As Alex continued to be jostled and tormented inside the girl’s tight climbing shoe, he unexpectedly shrank down even further, now a mere one millimeter tall. While his sudden shrinking spurt made the already intimidating environment even more daunting, it also freed him from the massive toes grating him against the shoe’s rough fabric. These toes now towered above him like a series of immense cliffs, and the air became even more thick and humid, carrying the strong scent of sweat that engulfed him like a fog and made it difficult to breathe. Although his new size offered him relief from the shoe’s tightness, Alex continued to be tossed through the air and battered against skin and fabric alike as the giant climber went about her routine. He eventually sought refuge in a small crevice between the insole and the side of the shoe, his heart pounding with a mixture of fear and relief. Droplets of sweat trickled down into his crevice, soaking him in the hot salty liquid, but he was finally safe from the direct physical assault of the giantess’s foot as she continued to climb.
After an immeasurable amount of time and anguish, the giantess finally removed her shoes, exposing Alex to a flood of sunlight and fresh air as the foot retreated from his prison. The girl returned the shoes to the front desk before leaving for the day, never aware of the miniscule boy that still resided in them, or the torment she’d put him through. Seizing the opportunity, Alex mustered all his remaining strength to begin climbing out from the cavernous shoe, and in a rare stroke of good fortune, was spotted by an eagle-eyed staff member, now over two miles tall from his new perspective. Her voice rumbled like distant thunder as she delicately pinched Alex between her massive fingers, the warm flesh completely engulfing his even smaller frame.
In the weeks after miraculously surviving his close call within the climbing shoe, Alex’s life changed exponentially. He wasn’t the only one who had suffered another shrinkage, as a second wave had swept over the entire country, shrinking all shrunken people further down to one millimeter tall. They now existed as specks of dust in a world of uncaring mountainous titans, permanently residing as refugees on the endless expanse of the gym’s safe zone, unable to serve any other purpose in life.
There was a glimmer of light in the darkness however. During his time on the table, Alex was reunited with a girl named Luciana, who he’d gone out with once many years prior. She was a beautiful girl with dark hair and green eyes who’d had a bright future as a doctor ahead of her, until she’d shrunk down to one millimeter tall just like Alex. Having shrunken more recently, she would still experience frequent panic attacks and moments of desperation as she struggled to cope with her new place in the world. Her sister and all her friends still remained a normal size, but none of them wanted to take in an insignificant speck, leaving her with nowhere else to go but as a miniscule refugee at the gym. Her and Alex found solace and comfort in each other, providing each other with a sense of comfort when the rest of the world viewed them as nothing more than tiny, insignificant specks of dust.
And so, every day of their lives was dictated by the same meaningless existence. While the giants who frequented the gym may have never directly interacted with Alex after his initial shrinkage, they at least, for the most part, acknowledged his presence and seemed to find a mild sense of amusement from the bug-sized people climbing their feet. Now their existence wasn’t even justified by that minute entertainment factor, as the shrunken people were now too small to feel or even see with the naked eye. The gym had provided the table with a magnifying glass that the giants could use to view the near microscopic people, and while a few people would briefly glance at them with slight interest, most would simply thunder past the table like otherworldly titans, no longer caring about the beings that had shrunken out of their perception.
One particular morning, the gym was sparsely populated. As usual, most of the giants strode past the table without a second thought, but one particular woman and her son stopped to observe the tinies. Alex recognized her as a woman who’d worked at the local post office, her sharp cheekbones and dark hair making her appear strikingly beautiful in spite of her age. As they scrutinized the shrunken people, her 18 year old son suggested putting their feet up and letting the tinies climb them, but she insisted they climb the regular wall instead, and that these shrunken people were too small to be worth anyone’s time. With that humbling remark, the pair stomped away. The people on the table didn’t have much time to sit with the woman’s words however, as their attention turned to a new face entering the gym.
In walked a beautiful young woman, with light bronze tan skin, and curly brown hair that cascaded past her shoulders. She wore a black tank top and shorts, and her feet were adorned with white sandals in an attempt to combat the summer heat. She walked over to the staff girl who rescued Alex and began talking with her. She looked very familiar to Alex, and as he was squinting to try and recognize her from the immense distance, Luciana let out a gasp of recognition.
Her name was Arianna, an Italian girl with a shared history with both Alex and Luciana. Years ago, when she was a foreign exchange student at Alex's school, he mustered the courage to ask her out, only to be friend-zoned by her. Though she had been kind and polite, the rejection left Alex feeling awkward, leading him to gradually drift away until they lost contact completely. As fate would have it, Arianna had also been best friends with Luciana before her mysterious disappearance after shrinking. Unaware of Luciana's fate, Arianna resigned herself to the worst; that her dear friend had met a terrible end in her shrunken state.
Alex and Luciana’s bodies filled with fear and dread as the staff member pointed towards the table, and this colossal woman from their former lives lumbered towards the table, the table shaking with every step she took. Every rhythmic footfall created a devastating earthquake that rattled the tiny people to their core, and was accompanied by a deafening thunderclap as her massive white sandals slapped against the hard floor. Each stride brought her immense form closer and closer, as the quakes grew stronger and stronger, knocking many of the shrunken people to the ground and rendering them immobile. Alex gazed up in awe and terror at the monolithic woman who friend-zoned grew larger and larger as she approached the table, his minuscule form paling in comparison to the mountainous goddess. He gulped in fear as the entire table became cast in Arianna’s overwhelming shadow as she looked down at the speck-sized people with a mix of slight curiosity and indifference, awaiting her judgment. Her massive hand reached out and grabbed the magnifying glass laying on the table, lifting the immovable structure skyward with complete ease. With a subtle grunt that reverberated through the air, she held the magnifying glass up to her eye, and leaned in close to get a peak at the table’s speck-sized inhabitants.
Arianna wasn’t the first giant to observe the shrunken people with the magnifying glass, but that didn’t make the experience any less terrifying for Alex and Luciana. Through the lens of the glass, Arianna's eye appeared like an enormous, all-seeing orb, a vast expanse of deep brown that loomed over the shrunken people like an eclipsing moon from which escape was impossible. This attractive girl who Alex and Luciana once viewed as an equal, now observed them with a mix of curiosity and indifference, like a bored child peering down at minuscule insects scurrying about. Her monolithic eye grew bigger and bigger as she moved closer and closer to the table, hovering just above the crowd of shrunken people as she traced their every movement with an air of fascination and concentration. Luciana cried as Arianna’s eye continued to drill into them, struggling to perceive any distinguishing human features about the specks of dust she was observing.
In spite of all her efforts, Arianna failed to see anything human about the miniscule people, and never even recognized two of them as people she once called her friends. The enormous eye blinked once, causing the towering trees of her long, dark lashes that lined the landscape of her colossal eyelid to close in like a fly trap, before she proceeded to lift her gaze away from the shrunken crowd, sufficiently bored with observing their insignificant existence.
Arianna settled herself onto a nearby bench, the process creating a tremor that shook the table where Alex and Luciana sought refuge. Ignorant to the tiny world below, she retrieved her phone and began typing away with her immense fingers. As her thumbs danced across the screen, Alex watched in anticipation, secretly hoping that she would soon lose interest and wander off, leaving him to carry on with his small existence in peace. He’d been longing to be acknowledged by one of the titans for so long, but seeing this girl that he asked out looming over him like an uncaring goddess was too much. Yet, at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a strange mix of emotions stirring within him.
While Alex was lost in thought, Luciana's voice rang out, snapping his attention back to the unfolding scene. With a subtle and deliberate movement, Arianna bent down and gracefully slipped off her white sandals, freeing her immense bare feet that gradually rose above the table. The anticipation in the air was palpable as the tiny onlookers held their breath, knowing what was about to happen next.
After reaching their apex height, Arianna’s heels slammed onto the table with an ungodly force, like a pair of colossal meteors crashing into the earth, shaking the table and bringing its miniscule inhabitants to their knees. The sheer magnitude of the resonance sent a deep, thunderous boom reverberating through the air, deafening their ears and filling their hearts with awe and terror. The ground beneath them continued to tremble from the cataclysmic event, the likes of which none of them had ever experienced at their newfound shrunken state.
Looking up, they were confronted with the sight of Arianna's immense feet, each one a gargantuan monolith compared to their minuscule existence. The size of her heels alone was overwhelming, vast landscapes of flesh stretching out before them like a mountain range, making them feel more insignificant than ever before. The skin of her heels, warm and damp with perspiration from wearing her sandals outside, exuded an overpowering scent that enveloped them, a potent mix of sweat and earth that left them disoriented and bewildered. Her feet remained firmly planted on the table, as if she were oblivious to the dramatic effect her presence had on the shrunken people below. Each tiny being clung to whatever they could find, seeking refuge from the relentless vibrations, their hearts pounding in their chests as they contemplated the sheer magnitude of the giantess before them.
As Alex continued to be in awe at the presence of Arianna's colossal heel, he looked around and saw two chubby men knelt down in humble reverence. They did not see her as a mere mortal like them, but as a deity, a goddess of immense stature and power. Her foot, warm and glistening with sweat, was the immense shrine they worshiped, representing just a fraction of her immense power.
It took all of Alex’s willpower to resist falling to his knees and joining these men in worshiping Arianna’s mighty foot. With shaky steps, he slowly made his way towards Lucianna, who was trembling and sobbing from the colossal display of power she’d just witnessed from her friend turned goddess.
“Lucianna,” Alex said, holding his hand on her shoulder. “I think we need to try and climb Arianna’s foot and get her attention. There’s a chance she might notice us, and help get us out of this hell hole”
"I-I can't," Lucianna stammered, her voice quivering with fear as she struggled to breathe. I mean, just look at her! She used to be my best friend, and now... now she could obliterate me with a single hair."
“That’s okay then,” Alex said, hugging his shrunken comrade. “I’m gonna get her attention, and I’m gonna get both of us out of here.”
“Th-thank you,” said Lucianna as she wiped away her tears. “I promise, I’ll climb the next one who puts their feet up. I just…can’t do it with her.”
As Alex cautiously approached Arianna's foot, a sense of dread and foreboding washed over him. Her foot was already colossal from a distance, but it now loomed above him like a skyscraper, its sheer size and scale incomprehensible at his minuscule stature. As he craned his neck to look up at this colossal structure, he was met with an endless expanse of skin, stretching high into the heavens. Each wrinkle and fold formed immense ravines and peaks, creating an intricate terrain that seemed to go on forever. Car-sized specks of dirt clung to warm damp skin, small and insignificant compared to the fleshy canvas they were stuck against. The immense wall of flesh was all Alex could see as he finally made it to the base of the foot, feeling like an insignificant mite in the shadow of this goddess’s appendage.
With trepidation, Alex gripped onto the skin of Arianna’s heel, and began his journey up her monumental foot. While he’d had some experience climbing giants’ feet before, he’d never done so at his newly smaller size, and the experience was even more overwhelming. Her heel stretched out before him like a vast, rolling hill of flesh, and the very contours and textures of her skin became a grand landscape that he had to navigate. Each ridge and fold in her skin, which might have been just small creases at his previous size, were now massive canyons and ledges that he had to fight his way through. The warmth emanating from her immense heel enveloped him, a constant reminder of the living goddess whose body he dared to climb. A faint but intoxicating scent lingered in the air, a mix of sweat from her recent activities and a subtle hint of lotion. As he continued his treacherous journey upward, his fingertips explored the ridges and contours of her footprint, hidden beneath a thin layer of sweat and grime that he wouldn’t have noticed at his previous size. He carefully made his way around the giant specks of dirt that adorned her foot, and kept an eye on the droplets of sweat forming from the heat of the day.
Alex had almost made it to the ball of the foot when the earth began to rhythmically shake, causing the droplets of sweat, larger than him at this scale, to rain down from above. The torrential downpour fell all around him as one hit him directly in the face, soaking him to the bone with the warm salty liquid. The specks of dirt accompanied the sweat, falling like heavy boulders in a rockslide. Desperate for shelter, Alex scanned the vast expanse of Arianna's foot and located a deep wrinkle in her skin. With a burst of survival-fueled adrenaline, he crawled into the fleshy crevice to escape the hailstorm outside. The warm, supple skin surrounded him like a protective cavern as he watched the sweat and dirt continue to rain down outside.
Far below on the surface of the table, Lucianna’ world had turned into a chaotic nightmare. She gazed up, her heart pounding, as she witnessed the beginning of a relentless bombardment of sweat and dirt. To her minuscule perspective, the droplets and boulders were like bombs being dropped on a defenseless city, each falling with enough force to obliterate her tiny form. Her world became a battlefield as they struck the table's surface, creating explosions of earth and sweat that flew in every direction. She desperately ran as far as she could from Arianna’s foot, fleeing the intense bombardment that wasn’t even noticed by the giantess on her phone.
High above, the air turned even warmer and more damp as Alex continued his ascent upon Arianna’s foot, and now found himself approaching her colossal toes. The closer he got to those gargantuan pillars of flesh, the more overwhelming the sensory experience became. The warmth emanating from Arianna's skin enveloped him like a suffocating embrace, making him acutely aware of his vulnerability. The skin was warm and damp, a testament to the sweat that had accumulated between her colossal toes. Drops of sweat, each larger than Alex himself, gathered at the base of her toes and dripped down like miniature waterfalls, crashing to the surface below with a relentless rhythm. The salty scent of her perspiration continued to fill the air, creating a dense fog like that of a rainforest. The sweat coated her skin, making it almost impossible to maintain a firm grip, and yet he persisted, determined to finally get his friend’s attention.
Alex finally completed his journey, and entered the chasm between Arianna's colossal first and second toes. The environment here was stronger than anything he’d experienced, a constant, suffocating heat that enveloped him entirely. The surface beneath his feet was moist, the skin slick with perspiration, creating a treacherous terrain that he had to be careful not to slip on. With each step, his feet sank slightly into the fleshy landscape, and he felt the warm sweat seeping through his climbing shoes.
Despite the insufferable conditions, Alex felt triumphant, having accomplished a feat no one else at the gym had done since the second wave of shrinking. He stepped out from between Arianna’s toes to finally be reunited with his friend, when he was met with a devastating sight.
Far off in the distance, Arianna was laughing and chatting with a guy Alex had never seen before. He was positively huge, and absolutely covered with muscles. Him and Arianna were chatting in Italian, and while Alex was a bit rusty in the language, he could make out Arianna laughing explaining the premise of the gym to this new guy. As Alex continued to watch them interact, he saw the guy pull up a seat next to Arianna and give her a kiss on the lips. Arianna had moved on and forgotten all about Alex, and was now with a guy who Alex could literally never dream of measuring up to.
Alex felt more minuscule than ever, a tiny, insignificant speck trapped in the crevice of Arianna's immense foot. The warmth and sweatiness of her foot seemed to close in on him, suffocating him with the weight of his own inadequacy. He watched as the giant man and Arianna continued to exchange words, their laughter echoing like thunderous roars in his ears as they discussed the absurdity of the tiny people climbing her feet. Tears welled up in his eyes, but they were as insignificant as he was as they became lost amongst all the sweat of Arianna’s foot. He was powerless, an ant amidst these giants, destined to be nothing more than a speck of dirt for their novel amusement. Meanwhile, Arianna's booming voice reverberated through the gym like a distant thunderstorm, punctuating his despair. Her laughter, once a sweet melody in his memory, now sounded like a taunting symphony of his own inadequacy, a reminder that he was nothing more than a pitiful speck in her colossal world.
Back on the table, Lucianna stared up in panic and horror as this giant sat down next to Arianna, terrified of what would come next. Remembering the promise she made to Alex, she prayed that he wouldn’t join her in putting his feet up on the table, knowing she’d have to climb them if he did.
But the gods were no longer listening to her, as the giant man slipped her sneakers off and slammed his even larger, sweatier feet up on the table. The ground beneath Lucianna’s feet shook on levels beyond the Richter scale. She was thrown dozens of feet across the table, and remained firmly planted on the ground until the tremors subsided seemingly an eternity later.
Lucianna's heart pounded in her tiny chest as she forced herself to gaze up at Arianna's boyfriend's feet. If Arianna's colossal appendages were already beyond intimidating, his were nothing short of awe-inspiring in their sheer enormity. His feet were like twin mountains, rugged and massive, casting ominous shadows over everything beneath them. The skin that covered these behemoth soles was an expanse of tanned, weathered flesh, covered with smooth skin that would make for an extremely risky climb. As Arianna's boyfriend shifted his weight, his feet flexed and rippled with tremendous muscle, causing the ground to tremble and shift beneath their colossal force. Crying and shaking, Lucianna reached her hand out to touch the boyfriend’s rugged heel, and began her treacherous climb towards her doom…