Ashley shifted anxiously in her seat as the professor explained the rules to her. She’d been waiting for this day her entire life, and this was the final step to being a licensed smallfolk trainer. The older woman in a lab coat in front of Ashley droned on and on about how to ethically acquire smallfolk, where her extra smallfolk would be stored, and about the different varieties of smallfolk in the world. There were many technologies that made finding, capturing, and training smallfolk easier, as well as many different competitions to use them in. Finally, if she completed the gauntlet and didn’t break any of the binding laws of smallfolk training, she could get a license to train tinyfolk, and then maybe even microfolk after that.

                “And so, it is with great honor that I give you your folkadex, which acts as your license and your smallfolk management system. Let’s go over to the range so you can pick out your first smallfolk.” The professor smiled.

                Ashley stood up and readjusted her skirt, whenever she sat down her shapely thighs and round rump would cause it to ride up. “Finally, I’ve been waiting for this day for nineteen years!”

                Behind her lab, the professor had a small village of smallfolk set up. The four inch tall people were able live in relative peace under the watchful gaze of the professor, away from the dangers of the wild, with the caveat that every once in a while someone was going to be selected to be a young woman’s first. Ashley and the professor followed a path that the smallfolk knew to stay off of into the heart of the town.

                The professor reached into her satchel and took six small red balls out of it and handed them over to Ashley. “These are your first balls, they are designed to compactly store a smallfolk’s essence, but they won’t feed or nourish them, so it is important that you let them out for feeding at least once per day. Letting smallfolk die under your care, outside of competition, is a strike against your license. You may select one of my folk here to get you started, and they will willingly join you. I have a few already picked out to make the selection easier here in the town square.”

                Indeed, in the center of town was a little square with two small man and two small women waiting expectantly to be picked. None looked anxious, they all seemed eager to be selected.

                “This little man on the left is a fire mage, the man next to him is a brawny strongman, the first woman is a succubus, and the second is an ice mage.” The professor explained.

                “Can I take a closer look?” Ashley asked?

                “Of course, but leave them on the stage, the first one you touch is the one you take.”

                Ashley took a step back and got down on her knees before falling forward, bringing her face as close as she dared to the little people without touching them. Her heavy breasts hung down off her chest and all four of the smallfolk couldn’t help but look at the grand display of cleavage. Anyone behind her, Ashley realized, was getting a great view of her behind, she wiggled it a little bit for emphasis. Turning her attention back to the smallfolk she let her breath wash over them. Ice mages were rare in part of the world, but something about that little woman didn’t appeal to Ashley, she wanted to have the sexiest team of little people ever. The succubus and the strongman were easily the best looking. A good strongman was hard to come by, but in a fight against mages he’d be at a disadvantage. Then again, so too would the succubus. Ashley eyed the little fire mage he was kind of cute, but he lacked the muscles of the brawny guy.

                Ashley sat back up and pushed her hair back behind her ears. “I’m going to take him!” She said, pointing at the strongman.

                “Ok, pick him up and place him in your palm.” The professor instructed.

                Ashley reached out and picked up the little man. He weighed next to nothing in her hands, but she could feel his muscles through the pads of her fingers. Carefully, she placed him on her palm.

                “Now take one of your balls and press the button on it and then point it at him.”

                Ashley did as she was told, a small blue burst of gas came out of the ball as it cracked open and it quickly enveloped the little man and sucked it into the ball. The inch-diameter ball then closed back up. It felt warm in Ashley’s hand, no long cool like the rest of them.

                “Now you need to give him a name.”

                “He doesn’t already have a name.”

                “His old name no longer matters. You need to give him a new name.”

                Ashley thought for a moment, then said “Rex.” Small lettering appeared in blue on the red ball that spelled out Rex.

                “Let’s go back inside so you can have your first competition.” The Professor led Ashley out of the small town and back into the lab. A few moments later and they were sitting at the professor’s table. “Okay, when you challenge a gym, you will partake in whatever style of competition the gym has established. This is the Rule of Deferment. The challenger in any smallfolk battle defers the type of competition to the person being challenged. That rule applies to every battle except this one. We will be doing a simple brawl.”

                The professor reached into her satchel and removed a green ball with the word “Lola” written across it. She pressed the button and a small, six-inch tall woman appeared on the desk. Ashley took her ball with Rex in it and released him onto the table. He was a brawny little man, but Lola was two full inches taller than he was.

                “Before we start, take out your folkadex.” The professor explained. The folkadex sensed a battle may be happening and had a prompt on the screen. “Click yes, there is a battle.” Ashley used her thumb and pressed the button. The screen display changed to show both Lola and Rex. Lola had a battle level of sixty, Rex had a battle level of five.

                “Oh my, Lola is much higher level than Rex.” Ashley noted.

                “Yes, the combined physical and magical traits of a smallfolk are aggregated into a battle level. Lola has been trained for quite some time. As such, I’ll let you give the first command. Then, rules dictate that we take turns giving commands until one of our smallfolk is out of commission. The commands Rex knows are listed in your dex, as well as several he can learn. Not all of the moves he can learn are stored in there, you will have to do some experimentation with that.”

                Rex knew two moves, grapple and feint.

                “Do I say it out loud, like on tv, or do I press the button?” Ashley asked.

                “You haven’t had Rex long enough for a connection between him and you and your dex to have been established, you have to say the move out loud.” The professor said.

                “Rex, use grapple.”

                Rex looked up at the much larger Lola and charged at her, he jumped and tried to tackle her by wrapping his arms around her hips, but she barely budged.

                “Lola, suplex.” The larger Lola bent over at the waist, grabbed Rex and flipped him over her head backwards, slamming him hard into the table. The safety bar next to Rex’s name in Ashley’s dex drained to about half.

                “Uh, Rex, feint.” Rex couldn’t disengage from the suplex, he just kind of wiggled around on the ground with Lola still keeping him out of commission.

                “Lola, hammer punch.” One quick blow and it was over. The professor’s smallfolk knocked Rex out.

                Ashley looked at her little man on the table and reached out to touch him.

                “Stop, don’t touch him. Use your ball to scoop him up to get him into a stable condition. The ball will heal him slightly. You need to use an energy invigorator, found in most buildings, I have one over in the corner, to heal him up.”

                Ashley took Rex’s ball and scooped him back up. She took it over to the invigorator and pushed the ball into the hole near the top of the machine. The machine warmed up, took a moment, then the ball reappeared in a depository about waist high. When she turned back around the professor was holding a small computer chip.

                “Put this into your dex and it’ll update with a few new brawny-style moves for Rex to learn. As you train with him, he’ll get stronger and stronger and one day he’ll be able to handle a foe like Lola.” The professor then smiled and leaned in closer to Ashley. “There are a lot of ways you can train Rex, my favorite is pleasure training.”

                “Pleasure training?” Ashley asked.

                “Use him as a sex toy. He’ll get stronger the more you use him, and it’ll make him better at fighting other small people.”

                Ashley felt her nipples tingle at the thought. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

                “Okay, I have one final gift for you. This is a hotel voucher for Bushel Town. You can stay there as long as you like to help get your adventure started. Don’t take the train, take the road and you can find a few low level smallfolk to either add to your party or train Rex against.”

                Ashley threw her arms around the professor in a big hug. “Thanks for everything professor! I’ll be back when I’ve completed the gauntlet and collected enough badges to take a stab at tinyfolk training!”