Joy woke up with a small stream of light pouring in over her body.  There was a small crack in the curtains that allowed just enough light in to cover her entire body.  No matter how much she turned and tossed she couldn’t escape the annoying light.  Finally unable to sleep anymore Joy sat up and stretched.  She slept better than she ever had in her entire life.  Never before has she ever slept on anything as comfortable as the pillow she was on now. 

Joy looked around and the room expecting someone to be waiting for her.  It brought back memories from one of her narrow escapes.  It was raining really hard one night forcing her and a couple of other tiny people into the nearest building.  They were too tired to look for a safe secure hiding spot.  Instead they hid behind a basket and fell asleep.  The next morning, Joy was woken up by a scream.  She quickly woke up and saw a giant man’s face staring right at them.  Before any of them could move he reached out and grabbed the screaming women and picked up the man next to Joy.  He put them in his pocket and started to reach for Joy and the last other tiny, a man.  Joy and the man tried to run out the closes door, when she tripped.  Thinking it was over Joy winced in fear only to have the hand go past her and pick up the man running for the door.  The owner of the building must have thought she would stay where she was. Using this opportunity she bolted behind a cabinet.  By the time the owner picked up the last tiny, Joy was already gone.  The man looked everywhere but didn’t find Joy. 

Shuddering at her narrow escape, Joy tried to think of something else.  Looking around she came across Amber’s sleeping body.  She had her face turned toward Joy allowing her to see her while she slept.  Amber looked angelic in her sleep with her lips pressed in a half smile.  She seemed harmless as can be, but Joy knew not to let looks be deceiving.  As Joy continued to stare at Amber, she let out a soft mumble and rolled over in her sleep.  It was like breaking a trance that held Joy in place; the moment Amber turned Joy was able to move again.  Quickly Joy looked away as not to be drawn in again. 

Not wanting to wait for Amber to wake up, and wanting to move around again, Joy left her comfortable pillow.  After climbing down the string Joy again looked around her surroundings.  Everything was gigantic.  Granted being small made everything look big, but this room was ridiculously big.  The other day she had a sense that the room was big, but now she had time to take it all in; she was surprised at how large this one room is.  Walking around in awe she walked toward Amber’s bed.

She reached the edge of the bed and noticed that there was a pair of strange shoes there by the side of the bed.  Curiosity got the better of her and she wanted to take a look.  Never before had she seen a pair of shoes like these.  They looked soft and warm, but offered no protection like other shoes.  Joy didn’t know why anyone would wear something like it.  Taking a step onto the material she practically fell to her knees.  The shoe felt like she was walking on clouds: soft, warm, fuzzy clouds.  Almost as if she was being hypnotized she kept walking, heading deeper into the fuzzy shoe…

Amber woke up startled, by the sound of knocking.

“Your highness, we have drawn your bath.”  It was Mary.

“Mmmmm thank you…” Amber said half asleep.  She was planning on going back to sleep, but she knew she should go take a bath while the water is hot.  Still half asleep, she got out of bed and slipped her feet into her slippers and slowly dragged her feet toward the door and headed toward her bath.

Joy reached the end of the shoe when she heard a knocking noise.  Startled, her instincts kicked in telling her to hide.  With that already done she stayed where she was forgetting where exactly she was.  Joy heard the voice of one of the maids, and Amber replied with a mumbled voice.  When she heard the maid leave Joy was about to leave the safety of her warm hide out when there was an object appearing in front of the opening.

Then it hit Joy like a ton of bricks; she was in a shoe.  What do people do with shoes?  They wear them.  Joy let out a sharp yelp as she noticed the foot that appeared in front of the opening was blocking her only escape.  Her hiding spot now has turned from a safe haven into a cave with no exit.  To Joy’s horror the foot slowly slide forward covering ground rapidly as it approached her at the end of slipper.  Joy let out a startled cry as the foot collided with her.

Amber started to walk toward her door and head down the hallway toward the bathroom, where her hot bath awaited her.  Just thinking of the warm water on her skin made her shiver in anticipation.  She hadn’t had a bath in a couple of days.  Amber didn’t want to bother the servants with the hard labor to prepare a hot bath for her every single day.  The process of heating and transporting the water up to her personal bathroom was difficult.  She could go a day or two without washing if it meant saving her servants from doing such a hard task every day. 

As Amber continued to walk she felt dirty from the few days of sweat, dirt, and grim that built up on her over the couple of days.  She wiggled her toes as she felt the grim in-between her toes, especially her big toe and second toe.  It felt like there was something stuck in-between them.  Grimacing at the discomfort, Amber headed out of her room not bothering to wake up her new found friend who was probably still asleep next to her bed.  Amber opened her door and closed it quietly without looking.  Still half asleep Amber headed toward her bathroom shuffling her feet.

Joy felt the impact of Amber’s foot as she was pressed up against her big toe and second toe.  Immediately the toes clenched in response to her touch.  Joy never felt anything like it before as she was pulled closer toward the gap in between the toes.  As Joy was held up against the warm slightly moist foot, the smell of Amber’s feet assaulted her noise.  Joy’s head was reeling at the stench.  Never did Joy think that royal feet would smell this bad.  She thought they were supposed to smell of roses.  Unfortunately her feet smelled far from roses, or any other flower.

Of course the smell wasn’t the worse part of it.  The worst part was the clenching and squeezing of her toes.  Every step caused Amber to instinctively wiggle her toes rubbing Joy’s body with the massive objects.  Joy was unable to say a word for each time she got ready to, her breath was squeezed out of her.  There was the sound of a door opening then closing that got Joy’s attention. 

Joy then felt Amber’s foot starting to pull out of the slipper… along with her toes which still clung onto Joy with a death grip.  Joy was assaulted with light as she looked up at Amber to see that she had a sleepy face.  Amber let out a loud yawn as she slowly pulled off her nightgown and let it drop to the floor. 

Joy would have said her breath was taken away at the sight of Amber’s naked body, but her foot had already done that for her.  Instead, Joy let out a short breath and blushed at the sight as she tried not to look.  Quickly Joy tried to get the princess’s attention by saying something but Amber didn’t hear her as she lifted up one long leg and put it in the tub.

Amber dipped her foot into the bath tub and let out a gasp at the intense heat.

Joy felt Amber’s toes clenched even harder making her silently gasps out in pain.  Amber’s toes involuntary clenched due to the heat of the bath.  Joy was about to black out when Amber relaxed releasing her crushing grip on her, but Joy was still stuck. 

“Amber…” Joy tired with the little breath she could.  Sadly she didn’t hear her.

To Joy’s horror Amber started to lift up her other foot.  Joy started to feel weightless as she was picked up effortlessly and started to head toward the bathtub. 

“Ambe-”

Joy was cut off as she took a plunge in the hot water.  She felt the heat wash over her with the water as she did her best not to let out her air.  She quickly dragged down to the bottom of the tub with Amber’s foot.  Joy couldn’t break free from her grip as she started to feel the need for air build in her lungs.  She was going to drown by the hand, or more like the foot, of possible the only nice giant in the entire kingdom…

Amber quickly put her other foot into the water and let the heat run up her leg.  Letting out a sigh she slowly sank into the tub as she felt the warmth rush through her body.  It felt good to wash up after a couple of days.  As the warmth slowly faded she felt slightly tired and sank deeper into the tub.  Wiggling her toes, she got comfortable and let out a sigh.  Closing her eyes she felt herself relax and drift off into a quick snooze.

Joy broke the surface of the water with a gasp.  When Amber wiggled her toes she was able to escape and swim to the surface.  Taking in big gulps of air Joy was getting her breath back as she looked around.  Directly behind her was Amber, who was up to her neck in water with her eyes closed.  Feeling rage build in her for the princess’s lack of care for her Joy started to swim toward her so she could wake her up and give her a piece of her mind.

As Joy approached Amber she got a couple of feet away from her face and was about to say something when the princess took a deep breath and her head went under the water.  Joy was shocked and not prepared for this as the waves of water rushed over her and pushed her back.  When the waves stopped Joy wiped the water from her eyes.  No sooner did she do this did Amber burst from the water causing a new tidal wave of water to rush toward Joy.

Amber let out a relieved breath after dunking her head in the water.  Feeling her belly rumble a bit from hunger, she decided to quickly finish up and go eat some breakfast.  Next to her was some soap to wash up with.  Closing her eyes as not to get soap in her eyes, she quickly rubbed her body with the soap and got cleaned up.

Joy was on the other end of the tub as she noticed Amber grabbing a bar of soap and cleaning herself.  Joy also noticed that she had her eyes closed and not aware of her surroundings.  Feeling complete agitated at the events that have unfolded recently Joy hurriedly swam toward Amber.  Half way there Joy noticed that the soap started to produce suds in the tub making it difficult to maneuver around without getting caught in one of the cloud like objects.  As Joy tried to avoid the suds more and more started to appear.  Suddenly Joy was surrounded by a wall of suds as they started to close in on her.  Unable to do anything she felt herself get covered by the bubbles.  The suds prevented her from breathing as the bubbles blocked all air from coming in.  Desperate she dived under water and swam away from the giant pile of suds.  Resurfacing a few feet away from the giant bubble mass Joy realized she was further away from where she was and that the tub was now cover with bubbles.  Joy was trapped from moving anywhere without being trapped in another group of suds; she was stuck.

Finally clean Amber lay in the bath relaxed.  The bath was starting to become lukewarm, yet it still felt good.  Amber was about to close her eyes when her stomach growled again.  This made her sit up thinking about what time it was.  She needed to eat something soon or she might die of hunger.  Getting out of the tub Amber grabbed a towel that was nearby and used it to dry off.  Next she saw some clothes that were set out by Mary.  Quickly getting dressed Amber was about to leave the bathroom when there was a noise.

“AMBER!”

Shocked by the sound of someone calling her name, Amber turned around.  “Joy?  How did you… no why… wait where are you,” Amber asked mystified that the tiny person found her way into the bathroom.

“I’m in the bathtub…”

Amber walked over and searched around but all she saw was suds all over the place and not a sign of her.  “Where?”

“…”

“Joy?  Where are you?”

There was a splashing sound in an area surrounded by suds.  Curious Amber dipped her hand into the suds and felt an object.  Scooping it up she found out the object was Joy.  Joy was covered in bubbles and coughing.

“Are you ok?”

Joy thought she was about to die when she was covered by the suds and couldn’t see or breath thought the bubbles.  Then Amber saved her life.  After getting the much needed oxygen she needed she answered Amber’s question, “Yeah…”

“What were you doing in the bathtub,” Amber let out a giggle, “Did you want a bath?”

“No!  I was in your shoe-”

Frowning, “Why were you in my slippers?”

Joy tried to explain before Amber got the wrong idea, “I didn’t want to be in your slippers.  I heard a knock and hid before someone saw me.  Then you blocked the exit and I got stuck on your foot.”

“Oh… so that’s what I felt.”  Amber said apologetically, “Sorry I thought you were just some dirt or lint in my slippers.  Is that how you got put in the bath water… by my foot?”

Joy just nodded.

“Well I’m really sorry… umm if there is anything I can do-” She was cut off by her stomach which growled.  If on cue Joy felt her stomach growl with Amber’s but the noise of Amber’s dwarfed her stomach sound.

“Sorry I’m kind of hungry,” Amber said half laughing.

“Me too, how about we just forget about this and get something to eat?”

Amber nodded told Joy she had to hide her in her pocket as she walked out of the bathroom and headed downstairs to get some breakfast.

Joy never had such a breakfast.  Amber would put pieces of her meal in her pocket as she ate.  By the end of the meal Joy was stuffed beyond belief, almost to the point of bursting.  Yet there were still scraps of food around her that Amber kept giving her.  Finally Amber got up and walked away from the table.  Joy took one more bite from a piece of what she thought was pig.  When they finally reached Amber’s room Amber pulled her out along with the small scraps of food.

“How was breakfast?  Did you like everything?  I tried to get a little of everything for you.”

Joy just nodded as she felt her gut about to burst.  Joy was about to say something when there was a knock on the door.  Quickly Amber scooped up the food and quickly put them back in her pocket as she looked at Joy.  She barely had time to pick her put and cover her with her hands when the door opened.  In walked Loren who immediately bowed her head. 

“I’m sorry your highness, I didn’t know you were still in her.  I will leave and clean later.”  With that Loren left the room. 

Amber let out a sigh of relief as she opened her hand to see Joy nearly sick.

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to,”

“It’s ok… I just need to rest a bit…”

“I could put you in my drawer until I come back from the hearing my father invited me to.  That way you don’t have to worry about anyone finding you.”

Joy was still too full to say much except nod.  So Amber put Joy in her drawer which happened to hold her underwear in.  Joy immediately felt uncomfortable being surrounded by someone’s’ underwear, but before she could say anything Amber slowly closed the drawer.  Joy was now surrounded by darkness, yet the knowledge of her lying on Amber’s underwear was a little unsettling.  Trying not to think about it, Joy lay down and went to sleep with the smell of clean clothes wrapping around her lulling her to sleep.

Amber finally was done with her father’s hearing of peasants.  It wasn’t that she didn’t like hearing the peasants’ problems, it was the fact she couldn’t do anything about it.  She wasn’t allowed to speak during the hearings of peasants.  It was almost like torturer to hear others’ problems and not be able to help them.

Then after the hearing her father had a dinner party planned out for her little brother’s birthday which she was surprised by.  She completely forgot about that her brother was turning 10.  She didn’t even get a present for him.  When he came up to her she could see the joy on his face as he asked, “Sis, did you get me something.” 

She tried to her best not to betray what she was about to say, “Of course I did, but I left it in my room.  I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”

The joy on his face multiplied by tenfold as he gave her a hug and thanked her.  She would have to find him something tomorrow morning before he wakes up.

As the night moved on Amber tried to head out of the party but was stopped by some noblemen trying to get her favor.  The only upside to the party was the fact that she could get food for Joy, but it still took forever for the party to be over.  Amber felt really bad for leaving Joy locked in her drawer too.  She must be panicking.  Hurrying Amber said goodnight to her parents and the last of the officials and left.

Amber quickly got to her dresser and opened the drawer to see Joy looking panicky up at her.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to leave-”

“I don’t care…” Joy said solemnly.  Joy felt a slight relief for being out of the dark prison she was trapped in for the entire day.  She didn’t mind waking up in it and waiting for a few hours, but then time passed by and she started to worry.  Eventually Joy realized she was being tricked and just being held here for the Princesses’ toy and not friend.  Joy even came to the conclusion that this morning wasn’t an accident.

“Please Joy I didn’t mean to leave you in there for so long.”

“Look I don’t care if I’m your property, or your pet.  You don’t have to pretend to care if you don’t care, just stop acting like it.”

Amber felt hurt, “But I do care.  My father threw a surprise party for my brother.  I didn’t even get him a present either… I’m a horrible person.” 

Joy saw the hurt on her face as she picked up Joy and brought her over to her bed and set her down on the covers.  She pulled out some food and gave it to Joy.  Joy ate as slowly as possible to savor the food.  It was extremely good but she didn’t want the food to betray the way she felt right now.  After mauling over what happen and eating something she started to forgive Amber.

Finally after eating the food Joy waited a while and said, “So what are you going to do to fix this?”

Amber thought a bit and wondered, “I guess I could always carry you around?”

Joy shook her head no, “Not me, your brother… what are you going to do for his birthday?”

“Oh,” Amber said shocked, “I didn’t think you would care.”

“I may not like you giants, but birthdays are extremely important for our people.” 

Tinies hold birthdays very dear.  They symbolize the remembrance of the blessing of life.  Even though they are born into a horrible life, just the gift of them being alive for their loved ones makes it a blessing.

“I … I really don’t know,” Amber said.

“Well maybe you’ll think of something while you sleep.”

“Maybe…” Amber said slightly worried.  “Joy… I’m really sorry I left you in my dresser.”

“It’s alright… just next time at least leave a crack open for some light.”

Amber smiled and nodded.  “Ok… Well I better get some sleep.  I need to think of something to get him.”

Amber than put Joy on the pillow she slept on proceeded to blow out the lights.  Joy slowly started to fall asleep…

Amber had the same dream she had a few nights ago.  Running for her brother she found him being carried off by a bunch of masked men along with her mother.  Fearful she ran for her father to see if he could help.  When she got to her father’s chamber’s she found him in a bloody state dead… horrified she ran out of the room only to find three masked men walking toward her with arms outstretched.  Amber let out a scream as she woke up.

Joy was woken up with a loud gasp.  Amber bolted up straight with a frenzied like look on her face.  “Amber?”

Amber didn’t move or acknowledge Joy.  She was still breathing hard when Joy called her again.  Breaking out of the trance Amber looked at Joy, “Oh… sorry for waking you…”

“Are you ok, you look … bad.”

“Yeah, I just had a bad dream,” Amber began to pick up Joy who strangely brought some comfort to her.

“About?”

Amber didn’t say a word for a while but finally she thought she might as well tell someone.  Amber began telling Joy about her dream.  When she finished she saw the worried look on her face.  Neither of them said a word for a while.  Then Joy broke the silence, “Well at least it’s a dream right?” she said half-jokingly with a laugh.

She stopped when she noticed that Amber wasn’t laughing.  “What?”

“Well that’s just it… I can dream of the future.”