~The Prompt~
You flipped a coin in to a well, and you magically received a baby. How do you deal with this crisis? Did you always want a child, or was this a flippant wish gone wrong? How do you tell your family you've finally (or suddenly) adopted? And how does your cabbage child react to you?
Tock stood 5’10 as a child. His shoulders were almost two feet wide, and he towered over the rest of the kids on the island. Not that he cared. He was the way he was meant to be, he figured, and his size and strength had come in handy over the past few months. He ran a hand over his face, feeling the various aches and pains that came from spending the entire day working on rebuilding the ship that he had found on the beach.
He was getting closer, he told himself. He had ripped out all of the rotten wood that made up the bottom and started sawing down trees with some of the rusty tools he had found in the ship. If he could replace the wood he would have a really cool place to hang out. One close to the water. He really loved the water, after all.
At the moment, though, Tock was heading towards the Troll Mountain, wearing a very worn looking pair of pants and a shirt that had more rips than material on it at this point. He was getting sick of wearing clothes, actually. All they did was get wet and caught on objects, but he figured he needed to at least wear something, since he planned on being a Pirate Captain in the future. Pirate Captains always dressed cool.
Yeah, he thought, he would get a dress shirt and some boots and pants, and jewelry! He had found some, actually, on the bottom of the ocean in a rotting chest. Being a gator came in handy, he thought. He had pulled the chest up from the ocean floor and hidden it in a cave full of gators bigger than himself. He reached up, his large hand closing on the ruby necklace he had kept out. It was a promise, he told himself, that one day he’d be wearing things like this all the time. He also had one or two of the gold coins he had found in his pockets, as a promise he wouldn’t be broke forever.
But at the moment everything else just tended to get caught on nails and wood.
He caught sight of the cherry grove to his left, wondering if he was hungry enough to try and steal another week’s worth of rations. But he didn’t want cherries, he thought irritably. He wanted meat. And the best place to get meat was the Troll Mountains. If he could catch something, he’d be eating good for days! Maybe even weeks, he thought, his mouth drooling at the thought.
He was a little lonely, though, he admitted silently. Sure some of the other kids helped him with the ship when they had the time (in amongst their pillaging, which he wasn't about to stop), and sure there were other kids building a tree house in the middle of the island, but he had been born with a bit of knowledge, and he had realized right away what this island lacked. “It needs more good looking girls,” he said with a nod. “Is it too much to ask for a girl that’ll admire my skills? And not a mermaid,” he added quickly. “Only reason I’m not dead right now is because I can hold my breath so—“
He stopped, his eyes catching on a well that he hadn’t noticed before. He shoved his hands a bit deeper into his pant pockets, heading for the well and looking down it curiously. It was dark, but he could smell the water, no matter how deep it was. His nostrils flared at the scent. It was oddly sweet. The only problem was, he thought, was that there didn’t seem to be a bucket. He looked around for a moment, until something occurred to him. “A wishing well!” he said, breaking into a grin. “It’s a wishing well!”
He paused, sifting through the information that had been placed into his mind when he had been in the cabbage. “First you need to toss something in,” he thought, looking around. “Wait, it needed to be money,” he said, digging out one of his few coins and holding it up to the light. “Well… I’ll get more,” he decided, flipping the coin into the well.
“Alright, wishing well,” he said, pressing both hands on the edge of the well and looking down into it. “I have a wish.”
There was no response, but he waited for it, as if the wishing well had some sort of consciousness. He kind of wanted to think he wasn’t being stupid, tossing away a perfectly good coin like that. But there was no response. Of course, he thought, there was still no point in wasting the coin he had tossed.
“Okay, then don’t respond,” he said. (Obviously Tock had no sixth sense whatsoever). “I’ll just make my wish. I want—“ His mind rushed, trying to think of what he wanted. There were a million things he would have been able to say before this moment, but his mind was blank for some reason. “I want a girl,” he said, almost shocked by his own words. But it was true, he thought, he had just been thinking it.
“I want someone cute, too. No, not just cute, I want her beautiful! And hot!” he said, even though he was still a bit confused on that part. Most of his knowledge from the cabbage had been television and radio stations picked up in the air. “She’s got to be hot. I’m talking smokin’ hot, got it? And she’s got to adore me. I mean, bringing me stuff to eat at lunch, and watching me work, and… and someone that needs me,” he muttered, flushing slightly as he admitted it. Nobody really needed him. The other kids had just followed him to the pirate ship because they got tired of the leaders back at the tree house tellin' them what to do.
They hadn’t loved him. Not that he would ever put it that way if he was saying it aloud. He stared at the water in the well, seeing no response. “What?” he finally demanded, angrily tugging the necklace off and holding it over the water. “This is my promise to myself, got it? But if it works, it’ll be worth it.” He dropped the necklace, watching with bated breath as it made ripples in the water.
The water stilled and still nothing happened. He cursed, kicking the side of the well and turning to walk away.
“Stupid wishing well,” he muttered. “Doesn’t even wor—“
A tiny sound came from behind him, and he jerked, turning around slowly. He still wanted to believe, regardless of how unlikely it seemed. He jerked to a stop at the sight of a tiny little girl sitting on the ground, her wild red and gold hair in her face, the necklace he had tossed into the well hanging from her neck. It bounced against her stomach as she looked up, shoving her hair out of her face. Then she grinned at him. “Daddy!”
Tock fainted dead away.
***
“Daddy?” The voice seemed to be far away, even though he felt tiny hands on his chest, trying to shove on him. They didn’t make much of an impact. “Wake up, Daddy! Wake up!”
He groaned, opening his eyes for a moment to look at the little redhead whose nose was almost touching his snout. “Wha?” he asked.
“You fall down,” she told him seriously.
“Wait,” he said, sitting up. “Did you call me Daddy?”
“Yeah!” she said, smiling brightly at him. “Daddy!” Then she threw herself at him, hugging him tightly and making cooing little sounds. She was so tiny that she barely stood as tall as his torso.
“I’m not a dad!” he said. “I’m just a kid!” But she was ignoring him, cuddling closer and making happy little noises.
He groaned and fell back again, unwittingly taking her down with him. This was NOT what he had expected.
***
“You were workin’ on the ship on your own again, Cap’n,” a young black boy called from atop of the ship bones. “I told you not to do that.” His name was Jake and he was a skinny little twerp who had been following Tock around since they were babies. His long hair fell in dreadlocks around his face, and he wore nothing but a pair of baggy pants.
“I ain’t the captain,” Tock said, picking up the little girl that was walking beside him before she tripped over a fallen log.
“You ain’t the captain yet,” Jake said. “And who’s that?”
“Who’s what?” Tock asked even as Polly mimicked his cross look, crossing her arms over her chest and scowling up at Jake. The scowl clashed with her pretty face, making it even funnier.
“The twerp that’s right next to you!” Jake said. “I don’t remember her!”
Oh, her,” Tock said, glancing down at the girl. “Hell if I know. Some girl that followed me home.” Which wasn’t exactly the truth, but not exactly a lie, either.
“What’s her name?” Jake asked, dropping down from atop the ship and walking over. “Man she’s tiny,” he said. He towered over her by three and a half feet, and he wasn’t nearly as tall as Tock. “Look, she’s got feathers in her hair. She must be a bird girl, right?”
“Huuuh… yeah, I guess so,” Tock said, looking a bit closer.
“So she’ll be the ship bird?” Jake asked.
“No, she—“ Tock sighed. “Yeah, I guess so,” he admitted as she grabbed onto his leg, latching on tightly.
“Nice to meet’cha, Polly,” Jake said.
