chapter 5

Yunitsa could not always be around, she had to leave sometimes to gather herbs or attend other business in the forest. But she always left behind a mountain of food to keep Natya busy stuffing herself while she was gone.

Maybe she didn’t leave enough that day, or maybe Natya had simply gotten faster. But one day in early summer, she managed to finish her pile before Yunitsa got back. She swallowed the last pastry and fell back, massaging as much of her swollen, distended belly as she could reach. She stifled a burp, blinking at her surroundings. It had been so long since she had found herself without food in front of her. She had not had a break from her feverish gorging in over two months, but with a full stomach and nothing around to trigger her craving, the spell was letting her rest.

Natya sunk into her own bulk, closing her eyes, savoring the chance to just digest. The black cat wandered over and hopped up on top of her belly. As the softest thing in the room, Natya was always his favorite bed. She grunted a little as the cat kneaded her soft flesh, disturbing the copious mass of food crammed inside. She relaxed again as he settled down. She stroked him absently. His purring felt good on her poor, overstuffed stomach, which was red and tender from constant feeding and rapid growth. The cat’s warmth made her even sleepier… she was so cozy… she was so full… the summer breeze drifted gently through her hair…

She jerked up. The cat meowed irritably as her sudden movement sent waves rolling over her vast ocean of a body.

The door! Yunitsa rarely bothered to close the door, because Natya’s constant gorging kept her too busy to escape. But now the food was eaten, the door was open, and Yunitsa was gone! Natya could finally leave without being lured back by fresh treats, without Yunitsa here to set her off again on her endless spiral of overindulgence.

With some grunting and maneuvering, Natya managed to put one hand on the table, and the other on the back of the chair. She took a breath and heaved. Her wide rear end barely lifted an inch. The cat was not even disturbed. Natya gritted her teeth. She heaved again. She got a little farther this time, enough to at least make the cat jump off with a disapproving, “mmrrph!” But she just fell back into the chair again, panting heavily. Fear gripped her. Had she grown too big to stand? She took deep breaths to calm her panic. She couldn’t let herself think about that. Once more, she positioned her heavy arms and heaved!

It took a monumental amount of effort, but Natya finally managed to stand on her own two feet. She swayed, panting, beads of sweat on her forehead, her enormous girth dwarfing the table she leaned on for support. Her stomach, still engorged with food, objected violently to the change. She cradled her belly with one arm, rubbing it with her hand, trying to calm it down. She tried not to think about how out of breath she already was. She tried not to consider that her fat-swaddled legs had not supported her for months. She tried not to notice that even while standing, her belly gently brushed the ground. She tried not to wonder how she would ever walk all the way home when she was already feeling flushed and faint just from standing up. She couldn’t think about any of that. She had to focus.

Gripping the table, the stairs, anything that might help support her immense bulk, Natya began her trek to the open door. Each step was a massive undertaking. Her muscles had grown weak and soft. Her jam-packed stomach pulled on her like a lead weight, protesting every little movement. Each heaving step up and weighty thump down sent waves rolling up her tremendous thigh and rocking her body, threatening to throw her off-balance and dump her in a heavy heap on the floor.

Somehow she made it.

Natya clutched the doorframe gasping for air, her face red with exertion. There were only five steps between table and door, but she felt like she had just climbed a mountain. Every muscle she had left trembled and burned. She seriously thought she might faint. A sensible person would have told her that there was no way she could go anywhere in this condition, that she should turn around and heave herself right back to her chair. But Natya couldn’t think about that. She had come so far. She could feel the warm breeze brushing her face, sending the end of Baba’s ribbon dancing in the air. She couldn’t turn back now!

The doorway wasn’t quite wide enough. She would have to squeeze. Natya took a deep breath and heaved herself forward, wincing as the rough wood scraped her soft body. She pushed with her feet, turning this way and that to wedge herself through. She laughed in relief to feel herself making progress, her immense body inching forward as she shoved her way through the tight doorway.

About halfway through, the inching stopped. Natya panted, eyes wide with panic. Stuck! She was stuck! Her massive belly bulged out of the door, but the rest of her was still inside! Natya pushed and strained and squirmed, but only succeeded in getting herself even more stuck. Finally, she couldn’t support herself anymore. Her legs fell slack and her breath came out in frustrated gasping sobs. The only thing holding her upright was the doorframe’s vice-like grip on her exhausted body.

Luckily, Yunitsa returned from her errand just a few minutes later. She almost fell to the ground laughing at the sight of Natya, bloated belly wedged in the doorway, red-faced and fainting, her whole body slumped and trembling with the effort of standing for ten whole minutes.

Still giggling and wiping her eyes, Yunitsa waved her hand to loosen the door frame a few inches. She led her gasping little pig back inside to collapse in an exhausted heap at the table again.

“You must be starving after so much exercise!” Yunitsa chortled. Natya had no breath left to answer, but her rumbling belly was kind enough to answer for her.

✥✥✥✥✥

After that, Natya stopped resisting. The sight of her engorged body still made her tremble. She still whimpered at Yunitsa’s teasing. She still wanted this nightmare to be over. But she stopped fighting it. She accepted that it was hopeless to try to stand again, hopeless to try to stop herself from devouring more and more, hopeless to think she would ever see home again. But there was a little comfort in that last thought. At least no one at home ever had to see her like this. As long as she was in this isolated place, she was safe from all but Yunitsa’s ridicule. So she gave in. She just let herself eat. She gave in to her belly’s every demand, cramming food in her mouth as fast as Yunitsa’s magic oven could churn it out. And so her expansion accelerated, her body swelling like bread dough, now gaining inches per day instead of per week.

One day, Yunitsa came back from one of her errands to hear Natya calling through the open window, “Yunitsa! Yunitsa, help!” Yunitsa had not played a trick on her this time, so something must really be wrong. She ran for the door.

To her surprise, the abundance of food she had left behind that morning was untouched. But she quickly saw why. Natya had grown so large during her digesting sleep that her broad belly was now a barricade between her and the food. She frantically stretched and strained to reach past the ocean of flesh, desperate to reach the platters of food that were right THERE. But her fat fingers fell short by several inches. So close, yet so far. Frustrated tears streamed down her round face.

She looked up at Yunitsa. “Please! Help!!”, she wailed in despair. Yunitsa chuckled and leaned her exhausted piggy back in her chair. Natya fought to control her choking sobs. “I’ve been trying to reach it for hours!” From then on, the plates were stacked on top of Natya’s shelf of a stomach.

Eventually, the chair had to be retired. It had done a good job, steadily expanding until it was larger than most married couples’ beds. But now Natya’s massive belly was too big to balance, threatening to pull her down with its weight. So she had to be transferred to the floor which offered more support and more space to spread.

Around this time, Yunitsa began to push Natya even harder. Natya had gotten used to consuming monstrous amounts of food, but now Yunitsa more than doubled the rate, serving up bigger portions and putting down multiple plates at once. Natya was forced to eat even faster, desperately trying to keep up. Yunitsa refused to explain anything. She only said they were running out of time and smacked Natya’s fat side with her cane. Natya had no idea what this meant, but she didn’t have time to wonder. The sudden accelerated gorging fogged her mind, leaving no room for any thoughts. She pushed past the pain of her overtaxed stomach, focused only on eating more and more, faster and faster. The cat sat on the table, tail twitching, watching Natya’s rapid growth, her bloated belly expanding over the wooden floorboards hour by hour.