With a final jab of my sword I pierced the wizard’s chest, driving the point through his heart.  He let out one last gasp then fell silent, blood dribbling from his mouth.  I set my boot on his chest and kicked him off, freeing the blade.  His body hit the ground with a dull thud, and I wiped his dark blood from my weapon with a spare cloth before sliding it back into its sheath.

 

I looked around at what the battle had cost.  My friends were all dead or had their souls sucked out of them, but the summoner and all his minions had fallen as well.  From the garish and ornate decorations in his lair alone I should be able to raise enough money to get my party resurrected if I could get them back to a temple in time.  The hardest part would be lugging them all back out of the dungeon and onto the wagon, then avoiding all the questions about why I was dragging around three dead bodies.

 

Looting this place was going to take all day, and I might as well get started.  Beginning on the right I spotted a pair of sconces that were attached to the wall.  They were poorly bolted, though, and I should be able to yank them right off.  I gripped one with a bare hand and gave it a firm tug.  To my surprise it came off much more easily than expected, but a long metal slide kept it from coming any further.  Encouraged, I released it and let it slide back into the wall so I could try again.

 

It slid back with a click, and the section of wall beside it pushed back.  There was a loud grinding while it slid to the side, revealing a small room past it.  A secret room this far in the dungeon was unexpected, but if it was attached to the conjurer’s lair it had to have something good in it.  I abandoned my pursuit of stealing everything that was not firmly nailed down and went to investigate.

 

The room was disappointingly sparse of objects, with just a pair of candelabras burning in the center, but in the middle of an etched circle of glowing runes there was a lone woman standing, facing the secret door in rapt attention.  Even in the dim candle light I could tell she was strikingly beautiful.  She had long, silky black hair down to her waist and large, almost black eyes, with sharp features and full, pouty lips.  Tall and thin yet well-endowed, she wore a form-fitting green velvet dress with gold embroidery and a plunging neckline, and a slit running from her right ankle to the middle of her thigh.  A black choker accentuated her long, delicate neck, and she wore high heels the color of ivory.

 

“You’re not my keeper,” she said, arching an eyebrow.  Her voice was smoky and sultry, and even the simplest statements from her sounded seductive.  “Are you one of his friends, then?”

 

“I’m not,” I replied simply.  “In fact, I have slain your keeper, as it were.  If you like, I can escort you to the surface so you can get back to your life.  But first, please tell me your name.”

 

“I’m Kiri,” she purred.  “I will gladly leave this dank pit, but before that I need to reward my savior.”  She extended an arm and beckoned me with her finger.  “Come here so I can give you your… reward.”

 

I was hoping for something a little more substantial, but a kiss from a damsel no longer in distress would do for now.  Maybe she would feel more generous later, since she was obviously well-off and needed to be reunited with her fortune before giving it away.  Eagerly I stepped into the circle and walked up to Kiri, then looked up into her wide eyes.  Up close I realized she was about a head taller than me, more evidence that she came from nobility.

 

She looked down at me and smirked.  “Well?  Come get it.”  If she needed me to make the first move, she would not have to ask twice.  I wrapped one arm around her waist and put the other on her shoulder, then dipped her back.  For a second I left her there, holding her in my arms before moving in.  My lips touched hers and passion ignited, with her pushing back hard.  Kiri wrapped an arm around me, holding me tightly against her while we kissed.

 

Her teeth sank into my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.  I tried to step back away but she was much stronger than she looked, and only succeeded in making her stand.  She stayed hunched over, sucking the blood gushing out of my lip while I tried to get away.  Finally she let go, running her tongue over red lips to catch a few drops that were sliding down her chin.  Still in shock I stared up at her, wondering what she was thinking.

 

By way of explanation she let out a malevolent laugh and leaned over, putting her beautiful face right in front of mine.  “Thanks for making it so easy,” she teased, then stood back up.  Kiri placed a finger in the middle of my forehead and a sharp heat came off the tip.  “You mortals are so gullible, all it takes is a pretty face and a sob story and you’ll give anything.”  Mortals?  What was she talking about?  “My name isn’t Kiri, it’s Kirinhalut, and I’m a succubus from the infinite layers of the Abyss.  You, however, are unimportant, beyond the fact that you are mine now, in a pact sealed with your own blood.”

 

“Yours?  Pact?  What do you mean?” I asked in a panic.  Again I tried to step back from her, but the bond she was making with her finger held me firmly in place.  All I could move was my mouth to speak.  I looked up at her and she seemed to be getting larger, the truth of her demonic being looming large in my mind.

 

“Just what I said, worm!” she replied, shoving my head back.  “Your body and soul are my property since you foolishly gave me some of your blood!”  While she spoke she continued to grow, and I could no longer brush it off as a mental trick or illusion.

 

“What are you doing to me?” I asked.  If she were actually growing she would have bumped against the ceiling by now since I was eye level with her waist, so I must have been shrinking instead.

 

“Aw, the poor clueless mortal wants answers?” Kirinhalut chided.  She cackled, then looked down to drink in my growing fear.  “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you, since you can’t get away.  Other succubi are content to control the libido of their mortals to corrupt them, while I prefer to dominate their whole body.  You’re going to endure so much agony at my feet that when you finally die you can jump right into the horrors of the Abyss.”  Now I was down to her knees, clearly visible thanks to the slit running up her dress. Her finger had lost touch with my forehead while I dwindled, but I was still effectively paralyzed.

 

“You can’t do this to me!” I protested.  “I’ll fight it!  I’ll smite you like the demon you are the moment you let me go!”

 

“You’re certainly welcome to try,” she responded, capping it off with a chuckle.  “You seem to be shrinking quite well, though, and when it’s done you’ll find your ‘smiting’ ability greatly diminished.”  Kirinhalut stepped forward, placing the toe of her shoe against my chest, and to my horror it was nearly the size of my whole stomach.  She shoved me with it, staggering me back, and when I stopped I was just shy of her ankles.

 

Though I had kept myself from falling I was still unable to make any meaningful movements.  My arm ached to draw my sword, but all I could do was watch helplessly while Kirinhalut became bigger in my view.  She looked like a giantess now, and while I had no clue how I would fight her without magic I knew I had to try.  My body and soul were on the line.

 

I finally stopped getting smaller, and the gigantic succubus gave me an arrogant look.  “Go on, then,” she taunted, grinning.  Her voice still had a hint of its sultry sexiness but had become much deeper.  Louder.  “Smite me.  That is, if you haven’t thought better of it.”

 

My hand reached over and clasped the hilt of my sword, then drew it ringing from its sheath.  There was no way I was going to be kept by her, not as a pet or torture object or anything.  I raised my sword and charged, letting out a battle cry as I advanced.  The distance was much further than I expected, and the whole time I ran across the bare stone floor toward her she gave me a bemused smile.  In just a few seconds I was going to wipe that smug smile off her face.

 

I climbed onto the toe of her shoe like it was a wall and continued forward, dashing toward the exposed skin of her foot.  The floor slid out from under me and I fell, her foot tipping radically downward before I could reach the skin.  Thinking quickly, I tried to grab onto the shoe, but with a quick tap of the toe against the floor she rattled my grip flee and I dropped to the floor.

 

Kirinhalut set the shoe’s toe down beside me and let out a deep, rumbling laugh while I groaned.  “Oh, you got me!” she exclaimed, teasing me.  “I’ve been smote!”  Her voice dropped, and she added, “You’re pathetic.”  She rushed her foot forward, crashing it into me and flicking up the toe.  I was launched into the air and followed a high but short arc all the way up to her waist before I came crashing back down onto the stone.

 

The wind was knocked out of me, making it difficult to push myself up.  Kirinhalut took a step forward, the loud click of her high heel on stone accompanied by the resonating boom of her footstep.  Finally I got to my feet and turned to face her, only to see that she had her right leg coiled up to her chest.  My eyes widened while she brought it down, stomping her foot onto the floor around me.  A horrific crash erupted from her step and the ground shook, making my knees go weak.  I fell to the floor, unable to believe I had been trapped beneath the undersole of her heel.

 

Defeated, I slid the sword back into its sheath, admitting that it would not see any more use.  Kirinhalut chuckled, a low purr emanating from her throat, and lifted her shoe so she could set its toe down beside me with a small crash.  “Aw, what’s the matter?” she asked, raising her voice in falsetto.  “Did you realize how small and weak you are now and give up?”  Her lips turned down in a pout and she continued, “But you had so much fight in you!  Did mean ol’ Kirinhalut take it out by swatting you like a bug?”

 

She began laughing again, then cut it short and demanded, “Get up.”  I complied, forcing myself back to my feet, and stared up at her.  Kirinhalut was titanic now, towering over me like nothing ever had before.  I could not have been more than an inch tall with how gigantic she looked.  Even the toe of her shoe was taller than me.

 

A golden circle appeared beneath me, joined by a golden dome right over my head.  Dozens of narrow, golden rods grew between the two, forming a tiny cage around me.  There was no door and the bars were much too close together for me to slip through, and the space was so narrow I could not even sit down.  It was designed to fit around me exactly, with no extra room for comfort.

 

“To drive home that you’re mine,” she boomed.  Kirinhalut lifted the toe of her shoe and rotated it along the heel so that it was right over me.  She let it linger for a moment so I could stare at the dark sole of her shoe before bringing it down, smashing it against the cage with a great clash.  The metal whined and she pressed harder, tipping the cage over.  Her shoe pushed against the downed cage, and though metal creaked and groaned under the weight none of the fine bars so much as bent.

 

“A magical golden cage, just for you!” she exclaimed, taking her foot off it.  She set it down again with a light crash, and added, “Don’t say you never got anything in exchange for your soul.”  I laid there, unable to move in the narrow cage while she mocked me.

 

Kirinhalut bent over and grabbed the cage by its top, picking it off the ground.  Quickly she stood and lifted me up, pressing me down against the polished gold floor while I felt like I was about to lose my lunch.  The ride stopped at her face, and she dangled the cage from her fingers.  She batted the cage with a finger, starting me swinging back and forth while she grinned, her white teeth contrasting with the lips still red from my blood.

 

She fixed her enormous dark eyes on me and purred, “I know it’s scary to be so small, but don’t worry.  Your mistress is looking out for you, and she’ll put you somewhere that you can’t get lost or accidentally stepped on.”  Her fingers lowered me under her chin and held me against her neck, then she fiddled with the cage for a second.  After a resounding click she let go and let me swing freely, bouncing off the soft skin of her throat.

 

My cage had been clipped to her choker, and there was no way for me to get off.  I looked out and down.  I must be two hundred feet in the air, so even if I could get out I would not live long after.  From every direction I was in Kirinhalut’s shadow, dimming the unescapable gleam of gold.  Looking down I saw her enormous breasts on full display, pushed up by her dress so they looked even larger.  In any other circumstances that would have been an impressive sight, but I was not enthusiastic about a succubus’s rack.

 

“Thought I’d give you a nice view,” Kirinhalut chimed in, as though she were reading my thoughts.  When she spoke her throat vibrated the cage, making it rattle with each syllable.  She prodded it with a finger, causing it to sway in front of her neck.  “That should keep you from getting crushed until I want to do it.”  I was in over my head and there was no way out.  In retrospect, I should have just grabbed the loot and run.

Time did not seem to pass while inside my cage.  I became neither hungry nor thirsty, and felt no need to sleep despite being fully aware, the succubus’s infernal magic sustaining me.  Kirinhalut frequently toyed with the cage, grabbing it between her fingers and squeezing hard enough to make the enchanted metal squeal in protest, or simply flicked it so I bounced against her neck, with her heaving breasts below me the whole time.  It was obviously a ploy to break me mentally and reinforce the idea that I belonged to her now, and it was not without some success.

 

Months may have passed while I was trapped in the cage, or merely days, it was impossible to tell without any sunlight or rest.  The only stimulation I received was when Kirinhalut menacingly gripped the tiny cage or said something in her low, sultry voice, shaking my enclosure.  My mind began to slip from the deprivation and constant presence of the titanic demon in human form.  Clearly I would never be big again, and I started to doubt that I ever had been.  I acknowledged that my life was in Kirinhalut’s hands, and she had complete dominance over me.  She was, in effect, a goddess, equal to any power in the planes.

 

Without warning the cage vanished, and I grasped at empty air before falling.  I dropped sharply and did not even have time to scream before landing between Kirinhalut’s breasts, my legs wedging into her cleavage.  Immediately I was up to my waist in her rack, with the two great mounds rising on either side of me.  Though my arms were free they were useless in extracting me, barely able to even dimple the soft, smooth skin trapping me.  Struggling only got me stuck in further, and for my trouble I ended up chest-deep in her bosom.

 

Kirinhalut’s hands reached up, each one cupping a breast.  She slowly lifted them, drawing me further down into the crevasse separating them, before suddenly letting go.  Her bosom dropped sharply, jolting me forward and causing her breasts to jiggle inside her dress.  With each bounce I was sucked down further until only my head and arms were poking out from the enormous mounds of flesh.  My gigantic owner started the process again, and after a couple more bounces I was completely consumed by her chest.

 

Being encased by breasts was not nearly as pleasant as I had frequently imagined.  Kirinhalut’s body burned hot, and I quickly began sweating from the oven-level heat.  Each time her bosom shook or move I was subjected to its amplified movements while it tossed me around until it came to a gradual halt, only for her to start it again right after.  An unending cycle of booming, cruel laughter washed over me inside her chest, and though the sound was muffled by the godly rack around me sound propagated especially well through them, and I was constantly assaulted by vibrations from her voice.  The only saving grace was my slow descent through the canyon promising freedom soon.

 

My legs poked through the bottom, and after several more bounces the rest of my body slipped from between her bosom.  Her tight dress slowed my descent considerably, though I still inexorably dropped toward the floor.  The form-fitting fabric pressed me against her skin on the way down, the only landmark as I slid over her flat tummy the shallow belly button.  I tried to grab onto it to stop myself from going further but was unsuccessful, and my hands slipped away while I continued falling toward her pubic area.

 

Before I could get tangled up in her carefully managed hair I came free of Kirinhalut’s body entirely and plummeted toward the floor.  The room’s dim light reached me for the first time in minutes through the slit in her dress, seeming unusually bright in its novelty.  A silhouette of her long, shapely leg dominated my view as I dropped its great length in less than a second.  Her knee rushed past, followed by the immense column of her calf and then her slender ankle.  In no time I was level with her shoe, then my body slammed onto the stone floor, surprisingly without pain.

 

One of her enormous shoes stepped back, reaching as far as her dress would let it before setting down on the floor with a tremendous click.  The right one, unfettered by any restraints, moved toward me and set down close enough for me to touch, a soft boom coming from the impact.  Reluctantly I got to my feet in her shadow and found the immense, brilliant white shoe like a wall beside me.  I was frozen in place, but this time out of fear from being at the feet of the gigantic succubus.  All it would take was one slight adjustment for her to squash me.

 

My heart full of trepidation, I looked up the towering body looming over me.  Her other leg seemed to be hundreds of feet away, but I knew with a single step it could be on top of me too.  Kirinhalut’s ankle alone was at a great height, requiring several minutes of climbing up her shoe and foot that she would never let me finish.  The nearest leg rose like a beautiful spire piercing the sky with twin flaps from her green dress draped over it.  Her stomach offered no impediment, perfectly flush with the rest of her, and I was unobstructed until I laid eyes on her tremendous bosom, so recently my prison.  When I reached her face, she was staring back at me with dark, hungry eyes and a cocky smirk.  If anything, she was more beautiful than the first time I saw her, but now that I knew her demonic nature it was difficult to find her truly attractive.

 

“Did you enjoy the trip, my little bug?” Kirinhalut boomed in her sultry voice.  “You mortal men have such a fascination with those, and it only makes my job easier.  I hope it helped you understand that I am everything, and you are nothing.”

 

“Yes, mistress Kirinhalut,” I shouted up to her.  “I look forward to another trip down your magnificent body.”

 

My captor smiled and her eyes lit up.  “That’s a good little worm” she purred.  “You know that you’re pathetic, helpless at my feet.  To think, it only took a handful of days to break you so utterly!”  She let out a loud cackle, and I was astonished.  Had I really only spent a few days in that cage?  “A little longer and I might have you actually worshipping me as a goddess.  But,” Kirinhalut paused and breathed out a sigh, “I’m bored.”

 

 “Is there anything I can do to help alleviate your boredom, mistress?” I asked.

 

“I was hoping you’d offer,” she replied, “since you’ve been so generous to me so far.  As a matter of fact, there is.  As a mere insect, you will entertain me in the same way others of your kind entertain the much larger races.”  I gulped, remembering how satisfying it was to crush bugs, never giving a thought to how they felt about it.  Looking up at the towering body of the titanic demon, I had an idea.

 

Kirinhalut lifted the toe of her shoe, then let it hang in the air above where it had been.  She slammed it down with a flash of white, making a loud crash that made my blood run cold.  “Your fear is delicious,” she said, grinding her foot against the floor.  Her shoe raised up again, then came down with another boom.  “You should know that your pact with me comes with a host of benefits.”  The colossal foot beside me continued tapping, making a loud, rhythmic pounding that her powerful voice was able to talk over.  “Your puny body is sustained by my force, and as long as we remain on the same plane you shall not age, hunger or want for anything.  My power, in effect, makes you immortal.”  Her foot slammed down beside me with a note of finality, and she added, “That means I can crush you as much as I want, insect, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

 

I looked up at her in horror and she let out a devastating laugh.  “Did you think I made a bug immortal out of the kindness of my heart?” she asked, still fighting her laughter.  “In truth, it takes very little to sustain a body as insignificant as yours, and I get so much enjoyment out of it.”  She raised her shoe again and rotated it over me, blocking my view.  I flinched away from the mammoth sole, but it continued its arc until crashing back to the ground next to me with a bang.  When I looked back up she was beaming with joy, her red lips forming an O out of suspense.  The pounding of her toes resumed on the other side, and she said, “The only question is, when will it come?”

 

The incessant, rhythmic pounding of her shoe beat itself into my ears, drowning out everything but her voice.  Each time her shoe hit the ground it was accompanied by a strong vibration, making my insides shake along with it.  Struck dumb and paralyzed by fear I could only look up at her, my view of the monolithic succubus shaking with each tap of her toes.  An enormous smile had overtaken her face, her shining white teeth outlined by her dark lips while she reveled in the anguish she was causing me.

 

Her shoe sharply raised again, causing me to flinch, but with a quick flash of black it rapidly cleared my view.  It slammed down on my other side and resumed its non-stop tapping, hard enough to make my teeth chatter in their jaw.  “Each of these little movements could have pulverized you,” Kirinhalut declared, her voice stern and cruel, “but I want you to know what you are now.  To understand.  To me, and everyone else you’ve ever met or will ever meet – wife, sisters, lovers – you are nothing more than an insect, crawling around our feet, trying not to get stepped on.”  She lifted her toes again, letting them hang above me this time.  Slowly she rotated her shoe so that it was over me, and she stated, “No matter how hard you try, though, you will get crushed.”

 

The toe of Kirinhalut’s shoe waved back and forth above me, never going far enough that her sole was out of view.  Past her toe I saw her face, a mixture of excitement and suspense while her shoe loomed over me.  “Is this the time you get crushed?” she said when it was perfectly lined up with me.  “Or maybe this time?” she asked the next time it was aligned.  Her movements got less grandiose, like her shoe was zeroing in on me.  Finally it stopped, and she purred, “That’s it.  Time for the crunch.”

 

Slowly her shoe descended onto me, but dread kept my feet rooted to the ground.  Past the toe of her colossal shoe I saw Kirinhalut bite her lip in anticipation, nodding several times while the shoe descended.  It quickly blocked my view of her, and all I could see was the plain black sole drawing closer.  The surface was pristine, and looked like a chalkboard the size of a whole wall.  I watched helplessly as it came toward me, knowing that there was nothing I could do to stop the giantess’s shoe from crushing me.

 

Hard, black leather touched my head, and with a light push it shoved me onto the ground.  It continued on its inexorable descent onto my prone body, coming as slowly as possible.  The sole hit my feet and I raised my arms in a futile gesture, knowing I would never be able to stop something as monstrously powerful as Kirinhalut.  Her shoe kept coming, pinning my arms to my sides, then stopped when I was trapped beneath her shoe.

 

“So helpless.  So pathetic,” Kirinhalut taunted, keeping her foot on me. Even if I could force myself to move I was no longer physically capable.  “You’re no different from any other insect, and from now on no one will know you aren’t one.  They’ll gleefully squash you, just like I will.”  The pressure on my body increased while she pushed down on it with her shoe, slowly compressing me.  I groaned and screamed while her shoe became heavier until finally, with a loud crack, my body gave way to her sole.  Agony exploded over the whole length of my body in that instant, and Kirinhalut let out a joyful squeal at the tiny crunch my body made.

 

To my horror I was not killed when she flattened me; I was not even unconscious.  I was completely aware of the pain wracking my body from the titanic foot crushing it and my shattered bones.  Kirinhalut leaned forward, putting more of her weight on my tiny, devastated form.  I tried, but with her foot flat on the ground there was nothing in my lungs, and I no longer had the physical capabilities to do so.  She twisted her foot back and forth, grinding me into the floor, and a new wave of suffering overwhelmed me as my crushed remains were wrenched by her sole.  Her booming laughter rang out, piling insult onto the already significant injury while she subjected me to torment like I had never imagined.

 

Kirinhalut lifted her foot off me, giving me a brief reprieve from the intense agony of being trapped beneath it.  Everything in my body was still ruined, however, and constant suffering throbbed through my body.  She coiled her leg, keeping her foot above me, and brought it down hard.  Her foot slammed down on me with the force of a meteor striking the ground, and anguish overcame me again.  It raised of me again and came back down, pressing hard before lifting, over and over again.  While she repeatedly stomped on my helpless body she let out little grunts and yelps of joy, adding to the waves of pain that accompanied each time she stepped on me.

 

Finally she finished, and after a quick shake that rattled my broken body she lifted her foot, then set it down beside me.  I was flush with the bottom of her sole, having been thoroughly flattened by her pummeling.  A low rumble came from above, and Kirinhalut chuckled.  “Oh, did I forget to tell you?” she boomed, feigning innocence.  “You won’t die, but you can certainly feel it when I crush you.  What fun would it be crushing an immortal bug if it couldn’t even feel it, hm?”  She tilted her head to the side as though it were a real question and continued, “You’ll regenerate shortly, and now that you know the stakes we can try it again, and maybe you’ll try running this time.”

 

Unable to move with my bones reduced to powder I laid there, little more than a smashed pile beside Kirinhalut’s toes.  Slowly, however, my body began to stitch itself back together.  My bones became solid segments again and my organs returned from their liquefied state, and I drew breath for the first time in a while.  Gradually my bone sections stitched themselves back together and my insides recovered.  Pain receded, giving way to complete euphoria as my body became whole again.  I felt better than I ever had, and with a quick kick at the air I sprung back to my feet.

 

“That’s a good little bug,” Kirinhalut said, grinding her goes against the floor in anticipation.  “It’s like you’re eager for me to smash you again.  You did good to not keep your goddess waiting.”  She lifted her shoe and slammed it back to the floor, making an unholy crash and shaking the floor.  “Now get running.”

 

I took off in the other direction, but before Kirinhalut could come after me I heard a mixture of voices off in the distance, echoing through the room outside.  “Wait,” Kirinhalut ordered, and I stopped in my tracks.  The voices continued, getting louder as they drew closer.  “Shit, adventurers.”  She drew back to where she had been standing when I found her.  “Time for me to get back in that damsel of distress character and get rescued.”

 

“What about me, mistress?” I asked.

 

“Maybe they’ll find you, maybe they won’t,” she replied, running long fingers through her hair.  “Maybe you’ll get lucky and one of them likes to collect bugs.  I’m getting out of here though.”  She stood straight, pushing out her chest while I looked up at her from the floor.  I was conflicted: I wanted her to be gone so she could no longer torment me, but I wanted to be close to her, too.  More than anything, though, I hoped they would find me, too.  There was nothing left to do but wait for them to come into view and try to get their attention.

Loud footsteps echoed through the empty stone room while the adventuring party came closer.  As far as I knew nobody else had been operating in this area when we entered, but that was at least a week ago.  We must have been presumed dead and another party sent to do the job.  Ordinarily I would be outraged that someone else was about to benefit from our hard work, but they were entitled to the reward if they could get me out of here.  An eternity being crushed by Kirinhalut was not what I had in mind when I talked about living forever.

 

“Looks like someone already got him,” said one of the unseen adventurers with a clearly feminine voice.  “Nobody’s come to collect the reward though, guess they died before they could get out.”

 

“Tough break for them,” someone replied, their voice like chimes tinkling together.  “Let’s start gathering loot and be thankful for a job already done.”  Metal plates and leather straps crashed against stone while they rummaged through the dead outside, trying to maximize their take.

 

“Hey, we should start in there,” a third voice said.  “There’s a panel of wall missing, might be a secret room someone forgot to close.”  That was the first step to someone getting me the hell out of here.  Now I just had to get noticed, which could not be as hard as Kirinhalut was making it sound.

 

“Good eye!” the first voice responded.  “Let’s hit that before our sacks get full of junk.”  I resented the gear of my fallen friends being written off as junk, but I was hardly in a position to chastise them for it.  It was not even clear if they would be able to hear my admonishments if they found me.

 

The footsteps became louder, and three enormous forms squeezed through the doorway, one having to bend over to keep from clipping her long, pointed ears on the top.  All three of them were women and looked very formidable, armor still shining and weapons unbloodied after trudging through an already cleared dungeon.  They walked into the room and stopped at the edge of the glowing rune circle, the echoes from their footfalls bleeding together until they formed an overwhelming cacophony.

 

“Oh, thank the gods someone’s here!” Kirinhalut exclaimed when they were all in.  “This villain abducted me months ago and kept me imprisoned in this room!  Please, if you take me out of this dank hole with you I can make it very worth your while.”

 

“Certainly, my lady, we would gladly free you,” answered the woman on the far end, encased from chin to toe in full plate.  “There don’t seem to be any chains binding you, so you’ll have to tell us how, lady…”

 

“Kiri will suffice,” the gigantic succubus began, “it’s what my friends call me.  If you break those runes it should break the spell holding me here.  They’re projecting something like a wall of force that stops me from leaving the circle.”

 

“Something like this?” the armored woman asked, walking forward and setting the toe of her boot on one of the runes.  I wanted to shout at her to stop before they released a demon, but when I tried to open my mouth my jaw remained clinched tight.  Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s best for you, Kirinhalut’s voice filled my mind.  If you’re good I might tell them about you.  The woman rubbed her boot back and forth on the floor, breaking a rune, and the glow from the circle suddenly stopped.

 

“Thank you, so much!” Kirinhalut gushed, rushing forward.  She embraced the woman who freed her and cried tears of joy while holding her tight.  “My saviors.  I was starting to worry I’d die in this miserable room.  I haven’t seen the man who abducted me for days, and… Please, can we just get out of here as quickly as possible?”

 

“After we have a look around,” the elf said, walking into the defunct circle.  “There’s got to be something in here worth taking.”  She strode toward me, her boots crashing against stone with each tremendous step.  Vibrations traveled through the dense floor and shook my knees while I watched her carelessly approach.  I tried to move out of the way, but my joints were unresponsive.  As the colossal legs came closer I tried again, but found myself frozen in place.  Kirinhalut’s voice came back, This is what happens when you try to sell me out, bug.

 

The heel of her massive boot set down with a shaking thud, and I looked up at the dull, battered sole looming over me.  It was larger than any monster I had ever seen, and could flatten me with no effort.  She swung her toes down, and I braced myself for the mind-shattering agony of being crushed again.  Her sole slapped against the floor with a tremor, dropping me to my knees as they went weak, but had fallen just short of stepping on me.

 

Weakly I grabbed onto the outsole and hauled myself up, thankful she had not turned me to mush.  I looked up the colossal body next to me, scanning up the weathered brown boots and tight, earth-colored breeches over her long, lean legs.  A leather tunic covered her chest, and her striking, exotic face was pointed away from me while her gray eyes inspected something.  Curious, I looked where she was and found I was standing next to one of the candelabras, explaining why she had stopped just short of squashing me.

 

Something dropped from her shoulder, gliding gently toward the floor.  At such a large distance I could only see its outline against the elf’s clothing, but it looked slight and bipedal, and as it drifted down I noticed the dragonfly wings sprouting from its back.  It came closer and I saw long, bright red hair flowing behind the falling form, contrasting with mocha skin, and white wrappings around the chest and groin area.  Apparently, I was being saved by an all-female party.

 

The floating figure landed with a boom and a rumble, standing astride me while I looked up at her in awe.  A pixie, or one of the other fey races, was towering over me right now, leaving me completely dumbstruck.  I had seen them before, but they were all ankle-height at most.  Now I was maybe halfway up their shins if that.  Never in my life did I expect to be small compared to a pixie, but all kinds of my expectations were being broken lately.

 

She looked down at me between her feet, then brushed a lock of fiery hair behind her pointed ears.  “What are you?” she asked.  Her voice was strained and low, not at all the light chimes I had come to expect from her race.

 

“I’m an adventurer,” I replied, trying to keep it simple.

 

“Sure, but what race?” she clarified, narrowing her black eyes.  “I’ve been adventuring for years and never seen a sentient being this much smaller than me.”

 

“Oh, I’m a human,” I helpfully offered, as though it should have been self-evident.

 

“A human, huh?” she repeated.  “I travel with two humans and they’re pretty big.  Why are you so small?”

 

“Well, I’m a shrunken human,” I explained, hoping that would be enough for her. 

 

“And how’d you shrink?” she pressed.  “I know there’s magic to make stuff smaller, but it doesn’t last very long, so you should be big by now.”

 

I started to tell the truth, but the voice in my head came back.  If you tell them the truth our deal’s off, insect, and I can smash you before any of them stop me.  “It was a witch’s dying curse,” I lied.  We had cleared out a witch from her lair in the forest a month earlier, so I should be able to fill in further details from that.  Maybe she had even heard about it.

 

“Dying curse?  Wow, tough luck,” she replied, and I was relieved that she bought it.  “Hold on, I’ll see about getting you out of here so you can get some help.”  She turned and looked up the colossus beside us and shouted so she could hear.  “Hey Lell!  I’ve got something you should see!”

 

The enormous elf shifted so that she could look down at us.  “Bring it up here, then, I can’t see anything except you.”

 

The huge pixie shrugged and extended one arm down toward me.  She placed her palm on my chest then wrapped her fingers around my sides, securing me beneath the armpits.  “Quick warning, this might be uncomfortable,” she said, then lifted me off the ground and took flight.  Throughout the ascent I did not even have the wherewithal to look at the elf to get an idea of our elevation: my mind was still reeling from the fact that a pixie had just picked me up effortlessly with one hand.

 

She landed on Lell’s extended upturned palm, feet spanning from one knuckle to the other.  The pixie turned me around and set me on the leather glove covering the elf’s palm, as though she were presenting a trophy, then pulled her hand back.  Immediately I was struck by how gigantic Lell’s face was, even more than her exotic features while she peered down at me with her large, almond-shaped gray eyes.  I waved to let know I was more than just an object, but she seemed unimpressed.

 

“That’s the smallest living thing I’ve ever held,” she said, her voice rattling my bones.  “Any idea what it is, Bushwack?”

 

“He says he’s a human,” the pixie replied.

 

“A human, huh?” Lell said, echoing Bushwack’s sentiments.  “There’s something different about him compared to the other humans I’ve seen, but I can’t put my finger on it.”  She looked to the side for a moment, then back to me, whipping her head fast enough that her white bangs flicked up under her leather headband, and affixed me with a steely gaze.  “That’s right, they aren’t dwarfed by pixies.  How’d he get so small?”

 

“Apparently he shrank,” Bushwack answered.

 

“I can speak for myself, you know!” I protested, and Lell showed the first hint of emotion with a small grin.

 

“So you can!” she exclaimed.  “Well then, why don’t you tell me how you became a shrunken human?”

 

Before I could explain anything a loud, powerful voice to her side shouted out, “There’s a shrunken human?”

 

Lell rolled her eyes.  “Yes, Margret, I’m holding a shrunken human in my hand.”

 

“Can I see?” the giddy voice came back.

 

“Sure, I guess,” Lell answered unenthusiastically.  A second later there was another face peering down at me, this one just clearing the palm I was on with its chin.  She looked down at me with excitement in her deep blue eyes, and I craned my neck up her sun-kissed face to meet her gaze.  Her light brown hair was cut short all the way around her head, and she had a single earring piercing the cartilage of her left ear.

 

“Wow, he’s cute!” she exclaimed with a smile, and I recoiled from the intense volume of her voice.  “I’m Margret Morninglight, but you can just call me Margret.”  Finally, one of them had the courtesy to introduce themselves.  “Some people call me Mags or Maggie, too.  Llelwyl,” she said the name almost spitefully, “mind if I pick him up?”

 

“Please,” the elf replied.  Margret reached a hand into Lell’s palm, and lightly pinched her thumb and forefinger around me.  She plucked me off the glove and my stomach fell to my feet while blood rushed out of my head, making it even more disorienting while she pulled me toward her slender, pointed nose.  Quickly she corrected herself so that I was held a bit away from her face, keeping her grip on me light but secure.

 

“So, how’d you get to be so small?” she asked.  I explained about the witch’s dying curse without having to be prompted by Kirinhalut, and Margret’s mouth opened in surprise.  “That’s awful!  I can’t believe someone would do something like that, I’m glad you got rid of her before she could do it to someone else.  I was about as small as you for a bit and it was terrifying!”

 

My ears perked up.  If she had been grown back, maybe there was hope for me.  “What happened?” I asked.

 

“Sondra here was trying out a spell she just learned,” Margret began, “and the next thing I knew I was looking up at her ankles!  ‘Sondra, help, down here, please!’ I shouted, until she finally looked down.  One dispel later and I was back to my old self, though!”

 

“Do you think that would work for me?”

 

“Yeah, maybe.  Hey Sond!”  Margret looked away from me to her friend.  “I’ve got a customer for you!”

 

“Give him here, then!” came the answer with a deep, powerful voice.  The world spun as Margret turned me around and handed me over, setting me in the middle of a wide, pale palm.  Her fingers let go, and I found myself staring up at an immaculate face with the clearest pair of blue eyes I’d ever seen gazing back at me.  “I’m Sondra Soleil, but you can call me Sond.  And you’re the shrunken human I’ve been hearing about, right?”

 

“Yeah, though I’d like to be less shrunken,” I replied.  Something clicked in my head, and I remembered where I heard their names before.  “Hey, you’re the Beautiful Beasts!  I’ve heard about you!  I was hoping to meet you all sometime, but under different circumstances.”

 

“Yep, that’s us!” Sondra proudly replied.  “We go around righting the empire’s wrongs and look good doing it!  Are you part of an adventuring company too, or just an admirer?”

 

“I used to be part of Rolf’s Raiders,” I told her, “but they all died out there, including Rolf, and I don’t think I’ll be going on may quests like this.”

 

“Sorry to hear about your friends,” Sondra commiserated, “but I can help you with the shrunken thing, and you’ll be back to adventuring in no time.  Just let me put you on the floor real quick so you don’t break my arm when you get big again, okay?”  Sondra plucked me up with two digits much as Margret had and slowly bent over, lowering me to the floor.  On the day down I noticed she wore a dark red robe that showed off an insane amount of cleavage from her pressed-together breasts, one of the few places it touched her slender body.  From the floor I looked up from between her brown, silver-inlaid flats and saw she had a slit running up each leg of her robe, showing off her slim but fit legs.

 

“Ready?” Sondra asked, and I looked up the colossal wizard.  I gave a quick nod, hoping she could see it, and her long, feathery blond hair began to rustle.  With a twitch of her nose she began uttering arcane words and twiddling her fingers down at me, then a blast of magic spewed forth from them.  It hit me dead-on, and I felt the spell saturate my body.  For a moment magic suffused me, a bright light dominating everything for an instant before it dissipated.  When it faded I eagerly looked to the side, and still saw a dragon-sized brown flat on either side with a gigantic wizard towering over me.

 

“Huh, that didn’t work,” Sondra boomed and looked down at me apologetically.  “I can try something else if you give me a bit, though.”

 

“We don’t have time for that,” Lell cut in, her enormous voice shaking me.  “We’ve got a lot of loot to carry out, and I don’t think either of them will be helping us.”

 

“But he needs our help!” Sondra protested.

 

“Yeah!” Margret added.  “If you were tiny, would you want us to mess around before helping you?”

 

“If I were tiny,” Lell began, “I’d be fine with you taking me to someone better equipped, or letting Sondra work on it on the road.  Daylight’s burning, so let’s get moving.”  The two human women grumbled and the floor shook while they walked, careful not to step on me.  Bushwack returned to her perch on Lell’s shoulder, who clumsily slapped her boots on the ground as she came toward me.  Her boot crashed into the ground inches from my face before stepping over me, only missing me by accident.

 

When they were gone two more crashes rattled my bones, and I looked up to see Kirinhalut looming over me.  “Looks like you’re coming with me after all, bug,” she said with a smirk.  “Thanks for not selling me out, though I guess I can be persuasive.”  She bent over and swiped a hand at me, engulfing me with her fingers.  My body was thrown into chaos while she stood back up, and when she opened her fingers I was gazing up at her tremendous face from her chin.

 

“Boo!” she exclaimed, making me jump back from her red lips.  “We better hurry up so we don’t get left behind.”  Her fingers closed around me again, encasing me in a warm fist and blocking me from the rest of the world while she walked after the Beautiful Beasts.  Rescue might not have been the best word to describe what had just happened for me, but at least we would be getting out of this dungeon.

The first place I checked was the sconce which led to my unfortunate meeting with Kirinhalut, so there should still be plenty left for the Beautiful Beasts.  Enough time had passed that my former comrades should be masquerading as dispatched undead minions as well, with all their loot up for grabs.  Kiri seemed to understand my thoughts and gave me a squeeze that should have broken my arm, but merely flattened it.  You could have helped them, but you didn’t, her voice spoke in my mind.  The poor damsel in distress just needed help so badly, didn’t she?  Her laughter bounced around inside my skull, exacerbating the guilt I already felt.

 

Through the prison of Kiri’s fingers I heard Llelwyl barking orders to the others.  “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover here, and I’d like to get on our way before sundown.  Sond and Marg, start looking through the bodies for loot.  Bush, check those chests for traps and get them unlocked.  I’ll look for hidden compartments and passages where he might have hidden the orb.”

 

“And what should we do?” Kiri offered.  The sound of her voice flowed through me, and I felt my arm starting to stitch itself back together.  “I feel bad watching you do all the hard work without contributing.”

 

“You stay right where you are,” Lell answered.  “Until we get you back where you belong you’re our guest, and I won’t have you risking yourself for our sakes, or for the sake of a few pieces of gold.”

 

“That’s fine for her,” Bushwack interjected, “but what about the little guy?  He’s not a noble, and said he used to be an adventurer.  He might know something about locks and traps himself, and due to his size he should be able to slip into places even I can’t.”

 

“That’s a good point.”  While Lell spoke I could already hear the other two rifling through the equipment of my fallen comrades.  “Kiri, do you mind if we use him to help us search?”

 

“Of course not!” the giant succubus replied.  “Anything to feel like I’m contributing even the slightest.”  My arm was fully healed now, though I wasn’t sure what good I could do with it.  When her arm shot forward my insides lurched, and her fingers opened to reveal the dim chamber that had served as the late wizard’s throne room.

 

Bush swooped in and placed a sandaled foot on either side of Kiri’s palm, and I gawked up at the relatively gigantic pixie.  I doubted I’d ever get used to being roughly ankle height to someone so small no matter how long I was afflicted with this size.  She seemed to have gotten over it, however, and leaned over before reaching down to me.  Her fingers wrapped around my body, covering everything from my arms down before launching back into the air.  In flight she clutched me close to her bosom, making sure I wouldn’t fall from her grip.

 

When we reached the first chest, she made a controlled landing on the edge of the lid and leaned over the side.  She held me in front of the lock, and I followed her instructions to grab on before she let go.  “I’ll check for traps while you get to work here,” she said, and walked off toward the edge.

 

I was able to slip inside the lock, but once there I had no idea what to do.  In general I knew how a lock worked, but Rolf had handled all our locks.  My main skill was hitting things until they stopped moving, and that would be difficult to do at my new size.  Looking at the iron column in front of me, I did not even know where to begin dealing with it.  If I couldn’t beat it into submission my options were limited.

 

“You’re all clear on traps, go ahead and throw it open!” Bush shouted.  I looked at the pillar of metal in front of me, unmoved since I had spotted it.  “Any time now, shrunken human!”  No matter how much she pushed me, I would not suddenly know how to pick a lock.  All I knew was that it involved things clicking into place, but how they got there, and what was supposed to click, was beyond me.

 

Bushwack’s black eyes burned into me from behind, and I turned back toward the keyhole.  “What’s the hold up?”  she demanded.  “Are you too weak to open it?”

 

“Not quite,” I replied sheepishly.  She continued staring at me impatiently, so I explained, “I have no idea what to do here.”

 

The pixie sighed and gave me an exasperated look.  “Are you telling me you’ve never picked a lock in your entire adventuring career?” she asked, and I shook my head.  “Never picked a lock, and you’re clearly not a mage, so what did you even do for your old group?”

 

“Well, I’m a warrior,” I replied.  “I can take a decent hit, and I’m pretty strong.”  Bushwack scoffed, clearly displeased by my answer.

 

“Neither of those things is true now!” she shouted.  I flinched from her voice while it echoed inside the lock.  “I’m pretty sure I could wreck you in a fight, and I’m six inches tall!”  She paused to take a deep breath and compose herself.  “Well, you’re already in there so you might as well do the lock.”

 

“Okay, what do you need me to do?” I offered.

 

“Exactly what I say.  See that thing right in front of you?  That’s a tumbler.  Lift it until you hear a click over your head.”  I squatted and worked my fingers into the groove, then with a great heft forced it into the air.  It mas made out of solid metal, so I dropped my stance and kept pushing it up until I finally heard the satisfying click.  Any higher or lower and it would be out of place again.  “Okay, now do that with the next one.”

 

If Bush was watching my progress as closely as she insinuated, she saw how much effort it had taken me to get just this one up.  “But if I move, this one’ll fall out of place!” I protested.

 

She fixed me with a dumbfounded stare.  Without another word she reached into the lock and grabbed me by the chest, then jerked me back.  When I was against her chest she opened her fingers, letting me drop to the stone floor.  Normally such a fall would break my legs, but instead my body was simply racked with the pain as though it had.  From the floor I watched Bush insert a series of metal rods into the lock, and in a few seconds she flew over it, pulling the lid along with her.

 

The pixie dropped into the chest, and I heard several large objects being shoved around and bumping against each other.  Once the ruckus died down she re-emerged and began flying to the chest on the other side of the throne.  “Hey, what about me?” I shouted after her, but she gave no answer.  Bush simply landed and set about her work of safely opening the chest, then took inventory of the contents.  Bringing me along did not even enter her mind.

 

Once they finished looting, the four of them met up in the center of the room.  They compared what they had found – I noticed Sondra had taken a liking for Isaac’s old staff – and Bush handed Llelwyl a tiny sheet of paper.  The elf peeked at it through a magnifying glass, then turned her attention to the chest I was standing in front of.  The quartet came toward me, their unison footsteps enough to make even the cobblestones shake.

 

The group got perilously close, and Lellwyl’s last step would bring her toes in contact with the chest’s metal bands.  Her worn, gray sole loomed in front of me like a wall, its surface pitted from months on the road.  When it was coming down I finally thought to move and dove to the side, just getting out of the way of her boot’s toes.  Lellwyl’s sole slammed down, rattling my bones from the impact and kicking up a cloud of dust.

 

She rummaged around inside the chest before pulling out a scroll and looking it over.  I craned my neck back to look up the elf’s colossal body to see if she had any idea she had nearly flattened me, but from here I could not even see her face.  With how calmly she was reading she did not appear to be aware of my near flattening, and the fact that I would have survived did not make me feel any better.

 

When she was done, Lellwyl rolled the sheet up again and stowed it in her case.  “Looks like he sold the orb some time ago, probably just before the little guy’s group got here,” she summarized.   “Good find, Bush.  Speaking of the little guy, how’d he do?”

 

“He was awful!” Bushwack answered from her perch on Lellwyl’s shoulder.  “Absolutely useless, more of a liability than anything.  He couldn’t handle a simple three tumbler lock because he could only pick up one of them at a time, and even my picks are longer than he is tall.  Apparently, he was a warrior with his last group, but I don’t think he’ll be fighting anyone now.  He’d be lucky to take a wasp in single combat.”

 

“That bad, huh?”  Lellwyl turned to Bushwack, a curtain of swaying white hair signifying her movement to me.  “What do you think we should do with him then?”

 

“Step two inches to your left and put him out of his misery.”  Lellwyl hardly needed to be convinced.  She picked up her foot and moved it so it was centered over me and set it down heel first.

 

“Hey, hold on!” Margret called out, and Lellwyl stopped her boot’s descent.  “Why don’t we get a say in what happens to him?”

 

“Yeah!” Sondra chimed in.  “We’re just as much members of this group as you two are!”

 

Lellwyl’s boot pulled back from above me and her chest heaved with a sigh.  “He can’t fight at his size and he’s not good at anything else,” she said.  “Why would we bother with him if he’s just going to be dead weight?”

 

“Because he’s a person,” Marget replied.  “A sentient being, no matter how small he is – temporarily, I might add, as far as we know.  And he hasn’t done anything to us, so how can you justify killing him?”

 

“And what sort of weight is he, anyway?” Sondra added, supporting the other human.  “He eats next to nothing, we won’t have to wait for him, and he’s perfectly capable of talking to us if we want advice.  If you really insist he do something useful, I bet we could even find something he can do just to make you feel better.”

 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Lellwyl said with a groan.  “Kiri, it’s up to you to break the tie for us.  What should we do with the shrunken human here?”  Although she hadn’t said anything, it was clear what Lellwyl wanted to do.

 

“He said he was shrunken because of some sort of curse, right?” Kiri asked.  “Why not take him along until you find a way to cure him?  Who knows, you might even find out you like him after a while.”  I just don’t want them to see you still alive after she flattens you, Kirinhalut clarified.  That might raise too many questions for me to deal with.

 

“Doubt it,” Lellwyl muttered.    “Fine, he can come.  But one of you has to carry him!”  She turned and walked back toward the dungeon’s entrance, carrying the pixie perched on her shoulder.

 

Kirinhalut leapt at the opportunity, and her ivory-toned shoes were on either side of me before Margret and Sondra had even taken a step.  The succubus leaned forward and swiped at the ground, closing her long fingers around me.  She clenched her fist and stood, making my head swim until she settled with her hand at her bosom.  I swayed back and forth with her while she exaggerated her movements walking after the others, making my head swim in the darkness.

 

It seems we’re truly bound together, bug, Kirinhalut taunted.  And not just because I own your soul.  Anyway, I know it’s a couple hours back to the surface, for it’s time for the bug to go squish again.  She squeezed as hard as she could, and the pressure quickly overwhelmed me.  With a loud pop my body went flat and formed against the tip of her middle finger, and I felt her body hum with delight.

Kirinhalut kept her grip tight, making sure the only thing I saw was the darkness inside her hand, but not tight enough to keep crushing me.  I knew that bit of mercy was not out of concern for my welfare.  Rather, she simply did not want to come up with a lie to explain not only why she had flattened me, but how I was still alive.  Besides, the process of my body stitching itself back together was agonizing on its own, and that would be enough to sustain her.

 

Just as she estimated, my limbs finished reforming right when the party exited the dungeon.  At the slightest hint of movement on my part she clenched her fist, sealing me in a pocket of flesh.  My arms were held so tightly I could barely wiggle my fingers, and trying to kick my way through as though I were swimming was out of the question.  Her grip would not let me open my mouth, either, so I was left taking shallow, brimstone-tinged breaths through my nose.

 

When she finally loosened her grip, it was just so she could grab the wagon’s frame and pull herself up.  The movement tossed me around between her fingers and the heel of her palm hard enough that I wished her hand were still holding me in place.  It was only through sheer luck that she did not drop me on the ground, though I was sure she had an explanation ready to go just in case.

 

Now that she was in full view of the party again, Kiri had to place nice.  She kept me in the middle of her upturned palm, holding me around waist level so her torso could loom over me like a tower.  Her chest was large enough that I could not see anything past it, but I imagined her subtle grin as she reaffirmed her dominance in my mind.  From her palm I could see Margret taking a seat at the reins, her head about level with me, while Sondra climbed up and Llelwyl made sure everything was properly hooked together, Bushwack still riding on her shoulder.

 

“Why don’t we let our guests ride up front?” Margret asked cheerily.  “I’m sure they’d appreciate the breeze and fresh air after being locked up in that dark chamber for so long.”

 

“Yeah, sure,” Sondra replied.  “I could use the time to identify some of the stuff we just got anyway.”  A hollow thud accompanied each step of her flats as she walked by, and the old wood creaked and groaned under her weight.  Once she was in the back, Kirinhalut lowered her hand onto the empty seat beside her and dumped me onto it, then set her hand down beside me.  It was slender, but many times thicker than me lying down; just another way of rubbing how small she had made me in my face.

 

Llelwyl did not take the suggestion as well.  “Like hell!” she shouted, climbing into the wagon.  “If Sondra wants to give up her seat for Kiri that’s fine, but I am not giving mine to the shrunken human!  He’s even smaller than Bush, and she doesn’t get her own seat and she’s a contributing member of this party!  At best he should have to perch somewhere like she does.”  She stood in front of me, close enough that her boots touched the seat while she leaned down toward Margret and jabbed a finger at her.  It took a long time for me to look all the way up her, and my gaze was not quite past her legs when Margret responded.

 

“Aw, come on Lell, have a heart!” she said.  “It’s just until we get back to town, and let’s be honest, he could probably use a win or two after what he’s been through.”

 

“No!” Llelwyl insisted.  “No way!  I’ll abide having to drag him along, but I’m not changing how we do things for someone smaller than one of my arrowheads.  What’s next, do I have to give him my tent tonight?  Do we have to stop drinking out of mugs because he might fall in one?”

 

“No one’s asking you to do any of that, though.”  Margret’s voice was a lot less cheerful.  “It’s courtesy to let guests sit up front anyway.  You gave up your seat for Lord and Lady Leonet after we rescued them from their kidnappers, didn’t you?”

 

“Lord and Lady Leonet weren’t smaller than my thumb,” Llelwyl shot back, “and they offered us a deed of land in their duchy.  What’s he going to offer, an enchanted needle and a button to sew on?”

 

“Ladies, please!” Kirinhalut cut in.  “There’s no need to argue like this over something so easily resolved.  We’re so thankful for the rescue, after all, and we don’t want to impose any more than we already are.  I’m fine holding him in my lap while we ride, it’s really not a big deal.  Trust me, we got plenty comfortable with each other before you showed up.”

 

“Well, I’m glad someone sees sense,” Llelwyl said triumphantly, and Margret rolled her eyes before turning away to watch the trail.  “I would be glad to ride beside a refined, elegant lady such as yourself, Kiri.”  The elf hung her bow on some hooks beside her then rotated on her heels, getting ready to sit down.

 

Kirinhalut quickly curled her fingers and rotated her hand, then shot a finger forward.  She struck me in the chest with her fingernail, sending me off-balance and staggering away from her.  I tripped over a raised ring in the wood and fell backwards, landing on my back in the middle of the open seat.  Have fun, bug! she forced into my mind.  Don’t worry, you’ll be flat enough there’s no way she’ll feel you.

 

Llelwyl towered over me, her legs alone larger than any building I had ever seen, and she had no idea I was below her.  The danger of my situation became very real when she began sitting down, sending her butt racing on a collision course toward me.  Her brown breeches were tight, perfect for dungeon delving and wilderness scouting since they would not get caught on anything.  They also provided a perfect outline of her rear, clinging tightly enough to each cheek to separate them and leave a small gulf where her crack was.

 

I was not fortunate enough to be in the small, open area where her crack would land.  Instead her left buttock landed right on me with unimaginable force.  At the moment of impact I cried out, both in pain and surprise, but her butt cheek muffled it completely.  In an instant my whole body was pulverized, and I felt all my bones shatter simultaneously.  The sensation was becoming too familiar, but I doubted I’d ever get used to it.  It was a uniquely tremendous amount of pain, and something no person should be able to survive.

 

Llelwyl shifted while she got situated, a series of subtle movements that were excruciatingly apparent to me.  Her butt rolled back and forth on the seat, trying to find the sweet spot by shifting her weight.  Every minute change moved the pressure to a different part of my body, and I got to feel the pain of being crushed again.  She flattened me more than I thought possible, squeezing me down like a rolling pin flattens dough.  Finally, as though she consciously picked the least comfortable position for me, she settled on crossing one leg over the other, pressing yet more of her titanic weight onto me.

 

The punishment did not stop simply because she stopped moving, however.  This road was little more than a well-used trail, full of potholes and crossed by thick roots.  Each bump bounced her into the air, and when she came back down it felt like she was sitting on me all over again.  Her butt relentlessly mashed me against the wood, and the brief time she was in the air just made it worse when she landed.  I could not even crawl out from under her during the breaks since my limbs had the consistency of taffy.

 

Worse still, the weight of a gigantic elf sitting on me was not the only discomfort I had to deal with.  The seat of her pants was rough, and when she moved her butt it felt like the top layer of my skin got scraped off repeatedly.  It got scorching hot beneath her, as well, with the wood acting as a sort of oven, and whatever Kirinhalut had done to me made it so I could not sweat.  Ironically, if I were flattened dough the heat would have been enough to make me rise as bread.  I also could not breathe, though Kirinhalut had demonstrated to me many times that it was impossible for me to asphyxiate.

 

The titanesses passed the time by talking, and while Llelwyl’s butt muffled sound entirely I was made aware of every time she spoke.  Each syllable made strong vibrations run through her body, and they quickly made it down to me.  When her woods shook my flimsy, puny body they were accompanied by a horrific buzz that suffused the area around me.  I wanted to clap my hands to my ears as some form of meager protection, but even had they not been crushed into uselessness there was no way I could overcome the gargantuan ass parked atop me.

 

I had no idea how long I spent under her butt, but when she stood I was temporarily blinded by the light.  By the time it faded, Llelwyl had already turned around and was stepping onto the seat.  The sole of her boot eclipsed her colossal body, and my ears were assaulted by a thud when the heel landed.  Her boot swung down, striking me with the sole beneath the ball of her foot.  A pain many times more immense than being trapped beneath her ass wracked my body as she stepped over the seat, putting all over her weight onto me, intensified by much harder material now covering my body.

 

When Llelwyl was gone, Kirinhalut reached over and grabbed me.  She practically had to peel me off the wood with a fingernail before getting a grip, and she was not gentle about pinching my leg.  After a disorienting rush I was upside down in front of her face, dangling in front of her nose.  Her entrancing brown eyes focused on me, full of mirth while she watched my compressed body sway under her grip.

 

“I asked her to get me something to drink from the back so I could grab you,” she whispered, her voice jabbing into me like thorns.  Despite how intrusive it was, I vastly preferred when she used telepathy.  “You’re welcome, by the way.”

 

“Why?” I sputtered.  “Why did you do that?”

 

“Because it’s funny!” she answered, her eyes lighting up.  “You just got flattened by an elf who didn’t even know you were there.  Not only do I love your pain, but it’s a great way of reminding you how insignificant I’ve made you.”

 

“I’m well aware –“ she shook her hand, interrupting me as my body waved beneath her fingers.

 

“I didn’t say you could talk, bug,” she hissed.  “You’re not a person anymore, you’re an insect, and you need to start acting like one.  The smart ones here realize it, and soon the others will too.  When we get to a city no one will even know what you used to be, just that you need to be squashed.”

 

“You’re wro-“

 

“What did I say about talking?  That’s something people do, not bugs.  If you speak out of turn again, I’ll grow your lips together.”  She tilted her head forward to press her point home, and I stayed quiet.

 

Fortunately, she was done talking to me, and dropped me into her waiting palm.  She cupped her other hand over it, blocking all light from reaching me.  More importantly, it kept the others from seeing my paper-thin body in her hand and asking any questions.  My body could begin the long, painful process of restoring itself, away from prying eyes.

 

For the rest of the day I was kept in the makeshift chamber inside Kirinhalut’s hands, unable to escape even when my limbs regained their strength.  Her hands were not as good at filtering out sound as Llelwyl’s butt had been, however, and I could hear the entirety of their conversation.  It was mostly Llelwyl and Bushwack telling stories about their adventures over the years while Kirinhalut egged them on, but my ears perked up when the subject briefly turned to me.

 

“How’s the little guy doing up there?” Sondra called from the back.  “Does he need anything?”

 

“Yeah, I haven’t heard any annoying squeaks since we loaded up,” Llelwyl added, “what gives?”

 

“He’s just getting some rest,” Kirinhalut answered.  “He’s been through quite the ordeal over the past few months, so I figured I’d let him sleep in my hands.”  No matter how often she did it, I was always amazed with how she could bend the truth.  The only lie that she told just then had been implying that my ordeal was over now.

The stench of brimstone kept me awake until my body started reconstituting itself, and once that began it was impossible to get any rest.  My whole body felt like it had a hundred needles jabbed into every square inch, causing pain so intense I could not even scream.  As the process continued, I wistfully remembered the agony of being flattened.  At least that was over quickly, and once my body collapsed under blunt force it went numb, making whatever was on top of me easier to endure.

 

Kirinhalut lifted the hand off me when my body was whole again, and it was well past sundown.  The others were sitting around a fire, and it looked like they had just finished dinner.  Although I no longer needed to eat due to my new bond with infernal powers, the leftover smells made me envious of them.  It had been so long since I smelled food, let alone tasted it, that I just wanted a scrap or two.

 

I wouldn’t if I were you, Kirinhalut said telepathically.  People don’t like seeing bugs in their food.  She gave me a toothy smile, then struck me with a finger.  It pushed me back until another finger hit me, knocking me onto my face.  Then again, you might end up joining their food.  The fey like to eat insects, and I count two of them here.

 

She would crush me if I spoke when it was just the two of us, but she should be able to read my mind if I thought loudly enough at her.  You know I’m not a bug, so why don’t you –

 

A wave of psychic force lashed out, blasting my thoughts apart.  Do I, though?  Kirinhalut’s laughter bounced around in my skull, making it impossible to start another thought.  You look like a bug.  You act like a bug.  You even sound like one.  It’s time to let go of your delusions of being a shrunken human and admit what you are.

 

If I knew a lot about succubi, I would not be in this predicament.  Some of their abilities were common folklore, however, and any adventurer worth their salt had at least heard rumors.  Their powers of magical persuasion were great enough that they could convince any mortal of whatever they wanted, and their ability to take any form they wished could be forced on others too.  Kirinhalut could simply polymorph me into a bug and be done with it if she wanted, but she seemed to be playing a deeper game with me.  I could be quite the tenacious opponent, though, and I would give her a run for her money.

 

The others broke the circle around the fire and came back to the wagon where we were sitting.  “Are you sure you don’t want anything, Kiri?” Llelwyl asked.  “We made more than enough, and you’re welcome to whatever’s ours.”

 

Kirinhalut smiled politely and replied, “I really appreciate the offer, but I’ll pass.”  She held up her free hand to show off a ring she had just made appear there.  “My captor forced me to wear this ring so he wouldn’t have to give me food or water, but it has its benefits on the road, too.  You all enjoy your food: I’ll keep looking out for the little guy here.”

 

“I could use some food!” I piped up.  “Just a few shreds of venison are all I ask!”

 

“If you’re sure, then I’ll pack up the rest for breakfast.”  Llelwyl walked away, not even acknowledging I said anything.

 

The fire began to die down, and the others started setting up their tents around the wagon.  Kirinhalut waited until they were nearly done before approaching Margret with a question that she suddenly found very pressing.  “Excuse me – Margret, right?  Might I ask what my sleeping arrangements are for tonight?”

 

“The wagon has a mattress and a canvas cover we can put up,” Margret answered, not bothering to look away from the stake she was pounding.  “You and the little guy should have more than enough room in there.”

 

“About that,” Kirinhalut began with false timidity.  “I’ve been with him constantly for the past two months, and for once I’d like a place to myself, even if it’s just for one night.  You understand, right?”

 

Margret stroked her chin and furrowed her dark brow.  “Hey Bush!” she called out.  “Mind giving your bed to the little guy for the night?”

 

Bushwack flew from Llelwyl’s shoulder to Kirinhalut’s with such fury that she made the much larger woman sway when she landed.  “That’s a joke, right?” she shouted.  “Have you bothered to learn a single thing about me the whole time we’ve been together?”  Margret was taken aback, so Bushwack continued, “I’m a follower of Morevar the Sly, so I have to sleep off the ground in a bed that’s been blessed to ward away evil spirits.  I would think that, even as a human, you would know that as a priest and someone who’s supposed to be my friend.”

 

“Then would you mind letting him sleep on your covers or something?” Margret offered.  “He’s got to sleep somewhere, and I’d rather it be somewhere nice and elevated.”

 

Bushwack glared and growled at the priest.  “I’ve got a better idea: why don’t you offer him your bed instead of forcing me to share mine with him?”

 

“So that I can roll over and crush him?  I’m sure you’d like that, but I have a duty to protect those who have been victimized by evil.”

 

“Well he’s not sleeping in my bed –“

 

“Mine either!” Llelwyl interjected.

 

“So it sounds like he’s sleeping on the ground!”

 

“Where an owl can swoop down and grab him?”  Margret sounded horrified at the prospect.  “He wouldn’t stand a chance!”

 

“Then he could finally show us what a great warrior he’s supposed to be!” Bushwack shot back.

 

“Hey, calm down you two!” Sondra shouted over the din.  “Everything within five miles must know we’re here by now!”  She waited for the argument to die down before continuing.  “He’s not sleeping on the ground, and he doesn’t have to sleep in anyone’s bed.  I can make a floating disc in my tent and have him sleep above me, there’ll be more than enough room for him.  I’ll even reduce an extra blanket so it’s just the right size for him.”

 

“Figures the humans would stick together,” Bushwack snidely quipped, “even when one of them’s tiny and useless.  He’s your problem for tonight, Sond, have fun.”  She flew back to Llelwyl to finish fixing their beds together.

 

Kirinhalut instinctively curled her fingers inward as a shield when Sondra reached for me, then remembered she was supposed to be keeping up an act for them.  She relaxed her hand, and Sondra gently plucked me out of her palm between her thumb and forefinger.  It was a welcome change from being snatched up like a ball of lint, and she even moved me slowly enough that I did not feel like vomiting for once.  When I was clear of Kirinhalut’s hand, the succubus walked away to suggest Llelwyl “help” her get the wagon bed set up.

 

The mage held me up to her face, and her wide pupils took a moment to focus on me in the darkness.  “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” Sondra purred, her voice comforting me like crushed velvet.  She walked toward her tent, keeping her free hand palm-up below me in case I slipped.  With each step she rolled her feet against the ground, keeping her gait steady so I would not be bounced around between her surprisingly comfortable fingers.

 

She paused outside her tent just after pulling the flap back.  “I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone else,” Sondra said.  “We’ve escorted people way more helpless than you before, and Bush and Lell didn’t have a problem with it.  And I’ve never seen Margret so intent on stirring the pot before, she usually goes out of her way to make sure we’re all happy.”

 

“You don’t think I’m useless?” I asked as Sondra ducked into the tent.

 

“Not at all!” she replied as she stood back to her full height.  “You may be the smallest person I’ve ever seen, but you’re still an experienced warrior.  Even if you can’t carry a sword, I’m sure you have a ton of advice you can share with us.  If anyone could understand that I’d figure Bush would, but she seems intent on hating you.”

 

“I just wish there were something I could do to gain their acceptance.”

 

“Be careful what you wish for.”  Sondra spoke a pair of arcane syllables, and a translucent pink disc appeared in her palm.  It hovered in the air when she moved her hand away, and she carefully lowered me onto it.  When both my feet were flat on it Sondra let go, and I stood unassisted on the platform.  “You have my acceptance, and that counts for a lot.  It seems like you’ve got Margret in your corner too, so you should be safe from any group decisions.”

 

I was feeling risky, so I asked, “What do you make of Kiri?”

 

Sondra said another pair of arcane sounds, and the blanket in her hand became the size of a handkerchief.  She laid it down in front of me, then withdrew a small cotton ball from the pouch at her waist and set it down on the edge.  “I’ll say that she’s a customer, and we’re protecting her so we can get paid.  I’ll also say that the sooner we get paid by her, the better.”

 

She slid into her sleeping bag, and I pulled the blanket she had provided over me.  Sondra gave two sharp claps, and while my ears rang from them the candles inside the tent went out.  “Good night, Sondra,” I said, laying my head on the makeshift pillow.

 

“Please, call me Sandy,” she replied, nuzzling her own pillow.  “I’ve always liked that for a nickname, but everyone calls me Sond for some reason.”  A few moments passed and she added, “Come find me in the morning if I wake up before you, I’ve got something you can help me with.”  I was too tired to think about what she meant, and we drifted off to sleep within minutes.

---

At some point in the night I was awoken by the sensation of movement, and I opened my eyes to see a pair of deep brown, almost black, eyes gazing down at me.  Kirinhalut’s pale face was framed by dark hair falling around it, and she regarded me with a curious expression.  Everything around me was frozen in time.  Sondra’s diaphragm was stuck at full expansion, and the tent looked like it was blowing in the wind despite the total absence of sound.  The only movement was Kirinhalut beating her long eyelashes together when she blinked.

 

“My, this one seems to like you,” she said, leaning in so her face loomed over me.  It was already the only thing moving, but she made it so I could see nothing beside it.  “I was wondering why she was harder to influence than the others.  It looks like you have an ally, though I wonder what she’d do if I dispelled her little cantrip and you fell into her mouth?”

 

“Can’t you leave me alone for one night?” I asked groggily.  “You cast me to the wolves tonight, and you’ve had me to yourself for two months anyway.”

 

“Oh, my little idiot,” Kirinhalut began, “that was just so they’d fight over who had to deal with you.  If they weren’t so receptive to my suggestions, you’d be trapped under me right now and no one would be the wiser.”

 

“Well they are, and it doesn’t seem like you had to try very hard,” I shot back.  “Can I get back to sleep now?  You can do whatever demonic tortures you want to me tomorrow.”

 

“You couldn’t stop me if you wanted to,” Kirinhalut replied, giving me a smug grin.  “I just wanted to remind you who’s in charge, but I predict you’re going to have a very interesting day tomorrow.”

 

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, unable to summon the energy to be properly outraged.  Without even moving she was gone, and I was left wondering if she had ever been there to begin.

When I woke up, the sun had been up for a few hours and Sondra was no longer beneath me.  I crawled out from beneath the blanket she had provided and breathed in the morning air.  Sounds of activity came from the direction of the fire, and I figured it was around breakfast time for them.  They had forgotten about me again when it came time to eat, and while Kirinhalut had made it so I needed neither food nor water I still wanted to taste something.  Even if I could get off this disc hovering several feet in the air, there was no way I’d reach them before it was all gone.

 

The tent’s flap pulled back and Sondra stepped through.  She strode toward me until the front fold of her robe brushed my hovering platform and looked down at me.  I was at about waist level to her, and her immense frame blocked my whole field of view.  Even looking straight up I could barely see her face, though I knew her clear blue eyes were on me.

 

“Good morning, sleepy-head!” she boomed with a smile.  “How’d you sleep?”

 

“Best rest I’ve had since I ran into that witch,” I answered.  Telling her about Kirinhalut’s visit last night was tempting, but I didn’t want to risk the devastating reprisal she would bring upon me.  “First time I’ve had a real blanket since then, too.  Usually I’ve just had to sleep in the open air.”

 

“Well, I’m glad you liked it,” Sondra replied.  “I was going to bring you to breakfast, but you looked so peaceful sleeping there and I didn’t want to disturb you.  Plus, I figured Bush and Lell could use some time to cool down without having to see you.”

 

“It’s fine, I’m not that hungry anyway.”  Sondra looked doubtful but did not question it.  “Are we getting back on the road, then?”

 

“Not just yet.”  She reached a hand forward and pinched me between her thumb and forefinger.  When she was sure of her grip the platform beneath me disappeared, dropping the tiny blanket she had given me onto her foot: seeing how it didn’t even stretch from one side to the other was a stark reminder of how puny I was compared to most people.  “Lell thinks the intermediaries who bought the orb are camped not too far from here, so she’s gone to check it out while we stay back here.”  Sondra lifted me to her face so she would not have to keep looking down at me, keeping me about a foot from her nose.

 

“So, what’ll you be doing while she’s away?”

 

“I was going to spend the time sorting my reagents,” Sondra began, “and I could really use a pair of tiny hands to help out.  Would you mind?”  She gave a wide, toothy smile, showing off a set of pearly whites nearly my size.

 

“I’d be glad to help you out,” I told her.  “Won’t the others think you’re bogarting me though?”

 

Sondra let out a single laugh that sounded like a thunderclap before answering.  “I don’t think Bush will object, and Margret usually spends her downtime praying or fiddling with her armor.  Unless Kiri objects, I’ll have you all to myself.”  From the excitement edging into her voice, it seemed like she might be looking forward to it.

 

“Sounds good to me,” I said.  Kirinhalut might have something to say about it, but that was a problem for later.  Right now, I was glad I could finally be useful to someone.

 

She left the tent and started walking across the camp, keeping me at eye level.  As she walked she tried to keep me steady, but I still swayed back and forth with her hand.  Aside from the gigantic hand gripping me it felt a lot like being on a boat, complete with the queasiness in my stomach.  I focused on one of her eyes to minimize the effect, and soon found myself lost in the shining blue.  It was refreshing to look at someone this beautiful for so long without them trying to destroy me.

 

It was a short trip thanks to Sondra’s long legs, and in less than a minute we were at the back of the wagon.  She placed a third digit on my back to keep me stable, then reached up to grab the handle.  With a quiet grunt she hoisted herself into the wagon, making my stomach drop with the sharp ascent.  Despite her precautions, I still got tossed around when she flailed her arm for balance, my whole body feeling the jolt as her hand lurched from side to side.  Though it only lasted a moment, it was enough excitement for a week.

 

When Sondra turned her attention back to me, she gave an embarrassed laugh.  Neither of us said anything, and she walked to her workbench against the wall.  To avoid giving me another scare she slowly lowered me from her face, giving me an extended view of her body while she lowered me along it.  Time on the road had been kind to her, giving her a lean, slender body, though she had avoided getting much of a tan.  Her robe was pulled tight enough that I saw she had a modest chest.  She set me down on a metal tray in front of her, and I realized how much of a joy it would be to gaze up at her while we worked.

 

Once I was settled, she reached into her robe and withdrew a leather pouch.  Sondra spread it open with two fingers, then brought it to the table beside me.  She upturned the bag, dumping its contents into a small hill on the plate.  After a vigorous shake to make sure it was empty, she laid it off to the side and began picking through the mound of reagents.

 

“So, how can I help?” I asked while Sondra continued breaking the pile of spell components up with a finger.

 

“I’m trying to make this big pile into lots of smaller ones,” she answered.  “It’s gotten a little unruly in there, and I’m trying to separate each of them out so they can go in their own bag.  Think you can do that?”

 

“Doesn’t sound too hard,” I said, and walked to the pile of spell reagents.  When I was almost close enough to grab something the smell hit me, and it felt like I had just been punched in the face.  I recoiled and covered my nose, gagging and trying not to retch.  The smells of every item had combined into a single horrific cloud that was almost thick enough to see.  Sickly sweets had mixed with dead fish, and below those were the scents of a half-dozen types of fruit and old meat.  My eyes watered, and I forced myself to breathe through my mouth with each step as I inched closer.

 

“It might be a little harder than you think,” Sondra teased, plucking a couple plant buds out.  “Don’t worry if it’s too much for you.  I’ve been doing this myself for a while, I can do it again.  I really just wanted you here because it’s tedious and it’d be nice to have someone to talk to for once.”

 

“No, if I’m going to be here I insist on helping,” I replied, taking a big step toward her spell components.  After the initial shock, I was getting used to the smell.

 

“Suit yourself.”  Sondra shrugged and reached into the pile again, nudging things aside until she had collected several down feathers.  “As long as we can still talk while we work.”

 

“Sure thing.”  I reached in and grabbed what I thought was a black pearl, but the slime on my hands told me otherwise.  It was soft and squishy, and as I rolled it toward me I realized it was a fish eye the size of my torso.  Even had it not been incredibly gross, it was hefty and a little on the bulky side, so I rolled it over the ground.  “What do you want to talk about?”

 

“I’d like to start by getting to know more about you!”  When I had reached what I thought was a good distance away, I stopped and turned around to get more.  “For instance, how long have you been… like this?”  As she spoke, she flicked several more fisheyes toward me, and I rushed to stop.

 

“Small?  Shrunken?  A shrunken human?” I asked while I corralled the black balls.  “It’s fine, you can say it.  It’s what I am now, and no amount of talking around it will make it not so.  To answer your question, I was made small three months ago, and just a month later I ended up trapped in that room.”  That seemed like a reasonable amount of time, I thought, considering what Kirinhalut and I had been using as a cover story.

 

“Huh.”  Sondra picked out a series of long, green stems that were like small trees to me, and I started back to the pile.  “So you were with your group for about a month at this size.  How’d they deal with the change?”

 

“We made it our first priority to get the curse lifted.”  I picked up some flower petals and hoisted them over my shoulders, a different color on each side.  “We were actually there because we’d heard he had an item that could undo it.  That turned out to be wrong, but they never found out we had been misled.” 

 

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

 

“What about you, though?”  The flower petals slapped against the metal when I dropped them off my shoulders.  “I’ve met my fair share of groups, but I’ve never seen one that had a pixie as a member.”  I paused to crack my back before going back to load up again.

 

“She and Lell were a package deal,” Sondra began while gathering a collection of rat tails.  “They’ve been friends since they were young – since one of them was young, at least, I’m not sure which ages slower.  After a couple of weeks, Margret and I realized we could use someone with a bow, so we started looking for another small group to merge with.  We were confused when we first met since we only saw one of them, but Bush made herself known very quickly.   She’s a great thief, though, and proved her worth early on by getting into places that only she could.”  She set the handful of tails down on the edge of the metal plate, then her eyes widened. 

 

“Not that I’m saying you’re worthless, mind you!” she rushed to add.  “See?  You’re helping me!”

 

“Don’t sweat it,” I said, loading up with more petals.  “I know you didn’t mean it like that.” Sondra sighed and visibly relaxed, and I tried to lighten the mood.  “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen while adventuring?”

 

“Weirdest?” she repeated.  “Other than a person who seems to be permanently shrunken, I’d have to say a crazy mage who thought he’d trained a bunch of mustard jellies to be his pets.  Maybe he had, and they were just trained to attack people.  Either way, he didn’t really care for us fighting back and said we were hurting his friends.  Definitely weird, though admittedly not all that funny.”

 

I got back to where she had dumped out her pouch and found the only thing left was a white paste with some dirt sprinkled in it.  “Huh, looks like we’re done,” I announced.

 

Sondra’s eyes flitted to the mass in front of me.  “Yeah, we are.”  She began loading the piles into little glass vials, and I helped guide them through the vials’ mouths.  “That went a lot faster than usual!  Or at least, it seemed like it did.  Either way, thanks.”

 

“Glad I could help,” I replied, looking up at her.  She secured the vials in her robe’s pockets, and we stared at each other silently for a few moments.

 

“So, and please don’t take this the wrong way,” Sondra began, nervously tucking a lock of hair behind her right ear, “would you mind if I experimented on you?”  I waited for her to elaborate, because that sounded much more horrific than she had shown herself to be.  “What I mean is, well, I’ve read about witch’s curses, but I’ve never actually seen the effects of one.  I know I can’t dispel it, but there are still a lot of other spells I could try to maybe work around the effect.  Want to give it a try?”

 

I shrugged.  It sounded like she did not have any other plans for the day, and whatever I could do was limited by someone being willing to carry me around.  Besides, if I should be doing anything it should be focused on undoing the damage of my bond with Kirinhalut.  “Yeah, let’s see what you can do,” I said at last.  “Don’t think you’ll make anything worse, at least.”  Sondra looked overjoyed and eager to get to work as she pulled out some of the recently filled vials from her robe.

I looked up at Sondra, hopeful she would find something to help me with my situation.  She raised a hand and twiddled her fingers for a moment, then made a gesture like she was yanking something out of the air before pointing at me.  Her expression told me something should have happened by now, but there was no change in my size.

 

She looked down at me and frowned.  “I figured a remove curse spell would’ve done something,” Sondra said.  It probably would have, if that were the actual problem, and maybe I could explain why to her someday.  “It makes sense that a dying curse would be harder to remove than an enchantment from a mischievous wizard.  Don’t go anywhere though, I still have a few things I want to try.”

 

After a deep breath, she spoke a couple of arcane syllables and pointed at me, then pressed her thumb and forefinger together before spreading them apart.  Her frown remained, and since I was still tiny I surmised that had not worked either.  “No working around it, either,” she declared, then blew a strand of hair out of her face with a sigh.  “Enlarge doesn’t work.  Maybe something’s tweaking the way magic works for you?  I’ve got one more spell that might do something.”

 

Once more she uttered some arcane words, but these sounded like the previous ones in reverse.  She pointed at me, then set her fingers as they had been after her last spell and pinched them together.  I felt magic saturating my body.  Whichever spell she had cast was working.

 

In an instant, Sondra exploded in size.  Everywhere I looked in front of me was the dark red of her robe, its visible threads no narrower than me.  I craned my neck back and saw her hand still hanging in the air, her thumb wider than many houses I had been in.  It was not until I was almost looking straight up that I saw her face, her eyes and mouth wide in shock.  Even though it was thousands of feet away her face still looked enormous, and I could only imagine what it looked like up close.

 

 It took Sondra a moment to overcome her surprise and say anything.  “Well,” she boomed, “I didn’t make you invisible, so that means...”  Her voice was a devastating rumble to me, more like the sound of rolling thunder than anything else I could compare it to.  I could feel the power of each syllable in my chest as my insides shook.  If this was how a normally quiet person sounded, I dreaded hearing any of the others.

 

The sky fell, and I flinched away from Sondra’s face as it raced toward me.  Luckily, it stopped when the tip of her nose touched down, and a single eye had become my ceiling.  Her pupil alone was enormous, easily large enough that I could fall inside if I managed to get past the cornea, and each little fleck in the sea of blue was larger than me.  A breeze came from her eyelashes when she blinked, and I heard the soft squish of her eyelids coming together.

 

She shifted so that her face was no longer directly above me, choosing instead to look at me from table level.  While she moved, a single strand of hair landed on the metal tray behind me and got pulled forward with the movement.  I had to vault over it, pushing off the single strand for a boost since it was thick enough to come up to my waist.  When she settled in place, I still had to look up significantly to stare into the eye in front of me.

 

“Reduce is… more effective than usual.”  Even with the table as a shield I had to cover my ears from the tremendous blast of her voice.  Its sheer power made my knees weak, and I collapsed onto the metal.  “Hopefully the duration isn’t any longer.”

 

 

“Could you please whisper?” I shouted at her.  “Your voice is terrifying and it’s hurting me!”

 

“If we’re lucky,” Sondra’s roaring voice exploded from her lips, “once the duration runs out it’ll cancel the curse too, and you’ll go back to your normal size.”  She spoke at the same horrific volume as before, and I figured she could no longer hear me.  For however long this spell lasted, I would be unable to communicate with her.

 

Sondra sat back up, becoming a mountain again in an instant.  Carefully, she placed a finger against the edge of the table.  “Climb onto my fingertip,” she said, and I was immensely thankful her mouth was no longer just inches away.  “I’ve got something in my tent that might help, but I don’t want to leave you unattended.”  If she could even see me from up there, I could not have been much more than a speck to her.

 

Eager for anything that could help, I walked to the edge of the table to stand where her fingertip rose like a hill.  There was a wide gap made by her fingertip, and I hopped into it.  I bent my knees when I landed on the keratin to help with the fall, then took two steps forward.  At this size, human skin looked a little scaly, and there were more than enough handholds for me.  Once I had assessed my path, I grabbed on and clambered up to the highest peak of her index finger.

 

Sondra’s finger was an environment of its own.  I had to contend with waist-deep trenches and ridges from her fingerprint, climbing though and over them until I reached my goal.  It was soft but firm, giving little when I pressed down on it, and I could feel heat radiating from the surface.  Fortunately, even at my size it was not a very far journey, and I waved my arms to increase visibility.

 

When she noticed me, she began raising her hand toward her face.  Even though she went slowly, I still felt the violent surge of movement hit my body.  It knocked me down, and I fell into one of the gullies of her fingerprint.  Fortunately, it was a tight enough space to keep me from moving around, and I was able to stay on her finger.

 

As I approached her face, she was at least looking in my general direction.  It was already gigantic, and every bit closer I got only reinforced how gargantuan she was to me.  She kept her brow furrowed and lips drawn, focusing intently on keeping her hand perfectly straight.  When I reached her chin, I was glad the ride would soon be over.

 

Sondra exhaled sharply, and a strong blast of air hit me.  Wind filled the crevices on her fingertip and lifted me up, carrying me on their currents.  I tumbled off her finger and over her fingernail, falling quickly to the floor.  Before I could so much as scream I landed on her thigh and began slowing down the gentle slope of her pale skin.  I clawed for something to grab onto, and my fingers managed to slip into a groove.  My descent had been stopped, and all I had to do was hold on.

 

When she no longer saw my speck on her finger, Sondra let out a loud squeal.  It pierced my ears, but I kept clinging to her thigh.  She stood, turning her thigh into an increasingly steep slope, and my efforts were for naught.  Her thigh went from horizontal to vertical so fast I could not have possibly compensated, and my fingers slipped from their hold.  I tried to grab onto something but I was falling too fast, and my fingers uselessly slid over her skin.  At the bottom, I ramped off her ankle bone and flew off, rolling over the floorboards.  The wood’s grain was a series of ridges to me now, battering me as I rolled into them until my momentum finally ran out.

 

I got back to my feet and realized just how small I had become.  Sondra’s shoes were already large, but now they were so titanic I would need a grappling hook to get past the sole.  Looking further up, my mind almost could not bear the sight of the full height comparison between us.  It seemed like she was miles tall from here, and I had never seen anything so big.  Cloud cover would ordinarily be around her knees, but somehow she kept going.  Fear for my sanity made me want to look away, but awe at her majesty won out and I kept gawking up at her.

 

She stepped back, and her chair scraping against wood was like a knife in my ears.  That sound was quickly drowned out by the crash of her heels setting back down, however, making the loudest explosion I had ever heard.  Tremendous shockwaves emanated from the impacts, causing me to stagger when they hit me.  My insides shook while my teeth rattled, then the second one hit.  This one knocked me off my feet, and it felt like I was about to shake apart.  Sondra was thin and rather light, but even her steps resulted in devastating earthquakes for me.

 

“Oh, you really messed up this time, Sondra,” she muttered to herself.  I was far enough away now that her voice did not pummel me repeatedly, but the slightest sound from her was still clearly audible.  “You made the tiny man smaller and then you dropped him.  You can’t hear him, you can barely see him, and now he’s on the ground somewhere.  If you just stay still you won’t make this worse and the spell will run out eventually.”

 

She looked around her feet for me, but from her height even if she could notice me I would be nothing more than a speck of dust.  Waving my arms would do nothing to help her see me, so I decided to save my energy.  Moving in either direction could result in her stepping on me, I realized, so I stayed where I was.  There was plenty of Sondra’s colossal body for me to look at, anyway, and if I got bored with that I had a closer view of wood than anyone had ever seen.

 

Sondra kept her feet planted on the ground, making sure she would neither crush me by accident nor generate any new earthquakes for me.  The spell lasted a while, though, and she still had to move.  Her shifting weight from foot to foot was an incredible sight.  I could see the tension and relaxation of every muscle in her calf, making her skin dance over them.  Everything she did, no matter how small, was clearly visible to me.

 

After what seemed like hours, the magic released its hold on me and I began to grow.  My luck did not change, of course, and I did not even reach the toe of Sondra’s shoe when I stopped.  Still, it was nice to no longer be the size of a metal shaving, and she ought to be able to at least faintly hear me now.

 

I pounded on the side of Sondra’s shoe, hoping my tiny blows could be felt through the leather, and started shouting.    “Sondra, I’m down here!” I called out, hoping my voice could reach her ears.  “The spell wore off, and I’m still my old size!”

 

She must have heard me, since after a moment Sondra looked down right at me.  After a quick gasp, she squatted, then lowered a hand toward me.  Her fingers threatened to engulf me, then two of them swung inward and pinched around my body.  Once she was sure of her grip she stood back up, taking me with her.  When she reached her full height she began moving her arm, slowly lifting me until I was at eye level again.

 

“Sorry about that,” Sondra said, bashfully biting her lip.  “I guess that fixing it was too much to hope for, and it just made things worse for you for a bit.  But don’t worry!  I’ll make this my top research priority, and if I can’t find out how to break your curse, I’ll find someone who can.”

 

“I appreciate everything you’re doing for me, even if it doesn’t always work,” I told her.  “It’s more than anyone else has been doing.”

 

“It’s what I’d want someone to do if I were in your position.”  She waited a moment, then added, “Do you want to know why I carry you like this every time?”

 

I shrugged.  “Sure.  It seems a little inconvenient, and everyone else is fine to just grab me.”

 

“Because it lets you look me in the eyes, like we’re equals,” she explained.  “If I were suddenly an inch tall, I’d be mad if everyone started treating me like I didn’t matter.  I figure it’s the least I can do until we figure out something more long term.”

 

“Well, it’s a nice thought,” I replied, “and more considerate than anyone else has been.”

 

“Just try not to hold the shrinking thing against me, all right?  I really did think it might help.”  Sondra looked over her shoulder, then back to me.  “The sun’s getting low, Lell should be back any time.  If she found something, we might be in for a long night.”  With that, she turned and left the wagon.  I focused on one of her pupils while she walked to lessen the feeling of vertigo, and aside from the occasional glance to where she was going, she focused on me.  It helped that she was easy to look at, with shining eyes that would draw my attention anyway, and I considered that this might just be more than typical human concern.

The sky was streaked with dark oranges and deep reds, and the sun had dropped behind the trees.  We gathered around the fire, watching the last embers smolder while Margret tinkered with her armor.  There was no sign of Llelwyl yet, and we wondered whether we should build the fire again.  All we could do was wait for now, not that I would be doing much otherwise.

 

Bushwack landed on Sondra’s shoulder, making the slender wizard sway from the force.  She scowled at me between Sondra’s fingers, and I tried not to meet her gaze.  “How about it, Sond?” she asked.  “Are you sick of him too, now?  Can we leave him for the birds?”

 

“Actually, he was a big help today,” Sondra replied.  At this size her voice was warm and soothing, and I wished she would talk more.  “Having him around made my work go a lot faster.  I think I’ll keep him around for a while longer.”

 

“Too bad that’s not your decision to make,” Bushwack said.  “When we get her where she’s going Kiri’s going to take him, and there’s not much you can do about it.”

 

“My ears are burning,” rumbled from behind me in Kirinhalut’s characteristic purr.  She stood uncomfortably close to Sondra, making me feel boxed in.  Her very presence made me uneasy, especially this near.

 

“Speak of the devil,” Bushwack exclaimed, and she had no idea how close she was.  “You’re taking the tiny human with you when we part ways, right?”

 

“Oh, yes, of course I am,” Kirinhalut replied.  Her voice felt like velvet, but I knew ever word she spoke was coated with venom.  “He became quite attached to me while we were trapped there.  I think if he were apart from me for too long, he would just die.”  Not quite, but it’d feel like you were, she added telepathically.

 

“Good, that’s settled then,” Bushwack said.  “You shouldn’t be getting attached to him in the first place.  He’ll probably get stepped on before then anyway.”

 

“No he won’t!” Sondra shot back.  “He can take care of himself as long as everyone helps out.”

 

Really?  You think Lell or I are going to go out of our way for this little thing?”  Bushwack pointed at me before continuing.  “It’s only a matter of time until he ends up under one of our feet, so if you really want him to be okay, you’ll want him to go, too.”

 

“Maybe if you acknowledged he’s no less human than me and Margret that’d be easier for you,” Sondra replied through gritted teeth.

 

It looks like I found an angle on her! Kirinhalut said in my mind.  She let loose with her unnerving telepathic laugh before continuing.  Humans are even easier to manipulate than fey folk.  What a stupid, short-lived race.  Particularly this one.  What kind of sad individual forms an emotional bond with someone like you?

 

Trees on the edge of camp rustled, and everyone turned toward the sound, ready to fight.  Llelwyl emerged from the foliage, covered in twigs and leaves she had stuck in her hair and armor for camouflage.  She shook her makeshift cover loose, then strode to the center of the clearing and crouched by the fire.  Bushwack flew from Sondra’s shoulder and landed between Llelwyl’s feet, and the elf grunted in response.

 

“What’s the word?” asked the pixie while Llelwyl withdrew two arrow shafts.  “Did you find anything?”

 

“Yeah, I found them,” Llelwyl confirmed, then addressed the whole camp.  “Gather up, everyone!  We’re going to hit them tonight, so let’s go over the plan.”  The rest of the team, even Kirinhalut, went to watch her etch lines and circles representing the other camp’s structures in the dirt.

 

Sondra held back a moment, taking time to carefully set me on her shoulder.  “Hold on tight,” she instructed.  “I don’t want you to fall off.”  I latched on to the side of her robe laying just beneath her ear and rolled under the fabric.  The sensation of her walking was pleasant from here, almost like a ride while her shoulders gently bounced with her movement.  When she knelt beside Llelwyl I was glad I had such a tight grip, since the sudden drop lifted me off her shoulder for a moment.  Landing on her hard bones made me wince, though her smooth skin helped ease the pain.

 

Llelwyl looked at me on Sondra’s shoulder then recoiled, a disgusted expression on her face.  “What is that doing here?” she spat, jabbing an arrow shaft in my direction.

 

Sondra looked at her and smirked.  “I put him there,” she replied simply.  “Bush gets to ride on your shoulder, so I figured I’d let him ride on mine.”

 

Llelwyl let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes.  “We can talk about this later,” she said, then turned back to her diagram.  Since I was there, I decided to follow along.  It did not look particularly detailed, just some circles and squares drawn in the dirt, but the elf drawing it oozed function over form.  Several X’s were etched between the circles, and I surmised these were guards and buildings, respectively.  I respected the simplicity, but kept my mouth shut so she would not have another reason to berate me.

 

“As you can see,” Llelwyl began, tracing a circle around her drawing, “we’d be over our heads in a frontal assault.  That’s why Bush is going to carry one end of our portable doorway here.”  She tapped the edge of a rectangle before continuing.  “There’s only one guard there, and once the doorway’s activated we can pour through, overwhelm her, and take the safe.  If other guards start showing up, Sondra can lay down a fireball while Margret holds them still.  All told, this should take about three minutes, then we can get some rest.  Any questions?”

 

“Yeah, I’ve got one,” Sondra piped up, and everyone turned to look at her.  “Why’s Bush carrying it?”

 

“Because she’s six inches tall and can fly,” Llelwyl answered curtly.  “Any other questions?”

 

“I can make someone who’s one inch tall fly,” Sondra insisted.  “He’d be harder to see and more likely to reach the drop point.  Why doesn’t he carry the doorway tonight?”

 

“Because I don’t want our valuable magic item to be part of an owl pellet.”  Llelwyl was refusing to budge on her plan.  “Bush is flying it in, and stop trying to find something for that bug of a man to do.”

 

“If I may interject,” Kirinhalut broke in.  “He doesn’t need magic to fly.”  The women turned to face her, so she elaborated, “It’s about thirty meters from the fence to where you want the drop, right?  You can tie him to an arrow and fire it in!  That way there’s no chance of interception, and it’ll get there in a few seconds.  If whatever this doorway is doesn’t open after a minute or two, Bush can go finish the job herself.

 

“I hadn’t considered it like that before,” Llelwyl replied.  “It’s risky, but there’s no chance of detection, and it would make this raid even shorter.”

 

“Plus, he’s more expendable than I am,” Bushwack chimed in.  “If his only skill is to be launched as a projectile so no one will see him, I say we do it.”

 

“Are you out of your minds?” Sondra exclaimed.  “What if he gets hurt on impact, or killed?”

 

“Then Bush will finish the mission,” Llelwyl answered.  “Look, Sond, you know we don’t vote on plans, and even if we did this one would win.  He’s going to wear one side of the portable doorway as a backpack and I’m going to fire him into the middle of their camp, and that’s final.”  The wizard pouted, but there was little else she could do.

 

“Now that we have a plan, let’s get moving,” Llelwyl continued.  “By the time we get there it’ll be dark, so we should go unnoticed until the doorway opens.”  The party stood, and I clung tightly to Sondra’s robe.  She pitched forward when she unfolded her legs, and I toppled from atop her shoulder.  I slightly swung like a pendulum as she rose, and I gripped the threads so hard my knuckles turned white.

 

Kirinhalut blocked Sondra’s path, her green dress forming an indomitable barrier in front of me.  “I think I should hold on to the little guy now for safe-keeping,” she said.  “He feels safer with me after all we’ve been through together.”  Before Sondra could object, Kirinhalut’s hand was already around me, prying me away from the robe.  I wanted to cry out, but Kirinhalut’s influence held my jaw shut.  She tore my fingers away from the threads easily, and her fist closed around my body.

 

The party set off to the rally point, me firmly clutched in Kirinhalut’s hand.  The usual sensations of her movement were overridden by the tip of her middle finger pressing me into her palm with enough force that it was the only thing I could think of.  Struggling was useless, I had learned, so I laid there partially curved around her finger.  She had stopped just short of crushing me to avoid preventing a flat shrunken human when the time came, and I knew she needed to maintain the fabrication as much as I did.

 

Risky operation tonight.  Unfortunately, short of a full lobotomy I would not be able to keep her voice out of my head.  But you’re no stranger to risk, are you?  You like to roll the dice, and I appreciate people inviting more chaos into their lives.  It makes my job easier.

 

 Stop polluting my brain with your ramblings and get to the point, I thought back at her.

 

Did a single day undo all your conditioning?  She might be more powerful than I thought, Kirinhalut mused.  To my point, though.  Have you ever been the die rolled?  I doubt it.  It can be quite an experience, though.

 

Demanding an explanation would only agitate her, and she could never hold off on whatever torment she thought up for me very long.  Her finger curled off me, allowing me to roll into her palm’s basin, then her other hand clamped over the opening.  Though I was less constrained than before, I was far from free, and I doubted freedom of movement would be a comfort in the near future.

 

Kirinhalut’s hands lurched upward, and it felt like my stomach dropped to the ground.  They suddenly halted, launching me off her palm and slamming me into the ceiling of her other palm.  Before I could acclimate, her hands surged down again, throwing my stomach through me and into the sky.  They suddenly stopped again, and I plummeted back to her waiting palm.  The soft flesh there cushioned my fall, but my landing was still a shock.

 

She kept moving her hands, rapidly bouncing me between her palms.  I quickly lost track of which way I was going, and even which direction was up.  The only thing I knew was constant movement from one hand to the other, tumbling between contacts.  I hit the centers of her palms, the sides, and everything in between.  As I ricocheted through the fleshy chamber I tried to grab onto something, but even the deepest folds of her palms were not enough to stop me from careening freely throughout the prison.

 

When the punishment finally stopped, I settled into the middle of Kirinhalut’s hand again.  My face rested against the soft skin of her palm, so I did not even realize when she opened her hands.  Fingers pinched on my cloak, then lifted me away from where I rested.  A sudden jerk flipped me around, and I was facing the gray eyes of Llelwyl’s starlit face.

 

“You know the plan, right?” she asked.  I nodded, and she continued.  “Good.  We’ll give you three minutes after I fire to get the doorway working, then we’ll presume you were killed on impact and Bush will have to do it.  Got it?”  I nodded again, and she moved me toward a wooden arrow shaft.  “If there’s anything you don’t get, now’s the time.”

 

“Yeah, one thing,” I said.  Even though she had prompted me, Llelwyl seemed annoyed.  “How do I activate this doorway?”

 

She explained I need to hold both sides of it on flat ground and say the command word, and that should be enough.  Luckily I had no further questions since she did not take any, and resumed moving me toward the arrow.  Bushwack was waiting with her side of the doorway laid against the shaft, and Llelwyl laid me against it.  The elf secured me with her thumb before letting go of my cloak, making sure I would not slide off by pushing me into the wood.

 

Bushwack shoved a splinter of metal into my hand, then wedged a length of string between me and Llelwyl’s thumb.  She flew circles around the arrow shaft, wrapping my entire chest to make sure I would not fall off.  When they were satisfied with the amount of coverage, Bushwack sliced the string with her dagger and tied the loose end in a knot.

 

Llelwyl notched the arrow, and I noticed my feet were toward the arrowhead at least.  The bow’s wood and sinew creaked when she drew it back, and it felt like my fear ratcheted up with every minor groan.  When it was at full draw she adjusted her aim, trying to get me to land as close as possible to the drop point.  Her fingers released on the string, rocketing me forward hard enough for me to momentarily black out.

When I came to, the arrow as at the apex of its arc and staring to point downward.  I was moving at an incredible speed, with wind blowing my hair back as I tore through it.  Torches dotted the ground below, casting the only light for my unguided journey.  Outlines of people I sailed over went about their business, unaware that they were being watched for a brief moment before I flew past.

 

The ground started getting closer, and it was coming fast.  I gripped the small sliver of metal to make sure I would not drop it upon landing and braced for impact.  Luckily there was nobody nearby, and it looked like Llelwyl’s aim was true.   I was on course to land just a few feet from the pavilion where the chest ought to be, and would barely have to walk at all once I landed.

 

The arrow struck the ground, burying its head deep into the soil.  My momentum would have slid me down the shaft upon impact, but it was embedded so far into the soil that my feet simply settled on the ground.  I reeled from the sudden deceleration and took several seconds to recover, waiting for the black spots to finally leave my vision.  Fortunately, the grass where I landed was high, and half of the arrow that remained above ground was hidden, including me.

 

It took a few seconds more for my digits to be responsive, but they were still clutched around my makeshift cutting tool.  I had little room to maneuver and no leverage, so all I could do was quickly rub it back and forth against my restraints.  The swift sawing motions made slow progress against the string, but after a few seconds it began to cut through the string.  A little longer and I would be free to carry out my mission.

 

A tremendous brown leather boot crushed the grass in front of me.  “If this is the best you can shoot, you’re fired!” they boomed, then grabbed the arrow by its fletching.  I tried to look up, but the arrow kept my head from going back too far.  The furthest up I could see was their waist, where a chain tunic was belted off over some hard leather leggings.  There was no way I could free myself in the next couple of seconds, so I hoped they would simply toss the arrow aside and forget about it.

 

They jerked the arrow out of the ground, giving me a jolt when it came free.  A surge of motion made me feel as though I were about to come apart when they flipped it around, moving me so fast my vision was a total blur.  I lurched again when they stopped it, and their eyes fell on the soil-covered arrowhead above.  Slowly, their gaze traced it downward until landing on me.  I tried to play possum, but the bundle holding me here was simply too conspicuous.  Without even moving I had been caught.

 

The way they gripped the arrow kept me upside down, so my whole viewpoint was inverted.  From how the chain shirt fell from the shoulders down I surmised it was a woman who captured me, and I followed up to see a necklace of dark onyx around her long, slender neck.  I was about level with her rounded chin, so I had to look up (down, in my case) past her full lips and nose with a slightly flattened tip to see her light brown eyes.  Her hair was a few shades lighter, loosely pulled back with a bow so most of it fell on her cheeks or got tucked behind her ears.  She looked pale, but not unhealthily so, and squinted when she looked down at me.

 

After a few moments of staring at me her eyes suddenly widened.  “A living payload?” she thought out loud.  “None of my archers even have something living to fire, let alone anything this small.  Let’s see what kind of fey creature you are, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one quite your size before.”

 

She grabbed the arrow with her free hand, laying her thumb across me, and reached for her sheathed knife.  I shook slightly when she withdrew it, but she held me steady while lining up her blade against my bonds.  A little bit of pressure and a quick slash was all it took for her to cut through the string, a task which would have taken me a minute of sawing.  Quickly she returned the knife to its sheath, then brought her hand back to me.  Her thumb and forefinger pinched my feet, then she released her grip on the arrow.  Luckily she was focused on me, so she did not notice my side of the portable doorway fall into the grass at her feet.

 

With a quick jerk she raised me to her eye level, and I kept swinging after the movement stopped.  “Based on your size, I’d guess you’re an atomie,” she mused, rubbing her chin with her free hand, “but I’d always heard they have sharp, extremely angular features.  All fey do that I’ve seen, really.  Yours aren’t though, and between those and your proportions, if it weren’t for your size I’d say you were…” she trailed off while leaning in, squinting her brown eyes at me again.

 

Suddenly her eyes widened, and with a gasp she drew back.  “You’re a human!” she exclaimed, trying to stay quiet in her excitement.  “By far the smallest human I’ve ever seen, too.  I was going to see if there are any magical components I could get by dissecting you, but now…” she bit her lip and trailed off.  “Do you know how much a permanently tiny human is worth?  At an open auction, elven rulers treat fifty thousand as the starting price.  You’re going to help me retire early.”

 

“Wait, you can’t sell me!” I protested, and this time her jaw dropped.

 

“You can talk, too!” she said, her surprise turning into a smirk.  “That’ll at least double the price.”

 

“But I’m a human!” I reminded her.  “Selling sentient beings was outlawed when manual labor was replaced by undead workers in the Bone Agreement.”

 

A low, rumbling chuckle emanated from her throat.  “Due to the diplomatic pressure of an empress – human, surprisingly – sentient non-fey under six inches in height can be bought and sold as collectibles, display pieces, and general entertainment.  I don’t have my ruler, but I think you’re well below that cut-off.”  Her eyes narrowed and she added in a low voice, “But if it weren’t legal, you’d easily clear a hundred thousand.  Trust me.”  When I wanted someone to say I was worth something, this was not what I had in mind.

 

Her eyes glanced from me to the table under her pavilion.  “It’ll be a few weeks before I can find a buyer, but I have the perfect jar to keep you in until then.”  She started to turn her body, and I gripped the metal sliver in my hand.  If I could not free myself, the others would have to bust me out of a jar when Bushwack took over, and I did not want to deal with the fallout from that.  I could do this; all I had to do was get to the ground.

 

With a shout I reached for my toes and jammed the splinter into my captor’s fingertip.  The sudden sharp pain took her by surprise, and her fingers opened just enough to let my feet slide out.  She tried to snatch me out of the air but just missed, her fingers coming so close they buffeted me with air.  My makeshift weapon was stuck in her skin, but if I had to fight on the ground I doubted it would be much use.

 

“You little shit!” she roared, yanking the sliver of metal out.  She flicked it away and sucked the single drop of blood, then looked down.  “When I find you, you’ll pay for that!”  I looked around, and a glint of blue at my level caught my eye.  It had to be my part of the doorway, and if I could get there my problems would be over.  There were only a dozen blades of grass between us, too, which should be a short run even at my size.

 

The ground shook, and I looked to see a clump of grass smashed flat beneath my captor’s boots.  Though she may not have known exactly where I had fallen, she had a general idea, and her feet could cover that area in a very short time.  She could not have known about my condition, but from the way she told it she did not need to.  Even if one of her boots flattened me, paying to have me revived would be a minuscule cut into her profits.

 

The boot closer to me raised, then crashed down beside me.  Its impact shook me, and I stumbled to the side.  Its sole was at eye level, and I had no doubt that, had I been standing just two inches to the left, I would have been under it.  When I was able to steady myself, I looked up her towering form and watched her scan the ground beneath her.  She passed her gaze right over me, but a twitch of movement to the side caught her eye.  With her other leg she stomped at it, far enough away that the ground absorbed the shockwaves.

 

While she was turned the other way, I made a dash for the portable doorway.  Blades of grass created a slalom course for me, but I could still see its gleam amid the green and brown.   I was getting close, then I heard the grass behind me stand back up.  After one more step I leapt to the side, just barely rolling out of the way before her boot slammed down where I had been.  My goal was a single lunge away, but it was trapped under the sole of her boot.

 

Her eyes passed over me again, and her other boot slammed into the ground, a little closer than before.  Whatever had grabbed her attention, I did not pity it: better it than me, after all.  While she was distracted, I got back to my feet and leaned against the side of her boot.  Every instant would count, and I needed to know when it moved.

 

“Ha!  Got you!” she proclaimed triumphantly, and raised her foot high.  Much too high to catch me, as it turned out, and I leapt toward the button-sized magical item.  My hands touched both sides of it, and I spoke the command word while her boot rushed toward me.  It had nearly made impact when the doorway deployed, blocking her foot from hitting the ground.  The magical door rapidly expanded, tossing my would-be stomper onto her back with an earth-shattering quake.

 

I pressed myself against the lower bounds of the frame while the rest of the adventurers came through, creating non-stop seismic activity.  First was Margret, who quickly moved to neutralize the only nearby threat.  Next came Sondra, who took a step and spoke an arcane word to fill the area with magic and hopefully subdue any enemies.  Bushwack flew through on her own, looking for any opportunities for her to strike a critical blow unseen.  A few seconds after them Llelwyl brought up the rear, so confident in her plan she did not even have a weapon drawn.

 

Margret stood ready to bash my captor with her shield, but thanks to Sondra’s magic it was unnecessary.  She was out cold, and Bushwack took the chance to land and relieve her of any valuables.  Llelwyl strode into the pavilion and hoisted two great chests, one under each arm, and snatched whatever looked valuable in her hands.  She turned around and strode back to the doorway, bearing the weight of her loot as though it were negligible.

 

When Llelwyl was about to step back through the doorway, someone in the distance shouted, “Stop right there!”  They were too far to do anything, though, and Llelwyl stepped into the door as though nothing had happened.  Bushwack went next, her arms wrapped around a coin pouch with an onyx necklace draped over her shoulders.  Sondra and Margret looked at each other, trying to decide who should leave first, but once Sondra began moving her arms in a circle the issue seemed to be settled.  Margret left just when a fireball raced from between Sondra’s hands, exploding roughly where it seemed the shout came from.

 

With the opposition hopefully suppressed, Sondra bent over to grab me.  An arrow sailed through the air right where her heart had been, and her fingers wrapped around me.  She was rougher than usual, but under the circumstances I understood she was hurrying.  Keeping low, she lunged for the door, and after a bright flash of light we were through.  Sondra reached back for something, and when her hand came back the door disappeared.  Pinched between her fingers was the magical device I had risked my life to deliver, so far as they knew.

 

“Another successful job!” Margret exclaimed, pumping her fist.  “Let’s check out our loot!”

 

“When we get back to camp,” Llelwyl coolly replied.  “I suspect we’ll have some disputes on how to divide it up.”  Her side-eyed glare at Sondra told me all I needed to know about her suspicions.  This long day was about to turn into a long night, and I expected I would be at the center of it.  However, I was not worried: I had done my job, even with significant hardship, and not even Bushwack could claim I failed.

Normally the return to camp after a big score was filled with relief and excitement, but tonight was full of tension.  Llelwyl had the excuse of guiding us through the underbrush for why she was not talking, but Bushwack had enough ire for both of them.  She had given up her usual perch on the elf’s shoulder so she could balefully glare down at me while in flight, circling around Sondra’s hands.  As a precaution, Sondra had cupped a hand around me as a shield, and Margret stayed close in case she tried something.

 

When we reached camp, we found Kirinhalut sitting on a blanket by the firepit appearing to meditate, lit by a lantern on the ground in front of her.  Llelwyl paid her no mind and went about stacking wood for the fire.  The noise from logs dropping alerted her, and she looked at Llelwyl with her dark eyes.  “How’d it go?” she asked.  “Did you get what you were looking for?”

 

“We’re about to find out,” Llelwyl replied tersely, striking flint over the wood.

 

“And my plan?” she pressed.  “Did the little man get that magic item of yours where it needed to be?”

 

“It got in place, yes.”  Llelwyl was already trying to downplay my role in their success.  If it had not been totally expected I would have been upset.  With how she tied me to that arrow, it was possible she thought I had no more stake than the arrow itself.  I should able to easily make a compelling case, though I had seen greed cloud the judgement of the closest adventuring groups.

 

Fire glowed from the pit, and the group assembled around it in a circle.  Bushwack popped the chest open, and Llelwyl inspected its contents.  The elf withdrew a sheet of rolled and sealed parchment, then dumped the rest on the ground.  A mound of gold poured onto the dirt, and once she set the parchment to the side she upturned the pouch Bushwack had grabbed, adding its contents to the pile.  She placed the items she had taken beside the parchment, then began raking the gold together with her hands until it was a roughly even circle.

 

Llelwyl used her dagger to cut the gold pile into four equal parts, then put it back in its sheath.  “You know the drill,” she said, addressing the group.  “Take a portion, then we count it up and equal it out later.  No reason to mess with something that works.”

 

“There should be five portions,” Margret declared.

 

“Hm?  I guess you have a point.”  Llelwyl gathered the gold back up and began splitting it into fifths.  “We should be putting some into a common pool for later group expenses.”

 

“I meant for the five people who were there,” Margret clarified.

 

“What do you mean, five people?” Llelwyl asked.  “I only see four members of the group here.”

 

“You didn’t have any trouble seeing him when you tied him to your arrow,” Margret shot back.  “Come on Lell, don’t be like this.  You made him take part in the raid, now pay him for his contribution.”

 

“What contribution?  He got thrown in there, then activated a portal.  Bush has done the same thing dozens of times, and then she at least grabs something or stabs someone afterwards.  If we’re cutting out a portion for the shrunken human, we should be adding it to hers instead.”

 

 “You want to talk about contributions?” Sondra cut in, curling her hand further around me.  “Because I didn’t see you do anything besides grab the loot.  Margret and I could have done that easily, but I don’t see you jumping to give up your share to us.”

 

“I’d like to see you lift that chest, twig,” Llelwyl countered.  “If you were in charge of looting, we’d be in rags and have a pile of rusty weapons!”

 

“Everyone calm down!” Margret called over the din.  “We’re all friends.  Are we really going to let a bit of gold come between us?”

 

“It’s not about the gold, it’s about the principle,” Bushwack said.  “The fact is that he didn’t do anything to get there, and he didn’t do anything I couldn’t have.  Are we really going to reward people for just showing up?  We don’t even know if he wants gold, the coins are bigger than he is!”

 

Sondra scoffed and replied, “Of all people, you’re the one bringing his size into this?  You, who has someone else carry her gold whenever we go into town?  If we divvied stuff up based on how much we can spend, you’d be sleeping in a pinecone.”

 

Bushwack wanted to fly on the offensive, but Llelwyl blocked her with a hand.  “There’s no reason we need to come to blows over this.  I’ve heard your arguments, and I’ll divide the gold into five parts, with the fifth part going to someone who was truly integral to tonight’s plan working.  Kiri came up with the idea to launch the shrunken human into the camp, so it goes to her.”

 

“You can’t be serious!” Sondra protested.

 

“She’s not even in this group!” Margret added simultaneously.

 

“I think we can all agree this is more fair than the four of us hogging it,” Llelwyl continued, as though she had not heard two loud objections.  “If she wants to toss a couple coins to the shrunken human out of pity, that’s up to her.  She’s the one taking care of him, anyway.”  Kirinhalut proudly raised her chin toward me as a subtle victory lap.

 

The two humans grumbled at the settlement, but it was either that or draw steel.  They remained silent while Llelwyl split the pile into five parts, then slid one over to the disguised succubus.  Each recipient gathered their treasure into a sack, though I noticed Bushwack’s was essentially lumped in with Llelwyl’s.  Even though her pile was bigger than she was, she had still tried to say I was too small for a reward.

 

“Okay, let’s get some rest and cool down,” Llelwyl declared while standing.  “We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow, and I don’t want any hurt feelings getting in the way.”  She strode off before anyone could say something.  Somehow, I did not think it was her feelings that had been hurt tonight.

 

Sondra started back to her tent, keeping me cupped and protected in her hands.  She suddenly stopped, throwing me into the hand she had raised as a shield.  “Oh, hey Kiri,” she said, trying not to sound exhausted.  “Can I help you with something?”

 

“You’ve got something of mine,” the succubus responded, and Sondra let out a loud sigh.

 

“I really don’t know what you mean,” Sondra replied.  “I didn’t even know you had anything other than what you’re wearing.”

 

“In your hands.”  Sondra understood her meaning, and slowly drew me closer to her chest.  “We were both at the meeting, so I know you heard it.  I’m the one taking care of him.”

 

“You haven’t been doing a very good job of it.”  She pressed me against herself, dimpling her robe with my body.  “You’re the one who suggested Lell tie him to an arrow.  It’s a miracle he wasn’t horribly maimed or killed!”

 

“I might say you’re overprotective of him.”  Kirinhalut took a menacing step forward, and Sondra stepped back to keep the space.  “You know what I really did?  I proved he has a function.  The others want to get rid of him, just toss him off the side of the wagon next time we’re moving.  They can downplay it all they want, but now they’ll think twice.”

 

“I proved that earlier,” Sondra shot back.  “Besides, he doesn’t need to be useful to be worthy of respect.  A person isn’t just the sum of what you can extract from them, they’re everything about them.  He shouldn’t have to justify his existence just so he can get help.”

 

“Those are a lot of pretty words,” Kirinhalut retorted, stepping forward until Sondra’s back was against a tree trunk.  “We both know who gets results, though.  I’m his official caretaker, after all.”  Sondra’s hand relaxed, as though it was forced to by an outside influence.  The succubus reached in and languidly plucked me out of her palm, then gestured behind herself with her chin.  “You’ve had a long day, maybe you should get some rest.”

 

Sondra seemed dazed as she spoke.  “Yeah, I should get some rest.  I’ll see you two tomorrow.”  She continued toward her tent, moving with a painfully wooden gait.  Her legs scarcely bent with each step, and every time she turned she came to a complete stop.  It was the most unnatural way I had ever seen someone move.

 

When she had disappeared into her tent, Kirinhalut pinched my feet and let go of my body.  I fell backward and rolled over her thumbnail, getting a face full of her chest.  She briefly supported my head while adjusting her grip, making it so I would dangle beneath her fingers rather than be draped over one, then lifted me so both of her dark eyes could focus on me at once.

 

“My, oh my,” she purred, looking at me hanging helplessly in front of her face.  “You’ve had quite a busy day, haven’t you?  You and that blond seem to be getting pretty close, you know.”

 

“Leave her out of whatever you have planned!” I shouted.  “She’s just doing whatever she thinks is best.  In fact, why don’t you leave them all alone?  They’re helping you get to a city where you’ll have thousands more souls to corrupt, I figure you’d want to make that easy as possible.”

 

“Because that would be boring!”  Kirinhalut said it in short, separated syllables, leaning a little closer in each pause.  She punctuated the sentence by batting me with her index finger, sending me swinging until I slammed into the bridge of her nose.  I swayed while dropping away from it, my vision blurry, while she quietly laughed.

 

“You should count yourself lucky no one can hear us,” she continued.  “Don’t want you getting any illusions above your status as a bug.  Speaking of lucky, that girlfriend of yours seems really resistant to my suggestions!  Too bad it’s super easy to hypnotize her.”

 

“You have what you want from me,” I began, “why don’t you leave me be?”

 

“Because I like watching you suffer,” Kirinhalut explained.  “It’s one thing to feel your suffering through our link, but it’s quite another to see it first-hand.  I’ve been doing this longer than you can imagine, and there’s nothing quite like fresh agony perceived through the eyes.  Besides, I only get a chance to corrupt a whole group of do-gooders every thousand years or so, and I’m not going to squander this one.  After only - what, two days? -  I already have them at each other’s throats.”

 

I was speechless.  Kirinhalut was a demon, one of many incarnations of pure evil in the multiverse, so that should not have come as a surprise to me.  However, it was the first time I had heard one lay out their agenda so thoroughly and non-chalantly.  She had described turning friends against each other with the same passion I had when teaching someone how to properly clean a sword.  It was just a game to her, and whatever the outcome meant nothing more than having to start another one.

 

“Well, have fun out here for the night,” she said, with a note of finality.  “If you’re lucky, someone will take pity on you and bring you into their tent.  If they’re lucky, some animal will carry you away and I can get back to tormenting you in private once I track you down.”

 

I tried to ask what she meant, but her fingers had already let go of me.  In an instant I plummeted the whole length of her body to faceplant in the dirt, kicking up a small cloud of dust when I landed.   Kirinhalut stepped over me on her path toward the wagon, her long legs making it impossible for me to catch her.  With a groan I stood and looked around.  As far as I could tell, I was alone, with only the crackling fire to break up the silence.  It would be a long walk, but I started the trek toward Sondra’s tent, hoping I could make it there before daybreak.

The fire burned bright, providing me with plenty of illumination on my journey.  There was no cover aside from footprints left in the dirt, so I did my best to dart quickly between them.  Every rustling leaf made me jump, and the slightest movement in the shadows caused me to hit the dirt.  Casual talk of some creature carrying me away in the night had gotten to me, and though I could not die I did not want to find out how much fighting against one would hurt.

 

I had just stepped into an indentation left by Sondra’s heel when a loud thud from almost on top of me stopped me in my tracks.  To my left and right I saw tanned ankles, and I looked up a pair of legs the size of pillars.  They came together under a short green skirt that led to a slender, twig-like body.  Narrow black eyes glared down at me, and brown hair mussed by wind was piled at the very top of the tower.

 

“Hey, Bushwack,” I called up to her nervously.  “Can I help you with something?”

 

“Not so confident without your giant humans around for protection, are you?” she teased.  “Oh wait, they’re normal sized and you’re just puny.”

 

“I’m… sorry?” I replied, backing away from her.  I had not said a single word to her that whole day, so this sudden upswing in hostility was a surprise.

 

“Yeah, you are sorry,” she retorted, probably thinking herself clever.  She must have noticed me retreating then, since she barked, “Where do you think you’re going?”  The venom with which she said it startled me, and I froze mid-step.

 

Bushwack hardly needed an opening, but giving her one made it much easier for her.  She leaned forward and swiped an arm at me, striking me on the whole side of my body with her palm.  My feet lifted off the ground and her fingers wrapped around me in a tight grip, keeping me from flying away.  The only thing peeking out from her fist was my head, and the sudden stop made it lurch to the side.  When she jerked herself back up my head snapped back, and it felt like my insides were left behind.

 

Once the whirlwind of movement came to an end, I was in front of Bushwack’s face with her glaring at me, one eye on either side.  I tried to fight against her grip, but with her fingers constricting me I could do little more than wiggle.  She laughed, covering my head in a cloud of warm air, and said, “Some great warrior you are.  Overpowered by a pixie using one arm, and not even a particularly strong one.  We’re truly lucky to have you with us.”

 

“I don’t know how else to explain this to you,” I began, “I never expected to keep being a warrior at this size.”

 

Bushwack squeezed her fingers tighter, not enough to break anything but definitely enough to make me stop talking.  “And since you can’t do anything else, you decided to start taking my roles and asking to get cut in on the loot?  If you just stayed small and out of the way I wouldn’t have any problem with you, but you’re trying to force your way into the party and I don’t like it.”

 

Most of what she had just said was false, but I figured it was best to pick one thing so I could finish speaking.  “But I didn’t ask for either of those things!” I replied.  “You were there when Kiri suggested launching me into the camp, and I didn’t even talk to Margret today, let alone about loot”

 

She squeezed me again, then pulled me closer to her face.  No matter where I looked in front of me I saw some part of Bushack’s face, and her grip kept me from turning in any other direction.  “Sure, you didn’t talk to Margret about loot,” she said.  No matter what I said, she could find some way to misinterpret it.  “You humans like to talk though, and I know you spent the whole day with Sondra.  You asked her to bring it up, and Margret happily obliged.”

 

“But I didn’t!” I protested.  “Your group has already agreed to take me in and do what you can to help me, and I can hardly spend money like this.  Why would I try to take any more?”

 

Bushwack brought her free hand toward me, her middle finger cocked against her thumb.  When it was near my head she released the tension, flicking my head hard enough to leave a lingering, throbbing pain.  “Because humans are greedy,” she answered as though it were a common fact.  “And it’s a step toward insinuating yourself into the group.  First you get the loot, then you start taking credit with us, and before we know it you’re getting your own room when we stop in a town.  With two other humans backing you up, you figured you could get your way, too.”

 

“Why do you even think I want to be part of your group?  When I get back to my original size, I’m going to do whatever I can to put this whole incident behind me.”

 

She tilted her head forward so she was looking straight down at me, then pressed the tip of her thumb against the side of mine.  “What, am I supposed to believe we’re not good enough for you?” she scoffed.  “It’s simple math.  You saw a group with two humans and two fey, all living in harmony.  If you join, you’ll swing it so the humans have a majority, extending your dominance a step further.  It wouldn’t be long until we’re doing everything the humans want to do, maybe throwing us a bone every now and then.”

 

I was getting tired of her constant accusations.  “You seem to think humans are part of a hive mind,” I began, “but we’re not.  We’re just as capable of having our own thoughts and decisions as anyone else.  On the other hand, you and Lell have had it out for me since the moment you picked me up off the ground.”

 

“How dare you,” Bushwack hissed, spraying me with a harsh gust of wind.  Apparently, the smallest whiff of an accusation pissed her off so much she forgot to hurt me.  “First of all, you will call her Llelwyl at all times, and be glad I don’t demand you refer to her as Llelwyl, Second Lady of the Birch and Knight of the Order of the Owlbear.  Second, we’ve been friends since before you were born, you little gnat, and we have a deeper kinship than you could ever comprehend.  Lastly, I haven’t exactly seen you humans breaking ranks ever since we picked you up, either.”

 

I wanted to tell her all about Kirinhalut, what her true nature was and how she was manipulating them for the sheer sport of it.  However, the succubus never slept, and I could feel her tendrils probing my mind throughout the conversation.  Whenever my thoughts went to exposing her my mind shorted out no matter how I approached the problem.  There had to be some way to stop the infighting without hitting one of her safety measures.

 

“Not everything’s a conspiracy against fey, you know,” I finally managed.  “Margret and Sondra really respect the two of you, and I wouldn’t want to disrupt the dynamic you have.”

 

Bushwack leaned her thumb against the side of my head until it rested on her knuckle.  “That’s exactly what you’d say if this were a conspiracy against fey,” she responded.  It seemed that, no matter what, I would not be able to reach her.  “You’re lucky, though.  Even Lell would be suspicious if you didn’t show up tomorrow, and I’m too tired to keep talking to you.”

 

I sighed with relief, figuring I had been spared several more hours of accusations and torment.  “I don’t suppose you’ll spare me the rest of the walk to Sondra’s tent?”

 

“Why, do you want to make googly eyes at her while she sleeps?” Bushwack mockingly asked.  “I’m not going to give you all night to work on turning her against me.  You’re coming up with me so I can keep an eye on you.”

 

“I thought you had a special religious bed that you had to sleep in?”

 

She rolled her eyes so hard I thought they would fall out of their sockets.  “I’m not going to explain how many ways you’re simplifying it to the point of being terribly wrong, but yes, I do.  And I’ll be sleeping in it so I can receive my daily blessing.  You’ll just be on the corner hoping you don’t fall off the side.”  I was not aware of that particular nuance, but I was hardly going to argue about her own religion with her, not the least because she could crush all my bones with just one sudden, powerful squeeze.

 

Bushwack launched herself into the air, keeping her grip around me tight enough that I could not move my arms.  Her wings furiously beat the air, putting off a thin trail of silvery dust in her wake.  The ground sped by far below, and she carried me past the tents the others had set up into the canopied wagon.  She ascended to her ornate bed made of twigs and leaves woven together, hanging from the ceiling.

 

Before Bushwack landed on the mattress, I looked down and saw Kirinhalut sleeping directly below her.  She was doing an excellent job pretending to sleep, and I wondered what she did to make it so convincing.  Them sleeping so closely together helped explain how the pixie had fallen so deeply into her influence over the past day, at least, and gave me an idea of what the succubus did all night.

 

Bushwack landed, then promptly laid down on the mattress stuffed with soft, gummy leaves.  She extended her arm and, as she promised, deposited me on the corner furthest away from her.  Her fingers finally opened, dropping me onto the sheets, and she withdrew her hand.  “Don’t get any dumb ideas,” she said, grabbing the top of her covers.  “I’m not into shrunken humans like some people in this camp.  If you even come close to touching me you’ll be splattered before you can scream.”  With that she turned over multiple times, coiling the blanket around herself like a cocoon.  This seemed less like part of her sleeping ritual and more of a way to deny me warmth for the night.

 

I curled up as tightly as I could without drawing any fabric over me and drew my knees to my chest.  It was a warm night, luckily, so I was not likely to freeze to death, but I still missed the weight of a blanket.  In a single night I had become totally reacclimated to it, even though it was such a minor thing.  Perhaps it was not the blanket I missed, but the idea that someone was considerate enough to give me one.

 

More than a simple square of cloth, I missed Sondra.  She and Bushwack seemed to be polar opposites as far as I was concerned, even if they had been wildly successful on their adventures together.  Whereas Sondra seemed to genuinely want to help me get better, I felt like Bushwack would have crushed me tonight if she thought she would get away with it.  Even Llelwyl was interested in keeping me around for practical reasons, and Margret’s concern for me extended past Kirinhalut’s urging toward chaos.  The only one here who explicitly wanted me dead was only a few inches away with the blankets bundled around her.

 

I hope you’re feeling welcome, Kirinhalut forced into my mind.  I’m doing my very best to make sure you feel at home with them.  If she wanted a response from me, she could tear it from my mind.  I closed my eyes, hoping that I would wake up to learn that tonight was just one more in a long series of nightmares.  

It was a long, restless night for me.  Every time Bushwack breathed a strong gust of warm air hit me, adding to the discomfort I already felt from the night’s heat.  Even though it was constant and regular, it was impossible to adjust to.  Worse, though, was feeling like I was a prisoner, my gigantic captor mere inches away.  Jumping off the side would have been extremely painful on its own, and the prospect was made worse by the certainty of me landing on Kirinhalut.  I did not know what she did while everyone else slept, but I was sure a night with her would be worse than where I was.

 

Golden sunlight appearing over the trees meant this particular episode of my torment was about to end, and I turned over to watch Bushwack, waiting for her to wake up.  A few minutes after the light hit her face her eyes fluttered open, and she groggily looked toward me.  “Have you been staring at me all night?” she asked, already sounding exasperated.  “Weird.  You better not have touched me.”  She rolled onto one arm so her head was directly over me and stared down for a moment.  Her harsh gaze made me uncomfortable, and I squirmed while her dark eyes probed me.

 

“I’d leave you here,” she finally declared, “but Kiri has enough to deal with without the normal-sized humans bugging her about where you are.”  She grabbed me with a huge hand, pressing me against the mattress so she could slowly wrap her fingers around me.  Her grip was tight like she was trying to strangle someone, and she nearly dislocated my shoulder with a fingertip when she picked me up.  As before, her hand constricted my body from the shoulders down, leaving just my head poking over her fingers.

 

Bushwack crawled from beneath the covers and stood on her bed, making my vision a confused jumble of blurred shapes and color for a few moments.  When she stopped, her hand rested in front of her stomach, making me crane my neck back at her torso towering over me.  A jolt ran through my body when she pushed off, snapping my down head fast enough that I bashed my chin on her finger.  She gripped me tighter as she beat her wings, and it felt like she might crush me by accident.  Fortunately, her fingers settled for merely making a very tight seal around me, and I was glad I did not need to breathe.

 

We flew over the camp toward the fire, which still had a few weak flames licking at some mostly spent logs.  From inside Bushwacks iron grip I spied Llelwyl crouched beside the bit, tossing a few small bits of wood in for fuel.  Bushwack changed course to fly right toward her, making my insides lurch with the sudden change of direction.  The pixie took her usual spot on Llelwyl’s right shoulder and steadied herself, then presented me to the elf like a sort of prize.

 

“Look what I got!” she proclaimed proudly.  The sudden shock of being thrust forward dazed me, but her voice forced its way through the fog.

 

Llelwyl turned to face her tiny friend, nearly bumping her off with her chin, then squinted at me poking out of her hand.  Bushwack was gigantic, but seeing Llelwyl this close reminded me that it was all relative.  Her pointed chin was large enough I could lie down on it, and I had to look up to see her narrow lips capable of completely engulfing me.  If she wanted to, she could shove me up either nostril of her long, rounded nose, and her smooth gray eyes, half as tall as I was, seemed to mock me on their own as they peered down at me.  The morning sun made her angular cheekbones cast long shadows, making them seem like outcrops I could use to hide from someone like her.

 

“Why do you think I want to see that?” Llelwyl responded.  The sudden blast of power from her voice blew my hair back and made my bones rattle.  “I’m busy getting the fire going again, and once I’m done I need to look into those documents we seized last night.  How did you even get that?  I thought Kiri had it for the night.”

 

“She gave it to me for safe keeping when she went to bed,” Bushwack answered.  It was difficult to get upset over her blatant misrepresentation of what happened when they were repeatedly referring to me as an object.  “Something about not wanting to roll over and break it.”

 

“Well, I’m busy, so get it away from me,” Llelwyl replied.  “Don’t you have something else you could be doing?  Your little daggers aren’t going to coat themselves in poison.”

 

Bushwack looked to me and stroked her chin while she considered something.  “Nah, you’d probably mess it up,” she said, just loud enough for me to hear.  Then she addressed Llelwyl again and asked, “What should I do with this, then?”

 

“What do I care?”  Llelwyl tossed another bit of wood onto the fire.  “Just put him somewhere out of the way.”  She jabbed one of the logs with a long stick, making sparks erupt as the lumber shifted.

 

Bushwack stepped off Llelwyl’s shoulder, and my stomach jumped to my throat from the sudden drop.  Her wings kicked in around the elf’s waist level and we started gliding, skimming just over the ground.  Rocks and pebbles whizzed by below us as she raced on a collision course toward a stump.  She suddenly stood in mid-flight, stalling her movement, and gently descended until her feet touched the ground.

 

I was still around her waist, and she simply opened her fingers and let me fall.  Reflexively I tried to grab something to stop myself, but her tree trunk-sized legs were just out of reach.  With a thud I landed on my face, bruised but with nothing obvious broken.  Without even checking to see if I was okay, Bushwack launched herself into the air and flew back toward the wagon.

 

Alone again, I considered what I could do.  Llelwyl was only a few feet away grabbing larger items to shove into the fire: I could be there in just a few minutes.  Seeing me would just remind her that I existed, though, and there was a decent chance she would just toss me into the fire to avoid dealing with me.  I squeezed myself between the stump’s bark, making myself as unobtrusive as possible while I watched the elf from a distance.

 

Ten minutes passed, and it was still just me and Llelwyl around the fire.  It had grown significantly, large enough to at least cook breakfast at this point, and she had moved on to the documents behind her.  She read through them carefully, her lips moving silently while her eyes scrolled over the words on parchment.  It was like she had no idea I was there, and I did nothing to remind her otherwise.

 

A tremendous boot slammed down in front of me, blocking my view with brown leather, and I grabbed onto the bark to keep from falling over.  While my teeth rattled the boot rotated, building up a wall of dirt as tall as I was before it came to a stop.  The base of the mound bumped into me and small clods of earth rolled from the top, pelting me.  Behind me, the stump rocked back when someone sat on it, then forcefully shoved me forward when it thudded back onto the ground.

 

I ended up near the boot’s instep, and followed the leg up with my eyes.  A gleaming, curved plate covered her shin, leading to a much more complex, hinged knee joint.   Brass straps and leather buckles held the plates in place, and it looked like the trousers strained to contain her quads.  While I was being shoved around her other boot had apparently landed, and I looked up to see a pair of light blue eyes set inside a tanned face.

 

Margret stared into the fire, idly picking at her cuticles while the flames danced on her corneas.  I began jumping up and down, waving my arms as widely as I could and shouting up at her.

 

It took a few seconds for her to notice, but when Margret looked down she noticed me immediately.  Initially her head recoiled back, but once she realized what was going on she gave me a wide, toothy smile.  “Hey, little guy!” she exclaimed, too sudden for me to shield my ears.  “You look lonely down there.  Want to come sit in my lap?”

 

Before I could answer she leaned forward and placed a hand against the ground, palm up.  She motioned with her eyes for me to step on, and I climbed over the pad of one fingertip onto the digit.  Her finger curled inward, sending me sliding down its length and onto her palm, where I rolled into the depression of her cupped hand and came to a stop.  Slowly, as though she knew going too fast would make me uncomfortable, she picked me up from the ground, using her other hand as a shield between me and the rest of the campsite.  It took half a minute for me to reach her lap, and even after she stopped she left her hand in place.

 

“I’ve been meaning to come find you!” she said.  Her voice was quieter, but it still felt like someone was pounding on my ears.  “It feels like Sondra and Kiri have been hogging you, and I’ve been wondering when I was going to get a chance to talk to you!”

 

“It looks like this is your chance,” I replied, hoping she would get the humor.

 

“You’re pretty hard to hear down there,” Margret declared.  “I guess having you in my lap is nothing compared to having you in the palm of my hand, anyway.”  She began lifting me again, as slowly as she had earlier, until I was in front of her nose.  Her smile had not dimmed in the slightest, and she reached in to tap me with a fingertip.  I stumbled forward, and her grin got a little wider.

 

“I’ll be honest, Sondra and I talked while you were away last night,” she began.  “It sounds like you’re quite the adventurer!  While I feel deeply sorry for the loss of your friends, and I know nothing we can do can make up for them, I think we’re lucky to have found you in between parties like we did.”

 

“You mean I was quite the adventurer,” I corrected her.  “I’m not doing much adventuring these days.”

 

“Oh, that’s nonsense,” Margret responded.  “You’ve been letting other people get in your head.  I’m sure we could find a role for you, even if it is just as our mascot or something.  You just need to be given a chance to find out what you can do and show it off!  I know I wasn’t an expert with a mace the first time I picked one up.  You just have a more unique challenge to overcome.”

 

“While I’m glad for the vote of confidence, I’m not sure how I feel about being your mascot,” I told her.  “Outside of that and acting as your delivery guy, I’m not sure how much I can really contribute.”

 

Margret’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.  “She would never tell you this,” she started, “but when we first picked her up, Bush was a warrior too.  Maybe it worked when it was just her and Lell, but she sucked at it!  We made her learn how to do other stuff, and it took a while, but now she’s the best sneak thief I’ve ever seen.  If you stick around, I’m sure we can find something you can do that doesn’t infringe on anyone else.”

 

“Aren’t you sure that Kiri will take me with her when she goes?”

 

“I can’t put my finger on why, but I don’t trust her.”  I knew exactly what she meant, but without anything we could do about it there was no point in telling her.  “When that time comes, I’ll see if we can keep you with us.  I know Sondra will, too.  It just doesn’t seem right to leave you with her just because we found the two of you at the same time.  For all we know, she spent all your time together torturing you.”

 

She was exactly right, but I felt a buzzing in my head when I tried to tell her.  I had to completely avoid the topic of Kirinhalut if I wanted to keep the conversation moving.  “You don’t think that’d cause a fight?” I asked.

 

“If it does, it’s a fight worth having.”  While I appreciated her conviction, I was not sure how much of it came from personal belief and how much was the succubus’s influence.  “If they’re okay handing you over to someone who might hurt you, I wouldn’t want to adventure with them anymore.”  Margret’s readiness to fight her friends told me more than she could have thought about her motivations.

 

We de-escalated the conversation from talking about potentially murdering people to more mundane topics, like how I would join them in the tavern when this was all over.  After a while Sondra joined us, and while she took part in the conversation she let me remain standing in Margret’s palm.  Being the center of attention for these two beautiful, gigantic women was a little overwhelming, and I did my best to remain a party to the conversation.

 

Llelwyl suddenly stood and made a scene as she flapped her documents around, folding them for travel.  “Okay everyone, pack it up, let’s move!” she declared, walking back to the wagon.  “Get your hard tack for breakfast, because we don’t have time for anything else!  I know where the orb is, and we’ve got less than a day to get it, so let’s go, go, go!”  Sondra rushed off to break down her tent, and Margret carefully stood, making sure to not jostle me too much.  Wherever they were rushing off to, it sounded like their quest was one step closer to an end.

Margret’s slow, careful steps to keep me in her palm made her the last one to the wagon, but she knew they could not leave without her. Llelwyl gave her the stink eye but kept her mouth shut while Margret held her hand level with the wagon’s frame, giving me time to step off.  It took a moment to reacclimate to standing on firm wood again, but at least I was no longer at risk of falling hundreds of feet just because someone stumbled.

 

Unfortunately, Margret had chosen to disembark me in the most dangerous spot.  I was right in front of Llelwyl, staring up the supple leather tower of her boot and close enough I could touch the hard sole.  She glared down at me and began tapping her toes, making the wooden frame shake with each thud, and Bushwack joined her glare.  When I looked into her eyes, I knew we shared the same thought: just a little bit forward, and she could say it was an accident. The only difference was only I knew it would be non-fatal.

 

The ground shook when Margret set her boot atop the frame, then it tilted under the force of her weight.  It leveled out when the aftershock hit, and the sudden, sharp movement pitched me forward.  I landed on the rounded toe of Llelwyl’s boot, my limbs splayed as though I were giving it a big hug.  My body had been launched high enough that most of it rested atop the toe, so I did not have to suffer the indignity of sliding off.

 

Llelwyl kept her expression impassive while she leaned forward and reached an arm toward me. She cocked her middle finger behind her thumb and rested it on the side of her boot, then released the tension.  Her fingertip struck me in the side, smashing several ribs and bruising the rest when it flicked me away.  I landed hard on the bare wood frame and skipped off, slamming into the side of Margret’s boot.  The hard leather stopped me, and I fell back onto the wagon’s frame.

 

While I laid there Margret lifted her heel, and the grinding of her sole against bare lumber grated at my ears.  Her heel hung in the air over me, wobbling while settled into the driver’s position.  Panic incited me to action and I threw myself forward, enduring the jabbing pain in my ribs as I rolled over them.  She set her heel back down with a loud crack that shook me so hard I worried I would liquefy.  By just a hair I had made it past her heel and scrunched myself into the tiny gap between it and her sole, narrowly avoiding the smashing blow.

 

Margret moved her boot from atop me, and with light pouring in I saw how close I had come to being flattened again.  The open space was no wider than a finger; by all rights, even I should not have fit in there.  I realized I was breathing in short, rapid gasps, and made myself slow down to keep from hyperventilating.  Vibrations shook me while Margret got comfortable, and her boots pounded against the wood as she got ready to drive.  She had no idea how close she had come to crushing me.

 

“Where we heading, Lell?” Margret asked.

 

“Just follow the road and I’ll tell you when to turn and stop,” Llelwyl answered tersely.

 

“Sure, the usual drill,” Margret began, “but where are we going?  What’s the plan when we get there?”

 

“I guess we can get that settled now,” Llelwyl said with a loud sigh.  “The camp’s chest contained extensive correspondence between their leader and a self-identified witch named Circe, including a map to her cabin not too far from here.   She was very insistent on having it delivered by yesterday so she could properly cleanse it in preparation for her ‘master.’  Based on the dates the hand-off is supposed to happen later today, so we need to move fast.  No time for any fancy plan: we’re going to breach the door, subdue the witch, and grab the orb.”

 

“That doesn’t sound a little suspicious to you?” Sondra cut in.

 

Llelwyl turned to her and asked, “What do you mean?”

 

“You don’t think it’s convenient you found this a day before it was too late?” Sondra elaborated.  “Or that the whole transaction plan is laid out in there?  Or even that there’s a map included?  This smells heavily of a trap.”

 

“I know it does,” Llelwyl admitted.  “It’s risky, but we can’t let her give the Orb of Power to whatever she’s contracted to, nor can we give her time to use it herself.  If we can stop whatever she has planned, it’ll be worth it.  Besides, if we all work together no trap can stop us, no matter how well it’s laid.”  It was surprising to hear Llelwyl encourage the rest of her team for once instead of using her pulpit to rail against me.  If they could keep up this cohesion, they should be able to pull it off.

 

Kirinhalut appeared behind the elf, her green dress forming an excellent backdrop.  “Sorry to intrude,” she began, “but if I heard right, you’re going off to fight a wizard?”

Llelwyl turned and answered, “A witch, but yes.”

 

“Would you mind if I held onto the shrunken human, then?  It’d be too dangerous for you to take him along, and it doesn’t feel right for him to be left all alone.”

 

“Please, take him now.”  Llelwyl reached down and grabbed me with a quick swipe, making my broken ribs scream from the pressure.  “That way I don’t have to worry about accidentally smashing him.”  Centrifugal force pressed me hard against her palm as she continued moving me, and the only thing that kept me from screaming was her fingertip conveniently placed over my mouth.  Clearly, her new-found leadership abilities did not extend to people she did not consider part of the team.

 

Llelwyl loosened her fingers and I slid down the long, flesh-lined tunnel that formed.  I landed in Kirinhalut’s palm and yelped in pain from the sudden jolt to my ribs. The elf moved her hand away and turned to sit while the succubus cupped her hand around me like I was at the base of a crater.  “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him.”  She did get so much as a nod in acknowledgment from Llelwyl, who began selecting arrows to put into her quiver.

 

Kirinhalut clutched me to her chest and walked back to her seat, making sure to press hard enough to irritate my ribs.  Her body shaking with her steps agitated them even more, keeping them from healing.  My whimpers of pain were muffled by her breast, though I knew she could feel my constant agony.  A slight twist of her hand exacerbated it, and I knew she was feeding off it.

 

Her hand suddenly dropped, and after sticking to her chest for a moment I fell into her waiting palm.  Kirinhalut lifted me to her chin so she could gaze down at me, smiling smugly while I gawked at her face looming over me.  She was silent, apparently content to simply inspire fear while reveling in the power she felt over me.

 

Want to know a secret? she forced into my mind.

 

“You’re going to tell –“  Kirinhalut folded her middle finger inward so it slapped me, causing me to stop mid-sentence.

 

I told you, bugs don’t talk!  This is your last warning before I start acting like a curious child and pull your limbs off.  That got through to me.  With a constant supply of regenerating limbs, she could yank off my arms for all eternity.  But now I’m going to make you wait to learn this secret.  Kirinhalut turned her hand sideways, dumping me out of it.  I landed on the wooden floor between her feet, and I cried out when the ribs that had merely been bruised broke, too.  When I looked to the side, however, her enormous shoes were not there.  She had completely disappeared.

 

For several minutes I laid on the floor, abandoned.  Until my ribs healed I would not be able to call for help, and crawling even an inch would take minutes and result in amazing levels of torment.  The only thing I could do was roll onto my back to stop the constant, throbbing pain, which made it surge until I managed to push myself over and it finally abated.  Every bump the wagon hit brought the pain back, but without them being moved too much they should start healing soon.

 

As suddenly has she had disappeared, Kirinhalut rematerialized back in her seat.  She had carefully chosen her location so one ivory-colored high heel was beside me as a reminder of how puny I was while the other was suspended above, slowly swinging with her leg’s slight movements.  Her black eyes, just visible past her knees, peered down at me, completely devoid of emotion.

 

If I tell you my secret, you can’t tell anyone.  My mind was too scattered to think back at her, and I did not want the immense pain of having my arms ripped off along with my broken ribs.  Of course, if you tried I’d stop you, and you’d pay for it later.  Ready?  I was still incapable of responding to her in a way she would approve, and she knew that.

 

I’m the witch’s master.  Kirinhalut waited a moment for it to sink in before adding, Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?  I just told her she has some do-gooders coming her way, so she’ll be ready for them.  Thanks to me, they are walking into a trap!  And as a recipient of one of my mortal pacts, she will feed my power by using my methods.  In a matter of hours your friends will be no bigger than you are, and I’ll be the most powerful succubus in the multiverse!  I’ll have entire cities in my thrall, no bigger than a coin, and I have you and a group of over-eager adventurers to thank for it.

 

I could not let this happen, but there was nothing I could do to stop it, either.  Kirinhalut had complete control over me thanks to her demonic bond, and her sheer physical size kept me from getting too far.  Their plan was to simply walk in and start blasting, thinking they had the element of surprise, and without this information that would not change.  It would take a miracle to stop the succubus’s plan.

 

The journey was long enough for my ribs to start healing, and my chest filled with a familiar tingling sensation.  If they fully stitched themselves together before we arrived I might be able to warn them, though it would cost me dearly.  Kirinhalut knew my thoughts, and to deter me she uncrossed her legs and slammed her floating heel down beside me, making my whole body tremble while she crossed her other leg over.  A gigantic shoe was now between me and the party, so no matter how fast I ran I would not be able to get past it before getting squished.

 

The wagon rolled to a stop, and I slid into Kirinhalut’s shoe.  With a quick flick of her toe she shoved me away, then moved it so it was right next to me again.  Heavy boots thudded against wood while the rest of the party filed out, and when they hopped off the wagon any chance of stopping them was gone.

 

Ten more hours for the cleansing, then I can claim the orb without being banished.  Even telepathically she was smug.  I’ll also get to claim one of the mortals as tribute.  The blond would be a good choice, since I could make one of you watch while I tortured the other, but I think the elf would be more than willing to torture you for me if I let her.  Sometimes I just feel spoiled for choice. 

 

No matter how hard I tried to push them out her musings polluted my brain and trying to force them out made it worse. The only thoughts I could have on my own were dominated by concern for Sondra and Margret, and Kirinhalut played on those fears.  There was nothing I could do to stop her cruel imagination, honed by millennia of torturing mortals, from running wild in my brain while my only remaining friends marched to their peril.

For several hours I laid beside Kirinhalut’s shoe while she hummed off-key to herself.  She tapped her toes, making the floor shake as an implicit threat in case I tried to go too far.  I stared up at her while my chest healed, watching her head bob from side to side while she grinned.  When everything was stitched back together, I wanted to climb up her monolithic shin and stab her, but all it would take for her to stop me was a firm swat.

 

Faintly, I heard wings beating on the air, then Bushwak flew past the canvas frame into view.  “It’s all gone wrong!” she shouted, then turned in the air to come toward me.  “That wasn’t just a trap, it was a full-on ambush!  We never had a chance!”

 

Kirinhalut placed a hand on her chest and gasped convincingly.  “Oh no!  What happened?” she asked.  “And how did you get away?”

 

Bushwack dove toward me while she answered.  “The whole entryway is wired with magical traps.  The moment they set foot inside they got sucked inside some tiny jars on a shelf.”  She landed so she stood astride me and looked down, addressing me directly.  “They’re about your size, now.”

 

“How dreadful,” Kirinhalut responded, though I figured she was more disappointed someone had gotten away.  “What’ll you do without your friends?”

 

“I’m going to get them back, that’s what.”  It was surprising to see Bushwack get worked up over something besides needlessly tormenting me.  “And while I can’t risk Kiri, you’re going to help.  You’re supposed to be a brave fighter after all, right?”

 

Immediately I stood to my feet and looked up at her.  “Just tell me what you need me to do,” I offered.  I knew how ridiculous it looked to pledge myself to her fight while standing around her ankles, but the others needed me more than my sense of pride.

 

“Take this and come with me.”  Bushwack drew one of her daggers and held it down to me, hilt-first.  I grabbed it with both hands and tried to get a solid grip, but when she released her grip the huge blade began to wobble.  Though I tried to keep it upright, I quickly lost balance and fell forward, only covering part of the dagger when I fell onto it.

 

Bushwack growled and leaned forward, grabbing her dagger with one hand and me with the other.  “You’re not making a good case that you aren’t useless,” she chided, then lifted me off the ground.  Her grip was less domineering than last time, leaving me free to move more than just my head, but in her hurry to get moving my body flopped around in her hand.  The only thing that kept me from flying out of her grasp was her middle finger wrapped snugly around my waist holding me against her palm. 

 

“I’m sure there’s something around here even you can use as a weapon,” she said, and took flight.  She went to a small table in the wagon’s rear and landed, then began looking through what looked like debris.  Scraps of cloth and leather squares littered the table, and I was carelessly flung about while Bushwack dug through the collection.  As she searched she muttered to herself, dismissing each item she touched until finally her eyes lit up and she proclaimed, “Aha!”

 

She withdrew her hand, producing a single sewing needle.  “Think you can use this?” she asked, lowering it toward me.  Her fist gripped it around the middle, and I was able to grab it with one hand in the eye and the other higher for support.

 

I apprised the needle as I held it in my grip.  It was about the size of Bushwack’s dagger but much narrower, and it was much easier to get leverage with.  “Yeah, I should be able to use it as a spear,” I reported, and held it closely to my chest.

 

“Good, because I don’t know how much more time we have.”  Bushwack tightened her grip to keep from dropping me and launched into the air.  The wind whipped at my hair while she flew as fast as her wings could take her, and I focused on the leaves rapidly speeding past below.

 

I’ll be seeing you soon!  I can’t wait to find out if one of Circe’s Jars of Trapping will make you even smaller.  I did my best to ignore Kirinhalut’s taunting.  This would be life or death for thousands of people, and I needed to stay focused.

---

Somehow Bushwack maintained the furious pace for almost an hour, deviating from a straight line only to avoid trees that showed up in her path.  As we got close to the destination, she explained the plan to me.  “You’re going to distract her while I break the jars.  Jab her with that needle, do a little dance for her, crawl down her throat so she chokes on you, I don’t care.  Just keep her from casting spells while I get the others free.  Do you think you can do that?”

 

“Yes, I can.”  I was much less confident than I let on – Bushwack herself was somewhat responsible for that – but I needed to be decisive.

 

“Good.  Remember to wait for my signal before doing whatever it is you’re planning.”

 

“Okay.  What’s the signal?”

 

Bushwack sighed.  “I’m going to shout ‘Now!’ and you better be doing it by the time you hear glass break.”  That seemed simple enough.  She went through it a few more times before we arrived to make sure I completely understood, though I did not see how I could mess it up.

 

We arrived at a dilapidated cabin, the only structure for miles, and I figured this must be it.  The roof looked like it was rotting and the door hung off one of its hinges, but it was far from insecure.  Through the single window I saw flickering candlelight giving the inside a warm glow, throwing just enough light for me to see a whole wall filled with jars.  If even half of them were filled, finding the right ones could take a bit.

 

Bushwack scrunched herself as narrow as she could get to slip through the door, then began orbiting in the foyer.  The entry rug was made of black silk and embroidered with a complex series of white runes that repeated over its entire surface.  While I did not know much about magic, even I could tell this was the trap’s trigger.  Every step they took onto it must have triggered one of the traps, and by sheer weight of numbers their resistance would have been overrun so they could be drawn into their containers.

 

Now that we were inside the cabin I could see the jars better, and the witch had an unbelievable collection.  Dozens of jars were crammed onto shelves, and only a few of them lacked a tiny figure inside.  They moved as much as they could when they saw us and beat on the curved glass though the jars were too heavy for them to move. When Bushwack finished her survey and flew closer a cacophony of screams rose to greet me, each of them crying out for help.  There were so many voices intermingling I could not make out what any of them said, but I could empathize with them.  More than anything, they wanted freedom.

 

Bushwack set me down on the floor before flying off to find our comrades, and I got my first look at our target.  She leaned forward over a table and seemed engrossed with something on it that threw off an absurd amount of light, giving her pale skin an otherworldly glow.  A gentle breeze from it blew back strands of her long blond hair, and her dark brown eyes never deviated from their object of focus.  Her dress, embroidered in gold-stitched arcane words, ran from her neck to her ankles, with a slit up to her hip on one leg, and her black flats had similar patterns on them.

 

I clutched my sewing needle and started toward her at a jog, for once glad that I was too light to make any noise.  It was imperative that I get into position before the pixie did since she would have no way of telling where I was.  Plus, if the witch broke her focus for some reason and looked over, she would see me on the open ground.  At the very least, I needed to get behind her so there would be no delay in my strike.

 

Fortunately, she remained engrossed in her ritual, and I reached the back of her shoe without issue.  I brandished my needle like a spear, aiming the tip at her Achilles tendon to cause the maximum amount of pain.  Looking up at the towering witch, I realized even the lowest part would be out of the spear’s reach, so I would have to jump.  The last time I had fought someone this big, I had been pathetically defeated: hopefully, I could redeem myself.  At least this time I was not expected to win, and only had to stay on my feet until help arrived.

 

“Now!” came the symbol from Bushwack, and I leapt into action.  I jumped at the witch’s ankle and braced a foot on the rear of her shoe, giving me a little extra elevation.  Gripping the needle tightly in both hands, I thrust it into her Achilles tendon as hard as I could.  The tip dimpled then pierced her skin, and I pushed it through until I could move it no further.  It had not quite gone all the way through, and I was stuck dangling from the needle.

 

She let out a loud shriek and reflexively jerked her leg up from the pain.  The sudden rush upward made me yelp and I clung to the thin piece of metal, wrapping a whole arm inside the eye.  When it came to a stop my body wanted to keep going, and I was nearly flung into the air.  My arm looped through it kept me close, however, and my legs dropped so I was dangling off it again.

 

Glass shattered, and she looked down to see what had jabbed her.  Her eyes widened when she spotted me clinging to a needle pushed through her leg.  “So it’s a revolt,” she boomed, and smiled maliciously.  “You bugs are about to find out the jars were a mercy.”

 

She stomped her foot to the floor with a tremendous crash, and between the momentum and shock of it landing I lost my grip.  I fell to the floor and found myself dwarfed by her shoe again with my spear well out of reach.  While I got up she leaned over, keeping a careful watch on me, and pinched the exposed part of the needle.  With a quick yank she withdrew it, and a single drop of blood dripped from the hole.

 

An arrow cut through the air when she stood, just missing her – of course she had saved Llelwyl first.  She inspected the needle while chuckling then flicked it away, returning her focus to me.  “Nice hit.  Now it’s my turn.”  Her foot shot up, and she moved it so the smooth brown sole was directly over me.  It raced down and I dove to the side, just managing to get out of the way before it crashed into the ground.

 

The resonating boom from her foot hitting the floor mixed with glass shattering, and the shockwave made my knees buckle.  While I laid helplessly on my back she rotated her foot on its heel, swinging it until her sole eclipsed everything else.  It lowered toward me, and I prepared myself for the agony of being crushed again.  My mission had been completed, however, and I just hoped someone would remember to peel me off the floor before leaving.

 

Metal thudded against flesh, and the shoe was pulled away just before it could crush me.  A gigantic brown boot stood in front of me, and I looked up to see candlelight glinting off metal plates.  Margret towered over me, her mace at the ready after having just shoved the witch off me.

 

The witch landed with a cataclysmic thud that made the entire cabin tremble.  Margret’s boots sent out a tremor when she stepped forward, and she raised her mace to finish the job.  She swung, striking her in the forehead and knocking her out cold.  Seeing that she was still breathing, Margret got ready for a finishing blow.

 

Llelwyl lunged into view and grabbed her wrist, stopping her mid-swing.  “Wait!” she shouted, and Margret continued struggling against her grasp.  “She’s not a threat to us anymore.  Let’s just grab what we came for and get out.”

 

Margret spun around, and even from the floor I could see rage burning in her eyes.  “Sure, she’s not a threat to us,” she repeated, pushing past Llelwyl, “but what about everyone else?  Just look at this!” She gestured at the wall of jars with her mace before continuing.  “Who knows how long she’s been holding these people captive?  Who knows how many more she’ll take if we don’t stop her now?”

 

Llelwyl stepped over me to loom over Margret.  “That’s tragic, but it’s not our concern,” she said.  “We’re here to get the Orb of Power, and that’s all we’re going to do.  If someone has a problem with her lining a wall with tiny people, they can put out a job to stop her.”

 

Margret dropped her mace into its belt loop and shouted, “Well it’s my concern!”  She reached out and grabbed one of the jars, then yanked it off the shelf.  Her arm reared back like she was about to throw it with all her might.

 

“Margret, no!” Sondra shouted, but it was too late.  Margret cast the jar onto the floor, where it shattered into tiny shards of glass.  Instead of growing back to their normal size, however, the person trapped inside remained tiny.  Seconds passed with no change, and he looked up at them, bewildered.

 

“That’s what I was trying to warn you about,” Sondra continued.  “If a Jar of Holding isn’t broken within a day, the person gets stuck at that size.  They can be restored, but I don’t have the right spells.”

 

“So… all these people are stuck like this?” Margret asked, looking sadly at the person she had just freed.

 

“I’m afraid so,” Sondra replied.  “Unless we get them to someone who can help them, there’s no way to reverse it.”

 

“No,” Llelwyl cut in,” absolutely not.  I can see where you’re going with this, and we’re not doing it.  We’re already working to get one shrunken person restored, I’m not doing it for another, and I’ll be trapped in the Nine Hells before I do it for eighty.  One useless mouth is already too much.”

 

“Actually, Lell –“

 

“Drop it!”  Llelwyl stopped Bushwack’s interjection before she could finish it.  “No more tiny people.  I’m putting my foot down, and if you if you keep bugging me about it, I’ll put it down on him.  Am I clear?”   The others looked away from her sheepishly, and Llelwyl beamed triumphantly.  “That’s what I thought.  Now, I’m going to get what we came here for so we can get back to the wagon before she wakes up.

 

No one stopped Llelwyl as she turned and began walking toward the vessel containing the orb.  Her footfalls resonated loud in the awkward silence, seeming to echo off the cabin’s walls while tremors passed through the floor.  I realized I was right in front of the orb, and there was only one more step between us.

 

She lifted her boot, and I saw it was right on course for me.  Everyone else watched in horror while her leg raced forward, and the thud of her heel on the plank was poison in my ears while her gray sole blocked everything else.  “Lell, look out!” I shouted, but she did not stop.  Her foot swung down at incredible speed, and I was right in the middle of her sole.  Llelwyl’s boot struck me with so much force that I was instantly crushed, and all I could comprehend was pain as I was flattened.

Llelwyl left her boot on me for several seconds, extending the excruciating pain of being constantly smashed.  Each shift of her weight, no matter how minute, was horribly obvious to me as it made her press down harder on one already flattened part.  It got even worse when she turned without lifting her foot, forcing me to rotate with her and grinding me into the rough floorboard.  Every sort of pain imaginable assailed me during that second, and I wished my mind would just shut off so I would not have to feel it.

 

When she finally moved her foot, giving me a reprieve from her enormous weight, I emerged in the middle of a shouting match.  “- killed him!” Sondra was yelling.  “Don’t act like you didn’t know he was there, you stepped right on him just like you threatened to do not even a minute ago!”

 

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Llelwyl shouted back.  “I’m nowhere near that guy from the jar, I couldn’t have stepped on him!”

 

“I’m not talking about him, I’m talking about the shrunken human!”  Sondra was yelling so loud her voice cracked.  “You know, the one you’re always saying is useless and we should toss away?  You just fucking murdered him in cold blood!”

 

“I did?”  Llelwyl was quieter, trying to restore some sense of calm.  “Oops.  If it’ll make you feel better, now you can take the one Margret just freed.  Maybe he’ll be more useful than a puny warrior.”

 

“That.  Is not.  The point,” Sondra replied through gritted teeth.  “You just killed a member of the party and you don’t even think it’s a big deal!”

 

“Um, because it’s not?” Llelwyl retorted.  “He wasn’t a member of our group.  He’d have to have contributed at some point to be one, and he never did!  Now, grab your new tiny person and let’s get moving before the witch wakes up.”

 

“He did contribute, though,” Bushwack corrected her.  It sounded like she was in a state of deep shock when she spoke.  “He went up against someone a thousand times his size to buy me enough time to free you.  If it weren’t for him, you’d still be trapped in a jar.”

 

“I think you’re vastly overstating his effect,” Llelwyl replied.  “He couldn’t have been more than a minor annoyance for her like he is to us.  You were the one who saved us, I didn’t see him breaking any jars!”

 

“No, you’re wrong,” Bushwack shot back, her voice regaining its fire as she continued.  “He saved your life, and as thanks you squashed him, and… I’m just now realizing that, compared to you, I’m not much bigger than him.”

 

Llelwyl scoffed.  “Are you suggesting that I might step on you, too?”  Silence answered her, so she continued, “Bushwack, that’s absurd, we’ve been friends for years!  You know I’d never step on you.”

 

“Why not?” Bushwack asked sternly.  “Seriously, what’s stopping you?  Your feet are longer than I am tall.  It seems all it’d take is me annoying you a little and you wouldn’t hesitate.  If the only thing keeping you from killing me is that we’re friends, I’m not sure I feel safe travelling with you anymore.”

 

Llelwyl tried to divert the conversation, saying, “I think you’re getting a little worked up over this.  Let’s take the orb back to the wagon and they can catch up after they’re done mourning their squished mascot or whatever.”

 

Margret took a thunderous step forward and drew her weapon.  “Give me the orb and start walking back on your own,” she ordered.  There was an edge in her voice I had never heard before, and I got the feeling she would not hesitate.

 

“Have you not been paying attention this whole time?” Llelwyl asked.  “I’m holding an Orb of Power.  You can’t stop me.”

 

“Yeah, I know.”  Margret was calm and self-assured while she stared the elf down.  “I also know that you don’t know how to use it.  By the time you figure it out I’ll have caved in your skull and taken it anyway.  Now give it to me and get walking.  We’ll take you back to the city, but after that we’re done.”

 

Llelwyl looked at her in stunned silence.  “Sondra, do you feel this way too?”

 

“She’s being kinder than I would be.  You get to live with her plan.”

 

“What about you, Bushwack?  Are you ready to throw away our friendship over a human smaller than my pinky?”

 

“I wasn’t friends with a murderer, and I’m not going to be.  When you get back to the wagon, move my half of the loot out of your bag.  I’ll want to count it before putting it in with Margret’s.”

 

“Unbelievable,” Llelwyl muttered and took a step forward.  “A useless shrunken human managed to turn all my friends against me.”  She shoved the orb into Margret’s outstretched hand and turned toward the door.  “I can’t wait for one of you to beg me to come back so I can tell you to pound sand.”  When she left she slammed the door, then the cabin was silent.

 

Margret stowed the glowing orb in a sack, then the three remaining women looked at each other while they tried to decide what to do.  “Should we take this guy with us, then?” she asked at last.

 

“No, Lell would just smash him, too,” Sondra answered.  “She’s out of control, and I don’t want to give her another opportunity to kill someone.  Just put him in one of the empty jars so the witch doesn’t know he got out.  We can come back for all of them later.”

 

While Margret bent over to scoop him into her hand, Bushwack spoke up.  “What about the shrunken human?” she asked.  “It seems inappropriate to leave him here.”

 

“I’ll take care of him,” Sondra replied.  “I think he would’ve wanted me to.”  The floor shook violently with her heavy steps, and after a few footfalls she came to a stop towering above my flattened body.  She knelt over me, and as she looked down I saw streaks from tears that had run down her cheeks.  I did not know whether they were from rage, grief, or a mix of the two, but they were still flowing.

 

“I’m really sorry things ended like this,” she said, her voice wavering.  “You just wanted help, but you ended up helping us more.  And now you’re dead because of it.”  She started sobbing and covered her mouth, then wiped away tears with the heel of her palm.  “I don’t know why she did it, but I know it wasn’t an accident, and I promise you she’ll pay.  Once she’s gone for good, I’ll bury you somewhere nice.”

 

I wanted to move something so she would know I was alive, but my whole body was still pulverized from its time under Llelwyl’s boot.  It hurt watching her weep for me, and I felt like I was deceiving her by letting her think I was dead.  There was nothing I could do about it, though.  Llelwyl had so thoroughly crushed me that I could not even move my fingers, and it would be hours until I could stand.  No doubt there would be questions about how I supposedly came back from the dead, but I could handle those when she was no longer grieving.

 

Sondra reached down and picked at my feet with a fingernail to pry me off the floor.  When there was enough for her to grab, she pinched my legs between two fingers and peeled the rest off.  The pain of coming unattached from the wood grain barely registered, as did the discomfort of my flattened form being held upside down.  She gingerly placed me in her palm and turned away, stifling another sob with her other hand.  Her palm was wet and salty, and I realized I was laying over a thin layer of her tears.

 

She clutched me near to her chest and stood, moving slowly so I would not slide around.  Sondra placed her other hand on top like a roof, and I figured it was as much for my protection as hers.  Her careful steps did not jostle me at all, and I only knew she took them because of the weak vibrations that came through her body.  In the warm darkness I closed my eyes, hoping that if I focused I could pull my body back together quicker.

 

“Ready to go?” Margret asked.  Even with Sondra’s hands muffling her voice, I knew it was her.

 

Sondra sniffled and replied, “Yeah, I’m ready.”  Her voice still sounded weak, like she might break down at any moment.

 

“Hey, listen,” Bushwack said, “I wish I could say this to him, but I’m sorry I was so hard on him.  I don’t know what came over me, but it was like a dark force clouded my mind.  The things I said probably pushed her toward this, and if I’d been more accepting of him, she might not have stepped on him.”

 

“You know what?” Sondra began, her voice regaining a shadow of its former strength.  “I don’t care.  You didn’t smash him, so as far as I’m concerned, you’re fine.  She had it out for him since we found him, and I know she was just waiting for an opportunity.  Sure, you could have been nicer to him… but you’re not the reason he’s dead.”

 

“I know, I just…” Bushwack started, then trailed off.

 

“Please, don’t say anything else,” Sondra said.  “I want to be left alone for a while.”

 

The walk back to the wagon was slow and somber.  The others respected Sondra’s wishes to remain quiet, though I suspected they all had a lot to say.  Without the same sense of urgency it took longer to reach the wagon, and I suspected they moved slowly so they could stay with Sondra.  At the very least I was comfortable.  Though her hands were skinny, Sondra’s palm made for a good cushion, and her pace kept me from being jostled too much.  It was almost like gliding on a cloud aside from the dull, lingering pain of being crushed.

 

Fortunately, Llelwyl had not made off with the wagon while we were gone and it was still in place.  I was not sure how Sondra would get into her spot without uncovering me, but without even being asked they stepped up to help.  Margret grunted loudly, and I felt the familiar rising sensation of being picked up.  She had lifted Sondra bodily so she would not have to climb in and I could remain nestled in her hand.

 

“There.  Take all the time you need,” Margret said, and the heavy thuds of her boots got quieter as she walked away.

 

Words can’t express how disappointed I am to see you back.  Kirinhalut wasted no time before intruding into my already busy thoughts.  When you’re miraculously revived, come up with a reason why the orb did it or you’ll be spending your first eternity in my shoe.

 

Speech was still beyond my capabilities, but I could still think back at her.  How does it feel to get so close and be denied the orb?

 

Even Kirinhalut’s thoughts dripped with derision.  You’re stupid, even for a mortal.  Your band of do-gooders brought it right to me!  I’ve been planning this for six centuries, I can wait a few more days for the group to split further.  Maybe I can make the brunette jealous of the blond, or push a little harder on the pixie.

 

“It’s getting dark, should we stop and make camp?” Margret asked from the coach position.

 

“No, let’s keep going,” Sondra answered before anyone else could.  “If we ride quickly, we can make it to Gorbatov before midnight and get situated.”  She did not have to add the benefit of not having to deal with Llelwyl for another night.  Once we were underway, I felt my body tingle as it began to pull itself back together.  Hopefully, I would be good as new by the time we arrived, and my apparent resurrection would not surprise them in public.

The wagon was completely quiet from the shock of my apparent death: Kirinhalut had even stopped mocking me telepathically.  Between the silence, the soft cushion of Sondra’s palm, and heat bottled between her hands, it was what I imagined being dead felt like before passing to a deity’s realm.  Only the sensation of my body rebuilding itself, a strong, painful tingle that ran the whole length of my body, reminded me I was still alive.  My body had been thoroughly destroyed by Llelwyl’s boot, and it would take a while before I could walk again.

 

Fortunately, it was difficult to gauge the passage of time in the darkness cupped between Sondra’s hands.  Without any outside stimuli I could focus on helping my body put itself back together, and there was nothing that would disrupt the process.  By focusing my mind inward, it felt like I could accelerate the regeneration by making the tingling a little more intense.  I was not sure if it had any real effect, but it was something for me to do while deprived of anything else to focus on.  At the very least, it did not make my recovery slower.

 

After a while the tingling faded, and I felt ready to move again.  I kicked my leg in the air a few times, and without a twinge or jolt of pain in my muscles I figured it was time.  Pushing off Sondra’s soft skin, I rolled myself over onto my chest and got to my feet.  It was difficult to find steady ground in her palm, but the gentle slope of it cupped around me made it easy to stand.  Several moments passed with no reaction from her, and I realized I would have to do more to get noticed.

 

The easiest way would be jumping up and down, but in the pitch black there was no way to know how low the “ceiling” in this chamber was.  I started by brushing my foot back and forth, hoping to stimulate the sensitive skin of her palm, but it was not enough movement to get her attention.  After that I tried walking in small circles, trying to spread out my movement, then went to running.  If this did not work, I could have to try something more creative to get her attention.

 

Her hands jolted, tipping me back onto the base of her fingers, and I felt the familiar sensation of being rapidly lifted.  The ascent came to a sudden stop, and momentum tossed me into her other hand.  A sliver of light crept when she parted her hands, letting a humongous blue eye peek in.  I waved in a wide arc, and she gasped loudly.

 

“You’re alive!” she exclaimed, and her voice rose to remarkable intensity as it bounced between her hands.  “I can’t believe it!”  I understood that she was excited, but her enthusiasm made my ears ring.  “Everyone, come quick!  The shrunken human’s alive!”

 

Sondra finally thought to move her other hand from atop me, and after so long in the dark even the dim light of late evening stung my eyes.  She lowered the hand with me in a it a little so she could peer down at me better, and the light cast long shadows over her features.  Her face loomed above, the only thing I could see or even wanted to look at, and moisture filled her eyes.  Every second she looked at me her smile grew wider, and I worried it would get so enormous they would fall off her face.

 

“What?” Margret called from the driver seat.  “No way!”  The wagon lurched to a halt, and the resonating thud of boots on wood filled the air.  Her face peaked over Sondra’s fingertips, and her eyes widened in shock.  She covered her gaping mouth with a hand, and when it slowly dropped away her jaw was still dropped from surprise.  I waved at her to demonstrate I was still alive, and she continued staring at me silently.

 

Having two gigantic faces looking down at me was a little overwhelming, especially after so much time in the dark.  Each one of them was so large I could not take in all of their features at once, and with them on opposite sides I frequently had to switch which woman I looked at.  Being so close to them, with noses taller than me and lips I could easily slip between, was a strong reminder of how puny I was compared to them.  Although it made me uncomfortable, they seemed to enjoy just looking at me, and I did not want to drive them away.

 

“But… how?” Margret finally managed to ask.  “Your body was pulverized, beyond the ability of any priest I know to bring you back.  The only thing I could think of that did it would be an actual miracle.”

 

“I really don’t know,” I answered.  “The best explanation I can think of is that the orb had something to do with it.  Maybe being so close to it when I died helped it preserve my energy, and having it nearby helped my body rejuvenate.”

 

You won’t get any awards for creativity, but it’ll do.  It was the closest Kirinhalut had ever come to praising me.  You clueless primes have no idea how the artifact works or what it does, so you’ll believe anything about it.  Maybe they’ll get into the spirit of things and start smashing you too now that they know they have a safety net.

 

“I… guess that makes sense,” Sondra said, though it seemed like she was convincing herself.  “I’m not going to think about it too hard, I’m just glad to have you back.”

 

“I know,” I replied.  “Even though I was dead, I could still hear.”

 

“Oh.”  Sondra’s cheeks began to flush, and she continued, “So that means you heard…”

 

“Yeah.  Everything.”  She winced and fully blushed, and I thought about how ridiculous it was I had embarrassed somebody holding me in their palm.

 

Llelwyl chose the perfect time to interrupt and ruin the moment.  “See?  I told you I didn’t kill him!”  She did not even have the decency to come see me and had simply shouted from her seat.

 

“Butt out of this, Lell!” Sondra shot back.  “He was so dead I had to peel him off the floor because of you!  You’ve seen people get resurrected before, you know just because he’s alive now doesn’t me he was earlier.”

 

Llelwyl scoffed.  “Whatever.  I can’t wait to get away so I don’t have to hear you fawning over some little bug of a man anymore.”  Sondra glared at her, but was happy to let the elf bow out of the conversation.

 

“Margret, I’m sorry,” she began, “but could you get the wagon moving again?  I’d still like to find somewhere to stay before it gets too dark.”

 

“Yeah, sure,” Margret agreed, though she seemed hesitant.  “See you later, little guy!”  She gave me a quick wave and walked away, leaving me with just Sondra’s colossal face peering down at me.

 

The wizard set her thumb and forefinger down beside me so they rested against her palm.  “Do you mind if I pick you up?” she asked.  “It feels a little impersonal to have you down there resting in my palm.”

 

I felt plenty close with her face looming over me, but did not see the harm in getting closer.  “No, go ahead,” I answered.  “I know you’ll be careful.”

 

Sondra grinned.  “Thanks for trusting me.”  Her finger tips pinched around my body, and it was like having two warm cushions clamped around me.  She lowered her other hand, leaving me suspended over a drop, and began lifting me toward her mouth.  The closer it got the larger it seemed, until the only thing I could see was her pink lips pulled tight.  In the back of my mind, I thought about how easy it would be for her to shove me between them.  With no one else watching she could swallow me, and I would be subjected to the new and agonizing pain of digestion.

 

She stopped when I was nearly pressed against her lips, close enough I could reach out and touch them.  Her lips parted slightly, but instead of tossing me inside a cold, brisk wind rushed out of it.  “Sorry, I just don’t want anyone to hear,” she whispered so quietly that I could only hear it because I was dangerously close to her mouth.  “This is really awkward for me, just so you know.  It’s just… when you were dead, I realized there were things I needed to say, and I thought I’d never get to.  Now that I have a second chance, I…”

 

“You’re stalling,” I said.  The whole thing was really awkward for me, too.  Not just because I was practically inside her mouth, but I did not need to be psychic to know where she was going with this.

 

“Okay, fine, I am.”  Sondra inhaled sharply, and the only thing that kept the sudden gust of wind from sucking me between her lips was her firm grip on me.  “It’s just, well.  I like you!  And it’s weird, because I’ve never felt this way about someone so small before.  Hells, I’ve never met someone so small before.  I need to know if you like me, too.  Don’t answer yet, though!  I’ll raise you to my eye, and when you stop you can blink one for no, twice for yes.  Please don’t feel pressured to say yes because of your size, though, I promise I won’t hurt you no matter what.”

 

She began raising me toward her eye, moving so slow I barely felt anything.  Several blasts of warm air from her nostrils hit me before I was above them, and I noticed the tiny white hairs on her skin, normally invisible.  It was terrifically slow, and it felt like she was using my comfort as an excuse to stall some more. I found it ridiculous she was so scared, but it the possibility of being rejected by someone you were just holding in your palm would make anyone hesitant.

 

When she finally stopped I was close enough to touch her cornea, and her sky blue iris dominated my field of view.  She blinked, and her eyelashes were still fine enough to tickle me as they brushed against my skin.  When they opened again, I saw her dilated pupil quickly retract again as light rushed back into it.

 

I blinked once, exaggerating it and drawing it out so I could be sure she saw it.  After the first one I thought about holding off to mess with her, but she was already vulnerable enough.  Hoping she would not miss it, I blinked again in the same unnatural manner, making it clear that it was part of the signal.

 

Sondra was overjoyed, and in her excitement rushed me back to her mouth.  The sudden, quick movement made blood rush to my head, and it felt like my insides remained behind.  She held me in front of her lips long enough for everything to feel right again, and she was grinning just as wide as she had when she realized I was alive.       

 

“I knew you did,” she whispered, “I just wanted to be sure.”  She puckered her lips, keeping them close enough together there was no way I could have slipped between it.  The soft tissue pressed against me, dampening my chest with saliva while she gave me a big, long kiss.  Her fingers held me in place, and when it felt like her lips were about to overwhelm me she pulled them back, making a soft smack when they pulled away from me.

 

“I guess now you’re really dedicated to getting this curse lifted,” I said, not sure what to say.

 

“I was always committed to that,” Sondra replied with a harsh whisper, “but I don’t see how that follows.  It just means that if we can’t cure it, it won’t be the end of the world.  I like you when you’re shrunken, after all.  I might not even like you big.”  Her lips surged forward to give me a quick peck, and they retracted into a smile.

 

Her hand moved to the side, tracing me along her lips and onto her cheek.  She pressed me into the soft skin so it conformed to my outline, gently dragging me along until I was in the middle of her round cheek.  When she stopped, I instinctively gave her cheek a quick kiss, which seemed to make her happy.  I gave her a few more while she pulled me back, lining the trail with tiny kisses.

 

“I’ll tell you what it does mean, though,” she began, still speaking in a very low whisper.  “You’re staying with me again tonight.”  Once more her lips rushed forward and briefly pressed against me, then she pulled me away.  Sondra was radiant while she gazed down at me, as though enraptured just to be looking at me.  For my part, I could not have been happier.  I had never felt safer than when nestled between her digits, and from now on it would feel like I had a giantess looking out for me.

We arrived at the gates of Gorbatov well after nightfall and had to be guided to the main entry by torches.  Guards boarded the wagon to search for contraband, but an adventurer’s license allowed a shocking amount of leniency, including a person who was not on the original registry.  During the inspection, Sondra kept me clutched against her chest with a hand shielding me from prying eyes. They would think nothing of Kirinhalut since she looked like a typical, if unusually tall, noblewoman, but a permanently shrunken human was sure to raise some questions.

 

Once we found an inn that had enough vacant rooms for us, we disembarked and set up the usual security measures.  Collections of spell components, armor workshops, and long poles may not have raised any eyebrows with the guards, but other adventuring groups would be very interested in getting all that for free.  When the wagon was protected, we headed inside to get our rooms.

 

The inn was surprisingly busy for the time of night, and the party had to maneuver past several full tables to reach the innkeeper.  Margret took point and made sure she got three keys, plus an extra room in case Kirinhalut wanted one for herself.

 

“What about mine?” Llelwyl asked harshly.  “This is why I do the talking.”  For some reason she was still hanging around, maybe hoping the others would forget she had almost killed me.

 

“You can’t speak for a group you’re not in, Lell,” Margret replied, “and you can’t sleep in their room, either.  Get your own place and leave us alone.”  Llelwyl left in a huff and got back in line.

 

On the way to our rooms, Sondra said, “I know it’s been a long day, but maybe we should plan what we want to do tomorrow?”  The others stopped and considered it.

 

“You know, that’s a good point,” Margret responded.  “I know we all want to help the shrunken human, but maybe we should escort Kiri to her home first?  She’s been away for a while, and I bet her friends and family are worried about her.”

 

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Kirinhalut interjected.  “I’ll send a messenger out in the morning to have someone come get me.  My family lives on an estate a few days’ ride from here, and I wouldn’t expect you to take me all the way out there.”  I wouldn’t expect them to live long enough to make it, anyway.

 

“That brings us back to the shrunken human, then,” said Margret.  “Seems like we should start trying to cure him with an enchanter, right?”

 

“I’d say diviner,” Sondra suggested.  “They’d be better at finding out the nature of the curse and telling us how to go about removing it.  Anything an enchanter could do would just be a temporary fix.”

 

“I’ll take your word for it.  First thing tomorrow, we’ll find a diviner and see what we can learn about the little guy’s curse.”

 

“Let’s not be so hasty,” Bushwack cut in.  “Our first order of business, even before helping him, should be getting some food and drink inside us.  We’ve been on the road all day, I’m starving!”

 

“She raises a good point,” Margret said.  “I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and this seems like a good time to celebrate.”

 

Kirinhalut took her key and started walking away from us.  “You all have fun.  I’ve been sleeping on a floor for the better part of two months, and the thing I’ve been looking forward to the most is a real bed, the kind with sheets, covers, and pillows.”  I was glad to watch her go, since it meant I would get more time without her crawling around in my head.

 

Sondra took the lead and raised me to her face when the others could no longer see me.  “Do you think I should tell them?” she whispered.  “You know, what we talked about today?”

 

“Yeah, you should,” I answered.  “Seems like it might change how some people think about me.”  I wanted to tell her about Kirinhalut’s threat to use Margret against her, but my lips would not move with the words.  Even from several rooms away, the succubus could exercise full control over me.

 

The group sat at a small table since neither I nor Bushwack would need chairs.  Sondra set me down in front of herself and gave me a little smile when she let me go, while Bushwack had to stand between the two humans.  It still surprised me every time I stood on even ground with her.  Many humans had been taller than me, just not to this degree, but having a pixie tower over me was something new.  I could tell she felt the same way and had to consciously restrain herself from standing astride me.

 

Looking up at her from the table, Sondra almost resembled a mountain.  I was a little below chest level for her, and I had to turn to the sides to see anything past her red robe.  A little bit of cleavage was visible where her chest made the robe droop, and her light skin caught the eye even with the inn’s dim lighting.  Her eyes were focused down on me and I could see flames dancing against the blue background, and she seemed to have a slight, contented grin.  Long strands of blond hair fell in front of her shoulders and almost reached the table, close enough that I could climb them to her head if I wanted.

 

The waiter set a full tankard down beside Sondra, and the thud that ran through the table broke me out of my trance just in time.  They were lowering an enormous bowl to set in front of her next, and it was on course to land right in front of me.  I turned and ran, diving when it seemed to be getting too close form the shadow. Wood crashed against wood with the sound of thunder, and my feet just cleared its base.  Sondra’s jaw dropped when she looked at her food, and she did not come out of it until she saw me waving from the side.

 

“Hey, I didn’t get any!” Bushwack complained.  Unsurprisingly, someone who failed to notice me had also not spotted the pixie.

 

“Don’t worry, you can have some of mine,” Margret offered.  She dipped her spoon in the stew and got a sizable helping, then held it down to Bushwack.  Once the pixie had a firm grip on the handle, Margret grabbed the whole bowl with her hand and lifted it to her lips.  The two were nearly synchronized as they sipped their stew, sipping the broth with their lips and carefully chewing the meat and vegetables.

 

“Do you want any?” Sondra asked, pulling her spoon out of the bowl.  I told her I didn’t, but she persisted.  “Are you sure?  I haven’t seen you eat a single thing.”

 

“No, really, I’m good,” I replied.  “I haven’t been hungry.  Maybe it’s one of the benefits of being so small.”  In a way, it was.  The same infernal power that had made me tiny also removed any material needs.  Sondra simply shrugged and slipped the spoon into her mouth, apparently satisfied with my answer.

 

When Sondra looked away, a pair of fingers pinched around my chest.  I yelped when they yanked me from the table so fast my head snapped forward and I saw spots from the sudden acceleration.  The whole room was a blur as I was pulled up and away, with features and fixtures mixing together. Briefly I came to a halt, but before I could see anything the fingers reared and up and tossed me downward.  With a small splash I landed in a pool of ale, the tankard’s walls rising high enough that I could never climb out.

 

A familiar pair of blue eyes stared down at me from above, the tankard’s rim circling her face.  “Margret!” I shouted.  “What are you doing?”  My voice echoed off the walls, so I knew she could hear me, but she did not answer.  Her response instead was to pick the tankard up off the table, making the ale slosh back and forth like a stormy sea.  It pulled me under and pushed me back to the surface several times while I desperately tried to tread water.

 

She brought the tankard to her lips and tilted her head back, making the liquid stream downward.  Her lips parted wide, allowing it flow into her mouth like a waterfall while I swam against the current.  It was a losing battle, and no matter how hard I tried the current was stronger.  As the vessel emptied Margret tipped the bottom higher until it was almost vertical, still gulping down a steady stream of ale.  I reached the rim, and with a scream I fell out of the mug and toward Margret’s mouth.

 

Her lips closed around my waist, stopping me from going in further, and formed a tight seal.  I felt the muscles tighten into a smile while she looked to Sondra for approval.

 

The wizard was not impressed, and she looked at her friend, horrified.  “Margret!” she shrieked.  “Get him out of there!”  She did not move fast enough, so Sondra elaborated.  “Do you think this is funny?  He almost died today!”

 

Margret’s fingers settled on my sides and she slid me out of her mouth.  “Oh, relax!” she said.  “We’re just having fun, right?”  Margret tilted her hand so I was upside down, and I looked at her in panic.

 

“He doesn’t look like he’s having fun.  Set him down on the table so we can talk about this.”

 

“Pfft, fine,” Margret said, rolling her eyes.  She lowered me onto the table and set my head down on it, then let go.  My body flopped onto the wood with a small bang, and I rubbed my tailbone where it landed.  “But since you got to hold him all day today, I get to hold him while we sleep.”

 

“About that,” Sondra began, leaning forward.  “We’re… together now, so I was hoping he’d stay with me.”

 

“How convenient, you and the shrunken human got together while I was busy driving the wagon.  Everyone else got to spend a night with him, so it’s my turn.”

 

Sondra started to argue back, but her words froze when she thought better of it.  “Why don’t we let him decide?  He’s just as human as we are, just smaller.”

 

“Good idea.”  They both turned to look at me, and Margret asked, “So, who’ll it be, little guy?”  Before I could answer she spoke up, “Actually, you know what?  This is silly.  We’re staying in the same room, and we can make a little bed for him.  That way he can sleep on his own.”

 

“Yeah, I like the sound of that.”  It had been so long since I’d slept on my own that just a single night of it sounded amazing.  “I’m sure whatever you come up with for me to sleep on will be fine.”

 

“Don’t worry, we’re plenty resourceful,” Margret responded, then turned to Sondra.  “Mind if I carry him to the room, though?”  No one objected, so she reached down and set the tips of her thumb and forefinger on either side of me.  Carefully she moved them inward until they gently rested against my sides, then she lifted me off the table.  Slowly she stood, bringing me with her, making sure I was not moved so fast that it made me uncomfortable.

 

Once in the room, they got to work getting set up.  Margret set me on a writing desk pushed against the wall, then she and Sondra unpacked Bushwack’s bed to hang from the rafters.  The pixie flew up to inspect it, directing them to adjust it left or right for the proper alignment, then perched atop the covers.  She looked around and thought for a moment, then signaled her approval to the others with a nod.

 

With Bushwack squared away, the humans got to work improvising a bed for me. They did not have much, but fortunately they did not need to go to great lengths.  Margret emptied a small box of matches for lighting candles to get a frame, then used a knife to cut small pieces of raw leather for a mattress.  Sondra wrapped the leather in scraps of silk, then provided the same handkerchief from earlier as a blanket.  She set it down on the edge of the desk and I climbed in, then slid underneath the makeshift blanket.  It was leagues better than sleeping on a flagstone, and for once I could fall asleep without fear.

 

When I was satisfied, Sondra walked to the wall and took the lid off the lantern.  She took a moment to blow a kiss to me before extinguishing the flame, casting the room in darkness.  Her footsteps thudded against the floor, then her bedframe creaked when she laid down on it.  I closed my eyes, satisfied with the day overall, and for once looked forward to what tomorrow held.

Though I did not need sleep, the opportunity to rest was welcome.  The darkness was peaceful, and very little sound reached our room from the main hall.  Without being able to see anything towering over me, I could imagine I was not sleeping on scraps stuffed into a match box.  The only reminder of my diminutive size was the handkerchief draped over me, because it smelled strongly of Sondra.   Far from the worst thing, especially compared to having a face loom over me while I rested.

 

The peace gave me a chance to reflect on everything that had happened.  Kirinhalut had pushed Llelwyl too far and nearly overplayed her hand, but she had been working with fertile ground.  Based on what I saw, nothing she had been driven to do was outside of her normal behavior.  It seemed like the others were pushing back against her influence, and after seeing how far it could go might be less tolerant of someone tormenting me just for fun.  Margret’s actions at dinner were concerning, though.  While it may have looked like a little fun taken too far, I suspected it was Kirinhalut making good on her earlier promise.

 

Heavy covers rustled beside one of the walls, followed by floorboards creaking under someone’s weight.  Soft thuds indicative of footsteps drew closer, coming to a stop beside me.   I pretended to be asleep, hoping it was just someone going for a late-night stroll.

 

Light suddenly appeared above me, filling the room, and quickly dimmed to the illumination of a very small candle.  Sondra stood above me, still and towering as an obelisk.  The light threw long shadows over her face, giving her an otherworldly appearance.  She grabbed the light between her fingers, blocking most of it out, and brought it down to the desk.  It landed on the hard wood with a small clink, then her hand moved to the side.

 

Sondra leaned forward until her face blocked the rest of the room, and her eyes were the only thing I could focus on.  I could see myself reflected in them, giving my ghostly image a clear blue background.  “Hey,” she whispered, giving me a gentle nudge with her finger.  “Wake up, little guy.”  I faked a groan and did my best to act like I had just come out of a deep sleep.  “I’ve got a big surprise for you.”

 

“What is it?” I asked.  “It must be pretty big to warrant waking me up in the middle of the night.”

 

“It’s a surprise!” she answered, then giggled quickly.  “I wanted to give it to you earlier, but I think you’ll see why I couldn’t.  Come to the edge of the desk and stand right in front of me and I’ll give it to you.”

 

She was acting strangely, but I did not think she wanted to harm me.  Curious, I climbed out of my makeshift bed and slid from beneath her handkerchief, then began walking toward her.  Sondra grabbed my bed and placed it to the side, and I figured whatever her surprise was required that area being clear.  It took a minute to cross the short distance to her, and she watched me patiently as I walked.  I noticed she had exchanged her road-worn robes for a more comfortable red nightgown that seemed to shimmer in the light, and its hem stopped just short of reaching the desk.

 

When I was in place gazing straight up at her, she grinned and whispered, “Okay, good.  Now, this is very important: don’t move.  I really don’t want to hurt you by accident.”  Sondra turned so her rear was to me, and the light illuminated its gentle curves as it protruded over the desk above me.  She braced her hands against the desk, pressing down hard enough with her palms that her skin turned pure white.  Whatever her surprise was, it might end up involving her landing on me.  I took her advice and stayed perfectly still to hopefully avoid that version of it.

 

With a quiet grunt Sondra launched herself into the air, vaulting her enormous body over me.  I watched her enormous body move with awe, and was glad when her butt cleared the air above me without even the hem of her nightgown brushing my head.  She landed with a crash that shook the whole desk, making me stumble sideways into her thigh as the force of her sitting sent powerful shockwaves through it.  The desk was not designed to hold the weight of a fully grown human and groaned, but held itself together.  When the calamity had settled, I turned to look at Sondra and realized I could see up her nightgown.

 

“Is your surprise –“

 

A single syllable from her cut me off, and Sondra began to shrink before my eyes.  In an instant she was no longer a tremendous mountain dominating everything around me, her thighs alone enormous cliffs to scale, but just a person standing in the distance.  It happened so fast that it took my eyes a moment to process what they were seeing.  Sondra, the colossus who had been looming over me just moments before, was now standing on the desk before me, not even a hundred feet away.

 

“Sondra, you’re small!” I exclaimed, and she came running toward me.  As she got closer, I could hear the tiny thuds of her bare feet on the ground.  I noticed she was still about a head taller than me, but it was a vast improvement over being dwarfed by her big toe.  If I ever returned to my normal size, I imagined this is how much taller she would be than me anyway.

 

When she stood in front of me, she came to a complete stop and wrapped her arms around me in a tight, powerful hug.  Sondra lifted me off the desk and spun me around, keeping me aloft while she vigorously shook me.  After a long squeeze she dropped me, letting me fall onto the desk, and looked down at me with a huge smile.

 

“I can make you smaller by accident,” Sondra began, “so why can’t I make myself smaller on purpose?”  Her voice was no longer a rumbling sonic assault every time she spoke above a whisper.  Now, while it still sounded healthy and confident, it was a little high-pitched and very sweet.  It was a relief to not feel like her voice could shake me apart, just like I enjoyed not feeling imperiled by every feature on her face.

 

“How long is it going to last?” I asked, taking a step forward.  I wrapped my arms around my waist and buried my face in her chest, and she rested an arm on my back.

 

“Not very long, but let me worry about that,” she answered.  “I just want to be close to you without feeling like I might crush you.”  She stroked the back of my head, and I looked up.  Her lips were still in a broad smile, and she was beaming with joy. 

 

“Could you stand on your toes for me real quick?” Sondra asked, and I immediately shot up.  It was not nearly enough to put me level with her, but she did not seem to mind.  She held me tight and bent forward, placing her lips on mine.  I squeezed her, forcefully returning the kiss, and she gripped me harder while pushing back.  Sondra was the only thing I could see or think about, and for once that was not solely because of her gigantic size.

 

I started to slide her nightgown off her shoulder, but she put up a hand to stop me.  Our lips smacked when they parted, and she said, “Not tonight.  It’s not that I don’t want to, I just don’t feel comfortable doing it while other people are in the room.  Besides, we only have a few minutes, and I don’t want you to get… stuck inside me.”  She smirked, then leaned in to give me another kiss.

 

A tremendous, booming voice from across the room interrupted us, and we turned to face it.  “What’s that light?” Margret asked, and her feet crashed onto the floor.  The thuds of her footsteps made the desk shake, and Sondra turned to me in panic.

 

“She’s going to see us,” she said, her smile gone.  “What do we do?”

 

“Unless you dispel that magic of yours real fast, there’s nothing we can do,” I told her.  “Why are you worried?  Margret already knows about our involvement, and it’s not like you’re ashamed, right?”

 

“No, of course not, it’s just…” Sondra trailed off while she thought of the right way to word it.  “Didn’t you think Margret was acting weird earlier?  She’s always been curious and fun, but until tonight she never did anything that could hurt someone.”

 

Margret’s thighs bumped against the table, making us stumble while it rocked, and the discussion was over.  “When did we get another tiny person?” Sondra asked aloud.  “We’ve already got two, can’t believe me and Sondra are outnumbered by tiny people.”  The chair creaked when she dropped her weight onto it, and she continued staring at us.  “Wait, one of them is Sondra!  When did you get so small, Sondra?”

 

“Hey Margret!” the wizard greeted, waving her arm wide.  “I thought the shrunken human could use some company tonight, so I reduced myself!  Nothing to worry about, I’ll be big again by tomorrow morning, just go back to bed!”

 

“I think I’ll stay up a bit longer,” Margret responded, and the desk rumbled when she set her hands atop it.  “If you’re playing with the shrunken human, I want to join in.”

 

“It’s not really a ga-“  Sondra’s sentence turned into a scream when Margret grabbed her between her thumb and forefinger and plucked her off the table.  “Margret, what are you doing?” she shouted while the priest grabbed me and held me aloft.

 

“I’m playing with my toys!” she answered, turning Sondra and I to face each other.  “Sondra the Small and the shrunken human!  They’re my favorite enchanted dolls.”

 

“Put us down and go back to bed!” Sondra yelled.  “Someone could get hurt!”

 

Margret ignored her and continued with her game.  She shook me up and down, making my insides rattle, while she spoke with an exaggeratedly deep voice to imitate me.  “’Well hello there, Sondra the Small.’”  Her hand moved Sondra the same way, and her falsetto imitation of her cut off the wizard’s screams.  “’Hi, I’m Sondra, I love shrunken humans!  Do you want to make out?’”  I was thrown around again by her fingers while she said, “’Well sure, I’d love to.’”  Sondra endured another round of shaking while Margret said, “’Okay, but we better do it fast before Margret has a chance to get involved!’”

 

My stomach lurched and Sondra screamed in terror when she moved us toward each other rapidly.  We stopped just short of crashing into each other thanks to her fingertips, but the force of sudden deceleration still compelled our limbs forward.  Sondra struggled against the vice grip of Margret’s fingers, trying desperately but failing to move her arms.  Margret twisted us against each other while making fake kissing sounds, then pulled us apart.

 

“This isn’t funny!” Sondra protested.  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but stop it!”

 

Margret protested as though the wizard had not said anything.  “’Huh, that was nice,’” she said in her deep voice while shaking me some more.  “’I want to meet this Margret though and see what she has to offer, maybe she likes me too!’”  Sondra let out another shriek as she was rapidly lowered toward the desk, and Margret turned me to face her.  “Oh, well now that you mention it, I do like you!  Let’s make out too!” 

 

She began raising me toward her face, and I fought against the fingers pinched around me.  There was a manic look in her eyes, and they seemed glassy while they followed me in her grasp.  When I passed her chin she opened her mouth wide, and the great cavern loomed before me.  Margret held me in front of it for a moment, waggling her tongue and running it along her teeth.  Unless her definition of kissing involved eating someone, I doubted she was acting on her own.

 

Margret stopped when I was about to pass between her lips and rapidly jerked me back.  The glassy look was gone for her eyes, and she looked at Sondra, now sitting on the desk, with an expression of shock.  “I am so, incredibly sorry,” she said.  “I don’t know what came over me.”  I did.  “It felt like there was a dark cloud in my mind and I couldn’t think, you know I’d never do anything like this.  Here, take him, and I’m very glad you two are happy together.”

 

Margret placed me in Sondra’s waiting palm and walked back to bed, visibly shaken by the experience.  I turned toward Sondra, and the familiar sight of her face looming over me gave me a bit of comfort.  Her hair was messed up and long, red pressure marks ran the length of her arms and legs, and she seemed exhausted.  “Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea,” she whispered, taking a step toward her bed.  “Sorry our time was cut short.  And I’m sorry I destroyed your bed when I grew.”

 

“It was a nice surprise,” I replied, “and it wasn’t your fault.  I don’t think it was Margret’s either.  I’m just glad you thought quick enough to dispel everything before it got messy.”

 

“I know.”  Sondra sat down on her bed, and feathers compressed beneath her weight.  “Something’s making her act weird, and we need to find out what.”

 

“Agreed.  Whatever’s doing it must be powerful, and it might’ve been influencing Llelwyl too.”

 

“I considered that.”  Sondra sighed, and looked at her pillow.  “We need rest if we’re going to be investigating something like this, though.  Mind sharing a bed with me?”

 

“I’d love to.”

 

She laid down on the mattress and set me on the pillow beside her, almost touching her nose.  With her between me and the rest of the room, I felt safe in case Kirinhalut had any more nasty tricks to try tonight.  Sondra pulled the covers up to her neck and kicked her legs inside them to get comfortable.  “Good night,” she said, and kissed the air in my direction.

 

“Good night, Sondra,” I replied, and kissed the tip of her nose.  She giggled and gave me a quick nudge with it, then closed her eyes.  After a few minutes her breathing slowed and became very steady, and finally she fell asleep.  I stayed still, not wanting to disturb her, and in the last few minutes before the light died out enjoyed how peaceful she looked.  It felt like a hill spirit was watching over me, offering its protecting even from deep slumber.  At last, I felt secure, and watching her sleep from this close was more restful than a night in that bed made of leather scraps.

 

Of course, Kirinhalut had to ruin it.  A relationship between a human and a bug?  How laughably saccharine.  She foiled my plans tonight, but she won’t be around much longer.  Don’t worry though, after they kill each other over you I’ll take her form.  That should make it so much worse when I grind you into dust for all eternity!  Her laugh echoed in my head, no matter how forcefully I tried to push it out.  I looked to Sondra for comfort, and my gigantic protector offered some reassurance.  We could beat her.  They just needed to know what she was first.  

I awoke early in the morning when the sunrays streaming through the window landed on my body.  They reflected off Sondra’s light skin, making her look more radiant as her face loomed over me in the morning light.  She rubbed her head against the pillow, nudging me back when her nose bumped into me, and let out a low moan that made my insides tremble.  Her eyes remained closed, and she apparently did not want to get out of bed.  When they finally opened it was like two blue suns rising, and she looked down at me with a contented grin.

 

“Morning, little guy,” she purred, giving me a playful nuzzle.  “Sleep well?”

 

“Can’t complain,” I answered.  It was the most I could say without outright lying or tipping her off.

 

“Good to hear.  Now, let’s see about getting you big again, shall we?”  She brought a hand up to the pillow and laid it beneath me, flanking me with her thumb and forefinger.  They slowly came together until their pads barely touched me, the whorls of her fingerprints providing enough friction to keep me firmly between them.  Sondra propped herself up in bed with her other arm, then slowly lifted me off the pillow while she sat, and the room spun and blurred while she turned around.  Two thuds from her feet hitting the wooden floor filled the room, and it felt like my stomach dropped when she stood.

 

Sondra grabbed her robe from the foot of her bed and seemed to consider how to put it on without putting me down.  A moment later I was thrust into a long red tube, the rush of wind blowing against me alternating with the feeling of silk on my skin as her arm entered the sleeve.  I emerged just beneath the cuff, glad the movement finally stopped when her arm was fully extended.  She did her best not to further disturb me while she put the other half on, and even managed to tie the belt without pressing me into it.

 

Margret was already up and ready to go, and slid her mace into its belt loop while Sondra finished cinching her robe.  She dressed lighter for a day in the town, eschewing her heavy plate armor for something that could breathe more easily and not weigh her down as much.  It was a common perception that heavily armored adventurers were likely to stir up trouble, and canny groups did their best to avoid creating that impression.  Besides, if trouble did arise there were magical means to get the same protection without inviting the situation in the first place.

 

Bushwack fell in to fly between the two while they walked to the door, then Margret suddenly stopped.  “Look, Sondra,” Margret began, “I’m really sorry about last night.  I don’t think I can say that enough.  I knew what I was doing, but it felt like I wasn’t in control of my body.  If you had been just a bit slower, there’s no telling what would have happened.”

 

“Wait, what happened last night?” Bushwack asked.  Apparently, though it had been calamitous for us, it had not even registered for her.  Margret’s booming voice had likely not even gone over a quiet speaking level, though it seemed tremendous last night.

 

“Don’t worry about it, Bush,” Sondra replied.  “You either, Marg.  Whatever made you do it, it clearly wasn’t you.  After we get the little guy his help, we’ll see about stopping this, too.  We need him at full size to root it out.”  Little did she know that they would be taking care of both problems at the same time.

 

They walked down and out of the inn, stopping to ask the innkeeper for directions toward the city’s mage guild.  When they were on the street, Sondra tucked me close to her chest and used her free hand to make a barrier around me.  Gentle swaying from her gait made me stumble side to side as they walked, and I decided it would be easier to simply sit down in the middle of her palm.

 

 Bushwack landed on Sondra’s shoulder, took one look at me, and turned to speak into her ear.  “You don’t want to carry him like that,” she said.  “Not in a city.”

 

“Why not?  This is as safe as I can make him.”

 

“From falling, yes,” Bushwack replied, “but there are other threats here.  By holding him like that, you’re broadcasting to every pickpocket in sight that you have something incredibly valuable in your hands, and they’ll want to take it.  Maybe they’re not very good, but eventually one of them will succeed, and we’ll have to track down a kidnapped shrunken human.”

 

“How do you suggest I carry him, then?”

 

“I suggest you don’t.”  Sondra gave her a confused look, so she elaborated.  “Let me carry him.  I’m big enough that people can see I’m a person, but small enough that they usually ignore me.  He’ll be safe with me, I promise.”

 

Sondra seemed hesitant, glancing between me and the pixie while she thought about it.  “Okay,” she finally agreed, “you can carry him.”  Bushwack acknowledged her with a nod, then launched off her shoulder and landed on the heel of her palm.

 

Bushwack stood astride me for a moment, looking down while I gazed up at her.  She did not push or cajole me, and instead waited patiently while I got to my feet.  The towering pixie leaned over and reached a hand down, carefully bringing her palm to rest against my back.  When it was flush against my body she closed her fingers, making a firm cage around me that was loose enough I could still breathe.  Slowly she lifted me out of Sondra’s palm and brought me to her chest, making sure I was secure before returning to her perch on the wizard’s shoulder.

 

The rest of the journey passed without incident for me, and Bushwack did not so much as squeeze her fingers around me.  So much had changed that I could not narrow it down to a single cause, but she seemed to respect me as a living, sentient creature now, just one much smaller than herself.  Years of riding on shoulders had taught her how to compensate for the other person’s movement, and she gave me the smoothest ride possible.  We even made small talk along the way about our time as adventurers, and she patiently waited for me to finish instead of speaking over me.

 

When we arrived at the mages’ guild, the two normal-sized humans checked the directory for the chief diviner while Bushwack and I were along for the ride.  They walked through a long stone hallway lit by torches along the walls and braziers in the corners, keeping to one side to avoid traffic.  Some of the people here seemed to recognize Sondra, giving her a quick nod before looking back to the floor a few feet in front of them, completely ignoring everyone else, and never taking their hands off the wall.

 

At the chief diviner’s office, we were waved in by a human woman who looked to be just this side of middle age.  Her blond temples had gone completely white, with a long streak of white down the middle of her head, and crow’s feet spread from the edges of her green eyes.  Laugh lines had formed at the corners of her lips, and she looked healthy from what I could see under her tight, bulky robe.  “Please, come in!” she called out.  “Provided it’s not about gambling or any illegal activities, I can answer whatever questions you have.”  I had expected a crochety old mage to be filling this position, but considering the circumstances of her disclaimer she was downright cordial toward us.

 

We entered her office, and Margret explained the situation.  “Trust me, it’s not for anything like that,” she started.  “One of our companions has been shrunk by a curse.  We were hoping you could tell us its exact origin and how to remove it.”

 

“Of course, I can do that,” the diviner answered.  She seemed relieved to have customers not asking her how to beat the odds at the track for once.  “I imagine your companion is quite small, so just place them on the table in front of me along with 500 gold pieces and we can get started.”  While Sondra fished around in her pouch for the money, Bushwack hopped off her shoulder and landed in the middle of the table.  “This is a bit smaller than I expected, but-“  As she spoke, Bushwack lowered me to the table and set me down on the wood, then let me go before stepping back.  The diviner’s eyes widened, and her voice caught in her throat.

 

“Your friend is… tiny,” she said after gulping down some saliva.  “That’s the smallest person I’ve ever seen.  It must have been a very powerful curse to make them this size”

 

“Yes, that’s why we came to you,” Margret replied.  “Everything we’ve done to cure him has failed, so it must be something deeper and more primal than a mere spell.  Can you still help us?”

 

“I can still do the things you asked, yes,” the diviner answered.  “Lifting the curse may depend on its source, however.  Something this potent does indeed come from something stronger than a common spell.”  Coins clinked above while Sondra counted out the money for her fee, and I watched the diviner curiously.

 

A thud made the desk tremble when Sondra set down two stacks of platinum pieces, making my knees shake when the force ran through them.  The diviner pulled the coins toward her, then rolled up her sleeves and held her hands in front of her.  After a moment, she declared, “Okay, let’s get started.”

 

The diviner reached into a pile of reagents beside her, and with two syllables they vanished in a puff of smoke.  She began chanting, wiggling her fingers in the air while moving her hands around, and the air became heavy with magic.  My hair stood up while she continued, the chanting getting more intense as she went.  Her fingers pinched more reagents only for them to disappear without a trace, and the winds from her spellcasting became powerful enough to affect her as well.  When it reached a climax everything died down, and the magic seemed to vanish from the air.

 

For a moment she stared at me, trying to process the information she had received, then her eyes widened again.  She quickly cast another spell, then said, “For now, you are protected from what influences you, small man.  If you have anything you wish to tell your companions that you haven’t been able to, I suggest you do it now before I do.”

 

In such a rush that my words fell over themselves, I told them everything from the start.  I told them how I had discovered Kirinhalut, and how she had tricked me into forming a bond with her before going into the torment she inflicted on me.  When I got to their rescue, I mentioned how she had kept me from telling them anything under threat of punishment, and how she continued to do so by controlling what I was allowed to say.  They learned how she had been influencing them over the past few days, and of her ultimate plan to sow dissent so she could eventually steal the Orb of Power.  Nothing was left out, including how she had definitely influenced Margret and probably affected Llelwyl in her attempts to cause discord.

 

Before the others could say anything, the diviner spoke up.  “Before you judge him too harshly, please remember that he did not deceive you of his own will.  This succubus Kirinhalut was so closely entwined with him that she could control his words.  Any deceit was not on his part, and I can tell you that it was not his intent to mislead you.”

 

My party was quiet for a bit while they thought it over until Sondra spoke up.  “Well then, how do we get him out from under her influence long-term?” she asked.  “And how do we break the conditions she’s put him under?”

 

“I can tell you how, but I can’t do it myself,” the diviner replied.  “You need something of the succubus, something which is part of her or she claims closely to her.  When you have this item, bring it to the chief abjurer in the guild.  I’ll send her a message to expect you in the next couple of days.  Additionally, while your companion here is ‘claimed’ as the succubus’s property, I would not suggest using him.  The object will be consumed as a part of the ritual to break the bond, and not even a wish will be able to bring him back.”

 

“What do you think?” Sondra began.  “You up for breaking a demon’s bond to an innocent mortal?”

 

“You just asked me if I want to smite evil,” Margret responded.  “I’m always ready to do that.”

 

“She corrupted my best friend and turned her into a monster,” Bushwack added.  “Let’s send her back where she came from.”

 

“Good.  Let’s get going, then.”  Sondra taking charge made her even more attractive to me, even more than if she had become the party’s main speaker.  “This curse isn’t going to break itself after all.”  Them rallying around me gave me a confidence I did not have before, and for once I thought I might be able to escape the consequences of a single mistake.  If they worked together, they would easily be able to defeat Kirinhalut.  I just hoped that, when the time came, they would be able to maintain their cohesion, and expel the succubus from our realm.

Before departing, we needed to come up with a plan.  “We can talk freely here,” I started, “but as soon as one of you carries me out of the circle, Kirinhalut will re-establish her link with me.  Anything you say she’ll here, and she’ll be waiting for us.  We need to make our plan now.”

 

“So we won’t carry you out,” Margret replied.  “We just need a bit of her hair, right?  It’s simple: I’ll hold her down, Sondra will cut it, and Bushwack will bring it back here.  No big deal.”

 

“No, he needs to do it,” Bushwack said.  Everyone turned toward her, and she elaborated.  “I’m not trying to throw him into danger pointlessly, there’s a good reason for it that even he might not understand.  As a tiny person in an adventuring party, he’s… limited in what he can do.  I went through the same thing, trying to find ways I could contribute to the group, and if we do this for him it’ll just get worse.  We need to treat him like an adventurer because that’s what he is, not some wounded bird we’re nursing back to health.  He needs to prove to himself he can break the demonic influence, not to us.”

 

“But what if he gets hurt?” Sondra asked.  “If she hears what he hears, she’ll know he’s coming.  If he gets smashed again, he might not…”

 

“And what if you get hurt fighting his battles for him?” Bushwack shot back.  “Do you think that’d make him feel better somehow?  I went through this with Llelwyl when we were just starting out.  She wanted to do everything for herself and just keep me around for company, like I was some sort of novelty.  You wouldn’t treat me like I’m incapable, and you shouldn’t treat him like he is, either.”

 

“She’s right,” I said, stepping into the discussion.  It seemed fitting, since they were talking about me.  “I can do it, and I don’t need anyone else to fight for me, physically or verbally.”  I shot Bushwack a look, then turned back to the group before continuing.  “Besides, it’ll be more satisfying if I play a role in breaking her control over me.  But you’re also right in that she’ll see me coming, even if I’m invisible.  We need some way to keep her from getting inside my head.”

 

“I think I can help with that,” Margret offered.  “Kirinhalut is a succubus, succubi are demons, and demons are evil.  Right now, we’re standing in a circle that protects us from evil, aren’t we?”  The diviner nodded, and Margret continued laying out her plan.  “I can easily give him a personal version of it that’ll move with him and won’t risk tipping her off.  The only issue is the duration; by the time he gets to her and climbs to where he can snip some of her hair, it’ll wear off.”

 

“I’ll fly him to her, then,” Bushwack said.  “It’ll keep me hidden from her too, right?  So cast it on both of us, I’ll put him on her shoulder and pull him back out once he’s done.  Shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.”

 

“That seems awfully close to doing it for him,” Sondra cut in.  “Why don’t you just take a bit of her hair while you’re at it?  It’ll save Margret a spell and reduce the amount of things that can go wrong.”

 

“It’s not much different from someone creating a distraction so I can get closer,” Bushwack replied, “and unless one of you wants to just throw him at her, it’s the only idea we’ve got.  What do you say, little guy?  Are you okay with me carrying you to her?”

 

Aside from a pixie calling me “little guy,” I was fine with the plan.  Everything they brought up was a valid concern, and if it was between being carried and having someone throw me, I would take someone carrying me.  “Yeah, let’s do it,” I declared.  “Get me onto her shoulder and I’ll get what we need.”

 

Bushwack leaned forward and reached down, placing a hand against the side of my body.  Her fingers curled around me securely, gripping me so just my head poked out from her fist.  She flew up from the table and returned to her perch on Sondra’s shoulder, then gave her two firm taps, the sign she was ready to go.  The two regular-sized humans thanked the diviner and left, taking me and the pixie with them.

 

I did my best to blank my mind before leaving the circle of protection.  My connection to Kirinhalut resumed, and I did not know how deep she could probe into my mind.  Any inkling of the plan could tip her off, leading to a fight when we got there.  Combat would be messy, and if the succubus got sent back to her home plane during it she might take me with her.  We would certainly not be able to break the bond she had forced between us, and I would remain her property.

 

To keep my mind off the coming task, I focused on Sondra’s face beside me.  Daylight reflected off her pale skin, making her seem to gleam under the sun.  Every small flare of her nostril as she breathed was obvious to me, and there was little difference between the sky and her eyes focused ahead while she considered the coming encounter.  She had been stunning last night, and being this size only magnified her beauty.  If we both made it out alive, I looked forward to travelling with her and her companions, regardless of any other outcome.

 

When we reached the inn, we went back to our rooms and Margret began the preparations.  She cast on Bushwack first, both to give me the most time possible and so my bond with the succubus would not be broken for as long.  When her magic wrapped around me, I felt the rush of freedom as Kirinhalut was forced out of my mind.  With her telepathy blocked, she would not be able to force her thoughts into my mind, nor tear mine out of it.  For the moment my soul was still hers, but as far as she was concerned I was a complete non-entity, this time in a good way.

 

Bushwack took flight from Sondra’s shoulder, clutching me tightly as she entered the hallway.  She turned the corridor and flew along it until reaching Kirinhalut’s room, then turned again to enter.  The door was open, and Kirinhalut stood motionless in the middle of the room, her eyes closed.  Her arms were at her side with fingers spread wide, like she was deeply focused on something.  We both knew that if Margret was wrong this would be a very short mission, so Bushwack approached her shoulder with caution.

 

The pixie hovered behind Kirinhalut’s shoulder blade and set me down, my feet lightly dimpling the bare skin of her shoulder.  She descended to the floor and landed behind the succubus’s ankle while I looked at the titanic demon.  It had been a while since I was this close to her, but I vividly remembered my time trapped in a tiny cage attached to her choker.  From my vantage point, I could now see that the golden choker was taller than me, and her head alone towered over me.  I had to crane my neck back to see her ear, its opening large enough for me to climb into, with a thick lock of black hair tucked behind it.  Her hair trailed down to the small of her back, giving me more than enough to work with.  Surely she would not miss a strand or two.

 

Tentatively I took a step forward, then froze when Kirinhalut snapped her head toward me.  Her full, pouty lips were right above me, with sunlight from the windows reflecting off her dark lipstick.  They were massive – her top lip alone was nearly as tall as I was – and stretched dozens of feet to each side.  If she brought them down even a little bit they would engulf me, and I would likely end up stuck to her lipstick.  From there it would be a simple matter for her to slurp me up, and I would be moving down her throat before Bushwack would react.

 

While I pondered the short, grisly end to my adventure, Kirinhalut scanned her shoulder for what had disturbed her.  Her enormous, dark brown eyes scanned the bare skin, darting back and forth while she searched every square inch for the irritant, and I remained perfectly still, not even daring to breathe.  She looked right at me and paused, and I braced myself for a crushing slap.  Instead, they kept moving, looking progressively closer to her neck for something she simply could not see.  With a booming “Hmph,” she gave up and returned to what she was doing, and I let out a sigh of relief.

 

Carefully, I crept forward until I was at the base of her neck, then grabbed the bottom of her choker.  I leaned away from her, using the choker as an anchor, and took the sliver of sharp metal Margret had given me in my free hand.  In a wide arc I swung it at a strand of her dark hair, slicing it cleanly.  Quickly I grabbed it before it fell too far, straining to stretch my fingers to grab it.  My hand grasped the hair like a thin rope, but I was overextended and felt my grip on her choker slipping.

 

I was past the point of no return, and my fingers lost their hold on her choker entirely.  With nothing keeping me on her shoulder I plummeted down her back, the bare skin rapidly scrolling by as I fell.  My hand slid along her skin during my descent, and I wrenched my shoulder when I grabbed onto the back of her low-cut dress.  It had stopped my fall, but my arm seethed with pain as I slammed face-first into green velvet.  Kirinhalut’s thick hair fell over me like a curtain, obscuring me from view while I dangled from her dress.

 

If she could not see me, I had to trust that she could not hear me, either.  “Bushwack, help!” I called out.  “I got the hair but I fell off, I’m dangling from her dress!  Hurry before the spell wears off!”  My pinkie slipped from inside Kirinhalut’s dress, then my ring finger.  The strain of holding up even my weight became too much for the two remaining fingers and they slipped out, sending me falling toward the floor again.  With the spell blocking the succubus’s power, I was not sure which abilities remained.  There was a good chance I would end up splattered on a floorboard and she would end up tormenting me for eternity.

 

My fall was unexpectedly short, with a much softer landing.  Instead of hard, unforgiving wood I landed atop soft flesh with fingers raised to form a bowl.  “Caught you!” Bushwack exclaimed, veering sharply to the left.  Her fingers clamped down to hold me still, and while I could not see anything but the bottom of her fingers I did not mind.  I was safe, and soon I would be out from under the succubus’s thumb.

 

Bushwack flew back to our room, where Sondra and Margret were sitting on the edges of their seats.  When they saw the pixie enter they stood up and approached, and Sondra held her hand out as a perch.

 

My savior had barely landed before the humans started in with questions.  “How’d it go?”  “Did you get it?”  “Is he okay?”  They came so quickly I could not distinguish who was asking what, and a finger blocking my view I could not see their lips move.

 

Bushwack opened her fingers but kept her hands cupped, and I unsteadily got to my feet.  I stood astride the gap between her hands, planted my feet on the heels of her palms, and triumphantly held the single strand of hair over my head.  Margret and Sondra leaned in closer so their gigantic faces loomed over me and squinted, making me feel unusually puny.  “That… doesn’t really answer the question,” Margret boomed, adding insult to injury.  She was close enough that I could feel her hot breath when she spoke, and she still could not see my trophy.  “Did you get something or not?”

 

“Yes, I got something,” I answered, waving the single hair over my head.  “Now let’s go break a demon’s hold on me!”

 

“I hope it’ll be enough,” Sondra said, still squinting.  “It looks really small.”

 

“Unless you’re sending us back in there, it’ll do,” Bushwack said resolutely.  “Now put your arms down unless you want them to get stuck that way.”  I complied, and the pixie grabbed me in a firm fist again.  Both of my hands gripped the hair like it was a lifeline thrown to a drowning sailor, unwilling to accept even a chance of dropping it.  The pixie held me against her stomach and flew up, taking her spot on Sondra’s shoulder.  When she was ready, she slapped the skin twice and we were off.

When we arrived back at the mages’ guild, a quick check of the directory told the regular-sized humans we were with where to go.  Sondra seemed more comfortable here so she took the lead, guiding Margret down long, torch-lit corridors while Bushwack balanced comfortably on her shoulder.  Even though it was in a different wing of the building, there was nothing we had not seen before.  For a group of people who could reshape reality to their whims, these wizards did not seem particularly imaginative with décor.

 

Sondra slowed to a stop, giving Bushwack enough time to compensate, and stood in front of a door with glowing azure runes over it.  “This is the place,” she said, and began studying the door.  She stood almost motionless for several minutes while Margret got increasingly agitated.

 

“Why are we just standing here?” she finally demanded.  “Open the door!”  Margret reached for the handle, but Sondra put out an arm to stop her.

 

“The door will open itself,” Sondra replied.  “Observe.”  She knocked hard on the door three times slowly, then shouted through it, “We’ve got money!”  After a moment the door unlatched on its own and swung inward, and the two humans rushed over the threshold.

 

The chief abjurer stood with each hand resting on a different podium beside her with her chin haughtily raised toward us.  Bright green hair flowed wildly down the length of her body, with a pair of long, pointed ears poking through it.  She had sharp features and fair, unblemished skin, and the look in her almond-shaped violet eyes exuded a powerful aura of confidence.  Her dark magenta gown was buckled with leather straps down the front, and a high, stiff collar displayed its gold trim like a peacock’s plumage.  I thought she looked young for her position, but elves seemed to be eternally youthful.

 

“From your diminutive companion, I presume you are the individuals I am anticipating,” she declared.  Her voice was strong, and even with our extreme size difference distorting it I found it melodic.  “Place your diminished comrade along with the infernal article beside my right hand and no fewer than a thousand coins of gold by my left and I shall begin the de-possession forthwith.”

 

Margret dropped her sack of loot on the appropriate pedestal and stepped back.  “This ought to be enough,” she said, and the elven wizard stiffly raised a long hand toward her.

 

“If the amount suffices, the ritual shall succeed,” she proclaimed.  “If not, it shall fizzle.  “Regardless, no more or less shall be consumed.”  The statement did little to reassure anyone, but I suspected that was not her intent.

 

Sondra stood before the other podium, and I noticed the abjurer’s presence was not solely from her imperious bearing.  Even standing on Sondra’s shoulder, I had to look up at her chest.  She was amazingly tall, even for an elf, and the pedestals were sized for her.  Bushwack simply stepped from the shoulder onto the stone and walked to stand between her extended index and middle fingers.

 

“Demonic magic has ravaged your stature,” the abjurer stated.  “Present me with the demon’s former possession, and I shall restore your magnitude.”

 

Bushwack glared upward at her.  “Why do you wizards keep assuming that I’m the one who’s been shrunk?” she shouted.  “I’m a pixie, this is my natural size!  Haven’t you masters of all things magical ever seen a pixie before?  The shrunken person is this guy!”  She jabbed a finger in my direction, then bent forward to set me down at her own feet.  Despite her rage, she was careful not to hurt me when she placed me on the stone, and made sure I was clear of her fingers before storming off to stand back on Sondra’s shoulder.

 

Her fingers were twice as thick as I was tall, and under the abjurer’s intense stoic gaze I felt as though I may wither further.  “You have my sincerest apologies, wild fey.  As for you, minuscule man, do you have the object with which I shall disjunct your affliction?”

 

“Yes, I have it right here,” I said, holding the strand of hair up.  Her keen eyes spotted it, and she reached over and pinched it with her other hand.  She held it to her heavily shadowed eyes to inspect it, then languidly looked back to me.  “It may seem insignificant, but I can feel the vile aura emanating from this hair.  When the spell consumes it, you shall be cleansed.”

 

The abjurer lit a candle on each pedestal with a flick of her finger and began reciting the incantation.  She spoke in a low, droning voice that reminded me of a pipe organ, and waves of force emanated from her throat.  Her eyes glowed bright purple, and she seemed to get larger before my eyes.  As the spell continued, she more closely resembled a mountain in size, and it felt like I stood at the bottom of a great crevasse between her fingers.

 

I realized that was Kirinhalut’s fell essence within me dwindling, and I was seeing what it saw.  As the spell continued it grew more intense, and her voice changed to a continuous rumble.  When I felt like I was the size of a grain of sand, she touched the tip of the hair to my forehead.  The demonic presence leapt into it from me, then the hair vanished.

 

For the first time in months, I felt free without needing magic to disrupt the succubus’s influence over me.  The presence I had become so accustomed to that it seemed like a part of me was gone.  My mind was clear, unmuddled by Kirinhalut’s control waiting to assert itself.  She could no longer know what I knew or force me to comply with her desires, and I would never hear her voice in my head again.  Most importantly, I would not be joining her to endure unending torment after my death.

 

However, I was still puny.  I looked around from my spot between her fingers, and everyone but the abjurer was visibly perplexed.  Sondra managed to speak up without sounding disappointed, saying, “He’s still small, though.”

 

“He remains minuscule, yes,” the abjurer agreed.  “You will permit me to inspect him.”  She was not asking permission, as became clear when her index finger moved in a wide arc over my head.  It set down surprisingly softly for something of such great size, then turned on its side.  Her thumb and forefinger moved inward, each of them dwarfing me, and clamped my body between their tips.  Carefully she plucked me from the pedestal, then in a smooth, steady motion lifted me toward her face.

 

She held me before one massive eye, its violet iris larger than I was, and stared at me without blinking for several seconds.  “His spiritual essence has indeed been released from the demon’s clutches,” she said as though reading a recipe.  “However, his physical being has been consumed to fuel the succubus’s power, and he shall not regain it.  This is unfortunate, as his junction previously endowed him with potent durability and endurance like no other mortal, and he has become as vulnerable as his stature suggests.  Further, he has been marked by powerful entities for his transgression, and no thaumaturgical method can rejuvenate his size.”

 

“So, he’ll always be this small?” Sondra asked after a moment.

 

“Correct.”  After all this time, the abjurer had yet to blink.  She placed me back on the pedestal with the same calm, gentle motion she had used to pick me up, even while speaking.  “I suggest you treat the manlet carefully.  He is quite delicate, and anything but the gentlest of contact may extinguish him.”  Her digits released me, and she clasped her hands in front of her thighs.

 

“Our transaction is concluded,” she declared.  “Feel free to leave with the manlet when you are ready.”  She kept her violet gaze on me, and I felt uneasy beneath it.

 

Bushwack stepped forward to grab me, but Sondra gently stopped her.  She placed a fingertip against the pedestal, and I carefully walked onto the pad.  When I stood in the middle of it she slowly raised it toward her face, making sure not to jostle me too strongly as she positioned me between her eyes.  Sondra’s clear blue irises were a welcome change from the abjurer’s intense violet, and her features, though enormous, were still human.

 

“I guess this was always a possibility, even if none of us wanted to admit it,” she said.  “That’s okay, though.  You’re still a member of our group, and I don’t care any less for you.”

 

“Yeah, the most important thing is that you’re fully yourself again,” Margret added.  “We’ve never known you when you weren’t small, so for us, nothing about you has changed.”

 

“We just need to get you some good equipment,” Bushwack put in.  “If you’re still willing to hang around, I’m sure we’ll all chip in some money to get a weapon and some armor made for you.”

 

“Thanks for the support,” I responded, “but there’s something more urgent than getting me geared up.  Kirinhalut’s still at large, and she’ll soon know that I’m free.  We need to get to her before she can escape and torment more people.”

 

The abjurer cleared her throat as a subtle reminder that we were still in her room, and we filed out.  Sondra moved slowly, making sure I could stay balanced on her finger, and kept her focus on me as she walked.  Margret gave her something to easily follow, and closed the door once we were all back in the hallway.

 

“So, how should we do it?” Sondra asked.  “Take on Kirinhalut, I mean.”

 

“Seems pretty simple to me,” Margret replied.  “She’s a demon, right?  So we’ll hit her until she gets banished.  No need to make it more complicated.”

 

Now that she could not stop me, I decided they should know the whole truth.  “She’s after the orb, too,” I told them.  “That’s probably what she was doing in that dungeon to begin with.  If you have it on you, she’ll do what she can to get it from you.  She might make you give it to her yourself.”

 

“No need to worry about that!” Margret exclaimed.  “It’s in a locked chest in our room!”  We stared back in response, and her enthusiasm started to flag.

 

“You do understand how that’s worse, right?” Bushwack asked.  “She can get to it whenever she wants, we have to hurry!  Sondra, I know you want to hold him, but we don’t have time for you to walk carefully.  Give him to me and let’s get moving.”  I nearly tipped over and fell off backward when Sondra moved her hand, but the sudden stop pitched me forward toward the pixie.  She grabbed me before I tumbled off the fingertip and pulled me to her stomach for safety, letting my head poke out so I could see where we were going.

 

They hurried out of the guild hall fast enough that the stones in the walls blurred together and kept the pace up as they raced through the streets.  Bushwack had to take a seat to keep from being thrown from Sondra’s shoulder as she weaved between carts and pedestrians, even shoving a few of them aside.  They were not pleased to deal with rushing adventurers, but by the time they realized what was happening we were long gone.

 

We did not slow down until reaching the inn, and the two moving on foot took a moment to catch their breath.  Inside, everything looked normal: it had not been transformed into a hellscape by the demon’s power yet.  People sat at tables enjoying their lunch, and a bard played from a small stage in the corner.  We might be able to stop Kirinhalut from getting the orb at all.

 

As we moved toward the stairs, however, I noticed something was off.  From my place on Sondra’s shoulder, I noticed the humans seemed several inches shorter than average.  The same was probably true of the other races, though I did not see enough of them to know for sure.  It became conclusive when I saw someone from this morning, who had been the same size as Sondra, now no longer reached her shoulders.  Kirinhalut had been working her magic on these people subtly enough they did not notice, and I suspected her powers had been enhanced.

 

We walked quickly up the stairs and briefly stopped in our room.  Margret went to check beneath the pillow where she had stashed the orb and found it was gone; even the small wooden chest that held it was missing.  We stormed back into the corridor and strode down the wooden hallway until we were at Kirinhalut’s door.  Sondra and Margret glanced at each other, and the latter drew her weapon and shield in preparation.  A fight against an artifact-empowered succubus was going to be rough, but we knew that it had to be done.  The fate of many lives, and perhaps the whole kingdom, depended on it.

Margret’s massive boot slammed into the door just above the lock, splitting a wood plank as the door burst inward.  She rushed in, shield raised and mace at the ready, with Sondra close behind her.  Bushwack drew a poisoned dagger in her free hand and prepared to launch herself into the air.  I did not know how I was going to contribute, but if the pixie could get me close I could at least provide a distraction.

 

Kirinhalut sat cross-legged in the middle of the room with her eyes closed, appearing to meditate.  Even sitting on the floor, she was almost as tall as Margret.  A glowing ball the size of a human fist hung from her choker, attached to the same ring that had once held my cage.  Paying no heed to her increased size, Margret raised her mace to strike and charged at her, only to run into an invisible wall.  The priest bounced back, and Kirinhalut languidly opened her eyes and turned her head to look at her.

 

“You must think I’m as dumb as you are,” Kirinhalut said flatly.  “I must say, I’ve seen adventurers do some stupid things, but hiding an artifact under your pillow takes the cake.  I figured something was wrong when I lost contact with my little bug, so I took measures to protect myself.  The people here were so willing to help, too: all I had to do was tell them I lost my key on the road, and they lined up to help me open it!  Once the orb was thoroughly cleansed, they even started giving me their height, though they’re a little less enthusiastic about that.”

 

Sondra began working to break the wall of force Kirinhalut had raised while Margret dealt with the succubus.  “We can’t let you have the orb,” she started, “and you’re going to pay for what you’ve done.  I don’t know how many lives you ruined before getting to us, but it stops now.”

 

Kirinhalut laughed, an awful, evil cackle that sounded like nails being driven into my ears.  “Better groups than you have tried,” she responded.  “I’m more powerful that I’ve ever been now, what makes you think your ragtag group with two members I wouldn’t even bother to wipe off my shoe will fare better than anyone else who’s tried to stop me?”

 

“Because we know what you are,” Margret shot back.  “You’re a demon from the infinite layers of the Abyss, and we’re going to send you back with righteous fury!  You don’t belong in this world!”

 

“You’re far from the first to learn my true nature, and I doubt you’ll be the last.”  Kirinhalut scanned the group, looking like a bored socialite rather than a demon who should be scared for its life.  With a sigh, she continued, “Clearly, even if it weren’t for your righteous crusade, you wouldn’t be satisfied unless I gave you the orb, which I have no intention of doing.  While it would be so enjoyable to watch you cut down dozens of innocent people, I think it would be more fun to give you what you want.”

 

Kirinhalut smiled and uncrossed her legs to plant her feet on the ground.  Her shins alone nearly reached Sondra’s chest, and as she continued to unfold her body it became clear just how bad of an idea fighting her physically was.  She quickly filled the room, towering over the two humans in front of her, to say nothing of me and Bushwack, and had to squat so her head would not hit the ceiling.  For a moment she stared down at us with her hands on her hips, trying to intimidate us into backing away.

 

When we did not budge, Kirinhalut got ready for a fight.  She placed her hands flat against the ceiling and tried to stand, pressing up with her arms.  Long, splintering cracks appeared where the ceiling met the walls, spreading along the joints as she pushed.  The room shuddered, and with a loud crack the ceiling separated, causing debris to rain down from it.  Kirinhalut hoisted it overhead and stood to her full height, dwarfing the others in the room, and tossed it behind her so it landed outside the inn.  “Let’s see if you’re so eager to fight me now.”

 

Margret’s fire had not diminished even though she only came halfway up Kirinhalut’s thighs, and she took a bold step forward.  No invisible barrier stopped her this time, and she moved to engage the giant succubus.  She moved sideways to stand between the giant succubus’s feet, looking ready to strike at any moment.  Margret banged the head of her mace against the rim of her shield, making a racket while she taunted her opponent.  “Come on, take a swing at me you giant bitch!” she shouted.  “Use your fists instead of cheap tricks for once!”

 

The noise was a diversion for Bushwack to get closer.  Using Margret as cover she dove toward the floor, making my hair whip back from the speed.  She reached the floor and cornered forward, causing my stomach to lurch from the sudden turn.  Bushwack juked to the outside of Margret’s enormous boot and cruised along the planks in an attack run on Kirinhalut while noise filled the air above us.  When she reached the tip of her shoe, Bushwack popped up to skim along it, preparing to strike at her ankle with a dagger.

 

Kirinhalut’s foot shot up, catching Bushwack in the chest with the toe.  The sudden blow made her double over and her hands open wide, spilling me out of her grip.  I bounced off the tip of her shoe and got thrown back into the air, spinning head over feet toward the door.  Gravity caught me long before I could reach it and pulled me down, slamming me into the floorboards.  My body skidded and rolled over the wood, coming to a stop in a pile of debris in front of the succubus.

 

Bushwack tumbled through the air, fighting to get back control, until Kirinhalut seized her in a fist.  The pixie was completely engulfed by her tremendous hand, with not even a single hair poking out from it.  “An amateurish tactic at best,” Kirinhalut taunted, clenching her fingers around Bushwack.  She reared her arm back and flung the pixie out of her hand, sending a brown streak racing out of it.  With a dull thud Bushwack hit the wall and briefly stuck to it, then limply fell to the floor.

 

Margret roared and attacked, slamming her gigantic boot down beside me while she swung her mace.  Her single step made a calamitous boom, and a devastating quake radiated from the impact.  It hit me while I was trying to get back to my feet, and the force staggered me down to one knee again.  My insides quivered as they absorbed the power of her footfall, and I was so dizzy I had to remain still to keep from toppling over.

 

The mace hit Kirinhalut on her hip and did not even budge her.  It barely made an indentation in her skin.  Margret went for an overhead swing next, slamming her weapon into the succubus’s stomach with negligible effect.  Before she could pull it away, Kirinhalut snatched it out of her hand and held it over her head.  She gripped it with both hands and snapped it in half like a twig, then tossed the pieces aside.  Though she was stunned by the loss of her weapon, Margret quickly recovered and threw a punch at Kirinhalut’s thigh.

 

Kirinhalut caught the punch in her hand, holding Margret’s fist tightly, then rotated her arm so Margret was twisted around.  With her free hand she grabbed Margret’s shield, the tip of her middle finger nearly reaching the boss, and tugged on it.  The two of them fought over control for a moment, but with her great size Kirinhalut had a clear strength advantage.  She tore it off her forearm and threw it like a frisbee at the wall.  Even though its edges were blunt it buried itself in the wall, protruding rigidly out from it like a sconce.  Her hand swung back, delivering a powerful slap to Margret’s face that sent her stumbling into a nearby table.

 

None of Sondra’s spells had made any visible effect on Kirinhalut, and with their plan falling apart I realized it was up to me to buy her more time.  I grabbed a splinter from the debris pile around me and used it as support to get back to my feet, then turned it so the sharp point faced toward her.  Gripping it like a lance, I let out a great battle cry and charged forward to plunge it into Kirinhalut’s ankle.

 

Kirinhalut let loose a booming laugh when she saw me approaching.  “We’ve been over this before, you gnat!” she proclaimed.  “But if you want to join this hopeless fight I can oblige you.”  She lifted a foot and moved it forward so the gigantic sole stretched over me.  Her heel landed with a thud, sending a small tremor through the floor.  “Let’s see how your puny body deals with getting stepped on without our link.”

 

Margret screamed, and the floor rumbled when her colossal boot set down beside me.  She slammed into Kirinhalut, her shoulders landing just above her knees.  It was enough to force her raised foot back from looming over me, but not much else.  Her arms joined behind the succubus’s knees, and she tried to lift her into the air.  No matter how hard she tried, though, she could not so much as budge Kirinhalut’s body, which only made her smirk.

 

Kirinhalut’s response was much more effective.  She reached down and wrapped her hands around Margret’s waist, then hoisted her up like a doll.  For a moment she let her simply dangle, letting her scream impotently in her grasp.  When she grew bored of her complaints, Kirinhalut lifted her higher then threw her down in a crushing body slam.  Margret’s landing caused a calamity, and the floor shook with a force I had never felt before.  I stumbled to the side before falling down, throwing my improvised lance to the side.

 

“Come to think of it, stepping on you shows no more creativity than the rest of your imbecilic group,” Kirinhalut boomed as she looked down at me with contempt.  “I have a much better idea that will lend itself to much more elaborate torments after I drag you all down with me.”  She thrust a hand forward, fingers extended as though to grab something, and Sondra’s spell suddenly stopped in the middle of her casting.  “I hope you two lovers have fun.”

 

A footfall thudded behind me, and I looked up to see Sondra leaning forward.  She reached a hand down, and before I could get up her thumb and forefinger had already clamped around me.  Sondra stood, making me yelp from the sudden ascent, and it felt like my insides remained on the floor below.  When she was back at her full height, Sondra held me before her face, her enormous features looming over me.  I struggled to escape her grasp, but her digits had a vice grip around me, and all I could do was wiggle between her fingertips.

 

Sondra’s blue eyes were glassy, with pupils dilated wide, and it was clear she was not in control of her actions.  While she focused on me the tip of her tongue slid out from her mouth and moistened her top lip with two quick swipes.  A low moan emanated from her throat and made my blood chill in its veins.  “Your lips are so sweet,” she boomed, blasting me with a cloud of hot air.  “I bet the rest of you is even sweeter.”

 

“No, don’t do this!” I protested as she moved me toward her lips.  “She’s controlling you!  Fight her influence and send her back where she came from, don’t eat me!”  My words fell on deaf ears, if they reached them at all, and Sondra continued drawing me toward her mouth.  Her lips parted, revealing the great beast of a tongue inside, laid flat as a welcoming mat.  Sharp white teeth lined the entrance to the immense cavern, and dark ridges lined the roof leading back to a dark chamber.

 

I passed between her lips, and Sondra placed me on her tongue.  Her fingers released me and I fell forward, getting coated in the slimy juices coating the great pink tentacle.  Quickly I turned myself over so I was on my back and saw the horrific inside of her mouth, with bright white teeth casting deep shadows from the light entering her lips.  Desperately I dashed forward to escape, but she jerked her tongue out from beneath me, dumping me into her frenulum.  The light streaming in got narrower while she closed her lips, then it entirely disappeared when she sealed them shut.  Sondra had trapped me inside her mouth, and there was no way out.

 

Her tongue struck me from above, mashing me into the soft tissue below.  I tried to push it off me, but my hands only sank into the soft flesh until they reached a solid core of muscle they could not move aside.  Pushing harder only made me sink deeper into the spongy tissue around my legs, and her tongue pressed down, forcing me further into her frenulum.  Before long I could no longer stand against the mighty force of her tongue and laid down in defeat.

 

Sondra’s tongue let off me, giving me a moment of reprieve, before sliding beneath me.  The tip lifted me out, making a great sucking sound as her frenulum released me, then I was balanced on the edge.  As it danced back and forth a thick coating of saliva kept me firmly in place, and I was subjected to the intense forces of its sudden stops and starts.  A low roar came from the back of her throat and bounced around inside her mouth, making me feel an inhuman fear.

 

She slammed me against the roof of her mouth, holding me against the soft tissue while her mouth formed around me.  Slowly her tongue dragged me back, forcing me over the hard ridges of her palate.  I was helpless to resist as her tongue continued moving, pressing me into the ribbing as I passed over it.  Each one I hit elicited a new cry of pain, but nothing could match the fear when there were no more to go and I had reached the back of her mouth.

 

A jolt ran through Sondra’s body, and her tongue lowered releasing me from its iron grip.  As I bounced on it, her lips parted a little, allowing a bit of light to filter into her mouth.  Through the portal of her lips, I saw Kirinhalut staggering back, an arrow shaft protruding from her chest.  Another arrow hit her in the throat, just below the orb, and she reached up with both hands to pull it out.  Her head snapped back when a third one hit, drilling right between her teeth, and she disappeared in a flash of light.

 

Sondra’s tongue curled up, and saliva gathered around me.  With a burst of air her tongue depressed, propelling me forward inside a glob of saliva.  I landed in the middle of Sondra’s palm, and saliva splattered around me to cover her hand.  The air smelled powerfully of brimstone, strong enough to overpower the lingering smells from inside Sondra’s mouth.  She grabbed the collar of her robe and dabbed me dry, careful not to press her thumb down atop me.

 

Llelwyl strode into the room, bow clutched at her side, her white hair blown back by the wind from a fiend being banished.  She looked around at Margret struggling to get off the floor and Sondra frantically trying to dry me off, totally missing Bushwack’s broken body against the wall.  “Looks like I missed something,” she said, staring at the pile of ash in the middle of the room.  “Why don’t one of you fill me in?”

Margret groaned loudly and finally got up to one knee while Sondra dabbed me with the cuff of her robe, a dark, wet spot spreading as it absorbed more saliva.  I was in shock from nearly getting swallowed, and even if I did not frequently have a thumb pressing on me, I doubted I would be able to articulate what happened.  Llelwyl crossed her arms and began tapping a foot impatiently, looking between the two regular-sized humans.  “Don’t everyone talk at once,” she chided, “I only saved your lives.  Where’s Bushwack?”

 

A sharp cry of pain filled the room when Margret pushed herself to her feet, leaning heavily against a table for support.  “Oh shit, Bush,” she muttered, and started limping toward where she had fallen, dragging a boot behind her.  “Don’t worry little lady, I’m coming.”  She grunted with each step, and the floor shook each time her good leg set down.

 

When she had dried me to the point my clothes were only a little damp Sondra gave her a quick answer, though she kept her focus on me.  “Kiri was a succubus named Kirinhalut.  She forced the shrunken human into a bond with her, stole his height, and turned us against each other so she could steal the Orb.  We confronted her before she could make much use of it and unlock its true potential.”

 

“I figured she was a demon,” Llelwyl replied.  “There was a surge of evil power here just a few minutes ago.  That’s why I brought cold iron-tipped arrows.  Doesn’t matter how augmented they are, demons are still weak against them.”  Her tone was remarkably smug for someone who swooped in at the last minute with a hunch.  “Where is the Orb, anyway?”

 

For the first time in several minutes, Sondra looked away from me.  It was a good question: the Orb should have been easy to see even amid the wreckage, it was a brightly-glowing ball the size of a person’s fist.  However, there was no sign of it.  Sondra’s lips parted while she tried to process what she saw, then she answered, “It’s… gone.  It must’ve gotten banished with her.”

 

Margret’s boot stopped scraping against the ground, and the room shook when her knee landed on the floor.  “Come on Bush, stay with me!” she pleaded, shouting at the pixie.  “You and I both know it’s not your time yet!”  She muttered a prayer, and golden light spread over the wall.  There were a few moments of silence, then Margret started grunting again as she got back to her feet.

 

“Guess we won’t be getting paid for this job after all,” Llelwyl remarked.

 

Sondra glared at her and said, “We’re not exactly focused on money right now, if you can’t tell.”  She turned her attention back to me.  “Are you okay?  Do you need me to dry you off some more?”

 

Before I could answer, Llelwyl stepped forward until her chest brushed against Sondra’s fingertips.  She peered down at me, narrowing her dark eyes while she loomed above.  Being between two giantesses always made me feel uneasy, but it was worse when one of them looked like she wanted to squash me.  “I see you’re still carrying that thing around.”  Her tone was cold, just as it had always been when she spoke about me.  “I’m surprised no one stepped on him during the fight.”

 

“This ‘thing’ is a person,” Sondra shot back, “and he’s the one who told us about Kirinhalut’s plans.  If it weren’t for him, she would have made us all kill each other eventually.  We all owe him a lot, even you.  It’s because of him we were able to stop her before she became too powerful.”

 

“And here I was thinking that things started to go wrong right after he showed up.”

 

“I’m pretty sure that was because of the succubus, not him.  She used our feelings about him to sow discord, but you’d be daft to lay that at his feet.”

 

Before the discussion could turn too nasty, Margret shuffled up beside Sondra.  She was in bad shape.  A large welt covered her whole left cheek, and it had swollen to the point that eye was shut.  One arm hung loosely from its shoulder socket, and from how she dragged a foot I doubted she could stand on it.  Her good hand, still marked by dozens of scrapes and cuts, was wrapped around Bushwack.  The pixie was limp in Margret’s grip and her fragile wings were bent at odd angles, but her breath was steady, albeit shallow.

 

“She’s alive, but in bad shape,” Margret reported.  “She needs her bones and wings set before I give her any significant healing, and I don’t trust my fingers to be able to do it.  We need to get her to a pixie anatomist as soon as possible.”

 

“Let me take her,” Llelwyl offered.  “I know where her home is, there’s bound to be someone there who can help.”

 

“I think she’s made it pretty clear she doesn’t want to travel with you anymore,” Sondra responded.

 

“That was when she was under the succubus’s influence, and I think she would agree these are extenuating circumstances.  I can get her the help she needs.”

 

“I’m not sure that was it,” Sondra replied.  “She was just as horrified as we were after you crushed the shrunken human.  I’ll agree to let you rejoin us, and we can all go to Bush’s home, if you apologize to him for treating him like trash.”

 

Llelwyl leaned forward until her nose nearly touched my chest so her enormous face was all I could see.  “Hello, little bug-man!” she boomed, her voice loud enough it made my ears ring.  “I’m sorry you ended up under my boot and I smashed you, and I’m sorry for constantly pointing out how useless you are to everyone else.  I wish you weren’t such a burden too, but with the succubus gone I don’t think you’ll be getting any bigger after all, so you’re going to keep being dead weight for us.”

 

Sondra slid her other hand over me as a barrier between me and Llelwyl’s sonic assault.  “That wasn’t an apology and you know it,” she said gravely.  “Get out.  I thought you were awful to him because of Kirinhalut’s influence, but it’s clear you’re just rotten.  We can help Bushwack on our own, just get out and hope our paths don’t cross again.”

 

“I saved your lives, I was hoping for some gratitude!” Llelwyl protested.

 

“And you have it.  That’s why I’m letting you leave on your own.”  Sondra and Llelwyl stared each other down, daring the other to make a move.  Llelwyl blinked first, however, stepping away from the challenge.

 

“If you want to trade me for someone the size of an insect, fine,” Llelwyl said, then scoffed.  “I can find my own group, one less enamored by someone shorter than the sole of my boot.  I hope you’re all very happy making sure he doesn’t get carried off by a bird.”  She stomped out of the ruined room, her footsteps thundering loudly on the floor.

Three months later we were in our room, still recovering from the fight.  Though he was initially horrified at the damage Kirinhalut had done, we were able to convince him that, were it not for us, the damage would have been much worse, and not limited to the inn.  He graciously offered to let us stay as long as we wanted, so long as he could advertise that the heroes of Gorbatov were staying at his inn.  With nowhere else to go we accepted, and tried to keep our celebrations moderate.

 

After asking around a bit, we managed to find a fey quarter of the city that contained a sizable pixie contingent.  Based on rumors alone we headed for it immediately, keeping Bushwack in a small box to keep her from moving around.  There were several anatomists among the population and, working together, they were able to get Bushwack’s bones set.  Her wings, much more fragile than her arms and ribs, were a different story.  While they were able to reconstruct them with the prognosis that she would fly again, she would not be able to use them for several months.  With her grounded, we were effectively stuck in place.

 

The adventurer guild was surprisingly understanding about the Orb.  Apparently, they had expected whoever found it to simply run off with it, though their actual plan was to destroy it.  Getting it banished was an acceptable, though not ideal, outcome, and at least now they could plan for its return in a century.  For our efforts they gave us half the initial award with a bonus for sending it to a different plane it, netting 3000 gold pieces for each of us.  That was enough to get us some much-needed upgrades after dealing with Kirinhalut as well as some things that were just nice to have.

 

I was helping Sondra scribe her spells into a much more condensed spell book using a quill that was reduced for my size, which would allow her to many more spells for the road, accessible so long as she had a magnifying glass.  While I could not read magic, tracing the patterns was easy enough, especially when the initially scribed glyphs were half my size.  Sondra watched me work, making sure I did not deviate from the established patterns and offering me gentle encouragement as I wrote.  We made a better team than I expected, and I had no doubt that nights spent cupped between her hands contributed to that.

 

Margret sat against another wall, tinkering with a tiny set of plate armor.  Her work was slowed with one arm restricted by a sling, but it ended up making her much more careful.  Every strike with her small hammer against the heated metal was carefully considered since she could not simply pry it back apart with her fingers.  It was precise work, forged out of a single ingot, and she frequently borrowed me to test how it fitted around my body.  A sword would apparently come later once she had figured out how to properly scale a weapon down to my size.

 

Bushwack paced along the edge of the table I was on.  She a difficult adjustment to being grounded, but seemed to more readily accept it after I explained to her she was going through what I do on a daily basis.  While she was still not happy about it, she was more willing to accept it, especially since it was only temporary.

 

Suddenly she stopped and looked behind herself with an enormous grin.  “Hey, everybody!” she shouted, drawing our attention.  Her delicate wings were still bandaged, though the splits had been removed, and they were moving on their own.  “I can move them again!  According to the person who bandaged me, I should be able to fly in just a couple of days!”

 

“That’s great news!” I exclaimed, turning away from my scribing for a moment.  “As soon as you can fly again and my armor’s ready, we can get out there and start fighting evil again!”

 

“Maybe not quite so fast,” Sondra interjected.  “I checked the guild bylaws, and technically we don’t constitute a full party right now.”  I looked at her puzzled, so she elaborated.  “The minimum is four people, and by the rules you don’t count as one.  I’ve lodged an appeal to have your case reviewed since you were previously a member in good standing, but they aren’t known for being flexible in their interpretation of the rules.  Right now, you’re officially our group mascot.”

 

“What does that mean for us if they don’t change their minds?” I asked.

 

“It could go one of two ways,” Sondra answered.  “If we wanted to keep adventuring, we’d have to find a new member.  That would be a long process, complete with interviews to make sure they were okay with our so-called ‘mascot.’  Lell made us understandably worried about outsiders might react to you, and I won’t accept anyone who treats you as less than a full member.  Alternatively, we could just retire.  We’ve all got enough money to live on for the rest of our lives, and with the favors people owe us we could be countesses and counts.”

 

I would need a while to think about the proposition.  The guild would probably not accept the changes: they struck down a measure to reclassify a batch of mold as slime despite overwhelming evidence from my expedition.  If it came down to it, I would be very comfortable settling down with Sondra, letting her rule as countess while I lived large as her tiny partner.  However, I would miss adventuring.  Although I could not contribute much, I loved being on the road, and having Sondra along would be a bonus.  We would have to wait and see what the official response was.  As things stood, I was fine with retiring, as long as I got to spend my nights cupped between Sondra’s warm hands.