“Human!”

“Elfuda? What's the matter?” Naoe said, rubbing the drowsiness out of his eyes.

“Human, where are you!?” Elfuda's voice called out again.

“I'm right here. What's the... matter?” What Naoe saw as he blinked open his eyes left him speechless. All around him his room stretched out for miles. Everything in it was huge, hundreds of times its usual size. He was like a tiny bug lost in his apartment.

As he was trying to process this unexpected development, a giant Elfuda stepped into his bedroom. The wooden floor shook with each of the tubby elf's footsteps. She was absolutely huge, so big that even her toes were taller than him. “Elfuda!” He called out, but she his voice went unheard. She just kept walking straight towards him, her feet growing closer and closer with each step.

“Elfuda, stop!” Naoe cried out as her sole rose above him, threatening to crush him like a bug. He curled up into a ball, hoping he could fit into some small crevice on the floor like that. The foot came down with a huge THUMP, but Naoe was still alive. How could it be? He opened his eyes and saw that he had ended up under the arch of Elfuda's toes. He was so small he easily fit inside that tiny gap. It was dark and stuffy and uncomfortably warm, but at least he was still alive.

“I can't find him anywhere,” he heard Elfuda sigh far overhead. “Where could he have gone so early? And why would he have left me behind? This isn't like him at all. I sense something fishy going on here.”

Naoe poked at her toes, trying to get her attention, but Elfuda, feeling it as just an itch, only scrunched her toes and moved her foot. “I'd better get some help,” Elfuda said, walking out of the room. Naoe could hear her off in the distance, calling someone on the phone. Getting to his feet, he started making his way out of his bedroom, going after the giant elf. He had to find a way to get her attention.

It took him several minutes to finally make it all the way to the kitchen, where a worried Elfuda was munching on fries to pass the time until help arrived. How could he get her attention now? There was no way he could get up on the table like this, and she looked too preoccupied with her thoughts (and those fires) to look down and see him. He had managed to get a reaction out of her when he poked her toes, so maybe if he kept poking her she would eventually look down and see him. It was a dangerous plan, but the sooner he could get her to notice him, the less likely it was that she would accidentally step on him.

Determined to be noticed this time around, Naoe began his trek through the kitchen floor. After finally arriving at Elfuda's toes, he considered how his approach. He had to go about this carefully; one wrong move and it was all over. The last time when he tried to get her attention from under her toes, she had nearly crushed him in reacting to his touch. This time around, he would try to get her attention from on top of her foot. There should be less of a risk of being crushed that way.

The tiny human stepped up to Elfuda's big toe and began climbing. The ridges of her toeprint served as footholds at his size, letting him easily make his way up her toe until he reached the surface of her toenail. From there he walked halfway up the rest of her foot before settling on a spot to try to get her attention from. Before he could try anything, however, there was a knock at the door.

“Elfuda! Are you in there? We came as soon as we could. What's the matter?”

Elfuda hurried to open the door, the foot Naoe was on swinging up to take the first step before thumping back down, sending him flying off back onto the floor. As he stood up, he saw his apartment door swing open. Behind it stood Oeda, Elfuda's aunt; Kuroeda, the dark elf; and Oga, the ogre.

“What are you two doing here?” Elfuda asked, pointing at Kuroeda and Oga. “I only called my aunt over.”

“We saw her on her way here and she told us you and the human were having an emergency, so we came here to help,” Oga explained as she ducked into the apartment, her horns scraping against the top of the doorframe.

“Where's the human? Don't tell me you lost him,” Kuroeda said, trailing in behind the other two women.

“I didn't lose him!” Elfuda huffed. “He just kinda... disappeared on me.”

“So you did lose him, then. I guess I shouldn't have expected any better of a stupid elf like you.”

“Knock if off, you two!”  Oeda yelled at them. “We're here to help find the human, not to insult each other. Now, tell us what the problem is, niece.”

Elfuda began telling the others about what had happened while they looked around the house, forcing poor Naoe to run for his life, dodging step after step as the massive women tramped around his apartment.

“So he was just gone without a trace when you woke up. And you say nothing like this has ever happened before?” Oeda asked in between licking her ice cream cone.

“No, never. I have no idea what could have happened, but I think dark magic might be involved. Maybe it's that satyr who's always causing us trouble. Then again, it could also be manjuu butt's fault,” Elfuda said, frowning at Kuroeda.

“My fault!? Why would I do something like this!?” The black elf yelled, stamping her foot on the ground, the impact knocking Naoe down.

“How should I know? It wouldn't be the first time your magic has done something weird to the human. Or did you forget the time when you turned him into a little kid?”

“Th-that was an accident! That potion was supposed to help you lose weight, you ungrateful little...”

“And why couldn't you have had another accident like that, you fat-assed dark elf?”

“You watch your mouth, you potato-bellied idiot!”

“What did you just say?” Elfuda asked, taking a step towards Kuroeda.

“You heard me, you fat, dumb elf! Or are there potatoes clogging up your ears?”

This was looking bad. The pair of them were all fired up for another one of their fights, and Naoe was caught right in the middle of it. The two towering elves stood to either side of him, staring each other down. Naoe started running to get out of the way before they started brawling, but before he could make it far, a dark-skinned foot slammed down in front of him. It was already too late. The two elves fought tooth and nail above him, punching and scratching and kicking, their huge feet tramping about unpredictably. No matter where Naoe ran for safety, he was always cut off by one of their feet slamming down right in front of him.

As if avoiding being tramped on wasn't hard enough, the two fell to the floor and started wrestling each other on it. More than once he ended up under them, trapped under Elfuda's french fry-filled belly or Kuroeda's big bubble butt.

“Alright, that's enough, you two!” Oeda said, putting a stop to the brawl with a smack to each of their heads. “How shameful! We're all here for the same thing: to help find the human. How is your fighting supposed to help us do that?”

“W-we're sorry!” The pair of them said, rubbing their heads as Oga helped them to their feet.

Finally having their weight off of him, Naoe got back on his feet and was about to try getting their attention again when he saw the ogre woman's soccer field-sized sole descending upon him. He held his arms up, trying to hold it up. As well have tried to stop a tsunami. The mountain of ogre foot barreled over him, knocking him flat on his back before settling over him.

Despite what at his size felt like countless tons of ogre pressing down on him, somehow Naoe didn't die. In fact, he wasn't even hurt—or at least, he couldn't feel any pain. He couldn't move at all, and if he tried opening his eyes he saw nothing but darkness, but aside from some wooziness caused by a lack of oxygen, he felt just fine.

“Now then; dark elf!”

“Y-yes, ma'am?” Kuroeda said, standing at attention.

“You have the most magical talent out of all of us. Can you sense any trace of magic in this place? Any hint of what might have happened to the human?”

“Let me see,” the dark elf said, closing her eyes to focus on her magic sense. “I feel something. It's in the human's bedroom,” she said, leading the group there. As Oga raised her foot, Naoe remained stuck to it, being carried around on her sole all the way to his room.

“Yes, there's definitely a trace of magic on the human's bed,” said Kuroeda.

“Can you tell what sort of spell was used on him?” Oga asked.

“No, but... there's something else.”

“Something else?”

“Another trace of magic. It's much smaller; much less powerful. It's coming from... coming from...” The dark elf closed her eyes, her brows furrowed in concentration. “From right there!” she said, pointing at Oga's right foot.

Oga raised her foot, looking first on the ground and then on her sole. “Oh!” She exclaimed, reaching down to peel the Naoe off her foot. “It's the human!” she said, dropping him onto her open palm , the other women crowding around her to look at him.

“He's so tiny!” Elfuda said. “Are you sure you didn't have anything to do with this, dark elf? This seems way too similar to your 'weight-loss' potion to be a coincidence.”

“I'm telling you, I didn't have anything to do with this! I gave up making potions after that disaster.”

“The little human looks so cute!” Oga cooed, poking at him with a fingertip many times his size. “So small and helpless... He needs someone to protect him. Don't worry, human! I'll protect you as if you were my child!” Oga's fingers curled around the tiny Naoe, trapping him in the dark, warm prison of her fist.

“What? No way! The human should to stay with me!” Elfuda said, clutching at the ogre's fist and trying to pry her fingers open. “He needs to stay here, in his home, where he'll be safest!”

“With you? Don't make me laugh!” Kuroeda said, joining Elfuda in trying to pry Oga's hand open. “If anything he should stay with me. I'm the only one who might be capable of fixing his condition!”

“Look at yourselves! You're all acting like little children!” Oeda said, throwing herself into the fray. “The human should stay with someone strong and responsible, like me. Someone who won't endanger him by jumping into pointless fights!”

“Hey! All of you let go! You're going to hurt my baby!” Oga yelled. Despite her superior size and strength, she couldn't handle all three women coming after her at once. She danced around the apartment, trying to get them to let go of her hand, but she just ended up dragging them along. At last, all of them all fell down with a crash, with Kuroeda hitting her head on the floor and falling unconscious. With one last triumphant effort, aunt and niece finally managed to force the ogre's hand open.

“Human!” Elfuda cried out, ready to snatch him from her grip, even if it meant having to fight her aunt over him. Then she noticed that he wasn't in Oga's hand at all. “He's gone! He must have fallen down while we were fighting him!”

The three women scrambled to their feet, their fight forgotten. They spread out over the apartment and began to look for him.

Naoe jumped up and down on the floor, trying to get their attention. Now that Kuroeda was out cold, they wouldn't be able to use her magic sense to find him, so he had to do his best to make himself obvious. Just then, the apartment door opened up again and Medesa the gorgon walked through. Once again, Naoe found himself stepped on by a giant woman as Medesa's huge foot crashed onto him. “Hey, heard you were having some sort of emergency. I wanted to help but couldn't come any sooner. Is everything... alright... now?” she asked, trailing off as she noticed the chaos that the four women's struggle had made out of Naoe's apartment.

Elfuda pulled the new guest in and quickly explained the situation to her. “So the human shrank somehow? That sounds dangerous! He might have been crushed already!”

“No, he's probably fine. Oga already stepped on him and he didn't look hurt. We found him stuck to the bottom of her foot. Manjuu butt here sensed a trace of magic on him so he probably has some sort of protection spell.”

“Oh, that's good. Do you think that... Wait, did you say Oga stepped on him?”

“Yeah, it looked like he was on her foot for a while. Say, you haven't stepped on anything since you came in here, have you?”

“I... No, not at all,” the gorgon said. “So, uh, what are you going to so about all this?”

“Well, first we need to find the human. Would you mind helping us?”

“Not at all! I just need to, uh, use the bathroom first. I'll be back soon,” Medesa said, heading straight for the restroom. She sat on the toilet with her pants on and wondered: could that thing she stepped on have been Naoe? She hadn't thought much of it at the time but, after hearing about what happened to him...

Curious, she lifted her foot up and examined her sole. There was definitely something tiny stuck to it. She peeled it off and brought it up for close inspection. “Human... It really is you,” she whispered. “You look so cute. Tell me, how was it under my foot? Was it nice? I've been going out to get these 'pedicures' recently so my feet should be very well cared for. I've heard some humans really like women's feet. I wonder, are you one of those humans?

“You know... I think I... actually liked you being so close to my feet. You don't mind if I put you down next to them, right?” She asked, leaning down and dropping him on the floor. “You're so small. You're like an ant crawling at my feet. You're way smaller than my toes, even. I wonder, what would it feel like to have you squirming under my feet?” She asked, raising her big toe and sliding her foot forward so that it hovered over tiny Naoe. “You survived Oga's feet, and mine too, so it should be fine if I step on you again, right?”

Naoe ran away, just barely getting out from under Medesa's toe before it could crush him. “Oh, you made it out. But can you manage to avoid my entire foot now? Fufu!” the gorgon giggled as she raised her foot above him. Naoe wasted no time in running away from her slowly descending sole, but even with how slow it came down he still couldn't escape it.

“Ahh, that feels so nice,” she said, wiggling her toes in satisfaction. Please fight harder to escape my foot, human! It feels so good when you squirm~”

Under her sole, Naoe pulled himself along using the ridges of her footprint as handholds. Thankfully she hadn't put her full weight on him, so he wasn't completely pinned under her foot like he had been the last times he'd been stepped on. With a lot of effort, he could just barely crawl forward a few inches at a time. He should be able to get out from under her foot in no time.

Suddenly there came a knock at the bathroom door. “Hey! You've been in there long enough, gorgon! You'd better come out soon!” Elfuda's voice called out from the other side.

“Wh-what!? Uh, please hold on a minute! I'm almost done!”Medesa said.

“No way! We're coming in now!” said Kuroeda.

Medesa squeaked as the door swung open, letting the other four women come in. “Looks like you're real busy in here, using the toilet with your pants on,” Elfuda said.

“My senses tell me she had him under her foot,” Kuroeda said, lifting the gorgon's leg to reveal little Naoe clinging to her sole. “You knew he was down there, didn't you? What were you doing in here?”

“I-I was just having a little fun with him! He's just so cute, I couldn't resist the urge to play with him!”

Naoe clung desperately to the gorgon's sole as the women argued, fighting to hold on. Just then a pair of fingers swooped in and picked him up. “Don't worry, child; mama's here for you now,” Oga said as she rubbed him affectionately against her cheek, cooing over him. Then she opened her eyes, glaring at the others, daring them to try and take him from her.

Elfuda sighed. “Alright, fine; you can help take care of the human for now. But as long as he's this size, he doesn't leave this apartment. Whoever wants to take care of him has to do it from here, got it?”

“Sounds like a fine arrangement,” Oeda said. The others nodded in agreement.

“And as for you...!” Elfuda said, turning to the gorgon.

“Y-you four look like you've got this under control! I'll just leave you to it! See ya! Let me know when the human is back to normal!” she said as she scurried out of the apartment.

“Hmph. Well, at least the human is safe now. You know, all this business is making me hungry. How about we grab some lunch before figuring out how to fix this?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“I'll just have an ice cream cone.”

“Is there any booze in this place?”

Naoe sighed. Even at a time like this, they just couldn't stop thinking about food. Well, that was alright, he supposed. They'd all earned a little break after such a scary morning. He just hoped they didn't end up eating him by accident.