After a pleasant walk in the morning breeze, Darren had finally reached the capital. A festive atmosphere was filling the air and he could hear music coming from all around the place. Many people were going to attend the Queen’s public measurements, and the main streets were overcrowded. So he decided to take some back alleys in order to reach more quickly the square where the ceremony was about to be held. He perfectly knew the way, since he had been living in those neighbourhoods all of his life, before taking the job at the Manor construction site.

Those secondary streets were almost desert, since the majority of the people tended to avoid them (they had the reputation to be quite dangerous), and anyway the majority of the population had already reached the central square. As for him, he was taking it easy, because after all it was his only day off and he wanted to enjoy it. So he was slowly walking down a narrow alley when, all of a sudden, he felt someone grabbing him from behind, immobilizing him and putting a hood on him. He tried to wriggle, but he couldn’t free himself: there had to be several men holding him. “Where do you think you’re going, fucking spy?” said a voice behind him. “We’d better put him to sleep, guys” said another. “Yeah!” exclaimed all the others at once. Darren felt something hard hit his head and lost consciousness.

When he slowly recovered, he couldn’t tell how long he had stayed unconscious. He had quite a headache, and when he tried to move his hands to massage his temples, he realised that he was tied to a chair. “Well well well, look who’s back with us… The spy!” His attackers had probably seen his attempt to move his hands.
“Hey, it’s a total misunderstanding, I am not a spy..! I don’t even know what you’re talking about!” Darren tried to explain.
“Silence!” was the immediate response of a firm voice. “We will easily see whether you’re telling the truth or you’re a dirty liar…”

Darren could hear footsteps approaching him, and then two hands took the hood off his head. It took a moment for his eyes to finally see the figures in front of himself.

There were lots of them: many people hooded in black were surrounding him, and the one who had removed his hood was standing right in front of him. He looked around himself with circumspection, and the bystanders started murmuring among themselves. That lasted for a few moments, and the murmuring grew with each second, until the figure in front of Darren raised his hand:
“Silence!” Everybody got quiet. Darren was tense and sweating, but that voice had a strange effect on him. It seemed somehow… familiar. Then the voice continued:
 “I know this man, and I  can tell you for sure that he’s not a spy.” The man reached for his own hood and removed it. “Damn, Darren, I’m sorry for what my guys did to you, but… What the hell were you doing in that alley?”

Darren raised his eyes and looked at the unmasked face with stupor, then exclaimed: “A-Arlo?”

The man looked at the crowd behind himself and said: “You can untie his hands, guys. And you can remove your hoods, if you wish. He’s not a danger.”

Two men rushed to untie Darren’s hand. Darren was full of questions: “Arlo, what the hell? Why do you control these henchmen who go around kicking people’s asses..?”

“I already told you I’m sorry” Arlo interrupted him, “But we’ve got some major issue to deal with, and we can’t afford any error or heeling.”

“What are you talking about..?”

“Are you kidding, Darren? Have you seriously remained the kid with which I used to play in these alleys years ago? Are you so naïve that you cannot realize how freakish are the times in which we are living? A gigantic Queen rules the roost and the conditions of the people are getting worse every day. How can you not see what I’m talking about? You must have heard of the Rebels…”

He had. But he had never thought that his old friend Arlo could be one of their lieutenants! “S-so, you..?” Darren stammered.

“Yes, Darren. We gathered here today to decide how to proceed to steal the book of magic of the court wizard, in order to shrink back the Queen to her original size.” Was Arlo’s firm response.

“Original size..? But I thought the Queen had always been a giantess… Not as tall as today, of course, because she’s growing with each passing year, but…”

“Well, you were wrong, Darren. Our elders still remember the days when she was just a woman slightly taller than average. And what’s more, the elders say that their own parents could even recall the days in which a King ruled these land, and the Queen was just his wife: a normal woman.”

“A King? I believed this had always been a Queendom..!” exclaimed Darren.

“The Queen wants her people to believe many untrue things, in order to consolidate her own power… That’s the reason why we want to put an end to all this, Darren. We want the truth to emerge, and to end the reign of the Queen.”

Darren didn’t know what to answer. Silence lasted for a few moments, while Darren looked once more around himself. Then, to break the embarrassment, he said: “Wow, the Queen was a normal woman… It seems unbelievable… You know, I see her quite often, and she’s really enormous: it’s hard to believe she could once be a woman of average height…”

Arlo fixed his eyes on Darren. “Wait a minute… What do you mean, you see her quite often?”

Darren felt all of a sudden like he was in the middle of an interrogation. “Well, I mean… I work at the construction site of Her Highness’ Manor…”

All the bystanders began murmuring again.

“Silence!” hushed them again Arlo.

Then he continued, looking at Darren: “Maybe it’s not for a simple coincidence that we ran into you today… I say, my friends, that Darren should be our inside man!”

The crowd all around cheered, while Darren looked at them, bewildered. Then, when the cheering stopped, he dared to say:

“T-This seem a bit  dangerous, by the way…”

“You’ll be fine. You’ve always been good at running and at playing hide and seek…” Arlo winked.

He walked toward Darren, and helped him stand up.

“You’ll find out where the magic book is kept, and you’ll bring it to us. Alternatively, you’ll get the wizard to tell you the way to shrink back the Queen. We already know that the Queen is moving into the completed rooms of the new Manor right in this times, to be more comfortable. And she surely won’t let the wizard stay away from her: we think she’ll bring him with her. So you’ll be working right on the spot, and you’re the right person for this task. Don’t let us down, Darren… You can be a hero for all the people.”

***

After some more directions and explanations, Darren was sent back out on the street. It was late in the afternoon by then.

Darren took his way back to the construction place, since the public measurements and the celebrations in the city were over: he could see many people going back home already. He was full of doubts and worries, so his mind was working even more than his legs, during the climb. Sure, he was Arlo’s friend and he could understand the reasons of the Rebels… But after all, wasn’t it thanks to the Queen that he had a job? It was a hard job, no doubt, but at least it was a job.

And what kind of troubles would he run into, if he had been caught trying to steal the book? It was rumoured that the Queen was used to punish the traitors in horrible ways…

These and other things he was thinking, when his eye was caught by something shining on the side of the road. Out of curiosity, he approached the mysterious object. He bent down among the grass, and lifted it up: it was a diamond the size of a fist, with a sort of needle in it. He wondered what it could be for a while, then he suddenly realized…

That was the same path the Queen herself and her cortege were walking right now to get back to the Manor. That object could only be one thing: one of the Queen’s earrings. He startled. After that day he was already in a delicate position, why did he even have to find such a precious object of the Queen? He evaluated all the options he had. He surely couldn’t keep it for himself, that was too dangerous, and in general he couldn’t be found in possession of it: he would be accused of theft. He could just leave it there. But hey… That earring was an opportunity, as well. How could he refuse such a gift of fortune, and leave it to someone else?

No, in fact he only had one option: he had to give it back to the Queen, personally.

He accelerated his pace: maybe he could reach the procession before it reached the Manor. He kept the briskest pace he could, knowing that the Queen, despite her size, had to walk at the speed of an average person, due to the cortege she was walking with. He almost started to run at some point, fearing to be caught by some guard with the earring in his hands before being able to hand it to its rightful owner.

After an hour or so, he could finally see it: the cortege was slowly walking the path a half mile or so ahead of himself, with the Queen standing out in the middle of it. Darren started running faster, screaming at the top of his lungs: “My Queen! Your Highness!”. He kept doing that while getting closer to the procession until, finally, he could see the imposing figure of the Queen suddenly stop her walk, causing many of the courtiers around her to fall like dominos. Then she turned around, trying to spot who was calling her: she could see a panting Darren approaching the cortege.

“She’s looking at me! She’s finally looking at me!” He thought. From his point of view, she looked majestic. She was looking down at him with superiority, but with a questioning look. He held the earring up higher, saying with the last breath he had:

“I’m sorry to interrupt your procession, my Queen, but I found this along the way and I thought it could be yours.”

He had by now reached the back of the cortege. The Queen looked at the small man with stupor, raised an eyebrow, and brought her hands to her ear lobes. She realized one of her earrings was missing, and smiled.

“Let him pass!” she ordered the crowd around her.

The crowd split in front of Darren. The Queen waved him forth with her index. He shily got close to her, bowing his head and holding the earring high. The Queen grabbed it with her fingers. Then Darren felt the Queen’s mighty index lifting his face from under his chin. He looked up, and saw her imposing shape bending over him. Her colossal chest was looming above him and her awe-inspiring visage was seductively smiling down at him.

“You, my little subject, have just earned a place in the most intimate ceremony of New Year’s Day: the First Night of the New Year of the Queen.” She said.

Darren was speechless. He couldn’t believe he was being granted such a honour. Peasants like himself didn’t even know precisely what happened during that mysterious ceremony… A shy smile appeared on his face.

A voice from a courtier nearby was heard: “But, my Queen, the ceremony is  reserved to the members of the court, a simple peasant shouldn’t have the right to…”

“Shut up!” The Queen cut him off.

She lifted the courtier up with her hand, bringing him in front of her face: “How dare you contradict your Queen?”

She squeezed him harder. Darren was watching the scene with a mixture of wonder and fear: the Queen was standing up for him, but in the meantime she was threatening that poor guy…

“P-please, I didn’t mean to..! I simply thought you may be forgetting the laws, Your Highness..!” the guy said with difficulty.

“I make the laws. Is that clear?” She asked, fixing her authoritative eyes on the poor guy’s ones.

“Y-yes, my Queen…” He managed to say before running out of air.

She released her grasp, letting him breathe. Then she put him down.

“Good.”

She then turned again to Darren: “Stay close to me, my little subject. You can walk by my side until we reach the Manor.”