Liz couldn’t believe what she was currently holding. Was this a tiny person?  A normal looking person no bigger than her pinky finger.  She observed the being who appeared to be frozen in her hand, most likely out of pure shock.  If she didn’t inspect it more, she would have sworn she was holding a lego-sized toy or miniature figurine.  

Gasping, Liz finally whispered, “It’s a tiny person…” 

“What?” Vicky questioned, sounding just as confused as Liz.  She carefully approached Liz from behind and gazed past her friend’s shoulder at the miniature sized human who remained unmoving in Liz’s open palm.  The poor man didn’t seem to know who to look at, shifting between Vicky and Liz. 

“Holy... an actual tiny man,” Vicky finally admitted, actually seeing it for herself.  The weight in Liz's palm was less than a pebble, just an insignificant rock anyone would pick up off the side of the road.  One of those little rocks that would get stuck in the bottom of your shoe after a long hike. 

Liz noticed that the man flinched when Vicky moved in closer for a better look.  The poor thing was startled just by Vicky shifting. 

“Careful,” Liz spoke softly to Vicky, “He looks scared.  No sudden movements… treat him like, you know, kind of like a scared puppy or something.  It’s okay little guy,” Liz cooed as she held the minuscule person closer to Vicky as she approached with an even slower pace than before.

Vicky noticed the change in Liz's tone when she talked to it.  It was clear to Vicky that Liz had already fallen for the small creature.  As Liz inspected the random man, Vicky couldn't help but feel a little jealous as she wanted to examine the tiny person too.  Vicky didn’t want to crowd Liz and this mystery man but she couldn’t help but wanting to get closer to see more.

After Liz and Vicky looked up and down, examining the petite stranger to the best of their ability, Vicky couldn’t help but whisper to Liz, “Do you think it can talk?”

Liz shrugged, “I don’t know.  I mean he hasn’t tried to talk, or I don't think he has.”  Liz tried to be more direct with the still person.  It almost seemed like he had a heart attack or something.  The only thing showing that he was still alive was his head turning back and forth slowly between her and Vicky, tracking their words.

Vicky continued to talk to Liz as if maybe she knew more than she did.  “Do you think it understands?  Maybe we sound like foreign or something?”

Liz frowned. That was a good point. They were in some weird world or perhaps somewhere on earth they aren’t aware of so it is safe to assume he speaks a different language ?  

“Uh…” Liz hesitantly spoke, getting the attention of the small man in her hand to look at her.  “Heeeey, little one… uh… do you… have a name?”  Liz asked softly and slowly.  Vicky and Liz held their breath waiting to see the response of the man looking at her with the same reaction since she picked him up.

“I can also speak Spanish, you know just in case he doesn’t understand English,” Liz added with a slight chuckle as she struggled to come up with a proper greeting in another language.

Vicky couldn’t help but giggle seeing her friend speaking in another tongue.  The very typical gringo accent was heavy in her speech.

Liz commented as her cheeks began to turn red in embarrassment.  “I’m only in Spanish 1, don’t judge!”

Finally after what Liz thought was forever, the small man slowly bobbed his head up and down.  The sign of confirmation was clear for both girls to see.

Liz and Vicky gasped at the same time.  Vicky looked toward Liz before saying , “He understood!  This is so unreal…”  Both of the girls were stunned and wordless now as they examined the small person more intently.  

Liz continued to talk to the tiny person in her hand as if it were a child, “Soo, was it Spanish… or was it English that you understood?”  The small person nodded again, Liz let out a relieved sigh.  “English, thank God,” She didn’t know what she would do if the tiny person only knew spanish.  “What’s your name?”  She asked again.

She watched as the nearly microscopic lips slowly moved from the little person. Unfortunately to them, it was barely audible to them. 

“Uh… sorry, what?” Vicky watched as the tiny moved his lips again trying to explain to her.

Vicky and Liz looked at each other and repeated what they thought they heard. 

“Was that Aaron?” Vicky asked before Liz shook her head. 

“No I think he said Daron.”

The tiny man clapped and showed some activity as soon as Liz mentioned that name.  The sudden change in DARON’s actions altered the girls that was his true name.

“Told ya,” Liz smirked as her friend rolled her eyes. “Nice to meet ya Daron! I’m Elizabeth and this is my best friend Victoria, but you can call us Liz and Vicky!” 

The small person gave a big wave hello, probably to make up for his size in the greeting.

“Someone’s excited,” Vicky chuckled as she began looking around the surrounding area. “So, Daron, where are we? We kind of got lost and we have no idea where we are.”  Vicky looked over the unfamiliar terrain, and not a scarp of it looked remotely familiar to the park they were once in.

“And why are you so tiny?” Liz added with a puzzled look on her face. 

The man tried his best to talk but given their incredible difference in size, a majority of what he said couldn’t be heard.  Liz gave Vicky a confused look as neither of them picked up more than a few syllables.

“Okay clearly this isn’t working, I have an idea!” Vicky said as she proceeded to grab Daron by his shirt with her oversized thumb and index finger, surprising Liz.  Vicky hauled the tiny person out of Liz’s hand.

“VICKY what are you doing!?” Liz yelled, not knowing what she was planning before she placed Daron right next to her ear.  The small man was now balancing on her shoulder.  Liz stood even more still than before, afraid the slightest movement would send the poor person to his doom. 

“What? We couldn’t hear him, hopefully now you can hear him better.”  Vicky explained her thinking behind her action.

“No big deal? This poor man is obviously scared of us and you just go grabbing him without asking his permission!” Liz continued with a frown as Vicky was shocked to see her reaction.

“Okay okay… jeez I’m just trying to help..” Vicky tried to say with a disappointed tone before looking back at Daron and seeing how much he was shaking, probably shitting himself from how much higher up he was now. She felt bad now. 

“Don’t be scared little guy, just talk to my friend like before.  Speak into her ear so we can hear ya better.” Vicky smiled as she watched his tiny body begin to shake less and less as he stood there.

Vicky waited a few seconds as the tiny man tried to talk to her friend. “What’s he saying?”

“He says, we’re in the Kingdom of... Constantino?” Liz replied with a question. 

“Constantino? Where’s that?  I’ve never heard of it, and I’m really good with geography,” Vicky chuckled as Liz tried to think of the location. 

“Hmm, Constantino… like Constantinople?” Liz asked before doubting herself. “Nah it can’t be.. isn’t that city Istanbul now? Unless…” 

“Lizzie, not going to lie, but that sounds ridiculous,” Vicky interrupted as her friend gave her a straight look. 

“Vic I’m serious… Do you… do you think we may have time traveled?”  The idea is clearly a strong possibility in Liz’s mind right now.

Vicky cocked an eyebrow at the question. “Do you hear yourself right now?  Time travel?  That’s like, completely impossible.” 

Liz fired back.  “Yeah well we don’t just start going down a river in the woods one second, and the next end up in the fucking ocean.  But it happened, and the only familiarity with Constantine would be…”

“Roman-Byzantine empire…” Vicky finished her sentence as if her mind was being blown like some conspiracy theory was finally proven true. 

“Exactly… So why wouldn’t it be time travel?” Liz said defensively. 

“True true,” Vicky conceded as she figured Liz had another good point.  “But wait let’s say it IS time travel, what does that have to do with everyone shrinking?” 

“I don’t…” Liz tried to say before she heard Daron speaking once again. 

“What else did he say?” Vicky asked. 

“He asked, why are we so big?”  Liz looked just as confused as Vicky was at the question.

Then Vicky’s eyes widened, “Ohhhh.”  Vicky muttered as she looked around.  She examined the tree’s again.  A small furry creature she couldn’t make out running away using the foliage as cover. 

“What,” Liz asked.

Vicky turned to Liz, “We thought everything was small… but we’re actually giants.  Well that kinda makes a lot more sense with the size of the evergreens and not just the people and animals being tiny.  Ugh every answer just adds more questions. WHY are we huge?” 

“I don’t know,” Liz nearly shrugged, only to freeze immediately as she recalled Daron was still on her shoulder.  She forced  herself not to do a very simple and common act that might have sent Daron on a nasty fall. She proceeded to ask him more questions.  “Daron, you said we’re in a kingdom, right? Can you show us where the capital is? Maybe we can ask for more help from someone with, I don't know, more knowledge about this situation?” Liz asked Daron.   

Liz and Vicky watched the small man seem to think about it for a few moments.  Vicky was curious why it was taking him so long, but before she could ask what the issue was,  Daron slowly pointed in a direction.

“Awesome! Come on Vicky, this way.” Liz announced as she proceeded to walk through the miniaturized forest.

Liz placed her new tiny friend back in her palm before walking at a normal steady pace.

—-

The two girls walked through the large forest covering most of the land of Constantino. As they headed towards the capital, the girls kept talking about theories or ideas of what might have happened.  None of which they could settle with.  Time travel.  Aliens beaming them to another planet.  Some psychedelic drugs that fell in their food, and this was all just a really bad trip.   

Every so often, Liz or Vicky would point out some birds that fluttered by, or a few random animals peeking out from their hiding spots.  Each cute miniature animal getting a gasp or an adorable sigh from one of the girls.  It was like they were still camping, only now they were above the forest instead of inside it.

“Wow Vic, look at all the deer!” Liz pointed out to her friend, who took a few more quicker steps forward and started to extend her free hand to pick one up.

“It’s so cute!” Vicky smiled as she paused and turned around to show Liz the small doe in between her fingers.  They both decided to give the animal a few pets feeling the softness of the fur on their fingertips.  It didn’t take too long for them to notice how nervous the animal was, shivering in Vicky’s fingers.  

“Oh ‘deer’ she sure looks nervous,” Liz said as Vicky gave her a blank look.

“Hilarious...” Vicky commented with sarcasm as she continued to observe the animal that was the size of a Lego set, before crouching once again to let her down. “Be free, bambi.”

Both girls gave the deer one last look and went on their way toward Constantino.

Vicky and Liz continued their little leisurely stroll, chatting away and talking about casual stuff.  Talking about classes and work.  Just casual conversation that took their minds off the beautiful but also repetitive scenery.  At their size, the sea of trees and small open fields they walked through  just blurred together.  Nothing really stood out to them as like civilization.

Vicky was the first to speak up, “We’ve been walking for 20 minutes and there’s nothing but empty fields and trees, are you sure we're going in the right direction?” 

“That’s what Daron said,” Liz replied as she slowed down to take a breath. Even though it had been 20 minutes of walking, she was still trying to recover from their earlier swim upon arrival. 

“You don’t think he’s lying to us right? Like gave us bad directions, would he,” Vicky asked now not so sure of their guide.

“Nah he wouldn’t…he seems like he knows where we're going,” Liz said before looking at him directly with a caring look. “Isn’t that right?” 

The girls looked at Daron together, and he quickly nodded his head and pointed again in the same direction.

“See?” Liz smiled. “He says we’re almost there.”  They continued their gentle walk toward the direction Daron pointed.

Eventually, the girls saw plumes of smoke rising from an open area. This had to be it. 

“There it is!” Vicky cheered as they finally found civilization or at least some primitive version of it. 

Liz and Vicky gulped as the ‘tall’ trees began to subside and they entered the open area that was the outskirts of the capital.  Liz held back a sudden gasp as she saw small specks of people littered around.  Most of them were on a brown stone path leading toward the city and upon seeing the two giantesses did one of two things: froze up and dropped their stuff, or dropped their stuff and ran.

“Woah… this is trippy,” Liz commented to herself as she looked at her surroundings while holding Daron in place in her palm. Seeing and holding a single tiny being is one thing but now being surrounded by dozens of them, it began to put into perspective just how huge she and Vicky were.  She was sure if she wasn’t looking down, she could have accidentally stepped on one of them.

Vicky continued to follow her bestie’s lead while also taking a look at the locals. She saw mothers and fathers pulling their kids back, and putting themselves in between her and their children, in a shielding attempt.  Given how big she was, it would take a lot more than just that to stop her.  Part of Vicky felt upset, that they would judge her like that. Another part understood had she been in their shoes.

Liz did her best to watch where she was stepping now, and tried to get closer to the looming city gates and walls.  The stone walls were easily up to her chest and shoulders.  The gates were equally large, but Liz had a feeling it would be a tight squeeze for her to pass through.  As they approached the main gates to the city, Liz noticed Daron waving to get her attention.

“Oh you called? What is it, little guy?” Liz smiled as she brought him closer to her ear. 

“What’s going on? And jeez these doors are huge.” Vicky commented seeing as there was no way they could climb over that without asking for trouble.

“Daron said we have to wait here,” Liz replied, confusing her friend.

“Wait? For who?” Vicky replied before they were interrupted by a line of what appeared to be royal guards on the top of the gate and wall.

One of the soldiers, the most decorative of all of them, let out a loud roar “H-HALT!”  The sound barely reached Vicky and Liz’s ear.

Liz and Vicky could hear the fear in his voice, but at the same time, could they blame him? 

It was time to make new friends. 

“Um  hello! My name is Liz and this is my friend Vicky. We sincerely apologize for the trouble but I’m afraid we are lost and we were wondering,” Liz paused looking over the many frightened faces,  “If we could speak with your leader?  We’re hoping he can give us the information that we’re looking for.”

The guards looked at each other, trying to decide what to do.  Some of them shivered, others gritted their teeth for resolve.  One nearly dropped his gun.  However they were all pointing their weapons as best they could at Liz and Vicky.

Again the officer in charge, or what Liz would assume was the captain, shouted just as loud, “The Ki-King is very busy!”

Liz frowned hearing this and proceeded to walk forward a few steps and start to lean forward.  The small gap between herself and the wall the guards were on, quickly vanished.

“Liz be careful, they are armed!” Vicky warned, worried for her friend. 

“Oy! Stay BACK! Or we-we will s-shoot!” The guard yelled in a stutter.  His fear was growing with each second.   Liz slowly put her hands up, showing them to be empty and harmless. 

“I mean no harm,”   Liz spoke softly and gently.  She slowly extended the hand with Daron on it toward the wall.  “Look, I have Daron with me.  He is a citizen of your town, right?  He can vouch for us.” 

The guards raised their eyebrows upon the reveal of one of the king's subjects.

The head guard walked towards the giant hand.  Liz couldn’t hear the guard talking to Daron, but he said something and Daron nodded.

Liz and Vicky once again were at the disadvantage of not being able to hear what they were saying. They assumed it was done on purpose as they were probably whispering among each other.  However, judging by how loud the guard had to shout, maybe they were just talking normally.

Liz watched Daron carefully climb out of her open palm and onto the wall with the many spooked guards, each of them now looking between Daron, Liz, and Vicky.  Once off her hand, Liz took a step back putting some space between herself and the wall full of guns and cannons.  This seemed to ease more than a few people.

“Any luck?” Vicky asked.

“No idea, but we haven’t been shot yet so that's something right?” Liz gave a weak smile at her joking tone.  

They waited a while for the king to arrive before Liz began to tap her foot. To her and Vicky, this seemed like no big deal, however the girls quickly noticed the tiny guards and Daron begin to move quickly on the top of the wall signaling Liz to come closer.

“What’s wrong?” She asked as Daron told her to stop tapping her foot as it was scaring the visitors. 

Liz looked down at her feet and her eyes opened wide at the realization.

“Oh god… I’m sorry guys my bad,” Liz laughed nervously as she looked down and saw several visitors on the floor before getting up and maneuvering their way around their enormous bare feet to try and enter the city.  

Vicky giggled at Liz’s exposed act as her cheeks turned red from embarrassment. 

The gates remained firmly shut, no doubtled to keep Liz and Vicky out.  

“Pretty crazy how small these guys are huh?” Liz asked as Vicky slowly nodded.

“I still can’t believe it, honestly. Are you sure we aren’t tripping our butts off on shrooms right now?” 

Liz giggled and gave a half shrug, “If so, this is one crazy trip.”

It took a considerable amount of time but the king eventually arrived at the top of the gate only to be shocked at seeing them standing before him.  Liz and Vicky gave a little wave to the new person

“You think that’s him, the king I mean?” Vicky asked looking at the well dressed man, his clothing obviously showing how rich he was.

“I hope so, or at least someone that can help.” Liz said as she began to walk towards the gate again only for the guards to once again raise their weapons. 

Liz flinched and walked back. 

“Again, we mean you no harm, we just want to talk,” She commented, this time with a semi, more impatient tone having to repeat it for the third time. 

Liz watched Daron and the new person, who she was sure was the king, talk for a little bit until Daron gave a big wave.  The guards were slowly lowering their weapons to a degree, but looked ready to jump into action at the slightest misstep.  Liz slowly headed back to the wall and held her hand out for Daron, who got back in. She brought him up to her ear and listened to his words.

Vicky felt a little left out, “What’s going on, what did he say?”

“I think we need to bow…” Liz told her.

“Pardon?” Vicky asked confused, “Bow?”

Liz looked back and nodded, “I mean, he IS royalty… we should be showing respect to him, is what Daron said.”

Vicky for some reason, felt a little annoyed at the demand given how silly an act like this was along with the vast difference in height and stature.  However, Liz did a little curtsy toward the king.  Figured it couldn’t hurt either, Vicky tried to replicate the gesture.

After their show of respect to the king, Liz offered Daron back toward the wall where the king talked to him.  Liz couldn’t hear a syllable of sound from either person.  However when they were done talking, Daron turned around.  Figuring it was time to hear the king's words from Daron, she held him up to her ear again.

Liz spoke out the words that Daron spoke to her, for Vicky’s sake.  “He asked, who we are, and what we want.”

“Yep those would be the expected questions to ask..” Vicky joked. 

Liz then decided to answer the question, “Your majesty, we aren’t your enemies,”  She offered again hoping to get the idea across to him.  “I’m Liz, and this is Vicky,” Liz pointed to Vicky behind her.  “We’re simply lost and we are wondering if you can tell us where we are.  Maybe, if we can, seek refuge for a while until we can think of a plan to get back to where we came from?” Liz asked, hoping she didn’t disrespect the king with how she spoke.

The king did a simple gesture for Daron to come back.  Liz moved her hand toward the wall again.  Once more, they had a conversation she couldn’t hear.  They talked a little more and soon Daron turned around and waved himself back over to Liz.

Liz lifted Daron back to her ear.  “The king said…” Liz repeated Daron’s words.  “He doesn’t know where we came from.  However, he will allow us to stay,” Liz’s tone seemed to pick up at the good news.  Vicky, too, seemed happy.  Liz went on, “Daron will show us where we can stay...OH?!”  Liz chirped up at something Daron told her.

“What,” Vicky asked, shocked at the reaction.

Liz turned to Vicky, “Daron say’s it’s close to his home.  We’re going to be like his neighbors,” Liz giggled at the amazing news.