Slowly I moved toward her towering, giant feet. Up close I could smell the scent of lotion, and see even more detail. They towered over me like soft, living monoliths, calling my name. I had secretly fantasized about being this close to her feet since I first met her, and now it seemed so unreal that it would come true. I looked over at the gem behind me, then back to her feet, so tall I could barely see the toes. Those toes would be my goal; my mission. I would conquer her feet like they were Mt. Everest.

I looked over to her, far in the distance, a goddess focused on her show and not even looking at me. I suppose she figured if I wanted to stay like this for a while then she would let me explore in private. It would probably be more entertaining to watch TV than to watch a worthless speck of a bug crawl around a table. She wouldn’t notice me getting closer. And if I started with her sandal, she wouldn’t feel me. But was that good or bad? What if she went to check on me? She wouldn’t see me on the desk, nor feel me on her sandal. She might freak out, throw her feet off the table. Toss me across the room. I could be lost for good, doomed to spend my life as a speck living in a world I no longer belonged to.

But if I started with her feet and she felt me, she might make me stop. And did I dare risk being forced to stop before reaching the summit that is her toes? The peak of her big toe…I could see the entire world from here. And the valley between her toes would be a soft, warm place to rest. Sandal or foot? Where would I start?

I continued to crawl closer to her feet until I could feel the warmth that radiated off of them. By now the scent of her lotion, mixed with her own personal scent, was overpowering. I could barely think straight as I moved close enough to place one of my tiny legs on the now giant sole of her sandal. Quickly I pulled my leg away as I heard what sounded like beautiful thunder that shook me to my core. Glancing over, I saw Laurie laughing. God, her laugh melted my heart when I was, well, me…And now, now it sounded like all around me angels were singing.

Her laugh, her smile, her eyes, in the distance, twinkling, all made me feel happier than I ever had. Happy, and aroused. Could an ant get aroused? My antenna twitched as I stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. She still hadn’t glanced my way. All I knew was right here, right now, as nothing more than a dirty insect at her feet, I felt more in place in my life than I ever had. I felt right, like where I belonged was right here; right beneath her, and completely at her mercy. I had to keep going. I had to reach my goal. Sandal or foot. Where would I go?

And could I go? Standing straight up and down, these mountains seemed impossibly steep. Would I be able to scale them? Surely, if I were just a tiny human, it would be impossible, but as an ant this was exactly what I was made for, wasn’t it? “Climb. Must climb.”

Where did that thought come from? I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t tell. It was more than a thought. It was a driving force. “Climb. Find food. Explore.” Yes. Yes, I had to climb, find food, and explore. And still her the smell was so overpowering. I knew her scent from spending time hanging out with her. But this was different. Stronger. My antenna continued to twitch as her smell seemed to dance across them. It was then that I realized, I wasn’t smelling like I used to. How could I, without a nose? The scent moved across, through, my body and antenna. It played with my nervous system. It stimulated my brain and drove an intense desire within me to move closer, to be bathed in it. As an ant, I perceived this sense like an ant would. The scent was no longer just a smell, it was sensory overload that called me and made me feel thing. The scent of her feet had become the only thing I could feel, and it was driving me crazy.

I was losing all thought, getting lost in this new feeling. Sandal or foot, it didn’t matter. I just needed to be as close as I could. “CLIMB!” my mind screamed at me. That was it. That was all I could think as I moved forward without thinking. First one leg, then the next.  And the next. Again and again until, without thinking, all six legs were on the side of her sandal and I was climbing up it without even thinking. I made my way up the side of her sandal, so thin, yet impossibly thick to me. I no longer had any thought, driven only by the scent that played through my body. The scent and….and something else?

Warmth. Yes, that was it. Warmth. The closer I got to the soft, beckoning flesh of her foot, the more I felt like it was where I NEEDED to be. Cold blooded. Yes, that was it. I was cold blooded and I craved, needed, the warmth that her foot provided. It was this driving force that moved me from her sandal to her foot. The closer I got, the better I felt. Warmth. Comfort. Scent. This foot, this perfect, beautiful foot, was providing everything I needed to feel safe and at home.

And now I stood there, my face staring directly at the supple skin that had been beckoning to me this entire time. So close. All I needed to do was reach a single leg forward and I would have what my ant body craved, and my human body had thought about many times. I took one quick look to see if she had seen me yet, but my entire vision was blocked by the utopia in front of me.

I reached forward and placed my front leg on the pale wall before me. I must be honest, I don’t remember much for a few minutes after that. I don’t know if my ant brain had taken over, or if I had just been lost in pure bliss. I don’t remember moving forward. I don’t remember climbing. The next thing I can remember was my entire world, no, my entire universe shaking while I heard the sound of beautiful thunder again, shaking me from my trance.

I had made it half way up her foot now, clinging for dear life to the top of her foot, lost in her warmth and scent. But, I had gotten her attention. I may have been a miniscule nothingness, but apparently I was still big enough to cause a slight tickle on her foot. She was laughing, shaking her foot. I instantly stopped moving, and the shaking stopped. I was no longer tickling her foot, but I had gained the full attention of this friend turned goddess.

“Ummm…James?” Her voice echoed through the room, and vibrated through my body. All this stimulation had driven my arousal past the breaking point.

“Goddess?” I tried to say. Ants don’t talk. Stupid.

“James what…what are you doing on my foot?” She leaned in closer. It was as if God herself was breaking through the clouds to gaze upon my insignificant existence to bless me.

“Climb. Warmth. Scent. Food. FOOD” was all my head mind could scream. I couldn’t reply to her anyway, so why bother? Right now my brain told me that now I needed to find food. My antenna felt around her skin. It sensed something through the scent of her food. It sensed….It sensed food. And it smelled amazing!

“James? James can you hear me?” Her voice didn’t sound concerned; more curious than anything else.

My mind, however, was now focused on the scent of food that was calling my name. I knew the direction it was coming from: her toes. Somewhere up there, at the peak of Everest, must be an amazing buffet laid own just for me. I knew I had to climb, and climb I did. I had no thoughts, no desires, other than finding that food.

There were no more sounds from my goddess, but I could feel her eyes on me. She was watching me, studying me. I could feel a slight change in her temperature, and there was a slight change in the scent in the air. Had I been more focused on it, maybe I would have read it for what it was: arousal. Arousal at the fact that her friend had been reduced to nothing more than a mindless insect climbing her foot like it was his entire world. Arousal at the power she now held over someone who once towered over her.

But I was oblivious to it all as I raced as fast as my six legs and tiny body would take me. It felt like this was the fastest I had ever gone, as human or ant. I scaled the mountain of flesh like a champion, racing higher and higher toward my end goal: the glorious mana from heaven that was somewhere at her toes. 

My focus paid off, and it wasn’t long before I reached my goal. I was now at the base of her giant toe. Still, this one toe towered over me like the tallest building in the world. I gazed up, in awe of how beautiful it looked, but my goal was not at the top. My antenna twitched and told me that what I was looking for laid in the valley between her toes. Hard work and determination was finally going to pay off as I crawled toward the softest, warmest part of her foot that I had ever experienced in my short time on her foot. Between her toes, where the heat had gathered, where her scent was so strong it stimulated every tiny nerve in my nervous system, where the flesh was so soft it was like walking on a cloud of silk I found my reward. There, before me, in all its glory, was a tiny crumb. Had it been from something she ate earlier or something she picked up while walking? It didn’t matter to me.

I raced forward, under her ever watchful gaze. My pinchers opened and happily grabbed that tiny crumb, and pulled it toward my mouth. It had been the best thing I had ever eaten. A 5-Star meal served up in the fanciest restaurant I had ever been to. Every bit of stimulation I could feel was now racing through me. There was no James right now, there was only ant. There was no Laurie right now. There was only my universe. The foot of my friend, providing me with everything I could ever hope for, want, or need.