There were many vices that were indulged in under the pale light of the moon. While the light of day was a time of labor and toil, the evening was often seen as a time of rest and indulgence. Which meant for those that made their labor the work of the evening it could be quite lucrative. Dens of pleasure, booze, and gambling were often called houses of ill repute but that didn’t keep people away from them. If anything it made them more attractive for people looking to cut loose or lose themselves. One such person was Lyra. 

“Gods blast it all!” 

The rather tall dark haired woman cursed as she saw her hand of cards beaten by one of her opponents. She winced as she watched her chips and tokens pulled to the other side of the table. That was a microcosm of her whole string of luck tonight. Awful, terrible, and dreadful. She couldn’t even call the games rigged; it was just like she was afflicted with no luck at all. She growled low as she stood up from the table to make room for some other sucker, glaring at the card shark that had bested her as she did. She stormed off to the nearby bar. 

“Another drink, stronger than the last one. Put it on the tab.” She grumbled. 

Behind the counter a rather well dressed elven man nodded and started mixing a drink to suit her order. When he came back it was with a strip of paper rather discreetly placed under the glass. One that had how high her tab had been raised. It was… not cheap. A good two hundred gold from the rather expensive drinks she’d been indulging in. Lyra rolled her eyes and lifted the amber liquid to her lips before taking a nice long warm drink. 

Adventurer was a catch all term for a person that handled odd jobs. Anything from felling beasts in distant caves, to clearing out city sewers of vermin, to delivering packages to the next town over. The city of Rythmar had a rather large Guild devoted to such people, of which Lyra was a dues paying member. The young and lithe human rogue had just returned from a job to recover some noble’s stolen necklace and was swimming in money for the job. Throwing it around with reckless abandon since hell, she might be dead tomorrow. 

Well, she had thrown it around. Currently that last card game had just taken every bit of her money and now she found herself rather in debt to the gambling house known as the Golden Dragon. It was a rather more upscale den of vice, had a crowd of people that absolutely made or had a good deal of money to blow. Gave enough appearances of being a well off establishment with trained staff, while not being too exclusionary. Table buy-ins were high but not high enough to put off some artisans and merchants. 

Lyra finished her drink and put the glass down. Wasn’t the first time she had to skip out on paying a place and make a discreet exit. She side eyed the doors and slipped out into the chill of the late autumn night, leaving the clamor behind her. Her steps were a bit uneven from the amount of liquor she’d had through the evening but she was hardly a lightweight. Just would be a bit of a walk back to her apartment. 

The streets were sparse of people, the glow of flickering lamp light in the city the only thing to illuminate the paths. Lyra made it about halfway through her walk before her stomach started to feel a bit rough. Maybe mixing her booze wasn’t the best of ideas in hindsight. After she had neared the exit of the district she turned down an alleyway and staggered against the wall of what looked like some tailor's shop. Some rather horrible retching noises escaped the otherwise very lovely young woman as she held her hair back while bending over. 

“Ugh… fuck me…” 

Okay maybe she had gone a bit too hard on the celebration tonight. It wasn’t even really sinking in that she’d basically gambled away all her money. Nothing new there. She could make it up with some jobs tomorrow… assuming her skull didn’t split open come the morning. The woman staggered upright and shook her head as she cleared it before looking down the alleyway and squinting a bit. 

There was a figure at the entrance of it, rather large and broad shouldered. Didn’t look like anyone that Lyra wanted to mess with so she started walking in the other direction. Only to find the opposite side had a rather large woman standing at that entrance as well. The drunken haze faded just a bit as adrenaline started to flood her veins. That… couldn’t be good at all and probably wasn't a coincidence. 

“You guys got some kinda problem with me?” She said as she looked both ways. 

The man spoke up as both started walking toward her. “Seems like you walked out on a pretty big tab. The boss isn’t exactly too fond of folks walking out without paying what they owe.”

“Could say it's a sticking point for her.” The woman remarked. 

“So you either pay up, or ya get to plead yer case to her.” The man finished. 

Lyra was impressed. She had been gone for ten minutes. They had been tracking her paying and coming and going that closely? Whoever the boss of the Golden Dragon was, they certainly ran a tight ship. While she could respect it, the rogue wasn’t gonna be going along with that. Sounded like a real shitty way to spend an evening actually. She made a face like she was surprised and slapped her hand over her face. 

“Ohhhh, right right. Sorry bout that, man I’m so fucking wasted.” Lyra said as she reached to her hip and pulled out a pouch and held it up as she walked toward the man. 

“Yeah, right, haven’t heard that one before.” He said with a roll of his eyes. “Just hand over the money nice and easy and you’re free to go vomit against some other building.” 

“Yeah sure…” The rogue moved to hand him the pouch… only to toss her cloak from her shoulder and toss it over his head like a blanket. 

The man cursed and she could hear rapid steps from the woman approaching from behind upon the cobbled stone. Lyra was drunk but her reflexes were still rather sharp as she twisted around the man while he was temporarily blinded. She smirked as she neared the entry to the alleyway only for her ankles to suddenly jerk together and for a cry to escape her lips as she fell flat on her face. The woman chasing her had cleared the distance frighteningly fast and tossed a bola around her ankles with some impressive skill. 

Not a moment later Lyra let out a cry before both of the thugs slammed atop her and grabbed her, holding her down. The man let out a grunt of pain as an elbow slammed into his side before he tied her wrists. The woman meanwhile jerked a black bag over her head. Lyra opened her mouth to shout before a sharp blow smashed into the side of her head and rendered her completely unconscious. Blissful oblivion dragged her down an instant later. 

When she came to her head was ringing and she felt a lance of pain to welcome her back into the world of the waking. She blinked, her vision blurry for a few moments before it cleared up and she could see she was currently being held on her knees by the same pair that had grabbed her. She tested her wrists, bound with rope, same with her legs. She wasn’t gagged though so there was that. The room she was in was… very richly adorned. Plush carpets, drapes in front of a doorway, tapestries all around that looked rather exotic. Looked like a nobleman’s manor honestly.

“Man. Treat a girl with some kid gloves next time, like come on it was what… two hundred gold? Three hundred?” She grunted. 

“Two hundred and thirty seven to be exact.” Came a voice from beyond the curtains. 

Lyra turned her head back to the rich velvet red curtains. The voice was silky and sensuous and just from hearing it the two holding her in place stiffened and their backs grew straighter. There was some clear intimidation and respect there. Lyra had run with some operations when she had been younger. Enough to recognize the signs of clear difference to whoever the boss was. The difference between one that was respected and wasn’t always could be seen in how their underlings reacted. 

The curtains shifted aside and… Lyra’s eyes widened to perhaps the widest they had been. She wondered if she was still drunk honestly even if the booze had likely faded by now. Stepping from behind the crimson veil was a rather lovely woman, in fact Lyra would have called her stunning and beautiful. Enough to give elves a run for their money. Short, very short, with full lips and lovely blonde hair. Very well filled out as well. Amber eyes flicked over Lyra, piercing and almost hypnotic. She was wrapped in a floral patterned dress that appeared to have far eastern origins, a rather intricate tattoo of a skull wrapped in thorny vines and flowers along a thick thigh that showed as she walked. Upon her lovely cheek was a tattoo of a red flower in bloom. 

That in itself wouldn’t have stunned her quite so much as *what* the woman clearly was. Green skin, short stature, and those larger triangular ears on either side of her head. Dark blue painted nails that were pointed a bit more than was normal for a human. She was a member of a race that Lyra had probably joined parties to clear out of caves. One that was normally considered more of a nuisance race than a civilized one. 

“A… goblin?” She breathed. She almost couldn’t believe it. 

“Gawking is rude, you know. Though I’m glad my employees didn’t damage you to the point you can’t tell races apart.” The goblin woman remarked. 

She walked up to stand before the kneeling woman. On her knees the two were eye level. The blonde reached up and gripped Lyra’s jaw with her fingers, turning her head to the side and lifting a brow. “Nasty bump there, might want to get a healer to look at that, dear.” 

“Well whose fault is that?” Lyra growled. 

The woman lifted a brow. “Your own I’d say. Do you make a habit of dining in a restaurant and fleeing without paying? Trying on armor and leaving with it on your body? Any reasonable business owner would be displeased at what they are due not being paid. It just so happens I take steps to make sure I get what I’m owed despite attempts to avoid it from troublesome customers.” 

Lyra had to admit, she was used to rough screeching and screaming from goblins. Barely literate and barely clothed. This woman however was putting her on her back foot. She was incredibly articulate and oozed an almost sensual draw that courtesans spent years trying to perfect. The fingers left her chin and let her pull back. Lyra swallowed thickly as she was getting the sense this wasn’t quite someone she could expect to force her way away from. Needed to be smart. 

“Okay, okay, so I skipped out. You’re not too fond of that, message received. I can pay you back just, uh, not right now. I sorta gambled everything away, miss…?” 

“Lenri. Certainly sounds like an issue with a lack of restraint on your part.” The blonde mused. 

Lenri. That name. Lyra had heard that name before. She was wracking her head to think about exactly where she had heard it and then she had it. Her eyes widened just a bit. Lenri was the name of the owner of the Amber Eyes Trade Company. Never really looked into her but Lyra knew well the woman was extremely influential and had ownership of a number of businesses in the city as well as extensive access to eastern spice and fabric markets. The dark haired woman straightened just a bit. 

The woman noted the slight change in Lyra’s demeanor and snorted before looking at the ones holding her. She flicked her wrist in dismissal and the thugs, easily twice her height, bowed their heads ever so before letting Lyra drop forward onto the floor. The human let out a cry of surprise before landing forward onto the plush carpet. They closed the doors to the room behind them. Why then did Lyra feel like she was in no better a situation? 

Lenri stepped around Lyra, bare soft feet sinking into the carpet as she traced a circle around her. The rogue dared not to move. For some reason her instincts were telling her the real danger was being in a room alone with this woman with no witnesses. A lovely creature could be just as dangerous as a feral one. It just depended on if they decided to turn their claws on you or not. Right now a shark was circling her, a rather short green one. 

“L-look, I’ll definitely pay you back alright? Absolutely, the first job I take I’ll get you the money a-and interest! I’ll pay over what I owe you!” Lyra said at length. 

“Oh? Or perhaps you’ll skip town the second you get away from here. Lay low and hope I’ll forget you hiding in the cracks. Hard to say what is more likely with someone that leaves without saying a word and not paying.” The blonde mused. 

There was a tingle that was overcoming Lyra’s body for some reason. It was something she dismissed as a side effect of the whole getting slammed in the side of the head thing. However as it went on she noticed things were getting loose around her and her head started to spin and the world started to get a bit fuzzy. Magic. Magic was being used on her. She recognized the feelings anywhere. 

“W-wait a second let's just talk about this for a second!” Lyra said as she groaned in discomfort. 

“No real need to talk about it, you are broke and unable to pay me back. Nor do I particularly trust you to pay me back in full. Suppose I’ll settle for some fleeting entertainment.” Lenri remarked above. 

The sensation got worse and worse and Lyra curled up on herself as much as she could, groaning and writhing in pain. She felt her clothes loosen around her and then felt herself fall under a dark shroud. Slowly, very slowly, the discomfort and pain eased up and Lyra felt tolerably more human again. She found that her limbs were totally unbound and that she could finally move around. She was free! 

She jumped to her feet and looked around. Had she been teleported somewhere? She was naked, so that was a touch odd and found herself under some vast shroud of darkness. Whatever the case she spied a sign of light in one direction and started bolting that way. Best to figure out just where that damn crazed goblin had sent her. She *still* couldn’t believe that the woman had been a goblin. Good gods, what a weird night. 

The darkness was pulled from her eyes as she stepped out into the light and found herself before a plain of red. A vast rolling field of crimson, thick fibers that stuck up into the air. She found herself upon a few of them, standing over them as she drank in the strange land. It stretched all around and was a world unlike any she had ever been in, alien really. Some other plane of existence perhaps. 

Suddenly the ground shook and a grand shadow fell over the land. Lyra looked up and her eyes almost rolled right out of her sockets as they went so wide. Her heart skipped several beats it felt like and ice water filled her veins. Towering over her, looming on high like a living mountain dressed in fine silks was Lenri. The amber eyes of the woman leered down upon her from a vast distance. Short she might have been but now, at the moment, Lyra was little more than a gnat upon the carpet compared to her. 

Lenri stepped around the pile of clothes that Lyra had shrunken out of and flicked a finger, magic shoving the clothes aside. A vast whirlwind of force struck Lyra as the mountain of fabric that had once been her clothes moving kicked it up. She screamed as motion swirled around her, sending her flying further out on the carpet before landing down in the fibers of the carpet. They towered over her and above the green skinned woman seemed to know *exactly* where she was upon the floor. 

“Stop! Change me back! Look, I'm sorry! Please, this is too much! I’ll never cross you again Miss Lenri! I promise!” Lyra screamed it at the top of her lungs to the heavens. 

Lenri showed no signs of having heard. Instead the ground shook again. And again. Tremors that rattled Lyra to her very bone. This was the towering mountain of a woman walking. She was walking toward her. Every step swallowed a distance that Lyra herself couldn’t have hoped to have crossed. Even so, Lyra ran. She ran hard and fast, stumbling slightly as she started but keeping her balance and taking off through the plush carpet as the towering woman behind her stepped after her so very slowly. Deliberately. 

A grand shadow passed overhead and she dared to look up. A vast, flawless green skinned foot sailed overhead. It dwarfed Lyra countless times over, it dwarfed the biggest forts and castles that Lyra had explored in her time as an adventurer. It continued moving before slamming down just ahead of her. A blast of air and a shockwave smashed into Lyra, sending her flying again and smacking back into a fiber. 

“Oh dear, missed. Sorry about that, it *is* rather tricky to make out lint in the carpet you know.” The amber eyed sorceress remarked as she looked down. She knew *exactly* where she was judging from the smug smirk curling her lips. 

Lyra recovered but no amount of recovery could have prepared her for what happened next. The ground shook and shuddered, shifting and rumbled. She couldn’t hold her balance. Lenri shifted her foot over, countless carpet fibers bending and bowing under the weight of her heel as she lifted it up and propped it on its heel. The shadow fell over Lyra once more as above, five petite toes idly flexed and curled on high. It was just an idle shift of the foot from someone like Lenri but for Lyra she looked up and saw a vast and all consuming sky threatening to come crashing down upon her. 

A threat that turned out to be very real as Lenri brought her foot down slowly. Lyra of course tried to run, tried to flee, tried to put any kind of ground between her and Lenri. This couldn’t be happening! This couldn’t be happening! The darkness was growing deeper and thicker around her and when she looked up again she tripped over herself. The sole of her foot was touching the fibers and causing them to bend and Lyra was right under that. There was no light any longer and she screamed as the weight of Lenri’s foot came crashing down over her. 

A moment passed. Two. Three. Lyra opened her eyes after squeezing them shut. Darkness all around but she was… alive. She was alive. She could feel plush surfaces all around, the fibers pushing against her and pinning her to the ground but she wasn’t being crushed. Beyond that, she knew well what was above the fibers. A single petite foot settled upon a red carpet. Lyra was hyperventilating, her heart pounding in her chest. What… what the fuck? 

The foot shifted, light flooding in around her, and Lenri set it on its side as she gazed down with no small amount of amusement in those amber eyes on high. “Oh dear. Too small to crush looks like. Well that is a pity. Though at that scale, what else could be expected I suppose.” Lenri said with a mean little cackle. Perhaps the first unpleasant noise out of her, that laugh was absolutely a witch laugh. 

Lyra stared upward as the fibers started to right themselves slowly. Too small. Too pathetic to be crushed underfoot. Insignificant, like dirt really. That was how small she had become. Something that was unable to be ended like an insect because she was *lower* than an insect. It wasn’t explicitly said but that smug look on high and her words left enough implication to know exactly what she meant. 

“P-please, no more, I promise I’ll do whatever you want! Anything, fucking anythi-aaaaaa!” 

Lyra screamed as an invisible force gripped her and she found herself rapidly being lifted off the ground and up into the air. A telekinetic energy surrounded her and tore her into the sky, passing along the length of Lenri’s lovely form. She had been so short that it was pretty funny but now traveling at a rapid speed in front of the length of her body she was anything but short. She was all encompassing. She demanded the attention of anyone below her just by existing. Right now, Lyra fit the bill. 

She ended right before the face of the woman, drifting before Lenri’s eyes as they leered at her. Her form was laid bare and Lyra could safely say she was more scared of this short pretty goblin than she was of anything she had encountered. No deranged necromancer or ferocious beast came close to just how *small* she felt when Lenri looked her over. How pathetic she felt. How nothing she looked. 

Another booming cackle filled her ears, the volume almost unbearable. “I could just pinch you out I suppose, rather pitiful as a way to go don’t you think. Then again, rather quick. Not really enough time for you to drink in your errors in your final moments.” The woman mused as she seemed to mull over *how* to dispose of Lyra. 

“N-no… there's no n-need…” She whimpered. “I-I can pay, I will!” 

Pleas that failed to move the woman before her as she seemed to come to a decision. Lyra drifted closer and closer to her face. More pointedly she was moving closer to the dark purple painted lips. Lips that parted slowly as she approached and when she breathed out a blast of minty air washed over the tiny rogue. It didn’t take a genius to realize where she was drifting into as within the vast tongue wriggled and writhed like a beast waiting for prey. 

“NO! Not like this! STOP! This is inhuman, don’t do this! I’m not- you can’t! You can’t!” Lyra screamed and she tried to struggle, tried to resist the magic that was drawing her ever closer to the maw of the woman. 

It was no use. As she got closer she could see thick strands of saliva breaking and dripping down from the roof of her mouth. Gleaming perfect teeth with larger canines than a human would have. Far in the back was a pit that led straight to hell itself, eager and pulsing in anticipation of the very tiny mint that would be taking a trip down. A very one way trip no doubt. 

Lyra passed between the purple lips of the merchant goblin and found herself immersed in the warm humid hell of her mouth. Only then did the bond holding her release and she found herself free falling before landing with a splat upon her tongue. All light was cut off as Lenri closed her lips, sealing her in the moist fleshy cavern. Lyra was hyperventilating again and she felt about to keel over as she stood upon the vast slimy tongue. 

The ground beneath her shifted and twisted and writhed around as she was hoisted up and smashed into the roof of her mouth. It didn’t crush her but it absolutely knocked the wind out of her. She was little more than a fleck of dirt being washed around in a vast world. She couldn’t get away and every moment she was being coated in more and more saliva. It irritated her skin and she let out a scream only to swallow some of it. 

The tongue curled around and shifted until she was peeled off and found herself being rubbed into her cheek, her form coated from head to toe in saliva as she was toyed with by the vastly larger woman. Her brain was almost shutting down as she was handled like this. Tormented like this, used and so easily shifted around. At the moment, Lenri might as well have been an all powerful god. One that had utter control over her fate. One that at the moment didn’t seem merciful. 

At last light flooded in and when a delirious Lyra looked out from the mouth tormenting her she saw a mirror. A mirror reflecting Lenri watching the inside of her mouth. Inspecting Lyra as she sat upon her tongue. Amber eyes gleamed with an amused malice, she was enjoying herself deeply. She was also giving Lyra clearly what was a last little look at the outside world beyond her prison. A fact that was punctuated by her tongue lifting up and forming an incline toward her throat. 

Lyra gasped and panted as she grasped at handfuls of slick flesh, breathing heavily as she was trying so very hard to not slide down to the throat. It was no use those, slowly, very slowly she was sliding there. She didn’t want to die! She didn’t want to be eaten alive! Anything would be better than that! Oh gods this was it, no she had so much more she wanted to do! So much more she had to live for! If she had known this she would have offered to do anything she could to pay back her debts. 

Lenri closed her mouth again and she was expecting to be swallowed, expecting this was it. Instead she was jerked from where she was in her mouth and found herself swimming in a glob of saliva gathered up in Lenri’s mouth. There was another shift before light flooded her rapidly again. Lenri pursed her lips and bent over and Lyra along with the saliva plummeted down into a golden goblet. 

Lyra coughed and sputtered and crawled her way out of the gob of spit gathered at the bottom of a goblet, trying to gather her senses. Everything was frayed, everything was so very much more. She looked up and saw her tormentor leering down at her. Watching her pull herself pitifully from her spit like it was a pool. A sneer curled its way along her lips and the look of disdain that was directed at Lyra was something she could only call draconian. 

“Five hundred gold. Three days. I’ll return you to normal under those terms. If you try to skip town or hide… you’ll go the rest of the way. Do I make myself clear, you worthless little human?” She sneered. 

Lyra stared upward into the heavens above, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She nodded once, twice… and then she fainted as darkness took the corners of her vision and the stress of everything took her. She had never agreed to something she meant more than that. No matter what it took, there was absolutely no doubt in Lenri’s mind as she set the goblet down on a side table that Lyra would work herself to the bone to pay that off. She always collected her due.