Sierra stood straight, far more alert now than she had been before. She wished the world could slow down just so she could comprehend the matter, as straightforward as it had been explained. Finish the course quickly and I get a dessert date with the overseer, she calculated. The stakes had been raised, for this was a lucky break for her to earn even more time with the giant woman, this fascination she couldn’t shake off. More than before, she intended to produce the results Duval wanted.

The group of eight were directed to line-up where the flat desk became a forest of trimmed grass. The authenticity was there in the details, down even to the scent of the lawn greeting the shrunken subjects. Sierra was only then starting to feel uneasy about her first run through an obstacle course. Unlike the security of the neighborhood, this actually did feel like she was shrunken and facing something real, something now huge.

“Is everyone ready?” Duval asked, her finger at the ready to begin a countdown timer. Sierra felt strangely soothed by the words, but they really only brought upon other anxieties. “Three, two, one… begin!”

It was as easy as that to start, but the line-up of runners were hesitant to sprint off into the course. The wall of grass that greeted them was an immediate obstacle to adapt to, requiring the participants to weave around and shove aside tall blades of green. It was a slow start for most, except for Sierra; she dashed ahead confidently, but she was quickly met with resistance. The lawn tangled around her for being overzealous, tugging back on her arms and legs if she didn’t stomp them down firmly enough. Despite having taken what was effectively a head start, she was barely that much further ahead than anyone else, and even less distance seemed to have been crossed from Duval’s perspective.

Brute force eventually rewarded Sierra with a path forward, a divide in some of the grass to more swiftly run through. Her morale was boosted with this advantage, but it was short lived before the next barrier, a root of a tree. There was only the option to climb over it, and so she did, hiking up onto the bark and clawing over the bump.

She looked back, given the opportunity to see her lead while atop the root. The others all appeared muddled up in knots of grass, and the sight nearly gave her a grin. I could actually do this, Sierra realized, her heart thumping between the adrenaline and the thought of winning. Just keep moving, she pressed onward, but her mind was on other things, her eyes on other places. Duval, up above, was looking at her -- She’s looking at me!

A splash of mud woke her up from the onset of a daydream. The landing just past the root wasn’t as solid as she expected, and now she was collapsed to her knees in mud. The cold water barely phased her compared to the chill of embarrassment. She was looking at me, she groaned, wondering just how laughable her slip had to be.

In the meantime, something else found its way to catch Sierra off-guard. Another splash struck her, someone else making their landing, and with better grace. Sierra spat the dirt that flickered too close to her face, and to her surprise, it was Kendall stealing first from her.

“You’ve got me woken up, Sierra!” Kendall laughed -- unknowingly taunting. “A little competitive edge is what we needed, I think!”

Sierra stood in a hurry, wanting to catch up but having to recover her momentum. Somehow, she had accidentally whipped Kendall into high spirits, and with the others making it over the root, there was suddenly more potential for failure. She would have to recover her momentum, but Sierra was still in the race.

Grass and weeds continued to bend under Sierra’s movements as she marched through the difficult terrain, until eventually the path ahead of her came to an abrupt end. A wall of dull gray greeted her suddenly enough that she nearly walked right into it. She put her hands against the surface, realizing it then to be concrete. It was the staircase leading up to the fake door, which meant for Sierra that she was halfway through. A meager three steps was all it was, but each step was several times her height. She was puzzled -- was this even the way to go?

But she saw above her, to her disdain, the rival that was Kendall. Further along the ledge, Kendall was just then succeeding over the obstacle, proving the stun to be doable, but not without a struggle. Even with her surge in energy, Kendall had to slow down upon reaching the top of just the first of three steps. Sierra had some relief, finding this to be a chance to catch up.

“This is way easier,” she heard from behind her. Approaching the same barrier was not only Chase, by three others that had formed a casual group. Sierra had once again created an opening for others to beat her; all of her marching through the grass had left behind a trail far easier to wade through and navigate. Without as much grass pushing back against them, the lead Sierra once had was now completely drained.

“Oh, that must have been your path,” Chase said, surveying the stone step. “Hey, thanks for the help. How do we get past this, though?”

Sierra disregarded him, despite being stuck on the same problem. To ventilate some of her anger, Sierra tried a straightforward answer by attempting to run and jump up the wall. She kicked up from it and leaped for as high as she could, but her furthest reach was significantly beneath the ledge. She fell down gracelessly, stumbling back onto her butt in front of the others.

“I don’t think that’s how,” Chase chuckled. Sierra’s face steamed red as the others giggled at her. “We probably have to climb it. Sort of like a rock wall.”

That’s literally impossible, so Sierra told herself in anger, but obviously it wasn’t. Kendall had made it up somehow, and Chase’s inspection of the wall showed that some parts of the concrete were more damaged or rugged, allowing him to get some distance upwards. Others were catching on from his lead, and that included Sierra, tracing the wall for a pathway up.

By the time she found a suitable crag to use as a starting point, the rest of the day’s subjects had made it to the staircase’s base, and they were bound to learn from those scaling the wall. Sierra had these worries weighing against her as well as gravity, yet she forced herself to go higher, to move faster. Her fingers burned as they gripped the rough texture, her muscles were not trained for this much activity, but she pressed onward, only realizing how much effort she had exerted when she reached the top with a roll onto her side.

“Oh shit,” she panted, her throat cold. “I’m so out of shape…” On her back, her eyes opened to see the ceiling of the lab, as distant as the sky felt like it should be. Hovering nearby was Duval, still observing the race unfold with a seemingly pleased expression. Inspired anew, Sierra leaped to her feet and was in a rush to the next wall, no time to waste.

“You’re almost inside~” Duval cheered on. She rolled her chair to the middle of the table now that the race had progressed that far. “I know it’s probably not easy to climb up those steps, but keep up the pace, you’re all doing fine.” A giggle trailed after her words, quietly amused by how the subjects scurried their way to the door.

Sierra disagreed that this was fine. Having mounted the second step and getting to the third, she mathed out that she was barely in fourth place. Discouragingly, it was Chase trailing her from behind, still a fair distance back but admirably close for someone who wasn’t trying. Sierra exhaled those pointless thoughts aside, dedicating more of her mind to moving ahead.

Not a heartbeat went by once Sierra climbed over the final edge before she was on her feet and running after the others. She endured through her exhaustion so that she could be crawling underneath the door’s crack alongside the others in the lead. It was a tight and claustrophobic fit, but she made it to the other side where a plain of wood welcomed her. It was the final stretch, nearing ever closer to the goal as she and the others trekked onto the rug.

Then, there was only one trial remaining. The coffee table, intricately crafted from wood, stood tall and wide like a palace. They were expected to climb it to the top, somehow; its legs appeared too sleek to scale, a duo of thin cabinets were too far out of reach to use. While Kendall was searching for any other prop to use to reach the end, Sierra instead looked to the gigantic scientist eagerly watching them, expecting an answer.

Sierra shook her head and followed her instincts. The most obvious approach had been the best so far, and so she ran up to the nearest leg and scrambled up it. The surface was polished and smooth, and so immediately Sierra found herself slipping back to the carpet fibers. “Shit,” she whined, biting her nails while estimating the leg another time. She tried again, this time with a tighter hug to hold herself up with. It was tough, but she could maintain it. The problem was still moving up, but her biggest worry was looking ridiculous in front of the overseer.

Little hops and squirms allowed Sierra to scale up the leg; she was in the lead, the only one to get a solid enough grip to move upwards at all. Others were giving it their attempt, but didn’t garner the same marginal success that Sierra earned. She nearly dared to look down and back, but it took all of her strength just to remain stationary at times, holding long enough to work up the stamina needed for continuing.

“Is that really how we have to do it?” Chase asked, wiping the sweat from his brow while he pooled his group towards Kendall. The set of them were looking on at Sierra’s advancement, but as far as Sierra thought she was, it had taken minutes just to worm herself up a quarter of the leg’s height.

“No way,” Kendall chuckled. “She’ll be up there all day doing that. Maybe if we use the drawers here on the side, but if we wanted to reach them…” A spark of an idea came to her, and she motioned for the others to follow.

Sierra was in her own world, thinking only of how she was going to soar to the finish line. The only thing to warp her out of her climb-focused trance was the sound of Duval’s giggle, a gentle bubble of tones that surpassed anything Sierra had heard with its cuteness. She wondered, though, just what the amusement was for. Was she being watched? Was the giggling at the expense of those still lingering down below? Or was it her that Duval found funny? The worries had to be swatted aside like flies; I just can’t give up now,she breathed, just a little bit further, just a little more…

And a little more was as far as she could keep getting. Her pace was getting her no where, but she was convinced that she was on the right track, until her hopes crumbled high above her. She was halfway up the leg, only that far, when she noticed a head peer over the edge. It was Kendall’s bubbly smile there waiting for her, yet another taunt that befuddled her.

“Yoohoo~! Sierra! We found another way!” Kendall shouted down. “That was a lot easier!”

“What?! S-Seriously…? B-But I was-- I was ahead!” Sierra gasped, shaking her head as much as her position could allow. She stuttered, emotions coughing up in her throat. “How? Wh-Where did you go?!”

“We used the cabinets!” Kendall laughed. “It seemed obvious, just out of reach! There was actually a pen just waiting there on the floor, we propped it up like a ladder.” She pointed over in that direction, though Sierra hadn’t the advantage to actually see the set-up. It all sounded despairingly believable, however. “Go on down and use it,” Kendall urged, “just about everyone is making it up now.”

“Everyone?!” Sierra felt her heart drop -- and then the rest of her body, slipping along the polished leg of the table before reaffirming her hug on it. She buried her face into the wood as frustration toiled her. Not only had she exerted herself doing the wrong thing, but that mistake had cost her the entire competition. That chance to have a dessert date with Duval had been mercilessly dashed.

“We have our winners~” Duval applauded with little and distant claps. “I see you solved my little puzzle. Ah, most of you, hehe. But a valiant effort from everyone! These are all fine results, thank you for trying so hard.”

It was done, officially. Sierra had failed, making this entire excursion outside the community an utter waste as far as she was concerned. In every regard she saw her disappointments, from not only losing her opportunity to spending time with the overseer, but failing to even produce a positive result for her experiment. The only thing she did succeed in, ironically, was getting noticed -- for all the wrong reasons.

She sighed, bitterly trying to accept the outcome while she gauged the distance of her height. I climbed all the way here, just so I can climb down, and then… climb back up again, she said, scoffing at her situation.

Kendall, at least, was going to watch her on her descent, but she wasn’t alone. Chase joined her, peeking over the edge with slightly more curiosity than concern. “Is she getting down alright?” he asked Kendall. “I bet she has to be loving this, being at the butt-end of one of the overseer’s tricks.”

“I-I wouldn’t call it a trick,” Kendall giggled. “More like a puzzle.”

“Games are all this is to her,” Chase complained with a roll of his eyes. He knelt to the ledge, feeling worse for Sierra and her struggling. “I just hope she doesn’t get hurt because of this.”

Sierra was initially annoyed with what she overheard from Chase, who of all people, she wanted to hear from the least. But what he said inspired an idea. If she were to get hurt, what would happen? It began as just a fun curiosity, to imagine the overseer suddenly so worried for her; concerned, tender attention while she recovered. It was warm, just the thought of that scene in her head. What if…?

For as long as it had taken her to ascend up the leg, it was taking just as long to carefully descend it. The rug below was still a fair distance down, but the surface seemed soft, welcoming enough. She inched a little further down, sliding along the sleek leg, and once down far enough, it was time--

She slipped, letting go of the leg early. She braced for the landing, only in midair starting to wonder if she could actually get hurt. The impact came; not comfortable, but she tumbled over as though it were far worse. “Agh--!” she coughed, for effect. She winced sharply, making sure to coil over what hurt the worst -- her wrist, which she landed with most of her weight.

Sierra’s heart froze, feeling a tense pause. She blinked, wondering if her act was obvious, and how foolish she would look if she was caught. But the huge ceiling up above was clouded by Duval’s face, leaning into the simulated living room. The overseer was horrified, as were Kendall and Chase up on the table. Sierra struggled to not break character -- she wanted to laugh, I think it’s working!

“O-Oh, oh dear,” Duval muttered aloud, “that wasn’t good…” Her face fell closer to Sierra, her field of view overwhelmed by the massive face. Sierra could feel the overseer holding her breath, making the air so tense. That’s how close she was to her; she turned red, realizing that.

Sierra shuddered dramatically, kicking herself for getting distracted. She rolled out to have her arm held out. Duval came closer, frighteningly close; Sierra felt the weight of her eyes directed completely on her injury. There was a strike of belittlement, a sensation of feeling even smaller than usual. She comprehended then how dependent she was on this woman, how her health and well-being were in the hands of this gigantic, god-like person.

Her thoughts bounced about in nervous fits. She couldn’t even understand the overseer and what she was saying, her senses washed in the onset of panic. Every anxiety started to come to life. What does she do to people that are injured? What if she finds out I’m lying? Or… either way, what if I’m taken away from her? She nearly fainted, What was I thinking?!

But before she could berate herself for long, Duval had grabbed her attention. “Do you understand, Sierra?” she was suddenly being asked. Sierra was dazed out, and she feared the overseer might attribute that to something else. She didn’t waste time nodding, approving of whatever Duval had explained.

What she agreed to, then, surrounded her. Two gloved hands walled around Sierra, each palm as broad as a building. Sierra spasmed, frightened by their intimidating appearance. Like two separate beasts flanking her, they collapsed in under her, combing her body right out from the fibers and into their grasp. The surface was resilient, but without a doubt did it feel like a human palm underneath the glove, the unmistakable grooves and the cup-like shape to hold her. All of this had happened in just a gasp, but then she was ascending, jetting into the air, and in the next moment, all the motion stopped. There was no act about how sick she felt, and not only from the whiplash of movement. More inflicting than anything else was being her’s, being carried, her whole body proven to be exactly as light and timid and frail as she had insanely agreed to it becoming.

Above her, that expression that pained Sierra to see. Duval was ill with sympathy, of course taking the matter seriously. In her hands was, by all means, something small and helpless, now injured and even weaker. She hurried away from the lab table, towards her personal desk. Her demeanor was cool and calculated, addressing the situation without letting herself be disordered in her haste.

In her hands, that tiny body froze stiff into a pill shape. The world was acting alien and bizarre, abducted away from one reality and thrown into another, a turn of events Sierra was entirely responsible for. Exaggerated thoughts flashed in her head, silly ideas of being disposed of like the reject she felt she was, but she had just enough fear plaguing her to keep her convinced it could be the case. This was the attention she had wanted, her wish granted to excess in an instant, but soured by the regret she felt, tainted by the uncomfortable uncertainty in her fate.