The Golden Rules 41

Chapter 41

Sophie woke up as a blackbird landed on the terrace with a loud chirp. She did not really feel rested and her body still felt stiff and immobile. She turned to fall asleep again, but though her eyelids were still heavy, sleep did not come back that easily.

  "Stupid bird." She muttered angrily, now staring with tired eyes at the bed that stood a few meters away from her. She could hear Thomas, who probably was still asleep, breathing evenly.
It was still hard to grasp that she so willingly stayed close to him, after she had repeatedly tried to do the exact opposite.

She had always been upset that he could not see her as a person, but in all honesty, she had problems vice versa to recognize him as such. She always called him a giant, which was only a description of his appearance. Basically she was almost as shallow as everyone else here.

Sophie turned around to look into the garden. What should she do now to fulfil her mission? She was not a Prussian professor, or anyone else who could come up with a lot of life experience or wisdom. In addition, they were after something big... when they found out how it all was connected, they could probably change this world completely. She could help countless people ... Perhaps this was more important than looking for a way back home just for herself. No  not just perhaps, it was definitely much more important.

She had  also promised Pato to let him know if she had found a way back. But if she would not create the circumstances that made it possible for everyone to return, this knowledge would be completely useless.

  "Wait a minute ... Pato ..." Sophie sat up abruptly, which gave her a sense of vertigo.

She could remember how he and her brother had feverishly practised and learned for the Latin exam for their graduation.
  
  "He probabply could read what is written in that book." She said, almost grinning happily and looked over at Tom, who still slept calmly.

The girl quickly glanced at her watch. It was after noon, Joschi was surely already out of the house.
She put her hands around her mouth like a funnel:
  
"Thomas! Hey, wake up!"

He did not even flinch. A little frustrated, she walked a little closer and shouted again. But he did nothing more than breathe.

  "Damn, he sleeps like a rock." She muttered and walked around the bed.

Only now, she could see that he was lying on his stomach and his left arm dangling limply from the edge.
Since he did not even responded to another call, Sophie probably had to take advantage of this fact.

Cautiously she approached the hand that hung, from her perspective about four feet above the ground. This was certainly not without risk, because after all, the movements of a sleeping person was unpredictable.
She took a position that allowed her to just in case at any time to jump to safety. Then she reached for his index finger and gave it a slight slap. But except for a tiny flinch, no result followed.

  "Okay, with more force then." She said to herself, and gave the hand moderately severe blow.

She could hardly respond to what happened next. Tom's hand shot up, causing a draft that threw her off her feet. But as fast as it had vanished from her view, the hand returned and fumbled around the floor, accompanied by a disgruntled moan. But it was not a gentle groping. Rather, he seemed to be searching for an alarm clock, willing to push the snooze button.
She panicked and jumped back to avoid getting caught by those massive fingers. Only when she thought to be out of his reach, she shouted: "Hey! Stop that!"
Then he paused in his movements and above her appeared  a dishevelled mop of hair, followed by a tired face with narrowed eyes.

  "Hmmnn ... what?" He muttered, and blinked a few times, "Who are you?"

  "The Good Morning Fairy, who else?" She said, eyes rolling and not taking the issue seriously.

  "Fair ... what's a fairy?" He babbled on and Sophie was not sure whether he really meant what he was saying.

  "Come on, Thomas. It is already noon and I remembered something important." She said, seriously now.

  "What? No thanks, I do not want a pudding for lunch.",he blurted out in a tired voice, and with a faint sigh, he turned around.

Sophie just shook her head. Apparently he was one of the people who speak in their sleep.

  "Well, that's just great! Looks like I need a bomb to wake you up." She murmured, and turned around to go back to her place and look for any entertainment until he'd finally wake up.

When she had gone just a few steps, he bed gave a loud creak and a loud groan could be heard.
And before she could react, a foot on the size of a car crushed down beside her with such a force, that it almost made her fall over. Not a second later, it was followed by the second foot, which only missed by an arm length.
Fortunately for her, he did not move further and Sophie, still panting with fright, looked up at him. Two hairy legs were sticking up like mighty pillars and denied her the look on Tom's upper body.
Never before she had experienced  what a threat these huge limbs actually caused to her. Until now she had not been aware what  a dangerous place for the floor could be in this world.

What made her more scared, was the fact that Thomas could have killed her without having the intention to do so. She would never be safe here.
Again the bed creaked a bit, and shortly after, Tom's voice echoed through her:

  "Sophie? Where are you?"

He sounded a little worried and probably had every reason to be.

  "D-down here." She said, still shocked.

The bed creaked a little more and then his face appeared over her, first scanning the ground in front of him until he finally found her between his feet.

  "By the Souls! ... Don't say I almost ...", he said and was about to get up.

  "Don't move!" She cried, and he followed the call promptly and remained in his sitting position.

Even the twitching of his feet had sent cold shiver down her spine.

  "I'm sorry. I did not know that you were standing there..."

  "Yeah, I thought so." She panted.

  "Maybe you should move away from there... I really do not want to ...", he did not want to finish the sentence.

Sophie understood that this situation was highly uncomfortable for him, too.
She nodded and left this place with shaking legs. Her heart felt lighter, with every yard she brought behind her, moving away from him.
Only when she was sure to be totally out of danger, she turned and looked up at Tom, who had not yet moved not an inch. He looked at her guiltily.

  "Remember me that I will never try to wake you again." She said finally with a solid voice.

The biggest shock was over and she decided internally not to venture so far in such a danger zone again.
Thomas, however, still seemed  more than upset.

-

He could not believe it. He almost had seriously injured or even killed Sophie, without even noticing. What he had done if it had really happened? He would have anded a human's life. The life of a very special person. He wanted to protect her but it looked as if he was the only source of danger.

  "I guess I should not try to wake you ... and watch out were I'm going" Sophie was still plenty of pale, but showed no other form of tension anymore.

  "No, I should've been paying more attention."

  "Now stop trying to load all  the responsibility on you. How would you have been able to know I'm standing ther? I did not even make a sound to get your attention." She replied a little annoyed, and crossed the arms over her chest.

  "How can you shake that off so easily? I almost killed you."

  "Yes, this is the word: almost. We both got a big fright, nothing more happened. Look at it as simply a sign that we should better watch out.
And 'm not shaking this off so easily!  That was the biggest shock of my life.... . But experience has shown that we don't get anywhere, if we do everything we can to keep the greatest possible distance from each other. Yesterday we found out so much, and that's just because we worked together. "

Tom looked admiringly at her for a long moment. Despite her plight, stranded in a world of giants, constantly surrounded by threats and by most of the world only ssen as a small pet,  she managed to see everything in a positive light. She was so strong ... despite the fact that she was not taller than five inches, Sophie was so much stronger than he.
Yesterday he wanted nothing more than to protect her from everything. But here and now he felt nothing but respect for her.

His startled face had been transformed with these thoughts into a gentle smile.

  "Yes, you're right."

  "Of course I'm right. And I'm hungry too.", She responded almost cheeky.

  "Well, looks like you did not lose your appetite from all that...."

  "Now don't start that again." She said with a playfully menacing grin and shook her tiny fist in his direction.

  "Oh, don't worry, I wont!" And half-laughing he lifted his hands to a defensive gesture. "Well, I'll prepare something and then we can eat on the terrace. Sounds good, right?" He suggested, and started to get up.

  "Yes, that's a good idea." She nodded and ran towards the wall before she was waving a sign that the required distance was there.

-

For Sophie, it was a mystery how she could recover so quickly from this shock. Perhaps she had become accustomed to the lurking dangers during their stay in the wild. More likely, however, was that it did have no other choice. She could not afford scurrying around, like a frightened little animal. When she exuded serenity, even Tom would be relaxed, and that was certainly better than a constantly nervous giant.

With this in mind, she slowly walked back to her seat at the patio door.
Her injured leg did not hinder her that much anymore. Except for the occasional dragging, nothing more could be felt. That was strange, because she actually had it loaded a little too much to expect such evidence of fast healing.

Arrived at her bed, she pulled out her cutlery and looked outside. She really wanted to know what all of this was about. But if she was honest, she was also a bit afraid of what they would find out. What if she would not like the answer to all of this ... if they could not  change the situation despite  their knowledge?
She shook her head and her ponytail tickled her neck while she did so. Such ideas were not very productive, and luckily at that moment Tom came back into the room with a tray in his hands.

Since it was after lunch, the food could no longer be called breakfast. In fact, it was more like a picnic. Tom had spread out a blanket on the terrace and the food was served on several appetizing dishes. While he simply loaded what he wanted on his plate, Sophie strolled around between the plates and pulled or cut off a few morsels to eat them when she was back at her place..
It was one of those quiet and pleasant moments that she could almost enjoy. After all this back and forth and the struggle for survival, this picnic almost radiated a little normalcy-  As much as it was possible, when you are surrounded by huge food.

  "Hopefully we will find out a little more today." Tom looked pretty determined at his jelly sandwich.
And then Sophie remembered what she wanted to actually tell him before:

  "We need Pato."

  "What? Why?"

  "He can read the book. As far as I know, he was pretty good at Latin. He sure can translate it." She said, looking at him seriously.

Thomas was now was very hesitant and looked away.
  "That could be difficult."

  "Why that?"

  "Well ... when you ran away... I did not act particularly nice towards Sven and Pato... I've apologized for it, but I have the vague feeling that he will not let me once more in the near of Pato."

Sophie gave a groan of frustration and threw her fork on the floor.

  "Damn, why did I have to land in the land of stubborn giants ?" She shook her head. "There must be a way so I can see my best friend again!"

He looked at her sympathetically. After all, it was his fault that the situation was so complicated now. She was so far away from everything she knew and his stupid overreaction kept her from seeing someone familiar again.
But suddenly the girl's face brightened up again.


"I've got an idea"

----------------------------------

Pato was completely relaxed on a window sill in Sven's office and leaned back against the pot of a plantt, which left its broad leaves hang down sadly.
Just days earlier he had been useless for everything. He had been terribly worried about Sophie, whom he had simply let run into the wilderness. But when he learned that she had returned, he was able to sleep soundly again. He could imagine that she was certainly not happy about being back with Thomas, but maybe she had been able to beat some sense into the skull of this giant.

He would have liked to visit her, but Sven was unforgiving about Thomas's Freak Out. It was strange that even Pato, who was the most threatened of the whole situation did not hold any grudges against Thomas. Of course, he had been afraid, but in retrospect he could understand the giant. He had been worried about Sophie, albeit in a slightly different way than they would have liked.

The warm sunlight that shone through the window made him very sleepy. With a yawn he turned to Sven, who was sitting with his back to him at his desk and flipped through some papers. Preferably Pato would have stayed home and had dealt with more exciting things, but today was Lena'S sister and her little nieces were visiting. He had nothing against children, but if they are at least ten times bigger than him, he was a little afraid of them. So he spent the morning in Sven's boring office.
His gaze shifted to his watch, which, although it was already noon, still indicated seven in the morning. His face got a bit grim. Presumably the battery was empty and in this world  he sure would not  find a replacement for it.  With every day that he spent here, he became more and more dependent on the giants.

He was startled when suddenly the phone rang. It was almost embarrassing that he always nearly got a heart attack, when one of these huge things went off, but they were just too loud to get used to it.

Not looking up from his papers Sven picked up the phone.

  "Yes please? Excuse me ... who ..?" The giant leaned back haltingly and said nothing for a while, but listened. After about a minute he turned in his chair towards Pato and looked at him stunned. After some brief nods, he took the phone from his ear a little and said to the young man on the windowsill:

  "Pat .. are you still fit in Latin?"

  "W-what? Latin?" He replied, confused.

  "Yes. Do you think you can still read and understand it?"

  "Maybe, yes, I think so, but ... with whom are you talking?

  "It's Sophie." He replied, almost whispering.

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This telephone call was anything but agreeable. It was not necessarily Sven's reticence, but rather the process itself. Sophie had positioned herself sitting on the coffee table in the living room in front of the receiver and had to cover her left ear all the time, because his voice which boomed from the loudspeaker, was much too loud. However she could not keep a bigger distance, because she had to be close enough to the mouthpiece to be audible to him.

Nevertheless, she was sure that all of this was a big success. After all it had been the most logical thing to do: if Sven did not want to speak with Thomas, she had to do all the talking. And he was so surprised so much about the fact that she could talk at all, that he probably forgot that he still held a grudge against Tom. So at last she had been able to convince him to come over with Pato after work.

Tom, who sat on the sofa close to her, hung up for her as soon as the call was over. Of course he eavesdropped all of it and had a smile of relief plastered on his face.

  "Wow, I really didn't think that this would work at all."

  "Really?", Sophie asked.

  "Yeah really. I guess I would've hung up and thought that this was some stupid prank someone was playing. Don't get me wrong when I say this, but it's as if your dog would suddenly call you at work."

  "I think it was quite helpful that he was already able to talk with Pato. Could be that this made the whole situation much more believable. Anyway, I will never do that again. One of these days I'll become deaf.", she replied and rubbed her left ear.

  "Oh. I hope I don't make your ears aching that much.", he said in a worried tone.

  "No, There thankfully is always a big enough distance between me and your mouth. You are pretty loud too, but I think I got used to it already.", she appeased him and stood up.

His face did not look as if he could be calmed down by her words. Instead he gave her an almost pityful look. She did not notice it right away, since she only looked up to him after she stretched herself a bit.

  "What's wrong? Are you worried about Sven? Don't panic, we will work it out somehow. It's pretty chaotic right now, but we will get there in the-"

   "That's not it. Well, maybe it  is. But why do you even care about me? I mean you are the one who really has to go through the most of trouble. If I were in your shoes, I would probably go crazy because I could not even get off this table on my own. And then you have all those giant people around you with those loud deafening voices and-"

  "Would you please stop it!? I can understand that you're worried about me, but it really isn't helping if you just pour pity over me. Believe me, I'm now getting to a point where I know what I can do and what I can't do. I just have no choice but to adapt to this situation. When I need help, I will not hesitate to ask you so please try not to see me as completely helpless. I bet there are thousands of other people here who have it much worse than me. So just calm down. I, no, we will work this out.", she interrupted his worried words and stepped a bit closer to him while keeping a good distance to the table's edge.

At first, Tom looked as if he wanted to counter her speech, but then his worried look turned into an accepting smile. "You're right. We will work this out." then he offered her his hand. What do you think about us taking a little walk before the two drop by?"

  "Sounds good to me. Fresh air can do miracles sometimes.", she agreed and was happy that he had been able to allay Tom's fears for now.

At lot more light-footed than usual she climbed onto his hand and held onto his thumb, which he offered her.
The events of this morning, the sensation of death being so close where not forgotten, but she really took it much better than she would have expected. But that probably was necessary when living in a world of giants. She already had faced a lot of dangers and this single risky event should not make her stop in her tracks.
Tom quickly put on a button down shirt, so he could offer Sophie a place in his breast pocket. Holding her in his hand all the time could become tiring very quickly and the pocket did not seem such a bad place to ride in.
She crossed her arms on the seam of the pocket and rested her head on them while Tom was walking along the sidewalk with steady steps. Indeed she had liked to talk a bit more but out here, where anyone could be eavesdropping it was safer to remain silent.
Tom also did not say a word, but instead put his hand ovr the pocket from time to time, probably to make sure she would not fall out. Evertime he did that, Sophie had to smile a bit. He was so caring, but not as if she was just a little pet, it felt as if he was really caring about her person. With a slight confident sigh of contentment she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sunlight and fresh air.
Although she still wanted nothing more than going home, she now could resign herself to staying here a little longer without feeling completely miserable.

-------------------------------------

The sudden halt of the car pressed Pato against the straps of his seatbelt.
  "Jeez, Sven! I know you're nervous but that's no reason to drive like an idiot!", he complained.

During the whole trip it was the sixth time that he breaked so harshly.
The giant first gave him an annoyed lokk, which soon turned into an apologetic one.

  "Sorry Pat, but there's so much things on my mind right now.", he said and looked back at the road ahed of them. "I just remembered so many things from the past. And I also remebered some things I once said to you. Maybe you recall that, too... it was before you were able to speak with me."

Pato stared at the back of Sven's head and his face turned into a frown. "YOu said a lot of things...", he replied. He would've rather forgotten all of this.

  "It was about me saying that people find it scary if pets act too human. Sure, to a certain degree they would think of it as cute. There are a lot of people around who think, that if you treat a Twimp as a human too much, they will imagine to actually BE human. And this can be a real threat."
Pato knew that Sven was not able to see that he was a human being and should not become angry if he discribed him as fairly intelligent animal. Nevertheless he felt quite offended now.

  "I bet you speak from experience.", the Twimp said and tried not to sound irritated.

  "I thought the same way, yes. But with good reason. My uncle's twimp really thoroughly thought he was a human. And he saw my aunt as his perfect mate. At first everyone found his flirting behavoiur quite amusing. But then he went too war. He wanted to dispose of his love rival, who was my uncle..."

Pato gulped. He had always assumed that Sven had made some bad experiences with people of the smaller size.
Months ago this now friendly giant had been rather hostile towards him.

  "Does this mean he kil-"

  "No, but he was very close."

  "And what... what did happen to that Twimp?", Pato asked but wasn't sure if he really wanted to hear the answer.

  "I don't know exactly. He had to leave the family. It could be that he ended up in an animal shelter. But it's highly possible that he-"

  "Okay, stop there. I think I know where this is going.", the Twimp interrupted him. And he was not sure what to think.

On the one hand this Twim, no this man deserved a punishment. After all he had tried to kill someone. But of course he was not judged by the laws for humans. And according to what Pato had heard about animal shelters in this world, it was pretty close to a severe jail sentence.

  "You know... this is why I'm a bit afraid of what will happen once all the Golden Rules are broken. I guess nobody can really tell what happens, but a lot of things will change. And there are a lot of people and Twimps who will have problems to react properly to that. It's already pretty messed up with the rules intact."

  "Now don't fret too much. Nobody said that we will get rid of those rules just like that. For now it's just about translating that book and finding out why Sophie, me and the others are here in the first place. Maybe nothing happens at all.", Pato said to calm him down. But inwardly he really wished for a lot of things to change, so the situation for the small humans would improve.

  "Maybe you're right. I'm always too worried about everything.", Sven finally said and made the car stop a lot more softly this time. "We're there."

Pato waited as patiently as possible until Sven got out of the car and opened the back door to pick him up. After all these months he resigned to the fact that his big friend had to help him even with such easy things. However the almost daily confrontation with big heights did not stop him from getting a slight panic when he lost the ground under his feet. Sven knew about that and providently put his free hand under him to make him feel safer.

Sven took the few steps up to the door and was about to ring the bell. Before doing that, he noticed a small note that was sticking on the door.
  "What's written on it?", asked Pato who wasn't able to see the letters from his position.
  "It says:'Hello Seven and Pato. We're taking a walk right now.' ... And there's more but I can't read it, maybe Sophie wrote it.", explained and lifted his friend a little higher so he could see it, too.
  "You're right it's from her. It says:'Please go in. The key is under the flowerpot on the windowsill.'" he read out loud. "Very smart, using Twimp writings to keep unwanted guests from finding that key."

Sven nodded and carefully put Pato down on the ground in front of him before he took the key from the hiding place. The Twimp did not really like to be so close to an upright standing giant, but he also did not want him to fiddle with the keys while he was still in his hands. So he endured the uncomfortable moment with as much dignity as possible until the huge door in front of him opened with a slight creak.
The giant opened it a lot more and told his small friend to go ahead with a slight movement to of his hand. He accepted and climbed over the doorstep to finally touch the parquet floor on the other side. Until now he only walked around freely in Sven and Lena's house, so it felt almost as he was doing something forbidden by making a step inside this home.

 "Now get a move on, so I can get in, too,", Sven's voice thundered from above and made him snap out of his thoughts.

 "Okay, okay, don't make such a rush.", he said with some faked annoyance to cover up his nervousness.
Like he was used too, he walked directly to the closest wall so he would not be in the giants way. Only when he reached this point, Sven also stepped into the house and closed the door behind him.

  "Sophie makes such a fuss about us coming here as fast as possibleand now they're wasting time by taking a walk.", the giant mubled, but Pato did not really hear it because the words just sounded like humming over his head.
  "I think the living room will be a good place to wait for them.", he suggested nor much more audible and walked ahead through the doorway that was on the left side of the hallway.
The Twimp waited until he could see the Sven sitting down on the giant sofa. Only then he quickly followed him into the room and left the hallway which did not seem very safe.

After reaching the living room, he took a short time to catch his breath and looked around a bit. From his position it was hard to get a good overview, so the whole furniture was just towering over him, like he was used to by now.
He was not comfortable with walking around in this unknown area. He did not know about the safest paths in this house, so he got frightened a bit.
  "Sven? could you let me on the table?", she called over to his friend, and in his voice was a lot of uneasiness.

  "Sure, that would be much safer, too.", the giant replied and stood up to get him.
Patricio stood rooted to the spot and did not exactly look at the huge feet coming closer to him. Even if he knew that Sven did not mean any harm to him, he felt the urge to just run away from that. Only when he was safe and sound on the sturdy surface of the table, he felt a little better.
  "I guess I'll never get used this.", he sighed while pulling down his sweater that had slid up a bit during the ride up there.

  "Well, maybe that's a good thing. Routine makes you careless over the time.", Sven replied and leaned back a bit. "Believe me, I'm also a bit scared every time I pick you up."

Pato looked at him with wide eyes.
  "You're aware that this does not really make me feel better?"

  "Hey, I just wanted to let you know that's not always that easy for us ‚giants', too. It's not as if I don't care about you, okay? It's nothing bad about it if you're worried about someone who puts his life in your hands... literally."

For a few seconds, none of them spoke until Pato made big refusing groan.
  "Man, we should just listen to ourselves. We're getting much to sentimental because of this. I really don't have the nerve for that right now."

  "Oh yeah, You should keep up the manliness. After all Sophie could show up any minute now."

  "What? What's that supposed to mean?", Patricio asked confused and irritated at the same time.

  "Well, you've got to make a good impression on the female, right?", Sven replied, a bit puzzled by the Twimp's reaction.

  "You did not really say that right now, didn't you?", Pato said in an angrry voice now, pointing his index finger at the giant in a slightly threatening way, who was even more confused right now.

  "Er, yes I did say that. Why are you even getting so upset about it? There's nothing bad about you liking her and..."

  "Say another word and you'll regret it. What's wrong with you anyway? You never made such stupid comments!", he interrupted Sven, now even angrier.

Sven was just about to respond as the front door opened and Tom poked his head into the room.
  "Ah, you're here already." He quickly slipped out of his shoes and walked into the room to greet the two guests. When he came closer, Pato could see Sophie poking out of the shirt pocket waving at him.
  "Hello you two.", she said and sounded quite happy. Patricio said nothing because he wasn't able to, but Sven was silent because he was perplexed. Indeed he had heard her on the telephone earlier that day, but actually seeing it made it even more real.

  "Can I offer you some food or drinks, or should the two get to work right away?", Tom asked to break the silence.

  "I- I don't really know.", was everything Sven could say.

  "Maybe Pato and be should go upstais and you give us some provisions. Then we can talk a bit. It really isn't any fun one has to keep quiet while we are having a conversation.", the girl suggested.

Pato nodded and Sven agreed too.

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea." He sounded as if he was very eager to make that happen right away.

Sophie never thought that Sven would be so uneasy, but when she thought about it, she barely knew this giant. So probably she had been a bit too naive about that whole thing.
Her thoughts were interrupted as Tom kneeled down and bent forward a bit, which made her loose her balance a bit. He stretched his hand out to reach for Pato, but the Twimp almost jumped out of the way.
Thomas retreated his hand quickly, as if something has bitten him.

  "Oh... I'm sorry Pato. I never apologized. I'm sorry I acted like an idiot. This was very dumb and darn dangerous for you. Id you prefer to be carried up by Sven, that's okay."

Everbody in the room was very surprised of how reasonable Tom was acting. Indeed Sophie had been sure that he would not act like a total jerk, but that he apologized to Pato without being asked about it, also was a big surprise to her. But she quickly changed her astonished face into an encouraging smile, so Patricio would also see that Tom really meant it.
It took a few moments until her old friend moved towards the giant with a stretched out hand.
This time, Tom moved his hand much slower at him and offered his pinkie for a handshake. The Twimp was indeed still hesitant while he put his hand on the finger, but the girl knew he wasn't one who held any grudges, so he most probably was honest with this peace offering.
However, after stepping back from the outstretched finger, he pointed at Sven, to show that he preferred to be carried by him.

  "Allright, that's fine by me... You take him, Sven. The book is upstairs in the attic. Nothing will disturb them up there and I won't be in hearing range, so Pato can talk.", he offered and did not seem to be hurt by the small man's decision.

The blonde giant slowly seeped to adapt the situation and showed a much quicker reaction this time. He picked up Pato and followed Tom through the hallway and up the stairs to the attic. Since Sophie still sat in the Shirt pocket, she could not see Patricio's reaction, but probably the steep and dusty stairs scared him as much as her yesterday.

Upon reaching the upper floor, Tom opened the skylight to let in some fresh air and took a thin blanket from a crate and placed it on the floor.

  "I thought you'd like to sit down here. The light is better than back there on the table", said Thomas.

  "Yeah, I think this'll work.", Sophie agreed and willingly let his huge hand take him out of the pocket and put her down on the blanket. Sven set Pato down next to her, who seemed to be happy to be on the ground again.

  "Here's the book.", said Thomas and put it opened up in front of them.
  "I'll bring some food soon."
Pato tapped his finger on Sophie's shoulder to get her attention and made writing movements with his hands.
  "Ah yes, we need something to make notes... it would be best to have my backpack up here. I've pens and a notebook in there."

  "No problem.", he smiled and then turned to Pato. "Thank you for helping us. I hope this will be even a small success."

The young man just waved and smiled.

  "Okay Sven, let's go."

  "Go ahead please, I'll come down right away.", replied the blond giant and waited until Thomas was out of hearing range. He squatted down in front of the two and said:
  "Hey... sorry about what I said back there, Pat. It was really stupid. I don't even know why I..."

  "Cut it out. Just don't say something like that again, okay? Then I'll just forget about it. And relax now. Sophie can speak too, now, but that's not really different from when I started talking a few months ago."
  "You remember that I left the house in panic back then because I thought I've gone insane, right? I think I'm taking this much better this time, don't you think?"

  "Well yeah, I think you're right about that...", Pato said understanding.

  "Maybe I've been a bit too straightforward. Next time I'll be more careful. I don't think we can afford to have a horde of panicking giants running around going insane.", Sophie admitted.

  "I'd approve of that that.", Sven replied half-joking. "Okay, I'll leave now. Good luck with this Latin-stuff." with these words he stood up and descended down the stairs.