The Fairy’s Punishment, Part 2
The fairy stretched his gossamer wings beneath the overturned drinking glass. His prison. He knew the wizard would come indoors soon, having finished slopping his pigs and working in his garden.
His stomach snarled as he wondered what today would bring. He clamped a hand over his growling stomach. For four days, the wizard had tied him against the wall and stuffed him with blueberry pie until he thought his poor tummy couldn’t possibly hold any more. Until his stomach ached more than he could take.
Afterward, the wizard spelled the food away, leaving him bruised and hollow. For the past two days, the wizard hadn’t fed him at all. Fairies were so small they needed to eat multiple small meals a day to have enough energy to fly. Although about the height of a standing rat, they were slender things who burned up food quickly.
The fairy’s stomach growled ferociously. His stomach twisted with hunger. He could no longer stand up waiting for the wizard to come into the kitchen to decide his fate. Faint, he drifted down to the kitchen counter and sat cross-legged.
No sooner had he sat down, than the kitchen door opened and the wizard entered. Perhaps the wizard would think he had been punished enough for stealing his blueberry pie? Perhaps he was tired of him and would let him go?
The wizard placed a small cloth bag on the counter next to the glass the fairy sat in. “Are you ready to eat now?”
“Please. I’m very hungry. But—”
Did he dare say it? “Not so much this time, please. If—if—you don’t mind.”
The wizard shrugged. “I brought you some seeds.”
The fairy’s eyes widened. “I love seeds.” He eyed the little bag. It was much smaller than a pie.
The wizard poured some small black seeds out on the counter. “If I let you eat these yourself, will you stay put?”
He didn’t trust the wizard’s cruel magic to be gentle if he tried to get away. “Yes.”
The wizard lifted the glass from the counter and freed the fairy. The fairy ran to the seeds. Honestly, even if he weren’t scared of the wizard, he would have not tried to leave without feasting on the seeds. He picked one up and examined it. He had never seen its like before. It tasted sweet and delicious. He nibbled the first, but after that he crammed them in his mouth two or three at a time.
They tasted so good and he was sooo hungry. Once he had eaten every single seed from the countertop, he rubbed his full stomach with satisfaction.
“What did you think about those?”
“They were splendid! Thank you.”
“Would you like some more?”
The fairy rubbed his hand up and down his stomach, thinking. He was comfortably full now, but he had missed so many meals and the seeds were so good…. “Definitely!”
“Eat them all.” The wizard poured out more seeds.
This pile was bigger than the last. That didn’t matter. He would eat them all. Happily. Once he had devoured half of it, however, his stomach began to feel tight and heavy. He rubbed a circle around his tummy to make more room and found it was a big, hard bulge. He massaged his stomach until a burp popped out, then returned to eating the delicious seeds.
Eventually, he finished the last one. His tummy had fully rounded out. Not a bulge anymore, but a large marble. A dull ache had entered it. He had eaten too many seeds.
“Your mouth must be parched,” said the wizard. “Have some water.” He gave the fairy a thimble-sized cup.
The fairy was, indeed, parched. Despite his fullness, he drained the cup.
The wizard poured out the remainder of the bag. “Eat the rest of this and I’ll let you go.”
This pile was even bigger than the last. His stomach winced as he looked at the seeds. He wouldn’t have had so much water if he had known about this. Still, he missed his home. “Deal.”
He tried to eat as fast as he could, but his stomach started cramping. He had to slow down not quite halfway through. Doggedly, he pressed onward. His belly swelled twice the size it had been before he started. He clutched it as another cramp rippled through him, his face squinching up into a mask of pain.
He had thought this would be so much easier than the blueberry pie. Somehow, it seemed worse. He thought he could feel his tummy growing as he ate, even when he stopped between bites. His poor tummy ached terribly. He tried to quiet a cramp by pressing his hand against it. He felt his stomach stretch! He could actually feel it beneath his hand.
It was a large round globe sticking out from his slender body. It hurt all over. This is the worst tummy ache, he thought. He hadn’t expected the innocuous seeds to give him such a bad belly ache.
With a determined grimace, he attacked the seeds, trying to forget the terrible pain in his stomach. His intestines writhed within in him, fighting desperately to digest the seeds. His stomach swelled even more as he ate. When an especially powerful wave of pain hit him, he doubled over with a moan.
He looked down, and his poor tummy was huge now. He hadn’t noticed with all of his determined eating. It was easily just as large as when the wizard fed him blueberry pie—a round, full, bloated belly the size of a chicken egg. He didn’t know how he was going to fly like that.
He looked at the seeds miserably. He wanted freedom, but his still swelling stomach was in agony. How much bigger would it get?
He steadied himself. He would walk home if he had to. He lifted three seeds to his mouth and tossed them down. By the time he had almost finished the pile, his stomach looked like a goose egg. The skin was pulled so tight, it blushed. His arms couldn’t get around it to cradle it. Waves of pain spread through his entire, absurdly distended stomach. It was so tight, so hard. He rubbed his sides, wishing he could hold the middle of his aching belly. “Ohhh, my tummy hurts.” His distended belly groaned in response. His belly button popped out.
“Let me help you with the rest.”
Reluctantly, the fairy opened his mouth as the wizard spooned in the rest of the seeds. When, at last, all of the seeds were gone, the fairy held as much of his oversized stomach as he could. It gurgled loudly and quaked under his hands. “I feel like I’m going to burst,” he said, his voice fraught with pain.
“Well, let’s see.” He poked the fairy just above his pushed out bellybutton.
The fairy gave a strangled cry as pain exploded through his already aching belly.
“Hmmm.” The wizard took the fairy’s overindulged stomach between his thumb and forefinger and pressed as if testing a grape for ripeness.
The fairy screamed. The pressure on his distended stomach created unimaginable agony. “Please. Please don’t. I have such a bad tummy ache. My poor tummy can’t take anymore.”
“Humph. I don’t know about that.” He thumped the fairy in the lower belly.
“Oof!” The fairy fell backward, his aching, throbbing stomach like a great dome rising from his body. His abused belly shuddered and groaned. “I’m too full,” he panted. “I’m going to pop.”
The wizard bounced a finger on his prone tummy, causing ripples of pain to radiate through it. “I don’t think so. I think you’re going to be fine, for now.” He placed the drinking glass over the fairy.
“You said you’d let me go. Remember?” He didn’t know how he would leave, but he would drag himself out if need be.
“You broke the deal. I’m keeping you here.”
“What?! No! I ate all of the seeds—every last one!”
“You negated the deal when you asked for my help.” He laughed.
Somehow, the fairy’s stomach swelled more. He could do nothing but moan. The tight skin had reddened around his navel and created a blush over the top of his belly.
The wizard leaned over to peer at him. “You’re getting so big.”
“I don’t know what’s happening. My tummy just keeps swelling up more and more. It’s already so tight. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
“You’d better hope it can take much more. Those are magical seeds. When eaten or soaked, they swell up to ten times their size.”
“No! No! Please, you have to help me! You—you won’t be able to have fun feeding me if I burst!” As he spoke, his intestines chugged and writhed, too full of seeds to digest anything. He was absolutely stuffed with seeds. Swelling seeds, making his stomach puff out to grotesque dimensions.
The wizard smiled at him. “I have an errand to run. If you’re still alive when I return, I’ll take the seeds away and we can have some more fun.” He walked out the door to the outside.
“No! Wait!” he called to the wizard’s back. “You can’t leave me like this!” Tears slid down the fairy’s face as he lay trapped under his huge, aching belly. It stretched more, rising like bread dough in an oven. His skin felt impossibly tight. A new groan erupted from his gurgling tummy. As the swelling continued, his tummy began to creak.
