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Author's Chapter Notes:

Okay, this is a new chapter (read: the one drunk-me tried to post when I deleted this story... whoopsies).

Cait hopped down from her friend’s hand, onto the expansive wooden countertop. Pastries were piled high on both sides of her, the loaf of bread beside her the size of a minivan compared to her diminutive size. A simple, handwritten sign declaring “Free Samples” dangled above Cait as she walked over to a half-eaten cookie. She slammed her elbow into the crumbled edge, knocking a chunk loose into her waiting arm. A hushed chuckle from behind caused her to turn around, glaring slightly at the regular sized girl standing behind her.

“You’d do it to at my size, Chelsea,” Cait hollered up, before snapping a bite off from the crumb cradled in her arm. The girl just shook her head, and scooped up the remainder of the cookie Cait had just pilfered.

“Yeah, or I could just do this,” Chelsea retorted, stuffing the entire cookie into her mouth, her lips wrapping around the flat treat. Small billows of powdered sugar fell from the sky, dusting Cait in a tinge of white as the sweet snowflakes fluttered down around her.

“Hey, cut it out!” Cait yelped, brushing the fine powder from her tank top. Her disapproval was met with another giggle from her larger counterpart. She turned around to face the kitchen, walking towards the far edge of the table. In front of her, the small bakery’s kitchen hummed with activity, as a solitary baker rushed about between the various ovens, mixing drums, and flour coated countertops. Cait stopped an inch from the edge of the table, watching as the baker hoisted a large copper drum away from the wall, and began rolling it across the floor. The metallic rumbling echoed through the bakery, and Cait reached up to cover her ears as it rolled past.

Chelsea turned away from the samples, ignoring the metallic rumbling of the drum. A short thud caught her attention for a second as the drum bumped against something, a deep reverberation echoing through the bakery. Chelsea glanced over her shoulder at the sound, before quickly turning around and lowering her gaze to her phone. Between the fading hum of the metal mixing bowl and the frantic “click-click” sounds from her phone as her fingers tapped across the screen, Chelsea was completely oblivious to the tiny shriek behind her. She didn’t even register the softer thud coming from within the drum behind her as she walked down one of the aisles.

Cait groaned as she tumbled around in the gigantic copper drum. She slammed against one of the four large paddles extending inward from the walls. The drum reverberated softly from the tiny thuds as Cait tumbled down to the bottom, before it rattled off down the aisle. Unable to stand because of the jostling of the cavernous mixing bowl, Cait crawled on her hands and knees towards the center of the drum, hoping she could get someone’s attention.

The drum slammed against the tile floor as it was stationed upright, a bellowing ring shaking Cait as she cupped her hands over her ears. The sound was deafening, like a bomb had gone off with her eardrums at the epicenter. Wincing in pain, Cait looked up as a shadow loomed over the wide mouth of the mixing drum. The edge of a cloth bag flopped over the copper lip, a tasseled drawstring dangling limp from the corner of the flour sack.

“No, wait!” Cait screamed as a shower of white dust began to descend around her. She coughed as she inhaled the fine particles, swatting her hand in front of her mouth. Her body and clothes were white as a ghost, her tiny form indistinguishable from her surroundings as more flour fell from the sky. The silky sand piled around her, and Cait struggled to climb the rising mountain of flour, afraid of being buried alive. She was losing quickly, as wave after wave of flour poured in from above, burying her up to her waist within seconds. Cait took a deep breath and clenched her eyes shut as an avalanche of flour entombed her completely. The weight of the loosely packed flour made it hard to move, but Cait struggled to pull herself out. A small pocket of air gave her room to breathe, if only for a moment.

She could hear the muffled thumps around her as more ingredients were dumped into the copper bowl. Tiny shockwaves rippled through her with each lump of sugar or baking powder added to the mix. Cait positioned her arms to her sides, slowly pushing herself up. She felt her legs begin to shift, when suddenly everything lurched sideways. A wall of flour plowed into Cait’s face before she could react, and she was tossed about as the mixer began to spin.

Cait only caught short glimpses of her surroundings as she was thrown around within the mixer. The fine granules around her softened the impacts, but her limbs were growing weak quickly as she tried to keep from being sucked under the swirling sea of flour. She watched as someone lifted a bucket towards the mixer, sending a tidal wave of water into the dry mixture. The sweet smell of brown sugar filled her nostrils as the water churned around her, the powdery concoction beginning to thicken into a pale mud. Cait had to strain to keep herself afloat as another bucket was poured in, the overpowering smell of melted butter saturating the air. Her body was covered in a sticky paste as she finally slipped under the surface of the mixture, the pale batter undulating as the drum droned on. Every few moments, Cait would surface for a few seconds, before being tugged back down by the undertow of the mixer.

As she was about to be sucked down once more, the mixer jolted to a halt. Cait sighed in relief as she pulled her legs out from under a roll of the thick goop, small clumps of batter dripping around her from the paddles dangling overhead. She watched as the drum tilted forward, and a large scoop reached inside. The metal utensil scraped against the copper walls, sending shivers down Cait’s neck as she trudged through the thick mixture.

“Hey, in here!” She shouted, waving her arms as she approached the mouth of the drum. “I’m stuck, help!”

Cait ducked as the scoop darted back in, avoiding decapitation by mere inches as the scoop dug into the batter behind her. She yelped as the gooey mass lunged forward, dragging her trapped body along with it. Light poured over her as she was removed from the mixer, and Cait shielded her eyes with one hand. She squinted as her eyes adjusted, and wiped her hands on her sticky t-shirt before waving them above her head.

“Down here, hey!”

PLOP

Cait sank up to her shoulders as the woman holding the scoop deposited her and the batter into a metal bowl. The edges rose up a few feet around her, allowing Cait to see only the upper half of the apron clad woman as she quickly grabbed a handful of dough. She watched as the woman rolled it into a neat little ball, then set it on a cookie sheet and slapped it with her palm. Cait’s blood ran cold when she heard the wet splat of batter being flattened out. The hand darted down towards her, and she swore the woman looked at her as the gloved hand squeezed around her. She let out a shrill scream as she was lifted into the air, and pounded her left hand against the rubber glove.

The woman felt something odd in her grasp, and quickly opened her hand. She gasped as she saw a tiny girl lodged in the ball of cookie dough her arms and legs sticking out rather comically from the lump of batter.

“What the hell...” She held her hand up to her face, her expression a combination of shock and excitement. Gingerly, she poked at the squirming girl, nudging a small clump of batter up to the base of the little woman’s chin.

“Stop!” The tiny’s voice squeaked. “Help me get out of this please. I need to get back to my friend!”

The woman paused for a moment, and looked up towards the front of the bakery. A young woman was glancing around the small shop nervously, as if she had misplaced something important, but was too embarrassed to ask for help. The woman turned her palm slightly, allowing the tiny girl a better view.

“You mean that girl over there, the one in the pink dress?” She asked, licking her lips.

Cait squirmed as the woman’s large fingers massaged the dough around her, keeping her firmly buried in the thick paste. “Yes, that’s my friend! Can you take me over to her please?”

The woman glanced down at her hand, then back up at the tiny’s friend. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lip, and she placed the tiny girl down on the cookie sheet.

“Wait right here, I have an idea,” the woman said softly, motioning for Cait to be quiet. Cait craned her neck to see, but being stuck on her back like an overturned turtle limited her view to the tops of people’s heads as the browsed the busy bakery.

“Are you going to get her?” Cait shouted, confused as to why the woman hadn’t removed her from the ball of dough yet. Her heart began to race as she looked back at the baker, just in time to see her lick her perky red lips.

“No! Don’t you dare!” She screamed, thrashing to get out of the sticky batter. She shrieked as the woman’s hand swooped down and lifted her from the cookie sheet. Tears began to stream down her face as the cherry red lips parted, exposing the gaping cavern of the woman’s hungry maw.

The woman wasted no time in shoving the lump of cookie dough and tiny into her mouth. Though it was quite a large bite, she managed to seal her lips around the savory morsel, and began to gently chew. The muffled screams from within her mouth vibrated through her jaw, and the woman suppressed the urge to giggle at the ticklish sensation.

Cait was bathed in warm saliva, her entire body sticky from the batter and drool clinging to her. It was humid and dark in the woman’s mouth, with only thin glints of light poking through the lips as the woman chewed. Cait screamed as she was pushed towards her molars, the ivory boulders gnawing on her and the remnants of dough that still clung to her clothes. While not enough to break her bones, the sharp teeth stung as Cait was munched between them for a moment. She cried as the slimy monstrosity of a tongue lunged, and pummeled her into the inside of the giant baker’s cheek.

Smiling at the delicious flavors in her mouth, the woman tilted her head back and swallowed. Her fingers traced a lump down her neck, down to the collar of her apron. She looked up and made eye contact with the girl in pink, and flashed a wide smile. The girl seemed upset, but didn’t say anything as the woman wiped her mouth off with the back of her wrist. She turned around, and opened the thick metal door to the oven, and placed the cookie sheet inside. She smiled as she noted there were only eleven cookies on the sheet, and rubbed her tummy at the thought of where the missing cookie ended up.

********

Chelsea walked briskly down each aisle, lifting up various breads and pastries.

“Cait, where are you?” She hissed, annoyed that her little friend had wandered off again. “If you’re hiding on purpose, it’s not funny anymore, come on out.”

As she searched, her annoyance turned to concern. Cait wasn’t one for pulling pranks like this, and usually after a few minutes she would wander back into view. However, it had been over fifteen minutes, and she hadn’t seen any trace of her tiny friend. Chelsea was beginning to panic, hoping that nothing had happened to Cait. She looked towards the baker in the back, watching for a moment as the woman unloaded some batter from the mixer. She debated asking for help, but didn’t want to cause any inconvenience because of her lack of attention to Cait.

After a few more laps up and down the short aisles, Chelsea was beginning to lose hope. She took a few steps towards the front, and saw the baker snatch up a cookie from the backing sheet. She watched for a moment as the woman popped the whole ball of dough into her mouth.

’Must be a good cookie,’ she thought to herself for a moment, before turning around to check one more time for Cait. After carefully walking up and down several times, and peeking under every loaf of bread twice, Chelsea finally sighed in defeat. She felt a tear gathering in her eye as she turned to head for the door.

“Excuse me, young lady?”

Chelsea stopped, and turned to face the voice addressing her. It was the baker, a tray of freshly baked cookies in her hand.

“Y... Yes?” Chelsea replied, trying to stifle her sorrow.

The baker set the cookie sheet down, and approached the counter separating them. “Is everything alright?” She asked sweetly, a look of concern on her face.

Chelsea sucked in a deep breath of air. “It’s nothing, I just think I lost something, but I can’t find it. I thought I left it somewhere in here, but I just... I can’t find it.”

The baker smiled, and turned around for a moment. She spun back around with a cookie in her hand.

“Here, it’s on me,” she said. “My personal recipe, it’s truly to die for!”

Chelsea looked at the golden brown cookie, then at the baker. “Thank you,” she said softly, as she reached for the baked treat. Taking a bite out of the warm, moist cookie gave Chelsea a tiny reprieve from her sorrow as she walked out of the bakery. Hopefully Cait would turn up okay, wherever she wandered off to this time.

The baker watched as Chelsea left the store, and patted her tummy. “They are to die for indeed,” she mumbled to herself, feeling the soft kicking in her belly as her latest snack struggled inside.
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