I find myself lost once again in the forest, wandering about. I could have sworn I should have taken a turn at the last giant oak or a right at the stream. But my mind is a bit of a jumbled mess. “I swear everything looks the same.”

              Suddenly I see a break in the trees. Hoping to find a way out, I walk forward, parting my dark hair once more from my face. As the sunshine starts to flood my face, I raise my arms to shield my eyes. Squinting, I can see a small clearing with a blue and pink house at the center sounded by a white picket fence and a massive garden. The two-story home is made out of wood and has a straw house with a black brick chimney.

              I sighed. I had hoped I had found my way out of the woods, but instead, I had just found a hidden hamlet. Still, I could ask for directions. I walk down the dirt path to the curved door. It had a small window in the shape of a heart. I quickly knock on the door. “Hello. Hello, is anyone here? I took a wrong turn a ways back and could use a map.”

              The door creaked open. I stood in the doorway, peering inside. “Hello?” There wasn’t a response. I was unsure of what to do. I can’t just barge in, can I? But if no one is home, I guess I should look around for a map. I have been wandering around these woods long enough.

I pushed the door open and walked inside. “Hello. My name is Merlina, and I and just looking for directions.” Still, there was silence. I closed the door behind me.

I turned around and took a look around. There was a small den area with some padded chairs, a desk, and a bookshelf. Down the hall, I could see a kitchen, and there was a room upstairs. I tried the counter, but it was locked tight.

              “Hmm.” I looked down the hall, but I doubted I would find a map in the kitchen. So I headed upstairs. On the wall, there were pictures of rabbits in clothing. “Hmm, someone sure likes to dress their pets.”

              The door to the upper room was unlocked. I opened it and found myself in a quaint looking bedroom. “Oh my, I really feel like I am intruding now.” I was about to head back when that nagging feeling in my mind told me I had to just make sure there wasn’t a map lying around. “It couldn’t hurt to just look.”

              I closed the door and looked around. There was a dresser with a mirror against one wall below a window. A bed against the far wall with a trunk in front of it. There was also a chimney on the right wall with another window next to it. I could see the windows to the front of the house as well above me.

              I tapped my finger on my chin. Where could that map be? I went to check the dresser first. I took a quick moment to look at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a long blue dress that I didn’t remember putting on.

White pant legs and black heels.

I opened drawer after drawer only finding clothing. I then noticed a cute looking metal container with jeweled handles on top. “This has to be where it is hiding.” I picked the lid up only to find pastries with Eat Me written on them.

              “Damn.”

              I was about to put the lid back on when my stomach grumbled. I hadn’t eaten all day long. “A snack couldn’t hurt.”

              I picked up a blue colored cake and threw it in my mouth, swallowing it whole. I then set the lid down and looked around the room with my arms crossed, wondering where to look next.

              Suddenly a strange feeling started to wash over me. My joints began to feel like they were loosening. I shook my head.

My skin felt like it was crawling. “What is going on?”

              I started to walk forward, trying to push this new feeling out of my mind. I decided I was going to search the trunk next. As I reached, it looked smaller then I remembered. I flipped the lid and found more clothing inside. “Damn.”

              Suddenly I hit my head against something. “Oww.” I bent down and looked up. The celling was suddenly much lower than it had been just a moment ago, and it was getting closer. In fact, my head touched it once more, even though I had bent over. The realization hit me. “I am growing!”

              I fell to my butt instantly, giving myself more room as my body became larger. My legs went flying out and knocked the dresser over. A red color flooded my cheeks. “Opps.”

              My body continued to grow. My back started to press into the bed. I reached around and lifted it onto my lap so I would have more room to grow, and I wouldn’t crush it. My legs were almost at the doorway now. I tried not to extend them, so I wouldn’t have them pressing against the far wall. My arms were becoming too long, and I was having a hard time finding a place for them. I finally figured I that I would have to open the windows and let my arms grow into so I wouldn’t be cramped.

              My legs seemed to get the same idea as my foot pushed down the door, and suddenly I felt my leg rocket down the stairwell. I felt a bit of resistance for a moment before I knocked down the front door, and my leg started to extend out on the lawn outside.

              I was now moving my arms out of the windows. I had to just push the frames out of the way, my hands too big to open them. I was able to slip my appendages out only in time before they grew to a perfect fit.

              Then the growth just stopped. I took a few deep breaths. I could only see my torso and the bed resting upon it. My body almost took up the whole room. I tried to move to find I could, but standing was another story. I tried over and over, but the house was too heavy to lift. I had grown into a snug fit inside a house.

              “How am I going to get out of this?

I rested my head against the houses supporting beam, trying to think of a way out of this. “Why couldn’t I have grown just a bit bigger?

Then I wouldn’t be stuck like this?

Oh, what am I saying? I am big enough as it is. Any larger and I would have torn down the house.”

          I started to hear humming coming down the road. I reached my arms around to open the window in front of my face. “I wonder who could be coming. Maybe they could help me.”

          Looking around, I could just see my legs resting on the lawn, my feet point up to the sky.

Around them were all of the furniture I had pushed out of the house as I had grown. “Well, whoever owns this house sure isn’t going to be happy.”

          I looked down the dirt road as the humming became louder. Soon I saw a rabbit hopping down the trail in a cute little coat. I reached around to rub my eyes. “Am I imagining this? He has to be four or five feet tall.” I scratched at the roof above where my head was. “Though it is hard to tell being this big .”

          The rabbit stopped short when he saw me. “Oh no, no, no, not again.”

          “Again? What do you mean by again?”

          He stomped around for a moment. “Oh what to do, what to do.” I stared at him in wonder, his white fur gleaming in the light. He had a pocket watch in his coat and blue trousers on. Suddenly he held up one hand. “I know. I need to get help like I did last time.” He went running back off in the other direction.

          I raised my arm in a vain attempt to stop him. “Don’t leave me here.” Again I pushed on the ground but to no avail. “I am stuck. Please help.”

          It was too late, though, and the strange being was gone. “I do hope that he comes back with some good help. I can’t imagine how hard it will be to get myself out of here.”

          I tapped on my fingers on the ground as I waited for the rabbit to come back. Soon enough, I saw the rabbit rushing back down the road. “Hurry. Hurry.

The monster is down here.”

          I narrowed my eyes.

“Monster? Excuse me?”

          I then saw a well-dressed dodo bird walking up behind him, smoking from a pipe. He wasn’t looking at anything as he spoke. “I doubt there could be another one.”

          “But there is, and the monster has taken over my poor house.”

The dodo looked in my direction.

“By gorge, you are right.” He walked up to my left heel his head coming up to where my toes were. In his hand, he had a cane that he used to whack at my shoe. “Seems to be in better condition than the last one.”

The rabbit rushed up. “I want to know how we are going to get this thing out.”

I pressed my face against the window. “Yes, please.

Help me out of here.”

The giant bird rested against my leg. “Isn’t it simple? We have to burn the monster out.”

I hit my head on the roof.

“Burn! You can’t do that I am inside.”

The rabbit seemed just as concerned. “Not this again. You can’t burn my house down.”

The dodo didn’t seem to hear any of us, instead starting to measure my foot. “I will need a sufficient spark to help drive this monster out. It seems a few feet larger than our last.”

“Stop calling me a monster.

My name is Merlina, and I am a normal-.

Well, I was a normal woman, at least.

This being giant thing is a mistake.”

It seemed apparent that I was to be ignored. “I told you before old chap that the only way to rid yourself of this infestation is by burning out the problem.” The dodo produced a small match. “Don’t worry, it will only take but a moment.” He used my heel to light the flame.

The rabbit rushed over to him, trying to grasp the flame. “No, no, no.

I won’t let you do it.”

I knew I had to do something.

My supposed help was turning out to be more of a nightmare, even if it was a bit comedic to watch the dodo run around trying to protect his small flame from the rabbit. What could I do, though?  If only there was a way I could alter my size again and get me out of this mess.

A lightbulb went off in my mind as the rabbit ran into my leg. I looked down at him in annoyance. “Hey, watch where you are going. I don’t want to get a bruise.”

The dodo seemed a bit pleased to have given his comrade the slip for the moment and tried to set my foot on fire. Thankfully the flame went out the moment it touched my giant heel. That was great, and it gave me time to intact my plan.

The dodo looked bewildered for a moment. “Oh, of course, I forgot to get the firewood.” He then waddled off to gather the furniture I had strewn about and started to deposit it by my right leg. Of course, he was slowed by the rabbit.

This gave me time to try my plan.

I reached around with my right arm into the window in front of my face. I had to find the candies that had made me grow in the first place.  I just need to have another small bite to I can grow more. Or maybe it will make me shrink down and out of this mess. Either way, I won’t have to worry about being burned out.  I assumed that the candies were still inside with me. I didn’t see them or the dresser outside by my legs.

It was awkward, to say the least, trying to fish around for the dresser. My dress made it hard for me to feel what I was sitting on. “It is like having to dig through a bedsheet.” Even though I could look at what I was doing, I kept my eye on the dodo and his progress. If needed, I was going to reach over and try and stop him to give me more time. I would gently pick him up and then displace the pile he was making, I didn’t want to hurt him. But I couldn’t let him set me aflame.

Eventually, my hand felt something other than cloth. I tried to grab it, and to my luck, I hadn’t just found the bed that was resting on my lap.

I grasped the dresser and slowly pulled it out of the window, the rabbit pointing his chubby little paw at me.

“What is the monster doing now?”

I rolled my eyes, slowly flipping my palm and revealing the dresser inside. To my luck, I had also found the small container with the candies inside. I couldn’t contain myself. “Yes.”

Now I had to carefully retrieve the candy. It was easier said than done. I could barely see the container for the candy. The dresser it’s self was as big as my palm. I held the tin in my right hand out flat and used my other hand to try and pick open the lid. I quickly knocked the cover off and sent Eat Me candies all over my hand. Carefully I then raised my hand up to my face and used my teeth to grab the nearest one. I then threw the contents in my hand to the side and waited for the candy to do its magic.

The effect was instant. All at once, I started to grow even larger, my feet pushing farther out in front of me. My head started pressing tightly against the roof. The whole house began to feel tight against my body. I tried once more to stand, pressing hard against the earth. With a hard push and a growth spurt, I was able to uproot myself, my head popping out of the roof in the process.

The rabbit looked up at me in alarm. “Dodo do something. The monster is enveloping my poor house.”

I continued to grow, looking down at them. The house didn’t break apart but instead held onto my body, becoming some weird piece of clothing. The top floor and roof covered acted as my shirt, and the first floor of the house had turned into my pants. When I had stopped growing, I could scarily believe my eyes.  I don’t exactly want to be wearing this house.  I tried to take it off, but it was to snuggly fit onto my body. “Ugh, this isn’t going anywhere.”

I looked down at the small specs of the dodo and rabbit. I could barely hear them now. frantically the rabbit paced down below. “Oh, what am I going to do? My poor house.”

I scratched at my head. “I am sorry, but I just couldn’t let you go through with burning me out.”

They still didn’t seem to be listing, so I started to walk away. With one step, I put them far behind me. “Well, I guess it’s back to trying to find my way out of here.

It should be a bit easier now as I can see everything.” I scratched my head as I passed through a cloud. “Though I do have to wonder how I will explain to those back home about my new size.”