“But… but… mother?” whispered Nari, cupping his hands over his mouth as the tears welled in his eyes.  “F-Father?”  His eyes darted between his parents, who both had very solemn expressions on their faces.  Nari’s father, Tyn, leaned in the clay doorframe of their hut, while his mother Yall sat next to him on his burlap cot on the ground.  His mother tried to smooth his hair to calm him, but he pulled away, his eyes wide, astonished, as the tears began to fall.

                “My son… please understand me…” whispered Tyn, pushing off from the doorframe.  “I’ve done everything I could.  I’ve… I’ve pleaded with the council.  I’ve said all that I…”

                “No, you didn’t!” accused the young boy, wiping his eyes and batting his mother’s hand away.

                “Son…” said Tyn again, his own eyes watering.  “I did.  You… you cannot understand what I had to go through…”

                Nari covered his eyes, weeping heavily and leaning against the wall of the room, not looking at his parents any longer.  While his son wasn’t looking, Tyn groaned from the effort to walk, his back still threatening to open and bleed again after the brutal whipping he had received during his attempt to free Nari from the young boy’s obligation.

                “Why?” said Nari finally, still not looking at his family.  “Why?”

                “It is an annual tradition.  You know this, Nari.  And… not I, nor your mother… nor even the council can do anything about it.  It is all…”

                “Sarne,” said Nari, swallowing hard, the mere mention of the name hurting his throat.

                Tyn nodded.  “Yes,” he answered dryly.  “It is her command.  At the commencement of every year, we must climb her mountain, and give her the one chosen through the sacred selection process.  It was you, and only you.”

                “Why?” asked Nari in the same unfeeling voice, clearly unsatisfied.

                “To guarantee that our island is given the rain and the sun, the vegetation and the livestock.  The birth of children, a peaceful passing for the elderly.  It is because of her that all of this happens, and we are allowed to live as we do: without fear of disease or conflict.  But… to keep it this way, what she demands, once a year…”

                “Is one of us,” sniffled Nari.  The shorter-than-average ten-year-old boy finally stood to his feet, scratching at his scrawny neck absentmindedly, his knees quivering from the effort to not think about it.  He swallowed hard again.

                “To show that we keep our faith.  As you know, we are required to devote the time just before the sun sets to worshipping her from within our homes, and sending out our thoughts for her benefit.  But, she wants to ensure that we are sincere in our prayers…” said Tyn, his voice cracking.  “Son… believe me, if I could, I would go in your stead without ever giving it another thought or doubt.  But you have heard the stories… your mother has told you.  Of Sarne’s reaction when…”

                “…they sent someone else…” whispered Nari despondently.  “I know.  She came down from her mountain, and-”

                “Destroyed everything.  Everyone.  She set everything aflame, left no house destroyed, no animal standing, no plant uncut.  No person alive, except for a few, from which she restarted the civilization of our island,” Tyn finished, wiping his eyes again.  “Son… I am sorry.  I am.  But…”

                “I know,” sighed Nari before bursting into tears again, finally allowing his mother to embrace him.

                “We will go with you.  All the way up, son,” said Yall, crying as well.  “We will see that you have no fear when you go.”

                The morning was foggy as the deliverance party scaled the mountain the next day.  Tyn and Yall held tightly to their son, and were heavily guarded by some of the defense force of the council to ensure that Nari was indeed taken to Sarne and left there; in the event of his escape, the whole village would have been endangered.  The ascent wasn’t too steep, but it was a long walk, taking half a day if the travelers moved with speed and purpose.  The group had left long before the sun had risen, and were getting rather tired, making their way around foreign rock formations and plants, and having only the meager amount of food and water they had brought along for the journey.  They had no way of knowing how high they were from the thick, silvery haze of mist clouding the air so much that they could barely see forty feet in front of their faces as they climbed.

                Nari, being small and light, was perched on his father’s shoulders.  He leaned over, hugging his father’s head and tearing up again.  “Father?” he whispered.

                “Yes, son?” came the slow, sad answer.

                “What will become of me?”

                Tyn didn’t answer at first.  “I’m not certain, Nari.  Perhaps… you will see the family… those who have passed on.  You will be with loved ones, of that I guarantee you.”

                “I would like that, I think,” said Nari, with almost the slightest hint of impossible optimism.  “Are you certain it’s true?”

                “Yes.  Very.”

                “Thank you, father,” said Nari, satisfied for now despite his fear of being separated from his parents.

                “Up ahead!” called out one of the guards to his fellows, pointing to a spot in the rock as the ground suddenly plateaued.  They had reached the peak of the mountain.  As the party drew closer, they realized it was a massive crack, splitting off and heading around the rock formation’s side, the top hidden by the fog.  “Follow it!” he ordered, leading the way.

                Tyn could barely find the strength to lift his foot and continue walking with his son on his shoulders.  Yall held onto his arm, stroking her son’s shoulders to try and relax him.

                The guards led the group around the bend, as the mist became far less dense, turning a corner, and found themselves facing a cave opening that stretched too high up to even see the top archway.  It was extremely wide, looking well over one hundred feet across.  The fog curled into the entrance of the cave, shrouding most of it in gray wisps.  Combined with the darkness, it was impossible to see inside very far.

                The guards parted, and allowed the senior council member who had joined them on the trek to step forward, and prepare to make the ceremonial offering.  “Bring the boy forward,” ordered the councilman sharply, snapping his fingers.

                Yall pulled her son from Tyn’s shoulders, hugging him to herself and crying into his hair, whispering to him how much she loved him.  Tyn grasped his son’s shoulders, helping him to his feet, and crouched down a little to get to eye level with him.  For a few moments, he said nothing, simply staring at Nari’s face, trying to imprint him into his memory as heavily as he could.

                “Son… don’t be afraid.  You have your grandfather’s name.  Do you remember what it means in our ancient tongues?”

                “Courage,” said Nari simply, his lip quivering.  “It means courage.”

                Tyn leaned over and kissed the top of his son’s head, patting his shoulders, then walked forward with him toward the council member.  Yall was far too hysterical to step forward as well, staying back and sobbing into a balled up fist.  Tyn stopped just short of the cave entrance, looking over to the councilman.

                “Please.  Just… allow me to accompany him inside…”

                “No,” frowned the councilman.  “Sarne’s decree is clear.  One sacrifice.  No more, no less.  Tyn.  Think of it.  This is an honor.  Your son… has been selected by our glorious goddess.  To please her in his demise.  You should be saying additional prayers of thanksgiving at sunset today.  Now… step back.  Leave the boy.  He must do this alone.”

                “I’ll never thank her,” whispered Tyn under his breath, snarling a little out of the council member’s view.  He leaned over by his son’s ear, patting his arm one last time.  “Courage, my son.  Courage.”  With this, he fell back as well, afraid he wouldn’t be able to control himself and run forward to attempt to rescue his young son.  He hugged Yall, trying to steady his own irregular breathing before bursting into tears himself, out of his son’s earshot.

                The councilman gave Nari a little shove, telling him to step forward, then cleared his throat, cupping his hands around his mouth.  The guards took a few steps back, wary of whatever laid within the incredibly sized cave opening.

                “GREAT AND POWERFUL SARNE!  IT IS I, YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT RAZAST, COME WITH YOUR ANNUAL PRESENT!” he called out regally.  “WE SHALL SEND HIM INTO YOUR MOUNTAIN, AND THEN DEPART THESE HALLOWED GROUNDS UNTOUCHED!  WE PRAISE YOUR GLORIOUS NAME!” he ended shortly, stepping back and indicating everyone else to do the same.  Nari looked over his shoulder back at everyone, clearly all very afraid.  The councilman frowned, waving a hand.  The young boy hesitated for a moment, his legs seeming unwilling to move.  However, as he turned around, he saw several of the guards lay a hand on their sheathed blades, and so he began walking, his body feeling completely separate from the commands of his mind.  He felt more tears streaming down his cold cheeks as he walked through the endless wall of fog and into the dark unknown.

                Nari wasn’t sure how long he had been walking.  To him, it felt like hours, although he was walking so slowly, he doubted he had made much progress at all.  He could barely see anything, as the fog had become so thick.  After a while, though, he began to notice that the ground was glowing.  At first, it was only subtle, although it was a great help in finding his way.  Having passed a great deal of it, though, Nari found it actually giving off a great deal of light, bouncing off the slick ground.  It calmed his pounding heart slightly to be able to know where he was going as he took each inch-long step.  He bit his lip, clenching his fists: trying not to think about what was coming.

                He remembered his grandfather, who used to tell him of his adventures at sea.  How he braved storms and thrashing waves, nearly losing his ship dozens of times, only to return again to the beckoning ocean.  His heart had held fast, he had told Nari.  Keep your strength, and nothing can destroy you.

                Nari emerged from the fog without warning, a blinding light filling his vision.  He closed his eyes, clasping his hands over them.  When he finally opened them, he blinked several times to get rid of the glowing spotted blotches in his vision, and wiped his eyes to stare ahead.

                It was Sarne.

                Nari had heard vague descriptions of her, only in spoken word.  Fantastical, overly exaggerated words.  Some had said she had large horns protruding from the top of her head.  Some said she had glowing red eyes that, if one stared into them, could end one’s life in half a heartbeat.  Some said she had the fangs of a snake that poked from the inside of her venomous mouth.  Still others said she had the body of several creatures combined into one: a lizard, a cougar, and an eagle.

                What Nari saw before him was none of these, and yet still far more awesomely terrible a vision than he had ever seen in his short life.  Sarne was quite obviously a woman.  In fact, she looked quite human, her visage striking Nari for her extreme beauty, youth, and grace as she sat before him; if Nari didn’t know she had been around for thousands of years, he might have mistaken her for a woman not much more than twice his own age.  A long gold robe was draped around her body and over one shoulder, rippling along in a shining luster as it traced down to her legs, allowing only her bare feet to slide out from under the auric fabric as she sat regally in the hall.  Her skin was almost as golden as her robe, though appearing just tan and fleshy enough to look like that of a human; it practically glowed as brightly as the light.  Her eyes, a deep, drilling silver-gray met the eyes of Nari, staring so hard at him they seemed to be speaking loudly in the silence; he felt his stomach lurch, so he quickly looked down at his feet.  She was thin and in perfect form, but not without just enough firm muscle along her arms and legs to look like a physically imposing being, resembling one of the great champions of the stories Nari heard about the time before in the village.  Her lips, large and pale, seemed to pout slightly as Nari came into view.  Her hair seemed almost to be the silky extension of her robe, giving off a magnificent, mesmerizing sheen in its glorious golden shade, catching light from almost every direction.  Despite her highly above-average beauty, physical condition, and attire, she might have been mistaken for a member of the human race.

                That is, if she didn’t happen to be over three hundred feet tall.

                Sarne, despite being in a ladylike, royally seated position, took up the majority of the absolutely enormous hall, laying upon the rocky ground like a cushioned throne.  Behind her, the cave spread out for several hundred feet upwards and outwards, presumably for Sarne to recline when she felt like it.  From this distance, Nari had a feeling she could have reached out and touched him.

                “You,” bellowed Sarne across the room, almost uncaringly, as if she was addressing a servant to bring her another goblet of wine.  “Are you the one they have sent?”

                Nari’s hands shook, his knees quivering.  He looked up again, his eyes meeting her steely silver irises again, and he almost felt a stinging sensation in the middle of his head just from this glance.  He opened his mouth, but found he could get no sound out.

                “You will answer your goddess when she asks you a question.  Are you the one they have sent for the annual sacrifice?”
                Nari looked up, closing his lids so he wouldn’t have to look at her gargantuan eyes practically staring into his soul, and opened his mouth again, forcing sound out this time.

                “YES!” he yelled, not sure how loud he was required to be for Sarne to hear and understand him.  Out of wonderment, his eyes blinked open just for a moment and he got another look at her, and her hand draped calmly over one of her hips.  He guessed that her thumb alone was easily over double as long as his entire body.

                Silence hung in the air for a moment.  “Have you forgotten the one you stand before?” questioned Sarne sternly, her voice echoing loudly through the halls.  Nari had no response, sputtering dumbly again.  “You will bow before your goddess, sacrifice.  Now.”

                Nari, sweating up a storm, threw himself onto his haunches immediately.

                “Lower, sacrifice.  You disrespect me.”

                Nari was beginning to hyperventilate with nervousness, the whole situation becoming more and more real.  He flattened his body against the ground, laying his face against the cold stone of the ground.  He waited.

                “You are in a hallowed place.  Kiss this sacred ground that I have so generously provided for you.”

                Nari did as he was told, pressing his lips against the damp cave ground and kissing it softly, his ears trained hard for another sound.  After another minute passed, he heard the strong, commanding voice again.

                “I am satisfied with your patronage.  Rise, sacrifice, and step forward, so that I might more closely observe you.”

                Nari pulled himself to his feet with his clammy, shaking palms, and forced himself to take a step forward, planting a foot on the ground.  He swallowed hard and took another step, followed by another, and another.

                When he was close enough that Sarne could easily have reached forth without any effort and grabbed Nari, the young boy looked up at the towering goddess, who seemed to practically be giving off her own light to give the cave its glow.  He trembled greatly, but remembered his grandfather.  The love of his mother.  The words of his father.  He stopped shaking, breathing more calmly.

                Sarne’s hand descended toward the cave ground, laying itself flat, palm up, on the ground before Nari.  He was taken aback, and almost fell over from the shock of seeing such a colossal appendage.  He stared into it, wide-eyed, like it was a well.  He could make out every detail of the crevices running along her soft palm like rivers, the microscopic hill of flesh running up the heel of her hand, the tiny ripples of her fingerprints swirling around the tips of her over ten-foot-long digits.

                “Place your unworthy body into my hand, sacrifice.”

                The words rang in Nari’s ears.  He had never heard such a human words in such a tone.  Commanding.  Unrelenting.  Expecting.  The voice was so confident; there wasn’t the slightest trace that Sarne wasn’t absolutely positive her every word would be heeded.

                She truly was the great, giving, and terrible goddess Nari had heard of in the stories.

                Remembering the words of his family, he placed a foot onto her middle fingertip, and finally placed all his weight on it as he stepped up onto it.  He wobbled for a moment on the terrain of firm flesh, but quickly got his bearings.  Cautiously, he crept forward, stopping in the center of Sarne’s wide palm, which stretched out nearly twenty feet across.

                Suddenly, Nari found himself rising into the air as Sarne lifted her hand off from the ground.  With the slight quivering of the goddess’s palm, Nari could almost sense without touching the incredible muscular power contained in Sarne’s arm that was propelling her hand upward, slow and controlled.  He had no doubt she could pick up the mountaintop and throw it onto the village far below if she felt like it.

                Her hand stopped moving, level with her eyes, and close enough so that Nari could have touched them if he walked to the edge of her immense hand and reached out far enough.  Sitting in the center of her palm, though, which seemed to be generating heat and sending it out to the surrounding air, he felt a relatively long way off from them.  He blinked, unable to look into her deep silver eyes, and so he looked down near his feet, studying a thin line in her soft skin, tracing its patterns with his own eyes.

                “You are young, sacrifice,” came the simple statement.  “How many sun cycles have you been alive?”

                Forcing himself to swallow the fear at last, Nari clasped his steadily shaking fists together and stared deeply into the wide eyes before him, which seemed to be about his height from top to bottom.  He felt like he was looking into the eye of a terrible storm: her gray irises seemed to swirl like the mist of the mountain, like the roaring waves of the sea, like the growing fire in the eyes of a monstrous beast before it attacks.  Nari’s knees turned to jelly again, but he held firm.

                Courage.

                “Ten,” said Nari softly, knowing very well she could hear him, with her attention so focused on him.

                Sarne’s eyes seemed to shift up and down, and Nari realized she was nodding her whole head.  Her eyes squinted slightly, and then Nari felt goosebumps form along his skin as a deep, echoing rumble rebounded around the vast expanse of the cave again.  Laughter.  Sarne was chuckling at him.

                Her hand lowered, and suddenly Nari found himself staring directly at her lips.  They pursed together, before pulling apart slowly, almost inflating as the plush skin was given space.  He could see into the horrifying darkness of her mouth, the white teeth like perfectly carved stone pedestals all in a line inside.  A warm blast of breath hit Nari, and almost knocked him back sprawling in her massive palm.

                The smell made Nari’s nostrils tingle.  It was like a fresh spring, flowing from a sweet water creek and surrounded by lilies and a grove.  Nari shook with combined fear and amazement.  He had never smelled something so wonderful in his life.

                “You are young,” repeated Sarne, her lips tapping together silently, her teeth clacking ever so slightly to form the words as Nari watched, mesmerized and scared again at the same time.  “This pleases me.  The young sacrifices are always the most amusing when they give themselves to me,” she whispered.  With this, she tilted her head backward slowly, opening her mouth all the way.

                Nari was jolted back to reality, and backed up across her palm toward her towering fingers.  However, soon her hand was above her parted lips, and was angling itself.  With no more friction to keep himself steady, Nari gasped to find himself sliding down the soft slope of Sarne’s palm, ricocheting off the slight slope of her hand heel, and rolling downward into the dark, wet, endless abyss of the pit of her steaming, awaiting mouth.

Nari closed his eyes, bracing for impact, as he plummeted headlong into a churning sea of Sarne’s hot saliva, swirling at the base of her mouth as she tossed him downward into it.  He gasped in a final breath just before breaking the gooey surface of the liquid, and found himself in the shallows of her soft, wet mouth.  Sarne’s spit began seeping slowly over Nari’s body, soaking his clothes and causing them to adhere to his body.  He struggled get a sense of gravity as Sarne slowly tilted her head back into its normal position, allowing Nari to sit sprawled horizontally next to a row of molars, just off to the side of her robust tongue.  Nari coughed, wiping the sticky strands of soggy fluid from his face.  He opened his eyes just in time to watch Sarne’s gigantic, cushiony lips coming back together.  The light seemed to be swallowed up on the opposite side of her mouth.  A final crack of the glow from the cave slipped in before Sarne closed her mouth all the way, throwing Nari into utter darkness.

                Nari tried to steady his breathing, hugging his sopping arms to his body to calm the shivering.  He closed his eyes again, and inhaled slowly.  With each breath, he took in the wonderful, sweet scent that was fogged heavily around Sarne’s powerful mouth.  From the earthy smell, he was reminded of running about in the fields as a toddler while his father worked to sow the seeds for the harvest.  He smiled, and calmly sat, not moving a muscle.  Nari was vaguely aware that he might be dead very soon, and he wanted his final thoughts to be of a happy place, with his parents, and not the fact that he was currently residing next to the burly, saliva-saturated monster tongue of the village’s omnipotent goddess.

                The young boy remained here for several minutes, as the air supply slowly dwindled in the muggy atmosphere.  Eventually, the gummy feeling of Sarne’s flowing saliva around his legs didn’t bother him, and he actually welcomed it.  It was warm, and almost comforting as well as the smell of Sarne’s breath, reminding him of the steam pits around the coastline of the island.

                Finally, after having remained perfectly motionless and silent for what felt like an eternity to Nari, who had resolved to replay every memory of his old home down in the village through his mind, his eyes had to adjust as light flowed into Sarne’s mouth.  Her lips were parting slowly, a dangling, crystal strand of spit hanging and wobbling in the air from the top of her lip as she opened her enormous jaws to their fully extended position.  Then, the light was partially blocked out for Nari as Sarne’s hand came into view, pressing itself against her lips.  Her fingers pinched together, and reached in purposefully for him.  She grabbed him gingerly between her fingertips and removed him slowly. 

Nari took a deep breath of the suddenly cool air around him, his neck perspiring somewhat from the heat of Sarne’s mouth.  He was lowered slowly onto Sarne’s waiting, opened palm, and deposited in the velvety center.  The goddess raised her hand slowly up to her eyes, which were squinting somewhat, accentuating the cutting glare of her silver irises.  Nari flinched to stare into them, but this time forced himself to continue, keeping terrifying eye contact with the three-hundred-foot deity.

                “Why do you do this, sacrifice?” came the confident, booming voice.

                “What?” squeaked Nari, too shocked that he wasn’t on his way to the hulking stomach of the goddess to think clearly.

                “I have swallowed many young ones before, in the times past.  All of them cried, and screamed, and resisted the honor of being made a token of my amusement.  But you.  You do not cry or scream.  You do not make a noise, or a movement.  You are different.  Why is this?”

                Nari was silent for a moment, biting his nails. 

“Speak up, sacrifice, or I shall become angered.”

                “I don’t know,” whispered Nari quietly.  Sarne considered his answer for a moment, nodding again.

                “Your obedience to your goddess has stayed my wrath for the time being.  I do not believe it would amuse me now to swallow you whole, as I was planning to do.  As you know, I am a giving goddess, and reward those who show loyalty to me.  Therefore, I offer you the following gift.”

                “W-What?” stuttered Nari, surprised.

                “A choice.  Either I put you back in my sacred mouth, and swallow you as the sacrifice you were meant to be…” she began, letting this possibility sink in for a moment for the tiny boy in her hand.  “…or, I shall keep you.  As my slave.  You will do everything I ask of you.  You will do any work I require of you, and you will amuse me as I see fit.  Now, tell me.  Is this what you wish?”

                Nari nodded his head slowly at first, but eventually realized that he was being given the opportunity to live, and so quickly began shaking his head enthusiastically.  Sarne nodded, understanding his choice.  She breathed out slowly, sighing, before speaking again.

“What do they call you down in my village, slave?” questioned the goddess calmly, verbalizing steadily.  “You must have a name.”

                “N-N-N…” began the young boy, his throat dry again.  He swallowed with effort.  “N-Nari.”

                “Nari,” responded Sarne, wrinkling her colossal nose somewhat in disapproval.  “This name does not please me.  You will have another.”

                “Yes?” said Nari in the same low voice, the saliva from Sarne’s mouth slowly drying around his body in a thick, slobbery layer.

                “Vaw.  Your new name shall be Vaw.”

                Nari cringed a little to hear this title being given.  He didn’t remember a great deal about the ancient tongues of the island’s people, but he did happen to remember a thing or two from the little his father had taught him.  “Vaw,” as he most closely remembered it, translated to mean “little slave” or “little breathing toy.”  Essentially, it was used to describe pets in a positive, regal light, but when used on a human, it was a brutal insult.

                Of course, Nari didn’t intend to protest this naming choice by his new owner.

                Sarne’s hand lowered slowly, flattening against the ground.  Taking the hint, Nari cautiously crept across the plain of soft, uneven flesh and stepped off the end of the firm thumb, back to the cave ground.  Nervously, Nari turned back around, holding his hands together to keep them from shaking again.

                “I have spared you this day, Vaw.  But remember: if you disobey my commands, or forget your place, I can just as easily make you a dishonorable sacrifice and swallow you anyway.”

                Nari nodded slowly, staring into the billowing, mountainous fold of the golden robe that hung over the goddess’s body.  Seeing this reaction, Sarne continued.

                “As you are my slave now, you no longer have the privilege to be as near to my sacred crown, and must remain nearest the ground as possible.  In time, you may prove yourself worthy to rise up again, but for now, you will remain in you proper place: below me.  Throw yourself back to the floor again, Vaw,” she ordered sternly.  Nari obeyed, trembling, and flattened himself against the cave ground, looking down.  Then, remembering what had happened before, Nari kissed the ground, his cheeks turning colder.

                Sarne chuckled, the low, booming sound echoing through the high halls of the cave.  “Good.  Good, young, little slave.  You learn quickly.  Keep yourself on this path, and you just might avoid being sacrificed.  Now…” she continued.  “You may rise, and face your goddess again.”

                Nari obeyed again, his mind swimming.  Things were happening so quickly he didn’t even have time to process them.  All he knew was that he was alive, and the longer he could keep it up, the better.  It was the only clear thought in his utterly befuddled brain, his entire being completely overwhelmed by this literally larger than life goddess, who seemed to embody every rumor he had heard of her, perhaps not physically, but in her accepting graces and strict expectations alike.  He looked upward, and Sarne tilted her chin downward slightly to get a better look at the young boy, who, to her, was only around an inch tall.

                “Now step forward, Vaw, and I will instruct you in your first task to please me.”

                Nari did as he was told, taking several steps toward the hilly, rippling folds of shining golden robe.  Suddenly, the hills shifted, and the lumps in the fabric rolled off the sides, making way as a large, ovular shape made its way toward the edge of the robe.  Nari stepped back in shock as Sarne’s nearly forty-foot-long ped slid out from under the robe, her golden-brown skin almost glistening, her toes parting dramatically, her pinky alone looking about as long as Nari’s entire body.  She flattened both feet onto the ground, as she pulled her entire body into a more comfortable seated position, rumbling the entire cave with her motion. Finally, she slid both forward, sending up clouds of dust and pebbles as her toes shoved through the microscopic debris littering the ground.

                Nari held his ground as Sarne’s foot came to rest within touching distance of him, her big toe facing him.  Nari’s eyes widened.  He realized that if he were to grab onto this massive, meaty digit, if he stretched his arms all the way out, he would just barely be able to touch each end of Sarne’s perfectly curved and clean toenail.

                “Your first duty, young slave.  Cleanse my hallowed feet of the filth that erodes my mountain, and perhaps I will postpone your sacrifice in my sacred mouth longer.”

                Nari stared wide-eyed into the shining ivory plate of Sarne’s big toenail, right before him.  The sight was thoroughly overwhelming for the young boy, as the top of the toe, flat against the ground, rose up to just about level with Nari’s nose, forcing him to stand on his tiptoes to get a good view of the absolutely enormous digit.  Sarne scrunched her toes slowly against the rocky ground, causing more dust to rise up, and crunching a few helpless pebbles in the crevices of her almost golden flesh.

                “H-H-How?” gasped Nari, sounding more terrified than he meant to, as reality began to sink in.   He quickly corrected himself, though, remembering that the only thing that had saved him before was his lack of fear and resistance.  “How?”

                “There is a spring behind you, slave, about twenty of your paces back.  Fetch the holy water and return with it, so that I may be renewed.”

                Nari nodded, turning and walking toward the shallow water that occupied a corner of the cave.  Stooping by the edge, he found a simple wooden bowl floating on the top like a miniature boat.  He shivered, wondering how many of the villagers had come here and been forced to do this.  How many of them had, like him, obeyed the goddess’s terrible command to die inside of her body willingly?  He didn’t imagine many of them had.

                A loud cracking sound broke through the silence.  Sarne had snapped her tremendous fingers together with enough force to split a boulder.

                “Move more quickly, Vaw.  I grow impatient with your distractions.”

                Nari grabbed the bowl up and dipped low into the water and filled it to the brim, standing up to  face the towering, reclining body of Sarne again, her eyebrows raised ever so slightly at him, her eyes wide and almost ravenous looking.  He half-expected some magnetic force to come from those slicing, silver eyes, pulling him in, like a deadly trap.  He carried the water back to where he had been, coming to a stop in front of the rows of toes, which crunched a few more rocks with a soft crumble below their immense weight at his return.  Looking up toward Sarne’s expectant eyes again, Nari swallowed hard and reached high over his head, dumping the bowl of water onto Sarne’s big toe.  The tiny droplets rushed along the sides, cascading off of her nail, and settled into the grooves of her toeprints.

                With a final glance up at Sarne, who showed no sign of indicating that he should stop, Nari remembered his name’s sake again, gulped, and placed his hands on the front of Sarne’s thick toe, grasping at the relatively rough flesh of her hefty digit.  He dug his fingernails against the tiny lines of her swirling toeprints, gliding his hands along them and feeling their patterns.  He admittedly was amazed by the sheer scale of her, rubbing the holy water from the spring as hard as he could against her vast, vertical plain of skin.  After a while, the tiny dirt flecks began washing in little rivers down the trickling water.  Even as this happened, though, the small boy continued working, even gliding his hands along the sharp edge of Sarne’s nail, feeling the incredible hardness, and the pale, tender skin along the edge of her nail leading onto the tanner flesh of her toe.

After getting this far, Nari ventured to the side of her toe, rubbing the water as far out as he could down to the top of her actual foot, feeling the soft, fleshy creases of the underside of her toe as it arched partially upward against the rocky ground.  The damp smell of the cave, combined with the touch of the holy water, seemed to create an unnatural occurrence as it flowed over Sarne’s toe.  Nari inhaled.  The young boy was smart enough to know that the scent of a foot, particularly one that had lain upon rocks, was unpleasant.  What he found was entirely different.  It smelled of sweet herbs, with the slightest, tingling tickle of some spice that reminded him of his mother’s stove when aflame.  The sugary, unearthly aroma of Sarne’s toes was oddly inviting, reminding the young boy of his home again.  Sighing deeply and inhaling another measure of the startlingly calming concoction of scents, Nari slid his hands off to the other side of the big toe, reaching slowly into the crevice between Sarne’s big and second toes.  He received no verbal objection from the goddess, and as he reached deeper, Nari found the hulking female’s shapely second toe curling slightly and lifting off the ground to give him some room.  Swallowing hard, nervous to be this close to this legendary figure, the boy stepped forward, caressing the softer interior of Sarne’s toe cleavage, reaching into the deepest part as he became more courageous.  The smell was amplified, and as Nari stood right before the curve of skin between Sarne’s big and second toes, hugged slightly on each side of his shoulders by soft flesh, a trace of wildflowers and sea salt seemed to creep into his nostrils.  He smiled, his hair almost standing on end.  It was like nothing he had ever experienced.  His confidence growing that he might survive the rest of the day, the young boy continued washing in between Sarne’s sanctimonious toes. 

Nari’s hands were admittedly getting tired after covering the entirety of her big toe, but he was used to having to work in the fields with his parents, and so was fully capable of moving onward.

                “Continue, slave.  Refill the bowl and do not stop until I am satisfied.”

                Night was close to falling as Nari lay back for a rest, panting, having washed every square inch of both of Sarne’s absolutely enormous feet.  The goddess had allowed him a brief break to catch his breath in between cleansing each toe, but it wasn’t much.  The young boy thanked his lucky stars that he had spent so many excruciating afternoons in the fields under the broiling sun, doing labor that would normally tire someone double his size.  He had always resented his father for making him do it but now, having been able to tackle a challenge as massive as this, he silently thanked his parents for inadvertently training him.

                Sarne tilted both feet onto their sides and leaned over slowly, running a finger along the bottom of her wrinkled soles, nodding.  A small smile crossed her lips, and at long last she pulled both feet back under the safety of her heavy auric robe, crossing her hands in her lap.

                Nari nodded as respectfully as he could; as he was already on the ground, he needed only flip himself over to bow.

                “An admirable performance, young one.  Your skill is not unnoticed.  Perhaps I have found one of the most useful locations for your insignificant existence to occupy already…”

                Nari swallowed hard, dehydrated.

                “I wish to see more of your impressive patronage.  But first, I shall reward your loyalty…” she cooed softly, sounding kinder than she had yet.  Lowering a gargantuan hand over the tiny, heavily breathing body, she rubbed her fingers together, and light began to emanate from them.  Slowly, then, a steady trickle of water flowed from the tips, created through Sarne’s supernatural power, and poured gently down to Nari’s waiting lips.

                “Your goddess has given you a gift, young slave.  Accept it gracefully,” she commanded with a whisper.  Nari was only too happy to oblige, gobbling the swallows of water down his dusty throat, sighing with relief.  After he’d drunk his fill, Sarne rubbed her fingers back together, stopping the flow of the water and placing her hand back on her lap.  As Nari looked back up at her, though, he saw her eyes squinting, almost angrily.  His mind panicked for a moment, until settling on what he believed she wanted.

                “Thank you, my g-goddess…” gasped Nari, hardly able to speak, so great was his fear.

                Sarne’s hard look of growing anger and disappointment instantly softened, her long lips spreading into a gentle, bemused grin.  “And what are you, little one?”

                “Vaw.”

                “And who is this?”

                “I…” swallowed Nari, beginning to get it.  “I am your… s-s-slave…” he stuttered, shutting his eyes tightly with derision at his foolishly uncertain answer.  His muscles tensed, expecting immediate retaliation for his failure to shout the phrase with as much confidence as if saying his own name.  However, Sarne seemed satisfied, because when he opened his eyes again, she didn’t look about ready to smash him to a pulp under her pinky finger.

                “You have cleansed the hallowed feet of your goddess with your unworthy hands, Vaw,” she continued.  “Never forget that you are of less value than each individual grain of sand that you have washed from me, for from being upon my body, these things are blessed in the land, and that can never be taken away.”

                “Yes, g-goddess.”

                “Now.  You have displayed your bondage to me adequately enough.  But now, I simply wish to be amused by you.”

                Nari was silent again.  What was it she would want?  His knees began to shake again.

                “Rise, slave.  Now.  And approach your goddess.”

                His bones aching, the young boy managed to pull himself to his feet, sore all over from the previous effort.  Tentatively stepping forward, Nari clasped his hands again, staring far upward into Sarne’s enormous face, tracing with his eyes her endlessly cascading blonde locks that seemed to shine so brightly at this moment he could barely make out the expression clearly on her face.

                Sarne raised a hand, pointing her finger, and placed it gingerly against her lower lip, studying Nari.  “Prove that you are not so useless in this manner, Vaw, and amuse your goddess.  Or else…” she said slowly, opening her mouth and poking her finger inside.  “…you shall find yourself residing within me for the coming days and nights.”

                Nari thought frantically as Sarne stared impatiently down at him, waiting for entertainment.  The young boy didn’t have much time for play or friends, as he spent most of his time working the fields with his family, but when he did, he often used it to dance and sing cheerful children’s songs, most of which he came up with with the help of the other youth.  He had also invented his own dance, one he was quite proud of, where he would leap off the heels of his feet so quickly that it almost looked like he was bouncing.  Then, he would clap and hold his hands over his head, waving them wildly, concurrently with his tapping.  It was a lot of fun, and he was the best at it among his cohorts.  Gulping, Nari realized it might just save his life at this moment.

                Crossing his arms, Nari proceeded to begin hopping about before his enormous waiting goddess, clapping once he got the rhythm.  Sarne didn’t seem too impressed with his efforts, so Nari picked up the pace, hopping so quickly and with such precision that he was already getting tired again, having been almost wiped out from washing Sarne’s feet for her.

                “Slave… I could conjure up a thousand performers with thrice the energy you display.  Do not forget why you are still alive,” she warned slowly, droning almost.  Nari could hear the boredom in her voice.  Holding his breath and bracing himself, Nari sped up as much as he could without falling over.

                Clearly, it wasn’t up to snuff for the towering goddess’s standards.

                “Very well, little Vaw.  If you will not amuse me as I have requested…” she began, raising a hand and unfurling her long fingers.  “…I will make my own entertainment.”

                Nari gasped as a middle finger over triple as long as his own body stretched back, curling, causing deep wrinkles to show up in Sarne’s firm joints along her finger.  Her thumbprint pinked a bit as she pressurized her middle fingernail against it, before launching outward.  Wind rushed off to the sides, cooling Nari’s cheeks milliseconds before impact.

                The young boy was caught full in the stomach with the brunt of Sarne’s middle finger as she flicked him uncaringly, sending him flying backward with such force he didn’t even realize what had happened until he was striking down into the tiny holy water spring, splashing so hard that he hit the bottom of the small body of water with his feet.  Gasping, his lungs filling with water, Nari swam upward, surfacing and sputtering for air.

                Sarne seemed to be enjoying the goings on at this point, and seemed to actually be smirking at her slave’s misfortune.  She nodded, as if confirming to herself that what she had just done was the best option.

                “You’ll find that I’m a goddess of much simpler tastes, Vaw,” smiled Sarne, a new look of deviousness crossing her huge, full lips.  “Your petty exercises are not of interest to me.  Repeat them again in my presence, and you will receive the same treatment twofold.”

                Before Nari could swim back to the miniature shoreline of the cave, he found his entire vision filled with the two-story long palm of his ultra-feminine owner lowering itself toward him.  He ducked down into the water, but was far too late to escape the force of the sheer, creased, fleshy claw descending on him and into the water.  Nari found himself almost swallowed up into the endlessly wide pad of skin, slowly curling itself around him as Sarne folded her fingers into a fist, trapping the tiny boy inside her caged hand.

                Nari sucked instinctively for breath as his lungs slowly started to compress, and suddenly he found himself pulled by suction against Sarne’s palm, his lips pressing against one of the deeper creases of skin running like an empty river along her hand.  The give of her flesh was soft and pliable feeling, compressing slightly as Nari’s face was hammered against it.  The muscles inside her hand tightened, her skin feeling firmer as Nari felt her fingers closing in around his backside, her pinky curling in and jamming him deeper into the very center of her fist.  Shaking with the effort to stay conscious, Nari found himself draw out of the water without warning and gasping dramatically for the air that had replaced the sweet holy water around him.

                Sarne’s fingers folded outward, flattening, and Nari rolled down the padded decline, roughly landing on the rocky ground again.  As he pulled himself to his feet, he looked up nervously at Sarne, who looked very pleased with herself as she calmly deposited her hand back on her lap.

                “Try again, my humorless little slave.  Your goddess grows bored of your pathetic efforts.”

                Nari coughed a final time, adjusting to breathing regularly again, and cleared his throat.  Sarne evidently wasn’t one for dancing.  He was left with but one option in his repertoire for entertainment: song.

                “I-I-I…” stuttered Nari, trying to find the correct pitch for his pure, simple singing voice.  “I… h-have been over the h-hills of the… the… lights…” he sang, recalling one of the old lyrical tale relations his grandmother had taught him as a toddler.  “And I have s-seen the t-things my f-fathers have created…”

                Sarne’s expression didn’t relay indifference as before.  Nari couldn’t quite read her expression, but she didn’t seem to be reaching out to flick him back into the spring for a disciplinary lung-crushing, so he decided he was doing well.

                “I have b-been to the shores of the k-kings…” he continued, going over the uncomplicated words in his head moments before speaking so as to avoid mistakes.  “And I have seen the t-things I will l-lead…”

                Sarne’s ten-foot-long mouth curled upward at the corner.  Nari didn’t think it was a smile, but as of yet, he wasn’t starting to drown.  His breathing became heavier.

                “And I will s-show you t-too…” he gasped, trying to steady his inhalations. 

Sarne’s hand lifted up from her lap.

“I-If you w-will…” he continued, his throat drying up instantly as the massive appendage loomed over him, casting the dancing shadows of Sarne’s lengthy, burly fingers around his body.  “…w-will…”

Sarne’s fingers congregated at the tips, pressing together and bending inward ever so slightly, her nails all pointing in Nari’s precarious direction.  Bracing all of her thick fingertips together for a moment, Sarne flicked all of them outward, splaying her smooth, enormous digits out in the air as if she was reaching out for something.

“F-Follow m-m-me…” yipped the boy, the note cracking.

Nari flinched, unable to continue the song, and almost tripped backward.  Sarne’s fingers were out of range to flick him again, but what he saw this time made his stomach flip over far more than the mere sight of the gigantic finger knocking him out of the way like a tick.

Bright blue glowing orbs seemed to materialize at Sarne’s fingertips, each burning to Nari like a star that had come crashing down to Earth and been caught in the hand of the goddess.  The lights grew brighter and brighter until Nari had to avert his eyes, and suddenly a flash of crackling energy boomed in the cave, igniting even the darkest corners for a second before becoming shadowed again.

Nari felt his blood becoming colder.  He hugged himself, shivering, until he realized his blood seemed almost to be on fire.  He released his grip on himself, flinching again with shock.  Before he could even process what was going on, though, he tripped backward on the uneven ground, and stared upward at Sarne so much that he had to crane his neck to see her face.

If Sarne was large before, she was downright leviathan at this point.  Her hand still was hoisted in midair before the young, terrified boy, her fingers outstretched and shaking as the energy died down.  Nari’s eyes widened with fear as he realized the horrifying mass of human anatomy that hovered before him.

Each of Sarne’s fingers hung in the air like towering palm trees stripped of their leaves and bark, each one coming in nearly at three stories long.  Even from his distance, Nari stared up at the goddess’s hand with shocking detail: the rippling fingerprints running along one another in winding patterns, the tanned, peachy flesh thick and almost oily, the crisscrossing creases and wrinkles surrounding Sarne’s palm.  It was almost like a twisted sculpture of soft, firm skin, and yet it was so harmonious together.  A creature separate from Sarne herself, a predator, capable of grasping a home in its creamy palm and clasping its muscular fingers around it, clenching the stone to dust within seconds, a closing cage of immense, stuffy skin compressing in on the weak foundations of the structure until it crumbled like a ball of powder onto Sarne’s wide palm.

Nari got his bearings again, swallowing, and was suddenly reminded that Sarne was very much in control of her whole body as the hand, seemingly against the laws of physics for something so large, was pulled back in slowly to Sarne’s body by her shapely arm, her biceps flexing just noticeably enough to someone Nari’s size.

The young boy gasped, shaking, as he returned to his feet and looked around at the cave hall, which had become much larger than before the flash.

Sarne had shrunk her slave.

                Sarne studied the trembling, tiny Nari for a few seconds, simply allowing the newly shrunken boy to contemplate his situation.  Lip quivering, eyes watering from the sheer overwhelming nature of what had happened, Nari stared up at the plush lips of his goddess as they stretched out to a length seemingly double that of a house.

                “I do believe that you will amuse me far more in this new form, little Vaw,” she said with a soft murmur.  Her smooth hand rose up again like a terrible beast from her lap and came closer to Nari again, her pointer finger and thumb stretching out and keeping apart just enough space to fit a tiny boy-shaped object in between them.

                Nari didn’t vocally object as Sarne’s two finger pads closed themselves around his sides and lifted him up as if he was weightless.  The tip of her thumb dwarfed the young boy by this point, who came in at no more than half an inch in comparison to the breathtakingly titanic mountain of holy woman.  He shivered for a second, the chills along his back quickly requited by the sheer warmth radiating from the two soft fingertips, which seemed to almost instantly regulate the small boy’s body temperature.

                Nari found himself staring into the face of his goddess, so close that he couldn’t see her forehead or chin without craning his neck in either direction.  His legs dangled uncomfortably in the dizzying space below, as he was only supported by the firm grip of Sarne’s fingers on his sides.  Luckily, the goddess quickly corrected this as well, placing a thumb from her other hand just underneath Nari’s feet, allowing him to stand semi-safely upon the grooved surface.  Even though Sarne’s hands were smooth and shapely, at his size, the ridges of her fingerprints were noticeable on the boy’s feet, and he struggled to balance correctly on the surface.

                Sarne’s lips parted upward, rising into the air like the jaws of a whale that Nari had once seen out in the ocean, the pink, glistening interior of her mouth catching the glow from the hall, her teeth rearing almost, each appearing over half as long as Nari’s entire body in their partially sharpened, saliva-shined, porcelain-like glory.  Her tongue lapped upward, flicking the tiniest droplet of a warm bubble outward, where it smacked Nari roughly on the cheek.  The tip of her tongue rose upward, clicking lightly against the ribbed roof of her mouth as she began to speak.

                “I offered you your chance, Vaw.  Perhaps you misunderstood in your vast unintelligence.  You are the first pitiful human I have given the gift of rebirth to: the first sign of weakness I have displayed, all as a result of your patronage.  But now… I see you clearly have forgotten your love for your goddess.  You are…” began Sarne, slow and measured, a rolling wave of hot breath seeping around Nari’s body and making him sweat.

                “No!  I… I…” stuttered the poor boy with a squeak, cutting her off, desperate to redeem himself.

                “YOU WILL NOT INTERRUPT ME, LITTLE SLAVE!” screamed the goddess, her fiery passion ignited all at once.  Nari could have sworn he heard a bolt of lightning crack across the room, although it could have just been his ear drums nearly imploding from the sheer volume of the shout and the tidal wave of cold air that rushed from the tunnel-like back of Sarne’s throat.

                “I’m sorry!” cried out the ten-year-old with a cracked sob, tears streaming down his face, his pants becoming wet as he soiled himself in depraved fear.  He closed his eyes, his chest heaving with the difficulty to breathe steadily.

                Sarne shook her head, tsking.  “But… nonetheless… you have proven yourself above those of your insect ilk, and therefore, I offer you this final gift…”

                Nari raised his eyebrows, his vision blurry with tears, and felt a tingling sensation along his arms and hands, which then flowed down his legs and into his feet, and finally to his head.  His neck jerked back, and his brain seemed to turn backwards inside his skull.  He groaned from the brief pain before it all ceased, and he swallowed hard.

                “W-W-Wh…” whimpered the small boy, more tears flowing.

                “Immortality, my young slave,” she said with sudden gentleness.  “You will not perish this day as a sacrifice, but will live on.  Forever.”

                A smile crossed the young boy’s lips through the caking tears.  “R-R-Really?” he squeaked.

                She nodded purposefully.  “Evidently you are incapable of conjuring your own worthy praise of your goddess.  But this is to be expected.  You are a human.  So I shall, just as I have done for everything else in your life, provide.”

                “H-H-H…” coughed the boy, beginning to realize another possibility of his predicament.

                “Surely you are not this vacuous, Vaw.  I shall swallow you.  And then when you return, I shall swallow you again.  And again.  And again.  And again.  Until I feel you have repaid your debt to me for your misgivings.   Until I am satisfied.”

                The boy was about ready to cry out in mental agony, but something kept him from it.  A mantra?  A memory?  He couldn’t even think clearly enough to understand it; he simply listened to it.

                “And hear me well, young slave,” she whispered, parting her lips further and holding the young boy precariously over her cavernous mouth, the heat emanating out like smoke from a volcano.  “I may NEVER be satisfied…”  With this final, soft-spoken statement, the goddess released her grip on the boy with a smile, allowing him to plummet down into her shadowy cave of a mouth.

                Nari tumbled down the rough, slick surface of her tongue, cascading down multiple crisscrossing waterfalls of steaming, sticky saliva and bumping his fingers against taste buds.  Suddenly, he found himself slamming against the undulating back wall of Sarne’s mouth.  His foot slid along a molar just as it clacked against the top row of teeth, sending him into uncontrollable shivering as he slid easily into the opening of Sarne’s wet gullet.  Just as Sarne’s colossal lips closed, sealing the boy in darkness and his grimy fate, the boy felt himself becoming lodged in the rippled esophagus of the human-shaped goddess as she slurped his miniscule body wetly down.  As the muscular, slippery flesh began pulling him lower and lower into her throat, Nari disappeared into his thoughts, the flow of tears ceasing as he tried to accept what was going to encompass the foreseeable future of his now-infinite life.  He was unsuccessful in this plight, but he was determined, and not from confidence, but from something far more potent.  His fists tightened as his body became engorged in the foamy, digestive slime of Sarne’s throat for the first of many times.

                Courage.