Paradoxcicle

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"Where am I, where am I? You'll never know!" the voice taunted, joyful at their confusion.

"Step out here, you coward! I'll get you for that one..." Xiv stepped in front of Gillion with a wide stance. Was it invisible, was it good at hiding? Where the hell could it even be?

"Hey, look down."

Xiv laughed, "I'm not just letting you sneak up on me that easily."

"Well, your loss," Xiv heard, and then felt as something hit against their ankles and their legs buckled. Gillion just managed to hold onto their arm but Xiv still ended up suspended at a 45 degree angle, their head facing down at the ground. The ground on which they could now see a slimy little man, barely a foot tall.

"...you," Xiv snarled and threw their free arm down to grab at it, the little man barely jumping out of the way of their sharp nails.

"Just try and grab me, I'll slip between your fingers!" he boasted. Xiv took that for the challenge it was and on their next attack swung their hand back to grab instead of swipe at him, which was a success, but maybe too much of one.

As Xiv gripped tight they were met with an uncomfortable sensation of slime squishing in their palm and their hand loosened slightly in uncontrollable discomfort. That was enough for the slime man to do as he'd said and slip out, making a run for it in the other direction.

"Oh no you don't! I've done this with worms and I can do it with you!" they yelled after him, pulling out of Gillion's grip and crawling across the floor with unreasonable speed.

The slime man seemed to pick up on this and dove under the kitchen cupboards before he was caught up to and recaptured.

"You fucking-! What even are you?" they hissed, pressing their head against the floor to try and see him, "why the hell are you so small?"

"Kekekeke," he returned to laughing as a disembodied voice.

"Stop!" Xiv demanded, but there wasn't much they could do when they couldn't even get to him.

"Lost him?" Gillion walked over and offered a hand to help Xiv back up.

"This is worse than that damn frog," Xiv said as means of confirmation and took Gillion's hand to get back off the floor. They might've been embarrassed, if it weren't for the fact their determination to catch this thing outweighed any lesser emotions like shame or logic.

Logic probably didn't count as an emotion. Either way, Xiv wasn't bothering with it.

"We don't want to harm you, but if you continue hitting our ankles we may have to," Gillion threatened. He watched as Xiv carefully swiped a glass from a nearby shelf and put a finger over their mouth so that Gillion wouldn't comment on it. He silently nodded to them, having an idea of what they might be planning.

"Give me a few minutes and you won't be able to lay a finger on me, I'll be small enough to slip through your molecules!" they could hear his voice having travelled elsewhere in the room, and whilst there was still no visual sign of him, Xiv could follow the source of the noise to get an idea where he was heading.

"You're going to get eaten by a rat before that point," Xiv told him, tensely awaiting their chance to strike.

"Rats have ankles too! Twice as many!" he proclaimed and suddenly a green blur ran out from under a cabinet going right towards Xiv. Unfortunately for him, they were ready, and threw down the glass with force almost enough to smash it.

"Aha!" they exclaimed, shifting their hand to see the man now firmly trapped inside. He didn't look very happy about the situation.

"Wha-? Hey, that's cheating! You cheated!" he sounded muffled through the glass.