“R-Rose?” said Caroline, trembling, looking down at herself.  Her nightgown, which normally reached the ground and covered her feet, was barely at her knees, if there, and it was stretched tightly around Caroline’s grown body.  Caroline, normally standing at a height of five and a half feet, had grown at least three feet taller.

                “Miss?” said Rose hesitantly, sounding nervous but quickly stooping to clean up what she had dropped.  “Are you… feeling all right?”

                “Well, YES, but…” said Caroline, drinking in what had happened; her friend and servant Rose, petite as she was, didn’t even reach the top of Caroline’s chest, when normally she was just a matter of inches shorter.  “Rose… what’s happened to me?”

                “I don’t know that I can say, miss…” said Rose, stepping forward to meet the princess in front of the bed.  “Perhaps it was the…” she began, but stopped herself.

                “Look at me!  I don’t… what’s…” said Caroline, getting flustered.  Wanting comfort, she held out her hands to Rose, who placed her own hands into Caroline’s, which closed around them in a friendly squeeze.  A shock went through Caroline as she looked at their hands, realizing her own hand so greatly dwarfed those of her friend.  Her hands were absolutely massive, her palms alone being just about as large as Rose’s small hands altogether.  In surprise, she let go of Rose’s hands, becoming more and more scared just by staring at such a direct comparison.  “Please, Rose…” she started.

                “Yes, I know miss, right away,” she answered obediently, not even requiring the sentence to be finished.  She calmly walked to the door and poked her head out, whispering to the guard in the hall before turning back, somewhat nervously, to face the now very tall princess.  “I told him to fetch your mother and father immediately.”

                “Thank you, Rose…” said Caroline, wondering what to do with herself.  She sat down on the bed, resting her chin on her upturned arm.  Even here, she was about as tall as Rose was standing up, and it as odd for her to suddenly be about back where she would normally view the room from in a standing position.  Minutes later, the king and his wife arrived at the door.

                “Caroline?  What’s wrong?” asked Elizabeth, stepping forward.

                “Mother?  I… I don’t know what’s happened to me!” said Caroline, standing back up at full height and taking a step forward, wanting the comfort of her mother.  Elizabeth gasped loudly, covering her mouth and instantly taking a step backward.  Despite knowing it was just an immediate reaction, Caroline’s heart sank a little bit to see her mother nervous around her, even for a fleeting moment.  Elizabeth quickly regained herself, however, and stepped forward to her daughter, looking up at her face.  Caroline looked down worriedly at her, swiping her long, flowing hair out of her face with a massive hand.

                “Dear…” said Elizabeth to the king, her eyes still locked with those of her enormous daughter. Caroline looked, still fearful of what was happening, over at her father for answers.  He was frozen in the middle of the floor.  Suddenly, his face began twisting into a frown, and for a moment Caroline felt she had done something wrong by growing so much.

                “CATHERINE.  That… that…” sputtered the king, stepping forward in a slight daze.  He stopped right in front of Caroline, looking up at her.  He held out his hands to her, to which she responded by holding out a single hand.  He grasped it to comfort her, shocked at touching her soft yet large hand, feeling how much it dwarfed his own.  He looked over her entire body, her nightgown straining to contain her massive form, rage at what had happened to her filling him up.  He squeezed at her hand, which closed around his own.  He could feel his daughter’s fingers trembling as they do so.

                “Father… please… help me…” said Caroline, growing more and more nervous as she stared down at her parents, the tops of their heads not even quite reaching her chin.  “What’s happened to me?  Was it that…” she started to say, beginning to piece it all together now.

                “Don’t trouble yourself, my daughter.  Just remain here.  Do not leave this room.  I intend to right this as soon as possible,” said the king firmly to her, squeezing her massive hand a final time before nodding to her and striding out of the room quickly to get to work.  Elizabeth quickly took up Caroline’s hand in her own, herself becoming shocked at the size difference

                “Don’t be alarmed, Caroline.  Your father will set this straight.  He always does.”

                “I know, it’s just…”

                “What is it?”

                “I’m afraid, mother.”

                “I know.  But please don’t worry.”

                “Mother?”

                “Yes?”

                “Would you remain here with me, please?”

                Elizabeth smiled, placing a hand on her daughter’s now-much thicker wrist.  “I will, Caroline, of course.”

                “Thank you,” she said, taking another seat on the bed, causing a loud creaking sound, as her mother took a seat on a stool.

                “I will… go and prepare breakfast again…” said Rose, still looking slightly nervous as she scurried out of the room.

                “Rose?” said Elizabeth quickly.

                “Yes, Your Highness?”

                “Ensure you don’t share what has happened here.”

                Rose nodded solemnly.  “I shan’t,” she said respectfully before leaving the room again.

                The next few hours passed slowly, with Caroline becoming more and more nervous of her current predicament, her mother’s soothing helping a bit but not greatly.  To pass the time, Caroline wrote a letter of apology to Luke for missing their garden meeting, but promising to actually do it once she was fully healed of her vague sickness.  As the afternoon came around, her father returned in the doorway, looking a little angry still.

                “My daughter… I… I am doing everything I can for you.  The people, you know how they love you, have been demanding all day to know of your condition.  I didn’t want to create further complications, so I informed them that you are still feeling ill and will address them when you are at full strength again,” he said curtly, stepping into the center of the room, clearly still worried.

                “It was… that woman, wasn’t it?” asked Caroline a bit fearfully, her mother placing a hand on her long forearm.

                “I’m afraid I don’t know exactly what’s going on, Caroline, and I don’t want to frighten you…”

                “Please, father, just tell me if you think you know.  Was it her?”

                He hesitated for a moment before breathing out.  “Yes, I believe it was her.  But rest assured, she shan’t get away with this.  I have dispersed my best and most trusted scouts, along with a small contingency of the royal army, to scour the places between here and the Otherlands in search of her.  This WILL be reversed, my daughter, of that I guarantee you.”

                “Are you certain, father?”

                “Yes,” he said, although Caroline could understandably detect a note of uncertainty in his voice, which she didn’t blame him for.  “I must return to the work, I am still doing everything I can.  We may have a doctor examine you later, is that all right?”

                “I suppose…” said Caroline.  “But I don’t imagine there’s anything a doctor could do for me.”

                “All the same, I shall return to work.  Do not be afraid, Caroline, this will be righted as long as I have breath in my body,” said the king triumphantly before exiting again.  A few minutes later, Rose, who had been bustling around trying to find things to make Caroline comfortable being cooped up in her room, slinked back through the thin opening in the door, carrying some pillows.

                “I’ve brought you some more pillows, miss,” said Rose, bowing a little as usual.

                “Thank you, Rose.  Have you… heard anything else from Luke?”

                “I’m afraid not, miss.  But… there was something else.”

                “What?”

                “Princess Anne and Prince Phillip very much want to see you.”

                Caroline thought for a moment, desperately wanting to see her younger siblings so they could brighten her dreadful day, but she decided against it.  “I’m sorry, Rose, but I think you had best tell them I’m too sick.  I… don’t want to frighten them.  Just… give them my love,” she said sadly, knowing that while they both cared very deeply for her, her siblings would surely not be prepared for what had happened to her.  Rose nodded.

                “Very good, miss, I’ll tell them for you,” she said, slipping out the door after laying the pillows on the bed next to Caroline.  Talking was heard outside the door, and a moment later Caroline heard a soft pounding sound on the other side of the thick double doors leading into her room.

                “But I want to see her!  Caroline!  Please, I want to come in!” called the soft voice of Phillip through the doorway, still hitting the door.  Caroline felt a wave of sadness flowing through her; she wanted to open the door very much and let her little brother in to see her, but she also knew that at his young age, he might not handle her changes very well.

                “Mother… please go see them and tell them I’m all right,” said Caroline, not wanting the incessant door pounding to continue so that she wouldn’t have to hear her sibling’s anguish.

                “Absolutely,” said her mother, rising and slipping out the door, careful not to let Phillip rush inside.  After a few minutes outside the door, Elizabeth returned, and the door pounding stopped.

                “I told them you would like to see them as soon as you’re well again, but you’re trying to rest,” said Elizabeth, placing a comforting hand on her daughter’s shoulder.  “And you WILL get well, Caroline.  Don’t worry.  You heard your father.  I know that he’s going to pour all of his focus into correcting the wrong that was done to you.”

                “I know, mother, I know…” said Caroline sadly, pulling herself back onto the bed.  As it was a large bed, it was still long enough, but her feet very nearly reached the end of the bed.  “At least it was only this much.  Imagine if I had grown as large as this room, or larger…” said Caroline, the possibilities at this point occurring to her and scaring her a bit.

                “Let’s not ponder such things for long, my daughter,” said Elizabeth, clasping her daughter’s massive hand again, not wanting Caroline to become more worried.  “The important thing is that, despite something having gone wrong, you seem to still be very healthy and lively.  Let us just thank the Lord for these small blessings,” said her mother, and Caroline felt a little bad for not having thought of this sooner.

                “Of course, mother,” she said, and they prayed together for a moment before Elizabeth rose again as Rose simultaneously re-entered the room.

                “I’m afraid I have many vital matters to attend to, Caroline.  But I PROMISE, I shall return to see you again this eve before bed.”

                “All right, mother, I understand, thank you for staying with me.”

                “I will always be here for you, Caroline.  Rose, please take care of her like I know you will,” said Elizabeth warmly to the woman before kissing Caroline’s wide forehead and leaving the room.

                “Yes, madam,” answered Rose shortly, scurrying in with even more pillows for Caroline’s bed.

                “Rose…” said Caroline with a small laugh.  “You needn’t continue bringing me soft things to lie upon, I assure you I will be plenty comfortable with the supply you’ve already brought me,” she said, patting the stack of dozen or more regal and fluffy pillows adorning the bed.  Even as a child in sickness, she always remembered Rose going above and beyond what might have been necessary in a frenzy of worry and belief that she had to be overworking herself during such occasions.

                “Please, miss, it makes me feel better to know you will have everything you could possibly need,” she answered, ignoring the comment about too many pillows and adding them to the stack.

                “But I already do!  Now, Rose, I know you’re tired.  Have you even eaten anything today yet?”

                Rose nodded slowly, and Caroline could see she was a little fatigued.

                “Really, Rose, I’ll be fine.  Please go and eat something; I want you to be with me, but I don’t want you to feel tired or hungry while you’re here.”

                “Thank you, miss, of course.  I shall be back in a quarter of an hour, and no more,” said Rose stepping out of the room before Caroline could have the opportunity to tell her to take a longer break than that.

                The rest of the evening was rather boring for Caroline.  She picked out a few of her favorite books from the large shelf in her room to read, but this could only distract her for so long, and as most of her books were rather small and meant for children, she found it cumbersome to turn the pages after a while with her long and large fingers.  Soon giving up on this, she resigned to looking out the closed blinds of her window down below, where she had an excellent view of the road that brought people up to the front courtyard of the palace.  She sighed, watching as two noblemen got out of a carriage in the roundabout in front of the steps leading to the front hall, knowing that she now dwarfed even some of the most tall and dignified men of the court or kingdom altogether, for that matter.

                She sat back, realizing how much she wanted to go and work at the shelter for the hungry like she so often did at this time of day, but realized how difficult it would be, as the halls of the shelter were short and narrow; Caroline considered it, and realized she would not even be able to fit inside of it, let alone help and feed the people without scaring or at least shocking them a bit.  To see a work of dark magic performed on such an important face of the public would not do them well, she decided.

                Her mother returned to sit with her after Rose brought her some dinner, but she hardly touched it, becoming glummer as the evening turned into night and Rose suggested she try and get some sleep.  Knowing there was little else to do, Caroline settled in, said goodnight to her mother, and listened to another reminded from Rose to call her if anything went wrong.

                Caroline went to sleep dreaming that none of this had happened, and that she was normal sized again, able to enter the house for the poor and comfort some of the kingdom’s neediest citizens, her truest passion in life.

                Suddenly, she awoke with a start to an odd, cold sensation in her feet.  It wasn’t painful, it was just chilling.  She squinted in the darkness to gauge what was going on.  She couldn’t even see her feet, which was odd.  She pulled the covers off of herself, and gasped loudly, looking down at herself.  An instant later, Rose had a candle lit and the shades pulled back, but she too screeched, nearly dropping the candle.

                Caroline stared down at her body in the stretched nightgown, the blankets now uncovered.  Her legs seemed to run on forever, actually going off the edge of the bed.  Her feet were cold because they were outside the reach of the blanket and bed.  Her nightgown, at this point, hung on by the seams, being very stretchy but even at this point not being quite enough.  Caroline stretched an arm into the air and was shocked to see how far up it went.  As she did, the nightgown seam tore at the shoulder, the strain finally too much.

                “I...I…” said Caroline, terrified.  Rose stepped back, giving her some room.  She tried to roll over, normally not a problem in her wide bed, but as she did she fell right out of the bed and to the floor.  To her surprise, even in a laying down position, she was about as tall as the bed.  She pushed off the ground, using her now-humongous bare feet for support, and stretched up.  And up.  And up.

                Caroline was now easily over twelve feet tall, Rose barely coming up to her waist.  She stared down at her, shocked to see just how small her friend and servant had become. Or rather, how large and tall she had grown.  Rose took a step back, holding the candle up to better illuminate her glowing but at the same time very large face.  As she stood at full height again, she felt another tear in the seams as the material broke along the side of her left leg.  Suddenly feeling exposed, Caroline sat down on the bed, trying to cover her almost entirely bare leg with a long arm, and almost felt the mattress give in under the smack of her bottom dropping so quickly onto it.

                “Rose?” she said, tears of fear welling in her eyes.  “What’s h-happened to me?”

                “I’ll fetch your m-mother, miss…” said Rose, her eyes bugged out in terror at her massive mistress as she dashed out the door and into the darkness of the hall.