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full-loup · 1 year ago

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Tales of Lipomancy: A Fit for a Beast

Another story/illustration combo, this one pretty long at about 15k words! Hope y'all enjoy!

If you prefer due to the length, here's an external link to a possibly easier to read format:

Chapter One

"I fucking hate mazes..." Cassius muttered as the group moved along.

His mother had told him stories of this place as a child, of the great Labyrinth of Ageláda. He always listened with apt fascination, yet his childhood was often plagued by reoccurring nightmares, of being trapped in a maze without end, constantly hunted by a monster he never fully saw, only catching glimpses of as he rushed around the next corner, and the next one, and the next one...

The other two either didn't hear or ignored him as they continued down the path, a wider avenue among the twisted corridors of the massive labyrinth. The badger grunted as he tripped over a broken column, nearly falling into one of the dark-leaved hedges that comprised almost the entirety of this awful place.

"Damn you!" He hissed, hopping on one leg as his sandaled toes throbbed with pain, "Damn this place! We're just walking in circles, aren't we?!"

"Relax," Marius Aurellius growled, the male's voice reverberating metallically through his enclosed helm, finely forged into the shape of a golden wolf, "I paid you wretches for a job, and you will not leave until your contracts are honored."

"Right, sorry Lord Aurellius..." The badger nodded, grinding his teeth as he followed along behind the warrior.

The third member of the group remained silent, but he could see her grinning out of the corner of his eye. He shivered as he thought of the raccoon. He wasn't fond of magic users in general, but something else rubbed him the wrong way about Bridget. He considered himself a mercenary, through and through, but he got the feeling she was doing this not for the coin, but for an excuse just to test out her horrifying talents. He hated sorcerers, but not nearly, he had recently decided, as much as he hated mazes.

"Gods, look at that!" The woman gasped as they rounded yet another corner, "Was that one of them, you think?"

Cassius felt his stomach turn as he caught sight of the gigantic skeleton lying in the middle of the path. The thing's bones were bleached white, but from the humongous horns that sprouted from the sides of its skull, he knew that it had to have indeed been 'one of them'.

"Minotaur..." He breathed.

"Looks that way, yes." Marius started, rattling off useless anatomical minutiae about the skeleton that would only confirm the obvious. Cassius was still in shock. All the stories his mother had told him when a child stated that the creatures were huge, but his imaginings still paled in comparison with the reality before him. The only time he'd ever seen evidence of such a beast of stature was in the library at Capitorvus where the skull of a full-grown dragon hung in its atrium, and even then it had been far enough away to seem in miniature...

"Did you hear me, hireling?"

Cassius pulled his gaze from the dead beast and looked to his employer, his helm's faceplate now raised, exposing the elf's delicate features, "Sure, yeah," The badger nodded.

"Then get moving! We've precious little time if we want to reach the center by nightfall..."

The soldier nodded again, grabbing the straps of his heavy pack and shifting it to sit more comfortably on his back, but lingered as his fellows continued onwards. He stared again, awestruck at bones, the skull alone towering over him at twice his height. He reached out, placing his palm flat against its forehead, trying to make the mythic beast seem real...

Thessala pulled her hand away from the skull as a chill ran down her spine. She felt as though she had just been touched by a ghost.

"Strange..."

The blond haired woman looked around the maze, but save the skeleton it was just as featureless as ever. This was hardly the first dead beast she had seen in this labyrinth, but it was by far the largest. There were a few strange ones, to be sure. A few had seemed strongly humanoid, possibly ogres, while others were more draconic, or even canine.

Most, however, had been unmistakably bovine.

"The Minotaurs of Ageláda..."

This bothered the cow woman greatly.

A part of her wondered what they must have looked like while alive, how similar they would have been to her. Were the legendary monsters somehow related to her kind? An evolutionary offshoot perhaps? Perhaps. She'd have to remember to ask one, if she ever found one that wasn't a pile of bleached bones.

She continued onwards, moving ever deeper into the maze. Or at least she was hoping she was heading deeper and not further out. There were no landmarks close by, at least none tall enough to be seen over the towering hedges, and her sense of direction had proven rather poor so far.

Or maybe it hadn't, it's not like there was any way to tell.

"Damn it..." Thessa growled, kicking a nearby column in anger. The stone pillar cracked on impact with her hoof, tiny fractures spiraling outwards from the point of contact. The bovine swore as the column collapsed, nearly crushing her. She had to be more careful around these ruins, apparently they were even older than they looked...

"This was a stupid idea, I'm never going to find the center... I'm never going to find anything in this dumb maze."

She might not even find the entrance again.

Thessa's heart began to pound as she looked at the various paths around her. They all looked the same.

"I have to get out of here, I can't take this..."

She moved forwards, not towards one of the twisting paths through the hedges, but towards one of the hedges themselves. She unsheathed her sword, prodding at the dark foliage of the plant wall, the color unlike any flora she had ever seen in nature. Almost pure, inky black.

Another chill ran down her spine as she raised her sword.

"I've tried everything else, might as well give this a shot..."

She brought the blade of her gladius down, cutting a path through the wall.

Another corridor of hedges lay beyond the portal she had made. She growled with frustration, moving onwards through the next barrier and cutting her way through that as well. Another featureless corridor of flora lay beyond that, and another beyond that, and another beyond that...

Thessa kept cutting, refusing to give up on her strategy, refusing to wander the endless maze like mindless cattle again. She hacked, she slashed, she raged her way through the labyrinth wall by wall, cut by cut.

Finally stopping as she reached a clearing, Thessa let out a sight of relief as she at last found something that wasn't a wall of leaves. The space before her was wide and open, taken up mainly by a large fountain, simple in its basic bowl-like shape, but elegant in the details carved into its surfaces. Many of these were worn down by age, however, much of the fountain covered by thick vines, the water having stopped flowing long ago, laying still in stagnant, algae-filled pools.

The sun was beginning to set now. She knew it wouldn't do her any good to be navigating the maze by night, not when she couldn't see. She cursed herself for not bringing any torches, wishing she had foreseen this predicament before she had gotten herself lost. Soon it would be night, and she might have to come back here if she couldn't find the center of the labyrinth soon. The clearing seemed a good enough place to stop and rest for the night as any, especially if it was potentially a reliable source of drinking water...

Thessa looked closely at the murky water, deciding it best not to risk drinking just yet despite how dehydrated she was from her exertions. Instead she drank from a flask she carried, the water sloshing about too much for her liking. If she didn't get out of here soon, she'd no longer have the luxury of choice when it came to where she could quench her thirst.

After resting a while at the fountain's edge, Thessa strolled across the clearing, beginning to hack her way through the hedges once again.

Emerging on the other side of the wall, the cowgirl stumbled, tripping over onto her stomach as she felt something grasp her ankle firmly. She grunted with exertion as she tried to pull herself free, but whatever she was snagged in would barely give.

"Come on..." She groaned, her flat, bovine teeth grinding, "Come! On!"

Suddenly she shrieked as she was yanked backwards into the clearing again. She clung tightly to her sword as she was dragged past the fountain, back the way she came, then sharply to the left, then the right. She shouted and cursed and kicked wildly as she felt her limbs snagging in the grasp of even more unseen snares, as though she were steadily being bound by ropes, until finally her mad, tumbling ride through the maze began to slow. Her surroundings became darker before Thessa realized she was being pulled down into a cave somewhere, the air cold and wet.

Her movement slowed to a halt completely now, the cowgirl thankful for that at least. The rough ride through the hedgemaze had left her battered, her leather armor torn and beaten in places, leaves and twigs sticking from her hair and the gaps in her clothing. Her pelt had fared little better, the blond fur stained with dirt and mud and even blood from the cuts and scrapes she had acquired while being dragged through the hedges and over the ground. Panting heavily, the cow was lifted up by whatever it was holding her, limbs all locked in place by the trap's grip, pulled spread-eagle as she was suspended in the middle of the cavern's maw.

Slowly, a large, purple plant pod loomed out of the darkness that filled the cave, the pod opening into a gigantic, beautiful flower. At that moment, Thessa realized that she was bound not by ropes, but the seemingly innocuous vines she had passed over in the clearing, all of them leading to this floral abomination. The tied-up cowgirl began to shout and twist in the creature's grasp.

"Let me go, monster!" She growled, spitting at the center of the flower as it drew closer, one of the several, thicker tentacles that surrounded the insides of the bulb beginning to snake through the air towards her body. The plant ignored her spittle, barely even phased as the tendril began to prod at her, the thick end of the stamen jabbing at the woman's belly, then up at her face. Thessa tugged firmly at her sword arm, but the plant responded harshly, the vine constricting her wrist squeezing painfully tight, causing the bovine warrior to both drop her sword and howl in agony.

As the woman's weapon clanged against the cavern floor, the tendril shot into her open mouth, making Thessa gag as it barreled its way down her throat. She groaned loudly in distress, her shouts muffled by the vine filling her maw as she struggled harder against the vines. Thankfully it didn't take long for her gag reflex to settle, her throat growing used to the vine lodged inside of it, Thessa still able to breath easily enough. Just as her throat was becoming comfortable however, panic filled her once more as she began to feel a new sensation growing within her stomach, a cozy warmth as though she were being filled with hot soup. Desperate, the cowgirl tried to bite into the tube in her mouth, managing to send a tremor through the strange plant, but also causing the vines binding her to tighten viciously.

Thessa sighed as the sensation continued to fill her belly, the feeling soothing despite the situation she found herself in. She'd been stuck in the maze for so long and was so exhausted it actually felt nice to have a satisfying, if unorthodox meal, though as her leather cuirass tightened around her abdomen, she wondered how long it would be before her guts burst from the pressure. There were worse ways to go, she supposed. She couldn't really think of any at the moment, but at least the liquid steadily filling her belly felt more comfortable than not. Slowly, cautiously, the captive bovine drifted off to sleep, completely, peacefully, resigned to her fate. Chapter Two

"LET ME GO YOU FUCKING WEED!" Cassius screamed.

Marius was knee deep in vines, desperately hacking away at them as they kept him from the plant's core. Cassius continued to writhe, muscles bulging despite the thickset badger barely loosening his captor's grip.

"Stop shouting, you fool! I'm almost there!" The elf spat, roaring in frustration as he found his own limbs quickly ensnared in the malevolent plant's grasp. Try as he might, there were far too many of the vines to cut a clear path through, and the warrior's heavy plate armor did little for his stamina, even without the things tangling him up.

Cassius groaned in dismay as the plant's flower opened up, blooming in an explosion of color that was somehow both sickening and breathtaking. Before long, the thing was shifting closer out of the gloom, the inner tendrils around the flower's face beginning to poke and prod at his body.

"Oh gods, oh gods!" Cassius cried as one of the tendrils began to jab at his face, the badger squeezing his eyes shut tight, "Please don't eat me, anything but that, anything bu-MMPHH!"

Bridget was still towards the mouth of the cave, attempting to scorch the vines away from Marius with her sorcery, when she saw the plant plunge its feeder tube down Cassius's throat. The raccoon didn't wait long, attempting to get the bulb of the plant within her sights and, by extension, her magic, but couldn't see past the badger's ensnared body. She huffed in frustration, biting her lip as she debated on what to do next. Deciding it was worth the risk, she changed tactics, focusing instead not on the vines attacking Marius but the ones binding Cassius instead.

The vines burned, but much slower than Bridget had hoped. A strange, guttural noise filled the cave, a shriek unlike any the three had ever heard, before it was soon joined by the muffled cries of Cassius. Bridget wasn't sure what was happening until she heard a loud crack above the clamor, then began to focus her mind, willing the flames to move down the vines towards where she thought the plant's core was, whether she could see it or not.

Apparently she had been successful, as soon after every last vine twitched and recoiled, retracting back defensively towards the monster's main body as Cassius was dropped unceremoniously to the cavern floor. Bridget's lips curled into a snarl as she glared at the burning plant, the flames reflected in her eyes, but Marius grabbed her shoulder firmly as he and Cassius rushed past her, breaking her concentration.

"Move, now!"

Begrudgingly, the sorceress broke off, tailing behind the two men as they fled the cave.

Once they were a safe distance away, the mercenaries and their employer regrouped, the badger clutching his right wrist and wincing. His paw hung at a strange, unusual angle from his arm, the sight of it almost sickening Bridget as she came close and held it gently in her grasp.

"Hold still." She commanded him, the soldier almost flinching away from her as she touched him, yet she paid his reaction little mind. As she held his paw steady, a green light shimmered from beneath her own hands, shining from between her fingers as loud crunching sounds filled the air. Cassius barked out in pain, but soon his wrist was back to normal, the male rubbing it tenderly as Bridget let go.

"Next time, try not to stop and smell the flowers..." She said as she examined the wrist before glancing up at him, smiling.

"Thanks..." Cassius said before looking down at his stomach, patting at it where it bulged under his leather armor, "Though I think I would have been fine if it stopped somewhere between the smelling and the tasting."

The raccoon laughed and slapped the stuffed badger on the back roughly, "You'll work it off, believe me! Lost a fight with a slime once. Was months before I could walk again without jiggling everywhere, you got off easy!"

The soldier smiled, trying to picture it as Bridget walked off. Judging by the woman's worn and ragged robes, he was sure she could have used the extra insulation at the time. He hoped this job went well for the two of them at least, she deserved better than the life of a hedge mage.

"Enough prattle! The both of you have wasted enough of our time, wouldn't you agree? We need to get moving now."

When it came to the party's third member though, Cassius wasn't feeling so thankful.

"Aurellius..." Cassius growled under his breath as he turned to face the elf.

Raising his lupine visor again, the warrior's blue eyes glared daggers at the badger, likely incensed by something completely stupid yet again, "Lord Aurellius, filth! You will address your betters as such, especially when you are graced by their presence..."

The soldier snarled as he stood before the elf, towering over him despite Aurellius's taller than average stature. Cassius may be considered the muscle in his line of work, but that didn't mean he was to be treated like some dumb tool, "And just how were you gracing us back in the cave, my liege? Doing some gardening with that fancy sword of yours?"

Shame flashed across the elf's face for the briefest of moments before his arrogance stamped it under heel, "You wouldn't need rescuing like some schoolchild had you not been caught in the first place, you cretin! Now get in line before I decided to cut the both of you loose and finish this job myself."

Cassius huffed, but backed down, his employer lowering his visor again as he turned and continued walking through the maze. The badger and the raccoon followed him, though by Bridget's face, Cassius could tell she was growing tired of this buffoon too.

"The dregs of society both of you..." Marius grumbled under his breath, his jab made all the more awkward by the distortion as it was filtered through his helmet.

"Beat on me all you want, Lord Aurellius, but if it wasn't for Bridget we'd be dead."

"The untrained sorceress? Bah! A witch deserves no respect, deserves little more, in fact, than to be thrown on the pyre! As for you, mongrel, when we're through with this job, all of us will be set for life. I'm sure you'll be able to pay off your bar tab then and finally achieve your life's dream of drinking yourself to an early grave." The elf sneered.

Hot anger flared up within Cassius at that, but he bit his tongue. Deep down he knew the elf was no better, a fallen noble cast out by the highest in the Empire, desperate to prove his worth to the elite once more. Before his fall from grace, he might have had an entire legion at his command. Now all he had was a single washed up legionnaire and a witch of the wilds, the only ones desperate enough to do his bidding.

But even they had their limits.

He glanced at Bridget again once Aurellius's tirade was through, and she gave the badger a knowing grin. Gold could buy loyalty in their line of work, but exploitation and abuse could buy nothing more than a knife in the back. The fact that they hadn't yet run into a living minotaur yet after all this time had seemed like luck to the badger, even more so considering he doubted a group this divided could take one down. If there was anything he had confidence though, it was in Bridget's capabilities as a sorceress, and the special tools he carried in his pack...

"By the gods..." Bridget suddenly gasped as she looked ahead once more.

"Do you see it!" Aurellius laughed, the noise tinny and inhuman, "Just over the hedge there!"

As the trio were drawn further and further from the cave, nobody was there to witness the shadow that now loomed before its mouth, nor to hear the unearthly shrieks of its sole inhabitant as it was torn out by the roots.

Thessa was sure she would be dead by now.

She almost wished she was.

Only the mountain gave her hope...

She glanced once more at the peak towering above the hedges. She couldn't be sure how far it was, but she knew where to go now, she knew it was getting closer. Most importantly of all though, her path was now clear.

The cow had awoken in a stupor, her mind foggy and clouded. She wasn't sure how long she had slept there on the cavern floor, but she knew immediately that she was now free of the plant's clutches. Stumbling clumsily to her hooves after a tremendous effort, she lumbered out the mouth of the cave and back into the winding labyrinth around it.

Thessa remembered thinking last night that she could barely imagine a worse way to die than to be engorged to bursting, like a ripe berry too full of juices. Now she was wishing that maybe she had instead, feeling it would be a much better demise than the slow one that now awaited her. Upon waking from her slumber, Thessa had immediately discovered her stomach had swollen immensely, the comforting warmth of the sap the flower had been filling her with having turned to twisting knives of pain in her over-distended stomach in the morning. The growth had been so extreme that her leather cuirass has actually burst its straps, her now boulder-sized gut bulging freakishly before her as though she were many months pregnant with a great many calves. Worse yet, the rest of her armor had felt much tighter as well around her body, and it was easy to see why. As she slept, the foul liquid the plant had filled her with was digested by her body, metabolizing with preternatural speed and being stored on her once athletic frame as heavy, sagging fat.

"This isn't fair..." She moaned as she clutched her still painfully swollen belly tightly, the orb of flesh bouncing with every slow, laborious step she took. The bovine was forced into an awkward waddle now, her stomach bulging massively before and beneath her, forcing her thighs to straddle it as she made her way ponderously through the labyrinth, "This isn't... f-fair..."

The vines had left her alone as she left the cave, their job now done. They didn't even bother her when she found the clearing again, letting her fall heavily onto her now cushioned buttocks as she rested by the fountain's side. All she could do was sob for the next hour, tears staining her plump cheeks as the exhausted, overstuffed cow cried herself to sleep once again.

Another day had passed, slumber gripping the heavy bovine like quicksand, the once healthy warrior having to struggle just to pull herself from her sleep. As the morning sun baked her bare belly, she gasped thickly, shock filling her bloated belly with cool dread.

Through the night, the belt that held her defensive skirt of pteruges had burst off of her, succumbing to the pressure of her swelling hips. Other straps, too, had failed as her body had piled thickly with blubber, her force-fed meal still wreaking destruction upon her body. Through the night, Thessa must have gained at least fifty pounds of pure fat, and her belly didn't feel the least bit emptied of that wretched, heavy fluid...

"Oh no..." She moaned, tears welling in her eyes once more, "This can't... this can't be happening..."

Thessa knew that as the days passed, her body would continue to fatten. More and more she would become burdened by her new form, more and more easily would she tire as she weakened and softened with time. As the days she would waste wandering aimlessly through the maze came to pass, she would grow slower and slower, making less progress with each new day. Moving would become more of a struggle as the cruelly massive stores of sap within her digested, until finally, at long last, she would be pinned to the ground by her own hideous bulk. Then she would truly find out if the liquid within her was as endless as she feared, her body smothered by its own weight. If that wasn't the case, then of course the sap would one day run out instead and Thessa would die, fatter than anyone she had ever known, by starving to death.

What a disgusting joke that would be.

Thessa began to cry again, sobbing until tears wouldn't come.

As she looked up, she saw something that sent a thrill of surprise through her body. At first, she had thought it was simply one of the portals she had hewn through the hedges before, but this one was much to large and, as she looked around, on a completely different wall, facing a completely different direction. Sighing, Thessa prepared herself for the now burdensome task of standing, and wobbled herself onto her hooves.

As she approached the hole in the foliage, another one slowly began to open up through the wall beyond that. Her curiosity now piqued, she waddled through and approached the new gap, only to see another appear beyond that one. The cow's belly bounced as she looked around, confused. Was this some kind of trap? The tactic seemed much too clever for the plant creature she'd encountered and besides that, she had little left to lose anymore anyways. Whatever was happening here, she might as well see it through to the end.

Without a second thought, Thessa began to journey through the maze again, this time following the path that opened up before her, walking through the walls instead of between them.

Days would pass, Thessa growing exhausted again and again. Before she was caught by the flower, she might have been able to make the journey within a matter of hours. Now, she could barely walk a mile without feeling like she would die. Every time she stopped to rest, she knew that she would wake up heavier and dreaded it, but she had nowhere else to go. Despite this, she was about ready to give up, convinced that the maze itself was trying to kill her with sheer exhaustion, when she saw it.

The mountain.

Visible on approach to the island, but hidden from sight once inside the outskirts of the labyrinth, the peak of Mount Tavros was the only real landmark one could find within the maze. Unfortunately the only way to see it was to get close enough, and few who dared enter ever did.

In spite of the weight that was piling onto her, that threatened to pull her to the ground, Thessa felt hope rising inside of her. Hope that filled her heart, that lifted her to her feet every morning, that drew her inevitably to the peak at the island's center. She knew she could get there now, it was only a race against time. If only she could reach that peak, then maybe she could find what she sought. Maybe they could save her life...

With her goal now before her, Thessa carried on. Even as the fat sagged from her body in rolls of meaty flab, even as her thighs became swallowed by thick blubber that caused them to chafe with every waddling step, she forged onwards. Despite her energy draining more with every dawn, or perhaps because of it, she pushed herself harder, unable to allow herself to be defeated now that she knew she had even the slightest chance. She would not be brought down before she found her answers.

Drawing closer to the mountain, so much so that its crags and cliffs filled her vision, another landmark bagan to come into view as well over the hedge walls. Thessa could see little of it beyond the highest parapets until she stood before it and, in doing so, she realized she had finally reached her goal.

There she stood now, at the center of the maze, the hedge walls finally opening up, parting to form a vast circle that enclosed Mount Tavros and the space around it. Standing before her, beautiful and majestic, loomed a castle. Thessa never would have expected to find such a thing here, especially not one that was so marvelous, so breathtakingly wondrous. Alabaster and marble colluded to form towers and balustrades that looked as though they were sculpted from clouds, golden ornamentation along the facade and over the ramparts making it seem a citadel fit for the gods themselves.

Thessa was frozen now, at a loss for what action to take next. She looked at the long, sprawling bridge that lead from the cliff she now stood on, over a massive, yawning chasm and to the castle's very gates. She was unsure if she should proceed. Did someone, something still dwell within those magnificent towers? Would she be trespassing once she crossed the castle's threshold, and if so, what resistance would she meet once inside?

These questions were meaningless, her hesitation a waste of precious time. Whether the castle was empty or filled to the brim with monsters or not, her entry into it was inevitable now, the only option she had left other than to meet a humiliating and obscene doom. The bovine warrior took a deep breath, her massively swollen and now bare breasts rising before her face as she did so, and reached for her sword...

Only to remember that it was gone, left way back on the cavern floor where her struggles had truly started within the maze. She still had her shield, and what few scraps of her leather armor that still clung to her shoulders and arms, but beyond that she was naked and defenseless.

So be it, she decided. If she were to find a fight before her, she would most assuredly be slain with little effort now, but it was better than waiting here.

Steeling herself, Thessa began to march across the bridge. Her body had grown enormously since she had escaped the cave, and by now she must weigh almost as much as a horse, but she couldn't let that stop her. Already she was worn out from the distance she had covered that day, and her breathing became strained. Already she felt exhaustion dragging her down into its clutches. She knew with absolute certainty that she couldn't give in, that were she to rest just one more time she would awaken immobilized, unable to stand back up. Only a day ago, her bloated stomach had grown enough to reach the ground, and now Thessa had to hold its sagging mass in her paws just to be able to move forwards. Within a day or two, her buttocks would surely join it, their exposed, titanic swell bouncing behind her with every step, the dimpled cheeks wobbling and rippling like gelatin as they crashed into one another. Her cascade of backrolls looked like a mountain unto itself, mirroring the peak that filled the horizon in front of Thessa and her breasts rose and fell before her with each strained breath, so filled with fat that they retained some of their perkiness, but so heavy that they sagged gravidly to the sides of her stomach's bulk. Her blubbery thighs crushed against one another as she shifted her legs forwards and back and her arms sagged with girthy flab, making it difficult for her to even hold her stomach in her grasp, despite its sheer size.

Her body, when it was fit and lean, was once one of her greatest assets as an adventurer. Now, it conspired against her at every turn. The bridge beneath her was built of solid rock and stone, but even that trembled slightly from her girth now, loose mortar spilling from its stonework underneath as the hooves on its surface and the burden they carried stomped across its span. Thessa's lungs were burning with each breath, her heart pounding and fluttering deep beneath her chest fat. Sweat soaked her fur now, weighing her down even more as it dripped from her corpulent body to the stones below, the setting sun that baked her in its heat doing little for her stamina, but she knew she couldn't stop. She already felt even fatter than when she had set out across the bridge, and if she were to rest, even for a moment, on her backside, she knew she would never get back up. If she couldn't reach the castle, then wherever she chose to sat would be where her story would come to an end.

That wouldn't happen.

Twenty paces from the door now. Thessa gasped thickly, spittle spilling past her plump lips as she gazed up at it. She was so close now, but her entire body burned, every muscle in agony, every nerve crying out. She feared she would collapse, that her knees would simply buckle under the pressure; that her heart, now thundering painfully in her chest, would explode at any moment. She couldn't stop. She wouldn't. Were she to die of exertion, then at the very least she'd have foiled the fate that abominable plant had intended for her. Just a few more steps, so very close to her goal...

She pushed heavily against the golden doors to the citadel, barely even taking in the reliefs upon their surface that depicted millennial of magic and history. To her astonishment, they parted, unlocked, nearly toppling the obese cow forwards onto her gut. She gasped and wheezed as she looked around the vast foyer before her, thankful for the shade, keeping her sweat-soaked body cool and giving her relief. She had made it... but now what?

The foyer was empty, its furniture and decoration covered with dust, strangled in cobwebs. She looked around the large room, desperate to find answers, to find her salvation, but only saw more paths. The sprawling staircase in front of her, the many paths leading off to her left, to her right. Corridors and corridors. Room after room. She had traded one maze for another.

"Puhhh... Pleeeease....!" She gasped heavily, her voice heavy, deepened by her blubber, reflecting the sheer mass she had gained since her journey began, "Some... S-Somebody! Anybody... I need... help..."

Nobody answered. Thessa was wheezing. Her heart was pounding with both exhaustion and panic now.

"Wuhhhh... where are... you?!" She bellowed thickly, rasping breaths burning through her lungs as she stumbled clumsily about in a circle, her entire body quaking in fear and dismay as the room spun around her, "Please! I came... I came so far! Phaedre! Where are... where..."

As darkness began to fill her vision, the cow's mind raced with fearful thoughts.

She was going to die here, not the heroic warrior she had so longed so be ever since she was young, but as a helpless pile of lard. She wondered what her family and friends would think of her if they somehow could see her like this, what her hero would think of her were she actually here... She would look like a slob, a glutton, a whale.

Shame was the last thing she felt before her vision faded, and she fell heavily to the cold, stone floor.

"You are so very brave, aren't you?"

"Phay... Phaedre..!" Thessa gasped.

The warrior's brown eyes shot open at the sound of the voice. She felt the soft mattress and pillows under her, the cool blankets that covered her body, and thought at first that she was home again. She hoped that the events of the past week or so had only been a dream, but knew that it wasn't by the size of the bed; by the size of herself.

Dread balled up in her gargantuan gut. In a fit of panic, she struggled to sit up, her fat-swaddled arms and legs flailing uselessly besides the rolls of fat that was now her torso. She wheezed heavily from the momentary exertion, already drained. She was still alive, but now she was helpless. This was it, this was her end.

"Please..." She huffed now to the voice, "Please, help me..."

A figure came into her view, cloaked, a porcelain mask beneath the cowl. A faux human face gazed down at her, its shining white features gilded and threaded with gold. She glanced at the sword sheathed at the side of his azure robes. Thessa didn't take long to realize that this stranger was not the person she had expected to find here at the labyrinth's center. Whoever this was was armed and disguised, and that should have unsettled her, but Thessa was calm as she stared up at the figure. There was little he could do to hurt her further now.

"Just do what you... what you must..." She said, still panting heavily as she caught her breath, gulping and puffing, "Whether you kill me now... or tend to my needs as I... as I lie here, it matters not... I care not... There is no hope for me... I was foolish to think there would be..."

"Such a dismal outlook, you must surely realize..." The man said from behind his mask. He held a small bowl in his hands, which he scooped into a basin of fresh water at the side of the bed, "Many would share such a viewpoint sadly. That's the way the world has always been. Nobody wants to see the positives in life."

Thessa's brow furrowed, dimples forming in her soft cheeks as she frowned, "Positives... P-Positives..?" She grunted, panting now not out of fatigue, but anger, "Look at me! Do you even know... huff... huuhh... know what's happened... what's happening to my..."

The man held a finger to sculpted lips, then brought the bowl to the cow's mouth. She felt then, suddenly, just how parched she was, draining the bowl quickly and eagerly. He would be her caretaker then, not her executioner. What a shame.

"I am well aware, even more than you are," He said with the calm of certainty, "Even in such a state as you are now, there is more good than bad."

Thessa clenched her sausage fingers, trying to suppress the rage that was growing inside her, though she was unable to keep her body from shaking gently, the tremble creeping its way into her voice, "You don't know. You've never had this happen to you, that much I can guess..." She sighed, closing her eyes as tears came to them once more, "You don't know how it feels."

The man paused as he was filling the bowl again, turning his expressionless face towards her, "You are right, I do not know that. What I do know is that, even though your affliction will inevitably kill you, yes, you still did not surrender to it. You still fought, you still made your way here and suffered as you did, even though you did not know what lay in store. Not many make it through the maze, and even though I guided you here, not many would have survived what you did." He remained silent as he brought the bowl again to Thessa's lips, and though she was still angry, she still drank, "You are so very brave, Thessala, and you now know that about yourself."

"I... I know..." She started, her lips trembling as she held her tongue. She wanted to argue against him, to say she had always known this, but did she? Did she ever actually accept it until right now? Her eyes were still squeezed firmly shut, but nothing could stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks, "How did you... did you know my name?"

The man didn't answer for some time. Once more, he refilled the bowl for Thessa and let her drink, but afterwards set it aside and moved away from her bed. When he at last responded, his voice echoed from across the chamber, "Magic is a pathway to abilities many would deem... unimaginable..."

Thessa tried to shift her body on its side, but it wasn't long before she found that to be impossible now. Instead she simply turned her head, eyes widening at what she saw. The bedroom was much larger than she had expected, opening up into a larger chamber that seemed to serve as a laboratory or workshop of some sort. The space was filled with equipment, workbenches, bookshelves and storage crates. Devices and specimens, many so exotic that Thessa couldn't even identify, let alone describe, littered tables and hung from the ceiling on wire. Greatest among these that she could see was the skull of yet another minotaur set against the back wall, though this one was even larger than any she had come across within the labyrinth. The cloaked figure was at one of these strange devices, something that looked to be a mix between a shelf and a column.

"So what... you... you read my mind?" Thessa huffed.

"In a way. The technique is very obscure and many such esoteric spells are both powerful and difficult for even someone as experienced as I to fully understand," As he talked, the man was operating small dials set into the shelf-device, and the glass surrounding it opened up, turning away to reveal many vials and bottles shrouded by a cool mist that leaked from within the mechanism. All of the containers seemed to hold the same sort of liquid, a red substance that glowed with a soft luminescence, "Forgive me, I haven't yet introduced myself have I? My name is Zayn Var'Navosh."

Thessa paused for a moment, stunned, "The... The great wizard Var'Navosh? Descended from the royalty of Luxumentum to the north?" The Bastard Bloodline, she thought to herself. She wouldn't dare say so, but his line was said to be cursed, descended from gods, but the wrong sort of gods. Still, he was known as one of the most powerful sorcerers to ever walk mortal lands. If there were any alive who could help her, he was one of her best bets, "Then surely, you could... you could cure me, couldn't you? There must be a... a spell, some magic that could... could..."

As she pleaded, Zayne took one of the smaller vials from the mechanism, setting it down on the table next to him. He turned to face her now, pulling back his cowl and removing his mask, exposing his real face to her. He stared at her with bright green eyes, dark strands of unkempt hair framing the human's features, "I'm sorry," He told her, glancing away from the woman, "You cannot be cured... But that doesn't mean you have to die."

The massively fat warrior let out a shuddering sigh, closing her eyes again as the wizard moved back to her side. He carried the vial now, and Thessa fought back her sorrow to look at it, as the man spoke, "You know of my lineage, then surely you know the darkness that taints it..." He began, "The creature that did this to you was a gift to me by a... cousin of mine, one who is much less human. A twisted form of one of her creations, specifically devised to kill a demigod. Were it not for the tainted sap of this creature then all we would need to cure you would be nothing more than lipomancy, but this sap infuses every ounce of fat on you now."

"B-But that still doesn't... doesn't make sense..." Thessa panted, trying to remain calm, "How did I get so big, so heavy? Only from just a... a belly full of that stuff... the gain shouldn't be possible..."

The man nodded and smiled, "Astute of you to take notice, but like many things involving my more extended family, the rules of our reality don't always apply. These pretender gods, or the Eldritch Aristocracy as you might know them, hail from a reality very far removed from our own. The caloric density of this sap is much greater than its mere mass would suggest, and while it is not limitless, you will not survive by the time all of it digests. Even now, your body is already failing from its sheer size. As I said before, the fact that you were even able to make it here is a testament to who you are..."

"Then get it out of me!" Thessa begged, "If the sap is what's killing me, then surely you can..."

Zayne held up his hand, shaking his head, "Removing it without killing you would simply be impossible. As I said, it has infused itself with your very body from the moment it began to digest. There is only one way to save you but... You can never be, at least physically, who you were before..."

Thessa feared that he meant she would be stuck this way for the rest of her life, bound to this bed, in this room, by her corpulent body. Before she could state as much, Zayne held up the glowing vial and began to explain.

"The maze that surrounds us is protection. Necessary to safeguard many of the things I have collected here, things that are desired by the greedy, by the cruel. This vial of dragon's blood is one such thing," He said, holding it to the candle light. The vial glowed brighter, its contents seeming to twist and blend both definitions of the term 'plasma'. As the light refracted through the blood, it turned Zayne's brown skin gold, his azure robes emerald, "It will stop the sap from killing you, it can turn the weakness afflicting you into strength, but it will also change you forever... in very drastic ways."

The cow's eyes flicked to the skull within the wizard's workshop. She understood now, understood much more than she wanted to, perhaps.

"Phaedre..."

The wizard's face darkened. He looked away from her.

"Ever since I was a girl, I looked up to a hero. Another cow woman. Phaedre Lytara. She disappeared centuries ago, but after years of searching, I found out she had come here to Ageláda... Then after more searching, I finally found this place," She looked at the wizard completely now, but he would not meet her eyes, "She came here, didn't she? She reached the center of the maze after all. There was no way somebody like her couldn't have. She'd never have failed her quest, and she never did."

"Yes," He said.

"Zayne Var'Navosh, great wizard," She continued, "Did you turn my hero into a monster?"

He wouldn't say anything.

Thessa held her face in her chubby paw, grimacing as she did. All this time she had hoped to find her, find out what happened to the woman who had inspired her. She wasn't a fool, she had assumed she had died long ago. She never would have thought she would have died as a beast, as one of the monsters that heroes like her were supposed to fight.

"Why?"

"Because..." He said, facing her at last, "She understood what needed to be done. Understood what was necessary. She... the others, they all protected this place just as much as the labyrinth I made, if not more so."

"She was a hero! My hero!" Thessa growled, "She was strong enough to protect this place without you twisting her into that thing!"

Zayne stepped away from her, throwing out his arms as he strode towards Phaedre's skull, "And how has that changed? She was strong, yes! But she always wanted to be stronger..." He said, looking up at the former cow woman's remains, "And I gave that to her, she chose it."

"She chose to be a minotaur, a mindless animal..?"

"Not mindless..." Zayne replied, shaking his head, "They are not as the fables paint them. Ruled by instinct like a beast, but it can be controlled. She controlled it. She had the might she always wanted and she used it to defend this place, to defend me, and maybe even more than that... When my cousin came to kill me herself, when she tainted this island, Phaedre gave her life to fight her. She sacrificed herself and stopped a demigod. Who among mortals can claim that?"

Thessa fought back her anger again as she listened to the sorcerer and sighed. Maybe he was lying to her, but she could see little reason for that beyond her own desires to see him as a villain, "So she died a hero after all..."

"She did..." Zayne said, placing his hand upon the skull. He stayed like that for a while, and when he turned to face her, he couldn't hide the tears, "You don't have to take the dragon's blood yourself. I'm not forcing you to make that choice. But I wasn't lying about your options. Either die as what you are, or live as something else. Whichever you choose to do, you will still be you inside. Whichever choice you make, it will not be the wrong one."

Thessa took a deep breath, then chose.

Chapter Three

The sun shone down on the clearing, a beast hunched over the fountain at its center. The creature chewed at bits of fleshy plant matter it held in its giant hands like cud, savoring the taste. It had drained the floral abomination dry, but still that wasn't enough. There was nothing left of it now, beyond shriveled vines and what now filled the minotaur's belly.

She snorted as she licked her lips, then dunked her snout into the stagnant waters of the fountain, drinking thirstily from the pool, washing down the vile plant's taste.

Someone was shouting nearby, the same voices that had brought her to the cave. She raised her head and snorted, water cascading past her lips and through the fur of her face, draining into the pool below as she looked around.

She was not cruel, but she had her duty. She would give them a choice.

"What makes you so sure?!" Cassius demanded.

If the Isle of Ageláda was legend for its maze and the monsters that guarded it, then Mount Tavros was known far and wide as the prize at its center. Beyond that, nobody knew what exactly the maze defended, nor the purpose of its construction at all, but there were plenty of rumors. Vast wealth, the secret of immortality, a wizard that could grant wishes. There was no proof of any, of course, no proof that anyone had even reached the center, or lived if they had to tell the tale.

"There has to be something of value, you churlish oaf!" Marius shouted back, extending his arm to gesture at the walls around them, "Why else would anyone fabricate... this!"

"To lure people in, trap them, you never thought of that golden boy?" The badger sneered.

Bridget waved her hands frantically in the air, shushing them as she did, "Quiet! Both of you! Listen, do you hear that?"

They all went quiet, listening to the rumbling that had begun to fill the air.

The noise grew closer, louder, and soon they could feel it. Not long after that, they could even smell it, a scent not unlike a stable of horses or a barn of cattle, mixed with a wild, musky stench.

All three of them waited as the giant rounded the corner before them, all of them stiller than statues.

They stood their ground, though Cassius found himself trembling in place now, his heart pounding as he looked up at the monster. The minotaur was a colossus, towering over them, larger even than the dead one they had found. It... no, not it... she... looked down at them, thick blond hair covering her face, brown eyes peering between the matted strands. The minotaur's body was not as Cassius had expected, coated with a thick layer of fat that strained against an outfit cobbled together with scraps of metal and leather and rope. Despite this, it was clear to anyone that saw her that she was sturdily built, the muscles beneath the softness strong enough to crush stone in her bare hands, strong enough to level entire buildings with the massive club she rested on her shoulder.

The blond furred beast looked down at them with an unmistakable expression of disdain upon her face, like anyone of normal stature might gaze at a mouse or a spider.

"Leave..." She grumbled as softly as she could, her voice sending vibrations through the ground, through Cassius's teeth.

All of them were shaking visibly now. All of them except for that idiot, Marius.

"Oh, I think not!" He laughed, twisting his torso as he did to face his fellows, "We came here to reach the end, and that's just what we'll do, so let me put this into terminology even a dumb brute like you will follow: Let us pass or taste my blade."

The minotaur snorted at that, mist spraying from her nostrils before she stepped closer, a single step that brought her directly before them all. Cassius wanted desperately to listen to the beast and turn tail, but it looked like they were committed to a fight now, and they had a plan for this at least. Reaching into his pack, the badger pulled forth a grappling hook and heavy chain, looking to Bridget who nodded to him as she looked back.

"Leave..." The monster grunted, louder now, loud enough for Cassius to feel in his bones, "Or die."

"Then blood shall be spilt, now!" Marius cried.

Immediately, Bridget raised her paws to the sky, the ruined columns and pillars about them rumbling. The minotaur looked around at the stones, confused, until dust and loose rock began to fall onto her shoulders. She looked up, eyes wide as a sculpted arch above her fell, but it was too late for the cumbersome monster to move out of the way. The heavy stone impacted against her back and head, sending the massive giant tumbling to the ground before her, the very earth quaking as she hit.

"Now, now, now!"

As one, the two mercenaries besides the elf moved. The grappling hook soared through the air as Cassius hurled it, arcing over the minotaur's shoulder while Bridget raised her hands in the air again. As though guided by invisible hands, the hook wrapped about the minotaur's shoulder and arm, binding it firmly before the hook was sent plunging into the ground. Once deep enough, a specialized device within the grapple opened, anchoring it firmly into the earth even as another was hurled at the behemoth. The creature tried to dodge but was already chained in place, grunting as she met resistance where her arm was bound, unable to resist as her left became ensnared as well.

"NO!" The creature bellowed, her voice causing the rest of the standing ruins about them to come crumbling to the ground.

Already trapped, the minotaur could do nothing as more hooks were thrown, all of them guided by Bridget's sorcery, all of them firmly anchored in place. When all was done, the minotaur was completely entangled in the chains, brought to kneel before the trio, her back hunched, enormous palms flat against the earth in front of her. She wasn't getting back up anytime soon.

Marius chuckled at his mercenaries' handiwork, strutting around the beast triumphantly as he unsheathed his sword, "My, my, what a prize we have here!" He laughed, slamming the blunt end of his blade against one of the chains, the metal rattling, the beast roaring, "I'm sure the scholars at Capitorvus would love to rip you apart! Or maybe the Emperor himself would take you for his menagerie? If I recall, he already had a male, but I'm sure the poor thing could use some company, don't you think?" He jeered, lifting the minotaur's massive chin with the tip of his blade.

The creature's muscles bulged beneath her fat as she struggled, snorting frantically, grunting and bellowing in fury. Cassius cringed as he looked at the captured monster, seeing for a moment not a beast, but a woman bound by chains. He saw a strange, feral beauty of the behemoth, the sentience as he looked into her eyes.

This wasn't a monster. This was a person they had seized.

"Leave..." The behemoth panted, her breath baking against the three.

"Let's just go..." He muttered, imagining her dragged through the city in shackles, beautiful white fur pelted with garbage and rotten fruit, "Just leave her, it'd be too much trouble..."

"Of course we're leaving her, imbecile! Then we'll take her back on the way out!" Marius said, turning to face him, his wolf-helm frozen in an eternal grin, "Unless you're suggesting we abandon our catch..."

"Leave..!" The minotaur bellowed, shaking her head in annoyance, straining uselessly against her chains, "Now!"

"No... It's just, she's... just look at..."

Bridget pushed Cassius aside, standing between him and the knight, "She might escape if we just left her is all! So why bother with the dumb thing! Right?" She said, glancing from Marius to the minotaur, "Let's just move on, it'll make a good story regardless, not many folks manage to bring down one of these!"

Marius was silent as he looked between them, one hand on his hip, the other opening and closing its fingers around the grip of his sword. Finally he turned back to the behemoth and stepped closer to her.

"Not many do, no..." He said, gripping his sword with both hands. He leveled the tip of the blade to the minotaur's forehead, then raised it above him to strike, "And how few can be said to have slain one?"

The creature roared as her muscles flexed, the chains binding her body all nearly snapping at once. Marius froze, unable to do a thing as he was seized in one of the beast's massive hands, the behemoth moving surprisingly fast for one her size.

"Wha-Let me go freak!" Marius screamed, voice shrill with terror. He tried to bring his sword to bear on the creature's fingers, but the angle was too awkward, his movement restricted by his heavy plate armor, "Put me down! Put me down! Help!"

The minotaur plucked the sword from Marius's grasp with her free hand, holding the blade between her fingers as she lifted it to eye-level. Cassius had always thought the sword looked more ornamental than practical with its golden gilding and faceted jewels, and this theory was lent credence when the behemoth snapped the blade handily between her giant fingers.

"Pathetic..." She snorted.

"Let me go! Please! I'll leave! We'll all leave, please let me live!"

"Let me put this... into terminology..." The minotaur groaned, a vicious smile spreading across her bovine lips, "Even a dumb brute... like you... will follow..."

Marius screamed as the gargantuan woman tightened her grip around his waist. The metallic cry soon turned into a stomach-churning gurgle as blood began to leak from between the elf's plate armor and dripped through the monster's clenching fingers. The two mercenaries could only watch, Cassius frozen with fear, Bridget either fear or apathy, as the fallen noble's body went limp in the giant's grasp.

"We sh-should..." Cassius began, "S-Should..!"

He screamed as Marius's bloody corpse was tossed into him, knocking him to the ground pinning him beneath it.

"Cassius!" Bridget cried as the minotaur charged her. The raccoon hissed as she leapt to the side, narrowly dodging a punch from the beast. As the monster turned and bent, reaching for the club she had dropped when she was captured, the hedge mage jumped at the giant, clinging to the rope that held up her loincloth and bound a strangely normal-sized sword to her waist. The minotaur roared in fury, desperately trying to shake the woman off of her and failing as the witch scaled her way up the flabby giant, clinging tightly to her back rolls, he claws sinking into the beast's flesh and drawing blood.

"I'll make you suffer, you big bitch!" Bridget spat, drawing a gnarled dagger from her belt, the blade glowing with a sickly green light as it was unsheathed.

The minotaur snorted in irritation before slamming her back into one of the nearby ruined pillars still left standing, knocking the raccoon helplessly to the ground and the dagger from her grip.

"Curse you..." The woman hissed as she got to her feet, flames sparking in her palms, the fire reflecting in her eyes, "Curse you all!"

Bridget hurled the flames at the minotaur and they split, landing on the chains that still hung loose from her swollen curves. The beast roared in pain and anger as the spell hit her, the chains igniting across her body as though doused in oil. The monster's fur began to smolder as it started to catch alight as well, but instead of trying to put out the flames, she charged at the raccoon again, horns leveled at the mage as she attempted to gore her foe.

"Hah!" Bridget cried with glee as she dodged out of the way, landing on her feet as the gigantic beast passed her by, "I'm too fast! I'm too fucking fa-"

Cassius finally managed to pull himself out from under his dead employer, just in time to hear Bridget scream. He looked up, seeing the minotaur's thick, almost draconian tail slam into the woman, sending the racoon witch flying into one of the nearby hedge walls. The sorceress shrieked loudly as the flames still flaring from her claws ignited the leaves around her, the entire hedge soon swallowed in a hideous inferno.

It was one of the worst ways to go Cassius had ever seen.

He had little time to morn as the minotaur turned to face him. He scrambled to his feet as she scooped up her club, her hooves clomping through the earth, sending dirt and grass flying into the air as the giant woman picked up speed.

Cassius ran, knowing that this wasn't the kind of nightmare you wake up from.

#fat furry #fatfur #weight gain

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