Not Another Medallion
by Nomdreserv

This is a work of fiction intended for mature readers. 18 and over please.

All rights reserved by author.

Part 2


Walking back to the office, Karen couldn’t wait to play with the medallion and decided it
was as good a time as any to start practicing. Having growing and shrinking powers
literally at your fingertips was just too tempting.

She thought she’d try it on herself first, although her experiment on Lisa had shown she
was already capable of changing people without their noticing. Still, no point in trying to
isolate moving targets among the many people hurrying on the sidewalk. She’d only
shrunk before, and wondered what it would be like to go the other way, especially
without Lisa here to tease her about it. She stopped briefly, pretending interest in a store
display, and allowing the pedestrian traffic to reclassify her as an obstacle to be avoided
and otherwise ignored. She touched the medallion and concentrated: Bob was six feet tall
- what did the world look like to him?

Immediately, she felt the change as her perspective shifted up. Her first sensory
perception was of her shoes pinching her feet, and she looked down to see the tops of her
feet bulging from her pumps, the toes jammed tightly together inside. Her skirt now rode
several inches above its previous knee length, and was stretched by her larger hips and
thighs. Her blouse and jacket felt tight across her shoulders, and the sleeves stopped
short of her wrists. She took a couple of steps experimentally. Her shoes didn’t pinch
badly enough to keep her from walking, although her tighter skirt revealed every
movement of her tightly packed thighs, and rode a bit higher than she was comfortable
with. After rearranging her upper clothes to satisfaction in the window reflection, she
resumed her walk.

It was strange and rather exhilarating to find herself looking down at every woman and
most of the men she passed, and she drew a number of appreciative stares from the latter.
She felt strong and oddly confident despite her ill-fitting clothes, and her pace increased,
both from her sense of command and her longer legs. Maybe Lisa was onto something
with her giantess fantasies. How would Bob react tonight when she kissed him on equal -
or even superior - footing? The thought gave her a pleasurable tingle.

She stopped at a crosswalk to wait for the light, and found herself the tallest person in the
group. It gave her a real rush as she looked around - she was really getting into being big.
This satisfied feeling was disturbed when a teenage boy, at least six-three, stopped next to
her and nodded DOWN as he caught her eye. Humph. Couldn’t have that, she decided.
Her own outfit was too tight to allow further growth, so…

The now five foot ten teen crossed the street in front of her, tugging his pants back up, but
still finding his cuffs dragging the ground. And where did all these tall people come from
all of a sudden? Especially the women - some of them were close to his own height.
Befuddled, he struggled on, while Karen followed, smiling, at a discreet distance. When
she reached her building, she relented and restored him before he disappeared from sight.

Reluctantly, she also restored herself before entering the office, unsure if her own change
could be masked by the glamour spell Lisa had mentioned. More experimentation was
definitely in order, and based on her experiences just in the short stroll back, she looked
forward to a memorable afternoon.

The only real question was who should be next?

She walked into the office, considering the question. Gina caught her eye first, but the
secretary’s average height and Karen’s own fondness for her dissuaded her. A much
better prospect would be Chuck, one of the firm’s self-proclaimed Lotharios, always
hitting on single and even married coworkers in his attempts to add to his conquests. Just
this morning he had badgered Gina, trying to get her to go out, and was later overheard
boasting to Sam and Mark that it was just a matter of time before she became another
“lucky with Chucky” special. She wondered how lucky he’d be at picking up a date
tonight when he stood five foot four.

Contenting herself with the thought, she stopped to grab a cup of coffee from the machine
before returning to her office to plan her “personnel reductions.” She was just reaching
for the pot, when a light exploded in her head, followed by an almost physical blow that
seemed to hit every inch of her body at once.

Her next conscious thought was surprise at the sea of concerned faces arrayed above her.
Foremost among them was Kelly, her lustrous brown hair framing an angelic face full of
worry. Kelly was one of the newer members of the office, young, gorgeous, and already
on the fast track. She had initially seemed cool, almost hostile, to Karen, but had warmed
markedly in the last two weeks. Strangely enough, the improved relations had occurred
after Karen had inadvertently transformed her with age magic, briefly aging then
regressing her while the spells ran out of control. Fortunately, Kelly had seemed
oblivious to her dramatic changes, despite Karen’s own barely concealed panic which
they had triggered, and since then she had actually become out-going and friendly to
Karen.

Which still didn’t explain why Karen now lay with her head resting comfortably in
Kelly’s lap. However, Karen’s head throbbed too painfully to properly consider that
problem just yet. Instead, she just stared at Kelly’s beautiful, concerned face, noticing for
the first time how interesting her eyes were - hazel, but with flecks of green, blue and red,
seeming to shift or change as Karen’s head swam, and making them almost
indeterminable in color.

“Karen?” Kelly gasped, seeing her eyes open. “Are you all right? My God! We were
scared to death! You just collapsed there like a two-ton weight had dropped on you.
What happened?”

Karen was still too dazed to answer, and her thoughts only slowly reformed as her
coworkers murmured questions and solicitous comments over her plight, unsure what to
do or whether to stay. A single thought finally rose above the others, making Karen blink
in realization - the medallion. She had been playing with the medallion, and planning her
next use. This had to be related to the artifact, but how? Perhaps a side effect or
backlash from her experiments? She needed to talk to Lisa.

Kelly was holding her hand, and looked at her watch briefly. “Your pulse seems OK.
Are you breathing all right? You want us to call an ambulance?”

“No, no,” Karen replied quickly, trying to get up but falling back as the pain in her head
exploded again. She ignored it, and struggled to her feet, as several arms reached for
support. “Must have fainted. Can’t imagine why. I’m OK.” She smiled weakly to give
truth to the lie.

Kelly looked at her doubtfully.

“Are you sure? People don’t just faint for nothing.”

“Um, I skipped lunch. And breakfast. Blood sugar problem, I guess.”

“Same thing happened to my girlfriend,” Jim said supportively.

“Oh. Yeah. Ah.” People mumbled agreement, happy to find a benign explanation.

“Well, you march right into your office and sit down,” Kelly ordered. “I’ll get you
something.”

“I’ve got granola bars,” Jim offered, then added quietly in afterthought, “At least those
smashed ones in the bottom of the box nobody wants.”

“Here’s an apple,” Gina came running from her desk.

“Th … thanks,” Karen said, as Kelly supported her arm and led her to her office.

“All right, everybody. Show’s over,” Kelly announced dismissingly. “Let’s leave Karen
alone for a few minutes.”

Karen collapsed gratefully into her chair as the crowd outside dispersed. She closed her
eyes, her head still pounding and thoughts blurred.

“You rest, Karen. Be right back,” Kelly assured her, walking out.

Karen sat motionless for several minutes. Her whole body ached and tingled, like nothing
she’d ever felt, and she’d never fainted in her life. It had to be some kind of reaction to
all this magic she was experimenting with. Maybe the old maxim about mixing liquors
also applied to magic? Great - spell hangover. She reached up to touch the offending
medallion.

And felt nothing.

Instantly alert, her eyes flew open, and she began patting her jacket, shirt, and upper
body, feeling no sign of the artifact. Kelly walked back in to find her searching.

“Karen?” she asked uncertainly, holding a cup of soup in her hand.

“Oh, Kelly.” Karen’s hands fell guiltily. “I was, um, just looking for something.”

“Well, I figured you weren’t feeling yourself up,” Kelly smiled. “Lose something?”

“I’m afraid so,” Karen replied tensely. “A necklace.”

“Whoa. Maybe when you fell, huh? I didn’t see anything, but we were all too worried
about you to notice. Is it valuable?”

“It’s a friend’s. And, yeah, it’s valuable to her.”

“I’ll go look for it,” Kelly offered, turning on her heel.

“NO! Don’t touch it!” Karen yelled, jumping to her feet. She had no idea what might
happen if someone else picked up the medallion. Seeing Kelly’s surprise at the outburst,
she added, “Let me. I know what it looks like.”

Kelly looked at her strangely, a frown setting her mouth.

“It’s not like I was going to steal it,” she said frostily. “I mean, if there’s a necklace on
the floor, I’d give it to you.” She set the cup down with a thump. “Here’s your soup.”

“Sorry, Kelly,” Karen tried a smile. “I just think I’d better look for it myself.”

“Sure. Whatever.” Kelly walked away stiffly, never looking back..

Great, Karen thought, watching her squared shoulders. How to insult new friends in ten
easy lessons. She walked back out to her accident scene, ignoring her splitting headache.
A few people looked up curiously, either at seeing her so soon, or wondering if she’d fall
again. A few minutes search produced increasing fear and no sign of the medallion. She
got down on her hands and knees to start peering under desks.

Gina appeared next to her. “You OK, Karen?”

“Oh, sure,” Karen replied, standing up. “Just lost something when I fell.”

Gina looked up into her face.

“What was it?”

“Um … a necklace.” Karen hesitated as she looked at Gina carefully. The secretary was
ordinarily just an inch or so shorter than her, but now seemed to only come to nose level.
A quick check of her own clothes showed they fit normally, but with Gina’s, it was hard
to tell. Her skirt came to just below knee level - not her usual style since she liked to
show off her athletic legs, but hardly suspicious. Karen couldn’t remember if that was
how it looked this morning. Her shirt seemed roomy, but again not unduly so.

“I’ll help you look,” Gina offered.

“Thanks,” Karen returned, still wondering about the secretary’s height. Could her earlier
thoughts when she briefly considered shrinking Gina have taken hold without her
noticing? “But I don’t see it here. Maybe we can ask around the office?”

“Sure. I’ll get right on it,” Gina said. “But you shouldn’t be exerting yourself. Why
don’t you go sit down again?”

“I’m fine,” Karen insisted, watching Gina turn and start to walk away. “I … OH!” She
froze with her exclamation, seeing Gina’s foot slip out of her shoe with her first step.

“What?” Gina turned in alarm, half expecting to see Karen on the floor again.

“Your shoes,” Karen pointed. “They’re, um, too big,” she finished feebly, realizing how
ridiculous she sounded worrying about a triviality. Unless, of course, you were wise in
the conventions of shrinking.

“Yeah,” Gina admitted, twisting her feet. “Funny. I never noticed how loose they were
until just now at my desk. No big deal. They’re old - probably just stretched out.”

“Sure. That makes sense.” NOT! Karen added in afterthought. “I think maybe I will go
back to my office. Thanks.”

“I’ll ask around. You relax.” Gina disappeared on her mission.

Karen took one more look around the area with no sign of the artifact, then returned to
her office. Sitting down, she immediately picked up the phone and hit Lisa’s home
number. Of course, Lisa wasn’t there yet, but when the answering machine came on,
Karen said briefly, “Lisa. Karen. 911. Again.” Just in case, she tried Lisa’s shop, but
Jessica, the college student who helped out, reported that Lisa had phoned to say she
would be getting back late, and had never returned from lunch. After leaving another
message to call, Karen hung up and searched her own office area, again without sign of
the pendant.

Gina appeared, smiling, and Karen’s hopes rose.

“You found it?”

“Oh, no, sorry. No one’s seen it,” Gina reported. “I was laughing,” she snickered and
dropped her voice, “because Chuck’s pants just fell down, right while he was trying one
of those lame pick up lines. It was too funny. You should have seen his face, and his...
well, let’s just say I had no idea he was so small.” Karen’s face showed shock, and Gina
misinterpreted the cause of her embarrassment. “Oh, um, I mean short. I had no idea he
was so short.” Gina shook her head. “I mean, he’s only about my height. He must
usually wear lifts or something. You should have seen him run.”

Karen’s face had drained white. Both people she had considered shrinking were now
doing so. It was the age medallion nightmare all over again. Gina came over, concerned
by her ashen complexion.

“Karen, you look sick again. Did you eat?”

“Oh, yeah, uh huh,” Karen reassured her. “I just think I’m coming down with
something.”

“You look ... different,” Gina said musingly. “I can’t put my finger on it. Hmmm.” She
rocked in her loose pumps. “Oh well. Maybe you’d better head home. Get an early start
on that weekend.”

Karen had thought of doing just that, but didn’t dare leave the medallion behind. She
stood again, surprising Gina by standing almost a full head taller than the now elfin
secretary.

“No, I’m fine. I’ve gotta try to find that necklace. It’s really important ... to, um ...” She
trailed off and gasped as Gina seemed to shrink another inch before her eyes. Could
proximity be causing it?

“I’ll help you look,” Gina said, tugging at her loose skirt to raise it.

“NO!” Another look of shock at her outburst. “I mean, thanks, but I know you’ve got
that contract work from Henry.”

“Oh, yeah,” Gina agreed, frowning. “I’ve gotta finish that before I leave.”

“Thanks for offering, Gina. I’m fine, really.” She smiled confidently.

“’Kay. If you’re sure.” Gina walked away, her skirt slipping again as she did.

Karen made the rounds, asking everybody about the medallion and explaining how
important it was, to no avail. To her growing horror, she noticed all the men in the office
seemed a bit shorter, standing at most only slightly taller than herself, and she was
average for a woman. Shirts were loose and baggy. Ties fell past waist level. Jacket
sleeves covered wrists, and pants were dragging the floor. Several women also seemed
surprisingly petite, with long, ill-fitting skirts and pants, sagging blouses, and Karen
noticed more than a few cases of shoe slip as surprisingly loose high heels wobbled on
dainty feet. Karen felt rising panic - things were even worse than she’d feared. She’d
never affected so many people without even thinking about it. Or perhaps the medallion
lay hidden somewhere, activated and slowly shrinking the entire office.

Yet, Karen’s clothes still fit perfectly, and her maintained height became increasingly
obvious relative to her diminishing coworkers. Again convinced that they must be
affected by being near her, she retreated to her office in despair, not even bothering to
close the door, afraid of what she might find when she opened it again. Kelly appeared,
crossing to the copier, and glanced briefly into Karen’s office. Karen noticed her clothes
still looked OK, but that made sense, since Kelly’s office was on the other side of the
office complex. When Kelly saw Karen looking at her, she turned stonily away, chin in
the air. Great. The office shrinking around her, Kelly still mad, and everyone assuming
she was either sick or hysterical. What to do?

As if in answer, the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Karen? What’s happened?”

“Lisa, thank God! It’s a disaster. Total disaster!”

“What? What’s a disaster?”

Karen waited until Kelly disappeared again from sight.

“The medallion. I ... lost it.”

“What?” Lisa repeated, this time screaming.

“I’m so sorry, Lisa. I don’t know what happened. I came back from lunch. Everything
seemed to be going fine. Then ... I guess I passed out - I don’t know. I woke up on the
floor to find everybody staring at me, and the medallion gone.”

“Karen, no! Oh, God. You’ve got to be kidding. How can it be gone?”

“I don’t know. I can’t find it. And, even worse.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “People
are shrinking here. It’s like the age thing all over again.”

“Karen, we have got to find that medallion.”

“I know, I know, but I don’t see it anywhere.”

“It’s gotta be nearby if people are affected. You must be activating it when you’re close.
That may help us find it.”

“You think?” Karen’s hopes rose.

“What else? It can’t work by itself. Were you imagining shrinking anyone there?”

“Yeah,” Karen admitted. “In fact, they were the first ones affected.”

“Good.”

“Good?” Karen asked in disbelief.

“Sure. You must still be linked to it, and that proves it’s close by. If somebody had taken
it away, it would too far to activate. It’s probably under a desk or chair. We just need to
search more thoroughly. I can bring a Seeker wand - it’ll lead us right to it.”

“Lisa, we can’t walk around the office waving a magic wand.”

“Strict workplace codes, huh?” Lisa tried to joke, despite the pit in her stomach. “OK,
we’ll wait ‘til people leave.”

“No problem there. On a Friday, most everyone will be gone by 5:30.”

“Great. I’m leaving home now, and need to close up my store. I’ll see you then.”

“Sorry, Lisa.” Karen couldn’t believe how she’d managed to lose Lisa’s prize.

“Don’t worry,” Lisa reassured her. “We’ll find it. Just don’t shrink your friends there too
much. You don’t want a bunch of munchkins running around the office.” Brief laugh.
“Hmm, but then again ...”

“Very funny,” Karen moaned. “So how do I stop it?”

“Well, your age effects usually reversed themselves. Just stop thinking about it. Get your
mind on some project that takes full concentration.”

“I’ll try. But you know - ‘whatever you do, don’t think of elephants.’”

“Hell, think about elephants. Just not small elephants. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Thanks, Lisa.”

Karen tried her best not to imagine her coworkers shrinking any more, burying herself in
work, and succeeded fairly well. Too well, really. She was so preoccupied that she
didn’t notice slipping her loose shoes off as she moved her feet, and when her too long
sleeves began to cover her hands, she absent-mindedly rolled them back. As 5 o’clock
approached, the first people started to leave, breaking her concentration. Watching
nervously from her office, the early departures looked close to normal, much to her relief.
The men’s cuffs seemed to be dragging the floor a bit, but they weren’t obviously shorter
to casual inspection, and Karen hoped they’d continue to slowly return to normal. There
wasn’t much else she could do. Sighing, she leaned back in her chair.

And found her stocking feet dangling off the floor.

She gasped at seeing her discarded shoes and felt an almost physical chill. Standing
cautiously, and being a veteran of size changes by this time, she could tell immediately:
jacket sleeves past her wrists, loose skirt waist, seemingly tall desk and chair. She closed
her eyes.

“Damn!”

But why, she wondered. She couldn’t possibly want to shrink under these circumstances,
and it had always been her unconscious desires which drove the changes.

Gina popped in at that moment, not more than five feet tall by Karen’s guess, though
apparently still blithely unaware.

“Just wanted to check in on you before I left,” she said, tugging absently at her skirt.
Seeing Karen’s expression, she added, “Still bad, huh?”

“Oh no, Gina,” Karen lied, trying to gauge their relative heights. She still had a couple of
inches on the small secretary despite her own shrinking. “Just finishing up myself and,
um, thinking about the weekend.”

“Any plans?”

Sure, Karen thought. Find a missing magic medallion that’s shrinking everyone here,
restore as many people as I can, then settle in for size-changing sexual debauchery.

“Uh, no.”

“I’m going dancing,” Gina announced, striking a pose, then grimacing as her shoe
slipped. “Soon as I ditch these stupid shoes and outfit. I can’t believe how this skirt’s
stretched since I had it cleaned. They must have, like, destroyed the waistband. Look at
this.” She tugged at the waist, easily clearing a two inch gap.

“Yeah. I know the feeling.”

“Oh well. See you Monday.”

Karen watched the almost child-sized woman walk away, desperately imagining her back
to her normal height and hoping the medallion picked up on it. Nothing.

Defeated, she returned to her desk, and sat down. As 5:00 came, she watched the
majority of her remaining coworkers depart, with most of them at least looking close to
normal. Maybe her enforced exile had been effective after all.

Or maybe not, at least as far as her own changes - she twice felt the tell-tale tingle in
herself as she waited while people left. The magic apparently had simply redirected itself.
Sure enough, her jacket sleeves now half covered her hands. Her shirt was baggy, and
even her bra felt loose. She was afraid to stand and guess her height now, and was still at
a loss as to why she should be shrinking now.

“Hurry, Lisa,” she whispered, still trying to will the size changes to stop.

Suddenly, Kelly appeared at her door.

“Karen? You’re still here?” she asked in disbelief. “I thought I was the only one left, and
was sure you’d be gone. You can’t be planning a late night, not after your fainting spell
earlier.”

“I’ve, uh, got some things to take care of,” Karen explained, pushing her sleeves up
quickly to disguise their poor fit and trying to slip her shoes on. To her chagrin, her feet
wouldn’t reach the floor.

“Oh,” Kelly returned thoughtfully. “I thought maybe it had something to do with this.”
She smiled suddenly, and held her hand up in triumph. Lisa’s medallion swung into
view, flashing beautifully to Karen’s astonished and delighted eyes.

“Oh, my God!” Karen jumped up, forgetting her bare feet and altered appearance. “My
necklace! Oh, Kelly, thank you, thank you!”

Kelly simply stared in apparent shock, before clearing her throat nervously. “Um, Karen?
Are you, you know, all right? You look ... strange.”

Karen gathered her oversize jacket defensively around her, looking like a child caught
wearing her mother’s clothes. Following Kelly’s gaze, she looked down to see a baggy
shirt, a drooping skirt well past her knees and the slightly wrinkled feet of her pantyhose.
She blushed fiercely but pretended not to notice anything wrong.

“I ... I’m fine,” she stammered, wondering if her size would be less obvious if she sat
back down. She had to be well under five feet judging by their relative heights, and she
estimated she would only come up to Kelly’s shoulder, a discrepancy she couldn’t hope
would be missed. On the other hand, the medallion might be affecting her faster now that
it was closer, and she decided she needed to get it as quickly as possible. Bracing herself,
she walked over to Kelly. As she had guessed, Kelly stood over a full head taller, and
looked down at her in obvious amazement.

“Can I have it, please?” Karen reached a hand out.

Kelly snatched the medallion away, apparently in reflex.

“Wait a minute,” she demanded. “There is something totally weird going on here. How
tall are you? Why do you look so ... small?”

Karen considered desperately how best to explain her predicament. “I’m really, um,
five-three. You’re just used to seeing me in shoes.”

Kelly looked skeptically at her bare feet, trying to account for at least a foot difference in
their heights.

“OK. Five feet,” Karen tried to save the lie. “I wear special shoes to look taller. Now,
can I please have my necklace?” She tried to grab it, but Kelly’s height allowed her to
hold it out of reach. Karen jumped, but Kelly dodged, and Karen succeeded only in
dislodging her skirt, barely grabbing it before it exposed her.

“But ... but your clothes,” Kelly persisted. “They’re so loose and baggy. They didn’t
look like that before.”

Karen knew Kelly was highly fashion conscious, and wouldn’t have overlooked such
ridiculously oversized clothing. She laughed nervously. “Of course they did. I mean,
what else? It’s not like ...”

“You’re shrinking?” Kelly interrupted, her voice suddenly all velvet and amusement.
“No. That would be impossible.” She looked down into Karen’s eyes and smiled
wickedly. Karen gasped as she felt herself slip another few inches, her eyes now level
with Kelly’s impressive bosom. “Unless somebody was using a shrinking medallion on
you, of course.”

Karen gaped, speechless, and too shocked to react this time as her skirt slipped to the
floor unopposed by her suddenly smaller hips, while Kelly dangled the medallion out of
reach and laughed.


END PART 2


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