“Oh, woe is me!” cried Jonathan not for the first time that day, nor for the thousandth that year. “My beloved Esmeralda, why must the sight of thee torture me so? Every second I gaze at thee I feel as though my heart were wrenched from my chest by the knowledge that I shall never have thee, yet for thee to ne'er grace my sight again would be a fate worse than death,” he said, letting out a sigh meant to wrench tears from stones and make the sky weep such tears that it might flood the world as it did in Noah's time. But the sky only sent a stiff breeze at him, as though breathing a sigh of its own, albeit one of exasperation.

“Oh, how my heart burns for her! How my soul hungers to know the warmth of hers, my skin the softness of hers, my lips the passion of hers! But yet I know that one like me is not worthy of her! Nay, none are worthy of her! Besides her, all are as dirt, and should be honored to have her divine feet trod on us!”

“Good grief, will you shut up already? If you want the girl then go tell her. If you think you can't have her then move on with your life and stop harping on about her. Either way, quit+ making so much noise!”

“Who sayth that?” Jonathan asked, looking all around for the speaker.

“Up here, loudmouth.”

Looking up, Jonathan saw a fair young girl, no bigger than a butterfly, kept aloft by the flutter of her gossamer wings.

“A fairy! I should have known thee for one from thy curious dialect. But, pray tell, what brings thee to reveal thyself? Dost not thy kind prefer to go unseen?”

“We do, but your incessant whining is too much for me to bear in silence. Good gods, you were bad enough on the first day, but I figured you wouldn't keep it up for long. Well, after three months of your wailing, I've had enough. So let me ask again: if you like this woman so much, why don't you just confess to her?”

“Confess!? Why, that would be indecent! I am simply not worthy of her! Oh, her beauty is such that...”

“Zip it. I've heard it all from you a hundred times over. Now, if you think you're not worthy of her, why do you keep following her like a creep? Why not just move on with your life and go after someone more in your league?”

“Because beauty is to be honored, however unattainable it be! If I forsake her to go after another, lesser beauty, not only would I be insulting her, I would also be renouncing my very being as a poet!”

“So you'll praise her even though no one will ever hear it?”

“What sincerity is there in a word that goes unspoken lest it go unheard?”

“Uh-huh. And how long do you mean to keep this up?”

“Oh, only until next month, on the anniversary of the day I first saw her. After that, I mean to take my life in tribute to her radiance!”

“Are you serious? That's... I mean, I guess it's nice that I won't have to put up with you much longer, but that's the dumbest reason you could possibly have to kill yourself. Look, I don't usually do this, but what do you say I use my magic to help you out? Maybe pretty you up a bit so you can feel more worthy of her?”

“'Tis not only her looks that make me unworthy of her. She is a divine creature through and through, in soul as well as body. She is beyond us mere mortals, who are as dirt at her feet!”

“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” the fairy said. Just then her face lit up in an epiphany. “Okay, so what if I told you I can arrange for you to give up your life in tribute to her without having to commit suicide? What if I told you this idea I have in mind will be something completely unique, setting her apart from all the other girls people have killed themselves over? Would you allow me to use my magic on you to accomplish this?”

“That all sounds intriguing! But, prithee tell, what exactly dost thou intend to do?”

“Does it matter? Look, all you care about is making a statement about how amazing this woman is, right? Then why would it matter how it's done? I swear to you that what I have in mind will accomplish everything I say. All I need if your consent so I can use my magic on you.”

“Hmm... I really would like to know whether your idea is truly an appropriate tribute to Esmeralda... but accepting your offer on faith doth make of it a more powerful statement... Very well, fae; cast your spell on me. But first, might I hear thy name?”

“Call me Chloe,” she said.

“Well then, Chloe, I thank thee for thy help in this, and may your life abound in blessings.”

“Likewise. Now, hold still while I work my magic.” She flew down to his face, placing a hand on his forehead, and instantly Jonathan felt a surge of magical energy flowing into his body through the point of contact. He had no knowledge of magic, but it felt as though that energy were rearranging the very essence of his being on some fundamental level. This went on for a minute, until Chloe pulled back her hand.

“Is that all? I feel different, but I've no clue what's changed. But hold, why art thou leaving? Won't thou first share what thou did?”

“Oh, relax, I'm not leaving you at all. Heck, I'm not even moving. Just look down and you'll see what's happening.”

When he did, he saw the ground getting closer and close, feeling as though he were falling though he knew he was standing. Not only that, but the whole world was expanding around him. “Thou art making me smaller? But why? How will this accomplish what thou said?”

“Oh, you'll see soon enough. For now, just sit tight and wait for the shrinking to finish,” Chloe said as she landed on the ground before him. Where before she would have been as tall as his ankles, she now reached his knees, and was only getting taller. Soon he was as tall next to her as he had been to the average woman, then the two of them were the same height, and still he kept shrinking, having to look up at her.

“I... I'm not done shrinking?” he asked shakily. “How small will I become?”

“What's the matter?” she asked, crossing her arms and cocking her hips to the side. “Didn't you say that you were as dirt under your beloved's feet? I'm only making that more literally true. You'll be the size of a grain of sand soon enough.”

Jonathan was left speechless as he kept shrinking, looking up in awe at the fairy who was now twice his height and still growing. From being comparatively child-sized he went to being to being fairy-sized, and still he kept shrinking. He was as tall as her ankle. No, as tall as her big toe. No! He didn't even match her little toe in height; it was the size of a two story house next to him!

Only then did Jonathan stop shrinking. Standing on the ground, surrounded by grains of sand the size of boulders, he stared in awe and terror at the fairy whose legs rose into the sky like a pair of gargantuan pillars, even as she herself stood only slightly taller than the surrounding blades of grass.

“There we go. Now come here,” Chloe said. She twirled her finger through the air, her magic sending Jonathan up and setting him down on a palm so big it could have housed a small village. Above him shone Chloe's violet eyes, as big as the sun and moon in the sky. Her face took up most of his field of view, and he felt her presence as a weight pressing down on him.

“You're probably wondering what this is all for,” Chloe said, the air rumbling with her voice. “I'm going to put you down on this girl's foot, where you can spend the rest of your life singing her praises 'as dirt at her feet'. That sound good to you? Don't bother answering because I can't even hear you at that size. Anyway, if you don't like it, you can always kill yourself like you were going to do. Now all that's left is for me to take you to her. Once I do, my magic will ensure that you won't fall off, and that you'll be protected from being crushed.”

Chloe curled her fingers around Jonathan, enveloping him in darkness as she went off towards the slumbering Esmeralda.

As she floated over her, Chloe had to admit that she was pretty enough. Her long and wavy brown hair flowed down her temples and past her shoulders, looking smooth as silk and soft enough to sleep on. Her hazelnut skin showed no blemishes or imperfections, her breasts were full and her hips well-rounded. It was no wonder that Jonathan felt the need to sing her praises. Even Chloe found herself enchanted by the woman, so much so that she landed on her chest to get a closer look at her face.

She felt a desire to plant a tender kiss on those full, plush lips, but resisted it, turning away and flying instead towards her feet, where she was to deposit her little passenger. “Damn,” she said as she floated before them. “Even her feet are pretty.”

Esmeralda's soles were unblemished, without so much as a callus or a rough spot on them, as if the earth itself molded itself to her feet wherever she stepped so her skin would never be damaged. Wondering if they felt as soft as they looked, Chloe reached out and ran a hand over one of her toes, finding it unbelievably smooth.

Then she uncurled her fingers from around Jonathan and held him out before Esmeralda's foot. “Well? Do you feel like dirt under your beloved's feet now?” she asked.

Jonathan looked on her sole in awe. Seeing it was like looking on a sheer cliff face, stretching more than a mile tall. And her toes! If Chloe's toes were the size of a church, Esmeralda's put any man-made construction to shame. They were like things out of myth, each a living tower of Babel.

Chloe held her hand out and tipped it over, letting him slide fall off onto the space between Esmeralda's toes. “There you go. Hope you like it down there; have a happy rest of your life.” And with that she flew away, leaving Jonathan all alone.

About him stretched Esmeralda's body in all its vastness, being almost like an entire landscape to him. At first he had been skeptical of  Chloe's plan, but now he could see the genius of it. Here was a boldly original statement, unlike anything ever done before. Not only that, but the experience was truly powerful, lifting his spirit to heights hitherto unreached. With his shrinking, Esmeralda had been transformed, at least for him, from a stunningly beautiful person into a veritable goddess who reigned over all her surveyed.

And, if seeing her immensity and feeling her tremendous presence hadn't been enough to convince him that she was a goddess to him now, her movement would have done the job soon enough.

After just a few minutes on her toes, Esmeralda's foot twitched slightly; a very slight motion, yet a cataclysmic earthquake from Jonathan's perspective. When he realized the cause of it, he was filled with reverence towards her, kneeling towards her big toe and beginning to sing praises to it regarding its power and beauty.

And to think that this was just a single one of her toes. All the rest of her body still awaited him to explore it, if he chose to do so. In his lifetime here, he could compose numerous hymns for each and every last part of her body, from the vast forest of flowing hairs down to the soles of her feet—not a single part of her was to go without him singing its praises. Such was to be his new life now; to, in total anonymity, shower his lady sweet with all the praise her beauty deserved.

Chloe had been right; this was much better than taking his life in tribute to her beauty, for rather than giving his body up to the worms and the carrion beasts, he had in effect forfeit it to Esmeralda, never again to spend so much as a single moment apart from her. He would be forever hers.