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Venti entered his room at the Dandelion Inn with a bottle in hand, a smile on his face, and a stagger to his gait. The audience had been kind to him this evening, paying for his songs and poems in wine and mora. Of the mora very little remained, just a pocketful for his expenses tomorrow, and of the wine even less—a couple swigs the bard took as he kicked off his shoes, and a few drops more that fell onto his outstretched tongue before he flopped down on the bed and let the bottle clatter on the floor.
He had just enough presence of mind to crawl forward until his head met the pillows, where it settled with a sigh and refused to move again. The air soon carried the sound of his deep, clear breathing to of Venti's unseen visitor. She lay on the bard's sole, on the sweaty white fabric between the ball of his foot and the tips of his toes, an ant in size but a human in shape—a young woman with flaxen hair and an outfit so close to Venti's stocking in color that she could have been taken for a ball of its lint.
Though she had experience grappling with monsters ten times her size, today it was all Lumine could do to negotiate her freedom from the humid fibers which had hold of her arm. How had she ended up in such a pitiful state? She would have given anything for an answer. All she knew was that she been like this since morning.
Lumine had taken a room at this inn last night, and after falling asleep late in the evening, she had woken up at this size and believed herself in a totally different place, if not a different world altogether. Buried under covers best measured in acres, she had crawled around seeking an exit until the innkeeper came to make the bed and whipped Lumine off the covers. She had hidden under the bed afterwards, waiting for someone to come around so she could ask for their aid, but when she heard Venti's melodious voice floating up from the common room to greet her, she made a tough decision to go contact him right away. She couldn't know how long he'd be staying, after all, and if she was had to get help from someone, she could think of few people in Mondstadt she would rather entrust herself to, and fewer who might appear at this inn.
Crawling under the door to reach the hallway, Lumine had walked slowly towards the stairs, keeping close to the walls to avoid any unfortunate encounters, sprinting by when she had to pass another doorway, until finally she reached the stairs. The drop to the first floor was breathtaking, but she took a running leap and maneuvered down with her air glider. With her reduced weight, Lumine she lost height more slowly than she normally would. She was still above the heads of most patrons when she entered the common room and found Venti there, sitting on a table and plucking on his harp to regale the audience with his songs and stories.
Maneuvering towards him as best she could, Lumine was just able to land on the tip of his shoe, splaying out her limbs to keep from falling off with its bobbing. The first part of her journey had gone as well as she could have asked, but going any further right now was too risky. Instead she judged her best option was to get in his shoe and wait for a better opportunity.
Putting her plan in action, Lumine was soon tucked safely under the tongue of Venti's shoe, where the smooth brown leather met his stocking-clad foot. It might have been comfortable, had it ever stopped moving for more than five seconds.
To keep from slipping she kept a firm grip on the white threads, or at least she did at first; two hours later her arm strength was gone and that all it took was one clumsy step from Venti to send her further down, just before the toe box. She frantically grabbed something else before the next step, but discovered much too late that it was only a loose ball of lint; she was thrown away to the very tip of the shoe, just half an inch ahead of the bard's heavy toes. Her heart was really racing now. Would she survive the weight if the next step brought her under the bard? She had survived blows from big foes before, but few of them would match the size of Venti's big toe.
Lumine scrambled for something to hold on to before the next step, but her fingers found nothing. She was thrown under the giant's foot, and her terrified shout was silenced under Anemo Archon's divine sole. The blow was stunning. Hundreds of thousands of tons threatened to crush her between the shoe's sole and his, squeezing her body 'til her bones seemed about to crack, but when Venti took his next step and this foot swung away, she realized that the pain she expected hadn't come.
The same thing happened with the following steps. It was a relief to know she needn't worry about being crushed, even if this was still the most humiliating event of her life. Eventually she ended up under Venti's toes, and when these curled around her, her arm got caught in his stocking and she'd been stuck there since.
Now as the bard was falling asleep, Lumine managed to free her arm and climb to the ball of his foot, standing up for the first time in hours. She was a mess. Some of Venti's sweat had soaked her, and though it dried quickly once she was exposed to the air, it still matted her hair and clothes and made her feel disgusting. She raked her fingers through her hair trying to comb it into something presentable, but that was cut short when a gentle curl of Venti's toes caused an upheaval that made her tumble back onto them.
Muttering curses, Lumine crawled off his foot entirely and put some distance between it and her. Venti stirred some more while she finished brushing herself down, but had the decency not to interrupt her this time. Once she was satisfied, she set off for his face, careful to avoid any gaps between the threads that her foot might fall into or loose fibers she might get snagged on, and always keeping an eye on him in case he seemed about to roll over.
The trip took longer than she would have liked, and gave her little to focus on besides the giant sleeping placidly beside her, his body like a lengthy rolling hill. There was something captivating about his size, so comforting yet disturbing all at once. She got so absorbed in it that when she reached his face she stood staring at him.
Nearness distorted his visage as though viewed through a funhouse mirror, but despite that and his inhuman size, his features looked as delicate as ever. He looked so calm and the feeling proved contagious, lulling Lumine into losing the tension she'd been holding for hours. She didn't want to break the spell by waking him, at least not yet, so she stood still and closed her eyes, letting the soft breath blowing from his nose ruffle her hair and dress, until a strong smell of Dandelion wine came over her.
The smell had been in the air before, but it hung heavier now that Venti had opened his mouth and was drooling on the pillow. There was so much alcohol in that first whiff to make Lumine fall flat on her face. Venti moved while she recovered, and when she raised her eyes, she was met with the white of his glistening teeth, the pink of his tongue and lips, and the darkness at the back of his throat. A primordial panic took hold of her, and before she could scurry away, a sharp inhalation sucked her up between those lips and teeth.
The air reversed course before Lumine was sucked all the way down Venti's throat, but didn't have the decency to send her back out. Instead she splatted onto his gargantuan tongue. She screamed and tried to get away at once, but a layer of spit held her to the shifting surface of taste buds the size of fingertips, and that was before his tongue moved and left her between it and his molars. She screamed even harder when she met with that hard enamel, fearing it might chew her up at any moment. Then, to make the nightmare complete, Venti's lips closed once more and left her trapped in darkness.
She tried to escape though she had no notion of where to go, but everything was so slippery, and his tongue weighed to heavily on her, that she couldn't go anywhere. Worse, the alcohol in the air was dulling her mind and body, and she feared she would black out before long. With desperate vigor she managed at last to free her arms from under his tongue. Then, gathering energy, she raised them and created a small whirlwind.
Roused from his slumber by the tickling breeze, Venti moved his tongue to squash it, and sensed a tiny something caught against his teeth—a grain of rice, it felt like. He took it onto his tongue, and tried to squash it against his palate, but the thing proved unsquashable and more wriggly than a grain of rice should be. Had a bug snuck in his mouth? He stuck out his tongue and swiped the thing on his finger, cracking open one drowsy eye to frown at it. It was a few seconds before he could focus on it well enough to make out a tiny, shivering person splayed out on his fingertip.
Venti climbed out of bed and lumbered to one of the lamps he had neglected to put out, yawning as he held his finger to the light. Sure enough, it was a person he saw, and the more he looked at it, the more he recognized them. “Lumine?” Yes, it was her; he could see it clearly now. She sighed when he spoke her name, and tried to move though something was holding her there—his own drying spit. He gently pried her away with a fingernail and held it still under his gaze. He knew she had to be terrified after being in his mouth, and she looked tired as hell to boot, but he couldn't help smiling when she slowly sat up on it. She looked adorable! It was all he could do not to kiss her or nuzzle her to his cheek.
How had she gotten so small? He asked her as much once she appeared to have recovered, but couldn't hear the answer she gave. The Archon had some helpful tricks, though, like amplifying the vibrations in the air, and once he used it to make her voice audible and set her down securely on his palm, he sat on the edge of his bed listening to her story and privately fawning over her.
“Sounds like you had a rough day. “I don't know how to get you back to normal, but I do know a few people who might. I'll gladly take you to them and see what they have to say tomorrow, but for now, let's both get some rest. I'm sure you're just at least as tired as I am. Some sleep will do you good.” Lumine wasn't so sure about that last part considering what had happened the last time she fell asleep, but she was tired enough that she couldn't refuse, and Venti's smile made her feel as if everything would turn out fine. “Of course, I'll need to leave you somewhere I'm not likely to lose you. Heh! I think I know just the place.”
Venti didn't say where he meant. The mischievous smile he wore had Lumine worried, but before she could ask, he turned his hand over and dropped her down his stocking. He let go of the cuff as soon as she was inside, letting the fabric snap her to the front of his thigh. “There, that should keep you warm and safe and comfy!” he declared, and stilled her squirming her squirming when he rubbed a hand over the spot. “Good-night, my pretty little ant. Sleep well,” he muttered softly, patting her twice more before lying in bed and using his powers to put out the lamps.
Lumine tried for a while to get where she could at least poke her head out, but she soon gave up and settled in. Not like she was uncomfortable here anyways. Venti's thigh was a better bed than she ever imagined, soft and warm and reassuring—much like Venti himself. It flustered her to admit it, but she was glad he had forced her to stay on him tonight; she couldn't imagine a better place to sleep than snuggled up with her protector.