Caroline blinked, her vision a little blurry, as she pulled her resting head up from her propped up arms.  She looked forward, and almost fell back in surprise as she realized she was still in the Great Hall, but suddenly it was like a cavern, the ceiling far away.  She looked down at the ground and instantly realized she was sitting in a chair: a normal, person-sized chair.  She gasped with utter shock and joy at this, grabbing the arms of the chair to ensure it was all real, clasping the wooden edges of the chair with her fingers hard.  She shut her eyes tightly, willing herself to focus and clear her mind.  She opened them again, and sighed loudly with happiness as she realized she was still sitting in the chair.

                She suddenly became aware that she was sitting in front of the long table used for mealtimes with the family, a bountiful feast stretching before her.  Her breathing began to speed up a little as she adjusted to her surroundings, still completely surprised.  How had it been done?  Had her father come up with a solution to fix all of this and not told her?  Had the spell simply run its course and worn off?  Caroline didn’t particularly care about the answer at this moment, so great was her glee.

                Blinking again, she realized that she wasn’t alone; the table was lined with her family.  Richard sat at the opposite end of the table, with Elizabeth by his side.  Anne and Phillip sat on opposite sides of the long section, hungrily digging into their food.  Caroline wondered why she hadn’t noticed them a second before, but quickly wrote it off to the shock of just being regular again with them.

                Richard looked up from his food, which he had only been picking at, looking over at Caroline with concern.  “Is something the matter, my daughter?  You appear worried.”

                Caroline frowned a little in confusion, wondering why her father hadn’t leapt up in happiness at her change.  Had she been like this for a while and not realized?

                “Father!” she cried out joyously.  “I… am well again!  Look at me, I’ve returned to my normal size.  Did you manage to remove the spell?”

                Now it was her father’s turn to look confused.  “Return, Caroline?  Normal size?  What are these things you speak of?  I apologize to tell you I haven’t the slightest idea of what you mean.”

                “But… but father, of course you do!  The spell Catherine cast on me!  The dark spell, the one that caused me to grow taller and taller without stopping.  I was almost capable of touching the ceiling of this hall!  Please, tell me what’s happened, how I was reverted back to my normal self?”

                Richard shook his head, then looked over at Elizabeth, who was now listening with some curiosity.  “Elizabeth, could you instruct Rose to acquire a special sleeping extract for the princess tonight?  It is my feeling that she is in need of some proper rest…”

                Elizabeth nodded.  “Of course, my dear…”

                “What?  But FATHER, I’m not tired at all!  I feel very rested, I feel incredible… better than I have in days!  Just tell me how it’s happened…”

                “Really, Caroline, I believe you’ll feel better after a good night’s rest.  Just finish your meal and Rose will escort you back to your room,” said the king, sounding a little perplexed still at his daughter’s incomprehensible rambling.  Caroline decided to hush up at this point, picking up a utensil next to her plate to take a bite, still wondering what was going on.  She couldn’t possibly have dreamt the last few days, could she?  Everything had been so vivid and so immediate.  The growth, the pains of hitting the ceiling and walls, the emotion of seeing the apprehension in her family’s smaller eyes.

                “Caroline?” came the soft voice of Phillip, and she quickly put down the fork, looking up at her brother, who had turned his head to toward her.

                “Yes?” she answered, trying to push the confusion from her voice.

                “I don’t feel very good…”

                “You don’t?  What might be wrong?”

                “My stomach hurts a lot… I think I ate too much.”

                “I’m sorry to hear that.  Do you need anything?”

                “I want another hug…”

                “Oh, Phillip,” she cooed.  “You’ll feel all right in no time, I’m sure of it.  Come here.”

                Both siblings pushed their chairs out and stood up, walking toward one another on the side of the table.  Caroline was refreshed to see the face of her brother so relatively close to her own, as his head was just below her chest, just like normal.  She stretched out her arms and wrapped them around him in a hug that he quickly returned, and they rocked on the ground for a moment, Caroline relishing every second of being able to hug her sibling without a single fear in her heart that she would harm him or crush him in her powerful arms and hands.  However, after a moment or so of this, Caroline felt her arms becoming empty.  She looked down, and realized that Phillip still had his arms as far around her body as he could get them, but his head was going lower.  And lower.  And lower.  A moment later, his head was about level with her waist.  Caroline threw her arms back in surprise.

                “Oh, no, it’s happening again…” she said, grasping her forehead and trying to take a step back.  “It’s happening again.  Phillip!  Please, step away, you’ve got to stay away from me, I’m starting to…” she gulped, stepping back, but her brother remained tightly wrapped around her, even as his grip shifted to her thighs as he continued shooting downward.  “Father!  Look at me!  Please, look at me, help me, it’s happening once again!” she called out, but with some surprise realized that her father, her mother, her sister, and the table were all still normal sized.  She looked up and realized that the ceiling was getting no closer than it had been minutes ago.  Then she looked down at the ground, and realized what was happening.

                Caroline dropped to her knees, her hands on the ground to get a closer look as her brother continued shrinking, finally becoming about as tall as her knees.

                “Oh, Phillip, no, no, no, this cannot be happening.  It can’t be YOU.  Catherine placed the spell one ME, not YOU.  Oh, no…” she said worriedly and helplessly, unable to do a single thing as her brother actually continued becoming smaller, descending in height past her knee and down her shin, becoming even tinier to her than he had been when she was gigantic.  Phillip didn’t even seem to notice what was happening, ceasing to hug his sister and instead looking up strangely at her.

                “Is something wrong, Caroline?  I just want a hug…”

                “What?  Of course it is!  I mean…” she said, cutting herself off, not wanting to scare her brother more than he probably would be in a moment.  “You’re… it’s… you’re becoming… I don’t know…” she mumbled, biting a fingertip as she tried desperately to think of a solution.  “FATHER!” she cried out, wondering what had taken her parents so long.  “FATHER!  Please, help, please… it’s Phillip, something’s happened to him, a spell or…” she said, and looked down to see her little brother less than half a foot tall, being only a matter of inches above her ankle.  She almost screamed in fright at what was happening, but quickly jammed a fist over her mouth to avoid this.  Still, her breathing became heavier and more labored as she struggled to grasp what was happening.  “FATHER!” she yelled out, and looked up.  The rest of her family was all looking down at their food, picking at it, not even granting Caroline eye contact.

                At the brink of tears at the lack of support she was getting and the complete confusion running through her brain, Caroline looked down and gave a muffled gasp, her fist still over her lips, as she saw her brother, no more than a few inches tall, sprawled on the floor.

                “Oh, Phillip… what’s going on?” she said, her breathing becoming harder and harder.

                “Caroline… I want a hug!” said Phillip happily, as if nothing strange was going on.

                “What’s happening to you?” she said, the tears finally rolling down.  However, she quickly wiped them away as she watched several large droplets fall like rocks toward her pint-sized sibling on the ground, pulling her head back to avoid soaking him or even hurting him with her tears.

                “Nothing’s happening to me, Caroline.  Please, hug me?” he said.  Caroline, not knowing what else to do and fearing that her brother would soon be harmed by the world around him without help, slowly reached out her hand, her fingers extended, lowering her palm toward the tiny human being before her.

                “Don’t… don’t be afraid, Phillip, I just want to help you…” she said, slowly wrapping her soft fingers around the miniscule body of her brother.  She gasped again to feel the feather weight of him, his fragile frame hugged comfortably into the folds of her palm flesh.  Lifting him a few inches off the ground, she quickly swooped her other hand, palm up, underneath her fist to ensure she wouldn’t drop him.  As she pulled herself back into a standing position, Caroline gently released her grip around her brother, allowing him to stand in her upturned palm.  She almost felt like shaking, but forced herself not to as this would send Phillip reeling, as she looked down at him, probably just over an inch tall now.  Instinctively, she curled her fingers in a little to protect him, her thumb standing up.  Her brother’s feet tickled her smooth palm as he marched confidently across her hand, reaching her thumb and throwing his arms around it in a hug.

                Caroline, feeling the oddly small amount of pressure being exerted on her finger, was taken aback, wondering why her brother wasn’t terrified of his current situation.  She wiped her eyes and cheeks with the other hand for safety before moving her face in closer, taking slower, more controlled breaths out of fear that she might accidentally blow her brother right out of her hand to the death drop below.

                “Phillip… do you…do you feel all right?” she whispered softly, worried her no-doubt booming and powerful voice would startle him.  Phillip released his hug on her finger, and she had to squint a bit to make out his facial expressions as her brother shrunk to less than an inch tall.  Despite her attempts to quell her growing terror, Caroline felt her hand quivering, and she watched helplessly as her brother tumbled over, tripping into a sprawled position in her palm.  “PHILLIP!” she yelped, quickly remembering the punch of her voice’s volume and covered her mouth, her breathing becoming heavy again.  “Oh, I’m so sorry… are you hurt?” she whispered.  “What’s going ON?” she moaned, completely unable to do anything as her brother became half an inch tall, his face so small she couldn’t even tell what he was doing.  She heard the faintest of sounds, and realized he was speaking, but she couldn’t quite make it out.  She moved her ear closer to him, turning her head, her hand still quivering slightly as she curled her hand in further, cupping her brother into the very center of her palm.  She couldn’t hear anything, and almost fell over when she turned her eyes back to him, his body becoming so small she doubted he was half as long as her thumbnail.  The tears running anew, her body beginning to shake all over, Caroline covered her mouth, clenching her fingers into her cheeks as the watched this unfold, confused, angry, and terrified at what was happening.  A frozen minute of painful silence passed as Caroline found herself having to pull her hand closer, searching the now-canyon like creases of her palm for any sign of her brother.  There was none.

                Caroline gasped as she woke up, a cold sweat running down her forehead.  She scrambled into a kneeling position, and looked straight ahead, finding herself able to peer upward and see the stained glass windows looking so close to her as moonlight shone through them in glistening rays.  She pressed her fingertips against the cool marble, standing up, and shot upward toward the ceiling in the darkness, looking all around the moonlit hall, realizing it had just been a dream.  Her brother hadn’t become so small he had been lost in her hand.  She was still absolutely gigantic.  She turned to the window, and at this moment realized that her eyes were now just above the level of the highest stained glass window.

                It had happened again.  She knew it.  She didn’t even need people here this time for comparison to be able to see it.  The night must surely have already nearly passed, because Caroline could tell now that her daily growth spurt had already taken place.  And it was at this moment she realized that while her dream had been a reversal of reality, and had taken place in a very short amount of time, it occurred to her that if this continued, the scale at which she had seen her brother shrink would be just as real to her as her monstrous size was to everyone else.  Except it wouldn’t just be her brother.  Caroline gulped hard, instinctively standing up straighter and keeping her bare feet perfectly next to each other on the marble floor, imagining what it would be like.  The kingdom would become like an ant far, each person like mosquito, so tiny and seemingly insignificant that they could be killed so easily, even if she was just holding one of them.  Or holding dozens of them, as she knew she would be fully capable of.

                Caroline a few steps, out of the moonlit area of the hall, and stopped on the darker half.  Then, taking a final step, she felt her foot press down into something brittle and thin, snapping it easily as she pressed her weight down, not even realizing what had happened.  She quickly removed her foot, feeling splinters of wood stuck to her sole as she dropped into a crawling position and inched forward to get a closer look.  As her eyes adjusted to the dark, Caroline realized it was the same, long dinner table that her family ate from each day, the same one from her dream.  Instantly, her mind shot to the dream again.  Her entire family had been sitting around that massive table, and her foot had just snapped it in half like a piece of bark.  Supposing her foot had happened to fall over a place where one of her parents or siblings had been seated, she knew without a doubt their body would have been squished into the marble just as hard as the wood had.  She shivered, crawling back frantically to push this thought from her mind, and felt her feet slam against the stone walls of the hall, her rear end quickly following suit and ramming into a flag that hung sideways, knocking it to the ground with a clatter.  Caroline chose at this moment to cease movement, fearing the breaking of something else with a single, unconscious movement on her part.

                A couple hours later, sunshine began streaming in through the windows, lighting everything in sight.  Caroline carefully stood up, marveling at the splintered mess she had left of the table, and realizing that the ground had become even further away in the night.  Not long after, her entire family and Rose stepped uncertainly into the room, their eyes widening as they walked closer to Caroline.  Anne dashed over without hesitation, standing at Caroline’s side and grasping the hem of her robe, tugging at it.  Richard and Elizabeth put their arms around each other, Richard’s face contorting a bit in worry, Elizabeth shaking her head in doubt as she tried desperately to think of something she could do for her daughter.  Caroline watched as Phillip knelt by her foot, rapping his tiny fist against her big toenail as if wondering if she was real.  He backed up quickly as she wiggled her toe in instinctive response to the touch and bumped against his hands, his mind subconsciously surprised that the toe was actually part of such a large living thing.

                “Rose…” said Elizabeth, breaking the silence at last.  “Please fetch Caroline something to eat…”

                “Yes, right away, your Highness,” squeaked Rose, dashing away.

                Caroline stared down at them all in utter shock.  Her brother, now standing at her other leg and tugging at the other end of her robe hem, was just barely as tall as the base of her calf, if that.  Her sister didn’t come up much higher than that, and her father, normally the tallest of all of them, didn’t even quite reach her massive knee with the top of his head.

                “Caroline, please… just have patience.  This will be over soon, I assure you of that!” said the king confidently, taking a few steps forward.  “I have instructed all my scouts to return this morning and report their findings.  Surely a new method will be discovered, and we can return you to proper health!”

                A few minutes later, Rose returned, dragging a cart behind her that contained a few loaves of bread stacked on top.  She stopped it right next to Caroline’s right foot, taking a few steps back to give her some room.

                “Thank you, Rose,” said Caroline, stooping slowly and casting a darker shadow over her family, her fingers reaching toward the cart.

                “Of course, miss, of course.”

                Caroline grasped a single loaf of bread in her fingers, raising it up.  It appeared to be only a matter of inches long now, just a bit wider than Caroline’s palm.  Shrugging, she raised it to her lips, opened, and inserted half of the loaf into her mouth, chewing it quickly into a pulp and swallowing.  She realized how rapidly this had happened, and resolved to take smaller bites to avoid draining the food supply.  She bit down as daintily as she could at her size into the remaining bites of bread loaf, feeling it break off like a dead leaf into her mouth.

                “Father…” called out the over-25-foot-tall Caroline, taking another massive swallow and doing a small double take as her louder voice echoed through the hall.  “I think it may be time to try something else…” she finished, looking down as her nearly doll-sized siblings each took a seat on a huge foot, hugging their bodies to Caroline’s thick ankles.