Paul gradually started to regain consciousness. He felt a little hazy but he no longer felt ill—a little dizzy still, but even that was fading. He actually felt almost completely normal, as if he was slowly waking out of a deep sleep.

  Paul's memory was muddled and it took him a while to start to put the pieces together as to where he was and what had happened to bring him here. A small pang of dread like a seed planted itself in the pit of his stomach, and that seed grew quickly into an entire forest of fear that filled his entire body. There is no way it could have happened; there was just no way—because if it did happen that would mean that everything was over, and nothing would be the same again.

  Paul slowly realized that there was an arm around his shoulder. It was a warm, comforting presence but something felt off about it. It was obviously not his mom come upstairs to comfort him, and he couldn't imagine it belonging to his sister or any of his friends. The presence on his left side felt new and strange, but there was something familiar about it.

  Paul didn't dare open his eyes, but he knew he would have to do it sooner or later. He wished that he could keep his eyes closed forever and this would all go away, and that he would wake up and everything would be just as it should be. But he would have to open his eyes even if that meant confirming his worst fears were true. Slowly, he opened his eyes.

  A gigantic, cavernous room larger than anything that ever existed in Gettysburg or anywhere else Paul had been surrounded him, yet it was his own bedroom. His bed stretched before him like a large field of grass. There was no ambiguity and no room for question here; he had shrunk. He was a Shrinker. He was a Small now.

  The revelation was almost enough to make Paul lose it but he was so overwhelmed that he just sat there in shell shock, trying to understand it. It was too much to comprehend. It didn't seem real. When he was young, he once got as close to the floor as he could and looked up to see what the world looked like to a Small, but he couldn't comprehend it. Even now he couldn't comprehend it, and it didn't feel real. That is, except for one thing.

  The arm around his shoulder belonged to Katelyn. This was the one thing that drove home the fact that this was real. His sweet little companion Katelyn—who he had held in the palm of his hand for the last eleven years—was now sitting beside him, arm around him, every bit the size Hannah had been to him mere hours before.

  Slowly he turned his head to look at Katelyn. Her eyes were swollen and her face was red and tear-stained—she had obviously been crying for a long time—but that was not what hit Paul. What hit him was seeing Katelyn like this, up close and in full detail. This was a girl who had been inside his mouth, on his dick, between his fingers and toes, and even right up against his eye; but even that view was not as detailed as this one.

  He could make out all kind of tiny details about Katelyn that would have been impossible to see before. He could see almost imperceptible blemishes on her skin that were invisible to him at his old size. He could make out her individual eyelashes, the individual folds of her lip, the little hairs on her arm—all things that made her a real person, just like his sisters or Hannah, and all things he could have only imagined on Katelyn because they were always too small to see.

  Their eyes met for the first time. Despite their swollen state Paul still got lost in her brilliant, gentle blue eyes. He had always known her eyes were blue but they had always appeared as a small dot of blue against the white of her eyes; now they were an absolute flower of color that conveyed depth and emotion that Katelyn was only ever able to portray through body language before. The full display of Katelyn's expression hit him for the first time.

  That expression was one of bottomless pain and sadness. Katelyn had watched as Paul had dwindled away in size to the point where he was no larger than her. She now clung to his side; where as before she was only able to squeeze one finger she now hugged his entire body, clutching herself to him as if one or both would perish if she let go for even a second.

  Fresh tears came forth from Katelyn's face. “Oh, Paul,” She quietly wailed. “Oh poor, sweet Paul...” Her voice hit Paul hard; he had known Katelyn's voice for years, or at least thought he did. Katelyn always had to project herself to be heard by her owner, or if she talked normally into his ear it sounded as though she were far off. But now the depth and subtlety of her tones were easy to hear, and the notes of pain coming from her heart-wrenching.

  “Did you know this was happening?” Katelyn asked, her deep blue eyes burning a hole through Paul.

  “N...no,” Paul said. “I had no idea.” His head was clearing up, and he was feeling as healthy as he had ever done. Not that it did anything for how he was feeling otherwise.

  “Oh, Paul,” Katelyn said, running his hand through his hair and stroking his head. With every movement of Katelyn's hand he was astounded how it was a real touch, a gentle move that had more power than anything she would have been able to do before. When Katelyn would squeeze his finger before it would be the smallest, cutest touch, but now she could squeeze him like a real person.

  “What are we going to do, what are we going to do?” Katelyn said in a low wail. Paul had no idea how to answer. His future, his present, his whole world had been ripped away from him. Everything that had been on his mind before: school, the military, Hannah, Jen... all that was gone now.

  “You always hear about this happening to other people,” Paul said, feeling as though it was someone else speaking through his voice. “But you never think it will happen to you. Other families have plans. Mine never talked about it. It was never discussed, it....”

  But Paul fell silent as Katelyn nuzzled her head between his head and shoulder and gripped his body tight. She squeezed him harder than he remembered any Big ever having done, sniffing as tears continued to roll down her face.

  “You know we may never see each other again after today.” Katelyn said. Paul felt a stab right through his heart, a stab every bit as large as the first moment he realized he might be shrinking.

  “That's impossible!” Paul protested. “You're my companion! They can't just take another person's companion away like that, it's impossible!”

  “You're a small now, you don't have a companion, you don't have anything!” Katelyn wailed.

  “But I was a Big just hours ago!” Paul said. “You're on the books as being mine! They can't take you away, they just can't...” But Paul knew they could and in all likeliness they would.

  “You're a Tiny now.” Katelyn said. “All Tinies are owned by somebody! You're owned by somebody now, and you don't have any say over what happens to you next!”

  Paul felt both scared and indignant at the idea of being owned. Just today he was stressing over his choice of career, and now his autonomy was completely gone? His decisions would be made my somebody else?

  “I'm so sorry this is happening to you.” Katelyn said. “So sorry...”

  “W-what's going to happen to you?” Paul finally brought himself to ask. Katelyn looked up at him with a shadow of the familiar flattered expression Katelyn always wore when Paul asked about her, but it was immediately tinged with pain.

  “When companions lose their masters they're usually sold to breeders,” Katelyn said, her voice breaking. “I'll probably be bred with other former or current companions. I'll have a few children, stay with them a few years...then I don't know, it depends on the breeder.”

  “That can't happen!” Paul said indignantly. He couldn't imagine this beautiful girl—sat next to him right now large as life—put in a room with a man she didn't know, forced to have sex with him as many times as it took to impregnate her, and then being forced to give up the children when they reached a certain age. It was so cruel, so wrong.

  “There's only one thing we can do,” Katelyn said, sitting up; her tear-stained eyes suddenly full of fire. “You need to breed me right now.”

  “W-what?” Paul said, his thoughts abruptly stopping in their tracks as a result of her sudden proposal.

  “You need to breed me! Right now! It's the only chance we've got!” Katelyn said. Full of new life she moved to straddle him; she was wearing nothing but underwear, Paul noticed, and he was struck by the sheer power of her feminine body at its full size. She had long, smooth feminine legs, a small but healthy set of breasts, and powerful looking thighs. It also occurred to Paul that Katelyn was a lot taller than he had realized, possibly even taller than him now.

  “Katelyn, I—” Paul began, realizing that he was starting to get hard in the light of Katelyn's sudden sexual display. “I couldn't do that to you, Katelyn...”

  “Couldn't do what?” Katelyn asked. “I want this! I've been your little Katelyn for all these years, you've treated me so well, you've been so wonderful; and now I want to do something for you. I want to give you something I could have never given you before, and something no woman will ever be able to do the same way again...”

  “Katelyn, I....I don't know,” Paul said, his mind scrambled. “What—what about your value going forward?”

  “Fuck my value!” Katelyn exclaimed, shocking Paul with profanity that Katelyn had never used. “I couldn't care less how much the breeders value me! I won't have to sleep with anyone if I'm already pregnant, and even if I can never see you again I'll still have a piece of you to hold onto and love for years.”

  Paul gasped as he felt Kathlyn's hand slid forward and closed around his erect cock; the same cock that she used to wrap her body willingly around. The power in her fingers compared to the power of her entire body before was unbelievable.

  “Katelyn, I don't know...” Paul said. “This is really so much right now. I love you dearly, but I have to think about this for a while...”

  “There's no time to think!” Katelyn exclaimed. “This is our last day together. I...I...Paul, you've done so much for me, made me feel so good. I've always been too small to properly repay you, but now I can. I want you inside of me, Paul. I want to give you the pleasure that only a woman could give you. I want to be your first, Paul, and the only time with somebody who loves you, and the only one you get to choose, because they'll never let you pick who you get to sleep with after this!”

  As she talked, Katelyn lowered her other hand to her panties and started to pull them aside to reveal her pussy. It was a pussy Paul had stroked, prodded, and rubbed with a huge clumsy finger before. Now it was a pussy he could enter, one that could envelop his cock, and out of which may come his child in months time.

  But even though Katelyn desperate wanted it, and on a physical level he definitely wanted it too, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't bring himself to have sex with the girl who had been his companion and closest confidant for most of his life. He just couldn't bring himself to do it on a psychological level. Somehow, it just didn't feel right.

  Katelyn looked at Paul with a pained expression as he slowly removed her hand from his penis. He looked up into her face, which was welling with tears. He started to realize that he was tearing up too. “Paul...” Katelyn said softly, heartbroken but possibly understanding. They held each others' hand for a moment, then Katelyn flung herself forward to hug Paul, his head pressed firmly into her warm, soft chest where he could feel her heart hammering through her skin.

  “I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry...” Katelyn wailed, holding Paul so tight he felt as though he might burst. He held Katelyn in his arms, running his hands along her back. “I didn't mean to bother you...”

  That phrase hit him hard; it was a well-known stock phrase that companions were taught to say to their masters if they think they did something that offended them. Paul couldn't remember Katelyn saying that to him since he was 8 or 9 years old, and the earnest emission of that statement cut his heart like a knife.

  “No,” Paul said, firmly. “You didn't offend me. Don't ever think that. You're not my companion anymore, you don't have to...” But that unleashed a fresh wave of sobs from Katelyn.

  “Don't say that!” She wailed between tears. “I know I just said that myself, but it just hurts so much more when you say it...”

  As Katelyn cried, he tried to put herself in her shoes. He knew the basics of how lives like hers went; she had been born at a breeder and was cared for by her mother until she was five. Then she went to companionship class for the next few years. Did she stay with her mother during that time or was she taken away? Paul didn't know; he had never asked. Presumably she had been looked at by potential buyers many times before Paul's mom and dad walked in and decided to buy her. She had been placed in a small decorated box which Paul had then opened at his birthday dinner, thrilled to have a little playmate.

  Paul's parents had been very proper in introducing Katelyn to him. They read the owner's manual together with him and did the exercises, and Katelyn still returned to companionship class on a weekly basis for the next two years, and then monthly for a year or two after that. Many parents neglected to do that, and both the child and companion would often suffer for it.

  Paul had also named Katelyn; she had arrived nameless. Children always got to name their companions and Katelyn was the name of a character in a book his mother read to him as a child. He never knew what she was called before; it was never considered relevant. But now that she was here, a woman his own size sitting on him with his head buried in her chest.

  “What was your name?” Paul asked. “Before you were my companion.”

  “What?” Katelyn asked, looking legitimately confused as she pulled away looking down on Paul from her position on his lap.

  “Before I named you.” Paul said. “What was your name?”

  “What do you mean?” Katelyn asked. “I'm your Katelyn! That's my name. That's who I am and that's who I'll always be.”

  “But you had a name before that, right?” Paul asked. “I mean you weren't nameless for the first nine years of your life, were you?”

  “No...” Katelyn said, tentatively.

  “Then tell me, what was it?” Paul asked.

  “I won't tell you.” Katelyn said. Paul was stunned; Katelyn had never said no to him in his enitre life.

  “What?” Paul exclaimed. “Please, I want to know!”

  “My name's Katelyn and that's all that matters!” She insisted. “I never want to be known by anything other than the name you gave me.”

  “Just tell me what it is!” Paul pressed. Katelyn gripped his shoulders and sat upright.

  “If you breed with me I'll tell you!” Katelyn exclaimed, the wild look back in her eyes. “I swear I will!”

  They both stared at each other intensely for a full minute, Katelyn's hot breath washing over Paul's face. Finally Paul averted his eyes. Katelyn knew without asking what his answer was.

  “I'm sorry.” Katelyn said, sliding off of his lap and back to his side.

  “No, I'm sorry.” Paul said, putting his arm around her. “Don't ever think you have to say sorry to me anymore. I don't own you.”

  “I'm not apologizing because I'm your companion...I-I mean was your companion,” Katelyn said. “I'm apologizing because of the beautiful man you are, and how you should be treated by anyone.”

  That was the kindest thing Paul had ever heard, and he squeezed Katelyn's body. In a sense it was so cruel that just because of her size Paul never thought of Katelyn as a “girl”; not in the full sense of the word at least. When he thought about Hannah or any of the other girls in his life he never included Katelyn in that category. But it was only now sitting here with her that he fully understood that she was fully the woman he thought of their others as being. In a different life—one where Katelyn had been born Big—things would have been very different.

  Paul turned to her. “I'm not able to have sex with you,” He said. “But maybe I can give you a kiss.”

  They looked at each other for a long while. With each second Katelyn was more and more a woman to him; her lips were there with every sensual detail. He had kissed her many times with his huge lips—she had even been inside his mouth. She had given him tiny kisses plenty of time herself. But this was different than any of that. This was a real kiss, a true kiss. Paul started to lean in...

  But Katelyn put her finger on Paul's lips, stopping the kiss. He looked up into her eyes, confused and more than a little hurt. Katelyn sighed, not moving her finger.

  “I was wrong for asking you to breed me,” She said. “And I'd be wrong to accept your kiss. Up until today I've been your companion. Those are the memories you should have of me. If you kiss me, your last memory of me will be as a lover. It's just...not right...”

  Paul never imagined being on the same wavelength with someone would be so crushing. Katelyn understood what he did and he could not push it any further. It was the same thing with asking for her real name. Katelyn was the name of his companion. Another name would bring to mind something else. Maybe some things are best left alone.

  Paul pulled away and Katelyn lowered her finger. “You know,” Paul said, an amused smile coming to his face for the first time since finding himself small. “If you really were parting as my companion, you wouldn't be able to say no to me.”

  “Then you'll just have to remember your good little companion breaking the rules this one time,” Katelyn said, smiling. The two of them leaned in, but not to kiss. Instead, they gave each other a firm hug. They would be parting not as lovers nor even owner and companion; rather, they would be leaving as two human beings who understood, respected, and loved the other. Big and small didn't matter; even in this post-Duality world—Paul now firmly understood—human beings were still human beings.

  There was a sound high above. It wasn't a loud sound, but the power of it caused both Paul and Katelyn to jump. It took a second for Paul to register what it was: it was a knock on his door, and it was done by giant fingers.