PIKMIIIIIN || Always accepting random asks!
Dozens upon dozens of the tiny creatures swarm around Aeleus feet, each no larger than an inch tall from toe to leaf. They are blue, red, yellow, and purples, and they are making an extremely valiant effort to steal his shoelaces. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) they are extremely inept and can’t figure out how to untie the knot for his boots.
He doesn’t actually notice for several minutes.
In his defence, he is very big and the creatures scrabbling at his boots are very small. He can’t feel the weight of them through sturdy leather, nor the tugging of the laces as they pull at the knot with tiny hands and only manage to make it tighter for the effort. They are very small, and they’re not getting very far in their effort, and if he so much as carelessly lifted a foot he could have killed them all.
Thankfully one climbs high enough up, balancing on the tongue of his boot, that he feels the gentle patter of its movements against his shin.
He’s enchanted as soon as he crouches down for a better look at them, of course. How could he not be, the single-minded little flower-topped creatures with their bright colours all fussing and squeaking to each other in tiny voices, pik pik pik–
They’re so engrossed in the task, they hardly notice that he’s moved. The furthest one up only notices because now it can clamber up a fold of his pants to stand on his knee, waving its tiny, stubby limbs as if to direct the effort from on high.
Aeleus wants to laugh so badly, but a sound that loud might scare them off. Instead, he carefully nudges one of the purple ones towards the aglet dangling above all the leaf-topped heads. A gentle poke in the right direction that sees it leap for the new point of focus. Suddenly the crowd is far more coordinated, with all of them now leaping up to either grab the woven cord or the bodies of their fellows. The ones lowest down plant their tiny feet against boot leather and begin to tug again in earnest, using their own strength and the combined weight of the hoard to pull the knot open. Bit by bit, they make progress until finally, with one… well, for them it must be a mighty tug indeed, the knot lets go and the lace is untangled. The cheer the collective lets out at their success is perhaps the most endearing part.
“Oh well done, leaflings!” Aeleus’s voice startles the little creatures, hundreds of eyes peering up at him in shock despite his low, encouraging tone. “Only half done, though. Still have to get it out of the eyelets.”
The creatures don’t move for a long moment. Aeleus almost thinks they’re going to flee.
Then the one perched on his knee squeaks a little pik pik pik call and the rest get to work, scaling the boot to start tugging the laces through with determination, chirping and squeaking in time like a working song.
That settles it, he needs to figure out how to keep the precious little creatures around.