t was a peaceful day in the Magic Forest. The wind blew across the old trees and it made their leaves and branches sing with the tranquil melody of the morning. The sun rose from the mountains in the east, casting a warm light between the leaves, and bathing the little meadow where the incredibly powerful witch Airomed made her dwelling.

Airomed was a half-dragon. While her body was mostly human, her long scaled tail, her pointy horns, her sharp teeth, her fire-red hair and her bright yellow and fiery snake-like eyes betrayed her heritage. Thanks to her draconic ancestry, Airomed was born with a great talent for magic. and was an accomplished alchemist and wizard on her own merit.

But there was another side to her heritage: the almost instinctual drive to accumulate and hoard. And for Airomed, this translated into an almost obsessive need to gather, store, and keep magical knowledge for herself at the expense of everyone else.

This made her reclusive. She made the Magic Forest her home, the farthest away from civilization as she could. There she built a mage tower, and like all mage towers, the place was imbued with powerful space-bending spells. The tower, which to the outside looked like a dilapidated stone lookout, with vines creeping through and moss growing rampant on its north wall, was actually a beautiful mansion on the inside. It housed a great library, a laboratory, a study, many different bedrooms (which the lonely Airomed didn’t really need) and numerous vaults to house magic artifacts that Airomed made, found or outright stole.

The only facility that Airomed could not house inside her tower was, sadly for her, necessarily integral to keep the place running: a garden. It was a plot of land a couple hundred square feet in size, where magical herbs, flowers, fungi and roots grew. All important ingredients for Airomed’s potions (and poisons). And while normally a mage would simply visit a botanist to get them, Airomed’s self imposed isolation made it vital to have it running.

And right now, she needed something from it.

For Airomed was in her laboratory that morning, she had gotten up early, excited for this particular experiment. For the occasion, she was scantily dressed, with a one-piece dress that barely covered her abundant chest, and could well be confused with a swimsuit. But since she was working, she wore a black tunic over it, filled with pockets to store useful tools and trinkets. 

The herbs had been pounded to dust, the heat of the cauldron was just right and the incantations had been chanted. Now, Airomed was smiling at a bright, boiling substance, a trans-dimensional transportation potion.

She couldn’t help but to smile so much that her sharp teeth were showing. Carefully, she poured the liquid into a yet unlabeled bottle, and went to the window.

What she needed right now wasn’t an ingredient. It was a test subject.

“Boy!” she called “Boy, come quickly!”

The recipient of the message was, at the moment, diligently tending to some flowers in the garden. Airomed’s isolation wasn’t, after all, total. Adamant to admit it, she needed a helping hand sometimes. Especially when it came to testing dangerous substances.

Seconds after calling out for him, a small (and by small, we mean a few inches tall) fairy came flying to her face. He had the appearance of a young man, with short brown hair, brown eyes and a white skin with a slight tan from working out in the field so much. He was wearing a white robe, kept cleanly white thanks to a simple spell casted on it by Airomed. She detested dirt.

“Lady Airomed!” he said, happily. “What do you need?”.

“Nothing too difficult, Canaan, don’t worry” she said, knowing well that while he was ever so eager to serve and prove himself useful, he was still a little lazy “It’s just a potion I want you to try”

“Ohhhh!” Canaan exclaimed, interested. “What does it do?”

Airomed smiled proudly, and rather smugly, showing her fangs. “It’s a very useful little thing, it allows the drinker to travel in between dimensions”

“But, Lady Airomed…” Canaan started “We can already do that with spells and-”

“The spells take too long to cast” Airomed interrupted “and they require a lot of prep-work with the magic circles, runes, tuning, et cetera. This will allow us to travel with nothing but a sip and envisioning the place we want to go to”

“I’m not sure Lady Airomed… do you really need to do this test now…?” said Canaan, looking over to the garden.

Airomed sighed, and produced a small vial from her tunic, where some insect-sized creatures were stored. The mere sight of it made Canaan’s eyes glow.

“If you don’t do it now… I’ll have to keep these delicious tinies for myself you know…” she said, giving Canaan an inviting glance.

The fairy looked at the tinies like a dog would look at a snack being dangled in front of it.

“I… I guess I could give the old flowers a little break…”

“Excellent!” exclaimed Airomed, as Canaan entered the lab and flew to the tabletop where the potion was waiting for him. “Just a little sip and we’re done”

Airomed raised the bottle to his little mouth and he took a few sips.

“Good boy!” said the half-dragon.

Canaan smiled happily “Now uhhh… the tiny-”

“In a minute boy, be still” Interrupted Airomed as she procured paper, an inkwell and a pen. “Now… let’s begin with something small, just think of being in the table on the other side of the room…”

“But the tiny-”

“Teleport first, and you’ll get all the tinies you want!” said Airomed.

All the tinies I want… thought Canaan. Sadly for the experiment’s sake, Canaan’s mind was easily distracted. Especially when it came to tinies, his favorite toys, snacks… tinies got everything he wanted.

With that in mind, he started to feel a funny feeling in his tummy.

And with that, he disappeared in a green flash.

Airomed looked back to the table on the other side of the room. Canaan wasn’t there. Curious, Airomed looked under the table, on the cupboards, and then took a glance back at the garden.

But Canaan was nowhere to be found. Then, Airomed sighed in disappointment and walked into a simple room, with a couch, a table and a crystal ball. She whispered a few words, the same she inscribed in invisible runes on Canaan’s back. Just for safe-keeping of course.

Soon after, Canaan’s location in the multiverse was clearly revealed.

It appeared he wanted those tinies a little too much. The potion had teleported him into one of the tiny dimensions.

And it also appeared the potion was unstable, and that it would cycle for a few dimensions before bringing him back here.

Airomed smiled to herself, with a few more words the crystal ball began to show a third person view of Canaan, as if it were the view of an invisible floating eyeball.

She was very glad she kept a cup and a bottle of wine in this room. Canaan was very unpredictable when it came to tinies, and while he was a good-hearted boy, the mischievous nature of a fairy wasn’t easily suppressed. Also, she hadn’t told her the little people were sentient. It was easier that way.

Airomed poured herself some wine and relaxed on her couch. This was going to be an entertaining day.