After a few tries at jumping up and down, waving her arms and screaming (and repeatedly being knocked over by the passage of an oblivious giant), she retreats back from the edge of the street. She looks around, seeking inspiration, hoping that perhaps her friend Arrieda would come along and help her out. Unfortunately for her, this was not to be.
While standing there at the edge of the street, she hears a loud THUNK over to her left. Whirling around, she is confronted with the sight of a large wooden table which stands in front of a shop, towering over her measly form and blocking out any sight of what is on it. The more immediate problem, however, is the large crystal ball which had just hit the cobblestones. It was a little taller than she was, and it is rolling right towards her!
"Eeep!" She yelps as she dives aside. The large, clear boulder, spider webbed with cracks from its fall, rolls across the spot she was standing on a moment before with frightful force It eventually comes to a halt in a particularly deep crevice between cobblestones, and Ella stands up. She brushes off her blouse once more, although by now it has acquired a great deal of dirt and dust and is starting to turn grey. She looks up as a voice suddenly booms out:
"Get Away, Get Away you guttersnipes! If I ever see you around here again, I'll chop you up and sell you to the menagerie as lions' food!" Ella is forced back once more as three pairs of bare, dirty feet belonging to a group of smaller (but still towering) street urchins thunder past. They enter the alley from which Ella had emerged and disappear, leaving Ella shaken, and disgusted by the sight (and smell) of their incredibly dirty feet. Her relief is short lived, however, as just when she starts to move towards the crystal ball to examine it there comes an enormous slapping sound from behind her. Turning, she finds herself confronted by another gigantic figure, an adult this time, clad in soft soled shoes and a fairly prosperous looking purple garment. He's muttering to himself, soft but clearly audible to Ella, especially as he is starting to bend over:
"Damm Miscreants, touching all my wares and breaking a perfectly good crystal ball. If I ever get my hands on them..." he says in a threatening voice, head turned towards the alley. He reaches out his hand towards the crystal ball, looks down, and spots Ella. He freezes, eyes wide in astonishment, mouth gaping slightly as he takes in her small, slightly dirty form.
Ella, for her part, is staring up at Mr. Hember, recognizing his face from all the times she had walked into "Hember's Exotic Goods Emporium". She is still unused to her new size, and the sight of his frozen, hunched over figure was quite intimidating, even if someone his size would have found it ludicrous. He slowly drops his hand back to his side and straightens a bit, sitting on his heels for a moment as he studies his newest find. Ella, growing a bit more used to the enormous mass of a man in front of her, takes the initiative:
"Sir? Sir? Can you help me?" She yells at the top of her voice, waving her arms. Hember raises his eyebrows slightly hearing her words as a bit soft, but quite audible and normal-sounding, surprised at this new development:
"So you're not a doll, even a magicked one." He says, a grin starting to cross his face. Ella didn't like either the look on his face or the tone of his massive, air-shaking voice. She controls her expression and tries again:
"No Sir, I'm not a doll, I'm a human named Ella- EEEP!" Her yelling ends in a frantic shriek as Mr. Hember casually reaches forward and plucks her off the ground with a wall-sized hand, bringing his prize closer to his face to be examined.
"Not a fairy either, no wings, no magic. Also, far too pretty" He says, looking over her pretty young form and admiring her clothes. Ella felt his warm breath wash over her and his slightly greasy fingers encasing her sides and pinning her arms uncomfortably to her side. She really didn't like his tone of voice now, nor the way his eyes were wandering over her body, resting for a while on her fairly low neckline. She looks at him with a sinking heart and a sense of nausea from being zoomed into the air so quickly. She makes another go at it:
"No Mr. Hember, I'm not a fairy, I'm a human named Ella, I've been in your shop a number of times, remember?" She asks, pleading with him as he stares at her with a light in his eye. He does indeed remember her now, walking into his store a number of times, occasionally buying something, usually books. A smirk crosses his face as he replies:
"Ah yes, I remember now. Ironic that my newest acquisition should be familiar with my store." He chuckles quietly as he stands up, absently pocketing his crystal ball and walking into his store. At this, Ella starts squirming furiously, anger all over her face as she yells at him:
"I'm a human being, not an "acquisition", you can't just take me, this is illegal and outrageous!!" She writhes furiously in his hand as he walks into his store. He laughs again:
"Oh, but I can, you'll be quite the valuable 'little' commodity." He is looking at her with greed written all over his face, leering quite openly at her chest. At this, a flash of fear at being held captive by this lecherous, greedy merchant and what might happen to her filled Ella, and just as quickly her fiery personality transmuted it to anger:
"Let me go! Let me go you slime ball! When I get big again I'm get the Watch!" and many other, less comprehendible but equally furious denouncements. At the same time, she truly begins to struggle against his hot, sweaty grip, kicking, squirming and straining in a truly astounding display of energy. Mr. Hember is certainly impressed (and pleased) at the amount of energy contained in the small body of his latest "Item", and he truly enjoyed the thigh shown off with her rapid kicks and the fascinating wobble produced in the chest area as she struggled against his firmly clenched fingers...
"Ow!" He cries, mostly in surprise rather than pain as his increased leering inspires Ella to new heights of fury, allowing her to deliver a well-aimed and fairly powerful kick to a tender nerve-point on his wrist. Displeased, he glares down at her while none-too-gently squeezing and shaking her tiny form. This earns him a gasp of slight pain and nausea, but she does not stop with her struggling.
"Stop that!" He commands loudly and sharply, figuring that it was probably time for him to start instilling a little respect in his new charge. To his complete and utter bewilderment, the tiny figure in his hand instantly freezes, arms and legs rigid and offering absolutely zero resistance to his fingers. He was taken aback, having expected that she would continue to struggle in the face of a simple "stop". Examining her, he notices that the stream of abuse (which had grown softer and more hoarse with continual shouting and exertion) has stopped completely, and the girl's face, while still screwed up in fury, also held a healthy dose of fear. Suddenly, it clicked in his mind, the idea forming and then blossoming into almost-certainty. A slow grin crosses his features, terrifying Ella as she realizes that she's been found out.
"Raise your right leg." He tells her. She has no choice and almost instantaneously her right leg, stiff as a board, flails out into a ninety-degree angle to her body, lifting her blue skirt with it. Mr. Hember chuckles deeply, rotating Ella to get a peek at the fine view she had just given him. Ella becomes red-faced as she goes horizontal and sees Mr. Hember looking up her skirt, but she, obviously, has no choice, even though her leg is really starting to ache.
"Enough" says Mr. Hember and Ella immediately drops her leg, obscuring his view, to his disappointment. However, this is drowned out by the visions this had opened up to him, visions that often involved large piles of gold. Still grinning, he sets Ella down on his counter. She immediately runs for it, as fast as she possibly could, but he simply smirks:
"Stop." He says and she freezes in mid-motion, arms out and panting.
"Come Back" she is compelled to turn around and march back towards Mr. Hember, standing in front of him, not even able to be weak-kneed and trembling because of his order. He settles himself on a stool, looming over her tiny form and smiling. "Do you have to obey every order?' He asks her firmly, watching as she looks up at him with naked fear. However, she says nothing. He considers for a moment, than says: "Answer any question I ask you immediately, completely, truthfully and without the slightest evasion." He watches with interest as her body stiffens and he swears he hears a small twinkle at the edge of his hearing.
"DO you have to obey every order given to you?" he asks again He watches her with intrest as she strains to keep her mouth shut, but of course she can't:
"Yes." He can hear the hatred in her voice. He smiles and continues: "Why?"
"My Fairy Godmother gifted me with Obedience when I was a baby." She informs him, her expression clearly protesting this turn of events. He nods, satisfied. No curse is as hard to break as one from a fairy godmother, he thinks to himself. With that, he begins to put her through her paces. He orders her to march up and down in front of him, to jump, to do back flips and twirls, to pirouette while doing ballet, to sing like an angel, or scream like a startled cat When he gets tired of her originally amusing but now boring tirades, he orders her to stop that as well. She still has an ""if looks could kill..." glare on her face, but he decides to allow that. No need to be cruel, after all.
He tests the limits of her obedience, noting with disappointment that she can bend but not break the laws of physics when it comes to jumping and getting around objects. He also tests the level of autonomy she possessed, giving vague orders which, to his delight, she has to obey exactly as he would wish her to obey them. He ends with a series of commands intended to ensure that she knows her place in the proverbial "food chain".
"Roll over" she drops to the ground and rolls. "Beg like a dog" She gets on her knees and pants, face forced into piteous expressions and voice forced into a small whine. "Lift your skirt." Tears rolling out of her eyes, she seizes her blue skirt and lifts it up to her chest, displaying her white underpants and admirably muscled thighs to the world (well, to Mr. Hember, who had closed the shop on his way in). He admires for a few moments, than waves his hand.
"That's enough." He was fairly sure she got it now. Her body relaxed, than stiffened as she crosses her arms defensively, furiously angry but terrified, staring up into his delighted face, still under the command to not talk. He is still chuckling as he reaches under the counter and brings up a large, rectangular object made of wood, which Ella recognizes, to her horror, as a cage for small animals. Mr. Hember laughs at the expression on her face as he puts it down on the counter next to her.
"Now you're getting it," He tells her, smiling. He frowns for a moment, thinking, than smiles and says:
"Speak freely," He is fully prepared to quiet her if she starts abusing him again, but is pleasantly surprised when not a word comes out of her mouth. "Very good," he tells her, not in the least fooled into believing her tamed. He reaches down and opens the cage door. Ella turns to look; mute and terrified, as the door to what is obviously her cage swings open. Mr. Hember reaches down and picks her up off the table, delighting in the feel of her warm, pliant but still muscular body in his hand. Using his thumb, he flips her over and admires her shapely curves before copping a quick feel, which makes Ella flinch and get even angrier, if possible. Getting back to business, the merchant tosses her gently into the cage so that she lands on her already aching behind, and closes the door. He then picks up the cage by the handle...
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