“Sorry lady but he had some afflictions about this toilet. It seems like it’s too full so we gotta empty it. Please use the other one”, a male voice said. Then it got rather loud in the outhouse as a couple of guys started removing the box-like toilet and put steel-hooks on chains into holdings on the inside of the chute. I watched them as they dragged out the chute with the help of a truck and the creamy substance I was lying in started to swash around. Without really using my arms and legs it got pretty hard to stay on the surface but somehow I managed it. It was helping that the feeling in my extremities slowly returned. The chute was driven to a small forest not far from the camp where they turned it around to empty it into a whole. Somehow I managed to get to the edge in time and when it was turned around I pushed myself off as powerful as it was possible. The flood of excrements swashed into the hole and I flew onto the edge of the earth-hole it was flowing into. With the last bit of adrenaline in my veins I managed to crawl away before the guys started shovelling earth into the hole to cover the faeces. One guy nearly stepped on me with his muddy boot but he missed me by an inch and I could grab onto one of his shoelaces and let him drag me over the ground into the car. I couldn’t believe that my arms and hands were working again already but as soon as I was in the truck I felt how I lost my strength again and dropped onto the rubber mat beneath the driver’s seat.

They drove back to the camp and in the meantime I crawled slowly but steadily to the door, ready to jump out of it as soon as it would open. When the time had come I had to act quickly. But the draught when the door was opened lasted already to send me flying out of the truck and I landed rough on the grass. I saw the boots of a man walking over me and thanked god that he didn’t step down a bit earlier. I climbed onto a blade of grass to locate myself. I was only thirty feet away from the girls’ house but easily 150 feet away from my own. So I decided that trying to get Jessica or Britney to help me was the best shot I had and even that seemed impossible from here. But hey, I was still alive and my body was recovering quickly so I had to take my chances. But first I had to rest for a while until my arms and legs would completely regenerate. I assumed that nothing was actually broken since the pain was lowering with every minute.

After an hour of resting I began my way to the girls’ hut. Ten feet for a normal sized guy maybe but easily a mile for me. A mile through a jungle withal. But actually I moved pretty quick and reached the paved way in front of the hut within twenty minutes. Fortunately the entrance of the hut had no stairs or anything like that so I could reach the door easily within another five minutes. I checked the door and noticed that I was small enough to maybe fit through underneath it. So I pressed myself through the slit and had finally reached my destination. But what now?

I was on the wooden floor of the girls’ hut which looked pretty chaotic. Clothes were spread everywhere and it smelled of a mixture of food and eau de toilette. It was then that I noticed that Annika was sleeping in her bed. How could she be tired all the time? All she did was sleeping. I considered climbing up to her bed but that would definitely proof rather difficult since the bed was rather smooth and there was no way to climb up. But then I noticed that her backpack was leaning against it and that it was high enough to get onto the bed if I made it to the top. It was one of these big hiker-backpacks and it actually was quite easy for me to climb it up. It took me a while but eventually I arrived on the mattress’s foot end. Annika was covered in a blanket but her left foot was moving out from underneath it just in that moment. I considered if it would be wise to tickle her foot or she would accidentally stomp me or throw me of her bed again. But I had to do something before Megan and Deane would come back since they were the only one knowing about my size and they would probably notice me when I was still shrunken in their hut. I walked up to Annika’s foot and saw that it was incredibly dirty. She had been running around outside barefooted again and went like that for an afternoon nap… Her foot had made dirty stains on the white mattress and its smell of sweat reminded me of my long-term stay in Megan’s sock. Nevertheless I started punching into its dirty skin hoping to get some kind of reaction out of Annika. And I got one… After my fourth punch her foot slammed down on me and she started rubbing it against the mattress. Well I was covered in faeces anyway so the dirt wasn’t really the matter but still it was painful, degrading and uncomfortable. At least she didn’t keep her foot on top of me so I could look for other opportunities.

I decided to climb up the blanket and run to her head. I haven’t tried out yet if people could hear me if I yelled something directly into their ears. Annika moved in her sleep making it hard for me to get to her head but after a while I was standing on her cheek while her head rested on the side. Her mouth was open and she was drooling a little bit. I could see her teeth and was impressed by their size. They seemed like big white anvils to me. I went to her ear and started yelling.

“HELP ME, HELP ME”

But instead of waking up she wiped her hand over the ear and turned her head eyes up. She had wiped me directly onto her lips and desperately I held on to them since my body was dangling right over her opened mouth. She silently moaned a little bit and when she began smacking her lips, I was sucked into her mouth and landed on her slide-like tongue. I screamed as I couldn’t prevent myself from slowly sliding deeper into her maw. She was unbelievably close to just swallow me when she woke up from the taste of faeces and dirt in her mouth and spit me out onto the wooden floor. The impact was heavy but I survived it. I looked up to her and groaned as she stared at me wondering what kind of insect she had almost eaten. I was now covered in dried shit and dirt that was glistening from the fresh saliva so I must have looked to her like a creepy brown bug lying on its back. And all my yelling was now useless again.

She had a disgusted expression on her face as she slowly got up from her bed. She made a few quick steps into my direction. I waved with my arms but for her it must’ve looked like a disgusting bug trying to turn around. I crawled back from her but it was too late. Her dirty bare foot appeared over me and in the split of a second she stomped on me as hard as she could. The ball of her foot smashed me into the floor. This time I felt my arms and legs break and I was sure that some of my ribs had been turned to dust too. Annika lifted her foot from me and I started screaming in pain.

“What the hell is this thing?” Annika asked speaking to herself. She then got a handkerchief from her backpack and grabbed me with it. After inspecting me closely her eyes widened as she realised that it was me.

“No way… What?” She exclaimed while I was still screaming.

In this moment Jessica and Britney returned to the hut and stared at Annika who was still holding me in her handkerchief with that disconcerted expression in her face.

“Eww what’s that in your hand Anni?” Britney stated.

“I have no clue but it looks like Loke am I right?” She answered and showed me to the girls. Their eyes widened too as they, despite my tormented and distorted body, recognized me.

“What in god’s name happened to him? Is that a shrunken Loke? How is this…? What the f***” Britney just stammered.

“I’ve mistaken him for a bug after I nearly ate him in my sleep. Then I stomped him but he seems still alive. Do you hear that noise he makes”, she referred to my screaming.

“And now that I see that, I think I remember someone whispering into my ear while I slept” she continued.

“Wait put him into your ear maybe that will bring light into this situation”, Jessica stated. Annika nodded and grabbed me out of the handkerchief. She held me into her ear and I continued screaming until I noticed what was going on.

“It’s me Loke I swear. Please say verimentalis rhysdorougaie yevii an vus seerra leiyi Naddan” I yelled while trying to ignore the pain for a few seconds.

Confused she repeated the words and within seconds I was lying naked and normal sized on the hut’s floor. My arms and legs were still broken as expected and tears were running down my cheeks.

“What the hell Loke did I just stomp on you? How have you been…? Is this some kind of trick you pervert?” Annika stammered and began kicking me with the same foot with which she had sent me into the world of pain before.

“Say it backwards again”, was the only thing I was able to say before groaning again. Annika just looked at me as if I was a ghost but Britney stepped in and did as I told. My body compressed again and I felt how my bones repaired themselves while I was reduced to this unholy size. Now I was a dirty bug again but at least a recovered dirty bug.

“Holy shit these words shrink him… And look he can stand and seems not all flattened anymore”, Jessica exclaimed.

“Sorry this is a bit too much for me I have to leave”, Annika stammered and ran out of the hut. I could imagine that the insight that she had just nearly killed me had been too much for her young and innocent mind. I was actually glad to see a reaction like this after all that Megan and Deane had put me through so coldheartedly.

Jessica and Britney towered over me still overwhelmed by what they had watched.

“He survived being stomped like a bug and now he is fully recovered?” Jessica stated.

“And if we’d say these words again in the opposite order he will grow back to normal again?” Britney added. Both of them seemed a little overstrained with all this.

I waved with my arms to signal them that they should change me back now that I was healthy again. But they just continued staring at me.

“If we change him back to normal and the guides see him, they will be really pissed and may send us home too Jess”, Britney mentioned.

Even though she was probably right, there were more important things at the moment. I had to grow back and do whatever was needed to get Megan and Deane behind bars. On the other hand, if I would tell the world the truth about this shrinking stuff, it would be all over the media and basically everyone would have the power to shrink me.

“But if he can’t shrink himself someone else has done that to him…” Jessica argued.

“I bet Megan and Deane were responsible for this… But how did he get away from them? Well doesn’t matter nod if it was them who shrank you Loke”, Britney ordered and I nodded.

“Well then we need to keep them and the guides away from you…  But we can’t do that when you’re normal sized I fear so here’s the deal. We keep you safe until the vacation has ended and then we make sure that you get back to your family alright?” Jessica suggested.

I didn’t like the idea of being shrunken for another two weeks at all and I was sure that there were other options.

“Can’t you just bring me to the train tomorrow and grow me back at the station?” I yelled up at them well knowingly that they wouldn’t hear me.

“We could also just bring him to the station secretly tomorrow and then grow him back there”, Britney argued and I had to smile. She was a lot brighter than anyone would guess when seeing her for the first time.

“Right but then we wouldn’t get to spend more time with him and I for my part have just begun to really like him. Furthermore it could raise suspicions that bring us in trouble. And maybe we can confront Megan and Deane and get some answers after all…Maybe it was just a big misunderstanding”, Jessica contradicted.

I shook my head heavily in disagreement but Britney just nodded. They both had no idea what Megan and Deane had done to me. So the two of them decided to keep me small and with them. So I’d have to spend at least two more weeks at this size, because they didn’t even want to risk growing me back for a minute so I could explain all this to them properly. Well maybe they would let me explain it into their ears at some point before Megan and Deane would return…

But of course they returned in that very second…