Location: ???

“Hello sandy beaches of Longinquus Kingdom!”

The charged lyrical intonation of the djinn’s voice reverberated loudly within the space that she teleported to. D.J.I.N.N. then spread her arms to give a wide hug to the salty air. The wide grin on her caramel skin face slowly dropped as she sniffed the air. It didn’t smell of the fresh brine that she expected. It was more comparable to rosemary and roasted honey. A step up from the damp and musty air in the Tam Lin family’s dungeon-like basement, but this was not exactly what the otherworldly entity expected. Thus, she opened her eyes, which were kept closed while she teleported to the new location. A sealing of her senses that the soft green-haired woman undertook to slowly soak up all the luxurious information that the summer beach had to offer. Like the slow drawl of a good glass of aged wine.

However, instead of a black sandy coast, D.J.I.N.N. found herself in a decadent room furnished with upholstery, furniture, and rare gem-plated ornaments. It was a decadent space that neared the magnificence of the luxurious abode that was the djinn’s home within her lamp. 

In the unique entity’s opinion, this place had a mouthfeel more resemblant chardonnay instead of red wine.

“Oh my? This isn’t the lovely beach that would be graced by my presence during the first day of my ten-year vacation.”

D.J.I.N.N. pouted. She wanted fun and sun and not more of her chill and still. The latter being more likely while cooped up in some random room. Thus, the djinn  found herself perking up when the ornate white door to the room opened. At the prospect of nascent stimulation.

For, a guest being invited into a luxurious abode was something new for the otherworldly entity, and a welcome one at that. As she sometimes dreamed of inviting someone into her lamp as a guest of her home.

Oh…wait, what if I had put that darling Nameless on my body? Hanging from the diamond of my top, sealed within the encasing of my lower wear, or even wrapped around my toe like jewelry. Would my lamp sense that and try to kick him out, or would it have just considered him an article of clothing?

The tan woman paused to ponder if the half-elf she shrunk would have counted as a possession, before nodding at the regally dressed lady that just entered the room. A blonde human of similar height to the djinn.

“Oh! Well, hi hun. You are looking marvelous. I hope that you don’t mind my sudden intrusion. I was just on my way out, but wouldn’t you—“

Bright, warm, and the right touch of affection. This was the greeting that D.J.I.N.N. perfected during her years of seclusion. The demands of her job and the lack of social interaction and prolonged years of minimal activity, with a short burst of exerted effort on the djinn’s part, was positively maddening for her. Especially since those wishes usually amounted to three poorly thought out wishes by her master and mistress. The boredom of the unchanging days, blending, really bothered her. Thus, D.J.I.N.N. always tried to be as affable as possible with everyone she meets. It was an endeavor on the djinn’s part to be a good neighbor and friend to most, even if she were to only know them for a second.

Thus, it would be an understatement to say she was plussed and a little vexed, when the blonde lady, dressed in an excessively frills, decided to undercut that.

“VINE MAGIC!!”

The noble’s face was warped by fear and rage. As she interrupted the djinn and volleyed a huge bundle of magic-fueled shrubbery. Well…huge relative to the mana pool within the fearful woman. To D.J.I.N.N. it might as well have been a glass of water that she could chug down. Compared to the ocean of strength that she could draw upon.

Really. I tried to be genial. And this is what I get. People weren’t this rude a millennia ago.

D.J.I.N.N. shook her head in disappointment, before raising a hand at the several green trunks. A simple wave of her fingers and the brimming vegetation, sprouting with barbed leaves and deceptively fuzzy bristles, that twirled and twisted through the room on many paths towards the unique entity all ceased in movement.

“Wha—”

The noble began to sputter in shock. 

Only for her parted lips, limbs, and the rest of her body to freeze. Not even the internal framework of the noble lady’s eyes could elicit a saccade. Time had frozen for the owner of the room and her magic. Meanwhile, an unimpressed D.J.I.N.N. strolled over to the other side of the room. To stand next to the woman that decided to attack her without even a word.

“Now wasn’t that quite rude, honey.”

D.J.I.N.N. extended an arm and brought a hand to brush a stray bang from the one of the blonde woman’s wild eyes. 

“Oh honey, that is a fierce expression. I haven’t seen eyes like that since…”

The soft green-haired woman raised her other hand and quietly counted with her fingers. D.J.I.N.N. gave up when she realized that she wasn’t the best at time or dates, and it didn’t matter. At least not as much as the reason behind why the owner of this room so fiercely confronted D.J.I.N.N. Sure, the unique entity technically broke into the room, but for the unnamed lady of such refined attire…to take such aggressive actions by herself against an unknown threat.

Why didn’t she just call one of her guards? I can sense their thoughts just on the other side of the floor. It wouldn’t have been too much trouble to try and distract me and secretly call them over.

Of course, there was the possibility that the blonde was one of those dim-witted nobles that rode on the coattails of old money. Regardless, the djinn was cooped up for a bit too long for her taste, and she found herself a bit intrigued by this oddity of conduct.

“Now what has got you so scared honey~”

D.J.I.N.N. pressed her palm against the surface of the blonde noble’s head. The djinn was not that perturbed by the course of the events that preceded this moment. She was just having her fill of curiosity. Thus, there was a gentle smirk on her bright face.

After all, positive outcomes manifest if, you are positive. At least that is how the tan woman chose to live her life. Yet, the edges of the djinn’s lips twitched downward.

“Oh…Jafar…”

D.J.I.N.N. removed her hand from the frozen woman’s head.

“I guess it would make sense that you don’t trust your guards. After what happened to one of your colleagues. Especially someone with as many accomplishments as that man.”

D.J.I.N.N. sighed as she twirled on her feet. 

“I guess it’s best if I make myself scarce...How do I hide how powerful I am again?”

The tan woman wobbled her head in contemplation.

“No, someone could still figure out that I’m the odd one out even if I hide who I am, and that would make me more suspicious. Maybe I should just go somewhere else for the beginning of my vacation. Where people would be less inclined to be on edge with oddities like me?”

The soft green-haired woman tapped her foot against the floor as she ruminated.

Let’s see, I think that I’ve spent too much time in what they now call Oesis. I do kind of want to see what the new society on the surface is like now, but I’ll shelve that for later. There is that far-east country…I’ve heard that there is a large range of sapient species of varying heights and forms. But that sounds like the last bite of a dessert I should savor. I don’t think that I’m dressed for Morgan’s homeland, the Wilting Wilderness. After all, I believe that it’s chilly north of the Oesis. So, I guess that leaves the risen amphibious country on the other side of the Barren Sea or the Skyward Capital. As for the Forest of Eternity, which I think is to the west of Longinquus Kingdom…ugh why does that country always move…just sounds like a boring place to be. I might as well completely disregard the Abyssal Reach as well. I’m rather partial to my life, and...

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

The Tam Lin Estate

Two sets of five flexed and fanned outward. They were a subject of hyper fixation for the owner. Her lanky physique, bundled with lean muscle, and 6’8” (7’0” if the horns were counted) height that did not prevent her eyes from scanning over the bare slabs of meat those sets of five were attached to. The tall woman’s pale skin easily shaded by the lighting within her room. Just enough that the dark depths of her wrinkles, stretching out from underneath the bottom of her long foot and towards their sides, were easily discernible.

Houseki frowned as she everted and then inverted her bare feet. Turning them back and forth on their sides will softly huffing to herself. Exposing glimpses of the muscular tapestry, that composed the wavy underside of her pale sole. The oni’s almond eyes narrowed even further, and she unconsciously ground her teeth. As she was incredibly self-conscious of the slight beads of brine that dotted the oversized oblongs. Feet that both carried her through covert missions but were also a liability.

I hate laundry days.

Light refracted from Houseki’s unpolished toenails, while she nervously curled her toes before fanning them out again. The 21-year-old was about to run the sides of her feet through the carpet of her room, to dry her soles of the few dots of sweat. However, she decided against it and chose to swipe a hand through the geometric cut of her dark hair. In hopes that it would appease the frustration that she felt from soaked and exposed peds. 

The reason for changing her mind. It was because the oni recalled just how abrasive that floor furnishing was against the bottom of her feet. Not that it was usually an issue. Since Houseki always garbed the bottom of her lower limbs with her black tabi socks. Even sometimes when she went to sleep. 

If Houseki just had to put up with her recon garb, formal attire, night wear, or even her casual clothes going through the cleansing process, initiated by their maid, Gloriana, then the oni would be fine. However, the budding intelligence operative’s point of contention lied with the overly large slabs of meat. That served as the foundation of 

each 

and every

plodding and heavy step, she took.

In reality, Houseki’s feet were perfectly proportioned to her body’s height. Unfortunately, in the Longinquus Kingdom, aside from the Queen Regnant, who was more of a towering Amazonness than the oni of the Tam Lin family, there were few individuals that reached Houseki’s height. Thus, there was barely any footwear that the pale woman could wear, and they couldn’t be shoddily made either. As the natural height that the athletic woman possessed conferred an abundance of weight to her figure, despite her lanky appearance. Especially, since her oni heritage had packed her attractively androgynous frame with intricately woven bundles of lean muscle. Furthermore, it didn’t help that she was from a distant foreign country, and that her physical appearance didn’t match the family that adopted her.

Of course, that was not to say that the oni girl was bullied while growing up. The Tam Lin family name, despite being a newer one in the Longinquus Kingdom, held weight within their court, the public sphere, and several other fields and area of interest. The diversity that her family embodied, and her mother’s strong leadership as the matriarch of the household, also embodied what the royal crown represented then and still to this day.

The Queen and the Queen Regnant. The former, Jeanne Arch, was a human mage of the highest caliber, whose only equals within the court were Houseki’s mother and Jafar Ahsan. Queen Arch’s family line having ruled the Longinquus kingdom with a strong fist through an isolationist rule. Such policies only strengthened when the woman was seemingly kidnapped by a monstrous beast. 

Of course, like with most political or royal matters. That past tragedy was hardly the truth. The princess, back then, was not kidnapped by a beast. It was a ploy manufactured by a close court confidant of her parents. The king and queen back then. So that the princess could be secretly assassinated by mercenaries, and for the court confidant’s colleague to ascend to the throne by means of usurpation. Fortunately, for this country and its royal family, it was that very falsely accused beast, that they tried to pin the crime on, that brought the princess safely back to home…and ushered in a shifting social climate of openness, tolerance, and acceptance. The beast would later be known as the current Queen Regnant of Longinquus, the blue-scaled dragoness Vritra Arch.

The rescue and romance, a hot and widely debated tale, is a story for another time. 

As it had little in relation to Houseki’s current quandary. The towering woman grew up in a household, environment, and country of tolerance and booming diversity. Thus, the oni’s vexation was not rooted in how people treated her, but because of her own insecurities. Of her own self-perceived differences in this land.

Through the years, Houseki had come to accept and come to terms with her height as a sign of strength and beauty. The oni’s impressive stature making her a top candidate as a potential intelligence operative in highly dangerous mission. Especially those with potentially overwhelming physical threats. The difficulty, in maintaining stealth, that would come from being this tall, was easily mitigated by Houseki’s diligent application to cultivating her magic system. As being an intelligence operative was always her dream. Furthermore, the oni’s 7’0” height was fitting for the androgynous beauty of her form. One that beguiled both men and women and did wonders for the introverted Amazoness’s self-esteem. Nowadays, Houseki even found delight in when she posed in front of a mirror. The unnecessary shame that the pale woman once felt looking at her body had all but washed away. That is…as long as her visual field did not descend too near to the floor.

At the pair of feet that stretched, lengthwise, to 12 and 1/2 inches. Houseki would find her face blaze crimson from the embarrassment of just lifting her feet. As it would reveal the swell of pink bordered ochre, color built up from pressured steps, that surrounded her pale instep. The broad bottom of her feet having to be burdened with the full weight of her 7’0” frame. Unlike her height, there was no strength that she could find in those brutal stomping instruments. They were her one weakness during stealth training that she had yet to find a way to compensate for. Aside from encapsulating them in self-made thick tabi socks to muffle her steps.

Thus, for the comfortably reserved woman, her feet were her one insecurity.

…

An insecurity that was exacerbated by the present issue. Houseki’s reliance on her tabi socks, compounded by poor planning, led to the oni neglecting to wash her footwear for too long. It wasn’t until the adopted sister stomped her tabi socks in her brother’s room, before he left on his advised journey, that she realized the abuse that her footwear had gone through. A trauma that ended up being shared by all Houseki’s socks. The fact was confirmed when she went back to her room after saying goodbye to Nameless. After she saw all the pairs of black tubes stuffed in the back of her dresser. All were made crusty from her sweat, and they collectively exuded a powerful scent that made her nose wince.

Thus, Houseki self-consciously made her way to Gloriana, and requested the golem maid to take care of her much-delayed laundry, while fighting down a discomforted expression. As the tall woman’s mind was already filled with irrational anxieties. Such as the silver-skinned maid using her unreadable visual sensors to peek at the adopted Tam Lin family member’s toes.

Afterwards, Houseki swiftly absconded and left the maid to complete the task. Her feet now without the conservative bindings that lovingly embracing the wrinkled interface. A shameful part of the oni that freely scrunched in the open air and was beaded with salty droplets of embarrassed sweat. 

Not from the stuffy heat of ripe tabi socks, like usual, but from the towering oni woman who just can’t bear exposing her gargantuan feet. 

Haaah…it should still be another hour. I just don’t get how Nahla can be so comfortable in just laying her feet bare like that.

Houseki glanced at her assigned reading material. The young woman had put it to the side, as she was beginning to find it difficult to retain the material. Usually, the industrious intellectual would have left her room for a change of scenery. The contraindication being the soft smacks of her steps, which would be an endless source of distress for the pale Amazonness. However, the reserved woman’s bare feet might not have been a complete deal breaker in this case. As Frigg had said that she would be busy with a project in advance, and there were certain parts of the house that Nahla was not inclined to go to.

Hmm~ I guess the living room is a good place to study before I grab a clean pair of tabi socks. The carpet there would also be sufficiently gentle on my feet.

The oni spread and closed her toes again. Moving the beaded perspiration between the folds of skin.

Mmh~

Houseki bounced off her bed and stood straight up to her full height. The cautious woman slowly built up the resolve in her current plan of action.

Yes, I should be fine walking through the halls. There’s also this couch that Titania and Nameless always sit on. Maybe the cushions are ergonomic and it’s not just a force of habit.

The oni picked up her books and began the soft series of smacks by walking out of her room. The prospect of being able to experience the furnishings of the living room, that she familiarized herself with for over a decade, in a novel manner, outmatched the small bubbles of worry from being spotted with her bared 12 and ½ inch dogs. An excitement that steadily rose even as the long length of Houseki’s rubbery slabs pounded against the tiles with its pale wrinkles. Those long strides led to a short departure and arrival, from her room to the living room.

“Awesome! No one’s here.”

Houseki flashed an exultant grin, before stomping over to the couch that her 22-year-old brother so often gave massages to her other family members. The sight of the red furniture reminding the younger sister of this frequent memory. She paused momentarily in front of the couch; a tincture of bashfulness colored the oni’s smile. 

“Heh~ now that I think about it, I always refused brother’s offers to soothe my legs.”

The dark-haired oni’s toes rapped over the fuzz of the carpet. Houseki was gladdened to find that her assumption was true. That the fuzzier carpet would be more amenable to the abundant folds of her sole. Maybe it will even soak up some of her foot sweat. Yet, it didn’t completely negate the small regret that she had. From refusing one of the few times that her brother approached her in a shared physical activity. 

A worry that a younger Houseki never entertained when they were kids. As the five of them may have had squabbles now and then, but their bond was as strong as any family could be. So, it was a constant pang for the younger sister to see her brother leave his room after an entire day of studying with a downcast expression. His participation during dinner conversation oscillating between barely being active to just listening. A stark contrast to a few years before.

I hope that this outside trip will do you some good brother.

Without a thought, Houseki’s toes reacted to her strong emotions by pressing firmly against the yielding fluff of the carpet. The minute stalks barely registered as anything more than a tingle on the oni’s gargantuan sole. As the strands of the carpet were so tiny and packed together, that they might as well have been a uniform and gentle surface. Just a gently reassuring wave of plush that massaged the oni’s tender soles.

“Haaah….it’s probably for the best that I keep my brother away from my monstrous feet. I’m sure that he would be disgusted by those brutal appendages of mine.”

Houseki shook her head.

“So oversized compared to mom’s feet.”

Then the oni rolled her foot by the ball, lifting her heel, and began the last few steps towards the couch. Each powerful step carried the weight of the Amazonness. Easily crushing the small stalks to an even more diminished height. 

Dust, debris, and lint that collected within the filamentous jungle of vermillion over the past day were displaced by the impression of the oni’s weight. The dark-haired woman was unaware of the minute denizens, that had their world turn over by the sweltering and sodden press of flesh, as she finished her short saunter, and smoothly fell into the warm seat.

“Ahh~ Nice and comfy. Now I know why Titania and brother love sitting here.”

The lean and lanky woman’s abdomen flexed as she reclined into the comfy embrace of the furniture. The 21-year-old oni talking to no one else. As she enjoyed the comfort of having the entire living room to herself.

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

It was not the sound of the coming calamity that woke up Nameless. The shuddering tremors would invariably elucidate to just how much the cards are stacked against him.

Rather, what cut the young man’s much needed rest short, was none other than failure of his own anatomical, and, thereby, physiological functioning.

Khaaahh!!

A sharp wheeze sputtered out of the half-elf’s lips. His body seized from the pain that was exacerbated from that reactive gagging and ensuing coughs. A positive feedback loop of torment that his barely alert mind was not given the time to process. Such mercy would come by rolling his body to the left side. The sharp pleuritic scratch burned with each expansion of the young man’s chest. 

My…my lungs…

Fortunately, the Cleric’s fund of knowledge was able to rule out a cardiac and musculoskeletal etiology by just how he felt. Thus, cutting down the time it would take to scan his body for the cause. Although, his mind momentarily froze in panic when he tried to move his right arm and failed.

I must have dislocated it when I held onto Gloriana’s loafer…

Nameless gritted his teeth and braced himself for another spike of pain, before rolling to his other side. His left arm, now refilling with blood, after being caught between his left side and the floor of the vermillion jungle, was able to roughly angle itself so that the young man’s hand was pressed against his chest.

The expanding sacs of light tissue and the surrounding electrical webbing were Nameless’s targets. As he expected, the lungs that endured the first fall were still completely intact. Sensibly so, since it was able to endure a tougher impact from the first fall caused by the slamming basement door. Thus, the issue resided with the webbing that went back and forth between the dense network of nervous tissue. That led up to his neck and down to the flap of fibrous tissue that separated the abdomen from the thorax. A segment that he learned was called the diaphragm during his early days on primary academic lessons. It was this electrical disconnect that prevented the proper expansion and closure of his lungs.

Shit…mending nerves is hard enough on a clear mind.

Nameless paced his breathing and tried to take stock of his surroundings and self. He was on his right side, prone, in a jungle full of thick red stalks. That were in the form of partially unraveled cylinders. The individual fibers of those structures were firm and abrasive against his back, a much different sensation than what the half-elf experienced from when he was normal-sized. As these human-sized bushes, were mere standing fibers of a carpet.

I can’t stay here. Just Gloriana walking knocked me out.

Nameless looked ahead and upward, but the sight he saw had barely changed from the view from before he fell unconscious. The living room’s true ceiling that blurred into non-existence. A nebulous painting of dark shades that emulated a starless night sky. The only reason that the half-elf thought it was the living room’s ceiling he was not seeing was because of the ceiling that he could see. One that was there before he went under.

At least it’s good to know that my body is not feeble enough for a draft of wind to blow me away from my spot.

Nameless tried to think positively, but a part of him wondered that maybe he was still recumbent, in the same position, because he was lucky enough to not have a small puff of wind blow him away. Regardless, the design of the brown ceiling to the side, despite stretching out beyond his vision, still resembled the design of a sphinx. The same one that was sculpted on the bottom of the red couch that Tatiana and he were sitting on this morning.

This morning…am I correct in thinking that? Or is it already another day? I wish that I can tell time from here.

Nameless wished that and many other things, but he knew that wishing would not get him anywhere. He had two choices. 

Move now. 

Or rest and move later.

Unfortunately, he would have a hard time of doing either. Since each breath, made difficult from a poorly innervated diaphragm, was painful enough to wake him up from a deep sleep.

I should really wait until I have more magical energy in my reserves before doing this…but…

Nameless focused the little intangible ladle in his mind. Forcibly expanding it and then dipping it in the half-empty pot of natural energy within him. The action forced some of that aether to spill out. Into conducting streams that led to his recovering muscles. The half-elf didn’t have the luxury to consider efficiency, as he was uncertain if he would even have the strength to pour the ladled energy on the disrupted pathway of those essential nerves.

Come on.

Mental fatigue began to set in within Nameless, but, with furrowed brows and temporal veins bulging into prominence, he was able to lift the ladle and visualize it being carried over to the torn nerves.

Parallel Destiny Magic!

The energy was poured through the young man’s left hand. He wished that he had something to bite on, but that was the one benefit of a Cleric being alone when they are healing themselves. No one can hear them scream. For Nameless, both his hand and the target blazed, like they were thrown directly onto hot coals, and the rest of the body relatively cooled.

This was a battle of endurance for the Cleric. To not black out again until the destroyed nerve segments were replaced. A task that was not easy. As it was one of the few structures in the human body that did not replicate readily. So, the half-elf had to use an absurd amount of his remaining strength to whittle away neighboring tissue, rewind time on them, and progress that time while taking a different path on that tissue. To transform adjacent non-neuronal tissue into functioning neurons.

That was Parallel Destiny Magic. 

A Cleric specific technique that manipulated fate. A magic spell that was only heard of being enacted at an individual level in legends. Apart from a single known living Cleric being able to complete such an absurd spell. But she was imprisoned in the Longinquus Kingdom’s prison that resided on an isolated island

Most fully trained Clerics, such as Nameless, would spend their entire education to just use it to change the fate of a few neurons. A magic spell that came at the cost of anywhere from tenth to a quarter of their magic pool. Yet, it was considered an essential skill in a Cleric’s toolkit because it couldn’t be replicated through any other magic.

Until…three years ago. When a group of internationally organized enhancers remotely collaborated to insert such a magic into a charm. Nameless’s twin sister, Frigg, was one of them.

Nameless closed his eyes shut, until the breaths he took became lighter and less erratic. The burden of merely existing lessened, and the young man was able to respire with only the discomfort of his current stature plaguing his mind.

That…that took more out of me than I expected.

Nameless crossed his left arm over his torso to heal his numb right arm. A much easier affair, and the young man was able to return it back to its functioning state.

“Dang it D.J.I.N.N. how is this in any way supposed to help me with any of my wishes.”

The young man tried to stand straight up, but felt his legs wobble, and the small of his back heat up.

“Wha—“

The half-elf would have thought it was another affliction. Or an injury that he had to take care of. An increasingly difficult endeavor with his nearly empty supply of magic. However, it was that emptied pot that made him question that conclusion, and ultimately not arrive at it.

My…my magic power.

Nameless, for the first time in his life, felt an inexplicable swelling of power. As if the rapid emptying of his imaginary pot, a mental diagram that he was thought to visualize in his mind’s eye for convenience, had suddenly refilled.

How…how is this possible?

Zzpp

Hnngh!!

The flustered man shuddered. As he felt a fierce jab above the heated spot of his lumbar region. Two sharp disturbances on both sides of his spinal cord. Nameless tried to move his hand back, the vanishing fatigue and increasing strength making it easier, but the tight shirt that he wore made such a reach difficult.

Dang it, what is this sensation…wait didn’t I feel this...before D.J.I.N.N. took me out of the room with her toes?

The image of that caramel-skin woman, with a self-assured smile that communicated that she saw nothing wrong with what she had done to the one she called her master, flashed in Nameless’s head.

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

Thus, it was understandable that the shrunken individual would think that it was the djinn creating those thundering booms. Sonorous crashes that were unlike anything the young man heard in his life. Nameless turned to the approaching source, fooling himself into thinking that he was going to give that irresponsible woman a piece of his mind. 

Oh…

Only for the urgency of the situation he was in, to clearly reemerge in front of him. In physical form. Beyond the filamentous skyline of the carpet, with its stalks analogous to bushes that stretched to meet his size, was an oncoming mountain. The thunderous crashes were deafening due to the size of the source, and muted due to the inadequate size of the observer that was forced to witness it. 

“Awesome! No one’s here.”

To witness the moving black mountain, emerge from the blurred obfuscation of the distant world. A room that Nameless used to only take around twenty steps to walk through. Now it might have taken him months if not years to travel such a distance. So, it was no wonder that she would look like a mountain. The tallest woman in the Tam Lin family, whose strong and composed voice now boomed with a divine-like inflection. One that made the young man’s bones rattle. From the mere the power of sonic waves produced from just a few of the literal giantess’s words. Her identity made clear when the pale pastel complexion that formed her neckline came into the focus of the upper periphery of the brother’s visual field. 

CRUNNCCHH

Then she took another step. One that should have been soundless, but a muffled crashing of the red shrubbery distant to the shrunken half-elf fired off into the distance. As the dark-haired woman stepped onto the carpet. It was then that Nameless’s eyes darted down to the incoming hazard. 

Houseki!

The older brother’s eyes widened as he saw the bare buildings of the towering oni’s feet. Two pairs of five bloated trains sat in a row and dug into the fibrous stalks. Nameless could see displaced dirt and debris blow out from the squashed terrain. The impact of the weight all but steamrolling the pliable vegetation. Vegetation that the shrunken individual found himself trapped in. The former were unthinking structures. That were built to be deformed and take the weight of a pedestrian. The latter was Nameless. Who did not fit in that category. Nearly every component of his body being essential for the daily functioning of life. Any form of deformation was a threat to the young man’s life.

At least that is how it was before the djinn transformed him. 

“HOUSEKI! I’M DOWN HERE! HOUSEKI!”

Not that the shrunken half-elf wanted to test that hypothesis. Embers kindled near his lower stomach, but it was overwhelmed by the absolute appearance of his younger sister. The oni that stretched up into the sky even farther than D.J.I.N.N. The slender oni’s sharp androgynous features were obfuscated in the young man’s vision. The limitations of his ocular structures were made apparent, as the mascara and lines of the giantess’s eyes blurred together to form an intimidating painted mask. Just the gentle curve of the giantess lips, tugged upward in joy at whatever she saw, was clear to Nameless’s eyes. That was what he could most clearly discern from her face. The red horns, that the brother once said to his reserved younger sister were like a beauty mark, during a day where they were young and she was unusually quiet, now added to the image of the sister’s utter divinity. 

An apotheosis made possible by Nameless’s fall from humanity.

Terror, hope, and despair filled Nameless. As he continued to yell, but the horned titan didn’t seem to give any indication of hearing his voice. She didn’t even tilt her head down to the ensuing dust storm that her bulging toes kicked up, with just a mere scrunching contraction of its length.

“Am I too far…or is my voice just too weak now…”

Nameless frowned. He thought of insects that were near his height now. Bees and ants. In the past, he heard the former flying sometimes in the distance, but not the latter while it crawled in the grass. That knowledge was both awe-inducing and fear-inspiring. For, when they were at similar sizes, Nameless knew that his oni sister, younger by one-year, had outstripped him in terms of sheer athleticism and combat. That was easy to accept. As the older brother didn’t want to win fights against his siblings. He wanted to be strong and independent enough to stand by their side. As much as he enjoyed the occasional erotically charged daydream and was unwilling to discard his unique sexual proclivities for the unique perspective and life it breathed into his world, the bonds with his family were so important. Thus, it was so jarring for Nameless to see his younger sister like this. She appeared as a colossal monument. That eclipsed every achievement that sapient life has built in Longinquus kingdom…no…any region in this world.

Houseki can’t hear me?

Nameless’s mental perspective of the world was about to shatter. The pieces of his image as a brother, one deserving of his wonderful family, that he has been fighting so hard to maintain…were about to fall apart. 

Sensibly so.

For how could he think of himself as even equitable, in any way, to someone whose stature matched that of the goddesses in scripture. Thus, this descent primed a gap to form in the shrunken individual’s heart. One that his selfishly lascivious desires were eager to settle in. To make itself home and partner itself with the psyche of the young man turned frail insect. To always remind him that he was little, fragile, and so fitting as something without a name. A mere insect that just happened to be in the company of a beautiful family. One that he tried and failed to race after. Foolishly so, when it was just so much easier for him to take his rightful place beneath them.

She can’t see me from there. Will she even—

Nameless’s train of thought was interrupted by the following shockwaves. His mind already braced for the final words that would shatter any self-worth that the weak man was clinging to.

“Heh~ now that I think about it, I always refused brother’s offers to soothe my legs.”

It was a meaningless statement. One that discomposed Nameless and caused his mind to pause.

No. No. That is not why I came this far. Screw being shrunken.

For those were words that he least expected to come out of a divine existence but were exactly the words that he expected to come out of his caring and overly reliable younger sister. Houseki.

I did not bust my ass to give up at the first sign of defeat.

The older brother’s resolve returned as he saw the edges of the usually inexpressive woman’s lips twitch. Between the geometrically sculpted black sheets of hair, an ephemeral frown emerged.

“Haaah….it’s probably for the best that I keep my brother away from my monstrous feet. I’m sure that he would be disgusted by those brutal appendages of mine.”

A fire lit up within Nameless. The young man wasn’t a pure individual. 

By this point of the tale, that fact should be readily obvious. 

Indignation rose within the older brother when he saw from the subtle shift in Houseki’s facial expression. A silent communication of the burden she carried. What it was, he was unsure, but he wanted to be a part of the foundation, the net that caught her when she needed it the most. This desire combined with maddened inclination that the young man’s subconscious felt strum. A playing of an erotic bundle of fibers that grew stronger outside of the brother’s awareness, as he saw Houseki shake her head. In abnegation of the facet of female beauty, that her brother could not deny his strong love for.

“So oversized compared to mom’s feet.”

Are you kidding me? Your feet are great?

Nameless impulsively thought. Words that the brother would never speak, but he knew the allure of those sturdy and reliable implements of the human body. 

Their form and function…

Their appearance and strength…

Were aspects of beauty that she should cherish.

“HOUSEKI!!”

Nameless began yelling again, but this time with strength and purpose. This time with a plan. As he began running towards the couch. The young man speculated that if he could somehow climb up the arm of the chair, then he would have a better chance of alerting his sister of his presence.

I’m not just going to sit here and disappear while the rest of my family needs me. I’m not going to—

CRUNNCCHH

CRUNNCCHH

Thoughts and bravado were distinct from actions.

CRUNNCCHH

CRUNNCCHH

Actions were sometimes inconsequential in the face of natural forces, and coming towards Nameless, in a kingdom-crushing stroll, was a giantess of an oni. His younger sister, who was more destructive than any natural disaster that the brother witnessed.

The young man turned back just in time for Houseki’s sharp, determined eyes to come into focus of his vision. Not as a mask, but the kind gleaming pools of black that he had known for nearly two decades. Then those eyes passed overhead and out of sight. As the rest of her looming body barreled towards his direction. 

Nameless saw...that Houseki’s eyes were focused on the same thing he was. The couch. 

That wasted second, to see his adopted sister in all her magnificence and glory as a giantess, was Nameless’s undoing. As the shrunken individual’s body tilted while running. The shift in his center of gravity, led to his legs to hit each other in mid sprint. He careened and the near world blurred into an indistinct painting just like the far world.

Nameless’s body hit the floor of the carpet, below the view of the red stalks, for the third time.

This time the young man wouldn’t get the chance to get back up. He could hear the vermillion stalks bend backwards and squeeze themselves thin, the air above him grayed from the blowing dust clouds that were displaced from his sister’s pumping steps. Those long and sculpted legs that drew the eyes of many men and women and solidified the kind and considerate oni as one of the most alluring specimens within the Longinquus Kingdom, now swung up and directly over the older brother.

No. That was wrong. Nameless was just a little brother. Even to his younger sisters. The sudden eclipse of all the sky’s unnatural light confirmed it. By an expansive canopy of solid pastel waves. Pale textures lined with deeply shaded crevices and speckled with the denizens of the carpet: fuzz, red filament, and dust that all comparable in size to the brother’s current stature. 

They all looked so minuscule. Glued to the veritable lake of skin. Caught within the uneven rubber textures of an athletic woman’s foot. 

At a normal size, Houseki was so physically inclined and imposing, that she overwhelmed most with just her presence alone. Now the weight of the kind giant’s toned body was coming down to the little brother as a destructive force.

“HOUSEKI!! MOVE YOUR FOOT!!”

The little brother belted out his loudest uproar, as he looked up at the descending castle of oni leg. There was no time for him to get up from his supine position. The gusts of wind, forcibly displaced by the descending meteor of rubbery flesh, conveyed that. Time slowed down for Nameless. For his mind could not escape the reality that he was directly in the path of his sister’s unending sole.

12 and ½ inches long. The little brother recalled the adopted sister’s furiously blushing face when Nahla snuck under her raised feet, and playfully pressed a ruler on the underside of that uneven plane. Only to find that the length of the measuring device was just short. That was how he knew how long his younger sister’s feet, and that it was fifty times as long as he was high.

Compared to his 1/4-inches, and having lived a life at 6 feet even, Nameless might as well have been facing a falling field that was 300 feet long. His yells were so loud, that he could no longer hear them. Houseki definitely couldn’t. She most likely bore an unreadable expression on her face. As this was just one step of many, and her little brother got an insect’s eye view. 

The wind scraped at Nameless’s skin, and the five boulders descended and passed the shrunken individual. Waving toes that were now closer to the couch than him. His flared nostrils got a large inhale of the tainted atmosphere forced by the violent gusts of wind. The powerful flow was too rapid for the young man’s physical anatomy to react. A malodorous stench that burned through his olfactory senses. Completely different from the enchanting and sterile odors that emanated from the two previous giantess’s he met. 

Nameless wanted to vomit, as the weaponized aroma of the oni’s well-trodden appendage fully doused his sensorium. 

Eyes began to water. Ears rung. Tastebuds coated with the sour quality of the air. 

Meanwhile, the fanning toes, as if taunting the insect that wanted to be more than it was, become obscured in the distance. 

Out of sight.

Meanwhile, Nameless’s body was saturated by the cloying heat that radiated from his sister’s body. Overhead, the prominent wrinkles of her sole, that gridded diagonally, expanded outwards. Then the little brother could see the circular grids. Grids that were smaller compared to the ledges of flesh that were the sole’s wrinkles but were large enough for the young man to trip over. 

If he had the chance to walk on that foot. 

The only reason that Nameless was able to think that useless thought, was because of the sheer amount of experience that he had daydreaming of such fantasies. Of the number of times that his cock was engorged full of blood, and his testicles rumbled with dollops of cum. Each time that he dived into the impossibilities of being small enough to fit in the fold of some giantess’s fleshy fold. To be fully coated in her sweat and forgotten by the world.

That was fantasy.

...

This was reality.

Nameless did not have the presence of mind to confirm if he had an erection from his sister’s pale instep rushing towards him. The ball and sides of her foot, flushed pink and yellow from the pressure of taking a step and redirecting blood flow, plummeted to the little brother’s sides. Then, Nameless’s life flashed before his eyes, as the ghostly pale landscape crashed down on him. 

The half-elf’s head was pushed down, and his limbs were forced into a spread eagle. Pain, that was as intense as the time that he was flung around on Gloriana’s loafers, abounded his body. Then it multiplied and multiplied from the never-ending pressure. The wrinkles that marred the beautiful sole, of the likes that would leave the young man an ejaculating mess in the past, were distant enough that he fit in between two of them. Instead, the pithy rinds of the smaller whorls, that the microphiliac barely ever noticed, were what dug into his body’s frame. That left bruises and welts that pushed the limits of Nameless’s skin and bone.

Nearly tearing open wounds and breaking bones.

At first, the plush rubber of his sister’s sole tenderly conformed to his body, but the laxity of the compressing plane had its limits. 

Fluffy. Firm. Fracture-inducing. The increase of the oni’s force in a matter of microseconds. Then the pale purgatory worsened.

Within the increasing tightness, Nameless’s sensorium was given a denser blast of the foot’s toxic ambrosia. The gaseous musk was now accompanied by the briny solution that produced it. Nameless was forced to gasp as his ribcage compressed, and the beads of vinegary oil found its way into his body. The onrush of sweat droplets stretched the half-elf’s maw and penetrated though his oral orifice. The thick and salty beads, held together by surface tension, flooded his tastebuds with the most potent flavor of oni sweat that anyone has probably tasted. Nameless’s eyes would have been gushing with tears if they weren’t already. As he was forced to swallow the confluence of pure sour and salt flavor concentrated into liquid. His body spasmed into the warm and crushing hug of the endless foot flesh. The hot rubber of his sister’s foot pulsed and shifted. The movement of underlying sinuous framework morphing the sweltering skin. Commencing several unseen mechanical processes. All working in tandem to bring the uneven surface of Houseki’s sole to fully conform around the little brother like a glove. 

To swallow him right up in her instep’s wrinkles.

Burning lungs. Thundering heart. Screaming bones. Compressed muscles. Pounding head. Tortured senses…

Somehow Nameless was able to live through all of this. As the pressure reached its zenith. By chemical and physical law, the very decree of the tangible world when not affected by magic, the temperature of the airtight space, made by the coffin of flesh, skyrocketed. The pores, still invisible to the 1/4-inch half-elf, seethed a boiling concoction of sweat. His mind reeled from the torturous waterboarding that he had to endure. 

The disappearing pockets of air were replaced by the natural body odor that the giantess produced. A steady state and baseline of continuous sweat production. A homeostasis of the entire flesh biome that composed this foot. One brought about by the constant encasing of black tabi socks around Houseki’s feet. It was because of the oni’s constant reliance on the footwear, that she just naturally sweated. Thus, the disastrously mind-numbing effects of the two-pronged odor attack assaulted the half-elf’s senses. Both aqueous and gaseous elements mixing into literal biological warfare that the little brother could not escape from. Yet, through it all…one thought popped in the little brother’s end.

When would this end?

...

...

The answer was now…if the question’s subject pertained to this single step.

The bone-crushing pressure on Nameless’s body finally relented, and he thanked the heavens. Thanked his sister for finally stepping off him.

But she didn’t

When would this end?

...

...

The answer is not now…if the question’s subject pertained to Nameless being crushed by the Tam Lin family’s largest foot. 

For when the celestial plane of rubber ascended into the distant sky, Nameless was not blessed with the muffled view of the nebulous ceiling. Instead, his back was washed by a current of free air.

The heated solution of Houseki’s concentrated sweat droplets, the pressure of her overwhelming foot, and the bite of the smallest wrinkles of her instep…the wrinkles that were so small that the dermatological features weren’t even a part of the brother’s past self-pleasure sessions…all worked together to glue Nameless’s body at the bottom of his unaware sister’s sole.

MMMHHHH!!!

The little brother screamed. Nameless’s voice was unable to escape the pocket of funky flesh that swallowed the front of his body up. The wind’s shearing force scraped against the young man’s back as the foot descended again once more. This time, the half-elf would have to feel the full period of the impulse of the athletic woman’s mass…and then some.

The soul-crushing pressure that the little brother thought would prove fatal, repeated. Except, the exponentially increasing force of Houseki’s towering body shifted in its quality. Nameless felt the integrity of his clothing come undone, chewed by the masticating sharp edges of the toned woman’s meaty sole wrinkles. 

For the giantess had reached the couch that she so looked forward to sitting her backside on. A simple twirl resulted in a rotating grind of the features of her little brother’s body. Nameless thought he would explode by the end of the sweltering ceiling of rubber circling around him. The adhesive glue of sweat broke, and both small and large wrinkles gave sharp and deep kisses on his body.  

A final parting gift for the single step in two parts, the end and beginning in that order.

Nameless’s tormented body fell the small distance from the low ceiling of flesh. Just a hair’s breadth was between the imposing might of the wall of flesh, then it bobbed up and careened back down. Stopping a full body length higher (barely half an inch) than before.

I…It’s over? I’m...alive.

 “Ahh~ Nice and comfy. Now I know why Titania and brother love sitting here.”

The towering sister’s kingdom-shaking articulation rumbled in the distance and reverberated through her body. Even with the distance between the little brother and his towering sister’s foot, he couldn’t help but feel the vibrations from the divine inflections of her voice.

I…can’t…rest…

Nameless, with tired eyes, pulled himself up. Surprised by his ability to move, but without the luxury to waste time, the 1/4-inch man began to move. To make an escape.

Houseki…

He advanced to the five arcs, that tapered into fat bulbs of varying sizes. Meanwhile, his towering sister made herself comfortable and cracked open her study materials.

I’m here...

Then the little brother fell forward. Nameless’s consciousness escaping far too soon. As there still laid a countless distance for him to travel. The last disturbing sensation, before the darkness welcomed him, was the odd feeling on his upper back.

“Now where was that spell? The one that has been integrated into the manual last year.”

The first page was turned.