“So,” Celeste smirked down at the tiny Ivette in her lap. “I take it you… don’t wanna stay tiny?”

”Um. In a word, no?” Ivette mumbled. Meanwhile the goat meat was still dangling high above her. Way out of her reach…

”Aw, that’s a shame,” Celeste pouted. “Because there’s a lotta things someone your size could do for a gal like me…”

Ivette gulped down something unpleasant. A lot of those were deeply unpleasant, weren’t they?

”Such as?” She grimaced. Something told her she didn’t have much choice, regardless of whatever Celeste had ‘planned’ for her, but a little devil’s advocate couldn’t hurt, could it?

”Well think about it, squirt.” Celeste drew her knife… and sliced off a strip of goat meat with it. Passing it down to the tiny girl between her knees, she sheathed the knife again. “I steal stuff, you’re really tiny. You can get places I can’t. Why would I need lockpicks if I’ve got you?”

”I’m not that small…” Ivette withdrew into herself. All of a sudden the goat meat was dry and tasteless, as the rights to her own humanity were quickly being stripped away from her. “And I’m not your pet or whatever! I wanna fix this curse and grow back to my normal size!”

”And I get that, I do.” Celeste nodded. “But here’s the thing, squirt. If you’re lucky, this’ll wear off soon. I dunno much about magic though, so pinch of salt, am I right? But if you ain’t lucky, and I’m guessing you ain’t, then you gotta find a way to uncurse yourself. And you gotta have friends if you wanna survive at your size. Catch my drift, shortstack?”

Ivette just grumpily chewed on goat meat. The taste and moisture was long gone. 

Celeste was right. About everything. Without allies she was screwed. Even with allies, she was still probably screwed. She’d need to do whatever she could, whatever people asked of her, in the hope that someone would know the counter curse.

And that was a really long shot.

Craning her neck upwards to look Celeste in the eye, she sighed,