On the high roads of the Demesne, a merchant caravan had come to a rest for the night, its motorcade coming to a halt at the edge of a great forest. Since time immemorial, the forests of the Demesne have always been strictly off limits, though in recent years, it had been decreed that they were now officially safe to enter. Of course, even with such a statement, generations of observable evidence were not so easily dismissed. As such, it was still common practice for many roads and travellers to skirt the borders of the many grand forests of the Demense. It helped that many of them had very identifiable borders, sections where the open plains abruptly ended, and dense thickets of trees formed.Ā
The caravan itself was composed of many different creatures, and among their numbers was one brown tabby cat named Roland. Neither a guard nor a merchant, the feline was mostly only tasked with lifting and moving the merchandise, and keeping operations at the camp functioning smoothly. In other words, they were a low ranking grunt who was a bit of an afterthought to the folks around them. The caravan had been traveling for a week at this point, and while they had done their best to ration out food, it was an inevitability that some big appetites would see certain rations going just a bit faster than they were supposed to.Ā
They were still a day away from the next big village, and Roland, as unimportant to the operations as they were, had definitely been on the short end of rations today. He lay atop a vehicle, looking up at the cool night sky, rubbing his toned stomach as he lamented his meager portion of bread today. His eyes fell to the forestās edge once more, brimming with possibilitiesā¦
"They said I don't have to stay out of the forest anymore, and the old books I read say that the inside of the woods is some kind of natural bounty or something... fruits and stuff grow on trees, and there's so many of them here. Surely nobody would mind if i just took a quick peak... grab something tasty and then dip back out..."
The cat was hardly a fighter, if anything went wrong or some kind of phenomena struck, the very basic fundamentals of magic he was familiar with would probably do him no favors. Still, he didn't get to be in this position by making the best decisions in life. Standing up as gracefully and stealthily as only a cat could, the young man dropped to the ground, making sure no one was looking his way.
Roland waited until he was past the treeline, and suddenly began to run swiftly, athletic legs allowing him to bob and weave through the unfamiliar environment. So far, everything looked the same, he couldn't see any fruits, or even any animals. Perhaps that was just because they were so close to the edge...
It didn't take long for the over eager cat to become completely lost. The further in he went, the more the ground began to grow hazy, a fog rising in the cool night air that obscured his vision even further. The fog made him nervous, and he was just about to turn tail and run, when something suddenly caught his eye. It was very brief, but he could have sworn he'd seen a fox dart by.
"Um... Hello? I, is someone there?" The cat called out in a hushed voice, not wanting to speak too loudly lest his companions hear. Were they close by still? He honestly couldn't tell, and in fact, as he went deeper into the fog to chase after the fox, It was quickly becoming more difficult to see where he'd come from.
Pressing forward, Roland's swift steps slowed down slightly, the fog now completely obscuring the forest's floor. He created a small ball of light from his paw, crackling softly, but it hardly did a thing to help him see further. Regret was rising swiftly, and he was just about to turn back when he heard a voice.
"You look a little lost friend~! What're you doing all the way out here this late at night?" The voice was spritely and a bit sing songy, and despite sounding welcoming, it sent a shiver up Roland's spine, especially from how he couldn't tell where it was coming from.
"Ah... I'm, I was just looking for some food... I uh, who are you? Am... Am I lost?" He turned around where he stood, stumbling as he tried to follow the voice, but to no avail.
"Oh, you probably shouldn't have said that... The forest lord has become ever so generous to anybody who walks the wooded path! You'll probably find much more than you were expecting out here..."
Before Roland could even ask, a vine shot forward from the mist, wrapping around one arm, while another forced its way into his muzzle. he let out a muffled cry of distress, which only grew more impassioned as some kind of thick, sticky liquid began to pour down his throat. Maybe some kind of sap, whatever it was, it did... taste very good... His shoulders dropped a bit, and he enjoyed the flavor.
Feeling sated, he moved to pull the vine from his mouth, only to suddenly receive a reminder that his right hand was currently being restrained. Ears pinning back as his tail fluffed out, the tabby began to pull harder, gripping the vine on his muzzle with his free paw.
It was much thicker than he was expecting, and it pulsed softly massive dollops of that mysterious substance forced their way into his throat. At this point, he felt a button on his shirt pop of with a distinct ripping sound, and a hot blush over took him. Trying to pull away with his fully power, he focused on his left paw, sending a current of electricity into the vine to try and stop it.
This, of course, was entirely ineffective, and the vine showed no signs of wear or tear, if anything it looked almost invigorated! slowly losing vigor, the cat's paw dropped, tired from struggling, from over eating, and from wasting so much mana. His paw came to rest on his swollen belly, and suddenly the fire inside him was re lit.
Whimpering at the sight, Roland's flat middle was currently bulged out into a massive ball, pushing farther out from his middle than he even thought possible. From the way his pants seemed to be constricting too, a tear forming along the seat of his trousers that made his fluffed out tail whip about, he was suddenly aware that he was in even more danger than he realized.
"Oh yeah, getting a lot more than you were expecting... well, at least you won't be hungry! You might wanna get out of here while you still can though, the forest is VERY giving... and uh, you're not gonna get out of here if you can't fit between the trees~" That voice continued to taunt Roland.
At the mention of potentially ending up too large to flee, instincts kicked in, and his paw suddenly shot to his lower back, stumbling about a few times before finding purchase on the grip of a knife. His paws clasped the instrument, and after a bit of struggling to get it out of its holster the wrong way, he managed to stab it into the vine, cutting downwards through its middle, snapping off completely this time when he yanked his head back. He managed to spit out the bit of vine that remained in his mouth, and he looked down in terror as it landed atop his belly, still writhing about.
He tried to speak, and instead felt a massive belch errupt from his muzzle instead, further disorienting him as he came to rest against the side of a tree. "H... Holy Hell, this is... w-what are you doing to me!? I, I'm getting out of here!"
As soon as he managed to catch his breath, Roland pushed off the tree and began running, a practice that lasted for all of five steps before he came to a halt again, resting against another tree. "oh god... I feel so heavy... and warm... oh god, am I , getting fatter...? O-Oh I'm..." He looked down at his paw, and in confirmation, he could see that it was swelling up before his eyes, along with the rest of his arm.
Suddenly and without warning, another vine descended, wrapping itself around his muzzle before forcing its way in again, what felt like a gallon rapidly unloading itself into his mouth. While his knife did the trick once more, he was looking even more bloated, more and more buttons were ripping off his shirt, and his pants had completely split down the middle, along with his belt bursting off as well.
Fear can be an excellent motivating factor, especially as he could have sworn, for a brief moment, the light from one of his camp mate's lanterns off in the distance. While far less graceful than when he had entered, the cat still fled with amazing dexterity, weaving and stumbling his way around trees as he headed towards the light he'd seen, dodging further vines.
The fog was starting to clear, and he was almost free, but the damage to his body was more glaringly obvious than ever. He'd tried to slip between two close together trees, but his hips had gotten him wedged between then, earning a nervous whimper as yet more of those vines descended and stuffed their way into his maw once more.
His eyes watered as he felt his stomach stretch. His body had already nearly tripled in weight, and as he felt his stomach expanding further he could also feel the trees on either side beginning to bow out as they fought for space with his growing figure.
To make matters worse, he couldn't even cut himself free with ease, at some point he'd put the knife back in his right paw, only for that paw to now be pinned behind him, unable to be maneuvered around the tree he was stuck to. For what felt like minutes, Roland gulped, struggled, and failed to escape, until finally, with a distinct creaking from the wood, the forest itself parted, causing Roland to stumble forward. It was truly a miracle that his sudden freedom didn't end with him doing a face plant, as landed directly on his overstuffed gut would have been a nightmare. Instead, without taking time to take stock of the way his belly had grown exponentially, his overflowing bulk not moving with anywhere near the grace he'd exhibited before.
On and on, the cat struggled, until finally, suddenly, he was free, past the tree line entirely, and stumbling out. The vines didn't chase him any further, and the blobbish cat suddenly fell forward, the over reliance on adrenaline having completely drained his remaining stamina. The world went hazy, and he fell asleep on the spot..
It wouldn't be till hours later that Roland awoke, the strange feeling of his entire body jostling with every few seconds. It was dark, but he could vaguely see that it's because he was inside somewhere, as in the distance he could see light streaming in through a window. It only took a second longer to recognize that he was inside the very motor car he'd helped load up and been watching for weeks.
His sides brushed the walls of the cargo bay, and he could feel all kinds of boxes beneath his tremendous form. He suddenly became quite embarassed, thinking about how many workers it took to load him in here... and slowly, he licked his lips... he at least wasn't hungry... for now.