I dove forward just as the mammoth Converse slammed down, just avoiding being flattened under the brown rubber sole.  Fortunately, I was still in the air when the shockwave spread from its impact, but the crack of rubber on wood made my ears ring.  When I landed I rolled forward, not missing a step as I sprung right back into a sprint.  Without a glance back I continued at full speed, trying to get as much distance between us as I could.  A shadow would tell me when the next strike was coming.

“Get back here, little man!” Fulda roared.  “You’ll never be able to outrun me!”  She was right, of course.  In more ways than one, I was like an ant trying to escape a bored teenager.  All I could do was keep running while I looked for some place to take refuge and avoided getting smashed by her colossal feet.

I hopped from one floorboard to the next, deftly avoiding the ditch between them.  A shadow appeared around me, rapidly dwindling as her shoe rushed toward the ground.  It started right where I stood and spread over the ground in front of me, and I brought myself to a sharp halt.  She was trying to lead me now, stomping where she expected I’d be, but I’d run from giantesses enough to read their moves.  If she wanted me under her shoe, she’d have to do better than that.

As expected, her foot crashed down just in front of me, and I hopped prior to the impact.  I kicked off the ALL STAR, each letter almost twice my size, and used the rubber as a springboard for another jump.  Fulda dragged her shoe back in an attempt to knock me off-balance, but I met her foot with mine and used it to my advantage.  A couple steps on the black canvas as it bulldozed me and I was in a controlled fall along her instep, ready to take off running again the instant I touched down.

Fulda had chased me all the way from the kitchen to the living room, a vast distance of ten yards that had taken me nearly half an hour to cross.  At first she treated it as some light-hearted fun, lazily swinging her feet in my general direction and bringing them down well away from me.  As it progressed, however, she became more aggressive, acting like it was a real competition.  Her feet landed closer to me, with more force, and were coming at a much faster rate.  Years of constant conditioning meant I could keep at this for a while, but as the saying goes, I needed to be lucky every time, while she only needed to be lucky once.

I passed by the black leather cliffside of a couch on my right, with a matching chair on the left.  Furniture meant that Fulda would be more restricted, but it was hardly the end of the pursuit.  Despite her massive frame she could fit through the canyon easily, though she could only come at me from one side.  Plus, herding me here may have been part of her plan.  She’d always been as smart as she was strong, and she was not above trapping me.

A glass-topped coffee table stood like a mesa in the middle of a dark blue rug, its sides low enough that she would have difficulty swinging her feet after me.  My first impulse was to run directly at it, but my instinct was tempered by experience.  I had seen too many people flattened when they dashed for the first bit of cover, and Fulda had probably used that trick in her sorority days too.  If I were going to act so predictably, I might as well give up now.

Once I was past the couch I made a sharp turn toward it, running along its base.  Her Converse’s white rubber tip flew past where I had been like a wrecking ball, its sole as close to the floor as possible without scraping it.  Exactly what would have gotten me if I had gone in a straight line.  The small gap beneath the couch was inviting as I passed before it, but that was another common pitfall.  Those were always choked with dust, and Fulda could easily lift it and come get me; all I’d be doing is giving myself a dead end.

Just a few more inches and I would be in the right spot to scurry under the table.  My feet pumped as hard as they could and the wood grain zipped by, all of it blending together.  Her legs may be fifty times as long as me, I told myself, but size was only part of the equation.  I was small and crafty, like a fly, and could easily maneuver around her gigantic feet.

The second before I broke left, an enormous shadow covering my path made me think again.  A tremendous shoe swung down where I would have been, its slap alone making my vision blur.  I stumbled from the tremors emanating from the impact like a sudden, short earthquake, and had to lean against the rubber wall to regain my balance.  This was an unfortunate setback, but nothing I couldn’t overcome.

Fulda laughed, causing a disturbing rumble to filter down to me.  “What now, you puny bug?” she taunted.  “I’ve got you trapped.”  To demonstrate her point, when I reached the toe of her shoe she took a half-step forward, moving the barricade with me.  Either she didn’t know that I would barely have to stoop to fit under the couch, or she counted on me trying it as a last resort.  Regardless, I knew better, and still had a trick up my sleeve.

I pushed off my right foot, jumping toward her shoe, and snagged my fingers on the top of the rubber.  Quickly I clambered up until I was standing on the white wall, then braced myself against the canvas.  It would be a steep climb, but I’d done worse, and it should only take me a few seconds.  My feet dug into the rough black material, pushing me up while my hands dragged me.  There was no obstacle I couldn’t overcome with a little perseverance, the largest shoe I’d ever seen included.

The ground suddenly disappeared, and I tumbled down a sheer black cliff.  I bounded off it a couple times before tumbling along a curved white surface, finally landing in a heap on the floor.  I looked up, dazed from the fall and stunned by the sudden turn of fortune, while Fulda smirked smugly.  From here she was more skyscraper than woman, a steely titaness who had triumphed over her quarry.

All my poetic visions were destroyed when she set her heel back down and her gargantuan foot loomed over me.  I marveled at its tremendous size as brown rubber blocked my whole field of view, the diamonds on her sole alone larger than me.  With a heavy gulp I admitted there was no way I could get out from under it in time, and Fulda had finally won.

Slowly the all-encompassing shoe lowered toward me, commanding even more of my attention.  It seemed to stretch forever in every direction, like it was the whole world.  The sole of Fulda’s shoe seemed to grow longer, wider, with each passing second, while I felt no more significant than a dust mite.  If it were upturned, I could travel it like an explorer on the sand dunes and never find the edge.  Then it pressed against my chest, yanking me back to reality.

“Gotcha,” Fulda declared triumphantly.  She let her foot linger over me while she laughed, as though physically dominating someone a thousandth of her size was an accomplishment.  In a flash the sky was clear of the brown rubber menace, and a thud rippling through the floor told me it had set down some distance away from me.  Her monolithic body rotated shockingly fast, and leather crumpled beneath her when she flopped onto the couch.

“Not bad, little dude!”  One of her terrifically long legs swung over the other, letting a humongous Converse dangle in the air above me.  She idly kicked her toe in the air, causing her leg to swing back and forth, while she continued, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but we would’ve had a lot of fun hunting you at a party.  You’re smart and fast, we probably would’ve given up and gone after easier prey after a bit.  Hell, next time I might even go at half speed so we can really have some fun.”  That was her holding back?  For the past ten minutes it really seemed like she was trying to kill me!

A cacophony of leather stretching rang out, and her icy blue eyes peaked over the edge.  They snapped toward me, and a long red braid fell in front of her shoulder.  “You know, though.”  Like someone had flipped a switch, she went from cocky to sultry.  “Our date’s not over.  Why don’t you join me up here and see what happens?”  Her hand was already reaching down for me, and her long, rough fingers pinched my sides.  She plucked me off the floor, and before I knew it I was standing freely on her thigh, just below her knee.

“It’s no accident we ended up here.”  Fulda’s low, powerful voice traveled through her body and into mine, making my insides quiver.  Every aspect of her was gigantic, and I couldn’t get enough of it.  “I was chasing you, sure, but I encouraged you this way for a reason.”  She pointed at the table, and I turned to see a bottle of red wine standing on it beside a single glass, with a thimble and eye dropper lying at its base.  “Join me for a drink?”  I was in no position to refuse, and besides, I wanted her to have her fun.

Fulda leaned forward far enough that I couldn’t see anything aside from her bulging white tank top, then she surged forward, slamming her chest into me.  For a brief moment I was pinned, and in the sudden shock I panicked, squirming and already trying to wiggle my way free from the tremendous weight.  After a few seconds it was gone, however, and I was left to thrash aimlessly on her thigh.

She grinned at my pointless flailing, then began pouring herself a glass.  Wine rushing out of the bottle’s neck sounded like a waterfall to me, splashing into the glass basin in her hand.  By the time she was done it looked like a dark red swimming pool, and the irony of me being this close to such a relatively immense volume of wine was not lost on me.  Many people would give up a lot for it, but if they knew what I had to go through they’d think twice.

Fulda took a long sip from her glass, exaggerating the motion as she swallowed.  “This is some good stuff, dude,” she declared, bringing it down to rest in her lap.  I could see some purple build-up at the corners of her mouth already.  She dipped the eyedropper into her glass and pulled out a few milliliters, then squeezed them into the thimble.  “Am I your sugar momma, then?” she asked, smiling as she handed me the thimble.

I took it in both hands, and just then realized she was giving me a bucket full of wine.  “Um, Fulda?” I began nervously.  “I’ve never had alcohol before, and this seems like a lot.”  In high school I had tried to be a “good” kid and stayed away from it, and Gina never let us have booze.  We were lucky she remembered to give us water, to be honest.

“Then I suggest you drink slowly,” Fulda suggested, taking another long drink from her glass.  “Or quickly, to get it down faster.  You’re a lightweight, so I hardly think it matters.”

I took a tentative sip from the metal vessel in my hands and cringed.  Somehow it was both sweet and bitter at the same time and had a faint aftertaste of fruit.  It wasn’t very pleasant, but I still felt good after drinking it.  Fulda took another long drink out of her glass and, not wanting to disappoint her, I took a pull of the same length out of my bucket.

We went back and forth, trying to match each other for drinks, until Fulda emptied her glass.  There was another torrent of liquid rushing out while she filled her glass halfway, then a thud when she set the bottle back on the floor.  With her glass refilled, she looked down at me standing on her leg and gave a cocky grin, then took a short sip.

“We really missed out on a lot,” Fulda started.  She swung her legs up and to the side, knocking me over so I had to use the thimble she gave me for support.  When the whirling movement subsided she was laying across the couch, propped up against an arm while her feet reached the opposite end, and I had been forced into a desperate tumble until I landed on her shorts.  Surprisingly little of my drink had spilled out while I settled into the black creases around me.

She swirled her wine glass while looking down and watching me get comfortable in her lap.  Her striking face was just visible above the ridge of her breasts atop the incline, with lips drawn tight in a pensive expression.  There was a hint of sadness in her wide eyes as she considered me on her.  The ground shifted a little when she crossed one ankle over the other, then began tapping one of her enormous shoes against the couch.

“I went to college and had the time of my life, and you…” Fulda trailed off.  The subject still made her uncomfortable, but for a different reason than it did me.  “Well, I wish you had been with me for all of it.  The good and the bad.  I know that if you had been with me this whole time you’d have made it all along, and we’d have an even stronger connection than we have now.”  She practically chugged the rest of her glass, tipping the last drop into her mouth before setting the stem back on her tummy to be refilled by another gush of liquid.

I drank deeply from the thimble in my hands, but unlike her I couldn’t kill the whole glass in one draught.  A warm, dizzy feeling had already overtaken me, and I looked at the world around me in an altered state.  Everything seemed to glow a bit brighter, a little fuzzier, in my view, as I looked from one of Fulda’s shoulders to the other, trying to rectify my altered state with the tremendous reality above me.

“You don’t have to keep apologizing,” I told her.  My mouth felt strange, looser than usual, with a slight tingling sensation.  When I spoke, my tongue seemed wider and more difficult to control.  “I’m here now, aren’t I?  Maybe we can’t make up for the lost time, but we can enjoy what we have.”

“I know, I just feel so terrible about it.”  Fulda took another long drink, sending half the wine down her throat, and reached down to me with her other hand.  She set a single massive fingertip on my shoulders and rubbed it back and forth, touching me just hard enough to make sure I knew it was there.  Between that and her leg slightly bobbing every time she tapped it, I was constantly reminded that her power can be subtle, too.  “There were a lot of firsts that, looking back, I wish I’d had with you.”  Another gulp and her glass was empty, and she promptly began refilling it.

I rubbed her finger back and sipped from my bucket of a thimble.  “Oh yeah?” I challenged, feeling a little flirtatious.  “Like what?”

She pushed my arm back down and began running her finger along it.  “Life stuff.  First drink, first big party, first time in Europe.  They’d have been more fun if you were there.  Plus, you’d have been like my little secret.  My tiny boyfriend, going everywhere with me, sneaking you into places.  It’s cute.”

“Let’s not dwell on the past.”  How I wished I could forget mine, then maybe the nightmares would stop.  “You’ve been nothing but wonderful since you came back for me, and I like to think about all the amazing stuff we’ll get to do now.”

Fulda smiled, then gave me a firm tap.  “Sometimes I think I don’t deserve you.  If I hadn’t shrunk you, some other lucky girl would’ve snatched you up by now.”

“What if one had?  Or tries to now?”

“Oh, that wouldn’t go well for her,” Fulda purred.  “I’m the jealous type, you know.  Any woman tries to take you away from me will be spending a lot of time in a jar at the very least.  As for you… well, I’d have to remind you why you stuck with me in the first place, wouldn’t I?”  Her enigmatic smile only made me more curious what she would do, but I decided to leave it alone for now.

Evening turned into night, and I gradually emptied the thimble while Fulda gulped down several more glasses.  I tried to stand up but my legs didn’t work the way they should, and I went tumbling down the rest of her leg onto her crotch.  She giggled and gave me a quick tap, then said, “I think you’re a little too drunk to have much fun in there right now.  Don’t worry though, you’ll get to go spelunking soon enough.”  Though I was thoroughly hammered, I easily understood what she was getting at.  However, she was right: there’s no way I’d be able to do much right now.

Unable to even stand, I laid on Fulda until I passed out, the warmth of her body enough of a blanket for me.  She must not have wanted to disturb me since she slept there too, in almost the exact same position, for the whole night.  For once I had a pleasant dream, I think, of me curled up in Fulda’s hand while she played with me.  For once, my future was bright.