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Twilight Talons

Ember Elliot

Morning. It was always the warmest and most benign seeming warnings that lay waiting with a hidden stinger. Something was off today, it was clear, but all she could figure was that her blankets clung too tightly around her scales. They were rough and coarse, and terribly tangled around her in a way that told her she must have tossed and turned terribly in the night. It was hard to tell exactly what went where around her - had she stumbled out of bed and crashed onto the floor? No, she reasoned, she wasn't nearly achy enough for that. A cursory squirm managed to press her fingers into the soft surface of the bed outside her rough blankets, confirming that suspicion. She could hear the faintly muffled echo of a town crier through her open window. It wasn't early in the morning...

Roxanna shook her head at herself. How late had she slept in this time?

It wasn't until the frilled lizard tried to launch herself out of bed that she realized how truly off things were. What should have been an eruption of blankets and pillows was instead a dull fwump as her covers held her back as though they were nailed to the bed. Her too rough sheets tangled over her, and she had to fight not to be pissed with her bedding. Even more, her aimless struggle only managed to get her more lost in that dark and warm cushiony cage. She took a breath and braced her legs against the bed, using her tail to uncoil bolts of that rough blanket from around her. Had someone replaced her blankets with sandpaper in the night? At least she could still determine which direction was up, though it was more like swimming as she wove her way through the rough blankets, sheets, and everything. Something was very much wrong with her bed, her covers - they were like an ocean. She should have surfaced ten feet ago... or was that twenty?

When light finally dawned over Roxanna, she forgot that confusing thought. It was a dull and ocher yellow bleeding through her blanket , and the passing sleeve of her nightshirt failed to catch her gaze as she scrabbled to her feet and out at last into fresh air. The familiar scent of her and her roommate's living space helped brush away the remaining tendrils of that odd dream and brought back a sense of normalcy. A part of her mind itched at her, telling her she was clearly missing something, until it ran up and smacked her in the face. Not just the face, but her body too ran headlong into a pillowy cliff... No, not a cliff she realized with a dull tremor of shock, her pillow. That couldn't be right. It wasn't' just the pillow. She took a handful of covering and scrambled up its side, up to the top of the firm yellow cushion. It was everything. Everything had grown gigantic overnight... or... No. She had shrunk.

The apartment looked almost like another world from this size, wavering gently as she steadied herself on her own pillow. Roxanna's bed was pushed up against the wall, right beneath a tall window. She knew that it was only meters off her bed, yet at this height the cherry wood promised ages of climbing if she wanted to look outside. The door leading out to the stairwell shut securely, and even if she could imagine opening it, the entrance of her apartment was leagues away from her across wood and carpet. Then her eyes drifted to the mirror hanging by its side, and she found herself staring back at her. From so far away she seemed to be a speck - far different from the usual glimpse to make sure her frill hung in its usual protective poncho around her body. If she hadn't known she was a lizard, she might have simply mistaken herself for a rodent... her vibrant yellow scales flared as her frill unconsciously rose. She was so tiny... she couldn't have been bigger than a shot glass.

"What in the wilds?" Roxanna sputtered and looked down at herself. Everything around her told her she had shrunk. But... wasn't that impossible?

She didn't curse - not aloud. What use would there have been? She couldn't help a grimace, though, as she looked back up to the cupboards hanging above their small kitchen. It was in its usual state of disrepair, blackened with a charred residue of several weeks of well-cooked meals caked onto the stove. Her roommate had already made breakfast - she smelled the faint crisp of eggs and bacon, and it mad the room all the frustratingly welcoming around her framed by warm sunbeams. Then to her flat mate's bed, which was really more of a nest than it was a bed. As much as she loved her best friend, the raven had an odd fascination with dry hay. Aged grass stuffed even her blanket, which lay aside and crumpled when the woman woke hours ago. That was hours ago now... Roxanna didn't blame her for not noticing that anything was the matter. She pulled her gaze from the familiar black feathers that had come loose and stuck in the hay to look over to their shared writing desk on the opposite wall.

Dun had always been a dull and quiet raven, wrapped up in her business until it she was satisfied it was complete. The only time that Roxanna had seen the raven do anything truly imaginative were the moments in the evening when the bird sat down at the writing desk and scribbled goodness only knew what onto sheaves of rough paper. Even then, the raven's attention was almost impossible to catch - a meteor might land just outside and she wouldn't notice the crash. Once, Roxanna had moved the desk to clean, she had marveled as her friend plodded without the least bit of hesitation as though it had always lived in that awkward place in the middle of the room.

Roxanna felt uncomfortably small in that gigantic room. Her frill flickered up, and down, and up again, and she twisted a clawed foot on her pillow as she fought to shake off the constant reminders of her size. Another curse hissed out under her breath - even her nighttime lantern was several sizes bigger than she was. How had she shrunk, and more importantly... how would she get back to normal. She would get back to normal, she knew, all she needed to do was to find whoever had caused this. There was no doubt that it had been one of her neighbors. Suddenly, the wiry fellow who always had a glare to give to her and Dun when they left the apartment struck her. What was it he had against them? His grudge had been a constant... as though it was their fault he was such a buffoon. All she needed to do was find him, and she'd make him tell her what he had done. Then he'd know how ill advised it was to get on her bad side. Roxanna flashed her fangs a t the room, an unsettling promise to reclaim her size and strength.

First things first, she thought, and her attention drew back to Dun's nest. At the edge of her bowl-like bed lay the raven's talon boots, partially covered by crumpled covers tossed aside. Finally, a hopeful smile crossed the frilled lizard's face and scattered her defiant glare. Good, she thought, _Dun hasn't gone off to her construction site yet. At least I still have some good luck._It was an easy manner to use the pillow covering to scale back down to the bed, and though the bed seemed such a high cliff at her stature, her blankets offered her easy handholds on her climb down. Noon. Dun always left around noon, and if the heat and angle of the bright light on her bed through the window was any indication it was nearly lunchtime. As she drew lower in the room, the heat seemed to evaporate way until the cool wood flooring met her clawed feet with a telltale clack. Roxanna didn't care if she scuffed the floor or not - especially at this size, she reasoned that any scuffmarks that might result from her claws would be overlooked easily.

Even if she might have scratched the floor, her worry was a fleeting thought. It wasn't as though Dun was her mother. Quite the opposite, really... The thought slowed her trek across the smooth cherry wood. She needed help to reverse whatever had shrunk her to this size. Even if she could get out the door, the town at this hour was not a calm place. The streets were filled with people plodding back and forth, as well as carriages and carts none of which would stop to notice even the most careful lizard even at her regular size. No, to get help she would have to catch the raven's attention. As long as she could do that, there would be nothing to worry about, and the comforting thought of Dun's talons fitting into her shoes as they left to solve this mystery was her companion. The lizard would need something shiny, she knew - perhaps her belt, if she knew where she had flung it in her usual haste to fall into bed. Beyond Dun's nest? That would prevent Dun from returning home and utterly missing her friend in the rush to prepare lunch and don her work clothes. Sometimes living with a construction bird was a good thing, but today that blunt and careless rush would do her no favors. As long as when Dun returned-

Kchunk. As though summoned by that very thought, the sound of the heavy bolt clicking was a startling surprise, followed by the smooth and lazy swing of the door inwards. Roxanna couldn't keep back a gasp upon seeing her friend, who was normally a demure and scruffy small shape, at such an impressive and almost towering size. The familiar oily sheen on her dark feathers were a glimpse of an aerodynamic and sleek shape, covered by a frumpy and patched cotton shirt. In one wing arm Dun held a paper bag filled with breads and other lumpy things that were impossible to make out from this angle... but it was the pointed and long beak and tousled crest feathers tied behind that head that caught the frilled lizard's eyes. Like always, her feathers were bundled behind her head so that they couldn't fly free to block her vision or get in the way, though the rough band as not particularly flashy. Nothing about Dun was fancy - she was lithe, strong, and her rough cotton attire had her ready for the coming day of physical labor.

This was an entirely new angle to see her roommate from, and it caught her words of greeting like a fly on paper. All the lizard could manage was to recoil as her friend's great steps planted strong black talons onto hardwood, careless and rough with accompanying tac-tac of talon claws. A quick glance around told Roxanna that there was no cover, but Dun wasn't walking at her. The crow dropped the heavy bag onto a counter, and lost in her own world she didn't pay her friend any mind. The crinkle of paper grocery bag and the utterly absorbed raven finally brought the lizard's wits back to her.

"Watch where you're going, scatterbrain! You might have flattened me!" It wasn't really outrage - it was a bemused anger that had little bite when spoken through her smile. Still, it seemed to float straight past Dun, and the raven refused to turn. The big bird turned back to take another long loaf of bread fresh from the market to stack it atop the others in the pantry that she quite often plundered for snacks. "Down here, ya great lunk-bird! Oi!"

No luck. Not even a twitch. It wouldn't be possible to chase after the towering bird, but Roxanna wouldn't give up so easily. Instead, she tried to head Dun off - she was already most of the way to Dun's boots, and the avian would need to don them at the very least before going out to work. Even with the distraction of what few groceries remained, it was a race... or it felt like one, anyways. It was no wonder they had a pest problem - even leaning down to put away a folded paper bag into the cupboard beneath the carving counter, the raven didn't see her. A mouse skittering across the broad open floor - or anything of similar size would unnerve most people, but Dun? There was nothing, no gasp or even flick of a head to look out that would catch Roxanna and reveal her to the raven. What would her roommate even sound like when surprised? Catching the edge of the talon boot to hold herself up, she took deep breaths. Her dash had stimulated a curious realization. She had never seen the raven looking shocked.... or frightened, or even nonplussed. She knew the corvid could laugh, but--

A crashing creak of straining twigs, hay, and cushion nearly knocked Roxanna from her feet as her roommate sat onto her bed with all the care of a child leaping into a pile of dried autumn leaves. It was clear that just standing next to Dun's talon boots wouldn't be enough - she could even shout and dance up and down, and her friend would never notice her. She needed to get right up in Dun's beak, and so without hesitation Roxanna acted. Only one thing was sure to grab her friend's gaze with any amount of surety. The raven's heavy work boots were weighted down enough to hardly budge at all when the lizard dug her clawed hands into them, and one offered enough holds to make clambering up using its ridges and easy matter. In her rush, she had picked the closest one to her - the important thing was that Dun would see her before she put her shoes on. They would share a good laugh and then she would ride on Dun's shoulder so they could go out to teach that glaring neighbor a lesson for shrinking Roxanna.

Looking back on that moment, her mistake was obvious. She should have realized how big of an assumption it was to think that her friend would look down to her footwear before slipping her feet over the edge of the nest to stuff them into her boots. Instead of a soft wing hand, Roxanna's half-formed snarky greeting found a reply flying back at her from a much rougher, stronger talon.

"There we are, Dun--," she began, but cut herself mid sentence when the great talon swung towards her. Instinctively, she jumped backwards right as the talon swung full force over where she had just been standing... but rather than solid floor or shoe, she found the heart-stopping embrace of air. She fell. It wasn't far at all, by her reckoning perhaps ten or twelve feet... or, was that inches? and it would have been easy to clamber back up had she had enough time to do so, but the eclipse of that looping talon quickly blotted out the warm noontime light She had a pristine view of each scale, each rough, calloused curve as it slipped closer... Roxanna cried out, "Oi, Dun! I'm in here! Don't stuff your dirty talon in your boot without getting me out, first!"

Clawing at the inside of Dun's work boot, her words resounded dull and lifeless as they hit the leather. Words wouldn't work and Roxanna knew it, which was why she was already trying to secure herself against the chimney-like climb inside the boot. She didn't have more than a moment before Dun's talon carelessly battered her with a solid wave of callused scales. The great talon surged over her terribly easily, brushing her from the mouth of the boot and carried her all the way down to its sole. Fortunately, the frilled lizard retained some of her wits and managed to push away just in time so that the crashing splash of talon toes pushed her forward to the end of the shoe, but that was all she could manage before everything seemed to drop out from beneath her. It was a dizzying sensation as that giant boot lifted off the floor with a flex of strong black scaly flesh against her. Her first thought was scattered and confused, _Surely, Dun can feel me in here... I'm bigger than any dumb pebble..._but her Dun was once again oblivious. She had never seen any of the skittering creatures that stole their cereal, nor did she felt the obstruction in her shoe. That careless talon simply shrugged over her vanished friend, and twisted. It was hard to stifle a gasp against the crushing pressure stuffing her into the toe of the shoe, and it was all she could do to cling to dear life between two hook-like talons as the step crashed forward. The first of many.

That bastard crooked mouse, Raven talons, bare of anything to soften the pressure of work boots and leather, I can't believe he shrunk me! When I get out of here... Thinking was a challenge. Tough avian scales hardened by a life of ceaseless physical labor and firm with well-worked muscles beneath pressed down atop Roxanna, and they a mountain avalanche to try to hold back. What must I feel like to her? Am I truly nothing down here? The thought worried her, and stirred something bright and hot in the pit of her stomach. Just a poor helpless lizard, cemented into a shoe... that's all she was, surrounded by the growing heat of cramped space, the musty and dusty scents of travelled talon mingling with the tang of leather. Worse, here was almost no room - what little she had was down below the talon-toes, and every step down against the ground threatened to take that from her, squeezing powerful digits atop her as the great avian turned to leave the apartment.

"Ghack!" Roxanna sputtered, and cried out, "S-stop! Dun!" Overwhelming weight compressed her chest, legs, and all of her lower body with the indomitable weight of her towering avian friend. The lizard's first instinct was to try to press against the downpour of talon, to prop it up and keep it away from herself. It was a struggle to convince her arms to rise after being so callously trampled by her sides, but it was not an impossible task. When everything fell back towards the earth, thus, she was ready. Even if her friend couldn't feel her scales under her talon, she would make Dun feel her by bracing her hands just right. Press and jab into the tough sole. Dun would realize, and then she would be free, just as soon as-

_Crash._The impact of floor against talon resonated through her frill, shook her down to the bone. Perhaps fortunately, the tough leather of the boot kept her from flying backwards, and it creaked firmly around her back as Dun's talon all but smeared over her bare scales. Every unrefined nub dug into her, as well as gruff and scaly talon that was more than a match for Roxanna's arms. What felt like a thousand pounds fell upon her, and her elbows folded against the overwhelmingly jarring weight. If she hadn't, her arms might have simply snapped, and even giving in she was too dazed to do anything but reel as another step lifted up, as rough digits curled and drug her backwards, only to crash once again, this time with no resistance. Roxanna felt utterly flattened under that great talon. She could feel her friend...

Dun was still her friend. Even after what felt like twenty steps, the raven was not at fault for Roxanna's predicament. They would share a good laugh about, it after she recovered, when she finally got it through to Dun that she had her friend pressed beneath a talon. How...?_It felt impossible... she wasn't a weak lizard, yet every press into firm scaly talon had no effect. The simple and single-minded raven had had years working on her talons, and her feet had resilient, hot scales. _Thud! Another step barreled down over the lizard, squashed her between two massive-seeming talons as outside the crow turned. What is she even doing out there? Going to work, probably, she realized, but there hadn't-

"Urhck," A talon's pressure squeezed her attempts to distract herself out of her mind, each strong toe folding in against her and pressing together. Dun had stopped and was standing still, perhaps flexing her toes to give them more energy. The result only sandwiched her unwitting passenger between toes and boot. Heat was rising as well within the hot leather confines, and it had nowhere to go with Roxanna's body smeared against bare scales. Dun's working body shed flowing heat over her. Combined with the warm day outside, she began to sweat. It was impossible to stop, and her sweat only made each hammering step feel grimier and grimier. Her wandering mind flitted to the time when she had fumbled from the roof into a pile of sticky refuse... it was disturbingly similar, save for the fact that this time escape would not be so easy as shifting it off of herself. Wriggling, pushing, even shoving had no effect on the talons above her, even hardly seemed to dimple those tough scales. The most that her scales could accomplish was to push away one of those toes, and that was only after putting every muscle into the challenge. Even the most herculean shove made no progress, though, as the next step returned it back to that position of comfort smushed against her face as it flattened her against the boot.

It was torture. Simple and pure, that was the only word that Roxanna could think of to describe her situation as Dun went blindly about her day like every other day. Were they already at the construction site? It felt hot enough to be. There was the faint rapport of boots on wood - scaffolding, probably - whatever rigid surface it was made each step an arduous kiss of heavy talon. Every twist, every turn, every step pressed over the lizard, and several times she found herself crying out. It was a shout, in her own ears, when the talon toes twisted her arm almost too far, at just the wrong angle to twist her hard against the leather floor. Somehow, she managed to keep it from smearing her across the insole beneath her, but it was terribly frustrating to find that nothing came of her outcries and shouting complaints. What must Dun's coworkers think? Roxanna could hear the sounds of a busy workday, the clatter of bricks and mortar or hammer of nails falling into place. Surely, someone would hear her voice! Maybe if she screamed.

"Someone! HELP!" Now that she listened, her voice sounded dull even in her own ears. Its blunt echo seemed to fall off the thick leather like a leaf fluttering against a window. At least she had managed to keep the encompassing talon flesh from silencing her... but her only consolation was another step, another crash jarring her aching body. Her only respite was those moments when the talon was arcing up and back down, apart from the ground, but even then, Roxanna could feel every scar and whorl of Dun's hardworking talons. She was too intimately close even in those moments, with what seemed like no room to breathe. For a moment, the sound of a baritone voice pierced the work boot, a conversation far above her carrying on as though she didn't exist. They were completely unaware that there was a person in the midst of terrible torment just feet away. No one knew about Dun's tiny friend. Dun didn't even twitch, and all it told her was that even the loudest scream couldn't penetrate the thick leather boots... What was left? Dun doesn't know, it was almost a mantra, reminding herself that Dun never intended to torture her, and yet... she still couldn't help but be furious at the avian.

"How..."A punch to the talon responded only with a dull papery sound as her scales and Dun's slid over each other, how could you not realize that your best friend is trapped in your shoe? Dun- kkhck!" Once again, that great talon cut off her complaints with a pressing step, turning her words into a frustrating sob that wracked her body. Yet, it felt like her friend's oppressive talon ironed even her sob from her body as it squeezed her powerfully into that rough boot leather. Once, that leather had felt at least somewhat forgiving, but with her body aching under each constant step, it felt rough and immovable. How long was she to suffer, trapped undertalon? Surely, it couldn't be more than a few hours at most... Yet, it hadn't even been one and she could feel every step creaking dangerously through her bones. Every unforgiving step held no thought of her comfort, jammed her up close and personal with the talon, curled digits over her and smeared flesh over her cheeks. So immersed in the world of that boot, even the scent of Dun's own earthen sweat did not register to her at first. At least, not until things were almost steamy hot around her. Only then did she catch scent of it, as it splattered onto her with every jarring step. Everything around her seemed intent on wearing down her will, every disgusting squish that pressed her against her damp confines, between and against toes.

All the while Dun kept working, completely unaware. The onslaught was unstoppable, almost mechanical. Roxanna realized with a jolt of adrenaline that she had stopped pushing, that she was not trying... something. Anything. She scrambled against the talon, pushed against it, trying to figure out some way to writhe free, to stop its crushing steps... but... how? How exactly did she think she could stop it? No one knew where she was. Alone and at this tiny size, she had not nearly enough strength to keep the talon aloft, and even when she managed that, it was only for a moment until her arms crumpled. Struggling against each step only made it certain both that she would struggle longer and that every time that roughshod talon crushed the life and energy out of her struggles she felt more and more out of control. Without any reaction from the talon, it was too easy to convince herself that Dun's talon was nothing more than a lifeless and soulless grinding machine, pressing down against her in a continuous attempt to shatter what remaining willpower the lizard had left.

Really, what else did she have to look forward to? Each footfall battered down against her felt like it an attack from the universe to remind her that it was a living thing pressing against her... not just a living mass or a mindless beast, but her friend. Her roommate was the one crushing the life out of her, and Dun's talon kept her trapped in the prison that was the raven's boot and far away from the reach of fresh air or sunlight. Some nights, Roxanna had offered to massage these same talons that now eclipsed her world... and all they had to repay her care was the crushing weight of her dear raven smothering down over her. Every joint ached, and every turn that tried to escape the talon only offered more of the lizard's scales for the talon to land against in a constant press that was simply exhausting to resist. Wouldn't it be better to just give in and let herself be flattened? The despairing idea was becoming a louder and louder voice in her mind, washing over her with every wave of talon, each splash of scaly digits cutting off her breath and filling her world with the corvid's foot.

Maybe it was her proximity to the talon, compounded by powerful toes embracing and restricting her range of motion to nowhere between foot and hard-leather insoles, but Roxanna found herself beginning to embrace the scaly flesh as it flexed atop her. What more could she do? How else could she possibly struggle that she hadn't already tried? Each crash splayed her body and pressed her down against the flexible insole. Though it didn't give much, it seemed to welcome her surrender. Her body pressed up against the talon's sole, against rough flesh, and she was already all but hugging the talon... so why not take it that last step further? Roxanna began to rub. Like all those nights under the writing desk when she had tended to her dear friend it was a loving rub, though her fingers quivered with exhaustion and her embrace was intermittently returned by the crushing fall of Dun's bodyweight falling atop her again and again. Accepting the avian's 'hug' brought new realizations. She found that in between hugs she could shift herself a few feet - though in reality not more than an inch or so - but enough to change her position if she needed to. A new worry lapped at her mind with each step: without resistance, the lizard was in danger of being drug beneath the great talon with each plodding footstep. If she wasn't careful, she might simply vanish...

Would that really be so bad? She nuzzled her cheek into the hot toe smearing against her body, and leaned into the scaly flesh as hot leather bristled down her back. Maybe...

_No!_Roxanna opened her eyes defiantly when the talon lifted again, filled with a sudden fire. She could hold out... even if she couldn't count how much time was passing, if she could stay aware long enough there was a chance... just a chance that she could still get free. Every nerve in her body told her to struggle, kick, punch, and tear her way free of the boot, but that wasn't the answer. Fighting like that would only drain her of what energy she had left. She could feel her way between Dun's talon toes if she pushed far enough, and maybe... Another vice-clamp of powerful digits pulped the thought from her mind like juice from an orange. The raven was twisting, perhaps wrenching something heavy from its resting place, and her talons had reflexively clutched to take a secure footing of some imaginary perch. The only thing squeezed, however, was Roxanna. Throbbing tight darkness choked the air out of her, until what seemed like ages later it let up and she fell to the sole of the boot, gasping. Little fireworks and stars popped in the blackness of the boot, and she didn't have the wherewithal to pull herself back together before Dun stepped forward to regain her balance. When she did, the unfortunate lizard found herself caught under the surface of the crow's talon proper and dragged deeper by a flexing pull of toes. A powerful ball of pressure stood atop over her, utterly entrapping her in an earthy place that made her mind drift to the thought of quicksand. Even her frill vanished in that suck beneath the hot surface, locked somewhere too warm, too damp, with the only air a rich scent of rough and dusty talon. Its dull and hot flavor filled her nostrils with scales and Dun's scent, pushed over her cheek and drizzled down her arms as each step squeezed her tighter and tighter. It even seemed to invade her frill flattened beneath her...

It took all that Roxanna had to scrabble free from the talon when it kicked off the ground. Aching and sore, it was like lifting a slab of solid lead, yet somehow she managed to pry herself out from beneath its weight. There was a single glaring thought peering down at her through the painful black haze. She was just a toy for Dun's talon. Her avian friend didn't know that she had a toy, but Roxanna knew when she could make the talon shift around herself. Unconsciously, the talons reached out to hug her.... and pulled back when she pressed. Didn't they...? Her yellow-scaled fingers brushed over the sole without any purpose, simply feeling the rough drag of talon against her rub. If she pressed just right she felt she could almost make an imprint in that that seemingly impervious sole, and with enough strength she could even lift it up, just enough... to allow it to crash back down against her. A powerful earthen scent and a rich flavor condensed around her in beads of sweat: her own, she knew, and Dun's talon sweat mixing and mingling together. There was the taste of salt as well, but for a working talon, it was not a new flavor. It took her several more steps to realize that she was crying. When had that started? Realization only made it worse, and she broke down into quivering sobs. Every step further wracked her body with impossible talon steps.

Dun's foot cared not at all about those tears. Nothing that Roxanna had done had left any impression in that great foot. When she had managed to shift that behemoth toe, it only crashed back down atop her; when she gave in and rubbed into its crevices it continued to plod onward. The raven only kept working. More tears felled as the lizard let herself go, each tear flowing free down her cheeks as fast as they came. No one could see her tears, nor could anyone hear them. They wouldn't ever... no one was coming to save her. Tears or not, it changed nothing for the woman forgotten in her dear friend's work boot. She could hear herself, and a little part of her mind was annoyed with her own tears. Another rational part argued, whom exactly was she trying to remain strong for? Thud. Her tears earned no mercy from that talon - its mistress had no idea that there was a frilled lizard trapped at the mercy of each indomitable step. There was no inkling of an idea that each footfall creaked down on aching bones and popped at joints. Through her tears, she tried to find a reason to stop, but nothing seemed to quell those raining droplets. Drunkenly, she realized that it was only making things wetter around her, mingling with hot sweat trying to soak away into boot leather. She had no strength here. Her life mattered nothing compared to that omnipotent talon.

"Haghh..." It was almost possible to get used to each talonfall, after the thousandth collapse of scaly flesh atop her. Her reflexive cough turned into pitiful laughter, and when the weight continued atop her fragile form longer than usual, she realized that the steps had stopped. It was a single moment of peaceful creaking pressure surrounding her battered body. Whatever the raven was doing, be it talking to coworkers or relaxing to catch her breath, it was brief relief for Roxanna. Relief hung just out of grasp, however, as even stillness filled over her with the powerful squeeze of long toes, each talon curling over the little lizard such that every whorl and ring of tough flesh painted her scales with grinding heat.It's fortunate, she thought_, that sweat has soaked her talon..._ Not because of the scent, but because it softened the rough skin so that it was less of a sandpapery grind against her own scales. Yet... part of her longed for each step, longed for the grinding toes to work her into little more than a smear at the bottom of that boot. There was a lazy pain in her body, and she could hear her limbs creak-- Crack. A singular snap rang dull and discomforting in that hot leather prison.

My arm... Roxanna realized through the thick musty haze, My arm just broke... Part of her wanted to be afraid and cry out in contention against a sudden pain, but the reality was that that otherworldly snap was something she hardly felt at all... a reflexive and sickening cough informed her that it wasn't just the word snap in her mind - a rib gave out under the pressure. She pushed against the talon toe, trying to keep it from her head, to struggle one last time, but her ability to keep herself above the surface was failing her as her body broke. Worse, she found herself realizing that in here there was no surface. She had fallen beneath it the moment she leapt and careened into the basin of Dun's work boot. Clawing wouldn't get her anywhere but to more darkness, and even if she could, she had little strength left to give to the rough talon and leather all around her. She had already fought, she had already screamed and punched and kicked and begged. None of that changed the result. It was a ceaseless press, suffocating her with the reminder that she belonged under that avian foot that her place was at the sole of a talon, buried in the shoe like a speck of dust between two toes gone and unnoticed. She felt herself slipping again and she kicked, treading water in the abyssal deep, but at the same moment Dun kicked off the ground again and a snapping _krick_throbbed through her leg.

It was hard to find any reason to care, after what had felt like days of being crushed underfoot with each step. When another crack dislodged her shoulder and the lifting talon toes drew her from that not-safe spot at the boot's toe, the want to pull herself back into that miserly torture chamber hardly even touched her mind. How dull her struggles had been. Pain was a surreal companion, not any newer nor any worse than that first life-crushing step had been, but what little wisps of hope that Roxanna still held were summarily flattened with each continuing grind of talon over her body. Perhaps it was because her pain was a pointless one, but it was easy to block out. Like a song half remembered, it beat to the tune of each flexing toe dragging over her, crushing her life as well as her hope. What did it matter if she slipped utterly out of sight, when she was already entirely out of sight to begin with? It would only eclipse her view with the black of raven talons, and that wouldn't be all bad. In that moment, she knew: it didn't matter at all. She had failed. She couldn't get her friend's attention, not outside or inside, and she wasn't nearly strong enough to push any weight around, even her own. She couldn't even squirm in a way that would register to dun. She had earned her place at the sole of that great talon, and earned the right to be ground into its scales with each treading smash.

Was it despair, she wondered, that made her lean into each stepping press? She couldn't move her arms properly - when she tried, a jolt of ice-hot pain reminded her that they were broken in more ways than she cared to count. Still, the lizard tried her best to hug the horizon of that powerful talon. Dun's powerful talon. If she had to pick an end for herself, her only change would be to make it a much quicker and succinct end than this doom had been. That, too, was her fault - she should have known well enough when to quit and give in. If she had accepted from the start that she was just an insole in Dun's work boot, then her pointless strife could have met peace much sooner. Roxanna was, simply, a broken shell of who she used to be. Escape, even if she had gotten out in one piece, would have seen her living a life of shame and pity, if they could not reverse the shrinking. She was the only one who had shrunk... at least, that was what she told herself...

No, she thought, and dashed the thoughts of what might have been from her mind. Normalcy was an impossibility now. A deep part of her mind felt the reality around her, the aching jarring pain that was each crash arcing lightning bolts of cracks into her bones. K-krck. Another bone crackled and popped, but her conscious mind could only laugh. I still have bones to break? What... is even left of me? Step by step, her world was replaced with the eclipsing talon. It was her sky, her sun, her world, while the earth was that boot beneath her. For the first time, she blushed, and cast aside her inhibitions. She took a lick as the sole of that talon ground her into boot leather; her long tongue rasped against damp talon flesh in a way that she could never have imagined doing before. Its lively moisture was soothing, in a way. At least, as much as anything could be soothing for her any more. Hers was a dull black satisfaction, and even as it parted from her snout with the next step, she knew it would be back. It always would... Roxanna didn't need to think in here, or do anything at all. She could finally just give up her sensibilities, be a simple flattened carpet for Dun's talon... Perhaps, she would finally learn how Dun could stand to think so little...

Thudd, krkrack. Crash..., Fwoom. Her mind swirled away in those steps. Had it been five, or thirty? There was no counting any more. She was simply lost forever beneath that talon, inside that leathery, mud-stained work boot. Her microscopic struggle didn't register outside, not a lick through the busy day. Dun never slowed as she made her way back with a tall wooden slat. A few decisive cracks of a hammer nailed it in place against the supports that she had taken the whole afternoon to secure in place. Then with a handy twirl, she returned her hammer back to her belt, and twisted in place on her right foot to turn and grab more nails. Dun's work was a constant physical effort, and though her feathers had started the day as clean and straight as she could make them they had crimped and matted in places. There were patches where they were still growing back from the last time she had misaimed a saw, and it gave her an uneven and scruffy appearance, but she paid little mind to how she looked. There little that could make her care about her appearance, and less that would bother her. It was only the single-minded effort to do her work and do it well that she focused on. With several nails clutched in her beak, she returned to the slat of wood, hammering each in turn with her talons keeping her steady against each bang. Somewhere deep out of sight, her friend knew none of this - with a world filled by Dun's talon, it was impossible to tell anything but the faintest muscle twitches...

Yet, the crow hadn't missed her friend. Today was a day like any other - her talons didn't register anything odd, and after decades of working on her feet, it was doubtful that she would pay them much mind unless they truly pained her. Everything from miles walked to heavy cinderblocks carried had dulled them to sensation.

Dun was a strong crow, and for all her simplicity, she constructed sturdy, steady houses that would last for generations. Another house was coming together with every hammer-swing. It would take a good deal longer to finish her workday, and she would likely work long past when the sun set simply to make sure that there was nothing at all to complain at in her efforts. It would be hours yet before she returned home - evening had not even begun to dawn yet, and by the time she did finally return she would fall into her nest exhausted.

Roxanna wouldn't know any of that. All she would know for the rest of her life was her resting place within that boot, that final place that would embrace her for the rest of her life. Hers was a fate most cruel, and yet... deep in her mind, she welcomed it. Broken and shattered, what had once been torture became bliss everlasting....