chapter 2

Kyle took a look around the forest as he walked. Even in his mind's rather fogged state, he could still appreciate the immense beauty of the tall trees and lush undergrowth surrounding him. It had a sort of tranquil, calming air about it... almost as calming as the sweet miasma that hung in the air around him.

The sweet, musky smell, whatever it was, had only grown stronger as Kyle moved further and further into the forest. It continued to draw him in, almost like a siren's call, urging him to walk on. In his clouded state of mind, he was powerless to resist.

He was not, however, powerless to ignore the pain in his feet. After about ten minutes of walking, the twinges in his soles from walking along the uneven terrain became too persistent to ignore. He elected to sit down for a few minutes underneath the shade of one of the trees.

Grunting, he sat down and stretched his arms, relieved to take a load off his feet for a moment. He turned and idly examined the bark on the tree, a young spruce. Funny, the bark seemed to be a lighter shade of brown than usual. It looked a bit smoother, too, with none of the bumps and cracks you'd expect to find on a tree trunk. Kyle reached out with a finger to touch the trunk. Yep, really smooth, and sort of... melty?

Puzzled, Kyle took a moment to examine his finger, now tipped with a strange brown stuff. Suddenly, the miasma in his mind told him to taste it. He did so, sticking the finger in his mouth. His eyes went wide, as he realised what it was.

Chocolate! The tree was made of chocolate!

Feeling utterly aghast, Kyle gaped at the tree. His gaze was then drawn down to a clump of wildflowers growing near the base of the tree. Upon closer investigation, they looked a little off, too. With a slightly trembling hand, he picked one and bit off the tip of a petal.

"Butterscotch," he whispered.

What was going on here? This... this was a forest full of edible plants and trees? Why? How could that possibly be?

These thoughts all danced around Kyle's mind in a frenzied swarm, but were quickly chased away by that very same miasma. A voice, not his own, seemed to whisper in his head.

"Go on, then," it cooed. "Eat some more."

Almost automatically, Kyle turned to the tree and took a bite out of it--a small bite, the kind a tempted dieter might make.

Oh, wow. The chocolate... it was utterly delectable. So sweet, so creamy, so completely heavenly!

"Tastes good, huh?" the voice said softly. "Why not eat some more?"

Kyle did not need a second invitation. He quickly bit several larger chunks out of the tree. Now he was less like a tempted dieter and more like a sixteen-year-old boy.

"More?" the voice whispered.

Three more bites, and Kyle had gone down to the table manners of a five-year-old girl. He trembled, his mouth smeared with chocolate, a low moan escaping his throat. What was this place...?

"More!" the voice commanded.

And with that, Kyle degenerated into a complete and utter pig.

He threw himself to the ground and started tearing up huge clumps of flowers and dirt (which happened to be made of chocolate cake, as it turned out) and shoving them into his mouth until his cheeks were bulging to capacity. No sooner had he chewed and swallowed one enormous mouthful than he was practically inhaling another one. As well as flowers, he tore through chocolate tree trunks, rock candy boulders and pebbles, lime Starburst grass, and liquorice patches of dark mud. Grunting, he hurriedly unbuckled his belt and undid the button on his pants, before resuming his mindless gorging.

"Go on," the voice said, egging him on, encouraging him. "Go on, eat, keep eating. Eat, feast, gorge, it's just so good and nobody will care. Even if they do, why would you bother with what they think? Just relax, let the food come in, let yourself drift away..."

---

Kyle sat slumped against a tree stump, the tree itself having been chewed down by him already. His face and hands were covered in a thick mess of chocolate, liquorice and candy stains. His distended stomach growled and gurgled, having swollen up to almost twice its usual size, riding his shirt up so his navel was exposed to the world. Kyle smiled dopily as he licked crumbs from his lips and between his fingers.

"Wonderful, wasn't it?" the voice crooned. "But that was only a small part of the forest, my dear. There's so much more to see. When you're ready, walk on... perhaps you'll meet some of your fellow forest dwellers, too."