It was… better than being on the wagon. That was about all that Mira could say about being on the shelf in the elven store. For indeed this was a store as she had come to see. Likely the wagon they had come on was a merchant that worked for the owner of this shop. A supplier. The shop owner fed them twice a day with a strange mix of bread and dried meat and provided them water the same way the driver of the wagon had. She also didn’t tolerate violence in the cages. If she saw it she shook the cage slightly to break it up. It was a marked improvement.

The question on everyone’s mind was of course, how long would they just be items on a shelf. Because ultimately, that was what they were. Just sitting on a shelf and fed. Mira had seen one cage on the end of the shelf taken in the days since they had been here. The former noblewoman had no idea what had happened to them when they left the building. What purpose were they bought for? It was a great mystery. Not knowing was the worst part, arguably. 

They didn’t have to wonder for long in the grand scheme. A few days after being put on the shelf Mira observed someone walk into the store. She was a stunningly beautiful elf dressed in a maid uniform not unlike Diane’s really. She had short dark hair pulled into a bun and had a pair of glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. She was also notably a good head taller than the blonde owner of the establishment. The pair exchanged words and the blonde gestured to their shelf. 

The dark haired maid looked over and when her gaze met the cages… Mira wasn’t sure why but a chill ran down her spine. It was a feeling of dread anticipation. Like she should be aware there was danger nearby but couldn’t *actually* see that danger. The maid’s gaze passed on down the line of cages and after a few moments she lifted up three fingers and pulled out a decent little sack of coins, setting it down on the counter. 

The owner opened it up and counted them out before nodding. She called back into the back room. “Talsa!” 

The redhead that had driven the carriage wandered from the back room. They exchanged some words and the redhead inclined her head to the maid before walking her way over to the shelf. She whistled a jaunty tune as she picked up one of the cages and followed the maid outside. Then she returned and picked the one right next to Mira’s cage, everyone starting to murmur among themselves. Mira meanwhile was getting a pit opening in the bottom of her stomach. 

Her concerns were warranted when the redhead bounded back over, her steps quivering the shelf under their cage. She gripped either side of it before walking outside, a rather expensive looking white carriage outside. Very expensive. Rather one that would belong to nobility. That was where they were being brought. 

“Where are we going?”

“What’s going on?”

“What’s gonna happen to us?” 

Concerned murmurs and chittering rose up from the humans in their cage. They were stacked inside on one of the seats next to one of the other cages offloaded. Mira could hear similar concerns in that one. She was getting some bad feelings about this. This kind of carriage, the maid, everything pointed to a noblewoman of some kind being the person that had purchased them. She had purchased a great deal of them. Between all the cages there had to be at least six dozen humans. 

The maid stepped inside the carriage after the transport was completed and they were set off rumbling down the streets. Some people tried to call out to the maid. She simply kept her hands folded on her lap and looked out the window of the carriage as the settlement they were in passed them by. The question was, what would a wealthy woman want with dozens of tiny humans. Mira had heard horror stories of course… but those couldn’t be real could they? 

It took a while for their questions to be answered. After arriving at what appeared to be a very large estate they were shuffled off into a supply room somewhere and left there. Hours ticked by. Hours in the dark, only the occasional servant stopping by to pick up some items or supplies. It was a time of terrible anticipation where the humans were permitted to imagine what would befall them. What horrible unknown fate awaited them. 

When the time did come, the maid returned for them and took one cage. Then another. Then finally Mira’s. The noblewoman swallowed thickly as they were ferried through fine artfully carved halls. She could hear… laughter? Melodic and cheerful laughter at that. It grew louder and louder as they approached their destination. And at last they passed through the doorway into a room. 

It was a rather large room, floors of pure marble tiled black and white below. It wasn’t a sitting room really, more a room where one would entertain intimate parties of guests. No more than ten or so. Mira knew this because her own castle had a room like that for the very same purpose. Wouldn’t have done to use the great hall for something of a more private gathering between social peers. 

There were about six extremely well dressed elven women seated on couches that were shoved to one side of the room. Oddly, the other half of the room almost seemed to have the floor completely cleared. There were spots where furniture likely had once been. Yet it had been moved. The maid set their cage down on a table near the well dressed elves, dipping her head low to one of the elves in particular. Mira caught a name. Lady Hilna. 

Lady Hilna was a very deathly pale woman, indeed, it appeared almost like she was wearing very pale makeup. Dark hair spilled freely down her back and her fashion sense was very much something Mira would have said fit better at a funeral. Very black and dark. Really the fashion senses of the elves in general were strange. One darker skinned elf was wearing a dress that was white and gold, another a toga trimmed with purple. 

The lady of the evening had her eyes sweep down toward the cages and she smirked, saying something to her fellows and lifting a brow. One of them shrugged and raised her hand, volunteering for something evidently. On the table before them they had what appeared to be a rather expensive bottle of spirits and shot glasses. 

Mira watched as the maid seized one of the cages and opened the top, walking toward the barren part of the room as she did. While she did that the darker skinned woman in white and gold poured herself out a shot in the glass and walked over to the barren area as well, idly sliding out of her sandals as she did. The shrunken noblewoman watched as the elf stood there and took a deep breath, before taking a shot and then spinning herself around about ten times. 

While she did that, the maid reached into the cage and pulled out handfuls of the humans from inside before dropping them on the ground and stepping back with the cage under her arm. And then, all at once, it clicked exactly *what* they were going to be used for by these women. 

The darker skinned elf finished spinning and then, no doubt a bit off balance and off after the shot, she started trying to step on the humans upon the floor. She missed her first stomp, cursing in her native language before her next step caught two under her sole. The woman arched her foot up and even from here, Mira felt a chill go up her spine as she could very easily make out the faint crunch of bones and bodies under her no doubt otherwise soft doughy skin. 

One man barely escaped a stomp, only to end up crunched under a heel the next moment. The woman was rapid and quick about stepping on the humans at her feet, the tiny pale things scattering in every direction they could and they only ever escaped death because the woman was unbalanced. Off slightly from what she had done at the start. A self handicap in a way. After about fifteen seconds one of the other girls shouted something and the woman suddenly stopped. Six stains were upon the marble floor and red stained upon the bottoms of her feet as well. She let out a groan and rolled her eyes as she looked at her fellows, displeased. 

“A drinking game…” Mira managed to choke out. 

That was what this was. A high society elven drinking game. She watched numbly as the maid gathered up the still fleeing survivors with incredible dexterity and tossed them back into the cage, shaking it around slightly. Mixing them up. Helping keep it fresh. Mira felt her knees buckle under her as she gazed out at the horror show, many others doing the same. They were just part of some fun evening activities a rich noblewoman was having with her peers. That was what they had been bought for. 

“N-no… oh gods no. Nonono!” Mira felt tears spring to her eyes as another elf, the one dressed in a purple toga walked up next. 

She had pink hair pulled into twin tails and a rather regal smirk on her lips as she didn’t bother to remove her sandals. She lifted her shotglass in a flirty little gesture, winking at the maid and drawing a flush from the servant before downing her shot and spinning around. Mira felt like she was about to throw up as she watched it again. She watched the pink haired elf chase around and crush fresh humans poured out onto the floor, laughing as she did it like it was a great time. Her friends laughed as they did it as well. To them it was fine entertainment for the evening, to the humans it was an execution that couldn’t have been more dehumanizing. 

Mira tried to look away, but it was impossible. Because she knew eventually it would be her turn. She watched as the girls ran through the first cage. It didn’t matter if someone survived one round, or the next round. Or the round after that. There was no reward. There was only the next round, poured out onto the floor again. You avoided dying under one elf’s foot only to be squished under another’s. 

People clawed at the bars, tried to climb and push at the door out of the cage. Tried to squeeze through the bars. Anything. The desperation of animals took many while the despair of what they were seeing took others. Others like Mira. Mira watched numb as the second cage was picked up, the people pleading and screaming as they were taken. 

“Not like this! NOT LIKE THIS!” 

“Please, mercy, I don’t wanna die!” 

“You can’t do this to us, we’re people! We’re not fucking animals!” 

The screams and wails of people taken to their doom. The rounds continued. As a consequence of drinking the elven women became more rowdy, loud, and laughed more and more. That didn’t make them more merciful. Not by a long shot. It made them less coordinated and their steps more clumsy, but that just meant being used for another’s round. It was unending. Terrible. Dreadful. 

Mira watched a shorter green haired elf staggered forth onto the floor, her feet having claimed many lives already at this point. She giggled as she leaned over at the cage and poked at it with her fingers. Her words came out in slurred common. “I’m gonna squish every~ single~ one~ of you little fucks, gods its gonna feel soooo *amazing*!” She said before lifting her shot to her lips and taking a drink. 

She spun around and the humans were dropped out onto the floor. On the last spin however the elven woman slipped and let out a squeak of alarm as she twisted and fell backward. The humans hadn’t had time to scatter properly and found themselves caught under the shadow of her very ample and very filled rear, screaming before she smashed down upon the floor. Her ass came crashing down upon them all, easily a dozen half inch tall humans smothered and squashed in the cataclysmic fall. 

She blinked and looked dazed before looking back over her shoulders, her friends roaring with laughter across the way. She puffed out her cheeks. “That totally counts!” She exclaimed. 

It was… almost mesmerizing in a horrifying kind of way. These women, indeed no one in elven society thought anything of this. Genuinely. Maybe individuals did. Maybe. But no one was stopping them. No one was protesting them. No one was forcing these women to not do this to them. It was acceptable by the standards of their race. Not even that, it was hard coded into most to not even give it a second thought. Like how most people didn’t spare a thought to the livestock slaughtered for their meals. Mira didn’t know what to feel, didn’t know what to think. She only knew when it was her turn. 

The cage was hoisted up and lifted through the air, the panic in the cage reaching fever pitch. Diane was lucky, Mira now realized. At least it seemed like it. She had been selected as a pet. A pet at least implied she had some sentimental value. Everyone in this cage was basically nothing. Less than nothing. These rich women probably scraped dirt off their shoes they considered more highly than them. Mira looked up at the sky as they were lifted toward the open area. 

“If there are any gods that watch me now… please. I know you won’t save me. Not after all I’ve seen here. But please… let Diane live a longer life than I. No matter what that life is. Don’t let this be her end. Please do that, for my last surviving vassal.” Mira managed to whisper. Whether the gods were kind or not, that was hard to say. Perhaps they never existed to begin with. Perhaps these were their gods now. 

Whatever the case was Mira watched as Lady Hilna staggered up and looked into the cage herself, dark eyes drinking in their terror and hopelessness. She blew them a kiss before stepping back and hoisting the shotglass to her lips. The vast hand of the maid came down and gripped Mira and her fellows, curling around her and a number of other humans. Fear lanced through her and survival instinct kicked in. 

The second she was dropped on the floor she took off running. As did everyone else. She ran hard and fast, her bare feet slapping hard against the cold tile. Blood stains littered the floor, the remains of other humans killed that night. A dark shadow loomed over them all as the pale elf, a goddess of death, loomed over them all and lifted her foot up. 

It slammed down, smashing into a man trying to flee not too far away, crushing him. The sound… it was sickening. She could hear a very quick muffled scream before the crunches drowned that out. Pale bare feet hoisted up, stained with the blood of their fellows that evening and slammed down. Fifteen seconds didn’t seem long but it was an eternity when one was upon the floor, scampering for their lives. 

Mira drove herself onward, a foot slamming down close by, air blasting past her and sending her falling over from the force of impact. She was breathing heavily as she tried to rise… only to see the deepened dark shadow beneath her. She looked up. Her eyes widened. Above was the bloodied sole of the pale elf. Time almost seemed to freeze in that moment. A moment of crystal clarity. A moment where time was frozen completely. Mira saw her death. A death not any different from any other human under elves. Noble or not, she was just another human to these beings. 

The clarity ended and the next instant there was a brief pain and then… blissfully nothing. Mira’s death was neigh instant, crushed beneath the sole of Lady Hilna. The pale elf arched her foot up at the end of her fifteen seconds and ground in the last human she had squashed, dragging her foot back and reducing Mira to nothing more than a red streak on the floor. A red streak among many splotches. Likely after the party it would be wiped away by the maid watching it all, annihilating any sign she had ever existed.