A Small Gift

Story by CalexTheNeko on SoFurry

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#4 of Shrinking/Micro

This month's patreon reward for Frinkel on FA

Since it's Micro may he decided to participate in the Micro May festivities by shrinking down his other raccoon character Berry! Berry just tries to go about his normal day when suddenly his clothes don't fit... The grocery store is gigantic! And he can't shake the feeling someone else is involved!Please consider supporting on PatreonOr leaving a tip on Ko-Fi

PDF story book copy of this story will be up on Patreon shortly!

Also... I have a Discord server now!Join Calex's Transformation Station on Discord!


A Small Gift

DING DONG!

Berry was awoken on Saturday morning by the doorbell going off. He grumbled and headed downstairs still in his pajamas. He hadn't been expecting anyone today so he wasn't sure who it might be. Did he forget about a delivery? He didn't think so... Yet as he opened the front door all that was there was a cardboard box. He must have ordered something after all... But he couldn't remember.

The raccoon picked up the box and paused. It was really light. He examined it. There was no marking on the box indicating what company it had come from... Though someone had scribbled all over the box in crayon. It looked like the scribbling of a child who had just written the word 'science' on it several times and drew a bunch of lightning bolt. He opened it up. It was completely empty.

"Well... Okay that's strange." Berry shrugged. He dropped the box right inside his apartment and went back up to bed. He still had a couple hours he could sleep in before getting errands done.

Yet when his alarm went off he felt like it had only been about 20 minutes.

"Curse you time..." He muttered. "Why must you be so perspective based?" The raccoon slid out of bed for the second time this day. He yawned and stretched, only to pause as he noticed his pajama leggings were sliding over foot-paws. "Ugh when did I stretch those out? Really liked this pair too." He shrugged and headed to bathroom. He felt more awake after a proper shower. Though as he got dressed he ran into the problem that his pants and shirt felt baggy. Again, his pants were reaching the tips of his foot-paws. Had he done something wrong with laundry? He knew that you could shrink clothes in the wash... He must have done something careless to stretch them out... Hopefully he hadn't ruined too many outfits. It would be a real pain to restock his entire wardrobe.

It didn't matter right now. They were still workable and Berry didn't have time to focus on it. He had errands to run. Today was Super Saver's Saturday at the grocery store and his fridge was looking pretty barren. Not only did he need the food... If he didn't do this today it would cost him almost twice as much tomorrow! He was a raccoon on a mission!

The store wasn't a great distance away so Berry decided to walk rather than take the bus. Still... Something felt off as he walked the usual path to the store. It was hard to say what exactly... It was as if every object he passed was just slightly out of place. The raccoon chalked it up to lack of sleep. Berry would blame whoever had woken him and left that box on his front door this morning. He didn't even understand the purpose of it. Was it a prank? But it was just an empty box? Had something been inside it that someone had stolen?

He was too tired to worry about it right now. For now he let himself finish his walk in a dreamlike state before finally arriving at the grocery store. He quickly grabbed a cart and then paused as he had a brief sensation of vertigo. The reason? The cart... It was wrong...

Berry was a raccoon. The grocery carts were always a bit too big for him. They were made for people who were closer in height to normal humans. Berry being three feet tall always felt like a child trying to push the shopping carts around. But... Now looking at it. The cart looked even bigger than normal.

Wait...

His clothes were all loose on him...

Everything felt like it was slightly off...

The cart was too big...

"Welcome to Saver's Mart! Can I tell you about our special deals today!?"

"Waaaah!" Berry was roused from his thoughts before he could finish them. A store greeter standing near the entrance had been speaking to him. She looked like she was in her teens... But was easily as tall as an adult.

"I didn't mean to startle you!" The greeter bowed in apology.

"No it's fine..." Berry muttered to himself as he pushed his giant cart past her. "I just was half asleep. But I already know about your sales today." Berry sighed as he passed her. If nothing else he was awake now. What had he been thinking about before she interrupted him though? It probably wasn't important.

Instead he pushed the cart down the aisles heading for the food he needed. First up he went down the juice aisle. He was just going to get a carton of cranberry juice for snacks in the afternoon. It wasn't the best tasting thing but he supposed it was healthier than soda. He stopped before the juice and tried to get it off the shelf.

Only to discover he couldn't reach it.

"What?" Berry stood on the tips of his paws and stretched out. The juice was still out of his reach. He could just barely touch the bottom of the shelf where the cartons were kept. He couldn't reach them. "Did they move it to a new shelf?" He growled. Why would they do that? It was already set up! It had been on the third shelf for as long as he could remember why would it be on the... Third shelf now!

Wait what?

Berry counted the shelves. One. Two. Three. The cranberry juice was still on the third shelf. But... Why was it out of his reach? Were the shelves bigger? Except... The juice kind of looked bigger too... And... And...

His clothes were too big...

Everything was out of place...

The giant shopping cart...

And now he couldn't reach the third shelf?

Had... Had he gotten smaller?

"Aha ha ha." Berry laughed the idea off. That was impossible! He was clearly just exhausted. People didn't just shrink after all! He just needed to wake himself up! He abandoned his cart for a moment and headed to the back of the store. There he quickly disappeared into the restroom. Splashing a bit of water on his face would wake him up.

But the sink was too tall for him to reach. Figures, it'd be sized for humans.

It seemed someone who owned the store had left a crate in the room for smaller individuals to stand on thankfully. Berry pushed the crate in front of the sink and climbed atop it. As he did he felt his pants snag on the edge of the crate... And then slide off him completely.

"NO!" Berry grabbed his pants and pulled them back up to avoid being exposed. He then looked at himself in the mirror. His pants looked so baggy on him there was no possible way they could stay up. His shirt meanwhile was now gigantic on him! He might as well have been a little kid running around in an adult shirt.

But that meant...

He really was getting smaller.

"WAAAH!" Berry gave a shout and fell over backwards off the crate. He lost his pants in the process leaving him clad in only a gigantic shirt.

"Hey is everything alright in there?" A voice suddenly called from outside the restroom.

"Um yes everything is fine!" Berry replied in a panicked voice. "I um just... I uh..." He tried to think up something that would explain it. "I just accidentally sprayed water on my pants!" Though as he shot a look at his pants that lie was going to be hard to sale when he came out. There was no way he could wear something that big.

He tried to take a few deep breaths and calm himself down. This was a dream! It was clearly just a dream! He wasn't shrinking. There was no reason to panic! He'd wake up any moment now and still be in bed! He started to pinch his own cheeks trying to wake himself up. He didn't wake up. Instead... His shirt continued to get baggier on him.

"It's not a dream!" Berry began to breathe heavily. But... Why was this happening? How did a thing like this even happen? He didn't understand. He had to get out of here... Get back home and figure this out. He stood up... Only for his shirt to fall off of him exposing his gray fur. He tried to tug the shirt back on... But he was so small now that his entire body could slip through the neck hole.

He looked to the restroom exit. He couldn't let people see him like this! He wouldn't run home naked! Yet... At the same time he couldn't spend the rest of his life hiding in the supermarket's restroom.

And of course... The longer he waited the harder it was going to get to leave. If he got too much smaller he might not be able to push the door open.

Berry took a deep breath. Maybe no one would see him.

He pushed against the door opening it and peaked outside. It looked like the coast was clear. Everything was gigantic though! It was like everything had grown to three times its normal size! That must have left him somewhere around a foot tall.

And getting smaller by the second.

Berry ran out of the restroom and quickly dove behind a stand of flowers. Why was the restroom so close to the back of the store? He had so much distance to get before he got out of here. And... He wasn't decent like this! His ears flattened as he thought about someone seeing him naked like this.

This was as embarrassing as it was traumatizing.

He checked the area around him looking to see if the coast was clear. Then he paused when he noticed something. He was next to the flower stand at the back of the store. They also sold stuffed animals and Teddy Bears. Some of those bears had shirts on them.

He wasn't fond of the idea of stealing a stuff animal's shirt... But it was better than running home naked. He would have to come back for the store and pay for it later. He dragged one of the Teddy Bears behind the stand and ripped the shirt off of it. The bear was kind of plump being full of stuffing... And so the shirt was loose on Berry. It went down to his thighs. He was actually somewhat thankful for that. He would have liked to have a pair of pants but at least like this most of his body was covered.

He still didn't want to be seen like this but it wouldn't be as embarrassing. So... clothed again Berry took a deep breath walked down the aisle. He tried not to run or do anything that would draw attention to himself. Maybe someone would just mistake him for a squirrel person or something because of his height. No one had to know who he was or what he was doing. He just had to walk slowly from here and not draw any attention to himself.

Berry was aware of every person he passed in the store. He did nothing to draw their attention... And sometimes that was worse. He had to dash out of the way a couple times to avoid getting stepped on. He would have yelled at them... But that would have been counterproductive to the whole go unnoticed thing.

Then to make matters worse... The Teddy Bear's shirt was getting looser on him as he walked. While it had been down to his thighs when he first put it on now it covered his knees. By the time he reached the front of the store it was down to his ankles.

Then a new problem presented itself. Berry reached the store's entrance... And the door didn't open! He was so small now he didn't register the sensor!

Berry jumped up and down in front of it trying to trigger the door. Nothing worked... And now that shirt was starting to drag on the ground.

He ran against the door and tackled it with his shoulder. It still didn't open! Why was this so hard!? He took a few deep breaths... Prepared to tackle it again. He got a running start... Ran for it...

And suddenly the door opened as someone else came in.

Berry tried to stop suddenly... And he tripped over the edge of his shirt. He fell down on the ground and rolled outside before rolling out of his shirt and coming to a stop in the grass.

He was naked again... And even smaller.

Berry felt like he was about to have a panic attack. Quite justified too. If he had been a foot tall previously... And now some of these grass blades were taller than him... He had to be only a few inches tall! And he still had to get home.

It had just been a short walk here... But now it felt like an impossible journey... And what would people think when they saw him? Berry tried to cover himself the best he could by wrapping his tail around himself as he began to walk... At least if he stuck to the grass instead of the sidewalk maybe no one would notice him.

Meanwhile the world continued to grow around him. He was likely dwarfed by rodents now! He was probably only an inch tall! If even that! The grass he had been walking through was now a forest around here! It was hard to tell if he was even coming in the right direction towards home! Would he ever see his home again and-

"MROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!"

"Huh what's that noise?" Berry paused for just a moment as his ears twitched. Then he got full body tackled by a cat and was knocked to the ground landing on his back.

The cat in question... Turned out to be a kitten. An orange one who was actually just as small as Berry! Actually... Even smaller since it looked like the size of a normal cat in comparison to him. Like Berry the kitten wasn't wearing any form of clothing. He supposed given its size this made sense.

"Found ya!" The orange kitten purred happily and then it held up a paw... And then pressed the tip of his pawpad to the tip of Berry's nose. "Boop!"

"What?" Berry was stunned to say the least. In this moment he forgot his fear and anxiety just because he was so completely caught off guard he couldn't even remember to be afraid.

"I guess this makes you like a hide and seek champion!" The kitten responded. "But I mean it's kind of rude to start a game without even telling the other party what you're playing! Still! I found ya! Finally so I guess that makes it my turn to hide!" With that the kitten leaped off of Berry and disappeared into the grass.

"Wh... What!?" Berry looked around for the miniscule kitten. He had so many questions. Why was there someone else around that was tiny? Why was he so happy about it? Did he know anything about what had happened to Berry? "Where... Where are you?" Berry wrapped his tail around himself again and began to search through the grass.

"Not in that direction!" The kitten's voice called.

"Wait... But..." Berry wasn't even sure how to address as he walked in the opposite direction.

"Getting warmer!" The kitten called.

"Will... Will you just come out?" Berry asked.

"Really timid one aren't you?" The kitten's voice seemed dejected. "Come on! Just relax and play the game! Try to find me!"

"This isn't a game!" Berry cried as he continued in the direction of the voice.

"If hide and seek isn't a game what kind of activity would you classify it as?" The kitten asked.

"That's not!" Berry sighed. He lowered his tail to thrash it in mild irritation. "That's not what I meant!" He pushed a large blade of grass aside and found a leaf that was laying among the grass. He slowly lifted the leaf up and found the kitten hiding beneath it.

"MEEP!" The kitten gave a shout. "You found me!"

"Explanations!" Berry managed to say. "Now! Need them!"

"Well okay..." The kitten nodded. "You see in Hide and Seek the people playing take turns trying to find each other. One person seeks and everyone else hides..."

"Now what I meant!" Berry sighed. "Why... Why are you like this? Just..." He looked over the kitten. "Aren't you worried about your size? Or... embarrassed about running around naked like that?"

"No... Not really." The kitten shrugged. "It just kind of seems natural to me."

"But it's really not!" Berry slapped his face.

"Well I mean I guess it's not completely natural..." The kitten conceded. "I mean it was done by the Science Box!"

"The science box?" Berry squinted at the kitten. "Who are you?"

"Oh!" The kitten smiled. "How rude of me not to introduce myself! I'm Calex Nekato!" He suddenly grabbed one of Berry's hands and shook it with both his hand-paws. "And I'm so happy you decided to play with me today!"

"Wh... what!?" Berry looked at the kitten flabbergasted.

"Oh yes!" The kitten nodded. "Though I gotta admit activating the Science Box on your own without kitten help is really neat! Most people can't do that! I tried to tell you at the time... But you shut the door right in my face without even looking at me!"

"What... what are you..." Berry stopped. Wait... Did the kitten deliver the cardboard box this morning? And... Was that the 'Science Box' he was referring to. He supposed if the kitten had been this tiny then too that would explain why he didn't notice. "You! You did this to me!"

"Technically you did it to yourself..." The kitten nodded. "But I was really hoping you would go for it! Usually I have to do a big sales pitch and everything and kind of semi trick people into playing along! But you decided to play all on your own!"

"What!?" Berry was trying to wrap his head around the kitten's logic. "No... No I didn't!"

"But you activated the box!" Calex explained. "So... I figured that meant you'd play tiny games with me! But... Man you're brutal! Making me run all the way out here to find you for Hide and Seek! That was just mean! That's a big walk for a little kitten like me!"

"But I wasn't!" Berry paused. "Wait... You came all the way from my place to here while looking like that?"

"Yeah it was easy!" Calex smiled. "We kittens are great trackers!"

"I see..." Berry paused while considering this. "Do you know the way back?"

"Well yeah!" The kitten smiled. "I mean it was left. Left... Straight... Straight. Stop and nibble on that giant cookie... Straight. Right... Left... Say hello to Mr. Mouse... And then straight again!"

"Uhhhhh...." Berry tried to think. The directions at least sounded like the way he had walked to the store.

"Do you wanna go back home?" The kitten asked. "Oh maybe I should show you what else the Science Box can do! Come on let's go!" With that the kitten took off running on all fours through the grass.

"Wait but!" Berry paused. Just... What was with this kitten. He didn't seem fazed by the situation at all. It was as if it was all normal to him... And he was so hyperactive it was kind of contagious.

"Wait on what?" The kitten paused and looked back. "Oh I get it! You want to make this a race!" Calex smiled. "Well I warn you... I may be small but I'm fast!" With that the kitten burst into a sprint.

"That's not!" Berry couldn't help but laugh. Who was this cat? "Okay fine it's a race!" Briefly for now... He began to forget his current situation. The absurdity was just too much to take in. For now he burst into a sprint chasing after the kitten.

It turned out to be the start... of a surprisingly good day.

The End