As I got deeper into the bamboo forest, the sounds from outside faded away. I didn't know if the mob had given up or if they were lying in wait or still trying to break down the fence, but I thought maybe if I could find a nice little place to sit, once it got late I could sneak back to my room unnoticed. That was basically the best I could hope for, at any rate.
I couldn't be sure where I was headed, the whole forest looked exactly the same to me, but I seemed to walk on and on without getting anywhere. Nothing changed and I didn't find a handy little seat or anything. The sky grew even darker and the water in my hair turned to icicles. If it got any colder, I decided, I'd have to risk going back to my room anyway. It was that or hypothermia. You didn't want to play around with that kind of thing.
That was assuming I could find my way back out. I stopped walking and looked around. The bamboo was almost fully grown. I couldn't see over it. There was no way of telling which way I'd come from or which way I was headed. I supposed it would be easy enough to head in one particular direction until I came to the fence, and then follow the fence around to the gate. I looked up at the sky to see if I could find the sun to judge the direction from that, but there was nothing but thick gray cloud. No, there was something else, I noticed. Something falling from the sky. Snow. Wow, the universe really did not want me alive.
Hopefully, once everyone else saw the snow, they'd head back up to the school. I figured lunch had probably ended anyway, and usually the bullying ended with the bell, so I was probably safe to head out.
Once the snow started, it really started. I'd never been in a heavy snow storm and I didn't really fancy it now. I picked a direction and ploughed ahead. As I walked, though, I noticed something funny about the snow. It seemed to have a light to it, a sort of blue glow.
"Oh no," I said, stopping in my tracks and looking around. "Come on! Give me a break! I am having a bad enough day as it is!" I wasn't sure if the spellcaster could hear me or was off somewhere cozy and warm. I shuddered at the thought they were in the forest with me, maybe hiding in the shadows and watching me struggle around. Whenever I pictured them, it was in some sort of creepy dungeon, wearing long black robes and goth makeup and spying on me via crystal ball, but really they could've been anyone, anywhere.
The last time it had happened, there had been mist and talking statues and glittery sparkly things, but this time was different. The blue glow flashed in the sky like sheet lightning, once, twice and then was gone. There was no voice, nothing to provide a cryptic explanation of what was going on or how I could maybe stop it.
"Seriously!" I yelled at the sky. "I just wanted to eat some mini pastries!"
It was the weirdest thing ever. The forest seemed to grow up around me at a super fast rate, like it was being filmed with time lapse photography or something. Up and up, it grew, until they stopped looking like bamboo stalks and more like giant wooden pillars. My bag slipped from my shoulder; it was growing as well and had gotten too heavy to lift. When I looked up, even the sky seemed to be getting further away. The whole world was moving, changing. Maybe I was having an attack of vertigo, I thought. I felt as if I might throw up and stumbled to my knees.
When I looked up again, the world had stopped moving. Everything still seemed way too big though, and I looked around for my bag. Okay, so the giant canvas mountain beside me, I was guessing that was my bag. That would make things tricky. Snowflakes fell around me, far bigger than the wafty specks they usually were, and despite their size, not even anything like a pretty Christmas decoration. More like a silvery ball of deep-fried breadcrumbs, only cold and wet and not delicious. I rushed for the safety of my bag mountain. I grabbed onto the large plastic hoop that I took to be the zipper and pulled it open.
Oh well, I thought, climbing up onto my bag to avoid the snow, at least those tiny pastries would be more filling now.
Chapter 6
It became fairly immediately apparent that I needed to get myself out of the snowstorm. The snow was coming down in buckets and I was way smaller than buckets. I had no way of knowing how long the storm would last, but if it wasn't going to be long, I would be better off taking shelter inside my bag than trying to get to the Red House. It seemed an insurmountable distance on such short legs as I had now.
Everything inside my bag was ruined from being dumped in the fountain. I was super careful as I climbed inside the sludgy mess. The bag had fallen on its side when I'd been shrunk, so it was easy to get into at least. There were massive puddles of water at the bottom that didn't smell so good up close, due to the mix of fountain water and bag debris. Mostly, it was being soaked up by my books, and working its way into my tablet, which was definitely fried. I propped open the zip of my bag just enough to see out and shoved some of the books into place to make a little ledge. I'd shoved my big woolly scarf in my bag that morning in case I got too cold, and I thanked past me for the thought as I fashioned it into a warm and comforting cushion.
Maybe I could just live in my bag forever, I thought. There were snacks in the pocket, some rice crackers and fruit and that type of thing. Emergency foods. This was definitely an emergency and now that I was tiny, that food could last me weeks. As far as evil spells went, getting shrunk definitely had its advantages. Well, advantage, I couldn't really think of anything else besides the food thing. I mean, I could easily avoid the bullies now but at the same time, they could squish me like a bug without even meaning to. And if I wanted to get anywhere, it would take me forever. It was definitely best for me to just live in my bag forever.
I don't know if it was because of my relative size, but the snowstorm seemed to get worse. Outside my bag was just a whirl of white and cold. I huddled down into my scarf, pulling the bag closed to block out the wind. I kind of wished I'd put my snacks in the main section of the bag, rather than the pocket, because climbing out there in the cold did not seem like fun. I would probably be blown away, actually. I snuggled into my scarf with a sigh. Being small was kind of boring, everything in this world was for giants. I decided to have a nap to pass the time.
Napping was not my best idea ever.
I woke up kind of confused, as you'd expect after being shrunk down to the size of a Pokemon. I groaned as I remembered what had happened. Oh, for those golden days when I didn't know about all this magic stuff. I could've convinced myself I was hallucinating and just gone back to sleep. I peeked out of my bag and a pile of snow fell in. The storm had passed but the snow was still coming down, and it had reached halfway up my bag, burying the bottom. I couldn't stay there, I realized. I was only an itty-bitty person now, if this snow started to melt I would drown in a sludgy ice pile within seconds. And if I got snowed in, I'd probably freeze to death, or be suffocated, or who even knows what. Being tiny was no joke, you had to think of all these extra dangers.
I pulled my way out of the bag, but as soon as I stepped onto the snow, it became very obvious that I was an idiot. I started sinking down almost immediately. The snow was all soft and fluffy and couldn't take my weight. I climbed back into my bag and snuggled back into my scarf to rethink the situation. I needed to compress the snow, make it firm enough to walk on. Surely I had something in my bag to help with that.
I shuffled down to my inside pocket and made a little noise of triumph. My pencil case was full of useful things. A pad of post-its, that would do the job of flattening the snow. And I could use a pencil as a staff to navigate the treacherous terrain. Like Gandalf. Well, more like a Gandalf action figurine, I supposed. The pencil had been sharpened down to half its original size, but was still almost as big as me and kind of a pain to carry but it made me feel badass, so I took it with me anyway. I was literally freezing, but my scarf was too big to take with me and all my other clothes were shrunken on my body, but there was a little fabric tie around the opening of my bag, so I pulled that out and wrapped it around my neck. I was all set to go.
The post-its weren't the best thing for flattening the snow, they were heavy and cumbersome and it was hard work whacking them down over and over again, enough to make the snow solid. There had to be a better way. I folded my arms and sat down on my pencil like it was a log while I thought it over. I was working on a limited timeframe; the snow was not slowing down. I couldn't spend hours compressing the snow enough to walk on. But maybe if I pushed the post-its in front of me like a snow plow, the snow would flatten out and compact on its own. I gave it a try. I sank down a little, but if I got up some speed, it was definitely workable. I needed two hands to push it, so I shoved the pencil down the back of my blazer like a sword, tied back my hair, and got going.