“Richard…” said Elizabeth worriedly, standing next to her daughter. However, even standing up straight, Elizabeth only actually came up to just above Caroline’s knee, but she hung on, calmly massaging at Caroline’s powerful calf to calm her down.  The king broke in before something else could be said, looking up at his daughter and raising his voice enough so he could be heard very clearly.

                “Caroline… I sent some of my scouts out to survey the surrounding province of the kingdom the day before last, to see if they could find anyone knowledgeable to black magic and how it may be cured!”

                “Really?” said Caroline hopefully, bending at the neck just a bit to see her father better and ensure she didn’t knock more of the ceiling down.  He nodded.

                “Yes.  And one of the scouts returned just this morning.  He believes he’s found someone who might be able to cure you.”

                “Father…” said Caroline, the hope flowing back out and being replaced with doubt.  “I… I know you mean well, but…”

                “I know you have doubts, Caroline, I do as well.  But… we’ve got to try SOMETHING…” he said, almost sounding frustrated, and she knew at that point he was right.  “Of course, we also have another matter.  If it doesn’t work, I doubt that in two short days you will be able to leave this room.  We’ll have to move you.”

                She nodded.  “All right.  Where?”

                “The Great Hall.  Surely the largest room in the palace can hold you for a few days more.”

                “Very well, let’s go then.  Where… where is Anne?” said Caroline suddenly.

                “She is… in her room, Caroline,” said Elizabeth.  “She was afraid she would make you sicker if she didn’t allow you to rest.”

                “Does she know?”

                “No.”

                “Well…” said Caroline slowly.  “I think she should best find out soon.  Mother, could you…”

                “Of course, dear.”

                “Thank you.”

                “W-wha…” whimpered Phillip all of a sudden.  Caroline looked directly down, surprised for a moment.  While they had been talking, she hadn’t even noticed that her brother had snuck up to her leg, sat on her foot, and was hugging himself to her ankle.  She giggled, and couldn’t help but note to herself how adorable he looked.  She took extra care to stay on balance so she didn’t knock him off.  “What are they going to… to do to her?” he said, sounding fearful.

                “Just some… new methodology than we have seen before, Phillip, something new, to try and make your sister well again!”

                “But… what if it makes her sicker!” said Phillip, hugging himself even tighter against the huge ankle.  Caroline sighed.

                “It’ll be all right, Phillip.  I’m ready for anything, they can’t hurt me at all.”

                He lifted his head up, resting his chin against her leg so he could look up at her.  “Are you sure?”

                She smiled and nodded, pushing the hair out of her eyes that had fallen into her vision while looking straight down.  “Yes, I’m very sure.  You can go with me if you want.  Would you like that?”

                He nodded, turning his head the side and pressing his cheek back against Caroline’s warm ankle for comfort.  It sent a small tingle up Caroline’s leg to have something so small and cool touching against her ankle.

                “All right, father.  Is the man here?”

                “Yes, they’re ready for you when you are ready.”

                “I’m ready now, father.  I’m ready for this to be overwith.”

                “Very well, my daughter.  Let us move to the Great Hall…” he said, leading the way, followed closely by Rose and Elizabeth.

                “What about… those who haven’t seen me yet.  Should we, perhaps, warn them?” said Caroline sheepishly, suddenly remembering that the entire staff of the palace besides Rose was about to see her gargantuan, twenty-foot tall form lumbering through the halls of the palace for the first time.

                “I have already handled that, miss.  They shan’t bother you or stare rudely.”

                Caroline nodded, knowing in the back of her mind that she probably wouldn’t be offended if they did stare at her in utter shock.  “Then let’s go…” she said, taking several steps and suddenly remembering that her brother was still hanging on to her ankle.  She had lifted and moved her leg normally, with no concession for the miniscule body of extra weight attached to her.  “Phillip?”

                “Yes?” he said, sticking his head back up but keeping his arms wrapped as far around his sister’s leg as they would go.

                “I think it may be best if you walk for the rest of the way there, Phillip, I may have to do a bit of twisting to get through the palace halls,” she said kindly in a low voice, having learned that at this size, despite the fact that he had gotten over the shock, her brother was still more receptive when she spoke softly and soothingly as possible to him.

                “But I want YOU to take me!” he said.  Caroline was touched again, seeing that her brother had accepted her enough at this size to trust her transporting him somewhere, but she still didn’t think it was a good idea.

                “I’ll carry you once we get there.  Is that all right?”

                “Yes…” he responded glumly, loosening his chilly grip on Caroline’s ankle, standing up on her foot and walking off of it.  Caroline arched her foot ever so slightly and wiggled her toes against Phillip’s rear end to tickle him.  He jumped at first, but then turned around to face her, and the pair started giggling.

                “Come now, Caroline.  We shall see if we can resolve this matter today,” said her father, smiling at the friendly exchange between his children but waving at them to continue on.  She nodded, ducking down into a crouching position as her brother dashed on ahead to the hallway.  Lowering herself into a laying down position, Caroline pulled herself forward, grabbing on to the frames of the double doors with both hands and pulling forward, dragging herself carefully through them.  The walls creaked a little as the young woman’s now-massive weight put some strain on it, but Caroline was careful to move slowly and not apply too much pressure, lest she bring the hallway crashing down on all of them.  Then, bending at the waist, Caroline was able to pull her legs through.  It was uncomfortable, but with a bit of twisting, she managed to finally pull her feet through and come into the thankfully wide and tall hallway.  Going back into a crouching position because of the slightly lower ceilings than in her room, Caroline began crawling carefully along the hall, her posse of loved ones walking alongside. 

As they turned a corner, though, Caroline felt the underside of her foot press up against something that quickly toppled over, pushing against her sole in protest.  She swiveled around as quickly as she could, pushing against the ceiling to ensure she didn’t hit her head, and found a guard laying on the ground, rubbing at his temple in dizziness.

“Oh!” she gasped, covering her mouth and pulling herself back along the carpet-draped marble of the hallway to the guard.  She stopped, practically directly over him, reaching her large hands out but unsure of whether or not she should touch him.  “I’m… I’m so sorry…”

He shook his head a little to clear his vision, then grinned hesitantly.  “Perfectly all right, princess, my mistake for just milling about.”

“No, it’s not, it’s mine, it’s just… I’m…”

“I understand, Your Highness, really,” he said, waving his hands in an attempt to halt her embarrassed explanation.

“Are you hurt?” she said, placing her hand on her cheek in worry.  He shook his head.

“Just a bit dizzy, I’ll be feeling right again in but a moment’s time…”

“Here…” she said, balling her huge hand into a fist and extending her pointer finger down into his reaching distance.  He gratefully wrapped his hands around the finger with both fists, and Caroline pulled back, barely having to put much effort into pulling him up from the floor.  She guessed this man, who looked reasonably tall, only came up just past the middle of her knee.  Feeling that he was friendly enough not to be offended, she brought her hand behind him and gently wiped off his back of the dust that had accumulated in his tumble.

“Thank you, princess,” he said cheerfully, dusting his front off and returning to his post.

“Please, Caroline, come?” said Elizabeth, sounding very eager to possibly help her daughter.

“Yes, I’m coming,” she answered, turning herself back around, looking over her shoulder to ensure she didn’t kick anyone else on accident.  They continued on, eventually reaching the Great Hall.  Caroline stepped in, and it felt great as she stretched up, standing at full height.  She stretched her arms up over her head, yawning.  Then, she looked down at the other four below her, who looked a bit taken aback.  They had already seen her standing up, but she now realized this was the first time she had stood at full height and actually reached her arms up into the air.  She imagined it made her look absolutely gargantuan.

“Excuse me…” she said, covering her mouth as daintily as possible.  The king and his wife took their seats in the thrones of the Great Hall that only days ago, Catherine had appeared in and created a drastic problem for the royal family.  It felt odd for Caroline to be standing in it.  Her whole life, this room had felt like a canyon, the walls stretching up in the twisting architecture of the pillars, the smooth stone rafters with angels carved into them watching over her.  As a child, she would come here when she managed to escape her lessons and run around the endless space, calling out and listening gleefully as her echo came bouncing back.  Now, however, she looked to the stairs, which her head actually rose above now, and remembered when she was small enough to come through the regal looking double doors at the top by simply stepping on through. 

Several guards took their posts around the perimeter of the room, two of the larger ones standing next to the throne.  Rose scurried over to Caroline, tugging at the hem of her robe to get her attention.

“Yes?  What is it, Rose?”

“Don’t be nervous, miss,” she said, smiling up at her.  Caroline never ceased to be amazed at how well her servant knew her, able to read her expressions so effectively.  She wondered if it was any easier to detect her skittishness in her face, now that her features were so much larger.

“Thank you, Rose.  I won’t be.”

Nodding, Rose stepped off to the side, staying close by in case she was needed.  Caroline looked down and saw Phillip standing on her foot once again.  She smiled.

“Hello, Phillip.  Are you ready to do this together?” she asked.  He nodded vigorously.  “Do you want me to hold you now?”  He nodded again.  She sighed deeply and happily, bending over at her waist, her arms reaching out.  She placed her hands around her small brother’s sides and easily lifted him up, feeling like she was just picking up one of her childhood toys.  Returning to a standing position, she gently shifted her grip on him, realizing she could hold on to him pretty effectively with a single arm by allowing him to lay along her palm and forearm like a recliner, his head just underneath her shoulder.  He realized this, laying back against her arm, which she curled in against her chest ever so slightly to ensure he didn’t fall.  Richard saw this but wasn’t worried in the slightest, knowing his daughter to be perhaps the most careful and gentlest person he had ever met, confident in the fact that she wouldn’t let go of Phillip or forget that he was there as long as she had him.

“Send him in,” called the king out to a guard who was posted up against the wall in the far corner of the room.  His eyes had been locked to the mountainous girl before him in apprehension, but he was snapped awake by this order and quickly opened the side door, leading in to the room and spoke quickly outside.  A moment later, Caroline watched as a man hobbled in, one of his legs looking pretty useless, and he hunched over a bit, making him look shorter than he probably was. He stopped when he got within a certain distance of the group and bowed deeply, almost falling over on his leg, then stood back up as the king allowed him to.

“We understand you feel you have a solution for our… unique predicament,” said the king.  “Explain, please, your proposed methods.”

The man nodded, quivering at the shoulders, and reached into a large bag he had slung over one shoulder, pulling out a coil of very thick rope and holding it out.  “Your Majesty, the limbs are just like… rubber.  When they…” he said, looking uncertainly up at Caroline’s optimistic but unsure face, “…STRETCH out a bit more than usual and lock, it’s simple a matter of unlocking them and allowing them to pull back into place.  It’s really a very simple matter, I’ve seen it done numerous times to great success…”

“But have you,” began the king, “seen it work in a case quite like this before?”

The man, rubbing pensively at a bald patch in the middle of his head and panning his gaze up from Caroline’s massive bare feet, up the towering folds of her robe, and up to her head, outlined by her billowing ropes of golden hair and sprinkled with freckles.  “No, no… I’m afraid I haven’t seen a case QUITE like this.”

“What sorts of cases HAVE you seen?” asked Elizabeth.

“Errr…” he said, swallowing hard and thinking.  “The last patient I attended to had grown, err, perhaps not QUITE as tall as her Royal Highness has, but…”

“How tall?”

“A bit, perhaps, say… a matter of inches?” he said, grinning as optimistically as possible.

Caroline could already feel her heart sinking; she had a feeling this wasn’t going to work.

“That’s hardly, I’d say, a great similarity between your last patient and the princess,” said the king, not rudely but beginning to feel slightly miffed that this fact had been overlooked in the peasant’s hiring.  “But I will not judge it until I have seen your method.  How do you, as you say, plan to allow her limbs to stretch back into place?”

The man shook a little, clearly excited that he wasn’t being tossed out already.  “It’s quite simple, really…” he said, unraveling the rope.  “We shall simply tie one measure of rope around the princess’s wrists, and attach them to a post, perhaps a wall.  Then, we shall tie another measure of rope to her ankles, tie those to horses, and allow her to pulled, quite literally, right out of the snap her limbs have become trapped into,” he said cheerily.  Caroline didn’t like this already.  “Of course, Your Majesty, I’m afraid we shall have to bring in horses to your glorious dining hall.  I’m sorry, but it’s the only way it can be done.”

Caroline felt her brother’s hands twisting themselves up in the deep folds of her drape robes nervously for her; she looked skeptically over at her father, who seemed to be thinking.  After a moment, though he nodded, clearly desperate for anything to save his daughter.  “Very well.  We shall see if your methods work.  How many horses will this require?”

“Well…” said the man, looking back at Caroline and rubbing at his chin to judge.  “Normally, it would only take one horse, but I’d say, in the princess’s,” he coughed, “SPECIAL case, I would suggest, say… eight of them…”

The king looked a little surprised but nodded, snapping his fingers for his attendants to get to work.  A short time later, all eight horses were gathered nervously into the Great Hall, an attendant following behind them to clean up any mess than made.  Caroline stared down at them, recalling how she had ridden one of them only last week.  They were the size of lapdogs now.

“Now, Your Highness, if you could just… lay down on the floor here, we can begin the procedure…” yelled the man, unable to judge accurately how loud he had to speak for Caroline to hear him clearly.  She nodded to him and looked down at Phillip in her arms.

“It’s time to go down, now, Phillip,” she whispered, using a finger from her other arm to brush the hair out of his eyes as gently as possible.

“Okay,” he answered back.  She went back into a crouching position, lowering her arm and allowing him to slide easily to the floor.  Then, making sure everyone was out of the way, she sat down on the floor and stretched out, her bare heels making a squeaking sound as they slid across the somewhat slick marble floor.

“Sorry…” she said, hoping it hadn’t hurt anyone’s ears.  She continued stretching, upturning her feet into the air and fully extending at her knees.  Finally, she laid back, lowering her shoulder blades to the ground and stretched her arms out to the sides, careful not to swat at anyone as she unfurled her nearly foot-long fingers onto the cool floor.  The man walked up by her face, holding the rope and handing some of it off to the king’s attendants.

“Now just remain perfectly still, Your Majesty, while we prepare the procedure, and then we shall attempt to cure you of your ailment.”

Caroline calmly stayed in place, feeling the small hands of the men pressing against her thumb for support, the rope tightened around her wrists, an attendant down at her feet straddling her ankle to get at a better angle for typing the knots.  She was too polite to do it, but what she really wanted to do was roll her eyes and groan, as this odd spectacle was beginning to get on her nerves.  She had figured something like this would happen if anyone got wind of the fact that a royal was in need of otherworldly medical treatment.  She felt ridiculous as she tugged a little at her wrists, feeling the ropes tied tightly two pillars behind her.  However, as she tested the give, she could feel in the tug that if she pulled hard enough, she could break the rope without much trouble.  She lifted her head, looking down below as the horses were strapped up, four attached to eat of her feet, each with a rider sitting atop.

“On my mark, fine riders!” called the man near Caroline’s ear.  “Three… two… one… PULL!”

Caroline felt the pressure slowly building up in her ankles and wrists as the horses strained against her incredible weight, trying to drag her out.  She actually did begin to feel the slightest bit of pain in her back, but no sooner did this occur to her, and the horses were stopped in their tracks, backing up.  The riders slapped them to go on, but the several thousand pound young woman was just a bit too much for them.  Caroline looked over at her father, who was rubbing his furrowed brow.

“Err… perhaps, if we were to get more horses, or perhaps an elephant if you have access to one…” said the man sheepishly, walking toward the king.

“I believe we are at an end here today, sir.  Thank you for attempting to be helpful.  My servants will help you find the out,” he said curtly.

“B-But…” said the man, looking around for support as the servants took his arms and his bag to wheel him out.  After he’d left, the king stepped off the throne and walked over to Caroline’s face.

“I’m sorry about this, Caroline.  I’m afraid we aren’t going to be… getting anywhere with methods like that.”

She grinned, trying to stay positive.  “It’s all right, father.  I didn’t believe that it was going to work anyway.

“I must see if any of my scouts have returned, either from the outlying provinces or with news from the Otherlands; I will report back what I find,” said the king determinedly, patting her huge cheek before turning toward the door and striding out confidently.  Caroline felt a tugging on the side of her robes, and looked over to see her brother clambering onto her belly using the folds of the ropes.  He took a crosslegged position right over her stomach as she placed her hands behind her head to use as a pillow, sighing.

“It will be okay, Caroline,” he offered.

She smiled at him, her chest rising and falling more slowly as she calmed down from the oddities of the morning, raising him up and down slowly.  “I know it will be, Phillip.  We’ll find out what must be done to change me back.  And then I can return to just being your big sister.”

He laughed.  “But you still ARE my big sister…”

They chuckled together as Caroline continued reclining on the marble of the Great Hall, her brother sitting on her stomach.