This is the first chapter to a book I've got posted elsewhere. It was originally requested 2 years ago but I liked it a lot and decided to make it a book :3

Today's been so boring.. I swear I'll die from just boredom. It's an annoying day. Nothing's happening here in the shop. No customers, no more of us 'tinies' being bought. I guess that's a good thing.. But the easiest way to escape is to be bought. This place is stupid. I wish I could just get out of here.. Not just myself but my distant pals. The ones on the shelves beside mine. Ging and Kila. They are my neighbors and my absolutely crazy friends. Though we may never meet face to face and only rely on voices, I'd say we like family. Always coming up with plans to get out of here and running free in the world again. Well. I guess that's all I have to write today. Time to sit around and wait for the place to close for the night.

  ~ logged on a day, sometime in the year. I don't give a crap.

  I heaved a sigh, popped my journal into my small pack, and leaned against the back of the cage wall. Such a boring day. There were, like, three people that actually came to the shop today. They didn't even buy anything, instead, they just looked around. Why can't they just close now? Ain't nobody coming this late in the day.

  Would it really matter if anyone did anyway? Sure, they'd look around and whatever, but it's so doubtful that anyone is going to buy scrawny little tiny people anymore unless it's for some stupid kid that'll pull you limb from limb because it thinks you're a flipping doll. What kind of psychopathic generation is being raised? Somebody needs to teach discipline.

  My thoughts sure are productive today. Thinking about kids again. Just what I needed.

  Slowly, I forced myself to stand and hobble over to the glass pane that let me stare out into the 'amazing' shop I was trapped in. I stopped directly in front of the clear wall, pressing my face up against it as if it proved how devastatingly bored I was.

  I've lived here for about 11 months now and have grown completely neutral to this place. The employees find me as a 'handful' apparently. Probably because I've been bought and returned many, many times. It's definitely because of my strategy. Depending on the person that 'adopts' me, I refuse to talk or I'll talk to them all the time without shutting up. Course it's dangerous and I do indeed have scars from over-tempered people. It's so very easy to make people annoyed.

Though I would say I'm lucky to never have had to deal with a kid. So far, I haven't come up with any strategies for those vermin. I'd rather eat a rat leg than get trapped in a room with a kid.

  Heaving another exaggerated sigh, I pulled my face away from the glass and tottered to my little endearing house. I dusted a pile of shavings to heap on one side of me before plopping down on the cold metal. Maybe I could attempt to draw again. I'm not great at it.. but practice makes perfect, right?

  Hesitantly, I reached for my pack and pulled out my notebook. Sure. It was a journal, but I had nothing else to use. Plus, the semi-straight lines worked like a grid of sorts, and, just like that, I peeped my head out the front of my 'castle' and began to draw what I saw.

  Though the drawings were absolutely horrific, I managed to get a shelf, the cashier, the rack next to the door, and a bit of the manager drawn before somebody walked in. Odd. A customer.

Closing my book and packing it away to safety, I glanced up at the clock. 6:55. Just about time to close and this.. weirdo decided to show up. Firstly, this guy wore those slick new 'airpod' things and extremely nice clothes, despite it being just a hoodie and jeans. His vibe was like one of those distinctive rich kids from the old t.v. reruns that played during lunch break.

  Even though it made no difference, I scoffed at the college kid. It didn't really matter and I could've cared less, but for some reason, this guy ticked me off. Yet.. I did begin to wonder what that kind of person would want from such a junky store like this one. Maybe supplies or something.

  Wrong. The next thing I knew, I was being taken away from my cage. To be fair, I should have been used to being handled by now, but no matter how much I've tried, I have just always hated it. Probably always will.

  My struggle was cut short as I was dropped into a small cardboard box. Of course, it was one of those awfully shaped ones and had holes poked through the sides, but it was still an awful place to be. A shaky sigh left me as I tried to convince myself that they were just cleaning the cage or something but then the lid was reopened and another borrower like myself was roughly dropped in.

Our eyes met and I could tell we were both confused. This was the first time I'd ever been so close to another of my species. Well, at least since I was stowed away in this store.

It was a young teen boy like myself, but he had red hair, freckles, bright green eyes, and a decent-ish style of clothes.

  "Who are you?" He asked. His voice quaked with fear, but I could still hear the familiarity in his voice. My 'neighbor' from the cage.. I could've easily been wrong, so I held back on calling him any name, instead, I inhaled a shaky breath.

  "I'm Reb. Reb Hilk. Who are-" Before I could even finish the question, he had already practically flung himself at me to get a hug which I returned.

  "It's me, Ging! I can't believe it's really you!! I never thought we'd ever see each other.." His voice cracked, taking me aback at his sudden vulnerability.

  "Neither did I.."

  The moment was interrupted as the box shifted roughly before being opened again. Two more tinies were put in. At first, I had figured that was all of us that were going to be taken, but pretty soon there were roughly eleven of us all together, huddling in groups. Most were terrified, but some were curious, looking out the holes.

  A part of my protectiveness kicked in and I began to pace. This situation had suddenly become much more worrisome. Where were we going? Were more of us going to all get crammed together? There were too many questions and nowhere to get any answers. All I knew is that we had to stick together and figure it out, otherwise we might lose each other.

  The movement continued, shifting from being abrupt to absolutely nothing. What was happening? Were we being bought? Was the store shutting down? Were we going to be.. exterminated?

  I shook my head at the last awful thought. That couldn't have possibly been what was happening. Right..?

  Another shaky sigh escaped my throat as I joined a small group that were huddled together and Ging followed suit. In all my years of living, I had never seen such fear-stricken faces. It panged my heart, but the only thing I could do was comfort. For the first time, I felt helpless.

  In an attempt to locate where we were going, I glanced towards the holes. It didn't help much since the sun had set completely. Of course it had. Lovely.

  Soon enough, after waiting in the dark for roughly twenty minutes, there was suddenly a lot of noise followed by a lot of movement. The box was lifted, a little too fast, and was carried somewhere else.

  As if thinking the same thing, none of us made a single noise, allowing the fear levels to rise again. That's when it dawned on me. Kila, my other neighbor, wasn't with us. Was she not taken? Maybe that was a good thing..

  Then, after what felt like an eternity, the box was set on a table of some sort and someone was messing with the box as if they had no idea how to open it. The tension rose and the silence became deafening. All I could do was hold my breath as the lid slowly fell open.

  Instead of being met face to face with a trash can, like I previously thought, we were greeted by the college kid. My fear was replaced with a sudden stubbornness. I couldn't help but glare up at him. Of course, it was him. He just had to take us away from where we were and no man in their right thoughts would buy so many tinies for pets. He must've had some other plan. Something much worse.

  Just as the guy reached his hand in to take some of us out, I quickly interfered by backhanding him as hard as I could on the finger. Surprisingly he backed off.

  "Fuck off." I growled. The look he gave me was utterly pitiful, but I didn't care. Protectively, I stood my ground in front of my kind, as a defender.

  There was such a cold silence I felt like I could hear the hair on my neck stand on end, but it didn't last long as someone else suddenly scooped the group up and out of the box from behind me. The fear seared through me as I spun around on my heels. It was such a swift motion, I tripped over my own legs.

  "Hey-" My voice was cut off as my chest collided against the ground, knocking the breath out of me. I could hear Ging calling for me, but I couldn't seem to catch my breath before I also was lifted out of the box.

  After I regained myself and thoughts in that small moment, I began to thrash around in the hands of my new captor. It was definitely the one who I just had a stare-down with.

11/22/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription part 1

James 1 - 5

Welcome to Daily Audio Bible Chronological, I'm Jill. today's the 22nd day of November, welcome to each and every one of you that are here who have made an effort and a conscious choice to engage in the scriptures for whatever reason it is that you're here, I pray that God will speak to your heart and you will know the heart of God in a real true and intimate way to think that we can have intimacy a personal relationship with the creator of our being is quite remarkable. we are diving into a brand new book today, it's the Book of James. and if you're not familiar with James, James is no joke. James is not come to play and James does not mince words in any stretch of the imagination so I caution you that if you're really listening to the scripture and you want to catch everything you may have to pause regularly in today's reading before we do that, Jesus I pray that you would soften those hard places in our hearts and our minds that we have grown tallest and ridges and edges that are pointy and sharp and impenetrable and speak to us holy spirit, convict us and changes from the inside out James chapters 1 through 5 reading the New Living Translation. 

Commentary

Finished the entire book of James today, and and I would argue that anything I could say after this would keep in the words of James when they are just so powerful and poignant on their own. I could close my eyes and pick any sentence and any one of these five chapters in The Book of James and give personal stories and examples of doing the opposite of what James says to do, and so I read these words today with great conviction I read these words today with feeling the weight of such words from the brother of Jesus himself that knows endurance first hand by watching what his brother endure that understands the power of belief when people will call you crazy for who and what you believe in. I hear the teaching from a man who watched his brother obey the voice of his father and never bow his knee to appease the opinions of people that he was not even in relationship with. I hear the power and the questioning of why are you catering to the rich to the famous when they already have plenty. why are we treating them with royalty and walking past those in need. I hear the conviction of a brother that says faith without doing anything about it is dead it's not enough to believe unless your belief is active. I hear an essential word of controlling our tongues from a man who watched his brother torn by judgment slander assumption and a slow death that we literally kill people with daily by the words that we choose and the slander and gossip that we participate in. I hear the wisdom of a man who watched his brother lead with humility sent to serve a people and not to overtake a government here the tenderness in a man who knows the importance of intimacy with God the Father I hear the poignant truth of criticizing and judging one another near the gentle reminder of patience and endurance on the Journey of Faith. I hear the suggestion conversation with god especially amidst hardships because no one not a single one of us will escape hardships. finally I hear the beauty in the words for both The Wanderer and the one that brings The Wanderer home if we really listen to this book of James the brother of Jesus yes it smacks us hard as it should conviction is uncomfortable it's the discomfort that causes us to stop consider our actions consider our words and examine ourselves and if we don't like the person that we've been or that we are being, we get a chance to be the person that we want to be, the person that draws people to Jesus, maybe even the person that if somebody has walked away from God because of the hypocrisy of God's people they would see us and not be impressed with Who We Are but they would be impressed by what God has done in us to change us so that we would ultimately draw people to this brother of James, who is Jesus. 

Prayer

so Jesus we thank you for these words today. and as much as they hurt and pinch and sting and convict us, I pray that we would find the Hope in them may that hope give us the endurance to keep going another day another minute knowing that you are with us you never leave us you never forsake us thank you for the space and time of meeting with us here. and I pray this now in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.