The trip back to the village went by mostly in silence, the moon rising in the sky shone a wide light through the trees that highlighted Beth’s fair skin. An hour passed before Sabrina nudged Beth’s ear to get her attention.

“Oh! Sabrina, was that you?”

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

“No, my mind was just elsewhere. What is it?”

“Do you like hunting?”

“I like making sure the people in my village have plenty to eat.”

“But it doesn’t bother you, killing an animal?”

“It’s just what I have to do. I don’t think I like it or dislike it. Is there something on your mind?”

“I never ate meat before I got here. For a while, when everyone was still getting their bearings, I even tried to stick to it. We were in a forest so I thought it wouldn’t be hard to find something edible. But none of us even knew what was edible and what wasn’t, everything around us was so alien. I thought I would never eat meat, but I have been for years now.”

“It sounds like you just did what you had to do too.”

Beth traveled in silence for another few minutes before Sabrina continued, “I suppose. How much longer until we’re in the village?”

“From here, about another hour” replied Beth.

“Can you wake me up when we’re there? I want to be rested before I meet your friend.”

“Of course I will.”

--------

“Hi Beth, another late night visit? Do you remember when we used to stay up all night, just talking away about who we wanted to be?”

“Grace, I don’t think I could possibly stay up all night anymore.” Beth laughed, “I guess that means we’re getting old.”

“As if!”, Grace replied in mock offense, “Magic can hide one’s age very well, if that’s how one chooses to use it. I’ll be 28 for a long time still. Come in! Did you have any more questions about the books?”

“I’m here to return them, actually. And I have another favor to ask.”

“Of course, what can I do?”

“This might be shocking, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Just tell me” Grace said sternly.

“You can come out now, Sabrina.”

On cue, Sabrina jumped down and stood on Beth’s shoulder.

“Beth! What did you do to this poor girl? You should know better than to go around shrinking peo--”

“Grace, Grace, I wouldn’t even know how to and you know that.”

Grace took another closer look at Sabrina, “I don’t know, you’ve been hitting the books pretty hard. How do I know what you’re capable of anymore? Where are her clothes from? They don’t look like anything you can get here.”

Beth sat down and motioned Grace to follow as Sabrina explained her people’s situation.

“My my, quite an adventure you’ve had, little one. Beth’s done her homework well on this one, it definitely sounds like a magical storm. Maybe it was naturally occurring, or maybe a powerful mage conjured one and it got out of hand. Hard to tell without seeing your place.”

“So you’ll help her then?”, asked Beth.

“I am only interested in what kind of power could have brought them here at all, if someone could transport between worlds like that, just think of the possibilities. Inter-dimensional communication and trade, just to start. But, as a favor to Beth, I suppose I could try to send you back in the course of my research.”

“She’s just kidding Sabrina, I mean about the tone she’s using. She’s really happy to help, aren’t you Grace?”

Grace’s lips curled into a delighted smile, “Of course I’m glad to help! Just letting the bigger picture get in my way again. I’ll gladly take a look at your city. How about you both spend the night here, and we leave first thing in the morning?”

Sabrina spoke up, “Beth, what is this? We seriously need help and your friend can’t stop making jokes and talking down to me.”

“I know she doesn’t make a good first impression”, Beth said to Sabrina, trying to calm her down, “but I’ve known her my whole life. And she’s very powerful, if there’s anything that can be done for you, she’ll figure it out.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Sabrina looked back to Grace and then Beth, feeling betrayed. Before she could argue further, Grace interrupted her, “I’m sorry Sabrina, it’s just how I talk around Beth. I didn’t think it would upset you.”

Sabrina turned to face her, but before she could speak her mind, a strange sensation washed over her. It was like Grace was the only person in the room, maybe even the world. Sabrina looked around for Beth, but she was having trouble even remembering what she looked like. Grace crouched down and spoke directly to her.

“You will show me your city. It’s not like you even have a choice if you’re going to get home. And I know how badly you want to see them again. You must have a family back home right, a cute little thing like you? We’ll go back in a minute, and you’ll know what to do.”

“Sabrina, what’s wrong?”

The tiny girl snapped back to reality, kneeling but still secure on Beth’s shoulder. She saw Grace standing above her, and felt a warm feeling from within herself. It was a mix of nostalgia and trust, like she’d known Grace her entire life.

“I’m sorry, my head hurts a little. Maybe I had a longer day than I thought. What were we talking about?”

Beth informed her, “Grace was being her usual self, but she’s apologized for it and we were trying to reassure you.”

Sabrina looked back towards Grace, “yes, I feel like she can help us. I’m sorry I overreacted, it’s just so tense all the time back in the city I wasn’t used to hearing someone tell jokes.”

Beth breathed a sigh of relief before bowing to Grace, “Thank you so much. I’ll be sad to see these people go, but I want to help them however we can.”

“Well, no promises. But I’d love to take a look with you tomorrow. I’m beat, let’s rest up for the long day ahead.”

Grace got up and went to prepare a size-appropriate bed for Sabrina, while Beth got ready to sleep on the floor.

“What are you doing Beth? Take my bed, you’re my guest.”

“Oh I doubt you had to rough it much at your school. I’ve slept on the forest floor many times before, I’ll be fine here.”

“Please, I insist. I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I thought you were uncomfortable.”

It was hard to change her mind when she got onto something, so Beth sighed and gave up, throwing her change of clothes down next to the bed.

--------

Beth stamped her foot down to signal that she had arrived with Grace. As soon as the hunter came out from under the leaf, Sabrina hopped out from Beth’s ear and slid down her body to the ground.

“So she’s good? I guess you wouldn’t be bringing her back if she wasn’t.”

“Yes,” Sabrina replied, “she is going to try and help us.”

“She’s so tall,” the hunter whispered to Sabrina in admiration, “she almost makes Beth look like one of us.”

Grace crouched down and greeted the hunter, “Well hello! If Beth had told me how cute you were I would’ve been out here a lot sooner.”

The hunter blushed, “A-anyway, I’ll lead the way. I’m sure the others want to meet you as soon as possible.”

The four walked along the path, Sabrina and the hunter leading with Grace and Beth walking a good distance behind.

“We could get there a lot faster if we just gave them a ride, I’m really excited to see this place” Grace said softly to Beth.

Beth replied, “I know, I’ve talked to him about it before but he sees it as undignified. I guess that makes sense, they’ve made it on their own for so long now.”

“His loss,” she smiled, “I can just picture him between those lovely tits of yours; I know plenty of guys back home who wouldn’t mind either, if you gave them a chance.”

“Grace stop!”, Beth said, blushing, “...besides, I would hold him in my palm, or let him ride on my shoulder.”

The group arrived at the city before long, Grace looked out in awe.

“Wow, this is incredible! Tiny buildings! Where is everyone?”

“They’re probably just inside, even just bringing people here is a pretty big change from what we’re used to. I think they’re just shy” replied the hunter.

Grace looked out across the city. With her enhanced eyesight, she could indeed see tiny forms move around, some in far off streets and some moving past windows. All in all, she estimated about 250 people were living here. She looked from one end of the city to the other, and used the size of her foot to estimate the total area.

“It’s about at the limit of what I can do, but I think I can make it work” Grace mumbled to herself.

Grace focused on the center of the city and suddenly an energy field began to form in midair. The field spread across the city and cut just between Sabrina and the hunter, leaving Sabrina on the outside while the hunter looked at her worriedly from the inside. When the field was all the way around the city, Grace began humming. Beth was shocked, why was she doing that here?

“This isn’t what we discussed Grace, let them go.”

Grace’s concentration was too great to hear Beth protest. Another few seconds passed while the earth shook beneath the city. With great effort, the city rose off the ground and floated in front of the three women. The energy field slowly shrunk, and the city inside shrunk with it. A minute passed and Beth turned to stop Grace from going any further, when she felt a strong tugging on her toes.

“No Beth, you can’t stop her now. If you do, she might lose the city entirely.”

“What are you saying Sabrina, how do you know that?”

Sabrina herself seemed shocked to hear herself. She couldn’t explain, she just got a terrible feeling in her chest about what might happen if Beth stopped the spell.

After another few minutes, the city stopped shrinking. Its reduced form floated over towards Grace and fit securely in her outstretched palm, with room to spare.

“Holy crap, I actually did it,” Grace was panting, exhausted, “I really did it.”

“Grace, why did you do that? Why didn’t you tell me you were going to do something so drastic?”

“What? This is what you asked me to do. You asked me to study what happened to the city, I need my lab to do that. It would’ve been impossible to bring my lab out here, so my only choice is to bring the city to the lab. But geez, I didn’t think I’d actually pull it off.”

“Did you even think about what would happen if you failed? What would’ve happened to the city?”

“Beats me. It might’ve gone microscopic, or gone off to some other dimension, or some random place in space. But look, it ended up right in my palm and it worked out! Beth I don’t think you know how difficult that was, most mages could never dream of doing what I just did.”

“You still should have told me what you were going to do.”

“And why would I do that? So you could moralize to me, tell me I’m doing things wrong? This is the safest way to check this place out, you’re still so new to this. I can look around the forest too, now that the city’s cleared off the ground. Maybe it’s something about the forest that brought them here, and we’d never have known if we tried to just investigate while the city was still in the way.”

The people in the city were terrified as they heard the two titanesses argue. Their voices boomed in the air, it was impossible to make out what they were saying. They could only feel the direction of the sound, and the different tones of their voices. They felt Grace’s warm palm beneath them, heating up as she gained her energy back and got more worked up. The field seemed to protect them from damage, but air was still able to flow freely in and out of the city. They became aware of the scent of Grace’s body wash, a sweet coconut. Most of the people were scared, but more than a few were in sheer shock at the scale of the woman holding their entire lives for the past five years in the palm of her hand. Some cursed Beth, feeling she had betrayed them, but more and more felt a strangely intimate connection to their new captor.

Sabrina listened to the two argue, and she couldn’t take it anymore. She climbed up Beth until she was within earshot and shouted.

“Beth, stop this! I believe her when she says she’s trying to help us. I may not know much here, but I know Grace is sincere.”

Beth was shocked at how well Sabrina was taking this. She could see tears in Sabrina’s eyes as she continued.

“I want to go home, everyone in there wants to go home. We know this is a last ditch effort, but we have to try if there’s any chance of this working. You said before that you trusted Grace, and I believed you. Then I met her, and I knew even more that she could help us. If she told you what she was going to do, I know you would’ve tried to stop her, because you’re a good person and you wanted to help us. But we need to take some risks, or we’ll be stuck in this forest until the beasts finally eat the last of us.”

Beth looked down at Sabrina, then at Grace, and finally down at the city, filled with people she couldn’t see with her naked eye. Somehow she still knew that the majority of those people were looking back at her, scared but also excited about the possibility of getting home. With a heavy sigh she relented, and the three headed back towards the village to Grace’s lab.