chapter 3

Given his foggy state of mind and his overstuffed belly, walking in a straight line took a bit more effort for Kyle than it probably should have done. Wincing at just how full he felt, he half waddled, half stumbled through the woods, both hands resting on his gurgling, churning gut, feeling just how taut his skin had become from his gorging. His slow progress was only hindered by how he would occasionally stop to take more leisurely bites from the trees and plants, adding to the growing pile of half-digested food in his stomach.

"Doesn't it feel good?" the voice whispered in his head. "To have your belly grow so round and heavy, to have your cheeks and stomach swell with the forest's bounty."

"Who are you?" Kyle asked in a dazed mumble, grazing on a handful of sugar-candy grass.

"Who am I? I am the spirit of this place," the voice replied simply. "The spirit of Glutton's Grove. This is a magical place, Kyle... one that few have found, and even fewer have left."

"'Few have found'?" Kyle repeated, suppressing a belch. "So... I'm not the only one?"

"You are not the first," the spirit confirmed. "There are several others here with you, who found this place before you. As I say, few have escaped this place... and by few, I mean... none at all."

Under ordinary circumstances, this revelation would have caused the hairs to stand up on the back of Kyle's neck. In his confused state of mind, however, all he could do was nod dumbly.

"Perhaps it would be best to show you," the spirit continued. "Walk on, just a bit further... follow the sounds of eating."

Eating? Kyle listened carefully. Sure enough, he could make out the sounds of munching from up ahead. As the spirit commanded, he stepped forward and followed.

The sounds of munching grew louder as Kyle progressed, leading him to a grassy clearing amid the trees. What he saw there, again, should have given him cause for alarm under most normal circumstances, but he instead merely found it interesting.

Sitting at the edge of the clearing was an enormous woman, easily reaching 600 pounds, dressed in the tattered remains of a Girl Scout troop leader's uniform, her massive belly and breasts visible through the torn fabric. She sat cross-legged at the edge of the clearing, munching slowly on shoots of grass in a manner reminiscent of a panda. Noticing Kyle staring at her, she briefly regarded him with a blank expression, before carrying on eating as if he wasn't there.

"She decided to take her troop camping here," the spirit explained. "The rest of her troop are scattered around the forest elsewhere. She just sits here most of the time. See how blankly she looked at you? She's just an eating machine now, as heavy and stupid as a cow."

The voice took on a soft, almost crooning quality.

"This is your fate, Kyle. You'll stay here, and eat. You'll eat until you're ready to burst, until your mind itself is so pudgy it has no choice but to bend to my whims. The same fate befalls all who come here--fat, stupid and greedy. This is your new life..."

A small part of Kyle's already dulled mind told him to resist, that he needed to escape. But it was only a small part... too small.

Kyle dutifully reached down, and ate a piece of chocolate soil...

---

Kyle squatted down on all fours as he shoved his fat face into a bush, his massive rear end wobbling as he snuffled and snorted with greedy pleasure. True to the spirit's word, he had been claimed by the magic of the corrupted Glutton's Grove. Now over 700 pounds of jiggling fat, Kyle's manners and mental faculties had been reduced to that of a pig, or a cow. He lived for nothing but to eat, and to fill his belly at all hours of the day.

All around him, other victims of all sizes and colours joined him, their munching, grunting and snorting filling the air of Glutton's Grove.