Lyn thought about that. She could ask Eliwood to take care of her, but he and Ninian had been so close lately that she didn’t want to bother them. Florina would be her next choice, but she had gone on ahead to scout out the area for their next battle. And she didn’t feel very comfortable letting her other retainers see her while she was so vulnerable. That left her with her best option being…
“Well, I suppose since Hector is the one who shrank me, it’s only fair that he has to take care of me until I grow back to normal.” Lyn felt her face burning again at her words.
Hector coughed and looked away. Eliwood looked down at her curiously. “Are you sure? You can always stay in my tent with myself, Ninian, and Nils tonight. Or we could send Fiora to go fetch Florina for you.”
“Yes, I’m sure, Hector has taken good care of me so far. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Lyn turned around in Hector’s hand, putting her back hand down behind her to balance herself, and looked up at him. Hector met her eyes, then looked back to Eliwood.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it Eliwood. I’ll take good care of her.”
“Well, if you’re sure.” Eliwood said, stepping back. “It’s late, so I’m going to head in for the night. We may run into trouble in the desert tomorrow, so make sure you get some sleep.” He looked down at Lyn before sighing at the pair’s antics and walking away.
Hector lifted his hand up, bringing Lyn closer to his face. “My tent is over that way” he gestured with his other hand. “It’ll be good to get some rest.”
As the light continued to dim, the air started to get cold. Lyn found herself starting to shiver. She pressed herself closer to Hector’s warm hands. This area was quite warm during the day, but the nights were frigid. Lyn already wasn’t a big fan of the cold, but now that she was already so small and vulnerable, having to rely on Hector for warmth annoyed her.
Hector’s tent was exactly as Lyn remembered it in the last location. A sleeping mat against the tent’s wall, a small table near the other side for eating, and a chest storing most of Hector’s belongings. The biggest difference now was Lyn. While before, the small table would have come up to her shins, it easily towered above her, magnitudes larger than she was now.
Wordlessly, Hector placed his hand down on the table, allowing Lyn to climb down onto it. He then walked over to the chest and started rifling through it. Meanwhile, Lyn walked to the edge of the table, and peered over the edge. It couldn’t be more than two feet tall. But the drop was still uncomfortably large for the three inch tall swordswoman sitting atop it.
“Hey, Lyn, be careful.” Hector said, turning around once he found what he was looking for. “You wouldn’t want to fall and hurt yourself.”
“I can take care of myself.” Lyn shot back angrily. She wasn’t exactly sure why Hector showing simple concern for her well being was enough to anger her, but she supposed it had something to do with the fact that he was right. A fall from this height would be quite perilous for her.
She noticed a shadow looming over her, and turned to see Hector crouching down at the table. He had a small lamp in one hand, that was giving off a fairly bright light, and a slip of fabric in the other. He placed the lamp down on the other side of the table from Lyn, and put the fabric beside her. It appeared to be something Hector used to clean his armor and weapons, although she could tell it had been cleaned after its most recent use.
“Here, this should help keep you warm, and you can use this as a bed.” He said as he put them down.
The lamp was indeed giving off a fairly strong heat, and the small cloth was easily large enough for Lyn to sleep on. She laid down on top of it, and pulled the other side of the cloth over her body, wrapping herself in it. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep, but it was better than sleeping on the table by itself.
“Thank you Hector. I’ll be going to bed now.” She said, turning away from him and closing her eyes. She heard the clinking of his armor as he moved over to his mat, and started removing the heavy metal to get ready for bed.
After a couple minutes the sounds faded away. It seemed like Hector had gone to bed too. But try as she might, Lyn just couldn’t fall asleep. She kept trying a number of different positions in her makeshift bed, but none seemed to be comfortable. She then decided to try dimming the lamp since perhaps that was preventing her from sleeping. She walked over and found that luckily, the dial was just low enough for her to push up, dimming the brightness. She walked back over and tried to sleep again.
Only now that the lamp was dimmed, it was also giving off much less heat. Meaning Lyn was getting cold. Frustrated by her predicament, she stomped back over to the lamp and went to pull down the giant dial on the side. Only this time, she discovered that because she had pushed it up to dim it, it was just out of reach for her to turn back up. She kicked the base of the lamp out of annoyance, but that didn’t seem to do anything, other than let out a pleasant pinging note, and hurt her foot.
That was when Lyn remembered the source of heat she had gotten earlier, when she was being held in Hector’s hand. It was embarrassing, but Lyn was annoyed to the point where she didn’t really care anymore. She climbed down from the table by sliding down one of the legs, and began her walk across the floor over to Hector.
It was probably only four or five feet away, but it still took a good minute or two to walk over. Something she tried to put out of her mind as she walked. By the time she had reached her giant friend, she had gotten quite cold.
“Hector!” She said somewhat loudly, trying to gauge if he was awake. Hector stirred, rolling onto his other side and looking directly at Lyn.
“Lyn?” He said, confused. “What’s wrong?” He sat up and looked around, noticing that the lamp was dimmed and that Lyn had apparently gotten all the way over here by herself.
“I- it got cold, on the table.” She said nervously, only just now realizing how silly her goal sounded.
“Why didn’t you just turn the lamp back on?” Hector asked, looking down at her. He then broke out into a grin when he remembered how the mechanism worked. “Oh. You pushed the dial up too far, and can’t reach it anymore, right?”
“You don’t have to laugh at me.” Lyn pouted, face glowing red with embarrassment. “Sorry I’m not used to being three inches tall.” She said sarcastically.
“Haha, sorry.” Hector said, trying unsuccessfully to look a bit more serious. “Do you want me to turn the lamp back on for you?”
“N- no. It’s fine. Can you just hold me in your hand instead?” Lyn had to look away as she asked her question.
“Uh, sure. I guess that’s fine.” Hector said. He lowered his hand next to Lyn, allowing for her to climb up again. Once she had gotten herself comfortable, he lifted her up carefully, and clutched her close to his chest.
“How’s that?” Hector asked.
“It’s fine. Thank you.” Lyn said, glad she didn’t have to look straight at Hector anymore. She had to admit that this was much more comfortable than she was sleeping on the table.
“Alright, sleep well then.” Hector said. Lyn felt her world shift as Hector laid down, and gravity pulled her into a new position. She curled up in his palm and got comfortable again, ready to fall asleep.
This had to be one of the most embarrassing nights of Lyn’s life. Losing a duel to her rival, being shrunk to a tiny size, and now having to sleep in his palm for warmth. But despite that, Lyn got an excellent night of sleep.
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