Published: August 10th 2020, 2:00:04 pm
"Ugh!" Mai'lyth slashed at the stone walls of the dungeon in frustration, the black metal easily ripping through the stone walls, leaving behind three narrow slits. It had been quite the quest to find the metal the blacksmith had made her weapon out of, one that had ended with an encounter with a dragon that might have killed them all, had Korinn not managed to calm the beast down, finally, thanks to their shared blood, but it had been worth it. It had gotten her through pretty much every trial she'd had since then... Until now.
"Oh, my," the sorcerer they'd hired turned around, looking over her glasses at Mai. "Is everything all right?"
Mai glowered; she hated everything about this. It wasn't that she didn't want to rescue Hana... She was a good teammate, even if she could be a bit of a nag from time to time, and it was nice to not be the shortest member of the party. If there was one thing she hated dealing with, however, it was the undead; if there were two, she'd add elves to that.
As a half-elf, she'd never really fit in with either humans or elves, at least until she'd met Donovan. His powers had made him something of an outcast, too, and they'd become fast friends... She'd never had that with any elf. They were all so tall, and lanky, and looked down at her for choosing to deal with things using her fists, instead of magic.
They needed someone who understood that, though, to figure out how to rescue the halfling, and, unfortunately, all the most powerful mages were elves. Mai had avoided the woman the whole trip back to the dungeon, not wanting to cause trouble, but now, as she waited for the woman to actually do something to earn the gold they were paying her, Mai couldn't help herself.
"We didn't bring you here to read books!" she glared. "Open the stupid portal!"
"Mai..." Korinn said, as gently as a giant lizard-person could. "It's not as simple as that..."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Mai shook her head. "Does the great elf not know how to do the one thing we hired her to do?! I told you we should have tried going to the next town, to..."
Her eyes widened as she realized it was getting harder to move her mouth, until, finally, it stopped altogether, silencing her. "That's better," the elf smirked smugly. "It's much easier to study without the prattling of children."
Mai's nostrils flared, head snapping towards Donovan, looking for back-up. That was another thing she hated about full-blooded elves... They thought, just because they were usually hundreds of years old before they ventured out into the world, that they knew better than her, or anyone else... If that woman hadn't had her magic, she'd be no match for Mai in a fight; even with it, Mai was pretty sure she stood a good chance.
"Let her go," Donovan ordered, summoning one of his energy knives threateningly.
The elf shrugged, the spell fading with the motion, Mai opening her mouth, then deciding to close it without saying anything. She looked to Donovan, the pair having worked together long enough not to need words.
Except now, apparently. "Mai," he sighed, "maybe you should just calm down for a minute and give her the chance to get this done."
Mai couldn't believe it; he was taking her side?! She should have known that, once a real elf showed up, she wouldn't be good enough for him anymore... That's how it always happened. "The longer we stand around here, the more chance that wraith has of finding us!"
"Your shouting," the elf lectured, in a tone that only made Mai angrier, "is going to do that far quicker than me reading."
"Fine!" Mai spat, storming to the heavy, wooden door of the room they'd sequestered themselves in.
"Mai, no," Korinn reached out towards her. "We need to stick together!"
"I don't need you idiots!" Mai informed them all.
"She'll be fine," she heard Donovan say from the other side of the door, after slamming it shut with an echo that bounced down the long, stone hallway to either side of her. "She just needs a little time."
"I'll have plenty of time once I put that old biddy in the ground," she grumbled, storming down the corridor. She wasn't really going to murder the elf.... probably... but thinking about it did make her feel the tiniest bit better. Honestly, if she got the chance to kill anything, that would likely improve her mood.
Which was why, when she saw the giant spider-web, she decided to take care of it on her own. It shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but, as Hana loved to tell her, there was no telling how large a dire creature could grow to. The party had killed plenty of huge spiders in their time, and they'd all been weak enough that Mai was positive she could have handled them on their own... She didn't see this one, however, only its web.
"Come on, eight-eyes," she taunted, reaching up for the web with a grin. "Let's dance."
Was the webbing thicker than what they'd seen with their previous encounters? It had been a while, so it was hard to judge. She knew it was going to be sticky, so she was careful to position to blades of her gauntlet where she could easily slice through it before she grabbed ahold and gave it a tug.
She was right; her gauntlet refused to budge once she'd done that, stuck fast in the spider's web. "Great," she huffed, knowing she was either going to have to spend hours cleaning it up after they got out of this dungeon, or beg the elf - or Hana, when they'd saved her, as a way for the halfling to say 'thanks' - to use a spell to do it. "You're really in for it now!" she threatened the unseen menace, giving the gauntlet a twist, glad she'd been smart enough to prepare.
Except... The blades didn't cut the webbing. She frowned, trying again, with the same results. "That's impossible," she mused to herself. They went through stones, and bone, with very little problem... Why would they have any trouble with some spiderweb, no matter how big it was?
She gasped, feeling a response tug, one so strong it nearly pulled her off of her feet. "That silly little halfling was right," she muttered, right before she felt another pull, throwing her off balance, pulling her forward... She tried to brace herself, but there was no need, since she didn't hit the stone floor at all... Instead, she landed on the web.
"Get off!" she ordered, struggling with all of her might to break free, feeling her rage build up more and more when it did nothing, until, finally, she was about to explode...
And that's when it happened. It was a sting at first, and then a burning, spreading slowly through her body, as she fought to turn herself, to see what that had been... "Oh, gods," she groaned, seeing the spider above her, venom practically dripping from its fangs. She wasn't sure if the poison was already affecting her vision, but its legs almost looked like shadows, and more similar to the tentacles from some sea creature than what she'd seen on any other spider...
No. There was no time to be afraid... She needed to get angry, mad at this monster for taking her by surprise, for biting her, for daring to mess with her in the first place, even if she'd basically begged it to... A grin crossed her face as she felt it flow through her, ready for the surge of strength that came with it, sure it would be enough to let her cut her way out of the web, and tear this thing apart...
"Whoa!" she frowned as her hand slipped out of her gauntlet. That was strange... She'd had it made to fit her perfectly, to never have to worry about that happening in a time like this... She reached up for it frantically, only to discover the spider must have pulled the gauntlet away from her, because it was too far away for her to reach...
"Come on," she shook her head, swallowing nervously, heart starting to race. How could she have let herself fall out of her rage so easily?! "I don't even need that stupid thing... I can kill a spider with my bare hands!"
She let the anger overtake her again, but, this time, it ended with her tumbling out of the web, landing hard on her backside, stunning her for a moment before she could look up and see her tunic up in the web now, a split second before she felt the cool draft of the dungeon on her bare chest. Her rage was already surging back through her, intermingled with humiliation, as she glanced down at herself, trying to scramble to her feet, seeing, in horror, her legs shrinking right out of her pants, leaving them behind as she stood.
The poison... It had to be the poison. She didn't know how, but it was making her smaller, every time she tried to use her rage. She snatched up her pants, trying to cover herself, turning to run down the corridor, back to the party, knowing she was no chance for the spider now, only to feel the cold embrace of a tentacle wrapping around her ankle, pulling her down, dragging her backwards, towards the web...
"Let me go!" she squealed, struggling helplessly. "Let go of me!"
"It's all right, it's all right," an unfamiliar voice told her gently. Mai flinched as she opened her eyes, seeing a huge woman's face over hers, looking down at her, blushing as she felt her bladder dribble out into... She wasn't sure. She'd thought she was naked, and yet, there was definitely something there now, something big, and thick, and bulky... "You were just having a bad dream, dear..."
"No, I wasn't!" Mai insisted. "A-And who are you?!"
"Don't be silly," the woman chuckled, peeling back the covers. Mai was shocked to realize she was able to move again, although she refused to believe some blankets were the only thing that had been keeping her pinned down. "Let's get you into a fresh diaper, sweetie, and then you can play."
"D-Diap..." Mai's eyes flashed in humiliation and anger at the implication that she'd need to wear such a thing, just to see the woman seem to grow even larger in front of her. Thankfully, it didn't appear that she'd shrunken out of her clothes again, though, less pleasantly, when she looked down at herself, so could see a definitely bulge beneath her fluffy, pink pants that made her suspect that perhaps the woman was telling the truth after all.
"L-Let go of me, giant!" Mai demanded as the woman picked her up, resting her on her hip.
"Giant?" the woman laughed. "Such imagination... I'm no giant, cutie." She laid Mai down on her back, tapping her lightly on her nose. "Just because you're so small doesn't mean everyone else is a giant."
"I-I'm not small!" Mai fumed. For a half-elf, she was fairly average... It wasn't her fault she spent her time surrounded by a particularly tall human, a dragonborn, and now some big, spindly full elf... Though, all of their heights paled in comparison to this woman.
"Hmm," the woman thought for a moment. "Not compared to the little babies, I suppose." She slid Mai's pants off, revealing a shiny garment beneath, one that made noise with each of Mai's frantic squirms. "Compared to the other kids your age, though, sweetie, I'm afraid you are.... Not that it's a bad thing!"
Mai blushed, watching the woman tear open the garment, leaving her naked, exposed, too tiny and weak to stop her from wiping her privates with a cool cloth, take away the garment, replace it with a new one, after sprinkling some sweet-smelling powder on her. "Isn't that better?" the woman grinned. "A nice, fresh diaper for you!"
"I-I don't need diapers," Mai whined, pawing at the thing.
"Mai," the woman raised her eyebrow. "Do you need your gloves?"
Gloves... Mai nodded frantically. She didn't call her gauntlet that, but she could see how someone uninformed might. If she had it, then she might have a chance to escape this place, wherever she was, and get back to the dungeon...
The woman looked surprised. "You want them? All right..." She stepped away a moment, not long enough for Mai to escape, then returned not with Mai's bladed gauntlet, but a pair of pink, fuzzy mittens, which she easily pulled over Mai's hands, despite the girl's protests. She didn't feel stronger with these on, like she did with her gauntlet... She felt weaker, like a kitten, her fingers spread far apart, useless...
"I don't think you need your little PJ pants now, do you?" the woman asked. "Not to play." She picked up Mai, wearing her shirt, a diaper, and mittens, and carried her into another room, one filled with children, setting her down among them.
Mai's stomach roiled, realizing the woman might not have been lying after all... Either these were all giants, or Mai truly was the one who had become small, rather than the woman being huge. She was smaller than most of them, even the ones dressed similarly to her, in diapers...
This was wrong... This was all wrong. "I don't belong here!" she yelled angrily at the woman, racing after her, nearly falling thanks to the unfamiliar bulk of the diaper between her thighs. "Put me back right now!"
"Oh, Mai," the woman stopped, turned around, kneeling down with a grin. "You are exactly where you belong."
Mai could feel the rage building up inside her once more, and she let it out the only way she could at the moment, as tiny as she was, with her hands useless... She threw an epic tantrum. Tears stung her eyes as she stomped her feet, screaming at the woman, "No, I'm not! I'm not a baby, I'm a big girl! Let me out of here right now!"
She gasped as she lost her balance, falling flat on her padded bottom, but that didn't stop her. She flailed and kicked, wailing and screaming, until she'd tired herself out, doing nothing except, as she realized once the woman plucked her off the ground, making herself smaller, and weaker.
"I think somebody has earned themselves a time-out," the woman lectured, putting Mai down on her feet in the corner of the room. "I'll tell you when it's over, and if I see you out of here before I do, you're going over my lap, little lady!"
Mai was a fearsome warrior, one of the strongest and most deadly on the team, despite her small size... But, in the moment, she didn't have much of a choice, other than to do as she was told, like a naughty child. She'd been shrunken, she'd lost her gauntlet, and even her rage, which, at one time, was scary enough to make any grown man quiver, had been reduced to a toddler's tantrum... And, if she used it, she'd get smaller, still....
And the scariest part was, she couldn't help herself. She'd spent years developing her rage, learning how to more easily fall into it so she could access it when she needed it... It was second nature to her. How tiny was she going to get, she wondered, before the venom finally wore off?
"M-Mai?"
Mai turned, forgetting the order she'd just been given at the sound of the voice. Sure enough, there was Hana, standing there in a tiny dress and clearly wet diaper, thumb in her mouth, clutching a stuffed animal in the shape of a bird. "I-I thought that was you... I-I mean..." She frowned, nibbling on her thumb, confused. "Y-You are real?"
"I am," Mai told her, rushing forward, pulling the girl into a hug... Only to realize, to her horror, that she was already shorter than her, that, even as she said the words, "I-I came here to rescue you," that she'd utterly failed. "Y-You can use your magic to get us out of this place... Right?"
"Magic?" Hana shook her head. "N-No, I can't do that... Th-That was my imagination... B-But... So were you..." She chewed harder on her thumb, tears starting to fill her eyes. "I-I don't know..."
"Mai!" the woman swept back in with a flash. "I told you to stay in the corner! And now you're upsetting Hana... I'd say you definitely deserve a spanking now, young lady!"
"B-But..." Hana was still sputtering uncertainly.
"It's okay," the woman knelt down in front of her, giving her a hug. "There's nothing to be scared about, sweetie... She just likes to play pretend, like you... But don't worry... She's nowhere near as clever as you. I'm sure she'll forget all about it even quicker than you did. Now, come along, Mai... It's time for your punishment."