“Okay Nursery Rhyme! Time for bed.”

Ritsuka gently said with a little force. The young woman was tired from taking care of Chaldea’s child servants. It didn’t help that some of them felt especially rambunctious today and forced the master to use all her command spells so they would settle down.

“But master! You didn’t tell me where you get those marks on your neck from. Do you need a band-aid?”

The silver-haired child inquired once more. She simply wouldn’t let up on her curiosity of the dark marks concentrated on Ritsuka’s nape.

I really should have washed my body more thoroughly.

The reason for those marks weren’t as alarming as Nursery Rhyme thought. In fact, they weren’t bruises that were the product of hate, but marks of love. Or, more aptly, a possessive lust courtesy of one of the orange-haired young woman’s newest servants in Chaldea. Queen Morgan La Fey. The dark marks centered around the back of Ritsuka’s neck just so happened to be several hickey marks. Evidence that Morgan had passionately pressed her blue-glossed lips to the point of her moist lip wrinkles flattening against the master’s neck.

Hmm~ Nursery Rhyme won’t go to sleep, but I’m running against the clock.

Ritsuka chewed the bottom of her lip as her vision flickered to the time. It was nearly 30 minutes until the time that Morgan, in a husky soft whisper, promised to rock the young woman’s world.

“Okay Nursery Rhyme, you don’t need to worry. I’m going to see Morgan to help me get better.”

The master saw the silver-haired girl’s lips quiver and her eyes dampen. It struck a chord in the young woman’s heart that she simply couldn’t ignore.

Well…I guess the ol’ faithful will do the trick. I hope nothing goes wrong.

“Buuttt…I should have time to read you a story before I go. Okay?”

Nursery Rhyme sprung up and out of her bed before landing back. The child servant’s pajamas fluttered and wrinkled in the ensuing excitement before she realized that she had to go under the covers for story time. As she knows if she didn’t, then master wouldn’t read her stories.

“Yea! Story time!”

Ritsuka couldn’t help but smile as the young-appearing servant brightened after the master’s minor capitulation. This time, the young woman’s desire to read Nursery Rhyme a story was not entirely out of the best intentions, but it was still a time that she honestly enjoyed quite a bit. Reading a bedtime story and babysitting a kid…it made the young woman feel a bit…ordinary. Ordinary was great when the rest of her life was extraordinary. 

Although, Ritsuka had to be careful when reading fables and such with Nursery Rhyme. As the master had found that if the story was too exciting for the young servant, her powers would conjure the story into reality. 

Thus, after their hard day of play, the young woman chose a safe, relaxing story. So that she could put Nursery Rhyme to bed and have a hard and exciting night with Morgan.

Hmm~ I wonder what she’s going to make me wear next. Maybe something with latex.

“Okay. Let’s read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Ritsuka pulled out the short story. It earned a slight pout from the child, but she still snuggled up next to her master and listened to the short tale of a caterpillar that eventually became a butterfly. Magically, Nursery Rhyme found herself snuggling into a cocoon the moment that the butterfly burst out. The silver-haired servant falling asleep as the narrative ended.

Great. Sleep sweet dreams for the both of us Nursery Rhyme. I know that I’m going to be living some naughty ones tonight.

However, just as Ritsuka stood up, the novel dropped to the side of the bed. As misfortune would have it, Nursery Rhyme snorted in her sleep and incidentally activated her powers of story-based fantasy during the short moment of apnea. Ritsuka just had to look at the book during that very moment. Then she vanished into thin air.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why did I have to pick The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

The reason that the master fretted was not because a wriggling fuzzy worm was conjured from the book and tried to eat her. As one might think from the confluence of the story’s title, Nursery Rhyme’s power, and some ill-intentioned spirit. The third factor in play, being the phenomenon known as chance, had yet to be labeled a merciful or merciless by Ritsuka. Her vision of the reality of her current situation was limited. Some form of cocoon had wrapped around her body. Wide holes in front of her mouth, eyes, and nose for her to sense the world and inhale the stale air.

Cough

An atmosphere that seemed to have become less palatable for Ritsuka. Her eyes blurred as she tried to focus her vision. The surroundings appeared alien to her. Just a near endless expanse of dim white landscape. One that was terminated by a mountainous monolith in the distance. The young woman’s eyes strained. As she tried to look at an object from such an unreachable distance. The master recognized that it couldn’t have been naturally formed. In fact, the endless flat plains couldn’t have been made by man either much less nature. The plains were a homogenous white and the elevation was even as far as her eye could see. It was so evenly level that it didn’t seem like there was a characteristic imperfection in sight. No human effort could make a ground so balanced in elevation. It was almost as if Ritsuka was transported out of Chaldea and into the bleached earth’s surface. Except the shoals of white sand had been condensed into a cool solid that kissed the front of her body that laid on the level ground. 

Could I have been kidnapped by the Alien God? No! Get a hold of yourself, this is Nursery Rhyme’s power.

The young woman’s sides ached painfully as she tried to move her arms and legs. Something had bound them tightly. An extra layer of wrappings encased the joints of the young woman’s limbs. Ritsuka’s legs and wrists were pulled together and locked. The latter binding brought the young woman’s hands to the small of her back

Shit…it even hurts when I try to rotate my head. Am I in a cocoon? Wait…am I going to burst out of here with a badass pair of butterfly wings?

thud

Ritsuka’s body shook as tremors shook the foreign world. Her heart sunk as she felt a creeping sense of doubt. 

thud

That she was wrong, and that something was coming her way. 

Thud

The truth revealed itself in the form of deafening thunder and seismic quakes.

“SO, SHE DIDN’T SHOW UP AN HOUR AGO. YOU ARE FRETTING TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS MORGAN. MASTER IS BUSY AND THERE WAS PROBABLY ANOTHER SERVANT THAT NEEDED HER URGENTLY.”

THOOM

Ritsuka reeled from the wind blast. A sudden gust of wind that caused her bound body to somersault in the air and hit against it like a skipping stone on a lake. Each impact took the breath out of the young woman’s body. Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide that her lungs could not give. As they were quickly emptied of the stale air in the first two impacts. The master’s tear-filled eyes saw the distorted silhouette of a large blue heeled boot, the size of a small house, impact the ground to her side. Thin clouds filled with particles manifested from the dirt of the boot colliding with the unyielding floor.

Floor. I’m shrunken and on a floor.

Ritsuka, despite the strain placed on her sternocleidomastoid muscle, turned her head, and looked up to the sky. A white and blue skyscraper that stretched up to the heavens graced the young woman with its divine presence. A force of nature, with dainty steps that caused mountains to tremble, and a voice that burst through the stratosphere with an overwhelming prominence that could only be compared to a plane jet. Her blonde hair, arranged as twin tails and kept in place by a blue cap, told the master all she needed to know who this servant was.

Altria!

The soft feminine tones that boomed out of the faerie of paradise’s mouth had deepened from the perspective of the shrunken woman down below. The sounds that carried over to her pulsing tympanic membranes were undoubtedly those belonging to a young woman. The woman in question was just one of the largest things that Ritsuka had ever seen. 

How did I end up like this, what am I going to do?

The master’s mind raced. There was just too much information flowing into her brain to process all at once. However, what she should have noted was that she was not in a safe place to think. Even though Altria was heading to what was apparently a table in this room, the monolith that the shrunken woman was observing earlier, and both of her feet were far away from Ritsuka. 

Wait a second…

thud

Altria said Morgan…

Thud

Ritsuka’s world darkened. Rocks fell around her. The young woman didn’t need to look up as the earthy atmosphere of the other faerie of paradise was walking a little behind and to the side of Altria. Her booted foot drawing perilously overhead of the woman who was bound like a worm.

I can barely wriggle…like a Caterpillar…Morgan who I was thinking about when tucking in Nursery Rhyme…

Ritsuka felt her arms burn against the distinct texture of the bindings that fully entrapped her body. It was almost like…latex. Morgan’s foot began to descend.

Shit! This is due to Nursery Rhyme’s ability. It just mixed up parts of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with my own thoughts…

THOOOM

Ritsuka felt her body roll from the shockwave of Morgan’s intimidating boot. One that was much more intimidating than Altria’s own footwear. It was a structure that rose higher and terminated around the Queen’s lower leg. A structure that was more resemblant of a small building than a shoe from the shrunken woman’s perspective. Meanwhile, the master’s nares flared, and her eyes blinked from the irritating dust that pelted her sensitive membranes. 

Woah…that was a close one…

Ritsuka thought as Morgan’s left foot landed to the opposite side that Altria’s other foot landed.

Altria’s left foot…

Ritsuka’s wealth of battle experience against insurmountable odds primed her for what was about to come. Besides herself, there was one other thing that was between the left feet of Morgan and Altria. Morgan’s right foot. A shadow did not come over Ritsuka this time.

BAM!!

Instead Ritsuka’s mind reeled from being hit by the toe of Morgan’s right boot. The black and blue structure came at the master with the speed of a moving bus and with much more mass. If the moving footwear was not curved at the end, and shaped more like the front of a bus, then there would have been no hope for the shrunken woman. A contusion of some necessary organ or a paralyzing injury would have resulted. Changing Ritsuka’s life in mere moments. 

Regardless, it would have been a less hideous fate than what would have happened if the silver-haired faerie of paradise had stepped her foot a pace further. Such that the blue underside of the boot descended on the bound shrunken woman. The master would either end up under the grooved sole or heel. Forced to withstand a pressure that she simply couldn’t. Her form being molded into the grooves at the bottom of the footwear, or punctured by the firmer heel, as she expired.

Instead, the master’s body flew. Much farther than the distance that the wind gust created by Altria’s heeled boot. The shrunken woman’s body felt weightless as she soared through the air. Ritsuka’s vestibular system, which was not able to process the momentum she traveled through three-dimensional space, made her head heavy as the balancing organ system failed its master.

Thunk

Ritsuka felt her body explode in flames. Not literally. Rather the impact had pretty much damaged nearly every organ system within the shrunken woman’s body. Her nerves tried to help the master’s mind process this. Instead, she felt her mind unravel as the sensory information was too much. Hot mixed with cold as she felt the body heat within her body seep out. Eyes fluttering and body parts shaking against the confines of her restraints, the shrunken woman’s body underwent a traumatic shock. Thus, she could not perceive the footsteps nearing her prone body once more. Buildings that settled at both of her sides. 

For Ritsuka was thrown in the air and landed under the table that Morgan and Altria were heading to this night. The pair of faeries sitting down to have a chat. 

One that went unheard by the shrunken master. 

Meanwhile, the agony that she felt went unnoticed by her servants.