Chapter 1 (Prologue): A Witch and her Captive.

Miranda

A busy day was ahead for Miranda, but she really didn't feel like getting out of bed today. She wanted to see what the little mite on her foot was up to now. It wasn't just an ordinary mite mind you, it was a person, well it used to be a person. It was a woman that, through no fault of her own, found out her secret and needed to be dealt with.

These mortals were far too nosy for their own good. The pathetic microscopic tramp occupying the big toe on her right foot, or wherever she was now on her foot, heard too much and needed to be punished. This wasn't the 1st time she had to do this either. Her body had plenty of occupants through the millennia she was in this world, but she decided that her feet needed some attention once again, so she shrank the nosy woman who dared to go snooping around her and condemned her to eternity on her right foot. Or at least until she died.

Miranda smirked. Those who knew her didn't see her as a person capable of any cruelty what-so-ever. In fact, many would describe her as the kindest soul there ever was, but she secretly delighted in the power she had over the mortals she shrunk that needed to be punished. She could not remember the name of the woman she shrunk, but she had seen her around the neighborhood. Miranda chucked, remembering last night as the pathetic little thing begged and cried to be released from putrid hell on her landscape of a foot. They always begged and cried, and it was sensation and feeling that never got old through the 3,000 years she's been on this world.

There used to be a lot of Witches back in her early 100-year youth, but mortals were fearful creatures that lashed out in violence at that which they couldn't comprehend, couldn't dominate or couldn't control. Eventually, every Witch had to learn shrinking magic to protect themselves and the Matriarch of their Coven deemed it necessary to deal with mortals who would out them as Witches. Freaks. Abominations. Demons.

Miranda was none the wiser. This was a religious suburb which meant that there were more nosy malcontents who took it upon themselves to snoop around in everyone's business. Miranda and her daughter were new to this place and the locals felt like they weren't adjusting to this life quick enough and that something was off about them. The "good neighbor" on her foot had told her about how concerned she was with what people were saying about her. The short lifespan of mortals sometimes made them pitiful and puerile.

Miranda wiggled her toes, which was sure to jar her little pet awake if she had dozed off. Using her powers, she focused on the mind of her new slave.

"Have you finished exploring your new home yet, my little dust mite?"

Chapter 2: A New Life on Miranda's Feet

Nicole

For the better part of the night, Nicole begged Miranda to let her go but found that her captor didn't hear her or didn't care for her pleas. Placed on the ridge between her big and second toe, she could not see beyond the red-headed witch's ankle. Her world was only her neighbor's right foot, which to a person of normal size looked was smooth, clean, and well cared for, but being the size of a dust particle, she was literally part of another world. A world no one would ever see with their naked eye. A world in which she would never be found.

The lines below her toes were about as massive if not even more massive than the Grand Canyon itself. The landscape was filled with ridges and incredibly uneven with bits of dead skin from the size of her head to a small building littering the endless landscape along with various filth that normally clung to toes. The wiggle of Miranda's toe caused tremors and earthquakes strong enough to knock her on her ass and a single footstep sent her flying several feet, but Nicole had found an imperfection in the woman's skin and took shelter in it. What was also interesting is that when her captor got into bed and lied down on her side, she did not fall off, heck, she was totally unaffected by this simple motion, well simple for Miranda.

Her foot had its own gravity. Miranda's foot had quite literally became her own world. Nicole was terrified. Her night was too scarring to her psychologically for her to sleep as peacefully as her captor did and when morning came, her torment began again as her captor wiggled her toes, causing Nicole to scream and come loose from the imperceptible cut on Miranda's foot.

The voice of the witch rang in her mind once more; "Have you finished exploring your new home yet, my little dust mite?"

Nicole looked up, but could only make out the ridge of her foot. She could not see anything beyond that. Remembering that she couldn't see her captor unless she brought her moon-sized and gorgeous face down upon her world to address her. Nicole was blind to her captor and the world above Miranda's ankle, but definately not to the world down here where her toes flexed, twitched and produced footfalls.

"Answer your goddess when she addresses you, little one." Her words came again. They were stern yet calm.

Tears started streaming down the young woman's face. What had she done to deserve this? Why would God let such a horrible monster walk this world and shrink people like this?

"I know you're still alive down there," the planet-sized red-head with a Received Pronunciation English accent spoke to her, "I can sense your lifeforce on my foot. I thought I had told you that I wanted you to be at the tip of my big toe by morning."

The world shook and reverberated again as the witch flexed her big toe. Nicole yelled and fell to the ground, but the rumbling did not cease. That's when she noticed something in the distance. The witch's fingers were massaging her foot. Her massive digits were on either side of the area between her big and second toe.

"I hope you don't plan on being a defiant little speck." Miranda said. "I can be a merciful goddess, but not when my subjects disobey me. So, what will it be?" Her voice sounded nonchalant, but the sinister intent was there. "My fingers are like Mount Everest to you, but I'm not entirely sure if I can squish you like this. Do you think you'll survive in my saliva if I spit on you? Probably not."

Miranda was getting impatient with her captive. She wanted an answer from the insignificant creature on her foot and Nicole was so afraid. She wanted it all to end, but something within her gave in to the demands of the cruel goddess and she spoke to her.

"My... I... I couldn't-"

"Well done, my pet." A tremor rocked the ground as the woman removed her fingers from her foot. "I knew when I shrank you to the size of a mite, you wouldn't be as dim-witted as one, but you're still a mite nonetheless, just not as dim-witted."

Nicole was trembling, but she didn't know if it was out of sheer terror or out of hatred and anger. Miranda stole her life from her for no reason and now she was treating her as if she was less than nothing. She bit down on her lip so hard that she cut it and started bleeding. She wanted out of this nightmare, she wanted her life back and right now she had this woman's full attention, but before she could say anything to her, the witch's words dominated her mind and thoughts.

"Now, here's what's going to be our little routine from here on out; Your home is the landscape of my feet now and I want you to traverse them as I go about my daily routine. You will collect smaller parasites and bring them to the tip of my big toenail to pay homage to me, your goddess, each month. After each month, you will be expected to switch between my feet, so that means, next month, you will traverse my left foot and do the same on there. You are to continue this cycle until I command you to otherwise. If you fail to complete these tasks or disobey any of my orders, then you will be punished. Understand?

Nicole couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was essentially reduced to a parasitic slave on the foot of a Witch. Who does this evil bitch think she is? What gave her the right to do this to someone with a life, a rewarding career, a loving husband and two sons?

"Hey wait," Nicole began, "You can't just-"

"In case you haven't noticed, you are a mere parasite on my foot. Nothing more." Miranda's voice rang again. "The fault was yours for eavesdropping on me and finding out who I am. You gave me no other choice. You, mortals, have persecuted my sisters and me for thousands of years and we have no choice but to resort to these kinds of methods to keep our Covens safe from prejudice and persecution."

"S-so you really are a witch?" Nicole's voice quavered. "I never would've told anyone about you, who would believe me!?" Nicole cried in outrage.

"You'd be surprised, little bug." said Miranda. "700 years ago, my cousin was burned at the stake for using her healing magic to purge the Black Death by the very peasants she saved. Just recently, a friend of ours went missing trying to make a failing small town in rural America better. There's no shortage of ignorance, fear, and brutality from your kind and if I could do what I've done to you on all mortals, I would."

Nicole didn't know what was more frightening, the fact that there were people like her capable of shrinking people to the size of a parasite on a whim, or the calmness in her voice as she described what she would do to all of humanity if she had the power to do so. Not only was she at the mercy of a psycho. She was at the mercy of an all-powerful psycho who could do lord knows what to anyone she wanted on a whim. She dreaded the full extent of her power and what she could do to anyone else if they crossed her. What dreaded her the most is that if she flat out admitted feeling this way, then that meant that Miranda had no intention of ever letting Nicole go.

"I'll keep conversations with you to the minimum." Miranda said. "I realize the world is unfathomably large and perilous for you, but I don't want you to take up too much of my time. After all, people don't talk to parasites. Your new life starts today, little one. You'd better get moving so that you can pay homage to your new Goddess."

"Wait no. Please don't leave me here, I'll do anything you- AAAH!"

Another earthquake hit as Miranda started to move her leg. Nicole tried to see what was going on above her, but she was still blind to the world beyond this wicked woman's foot. A stronger tremor hit, sending the microscopic woman tumbling into a cavernous ravine deeper into the witch's skin. All this chaos was caused by Miranda taking a single step. Nicole screamed in frustration. Miranda wanted her to fail so she could torture her more. How was a human the size of a dust mite supposed to survive on a person's foot?

Chapter 3: Condemned (Part 1)

Nicole

The rumbling continued as Miranda walked. Nicole immediately started to feel the change in the atmosphere. The sweat pores in the great chasm of flesh was radiating more heat than usual and several holes in the ground and in the walls started expelling steam. The air around her, stale and foul smelling, started getting warmer and warmer by the minute.

"Crap." Nicole shuddered, watching as the witch's sweat pour out of these holes. It was still summertime not to mention, this was Southern California and heat waves here were often oppressive. Nicole knew she had to climb out of here before the line indent in the skin flooded with sweat, so she looked up, far up, towards the ledge of jagged dead skin. The large jets of sweat discharged from the pores in Miranda's skin forming a small lake at the bottom of the ravine. Not only that, but the substance looked oily too. A stronger rumble occurred, and Nicole screamed out in fear as she fell into the disgusting substance. Another stomp of the goddess's caused the lake to warble.

This was it. Nicole would die, insignificant and humiliated in this god forsaken fleshy line on the foot of a wicked witch. It was so wrong and unfair. All Nicole wanted was to be a good neighbor to a newcomer. She thought Miranda was a bit of an odd recluse, but she never could've imagined Miranda was capable of something like this.

Late Afternoon Yesterday.

Nicole

Nicole thought back to last night when she'd been on another one of her late afternoon jogs. She had stopped to catch a breather and a drink of water by Miranda's house and then overheard a conversation about the Coven and re-occurring Rituals. If only she had realized that going toward the back gate of the house to hear more was unwise. She should've turned back when the ungodly smell of rotting goat flesh stung her nose, when the sounds of throaty chanting grew louder and louder and the sight of the women wearing robes with animal bones on them and a younger girl nearby holding a scrying bowl. She could've slipped in and out without anybody noticing her, unfortunately as Miranda prepared to sip some goat blood from a stone bowl, their eyes had met.

"What are you doing!?" Miranda roared and had briskly stood up. The thick black robe hugging her 5'11 toned figure.

"What?" the other hooded brunette turned around and spotted her. Nicole immediately recognized her as Cherice Daughtry, the local librarian. "Oh dear, this isn't good."

"Mother? Who is that?" asked the youngest of the group. She was a cute teenager with strawberry blonde hair, freckles and grey blue eyes like Mirandas whom Nicole had to assume was Miranda's daughter Luna. Unlike Miranda who was taller and more fit, Luna was smaller, but she took after her mother in filling out in all the right spots.

"I thought I told you to put up the barrier spell, Luna!" Miranda snapped at the girl.

"I-I did," the girl Luna replied meekly, "... I, I guess it didn't work."

Luna appeared scared of her mother seeing as she tensed up when Miranda yelled at her. Seeing the distress she caused between them, Nicole tried to intervene despite not knowing what was going on at all at the time. "O-Oh no, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to intrude." I just heard you all talking, and I thought-"

"And you thought what?" Miranda replied while suppressing her rage, "That it was ok for you to just waltz into my backyard uninvited to spy on me!?"

"I knew that nosy habit of hers would get her into trouble one day," Cherice sighed and crossed her arms, "It was only a matter of time before she slipped up."

"Go get my spell book, Luna," Miranda ordered.

"Yes, mother," the girl obeyed and ran into the house.

Nicole remembered the anger in her eyes and the fury in her voice. She had sent her daughter away because she didn't want to show her what would happen next. Miranda had crossed her arms and then raised her hand up while extending her pointer finger, Nicole could see her eyes begin to change from grey-green to an unnatural lime green. Nervous and confused, Nicole began to beg the tall red-headed woman for forgiveness. "Miranda, I'm so sorry. I-I'll just walk away, and I won't tell anyone about... this."

What a silly and imprudent woman she had been. Nicole was totally unaware that Miranda had already begun casting her curse on the 32-year-old soccer mom as Cherice looked on with a mixture of amusement and weariness. 

"Nosey mortals," Miranda grumbled. The witch's eyes flashed and everything suddenly went dark for Nicole. Miranda and her friend on the other hand, had just witnessed their nosy neighbor disappear in a flash of green light. Although, the laws of magic could not allow a person to just vanish into thin air. They had to be teleported to another location or shrunken down to a miniscule size. Unfortunately for Nicole, Miranda chose the latter.

Nicole was startled awake by the low rumble of a sound she couldn't make out coming from the heavens. She sat up in a strange place filled with dirty, smelly brown and black filth that clung to the pinkish walls around her. The sky above her looked strange as well and that's when she saw them.  The blurry yet still recognizable faces of Miranda and Cherice peering down on her like dull satellites with Miranda's face being the closest to her.

"Miranda!?" Nicole covered her mouth, frightened as she realized exactly where she was. The tip of Miranda's index finger shrunken to an imperceptible size. The woman screamed in terror as the sky darkened and more dull rumbling shook the air around her and the ground she stood on. Miranda's grey-green eye moved around back and forth, slowly, and ominously as it scanned the surface of the fingerprint for her the shrunken mother of two. Since Nicole was so small, Miranda's rapid eye movement to her was like a slow, foreboding searchlight. She could see every fine detail of her iris, the black abyss that was her pupil as it shrank and grew ever so slightly over and over again, and the slightest imperfections within the smooth, wet sclera that covered her eyeball in an endless thick ocean of oily moisture.

Miranda

Initially, Miranda thought of other various ways she could be rid of her annoying neighbor, but the Coven Rules worked conveniently for her. Miranda breathed and grinned as she felt the intoxication of power flow into her as she focused on the soccer mom in one of the many ridges on her finger. Cherice watched with a smirk on her face as she watched her red-headed friend's antics. Personally, Cherice liked her tiny mortal's ant-sized, heck she even granted them the strength and durability of ants so they would complete tasks for her and live longer, but Miranda was even more cruel to them. Shrinking them down to the size of mites and dust and making them survive on her body for her pleasure.

"Is she there?" Cherice asked as she cocked her head.

Miranda laughed and lifted her head to meet her friend's eye. "The poor little thing is absolutely terrified."

Cherice chuckled. She knew Nicole for about 3 years now but felt nothing for the woman. She got what she deserved. If Miranda hadn't gotten to her first, Cherice probably would've had Nicole purposefully catch her in the act of witchery so she could have an excuse to deal with the annoying bitch once and for all.

"You're a cruel one, Miranda," laughed Cherice as she watched her best-friend's giddiness.

"You're one to talk darling," Miranda quipped along with another excited giggle not caring for the nearly microscopic woman on her finger.

The red-headed witch focused on her prisoner once more and saw that she was hysterical with fear. Miranda never experienced what her tinies went through after she shrank them. That required her to shrink down and experience that for herself, which she could never do for two big reasons: the spell was in fact a curse which had a permanent effect on those afflicted, and witches were strictly forbidden by magic law from casting such magic on each other. Miranda was curious as to how her tinies experienced the world around them, but she wasn't stupid enough to do that. Shrinking magic, was only meant for mortals.

Miranda heard the pathetic shrieks and hilarious frantic yelling of the ditzy blonde on her finger. It was so amusing that Miranda couldn't help but laugh, which involuntarily caused a powerful storm for her captive just as her daughter Luna came back with the large spell book. 

Chapter 4: Condemned (Part 2)

Nicole

"Miranda! Can you hear me!? Please save me!" Nicole cried. "I don't know what happened, but I'm on your finger!"

As if answering her, Miranda's iris shifted, and more rumbling sounded from far above. She watched in awe and terror of her eye as it blinked, which if she'd been a normal person, would've looked like a brief action that occurred within a fraction of a second. But at this size, the teeny blonde was forced to witness the long drawn out process of it and even listening to the squelching, liquidus noises it made through the normal and mundane task of producing natural oils and secretions intended to keep the colossal globe hydrated. A simple action, all of which lasted a total of 10 and a half seconds.

"Holy shit," Nicole shuddered. She wasn't entirely sure if the eye itself was trained on her, but the way it dominated the sky terrified her. It was surreal and unnatural. "What's going on here? Why is this happening?" the lady pondered fearfully. People do not shrink to a size so absurdly miniscule. This had to be some sort of nightmare. It had to be. Things like this do not happen. "This can't be happening," Nicole whimpered. This can't be - AAAAAH!!"

Nicole screamed as Miranda's breath buffeted the world around her and sent her tumbling into the air. For a moment, she realized that her exact location was one of the middle rings of the monumental red-head's finger pad, but now she was headed down farther. Nicole was now landing towards the tip of her finger, but not so far that she would see the nail. Nicole tried to brace herself as the ground that was Miranda's fingerprint rapidly approached, but the shock she experienced impacted her focus as she heard more movement come from the sky. The 32-year-old suburbanite landed hard on the side of the ridge and went tumbling down into the steep crease.

Once again, she called out to the two goddesses looking down at her. "Miranda! Cherice! Please, I'm down here!" It was evident that the two witches didn't hear her, but if they really were witches, they'd find a way to help her. They wouldn't just leave her like this, but Nicole had been naïve. As she stood up while clutching her injured arm, the tiniest lady in the world bore witness to the smiling continent-sized face of Cherice the Librarian, her mighty, omnipotent lips parted ominously. Nicole whimpered when she saw her huge white teeth, each larger than any mountain and her tongue capable of holding entire cities lolling out to lick her upper lip, and then it happened. An explosion of sound and hot air blasted from her mouth as she spoke. Her sweet southern accent replaced by low, slow dialogue that bellowed from her beautiful yet terrifying mouth. Each syllable shook the air like thunder.

The almighty lips moved up and down tediously as they formed her speech. Nicole could not comprehend any of it and she realized that normal people were much too big and moved in slow motion as a result. As the storm produced by the brunette died down, nothing prepared Nicole for what happened next. Miranda's coral colored smiling lips opened wide to reveal the depths of her mouth. Beyond the ridge of white teeth, her uvula above the entrance to the hellish pit of her esophagus swung back and forth innocently before the monumental row of teeth clamped down to together. Her lips beginning to form the syllable of a word.

"Miranda NO!" Nicole screamed and threw up her arms in an utterly futile attempt to ward off the unstoppable gale and crashing sound that erupted from beyond Miranda's massive lips and pounded the microscopic world. The tiny mortal would have no respite or compassion from these goddesses and that became painfully obvious when her body was thrown back again. It was then Nicole realized her persistence in trying to befriend Miranda was a mistake she'd deeply regret making.

Just when she was about to fall off the landscape of the red-head's finger, Nicole landed on the equally lengthy underside of her painted red nail as the unforgiving thunder that was Miranda's voice continued to shake everything in the microscopic world. A saving grace, however, was the underside of the nailbed which provided protection against the gale-force winds that battered the surface above. Nicole wondered how she was still alive with the abuse she received from this woman. As mundane and normal as her actions were, they were cataclysmic for the young suburbanite.

Things that no one can see were visible to her in this scary world no one could see with the naked eye. More black and brown filth hills littered the rough, jagged ground and smaller creatures skittered around them making burrows out of the revolting mounds. Nicole shrieked when one of these alien-like creatures started crawling up her leg. Acting quickly, she swatted it away and shuddered. She wasn't the type of woman to be scared of bugs so easily given her experience with them from a young age, but Nicole had no idea what these small unknown vermin on a woman the size of a celestial body were capable of. Thankfully, none of its kind seemed that interested in her unless she was within their line of sight, but just as Nicole was beginning to assess her situation, Cherice's low, distorted voice thrummed from above. The world around her trembled violently and Miranda's lips dominated the sky again forming speech once again.

Nicole screamed and trembled down the slope as Miranda's voice battered the domain of her finger, her lovely and clear English accented voice now sounded very deep and monstrous. It was almost hard to believe that this was another human being like her. No, that was incorrect. No other human could do what she had done and enjoy it so much as evidenced by Miranda's lips slowly curling into a smirk. Even at the size of dust, Nicole could recognize the sounds echoing from the heavens as giggling. Miranda was enjoying her suffering.

Nicole's heart sank and realized that she might never return to normal size. She buried her bloody, cut hands into her buckwheat blonde hair as her eyes grew puffy with tears. The teeny blonde watched the red-headed goddess looked down upon her finger again. The smile never faded from her face.

"Miranda, I'm sorry!" Nicole cried up to the blue eye dominating the sky again. "Please forgive me! I promise I won't tell anybody about this! Please, I have a husband and two sons, don't take them away from me!" As the tiny woman begged, her pleas grew more hysterical. She was deathly terrified of staying in a world like this. Alone and microscopic in an unforgiving domain of a woman's index finger. Away from the loving embrace the husband she knew for 20 years and the two sons they had together only to be at the mercy of this wicked witch. Her world trembled violently but this time, Nicole hung on tight to the shifting landscape and dug her feet in a thick mound of garbage smelling crud, but just when she thought she was safe for the moment, an unforgiving blast of sound and hot breath the strength of a hurricane erupted from Miranda's mouth, sending her into the air and far away from the nail at a frightening speed.

"GYAAAAAAAAH!!" Nicole screamed as she flew while her head was ringing. Had she been a normal person, her body wouldn't stand half a chance against the force of which she was launched off. She didn't know if it was science or witchery keeping her alive, but it clear enough as it is that Nicole was overstaying her welcome in this world, but not for much longer. Maybe she would end up splattering on Miranda's glass door windows or the concrete of her patio, but as she noticed the blurry image of Luna returning to her mother with the large spell book in her arms, Nicole didn't know whether or not the fates were merciful or dastardly as the teenage girl's face rapidly came into view.

Time seemed to slow as Nicole looked at the planet sized face of the innocent girl. The lake sized eyes moved and blinked in slow motion. The long patches of forests of her dark brown eyebrows. The countless pools of oily sweat droplets on her face and a cute little button nose so big that it made Mount Everest look like a small raisin in comparison. Luna's face almost looked like an alien world waiting to be explored. Nicole saw no wickedness or cruelty on the face of this goddess and was almost mesmerized by Luna's youth and beauty, until her glossy pink lips came into view thousands of feet ahead.

"Oh god, please no!" Nicole yelled as she was falling towards Luna's parted lips. There was no escaping what was going to happen next. No escaping what fate had planned for her as Nicole realized she was now falling into the orbit of Luna. Beyond the gigantic plump lips of Miranda's mousy daughter, doom awaited her in the darkness behind her tongue. Whether it be in the girl's lungs crushed by the forces of winds taking in outside air or drowning in mucus, or to be dissolved in the ocean of stomach acid likely already melting whatever she ate prior. Alas, fate decided to toy with the shrunken woman more as the lips of the younger goddess began to close, letting Nicole land her upper lip.

"Mruumph!" Nicole landed face first onto Luna's lip-gloss with a gross splat. The sticky surface mixed with saliva nearly glued the tiny woman to the tar and metallic scented substance. Nicole pulled her head free and looked around. The land before her was covered in a vast layer of salmon pink lipstick and a thinner layer of saliva. Like the surface of Miranda's finger, Luna's lip radiated heat constantly, but the heat here was more oppressive. Luna's nostrils lying miles beyond caused dull tremors and swaying winds as she inhaled and exhaled. A simple act which surprisingly enough, did not knock Nicole down or sent her flying due to the slope and her location, but the disgusting film of saliva present told her that she was not at all safe here. If Miranda and Cherice wouldn't help her, maybe her daughter would. Or so Nicole thought and hoped for at the time.

"*cough* *cough* Luna!" Nicole yelled as she choked on the lipstick. "Luna help me!" Unfortunately, the sweet looking girl was too far above and beyond Nicole to offer her any sort of reprieve whether she meant to or not.

"HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...?"

The sheer power of the girl's voice shook Nicole and the world around her mightily. The microscopic world was a realm above the concerns of humans and this girl was yet another reminder for her. The ground rumbled and a deafening sloshing sound came from further south. The color drained from Nicole's face when she saw Luna's tongue. Colossal, wet with saliva and covered with taste buds so massive that one could easily dwarf a house many times over. The massive pink, slimy organ was slowly sliding its way across her lips, wetting the surface of them while catching the teeniest of crumbs. As the rumbling grew stronger, the tongue came ever closer to pick up any stragglers be they crumbs, parasites and soon enough, a shrunken woman.

Nicole's Fight or Flight response clicked on and she frantically, crawled through thick muck covering the huge lip of the teenager. "Please no! Not like this!" Nicole screamed as she struggled to move. She tried to get up and run, but this resulted in her falling again, covering herself in more of the thick, heavy lipstick. the tip of Luna's tongue slowly snaked closer to her location, the heat, humidity and the rumbling became stronger. There'd be no escaping that tounge and if the heat she felt right now was this bad, she would probably cook to death on Luna's tounge if it didn't kill her before dragging her into her abyssal maw. The mouth of the young goddess twitched sending Nicole tumbling down the slope. Wait, the slope? Nicole looked in the direction she fell and saw it. One of the many massive wrinkles of the lip close by with a thin tarp of lipstick covering it. As the sky darkened, Nicole while on all fours, made a mad dash for the wrinkle on the monumental lip and leaped onto the sticky yet thin surface of the lipstick, narrowly avoiding a tastebud slick with hot sticky saliva.

Nicole's screams were deafened by the rumbling as she fell. A torrent of near scalding saliva rushed inside as pitch blackness covered the area, breaking the film of lipstick that covered the crevasse of the wrinkle. Nicole held her breath, feeling her lungs burn as the powerful tremors shook the world tremendously as Luna's tongue moved to moisturize her lips.  A few taste buds had rolled their way inside the fold every now and again. Some had come dangerously close to touching the microscopic woman as she struggled in the darkness. After what felt like hours, the slithering pink monster left, and the rumbling soon subsided. Nicole swam through the girl's spit for air as she tried to stop her body from shaking with terror. 

The microscopic world was far beyond human comprehension and Nicole could barely make sense of it. The most mundane of human behaviors and bodily functions of these 3 titanesses were calamitous events to the microscopic woman. It hadn't even been 3 minutes since she shrunk, but it felt a lot longer than that. There was not even time to stop and think in this unforgiving world. The small creatures around here that she could not name seemed well accustomed to the rapid change and events that took place on the bodies of larger organisms.

Everything around her rumbled as Luna moved her lip. Nicole preyed to whatever god was still listening to her that Luna wouldn't speak and it seemed her prayers were answered as the girl's only response was hot winds the strength of a hurricane erupted from the girl's meteoric maw, but that meant everywhere around the area of the girl's lips grew hot. The lake of somewhat corrosive spit went from very warm to scalding, causing blisters on Nicole's skin.

"Holy shit!" Nicole screamed as she struggled to swim to the ridge of lip flesh she had jumped from as the saliva began to boil. Luna's lips moved again, the mighty tremor threatening to send the woman back into the scorching lake of spittle. The smallest of movements the girl's lips produced caused monumental torment for the woman whose presence she was completely oblivious to. Nevertheless, Nicole continued her climb until she reached the ridge.

Having a knack for athleticism and all the time she had put into rock climbing had its benefits, but Nicole had no survival skills, none especially when it came to living on a finger or a lip. The only logical course of action was to scale Luna's lip and make it to the oral commissure. The rest of Luna's face was a better alternative to staying on her lips, where the girl would apply lipstick, eat, drink or in the most notable cases, lick her lips. Miranda had now lost Nicole and she was on her own on Luna's face, but oh how wrong she was when she noticed the sky darkened and the low slow rumbles of the red-headed witch's voice boomed from the heavens. Miranda's jiggling chest and wicked smile came to greet her daughter and the shrunken woman struggling on her lip. Nicole cried in terror as her finger descended on her world. Miranda had found her shrunken plaything.

Miranda

"Be still Luna," Miranda told her daughter in a calm, motherly tone. "Our nosy little neighbor took a small trip to your pretty pink lips and I need to extract her."

Luna remained completely still as her mother gently wiped her index finger on her lipstick and squinted. Sure, enough she was there, struggling to free herself from her daughter's mucky lipstick. "Thank you, dear." Miranda said, "Now set the book on the table and go to bed."

"I-I... um..." Luna began. Miranda rolled her eyes and faced the 15-year-old fledgling witch. Luna was all too familiar with shrinking magic, but this was the first time she'd seen her mother use it on someone. The last person she used shrinking magic on was 20 years ago. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you going to do with her?"

"Hmm, that is a good question." Miranda smirked and cupped her breasts. "I could place her on my left tit, or I can have her live in my bush."

"Um, that's not what I..." Luna began to speak up. but was interrupted by Cherice.

"Your feet haven't been getting much attention from your pets either love," said Cherice. "Why not try someplace new for this one?"

Miranda smiled deviously. She hadn't had a mortal live on her feet for many decades. Feet were structures that were constantly dirty and smelly. The terrain on them would be harsh and severe. Her newest pet would find that they'd probably be as rough as a desert. She would not survive long. "What a delicious idea, Cherice. "I'll have her hunt for food like a scavenger on my feet until she dies."

Miranda bent down and rubbed the index finger the tiny mortal was struggling on and brought her to down to her right foot. She then pressed her finger into the gap between her big and second toe. When she was sure the little woman was on her foot, she removed her finger and wiggled her toes.

"Wait, that's not what I-" Luna protested, but was cut off by her mother.

"There, all settled in." Miranda said satisfied with herself. "I wonder how long she'll last..."  

Chapter 5: The First Day (Part 1).

Nicole

Present Day

This was a lot harder than expected. Nicole was an expert at rock climbing, but the rocks were usually dry and not slick with liquid or in this case, oily sweat. The gigantic droplets of sweat that clung to skin threatened to slide down into the ravine. Nicole didn't know how long or far this imperfection of skin stretched, but as the water level rose to Nicole's thighs and warbled with each movement of Miranda's foot, she became determined to survive. There had to be some way she could get out of this so she could get back to normal and see her husband and two sons again. Nicole already missed Eric's big strong arms wrapping around her slender frame and his warmth. She missed the joy in Roy and John's eyes when she had come home from work and played board games or sports with them. Miranda robbed her of her life and family on a whim, reduced her to a size insignificant to even insects and she was determined to make her pay for it. Nicole summoned her ‘Romano Spirit', as her late father liked to call it whenever someone in the family was resolute and used that fight within her to climb.

"I'm starting to get the hang of this," Nicole breathed as she looked up. The 32-year-old suburban mother knew she had to be careful. Another tremble or movement of Miranda's foot would send the woman tumbling back into the rank body oils of the canyon. With no harnesses or safety equipment, it was nerve wracking climbing a steep cliff of flesh slippery with sweat and crumbling filth but the rational thing to do was to keep calm and keep her mind on something else so she thought about Eric and the first time she took him climbing with her. He was scared at first, but he started to get used to is as they climbed further up. He was so spry and full of spirit; he still is now. The tears had come back once more. She wondered if she would even see him again. No. She would see him again, she was sure of it. She wasn't totally sure on how this shrinking magic worked, but Miranda had managed to detect and keep track of Nicole even after she'd been separated from her. Perhaps she could try getting Luna's attention again or the attention of another witch, but she would have to worry more about escaping Miranda later.

Nicole looked up once again and saw cracks and gaps stable enough to hang onto or into if another tremor hit again. The young woman knew that Miranda wouldn't think too much about the happenings of a world far below and beyond her concern, but she was cruel. She would take her sweet time toying with Nicole until she got bored of her since it hadn't even been twelve hours since she shrank her. Miranda would keep Nicole alive for now, but only if her struggling amused her. Nicole's heart sank as she thought about all the of the malicious and horrible things the wrathful witch could do to her. Knowing how harsh and dangerous the smaller world was, Miranda didn't necessarily have to do much of anything to torment her captive, but that certainly wouldn't prevent her from doing so anyway.

"Do you think you'll survive in my saliva if I spit on you? Probably not."

Nicole felt close to breaking down in tears, but she knew she couldn't do that. For the sake of her sanity and her pride, she would not let this evil bitch break her no matter what size she was. She was no goddess; she was some broad on a power trip. The canyon she was in was no canyon, it was a dent, an imperfection in the skin. The water wasn't water, it was sweat and yet somewhere deep in her mind, something kept flickering like a barely functioning lightbulb. Something that told her that goddess Miranda was merciful. The goddess Miranda was her salvation and attracting her attention and pleasing her was well worth the effort.

"This is skin not land. This is sweat not water. Miranda's an evil bitch, no goddess." Nicole coined the mantra which she would repeat over and over to herself as she kept climbing and her sanity in check, she was halfway there. She found a ridge that made for a good cave and decided to take a breather. A minute or two passed and Nicole felt some rumbling and some distorted sounds echo from the heavens. She braced herself for what was to come. Nothing big happened yet, but this immense world was full of little surprises that were catastrophic on this scale. A curtain of sweat formed over the slope of the imperceptible line of skin. The smell of it was awful, but Nicole was feeling parched.

"I can't believe I'm actually thinking of doing this." Nicole grimaced, but it couldn't be helped. Her stomach grumbled and it needed to be filled with something. Liquids were not filling, but the staved off hunger for a short time, so Nicole walked over to the ledge, cupped her hands, and drank some of the foul body soil of Miranda. Nicole balked and wretched at the taste and the discomfort it caused her, but she managed to keep it down. The warm liquid was revolting. It had the taste of stale cheese the texture of cooking oil that probably would've been left over from a meal made of meat or poultry. She had just drunk someone's sweat. Someone's foot sweat. Nicole felt disgusted with herself as her head started spinning. This world was making her sick, possessing her to do things no one would ever do and Nicole came to the painful realization that her survival and serving Miranda's body and living on it to appease her whims were intertwined and there was no way out of this. Some independence and pride had to be sacrificed so that she could live and Miranda's power over her could grow, but Nicole couldn't dwell on this any longer. She had to escape from here and she needed to hang onto her pride and her sanity. Nicole had no desire to live on a foot like a parasite, but the choice was not hers. There was no more time to waste, there was more climbing to be done. Nicole managed to dodge the oncoming sweat waterfall streaming downwards into the pit below and continued her accent upwards. More sound from the giant world beyond permeated the smaller world again, but it didn't cause any shaking. Nicole breathed a sigh of relief. All it took was Miranda stomping down again or hitting her foot against something to undo all of her progress and send her back into the canyon to drown in her acrid waters. Nicole was almost there. Soon enough, she reached the ridge of dead skin. After making sure it was stable enough for her body weight, she pulled herself up and collapsed onto the ground.

The world's tiniest woman's chest heaved as she took in breaths of not so fresh foot air. Her belly groaned ominously. She was sure she wouldn't keep that droplet of sweat down for long and if she didn't throw it up, it would cause diarrhea later on. Regardless, Nicole had to keep moving no matter how much her stomach would never let her hear the end of it for drinking a drop of someone's foot sweat. Nicole had a big day ahead of her and a task to complete or deal with whatever horrible things Miranda could do to her if she failed. She looked up into the sky to see if she could make out where her captor was, but she still couldn't recognize anything.

"I'll worry about that later," Nicole looked out onto the wasteland of dead skin mountains and hills and the occasional fine hairs Miranda would never know existed unless she used a very strong magnifying glass. It was hard to tell where she was exactly, but luckily, she was close enough to the toes to see that she was headed in the right direction. The Big Toe, bigger than the state of Florida itself was just beyond the horizon. Nicole watched breathlessly as Miranda flexed it, causing a tremor. The very action still gave her chills, but she had to do what needed to be done. Get to the tip of it and ‘pay homage' to Miranda.

"Ugh, this is humiliating," Nicole grumbled as she got moving. "I wish I was big again so I could tear this bitch a new one." It wasn't enough that she had to shrink her down to a size where no one could see her no matter how hard they looked, she had to be shrunken down by a witch with a domination fetish. Nicole wondered what higher being she'd wronged or what she did to deserve this. All Nicole wanted was to be a good neighbor to a woman everyone thought was a freak or too strange for their liking, but now that Nicole was microscopic on her foot, she came to understand why other people avoided her and the scariest thing about all this was no one knew just how dangerous she really was. Many other people around town gossiped about Miranda and wondered what she was up to or how strange she was. People's lives were in danger and there was nothing she could do about it.

Perched on top of a hill of dead skin, Nicole felt like crying her eyes out again, but she needed to stay hydrated, so she swallowed her sorrows again and kept jogging, keeping a good pace. She might reach lower knuckle of the toe in less than an hour or so, or an hour by normal people's time. Everything about this world was strange and different. Judging on how slowly people moved, people spoke, small actions they made the way sound traveled, time seemed to move slower from here. The smaller bugs and parasites skittering around moved at a normal pace to her. It was all very strange.

Nicole felt her spine tingle as she ran. This world was hell and unnerving, but she had no time to collapse into existential doubt or dread, but a constant question nagged at her. "Just how small am I now?" Miranda's skin stretched out as an endless plain of uneven patchwork of skin radiating heat, sweat droplets and the occasional transparent hairs that were tall or in some cases taller than Nicole was. They shook and swayed back and forth slightly with the wind and movement of Miranda's foot. Another tremor rocked the world causing the woman to yelp and fall. Needless to say, Miranda's skin was not as soft or smooth at this current size. It was like falling on concrete with small rocks, except in some cases the rocks were alive. Skittering, squirming parasites made their homes here on the human skin and they were no strangers to this world.

"I guess I can gather some of these gross little things along the way," Nicole said as she knelt down to pick up one of the small tick-like creatures at her feet. She poked it to see if it was dead and when she found that it wasn't moving, she picked it up and stuffed it in her fanny pack. When Nicole tried to pick up a small worm-like parasite, it started squirming and slithering away. "Hey, get back here!" Nicole said as she ran after it. She couldn't believe she reduced herself to this. Collecting bugs and microbes off the skin of an evil witch, but just as she was about to catch the twitchy little thing the air rumbled and the sky darkened.

"Shit!" Nicole yelled at the abrupt change in the atmosphere. To make things worse, the air was getting warmer. "What's going on?" She looked up at the sky beyond the micro world and saw a familiar sight. Nicole gasped as the immeasurable face of Luna descended upon her world with her cool blue eyes scanning the surface of her mother's foot.

Miranda

Miranda got out of bed and put on one of her favorite lounging robe. She still had a few hours to herself before getting ready for the day ahead, but first she needed to start her morning rituals which did not involve witchcraft. It wasn't unusual for witches to drink tea or coffee and eat a hearty meal before starting the day. Thousands of years ago, witches and warlocks brewed up some mint tea with some mana-infused peppers for extra energy, but those times had long past and now she enjoyed the standard coffee and eggs.

Miranda got the newspaper from the front door and set it down on the dining room table for Luna. She had no interest in the dull affairs of humanity, but her daughters being the age of fledglings kept up with the times and all the trivial things mortals did, but who could blame them? Being outted as a witch always spelled either social suicide or worse and blending in with mortals was good strategically.

Luna came out in an outfit fitting for a teenager in the current era and greeted her mother. "Good morning mother," she said with her sweet, innocent, and youthful voice. She seemed to glance at her mother's feet before bowing her head respectfully.

"Good morning Luna," Miranda said to her daughter, "Did you sleep well?"

"Um, well, not really."

"Come now child," Miranda said calmly as she put her hands on her daughter's shoulders to comfort her, "She was no one special, nothing but an annoyance getting in the way of our work. You know our coven needs to stay strong and we cannot afford any distractions."

"But... she's a wife and mother with children...," said Luna timidly, "...a-and she's not exactly no one. Isn't she a community organizer in the neighborhood?"

"She is no more than a little microbe on my foot," said Miranda, "Don't be concerned with bugs and slaves my young moonflower."

"I... but...," Luna began. The poor girl was naïve in her youth. Being only 17, the typical concerns for someone her age was to avoid pregnancy by teen boys wanting only to have sex with her, dealing with the change in heightened hormone levels and navigating the social hierarchy of a cold, depressing institution of learning that only served to turn children into obedient drones. Although Miranda had taught her some magic and kept her educated on rituals, shrinking spells always made her uneasy. Had she witnessed the act of Nicole shrinking, the ordeal probably would've terrified the girl. It was adorable, yet irritating.

"Oh Luna," Miranda said in her motherly tone, "I've given her a new life and home on my feet, and she won't be forgotten by me anytime soon. What's done is done. Now come, I made breakfast."

Miranda and her daughter sat down to a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon. Not much discussion had taken place while they were eating. As usual, Luna had school so she couldn't meet the members of her coven, but Miranda was no stranger to improvising when she had guests. She put her feet up and took out her cellphone. It was 9 am. Her fellow witches would be here by 12 or 1, but she would remind them that the coven meeting was today. After all, she wanted to show that she was capable of leading and if her coven got enough attention, the Ancient House could notice her, although some hindrances and difficulties kept their work from getting much done this year.

"Dumb little cunt," Miranda muttered as she frowned and flexed her big toe. Nicole was no more of an obstacle to her progression in conducting rituals and magic crafting within this newer and more quiet area of the state of California, but mortals were always nosy and annoying creatures sticking their noses where they didn't belong. The little bitch probably thought to expose her so the entire town could harass and scare her and her daughter.

"What did you find out about me, you little whore?" Miranda wondered as she looked at the remnants of her daughter's dried lipstick barely clinging to her foot and at that very same moment, Luna was moving in to look at her mother's foot to see if she can sense the shrunken mortal on her foot. Her daughter's curiosity caused her to smile and she wondered if she had ever thought of or had even went as shrinking any mortals. The girl had the potential to surpass her own mother, but she lacked the control or practice necessary to control them. Stress was the key factor in hindering a witch's true potential and Luna had a lot of things to worry about at this age. She didn't have time to perfect her magic yet.

"I wonder where she is exactly," Luna muttered quietly.

Miranda giggled, knowing that her very presence and speech was terrifying to the new slave occupying her foot. As the girl wondered how her mother was able to detect the woman who a fraction of a millimeter on her lip, she unknowingly caused a cataclysmic event for the shrunken mother yet again. Luna squinted and tried to focus on Nicole but just couldn't. The frustration of not having the ability to see and sense smaller things like her mother caused her to become dejected and she sighed. Luna then stood up straight and fixed her hair and began to walk away, but her Miranda spoke.

"If you stay in today, I could teach you how to do it." Miranda said with a mellow tone in her voice.