Nari stared wide-eyed into the shining ivory plate of Sarne’s big toenail, right before him.  The sight was thoroughly overwhelming for the young boy, as the top of the toe, flat against the ground, rose up to just about level with Nari’s nose, forcing him to stand on his tiptoes to get a good view of the absolutely enormous digit.  Sarne scrunched her toes slowly against the rocky ground, causing more dust to rise up, and crunching a few helpless pebbles in the crevices of her almost golden flesh.

                “H-H-How?” gasped Nari, sounding more terrified than he meant to, as reality began to sink in.   He quickly corrected himself, though, remembering that the only thing that had saved him before was his lack of fear and resistance.  “How?”

                “There is a spring behind you, slave, about twenty of your paces back.  Fetch the holy water and return with it, so that I may be renewed.”

                Nari nodded, turning and walking toward the shallow water that occupied a corner of the cave.  Stooping by the edge, he found a simple wooden bowl floating on the top like a miniature boat.  He shivered, wondering how many of the villagers had come here and been forced to do this.  How many of them had, like him, obeyed the goddess’s terrible command to die inside of her body willingly?  He didn’t imagine many of them had.

                A loud cracking sound broke through the silence.  Sarne had snapped her tremendous fingers together with enough force to split a boulder.

                “Move more quickly, Vaw.  I grow impatient with your distractions.”

                Nari grabbed the bowl up and dipped low into the water and filled it to the brim, standing up to  face the towering, reclining body of Sarne again, her eyebrows raised ever so slightly at him, her eyes wide and almost ravenous looking.  He half-expected some magnetic force to come from those slicing, silver eyes, pulling him in, like a deadly trap.  He carried the water back to where he had been, coming to a stop in front of the rows of toes, which crunched a few more rocks with a soft crumble below their immense weight at his return.  Looking up toward Sarne’s expectant eyes again, Nari swallowed hard and reached high over his head, dumping the bowl of water onto Sarne’s big toe.  The tiny droplets rushed along the sides, cascading off of her nail, and settled into the grooves of her toeprints.

                With a final glance up at Sarne, who showed no sign of indicating that he should stop, Nari remembered his name’s sake again, gulped, and placed his hands on the front of Sarne’s thick toe, grasping at the relatively rough flesh of her hefty digit.  He dug his fingernails against the tiny lines of her swirling toeprints, gliding his hands along them and feeling their patterns.  He admittedly was amazed by the sheer scale of her, rubbing the holy water from the spring as hard as he could against her vast, vertical plain of skin.  After a while, the tiny dirt flecks began washing in little rivers down the trickling water.  Even as this happened, though, the small boy continued working, even gliding his hands along the sharp edge of Sarne’s nail, feeling the incredible hardness, and the pale, tender skin along the edge of her nail leading onto the tanner flesh of her toe.

After getting this far, Nari ventured to the side of her toe, rubbing the water as far out as he could down to the top of her actual foot, feeling the soft, fleshy creases of the underside of her toe as it arched partially upward against the rocky ground.  The damp smell of the cave, combined with the touch of the holy water, seemed to create an unnatural occurrence as it flowed over Sarne’s toe.  Nari inhaled.  The young boy was smart enough to know that the scent of a foot, particularly one that had lain upon rocks, was unpleasant.  What he found was entirely different.  It smelled of sweet herbs, with the slightest, tingling tickle of some spice that reminded him of his mother’s stove when aflame.  The sugary, unearthly aroma of Sarne’s toes was oddly inviting, reminding the young boy of his home again.  Sighing deeply and inhaling another measure of the startlingly calming concoction of scents, Nari slid his hands off to the other side of the big toe, reaching slowly into the crevice between Sarne’s big and second toes.  He received no verbal objection from the goddess, and as he reached deeper, Nari found the hulking female’s shapely second toe curling slightly and lifting off the ground to give him some room.  Swallowing hard, nervous to be this close to this legendary figure, the boy stepped forward, caressing the softer interior of Sarne’s toe cleavage, reaching into the deepest part as he became more courageous.  The smell was amplified, and as Nari stood right before the curve of skin between Sarne’s big and second toes, hugged slightly on each side of his shoulders by soft flesh, a trace of wildflowers and sea salt seemed to creep into his nostrils.  He smiled, his hair almost standing on end.  It was like nothing he had ever experienced.  His confidence growing that he might survive the rest of the day, the young boy continued washing in between Sarne’s sanctimonious toes. 

Nari’s hands were admittedly getting tired after covering the entirety of her big toe, but he was used to having to work in the fields with his parents, and so was fully capable of moving onward.

                “Continue, slave.  Refill the bowl and do not stop until I am satisfied.”

                Night was close to falling as Nari lay back for a rest, panting, having washed every square inch of both of Sarne’s absolutely enormous feet.  The goddess had allowed him a brief break to catch his breath in between cleansing each toe, but it wasn’t much.  The young boy thanked his lucky stars that he had spent so many excruciating afternoons in the fields under the broiling sun, doing labor that would normally tire someone double his size.  He had always resented his father for making him do it but now, having been able to tackle a challenge as massive as this, he silently thanked his parents for inadvertently training him.

                Sarne tilted both feet onto their sides and leaned over slowly, running a finger along the bottom of her wrinkled soles, nodding.  A small smile crossed her lips, and at long last she pulled both feet back under the safety of her heavy auric robe, crossing her hands in her lap.

                Nari nodded as respectfully as he could; as he was already on the ground, he needed only flip himself over to bow.

                “An admirable performance, young one.  Your skill is not unnoticed.  Perhaps I have found one of the most useful locations for your insignificant existence to occupy already…”

                Nari swallowed hard, dehydrated.

                “I wish to see more of your impressive patronage.  But first, I shall reward your loyalty…” she cooed softly, sounding kinder than she had yet.  Lowering a gargantuan hand over the tiny, heavily breathing body, she rubbed her fingers together, and light began to emanate from them.  Slowly, then, a steady trickle of water flowed from the tips, created through Sarne’s supernatural power, and poured gently down to Nari’s waiting lips.

                “Your goddess has given you a gift, young slave.  Accept it gracefully,” she commanded with a whisper.  Nari was only too happy to oblige, gobbling the swallows of water down his dusty throat, sighing with relief.  After he’d drunk his fill, Sarne rubbed her fingers back together, stopping the flow of the water and placing her hand back on her lap.  As Nari looked back up at her, though, he saw her eyes squinting, almost angrily.  His mind panicked for a moment, until settling on what he believed she wanted.

                “Thank you, my g-goddess…” gasped Nari, hardly able to speak, so great was his fear.

                Sarne’s hard look of growing anger and disappointment instantly softened, her long lips spreading into a gentle, bemused grin.  “And what are you, little one?”

                “Vaw.”

                “And who is this?”

                “I…” swallowed Nari, beginning to get it.  “I am your… s-s-slave…” he stuttered, shutting his eyes tightly with derision at his foolishly uncertain answer.  His muscles tensed, expecting immediate retaliation for his failure to shout the phrase with as much confidence as if saying his own name.  However, Sarne seemed satisfied, because when he opened his eyes again, she didn’t look about ready to smash him to a pulp under her pinky finger.

                “You have cleansed the hallowed feet of your goddess with your unworthy hands, Vaw,” she continued.  “Never forget that you are of less value than each individual grain of sand that you have washed from me, for from being upon my body, these things are blessed in the land, and that can never be taken away.”

                “Yes, g-goddess.”

                “Now.  You have displayed your bondage to me adequately enough.  But now, I simply wish to be amused by you.”

                Nari was silent again.  What was it she would want?  His knees began to shake again.

                “Rise, slave.  Now.  And approach your goddess.”

                His bones aching, the young boy managed to pull himself to his feet, sore all over from the previous effort.  Tentatively stepping forward, Nari clasped his hands again, staring far upward into Sarne’s enormous face, tracing with his eyes her endlessly cascading blonde locks that seemed to shine so brightly at this moment he could barely make out the expression clearly on her face.

                Sarne raised a hand, pointing her finger, and placed it gingerly against her lower lip, studying Nari.  “Prove that you are not so useless in this manner, Vaw, and amuse your goddess.  Or else…” she said slowly, opening her mouth and poking her finger inside.  “…you shall find yourself residing within me for the coming days and nights.”