Lady Mira was a rather clever woman. She had seen the march of the Elsiran armies coming well before they ever declared war on her nation. She had made arrangements with the King to have the armies trained by survivors from elven conflicts. These were not implacable enemies after all. They could bleed. They could die. Elves weren’t invincible and indeed while the tales of survivors were harrowing, training could help. 

It was why she was unconcerned tonight, when others might well be trembling in their boots. Her holdings were on the border and thus she had a good number of troops all through the area. They had planned for where and how the elves would strike after all. The moment they crossed the border they would be in for a nasty surprise laid out by the generals of the kingdom. Thus she sipped at her wine at the dining table, her husband having already taken to the field himself. Why, she suspected he’d return with elf ears on his belt. What a lovely gift that would be. 

The dark haired woman was a beautiful matron, well into her thirties. Dark hair was schooled into a tight braid and her fine silks and fabrics hugged a mature and filled form undulled by age. She was the very picture of regal and noble beauty, carefully maintained each day with painstaking work. One had to look the picture of leadership after all.

The woman inspected one of her nails, ever so slightly chipped and frowned. “Ugh. Today of all days.” She grumbled.

“My lady, more wine?” Asked one of the maids nearby. 

The dark haired woman waved a hand. “No, no, won’t do for me to be completely tripping over myself when I welcome my husband back from the battlefield. Do check with the kitchens though and make sure the chefs are prepared for the meals for the victorious champions.” 

The maid dipped her head low and shuffled from the luxurious dining hall. Mira watched her depart and rose from her seat in a whisper of fabric, walking toward a nearby balcony. She opened the glass doors and stepped out into the night beyond. She gazed out into the distance. Elsira was a nation that many feared, indeed many in their own country feared the advance of the elves. However they could be defeated. They would be defeated. Mira had faith in their preparations. 

She could see flickers of light in the city below, the people going about their lives in their homes. The night would pass and they would continue to do their routine for many more days and nights to come. Mira had to believe in her own work, in the careful plans they had laid ahead of the advance of the elves. After all, if she didn’t believe in it then how could she have expected anyone else to? 

Her gaze lingered out into the darkness for a few moments before she heard the doors to the dining hall open. Her maids were quite speedy really. She turned and walked back into the room… and her glass shattered on the ground at the sight in front of her. Mira’s eyes widened, not even registering the glass shards in her dress now. 

Standing in the doorway now was a woman dressed in black. An *elf* dressed in black. Mira had never met an elf before but it was very distinctive how… inhuman she moved and how graceful her basic movements were. Her jet black skin was as smooth as possible and her beauty was something that made Mira appear no more pretty than some homely barmaid. Bone white hair was pulled into a tight braid with bangs framing her face. A pair of purple eyes swept around the room idly, noting Mira but passing over her without much concern. 

Mira screamed. She let out a very loud and very piercing scream. “Guards! Guards! Intruder!” The woman called out as loud as she possibly could. 

The elf rolled her eyes. “Don’t know why you think there are any guards around to hear you.” She remarked. 

She started to back away from the elf in terror and continued to cry out and scream. “Guards! Maids! Anyone!” She screamed out. 

This wasn’t possible. How was she here? HOW? The battle was taking place miles away, they had double the guards patrolling around the city and the keep. There was no way the woman could be here, but yet, here she was. Standing before Mira as though mocking her. The dark haired human was near the balcony once more, her back striking the edge of it. She looked over her shoulders. Some of the guard posts near the gates had gone… suspiciously dark on inspection from a distance. 

The dark elf muttered something in her strange language and rolled her eyes as she flicked her fingers out in Mira’s direction. The noblewoman immediately felt a pulse of something seize her. Some force, some energy that was beyond her. Magic. The elven magic seized her and forced her to her knees and as she knelt she felt her clothes growing looser around her. Fabric was falling around her body and strength was flooding from her. She knew what this was. It was in the horror stories of anyone that had seen what the elves did to their captives. She was being shrunk. 

“W-wait, hold a moment! I’m a valuable hostage, please don’t do this!” Mira was a proud woman but in the face of the world getting bigger and bigger around her it was hard to hold onto pride. 

The elf inspected her nails as she was walking closer to Mira, her steps soon enough felt a bit more keenly as vibrations on the ground became something Mira was more aware of. The noblewoman let out a cry as she was swallowed up in the veil of her own clothes, a pile that was on the floor without an owner seemingly. She pushed and crawled through the fabric only to find a very different and very alien world was what awaited her. 

The balcony was a vast structure, the plain of cold stone that stretched around her. In the doorway, framed by the light of the dining room, was the dark skinned elf. Mira’s eyes followed up her body, from her sandal clad feet to her long legs, to her modest bosom and a face looming above that looked down at her. A face that didn’t seem to take much glee, there was more an expression of a woman going through the motions of a job more than there was enjoyment. 

“Hold still.” She thundered in common, squatting down and reaching for Mira. 

Mira did no such thing. The noblewoman started running across the fabric of her clothes in the opposite direction. The opposite direction where there was an edge to the balcony. A wall that rose above her that might as well have been the sheer face of a cliff. She was still running, an instinct, a fear pounding inside her as the naked woman tried to get away from the elf reaching down toward her. 

The elf rolled her purple eyes and her fingers came in anyway, deftly and nimbly gripping and jerking upon a leg. Mira screamed, loudly. As loud as her lungs could manage. She grabbed fistfuls of expensive silk and tried to keep her hold on the ground, scrabbling at it to try and not be lifted off the ground. She held her grip for moments, a tiny pale half inch tall thing in the grip of the woman. 

There was a twitch of the elf’s brow and she tightened her fingers ever so, twisting a bit. “Aaaaaaaa!” A scream of pain echoed out from the depths of Mira’s soul as she lost her grip on the fabric, the pain of her leg being twisted ever so a sharp flare through her nerves. It wasn’t broken, but damn if she was going to be walking easily for a while. 

The elven woman lifted the dark haired human through the air, the cold air of the evening a stark chill upon her naked body, and brought her to her side. Her free fingers were spreading open a pouch on her belt and then with no further fanfare she simply dropped Mira down into the pouch. Mira screamed and flailed through the air as she was released, arms flailing as she fell and struck something hard. Several somethings. 

There was a commotion all around and with the brief bit of light she could see… other people. Naked humans, men and women alike, well over a dozen half inch tall people. She recognized them. Some guards, some servants. Her gaze turned upward and she screamed out at the woman that had dropped her down in here. 

“W-wait, hold on a moment! Just let me speak!” 

Evidently the woman wasn’t interested in that. She pulled the leather cord around the neck of the bag and sealed all of the humans in darkness. There were noises of distress and Mira jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around, her eyes searching in the pitch darkness of the little bag. She squinted and tried to make out who had touched her but thankfully the voice that came clinched it. 

“Are you unharmed, my lady?” The maid that had left to take the orders to the chef, Diane if she recalled correctly. 

The dark haired woman took a moment and was about to respond… before motion suddenly kicked in. She let out a yelp and ended up falling over onto Diane, both of them smacking into the wall of the pouch. The little pouch swayed ever so as the hips of the elven woman moved as she walked, the occupants tossed around by the simple motions of her walking around. She didn’t seem to have a care for their comfort, treating them like coins she had discarded into her purse if anything. 

The motions went on and on, sometimes they got worse when the elf moved faster, sometimes they got better. Mira couldn’t right herself. She couldn’t see where she was going. She smacked into others inside the pouch. The moments she stopped were the moments when the pouch opened up and a new human was added to the pile inside. She used those moments to catch her breath. 

“I’d say none of us are exactly unharmed.” She managed to finally get out a response to Diane, who was holding a steadying arm on her. 

Some men were trying to climb out the opening of the pouch, only for it to close again and then the dark skinned elf was walking again. The motion was probably something the elven woman never noticed or gave a thought about, Mira certainly didn’t when it came to pouches. Being inside one however was a very different story. It was a motion machine of misery from which there was seemingly no escape. Escape attempts to climb out or try to tear open the bottom were foiled when the pouch smacked into her hips and jostled them around. Battering them into submission with barely any effort at all. 

It went on like that for a long while. Maybe it was hours. It was hard to say as the passage of time was hard to track. There were well over two dozen of them inside the pouch now, the cramped space making it so more often than not someone fell on someone else. People had stopped trying to climb and claw their way out after the dozens of times they had been tossed around. This was already awful, no reason to make it worse on themselves after all. Mira herself was nervous but really, there wasn’t much they could do but wait. 

After what seemed like hours she could hear voices beyond the pouch. Elven voices. The elven language being spoken by a number of people beyond. A camp? Were they at the elven encampment? Weren’t they defeated? Mira couldn’t really understand what was being said all too well, elven wasn’t a language she had learned. However it sounded like general chatter, a blur of noise where people spoke to each other about banal matters. 

Suddenly gravity shifted and everyone cried as they felt as though they were falling before being caught, smacking into one another and groaning. The voice of their captor rang out, discussing something with another woman nearby. There was a little exchange before gravity shifted again. Everyone let out a scream as they started falling through the air, Mira waving her arms around as well. 

They fell and landed hard within a square metal cage with extremely thin bars, thin enough there was no way to squeeze out. The top of the cage was closed shut as they had been carelessly dumped inside of it by their captor. She was speaking with an older elven woman with red hair and freckles. The redhead produced a few coins and offered them out to the dark skinned elf and the woman offered a nod before filing them away and departing. They had been… sold? She expected them to take hostages or something like that at least. 

Mira looked around inside the cage and she could see those she had shared the pouch with, but she could also see sights that turned her blood cold. She recognized a couple of knights that had sallied out with her husband to meet with the Elsiran Army in the field. She winced as she rose, her leg tweaking a bit. She limped her way over to one man, a sandy haired youth that looked particularly down. 

“Y-you! What happened in the battle? What’s going on? How did the elves manage to get into the city?” She asked. 

The young man looked up and looked at the dark haired noblewoman at length. Recognition worked its way into his blue eyes and he lowered his gaze moments later. “My lady… the battle was lost. We were outmaneuvered by the Elsiran general. Some were taken prisoner and ended up… well, here.” He gestured around. 

Defeated? No… no that couldn’t be. Mira felt the strength leaving her legs. “A-and my husband?” She asked. 

The young knight paused and seemed to consider his next words carefully. “From what I know he was taken to the Elven General. He was… well he ended up shrunken like us first. I don’t know what happened to him there.” 

Mira knew what the tales said at least. On the eve of her victory over a commander, they were shrunken down and dropped in her wine goblet. Drunken down in celebration of her victory. Mira fell to her knees, she was vaguely aware of Diane offering a hand on her back. Her face fell into her hands and she wept.

Captivity among the elves was something that many horror stories were told of. Rumors of inhumane treatment of prisoners were abound. How they killed humans without a second thought for it, how they tortured them for sport, how they treated them like animals. Mira could confirm that last one at the very least. She hadn’t personally *seen* the other two but so far she didn’t have reason to doubt it. 

After the first evening, their cage had a few more additions given to it the next day before being loaded onto a wagon. The new faces were commoners from the city mostly. From what she understood, at the same time the battle had happened, Elsira had sent over agents skilled in magic to undermine the city’s defenses. It had evidently been a trivial affair to handle the guards and the gates. They had cut the head off of any leadership before storming in and taking the place. It had been decisive, efficient, and brutal. No amount of preparation could have readied them for that. 

Mira was leaning against the bars of the cage, groaning as she rubbed at her groaning stomach. They weren’t exactly well fed. Or taken care of much at all for that matter. Their erstwhile captor, the freckled redhead elf, occasionally lowered in a bowl of water that they basically had to kneel at and use like a trough. She also offered them bits of bread that served as their food. She gave them the bare basics to survive whenever she found it necessary. Which was usually once or twice a day. It was quite brutal.

“You know, rather wish I had taken that offer of more wine.” The noblewoman mused. 

Her maid, Diane, had rather faithfully remained at her side even through all this. Despite the desperate situation Mira was trying, trying very hard, to keep people as hopeful and coordinated as possible. Everyone was looking for some kind of guidance and Mira did her best. She was a noblewoman, no matter what these monsters couldn’t take that from her. The blonde haired maid let out a tired little laugh. 

“Most likely would have made the night more tolerable, my lady.” The maid allowed with some grim humor. 

“Quite, if I knew it would be my last drink of wine I’d have downed the whole bottle.” Indeed, it probably would be. A grim way to think about it truly. 

The road under them rumbled as the carriage rolled over stones along cobbled paths. There was no way to know where they were going, the wagon was covered after all. They were unwilling passengers on a road that surely led somewhere but there were only guesses as to where. They had been on the road for a few days at the very least. A few days of particularly awful treatment from their captor. 

Her eyes fell upon a few men that were trying to work at bending the bars in a section of the cage. For them the bars were thick, easily as thick as a person’s leg and quite close together. As such most knew there was no way they were going to bend or break those bars. Didn’t stop people from trying. Unfortunately Mira could tell this place was pretty much escape proof for them. The elves likely had dealt with humans escaping cages enough to have perfected cages for holding them. 

The day rolled on until the wagon stopped. Periodic stops were common when their captor wanted to take breaks. Such as right now when she stood from the driver seat beyond and stretched, stepping into the covered part of her wagon. The ground quivered ever so under her steps as she walked closer to their cage, humming as she did. People squeaked and jumped away from the cage bars as her steps swung into view, sandal clad feet stomping about beyond. She stepped past them and for another crate further above, opening it up to remove some rations for lunch. 

“So, what do you think is going to happen, hmm? Once we get where we are going I mean.” Mira asked her maid. Well, former maid now she supposed. She wasn’t much of a great lady at this scale. 

Diane paused as though considering a tactful way to answer the question. In the end she seemed to consider tact rather pointless. “This woman is clearly a merchant, my lady. I’d say it's highly likely we’ll be sold once we get wherever. We're a product essentially.” 

Mira… suspected the same honestly though she hadn’t wanted to vocalize it. The woman very clearly was a merchant transporting goods. They were included with those goods. She eyed up the towering elf beyond the cage as she sat down on a crate across from them, munching away at some manner of salted pork. She didn’t seem to have a care in the world and she certainly didn’t care if there were some squeaks of hate and anger from the cage. Which there always were from some people. 

“Hey! HEY! Look down here you damn knife eared bitch! You can’t do this to us!”

“Please, I’m begging you, I’m no one important please just let me go!”

“Why are you doing this!? What did we ever do to you!?” 

It was a repeated series of statements and questions. Mira had shouted them as well on the first day. She hadn’t bothered after seeing how indifferent the woman was to them. To her, it was like heeding the squeaks of mice in a cage perhaps. A chilling prospect if ever there was one. An utterly inhuman one as well. 

The redhead let out a slight yawn between bites and slid her feet from her sandals. The cage shook as her bare heels thunked down atop it on the solid metal door above, no bars making up the ceiling. She crossed her feet at the ankles and used their cage as her footstool, continuing her lunch without interruption. Some had fallen over from the impact, while others managed to maintain balance. Others, like Mira and Diane, had been seated so it was jarring but little else. 

Everyone in the cage watched her warily, carefully, as though fearful to tempt her mood and her wrath. She had rather demonstrated that a simple gesture from her, just setting her foot down, was enough to completely shake their world. It was the gulf that had become stark in what they were and what she was. Mira swallowed thickly as she regarded the woman on high. Compared to them she might as well have been a deity of old. She could kill the lot of them and it would have taken no effort at all. Yet instead of smug or laughter or anything, it was indifference. To her they were just something she was transporting. At least the assassin that had come for Mira and the castle had been willing to engage them. The redhead merchant wasn’t. 

After a few more minutes she finished chewing her salted pork and stood back up, sliding on her sandals and walking back to the front of the wagon to drive it onward again. No one quite made a noise until they were sure they were moving again. There was relief in the air, the tension from her slamming her foot down on their prison evaporating all at once. Mira felt it as well, felt the relief of feeling like they had avoided the edge of a blade somehow. Perhaps the motion had just been casual, perhaps it had been a warning. Only the redhead elf knew. 

“Perhaps getting where we are going might not be as dangerous as this after all.” She mused. 

“Perhaps. Perhaps not, my lady. We’ll only know when we get there.” Diane said gravely. 

A few more days came and went, attempts at escape were attempted and were ultimately unable to make any ground. They were still fed their slim diet and really, that alone took the fight out of so many. Mira included. She was just… so hungry. She could barely think straight at times from the sheer hunger of it. Fights had broken out at times, people pushing others out of the way so they could get more food. It was a brutal thing, resulting in a couple of people having broken arms or noses. 

The noblewoman was looking thinner than before, so were many others. That didn’t seem to bother their jailer as she fed them the same meager amount no matter how much they begged her otherwise. At least they did have plenty of water when she lowered the basin, a minor blessing even if bathing was out of the question. It was a miserable existence, utterly and completely dreadful. 

Yet it seemed to be coming to a close as there were sounds of commotion outside. More voices. Many voices. The roads the wagon rumbled down became less rough and vastly more smooth. Mira suspected they had reached some manner of elven settlement. Something confirmed when the redhead climbed for a bit and then returned and started offloading cargo. That injected some life into everyone at least as some pushed against the bars to try and catch glimpses. 

Soon enough the hands of the redhead came down on either side of the cage and hoisted it up through the air, Mira grunting as she was tossed from her position and landed atop Diane and another woman. There were others in their position, roughly lugged around like so much cargo. The woman was walking and taking them out of the wagon and… into some kind of building. The inside of the building had a number of goods arrayed around it, jewelry, clothing, produce, it was a rather large shop all told. A general store perhaps. 

They were transported over to a long shelf and upon that shelf were other cages. Cages with humans in them. The redhead handed them off to another elf, a blonde busty woman with an apron on and spoke some words to her rapidly before offering a wave. The blonde elf lifted the cage up to her eyes and looked inside, gazing over their forms at length. She clicked her tongue ever so. 

“Talsa really is lackluster about her feedings. Well, most of you seem intact at least.” She mused in common. 

She set the cage down on a table near the shelf and opened up the top of it, leaning in and raking her blue eyes across them. Mira didn’t feel any warmth from those sapphire orbs. It was rather the eye of a woman that was inspecting a product. She swallowed thickly, unsure what the judgment would be and what that meant for them. 

“Hmm… you.” She reached down and plucked up a rather buxom brunette woman, the woman screaming as she was lifted out by pale soft fingers. “And you.” She lifted a strong looking man up by the leg and deposited him on her palm with the woman. “Annnd… you.” 

Her fingers came down toward Mira and her heart started to race. Only they didn’t grab Mira. “My Lady, help me!” 

“Diane!” Mira stood and gripped the wrist of her maid, trying to hold onto her and prevent her from being lifted up into the air. The servant had a look of panic wrote across her face. 

The blonde elf rolled her eyes. “No, no, not you. Too old.” She sighed. She idly shook her hand and the sheer force of it was enough Mira lost her grip, rolling across the metal floor of the cage and groaning as she laid out. Diane was pulled the rest of the way, screaming as she was dropped down onto the elven woman’s palm. 

“Three suitable for pets at least. Think Lady Yvela mentioned looking for some the other day.” She mused aloud. 

She shoved the three of them into the pocket of her apron. They were the chosen ones it seemed. Mira coughed and sputtered, black spots dancing before her eyes from the pain of the impact. She looked out helplessly as Diane was dropped down into the elven woman’s apron. The last thing from her life as a noblewoman really that she recognized. Snatched away with the ease one would pluck a grape from the vine. 

The blonde shut the top of the cage and latched it before hoisting it up to the shelf above. On either side of them were cages of other humans, some more broken looking than others. Mira looked at their neighbors and then looked out as the blonde woman was walking away. She pushed against the bars, tears rolling down her cheeks as she watched her depart. What did that mean for the rest of them? What was this? 

Though she couldn’t read or see it, above the shelf was a sign written in elven. It read: Bulk Humans, Freshly Caught! 10 Gold Pieces per Cage!

It was… better than being on the wagon. That was about all that Mira could say about being on the shelf in the elven store. For indeed this was a store as she had come to see. Likely the wagon they had come on was a merchant that worked for the owner of this shop. A supplier. The shop owner fed them twice a day with a strange mix of bread and dried meat and provided them water the same way the driver of the wagon had. She also didn’t tolerate violence in the cages. If she saw it she shook the cage slightly to break it up. It was a marked improvement.

The question on everyone’s mind was of course, how long would they just be items on a shelf. Because ultimately, that was what they were. Just sitting on a shelf and fed. Mira had seen one cage on the end of the shelf taken in the days since they had been here. The former noblewoman had no idea what had happened to them when they left the building. What purpose were they bought for? It was a great mystery. Not knowing was the worst part, arguably. 

They didn’t have to wonder for long in the grand scheme. A few days after being put on the shelf Mira observed someone walk into the store. She was a stunningly beautiful elf dressed in a maid uniform not unlike Diane’s really. She had short dark hair pulled into a bun and had a pair of glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. She was also notably a good head taller than the blonde owner of the establishment. The pair exchanged words and the blonde gestured to their shelf. 

The dark haired maid looked over and when her gaze met the cages… Mira wasn’t sure why but a chill ran down her spine. It was a feeling of dread anticipation. Like she should be aware there was danger nearby but couldn’t *actually* see that danger. The maid’s gaze passed on down the line of cages and after a few moments she lifted up three fingers and pulled out a decent little sack of coins, setting it down on the counter. 

The owner opened it up and counted them out before nodding. She called back into the back room. “Talsa!” 

The redhead that had driven the carriage wandered from the back room. They exchanged some words and the redhead inclined her head to the maid before walking her way over to the shelf. She whistled a jaunty tune as she picked up one of the cages and followed the maid outside. Then she returned and picked the one right next to Mira’s cage, everyone starting to murmur among themselves. Mira meanwhile was getting a pit opening in the bottom of her stomach. 

Her concerns were warranted when the redhead bounded back over, her steps quivering the shelf under their cage. She gripped either side of it before walking outside, a rather expensive looking white carriage outside. Very expensive. Rather one that would belong to nobility. That was where they were being brought. 

“Where are we going?”

“What’s going on?”

“What’s gonna happen to us?” 

Concerned murmurs and chittering rose up from the humans in their cage. They were stacked inside on one of the seats next to one of the other cages offloaded. Mira could hear similar concerns in that one. She was getting some bad feelings about this. This kind of carriage, the maid, everything pointed to a noblewoman of some kind being the person that had purchased them. She had purchased a great deal of them. Between all the cages there had to be at least six dozen humans. 

The maid stepped inside the carriage after the transport was completed and they were set off rumbling down the streets. Some people tried to call out to the maid. She simply kept her hands folded on her lap and looked out the window of the carriage as the settlement they were in passed them by. The question was, what would a wealthy woman want with dozens of tiny humans. Mira had heard horror stories of course… but those couldn’t be real could they? 

It took a while for their questions to be answered. After arriving at what appeared to be a very large estate they were shuffled off into a supply room somewhere and left there. Hours ticked by. Hours in the dark, only the occasional servant stopping by to pick up some items or supplies. It was a time of terrible anticipation where the humans were permitted to imagine what would befall them. What horrible unknown fate awaited them. 

When the time did come, the maid returned for them and took one cage. Then another. Then finally Mira’s. The noblewoman swallowed thickly as they were ferried through fine artfully carved halls. She could hear… laughter? Melodic and cheerful laughter at that. It grew louder and louder as they approached their destination. And at last they passed through the doorway into a room. 

It was a rather large room, floors of pure marble tiled black and white below. It wasn’t a sitting room really, more a room where one would entertain intimate parties of guests. No more than ten or so. Mira knew this because her own castle had a room like that for the very same purpose. Wouldn’t have done to use the great hall for something of a more private gathering between social peers. 

There were about six extremely well dressed elven women seated on couches that were shoved to one side of the room. Oddly, the other half of the room almost seemed to have the floor completely cleared. There were spots where furniture likely had once been. Yet it had been moved. The maid set their cage down on a table near the well dressed elves, dipping her head low to one of the elves in particular. Mira caught a name. Lady Hilna. 

Lady Hilna was a very deathly pale woman, indeed, it appeared almost like she was wearing very pale makeup. Dark hair spilled freely down her back and her fashion sense was very much something Mira would have said fit better at a funeral. Very black and dark. Really the fashion senses of the elves in general were strange. One darker skinned elf was wearing a dress that was white and gold, another a toga trimmed with purple. 

The lady of the evening had her eyes sweep down toward the cages and she smirked, saying something to her fellows and lifting a brow. One of them shrugged and raised her hand, volunteering for something evidently. On the table before them they had what appeared to be a rather expensive bottle of spirits and shot glasses. 

Mira watched as the maid seized one of the cages and opened the top, walking toward the barren part of the room as she did. While she did that the darker skinned woman in white and gold poured herself out a shot in the glass and walked over to the barren area as well, idly sliding out of her sandals as she did. The shrunken noblewoman watched as the elf stood there and took a deep breath, before taking a shot and then spinning herself around about ten times. 

While she did that, the maid reached into the cage and pulled out handfuls of the humans from inside before dropping them on the ground and stepping back with the cage under her arm. And then, all at once, it clicked exactly *what* they were going to be used for by these women. 

The darker skinned elf finished spinning and then, no doubt a bit off balance and off after the shot, she started trying to step on the humans upon the floor. She missed her first stomp, cursing in her native language before her next step caught two under her sole. The woman arched her foot up and even from here, Mira felt a chill go up her spine as she could very easily make out the faint crunch of bones and bodies under her no doubt otherwise soft doughy skin. 

One man barely escaped a stomp, only to end up crunched under a heel the next moment. The woman was rapid and quick about stepping on the humans at her feet, the tiny pale things scattering in every direction they could and they only ever escaped death because the woman was unbalanced. Off slightly from what she had done at the start. A self handicap in a way. After about fifteen seconds one of the other girls shouted something and the woman suddenly stopped. Six stains were upon the marble floor and red stained upon the bottoms of her feet as well. She let out a groan and rolled her eyes as she looked at her fellows, displeased. 

“A drinking game…” Mira managed to choke out. 

That was what this was. A high society elven drinking game. She watched numbly as the maid gathered up the still fleeing survivors with incredible dexterity and tossed them back into the cage, shaking it around slightly. Mixing them up. Helping keep it fresh. Mira felt her knees buckle under her as she gazed out at the horror show, many others doing the same. They were just part of some fun evening activities a rich noblewoman was having with her peers. That was what they had been bought for. 

“N-no… oh gods no. Nonono!” Mira felt tears spring to her eyes as another elf, the one dressed in a purple toga walked up next. 

She had pink hair pulled into twin tails and a rather regal smirk on her lips as she didn’t bother to remove her sandals. She lifted her shotglass in a flirty little gesture, winking at the maid and drawing a flush from the servant before downing her shot and spinning around. Mira felt like she was about to throw up as she watched it again. She watched the pink haired elf chase around and crush fresh humans poured out onto the floor, laughing as she did it like it was a great time. Her friends laughed as they did it as well. To them it was fine entertainment for the evening, to the humans it was an execution that couldn’t have been more dehumanizing. 

Mira tried to look away, but it was impossible. Because she knew eventually it would be her turn. She watched as the girls ran through the first cage. It didn’t matter if someone survived one round, or the next round. Or the round after that. There was no reward. There was only the next round, poured out onto the floor again. You avoided dying under one elf’s foot only to be squished under another’s. 

People clawed at the bars, tried to climb and push at the door out of the cage. Tried to squeeze through the bars. Anything. The desperation of animals took many while the despair of what they were seeing took others. Others like Mira. Mira watched numb as the second cage was picked up, the people pleading and screaming as they were taken. 

“Not like this! NOT LIKE THIS!” 

“Please, mercy, I don’t wanna die!” 

“You can’t do this to us, we’re people! We’re not fucking animals!” 

The screams and wails of people taken to their doom. The rounds continued. As a consequence of drinking the elven women became more rowdy, loud, and laughed more and more. That didn’t make them more merciful. Not by a long shot. It made them less coordinated and their steps more clumsy, but that just meant being used for another’s round. It was unending. Terrible. Dreadful. 

Mira watched a shorter green haired elf staggered forth onto the floor, her feet having claimed many lives already at this point. She giggled as she leaned over at the cage and poked at it with her fingers. Her words came out in slurred common. “I’m gonna squish every~ single~ one~ of you little fucks, gods its gonna feel soooo *amazing*!” She said before lifting her shot to her lips and taking a drink. 

She spun around and the humans were dropped out onto the floor. On the last spin however the elven woman slipped and let out a squeak of alarm as she twisted and fell backward. The humans hadn’t had time to scatter properly and found themselves caught under the shadow of her very ample and very filled rear, screaming before she smashed down upon the floor. Her ass came crashing down upon them all, easily a dozen half inch tall humans smothered and squashed in the cataclysmic fall. 

She blinked and looked dazed before looking back over her shoulders, her friends roaring with laughter across the way. She puffed out her cheeks. “That totally counts!” She exclaimed. 

It was… almost mesmerizing in a horrifying kind of way. These women, indeed no one in elven society thought anything of this. Genuinely. Maybe individuals did. Maybe. But no one was stopping them. No one was protesting them. No one was forcing these women to not do this to them. It was acceptable by the standards of their race. Not even that, it was hard coded into most to not even give it a second thought. Like how most people didn’t spare a thought to the livestock slaughtered for their meals. Mira didn’t know what to feel, didn’t know what to think. She only knew when it was her turn. 

The cage was hoisted up and lifted through the air, the panic in the cage reaching fever pitch. Diane was lucky, Mira now realized. At least it seemed like it. She had been selected as a pet. A pet at least implied she had some sentimental value. Everyone in this cage was basically nothing. Less than nothing. These rich women probably scraped dirt off their shoes they considered more highly than them. Mira looked up at the sky as they were lifted toward the open area. 

“If there are any gods that watch me now… please. I know you won’t save me. Not after all I’ve seen here. But please… let Diane live a longer life than I. No matter what that life is. Don’t let this be her end. Please do that, for my last surviving vassal.” Mira managed to whisper. Whether the gods were kind or not, that was hard to say. Perhaps they never existed to begin with. Perhaps these were their gods now. 

Whatever the case was Mira watched as Lady Hilna staggered up and looked into the cage herself, dark eyes drinking in their terror and hopelessness. She blew them a kiss before stepping back and hoisting the shotglass to her lips. The vast hand of the maid came down and gripped Mira and her fellows, curling around her and a number of other humans. Fear lanced through her and survival instinct kicked in. 

The second she was dropped on the floor she took off running. As did everyone else. She ran hard and fast, her bare feet slapping hard against the cold tile. Blood stains littered the floor, the remains of other humans killed that night. A dark shadow loomed over them all as the pale elf, a goddess of death, loomed over them all and lifted her foot up. 

It slammed down, smashing into a man trying to flee not too far away, crushing him. The sound… it was sickening. She could hear a very quick muffled scream before the crunches drowned that out. Pale bare feet hoisted up, stained with the blood of their fellows that evening and slammed down. Fifteen seconds didn’t seem long but it was an eternity when one was upon the floor, scampering for their lives. 

Mira drove herself onward, a foot slamming down close by, air blasting past her and sending her falling over from the force of impact. She was breathing heavily as she tried to rise… only to see the deepened dark shadow beneath her. She looked up. Her eyes widened. Above was the bloodied sole of the pale elf. Time almost seemed to freeze in that moment. A moment of crystal clarity. A moment where time was frozen completely. Mira saw her death. A death not any different from any other human under elves. Noble or not, she was just another human to these beings. 

The clarity ended and the next instant there was a brief pain and then… blissfully nothing. Mira’s death was neigh instant, crushed beneath the sole of Lady Hilna. The pale elf arched her foot up at the end of her fifteen seconds and ground in the last human she had squashed, dragging her foot back and reducing Mira to nothing more than a red streak on the floor. A red streak among many splotches. Likely after the party it would be wiped away by the maid watching it all, annihilating any sign she had ever existed.