Vanessa Clearwater is NOT a Goddess.

Dave had crudely carved the words into the cardboard of a shoe box with a plastic bit that had been sent flying across the floor when Vanessa tore a price tag off her new winter running jacket. At first, he had hoped that the small bit of plastic might be strong enough to get the vent's screws turning, but even after hours, all he had managed to do was bend it into a boomerang like shape.

That had been before Christmas? Or maybe it had even been before Thanksgiving?

The tiny man shook his head as he squeezed past the wall of shoe boxes that protected the message from the giantess's sight. The smell of Vanessa's footwear hit him as he popped out on the other side; a heady mixture of leather, sweat, and floral lotion that hung at the bottom of her closet like an imperceptible fog. Every passing week had bought him more freedom from the giantess, but he was still no closer to actually prying open the vent and hopefully making his way out of her clutches.

He was now completely free to explore her apartment. His cage was rarely hung up on its hook or wrapped in chicken wire. Instead it was left open on the floor next to her immense bed, which the tiny man had found somehow more dangerous and distressing than hanging free in the air. Now whenever Vanessa or her monstrous boyfriend rose out of bed or walked through the bedroom, Dave's entire world would shake and he'd be forced to crane his head back to stare at them, their faces obscured by their own enormous anatomy.

A large snort drew his tiny eyes to where the giants slept, entangled up with each other and Vanessa's hefty winter blankets. A groan that sounded like the beginning of a landslide told the little man that Vanessa's man was waking up, and a second later it was followed by the horrific sound of the bed springs creaking as the behemoth rose up. Light and shadow danced across the monster's body, and Dave averted his eyes when he realized Trevor was completely naked before backpedaling toward the closet.

He knelt down at the doorway, watching the giant's hairy feet crash in the distance, and cringed as he heard the giant spit before releasing a waterfall of morning piss into the toilet. Glancing back to the bed, he listened to Vanessa's half-awake mumbling as she grabbed at the spot her boyfriend previously occupied. The redhead's tousled hair moved like waves of fire across the broad plateau before her face finally lifted up into the air with a metallic protest from the bed springs.

“Trev?” Her voice was like gravel, a combination of the early hour and the rum she had been gulping down the night before.

The shower turned on, and Vanessa let out an annoyed grunt. She lowered her head back down toward the pillows but as she did, her dark green eyes caught sight of the shrunken man trying to stay hidden against the forest of her winter shoes. Dave's heart started to hammer in his chest as a smile spread across her lips.

Flinging back the blankets, Dave watched as Vanessa's massive naked form rose up from the huge bed. Her heels hit the floor with a crash, with the rest of her foot landing a second later with a loud slap, then the rest of her body ascended as she stood up. The redhead's muscles bulged against what little flab had coated them during the holiday season as she started to step toward him.

Looking up at her, his view of her smirking face was quickly obscured by the shelf of her breasts, then her wide hips and mostly flat tummy, and finally the dark crimson hair of her crotch. Her feet landed on either side of him, and the morning light glinted off the sparkling silver polish on her toes. “You're up bright and early, little man.”

The words were still rough, but it had already recovered enough to give her the smokey voiced sexiness of a classic starlet. Feeling the now familiar betrayal of his own body, Dave tried to look away from her monumental form, but instead his eyes were only drawn to the parts he had grown intimately familiar with over the past few months; the curve of her calf muscles, the milk colored skin on the top of her foot that blended into the tough pink of her soles, and finally the hefty toes that sparkled thanks to his practiced hands.

The early morning light turned to deep shadow as she bent down.

He looked up but her beautiful face was quickly blocked by a palm that could swallow his entire world. Dave's member twitched as her fingers wrapped around him, and his limbs, which used to flail and kick whenever he was grabbed now remained limp by his sides. Wind whipped across his currently hairless skull, which she had once more removed with harsh stinging chemicals right after New Year's, and he couldn't help himself from gazing longingly at her face as he was brought before it, taking in every millimeter of it.

Hanging before her lips, he took in the smeared and fading lipstick that covered them and realized that she had forgotten to remove her make-up the night before. A bit of rouge and foundation remained caked against her skin, and that helped the little man remind himself that she wasn't some gorgeous otherworldly being that ruled his world. Vanessa was a woman in her late twenties who was too drunk to remember to take off her make-up last night.

But then he came to her huge green eyes, each ringed by eyeshadow that through some unknowable alchemy had formed a perfect ring of smoky haze rather than an ugly smeared raccoon effect. Those big eyes drank in his tiny face, and the little man felt himself getting lost in them, suddenly wondering if she knew about the pathetic words he had carved in the back of her closet or his latest desperate plan to open the vent. She had to, Dave told himself as the eyes roamed over his shrunken frame followed by the gentle brush of her thumb.

His whole body writhed from her touch, and a firm voice in his brain told him, Of course Vanessa knows.

Morning breath that reeked of rum rolled over Dave's body as Vanessa spoke, “We're gonna have some fun this morning.”

Dave bit his lip at the words. Vanessa had had a lot of 'fun' with him over the past few months, and he wanted to curse his weak flesh for enjoying it. He regularly lost himself, physically and mentally, inside the enormous redhead. His tongue ran over his lips as he imagined every imperceptible bump of her areola or wrinkle on her nipple, and his knuckles cracked as he readied his hands to rub across her clit.

Then he felt steam roll across his skin, clinging to it and mingling with sweat that seemed to appear from nowhere.

A rumble like a rolling storm combined with the deafening roar of a waterfall as Trevor chuckled down at the tiny man wrapped up in his girlfriend's hand.

“Remember that thing we did with yours last week?” Vanessa's voice bounced off the walls, somehow becoming more powerful than any other time the tiny man had heard it.

“Yeah,” boomed her boyfriend, the singular word rattling the little man's bones.

“I thought it was very unfair that that little fag got to do it first instead of my poor wittle man.”

The hand Dave was in started to move, and the bathroom wall was replaced with the flesh colored mountain of Trevor's immense body. It was only as he saw the rising titan between the giant's legs that Dave's practically dormant survival instinct kicked in. The little man flailed wildly as Vanessa's thumb and forefinger pressed against his sides, delicately dangling him above a fleshy soap coated shaft.

His fist connected with the huge beast, but all that did was produce a pleased rumble from the abs behind him. Vanessa's fingers released and Dave's tiny body fell three relative feet onto the firm plank of Trevor's cock. Dave's shrunken form was in full panic mode, instinctively scrambling to hold on to the stirring shaft even as his brain screamed to jump off into oblivion to escape whatever fresh hell awaited him.

Vanessa's gorgeous visage appeared before him, the running water of the shower already having removed the make up that had clung to her skin. Her now unpainted lips pressed against the head of her man's cock, and quickly engulfed it, making the tiny man start to crawl delicately backward as they continued to roll forward. Everything around Dave started to vibrate and twitch as the giants moaned from pleasure, but all he did was keep backing up until his foot brushed against the wiry pubes of the enormous man.

Dave screamed but it was instantly cut short as the tip of Vanessa's nose rammed into him, the giantess taking in her behemoth's gigantic manhood with practiced ease. He flailed as her face retreated, falling forward only to grab onto the now slick shaft only to be horrified all over again. Her lips slammed into him on the second push forward, and then he was left flailing again as she retreated. Again and again it happened until Dave lost track, nothing more than a simpering terrified mess flailing at the base of Trevor's shaft.

As the whole organ started to tense up, the redhead pulled back completely, and a pop that sounded more like a cannon shot echoed across the bathroom as the shining cockhead slipped out from between her lips. High above, the giant was straining to hold himself together as Vanessa rose back up to her feet.

The little man thanked God when his vision seemingly tunneled as he took in the giantess's body; her nipples erect on her bountiful breasts, water streaming down her milky skin accentuated the musculature she worked so hard for, and then her engorged clitoris arrived to greet him. Dave's own tortured body stirred at the sight, and without even thinking he started to crawl across the hot saliva coated flesh bridge that stood before him.

Then the whole world turned to a blur.

“Fuck,” his curse was swallowed by the same word bellowing from the giant above him.

Riding atop the cock, Dave was thrust face first through Vanessa's vaginal lips. There was no finesse, no teasing, no foreplay. The mighty beast that he straddled could not be held back as it rammed into the giantess's womanhood. Lights flashed, Dave's ears popped, and his body was coated in sweat and sexual juices as the huge thing went in and out over and over again.

The little man started to scream involuntarily and immediately wished he could stop himself as Vanessa's acrid pussy juices started to pour down his throat mixed with the rummy saliva that coated Trevor's cock and the giants' intermingling sweat. Everything became a blur as the stench of sex filled his nostrils, and he was forced to shut his eyes as the giants' various secretions began to seep into them making them burn in pain. Dave had no idea how long it lasted, the sensory overload rendering him little more than a puppet in the hands of the giants.

The giant pulled out, and Dave found himself stuck to the top of the huge member, unable to even twist about until it was too late. His body was sliding off, his muscles too bruised to even try and stop the inevitable. Then he felt the rough and enormous hand of Vanessa's boyfriend wrap around the warm slick shaft, catching him before carrying him to the bulbous head.

Dave wasn't sure he was screaming until he felt the viscous salty liquid slam into the back of his throat, while the rest of the load coated the remainder of his body. Coughing, sputtering, and trying to clear his eyes, there was nothing Dave could do except listen to the heady orgasm-fueled laughter of the giants as they stared down at a shrunken man who was covered head to toe in spunk.

Waves of water poured down on him from somewhere, and his vision came back first as little more than shadow and light. He heard the waterfall of the shower head cut off, and he was transferred onto something soft and fuzzy, probably a towel, while the giants simply talked about their plans for that Saturday.

Dave rolled over onto his side and retched a mixture of semen and vaginal discharge onto the towel, cringing as flecks splashed back onto his otherwise clean skin. He could see the towering shapes of the giants as they wandered in and out of the bathroom; checking themselves in the mirror as they brushed their teeth or combed their hair or did any other part of their normal routines.

His vision cleared enough that he recognized Vanessa's slender fingers as they wrapped around him and carried him back to his cage. She gently set him down onto the socks he gave him to use as a blanket, and while he hoped the smell of her stale footsweat would banish the stench of their sex, he found that nothing could dislodge it from his sinuses.

The tiny man found himself shaking, though as he wrapped himself in Vanessa's socks and continued to shiver, he began to doubt it had anything to do with the temperature. The world beyond his cage rumbled as his enormous owners simply went about their day, and he could hear the sound of sports commentators talking about the NFL playoffs somewhere in the distance.

Click-thud, click-thud, click-thud.

Shadow fell over Dave's world as Vanessa returned; dressed and ready for a fun weekend with her enormous man. Her huge hand descended and set a plate down with several hunks of mango and cheese in front of his cage. “I think we're going to end up at Trevor's place tonight little guy, so don't go gobbling this all down like a wittle piggie,” her huge finger came down and brushed across Dave's back, making him shudder.

He watched her rise back up; designer jeans rippling along her calf muscles, which bulged from the high heeled suede boots that she wore, a bulky winter coat covered most of her body, and he could see a thick sweater wrapped around her neck, while her red tresses fell down across her shoulders, bouncing as she turned around and left him behind. The television turned off and within seconds he heard the door open and then crash shut behind the pair.

Dave didn't know how long he laid shivering in his cage, but he realized that the winter sun was blazing across the room when he finally stood up and decided that he couldn't wait any longer.

Pushing himself to his feet, Dave stumbled out of his cage, and shuffled up to the plate of fruit and cheese. Snatching up bite sized chunks with his fists, he devoured as much as he could before his stomach began to strain from the sheer heft of the food he shoved into it. Then, he slowly hiked his way across Vanessa's bedroom and back into her closet.

The scent of her shoes once more surrounded him, and breathing it in as deeply as he could, he was happy to discover that the smell of Vanessa and Trevor's shower sex was finally starting to dissipate. Or, he reasoned, his tiny body had simply become blind to the stench.

Pushing through the cardboard towers that protected his small workshop and his all important reminder, Dave immediately looked down at his latest and hopefully final attempt to produce a tool that could undo the screws securing the vent. He had tried plastic and a few bits of metal, but after remembering when an engineering student had stacked most of the dorm's textbooks on a single piece of paper that had been folded many times over, the shrunken man had decided to give paper a shot.

His first few attempts had involved price tags from when Vanessa had bought herself a few new outfits. Even that flimsy cardboard had been hard for his little body to bend, but it was sturdy so he figured that would be enough. Instead he had ended up with a bunch of torn up cardboard and a few pulled muscles for all of his enthusiastic effort.

Next had come a few attempts with crumpled receipts he had found laying around the apartment or at the bottom of her purse. He had tried using just one, or layering multiple receipts on top of each other, but no matter what he tried the flimsy paper continued to tear and rip or simply fail to hold a shape no matter how much he folded it.

Finally though, salvation had arrived in the form of a Chinese takeout menu that had been shoved under the door while Vanessa was at work.

It wasn't printed on heavy cardstock or something glossy, just an oversized sheet of printer paper that had been folded a few times already. Dave quickly found it much easier to work than anything else he had had, but it was still much stronger than the receipts he had used. Days worth of back breaking labor had finally produced his latest attempt at a tool; an L-shaped hunk of paper that he hoped would allow him to turn the screw like it was a huge wheel.

Picking up the dense paper tool, Dave dragged it out through the crack in the shoeboxes, and desperately tried to push away any doubts that he had about it working. Convincing himself that this time he finally had the right tool for the job, the tiny man pushed onward, letting it fall to the ground as he moved into the hallway and simply started dragging it across the vast plains of Vanessa's apartment. The sun marched its way across the sky as he moved through her apartment, and it was that fact that reminded the tiny man that he was right not to try in the early hours of the morning when he certainly would have been caught by Trevor or Vanessa.

Sweat ran down his skin despite the coolness of the floor when Dave finally reached the massive vent. Sucking in a breath, he lifted the hefty piece of paper and wedged it into the thin space where a flat head screwdriver would have slid in snugly and easily. Wobbling the paper back and forth to test it, his eyes widened as he felt it catch firmly into the slot without tearing. Carefully he began to push it in one direction over and over again, until he heard the metal start to whine. Letting out a whoop of excitement, Dave pushed harder and listened to the screw screech in place as he began to twist it out.

His shoulders strained as he worked the screw but the tiny man found himself taking step after step backward until finally the light piece of metal clattered to the hardwood floor. Panting for breath, Dave stared down at the screw, still new enough to have few signs of wear and tear, he looked with renewed pleasure at the next one. Sucking in a deep breath, he repeated the process and to his delight, it continued to work.

Twilight reigned and his body screamed in protest as the third screw fell.

Panting and struggling, he knew now it was time for the hard part.

With slow tired movements, the little man moved toward the wall and looked at the mostly loose vent panel, wondering if he was up to the Herculean task of pushing it open. Picking up his tool, he took a deep breath and did his best to fold the L in upon itself. His arms strained and he winced, but it mostly held together despite clearly not wanting to stay that way.

With his tiny body shaking, Dave shoved the wedge of paper into the seam where the vent met the wall and slowly eased off the pressure on it. The metal groaned in protest and at first he feared it wouldn't be enough, but with only one screw holding the vent in place it finally started to open up. Dave didn't hesitate, and despite feeling like he was about to fall over, he found some final reserve of strength that he used to shove the vent open wide enough for him to clamber through.

He landed onto dusty but thankfully warm metal with a soft clatter as the vent crashed shut.

Rolling onto his side, Dave stared back out at it, amazed to see Vanessa's apartment through the slats. Hopefully with the vent still mostly in place, she wouldn't know how he escaped, and perhaps he hoped, the enormous redhead's next victim would have an easier way out than he did.

Dave laid on the vent floor for several minutes, letting his muscles relax before he pushed himself to his feet and prepared to search for a way out of the dark and dusty world of the vents. Moving deeper into the shadows, the little man could feel the building's HVAC system pushing air throughout itself, and he shuffled forward with caution toward the source.

Standing in the dark heart of the vent, he heard the low whistle of a shaft to his right where the warm air was coming from. When he looked in that direction though, all he could see was darkness, but he could feel a crosswind moving up and down. While Dave wasn't certain on which exact floor Vanessa lived on, he knew it was high up enough that jumping down through a vertical shaft would probably end in his death.

Cursing beneath his breath, he turned left and marched forward.

Within a few steps, the little man found himself able to make out another junction up ahead. At first, he thought his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but then he realized he could see the light of another apartment. Dave started to pick up speed as he imagined that whoever lived next to Vanessa might be nicer than her or at least not Immune. If he just explained the situation to them, they would probably help him.

He skidded to a stop in front of the vent and crept toward the light, gazing into the eerie parallel world of the neighbor's apartment.

It was the same basic set up as Vanessa's, but with several things mirrored because of where it sat in relation to the redhead's unit. The giant who lived there had covered most of the hardwood floor in thick inviting rugs that made Dave's toes curl in excitement. He then spotted the occupant, or at least the underside of her foot hanging off the couch; a tan sole hanging in space, with darker skin along the top of the foot.

The little man took in the rest of her; a tall Southeast Asian woman, she was certainly attractive but she lacked the curves of Vanessa, and the sweats that she wore as she lounged on an enormous couch seemed to hang off of her lanky frame. Unpainted fingernails played with her long dark hair, which was tied up in a simple braid. Her eyes were locked on a television screen that Dave couldn't see, but her slack jawed expression made the little man wonder if she was actually engaged by whatever she was watching.

Suddenly, her body stirred, and the little man feared that she had somehow spotted him standing in the shadows of the air vent. Her head lifted off of a pillow, and her voice suddenly rang out across the apartment, “What is taking you so long?”

The words made Dave cringe.

There was an entitled edge to her voice. She wasn't playfully asking where a friend had gone or what her significant other was busy with, she was waiting on someone who she had just ordered. The shrunken man's eyes flickered to see a man many times his own size, but who probably barely cracked three feet, rush forward with a tray laden down with food.

“I'm sorry, Amanda,” the short Latino man said as he set the tray down on a coffee table, “I'm still trying to get used to my body after the latest atta-”

“Whatever,” Amanda boomed as her hand reached out and snatched up half a sandwich, biting down into it with a ferocious hunger. Her foot smacked against the man's head, and he instantly set his small hands against the sole, massaging it. “I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I want food ready when I get home.”

“I-I know,” the little man stammered.

“If you know, then why don't you do it?”

“It's hard...”

She simply snorted and took another hefty bite of her sandwich.

“Did...” the shrunken man's voice was a peep, barely able to compete with the thunder of television, “Did you hear anything about the next round of the trial? Y-you said last wee-”

“Hmm?” The giantess boomed as she looked down at her feet, “Oh yeah, they don't need any more subjects for the next round.”

“But you said Doct-”

“Things change, Mikey, lots of people wanted into that trial but there's only so much funding and that means there's a very limited amount of spots.”

“You said your friend worked on it though.”

“He does,” she waved off his concern with the sandwich in her hand, sending crumbs into his hair, “But that doesn't mean I have an automatic in for you. Besides, it's not a guarantee that you would have even gotten the drug, or that it would work. You should just count yourself lucky that you're still as big as you are, and that you have someone like me looking out for you.”

The three foot tall man's head hung low, before he quietly said, “You're right, Amanda.”

“Mhm,” she moaned as she reached out and lifted up the other half of her sandwich.

Watching as his fellow afflicted man began to kiss the woman's toes, Dave began to back up into the vent, all the while reminding himself of just how dangerous the giants around him really were. He couldn't plead with them for help, he simply needed to get out of this vent and away from this hell hole of a building, winter be damned.

Turning away from the apartment, he delved further into the vents, letting the winds push against his back. He walked for what seemed like an eternity until he could see light again, and in the distance, the hallway of the apartment building. Blinking as the light pressed against his eyes, the shrunken man tried to process what he was seeing, and as he tried, he felt his pace quicken.

When he reached the end of the vent, he yipped with joy as he thrust out his arm and it easily fit through the more widely spaced vent slats. He pushed forward with his shoulder, then his head, and stepped forward with his leg, letting it hit the soft carpet of the hallway with a muted thud. With a bit of a squeeze, Dave's tiny body crashed onto the floor somewhere beyond Vanessa's apartment.

Tears flooded the little man's eyes as he crawled forward and then pushed himself to a standing position. Choking back his desire to cry and praise God that he had actually managed to escape, he reminded himself that there was still a long way to go as he moved toward the elevator, its location only obvious to the shrunken man thanks to a hanging light announcing its presence far in the distance.

He shuffled along the wall, all the while hoping and praying that the enormous woman he just saw didn't step out for some reason, or worse some other terrible giantess find him as he escaped. His heart rate began to pick up as he thought about all the different horrible things that could happen to him now that he was out of Vanessa's grasp. Memories from his time on the streets flooded his brain with images of almost being squashed or discovered by various giants, and a nagging thought entered his brain, maybe the Devil I know?

Shaking the thought from his head, Dave reminded himself that he would rather die free than stay with Vanessa. There was no sense in going back now that he had tasted freedom. That bit of fear, he told himself, that was just the price he had to pay for being free.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The sound of muted footsteps made the little man freeze. Pressing himself up against the wall, he turned his head every which way until he saw an enormous young woman casually walking down the hallway. She was dressed to kill in a tight dress, hose that clung to shapely legs, and heels that could easily kill him, and despite the frigid winter weather, the woman was sans jacket. Thankfully, the enormous blonde's eyes were locked on her phone, and the moment she passed, Dave rushed to follow her to the elevator.

Huffing and puffing, he had no hope of keeping up with the giantess's huge strides but he did make it to the elevator when a beep announced its arrival. He hung back for a brief second, letting the blonde bombshell step forward with a sound like a cannon going off before bum rushing into the elevator behind her.

The doors crashed shut behind him with enough force to send him tumbling forward onto his hands and knees before her towering heels. Staring up at the shining wine red leather, he couldn't help but think of how easily the tall piece of footwear could crush him if he were caught underneath it. Looking up to see the giantess still locked on her phone, the little man reminded himself that all it would take is a quick glance away from that screen and he would be discovered.

Scrambling on his hands and knees, he hid the only place he knew she wouldn't be able to see him and clambered beneath the arch of her heel. Above him the leather creaked as she moved her foot within the shoe's confines, making his heart practically leap into his throat as he sat beneath it, trying to figure out his next step before she took hers.

Looking up at a designer name that he didn't recognize, Dave felt like he was going insane as he began to stand. Stretching his arms out he pressed his hands against the sole, and smiled as his fingers curled around a seam between the sole and the upper that would have been imperceptible to him at his original height. Swinging his legs up he did his best to hook them onto the same seam, and breathed a sigh of relief when he finally managed to hook his heels into the right place.

The elevator released a soft ping and the tiny man felt himself briefly go weightless as it came to a stop, and then he tensed his body in preparation for what was about to happen. The doors opened and the sound of creaking leather filled Dave's ears as the giantess took her first step. He heard the other foot drop as the top of his body rushed into the air and then it felt like he was about to be kicked off from the heel.

Clenching his teeth, knuckles, and sphincter out of sheer terror, the tiny man managed to hold on as the heel crashed to the ground and went airborne a second later. Dave felt like he was in the middle of No Man's Land with artillery shells going off all around him as the blonde giantess casually walked across the lobby of her upscale apartment building.

“Have a good evening Ms. Laurent.”

The blonde said nothing in response to the doorman as she stepped out into the cold, which tore into Dave's little body instantly. Her foot crashed into the hard cement of the sidewalk once, and then twice, before the shrunken man lost his grip and hit it hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. He screeched in terror as he watched the underside of her heel take flight once more but instead of somehow grinding him into dust it simply crashed off in the distance.

“Uber?” He heard the blonde's voice echo across the night before stepping into a car which proceeded to drive away.

Terror coursed through Dave's rapidly chilling veins as he realized that he was outside for the first time in months. His brain struggled to process all that that meant as his skin suddenly reacted to the slab of frozen concrete it was resting against. With a terrified yelp, Dave rushed to his feet and began to dance about, everything so cold that it practically burned his bare skin. His eyes darted every which way as he tried to take in where he was, but every where he looked all he could see was the enormous and darkened city of giants around him. Nothing about it was familiar, and banks of snow that stood taller than him obscured his view of the road.

With nothing else but the sheer desire to get as far away as possible driving him, Dave barreled headlong into the night. The cold seemed to keep most of the giants off the streets as he ran, completely unhindered, across the shoveled sidewalks and plowed roads. For a Saturday night, the city center seemed almost entirely empty, and he began to fear that he was actually moving away from it with each step.

That thought alone began to sap the adrenaline that kept him moving forward, and suddenly Dave felt the full brunt of the endless cold that surrounded him. The little man's next step stumbled as he once again looked around, trying to process if he had actually crossed multiple blocks or if he had only crossed one. Again, nothing recognizable stood out to him and he found himself spinning in place trying to find somewhere to go or some place to hide.

The cold continued to bite at him, making him curl inward as he stumbled toward an alley, hoping to find some kind of nook to bury himself until morning when it would at least be warmer out. As he journeyed deep into the alleyway though, all Dave could see around him was the snow, and it was at that point that he told himself that Eskimos lived in igloos made of snow.

Just dig, he told himself as he clambered over to a bank, tearing at the mountains of white with red fingers he could barely feel. He just needed to get to the center and then he would be insulated from the worst of the cold, Dave told himself as he tore at the stuff, swearing to himself that it would all work out if he just made it inside.

A tunnel began to form and as Dave stuck his head in, he realized it was working, he was starting to feel tremendously warm. Exhaustion hit him, and the little man tried to pull himself up into the tiny hole he had made, but then he realized his legs felt good too. Letting his legs go limp, Dave laid there buried up to his belly in the snow, warm and protected.

His eyelids felt heavy and the little man felt himself drifting off to sleep, and as he did, he heard an enormous voice echo out across the world.

“Well, happy birthday to me.”