Every ‘citizen’ would tell you the exact same story. They had been doing all variety of things – walking, sleeping, eating, being mid-conversation… it didn’t matter. One second they were engaged in whatever and the next they were pushing their prone selves off the floor and gradually looking up to see—

“OH! IT WORKED~”

That had been first contact with their… ‘overseer’. Around half of them had no idea what they were looking at… but the other unlucky half quickly recognised the scion of the Proudbeak House himself – Finnelius Proudbeak… or ‘Finn’ – as he insisted. Already terrifying enough given his sheer size but to those who had interacted even the slightest bit with Finn, they already knew that...

“AH! YOU’LL BE WANTING AN EXPLANATION, AYE?”

The lightly accented voice had boomed over them as the far too amused owlin had quickly launched into some ludicrous explanation about trying out a new spell and using some weird runes and not even seeming sure himself as to what exactly he had even done, but that wasn’t even the worst part:

“SO, UM… EFFECTIVELY YOU’RE ALL MY… ‘THESIS’ – IN A WAY~!”

As tiny and pathetic as the chorus of voices down below was, the bird seemed just able to discern the resounding message.

“I KNOW, I KNOW… I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE ASKED FIRST BUT… WOULDN’T THAT BE… BIASED OR SOMETHING? THIS WAY I’VE GOT A WHOLE NATURAL SELECTION!”

The owlin’s expression looked all too pleased with himself as he continued his stare.

“AND EH… TRUTH BE TOLD I’VE SORT OF CUTTING CLOSE TO THE DEADLINE HERE. DIDN’T REALLY HAVE TIME TO ACTUALLY SURVEY OR WHATEVER…”

And then Finn had launched into some even more long-winded explanation on his ‘thesis’ – some crazed experiment to ascertain the logistical possibilities of a ‘shrunken’ city where he would be keeping them for several weeks and checking in to determine—

Several weeks!? The growing panic and outcry from below had the owl pause for a few seconds… only to deliver some further news that silenced the crowd in turn.

“…ANYWAY, I’LL BE RELOCATING YOU ALL INTO THE CARPET IN A BIT. I DID SOME TESTING BEFOREHAND WITH OTHER PLACES AND IT… DIDN’T REALLY WORK OUT. ER… YOU WON’T WANT THE DETAILS.”

With a simple nod, the cheerful owl begun the process of their ‘relocation’ – a nice word to describe his clawed hands settling them all into the vast, foreign world of towering, coloured trees of fabric.

The Carpet.

All they could do was stare up at that still amused face as the bird rose back to his full glorious height, taller than any mountain they could even envision.

“RIGHT… WELL, GOOD LUCK!”

He simply stepped away. The instant his towering form left the horizon; pure chaos had erupted. Shouting, arguing, people gathering together in hastily formed groups to discuss the prospect of escape… but when the continent around you consisted of slightly dirty fabric ridges and motes of dust the size of houses… it wasn’t promising. Especially when the first lot to brave the world had left and never returned…

Quickly, focus had turned to their best bet for survival. Biting their tongues and engaging with their gigantic kidnapper’s ‘thesis’ – after a few weeks the owl would surely return them to their heights, it was just a prospect of surviving until then… a task that was a lot easier to say than actually do. The first day was wasted scrambling about, trying to scout out the confusing strands of carpet. The massive bird had at least seen fit to avoid them for most of the day… until night fell, and without much thought the terrifying sound began that they would soon learn to familiarize themselves with.

THOOM. THOOM. THOOOOOM!

The intense tectonic activity of the student simply walking dismantled any progress the micros had made. The simple act of Finn stepping to his bed and laying down had utterly thwarted their plans. As they settled into night one, their plans instead turned to hurrying about, desperately searching for scattered survivors tossed about by the bird’s motion.

The next few days had been much of the same… if not worse as Finn’s seeming ‘grace period’ faded with each day. They all seemed doomed to oblivion whenever the bird finally stepped a little too close without thinking… when one of the more crafty micros had taken heed of the stretching material strewn about the mountains of fabric. Lint. A bit of useless fluff for the titans above… but for them?

Hurried weaving by the micros had resulted in a rope-like material. Hastened and aided by the lessened gravity owing to their size, the populace was spurred into action. Rather than setting up loose settlements that would be blasted away by the owl’s steps – crude structures were built upon the strange fabric pillars, tightened and secured. When the gigantic owlin student had idly walked by, clawed talons slapping into the ground the micros could only brace—

THOOOOOOOOM-

The carpet strands swayed from the motion… and the buildings held. By the end of the night, a fledgling ‘base’ had been set up amongst the carpet, swinging rope bridges tentatively connecting them. Despite everything stacked against them, the micros finally settled down, slumped as they listened to the distant hurricane winds of the bird snoring.

It was almost eerie how one settled into a situation, no matter how bizarre or out there it was. With the imminent threat of destruction mostly out the way, the next few days passed quickly. Then some more. Then the shrunken people were pretty sure at least a week had passed, yet still no signs of the bird kneeling down to grant them an audience. Wasn’t he supposed to… interview them?

Surely even Finnelius Proudbeak hadn’t forgotten about his latest project?
___

Finn was 90% sure there was something he was supposed to do. Well… I mean of course there was no doubt some small thing that required his attention, but he was pretty sure something major was supposed to be in his schedule… but what?

He paced about the room, looking through drawers and pushing aside stacked papers of assignments he was supposed to have finished months ago. It couldn’t be that – he almost never did assignments to begin with. So, what was bugging him…?

An idle hum left his beak as he raised a foot over his cushy carpet as his eyes settled over to his messy desk where just barely to the left of some stacked plates he needed to bring to the kitchen lay a blank stack of paper for his thesis…

His thes—

“Crap.” Wincing, the bird glanced down to where his foot was hovering, casting a shadow upon the carpet. The carpet where he had left his little test subjects a few weeks ago. He had been supposed to check in on them every other day to conduct observations and interviews… and while he could easily enough fake those, the more pressing point was where they even were. He had left them somewhere in the carpet… the carpet his feet had spent the last week at very least trampling without concern.

The owl sighed and turned his raised foot around to face him, eyes scanning for signs of… tiny civilisation. There didn’t seem to be anything there but… with how small he had made them, would he even be able to see that…? He should probably step back and see about ‘borrowing’ a magnifying glass from one of the science students, but…

Well… what were the odds they were even still there? He couldn’t just avoid his carpet for the rest of time… the chances of this working out for his thesis were pretty astronomically slim anyway. With a blink, the owlin flexed his toes, gave a sigh, and lowered it down.

thump.

Was it too late to try stealing a thesis topic from one of the other students on his course…? He always did his best work the last minute before a deadline anyway. Walking to the door, Finn decided on a quick flight to the library – maybe something would jump out to him there…

======

Art by  DraxosDragon who did a fantastic Finn!

Happy International Owl Day! Please remind Finn of it – he’s almost certainly forgotten. I am very fond of this hooter, while I love all my DnD characters, sometimes Finn shines just a little brighter than the rest with his dulcet Scottish tone…

Is the carpet civilisation destroyed under the owl’s foot? Are they durable enough to spend the rest of their existence settling into the vast expanse of Finn’s carpet? It is up to the reader!