chapter 2

I follow the now-curvy blonde downstairs. Along the way, I notice that, on top of gaining weight, she also, for some reason, has grown taller. She’s not as tall as me, but she’s not nearly as short as she was this morning. She leads me to the kitchen, and quickly warns me, “Okay, so…don’t freak out, but…” before opening the oven. What I then see, I should warn, is gruesome. It appears to be a humanoid figure that’s been burnt to a crisp. “Greta! What did you do?!” I exclaim, horrified. “I swear it wasn’t me! I was planning on making some dinner, and when I opened the oven, this is what I saw! That’s why I asked you to come down here!”

After further inspection, we find that the burnt human is cold, indicating this was done a while ago. “What do we do with it?” I ask my friend. I hear her stomach grumble, “I don’t know, but we better hurry up, I’m starving! And we can’t make dinner with a corpse in the oven…at least I hope it’s a corpse…god forbid it’s still alive…” We both pull the dead body out of the oven, and carry it outside. Several pieces of char fall off the body as we carry it. Once we drop it outside, what we see, believe it or not, is even stranger.

We see several…I think they’re fairies? Maybe pixies? Whatever they are, they fly towards us. “You summoned us, queen?” One of them says. But as they see the charred corpse, they all gasp. “You killed our queen!” One exclaims. “What happened to our queen?” “When did this happen?” “Is this why she hasn’t summoned us in 87 years?” Scared, Greta speaks, “Um…I…I think she’s dead…” The small creatures pause for a moment, before rejoicing, “Hooray! The witch is dead!” One of them gets on the floor and delivers a pathetic kick to the corpse. They begin to celebrate, and while I was scared before, now…I’m more or less just confused.

“What are you…things?” I ask over the loud sounds of celebration. “We’re pixies! We were summoned to serve our witch queen!” “But now that she’s dead, we no longer have to serve the mean old witch!” “Ma’am,” one of the pixies says to Greta, “as gratitude for killing the wicked witch who showed no mercy, we’d like to make you our new queen!” I correct the pixie, “Oh, no, she didn’t ki—” Greta slaps a hand over my mouth and interrupts, “I’d LOVE to be your new queen!!” “Hooray!” the pixies rejoice. “Greta, what are you doing?” I whisper to her, “We don’t know what these things are, for all we know, they’re the ones who put that supposed witch in the oven.” “Oh relax, what’s the worst that could happen?” she whispers back.

She then turns to the still celebrating pixies, “My first command as your queen is for you to make us dinner!” “Oh, we’re not allowed in the gingerbread house.” “Yeah, Miss Witch made that very clear. The first and last pixie who went into the house got her wings pulled, her hair shaven, and was drowned in a boiling cauldron.” Greta replies, “Well ‘Miss Witch’ isn’t here anymore. I’m your new queen, and I’m hungry! Now make us some dinner, chop chop!” “Hooray!” the pixies cheer, rushing inside and scrambling around the kitchen.

“What would you like us to make?” asks one of the pixies with a scratchy voice. “Surprise me! Just make sure it tastes good! And make sure it’s a feast built for a king, I’m STARVING!” my hungry friend commands, her tummy grumbling in agreement. “Yes ma’am!” the pixie responds enthusiastically. “Oh, one more thing,” Greta says to the pixies. “Yes, your highness?” one of them asks. Greta giggles at her new title, “The snow, would that happen to have anything to do with this ‘Miss Witch’ you mentioned?” “Yes, the witch casted all sorts of spells and enchantments on this realm. The seasons go by very quickly here, that’s why it’s currently covered in snow.” “Right…well, could you by chance make it Summer?” “Of course! That’s one of the few spells the witch taught us how to cast! She didn’t want to go through the trouble every time of—” “Just do it, okay?” Greta commands. A pixie whispers some strange incantation. All of a sudden, just outside the window, all the snow starts melting. Greta grabs me by the hand and pulls me back outside. I chuckle at her enthusiasm.

Just outside the house, we see a huge lake. It's not gross or filled with algae, it's a clear blueish hue. No frogs, no geese, I don't even see any fish. “Yes! I can finally go swimming for my birthday!” Greta exclaims excitedly, “Hank, go inside and get our swimsuits, m’kay?” “Sure thing, birthday girl,” I say, smiling. I just can't help it, like I said, her smile’s contagious. Once we get our swimwear on, I have to do a double take on Greta. Now, I've always been pretty slim, but Greta was always the skinniest of us two. Looking at her now, though…well, I think I'm the skinny one now. Her boobs look like they're gonna explode out of her bikini top any second. Her butt and thighs are stretching the shit out of her bikini bottom, resulting in her having to readjust her wedgie every several seconds. And her belly, while not fat, appears to have a much thicker layer of pudge than I previously thought.

“So, how do I look?” she asks, beaming with happiness. “…you look beautiful” I respond, a bit awestruck. “Awww, thanks! You look pretty handsome yourself! Race you to the pond!” she exclaims, running outside. I quickly sprint after her. Her big butt jiggles behind her and her long hair waves in the wind. “Hah! Beat you!” the curvy blonde exclaims after jumping into the lake. “No fair, you got a head start!” I object, dipping a toe into the water. It's surprisingly warm, despite having thawed out just a few minutes ago. “No need to be such a sore loser!” she says, giggling as I finish submerging myself in the water.

Greta then splashes me. “Greta?” “What?” she says innocently, before splashing me again. “Cut it out,” I say, giggling. “Cut what out?” she says, once again splashing me. I splash her back, and we end up getting into somewhat of a splash fight. “Thunder clap!” she exclaims, lowering her voice and clapping her hands to send a large splash my way. In doing so, I can see her generous breasts jiggle through the progression of her clap. After a while, the splash fight dies down, and she races me to the other side of the lake. Under normal conditions, I’d probably win this race, but given her now more buoyant figure, she ends up just barely beating me.

After about an hour or so of just playing around in the lake, we stop at a shallow zone close to the gingerbread house to take a breather. “God, today has been perfect…” Greta says, leaning back, hair hanging down into the water. “Really?” I ask, questioning her judgement. “Of course! I mean, the nearly freezing to death part sucked.” “Which, again, sorry for that…” I interrupt. “It’s fine, it’s not like you could’ve known that would happen. Anyways, aside from that, this day was pretty great.” “So, you’re not at all bothered by the fact that we’re currently lost in some…weird magical forest, and we have no idea how to get back home?” I say, a bit of sarcasm in my voice. “Nah, I don’t mind. It’s not like I had anything to do back home anyway. Besides, if I had to be lost in the forest with anyone,” she leans against me, “I’d want it to be you.” I blush.

“H-hey, um…Greta?” I speak nervously. “Yeah?” “I’ve been meaning to ask you…whatever happened to that one guy you were engaged to, Henry?” She giggles, “well, first of all, we weren’t engaged, that would imply I said yes. And second of all, Henry and I haven’t talked since that night.” “So, you two are…” “Yeah, we broke up that night.” “But…why? You seemed so happy together.” “I was. We were. Happy, that is. It’s just…when I saw him, down on one knee, I realized…” she gets off me, turns her head to me, and her face goes a somewhat awkward red, “I realized, I know exactly who I want to spend my life with, and…it’s not Henry…” “You do? It’s not?” I say, growing all the more nervous. “…Hank…” she starts, placing her hands on my shoulders, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” She leans toward me. Oh god, this is it, isn’t it? I lean into the kiss as well, but just before it happens…

“DINNER’S READY!” exclaims a pixie from far away. Suddenly, I hear a loud grumble from Greta’s stomach. Her attention is completely redirected as she gets up, grabs my hand, and runs toward the house, her large butt jiggling behind her. Once again, I chuckle at my friend’s enthusiasm as she takes me to the house.