"Rise and shine, beauty Queen,"

Saffron peeled his eyes open when Foejay's gravelly voice barged into his ears to end the sweet dream he was having.

Saffron groaned, looking up at his caretaker standing beside his bed in his gloomy cell with a burning cigarette in his left hand. "Go fuck yourself," Saffron rolled over to the other side and pulled his warm blanket tightly over his disheveled mop of a hairdo.

Foejay gave a chuckle. "Nah, I think I rather fuck you," he said.

"What the!" Saffron screeched as Foejay flipped his bed over, making him roll over the cold and hard stone floor of his prison cell that wore the pungent smell of urine and was plastered with various stains of dried blood.

Grinding his teeth with seething anger, Saffron leaped up and lunged towards his caretaker.

"Go on," Foejay eyed him leisurely through a pair of beady pig eyes as Saffron stood hissing right in front of him like a wild beast ready to devour his prey. "make my day."

"I thought so." Foejay presented a sly grin, displaying the hole in the upper row of his crooked teeth where he'd lost a front tooth a few months ago – knocked away by one of Saffron knuckles. He slapped Saffron in the face when the latter showed no sign of any further action following his moment of rage.

SMACK! And another, even harder than the first and aimed at the other cheek.

"And this is for putting me behind schedule with your insolent demeanor."

Saffron sank to his knees when Foejay's fist was thrusting hard in his stomach, making him groan on the floor like a wounded hyena in a fetal position.

After taking a long puff of his smoke, Foejay threw his still burning cigarette on Sefron's chest before walking off.

"I'll meet you upfront in about thirty seconds from now, or it's The Chamber for you."

Saffron flapped his hands like a bird against his chest, trying to get rid of the smoldering cigarette already underway to burn through his raffled shirt.

 Life had not always been like this for Saffron. Things used to be better for him. Not great, but broadly better than the circumstances he was forced to live in now.

 Rubbing his painful stomach, Saffron stood up and narrowed his eyes into small stripes while looking after Foejay, who was just walking out of sight, bending around a corner, whistling some joyful tune. After months of suffering and denigration, Saffron yearned desperately to get even with Foejay, his former classmate and best friend. But he knew better, though. He'd learned the hard way that the wisest thing to do at this moment was to just dance to the tune of the ones holding the strings in this hellhole. They could inflict more pain on him than he could on them. 

He sighed while looking at the wall above his bed where rows upon rows of carved lines were imprinted in the wall – reminding him of the painful fact that this cell was already about two years his home.

Living his life like an average eighteen-year-old – attending school, goofing around with friends, dreaming of dating some hot dish – felt like a past life to Saffron now.

 The cheery face of Aurora, his kid sister, lit up in his mind. Even while being just a conjured image in his head, did the light of Aurora's twinkling eyes penetrate deep into the core of Sefron's soul – just like they did in real life.

 It all started with her. About three years ago, the willful 8th grader felt some latent sorcery power swelling up inside her body on one day. Presumably inherited by her great-great-great-great grandmother. From that day on, Aurora was able to do the impossible. Life took a downturn for poor Saffron from there. And it all ended up here – where he was shrunken, abducted and imprisoned by his kid sister, and forced to live life as an enslaved person in a shrunken city.

It took him a hard time adjusting to this new harsh reality. It still does. Aurora always had these authoritarian tendencies whereby she tried her damnedest to make everyone else do her bidding. And now, with a whole shrunken city full of obedient morsels in her possession, Aurora took this demeanor to the extreme. She'd made it clear to them all on day one – as her immensely huge torso and firmly sculptured thighs soared dramatically high above the city's skyline resting on her nightstand – that she was not some girl that people could pester anymore. No, she was a Goddess – owner of life and bringer of calamity to them.

Although her awe-inspiring appearance was enough to whip them all into submission, examples had to be made.

It did not take long before the entire city was transformed into a high-functioning sweatshop – plowing day and night – to meet the cruel needs of the brat ruler. One statue after the other was being crafted and hoisted up – one more splendidly looking than the other, but all resembling the appearance of the juvenile Goddess with her velvety and voluminous shoulder-length strawberry blond coiffure.

Innumerable shrines and temples and various houses of worship followed after that – all strictly dedicated to keeping the faith in Aurora's kindness and generosity alive.

When the whole town was functioning as it should be – at least, according to Aurora's vision – Saffron and his best friend Foejay were dropped in the middle of it. It took Foejay little trouble adjusting to this new life where hard labor and veneration of a self-proclaimed deity was a daily reality. 

It also helped that Foejay had the hots on Sefron's younger sister, so bringing himself to actually worshiping Aurora came relatively easy. All to the annoyance of Saffron, whose feelings of hatred towards his kid sister were unendingly deep. 

It ignited a grudge between the two friends. Foejay got scolded by Saffron for dropping his dignity so easily by worshiping a mere teenage girl suffering from ideas of megalomania. 

It separated them more and more until Foejay was being rounded up by the local authorities like a criminal of society and stuffed into a re-education camp, until he was willing enough to submit to the city's norms and values – which simply meant dedicating his life to worshiping his kid sister Aurora like a deity.

As he caressed his chest, Saffron felt his ribs jutting out through his tight, stretching skin. A low grumble boiled up from his belly as it made another vain attempt to beg his master for some food.

Saffron scratched his arm and staggered towards Foejay, who stood waiting for him outside, smoking another cig. 

The sound of bellowed commands penetrated his ears when he exited the building. A truck pulled up right in front of them in the street, packed to the rafters with a fresh load of unwilling slaves – all shrunken and plucked from the street by a brat girl with powers she shouldn't have.

They were all being unloaded like cattle as various soldiers pushed and shouted at them to make haste forming a line.

A high-ranking officer walked up, inspecting them. He sniffed his nose and spat on the ground.

"Dispose these infidels from their lice before escorting them to their barrack," the officer instructed the grunts.

Saffron gaped after the sorry lot being guided away by several cruel soldiers when a hand landed on his shoulder. He flinched hard, which induced a peal of laughter coming from Foejay.

 "Don't worry, I only punch you on the nose while you're asleep." he clapped Sefron reassuringly on the shoulder. Foejay immensely enjoyed intimidating his former friend. Especially since the latter was much burlier built and almost a head taller than him.

 "You're lucky, Mr. Crank assigned you to stone duty today, but I just received an order to escort you to The Chapel instead. You're summoned."

"By whom?" Saffron asked.

Foejay lowered his eyes and remained silent. It was a gesture of reverence, but Saffron knew immediately what it meant. 

No one was allowed to give words or speak indirectly in some way about The Goddess while conversing with someone. Only during prayer was a thing like that allowed.

 Saffron nodded and followed Foejay on his heels as he paced off towards The Chapel. Aurora was calling for him. She probably needed him for something.

THUMB

THUMB

THUMB

The ground shook heavily. Another tremble followed – heavier than the last, making every building vibrate on its foundation. Saffron also knew what that meant. 

Saffron swallowed deeply as he craned his neck to watch the instigator of this fall of nocturnal shadow. A humongous figure, grander than the eye could perceive, blocked out their artificial sun – which in reality was nothing more than Aurora's bedroom light. The whole town was cast in a blanket of shadow. 

Beyond the skyline of soaring high rises, he saw a spectacle he had seen for innumerable times before. It was just a sight that never ceased to impress. As his eyes crept upwards, Saffron saw a feminine bare thigh, broader than the whole city, soaring sky-high where it connected with one half of a tush, bubbling lecherously outwards. It concealed the greater part of a velvety red thong, firmly buried between two tight as steel ass cheeks. 

Saffron aimed his eyes higher and watched in disgust as Aurora stretched her arms up high while mooning her derriere for the whole town to see. She flexed them sensually.

It was a show Aurora put up more frequently these days. Nowadays, Aurora is a 16-year-old girl with a precocious body richly filled with sensual curves. And her bubble butt was her pride, which she happily flaunted for everyone who dared look at it.

Too bad it was forbidden to lay eyes on The Goddess. Doing it anyway could result in the death penalty if an Enforcer caught you in the deed. The Enforcers were a small elite unit that bore the task of enforcing the laws dictated by The Goddess. 

They were the city's highest authority, which only had to answer to The Goddess herself. They were also the only ones allowed to look directly at The Goddess.

            Foejay sat whining like a little girl on all fours at Sefron's feet – sputtering words of prayer between heavy sobs. Saffron shook his head and followed his example – besides the whining – when he saw a couple of enforcers on the other side of the street, beating people on the back with a baton who weren't praying with enough conviction or were simply sobbing to audible. He made sure that his praying words were loudly spoken and clearly articulated when the enforcers were passing them. They left him alone. But Foejay was not so lucky.

"Stand on the fingers of this ungrateful wimp until I can feel his happiness." One of the enforcers said.

Foejay cried out loud when the other enforcer placed his boot on his hand, leaning hard. A crack followed when one of Foejay's fingers broke. He cried out in pain.

"Happiness, wimp! I want to feel it!" the enforcer screamed in his ear as he started to place his boot on Foejay's other hand.

Even Saffron was feeling sorry now for his former friend, who had made his life such a misery these last few months.

Smile, for godsakes. Smile! He thought with frustration. 

But in reality, he was even more worried that Foejay would vent his anger on him after this.

Foejay gathered all of his inner strength to pull out a tiny shred of happiness hiding in his little toe and made it shine through his quivering voice. It seemed enough to convince the enforcers. Saffron sighed deep when he heard them walking off, harassing other citizens. While sitting on all fours, Saffron lifted his head, and his eyes fell on a car window on the other side of the street. Through it, he could see the reflection of the city's skyline behind him. And beyond it, he saw Aurora's gleeful face soaring above it all, grinning down upon it like a toddler watching a flea circus.

"Rise, my brother. Rise and greet me with respect," Aurora's godlike voice rolled over the city.