Lenny rubbed his hands together in excitement. “We will single-handedly feed the entire village through winter. They won’t stop talking about us, boys.”

“Forget that, we’ll take enough evernuts to sell them and make a fortune,” Red said. “We’ll get ourselves a bloody mansion.” Lenny and his three friends were marching up the small path in one column. They were all seventeen years of age, friends since childhood. For Lenny’s three friends the companionship came naturally, as Red, Green, and Blue were triplets. Their mother had accidentally ingested a magical mushroom during pregnancy, birthing the three of them with their stark colors. The skin, face, and general appearance were identical, as triplets should be, but their names were no accident, all according to the color of the hair they’d been born with. In a strangely perfect logic, which couldn’t possibly be mere circumstance but the powerful mushroom’s doing, Red was the spirited, hot-headed character of the three, Green the shy and amiable one, Blue the tempered and understanding. They kept their hair identical, bushy and rough. Lenny was taller than the triplets, his lengthy brown hair let out into a braid sitting between his shoulder blades.

“I don’t know,” Green said, last one in their line. “It seems too good to be true, you know? Just a big evernut plantation that’s sitting there, easy pickings. These are evernuts we’re talking about, some of the most valuable food there is.”

Red reared his head back with a roll of his eyes. “There goes the Doubting Dory again.”

“Think about it, though. If it’ll be this easy just to sneak in and pick the evernuts from the trees, why haven’t anyone else done it? They say a giant is guarding it.”

“Because people don’t know about it,” Red said. “We got a good tip from Benjamin. He even had a handful of evernuts, which will last his family an entire month through the winter.”

“Why isn’t Benjamin the one who’s rich, then?”

“Because he’s a bumpkin. He doesn’t even have much magic to his name, imagine how incompetent this giant is that bloody Benjamin got away with a handful.”

“From what I’ve heard,” Blue said, “a rich giant owns it, and her daughter is the one guarding the evernut plantation. It’s kept safe from giants through the rich giant’s connections, but from humans? They don’t care much about us. Honestly, the volume of evernuts a human can steal is so little it might not even matter to them.”

“This is us getting a little sip of their world,” Lenny said, gesturing vividly with his hands, inspiring confidence at the front of their one-filed march. “Imagine how many things there are over in their country we wouldn’t understand. There’s nothing strange going on here.” They crested the hillside, linden trees before them obstructing a nice view over the landscape. They could see the descent of the treetops, their scant path threading through a stretch of purple heather which blanketed the grove.

“How large do you think she is?” Green said.

Red shrugged. “Never seen a giant before. But I’d imagine she’s tall like the trees, thirty feet or something. But we’ll outrun that easily.” The four of them were fledgling mages, having reached their base magics. The triplets had already gained plenty of attention across the country for their eccentricity; fittingly, their magics also corresponded to their colors. All four had a large pouch slung over their backs, hopefully to be filled with evernuts on their way home.

By noon, after cresting another ridgeline, they saw a clearing amid the trees. The fence was rather standard for how valuable evernuts were, a set of wooden beams making a split rail fence. As the boys got closer, their heads tilted higher and higher to see the topmost beam, perhaps fifty feet high.

Green’s eyes lingered on them. “That’s pretty high.”

Red snorted. “Nothing strange about that. The barricade is always higher than who’s in it, you know, to keep them out. There’s that walnut plantation down at Jorven where the marble walls were like twenty feet high, for humans.”

“But those were stone walls, this is just a post fence.”

Red grumbled. “Green, I told you to sit at home. This is why. Back home with your soy milk is where you belong, not out with the men.”

Green stubbornly trailed after them. “I’m just being careful.”

“No more bickering,” Blue said as he and Lenny led them ahead. “Save it for later.”

They left the last trees, a broad expanse of grass before them, surrounding the fence. They were on the backside of the plantation, no house in sight. They could see the tall evernut trees beyond the fence. Evernuts were the ultimate superfood, a piece of the heavens which graced the earth. Despite being the size of peas, less than half a pound of evernuts was enough to satiate a giant for more than a day. For a human, one handful would have the month taken care of.

Without needing to duck, the young men slipped past the fence, Lenny first, then Blue, Red third, and finally Green. Lenny watched Green come in last, and he noticed the air behind him wobble, like the ripples a dropped stone made across water.

Blue noticed Lenny’s focus. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing. Come on, let’s go.” They made it past a pretty row of flowery bushes, scaring away a few rabbits. The birds chippered at one another. The evernut trees were enormous, pillaring upwards a hundred feet. Their branches were plenty and came off along its entire length, even near the bottom, and they were rich with small, dark-green leaves. There were brown clusters among them, the veiny shell akin to a walnut, each containing several evernuts. As long as the shell was intact, the evernut could last for years without tarnishing, even after being picked.

The four boys gazed up in wonder at the brown clusters dotted upon the dark-green, so ample they outcompeted the leaves off the branches at certain portions. Towards the topmost branches, they began sagging from the weight of the evernuts, one heavy branch enough to feed an entire village of humans through winter.

“Gods be praised,” Blue said airily. The hot and blaring sun couldn’t make its way down to them, the plantation a kingdom of its own. “Let’s begin then.” They had two hemp pouches with them, one of them inside the other. They brought the first one out, thrashing them straight, and snuck in under the lowest branches. However, the first couple of minutes were spent looking and appraising the evernuts rather than filling the pouch up.

“No, don’t pick those,” Red said, going over to Green and showing him a nice, rich brown shell of an evernut he’d picked himself. “If there’s any green on them, it means they’re immature, like yourself.”

“Shut up.”

“Actually,” Lenny called with a raised voice to get their attention, “it seems most of them are immature around here.”

Blue nodded, stepping out of the tree’s cover and surveying the surroundings. “Agreed. Maybe they pick the outermost trees first? Or others like us have come by and rinsed the bottom branches. I feel like I can see more brown shells at the bottom in there.”

“Let’s go then,” Red said.

“Not too far in, however.” Although the evernut trees were arranged in columns, the spread of their lush branches was asymmetrical, some with a heavy bottom richness, others towards the top, leaning towards different sides. This made it so that despite the orderly arrangement of the trees, the corridors between them would vary. Where the trees of opposing sides sagged towards one another, they effectively shrouded the passage. One could rarely espy the entire distance down one corridor.

“Now this is what we’re bloody talking about,” Red said, the bottom branches drooping down to their level from the bountiful evernuts.

“I believe this is what they mean when they talk about picking the low-hanging fruit.” They had a hearty chuckle, their first pouch rounding out as the next minutes were spent plucking and tossing the evernuts inside.

Green moved to the nearby tree, neck still craned up as if stargazing. “I wondered, if the giant is twenty-something feet like you said, and these trees are three or four times that, where are the ladders?” Green tripped and fell, and his heart fluttered a little when he tumbled onwards rather than meet the ground.

Lenny barely noticed his slip, glancing back before returning to picking. “You alright back there?”

There was no response.

“Green?”

“G—Guys, get over here,” Green said, a trembling voice.

Red snorted. “What’s the matter?” The three went over, their first pouch around half-full. Green had fallen into a peculiar ditch. It had a drawn-out, crescent-like shape, though at its two ends were deeper, rounded furrows. They weren’t identical, however, one of them more circular, the other a thicker and shorter stretch. Just ahead of the thick and short stretch, five distinct balls of depressed ground could be seen, traveling in an arch which traced the deeper furrow, each ball from left to right progressively getting smaller.

Lenny thought those five balls looked like toes. And when he entertained that idea, like the pieces of a puzzle coming together, it naturally followed that the short and thick furrow behind it was indeed the ball of the foot. The crescent-like stretch down from it was the outer side, the arch high and kind on the inner portion, leaving the ground there fairly untouched. And the lowest, deep circular point was the heel.

Lenny voiced his observation. “Doesn’t it look like a footprint?”

They spent several seconds completing the picture Lenny had, eyes scanning the length of the foot. From heel to toe, it was almost three times their length.

Red broke the silence. “Well, shit.” They were agape, trying to make the implication work in their mind. Lenny envisioned the foot of the giant who’d walked here, covering the entire print before them. His eyes went up, following the stout phantom leg. He tried to get an appreciation of his own shoe compared to his height, applying that ratio to her. Of course, his estimations would come nowhere near reality, but one thing was certain, she was no meager twenty-five feet.”

“Didn’t you say she twenty-something feet tall?” Green said, an uncertain frown on him.

“I said I don’t know.” Red was defensive, a concern acknowledging the problem.

“Look here.” Blue kneeled by the ball of the foot, calling them over. The outline a of human torso was printed within the ball of the foot, pointing inwards, arms helplessly sprawled out. Towards the front, the print of his arm only reached to the elbow, as the forearm had freely poked out into the gap between her toes. That detail gave the footprint meaning, gave character to the giant who’d tread her. The giant had not idly walked by, she’d been chasing and, successfully, caught a human. The human also gained character upon a second thought, surely to have been someone who entered to pick evernuts.

Just like the four of them.

“Guys, nothing’s changed,” Blue said, an assertive tone. “We knew the plantation owner’s daughter was here, and I hope no one here expected she’d take kindly to us snatching some evernuts. We’re still hiding, still grabbing our evernuts, and will be on our way. Nothing’s changed, really.”

“We didn’t know she’d be this big!” Green said.

“Our magic keeps us safe, right?” Red, who hadn’t hesitated to make fun of Green, needed some comfort of his own.

“It does,” Lenny said. “It’s fine. Blue’s right, nothing’s changed. Fill up our bags and leave, and return as heroes back home. We’ll have all of winter taken care of. Now come—” He paused.

“What is it?”

Lenny didn’t need to share his observation, for the faint sound he picked up became more distinct, growing. More than just hearing, they could feel it.

The ground was shaking.

“Quick, hide!” Lenny, Red, Blue, and Green scurried in under the canopy of the nearest evernut tree. The tremors tickled their shoes and ankles, arriving with the unmistakable rhythm of footsteps. The boys huddled together, Green clinging onto Blue. The sound and tremors grew, gaining the nearness where Lenny knew she was close, her eyes likely to see them should they just take those several steps that would bring them out of their cover.

Lenny kneeled, scoping the entire view they had from underneath. Upwards, one would glimpse nothing past the dense foliage of the evernut trees. The tree nearest to theirs rustled as if taken by the sudden surge of a hurricane, causing all four to take another step back. Her left foot stamped right into view before them, and the right one arrived right beside it.

Despite the footprint not allowing any confusion to her size, they couldn’t believe the sight before them. Her sunburned, caramel feet were monstrously large, not merely for her size. In that lay the hope that her overall size might be smaller than the first footprint suggested, for she truly had exceptional feet. Those bulbous toes did well to cushion the steps. As if made to catch humans, they were long and lithe with a meaty fullness that gave them the strength to pin perhaps even the most powerful human mages.

She just stood there. As if aware of their presence, she flexed her toes, the joints popping as those flawless peds raked the soil, brandishing her weapon to them. The left foot drew back, scratching her right ankle, and the boys watched with both reverence and dread over how leisurely she moved these earth-shattering vehicles of flesh.

“The beads say they should be somewhere around here…” It was the bright voice of a young lady, beyond the treetops. “I’ll find the little rats.” With that, the massive feet turned aside and proceeded on, slamming their tremor-inducing enormity into the distance, their presence receding.

“Holy shit,” Red whispered when left to silence. Green was shook, constantly watching with those wide eyes and not relenting despite her absence.

Blue turned to all of them, his voice hushed, “Was she talking about us?”

“I think she was,” Lenny said.

“How does she know?” No one could answer, but Lenny remembered.

“When we stepped inside, past the fence, I thought I noticed something, as if we passed a barrier of some kind. It’s surely magic, maybe it alerts her, something like it.”

Red swatted him on the arm. “It never occurred to you to fucking tell us?”

“It didn’t mean much at the time, you guys would probably just have ignored it. Especially you, Red, so don’t give me that nonsense.”

“Enough arguing,” Blue said. “What do we do now?”

Red was the first to speak up. “I say we keep filling up before leaving. She won’t find us under here.”

“She almost did!” Green said, greeted by disciplinary hushes.

“He is right,” Blue added. “She was literally right in front of us, and most importantly, it wasn’t by accident. She mentioned these beads showing where we are. She really is looking for us, with magical means.” Blue raised his pouch, a noticeable bulge weighing it down. “I filled more than half of mine, I’ll take that.”

“Half? We can fill two entire pouches each,” Red objected.

“Sorry, buddy,” Lenny said. “I have to agree with him. What we’ve got isn’t little. Let’s take our win here while we have it.” Green’s support was no surprise, and so with that majority overruling Red, they made their way back, slinking in under the treetops. A perceptive ear and eye always out, they didn’t catch much more noise from her monumental size, surprisingly. Blue led the way to the trees which had less evernuts at the bottom, as they remembered, and soon it cleared up. The expanse of grass with the row of flowery bushes was back.

“This’ll be the hardest part, actually,” Blue said. “It’ll be open terrain, even after the fence. We should make a dash for it here and not stop until we make it to the woods.” They wrapped their half-full pouches around their wrist, each summoning their base magics. To no surprise, the triplets’ magics were according to their own colors, while Lenny’s was a golden sheen. It enveloped their legs, and kneeling, nodding to one another, at the count of three they started their run. Red got a little ahead, then Blue, Lenny, and finally Green. They whipped bast the bushes, tearing a few leaves and petals with them. The post fence came closer, closer, Red was about to pass though the bottommost beam.

He slammed straight into a barrier with a red flash, landing down on his side. The three behind him stopped as abruptly as they could, Blue almost tripping over Red.

“What the hell?” Lenny stepped up and put his hand forward. As if the air before him were a calm lake and Lenny’s hand a stone, the ripples he recalled from when they had entered materialized. It didn’t allow exit.

Everyone tested it for themselves, met with the same barrier.

“You can’t be bloody serious!” Red said. His right leg surged with a red glow as he spun around and kicked it. The barrier burst and launched him back, past the rest.

He did not land on the grass, but cushy flesh. Red was right between the gap of her big and second toe.

There was no urgency from the giant, no sense of needing to capture the moment. The big toe casually rose up, bent inward, and sat on Red’s face, swirling a few turns over him, the creamy nub of her toe melting into him. Then she released him, and Red sprinted back to his friends, the dirt from her toe smeared over his cheeks.

She took one step forward, her shadow falling over them, just like the shadow the trees produced. Those two gargantuan feet were on either side of them, and following the pillars of caramel legs, the toned calves and thighs, they arrived at the hemline of her blue frock, ending at the middle of her thigh. Hands on her hips, she towered over them so properly they had a straight view to her white panties. Her eyes were small and mean-looking, a large, bridged nose, freckled cheeks, and the two jutting front teeth showing themselves as she grinned completed a picture that wasn’t exactly a maiden from the fairy tales. Her breast was flat, a skinny frame, but that didn’t matter when she stood a staggering ninety feet tall. It especially didn’t matter when what they feared the most, what they had to watch out for, were her feet, and they were extraordinarily large.

Those long toes flexed, making Green flinch and retreat behind Blue. She was drinking in the sight of their awe, relishing it.

“Three colored clowns and a normal-looking boy,” she said, adjusting her short brown hair beyond the ears. “Give me your names, thieves.”

The four looked between one another. Blue said, “I’m Blue, those are my brothers Red and Green, and that’s Lenny. We… uhm…” He didn’t have a good explanation.

“I’m Mara,” she said. “My mother owns this plantation. You think you can just steal our harvest?”

“Let’s be real here.” Red stepped forward, a brash tone. He slapped his half-full pouch. “What we’ve got isn’t even a drop of water in this lake of yours. It’s nothing to you, while for us, our village could just sit back and make it through the next winter without breaking a sweat.”

Mara raised her eyebrow. “That’s a lot of words without saying ‘steal’ or ‘thief’.”

“We’ll give it back, then,” Lenny said, presenting his pouch.

“Oh, you will.” The wry smile returned to Mara’s homely face. “I love when humans slink in under the fence, expecting their smallness to go by unnoticed. Then they enter the barrier.” Mara brought out an amulet from under her hemline, three purple beads connected. “And I’m alerted and can find them, and the barrier keeps them inside. I sometimes do let some humans go with a bit of evernuts, with the promise that they spread the word, so more of them come here. Sometimes, they do succeed, but they don’t make away with much, and it only serves to bring more of them here. There’s nothing more fun than chasing you all down.”

Lenny was certain he noticed a dark stain forming on her panties.

“I’ll give you a head start. I’ll count to five. At five…” Mara stood on her heels, showing them the meaty balls of her feet, the defined wrinkles forming along the arches as she flexed those hungry toes. “These darlings will want to spend some time with you.”

Blue flung his pouch aside as a gesture of goodwill. “We’ll drop everything and forget this.”

Mara didn’t care. “One.” The count had begun.

“Two.”

The four boys bolted past between her ankles, empowered by their base magics.

“Three.”

They tore past the bushes and were back in under the trees.

“Four.” Mara’s voice was more distant now.

They had a moment’s pause, wondering where to go, but Red just ran and called them to him. Overthinking wouldn’t do here, a notion they implicitly agreed upon as they joined him wordlessly. What mattered was getting away from her.

They didn’t hear the count to five, but they did feel the tremors returning. The tangible quakes hastened their steps. Their bodies whipped past the branches, navigating through and under the trees, their shoes drumming the grass. But she found them still, guided by her beads, emerging from the foliage like a moving mountain. The four boys sprinted, the two monstrous feet barreling through the greenery and gaining purchase on them. With each step, the row of five long, mighty toes were closer, and there was an increasing fear that they would be the imprint on the soil some other unlucky group of people would stumble upon. They would be made the next examples. Those soles wanted to recruit them under their soft flesh, plaster them to the underside and make them equals to the twigs, blades of grass, and smatters of dirt stuck thereunder.

Scoring one panicked glance back, they saw the mirrored alternation of five toes smashing the soil behind them, blasting their backsides with a puff of air as they narrowly missed, and it induced the boys with the extra surge of adrenaline they needed to keep them at their quickest. Though it was possible she was toying with them, able to catch up yet maintaining a taunting nearness.

There was no time to think, doubt, discuss, the four had to keep going, and as the wooden steps of a porch appeared at the end of their long run, they jumped up without question, slipped into the open door without question, followed Red’s lead down the hall and under the two-foot high slit under the giant door. And in that room, they hurried underneath a cupboard. The colors of their base magics left their bodies, dissipating like mist thrown to the wind. Green got on his knees, Red rearing his head up, Blue lying down on his back, and Lenny leaned against the cupboard’s leg, all of them panting, tugging their shirts to air their torsos and wiping their brows. A large window in the room allowed sunlight in, the room bright, and although there was some darkness underneath the cupboard, it wasn’t enough for comfort. Next to their cupboard, they had a bed, the width between its two legs larger than human houses.

The door opened, the four of them retreating to the back of the cupboard, against the wall. Those two familiar feet stamped forward past the edge of the door, producing deep thuds on the hardwood.

“Well, well,” she said, closing the door behind her. “Slipping into my bedroom? You boys are naughty.” Mara went over to the rack and picked a large robe, wrapping it into a tight roll of cloth. She shoved that cloth into the slit under the door, blocking exit. “So, little thieves.” On the balls of her feet, she twisted around nimbly, facing toward the room. “There are two options. You can come out and surrender, which includes kneeling at my feet and kissing my toes. To begin with.” She giggled. “The second option is to keep hiding and make me find you. And when I do, well, these feet won’t be as kind to you then. Make your decision, rats!” It went quiet.

“What do we do?” Lenny whispered, all four still with a pant to them.

“We should just give up,” Green said. “It’ll be better. We can’t get out anyways.”

Red scowled at the notion. “No way. I’m not kissing her stinky toes.”

Blue signaled to get a word in. “Wait, where’s your pouches?”

“I threw mine while we ran, it got in the way.”

“Me too, but fuck, I thought someone would be keeping theirs.” Observing everyone, none of them had their sack of evernuts left.

Red slapped his own face. “What a joke.”

“Time’s up!” Mara announced, the toes happily flexing, eager for the hunt. Luckily, Mara stepped over to the other side of the room, to the dresser and wardrobe, jostling the large furniture with a few mild kicks. “Where are the rats hiiiiiiiiiidiiing?” she cooed. Lenny wasn’t buying it. Mara rarely got down on all four to peer the underside of the furniture, a halfhearted check here-and-there, as if she already knew. Mara moved over to the night table, poking her foot under and searching.

“Hey,” Red whispered. He brought everyone’s attention to the bundled robe clogging the door. “It’s loose on that end, you think we can wrestle it free, sneak out of here?”

“It could be worth a shot.”

Before any plan came to form, any action was taken, Mara’s massive foot landed in front of the cupboard with a pronounced stomp, the hardwood croaking. “Hmm,” Mara hummed, in exaggerated thought. The right foot came over the left one and coyly stroked it, scraping off some grass and branches still stuck there. Then, the left went over to the right, the feet cuddling together, almost a coquettish display. The toes slipped into the other’s gaps, in a graceful dance, pressing and stroking one another. Then, she turned around and presented the sole, the toes closing together to wrinkle the arches.

Lenny had a hard time pinpointing the character of the foot dance she gave them. The balletic delicacy, the compassion with which the feet and toes massaged one another, the creamy softness, it had the character of an attraction, wishing to draw them in. And in some vague way Lenny couldn’t understand, the attraction did reach him, convinced these feet had a loving side available to them if he surrendered. Yet on the other end, it had the character of threat, showing them their meaty strength, the dexterous hook-and-grab capability of every single one of those toes, where they could curl and enclose over their bodies to seal them in. Or perhaps, it had the character of both.

“She knows we’re here,” Blue murmured to his friends, all of them bewitched to the display, and Lenny wondered if he were the only one finding the beauty in it, wondering if something was wrong with him.

Blue led the way along the wall, towards the bed. The other way was barren floor without furniture, leaving the bed as the only option. The bed was vast but also with high legs, a good space for her to explore.

“I did hear some rats whisper around here before,” Mara said beside the cupboard. The legs of the cupboard screeched, the entire foundation around them moving. The four hurried on under the bed.

“There go the rats!” Lenny saw her face peer down the space made between the cupboard and bed, and the realization hit him in an instant. Lenny remembered back home when they once had a rat sneak into their pantry, the chase they gave it. Mara constantly calling them rats were one thing, him seeing how analogous it was made sense, but the way they scurried around the furniture hit him into a moment where, for a second, believed he was in her eyes, able to see the way they looked. Right then, Lenny genuinely felt like a rat.

“Come on, man,” Red called to him. Lenny snapped out of it and joined his friends. They made their way along the wall, seeing her feet trace their position along the outside. Under the head of the bed, they arrived at the corner as Mara got on all fours, head sideways, her short brown hair covering parts of her face.

“The rats are cornered. You seem to think I can’t reach you all the way in there.” Mara sat down, tucking her legs under the bed. Her flat chest met the bedside as she lurched her waist as deep in she could. Then, she extended her legs, and Lenny could already tell there were no doubts of her reaching them. Huddled up in the corner, they saw her feet hovering their way, the toes flexing eagerly at the prospect of capturing them.

“Guys, get ready,” Blue said, all of them taking a stand by the corner.

Ten giant, long toes versus the four of them; the odds weren’t great.

Mara’s feet went to a wall each, lurching in on their corner. The four boys tried to lump together as tightly as possible in that corner, hoping her legs wouldn’t be long enough. Though that hope was momentary, as she came closer and closer. When the toes arrived, they probed the surface of this single lump they hugged each other into. They were like an animal playing dead, her feet the large huffing bear examining the corpse. The big toe probed Lenny’s chest, coming up and applying its soft touch to his face, teasing him. Her toes explored them all, stroking their hair, pinching their clothes, groping their limbs.

“Go away,” Green said, shoving her third toe. The arm he threw out was clamped by her peds, yanking him out, the rest losing balance from trying to hold onto him. Green tried to get up, a big toe pinning him down.

“Help!” He reached out to them, and his two brothers grabbed an arm each, a tug-of-war with her toe. But with a few inward curls, Mara dragged him in under the ball of her foot and buried him underneath the heft of snug flesh.

Red summoned his base magics and readied to attack, but her other foot pounced on him, knocking Blue away as well. Her big and second toe were clamped around Red’s head, rubbing against him, his mouth formed into one large O from his cheeks being pressed together. Blue tried to help him out, but the foot caught him as well when he got close, and there was plenty of space left for him. The blue scalp of his hair barely stuck out from the toe gap between her third and fourth toe. Red wrenched his head free and bit her big toe, making it retire and give him a moment of respite. But it was short-lived, her second toe pinning him in place still, and the big toe started waving up and down repeatedly, striking his head with a soft, fleshy clap. It was akin to a proper spanking, Red’s head like bottom of an unruly child brought over the lap, and the big toe the palm of the parent swatting him, castigating him for his rude, biting behavior.

Lenny just watched in sheer amazement over their power. Blue and Green were out of sight, swallowed up underneath the soles, while Red was at the mercy of the big toe’s endless slapping. They were at her complete mercy; whatever she wanted to do with them, she could, and it looked like these feet were just getting started.

Lenny felt guilty to stand there and watch, gone by unnoticed as the triplets kept her busy. After the big toe had slapped the fight out of Red, it sat on his face. Adjusting his head straight under the nub, the toe pushed, its peachy roundness so plump and full, Red’s face caved into the doughy flesh enough that her big toe alone swallowed his head up underneath. It was just barely. Lenny noticed a few tufts of red hair sticking out of her pancaked toe flesh. Whatever grunts they made, resistance they offered, her feet were like a black hole swallowing up all their efforts.

The foot which Green had been stuck under now moved again, though Green didn’t appear on the floor where it left. He was plastered to the sole. Lenny realized too late that it was searching for him, the fourth missing rat, and once it found him, he regretted nothing. Fighting back was pointless. Before the toes tripped and dragged him off to be played with, Lenny looked past her ankles, down the legs, and noticed Mara slipping a hand in under her panties.

Lenny was taken to the same position as Red but on the other foot, head sticking out between the big and second toe. He learned from Red’s mistake and didn’t fight back. The toes were indeed kinder with him, though not gentle either. They had a vice grip around his head, rubbing up and down, his face melting into the peachy flesh of her round toes. They had some powdery residues of dust and dirt left, but otherwise, the memory of a fragrant scent lingered. Lenny entertained himself by taking a deep couple of whiffs and guessing, certain the lotion applied had been something lemon-scented with hints of rose.

“Let’s see how the thieves take this one!” A strain could be heard in her voice, working herself up with her fingers, and a fire built in her. No one could lie low and make it through as her feet clapped together, sandwiching them all between. There was some overlap between them, half of Lenny and Red’s bodies against one another, Green’s leg stuck under Blue’s back, but in total there was plenty of her creamy flesh across those gigantic soles to be pancaked between.

Though the pancaking was no more than a beginning. The boys felt the friction, the mass of flesh starting to slide. The increase in speed was gradual, untangling the boys from one another and putting them all in a good, comfortable position where she could unleash a devastating speed while keeping them all enclosed.

“I call this the feet human-grinder,” Mara said with a strain, followed by an airy gasp, voice dripping with excitement. Her feet mashed the boys in a moving iron maiden of flesh. Unavoidably, despite all their attempts at grimacing their face shut, the movement pried open their lips, forcing the inside of the mouth outward to stroke the flesh. And as her speed picked up, so did the heat and build-up of sweat, and they could literally taste the progression. Their drab shirts and trousers were ruthlessly crumpled, her feet rubbing together now comparably to one’s bare hands when trying to keep warm during cold weather. The swelter was oppressive, and it was as if they were within a tornado made of solid matter, of solid, hot flesh. The sweat amassed to perceivable stretches of moisture along her soles, generously baked into their clothes, their skin, their very being, and Lenny was convinced even a good bath wouldn’t get this off. Her feet marked them as theirs through scent.

There was nothing left but to harden one’s resolve and endure, for Mara smushed them a good several minutes. With the right material between, the feet would surely have produced a spark. Their clothes were getting soft from moisture, ripping at a few places, and somewhere in the middle of this hurricane they forgot that they were in fact between a young lady’s two feet, dominated to a measure they might not ever experience again in their lives.

Finally, the grinding ended, overjoyed at the stillness of being pancaked between the feet. Though some sounds could still be made out, the slick flop of her finger entering her womanhood again and again, the bed shuffling somewhat to her movement against the bedside, and the choked, feminine gasp which she tried to suppress.

The feet parted from one another, the triplets stuck to the left foot and Lenny to the right. With her peds, she flicked them off her soles and distributed them evenly. Lenny’s head was returned to sticking out between the big and second toe of the right foot, Green between the third and fourth, and Red and Blue were similarly positioned beneath the left counterpart.

Mara spread her legs wide, separating them from each other. Lenny was sure she was reaching her climax, and something about it allured him. Green was kissing her toes out of sheer terror, wanting to appease them, begging them not to hurt him. Lenny followed suit, though not out of fear, but admiration over these mighty, beautiful things. The big toe reciprocated, smooching him back, and Lenny didn’t know what happened next. Perhaps it was her alluring gasps and the heated, lovesome atmosphere it produced, but the passion of the current second linked to the awe he had first experienced upon seeing those gorgeous long toes, those goddess-like steps she took upon the earth. Lenny grabbed the nub of her big toe with his mouth and sucked, biting.

For the first time, she submitted to one of them as the big toe relaxed and allowed itself to receive his worship. Lenny humped his groin into her foot, stimulated by her moans.

His control was short-lived, however. The toes reclaimed authority and clamped his head, Mara arriving at her climax. He thrust himself into his own orgasm, spurting his seed into a stain on his pants, and he did so with four of his senses, touch, sight, smell, and taste, all drowning in foot. He lay peacefully thereafter, and so did Mara, leaning over her bedside, the calm after the battle.

The silence was one of shame for the four boys, mentally coming to terms with what they’d been victim to. Lenny carried the most of it, the stain on his trousers a reminder that, while the triplets, like ordinary people, were repulsed by the treatment they’d received and would do anything to get away from these humid feet, Lenny had cast himself to the opposite of normal. He couldn’t understand what train of thought had gotten him there, and there likely hadn’t been any. It was a carnal tide of instinct washing him with itself, though he couldn’t find any excuse for the fact that he’d reached ejaculation through feet alone.

The toes stirred, giving all the boys a good-morning rub on the face.

Mara cleared her throat, taking a deep breath. “I bet you know your place now, little thieves.” Her toes gripped them, and lurching back on her ass, she dragged them out from under the bed. They were familiar with the humid sweat, but the sudden pools of liquid they swiped through made them shiver in surprise. Thinking this trip out would steadily go on, her feet stopped there, pressing them into the liquid which, Lenny realized with a pang of humiliation, was her cum. She let their clothes absorb it well, the toes rolling them around in it, as if they were a dry piece of dough and these toes the baker’s hands working them. Fortunately for Lenny, the drenching treatment hid his own embarrassing stain on his trousers.

She got them out and stood on them, their heads poking out of her toes. They were further embarrassed at seeing that smug grin, those two jutting teeth and the homely face, knowing she was a nobody.

“That defeated look is so familiar now,” Mara said, fanning her toes out to give them space.

“We… We’re sorry.” Blue croaked the words out, as if just waking from sleep. “We’ll leave. You can’t possibly keep us like this.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. You’re nasty little thieves, but I’ll let you go in an hour or so.”

“An hour?” Red exclaimed.

“It won’t be an hour of what we just did. It’ll be more relaxed.” She put a hand on her flat chest, fluttering her eyebrows. “A girl’s got her limits, you know?”

“Pfft, girl,” Red muttered. “More like an ugly ogre.” He received a slap from the nearest toe.

“Shut up,” Blue said, cheerleading the rebuke from her digit. “Just keep that mouth quiet for once.”

Mara reached over to her bedside table, opening the drawer and fetching out some thread, which to the boys was like rope. She brandished it, smiling.

This couldn’t be good.

***

The boys didn’t find themselves in any new position some time later. Lenny’s head was between the big and second toe of her left foot, Green between the third and fourth, and Blue and Red were on the right one. However, now, their arms and legs were tied together, and their bindings encircled her foot, keeping them pinned there without any effort required from her end.

Mara sat on the porch, a cup of tea and a plate of pastries before her on the small table. She was engrossed in the book she read, her left foot crossed over the right, the boys nothing but forgotten decoration. Sometimes, the toes would rub against them, taking care of an itch or flicking their heads around in general absent-minded movement. It was a stark contrast to the fixed attention she otherwise gave them, hunting them down. From the toes fiercely pinning and grappling and wrestling with them, they went to a quiet neighbor, leaning over for a kiss every now and then. The sound of her teacup clicking on the saucer, the cracks of her teeth biting into a cookie, the turn of the page, they all reminded them of how casual of a time Mara was having while their pride was under constant siege. It took a particular mental resilience to withstand the thoughts forming in their own heads, telling them how they were nothing but sandals.

“Can’t believe we’ve ended up here,” Red muttered. “That shitter Benjamin whot tipped us off about this place, curse him and his mother.”

“I think she said she gives some of them a bit of evernuts in exchange for them spreading the word,” Blue said. “That way she lures people here. Also, a few do succeed in stealing a little bit.”

Green adjusted his position, wriggling where he was tied. “But why lure them here?”

“Dumb ogre can’t find any other way to have fun,” Red said. “Lonely and ugly, she’s got to pass her time somehow. Her mother probably put her here cause she’s an embarrassment to call one’s daughter.”

The toes clenched everyone. “I’m trying to read up here, footboys.”

Red squirmed in retaliation as best he could. “How long are you doing this for?”

“When I finish the next two chapters, I’ll let you go. However…” Mara leaned back into the chair with a bent neck, able to see them past the tableside. “If you kiss my toes, it’ll only be one chapter. And would you know, the second chapter is pretty long.”

Red cackled. “I don’t believe it for one second. Another lie from the big foot-freak.”

“Another?” Mara raised an eyebrow. “When have I lied? I’ve described you for what you are, thieves, and I was very frank about what I would do to you.”

“You’re not getting anything from me,” Red said. “I understand you’re ugly, and no one wants you, and this is the only way anyone will ever kiss you, but sorry, honey. You’ll have to find someone as hideous as yourself.”

“Red, you really need to shut up,” Blue said.

“Just suck it up and we can leave earlier.” Lenny was nervous to even introduce the notion. “Green, don’t you think so?”

“Yeah, I— I just want to leave.”

Blue put his resolve into it. “I’m in.”

Mara smiled, a finger on the side of her lips. “I was thinking of making it so that it doesn’t count if the red boy doesn’t do it, but I think it’s fine with you three. Thinking of how he was to watch you all go against his word would be fun. The three of you are enough.” She snapped her fingers. “Get to it, then.”

Lenny waited to hear someone else begin, and the smacks of Green’s kisses near him made Lenny follow. He did it with the shame of knowing how well he had to hid it behind reasoned intentions, how afraid he was of letting it slip that a single one of his kisses were born of adoration. He pushed his face into the big toe, the pulpy flesh yielding, letting him in, and he placed a deep, sucky kiss. He tried to make them quiet, make them blend in with the rest of the innocent pecks and not the deep kisses they were, slipping in a tiny bit of tongue work he hoped Mara wouldn’t notice. If she did, she would doubtlessly announce it to shame him. She seemed to be that kind of person.

Lenny was fascinated over how detailed the swirly prints on her toes were, rubbing his head against them like a cat against the owner to feel their outlines. He remembered he needed to kiss, navigating in under the second toe and smooching the nub.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but Red interrupted with, “You’re done with the chapter!” He reacted to Mara’s laid-back pose on the chair, watching them happily, her book closed and on the table.

“I am. Just wanted to see how long you’d keep going at it.”

Lenny cursed Red in his head.

The feet lay flat on the porch as Mara got up, all four of them groaning as she squeezed them with her weight. Without much fuss, she started walking, going down the steps and then over the ground, and they were no more than footwear as they saw one another on the opposite foot swinging back and forth, slamming into grass and soil with parts of their face covered by toe flesh.

She took them all the way back to the flower bushes, past the fence, and untied them. With a kick of her foot, she kicked them of like something icky caught underfoot. Mara brought out her beads and rubbed them with a silent incantation. “Barrier is gone.”

Red immediately dashed past the fence, a furious look back at the giant who had humiliated them so. Blue, Green, and Lenny joined him.

“And for the record, redhead,” Mara said, “I don’t have a hard time getting kissed or doted upon. There are thieves who come here several times a week, and I teach them a lesson like I’ve taught you. You’re the ones who are nothing special, my feet have fun with humans every day. I’ve no doubt you boys will warn people, but it just doesn’t do enough. Humans can’t stop themselves, it seems.” She chuckled. “Lucky me.” She turned around, waving a hand goodbye. “Bye now. Feel free to try again.”

They had to swallow their pride and turn back home, something especially hard for Red. But Lenny turned around and longingly watched those massive feet trample their way back. His erect manhood spoke of missed opportunities, of so many things unexplored. Lenny, the only one of them, left with a hollowness, not dreading over what was, but wondering what could have been.

Lenny and the triplets didn’t speak much on the way home. The two parties needed time away from each other after the incident.

Lenny tried to go about his day as usual, helping his family at home, gathering the eggs from their chicken in the morning and heading over to the baker to purchase fresh loafs of bread. The made-up excuse him and the triplets had given to their families on leave, that they had visited the nearby town of Kenil, was one Lenny had to narrate now to his family, lying about the shop of exotic magic and the plays they’d visited and watched.

Above everything in his daily life, a constant in the background, was that Lenny couldn’t stop thinking about Mara’s feet, about the things she’d done to them. No doubt an affair of humiliation and disgust to the triplets, in Lenny’s mind it was something fond. He would sit against the oak tree near the house and stare at the skies, longingly replaying those memories of her lively, dominating toes, the way they had chased them, wrestled them, pinned them down, conquered them, and made them her slaves. He remembered the creamy texture of their flesh in his mouth, the most delicate thing he’d ever tasted.

Not only had the experience given him a pleasant orgasm then, the memories of them became fuel for many sessions at home, where Lenny found privacy and masturbated. He felt pathetic every time, tearing at his self-worth. Those feet had the lingering effect of a witch’s curse. And when Lenny had exhausted the memory, he daydreamed of what else Mara might have done with more time.

Others noted his change in behavior, his reserved nature, his random bouts of private time. How could Lenny explain the cause? He realized how far from normal he was straying, but he couldn’t help it.

One of the girls of the village had sat on a picnic blanket with her friend, bare feet kicking in the air, and Lenny had his eyes fixed on them. Something had happened when he reached his orgasm under Mara’s foot, his senses drowning in her toes. In that moment, some new circuitry formed in his brain, the link between feet and pleasure made very direct. But even then, nothing of what he saw from the women in the village could compare to Mara. Not just Mara’s giant status, but her feet had truly been perfection, the toes slender yet round, the arch deep and shapely, the balls firm yet with a gummy texture, and as he noticed examples around him showing the inevitable reality of developing a callous from long times of being barefoot outdoors, Mara’s didn’t follow those rules. They didn’t follow the rules of normal, mortal feet; they were godsent. Mara had not made him love feet, others’ feet hade made him love Mara’s.

His daydreaming turned into real dreams in his sleep, one in particular where she read her book above that table on the porch, her legs stretching out to present a row of ten perfect peds, and Lenny knew what to do. He despised the reality he woke up to, wishing he could return under her table.

One of the days at the local inn, Lenny sat with Red, both drinking fermented apple juice.

“Things are going back to normal,” Red said, chugging the last of his drink. “I’m telling you, I smelled like her feet for days, and the prints of her toes were on my skin for longer.”

“Yeah, was a crazy business.” Lenny knew his attempts at showing aversion were poor, but at this point it could be chalked up to having gotten over it. The triplets reminded him of how far from normal Lenny had gone. Their reaction was the norm.

“The bum who gave us the information, Benjamin, I can’t find him,” Red said. “Asked the innkeeper, turns out Benjamin wasn’t a local. Goes around spreading lies to lure people there because she paid him a little bit of evernuts.”

“I guess the best we can do is counter that, warn people.”

“Damn right. I’m screaming it like the herald. Anyways.” Red swung his legs over the bench and got up. “Green needed help with the cows. Will be seeing you.”

Lenny gestured a farewell. As the door opened and Red left, two other gentlemen entered with cloaks over their weskits. They called for two pints of ale and sat on the table next to Lenny. The chatter bustled on in the inn. The two men received their ale.

The word ‘evernut’ stuck out from the commotion like a needle prickling his ear. Lenny lurched along the bench, closer to the two men.

“Yeah, it’s a plantation of evernuts there amid the mountains,” one of them said, “before giant country. And get this, it’s only the daughter of the owner who guards it. She alone. I tell you, we leave tomorrow morning, get there by noon, and slip our way in. Imagine how small we’ll be there, it’ll be easy.” His partner shook his hand with a cackle.

They were running through every argument Red had made. Lenny could have walked over to their table, corrected and informed them. But he didn’t. The thought struck him like thunder.

Lenny wanted them to get caught, wanted to see it. He had to follow them. He had to go back.

Lenny had his moments of questioning what the hell he was doing. He lied to his family that he was visiting his aunt and cousins at Kenil to skitter out of the house early morning, making his way down the road, his destination the evernut plantation once again. A lie which could be proven wrong with a few words between his mother and his aunt, having to answer why he hadn’t told them when the triplets would inevitably visit him today to find he wasn’t at home, all these future problems escaped him. They all eroded at the face of the fleeting promise he might find himself smothered under those heavenly toes. Memories and daydreams weren’t enough anymore, Lenny had to go where he knew the reality was, where Mara stood guard, happily waiting for thieves that she could feed to those hungry feet.

Although Lenny didn’t know where those two travelers who stopped by the inn yesterday were now, they didn’t matter. Lenny didn’t look for travelling companions. He looked to join the chaos they would face.

Lenny took the turn off the clear main road, to the scant trail threading into the grove and though the valleys, the mountains tall to his sides. Gradually, the sea of purple heather appeared under the trees as Lenny was getting closer, approaching noon. After a few breaks, he finished the bread he brought with him, emptying the sack which he’d bring as part of his pretext, supposedly to be filled with evernuts.

It had been a few hours, and at last the trees cleared up ahead, the field of grass leading to the massive post fence. Lenny’s heart fluttered. Mara was somewhere in there. Those feet, objects of his dreams, were in there.

From the perimeter of the grove, he noticed two men entering past the fence. It had to be the ones from the inn. Lenny waited, letting them get ahead a couple of minutes. Then, he tailed them, jogging across the grass and passing under the fence. He paid attention and saw the barrier wobble behind him, a reason to worry if getting caught was a problem. But getting caught was the goal.

He peered past the rose bushes, seeing the two men disappear into the lowest branches of the nearest evernut trees. They wore the same weskits with the pinned cloaks hanging from their shoulders. Lenny sidled through the rose bushes without much noise, continuing to the evernut tree which sagged the most, its low branches concealing him well. He was on all four, watching their shoes.

“No one would believe this!” one of them roared with a laugh, throwing the evernuts into his rucksack, the initial, oblivious glee Lenny recognized.

“Not that we’ll try and convince anyone,” the other said. “Only an idiot goes about telling everyone where the gold mine is.”

Lenny had to hold his chuckle. However, even Lenny had his surprise, expecting a couple of minutes to pass before the quakes arrived, not to feel the tremors already.

“What’s that?” one of them said, both looking about themselves. “You feel that?” No sensitive focus was needed, the ripples across the earth were approaching fast. They both emerged from their trees to get a good look around. One of them stared in shock and pointed down the avenue of trees, as if sighting an approaching avalanche. “Look! Run, now!”

“A lot of thieves today,” Mara called, the voice bringing Lenny back. “But there’s always room for more!” He couldn’t get a good look at her feet, they wouldn’t stand still, stampeding with fast determination. In comparison to the moving mountain she was, the two humans looked pitiful at the face of her, a few pebbles standing before a rockslide.

The two bolted back the path for retreat, but Mara’s foot slammed down right in front of them, the shockwave of her stomp blasting them back. They were thrown back into her other foot, which shuffled them in, rolling them about. Mara pulled her feet closer, hemming them in.

Those enormous feet brought Lenny back, their shapely meatiness, the length and plumpness of the toes, the smooth and untarnished surface befitting a princess whose feet had never witnessed a rude surface to tread upon. However, this time, they were vastly different. They were dressed up, and Mara wasn’t wearing any ordinary footwear.

She was wearing humans.

Two of them lay shoulder to shoulder on the upper side of her left foot, their arms strung up and tied to an anklet. With arms outstretched, their shoes reached the beginning of her toes, tied to them, putting them on the top of her foot as if they were put on a rack to be tortured. Luckily, this rack wouldn’t wear away at their joints. It did, however, wear at their pride and confidence, making them no more than accessories on her foot. On the other foot, the situation was mirrored, two other humans there, making them four in total. The same straps that tied their arms to the anklet were on their lower legs, bound to her toes. They completed a network, weaving in under her feet, and Lenny was sure there were other people tied to the soles. It wouldn’t be a sandal without a bottom.

The two intruders didn’t run, recognizing she had them at her mercy but wasn’t doing anything. Though it was an intentional inaction, hands on her hips with a grin, her towering height intended to demoralize them. The humans she wore on her feet served the same function, as the two thieves between her gaped at the feet to their sides. No words were spoken, but the progression in every second was clear, the progressive understanding on the two intruders that those were real humans tied to her feet, beginning to identify with them, how they too had likely started with sneaking in here and trying to steal evernuts. The conclusion that they too would end up like them wasn’t far away.

Mara wasn’t done with the display. Confirming Lenny’s suspicion of how there were more than the four visibly tied humans, Mara tilted her left foot, standing on its side, presenting her sole. Like chicks peeping out from under the mother hen, Mara’s sole revealed a staggering five additional humans thereunder. They were like a pyramid with the top cut off, three at the base and two in the middle. The three at the base had their heads at the ball of her foot and their shoes in the middle of the arch, and where their shoes ended, the heads of two more humans began, stretching out to the end of her heel. Their bodies were wrapped together and around her foot. Mara shifted her right foot too, confirming there were five identically tied humans on that one.

A few of them coughed and croaked as her foot rose, allowing them to see daylight and the world outside. Lenny revisited the sequence of her stampeding this way, updating the implications of that action. Every step she took, every sprint pursued, she wasn’t merely walking. She was stomping ten humans into her cushy flesh, blocking out all of existence and leaving nothing but an immense pressure, a blinding darkness, and producing close, intimate heat which invited sticky sweat lubricating their bodies and dampening their clothes. And it all happened whether they liked it or not. All they could do was continue existing as her sandals.

“What—” one of the two stammered, trying to find the words. First, he crawled backwards, craning his neck up at the towers for legs and the panties with dark stain in the middle. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Taking care of shameful thieves, something anyone would applaud me for. Don’t worry, I think there’s room for you. You’re lucky, my soles are all out of space, so you’ll sit on top.”

“You fools…” one of the men under her sole croaked. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

The two recent intruders had the courage to stand up. “You can’t keep them there forever. You’re not the bloody law!”

Mara’s long toes flexed, the threat of a beast’s growl. “You should get used to saying ‘us’ instead of ‘them’, thieves. And I won’t keep them there forever. I’ll let you go, after teaching you a good lesson. But it’s also in my right to take care of criminals who trespass. Don’t like it? Don’t steal.”

The two men, free but soon-to-be-sandals, could only growl in frustration.

“Maybe you could tell me where your third member is, and I’ll go easier on you.”

“Third? It’s just us two.”

Mara brought out the three beads hanging from her necklace. “The beads signaled three invaders. And he should be close, even.”

Lenny felt undressed from where he hid, the branches around him transparent, his cover gone.

However, the two hadn’t known Lenny tailed them. Their confusion was genuine.

Mara looked at them askance. “Perhaps the beads got something wrong. Well, nothing changes for you.” She put her feet and all the captives on one last display, then hunched down, hands reaching for them. “Welcome to the party, footboys.”

Lenny pursued Mara’s footsteps back to the house. The imprints on the soil weren’t too pronounced from her casual stride, though where she had been sprinting, spearing her foot into the soil, they were clearly etched into the earth. The five human outlines within one sole were a mindboggling thing. Lenny had quite the bulge between his legs, just the familiar sight of Mara’s lovely feet had breathed life into his memories, sharpening his mental images made hazy with time, and revived the starkness of the feelings he’d felt back then. Simply seeing her feet again would have been enough.

But no, she brought on another spectacle which put her roughhousing with Lenny and the triplets to shame.

Lenny retreated under the trees as he saw the vast wooden porch appear, the house behind it. Mara sat at the chair and small table where she’d read her book with him and the triplets tied to her feet. She was bent forward, hands at work, as if tying shoelaces. Though Lenny could guess what she was tying.

Lenny left the last tree and crossed the grass over to the rise of the porch. He didn’t jump up the steps, they were in focus and right in view of where she sat. Instead, Lenny saw a large wicker basket near the ledge of the porch, going there and, activating his base magics, skipped his way up through the gaps between the giant planks. He caught the ledge and rolled over, feeling stealthy. Lenny clung to the basket and rounded its girth, until he could see Mara.

Right as she came into view, she rose back up into her chair with hands up in accomplishment. “Tada! There we go, my sandals are complete.”

Indeed, the two newest intruders were now strung up, wrists tied to her anklet and shoes to her toes. They shared the top with two others respectively, with five under her soles. Coats and cloaks lay in a heap next to one of the table legs, all their overclothes stripped off and leaving them in their simpler shirts and trousers. They were eight per foot, sixteen in total, helplessly embarrassed as Mara leaned into the chair and kicked her legs up on the table, crossing one foot over the other, putting them on exhibit. Mara bit her lip as she watched her decorated feet, twisting them graciously by the ankle to show every angle of their condition, as if a row of judges were before her and tasked to rate this work of art.

What fascinated Lenny was how little she needed to do. Mara leaned back with her propped up feet, surrendering all effort, yet with every passing second, the humiliation she brought upon them was the persistent drop of water breaking down their confidence. She dominated them by quite literally doing nothing, letting every second pass for what it was, relaxing at noon with her footwear on.

“Nothing changes that you’re a hideous thing,” one of the men on her right sole said, his head by the ball of her foot. “Jacked teeth, lazy-eyed, hook-nosed tramp, that’s what you are. And that’s surely why you’re doing this, trying to pamper yourself, enter a fantasy where you’re some queen. Sorry, Miss Shitface, there’s little to change that appearance of yours. The mirror will show you the same horror no matter what you do to us.”

“Ah, there it is,” Mara said, and whether the smugness was genuine or a veil to conceal the pain of those words, Lenny couldn’t tell. “Always mentioning my face, thinking that’s where the point of attack lies.”

“It could be your scrawny stick of a body, and I’m sure there’s humans with more breast than you. There’s no shortage of things to point out, Your Ugliness is generous in that regard.”

His neighbor hissed at him. “Hey, knock it off. You’re making it worse for all of us.”

“Ha! It’s already bad enough. I’m just trying to keep my pride over here.”

“Oh, so that’s it,” Mara said. “The man believes barking insults is meaningful resistance. Tell me, how much less of a sandal have you become after yapping? How much pride did you recover?” The few seconds he tried to find an answer was one she interrupted. Curling her peds, her lithe toes could bend down and touch his scalp, the balls of her feet wrinkling enough to pinch his nose. “Exactly. The one trying to escape reality here is you, barking as loud as you can to try and look like an opponent, a man with an opinion. The reality is that you’re my little footboy. One of my little footboys.” She took in the sight of them some more, tilting her head, measuring them with something bordering on pride. Then, with a clap of her hands, she set her feet down on the porch. “Anyways, get comfortable, or don’t. Sandals are meant to provide comfort, not have any of it themselves. Your customers are these two lovely darlings, so make sure to take care of them, won’t you?” Mara stood to her height, putting her weight on the ten humans beneath her. Her feet pressed out groans and complaints, muffling past those enormous soles. Mara closed her eyes, indulging in the feeling of their warm bodies underneath her, her tongue taking a swirl around her lips. She turned around and made her way inside the house, and like the clap of sandals slapping against the heels, the ones she wore now made the sound of manly grumbles and grunts.

Lenny pulled his pants down to make it in time. He grabbed his manhood and needed no more than a few seconds before ejaculating onto the broad, wooden plank. He staggered, holding the wicker basket for support.

It all came to him in that moment, the lies he’d made to excuse his absence, the few hours he’d walked to get here, all to reach this one moment which he spent in several seconds. Was it time to just go home? The anticlimactic nature of the suggestion was sour, empty; it made Lenny feel like a sober ghost had been excised out of his body, able to see himself with his dick in his hand and how laughable it was.

No, this wasn’t a waste. A waste would be to turn around so soon. A waste would be to have the blessing of seeing Mara put on a show of indescribable dominance, with what might be the prettiest feet Lenny would ever see in his life, and leave. His horny thirst was so massive it even pushed aside the sobering crash following ejaculation, having just spent himself yet waiting eagerly for her to return and proceed toying with the sixteen men.

Lenny wondered what the next step would be if she didn’t plan to come outside. If she’d gone to her bedroom, would he follow her there to see the action? Lenny still had something to lose. No one knew of this shameful visit he’d made. Should he be caught in her house, he’d have little to say, the pretext of coming to steal evernuts evaporating. He looked about himself, and near the steps down the porch he noticed another basket half-full of evernuts, and beside it a pair of giant leather sandals. Their travelworn state was clear, the dark indent of the ball, the heel, and the five toes at the front. Unaware, he took a few steps that way, a bee floating to a flower.

Mara returned from the house. Lenny heard her steps and retreated behind the basket. She had brought a tray full of confections, a cup of tea, and another book. Mara set them on the table, made herself comfortable on the chair, crossed one foot over the other, and commenced reading.

The men on her soles looked broken, tired, beaten by a thorough trampling. Occasionally, Mara would rub her big and second toe together to take care of an itch, flex her toes, and even the simplest of movement caused ripples across her feet which disturbed the sixteen men properly, not allowing them to settle into a steady calm where time passed quickly. They were always reminded of their position. At times Mara’s toes would fiddle with the three men on top of the opposite foot, idly squeezing their heads, mashing the meaty underside of her toes against their faces. Lenny remembered how it felt, and being able to relate made him think of how these sixteen were just more names on her list. Every week brought a steady supply of thieves to be toyed with by Mara’s feet.

Although Lenny wouldn’t start vouching for the qualities of Mara’s character, she did indeed have a point when saying she merely dealt with those who trespassed and attempted to steal from the plantation. From his knowledge, Mara released them on the same day, did not kidnap anyone innocent outside. If her actions were generally described to the average person, they would agree to the defending of property. These were the feet of justice.

After a good while, Mara clapped the book together and put it away, finishing her tea. Knees pointing to the sides, she aimed the soles at each other, making all ten underneath visible to her. “Alright, footboys, I’ll keep it brief. I’ll count to ten, and at the count of ten, you’re going to be kissing my feet. If I count to ten and you haven’t, I’m getting up, and I’m going to start running and jumping around. You understand what that means, don’t you?”

There was a timid silence. One them spoke up, “Yes, we understand.”

“I’m not giving her anything,” the one who’d insulted her from earlier said.

“Oh well,” Mara said with a happy shrug. “We’ll see how it goes. Don’t forget that other than getting crushed, running means I’m getting tired and warm. And you know what tired and warm means? That means sweaty feet. So, without further ado, begin!”

Over half of the ten already started planting kisses, showing how much they valued the calm of being tied to her feet and avoiding further chaos.

“One,” Mara counted.

“Get it together,” one of the men on her soles said between his kisses. “Let go of your pride. What’s there left of it here anyways? Let’s just get through this nonsense peacefully.”

“Two.”

Another couple of them joined, their kisses paltry and reluctant, but kisses nonetheless.

“Three.”

The one who’d insulted her previously was the only one of the ten on her soles not having submitted.

“Four.”

“You goddamn rat,” the one beside him said. “Get to it now before we all get smushed!”

“Are you serious? You’re giving her all this?”

“Five.”

“This is bigger than you and her,” another added. “Think about the rest of us, goddammit.”

“Six.”

“Come on!” The one beside him tried to slam his head into his. “You should be worried about what the nine of us will do to you once we get out of here.”

The last man puckered his lips together, leaned in towards the ball of her foot. He couldn’t make contact, jerking back as if having touched a scorching stove.

“Seven.”

“Forget everything and do it. Drop all emotions, this means nothing, it’s wall of flesh, nothing else.”

“Man’s turning into a bloody priest,” another added after nibbling at the wrinkles in her arch.

“Eight.”

The stubborn, belligerent man yielded at last, his lips meeting the soft foot.

Mara giggled girlishly. “And there we go.” Now she had all of them.

Mara reclined into her chair and simply received, ten lips smooching her soles, the soles which had treated them so roughly yet taking all their adoration.

Lenny tried to remove all context, all the coaxing needed to bring them to that point. He imagined he’d been dropped into this spot suddenly, seeing this for the first time, and Lenny had to catch his gasp before it escaped him. He began stroking his manhood again.

Mara wouldn’t leave the trio on the tops of her feet alone. They’d gotten away for too long, escaping the carousel on the underside of her foot. Now she brought the left foot over the right, planting the toes over their faces, demanding worship. She didn’t have to wait long. They responded, catching the fluffy nubs of her toes with their mouths and pampering her. Mara made sure to alternate, switching so the trio of the other foot wouldn’t escape their duties either.

Mara pulled her frock up and slipped a hand under her stained panties, massaging herself. As she did this, Mara shuffled her feet in towards the chair, closer underneath. When Lenny saw Mara bite her other hand to stay quiet, a grimace from effort, he realized she was trying to hide it from the slaves at her feet. She didn’t want them to see her shyness, a glimpse which would erode her domineering veneer. So she kept her feet under the chair, leaving them to their worship there, while holding in her own sound, straining to find a balance between beating her own pussy harder as the pleasure intensified, yet keeping it hidden from the rest. They also noticed the stuttering movement, her legs and feet twitching from pleasure. Her toes grappled with the trios atop the feet, skin yellowing from pressure, like dolls meant to absorb abuse.

Mara tugged her panties aside, the pink eye bare for Lenny to see. Her jaws clenched, biting her hand harder as the squirt shot out, right over the edge of the chair, drizzling onto the porch and seeping in between the planks. She didn’t bother hiding it anymore. Consumed by the frenzy of her orgasm, Mara kicked her chair back to have room and raised her left foot first, hovering it right in the line of fire. Her squirt hit the mark, blasting straight onto the foot and all the eight poor men entrapped around it. They hollered in disgust, in complaint, but those sounds were soon replaced by gargling, coughs, snorting, and spitting, as opening their mouths made a welcome avenue for her love juices to enter.

The men tied to her other foot, the right one, were below and watched the waterworks above them in horror, the stray shots along what dripped off her foot pattering the wooden porch like a downpour. They knew they were next.

Alongside this tearing down of secrecy, Mara removed the hand from her mouth and let her dark moans erupt.

After a good several shots, Mara put the left foot down. Quivering, gathering herself, she drew those rapid circles over her clit as she raised the right foot.

“You can’t be fucking serious!” one of them shouted, right before the next laser of squirt drilled into them, soaking their hair, cloths, entering their mouths. They wriggled with such a pathetic violence, unable to escape the bindings keeping them to her foot. Mara gave them a proper shower.

Lenny ejaculated again from his hiding spot, brought to his knees from the fatigue, powerless against the onslaught of shame sweeping through him. Now the entire region between his legs ached.

Mara’s feet drew broad strokes over the puddles of cum, scrubbing the porch using the ten humans. She dipped her toes until they were dripping, then dove for the trios on top of the feet, jamming her toes in their face and forcing the liquid down their throats. Their complaints did nothing, Mara bit her lips and had wide-open eyes, possessed by pleasure.

Once it ended, it was because of Mara’s restraint. She released one long sigh, eyes drifting through the skies. “I’m living the dream life. Little thieves like you always making their way in.”

They had nothing to say, trying to recollect themselves, finding that once they did, there was little of themselves left. They only wanted to get out of here and forget everything.

Mara stood up, feet squelching in the pool of cum, twisting them in it. “I guess that’s it for you. I’ll deactivate the barrier and send you out now. Next day, there’ll be more of you. There always is. You’re nothing but another batch of toys.” Mara picked up a piece of bakery with her clean hand, indulging in it while walking out of there with her cum-soaked human sandals.

Lenny waited for her to disappear past the evernut trees. The tense strain released from him, sighing. “Lord above…” He had to move. It was afternoon, and he had to make it home before night. Mara had claimed she would deactivate the barrier, meaning now would be his chance.

Lenny pulled up his pants, his dick with painful complaints over the touch. He activated his base magics and bolted down along the house, to the side, seeing a fence and another building to the other end of the plantation with less trees. Without getting too greedy, Lenny quickly plucked a few handfuls of evernuts and filled out his pockets. Then he continued until the fence, where he slowed down, nearing its border gingerly. No barrier was there to stop him. Lenny left the plantation, out to the grass and onwards under the trees. A score of evernuts and a bank of memories which would keep him busy for weeks, it had been an unexpectedly lucrative heist.

But there was some disappointment, the timidness over confronting her or staging a scenario where he too was captured. He hadn’t been under her feet himself, the only blemish on this journey.

Lenny looked back to the fence and the evernut trees overlooking them. Fortunately, Mara wasn’t going anywhere, and he had all the time in the world.