Though I did not need sleep, the opportunity to rest was welcome.  The darkness was peaceful, and very little sound reached our room from the main hall.  Without being able to see anything towering over me, I could imagine I was not sleeping on scraps stuffed into a match box.  The only reminder of my diminutive size was the handkerchief draped over me, because it smelled strongly of Sondra.   Far from the worst thing, especially compared to having a face loom over me while I rested.

The peace gave me a chance to reflect on everything that had happened.  Kirinhalut had pushed Llelwyl too far and nearly overplayed her hand, but she had been working with fertile ground.  Based on what I saw, nothing she had been driven to do was outside of her normal behavior.  It seemed like the others were pushing back against her influence, and after seeing how far it could go might be less tolerant of someone tormenting me just for fun.  Margret’s actions at dinner were concerning, though.  While it may have looked like a little fun taken too far, I suspected it was Kirinhalut making good on her earlier promise.

Heavy covers rustled beside one of the walls, followed by floorboards creaking under someone’s weight.  Soft thuds indicative of footsteps drew closer, coming to a stop beside me.   I pretended to be asleep, hoping it was just someone going for a late-night stroll.

Light suddenly appeared above me, filling the room, and quickly dimmed to the illumination of a very small candle.  Sondra stood above me, still and towering as an obelisk.  The light threw long shadows over her face, giving her an otherworldly appearance.  She grabbed the light between her fingers, blocking most of it out, and brought it down to the desk.  It landed on the hard wood with a small clink, then her hand moved to the side.

Sondra leaned forward until her face blocked the rest of the room, and her eyes were the only thing I could focus on.  I could see myself reflected in them, giving my ghostly image a clear blue background.  “Hey,” she whispered, giving me a gentle nudge with her finger.  “Wake up, little guy.”  I faked a groan and did my best to act like I had just come out of a deep sleep.  “I’ve got a big surprise for you.”

“What is it?” I asked.  “It must be pretty big to warrant waking me up in the middle of the night.”

“It’s a surprise!” she answered, then giggled quickly.  “I wanted to give it to you earlier, but I think you’ll see why I couldn’t.  Come to the edge of the desk and stand right in front of me and I’ll give it to you.”

She was acting strangely, but I did not think she wanted to harm me.  Curious, I climbed out of my makeshift bed and slid from beneath her handkerchief, then began walking toward her.  Sondra grabbed my bed and placed it to the side, and I figured whatever her surprise was required that area being clear.  It took a minute to cross the short distance to her, and she watched me patiently as I walked.  I noticed she had exchanged her road-worn robes for a more comfortable red nightgown that seemed to shimmer in the light, and its hem stopped just short of reaching the desk.

When I was in place gazing straight up at her, she grinned and whispered, “Okay, good.  Now, this is very important: don’t move.  I really don’t want to hurt you by accident.”  Sondra turned so her rear was to me, and the light illuminated its gentle curves as it protruded over the desk above me.  She braced her hands against the desk, pressing down hard enough with her palms that her skin turned pure white.  Whatever her surprise was, it might end up involving her landing on me.  I took her advice and stayed perfectly still to hopefully avoid that version of it.

With a quiet grunt Sondra launched herself into the air, vaulting her enormous body over me.  I watched her enormous body move with awe, and was glad when her butt cleared the air above me without even the hem of her nightgown brushing my head.  She landed with a crash that shook the whole desk, making me stumble sideways into her thigh as the force of her sitting sent powerful shockwaves through it.  The desk was not designed to hold the weight of a fully grown human and groaned, but held itself together.  When the calamity had settled, I turned to look at Sondra and realized I could see up her nightgown.

“Is your surprise –“

A single syllable from her cut me off, and Sondra began to shrink before my eyes.  In an instant she was no longer a tremendous mountain dominating everything around me, her thighs alone enormous cliffs to scale, but just a person standing in the distance.  It happened so fast that it took my eyes a moment to process what they were seeing.  Sondra, the colossus who had been looming over me just moments before, was now standing on the desk before me, not even a hundred feet away.

“Sondra, you’re small!” I exclaimed, and she came running toward me.  As she got closer, I could hear the tiny thuds of her bare feet on the ground.  I noticed she was still about a head taller than me, but it was a vast improvement over being dwarfed by her big toe.  If I ever returned to my normal size, I imagined this is how much taller she would be than me anyway.

When she stood in front of me, she came to a complete stop and wrapped her arms around me in a tight, powerful hug.  Sondra lifted me off the desk and spun me around, keeping me aloft while she vigorously shook me.  After a long squeeze she dropped me, letting me fall onto the desk, and looked down at me with a huge smile.

“I can make you smaller by accident,” Sondra began, “so why can’t I make myself smaller on purpose?”  Her voice was no longer a rumbling sonic assault every time she spoke above a whisper.  Now, while it still sounded healthy and confident, it was a little high-pitched and very sweet.  It was a relief to not feel like her voice could shake me apart, just like I enjoyed not feeling imperiled by every feature on her face.

“How long is it going to last?” I asked, taking a step forward.  I wrapped my arms around my waist and buried my face in her chest, and she rested an arm on my back.

“Not very long, but let me worry about that,” she answered.  “I just want to be close to you without feeling like I might crush you.”  She stroked the back of my head, and I looked up.  Her lips were still in a broad smile, and she was beaming with joy. 

“Could you stand on your toes for me real quick?” Sondra asked, and I immediately shot up.  It was not nearly enough to put me level with her, but she did not seem to mind.  She held me tight and bent forward, placing her lips on mine.  I squeezed her, forcefully returning the kiss, and she gripped me harder while pushing back.  Sondra was the only thing I could see or think about, and for once that was not solely because of her gigantic size.

I started to slide her nightgown off her shoulder, but she put up a hand to stop me.  Our lips smacked when they parted, and she said, “Not tonight.  It’s not that I don’t want to, I just don’t feel comfortable doing it while other people are in the room.  Besides, we only have a few minutes, and I don’t want you to get… stuck inside me.”  She smirked, then leaned in to give me another kiss.

A tremendous, booming voice from across the room interrupted us, and we turned to face it.  “What’s that light?” Margret asked, and her feet crashed onto the floor.  The thuds of her footsteps made the desk shake, and Sondra turned to me in panic.

“She’s going to see us,” she said, her smile gone.  “What do we do?”

“Unless you dispel that magic of yours real fast, there’s nothing we can do,” I told her.  “Why are you worried?  Margret already knows about our involvement, and it’s not like you’re ashamed, right?”

“No, of course not, it’s just…” Sondra trailed off while she thought of the right way to word it.  “Didn’t you think Margret was acting weird earlier?  She’s always been curious and fun, but until tonight she never did anything that could hurt someone.”

Margret’s thighs bumped against the table, making us stumble while it rocked, and the discussion was over.  “When did we get another tiny person?” Sondra asked aloud.  “We’ve already got two, can’t believe me and Sondra are outnumbered by tiny people.”  The chair creaked when she dropped her weight onto it, and she continued staring at us.  “Wait, one of them is Sondra!  When did you get so small, Sondra?”

“Hey Margret!” the wizard greeted, waving her arm wide.  “I thought the shrunken human could use some company tonight, so I reduced myself!  Nothing to worry about, I’ll be big again by tomorrow morning, just go back to bed!”

“I think I’ll stay up a bit longer,” Margret responded, and the desk rumbled when she set her hands atop it.  “If you’re playing with the shrunken human, I want to join in.”

“It’s not really a ga-“  Sondra’s sentence turned into a scream when Margret grabbed her between her thumb and forefinger and plucked her off the table.  “Margret, what are you doing?” she shouted while the priest grabbed me and held me aloft.

“I’m playing with my toys!” she answered, turning Sondra and I to face each other.  “Sondra the Small and the shrunken human!  They’re my favorite enchanted dolls.”

“Put us down and go back to bed!” Sondra yelled.  “Someone could get hurt!”

Margret ignored her and continued with her game.  She shook me up and down, making my insides rattle, while she spoke with an exaggeratedly deep voice to imitate me.  “’Well hello there, Sondra the Small.’”  Her hand moved Sondra the same way, and her falsetto imitation of her cut off the wizard’s screams.  “’Hi, I’m Sondra, I love shrunken humans!  Do you want to make out?’”  I was thrown around again by her fingers while she said, “’Well sure, I’d love to.’”  Sondra endured another round of shaking while Margret said, “’Okay, but we better do it fast before Margret has a chance to get involved!’”

My stomach lurched and Sondra screamed in terror when she moved us toward each other rapidly.  We stopped just short of crashing into each other thanks to her fingertips, but the force of sudden deceleration still compelled our limbs forward.  Sondra struggled against the vice grip of Margret’s fingers, trying desperately but failing to move her arms.  Margret twisted us against each other while making fake kissing sounds, then pulled us apart.

“This isn’t funny!” Sondra protested.  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but stop it!”

Margret protested as though the wizard had not said anything.  “’Huh, that was nice,’” she said in her deep voice while shaking me some more.  “’I want to meet this Margret though and see what she has to offer, maybe she likes me too!’”  Sondra let out another shriek as she was rapidly lowered toward the desk, and Margret turned me to face her.  “Oh, well now that you mention it, I do like you!  Let’s make out too!” 

She began raising me toward her face, and I fought against the fingers pinched around me.  There was a manic look in her eyes, and they seemed glassy while they followed me in her grasp.  When I passed her chin she opened her mouth wide, and the great cavern loomed before me.  Margret held me in front of it for a moment, waggling her tongue and running it along her teeth.  Unless her definition of kissing involved eating someone, I doubted she was acting on her own.

Margret stopped when I was about to pass between her lips and rapidly jerked me back.  The glassy look was gone for her eyes, and she looked at Sondra, now sitting on the desk, with an expression of shock.  “I am so, incredibly sorry,” she said.  “I don’t know what came over me.”  I did.  “It felt like there was a dark cloud in my mind and I couldn’t think, you know I’d never do anything like this.  Here, take him, and I’m very glad you two are happy together.”

Margret placed me in Sondra’s waiting palm and walked back to bed, visibly shaken by the experience.  I turned toward Sondra, and the familiar sight of her face looming over me gave me a bit of comfort.  Her hair was messed up and long, red pressure marks ran the length of her arms and legs, and she seemed exhausted.  “Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea,” she whispered, taking a step toward her bed.  “Sorry our time was cut short.  And I’m sorry I destroyed your bed when I grew.”

“It was a nice surprise,” I replied, “and it wasn’t your fault.  I don’t think it was Margret’s either.  I’m just glad you thought quick enough to dispel everything before it got messy.”

“I know.”  Sondra sat down on her bed, and feathers compressed beneath her weight.  “Something’s making her act weird, and we need to find out what.”

“Agreed.  Whatever’s doing it must be powerful, and it might’ve been influencing Llelwyl too.”

“I considered that.”  Sondra sighed, and looked at her pillow.  “We need rest if we’re going to be investigating something like this, though.  Mind sharing a bed with me?”

“I’d love to.”

She laid down on the mattress and set me on the pillow beside her, almost touching her nose.  With her between me and the rest of the room, I felt safe in case Kirinhalut had any more nasty tricks to try tonight.  Sondra pulled the covers up to her neck and kicked her legs inside them to get comfortable.  “Good night,” she said, and kissed the air in my direction.

“Good night, Sondra,” I replied, and kissed the tip of her nose.  She giggled and gave me a quick nudge with it, then closed her eyes.  After a few minutes her breathing slowed and became very steady, and finally she fell asleep.  I stayed still, not wanting to disturb her, and in the last few minutes before the light died out enjoyed how peaceful she looked.  It felt like a hill spirit was watching over me, offering its protecting even from deep slumber.  At last, I felt secure, and watching her sleep from this close was more restful than a night in that bed made of leather scraps.

Of course, Kirinhalut had to ruin it.  A relationship between a human and a bug?  How laughably saccharine.  She foiled my plans tonight, but she won’t be around much longer.  Don’t worry though, after they kill each other over you I’ll take her form.  That should make it so much worse when I grind you into dust for all eternity!  Her laugh echoed in my head, no matter how forcefully I tried to push it out.  I looked to Sondra for comfort, and my gigantic protector offered some reassurance.  We could beat her.  They just needed to know what she was first.