[Short Story] The Giant and the Dwarf

A dwarf lived in a village of giants.

In the village of giants,
the buildings were huge,
the tools were huge,
and the food was huge,
making it a very difficult environment
for a dwarf to live in.

He looked for the smallest house in the village, but
he couldn't reach the door handle,
and the toilet was so big he would fall in.

He bought the smallest frying pan in the village, but
it was too heavy to hold, so he couldn't cook.

He bought the smallest loaf of bread in the village, but
he couldn't finish it and it would rot.

He tried to find work, but
"There is no work you can do."
was what he was told everywhere he went.

Having no other choice,
he asked a giant helper
for assistance with his daily life
and lived that way.

The helper always
looked at the dwarf with sympathetic eyes.

"You poor thing, not being able to do anything."
"I'll do everything for you."

Saying that,
the helper would carry him when moving,
feed him with a spoon at mealtime,
and used diapers because he couldn't use the toilet.

Even things the dwarf could do,
the helper would say "I'll do it for you"
and do everything herself.

Before long,
the dwarf stayed inside his house
and stopped doing anything.

The dwarf lived his life saying
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry"
to the helper who was so kind to him.

One day, from a foreign land,
a traveler who was a dwarf arrived.

The traveler looked at the dwarf's life and said,

"Are you feeling unwell?"

The dwarf could not answer.

The traveler took the dwarf
and returned to his own country.
That country was a land of dwarfs.

In the land of dwarfs, there were
houses of the perfect size for a dwarf,
tools of the perfect weight,
and food in the perfect amount.

The dwarf looked all around the country.
All the dwarfs were
wearing clothes they liked,
at times they liked,
doing things they liked,
and working vibrantly.

The dwarf realized.

"It's not that I can't do anything.
If I just have an environment that suits me,
I can do anything."

The dwarf began his life in the land of dwarfs.

He found work only he could do,
looked for a house that suited him,
bought tools that suited him,
and made and ate the things he liked.

The dwarf could do anything by himself.

One day, the dwarf
met a giant in this country.

The giant had hollow eyes,
was laid in an empty room,
and lived with multiple dwarf helpers
taking care of everything for him.

The dwarf asked,
"Are you feeling unwell?"

The giant replied.
"If I touch things, I hurt them,
and if I move, I break them.
There is no work I can do,
and it is better if I do nothing so I don't cause trouble."

The dwarf thought the giant was just like his former self.

The dwarf returned to the giant's village
together with the giant.

The giant settled into the giant's village
in no time at all
and began to work with vitality.

The dwarf and the giant
began to live together.

They gathered tools
of the right size for each other,
made what they didn't have,
did the work only they could do,

helped each other with things they were bad at,
and praised each other for what they were good at.

Before long,
there were no more giants
who called the dwarf "pitiful."

Now,
the dwarf is asked to do
the delicate work that giants are bad at,
and it is said that they live
in a symbiotic relationship of give and take.

The End

[The Giant and the Dwarf: Reading Version]

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