Daniel had overlooked the realities of hunger and thirst while planning his size-changing adventure. When he woke up the next morning, he found himself cold, alone, and starving on the bottom of Fran's bedroom waste bin. Not only was he sure from the previous night's ordeal, but weak from hunger and thirst. Rather than waking up refreshed and ready for the day’s challenges, Daniel had a monster headache and a dry mouth.
Dan's first priority was to escape from the trash bin in Fran's bedroom, which turned out to be easier than he expected. The wicker weave design of the bin allowed him to slip through the tiny gaps, despite his plump figure. It was the first bit of luck he had experienced since shrinking.
While the goddess moved along with her day, he scurried around the floor hunting for the most basic of sustenance. A droplet of water, a scrap of food, anything. So many stories, so many fantasies...never did he once stop to think about food and water. How did insects do it? No doubt some evolutionary advantage that allowed them to survive under drought conditions? Maybe they were able to extract moisture from their food? Or maybe the reason there are always so many crusty exoskeletons laying around the house was because they too died of dehydration in the desert of the human home?
Dan had already gone nearly twenty four hours without water, and was fairly sure he’d heard somewhere that two or three days was the limit of the human body? Whatever the case, he was starting to feel the ill effects of dehydration and hunger; a splitting headache, dry mouth and weakness. Even concentrating on the task at hand, finding food and water was difficult, his mind kept wandering and he found himself day dreaming and drifting into vacant stares toward nothingness.
Dan found himself without a clear plan of action, so he started by wandering aimlessly around Fran's bedroom, hoping to find a way out. However, the task was not as simple as it seemed from his new, bug's eye view. The unfamiliar terrain and colossal furniture mountains made it difficult to navigate, and any direction he took could lead him to a dead end, corner, or wall. Of course, terrifying sounds from every which way only served to heighten his uncertainty and raise his anxiety levels.
The terrain was a treacherous wasteland of dust, dirt, and debris. What was once overlooked by the human eye now loomed large as landmarks in Dan's new perspective. Dust bunnies the size of tumbleweeds threatened to ensnare him in their mix of hair, dirt, and waste. Even the smallest cracks in the hardwood floor were now treacherous canyons that required careful navigation. Dan couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what other dangers lay ahead in this strange world, where even the most mundane objects could become deadly obstacles.
Whatever had the gall to survive in such an unforgiving environment was certainly easily capable of making a meal out of him, that much he could be certain of.
The now all too familiar sound of approaching footsteps tore Dan from his trance. The terrible sound echoed off the walls and shook the very foundation of the floor, making it difficult for him to hone in on which direction the footsteps were coming from. Because of this, a terrible feeling of helplessness overcame him at the uncertainty of something so large and dangerous moving toward him so quickly, whilst he had no idea where exactly the threat was coming from. His perspective was so limited; he could only see a few feet in any given direction, meanwhile Fran could be almost anywhere with the ability to cover so much more ground than he could. The floor began to vibrate as she drew nearer, convinced at any second he could end up smeared to the bottom of a foot or shoe. Daniel tried to run, but without knowing which direction was best, his mindless running may as well have been bringing him closer to the threat, rather than farther away.
In all honesty, he appeared quite pitiful. If someone had been observing him, the Benny Hill Yakkity Sax theme would undoubtedly have played in their mind. He scurried and darted in circles, resembling a frantic insect desperately escaping for its life.
.
When Fran finally came into view; she wore a pair of blue capris and a blue and white blouse, with an off white cardigan with navy blue socks covering her feet. From a distance he could make her out in her entity, but as she narrowed the gap between them her frame seemed to stretch further and further into the sky until her breasts cut off the view of her face and neck, then her stomach cut off the view of everything above it...soon he could see nothing but her sock-covered feet and ankles.
"Fr... Francine!" Dan attempted to call out, but his voice came out as a raspy squeak, struggling to find its way through his constricted throat. His parched tongue moved against his chapped lips, as he desperately tried to moisten them, hoping to give his voice the best possible chance.
Fran moved past him, her long strides taking her directly overtop of Daniel’s scrambling self and towards her vanity where she went about her business. All of his panic and fear, and she hadn’t even registered his existence.
He froze, fixated on the fuzzy sole of Francine's stocking-clad foot as it passed overhead. He followed her with his eyes as she lumbered off and settled finally in front of an impossibly large vanity. Dan couldn't discern what she was doing, but the noise she made was unmistakable. Despite his crippling fear of her, which was only exacerbated by his recent trip to her stomach, he found himself drawn to her as his only chance for rescue. His survival now hinged completely on being discovered by Francine, as he saw no other way out of her bedroom, let alone her condo and the city beyond, back to his own home and Donna. If by some miracle he managed to make it back on his own, he would still face the near-impossible task of getting Donna's attention. Francine was his world now, and every other human might as well have been on another planet. He knew it was a slim hope, but it was the only one he had at the moment.
Dan stumbled into a jogging pace towards her, his aching body responding sluggishly. If she moved or heaven forbid left the room he would be lost once more, left to his own devices, at the mercy of whatever hungry crawling being lurked in the dark dusty corners of Francine’s condo.
“Stay there. Please just once in your life do something considerate and just this once...stay where you are.” Daniel worked faster to close the ridiculously long gap only a few of her strides had placed between them.
Whatever was keeping her busy, seemed to have her complete attention, as she didn't move much, she pivoted a little, moving her weight from one foot to the other and every once in a while one foot would slide back a little But much to Dan’s delight she didn't move from that spot she was…until however a loud musical tune interrupted her, drawing her attention with a half twist of her torso and a turn of her neck.
“Oh!” Francine looked off toward the source of the noise, then without warning turned on her heel and with one stride stepped over Dan leaving him miles behind her in mere seconds.
“No! Oh come on you unimaginable bitch!” Daniel took a deep breath and bit his lip in frustration. The loud musical tone repeated a few times, he recognized it to be her cell phone.
The thunder of footsteps sent Dan into another panic as Fran moved back into the room with incredible speed, back to the vanity where she had been preparing herself. This time she carried with her a cell phone pressed between her ear and shoulder and her purse likely where she had dug the phone out. Dan hardly had any time to react; the purse was dropped beside her as she spoke into the phone. Her side of the conversation seemed unimportant to his current predicament, which is he was sure she was not speaking to Donna as she mostly spoke about things he had no interest in. Daniel’s greater focus remained on discovery! He had to get off the floor, closer to eye level, where he stood a chance of being seen.
Dan’s eyes fell upon Francine’s purse.
The last time he had tried this, he ended up in living the nightmare of a scenario he presently found himself in. Needless to say, things didn't go as planned and because of that he nearly paid for it with his life.
Daniel gave his head a shake and backed away...he was not about to make the same mistake again. Back towards the looming goddess he ran, until he approached her, close enough to reach out and touch her big toe, protected behind a thick blue sock. Its size was none the less impressive, dwarfing him utterly and completely. The thick material of her sock protected her feet from creatures his size...making getting her attention all the more difficult.
No, Dan wouldn’t repeat the same mistake as before! He would make all new terrible mistakes!
“I can't believe I am going to try this...” Dan whimpered.
Daniel reached out and grabbed hold of the thick material of her sock, the fibers were strong and soft, with his other hand he reached up higher, and attempted to pull himself upward. It was easy to dig his feet into the flexible material of her sock giving him the leverage he needed to pull himself up higher and soon he was able to hoist his leg up over top of her toenail onto the flat surface of her foot.
“All things considered, this is kind of easy.” Dan laughed, pulling himself up onto the flat of her foot.
Once on top, he craned his neck back to get a better view of the obstacle that lay before him. Fran stretched for miles above and not all of her looked as easy to climb as her toe had been.
“This isn't going to work...is it….” Dan's voice grew frustrated. “I’ll soon fall to my death.” Dan felt ill, what had seemed like such a good idea was now, like everything else not at all what he had expected.
“Okay, I’ll leave now.” Fran bellowed, closing her phone and letting it slide down into her purse from her hand with hardly any effort.
“Wait what!” Dan cried out as Fran’s foot moved quickly and without warning in tandem with the other!
She was walking!
“No, stop, let me off!” Dan felt his right foot, tangled into the weave of her sock fibers and did the only thing he could, he held on for dear life as the G-forces pressed him against the fabric of the sock.
“Let me off! Fran stop!” Dan cried and clung on for dear life, digging his fingers into the fabric, as Fran took him on the scariest ride of his life.
The world blurred past him at such a speed he had never felt before that sound itself blended together. All he could feel, hear, and see was a mix of colors, sounds and noise. Dan didn't even have much time to feel sick, or afraid as everything was happening too fast for any of that.
By the time Francine stopped walking, Dan was barely conscious. Having nearly passed out from the incredible force of her footsteps.
“Wait.” Dan mumbled meekly as the momentum of her foot shifted to a raising and tilting motion now.
Fran lifted her foot ever so slightly up and pointed her toes downward toward the mouth of her shoe.
Dan’s foot was pulled free as he slid off Francine’s foot toward the padded inclined inner sole of Fran’s shoe and began to roll down toward the toe section.
Dan stopped in a dark place where the ceiling and floor met at a round intersection, stopping abruptly when his body made contact with the toe section of Francine’s boot.
“Oh god.” Dan screamed, all too aware of where he had fallen into.
Francine’s invading foot was enough to confirm what he already knew, he was inside her boot!
“Yup, sounds about right.” Dan’s body went limp as Fran slipped her foot into the black high heel short boot. It was suede and only came past her ankle, but had a fancy buckle over the top and matched the blouse she was wearing perfectly.
Dan was in darkness, pinned under the stuffy fabric of Francine’s sock. stuck behind her toe-line.He felt more pressure than he ever had before all around him as the immense foot atop him wiggled, pressed and scrunched itself into position. He screamed for mercy, he screamed into the void, he screamed to deaf ears, sealed into his prison of suede, flesh and fabric.
Francine bent over and zipped up the sides of each then stood, wiggling her feet until they were comfortable, stretching her toes out and curling them a few times until her feet were snug. She threw her purse over her shoulder and left her apartment.