The Hikers (Patreon)

There exists two types of diminished people. Registered and unregistered. Registers diminished are often called ‘free’ mants, because of the few protections it provides. Governments still recognize that free mants are people.

If something were to happen to a free mant, such as death, or their enslavement was somehow reported and acted upon, they may receive some sort of justice. Giants who kill, accidentally or on purpose, must pay out life insurance to the family of the victim. Politically, pro-mant movements want that law changed to actually give the giant jail time, but any efforts thus far have failed.

Whenever someone’s shrinking gene activates, it is required by law to register them as diminished. This ensures they can keep track of the diminished population. This can be for various reasons, but for the United States the biggest reason for keeping track is to make sure the shrunken population continues to pay taxes. This means, essentially, if you somehow are unregistered and are discovered and reported, you may face prison time.

However, if someone discovers you but doesn’t report you, they could, in theory, do anything they wished to you without any penalty whatsoever. Unregistered mants are massacred, eaten, and enslaved at staggering numbers. Though still technically illegal in the US, mants in other countries are even sold in stores. In Japan, anti-shrinking treatments aren’t widely offered, even for the wealthy. Their society universally views the diminished as tiny nothings. They’re sold in stores, cooked in food, enslaved en masse. It’s potentially one of the more dangerous places to live if you’ve shrunk.

Where can the unregistered mants go? Well, if they’re not enslaved, then many exist in pure survival mode. In urban areas, many try to live in abandoned buildings, warehouses, behind dumpsters in alleyways. Settlements that exist within superstores hide themselves during the day, only to come out at night for supplies.  The ones that make it out of the city are more fortunate, having to deal with less giant people in general.

In the wild, there are many self-sustaining mant settlements that have cropped up. Tribes that stick together and stay far, far away from giant society. This may be the safest place for an unregistered mant, if you can avoid the wild animals and bugs that you co-exist with.

But of course, giants also enjoy nature.

“Hand me that rock,” Don commanded, gesturing to a pebble.

Cheryl sighed and stood up to her feet. The pebble was only a little heavy, but the day was hot and she was already exhausted.

She handed it off Don. He stood over a stake in the ground and began hammering the pebble into the small stick. Once it was firm in the ground, the hut could be pronounced as finished.

They belonged to a small settlement in the mountains. Not terribly far outside of the nearest city, but far enough to where seeing a giant wasn’t a daily occurrence. It felt safe there.

“What’s that look for?” Don asked.

“What look?” Cheryl bit back.

“I asked you to get the pebble, and you looked at me like I kicked your dog.”

She shrugged. “I’m just tired is all.”

Don already knew what was bothering her. Cheryl had only been a mant for a year; the most recent addition to their settlement. She was from the big city, and unlike Don, was born a giant.

“You wanna go back to your family, the big city, be my guest,” Don grumbled. “See how long before you end up in some college girl's shoe, or some douchebag frat boy’s mouth.”

“You know I can’t go back.” she said.

He nodded. “Yep. Mommy dearest was going to eat you, right?”

Her face fell into her hands. “Kept me in a cage for days, without food— Do we really have to talk about this?”

“Gotta have some conversation,” Don tugs on the string keeping the hut in place, testing its strength.

“You really are an asshole, you know that? Why’re you always picking on me?”

“You wanna know why?” He said, anger growing in his voice. “Because people like you, former giants, are hypocrites. Don’t talk to me like you haven’t eaten one of us or stepped on one of us before. You knew what it’s like on the top of the food chain, then you shrink and suddenly it’s ‘Oh, poor me!’”

“As opposed to you?” She barked.

“Yeah!” He yelled, “See, I was born like this. Born at this size. All I’ve ever known is survival, I’ve never gotten the good life you have.”

“It doesn’t matter!” She shouted, “We’ve both ended up in this same situation!”

Don paused for a moment, no doubt holding his words in his throat.

“Ah, what the hell,” He waved his hand. “Whatever.”

“What, got nothing else to—”

The two hear a whistle from a distance. It was a warning from one of their lookouts. Giants were coming.

“Oh god,” Cheryl cried, “G-Giants! What do we do?!”

Two voices boomed from around the corner of the nearest tree. It sounded as if they were in casual conversation, politely laughing at one another’s comments. Their footfalls shook the forest ground.

“We need to hide!” Don shouted.

It wasn’t long before they turned the corner. A man and a woman, holding hands. A couple. Seemed as if they were out hiking together.

“And it’s just like, wait, what’s…?” The giantess trailed off. She spotted the tiny huts.

“We’re fucked!” Another mant said, emerging from his home.

The two giants exchanged a silent look of happy surprise before honing in on their settlement. Their feet stomped dangerously close

“Mants! Out here?” The male declared. “They must be unregistered!”

The giantess giggled as she watched a mant woman attempt to flee. She raised a sandal above her, and promptly brought it down. Crushed immediately.

“OH MY GOD!” Cheryl screamed. That was Daniella, the only other girl in the settlement. She was dead.

“Cheryl, run!” Don attempted to yell.

The male plucked him from the dirt, and brought him to his lips. Don, horrified and helpless, watched as his tongue crept out of his mouth. Before he could struggle, the tongue scooped up from the giant’s fingers and enclosed him in a wet, oppressive mouth. In one gulp, Don was gone.

“Take this one, babe!” The giantess said, picking up Cheryl.

She tried as best as she could to break free of the giant’s grasp, but her effort amounted to nothing.

“What’re you doing?” The male asked.

“Shh, here,” the giantess replied.

She unbuttoned her boyfriend’s pants, and pulled his underwear away from his groin. After a quick lick on Cheryl’s body, she dropped the tiny woman into her boyfriend’s pants.

“Ooh,” he chuckled. “That’s a good spot. Why don’t you lick me down there for a while, bug?”

The male buttoned and zipped his pants tightly, leaving the mant pushed against his cock.

The giantess brought her foot down on the remaining huts, destroying them and anyone still inside completely. Within a matter of two minutes, everything the mants had built over the course of the last few weeks was gone. Destroyed by two pink-toed, sandal clad feet.

“Oh, what time is it?” The male giant asked.

“Uhh,” she paused to take her smartphone from her pocket. “Oh, it’s about three.”

“We should get back, huh?”

She nodded. “Yep. Let’s go! I’m hungry.”

“Stop at that sushi place on the way home?”

The two giants, as quickly as they arrived, departed the mants’ little corner of the forest. By the end of the day, they would forget about the destruction they wrought. The only reminder being little Cheryl, whose days were likely numbered.

Perhaps there really is no safe place for mants in this world.