(AN: This is a story I've been wanting to write for a while. I hope you like it as a starter! I may come back and tweak it.)
Researcher Reed’s eyes gazed hungrily at the key grasped in his hand. He traced the rusted markings that promised ancient knowledge. Knowledge that would make Reed famous in the Institute. Months of research and inquiring, months of derision and scorn had led Reed to this moment.
“You’ve got it?” A clap landed on Reed’s back as he startled.
“Maxil” Reed spun around to look into the eager face of his friend, “did you have any doubt I’d get it?”
Maxil laughed heartedly. “No, I suppose not. You definitely have a way with the High Librarian! How many of your… special cakes did you have to promise him? He has been looking bigger of late.” Maxil gave Reed a wink. “I certainly can vouch for the potency of the last batch.” Maxil grabbed his incredibly round midsection and shook it. His belly, protruding from his open robe, wobbled violently over his breeches.
“Let’s just say I’m going to be baking all week - but only when we have what we are looking for first.” Reed couldn’t resist patting Maxil’s smaller tummy. “Maybe there’ll be some cakes to tide you over in the meantime.”
Reed turned back to face a magnificent door. Door was an understatement, the entrance to the Sacred section of the Institute Library must have been fifteen feet tall, covered in intricate metal work over the wooden frame. It was seldom opened. Reed had spent months persuading and cajoling High Librarian Tomlin of his research aims.
“Come on then,” encouraged Maxil.
“I hope I had enough breakfast.” Reed moved over to the looming door and pushed the key inside. He closed his eyes and focused his energy, willing the door to open. The familiar feeling of warmth filled his belly as energy pulsed through him. He turned the key in the lock and muttered the words. The key glowed a bright green in a flash, the lock clicked, and suddenly the heavy door creaked loudly as Reed pushed forward.
His heavy belly felt lighter as the energy calmed. Reed patted it gently as it grumbled for more. That had taken more Caern out of him that he had expected. Maxil reached into his pocket beside Reed and pulled out a small vial and a large sweetroll from this morning’s breakfast. He unstoppered the small vial containing a bright fizzy orange liquid and poured it into Reed’s mouth.
“You looked like you needed that Tincture of Boost” Maxil laughed. Reed did - he felt the instant return of some Caern to his belly. Just a small amount, but enough for another spell. “However, I think that belly won’t say no to this.” Maxil offered out the sweetroll. Reed could smell how fresh it was, the sugary icing on top enticed him in. He took a bite and moaned in pleasure as he savoured it in his mouth. Maxil himself too a bite, and the two stood there in the din of the doorway to enjoy this treat, their mission almost forgotten in the moment.
The Tincture had restored a quick burst of energy to Reed, but it was nothing compared to the sweetroll. He felt a torrent of energy, of Caern, fill his belly with every bite.
“Feel that,” Reed whispered. “Today we’re going to find a source of Brym and Caern that’ll make this sweetroll feel like a crumb.”
He finally took in the room that they now stood in, and his breath caught. Bookcases towered above them in the misty din. Rows upon rows, lined with dusty tomes, To Reed’s side, Maxil muttered under his breath and reached out a hand. Reed shielded his eyes as a bright, white light appeared on Maxil’s outstretched palm. It shone there for a moment before Maxil placed it above him where it continued to hover, illuminating their surroundings. Reed heard Maxil’s tummy rumble and patted it as he strode forward.
The two searched the rows for what seemed like hours. Reed knew the book had to be here. It had to be. As Reed begun to search what must have been the last row, the light begun to dim. He turned to see Maxil lagging behind, holding his belly.
“Sorry, maintaining this light is taking it out of me, I don’t have as much Brym as you, big guy.”
Reed fished into his pocket and pulled out another sweetroll. He grinned. “Then you better catch up then,” Reed pulled up beside Maxil and put one arm around him as he fed the sweetroll with the other. “You’ve been helping me research too much, you ought to have been stuffing this belly more - you’re not going to grow your power otherwise.” With every bite Maxil took, the light grew brighter and brighter once more. Through mouthfuls he said,
“Don’t worry, we’ll get this book and I’ll be bigger in no time.”
“That is if we find it. I’m starting to worry” Reed gently rubbed Maxil’s belly as he rested his head on the other man’s shoulder. “What if the other Researchers were right? If there was a better way to get Brym and Caern, we would be using it right now, it wouldn’t be locked away in a Tome.”
“Come on now, none of that”, Maxil took his last bite. “You know you’re onto something. I didn’t believe at first, but you were the one that showed me the diaries. There are too many written accounts. There was definitely a person at the Institute who went well beyond the rank of huTorweyn. How did they do it?”
Reed pondered. There had been a lot of evidence pointing to someone five hundred years ago whose Brym had been off the charts. Their belly was described in the old diaries as “being as large as four huTorweyn men combined, the highest rank at the institute. Only two men currently in the Institute were huTorweyn, one of them being the leader, Archprime Albert Wendyn himself. Reed had seen Wendyn barely manage to fit his 550lb frame into the widened seat sat at the grand table.
To imagine someone four times that size was unbelievable for sure. But so many accounts evidence it. To have so much Brym, to have that size of a belly, you would have needed so much Caern to fill it. Again, Reed had seen how much Wendyn ate to fill his belly, and yet he always claimed to never be full. But records said that this man “shone with Caern”.
One account simply detailed his breakfast one morning; “having drunk the poultice, his Lordship did swallow the masses awaiting him”. He had had a scholarly debate with his closest Researchers on the project as to what was meant by “the masses”, but they had all agreed that the reference to the poultice was their biggest lead.
Reed leant back precariously against a bookcase behind him, staring vacantly as Maxil begun searching again. “I think I’ll take a week off research after today,” Maxil said softly. Reed didn’t respond and Maxil continued, “you’re right, Reed. I need to push myself more. I’m so close to 294lbs, to Halleyn rank. I’ve been plateaued as a Beleyn for a couple years now, I need to get stuffing.” Maxil hesitated, “why don’t you join me, big guy? You’ve been saying for a while now you want to push onto being Melleweyn, we could stuff ourselves together like the old days?”
Reed continued to stare absently. His eyes traced along the spines of books in front of him. Maybe it was time for him to go back to the drawing board - focus on building Brym and getting fatter with Maxil for a time. He had been neglecting himself lately and his belly had been getting smaller. He had felt the power wane.
His eyes stopped at a book on the bottom shelf. He jolted and squatted down, his belly not making this feat easy. He pulled the book from the shelf and blew the dust from the cover. Gold letters embossed the blackened cover;
“Reed? Are you okay back there?” Maxil called.
“Quick, come here… I think… I think this is it.”
Maxil swore and jogged over. The light shone on the slender book. It was barely fifty pages long. Reed stared up at Maxil, hope in his eyes. He flicked the cover open, his hands trembling as his breath misted in the air. Blank. He turned another page. Blank again. He flipped several more. Blank.
Reed continued to rifle through the pages until finally, on the second last page, words. Scribbled in ink, a recipe for a potion was scrawled by a heavy hand. “Do you think…?” muttered Reed.
“There’s only one way to know,” Maxil exclaimed excitedly.
Reed pulled out a small cauldron and placed it on his desk. He was back in his pokey office and he busily moved about to grab equipment off his shelves. He had sent Maxil off to find an Aeyleyn, an apprentice at the Institute who were usually tasked with helping Researchers.
The door knocked and Maxil entered with a young man. Reed glanced him up and down, “they really do start small don’t they? Were we that thin?”
“I’m 230 lbs!” cried the Aeyleyn, as he puffed out his small belly.
“Cute” Maxil laughed as he bumped his belly against the young man, pushing him back. In fairness to Maxil, Reed did have a tiny office. “He’s gathered the ingredients, Reed”.
The young man placed the ingredients down on the table next to the cauldron. An assortment of herbs, food, liquids, and meat. “What is it you’re making?” the Aeyleyn asked curiously peeking at the recipe.
“Stay and find out,” Reed said selfishly. They could always do with an Aeyleyn close by to fetch anything else if they needed it.
The room quickly filled up with vapour and smells as Reed begun the process. Poultice making wasn’t particularly difficult. Especially when you had helpers to prepare the ingredients. Maxil and the youth cut everything up. All Reed had to do was follow the recipe instructions. Half way through the process, Maxil sent the Aeyleyn down to the kitchens for lunch. Part of the steps of the process involved Reed expending Caern, and his belly had begun to rumble.
He paused as the cauldron bubbled away. He moved over to the table next to Maxil, lifted up his gut and dropped it down. The old table groaned.
“I love it when you do that,” Maxil laughed, as he lifted his gut to do the same. He reached his hand over and lifted Reed’s shirt to reveal the hairy round belly underneath. Reed reached over and did the same, and the two old friends rubbed each other’s tummies softly. Maxil looked up and gazed his calm blue eyes into Reed. He leant in, and the two kissed each other softly. They felt their beards scratch gently against one another as the kiss deepened, their hands rubbing each other’s bellies more firmly now.
They parted lips and Maxil whispered, “you’re going to get so much fatter, Reed. This belly,” Maxil took Reed’s gut into his hands, feeling the weight and heft of it, “is going to get so big. We’ll make you a huTorweyn. You’ll be the most powerful Mage here”.
“And you alongside me,” Reed kissed Maxil and lifted his gut too. “we’re going to grow you so fat and powerful. You’ve only just begun your journey, let me tell you that this,” he let one hand go of Maxil’s belly and held his own to shake it “feels incredible”.
A voice cleared their throat. The Aeyleyn had returned, their hands carrying a basket of sweetrolls, doughnuts, and other breads. Without shame, Reed reached over to grab a doughnut, and stuffed it into Maxil’s mouth. Flour caught in his beard and Reed leant forward to kiss Maxil as he chewed.
Reed felt the churn of Caern inside him as he continued the poultice. The bright energy filled him as he worked. It was almost complete now. The room smelt so good, and despite the large lunch the three of them had consumed, Reed felt hungry from the waft of the poultice. It smelt so enticing. His belly grumbled.
He muttered one last incantation and dropped a final leaf into the cauldron. A puff of smoke erupted out, and the poultice simmered.
“I think… I think it’s done!” Reed clapped his hands together and grabbed a vial to pour the liquid into. The recipe said you only needed to drink one mouthful to feel the effect. Worryingly, Reed had noticed that the book hadn’t detailed what the poultice itself would do. He assumed it made one hungry once more. They had similar poultices already that gave you a second wind at dinner time, but there was only so much you could cram into the belly, only so much Caern you could hold.
“This is it… are you nervous?” Maxil asked. They had agreed Reed would try first, Maxil would be on hand if anything were to go wrong, and the Aeyleyn to run if they needed anything.
Reed felt a buzz. There was anxiety, he felt his heart racing. “I think I’m more excited than nervous. We’ve been working on this for years, Maxil. This could be the start of something new for us, for the Institute.”
Reed raised a vial up. “Cheers”, and without another hesitant thought, he gulped down a mouthful as instructed. Silence.
“Did it…” Maxil started to say after a moment, before being interrupted by a large grumble. This wasn’t a normal grumble, this wasn’t a Caern depleted grumble. This was deep, as Reed’s belly actually shook and churned. And it hit him.
A hunger. A hunger like he had never felt before. It felt like Reed had never eaten a single thing before in his life. The large lunch they had filled up with was nothing. A drop in the ocean. Reed needed to eat and he needed to eat right this moment.
“Reed?” Maxil’s voice sounded worried.
Reed looked up and his eyes locked on the Aeyleyn, standing as if bored. Did… did he always look so… so… tasty? Reed’s belly seemed to grumble in agreement. “I’m okay,” Reed struggled to say. “I’m just hungry”. He emphasised that last word. He strode across the room, not fully understanding what was happening. He just knew that he needed to eat, and Aeyleyn… well, he wasn’t that big was he?
“Hey, what are you…” the youth begun to ask, but Reed opened his mouth, impossibly wide, and took his head in his mouth. Chaos immediately followed. The youth was slow to react, having no idea what was happening. That gave Reed time to swallow. The poultice, somehow, was enhancing him, there was no doubt about that. Opening his mouth wider than possible, allowing big powerful swallows. He had the Aeyleyn’s head in his throat, his torso in his mouth before Maxil could react.
“Reed, fuck - what are you doing?” he shouted. Maxil moved as Reed swallowed again. The youth had tried to press his hands against Reed’s face to push himself out, but Reed instead took his own hands and powerfully shoved the poor man’s struggling arms inside his hungry mouth. Maxil was too stunned by what his friend was doing. He unhelpfully grabbed the legs of the Aeyleyn and lifted him up to try and pull him out, but this only helped Reed to position better and pull him in further. By now the whole torso of the Aeyleyn was inside Reed, and only his legs dangled frantically out. With two more large gulps, Reed swallowed the legs, the feet disappearing into his mouth.
