Sally hopped onto the ATV and got ready to head out. One of their daily drone flights around the farm had noticed something on the outskirts of the property near the vegetable garden, and Pa had asked her to take a look.

The garden was wrapped in chicken wire, made small enough it should be keeping most critters away, but it looked like someone must have gotten in from the air, there were a lot of tomatoes down on the ground.

Coming to a gentle stop, Sally swung her legs over and hopped down. Dressed in her usual outfit of jean shorts, and a crop top shirt she adjusted her sunglasses before walking over to the garden.

Smiling, she admired how well Ma had done this year, it was late summer but so many of the veggies were still coming in strong. Tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, so many different things to pick or nibble on. Unable to resist, she plucked a couple juicy strawberries and took a bite as she walked down the center, looking for anything out of place.

Sure enough, as she neared the farthest corner edging the border of their property things got uneven. The bottoms of many plants were picked clean, the bounty of them laying on the floor, some looked partially eaten, others just dropped there. Something had been stealing some food. 

Tossing the stem of the strawberry down and biting into the other with an audible wet crunch, Sally crouched down to take a closer look. “HMMM, bugs maybe?” she said out loud, looking at how small the bites and chunks missing were. But, that didn’t make sense given the bottom several inches looked touched, bugs would crawl all over the plant.

Finding the strawberry in her mouth a bit sour for her liking she spit it out with a “PHOO” and watched it tumble along the ground, coming to rest against the base of a tomato plant. She cocked her head, it looked like something moved to hide, or get out of the way of that strawberry.

Reaching down she moved some of the branches aside before spotting her culprit. “Well well, what do we have here?” she said, smirking as she eyed up the 2ish inch tall man. Dressed in what looked like a suit, she wondered what the hell he was doing out here.

People randomly shrinking was uncommon, but not unheard of, it had been happening ever since the pandemic wrapped up. Some conspiracies suggested it was a side effect of the vaccines. Something about brain waves, but Sally didn’t quite understand how that could be, it seemed like it was a bit too random.  Why did their clothes shrink down too? It made little sense, like something from a scifi movie, but yet, standing in front of her cowering behind the stem of a tomato plant.

She reached towards him, and he started running, his little jacket whipping in the wind behind him, he didn't get far before he tripped, his dress shoes poorly equipped for running in, especially on uneven soil.

“Where did you come from?” She was curious what a city slicker seemed to be doing out here in the farmlands. He didn't stop, he was clearly scared of her. She stood up and had to take a step to catch up to him, crouching back down and blocking his escape with a carefully placed hand.

“I don’t know how they teach it where you are from, but it isn’t very polite to steal other peoples food and run” she said down to him with a rather condescending tone. City people always thought they were better than everyone else. Even small he was still just a thief taking from honest folks.

His frantic shouting and shouts were getting annoying, Grabbing him, she roughly lifted him up to her face, scowling at his incessant whining. “I asked you a question little man, what are you doing here, and why are you stealing our food?” Her tone was adopting a more firm, displeased tone that made the man shake.

“I am sorry! We shrank down unexpectedly on the road nearby, and were starving while we wait for help to arrive!”

We? Sally frowned, shrunken people were pests at best, they served no use out in her world. A group of them had already ruined a bunch of the vegetables, wastefully nibbling on bits here and there, spoiling all they had plucked or eaten part of. To think there was more than one was annoying.

“What do you mean we? What help?” Sally asked, jostling the man around as she asked.

“AhH please, stop that. Our entire vacation group! The entire coach bus shrank down, there must have been 20-30 of us!. None of our phones work out here so we tried the radio but we aren’t sure if anyone heard us.” The man shouted, he was getting increasingly uneasy with the line of questioning and way this farmgirl was treating him.

She rolled her eyes, coach bus? These really were useless city folk, and 20-30? That sounded like a mess. If it had been a couple, and they were polite she would have probably tried to help them. There was no cure she knew of, these people were tiny forever, but if they had family or friends that wanted to take care of them…but no, it was way too many for her to want to do that, AND they had already proven they were pests. So, that's how she would treat them.

Sally smiled, gently placing the man down on the ground. “I am sorry for scaring you. Can you lead me to the others?” she tried to strike a more calming soothing voice, contrasting sharply with her prior tone.

The man shook off his fear and nodded, running deeper into the vegetables. Sally followed him, her dirty shoes thudding on the dirt as she stayed nearby watching him carefully as he headed for a dense section of the garden. Grabbing some more strawberries on the way, she popped another into her mouth.

As he approached a cluster of taller plants he began waving his farms, and Sally spotted a small crowd of people stepping out front their hiding spots. It wasn't aloof them for sure, but it looked like 7 or 8.

She sped up, quickly closing the distance as she stepped right up to the plants, she watched the people nervously step back as the man called out he had found help. She smirked, she didn't remember telling him that, just asked him where the others were. Snobby city folk were always getting ahead of themselves, assuming everyone else just existed to help them.

She crouched down, her body casting a shadow over them as she stepped in front of the sun. She pulled her sunglasses down a bit to get an unobstructed view. The man began to turn around, beaming he had found help for this cluster of tiny people.

He finished turning to look up at Sally, right as her heel came down on top of him, with a wet crunch. There was silence as everyone else was too shocked to move or make a noise. Sally glared down at them, her eyes traveling from her boot to the crowd. Biting into another large strawberry the crunch was only sound as the juice seeped out from her lips, dripping down her chin and onto the ground right in front of the scared crowd.

Spitting out the remaining stem, she reached down and grabbed one, enjoying watching the others cower as her hand approached, no one dared move, no one dared make a peep. “I've always wondered what a tiny person…tastes like” Sally whispered with a cruel smirk.

Bringing the tiny struggling 2 inch woman to her face, she exaggeratedly opened her mouth, some small strawberry bits still visible as her pink stained saliva dripped over her bottom lip. With a flick of her wrist and the snap of her teeth the woman disappeared into her maw with a scream.

Sally made a scene swishing the woman around, tasting them, tasting the strawberry flavor lingering in her mouth before she swallowed. “You guys aren’t bad” she said wickedly looking down at the crowd as she reached for another.

Their frozen panicked looks broke, and they all started running. Sally rolled her eyes, standing back up as she stepped out quickly snuffing one, two, tree out under carefully calculated steps. The others retreated into the brush, forcing her to lean down and sift through stems and branches.

Like picking berries, her hands found several more, stuffing them straight into her mouth, crunching down on one, she decided they were better whole, plus she liked feeling their tiny struggles in her tummy. They didn't last long but it was enjoyable.

Grabbing what she assumed was the last one of this bunch she brought them up to her face, dangling them above her mouth as the woman screamed and screamed. Right as she was about to dropher in, her phone rang. Sighing, she picked it up as her father asked if she could take a shift on the tractor, he needed to run into town and they needed to get the beans done today. Acknowledging she would be there in a moment she hung up and looked back down at the man.

Reaching down, she unzipped her tight shorts, and looked back at the remaining woman. “You can repay me for all the food you ate by keeping me company while I work today. Careful, it can get bumpy” she said with a giggle as she lowered the woman down into her underwear before zipping her shorts back up.

She shivered feeling the woman slide down a bit, her tight clothing keeping her smushed right onto her skin. She was high up right now, but Sally looked forward to feeling her slip down further as the day went on.

She hopped back onto the ATV, careful not to squish her little friend and began driving back to the barn. Arriving there she hopped off and walked over to her dad.

“Did you find what was eating the veggies?” he asked

“Just some pests dad, I dealt with most of them, but I will go check on them again tomorrow, I don't think I got them all. “ she answered.

“Always something out here ain't it? I'll leave it to you then, but if you need anything let me know” he said, climbing into his truck.

“Sure thing dad, i'll be sure to go check tomorrow. I will be very thorough” she said, smirking as she spoke.

She climbed up into the tractor and started it up, feeling the rumble move through her body as she shifted her hips a bit, feeling her little companion already lose their grip and slide down a bit. She smiled, today wouldn't be bad at all.