An idea that popped up after seeing the film. Enjoy!

Dave inhaled deeply as he watched Balthazar warily on the other side of the Merlin Circle. Today, they were practicing more with those plasma bolts and vacuum defense spells. The electric bolts were more difficult to capture in the vacuum. So of course, the sorcerer had stated that it would be EXCELLENT practice for him to learn to catch anything thrown at him. David didn't agree, but heck, who was he to argue with a 1000-plus year old dude?

Balthazar, as calm as always, was waiting, tossing the plasma ball idly from hand to hand. "You ready yet?" he asked casually, the sparks flying off his fingers in an eerie kind of way.

Gulping nervously, Dave recentered himself in the Circle, feeling the warm energy coming up through his feet as he let himself focus. "Y-Yeah…"

"Good." The next thing he knew, the bolt of bright blue-white light was coming right at him. Dave shouted as he fought to 'snag' it in the vacuum in between his hands, like the fire, but it moved so FAST! He only got it halfway inside as it was coming and this resulted in a very confused plasma bolt that decided it was just easier to explode and knock the young apprentice off his feet.

Rolling to his side and coughing, Dave looked up at hearing Balthazar's voice asking lazily, "Are you trying to clap it to death, Dave?"

Scowling, Dave got clumsily to his feet, his toes aching inside of the oddly shaped shoes. He'd have to look into getting a new pair. He brushed himself off, stammering, "No-no! I was just…" He then sighed and stood up, rubbing his sore hand. "I missed it." he said bluntly.

"Yes you did." Balthazar replied in a very patronizing tone. "Very good observation." He came over to the young man and looked at him, hands behind his back as he just seemed to look right THROUGH him. It made Dave uncomfortable and he shuffled around him to get back to the Circle.

This seemed to be the right move as Balthazar nodded and went back to his own opposing Circle. He made another plasma bolt and began to toy with it, saying in a firm, but soft tone, "You're trying too hard to GRAB the bolt physically. Think with your instincts, Dave, not your eyes! Your eyes are pitiful. They see nothing in the world of magic. You must trust your instincts and your magic." He then spun the bolt on his fingertip, like a pro basketball player spins the ball.

"How-How-How'd you learn to do that?" Dave asked, unable to hide his jealously. He had never managed that trick even with a beach ball. He felt horribly inadequate and grudgingly impressed.

Ignoring the question, Balthazar then added, "You see, Dave… I KNOW I'm not touching his plasma ball. It is NOT on the tip of my finger spinning like a top. I only SEE that it is." He tossed it into the air, juggling it with careless ease. "Because I know this fact, I know that I cannot grab it like a peach or a light bulb. This is something I have to FEEL. I have to trust my magic to 'hold' the plasma for me, to make it look like I'm doing it."

Dave watched as Balthazar spoke and continued to show off with the ball of light the entire time. "Uh-huh…" He said softly. He then added, "And the point of the light show is…?"

He let out a sudden scream as the bolt suddenly leapt right at him and without even thinking about it, he brought up his hands like he had for the fireball. Unlike the last time, where he had been consciously trying to trap it inside of his vacuum, this time it just seemed to… well… suck itself right into place! The force of the blow made him take a step back, but he panted happily as he held the jittering, buzzing ball in-between his hands. He inhaled deeply and as he tightened and closed the vacuum, the bolt disappeared.

While he stood there panting, Balthazar came over, saying clearly, "To show you that you need to stop jabbering and planning and instead start to act and think like a sorcerer!"

"But I'm not a sorcerer!" Dave protested as a matter of sheer habit.

"No." Balthazar agreed instantly. When Dave looked up at him questioningly, Balthazar then added, "Not yet." He then turned back and returned to his side of the Circle. Dave sighed, feeling bad inside. "But you're well on your way." This made Dave grin slightly before the next plasma bolt hit him right square in the chest, knocking him off balance.

"Oops."

After a few more tests of Dave learning to catch the bolts, Balthazar decided to go back to learning to cast them again, teaching him how to use the energy of the Circle to form them easily without draining his own magical energy. That one took a lot of work for Dave to even comprehend the concept and even then, he just could not figure out where to drain the magic from; the Circle or himself! He just couldn't feel a difference!

Inhaling deeply and clearing his mind, Dave worked to pull up energy from the Circle, from the ground itself. He blinked as he felt… something. Like he had punched a hole with a pin into a water cooler bottle. There WAS plenty of energy to draw from. He worked to suck more and more into his hands and he laughed triumphantly as he felt the hot-cold feeling of the plasma in his hands. "Balthazar!" he said joyfully as the plasma ball grew to the size of a baseball. "Look! Look, I got it!" Dave was feeling ecstatic by this point, glad he had been able to pull off something magical correctly. His happy feeling faded when the saw that the bolt was getting larger, from a baseball into a grapefruit! Feeling more than a little panicked now, Dave whimpered nervously, "Now how do I UNget it?!"

"Just throw it, Dave." came the simple and calm reply from Balthazar.

Dave looked over at his Master as the bolt grew to be the girth of a football. "Where?!" he asked in a shrill, panicked voice.

"Just anywhere." came the quiet answer as Balthazar went over to the kettle and started to pour some tea for himself. "It will disperse." he added as he stirred in the sugar.

Nodding, Dave turned his body around to face away from Balthazar and with a cry, he flung the large orb away from himself, falling to his knees as it felt like he had just thrown away a chunk of his heart. He felt EXHAUSTED! Looking up, he gasped in horror as he realized that the orb had been flung right at his Master's thick black leather trench coat.

"Oh! Oh my god!" he all but screamed as he ran to try and help the coat, muffling the flames with some old rags. But it was too late. The plasma had been so hot that the trench coat had pretty much simply incinerated upon contact. There was nothing he could do now to fix it. He watched helplessly as it crumpled into a pile of dust, just like in the cartoons.

Dave looked up, panicked, as Balthazar walked over to him, looking distraught. "My coat…"

Shaking, Dave got up, saying, "Oh, Balthazar, I'm SO sorry!"

"You destroyed my coat." Balthazar said quietly, as if he hadn't heard Dave speaking.

While he was pondering the idea of running while the man was in an obvious state of shell-shock [or coat-shock?], Dave fumbled to speak as Balthazar knelt besides what was now a smoking heap of ash. He then stuttered out, "You… You said it would… uh… 'disperse'." As he was given a look that spelled trouble, Dave scrambled to his feet and a little away from Balthazar, saying as he jittered, "L-L-Look, I'm sorry!" He then threw out haphazardly, "I'll buy you a new one!"

Balthazar froze and looked up at him. "A new one?"

"Yeah, exactly!" Dave said, jumping at what might turn out to be salvation. "I'll buy you a NEW coat!" he said with a weak smile. He then added quietly, "Granted, maybe not a 350 year old rawhide coat, but…" He shrugged awkwardly and sheepishly. "Well, you know what I mean."

Scooping up the ashes into a bag, Balthazar then muttered, "You can't just BUY me a new coat."

"Well, sure I can!" Dave protested. And since he was in deep enough already, Dave decided to go the whole nine yards and asked, "Where did you get it?" Hopefully it would be someplace closely that wasn't TOO expensive.

Balthazar stared at him a little bit before he answered. "England."

Wincing as this was DEFINITELY not someplace nearby, Dave then asked awkwardly, "Okay… No place closer, I take it? Perhaps on the same continent?" When Balthazar only looked at him with a funny look in his eyes, Dave suddenly nodded anyway. "Uh… O-Okay… Cool. I can do that! Yeah, I can do that easy!"

"In 928 AD." Balthazar then added.

Dave froze. "Pardon?"

"928 AD." The sorcerer repeated as he stood upright. "In November."

The younger man winced. "Ah." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well…" As the sorcerer started to walk towards him with a bad look in his eyes, Dave then asked meekly, "Maybe there's a… Time Traveling spell or something cool like that you have yet to teach me?"

This was enough to make the older man freeze and looked stunned. "A time…?"

"Time traveling… spell…" Dave finished lamely. "Yeah…"

Balthazar sighed heavily and Dave knew he had done the Wrong Thing. He tried to appeal to the man, but was stopped by the hand appearing in front of his face and an order of; "Hush." Obediently, he shut his mouth. The sorcerer then came right in front of him, saying softly, "You know what, Dave? I think I WILL take this… unfortunate opportunity to teach you a new spell." When Dave opened his mouth, Balthazar interrupted. "No, not a Time Traveling one. That is IMPOSSIBLE, no matter how many films you've seen or games you've played or books you've read." He then ordered, "Now, stand very still and hold out your arms, like you're holding a book. Palms up."

Putting out his arms as told, Dave asked with a hint of his old humor, "Heavy book? Light book?"

Balthazar stared at him. "A book." he said simply. He then went to the arm and grabbing at the arm right above the elbow, he used his other hand to grab the wrist and began to try and bend the elbow and then unbend it. Dave watched, resisting a bit at first since he was confused. Balthazar began to force it a little bit firmer. "No, don't be so stiff. Let me bend the elbow."

Relenting, Dave watched as Balthazar began to fold his arm and then unfold it. "What is this spell, by the way?" he asked, watching the older man carefully. "Some kind of… magic… muscle relaxation spell? I am feeling… kinda good." And he was! His arm felt very loose and nice-feeling.

"No." the older man corrected, still bending and unbending. "What you're feeling right now is stage one of the spell. All your muscles ARE relaxing, but they are also basically turning into rubber so I can work better with them. See?"

He then bent the elbow again but Dave's face contorted into a look of horror as he witnessed the sight that his arm had folded backwards at the elbow like it was nothing but a sheet of paper! The back of his hand was now touching his shoulder! It didn't hurt or anything, but it was unnerving and disgusting! "OH MY GOD!"

Dave tried to move away from Balthazar to try and fix himself, but he couldn't move! It was like he was glued into place! His muscles didn't want to obey him in the slightest. He could only stand there and watch in terror as his folded arm was then folded up again, like a paper doll! He screamed again, frightened, panting harshly.

"Stop screaming." Balthazar's tone was almost bored as he continued to fold up his apprentice like paper.

"I can't move!" Dave shouted, his heart racing.

As he was gently laid down on his back, Dave panted and gasped as his other arm was now worked on. "Of course not." The sorcerer replied casually and firmly. "I don't want you to escape before this is finished."

"Escape?!" Dave repeated in horror. When Balthazar had folded both arms gently against Dave's chest like you fold a long-sleeved shirt, Dave demanded, "What are you doing to me?!"

"Compacting you." came the answer as Balthazar stood up and headed down Dave's body.

Watching with horror in his eyes, Dave all but screamed, "WHAT?!"

"Making you smaller without making you denser and heavier." came the calm answer. "It's a very useful trick."

Dave then gasped as his legs were given the same weird paper-folding treatment as his arm, his body becoming amazingly 2-D as it was folded up smaller and smaller. "MY LEGS!" he shouted, wondering if it was too late to beg unashamedly for his life.

"Hush." came the soft instruction and the only reason Dave obeyed was because Balthazar had reached his head and had folded it in half like a cardboard cutout, muffling all sounds from him. He then said gently as he kept folding the compacting body, "Now just relax and stop resisting, Dave. I'm nearly done."

Granted, this did nothing to reassure Dave, who could still hear perfectly, though he was now blind and his sense of touch was horrifically skewed thanks to the weird situation he was in. He couldn't move so he couldn't struggle and so all he could do was lie there in what felt like horrible darkness as he felt his body manipulated and folded and folded and folded! He couldn't talk or do anything and he felt so helpless!

Finally, after a lot of folding and weirdness, there was sudden light! A point of light appeared in front of him and Dave got the oddest sensation in his mind; like he had a line from his head to his toes and that somehow, he had been turned inside out… but still had his organs inside and his skin and hair outside!

His mind and body reeling from the harsh experience, Dave stumbled haphazardly to his feet, panting. Finding he had a proper 3D body and a working mouth again, he then shouted, "Don't EVER do that to me again!" He then groaned and dropped to his knees. "Ohhh, I taste more sour in my mouth…" Fortunately, he wasn't sick as he feared and he then looked up, frowning. He was going to find Balthazar and- "OH GOD, you're a giant!" Dave screamed, falling over backwards to land on his rump. He was sitting now on one of their tables, surrounded all sides by what seemed like massive books hemming him in like a mouse. And far above him towered the familiar face of his Master, though at a much larger scale. Had the whole store been grown? No wait…

Balthazar smirked, saying, "Actually, Dave, if you put your brain to work, you'd see that…" he smiled as he let the sentence trail off.

"I'm… shrunk?" Dave suggested weakly, shaking.

"Indeed." Balthazar smiled as he leaned forwards in the chair he was sitting in and very gently pinched the back of Dave's shirt, lifting him into the air casually. Dave freaked out at this, kicking and screaming as he fought to escape.

"HEY!" he shouted, trying to be angry but his high-pitched voice betrayed his true feelings.

He gulped hard as he was suddenly held in the air in front of the massive face of his Master. He stared into the huge eyes as they narrowed in a smile. "You ARE shrunk." Balthazar leaned back in the chair, still holding Dave in such a derogatory position. "To EXACTLY three inches, by the way."

Shaking as he realized this was exactly true, the young apprentice stammered out, "W-W-Why?"

Shrugging, Balthazar gently lifted Dave higher above him, saying with casual smile, "Well, for once thing: I DID mean to teach you this spell eventually. It's quite useful!" He then gently placed the small man back onto the tabletop.

Looking around him as he tried to find an exit route, Dave saw no practical use for this spell that could warrant it's passing down the sorcerer's generational ladder of knowledge, especially NOW. "But-But… I'm so vulnerable!" he protested, shaking as he looked around. His lab seemed like a very horrifying place all of a sudden. "I could be squashed or eaten by a rat!" he whined a bit, looking up at Balthazar meekly.

But the sorcerer seemed impervious to human emotions because he only shook his head. "Nope. You see, the compacting DID compact your molecules, so believe it or not, not only are you on the shy side of being utterly invulnerable, you still weigh the same."

Dave looked at him, asking, "But then why-"

Balthazar smiled as he finished the question. "-aren't you breaking through the table due to the fact that all your weight is focused on a smaller point on which to apply pressure?"

Startled that the other man had been able to guess so accurately, Dave nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, it's another case of magic versus eyes." Balthazar explained casually as he straightened up in the chair, idly scratching his stomach. "Your eyes and brain see you as being tiny, but your magic sees you as being tiny and therefore lighter. The magic inside of you adjusted you accordingly." He shrugged. "Kind of like how your ears pop when the pressure changes. It's all automatic."

Nodding, Dave then said, "Nice explanations, Balthazar, but you didn't answer my question."

"Which one?" the sorcerer asked, confused.

Dave then gestured to himself, all but shouting: "Why am I tiny?!"

"Oh that." the man said airily, as if it had been a minor detail he had not yet addressed. He then paused, asking courteously, "You sure you want me to be honest about that one?"

"YES!" Dave screamed at him, tired and scared of all this new stuff in one day.

Sighing, Balthazar pointed a finger at Dave, saying, "All right, but you asked for it." He leaned back in the chair and while cleaning his fingernails with a small knife, he looked at Dave as he said, "You are tiny because I plan to eat you."

Dave's brain stopped all functions at this statement and it took a few minutes for the meaning of the words to get into his head. "P-Par-Pardon?!" he gulped nervously, shaking more horribly now. "Y-you want to do… wh-what…?"

Balthazar leaned forwards, a hand extended ominously. "Eat, swallow, gulp, ingest, consume, dine upon…" He shrugged. "Take your pick, really. It all means the same thing in the end. You…" He pointed to Dave and then to his belly. "…in here."

Feeling weak like he would faint, Dave tried to think of a way out of such an odd situation. He started to walk backwards, stuttering, "Bu-Bu-But you can't DO that to me!"

"Oh? Can't I?" Balthazar was smiling now in a way that Dave found most unsettling and he moved away from the fingers, shaking as they only started to slowly follow him.

All but running, Dave then pleaded, "No! No, you can't!"

With the fingers nearly upon him, the sorcerer paused. "Why not?"

"I'm your apprentice!" Dave screamed, his heart fluttering weakly inside his chest at seeing the powerful hand so close to him. One squeeze from that thing and he was deader than dead! "Doesn't that MEAN anything to you?" he pleaded, now on his knees as his legs failed him, shaking.

Balthazar's face was horrifically blank as he asked, "Such as…?"

Shaking harder, Dave then argued, "Wouldn't it seem like such a horrific waste of time to go through all that work to find me and train me and then have it all end like THAT?" He watched as the fingers crept playfully closer, unable to look at anything else. "I mean, come on! That's HORRIBLE!"

"For you, maybe." came the casual reply and Dave then outright screamed as the back of his shirt was pinched again and he was lifted up into the air.

Struggling and kicking, Dave started to scream. "YES, for ME! Let me go!"

With an evil smile, Balthazar lifted the little man above his face, saying, "If you wi-"

"OH NO!" Dave shrieked, going instantly limp. Balthazar stared at him in confusion until he then explained, "I've seen my share of cartoons! You put me down on the table, Balthazar." When the man lingered for too long over his open mouth, Dave screamed again, "TABLE!"

All but laughing, Balthazar then stated as if the tiny apprentice had said nothing, "And now, do behave once you've gotten down inside. I'll need quiet to work…" He brought back out the bag into which he had scooped up the charred and ashen remains of his coat.

Staring in confusion, Dave then screamed, "On your coat?!" Then the light bulb flickered to life. "Wait… WAIT! Can't you just magically fix your stupid coat!?" he pleaded.

At this comment, Balthazar gave him a scathing look. "Of course I can." he snapped. "But that's not the point." He then settled down more comfortably in the chair, addressing the tiny, hanging man, "Now… Enough dillydallying."

As he was lifted into the air again, Dave started to scream and shout. He looked down past his feet and saw the gaping mouth of his Master. It frightened him beyond reason and he started to plead and cry for his life. "PLEASE!" He looked down into the large green eyes, pleading, "Balthazar, please! Don't do this to me!"

But the sorcerer only smiled. "Perhaps in the future we will be more careful with other people's clothing and plasma bolts?" he said with a song-song accent to his voice.

"YES!" Dave all but sobbed. "Yes, I swear I've learned!"

Balthazar seemed to consider this for a time before he shook his head. "Nope… Too hungry to care!"

Dave screamed and scrabbled as he was brought closer to the face of his Master, flailing as he tried to get loose. He tried more pleading and begging with the man, but only got his legs licked at for his troubles. The touch was warm and soft, but so wet and disgusting! He grimaced as he tried to get himself free, all but screeching in terror as he was lowered in halfway into the huge mouth. He saw the two rows of teeth starting to close and he scrabbled in desperation at the bottom lip, even trying to grab what he could of the scruffy beard!

He cried out as the teeth closed on his waist and his shirt was released. The teeth didn't hurt him, but he was pinned in place and that darn tongue was attacking his lower body and getting it soaked with more gooey saliva. "STOP IT!" he screamed, trying to pull himself out, but the teeth were closed just enough to keep him stuck tightly.

Dave then panted hard as he felt Balthazar moving around and realized that the man had leaned back and allowed his head to flop backwards over the edge of the chair so that his head was parallel to the floor. Dave then yelped as the teeth loosened slightly, causing him to start to slip. He realized that now the gravity would be what got him down if he wasn't careful! Upon realizing this, Dave tried harder to climb out, but the tongue gave no purchase for his feet and the slime was just making things harder!

Balthazar smirked as Dave started a whole new barrage of pleads and screams as he tried to work himself loose and instead only managed to squirm himself down in deeper! Oh it felt so wonderful…

The sorcerer smiled as he recalled the day Merlin had taught him this spell. Merlin's intent had been to use it for storing large objects out of sight so that they couldn't be found by those searching for them. It had helped several times, and Balthazar had adopted it for the hiding of various items such as the Encantus and his various pieces of important equipment in tiny places around his various homes where no one had found them.

And yet… Balthazar had been curious.

He had tried it on one of the drunks in the village and had fallen in love with the idea ever since. He never killed anything with this spell, since that was simply too cruel. No, he only used it to play or when he needed the closet space. He would have to teach Dave to enjoy it in the future…

Completely opening his mouth suddenly, Dave let out a very adorable squeak as he fell down into the large mouth and hit the back with a damp thud. Grinning, the sorcerer then shut his mouth and while Dave was still confused and panicked and squirmy, he slicked him up quickly and then swallowed strongly, the excess air in his mouth causing it to be a louder-sounding gulp than normal. Not that he cared much about the sound! It was the FEELING he was enjoying the most! Poor Dave was still freaking out and he was just not going down without a fight! It was just a shame that a 'fight' really only consisted of a few wriggles and struggles that did nothing but make the sorcerer smile and rub at his neck playfully with a few fingers.

Just a few more inches and he would have his young apprentice snugly in his belly and then the fun would start!

At the loud sound of the swallow, a scary wet sound, Dave had started to scream and hadn't stopped yet even though it was all muffled as he was all confined and enveloped in warm, squishy walls. He had been taken down feet first and since he had been resisting right to the end, his arms were left outstretched before him. Dave tried to get himself loose, tried to claw his way to freedom like he had seen in cartoons, but he found reality was much more frightening than the cartoons had ever let on. As he was squeezed and sucked downwards, Dave let out a few more screams before he grew exhausted of that and instead diverted his energy to trying to squirm free. Maybe if he shifted and moved a lot, it would bother Balthazar to the point that he would deem him too troublesome a morsel and cough him back up? It usually always worked in those movies with giant animals!

As his struggles continued and his freedom didn't show itself, Dave began to give up hope. Why was this happening?! Sure, he had failed a few spells on the first try, but he had always gotten them after practice! Had Balthazar finally snapped and deemed him not worthy of teaching because he wasn't learning fast enough? Was this how he got rid of all his defective apprentices? Gulped them down like nothing but a cheap candy?

Shuddering at the sudden horrific thought of landing in a slimy pit of bones and semi-digested flesh, Dave started again to try and get loose, to claw his way back up somehow. He tried to grab the walls and while his fingers did easily find ridges and grooves to slip into, they were too gooey to grab a hold of and he just couldn't get a grip! How on earth was one supposed to get out of here when the walls were so uncooperative?!

Shaking as he started to cry from sheer frustration and fear, Dave tried again and again to get free, his heart beating weakly in his chest. He had never pictured his in his Mental Book of Possible Deaths. Electrocution from a miscalculated tesla coil? Yeah, he had thought of that. Drowning in the river in winter? Hitting his head? A mugger? Yeah, he had considered all of those.

But being shrunk down and then swallowed whole by a man who had taught him magic? That was a new one.