It was a relatively busy Sunday at Dynamo Fit, the Mixed Species Gym in the city. Here, the 26-year-old mousemin Ryan Jackson was heading for the changing room, his muscles aching after a solid workout.

He was feeling good. He was glad he had gone to the gym today, even though he doubted he would go beyond the promotional week free trial they offered. The subscription was not cheap, he could barely afford it with his entry-level programming job, but having some time away from the usual life was nice.

Such were his thoughts as he moved through the enormous hallway that divided the training room from the showers, seeing a multitude of Tinys and Smalls in the corridors, mostly heading towards the exit.

Dinamo Fit was the first mixed-size gym in the city, and was built to accommodate all the city’s people, “no matter their size”, as the commercials said.  
Facilities like that were plopping all over the country, part of a government program to increase the intermingling of the various species inhabiting the United States of Revelia, and the city of Reidsville wasn’t an exception.
From what Ryan had seen, the training room was equipped to host a large number of Tinys, and therefore Ryan had already met a bunch of people, even if it was his first time coming here. Certainly more than he had met at his small office in the 9 months he had worked there.

Considering his work at lonely working at his small office it at the office, it was a nice change of pace from his lonely cubicle at the office.
He heard his phone buzzing, and went to check it, seeing the cute face of a brown-furred squirrel girl in the texting app, attached to a number he didn’t recognize.

“Hiii, it’s Toya, this is my number!
It was nice meeting you here, I hope to see you again !”

He smiled. Even though they had talked only briefly, she seemed friendly and fun to have around, so he was glad she texted him. Who knows, he could even go on a date with her, even though he had never dated other species, and the perspective of going out with a girl two and a half times his size was pretty intimidating. Still, she was really pretty, and from her attitude before, she looked like she was at least interested in knowing him better.
So lost was Ryan in his thoughts, that he didn’t even notice that someone was waiting for him at the shower’s door. He saw them when he was already close to the door: standing with their shoulder resting on the two sides of the doorframe, feigning a casual disposition, before the almost empty-looking changing room, there were a couple of big burly guys, Weaselians by the look of it, each almost one and a half times his size, that had started to look at him. Ryan had a really strong suspicion of why they were there, even if he hoped to be wrong.

He moved to walk away, noticing immediately the two guys raising from their position, starting to dash towards him. He ran as fast as he could, slaloming between the benches and the lockers of the changing room, trying to lose the gorillas and exit the gym. However, it seemed that the two were expecting that, and they rapidly cornered him near the turnstile bar, his escape cut off. He looked around, to see if there was someone he could turn to help, but it seemed like closing time for the Tiny section was approaching, and the few guys he had noticed before had probably cut off their losses and decided they didn’t want anything to do with the two enforcer-looking weasel men.  Furthermore, he noticed with a quick glance that security was nowhere to be seen and that, probably for privacy reasons, there were no security cameras inside the changing rooms.
He was in a lot of trouble. His chasers were smiling, probably thinking the same, as the biggest of them came closer, muttering to his hear “Spike would like a word with you” before smacking the smaller mousemin in the head with a cudgel, and he fell unconscious as he felt his vision blurring.

When Ryan woke up, he found himself with his hands and feet tied, sitting on a bench in the deserted locker room, the two thugs facing him, the only other visible person being almost totally obscured by the shadows, appearing as a big, dark grey mass in the dimly lit locker room, the smoke of a huge cigar barely illuminating a pair of big, black eyes. 
A voice came behind the grey-furred thug that was in front of Ryan, one that he immediately recognized: “Aww, why were you trying to leave the party so soon Ryan ?” said Spike emerging from behind his man’s back, passing a hand through the greasy dark-brown fur on his head “We were just starting to have fun.”
Quite short for his species, the Ratfolk still looked intimidating to Ryan, standing a head and a half taller than the 3.7 inches mouse guy, a pair of muscular arms visible inside his beige shirt, contrasting with the pudgy belly he sported.

“What do you want Spike?” Said Ryan, trying to make it sound dry, even if the fear was noticeable in his tone.
“Can’t you imagine it? I want my money. You are a few weeks behind with the payment, and last time we spoke about that you told me you would have the money ready for the end of the month. It has been 5 days, so where is it?” 
“Fuck” Ryan thought. He had just recovered from the consequences of the last meeting with Spike’s associates. He cursed that fucking incident his father had had a year ago, the damned bank that denied them a loan, and his decision to borrow the money to pay for the surgery from a shark like Spike.  True, his father had recovered completely and was enjoying his retirement, oblivious to where his son had got the money that had saved him, but the situation had rapidly turned for the worse for Ryan, especially after he discovered the real beast behind the seemingly friendly and accommodating moneylender.

He had tried hard to spare whatever money he could, but it often wasn’t enough to pay for the outrageous interest rates, and he was barely able to survive with what was left.

A possible way out of his situation appeared when he had then found out about an experimental mixed-size neighborhood that had been built into the city, and, in his desperate state, he thought that leaving the tiny area and volunteering to move there could maybe throw the gangster off the scent, buying him some time while he used the money the program gave the volunteers to try and extinguish his debt as best as he could. Admittedly, he was given way less than he had expected, and he was basically in the same situation as before. He resorted to trying to skip some fees, managing to avoid the money lender’s men for some time by taking refuge in places like this gym, but alas, Spike had found him, and now his position looked dire at best.

“Yes, I know what I’ve told you, I’m almost done collecting it, I just need a couple more days. You know how hard it is earning something with my job, the bills, and … “

He suddenly felt the air violently exiting his lung as he found the ratman’s fist on his abdomen, his punch leaving him gasping.

“My, we have some balls in speaking like this, don’t we? Blatantly lying even in a situation like yours. I like your bravery, but I’m afraid lies won’t save you this time”
 Spike then grinned, gesturing to his two associates. “Mikey, give him a dose, double if you please”.
The grey-furred weaselian put on some nasty-looking brass knuckles and hit Ryan squarely in the jaw, making him spray blood all over the room floor. He cursed, as he had bitten his lip, opening a gaping wound that was starting to drip blood on the floor.
The beating went on for a couple of minutes, until the mouseman, with a shredded tanktop, a swollen eye, and a sharp stinging pain from his left arm, felt a greasy hand grasping his hair, finding himself looking directly into the boss’ eyes :

“Now, give me my money, or else we will get them from your lifeless corpse”.

The poor mouseman, exhausted and bloodied, started crying, hot tears rushing down his cheeks, and, between sobs, managed to mutter only a couple of words, in a weak voice:
“I’m sorry, I beg you, just..two days”.

Spike, unimpressed with his pleas, approached his prisoner, sliding a hand to his back pocket, taking Ryan’s wallet, and opening it up, finding a photo that pictured a couple of smiling middle-aged mousemins.

“You know what? I feel that your parents may be able to help us, maybe is better to pay them a visit”
At the mention of his parents, Ryan’s blood seemed to freeze in his veins, and a boiling rage took hold of him. Still

“YOU LEAVE MY PARENTS OUT OF THIS! YOU HEARD ME, YOU FUCKING PIG? OR I WILL FUCKING…OOF”
Another heavy blow to the abdomen, even stronger than before, stopped his feat of rage. Looking up, Ryan saw that the grin had disappeared from the shark’s face, replaced with a furious expression on his face, a vein on his forehead pulsing.

“FUCKING WHAT?” Spike said, sounding more pissed off than he had ever seen him “You think you are in the position to menace me? Who do you think you are? You know what, I’m tired of you, we were planning to take your car and let you go for now, but with this, you sealed your fate. Do not worry however, we will make it look like an accident. In this way, your parents will never suspect anything.”
 He then turned, addressing  his accomplices:
“Mikey, start the car. Doug, take the scumbag, we’re leaving with him”. He started to move away from the changing room, but after a couple of steps, he abruptly stopped.

“On second thought, why bother that much? You coming here gave us the perfect place to do that, we have to thank you.”

“From what I understood” he continued, looking at the time on his wristwatch “the big guys changing room will open shortly, so tell me, do you think that that the ladies would like to have a runt like you spying on them while they’re showering? I don’t think so. Wayne! “

With this, he gestured to the big mass that had been in the background all this time, which revealed himself to be a dark-grey Owlin dressed in a tank top and sweatpants, standing around three times the size of the two thugs that had just beat up Ryan.

 
“Please accompany our guest to the Titan’s ladies’ changing room.”

The owlmen nodded and moved towards the small guy sitting on the bench, swiftly grabbing the mousemin in his sharp talons.
 
“You will either be squished by an unaware Titan or whoever will catch you there will think you’re a pervert and stomp you flat. It saddens me to say it, but it’s a fitting end for a slimy bug like you.”

With this, the mobster backhanded Ryan, and he fell unconscious, exhausted from the previous beating.  Spike then gestured for Wayne to leave, and the winged gangster flew out of the Tiny section, soaring through the gym until reaching the massive Titan’s women changing room.

It was pretty empty of people, as was to be expected, given that the five changing rooms had set strict closing and opening times, with the Tiny, and after that, the Small section closing before the opening of the Giant and Titan locker rooms. In this way the staff could ensure that the main hallway, which was the largest common area of the gym, was safe to travel for the smallest clients, that would otherwise be in danger of being crushed by someone standing dozens or more times their size.  

However, the room had certainly seen use today, judging by the number of shoes, most of them looking around the size of an 18-wheeler if not bigger, the many training bags on the bridge-sized benches, and the number of closed lockers, each one standing as tall as a building from the Owlin point of view. Wayne took a glance at the mousemin clutched in his grip and thought that it was almost impossible for the people that used this room to notice something as tiny as him before ending up underfoot. All the better, if the tiny guy had been found, he could negotiate and rat out who put him there. Better to have him killed by an oblivious klutz.

Looking around, he saw something that caught his attention, a pair of worn red and white low-collared sneakers that towered above the others, that he judged to be 80 ft if not more in length in his perspective. He was thinking about dropping his prisoner there and having the massive owner squash the poor guy directly, should he survive the fall, when he heard a sudden loud siren, signaling the opening of the changing room.
Startled by the blaring noise, he almost dropped his catch, scratching the poor mousemin to reassure his grip, opening a deep wound on his body. Shit, he thought, his time was up, they would have to do.  He flew directly on top of the pit-sized collar of the sneakers and let go. He then zoomed out of the changing room, entering the hallway just as he saw that someone, a massive, purple-skinned reptilian girl, was already on his way to the doors. He zoomed away, hoping she hadn’t noticed him when he heard a thundering female voice.

“…Erm, mister? What are you doing here? “

He almost fell out of the sky at the sudden remark, and frightfully turned, to see that the girl, whom he recognized as a drakonid, was addressing him, with a curious and slightly annoyed expression.
She looked quite young, probably in her mid-twenties, dressed in a simple dark grey tank top and a pair of shorts, black and blue tennis shoes at her feet. Even in the situation that the owlman was in, he couldn’t help but notice that she was pretty, with a lean, somewhat-athletic physique, amethyst-colored scales, a mane of purple hairs that went down to her armpits, and two icy-blue eyes that were staring at him, waiting for an answer. The thug was dumbstruck, a mix of awe and fear taking hold of him.
He had heard about drakonids, even if he hadn’t seen many, and he knew that they were among the biggest races recorded in history, and this girl, in particular, seemed of above average height, a little less than 120 feet in height, more than 80 times the gangster’s size.
She was the biggest person he had ever seen, and she certainly was quite pissed off.

“I’m sorry miss, I know I’m not supposed to be here, I was coming to pick up my girlfriend, as a surprise. She has not come to the door, so I went inside to look for her, but this place is huge, and I’m lost. I suppose you can’t tell me the way to the Small’s women’s locker room?” He said, trying his best impression of an absent-minded guy that got lost.

Her gaze rapidly softened, and she said, with a calm tone: “Of course, It’s just along the hallway, third to last door to the left. You better hurry, I think it’s closing!” She smiled shyly towards the Owlin, showing a row of sharp teeth, each almost double his size.  “Thanks, you’ve been very helpful. I’ll be on my way then”. He then made a small hand wave, which she returned, and left.

“Phew, that was close. Luckily, she was quite gullible” Wayne thought, “I didn’t really want to see that thing angry. Next time, I’ll ask Spike a lot more money for a job like this.”
Shortly after, the owlman reached his boss, and he grinned, satisfied that the mousemin was taken care of.

-----------

A sharp pain on his wrist woke up Ryan from unconsciousness, and he opened his eyes, confused about what had happened, before the general pain that he felt all over his body, and the blurry vision from his left eye reminded him of the encounter he had had. He also felt his waist and legs tightened, or better clenched, by what he knew were an Owlin’s talon. A strong wind was blowing on his body, they were flying somewhere, but before he could take notice of his surroundings, he felt himself being abruptly released from the grip, and that his body was falling.

Ryan went airborne for what to him looked like a couple of hundreds of feet until he landed with a thud on top of a relatively soft surface. He immediately noticed that the rope that tied his wrists had loosened considerably, enough that with a pull, that caused him to yelp at the pain he felt on his left arm, he managed to free his hands, using them to free his ankles.
As he propped himself up, he started to examine his predicament: They had badly beaten up him, he was covered in bruises and his training clothes were torn, and bloodied in a couple of places, but apart from his arm, which was probably broken, it didn’t seem that his body had suffered any permanent injuries.
However, they had taken his car and his wallet, and more importantly, they seemed determined to dispose of him for good. He felt the tears returning to his eyes, and he let them out, cursing his misfortune and thinking that his parents will be ashamed of him, if he ever saw them again. He stood like that for a couple of minutes, mourning his situation, he realized that he had a possibility, that not all was lost.

“After all, they believe that I’m dead, but I’m still alive!” he thought “Enough with the self-pity, I need to think about how to get out of this situation, now that I’m ahead of them!”

 First of all, he had to get out of there, wherever he was. He stood up and examined his surroundings. Looking closely, it seemed to be some kind of orange sponge-like material, and he could see that in some places, he had what looked like numerous drain-sized holes, that went deep into the earth. In the distance, he could see some kind of white substance, that looked like paint, smeared across the surface, looking pretty ruined overall. Also, glancing at the floor further away from his position, he could see that this soft material was darker in places, like where he was standing, and that it extended for around 300 feet ahead of him and more than 100 behind, where a high creamy white wall stood. This wall ended 120 feet above him, in a pit-like opening, from where a massive source of light, too far away to be discernible, illuminated him and the surface.

He finally took notice of the noise coming from outside the strange building he was in, that at first seemed like the biggest thunderstorm he ever heard, and then evolved into something more akin to the sound of a fall. Was he near the water?

His sharp nose then started to sense the peculiar smell of the air, a smell that seemed to come from everywhere at once, a hint of almonds mixed with something that he couldn’t identify at first, something a bit unpleasant. Was it…sweat?

He moved near the base of the wall closest to him, around 40 feet away, and he could notice that even this wall had numerous holes as well, bigger than those on the floor and arranged into some kind of pattern. He tried to see through, but they were at more than 15 feet from the ground, far out of his reach. He then moved his attention to the wall itself and put a hand on it. The material felt strange to his touch, nothing like stone or concrete, or even plasterboard, it had a leathery consistency.

Now, the realization started to come to him, he wasn’t in some sort of strange architecture or experimental facility.

He was in a shoe.

A shoe as long as a high rise was tall, a shoe so massive that could probably fit a couple of dozen of the suburban houses where he was born.

He then remembered what Spike had said last and realized that he was probably in the Titan’s changing room, with the risk of getting stepped on and crushed at any minute.

He had to get out of here, and fast.

While he was evaluating his possibilities and trying frantically to make a functional climbing rope with the remainder of the laces that had tied him up until before, the thunderous sound of the roaring of water stopped.

Hu-oh.

Immediately, the ground started trembling, and a series of extremely loud, resounding THUMPS could be heard in the distance, each one stronger than the last, accompanied by a thundering voice, that seemed to be humming some kind of tone.
In a couple of seconds, the quakes were so strong that he was struggling to stand up, while he desperately tried to find a way to climb the shoe.

As they had started, the earthquakes stopped, replaced by different, but equally loud movements, happening directly above him, where the singing voice, which he now recognized to be feminine, was also coming.

He tried his best to exploit these instants of relative calm to try and get away to escape the shoe, finding, after a minute of desperate search, a tiny hole, around half of his size, into the leathery material. He dashed towards it, knowing that he could probably squeeze through it with some effort, only to find that a thin layer of cloth was blocking it.

He started ripping and shredding the fibers with all his might, and just when he was about to cut through the material, he felt his whole world moving, feeling the insole under his feet raise. He fell to the ground, and while he was trying to get up again, a sudden forward motion knocked him back a couple of hundred feet, until a raised lump of the rubbery floor stopped his movement before it could impact the creamy wall behind, his body pinned by the force of the motion. He sighed as the shoe stopped moving, and, realizing he could not survive another motion like this one,  he tried to dash back as fast as he could toward the only exit route he had found.
However, as he was reaching his “excavation site”, the shoe tilted, and he found himself rolling a couple of dozen feet behind his destination until he managed to stop his fall by holding onto the rim of one of the numerous holes in the floor. Then, as he was struggling to pull himself up, the slope certainly not helping in this endeavor, the whole world went dark.

He gulped, as he did not doubt what was going to happen.

 A massive, more than three hundred feet long, four-toed clawed foot made his way into the shoe, slowly but inexorably, like a lumbering beast claiming his territory. The scaly appearance of its amethyst skin, and the long, sharp claws that grew on each toe, black in color and covered by what he’d imagine to be light blue nail polish, made clear the reptilian nature of its owner.

After staring at the massive appendage for more than the situation would have deemed safe, Ryan heaved himself up and started to run, in the hope of avoiding the approaching claws.
The slight incline and the enormous size difference with the foot made the effort of outrunning the colossal toes vain, and when the foot was almost on top of him, he found a way out: the ruined material of the shoe had created some kind of alcove, at the start of the toe section, that seemed out of the way of the approaching appendage. Desperately, he dashed in that direction, narrowly avoiding the 60-foot-something long toenail that was falling on top of him, that would have effortlessly sliced him in half, and settled himself there, finding it quite spacious for someone his size.

Then, after a handful of painfully long seconds, the foot repositioned itself, the wriggling of her toes and the subsequent movements of the shoe creating a quake so strong that it forced him to grapple tight a hanging fiber to avoid falling towards the foot, the struggle making his finger almost white. He realized that he needed to secure himself well because whatever movement the foot would do could easily dislodge him from his position, with the risk of being crushed under the colossal foot.
He heard some thundering noises from above, what he recognized as voices, but they were too loud to understand for the most part, and he only managed to detect “…TOMORROW!”

Then, his whole world shifted, and he found himself on a rollercoaster, constantly going up and down, his stomach churning from the continuous change of altitude. He had thought that a girl finding him in the locker room was the worst option, but now he hoped that the person carrying him would stop and free him from this situation, especially considering that the belt that was holding him in place, made by tightening the remaining ropes to hangs and fibers of the nook, looked ready to break at any minute.

For now, he was on a ride for whenever the owner of his prison was heading, and it was going to be a bumpy one.

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In the Titan’s weight room, Ayla sighed. She was feeling worn out. She had been going to Dynamo Fit for around 6 weeks, and while she appreciated that the gym catered to the bigger species’ needs and was quite cheaper compared to the Drakonid-only gym in her hometown, she wasn’t the biggest fan of the restrictions, that gave Titans like her a limited time window to get their after-workout shower. The obvious result of that was that a lot of people would come to the gym at the same time, overcrowding the training rooms. She didn’t like to wait in line to use the machines and the weights, and she could have lived without the smell of a busy gym.
Today she didn’t even have her roommate and usual gym buddy Daphne with her, she was doing a photoshoot until dinner time, so Ayla kept to herself most of the time, not really the outgoing type.

She had moved to Reidsville about seven months before, after she had obtained her bachelor’s degree in social studies in Narvias, the capital of the Drakonid kingdom, and was now attending her master’s in Cultural Sociology in Reidsville.

She had heard of the various initiative undertaken by the neighboring country of Revalia towards relationships between people of various sizes, and her parents found out that the Reidsville University offered facilities catered to Titan students and that other Drakonids went there, convincing her to enroll for her master’s degree at RU.

It turned out that the reality was a bit different than that. Sure, the university, being quite big, had a good number of Titan students, but the vast majority of them were Sphinxes, Loxodontas, and Jotunnars, nobody reaching two-thirds of her height. A total of other six Drakonids studied at R.U., all of them in the Engineering, Medicine, and Natural Sciences campuses, in other parts of the city. As a result, she was by far the tallest on her course, the next tallest person reaching a measly 80 feet something in height, well below her armpits.
She was always strolling around her faculty alone, feeling like a freak, towering head and shoulders (and often midriff) above her classmates. This accentuated her shyness and social isolation, and she had made only a few friends on the campus, including her other roommate, Rhea.

The only chance of improving his popularity had come a week earlier, when the coach of the RU Volleyball team, that had rejected her application to the team six months because it seemed that she was “well above the league size regulations”, had transferred to another university. She hoped that whoever was to replace him would reconsider that decision, she had loved volleyball growing up and had fond memories of her high school and Narvias University team, even if their result weren’t outstanding.

She had rapidly grown accustomed to the fact that the city, in general, did not cater to a Drakonid’s size. Most of the buildings had 120-125 ft doorframes, short enough that she could touch the ceiling with her head if she stood on her tiptoes, even if she was just 114 ft (5 ft 8 in human measurements) tall, not that much above the average of his species.  Similarly, she was used to feeling cramped on her class desk, struggling to find clothes and shoes, barely fitting in a lot of places in general, and bumping her head on things; in the end, she resorted to having her parents to bring in a lot of clothes and other objects from back home, including her bed.

She even remembered that on that occasion, her father, that stood quite taller than her, had to duck his head considerably to fit under her house’s doorway.

Naturally, those inconveniences included most of the gym’s machines, and Ayla had just cut her workout short after her usual struggle to train correctly at the shoulder press when she heard the ring bell, signaling that the changing rooms were now available: She was craving a shower and started moving swiftly, her long legs giving a considerable headstart on the other ladies, who like her were trying to reach the shower before the others. Being this tall had its advantages.

 She moved through the big hallway, reaching the entrance of the ladies’ changing room rapidly, where she noticed a small figure nearby the door, its dark grey wings flying away from it. Curious, she moved closer to him, her great eyesight allowing her to discern that the inch-long figure was an Owlin and that considering its clothes, he was probably. What was he doing here? She remembered Daphne telling her that she had once caught a tiny male catfolk perving on her while she was showering, was he another peeping tom?

“…Erm, mister? What are you doing here” she said, seeing that her tone had startled the guy, that for a moment menaced to plummet to the ground, before recovering his footing with a flap of his wings. She didn’t care for that; she was only interested in what explanation the little owlman had.

“I’m sorry miss, I know I’m not supposed to be here, I was coming to pick up my girlfriend, as a surprise,” The Owlman said, his faint voice sounding sincere “She has not come to the door, and so I went inside to look for her, but this place is huge, and I’m lost. I suppose you can’t tell me the way to the Small’s women’s locker room?”

Oh, she didn’t expect that, he was gonna surprise his girlfriend, but he couldn’t find her. That was really cute actually, and she thought that for a being as small as him, getting lost in here was probably something that happened. Her lips curled in a smile and, with the gentlest tone she could manage, she spoke again:
“Of course, It’s just along the hallway, third to last door to the left. You better hurry, I think it's closing!”

He thanked her, waved her goodbye, and left, leaving the drakonid wondering how lucky the girl must have been to get gestures like these. She entered the locker room and started changing, thinking about her geopolitics essay, that was due next week. Finals were approaching, and while she felt quite confident in her ability to pass them, she was a bit behind her schedule. Better hurry up.

When she was ready to get into the shower, she received a text. It was Daphne. Ayla started reading it, a smile coming to her face:

Hey Ayla, you’ll be pleased to hear this, interesting news is incoming.
Okay, so it turns out that my photographer, Will, the cute one that I told you about, remember? He has a close friend that is a Drakonid, that is an engineer downtown and is super cute. His name is David, and he’s 100% single, you will love him.  Also, Will and he have agreed to a double date on Friday, I will give you the details home tonight.
 Bye, have a nice workout!

She was beaming. A cute guy, also a drakonid, and he wanted to go on a date with her? That was a wish come true. As she often did, she immediately started to fantasize, as if they were already together, and started daydreaming about fancy dinners, walks in the park, moving in the same place, picturing him holding her tight in her strong arms, kissing and making love to her. Turning on the nozzle, she was ecstatic, so much so that she started humming her favorite tone while feeling the water on her amethyst scales and shampooing her purple hair, not even minding having to duck to fit under the showerhead, and continuing to hum even while dressing, putting on her plain black bra and panties, her light blue form-fitting jeans and her dark blue t-shirt, that had her favorite superhero on it. It was quite old, but she liked it, it reminded her of her last day of high school, when she and her friends were super hyped about the movie.

Before putting on her shoes, she took a moment to examine her feet. She definitively needed a new pair of heels, she had not worn one in a long time, and maybe even a pedi. The light blue nail polish was becoming chipped, and the black claws underneath were starting to show. Maybe she could return to the place that Rhea had brought her to last time, the tiny lizardmen did a good job on her feet, and they even gave her a free nail polish sample, albeit she doubted it would be sufficient to cover even the claws of one of her feet.

She then took her shoes, her favorite red and white collared sneakers, when her eyes were caught by the ankle boots they were standing next to, a low-heeled, light brown pair, that looked quite stylish, certainly expensive, and were much smaller than hers, completely dwarfed by the massive sneakers. Curious, she took ahold of them on her comparatively enormous hand, comparing them to their index finger, noticing that it was a little bit longer than each of the boots. The boots themselves seemed very well made, and really cute if a bit worn, and she wondered if she would ever be able to find such footwear in her size. For a moment, the thought of trying them crossed her mind, to see if she was able to fit even a single toe inside, before deciding against it, reasoning that her claw could make short work of the fancy footwear.
She then heard a high-pitched and annoyed voice coming from the entrance:

“Hey, put your clawed hands away from my boots, you overgrown freak!” 
Caught off guard, the Drakonid girl turned, seeing a grey-skinned, black-haired girl, probably a Goliath judging from the darker, tattoo-like motives on her skin, that was dressed in a form-fitting gym suit and a pair of tennis shoes that probably cost as much as Ayla’s monthly rent. She had seen the girl in the gym a couple of times, she looked like some kind of influencer, judging by the number of pics she always took and how she flaunted around the gym her fancy training attire. From the little Ayla had seen, the girl behaved like a spoiled brat, as if the world was supposed to revolve around her.

Ayla’s cheeks became deep red, and she started apologizing to the smaller girl, almost blabbering while doing so.

“I’m sorry… I was just looking at them, they are really nice… I wa-was wondering where you bought them”
“Of course they’re nice, they’re Saint Leòn, nothing that a peasant like you could afford,” the girl said, moving swiftly in her direction “Now put them down!”.

Ayla was completely flustered, the fact that the Goliath girl was shorter than her even if she was sitting and the girl was standing doing nothing to tone down her apologetic demeanor. She lowered her gaze, avoiding any kind of eye contact with the smaller girl,  and frantically began collecting her things.

“Of course… I’m terribly sorry, please accept my apologies! I’ll be leaving now, sorry to have bothered you.”

She stood up, keeping her eyes low, refraining to look at the other girl, not noticing that the Goliath barely reached her mid-thigh, and proceeded to move to another bench, at a safe distance from her interlocutor, ignoring the awed stares of many other girls, including a completely dumbstruck Sphinx.

“Great, another girl to look out for,” Ayla thought, “as if those at the Modern History course weren’t enough.”

She sighed heavily, deciding that for now, it was best to leave these thoughts aside and head home. The drakonid girl grabbed her shoe and started to slide her foot in,  letting the full weight of her foot rest on top of the dark orange insole, immediately relieved by how comfy the sneakers were even without socks (As was common for clawed species to go, they tended to ruin socks and nylons pretty fast), then proceeded to tie its laces, repeating the same procedure for the right shoe.

She then stood up, bid farewell to a couple of acquaintances that had made their way in the meantime, exited the changing room at a brisk pace, ran her badge on the reader to open the turnstile, and began to walk home.

Little did she know that in her left shoe, on a barely visible nook, the poor Ryan, barely a fifth of an inch to her, was trying his best to survive the journey the drakonid had unwarily taken him to.