Martin barely remembered Mom or the others. There used to be a family once, a large one. So many uncles and aunties. Other children too, none his siblings, but they might as well have been. But that was a long time ago, and Martin had been very young then.

He was sure, his Dad had meant to tell him someday, maybe when he was older, but.. Dad never got the chance.

All he remembered was that something terrible happened and that his Mom had died, and everyone had been very angry at his Dad, or maybe it had been Dad who was angry at everyone, Martin wasn't sure.

Dad had packed two bags, a very large and heavy one for himself and a smaller one for Martin, and had told him they were going to go hiking, just for a few days, my boy, don't worry, it will be an adventure, just like in the stories you like so much.

Martin had asked if they were going to go out to look for Mom, and his father had smiled, but had looked very sad, and had said that yes, maybe they would eventually come to the place where Mom was now, although that was very far away.

And so they had left and never returned.

The next few years had been hard. In the beginning, his father had tried his best to shield Martin from the harsher realities of life, but in their situation, there was only ever so much he could do.

Play-pretend cannot hide the fact that you are starving, and there is no room for fun and games when you are trying to escape from a predator. Rats, even mice, are highly dangerous when food is in short supply, and being caught by cats, dogs, birds or spiders means certain death. Ants and other insects can be just as dangerous and need to be avoided at all cost.

The outside is vast and full of things out to get you, but so are the houses.

Humans are most dangerous of all.

Being dragged away from the cozy security of his family and tribe, there was no choice but for Martin to grow up fast. He and his father led a nomadic existence, always moving on, never staying long anywhere, no matter how good or secure it appeared to be.

They hunted, scavenged and stole what it took to stay alive, never more than a few meals away from starvation, never more than a few steps away from disaster.

And inevitably, one day, disaster had struck.

The manner of it had been stupid, really, far too mundane for something so monstrously devastating. There had been no drama, no fending off of a predator, no heroic self-sacrifice, no whispered last words.

There had been the unthreatening ordinary, as ordinary as it ever got, and from one second to the next, the world had ended with nothing more than a short startled gasp.

Martin had been a few weeks shy of his 14th birthday when it happened. He and his father had been inside someone's house, and after a somewhat successful supply-run, had found a nice hidden spot on a shelf to rest for the night. Martin had been setting out dinner while his father had busied himself storing their latest acquisitions and setting up camp.

Martin hadn't even been looking in his direction as his father tripped over something or other, and with nothing more than a soft, startled noise, fell clean off the shelf.

Just like that.

No desperate gripping of edges, no calls or screams. Just that one tiny sound, that made Martin look around-

just in time to see his father disappear over the edge and fall to his death below.

"Excuse me!," the man called, out of breath ''Please..! You need to get.. away from there for a second!"

A round of blank stares greeted the middle-aged man.

He had jogged the last few meters after spotting his quarry run towards the bus stop, and it took some time before he had regained his breath. His face had turned even redder from the unexpected exertion, and beads of sweat ran down his forehead.

"My.. pet rat..! He ran away- just saw him.. come here! He's hiding here somewhere, so please, just step back and let me have a quick look."

That got people moving. One of the women apparently had a bit of a phobia, as she uttered a short shriek, as soon as the "rat" was mentioned and was halfway across the street by the time Sam had gotten up. One or two of the men also moved rather fast, although they tried to be a little less conspicuous about it, probably too 'manly' to admit to something like a fear of rats. The rest of the commuters just moved over at a normal pace but were stopped when they tried to grab their bags.

"Please, I'm very sorry, but could you leave those where they are? Poor Marty, he get's frightened so easily, I think he might be hiding in one of those. I'm so sorry, just let me have a quick look, won't take a minute..."

The woman across the street gave a whimper at that, and all but threw the handbag she had been carrying back towards the bus stop. There was muttering now.

"Ew, I'm sorry Mister, but that is disgusting. If there's a rat in my backpack I'm not touching that ever again, and you had better be ready to buy me a new one!," the girl who had been busy with her phone exclaimed. "Who keeps rats anyway? They're gross! You should count yourself lucky it's gone!"

"Actually, rats make fairly good pets. Very intelligent animals. Loyal too. Friend of mine used to keep a pair, and she absolutely loved them," someone threw in.

"They can all be bloody Einsteins for all I care! Have you looked at those tails? No way I'm touching something like that. Gross. Ugh!"

"What do you think you're doing? No way I'm just letting you go through my pack! Hey, I said get your hands off there!"

Sam had stepped away from the bus stop just as swiftly as most of the other people waiting there, and was now happy to just stand at the edges, and observe the growing commotion, going along with the tiny crowd where necessary so he wouldn't stand out.

Two of the others had already gone back and picked up their belongings, giving them a quick once over to check for the "rat", so Sam just followed suit, grabbing his backpack and making a show of looking through it, only to announce that there was no rat inside.

The chubby man meanwhile, was in a desperate frenzy, trying to look everywhere at once, his panic rising as more and more people simply picked up their bags and went to stand a few feet away from the bus-stop, while at the same time he was hard pressed to try and get away from an elderly lady, who accused him of trying to steal her purse.

During it all, Sam could feel the tiny figure pressed to his ankle shaking slightly. There was a noticeable flinch, every time the middle-aged man's voice could be heard, that for some reason, drove the man's actions home even more clearly than the horrible state the tiny guy had been in, or his look of utter fear and panic had.

It was such a tiny movement, really, but it made Sam inwardly boil with rage, and made him itch to just step up and beat that cruel, disgusting fucker senseless.

Some other time, he promised himself. Now, not being noticed was far more important.

At the other end of Salisbury Road, the bus rounded the corner.

Sam was worried.

The way things were looking now, the man seemed pretty convinced that his former captive had hidden himself in someone's luggage, so chances were, he would board the bus alongside them and, if unable to discover the whereabouts of the young man, would at least take note where each of the passengers lived. With only seven other people to check on, that got him far closer than Sam liked.

Ideally, he wanted that creeper to have not even the faintest idea of where to start looking, so that there was no chance in hell of him even suspecting where his former victim might have disappeared to.

And for once, luck was on his side.

Just as the 475 came to a halt in front of them, some small furry creature - it might even have been an actual rat - sprang from its hiding place a little further up the path and disappeared into the bushes.

The phobic woman caught it first, pointing and exclaiming ''There! I saw it!'', making the chubby man turn just in time to see something enter the bushes at a run, for he immediately turned and went after it, while Sam boarded the bus.

Soon after, the doors closed, and the 475 was on its way, leaving Salisbury Road far behind, the red-faced chubby man on his hands and knees, frantically looking through the foliage.

Sam let out a long sigh of relief.

They had made it.

The 475 was fairly empty, as usual. Sam took a seat in the very last row, the next passenger being on the opposite side, a good 8 feet away. Having all the privacy he could wish for, he carefully reached down.

***

Martin had been holding on for dear life for the past 10 minutes. His eyes screwed shut, he had pressed himself against the stranger's ankle, gripping the elastic fabric of his sock as hard as he could. He had tried paying attention at first, but being incapable to either influence the situation, or even escape had driven him mad with terror, and in the end, he had just tightened his grip, closed his eyes, and waited for the whole thing to finally be over - one way, or the other.

He had relaxed somewhat after hearing the giant stranger make some relieved noise when they had boarded the bus, but he hadn't released his grip, which was lucky, as the giant started moving again soon after.

Now, Martin just clung there in the semi-dark, waiting for whatever was to come next.

He didn't have to wait long.

The enormous foot shifted some, and then the thick fabric that surrounded him got pulled up.

The giant's huge hand reached down and engulfed Martin's back. He tensed, waiting to be yanked up, preparing for the pain and nausea that would cause.

To his surprise, the giant, however, didn't grab him, but instead just tried supporting Martin's weight, and clumsily, but gently helped him extract his legs from inside his shoes, before carefully pushing Martin into his open palm with his thumb. He used his fingers to hold him there, while slowly lifting him up, his other hand seemingly appearing out of nowhere to gently cradle Martin's injured back.

The whole thing was done with so much care, and the way the stranger's warm hands engulfed him felt so much like receiving a hug, in his worn out state, Martin was almost tempted to let go of all caution, to just sink into the embrace and cry with relief until he simply fell asleep.

Instead, his eyes were drawn up, towards the face of the giant stranger who bent over him, looking down at Martin with those huge brown eyes of his.

His strong features softened, as he met Martin's gaze, turning into a hesitant smile.

"So, um.. 'Hi' again.", he seemed to think for a moment, unsure how to continue, then just shrugged. "I'm Sam."

He looked down expectantly, so Martin swallowed and collected himself enough to reply.

"Martin.."

"Well.. nice to meet you." Sam paused for a moment, just staring down at the tiny person he held in his hands, a look of amused disbelief on his face, but then he caught himself, shook his head and grinned down at Martin apologetically.

"Sorry. This is just.. so surreal. Anyway.. Martin?"

Sam's eyes were turning softer, his smile now kind.

"It's over, you've made it. That guy will never touch you again. I can only guess what happened to you, and, to be quite honest I'm not even sure I want to know, but.."

- the long fingers wrapped around Martin gave his shoulders a gentle squeeze -

"You're safe now. I promise."

Such a tiny chance.

So very unlikely.

He wished so badly for it to be true.

So just for now, just for a short while, Martin let himself believe.

Stopped resisting, just let himself sink into the warm embrace and wept.

He felt himself being lifted, cradled against the giant's chest, Sam gently stroking his back as Martin cried,

until he fell asleep.

A/N:
Oho, what is this?
A new story-arc with all different characters?
Tragedy, Suspense, Backstory and Drama?
And is that Fluff  I smell?

So, how do you like our latest additions to the story?

:D