Loud footsteps echoed through the empty stone room while the adventuring party came closer.  As far as I knew nobody else had been operating in this area when we entered, but that was at least a week ago.  We must have been presumed dead and another party sent to do the job.  Ordinarily I would be outraged that someone else was about to benefit from our hard work, but they were entitled to the reward if they could get me out of here.  An eternity being crushed by Kirinhalut was not what I had in mind when I talked about living forever.

“Looks like someone already got him,” said one of the unseen adventurers with a clearly feminine voice.  “Nobody’s come to collect the reward though, guess they died before they could get out.”

“Tough break for them,” someone replied, their voice like chimes tinkling together.  “Let’s start gathering loot and be thankful for a job already done.”  Metal plates and leather straps crashed against stone while they rummaged through the dead outside, trying to maximize their take.

“Hey, we should start in there,” a third voice said.  “There’s a panel of wall missing, might be a secret room someone forgot to close.”  That was the first step to someone getting me the hell out of here.  Now I just had to get noticed, which could not be as hard as Kirinhalut was making it sound.

“Good eye!” the first voice responded.  “Let’s hit that before our sacks get full of junk.”  I resented the gear of my fallen friends being written off as junk, but I was hardly in a position to chastise them for it.  It was not even clear if they would be able to hear my admonishments if they found me.

The footsteps became louder, and three enormous forms squeezed through the doorway, one having to bend over to keep from clipping her long, pointed ears on the top.  All three of them were women and looked very formidable, armor still shining and weapons unbloodied after trudging through an already cleared dungeon.  They walked into the room and stopped at the edge of the glowing rune circle, the echoes from their footfalls bleeding together until they formed an overwhelming cacophony.

“Oh, thank the gods someone’s here!” Kirinhalut exclaimed when they were all in.  “This villain abducted me months ago and kept me imprisoned in this room!  Please, if you take me out of this dank hole with you I can make it very worth your while.”

“Certainly, my lady, we would gladly free you,” answered the woman on the far end, encased from chin to toe in full plate.  “There don’t seem to be any chains binding you, so you’ll have to tell us how, lady…”

“Kiri will suffice,” the gigantic succubus began, “it’s what my friends call me.  If you break those runes it should break the spell holding me here.  They’re projecting something like a wall of force that stops me from leaving the circle.”

“Something like this?” the armored woman asked, walking forward and setting the toe of her boot on one of the runes.  I wanted to shout at her to stop before they released a demon, but when I tried to open my mouth my jaw remained clinched tight.  Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s best for you, Kirinhalut’s voice filled my mind.  If you’re good I might tell them about you.  The woman rubbed her boot back and forth on the floor, breaking a rune, and the glow from the circle suddenly stopped.

“Thank you, so much!” Kirinhalut gushed, rushing forward.  She embraced the woman who freed her and cried tears of joy while holding her tight.  “My saviors.  I was starting to worry I’d die in this miserable room.  I haven’t seen the man who abducted me for days, and… Please, can we just get out of here as quickly as possible?”

“After we have a look around,” the elf said, walking into the defunct circle.  “There’s got to be something in here worth taking.”  She strode toward me, her boots crashing against stone with each tremendous step.  Vibrations traveled through the dense floor and shook my knees while I watched her carelessly approach.  I tried to move out of the way, but my joints were unresponsive.  As the colossal legs came closer I tried again, but found myself frozen in place.  Kirinhalut’s voice came back, This is what happens when you try to sell me out, bug.

The heel of her massive boot set down with a shaking thud, and I looked up at the dull, battered sole looming over me.  It was larger than any monster I had ever seen, and could flatten me with no effort.  She swung her toes down, and I braced myself for the mind-shattering agony of being crushed again.  Her sole slapped against the floor with a tremor, dropping me to my knees as they went weak, but had fallen just short of stepping on me.

Weakly I grabbed onto the outsole and hauled myself up, thankful she had not turned me to mush.  I looked up the colossal body next to me, scanning up the weathered brown boots and tight, earth-colored breeches over her long, lean legs.  A leather tunic covered her chest, and her striking, exotic face was pointed away from me while her gray eyes inspected something.  Curious, I looked where she was and found I was standing next to one of the candelabras, explaining why she had stopped just short of squashing me.

Something dropped from her shoulder, gliding gently toward the floor.  At such a large distance I could only see its outline against the elf’s clothing, but it looked slight and bipedal, and as it drifted down I noticed the dragonfly wings sprouting from its back.  It came closer and I saw long, bright red hair flowing behind the falling form, contrasting with mocha skin, and white wrappings around the chest and groin area.  Apparently, I was being saved by an all-female party.

The floating figure landed with a boom and a rumble, standing astride me while I looked up at her in awe.  A pixie, or one of the other fey races, was towering over me right now, leaving me completely dumbstruck.  I had seen them before, but they were all ankle-height at most.  Now I was maybe halfway up their shins if that.  Never in my life did I expect to be small compared to a pixie, but all kinds of my expectations were being broken lately.

She looked down at me between her feet, then brushed a lock of fiery hair behind her pointed ears.  “What are you?” she asked.  Her voice was strained and low, not at all the light chimes I had come to expect from her race.

“I’m an adventurer,” I replied, trying to keep it simple.

“Sure, but what race?” she clarified, narrowing her black eyes.  “I’ve been adventuring for years and never seen a sentient being this much smaller than me.”

“Oh, I’m a human,” I helpfully offered, as though it should have been self-evident.

“A human, huh?” she repeated.  “I travel with two humans and they’re pretty big.  Why are you so small?”

“Well, I’m a shrunken human,” I explained, hoping that would be enough for her. 

“And how’d you shrink?” she pressed.  “I know there’s magic to make stuff smaller, but it doesn’t last very long, so you should be big by now.”

I started to tell the truth, but the voice in my head came back.  If you tell them the truth our deal’s off, insect, and I can smash you before any of them stop me.  “It was a witch’s dying curse,” I lied.  We had cleared out a witch from her lair in the forest a month earlier, so I should be able to fill in further details from that.  Maybe she had even heard about it.

“Dying curse?  Wow, tough luck,” she replied, and I was relieved that she bought it.  “Hold on, I’ll see about getting you out of here so you can get some help.”  She turned and looked up the colossus beside us and shouted so she could hear.  “Hey Lell!  I’ve got something you should see!”

The enormous elf shifted so that she could look down at us.  “Bring it up here, then, I can’t see anything except you.”

The huge pixie shrugged and extended one arm down toward me.  She placed her palm on my chest then wrapped her fingers around my sides, securing me beneath the armpits.  “Quick warning, this might be uncomfortable,” she said, then lifted me off the ground and took flight.  Throughout the ascent I did not even have the wherewithal to look at the elf to get an idea of our elevation: my mind was still reeling from the fact that a pixie had just picked me up effortlessly with one hand.

She landed on Lell’s extended upturned palm, feet spanning from one knuckle to the other.  The pixie turned me around and set me on the leather glove covering the elf’s palm, as though she were presenting a trophy, then pulled her hand back.  Immediately I was struck by how gigantic Lell’s face was, even more than her exotic features while she peered down at me with her large, almond-shaped gray eyes.  I waved to let know I was more than just an object, but she seemed unimpressed.

“That’s the smallest living thing I’ve ever held,” she said, her voice rattling my bones.  “Any idea what it is, Bushwack?”

“He says he’s a human,” the pixie replied.

“A human, huh?” Lell said, echoing Bushwack’s sentiments.  “There’s something different about him compared to the other humans I’ve seen, but I can’t put my finger on it.”  She looked to the side for a moment, then back to me, whipping her head fast enough that her white bangs flicked up under her leather headband, and affixed me with a steely gaze.  “That’s right, they aren’t dwarfed by pixies.  How’d he get so small?”

“Apparently he shrank,” Bushwack answered.

“I can speak for myself, you know!” I protested, and Lell showed the first hint of emotion with a small grin.

“So you can!” she exclaimed.  “Well then, why don’t you tell me how you became a shrunken human?”

Before I could explain anything a loud, powerful voice to her side shouted out, “There’s a shrunken human?”

Lell rolled her eyes.  “Yes, Margret, I’m holding a shrunken human in my hand.”

“Can I see?” the giddy voice came back.

“Sure, I guess,” Lell answered unenthusiastically.  A second later there was another face peering down at me, this one just clearing the palm I was on with its chin.  She looked down at me with excitement in her deep blue eyes, and I craned my neck up her sun-kissed face to meet her gaze.  Her light brown hair was cut short all the way around her head, and she had a single earring piercing the cartilage of her left ear.

“Wow, he’s cute!” she exclaimed with a smile, and I recoiled from the intense volume of her voice.  “I’m Margret Morninglight, but you can just call me Margret.”  Finally, one of them had the courtesy to introduce themselves.  “Some people call me Mags or Maggie, too.  Llelwyl,” she said the name almost spitefully, “mind if I pick him up?”

“Please,” the elf replied.  Margret reached a hand into Lell’s palm, and lightly pinched her thumb and forefinger around me.  She plucked me off the glove and my stomach fell to my feet while blood rushed out of my head, making it even more disorienting while she pulled me toward her slender, pointed nose.  Quickly she corrected herself so that I was held a bit away from her face, keeping her grip on me light but secure.

“So, how’d you get to be so small?” she asked.  I explained about the witch’s dying curse without having to be prompted by Kirinhalut, and Margret’s mouth opened in surprise.  “That’s awful!  I can’t believe someone would do something like that, I’m glad you got rid of her before she could do it to someone else.  I was about as small as you for a bit and it was terrifying!”

My ears perked up.  If she had been grown back, maybe there was hope for me.  “What happened?” I asked.

“Sondra here was trying out a spell she just learned,” Margret began, “and the next thing I knew I was looking up at her ankles!  ‘Sondra, help, down here, please!’ I shouted, until she finally looked down.  One dispel later and I was back to my old self, though!”

“Do you think that would work for me?”

“Yeah, maybe.  Hey Sond!”  Margret looked away from me to her friend.  “I’ve got a customer for you!”

“Give him here, then!” came the answer with a deep, powerful voice.  The world spun as Margret turned me around and handed me over, setting me in the middle of a wide, pale palm.  Her fingers let go, and I found myself staring up at an immaculate face with the clearest pair of blue eyes I’d ever seen gazing back at me.  “I’m Sondra Soleil, but you can call me Sond.  And you’re the shrunken human I’ve been hearing about, right?”

“Yeah, though I’d like to be less shrunken,” I replied.  Something clicked in my head, and I remembered where I heard their names before.  “Hey, you’re the Beautiful Beasts!  I’ve heard about you!  I was hoping to meet you all sometime, but under different circumstances.”

“Yep, that’s us!” Sondra proudly replied.  “We go around righting the empire’s wrongs and look good doing it!  Are you part of an adventuring company too, or just an admirer?”

“I used to be part of Rolf’s Raiders,” I told her, “but they all died out there, including Rolf, and I don’t think I’ll be going on may quests like this.”

“Sorry to hear about your friends,” Sondra commiserated, “but I can help you with the shrunken thing, and you’ll be back to adventuring in no time.  Just let me put you on the floor real quick so you don’t break my arm when you get big again, okay?”  Sondra plucked me up with two digits much as Margret had and slowly bent over, lowering me to the floor.  On the day down I noticed she wore a dark red robe that showed off an insane amount of cleavage from her pressed-together breasts, one of the few places it touched her slender body.  From the floor I looked up from between her brown, silver-inlaid flats and saw she had a slit running up each leg of her robe, showing off her slim but fit legs.

“Ready?” Sondra asked, and I looked up the colossal wizard.  I gave a quick nod, hoping she could see it, and her long, feathery blond hair began to rustle.  With a twitch of her nose she began uttering arcane words and twiddling her fingers down at me, then a blast of magic spewed forth from them.  It hit me dead-on, and I felt the spell saturate my body.  For a moment magic suffused me, a bright light dominating everything for an instant before it dissipated.  When it faded I eagerly looked to the side, and still saw a dragon-sized brown flat on either side with a gigantic wizard towering over me.

“Huh, that didn’t work,” Sondra boomed and looked down at me apologetically.  “I can try something else if you give me a bit, though.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Lell cut in, her enormous voice shaking me.  “We’ve got a lot of loot to carry out, and I don’t think either of them will be helping us.”

“But he needs our help!” Sondra protested.

“Yeah!” Margret added.  “If you were tiny, would you want us to mess around before helping you?”

“If I were tiny,” Lell began, “I’d be fine with you taking me to someone better equipped, or letting Sondra work on it on the road.  Daylight’s burning, so let’s get moving.”  The two human women grumbled and the floor shook while they walked, careful not to step on me.  Bushwack returned to her perch on Lell’s shoulder, who clumsily slapped her boots on the ground as she came toward me.  Her boot crashed into the ground inches from my face before stepping over me, only missing me by accident.

When they were gone two more crashes rattled my bones, and I looked up to see Kirinhalut looming over me.  “Looks like you’re coming with me after all, bug,” she said with a smirk.  “Thanks for not selling me out, though I guess I can be persuasive.”  She bent over and swiped a hand at me, engulfing me with her fingers.  My body was thrown into chaos while she stood back up, and when she opened her fingers I was gazing up at her tremendous face from her chin.

“Boo!” she exclaimed, making me jump back from her red lips.  “We better hurry up so we don’t get left behind.”  Her fingers closed around me again, encasing me in a warm fist and blocking me from the rest of the world while she walked after the Beautiful Beasts.  Rescue might not have been the best word to describe what had just happened for me, but at least we would be getting out of this dungeon.