Story writen by:  BottleH2O

Zizaly wasn’t normally one to get overconfident or prideful. Heck, she was typically as happy and bubbly as a giant dragon could be. But if there was something she was exceptionally proud of, it was how quickly she was able to learn and master her new size shifting ability. It had originally started off as nothing. Just her typical, grow into a giant from her base size of a couple dozen meters. But as she was doing that, still rising in size and getting bigger like normal, Zizaly
had a thought: What if she tried pushing the boundaries of her growth spurt and tried getting bigger than normal? Beforehand she, and subsequently other dragons she knew who could get bigger just like she could, were just able to tell when their limit was reached. It was like an instinct. Sort of like how when you’re hungry, you go get food. Or if you’re thirsty you go get something to drink. You typically don’t question it, you just do it. Attempting something like this has never been done before. But gosh darn it! She was curious! Maybe more so than her water dragon friend Okeana. And so as reached her usual stopping point of growing, capping in at 1800 meters, she pushed further. It had hurt at first, but she kept pushing and pushing and pushing her limit until suddenly, it felt like she had an awakening. Zizaly no longer felt the restrictive confines of a meager 1800 meters. In fact, she felt like she could do much better than that. And it wasn’t long before she had grown so much, clouds were floating by her ankles. From there Zizaly shrank back down to normal and began to experiment with her abilities more. She no longer felt any limit to her power, so, she wondered if it would work in reverse? Could she affect other things now maybe? Zizaly turned her attention to a nearby mountain and concentrated. Trying to channel the same inner power she normally casts, only this time on other objects. She watched in astonishment as a faint glow began to surround the mountain, and then, incredibly, it began to shrink. Zizaly plodded over to the mountain and kept her concentration going. She watched as the mountain, once standing at over 1000 meters in height, was now reduced to the size of a pebble. She looked down in slight disbelief and shock as she reached down and picked it up. Looking over the once enormous structure now reduced to a tiny, helpless rock.

“My goodness. I didn’t realize just how strong this new ability is,” Zizaly said to herself. But as she twirled the mountain around more between her mighty fingers, she noticed small, tiny flecks of color contrasting against the dull grey rock. She leaned in closer and gasped. Shivering down on the mountain were a pair of nearly dust sized humans. A wide and happy smile broke across Zizaly’s face as she realized what she was looking at “Oh my gosh! Humans! And really tiny ones at that!” she giggled childishly as she eyed them up. The humans climbing the mountain clung to each other screaming in panic. But high above them, it was a completely different story. Zizaly giggled and laughed in delight, before drawing the entire mountain and two shrunken humans into a bone crushing hug “Awwwww! You’re all so tiny and adorable now!” she squealed happily.

The two tiny humans were pressed up against the continental wall of soft scales “you know,” one of them said “This isn’t as bad as I thought,”

After Zizaly grew them back to normal size and sent them on their way with a cheerful “Have a good day!” she went back to experimenting with her newfound powers. About a week later she had grown herself even larger than she had ever been before and had gone for a walk across
the country. And that was when she stumbled across a tiny (to her) kingdom. According to the main human who lived in the big funny looking building (or in human terms, the king who lived in the castle) the kingdom was called Parvus. After giving them a “hello new friends” hug and taking them back to her general territory so she could see them often, she then resumed her personal training to get more powerful with her size magic. Cut to the present day and Zizaly was still at it. Working hard to perfect her size magic so she could use it flawlessly. And she was getting pretty close! Now she could cast the spells without much difficulty.

Currently Zizaly was standing at a massive height, as high as the clouds as she continued to practice away. Occasionally swelling even higher in size as she stomped across the land as she practiced growing while moving. And so far things were going well, that is until she tripped on a mountain and stumbled over her legs.

“WOAHHHHH!! Ooof!” Zizaly grunted as face planted onto the ground. Her muzzle tearing though the Earth’s crust like it was butter. She grumbled as she slowly raised her head off the ground. Blinking a few times. “That’s embarrassing,” she said to herself. Zizaly picked herself off the ground and dusted off her legs and paws “Luckily nobody saw that.”

Well, leave it up to fate to throw a wrench in Zizaly’s confidence. Just as she was ready to start stomping off again, her ears perked up at the sound of faint squeaking coming from somewhere in front of her. She blinked and looked around, seeing nothing. But when Ziz heard the squeaking again, she looked down directly in front of her and saw something she was not expecting. A valley. A small valley directly in front of her path. Sitting directly underneath her outstretched paw she was about to set down that was filled to the brim with a bustling settlement.

And immediately she brightened at the sight of the tiny town.

“Awwwww! Look at how cute all of you are!” she cooed, leaning down to the valley. Her shadow fell across the entirety of the landscape as her muzzle lowered down towards the ground. People down on the ground screamed and began to run around in a panic as the continental sized snout lowered down to the ground. Zizaly nuzzled the ground where the settlement is, tearing up the earth and cracking the ground as she cuddled all the tiny humans.

Zizaly giggled as the chunk of earth ended up on her snout as she lifted up her head “Well, looks like I just made some new friends!” she smiled, gently pitching the valley off her nose and holding it in her paw, looking down at the speck sized humans fondly. A sudden idea struck the giant dragon. A proverbial lightbulb of sorts “Hey, why don’t I bring you little guys back to my territory? That way we can see each other a lot more often. Then we can have tons of fun!” Zizaly thundered happily. Not even hearing the squeaks of protests coming from the tiny
civilization in her grasp, Zizaly turned and stomped away, heading in the direction of her and her brother Gustav’s cave.

One week later

“I got it! I got it!” a young boy cried, running up to the football rolling on the ground. He slid forward, kicking the ball over towards the goal. The goalkeeper dove forward, trying to catch it but missed at the very last second. Hitting the ground while the ball flew into the net.

“That’s a point for the blue team!” Zizaly cried out “Great job kiddo!” she said, sneaking her tail over to the boy and patting him on the head with her tail. The boy grinned “Thank you Miss Zizaly,” he said enthusiastically “At this rate we’re going to win!”

“Heh, don’t get too cocky yet bud. We can still make a comeback,” came another voice. The boy who scored looked up to see the towering form of Gustav grinning down at him as he stood on the opposite side of the field with the red team. The competition was eager to make a game saving play.

Now you may be wondering, how did we go from Zizaly scooping up an entire valley to here? Well, the answer is quite simple. Zizaly and Gustav were simply that charming to the tiny residences. After Zizaly brought the valley back to her and Gustav’s territory, she had gone into their cave and awoken her brother, taking him out to meet the new neighbors. The humans had been extremely scared at first, and rightfully so. I mean, how would you react if a dragon as big as a country uprooted the entire landmass your town was on and carried it home like it was their groceries?

But do you know who wasn’t scared of the two giant dragons? The children of the town. In fact, they had been in the middle of a game of football when Zizaly and Gustav had come to meet them. The ball had fallen from one of the children’s grasp and rolled over to where the pair were standing. A sudden hush fell over the crowd. What would the dragons do next? Would they perceive this as an attack? Would they burn the town to the ground? Squish them? Or would they…bounce the ball on their tail and knock it into the goal?

…Huh?

Well, that started an impromptu game of football with the rest of the village children. And the two dragons wanted to get in on the action. This seemingly innocent act seemed to be enough to prove to the rest of the town that they really meant no harm, so they really didn’t see any harm in letting the two scaly giants play around. And wouldn’t you know it, one week later they were now impromptu babysitters for the town’s children.

The Red team cheered as Gustav made his presence known on the playing field. The blue team, now in possession of the ball, all darted forward, kicking the ball between each one of themselves and they made a beeline towards the goal post. Gustav grinned, growing himself larger until he loomed above the entire town and the surrounding hills. And then, he simply set his foot down. Right in front of the goal post and completely blocking off the advancing blue team. “Well, well, well. Looks like you all are not going any further!” he chuckled triumphantly. His smug grin getting even wider as the red team let out another cheer, ecstatic that the game had ended, seemingly in their favor as time was running out before the round was over.

Zizaly smirked as she stared up at Gustav, who was getting ready to celebrate his and the red team’s victory. But not if she had anything to say about it! She and the blue team would get the last laugh! Ziz channeled her magic and took aim at Gustav, who was still busy chuckling to himself. But it suddenly died down as he realized with shock that he was beginning to shrink! In a panic he whipped around to Zizaly, only to find her giggling away as she used her magic to make him smaller. Her magic easily overpowering his own “Alright Blue team! Now’s your chance!” she cried.

The blue team cheered and advanced, diving forward with the ball as Gustav became small enough for them to kick the ball over his toes. They all cheered as the football successfully passed though the bars and hit the net in the back. “And that’s game!” the scorekeeper squealed happily “The blue team lead by Ms. Zizaly wins 10 points to 8! Congratulations!” he said. The children cheered as they ran back to their massive team captain. Zizaly was already kneeling on the ground, scooping them all up into a hug at a job well done. Even Gustav, who was a little grumpy about loosing, couldn’t help but crack a smile at the heartwarming scene.
~The end