The shadows of the conifer trees all around worked alongside the gentle wind to keep the oppressive heat of summer at bay as Marielle walked along through the wilderness. Her tail swayed happily behind her as she took in the sounds of the forest. Everything still felt magical in the town of Celsi and the surrounding forest, and Mari loved her place in the ecosystem there. She delighted in seeing the birds flying overhead, in spotting the smallest insects scuttling across a fallen branch, or seeing the fish swimming just below the water of a nearby stream. It was like nature recharged her, no matter how long the day had been.

Gentle fantasy ambient music played over her headset, which was connected to the phone she carried in her pocket. She’d never been in this particular part of the woods, but she had a keen sense of direction – and her phone’s GPS in case she got lost. As she gently hummed along to the soothing tunes, she reached up off the path to the left. There was a branch from a tree which hung over a large thorny shrub, and beyond, was a clearing she wanted to explore! She grabbed onto the branch, and with a hop, she lifted her long, fluffy tail up and managed to land with both feet planted in the clearing on the other side.

Like a daring adventurer, she had dodged the spiky trap to see what treasures lay beyond! It was the bank of a river, the clearing was formed from a tree that fell across the river’s length long ago. Where the roots were pulled up had grown back over with moss, grass, and small flowers. Specks of color dotted the landscape around as she stepped forward. The roots of the mighty, fallen tree were almost as tall as she was, standing upright as she grabbed onto the edge and went up onto her tip-toes to see the river beyond. It was a shallow river. She’d come across it in other spots, and like most of the calm nature around the town of Celsi, the river was slow and steady. As she listened to her music, her long tail began to gently sway just above the forest floor. The tip barely missed the shrub behind her, but it had hit something else without her knowledge.

Meanwhile

At such a small size, Mathew had been trapped in the clearing. The thorny shrub seemed like a forest of tangled, jagged danger that the three centimeter tall being didn’t want to have to push through. Mathew was laying on his back in the moss, his blue hair spread around his head as he stared up at the impossibly large conifers that reached up toward the blue skies. Enjoying the serene sound of the river, the relaxing tiny being saw something he hadn’t expected. A fox-girl, the underside of her shoes filling the sky as she hopped over the bush that sealed him in. Her feet landed on either side of him, startling him as he looked to each shoe that nearly crushed him to death. If he had lay down just a few centimeters to the left or right, she would have landed directly on top of his little body. The thought of being beneath her, crushed in an instant, sent chills up his spine. He felt a wash of pleasure flow through him as Marielle stepped forward, her tail gently sliding over the ground. The soft fluff brushed over his body, teasing him unwittingly. When she walked over to the fallen roots of the tree, Mathew stood up and followed. He tried to grab onto her tail, to see if he could hitch a ride out of this dangerous place, but wasn’t successful.

“Hey!” He yelped, “Can you hear me?”

She was wearing headphones though, and even if she wasn’t, Mathew’s voice was so small she likely wouldn’t have heard him anyway. He started to think of different ways to get her attention as she went onto her tip-toes, just before her tail came back around and caught his back. He lurched forward, tumbling into the dirt beneath her feet as he rolled to his back beneath Marielle’s right shoe. Her foot had lifted entirely from the ground as she peeked around, and Mathew’s heart raced. He knew he should try to move, but the pleasure washing over his body was almost crippling. A moments hesitation was all it took, as Marielle stepped back down – onto him. He felt his body press into the soft moss, her weight settling down onto his tiny form as the sole of her shoe covered everything. The air emptied from his lungs as he lay there beneath her heel. His breaths were short, almost like he was buried alive before Marielle’s right foot lifted from the ground slightly. Mathew came along with it, falling to the floor half way through the motion only to wind up beneath the ball of her foot.

Crunch

Something broke. As she stood on Mathew’s little body, her weight shifted off of him. Teasing him with the pressure for a moment, before she started to climb. Her left foot lifted a little as she hopped, forcing a quick jolt of pressure onto Mathew’s body. In a split second, Mathew went from being in-tact, to having his intestines pressed out of his side. He felt the pop, a small splatter as blood secured him to the bottom of her shoe. Marielle slid her knee onto the roots, purposefully choosing to take the harder way because it was a little bit safer than getting closer to the water.

Still alive, Mathew groaned in a mix of pleasure and agony. He could hear her moving around, before she got to her feet again. He felt the tree bark pressing into him as her right foot slid in front of the left. Then, her weight shifted forward…

Pop

Marielle felt something collapse under her shoe, but didn’t pay it any mind. It was probably some of the bark from the fallen conifer tree. Using her hands for balance, she slowly crossed over the river. One foot in front of the other. The water wasn’t flowing quickly, falling in would be a minor inconvenience, but she still didn’t want to do it. By the time she reached the other side, she gracefully hopped off the thinning branch to the grass below. Her right paw landed first, smashing Mathew deep into the tread.

Then, she began to explore further. Her eyes up to the sky. She walked through the forest, through the brush and the flowers, all blissfully unaware of Mathew’s death, and his crushed body pressed deep into the tread of her shoe…