One would think that, as the most prolific figure in the entire Gridanian state, the Elder Seedseer would be easier to track down. As a member of her personal Honor Guard, the Keepers of the Entwined Serpent, the fact that you've been unable to locate her stings particularly deep. It is not for want of trying; in your search, you'd practically turned Gridania Old and New on its head, much to the annoyance of several Twin Adders who you had pestered on multiple occasions. And yet, she would not be found.

You nervously crept towards the entrance of the humble-looking room. New as you were, it was not your station in the Keepers to enter her personal abode, but given the alternative of just never finding her at all, you found the courage to continue on towards the door. You delivered several heavy knocks to the door in hopes of stirring her inside, but more than a few moments had passed without so much as a squeak. It was certainly possible that she was not here, but were that the case, she wouldn't be anywhere in the city at all. So, on the off chance that she was but a heavy sleeper, you opened the door and gently creep inside...

What lay inside was a very simple room, which fit your charge to a tee; she did not seem like one who would revel in excess, after all. A simple table, a soft but normal feather bed, a small dresser... but most crucially, no Elder Seedseer. You could not help but feel completely dejected at this most recent in a steady stream of failures. Self-doubt clouded your mind, as your head began to pound and your chest began to tighten. Perhaps you weren't cut out for this position. Perhaps she had left the state and you simply hadn't been informed. Or perhaps-

You stumbled forward, having momentarily lost your balance. Feeling your chest tighten in emotional turmoil was one thing, but even your doubt-addled mind could realize that this increasing tightness was not of the emotional variety. In fact, your entire body began to feel a sense of squeezing and contracting; you could feel each pump of blood in your veins, your breath running short, your vision beginning to darken. A sensation unlike pain, but highly uncomfortable nonetheless. You swayed back and forth, with confusion and panic replacing all thoughts in your mind. It felt as though your body was rejecting you, flat-out. Perhaps in retribution for your failure. But at last, a thought runs through your mind: an enemy? Is this an attack? Is that why I can't find her?

Even as you felt yourself begin to drift into darkness, you clutch your spear with all your might. Even if you go down without a fight, even if you've failed your mission, you'll be Twelve damned if you don't at least appear to have struggled to the very end. Your breathing finally cut out completely, as you fell to your knees, blacking out.

.   .    .

Your warrior's instincts begin to blare in your mind as your consciousness is slowly returned to you. You can already tell your immediate surroundings have changed; a sense of vastness overwhelms you as you scramble to your feet. You find your vision blurry, but you can still see enough to tell that your location has morphed to a wide open plain of what was likely dirt, stretching farther than the eye could see. You holstered your spear to rub your eyes, only to feel the ground shake beneath you. It was only slight, but enough for you to whip out your spear by instinct alone.

There was certainly nothing nearby that could have caused such a tremendous thud, but you're thankful for your training nonetheless as a pair of vicious mandibles latches onto the wooden shaft of your weapon. A small struggle ensues before you're able to whip the spear back and jab it in the eye, causing it to reel backwards in pain as you steady yourself, finally given a moment of reprieve. The creature that assails you appears to be that of an Antling, from around the likes of Thanalan, but far, far bigger...

...or maybe, far, far smaller instead. Having regained your wits, it becomes evident that the simple room you had slowly crept into fully encompassed the vast, wide space you stood in. You had reached such a diminutive size that even a Lalafell, low to the ground as they are, would be hard pressed to notice you scurrying across the floor. Less than an ilm in height, if even that...

The gravity of the situation had finally crossed your mind. Small enough to remained unnoticed for the rest of your life, barely able to reach a decent meal, harassed by vilekin and all sorts of other vermin who would likely see you as an easy meal. A cold sweat formed on your forehead, as you continued stepping back from the now thoroughly pissed off ant. You suddenly find yourself drained of your strength, barely able to hold your spear up to defend yourself. Thoughts of your soon demise creep into your mind...

In your despair, however, you hadn't noticed that the deep, loud thudding from before had gotten louder and louder, until each time it happened, it reverberated your within your chest. You hadn't even time to look around to see what it was before the door to the room swung open; it seemed to move in a sort of slow motion, despite it definitely moving quickly. You had only the moment to wonder about how your perspective of time has shifted before she had walked in. Your charge.

Kan-E-Senna, dressed in her typical Elder Seedseer attire, strode into the room with purposeful steps, though from your perspective down below, even a single step forward took upwards of three seconds. To say that she was massive from your eyes did a disservice to just how gargantuan she was as she towered over you. The mere sight of her was completely overwhelming.

And then her boot stepped down; it became clear that the thudding you heard earlier had come from her as she approached, but being within the room itself, it was less of a sound and more of a shockwave. The deep booming sound shook you where you stood, and suddenly, all of your instincts began to scream at you. Such intense fear and apprehension washed over you as you realized her other boot-clad foot had raised from it's resting place and began to swing towards you.

Suddenly, the ant didn't even matter. You almost dropped your spear and nearly tripped over yourself as you scrambled behind you, running as fast as you could away from the approaching foot. The sound of it cutting through the air nearly roared like a cerulean engine; you could feel the air pressure change dramatically with each ilm closer it got. And on top of that, the ant didn't seem keen on meeting its end just yet, and had gone into hot pursuit towards you.

But it had become abundantly clear you'd never outrun the titaness, nor the fast approaching ant. Your mind raced a mile a minute, looking for any way out. Anything.

...You suddenly remembered something you'd seen from a traveling band of Dragoons near Gridania's Aetheryte square. You kept pace for as long as you could, staying well beneath the approaching shadow of your charge's foot, before suddenly jamming your spear into the floor and vaulting yourself out to the side in a rapid change of direction. You spun around in mid-air, looking up and beneath the dress of Kan-E, before watching as her titanic foot avoided you by mere ilms. Any sense of victory or relief you might have felt was stifled almost immediately by a grim reminder of your situation.

A small shriek wracked your ears as a sickening crunch filled the air, followed by the near deafening boom of Kan-E's foot besides you. Every movement from her, no matter how small, reverberated within you as you lay stunned on the ground, merely gazing at the foot that eclipsed you, trailing up the leg to the rest of the titaness's body. Before long, her heel began to lift up off the wooden floor as she walked on, and you were met with the grizzly sight of the vilekin crunched on her dirt-coated sole. You could could only watch as strands of green bodily fluid stretch from the splotch on the ground up to the stuck and mangled corpse on the boot, which snapped with no resistance as she continued walking.

That might have been you, had you not been as quick to think as you were.

It took all of your strength to merely pull yourself up off the ground, before collapsing back to a sitting position. You wistfully gazed over at your spear where you left it, it having been ground to dust by your Seedseer's immense weight. You felt so, so heavy as the weight of all the emotions you just felt bore down on your soul. All you could reasonably do at this moment was sit back and gaze at Kan-E-Senna as she trudged onward, eventually taking seat on the feather bed with pot of tea in hand.

A few minutes had passed, as Kan-E-Senna gently drank her tea. She seemed to carry such grace and dignity, even in her moments alone, though a hearty giggle cut through the air as she sat, seemingly remembering some silly event during her absence from within the city. You, on the other hand, felt no urge to do aught but sit and stare at her. It felt... enthralling to do so, truth be told. Of course, as the Elder Seedseer, most in Gridania felt a sort of reverence towards her, but you had felt as though you had a special affection towards her. In spite of everything, you began to feel yourself calm down, as your soul unwound...

But one does not become the leader of a nation without a certain sixth sense about things. Kan-E looked up from her tea, her head moving with a sort of heft that betrayed your diminutive stature. As if the elementals themselves had tattled, her head suddenly turned... only to lock eyes directly with you. Your heart nearly froze in her chest as her massive green eyes gazed upon your form, overwhelming in presence despite her merely seemingly look with curiosity in her eyes. And yet... you still find yourself suddenly frozen. Fear, apprehension, terror... you know not the cause; but as she slowly sets her cup down, the unmistakable feeling the dread assails you.

Slowly, she props herself up from her seat, standing unfathomably tall before you even as far away as she was. Leaning her staff against the wall, she slowly, yet somehow quickly, begins to thump over towards you. Each impact of her sole against the ground shakes you to your very core, with each louder and more aggressive than the last. There is no dead air in the seconds between her steps, as the act of her merely moving through space displaces the air with a roar. Oppressive is the only apt word for it.

You can only slowly lean back, staring up towards the giantess as she finally stops just short of you, staring down from her incredible height. You immediately think back to a thought you had earlier; that how a Lalafell would even have trouble noticing you. Your blood runs cold; do you even seem a person to her anymore? She, who thoughtless snuffed out the life of an ant, who now stands before you?

The moment you see her foot raise off the ground, your life begins to flash before your eyes. It was... a good life, all told. Disappointing towards the end, but that's the way of it at times. Watching as her leg left high above you, a hand gently laid on her hip, you merely close your eyes and listen to the rushing wind as she descends upon you.

There is an incredible thud, mixed with the sounds of a screech and a crunch; not an unfamiliar sound. While you certainly find yourself displaced, the wind of her descent knocking you aside, you don't share the fate of the creatures nearby. Shaking yourself lucid, you suddenly realize that the ant from earlier hadn't been alone, and in your stupor, you hadn't noticed several creeping up behind you as you sat overwhelmed by your charge. Now laying on the floor directly beneath Kan-E's dress, you watch with a mix of awe and horror as her foot lifts off its most recent impact site, before swiftly moving and descending upon the other of the approaching ants. She presses down hard with the ball of her foot, a sickening crunch echoing in your ears as she grinds it to paste on the floor.

With several wide, oppressive movements, she steps back from above you, and slowly gazes back down at you. And after a few moments of curiosity... she gently smiles.

It is as though a healing balm had been cast upon your soul. Your Elder Seedseer, your charge, noticing you, even amidst the wide vastness of the floor. Her going out of her way to safeguard you against those that would do you harm... as any good leader would. With slow, deliberate movements, she kneels down toward you, disrupting the air pressure around you as she does, and slowly offers a single finger before you.

“Come, little one. Let us get you to safety.”

As her booming voice reverberates in your bones, all apprehension you had suddenly vanishes. You wildly clamber to your feet and climb upon her finger, easily able to stand on her fingernail. She slowly giggles at your eagerness, before gently beginning to rise back up to her normal height. To say that you felt a sense of vertigo as she arose would be an understatement, but your grip on her finger was sure and true, and before long... you felt as though you were on top of the world. Despite just being a fairly average room in truth, from your up high position in her care, it seemed like a vast, untamed landscape, begging to be conquered.

She carefully positioned her finger towards her face, gazing towards you with affection and care; her emerald eyes were massive, but conveyed only tenderness as you returned the gaze. As you embraced the warmth of her fingertip, you could feel yourself getting choked up, tears pooling around your tear ducts. All the intense emotions had finally begun to settle, and you couldn't help but cuddle closer towards her finger. She seemed almost surprised, before taking on an almost motherly look.

“My dear Keeper... I cannot imagine the trials you have faced today. None could fault you for your spirit breaking. Come, soothe thy spirit.”

Just as the fact that she recognized you personally came to light, she gently moved you towards her lips. With the utmost gentleness, she you against them, their plush softness damn near enveloping you as she did. With a subtle 'mwah,' she released you from their alluring embrace, only for you to be washed with a wave of her warm, steamy breath. You couldn't help but cough as the humidity and subtle scents of tea and her morning meal assaulted your senses, but in truth, you did not find it unpleasant. She giggled once more at your mild coughing fit, before slowly moving back towards the bed and taking a seat.

Being atop a colossus as it moved was a feeling unlike any you had experienced; it was so easy to feel the weight of her movements and she sliced through the air without any effort. With great care, from her sitting position, she lowered her finger with you atop it down towards where she had previously set down her tea; you hadn't been able to see it previously, but there had been a small slice of walnut bread on a plate nearby. She gently set you down near the slice, gesturing towards it; while throughout the events of this late morning, you hadn't thought of your stomach, the tantalizing scent of freshly baked bread revealed just how famished you were.

As you tore into the bread with, frankly, embarrassing fervor, Kan-E-Senna giggled once more, before leaning over and propping herself over you on the side table. Her immense size cast a shadow over you, but no longer intimidating, it felt safe, and secure, like a kindly umbrella. She again spoke, her slow (relative to you) booming voice enveloping you fully.

“Dearest Keeper, as your charge, I vow to find a way to restore you from this affliction. Until then, I shan't have you leave my side. Your health and wellness is safe with me.”

You looked up at her with a smile on your face and a mouth full of walnut bread, as a slightly devious thought crossed your mind.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad being stuck like this?