February 5th. 3:00am.
Circus Caravan Outside of Bayville.
The caravan moved on into the sunset, traveling in the glow of a beautiful orange twilight. The carts were carried mostly by animals, but the strong man also carried his own cart. The ring leader, a man with the physique of a bowling ball with arms and legs, stood atop the front car, shouting orders to the rest of the crew. However, as the sun went down, the annoying, shouting voice of the ringleader died away and he retired to sleep. Meaning another escape attempt was immanent.
No-Name was a mutant. As far as powers goes, he definitely got the shit-end of the stick. So far he understands his mutant power as being incredibly dense--no, not thick headed, dense as in crammed molecules. While he may be hard to kill or injure since his skin and bones seem unbreakable, he still feels all the pain that goes along with such injuries. One could say his “gift” really is a curse rather than a talent.
He was advertised in the circus as a modern Tom Thumb--a mere 5 inches in height. Now, of course his real name wasn’t No-Name, nor was it Tom Thumb, but he received amnesia during his botched first escape attempt from the circus. Rather than donning the name “Tom Thumb” which the circus would like to bestow upon him, he preferred to be called No-Name or John Doe… preferably No-Name. He knows nothing about who he is or where he’s from aside from what Catherine, the knife thrower’s assistant, told him about how he came to the circus, and the occasional cryptic message from his nightmares. Catherine was a sweet woman--one of the few people in the circus who treated him decently. And she was currently on watch duty to make sure No-Name didn’t break out of his terrarium.
It was a relatively small case, glass walls, and a sponge in one corner--this served as his bed, complete with a small cotton ball pillow, and a piece of someone’s shirt as a blanket. No-Name has received several books, printed in a very small font so he might read them. These are his escape when he’s not trying to escape. In addition, he had an exercise wheel--which he never used before the public. However, late at night, when nobody was watching, he would run and run and run, half because he was angry and needed to vent his frustration, and half because when he finally did escape he wanted to make sure he’d get away.
At the moment, Catherine was asleep. Her chair was set up next to the crate which held No-Name’s terrarium on it. Her arms were folded under her head, and she was close enough to the terrarium that when she exhaled she fogged the glass. No-Name saw this as his opportunity for escape. After standing the sponge up against the side of the terrarium, No-Name climbed up to the top of the sponge. He took his blanket--which he had recently torn into some thin strips and tied together to make a rope--and attempted to get it latched onto that mesh roof. It took a few tries, but he managed to pull it off. Then, he began to climb.
Freedom was close at hand. It was just a matter of unlocking the roof and--eureka! Victory!
‘Don’t get ahead of yourself, No-Name,’ he thought. ‘You still have to make it out of the cart.’
He climbed out of the terrarium and landed with a slight thud right in front of Catherine’s sleeping face. He froze, hoping he hadn’t awoken her. She didn’t move--aside from a slight twitch. Catherine was a beautiful woman, and surprisingly intelligent for someone who gets knives thrown at her for a living. She had short brown hair, and dark green eyes that seemed to stand out against her pale skin. No-Name would miss her… but she was not worth his freedom.
No-Name spent the next hour or so climbing down the crates to the floor. He landed on the wooden floor--covered in straw. He dashed towards the wall and felt his way to the door. ‘This is it,’ he thought to himself. ‘No longer shall you be a subject of ridicule--you will now make your own way in the world!’
No-Name began trying to squeeze under the door. It was a tight fit, but he was making it--sure he was getting splinters the size of knives, but it would be worth it to gain his freedom. He was almost through the door after about 2 minutes of wriggling, when suddenly something grabbed his foot.
“Damn it,” he shouted at the top of his lungs, clawing at the floor to try and get out of the caravan cart. Just as quickly as he saw the light of freedom, he saw it recede back under the doorway, flying away with him. He kept moving, the ground disappearing from beneath him as he flew up into the air.
He dangled for a bit before seeing Catherine holding him by his leg, giving him a dirty look. Not angry, not disappointed, more annoyed and frustrated than anything else.
“Why do you do this,” she asked No-Name, still dangling him in front of her face. “Do you really think you’ll fare better out there than you will with all of us?”
“I have to believe that I can try,” he said simply. “Regardless of how I do on the outside world, the fact that I’m free is what’s important to me. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights--I currently have but one of these rights.”
“Yes--the most important one. Life. If you leave us, you’ll wind up road kill or dinner in a matter of minutes,” Catherine scolded, giving No-Name a slight fwap on the head with her finger. “I don’t want to see you get hurt--and neither does anyone else.”
“Yeah--I bring in lots of money,” No-Name said, rolling his eyes. Catherine hit him with her finger again.
“Don’t talk like that,” she said, walking back to his terrarium. “Don’t worry. You won’t be here for the rest of your life… soon me and the others’ll have some money saved and we can all leave the circus together.” She planted a small kiss on him which engulfed his whole body, then she set him back in his terrarium.
Catherine always had this plan that she, Reginald the Strong, No-Name, and lizard boy would all leave the circus and get an apartment together. No-Name wasn’t too keen on that. He and Reginald and Catherine got along fine, and he didn’t mind lizard boy--but he didn’t like the idea of being a dependant. No-Name wanted to prove that he could take care of himself, that his size did not inhibit him from living a normal life. Unfortunately, some people had other things to say about that.
“Catherine, Tom, why aren’t you two helping set up for today’s show,” demanded the ring leader, opening up the caravan car.
“It’s No-Name, not Tom,” No-Name growled.
“Not when you’re performing it’s not, Mr. Thumb. By the way, you’re now scheduled for 15 performances today instead of 12. You’re working through lunch for last week’s escape attempt. That reminds me, was he good last night,” demanded their bowling ball of a ring leader.
“Of course,” Catherine said, smiling and looking down at No-Name. “If you’d treat him better maybe he wouldn’t want to run away.”
“Perhaps if he didn’t try to run away, I wouldn’t have to keep him in a cage,” the ring leader snapped back. “Now hurry up--these Bayville kids are loaded. We’ll be reeling in the money all week!” Catherine nodded and the ring leader left.
“I swear to god, that man looks like Wario. Doesn’t he look like Wario, Catherine?”
“Stop that.” She turned and faced No-Name. “I have to go now, but I’ll be back in a bit… I’ll try and sneak you some food later today.”
“Thanks, Catherine,” No-Name said, sitting down on his sponge/bed. “I guess I’ll see you later.”
Catherine smiled and left. No-Name lay down on the sponge, curled up into a little ball, and went to sleep--hoping the nightmares wouldn’t come.
Giantess World
Story Notes:
This story is not yet finished, but I hope to complete it eventually. Sorry about the formatting errors, I'll fix them when I have more time, but right now I've got too much on my plate to try and worry about why the site is posting my text all funky.
Author's Chapter Notes:
This... is only the beginning...