Fulda’s attention was immediately drawn to the scarcely-dressed behemoth sitting on Gina’s bed, her long legs propped against the opposite wall while she read from the grimoire. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
“I’m Veronica,” she casually answered, not even looking up from the tome. Roni made a show of turning the page to emphasize how unconcerned she was about the new arrival. “Who’re you?”
Fulda scoffed, taken aback by the enormous blond’s audacity. “That’s not what I asked,” she retorted. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my sister’s room?”
Roni rolled her eyes and slammed the book shut, then drew her legs in. She tossed the book onto the pillow and stood, drawing out the process of rising to her full height to exaggerate it. When she was done began walking over toward Fulda, saying, “I’m an exchange student from Sweden.” Her long strides carried her across the room in only two steps, and she stood in front of Fulda, staring down at her. After crossing her arms beneath her chest to give herself a stern appearance she continued, “I didn’t know Gina had a kid sister. Shouldn’t you still be at school?”
Fulda was unused to being dwarfed by someone so severely, but kept her face stony while gazing up at the taller woman. She only came up to the middle of Roni’s tummy, a novel experience for her. “You must be one of Gina’s friends,” she stated, doing her best to keep her cool. “I was hoping to surprise her by dropping in, but it looks like I’m the one who got surprised. Do you know when she’ll be back?”
“Dunno. Could be a couple hours,” Roni answered, doing her best to remain aloof and difficult. “If you want you can hang out here a while, I have some experience supervising little girls.” Fulda rolled her eyes and Roni smirked, glad to have gotten under her skin. “I’ll be over here, if you need anything just tug on my shorts and I’ll help you, ‘kay?” She dismissed herself from the conversation, then went back to leafing through Gina’s grimoire.
The first thing Fulda looked at was the giant terrarium occupying one wall. She took a cautious step forward, just enough to confirm that she was seeing our silhouettes behind the glass. “Um. What the fuck is that?”
“Aw, you’re so curious, I love it when kids ask so many questions!” Roni replied, making sure to mock her before giving a real answer. “That’s our tiny person colony. Gina shrinks people, then sticks them in there to have fun with them later. Cool, isn’t it?”
Fulda’s eyes bulged. “She does what?” she shouted, turning towards Roni. Finally, she noticed the book open in her lap and immediately recognized it. “Where… Where did you get that book?”
Roni checked the cover as though she needed to confirm she was reading an arcane tome written in an ancient, forgotten language. “This one? Gina gave it to me.” She flipped it back and forth carelessly. “Cool, huh? It’s a bit above your reading level, but it has some cool pictures if you want to see.”
“I’m the one who gave it to her,” Fulda growled. “I taught her everything in it.” She took a second to calm herself and unclench her jaw to keep from strangling Roni. “How long has she been maintaining this… tiny person colony?”
“I first came into the Goddess’s graces two years ago as one of those tiny people,” Roni explained, giving a much more elaborate answer than expected, “but Gina saw my devout worship and made me a Goddess, too. There’s someone who says he’s been in there almost six years though, so she’s been doing this for a while.”
Though she clearly wanted to rail against all the nonsense about Gina being a goddess, Fulda just quietly repeated, “Six years? That means…” She spun back to face the terrarium, then rushed toward it. Pressing her face against the glass, she looked at all the tiny people spread throughout the transparent tank. “Little dude, are you in here? Wave to me so I can find you!” The glass rattled with her voice while the words echoed between the panes.
I pulled one arm from around Akane’s leg and began waving it back and forth as broadly as I could, trying to get her attention. Akane saw my efforts to get noticed and joined in, raising both her arms as high as possible and moving them as though she were trying to direct an aircraft. Fulda’s cold eyes started on the other side, scanning over the rest of the tiny population on her way over to us. Most of them ignored her entirely, with a couple giving her a curious glance while her face loomed over them. They probably thought it was a trap and that Fulda intended to crush anyone who volunteered, and maybe it was. I had nothing left to lose, though.
When she finally got to me she stopped and gave a wide smile, revealing a set of universally straight, bright white teeth between her pink lips. “There you are!” she exclaimed, making the panes shake again. “And I’m guessing you’re not the one in a schoolgirl uniform, so you must be the smaller one clinging to her leg. Some things never change, huh?” She chuckled at her own joke, then stood and flipped open the tank’s top hatch. “I’m going to pull you out for a bit so we can catch up.”
Fulda leaned in and snaked her arm through the hole, reaching her hand toward me. Akane slowly rotated while I hugged her leg tightly, carrying me along for the ride. When she had turned all the way around Akane ducked, getting out of the way of Fulda’s grabbing fingers. Two enormous fingertips sandwiched me, and once I was sure their hold was firm enough to support me I let go of the leg I had been using for support.
Carefully Fulda withdrew me from the terrarium, moving slowly that she would be sure not to lose her grip. When I had been completely extracted she dropped me into her free hand, which was wide open and waiting for me. The skin had hardened significantly over the past several years, likely related to the muscles that now rippled all over her body.
“Hi there!” she boomed, unable to contain her enthusiasm. I was taken aback by the volume, but her voice’s deep rumbling and raw power was nothing new to me anymore. “Long time no see! I mean, I’ve seen you in the Snaps Gina sends me, but that’s not the same as holding you in the palm of my hand.”
“What sort of… Snaps… did she send you?” I asked. The app had just gotten big right before I got small so I knew how it worked, I simply did not remember Gina recording any.
“She sent tons of her doing stuff with you!” Fulda replied. “Dangling you over her mouth, watching you dodge her fingers… oh, there was a really cool one where you were standing on a dime and slowly got smaller until the camera couldn’t see you anymore!” We had very different ideas of what was cool. “I replied to all of them, did Gina not show those to you?”
“No, can’t say that she did,” I answered. “She must have been too busy thinking up new ways to torment me and apparently show them off to you.”
“That’s a shame.” Fulda paused for a second, looking me over. “You look really good, though!”
“Do I?”
“Yeah, have you not looked in a mirror?” She looked around for something she could use to show me, then realized the only mirror was the full-length one Gina used to get ready in the mornings. “You got buff, dude! You’re shredded! If I’d known that years of being tiny would do this to your body I would’ve shank you when I first learned how. Hell, I would’ve taken you with me to college! What’s your secret?”
“Gina makes me compete with the other shrunken people to climb her legs and the last one up gets eaten,” I said, punctuating it with a shrug. “The threat of dying and being digested does wonders for your motivation.” Fulda did not know how to respond to my frank description of what I had been through, so I decided to press her for information. “So, where’s your boyfriend?” Her only response was a confused look, so I elaborated. “You know, one of the guys you were going to meet at college, so you gave me to Gina like an old pair of shoes you had grown out of?”
“Oh, that,” Fulda answered, as though she had forgotten bout the whole thing. “That didn’t exactly go as planned. It turns out not a lot of guys want to date a woman who’s got a few inches on them and can deadlift three of them. There were a couple, but they weren’t exactly into the idea of me as a giantess and only realized it too late.” She bit her lip while thinking. “There really isn’t a lot that’s gone as planned.”
“How do you mean?” This was a first: I was about to hear Fulda admit she was wrong about something.
“Everything since I taught Gina how to shrink people has gone pear-shaped,” Fulda explained. “You have to believe me, I never thought she would abuse you like she did. I half expected that I’d be looking for you on the bottom of one of her shoes. And now she’s making her friends gigantic, keeping shrunken people in a tank, declaring herself a deity… it’s all gotten way out of hand.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?” I asked. “She’s only going to get worse as she gets older.”
“I don’t think I can stop her,” Fulda admitted, “she’s my sister, even if she is a monster.” She leaned in close and whispered conspiratorially, hoping that Roni would not overhear. “I can take you with me when I leave, though. You don’t deserve to be treated like this.”
My eyes brightened, and for the first time in years I felt genuine hope. “Really?” I asked.
“Yes, really,” Fulda confirmed. “I mostly came back to check on you, she hasn’t sent anything with you for a couple weeks and I was worried. I’ll just need a distraction to keep her and that giant bitch busy when she gets back.”
I smiled. “We’ll think of something, I’m sure.”
Gina and her friends stood near center court, watching the freshman basketball team leave after practice. The ones she was looking for had not shown up yet, and she was starting to worry they had skipped or been cut. She hated to think they had gotten changed into their uniforms for nothing.
Once the rest of the team had left five stragglers came out of the locker room, all huddled together. They walked along the wall toward the exit, talking amongst themselves and joking as they went. Gina did not remember them being quite so small, but that would only work to her advantage. It would be the perfect test for her friends.
“Okay, now remember: on the signal just do what I told you and they’ll be bite-sized before you know it,” she said, then began walking toward the gaggle of students. The rest of her friends followed, sashaying their way across the floor toward their targets. Despite the racket of their enormous feet on the wood none of the boys paid attention to them.
Gina slammed her hips against the wall and leaned her body into it, causing the lead boy to run straight into her legs. He gasped and looked up at Gina towering over him, unable to believe he had bumped into her. She smiled and gave him a wave and he spun around only to see Shelby leaning into the wall behind them, blocking their way back. Julie and Ashley pushed them back, grinning while they cowered against the wall and shook in fear. Not a single one of them was taller than their legs. “It’s the senior girls!” one of them shouted once he realized what was going on.
“Relax, we’re not here to hurt you!” Gina said, leaning over the nearest boy. Covering him with her shadow did nothing to make him feel better, causing him to quiver under her presence. “We’re here to help you, isn’t that right girls?” Her friends agreed, never taking their eyes off the diminutive boys at their thighs. “We were watching you practice, and you’re all really good! None of you ever get to play though, so we thought we’d let you show your stuff against us.” The boys turned to each other, clamoring with excitement. “There are only four of us though, meaning we’re down a girl, so we’ll need to do something to… even the odds.”
That was the signal. All of them moved in, pressing the boys together while they got even smaller. They looked up at Gina and her friends, marveling at how tall they were all of a sudden. Once they were shorter than their knees, though, they realized something was wrong and began to scream. The team continued dwindling, their screams getting more high-pitched, but it wasn’t until they were down to their ankles that one of them tried to run. Ashley slammed an enormous Adidas in his path, knocking them down, then swept her foot forward and threw him back into the throng of shrinking men.
The girls were not satisfied until each of them was miniscule, dwarfed by their shoes at not even an inch tall. Gina raised her sneaker and held it over the group, letting them gaze in fear at the sole of her tremendous shoe hanging over them before stomping it down in front of them, keeping them off their feet. “This looks a little more fair,” she declared, striking an intimidating pose over the tiny men. “So, let’s play a small game, with some stakes. We’ll play to six, just six points. If you guys win we’ll grow you back, with a bonus. But if you lose, you’re ours, forever. Be sure to try your hardest!”
Gina went to get a ball while her friends spread out over one half of the court. The shrunken boys were still panicking, unsure what to do when Gina stepped over them. They had a brief meeting and came to the conclusion that this must be some sort of hilarious joke they were playing, and they should do their best to meet them halfway. Certain that nothing bad would happen to them they ran onto the court, setting up a zone defense since there was no way they could cover people ten feet taller than them.
Eric had the misfortune of dealing with Gina first. She drove at him, dribbling the ball and slamming her shoes on the court with each step as she ran forward. He put out his arms in a vain attempt to block her, but when she drew closer it became evident she was not going to humor him. Each time the ball hit the ground he felt the quake, and every one of her steps made his insides turn around. When the giantess was on top of him he looked up, only to find his view blocked by a gargantuan shoe sole. With a light crunch he was flattened, and Gina easily dropped the ball in for two.
Roger waited for the ball to stop bouncing before he even got close to it. Even then he did not feel safe with it rolling around, since it was many times larger than him and there was no way he could stop it. Finally, when it was nearly stopped, he felt brave enough to approach, running into it and trying to shove it away. The instant he stopped touching it, however, Shelby yelled out “Steal!” and charged forward, tearing the ball off the ground. Suddenly exposed, Roger looked up at the red-headed titaness, finding himself in clear view of her green eyes. She raised a humongous hand to her shoulder and brought it down, swatting Roger as though he were a fly before scoring her goal.
Ken did not want to go near the ball. He saw what happened to the others who tried to actually play the game, and he wanted no part of it. Unfortunately, he could only stall the game for so long before one of the giantesses got impatient. Julie, the black-haired vixen, picked up the ball while he watched, then calmly dribbled it toward the basket. She leapt into the air completely unnecessarily and dunked it, hanging onto the rim long enough that it bent toward her. Finally she let go, falling right on Ken’s head and pulverizing him when she landed.
Lyle had done nothing and wanted nothing to do with anything. He only wanted to escape. That prospect seemed unlikely, however, when Ashley took a step forward, trapping him beneath her feet. He looked up at the towering woman while she glowered at him, unable to even see beyond the monumental legs around him. She squatted down, bringing her face terrifyingly close, and he tried to run.
It was too late. Ashley’s hand easily caught up to him, pinching the back of his jersey, and she lifted him from the floor. She let him dangle a moment, still trying to run, laughing at his legs pumping uselessly in the air before standing. By the time she got him to her face he was already crying. “Hey little fella!” she boomed, her jubilation roaring against his ears. “What’s your name?”
He sniffled and faced her, trying to say something. Her bright blue eyes overwhelmed him, and he saw how easy it would be for him to slip between her pouty lips. She gave him a shake and repeated the question, more insistently. “L-Lyle,” he managed to stammer, little more than a whimper in the face of the giantess.
“Hi Lyle!” Ashley leaned in and shouted, extending her tongue while drawing out his name. He flinched, but there was nowhere to go. “Are you excited to be my little pet, Lyle?”
“N-not really,” he managed in between sniffles.
Ashley grinned and closed her fingers around him. “You better get excited, you little shit,” she said. “Because we’re going to have fun, you and I.” He let out one last whine before Ashley encased him in her fist, sealing her claim.
Rob saw how this was going to go and wanted no part of it. He turned and ran for the exit, unsure what he would do when he got outside but willing to take his chances. The ground rumbled and he heard a tremendous crash, but put it out of his mind. It wasn’t someone coming for him, he told himself, as he continued his slow movement toward the exit.
A gigantic black shoe stomped down in front of him, turning his knees to jelly so that he stumbled into it. Rob slowly recovered while the giantess remained still, considering the tiny man at her feet. He looked up and saw her ankle several stories above him, with her dark eyes glaring at him from beneath a tuft of black hair. “Oh please oh please oh please don’t hurt me,” he begged, falling to his knees and pleading up at her ankle.
Julie did not hear his cries for mercy, and even if she did she was unable to muster the sympathy for him. She simply leaned over and swiped at the floor, easily overwhelming the tiny man with her fingers. His tiny body slipped into her grip and she formed a loose fist around him, holding him tight. While he struggled inside her hand she grinned, amused by how pathetic he was in her grip.
“Good game, everyone!” Gina congratulated her friends when the last shrunken man had been dealt with. “Now, let’s all go home and have fun with our new friends. I want to hear a lot of stories tomorrow morning about what you did with your tiny men!” They left while the two still alive struggled in the grasps of their respective giantesses, unsure of their futures, while the girls dreamt of what they would do to them.