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I stomped on the ground with all my might.  Hard, white rubber all around me.  It might as well have been concrete for how much I was able to move it.  The ground gently sloped downward until it reached a precipice, also lined with white rubber, deeper than the Grand Canyon.  A fall to the off-white forest below would probably kill me, so for the moment I was trapped on the hard rubber platform.

 

Seeking some meaning I looked around.  I appeared to be at the opening of an enormous mining shaft, its entrance thousands of feet tall, with a sturdy wooden frame to keep it from collapsing.  Far above the entrance the wooden frame turned to a deep blue, like still ocean water contained by something.  Above that I could see the top of an old mountain range, its gently curving peaks rising and falling the whole length until tapering off at the end.

 

Looking past that, the sky above the ridge was light blue and cloudless, despite how dim everything was.  My eyes tracked across the sky until I saw golden light, but not in the way I was expecting.  For some reason the sun was rectangular, and a single cloud centered on it was billowing as if there were a breeze.  Even more strangely, further along I spotted a second sun, just like the first.  Before I could focus on that though, my attention was grabbed by a broad mesa between the two, held up by titanic metal supports on either side.

 

My head swam and I spun around.  Opposite the mesa was a colossal tower, larger than any building I’d even seen in pictures.  Large sections had been removed, leaving the structure gutted yet surprisingly stable.  Inside each removed segment was a series of smaller towers, each one a different color, with writing scaling them from top to bottom.  Though I was at an oblique angle I managed to read one of them:  Structural Engineering Problems and Solutions, 8th Edition.  That very much sounded like a textbook, but why was it so big?

 

I tore my eyes away from the strange tower and looked in front of me.  Thousands of feet away there was an abrupt drop, and the ground changed from smooth white rubber to rough, dark black.  A tremendous white ribbon stretched from left to right, diving into humongous metal rings set into the ground.  The ribbon continued its way up, crisscrossing itself during the ascent, moving between the six metal rings on either side before it sharply dropped from view near the apex.  Above that was a white billboard advertising shoes in the simplest of ways: it read “CONVERSE ALL STAR” with a star in the middle.

 

If I was going to get any answers I needed to get higher, and that enormous billboard seemed like just as good of a goal as any.  I started my trek across the white rubber, my shoes smacking against it with scarcely a sound.  For once I was thankful for an advertisement: if not for that sign I would have no clue where to go in the immense, trackless desert.  Even I left no mark, the rubber forgetting my passage just as soon as I had left.

 

At first I tried to count my steps to keep my mind busy, but it was less than helpful.  By the time I reached one hundred I was already bored and had begun to ponder my situation again.  Where exactly was I?  Nothing on campus even resembled this – the closest thing I could think of was the tennis court, but that was much smaller and not the pure white of this vast field.  I daresay there wasn’t even anything in the world that I could think of which this could be.

 

My mind zoned out during the trip, and when it came back I was standing on the precipice at the rubber’s edge.  Contrary to my expectations, the white and black were part of one immense structure, with a broad valley of worn ground between the two.  It looked like quite a drop to the black ground below, and I was not enthusiastic about breaking both legs in the middle of nowhere.  Looking for a way around, I spotted a land bridge on both sides, just a few hundred feet away.  I knew it would take longer, but I simply couldn’t risk the fall.

 

It was another several hundred feet, but I eventually made it to the bridge.  I took a tentative step onto the rough black ground and found that it was much softer than expected.  Now I was significantly off-center from the billboard, and the climb ahead of me seemed more like scaling a small mountain than a gentle walk up the slope.  In front of me a ridge jutted up from the landscape, forming an outcrop dozens of feet tall.  It appeared to be a different piece of earth from the slope, joining it only by where I stood, but was stable enough to keep from collapsing.

 

Slowly I trudged up to the base of the outcrop and looked up.  “No time like the present,” I muttered, and hopped off the ground.  My hands easily grabbed onto the outcrop’s ridging and I scrambled up the side.  Strangely enough, the surface felt more like canvas than rock.  Then again, I had no experience with climbing outside of a gym, and chalked it up to the unusual appearance of the ground.  Not like I had ever seen pure black ground before, either.

 

After a few minutes of vertical climbing I pulled myself over the edge.  The ground was sharply tilted here, so I would have to stay on my hands and knees and crawl forward.  A pair of white ridges with what looked like minute wisps hanging over them raised out of the ground in front of me, with another pair running perpendicularly away from me.  It was odd, but far from the strangest formation I had seen even that hour.  Past where they met the first of the enormous metal rings plunged into the ground, with the tremendous white ribbon diving into it.

 

The ground’s rough surface formed into almost perfectly regular grooves, making it amazingly easy to cross the inclined surface toward the ring.  When I reached the ridge I briefly stood to step over it, and found that it came up to my waist.  I leaned on it for support, and to my surprise it was very giving beneath my weight and felt like it was made out of cotton.  There was no time to dwell on that, however, and I quickly hopped over both ridges.

 

There was about a football field’s length between myself and the first metal disc, and I slowly crept toward my first shiny goal.  During this stretch the ground straightened up quite a bit, and I decided it was worth the risk to stand.  Though I had to lean into the slope I found it fairly easy to get stable footing, and was glad my hands would finally get a rest. 

 

When I reached the metal ring it was significantly larger than I anticipated.  The rim was taller than me, and I had to place my hands on the cold surface and hop up.  When I was on the ring I wobbled back and forth, the slope of metal toward the enormous hole in its center surprisingly steep.  Gingerly I walked along the edge toward the enormous blank banner that ran through it, and found that it had fairly good traction unlike the slickness I had been expecting.

 

There was ample space beneath the banner for me to walk without even stooping over.  Up close it looked like several banners tied together woven together to form one much stronger unit.  When I was at the least risk of falling I reached up and touched the banner, curious what it was.  To my astonishment it felt just like the ridges I had climbed over earlier, and even more amazing it even looked the same. 

 

In good time I reached the edge of the ring and stepped off.  The ground was much flatter here, and the next step on my journey was only a few hundred feet away.  I hopped off the metal onto the soft ground and started on my way, confident that I would make it there in only a few minutes.

 

A great cacophony like the buzzing of thousands of insects rang out from above, and I snapped my head to look in that direction.  The mountain shifted as though it were rolling over with a creak like the earth was going to shatter, and the buzzing subsided.  A great moan erupted from the mountain, filling the pit of my stomach with dread when it reached its crescendo.  Again the mountain range cried out, and in a flash the mountain’s surface was gone, tossed up into the air.

 

The mountain began to tumble off the ridge, with two monolithic towers slamming into the ground with enough force to generate a tremendous earthquake.  I dove to the ground and grabbed onto the nearest handhold, doing my best to keep from sliding off the slope.  For several seconds I watched with bated breath, ready to take cover when the rest came down.  However, the mountain’s collapse seemed to pause after just those two pillars.

 

With no imminent danger, I studied the titanic obelisks.  Curiously, they were identical in size, and rested completely vertically.  They were both the color of wet sand, and smooth enough to reflect that day’s dim light.  Contrary to my expectations the snow-capped peaks were at the base, sticking out in great platforms away from the pillars.  Between the two rounded tops I saw something that made absolutely no sense: a face.

 

I told myself that someone must have carved it into the mountain, and it was an exquisite piece of work.  Wide, full lips rested on a long, sharp chin, and a Germanic nose stretched hundreds of feet between that and the eyes.  The irises were a cold blue – someone must have painted those, and the pink lips – and about the size of the metal ring I had been standing on, though heavily lids covered a lot of them.  A dark forest was planted on the brow of each eye, and a dark red waterfall spilled from the top of the head in curly ringlets.  It was almost an exact replica of the girl I had been dancing with last night, except for the fact that she, of course, was not gigantic.

 

Then she did something no statue or monument should be able to: blink.  After that I noticed her shoulders were rising and falling steadily, and her nostrils subtly flared with each breath.  Amid mounting evidence I could no longer deny that this was an enormous human being, and I was on the floor of her room.  I looked back to the billboard at the summit of my climb: “CONVERSE ALL STAR.”  I wasn’t on her floor: I was on her shoe! 

 

Everything clicked into place.  The banner weaving back and forth was her shoelace, and the great metal rings were the holes for it.  That hard rubber wasn’t a desert at all, but the toe of her shoe, and the reason the ground felt so weird is because it was canvas.  What I had previously thought was the billboard was simply the brand logo.  Everything else, including the skyscraper full of books, was typical fare for a college room.

 

Before I could do anything about it the ground creaked again and the giantess stood.  I looked up, absolutely in awe at the size of this lady.  While standing on her shoe I was about ankle-high, and her legs seemed to stretch forever.  Her shins alone were wider than any building I had seen, and her powerful quads bulged to the size of a zeppelin.  She was only wearing a chemise and light blue shorts, both of which would be enough to cover a small town on their own.  Her face was blocked by her full breasts, but just looking at her she must have been several miles tall.

 

The colossal woman lifted a foot and I involuntarily ducked as it zoomed toward me.  Much to my relief it soared overhead, the sole of her white sock blocking out everything for a brief moment.  She set it down on the far side of the shoe, generating tremendous seismic force from her step.  I clutched the canvas hard again to keep from falling off while her other leg raced past, creating another teeth-chattering tremor when it hit the ground.  Step by lumbering step she went past, then non-chalantly exited the room as if nothing were wrong.

 

My mind swam with questions.  How did someone get so big?  Admittedly I had never been particularly tall, but being nothing more than a speck of dust to someone was new to me.  Was this the same girl from last night?  I shook my head.  Couldn’t be.  Sure she was tall, but she hadn’t been the size of a metropolis.  Was there anyone else here?  I hadn’t seen anyone, either regular- or city-sized.  I doubted there was another gigantic person for hundreds of miles, the resources to keep them fed alone would be staggering.

 

I hit on the most pressing question: what was I going to do now?  I looked up at the enormous All Star logo at the top of my climb and realized there was no way I’d be able to reach it before she got back.  I still had several thousand feet to traverse, and the rough surface was bound to slow me down.  Going back was also not an option.  Getting to the toe of her shoe would be even more effort than getting to the top, and then not only would I be trapped, but I would be the most visible against the stark white surface.  Leaping off the side was also a non-starter, since I had no desire to fall to my death.

 

In a panic I ran back and forth, trying to decide what to do.  I wanted to dive into the hole behind me, but then I would be trapped inside her shoe.  Grabbing onto the shoelace would only lead to a terrifying ride before getting thrown off and falling to my death.  I could try to wedge myself between the wall of her shoe and tongue, I realized.  If I reached it I would be able to ride the shoe for quite some time and hop off in a safer area.

 

The door swung open and the giantess stepped in, clad in only a bra and panties, her hair still drenched from the shower.  I had waited too long.  Her thundering footfalls made it too difficult to move without falling off, and the only place I could get quickly was a one-way trip inside her shoe.  The giantess’s behemoth strides took her to her oversized dresser, where she withdrew a plain white tank top and pair of black shorts.

 

While she got dressed I couldn’t take my eyes off her.  The tank top clung to her chest in the right places, and the shorts were rolled so that they left a startling amount of her fantastically long legs exposed.  She turned and walked back toward me, her enormous bare feet slapping the ground hard enough to shake my insides, with a white ball in one hand – socks, I guessed.

 

The longer I looked at her, the harder it became to deny: this was the same woman from last night.  But how did she become so gigantic?  I remembered standing in front of her, trying to grind while she apparently didn’t notice.  Her laugh cued me in that she had seen me, but before I could back away she grabbed the back of my head and shoved my face into her chest.  When she let go she kept me close, looming over me.  I had never been that close to someone so tall, and couldn’t help but imagine her growing even larger.  The last thing I remembered was picturing myself down at ankle-height while she continued staring down at me, eagerly waiting for me to do something while dumbstruck by my mental image.

 

A tremendous caterwaul accompanied by what must have been a volcano erupting pulled my out of my reverie, and I looked over to see her foot on the floor, covered with a white cotton ankle sock.  Seconds later another one came, much closer, and I had to grip the canvas to keep from toppling off.  Her foot was right beside this shoe, and I looked up the gargantuan shin beside me.  It was a mountain on its own, and with its smooth sheen looked like it could be a hell of a slide.

 

A gigantic hand descended and grabbed the opposite shoe.  In a moment she slipped it on her foot and brought it crashing back to the ground hard enough to make the room shudder.  She gave it two more quick stomps, shaking the earth while she settled her foot in the shoe.  Carefully she leaned over and tied the laces in a bow, giving the loops a quick tug at the end.

 

The colossal woman sat back up and turned toward me.  My turn.  Her gargantuan hand reached down and seized the shoe, tipping it forward when she picked it up.  I lost my grip and went tumbling down the length of the Converse, bouncing off the lace and rolling down the hard rubber tip until I fell off.  After a short fall I landed on the surprisingly soft carpet.  I definitely had significant bruising, but I didn’t think anything was broken.

 

From my prone spot on the floor I watched the giantess slip the shoe over her foot, digging two fingers into the back to pull it over her heel.  Before I knew it she was done, and her foot raced back down toward me.  The familiar diamond pattern on the sole grew immensely, and I knew there was nowhere to run. 

 

The shoe slammed into the ground close enough I thought the earth would tear itself apart, its crash rendering me temporarily deaf.  I looked up and saw those words again, written in letters thousands of feet tall: “ALL STAR,” arranged around a star.  From a distance I watched her deftly tie the laces into a bow as she had on the other side.  Her Converse wobbled while she settled her foot inside it, then it came to an abrupt stop.

 

The ground roared once more when she stood, towering over me momentarily.  She absolutely dominated my view.  Her ankle was at least a mile high, and I could not even hazard a guess at her full height outside of “several miles.”  To my relief the titanic foot beside me stepped off, flashing its rubber diamonds at me before swinging into the distance to come back down with a crash.

 

Thunder rolled from the sky, and the massive woman spun around.  My knees felt as though they were made of jelly from all the pounding and I could not even get to my feet.  She drew closer and I could only watch as the tremendous platforms slapped the ground, inexorably bringing her closer to me.  I looked up, vainly hoping that she would spot me, but could not even get a hint of recognition.

 

Her heel set down in front of me with a terrifying tremor, and I was cast in the shadow of her monolithic shoe.  The giantess swung her foot down, the rubber diamond pattern of her Converse getting ever-larger as they imperiled me.  Just like the top of her shoe her sole was spotless, except for two large red splotches: one under the ball, and one at the heel.  Before I could consider that her enormous shoe slammed down, grinding me into dust instantaneously beneath her sole.

 

Fulda planted a foot and reached over the bed.  She couldn’t believe she nearly left the house without her phone!  Quickly she snatched it with a hand and slid it halfway into a pocket, the farthest it could go.  Then she spun around, grabbed her bag, and headed for her study group.  She didn’t even notice the tiny crunch beneath her size 16 Converse.

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