One day, Ella is walking through the town market, looking over various items. She looks like a very ordinary girl (but pretty), dressed in her white blouse and belted-on blue skirt, carring a small cloth bag. Things, however, are not as they appear….
“Move It!” Booms a large, muscular man carrying a crate through the crowd. He means it for everyone in front of him, but Ella suddenly stiffens. Anyone with magical perceptions would have heard a slight twinkle. Quite unwillingly, her feet propel her quickly around a corner, away from her destination. You see, Ella suffers from the “gift” of obedience, which makes her have to obey everything anyone tells her to do. This gets her into loads of trouble, especially, as now, when her “gift” takes things a little too far.
“Oof” she goes as her autonomous feet propel her into a man walking through the street. They both hit the ground, and she can hear some glass breaking. She gets to her feet “I’m so sorry!” She tells him.
“You should be!” He tells her, glaring. He’s a youngish man, in his early 20’s, dressed in travel clothes with glasses on his nose. He continues: “That was a valuable potion, it took me months to go into the forest and find it. Now look at it!” Ella’s head jerks downwards and she sees the pink mess with large pieces of glass in it. The man doesn’t notice: “Now I won’t have any test subjects.” Ella looks at it in regret.
“I could try to get it up…” she suggested, really wanting to leave. He shook his head impatiently.
“No no no, it’s effects will fade when it’s out of the glass. However..” he looks at her sharply, “maybe you could be my test subject!” At this, Ella’s head snapped up, and she looked at him, a protest on her lips. After years of experience, she had a sense for when an unwanted order was coming along. The man faltered for a second, then shrugged inwardly. She can always refuse, he thought to himself. “The effects should still be fully potent,” he continued, hoping that she was dumb enough to do this. Gathering his courage, he ordered “Lick it up!”
Ella stiffens suddenly, straight as a board. She resists with all her might, but she can’t win against her "gift". She gets on her knees while the man watches, mouth open. She jerks forward, head just above the ground. She tries to clench her teeth, but the magic forces open her mouth and her tongue comes out. She starts to lap up the pink stuff like a dog, almost in tears from the humiliation. The cold gritty stone meets her tongue, practically vomiting in disgust at the thought of all the garbage that must have been throne on these stones. While the man watches, astonished, she efficiently works her way through the puddle, getting almost all of it. Finally, she’s finished. She sits back as the man exclaims:
“Well, I… that was great! Thank You! I never thought you’d do it.” He looks at her eagerly. She’s too busy trying to clean that taste off her tongue to respond. Before either of them could say anything else, the potion started to take affect. Ella doubled over, all of her muscles convulsing, she fell back to the ground and twitched involuntarily as her muscles seemed to be trying to escape her body. When she could finally look up, everything was gigantic.
“What…?” Is all she can say. The world had grown huge, the alley seems to stretch on and on until it reaches the massive slab that is the wall of the building. A sudden rush of air makes her turn, and she is confronted with the towering figure of the man who started all of this. He loomed over her, stretching into the sky. He was peering down in awed fascination at her tiny form, clearly at a loss for words. He started to bend over, to get a closer look, and she backed away hastily, tripping over her skirt and falling flat on her butt. She stares upward in horror as a thunderous sound fills the air, him smothering a chuckle. She starts to get angry, her fiery personality taking over, but before she could give him a piece of her mind a massive voice fills the alley:
“There he is!’ A group of men, big burly and looking decidedly unfriendly, were rushing down the alley towards the man. He swallows, then takes to his heels. The group of men follow him, thundering down towards the alley towards Ella. She screams in a tiny, high pitched voice as their legs surround her, pounding into the earth and knocking her flat. They pass, however, and she counts herself lucky for not having been squashed.
Ella stands up, brushes off her shirt and skirt and starts to plan. She decides to walk down the alley to the distant market, with mountainous figures passing the mouth of the alley in the distance. She starts to walk, trudging along down the alley
She has to walk a long way, stepping over the cracks between the cobbles, which are now quite significant. She repeatedly falls down, and by the time she reaches the end she’s sore, aching and tired. She forgets this, however, because she now sees the massive giant people walking around, so big that It dazzles the eye. She contemplates how to get attention, however she never figures it out because someone notices her, it’s…