With each step Zori took, the pressure around the man increased, doubling and redoubling upon him. His senses spun in a flurry of motion and the overwhelming scent and presence of his friend as time crawled by. Small as Alric was, the sudden spike of adrenaline had dialed his senses up to new heights, making each moment seem longer and longer than the last.
The pressure was on once more as he heard the muffled, heavy impact of her other foot landing on the hard wooden floor. Then, the shoe he was in started to tilt, the weight upon his chest lessening. The illumination from the crystal hanging on his belt let him see the small space he was in swell slightly as pressure shifted, and he found himself tumbling across the insole of her boot. The red-haired man tried to find something to grab hold of and stop himself from falling forward. All around him, Zori’s toes curled ever so slightly in the wake of her first step.
His heart hammered against the inside of his chest and fear took hold of the man, as he took note of another sign he was shrinking. Looking to his side, he could see Zori’s other massive sun-kissed toes. As he had started to fall, the radius of the light emitting from his crystal had started to dwindle. Rapidly. He was watching, for the first time - the effects of shrinking in real time.
It started from her largest toe, the shadows crept forth, devouring the sight of her largest digit from view. As the man shrunk, so too, did the illuminated area. One by one, each of her toes were lost to the darkness. Until he could only see the underside and thick pad of her pinkie toe.
Alric tried his hardest to find something to cling onto, his hands sliding across the surface of Zori’s pinkie toe. . .and freezing. He was suddenly aware he could see the grooves in her toe. Clear as crystal. His hand skidded across a few of them, as he found himself smaller than ever.
For a moment, he was able to stop his descent as his hand caught hold of something. For a split second, he thought all was well. . .until he noticed what it was he had grappled onto.
His hand had caught onto one of the grooves of her pinkie toe.
Everything seemed to freeze - as it dawned on him.
He was smaller. So small, in fact, her single sun-kissed digit was the scale of a great mountain.
Oh, by the twelve, no.
His senses, more heightened now than ever before, were plunged into sudden sensory overload. His mind couldn’t quite comprehend how massive Zori--no, the gigantic digit he was gripping, was compared to him. A cold sweat broke out over his body, and in that brief stroke of stark terror and incomprehension. . .he found his hand slipping. An attempt was made to grip the groove with the other hand. . .but it was too late by far. His hand slipped. . .and into the void he slid. Down towards the end of her boot; the toe section.
For a few seconds, there was no feeling of contact. Neither her toe or the insole as he tumbled down between them. A single grain of sand in a vast ocean of emptiness.
Alric found himself screaming into the nothingness, a sense of madness starting to take root. His mind was unable to comprehend what was going on, unable to grasp the mere fact he had become so small. That he was in free fall between the bottom of her toe and the insole of her boot as she tilted it mid-step.
White spots danced in the man’s vision as everything began to go dark, Alric losing himself for a moment. He didn’t know how small he was, nor where he was. Only that he was falling through the musk-scented air within his best friend’s shoe. Any other facts seemed far out of reach, too far for him to grasp and realize.
All he could hear was the wind rushing by him, during his free-fall descent towards the toe section of her boot. His body falling like a rag-doll, not even able to scream any longer. His heart thumped so hard within his chest, it felt like it’d burst through.
Then, everything shifted. He could see all of her toes above him, coming down upon him from the darkness above. His crystal’s light made all five clear once more. The world seemed to be shifting in size--no, he was getting bigger again!
He felt himself touching down against the surface of her boot, the air knocked out of him. He had little time to react, as Zori’s brown-fleshed toe came crashing down against him. A pressure bore down against his entire form, but it wasn’t as powerful as before.
His emerald colored eyes took in the sight of her toe on top of him. Head turning. He once again had all of her toes within view again.
He felt himself heave desperately, attempting to fill his lungs with air again. Then, he’d cough - a wheeze emitted from him; as he struggled to remember how to breathe.
The Hyur let out a shocked, ragged gasp as his vision cleared. He was roughly the size of her pinkie toe again. Trapped between the tip of it and the leather at the toe of her boot. His body trembled as the weight of her foot bore down on him once more. She was taking another step, trapping his lower half under the pad of her toe.
His body was still in a cold sweat, from that brief moment of being so small. Just thinking back to that moment had his breath hitching in his throat. It had frightened him, badly, though he was starting to calm down. This size was something he could understand, and was fine with. Though after a few more steps Zori ceased her walking. He wasn’t sure why, but he was thankful for it nonetheless. Though, her toes started to shift once again. . .as if they sensed he was still inside.
Her toe had started grinding roughly against him once more. He winced in pain, thankful for being so durable. Even so the pressure was intense. Then, she was walking again. Though, this time it lasted only a few short steps. The muffled sounds of Zori sitting on the bed were distantly heard.
He could swear he heard a loud crunching sound, high above him. Was she. . .eating one of the apples?
Her toes relaxed, then flexed about. Wiggling, as they’d start to toy with the now somewhat bigger Alric. He had gotten bigger again. He found his entire body could fit under her pinkie toe, and the digit next to it. His hands reached out, slipping between the two - as he’d tried to hoist himself up and out.
However, as he did, her toes pressed down on him. Zori was unaware she was toying with her childhood friend. He felt his body being roughed about. Toes vigorously squeezed him; between the ball of her foot, and the underside of her toes. The young man was entirely at their mercy. Flattened under her toes, rubbed between them, and cruelly crushed under them all as time went on. . .
Zori had decided to sit back down on the bed, recalling there were apples nearby. She didn’t wish to leave Alric alone at his current size, wherever he was. She assumed he was under the covers somewhere. Still waking up, the Miqo’tes tail lightly swished about behind her - taking another bite of the apple.