chapter 3

The toll of the bell wakes Lilly from her trance. [Midnight! I've been eating for three hours?! I thought I'd just entered the room like ten minutes ago! It's okay, that still gives me around ten hours.]

Calming down, she rests her arms on her now bulging belly and stands straight up in a panic, knocking over the chair she sat in. [What?!... What the heck?!] She lightly pinches her belly fat. [How did I get so chubby?! I mean I know I kind of pigged out for a bit but this can't be happening! Okay, okay, okay. Calm down, I don't have time to freak out. Maybe it isn't permanent or I'll walk it off on my way to the castle... I hope. At least my dress still fits.]

Lilly makes her way to the door on the other side of the room and before turning the handle she looks behind her: [What if this is the last time I get a chance to eat in this place, there's no telling how long I'll be here considering how strangely time passes here. That creep did say that the bag he gave me could hold an infinite number of anything. I might as well carry a supply of food with me, it'd be stupid if I starved before I got there.] After walking back to the table she summons a menagerie of cakes, pies, meats, pastas, fries, etc. Now that a mound of sufficient size is piled on the table, Lilly opens the bag and begins tossing food inside. [I'm actually really craving some of this stuff right now, maybe a little bit... No! This food is for survival.] She continues stashing the food until nothing on the table is left other than the plates. [Wow, he was right, it's like the bag is empty. I should take one of the plates though, later I can check and see if that's what makes the food appear.] She puts a plate in the bag and heads out the door.

On the other side of the door is an orchard of old, grey trees under a gloomy overcast sky during sunset. Lilly maneuvers cautiously through the gnarled roots and thorny branches, however she isn't quite used to her new frame. Her soft, pillowy skin gets pinched, poked and prodded by the surrounding brush. After a good bit of stumbling and tripping, the woods finally start thinning out. Lilly finds the least gnarly tree in her vicinity and leans against it to catch her breath. [Okay, I would gladly go back to the endless hallways, fuck the woods. My dress isn't torn or anything though, I'm keeping this if I get back.] What sounds like faint mumbles can be heard from somewhere in the distance. [Did someone say something? Could it be that creep? Nah he can probably just appear right in front of me or something. Maybe I should see who it is, maybe they can help me. Can I really trust anything here though? I guess it seems like my best shot for the time being.]

Lilly starts jogging in the direction that the mumblings coming from. Her plump breasts bounce around and her belly jiggles as she crushes twig and leaf under foot. She starts breathing heavier as her pace slows down to a walk. [I never was much of a runner anyways. The sound's getting louder, I can almost make out the words I think. See I can totally just walk the rest of the way, in fact I might even] - Lilly gets to the edge of the woods to find herself on top of a cliff side overlooking a dark valley.

She looks to her left to see the source of the noise, it appears to be a person dangling from a tree off the side of the cliff with winged creatures flying around them. As she keeps walking towards them she can get a better look at them: they appear to be wearing a pointed hat and a sack over their head. She can finally hear what they're saying, it sounds like a man's voice.

"LEAVE ME BE! I've done you vermin no wrong! If you stop pestering me I assure you that I will leave this place, post-haste."

[He knows how to leave! Maybe he'll help me if I can help him!] She sprints along the edge of woods and within thirty yards or so he sees her and yells over to her.

"Excuse me miss! Would you mind tossing me my walking stick please, I'm in a bit of a bind at the moment."

"Yeah, sure just give me a second to catch my breath." She says whilst bracing an arm against a tree.

"Take your time miss." The creatures whack and prod him with pointed sticks, making clanging noises as they strike.

"Okay, what did you need me to do again?"

"Fetch my staff for me please, it should be somewhere in your vicinity I believe."

Lilly paces around, looking at the ground till she finds what looks like a stave. [I hope this is the right stick, it seems fairly straight compared to the countless other sticks.]

As she reaches for the staff, two of the creatures fly towards her, squealing and cackling. She picks up the staff and swings it wildly at them, clobbering one in the head but it clings to the staff as it's struck. The creature tries to pull the staff from her hands and the other joins in. Lilly braces herself but the two pests are prevailing, out of desperation she flails the staff around frantically. In her struggle she falls forward, spins around and lands on them, incapacitating one under her back and pinning the other under her arm. The creature squirms around trying to get free, Lilly gets up and quickly whacks it with the staff, sending it skidding across the ground.

"Alright, I think I found it, are you just going to beat them with a stick?" she says while panting.

"Toss it over to me."

She walks over to the edge of the cliff, tosses down the staff and he catches it.

"Thank you. Now then..."

He points the staff at one of the creatures and hurls a ball of fire at it. The fireball is a direct hit, it bursts on impact and scatters the remaining miscreants. The man climbs up to the top of the cliff and walks towards Lilly who's now sitting in the grass.

"Are you okay miss?"

"I'm a little scratched up and I think one of those thing's horns poked my butt, but other than that I'm okay."

"Here, drink some of this, you'll feel much better." He reaches into a satchel he has slung over his shoulder, pulls out a bottle full of murky, pink liquid with blue swirls in it and hands it over to her. She looks at it hesitantly.

"Don't worry, I assure you it's safe, and it should have a decent taste I assume. Oh, my apologies, I should introduce myself: my name is Siegfried Von Hendrycks III" He bows and removes his hat, his long, unkempt hair seems to be stitched to the top of the sack.

Lilly takes a sip from the bottle, it tastes sort of like strawberries with a hint of vanilla and makes her feel warm and relaxed. The cuts and scrapes on her body disappear and her muscles no longer ache.

"It's nice to meet you, my name is Lilly and thanks."

"The pleasure is all mine miss, you did save me after all. So what brings you here? You seem a little out of place."

"Oh I'm definitely out of place. Some random, magic guy named Oberon kidnapped me and he won't take me home unless I get to him in his castle in the next, nine to ten hours. And if I don't get there I'll basically be his sex slave, I'm guessing." She says with a grimace.

"Well, that is a predicament. That makes sense though, Oberon's known for lusting after large ladies, no offense. I didn't know he kidnapped the poor girls."

"None taken, I guess. There's no point in lying about it. I wasn't chubby when I got here though. So you think that creep wants to fatten me up?"

"Given the circumstances that seems to be the case miss."

"This just gets better and better. So now that I've explained my situation to you, is there any way you can help me get out of here?"

"That depends, I can take you out of Oberon's realm and into a different one where he won't have as much control over your situation. Though there's no guarantee he won't come after you. But sadly it's not within my abilities to take you home; I'm more of a scholar than a magician you see."

Lilly sighs. "It's okay, my expectations are set pretty low at this point anyway."

"But I am in your debt, and I will go through this ordeal with you as long as I'm useful, for what it's worth."

"Sure, I could probably use the help."

"Gurgrgrgugh." Lilly rubs her belly.