Kat5

I may have skipped some sleep. I'm not even sure if I wrote this or it it wrote itself through my fingers. I don't even know if that makes sense.

I told y'all that writing this chapter made me cry. I was even worried because the rest of this has been super happy go lucky. But this is just reality levels of dirty and difficulty. But it's important for the story and world building, so ... y'know... I hope that I did okay, I did my very best!

Chapter Twenty Eight The statement ‘Amazons can be intense’ is considered a polite understatement among littles. The saying that ‘Amazon women are overprotective’ is said almost as an obvious joke. But instincts come from somewhere. There are stories of Amazon women from the pre-industrial age protecting their children by breaking small trees in half and beating predators senseless. One old folk tale claims that one mother scared away a pack of wolves by screaming at them and threatening to rip them apart with her bare hands. The lists of stories and examples are nearly endless. If one were a little and watching one Amanda Taylor sloshing through gravel and mud, carrying her dog on her shoulder, being followed by a man dressed in black struggling to keep up… Well, that little would certainly believe every one of those stories. And judging by the look on her face, they’d feel bad for the predators. ~~~~~~~~ The moment she saw that shoe in the Agents hand, something hardwired into her took over. Just over a minute later she was running in the soaking wet grass a ways from the river, heading north against the current. Seven miles, the agent had said. On a dry day she could have probably run it in less than twenty minutes. Less if she were willing to push herself to the brink. Given the circumstances, it was too long. Far too long. Her collie, Xerxes, was leading the way in front of her, but every so often he hit a soft spot in the mud and slowed down. So she hunkered down, got him onto her shoulder, and went back to running along the firmer ground. With no way of knowing how long had passed, she would never think back and be happy with how quickly she made it to the spot where the motion sensors started. Lowering Xerxes to the ground, she pulled the shoe back out from under her poncho and had him smell it again while the agent caught up. Looking over at him as he caught up, he seemed to be having a harder time simply because he was much larger than her and was sinking further into the soft ground. She did not give him a chance to catch his breath “Where did you find this shoe?” He pointed upstream a ways as he answered “A couple hundred feet that way, sunk into the mud.” She pointed and again ordered “Xerxes: Fetch!” Immediately the usually playful collie went to work, nose first, trying to pick up a scent. Amanda got her own flashlight out from under her poncho and started looking for any footprints along the shore. It took them several more minutes to find where the shoe had come from. Agent Praefectus had the sense to put a motion sensor in the ground next to where he found it. From there Xerxes started pacing back and forth struggling to find any scent in the wet ground. Eventually Xerxes homed in on an indentation in the ground and gave out a single bark. Both bigs ran as fast as they could in the mud to get there. Agent Praefectus was first and he reached into the indentation and pulled out an identical shoe. The two bigs looked at each other, then to where the first shoe had been found, and now to where they found this shoe much closer to the water. Agent Praefectus asked “You don’t think…” Amanda nodded “John said that he crossed a stream that was barely ankle deep on his side, and that he looked back and saw a river and started hiking along it. If this little couldn’t see that it wasn’t a stream because of the dark and rain …” They nodded at each other and then looked at the fast moving river filled with rain water. Without a word between them, Amanda had the dog back up on her shoulder and they joined hands as they waded into the river. It was only twenty feet wide here, but with the rain water it was knee deep on the two bigs. As they made it to the other bank Amanda was on the verge of panic “There’s no way a little could cross that without being washed downstream.” Praefectus just nodded as he held out the second shoe “We’ll have to hurry, there’s no telling how long ago this happened.” Amanda looked at the water and observed “It has to have happened today, the ground was muddy enough for such a small person to sink that far. Xerxes: go fetch us a little!” With that, they were back on the move. The only sounds were the squelching of large feet through wet mud, the loud sniffing of a dog, and the ever present blanket sound of drizzling rain against the landscape. It had to be a mile before Xerxes suddenly picked up the pace. His tail was wagging madly and he gave out a couple of barks as he went along. Thankfully it was only another minute or so of running before they came to a a small form laying along the bank in the dark. Amanda was the first one there and she immediately knelt down in the mud next to them. She very gently held a hand against their back and she was rewarded by feeling the small person breathing, and shivering. But there was no response to her touch. At all. Carefully she cradled the little and rolled them over. She found herself looking down at a tiny young woman. There was no way she was an inch over four feet long. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Amanda pulled up the girls shirt and pressed a hand to her belly to find that she was distressingly cold to the touch. Looking at Agent Praefectus she asked “Do you have an ambulance coming?” He was already pulling out his phone and typing as he said “There will be one by the time we get there!” Amanda looked down at the little woman. This was bad, she was soaking wet and cold. It took her a few moments, but when she had an idea she started into action. She immediately pulled her arms into her own poncho and started to pull it up enough to worm her way out of her own shirt. Once she had that off, she tucked it into the top of her pants to keep it dry and started to undress the little on the ground, peeling her out of her socks, wet pants, and her shirt. She heard the agent asking over her shoulder “What are you doing?” All she bothered to say as she leaned over and started using her shirt as a makeshift towel to dry the little off was “Our body temperature is higher than hers, and she’s freezing to death!” Whether that explained anything or not didn’t matter to her as she got the little as dry as she could manage, and then picked her up and got her under the poncho pressed against her chest and belly. The poor thing felt so cold, it was going to take her a while to absorb some of her body heat. Watching the little through the clear poncho, the Agent eventually nodded and said “Ambulance is on the way. Can we cross this river here to save time?” Amanda immediately shook her head “Never gonna happen, it’s too deep here. We have to go back up. I’ve got her, you get the dog.” And so began their trudge back upstream to a place that they could cross. Xerxes was by her side, Agent Praefectus was carefully walking next to her, obviously planning to make sure she couldn’t slip and fall in the mud while carrying such precious cargo. By the time they made it to the place they had crossed, she stopped to look down and adjust the little she was holding so she was wrapped a bit better in the big shirt. The two bigs looked at each other for a moment before nodding in silent agreement. Agent Praefectus got Xerxes up onto his shoulder. At first he didn’t cooperate with someone that he didn’t know picking him up, but he did eventually accept it. The large man also had an easier time of holding the big dog than Amanda had, and he stepped into the water and held out a hand to Amanda. They crossed the water as carefully as they could manage. The going was slow and this time they made sure that every foot was firmly planted and wouldn’t shift in the fast moving water before taking the next step. What was only a few minutes felt like eternity while they were trying to hurry. As they made it to the other bank she stopped to put a hand on the girls back. She was no longer shivering, but she was still not awake. At least she was getting warmer, and she was breathing. Amanda spent a moment getting the little up a bit higher on her chest now that she was getting a bit warmer, careful to make sure she got plenty of air, but wasn’t getting rained on. The run up the bank had been silent and stressful. The walk back was nerve racking. Before they didn’t know what they wouldn’t find and now all that Amanda could think about was the small unresponsive little held against her chest. It had been over half an hour and they still had seven miles. She didn’t feel that it was safe to run with her, so she kept the little up high on her chest and tried not to bounce her too much as she walked quickly. She whispered to the poor girl as she went “It’s gonna be okay. You’re going to be safe. We’ll get you warm.” and kept up a stream of gentle assurances the entire way back. As the house came into view, Xerxes started to break into a full run, but then stopped and came right back to her side on his own. Good dog. Looking down at the little cradled to her chest with her right arm as she cut through the yard, she realized she was crying as she whispered to the girl “Please wake up. Please be okay. You have to wake up. You’ll never go through this again, I promise.” There was an ambulance and two black SUVs in the driveway, and there were two EMTs and another agent standing next to them. As she and Agent Praefectus got closer, the two EMTs ran over to her and started pulling up her poncho to check out the little in her arms. After a few moments they waved her to the back of the ambulance, and very gently took the unconscious little from her arms. They laid her out on the stretcher in the back, still wrapped in her shirt. Then started a flurry of activity as they worked together to put sensors on her, check her pulse, and a forehead thermometer was swiped across her. After giving her a once over and strapping her down pretty firmly, one EMT stepped out of the back of the ambulance and began closing the doors. Amanda must have very obviously wanted to at least know -something- because before the EMT went to the front of the ambulance, she stopped and put a hand on Amanda’s shoulder and said “You did very well. If you hadn’t done what you did, that little would be dead by now. We’re going to do our best from here.” And with that, the EMT was gone, the Ambulance was in gear and pulling away. Amanda was left standing there watching them drive away. Officer Praefectus stood next to her and cleared his throat to get her attention. She didn’t acknowledge him. “Ma’am.” She took a deep breath. She exhaled. Finally she looked at him. “Ma’am, you did amazingly. If that little lives its because of you and your dog.” She just shook her head. He tried again “Miss Taylor, you got us there and back. You were amazing and honestly hard to keep up with. You and your dog were in the right place, and you FOUND her. That’s no small thing.” She just shook her head again and motioned toward where the ambulance drove away. She tried to speak, but it took a couple of tries because she got choked up. “But she still wasn’t moving … she stopped shivering almost an hour ago. What if she …” Amanda trailed off. The other agent stepped up and whispered something to Agent Praefectus, and then he nodded to Amanda “Ma’am. You may not believe it, but you acted immediately to save a little. That’s what all of us should strive for.” Amanda nodded as if on autopilot and said some sort of a half hearted thank you. After that the other agent left, leaving only Agent Praefectus. He tried again “Miss Taylor, let’s get you inside. Even we can catch a cold being shirtless in the rain.” Looking down at herself, she realized that she was standing in the rain with no poncho, no shirt. Just wet hair, wet bra, wet jeans, and wet socks in puddles in her rubber boots. With a ragged sigh she admitted simply “Yeah.” and she turned and walked slowly toward the house. Agent Praefectus opened the gate for her and as she made it to the porch there was Cat waiting for her, and two littles up past their bedtime holding into the windowsill determined to see what was going on. Cat held out a towel as she walked up the stairs, and when Amanda made move move to take it, she asked softly “Is she … “ The best Amanda could guess was that the look on her face stopped even Cat from finishing the question. Instead she knelt down and tapped her leg and made Amanda cooperate with letting her help take off her boots and socks. Cat then lead her inside and then started scrubbing her with the towel. Cat snapped her out of her thoughts “You and Xerxes both need a bath. If you can’t do it, I’m coming in. Either hug your son now, or I’m dragging you.” So with a towel still wrapped haphazardly around her chest, she knelt down and held out her arms. She was immediately climbed by John and she wrapped him up in a hug. She just held him with his cheek against hers and stayed there for a couple of minutes. John never made a single move to let go. But eventually she took a deep breath and stood up, leaving him standing there on his own. He pulled on her hand to get her attention. As she leaned down a bit, he whispered “Hey. I love you.” THAT got a genuine smile out of her and she reached down and scooped him back up into another hug. This time she felt the hug. She gave him a kiss on the forehead and slid him down. “Momma needs a shower.” was all that she said as she shuffled toward the bathroom. By the time she made it to the bathroom, the child gate was open. The door was open. The shower was on and warming up. Xerxes was standing in the tub trying to excitedly lick the water as it came down at him. Cat came in behind her with a full change of clothes and put them out beside the bathroom sink. She didn’t leave the room until she helped to rub Xerxes down with baby shampoo and rinsed him off as quickly as possible. As Cat pushed the dog out of the room, Amanda had an idea. “Take the hair dryer and a spare towel and let the littles dry him. He’ll love the attention and they’ll love the interaction.” Cat nodded and grabbed the hair dryer and a towel and stepped over to give her a hug, before saying “I’ll come back in and check on you.” And with that the door to the bathroom was shut behind her. Unhooking her bra, she let it drop to the floor with wet flop. Her cold wet jeans and undies followed. Stepping into the warm water felt really nice. Almost robotically she scrubbed herself. Lather. Scrub. Lather. Scrub. For some reason when she was done with her body and moved onto her hair, she started slowing down. The warmth on her scalp relaxed her body more than the rest of the shower. When she was done with her hair she just stayed there under the water. The shower washed away her tears.

EEK! GUILEND DONT PING HIM! I'm just a little derpus sharing their ideas and rambling when an idea comes my way!

In this case it's my hand wave technique that they've been 'trading' (and totally not at all duplicitous adopting) with our dimension long enough that the (the bigs) have a rough facsimile of what we mean by our measurements. They don't have to be accurate, just close enough. I say it's all voodoo. Also that LostBBoyBear has the actual reference guide for consultation. https://www.wattpad.com/story/339576633-diaper-dimension-reference-guide-updated-18 My personal measurement for success is that if anything from my story like the rough pups diapers that expand out and make you waddle almost to the point of having to crawl so that you start off feeling like you're going to be able to walk like an adult and end up waddling, or the 3D coloring pencils, or the training pacy, ever make it onto that list, then I will consider myself a successful contributor to this realm. So to that end, I say check his reference guide and if anything there doesn't jive with something I've written, let me know and I'll see if I can go back and adjust it. I've actually consulted more than a couple of times to make sure I do my best to stay faithful to the setting.

"Invasion Of The Giant Squirrels From Another Dimension" the latest movie from the B roll! Scene opens with a couple of young adults walking towards the treeline. Following a trail. The camera pans across a sign that reads "Woodlia National Forest." Ans below is the usual sign that says "Risk of Fire: Low" As the couple enters the forest, talking softly about having a lovely weekend. Then the girlfriend asks "Hey, is that a dog?" And you can hear her boyfriend respond "No, that's too big and it's moving ... why are there dozens of them?" There is a flash of light and the two are simply gone. Possibly paffed away to another dimension. -scene change moves over to a military base with generic metal desks around a makeshift command center assembled from parts at a Military Surplus store- "Sir. The reports you asked for are in. The entire Woodlia National Forest seems to be compromised. Anyone that we send in disappears without a trace. -scene changes again to show another office. This time to a wood paneled office with a large dark colored desk covered with papers. Behind the desk is a shocked looking man with a short but unkempt beard- A man in a white lab coat walks in. "Sir, do you remember when Walter Gray said that he had an idea based on that viral video of the little that the squirrels liked?" The man behind the desk just nods and demands "Yes. And there had better be a very good explanation f" They are interrupted by a -PAMFF- one room over followed by some confused screaming. "Well Sir, his Squirrel Recruitment Team is a huge success. They are bringing Littles to our dimension at an unprecedented rate. But they just keep showing up in random places all over the lab. We may have to move to a new building and convert this entire building to a daycare." The man behind the desk rubs his temples "If we spin this right the ABI won't come and just start clubbing us senseless. We may even be wealthy beyond our wildest dreams. Or we'll all be committed to an Asylum. I think I need a drink." _The screen fades back out and the words "Inter Dimensional Squirrel Invasion" fade in_ (I'm very sorry if people are getting pinged for things unrelated to the story, I just had the idea and it had to be done. Please forgive me)

I'm very sorry. The squirrels built a portal and came through and overthrew the earth. The only of our kind left are all on the Amazon planet. That's it. We had a good run.

I really and truly cannot say thank you enough! I'm just trying to write the story to the best of my ability. I think that maybe I'm getting better as I go, and reading back I find some things that I want to do better going forward here and there. But mostly I'm just excited to share the story! ... writing the next chapter made me cry.

Okay so 1782 is honestly a total cheapskate year on my part because SO much happened. The Peace of Paris, the Bald Eagle being selected as the emblem, Constantinople burned for two and a half days (cue the They Might Giants song) The first hot air balloon flight took place in France, the East India Company did umm... *ahem* East India Company ... err... 'things' (brushing past that) The Parlaiment of Britain did umm... (brushing past THAT) One of Mozart's new Opera's with a name I can't spell debuted. ummm... thinking as a type, typing as I think the uhhh... Chief Kamehameha gained control of much of Hawaii. (whihc I only know because I wanted to know where Dragon Ball got the name for the kamehameha, and I'm a derp) And I waaaaant to say that the first commercial bank in North America was founded? (Bank of North America? BNA? Anyone? I may be wrong. Bueller? Bueller?) Anyway no, I'm sorry. I picked that year at random because no matter who searched what for where you'll find SOMETHING that happened that year that makes you go "Huh. go figure." I apologize if I seemed knowledgeable on accident, I promise to do better in the future.

It can't have been that long, I've just been writing this for ... Oh.

Say no more, I think I'm picking up what you're asking for.

Thank you kindly, I'll let the author know so that they can fix their oopsie!

I almost got cold feet as I wrote my way up to this plot point, but I'm staying true to my outline. I'm not trying to drum up drama or anything. But there are some loose ends that seemed important for me to tie up.

Thank you very kindly! I enjoy sharing the story with y'all! I brushed on it with the bath time science lesson as well, so if you read this and then scoot back and read that maybe it'll help? I'm not a bathportalscienceologist. It's still a bit blurry, but It's healing up! Xerxes is very good at fetching littles!

Chapter Twenty Seven John sat up on the floor next to Xerxes, still halfway wrapped up in his comforter. This man that was almost as tall as Mike was now shaking his parka off just outside the door to keep from dripping water on the floor. As the agent stepped in, he could see that he was wearing black slacks, a black shirt, and had on a belt with a holster for his handgun, one for some handcuffs, and a flashlight easily half as tall as John himself. Amanda didn’t even hesitate “It’s a bit cold outside, would you like a cup of coffee to warm you up?” Finally sure that his boots were dry as well, the agent smiled at her and nodded “Yes Ma’am, that would be great.” While she happily hummed to herself on her way to the kitchen, the officer pulled out his phone and held it up between himself an John, peeking up and down as if comparing a person to a photo. He asked simply “John?” All John could do was nod silently. The agent simply walked over toward him, standing in front of him. Immediately he was aware that with him sitting down on the floor, he didn’t come up to the guys knee. He felt tiny, and it was not a good feeling. John scooted his butt back against Xerxes and unconsciously pulled Rupert up against his stomach. After a moment of watching him closely, the man smiled slightly and knelt down closer and offered a smile. With a little laugh he held up a hand “Relax, you’re not in trouble. I just need to ask a few questions.” John relaxed … a little. Just then Amanda came back with a blue mug and offered it to the ABI agent. He accepted it gratefully and thanked her for it, taking a sip gave him a pause “Woah. You like it with a kick!” She shrugged “I have been told that my coffee could melt a spoon once or twice. But it’s really just one extra scoop per pot.” Turning back to John, Agent Praefectus looked down at John, this time a with a serious look on his face. “So just to repeat myself, you aren’t in any trouble. Unless you’ve been doing something shady like training an army of wild squirrels. Then we would have to take you in.” He finished with a smirk. John tried to stand up, but couldn’t get untangled from the blanket and he settled for staring at Amanda and saying a lot more loudly than he really meant to “HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU SHOW THAT VIDEO TO!?!?” Now both of the bigs were having a good laugh, but the Agent interjected first “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Director Kassia thought it was cute and she put it in her report to us about an undocumented rift. None of us have ever seen a little feed a squirrel, but we also live in the city. You’re novel.” After a few moments of John sulking while the giants were talking among themselves, he finally looked back up and tuned in to what they were talking about. Amanda was talking “… Well, he definitely came from north of here, along the river. I can’t leave him in here alone, but if you need to come back when it’s not raining, we can go together and I can show you where Xerxes found him.” The man simply shook his head “That’s too long, and we can’t take the chance.” and then he looked down to John. “Young man, I need to ask a few questions about when you came to our dimension.” John simply nodded and said “Yes Sir.” Agent Praetectus continued “Do you have any idea how far you walked before you got to where you were found?” John just shook his head no. “Okay, do you remember where the sun was when you came through the rift?” John thought for a moment “Ummm… it was … it was evening in my world, and when I came back through it was before noon?” The man nodded “Tell you what, can you stand up for a moment?” Pulling back the comforter it took him a moment to stand up, and he was embarrassed to find that his diaper had swollen significantly since he fell asleep. And thanks to the extra stiff backing of the diaper, his knees wouldn’t go anywhere near touching each other. And if he was honest with himself, there might have been a bit of something else in there, too. The ABI agent waiting patiently for him to get standing did not seem phased in the slightest. He continued “Okay, so the river is over there at your back, that runs north/south. Let’s rotate you …” the man gently lifted and rotated John so that he would be facing south. “Okay, can you point close to where the sun was when you came through?” Immediately he looked up and raised his left arm and pointed almost straight up, but about a couple of feet to the left along the ceiling above him. The agent now nodded “And when you stopped to rest, where was the sun?” As John dropped his left arm and pointed far off to the right with his other arm, the agent whistled. “Oof. Even if you’re close, that’s over twelve hours of walking after all the walking you did before finding the rift.” All John could really do was shrug. “Next question, before you came through the rift, do you know how far you could walk in a day?” John beamed with pride as he answered “About 12 miles on a good day!” The agent simply nodded and then looked over him at Amanda “Do you know roughly how much he shrunk as he came through?” Amanda rocked her head side to side “Near as we can guess, just under a foot and a half.” He winced now “Double oof. That must be one unstable rift. It's probably just wandering around on their side.” All John could really do was just stand there awkwardly. The man reached down and patted him on the head “Don’t worry little guy. I know this is all going to be a bit rough. The briefing I got before being sent here mentioned that when a little comes through an unstable rift, it removes some sort of plasma from your original dimension and converts it into energy. So you can’t go back, but it looks like you wound up in a pretty good situation.” Again, all John could do was nod. Agent Preafectus held out a giant meaty paw and John reached up to accept the handshake. Standing back fully upright, the man looked over him to Amanda “Ma’am, I’ll need to leave my vehicle here, but I have orders to plant smart motion detectors as close as I can manage to the rift, so that if any other littles come through we will get a notification and can come and save them before they freeze, starve, or get eaten by wildlife.” John could see Amanda nodding enthusiastically “I was actually worried about that. I don’t want to think about if any littles have come through years past…” Officer Preafectus held up a hand “Ma’am, you weren’t here then. You are here now. And thanks to that, you saved this ones life, and we can set things in place to protect any more that come through. That’s the best that any of us can do.” John couldn’t really read the expression on Amanda's face as she nodded. Not quite sad, but sort of resigned. From there it was all talking over his head very briefly as the agent explained his reasoning to her for hiking about seven and a half miles and then dropping sensors every quarter of a mile for two miles. He explained to her that they would pick up littles, but ignore bigs or wildlife. The man nodded to John and said a quick “Thank you for your help, Young Man” as he put his parka back on and made his way back out into the rain. As the door shut, Amanda turned and quickly walked over to John and picked him up into a big solid hug, one arm under his butt and the other turned up along his torso and holding his back firmly. Without really any idea what to do, all John could fathom was to just hug her back around her neck. After a moment she kissed him on his right temple and whispered “I’m SO glad you didn’t come through on a rainy day like today and get lost going a different direction.” After a moment of thought, he admitted quietly into her ear “I am, too.” The moment lasted a few moments longer before he felt the arm under his butt shift around a bit, and then he was being carried toward his room. Yeah. She had noticed. It was pretty obvious since the ‘Rough Pups’ seemed, from his perspective, to be made so that instead of sagging they made it so he couldn’t walk when they were wet. They always seemed to expand out more than down. As he was laid on the changing table, he grimaced a bit as a bit of mess got squished under him. Unphased, Amanda laid him back, pulled his shorts off, and unsnapped his onesie and pulled it up. Having dodged the wrist cuffs this time, John just sort of drummed his fingers on the padded foam bar that held him down and pretended nothing was unusual. Until the diaper was opened up and he heard a little whistle. He looked up and asked “What?” She smirked “Well, the skin under your … hair down there is getting a bit of a rash. I think we’re going to have to do something about that. Don’t worry, there’s a cream for that.” Somehow he wasn’t super reassured by that answer, but there wasn’t much he could say in way of protest. And he definitely winced and bit the inside of his lip as she wiped him clean. It burned a bit. He could hear a drawer opening and closing before “Okay, hold still. This will only sting for a moment.” Not that he had much choice, but he held still and then winced a bit as some cold goop was smeared on him. It was a sort of a cold stinging sensation, but after a moment she wiped him clean again and then he was powdered very thoroughly and padded right back up into a fresh diaper. As usual he felt the table bumped with her knee and the bars went up. She stood him up on the table this time and snapped his onesie back closed and pulled his shorts back up before looking him up and down. A finger went up and down his cheek and she ‘hmm’d’ “You’re getting a little scruffy. Do you usually stay clean shaven?” He just nodded “Facial hair gets really itchy” She pulled him into a hug and patted him on the back before sliding him down onto the floor “We’ll tend to that next time you get a shower. Now scoot, I have to call your Aunt Cat.” As he passed by the couch, John immediately got a face full of cold nose from suddenly hyperactive Collie. So he had the brilliant idea of grabbing a dog toy and, instead of throwing it, running with it. It occurred to him that the dog would just happily chase after him. But the toy waving over his head as he ran laps around the couch was even better bait. John had made it around the couch four times before he realized that Amanda was on the phone, so he threw the toy and for the first time remembered to take a big step to the side to avoid getting bowled over. He stopped running so that he wouldn’t be making noise, and as Xerxes brought the stuffed bone back to him, he could hear one side of the end of the conversation. “Yeah, go ahead and come by and I’ll just turn the leftovers into a big pan of chicken and rice casserole. Okay, see you in about forty minutes?” then she chuckled and said “Love you too, goofy.” He was scratching a giant dogs neck when she came over to him and looked down to ask “I guess you heard all of that?” He just shook his head “No Ma’am, I just stopped running when I realized you were on the phone. Sorry if I made too much noise.” She patted him on the head “Well, don’t worry about the noise, it’s good to have a distraction for Xerxes. Anyway, the Cat’s will be coming over soon. The rain has slacked off, but it’s still a drizzle so you two won’t be able to go play outside.” He just shrugged at her “I’m sure we’ll be fine. We’re adults, we can handle it.” She nodded down at him “I’m going to hurry and make a casserole out of leftovers. Since I have to rip up roast chicken, I need you to keep Xerxes out of the kitchen. I don’t care if you have to lay on top of him. He’ll get a chunk of it to chew on out on the porch when I’m done, so buy me ten minutes.” So John turned to look at the big dog behind him and picked up the toy again and started making laps around the couch. He managed to keep Xerxes distracted for five whole minutes before his nose started twitching. Then he wound up holding onto a tail and sliding across the floor of the living room. “Xerxes, sit! Xerxes down! Xerxes nap! Xerxes I need a hug!” He tried everything he could think to blurt out. None of it worked. Finally, as the dog dragged him around the counter he let go of the tail and let his arms flop out to his sides, looking up to see Amanda with her phone out, recording it. Indignantly, he admitted out loud “You’ve gotten quick at recording these things.” She gave him a wide smile as she held up the central part of a leftover chicken with some bits of meat still clinging on here and there “You did really good! I’m going to put this outside on a pan for him to chew on.” John just lay there on floor looking up while he heard the child gate open, then the main door. Then the squeak of the storm door. Tail thumping into the door frame. Storm door latching, and then footsteps back to the sink and the sound of washing hands. And finally the sound of a chair being carried and set down in front of the sink. Then a smiling face was looking down at him and she asked “Do you want to help?” “Sure! But I seem to have fallen and I can’t g…” John stopped as a couple of fingers made a line for his ribs. He rolled over quickly, and scrambled to his feet “I’m healed!” With a laugh, Amanda picked him up around the ribs and stood him on the chair in front of the sink. “Okay!” she began “A lot of people don’t realize that some rice can be rinsed and then soaked before you cook it, and then it won’t get mushy. Since we’re in a big hurry, I need you to pour five cups of rice into this bowl, swing the faucet over to fill it halfway, stir it up and drain off some of the water and then let it soak. When that’s done I need someone with small hands to carefully drain it as much as possible.” John mostly followed along and since he couldn’t reach the soap, he cooperated with her thoroughly washing and drying his hands before leaving him to his task. Left with a large container full of rice and a small (to her) two cup measuring cup, he looked at the big bowl in the sink and started by filling the cup twice and then halfway a second time. Rinsing rice was simple, but while he waited a few minutes, he leaned down and drew a smiley face in the rice. Then shook the bowl to flatten it back out. Then he drew a dog. Meanwhile he glanced over to his right and could see the flash of a chefs knife as long as his forearm dicing through celery and onions and garlic so fast he could barely follow it with his eyes. It was mesmerizing, but as she picked up the cutting board and scraped it into a skillet, he went back to what he was supposed to be doing and used one hand to tilt the bowl and slowly drain it. As he finished draining it as well as he could, he felt a kiss on his left temple, an arm around him and then he and the entire chair were slide four feet to his left. He found himself looking at a big glass pan and a large stick of butter in the wrapper. His instructions came over his shoulder “Okay, now I need you to unwrap one end of that and make sure to rub it all over the entire pan.” So John just nodded and picked up the stick of butter and rolled his eyes. Of -course- it’s twice the size of a normal stick of butter. So he unwrapped the paper from one end of it and tried to wield it with one hand but finally gave up and started holding it with both hands and rubbing it all over the inside of the pan, careful to meticulously cover it all. By the time he was done, so was Amanda. The woman was QUICK. “Okay John! Now it’s time to tell you one of my secrets.” He looked up, both hands still grasping the stick of butter and said “You’re actually have super powers that only work in the kitchen?” That won him an eye roll, so he counted it as a win. “No goofy. Most people use spray in the pan because it’s easy. But the rice soaks up the flavor from the garlic and butter. So instead of using ten cups of water, I use nine and a half cups of water and just cut up what’s left of the stick of butter. Just mix everything in with the rice, spread it out, butter, water, cover, oven. Easy.” She said it so fast that Johns eyes kind of glazed over, so he just watched as she picked the large mixing bowl out of the sink and he suddenly understood why she’d used such a large bowl when she dropped in all the sauteed veggies and the chicken she’d diced up and stirred it before sliding it into the pan. The longest part of the entire process was her staring patiently as the water from the faucet went into the measuring cup. Then once it was in there was the unique sound of aluminum foil being pulled and ripped off. And just like that the pan was in the oven and she was holding up a hand for a high five. Obviously he reached up and returned the high five enthusiastically. With a smile she told him “You actually made that take less than half of the usual time. I didn’t have to fend of a dog, and rinsing the rice and buttering the pan always just takes as long as it takes. You make a great helper!” He was slid, chair and all, back to the sink and they both washed their hands together. Despite the fact that he felt like a toddler helping Mom in the kitchen, it felt really good to participate instead of just watch the bigs work. When their hands were clean and dry, she picked him up and shuffled him to a hip and used her free hand to carry the chair back to the table. After that she carried him to the living room and gave him a big hug. With a cheek nuzzle, Amanda said “Okay. I think I should finish a bit of work, and you should find something to occupy your time. By the time they get here the casserole should be almost done.” So as he was deposited on the couch he looked over at his tablet on the arm of the couch and picked it up. The moment he touched his finger to the corner to turn it on, it popped up briefly with his name, which he knew he’d never typed in. He had only said it out loud. As the screen loaded, he noticed that in addition to the pipe game, there was a little folder looking icon named “Books” and an icon that looked like a wheel of colors labeled “Triad Puzzles.” Mumbling “Uhhh… okay.” he poked the new puzzle game. What popped up on the screen was pretty interesting, it showed a simple color wheel with twelve colors and a little triangle in the middle of it. He found that he could rotate the triangle, and as he turned it some text showed up explaining to him about how complimentary colors worked. On the right side of the screen some boxes popped up with an explanation that he was to drag sets of three complimentary colors to each of four rows. Furrowing his eyebrows a bit, he looked at the triangle and the explanation for a couple of minutes before he tentatively dragged the yellow wedge, the red wedge, and the blue wedge to one row. He was rewarded with a little ‘ding’ and a check mark on that row. Quickly rotating the triangle to the next set of colors, he started dragging those over as well. When he’d repeated this until the entire color chart was gone, a little burst of confetti covered the screen and the same thing popped up again, but this time the wheel was rotated a different way, and there was no triangle. Musing to himself “That seems easy” he dragged all of the same combinations to one side in the same order. He was again rewarded with confetti and a little fanfare before the screen came back to him with a color wheel with twice as many colors, but the triangle was back. Once he was done with that part of the puzzle, he had to do it again, but this time without the triangle. The process kept going getting more and more complex. He wasn’t very quick at it, but he was able to do it. And then the game threw him a curve ball. It had one extra color outside of the wheel that looked sort of like a combination of the colors it was just outside of. The only prompt that he got was “Pinch to combine colors.” “Uhhh…” it took him a bit to put thumb and forefinger on colors and squish them together. He was rewarded with a new color on the outside of the wheel. So he did the same thing again and dragged those three colors to one side. He heard a little ‘ding’ and got a check mark. And this trend continued, but got one step more complicated each time. He was really starting to struggle with the color combinations when he heard a quick knock and the storm door opened to reveal Aunt Cat in a poncho carrying Kate under it, and a grocery bag. Xerxes slipped back into the house by her leg, and tried to smell the grocery bag before it could be put onto the counter. A blonde little in a light purple onesie and matching plaid skirt was slid down out of the poncho and immediately got a face full of licks from Xerxes. There was something reassuring about not being the only little squealing and flailing. While John was watching Kate get attacked by the dog, he suddenly found himself scooped up in a spinning hug attack from Aunt Cat. He got three quick kisses all over his face before he was held out at arms length, his legs dangling in the air. With a very stern face, Aunt Cat asked “Young man, have you been mischievous to keep your Mommy on her toes?” Not really sure how to respond, John shook his head and answered “No Ma’am” Looking disappointed, she said “Hmmph. Well, I forgive you, but you need to try harder.” He got one more big hug and was deposited back on the floor as Aunt Cat told him “I know your Mommy told me not to get anything, but I got grapes and juice for you two to snack on anyway.” And with that, he was given a swat on his padded but and told “Go say hi to Kate, she’s been excited to come visit.” Not that he needed any instructions, since he’d been looking forward to Kate coming back over anyway. John plodded back toward the kitchen to Kate and stood there waiting quietly for her to turn to him. He felt his cheeks get warm when she smiled at him. Her blonde hair was in twin braids going down her shoulders, and when she started talking to him she started fidgeting with one of her braids. She started the conversation “Hi! Umm… Did you make it through the doctors visit better than I did when I went? How was the store, was it too scary?” So as John told her about the last couple of days in great detail, they walked over and wound up in front of the couch leaning back against Xerxe’s belly, having to speak loudly to talk over the sound of an excited tail thumping up and down against the floor. Xerxes was obviously happy to have two littles to watch over. As he explained things, she gave him advice here and there. As he started about the doctor, she said “Yeah, that’s almost as bad as my visit. I got so stressed out that I threw up on the nurse.” He explained about the pacy with the medicine on it and she held up the pacy dangling on the strap from her onesie. “Yeah, it really does help with stress. When you go to stores, if you have your pacy in your mouth, no one expects you to talk to them. Then you can just nod along and everyone just assumes you’re nervous or nonverbal.” John was quiet for a moment as he considered that, but eventually resumed the story of his last few days. As he mentioned the outrageous colors of the furniture she rolled her eyes and explained “I don’t know what it is, but lots of bigs are absolutely obsessed with extremes. And that means extremely babying their littles.” They both shuddered in unison at that. It took a minute longer before he finished explaining how he now has a bedroom set and a desk with two chairs, and a bunch of coloring books. They were sitting cross legged lost in conversation as he mentioned the incident from yesterday with him saying a swear word and training pacifier. When he paused she said “Wow. You got off easy, I got a spank, time out, and then when Mommy took me with her to work I had the training pacy in my mouth for a week. As long as I didn’t say anything bad or try to be loud or yell it didn’t inflate, but only she could take it out.” He looked at her a bit shocked “Isn’t that a bit harsh?” She just shook her head “At first I thought it was, but after meeting so many littles with those horrible inflated pacies I feel super fortunate. I eventually realized that Mommy was helping me learn, because if I’d have acted out in front of some of her clients then THEY would have spanked me into yet another dimension. And it was only in my mouth when we went into the places, so just an hour at a time. I’m actually pretty grateful for it, given that she always takes me with her to work now.” That took him a minute or two to process. He finally asked “So the training pacy helped you?” She just picked up the pacifier on her pacy strap again and dangled it at him “Still have it.” His eyebrows went up as he asked “You aren’t afraid of it inflating?” She just shook her head “I set it off a few times during the first month and each time had to suck on it longer for it to deflate. But I haven’t set this off on accident in over a month.” Looking at her a bit sideways he asked “That sounds like you set it off on purpose?” With an adorable bright laugh she explained “I sure did. Some horrible lady was telling Mommy that she wasn’t doing this or that with me strictly enough and I was about to snap. Mommy gave me a glance that let me know I needed to stay out of trouble, so I put it into my mouth and mumbled the S word. It took an hour to get it to deflate, but it kept Mommy and I both out of trouble.” “Huh. I would not have thought of that.” he admitted quietly. Kate finally leaned in and gave him a hug “This isn’t our world. And it’s not going to be fair to us. But we have Mommy’s that will keep us safe and help.” The conversation slowed down after a bit, but they wound up leaning back against Xerxes, their sides and hips pressed together, with the tablet between them. Kate complained “You need a bean bag.” Smugly, John responded with “I don’t need a bean bag, I have a dog.” She rolled her eyes at him as he showed her the color puzzle and before he could even admit that it was getting hard, or even how it worked she said “Oh neat! Can I try?” With a shrug, he slid the the tablet from his thigh over to hers. The moment she touched it however, the screen went back to the home page. John pointed to the corner and said “Try touching it here.” Sure enough, the instant she touched the corner, it popped up with the prompt “Say your name” Kate said “Kate Onasis” slowly and clearly and then it processed for a moment and popped up to a home screen showing the same icons, but where his background had been a dark blue, hers was a sort of lighter teal color. He could only guess as to what that meant. Regardless, Kate already had the color puzzle done and she didn’t even spend a couple of minutes figuring out the instructions like he had. She just plowed through matching colors and throwing them across the screen. The little triangle guide was meaningless to her. Within four minutes she was where he had taken twenty minutes to get to. John was mostly impressed with how quick she was. But also a little defeated at how slow he had been at the same task. They were interrupted by “All littles to the dinner table! I repeat! All littles to the Dinner table!” and then a mumbled “You’re such a goober.” and it was easy to guess which voice was which person without bothering to look up. John was the first one up and then he held out a hand for Kate. She seemed happy to take it and she put the tablet on the couch as the walked past it. When they got to their chairs, Aunt Cat was waiting for them and she bent down to scoop them both up in a bit hug before spinning them around and depositing them into their booster seats and buckling them in. No sooner did their seats get pushed forward did Amanda set plates down in front of them. They both looked down at the plates. The casserole looked great! He looked at the carrots and grimaced. She looked at the peas and grimaced. They look at each other and nodded. At first they tried to scoot their chairs closer to one another, but the chairs were too heavy. So while the two bigs talked to each other, they each at one bite of casserole, then reached across each other and he took peas off of her plate as she took carrots off of his plate. They alternated dropping bits of chicken between their chairs. The meat never hit the floor. This went on with them eating in silence, feeding the dog, and trying to get away with it until after a few minutes Amanda got up and walked around the table behind the two of them with her arms crossed. They both turned to look over their shoulder at her like they were afraid they were in trouble. After a moment of standing there she sighed and said “I’m not even going to fight this battle.” and she reached out and grabbed their chairs and pulled them together right up next to each other, and scooted them just a bit closer to the table. As she walked back around to her own seat, the two littles shrugged and pulled their plates closer. John being left handed gave him easy access to her plate, and her bring right handed gave her easy access to his. The only downside is that they couldn’t keep trying to be sneaky about feeding Xerxes. Eventually they were both stuffed and leaning back in their seats drinking down their sippy cups, their adopted Mommy’s came and wiped them down, they were unbuckled, put down, and sent about their way. As they went back to the living room, John got the tablet off of the couch and by the time he made it in front of the fireplace, Kate was already reclined against Xerxes in his usual spot, and she had a full sippy cup waiting on either side of her. Moving his blue cup off to one side, he sat down and scooted over until he was next to Kate. He propped the tablet back up on his thighs and poked the screen. He slid it a bit toward her to offer it up. Suggesting “Here, try the pipe game. I know it’s not as hard as the color game, but I liked it.” as she slid it on top of her thighs. As the tablet moved in front of her, despite no one touching the corner, the background went from blue to teal all on its own. So she opened up the pipe game and it took her a moment to figure it out but she got the hang of it. It seemed to John like she was going slow, so he figured that she was just being meticulous. That is, until after about ten minutes she slid the tablet over to him and said “Here, can you do this one?” He just nodded, but as he took it back it flipped immediately to where he left off with eight pipes, two layers, and specific spots for each pipe to stop on its way. So naturally he took a moment to look at it and started from the simplest pipe run out. After he did two of them, Kate stopped him and asked “How do you do that so fast?” He had to do a double take and asked “What do you mean, I can’t do anything as fast as you were doing the color puzzles.” They started arguing, and spent a few minutes arguing about who was better at what before Aunt Cat came over and interrupted them. “Children!” Aunt Cat said firmly. Suddenly realizing they’re not alone, they looked up at her. “You’re both good at different things.” She scolded them, if a bit more gently now. Both John and Kate looked down at their hands at the same time. Kate spoke first “Yes Ma’am, You’re right.” John nodded along in agreement “Yes Ma’am.” With her hands on her hips now, Aunt Cat smirked and said “Now, do I have to make you two kiss and make up?” John felt his face turn red immediately. He didn’t dare look over at Kate, but from his peripheral vision it looked like she was biting her lip. Aunt Cat looked like she was shaking bodily trying to hold in her laughter, but finally Amanda chimed in. “Cat! Would you stop teasing them and let them go back to playing? They’re both blushing!” Aunt Cat lost it then and had a good laugh. It was a full minute before she regained her composure and knelt down to kiss both of them on the forehead. “I’m sorry” she apologized “It was just too easy. You two either keep playing or go color or something. No more arguing.” After she walked away they sat quietly for a moment before John poked the folder marked “Books” just to see what was in it, while sliding it halfway onto each of their laps. What they found waiting for them were more folders, with categories ranging from “Toddler” to “Teen” and at the bottom of the screen it read “More will be added as you read, to attain your reading level” While they were talking together and discussing which folder to open, there was a knock on the door. Amanda was at the door in seconds and she pulled it open to be met with Agent Praefectus. “Sir, were you able to …” and then John could see her look at something in his hand. He shook his head “Ma’am, I made the call, we have some more agents on the way to help search. We will need to use your driveway as a staging area. They’ll be here within the hour.” John saw Amanda turn her back to the agent and walk to the utility room and almost immediately come back out with a clear poncho and a flashlight. As she was pulling it on, she called across the room “You two get up, your puppy couch is coming with me.” As they got up Amanda held out her hand and said “Let me see that.” He handed it over almost instantly and she barked out an order “Xerxes: Heel.” and the dog immediately sprung up and ran to over by her side. This did not sound anything like the usual Amanda. Not one bit. Then John caught a glimpse of what was in her hand. A shoe. More specifically a wet, muddy shoe that looked the right size for a little. She held it out for Xerxes and he smelled it. She then looked at Agent Praefectus and said point blank “We won’t be waiting an hour. We’re going now. Xerxes: Fetch.” And with that she was out the door behind the dog, shouting back inside “Cat, you’ve got the kids.” And in a flurry of sounds, from Amanda stepping into her rubber boots to the agent running to keep up with her, then they were gone. The two littles were left standing there in a state of shock and kept looking back and forth between each other and the door. Kate was the first one to make a sound, but all that she got out was “Ummm… did … was that …” John just nodded and said “Shoe.” Aunt Cat came over and sat down on the floor and pulled them both into her lap and gave them one big hug before reassuring them. “Hey, don’t worry. Your Aunt Cat called me after the nice man came by earlier. She said she wanted me here just in case she needed to help. We were going to stay the night anyway, because I don’t have any appointments tomorrow. So you two are safe and sound, and Aunt Amanda” She turned to add for Johns benefit “That is Mommy, is just going to go lend a helping hand. No one knows this land like she does, and you two both know how good Xerxes is at fetching.” Kate and John simply sat there staring at each other, completely lost for words. Aunt Cat, for her part, sat there hugging them both and waited several minutes before breaking the silence “Come on, you two can have some hot chocolate. That will help calm your nerves.”

... *looks down at her SL avatars tail* I am both ecstatic, and plead the fifth in advance! *I had to come back later to add this edit: I WANNA PET THE TAIL!!!!!

There's still time for sheep dimension. Even if it's unlikely, we can hold out hope. I ... actually poked for leaving a cliffhanger too ... so it's not just them... Anyway! OP very good chapter, thank you very much for it!

I'm still leaning toward shepherd dimension, but to my mind that's definitely an option.

How wildly are we allowed to let our imagination roam? Because Mine already has them being sent to an alternate dimension of giant sheep and having to live as shepherds for a while, dealing with obstinate sheep getting into everything. Oh, or their punishment varies based on strictness. So Samantha has to live in a nunnery for like three months, and Chelsea they just spank her crosseyed and ship her off to work in a small room taking paper, shredding it, processing it, and making it back into paper, only to have to shred it and so on and so forth for a solid year just to see if it breaks her sanity. Again, some of us have no control over their imagination. ... I wonder if their high tech has enabled them to make a blender that can actually blend cheese without doing that air gap thing every thirty seconds where you have to turn it off and shake it silly to make it move again.

BabySofia, this was an excellent chapter! I obviously have some concerns for their futures, and I feel bad for what Kelly went through that lead her to be the person she is. Her circumstances were not her fault, but her embracing it was. It's also probably good that his nest mother isn't super overbearing, because I could see lots of bigs deciding that an injured little shouldn't be walking (on two legs) until they are fully recovered. Additionally: Way to go Conner, not getting jabbed with the brain drain needle! (A crime against humanity, that stuff)

I was interested in this story from chapter one. Now I'm HOOKED! (I already was, but now it's super official)

I've been popping around and just reading stories for years. And it took a story shoving its way into my head and me having something to contribute to join.

Wow! I know that I'm basically the new kid around here but I am super impressed! That's a lot of writing and sharing! I hope to someday write enough to hit even a quarter of that. Thank you for writing and sharing all of the stories, and I hope that your muse is kind and giving to you! (... new kid... did I just accidentally make a little pun?)

See, you're seeing this from the viewpoint of a big that is in danger (or want) of a good solid spankng. I'm seeing this from the viewpoint of a little that would very much like to -not- be kidnapped by some baby crazed giant and spanked into submission.

Despite what I enjoy writing, I would be SUPER scared of the Amazons. That 'Interviewer' triggers my flight response for some reason. I fully admit that I would not do well in this building. Granted that even under the best of circumstances, I'd wind up spanked and in a corner a lot until I figured things out. (unless they had a dog. I would behave more if they had a dog)