“Two.”

The four boys bolted past between her ankles, empowered by their base magics.

“Three.”

They tore past the bushes and were back in under the trees.

“Four.” Mara’s voice was more distant now.

They had a moment’s pause, wondering where to go, but Red just ran and called them to him. Overthinking wouldn’t do here, a notion they implicitly agreed upon as they joined him wordlessly. What mattered was getting away from her.

They didn’t hear the count to five, but they did feel the tremors returning. The tangible quakes hastened their steps. Their bodies whipped past the branches, navigating through and under the trees, their shoes drumming the grass. But she found them still, guided by her beads, emerging from the foliage like a moving mountain. The four boys sprinted, the two monstrous feet barreling through the greenery and gaining purchase on them. With each step, the row of five long, mighty toes were closer, and there was an increasing fear that they would be the imprint on the soil some other unlucky group of people would stumble upon. They would be made the next examples. Those soles wanted to recruit them under their soft flesh, plaster them to the underside and make them equals to the twigs, blades of grass, and smatters of dirt stuck thereunder.

Scoring one panicked glance back, they saw the mirrored alternation of five toes smashing the soil behind them, blasting their backsides with a puff of air as they narrowly missed, and it induced the boys with the extra surge of adrenaline they needed to keep them at their quickest. Though it was possible she was toying with them, able to catch up yet maintaining a taunting nearness.

There was no time to think, doubt, discuss, the four had to keep going, and as the wooden steps of a porch appeared at the end of their long run, they jumped up without question, slipped into the open door without question, followed Red’s lead down the hall and under the two-foot high slit under the giant door. And in that room, they hurried underneath a cupboard. The colors of their base magics left their bodies, dissipating like mist thrown to the wind. Green got on his knees, Red rearing his head up, Blue lying down on his back, and Lenny leaned against the cupboard’s leg, all of them panting, tugging their shirts to air their torsos and wiping their brows. A large window in the room allowed sunlight in, the room bright, and although there was some darkness underneath the cupboard, it wasn’t enough for comfort. Next to their cupboard, they had a bed, the width between its two legs larger than human houses.

The door opened, the four of them retreating to the back of the cupboard, against the wall. Those two familiar feet stamped forward past the edge of the door, producing deep thuds on the hardwood.

“Well, well,” she said, closing the door behind her. “Slipping into my bedroom? You boys are naughty.” Mara went over to the rack and picked a large robe, wrapping it into a tight roll of cloth. She shoved that cloth into the slit under the door, blocking exit. “So, little thieves.” On the balls of her feet, she twisted around nimbly, facing toward the room. “There are two options. You can come out and surrender, which includes kneeling at my feet and kissing my toes. To begin with.” She giggled. “The second option is to keep hiding and make me find you. And when I do, well, these feet won’t be as kind to you then. Make your decision, rats!” It went quiet.

“What do we do?” Lenny whispered, all four still with a pant to them.

“We should just give up,” Green said. “It’ll be better. We can’t get out anyways.”

Red scowled at the notion. “No way. I’m not kissing her stinky toes.”

Blue signaled to get a word in. “Wait, where’s your pouches?”

“I threw mine while we ran, it got in the way.”

“Me too, but fuck, I thought someone would be keeping theirs.” Observing everyone, none of them had their sack of evernuts left.

Red slapped his own face. “What a joke.”

“Time’s up!” Mara announced, the toes happily flexing, eager for the hunt. Luckily, Mara stepped over to the other side of the room, to the dresser and wardrobe, jostling the large furniture with a few mild kicks. “Where are the rats hiiiiiiiiiidiiing?” she cooed. Lenny wasn’t buying it. Mara rarely got down on all four to peer the underside of the furniture, a halfhearted check here-and-there, as if she already knew. Mara moved over to the night table, poking her foot under and searching.

“Hey,” Red whispered. He brought everyone’s attention to the bundled robe clogging the door. “It’s loose on that end, you think we can wrestle it free, sneak out of here?”

“It could be worth a shot.”

Before any plan came to form, any action was taken, Mara’s massive foot landed in front of the cupboard with a pronounced stomp, the hardwood croaking. “Hmm,” Mara hummed, in exaggerated thought. The right foot came over the left one and coyly stroked it, scraping off some grass and branches still stuck there. Then, the left went over to the right, the feet cuddling together, almost a coquettish display. The toes slipped into the other’s gaps, in a graceful dance, pressing and stroking one another. Then, she turned around and presented the sole, the toes closing together to wrinkle the arches.

Lenny had a hard time pinpointing the character of the foot dance she gave them. The balletic delicacy, the compassion with which the feet and toes massaged one another, the creamy softness, it had the character of an attraction, wishing to draw them in. And in some vague way Lenny couldn’t understand, the attraction did reach him, convinced these feet had a loving side available to them if he surrendered. Yet on the other end, it had the character of threat, showing them their meaty strength, the dexterous hook-and-grab capability of every single one of those toes, where they could curl and enclose over their bodies to seal them in. Or perhaps, it had the character of both.

“She knows we’re here,” Blue murmured to his friends, all of them bewitched to the display, and Lenny wondered if he were the only one finding the beauty in it, wondering if something was wrong with him.

Blue led the way along the wall, towards the bed. The other way was barren floor without furniture, leaving the bed as the only option. The bed was vast but also with high legs, a good space for her to explore.

“I did hear some rats whisper around here before,” Mara said beside the cupboard. The legs of the cupboard screeched, the entire foundation around them moving. The four hurried on under the bed.

“There go the rats!” Lenny saw her face peer down the space made between the cupboard and bed, and the realization hit him in an instant. Lenny remembered back home when they once had a rat sneak into their pantry, the chase they gave it. Mara constantly calling them rats were one thing, him seeing how analogous it was made sense, but the way they scurried around the furniture hit him into a moment where, for a second, believed he was in her eyes, able to see the way they looked. Right then, Lenny genuinely felt like a rat.

“Come on, man,” Red called to him. Lenny snapped out of it and joined his friends. They made their way along the wall, seeing her feet trace their position along the outside. Under the head of the bed, they arrived at the corner as Mara got on all fours, head sideways, her short brown hair covering parts of her face.

“The rats are cornered. You seem to think I can’t reach you all the way in there.” Mara sat down, tucking her legs under the bed. Her flat chest met the bedside as she lurched her waist as deep in she could. Then, she extended her legs, and Lenny could already tell there were no doubts of her reaching them. Huddled up in the corner, they saw her feet hovering their way, the toes flexing eagerly at the prospect of capturing them.

“Guys, get ready,” Blue said, all of them taking a stand by the corner.

Ten giant, long toes versus the four of them; the odds weren’t great.