Jacqueline tugs cutely on Ranavalona's shoe. Still hungry. x.x

Ranavalona laughs a little, tilting her head and watching Jacqueline tug at her black, ankle-high buckled stiletto boot. "Ah, the Little Princess has returned! Hello again, dear."

Jacqueline curtsies again in greeting. "Good morning, Your Highness. I hope you slept well." Mustn't forget her social courtesies even when bedraggled and starving.

Ranavalona scoots forward a little on her cushy armchair, settling a boot on either side of the little girl addressing her. "I wouldn't say it was quite as much as I'd have liked, but trust that sleep missed was exchanged for more rewarding activities. As for you, though, you don't seem quite rested. Are you alright, dear?" Her playful smirk might contradict the concern her words imply, but just maybe.

Jacqueline squeaked a little in fright as Ranavalona pressed herself forward, suddenly finding a pair of enormous boots on either side of her almost faster than she could react. The poor, guileless princess believed that most people were good at heart and so she tried not to appear rude. "U-um, I've been sleeping in the open, Your Highness. And I cannot really fend for myself; I haven't eaten in three days! Would you please spare something for me, Your Highness?"

Ranavalona: The young sorceress seems to shiver just a bit, her eyes widening just as slightly as she looks over the bedraggled but beautiful princess at her feet. "I forgot how pleasing it is to be addressed as royalty, dear," she murmurs while suddenly taking it upon herself to lean down just a bit more. Just enough to stretch out her arm and attempt to encircle the princess with her fingers, suddenly eager to hold her in her hands.

Jacqueline noted that Ranavalona hadn't exactly answered her plea, but missed the ominous undercurrent in her words and tone. She blinked as the woman leaned forward and instinctively curled up when her enormous fingers reached for her, but Jacqie found herself in Rana's fist a moment later as her hand encircled the little princess like a cask of iron. A squeak of fear escaped her lips as she was effortlessly lifted away from the comforting ground and up to the fearsome, faintworthy height of ... three feet.

Ranavalona begins to idly manipulate Jacqueline like a pretty little toy, letting the tips of her slender fingers explore her small and shapely body once she's reopened her hand to let the girl rest in her palm. "I always imagined there were people like you. A whole civilization, I bet. I've had so many... shrunken them down to your size and tortured them, tormented them... crushed them beneath my feet. They're always so scared, though. So confused. You've always been this way." There's a faraway look to her, her dark eyes somewhat out of focus as she speaks. "Tell me about them. About you, and your kingdom, and what became of it."

Jacqueline started to protest when Rana's fingers prodded and pressed on her, exploring the contours of her figure as Jacqie lay helpless in her palm. Her words were drowned out by Rana's own, however, and the little princess' eyes had gone wide with fear as the reality of her situation dawned on her. "Pl-please, Y-your Highness ... let me go ..." she pleaded uselessly as an enormous fingernail brushed her dirty ballroom gown. Ordered to disclose the details of her kingdom, Jacqueline trembled. "B-but ... my people ... no, please don't make me," she whispered.

Ranavalona bites her lip, her eyes growing brighter and wider with Jacqueline's delightful little struggles. She draws her hands up nearer to her face, letting her devilishly amused countenance come to fully encompass the princess's field of vision. Her speech is low, dark, and deliberate, and her warm, sweet breath washes over the little thing as her lips part, inches from her form. "Sweetheart, you're an insect. If you stop entertaining me, you'll die. Now tell me a story."

Jacqueline: Insect. Entertaining. Die. All hope that the woman was simply teasing her fled then as Jacqie finally realized just what she had gotten herself into - if only she had stayed hidden! Clearly frightened to death, and remembering that Rana was a sorceress of some power - not to mention that she literally had Jacqie's life in the palm of her hand - the Anfalae princess did not even try to dissemble. "Y-your Highness! I ... oh, how can you be so cruel to me?" she wept, sniffling and trying to control her terror. Jacqueline screamed in panic as the hand beneath her body flexed impatiently. "Alright alright alright! Please, just don't hurt me! My people the Anfalae live in Ilfas vale, far to the ... the west. I was flying around the border with my guards on my dove when a sudden burst of rain separated us, and I didn't know where I was flying! I crashed into a tree and ... and my poor dove ... and I don't even know where I am! Um ... eeek, please don't hurt me! - the Anfalae live in little cottages in the valley, no bigger than your hand. We have roads and watermills and windmills and we raise our crops in the valley. We keep to ourselves with very few people wandering beyond the vale. I live in a castle!" To her fear-filled eyes, Ranavalona looked bigger than her entire palace.

Ranavalona: The words and concepts slowly settle upon Rana's mind, suffusing her thoughts with a flood of fantasies she'd never dreamed possible. This little one was special, not for anything she'd done, but for the opportunities she could create. "Oh, little princess," Rana murmurs dreamily while closing her hands about her, drawing her to her chest in as much of an embrace as a young woman can give to a two-inch tall girl. "It's such a sad little tale you tell, but it's such a fantastic picture you paint as well! What would you say if I told you I wanted to take you home?" A dark excitement is definitely building within the devious lady, and it's not very well restrained. She rises quickly, barely able to keep herself from anxiously pacing as vicious and destructive ideas continue to flood her thoughts.

Jacqueline meeped as she was "hugged" to Rana's bosom, and when the young sorceress rose to her feet Jacqueline was dizzied by a rush of blood from the sudden shift in G-forces. Fighting for coherence, she struggled to compose herself and seek an excuse to deter Ranavalona - by now even the naive and innocent little princess knew better than to trust such a Maretan! "Your Highness is kind, but I could hardly impose upon you to make such a journey on my behalf! Please, there is no need to bestir yourself. In fact, if Your Highness would simply set me down, I will be on my way," Jacqueline asked hopefully, her hunger all but forgotten in the presence of such a terrifying giantess. The Anfalae princess was smaller than Ranavalona's littlest finger, and the rest of her people no better.

Ranavalona takes a deep, shuddering breath, resisting the sudden and powerful urge to squeeze the loquacious little lady until she pops. Her grip does tighten a fair bit, hopefully not enough to cause anything to snap or crunch, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. "I am not kind, little girl. Your response was incorrect, and the next time you speak, your words will subsist only of the information I will need to find your lovely little homeland." Her fist slowly uncurls, fingers shifting to pinch a gathered bit of the girl's gown between them, and her arm stretches out to let her new little captive dangle dangerously. "And before you think of resisting, consider how well you'd withstand the host of horrific things I'll do to you, first among them being a swift transition to the distant ground."

Jacqueline gasped as Rana's cruel fingers tightened around her, her eyes transfixed with horror on Rana's face looming over her entire field of vision as the sorceress lectured her. Jacqie quailed; the fingers squeezed on her tighter than any corset she had ever worn and she cried out in pain from the immense pressure, fearing that she would simply pop ... mercifully that did not happen, but the aching, dull pain that settled into her flesh informed her that she would carry the bruises for weeks. She had nearly no time to recuperate, being left dangling from a hem of her dress caught by Rana's fingertips while every slight gust of wind made her sway dangerously. "Eeeeek! Nooooo, please! I don't know, I promise you! I don't even know where I am, or why you're being so cruel to me! Please, great Maretan!" With her life on the line, Jacqueline was swiftly reduced to inelegant blubbering as she begged for her existence at the whim of this cruel and capricious tyrant. "All I know is west!"

Ranavalona stares at the wriggling princess dangling from her fingertips for a long, tense moment, lips pursed and eyes narrowed as she weighs her pleas and statements. Eventually, though, that moment comes to an end, and with a lazy shrug, she parts her fingers and lets the girl go, and as she tumbles helplessly through the air, Rana can't help but let out a brief, mirthless laugh as she watches the princess flail. She's not done with her yet, though, and as Jacqueline nears the ground she'd encounter a conjured burst of upward air intended to keep her from splattering across the pavement. She really doesn't want her new little pet to cease existing quite yet.

Jacqueline: "Pl-please ... I really don't know. I do not even know how far I am, or where to find my bearings without my dove. You must believe me, Your Highneeeeeeeeeeek!" she screamed as Ranavalona's fingers opened and dropped her. Jacqueline immediately dropped towards the ground with her heart in her throat as she shrieked in terror, Ranavalona's cruel laughter reverberating in her ears, before the updraft violently flung her back up with another terrible jolt of acceleration that strained her body. Jacqueline nearly fainted them, held aloft by an invisible current of air billowing out her dress. Helplessly suspended in the wind, she could only stare pathetically at Ranavalona with wide eyes and a pale face. What had she ever done to deserve falling into the hands of a Maretan like this one?!

Ranavalona revels in the tiny, pathetic thing's abject terror. Her eyes glimmer, her skin tingles, and that familiar, eager warmth in her core grows more and more insistent with each progressive torment she visits on poor Jacqueline. "Landmarks," she spits, sneering contemptuously at the bobbing, airborne girl as she takes a step forward, the towering heel of her boot impacting the pavement sonorously. "Maps," she utters while that boot's twin slowly rises over the worthless little wretch she's addressing. "You'd better have something, girl," she declares while lowering the smooth, unforgiving boot onto her body, slowly forcing her downward through the conjured updraft, roughly pinning her to the ground. "It's important."

Jacqueline: Seeing Rana walking was almost like watching a mountain rise up and move. The stiletto boot met the ground with a thunderous finality, the shockwave nearly carrying Jacqueline out of the updraft. When the other boot lowered over her body, Jacqueline began to wail and scream again in fear, at this point dangerously close to screaming herself hoarse as the enormous shoe pressed her body down like the judgment of a vengeful goddess. "L-landmarks? There's a mountain to the southwest of the vale, solitary by the sea coast," the princess managed to gasp out while pinned to the ground. From this distance, she did not know if Ranavalona could even hear her. And the so-called mountain was more of a hilltop, but the Anfalae knew no better. "Abydor woods lies to the northeast, the plains of Ansemar to the southeast. D-do you h-have a map?" Jacqueline frantically begged for her life now, spilling information like a sieve. Inwardly she felt ashamed of herself for her lack of bravery; a true princess, like Amien the Warlike, would have faced down a Maretan fearlessly with her spear in hand. But Jacqueline was a gentle, innocent soul.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline] Her lips are parted, breath coming a bit quicker along with Ranavalona's mounting excitement. She holds a princess pinned beneath her boot, and while her body screams at her to step down, to crush her and grind her to a bloody smear, the names and lands and locations spilling from the frail little thing underfoot sound as though they might actually be useful. A few deep breaths settle her down for the moment, and pulling on the resources of her employer's vast arcane library, she mutters a few indecipherable words and makes a few gestures to bring a large, leather-bound tome into being in her hands. "Maps, maps... Ansemar and Abydor..." the names are not native, nor are the lands near, but she believes she's found something. Her boot slides slowly back from the girl beneath it, and the gusting air dissipates. "Show me," she commands while dropping the heavy book to the ground with a jarring thud.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona] Trembling, Jacqueline crawled in the dust out beneath Ranavalona's boot, her former wonder at the great Maretan replaced with abject fear and terror as she scurried to do as the princess demanded. The Anfalae princess abandoned her usual dainty way of walking and stepping, instead clambering ungracefully onto the pages as she tried to read. Fear flooded through her being. She thought of trying to mislead Ranavalona, only she knew that if she took the giantess to the wrong location, her life would surely be forfeit afterwards. So, although she hated herself for it, Jacqueline looked over the maps beautifully painted in the tome and laboriously flipped a few pages under Ranavalona's cruel eye. Once she found the familiar topography of Ilfas Vale, her heart sank. She could not read the foreign script, but she knew the lands of her home immediately. "... Here. This is Ilfas Vale. I've told you what you wanted to know, Your Highness. Please let me go!" she begged, dropping to her knees to plead.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline] She hadn't expected things to go so smoothly and wonderfully, but now that she was so close to making this new found fantasy a reality, she couldn't help but let the grim, serious expression that had possessed her for the last many moments melt away. Her grin is broad enough to faintly part her mouth, displaying her impeccably white teeth behind painted lips. "That... mm, that is it," she whispers while her large, dark eyes scan the page. Her heart is hammering in her chest, such anticipation almost overwhelming. "Good girl," she purrs while reaching out to scoop her up once again. "But you're coming with me. I did promise to take you home."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline felt her worst fears confirmed then - the woman really was going to visit her kingdom, and bring terror upon its helpless inhabitants. A sorceress who could conjure food out of thin air, whose smallest finger still overmatched the Anfalae - her people would stand no chance against such strength and power! Jacqueline clung to Rana's hand as the sorceress scooped her up into her palm, still wincing from when she had squeezed Jacqie's sides earlier. "N-n-no! Please! Great Maretan, if you leave the vale alone, I ... I will come with you! I will be your pet or companion and do whatever you choose, but spare my people!" she begged with tears streaming from her eyes. "I can be useful! I can sing for you, dance for you ... but please, please!" She knelt on Rana's palm, utterly helpless, with no defense left to her except for her very defenselessness.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: There was no dissuading the exuberant young sorceress. She rose again to her full height, without concern for the little thing she held in her outstretched palm. She was going to a place where thousands of little things like this girl existed, exposed and helpless for one such as her. She would be as her mother once was, the graceful, brutal conqueror, and more than that, she would be what she was once meant to be. She was going to be Queen. "You know there's absolutely no reason why I can't have both my lovely pet princess and her entire nation. Nothing you or they can do can come close to stopping me. Now, more importantly," she turns a little, pointing her toe and adopting a bit of a seductive pose, displaying her long, linen, pale grey belted tunic top and sheer black lace-trimmed stockings vanishing beneath the top's hem, her many bracelets and necklace jangling and catching the morning sunlight as she turns. "Do you think I can wear this? I don't know if it's dressy enough for royalty."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Oh merciful Saemeras. Her people were going to be conquered! Slaves and pets to a tyrannical, terrifying queen, and she was to blame for it - Jacqueline Khartanos, their beloved princess, who couldn't muster up the courage to defy the woman or the cunning to misdirect her. Jacqueline stared, transfixed, as the woman rose to her feet and displayed herself for the little Anfalae princess to examine. In her eyes she saw the brutal lines of a conquering princess, whose beauty would cause despair in her people. The arches of her high heels looked tall enough for a grown Lian to walk underneath without having to duck his head; jewelry glittered in the sunlight, more concentrated wealth of gold and gems than Jacqueline had even thought possible. The fabric of her clothes hugged Rana's contours closely, leaving little of her figure to the imagination, but it might as well be armored plate for how well the Anfalae weapons could penetrate it. An achingly beautiful conquistadora. In despair, Jacqueline whispered a defeated, "Yes" and slumped into Rana's palm, weeping softly.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: That pleasant, greedy warmth within her had built to a burning, desperate desire. Displaying herself for the princess only left her anticipating the sensation of hundreds, maybe thousands of eyes that would gaze upon her immense, irresistible and unstoppable form. A sensual, eager energy courses through her, eliciting the faintest little moan as she imagines that first moment, but it's time now for that imagined moment to become reality. She draws Jacqueline in close, sweetly pressing her to her lips and smothering her upper half in a lingering kiss. "Don't weep, little one... you're going home." With that, she murmurs another few syllables, and in a blip of light, the two vanish together, reappearing amidst where she expects the open plains the girl mentioned to be.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline gasped as immense crimson lips engulfed her comparatively minuscule body, soft and tender, but irresistible. And behind it, she felt a little of Ranavalona's ecstatic anticipation, the sorceress' fatal ambition to be worshiped and adored by the despairing masses. Gasping for breath, Jacqueline collapsed into her palm when Ranavalona's lips disengaged, the other woman's hot, sweet breath still disorienting her. Before she could summon the presence of mind to object - Ilfas Vale was far away even by flight, nevermind walking - the entire world seemed to shift around as she felt Rana's power engulfing her body and pull her helplessly along like a swimmer caught in a mighty current. And behold: they stood on the plains of Ansemar, with beautiful Ilfas Vale spreading out beneath them. Nestled in a broad, shallow valley, the fields gleamed with the gold of wheat and agriculture. Four rivers - small brooks, really, to a Maretan - slowly and gently meandered through the rich fields, bringing much-needed water to the crops from a multitude of irrigation levees. Small collections of cottages and cozy little hamlets dotted the vale, each one with a fount of water channeled from the rivers. And in the center of the idyllic vale itself lay a large walled city, with gleaming buttresses rising to Rana's knees enclosing a bustling city full of life. Markets, forges, houses, and all manner of buildings ran through the city in neat, orderly neighborhoods, criss-crossed by paved roads. In the very center of the city, Evenstar castle shone with its high white walls and proud, circular turrets. The very top of the highest keep towers, perhaps, might even have reached over Rana's head ... barely. Pigeon riders circled around the vale, ever vigilant. Truly it was a beautiful place for a kingdom of peaceful, prosperous folk, a scene to dwell upon.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: Ranavalona stands utterly motionless for a long time, letting herself drink in every detail of the pastoral perfection spread out before her. It's a scene from a storybook. It's a fable and fantasy that teased at her from the early years of her youth. Her immense, dark eyes scan to the horizon, flitting back and forth as the points of her approach begin to take form in her mind. There's so very much she wants to do, and now that she has this entire lovely kingdom to play with, she's not even sure where to start. The oft-suppressed practical part of her tugs her eyes back to the walls and fortifications, to the bustling life swarming throughout the exhilarating, tiny city. The castle, though, holds her attention. It's far more beautiful than anything she's seen in her life, her mother's old palace being almost a hovel by compare despite the comforts it provided her. It would be hers before lunchtime. After enough time for taking in the surroundings, she lets her attention shift gradually from the most notable objects before her to the least, noting the bird-riders and farms spread out before her, and eventually managing to pick out individual people dotting the landscape at her feet. She considers an introduction, but first it might be prudent to get their attention. Her heavy, black boot shifts just a bit, casting the nearest little cottage into shadow, and with as much casual indifference as she can manage despite the rippling excitement running through every inch of her, she steps down, demolishing the home with little more than a subtle crunch, extinguishing whatever lives happened to be within.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Ranavalona stood still for so long that Jacqueline almost dared to believe that she would rather simply watch the beauty of Anfalas. "N-no!" Jacqueline screamed in horror as Rana's boot descended, crushing the home into splinters with casual indifference. A single man had managed to run out in time; the rest of his family, if he had one, had not. Again the princess flung herself to her knees in Rana's palms. "Please! Great Maretan, please spare my people! I will do anything you want, but leave my people in peace!" she begged earnestly, transfixed with horror. She could feel Rana's palm beneath her body tingling with excitement and she dreaded the horror that it foreboded; homes destroyed and consumed by the flame, hundreds trampled to death beneath Rana's boots, her people a slave to Rana's feet. Pigeon riders had begun to circle around Rana now, most of them unarmed but a few wearing light cuirasses and holding long lances or shortbows. Rana's action produced an immediate response; the villagers who had been watching her in trepidation shrieked in fear and began to flee as quickly as their little legs could carry them, mothers snatching babies out of the crib and leading young children by the hand, handsome young men and fair maidens scurrying about in each other's arms. The assembled pigeon riders circled and one of them cried in a sharp voice, demanding to know Rana's name and business for being present.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: They're so tiny, so exquisitely helpless. Even as the first bits of panic begin to disseminate throughout the populace, Ranavalona can hear their screams. She's had one, two, even a dozen at a time before, but this many people scurrying and crying in her presence leaves her trembling in anticipation. "Shh," is all she'll offer to the pleading princess in her hand now that she has the attention of others. As the outriders and their birds start to gather near her, she does her best to lock eyes with them despite their different locations. Her answer isn't immediately forthcoming, and instead she makes a point of taking the time to slowly twist her fashionable boot atop the ruins of the trampled home, grinding it further into the ground. "My name is Ranavalona Colsixreel," she declares when her efforts come to an end. "And I've come to accept your nation's surrender."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: A few of the riders split off from the flock, no doubt to inform the king of the invader on the border and her demands. The rider now commander her to cease and desist from her attack and to move to an open location where she could be arrested; Jacqueline desperately wanted to wave them away and tell them to flee, but Rana's fingers curled over her and she could not resist such immense strength that kept her imprisoned. Jacqueline peeked out from between two monumental fingers, shuddering in horror as she watched from her high perch while Rana grinded the cottage into dust. Civilians fled; far in the distance, alarm bells began to bring in the great city while the Lian toiling in the fields abandoned their tools to evacuate. "Miss Colsixreel, cease your attack," the rider repeated, fluttering well out of reach. "We will resort to force if you do not."

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: Elemental magics were not her specialty, though she made it a point to learn a bit of everything during her studies of the arcane in previous years. While she certainly had any number of ways to deal with the impetuous rats flitting about her, these first moments were all about demonstrative force. It was almost a tradition among weavers of spells like herself that flame made for a fantastic show, and it was with such thoughts that she extended her free hand, fingers extended almost as if she were reaching for the rider who dared speak her name on his filthy little lips. In an instant, a growing gout of flame burst from her palm, washing over him and many, if not all of his companions. She didn't bother to be too precise, just wanting a wide swath of the air to erupt in fire. She expected her point would be made.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: The raging inferno erupted from Rana's fingers and swiftly turned much of the flock to ash; the few survivors let loose with a salvo of arrows and then fled as smoking, charred pigeons and their riders fell out of the sky, setting the fields ablaze with a scarlet tempest. Jacqueline saw nothing from her prison of fingers, but she heard the telltale rush of expanding flame and worse smelled the charred flesh. The poor princess gagged and would have thrown up right there, except that she had eaten nothing for the past three days. Such magic! While untrained in its practice, Jacqueline knew enough theory to instantly realize that it would take hundreds of Anfalae to match the power output by this single giantess, if it could be done at all. The riders retreated to a much safer height far away, still shadowing Rana's movements, but with the growing realization that the sorceress was in charge and that she could do whatever she pleased with their delicate little civilization, and they were utterly powerless to resist.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: The rather repulsive destruction and the charred creatures littering the ground about her do nothing to satisfy the sorceress, but the rising smoke and spreading flame delight her faintly, if only because she imagines the reddish hues and warm light accentuates the presence of her precious black boots, which now begin to make their first motions towards the city. She follows the little crowd towards the gates where they scurry towards the only place they can imagine finding a bit of security, and with a gesture and a word she would attempt to seal shut and seal that gate before them. "Fine, gather at the gates, little ones," she suggests, herding the little people onward with her towering, fashionable footwear and taking immense joy in treading the straggling men, women and children to paste beneath those merciless boots. "But nobody enters or leaves."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline felt a shift in Rana's immense body as a signal that they were moving, watching the ground beneath her fly by at a frightening speed as Rana's enormous boots ate the distance like a pair of massive behemoths. Paved roads made for the traveling needs of the Lian cracked and gave way beneath the tread of a giantess, Rana's boots leaving imprints an inch deep to mark her progress. Nothing stood in her way: houses did not resist, but were flattened or burst into splinters as her feet descended upon or simply walked through them. Stragglers fled in every direction, and she showed no mercy in her capriciousness that Jacqueline could see. Some of her people were crushed into paste, barely visible bloodstains under her shiny sable boots; but some were spared when they found themselves beneath the arches of her heels instead, and decided to flee. A small crowd had gathered in front of the city, fleeing inside, but when Rana extended her power the gates slammed shut and sent a dozen of the Anfalae flying. Panic and terror had begun to grip the great city as well, with bells ringing and a frightened populace milling around frantically inside, suddenly unable to escape. Screams, faint and distant, rose up to Jacqueline's eyes from her people and she began to weep again. "Please ... don't do this!" she begged Rana in anguish. "What have we done to anger you, great Maretan? They are innocent, defenseless - punish me if you must, but spare my people!" she pleaded.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: The colossal sorceress can barely feel the buildings and lives being demolished with each elegant, sauntering step she takes, but she knows. The cries, the crunches of masonry and pavement, the faint slickness that spreads beneath her sole when she happens to trample a few of the little things with a particular footfall, every detail of it brings her heart to race. Her captive princess's voice reaches her ears, barely audible over the rushing blood and the excited buzzing. "Do I look angry, dear girl?" she whispers to the little thing in her hand. "I've never experienced such exquisite delight." With that, she spots a heavily laden wagon rumbling along the street before her, and with a bit of adjustment she smashes it deep into the earth beneath her slender black heel, noting and admiring how just her heel stands more than twice the height of even the tallest of the little people scurrying about. "That's it, little ones. To the gate! We must speak with your king," she proclaims as she continues on, ruin and destruction and bloody, trampled death in her wake.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: With ingress and egress of the city effectively sealed, only the pigeons stood a chance of escaping - indeed, vast flocks of the birds were already being let loose from the dovecotes of the city, the fluttering of wings rising as the Lian attempted to flee haphazardly from the force of destruction besieging their civilization. They were turned to dust underneath her almighty boots; a heavy wagon loaded with grain burst and scattered, crushed like paper. Jacqueline felt her heart hammering and her eyes blurring as she watched, helpless to stop the terrible woman destroying all that she loved. When Rana stopped in front of the gate, towering over the walls and the turrets, she was visible from nearly the entire city: stunning, gorgeous, and fatal. The king appeared as summoned a few minutes later, dismounting from his own pigeon onto a nearby temple roof to try and speak to the giantess laying waste to his kingdom. "Father!" Jacqie tried to shout, her voice carried away in the carnage, and King Ralvalin stood his ground fearlessly in front of the woman even if he had to crane his neck to look up. "I am the king. Who are you to thus outrage the sovereignty of Anfalas?"

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: Ranavalona offered her brightest and sweetest smile to the king, genuinely quite pleased that he was the sort bold enough to show himself when summoned. She takes the time to savor this moment, standing over what would soon be her city, casting almost the entirety of it in the shadow of her slender, womanly figure. Her long, pale hair twists in the light breeze, the golden sunlight from behind her illuminating it, surrounding her in radiance for those fortunate enough to be viewing her from an appropriate angle. Her eyes slowly sweep over the crowds gathered around, still dazed by the sheer number of little men and women suddenly in her possession. Her attention does, in time, land with the king, and she would speak to him directly while casually reaching up and running her fingers through her hair, brushing it aside so she can look upon him without obstruction. "My name is Ranavalona, dear king, and I now own all that you see, and I need no authority but my own to make that decree a reality." Her lips twist into a dark, awkward little smirk as she delights in her own words. "I've come to offer you a choice, and it is yours alone to make. I will allow your people to exist, but it is up to you whether it is as servants to your new Empress..." she trembles to hear the word on her lips, loving it even as she says it. Her boot slowly shifts, sliding the short distance needed to gently come to rest on the teeming mass of people pinned against the city's gates. "...or as bloody stains on the bottoms of my imperial boots." With that, her foot presses down. Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, compressing the little mass of humanity, feeling them squirm and writhe and cry, resisting the faintest of pressure her boot has to offer, and then, one by one, breaking. Bursting and flattening with such ease beneath her with a long, wet, messy crunch.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline hid her eyes, unable to watch the horror as Rana lowered her powerful foot over the teeming, wretched masses of people still clamoring for refuge in front of the shut gates. Young men, lovely maidens, the old and wise ... all they felt in their final moments was Rana's hard and unyielding shoe pressing down upon them with inexorable force, pinning them between the road and her sole. Then she pressed down harder and they felt nothing after a burst of excruciating pain, leaving behind only bloody smears in her wake. Some of the guards on the wall promptly retched or fainted, and Jacqueline thought she would faint as well. Rana's hand around her felt soft on the skin, but she was also all too aware of the muscles underneath trembling with excitement and anticipation. "How could you ..." Jacqueline whispered in despair; evidently many of her people felt a similar dread, for great crowds had gone to their knees imploring the king to surrender or the woman to spare them. The king appeared to consider his options and Jacqueline knew that her father, not a man to rush hastily into a decision, was carefully weighing the most difficult decision of all - which choice would lead to fewer of his people being murdered for a woman's perverse pleasure? "If we surrender, will you promise that no more of my people will perish by your hand?" he asked, steely calm. The flames and the ruins rising behind Ranavalona testified that to resist with force would be an exercise in futility; a goddess had deigned to visit the vale again, and her will was law, her decisions absolute.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: Dozens... dozens of people had just been obliterated by her magnificent boot. The sensation and idea was still sinking in, and until she'd let it run its course through her pulsating, pleasure-mad person she would speak no words. Her lips were parted, eyes fluttering shut as she dragged her boot back, scattering others still gathered where she'd stepped down, leaving a long, crimson streak where all those people had just been. She stares at her work with sultry admiration, her smallish breasts rising and falling with the shaky breaths she gulped down, and without turning more than the faintest bit back towards the king, she utters a lone syllable in reply. "No."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: No. A single word, utterly simple in the idea that it conveyed. Almost so simple as to be insignificant, if the future of an entire civilization did not depend upon it. Three hundred thousand Anfalae lived in Ilfas Vale, and their collective futures all depended upon that one word which emerged from Rana's perfect lips. No. No, they would not be spared. No, they would not live their lives as subservient pets, at least some of them. No, their lives held no more meaning except as demonstrations of her absolute power and incomparable majesty. No, they had nothing to anticipate anymore except the time they would be called upon to offer their bodies for Ranavalona's pleasure. The goddess had spoken and passed her judgment. Their very right to live had been weighed and found wanting by one simple word. No. The king shook his head then. "Then we reject your terms. To arms, Anfalae! Fight for your freedom and for those you love! The meek shall not fade quietly into the night!" And with that, the Anfalae made their last stand; rows upon rows of armored soldiers charging at Rana's boots, flocks of pigeon riders attacking from the air.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: The giantess's laughter rang out throughout the vale, echoing throughout the city streets and raining down on the myriad little creatures roused to combat by their little king's speech, battering them with waves and waves of her girlish amusement. "Very well!" she calls out to the mustering soldiers pouring towards her while raising her knee to her chest, baring the grisly, gorestained sole of her boot to the charging men for a moment before she brings it smashing down, flying through the air with nearly incomprehensible speed. To this point, she'd only casually trod on the little things. The full force of her stomp shattered the ground, pulverizing the brave little men in an instant, sending shards of metal and a fine, crimson mist radiating out from beneath her boot. Nearby buildings buckle, and many lose their footing, sprawling on the ground before her as her laughter continues. "You're nothing to me, little things. If this is what you wish, I'll be sure you're all crushed to nothing as well."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: "No no no, please!" Jacqueline begged Ranavalona. "Please spare my people! We can be good, obedient servants! Or pets, whatever you wish!" She could barely hear herself over the chaos; lances and arrows bounced off Rana's clothes, or embedded themselves uselessly into the fabric without piercing her skin. Their conjurers summoned spells and hurled fireballs, but they might as well have been sparks for all the impression that they left on her stilettos. One stomp, and the shockwave broke the charge as well as crushing a dozen of the brave but doomed men beneath her boot. Their armor crumpled as if made of paper beneath the massive weight. The brave soldiers, although hopelessly outmatched, fought valiantly almost down to the last man while the fearful masses huddled in terror in the doomed city. "No ... no ..." Jacqueline could only repeat that word to herself numbly, watching her precious people being slaughtered.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: With the first brutal stomp, Ranavalona has opened the floodgates to a torrent of destruction. Anyone fool enough to stand against her must be extinguished, and she's going to be certain that that happens. She whirls about, her tunic swirling about her thighs and showing off the seductive, lacy tops of her stockings as her legs pump again and again, smashing soldiers and citizens alike beneath her impervious black boots. Stomp. Grind. Crush. Twist. Even while she obliterates the little things beneath her feet, her fingertips send waves of flame outward, dropping birds and riders from the sky, setting battlements ablaze, all accompanied by her sweet, manic laughter. "Die," she purrs. "Die, you stupid bugs!"

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: And die they did. They died by the hundreds and the thousands, crushed into unrecognizable pulp beneath her boots, burned and scorched into charred husks of man and bird, caught in collapsing buildings as she leveled men and buildings alike. Numbed to the carnage by now, Jacqueline watched transfixed in morbid fascination as Ranavalona unleashed her unbridled power against the Anfalae. Her magnificent boots turned red at the soles, their shiny black gloss soon lost in fresh blood and dust. Worst of all was the laughter. Somewhere in the dust and the destruction Jacqueline lost sight of her father and her brothers, royalty proving little protection against the strength of a giantess. "You ... could have been our protector, our benefactrix ..." Jacqueline intoned in a voice as numb as her heart. "Why did you choose this?" Supplicants who knelt to kiss Rana's boots were killed as indiscriminately as those who charged her with a makeshift weapon. The cries and lamentations of the Anfalae rose to the heavens. How long, oh how long, before their new goddess' appetite for destruction was sated?

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: The people's resistance is laughable, and as amusing as it has been for the merciless giantess, it seems to have been crushed with horrifying swiftness and efficiency. Ranavalona has pushed through the city walls, her slender legs more than powerful enough to smash her boots through the masonry. Now that the people are mostly dispersed or splattered across the ground, she gives in to the urge to exact revenge on the city itself. Careless of the architecture and history surrounding her, Rana drives her bloodstained boots through walls and roofs, leveling structures with all the ease and glee of a girl toppling towers of toy blocks. For all the power she's known, she's never felt such the goddess. This city will bow to her. It's people will be hers. Standing amidst the rubble and the flame and the ruin, she finally pauses, panting with exultant exertion and wiping a thin sheen of sweat from her brow. "Your father chose poorly, little princess," she murmurs, finally opening her hand and lifting the girl back to her view. "Surely you know that."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: It seemed to last forever to Jacqueline, although in reality the destruction of Anfalas took barely two hours for the once proud civilization to be reduced to ruined city with innumerable small flames. Refugees fled on foot; the dovecotes had long been smashed and the birds set loose, and the people poured out in furtive groups from gaps in the wall when they thought that the giantess was not looking. Somewhere in the hundreds of fires burning in the city her father and brothers must lie; she could hear the pitiable cries of those trapped beneath the rubble, too weak to lift themselves out. Only Evenstar castle itself had remained untouched, the little Anfalae princess suspecting that Ranavalona wanted to keep it as a prize. Many of the refugees had found their way into the castle, huddling in terror within the halls as the destruction continued unabated outside. Finally free of the stifling confines of Rana's fingers, Jacqueline found herself staring into pitiless eyes shining with excitement and sadistic amusement. She decided that perhaps humbling herself to abate Rana's wrath might be her best course of action. "... Yes, he did. It was wrong ... of him .. to resist a goddess," she somehow managed to force the words out in a dull monotone. Her will was broken, as much as the will of the Anfalae.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: A little half-suppressed moan rises from the back of Ranavalona's throat to hear the little princess speak the word "goddess" while looking her in the eye. Here, in this place, with these people, that is what she was. She stood tall, surveying the results of her efforts and sighing. She's done with them for now, though her toys won't be far away should she desire something else to break in the coming moments. For now, her heels are sore from stomping thousands to stains, and she'd prefer to relax a bit. With a wave of her hand she conjures her favorite, plush red armchair, letting it settle amidst the rubble of churches and houses and whatever happens to be where she wants it, then settles back into the chair with a little feminine grunt. "Your people will submit to me," she utters to the girl in her hand while stretching out her legs, crossing them at the ankles and baring her ghastly soles to the city center. It's a declaration, but the woman seems as though she expects a response from her pet.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline shook her head in disbelief as Ranavalona casually materialized a couch out of nowhere, a feat considered impossible under Anfalae magical theory. Perhaps the woman was more than human, but Jacqueline deep down inside hated her. Yet what could a single Lian do against the strength of a goddess? Rana's hand felt a little sticky, damp as it was from her exertion, and Jacqueline clung to a finger to avoid being flung as Rana's regally seated herself amidst the ruins of the city, her chair almost as large as Evenstar castle. Hating herself for giving in to the woman's demands, Jacqueline reluctantly knelt on one knee in Rana's hand. "On behalf of my people the Anfalae, I, Jacqueline Khartanos, crown princess of Anfalas hereby surrenders our kingdom to Your Majesty. We acknowledge your sovereignty and beseech your protection against our enemies." Those words tasted like ash, but perhaps if Jacqueline could subtly steer Ranavalona into seeing her people as pets to be protected, they could avoid wholesale annihilation.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: The new Empress of Anfalae, at least as she was trying to start imagining herself, grinned a little at the girl's show of formality. It seemed utterly unnecessary, almost silly amidst the ruin she'd wrought upon the nation. With a brief whispered word and a little press of her thumb against the girl's chest, Jacqueline would begin to faintly glow. Her body was outlined by a bit of ghostly radiance, and once that little bit of work was done, she'd lean forward and deposit her tiny pet at her feet. "This will make sure I don't lose track of you while you spread the word of your submission, dearest." Rana is all warmth and smiles now, much as any spoiled child might be when they've gotten their way. She's content for the moment to lean back in her armchair and issue her first formal decree, considering it to be enough of a throne for the moment. "We require two things of you, Jacqueline. You will have the king and his heirs brought to me so that their standing might be addressed, and you will arrange for your people to come and clean their filthy friends from my boots. You will see to this immediately, do you understand?" She takes a bit of delight in chiding the girl so, and speaking with a touch more formality.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline gasped as she felt Rana's power suffusing her body, sinking into her flesh with a warm, almost hot tinge ... and her skin began to glow, shedding light. In wonder she held up her own hand to gaze at; while the young princess had fair skin to begin with, now she literally glowed with light, turning her blonde hair into a shining platinum and nearly drowning out the tattered remnants of her dress. She heard the decrees of Ranavalona and reluctantly acknowledged them with a curtsy and a softly-spoken "Yes, Your Majesty," on the brink of tears again. On the ground, everything suddenly seemed close to her again - the carnage, the destruction, the moans and cries of the trapped beneath the rubble. She stepped into Evenstar castle and tried to explain the situation to the astonished guards and courtiers; but her people called her a traitress and a quisling once they knew, and Jacqueline broke down into tears again. Oh, it was so difficult, trying to protect her people while still retaining their love. She did not see how she could do so unless she collaborated with Ranavalona ... and yet, her own people hated her for it! After half an hour she reappeared in front of Ranavalona again. "My father ... is missing, and so are my brothers," she said, trembling in fear and sorrow. She had finally managed to persuade some maids into helping her with the grim task of cleaning Rana's high-heeled boots, as distasteful as she found it. But, as the princess had pointed out, it was either serve or die.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: In the time that Jacqueline was gone, Ranavalona found herself quite left to her own devices. She didn't require a lot of entertainment, though, being relatively worn out from conquering an entire nation in an afternoon. She's slumped back in her chair when the girl returns and she's slipped her lovely feet free from the boots that trampled Anfalae into submission, leaving them settled on the ground at her side. She's been passing the time plucking passers by up from the street and questioning them on the whereabouts of the king and, when they proved useless, squeezing their little bodies between her fingers and letting the bloody bits they used to be drift away on a bit of conjured wind. "Jacqueline," she murmurs, voice flat with boredom as she greets the returning girl. "That's not acceptable. I need to address his defiance." She gives a little jerk of her chin towards her boots, encouraging the squadron of maids to get to work. "Who's going to stand in his place?"

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: "... I will. Punish me if you wish, but spare my father and my people," Jacqueline answered wearily. "I am ... the heir to my father's kingdom. His former kingdom," she corrected herself without prompting. Still glowing, Jacqueline felt terribly worn out even though she had done nothing except remain a passive spectator to Ranavalona's destruction of her homeland. Perhaps half of the population of the city had been slain or fled or buried under the rubble, leaving half of her people still remaining to sift through the debris. She could hear the wailing and lamentation of her citizens bewailing the loss of loved ones and she felt too apathetic to do anything to help. Part of Jacqueline wished that the giantess would simply kill her quickly and be done with it; the maids clambered over Rana's boots and laboriously began to scrub and clean off the entrails and the gore, many of them crying as they did so. The high heels that had conquered a nation, Jacqueline thought humorlessly to herself. "What is your bidding?" She felt so dispirited.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: For the first time, a bit of uncertainty seems to have taken hold of Ranavalona. Her brow furrows a little and she pulls herself back up in her chair, lifting her legs from the building that's served as her ottoman for the last little while and extending her warm, stocking-sheathed feet towards the haggard princess. "I don't know if I can do that, Jacqueline," she laments while her colossal toes slip forward, wanting to feel the girl's body against them for a moment. "I've grown to rather like you a bit. After all, you're the one that made all of this possible." Her playful smirk and warmth seem to have returned, though the ruin surrounding her remains as a testament to menace behind that sweet smile.

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline let the smell of sweaty toes wash over her without gagging too badly as silken stockings rubbed against her tiny, glowing body. Too apathetic to really care at this point, Jacqueline merely stared dully at those toes as they pressed and nudged against her. When they pushed her over, she made no effort to pick herself up. The killing combination of hunger, fatigue, and emotional trauma had practically deadened her; the poor princess wanted just to lie down and die right there, too far spent to care if Rana chose to end her life at that moment. After all, what did she have to live for? Her father and brothers were most likely dead in the ruins of Anfalas, her people enslaved, her civilization in ruins for the perverse pleasures of a tyrant. Jacqueline closed her eyes. Maybe dying wasn't so bad, if she could see King Ralvalin, Kruse, and Veranos again ...

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: Rana covers her mouth to suppress an unexpected chuckle when the princess tumbles onto her back. Either the girl was more frail than she expected, or her toes were more forceful than she expected. Then again, she was reasonably sure she could just as easily have conquered the little kingdom beneath her stockinged feet just as easily. Now that she was flat on the ground, it didn't seem too much of a stretch to let her warm foot, still freshly freed from her conquering boot, atop the little princess. For all the thousands that were flattened beneath her boots that day, having this one girl against the bared curves of her soft foot felt somehow... special. "Kiss it, Jacqueline. Kiss my foot, and show me that you and your people have learned their place."

[Jacqueline -> Ranavalona]: Jacqueline could not be seen except for a very faint glow underneath Ranavalona's silks. A very faint kissing came in response; while too apathetic to care for herself, Jacqueline still felt constrained by duty to placate Ranavalona lest she take out her anger or frustration on the little princess' helpless friends. The taste revolted her, but Jacqueline kissed the imperious foot covering her body anyways. Learned their place? Perhaps with time, but the bravest and most intelligent of the Anfalae would flee first, bringing their civilization elsewhere to slowly and painfully rebuild what they had lost. Finally overwhelmed by the stench and the fatigue and everything else that had battered her poor frame, Jacqueline fainted cleanly away as the glow from her skin winked out.

[Ranavalona -> Jacqueline]: It was a wonderful ending to the most wonderful of days, feeling the pretty little thing squirming just the faintest bit beneath her smooth and sensitive sole. It was an exercise in demonstrative theater primarily. She'd give them the rest of the afternoon to settle in and rebuild, and perhaps in the morning she'd gather what was left of the nation's leaders and give them the same pleasure. Well, either that or make quite the demonstration of squashing them beneath those same lovely toes. When Jacqueline's movements cease and her little light flickers out, Rana slowly removes her foot, looking the pretty little thing over with a satisfied smile. "Welcome home, Princess," she whispers to the unconscious little thing, and then, with another of her little arcane gestures, she vanishes from her conquered territory, leaving her massive black boots to rest in the center square as a monument to her conquest. She'd be back to play with her new toys tomorrow.