Hard Times for Little Men
The miracles of modern science never ceased to amaze many people. That was especially true for a group of seven young furs that had all been saving up to buy one of science's latest new inventions. It was technically not something for commercial use, but the company selling the device really was not that good at checking who they sold their stuff to. Even though one of the furs was not that interested in actually using the device on himself he was more than happy to help his friends indulge in their desires, especially since what they desired required him to get a little bit of action.
What the furs had in their hands was an industrial strength shrink ray. The commercial version could only take a couple of feet off a person's height, but the industrial version could supposedly shrink a person to less than an inch in height. Three of the furs, a ferret, a mouse, and panther, wanted to be about two to three inches in size. The other three, a wolf, an iguana, and a horse, all wanted to be less than half an inch tall. Once they were as small as they wanted to be they planed on hitching a ride on their normal sized dragon friend as he went out looking for a one night stand. Then they all planned on watching one of the largest sex shows any of them had ever seen from up close.
The dragon thought that his friends were making an unusual request of him, but that was mostly because he liked being larger than everyone around him. Personally, he would have used the shrink ray on those that displeased him and turned them into his own personal little slaves. That made the idea of people that wanted to shrink themselves a little out there to him. But, they were his friends and he was willing to help them all out. Besides, they said that after they were finished and the effects of the shrink ray had been reversed that he could keep the thing. The dragon would have his fun with it at a later date.
Even though the device came with instructions it was easy enough to use without even looking at them. There were only two setting on the shrink ray after all. One of them was labeled shrink and the other was labeled reverse. The dragon had each of his friends stand against a wall next to a ruler that was propped up against the same wall. He wanted to make sure that he managed to get their heights right. The dragon started with the furs that wanted to be the tallest. They were the easiest since all the dragon had to do was pull the trigger on the way and hold onto it until they were about the size of ants. At that size they would have been hard to notice without him knowing they were there. The others required a bit more precision since the shrink ray shrunk things pretty quickly. Aiming for between two to three inches required a bit of patience and the dragon had to use the reverse function a few times to get things right.
When that was all done with the dragon just had to find a place for all of his friends to ride. They had asked to ride in his belly button, but the larger three had overestimated just how large two inches in height really was. Only one of them would have been able to ride in his navel and the three smaller ones would have had to ride somewhere else in order to do that. So, the dragon had to find somewhere else for the larger three to ride while he let his smaller friends ride in his navel. As he held his three larger shrunken friends in one hand and thought about what to do something less than friendly crossed his mind. For a moment he entertained the idea of keeping them as his little slaves for the rest of their lives. It was a pleasant idea, but these were his friends and there were a few other people out there that the dragon had a grudge against that would make much better slaves. Still, he did feel like showing he was the one that was large and in charge. The dragon decided to store some of his friends in his pants for the duration of the trip.
They did not seem too pleased with that, but the dragon thought they would get over it. And when he closed his pants he could not hear their objections anyway. They squirmed around a bit, but that was all they could do. The dragon eventually had to give them a little squeeze to let them know they were squirming around a bit too much for his comfort. The last thing that the dragon wanted was to start putting on a show in his pants before he even picked up a nice looking girl. Once he was satisfied that his friends had received his message he went out looking for a nice woman for all of them to have fun with.
The dragon already knew of a few good places to look for a nice one night stand. It was not like he was new at this. Once he arrived at one of his favorite hangouts for picking up women he was easily able to find a good candidate. There was a shy looking brown and white rabbit standing off in one corner. She was in pretty good shape, not particularly athletic, but she definitely looked like she worked out every once and a while. To the dragon it looked like the rabbit was only being a little shy because she was there to do something she normally did not do. She was looking for a one night stand too, but she was nervous about admitting that to anyone. All she needed was the right person to approach her and say all the right things. That was exactly what the dragon did.
After a little bit of sweet talking the dragon managed to convince the rabbit to find a nice private motel room to spend some time together in. Since they both knew that they would probably never be seeing each other again they dispensed with all formalities and got right down to business. They both found that they rather enjoyed their time together and they did not spend much of the night sleeping. When it was time to leave they barely said a word to each other. The only thing they did was put on their clothes and part ways. It was not until about an hour later that the dragon remembered that he was supposed to have a few passengers. After some frantic searching he found no evidence that his friends were still with him. Either they were all still in the motel or they were now with the rabbit. A trip back to the motel confirmed that they were not there and the dragon had no way of contacting the rabbit since he did not even know her name. His friends were on their own unless they could contact the rabbit and get her to help them.
Teddy the Ferret
I was going to have to get back at Henry for stuffing me down his pants like that. At least it was a good thing that he had internal genitals or things would have been really uncomfortable. He had also managed to pick a nice playmate for all of us as well. She had looked a little shy at first, but once she and Henry started making out she showed a slightly wilder side. Even though that wilder side was a bit of fun at first, it was very problematic later on.
When you have one enthusiastic rabbit bellow you and a very happy dragon above you that makes it very difficult to hang on to a few smooth scales. We all tried to get Henry's attention, but he was focused on something a bit more interesting than us at that moment. It only took a few very hard thrusts of Henry's pelvis to knock us all off of him and onto the rabbit instead. If she noticed us then she was not showing it. We would have tried to get back onto Henry if a good opportunity presented itself, but we had to spend more time trying to avoid getting crushed between the two giants instead. I had read some of the instructions in the manual to the shrink ray and I knew that we were supposed to be a little more durable at our reduced sizes. It was meant to be used on large equipment that would need to moved around. If the equipment was too delicate after being shrunken the shrink ray would have been useless. To solve that problem the shrink ray made things a little bit tougher than they normally were as they were shrunken. I was not about to test out just how tough we were by running in between tons of flesh crashing together every few seconds.
The constant rocking was making it hard for me to keep my bearings. I lost track of most of my other friends. The smaller guys looked like they had fallen down the rabbit's navel. I wished them the best of luck, but I couldn't really get to them. After a while I thought I had managed to get myself to a safe place, but I had lost track of everyone else. I was worried about them at first, but then I started to get mesmerized by the sight of Henry groping the rabbit's perky looking breasts that loomed above me like two very glorious looking fur covered hills. That was where I made my mistake. I was not paying attention to where the rabbit's hands were located at the moment and one of them happened to be sailing in my direction. By the time I noticed it there was no time left for me to react. I took a hit that sent me flying off the rabbit and to the floor below. As I fell I saw a pair of panties rushing toward me and when I hit them I passed out.
The next time that I woke up I found that I was being pressed tightly against something soft. Darkness surrounded me as well as a slightly stale and musky scent. I was a little confused and my head was aching, but I eventually figured out that I must have survived my fall and that the rabbit had put her panties back on without noticing me. The smell of her previous activities was still in the air and that made me think that I had not been out for that long. I wished that I had regained consciousness before I wound up stuck inside her panties. The thought of squirming around to get the attention of the rabbit did cross my mind, but I had no idea how she would react to feeling a tiny thing squirming around in her clothes. It seemed more likely that she would try to crush me than to help me.
I decided to sit things out and wait for a good time to talk to her. And that time never came for me. When she sat down on something my position within her panties changed. I was moved toward a hole in her rear end that I did not want to be near. At one point I was sure the rabbit could feel me, but she did not know what I was. To her I must have just been a slight annoyance because she kept moving around slightly, unintentionally driving me ever closer to a dark abyss I really wanted to avoid. The closer I moved to that whole the stronger a rather rank scent became. My attempts to claw my way out of my situation backfired completely.
The bunny tried to itch where I was clawing. Her fingers dug into the spot where I was. My tough, but still tiny body was able to prevent my death from her scratching along with the help of her pants. That did not prevent her from inadvertently snapping one of my legs like a twig. My scream was muffled by one of the rabbit's fingers shoving my head into her furry rear. Her scratching also moved me even closer to her tailhole. Before I knew it my paws were being forced into the warm and slightly moist hole. That only caused the rabbit even more discomfort and her scratching intensified. The speed at which I was being forced into her tailhole increased and there was nothing I could do about it.
I did not stop causing her to stop itching until the only part left of me out in the open was my head. That did not last for long. Every little movement that the rabbit made seemed to suck me deeper within her bowls. Soon, even my head was pulled within the rabbit and her tailhole sealed up behind me. I would have tried to escape if I could have, but it was obvious that I was still causing her some discomfort. The muscles that surrounded me kept moving a shifting, obviously trying to handle the bit of annoyance that was me. Under normal conditions I probably would have been crushed right away, but it was unfortunate for me that I was able to last for a while. The rabbit's muscles kept clamping together like a vice all around me. Occasionally, one of my bones would break and I would scream in pain. The rabbit could not hear me through the tons of flesh that made up her body though. She just kept trying to get rid of the source of her annoyance without realizing that it was a living being. As time went on I found it rather hard to breath in the rank air that filled the rabbit's rear. That made it more difficult for me to stay up, but the rabbit made sure that I stayed awake by continuing to crush my body one bone at a time. But, the rabbit did eventually finish me off with one especially strong contraction that managed to crush my skull. I did not cease to be an annoyance to the rabbit for much longer though. She was not happy until my body had been turned into pulp within her.
Ziggy the Iguana
I could not believe Henry had forgotten about us so easily. Then that big oaf had nearly killed me while he was pounding away at that rabbit. Even if I had wanted a good view, I did not want a view that was that good. With all the bumping and grinding I had somehow wound up within an arms reach of Henry's member as it pounded away at the rabbit. I might have wound up getting even closer if I had not become entangled in the rabbit's fur. In the end, I did have to admit that the view was nothing short of spectacular and the mingling of masculine and feminine scents from that close up was just overpowering. Actually, it was so overwhelming that it knocked me out before the two giants were even close to being finished with each other. It was a real shame that I had not been able to see the entire thing.
When next I woke up I found that I was in complete darkness. I thought that the rabbit must have her clothes on again since I was still tangled up in her fur. It took a while for the realization that Henry probably would not be able to find us and that we were now all stuck with the rabbit, if the others were still here at all. I hoped that they were in a better position than I was. Being close to a huge pussy was not so bad, but being tangled up in fur was. Once the rabbit started walking, her fur tugged painful on my limbs. Both of my arms were dislocated by her walking and there was still more to come.
It must have been a couple of hours later when the rabbit finally pulled her pants down and gave me a brief glimpse of the outside world again. That was the last glimpse I would ever get too. The rabbit was taking care of business and that business happened to be the insertion of a new tampon. As the cylindrical object approached me I struggled with all my might and only ended up hurting my already injured shoulders. Then the tampon hit me. I was freed of the rabbit's fur, but that was only because all of my limbs with the exception of one of my arms were torn right off my body. It happened so quickly that I was in shock and it took a few seconds before my brain registered that I was supposed to be in pain.
The material that the tampon was supposed to be made out of greedily absorbed my blood as I was jammed up the rabbit. To me it had been bad when the rabbit was walking and I was just tangled up in her fur, but it was even worse in my new situation. I could still feel her moving when I was within her and the fact that I had three gaping wounds did not help things. Whenever something rubbed up against my wounds it brought an excruciating level of pain. It became even more unbearable when my body somehow became wedged in between the tampon and the walls of flesh surrounding me. There was not a lot of space for me and I was slowly grinded to mush between the two. I was not sure how long it took, but when you go through something like that it feels like it takes years, even if it might have only been a few minutes before my end came.
Vic the Mouse
Even though the situation may have changed a bit I was still able to get myself into a pretty good situation. I made my way right up to the rabbit's breasts and inserted myself into them without her noticing. That was probably because she was busy being groped by Henry at the moment. I really don't know how she could have missed something as large as a three inch tall mouse inserting itself between her pleasant mounds of flesh otherwise. It was easy for me to get comfortable while surrounded by her soft fur and I had quite a bit of fun snuggling into them. Henry would occasionally press her boobs together a little tightly for me, but my body could handle it. When the two of them eventually fell asleep I did so as well. I had intended to wake up early, look for the others, and then sneak back onto Henry. Unfortunately, I slept in much later than I had meant to.
By the time I did wake up it was because I heard a couple of female voices talking. "So, did you have fun last night Yvonne?"
"Yeah, thanks for the suggestion on the hangout Clarice," said I voice that I thought was the rabbit.
"I told you that there are always some cute guys hanging out there," said Clarice. They continued to have a conversation like that and I figured that it was time for me to make my appearance. If I was going to get back to my normal size I was going to need her help to get me back to Henry. I did neglect to think of something though. Something that looked like a mouse and was only three inches tall normally would not get a very positive reaction from many people and the rabbit was one of them. When I started moving around the rabbit investigated the source of the movement and when she saw what she thought was a non-anthro mouse she screeched and batted me off her body.
It was a long hard fall to the ground, but my toughened body was able to take the punishment with only a few bruises. I was disoriented, but I could see the rabbit retreating from me. The problem was that I could see a large tawny form descending over me saying, "Don't worry, I'll handle the nasty mouse for you Yvonne." Before I had a chance to get my bearings I felt large strong fingers wrapping around my body before my vision was completely restored. I was staring into the eyes of a huge lioness and she was looking just as surprised as I thought I looked. Surprise quickly turned into a smile that I did not like all that much before she turned back to the rabbit and said, "Alright, I've taken care of him. You can calm down now."
The lioness hid me from view until she could place me in her purse. When she sealed that up I was effectively trapped. By my estimates I was forced to remain in the purse for at least an hour. I spent each minute thinking about what that smile the lioness had given me meant. It sent shivers up my spine. I knew that the lioness had moved to a different location because I could feel her walking while I was within the purse. The faint hope that she was still within a public place was dashed when she pulled me out of the purse and I could see that I was obviously in a home, probably the home of the lioness.
I did not like the way the lioness looked at me as she held me in the palm of her hand and what she said made me even less comfortable, "You really are a shrunken mouse. This is like a dream come true. I've always wanted a shrunken fur."
"Um, yeah, that's nice and all, but I really need some help getting back to my normal size. So I would really appreciate any help you could give me," I said.
"Help you get back to normal? Oh no, I don't think so. You're mine now little mouse," purred the lioness. I did not mistake that purr for a friendly one either. She was looking at me like a cat that was about to play with her prey. I came to the decision that I needed to get away from her and I tried to jump out of her hand, but she was too quick for me. She closed her fingers around my body before I could get far and squeezed the air right out of my body. Of all the furs to get captured by I had to get captured by the one that thought she could do whatever she wanted with someone just because they happened to be really small. And I had to admit that she was kind of right since I could do nothing to stop her.
I spent the next few years as Clarice's slave. Actually, slave might have been a step up for me. She liked to use me as her personal washcloth more than anything. I was used to clean every last crevice of her body and she usually made me tell her how much I liked it. She made a mistake one time when one of my arms managed to get tangled up in her fur. I told her so, but she just smiled and pulled anyways. My arm was left behind in her fur. She bandaged me up and I did survive to keep serving her, but I could see she was getting bored with me. The only reason she was keeping me around was because I was the only shrunken slave she could have. Then, one day I saw her get a package and she opened that package while I was being forced to like her paws clean. I recognized the device that she pulled out of that package and when I did I knew I had to make another escape attempt. She let me run for a bit before walking up to me and trapping me under her paw. Instead of just crushing me she tied me to the bottom of her paw. With her new shrink ray she no longer needed me and she planned on crushing me like a bug. It was too bad for me that my body was far tougher than a bug's. Somehow my body was able to survive being used as footwear for a few days. The tough leathery pads of her paw served as my constant companion and I became intimately familiar with it as I was repeatedly pressed into it. My screams of pain seemed to be like music to Clarice. The lioness would tease me and say she would let me go if I managed to keep her paw clean. Often it was pieces of my own body that I had to clean off of her paw while I was in more pain than I had ever been in and I knew that she was lying, but I help onto some hope that she would release me. That never happened and I just wound up as a bloody stain that was to be cleaned up by her new slave.
Evan the Wolf
The situation I found myself in was not exactly ideal. I had been wandering around in the rabbit's fur for a while after falling into it. All of the rocking had separated me from the rest of my friends and I had no idea how to get back to them. I had to avoid wandering too close to where the action was going on even then I still had to avoid the occasional giant hand that threatened to crush me. It was a long, tough night for me as both Henry and the rabbit seemed to have an endless supply of stamina. When they fell asleep I was about ready to pass out from exhaustion.
I woke up when the environment around me started shifting. My sleep fogged mind did not realize the peril I was in until I was already starting to fall. The rabbit was sitting up and it looked like I was going to have a long fall to the ground. Fortunately, her hand moved in the path of my fall and I was able to grab onto some fur and save myself. Riding on a hand was a harrowing experience for me. I was wishing that I had not chosen to make myself so small or I might have been able to get the bunny to notice me. All the screaming for attention that I did was of no use and I was forced to hang on and hope I did not slip.
There were times when I thought of jumping off onto her clothes as she started to get dressed, but I was too afraid to let go of her fur. I ended up having to ride with the rabbit all the way home. The first thing she did once inside her own house was to start making herself a little breakfast salad. That was when I finally lost my grip and fell into her breakfast. If I was not so tired from hanging onto the rabbit I might have cared more about my position, but my arms were burning and the felt like rubber. All I wanted to do was take a few minutes to recover from my ordeal. The rabbit was not willing to give me that time though.
I barely noticed the fork descending around me. It came within a hairsbreadth of running me through, but I only wound up in between two prongs. I was lifted up to her mouth and I slipped on something just as she was opening her mouth. It was a terrifying slide closer to her mouth for me. My headfirst slide halted well short of the leaf that I was on and I was in no danger of falling to my death, but my position was still very poor. I happened to be halfway in her mouth as she bit down on some of what was on the fork. Her large white teeth sheered right through my legs as if they were not even there. I did not have any time to worry about my missing limbs either as I was bounced around on the rabbit's tongue. She was the type that liked to thoroughly chew her meal. Trying to keep myself from ending up between her massive chewing teeth took a lot of effort for a guy with no legs who was in an incredible amount of pain. I was not entirely successful either. At one point my entire body was forced on top of the rabbit's teeth and she bit down hard. Miraculously, I did not die, but numerous bones were shattered and it felt like a couple of my organs had been pulverized. I managed to get most of my body off that tooth before the rabbit could bit down again and I failed once more. My arm and part of my shoulder were once more caught between the rabbit's teeth as she bit down. After that my arm became stuck to the tooth and I was not able to free myself from that position until she had chewed my arm up enough that there was barely anything left of it.
I thought the worst of it was over after that, but I was wrong. She still had to swallow her meal. When her tongue flexed and I was sent tumbling down her throat in a thick ball of plant matter I was nearly suffocated in the stuff. The muscular wall that surrounded us made things worse by compacting the plant mush into an even tighter ball. A combination of slimy flesh, gravity, and the powerful tugging of the rabbit's muscles made it a relatively quick descent to her belly. When I was there I discovered how bad things can be in the belly of a creature that was not meant to digest meat, but was still sufficient to do so. Even if I had every one of my limbs I doubted that there would have been anything I could do to escape my fate. All I could do was sit around and watch my fur and skin slowly, so very slowly in the herbivores belly, dissolve into the soup that would nourish the bunny. Then my flesh started to go and it was not long before my body finally expired.
Jerry the Panther
I couldn't believe my luck. After landing on the rabbit and getting an even closer look at the show I was quickly knocked off the bed and into the rabbit's purse. Then, as if to add insult to injury, Henry's long tail knocked the purse over and then thumped down on it sealing it shut. I missed just about everything as I tried to get out of the purse. It made me so mad that I could not sleep and I spent my entire time stuck in the purse thinking about how I could get back at Henry for what he had just done. But, there was nothing that I could do to him since I eventually felt the purse moving and I knew I was being taken away by the rabbit.
It took a while before I was able to regain my freedom. The rabbit had been talking to one of her friends when I heard her screaming something about a mouse. She must have kicked the purse because it went flying and when it hit the ground it was knocked open. There was a lioness talking about how she had captured the mouse and I guessed that she was now in possession of Vic. I did not quite like the look of the lioness so I stayed hidden until she was gone.
Once I was alone with the rabbit I went about trying to get her attention. My first attempt did not go so well since I made the mistake of trying to talk to her while she was busy walking around and talking on the phone. As I screamed and jumped around right in front her she never noticed me. She just continued walking and eventually ended up stepping on me. Those large rabbit feet seemed like they should have been able to flatten me, but I was relatively fine. I was sure that I looked like one of those people in a cartoon that has a large amount of weight dropped on them and then stumbles around with stars flying around their heads, but I was only a little bruised. After that I decided to put a little more effort into thinking about how to get her attention. I decided I should not be on the floor the next time I did it.
There happened to be a nice wooden chair in the room that I thought I could climb and I decided to do so. It seemed like I would be able to get her attention better a little higher up. The climb was a little difficult, but I was able to dig into the wood with my claws and that made the climb much easier. I did run into one rather large problem with my plan. The rabbit talked on the phone a lot and she never paid attention to a tiny creature like me. That was why when she came to sit down she did not see me standing in the seat of the chair. That cute button tail and well formed rear did not look so pretty to me at that moment.
All of her weight came crashing down right on top of me. It was not enough to crush me at first, but my body was only able to stand up to that amount of weight for but so long. Occasionally, a bone would get tired of supporting all that mass and it would snap, sometimes multiple times. When the rabbit decided to wiggle around in the chair a bit my bones really showed me their dissatisfaction by letting themselves get reduced to dust. My screams might have been able to get her attention had I not been trapped completely under her rear. It was a miracle that I managed to survive that experience. The rabbit stood up and walked off somewhere else and I was left to wallow in pain. I found that I could not move and I was delusional with pain. The next time the rabbit came to sit down she still did not notice me and I was in no condition to scream. It was much the same as the previous experience for me. A little more of my body was crushed but I survived once more. It took that lovely rear of hers three more tries to finish me off and even then she still did not notice me. I was reduced to a bloody smear in the chair that was not noticed until someone else pointed it out one day.
Steve the Horse
I had somehow managed to make my way from one naval to another. The rabbit's naval was much different from Henry's naval though. Her naval had much more lint in it and it was rapidly filling up with sweat as she exerted herself with Henry. It actually managed to get deep enough for me to swim in the salty stuff. I never did get the chance to swim in it because I had somehow managed to get myself tangled up in the lint within her naval. For a while I was worried that I was going to drown in the rank stuff. I was lucky that I was just barely able to keep my muzzle above the rank liquid, or at least I thought I was.
There was no way for me to know how long I was going to be spending in that naval, but it was quite a long time. If she moved the wrong way her naval could end up closing painfully around me. She also liked to exercise. When she was doing sit-ups it was like a constant source of pain for me and it did not help that she could easily do over 100 sit-ups every time she did them. It was like my body had been placed in a grinder, but the fur and the lint provided me with just enough cushioning to keep me from being crushed. Instead, I only had to deal with about every one of my ribs being repeatedly broken. Even showering could be hazardous for me as water tended to build up around me and I hoped that it would build up enough to drown me, but that never happened.
I was not freed from her naval until she was showering at the gym one day and she gave her naval a little scratch. One of the rabbit's claws accidentally cut my chest and left one of my arms hanging by a string. Then she pulled out the ball of lint that I was stuck to and flicked it across the room. If I was not blacking out from the pain I would have been terrified by the ride. Before I could hit a wall a monitor lizard stepped into the path of the lint ball and it ended up stuck to her leg. As she washed herself off with a washcloth it kept running over my body, rubbing me around painfully against her hard scales. I would have been surprised if there was a single unbroken bone left in my body because I felt like a useless meat sack at the moment. The monitor lizard did not notice the ball of lint that was stuck to her until she started drying off and she flicked it, along with me, onto the floor.
It was only a few minutes later when the rabbit I had been stuck to for a while came walking by. I saw her large clawed toes descending on me and I looked forward to their crushing weight descending on me. Death would have been very welcome for me at that point. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The ball of lint was directly between her toes and I wound up stuck there instead of getting crushed. Being stuck between her toes was about as bad as being stuck in her naval. The way her toes would tighten up as she walked produced a very similar effect as her doing sit-ups. It seemed like my torment would never come to an end until the day that she finally decided to take a bath instead of a shower. I thought that I would surely drown in the deep bath water as she stepped into it. Unfortunately, she splayed her toes shortly after stepping into the water and I floated right to the surface. The worst thing was when she started to get out of the water the ball of lint was right above her naval and I found myself stuck in her hated naval once more. I could not help but laugh hysterically over my bad luck, but as I was laughing the rabbit scratched her naval once more. This time her claw speared me right through the middle and tore me in half, bringing my laughter and my life to an end.
Henry the Dragon
I had never been able to find my friends and I assumed they were dead by now. But, I did manage to have some fun with that shrink ray we all bought. It did get a little boring messing with shrunken people all on my own, but I managed to meet a nice lioness named Clarice a few years later. After a while I found out she had the same interests as me as far as shrunken furs were concerned. I eventually told her where I bought my shrink ray from so she could buy her own too. We really hit it off with each other and we had many fun filled years together.