Royal Shopping

Cassi had spent the night covered in saliva, slowly sticking to bedside table, As she lay there freezing cold in the slight breeze she was only thankful that was not that poor tribute girl currently upside down leaned against the lamp that had been left on, The poor girl was lightly burned all over and delirious from the awkward angle she had been left at.

At Least she had not been eaten, there times in the evening prior while the Goddess was carelessly snacking on the others that Cassi was convinced her time had come, after each one was devoured, either she or the other girl would be sucked on and played with for a bit before the Goddess devoured another. Throughout the evening, Cassi had felt fear she never thought possible as she was toyed with and then left in the cold outside of the heat of the light.

Ella was in pain, her skin was turning brown as the huge bulbs heat beat down on her for hour after hour, blood rushed to her head making her vision swim and her thoughts cloud over, The evening passed slowly and she felt her skin hardening, This was torture, no-one should ever have to go through this. She had finally passed out when she was jerked awake; her tiny body flipped through the air before landing in an all too familiar dark, damp space.

Charlotte rolled over in bed, waking to the day feeling relaxed and content, she plucked her warm lollipop from her bedside table and put her tongue to work, feeling the warm, tender skin as she squashed and stretched the tiny creature around her mouth. As she lay there musing over the days' possibilities, It came to her mind that if she were to have a Celebration soon, she would need to go shopping. Conjuring clothes was such a denial of pleasure; she loved going shopping. Glancing over at the tiny Maid freezing next to her she felt a small niggle of sympathy before brushing her from the table and letting her fall before restoring her size and letting her bounce a little. She spoke, a bit garbled around her chew toy.

"Go get showered and dressed, The Duchess is going shopping, and she needs her handmaiden."

Cassi scrambled to her knees, bowed and then fled from the room at an amusing speed. Charlotte sat up in bed, swirling her lollipop for another 10 minutes or so before sticking her upright in a small glass and getting out of bed.

Striding from her room in a regal green silk dress and a flowing cape the Goddesses almost spun into the tribute room, Her mood particularly happy and cheerful with the shopping trip ahead of her. Sarah dropped out of her chair and onto her knees as Charlotte danced in and stood before her, hands firmly planet on her hips as she looked down on her Maid.

"You have 3 hours to extend my dress wardrobe and another tier to my shoe rack. I plan on being prepared for whatever theme I decide to have for the celebration."
Sarah briefly mused that it would be more logical to come up with a theme first, but speaking that out loud would probably get her snuffed. She bowed her agreement to her Goddess and set about organising a labour force carry out construction. Sarah was about to voice her concern about Cassi, having not seen her since she had bound her to a stick for the Goddess to consume, Then she swaggered into the room in an elegant green dress and a basket.

Charlotte appraised her handmaiden impressed she was able to colour match her so quickly; She gestured to the basket.

"I am going to be needing at least 50 10 cm or so tributes to test out any new shoes I may wish to bring back."

Cassi quickly vanished into the storeroom and returned with a few pouches of tributes tied to her belt and fresh tribute box in the basket. The Goddess hadn't waited for her, so she quickly headed for the stairs, smiling sweetly at Sarah as she went past, not missing the death stare. Sarah was giving her the whole time.

The Duchess Coral paced down the main shopping street of Pyraxi Prima, The central city to the utopian Goddess fearing world, where Charlotte had assumed a position in the ruling royal family as cover for shopping trips and regular size spa sessions. The planet she initially found her second Maid Cassi.

Striding into the large high-end fashion boutique, she was quickly set upon by an amiable brunette sale assistant, who offered the whole range of welcomes before noticing the green crested regalia and recognising the face of the Duchess. She quickly changed from friendly, to reverent.

"Your Highness, Welcome to The Royal Tailors, Serving your family for nearly two hundred years."

The profound bow amused the Goddess as she started to swan around the spacious interior appraising dress after dress, offering remarks of displeasure and small nods of ascent to each one, chased blindly by the assistant trying to provide backstory and details about each dress as they moved. Charlotte impulsively decided to take all of them; She could give them a better look over at home anyway. She was eager to see what kind of Heels were on offer here. Moving into the shoe section, her eyes sparkled with an evil joy as she looked over the beautiful selection of shoes that individually cost more than most residents of this planet would earn in their lives.

The assistant brought out a few exceptional examples to show the Duchess, A beautiful silver 5-inch heel, She quickly explained that the thin silver heel was made from titanium, It would never break and offered excellent support, the inner sole was foam padded and comfortable even while walking on hard surfaces. Charlotte's imagination when into overdrive as she looked at the thin spike coming from the heel, This was one she would try on. The assistant showed her a few others embedded with various stones and precious metals. There was only one thing missing from these beautiful heels. She turned and addressed the eager assistant.

"I would like to custom order these; I would like them to have 'Goodbye <3' engraved into the bottom, The titanium ones too, why not go and arrange that while I try these on"

The assistant hurried away from the Duchess with her bizarre request, thinking what kind of kinks she must have to want such inscriptions, she wasn't watching where she was going and walked straight into Cassi, The green-robed handmaid didn't seem to feel it, but she was knocked off her feet by the impact, she quickly moved to apologise.

"I'm so sorry miss I di….CASSI? What are you doing here! Didn't you take part in the last tribute?"

Cassi was musing over the fact she seemed to be protected by a divine aura as the shop assistant bounced from her when she heard her name exclaimed in front of her, she caught the Goddesses backwards glance as gently pushed the assistant aside behind the curtains and turned to look at her for the first time.

"Alyssa! You work here? Since when! Yes, I did tribute last time, not something I would recommend to my friends. I must say, how have you been?"

The stunned store assistant was excited to see her friend she had thought lost to the tributes and began to gush catch up news about her family and friends before the penny dropped, and she froze in stunned silence. She watched Cassi's face shift in understanding as Cassi understood that she had put the various events together. Alyssa launched into a new verbal rambling as she began to pace, fear and other emotions building.

"You Tributed, You're Here, With the Duchess, But She's not the Duchess, You don't Tribute to a Duchess, So She's.. she's. The Goddess, The one true Goddess of our world...and she's here..buying shoes...with..inscriptions..goodbye..ins.."

Cassi lunged at her friend and hugged her, trying to calm her rambling mind as it was drawing all the right conclusions. Then she pushed her back and leant her forehead into hers, whispering calmly.

"She is our Goddess; She rules universes not just planets. Her power is beyond comprehension. However, she likes it here; our world is one of the few that are spared her wrath. You have nothing to fear from her. However, you can never tell anyone who she is. Take these, Feel the power they offer and keep the secret."

Alyssa felt a small pouch pushed into her hands; she cautiously looked inside to a squirming mass of tiny people, no larger than an inch, she quickly closed the pouch and stared up at Cassi with a mixed expression. She pressed for more information.

"What are these? How did you get them? What am I supposed to do with them? How can I not say anything!"

Cassi leans in and hugs her friend, offering some words of advice before departing to organise her Goddesses acquisitions.

"Do with them as you feel, Understand our Goddesses position. I'll  I'll come back and visit sometime."

Alyssa just stared as Cassi left and then she carefully put the pouch of people under the counter for later inspection. She glanced into the other room, observing the woman she now knew to be her Goddess stomping around in the new titanium heels.

Darkness, We were all in darkness for what felt like forever, We had formed a solidarity circle and took comfort in the presence of each other, our world was shaken and rocked occasionally, but always the darkness remained. There were 12 of us in total, Tributes to the Goddess, The Goddess we had never seen. When it happened it took us way too long to register it, the flash of light and jerk of movement as we scattered across the soft red grass, our first instincts to find each other and renew the circle, to take comfort in each other. Circle formed as quickly as ever as our eyes adjusted to the bright world around us, including the divine form lingering in the sky above us, The huge feminine face slowly chewing her bottom lip as she watched us from above.

Then it came, The noise came first, a sudden loud CRACK as a huge metal spike crashed through one of the members, impaling him to floor as light giggles filled the air, then he was gone, the spike and the body vanished with inhuman speed and again, CRACK, another of our number skewered onto the same spike. Then we ran, Screaming, Circle forgotten we spread in all directions never knowing where the spike would land next, CRACK, another one and again, CRACK, at least it would be over soon. I was the last of us; I saw it coming, She kicked me onto my back and then slowly pressed the spike through me, Staring up into the faces and mangled limbs of my former friends. I felt consciousness seep from me as I was dragged off the ground, her colossal face smiling down at me in amusement.

Charlotte raised her heel to her hip to inspect the assorted tributes she had collected, with interest she noticed that at least 3 of them were still alive, These shoes had potential she mused as she contemplated keeping the survivors alive just because she could. She then scraped the small stack of people from her heel into a small trash can and stepped out of the heel satisfied. These would do correctly for building multi-layering skyscrapers under her heel.

Sliding into the new expensive diamond and platinum heels, she knew to be worth as much as most of the property in the city; she strode towards the shop assistant and the store exit beyond to test a theory. The brunette girl just watched her pass, with Cassi carrying all of the dresses and shoes. She knew who she was.

Alyssa fidgeted under the gaze of the Goddess as she strode over to her and addressed her directly.

"Are you not going to request payment for all of this? Is that not your job."

Charlotte bore into the girl with her eyes, pondering the potential outcomes of this conversation, She had already decided that should this girl lie to her, she would quickly be the first victim of these costly heels. Then the assistant fell to one knee.

"No Goddess, Everything is yours to take, I will charge the palace for your purchases as always, and should anyone ask, The Duchess was here."

The Goddess mused over the answer, Smart girl, Not only did she not lie to her, she offered to maintain her cover. Charlotte realises this was possibly the only answer the mortal could have given to spare her from a swift snuff. She turned to Cassi and offered her Maid a warm smile.

"Give your friend here another couple of pouches from your belt; She is a smart one. I like her."

Cassi swiftly moved over and handed the kneeling Alyssa another two pouches of tributes before following the Goddess out of the door and up the stairs in the ally, Leaving her friend awestruck and already fondling a tiny tribute between her fingers.

Charlotte slipped out of the Heels when she got to the top of the stairs and went back to bare feet on her soft carpets. She watched as Sarah retrieved her shoes to put them away, awestruck with the apparent quality of them.

"You think they are nice, wait until the custom. Titanium's arrive. They are going to open up a whole new world of games to a lot of worlds."

Giggling at her own choice of words the Goddess slipped back into her room to get changed into less formal attire, swiping Ella from the glass as she did, returning her to her mouth to suck on