The pure circle of the moon was as tranquil as the quiet night, interrupted only by a silhouette breezing underneath it. A woman glided across roads of houses, her descent leading her to skim across the variety of roofs until her landing point was in sight. She flew on a broom that was clutched between her legs, held steady with her left hand while the other tapped up a text message on her phone: “Almost home. Unlock the door please.” Hanging off the front of her broom was a plastic bag stuffed with snacks and drinks, perfect for an overnight study session.

Luciene had hosted the get-together for her friends in preparation for their upcoming college exams, despite herself having little need to study so diligently. Her craft was especially refined for her age, having been brought up well in a long line of successful witches. She was not as regal as her mother and certainly unlike the mothers before her, but she was not without elegant habits. Her flight posture was poise and unwavering compared to others her grade, presenting a clean image of a witch with long, flowing black hair. This was no age for robes and such, not outside of ceremonies, and so Luciene had traveled to the convenience store wearing a casual combination of a gray sweater and tight jeans. Even after her trip concluded with her landing on the walkway up to her door, she appeared completely unfrazzled by the wind, cooly approaching her home as if she had walked peacefully the entire time.

But her graceful strides ended abruptly at the door. Instead of smoothly entering her home like expected, she was locked out. She frowned, but thought little of it. It had been the point of texting her housemate Vivin before arriving, but it was a trivial annoyance. As both hands were occupied with the broom and bag, Luciene whistled a spell to levitate her house keys from her pocket and into the lock.

Immediately upon entering the entry hall, however, another unexpected development greeted her. Luciene blinked and raised her nose in confusion; an entire set of clothes, boots and all, lay spread out in the middle of the path. The door rocked into Luciene as it tried to close into her stunned state. She closed her eyes, exhaled, and quietly closed the door behind her. “What have they been up to…?”

It wasn’t as though alcohol could explain why someone had just abandoned their clothes in the hallway. No one was drinking, not on a study night. Luciene inspected the pile while she propped her broom into a corner, recognizing the clothes as Vivin’s; the boots with the fuzzy insoles gave as much away, but there was also the black graphic tee and pink skirt she had been wearing earlier. Her housemate was known for some slobbish tendencies, but never something as blatant as this. Luciene sighed, “Is this a joke?” It was a bit funny, she admitted, but still untidy. She bundled the pile with one hand, then tossed it towards the den so that it was out of the way. “Vivin can clean that up herself.”

Having slipped out of her loafers and stepped further into her home, Luciene realized just how quiet and still everything was. When she left, there was plenty of activity as the five settled in for a night of studying. The only missing factor was a lack of food and drinks, hence her trip to the store. Either they were all immersed into their notes and books, or something was afoot; she knew better than to suspect the former. Not even a thump could be heard from upstairs where she last left them. She called up to the second level, “I’m back… Is everyone still awake?”

Luciene stopped short of the staircase upon glancing up its steps. She grimaced at what she saw, yet another set of clothes strewn down the middle of the flight. “Whose is it this time?” she wondered, slowly traversing up. The purple jacket and black pants suggested it was Cretia, but it made even less sense that these clothes would end up so collectively on the stairs. Her footfalls became heavier as she progressed upward, becoming less patient with whatever game her friends were playing -- nothing normal could come of her friends stripping suddenly while she was away.

There was a motion from the top of the stairs, the first sign of life Luciene had come across. She first recognized the flash of red hair, an unmistakable trait of Lorelle’s, but there was a staggering change to her friend since having last seen her. The railing of the second floor was now taller than her, and the autumn brown scarf she wore was wrapped around her like an oversized robe, much of its length dragged behind her. It was no illusion, Luciene knew, but a curse that had actually shrunk Lorelle to a fraction of her height.

“Oh, thank goodness, you’re home!” Lorelle hurriedly praised, bouncing against the railing with excess energy. She was always the liveliest and quirkiest of her friends, but more so than usual was she flustered by what had happened. “Something weird happened, Luciene! I don’t know where the others are!”

“A-Alright, but, slow down--” Luciene warned, but it went unheard. In her rush of worry, Lorelle tripped over her scarf while coming down the first step. Her little body tipped forward suddenly, and Luciene lunged up to catch her, her movement handicapped by the collection of snacks she still held. However uncomfortable the predicament was, Luciene had saved Lorelle from a nasty fall, embracing her in both arms. Although Lorelle was in the range of thirty centimeters tall, she still had enough weight to make Luciene wobble with imbalance.

Lorelle gasped, “Shit, th-that could have been bad! Th-Thank you, Luciene! It’s great that you’re back! This is nuts!” She squirmed in Luciene’s hug, nearly slipping out from her scarf entirely. Luciene had to grasp her with both hands wrapped around the small body, as if holding up a large, writhing doll. Lorelle’s flustered expression emphasised her fragility in this predicament. “I-I was just in the study with Freya when-- when this!”

Luciene fell back one step in her fight against confusion. “... Did someone cast a spell?” she reasonably asked. “And where’s Freya?”

“Not one of us, n-no,” Lorelle stammered, “and Freya, she-- I don’t know, but she was in the study with me. I went looking for anyone just a minute ago, b-but…”

“It’s clearly magic, though,” Luciene muttered. “Maybe a potion? Or…”

Her foot then twitched in response to what felt like a bite. The fidget kicked something, she realized, and her and Lorelle’s attention was brought down to the scatter of clothes on the staircase. Luciene was surprised to have uncovered an especially tiny Cretia partially under her foot, wrestling with the gray wool socks she wore. Her toes shivered and curled from Cretia’s squirming, but situated on the staircase the way she was, she couldn’t immediately lift off of her, nor did she have the reaction to -- Lorelle may have been small, but Cretia was only six or five centimeters tall, dwarfed by Luciene’s foot.

“No, no! St-Stop, d-don’t move!” Cretia whined. She pushed up against the toes and her legs kicked as best they could in their pinned position. “Ahgh-- erk! Luciene!” Her eyes shot open, her worry blended with relief now that her friend had noticed her before anything devastating occurred. She tugged at the fabric of the sock, “I-I’m sorry, Luciene, j-just don’t step any harder…!”

Luciene burned with an embarrassed blush, never the one to intentionally hurt others. Cretia was an especially sad victim to see, being the meekest of Luciene’s friends. She was also the least capable when it came to magic, but had the drive to improve, especially when she was around talent like Luciene and Vivin. But now, transformed into such a state, Cretia was more feeble than ever, stripped of her size and put out of reach of her magic.

Luciene’s foot leapt off her belittled friend and settled on the next step down. “How did you end up there?” she asked accusingly, flustered by the situation. She looked again to Lorelle in her arms, wondering just as well why the two appeared so different. Lorelle was at least five times Cretia’s size when normally their height difference was only a couple inches.

“I was just going down the stairs!” Cretia began, retracing her steps from the past few minutes. She had started in the study with the others, when next, “I heard Vivin go down to get the door for you, s-so I came down too, because I was still hungry…” She turned to her alien surroundings as to fill in the rest of the gaps of what occurred. Each stair was as tall as a street light, and her clothes fell upon them like an avalanche stopped in mid-motion. It was from that detail, however, that shame completely enveloped her, only then comprehending that she was completely naked.

A tiny, shrill shriek was just sharp enough to make Luciene and Lorelle wince. Cretia cried and scrambled to a sleeve of her jacket, blanketing it over her nudity. “D-Don’t look at me, Luciene!” she snapped, feeling the weight of the giant’s gaze upon her. She shuddered with her head burrowed into the fabric, “You should have just stepped on me and ended it! I’d rather be dead!”

Luciene provided a nervous grin, offering just a slither of comfort. Cretia often acted this way around her, though for what reason, she didn’t understand. Somewhat awkwardly, Luciene cradled Lorelle with one arm while the other reached down. Cretia jumped when several trucks’ worth of snacks and sodas in a blimp-sized bag landed on the step above her, slid down from Luciene’s extended arm. “N-No, d-don’t--!” she whimpered, not yet ready to be touched in her current state, but Luciene scooped her into her palm without hesitation. Cretia coiled into herself for cover, ever aware that her exposed body was being handled effortlessly by her friend.

“Do you know what happened? Why everyone shrunk?” Luciene inquired, bringing Cretia level with her neck. Cretia was washed with wonder anew, however, gawking at Lorelle’s size. Relatively, Lorelle was a small giant, but still impressively tall underneath her cloak of a scarf. Yet this larger person was huddled into the more massive Luciene, creating a trippy effect that reemphasized the staggering height differences.

In the end, Luciene’s tenderness won through to calm Cretia enough to answer. Cretia stuttered, “I-It… was, maybe, the confections… probably…”

“Confections?” Luciene repeated. She glanced at the bag weighing down her wrist -- wasn’t the whole point of her leaving to retrieve food that they didn’t have?

“It was the candy?!” Lorelle sparked. Cretia trembled into Luciene’s fingers. “You didn’t tell us it was magical, Cretia!”

“I-I didn’t think it’d do this!” Cretia replied. “I mean, th-they were just supposed to make you lighter -- lose weight! A-A treat you can eat without… feeling guilty!” She weakly shrugged, biting hard on her lip. “You all said you were starving--”

“Cretia! Vivin was chowing down on them! Something could have happened to her!” Lorelle recalled as much when Cretia first revealed the tin canister full of green-swirled candies the size of marbles. Both Vivin and Freya had taken handfuls right away to stave their appetite at the time, but Vivin was especially impatient for Luciene’s return from the store. “That’s probably why you’re so small! You had more than me, right?”

“Yeah, th-that makes sense,” Cretia sniffled. “Gosh, that must mean that--”

“Vivin!” Luciene panicked and spun back to descend the stairs. Her passengers were brought along with her in the sudden motion, each grappling to the giant body however they could. Lorelle in particular was hugged tightly into Luciene’s chest, which then proceeded to bounce hard and fast as she raced back down to the entryway. Each step saw that her sweater-bound bust pounded into Lorelle, an exhausting experience that the shrunken woman protested against.

“Stop, Luci! Mmf, s-stop!” Lorelle complained, her voice muffled into her friend’s breasts. She pushed hard against the pillowy mass so that Luciene would have to slow down. “I-I can barely breathe like this…! Let me go…!”

Luciene stuttered, torn between actions. She carefully but hastily let Lorelle slip down to the staircase, still inching off in the direction of where Vivin’s clothes had been thrown aside. She waved Lorelle away, “Go find Freya! I’m getting Vivin, I-I may have thrown her across the room…!”

“You what?” Lorelle gasped, but Luciene wouldn’t clarify. Caught up in the urgency, Lorelle did as told and began the long climb up the large stairs, bundling the excess of her scarf up to her waist.

Luciene darted to the den, hesitating for only an instant to glance down the entryway. There was no sign of Vivin in the hall, and so before her momentum was gone, she continued to where the mess of clothes had been tossed. Her heartbeat froze with horror, her feet at the very edge of a forest of carpet fibers. How small did she become? Luciene had to ask, vainly sifting through the living area’s floor for signs of human life. Any careless steps from there on was at risk of stomping her housemate into nothing. In this pause, she made the wise decision to leave the bag of refreshments behind.

The utmost caution was exercised as Luciene tip-toed past the couch and towards Vivin’s clothes. Cretia observed from her hand, equally curious and concerned for their friend, but also amazed at how huge the house had become. It was as though she was riding a building that trucked through a flat plain disturbed by mountain-sized furniture. As Luciene squatted over the pile, Cretia imagined what the den had to look like for Vivin if she truly had shrunk the smallest of them all.

It was then that a distressing idea came to Cretia’s mind. “Err… Luciene? Wh-What if she’s too small?”

“Hm? Too small for what?” Luciene spoke tersely, concentrated on the graphic tee that she had pinched in her fingers.

“I mean, if she’s really that small, you might look right over her. Y-You might have stepped over her already…”

Luciene stiffened. Cretia was absolutely correct. If Vivin had become speck-sized, then this search was the equivalent of looking for a specific grain of dust. It was possible for Vivin to be hidden anywhere around her at this point, and the thought made her gut swirl, thinking too much of how someone could be looking up at her that very moment. But she wasn’t without ideas, and Cretia’s nervous movements had inspired a solution.

Lorelle shuffled across the second floor, winded from her ascent up the stairs but still pressing forward. Though her oversized scarf was clearly weighing her down, she refused to abandon it and become as naked as Cretia had. Even when she tripped over it and face-planted, she bounced back up and continued ahead, enduring her clumsiness in stride. Luciene’s study wasn’t a dangerous place, but she worried still for Freya, abandoned somewhere in that now-giant landscape of a room.

“How many did she eat?” Lorelle asked herself, finding the time to wonder such things. The hall to the study wasn’t long at all, normally, but she was only halfway across despite her hurry. She thought of when they were all hanging out and the moment that Cretia brought out the candies. Vivin had comically taken a handful all at once, but Freya was a habitual snacker, and she plucked one swirled candy every couple of minutes. Lorelle was left to worry if Freya, like Vivin, had shrunk to an abysmal state.

With all her weight, Lorelle pushed open the door with a grunt. The room’s features impressed her all over again with its tall bookcases and looming tables, but it was the work desk that she turned to immediately. A swivel chair sat idly at the desk, occupied only by a set of clothes draped over its seat. Lorelle bounced in that direction, confident she would find Freya still within her clothes.

Freya had been overwhelmed by the change in scenery. The quietest among her friend circle, she had her nose aimed into her tomes when the magic surprised them all. All of a sudden, she was ripped from her peaceful study session and thrown into a confusing nest of warm fabric. The darkness befuddled her, and she kicked and punched at the tarp-like clothes that she was spontaneously drowning in. Finding her way out of the many folds of fabric had taken a distressing amount of time, and her anxiety peaked at an all-new high upon the revelation. Luciene’s study had grown around her, and she was now a naked sprite trapped on an office chair the height of an office building.

Being naked did not bode well for her, and so Freya frantically bundled what she found around her for modesty. She then threw the pink fabric away from her; “M-M-My underwear?!” she realized. “E-Ew!” But it was the best she had, and she huddled into her panties. The creep of loneliness itched her back and she spun around in a circle, knotting herself up in the process. She was alone in the empty room, a dash of black hair to be found in a mess of clothes. “Who did this?! Wh-Where’d everyone go?”

“Freya!” A voice boomed from the corner where Lorelle had entered the study. Her arrival shocked Freya into bunkering into her clothes, but she turned around when she recognized the voice. She was greatly relieved to have a friend here, but she was startled by what she discovered. Lorelle hadn’t been immune to shrinking, but was not nearly as small as she was. The comparison was chilling; Freya was merely three centimeters tall, but Lorelle stood tall enough to be a giant in contrast.

And that giant was stomping towards her with surprising speed. Despite Lorelle’s shrunken form, her footsteps were heavy enough to rattle the floor up to where Freya was perched in the chair. She slowed to a stop just in front of the chair, sliding it forward slightly when she went to lean against it. Freya kept herself low, prepared as if the chair could crumble under Lorelle’s weight.

“Lorelle! D-Don’t move so much!” Freya frantically called up from her ducked position.

“It’s fine~ I’m glad I could find you!” Lorelle laughed some of her nervousness aside. “But, look at you! You ended up really tiny, you know.”

Freya scoffed under her breath, “As if I didn’t know…” She rose, but her wobbling feet wouldn’t see her rise past her knees. From her limited perspective, she tried to absorb the details of the room, but Lorelle swallowed most of her vision by standing so close to her. She grumbled, “What is this? Why are you so much bigger?”

Lorelle took a strange pride in that, raising her head in a gloat. “Heh, it was the candy that Cretia brought,” she explained. “She thought they would just make people lighter, but, you know Cretia… Try not to be too mad with her.”

“Mad? Well, maybe a little, but I’m impressed.” Freya examined herself, studying the magical effect her body was under. “This is a curse. Did she even mean to make a curse? This effect is fairly powerful.” It was Freya’s field of expertise, and the only magical craft she was exceptional at. Making and applying curses was an ancient art that had Freya intrigued by its complexities, but by accident had Cretia developed her own curse set into the candies she made. “Where did she get mixed up?”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Lorelle said, her chipper tune cracking at Freya’s concentration. “She’s pretty tiny like you too~ Come on, let’s not leave Luci worrying.”

“Oh, oh no,” Freya rejected, backing away with a fold of panties against her chest. Lorelle’s hand was raised but then hesitated back, waiting to pick her up. Freya shook her head, “I am not leaving like this… Maybe you don’t mind running around like a half-naked bimbo in someone else’s house, but I do. Just… Just come up here when everything is done.”

Lorelle whined, “That’s not what Luci asked. Come on,” she smiled and reached onto the seat, “this time you can’t sit in a corner and ignore us like you always do!”

“L-Lorelle, p-please…!” But Freya’s resistance was ignored. Five fingers as big as she was wrapped around her body, always beating her regardless of how she squirmed to avoid them. She felt weightless when carried into the air, revealed from the warmth of her clothes and exposed to the chill of conditioned air. Movement was entirely out of her control, her safety and balance both managed by Lorelle and her whims.

“Aww, you’re way lighter than I thought,” Lorelle noted, captivated with how it felt to have a whole person in her grasp. Freya barely moved at all, but Lorelle could still feel every twitch and shake tickle at her palm. She giggled with reddening cheeks, “You’re really cute like this! You look so~ grumpy, even when you’re so small…”

Freya slumped in Lorelle’s fist, beaten down by the weight of two eyes keenly running over her. Rather than fight her friend, she gritted her teeth and braved the teasing, but her patience was ruptured when the unstoppable fingers spread apart her arms in order to reveal her torso. “H-Hey, wh-what are you doing?!” she stammered. “P-Put my arms down! I’m naked!”

“Yeah…” Lorelle dully replied, turning Freya around in her grip. “I’ve never seen you naked before. I never noticed how big your boobs are… You’re always hunched over so badly.”

Freya burned pink with embarrassment, unable to pry herself free. Her breasts were out on display, a feature of herself that she normally kept hidden under shyness. Being caught nude was arguably the least of her worries in that moment, but it was all she could think about while the giant Lorelle studied her body so intently, so enthralled that she seemingly forgot about the others. “Lorelle? What about Luciene?”

Lorelle snapped out of her trance. “Right, right. Luci and the others would love to see this, too. They probably have no idea, either.” Though that wasn’t what Freya intended to urge, it at least spurred Lorelle back on track to go meet up with the others. “Hopefully they found Viv, but… if you became this small, then Viv, well…”

Distant and muffled rumbles from an outside world shook Vivin awake. She was sprawled out in no comfortable position, but the ground she was thrown upon was plush and welcoming, its softness wanting to lure Vivin back to sleep. But she couldn’t rest, not when she glanced at the unrecognizable environment, a landscape that intrigued her as much as it worried her. “Where-- What happened?” she groaned, feeling the leftover pains of something violent, something she could barely recall.

Was the door ever opened? Vivin instinctively checked her pocket for her phone, but she was naked -- a surprising fact she only just then learned. Was it a plane crash? An abnormal leap in logic, but what she remembered fit the experience. Rocketing through the air at unbelievable speeds in a twisting vehicle, and then the impact, like the entire planet falling apart. She looked again at her surroundings, and the notable lack of any plane. Magic, she could at least assume, definitely magic…

Vivin grimaced as she stood up. “Why is it so rank…?” she complained aloud despite the eerie loneliness. The ground was nothing very familiar, made of soft bushes that stretched all around this cavern that contained her. They weren’t plants, but some kind of cotton, tufts that were difficult to trudge through. She shook her head and covered her nose, too distracted by the odor to think much of anything else. It was familiar, for whatever horridness it actually was.

The conclusion dawned on Vivin, so striking that she stopped her aimless sifting through the cotton tufts. She wanted to collapse, but not when she knew where she was. “This… is my boot,” she scoffed, looking for evidence to say otherwise, but it was the only answer she could come to. The shape of this tunnel she was in and its one, wide-mouthed exit, and how the tufts were flattened down with traces of moisture in a distinctly shaped impression. The landscape had been formed by her, she realized, for this was the inside of her boot.

Her favorite pair of boots, no less, which she regretted entirely. She regretted wearing them that day, she regretted ever buying them. Had she known she would shrink suddenly and be trapped within them, she never would have enjoyed their stylish design, the cozy interior that was plush and welcoming -- it made her physically sick to continue going on in what she now comprehended was her own boot, tipped onto its side.

A constant thundering was heard beyond the leather walls. Booming footsteps and distorted voices, the movements of a normal sized person. Vivin could only assume that someone was rushing about in distress, figuring out what had happened. “Luciene,” she said, both with relief and despair in her tone. Of course, she thought, that it would be her housemate to be stepping around, effectively a giant as far as Vivin cared to imagine. Her and Luciene were rivals, so Vivin asserted. Childhood friends that both sought careers in magic, it was Luciene that inched ahead in everything; grades, commendations, and even in height, which was now grossly exaggerated. Vivin flinched at the thought of being rescued by Luciene, but being saved by a friend was better than wallowing in her own boot.

“This is freakin’ embarrassing,” Vivin griped, making slow progress towards the boot’s mouth. “How the hell did I get so small? Seriously, this is scary small. Who did this? Heh, seriously…” She shook her head, still under assault by the smell of her own lingering odor. “I’m gonna strangle whoever--”

The quaking grew steadily more powerful with each consecutive blast, culminating to an intensity that tripped Vivin off her feet. The light that seeped into the footwear shifted as the unseen giant outside neared it. Vivin’s breathing spiked as she feared being tossed around again, only adding to her ongoing bitterness with Luciene. There was a discussion, Vivin inferred, and a long pause. Finally, a shadow stretched into the fuzzy cove, and from around the lip of the boot entered Cretia, edging her way inside and riddled with hesitations.

“I-I don’t know, Luciene, th-this seems stupid…” Cretia whined, ducking her head under the roof of the boot. Her expression twisted sourly, surely affected by the scent. “Ughh… I don’t see her. Isn’t this far enough…?”

“No!” clapped a stern voice; its hugeness rattled Vivin, due to how it was Luciene’s. “You’ve made enough trouble. Go in.”

Cretia groaned, “But Luciene~”

“Vivin could be very small! You have to do a thorough search, Cretia!”

Cretia’s shoulders sunk as she stepped further into the trailer-sized boot, yet unaware that the tight space was a whole ecosystem for Vivin somewhere in the fibers. Despite her small size, she towered above the fluffy plains, awed at from afar by Vivin where she had bunkered into some of the fabric. It was a new sight to behold, and an especially intimidating one. Vivin had deduced that she wasn’t the only one to shrink in the house, but that she had shrunk more than the others -- or at least, more so than Cretia. The younger classmate was a giant compared to her, regardless of her actual diminutive state. This of course lead Vivin to a whole world of worry, wondering just how big a normal sized person would look like. She grumbled again, “Luciene…”

Deciding to figure that on her own in due time, Vivin rose from her spot and trudged forward with her arms flailing above her head. “Cretia! Down here, Cretia!” she yelled between panting and gagging, the humid air difficult to shout in. She jumped for Cretia’s attention, but when her gaze finally fell upon her, she shuddered and nearly stumbled.

“... Oh! Oh my gosh, Luciene was right! I-It’s Vivin!” Cretia gasped, startled by the discovery of her friend. Her vision had nearly glossed over Vivin, confusing her naked body and blonde hair with just one of the thousand little tufts that she casually stepped over. She dropped to a crawl and continued ahead as such, approaching Vivin with an arm outreached and her fingers twiddling. “H-Here, Vivin, c-come here…”

Vivin’s confusion folded into a glare up at the bent-over Cretia, shooting an insulted glance at the fingers in particular. “Do I look like a stray cat to you?” she bluntly asked. “C’mon, Cretia…”

“Err, no, sorry…” Cretia laid her nervous hands out flat in front of Vivin, allowing her to climb on. The touch of a nude body slithering up her palm was distressing enough to make her squeak. She was slow to move from her kneeling position, like the body in her hands was too heavy to lift. “I’m sorry, i-it just… feels so bad in here…”

“Yeah? Then get us out of here maybe?” Vivin sighed. “There’s sock lint in here bigger than me. I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to.”

Cretia agreed and was thus driven to leave the boot, ignoring that she was holding a naked body in her hands. She stepped into the cold outer world with closed eyes, but Vivin’s were wide open to observe the intimidating splendor of her own living room. The walls and ceilings of the home were vague concepts as distant as the sky, and the carpet below was a lush sea that ended in wood panel beaches. If she hadn’t had Cretia transporting her, then surely Vivin would not have gotten far from her boot, lost in a never-ending world of the floor she so often forgot to vacuum. The furniture were impressive mountains that dwarfed the cavern of a boot, belittling the prison that had seemed nigh-inescapable. No words could describe the utterly ordinary world she was looking up at, but she was most choked by the presence of her behemoth housemate, a person so tall that her toes alone were a range of hills to survey.

“Wow, you actually found her,” Luciene said. She sat squat next to the pile of clothes, her knees draped over with Vivin’s tee from where she was searching for her. “Thank you, Cretia. But… wow. Wow, she is… really tiny…”

The barrage of noise overwhelmed Vivin into submission. Luciene’s voice was tremendous, rocking the very air that it traveled through on a scale only Vivin could recognize. Cretia’s voice had been surprisingly loud, but her usual mumbling and stuttering restrained her volume. Luciene needed only to speak casually for her voice to drop onto the tiny woman like a jet engine roaring to life. Worse yet was that this was but one layer of Luciene’s massiveness that Vivin had to endure. The view was significantly harder to swallow, gazing up at the impossible titan from her elevated position in Cretia’s hand. It was impossible to keep all of Luciene in her vision, and this was when she was seated with a lower profile than usual. Vivin couldn’t imagine what a standing Luciene would look like, but the idea of it was enough to annoy her, that she was gawking up at her superior.

The gravity of Luciene’s presence intensified when she leaned over Cretia, exerting her weight indirectly over the minuscule Vivin. She peered closely, wanting to see her housemate for herself, but even in Cretia’s hand was she troublesome to identify. Vivin wished for the studying to end, unsettled by the magnificently huge eye that was absorbing her every detail.

“I think you’re scaring her,” Cretia said, raising Vivin up slightly.

“You think I’m-- scared?!” Vivin growled at this accusation. “I-I am not! I’m not--”

She was cut off by a vibrating boom of a voice. “Ooh, Vivin… You don’t need to worry anymore,” Luciene said, attempting to speak tenderly. “It’s just me. We’re all figuring this out right now.”

Vivin unflinched from the overbearing volume to pitch in her thoughts, “N-No, I’m not scared! Luciene, I’m--” Her arguing was sentenced to an end when her enormous rival shifted, offering her own hand down flat for Cretia to embark. Too tiny to be heard, Vivin was taken into Luciene’s realm along with Cretia, rocketing upwards as the biggest of the giants rose to her feet.

Luciene gathered her bearings and wandered out of the living room, but not without the others occupying her mind. Fortunately, she wasn’t left in suspense as she saw Lorelle making her way down the stairs, one step at a time. In her hands and not enjoying the ride was Freya, grappled by Lorelle so that only her legs could kick at the open air. Luciene may have been unsure of that method of moving a shrunken person, but she was grateful enough to see both were well and unharmed.

“I found Freya!” Lorelle announced, the least bothered by the house’s predicament. Her little footfalls were just barely audible as she reached the end of the stairs and crossed over to where Luciene was. “You were able to find Viv… right? Or did she get swept under a rug?”

Luciene nodded and explained by holding out Cretia, who in turn held out Vivin. The three-way chain of varying frowns earned a chuckle from Lorelle, who followed Luciene into the dining room. They were corralled to the breakfast nook where Luciene could keep everyone together in one place. Her friends pieced together a rather strange scene with their different sizes; Lorelle stood behind the table atop the bench seat, while Cretia and Freya walked along the surface itself, the latter of which still cradled Vivin in her hands. Luciene backed away from the four while they adjusted to each others staggering heights, taking in the absurdity of the situation with a well-deserved sigh.

“So, err, what now?” Cretia was the first to ask after many glances across the new surroundings. “Th-This might be stupid to ask, but, isn’t there a cure?”

“Why don’t you tell us, Chef Cretia?” Freya spat, arms crossed over her chest. Though half the size of Cretia, Freya was unphased to be looking up at a friend she was meant to be taller than. “It was your candies that did this. Did you cook up a cure or not?”

Cretia swallowed, stammering ahead with a thought before being interrupted. It was a shrill, little voice from Vivin to cut in, “The candy?! This is because of your candy?! Y-You…! There was magic in those things?!” Vivin stomped, but being the smallest of the four, her ranting was the easiest to ignore. “That’s dangerous as hell, Cretia! You could have made us explode or somethi-- iieee!”

It was Vivin’s turn to be interrupted as a loud, jangling crash hit the table. The source was the plastic bag of drinks and snacks, carried and dropped onto the table by Luciene without her thinking of its weight. She unloaded the contents one item at a time while the others watched without explanation. Once everything was on display, Luciene moved into the kitchen where she acquired a list of things from a specific cabinet: colored powders, grinded herbs, swirling tonics, as well as spoons, knives, and jars, all loaded into a wide, black bowl.

“Every curse can be cured,” Luciene explained while the others looked over the supplies. “Even Cretia’s. I have some ideas about how to correct this, so that’s what I’ll be doing tonight. If you want to be returned to normal size sooner than later, then try not to disturb me.”

“What do we do then?” Lorelle asked, her upper body spilled out on the dining table in reach of a distant soda. Between her and the can suddenly dropped a large tome, its cover unfortunately too familiar to the students. Luciene had magicked it into existence, not hiding a teasing smile as she did.

“Exams are this week,” Luciene explained. “Study.”

A packet of ground goblin ear, a vial of filtered pixie dust, a mason jar of silver apple skins, a cup of chopped mandrake, a shaker with rosemary, and more; a grocery list of ingredients both fantastical and mundane circled around a black cauldron. Luciene gathered the items together as she read them from a large tome opened in one hand, preparing the island counter in the kitchen to be her workstation. Only in the home of two skilled witches would they be fortunate enough to have all the ingredients necessary to concoct a remedy for her friends’ shrunken situation. It was a major interruption of their plan to host a successful study night, but Luciene had some clever thoughts on how to teach her classmates a thing or two yet.

Once all the ingredients were collected, Luciene put her hands on her hips, huffed, and reviewed the status of her friends before beginning. The first and easiest to notice was Lorelle, the least affected of the bunch. At thirty-five centimeters tall, she came up to Luciene’s knee but towered over the others, large enough that she wore a spare shirt like an ankle-length dress. After her was Cretia, the one responsible for feeding cursed confections to everyone. At ten centimeters tall, it was safer to keep her on the counter, same as the girls much smaller than her. She wore a napkin wrapped around herself, just as Freya did at her five centimeter size, offering some sparse privacy for their diminutive circumstance. The same favor could not be given to Vivin, Luciene’s housemate who had dwindled the most in size after excessive snacking. Stuck at a miserable half-centimeter at best and left naked, Vivin maintained visibility by standing on a small tea dish, lest she risk being overlooked by one of her massive -- and often careless -- friends.

Lorelle dragged over and then climbed atop a stool by the island. She laughed as she pulled herself up awkwardly onto the swiveling seat, the only one among the shrunken to be amused. “This is so weird!” she giggled, wobbling her way into balance. “I’m so light and free~ and everything is just so big! It’s like I’m in a cartoon!”

“Yep, glad to know you’re having a good time, Lorelle,” Freya groaned. She was seated with her back propped against the binding of her textbook, her gaze set away from the others and instead towards the various ingredients. She hugged her knees to her chest while leaning inward, “So… you’re sure about this cure, Luciene? It will return us to normal -- the correct sizes, right?”

“Exactly,” Luciene responded, her eyes still scanning the book. She moved at the same time, retrieving a pitcher of bog water from the fridge and pouring most of it into the cauldron. “A drink of this will lift your curse off you, once it’s all cooked and settled. A digested curse requires a digested remedy; that’s an important rule you should all write down.”

“Mm, that’s good to know,” Freya replied, looking back at the book behind her. “I guess you want me to be taking notes?” Luciene grinned, but didn’t force her suggestion onto anyone. Freya, at least, would have been easy to convince, had she the capability. “Err… I can’t even open my book… and anything I write like this is going to be way too small--”

“Hey, I can help!” Lorelle piped in excitedly, popping her arms onto the table to stretch over its edge. She reached forward and grabbed the corner of the study book, tugging it towards her while offering Freya only a moment to stand out of the way. To open the book to its note-taking pages in the back, Lorelle grunted and tossed the cover up, along with half of the text’s pages, creating a gust that traveled across the marble counter.

Cretia and Freya both shuddered as the wind blew at their napkin dresses, but Vivin screamed as she was pushed off her feet and rolled backwards by the gust. “Ahhck! Lorelle!” she shouted, an arm raised up to defend herself from the force. After the air calmed, she collapsed forward on the little dish, panting to recover. “I’m… I’m right here…! You have to pay attention, a-all of you-- Eeik!”

Before her complaint could be concluded, Vivin was swiftly elevated. The platform she was on was risen by Luciene, briefly lifted off the counter. The speed at which Vivin was carried into the air pushed her hard into the plate, and when she next looked up, she was greeted by two huge eyes that pitied her position. Vivin’s growl at her gigantic housemate went unheard, much like what else she had been speaking about -- at such a tiny size, her voice was far too quiet for Luciene to consistently understand.

“Lorelle, you almost blew Vivin away,” Luciene said, her softened voice still causing the air to rumble all around her shrunken housemate, despite the good intention. She looked for somewhere to put down the saucer, deciding to keep Vivin next to the sink behind her. Vivin protested, not wanting to be separated by what felt like an entire mile away from the others, but her titanic friend was already turned away and focused on the remedy.

“Oof~ My bad, Viv,” Lorelle apologized, waving across the island at the plate. She took the notebook she had opened and turned it towards her, then swept Cretia and Freya closer to her with a hooked arm. The two stumbled over one another as they were reeled in, falling onto their faces between Lorelle and the book. A smile hung above them, “Okay, so, what was I supposed to write down again…?”

“Err, actually,” Luciene interrupted, “I could use your help preparing some of this. You’re the biggest one, Lorelle, so you’re the only person that can help. I could use the extra hands -- even if they’re a bit small.”

Cretia sat up quickly, not noticing how her napkin dressing was unraveling from her chest. “I-I could help o-or something!” she sputtered excitedly, her cheeks glowing pink. “Lorelle is behind on her classes, sh-she really should be studying…!”

“Wow,” Lorelle plainly stated, “way to throw me under the bus, Cresh…”

“Cretia… Aren’t you also behind in most of your classes…?” Luciene asked while unscrewing a mason jar lid. She smiled at how Cretia squirmed in response, but kept her head lowered to hide her amusement. “I think it’s at least just as important that you take some notes, too. Lorelle is also, well, bigger.”

Cretia shuddered at that reality. “True, b-but--”

“Not to mention it wasn’t Lorelle that got us into this mess,” Freya scoffed at Cretia, unphased by being half her height. Freya’s coldness made her stature seem equal to Cretia’s hunched timidness. “It wasn’t her that poisoned all of her friends.”

“Cursed! Not poisoned!” Cretia swiftly corrected, her volume making Freya flinch backwards. “But, I’m actually failing both those classes, so…”

Luciene giggled at the conversation. “It’s good that it functioned,” she explained, “but you shouldn’t feed people magical food without telling them. Luckily, all your curse did was shrink people. It could have been way worse, especially if I wasn’t around.” While speaking, Luciene grabbed one of the confections in question from the tin container she had brought down from upstairs. Inside were a number of the green-swirled candies, some of which Luciene had taken out onto the upturned lid for studying purposes. She grabbed one at that moment, examining it to study some of its magical properties. Cretia felt as though it was herself being observed under those calm eyes, a sensation she did not dislike; she pined for more positive attention from Luciene, but thus far, she had only caused problems for everyone in her attempts.

Lorelle dropped from her seat and joined Luciene at her side. She stood up on her toes and still had to hold the ledge of the counter in order to peek over it. “I’m more of a hands-on learner, anyway,” Lorelle joked. She eyed the candy plucked in Luciene’s fingers as it was dropped into the cauldron as an additional part to the cure. “... Was that important?”

“Yes,” Luciene replied, arranging other items in front of her and Lorelle. “We let what we have in the pot right now sit for a few minutes to become accustomed to the magic make-up. In the meantime, we can prepare a separate blend of ingredients that will disintegrate the curse’s binding properties.”

“It sounds like you’re just making this stuff up,” Lorelle sighed.

“It sounds that way because you don’t pay attention in class,” Luciene retorted, twisting around to retrieve a knife. Lorelle silently agreed with her. “Now, take those honeycombs I have and strain the sap out. That will be the base that keeps all the natural elements together.”

Lorelle did as instructed, though she would need a chair pulled out for her to work from like a desk. While she began extracting the honey from the combs, Freya and Cretia tuned into Luciene’s lesson, gleaming valuable information regarding the making of remedies and how curses differed from one another. Freya was a natural at studying, jotting down notes using ink magic in a corner of a page, but Cretia was more easily distracted. Her eyes were on Luciene and she listened intently to every word she said, but her mind was elsewhere. In her headspace, Freya and the others were absent, leaving Luciene all to herself for a private lesson. She blinked when she realized how little else of the situation required a change; she didn’t mind being toy-size if it meant being tutored by a towering and mindful Luciene.

“You look like you’re thinking hard,” Luciene said teasingly to Cretia, stirring the concoction while having a glance pointed at her. Cretia snapped out of her thoughts moments later, slow to realize she was being spoken to. Luciene shook her head, “You must have a wandering mind… That would explain a lot.”

Cretia bit her lip where it had once been ready to speak up. Instead of her voice reaching out to Luciene, she instead slumped down where she had been seated. The comment, as short and simple as it was, impacted her with a hard blow to her heart. It had been painful enough causing so much trouble for a colleague she so genuinely respected, but now she was reminded of her failings as a witch. Of course, such a matter was not trivial; Luciene was an amazing student, a witch with ample readiness for the world of magic, while Cretia herself was bumbling, staggered, and weak-willed. Her skills were far below that of Luciene’s, and that represented well the distance between their respective leagues.

Luciene continued on with her makeshift lesson while the recipe came together. An unpleasant odor rose from the cauldron, yet she wafted the scent towards her nose, confirming that everything was blending properly. “Now from here, we can add that honey,” Luciene explained while she stirred. “I can take that now, Lorelle.”

“Yep, just finished,” Lorelle replied, hoisting up a plate that the honey had been extracted onto. Luciene offered her spare hand to receive the plate, but she reached far higher than Lorelle was, instinctively forgetting the circumstance. When she grabbed the plate, its contents were brought to the cauldron to be spooned in -- but Luciene stopped short, the small plate tilted down over the rim.

“Lorelle?” Luciene asked. Lorelle tilted her head and blinked. “Where did you get this plate?”

“Um, by the sink,” Lorelle answered. She snickered, “Would you rather I had used nothing?”

“Well, I would have preferred if you hadn’t used the plate Vivin was on,” Luciene sighed, bringing the saucer away from the cauldron. The others looked up in surprise while Luciene pointed to the small speck hidden in the amber gooeyness. Lorelle was the last to see from her angle, squinting up at the plate until it was turned to her.

“Ohhh, err…” Lorelle stuttered as she took the plate back into her own sticky fingers. On just the edge of a drip, Vivin’s tiny frame could be seen lodged into the viscous flood, expressing gestures that were inarguably frustrated and upset. The tiniest noise could be heard by Lorelle only, the mad yelling of Vivin up at her friend’s foolishness. Despite the outrage coming from her, Lorelle provided a nervous, apologetic smile. “My bad, Viv~ D-Don’t look so mad, i-it was just an accident!”

“Th-That’s a really big accident!” Cretia chimed in from the tabletop. Immediately, she felt a chill of a glare from Freya behind her. “Well… m-maybe I shouldn’t be the one to speak.”

“It’s fine, it’s… mostly okay!” Lorelle whined, looking back and forth between Vivin and the others. “She’s alive! It’s just honey! It isn’t gonna kill her.”

Freya groaned, “It could have. Or at least, I could think of a few ways honey could kill one of us. And we’re nowhere near as small as Vivin.”

“I’ll… figure something out!” Lorelle promised, and acting upon that, she pinched into the honey with the very tips of her fingers, separating a blob from the rest. Trapped to the outside of Lorelle’s sample of honey was the writhing figure she had aimed for, stuck upside-down to one of the giant fingers. Her efforts to move were deeply troubled by how thick the sap was all over her body, messily pinning back her arms and legs, allowing only the harshest of spasms to move through it. The terror of Vivin’s situation rapidly increased when she realized how high into the air she was, even if it was just from the fingertip of a woman that, too, was shrunken. She had more to shout about in protest, but being out of breath left her at the whims of her friends to resolve her dilemma.

“Just… wash her up, I suppose,” Luciene suggested, taking the rest of the honey. “Gently. I hope her being drenched in this doesn’t affect the remedy…” As told, Lorelle took off towards the guest bathroom, deciding to use its sink and soap to wash off her hands and free Vivin from them. Luciene was now the sole charge behind making the remedy, which worked out another sigh as she proceeded to stir and stir. “This could take awhile now… The stirring isn’t supposed to stop while you add in what’s left…”

Cretia looked over the array of ingredients much the same way Luciene did from above. Some items were quite intimidating to her, such as the jar of bat eyes or the dried duck feet, but the mundane items reminded her of her kitchen. Just the thought of being back home with her familiar arrangement in the kitchen made her chest warm like an oven. When she thought it over, none of this was very different from cooking at all -- except the dried duck feet.

“If you need some help still, I-I…” Cretia spoke up with a hand shakily held up for attention. Luciene’s curious glance at her made her shudder back a step. “S-Sorry to disturb you… um, b-but maybe I could help you instead while Lorelle is away. I’m pretty handy in the kitchen.”

Luciene nodded. “That has to be true. You’re always coming to school with something homemade.” She mulled it over, leaving Cretia in suspense until she nodded again. “If you think you can help, then come over. I need the roots trimmed off the hushweed, and if you could peel the pixie leek, that would help a lot.”

“Trimming and peeling… I-I can do that!” Cretia affirmed her abilities and approached the edge of the table that Luciene worked from. Only then did she grasp the size of the contents and understand where the difficulty would lie. She hesitated to go any closer, looking from one huge item to the next. Even an ingredient as simple as pepper seemed so different at her diminutive scale, but she had sworn to Luciene and herself to jump forward with her best effort.

Cretia first put herself in front of the hushweed, a plant with a tangled shape and toxic color. She looked at the roots in particular, which were dry and drained of color. It was an uncommon ingredient to be working with even in a witch’s kitchen, and she hesitated before plucking away at it. “Hushweed, right?” she timidly asked. “I remember this one from class… The roots are poisonous, aren’t they?”

“The leaves are the poisonous part,” Freya corrected. Her nose was still in her notebook even while speaking. “The roots are fine.”

Cretia’s hand jumped away from the purple leaves, having been close to grabbing the hushweed from there. “I-I don’t want anything that poisons us in our cure…”

“You’re both wrong,” Luciene giggled. “It’s all poisonous. Just don’t eat any part of it.” She aimed her smile onto Cretia. “The poison gets negated by other elements we put in. You’d be surprised, but a lot of potions and remedies come from something poisonous.”

Marginally more assured that she wouldn’t perish, Cretia settled herself in front of the hushweed, gripping it by the roots. With a firm tug, a handful of the roots were ripped off and separated from the plant, like feeble branches being torn from an old log. Though she initially cherished her success, she quickly dropped the plant material into a small bowl and dusted her hands, afraid of being poisoned. Luciene’s giggle rang again as she watched the cautious display, and Cretia giggled in return as she went back to the roots to tear away at them, handful by handful.

“Easy, isn’t it?” Luciene asked as she sprinkled in pinches of herbs into the cauldron. “It’s a bit tedious at your size, but I’m sure even Freya could if she wanted.” She turned a glance up at the friend in question, noticing that she was slightly away from her book. Upon being spoken to, at least, Freya flipped back around towards her notes, a fist covering her mouth.

“Mmrf-- I’m g-good!” Freya replied, her mouth seemingly full of something, but neither of her companions made mention of it. She cleared her throat and continued, “I-I’m fine just taking notes and watching from here.”

“Hey, Luciene?” Cretia’s hand was cupped under her chin as she pondered over the hushweed. Luciene ceased her stirring to listen. “This roundish-pale part of the plant looks like it could be snapped off from the bottom. Wouldn’t that be better for getting the roots off?”

Luciene blinked, studying the hushweed for a moment. She had never noticed the slight bulb that appeared near the base of the plant until Cretia had pointed it out. “Uh, perhaps?” she replied. She held down the leaves with her free hand, “Try pulling from there and see if it works out.”

Cretia warmed her hands before applying a firm grasp on the mid-section. The light tug it took before to remove the roots would not cut it from this point, so a second attempt was made, and then a third -- both arms tightly wrapped around the stem, her body twisted around to pry the bottom loose. Being so small proved difficult to perform an otherwise simple task, but faster than she realized, the pale middle snapped and all the roots at once were removed from the hushweed.

But in her haste, Cretia lunged from where she stood with the stem still embraced in her arms. She tripped in the direction she had been pulling, her feet dancing over each other as she tripped towards the countertop’s ledge. Cretia gasped and one arm flailed to stop herself, but she was soon tipped beyond the edge, the hard tiled floor staring up at her.

After a hard blink, however, Cretia found her fall stopped. Her body had dropped only a short distance before being caught in a safety net of fingers. Luciene reflexively turned her body with her hand brought to the island, catching both her friend and the roots she had hugged against her abdomen. “Cretia!” Luciene gasped, leaving the cauldron unattended as both hands came together to tend to her.

Cretia raised her head, swept into dizziness. She only then comprehended how she had fallen into Luciene’s grasp, and that the fleshy platform she was on was her hand. She trembled where she sat while Luciene brought her higher, yet unaware that her napkin dress had come undone. A chill tickled her exposed body as it was under the watch of Luciene’s big eyes, and with that reminded, Cretia swiftly covered herself again with a blush appearing along her cheeks.

Though Cretia shivered with worry, Luciene was amused by the situation, having found it all to be harmless. “That was close,” Luciene admitted, “but, hey. It worked.” She pointed at the stem that had been pulled free from the hushweed which Cretia had beside her. “Your method actually worked pretty well. Nice thinking.”

Cretia couldn’t respond, not after such praise left her burning with emotion, which were then further stoked by Luciene lightly petting her atop her head. Each of the few strokes brightened the blush that was already there, and Cretia hunched forward bashfully in an attempt to hide her feelings. Luciene, whether she noticed the embarrassed expression or not, still returned Cretia to where she had been, though this time, she repositioned the hushweed to a safer part of the counter.

Upon her feet touching the marble, Cretia turned towards Luciene with a pitiful expression. “Th-Thank you for catching me! Luciene, you’re s-so… cool!”

Luciene raised a brow and chuckled. She kept her own expression angled away as she scratched at her cheek. “Cool…? I think anyone could have done that.”

“B-But not as cool as you did it! You do everything so cool!” Cretia’s rambling was as fast-paced as her racing heart, still thumping from the sudden fall. Before humiliating herself with any additional flattery, Cretia held her chest tightly and sighed, slipping into silence. It pained her to think so warmly about Luciene, knowing how beneath her she was -- both in size, and in character.

The work that had to be done was a distraction for those worries, and soon after being settled back on the countertop, Cretia was back to work on removing roots, and Luciene proceeded with the next steps of the recipe. The cauldron was eventually carried off the island and over to the stovetop, occupying two burners that glowed with heat. Cretia readied the last few ingredients, which Luciene explained would be added to the “stew” as it all cooked together. Nearly everything was together, and appropriately so, Luciene’s mood had brightened, a change that Cretia was relieved to detect.

After giving the cauldron a stir, Luciene stepped away from the stove, curiously looking around the kitchen. Something had gone unnoticed until just then. “... Lorelle?” she asked, checking behind the island for her friend. “Has anyone seen Lorelle and Vivin?”

“Not since they went to the… bathroom…” Freya answered, realizing mid-sentence the potential for problems. Her palm massaged her brow, “Oh god. Lorelle almost killed me in your bedroom -- think of all the ways she could kill Vivin in a bathroom!”

Luciene grimaced while a finger tapped nervously on the table, not far from where Cretia observed her. “I don’t think Lorelle would be that careless,” she argued, her lip partially bitten. “... Maybe I should check on them, though.”

Cretia nodded, “It’s been awhile now… Weren’t they just going to clean themselves up?”

Luciene weighed the subject in her head, considering as well that she was in the midst of delicate cooking. Ingredients still needed to be added, but making a cure wouldn’t matter much if one of her friends died -- no magical remedy for that. “I’m gonna be right back,” she said before hurrying out of the kitchen. She called out towards the guest bathroom, “Lorelle! Is everything alright in there? Is Vivin moving?”

Cretia watched Luciene as she left, immediately noticing the absence of her gigantic friend. The distance between them grew quickly until Luciene was completely out of sight, at which Cretia’s shoulders slumped and she turned back towards the cauldron. She could hear the bog water just begin to boil, but no one was there to tend it. So soon after Luciene left did Cretia look back for her, hoping she was already on the return, but it remained to be only her and Freya left in the kitchen.

“Luciene…” Cretia whined, her hands fiddling with each other out of worry. She looked back at the cauldron and the steam rising above its rim. “Hurry back…”

“You are so locked onto her, huh?” Freya said, almost within a giggle. “I see now why you were so antsy all day today…”

Cretia blinked, her response just a straight stare into Freya. In return, Freya raised a brow, and Cretia stuttered to explain her gaze. “U-Um, how-- did you get… smaller?”

“Oh. Uh.” Freya looked down at herself, but her answer only came when she looked all around her and at how much more distant every object was, how much longer her napkin gown had become. She remained close to her book like she had, but it was clearly taller to her than it once was. Freya shrugged, “Yeah. Looks like it.”

“Wh-What?!” Cretia went to Freya’s side, despite her friend staggering away from her approach. Dropped onto a knee, Cretia was still taller than Freya was, their difference in size having become even greater since the last few minutes. “What happened? Sh-Should we tell Luciene--”

“No, no, I was… just…” Freya looked away, but Cretia held her by the shoulders in what was intended to be a reassuring half-hug. Instead, Freya squirmed and tried to push her larger friend away. “I-I was snacking again, alright?!”

“Snacking? On what?”

“Your candy, obviously…” Freya looked to the side and Cretia followed her sights. The tin of Cretia’s confections was there, and a single piece lay partially eaten outside the container. The little size of the bite marks confirmed that Freya was at fault. “So, I shrunk again because of that…”

Cretia blinked, then shook her head. “I-I’m confused. Why did you eat cursed can--”

“I-I just can’t stop myself!” Freya groaned, rolling her eyes as she successfully broke out of Cretia’s embrace. “I love to eat when I study! It’s a weird habit, b-but I can’t just tell myself to stop! There wasn’t anything else around that looked good, so…”

“So you ate cursed candy? Are you crazy?”

“What’s it matter! I’m already hella tiny! We’re gonna get cured anyway, right?”

“Y-Yeah, but look at you! Y-You’ve got to be so tiny right now!” Cretia cooed, and without thinking, her arms went under Freya’s to lift her up. Freya immediately kicked in refusal, but she was too small to stop herself from being grabbed, like a stuffed animal writhing in Cretia’s hands. “If you needed to snack, I’m sure Luciene could have just gotten you something…”

“Well, your candies were… good!” Freya argued. “Really good! I couldn’t help myself, not when they’re just sitting there… and so big, too. So tempting.”

“Eh? You can stop joking, Freya…” Cretia sighed while lowering Freya back to the table.

“I’m not lying,” Freya went on, her arms crossed over her slipping attire. “I’d eat way more if they were curse-free, obviously, but they taste great the way they are. Usually magic makes things taste rancid -- just look at the shit Luciene is gonna make us drink. Why’d you try to include that weight-loss spell?”

Cretia bit her lip, having to come to terms with her answer before she could explain. “Well… I-I wanted to show off my magical abilities… I’m a witch, too, you know.”

“Ah, of course,” Freya nodded, “you wanted to impress Luciene.”

“Y-Yes… Err! A-And you guys, too! But Luciene, she’s… sort of amazing, isn’t she? I hate always goofing up in front of her…”

Freya shrugged. “Well, I think you’re overthinking it a bit. Luciene is a powerful witch, but she’s also just a woman, too. She’d probably love anything you cooked for her, no magic involved.”

“Ahh… Maybe…” Cretia’s posture faltered, as though the weight on her mind was a physical one as well. Magic was Luciene’s whole life, and Cretia couldn’t imagine a witch like that having any interest in something as mundane as cooking or baking. If she wanted to symbolize her affection, she was sure that it would require the touch of a spell.

Hissing came from the stovetop. Cretia and Freya whipped around to see that the cauldron’s contents were boiling over, the bog water bubbling over the rim and onto the burners. Cretia immediately checked to see if Luciene was there to handle it, but she found no one of normal size to help. Standing so far away in their shrunken states, both girls were incapable of helping at all, even unable to call for help.

“I-Is that supposed to happen? No?” Cretia wondered aloud. “Uhh, that probably won’t screw up the cure, I’m guessing…”

“Whoa, whoa,” Freya shook her head. “Cretia, we just talked about how I was eating that candy. I need that cure.” She laughed, and so too did Cretia giggle, but Freya’s tone quickly became grim. “I’m serious! I’m not gonna be stuck like this past tonight! That cure has to come out right!”

Cretia looked back and forth between everything on the island. The pressure put upon her by Freya was very real. As the biggest one of the two, she found herself to be the most responsible without Luciene’s supervision. Something had to be done, and soon, as the hissing of water hitting the burners continued to intensify the situation.

“Isn’t that the book Luciene was using?” Freya said, pointing to the book on the opposite end of the island. The book sat open beside the remaining ingredients that were needed to be put in. Before Freya could make the suggestion herself, Cretia was already on her way, leaping on top of the pages and scouring the words at her feet for information.

Cretia nodded as she read the recipe’s final directions. It would be after adding the final items and a few more minutes of boiling that the cure would be complete and ready to digest, inspiring her to do what she could. Everything she needed was in front of her, but the problem was figuring a method of transporting the ingredients to the cauldron. The answer, at least that Cretia imagined, was to be like a witch and utilize magic.

“First… the hushweed roots.” Cretia aimed her hand at the ingredient in question with a deep breath. She concentrated on the item, focusing on its outline, its texture, and its mass. Her eyes closed occasionally in surges of deep focus, her brow bent as she took control of magical energies both within and around her. It was a powerful but useful spell that she was manifesting, one that would teleport the ingredient to wherever she wanted.

Her eyes shot open while her breath was held. Her chest hurt, as if something was taking the air from it. The roots remained there on their plate, and then the next moment -- gone. An unoccupied space was there in front of Cretia, and a smile quickly took over her face.

But that pride vanished exactly like the roots had when she then heard the clash and shatter of a plate from across the kitchen. Her and Freya quickly looked to the stovetop where the sound had suddenly come from, just in time to see a flash of roots in mid-air above the cauldron. The plate had been teleported too, and so it fell onto the cauldron’s rim harshly, ricocheting off it and directly to the floor. Shards flew out in all directions and half the roots did not even make it into the boiling water.

Cretia jumped and cheered, “It worked!”

“Uh?” Freya shook her head, having to thaw from her shock. “That… did not work.”

However, Cretia was already standing in front of the next ingredient, the wishbone of an owl. “I-It’s better than just letting the cure go bad,” Cretia explained hectically. “H-Here goes another one… Please make it in…”

Again, Cretia closed her eyes and focused on the power of the spell. Her breathing was not so refined, as the worry of the noise she made began to unnerve her. Already in the motions of casting, Cretia hoped for the best and unleashed the magical energies she had gathered. Just as before, the ingredient disappeared.

But into the cauldron, it did not seem to go. “Wh-Where is it?” Freya asked, only to find out a second later. Dropping onto the island suddenly was that very owl bone, which bounced off the marble countertop between the two shrunken women. Both were surprised by its reappearance, realizing that Cretia’s spell was misdirected. Instead of going above the concoction, the bone instead teleported above the kitchen island.

“... I’m starting to have some doubts,” Freya plainly stated. “We should just wait for Luciene, she’s definitely coming back after hearing that--”

“No! I-I’ve got this, just watch and don’t distract me!” Cretia affirmed herself in front of the wishbone’s new position, this time using both hands to focus herself and the direction of her magic. She felt the energy spiral around her and flow through her body, but her posture wavered and her expression flickered to frustration. “Focus…” she breathed, and then cast her spell.

“... Cretia?” Freya asked, blinking in doubt of her vision. She looked to her sides, but it was true: Cretia was gone. “H-Hey, Cretia…? Did you… teleport somewhere?” There was no response. Freya then whipped her head towards the ceiling, but unlike what she had feared, Cretia was not falling -- a meager relief. “Oh, Cretia, where did you end up…?”

It was the other counter that Cretia had teleported to, right beside the long spoon Luciene had been using to stir. Naturally so, the change of scenery caused her head to swell with dizziness the moment she was materialized. Realizing what had gone wrong, Cretia hurried back into a focused position. She closed her eyes tightly out of embarrassment as she felt the magic spir again, and she thought hard about her destination, wanting to warp herself back where she had been.

When Cretia opened her eyes, everything had changed again, but far more drastically than before. Rather than the cold black of the marbled counter beneath her bare feet, she instead felt the cold of white tile. The space was far more open, and she stared up at towering chairs and a tremendous couch. “The… The floor?!” Cretia exclaimed. “Why? Errgh! Magic, just work for me, pretty-please! I need to get back and--”

Cretia jumped forward as she felt a quake run through the floor. She nearly buckled to her knees, but a second shockwave had her firmly on her feet, looking around in distress. Another quake, and another -- footsteps, she realized, that were growing closer. She turned her body towards the source, up where the hallway to the guest bathroom was. Beginning to turn the corner was a gigantic body, her head first peeking the corner and looking into the kitchen.

“What was that?” Luciene asked, stepping out from the corridor. After having heard something shatter, she left Lorelle and Vivin in the bathroom to investigate what had happened. A second after speaking did she remember that no one could reply to her, and so she continued into the kitchen, readying herself for whatever mess had been made.

At the floor, Cretia trembled backwards away from the giant figure lumbering her way. Each footfall came with a powerful stomp that shook the shrunken woman to her core, but she had dwindling time to be scared. The socked feet of the woman that enamored her were now thundering monsters that would flatten her heartlessly. In a panic, Cretia widened her stance and held out both hands again, her entire body tense as she raced to cast the spell.

The shadow of Luciene’s right foot blanketed the area around Cretia. It’s descent was swift and callous, crashing onto the floor only to launch away in the following instant. Where it had fallen, there was nothing. The booming footsteps continued without pause as Luciene entered the kitchen proper, discovering the splattered plate and the spilled roots.

“... Seriously?” Luciene scoffed, shaking her head while examining the scene. It was as though she had stepped into the house again that night, how she happened upon a lump of discarded clothes. Such were the chances when five witches converged under one roof, Luciene told herself, but she knew well she’d be the one cleaning up the mess. She shook her head again, focusing her wonder on the why and how of the mess, and so she looked to where she last had her friends on the island. “Cretia? Freya? What happened while I-- huh?” Luciene blinked, but it was true that she saw neither of her friends there on the counter -- disappeared.

Instinctively, Luciene backed into the stove and stared down at her feet. “Please… Please…” she chanted, hoping that neither Freya nor Cretia had somehow ended up on the floor. The clean floor and socks meant that no such tragedy had occurred, but Luciene was still left baffled and concerned. Her mind raced to find a magical explanation for how this could happen, but there were so many possibilities as to how witchcraft could get involved.

Suddenly, just as Luciene looked up from the floor, there was a plastic container in mid-air. It popped into existence on the other side of the kitchen island, several feet in the air, at least until it dropped unceremoniously. There was a loud whack as the plastic hit the floor, its red lid popping off from the impact and allowing a splash of spaghetti and sauce to spread across the floor. Luciene gasped and turned the corner, but flinched away from the dramatic red color and its strong garlic scent.

There was no time to ask questions before the same thing happened again, this time with a single cup of yogurt that appeared in front of the microwave. It, too, fell from the air where it had spawned, hitting the counter in such a way that its content erupted out. Luciene flinched again, hiding behind her arms as food spontaneously appeared in her kitchen.

“S-Stop! Stop it!” Luciene pleaded with whatever invisible force was responsible. She dashed about the kitchen, attempting to make sense of things while trying to gather towels to clean the messes. In the midst of her hurrying, just as she was cutting in front of the island, the next item appeared. It was her and Vivin’s water filter, recently filled, hanging in the air. Luciene gasped and made a lunge for it, her waist rushed into the countertop as she reached for it -- but she was too slow, and the filter fell hard against the island. A wave of water rolled out from the jug as its top came undone, splashing off the counter and over Luciene’s lap.

The shock of cold made Luciene jump back and shriek, nearly backing up into the boiling cauldron. The heat reminded her of what she had cooking, and she quickly turned towards the stove, unsure of how it had progressed. Just as she was looking into the thick, bubbling liquid, another kitchen item poofed into the air, right in front of Luciene’s face. It was a jar of mayonnaise that had spawned above the cauldron, which then promptly dropped directly into the concoction. Boiling water splashed upwards, forcing Luciene to stumble back again and into the island. She blinked but had nothing else to say, too amazed to put into words the distress she was under.

At that moment, the chaos made sense, and Luciene had her explanation. The mysteriously appearing food were all items that she had in her fridge. The broken plate of hushweed roots, and Cretia and Freya’s absence, were all evidence of someone attempting teleportation magic and going wrong. Luciene darted to the fridge, realizing that the source of all these troubles had to be there.

The refrigerator door swung open with such speed that the items along the door were all shifted. Luciene scanned the shelves from top to bottom, and there on the lowest shelf above the cabinets, the frail body of a tiny person shivered in the middle. It was Cretia that hugged herself for warmth, staring up at Luciene’s huge body.

“O-Oh, L-Luciene! I-I’m here, Luciene!” Cretia shouted through her shivering, waving one arm through the air for attention. “I-I don’t want to be stuck here, Luciene…!”

“Cretia!” Luciene exclaimed, surprised to find Cretia where she had deduced her to be nonetheless. “What do you think you’re doing?! M-My kitchen is a mess!”

“No-- I-I’m so sorry, Luciene! I didn’t-- I was t-trying to help!” Cretia stammered. “I-I used teleportation magic t-to get the ingredients i-in… b-but then I teleported myself, a-and I tried teleporting out, but other things j-just kept d-disappearing instead! I w-was trying to get myself out…!”

Luciene stooped to one knee and offered both hands to cup Cretia in. The warmth of her touch was most welcomed by Cretia, who snuggled into the palms as she was lifted out of the cold chamber. Just as she could exhale now that she was with the security of her friend, so too did Luciene begin to destress, knowing that no other food items were going to appear randomly in her kitchen. There was still a surreal mess to be cleaned up, however, and the cauldron continued to boil over despite its contents having been disrupted. With a sigh, Luciene turned off the burners, abandoning the recipe.

Cretia felt a pit form in her stomach as Luciene left the kitchen and went into the living room for a seat. She was silent while Luciene dropped into a sofa chair, unsure if she could summon an apology satisfying enough for all the problems she caused. She studied Luciene and felt how frustrated she had to be, having put all that time and resources to waste, all because of her. That fact weighed heavily on her as she laid in the two hands, chilled by this reality as much as she had been chilled by the fridge.

“Well… I’m not sure what to do about this now,” Luciene said, staring off into a wall rather than down at her friend. “I only had enough ingredients for this one batch. I don’t know when I can get some of this stuff again… You and the others might have to be like this for awhile.”

Cretia bit her lip. “It’s… I’m so sorry, Luciene. I-I thought I could… help.” Her shoulders fell limp and her eyes sank away from Luciene’s. “I should’ve known better. Me and magic just… don’t go together. But you love magic! I-I just wanted to show that, m-maybe I could also be good at it, like you are…”

Luciene winced at the comment, a mild blush glowing on each cheek. She hesitated to reply while she absorbed Cretia’s perspective, glancing around the room but always looking back down at the woman in her hands. “Th-That isn’t necessary,” Luciene began. “You don’t have to push yourself like this. Even if you’re not talented with magic, we can still be good friends.”

“But I wanted to impress you,” Cretia sighed. “I’m always lagging behind you guys in class. If I’m not cut out to be a witch, then why am I bothering you all the time? Even if we study together like this, I’m just never going to figure out magic…”

“Cretia…” Luciene tilted her head and her hands folded to be closer around Cretia, as if wrapping her into an embrace. “We like you because you’re you. Even if you weren’t a witch, you’d still be a fun person with so many skills, but… don’t give up on magic yet. It can be hard to understand, admittedly, but I know you have a drive for it. You have a wandering mind -- that’s good for a witch!”

“I-Is it?” Cretia sniffled. “You said that before, but…”

“I-It was something of a half-compliment,” Luciene giggled, “but I do mean it. You had a creative solution for a unique problem, teleporting the ingredients into the cauldron. Many other witches wouldn’t have known what to do.”

Cretia scoffed and looked aside with her arms crossed. “Most witches wouldn’t be brewing up a cure for a curse they accidentally made…”

“That’s definitely not true,” Luciene laughed. “I’ve seen witches of all levels get themselves into their own brand of trouble. It comes with the territory of bending reality, I suppose.” Luciene offered a cheerful smile, hopeful she could brighten Cretia’s spirit. To her joy, Cretia did manage to smile back from where she was held. “We’ll keep hosting these study sessions and I’ll help tutor you. There’s a lot of potential for you yet.” She snickered, “How about you teach me to cook, and I’ll teach you magic. Eventually we can make those candies just like how you wanted.”

Cretia slowly nodded, coming to accept that this arrangement was indeed coming together. “S-Sure,” she nervously answered, swallowing right after. “I-I dunno if I’ll be a good teacher for cooking, though…”

“Try your best,” Luciene said. “For Vivin’s sake, if nothing else. I think she’s done cooking for both of us all the time…”

At her own mention of her housemate, Luciene remembered Vivin and the others. Her head perked up in worry, but she was relieved to see Lorelle exiting the bathroom, smiling as she brought a rinse cup with her. “Did you find out what that noise was, Luciene?” she asked, standing where the living room and kitchen met. She then saw Luciene situated in a chair, the cauldron unattended. “Um… Is the cure done?”

Luciene sighed, but her smile persisted. “Not quite,” she answered bashfully. “First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll take all of you to a professor that can come up with something.”

Lorelle’s concern was apparent, but she kept her attitude positive. “We learned a lot, at least! You make for a good teacher, Luciene!”

“Perhaps, but it’s hard enough just watching over four students…” Luciene teased, but her joking immediately ended there when she did another headcount of everyone. Her pupils shrank, “Does anyone have Freya? Cretia, what happened to her?”

Cretia blinked, only then realizing Freya was absent. “Oh! Err, uh! I-I dunno!” she frantically responded, thinking back to when she last saw her. “I-I’m pretty sure I didn’t teleport her… She might be hard to see now, because she kept eating more of my confections…”

Lorelle approached the two, startled by what she heard. “She ate more of the candy? Wouldn’t that, like, shrink her more though?” Luciene listened on, her bewilderment restrained for the time being.

“Yeah. Well, she was getting smaller. She shrank to half her size when I last saw her.” Cretia shuddered, “B-But she was still on the countertop! She’d still be there, unless something happened.”

“I’ll go look,” Lorelle offered, but was stopped by Luciene, her hand held up in a pause while she stared down past Cretia. “Huh? Do you, uh, know where she is?”

“... In a sense…” Luciene bit her lip, afraid of how to explain her theory. Her eyes were locked onto her lap, still moist from when the water filter splashed onto her with its sudden appearance. Her expression twisted as the others watched on with confusion. “I… have a feeling… that she got washed up onto my jeans…”

Lorelle looked at the drenched front of Luciene’s pants, squinting as she got closer. “I don’t see her…” she said, anxiously chuckling. “She was already so small to begin with, so… how small is she now? Is she really tiny?” She looked into the rinse cup and the small dot of a person within. “As small as Vivin…?”

Luciene closed her eyes. “Perhaps. Maybe, even smaller…”

“She must have really liked my sweets,” Cretia mumbled. “Um, how are we going to find her then?”

Freya clung to the strange surface she had been washed onto, just as she had for several straight minutes. Even though the world was turned up-right and there was a floor beneath her body, she dared not venture outward lest everything began moving again. The blue rainforest of hard fabric overwhelmed her as she stared across the wrinkled plains, the sky an incomprehensible blur of normal-sized life going on without her. She did not whimper, knowing no one would hear her cry, despite being right between all of her friends.

“So stupid… Why couldn’t I control myself…?” she quietly complained, asserting her grip on the jean-ground with greater tightness. It was the only way she could vent her frustration at herself. “I didn’t think… that getting this small was even possible…! It was just candy, dammit…!”

Freya shivered and jumped when she felt the ground quake with activity. The fabric swayed to the pressure of something else upon them, something certainly bigger than she was. A finger or anything else would have made a much bigger impact, she would have felt the world change into something different. But the shaking that resonated beneath her was rhythmic and controlled, just like someone’s walking. In any case, Freya wondered if she had been found.

Beyond a hill-sized fold of the jeans, Vivin’s head cropped up, idly looking left and right as she made it past the button of Luciene’s jeans. She clawed through the moist environment, past the point of awing at her surroundings and well into a state of being humiliated by them. It did not go past Vivin at all that she knew she had been forced here onto Luciene’s crotch, a belittling location to be sent to. She complained as much about it under her breath, but with the others watching her directly overhead, she kept her comments to herself.

“No, not here either,” Vivin sighed. “This is bad… What if she isn’t even here? What a waste of time this would have been…” But before she moved on to another area of Luciene’s lap, she blinked and looked once more. Not far from the jeans’ zippers was a speck of a person, waving at her with desperate motions. Vivin leaned closer, amazed by how tiny the bouncing life was. “Oh my…” Vivin shook her head. “Freya? R-Really?”

“Y-Yeah… Really…” Freya shrugged to the weird world that surrounded them.

“We need to quit snacking so much when we study,” Vivin groaned. She crawled forward and put down a hand for Freya to board. “Come on, let’s get you somewhere safe.”

Freya stepped into the hand, still comprehending Vivin’s size. Despite being ridiculously tiny herself, in comparison to Freya, Vivin was over ten meters tall. “I don’t like how strange this is… At least Luciene should have that cure finished soon…”

“Hah,” Vivin scoffed, “about that…”