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You can find a PDF Version of this chapter here: https://www.patreon.com/squashed123

 

 

Chapter 1

 

We were a good one and a half kilometres away and still I felt my heart beating in my throat. One and a half kilometres was way too close anyway. I estimated that the giantesses were about 100 meters tall which meant that to them, we were only thirty or so meters away. Much too close for my taste. But Sir Ludwig's scouts took a keen interesst in the giantesses. Soon I learned why.

 

"What in the name of the gods are they doing." One of the men asked in thoughts as the taller giantess lifted yet another screaming person out of the village and deposited him in a gigantic transparent container.

 

"Those poor people, what will they do with them?" The other one commented.

 

"Useless peasants." The leader spat without remorse. "If they keep 'em occupied, thats allright."

 

"But they are Sir Ludwig's subjects." The soldier remarked. "Has he not sworn to protect them?"

 

"My arse." The leader spat dismissively. "There's much greater things at stake here. If we can make this work for us, it'll be King Ludwig soon!"

 

-

 

Janna studied every single person she put into the Erlenmayer flask. The people were absolutely frightened, squirming and screaming.

 

"Shhhh. It'll be alright." She tried to calm them down. "I'll have a closer look at you and then I put you back here."

 

They didn't understand her but her reassuring tone seemed to work on most of them.

 

"Damn, I wish we had chocolate or something to give to them." Janna turned to Laura. "It would show them our good intentions."

 

"We don't even have any food ourselves." Laura remarked. "I think we should really find...wait."

 

Her face lit up as if she just had an epiphany.

 

"No Laura, we are not eating the peop-, uh, I mean aliens. Just no!" Janna intervened quickly.

 

"What the fuck, no!" Laura said, making a disgusted face. "But look, they've got these fruit!"

 

She pointed at baskets filled with all kinds of stuff that looked like food of some sort.

 

"You think it's alright if we take it from them?", Janna asked insecurely. "I'd kinda feel bad. We need a lot and we can't even give them anything in return."

 

"So what." Laura shrugged. "Doesn't look like they can stop us, can they."

 

To emphasize her point, Laura reached into the village, took a tiny basked and poured it's contents into her mouth. The basket was comparatively big to the little people yet practically vanished in between her fingers. Still, Janna felt her mouth water at the thought of food.

 

"Mhh!" Laura exclaimed. "I don't know what that was but it was delicious!"

 

She nonchalantly crushed the empty basket into nothing in between her fingers, her eyes allready looking for the next. Of course, the people of the village didn't have their stuff all neatly packed up in baskets so hungry giants could easily consume them. Most of the stuff was stored away underneath the straw roofs or loosely scattered about.

 

"Even if we eat all the stuff, there's never going to be enough for both of us." Janna noted sceptically while she maneuvered a terribly frightened cow and some itsy-bitsy chickens into the Erlenmayer flask.

 

"Well." Laura began. "If we go by the theory that this is in fact a bronze-, iron- or early middle age village they would have most of their food stored away in pantries."

 

And without further ado she started to tear the roof off the nearest hut.

 

"Laura, stop! What are you doing?!" Janna exclaimed.

 

"Saving our starving ass!" Laura announced victoriously as she displayed some cured meat items on the palm of her hand.

 

Some tiny villagers ran like mad from the damaged house and the general population seemed to have resolved to stay as far away from the gigantic visitors as possible.

 

"You can't just rip their homes apart, god damn it!" Janna scolded Laura again before addressing the tiny people. "I'm sorry for my friend. She's a real klutz sometimes!"

 

"They can't understand you." Laura said with a winning smile before downing the stolen food at once. "And see, I have bacon and you have not."

 

"I wont allow it, Laura." Janna said determinedly. "If you want their food, go get working on their language and trade with them or something."

 

This inspired Laura to a new idea. She took a few baskets from where she could get them and piled them together next to each other. Then she simply pointed at the pile putting on a demanding expression on her face. To Janna's surprise, it worked. Quickly a few brave villagers ran around, in and out of houses and started piling more food onto the marked location. Having involuntarily followed the giant girls' exchange, they seemed to be strangely aware of their demands. If it would work to get the menacing titanesses off their backs remained to be seen. Ontop of obeying Laura's order some of the villagers displayed extremely submissive, almost religious behavior.

 

"Look." Laura noticed with a laugh. "They're totally okay with us taking their food."

 

Janna of course realized that this would have been mostly due to the heavily one sided size and weight comparison but she was hunger stricken herself and an excuse to fill her belly came in handy.

 

"For now it's okay I guess." She mumbled more to her guilty conscience than anyone else. "But we'll have to figure out some long term solution with that."

 

She sat the Erlenmayer flask aside and began to dig into the food that the villagers had provided. It tasted really nice but divided by two, the village didn't have that much to offer after all and soon the streams of eager food suppliers ebbed away and panic seemed to spread amongst them once again.

 

"It's alright!" Janna tried to reassure them. "We're very thankful for what you've given us, it's enough."

 

"They can't understand you if you don't use facial expression." Laura explained. "If you want to reassure them, give them a warm smile or something, so they know they've done a good job."

 

It worked. Having understood that the demand was met, a line of obedient villagers formed next to the food, just like servants waiting for another demand. Laura could think of an infinite number of games to play but Janna would only get grumpy again so she decided to try and communicate with the people.

 

"Laura." She said very slowly and overly pronounced, pointing at her self before expectantly looking at the people. There was some nattering going on over what it was the giant girl demanded now so Laura repeated her words and gesture.

 

After a few more moments of confusion a girl, tiny even by the standard of this planet, stepped forward, pointed at her self and shouted: "Martta!"

 

"Awww." Janna and Laura cooed simultaneously, overwhelmed by the sheer cuteness.

 

"Well, nice to meet you there, Martta" Laura added with a smile. "Did she smile back? She's just too tiny, I can't see."

 

Indeed, the girl's head was even smaller than a pin head, standing at under two centimeters in height. Tiny Martta timidly shouted something in her language, bowed deeply and retreated back into the line.

 

"Aw, no, stay here Martta." Laura called and pointed at a spot a little closer to her. As if stung by an adder, the minute little girl ran back towards where Laura had pointed.

 

"Good little girl." Janna commented. "If only we had something to reward her."

 

"We're not squishing the lot of them, that ought to be enough for now." Laura laughed but Janna didn't even bother to punish the offence.

 

"Aww, cute little thing." She added amicably and extended her index finger to pet the tiny girl on the head. Martta instinctively ducked but there was no escaping the finger several times her size. Even though Laura was as careful as she could Martta was knocked out of balance and fell down.

 

"I would never have thought it'd be like this." Janna said in thoughts. "Our first encounter, I mean. You usually picture aliens at your own size."

 

"And propably more alien." Laura added, receiving a nod in response. "What do you want to do now?"

 

"Well." Janna said. "We have to get back to the ship and give them all a closer look under the microscope and then put them back here before sundown. I don't think it's comfortable to be held prisoner in a glass bottle for so long along side a cow, two pigs and some chickens. We also should take some rough measurements regarding this village."

 

The settlement was about one and a half by two meters large. It contained seventeen houses that were roughly seven centimetres in height and fifteen in length, making them comparatively long.

 

"Longhouses." Laura commented as she measured one of the houses against her foot and found that it would fit almost perfectly beneath her shoe. In between the houses there were work benches, small crop fields, sheds, stacks of wood and straw, domestic animals and other such things.

 

The people who had dedicated themselves to serve didn't quite seem to understand what the giantesses were doing or talking about and seemed to grow increasingly concerned. Martta had stood up but remained right where Laura had pointed earlier. Even at the given size difference, Laura realized that the tiny people wanted Janna and her gone for good. To be fair, almost a year's worth of supplies and tributes plus two people were a high enough toll already. But Laura didn't really care much.

 

"I gotta pee." She announced. "I'll be right back."

 

Janna acknowledged it only while mumbling, still staring at the village as if it was some piece of art. While she walked away from the village Laura looked for a suitable place to conduct the necessary business.

 

-

 

"They're already talking to the people." The leader of our scout group announced. "And they need food. That's our chance. We'll return to the keep and report to Sir Ludwig."

 

He turned to get back to the horses.

 

"What about him?" One of the soldiers said pointing at me. "What if he tells King Aele."

 

My heart froze in my chest. The commander looked at me for a few seconds before smiling leisurely.

 

"Cut him up." He decided and I could feel my frozen heart drop into my britches.

 

"Alright, nice and easy, boy." The smelly man whom I had shared a horse back with addressed me whilst pulling his knife. "This will be over shortly."

 

His comrade grabbed me from behind. I put up a struggle but with my arms being held behind my back it only served to delay the inevitable. While we were fighting, none of us had felt the terrifying tremors in the ground.

 

-

 

When Laura spotted a glade in the forest, far enough away from Janna and the village, she made another astounding discovery. In the glade, not far from three panicking horses tied to trees, three tiny men seemed to have a bit of an argument with a fourth one, completely oblivious to her presence. A mischievous smile curling on her lips she stepped closer, eager to not let her playthings get away. That was when they noticed her, immediately breaking off their little fight. All four were lying on the ground, dumb struck, beneath her.

 

"Hi there." She cheered, not too loudly lest Janna would hear and spoil the fun. "Are you guys from the village?"

 

Of course they didn't understand her, but Laura wasn't really looking for a reply. One of them turned his head and yearningly looked over to the horses.

 

"Wanna get away, huh?" She cooed. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

 

-

 

"On three, every man turns around and runs." The leader of the scout party instructed us quietly.

 

Of course this way, he'd be the one heading for the horses, the rest of us only facing forest.

 

When he began counting I spat at him and snarled: "No, be damned! This is what you get for trying to kill me!"

 

He stopped to count, fearing two men wouldn't buy him enough time to get away.

 

-

 

"Why were you fighting?" Laura continued her entirely pointless interrogation. "Not feeling talkative, huh? Well, I will teach you."

 

-

 

With terrifying velocity her enormous hand came at us and lifted one of the scouts three meters into the air. First he screamed out of terror, then out of agony and then no more. I will never forget the sound his body made as her unstoppable digits squashed him like a fly. Had we suspected to be in danger before, we sure as sunrise knew it now.

 

The other soldier decided not to wait for 'three' and made a run for it. She let him run for a few seconds before an enormous, strange looking shoe rushed over our heads and just landed on top of him. When the giantess shifted her weight it sank about arms deep into the ground. Somewhere in the mud beneath that shoe was now a mangled corpse.

 

When I turned my head towards the scout leader he was gone. Being the hunter that I was I immediately discovered his tracks in the grass. They led about four meters away and ended in a fox's den. Son of a goat.

 

-

 

"Where did your friend go?" Laura asked disappointed, looking around for the tiny thing.

 

"Laura, what the fuck are you doing?" Janna suddenly called over. "I want to go back, you coming or what?"

 

"I can't pee when you look, turn around!" She called back. "I'll be there in a minute!"

 

Shrugging her shoulders, Janna turned around.

 

"Umm, sorry little guy." Laura addressed the remaining tiny alien in between her feet with an apologetic smile. "This could get rather unpleasant for you."

 

-

 

And then she slid down her britches and undergarments and simply squatted over me. I had seen women parts before but never anything so huge, thank the gods. I remember thinking that I should try to run. But I couldn't. I was held up by fear. By fear and the sheer absurdity of it.

 

Here she was, this titanic giantess. She could've crushed King Aele in his castle and ruled these lands. Gods, she could've crushed any king or queen there was and rule their lands as well. Yet here she was, squatting over an innocent little hunter and about to relieve herself on me.

 

-

 

The tiny man just stared up at Laura when the stream of piss hit him. It was so strong, to this planet any ways, that it ripped the earth open and created little ponds wherever it landed. And the little guy was right in there, being battered around by and threatened to drown in the piss of a college student. Laura almost felt a little sorry for him.

 

-

 

Steaming hot piss surrounded me. It would've disgusted me had I not had to fight the fight of my life. I could tell she aimed at me. Whenever it hit me it slammed me down and swirled me around. As soon as I reached the surface again I would breathe quickly before being pushed under again. Sticks and stones swirled around with me, hit me, bruised me, exhausted me.

 

It felt like it was never going to stop. I don't remember whether something hit me in the head or exhaustion overcame me, but I passed out.

 

-

 

When Laura had fully relieved herself she got up and admired her handiwork. She had created a little lake. After a few more seconds the lifeless body of the poor boy she had peed upon drifted to the surface. Walking back towards the village she thought about what Janna would say if she knew that Laura had just pissed one of her tiny, precious aliens to death.

 

-

 

A little snack was all very well but Janna was still somewhat hungry. She thought about how to solve the problem all the way back to the ship but couldn't really come up with something. It was merely their first day here and already so much had happened. They'd gone from complete and utter devastation to sheer amazement. Seeing the mangled, broken wreck of the space ship further dampened Janna's enthusiasm again.

 

She put the Erlenmayer flask on one of the fixed tables and ignored it for now. Yes, it wasn't very nice to keep the people in the uncomfortable prison but her own well being deserved some attention too. She and Laura went to tidy up the place and try and find some more useful utensils to improve their situation. The standard-issue equipment for these research ships was quite diversified and soon Janna had collected all that she needed for a makeshift water filter.

 

They discovered that in the ditch that the crashing ship had created while sliding across the planet's surface during the crash, ground water had accumulated in a comparatively handsome lake. At least the water question was solved this way. The toilet question didn't seem too difficult either. Armed with a little folding spade Laura was tasked with digging a latrine for their most basic needs. Laura had protested but Janna was able to avoid the dirty deed by spending a bit more time and effort on the water filter than would have been necessary.

 

Necessity very much helped them both accustom to this more primitive way of life. After all, life had to go on, even without most of modern age's comforts and commodeties. The food question remained though.

 

"Maybe we should put the pigs on a stick and grill them over a fire." Janna pondered while she looked at the mixed crowd in their glass prison.

 

"Better then starving I guess." Laura admitted to Janna's surprise.

 

Of course the little animals were full of bones but, as eating the meat items provided by the village had shown, that didn't provide much of a problem. They just got ground up along with the rest and swallowed without much concern.

 

Judging by the position of the sun it was about mid afternoon when the girls finished their chores and started their work on the little people.

 

-

 

Back at the keep Sir Ludwig ordered everyone except his most trusted advisor and the leader of the scout party, the only one who had made it back, out of the room.

 

"So, apparently giants need to piss too." He commented the soldier's agonizing stench with a smirk. "Aye, my Lord. Almost drowned in my hiding spot." The crude man replied. "But the giantesses need to eat as well."

 

"Well then it could be easier then expected." Sir Ludwig said satisfied. "Raid the villages, take their supplies. Bring it all here. We shall make the giants an offering and trade food for power."

 

"But, my lord..." The soldier cried desperately but apparently was at a loss for words to describe what he felt about this idea.

 

"We're playing with fire." Sir Ludwig's friend and advisor Lares chimed in. "We have to offer it bit by bit. Keep them hungry, make them dependant on us. And still, there's a risk if any of this is true."

 

Sir Ludwig narrowed his eyes: "It is the throne of Andergast that is at stake here, I am willing to take it. And when I have it, Nostria shall be mine as well."

 

-

 

The microscope eliminated any last doubt Janna had harboured about the humane appearance of the aliens. As soon as she had torn the clothes of her first subject, a man, the others obediently undressed as well. They stood in the Erlenmayer flask, shamefully covering their private parts looking at what the giantess was doing to them. When ever Janna took a new one out of the bottle she tilted it very carefully until one of them slid into the palm of her hands. When she was done with one she carefully deposited them in front of Laura who was sitting next to her and tried to learn the alien's language.

 

By showing them an array of different objects and pointing at her own body parts, Laura was making huge steps in a very short time. She was also able to decrypt some basic concepts such as 'mine', 'yours', 'his', 'hers' and so forth. She had always been good with languages and the pronunciation wasn't particularly hard. It was also very astounding how the tiny people seemed to support her effort to learn it. Both girls filled several pages with notes.

 

Overhearing Laura's exchange with the tinyies, she couldn't help but notice that some words were oddly similar to the English language, although differently pronounced.

 

"That's a coincidence too far." She noted when Laura had pointed at her hand and a tiny man pronounced it 'hunt'

 

"There's a pattern here."

 

"Oh yeah?" Laura scoffed. "And what is that, a giant conspiracy, like, the government shrunk people down, somehow put them back in the middle ages and left them here?"

 

"They could've been abducted by aliens during that time, shrunk down and left here to study them or something." Janna reasoned.

 

The little people cringed and held their ears when Laura burst into vicious laughter.

 

"Whatever." Janna dismissed her and carefully poured the remaining two people and animals onto the table. The chickens went mad and started to run around in circles while the two naked people held the cow and pigs by their collars and tried to calm them down.

 

"Why do you think they do that?" Janna asked perplexed.

 

"They're probably worried to offend you." Laura reasoned. "I think they're thinking we are gods or something. Well, to them we are, technically."

 

Janna seemed offended by this: "Well, can you please tell them that we are not?"

 

"No, not yet." Laura laughed. "And why would I? Look!"

 

She told the tiny aliens in front of her to bring her a chicken. Immediately the people ran and caught not one but three chickens so she could select the best one.

 

"Don't do that." Janna criticized. "That's wrong."

 

"Why is it wrong?" Laura rebutted, making no attempt to hide her distaste for Janna's supposed moral correctness.

 

"It's morally wrong." Janna repeated. "They don't do what you tell them because they like you but because they probably think you will squish them like bugs if they don't."

 

"Damn right, I will squish them like bugs." Laura grinned and pointed first at a younger man holding his chicken and then downwards. Upon her command he released his chicken and when it started to run away again Laura tracked it with her index finger for a few centimetres before pinning the pin head sized creature to the table. Then, with an almost inaudible squelching sound, she squished it flat. There was only the tiniest bit of resistance before it's tiny body popped.

 

Laura dragged her finger over the table and painted a small heart shape with the bloody carcass. Then she flicked it away into the room.

 

"What did you do that for?" Janna continued to nag at Laura. Laura just shrugged her shoulders. Janna shook her head and turned towards the microscope again.

 

"Hmm. The animals also look exactly like their earthly counterparts." She said after a while. "What is happening, this is impossible!"

 

She wiped her face with her hands and seemed to be really distressed.

 

"I think I need to dissect them." She said after another pause. "There's got to be a difference somewhere."

 

Laura scoffed again: "So, if I kill an animal, that's wrong but if you do it with a knife it's alright, huh?"

 

"Shut up." Janna dismissed the criticism and stood up to get a scalpel.

 

"Why did you take so many of them anyway, you have..." Laura counted the humanoids. "...Seventeen of them."

 

"Had to get a broad base for my study. Seventeen is alright I guess." Janna replied, her head half way inside a supply unit. "Might have been a few too many though, I don't know. Damn, where is this stupid thing."

 

Feeling a bit bored again, Laura cocked her index finger behind her thumb and aimed at the boy who had given her the chicken. She smiled right into his confused face before she flicked the tiny man through the room. His body crashed onto the floor a few times before it seized to move. The tiny people looked up at her in horror but stayed put. There was nowhere to run.

 

"Oh, here they are!" Janna exclaimed, having found what she was looking for. Before she turned back towards the table Laura quickly snatched a tiny girl and put her on Janna's chair. Being thrown around so suddenly caught the little thing of guard and only staggeringly she came back to her feet. She also didn't realize immediately what a terrible situation she was in.

 

Janna's thunderous foot steps approached and the girl began to run but when Janna dragged the chair back out from under the table she lost her footing and fell. To Laura's satisfaction Janna didn't look at the chair before sitting down, dooming the little alien girl. Laura saw her raise her tiny arms as if she could stem Janna's titanic weight before being crushed by Janna's glorious, jeans clad behind. Janna didn't even seem to notice. Eyeing the tiny people on the table, Laura pressed her finger to her lips to command them silence. They looked pretty horrified.

 

"I only see fifteen people." Janna remarked and looked around the bottom of the table.

 

"Well, maybe I miscounted." Laura offered just before Janna discovered the smear on her chair.

 

"Oh no! I squished one!" Janna said with a frown on her face. "Aww, it probably tried to get away by jumping on the chair first."

 

She called her 'it' because the girl was just too flat to be able to tell.

 

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you." Janna apologized.

 

"I don't think that matters now." Laura laughed as Janna scrapped what was left of the tiny thing and wiped her fingers clean on the table, giving the little people a rather terrifying exhibition.

 

"You gotta be careful Laura, of course they would try and get away." Janna cautioned her friend.

 

"Not the smart ones though. Oh, look." Laura mused and pointed at the dead little man on the floor. "There's number seventeen, so I did count right."

 

"He got pretty far." Janna frowned, rising. "I guess the injuries from jumping down the table got him eventually. Well, at least I have one to dissect now."

 

She retrieved the tiny body and went back to the microscope. The little people seemed to be very troubled by the fact that Laura had so casually done away with two more of them and they behaved even more submissive than before. Their physical insignificance was shoved in their faces once again when Janna unceremoniously crushed the cow's and pig's heads with her fingers in an effort to kill them 'humanely'. She just squished them as if they were nothing.

 

"For science." Janna reasoned and justified the killing. While Janna disected the corpses, Laura used the dead and crushed bodies to learn the words for 'dead', 'crushed' and so forth and already practised some basic sentences.

 

"I'm getting tired. And I'm hungry. And I'm not finding anything new." Janna said after a while and reached over to take one tiny naked female into her hands. Upon being engulfed by Janna's mighty fingers the tiny woman screamed, kicked and begged for her life.

 

"Oh no. Did I hurt you?" She asked worriedly and gave her a closer inspection.

 

"No." Laura laughed. "She thinks you are going to squish her head."

 

"Don't worry little darling." Janna tried to calm her down and caressed the woman's head as carefully as possible. It worked to stop the screaming but Janna could still feel that she was afraid.

 

"Let's get them back to the village and set up our beds for tonight." She decided. "We should probably build a fire and roast the pigs and cow as well. Better than nothing."

 

"Why don't you get started on that." Laura proposed. "I'll carry them back to the village."

 

-

 

I woke up inside a house of our village, the seer washing my skin with a cold, wet rag, the stench of piss still faintly surrounding me.

 

"Calm." He said in his awfully scratchy voice. "It is almost evening. The gods have spared you once again. You are alive."

 

"The gods?" I remember asking bitterly and with a weak voice. "Why have the gods send us the giants?"

 

"You fool." The seer said as if it was all so very obvious. "The giants are gods!"

 

No. No, that couldn't be true. Gods supposedly could smite people, yes. But gods didn't squat over mortals and tried to drown them in their piss. It was luck that had spared me. Not she. Something very different was going on here. King Aele needed to know about it!

 

"Back down, rest." The seer commanded and softly pushed me back onto the bed when I tried to get up.

 

"Why didn't you get help?" The tear-stained voice of a mother called from the back of the room. "Where did you go? What did you do, huh?!"

 

"I went there." I tried to explain. "Sir Ludwig heard me, but he only sent scouts with me back here, they...they tried to kill me. I..."

 

"Liar!" She spat, interrupting me. "There were no others where we found you, you were alone! I bet you sat at a distance and watched as they crushed my poor daughter! Oh, my poor daughter!"

 

Then she collapsed in tears.

 

-

 

Laura laughed at the ease with which she had convinced Janna to let her take the tiny aliens back all on her own. Putting them back into the Erlenmayer flask had been surprisingly easy too, she just held the vessel at ninety degrees to the edge of the table, pointed to it and they ran.

 

Giving them a closer look while walking through the forest, Laura sensed that, though not entirely at ease yet, the tiny people were happy and hopeful to be brought home in one peace. Of course, they had left Laura out of the equation.

 

-

 

Apparently, Sir Ludwig's scouts and I hadn't been the only victims of the giant invaders. They had killed two and abducted many more for who knows what purpose. They had also taken almost all of our provisions.

 

"The gods demand their sacrifices." The seer reasoned and I felt anger build up inside myself. This stupid blind man. I could see right through his pious facade. He didn't have the slightest clue what he was talking about. He helped himself to everything we had, yet barely ever was of any use. Spiritual guidance, who needed spiritual guidance when we were starving through the winter?!

 

With my blood boiling I became stronger again.

 

"We shall prepare the remaining livestock for a sacrifice when the gods return." The seer said. "After that I will go to another village. I feel they need my spiritual guidance more. These good people can do without me."

 

The other people seemed to be divided on the issue. Some shook their heads in disbelief while others nodded in agreement.

 

I couldn't take the foolishness any more: "So, you will sacrifice all we have left and then leave us here?! We will all starve, come winter! All but you, of course, you'll be blood-sucking another village dry with your cunt-mouthed fables!"

 

That shut everyone up.

 

-

 

Laura gave the poor people a playful shaking inside their glass prison and happily watched them tumbling about. She turned around to see if she was far enough away from the ship before she turned back to her captives and showed them an evil grin.

 

"Time to get squished!" She cheered.

 

She wasn't going to kill all fifteen of them for it might look suspicious to Janna if she revisited the village. If two thirds of them reached the village it would be a good quota, she reckoned, randomly pouring five of them into the palm of her hand.

 

"Run, little bug." She told the first one she sat down in front of her feet. It was an older man with white hair and despite not understanding her language he immediately took off, running away from her in a straight line. Laura had already learned that a young man was rather slow, compared to her, but this old one was even slower.

 

When ever he was about to vanish beneath a tree, Laura simply tramped it down, further slowing him. She realized immediately that she would take far too long to reach the village if she kept this up.

 

"Too slow." She said in the language of the tinies while gently giving the man a nudge with her sole that forced him to the ground. After watching him struggle to get up amidst the broken branches of fallen trees, Laura trod on him and moved on. The little 'pop' his body made was drowned out by the sound of the breaking wood that was embedded into Laura's foot print along with her tiny victim.

 

Deciding not to waste as much time on her next plaything, she put a girl from her hand in the middle of a glade and raised her foot above her. To her surprise the tiny female didn't even try to outrun her. Instead she threw herself on her knees and appeared to be begging for her life, involuntarily teaching Laura the word for 'please'. Laura didn't expect to be using it often but it would be a nice addition to her notes.

 

Then Laura brought her foot down with force, stomping the insignificant creature out of existence before raising her foot and admiring her handiwork. The smashed remains were stuck deeply in her footprint, the body burst open from the force yet still somewhat recognizable. Laughing impishly, she stomped down again and again, each time smearing the girl deeper into the compacted earth.

 

Her next victim, a younger male, Laura put down in the middle of the swath that she and Janna had created walking back and forth from the village. Much to her delight, the little man furiously fled away from her and she entertained herself by lazily stepping in his path whenever he tried to leave the swath and find cover under the trees.

 

He wasn't too quick either, having to climb above all the fallen trees and it took quite a physical toll on him as well. Whenever he slowed down, Laura almost trod him flat which spurred him on again. She gradually increased the danger to which she exposed him by giving him less and less time to pick himself up again. After a while his running turned into crawling and not even Laura's menacing sole hovering directly above him could put him back to his feet.

 

Aiming carefully she pinned his tiny legs and pelvis under her shoe and lifted her other foot in the air. Her sneaker mercilessly sunk into the earth, forcing the male's torso upright, getting pushed against the side of Laura's shoe. When she lifted her foot she discovered that his lower half, crushed into the thread, glued her tiny victim to her death bringing sole. Stuck to it's own squirted-out innards the flailing creature dangled upside down.

 

Laura gave him another look before she took another casual step towards her destination. To her amazement, looking under her shoe again, he was now completely mangled into the threat of her sneakers yet still twitching with life. It took three more steps for his struggles had finally ceased.

 

Walking the soft earth, crushing trees, bushes and people had made Laura's footwear quite dirty. In another glade along the way she released the last two remaining aliens from her hand. A male and a female. The naked creatures just hugged each other and fearfully stared up at her face that, to them, was so impossibly far away.

 

"Shoe. Dirt." Laura said in the alien language and substituted the yet unlearned word for 'clean' by demandingly pointing at her foot. They just stared back, baffled. When Laura pointed at her tongue and back at her shoe, they got the message. A power rush went through her as she watched the tiny people's reluctance turn into determination. They threw themselves against her feet and started to clean off the raw dirt with their puny little tongues.

 

Suddenly the female raised her head and yelled up at Laura, "Please, don't crush us!", before she eagerly started to lick again. Though spoken in the alien tongue Laura had understood almost every word.

 

But of course, two little people were not nearly enough to clean the shoes, larger than houses to them with just their hands and mouths and after marvelling for a few minutes Laura called the game off.

 

"Good.", She addressed them in their language. "Stay!"

 

Their little hearts might have jumped with joy when Laura stepped over them seemingly continuing on her journey but they would have gotten stuck in their throats when Laura's knees bend and her behind came down on top of them.

 

With a thud, Laura's butt made contact with the earth. Knowing that they were there, Laura could even feel the tiny people. She felt faintly where they were, even faintly recognized that they were trying to move but also noticed that they absolutely couldn't. With a huge smile on her face she teetered back and forth a few times, enlarging the dent in the earth beneath her.

 

Raising the left butt cheek to check for her victim she felt something pop under the other. The girl was buried in the earth, only it's right side barely showing, weakly raising an arm. Laura promptly sat down on top of it again and raised the right cheek, now producing a pop under the left. The guy's body was buried even deeper, but there also was a tiny wet spot of blood from when his body had popped under Laura's weight.

 

Getting up, Laura brushed the dirt off her behind as far as that was possible. The fine top soil had been driven deeply into the fabric and Laura would need more than her hands to get it out again. Her only pair of trousers stained with dirt Laura continued on her journey. The sun was already beginning to set in the distance.

 

-

 

Janna had been reluctant to give the little people to Laura for she knew that her friend could be a little careless at times but she felt that they really needed what little daylight they had left. She was also glad not having to make the walk again on an empty stomach. She filtered water and build a small fire where the ship had uprooted all the trees.

 

Using the scalpel she turned a young tree into a handy stick, put the animal's carcasses on them, sat down by the fire and grilled them. The puny little things would be as useful as homeopathy, merely a drop in the ocean, but then again, it was better than nothing. Better than nothing pretty accurately described the situation she and Laura were in, Janna found.

 

She watched the sun slowly setting in the distance, drank water and reluctantly nibbled on the meat. Before long the cow and one pig had found their way into her belly and she simply put the last pig into her mouth as well. Her molars ground the tiny thing into pulp barely meeting any resistance. If only everything was a little bigger here, she thought. When Laura would return, she'd probably be angry at Janna for eating all the food herself.

 

-

 

The seer demanded blood for the offence. Under normal circumstances they may have had me strangled to death but with the giants having taken away our, food every hunter was needed. I saw a sadistic satisfaction in the seer's eyes as they dragged me out of the house and tied me to a post to whip me. I was naked and the sun was beginning to set.

 

They determined the tallest and largest of the lumber men to carry out the sentence. I trembled with rage and fear, unsure if luck would spare me yet again today. A brutal whipping could still kill a man, especially if he was in a frail position like I was.

 

"You have been condemned and you shall suffer!" The seer began his tirade in front of the other villagers. "Under the eyes of gods and men. You have sinned gravely, your heresy is besmirching our village! Nothing other than death could appease the gods but they have determined to strike these good people's hearts with mercy. You are not worthy of..."

 

A terribly familiar tremble in the ground made him stop. The people of the village fearfully looked around, knowing what was going on.

 

"Like I prophesied!" The seer announced with sneering satisfaction. "The gods have come back to accept their sacrifice."

 

He pointed in between two houses were the villagers had rounded up all our remaining livestock. I admit that in this moment I was briefly inclined to believe the seer's words. Why else would they come back? What else was there to take?

 

-

 

When Laura approached the village a large group of tiny people had gathered, many more than they had seen before. It was a rather peculiar scene. Many of the tiny people bowed or raised their hands as a greeting, a naked man was tied to a post and a hooded figure in black robes spread his arms and yelled praises at her.

 

The hooded man gesticulated towards a larger group of cattle and from what little Laura understood she learned that they were meant for her. Playing along, Laura bowed her head and carefully released the prisoners from the Erlenmayer flask into the village.

 

-

 

The people she brought back had seen untold horrors, I could tell. They ran back to their loved ones and hugged them intimately. Not nearly all of them had returned but the seer seemed to be even more convinced of his own nonsense and loudly announced that the goddess had accepted their sacrifice. Sighs of relief could be heard from the crowd.

 

When I turned my head back towards the giantess, my blood froze in my veins.

 

"For me?" She clumsily asked in our tongue, pointing at me.

 

The seer's eyes met mine and a vicious smile curled on his thin lips.

 

"Yes!” He hissed up at her.

 

-

 

Laura nonchalantly stuffed the cows and pigs into her pockets. They weren't many but they would accompany Janna's and her dinner for tonight. Human sacrifices weren't uncommon in many ancient cultures but she figured that only one man was a little meagre. On the other hand, her time was running out. It would be hellishly difficult to get back to the ship once the sun had set completely.

 

-

 

"Please, you can't do this!" I begged the people of my village but none had the courage to stand up for me. I wasn't particularly liked. They had taken me in as a boy, yes, but I didn't have family ties with any of them. The damned raiders had made sure of that. The few lads I had been able to befriend shamefully looked away when my eyes met theirs.

 

"Oh, beautiful goddess, accept thy sacrifice!" The seer blubbered on trying to get her to take me and leave the rest of them the hell alone. The giantess gave him an irritated look and raised her foot above him. She seemingly didn't appreciate being told what to do. Not without some vengeful satisfaction, I saw his eyes widen in horror.

 

-

 

This village didn't seem to have learned from what happened to the last talker, Laura thought and pivoted her food above the hooded man. He shut up immediately but she squished him all the same for good measure. His body crumbled underneath her weight and she didn't even lift her foot again.

 

-

 

The sound when she crushed his body with her shoe and gave it a little twist made me sick to the stomach. I knew what was in store for me. Crying, I fell to my knees and bowed down to her. I didn't dare repeat the other villagers' cries for mercy.

 

-

 

It was time to get going, Laura decided with a look to the horizon, but she still hadn't decided what to do with the tiny man that was offered to her. Simply squishing him like the others just didn't seem appropriately divine. She had another evil idea and knelt down to untie her laces.

 

Giant, sock clad feet slipped out of her titanic foot wear. I was confused. Not even the rich people in the capital owned such fine socks, us simple folk had none at all, and she, as if uncaring, stained them with dirt. Her unworldly attire really seemed to be divine. But then again, what she did next convinced me that she was merely really huge and not a goddess like the seer had said.

 

-

 

Laura carefully broke the post that the offered man was tied to in half and lifted his naked form to her face. The terrified look on his face looked oddly familiar but she couldn't really put a finger on it where it had been. Without further ado she put him inside her shoe.

 

-

 

I will never forget how powerless I felt when she deposited me inside her footwear. I never liked the smell of feet. Why was she doing this? I really couldn't fathom any other reason other than cruelty against a helpless victim. It was more creative than just stepping on me, I give her that, but noone could claim that it served a higher purpose.

 

-

 

One tiny man for two giant shoes wasn't enough, Laura decided and so she randomly picked a few people from the crowd and dumped them into her shoes as well. Three for each and she was satisfied and slipped her feet back in.

 

-

 

At least I wouldn't go alone, I thought when a young terrified couple was deposited next to me. What little light entered through the opening above was suddenly blocked away when her sock clad foot came at us.

 

"Run!" I screamed and sprinted towards were her toes would be. The boy ran with me but the girl, foolish and young as she was decided to go the other way, pressing herself against the side where the giantess's heel would settle. Immediately, I knew she wouldn't last long there.

 

We pushed ourselves away from our tormentor's giant toes and hoped for the best. When she started to walk, all hell broke lose.

 

-

 

Laura laughed innocently and wiggled her toes. The tiny people would go through hell before they'd be turned into toe jam.

 

"Bye." She said onto the people in the village, turned on her heels and marched back the way she came.

 

Every now and then something would slip beneath her toes and turn wet. Every step she took squished their tiny, mangled bodies more. She'd have to clean her socks tomorrow anyway. Or she'd just go barefoot. It didn't seem as if anything could hurt her on this planet any ways.

 

-

 

The sound of breaking wood underneath the giantess's foot accompanied me for the entire torterous journey. The air was damp and smelled horrible. We were thrown around and I became nauseous but I desperately clung to a little thread that I had found poking out of a joint inside her shoe. The other man screamed helplessly as he slipped underneath her toes and when her titanic weight settled on top of him he was turned into paste. It was a sound I could never get used to.

 

After what seemed like an eternity she stopped and her foot left me alone. I was very weak at this point and my head was spinning horribly. I recognized my fellow sufferer as a pinkish-red smear on the bottom of the giant shoe. Then I passed out.

 

-

 

"Woa, without the fire I wouldn't have made it back here." Laura said to Janna when she had come back.

 

"Yeah, it gets pretty dark." Janna lectured. "No city lights and stuff. Any trouble?"

 

"No." Laura shook her head. "They were pretty happy to get back though."

 

"Of course." Janna said, satisfied.

 

Laura had brought more cattle and Janna used the scalpel to disembowel them before putting them on a stick and roasting them too. They shared evenly. It still wasn't barely enough for the two of them but Janna reckoned there wouldn't be anything else.

 

"You think they like us?" She asked when Laura told her that the villagers had practically insisted she take the animals with her.

 

"I think so." Laura replied, shrugging her shoulders and staring into the fire.

 

Janna had converted two of the fixed tables into field beds like they were designed to and after brushing their teeth with their fingers at the lake, the two tiredly stumbled into their beds in the darkness.

 

After using the latrine Laura untied her shoes again and felt inside if any of her little prisoners was still alive. Most of them were dirt, as she had expected, but to her surprise she retrieved a single lifeless male from her right sneaker. In the dim light of the burnt out fire, she recognized him as the one who had been sacrificed. The one with the oddly familiar face.

 

Janna was allready fast asleep when she climbed back into the ship and she dumped the tiny man right into her friend's boot. Her last evil deed of the day.

Chapter End Notes:

Please let me know if anything in the plot remains unclear so far. Thank you.

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