Chapter 5: The First Day (Part 1).

Nicole

Present Day

This was a lot harder than expected. Nicole was an expert at rock climbing, but the rocks were usually dry and not slick with liquid or in this case, oily sweat. The gigantic droplets of sweat that clung to skin threatened to slide down into the ravine. Nicole didn't know how long or far this imperfection of skin stretched, but as the water level rose to Nicole's thighs and warbled with each movement of Miranda's foot, she became determined to survive. There had to be some way she could get out of this so she could get back to normal and see her husband and two sons again. Nicole already missed Eric's big strong arms wrapping around her slender frame and his warmth. She missed the joy in Roy and John's eyes when she had come home from work and played board games or sports with them. Miranda robbed her of her life and family on a whim, reduced her to a size insignificant to even insects and she was determined to make her pay for it. Nicole summoned her ‘Romano Spirit', as her late father liked to call it whenever someone in the family was resolute and used that fight within her to climb.

"I'm starting to get the hang of this," Nicole breathed as she looked up. The 32-year-old suburban mother knew she had to be careful. Another tremble or movement of Miranda's foot would send the woman tumbling back into the rank body oils of the canyon. With no harnesses or safety equipment, it was nerve wracking climbing a steep cliff of flesh slippery with sweat and crumbling filth but the rational thing to do was to keep calm and keep her mind on something else so she thought about Eric and the first time she took him climbing with her. He was scared at first, but he started to get used to is as they climbed further up. He was so spry and full of spirit; he still is now. The tears had come back once more. She wondered if she would even see him again. No. She would see him again, she was sure of it. She wasn't totally sure on how this shrinking magic worked, but Miranda had managed to detect and keep track of Nicole even after she'd been separated from her. Perhaps she could try getting Luna's attention again or the attention of another witch, but she would have to worry more about escaping Miranda later.

Nicole looked up once again and saw cracks and gaps stable enough to hang onto or into if another tremor hit again. The young woman knew that Miranda wouldn't think too much about the happenings of a world far below and beyond her concern, but she was cruel. She would take her sweet time toying with Nicole until she got bored of her since it hadn't even been twelve hours since she shrank her. Miranda would keep Nicole alive for now, but only if her struggling amused her. Nicole's heart sank as she thought about all the of the malicious and horrible things the wrathful witch could do to her. Knowing how harsh and dangerous the smaller world was, Miranda didn't necessarily have to do much of anything to torment her captive, but that certainly wouldn't prevent her from doing so anyway.

"Do you think you'll survive in my saliva if I spit on you? Probably not."

Nicole felt close to breaking down in tears, but she knew she couldn't do that. For the sake of her sanity and her pride, she would not let this evil bitch break her no matter what size she was. She was no goddess; she was some broad on a power trip. The canyon she was in was no canyon, it was a dent, an imperfection in the skin. The water wasn't water, it was sweat and yet somewhere deep in her mind, something kept flickering like a barely functioning lightbulb. Something that told her that goddess Miranda was merciful. The goddess Miranda was her salvation and attracting her attention and pleasing her was well worth the effort.

"This is skin not land. This is sweat not water. Miranda's an evil bitch, no goddess." Nicole coined the mantra which she would repeat over and over to herself as she kept climbing and her sanity in check, she was halfway there. She found a ridge that made for a good cave and decided to take a breather. A minute or two passed and Nicole felt some rumbling and some distorted sounds echo from the heavens. She braced herself for what was to come. Nothing big happened yet, but this immense world was full of little surprises that were catastrophic on this scale. A curtain of sweat formed over the slope of the imperceptible line of skin. The smell of it was awful, but Nicole was feeling parched.

"I can't believe I'm actually thinking of doing this." Nicole grimaced, but it couldn't be helped. Her stomach grumbled and it needed to be filled with something. Liquids were not filling, but the staved off hunger for a short time, so Nicole walked over to the ledge, cupped her hands, and drank some of the foul body soil of Miranda. Nicole balked and wretched at the taste and the discomfort it caused her, but she managed to keep it down. The warm liquid was revolting. It had the taste of stale cheese the texture of cooking oil that probably would've been left over from a meal made of meat or poultry. She had just drunk someone's sweat. Someone's foot sweat. Nicole felt disgusted with herself as her head started spinning. This world was making her sick, possessing her to do things no one would ever do and Nicole came to the painful realization that her survival and serving Miranda's body and living on it to appease her whims were intertwined and there was no way out of this. Some independence and pride had to be sacrificed so that she could live and Miranda's power over her could grow, but Nicole couldn't dwell on this any longer. She had to escape from here and she needed to hang onto her pride and her sanity. Nicole had no desire to live on a foot like a parasite, but the choice was not hers. There was no more time to waste, there was more climbing to be done. Nicole managed to dodge the oncoming sweat waterfall streaming downwards into the pit below and continued her accent upwards. More sound from the giant world beyond permeated the smaller world again, but it didn't cause any shaking. Nicole breathed a sigh of relief. All it took was Miranda stomping down again or hitting her foot against something to undo all of her progress and send her back into the canyon to drown in her acrid waters. Nicole was almost there. Soon enough, she reached the ridge of dead skin. After making sure it was stable enough for her body weight, she pulled herself up and collapsed onto the ground.

The world's tiniest woman's chest heaved as she took in breaths of not so fresh foot air. Her belly groaned ominously. She was sure she wouldn't keep that droplet of sweat down for long and if she didn't throw it up, it would cause diarrhea later on. Regardless, Nicole had to keep moving no matter how much her stomach would never let her hear the end of it for drinking a drop of someone's foot sweat. Nicole had a big day ahead of her and a task to complete or deal with whatever horrible things Miranda could do to her if she failed. She looked up into the sky to see if she could make out where her captor was, but she still couldn't recognize anything.

"I'll worry about that later," Nicole looked out onto the wasteland of dead skin mountains and hills and the occasional fine hairs Miranda would never know existed unless she used a very strong magnifying glass. It was hard to tell where she was exactly, but luckily, she was close enough to the toes to see that she was headed in the right direction. The Big Toe, bigger than the state of Florida itself was just beyond the horizon. Nicole watched breathlessly as Miranda flexed it, causing a tremor. The very action still gave her chills, but she had to do what needed to be done. Get to the tip of it and ‘pay homage' to Miranda.

"Ugh, this is humiliating," Nicole grumbled as she got moving. "I wish I was big again so I could tear this bitch a new one." It wasn't enough that she had to shrink her down to a size where no one could see her no matter how hard they looked, she had to be shrunken down by a witch with a domination fetish. Nicole wondered what higher being she'd wronged or what she did to deserve this. All Nicole wanted was to be a good neighbor to a woman everyone thought was a freak or too strange for their liking, but now that Nicole was microscopic on her foot, she came to understand why other people avoided her and the scariest thing about all this was no one knew just how dangerous she really was. Many other people around town gossiped about Miranda and wondered what she was up to or how strange she was. People's lives were in danger and there was nothing she could do about it.

Perched on top of a hill of dead skin, Nicole felt like crying her eyes out again, but she needed to stay hydrated, so she swallowed her sorrows again and kept jogging, keeping a good pace. She might reach lower knuckle of the toe in less than an hour or so, or an hour by normal people's time. Everything about this world was strange and different. Judging on how slowly people moved, people spoke, small actions they made the way sound traveled, time seemed to move slower from here. The smaller bugs and parasites skittering around moved at a normal pace to her. It was all very strange.

Nicole felt her spine tingle as she ran. This world was hell and unnerving, but she had no time to collapse into existential doubt or dread, but a constant question nagged at her. "Just how small am I now?" Miranda's skin stretched out as an endless plain of uneven patchwork of skin radiating heat, sweat droplets and the occasional transparent hairs that were tall or in some cases taller than Nicole was. They shook and swayed back and forth slightly with the wind and movement of Miranda's foot. Another tremor rocked the world causing the woman to yelp and fall. Needless to say, Miranda's skin was not as soft or smooth at this current size. It was like falling on concrete with small rocks, except in some cases the rocks were alive. Skittering, squirming parasites made their homes here on the human skin and they were no strangers to this world.

"I guess I can gather some of these gross little things along the way," Nicole said as she knelt down to pick up one of the small tick-like creatures at her feet. She poked it to see if it was dead and when she found that it wasn't moving, she picked it up and stuffed it in her fanny pack. When Nicole tried to pick up a small worm-like parasite, it started squirming and slithering away. "Hey, get back here!" Nicole said as she ran after it. She couldn't believe she reduced herself to this. Collecting bugs and microbes off the skin of an evil witch, but just as she was about to catch the twitchy little thing the air rumbled and the sky darkened.

"Shit!" Nicole yelled at the abrupt change in the atmosphere. To make things worse, the air was getting warmer. "What's going on?" She looked up at the sky beyond the micro world and saw a familiar sight. Nicole gasped as the immeasurable face of Luna descended upon her world with her cool blue eyes scanning the surface of her mother's foot.

Miranda

Miranda got out of bed and put on one of her favorite lounging robe. She still had a few hours to herself before getting ready for the day ahead, but first she needed to start her morning rituals which did not involve witchcraft. It wasn't unusual for witches to drink tea or coffee and eat a hearty meal before starting the day. Thousands of years ago, witches and warlocks brewed up some mint tea with some mana-infused peppers for extra energy, but those times had long past and now she enjoyed the standard coffee and eggs.

Miranda got the newspaper from the front door and set it down on the dining room table for Luna. She had no interest in the dull affairs of humanity, but her daughters being the age of fledglings kept up with the times and all the trivial things mortals did, but who could blame them? Being outted as a witch always spelled either social suicide or worse and blending in with mortals was good strategically.

Luna came out in an outfit fitting for a teenager in the current era and greeted her mother. "Good morning mother," she said with her sweet, innocent, and youthful voice. She seemed to glance at her mother's feet before bowing her head respectfully.

"Good morning Luna," Miranda said to her daughter, "Did you sleep well?"

"Um, well, not really."

"Come now child," Miranda said calmly as she put her hands on her daughter's shoulders to comfort her, "She was no one special, nothing but an annoyance getting in the way of our work. You know our coven needs to stay strong and we cannot afford any distractions."

"But... she's a wife and mother with children...," said Luna timidly, "...a-and she's not exactly no one. Isn't she a community organizer in the neighborhood?"

"She is no more than a little microbe on my foot," said Miranda, "Don't be concerned with bugs and slaves my young moonflower."

"I... but...," Luna began. The poor girl was naïve in her youth. Being only 17, the typical concerns for someone her age was to avoid pregnancy by teen boys wanting only to have sex with her, dealing with the change in heightened hormone levels and navigating the social hierarchy of a cold, depressing institution of learning that only served to turn children into obedient drones. Although Miranda had taught her some magic and kept her educated on rituals, shrinking spells always made her uneasy. Had she witnessed the act of Nicole shrinking, the ordeal probably would've terrified the girl. It was adorable, yet irritating.

"Oh Luna," Miranda said in her motherly tone, "I've given her a new life and home on my feet, and she won't be forgotten by me anytime soon. What's done is done. Now come, I made breakfast."

Miranda and her daughter sat down to a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon. Not much discussion had taken place while they were eating. As usual, Luna had school so she couldn't meet the members of her coven, but Miranda was no stranger to improvising when she had guests. She put her feet up and took out her cellphone. It was 9 am. Her fellow witches would be here by 12 or 1, but she would remind them that the coven meeting was today. After all, she wanted to show that she was capable of leading and if her coven got enough attention, the Ancient House could notice her, although some hindrances and difficulties kept their work from getting much done this year.

"Dumb little cunt," Miranda muttered as she frowned and flexed her big toe. Nicole was no more of an obstacle to her progression in conducting rituals and magic crafting within this newer and more quiet area of the state of California, but mortals were always nosy and annoying creatures sticking their noses where they didn't belong. The little bitch probably thought to expose her so the entire town could harass and scare her and her daughter.

"What did you find out about me, you little whore?" Miranda wondered as she looked at the remnants of her daughter's dried lipstick barely clinging to her foot and at that very same moment, Luna was moving in to look at her mother's foot to see if she can sense the shrunken mortal on her foot. Her daughter's curiosity caused her to smile and she wondered if she had ever thought of or had even went as shrinking any mortals. The girl had the potential to surpass her own mother, but she lacked the control or practice necessary to control them. Stress was the key factor in hindering a witch's true potential and Luna had a lot of things to worry about at this age. She didn't have time to perfect her magic yet.

"I wonder where she is exactly," Luna muttered quietly.

Miranda giggled, knowing that her very presence and speech was terrifying to the new slave occupying her foot. As the girl wondered how her mother was able to detect the woman who a fraction of a millimeter on her lip, she unknowingly caused a cataclysmic event for the shrunken mother yet again. Luna squinted and tried to focus on Nicole but just couldn't. The frustration of not having the ability to see and sense smaller things like her mother caused her to become dejected and she sighed. Luna then stood up straight and fixed her hair and began to walk away, but her Miranda spoke.

"If you stay in today, I could teach you how to do it." Miranda said with a mellow tone in her voice.