In a stately home in the well kept noble district of an Elven city a young elf was at work in the family library. Though he was only young for an elf, Micah had long completed his primary studies and was currently engaged in his favorite research project. He was slight of build and pale skinned like most of his kind. While most elves were fair of hair and eye, his family were Autumn Elves and he possessed dark red hair and emerald green eyes as a result. 

His older sister and mother had taken a trip to a nearby city to visit family friends, but they were due back in a few days. His father had been questing for ancient and rare artifacts for several years and though he managed to send the occasional letter by courier no one in the family was sure when they would see him again.
 
The only other occupant of the house was Gilda, a brownie. They were often called house elves by humans and other races. Proper elves such as Micah took some offense to them being named as such. Brownies were a small race of faerie in actuality, and acted as both servant and protector to a home and family. Despite only being eight inches tall Gilda had powerful magic of her own to assist her in her daily tasks.

Micah was currently taking advantage of the empty house and doing something his mother had forbidden, reading The Grimoire. The heavy book was one of his father’s prized archaeological finds. His father gave it the simple generic name as the book had no known title or author, but it was filled with complex spells, potions, and incantations. It was written in an odd dialect of an ancient language and for several years Micah had been attempting to translate it. Though finding sources on the original language had proved difficult he had accumulated a small collection of works to study from.

Micah’s references were spread out on the desk in the library as he stood pouring over his notes. His mother had forbidden him from attempting to translate the book because he had almost burned down the library some years earlier as a result of a half uttered incantation. In truth the incantation had merely ignited the rubbish bin in the corner and Micah had quickly extinguished it. He viewed the prohibition on his research as an extremely unfair overreaction by his mother and would sneak in research sessions such as this when she went on trips. Micah still thought it was best to stick to potion translations now, as there was no chance of accidental magic as with an incantation. 

Micah was just beginning to set up the small cauldron in the center of the room when Gilda entered. The brownie, true to her name, had light brown skin with freckles dotting her youthful face and chest. Her eyes were golden and she had straw colored hair. Her pointed ears were much more pronounced than elf ears, rising higher than her voluminous hair. Her most noticeable feature was her tail, like all brownies she had a prehensile tail as long as she was tall. Gilda’s tail ended in a large tuft of golden hair which she would sometimes adorn with ribbons, pink for today. She wore a simple green dress that outlined her voluptuous figure. 

Normally she was quite chipper and seemed to skip through the house as she did her daily work. However after a few days of seeing Micah engaging in his forbidden hobbies she had not been in a good mood. Watching Micah set up the cauldron, it became too much for her to hold her tongue any longer. “Is Young Master trying to burn down the house again!” she yelled up to him. Micah turned to address the diminutive brownie  “You know that was an accident! I’m just making a simple potion, it should be easy to expunge and dispose of even if anything goes wrong.”

“Goes wrong?! Young Master risks his home and life over silly books. Gilda works hard enough cleaning this house. It’s not for you to blow up!” As she said this, her tail stretched out straight as a rod, which it did whenever she was angry. Micah bent down and picked her up by it, something Gilda resented even though it didn’t hurt. “Gilda has a want to tell the Lady of the House what Young Master does when she is away” Gilda threatened as Micah set her down on the desk. 

“Gilda, we both know a brownie keeps their masters secrets” Micah said. “Now I need these ingredients from the pantry, I have everything else here” Micah said handing the pouting brownie a short list of items. She put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot looking from the list back to Micah. Finally she snatched it out of his hand and lept to the floor. Micah chuckled to himself as the defiant brownie stomped out of the room and he lit a magical fire beneath the cauldron.

Gilda returned soon with her arms full of minor magical reagents from the pantry. Her attitude had changed from one of anger to pleading “Young Master, Gilda begs you to reconsider. At least discuss your ideas with the Lady of the House before attempting to make the potion; she has great knowledge of magic.” She jumped up to the table, her own magic assisting the considerable assent for such a small creature. She laid out the ingredients on the table. 

“My mother has no interest in this book” Micah said as he picked up one of the herbs. As he added the ingredients in the proper order he observed the changes in the water and consulted his notes. He was finally down to his last ingredient and before adding it turned to the brownie and said “Don’t worry, I know what I am doing.” The sprinkle of dust was added to the water and it became supernaturally still before turning a bright shade of pink. “That’s odd…” was all Micah could say before a cloud of smoke exploded from the cauldron and enveloped him.

As soon as the pink smoke arose around Micah he held his breath. But his eyes were already burning and a sensation of vertigo hit him. He felt as though he was falling. There was no pain but the disorientation he was feeling made him unable to tell where he was or how long he had been in the magic smoke. Micah was almost at the limit of holding his breath when suddenly the smoke disappeared, lifted away by a powerful wind of some kind, and he collapsed on the floor rubbing his eyes and regaining his bearings. 

Meanwhile Gilda had ran to the window over the desk and popped it open. She quickly cast a charm that pulled the pink smoke into a vortex and out the window. She turned back to see if Micah was injured, but she couldn’t see him at all. She ran towards the cauldron fearing the worst. 

Micah managed to stand up even with his vision still being blurry. He was worried by the feeling that the earth was shaking and a large green profile seemed to be moving in front of him. The green blur approached him with amazing speed, rising over him like the great trees in the forest surrounding his family’s home. As the figure loomed over him his vision was finally beginning to clear and he saw the face of Gilda leaning down to inspect him. He fell backwards into a sitting position looking up at the now massive brownie unable to comprehend his situation.

“Young Master?” she asked, uncertain that the tiny elf before her was real and alive. 

“Gilda, I… uh, I don’t know what happened” confessed Micah looking into her massive eyes. “I don’t think I’m injured, but something seems to have changed…” his train of thought trailed off as he looked around the room. The ceiling seemed as high as the clouds. The wood grain on the floor now had such detail that the boards appeared coarse and uneven rather than the smooth detail he remembered. After finally standing up, he estimated that he was maybe a bit taller than Gilda’s ankles, smaller compared to her than she used to be to him. His head was still a little woozy, but without much math he realized that meant he must be less than an inch tall.

As Micah scanned the room dumbfounded Gilda’s mood began to change. No longer fearing for Micah’s life she stood back up and, placing her hands on her prominent hips and took a few purposeful steps towards him. Micah’s focus returned to the towering figure. He flinched as her once dainty feet fell on either side of him, each easily dwarfing his height in length. He craned his neck up and saw the angry brownie’s face staring back at him over her prodigious chest. 

“Of course Young Master doesn’t know what happened! Young Master is a… a… Young Master is a FOOL!” she yelled punctuating her insult with a stamped foot. Micah almost fell again from the giant’s gesture and he looked up at her with a mixture of confusion and fear. Commanding his full attention Gilda had no intention of stopping “Gilda cleans, and keeps house, and cooks, and all Young Master does in return is worry Gilda with books and spells. Young Master is lucky to be alive!”

Normally when Gilda began one of her lectures Micah would simply pick her up by the tail and tell her to go do some chore, but now the angry brownie towered over him and he had no choice but to listen.

“Young Master could have waited for the Lady of the House to look at his potion and tell him it was a bad idea. But no, Young Master had to defy the Lady over and over until he finally turned himself into a bug!” she said with a wave of her hand. “Now, Young Master will have to beg the Lady for help to return him to normal, if she even can, and Gilda will be punished too for letting Young Master indulge in his foolishness.”

Micah was suddenly brought back to reality by these words, his mother and sister would be returning in three days! He couldn’t begin to imagine how mad she would be, both over his stature and his use of The Grimoire. Or worse yet endure the teasing of his older sister, who would no doubt take great joy seeing him in his current state. “Gilda, mother can never know this happened” he pleaded to her “I have a few days to figure this out, it might even wear off on its own.”

“Figure out how? Young Master is no mage, and if he thinks Gilda is helping him use his books then he has lost his mind!” as she said this she bent down and reached for Micah. He took a half step back as the giant hand seemed to lunge at him, but she was too quick. Tucking her thumb and finger under each of his arms she closed her hand around him and drew him up to her face. 

“Gilda will care for Young Master, like she always does, until the Lady of the House returns. Then he will beg for her help, and should he receive it he will remember not to go playing with strange magics ever again.” Her voice was calm, but her eyes had a fierceness Micah had never seen before, he was also resting at chest height to the deepest cleavage he had ever seen, so it was debatable which exactly was contributing more to his extended silence. 

“Is that understood, Young Master?” she asked squeezing him a bit tighter to regain his attention. Micah quickly nodded in approval, though still at a loss for words. Satisfied with winning her first argument ever with her Young Master Gilda nodded and a smile returned to her face. 

She grabbed him with both hands and pulled him into a hug. Pressed firmly into her mountainous breasts Micah could only notice their warmth and flowery aroma from some perfume Gilda was wearing. The ridiculous strength displayed by the tiny brownie only reminded him of Gilda’s past attempts at hugging family members had been constrained entirely to ankles and wrists where her enthusiasm was easily ignored. As she pulled him away from the embrace, the nature of his predicament began to sink in more heavily. He was nothing but a doll to this mere fairy and would be utterly inconsequential to his family and friends. 

“Gilda is going to tidy up all these books then make dinner for the Young Master…” her voice trailed off and then she let out a slight giggle. “Gilda will finally have company for dinner in her room! Young Master is going to be so much easier to cook for like this!” she said with a broad grin. Micah was so distracted by her swinging him about he didn’t notice the brownies tail snaking up around him. At its very end her tail was about as wide as his torso. It coiled around his body like some great python, pinning his arms to his side, with the tuft of hair ending behind his head. 

Without any warning Micah was swung behind her body as her tail hung in a natural S-shape. In the past he had seen her carrying small items around the house in the same fashion as he was now bound. Upside down and staring into her posterior he could only vaguely make out her hand movements as she cast various charms to push the books back into their respective places on the shelves and organized his papers into one of the desks many drawers. 

With another flick of her hands the lamps in the room extinguished and the darkness set in. Micah had not realized how much time had passed since he began his experiment, but the setting sun made it obvious that night was soon to come. Gilda began to walk out of the room. The hypnotizing shimmy of her hips not withstanding Micah was becoming disoriented by the constant counter sway of Gilda’s tail. By the time she had made it to the hallway and charmed the door to the library closed he had had enough.

“Gilda!” he yelled. He was immediately whipped forward and over her head so that he now dangled before her face. 

“Yes, Young Master?” she asked with a bemused smirk, being well aware that she was letting her tail swing a bit more freely than she typically would with precious cargo. 

Micah was once again distracted by Gilda’s cleavage directly above (or below?) his head. Regaining his composure he began “Gilda, you can’t swing me about like that, I’m going to be sick.” 

“Hmpf, Gilda doesn’t have to carry Young Master at all, If he wants to walk to dinner he knows where the kitchen is.” 

With that her tail unrolled him on the floor and she began walking away. Micah sat confused for a moment before realizing how far she was getting away from him with simply a walking pace. At his size the kitchen was a few miles away, which wouldn’t be that bad even for a homebody elf like him, but the flight of stairs down to the first floor would almost be impossible for him to navigate. 

He ran after the brownie yelling “Gilda, WAIT!”

She stopped and turned, amused at her tiny Master running to catch up to her. As he approached, slightly out of breath, Micah began “Gilda, I can’t get down the stairs on my own. Just, please, be gentler when carrying me.”

She knelt down next to him “If Gilda carries Young Master, she will carry him how she pleases.”

Micah, still catching his breath from the short sprint, looked up at her and seeing no sign of a smile or joke on her face surrendered. “Alright, do what you want, just don’t leave me behind” he said, though even he had to admit the words sounded a lot more pathetic when saying them out loud.

With a grin Gilda reached for him with both hands. Expecting to be wrapped up in her tail again Micah was pleasantly surprised when she brought him up to her chest. He was doubly surprised when she slid him down the front of her dress. He clung to the frilly edge of the emerald colored neckline all too aware of the warm globes pressing into his back.

“Young Master seems to be so distracted by Gilda’s chest, perhaps this is the best place for him.” Gilda said as Micah blushed deeply. “Hold tight, Gilda might not rescue Young Master if he falls.”

Micah wasn’t sure if she meant fell out of the dress or fell into it, or which would be worse in his condition. He didn’t have much time to consider this as Gilda approached the section of upstairs hall that overlooked the main entrance next to the staircase. Even though he had seen her do it a thousand times he was still too distracted thinking about what had just happened to recognize her intentions. She approached the space between two railings and with no hesitation lept out into the open hallway. For Micah it was like being launched off a mountain, while clinging to a barge, a barge that happened to be giggling the whole way down.

He clung for dear life to the soft fabric as she cast her charms half way through the fall. Their descent slowed rabidly from her magic and she floated the last foot or so down, landing no harder than someone who had just jumped down from a chair. For Micah the landing was still somewhat unexpected as he lurched forward with the dress before being slammed back into the breasts behind him. His grip loosened a bit and he began to slip down, but he quickly grabbed the edge of the fabric and with a few kicks of his legs managed to right himself so that he was resting with his arms once again over the edge. 

The minor struggle of her passenger caused a riotous laugh to erupt from Gilda, almost dislodging him from his position once again. “Careful, Young Master” she said rubbing a single finger on his head in a petting motion. As she began her walk to the kitchen, where her room was, Micah began to contemplate Gilda herself. 

To his knowledge no one in the family had really spent much time with her, which was the point of brownies really, to not be seen. But Gilda had always been a little funny, a little too familiar in serving the family, too nosy, and too opinionated for a brownie. He had always chalked that up to a personality quirk or a fairy sense of humor. Which were harmless habits for a creature smaller than a cat that simply tends the house, but now that his life may literally be in her hands he was considering her character for the first time. By the time Gilda was opening the door to her room (really just a walled off space at the bottom of the pantry) Micah realized that he honestly had no idea what was in store for him over the next three days.

Upon entering the darkened room Gilda waved her hands dramatically and a few candles spread across the room flickered to life. Micah had no time to register what he saw as her hands immediately moved to extract him. She set him down on a table next to a candle easily thrice his height. She bent down so that her face was level to him. “Gilda will grab us some food from the pantry. Young Master is to stay right here till she gets back.”

She wrapped her tail around a large rough wicker basket and picked up a glass bottle as tall as her knee by a chord tied around its neck. Micah only just realized that the large jug was an old perfume bottle of his mothers as Gilda walked through a second door that exited into the pantry. Micah had never seen the inside of the fairy’s room before and since he had no intention of disobeying her command to stay put he spent his time looking around. 

Her room was composed of various items re-purposed for their fairy owner. A large purple pillow now served as a bed. A wine bottle had been cut in half vertically and was serving as a bathtub along the wall. A small hand mirror with a chipped corner now hung upside down on the wall as a full length vanity mirror. A teacup with a broken handle sat upside down next to the table serving as a stool. 

In a corner he saw spools of thread, a pincushion, needles, and buttons; everything Gilda used to make her own clothes as well as repair family items. Gilda had also made a number of pillows and cushions scaled to her size that were spread about the room and floor. Hanging on the wall were some of Gilda’s dresses and scraps of a large variety of cloth. The ceiling had bits of colored glass and broken costume jewelry hanging from every available space. These reflected and refracted the candle light filling the room with a kaleidoscope of colors. Half the ceiling was an old pane of glass to let light in from the pantry during the day.

Micah began to pace the surface of the table, aside from the candle the only other items that occupied it was a silver coin as big as a stage, a thimble that he could have climbed into, and a knife taller than himself. He pondered these items for a moment before realizing that these were Gilda’s dinner setting, her plate, cup, and, well, knife respectively. He was just beginning to wonder where exactly Gilda would have acquired a fairy sized knife in the first place when she returned from the pantry. 

Gilda was carrying the glass bottle, now full of wine, with both hands. The basket, loaded with unseen items, was set down roughly next to Micah by her tail. She set the heavy bottle on the floor and uncorked it. Grabbing the thimble from the table she poured out a large portion of wine. After downing a mouthful she sat the thimble down next to Micah. 

“Young Master will have to share Gilda’s cup, she doesn’t have anything small enough for him” she said as she adjusted a cushion on top of the teacup and sat down. Micah leaned over the edge of the thimble and peered into, what was to him, several barrels of wine. As Gilda unpacked the basket of dried meats, bits of cheese, and a particularly large blueberry Micah spooned out some wine with his hands and took a drink. 

He was taken aback as the thimble was pulled away from him and up to Gilda’s waiting lips. As she drank he walked to the edge of coin turned platter. Gilda quickly began cutting off tiny pieces of meat and cheese and set them before him. They ate in silence for a few moments. Micah got up to get more wine only to find the reservoir had been drained by Gilda. 

“Gilda was thirstier than she thought” she giggled as she poured more. Taking several mouthfuls for herself she set it back down for Micah. He had to lean into the thimble in order to reach the wine this time. After drinking his fill he sat back down next to the coin. Gilda finished off the remaining wine and poured herself another thimble. 

The tiny portions Gilda had cut off for him was far too much food for Micah to ever eat in a single sitting, so having had his fill he simply watched Gilda eat her food and drink her wine. Having eaten the last of the meat she bit juicily into the blueberry. She shoved the massive fruit into Micah’s face. “Does Young Master want any?” she asked. 

“No thank you, Gilda. I’m already full.” He said sadly. The miniature furniture of Gilda’s room had helped him maintain the illusion that he wasn’t completely insignificant. But sitting next to a massive berry, smaller than a marble at his normal size, he couldn’t help but think about how tiny he really was.

Gilda snorted then laughed “Is that so? Young Master should always be this easy to feed.” She picked up the blueberry again and took another bite as she pivoted on her seat and reclined against the wall. She watched, between sips of wine, as Micah got up and walked to the edge of the table. 

Micah looked down, in part to judge the height of the table, but mostly to check the jar of wine. He had lost count of how many ‘thimbles’ Gilda had consumed, but about a third of the original bottle was already gone. He then realized that he had no idea what effect elf wine had on brownies so he it was pointless to speculate. Even if he did know, what could he do about his giant host’s drinking habits? Both etiquette and practicality prevented him from broaching the subject of drinking wine in her own room.

Micah turned around to find that Gilda had shifted to leaning on the table with her chin resting on her hand. She lazily sat down the thimble and pressed her finger into what remained of Micah’s serving, the only food left on the plate. She licked the small bit of meat and cheese off her finger then picked up the thimble once again.

She locked eyes with him and said “Gilda has a question for Young Master.” 

“Yes?” he asked slightly unsure of her mood as she bottomed up the thimble. 

Gilda began by depositing her cup on the table with a loud thud, “Why does Young Master always pick Gilda up by her tail?” she asked pointing her finger accusingly at him. 

“Uh…” Micah said, uncertain of how to explain himself to the large, and possibly drunk, fairy “I don’t know” he said honestly. Gilda’s tail rose up next to him. The tuft of hair with its cute pink ribbon now loomed ominously over his head as she refilled the thimble.

“Young Master doesn’t know?” Gilda said mockingly. “He does it so often Gilda thought he had a good reason” she said as she dropped her tail heavily onto Micah. 

He was bowled over by the golden haystack of loose hair. “GILDA” Micah yelled as he tried to grab the solid end of her tail hidden inside to better push it away. 

“Does Young Master need something?” she replied, casually flopping the end of her tail to his side and letting him up.

“Yes, do not assault me with your tail!” he said standing up “I’m sor…” but he wasn’t able to finish his sentence as Gilda’s tail swept across the table tripping his legs out from under him. Landing roughly Micah started again “Gilda, I’m sorry…” but he was cut off by her flipping her tail on top of him once more. 

Gilda leaned forward with a devilish grin and lifted her tail just slightly off of Micah “Was Young Master about to say something?” she asked in a fake innocent tone. 

“Gilda, I’m sorry that I” she dropped her tail on him once more with a giggle but Micah continued anyway “… I’m sorry I always pick you up by the tail.”

“Hmm… Gilda thinks Young Master is just sorry he’s being bullied by Gilda’s tail” she said flapping the end of her tail up and down on the defeated Micah a few times. It didn’t hurt Micah but it was somewhat like being pelted with a large sentient rug that possessed just enough weight to make rolling away or standing up impossible. 

“No.” Micah insisted “I’m sorry, I should be more respectful of you.”

“Young Master should!” Gilda agreed, withdrawing her tail and sipping more wine. “But, Young Master still hasn’t said why he does it.”

Micah pulled himself up into a sitting position “I guess it’s because… you look cute when dangling by your tail” he finished guardedly expecting the tail to return and flick him again. If he had been looking up he might have seen Gilda blush slightly. 

“Gilda is always cute” she said matter-of-factly setting the thimble down next to him. The jar was now light enough for her to pick it up and pour out. Micah watched quietly as barrels of wine flowed from the jar into the thimble. A mischievous thought entered Gilda’s head, and just as the thimble was about full she shifted her hand slightly and doused the tiny elf in wine.

“GILDA!” he yelled again, but he could not be heard over the fairy laughing at her own prank. She struggled to set the jar down without fully spilling its contents on the floor. Micah stood up, completely drenched in wine. He would have been worried about his clothes except for the fact that they had already been stained pink by the magic smoke. 

She walked, still laughing, over to her corner of sewing supplies to grab two scraps of cloth. She began to wipe up the spilled wine around Micah with the first piece and set the second bit of cloth next to him. “Young Master can take his wet clothes off and wear the silk piece for now, Gilda will have to make him some robes tomorrow” She said still suppressing fits of laughter. 

Micah looked up at her sternly for a moment before saying “Could I have some privacy while undressing?” 

Gilda laughed again and covering her mouth with one hand she simply flipped the basket on the table over with the other. Micah was upset, but the basket had enough space in its weaving that he still had candlelight to see by. As he undressed Gilda started thinking out loud “Gilda hasn’t made clothes that small since she was a little girl. When Gilda made them for her dollies. It’s too bad she didn’t keep any of them, but then again Young Master probably doesn’t want to wear dolly dresses.” The mental image of Micah wearing the flowery polka dot dresses she made for her childhood dolls caused her to double over with another fit of laughter.

Micah had finished undressing and dried himself off as best he could with the already wet cloth, but the wine was sticky and even without his clothes he still felt soaked. He wrapped the black piece of silk around his waist like a towel as there wasn’t enough material to make a toga or robe. He stood waiting, cold and sticky, for Gilda to flip the basket over again and quite ready for the night to be over with. He could hear Gilda moving around but the basket obscured enough light to where he couldn’t make out what she was doing. 

Suddenly the basket was lifted. Gilda stood in front of him, but she was no longer wearing her working dress. Instead she was wearing a black silk robe, his makeshift garment obviously having been a left over scrap from crafting it. Her robe did not extend beyond her mid-thigh, and given his lowered perspective from the table, it seemed to be in danger of opening up and concealing nothing at all. In one hand she held the fresh thimble of wine, but her other hand was already reaching for him and as it did the shoulder of the robe slipped down and revealed her freckled cleavage, in all its candlelit glory.

“Would Young Master like to join Gilda for a bath?” she asked scooping the awestruck elf into her palm.

Micah had no idea what was going on. In truth he would love a bath after his impromptu wine shower, but the idea of bathing with Gilda at this size and with the amount of alcohol she has consumed both terrified and excited him. There was some consolation in that her request appeared to have been entirely rhetorical and he had no real say in the matter, as she had already carried him over to the wine bottle turned bath tub. 

Gilda deposited her thimble on a hidden shelf between the wall and the tub. With her free hand she charmed a large faucet on the wall to open up. Water surged into the neck of the bottle and flowed into the tub. She reached back to the shelf and produced a small bauble with a fragrant liquid in it. A few drops from the bauble and the churning water bubbled with soap and produced the flowery aroma she always smelt of. She stopped the flow of water, and with another more complicated charm steam began to rise from the magically warmed over bath.

Micah was astounded at the speed and mastery of her magic, so much that he didn’t notice Gilda’s tail wrapping around him again. He was at least held right side up this time, as Gilda lifted one of her long supple legs into the bath. Balancing on the ground smooth edge of the bottle, Gilda carefully pulled the rest of herself into a standing position in the tub. 

“No peeking Young Master” Gilda said coyly as she turned him around. Even if he possessed the flexibility to turn around that accursed tuft of hair at the end of her tail would have blocked anything worth seeing. Instead he simply saw the silk robe get placed on a hook on the wall and watched as water was displaced by Gilda slipping herself into the welcoming bath. He was then dropped on the shelf against the wall. 

Turning around he surveyed a massive lake, swirls of warm aromatic vapor rose from its surface, and reclining into the neck of the bottle lay the giant brownie with a satisfied smile. Her prominent bosom bobbed just beneath the surface of the water forming welcoming shoals that seemed to beckon to the young elf. So strong was their call that he nearly dived right in, but was quickly stopped by the end of Gilda’s tail flopping down in front of him. 

“Could Young Master remove the ribbon from Gilda’s tail?” she purred, wiggling the tail back and forth in front of him. Micah hid his dissatisfaction with this request as best he could. He did not believe that his diminutive, sticky, cold, and wet self was the best means of removing the ribbon, especially after the magical displays Gilda had been putting on all night. As he struggled with the bow he decided to attempt small talk. 

“I had no idea you used your magic for so many things, it’s impressive” he said struggling to pull up the yards of loose ribbon onto the shelf. 

“Brownie magic is very powerful, but limited” Gilda said.

“Limited, how?” Micah asked pulling the first large loop from the bow knot with a grunt. 

“Within the walls of the Home” she said flatly. 

Micah fell over pulling the other strand from the knot, now he only had to focus on unwinding the ribbon. He suddenly had a thought “Hey, could you try using Brownie magic to undo what happened to me?” 

“No” Gilda said tersely. 

“Is that an ‘I won’t’ or ‘I can’t’ kind of no?” he asked, a little nervous of her change in tone, but still mostly focused on unwrapping the last coils of ribbon. 

Gilda’s opened her eyes and leaned forward from her relaxed position. She pressed herself up against the edge of the tub, careful to keep herself covered. Her head hung high over Micah as she spoke “It is a ‘no’ kind of no, Young Master.”

Micah was once again intimidated by her size, feminine assets, and the size of her feminine assets. He shrugged his shoulders and in defiance of his trepidation said “Isn’t it worth a try?” 

“Young Master never knows when to quit” she said picking up the ribbon from the shelf. She charmed it to fly to the hooks on the wall near all her sowing supplies. “Brownies can’t use their magic, for good or ill, on the Family of the house. Besides, mixing magics is even more dangerous than Young Masters usual foolishness.” 

She reclined back into her position and taking up the thimble of wine began to sip again. “I guess that would be ‘can’t’ then” said Micah dejectedly.

“If Gilda were the most powerful Brownie sorceress in the world, she could only carry master around in her dress” she said with a smirk. 

“…or wrapped in your tail” volunteered Micah. Gilda laughed, and even Micah had to chuckle at the weirdness of the situation he found himself in. Gilda patted the surface of the water in invitation. Micah fiddled with his towel for a moment “Uh… no peeking?” he tried. 

“Young Master should stop trying to be so modest, Gilda has seen everything anyway” she said.

“What?” was all Micah could respond with.

Gilda smirked and sipped her wine. “Brownies aren’t supposed to be seen. Gilda breaks this rule when it suits her, but otherwise she’s as good as any other brownie at not being seen.” 

“Young Master has dressed and undressed himself in Gilda’s presence dozens, maybe hundreds, of times without knowing.” she finished by reaching up from the edge of the water and pinching the makeshift towel around Micah’s waste. A quick flick of her wrist and it was free. She tossed the scrap of cloth behind her head in a grandiose fashion with a hearty laugh.

Micah had no words of protest against this last indecency. He was still stuck in the limbo of coming to terms with what Gilda had told him, how many times had he thought he was alone in the house when he was secretly being watched? What had she seen, what hadn’t she seen?

Weirdly he felt smaller than ever. Being bullied by a tuft of hair, or carried in the palm of a hand, or getting full on crumbs of food not fit for mice was nothing compared to how small he felt naked and without secrets in front of the beautiful young fairy. Gilda was still giggling as he snapped back to reality and decided that the bath water was probably the best place to get over this feeling. 

He ran and jumped into the water. Gilda watched him closely. Micah began to swim towards her and she charmed the jug of wine to roll over to the bathtub. She poured herself another thimble full and she checked on Micah as she started to drink. Micah was closing in on the freckled islands that had tantalized him all night when his path was suddenly blocked. The tail had risen from the depths and blocked his passage like a great piece of driftwood.

“Where exactly is Young Master swimming with such determination?” Gilda inquired after a sip.

“The explorer’s spirit of my father has overtaken me. I now seek strange shores and exotic tracts of land.” Micah yelled up taking the opportunity to rest on the floating tail. 

Gilda almost spat out her wine. “YOUNG MASTER HAS NEVER DESIRED TO EXPLORE THE BACK YARD” she yelled laughing. “Does he expect Gilda to believe that the explorer’s spirit only strikes when he happens to be in the bath with Gilda?”

“I guess not” he said diving under the tail and emerging on the other side he continued to swim.

Gilda gave anther chuckle as she picked Micah up out of the water. He looked up at her and she smiled as she threw him further down the tub. He landed in a ball on the water’s surface. He expected the impact to be more jarring, but some combination of his new size and weight resulted in it feeling like a normal jump into water.

“Swim to the end and back” Gilda said “Young Master might find exotic lands more receptive of weary travelers who will cause less trouble.”

Micah turned around and began swimming as instructed. The physical exertion was good for clearing his mind. He swam, refusing to look at his surroundings, and he was almost able to convince himself this was just a normal swim. When his hand finally touched the edge and he looked up at the huge wall of glass it all came back to him. There was no escaping the fact that he had just spent several minutes swimming half the length of a wine bottle. He started to swim back to Gilda, who was lying back contentedly.

The physical exertion was starting to take its toll. He wasn’t a good swimmer at the best of times and it had been a trying day. He flipped over onto his back and floated for a while. He felt water begin to move underneath him and before he could flip over something solid hit his back and lifted him out of the water. He sat up and saw Gilda’s foot rising in front of him, she had let her leg float and he now sat on her shin just above the ankle. 

“Young Master looked tired” Gilda said, still sipping wine. He turned around and awkwardly straddled her leg as though he was riding a horse. The supple warmth of her skin and aroma of the bath was having an effect on Micah that was hard to hide in his nudity. He didn’t have long to think about how to hide himself as his perch lifted out of the water. Gilda extended her leg towards the ceiling and Micah slid down it. He didn’t have much of a grip and teetered off her leg halfway down her shin and fell into the bath again.

With Micah struggling underwater Gilda shifted forward, further disturbing Micah’s attempts to get upright. Once he found himself treading water the face of the brownie hovered over him wearing a playful grin. “Does Young Master really think Gilda is cute?” she asked with the wine in her breath washing over him. 

Micah didn’t know how to respond. He had always meant cute in the same way that one referred to a pet, and stating that truthfully was not likely to improve her mood. But he was also finding it harder not to notice her feminine traits, magnified as they were. Her golden eyes and thick lashes looking down at him. Her flushed cheeks from the warm bath bearing the constellation of her freckles. Those pouty wine-reddened lips. The faerie were often overlooked for their stature but many among them possessed beauty to rival that of elven kind.

“Of course” Micah said, more earnestly than intended. A vaguely predatory look came over Gilda’s eyes and Micah unconsciously started treading away. Gilda stood up quickly and disturbed the water so that Micah went reeling once again. She stepped out of the bath and cast a drying charm. Micah was sputtering on the surface of the water as a warming wind snaked up Gilda’s body and played with her hair until it was dry. She looked over her shoulder and swatted Micah with the tuft of her tail.

Micah grabbed on to the tail reflexively as he was pulled from the water by it. Gilda brought Micah up to her face as she cast a weaker version of the drying charm. She watched in fascination as the hair of her tail whipped over the naked body of her Young Master. Insufferable as she found his stubbornness, she had long found him to be her favorite of the family to watch. 

Gilda supported Micah with her hand so that he did not have to cling to her tail. Micah settled into the crock of her thumb and index finger, with his arms wrapping over each for support. He blinked and was stunned by his proximity to Gilda’s face. Dangling as he was, he looked down, and some combination of his height from the floor and her nudity caused him to start squirming. Gilda chuckled at his blushing and tilted her palm back to give him better support. The thought of holding her Young Master in the palm of her hand like this gave her ideas that the wine only encouraged. 

Micah for his part was struggling too much with his perch to pay attention to the brownie. When Gilda leaned forward to kiss his face he was taken completely by surprise. The soft strong pressure of her lips parted ever so slightly and her tongue reached out to explore his cheek before she pulled back. Her lips came right back down on his chest, Micah pushed back against her cheeks, pinned as he was to her hand. 

“Gilda, I don’t know if this is a good id…” Micah began, but Gilda’s kisses progressed southward, and she found what Micah had been failing to hide in the tub. Her impish eyes grinned down at him as she manipulated his loins with just the tip of her tongue. Though Micah pushed harder against her he found her cheeks, soft though they were, barely yielded. He was trapped between the palm of a fairy and her aggressive tongue. The amorous explorations of the tremendous appendage didn’t seem like they would ever end. Embarrassed, humiliated, and yet fully aroused he couldn’t voice any further protest while Gilda did as she liked. 

Gilda watched with fascination as the tiny elf blushed and resisted her manipulations. To have him under her control like this she couldn’t help but remember every time he picked her up dismissively or talked down to her. In the thrill and excitement she began to rub herself with her free hand. She was growing weaker in the legs and took a few steps back to collapse onto her pillow bed. 

Micah could no longer hold back. As the brownie fell to her bed he was pushed hard against her tongue and finally surrendered. Gilda sucked on him a little longer, mostly to tease the elf, but also she was taking time to position herself comfortably. Gilda pulled Micah away from her face and whispered up to him “Gilda hopes Young Master hasn’t lost his explorer’s spirit.”

The brownie giggled as she lowered Micah. In her grip he floated past her tan hillock-like breasts. Looking down he began to understand her intentions. Below her stomach Micah could see her other hand working her fingers into the space between the sparse field of golden hairs. 

“Wait, Gilda…” was all Micah could get out before he was pushed into her sex. As her fingers situated Micah he was overwhelmed by the warm damp folds of flesh. He pushed and kicked against her blindly but the stimulation only made the brownie desire more. Her hands lifted away and Micah wearily looked up to see her tail folding over. Being much thicker at the base than at the end the muscled tail laid against Micah roughly. He was pressed back and forth against Gilda. 

Micah felt as though he was loosing sense of himself trapped as he was in the nether regions of the brownie. After some time the tail finally lifted, only to allow a hand back in to  rub him vigorously until the walls of his prison began to constrict in rapid waves. Gilda spread her legs as she came, surprised at how quickly she climaxed with the Young Masters assistance. Her legs quivered and her tail twitched as her toe curling orgasm worked it’s way through her. 

Micah pulled himself out slowly at first. He grabbed at whatever folds of flesh would give his hands purchase to climb. If Gilda noticed she was still too out of it to care. Micah laid himself out on the patch of curly blond hair he had spotted earlier. As he caught his breath he realized that everything he felt, tasted, smelled, and was covered with came from Gilda. The little fairy had used him without so much as a second thought and he was too exhausted to say anything about her lack of caution given to his treatment. 

Almost as though she sensed his indignation Gilda picked up the elf weakly in one hand. She rolled out of bed and walked as best she could back to the tub. She tossed Micah in and cleaned herself with a bit of cloth. The water was slightly cooler than before and it helped to reinvigorate Micah as he washed himself again. Gilda reached over the tub to grab her black silk robe and wrap herself in it. She put her hands on the edge of the tub and leaned over it, looking down at Micah with a smug grin. 

Craning his neck to look up at her Micah resolved to say something about what just happened “Gilda, I…”

But the brownie interrupted “If Young Master wants to sleep with Gilda on her bed tonight he won’t say another word. Or he can complain and swim to the neck of the bottle, climb out to the shelf and find a sponge to sleep on.”

Micah was bordering on anger now. However, as he tread water his shoulders were beginning to burn. It made him aware of how exhausted he was. He even glanced in the direction of the bottle neck, only to immediately concede that he couldn’t imagine swimming that far right now. He decided he could not risk testing Gilda’s resolve in her ultimatum. He swallowed his pride and said nothing. 

Gilda waited a moment before asking “Does Young Master want Gilda to take him out of the bath now?” Micah nodded his head reluctantly. 

With both hands Gilda scooped him out of the water, she then sauntered back to her bed while holding Micah close. As she laid back she dropped Micah between her breasts and pulled a blanket over herself. Micah cursed himself for getting aroused again at being placed on his “bed”. Gilda extinguished the candles with a charm that produced no smoke. She made herself more comfortable, taking care not to rustle her guest too much, though Micah was already asleep.

Micah woke up with a jolt, immediately confused by his nakedness and the unusual surface on which he was sleeping. It came back to him in waves, the failed potion, the awkward diner, and flirtatious bath, and then, well, he never would have thought Gilda would behave like that. He looked up at her face still in a heavy sleep, likely from all that wine. He attempted to stand, only to find his legs much weaker from the previous nights activities than he thought. As he reached out to support himself his hand rested on the breast next to him. Micah turned around slowly to look “downhill”. 

Her bosom made a low canopy of the blanket. The soft light of the morning turned the slight incline of her belly into a cavern. Watching her breath rise and fall Micah couldn’t help but remember what lied at the bottom of that cavern and a mixture of conflicting feelings came over him. Mostly he found himself aroused again so he turned away to put last night out of his mind.

He knew he was completely at the mercy of the brownie, but he hoped he could talk some sense to Gilda today. If he could just look at his notes he still believed he might be able to figure something out. His mother finding him like this was not an option he wished to explore and he only had three days, including today, before she returned from her trip. Micah climbed over Gilda’s shoulder onto her pillow. He intended to walk up to her ear, but his timing had been unlucky and she woke up before he had found his footing. 

Gilda furrowed her brow and pressed her hand to her head. Though she had quite the tolerance for elf wine, last night she had indulged too heavily. Her eyes opened wide at the thought of last night, she reached for the place on her chest where she expected to find Micah. He wasn’t there and she sat up worried that something else might have happened to him in the night. All of which occurred too quickly for Micah to stay upright on the pillow as it shifted under Gilda’s weight. He fell down the purple fabric like a man rolling down a hill. Unable to stop himself he eventually collided with a soft silken wall. 

Micah looked up to find that he had landed against Gilda’s posterior. Her slight movements managed to wedge him into the space between the pillow and this warm unyielding wall. Her silk robe stretched above him like a cliff face, with only the back of her hair and ears visible to him from this perspective. He did not go unnoticed by Gilda who twisted around to take a look. 

“What is Young Master doing down there?” Gilda said, she smiled then winced as the sound of her own voice made her head ache. She picked Micah up with little caution. She let him hang at her side as she stood up slowly. 

“Gilda!” Micah yelled. She ignored him as she walked over to the bath and squatted down next to it. She let her forearms rest on the edge of the tub and finally looked at Micah directly. He didn’t seem any smaller or bigger than last night, though his struggle against her grip was amusing. 

“Was Young Master taking advantage of Gilda in her sleep?” she asked with a wry smile. 

Micah turned red “Absolutely not! After last night how can you accuse me of anything inappropriate? Gilda you can not continue to…” but his rant was cut off as Gilda dropped him into the cold bath water. Micah came up for air shocked by the unexpected drop and the sudden chill. He coughed and sputtered as Gilda scooped up handfuls of water to wash her face and wake herself up. She dried herself with a wash cloth as Micah angrily tread water. 

“Young Master can wait here until Gilda returns” she said looking down at him in the tub. Gilda adjusted her robe before leaving to get herself some tea and breakfast. As Micah watched her walk away he realized that he was shivering. He decided he would swim to the bottle neck and climb out, he could find a towel of some kind up on the shelf and the exercise would help him feel warmer in the meantime. As he swam his mind wandered.

Micah finally came to realize that he could not insist upon Gilda like he used to. The brownie had always been defiant in personality, but her size never required him to compromise with her. Perhaps she was just getting a bit of her own revenge given his situation he thought. But the events of last night worried Micah most of all. His hand finally grazed glass before he could contemplate more of the night before. The neck of the bottle wasn’t that steep but he felt colder out of the water now that he was walking up it. 

Gilda was collecting a crust of bread and buttering it in the kitchen. She felt odd walking around the house in just her robe, since there were rarely days where no one else was in the house to see. She had already brewed some tea in a jug of hers using a charm. It would need to steep for a little while longer and this particular blend was good for elf wine hangovers. As she took her time descending the pantry she thought about the tiny elf in her room. Truthfully she felt selfish for taking advantage of his situation last night, but she also did not look forward to explaining his situation to the Lady of the House. 

She was confident the Lady would fix Micah’s condition, but Gilda might take part of the blame since she had covered for and helped him in his studies so often. Since the Young Master did as he wanted regardless of Gilda’s protests, she always wound up watching over him to make sure nothing went wrong and now it had gone wrong anyways. She took a sip of the tea before opening the door to her room.

Micah had just rolled over to the hidden shelf when Gilda walked in. He saw that she took notice of where he was before she continued over to her table. She was wearing an impish expression again as she took her seat. He had thought about what to say and was going to try his best to return some propriety to this arrangement. But first he had to walk the entire length of the shelf to get nearer where she was sitting.

Gilda ate her bread and sipped her tea as she ignored Micah’s approach. She was thinking about what kind of clothes to make for him. A long tunic of some kind would be easiest. But this was her opportunity to dress the Young Master however she wanted and she wasn’t about to let practicality get in the way of fun like that. She liked the idea of giving him tight breeches and having him go shirtless. Though she thought fitting something like that would be too difficult given his size. Perhaps just a loin cloth to humble him further?

“Gilda, may I talk to you for a moment?” Micah asked. In her daydreaming she hadn’t noticed that Micah was already resting at the end of the shelf.

“Of course, why wouldn’t Gilda listen to Young Master?” she said before taking a large bite from her bread. She broke off a well buttered pinch of it and handed it to to Micah. Micah ignored his hunger and continued speaking instead “I want to thank you for taking care of me since the accident yesterday” he said, pausing to see if she would offer a ‘your welcome’, but she only sipped her tea and waited. 

“I recognize that I may have not always treated you with the respect you deserve and I apologize for that” Gilda nodded approvingly but let Micah continue “I think undoing my condition should be the highest priority for both of us. This whole ordeal has made the danger of my research very real to me and I promise that I will not be so reckless with it in the future, but now I must use what I have learned to fix this before my mother returns. I will need your help in going over my notes, but I think it would be best if my time is spent entirely on trying to fix this over the next two days.”

Gilda met his eyes and took a long sip of her tea before finally saying “No.”

Micah felt some anger rising up but stopped himself from responding right away. He tried to think of anything else to say but all he could come up with would just be a rephrasing of points already covered. He had nothing with which to appeal to changing her mind so he would try the only other thing he had thought of. “If you aid me in returning to full size before my mother gets back I would be willing to forget what happened last night.”

Gilda smiled “What about last night would Young Master like to forget?”

Micah looked up at her, but was unwilling to play along. Gilda told him to finish eating and set her cup of tea near him on the shelf for him to drink from. She had decided on what she was going to make and fetched the materials. She sewed quietly as the naked elf ate and drank to his fill. Gilda eventually reached a point where she would need measurements if she was going to finish his garment. 

“Stand up.” she said softly. Micah, recognizing that was not a request, did as he was told. He concealed himself with his hands as best he could. But as Gilda reached for him she said “Hold out your arms.” 

Micah blushed slightly and did so. Gilda wrapped the piece of burgundy cloth around his waist and made it snug before pinching it to mark the length. She cut and sewed until she had a small skirt-like piece of clothing. On the waist was a loop through which a thick black thread was pulled to serve as a belt. She thought about cutting off the bottom rough edge to keep it very short, but then decided that she rather liked the unevenness of it and gave it to Micah as is. 

Micah wrapped it around his waist, eager to have any article of clothing again. The cloth was long on one side and short on the other. Not liking the feel of the short side on his rear he opted to move it to his hip, leaving some of his left thigh exposed and the long side going down the right leg to his knee. He tied off his “belt” on his hip. It vaguely reminded him of the clothing worn by a group of human traders he occasionally saw in the ante-city. Gilda watched him dress in amusement. She had intended for it to be worn more like an apron and leave Micah’s butt barely covered, but she also liked the crooked roguish way he wore it now and decided to let him leave it that way. 

“Thank you, Gilda, this should suffice for a couple of days” Micah said.

Gilda said nothing. She got up and selected a navy blue work dress for the day. Micah turned away out of respect as she disrobed and got dressed. Gilda picked out a favorite ribbon of hers before sitting back down. With her tail she picked Micah up and transferred him to the table. She rested the very end of her tail in front of him and dropped the ribbon next to it.

“Young Master will learn how to tie a ribbon for Gilda” she said with only the slightest of smiles. 

Micah sighed and pinched his nose “Gilda, I’m grateful you are taking care of me, but you’ve had plenty of fun at my expense already. Can we please just wait out my mothers return without these little games?” 

“Young Master will do as Gilda says, or he will not be seeing the Lady of the House upon her return” Gilda said softly. Micah inspected her face. Her iron posture and soft smile betrayed no joking in her words. 

“What do you mean by that Gilda?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Well, Young Master did insist that Gilda keep his secrets yesterday, did he not? Should Gilda tell the Lady everything that happened? The Young Master would be in so much trouble, perhaps Gilda should take care of him until he figures out how to solve the problem for himself.” 

Micah was not sure what game she was playing “Of course I will tell my mother what happened now, it is not a secret you need to keep.”

“Ah, well then if Young Master is only tired of Gilda’s company then she can return him to the floor of the library and he can wander the house to his content. Getting the Lady’s attention will be his problem” Gilda put a finger to her chin and pretended to think very hard “Perhaps if the Young Master finds a shoe to hide in he will be mistaken for a pebble and found that way.” She smiled down at Micah “That doesn’t sound like a good idea to Gilda, but if Young Master prefers that to doing as Gilda tells him…” she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head at the unfortunate situation she was presenting. 

Micah anxiously straightened up, though standing up straight before the looming brownie did not boost his confidence. They stared at each other for a moment, before Micah worked up the courage to finally ask “What sort of threat is this?”

“YOUNG MASTER!” Gilda said, bringing her hand to her chest in feigned shock “Gilda would never threaten a member of the family.” 

She brought her hands down to rest in her lap “Gilda is only saying that the Young Master can seek the aid of his family on his own, or he can accept Gilda’s help…” 

“…and whatever conditions Gilda places on her help” Micah said finally catching on.

“It’s a fair trade” Gilda said looking down her nose. “Gilda is a busy brownie and if she is to attend to the Young Master in his condition, she should expect something in return.” 

“Like what?” Micah asked.

Gilda crossed her arms and in a haughty tone said “Gilda will tell the Young Master what to do and when to do it. Gilda will tolerate no second guessing or back talk. Young Master will learn to braid Gilda’s tail, pamper Gilda in the bath, and please Gilda in the bed.” 

That last statement made Micah blush, but also filled Gilda with a thrilling resolve to keep going. “When Young Master does well he will be rewarded. When he fails he will do his tasks again correctly or be punished by Gilda. He will do these things until Gilda is satisfied that Young Master has learned to treat Gilda properly.”

“Gilda, mother will be back in two more days…” Micah said pleading “Isn’t all this a bit much?”

“Yes it is a lot for Young Master to learn, he will have to listen closely to Gilda if he expects to gain her approval before the Lady of the House arrives” she said grinning widely. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa” Micah said waving his arms “You don’t intend to keep me like this after she comes back, do you?”

“Young Master can go whenever he wants. If he thinks he could find help from the family before earning Gilda’s favor he is welcome to try” She crossed her legs and turned away from him slightly “It makes no difference to Gilda if Young Master spends months traversing the kitchen floor or months learning to tie bows.” 

Micah stood there crestfallen. “I thought we were friends, Gilda.” 

That hurt a little, but Gilda did nothing to indicate it as she opened her eyes and turned to face him. “Did Young Master treat Gilda like a friend?”

Micah had no response to that. Gilda gave him a brief nod in the direction of the ribbon “Then Young Master can learn how Gilda likes to be treated now.” 

Micah thought to plead his case a little more, but he could find no words to aid him. He looked around Gilda’s room, and he thought about how he could barely navigate this place. He remembered how absolutely massive the rest of the house was to him now. Unfair as he felt her ultimatum was, he knew he stood no chance of getting help on his own. So with a sullen resolve he walked over to the bow and awaited Gilda’s instructions.

Micah followed Gilda’s instructions in tying the bow, but he found he was not strong enough to tighten the knot to her satisfaction. She finished the task for him before picking him up. This dress had a front pocket on her belly and she put him in there. Micah found himself standing in a wide stance to lean against the pocket and stay upright. He wouldn’t really be able to sit or lay in it comfortably given how tightly it sat across Gilda's stomach. Especially given how quick footed Gilda could be, as he soon discovered. 

Micah had seen the brownie use her charms to ascend and descend high places but he had not been aware how often she used quickening charms to get her from room to room at blinding speed. After her first burst through the kitchen Micah realized that she was objectively covering ground about as fast as he could run through the house at his old size. But at his current size, and from such a low perspective to the ground, Gilda’s haste was like nothing he had ever experienced before. When she finally did stop he almost felt ill from the constant changing of velocity. 

They were in the conservatory at the very rear of the house. His mother kept some delicate herbs and ornamental orchids in this room that was mostly glass. The sun fell here for longer in the day and it provided a warmer climate for them, with the help of a little elven magic. Gilda charmed a large water jug and watered those plants that needed it. 

Micah could only marvel at the sheer size of it all. Having been stuck in Gilda’s home had made him forget her scale to the rest of the house. From the buckets high above vines as wide as his torso stretched down. Some of the delicate flowers he could have used as a bed. Others he could have fallen into. Gilda plucked some small blue flowers from a large cluster. She pulled a bit of string out from under Micah who moved to avoid her hand. After tying up the bouquet Gilda stuffed it in her pocket next to Micah. 

With the concealment of the flowers Micah could only guess at what Gilda was doing but didn’t want to speak up after she had so plainly laid things out to him earlier. Gilda charmed the large glass plates of the room in large sweeping gestures. Wards against bugs, lizards and rodents which she renewed from time to time. Eleven cities themselves were well warded against pests but Gilda maintained them as a cautionary measure. Today, for Young Masters sake, she would be reapplying charms to each door and window of the house.  

 With that mission in mind she barreled through the rest of the downstairs areas. The parlor, the master bedroom, the bathroom, the dining room, the patio, and finally the tea nook where she decided to stop for lunch. The noon sun was shining through the windows and Gilda sat on the table with Micah in her lap, feeding him pinches of her food. She dropped the flowers off in a vase in her room before heading upstairs to finish warding the house. There she had the rooms of the Eldest Master (Micah’s sister Cherie), Micah’s room, the upstairs bath, the library, the Lady of the Houses office, and the guest room. Though there were far fewer windows upstairs so Gilda made quicker work of it. 

Micah’s room was the last one Gilda attended to. He had stopped comparing his size to objects early on lest he stress himself out. For most of the day he had stared at the floor, but now that he was in his own room he couldn’t help but look around. Gilda jumped up to his desk and began casting her wards. His slate over the desk had chalk thick as he was tall. His feathered fountain pen, twice as tall as Gilda, looked like some fantastical tree. The letter on his desk was like a… Micah paused “Gilda, you never told me I had a letter.” 

Gilda rolled her eyes, she had been wondering when the Young Master would start to speak again. “Yes, Young Master received it yesterday, but then he blasted himself into a bug before Gilda could tell him about it.”

“Oh, I see” was all Micah said. He really would have liked to open the letter but decided not to push his luck. Gilda waited, certain that Micah would ask eventually. She was done with her charms and made her way to the edge of the table before she realized he wasn’t going to ask her. She sighed “Would Young Master like to read his letter?” 

“Yes I would, thank you very much Gilda” Micah said rather quicker than he intended. Gilda walked back to the letter. With one charm she split the end of the envelope open and with another she pulled out the letter and unfolded it. She held it up a reasonable distance away. Unfortunately Micah’s view was still obscured by Gilda’s natural balcony. “Gilda I cannot read the top of the letter” Micah said plainly.

Confused, Gilda looked down and immediately realized the problem. Suppressing a laugh she pulled Micah out of her pocket and sat him on her shoulder. Micah made himself comfortable before reading the letter. 

Dear Cousin,

Oh no, not her, thought Micah. 

I shall be returning to thine doorstep at the end of the Harvest Month where I will enjoy the company of my cousins and aunt for no less than a fortnight. Whilst in your fair home I will have my companions at arms awaiting in the ante-city. Little cousin I will take you out to meet them, and you will have a drink, hopefully several, and you will have a good time outside of your house for once in your life! 

I SWEAR IT!

Rather than a signature there was a large ruby lipstick kiss. Delilah, his cousin, a distant cousin. She rotated through visiting her extended family as she had exhausted the patience most of her nearer relatives a long time ago. She’s an adventurer, and her ridiculous writing style aside, a fairly great one by all accounts.

“Gilda” Micah said “Delilah is coming to visit.” 

Gilda, who made a habit of not reading her masters letters, snapped back to attention. She glanced up and saw the trademark kiss signature of “the Trollop?” Gilda asked. Micah laughed bitterly to himself. 

Delilah was from his fathers side of the family, and being an adventurer himself he enjoyed her visits the most of anyone in the house. His mother however had never had kind words for Delilah, calling her a trollop behind her back. Well, as it turns out brownies usually refer to guests by their profession and they are pretty generous with what they will consider a profession, so “Trollop” has been Gilda’s title for Delilah ever since. Unable to persuade Gilda to use any other name the family requested that Gilda simply never talk to her if she could avoid it. Though Micah had always suspected that his mother secretly encouraged Gilda’s insistence. 

“Will she arrive before or after the Lady of the House?” Gilda asked as she dismissed her charm and the letter floated down to the surface of the desk.

“At the end of the month” he said, slowly realizing that she would arrive only a few days after his mother came back. 

Gilda made it very clear that Delilah would not be let in without the Ladies permission. Micah looked out past the letter as Gilda continued to describe her objections to Delilahs rare visits. There was a portrait of his family framed on the desk. The last time his father was home, his mother commissioned a large family portrait which now hung in the dining room. Micah had painted a watercolor copy of it to keep in his room. His father had brown hair and his mother had dark red hair like Micah’s. Both his parents shared his emerald eye color. His sister had bright red hair and eyes the shade of reddish amber. 

His parents and sister were taller than Micah, as they were on the tall side for Autumn elves. Micah didn’t resent being average, and looking smaller than his family only in comparison. This non-resentment was certainly not adding stress to his current situation, or the prospect of Delilah meeting her “little cousin” in his current state. To Micah’s chagrin she had always considered herself something of a mentor to him, and strove to break him of his solitary habits. 

He was really struggling with the possibility of meeting her like this, and such worry lead to him thinking that perhaps his mother couldn’t fix his condition, at least not right away. He didn’t actually know what had happened and as Gilda pointed out the night before mixing magic is not always wise. A slight panic set in as he realized how seriously he may have messed things up for himself. 

Gilda had stopped complaining about Delilah by now and noticed the elf on her shoulder was looking rather anxious for some reason so she offered some reassuring words “Don’t worry Young Master, Gilda will protect you.”

Micah was picked up before he could respond and she deposited him back into her pocket. Micah didn’t want to feel better from that little bit of compassion after everything Gilda had said that morning, but he did feel slightly better despite it all. 

Gilda made her way out of Micah’s room and approached the railing that overlooked the parlor. Micah did not deal with heights well. He was very grateful that he hadn’t realized what Gilda was doing last night when she jumped off the balcony, because now he was dreading it. Except Gilda did not jump down between the rails, she jumped up onto the railing instead. Micah was terrified to look down and so he looked up.

Over the parlor was a multi-panned glass dome with an intricate eleven work chandelier that hung from its center. The dome had the last windows Gilda needed to charm. Gilda bent her legs and her lean forward forced Micah to look down. Even through his panic he realized what Gilda meant to do. Gilda cast her charm as she lept forward from the railing. She accelerated towards the chain of the chandelier like a rocket. Micah screamed and clutched the fabric of her dress for dear life. 

Gilda successfully grabbed the chain and spun around it to lose momentum. She placed a foot in one of the lower links and hung out over the chandelier by one arm. Micah collapsed into the pocket and curled up so as to not look down. Gilda giggled as she felt him move about. “Young Master needs to stand up and hold on” she insisted.

“I’m fine here” he yelled up from the pocket. It was a complete lie but more than anything he wanted Gilda to hurry and get this over with. Gilda smiled to herself and climbed further on the chain. At the roof line of the dome she found one of her favorite views in the house. The evening sunlight made the great forest of the city glow orange. 

“Young Master should take a look around, Gilda thinks he would enjoy it” she said teasingly.

“No, thank you, Gilda” he yelled again from the pocket. His sudden timidity put Gilda in a mischievous mood and she reached into her pocket and pulled him out. Micah clung to her fingers fiercely. He was keeping his eyes closed and trying not to imagine the chandelier and the parlor below. Gilda withheld her laughter at the terrified elf but nevertheless commanded him to stand up. Micah swallowed slowly and began to find his center on her outstretched hand. Surprisingly he found it very steady and he was able to balance on it. Once standing she told him to open his eyes. 

Micah reluctantly did so, and while he did find the view impressive he was overwhelmingly focused on not looking down. Gilda had half a mind to drop him and catch him with her tail, but she was genuinely worried that might scare him to death given how nervous he was. Slowly she set her tail to coil around him and then hold him tightly. She laid the tuft of her tail over his face. “There, now Young Master is safe and secure and he doesn’t have to look down. Is that all better?” she asked sarcastically. 

“Yes. Thank You Gilda” Micah said too exhausted to be anything other than genuine. Gilda cast her charms and put the thought of further messing with the Young Master out of her mind. After she was done she jumped down and slowed her descent the usual way. She pulled the tuft of hair back in case Micah decided to open his eyes. He did not. Micah waited until he felt all movement stop and assumed Gilda was on the ground. 

“Gilda had no idea Young Master had such a fear of heights” Gilda said. 

Defensively, Micah said “It’s not all heights, just the incredibly high ones. I had no problem when the balcony was a reasonable distance from the floor.” 

Gilda laughed “It is not the balcony that has changed Young Master.” 

Micah sighed and accepted that without retort. Gilda loosened her tail over the front of her dress dropping Micah in. Once again stuck between her breasts Micah found himself suddenly concerned with what Gilda had planned now that her daily work was over. She petted the top of his head as she casually strolled through the house and back to the pantry.

Gilda lit up her room with candlelight and drained the cold tub. She pulled Micah out of her dress and transferred him to her tail. To Micah’s surprise her tail dropped to the floor and deposited him on the polished stone that her room shared with the pantry. Gilda stepped over him to grab her bathrobe. She spun on her heel, shocking Micah with the sudden change in her direction, and went to the boxes that served as her chests. Gilda removed her dress and hung it up, and though she was pretending to not notice Micah, nevertheless she smiled while he stared at the floor as she disrobed. She quickly wrapped herself in her bathrobe and left with her wine jug and basket in tow. 

Micah was grateful to walk around for a little while after being confined to a pocket all day. He didn’t appreciate the scare Gilda gave him regarding heights either, but he knew that any complaints about anything were only likely to make her teasing even worse. As he walked over to the pillow that made Gilda’s bed he got the idea to climb up on it. The threads were thick enough and he was light enough to make the scaling of its purple surface quick work. It was actually more difficult for him to stand and walk on than it was to climb. Perhaps it was his change in size but he had only just now recognized where it came from. One of his sister’s suitors had presented her with a gift on this little pillow several years ago. Neither the suitor nor the gift were to his sisters liking and it appears that Gilda claimed the discarded pillow for herself. 

He had heard that some peoples other than elves called brownies “borrowers” for their habit of re-appropriating things that have become lost or discarded. As he marched up the mountainous terrain of the pillow he paused and wondered if he was more “lost” or “discarded” right now. He was dreading the return of his mother, Gilda was determined to not help him, and, if he was honest with himself, he didn’t have the skill or knowledge to fix this even if she did. He had made problems for himself in the past, a long list of half started careers and all of his experiments and obsessions, but nothing as bad as his current situation. The challenging hike up the pillow was wearing him out faster than expected so he sat down and surveyed the room. 

The tub had finished draining just as Gilda returned. Micah was pleased to find that the jug of wine was not nearly as full as it had been when she arrived last night. Gilda laid out her food and poured a thimble of wine. She sipped it as she moved about her room collecting things. Micah wondered how long she would go without looking for him. Gilda picked up a small wide glass jar which bore the worn label of a make up company. For Gilda It was about the size of a large kitchen sink, and she filled up the makeshift basin with water from the faucet. A quick charm warmed it to her liking and she set it on the floor in front of her chair. She tossed in a brick of soap and a scrap of washcloth.

“Come here Young Master” Gilda said. Micah didn’t move at first but then her golden eyes fell onto his exact spot on the pillow. He had not escaped her notice after all. Micah scaled down the pillow as best he could. Gilda took her seat and smiled into her wine as she watched Micah struggle down to the floor. He scampered over to stand next to her washtub.

“Since Young Master has done nothing other than lie around in Gilda’s pocket all day he can do something useful and wash Gilda’s feet” she said taking a bite out of a blueberry. Micah swallowed his frustration and attempted to jump up to the lip of the makeshift wash bin. Gilda suppressed a laugh as the tiny elf failed to grasp the edge. “Ahem” she said as she bumped her tail into his back.

Micah propped himself up onto her tail and waited to be lifted in the bin. Gilda didn’t move and said “Young Master isn’t going to dirty the clothes Gilda made for him, is he?”

Micah stood back up and slipped off the tunic. He paused not sure if he should just throw it on the floor or not. “Put it on Gilda’s tail” the brownie said with feigned exasperation. Micah did as he was told before taking his seat and getting lifted over the edge. Jumping down Micah found the water to be about chest high. It was already very soapy from the crumb Gilda had tossed in earlier. It was also remarkably warm and he was already breaking out into a sweat, which is not a common occurrence for the elf. 

Gilda was taking her time eating her dinner. She plucked the tiny garment from her tail and set it on the table as Micah half swam half walked over to her soaking feet. The scrap of cloth he was meant to wash with was much heavier than him now that it was soaking wet. 

“Gilda could you cut this into strips, I can’t really use it as is” he yelled up wiping the sweat from his brow. It was lucky he was already red faced and sweating because the view Gilda offered him in her sheer robe was leaving nothing to the imagination from his position. Gilda surveyed the situation for a moment before bending down, the contents of her robe spilling open over the awestruck elf. Micah didn’t notice Gilda moving the boulder of soap to behind him on top of the bit of cloth.

Gilda sat back up and re-closed her robe with a smirk “Young Master can just use his hands for now”

The directive shook Micah out of his staring and he soaped up his hands. Gilda let her toes float just beneath the surface. She watched with anticipation as Micah moved to the smallest toe on her right foot. His tiny hands lifted the toe and caressed under the curves of her smallest digit. As he moved onto the second toe Gilda spoke up “Ahem, more soap Young Master” 

As Micah refreshed his lather Gilda curled her toes, as she rather enjoyed the attention the elf was showing to this particular task. She finally released the tension she had been holding and relaxed into her chair as she felt Micah work his way down the line. If he was much better at this she would have to seriously consider never giving him back to the Family. With another sip of wine the thought brought a wicked smile to her face.

After a few moments Micah had attended to all ten of his clients and called out “Done” to Gilda. Gilda lifted her toes up and scooted the balls of her feet forward. Micah understood that she meant to have him wash the whole of each foot, not just the toes, and he seemed less eager about the door sized surfaces facing him now. He once again swallowed objections that came to mind and turned to lather his hands up. Gilda noticed his frequent interruptions from having to fetch more soap and used her heel to pull the bar closer. Micah found himself sheltering under her foot as the water aggressively swirled around with her movements. The boulder of soap rushed forward and he feared she was going to smash him with it. But it stopped short and Gilda reset her foot into washing position on either side of the bar. Micah tentatively stepped out from under the foot and resumed his task. 

By the time Micah had touched every inch of her newly pampered feet Gilda decided to let him keep going until she was done eating. Micah was getting worn out but he dared not stop until he was told to. A feeling he would not have had about manual labor of any kind just a few days ago. When he was starting to feel as though he couldn’t keep moving much longer Gilda’s feet lifted away and set themselves nearer to her side of the bin. 

Gilda laid her tail over the basin, letting it sag enough to just touch the water’s surface next to Micah. He climbed up on the tail and was lifted to the table top. At the edge of her coin platter he found a few crumbs of food set aside for him. Gilda watched him for a moment. Before he could react she bent down and kissed the side of his head. Micah looked up at her only for Gilda to not acknowledge having done anything at all. She got up and dumped the wash bin into the empty bath. She let the faucet run again to fill the tub. 

Micah ate much more quickly than he intended to. He was more tired than he expected to be. He didn’t think clinging to a pocket all day would take much out of him but it surprisingly had. As titillating as the foot wash had been, he secretly hoped Gilda had nothing more planned for the evening. 

Gilda fetched her wine and Micah as the bath finished filling. She set Micah down on the shelf and left him to attend to her tail ribbon. He was much quicker tonight than last night. By the time she had situated herself in the tub he was ready to jump in. Micah did not swim for long before Gilda pulled him out of the water. She stood him up on her shoulder. Micah admired the landscape of her body stretched out before him so much that he flinched when she said “Ears”

Since he didn’t start moving immediately Gilda repeated “Wash Gilda’s ears.” 

Micah turned and leaned against the glass, he carefully pulled himself up against the incline headed towards the towering arch of Gilda’s pointed ear. Gilda took the wash cloth from earlier and tore a small strip from it. She dropped the piece next to her head in front of Micah’s path. Micah took up the still heavy, but more manageable, towel and walked under Gilda’s ear. He started to scrub vigorously. Gilda bit her lip unbeknownst to Micah. As he worked up the length of the ear Gilda enjoyed it more. Her ears had always been sensitive, but this was not something she expected to feel as good as it did. When Micah reached the tip of her ear she could barely restrain her twitching enough for Micah to finish. Micah pulled the towel over his shoulder and started to walk around Gilda’s head to get to the other ear. 

Gilda took a few deep breaths as she anticipated Micah reaching the other ear. He didn’t get half way up this one before Gilda let out an impassioned sigh and rolled her head in his direction. Berried in an avalanche of her bristly hair Micah didn’t have the ability to move out of the way. Gilda could feel him and lifted her head away with a smile on her face. Micah lost his footing in the movement and tumbled down the glass until he came to rest hard against Gilda’s shoulder. Satisfied that he had stopped moving Gilda slid back into a resting position. Micah tried to get comfortable but as soft and luxurious as Gilda’s skin was the angles of muscle and bone beneath did not make a good seat. Further complicating matters was that he had nothing to look at other than Gilda’s naked body lounging beneath the water. 

Sensing the tension in the elf on her shoulder Gilda reached to pick him up. She brought him down to where her chest met the water with her breasts just below the surface. She held Micah in that spot as they sat in silence for several minutes. Eventually his weight shifted and she glanced down to see that Micah had fallen asleep. She considered waking him up as she had more planned for the evening, but seeing him in his exhausted state she took mercy on the tiny elf. Besides she had spent the whole day running around refreshing her charms so they would have the full day together tomorrow.

Gently as she could Gilda exited the bath. Micah stirred for a moment, but she told him to go back to sleep and set him on her pillow. She dried herself and cleaned up the room a little. She crawled onto the bed and laid her head next to Micah. Watching his naked body so deeply in sleep captivated her. She blew over him gently and he curled up to turn away from the chill. Gilda smiled and couldn’t resist moving him again. Tucking him against her right breast she held him into place with the edge of her robe. He squeezed against her slightly and she restrained a giggle. She quickly snuffed the lights and drifted off to sleep as well.