Stelle and March 7th were wandering through the cities that comprised Penacony’s Golden Hour. Dazzling lights flashed around them, contrasting with the perpetual evening sky. March pulled at Stelle’s hand.

“Hey!” she said, pointing. “Let’s go see what that is.”

The girls’ slow meandering quickened into a fast walk. March’s excitement was infectious. Stelle looked in the direction her fellow trailblazer was dragging her. They were approaching one of the many stores that lined the city’s main plaza. A neon sign above the entrance alternated between blue, red, and green: “Miniature World.” 

“I wonder what’s inside?” Stelle remarked. She looked down and spotted a stand next to the door. “Explore a fully realized Dreamscape! Walk through our models from everywhere in Penacony.” Several photos littered the bottom half of the stand. Stelle recognized the Golden Hour and the Reverie. “Wanna check it out?” she asked her partner.

“Yeah, sounds fun.” The two of them stepped into the store.

They were greeted by a woman standing behind a counter. “Hello. Are you here to explore our models?” Her cheerful voice masked that she just wanted to go home from work. 

“Yeah we do.” March spoke up. The cheerfulness in her voice was actually genuine. 

“Alright. That’s 2000 credits per person.” Stelle opened her wallet and handed over the money. “Please remember to not touch the models from the outside. You can enter by touching the gate on the outside.” This time the woman’s voice betrayed that she was tired of explaining the rules.

March threw out a thumbs up “Got it.” 

“Right through this door.” The woman gestured to behind the desk.

The trailblazers walked through the entryway. The room beyond was quite large, and dark. Benches lined the flanking walls. The whole thing was decorated in a mix of velvet red and purple, giving the room an elegant atmosphere. Four ornate wooden tables sat in a grid pattern through the center of the room. About a meter opened between the tables for people to walk though. The walking space was highlighted with a thin red carpet. Atop the tables were to-scale models of different locations through the Dreamscape. A light hung above them, each a different colour to set the atmosphere for the area they portrayed. The models were extremely detailed. Little cars moved around the miniature streets. Shop lights flashed and flickered. The only thing missing was little people moving here and there. Alongside the model of the Golden Hour and the Reverie were models of Clock Studios and the Dream’s Edge. The girls learned the latter two from reading a placard that corresponded to each model. 

March placed her attention on the model of the Golden Hour. Her head partially blocked the dim light, sending a shadow rolling over the city. The girl giggled. It made her feel like a giant. 

Stelle, walked to the other side of the Golden Hour model, trying to locate the shop they were currently in. She noticed a small gate at the edge of the table. The throughway shimmered bright white, pink, and green in concentric circles. The gate was no more than a couple inches tall. Curiosity overruled her ability to follow directions. “I wonder what this is.” She said inquisitively as she reached out her hand to poke the portal. March cocked her head in time to see Stelle suddenly vanish. 

Stelle blinked thrice before rubbing her eyes. She was suddenly outside on the balcony in the Golden Hour. She had just been inside a store with March. How was she suddenly outside? The trailblazer spun around to better orient herself. As she did she noticed the sky had changed. There were no stars, instead a single dim light was cast from high above the city. She also noticed something behind her. An ornate golden arch stretched above her. Its interior pulsed white, green, and red circles. Before Stelle could figure out what had happened, she felt the ground shake. A concerned voice boomed overhead. 

“Stelle? Where did you go?” 

Stelle looked down the street towards the direction of the noise. Beyond and above the buildings was the towering figure of March 7th, her side profile illuminated by the dim light. The tremors aligned with each step the giantess took as she circled the outer edge of the city. Stelle simply watched awestruck as her friend wheeled around. The tiny girl had to crane her neck backwards to see her friend’s full visage. March’s torso was a wall of white fabric that stretched into the sky. The steep angle left her face blocked by her moderate breasts. Tufts of pink hair lazily rolled down the giantess’s chest and into view.

March stopped where Stelle had previously stood. She put a hand on her hip and looked around. “Where does that girl manage to disappear to?” She shook her head in disbelief. The girl chuckled before giving a sigh. Unconsciously, March tilted her head down in tandem with the sigh. Her eyes caught something inside the model that she had yet to see: a person. She bent over to get a better look, her face looming just above the tops of the model’s buildings.

Stelle felt March’s gaze bore into her. Her friend’s face now blocked half the sky. Hair as thick as rope threaded down over the plaza. Stelle was caught between awe and fear. Every muscle in her body was fighting between paralysis and full sprint. The choice was made for her as the giantess’s eyes went wide with recognition “Stelle?” She quipped loudly. The word was a mix of inquisitiveness and surprise. More than that though, it was powerful. Stelle instinctively shut her eyes and covered her ears as March’s voice slammed into her. The sound was left ringing in her ears. 

Clarity returned to the tiny girl just in time to see a shadow eclipse the sky. March’s hand hovered above her. Stelle was helpless to stop the index finger and thumb from slamming together around her in a vice grip. She was barely larger than the giantess’s fingertips. Stelle struggled against the wall of tender skin, her hands shoving deep into the whorls of March’s thumbprint. Her efforts were pointless against the massive girl’s strength. The faint smell of lavender soap lingered in the confines of the prison. Suddenly she felt her feet leave the ground. A moment of weightlessness was replaced by upwards acceleration. The tiny girl was yanked up into the air. The fingers holding her captive spun so her stomach was to the ground. March’s torso went rushing by in a blur as Stelle was lifted upwards. 

The motion stopped as quickly as it started. The tiny girl was left momentarily disoriented. Stelle found herself staring down over the edge of March’s thumb. The view was enough to give her vertigo. It was almost 200 meters to the floor. She slowly rolled her head up. March’s prominent chest blocked her body from the hips up. Her thin pink lips were pushed together. Stelle finally made eye-contact with the massive blue-pink iris. It was focused directly on her. The tiny girl felt drawn in, like she was losing herself to its all encompassing gaze. 

March blinked twice. She was busy triple checking that she was seeing things clearly. It was near impossible to believe that the thing between her fingers was her fellow trailblazer. She blinked twice again, which only confirmed that she was indeed holding her friend. “Stelle, how did you get so, uhhh, so teensy?” The question had a sort of flat, confused tone. 

Stelle, for her part, was stunned into complete silence. She was still processing the absurd scale of the world around her, of the gigantic, beautiful eye that was boring into her soul. The tiny girl blurted out “Your eyes are beautiful.” 

March’s ears barely caught the words that Stelle had squeaked. She closed her eyes and awkwardly scratched her head with her free arm. “Haha, uhhh, thanks?” She thought to herself “This is Stelle, alright. Only she would say something so absurd in this situation.” The giantess gave a defeated sigh. Still pinching the tiny girl, March took a step back towards the wall of the room. She tucked her skirt as she sat down on one of the benches. Once she was settled, she made a cup with her free hand. Gently, she released the tiny girl into the scrunched surface of her palm.

Stelle stumbled as she landed in March’s hand. The soft ground was both unstable and uneven. The girl managed to catch herself on the squishy surface. Hot gusts of wind blew at her back in regular intervals. Rather than standing up, the tiny girl spun into a sit. Half the sky was taken up with March 7th’s looming face. This time Stelle could see it up close and in full. The giantess was scowling. Stelle had to resist the urge to tell a joke. “I don’t know why I’m so small,” she explained. “I touched something on the model and was like this all of a sudden.” She gestured to herself as she spoke, then gave another embarrassed laugh. 

March’s face shifted from a scowl to disappointment to disbelief as she processed the barely audible explanation. She had no idea how this girl had such a knack for getting into strange situations. “How about we go ask for help.” It was better to just accept her quirks and try to deal with it then try to change them. Stelle nodded in agreement. 

March 7th stood up. Palm still cupped. Her eyes were fixed on the tiny girl in her hand to make sure nothing happened. She walked with a steady pace out of the room towards the reception area. “Uhhh, excuse me ma’am.” The lady behind the desk looked over. March presented the tiny girl to the receptionist. “This may come as a shock. My friend accidentally touched one of the models and now she’s like this.”

The woman looked down at the tiny girl in March’s hand, then back up. She clearly did not want to deal with customers anymore today. “If you touch the gate you enter the models. I don’t understand why this is a problem.”

The answer caught March completely off guard. “Wait, so. How do I turn her back?”

The receptionist sighed “Just let her go back through it.”

“Ah.” March nodded. She looked down at the shrunken girl in her palm. A blush crept over her face. She was embarrassed for not knowing something that was apparently obvious. 

“Anything else you need?” The lady asked. She was clearly trying to end the conversation.

“Uhhh, no. Thank you. Haha.” March walked back into the display room. She didn’t catch the receptionist mutter under her breathe

“I hate tourists.”

Both girls' minds were set at ease now that they knew this was all part of the exhibit and not something that had gone horribly wrong. The giantess walked over to the model of the Golden Hour and stopped in front of the gate. She looked at the tiny girl in her palm. “I’m going to put you down now.” 

Stelle remained calm as March’s free hand descended upon her. Once again she found herself pinned between index finger and thumb. She felt the palm beneath her fall away. Slowly, she was lifted upwards, once again face-to-face with the giantess. They looked at each other for a moment. Stelle noticed the face in front of her slowly began to twist into a playfully mischievous smile. 

March’s lips cracked open. Her words spelled disaster for the girl caught in her grasp. “Ya know. You’re actually really cute like this. Maybe I can just keep you for a little while.” Stelle was normally taller than her; this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to bully her a little. She rolled her hand over and released, landing the tiny trailblazer in her palm once more. March giggled “My finger is going to come attack you. If you win I’ll let you return to normal.” 

Stelle didn’t have an opportunity to voice an objection. March’s giant pinky finger was already upon her. The slender digit was thrice Stelle’s size, making the fight impossible. Stelle was immediately knocked onto her back. The finger came to a rest on top of her. She was completely pinned, pressed tightly into March’s soft palm. No matter how she struggled, she could not get herself unstuck. 

The giantess giggled, “Looks like you lost. That means it's time for game two.” She wheeled around the table to be opposite the gate. She pinched the trailblazer between her fingers once again, this time setting her down in the plaza of the model. 

Stelle barely had time to recover from the ordeal before March’s booming voice began explaining the rules of her next little game. Stelle turned around to face the giantess. She somehow seemed larger than ever before. March’s hands were balled into fists and placed on her hips. She wore a smugly devilish smile. She was very obviously having a ton of fun playing with her now tiny friend. “All you have to do is reach the gate without me catching you. And since I’m so nice, I’ll give you a 10 second head start. Now… 10. 9.” 

The meaning of the words finally caught up to Stelle. “8.” She turned around “7” and started sprinting across the plaza towards the gate. “6” She had barely reached the boulevard when March taunted her. “You’re going to have to be faster than that, my little Stelle.” The tiny girl darted across the street, barely avoiding a model car. “3.” She was barely a 1/10th of the way to her goal when she looked up to gauge the distance, “2,” so she turned hard right into a narrow alleyway. “1.” Her only hope was to hide as she moved. “0. Here comes the big bad March 7th. You better be quick or she’ll gobble you up.” 

The giantess began to circle the table in the direction that Stelle had hidden. Her every footstep created tremors across the miniature city. 

Stelle's heart hammered in her chest from the sprint. She was in a dimly lit alleyway, perfect for moving unseen. She followed it a ways before coming to an immediate halt. Tufts of pink hair waved past the far end of the model. They were followed by March’s gigantic pink-blue eye. She was looking through the alleys and streets for her prey. Stelle dared not move, lest the motion attract March’s attention. The coast was clear after three agonizing seconds. The tiny girl came to where the alley opened up onto a wide street. Stelle carefully edged forward, making sure that she remained in a shadow. She looked both ways. She couldn’t see where March was at all. Slowly, she came out, sticking to the wall as she attempted to reach the next alley. The tiny girl hadn’t even noticed that the tremors had stopped. She was halfway to her target when a shadow passed over her. Stelle immediately froze. She held her breath. Slowly, her head creeped upwards. March’s face dominated the sky above the street. Her watchful eyes scanning left and right along the open space. Stelle could feel her heart beating inside her chest. She begged it to stop lest the noise gave her location away. The giantess’s eyes caught movement as a model car drove by. Both girls watched the vehicle roll down the street and turn into the alley. March’s attention on the area lasted another moment. The shadow rolled away over the buildings.

The tiny girl sighed her relief. She inched her way into the next alley to catch her breath. The brief respite helped her calm down and think clearly. This was still March 7th. Nothing bad was going to happen if she were caught. A masochistic thought crept up in her mind “You enjoy being bullied anyway.” It wasn’t entirely wrong. At this size March had an allure akin to that of a goddess. Gigantic, powerful, and beautiful all wrapped up together. Stelle started to blush. She imagined March… A tremor brought her back to reality. The tiny girl shook her head. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if March won this game, but she still wanted to get back to her normal size. 

She began to move forward again. Creeping through the back alleys of the Golden Hour towards her goal. Slowly, but steadily, she made her way towards the end. She reached the exit to her alley. Carefully, she peeked her head around the corner. The gate was 50 meters away. The area between it and her was a wide open plaza. Her eyes glanced upwards. March 7th’s enormous figure rose behind the gate and into the sky. She was scanning the plaza for any sign of movement. Stelle gulped. It would have to be an all or nothing sprint. 

March saw Stelle dart out of the alley from the corner of her eye. She reacted immediately. Her hands descended upon the sprinting girl. 

Stelle pushed forward despite the 5-pointed shadows that loomed above her. She could feel them getting closer and closer. Air collapsed behind her as March’s fingers came crashing together - a near miss. The other hand slammed down in front, just between the tiny girl and the gate. Stelle let out a shout and she leapt on the back of March’s prone hand. Still in sprint, she tripped on the gap between fingers and tumbled forward as the hand lifted back into the air. She rolled across a knuckle and was sent into the gate.

March 7th couldn’t even gasp before Stelle came barreling into her. The two girls toppled towards the wall. Their legs kicked up and knocked into the underside of the table. March’s back slammed into the bench against the wall, quickly followed by Stelle’s forehead. The thumping of wood was met with shouts of pain. They landed in a disheveled pile on the floor, with Stelle mostly on top. The trailblazers groaned. As they recovered, they looked at each other's faces. Both girls started to giggle uncontrollably. 

The receptionist, alerted by all the noise, peered through the door into the showroom. She immediately noticed the girls on top of each other giggling like they were mad. Further inspection revealed that the Golden Hour table had been jostled and one of the building models had subsequently collapsed. All she did was sigh and mutter “I hate tourists.”

It wasn’t until Stelle and March 7th were long gone that she would find a dent in the wall where the bench head was.