The Tiny People

Intro

The Tiny People

Intro

Sticks, stones and bones. The finest of lightweight bones, so delicate, like a single iridescent hair; stones like boulders and sticks appear as fallen logs. Every crevice and crack a potential nook, for the tiniest of the tiniest, smaller than ants, the tiny people roam.

Between the patio cracks the edges create walls for protection. They live where they cannot be squished, to them depth is everywhere and they nestle. Blades of grass are like fields of tall bamboo, forests become Amazon jungles, one bamboo leaf can support a group of tiny people and one raindrop quenches ten of their thirsts.

The incredible feat of an old growth forest almost incomprehensible, millions have settled behind flaps of bark and grooves of wood. Puddles become ponds, ponds become lakes, lakes become oceans, and the ocean is strictly avoided for its unimaginable force, one minuscule particle of salt can pummel them into oblivion, a tiny ripple a tidal wave. A life of grandiose scale.

One meter becomes a kilometer; a kilometer becomes a hundred miles. Most never walk an acre their entire lives. Flies resemble ravens and ravens resemble pterodactyls. Bumblebees being the most friendly of the insects offer the service of transport often only bringing them a mere ten meters yet beckoning those who dare to fly into whole new worlds and looming dangers.

From generation to generation the perceived weakness of tininess becomes taught as their biggest strength, for they are hardly visible to the naked eye. Rarely mistaken for food, they are brushed over as dirt or sand particles moving in unison, unnoticed as a mere flick in the corner of the eye.

A small seedling sufficient as shade for two, they have created microscopic communities all over the world, in every park, city, backyard, orchard, the entire surface of the earth there is a hum of tiny people who have learned how not to get underfoot.

It is rare to find them inside any buildings; they are weary without fresh air yet hunker strategically to avoid gentle breezes that threaten their existence. Their world is gigantically little. They feast on crumbs, minerals, particles, raindrops and dew.

Few humans know of their presence, select insects are aware of them, the bears in winter feel them pluck their hairs to use as blankets, and occasionally the wolves pick up their scent. The ants are their main crumb source, they scavenge what they leave behind, pieces too microscopic for even the tiniest of ants to consider consumable. Their enemies lie in size, not as predator but as force, along with their allies.

They trace back to cosmic ricochet. Particles morphed into humans smaller than cells, for millions of years they have adapted and evolved and for a billion more they shall stay. Intricate designs of collected rain water between splinters of wood on trees, crumb collection facilities along concrete cracks in the city, curbs as cliffs and cliffs rich with pockets to house them. They are everywhere.

Welcome, to the world within the world, of tiny people.