Burnt air that would nearly make one choke. The smell of sulfur pervaded through the organic funnel known as nostrils. Then there was the impulse of crushing pressure that compressed all around one’s form. This was compounded by the sensation of grime and filth coating every unguarded and guarded  feature.

If only this violent hug of pressurized heat and unbearable stench was accompanied by the rubbery velvet and oily musk that he so acquainted with a firm sole…at least in his fantasies.

That was not the case. As the dust settled.

“Come on Nameless! You can do better than that!”

Despite the ringing in Nameless’s ears, he was able to hear his eldest sister’s strong voice assert itself over to residual exploding debris. The dust clouds diffused through the gravely lot, that was designated as the family’s training ground. The younger brother’s irritated eyes first focused on his eldest sister, Titania, in the distance.

Behind the white line, that marked the periphery of the combat zone used for practice, was a beautiful woman. She was dressed in tight gray tunic and trousers that stretched below the simple hem of the attire. The latter’s end was hidden by the tight rim of the eldest sister’s black boots. Her ashen hair was cut into a short fringe. The terminal ends of the bangs were tinted blue, like an inverse-colored ocean wave. Those wavy tresses, sharp in their contours, framed a sharp face. One that wobbled in abnegation, shaking the lengthy pinna of her ears, at the sight that she was forced to witness. 

There was no doubt that even during this weekend, that Nameless’s oldest sister was the image of a model knight of Longinquus Kingdom. A region that has known peace longer than most other areas. Of course, for Titania that was no excuse for her to moderate the rigor of her training regimen. That effort was obvious by the reason that the supposedly loose-fitting knight uniform…was so snug on the inverse-wave-haired woman. As a twenty-seven-year-old half-elf, she possessed the ageless beauty that seemed bounded to their forms. Regardless of weather and age, but those gentle slopes of feminine allure were interspersed by bulging packs of muscle. Firm bundles that mixed with soft curves in a curvaceous form. An amalgamation of lean and flexible tapestry, fat, and muscle, that only seemed to amplify Titania’s beauty.

Why was Nameless’s beautiful and handsome sister displaying such transparent disapproval? Well…for the umpteenth time, the middle child, and sole son, of the family had not shown any improvement in his combat prowess. In fact, in the eldest sister’s opinion, it seemed like the brother’s ability had regressed. Was it due to a paucity of confidence leading to an erroneous judgement or a swelling of doubt that weighed down his limbs? Titania, a commanding knight of a decorated regiment within the kingdom, was convinced that it was a combination of the two. Although, it was hard to be able to parse out the exact cause of 

“Hey Titania! It’s fine. This is just another learning moment for Spriggan.”

Nameless’s eyes darted towards the source of the other voice. The snarky tinge of the second sister’s words, the second eldest sibling in the family, and his twin, rung like the morning bell in his ears. Unwanted in its arousal of his indolent state. The silent rage that welled up in the young man, as she called him by his unwanted pet name, pumped hormones that alleviated the aching pangs that suffused through his spine. It was this numbing effect that allowed the young man to pick himself off the gravelly floor.

The floor.

Yes. 

Nameless was blown back by the explosive spell of his adversary. In this new position, and with the obfuscating clouds spreading even further, the twin brother was able to better see his twin sister. Frigg standing adjacent to Titania. Her green hair flowed as a long and straight braided bundle down her back. Under the rays of the young sky, the brilliant verdant locks shimmered like a divine pasture woven by the gods. Unlike Titania, Frigg’s ears were not elongated like most elves. This was due to the trio of biological siblings’ parents being an elf and a human. Of the three siblings, only Titania bore the narrowed eyes and long ears that more prejudicial, or how they would like to refer to themselves, traditional, elves…would equate to a symbol of intelligence or wisdom. Not that the eldest sister gave much thought to such baseless notions. She was a knight and physically inclined combatant that focused on merit and skill rather than lineage. 

But this is too far of a tangent. Enough focus has been given to Titania. It is time for the focus to shift on the 22-year-old sibling that Nameless was decidedly less fond of.

Back to Frigg. 

Her face was also softer than the hardened knight’s handsome face. A cushy marshmallow texture that seemed to continue throughout the rest of the twin sister’s body. What she lacked for in firm muscle, she made up for in sizable assets. A prominent chest, balanced out by a rich rump, that hung off shapely hips. A seductive hourglass that was partially obscured by the blue mage robes, hanging down from her shoulders and down to the middle of her calves.

Of course, such an arousing sight did not bring about such fondness within the brother. He might have been appreciative of her beauty in a platonic deportment. If it weren’t for Frigg’s incessant teasing and mean-spirited nature towards him. Even now, the twin sister’s hands were firmly placed on the swell of her hips, and her face was brimming with a smug energy

“Hey! Spriggan! Eyes on the battlefield!”

The twin sister gave a mirthful chuckle. As she stomped her sandaled feet into the moist grass. The fresh dew sprayed and arced back down to those scrunching toes.

A sight that brought an unwanted tightness to the young man’s heart.

Goddess! Damn it!

Of course, the rearing of his baser proclivities was a transient one. 

Nameless swiftly returned to his natural fuming state. As his twin sister once again called him by the pet name, she gave him when they were children. In the Longinquus Kingdom, it was customary for infants not to be given names when they were born. Rather, their name was given equal importance as their identity. Thus, that defining label would be picked by the child themselves, once they had grown old enough. Of the biological siblings, the precocious twin sister was the first one to pick her name. A name that was known for marriage. Although, she chose the name not out of the conventional sense of the word or out of some childish fantasy of being swept off her feet by a dashing prince.

No. That was not the case.

Titania came to her name second.

Nameless…he still hasn’t…

...

...

Thus, he is called either by that burdensome title or the much more appreciated moniker of “brother” or “son”.

“I don’t believe there would be much utility or gain if brother does so. The outcome is pretty much determined.”

A gentle voice spoke from the opposite side of the battlefield. Thereby, provoking Nameless to turn towards the only one who would speak with such a bored tone in the family. His adopted younger sister. 

Houseki. 

Compared to the oldest three sibling’s creamy complexion, her skin was pale. A stark contrast to the nebulous depth of her ink-dark hair and eyes. The strands of hair were arranged into a tight geometric cut, that reached her chin and arranged itself around the pair of red horns that sat on top of the young woman’s forehead. Houseki was a 21-year-old of oni descent from a far east country. At the tender age of 3 years, she lost her parents while they were on an expedition in a desert region. Fortunately, Nameless’s mother, Morgan, was also on that expedition. 

In search for a priceless artifact.

With the country to far, and immigration too difficult with so little information on Houseki’s heritage and family, the single mother decided to adopt the young female Oni into her own family.

Now, Houseki towered a head over Titania, the tallest of the three oldest siblings. Although, what she had in excess of height...she lacked in terms of natural bulk. Out of the females in the family, the woman of eastern descent had the slenderest figure. Moderate curves that were usually tucked in loose black garbs that she even wore now. A uniform fitting for the reconnaissance and rogue profession that Houseki set her heart on. Despite her height. The oni’s dark irises were brought out by the diligent application of red mascara to the fringes of her eyes.

Houseki’s sandaled feet, the pale complexion of her foot veiled in footwear from her homeland known as tabi, patiently tapped on the floor. The oni angled her arm and dug her hand into a pocket. Then the adopted sister pulled out a container that looked like it contained the salve she would use on her own wounds. 

It warmed Nameless’s heart to see that one of his sisters didn’t make themselves completely reliant on the enchanted gear that Frigg produced. The young man was about to walk over to meet his sister halfway, when he felt a tug on his sleeve.

“Hey bro, here!”

The final sister jovially chirped. 

A wide grin was plastered on her caramel countenance. She wasn’t adopted like Houseki. Rather, during that very expedition for the priceless artifact, when Nameless’s mother met Houseki and her parents…she found someone else that enchanted her heart. After the passing of their father and her first husband...

...

...

A dusty man of average temperament and ash-like hair broken by a fuzzy set of ears. One that matched a furry cat’s tail that bounced behind his back with a vitality that belied his years. It wasn’t love at first sight, but it was those trials and affirmation of their bond that crafted something true between them. That led to an intimate congress under the desert night. 

Thus, a new Nameless infant was left to gestate in the elven mother. The days before the tragic incident that robbed the lives of Houseki’s parents and Morgan’s newfound partner.

Nahla chose her name because it honored the memory of her father. 

Who she was told she bore a strong resemblance to. A visage that was rarely without a dimpled smile, and a short figure that bore an abundant softness. The 18-year-old didn’t have the athletic physique of Titania, the full-bodied figure of Frigg, or the slender slopes of Houseki. Rather, the black cat-eared and tailed had a pleasantly plump and ordinary body. A calming sight for the brother, who had a rather unassuming figure of his own. The young cat girl was unsuitably dressed in a night gown this early morning practice...and nothing else.

“Thanks Nahla.”

Nameless patted the top of the cat girl’s head, as the latter offered one of Frigg’s enchanted relics to the former. Regularly the brother would have taken the enchanted treatment with much more consternation. However, there was little that the youngest half-sister could do that would make Nameless mad. Well…it was a little vexing to see her toes laid out bare on the fields of their manor. Not even a semblance of foot covering was adorned on the brown slabs of meat. A flit of Nameless’s eyes confirmed that plenty of dust and grass had collected between those bulbous toes.

Curse this affliction of mine.

“Hmm! Brother what is wrong? Your breathing has changed a little? Are your injuries deeper than they look?”

The cat girl’s adenoidal voice, a nasal scratch that was oddly pleasant to the ears, reached the brother’s ears. He merely shook his head and waved off such a suggestion. However, it was those words that corralled the other sisters over to the young man’s and Nahla’s location.

The strict eldest sister Titania, whose scrutinizing and imposing attitude towards her only brother was an act out of tough love. As she only wanted the best for her family. In a society that may have stabilized, but there were enough gaps, selfish opportunists, and different views that could be taken advantage of to displace vulnerable individuals. The last thing she wanted was for Nameless to be one of them. I mean…who has heard of someone being Nameless for twenty-two whole years.

The overbearing twin sister Frigg, whose taunting comport was usually reserved just for her twin. In truth, she commonly takes up the role of a doting maternal figure when their own mother was absent. A maternal figure that was supporting to Titania, kind and considerate to Houseki and Nahla, but borderline belittling towards Nameless. Perhaps she didn’t like him...or there was something else underneath that taunting exterior

The calculating adopted sister Houseki, whose composed and calm conduct to her brother conveyed a shared understanding of exclusion. That she was more than happy to try and support her brother and was willing to accept his support in turn. As individuals who have growing pains fitting into society. If only the distance between the two of them shortened even further. Presently, her usually pale complexion was tinged red. As she was left a little flustered while pocketing the salve that she brought out. 

“Hmph! Honestly! What are you thinking offering that salve Houseki? My charms work much faster than those old remedies.”

Frigg cocked her head toward Houseki. The siblings, now all standing together, having now formed a semi-circle.

“Yea, but just because an innovation facilitates a process, doesn’t mean we should forget about the efforts needed for the base work. What if we find ourselves in a situation where your charms don’t work or, Goddess forbid, are to our detriment.”

Unlike Nameless, who felt his skin boil for his younger sister being lectured by Frigg, Houseki maintained her composure and calmly responded with a logical answer. 

Frigg did not have a rebuttal. Or, if she did, then it was interrupted by Nahla’s intervening statements.

“Hey! Come on! I think that both Houseki’s DIY kits and Frigg’s magical tools are wonderful. I wouldn’t mind having both in my satchel for when I go to my Paladin exam in a couple months.”

Nahla lifted her bare foot up. Exposing her sole to the siblings as she rubbed the rough surface. Its natural brown color was stained by the impression that the ground left on it. Nameless could easily discern the unyielding quality of the rough skin of the underside of his cat girl sister’s foot. A resilient sole that built up tough layer of calloused skin from walking unprotected during most of her life. 

The brother shook his head and tried to banish any sinister thoughts from his head.

Man…I really need to get out of the manor more often.

The brother’s thoughts were interrupted as he felt the firm embrace of his opponent. The woman’s arms wrapped around his body and her front merged with his back. Their body heat shared by the conduit formed by their skin being just a couple barriers of tarnished fabric from touching.

“Hmm! Maybe it would do you some good to get out for a little bit Namie!”

Nameless’s ageless mother said. Probably the most beautiful woman in the family, aged like fine wine...but her son would never admit that. Especially, verbally. What do you take him for? 

A pervert?

Nameless was unsure where Frigg and he got their green locks. Maybe it was their father’s natural hair color before his scalp degraded, but the young man’s mother had a head full of sharp white hair. The long locks positively glowed as they trailed down her back. That unworldly hair matched her physical appearance. Her peachy skin was positively shining, as if frosted by snow during this mid-summer day. Curves with enough mass that they jiggled, but not within the constraints of her refined dress. Garb that she wore and prevented from getting harmed...as she still had her duties as the kingdom’s court mage. The only thing missing were her white flats, which she substituted for white stirrups that wrapped around the fleshy insteps of her soles.

Morgan stood a head shorter than her son. In terms of height, it went from Houseki, Nameless, Titania, Morgan, Frigg, and then the young Nahla. The young man turned around and saw his mother’s blue eyes searching into his own. Concern and love were in pooling out of her gaze. For the young man barely put up a fight against the mother’s conjured golems. What mother wouldn’t want to protect their son after he was trounced so hard by her barely woven spells and incantations. Although, that wasn’t that surprising. Considering that Morgan was probably one of the three strongest Mages in the kingdom.

“Thanks Mom. Maybe I’ll do that. Just…could you lay off on reading my mind.”

Nameless statement earned a typical motherly cock of the elf woman’s head. Her expression saying all that she needed to say without any words or telepathy needed. 

You’re still questioning your mother at this age.

Sometimes, Nameless wished that his mother was a little bit more understanding about her son trying to pave his own way in life. Albeit, in a much more off-the-beaten path sort of way. Although, that might be a tall order to ask.

Especially since there was some history to still unpack...

...

...

After all, aside from Titania, Nameless didn’t think that any of his siblings knew how old their mother was. At the very least she was old enough to know the value of a life, and not too old to forget about it.

“I’m being serious mister. How do you think I feel when I go to the court? What am I supposed to say? That my daughters are doing alright. Advancing in their careers and passions while babysitting their cleric brother.”

There it was. The caveat. A small part of that story

At a young age, when the twins were both Nameless and so was their older sister, who tried to act as a second pillar of the house, the two children tried to pave their own path. One that would support the oldest who was impassioned to continue in her past father’s footsteps as a knight. Nameless took up on support magic that focused on healing, while his twin sister took up enchanting magic. During those tender years, Nameless felt a sense of superiority, as the field of study he chose yielded benefits for their oldest sister quite rapidly.

Especially since the combat and magic style their half-elf sister adopted was one that self-augmented her strength. As a result, the twin sister’s beginner enhancement spells barely affected the oldest sister.

That didn’t stay true for the years to come...

...

...

“No worries, Mother, I’m certain that with one of the modulating charms that I’ve crafted will be able to open up a new path for our dear brother.”

Nameless fought down an involuntary cough upon his twin sister’s words. 

“Yea. Yea. Maybe this charm won’t leave me in the toilet for the entire day.”

The young man barked as he glowered at his twin sister. 

Then the pair of green-haired siblings exchanged squinted eyes. Houseki’s comforting palm rested on Frigg’s shoulder, and Titania’s firm grip was placed on Nameless’s arm. The mother merely stepped away, her stirrup clad feet scraped against the gravel, kicking up dust. A small cloud that fell back down to the floor and away from her modest and womanly figure.

“My word. I think that I’ll sleep the day away if there was a morning where you two didn’t fought.”

Morgan tutted.

“Frigg be considerate to your brother. I know that you are still name projecting him. And Nameless, please try and figure out what you want to do. Everyone else is moving forward. Why are you having so much difficulty?”

Morgan cocked her hips and rubbed her jawline. As if she was waiting for someone to answer the rhetorical question.

“Okay Mom. I guess that I’ll go out of the manor for a bit.”

Nameless sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. Frigg crossed her arms. The young woman was not compelled to offer a response, but she didn’t deny what her mother said. Frigg did give her brother a questioning side eye.

“Yes. Please. Fresh air. Exploration. Your father and I did plenty of that when we were your age. It will be good for you. Just don’t be gone for too long if you do leave this stuffy mansion…a week.”

Morgan’s face twisted as she punctuated her statement with a ruminative option. The elf still questioning if that was an appropriate time range to allow her 22-year-old son to leave home for a short trot. Maybe slay a dragon or five.

Estimating will never not be hard for an elf.

“Anyway. I have a meeting to attend to at the main court right now. What are you doing today Titania dear?”

Morgan stretched her arms behind her back. Her black dress shifting with her changing gait. 

“I’m actually going to be leaving for rounds with my regiment in about an hour.”

The inverse wave-haired knight said as she brought her closed fist up to her mouth. She turned to face her sisters.

“I guess that means that we’ll be leaving the home to you three.”

Houseki shrugged her shoulders. Frigg shifted her attention to her next project. Meanwhile Nahla’s eyes glimmered with excitement.

“Does that mean we’re in charge? That we can go to the basement and—“

Morgan had already begun to dust herself off and begin to walk away. Before she turned towards her youngest daughter.

“Not the room in the left.”

The mother raised a pointed finger.

“Aww…but mom. I won’t touch anything in there. I just want to see. Besides, what if something in there is broken?”

Nahla huffed and crossed her arms. The curios cat girl’s tail wagged furiously as she squeezed her own body tightly and kicked up some dust. A trial for the brother who realized that he might have been cooperating up in the house too long. As his heart skipped a beat again.

“It’s fine. Gloriana makes a weekly round in the area. The golem would have reported to me if there were any disturbances to be found.”

Morgan dismissed Nahla’s nonsensical argument. The cat girl’s curiosity was an understandable one. Since that portion of the house was sealed up a during their youth. It was an enchanting mystery. Unfortunately, Nahla’s argument held little sway. After all, everyone in the house was already familiar with Gloriana. A golem that was a spitting image of their own mother. Except that her cream complexion, white hair, blue eyes, and black dress were replaced by a silver coating and a maid’s dress. Of course, if there was a disturbance in the house, the robotic maid would have either taken care of it or reported  it to their mother. Like the dutiful  and magically mechanical servant she was.

“Uhh! But I saw some bugs in my room earlier. I had to stomp them into a paste before they could scurry away. Are you sure that Gloriana isn’t malfunctioning?”

Nahla puffed out her cheeks and drummed her toes through the grass. The clenching digits pulled invisible strings. Intangible and nonexistent pulleys that nearly dragged Nameless’s famished imagination to those calloused wrinkles. 

If he was but a vile gnat underneath those brown mountains, of his cute youngest sister…,what would he do. At such a small size and under literal stratum of hardened foot dermatome. What would have been a sensitive underside of an appendage, would instead be a flexing tool of muscular destruction. There probably wouldn’t even be any fluffiness or laxity to that rolling rubber of her sole and toes. Endless skin, clouded by an earthy pungency of the detritus that it would be caked with, that is hard as concrete. Squeezing the bug’s little frame as it popped quicker than a grape. All the while, Nahla’s face, so far up in the heavens would not even register the extinguished life. She would just ground her firm and dirty sole a couple times for good measure. With a predatory grin plastered on the young woman’s face.

Or what if Nameless was propelled by the clapping slam of that smug twin’s sandals. Only to fall back to the gaps between those monoliths of rubbery flesh. Clenching and unclenching. Just like Frigg, those bulldozing demons would bully the little bugs cowering body. Reeling from the pain of the forced somersault, Nameless would be helpless to escape from the underside of the toes’ arches. Their flattening of that curved underbelly of rubbery flesh would drench the miniscule twin in the grass dew and gunk that marinated between those divots of rank flesh. 

It couldn’t be worse than the disastrous might of the biome created by the tight space of Houseki’s tabi socks. So claustrophobic and suffocating. To be trapped within those thick and insulating layers of cotton and sewn. Forced to engulf the mephitic atmosphere as the hours of Houseki’s pumping legs carried her towering body. Each precisely placed step of the sure-footed oni would reduce Nameless from a tattoo to a greasy smear between the folds of foul foot flesh. A hellish demise that would only be exacerbated by the invariable erasure of Nameless’s existence. Just how many flexes of fascia-covered sinew and popping joints would it take for the complete extirpation of the bug’s existence to reach completion.

Or even the drenched cavern of Titania’s boot, packed to the brim with a muggy swamp and a meaty beast with five-heads. An alien world that might just consume the existence of anything that was so small to get trapped in there. Even at her ordinary size, Nameless was certain that he was helpless against the excellent knight in any form of combat or competition. What chance would he have under the blazing heat, world-crushing pressure, and torrential flood ushered by the wrinkled canopy of powerful meat. A simple twitch of Titania’s tendons may be all that is necessary to merge Nameless’s body as a permanent fixture. An instantaneous loss within the airless space of the knight’s black boots.

Would it even compare to the flats or stirrups that the ageless mother wore? Would those footwears also show a lack of wear and tear, or would they be ravaged by the annihilating might of an elf’s unrelenting youth and vitality. Would it be worse for the young man to be obliterated by his mother unknowingly or to be mistaken as an insect? Years upon years of wrinkled waves impressing upon him with their pungent experience...or even a compendium of spells that the grand mage could leverage against the little bug. If his mother had such a malicious side to her. It was possible. The short encounters that Nameless had with his elf relatives did not completely detract from biases of their self-perceived superiority. Then that little bug...just how easy for it to be smushed and then merged with the wrinkled world of the motherly elf’s sole. 

Forever entombed.

In any of those spaces. Under the heavy steps of his family...if Nameless were the size of a bug.

Nope. Nope. Don’t think about that. There is something else that I should focus on.

There was something more important on Nameless’s mind. The contents of the sealed corridor that was on his mind.

Mom and Titania are going to be out…it has to be today. I have to go into the basement today.

For the young man had become privy to some knowledge recently.

“Nameless.”

The brother felt his knight of a sister pat his back. A firm force that nearly sent him stumbling.

“Yea. What is it Titania?”

Nameless apprehensively asked. It didn’t help that Houseki was preemptively offering a consoling smile and Nahla opened her mouth into an “O” shape as they walked off. Frigg was further ahead. Her vision focused on the invention that she was probably trying to make and sell in the upcoming market.

“We should talk a little bit before I head out today.”

Thus, the young man was left in the company of his rough and tough oldest sister.

Just…great…

This was just another ordinary day for a fortunate family. A family of an elf mother, a half-elf older sister, twin half-elves who did not bear even a single physical elf trait, an oni, and a cat girl.

Unbeknownst to any of them…there household was about to be cut one short. One really short.

A Road to the Capital of Longinquus Kingdom

Thud

The carriage rattled as it dipped down into the deviation of the planar surface that formed the beaten path. The resulting proprioception and racket were a disturbance to Morgan’s ears. The Longinquus Kingdom’s court mage massaged her temples. 

A simple solution to soothe the pressurized band that manifested over her head. The minor malady’s pathophysiology wasn’t rooted in an ill-intentioned curse or the cost of a steep incantation. Rather it was a simple headache brought about by handling some unruly children back at her home. That, and the anticipation of having to corral many more immature children during her visit to the court today.

Thud

The elf’s ears twitched. As the carriage lunged forward and halted. Forces of inertia clued the woman into the fact that her transportation had just stopped. Unexpected. Since the time that elapsed since the journey began was far too short for the distance, between her home and the capital, to be traveled. It would have at least taken twenty hours, and the burning sphere in the sky had not even traded places with its softer and blue counterpart.

Elucidating the truth was a simple matter. 

Especially for Morgan. 

As she had been through many more dangerous situations than having to make an unexpected stop on an unpaved road. Unafraid of possible bandits or vicious fauna, the elf closed her eyes and extended her senses beyond the interior of the carriage’s furnished cabin. The experienced mage stretched her senses into the open darkness beyond her normal senses. Vibrations, in the form of ringlets, akin to the small wave created on the surface of a lake after dropping a pebble in it, began to manifest in the nebulous aether that filled the elf’s mind’s eye. Then those rings crashed into one another. The dissonant sounds created by the constructive and destructive interference would have been harsh to a younger individual ears. Like Morgan’s son for instance. One of her children who tried his hands in sensory magic. Albeit with middling progress.

When will that boy find his calling?

A silent thought resounded in the mother of five’s head. It was a passing sentence in the face of the growing wave of stimuli emerging within the darkness. As a picture was finally beginning to form in the mage’s closed eyes. Of what was happening outside of her cabin. 

Then the edges of the white-haired elf’s were tugged down into a deep frown. For she saw the reason for the sudden stop of her carriage. To the side of the road was another carriage of similar design, a little smaller, that had veered off the side of the gravel path. Salvaging the sabotaged vessel would be an easy task for Morgan. In fact, with her talent in creation magic, she could conjure up and form a carriage that was exactly same as its former, undamaged appearance and at twice its current size. 

That was not the issue. 

Morgan would have mildly enjoyed flexing her magical muscle in front of a random flabbergasted noble. However, the occupant of the cabin of that carriage that was standing outside was not a random noble. Instead, it was a detestable man-child that nearly made the white-haired elf seethe. It was a weathered man of motley appearance, who possessed a voluminous ringed tail, much larger than her own youngest daughter’s tail, of brown coloration. 

An aged tanuki diplomat.

Morgan winced as she saw the discomforted expression on the man, who took the time to wipe beads of perspiration from above his brown brows, shift into a more pleasant one. For the white-haired elf’s driver, who was talking to the tanuki, had just pointed at her cabin. The kind and oblivious employee gestured and moved his lips. With words that the elf could hear as clear as day due to her sensory translocation, but she didn’t need to.

That diplomat’s, a vile child in his own right, eyes sparkled. As he realized that his current inconvenient circumstances, his carriage’s crash, were in fact an opportunity that he had been salivating at for a while.

He’s definitely going to insist on traveling with me. Even if I offer to fix his transportation and some additional riches. Probably with the excuse that it would be in our mutual interest.

Morgan opened her eyes, and the world shrank back to the interior of the cabin. The muscles in her body tensed as she waited for an infuriating visit from a maddening acquaintance.

Why couldn’t your carriage get stuck on another road. Yashima.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Tam Lin Estate

The Tam Lin family lived in a luxurious estate. One that had a vast amount of land to serve as the peripheral landscape, and an enormous mansion centered on the land. A result of the many exploits that their parents went on during their younger years. At least that is what the children were led to believe while growing up.

Begrudgingly, Nameless had to admit that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Of course, being born into such a condition, made him adept at pleasing others.

Hmm~

“How do you always convince me to…”

Mmhh~

Thus, the young man hoped that whatever stern words, that Titania had for him, would be softened up by the firm and unremitting pressure of his hands on the circumference of her legs. Most likely, his efforts were not futile. As evidenced by the slight crooning that the wavy-haired knight failed to muffle. 

Currently. the two were in one of the manor’s living rooms. The older sister lied down with her back on the couch, and the younger brother sat up and faced his sister’s body. The former’s arms were angled, and his hands were pressed over the springy contour of  the latter’s musclebound legs.

This relaxing massage was a trick that the young man found would soothe the nerves and pains that his mother and oldest sister would experience throughout the day. A trick that the amateur masseuse reserved only for those two members of the family. 

Why not the others?

Frigg would spontaneously tease the twin brother now and again. About this method that he fell frequently fall back on. Usually, the twin sister would pop off her sandals, or even keep them on, as she shoved those eye-watering slabs towards his sensitive orifices. The vicious laugh afterwards was enough to inspire some ire within the annoyed brother. But it was usually swept under a mental rug. As the young man sometimes scrambled when he felt his body throb from the sudden attention. It was humiliating to be under such an assault, but if that bulge in his trousers was noticed...yea, he would just die. Nameless was very unlikely to give his aggravating twin sister a massage.

Meanwhile, Houseki was always a bit distant and waved off any of Nameless’s offers to comfort her tense legs or back. Even after a long day of training and recon work. Activities that the brother wasn’t completely familiar with, but he believed entailed long moments of unmoving observation, broken by bursts of movement to better reposition oneself. Either to get a better vantage point on a mobile subject of interest or to evade their approaching awareness. A shame really. Nameless was of the mind that, in his family, the oni might have been the one that most needed the knots in her body to be untwined, and he would have been happy to do so.

As for the younger sister Nahla, massaging her light brown feet, and tending to those energetically wiggling toes. Yea. That was not going to happen. Nameless was comfortable in being able to control the more primal parts of his mind around his family. The two women that the young man did offer massages to, Morgan and Titania, were both old enough and had taken care of him that the respect he possessed for them was more than enough to subdue any unwanted desires. Regardless, the middle child didn’t want any undesirable arousal to taint the relationship with his kind cat girl sibling.

Thus, Nameless was tending to Titania’s hot legs and feet with all the physical effort that he could muster. As he was unlikely to do it to anyone else today. Considering that their mother was out for the next few days, and it was highly unlikely that the golem Gloriana would request for the application of physical pressure to her solid parts from her creator’s son.

“You should really watch how long you stand on your legs. Standing in one place for too long just isn’t good for the sanguine circuits down there.”

Nameless compressed the bundles of hot sinew. The young man was not of a feeble build. He was quite muscled for a cleric. Regardless, he couldn’t help but notice the immense heat that seeped out from Titania’s lower extremities. Pillars of tissue that were now laid bare. Just moments ago, she had pulled up her dark grey trousers and pried off her stuffy boots and moist socks.

“Yea. Maybe I’ll laze my ass off like you. Lying in bed and complaining about sleep.”

Titania snorted. Any derisive tincture to the noise was attenuated by the way that the muscular elf’s long elf-like ears wiggled. Even after twenty plus years, Nameless was still not desensitized to endearing idle movement. 

“You never know. Maybe give it a try. Loosen up a little. You’ll be able to work comfortably in service of the kingdom longer that way.”

Nameless pressed the pads of his thumbs into his older sister’s skin. The supple texture was made pliable by the pulsing pressure of the younger brother’s fingers. Digits that earnestly tried their best to pulp the underlying tissue. To tug apart any interwoven knots and kinks formed from use and misuse. He circled his hands and trailed down the calf. Silence soon supplanted the small conversation that the two had. 

The absence of noise, apart from the occasional creaks of the aged manor, was not an uncommon effect of Nameless’s magic touch. The silence was usually soothing for both parties...just not now. For the brother still felt the same level of unease when his older sister asked him to come to this private location. 

They were eye level. Empathetic statements were shared, and small topics exchanged.

Yet, there was this tension in the air. That one could cut with a knife. Nameless almost wished there was some magic subsystem that a mage could utilize to massage out all the kinks and quirks that made the air heavy. Like how he pressed his hands and body into the firm beef of his sister’s leg and feet. Although, such an entertaining train of thought was eventually tinged by Nameless’s own pessimistic take on reality.

Even if there was such a system…would I even be able to use it?

The young man reflected on this thought, between each slide of his thumb against Titania’s twitching instep. His nostrils casually flared, an involuntary response by his body, to the nearly indiscernible elements that coated the knight’s foot. Such details did not escape the young man’s attention…exactly because of his certain proclivities. 

Heck…would I even be able to learn it?

First it was one hand, and now it was two pressed against the broad sole. Ridges of the instep’s flesh moved like a turbulent oceanic tide under Nameless’s firm and circling caress. Each pulse of his thumb’s pressure pulled those wrinkles tight. Emphasizing their depth on the well-trodden foot’s underside. Until those lines diminished as it reached the solidified surface of the knight’s ball and heels. The gradation in texture was a tactile bliss for the young man. All it would take was a simple closure of his eyelids and he could drift off into a taboo dream. 

He wouldn’t.

This was his sister. This massage served the purpose of proactively ameliorating whatever fire that the self-disciplined woman had to levy at him. This was not an outlet to desires that were barely spoken. 

It was merely Nameless taking advantage of his predilections. A fetish that gave rise to his natural technique in giving relaxing massages. The young man interpreted the shifts of Titania’s leg, which was positioned so that it ended just before his lap, as affirmations of his success. The growing moisture along his palm was a signal of his efforts. Although, whether that briny solution beaded from his working muscles, or Titania’s perspiring soles, was still an uncertainty for the younger brother.

Very unlike his certainty when it came to his plateauing talent when it came to magic.

Such worries would be so insignificant if he were just that insignificant in stature. 

Standing on a couch, barely even reaching an inch in height, the younger brother would have to lean back to even try and glance at the top of his eldest sister’s toes. At that tiny size, the foot massage would take an entirely different meaning for Nameless. Those wavy ridges of rubber would be far above his head. The whitened and abrasive surface of the knight’s heel would directly face him. His little hands could punch, and his body could ram, but would the relaxing giantess even notice the disturbance on the bottommost part of her body? Or would he just register as an irritation. An itch on the beguiling knight’s sole and cause her to shift position. To bring the leaning building of funky foot down towards the awestruck gnat. With a village-shattering slam that would unknowingly engulf Titania’s little brother’s body in the flesh of her sole. 

Where would he end up under Titania? Ground underneath a concrete heel? Forced into a contorted circle along the whorls of the ball of her foot. Or engulfed by the warm wrinkles of her instep? Feeling the rush of gushing sanguine pulse through her skin as the underlying sinew strummed through fascia. A mere flex of the knight’s foot would invite the beady sweat, that saturated her foot’s dusty underside, to collect and concentrate as a streaming hot wash over Nameless’s body. Softening his body up, as the overpowering might of the sole engulfed him. The younger brother would be lost between the clumps of torn and drenched from Titania’s insole, that got stuck as wet lint on the bottom meat. Each of Nameless’s breath, tainted by the powerful stench of vinegar and dirt would contaminate his—

“Nameless…”

The young man tried to shuffle back as he felt his sister’s posture shift. Titania sat up and leaned forward, she pushed her arms out and ahead. As a result, pushing the curve of her breasts into prominence under her tunic, and pushed the end of her foot’s underside perilously close to a dangerous triangle formed by Nameless’s thighs. The young man gulped for more reason than one. The first reason, he found his attempt to reposition himself thwarted by the arm of the couch.

“…What have you been doing these past days?”

The other reason was the conversation, that he dreaded, had just begun.

“You know…making gradual progress. The same as the past couple weeks.”

Nameless mustered up a response. His hands moved away from his older sister’s sole.

“What exactly?”

Titania was searching. Poking and prodding her younger brother to see if he had taken the initiative that his other siblings were. Frigg trailblazing through her research in Enchantment magic and making a name for herself in the field. Houseki and Nahla both pursuing a passing grade in their respective examinations in their desired profession’s licensing exam. All three building up a resume for whatever position in life they wanted. Ranging from becoming an adventurer like their parents, when they were younger, or a respectable seated position in the kingdom’s government like Titania was right now.

“I’ve been reading and going through practical problems related to fields that branch out from cleric work.”

Nameless hoped that he didn’t stumble in his speech. Even after all these years, the brother still found Titania’s ability to effectively comport herself as an imposing figure as intimidating as that first time, she pushed him down and accidentally knocked him out. The older sister having underestimated her strength when they were 10 and 5 years old respectively. Even after the swelling cycle of hormones that puberty ushered, the difference in physical effort between the two remained, even increased, due to the training and exercise that the diligent took in improving her athleticism and combat ability.

“And what else?”

Furthermore, it didn’t help that it wasn’t just inverse-wave haired woman’s words that were poking and prodding Nameless’s psyche. 

“Uhm…”

There was a mental and physical assault on the younger brother, by his older sister’s unconsciously nearing foot. Those fanning toes and plump soles, and the well-manicured and unpainted toenails, which served as five effective crowns on the creamy assemblage of sinuous muscle, tendons, fascia, and bones, exemplified the utilitarian style that Titania came to embody in her daily life.

There was no time for wasted effort. Such trivialities only deserved to be crushed under a grinding heel.

“Nameless. Please tell me there is an else. What you’re telling me is no different than what last year. Sure, you had a failure in the past, but how long are you going to be in this dug-up rut?”

Nameless could feel his throat swell up. The young man knew that he had no excuse, but how was he supposed to say that he didn’t know. That he feared making another mistake. That the fire that once lit his spirits and supposed passion seemed to have fizzled out a long time ago. So scattered were those embers that he doubted the flames that created them ever existed. But verbalizing that would very much be an excuse to Nameless. And if it was truly the case in the perception of his family members, then the young man was certain that he would sink down once more. That couldn’t happen now. Especially when he had just got back to making that slow crawl upwards.

I just need time…time without the stress of everyone’s judgement. But I can’t just ask that…

...

...

Titania didn’t possess the knowledge to read minds. Nameless was happy for that. The privacy of his thoughts was a comfort to him. Even if the mere bobbing of his head, which he hoped was interpreted by the knight as a nod and not a reactive jerk to her confrontational words, might have inspired more frustration within the older sister who was just trying to help.

“Okay. Look. I can’t always help you or give you options of how to go forward.”

Nameless’s eyes widened as he saw his older sister’s thighs bulge. By this point, the anxious man was under the suspicion that his oblivious sister was so focused on the conversation, that she was about to accidentally shove her bare foot over his lap and onto his abdomen. His mind prepared for that sinful merging of heat. Of an unforgiving pressure massaging his sensitive nerves through his shirt after the disastrous collision.

Something that he could only fantasize about his past year, being done to him by other women. After he’s been cooped up focusing on his failing studies.

“And Mom is right. It doesn’t help that you’re spending every day either in these dark hallways or behind your closed door. It’s messing with your brain.”

He had misjudged. As the wrinkles of Titania’s trouser shifted and she swung her legs down to the floor. The knight kicked her legs out and pulled the grounded boots closer to her now sitting posture.

“So please, not for our sake, but for your own. Take mom’s advice and head out. Get out and do something else. Something relaxing even. To balance out all the stress you’ve been pelting yourself with.”

Titania lifted her feet, picked up the socks that hung over the rim of her boots, tugged them past her wriggling digits and past her foot, before shoving each foot through the throat of her respective boots. If the young man wasn’t so rattled by stress, then he might have imagined another woman doing that. And that woman shoving her foot down his throat instead of the inner walls of the stuffy footwear.

Instead, Nameless felt a reassuring pressure on his shoulder. His older sister was gently patting him.

“We just don’t want you to burn out and ruin your life. Okay.”

The young man looked at his older sister and saw her facial features soften for the first time today. Then she stood up from the couch and patted the back of her tunic.

“Got it Nameless. I must go see my regiment, but when I’m back I expect to see you gone.”

Nameless sighed deeply and watched as his sister began to walk away.

“Yea. Titania. I’ll do that. I’ll head out in an hour or two after I get things sorted in my room.”

Finally, the tension wheezed out of the room. Titania stopped at the entrance of the living room. The athletic half-elf then turned and gave a slight smile at her brother.

“Wonderful, and who knows, maybe when we see each other next time I won’t be calling you Nameless anymore.”

Titania punctuated with a teasing winked and then left the living room. Her steps thudded in the distance until the brother could no longer hear them. Then he stood up and made his way back to his room. 

For what might have been the final time for today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nameless exhaled as he looked at his room up and down. The papers, ajar desk, food stains, and clothes lying on the floor had been cleaned up. It took a couple hours, but he was certain that if anyone came into the room, even their servant Gloriana, then they would be convinced that he left the house. 

Fresh air. Maybe that would be good for someone else, but I’ve already wasted too much time. I just need to recenter myself without anyone disturbing me.

One would think that it would be as simple as asking his family to do so…but that was not the case. 

Both Titania and Morgan would agree at first. But they would progressively become more overbearing and intrude into the young man’s space more frequently. It would only get worse the more that they notice perceived deficiencies in his daily schedule, and then they would start offering advice and recommendations. Offers that will soon turn into demands and recommendations that will soon turn into orders. Especially with Titania involved.

Meanwhile, his twin sister Frigg would most likely be dismissive of him whenever the two crossed paths…but…the brother was confident she would leave him alone. Probably because she had more important things to do than bullying her failure of a brother. Regardless, those happenstance encounters will still do quite a lot of damage to his fragile and still recovering ego.

Nahla. Nameless loved that cat girl, but she could be too clingy for her own good. He was sure that a couple hours of his day would be devoted to her antics or trying to avoid the young woman brimming with vitality.

Houseki. Actually, she would probably be the only one to abide by his request.

Ahh…wait…I should probably check to see if I didn’t accidentally move that while cleaning up my room.

If Nameless was without sin, then maybe he would have been less burdened by his inability to reach the same status as his twin sister. Or move forward in life like the other members of his family. However, there was a small, physical reminder of one of the young man’s insecurities that lay tucked behind a stack of books in his bookshelf.

“Ah…there it is.”

He said as he pulled out the dusty beginner’s tome and saw the brown loafers. One of slight contour, shape, and form that it would never have fit just right on Nameless’s own foot. 

As it was not his.

It was Morgan’s loafer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Puberty was a tough time for the young lad. Growing pains and discovering a new lubricious side of yourself. It was especially tough without any parental figures around to guide someone through their developing sexuality. Unfortunately for Nameless, his father had already passed away a long time ago, and the kingdom was going through a drought at the time. So, his mother was barely present at home as the kingdom needed her abilities and knowledge. Even when the ageless elf was able to return home, those days she would usually be knocked out under the covers of her bed.

Yup. 

Back then Titania and Frigg were the de facto parents of the household. A compliant Houseki and eager Nahla were more than happy to follow their house rules. While Nameless tried to grapple with his newfound sexual desires.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the present, the young man held the loafer in his gaze. He didn’t know why, and still couldn’t fathom what possessed him, maybe his father was the same, but the strongest of erections sprouted from his crotch one summer morning. As he looked at the ripe loafer that his mother had kicked off in the living room before she went off to her bedroom. Back then. There they laid. Forgotten. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shoes were something stinky when Nameless was a child. Then tools to be used to protect your feet and convey your status when Nameless began his rudimentary years in general education. But footwear  became something else to the growing teenager. Whose budding arousal saw the objects as a conduit for dark fantasies that crawled around like parasites in his head. Consuming each waking minute that the young Nameless had. As he more frequently imagined himself as a shrunken person. 

Those loafers were just objects lying in the living room in Nameless’s eyes. They didn’t even register to him as his mother’s possessions. Rather the young man imagined that they belonged to the feet of some of the other woman or girl that he crossed by in the academy’s hallways. He stuck his nose, took a deep whiff, and imagined himself as a tiny. 

...

The open entrance would loom above, and the trepidatious adventurer’s first steps would lead to an accidental trip and then a roll into the abyssal guts of the cavernous loafer. Its insides mired by rivulets of cloudy sweat and billowing steam. Byproducts of a predatory foot that had temporarily vacated. But it would return, and underneath those warping wrinkles was a little adventurer snack. To be bent and conformed along the waves of gluttonous wrinkles.

...

Young Nameless’s post-ejaculation regret came after his sudden eruption. That white ooze arced up and splashed against the exterior of the loafers. Soaking thoroughly through them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ugh…I can’t believe that I still haven’t found the time or opportunity to get rid of them.

It had been over a decade. Either a lapse of memory, a cluttered day, or the watchful eye of the Tam Lin Family’s servant, and one of their mother’s oldest creations, Gloriana had gotten in the way of Nameless disposing of the footwear. It was fortunate that back when the young man first had a wet dream, he had realized that the golem scanned his laundry, fabrics, gifts, and trash regularly. For any possible possessions that might have been placed as a means to harm any of Morgan’s family member. A bit of an invasion of privacy, but an understandable one…considering how Nameless’s father had met his end...

...

...

Would my sexual essence still be soaked in these loafers after so long?

The young man ducked his head into the bookshelf. Then he gave an inquisitive sniff of the aged footwear. Not out of any fetishistic drive, but out of aggravation of still having this embarrassing piece of evidence from his childhood past. The musk was mostly aired out, but what had remained was left to age into a tender drink that roasted Nameless’s nostrils with its unique aroma. It was almost too gentle of a smell then what he recalled from when he was experiencing puberty.

I don’t even know if Gloriana would be able to tell if this is mom’s shoes and connect it with—

“Hey brother! What are you looking for in there?”

Ahhh!!

Nameless yelped as he quickly turned around and pushed his back against his bookshelf. The young man’s eyes bulged, and his ears rung from the scratchy voice of his younger sister. For Nahla, had snuck up on her brother and inappropriately yelled out her question and unconventional greeting. The cat girl was not alone. 

While Nameless rubbed one hand against his violated ear, protecting his bruised ear drum from Nahla’s ensuing shrill laughter, he saw Houseki at the edge of his door. The dark-haired oni’s gamine figure hugged against the frame of the entrance; one arm stretched out above her head. A delighted half-grin was plastered on her face. 

Well, Nameless was happy that his younger sisters were enjoying themselves…even if it was at the expense of his hearing.

“Come on Nahla. Don’t bother brother like that. I’m sure that you’re old enough to know that it’s not proper to be too obtuse. What would your party members think when you join your first adventurer’s group?”

The older brother’s hands fumbled behind his back. As he tried to insert the loafers back to the secure and hidden space. Fortunately, his suspicious actions didn’t seem to merit the oni and cat girl’s notice. Or it did, but there were plenty of more benign things that Nameless would have reason to hide, that the pair of sisters had no reason to investigate further.

“Hmm~ well mom always said that I should go shoe shopping with her?”

Nahla pouted and began to rock on her tanned feet. Nameless could have sworn that she was kicking up a miniature storm of dust around those meaty appendages, but it would have been rude to continue staring.

“That too. Honestly, I’m kind of curious how they’ll react to your fashion sense.”

Houseki casually remarked about Nahla current attire. Since Nameless last saw her the dark-skinned sister had changed out of her nightgown and into a dress…that she personally customized. A dress that had been clipped and trimmed into a two-part outfit. A loose shirt that hugged her torso and the bottom end of a dress that was more akin to a medium-sized skirt. The flowing frills ending around her knees.

I…I don’t think I can feel the loafers anymore. They must be back in place.

“Hah! They’ll be envious of my functional conventionalism! That is if they aren’t too busy being wowed by the best Paladin in Kingdom— Ah! Hey! Nameless! Why are you pulling me!”

The brother relaxed once he was certain that his dirty little secret was hidden away. He then walked away from the bookcase and roped an arm around his shorter sister. With a little force on Nameless’s part, the pair of siblings walked back to his room’s entrance.

“Yea! Yea! Mom and the rest of us are proud to know that at least one of us is going to be an adventurer. But how about you try to meet the middle ground with your brother and wear some stirrups. I hear that there are some disgusting parasites that try to burrow themselves into the soles of strong adventurers.”

Nameless smirked and scratched the top of Nahla’s scalp and the back of her ears.

“Hey! Watch it! Or it’ll be your face glued to the bottom of my foot.”

Nahla punched the Nameless’s side. The older brother recoiled and gave a playful choke of fabricated pain. 

“Mmh~ Yea Nahla. I agree with brother. Wearing stirrups will do you some good. Making and wearing my own tabi socks has done wonders for my performance as a scout apprentice. The proper footwear can make you steps lighter, stronger, and give you that extra oomph.”

This time the young man was sure that a dense cloud had puffed up from the stale pair of sewn socks. The oni craned her neck down and looked down at the impact that her foot made on the floor. The adopted sibling’s pale face flushed as she realized that her socks could go through the wash.

Why does my room always end up with so much dust?

Not that Nameless was complaining. He was actually quite fond of dust. As it gave him a focus for his fantasies. A minuscule object that he could envision himself as. Like now. If the brother were small. Small enough to not even be noticed by the tallest and shortest member of the family as they talked. 

Houseki and Nahla having arrived at Nameless’s room. To bid him farewell after Titania told them that he was heading out on a journey before she left for work. But then they see that no one was in the cleaned room and assumed their brother had already hit the road. So, they decide to talk a little before heading back to their own devices. Both were unaware that their dear brother had now found himself at half an inch in size. And he was stuck between their gigantic figures that stretched up into the sky. Their faces would be so far in the heavens that they might as well be deities worshipped by some civilizations. And Nameless would be but a minuscule subject beneath their notice. A tiny forced to weather the torrential displacement of atmosphere caused by the most subtle of their movements. Nahla’s cracking brown toes would boom in the little brother’s eardrums like a crashing forest, and Houseki’s pumping socked foot would bring about a tremendous tremor. It would only be a matter of moments before the air became dense with the sister’s godly aroma. Such that each gagging inhalation would be saturated the sweat that evaporated from those warm and living buildings of intricate muscle they called feet. Houseki and Nahla’s conversation would be as loud as a booming storm. The casual conversation’s meaning would be supplanted by the apocalyptic events that it signaled to the shrunken brother. Which oppressive sole would inch a bit too close to him? Which wriggling set of toes would displace a current that would make him lose his footing? Which looming planar of wrinkled skin would cast a shadow over him? The bottom of a tanned cat girl’s foot that was coated in dirt, grass, and whatever else was merged within those hot recesses by a world of pressure? The bottom of a pale oni’s black tabi sock, which was soaked in dried sweat and had probably fermented into a dominating foot funk that just seeped through the sewn? 

Some questions were better left unanswered. So Nameless returned from his inner thoughts and back into reality.

“Yea. I’ll try and get you some footwear when I get back Nahla.”

Nameless patted the cat girl’s exposed tan shoulder. 

“So, you really are leaving. Do you want either of us to come?”

Nahla cocked her head. Then she tried and failed to suppress a devious smile. As the siblings knew that the youngest of them had plenty of stuff that she had to do at home before her licensing exam with the Adventurer’s Guild in a few months.

“Nah! But I’ll let you all know ahead of time when I’ll be coming back with a letter.”

Nameless said as he reached out and picked up a filled bag that was placed on his dresser. He then motioned for them to walk out of his room with him.

“Well, if you ever need anything, then let us know. Mom or Frigg could help, and I might be on a training mission in the area. And if you are in any danger just rip an emergency scroll open and contact us.”

Houseki said as she stood next to her brother. With such a small distance between the two of them, it was readily apparent to the older brother just how much taller his adopted sister was. Not counting the tips of her horns…it was nearly a head’s length. It really made Houseki seem that much more reliable.

“Yea. I’ll do just that.”

Nameless nodded. The trio of siblings talked for a few more minutes before the sisters slowly made their way back to their rooms. The cautious brother walked towards the house’s exit for a few minutes. Nameless’s eyes darted to his periphery several times. To make sure that Houseki and Nahla hadn’t decided to follow him as he made way out of his home and on the first leg of his journey. 

Once he was certain that he wasn’t under anyone’s watchful gaze, the brother turned and began to swiftly rush back to the insides of their home. In case the golem Gloriana was making her rounds and deviated from her normal routine, Nameless made sure to look both ways before a turn. Why was he doing this instead of leaving the mansion to go on a trip outside like Titania and his mom wanted?

That was because for the first time in months the overbearing figures were both out of the house. It was also due to Frigg, Houseki, and Nahla being occupied with their own activities and were unlikely to bother him. Especially since most, if not all, were under the impression that he was out on the road. And Nameless had finally outlined Gloriana’s entire schedule of duties and route that she routinely traversed through the mansion for the day.

Nameless didn’t plan to follow Morgan or Titania’s advice. 

True. They both cared for him, but they have been wrong in the past. There was a better way for the young man to get out of his rut, than just fresh air and world experiences, deep within the mansion. Especially since his mother and sister’s advice carried its own risks. 

No.

Unbeknownst to his mother, the son had found out what was in the basement. Nameless had found out what was in the corridor that she sealed off from the rest of the family. 

In the smallest room, that the golem servant Gloriana was far and away from during the 13th hour of the 6th day of the week, was a lamp. Not a lamp that shined light. Rather a container of sorts. The priceless artifact that his mother acquired during the expedition that she picked up Houseki.

And within that container…was a genie. A genie that could grant wishes.

Nameless reached the only stairs in the house that led to the basement and began to descend the steps. 

While on the other side of the mansion. The young man was completely unaware that the loafers that he thought he snuck back into impromptu compartment of his bookshelf, had fallen to the side of the bookcase.

In plain view.

A Road to the Capital of Longinquus Kingdom

Any moment now.

Morgan Tam Lin waited for the private quarters of her carriage to be invaded by the blubbering oaf.

Thump!

Thump!

Thump!

Like clockwork.

The elf rolled her eyes. Deigning not to open the door for a guest that was most unwelcome. Yet the door still rattled. Morgan’s lack of response was invitation enough for the aged old man. A foreign diplomat who traveled to many places but seen so little.

Click!

“Oh, my word. Court Mage Morgan. You are as beautiful as ever. Goddess knows that I endeavor to strive for such physical health, but my skin just desires to be likened to the tallow of a cow.”

The old child’s lips flapped and warped in an uproarious and unnecessary laughter. One that was obviously supposed to instill levity into the air, but only intensified the discomfort that the mage felt.

It’s too early in the morning for this.

“What is it, Yashima? Would your sudden intrusion have to do with your dilapidated vehicle?”

If the scathing nature of Morgan’s remark registered in the old diplomat Yashima’s mind, he didn’t show it. His fat face was broadened by a wide grin and the rolls that served as his neck wobbled as his head bobbed.

“Ah! What a keen eye Court Mage Morgan. Nothing escapes you. Now, I do believe that it should be a simple matter of you fix my mode of transportation, but would that benefit both of us?”

An unnecessary pause interspersed Yashima’s drivel. One that was caused by a drag of his bloated tongue along lips that were much too variegated in their hue.

It would most definitely benefit the workers that operate your carriage, but that probably was neglected by your smooth brain.

“Now, I can see that I caught your attention. As evidenced by my misfortune, there are plenty of things that could go awry. My driver said that the carriage had veered off course due to issues with the packaging of my trunk. Hah! Would you believe that! I knew that he had a blockish look about him, but I may have been too presumptuous in not concluding that his form was not in any way related to his cognitive functioning. Now, I don’t have any compunction about racial differences, but physical appearance is ingrained in his blood, so it would be logical to conclude that the brain is influenced as well…”

Morgan tuned out Yashima’s following tangents, that were rife with barely veiled discriminatory beliefs. The white-haired elf may have tried to correct the insular-minded diplomat of his erroneous assertions, such as how there was a barrier between the brain and blood to protect the former from the latter’s contents. However, she knew better than to pull up a lost cause by its bootstraps. It would most likely just holler and make excuses before retuning back to the self-made pit it so comfortably strolls in. Like a tunneling worm that finds comfort in a small patch of moist soil, but never deviates from the home that it buried itself in and the pleasure it seeks.

What I would give for a downpour to tug Yashima out of my life, and for him to be crushed under some apocalyptic weight.

“Yes…yes…so you mean to travel with me. Your information in exchange for me guaranteeing safe transport.”

Morgan interrupted the diplomat. She had stopped listening by this point, but she already knew what he desired. Greedy man with beady eyes, like an insect’s ocular structures, were so transparent.

“Why yes! How astute of you, Court Mage Morgan. Maybe next time I should just skip the explanation and join your seat after my introduction.”

Please…please don’t.

Morgan shuddered at such a reality. The elf was so discomposed at the notion that she mentally scoured her schedule. To verify that she wouldn’t be expected at the capital after this sudden call for some time. At least to her knowledge.

“Alright then. An equal exchange. Pray tell, what knowledge do you have to offer.”

Morgan wasn’t going to play any games with Yashima. She got straight to the point. In hopes that whatever the fat decrepit child, with a physical appearance matching his soul, had to share, was something that she could easily turn down as inconsequential.

Then she could fix his carriage faster than most citizens could count to ten with their fingers, and they could be on their separate ways to the same location.

“Oh my! Morgan! I thought that you of all people would be privy.”

Yashima brought his hairy, bulky palm against his chest. His lips stretched vertically, and a disgusting wheeze squished out of his tobacco-degraded lungs.

Just cut with the theatrics. If there was even a shred of truth to those words, then you wouldn’t be wasting either of our times.

“Why…this emergency meeting. The reason it’s been called is because of your dear colleague. Court Mage Jafar has had a terrible accident.” 

Morgan shoulders stiffened and she perked up from her seat. The name that came out of the diplomat’s lips was not a random one. It was the name of a dear friend to the Tam Lin family. Someone who was practically an uncle to her children

“Jafar? What happened to him?”

“Well…information is hard to come by…”

The blob twitched his eyelids. Then the elf shuffled to the opposite end of the carriage. To make room and then some. Her aggravation gradually increased, as the squeaks of the carriage’s steps sounded, and the detestable individual made himself at home.

“Now…where was I…”

The fabricated anxiety on the fat man’s countenance withered away. Like a little child suffocated by a pillow. The necessity of conveyed empathy lessened now that he secured a means of safe and comfortable travels at the expense of others. Not the first time, and probably not the last.

“Jafar.”

Morgan single word was spoken with a gentle strength. The court mage having fully donned the intangible social mask. To veil her true thoughts and emotions from this weasel of an opportunist.

“Mmh…yes Jafar. I’ve heard that he created a new spell and used himself as a test subject. What was it…a spell to change one’s height or stature?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Tam Lin Estate’s Basement

Down the basement. Make a right, make another right, then turn to the left. In the Tam Lin Estate’s basement, there one would find an empty space leading to a room on the left wall. A room that the mother, and head of the household, Morgan, had warned her children against entering.

Except it was a red herring.

In the past two months, Nameless polished his sensory translocation and amplification magic. Through much pain and effort, the son was able to see the silver replica of his mother and their golem maid, Gloriana, press a hand against the fourth tile down from the ceiling and the sixth tile to the right of the sealed room. Then the wall should soundlessly shake and shudder. Brick and mortar rewinding through what must have been a reversible spell cast by the Longinquus Kingdom’s Court Mage Morgan Tam Lin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why did Nameless put so much effort into this reconnaissance? 

Firstly, it was because of Nameless’s personal aspirations. A fall and a desire to stand up once more. 

With the recent rise of research into enchantment magic, its increasing versatility, and the industrialization of charms and relics, many stable fields had become less desirable as professions.

Of course, that included professions that were based around support type magic professions. Such as Clerics. A century ago, the strongest relic could provide a healing effect that would instantaneously heal a bruise or scratch and slightly mitigate incoming damage, but that was the most it could do. It was paltry compared to the ability and value of a Cleric. Especially in Adventurer groups. However, in the past ten years, the potency of magics that can be inserted into objects, by Enchanters like Frigg, had risen. To the point that merely wearing enchanted jewelry or clothes could completely replace a spell cast by a fifteen-year trained Cleric. All at the small cost of a little bit of the user’s mana.

It was a travesty for the support-type profession, made even worse for the poor students and professionals that already put in the years of now wasted practice. As Clerics were now replaced by trinkets that could be sold on the market for at most just a tenth of the price of their services. And, unfortunately, once a mage had chosen a specialization, their mana circuits become attuned to those systems for the rest of their lives. There was no destruction and replication of those magical lines like the biological building blocks of an organism. 

No. 

Mana circuits bore more of a resemblance to the nerves of a human body. Except the plasticity they possessed, a flexibility in adopting several magic systems, severely diminishes after a certain age. Typically, around ten years of age for normal humans, thirty for elves, and somewhere in between for individuals with recent ancestral lines linking to both…like Nameless.

Thus, it was incredibly frustrating for the young man. Nameless was now making his way through the path in the basement. A path that he delineated by spying on Gloriana in the past months. His motivation and energy in a slow spiral, due to the supposed hands of the clock nearing an unknown date that would finalize the magic path he would be on. Yet, despite his efforts, the green-haired man had yet ripped himself of the bondage that tied him to being a Cleric. Thus, there was always this oscillating swell of fear and anxiety in the sole male of the Tam Lin family. What if the unknown deadline for half elves already passed for Nameless?

As for the second reason that he was traveling to this hidden room. That was tied to the first.

This rapid development in enchantment and enchanted objects, colloquially called charms, was due to a groundbreaking finding in the field by Longinquus Kingdom’s neighboring democratic country Oesis.

The discovery was like one that a kid would read in a fantasy book. An archaeological survey had unearthed a settlement of an ancient civilization that lay underneath a barren patch of desert. The expedition team had found an old city within under the layers of stratum. A naturally formed this antrum of the planet. Yet, mysteriously enough, not even dust could be found on the buildings there. Buildings that towered to heights that were said to match or exceeded even the castles of Longinquus Kingdom. Furthermore, and this was equally as unbelievable, many of these buildings’ architecture was proclaimed to be seamlessly formed. The excavators could not find line or imperfection that would indicate a brick or tile. Some of them were entirely made of glass-like material with iron interspersed. The country of Oesis had practically found a whole other world beneath their own country. 

However, the first expedition, that initially clued the economically booming country to this scholastic wonderland, was none other than the one that Nameless’s mother had went on. One that she was tipped off about by their family friend, Jafar. It was just supposed to be an ordinary trip to familiar catacombs, but a hidden puzzle was deciphered on texts that were returned in an earlier expedition. 

Information that revealed a secret path…that led to a wish-granting existence or device.

In the present day, that object or being was in the family’s basement. How did the son come to know this? Some underhanded plot from an outsider? A final letter from his deceased father?

No.

It was much more benign and uneventful.

Months ago, on a particular night that followed another tiring day of studying, practice, and poor performance, the young man had once again hit a figurative wall. He failed again to branch out into a new field. Thus, Nameless decided that it might have been a good time to test faith, and his mother’s mood, and see if she would be amenable to comforting her son…instead of trying to motivate him to study the night and the following night away.

Sometimes a twenty plus year old adult is just a grown-up kid, and just like anyone else…they needed a hug.

That night, Nameless was not alone in feeling this way. Houseki was too, but for an entirely different reason. It was the eighteenth anniversary of her biological parent’s death. An entire childhood had passed, and time may have numbed the pain, but the figurative scar still festered. So, the usually reserved adopted daughter had a long talk with Morgan. To relax and be emotional…and the son had just happened to be at the door at that time.

The first reaction the young man had was to be courteous and leave when he realized that his oni sister was having a personal conversation. He had pulled his hand away from the door and was about to leave, but then a pang of anxiety caused his heart to tighten…and his palms to sweat.

What if they are talking about me?

Thus, curiosity won out. Instead of walking away, the brother stuck his ear close to the door and listened. Nameless was about to leave again when he confirmed that the topic wasn’t about him…but then he became intrigued by the odd things Morgan and Houseki said.

That couldn’t be possible…could it…something that could grant three wishes!

Thus, that night passed. Then days passed. The diligent student began spending more time researching about this arcane topic in lieu of his normal studies. A week passed and a plan was hatched. Afterwards, weeks passed, and the groundwork was laid out. He had to wait…when everyone else was occupied. Sure, Nameless could have asked his mother if he could use the lamp…but he had a sneaking suspicion that she wouldn’t. As she had been so fiercely against any of the siblings going down to that part of the basement. 

Finally…it came to today. The day when Nameless entered the basement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ow! Huh…I guess that even if Houseki is privy to the lamp’s location…she’ll have a hard time sneaking up on me in here.”

That was one less concern that Nameless had to be worried about. As he was hunched over under the ceiling that was too low for his 6’0”. Houseki’s towering 6’8” stature would be hard pressed to squeeze through this path soundlessly. Even for the lithe foot oni.

Although, that wasn’t to say that Nameless’s temples didn’t throb from more proximal stressors. Such as the possibility that his mother had laid out the entire narrow pathway with concealed spell circles. Traps. 

Thus, what should have been a quick two-minute walk, ended up being an entire fifteen minutes of time wasted. The Tam Lin family’s son prudently angled and touched the sole of his shoe on the tile that he believed Gloriana stepped. When she patrolled this route, a detail that the young man tried to fastidiously memorize, while using sensory translocation daily for nearly a couple weeks.

A beginner level magic skill that Nameless learned from Houseki. The latter being able to activate the advance form even when she was mobile.

I have to hurry…I might need to walk out of here too…before the hour is up.

Nameless gulped at the thought of succeeding and getting his wish granted, turning around, walking back up the path, and being spotted by that golem maid. The spitting image of his mother. A replica whose elegant face would be much less fierce than the visage that Nameless’s mom would be wearing if she found out what he did. 

If only I could use a wish to just get out of here unnoticed…

The young man recalled his research into genies, as he stepped in front of the final red door. A door that was rimmed in a gleaming metal that he has seen many times before with extended sensory magic. However, now that the half-elf was facing it in person, he was certain that the coruscating alloy was of an origin unknown to him. Most likely the same material that housed the buildings that the lamp was found in. 

It stimulated Nameless’s collected memory on the arcane topic of lamp-dwelling creatures and brought them to the forefront of his mind.

Genies are otherworldly entities that live in lamps. Gods or Demons, their identity matters not. What matters is that the lamp must be rubbed thrice. Then the genie will be freed and a wish for each rub would be granted during its tenure. Most desires are within its reach…just not the intersection between transcendental and mortal roads.

Nameless hovered his open palm over the door. Goosebumps crawled up the young man’s arm. The fine hairs of half-elf’s body stood in attention to a surging field.

That line of text…it probably means that you can’t wish for the dead to come back.

That was the only wish that Nameless thought that Houseki and their mother, the two members of the family that were on the expedition of this lamp, would want. To bring back loved ones from the past.

Houseki’s parents, they embodied strength and independence, but were also blessed with parental instincts to bring their daughter along with them…to see the world. Nahla’s father, who was a bit of a troublemaker, but was able to soothe Morgan’s heart during her darkest hour…and rose to the occasion during the most perilous portion of their journey. Titania and the twin’s father, the strongest knight of Longinquus’s recent history…who was taken too soon…and too violently…

…

…

At least that is what Nameless was able to recall for the first three people that could have been wished back. From the stories that their mother told them, to keep the memories of Houseki and Nahla’s parents alive in their growing children.

There…there is a trace of magical energy here.

Nameless reactively jerked his hand back. As he just realized that the entire door was cloaked by some intangible film. Nearly imperceptible, and, if the half-elf were a random thief, then he would have never noticed it. The only reason that the Tam Lin household’s son recognized the energy signature, was because he has been in the presence of his mother while she casted spells for so long.

This door emanated something ominous, but it was tainted by the gentle feel…almost inviting…of his mother’s presence.

It…the form of this spell’s formula…it must be an alarm set to trigger the moment someone accidentally trips it.

Nameless took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The young man tried to focus his mind and block out the world around him. To visualize a ring in front of his trembling hands. Within the darkness of his sensorium formed a sliver, then a crescent, and finally an annular sleeve. 

Key Magic

Slowly shining within his mind. The Cleric gulped and felt his hands tremble. It may have been a small visualization, but just gazing at it, the son could tell the power within the simple spell his mother left behind.

Morgan wasn’t called one of the Longinquus Kingdom’s best three mages for no reason.

The only reason that someone as below average as Nameless had a chance, was that his own magic bore a similar thumbprint to his mother’s essence. It was an inheritance that he would have to rely on, and hope would prevail as he chanted a spell and felt his body began to blaze and cramp.

Grrh!

Nameless clenched his teeth, and lifted his hand towards and through the small, imagined hole in his mind’s eye. The young man felt his body pricked by the natural electricity of the magical field, and firm resistance against his palm, as he found the one spot, like a keyhole, that he could safely press the door without triggering the alarm.

Creakk!!

Nameless perceived the glowing ring pulse with a red light, within the darkness of his mind. A pulsation that was followed by second, and then another, and so on. As he fed his hand and felt the door move inwards…opening the room that he had yet to see. For Gloriana had never opened the door during her routine. The golem maid only ever performing a visual inspection, before the leaving the hidden hallway.

It’s pulsing too fast…drat, it must be timed.

Nameless gulped, as he felt and heard the door squeal to a stop. The half-elf had to be quick, and ignored the pain, if he didn’t want his efforts to be wasted and the alarm to trigger anyway because of his languidness.

Shit!!

Nameless was forced to open his eyes. It felt like his entire body was being squeezed through a tight hole, one that was serrated with many fine needles that punctured and trailed along his skin. Of course, in reality, he had just walked through the small opening of the door. A mere two steps and the son had passed through his mother’s invisible barrier.

His eyes now opened to the cramp room, with a single stone pedestal, topped with a red pillow, and a golden lamp sitting on the plush surface.

…

Nameless moved a hand behind his back, and applied pressure to the lower aspect, as he stared at the object with wincing eyes. 

The cold air of the hallway was replaced by a gentle warmth of this small space, an insulated temperature that must have been maintained by the outer barrier, which had now fully resealed. 

I have to be careful with how I move.

A droplet of sweat beaded on the half-elf’s face as he felt his mother’s barrier behind him. The alarm was still active, and his body took up nearly the entirety of the room’s space. In terms of width and length, the stone box of a space was much less forgiving than the hallway. Although, and thankfully, the ceiling was much higher than that of the hallway. The young man was able to straighten his hunched back. If Nameless tilted his head up, then he would have seen that a person twice his height could fit in this room. A bit odd considering that the entrance into here had a much lower ceiling.

Maybe this was a leftover dungeon from the previous owner. A stretched-up ceiling and walls that closed in on a prisoner…would be terrifying for them.

Nameless didn’t have the time to dwell on this possibility, nor drift off into a fetish-driven tangent of relating this tightly closed room with a skyward ceiling to the insides of Titania’s boots. By now, the young man definitely had less than half an hour before Gloriana made a loop back from the farthest point of this mansion from the basement’s entrance…and went down the staircase for her routine visual inspection. In fact, the dutiful golem maid was probably on her way right now.

Without a thought, Nameless picked up the lamp, his mind halting as he realized that he forgot to consider if there was a physical or magical trap in place. Although, several seconds of silence, where he waited with bated breath and an expression that was waxing towards mortified, confirmed that was not the case. Nameless was so thankful for his luck, that he gave a laugh and once again forgot to consider one other detail as he rubbed the gleaming object thrice.

If he summoned the genie now, then how would they fit in this cramped room?

ZZPP

A flash of light.

MMPPH!!

And then a sudden weight pressed on Nameless’s shoulders, and a brown and plush wall, emanating a slight warmth and beguiling fragrance, pressed against his face.

“Huh!!”

An almost lyrical intonation, if it weren’t for it sounding like it was put through a filter of static, echoed between the tight walls. Not just the walls that formed the bricks of the room, but the plump brown meat that pushed up against the sides of Nameless’s human-like ears and face.

That was how the genie popped into existence, within the tight room. Her thighs on the summoner’s shoulders, legs descending his back and crossed over the lower curve, and a bare caramel-skinned belly pressed firmly against his face. As the pair tried to stabilize their new position. 

The genie, who was most definitely of feminine form, pressed her hands down on Nameless’s scalp. As she was equally surprised to find herself in this awkward position.

“Woah! Woah! Mistress Morgan, what are you doing summoning me in this odd way…?”

Because of the pressure on the top of his head, the young man’s face was shoved into and over the near planar surface of flesh, that sat between her voluminous thighs. A dangerous triangle, that concentrated the blissful blast of erotic fragrance. An aroma that diffused through the half-elf’s flaring nostrils. A musty odor, seasoned by a confluence of bitter and relaxing aether, that swam up and down to his lungs and brain in rapid sequence. 

What…what is this…

Nameless could feel his eyelids began to droop into a half-lid.

…heavenly aroma…

Without even a thought for common courtesy, Nameless took a deep whiff and felt his heart and mind figuratively clutched by the divine presence that addled his mind. His eyes hadn’t even trailed past the rectangle formed by the genie’s thighs and hips, filled with wobbling weight and the bottom roll of her doughy stomach. Yet, he couldn’t help but want to prostrate himself to the unknown existence at this very moment. The gentle warmth of her body was much more consuming than a wildfire. It almost felt like the small transference of heat, from the slightly differing temperatures of their bodies, was enough to just melt the half-elf’s mind into unthinking goo.

“Huh…Mistress Morgan…did you cut your hair, get taller, and a bit more rugged…oh wait…who are you?”

The world shrunk and narrowed into a small canvas of flesh for the 6’0” half-elf. He could feel himself drifting off…memories, relationships, and even dreams slowly bubbled away. This happened in tandem with the mystifying orchestra that played on the other side of that brown stratum of genie flesh. A rumble of borborygmi that was comparable to the grumbling of an ordinary person’s stomach but was simultaneously so different. It almost felt like the flexing tapestry of sinuous tissue was sucking the stunned summoner’s face right in. This powerful effect on the young man’s senses compelled his mind to entertain what it would feel like to merge with such untarnished plush. Divine flesh that would wrap and squeeze around him with each oscillating movement of her gait and diaphragm. Does this divine woman even walk, or is she too good for the ground and merely floats above the sullied plane by simple effect of natural rejection? At the very least, buried within that flesh, a diminishing sentience would slowly be made dumb and then nonexistent with each abdominal squeeze.

Oh heavens, she smells like that first day I played near the ocean, and her skin…so soft…I can just close my eyes…and…

“Huh! Hey! Hello! Can you hear me!? Oh hun, you’re a weak-minded one, aren’t you?”

The genie’s words danced like faeries, sprinkling sugar-frosted dust into Nameless’s ears. Pleasantly tickling those pinnae and leaving a residual humidity. Like someone had just spoke right into the half-elf’s ear canal with sultry “little-nothings” that would keep him up for all night. 

“Oh my! Hun! It seems that you’re at a complete loss for words. So smitten by someone that you’ve partially seen, why if I asked you to rip your arm off now…”

The soft tut, seemingly benign, punctuating the end of her sentence exploded in the increasingly delirious half-elf’s mind with an unparalleled erotic intensity.

“This simply won’t do. One second, let me just change something in your head quick. It will be like a little prick in your head.”

It was then that Nameless became aware of a pulsing heat began to rouse within his loins. A gushing of sanguine urged by a traitorous heart that screamed inside the young man’s chest. How could he? How could he embody such disgusting and disdainful lust towards such a beautiful being?

What! What am I doing? How dare my sexual organ try and defile my eating with this angelic existence. I…I…must abscond and relinquish its attachment to my body postha—

Nameless’s thoughts froze as he felt a surge of…energy…not magical energy…suffuse through his scalp, and then his mind.

“There we go. That should fix your brain and make it so that my presence doesn’t cause you harm.”

“Now then just follow what I say. Just one, two, three…breathe in and out.”

The jovial melody echoed in Nameless’s ears. He repeated what she said, then inhaled and exhaled. The rosy and the blurringly bright world of rolling bronze shifted back into clarity. Mad ramblings were supplanted by a slow and gradual confusion within the young man’s mind.

Wait…what was I doing?

Nameless attempted to speak. Although, his vocalizations were trapped as hot puffs of oral air that blasted against the pink fabric that covered the triangle that sat between the genie’s thighs.

“Hey! Stop that Nameless. It tickles.”

This time the half-elf was not completely spellbound by the bouncing tummy, and he tilted his head upwards. The brown skin of the lean abdomen continued, and atop it was twin swells of brown flesh. Fat breasts that swayed with the soft-green haired woman’s laughter, and would have been bare, if it were not for the two polygon-shaped sections of pink fabric. They barely sufficed as a bra, much less a top. The pink garb bore a golden border and were shaped like rectangles that stretched over the tanned woman’s jostling breasts, covering where the nipples would have resided. The bottom side of that rectangle, stretched downward into a triangle, such that the clothing looked like a noble family banner that would hang from a wall. A dangling golden and diamond-shaped trinket hung from the end of that paltry price of clothing. Those perky sacks of flesh were unblemished save for a singular black dot on the inner side of the right breast. Through the tanned woman’s uncovered cleavage, the young man was finally able to see the sharp and angled jawline. The tan woman’s chin reminded Nameless of the bone structure of some distant elf relatives he met in the past. In fact, two long brown ears sat on the sides of her head and below the soft green hair that was done up in a flowing ponytail. This mysterious woman’s face was both soft and sharp. Her purple eyes inviting and piercing. The brutish curvature that swelled her cheeks finally lessened as she got over her fit of muffled laughter. Those full lips rested and shifted into a comforting smile

“Hey there hun! Glad to finally see your face and the top of your head. I’m called a D.J.I.N.N. by the way. Not genie. It stands for D-type Juvenescent Information Networking Nucleus, but that is a mouthful. So just refer to me as a djinn.”

The gen— the djinn’s voice, tinged by static, still rattled through the half-elf’s ears pleasantly. Just not to the point that he would want to be absorbed into her flesh or kill himself. Like someone that a person would be fine with listening to them ramble on about their lousy day during lunch.

“I don’t know what kind of books you read, but they definitely messed up my name. So, I thought that I should clear that up. Glad to meet you, Nameless.”

The young man blinked as he processed what the tan woman said. Her unique parlance was ignored in favor of a matter that was more directly related to him.

Did…did you read my mind?

Nameless thought. As it was still difficult for him to talk with his chin now resting on the bottom of the djinn’s lower abdomen. And he didn’t have the freedom to reorient himself within the small space. With the alarm barrier still active, as a film in the open space of the exit behind him.

“Sure did hun. Oh, but no need to worry about me spilling any of your little secrets. I operate on an agreement of confidentiality with my masters and mistresses during and after my term of service with them.”

There was a soothing lilt to the djinn’s voice. Nameless couldn’t help but find the tension in his muscles relax. Not to the point of helplessness, but to the point that he was still aware of his worries in a way that didn’t perturb him. The sore muscles in his body, from the impulse of carrying the weight of a woman on his shoulders, felt like they were being soothed…kneaded even…by the tone of soft-green haired woman’s voice.

“And as the son of Mistress Morgan, you most assuredly fit the description of one of my masters.“

Great! So, you’re also reading my mind. Just like my mother…did you get it from her?

Nameless rolled his eyes and huffed. Inadvertently puffing another blast of air against djinn’s thinly cloaked crotch. The soft-green haired woman’s eyes twitched before she addressed the young man.

“Goodness no! Her and I have completely different powers. Also, hun! I told you to stop with the huffing and puffing. It’s rude to be huffing and puffing at a lady’s body, much less directly at her skin. Oh grief, but I suppose that we are hard-pressed right now. As much as I would like to talk to you…eye to eye…it seems like our current situation won’t avail us to such a scenario.”

D.J.I.N.N. gestured to the empty space, the invisible barrier that doubled as an alarm. Her legs, wrapped around Nameless’s back, kicked slightly forward. A very truncated arc. That ended with the djinn jerking back her foot to softly plop against the small of the half-elf’s back.

“I barely have any room to kick forward…my mischievous master who wants to use his mother’s last wish without her spoken approval.”

The tan woman raised an eyebrow. The half-elf’s heart began to race.

Last wish. You mean…

D.J.I.N.N. nodded. Confirming that the tan woman was still using telepathy to listen to her master’s thoughts. As he tried to not respire the natural musk that cooked between her balmy quads.

“Yes dearie. I know that you have three wishes in mind. How you want to cure your ailment of limiting magic potential, escape the stressful social pressure of your family watching you, and ensure a future where you can physically support your loved ones.”

D.J.I.N.N. paused. The tanned woman’s eyes darted back and forth, before peeking down her cleavage at Nameless’s reddened face. Then a gently sheepish smile crested on her face.

“Unfortunately, Mistress Morgan has already used two of the three wishes in my current service. After the last wish is granted, that’s the end of my charitable power for the next ten years.”

Ten years! 

“Hmm~ Exactly, my business hours are a bit wonky like that, but what am I to do.”

But…but I don’t have that long. I’ll be over thirty years by then…my magic path will be set in stone by that point.

Nameless felt the djinn’s fingers lightly ruffle his scalp. Her palm circled the back of his head in a bid of reassurance.

Hmm~

“Yes, but there is no need to hyperventilate. I think that I have a solution in mind that would solve both wishes in one. How do you put it…two…three birds one stone? Of course, I don’t think that you’ll necessarily need my reality-bending proficiency for these endeavors.”

Nameless noticed that his breathing had gotten a little erratic. The cause was less because of the weight of the woman, and more the fact that his mind was being directly peered into. It always unsettled him. As there were things that he wanted to keep private…

…

…

Yea…well I’m not sure if you know this, but families can be a little complicated…and I can’t really do much about biology.

Djinn coltishly rolled her eyes at that last thought.

“Right. You organics and your limitations. Ah, apologies if that name offends you. Last I checked it wasn’t an offensive phrase, but you never know. Doesn’t help that I’ve been in this dusty abode for who knows how long. Anyway, this reminds me of the past world before everything went to hell, and nearly everyone kicked the can. Well, hun, I guess that I should be glad that you aren’t asking me to help you with your childhood mistake with your father—“

YOU!! YOU LOOKED THAT FAR INTO MY MEMORIES!!

Nameless’s body buckled and his mind raced. Anger, fear, and confusion. 

The young man didn’t notice that his stumbling gait pierced the invisible membrane of the barrier. 

The room began soundlessly flashing red. The alarm was set off.

The activated alarm was not on the forefront of the half-elf’s mind. Rather, it was the dreadful thought, that if the djinn was able to look that far back with just a cursory look, then who was to say that Morgan didn’t already know. That she didn’t already know that her son…

…

…

“Ow…ow…jeez hun, did anyone ever tell you not to think too fast. Terribly sorry that I touched a nerve, being cooped up in my lamp did me no favors in social interactions. But rest assured that my ability to pry into memories far eclipses that of Mistress Morgan’s skill. Everything information-based is my specialty.”

D.J.I.N.N. lightly smacked a hand against Nameless’s face, arousing him to the situation that was going on. That the alarm was going off. Then the tan woman unwrapped her legs and pushed herself off the taller man. The unique entity displayed a contortionist level of flexibility, as she disembarked from her seated position and landed on the floor outside of her room. The invisible barrier flared a sharp red light and released a buzzing noise as the djinn seamlessly moved through it. The soft green-haired woman uncaring of triggering an alarm that was already activated.

“Ah~ It feels good to stretch out my legs and use these dogs on fresh ground. Let me tell you bedding, and covers is nice on the soles, but sometimes information-based beings just want to feel a little abrasion against our exterior layers. You know dearie? The struggle of little bumps distorting underneath the bottom of my foot before the wrinkles just swallow them up…Oh! Pardon me hun for being such a chatterbox during this most inopportune time.”

Key Magic!

The djinn paused her soliloquy once she saw the distressed look on Nameless’s face once he turned around himself. The half-elf tried to emulate what the tanned woman just did but felt the force of the barrier rebound against him.

“What! It’s completely solid. I…I can’t find that hole from earlier.”

It…the spell must have gotten stronger now that it’s set off. But I don’t hear anything, does that mean that it’s…

“It’s remotely communicating with your golem servant that it went off.”

The djinn crossed her arms as she looked at the flustered young man. His eyes already wide at the thought that the tan woman verbally finished.

“Can you please stop reading my mind and get me out of here!”

“Now hun, assertiveness is desirable, but there is such a thing as being too needy.”

The djinn rapped the fingers on her right hand, into the crook made by the bend of her opposing elbow. Then the tanned woman wobbled her head. As if the situation wasn’t that serious, and she was merely chiding a child on his manner of conduct.

“As for your earlier thought, which I think would be in your interest, yes. Gloriana must have been alerted. As I can sense her rushing down the basement. Hmm~ those golems, their thoughts sure do spill out like an interesting cloud. Almost like a clogged-up bottle of curdled milk. Now that I think about it, I think that it is about time that I wet my throat. How long has it been since my last drink? Half a century.“

Now Nameless’s eyes bulged out of his head.

“You, you have to help me out of here. I can’t be found by Gloriana. I’ve already caused my family so much grief with my inability, I don’t want them to be burdened with this.”

D.J.I.N.N. tilted her head.

“Is that your wish?”

“My wish? You can’t just get me out.”

Nameless asked incredulously.

“Oh hun. I would love to. Aside from the poor decor, your mother has been a lovely mistress. Much better than that sly woman before her. Unfortunately, my great power comes with a cost of limited utility and autonomy. You may not see it, but I’m literally chained against my will in helping you. As breaking you out of that insulating membrane, at your current stature, would require a higher-order technique.”

Nameless pressed his hands against his temples in aggravation.

“That…that is so stupid. You mean that you can’t just…who decided this!?”

The tanned woman tapped the edge of her chin, and then shook her head and exhaled.

“This is a limitation, that us djinns are quite dissatisfied as well. However, getting into eons of history would take too long…and your golem servant just passed the last corridor. She’ll likely be here in two minutes flat.”

“Oh…oh shit…”

Nameless’s shoulders slumped in defeat. As he realized the situation, he was in. Lying to his family and sneaking into the basement’s secret entrance. Going against his mother’s wishes and tampering with something that Morgan had kept tucked away. Then what would the young man tell when his family members started interrogating him. That he wasted so much time that could have been used to other means. 

Do I just wish to get out, but then there won’t be any wishes left…?

Meanwhile, in that short moment, the djinn’s eyes shined with pity. 

“Hey dearie it’s not that bad. Are you sure that you can’t just have an open and honest conversation with your family? Sure, they’ll be a little mad, but aren’t you fond of getting dominated? Like all those dirty fantasies that you have about being just a bug around their feet?”

The soft green-haired haired woman bit her lip, as she observed the effect that her words had on her master. Instead of calming him down, had the opposite effect.

“That…that is completely different! And I don’t want to be stepped by them! Why would I want that? They’re my family.”

D.J.I.N.N. cocked her head in increased confusion. 

“Then why do you have those thoughts about them. Are you sure that you aren’t lying? Even after I dispelled my body’s alluring effects on your mind, you still have thoughts about looking at my toes. See?”

She innocently lifted her foot the toe ring attached to her third toe gleamed. The flexing oblong, shaded by the dim light in a way that accentuated the wrinkles of her feet, would have usually enchanted the half-elf during less alarming circumstances. Furthermore, under the current duress, Nameless couldn’t help but think that the djinn’s current actions might have been insincere.

“That…you just don’t understand…”

D.J.I.N.N. noticed the shift in her master’s mood. After dropping her foot and tried to reach a hand towards the young man, but she stopped short. The tan woman had lived enough millennia in civilized organic society to know when their fleshy mask faltered.

“I. No. I’ll just ruin everything again.”

There was a pain to the half-elf’s voice. One brimming from the reservoir that found its source in a past tragedy.

“Oh hun…”

The djinn could feel the mechanical thoughts of the golem nearing. The servant was just outside the closed secret passage. The soft-green haired woman then placed her hands on her hips, dipped her head down. She collected herself for a moment in quiet contemplation, before flipping her hair back wildly to face her mistress’s son. The bright expression on her face was a bit forced. As if the unique entity might regret what she was about to do.

“Look, I’m usually required to debrief my masters and get your informed consent before granting a wish of my own intellectual production. But time isn’t allowing for it. The wish that I mentioned earlier, well with the changed situation it will be four birds, one stone.”

Nameless blinked and pieced together what the djinn meant.

“You mean that the wish you mentioned that would be able to grant my three wishes, would also be able to get me out of this situation?”

D.J.I.N.N. briskly nodded.

“Yea, but you must decide now. Your servant is going to be here in less than a couple minutes, and I’m afraid that erasing her memories of this incident is one bird too many for just one stone.”

Nameless halted before the words bubbled out of his mouth. Apprehension gripped his heart as he was juggling between three choices. 

Waste the wish to escape with a simple wish of his concoction. Wasting the time and effort he spent on this scheme.

Let himself get captured, face the music, and then either continue the same daily tedium or try again. Except  the latter would have significantly worse odds. With his mom now being privy to his rebellious intentions.

Or have the djinn grant the single wish that would solve his present problem, and the three wishes that he wanted simultaneously. The only drawback was that the young man had no idea how the soft green-haired entity would accomplish this. Solving the issue of his limitations of choices in magical paths, getting him out of the pressures of a socially intrusive family, supporting his loved ones, and getting out of this current mess without anyone knowing.

Before the rule breaker could ruminate on it further, his eyes darted past the unique entity. His eardrums pulsed as distinct vibrations lightly pelted them from a distant, but encroaching source. Firm and rhythmic footsteps of his mother’s doppelgänger.  

Nameless made his decision.

“Okay! Okay! I give you my consent. Grant that wish that you are thinking of! Hurry!”

The half-elf pressed his hands against the impermeable membrane. The tensile strength of the flaring surface refused to be impressed by the force of the young man’s palms.

“Wonderful.”

D.J.I.N.N. nodded.

“Okay. Stand still, close your eyes, don’t make any sudden movements, and don’t try and extend your senses magically. Otherwise, the world is going to spin like you’re on the back of a wyvern, and you’re going to be vomiting for the next couple hours.

Nameless resisted the urge to ask any questions and simply obeyed. The seconds in darkness were painstakingly long. Especially since the young man had spent so much of his waking time these past weeks with his eyes closed and viewing the world with extended sight.

“Uhh…D.J.I.N.N. did you already do it?”

The half-elf’s distress skyrocketed once the thumping echoes of the distant maid’s steps nearly increased ten times in volume.

Is she already here!

Nameless opened his eyes. The world blurred, as his ocular structures tried to readjust to the dimly lit room. There was no nascent light source that caused the momentary partial blindness. Nor was there a visual sign of the silver replica of his mom in a maid suit. Instead, the half-elf felt a frigid chill crawl up his spine and staggered back at what he saw.

For his world had vastly changed. 

The tile that Nameless stood on, that was no larger than the size of half-elf’s foot, now stretched out like the family training field that they were at this morning. He stared the once small dust. That now freely drifted through the open air as dense collection of fluffy transparent clouds, and his nostrils reflexively flared at the stronger scent of mildew that had escaped his sense of smell earlier. 

Then the world shook, and Nameless jaw dropped. Even the air now had a taste to it, like a fermenting brew that made the young man want to clamp his mouth shut. But that was not enough incentive to overcome the overwhelming shock that pervaded his entire being. Existing on the other side of the red-tinted wall, was a massive monolith. Colored mostly brown, with interruptions of differently textured pink, and sloping in a manner that was naturally occurring. At least in comparison to other structures of similar size found in nature. The half-elf felt his neck ache as he instinctively tilted his neck up to try and meet the vision of the djinn that once sat on his shoulders.

Now…she was taller than the highest castle in the Longinquus kingdom. A mind-blowing sight, as the tan woman must have been only 5’6” when Nameless was normal sized.

She…she shrunk me…

Nameless stepped back and felt an uncomfortable sensation along his upper back. Sharp jabs pricked against the half-elf’s spine, as he moved his arms and continued to crane his neck. The unending brown  pasture laid completely vertical on the mountain of a woman. Reaching up to the well-shaded mounds of her scantily covered breasts. A gentle curving slope stretched past the ridge of the djinn’s collarbone, but that was when the sharp features of the giantess’s face began to blur.

His baseline vision was unable to fully process the face of the mountain, but he could discern her gentle features that shifted into a facsimile of a gleeful expression. 

This…this is just like my fantasies…but more…”

Nameless didn’t have the chance to finish his thought. The world shook again. The djinn, he realized had taken another step forward. His field of vision was robbed of the kind face that looked down at him. Instead, the young man had to rely on his ears to derive more information of what those full lips were being used for. 

“Great. It looks like the transformation worked. Nameless, pardon my actions, but we simply do not have time.”

The djinn’s words had taken on a deeper quality. A second filter that ended thunder to the energized lightning that tinted the inflection of her voice.

“You’re the perfect size to pass through the barrier, but it’ll take you too much time to cross it before the golem servant gets here, and I should probably leave for my 10-year vacation before she gets here as well.”

No further words were spared. Nameless looked straight ahead. His face paled at what he saw. The massive mass of pliable brown, pierced through the red tinted barrier.

But…why…why did I have to be shrunken…

The half-elf’s heart was tightened into a vice, his throat swelled, his lungs ached from each breath, his body felt so warm, the ends of his limbs endlessly tingled, and the mass within his lower garments throbbed.

Confusion beset the flabbergasted cleric. Unsure of how to respond to the situation, he did nothing. As the portly ends of the djinn’s fanning toes reached him.

“Oh Goddess…I’m even smaller than her littlest toe.”

Nameless absorbed as many details that he could in the swift second that followed. 

There must have been a divine force to the caramel-skinned woman, as there was not even a stain of dirt of irregularity to the underside of her foot. The imposing mass tilted upwards, its splaying toes oscillated, as if measuring the distance that it should approach the shrunken individual. The shaded light of the dungeon painted the textures of the whorled patterns on the djinn’s toes. They cracked further open, and the same intoxicating scent billowed forth over Nameless’s sensitive orifices.

Gaping mouth, tender tympanic membranes, tender nostril cavities. The young man’s senses were all washed by the divine miasma that nearly broke his mind when his face was first pressed into the djinn’s stomach. 

Now, the half-elf knew the reason why these unique entities were recorded so sparsely. They truly were otherworldly and divine existences. It was a truth that his melting mind drank down with gusto. 

The bulbous shape of her second and third largest toe spread around his torso, before clamping down over him.  The invagination that formed the depression of djinn’s toe gap was so expansive, that the half-elf could have fully sunk into the flesh and been hidden within the space. Instead, the floor of the toe gap pressed against Nameless’s torso and pulled him up along with it.

To the young man’s spellbound mind, it felt like he was being cuddled by the softest pillows in the world. The result of the djinn’s mind-polluting miasma. A byproduct of the gentle being. A towering entity, who seemed to not have realized that the aroma’s strong controlling effects, unique to her existence, had once again imposed its mental corruption over her master. 

Either that or she didn’t have the time to care.

Regardless, the reality was that Nameless was not encircled by pillows. The rubbery surface of the firm digits placed enough pressure on the shrunken half-elf, that when the djinn lifted him up, his ribs screamed from being squeezed. The pulsing neurons sent the agonizing information to the intoxicated brain. An organ that presently was unable to recognize the small blunt force that was compressing the width of Nameless’s torso a smidge thinner. The young man’s captivated mind could not even conjure magical wards to strengthen his body’s resilience. Thus, he was completely prey to the giantess’s whims. 

A simple scrunch of her divine toes, and he would be reduced to an oily smear along. The only question was if the grease and red stains would stay on the djinn’s toes, trickling down to reside in the endless concentric circles, or would his remains be rejected from the unique existence like everything else in the world. Erased from the bulb-ended digits. All traces of his life and death gone, for no one to find. Only those crossing eternal toes, the machinations of his hypothetical doom, being the evidence of his existence.

Neither reality had come to pass as the tiny half-elf’s feet left the enormous floor. His weight tugged down by gravity, but it inspired the mind-molten slave to lurch his head downward. Into the fleshy divot that formed the toe’s interstice. An aggravated moan would have barreled out of the pervert’s mind if he still had his senses. At the disappointment that he got to live out his wretched fantasies, yet there was a lack of foot funk to inspire lovely revulsion. Instead, the mind-controlled Nameless suspired the electrified atmosphere that hung over the giantess’s skin, and he obsequiously lavished the gridded ridges of her toe’s interstice with a deep plunge of his tongue. The aerosolized fetor, that roasted the young man’s eyes, ears, and mouth, sent his mind spiraling. Nameless ignored the strain on his hanging body and thrust his lower body up in repeated arcs. Just for the chance that his hips and engorged cock would collide with the provocative hallux that lay underneath his sight. Along with a landscape of unending wrinkles that decorated the djinn’s plush sole.

Please…just let me sink in…

Wordless praise reverberated in the half-elf’s empty mind. Nameless didn’t even notice that a second passed. So too did he pass through the once solid membrane that still flashed red. Nor did he notice the flowing current of wind blowing back on his face and facilitating the streaming of the djinn’s natural aroma into his tainted lungs and brain. During the following second that the divine giantess took a step back with her other foot and dragged the tiny away from the opened door of her home for the past decade and several years.

What Nameless did notice occurred during the following seconds. When the was the strain on his stretching arms increased. Limbs that hugged the inner surface of the djinn’s spreading second and third toes.

What…what…

The first cohesive thoughts in the nascent djinn slave’s mind rattled out in a confused and disjointed pace. But by that point the toes had spread too far for the half-elf’s minuscule body to hold on too. Spread like an eagle, the last mindless thrust of Nameless’s hips was his undoing. The downward arc of his body, and the reducing friction between his minuscule palms and the firm ridges on the sides the tan giantess’s caramel toes, led his body to ultimately fall away, and down to the floor.

Thud

“No! No! No! Please! I’ve done so much that I’ve regret. So much that I’ve regret not doing. Please don’t leave me goddess. Please don’t leave me D.J.I.N.N.”

Nameless was far and away from the djinn’s uniquely hypnotizing skin, but the rubber’s salt and flowing aroma of mental poison still held a hold over his smoothened brain. He stood back up and ignored the dull cramp from his fall.

“I’ll try my best. I just want to serve you. Nothing else matters in this existence.”

His small words barely pieced the atmosphere, while the giantess above spoke. The young man instinctively fell to his knees, unhearing of what the divine entity had to say, but felt endlessly blessed to even be deigned the thunderous booms of her electrically charged voice. Then he bowed, his head slammed down to the floor, and groveled and cried.

“Ahh~ Goddess…Goddess…ahh…wha…what am I doing?”

The booms of the djinn’s voice ceased and with it the cloying atmosphere diminished.

“What…what was I doing again?”

Nameless looked up and jolts of hot lightning through his body. 

“Ah…shit! Why does it feel like I was put through a hold by Titania? Where is D.J.I.N.N?”

Nameless’s looked up and saw that the towering djinn had disappeared. The empty space that she once inhabited now filled with a spiraling wind. 

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

Instead, an advancing pair of new footsteps came to replace the vacant space.

Wait…she mentioned a vacation. Did she teleport away?

The young man had no evidence, but that had to be the answer. As the djinn was nowhere to be found.

Why couldn’t she have waited until she got me somewhere safer!?

CREAKK!!

That concern was about to become secondary. Nameless recognized that scratching noise. It was much louder and grating to his senses, but he forced himself to turn around. At the world-sized red door that was rushing back towards the frame. To close shut.

Oh crud!!

Nameless picked himself back up and began to run. But it was too late. The door slammed shut. 

A torrential gust of wind blasted out as a wave.

Nameless’s world exploded, and he flew into the sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

D.J.I.N.N waited for Nameless to close his eyes and shut off his senses. Then with a simple snap of her fingers, a flow of energy shifted within her and surged toward the young man. The dispersing cloud of information shifted into a form that would functionally alter the young man’s own mass. Right before the tan woman’s eyes, the 6’0” man shrunk down from his full height to about than half an inch.

There we go! You should be able to pass through the barrier easily now and evade your family’s social prodding.

The djinn smiled to herself before speaking down to the tiny master. Well, former master now. As she had completed her last wish.

“Great. It looks like the transformation worked. Nameless, pardon my actions, but we simply do not have time.”

I wonder if he’s noticed the other changes that I made to his shrunken body. To complete his other two desires. Eh~ he’ll figure it out.

D.J.I.N.N. glanced behind herself and knew that she had less than a minute by this point.

“You’re the perfect size to pass through the barrier, but it’ll take you too much time to cross it before the golem servant gets here, and I should probably leave for my 10-year vacation before she gets here as well.”

Then the tan woman poked her foot through the barrier, cautiously spread her toes, and picked up the tiny existence. Sure, she could have just as quickly kneeled and picked Nameless up with her hands. However, she did say that she desired to palpate some new textures with the bottom of her feet.

Oh! Yea that’s the stuff. Gotta love being an information-based existence. I can’t imagine being an organic-based existence and not being able to feel his cute quarter-inch form wriggling at this size.

The soft-green haired woman took a step back. A gentle smile rested on her face as she clenched her toes together. Despite the great size difference, the unique existence was able to sense the small half-elf’s mouth opening in active worship. Just like the fantasies that he had so many times in the past.

Mmh~ So now you aren’t that shy to admit your affection of being treated like a little bug. I guess obedient boys like him can be a little shy.

The tan woman whimsically imagined the young man, now the pitiful gnat that he always dreamed to be, as a happier addition in the family. She didn’t fully understand why he found happiness in this position, but she wasn’t one to judge.

I guess he must have been lying about not enjoying the thought of being squashed under sisterly toes or mashed under motherly foot.

D.J.I.N.N. quietly chuckled to herself while furthering her misconceptions. Not that it would matter much to the half-elf. As she was soon to be out of his life. Then she opened her toes and moved her foot away before looking down at the half-elf.

Odd…he’s kneeling. Maybe it’s just a sign of thanks.

“Okay hun, I’m going to head out now. I don’t want to be caught by the golem servant, as I’m pretty sure she’s instructed to stop me from leaving, and I’m not about to explain to an automaton that my contract is up. You should be able to hitch a ride on her.”

D.J.I.N.N. quickly whispered down to the young man. The tan woman knew that she just had seconds before golem servant would be able to see her.

“Anyway, I’m going to have some fun for my ten years off. Who knows, if I find the time then I’ll come stop by to see how your family is doing in a few years dearie.”

D.J.I.N.N. waved at the dot on the ground before she mentally strummed a string in her mind. Then just like that she vanished. The sudden absence of mass in the space created a residual vacuum that sucked in the surrounding air. Pulling wind from the room. Thereby tugging the opened door closed. It shut, and the dot on the ground flew into the air.

A dot that was nearly unnoticeable now that it was airborne. Thus, it was not noticed by Gloriana, the golem servant that just arrived after the door shut. 

Her appearance was like Morgan’s own appearance. Except her skin and hair were a homogenous and gleaming silver. Even her eyes, which lacked pupils. Black lines, seams that formed the joints, trailed through her body where those shifting parts were necessary. The other small difference in her base appearance was the absence of small lines that radiated from Morgan’s own eyes. The only trace of age that could have been detected on the motherly elf and court mage. The absence of which, was due to the golem being constructed by a younger Morgan when she was younger and didn’t have those sparse facial wrinkles.

The silver woman was dressed in a black and white maid outfit made complete with frills, and a pair of loafers that were fitted to her feet. Gloriana blinked as she visually inspected the area. Her sensors yielding no signs of life in front of her. Thus, she evaluated that the triggered trap was a false alarm. Extraneous and low priority information that she tucked away for when she would receive her annual maintenance. The last one having just been completed a month ago.

Therefore, with nothing else to do under her protocol. Gloriana turned around and strolled out of the hidden hallway. She pressed on the tile to open and close the entrance and walked back up the stairs.

Gloriana then walked off, passing by the living room, to complete her next chore. The golem maid having only lost five minutes in her day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nameless fell in and out of consciousness. The half-elf’s rapid ascent and descent scrambled with his sense of balance and perception of the world. For those torturous seconds it all felt like a blur of gray. His fluttering eyes and unfocused gaze only barely registering the flashes of black and white that emerged over the unending gray world.

I’m going…to die…

Nameless thought during the most stationary moment of his trip in the sky. The zenith of the young man’s arc. Fear fueled the tiny half-elf’s mind and movements. The studies he memorized in the past month filled his head. 

Strengthening Magic to fortify the young man’s body, 

Light Vibrating Counter Magic to disperse the incoming force, 

and Entropy Conjuration Magic to slow his fall by changing the flow of wind.

Each barely familiar and rushed technique, tumbling through his spinning head, sapped the energy bolstered by his life-or-death impelled hormones. 

White. Black. Gray. 

It all rushed past him. Until he felt the impact crash on his side.

…

The young man’s mind pulsed with a hot white light. He was blinded and numb to the world. As it felt like his body was engulfed by sharp flames. Crackles of electrical activity conveyed rhythmic throbs that shook the half-elf’s body. 

However, all this torment that exploded in the young man’s awareness, meant that he was still alive. The purgatory of torture ebbed, and he was able to localize the gravest of injuries. Specifically, the agonizing pain that came with each breath.

My ribs…

Nameless tried to move his arms and legs and was thankful to find them reflexively halt from hot lightning traversing his limbs. Not from a complete inability to move them. The half-elf’s spinal cord was still intact. What was most alarming to the young man, was the taste of iron that filled his mouth, along with a sharp, noxious scent. The injured man nearly thought that he was experiencing a massive blood loss, until the white world began to regain definition. 

The gray expanse beyond his elevated platform came into view. Nameless’s eyes darted back and forth. At the black landscape. Sloped and curved like a small hill on a beach, and colorless speckles, like the colorful speckles that filled those sands, dotted the training field-sized landscape. Nameless was calmed to see that there was no outpouring of red from his body. Thus, he was able to confront problems that would have been distal to life threatening circumstances but were paramount to his survival and finding help

Where am I?

Nameless looked up and down. A black platform dotted with what must have been dust. Raised ridges encircled the elevation. 

Ugh…that smell…

The half-elf grimaced. The scenery might have been comparable to the black sand coasts at the northern edge of the Longinquus Kingdom, but the stench certainly wasn’t. The only comparison that the young man could make was the time that he visited an iron works after visiting Titania’s workplace. The fetor was sharp and unforgiving. Like fire and sulfur. Nameless tried to roll away from the smell, but in doing so he was finally able to see the large white sheets wrapped into each other. Fashioned into a bow. One that would regularly sit upon the formal footwear that the maid wore.

I’m on Gloriana’s loafer.

The young man realized that the large and uneven training field he was on, was none other than the surface of a single foot that was rooted on the ground.

How? Just how small must I be for this plane to even be so large. I’d have to be less than an inch.

A speculation grounded on experiments the young man made while indulging in creating fantasies based on his microphilia. Although, that realization was secondary, to the fact, that the only reason he was able to recover was because the maid’s foot was completely motionless.

Shit!

The Cleric ignored the pain of moving his arms and angled them so that his hands plunged into his chest. He cast a comprehensive scanning spell to pinpoint broken bones, muscles, and nerves. The young man was thankful to see that there was barely any damage. Just some splinters along the shafts of his ribcage. Then what caused the taste of blood in his mouth, if it wasn’t internal bleeding. A side-ways glance would confirm the answer. 

The stretch of smooth and hairless skin, lacking pores, and gleaming silver. A taste of iron in Nameless’s mouth may have been present, if the odor emanating from the golem’s exposed tegument was dense enough to leave a flavor on his palate. Enough that it overwhelmed the musty leather of the aged loafer.

At this small size, practically everyone’s body odor would leave a taste in mouth. I guess that I should be happy that I’m not drunk happy on the odors of other people’s bodies like I am with the djinn’s scent.

The half-elf plunged his hand into his chest again as he wordlessly chanted an incantation to mend the cracks in his bones. Each pulse of energy made each breath he took that much easier. Nameless repeated the same process for his limbs but found no evident cause of injury.

Must just be muscle strain and fear coursing through me. Come on!

The young man picked his body up. His footing unsteady, but he knew that he couldn’t just lie around.

He didn’t know why the djinn shrunk him. He didn’t know how he was going to get anyone’s attention. He did know that the maid would move soon, and he needed to get to that rim that formed the stuffed throat of the loafer.

Muscles burned and tendons cried as they squeezed. His body bead with sweat, and he could feel his lungs being roasted from the exertion. Just moments before he was a body’s length away from the rim of the footwear, the black loafer shifted.

The curved floor below him quaked, and the displaced air from Gloriana’s small movements pelted his weathered body.

But fortune smiled upon him. What Nameless felt was Gloriana turning in the hallway. It would have been disastrous if she took a step with the foot that the speck-sized half-elf was on. Instead, the maid lifted her other foot for that first step. Giving the stumbling young man ample time to give a final lunge towards the gap that the golem maid fitted her silver foot into.

Gotcha—

The thought was interrupted as the young man was taken on a journey. The formerly gently diffusing air, cut against his sensitive facets as him and the shoe moved a mile a minute. The flow of the atmosphere was sharp, and the swimming vision of the world was unforgiving. Nameless’s eyes and mouth slammed shut, and his nostrils at least squeeze themselves into a smaller hole. However, the young man could do little about his ears at this point. Those auditory structures were left unprotected against the howling wind. They quickly popped.

The towering maid continued walking. Without any awareness of the perk that she was subjecting her young master to. That he was engaged in probably the greatest physical struggle of his life. In trying to stay attached to her footwear, as she walked in a measured space through the murky hallway.

I…I…need to cast another spell…

A sensation of fullness emerged in Nameless’s ears. His hearing went, and he could feel an urge to vomit arise. The young man was thankful for the lack of breakfast this morning, but the violent gags his body would have to endure would be no help. Especially as the black training field that he clung on moved in a rowing arc. Like a house caught in a playful tornado that threw it around.

The tiny half-elf clung to the footwear with just his strength alone, his arm shoved through the gap between the loafer’s opening and the maid’s sicked foot. But that wouldn’t last long. Especially if the muscles and joints that were locked to keep him in place, were even more strained by the dry heaves brought on by the spinning world.

Balance Recalibration Magic.

Strength Amplification Magic.

Grrgh!!

Muscle-Bone-Connection Fortification Magic.

Three spells were cast in tandem. Simple formulas that flashed behind Nameless’s closed eyes. The bare minimum needed to alleviate the pain he was experiencing, and hopefully enough to keep him hanging on to the shoe. What it did made clear to the Cleric, was the one advantage he had from experiencing so much pain. 

It was a lack of time awareness. 

The more that he soothed his body and increased his physical abilities, the more acutely aware he became of the time that was passing.

Nameless flew in the air for seconds. Rested on Gloriana’s loafers for a minute. Then he made the mad dash for the rim of the loafer in the following half minute. Finally, he endured one minute without the additional spells boosting his body.

It was during this next minute, that Nameless came to a tacit understanding why a cooled boiling pot was more torturous than a hot boiling pot. There were more sensory faculties made available to process the horrific trauma of the situation.

For the next minute and a half, Nameless’s muscles were locked into a contracting cramp. However, his vital and accessory organs were less indolent. As the fibrous tissues, that kept them adhered and in place within the young man’s bodies, were unfortunately omitted in the cleric’s mind to cast spells on. Thus, each swinging of Gloriana’s foot felt like a million heated needles were being raked through his insides. 

The short time of Nameless’s dangerous ride, felt like a half-hour long sprint. The young man’s eyes watered, and snot trailed out of his tight nares. The latter forced his mouth to open and inhale the rushing air that bit sharply into his mouth and lungs. The spell cast to control his balance was made futile. As this forceful change led to a fit of violent coughs that burned up the necessary energy that Nameless’s muscles needed.

I…I…how much longer do I have to hold on?

The young man nearly gave up hope. As he felt he was about to lose his hold and fall to the gray tiled floor. Stuck at a size that could fit between a woman’s toes. In a basement that barely anyone goes to. A slow and isolating death or open confinement. Depending on how his body’s metabolism and functioning operated now. 

Just as Nameless’s body flopped up and down, impacting against the surface of the show, and he felt his arm slip from the gap, he recognized a change in light past his closed eyelids. The darkness of his closed vision had now lightened.

Light? Are…are we up from the basement.

Nameless wanted to open his eyes, but the spell to protect those ocular structures were not manifesting in his mind profusely. The magical energy that he tried to well up kept spilling out. As it was robbed and converted to the burning energy that his muscles were in dire need of.

I…I…just need to hold on a little bit—

Nameless was going to think that he needed to stay on until he knew where he was, so that he could safely disembark. He didn’t have the chance to think or make that choice.

The young man’s fingers gave out and he fell away from the shoe. Finally, Nameless opened his eyes and saw a plane of red, green, and yellow sail towards his body. He pulled his arms close to his head and chest and braced for impact.

Thud…

Nameless expected to be stopped by another sudden impact that would extirpate his sense of the world and throw him back into white purgatory. Instead, the young man felt a soft surface become incredibly firm, his body burned from the abrasive forces and friction, and then he bounced. 

It repeated again before the Cleric began rolling and tumbling. Finally, his body slowed to a stop. Eyes fluttering, mouth gasping, body caked in a cooling sheen of his own sweat, bones crying, barely any feeling in his right arm, and muscles exhausted to the point of being asleep in the nearly conscious young man. 

Balance…Recalibration Magic.

Worst of all. It felt like his head was being pricked by an ice pick in several locations. An unwanted guest in this party of painful messages that competed with the information sent by his stretched lungs. As the young man shifted between heaving nothing out of his empty stomach, but some clear fluid, and coughing from the brutal beatdown that his winded air sacs endured from a journey that made even the worst stormy ship run seem like a merry jaunt.

Is…is that the couch?

The room stopped spinning. His eyes focused on the brown border of the impromptu ceiling that hung overhead and to his side. It stretched above the brown surface was a stretch of a seemingly unending red wall. One that bulged out and was lined with fine hairs, the natural materials that went into construction of the couch. Nameless looked to his sides and saw the raised stalks that were just about his body length…standing. At least he assumed so.

It was because of this that he was able to confirm his current location. However, it was also because of this that he felt a firm and final thundering in the back of his cranium. His vision dimmed and he realized that he was losing consciousness.

No…I have to get somewhere safer. I can’t be this small down here…I must be…about a quarter of an inch.

Nameless recalled a brighter day in years past. Where the greatest worry he had was that no one would think he was being weird for being fixated with the fibers of the carpet. The reason being he in fact imagined himself in that red fuzzy forest. So, he just had to get the numbers down for his journal. 

0.25 inches or about 0.64 centimeters. That was how tall that dense collection fuzzy stalks in the living room carpet was. That was how tall Nameless was presently, as he fell unconscious within the dense jungle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A soft series of slaps reverberated in the distance. 

In this uneventful afternoon, one of the three sisters currently in the house strolled over to the living room. As she decided against secluding herself in the confines of in one spot. Especially with Titania, Morgan, and her brother Nameless out for the day.

Thus, not to waste this rare opportunity, she plodded over to the couch positioned over the carpet. With no regard for the dust that collected on the floor at all. Especially the carpet. Debris got caught in between the gentle fuzz of the living room furnishing so often, that the family members of the household had come to ignore the collection of it within that flat and downy surface. And instead enjoy the svelte texture under the pressure of their peds.

Of course, the question was, which of the three sisters was in the living room this noon? That would be an answer that one sleeping speck would find out…after becoming a little more animated.

Location: ???

“Hello sandy beaches of Longinquus Kingdom!”

The charged lyrical intonation of the djinn’s voice reverberated loudly within the space that she teleported to. D.J.I.N.N. then spread her arms to give a wide hug to the salty air. The wide grin on her caramel skin face slowly dropped as she sniffed the air. It didn’t smell of the fresh brine that she expected. It was more comparable to rosemary and roasted honey. A step up from the damp and musty air in the Tam Lin family’s dungeon-like basement, but this was not exactly what the otherworldly entity expected. Thus, she opened her eyes, which were kept closed while she teleported to the new location. A sealing of her senses that the soft green-haired woman undertook to slowly soak up all the luxurious information that the summer beach had to offer. Like the slow drawl of a good glass of aged wine.

However, instead of a black sandy coast, D.J.I.N.N. found herself in a decadent room furnished with upholstery, furniture, and rare gem-plated ornaments. It was a decadent space that neared the magnificence of the luxurious abode that was the djinn’s home within her lamp. 

In the unique entity’s opinion, this place had a mouthfeel more resemblant chardonnay instead of red wine.

“Oh my? This isn’t the lovely beach that would be graced by my presence during the first day of my ten-year vacation.”

D.J.I.N.N. pouted. She wanted fun and sun and not more of her chill and still. The latter being more likely while cooped up in some random room. Thus, the djinn  found herself perking up when the ornate white door to the room opened. At the prospect of nascent stimulation.

For, a guest being invited into a luxurious abode was something new for the otherworldly entity, and a welcome one at that. As she sometimes dreamed of inviting someone into her lamp as a guest of her home.

Oh…wait, what if I had put that darling Nameless on my body? Hanging from the diamond of my top, sealed within the encasing of my lower wear, or even wrapped around my toe like jewelry. Would my lamp sense that and try to kick him out, or would it have just considered him an article of clothing?

The tan woman paused to ponder if the half-elf she shrunk would have counted as a possession, before nodding at the regally dressed lady that just entered the room. A blonde human of similar height to the djinn.

“Oh! Well, hi hun. You are looking marvelous. I hope that you don’t mind my sudden intrusion. I was just on my way out, but wouldn’t you—“

Bright, warm, and the right touch of affection. This was the greeting that D.J.I.N.N. perfected during her years of seclusion. The demands of her job and the lack of social interaction and prolonged years of minimal activity, with a short burst of exerted effort on the djinn’s part, was positively maddening for her. Especially since those wishes usually amounted to three poorly thought out wishes by her master and mistress. The boredom of the unchanging days, blending, really bothered her. Thus, D.J.I.N.N. always tried to be as affable as possible with everyone she meets. It was an endeavor on the djinn’s part to be a good neighbor and friend to most, even if she were to only know them for a second.

Thus, it would be an understatement to say she was plussed and a little vexed, when the blonde lady, dressed in an excessively frills, decided to undercut that.

“VINE MAGIC!!”

The noble’s face was warped by fear and rage. As she interrupted the djinn and volleyed a huge bundle of magic-fueled shrubbery. Well…huge relative to the mana pool within the fearful woman. To D.J.I.N.N. it might as well have been a glass of water that she could chug down. Compared to the ocean of strength that she could draw upon.

Really. I tried to be genial. And this is what I get. People weren’t this rude a millennia ago.

D.J.I.N.N. shook her head in disappointment, before raising a hand at the several green trunks. A simple wave of her fingers and the brimming vegetation, sprouting with barbed leaves and deceptively fuzzy bristles, that twirled and twisted through the room on many paths towards the unique entity all ceased in movement.

“Wha—”

The noble began to sputter in shock. 

Only for her parted lips, limbs, and the rest of her body to freeze. Not even the internal framework of the noble lady’s eyes could elicit a saccade. Time had frozen for the owner of the room and her magic. Meanwhile, an unimpressed D.J.I.N.N. strolled over to the other side of the room. To stand next to the woman that decided to attack her without even a word.

“Now wasn’t that quite rude, honey.”

D.J.I.N.N. extended an arm and brought a hand to brush a stray bang from the one of the blonde woman’s wild eyes. 

“Oh honey, that is a fierce expression. I haven’t seen eyes like that since…”

The soft green-haired woman raised her other hand and quietly counted with her fingers. D.J.I.N.N. gave up when she realized that she wasn’t the best at time or dates, and it didn’t matter. At least not as much as the reason behind why the owner of this room so fiercely confronted D.J.I.N.N. Sure, the unique entity technically broke into the room, but for the unnamed lady of such refined attire…to take such aggressive actions by herself against an unknown threat.

Why didn’t she just call one of her guards? I can sense their thoughts just on the other side of the floor. It wouldn’t have been too much trouble to try and distract me and secretly call them over.

Of course, there was the possibility that the blonde was one of those dim-witted nobles that rode on the coattails of old money. Regardless, the djinn was cooped up for a bit too long for her taste, and she found herself a bit intrigued by this oddity of conduct.

“Now what has got you so scared honey~”

D.J.I.N.N. pressed her palm against the surface of the blonde noble’s head. The djinn was not that perturbed by the course of the events that preceded this moment. She was just having her fill of curiosity. Thus, there was a gentle smirk on her bright face.

After all, positive outcomes manifest if, you are positive. At least that is how the tan woman chose to live her life. Yet, the edges of the djinn’s lips twitched downward.

“Oh…Jafar…”

D.J.I.N.N. removed her hand from the frozen woman’s head.

“I guess it would make sense that you don’t trust your guards. After what happened to one of your colleagues. Especially someone with as many accomplishments as that man.”

D.J.I.N.N. sighed as she twirled on her feet. 

“I guess it’s best if I make myself scarce...How do I hide how powerful I am again?”

The tan woman wobbled her head in contemplation.

“No, someone could still figure out that I’m the odd one out even if I hide who I am, and that would make me more suspicious. Maybe I should just go somewhere else for the beginning of my vacation. Where people would be less inclined to be on edge with oddities like me?”

The soft green-haired woman tapped her foot against the floor as she ruminated.

Let’s see, I think that I’ve spent too much time in what they now call Oesis. I do kind of want to see what the new society on the surface is like now, but I’ll shelve that for later. There is that far-east country…I’ve heard that there is a large range of sapient species of varying heights and forms. But that sounds like the last bite of a dessert I should savor. I don’t think that I’m dressed for Morgan’s homeland, the Wilting Wilderness. After all, I believe that it’s chilly north of the Oesis. So, I guess that leaves the risen amphibious country on the other side of the Barren Sea or the Skyward Capital. As for the Forest of Eternity, which I think is to the west of Longinquus Kingdom…ugh why does that country always move…just sounds like a boring place to be. I might as well completely disregard the Abyssal Reach as well. I’m rather partial to my life, and...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Tam Lin Estate

Two sets of five flexed and fanned outward. They were a subject of hyper fixation for the owner. Her lanky physique, bundled with lean muscle, and 6’8” (7’0” if the horns were counted) height that did not prevent her eyes from scanning over the bare slabs of meat those sets of five were attached to. The tall woman’s pale skin easily shaded by the lighting within her room. Just enough that the dark depths of her wrinkles, stretching out from underneath the bottom of her long foot and towards their sides, were easily discernible.

Houseki frowned as she everted and then inverted her bare feet. Turning them back and forth on their sides will softly huffing to herself. Exposing glimpses of the muscular tapestry, that composed the wavy underside of her pale sole. The oni’s almond eyes narrowed even further, and she unconsciously ground her teeth. As she was incredibly self-conscious of the slight beads of brine that dotted the oversized oblongs. Feet that both carried her through covert missions but were also a liability.

I hate laundry days.

Light refracted from Houseki’s unpolished toenails, while she nervously curled her toes before fanning them out again. The 21-year-old was about to run the sides of her feet through the carpet of her room, to dry her soles of the few dots of sweat. However, she decided against it and chose to swipe a hand through the geometric cut of her dark hair. In hopes that it would appease the frustration that she felt from soaked and exposed peds. 

The reason for changing her mind. It was because the oni recalled just how abrasive that floor furnishing was against the bottom of her feet. Not that it was usually an issue. Since Houseki always garbed the bottom of her lower limbs with her black tabi socks. Even sometimes when she went to sleep. 

If Houseki just had to put up with her recon garb, formal attire, night wear, or even her casual clothes going through the cleansing process, initiated by their maid, Gloriana, then the oni would be fine. However, the budding intelligence operative’s point of contention lied with the overly large slabs of meat. That served as the foundation of 

each 

and every

plodding and heavy step, she took.

In reality, Houseki’s feet were perfectly proportioned to her body’s height. Unfortunately, in the Longinquus Kingdom, aside from the Queen Regnant, who was more of a towering Amazonness than the oni of the Tam Lin family, there were few individuals that reached Houseki’s height. Thus, there was barely any footwear that the pale woman could wear, and they couldn’t be shoddily made either. As the natural height that the athletic woman possessed conferred an abundance of weight to her figure, despite her lanky appearance. Especially, since her oni heritage had packed her attractively androgynous frame with intricately woven bundles of lean muscle. Furthermore, it didn’t help that she was from a distant foreign country, and that her physical appearance didn’t match the family that adopted her.

Of course, that was not to say that the oni girl was bullied while growing up. The Tam Lin family name, despite being a newer one in the Longinquus Kingdom, held weight within their court, the public sphere, and several other fields and area of interest. The diversity that her family embodied, and her mother’s strong leadership as the matriarch of the household, also embodied what the royal crown represented then and still to this day.

The Queen and the Queen Regnant. The former, Jeanne Arch, was a human mage of the highest caliber, whose only equals within the court were Houseki’s mother and Jafar Ahsan. Queen Arch’s family line having ruled the Longinquus kingdom with a strong fist through an isolationist rule. Such policies only strengthened when the woman was seemingly kidnapped by a monstrous beast. 

Of course, like with most political or royal matters. That past tragedy was hardly the truth. The princess, back then, was not kidnapped by a beast. It was a ploy manufactured by a close court confidant of her parents. The king and queen back then. So that the princess could be secretly assassinated by mercenaries, and for the court confidant’s colleague to ascend to the throne by means of usurpation. Fortunately, for this country and its royal family, it was that very falsely accused beast, that they tried to pin the crime on, that brought the princess safely back to home…and ushered in a shifting social climate of openness, tolerance, and acceptance. The beast would later be known as the current Queen Regnant of Longinquus, the blue-scaled dragoness Vritra Arch.

The rescue and romance, a hot and widely debated tale, is a story for another time. 

As it had little in relation to Houseki’s current quandary. The towering woman grew up in a household, environment, and country of tolerance and booming diversity. Thus, the oni’s vexation was not rooted in how people treated her, but because of her own insecurities. Of her own self-perceived differences in this land.

Through the years, Houseki had come to accept and come to terms with her height as a sign of strength and beauty. The oni’s impressive stature making her a top candidate as a potential intelligence operative in highly dangerous mission. Especially those with potentially overwhelming physical threats. The difficulty, in maintaining stealth, that would come from being this tall, was easily mitigated by Houseki’s diligent application to cultivating her magic system. As being an intelligence operative was always her dream. Furthermore, the oni’s 7’0” height was fitting for the androgynous beauty of her form. One that beguiled both men and women and did wonders for the introverted Amazoness’s self-esteem. Nowadays, Houseki even found delight in when she posed in front of a mirror. The unnecessary shame that the pale woman once felt looking at her body had all but washed away. That is…as long as her visual field did not descend too near to the floor.

At the pair of feet that stretched, lengthwise, to 12 and 1/2 inches. Houseki would find her face blaze crimson from the embarrassment of just lifting her feet. As it would reveal the swell of pink bordered ochre, color built up from pressured steps, that surrounded her pale instep. The broad bottom of her feet having to be burdened with the full weight of her 7’0” frame. Unlike her height, there was no strength that she could find in those brutal stomping instruments. They were her one weakness during stealth training that she had yet to find a way to compensate for. Aside from encapsulating them in self-made thick tabi socks to muffle her steps.

Thus, for the comfortably reserved woman, her feet were her one insecurity.

…

An insecurity that was exacerbated by the present issue. Houseki’s reliance on her tabi socks, compounded by poor planning, led to the oni neglecting to wash her footwear for too long. It wasn’t until the adopted sister stomped her tabi socks in her brother’s room, before he left on his advised journey, that she realized the abuse that her footwear had gone through. A trauma that ended up being shared by all Houseki’s socks. The fact was confirmed when she went back to her room after saying goodbye to Nameless. After she saw all the pairs of black tubes stuffed in the back of her dresser. All were made crusty from her sweat, and they collectively exuded a powerful scent that made her nose wince.

Thus, Houseki self-consciously made her way to Gloriana, and requested the golem maid to take care of her much-delayed laundry, while fighting down a discomforted expression. As the tall woman’s mind was already filled with irrational anxieties. Such as the silver-skinned maid using her unreadable visual sensors to peek at the adopted Tam Lin family member’s toes.

Afterwards, Houseki swiftly absconded and left the maid to complete the task. Her feet now without the conservative bindings that lovingly embracing the wrinkled interface. A shameful part of the oni that freely scrunched in the open air and was beaded with salty droplets of embarrassed sweat. 

Not from the stuffy heat of ripe tabi socks, like usual, but from the towering oni woman who just can’t bear exposing her gargantuan feet. 

Haaah…it should still be another hour. I just don’t get how Nahla can be so comfortable in just laying her feet bare like that.

Houseki glanced at her assigned reading material. The young woman had put it to the side, as she was beginning to find it difficult to retain the material. Usually, the industrious intellectual would have left her room for a change of scenery. The contraindication being the soft smacks of her steps, which would be an endless source of distress for the pale Amazonness. However, the reserved woman’s bare feet might not have been a complete deal breaker in this case. As Frigg had said that she would be busy with a project in advance, and there were certain parts of the house that Nahla was not inclined to go to.

Hmm~ I guess the living room is a good place to study before I grab a clean pair of tabi socks. The carpet there would also be sufficiently gentle on my feet.

The oni spread and closed her toes again. Moving the beaded perspiration between the folds of skin.

Mmh~

Houseki bounced off her bed and stood straight up to her full height. The cautious woman slowly built up the resolve in her current plan of action.

Yes, I should be fine walking through the halls. There’s also this couch that Titania and Nameless always sit on. Maybe the cushions are ergonomic and it’s not just a force of habit.

The oni picked up her books and began the soft series of smacks by walking out of her room. The prospect of being able to experience the furnishings of the living room, that she familiarized herself with for over a decade, in a novel manner, outmatched the small bubbles of worry from being spotted with her bared 12 and ½ inch dogs. An excitement that steadily rose even as the long length of Houseki’s rubbery slabs pounded against the tiles with its pale wrinkles. Those long strides led to a short departure and arrival, from her room to the living room.

“Awesome! No one’s here.”

Houseki flashed an exultant grin, before stomping over to the couch that her 22-year-old brother so often gave massages to her other family members. The sight of the red furniture reminding the younger sister of this frequent memory. She paused momentarily in front of the couch; a tincture of bashfulness colored the oni’s smile. 

“Heh~ now that I think about it, I always refused brother’s offers to soothe my legs.”

The dark-haired oni’s toes rapped over the fuzz of the carpet. Houseki was gladdened to find that her assumption was true. That the fuzzier carpet would be more amenable to the abundant folds of her sole. Maybe it will even soak up some of her foot sweat. Yet, it didn’t completely negate the small regret that she had. From refusing one of the few times that her brother approached her in a shared physical activity. 

A worry that a younger Houseki never entertained when they were kids. As the five of them may have had squabbles now and then, but their bond was as strong as any family could be. So, it was a constant pang for the younger sister to see her brother leave his room after an entire day of studying with a downcast expression. His participation during dinner conversation oscillating between barely being active to just listening. A stark contrast to a few years before.

I hope that this outside trip will do you some good brother.

Without a thought, Houseki’s toes reacted to her strong emotions by pressing firmly against the yielding fluff of the carpet. The minute stalks barely registered as anything more than a tingle on the oni’s gargantuan sole. As the strands of the carpet were so tiny and packed together, that they might as well have been a uniform and gentle surface. Just a gently reassuring wave of plush that massaged the oni’s tender soles.

“Haaah….it’s probably for the best that I keep my brother away from my monstrous feet. I’m sure that he would be disgusted by those brutal appendages of mine.”

Houseki shook her head.

“So oversized compared to mom’s feet.”

Then the oni rolled her foot by the ball, lifting her heel, and began the last few steps towards the couch. Each powerful step carried the weight of the Amazonness. Easily crushing the small stalks to an even more diminished height. 

Dust, debris, and lint that collected within the filamentous jungle of vermillion over the past day were displaced by the impression of the oni’s weight. The dark-haired woman was unaware of the minute denizens, that had their world turn over by the sweltering and sodden press of flesh, as she finished her short saunter, and smoothly fell into the warm seat.

“Ahh~ Nice and comfy. Now I know why Titania and brother love sitting here.”

The lean and lanky woman’s abdomen flexed as she reclined into the comfy embrace of the furniture. The 21-year-old oni talking to no one else. As she enjoyed the comfort of having the entire living room to herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was not the sound of the coming calamity that woke up Nameless. The shuddering tremors would invariably elucidate to just how much the cards are stacked against him.

Rather, what cut the young man’s much needed rest short, was none other than failure of his own anatomical, and, thereby, physiological functioning.

Khaaahh!!

A sharp wheeze sputtered out of the half-elf’s lips. His body seized from the pain that was exacerbated from that reactive gagging and ensuing coughs. A positive feedback loop of torment that his barely alert mind was not given the time to process. Such mercy would come by rolling his body to the left side. The sharp pleuritic scratch burned with each expansion of the young man’s chest. 

My…my lungs…

Fortunately, the Cleric’s fund of knowledge was able to rule out a cardiac and musculoskeletal etiology by just how he felt. Thus, cutting down the time it would take to scan his body for the cause. Although, his mind momentarily froze in panic when he tried to move his right arm and failed.

I must have dislocated it when I held onto Gloriana’s loafer…

Nameless gritted his teeth and braced himself for another spike of pain, before rolling to his other side. His left arm, now refilling with blood, after being caught between his left side and the floor of the vermillion jungle, was able to roughly angle itself so that the young man’s hand was pressed against his chest.

The expanding sacs of light tissue and the surrounding electrical webbing were Nameless’s targets. As he expected, the lungs that endured the first fall were still completely intact. Sensibly so, since it was able to endure a tougher impact from the first fall caused by the slamming basement door. Thus, the issue resided with the webbing that went back and forth between the dense network of nervous tissue. That led up to his neck and down to the flap of fibrous tissue that separated the abdomen from the thorax. A segment that he learned was called the diaphragm during his early days on primary academic lessons. It was this electrical disconnect that prevented the proper expansion and closure of his lungs.

Shit…mending nerves is hard enough on a clear mind.

Nameless paced his breathing and tried to take stock of his surroundings and self. He was on his right side, prone, in a jungle full of thick red stalks. That were in the form of partially unraveled cylinders. The individual fibers of those structures were firm and abrasive against his back, a much different sensation than what the half-elf experienced from when he was normal-sized. As these human-sized bushes, were mere standing fibers of a carpet.

I can’t stay here. Just Gloriana walking knocked me out.

Nameless looked ahead and upward, but the sight he saw had barely changed from the view from before he fell unconscious. The living room’s true ceiling that blurred into non-existence. A nebulous painting of dark shades that emulated a starless night sky. The only reason that the half-elf thought it was the living room’s ceiling he was not seeing was because of the ceiling that he could see. One that was there before he went under.

At least it’s good to know that my body is not feeble enough for a draft of wind to blow me away from my spot.

Nameless tried to think positively, but a part of him wondered that maybe he was still recumbent, in the same position, because he was lucky enough to not have a small puff of wind blow him away. Regardless, the design of the brown ceiling to the side, despite stretching out beyond his vision, still resembled the design of a sphinx. The same one that was sculpted on the bottom of the red couch that Tatiana and he were sitting on this morning.

This morning…am I correct in thinking that? Or is it already another day? I wish that I can tell time from here.

Nameless wished that and many other things, but he knew that wishing would not get him anywhere. He had two choices. 

Move now. 

Or rest and move later.

Unfortunately, he would have a hard time of doing either. Since each breath, made difficult from a poorly innervated diaphragm, was painful enough to wake him up from a deep sleep.

I should really wait until I have more magical energy in my reserves before doing this…but…

Nameless focused the little intangible ladle in his mind. Forcibly expanding it and then dipping it in the half-empty pot of natural energy within him. The action forced some of that aether to spill out. Into conducting streams that led to his recovering muscles. The half-elf didn’t have the luxury to consider efficiency, as he was uncertain if he would even have the strength to pour the ladled energy on the disrupted pathway of those essential nerves.

Come on.

Mental fatigue began to set in within Nameless, but, with furrowed brows and temporal veins bulging into prominence, he was able to lift the ladle and visualize it being carried over to the torn nerves.

Parallel Destiny Magic!

The energy was poured through the young man’s left hand. He wished that he had something to bite on, but that was the one benefit of a Cleric being alone when they are healing themselves. No one can hear them scream. For Nameless, both his hand and the target blazed, like they were thrown directly onto hot coals, and the rest of the body relatively cooled.

This was a battle of endurance for the Cleric. To not black out again until the destroyed nerve segments were replaced. A task that was not easy. As it was one of the few structures in the human body that did not replicate readily. So, the half-elf had to use an absurd amount of his remaining strength to whittle away neighboring tissue, rewind time on them, and progress that time while taking a different path on that tissue. To transform adjacent non-neuronal tissue into functioning neurons.

That was Parallel Destiny Magic. 

A Cleric specific technique that manipulated fate. A magic spell that was only heard of being enacted at an individual level in legends. Apart from a single known living Cleric being able to complete such an absurd spell. But she was imprisoned in the Longinquus Kingdom’s prison that resided on an isolated island

Most fully trained Clerics, such as Nameless, would spend their entire education to just use it to change the fate of a few neurons. A magic spell that came at the cost of anywhere from tenth to a quarter of their magic pool. Yet, it was considered an essential skill in a Cleric’s toolkit because it couldn’t be replicated through any other magic.

Until…three years ago. When a group of internationally organized enhancers remotely collaborated to insert such a magic into a charm. Nameless’s twin sister, Frigg, was one of them.

Nameless closed his eyes shut, until the breaths he took became lighter and less erratic. The burden of merely existing lessened, and the young man was able to respire with only the discomfort of his current stature plaguing his mind.

That…that took more out of me than I expected.

Nameless crossed his left arm over his torso to heal his numb right arm. A much easier affair, and the young man was able to return it back to its functioning state.

“Dang it D.J.I.N.N. how is this in any way supposed to help me with any of my wishes.”

The young man tried to stand straight up, but felt his legs wobble, and the small of his back heat up.

“Wha—“

The half-elf would have thought it was another affliction. Or an injury that he had to take care of. An increasingly difficult endeavor with his nearly empty supply of magic. However, it was that emptied pot that made him question that conclusion, and ultimately not arrive at it.

My…my magic power.

Nameless, for the first time in his life, felt an inexplicable swelling of power. As if the rapid emptying of his imaginary pot, a mental diagram that he was thought to visualize in his mind’s eye for convenience, had suddenly refilled.

How…how is this possible?

Zzpp

Hnngh!!

The flustered man shuddered. As he felt a fierce jab above the heated spot of his lumbar region. Two sharp disturbances on both sides of his spinal cord. Nameless tried to move his hand back, the vanishing fatigue and increasing strength making it easier, but the tight shirt that he wore made such a reach difficult.

Dang it, what is this sensation…wait didn’t I feel this...before D.J.I.N.N. took me out of the room with her toes?

The image of that caramel-skin woman, with a self-assured smile that communicated that she saw nothing wrong with what she had done to the one she called her master, flashed in Nameless’s head.

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

Thus, it was understandable that the shrunken individual would think that it was the djinn creating those thundering booms. Sonorous crashes that were unlike anything the young man heard in his life. Nameless turned to the approaching source, fooling himself into thinking that he was going to give that irresponsible woman a piece of his mind. 

Oh…

Only for the urgency of the situation he was in, to clearly reemerge in front of him. In physical form. Beyond the filamentous skyline of the carpet, with its stalks analogous to bushes that stretched to meet his size, was an oncoming mountain. The thunderous crashes were deafening due to the size of the source, and muted due to the inadequate size of the observer that was forced to witness it. 

“Awesome! No one’s here.”

To witness the moving black mountain, emerge from the blurred obfuscation of the distant world. A room that Nameless used to only take around twenty steps to walk through. Now it might have taken him months if not years to travel such a distance. So, it was no wonder that she would look like a mountain. The tallest woman in the Tam Lin family, whose strong and composed voice now boomed with a divine-like inflection. One that made the young man’s bones rattle. From the mere the power of sonic waves produced from just a few of the literal giantess’s words. Her identity made clear when the pale pastel complexion that formed her neckline came into the focus of the upper periphery of the brother’s visual field. 

CRUNNCCHH

Then she took another step. One that should have been soundless, but a muffled crashing of the red shrubbery distant to the shrunken half-elf fired off into the distance. As the dark-haired woman stepped onto the carpet. It was then that Nameless’s eyes darted down to the incoming hazard. 

Houseki!

The older brother’s eyes widened as he saw the bare buildings of the towering oni’s feet. Two pairs of five bloated trains sat in a row and dug into the fibrous stalks. Nameless could see displaced dirt and debris blow out from the squashed terrain. The impact of the weight all but steamrolling the pliable vegetation. Vegetation that the shrunken individual found himself trapped in. The former were unthinking structures. That were built to be deformed and take the weight of a pedestrian. The latter was Nameless. Who did not fit in that category. Nearly every component of his body being essential for the daily functioning of life. Any form of deformation was a threat to the young man’s life.

At least that is how it was before the djinn transformed him. 

“HOUSEKI! I’M DOWN HERE! HOUSEKI!”

Not that the shrunken half-elf wanted to test that hypothesis. Embers kindled near his lower stomach, but it was overwhelmed by the absolute appearance of his younger sister. The oni that stretched up into the sky even farther than D.J.I.N.N. The slender oni’s sharp androgynous features were obfuscated in the young man’s vision. The limitations of his ocular structures were made apparent, as the mascara and lines of the giantess’s eyes blurred together to form an intimidating painted mask. Just the gentle curve of the giantess lips, tugged upward in joy at whatever she saw, was clear to Nameless’s eyes. That was what he could most clearly discern from her face. The red horns, that the brother once said to his reserved younger sister were like a beauty mark, during a day where they were young and she was unusually quiet, now added to the image of the sister’s utter divinity. 

An apotheosis made possible by Nameless’s fall from humanity.

Terror, hope, and despair filled Nameless. As he continued to yell, but the horned titan didn’t seem to give any indication of hearing his voice. She didn’t even tilt her head down to the ensuing dust storm that her bulging toes kicked up, with just a mere scrunching contraction of its length.

“Am I too far…or is my voice just too weak now…”

Nameless frowned. He thought of insects that were near his height now. Bees and ants. In the past, he heard the former flying sometimes in the distance, but not the latter while it crawled in the grass. That knowledge was both awe-inducing and fear-inspiring. For, when they were at similar sizes, Nameless knew that his oni sister, younger by one-year, had outstripped him in terms of sheer athleticism and combat. That was easy to accept. As the older brother didn’t want to win fights against his siblings. He wanted to be strong and independent enough to stand by their side. As much as he enjoyed the occasional erotically charged daydream and was unwilling to discard his unique sexual proclivities for the unique perspective and life it breathed into his world, the bonds with his family were so important. Thus, it was so jarring for Nameless to see his younger sister like this. She appeared as a colossal monument. That eclipsed every achievement that sapient life has built in Longinquus kingdom…no…any region in this world.

Houseki can’t hear me?

Nameless’s mental perspective of the world was about to shatter. The pieces of his image as a brother, one deserving of his wonderful family, that he has been fighting so hard to maintain…were about to fall apart. 

Sensibly so.

For how could he think of himself as even equitable, in any way, to someone whose stature matched that of the goddesses in scripture. Thus, this descent primed a gap to form in the shrunken individual’s heart. One that his selfishly lascivious desires were eager to settle in. To make itself home and partner itself with the psyche of the young man turned frail insect. To always remind him that he was little, fragile, and so fitting as something without a name. A mere insect that just happened to be in the company of a beautiful family. One that he tried and failed to race after. Foolishly so, when it was just so much easier for him to take his rightful place beneath them.

She can’t see me from there. Will she even—

Nameless’s train of thought was interrupted by the following shockwaves. His mind already braced for the final words that would shatter any self-worth that the weak man was clinging to.

“Heh~ now that I think about it, I always refused brother’s offers to soothe my legs.”

It was a meaningless statement. One that discomposed Nameless and caused his mind to pause.

No. No. That is not why I came this far. Screw being shrunken.

For those were words that he least expected to come out of a divine existence but were exactly the words that he expected to come out of his caring and overly reliable younger sister. Houseki.

I did not bust my ass to give up at the first sign of defeat.

The older brother’s resolve returned as he saw the edges of the usually inexpressive woman’s lips twitch. Between the geometrically sculpted black sheets of hair, an ephemeral frown emerged.

“Haaah….it’s probably for the best that I keep my brother away from my monstrous feet. I’m sure that he would be disgusted by those brutal appendages of mine.”

A fire lit up within Nameless. The young man wasn’t a pure individual. 

By this point of the tale, that fact should be readily obvious. 

Indignation rose within the older brother when he saw from the subtle shift in Houseki’s facial expression. A silent communication of the burden she carried. What it was, he was unsure, but he wanted to be a part of the foundation, the net that caught her when she needed it the most. This desire combined with maddened inclination that the young man’s subconscious felt strum. A playing of an erotic bundle of fibers that grew stronger outside of the brother’s awareness, as he saw Houseki shake her head. In abnegation of the facet of female beauty, that her brother could not deny his strong love for.

“So oversized compared to mom’s feet.”

Are you kidding me? Your feet are great?

Nameless impulsively thought. Words that the brother would never speak, but he knew the allure of those sturdy and reliable implements of the human body. 

Their form and function…

Their appearance and strength…

Were aspects of beauty that she should cherish.

“HOUSEKI!!”

Nameless began yelling again, but this time with strength and purpose. This time with a plan. As he began running towards the couch. The young man speculated that if he could somehow climb up the arm of the chair, then he would have a better chance of alerting his sister of his presence.

I’m not just going to sit here and disappear while the rest of my family needs me. I’m not going to—

CRUNNCCHH

CRUNNCCHH

Thoughts and bravado were distinct from actions.

CRUNNCCHH

CRUNNCCHH

Actions were sometimes inconsequential in the face of natural forces, and coming towards Nameless, in a kingdom-crushing stroll, was a giantess of an oni. His younger sister, who was more destructive than any natural disaster that the brother witnessed.

The young man turned back just in time for Houseki’s sharp, determined eyes to come into focus of his vision. Not as a mask, but the kind gleaming pools of black that he had known for nearly two decades. Then those eyes passed overhead and out of sight. As the rest of her looming body barreled towards his direction. 

Nameless saw...that Houseki’s eyes were focused on the same thing he was. The couch. 

That wasted second, to see his adopted sister in all her magnificence and glory as a giantess, was Nameless’s undoing. As the shrunken individual’s body tilted while running. The shift in his center of gravity, led to his legs to hit each other in mid sprint. He careened and the near world blurred into an indistinct painting just like the far world.

Nameless’s body hit the floor of the carpet, below the view of the red stalks, for the third time.

This time the young man wouldn’t get the chance to get back up. He could hear the vermillion stalks bend backwards and squeeze themselves thin, the air above him grayed from the blowing dust clouds that were displaced from his sister’s pumping steps. Those long and sculpted legs that drew the eyes of many men and women and solidified the kind and considerate oni as one of the most alluring specimens within the Longinquus Kingdom, now swung up and directly over the older brother.

No. That was wrong. Nameless was just a little brother. Even to his younger sisters. The sudden eclipse of all the sky’s unnatural light confirmed it. By an expansive canopy of solid pastel waves. Pale textures lined with deeply shaded crevices and speckled with the denizens of the carpet: fuzz, red filament, and dust that all comparable in size to the brother’s current stature. 

They all looked so minuscule. Glued to the veritable lake of skin. Caught within the uneven rubber textures of an athletic woman’s foot. 

At a normal size, Houseki was so physically inclined and imposing, that she overwhelmed most with just her presence alone. Now the weight of the kind giant’s toned body was coming down to the little brother as a destructive force.

“HOUSEKI!! MOVE YOUR FOOT!!”

The little brother belted out his loudest uproar, as he looked up at the descending castle of oni leg. There was no time for him to get up from his supine position. The gusts of wind, forcibly displaced by the descending meteor of rubbery flesh, conveyed that. Time slowed down for Nameless. For his mind could not escape the reality that he was directly in the path of his sister’s unending sole.

12 and ½ inches long. The little brother recalled the adopted sister’s furiously blushing face when Nahla snuck under her raised feet, and playfully pressed a ruler on the underside of that uneven plane. Only to find that the length of the measuring device was just short. That was how he knew how long his younger sister’s feet, and that it was fifty times as long as he was high.

Compared to his 1/4-inches, and having lived a life at 6 feet even, Nameless might as well have been facing a falling field that was 300 feet long. His yells were so loud, that he could no longer hear them. Houseki definitely couldn’t. She most likely bore an unreadable expression on her face. As this was just one step of many, and her little brother got an insect’s eye view. 

The wind scraped at Nameless’s skin, and the five boulders descended and passed the shrunken individual. Waving toes that were now closer to the couch than him. His flared nostrils got a large inhale of the tainted atmosphere forced by the violent gusts of wind. The powerful flow was too rapid for the young man’s physical anatomy to react. A malodorous stench that burned through his olfactory senses. Completely different from the enchanting and sterile odors that emanated from the two previous giantess’s he met. 

Nameless wanted to vomit, as the weaponized aroma of the oni’s well-trodden appendage fully doused his sensorium. 

Eyes began to water. Ears rung. Tastebuds coated with the sour quality of the air. 

Meanwhile, the fanning toes, as if taunting the insect that wanted to be more than it was, become obscured in the distance. 

Out of sight.

Meanwhile, Nameless’s body was saturated by the cloying heat that radiated from his sister’s body. Overhead, the prominent wrinkles of her sole, that gridded diagonally, expanded outwards. Then the little brother could see the circular grids. Grids that were smaller compared to the ledges of flesh that were the sole’s wrinkles but were large enough for the young man to trip over. 

If he had the chance to walk on that foot. 

The only reason that Nameless was able to think that useless thought, was because of the sheer amount of experience that he had daydreaming of such fantasies. Of the number of times that his cock was engorged full of blood, and his testicles rumbled with dollops of cum. Each time that he dived into the impossibilities of being small enough to fit in the fold of some giantess’s fleshy fold. To be fully coated in her sweat and forgotten by the world.

That was fantasy.

...

This was reality.

Nameless did not have the presence of mind to confirm if he had an erection from his sister’s pale instep rushing towards him. The ball and sides of her foot, flushed pink and yellow from the pressure of taking a step and redirecting blood flow, plummeted to the little brother’s sides. Then, Nameless’s life flashed before his eyes, as the ghostly pale landscape crashed down on him. 

The half-elf’s head was pushed down, and his limbs were forced into a spread eagle. Pain, that was as intense as the time that he was flung around on Gloriana’s loafers, abounded his body. Then it multiplied and multiplied from the never-ending pressure. The wrinkles that marred the beautiful sole, of the likes that would leave the young man an ejaculating mess in the past, were distant enough that he fit in between two of them. Instead, the pithy rinds of the smaller whorls, that the microphiliac barely ever noticed, were what dug into his body’s frame. That left bruises and welts that pushed the limits of Nameless’s skin and bone.

Nearly tearing open wounds and breaking bones.

At first, the plush rubber of his sister’s sole tenderly conformed to his body, but the laxity of the compressing plane had its limits. 

Fluffy. Firm. Fracture-inducing. The increase of the oni’s force in a matter of microseconds. Then the pale purgatory worsened.

Within the increasing tightness, Nameless’s sensorium was given a denser blast of the foot’s toxic ambrosia. The gaseous musk was now accompanied by the briny solution that produced it. Nameless was forced to gasp as his ribcage compressed, and the beads of vinegary oil found its way into his body. The onrush of sweat droplets stretched the half-elf’s maw and penetrated though his oral orifice. The thick and salty beads, held together by surface tension, flooded his tastebuds with the most potent flavor of oni sweat that anyone has probably tasted. Nameless’s eyes would have been gushing with tears if they weren’t already. As he was forced to swallow the confluence of pure sour and salt flavor concentrated into liquid. His body spasmed into the warm and crushing hug of the endless foot flesh. The hot rubber of his sister’s foot pulsed and shifted. The movement of underlying sinuous framework morphing the sweltering skin. Commencing several unseen mechanical processes. All working in tandem to bring the uneven surface of Houseki’s sole to fully conform around the little brother like a glove. 

To swallow him right up in her instep’s wrinkles.

Burning lungs. Thundering heart. Screaming bones. Compressed muscles. Pounding head. Tortured senses…

Somehow Nameless was able to live through all of this. As the pressure reached its zenith. By chemical and physical law, the very decree of the tangible world when not affected by magic, the temperature of the airtight space, made by the coffin of flesh, skyrocketed. The pores, still invisible to the 1/4-inch half-elf, seethed a boiling concoction of sweat. His mind reeled from the torturous waterboarding that he had to endure. 

The disappearing pockets of air were replaced by the natural body odor that the giantess produced. A steady state and baseline of continuous sweat production. A homeostasis of the entire flesh biome that composed this foot. One brought about by the constant encasing of black tabi socks around Houseki’s feet. It was because of the oni’s constant reliance on the footwear, that she just naturally sweated. Thus, the disastrously mind-numbing effects of the two-pronged odor attack assaulted the half-elf’s senses. Both aqueous and gaseous elements mixing into literal biological warfare that the little brother could not escape from. Yet, through it all…one thought popped in the little brother’s end.

When would this end?

...

...

The answer was now…if the question’s subject pertained to this single step.

The bone-crushing pressure on Nameless’s body finally relented, and he thanked the heavens. Thanked his sister for finally stepping off him.

But she didn’t

When would this end?

...

...

The answer is not now…if the question’s subject pertained to Nameless being crushed by the Tam Lin family’s largest foot. 

For when the celestial plane of rubber ascended into the distant sky, Nameless was not blessed with the muffled view of the nebulous ceiling. Instead, his back was washed by a current of free air.

The heated solution of Houseki’s concentrated sweat droplets, the pressure of her overwhelming foot, and the bite of the smallest wrinkles of her instep…the wrinkles that were so small that the dermatological features weren’t even a part of the brother’s past self-pleasure sessions…all worked together to glue Nameless’s body at the bottom of his unaware sister’s sole.

MMMHHHH!!!

The little brother screamed. Nameless’s voice was unable to escape the pocket of funky flesh that swallowed the front of his body up. The wind’s shearing force scraped against the young man’s back as the foot descended again once more. This time, the half-elf would have to feel the full period of the impulse of the athletic woman’s mass…and then some.

The soul-crushing pressure that the little brother thought would prove fatal, repeated. Except, the exponentially increasing force of Houseki’s towering body shifted in its quality. Nameless felt the integrity of his clothing come undone, chewed by the masticating sharp edges of the toned woman’s meaty sole wrinkles. 

For the giantess had reached the couch that she so looked forward to sitting her backside on. A simple twirl resulted in a rotating grind of the features of her little brother’s body. Nameless thought he would explode by the end of the sweltering ceiling of rubber circling around him. The adhesive glue of sweat broke, and both small and large wrinkles gave sharp and deep kisses on his body.  

A final parting gift for the single step in two parts, the end and beginning in that order.

Nameless’s tormented body fell the small distance from the low ceiling of flesh. Just a hair’s breadth was between the imposing might of the wall of flesh, then it bobbed up and careened back down. Stopping a full body length higher (barely half an inch) than before.

I…It’s over? I’m...alive.

 “Ahh~ Nice and comfy. Now I know why Titania and brother love sitting here.”

The towering sister’s kingdom-shaking articulation rumbled in the distance and reverberated through her body. Even with the distance between the little brother and his towering sister’s foot, he couldn’t help but feel the vibrations from the divine inflections of her voice.

I…can’t…rest…

Nameless, with tired eyes, pulled himself up. Surprised by his ability to move, but without the luxury to waste time, the 1/4-inch man began to move. To make an escape.

Houseki…

He advanced to the five arcs, that tapered into fat bulbs of varying sizes. Meanwhile, his towering sister made herself comfortable and cracked open her study materials.

I’m here...

Then the little brother fell forward. Nameless’s consciousness escaping far too soon. As there still laid a countless distance for him to travel. The last disturbing sensation, before the darkness welcomed him, was the odd feeling on his upper back.

“Now where was that spell? The one that has been integrated into the manual last year.”

The first page was turned.

Location: #%?€

A featureless man stared at the back of a small featureless boy. The room was barren, apart from the two shadows and a third object. In the hands of the boy, rested a book. 

“What are you doing?”

Asked the shadow man. He wasn’t sure who the boy was. The boy turned his head up and away from the book.

“We have to save him.”

The shadow boy’s voice scratched against the drilled-out holes of the shadow man’s head. Sewage leaked out and he pounded his head in aggravation.

“No! We mustn’t help him!”

The shadow man said. The boy ignored the man and turned his head back to the book. 

The page was turned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Tam Lin Family Estate

For the second time today, the 1/4-inch-tall half-elf found himself being awakened from a respiratory irregularity.

Cough!! GHHAAHG!!

Nameless sputtered and spat out a bubbling solution. One that was too sour and too salty to be his own saliva. The young man’s eyes fluttered open. He instinctively attempted to rub the sleep out of his face. Of course, the action did not help much with combatting unconsciousness induced by immense physical trauma. It did help wipe off the same acrid brine that had found its way into his mouth

Ssnnff!!

…and nose.

Oh Goddess!! That burns.

Nameless bolted straight up. The rough inhalation brought a choppy flow of a bitter liquid. One that the young man had recently become acquainted with, but not of his own volition. The piquant scald seared through the sensitive nostrils. A pain that blocked out other thoughts. Until he stumbled back and hit his head against a doughy ceiling. A heated ceiling studded with wavy and longitudinal lines that brought a fierce scratch to the half-elf’s neck and posterior scalp. And it was a surface with a firm infrastructure that twitched in response to the shrunken individual’s erratic movement.

Meat, bone, and connective tissue that formed another list of named tissues: ligament, tendon, cartilage, and fascia.

This list of anatomical parts popped up in the Cleric’s mind without explanation. The young man had to take a moment to recollect his thoughts and memories to give meaning to those words. It didn’t take long. As the half-elf’s eyes soon refocused on the area surrounding him, and his other senses finally conveyed the several qualities of the fleshy cavern he was under.

The floor formed by the dampened fuzz of the living room carpet. The fibrous stalks that formerly matched Nameless in size. That was not to say that he grew taller. 

No.

Nameless was still stuck at a short 1/4 inches. The only differences were that the half-elf’s clothes were torn off, leaving his body bare, and his formed slicked by an itch-inducing sheen.

It was the fibrous cylinders that had decreased in height. As they bore the brunt of the acrimonious rain. Soaking up the beads that dropped from the organic ceiling. Goblets of brine that either oozed from barely visible pores or streamed down from a winding pathway of textured flesh. The small size and tension of the flow, allowed for the salty stream to resist gravity long enough to collect near the  area underneath the center of the oni’s sole.

Then they plummeted down and soaked the vermillion foliage. The gigantic oni’s foot brine had also soaked the shrunken half-elf’s exposed back. While a salty puddle formed on his front side. Due to the depression made by the minute weight of his body.

Oh right…I shrunk…

Nameless respired deeply. As waking up a second time to this new reality did not make the realization any easier. What should have calmed his nerves, also served as an invitation. For the potent miasma, that brewed within the heated gap between Houseki’s barely elevated foot and the matted carpet, to curl and taint his lungs once more. In fact, the brother had been breathing in the dense odor the entire time he was passed out.

This…I’m still under Houseki’s foot. Was I not passed out that long?

That was another irregularity that Nameless had noticed. The young man was pressed down by nearly all his towering sister’s weight. A sister that was now the biggest mountain that he’s ever seen. Thus, in all manners of the word, he should have been crushed into a nonexistent smear. Grease that should have added with her foot’s natural oil. Yet, without even using a single spell, Nameless felt not too bad. 

In fact, right now the half-elf just felt a little tired. His limbs were heavy, but not to the point that they weighed like lead. The most bothersome disturbance to Nameless would have to be the constant cheesy aroma that he had to inhale. A potent gaseous swill that the shrunken individual wasn’t sure he would be able to clean from himself completely. Even if he returned to his normal size and took showers for a week. Yet, it was an odor that the half-elf couldn’t stop inhaling. Like a chewed-up piece of gum. It was without its flavor and its enjoyment, but the habit of the maxillary motion was addicting in itself.

Just like the gum-chewer’s maw continued to chew, Nameless found his respiratory tract working in the musty foot aroma. The smell of overpowering vinegar and corn chips contaminated every alveolus within the shrunken individual’s lungs. He wished that he had pants at this moment. Then the young man would just have to try and ignore the increasing tightness of his lower-wear, and not the unimpeded and much unneeded phallic rising.

Snap out of it Nameless. Shit, being under a giant foot is doing things to me. I have to get out from this death trap.

The young man shuddered at the thought of being caught back underneath the metric tons of muscle. Of being subjected to listening to the veins in Houseki’s foot gush with blood as she goes about her day. While the wrinkly sole moistened with a searing heat, like a sauna flooded by boiling pool of ocean water and threatened to reduce his existence to a paper-thin sigil.

None of this makes sense…to still be alive after all that beating. Much less intact. it has to be the djinn’s wish protecting me.

That was the only explanation, but not a completely comforting one. For the half-elf’s research was implied to be confirmed by D.J.I.N.N. That the wishes that djinns granted had to be very precise in a manner of speaking. Thus, it was hard to accomplish multiple desires with just one wish.

Nameless’s apprehension was rooted in how this transformation of his would make it possible for all his wishes to be granted. The most acute issue, his desire to escape from Gloriana capturing him in the act was obvious. 

The other obvious wish could be logically concluded. Since the half-elf’s diminished stature made it nearly impossible for him to be noticed by his family members. As demonstrated with his recent experience with Houseki. That would eliminate the social pressures he was worried about.

And I’m guessing that this swelling of magical energy within me would help my issue with my magic system, but I’m not even sure what the basis of this change is. And how is this supposed to help me support my family?

Racking his head would not bring Nameless any closer to safety. Especially, since the young man felt other his other head become active with blood as well. Staying underneath this fair surface of pale flesh was not doing the shrunken brother any favors. 

Doesn’t matter anyway.

Nameless tested his legs, bouncing on his heels and stretching. To make sure that his legs weren’t about to just give out or suddenly lock in place.

After I get their attention, I’ll have to…ask mom to help me with my situation.

The young man shivered as he began jogging towards the bulging contours that rowed the cavern’s exit. In the direction of the gap created by Houseki’s lifted toes. The once firm jungle floor of the carpet now squelched under the shrunken brother’s racing pace. 

Or maybe I can just beg and plead whoever I get the attention of, to discretely get someone else to help me…yea…it has to be Uncle Jafar.

Nameless settled on his course of action. He would need to get the attention of one of his sisters. Probably Houseki since she was the most understanding. Explain the situation to them. Then beg them not to tell their mom. As she was bound to give much more than a disapproving look to her foolish son. If his mom were to find out how her young man got himself in these dangerous circumstances, then the punishment, punitive or rehabilitative, would be the least of his concerns. The sole son of the Tam Lin family would be kept on the tightest of leashes. Just lax enough for him not to choke, but firm enough that his mother would comfortably lead him down a path in adult life.

Ughh…Yea, I very much don’t want to lose my freedom.

That is why Nameless would have to convince his sibling or siblings to get him to Uncle Jafar. In the half-elf’s memories, the middle-aged human with a scraggly beard was more relaxed with them. They even stayed over at his place for a couple months before his mom came back from the expedition with Houseki. Most importantly he was a mage of equivalent strength to his mother, and with an extremely rare proficiency. 

Time and Space Magic.

If there was anyone besides D.J.I.N.N. that could undo what was done to the shrunken young man, then it was Uncle Jafar. Who could utilize his space manipulation to expand the half-elf back to size...possibly? Of course, it wasn’t a sure-fire bet. A couple years after the expedition, Nameless had tried to tease out the possibility of shrinking someone or something down. For the purpose of improved food storage, security, and confinement. Whatever excuse the teenager could think of to casually ask the question of his fantasy being more than just a fantasy and possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The modification of inorganic objects is not an issue. As the individual components are usually transmutable and enduring against the differing micro-climates at a smaller size. It’s when we try to shift the size of organics, such as produce and living, thinking beings…that we must consider the limited redundancy or fungibility as it was known in other ancient fields of expertise of the world far in the past. Of course, some of my contemporaries are under the notion that it’s feasible. With the existence of pixies…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least that is what Nameless thought he said back then. Uncle Jafar always had an unusual way of speaking. Even among his erudite contemporaries. As for the rest of the lecture, well…Uncle Jafar might have been a respected court mage, but here sure had an inclination for rambling endlessly. Without regard for time or extraneous information.

I just hope that he won’t end up having to ask mom’s help in the end. A bunch of winding roads only to end up at the bad ending I’ve been trying to avoid. I don’t need that kind of karma.

There was a lot that Nameless had to consider. It also served as a good distraction from the creaking ceiling of muscle above. He started his sprint from the pale underside of his sister’s instep. Right near the center of it. A wavy canopy that was dotted with the soggy carpet fuzz and drenched debris. Adornments that used to be dry and abrasive to the touch when attached to the carpet. An invariable outcome with the nearly constant stream of oni perspiration trailing along the ridges of the organic sky.

Man…this is taking longer than I expected. I’m not sure if I should be happy or not that Houseki decided not to wear her tabi socks today.

Nameless liked to think that he would never go so far as to indulge himself at the expense of intruding upon his family’s possessions and appearance. Especially for the purpose of satisfying his own lust. Yet, the short time awake had made the young man question that. As each strong pump of the shrunken brother’s legs, carrying him closer and closer to the shift of white sole to tallow yellow hallux, was increasingly encumbered by his exposed and throbbing phallus. The half-elf dreaded how compromised his mind and body would be, by the erotic mental fog and rumbling balls, if the stench of his younger sister’s stale tabi hung overhead. 

The creaking of the black sewn, preceding a gush of buckets of sole-stewed sweat. The ripe wash would splash and be followed by a potent and foul release of cheesy vinegar fumes—

No! No! I’m not thinking this right now.

Nameless stopped, his feet splashed in a small pool of sweat, the ochre skin of Houseki’s balls were just above the young man’s head. The protruding domes, filled with pithy semicircular maze of fleshy ridges, were a bit too close for comfort. He had to hunch over to just avoid his head from rubbing against the sinful flesh. Thus, the half-elf’s body was drawn closer into itself…towards the hot package that refused to abate.

It’s just a normal…

Out of habit, Nameless took a deep breath. To calm down.

…physiological reaction.

The harmless flaring of nostrils and warm invitation of his oni sister’s odor affirmed that it was a little bit more than that. As the half-elf’s erection sprung even stronger. The engorged pillar was as firm as a steel mast, and the young man hadn’t even touched it yet.

Goddess. I’m such a pervert. Why couldn’t I have a more ordinary fetish? Like breasts or ass.

Nameless closed his eyes, and nervously swallowed.

No. This is not the time for self-loathing.

The young man was in a battle with himself. An extra fight that Nameless knew that he didn’t need. As he was also in a battle against time. So far, luck was on the shrunken brother’s side. He had been running without rest, and use of his magical energy. The latter decision was in case he would need it later, but it suddenly ran out as quickly as it inexplicably came back earlier. Thus, conversing that energy for emergencies was paramount in the half-elf’s mind. 

I don’t even know why Houseki’s in the living room, or how long she’s staying here.

Of course, Nameless couldn’t completely discredit the possibility that, at any moment, his sister could bring the sky of wrinkles crashing down over him. Thus, once again, squashing the shrunken brother into the foot’s fleshy treads, and he didn’t want to repeat that experience. As the half-elf was fortunate enough to be dislodged after one step this time. Who is to say it won’t last longer the next time?

I just need to ignore this erection. It’s not as if I can’t just masturbate later…

Nameless’s attempt to reason with his libido was a foolish endeavor. As the young man was not an unbiased party within his own mind.

Next time…

His respirations subconsciously deepened.

If I get out of here, get Houseki’s attention, and everything goes well with me back to normal…would there be a next time?

For the half-elf only now became cognizant of how serendipitous his situation was. This wasn’t a daydream, but his fantasy made into reality. Would he ever get a chance like this again?

Nameless craned his neck, and the back of his head incidentally plunged into the firm dough of the giantesses whitened ball. The young man felt his body shudder from the unexpected git, and a tingling electricity coursed through his body. Not a dull or sharp pain. It was a slow wave that clearly painted just how taboo this chance was, and how erotic that made it. 

I’m so close…

Nameless could see the pillars of dim light shining between the gaps of Houseki’s toes. It wouldn’t even take a minute for him to cross the distance if he used a type of strengthening magic to boost his speed.

I shouldn’t…I’m better than this.

Nameless tilted his head, and felt his inhibitions nearly leave his mind. The mental scape that had been singular in its direction, to escape and get Houseki’s attention, became consumed in a warm fog. An inhale, followed by a subsequent angling of his hand towards his stiff mast.

This…no—

Nameless ripped his hand away from his thighs, and nearly shook himself back into reality. If only it were a moment sooner. As his tilting head now found the hanging canopy tilting to meet his evading figure.

WHATT!!!

Just as he feared, although, not strongly enough, karma had reared its head. In the form of Houseki’s sudden mobility. The once stationary bulge of Houseki’s largest ball had begun to move. Not up or to the side. The rubbery semicircle descended. Forcing the shrunken brother to lean backward.

Shit!!

There wasn’t time for the young man to debate if his sister was going to stop or complete the movement.

“BODY BOOST MAGIC!!”

Nameless yelled. He plunged his hands into the falling plane and expected his body to swell up with strength. To at least create a depression on the bundle of muscle. Yet…

What!!

“BODY BOOST MAGIC!!”

It didn’t work. Not because his spell didn’t strengthen his body enough. The young man unfortunately wouldn’t have the chance to see if his magic was futile or not. Rather, his incantation…it wasn’t activating at all. The abundance of magical energy within Nameless’s body, it was no longer in the pot. A pot that he could no longer find.

What…what is going on!? Why isn't it working!?

Nameless’s question was answered by a sharp burn bursting in his upper back.

“BODY BOOST MAGIC!!”

The third time confirming that something happened…no…was continuing to happen to his body. The djinn had done more than shrunk him.

N—

Nameless looked outwards. At the light that vanished behind the sealing arcs of Houseki’s toes. The literal carriages and houses of muscle closed together, just moments before his gigantic sister’s sweaty ball crashed down on his existence. 

CRRRRSSSHHH!!!

The meat of the collapsing sky burrowed itself deep into the sodden carpet, and subsequently swallowed up Nameless within its damp flesh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had no idea that this spell could become so complex.

It had only been ten minutes, but Houseki expected that she would have been able to glean more out of the added hieroglyphics to the intelligence operative textbook then what she had. Of course, the hieroglyphics in the textbook were just in the figurative sense of the word. As the terms that the intelligence operative was familiar with, from proactively reviewing past editions of the textbook in the past years, was now accompanied by concepts and terms from separate fields. What was the reason for this drastic change in required material from past years? 

I have to admit, after seeing Frigg’s achievements being applied to my field…really puts into perspective just how much of a genius she is.

Was the integration of the new enhanced charms that had spread throughout the Longinquus kingdom. A bit belated in Frigg’s opinion, but there were several stakeholders and noble families that had to be persuaded. Of course, that brought in the conversation of trade routes and the redefining of family boundaries. As of now, such matters flew above the younger sister’s point of view. Houseki may not have been as well-connected as Titania or as smart as Frigg, but she made up for it with her earnest diligence. 

Perhaps I’ll ask Frigg to verify my comprehension of the material when she’s free.

The oni bit her lip. Most of her body was frozen in place, only her hands moving to flip from page to page. As the young woman still bore some hesitations in depressing the couch’s cushion with her own backside. 

10 minutes later. Once stiff shoulders would then loosen.

30 minutes later. The tall woman’s posture curved into the contour of the couch.

45 minutes later, the dark-haired woman noticed that her feet had been hanging just over the soft plush of the living room carpet. Between refreshing her mind on classical Intelligence Retrieval Magic and comparing it to the recommended charm-augmented alternatives, Houseki realized that she had nearly forgotten one of the reasons that she came into the living room in the first place. 

Right. The bristles of this room’s carpet are a lot softer on my sole than the one in my room.

A singular thought that was followed by an extension of the pale woman’s knees. A movement that eliminated the small gap between her damp 12 and 1/2-inch-long feet and the dense fuzz of the carpet.

I was expecting it to be warmer sensation.

Houseki pressed and then ground her foot into the carpet. The oni felt the individual fibers bend and merge with her balls and toes before she fully rested the length of her foot on the carpet. Biting her lips, the dark-haired woman felt a couple tingling sensations underneath her foot. Gloriana wasn’t expected to clean the living room today. So, it must have been some of the filth that accumulated between the strands of the carpet. Not that it was intolerable for the intelligence operative in her final stages of training. As she experienced life more than enough to know that plans rarely go as planned.

Maybe if I just rub my feet more thoroughly.

The dark-haired woman, having made herself completely comfortable on the living room’s red couch, began to move her bare soles with greater strength and purpose. From heel to toe, Houseki’s motions became more chaotic. The horned woman hoped that the fibers were absorptive enough, and she wasn’t just displacing the sweat between her foot’s wrinkles to another set. As the toned woman would prefer that her peds weren’t glazed in an obscene glisten of her sweat, before she stuffed them back in her tabi socks in less than an hour. Regardless, she couldn’t just ignore the wet lint that found themselves stuck on her foot.

Thus, she even lifted one foot over the other, and angled her toes to try and dislodge whatever had adhered to the bottom of one foot. With a firm and grinding press, Houseki felt the slight traces of gunk shift from the tight space of her sole’s folds.

Great. Now I just need to repeat it for the other one.

Houseki huffed and returned to the dense pages of the intelligence operative textbook. Meanwhile, without looking she repeated the process of removing the junk from the bottom her other foot. One sole lifted over her foot. The inches of sweaty sole flesh were pressed on the top of the grounded foot, and then scrubbed up and down. The angled pale landscape, and the firm plate of the horned woman’s unpolished toenails, served as an impromptu tiller. To plow through the carpet’s dirt that got caught in the steamy sole’s wrinkles. 

Houseki’s mind barely registered the minute circles and detritus slipping off her downturned and elevated sole. Some plopping on the top of her foot, and the rest rolling down to rejoin the carpet.

“Hah! Yamato Nadeshiko…”

The studious oni’s neutral expression brightened. As she stopped on a new page that discussed how charms could allow for even the change of an intelligence operative’s physical appearance during solo-missions. A feat that used to only be achievable with another member from a different field. Thus, posing an information leak risk and more cumbersome stealth operations. The reason for Houseki’s gentle smile was the image used in the textbook as an example.

It was of a man, his features barely defined as they didn’t matter for the purpose of the diagram. His drawn figure was on the left side of the page. While an arrow was drawn to the right of him and pointed to the right side of the page. Above that arrow were the listed magical spells needed to complete the process that the arrow indicated. Under that arrow were the recommended charms and their respective settings to modulate the spell. It was the combination of both incantation and charm to alter the physical appearance of an intelligence operative. The example that they showed on the right side of the page was a woman of far East descent, like Houseki. Except her hair was long and straight. Bangs cut straight across her forehead and not a split end or fray in sight. The transformed operative looked like the gentle, comely, and elegant women that was described by the ancient Yamato Nadeshiko ideal. Almost like a porcelain doll. It was a desirable standard that people in the far east country’s old history. 

Far before the country’s name was stolen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The importance of Yamato Nadeshiko? For Houseki, those were some of the first words her new brother had said to her when she first came to Longinquus Kingdom. The young 3-year-old oni was relatively tall for her age. At least compared to other sapient species. But she lacked the strength or heart to act, express, or even emote. Houseki was just an oversized doll that followed behind the white-haired elf, who now sported a midsection swollen with the youngest child Nahla. 

The white-haired elf, Morgan had proclaimed herself as Houseki’s mother. Thus, during the early days, like an unspeaking doll, the oni gripped Morgan’s palm tightly and wouldn’t let go until it was time to sleep. Even when Titania and Frigg both tried to approach her with endearing love and compassion. Houseki was always a reserved girl, despite her inherent power and stature.

All that was needed was that spark. One that ended up coming from her new brother. A boy who didn’t possess a name, just like the country her parents came from. Who was also without speech. For he too had lost his father. It was only weeks after the new family settled together, and the day that Morgan had went into labor…that the two started talking after their loss.

“Hey! You’re just like a Yamato Nadeshiko.”

The first words from brother’s mouth hurt at first. That term might have been valued highly in the past, but it was one associated with being delicate to the point of being dependent…weak. It was a history that her parents tried to run away from. 

“Here! I found this book from your country. I can’t read it that well, but I can tell this part.”

Nameless pointed at the one passage that the doll-like girl hadn’t expected. He compared Houseki to the term, not because of her appearance nor her grace caused by a loss of ambition and family…but something that she could scarcely believe.

“It says here that Yamato Nadeshikos has really strong hearts. Titania and Frigg really cried hard after dad went away, I don’t even remembered what happened, so I was scared about how sad mom is going to be.”

His voice was gentle and wavered. Almost as if the first words he spoke in weeks would tear him apart. Yet, he continued talking.

“But you were always there helping mom. Holding her hand tight so she wouldn’t cry...I wish I was brave like you.”

snnfff

It was true, the young child from the far east country was a source of strength that Morgan relied on. The mother had to be strong for the future of her family. As that was all she had left of her loved ones who had passed. Houseki didn’t realize that at the time, she still didn’t believe her brother’s words and thought of him as a buffoon. As she was just doing that because of how sacred she was too. Yet, tears welled up in both their eyes, and they shared a deep hug. Why…their crying was so strong that Uncle Jafar had to come and console them.

“What is this! Sweet children you’ve finally regained the strength to talk. Please. Please. I know it’s hard...but we’re here for you. Your family is here for you.”

The olive-skinned man said with a somber face, but his eyes looked relieved. Most likely at the sight that the two youngest children in Morgan’s household had finally begun to speak once more. That they had begun on the path of acceptance and growth.

Well…neither of the two children were the youngest in the household any longer. As Uncle Jafar had come to fetch the children to also introduce them to a new guest.

“Come! Come! I know you are feeling sad, but there is a new guest in this home. She’s your sister.”

The scraggly-haired man consoled and cajoled the two into a room that they had been veered away from earlier. Their white-haired mother, her tresses soaked in sweat, and in her arms was a mewling caramel skinned baby. One with fuzzy ears on her head. Titania and Frigg were to the side, and so was Uncle Jafar’s wife, Aunt Scheherazade. Words were spoken. For the first time in a long time. Tears were shed. Both transient grief and limitless joy shared during this moment when their new family came together as one.

For Nahla had come into this world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Houseki crossed her feet and curled her toes through the carpet. The fuzz through her toe gaps tickled as she finished going down memory lane.

“Such a stupid brother.”

The doting sister softly chuckled to herself before shutting the book. Despite her words, she wouldn’t want her brother any other way back then. To Houseki, it was not an understatement to say that, in a way, he saved her

Hmmrh~

The oni stretched her legs out, and her arms above her head. Both toes and fingers were firmly curled against the soft padding of the proximal flesh. 

“I wonder if I could pull off the transformation spell before any of them come back home. Surprise them a little by looking a little bit more like a graceful woman like Frigg.”

The toned woman whimsically imagined displaying a more feminine figure and attire in front of any of the three family members that walked through the front door. Houseki’s mother, Morgan, would probably gush about her improved magical skill and how beautiful she looked. Suddenly meeting Titania might play out more like a prank, where the older sibling would be on guard and question who this intruder was. Nameless, well he has become shier and more sluggish recently. Houseki might honestly prefer if he would stumble a praise instead of being completely sapped of energy that he wouldn’t say anything. No, she will believe it would be the former, and her dopey and caring brother would finally pull himself out of the deep mire he found himself in. Who knows, maybe, just like their mother said, he was facing off against a five-headed hydra at this moment.

Well. I think that is enough studying for today. My tabi should be through the wash and drying cycle as well.

Houseki jumped off the red couch and landed on the carpet with an audible stomp. She held her book against her side, before beginning to walk to the laundry room. Her bare feet softly smacking against the stone tile floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nameless wasn’t sure which was worse. Being directly suffocated within the engulfing warmth of Houseki’s ripe sole, or having his back pressed down by the already rough surface of the ball of his sister’s sole, and having his delicate features ground down into the muggy carpet. Regardless, any source of light that the shrunken man could rely on vanished. Thus, he was forced to focus on his other senses. 

Hearing. Touch. Taste. Smell. They were all amplified as more his scarce attention was focused on those qualities of this grueling foot bog. 

SCHLUCK

SCHLUCK

What were once just beads of sweat that dotted the hidden foot of Nameless’s taller, younger sister had taken on a more trenchant quality. Fierce and wet crashes of viscous ropes of bodily fluids forming and breaking. While the pressure of the towering giantess’s weight impressed itself upon the shrunken brother. He could do little to affect the situation. His limbs trapped under the molding flesh of Houseki’s ball. The pithy bite of its whorled rings was much less forgiving than the toned athlete’s instep. Its yellowish pink discoloration was an omen of just how much force could be suddenly pressed down on the sentient carpet lint. 

Nameless’s discomfort was further compounded by the presence of his blood’s ebbing flow to his head, in favor of the other engorged head. Which was forcibly thrust into the grimy crevices of the carpet and his younger’s sister oozing foot sweat. So much of the briny solution had seeped into the surrounding vermillion rainforest, and was cooked under the oni’s natural body heat, that it concentrated into a mucilaginous concoction. 

Oh Goddess!

Nameless was forced to confront just how sordid his desires were. For being ground by the unremitting pressure of his adopted sister’s ball, did little to dissuade the flooding of his sexual implement. The shrunken brother’s disgust would have spurred a strong physical reaction to get out of the air-tight space, but his limbs couldn’t reach through the whitened rinds that rowed through the giantess’s ball. Especially, since the young man had inexplicably lost his ability to use the abundant magic within his body. A fact that he confirmed once more by screaming his lungs out for the umpteenth time. 

BODY BOOST MAGIC!!

Only to swallow a large bolus of the glutinous sweat pond. 

!!!!

That may have been the line for his body. His perversions could only carry him for so long, masking the unaware torture of his body as pleasure. The line to be crossed, at least one of them, was a firm inhale of the fermenting byproducts that coated both his sister’s foot and collected in the gaps of the carpet’s fuzz.

This is so putrid.

Nameless wanted to clutch his stomach and forcibly retch out the disgusting swill. One that felt like it was literally drilling a hole through his stomach with how insulting it was to his system. Unfortunately, it only got worse for the young man from here. 

The shrunken brother was reacquainted with the fact that, to his monolithic, unaware sister, he was no more than a little brother at this point. Presently less. As he got a stronger blast of the eye-watering stench by the tensing pulse of Houseki’s ball. The unrelenting semicircle of muscle pumped over the little brother’s frame. As if it were determined to pulp him. The firm edges of the innumerable flesh ridges scraped against from Nameless’s backside all the way up to his shoulder blades. Like a parting kiss, before the bursting muscle acted as if the tiny was a ballast. The bulging ball pushed out against the young man’s form and balance the immeasurable amount of weight placed on the wheezing foot lint’s organ system. Forcibly squeezing him down into a size smaller than his 1/4-inch proportions, ribs that protected his vital organs were now a threat to damaging its very charges. By snapping and then shoving those shrapnel edges right through his sensitive lungs.

Ugh…my…lungs…my heart.

Just as the fire building up in the little brother’s chest had become too much, the mattress of iron flesh then tensed and pulsed. With enough disastrous might that the 1/4-inch-tall half-elf thought this would be it. 

That he was going to pop like a tense grape.

Instead, his body was forcibly catapulted out of the collapsing ceiling in a tumble.

The half-elf gasped. His lungs burned from the relief. While his gaping lips brushed over the slimy pool of foot sweat that spread from the field-sized pale foot. Yet, the artificial light of the ceiling did not wash over the little brother without discrimination. Rather, there were clouds of shadow that cooled his body down. Passing overhead and supplanting the heat of the ceiling’s light with a mustier miasma.

Shit…I’m not…

Nameless rolled over and confirmed his fears. His cock jerked in attentive arousal at the sight of the literal behemoth of cylindrical flesh. The eccentric polygon was bloated at the end that hung over the little brother’s head. The toe’s pale skin, covered by a couple of horizontal pink rings indicating the segments created by the toe’s joints, glistened under the incandescent light.

I must move…

Alas, the vitality that the young man possessed earlier seemed to have leaked out. Along with the dribbling fluid that leaked out of his throbbing hose. Thus, Nameless, was made feeble by

a dearth of physical strength and surplus of misplaced sexual vigor. As he stared at bloated python curling over his prone form. The shifting wind tainted by the humid fog building up from the oni’s stale foot funk.

“Houseki!”

Nameless’s voice was like a fragile instrument. His vocal cords were strained by the constant splashing of briny deluge and run ragged by his constant yelling of the failed magic incantation. 

So much of that viscous salt and grime had sunk down through the young man’s stomach and lungs, penetrating through the building blocks of his body and staining them. Such that he was unsure if his swallows and breaths would ever feel the same again.

Well…that was a worry he would have had during quieter moments. Presently, the lean underbelly of the rubbery python, dwarfing the size of the little brother’s own body’s length and width by many folds, wrapped around him. Sealing away the fresh air that was just several fleshy layers away. Instead, the spongy skin of Houseki’s big toe collided against the back of his neck and tugged him up. The rolling, whorled pad of the unaware sister’s portly toe pulled Nameless up by his powerless lower limbs and served as a plush cushion. A small comfort for the dizzying ride that the half-elf would be taken on next. For the recently mobile mass of flesh, had decided to truly release a physical volley of battering assaults on the carpet. Houseki’s big toe curled around Nameless, and trapped him in its musky hold, while sailing around the carpet. The bulbous head of her perspiration beaded digit rammed and rammed against the floor along with the rest of the meaty slab that served as her gargantuan foot. Ascending and descending with a house-shattering vibration that stirred up the young man’s insides. The volumes of salty concoction tasted just as horrendous coming out as it did going in.

Otherwise, Nameless would not have been able to tell when he vomited during this chaotic sailing of his sister’s balmy toes in the near sky. 

The flush of his gastric contents soon transformed into a larger concern. As the quality of the added stomach acid had a disastrous interaction with the gluing effect of the oni’s beads of sweat. Big as his head, those briny beads pressed down on the sides of the little man’s bare body. Adhering him safely without much effort on his part. However, his vomitus spread over his form, that was scrunched between steamy toe folds, the caustic mixture spilled and mixed with the solidifying salt. 

Emulsifying it. Like an egg frying on a stove. 

The resistant bulbs of gluey toe sweat dissolved and dispersed. 

The next rapid movement of Houseki’s foot sent Nameless violently careening from his pungent bed. There wasn’t even enough time for the young man to form any thoughts, as he impacted against the thin lake of foot sweat. The warm saline solution  body would have soothed his body if it didn’t ache so much.

I…I’m off…

THUUDDDD!!!

The little brother knew that it was too soon to celebrate. The uneven plain of the drenched scarlet jungle still shuddered from the cataclysmic impact of athletic woman’s foot. Although, Nameless’s quick jerk of his head, to try and meet the wavy countenance of the mountainous beast, to hopefully avoid it, was met with a disastrous sight.

CRRRSSSHH

It was only the ball and toes that of the unaware sister’s foot that initially crashed into the sodden carpet. Casting off lint and wads of wet fuzz that were at least the size of the young man’s body. The rest of Houseki’s foot loomed in the sky. The wavy painting of pink, yellow, and pale skin was falling. Steamrolling into the bent forest of carpet fuzz. 

First was the instep. Then came the tough bulb of muscle, weathered with cracks filled with white build-up, that the half-elf would have called a heel. Right now, at his ¼-inch size. It looked like a small sun, yellowed skin radiating around the pink spherical center. Calloused skin made ubiquitous through eroding pressure. A testament to how active his younger sister was on her feet, filled the surface of this descending star. 

The little brother had no doubt that the pressurized mass would douse his body with his sister’s natural body heat. That is assuming that he was able to live through the immense force of the heel’s body. 

“No! Houseki! Please don’t step down!”

A mortifying horror that Nameless tried to protect himself against by raising his arms over his head. The action barely bought him a second. The gusts of wind blew the protecting limbs away to his sides. As a result, the ensuing vacuum made room for the sweltering smog, unique to the giantess’s heel, to make itself salient in the little brother’s senses. The distinct nature of this part of the towering sister’s foot was apparent before the iron-like skin hit against the half-elf’s body. Due to the heel, being a straight line down from the tons upon tons of force being pumped down with each of Houseki’s steps, any sweat or filth that was trapped in those deep cut’s had less of an opportunity to escape. Instead, they were destroyed of their autonomy and forcibly merged with the steel of oni flesh. That compendium of assimilated matter, left as chalky pith in the wear and tears of the oni’s firm heel, was the source of the foul miasma that burned through the little brother’s senses before the...

CRRRRRTHHUUUDDDD

Was this the third or fourth time? Nameless didn’t care. He tasted iron on his tongue as the rough landscape crashed down on him. The little brother’s skin was bruised and battered by the unique infrastructure of the oni’s well-used heel. 

Houseki’s instep was a sandy beach, her ball were the stone tiles of their mansion, her big toe was a large bed with too many covers piled on top of it. The kingdom-sized sibling’s heel was a dry and rocky landscape. The pressure that was applied on the younger brother’s form was so sharp and diffuse, that he thought that he was struck with several blades at one time. His life must have been threatened at this point. As his muscles tightened and bulged, to the point of matching earlier torment, just to finally amount some measurable movement against the focused oppression of Houseki merely existing. 

Nameless’s taller sister wasn’t even standing. Yet, the little brother thought that he would have thrown up more than stomach chyme if his system was still being violated by toxic perspiration. Then true hell was let loose, and he might have wished that his guts might have come shooting out of his mouth in a gory obliteration...if it meant an end to his ever-increasing agony.

The little brother’s senses exploded; his vision blurred into the same white landscape when he endured the deathly ride on Gloriana’s heel. As the pressure endlessly multiplied. If the half-elf had the capacity of thought, then he would have thought that his sister was standing. He had no way of knowing that, through the stratum of muscle, bones, and fascia, the oni’s other foot was pressed on the sloping upper surface of his current world. Pressing down and casting off the last of the disturbances that bothered her feet.

One foot pressed over the other, grinding down on the upper part of the foot and the nail as they served as a tiller to get rid of carpet fuzz and foot lint. Like him. Instead, both space and time were meaningless to little brother who was reduced to lint. 

Under an unforgiving space that many existences as small as him never escaped from. Only to be destroyed of their features and turned into the white gunk that formed the rough crevices of the athletic woman’s heel. Nameless felt an unbearably sharp sensation against his lungs. The ribs were beginning to bend inward. The young man was being squeezed so thin, that it wouldn’t be long until he was a sticker or even heel grease. Obliterated and unrecognizable slime that added to the foot’s vinegar. Indistinguishable from the white chalk that filled the small cracks in the unaware sister’s harsh and unforgiving heel

No!

Nameless, without thought, did what he could do in the situation. The little brother pounded his hands and legs against the convex land of hardy rubber. He even opened his mouth and sank his teeth into the dry skin that was stained with stale sweat and heel jam. It was less of a drink and more of a meal that splashed onto the foot lint’s palate. Thereby persisting on his tastebuds for longer. It got caught in between his teeth and clogged his flaring nostrils. The unremitting, oppressive presence was just enough to bring the tormented brother back from the field of agonizing white. His discomfort now focused on the toxic sludge that threatened to clog both paths to his airway.

Please…Houseki…

Nameless could feel his mind sink into the cool depths of despair, as the rest of his body burned to a boiling point.

Then the Goddess answered. Whether it was one from the scriptures or the half-elf’s sister was irrelevant. The heel lifted and the little brother with it. 

No…

Nameless’s despair was only mildly elevated. As he fully expected for the next step to be taken, and the foot to descend again. However, this time, the half-elf was certain that the oni’s heel would have a tighter grip on him. That he would be smashed under the unaware sister’s heel for the entire stroll...wherever that grave will be.

Fortune shined upon the sentient heel gunk. The true answer to his prayers coming from the odd angling of Houseki’s foot. Nameless initially attributed this differing sensation, from his prior experience glued to the oni’s steaming instep wrinkles, to being on a different part of Houseki’s foot. 

Then the slope he was adhered to steepened. This wasn’t an ordinary step. In fact, the young man saw a landscape of black material. 

The fabric of Houseki’s Intelligence Operative uniform. Then the world began to race. Puffs of the oppressive aroma blasted from the other foot that the little brother was held over. The heel, that he was hanging from, choppily jerked while massaging itself into its partner ped. It was this disruptive force that would save the young man from his fate.

Finally, the familiar plunging grip of gravity lovingly placed its hold on Nameless’s body.

!!!

Wordless joy swelled in the little brother’s mind and heart. As he fell and tumbled through the ridges of skin that composed the top of Houseki’s foot.

“Hah! Yamato Nadeshiko…”

The voice of Nameless’s sister blasted through the sky with a booming inflection. It was the deepest he heard the rumbling thunder of Houseki’s voice. Sensibly so, since this was the nearest that he was to her body.

Houseki…

Nameless tried to scramble up the foot but failed to find footing. He could only look up at the legs that dwarfed the highest towers of the kingdom’s capital. The rest of his view of his sister’s body was blocked by the bulky book that sat on her lap. The spine and covers replacing her body and face. Leaving just select portions of Houseki’s arms, hands, the lake of black hair on her scalp, and the tips of her horns in the little brother’s view. As he continued to fall and slip down the swat glistening foot. The sheen of salty liquid reduced the friction that would have stopped his descent.

No! I just need one foothold.

Nameless slammed his hand. Again, and again. The shrunken brother’s resolve finally triumphing the vigor of his erection, which had faltered from the excess of horrendous stimuli. Yet, his sister just got farther and farther. Wind sailed past the young man, and he saw the sloping contours of the foot split into several dips.

I can’t fall back to the carpet! I’m not going back down there!

Nameless had just reached the top half of Houseki’s toes. Nearly back to the balmy bedding of her toes. As much as the shrunken brother’s ebbing cock tried to contaminate his mind with fantasies, the peril of the situation, and his brotherly pride prevented it from grabbing a complete hold. He plunged his hands, legs, and even mouth into the fleshy and ripe divot that formed the gap between what was the oni’s largest and second largest toe.

Ughh!!

Nameless reeled from the powerful flavor that spread across his tastebuds. The moist concoction built up within the folds of his sister’s athletic foot, away from the complete reach of a hot bath or shower, was shoved into his abused oral cavity.

Gulp!

The sudden action and shift in events forced the young man to swallow. To clear the way to his windpipes. He deeply regretted doing so but saw little chance for any alternative plans. 

I…I need to climb up.

Nameless thought just as the sloping cliff he stood on began to rock in the sky. The shrunken brother didn’t need to discern the blurring landscape. He had been on a foot enough to guess that his landscape was being moved horizontally. Over the foot that served as his prior residence. Thus, the young man curled his body and held himself close to the fuming pit betwixt two toes. Nameless’s senses watered and burned nearly as much as his limbs, but he was able to hold on for the plane of flesh to stop, and then for the walls of the toes to close in on him.

Mmmpphh!!

The toes that burrowed into the carpet’s forest, that first began this trial by foot, had repeated. This time with the young man squished deep into the claustrophobic space. Sweat-saturated carpet filaments were squeezed into the interdigital space and kneaded through the inner skin of the oni’s toes. With respect to the half-elf’s existence, the mangled scarlet bushes made sure to leave a film of the filthy goo that Nameless thought he had escaped from.

“Such a stupid brother.”

Nameless tried to lurch his head up towards the source of the sonorous call of his name. A deed that required having to squeeze his head and then shoulders through the sleeve of upper toe flesh. 

Pwah!!

Finally, the little brother was able to tear his head free, his shoulders unable to budge within the grimy grip of his Houseki’s toes. Nameless saw the black uniform, expansive like the night sky, draped over the oni’s mountainous body. Her abdomen was a tender and lean slope that led up to the gentlest of protuberances. However, at the half-elf’s current scale, those shelves of mammary fat would be comparable to a large hill. That slender appearance continued up to the exposed pale complexion of the athletic woman’s neckline. Then up the taper of her neck and broadening jawline. Finally, the shrunken brother could see his sister’s face with utmost clarity. 

Houseki’s whimsical statement about her brother, one that the subject in question didn’t know what it pertained to, was accompanied by a soft and jovial beam on his kind sister’s face. Thus, the toe-entrapped brother couldn’t care less about being called foolish. If his family was happy, then he would be fine.

Do I really believe that?

Then, the happy painting of Houseki’s visage blurred out of view. The pressure on Nameless’s shoulder and torso intensified as the toes he was trapped in were shot out and away. His gigantic sister was extending her legs and squeezing her toes. The flesh around him forcefully distorted until spreading wrinkles formed around the digits that bound him with a tightening, vice-like, squeeze. Their pressure was not as disastrous as the oni’s heel, but it took the young man’s breath away. As the intrusive thoughts that he tried to ignore, even when he was at a normal size, reared their ugly countenance back in. 

What if it’s a lie? What if D.J.I.N.N. was lying about four birds and one stone, and she just wanted to grant my perverse fantasy?

The gale force winds caused the half-elf to close his eyes. It forced him in the cooling room of darkness, that pessimism so easily found a nidus to propagate.

No. I do care about my family. Everything that I’ve done until now. Giving up all my free time to study. This crazy plan, it’s so we can all be happy.

Nameless argued with himself. The shrunken brother unable to completely vanquish the self-doubt within him. 

“I wonder if I could pull off the transformation before any of them come back home. Surprise them a little by looking a little bit more like a graceful woman like Frigg.”

What if it’s all just a guise. A lie that I’m fooling myself with. After all, if I was someone of talent or able to exert effort like the rest of my family, then wouldn’t I have succeeded already.

Nameless already felt like vomiting the slimy bolus of toe jam that sat at the bottom of his stomach. Then his world spun as his towering sister’s toes spread. The young man scrambled to maintain his hold, but he already slipped back into the muggy depths of her toe gap. The steamy cup of the interdigital space was slick to the touch, thus the shrunken brother had to dive into the concave of rubber. Ignoring the refuse that festered within the enclosed space, as fresh air sailed by. While the city shattering stomps nearly sent him flying and into the open stone hallways of the mansion. 

No. I can’t give up yet.

THUDDDD!!!

Don’t think about past actions or what it could mean for the future now.

THUDDDD!!!

Don’t think about anything else in the present except for holding on!!!

THUDDDD!!!

Nameless knew that if he fell off now, then getting onto someone else’s body would be just as treacherous of an affair like attaching himself to the slimy interdigital space of Houseki’s toes. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel his mind and heart weighed down. Each sharp inhalation he took, of the skirt and muggy space, weighed the pooling blood down to his twitching crotch. Taking the shrunken individual’s attention away from the rhythmic throb on his back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Commander Titania Tam Lin’s Office

So much paperwork. I was told that there would be desk work once I accepted this position, but can I still call myself a knight if I’m practicing the strokes of my pen more than my sword?

The inverse-wave haired half elf brought her pen up from a completed signature. One of many this past day. She then brought the writing tool up to her lips, and softly bit the back end of it.

“Commander Tam Lin!”

Titania Tam Lin raised her eyes at her subordinate. A rookie fresh from training that commander still hadn’t memorized the name of. But just like the commander, this member of Titania’s regiment also had elongated ears. The fresh rookie’s elvish pinnae that slightly wiggled out of anxiety from addressing her commander for the first time.

Another elf that was fortunate enough to escape from the Wilting Wilderness. Mom’s homeland.

Titania cocked an eyebrow.

“Yes. You may introduce yourself.”

The rookie nodded. Her face hued by a slight flush that complemented the color of her hair.

“Yes! Commander Titania! I’ve been requested to let you know that your fiancé is at the front desk requesting to be in your attendance.”

The young elf’s eyes darted back and forth. Wondering if she missed anything in her short report. Unaware that she forgot to mention her rank, station, and name. A fact that Titania would have gently reprimanded her for, if it were not for the message that the new regiment recruit delivered.

Oh, Goddess no. Why does she always bother me during working hours?

Titania’s temples throbbed from thinking about this aggravating guest. She was about to tell the new regiment member that this self-proclaimed fiancé was to be escorted off the premises. But then Titania’s long ears perked up the noise disturbance that was coming through the hallways.

So much for a productive workday.

Titania shook her head in resignation.

“Thank you subordinate. You may leave.”

The rookie knight, still looking a little lost, brightened upon her commanding knight’s approval. She nodded before leaving the office. Thus, leaving Titania to weather the clingy suitor that was about to waltz through those doors.

Well, maybe she’ll have some interesting gift from abroad? Like she usually does.

Commander Titania Tam Lin’s Office

The first thing that people notice about Clytie Leonhart is her footwear. 

One would think that the orange-haired sylph, whose hair was arranged like the corona of the sun, or her beguiling, narrow eyes that, tinged with mania, would be the first things they noticed.

No. The first thing that people noticed about Clytie was her footwear.

Sylphs, wind spirits, preferred to float in the air. Their feet never touching the ground. Of course, this can be a point of distinction. One that would breed both admiration and prejudice from people unable to exhibit such physical loftiness or freedom. So, Clytie, a person of both status and possessing a desire for traveling, had to meet a common ground.

To float freely, she needed footwear that would give the illusion of walking on the ground.

The sylph’s footwear stretched down from her thighs. Orange and white vertical stripes that went from her thighs to the end of her foot...and beyond. The bottom of Clytie’s footwear wrapped tightly around her feet. Except for the toe section. The toe section was elongated and stretched downward into a hard material. Like the stilts that one would see a carnival performer would stand on and walk around in a clumsy gait. The purpose was for the orange-haired air spirit to stand on the ground and stand on the air simultaneously. Essentially a front and overextended heel that touched the ground, while the rest of the orange-haired sylph’s foot rested comfortably on the air. 

For further clarification, the way that Clytie floats, is essentially her strolling in the air. The firm end of her toe stilts would clack against the ground, with a consonant sound like a feminine heel shoe. It’s a motion that requires considerable precision and poise. In Clytie’s spoken opinion, she said that she needed to practice walking on the ground before mastering this unique gait. The orange-haired sylph also proclaimed, during one dinner party, that walking on the ground was no different than walking on the air. There was just this magical thing with how those air spirits interacted with the varying density of objects, often in ways that seem to be in flagrant disregard for the laws of the natural world. All without the simple utterance of an incantation. Their magic simply bubbling up and being utilized by their mind without the stylized diction. Like some sapient species that are simply unable to use incantations to channel their magic but have other modalities to express the energy.

Regardless, Clytie was an aristocrat from the Skyward Capital. She had become acquainted with Titania when they were children. Back when the Tam Lin family were just three children and two parents. The family was seeking asylum in other countries. As they were in the middle of escaping from the new governing body in charge of the Wilting Woods. 

Of course, Morgan and her husband ,________, considered the Skyward Capital as one possible new home. Despite them knowing it was unlikely. As it was the one truly neutral country in their world. A necessity for the balance of foreign relations, trade, immigration, and all sorts of matters. So, of course, the region wouldn’t consider harboring a family that was being chased after by a country of recently rising militancy.  

The Skyward Capital used to be a simple land mass. Grounded like all the others. Until it was threatened to sink with the rest of the large continent. A land mass that would later become the amphibious country on the other side of the Barren Reach.

However, a smaller half of the continent splintered from the rest. Especially, in their direction of salvaging their sinking land and their people. It took the culminated effort of nearly every mage there, directed for a singular purpose, but the people that would eventually be known as the founders of the Sky Capital triumphed. The mages back then, thousands of years ago, created a magic system that would allow them to levitate the land mass into the sky. A decision that seemed to have a greater cost, but similar results to the rest of the continent that became that amphibious country. A country that was not missing its name, like the far eastern country that was robbed of it, but simply that its name is too hard for any human language to pronounce or write. So, most people just called it amphibious country and left it at that. 

However, the dividends of the early Skyward Capital’s efforts were experienced in later generations. For the descendants had refined the unique magic system, that kept their country in the sky, and created a spatial transportation system. One that was implemented at the borders of all major countries in the world. It facilitated swift transportation and travel between specific and highly regulated checkpoints. A global system that helped foster world stability. It is no understatement in saying that Skyward Capital was the most affluent region in the world due to this. 

That privilege showed in Clytie’s behavior. As she ignored every attempt at being stopped from the knights in her proclaimed fiancé’s regiment, and stormed right into the long-eared half-elf’s office like an incoming storm.

“Well hello Titania! Long time no fly!”

Titania sighed as the haughty air spirit made her entrance. The knight commander then noticed the signature shoes that Clytie wore, that peeked out of her black dress. A black dress that dressed the sylph’s slender and womanly form. A dress that was decorated with designs of plae diamonds, and an open diamond that formed a window exposing orange-haired air spirit’s fair abdomen. The air spirit stood at a height of 5’6”…very shy of Titania’s 5’11 inches, but a lot of that height was from the air-walking sylph’s stilts. In truth, Clytie was only 4’7” in height. However, the little fire ball might as well have matched Titania in height with how she carried herself.

Not that it bothered the inverse-wave haired woman. She appreciated the heat in her childhood friend. Titania just wished that Clytie wasn’t so clingy and didn’t take pleasure in calling herself the lover/fiancé/girlfriend of the knight.

“Yes. Yes. Nice to see you too. Can we please talk later? I have a mountain of work to do.”

Titania tried to be cordial and straightforward. As she knew that dancing around the subject would only give the sun-haired woman ample opportunity to navigate to the seat facing the commander knight’s desk. The musclebound half-elf cocked her eyebrow and waved at the piles of papers that she still needed to attack with her sharp pen.

“Well, more reason for me to be here then.”

The impossible happened. Clytie’s wide grin had somehow broadened even further. With a little dance of a strut, the orange-haired woman sauntered over the chair and sat down on the seat opposite from Titania.

“The one…two things that any fiancé needs during a trying time is the company of their beloved and a gift.”

The orange-haired sylph’s sunny disposition beamed like the blazing orb outside of the office window. As Clytie reached into and through the diamond window over the belly portion of her dress. Then, she pulled out a small box from the inner pocket of her dress.

Well…here we go…guess I’m in this for the long run

“And what gift is this? My dear Clytie…”

Hopefully something that I can eat.

Titania punctuated with a long exhale. As she returned to the documents that needed to be filled out. The muscular half-elf tilted her head up. Far enough so that the two maintained a shared gaze of each other. As the inverse-haired woman knew better than to inspire a tantrum from her shorter friend by maintaining too far of a social distance.

“The gift. Well, aside from me…”

Clytie eyelashes fluttered as she pressed her hands against her chest. She then pushed the small box towards the center of Titania’s desk.

“…why a box of some delicious Skyward Capital’s pixies. Hundreds of them sized at 1/16th of an inch, frosted in decadent marzipan particles, and prepared under humane conditions of an open terrarium range under controlled temperate conditions. I heard a friend of mine say that the savory almond just mixes with their natural umami, that it’s like tender meat is popping right in your mouth.”

Clytie Leonhart smiled to herself.

Titania Tam Lin grimaced.

“Yea...how about no.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Tam Lin Estate

Houseki plodded through the hallways. Turning at the numerous stone intersections without pause. As there was no traffic that the oni had to be wary of, and she was familiar with the layout after living here for most of her life.

It only took a couple minutes for the swift placement of the tall woman’s sizable peds to bring her to the location of the washing and drying room.

Houseki stopped. The pale woman’s eyebrow was quizzically raised at the silver-skinned replica her mother. The golem was holding several articles of clothing. Seeing the maid tending to clothes in this part of the mansion was not an irregularity. Rather, what confused the horned woman was that most of the clothes in the room were either washed, or in the receptacle to be washed. None of them had been dried yet, which was peculiar. As by this point of time there would usually be fresh loads of laundry for the family members to pick up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Nameless’s opinion, based on the small sample size he currently has, the worst moments of being a tiny that was trying to stick to a walking person’s foot, could be divided up into two stand-out moments.

The most obvious is the completion of the step. This terminating motion was a statement. Of the giantess completing one stage of their travel before subsequently beginning the next. The shrunken brother was forced to bear the brunt of the dust that was displaced from Houseki’s scrunching toes. The inaudible noises that he couldn’t hear before now crashed in his eardrums. The dissonant orchestra of chaos would precede the vice grip of the oni’s long toes closing in on each other. Enclosing walls that were simply the result of the force needed for the foot to push off the stone floor that served as an impromptu ballast. Anatomy and its movement, crushing you, that dictated function. Nothing more malicious than that. Then the giantess’s leg pumped, and the young man had to endure another cycle of the potent musk. This was a physically enchanting portion of the cycle.

The other horrid moment of being stuck in the interdigital space of the horned-woman’s foot, was during the zenith of the airborne, pale foot’s arc. Mentally speaking, it was difficult for the shrunken brother to stay calm, when he was left feeling weightless in a gap filled with gunk and beads of brine. Each fetid bodily product complicated the young man’s attempt to stay glued in the space, and not fall towards the distant ground.

No matter what. I’m definitely not going to chance dislodging and starting this whole process again.

Nameless tried to peer up at his younger sister’s titan-sized body. Attempts to fully perceive the oni’s figure was a strenuous affair for the half-elf. As the pumping of the toned woman’s legs, and the displaced wind, blocked out and obfuscated her form. Instead, the shrunken brother had to interpret his sister’s form with the stimuli that were pumped directly into his brain. From the cyclic pump of her towering legs.

A confluence of dust and foot miasma that steamrolled through Nameless’s sensitive nose and eyes. Clogging and watering those sensory organs respectively. The thunderous clap that jarred his hearing, balance, and sensation of his environment. Only the firm capture of the interdigital flesh acting as a possessive ballast. Then there was the musty humidity, that left his nubile body saturated with oni brine. Finally, Nameless had to confront the guilt, as he rested against the pliable plush of the toe gap. His mouth slightly parted, and the air was so dense that he could taste the young woman’s foot sweat, without even extending his tongue out into the pale skin. A floor that was now so expanded, that the young man could see the diamond cells and that make up the ridges of this cramped space.

If only…

Nameless closed his eyes, and shamefully addressed his vacillating erection. His head embroiled in a tumultuous conflict.

…I was on the foot of someone that wasn’t my family.

A head that was being walled by two sides. Lubricious lust and filial piety. Almost like the enclosing toes, slicked with salt, that nearly collapsed on Nameless with the final city-shattering stomp

“Hello Mistress Houseki.”

Thus, Nameless failed to realize that his transportation had met someone else. The shrunken brother opened his eyes and turned his head to the monumental sight of a black beast, with a curved shining head and a thin white mane. A black piece of footwear with a ribbon on top of it. Gloriana’s loafers that the half-elf had nearly lost his arm to earlier today.

“Hi Gloriana…”

Nameless noticed an unnatural pause in his towering sister’s voice. He tried to tilt his head up. To figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, the vantage point from the space between Houseki’s toes was a bit lacking.

“This is odd? I didn’t get the time wrong.”

The half-elf felt the walls roll around him. He tried to stand up and lean on one of them. Choosing a side in hopes that he wouldn’t be left prey to however the flesh would engulf him. A flex of Houseki’s toes as she shifted her body. Nameless was able to see the towering oni’s arms angled at the top of the washing apparatus that Gloriana was standing next to.

“No Mistress Houseki . If anyone it was me. I had a couple unexpected interruptions in my regular schedule that I could not neglect.”

“Interruptions? May you give me a summary.”

Interruptions…wait! Is Gloriana going to mention the alarm at the basement!!

Nameless’s felt relief and hope. At the possibility of Houseki being informed of the evidence of his foolish endeavor, and that the information may pay in dividends for the shrunken brother later. That the intelligence operative will sharpen her gaze and find her little brother sooner than later. Then this can all be behind them.

If Nameless were at his normal size, then his heart would have plummeted. However, he was not. The young man was just a little 1/4-inch man standing in between his younger sister’s big and adjacent toe.

“Yes. The first of the disturbances were an old pair of Mistress Morgan’s footwear in Master Nameless’s room.”

Oh…oh shit! I must have not put it back correctly when Houseki and Nahla came to my room!

Nameless wished that he chose to duck his head into the folds of perspiring skin. Or even buried himself  under a clump of toe jam. Just like how he was playfully buried in the beach’s sand by his siblings when they were younger. Instead of listening to the embracing conversation. As the half-elf felt his body chill and his heart race. The cavity within his torso tightening, almost compelling the shrunken brother to curl himself up into a ball. For, what else could he do. At his size how could he try and steer this conversation away.

“So, you decided to follow your analysis protocol for any irregularities? Isn’t that a bit…too sensitive of you? I’m sure that those shoes were just misplaced and collected dust in a space of Nameless’s room.”

Nameless had little time for self-pity or admonishment. The thunderous inflection of Houseki’s voice was followed by a shaking of the interdigital space. Mini quakes that nearly caused the shrunken brother to fall forward. Deeper into the pallid toe gap. A near accident that just made the young man more frustrated with himself. As it made it impossible to ignore what was going on above. The family’s long-time maid and his younger sister were casually talking about his dirty little secret. Yet, through those bitter feelings, Nameless could still hear a hint of frustration in the oni’s voice. Why was Houseki so upset to hear that this delayed Gloriana.

Please. Just please tell me that she threw it away.

“I understand your grief Mistress Houseki. I would have just disregarded the footwear and recycled its materials, but I noted a nearly disintegrated stain on them. On the chance that this could be evidence of an assault on any of the family members, I must act according to protocol and analyze the molecular components.”

Nameless’s heart plummeted. No. This was more like shrunken brother’s heart fell from a stories-high window and shattered on a dirty floor. 

Just…just great. How am I going to explain my semen on mom’s footwear?

Nameless’s head throbbed as it raced. First, he told himself that maybe Gloriana won’t be able to tell after all this time. Then the young man was angered. That the maid probably analyzed his seminal fluids from the wet dreams he had while he was younger. Then he thought that maybe there was a way to twist the truth. Only for him to stop that train of thought, and worryingly jump on another one. What if a family member found him while he was stuck to their feet? That couldn’t be just played off as a coincidence. They could connect the dots. Find a connection that would incidentally lead to the truth. That he was a foot-focused degenerate.

Fuck…this is so humiliating.

The burning in Nameless’s chest, while wrapping his arms around the bobbing toes of his sister, to not fall off, was one rooted from his mortification. At being an invisible witness to his eventual ignominy in the eyes of his family member. The guilt he felt, was only exacerbated by the fact that his phallus was still as hard as diamonds. Was it the humiliating circumstances, or the fact that the plush flesh of Houseki’s toes was providing the necessary friction for erotic stimulation?

I didn’t think it would feel like this.

Nameless thought back to the envisioned fantasy he had back in his room. When he was but a gnat under the feet of a conversing Houseki and Nahla. The difference in that fantasy was that he had no concern or worry. Now, in reality, his supposed pleasure was burdened by the weight of his real life catching up to him. The only difference being that there was a missing cat girl. 

“Okay. That is understandable. What about the other obstruction in your schedule Gloriana?”

A variance that would be corrected right now. Just before the golem make would have mentioned the false alarm, in the hidden passageway of the basement, to Houseki.

“Hey! How’s it going Gloria! Oh Houseki! I’ve been looking for you! Are you ready for our big sparring match!”

Nameless first heard the powerful slaps of the light brown hill and pythons in the distance. One accompanied by the scratching voice of his youngest sister. The cat girl Nahla.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Houseki saw her tabi socks, the ones she had asked the family servant to wash over an hour ago. However, the appearance of the black socks, and a flaring of the slender woman’s nose, confirmed that was not the case. 

“Hello Mistress Houseki.”

In fact, none of Houseki’s tabi socks had been washed.

“Hi Gloriana…”

Great! Am I going to have to walk around barefoot for another hour?

The dark-haired woman, uncomfortable with how the cool air kissed the bare skin, wiggled her toes. Then the nervous oni wordlessly gestured to the pile of clothes that she thought the maid would have washed and dried by now. Like every other day.

“This is odd? I didn’t get the time wrong.”

“No Mistress Houseki. If anyone it was me. I had a couple unexpected interruptions in my regular schedule that I could not neglect.”

Gloriana apologetically bowed forward. For Houseki, seeing the maid, who looked exactly like her mother, acting so humbly towards her, was always a bit inharmonious to her senses. So, the intelligence operative tried to ignore those discomforting feelings, and continued her line of questioning. 

“Interruptions? May you give me a summary.”

Meanwhile, the oni’s feet got a little bit more fidgety. The subtle knowledge that they could be viewed by the golem, even though she most likely didn’t have an opinion towards them, was enough to make the horned woman self-conscious about her physical insecurity once more.

“Yes. The first of the disturbances were an old pair of Mistress Morgan’s footwear in Master Nameless’s room.”

Houseki eyebrows twitched. As she felt the barest of disturbances near her toes. The horned woman tried to chalk it up to the conversation somehow returning to the topic of footwear. A subject that the pale woman wished was clean and wrapped around her feet.

“So, you decided to follow your analysis protocol for any irregularities? Isn’t that a bit…too sensitive of you? I’m sure that those shoes were just misplaced and collected dust in a space of Nameless’s room.”

I guess that I shouldn’t be that bothered by my tabi socks not being ready yet. I’m glad to know that Gloriana is so protective of us, in areas that some of us wouldn’t think.

One particular person emerged in the oni’s mind. The youngest sibling of the Tam Lin family. Nahla.

Oh…wait…I made her that promise. Didn’t I?

“I understand your grief Mistress Houseki. I would have just disregarded the footwear and recycled its materials, but I noted a nearly disintegrated stain on them. On the chance that this could be evidence of an assault on any of the family members, I must act according to protocol and analyze the molecular components.”

What time is it right now? It’s probably close enough to the time that I promised to go outside with her. Would Nahla be okay with doing it later today?

Houseki recalled that she promised Nahla that the two would spar near the training field. Although, that would be a little bit more difficult. Since the former didn’t have any clean tabi at the moment.

“Okay. That is understandable. What about the other obstruction in your schedule Gloriana?”

Houseki began, but then she heard the rapid thumps of the keen-eared cat girl. Whose sharp senses pinpointed where the oni was in the house. The taller sister tried to maintain a neutral expression, to not give away the discomposure that she was currently fighting a losing battle against. The double-pronged assault of the sometimes too intrusive Nahla, and the first family member today that would see her gargantuan bare feet.

“Hey! How’s it going Gloria! Oh Houseki! I’ve been looking for you! Are you ready for our big sparring match!”

The caramel skinned cat girl bounced on the balls of her feet in anticipation. The wide grin on her young face, still tinged with a cherubic touch, was hard to say no to. Thus, Houseki slightly faltered. It would have been simple to state the reason, that she would prefer to just wait an hour for her tabi to be finally washed, but that would draw needless attention to her meaty slabs. 

Ugh!

Houseki’s vision flitted down to the pale skin of her exposed feet. Her apprehension doubled once she saw the clash between Nahla’s cute brown toes and her oversized pale beasts. Sure, the cat girl’s feet were caked in dirt and could use a fresh scrubbing, but they weren’t cumbersome or oversized. They looked cute on her. Meanwhile, the oni couldn’t bear keeping her eyes down there for too long. Due to the presence of her own boorish feet. Thus, the horned woman was inspired to make a decision then and there. A possibly ill-advised one, if she could hear the words of the unknown fourth party that was a slight discoloration in the invaginated space between her bulbous big toe and its smaller neighbor.

“Uhh…yea. Of course, Nahla. Just give me a moment.”

Houseki answered robotically. The young woman’s arm was angled behind herself. As she reached out for a pair of tabi socks. The rough texture of her well-used palms, from rigorous training, paused for a short moment as they engulfed the firm fabric of the black sewn. The surface of the footwear was a bit distorted from soaking up her sweat. Yet, the older and taller sister fought the sensible inhibitions of confronting her longstanding insecurity and brought the tabi to the side of her hips.

“Just give me a moment.”

Houseki gently smiled at her younger sister, before sitting down on the room’s sole bench. Her legs moved in a smooth upward arc, to facilitate the entrance of her 12- and 1/2-inch peds into the stuffy insides of ripe and overused tabi.

“Sounds great! Totes looking forward to showing you my stuff in more natural terrain. Oh! Gloria! Did you finish with my laundry yet?”

Meanwhile, Nahla latched herself to the waist of the silver maid. The latter was a bit taller than the former. As Gloriana was equal in height to the mother of the family, who was taller than the caramel skin cat girl. The maid possessing a height of 5’8” to Nahla’s height of 5’4”. Although, that differential wasn’t on either of their minds. 

The careless young girl was simply salivating at the opportunity to display her real-life growth, as a paladin to the intelligence operative. She had not even noticed that Houseki was acting a little oddly. 

While the maid had two concerns on her mind. One, she noticed that Mistress Houseki had grabbed the tabi socks and was still a bit insecure about her feet. As much as Gloriana wanted to guide her mistress on a path of greater self-confidence, the golem was aware that confidence was not given, so she could little in that regards. Second, was the matter of Mistress Nahla entering the room, when Gloriana was going to mention the second obstruction in her schedule. The false alarm that triggered in the basement. Of course, divulging such information in front of Nahla would prompt the disclosure of other pieces of sensitive information. Information that only Mistress Houseki, Titania, and Morgan were privy to.

Morgan’s physical replica had the self-awareness and cognitive capability to know that she couldn’t make the executive decision of letting Nahla know about the hidden corridor in the basement, especially with the sensitive and volatile wish-granting object down there. Who knows what the impressionable and immature child would do with that information?

Thus, Gloriana merely got back to her chores. Grabbing and placing the dirty clothes to go through the wash, while entertaining Nahla. The family servant decided that she would inform one of the three, that was knowledgeable of the hidden corridor, later.

Meanwhile, the older of the two siblings smoothly shoved her feet into the stale socks. Houseki, instead of a grimace from having her feet encased in such old clothes, couldn’t help but physically express the relief that she felt from the gentle warmth of that cozy sewn blanket. The oni then her stepped down on the floor. She drank in the sensation of the thick sewn cushioning the hot muscles and bone. Flexing her toes, she stood up, and felt that all was right in the world. The oni didn’t even feel that bothered from the mild disturbance she felt, which was barely a prick against the meat of her foot. As she attributed it to the battle-weathered internal of the sock. Thus, the toned woman chose to ignore it. 

What else was Houseki supposed to do? Go without a pair of tabi and fight against Nahla barefooted.

“Okay! Nahla! Let’s go out to that spot near the river.”

Houseki announced as she stood up. Nahla soundlessly pumped her fists in the air and hurried  behind the sister with the longer strides. Although, the dark-skinned cat girl wasn’t behind her pale oni of a sister for that long. As Nahla rapidly sped through the hallway in excitement. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It might as well have been a few feet at normal size, but Nahla’s small feet, dwarfed by Nameless’s own feet at his normal height, was now an imposing landscape. Furthermore, unlike Houseki’s rather indolent slabs of towering meat, the energetic cat girl’s debris-caked soles just couldn’t stay still. 

From a distance that was several training fields away, the shrunken brother saw the rolling tidal wave of ground-colored tones shift in the distance. 

Her portly brown toes.

His adorable cat girl of a sister was anything but that innocent appearance. She was much shorter than the pale mountain the young man found himself on, but the vigorous activity of the metric tons of muscle and bone was utterly awe-inspiring. Light brown towers shifting in diameter, bulging, and tensing, as the dark cylinder above resisted gravity. 

Her bouncing legs and tail.

All sprouting from her personally styled dress. A floating fringe of a wispy sheet. Like a barrier of clouds to protect her thighs and torso from being freely observed. 

Even if Nameless could, he had a hard time tearing his eyes away from the fanning and scrunching toes. Brown pythons covered in what could only be described as variegated chalk and large black spots. The dirt and mud that found its home on the underside of the energetic cat girls soles. Undoubtedly, Nahla must have rushed to this room from the outside of the manor. Probably training under the afternoon sun.

Wait…did she just ask Houseki to join…

“Uhh…yea. Of course, Nahla. Just give me a moment.”

Nameless felt a surge of fear overwhelm his senses. Only for it to be supplanted by a wave of sticky flesh wrapping around him. The towering oni’s pale toes scrunched up once more. Forming a cocoon of slimy rubber that nearly engulfed the shrunken brother’s entire body. Only the young man’s forcibly tilted head was lifted out of the sweaty quicksand.

This…this is bad.

The pressure did not abate. In fact, it increased with the shifting movement of the giantess above. Although, the young man was unable to tell what was going on, with the circulation to his head being effectively clamped off.

I don’t think that I’ll be able to stay on Houseki’s foot if she decides to fight.

“Just give me a moment.”

Fortunately, the pressure diminished. Before Nameless could construct a plan, the landscape he was on began to move once more.

Dang it. I need to get higher on this foot. But the closest leverage that I can get to it is the bottom hem of Houseki’s clothes…shit can I make it to her ankle in time.

Nameless was surprised to feel his floor slow down. The world spun, as the giantess he was residing on sat down. When it stopped, and the rubbery interdigital space stilled, Nameless took stock of the room he was in. The light brown skin of the giantess leaning into to hug the silver-skin giantess maid, and the pile of clothes in the distance. Piled up high like a mountain range. It was then that Nameless realized that they were in the laundry room.

Oh Goddess!!

A thought that seemed so small compared to what would happen to his surrounding environment. For the very air began to burn.

Is the air on fire?

Nameless fell back and away from the encroaching heat. Deeper into the rubbery pit betwixt Houseki’s toes, the young man was able to see a wave of black. A sheet that engulfed the light and was composed of filament that was not wrinkled and smooth. Finally, it clicked for Nameless. 

He wouldn’t have to worry about falling off. 

As Houseki was going to put on her tabi socks…and he would be trapped inside.

“Sounds great! Totes looking forward to showing you my stuff in more natural terrain. Oh! Gloria! Did you finish with my laundry yet?”

“Houseki! Houseki! I’m down here! Come on I can’t be too small for you to not feel me!”

Nameless raised and rammed his fist against the noncompliant skin of his younger’s interdigital space. The fetid musk, an intolerably intoxicating air that the shrunken brother used to avoid, he now fully dove into. The young man then used the full force of his power to try and get his giantess of a sister’s attention

BODY BOOST MAGIC!!

The shrunken brother once again yelled an incantation, that failed to utilize the power welling up within him. Nameless did not have the time to consider why his body hadn’t been functioning properly since he woke up. Instead, his body trembled when the light of the room begun to vanish. Then the cloud of stale brine billowed over him. A prelude to the unavoidable experience.

I have to jump…but if I…

The menacing image of Gloriana’s sharp footwear emerged in his head. A mere loafer that nearly brutalized his entire body.

No…I can’t…

Nameless pleadingly looked up at the vanishing sight of his sister. The horned woman’s face was angled downwards, and the edges of her lips were angled upwards. In what would have been a gentle smile.

“Houseki…you can’t see me? Even though you’re staring right at me.”

Nameless couldn’t fathom that the bashful expression, on his sister’s usually restrained face, was the result of her physical insecurity being hidden away. That it was not an expression that was simply there to twist the figurative knife in his soul. This gut-wrenching experience, caused by the walls of the stuffy sock that sailed past the shrunken brother’s head. Overwhelming the relatively pleasant oxygen of his younger’s sister foot, with an atmosphere unlike any other. 

The heat of this burning air was so intense, that the half-elf didn’t know if the sweat, that covered his body, was his own oozing form or from his sister’s aerosolized perspiration. The latter having hotly condensed on his relatively cool form. For the young man’s body temperature was far outmatched by the boiling internals of this sock. A construct that was constituted of endless roads of interwoven black. Like the very dark space of the night sky was consuming him. 

This reminded him of a bedtime story that Uncle Jafar would read to them as kids. One about the heat death of the universe…

Again. He was an eccentric man. Reading that emotionally scarring story to kids. Even if it were sterilized and censored of its darker elements. For now, Nameless was forced to compare that terrifying tale to his current experience. 

His lungs were coated in the suffocating atmosphere that forced itself through his nasal and oral conduits. The intensity of the air was enough to leave his ears ringing. Like that one time when he took a bite of extremely spicy Oesis cooking and was swearing up and down at the dinner table.

“Hou—”

Cough

Nameless vocal cords gave out, and the strength within his muscles ebbed out. The light of the world vanished and so too did Houseki’s gently twisted lips. So often, they were a plush interstice of reassurance. Now those tightly sealed vermillion borders felt like a taunting final image.

Darkness.

Heat.

And an unbearable odor that was so strong, that Nameless was unable to tell where his skin began, and the atmosphere began. Thus, he lost his footing. He stumbled. Then he fell. 

How?

The one reassurance that Nameless had was the oily crevice in between Houseki’s largest and adjacent toes. However, the mind-rending world the half-elf was forced into, as inch after disastrous inch of the oni’s foot was engulfed by the never-ending darkness, had stolen any mental platform that could have served as a fixture of reason. Thus, the sticky skin of the horned woman’s foot, that also slimed from its reintroduction to the familiar environment, loss any sort of friction that could have glued the young man to place. 

Nameless careened out, ahead of the descending pale oni toes, and into the downward out-pouching of the seen world he was entrapped in. The tabi was so thick that he could not see anything, he could not distinguish any personal sensation that was owed only to his body. Just the feeling of weightlessness as he merged with the heated wind. Such a rancid element, that it too must have been pained to exist. Yet it did exist, at a microscopic scale. As the byproduct of a diligent oni that stomped upon the pebbles on her path. 

Nameless could not see the grasping boulders, Houseki’s toes following him, but he would feel them soon enough. Right after he regained his sense of self. The all-encompassing tabi miasma was interrupted by the blunt impact that traveled through the shrunken brother’s body. The proprioceptive nature of this physical injury outlined his body in the darkness. Nameless grasped on that image within in his inner eye, like it was a lifeline. To maintain his sanity, So, by the time that those bulbous boulders of slimy rubber spread over the shrunken brother’s body, he was able to paint a disturbing image within his head. Within this cavern too rank to be called clean. Thick strands of oozing sweat surrounded by clumps of matted sock lint. All stretching and resting from a firm impression that outlined the 12 plus inches of Houseki’s pale, wrinkled step. This disturbing cavern, filled with fumes that boiled the skin through mere contact, was broken apart by the incoming beast.

This was all imagined by Nameless in the past. During his daydreams. Of course, never to this degree of severity. Imagination just lacked the intensity that reality did. The young man wordlessly screamed as he felt the floor rise, and the fumes sail past his features and the toes crash down over him. He did not know where he was, but he was sure that he was between a rock and a hard place. The unforgiving bite of slimy filaments that made up the bottom of Houseki’s tabi, and the concentric circles of one of her toes.

It could have been the largest. It could have been the smallest. It was impossible to tell, just that the younger sister’s toe steamrolled over the shrunken brother’s body. For the giantess, it was a mere flex of the phalanges. For the tiny half-elf, those popping bones pushed the meat of one of Houseki’s five mighty toes right into his body’s frame. 

What…can I even do…

The answer seemed simple enough. It also appeared to be the only option that he had. Within the humid trench that was far too moist for his grasping hands to get any hold of. The unrelenting features of the cavern and the beast were just too coated in salty ooze. Thus, the intrepid explorer had to yank his hands away from wherever he grasped. Nameless only had one to two attempts before it was too late.

The pressure from Houseki’s bloated toe increased. 

The answer was simple.

Increased.  

There was only one.

And increased.

He could only wait for this all to be over. Like a helpless piece of sock lint.

Like a child’s toy, Nameless was forced to open his mouth, and wheeze the escaping air from his lungs. An open invitation for the pithy ridges of the toe’s whorls to bulge through the shrunken brother’s mouth.

SSCCRRRNNCCCH

Wait.

The newly drenched toe rinds were far from anything fruity. The taste indescribable. The first experience  within a sock was completely incomparable to the young man’s daydreams.

SSCCRRRNNCCCH

Wait.

The pressure continued to build, and the snapping sounds of fibrous sinew echoed from above. Calf and thigh muscles moved for the trunk of the giantess’s body to ascend. Meanwhile, the powerful vibrations dissipated over the prey’s body, as he was devoured by the belly of one of the towering sister’s toes.

Wait. 

It was obvious now, that the oni was standing. Nameless could only thank the goddess that he found himself underneath such a soft surface of skin, and not under any other part of Houseki’s foot. 

As he was sure that his body could not bear the physical force of being walked upon by any other part of the giantess’s foot. Especially the heel. 

“Okay! Nahla! Let’s go out to that spot near the river.”

Nameless felt, more than heard the traveling thunder of Houseki’s voice. Then the new cycle of his life began. The shrunken brother felt his prison ascend into the sky. Weightlessness consumed his body for those endless seconds. That ripped at his mind and heart. Messy, gasping breaths sputtered from his stretched mouth, while he was consumed by the fear that eventually his prison would descend again. Just like that first heavy step under Houseki’s foot in the living room.

THUDDDDDD

Except this time, in the following seconds, the young man was consumed by the fetid foot flesh on one side, and sodden sock slop on the other side. This hellish prison effectively buried and drowned him each time Houseki completed a step. Preventing oxygenated blood from reaching his vital organs during that explosion of pressure.

The shrunken brother could only wait.

THUDDDDDD

Time his breaths.

THUDDDDDD

Learn his new schedule needed to live in this engulfing space. One without studying or trying to maintain a chipper mood around family.

THUDDDDDD

Nameless could feel his thoughts and senses draining out. 

THUDDDDDD

The young man’s body reactively tuned out any unnecessary faculties for the sentient toe lint to simply persist.

THUDDDDDD

Survive.

THUDDDDDD

Squish. Squelch. Nameless’s body was like putty. Ribs creaking and organs squeaking in ways they shouldn’t. As he was molded and mended into the battering concentric circles filled with chalked white and acrimonious salt. The unforgiving pressure of a calm, gentle, and kind sister...that was completely unaware of his existence. 

THUDDDDDD

Sisters now. As the rumbling booms of their voices traveled through his prison as vibrations. The second hand of the figurative ticking clock. The minute hand being completed by the cycle of the pale wrinkled slab pounding overhead. Bringing the fat portion of bulging toe meat to crash down on the shrunken brother. The hour hand…

THUDDDDDD

That was signified by the changing temperature. Nameless felt his surroundings shift. Something was being wrapped around the tabi. The bite of the plump toe increased as the giantess kneeled to complete the task, then it relented as she stood back up to full height. 

The boggy ground of the unaware sister’s foot impression became much more unforgiving. It was an even worse pressure than when he was pounded by a bare foot. What made it worse was the heat that laid beyond his reach. The change in the shifting atmosphere, beyond the stratosphere of his musty cavern world, had changed. The crashes of the clamoring normal world were more distant and frequent. While the temperature naturally increased, heedless of the cyclic pressure.

They were outside. Houseki and Nahla. Nameless unconsciously realized this reality. A soul-shattering one. As the shrunken…the little brother knew what his bigger sisters had planned today.

The jubilant booms of Nahla’s voice in the laundry room were tucked in the few slivers of Nameless’s mind that was still active. Of what Houseki and her had planned to do outside of the mansion.

No…

His regret and despair were further exacerbated. Through the heat, pressure, and darkness, he felt one portion of his outline that stood firm. Against the toxic environment that seemed set out to destroy him. It was fueled by a desire so twisted that the young man wasn’t sure if he could untwist it.

The space between his thighs pulsed with a small heat and pressure of its own. 

Even in this alien environment. 

Underneath the single toe of his unaware sister. 

Nearly drowned and buried.

His body still throbbed with sin.

Then the slight give of the boulder above disappeared, and the landscape rapidly moved in one direction.

Either a saving grace or a damning condemnation. As the little brother, whose body was drenched in the viscous brine, slipped out of the brutal and torturous safety of the toe’s engulfing pad. 

Into the vast ocean of his bigger oni sister's pale wrinkles and swampy insole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“…I bet that you’re going to be so impressed! I’ve finally learned a lot of the basics that my instructors have been telling me about. They aren’t as cool as the advanced moves I’ve been trying to get down before, but it’s really shocking how much better of a fighter I am.”

Nahla spread her arms wide as she skipped through the halls. The free-spirited sister elicited a deep chuckle from the more reserved of the two.

“Hmm~ a fighter. Here I thought that paladins are known more for being reliable protectors.”

Houseki casually strolled beside the jumping brown bean of a sister. Some of the cat girl’s leaps nearly brought the top of her fuzzy ears close to the height of the horned woman’s jawline. The oni was certain that her younger sister would excel as an adventurer. She just needed a little more restraint and discipline. That was something the intelligence officer was more than happy to offer. It just so happened the easiest way to convince the energetic reckless younger sister, was through an excuse of training.

“Pshh~ Yea I can do that!”

Nahla crossed her arms and raised one hand. Then she flippantly waved the raised hand as she spoke.

“I’m just worried how you’re going to feel when I overtake you today.”

Nahla smugly grinned at her taller sister. It was a cute sight, but, regrettably for Nahla, the horned woman was someone who was known to give her best effort. Furthermore, Houseki never underestimated her opponents

“Hmm~ We’ll see.”

Houseki was a little worried when she was putting on her stale tabis. If the ragged socks would hamper the oni’s performance, but, oddly enough, she felt even more light-footed on her feet than usual. Contrary to her expectations. As the pale woman was already familiar with how her demolished socks barely supported her large feet. So, to say that she didn’t feel that similar handicap, was a surprising sensation.

“Oh yea, Houseki!”

Nahla began to saunter. Her hands behind her head and her tail excitedly wagging. Teasing the taller sister as it twitched up and close to her nose. Fortunately, the dark-haired woman noticed and leaned back before the prehensile fuzz could elicit a series of sneezes.

“How has your studying been today?”

Nahla cocked her head. The child-like concern, that interspersed her wild energy, was just characteristic of the cat girl. The youngest of the Tam Lin family was straightforward in her emotions and shown them freely. Unlike her taller compatriot.

“Mmh~ Actually good today. Maybe it’s because I studied in the living room.”

The carpet did feel comfortable on my feet.

Houseki and Nahla stopped near the exit that led to the back of the house. The oni pulled out a pair of sandals and began to tie them around her feet.

“Good! We don’t get to spar that often, so I don’t want any reason for you to hold back!”

Nahla said as she pressed her hand into her other arm. The cat girl flexed the brown arm shaft and displayed a prominent bulge. Not the biggest that the oni has seen, as the horned woman has seen some huge biceps during her operations. However, if it were boosted by magic, then it was sure to pack a punch.

“Again. We’ll see. I’m confident in your strength Nahla, but I hope that you’ll see after today that there is more to combat then just the motion of one’s fist.”

Houseki finished tying her sandals and the pair walked out of the house. The cat girl hopped over the uneven terrain while the horned woman was prudent in the steps she took.

“Yea. I’m sure about that. Otherwise, mom wouldn’t be so well known for being an amazing adventurer back in the day.”

Nahla said as she peered at the training field that they were at this morning.

“But I think that I’ll be fine.”

Houseki nodded. They continued to talk some more and passed through bushes and trees. The pair of sisters walked deeper into the wilderness and arrived near a lake.

“So why did you want to fight me here Houseki?”

Nahla said as she lifted a foot and spread her toes. Her head tilted down to inspect if she picked up any insects of plants that should be dusted off before the fight. The light brown canvas of her sole was well coated in dusty grime and blades of grass. However, it did not reach the cat girl’s threshold of a ped that needed to be wiped. So, she merely huffed before stomping her foot back down.

“It’s so that you get used to fighting against enemies outside of our mansion. So far, you’ve mostly been fighting on our training grounds or at the adventurer’s guild. Sure, you are beating even the students that are senior to you in years, but the story is different when you are out on the field with your adventurer’s group.”

Houseki slid her foot on the grass. A slight tingling sensation could be felt along her middle toe. Not enough to disturb her. 

Now then…how will you handle this?

Nahla’s ears perked up. The youngest sister expected the towering sister to announce when the spar would commence. Instead, her sharp senses warned her of the surprise, but it might have been too late.

As Houseki suddenly vanished. The only evidence of her prior positioning was the rough patch of grass demolished by her foot. The fresh and soil underneath it exposed. A faint trail of smoke, from the energy that burst from the sequential contraction and expansion of her calves, radiated from the burnt ground.

Nahla put up her guard.

Houseki was in the shadows.

Nameless was in the direct line of the impact. The powerful stomp from the oni who was unaware of her guest. A force that permeated a destruction that ruptured the surface of a soil like a fluctuant wheal. The pain that the little brother felt underneath his big sister, as the burning texture of her gargantuan foot, leaking heat and mired with fresh and stale sweat, was definitely the last thing that he needed this moment.

Thus began the sisterly spar.