He wasn’t quite sure why he’d accept a job listed as vaguely as this one, but regardless he was pretty desperate for finding something to do.
All the pamphlet said was “lab assistant”, which in itself wasn’t all that weird of a statement, but the specifics listed were the more suspicious.
“-No degrees needed
-No experience needed
-No strict work dresscode
-No strict work hours”
On one end it seemed too good to be true, on the other there was something… off.
Would it be something worth the gold offered?
Either way all those thoughts quickly vanished as he found himself in the spot stated by the pamphlet, a small thicket in the forest, distant from anyone, even civilisation–
He’d expected to find something, be it a house, a lab or even a cave, but there was nothing.
He stood there for a few minutes, the longer time passed, the more unnerving it all felt.
After a bit he came to the decision to just… leave.
But unfortunately for him, that quickly proved to not be an option as everything went suddenly dark…
Groaning a little, he had trouble getting up, he felt as if he’d been slapped for an entire night.
Even opening his eyes proved difficult, not because of how tired he suddenly felt, but because what seemed to be a blinding light beamed down onto his face, it was like staring at the sun.
Rolling over from his position, rubbing his eyes slowly, he properly got up and tried to look around.
He was surrounded by white? everything felt remarkably unrecognizable and… clean.
At the horizon he kept spotting strange buildings towering up to much higher he could ever hope to straighten his neck to, and behind buildings… a wall, even bigger and closing up–
A room?
Not only that, but to his right there were four towering pillars, metallic and sturdy, and a bridge uptop… yet it wasn’t connecting anything, it was just a sterile slab of what seemed to stretch for miles.
“Ah excellent, you woke up.”
A chill went down his spine, the voice didn’t seem… normal, to him it felt almost like a loud booming high above, as if coming from the heavens.
Right behind him.
“I was late, but not that it matters now that you’re here.”
Turning slowly, he was met by mountains, pale-ish and all in two rows of five.
“So you signed for the job and I expect you to be helpful, not that you have to do anything.”
He still was confused, where was the voice coming from–
And then he finally looked up once more.
An elf woman, towering in height, looming while sitting on a chair, impossibly tall to his eyes.
Those wasn’t a bridge, but a mere table, the buildings simple lab equipment… the strange sun a simple indoor light.
“I think we can begin soon enough, just have to make some quick notes here, don’t move.”
He was speechless and even a little terrified, unable to even quantify what was even happening.
He was small, a mere ant in front of a simple individual, a speck that you wouldn’t have a hard time finding in Arbos, but perhaps even smaller than that.
The mountainous toes slowly raised and lowered in order as she seemed to take some notes, many colors of blue and black adorning her body with two small puffs up on top of her hair, she seemed unamused in her look.
She didn’t even look that particularly tall… for a normal person.
But to him… she looked like a titan.
“Good good.
I’ll spare you the details, just know that I need to find out how durable you citizens can get with some new tech I’ve developed.”
Yet another chill…
Durability? what did this mean for someone as small as him now…?
The ground quaked as her inky shadow engulfed his insignificant frame.
She stood up.
“You’re on the floor.
Might as well.”
He began to back away, scared of whatever was about to come next.
Her sole rose a few centimeters to her, but miles for him.
“You’re hopeless if you think you can outrun something like this.”
And then it began its fall, the titanic sole crashed down and effortlessly engulfed the insect-sized test lint without as much of a thought from her.
The pressure felt overwhelming, the heat almost smoldering, her skin absolutely pinning every microscopic inch of his diminutive body.
Yet, there was no particular pain, there were no broken bones, he almost felt like he was becoming molded into her soft sole.
“Vital signs present… next up.”
Suddenly the crushing weight shifted as it began shifting rhythmically left and right…
He was now basically a cigarette being put out annoyingly.
Left, right, left, right…
It kept going for a few minutes, until her heel rose and all the pressure was put into her toes.
He began struggling to even breathe, He felt like almost popping like a bubble.
Luckly, she stopped, her foot raised… with him stuck to it.
“Well that’s one way of getting to the next step.”
He barely had any energy to roll and look at her face, she was keeping notes as she kept her legs crossed on the chair, with him on the foot that was resting on her lowered knee.
Completely uninterested, not even a single spark of excitement from the discoveries or experiments…
“So I don't actually plan on paying you.
Nor letting you out of here.
Besides, you're too… experimental.
But this gives me another way to see how effective this method of disposal is.”
His eyes widened, getting the energy to get up on her sole, the steep surface barely grippable as the surface of her sole was almost too smooth, but he was tiny enough to grip some amount of sole dunes.
“Let’s see.”
Her monstrous hands came into view, pinching him by his shirt…
“I think you’ve been… barely helpful.
Goodbye.”
Her face.
Her mouth.
A wide open cavernous void he was casually dangled above, saliva barely having time to divide as the maw was ready to welcome him within.
The drop felt like hours, and he wished it was even longer… but his demise quickly arrived, landing right in her throat.
Never to be seen again.