“I can’t thank you enough for this. I- I don’t know what I would do if she were taken away from me,” the woman said in relief, her eyes full of tears. Too many dealings with magic had come at a price, a price that was much too high for poor Dellanore, her firstborn child, Theodora-Elina.
“Don’t worry, dear,” the old, decrepit witch in ragged robes reassured the sobbing woman. “I’ll make sure none of those magic dealers lay a finger on your precious daughter.” She gestured with a gnarled hand to the pink-cheeked baby sleeping soundly in Dellanore’s arms.
“Thank you, thank you!” Dellanore cried. “What are you going to do to save her?” she implored the witch.
“Just put her here, dear.” she croaked, and pointed a claw-tipped finger towards a small table in the middle of the cramped, wooden home.
Dellanore clutched her child more tightly and eyed the witch questioningly.
“Don’t worry. Have no fears, my dear. I shall not harm a single hair on her precious head!” the old witch promised the woman.
Not taking her eyes off the witch, Dellanore placed her daughter lightly on the table and took a few steps back.
“Wonderful! Now let’s see here…” the witch hovered her hands over the child and muttered some strange words that Dellanore could not understand.
“Wha- What are you doing?” she asked. Her concern for her daughter shook her voice and her hands.
Then, right before her eyes, her daughter began to shrink. Dellanore screamed.
“What is this!?” she yelled. “What are you doing to her!?” Dellanore sank to tears and the witch did not answer until the spell was finished.
“I’ve made it so no one will find her, dear.” she said innocently. “Look.”
The woman parted the fingers that were covering her face and dared to look at what the witch had done. She gasped. Lying there, still asleep, on the table was indeed her daughter… shrunken down smaller than she could’ve imagined.
“But she -she’s no bigger than my thumbnail!” exclaimed the woman in horror.
“And she will grow to be no bigger than the height of your thumb.” replied the witch calmly.
“Demon! I wanted her protected, not shrunk! Undo this curse!” Dellanore shrieked, hot tears streaming down her reddened face.
“But, my dear,” the witch continued with her innocent tone. “None of those awful magic dealers will find her when she can be hidden so easily at this size.” A terrible grin spread across her shriveled face. “And especially if she’s hidden in a witch’s hut!”
“WHAT!!” Dellanore screamed as the witch took up Theodora-Elina in her hand, much quicker than what is expected of a woman so up in age as she was, allowing no time for Dellanore to save her daughter. The witch leapt quite nimbly to the sill of a high window and cackled menacingly.
“What is this treachery!” the mother sobbed, collapsing to the floor. “I thought you were going to help me!”
“When are you going to learn, my dear,” the witch said without pity as she looked down on the distraught mother. “That not everything is as it seems!” As she said this, purple flames rose up and enveloped her body, then subsided to reveal a young woman with long, greasy tangles of black-as-night hair and piercing red eyes. The true form of the witch.
Dellanore let out a choked yelp amidst her sobs at the sight of this woman. This was the very dealer of magic who demanded her firstborn as payment. She heaved herself up and ran at the witch in an attempt to rescue her daughter, but it was in vain.
The witch laughed mirthlessly at the woman’s desperation and with a wave of her hand and a whispered spell, knocked the woman harshly back to the floor.
“What a strange child,” the witch said examining the baby in her palm. “Set only to grow to the size of a woman’s thumb. What’s her name again, Dellanore, Theodora-Elina?” she asked frivolously. “I think I’ll call her Thumbelina,” and with that she leapt out the window into the dreary, black night. Dellanore lay crumpled and bleeding upon the floor, her face wet and sticky with tears.
* * *
“Today’s the day, Dog,” said Thumbelina to her mouse. “We’re finally getting out of here.” For seventeen years now she’d been trapped here in this rickety shack of the witch Morgana’s along with her glamours and other magical artefacts she lends out to poor, unsuspecting people looking for a magical remedy to better their lives. Many a time Thumbelina had seen Morgana promise everlasting life, beauty, wealth, and other miracles, only to see the people return with ruined lives, begging for compensation they will never receive.
Thumbelina wasn’t one of these, thankfully. She was more of a pet, an oddity; which isn’t much better, of course, but at least she didn’t ruin people’s lives. They would come to her hanging birdcage and gawk at her tiny size. One day, however, during one of her attempted escapades, she had acquired a sharp letter-opener which she has used from then on to slash at the noses of gawkers who dared come too close to her cage.
Today, however, she had finally concocted a plan that she knew was going to work. “Morgana always leaves that window open this time of year,” she pointed towards the wall closest to them. Warm air wafted in from the outdoors. “So, if we swing our cage far enough and unlock our door, we can jump out of the window and land outside!”
Dog just blinked at Thumbelina and then peered at the window and at the word outside. It seemed so far away. It was also a considerably long drop for their size. He gave a few small squeaks and hid in a corner.
Thumbelina looked at her mouse scoldingly. “Come on, Dog, do you really want to stay here forever? This is our chance at freedom!”
Dog looked back and forth from the window to Thumbelina. He wanted to be free, and he didn’t want to let Thumbelina down. He scurried back towards her.
“That’s my boy,” Thumbelina praised and patted him on the head. They heard stirring from the second room. Thumbelina froze. “Now.”
Thumbelina ran rapidly back and forth in the birdcage, kicking off the sides as she went to build momentum. Dog did the same. Finally, they were swinging far enough for her to grab a hanging rope and pull the cage along further. “Almost there,” she exclaimed breathlessly. “Dog, unlock the door.” The mouse ran to it and flipped the hook. The door swung open. They heard ever-growing footsteps. They were so close to the window. Thumbelina picked up her mouse and her letter-opener sword and made a running jump. Mild, fresh air hit her face. She heard Morgana’s raging yells far behind her. She was free.
If you hadn’t known what you were looking at, you’d think that a bit of corn silk was falling from the side of the shack. However, if you did know or happened to look closer, you’d see that it’s actually the hair of a very tiny young woman. After what seemed like minutes, Thumbelina, Dog, and her sword, finally dropped into some shrubbery and stepped out onto the ground. She set Dog on the ground and looked around her. The world was vast and endless, and she was just a tiny speck.
* * *
Jack Ring was nothing like his two brothers. Both were tall, good-looking, and destined to be knights. Jack was small for a seventeen-year-old boy, plain, and was out of the running for knighthood years ago. The popularity of his younger and older brothers was so high that he sometimes felt as though people had forgotten he existed. After giving up on trying to be a knight, Jack found an interest in botany. No one besides him found this terribly interesting, so he was often on his own to conduct his studies, which he didn’t mind. He preferred peace and quiet. However, he did find it quite lonely to not have a friend to talk to.
One day, while out looking for more specimens to study, he noticed something peculiar. There was a bit of cornsilk bobbing through the grass accompanied by a little, brown field mouse. The mouse didn’t appear to be moving it, and he thought he saw something glinting, too.
Thumbelina was completely exhausted. She had been traveling for days, using birds, stray dogs, and cats to get farther faster, but  walking and paddling small creeks was her main mode of transportation. Food was more abundant and tasty than it had been when she was in the minimal care of the witch, but nevertheless she was still constantly hungry from exertion and so was Dog. Her legs, unable to bear her weight any longer, gave out and she fell onto the ground in a half-sleep.
The clump of cornsilk sank down beneath the grass and the mouse stopped with it. Curious, Jack bent down to get a closer look. The glint he saw came from a letter opener that was lying on the ground. “How did this get here?” he asked. He looked back at the mouse, which was asleep. The cornsilk stirred.
Thumbelina woke up with a start. There was a voice above her. She found the hilt of her sword and gripped it firmly. She felt sweat appear on her forehead.
Jack tried to pick up the cornsilk, but a sharp pain across his hand stopped him. Something had cut his hand. When he looked back down at the ground he saw the smallest girl he’d ever seen wielding the letter opener like a sword. What he thought was cornsilk was really her hair. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
Thumbelina looked at him with outrage. “What do you think you’re doing, trying to pick me up?!” she yelled at him.
“I -I just thought you were cornsilk. I didn’t want to hurt you,” Jack replied. He looked at her curiously. “What are  you?” he asked.
Thumbelina looked offended. “I’m a girl,” she huffed. “Haven’t you seen one before?”
“Not as small as you.” Jack was completely fascinated. He needed to know more about her. “What’s your name?”
“Thumbelina,” she said proudly.
Jack smiled.
“Is there something funny about my name?!” she shouted.
“No. It’s just that I’ve never heard of a name like that before. It suits you.”
Silence. “Well, If that’s all you want to know…” she began to walk off.
“How old are you?”
What was with all these stupid questions? She admittedly did not know exactly how old she was. All she knew was that she was older than very young, but not old. “Old enough to be a woman,” she said confidently. She tried to make herself look taller.
“Are there others like you?”
She’d never thought of this before. Her mind flashed back to the shock on everyone’s face when they saw her. “Yeah, I guess I am,” she realized, her feeling of confidence now deflated.
Jack sympathized with her. He knew what it felt like to be the odd one out. “Do you have a home? Is that where you’re headed?”
This hadn’t occurred to her either. All she’d thought about was getting as far away from the witch as possible. Where was she going to go? The wilderness would be her best bet, since most people didn’t like her, but she or Dog could easily be eaten and what would they do if either one of them died? Thumbelina would have no friends to keep her company and Dog would be devastated if she died. She felt a tear slip down her cheek. “I don’t know where I’m going.” Dog put his head in her hand.
“I know how you feel,” he said. “I know what it’s like to feel alone, out of place. To feel-”
“Small,” Thumbelina finished. “But it doesn’t mean that you are small, as long as you feel bigger than that.” She knew this from experience.
She was right. Jack suddenly had an idea. “Thumbelina, I have a small place around here. It has a big garden in the back and I’m sure we could find something to make you a house out of, if you’d like to stay there. Then we both won’t be so alone,” he offered.
“And I can come and go as much as I want?” she said more to herself than anyone else.
“Of course,” he replied, confused as to why she would ask that.
Friends. Food. Freedom. Thumbelina looked up into Jack’s plain face with brown eyes framed with black hair. “You’ve got yourself a deal!” she said.
Jack smiled. “Just promise not to try and skewer me again.” He held out his palm and Thumbelina and Dog stepped onto it. The three friends had a home at last.