth and the safety of her presence.
And she was large, and she was powerful, and she was significant.