Micah woke up with a jolt, immediately confused by his nakedness and the unusual surface on which he was sleeping. It came back to him in waves, the failed potion, the awkward diner, and flirtatious bath, and then, well, he never would have thought Gilda would behave like that. He looked up at her face still in a heavy sleep, likely from all that wine. He attempted to stand, only to find his legs much weaker from the previous nights activities than he thought. As he reached out to support himself his hand rested on the breast next to him. Micah turned around slowly to look “downhill”. 

Her bosom made a low canopy of the blanket. The soft light of the morning turned the slight incline of her belly into a cavern. Watching her breath rise and fall Micah couldn’t help but remember what lied at the bottom of that cavern and a mixture of conflicting feelings came over him. Mostly he found himself aroused again so he turned away to put last night out of his mind.

He knew he was completely at the mercy of the brownie, but he hoped he could talk some sense to Gilda today. If he could just look at his notes he still believed he might be able to figure something out. His mother finding him like this was not an option he wished to explore and he only had three days, including today, before she returned from her trip. Micah climbed over Gilda’s shoulder onto her pillow. He intended to walk up to her ear, but his timing had been unlucky and she woke up before he had found his footing. 

Gilda furrowed her brow and pressed her hand to her head. Though she had quite the tolerance for elf wine, last night she had indulged too heavily. Her eyes opened wide at the thought of last night, she reached for the place on her chest where she expected to find Micah. He wasn’t there and she sat up worried that something else might have happened to him in the night. All of which occurred too quickly for Micah to stay upright on the pillow as it shifted under Gilda’s weight. He fell down the purple fabric like a man rolling down a hill. Unable to stop himself he eventually collided with a soft silken wall. 

Micah looked up to find that he had landed against Gilda’s posterior. Her slight movements managed to wedge him into the space between the pillow and this warm unyielding wall. Her silk robe stretched above him like a cliff face, with only the back of her hair and ears visible to him from this perspective. He did not go unnoticed by Gilda who twisted around to take a look. 

“What is Young Master doing down there?” Gilda said, she smiled then winced as the sound of her own voice made her head ache. She picked Micah up with little caution. She let him hang at her side as she stood up slowly. 

“Gilda!” Micah yelled. She ignored him as she walked over to the bath and squatted down next to it. She let her forearms rest on the edge of the tub and finally looked at Micah directly. He didn’t seem any smaller or bigger than last night, though his struggle against her grip was amusing. 

“Was Young Master taking advantage of Gilda in her sleep?” she asked with a wry smile. 

Micah turned red “Absolutely not! After last night how can you accuse me of anything inappropriate? Gilda you can not continue to…” but his rant was cut off as Gilda dropped him into the cold bath water. Micah came up for air shocked by the unexpected drop and the sudden chill. He coughed and sputtered as Gilda scooped up handfuls of water to wash her face and wake herself up. She dried herself with a wash cloth as Micah angrily tread water. 

“Young Master can wait here until Gilda returns” she said looking down at him in the tub. Gilda adjusted her robe before leaving to get herself some tea and breakfast. As Micah watched her walk away he realized that he was shivering. He decided he would swim to the bottle neck and climb out, he could find a towel of some kind up on the shelf and the exercise would help him feel warmer in the meantime. As he swam his mind wandered.

Micah finally came to realize that he could not insist upon Gilda like he used to. The brownie had always been defiant in personality, but her size never required him to compromise with her. Perhaps she was just getting a bit of her own revenge given his situation he thought. But the events of last night worried Micah most of all. His hand finally grazed glass before he could contemplate more of the night before. The neck of the bottle wasn’t that steep but he felt colder out of the water now that he was walking up it. 

Gilda was collecting a crust of bread and buttering it in the kitchen. She felt odd walking around the house in just her robe, since there were rarely days where no one else was in the house to see. She had already brewed some tea in a jug of hers using a charm. It would need to steep for a little while longer and this particular blend was good for elf wine hangovers. As she took her time descending the pantry she thought about the tiny elf in her room. Truthfully she felt selfish for taking advantage of his situation last night, but she also did not look forward to explaining his situation to the Lady of the House. 

She was confident the Lady would fix Micah’s condition, but Gilda might take part of the blame since she had covered for and helped him in his studies so often. Since the Young Master did as he wanted regardless of Gilda’s protests, she always wound up watching over him to make sure nothing went wrong and now it had gone wrong anyways. She took a sip of the tea before opening the door to her room.

Micah had just rolled over to the hidden shelf when Gilda walked in. He saw that she took notice of where he was before she continued over to her table. She was wearing an impish expression again as she took her seat. He had thought about what to say and was going to try his best to return some propriety to this arrangement. But first he had to walk the entire length of the shelf to get nearer where she was sitting.

Gilda ate her bread and sipped her tea as she ignored Micah’s approach. She was thinking about what kind of clothes to make for him. A long tunic of some kind would be easiest. But this was her opportunity to dress the Young Master however she wanted and she wasn’t about to let practicality get in the way of fun like that. She liked the idea of giving him tight breeches and having him go shirtless. Though she thought fitting something like that would be too difficult given his size. Perhaps just a loin cloth to humble him further?

“Gilda, may I talk to you for a moment?” Micah asked. In her daydreaming she hadn’t noticed that Micah was already resting at the end of the shelf.

“Of course, why wouldn’t Gilda listen to Young Master?” she said before taking a large bite from her bread. She broke off a well buttered pinch of it and handed it to to Micah. Micah ignored his hunger and continued speaking instead “I want to thank you for taking care of me since the accident yesterday” he said, pausing to see if she would offer a ‘your welcome’, but she only sipped her tea and waited. 

“I recognize that I may have not always treated you with the respect you deserve and I apologize for that” Gilda nodded approvingly but let Micah continue “I think undoing my condition should be the highest priority for both of us. This whole ordeal has made the danger of my research very real to me and I promise that I will not be so reckless with it in the future, but now I must use what I have learned to fix this before my mother returns. I will need your help in going over my notes, but I think it would be best if my time is spent entirely on trying to fix this over the next two days.”

Gilda met his eyes and took a long sip of her tea before finally saying “No.”

Micah felt some anger rising up but stopped himself from responding right away. He tried to think of anything else to say but all he could come up with would just be a rephrasing of points already covered. He had nothing with which to appeal to changing her mind so he would try the only other thing he had thought of. “If you aid me in returning to full size before my mother gets back I would be willing to forget what happened last night.”

Gilda smiled “What about last night would Young Master like to forget?”

Micah looked up at her, but was unwilling to play along. Gilda told him to finish eating and set her cup of tea near him on the shelf for him to drink from. She had decided on what she was going to make and fetched the materials. She sewed quietly as the naked elf ate and drank to his fill. Gilda eventually reached a point where she would need measurements if she was going to finish his garment. 

“Stand up.” she said softly. Micah, recognizing that was not a request, did as he was told. He concealed himself with his hands as best he could. But as Gilda reached for him she said “Hold out your arms.” 

Micah blushed slightly and did so. Gilda wrapped the piece of burgundy cloth around his waist and made it snug before pinching it to mark the length. She cut and sewed until she had a small skirt-like piece of clothing. On the waist was a loop through which a thick black thread was pulled to serve as a belt. She thought about cutting off the bottom rough edge to keep it very short, but then decided that she rather liked the unevenness of it and gave it to Micah as is. 

Micah wrapped it around his waist, eager to have any article of clothing again. The cloth was long on one side and short on the other. Not liking the feel of the short side on his rear he opted to move it to his hip, leaving some of his left thigh exposed and the long side going down the right leg to his knee. He tied off his “belt” on his hip. It vaguely reminded him of the clothing worn by a group of human traders he occasionally saw in the ante-city. Gilda watched him dress in amusement. She had intended for it to be worn more like an apron and leave Micah’s butt barely covered, but she also liked the crooked roguish way he wore it now and decided to let him leave it that way. 

“Thank you, Gilda, this should suffice for a couple of days” Micah said.

Gilda said nothing. She got up and selected a navy blue work dress for the day. Micah turned away out of respect as she disrobed and got dressed. Gilda picked out a favorite ribbon of hers before sitting back down. With her tail she picked Micah up and transferred him to the table. She rested the very end of her tail in front of him and dropped the ribbon next to it.

“Young Master will learn how to tie a ribbon for Gilda” she said with only the slightest of smiles. 

Micah sighed and pinched his nose “Gilda, I’m grateful you are taking care of me, but you’ve had plenty of fun at my expense already. Can we please just wait out my mothers return without these little games?” 

“Young Master will do as Gilda says, or he will not be seeing the Lady of the House upon her return” Gilda said softly. Micah inspected her face. Her iron posture and soft smile betrayed no joking in her words. 

“What do you mean by that Gilda?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Well, Young Master did insist that Gilda keep his secrets yesterday, did he not? Should Gilda tell the Lady everything that happened? The Young Master would be in so much trouble, perhaps Gilda should take care of him until he figures out how to solve the problem for himself.” 

Micah was not sure what game she was playing “Of course I will tell my mother what happened now, it is not a secret you need to keep.”

“Ah, well then if Young Master is only tired of Gilda’s company then she can return him to the floor of the library and he can wander the house to his content. Getting the Lady’s attention will be his problem” Gilda put a finger to her chin and pretended to think very hard “Perhaps if the Young Master finds a shoe to hide in he will be mistaken for a pebble and found that way.” She smiled down at Micah “That doesn’t sound like a good idea to Gilda, but if Young Master prefers that to doing as Gilda tells him…” she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head at the unfortunate situation she was presenting. 

Micah anxiously straightened up, though standing up straight before the looming brownie did not boost his confidence. They stared at each other for a moment, before Micah worked up the courage to finally ask “What sort of threat is this?”

“YOUNG MASTER!” Gilda said, bringing her hand to her chest in feigned shock “Gilda would never threaten a member of the family.” 

She brought her hands down to rest in her lap “Gilda is only saying that the Young Master can seek the aid of his family on his own, or he can accept Gilda’s help…” 

“…and whatever conditions Gilda places on her help” Micah said finally catching on.

“It’s a fair trade” Gilda said looking down her nose. “Gilda is a busy brownie and if she is to attend to the Young Master in his condition, she should expect something in return.” 

“Like what?” Micah asked.

Gilda crossed her arms and in a haughty tone said “Gilda will tell the Young Master what to do and when to do it. Gilda will tolerate no second guessing or back talk. Young Master will learn to braid Gilda’s tail, pamper Gilda in the bath, and please Gilda in the bed.” 

That last statement made Micah blush, but also filled Gilda with a thrilling resolve to keep going. “When Young Master does well he will be rewarded. When he fails he will do his tasks again correctly or be punished by Gilda. He will do these things until Gilda is satisfied that Young Master has learned to treat Gilda properly.”

“Gilda, mother will be back in two more days…” Micah said pleading “Isn’t all this a bit much?”

“Yes it is a lot for Young Master to learn, he will have to listen closely to Gilda if he expects to gain her approval before the Lady of the House arrives” she said grinning widely. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa” Micah said waving his arms “You don’t intend to keep me like this after she comes back, do you?”

“Young Master can go whenever he wants. If he thinks he could find help from the family before earning Gilda’s favor he is welcome to try” She crossed her legs and turned away from him slightly “It makes no difference to Gilda if Young Master spends months traversing the kitchen floor or months learning to tie bows.” 

Micah stood there crestfallen. “I thought we were friends, Gilda.” 

That hurt a little, but Gilda did nothing to indicate it as she opened her eyes and turned to face him. “Did Young Master treat Gilda like a friend?”

Micah had no response to that. Gilda gave him a brief nod in the direction of the ribbon “Then Young Master can learn how Gilda likes to be treated now.” 

Micah thought to plead his case a little more, but he could find no words to aid him. He looked around Gilda’s room, and he thought about how he could barely navigate this place. He remembered how absolutely massive the rest of the house was to him now. Unfair as he felt her ultimatum was, he knew he stood no chance of getting help on his own. So with a sullen resolve he walked over to the bow and awaited Gilda’s instructions.