Pixie by Shrike
Part 1 — The beginning

I was scared, really, really scared. I kept mumbling, “Oh god, please. Please, let me wake up.” A lot of good that did me though. I was already wide awake. Why was I hoping to be asleep? Well, I was so small that lint was like a huge cable. I had no idea how I got this small, nor why I seemed to be glowing like a dim light bulb. I could see it really well, since my clothes hadn’t shrunk with me. I was totally naked.

I had just waked up like that in my own bed. I mean, I went asleep like every evening. In the middle of the night I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom, but suddenly found myself drowning in a huge bed on an impossible hard mattress. My room was like a huge cathedral, and I still had to pee.

I stood up and ran towards the edge of the bed. ‘How small am I now?’ I thought with anxiety filling me up.

After what seemed forever, I reached the end of the bed and I looked down into an abyss. ‘The bed isn’t really all that high, I’m just so small. How did this happen? Did some mutant or other villain reduce everyone in height? Or did this only happen to our house or maybe even only to my room?’

I noticed a huge cable hanging down the side from a pillow. ‘Wait a moment, that’s not a cable, that is just a lose thread.’

I managed to use the string to slide down to the ground and looked around me. ‘So, now I’m on the ground, what am I going to do now? I still need to pee, and there is no way I can get to the bathroom in time. I can’t even use the toilet. I’m so friggin small that I can’t use anything normal in this house. If only I had a sister with a doll house or something.’

I really needed to pee now, so I looked around and saw a piece of fluff on the floor. It wasn’t big, but to me it was huge. I thought that it would absorb fluids, so I got a hold of my penis, which wasn’t as easy as I had thought. First things first though and I whizzed onto the fluff, feeling relieved while doing it. As I suspected the fluff absorbed the fluid and even kept the smell bearable. Now I had time to look why I had so much trouble finding my penis. I looked down and saw to my dismay that it looked a lot smaller than it should. ‘What the fuck! What is going on? Is this shrinking thing effecting my penis more than the rest of me?’ Then I noticed that my hands looked a bit thinner and my chest was a bit flabby.

I didn’t have more time to think about that as my door opened and I looked towards it in horror. ‘Who is that? Are the bad guys here? What should I do, get attention or hide?’ The light in my room was clicked on and I blinked against the harsh light shining in my room.

Next thing I heard was my father’s voice booming, “What the hell? Where is Keith? The alarm hasn’t gone off, so he should still be here.”

“Maybe he went to the bathroom, honey.” I heard my mom say.

“No way, I was in the bathroom for a long time. He never went there. I would have heard him if he went downstairs as well. I think some Mutant got him.”

Yep, that was my dad, always thinking bad things about mutants. Well, come to think of it, I wasn’t thinking much better about them as well. I did have an answer to my question though. The shrinking only happened to me. Neither my father nor my mom had been shrunk apparently. My little brother even woke up in his room. “Mom, dad? What is going on?”

“Someone or something took your brother away from his room. He’s disappeared. It must have been some mutant kidnapper,” my father told him.

He turned off the light of in my room, but as he was closing the door, our cat, Nibbles scooted inside. She immediately went towards me and I got really scared again. Jeez, that cat was huge now. Nibbles sniffed near me a little and then opened her gigantic mouth. ‘Oh, crap. She’s gonna eat me.’

I started running to get away from her, but with my small stature I didn’t make a lot of progress. As her mouth was closing over me I was even more frightened and felt something wrench inside of me. Suddenly I was shrinking again. I was getting smaller and smaller and fell down into a crack in the wooden floor. The mouth with the rough tongue closed above my head just clearing it by a foot or so. Well, what a foot would have been in my normal stature.

Nibbles was perplexed as she didn’t get something in her mouth and started looking around for her snack. I was so small however that she didn’t even notice me. I was still glowing however and that would attract her attention eventually. So I tried to get myself not to glow. It doused suddenly and that’s when I realized that I hadn’t been shrunk by a mutant. I was the mutant! I said out loud, “Oh crap, I’m a mutant.”

I should’ve kept my mouth shut though. Nibbles apparently heard me and began looking for me again. She came close to my hiding spot, but didn’t see me, fortunately. She backed off and searched around the room for me or anything else that she could find.

I relaxed a little for the first time. But as I looked down at me, I freaked out again. My chest had changed again. Now it looked like I had breasts. Small ones, but definitely breasts. I looked down at my penis and it was even smaller then before. ‘What the fuck is happening? Why am I looking like a friggin half girl and half boy now?’

I was so confused and down that I sat down and started to cry silently. I mean, I hadn’t cried since I was 4, and now I couldn’t stop crying. ‘I’m such a baby. What boy cries at 14 years old.’

After what seemed an eternity I stopped crying and decided that it was time to see what I could do to get out of this situation. I mean, if I could shrink, I should be able to grow as well, right? I stood up, and was about to see if I could grow, when I remembered Nibbles. ‘Is she still in the room? I can’t really start growing then. If I’m not fast enough she’ll see me as a snack and I’ll be a goner for sure.’

I climbed the edge of the crack I was in and carefully glanced over the top to see around. I almost fell down, as I saw that Nibbles the giant cat was lurking nearby and was looking straight at me. I let go and landed on my butt. I half expected the rough tongue of Nibbles to come probing into my hiding spot. But nothing happened. ‘Maybe she didn’t see me?’

I started waiting, but I’ve never been good at sitting still during waiting. When I got tired of it, I lay down and promptly fell asleep. I woke up from a loud noise and for a moment I didn’t recognize it, or where I was. ‘This isn’t my bed.’

Then it all came back to me. Somehow I had shrunk down to less than miniature proportions during the night. I was a mutant! The noise intensified and with dread I suddenly recognized it. It was the vacuum cleaner. Someone, probably my mom, was vacuuming my room. The noise got even louder and then I got sucked up out of the crack into the nozzle.

‘Oh, crap. Now I’m being sucked into the dust bag.’ I got banged against the walls of the hose before it opened into the big bag that was already half filled with dust. I was flung against the back and held there by the incredible force of the rushing air. Even worse, a lot of dust, skin cells and dead animals were thrown against me by the oncoming rush of air from the vacuuming. Just as I thought, that I should do something about it, the rush of air subsided, as did the deafening noise. For a moment I thought, ‘I’m saved, she stopped vacuuming.’ I was wrong though, the next thing I knew was that the bag was shaking and I was thrown around in it. ‘What is going on now?’

Well, I didn’t have to wait too long to find out. I got shaken out of the bag into the garbage bin. I landed in a big pile of goop that turned out to be sauce from the spaghetti that we had yesterday. ‘Yuck, I’m covered in spaghetti sauce. Can this get any worse?’

I learned that it could. The garbage bin was taken outside and I ended up with the rest of the garbage in the trashcan. Thrown around with all the garbage made my situation a lot worse. I was sticky, and lots of things clung to me. I was a walking garbage heap all by myself.

I tried to get out of the trashcan, but couldn’t climb well enough through all the stuff. It didn’t help that I got caught in everything I encountered and that my hands were slippery from the sauce. I was getting desperate, ‘Is today garbage collecting day?’ I didn’t remember, I feared that it was.

Maybe now it was time for me to find out if I could grow in size again. I tried to figure out how to do that, but nothing happened. I even said silly things like, “Grow. Up, up and away. Grow please. Big. Shazam. Grow sesame.” Of course nothing worked and I got scared. ‘What if I have to stay like this forever? I may never see people again and will always be hunted by any animal I encounter. If I don’t get dumped with the trash on the landfill first.’

As I got more and more frantic, I suddenly felt that wrenching feeling inside of me again. ‘Oh no, am I going to shrink even smaller?’ Well, my fears were justified, I did start shrinking again. It wasn’t all bad though. Being microscopic small allowed me to move around more freely. The sauce particles didn’t stick as much anymore and I found a small hole in the trash bag through which I could escape.

After crawling out of the trash bag, I still had to find a way out of the trashcan, but at least I wouldn’t be thrown with the trash onto the landfill. Well, I was mostly right anyway.

As I was contemplating on how I could escape the trashcan, or to grow bigger, I felt the trashcan being lifted. ‘Yep, it’s trash collecting day,’ I thought with some resignation. Well, at least I was out of the bag, so to say. But I wasn’t out of trouble, as I soon discovered.

The trash bag was forcefully yanked from the trashcan and little old me was yanked with it. As soon as I was out of the trashcan, I fell down into the grass, which were more like giant trees to me. I was sure that I would get killed hitting the ground, but my microscopic small statute must have included being very light, since my speed was relatively low, with the air currents breaking my fall. I still hit the ground quite hard, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I lay still for a while, before getting up. I didn’t feel any pains, but I decided to examine myself anyway. Another mistake on my part. I now sported real breasts on my chest! As I looked past them, my body had sort of an hourglass figure and then I noticed the worst that had happened to my body. My penis was almost all gone. ‘Shoot, I’m changing all the way to a girl? Why is this happening? What am I going to do?’ I looked around me for some shelter that I could use, but everything looked so big. A piece of dirt was the size of a huge boulder. I could probably hide in a ridge of a sole, easy!

Luck was with me this time and the sounds died down, meaning the garbage men were already gone. I wanted to sit down for a moment and catch my breath, before thinking on what to do now. I sat down in despair and started crying. I cried on feeling lost, small and insignificant. I hadn’t even been upset about running around naked yet. I cried for I don’t know how long, till suddenly I got splashed by a big splash of water. I sputtered and tried to get a breath back into my lungs. ‘What the hell happened? Was it going to rain?’

Then I noticed some other dew drops hanging on the blades of grass. It made me laugh for a moment. I was so small that a dew drop was like a pool to me. My laughing soon stopped as an ant grabbed my arm and tried to drag me away. I was screaming and kicking for all that I was worth. It wasn’t much, but I tried my best. The ant had a death grip on arm and dragged me towards I was sure would be the nest. ‘I better get out of this things clutches, or I’m a goner.’ I knew that once the other ants saw me, they’d subdued me fairly quickly and I’d be larva food moments later.

I planted my feet in the dirt and got a good grip on its mandible with my free hand. Then I tried to pry my arm out of the mandible. I didn’t get it out though, but instead I lifted the whole ant up into the air. I used a bit too much power and swung it over my head in a half circle and slammed the animal upside down into the ground on the other side. The ant let go of my arm at that point and I made sure to get out of there. I started running, but after a few paces I was bouncing up higher than I should be able to. ‘Am I super strong or something? I can leap higher than normal and I just swept an ant three times my size over my head without any problems.’

I jumped up a small flower and sat on a petal to think about these new revelations. My arm was hurting a bit, and I remembered that it had been mauled good by the ants mandible. I looked at my arm and was very surprised. There were only a few superficial wounds visible and those were even healing up right before my eyes. ‘What is this? Am I also a super healer? I should have a lot more and more serious wounds than this on my arm and my legs. But there is next to nothing anymore.’

Now I was really getting upset about everything that had been going on. I mean, I was a small as a grain of sand, I was quite strong for my size and I healed faster than Wolverine from the X-men. This was really getting weird. Mutant weird, and I was the mutant being weird.

Well, at least the water had managed to clean the sauce and other dirt from my body. I felt really clean again, except for my feet that had been in the mud while I was wrestling with the ant. I really needed to clean them again, but without shoes or anything, they would get dirty again moments later, so it would be pointless. As I thought of all this, I realized that I should be feeling cold. But I didn’t in the least. Well, I knew it wasn’t warm, but the cold didn’t bother me at all. Not the morning dew water drops, nor being outdoors naked in November. Things were getting weirder and weirder. I really wanted to get back inside, however dangerous that might be. In my current state I didn’t have to watch out that much for Nibbles eating me, as I was too small to be noticed by him, though some smaller animals might want to eat me. The ant was a good example of that. I did have to watch out for anything else, since I was too small to be noticed and someone or something could slam into me, hurting me a lot or even kill me.

I started jumping like a grasshopper towards the house and made good time getting there. I was so small now that I could just walk underneath the closed door. I said, and meant, walk, not crawl. I never knew that we had such a big gap between the door and the sill.

I didn’t encounter anyone on my jumps towards the stairs and quickly jumped on each step to get up to my room. I kept to the side, but not too close. I didn’t want to get jumped by a predator animal that wanted me for food. Without surprises though I reached the door to my room and walked in underneath the closed door. ‘Gee, no wonder it was drafty in here. There is enough room to drive a 18 wheeler through.’

Well, finally I was back in my room, but what was I going to do now? I had no idea at first, then I remembered. I was going to see if I could grow big again. It hadn’t worked for me earlier, but I had shrunk again. I tried to get that feeling again, and this time I found it easy enough. The wrenching feeling was there again, but not as bad as before. I shrunk a little more, but noted that I could control it somehow. I tried to get that feeling again, but somehow to direct it in reverse, if that made any sense.

Well, it worked, I started to grow slowly but surely. Soon I had reached a size that wasn’t too different from what I used to be, though I didn’t really know if I was the same height or not. I also didn’t know if I should be the same height, since I knew that girls usually were a bit smaller than boys. I didn’t worry too much about it anyway, I could grow a bit more I thought, if I needed. I just wanted to find some clothes that would still fit me. I’d had enough of running around naked.

I turned towards my closet and almost missed the door opening to the hall. The door hinges creaked a little and I turned towards it. In the doorway was my mom. She just stood there gaping at me standing buck naked in my room. I was painfully aware that I was naked and slammed a hand before my crotch. I was suddenly made aware that there wasn’t much there to hide. I then remembered that there was a lot more to hide higher up and slammed my other arm before my breasts.

As I stood there trying to cover my nakedness with my arms and hands, Mom seemed to come out of her stupor and screamed in a very shrill tone, “Mutant! There is a mutant in Keith’s room!”

I was really startled by that outcry. I mean, sure I look different, but to call me a mutant directly? Even if I was one, she didn’t know that. Mom was shoved aside moments later and my dad appeared, with a his 12 gauge in his hands. He saw me and pumped a round into the chamber. ‘Oh no, he’s gonna shoot me first and ask questions later.’

Before he could fire, I panicked and felt the wrenching feeling again. I quickly shrank to a miniature size and tried to get away as fast as I could. I guess I wasn’t shrinking fast enough though, since my dad pointed the gun towards the floor where I was standing. He fired a shot just as I jumped away behind my bed. Dad barged further into my room to find me again and surely to blast me again. I could hear him pump another round into the chamber. I thought, ‘What I wouldn’t give to be able to fly right now.’

Somehow my prayer was answered I think, because next thing I knew, was that there was a tearing sound and feeling in my back. I suddenly saw something appear on both sides of my peripheral vision. They appeared to be some kind of wings, so how to flap them and get under way? Again I was stunned that they seemed to have heard it. My wings started beating very fast and I soared up into the air. I quickly tried to make a turn and almost lost what was still in my stomach as I turned so fast that it felt like my internal organs were left on the old heading with my body going into a new one.

I felt scared and exhilarated at the same time. ‘I’m flying, I have wings and flying really fast.’ I had to react fast, too. I was heading towards the door, but straight towards the wall behind it. As I shot out of the doorway, I made a quick turn again towards the stairs and went downstairs. My dad was following me, fortunately a bit more slowly, but he still managed to get a shot off in my direction. I felt some pieces of buckshot hit me and my wings. ‘Oh no, I’m hit,’ I thought and imagined spiraling down to the floor and die in a horrible crash. I kept on flying however, and headed towards the door. The screen door was closed to keep bugs out, or me in, in this case. I crashed straight through the screen, ripping a big hole in it. This did damage the wing enough to send me spiraling out of control towards the ground. I landed at quite a high speed in the grass and careened off some boulders of dirt and sand before coming to a full stop. I even thought I heard some bones crack and snap, but I couldn’t be sure about that.

I was hurt and felt awful right after my crash landing. I lay still for quite some time. I heard my dad and my little brother coming out of the door searching for me. They didn’t find me though, and after things quieted down I groaned, “Owie, that really hurt.” Then I thought to myself, ‘Better inspect the damage. I hope I can recover from that and still be able to fly again later.’

As I got up to inspect myself, I got another surprise. My wings were all in perfect working order. I didn’t have any bruises, cuts or any other injuries visible. I checked for broken bones, but there didn’t seem to be any. ‘Now I know for a fact that at least one wing was damaged. So how come there isn’t any damage visible? Am I that fast a healer? That would be neat and very welcome.’

As I was thinking all of this and examining myself for injuries, the enormous impact of the events that just happened a short while ago, made me realize that now I was all alone in the world. My family had tried to kill me! I was a mutant and was considered dangerous. They thought I had kidnapped myself and was probably a wanted felon. And I was still naked to boot. Realizing all of that made me sag down and I started bawling. I really cried my heart out right then and there.

I stopped crying when it started to get dark. I looked up thinking, ‘It can’t be that late yet. It can’t be more than afternoon, I think.’ I was right about that, though I didn’t wear a watch. What I saw filled with dread again. A dark cloud had shown up in the sky and I realized that it would start to rain soon.

Damn, I hate to be right. As soon as I had thought of it, the raindrops started to fall already. Out of instinct I flew up and went for a tree to hide from the rain. I barely made it. Some drops hit me like a bathtub had been poured out over me, all at once. I almost fell out of the sky because of it. Somehow I just managed to right myself and get some altitude again. I was exhausted once I got under the leaves of the tree and sat down on a branch to rest.

Finally I could relax and let my guard down a bit, or so I thought. It was quiet out there and in the tree. So, I started to examine my body a bit more. I had only done a quick inspection of my skin and working order, but now I was going to be more thorough. As I started it, I was unpleasantly surprised again. My breasts had grown, I had real hooters now. My hourglass was even more pronounced, and I seemed to look like a Barbie doll come to life. Well, if Barbie had dragonfly wings that is. Below my waspy waist, I found that I didn’t have any penis left. I had never been very hairy down there and now it wasn’t any better. I could see a slit going down and realized that I now had a … Gee I can’t even think it.

I muttered out loud, “Don’t be such a pussy, you’ve got one now.” That made me laugh a bit, but it came out more like a giggle. ‘Oh boy, now I’m even giggling like a girl?’ Then I realized. I really was a girl now. I probably was all girl now! My mood swung back from laughing to being depressed. Dejected I continued my inspection. I really was a healthy girl now. Emphasis on Girl, that is. I couldn’t find anything wrong in the sense of injuries or flaws. I hadn’t realized it earlier, but my hair had grown out a lot. Not only was it down past my shoulders, it had also changed color from my chestnut brown to being a honey blond. ‘Gee, I really am a Barbie doll. Or maybe Tinkerbelle is more appropriate?’

My mood sank even more, and I felt a few tears leaking out of my eyes. Loudly I said, “No, I’m not going to cry again. I’m a big boy and I don’t cry.” Then I realized what I said. ‘I’m not a boy anymore, I’m a girl. Maybe that is why I’m crying so easily.’

I didn’t get more time to think or to feel miserable though. Suddenly a bird popped up on the same branch I was sitting and it started pecking in my direction. ‘Oh no, do I look like food to birds as well? I need to get out of here and find someplace to hide!’

I dropped from the branch and flew away from the tree, straight into the rain. The bird was following me closely and I had to weave and turn like crazy to avoid ending up in its beak and stomach. The falling raindrops made it even worse as I got hit by several of them, hampering my flight capability. The bird didn’t seem to suffer as much inconvenience as me from the rain, so I was starting to panic. I started thinking, ‘Is this it? Am I going to end as bird shit? Oh, what am I going to do?’

Then I saw a hole in a fence separating two gardens. I quickly made my way over there, still weaving and bobbing all the time. I dove through the small hole, only just clearing it with my wings. Then right behind me was a loud crash. I guess the bird didn’t make it and hit the fence. I didn’t look around though, I kept on flying at my highest speed. I was still weaving though, I didn’t want to take any chances that that bird or another was on my tail. I kept it up till I got to a hedge thick with leaves and branches. There I sat down on a branch and started shivering and shaking. I couldn’t believe that I made it. My adrenaline was subsiding and now I got the shakes of my narrow escape. Before I knew it, I was crying again. Damn these female hormones.

I don’t know how long I sat there sniveling and shaking, but eventually I pulled myself together and thought about what to do now. It was still light out and the rain had stopped. I flew down to a puddle and washed myself a bit. Frantically I kept looking around me, I was fearful that I would be noticed by a bird or other predator again. In this state I even had to watch for rats and mice. Nothing happened fortunately while I washed myself, and as soon as I was clean enough I flew back into the hedge to hide.

I thought hard about what I should do. Going home was out of the question. I was now effectually dead. Or rather missing and presumed dead. No one would believe I had been Keith Wallace. Not only was I now obviously a girl, almost everything had changed about me. I had now blond hair, curves that would make most girls green with envy, and naked. Even if that wasn’t a problem, I still had wings on my back, and I was only a few inches high at the moment. Well, I could probably change that, but would my wings disappear? I didn’t know, and didn’t want to find out. I mean I might need them soon again to escape another predator out for my flesh.

I waited in the hedge till it got a bit dark, keeping a look out for any animal big or small enough to get to me and that might pose a threat to my existence. When I deemed it dark enough I flew out again, keeping a watchful eye out for night birds and bats. I already knew that they were flying about in the area. I could hear the sonic cries with which they were hunting. I didn’t realize it immediately but apparently I could hear in the ultrasonic range of bats. I didn’t know if I could emit sounds like that, but I didn’t want to try, since it might attract unwanted attention to myself.

I just flew slow enough to see ahead, and in an erratic pattern. I didn’t know where I was going, and what I was looking for. Well, I was looking for a place to spend the night free of predators. But I didn’t have a clue as to what kind of place that might be. I was just trying to find something, anything that would provide me with enough shelter, so I could get some sleep.

I narrowly avoided getting caught by a bat while flying. I got just enough warning from the high frequency modulated tones that it was after me and quite close. I ducked behind a bucket and the bat swooped by immediately after I did that. I was shaking in fear again from my narrow escape and thought, ‘I can’t fly in the daytime because of the birds and people. I can’t fly at night because of the bats. Will this be my fate now? Going around scared to be eaten all the time, till it really happens?’

I really hoped that I would find a way out of this. But I didn’t have a clue yet as to how I could achieve that. I flew away from the cover of the bucket and got bombarded again with the high frequency tones of another bat. This one was even closer than the previous one, and with a utterly stupid dive I avoided it. It did however make me slam into the ground. I lay dazed for a moment, not knowing where I was, till everything came back to me. Just in time too, as a scurrying snake approached me looking for a tasty snack.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, flying up almost into the path of a nighthawk trying to catch insects. I think it was surprised to encounter me as well, but it still tried to catch me with its bill. I barely managed to avoid this threat and dove back into the cover of yet another hedge. There I sat shaking like a leaf again. This was getting ridiculous. I had to dodge attack after attack on my life. When was this going to end? I had the answer ready too, probably with my death.

I really had to find a place to hide now. I was getting tired and sleepy. I couldn’t hold out much longer and as soon as I let my guard down I might get eaten out here. I noticed a house nearby with a low light source in an upper window. Probably a nightlight or something. Probably a child was sleeping in that room, but I didn’t care. Besides, children would be sleeping right now.

I managed to fly to the house without too much trouble and the window and noticed that though the window was shut, there was quite a gap between the window and the frame. I shrunk myself down to half my last size and crawled into the room between the frame and the window. Inside I returned to my former size of Tinkerbelle and looked around in the room.

I noticed that this was a little girl’s room, and she seemed to be sound asleep. She had quite a collection of dolls standing or sitting around, and she even had a big doll house on a low table. Now this was what I needed. I quickly flew over to the house and noticed that the girl had everything in it. There was a bed in the bedroom that looked very realistic, with sheets and a blanket that looked like the real thing. I looked at the girl, but she just seemed sleeping and didn’t have a direct line of sight into this bedroom, so I thought I could risk it and sleep here.

I pulled the top sheets out a bit and tried the bed, expecting it to be hard like wood. But imagine my surprise when it felt like a real mattress. Overjoyed, I slid between the sheets and pulled the blanket over me. I was asleep moments later because I was very tired.

I awoke very refreshed and relaxed, when I saw a big head of the little girl looking straight at me. I jumped out of bed and tried to flee from sight. I couldn’t find a way out of the doll house in my scared state though. The girl started to whisper an apology, “I’m sorry I startled you, little fairy. I didn’t mean to.”

I hesitated. What I should do? Should I get out of here as fast as I could? Or should I talk to this little girl? I could end up being mauled and mutilated or worse. Or I could find some refuge here, and live a little. The bed sure had been nice to sleep in. I think that won me over in my considerations.

“Uhm, Hi?” I said hesitantly.

“You speak English,” said the little girl excitedly.

“Of course I do, I’m not a fairy like you think.” I said, and regretted saying that immediately.

Her eyes went wide, “You’re not a fairy? But you look just like one. What are you then? I’m not imagining you, am I?”

Maybe I should tell her that I am a figment of her imagination? That would be so much easier. But I decided to trust her and be open and honest with her. “No, I’m not a fairy. I think I’m a mutant of some kind.”

“A mutant? But how come you’re so small then?”

I sighed, “I really don’t have an answer for you. I wish I knew myself. I woke up yesterday being this small.” Then I stopped talking as my stomach rumbled. I asked her, “I’m sorry to trouble you, but do have something to eat? I’m starving. I haven’t had anything to eat for more than a day.”

She put s a smile on her face and said, “Of course. Well, I don’t have it here, but I’ll get something from the kitchen. What would you like?”

“Some fruit would be nice, I think.”

The girl disappeared out the door of her room and I looked around the doll house for places to hide should her mother or father or another sibling enter her room unexpectedly.

She came back quite fast with a small platter and looked around to see where I was. I was hiding underneath the stairwell, and as she didn’t see me, she asked, “Where are you? I have all kinds of fruit for you to choose from. Please show yourself. I am not going to hurt you or anything.”

Hesitantly I stepped out into the open and she smiled as she saw me. “Hi again. Here is some fruit for you.” She put down a platter with a strawberry, a grape and a slice of banana and apple. I looked at it with eagerness, I really was very hungry. As I flew to the platter, the girl squealed from excitement. “You can fly?” she said with surprise.

I didn’t answer as I was busy biting into the strawberry and chewing it before getting it down into my very empty stomach. I kept at it till most of the strawberry was gone. I wanted to try to other fruit, but I was already full. ‘Being this small sure cuts down on living costs,’ I thought.

I flew back to the doll house and the girl sat down before me, looking at me with eagerness. She said, “My name is Giselle. What is your name?”

“I’m Keith.” I replied curtly.

She giggled, “You can’t be a Keith. That is a boy’s name. You must be Keisha. No, that is an African American name. I’ve got it, your name is Kestra. You look like a Kestra to me.”

I shrugged, I knew that I couldn’t be Keith anymore. And Kestra did have a nice ring to it. So my new name would be Kestra then. “Okay, my name is Kestra.”

I looked around, “Do you mind me staying in this doll house? I like it, but I don’t know if I can stay here. Your parents might come in here and I don’t know if you have a brother or sister or even a pet.”

Giselle giggled at me, “Of course you can stay here. My mom does clean my room, but if you stay still inside the house, I’ll tell her that you’re just a new dolly that I got from Granma. As for the rest, I don’t have brothers or sisters and I don’t have a pet either.”

I relaxed a bit at that, so now I only had to worry about the rodents in the house that she didn’t know of. This might be not such a bad place to stay for a while. Giselle giggled again and said, “You do know that you don’t have any clothes on, do you Kestra?”

‘Oh no, I’m still naked. And in front of a little girl.’ I slammed my arms and hands before my genitals and tried to scurry away.

“Please Kestra, don’t go away. I don’t mind, I think you are beautiful like you are. You look kind of some of my dollies. In fact I think some of those clothes will fit you. If you want to take a bath or shower, my father made this house fully functional. He even installed a working shower in here.”

“Really?” I couldn’t believe it. I had to see that for myself. I went to the bathroom in the doll house and saw that it looked like a real porcelain bath tub was there. With a real showerhead above it. I stepped into the bathtub that had a real drain in it and turned the handle on the side. The water started to come out of the shower head and though it was cold, it was quite nice to shower and get clean.

As I turned the water off I shook myself dry and wanted to see where the water came from. I flew up a bit and saw a tank of water in the attic. Then I wondered where the water had gotten to after my shower and it appeared to go into another tank with water in the basement. Giselle’s hand went past me and she grabbed the tank of dirty water. She emptied it into a sink in the corner of her room.

As she replaced the tank back to accept more water, she put something on the floor near me. “Here you go, Kestra. I hope this dress will fit you. I’ll look for underwear. I think my Barbie has some.”

I was hesitant to put on a dress, but then again I was a girl now, so it should be normal for me to be wearing a dress. Still, as a former boy I had my aversion to wearing a dress. I didn’t know how to put it on anyway. ‘Should I step into it, or put it over my head. How do women put this on?’

Giselle already returned from the other side of the room and had some more items in her hand. “Kestra, don’t put on the dress yet. Oh, good. You haven’t started yet. You need to put on this bra and panties first. Mom said that big girls always wear a bra and panties.”

Now I was even more mortified, ‘Me wearing a bra?’ But I knew I had to. Women wear bras to support their breasts, well I didn’t really need that, did I? Well, better do as she suggested and I took the garments from her.

I expected it to be rough and like plastic, but it felt really nice and soft. “What are these made of, Giselle?”

Giselle beamed a big smile, “They’re silk, my mom made them for my dolls. She’s real good at making clothes for my dolls.”

After donning the bra and panties, which I had some difficulty putting on till Giselle helped me to do it, I picked up the dress. It too was made out of silk and felt really nice to the touch. Giselle helped me to put it on over my head and it fell real nice around my body. It had an open back which was nice for my wings, and I really liked how if fit on me. Giselle showed me where the mirror was and I looked into a full length mirror on the wall in the doll house.

I was stunned. there was a stunningly beautiful Tinkerbelle standing there in a silk dress that fit her like a glove. My wings were like those on a dragonfly, shiny and iridescent, but kind of see through. I didn’t understand how they could be so tough, they looked so delicate. But I knew they’d ripped through the screen door at my parents’ house like paper. They really are tougher then they appear to be.‘

“Giselle, breakfast is ready, are you dressed already?” came a voice from the other side of the door.

Giselle startled and quickly answered, “Almost mommy, I’ll be down in a moment. Do you want me to wear the blue or red dress today?”

“The blue dress, please honey. You look much better in that one.”

Giselle quickly got out of her P.J.’s and got dressed in a simple blue dress. “I’m going to have to leave you here for now, Kestra. I have to go to school. Will you be here when I get back?”

I nodded and even meant it. This was much safer for me to be than out there. Being out there, the size of a doll, meant I was fearful of my life almost every moment. Here I could relax and catch my breath. I probably could go out there at normal height, but I didn’t have any identification or a place to stay. I would probably get picked up by the police and put into a home or a foster family.

So I thought I was better off here living in a doll house as a Tinkerbelle or a fairy. Giselle went out the door of her room and I had the place to myself. I did some snooping around the room and familiarized myself with everything in it. Around noon I ate some of the banana and the apple, saving the grape for last if I got hungry again.

In the afternoon I was feeling a bit bored and sitting at the table in the doll house when suddenly the door opened and Giselle’s mother stepped in. I shrank down to microscopic proportions from the fright of getting caught. I didn’t know how to shrink my clothes with me, so once again I was naked. The clothes just sagged onto the chair I had been sitting on. I ran under a closet in the doll house room and hid there looking out towards the woman. She cleaned the room of her daughter and when she got to the doll house, she saw the clothes on the chair. I could hear her mutter, “Why did she leave these clothes out here in the doll house? She should be more careful with these delicate things. Maybe I should lock it away for a while. That‘ll teach her to take better care of them.”

I didn’t know what to think. On one side I was already used to flying around naked, but I liked those silk clothes a lot as well. ‘Oh, why do I shrink without shrinking my clothes with me? I should find a way to shrink my clothes with me.’

I saw the mom put the clothes into a small box and after dusting a little more, she left the room to do other things and I was alone again. I quickly grew to my Tinkerbelle height and flew towards the box. The lid looked heavy and I doubted that I had enough strength to lift it. As I pushed against the lid, it flew open to quite easy. ‘Gee, , I guess I don’t know my own strength.’

I took the clothes out of the box and put them on again. This time I knew how to do it, and it wasn’t any problem for me to do anymore. I closed the lid of the box and then thought of something. I got a good hold of the box and proceeded to lift the whole thing up without any effort.

Next I flew to a small chair in the room and got a good grip on a leg. I lifted the chair into the air as well, without too much effort, though it was a lot heavier than the box. How strong was I now? I had no idea. Then I thought of something. Maybe I still had the strength I had when I was my normal size, which meant that I was a lot stronger for this size. Well, that was good to know.

The rest of the afternoon I practiced my shrinking, I tried to shrink the clothes with me. And after a few failed attempts I got it right. Quickly I found that I could shrink anything I was touching. Even more, if I had shrunk something and afterwards shrank it again, it would be smaller all the time. And somehow everything still worked. I shrank a radio I found and put it into the doll house. It was still playing well enough, but how? I mean radio waves have a certain wavelength, and with the antenna shrunk to a much smaller size it should not be able to receive it. But it did somehow. It was weird time again. I put everything back like it had been before I thought that Giselle would come home and she arrived moments later.

He breezed into the room, “Hi Kestra, did you have a good day?”

“Well, good enough, how about you?” I asked.

She was overly excited and told me everything about her day at school. I listened with half an ear, as I wasn’t really that much interested. I played with her and her dollies for a while, till she was called down for dinner. She brought some vegetables and fruit to her room for me and I had a copious meal with the few scraps that she brought. It made me think. My strength was the same as a person of normal height, but my appetite fit the size I had. I wondered how that worked. But I wasn’t complaining. Giselle gave me a nightgown to sleep in. It was made of silk again. Though I wasn’t happy to wear a nightgown, it was nice to wear it. I could get used to that really easy. I shouldn’t though, I mean, why should I like wearing silk women’s clothing? Was I some kind of cross dresser? No, I was a girl now, so maybe it was just my new hormones and this body that liked it. It was very confusing for me to think about all that. At least I had some clothes on my back. Well, on my entire body actually. My back was a bit difficult with the clothing. The wings kept getting in the way. I’d better sleep a night on it. Giselle brushed her teeth and I tried to do something similar before retiring. Giselle was asleep quite fast, while I tossed and turned for a while till I finally fell in a deep sleep.

In the morning Giselle woke me up again, but this time it wasn’t such a shock to me. Well, I did had a fright, because I forgot for a moment where I was and how that big little girl was. But it came back soon enough and I greeted her, “Good morning, Giselle.”

“Good morning, Kestra. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, thank you, and you?”

She bubbled from excitement, “I had such a weird but nice dream. You put some fairy dust on me and I shrunk down to your size and had wings as well. We flew through the flowers together and had a great time.”

“I’m sorry I have to tell you this, but I think that it is only a dream. I don’t have fairy dust. Nor can I give you wings,” I replied a bit sourly.

“Oh, I know that. Still it was a nice enough dream. Oh, I’m so happy that you chose my room to fly into. I hope we will be best friends forever.”

I thought, ‘Well, forever is a long time. Still, I will be her friend for quite some time. I do hope that I live as long as I should. Not only is the outside world dangerous for me, my small size might mean that I have a shorter lifespan as well.’

However I said to her, “Sure, we’ll be best friends. But please keep my existence a secret okay? I mean, nobody is allowed to know that I exist. They would take me away from you and do horrible things to me.”

“Of course I will keep you a secret. I would never betray you. You’re my best and only friend.”

That startled me, “ Don’t you have friends outside? In school?”

She shook her head. “They don’t want to play with me. They think I’m weird that I believe in fairy tales and such. Well, I can’t help that I do. And you’re the living proof that I was right.”

I sighed, “I’m not a fairy, I told you.”

She just sighed, “Yes, I know,” but she still looked at me very peculiarly.

‘Oh, what’s the use?’ I thought. ‘She’s never going to stop seeing me as fairy.’ Well, I did look like one with my size and my dragonfly wings.

Giselle got dressed as did I after a short shower, then she went out the door to get breakfast. She returned for a moment later to give me some fruit and disappeared again for school. During the daytime I practiced my power of shrinking and growing again. I got better and better at it with my clothes and other things. Then I tried growing to my original height. Well, as close as I could get to what I thought was my original height. My wings stayed on me! I briefly tried to fly and they still worked!\r

In the afternoon I thought, ‘These wings are great, but sometimes they are a hindrance. I can never wear normal clothes. I will always have to have something with an open back, like my silk dress and silk nightgown.’ As I was thinking those thoughts, I felt a scrunching sound at my back and suddenly I didn’t see my wings anymore. I quickly went to the big mirror in my doll house and sure enough. My wings were gone. I was panicking now. What if they are gone forever? Giselle wouldn’t want to play with me anymore and I would be out there again in the big bad world without anything.

I desperately wanted my wings back and as I was thinking it, I heard the tearing sound again on my back and my wings were back. ‘So I can hide my wings and make them appear again? Yes, this is good. Now I can maybe have some kind of life again.’ But then I would have to disappoint Giselle. I didn’t want to do that. What was I going to do?

I didn’t tell Giselle anything about my discoveries, but I did grew myself to her height and played with her in her room that evening. We had to be careful that her parents didn’t enter though. Giselle was ecstatic that I was able to play with her as a normal girlfriend. But she preferred to have me get back to my Tinkerbelle height and play with me and her dolls. I let her do that. I liked being that size better as well. I didn’t know why I was more comfortable as just a few inch high girl. After we went to bed, I kept thinking about it till sleep claimed me.

The next morning Giselle was surprised that I didn’t have my wings. I was sleeping better when I didn’t have them in bed, so I had hidden them when I went to bed. I quickly brought them back out and Giselle squealed again. I think she liked that I could appear to be a normal girl, albeit in miniature size, or appear as a fairy for her. The rest of the day was more of the same like the previous days. I also washed my clothes by hand and hung them to dry out of sight. Giselle had given me some more clothes to wear and I now had 4 sets of underwear and 3 dresses to choose from.

Over the weekend I had more time to play with Giselle but we had to look out for her parents. They almost surprised us once as we were playing in her room. I froze and Giselle told her father that I was a fairy doll that she got from her grandmother. We barely got away that time.

The week after I got even better with my powers. I could now shrink objects without shrinking myself in the process. I shrank some books that I found in her dad’s library and started studying a bit. How weird was that? I used to hate studying, but now I did it of my own free will. Even weirder was that I could remember the stuff I read much better.

The next weekend I was even more lonely. Giselle was away with her parents to visit relatives. I read more books from the library and enjoyed it even. I never thought I would find reading science books and economics that interesting.

Another week past with me being mostly alone and reading books. I think her father suspected something as he asked Giselle if she had borrowed some of his books. She said she did not to know of any books, but asked me to be more careful. We had lots of fun playing in her room, but I asked her why she wouldn’t want to play with other children. She said that they still didn’t want anything to do with her. But I wasn’t so sure that she was giving me the entire truth.

Another weekend of playing went by quickly and I couldn’t even imagine another life than that of being a real life playing doll for Giselle. I was there for her and she made sure I had everything I could want. Well, not everything. It wasn’t a real life that I had right now. But I had a place to stay, food, enough time and material to study, and a friend. I should have known that it wouldn’t last.

On a Thursday Giselle was teary eyed when she came into our room. I asked her, “Giselle? What is the matter?”

She looked at me with a glum face, “Betsy made fun of me. She said that her fairy doll is the best of the world. She said that it was the most expensive doll ever made. She dared me to take my fairy doll and compare it to hers.”

I was shocked, “You want me to go with you to school? Are you crazy?”

“Hey, you can’t talk like that to me!” Giselle sounded upset.

“Yes, I can! I can’t go with you to your school. What if they find out I’m real? They’d put me in a lab or give me to the MCO. We’d never see each other again,” I explained.

“Oh,” Giselle said, “I hadn’t thought of that yet. But tomorrow we only have a half day. I’ll only show you to Betsy for a few minutes. You’d be hidden from view most of the time. Please, can you do it for me?”

I thought about it, which I shouldn’t have done, of course. It signaled that I was about to cave in. Giselle took control, “I’ll let you have another soak in my mom’s bubble bath, and I’ll brush out your hair.”

Now she had me, I’d had a bubble bath in her mom’s soap before and liked it a lot. And when she brushed my hair, it felt so wonderful that I really wanted that again. “Okay, but only for a few minutes, and only to Betsy, Okay?”

“Sure, only to Betsy,” said an excited Giselle.

I should have known better and stand tall with all of my 5 inches. I never should have allowed her to take me to her school and to others. But what can I say? Mistakes are made all the time.

That evening I was about to get ready for my bubble bath and I showed Giselle a new trick. I shrank very fast without shrinking my clothes and flew out of them and grew back to my former size. I was undressed in a second. I took a long bath, while Giselle got ready for bed. After drying off, which I did by shrinking smaller than the water droplets and growing a little further, Giselle brushed my hair out with her Barbie comb. We talked a little more about the next morning and though I was still worried, the plan looked sound.

The next morning I dressed in a pale green outfit with matching underwear. I hid in a small purse that Giselle usually had with her and sat back for the ride. It wasn’t too bad and I dozed off a few times. Giselle checked on me several times and I gave her a thumbs up every time.

At last the time had come, Giselle looked at me and gave me a wink. Then she picked me up out of the purse and set me down on her desk. I just stood still like a real doll and could see the other girl, Betsy, with her doll. She put it next to me and though it looked very good, it couldn’t compare to a real live one of course. Betsy started to curse and was about to get ugly when a teacher noticed the commotion and got closer. She took both girls and their dolls out of the classroom to an office.

Betsy was scolded for cursing and got send to another teacher for punishment, while the teacher had Giselle sit down. The woman started, “Giselle, I know you don’t like making friends. But I think you should try harder. Why did you bring your doll to school? Betsy’s parents are extremely wealthy, I’m even surprised that your doll looks so much better than hers. Usually she has the best and most beautiful things available.” Then she looked at me again and took another closer look.

‘Uh oh, I didn’t like that. Did she notice something? Did I move?’

Suddenly she poked me with a pencil that she was holding into my stomach. I lurched, “Hey, that hurt!”

Oops, I let the cat out of the bag so to speak. The teacher was stunned for a moment. Then she regained her wits. “What the … Giselle? Is this a living fairy?”

Giselle tried to answer, “Uhm… well. Uhm…you see. Uhm…Miss Boucher, it’s like uhm….”

Miss Boucher stormed out of the office and Giselle picked me up to put me back into her purse. Neither one of us noticed something about me. Giselle was about to open the door when Miss Boucher returned with a woman.

“Giselle! Where is the fairy? Take her out of your purse. Now!”

Giselle reluctantly complied and once again I was standing on the desk. Miss Boucher took Giselle out of the room and the woman sat down at the desk.

I pretended to be just a doll and stood still. I wondered how long I could keep it up though.

Then the woman said, “You’re not really a fairy are you?”

I was shocked and in my normal reaction to surprises shrank down to microscopic proportions. Fortunately with my clothes still on.

The woman said surprised, “Oh my, I startled you too much, didn’t I? Please, can you go back to your normal height?”

I pretended not to have heard her, and looked for a way out. But she continued, “Where are my manners? I’m Lisa Felder. Please, don’t be alarmed. I have seen much weirder things before.”

I hesitated a little longer but grew back to 5 inches tall again.

“That’s better, but I would like it if you grew to your normal height. I know you’re not a fairy. I’ve met some. Please come sit with me and talk as normal people.”

I answered hesitantly, “I don’t know what my normal height is any more. Ever since I manifested I have changed a lot.”

Lisa smiled, “Just to a size that is comfortable and what you think is normal for a girl your age.”

I grew myself slowly to a height of 5’3” and sat down on the chair that she offered.

“Now that is much better, don’t you think? Lisa said. “I would like to have a talk with you. I’ll ask you some questions, and I would like you to be totally honest with me. You can lie or hide things of course. But since I’m an empath, I’ll know if you do.”

Then she noticed something, “How long have you been a girl?”

I looked at her very surprised. ‘How did she know that?’ “Uh, about 4 weeks, why?”

“Because you’re spotting, dear.” At my confused look she added while pointing at my crotch. “You have started bleeding.”

“I’m bleeding?” I looked down at myself. I didn’t see anything, but then I saw a few spots on my underwear. “Oh no, what can I do? I can’t go to a hospital. Please, can you help me?”

Lisa smiled again, “Oh my dear, it’s not that bad. You’re having your menses.” At my blank look, she added, “Your period, you know, the time when a girl menstruates?”

Now I got it. I hid my wings at her request and Lisa took me to the bathroom. She instructed me in a whole new activity of women that I didn’t like. Afterwards I followed her back to the same room.

Lisa gave me something to drink and started again, “So, what is your name dear?”

“Keith Wallace,” I answered quite truthfully.

She smiled, “You don’t look like a Keith to me, what do you call yourself now?”

“Giselle called me Kestra. It is as good a name as any other I think.”

“Okay, Kestra! Well, that is a pretty name. You’re a mutant, right? Because fairies don’t shrink and grow. I was curious about your wings, but seeing that you can hide them at will would make that another part of you mutant power I guess. Why were you posing as a fairy doll?”

“Well…” I started, “I was flying around as a Tinkerbelle, but I was being attacked by birds, bats and all kinds of other animals. I took refuge in Giselle’s room. She has this amazing doll house. I went to sleep there in a nice comfy bed. The next morning she was looking at me when I woke up, and I kind of stayed that way to be a friend to her.”

“Don’t you want to have a normal life? I mean, you need to go to school and prepare for a job and a life afterward.”

I didn’t answer and she continued, “Where are your parents? You’ve been missing for 4 weeks now, right?”

I snarled, “They think that I kidnapped myself. My father shot at me. He even hit me and destroyed a wing. If not for my healing power, I’d already be dead.”

“Oh dear. I had no idea” Lisa said to me worriedly. “So, that’s why you stayed as a fairy doll with Giselle.”

I nodded. She smiled again. “Well, I can help you get back on your feet. I know of a school where you’d fit right in. It is a school for mutants and such. Maybe I can even help you get back in touch with your family. They might want to know what happened to you.”

“I really don’t think so. My father is a Humanity First guy. He really hates mutants. My guess is that he would shoot me on sight. I don’t think I can go to that school, either. I don’t have any money. It must be expensive, and that is without the costs of food and clothing. No, I think I’m better off being a fairy doll for Giselle.”

Lisa shook her head. “I disagree. The school has scholarships and I think something can be arranged for your other costs. I just need to know if that would be something you’d want. I completely understand if you refuse it, though I would advise against it.”

I was really in doubt now. I didn’t want to leave Giselle, but could I get a life of my own again? Was that possible? “If I say yes, would I ever see Giselle again?”

Lisa smiled at me, “Of course. She could visit you, or you could visit her. Friends are important. I would never ask you to choose between them or the school.”

I smiled at Lisa, “Well, okay then. I will go to the school if I can. So, what happens now? Can I say goodbye to Giselle first?”

“And that is how I ended up at Whateley,” I told Dr. Bellows. He was counseling me about my tendencies to shrink and hide whenever I was surprised. This was our first session and he had asked me to tell me what had led me to Whateley Academy.