You awaken to find yourself on a strange, seemingly alien landscape. Your vision is spinning as you slowly sit up and try to regain your bearings. You’re naked, you soon realize. Were you naked before? No, no, you couldn’t have been. You struggle to piece together the events leading up to this bizarre situation. You vaguely remember talking to a dragon in a club, followed by him making a comment about him being the biggest dragon you’d ever see. That sort of ego was never backed up by anything of substance, you figured, so you made some off-handed comment in response before turning and walking away. You felt something cold on the back of your head, then… then… beyond that, you couldn’t quite remember.

Wherever you were, it was unlike any landscape you’d seen before. The ground beneath you was warm to the touch and slightly damp. It also felt somewhat rough against your feet as you slowly stood up and looked around. It was hard to see much as things were quite dark. Was it still nighttime? How long had you been out, anyway? Your eyes gradually adapted and you discovered that you were standing upon a hill of sorts, looking out into a valley. The ground texture seemed all wrong, though. Rather than the verdant green grass one might expect, the ground was a dingy, green-yellow shade. Swampland, perhaps? That would certainly explain the moisture you felt underfoot. There appeared to be four distinct areas in front of you, each separated by a canyon wall.

Before you make your way down, you decide to look around behind you. There seem to be high, towering walls on all sides however. They’re too dark to make out details, but you have to strain your neck to try see how high they extend. Wherever you are, it’s a long way up. You then take a sniff of the air around you and your nose wrinkles. It’s a vaguely familiar smell, but so strong that you can’t place it immediately. It slightly stings your nose, and it permeates every breath you take. A few more moments and you realize that it’s the smell of someone’s feet. Why would that smell be such an omnipresent, potent thing?

You start to explore by walking toward the nearest wall, but find it’s even further away that you expected. Your legs are getting tired by the time you reach it and find that it, too, is warm, damp, and smells strongly enough to make your nose tingle. It feels softer than the ground, but still rough as you run your hands across it. The wall, strangely, actually has a bit of give to it, rather than being completely rigid as you had expected.

In the distance, you faintly hear some sort of noise. It’s like the distant rumble of thunder. A storm? You’d need some sort of shelter, but there’s nothing here to protect you from the elements. Soon, everything goes white as a brilliant light blinds you. As your vision begins to clear, you can see where you really are. The “wall” before you is made of black fabric and shows considerable signs of wear. The floor is a hard, rubbery surface, with flecks of … something upon its surface. It seems that is also the source of the smell. On that ground, in letters so large you struggle to take them in, you see “Fila” inscribed on the surface beneath you.

Somehow, inexplicably, you have ended up inside an impossibly oversized shoe. Even worse, you discover that the dragon you’d insulted earlier was now towering miles above you. He grinned wickedly as he looked down at his shoes. He said nothing, but that smirk was one of pure malice. He probably couldn’t see you, but he knew you were there. That was enough for him. For you, however, there was no way you could NOT know he was there. The smell of his feet was all around you. His shadow covered the landscape of shoe you were trapped within. And then, a second later, the dragon’s sole became your sky.

Far, far above you, a four-toed dragon foot dominated your vision. The scales around the edges were a brilliant, sapphire blue, illuminated by the daylight-colored bulb that burned like the sun itself. His sole, however, was black as a moonless night, darker even than the charcoal-colored materials that surrounded you. And then, slowly - oh so slowly - that foot began to descend. The sky was falling. As his foot lowered, you saw those toes reaching for you first. Each toe was as large as a mountain itself, tipped with a sharp, pale claw that looked capable of spearing through buildings. The paw was damp with sweat, which made its surfaces glisten slightly as they came ever closer to you.

You knew you had to run. Somehow. Someway. But to where? With a bit of frantic thinking, you realized the ‘hill’ you were standing on was where the arch of his foot would soon be. The insole of the footwear was so heavily worn that you could make out the exact details of his foot upon it, including the heavy impressions of the toe and ball of his foot. There would be precious little room once the dragon’s foot filled this space, but you couldn’t figure out whether it would be safer to run toward the heel or the toe. Your indecision cost you the chance to decide that at all, as you were stirred from those thoughts by a deep, resonating ‘thud’ as the dragon’s toes made impact near the heel.

Now that the dragon’s foot was right before you, you had a chance to take in even more details. Those sapphire scales still gleamed in the light from above, but you now could see just how deep the valleys between those toes were. You could build an entire city on the mountainside of a single toe, or a home on a single scale. Even now, with that massive foot off in the distance, you could feel the heat starting to build in the shoe, while the scent of feet was renewed by his presence. The ground felt more liquid as warmth freed some of the old, sweat baked into the insole, which soon mixed with the fresh sweat upon the dragon’s paw.

When his foot began to move forward, you had little chance to even comprehend the movements. It seemed to move at supersonic speed toward you - as a blur of hot, musky scales - before it slammed into your body. You were carried into the shoe, deeper and deeper, into the darkest depths by his toes. At your tiny size, you somehow avoided injury as you were thrown an immeasurable distance by the dragon’s casual movements. You were winded and left panting for air, but the dragon’s scent was so strong that your nose burned and eyes watered. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, but it was too potent for you to handle. Even with your mouth closed, you could taste his sweat upon your tongue. It was too dark to see clearly, but you could still just barely discern the outline of the toe towering above you. The heat was starting to get uncomfortable and things were only getting warmer with each passing moment. You felt the dragon’s weight shifting, which caused the toe nearest to you to flex and shift as well. He could make one small twitch and crush you out of existence without ever acknowledging you were there. And then, finally, the giant beast spoke the last words you would ever hear:

“Time to go for a run.”