Chapter 5 - lesson 005: dieting

“Ughh, you criticize this towns culinary stylings, but this is still your best offering” she protested as we sat at breakfast one morning. Before her was a bowl of plain porridge and a glass of water. “Perhaps I’d make you something more exciting if I thought you could resist eating till you were round” I informed her. “So, you have in fact learned how to cook something else in the past several hundred years!” my first apprentice mused aloud. It almost stung more that the barb was unintentional for a change. “Of course, I’ve mastered many skills over the course of my time as an educator, the culinary arts are just one in particular” I told her with the confident tone that befit my station. In truth my number of dishes had gone from one, to four, but I was hardly going to tell her that. Despite herself my plush prior apprentice began to shovel down spoonsful of my breakfast frowning all the while. I doubted there was anything explicitly wrong with it. Mostly likely it was just much too plain to satisfy her. Though I suppose going straight from cake for breakfast to porridge would be a rough transition for anyone.

“How did you even wind-up indulging in this dinky little town’s offerings anyways?” I began to ask her sceptically. “I know you were rather successful in the noble courts for a time, after I finished training you?” I mused aloud. “Ah the noble courts were nice, to be sure” she said acquiring a certain nostalgic tone between spoons of porridge. “But after my work was finished and I fully integrated myself into that world, I suppose I felt nostalgic” she said paying a glance out her window to the small town her home overlooked. “The fine meals, the beautiful dresses, the court intrigue and the parties, those were all delightful, but I had a most bothersome itch they couldn’t quite scratch” she stated. As she did her spoon scrapped the bottom of her bowl. She looked from it back to me, then back to it again. “Seriously?” she protested. “It was more than enough to satisfy you back when I taught you” I objected scornfully. “I’m a grown woman, of course I need more now!” she objected. As if on cue her stomach added a growl. “Grown is the right word indeed” I told her pushing my finger into her middle beneath the table.

“Fine” she sighed, but it was clear her hunger was far from satisfied. I figured it was probably for the best anyways. I needed to get her portion size relativized again. Lest she start thinking an entire cake was a suitable breakfast dish. “In any case, I shall retire to my study and do some research” she said rising from the chair, which squeaked slightly. Even that simple rising motion caused her slight gut to bounce, and her breasts to threaten escape from the top of her dress. I narrowed my eyes at her, though not because I was appreciating the view. “Just by the way, I was worried about, rodents so I put a signal alarm around your rooms perimeter” I told her casually as I sipped my own glass of water. She froze. “Rodents?” she asked me sceptically. “Yes, the big greedy kind who want to eat food, that they probably shouldn’t and so they sneak off when nobodies looking” I told her plainly. She pouted as my double meaning had become clear. But I got the impression she accepted my reasoning. Particularly after she had failed to cooperate on my first plan and had gotten fatter as a result.

So, we both returned to our work for the evening. I returned to my own research. New methods of efficiently storing generated magical energy for long term use. A topic that had confounded me for many a century. While she focused on her own field of study, teleportation. I could only hope she was working on improving her accuracy while she was sober. That evening with ink-stained fingers, and lithe stomachs we went to bed. Then awoke the next morning, where I prepared her bowl of porridge and she ate it while complaining. It became a familiar and pleasant routine. Though I was much more wary than I had been previously. As the days trickled on, I did my best to keep a steady eye on her, and more specifically her body. Something which she teased me about, even though I personally felt it reflected more poorly on her than it did me. That I had to stare at her body to make sure it wasn’t swelling up a dress size. The only issue was that it was somewhat difficult to tell based on pure observation. Human bodies aren’t perfectly sustained and stable entities. So, it can be difficult to discern, if one is growing fatter or not.

“I really must know if you hold your other apprentices to the same...rigorous standards” she complained as we sat at breakfast a few days into her new routine. The reason for her objection was clear. I was holding a measuring thread in my hand. The sort used to prepare dresses. My personal solution to the issue of her weight sneaking up on us both. “Most of my apprentices don’t need me to hold them to a standard, they hold themselves to one” I informed my whiny plump apprentice succinctly. “Hmm, how would you know what your apprentices are like behind closed doors, you thought I was perfect” she said but nevertheless complied dropping her gown and baring her nude girth. I dismissed her point out of hand. Not something that warranted any real consideration. Measuring her as it turned out was an odd experience, I had done it before to fit her for her robes at the end of her apprenticeship. It was strange to grab those same legs and feel my hands press into blubber, or to have to take a step back to properly wrap the thread around her overly plush posterior. “Hmmm, I suppose everything’s alright?” she asked me dabbing some sweat from her bust. “Sure enough, go about your business” I told her with a dismissive hand wave.

She strutted away with a certain sway in her hips. It betrayed her confidence though it made the new thickness of her thighs wobble. It seemed she was confident in getting her figure back. There was just one issue. I had been less than honest. She was getting bigger. I hadn’t even needed the measuring tape to confirm it, getting up so close and person had done that much. It wasn’t a dramatic amount yet. But most important it meant she wasn’t getting any smaller either. It wouldn’t be long before it stacked up once more. I had a theory, unlike before it didn't hinge on some exterior force, but rather on my apprentice herself. I wagered she was cheating her diet. Which would’ve been pointless given she herself wanted to be fit and sexy in time for the Witch's Ball. Though if she was capable of beating her urges, she wouldn’t have been getting any plumper. The only question was how she was doing it. It seemed most likely she was circumventing my alarm line. Luckily for me her degraded table manners would be a positive. The way she gorged I doubted she could keep from covering herself in physical evidence. I just needed to time it correctly.

“Get much work done today?” she asked me as we kept each other company late in the evening of the fifth day of her new routine. “Not much as you I’d wager, you look sleepy” I fired back, sitting up a little in my comfortable chair. “I don’t look tired, I look hungry, which is your fault to be clear” she protested. Though she had been gradually growing thicker, on that particular occasion, she did look rather starved. Her stomach almost looked flat, it was so deprived of the filling pastries it craved. She was also clean which was another indication she hadn’t eaten yet that day. Of course, that extra burgeoning tit blubber, and dress straining thigh flab had to be coming from somewhere. It was just a matter of when. “You can be both?” I suggested gently. “I suppose you’re right about that...” she mused quietly clearly comfy in her chair, even if she was beginning to fill it out a tad too much. “I suppose I best retire for the evening” she suggested as her stomach let out a pained growl. Her eyes betraying her hunger. I smiled broadly and sent her off with a playful handwave.

Then I waited. I pressed my body gently against the door to her chamber as quietly as I could. Within her chamber I could hear every detail of her movements. Her additional thickness betraying her. The slight creak of floorboards, the click of her heels, the rummaging of sheets. Based on the creaking that soon emanated from her bed she was getting comfortable. I found the idea almost unspeakably debauched. To just laze in her bed and indulge like some spoiled princess. It was entirely undignified. The next noises, however, were almost just out of reach. Whispers, with a noticeable pace to them. I pressed my chest against her door in an attempt to better hear her. Just what she was saying. I caught the tail end of something “-eport”. Then it was time for my own figure to betray me. My chest pressed against the door, it eventually slid open and I stumbled in and recovered. I figured it’d be little issue. I was planning to bust in and accuse her anyways.

So, you can imagine my surprised when I turned to her bed and saw a rather naked Emerith sitting on her bed. That much I had sort of expected. The issue was that she was totally clean. Not a single trace of any sort of food around. “Blasted *urp* hells” she protested pulling her blankets over herself in shock. I blinked, admittedly a little stunned. The excess curves were clearly there, plumper than they had been the days prior. Yet It didn't seem like she was overeating in any capacity I could discern. “Are you quite alright?” she asked me her cheeks lit up bright red. “Ah, the alarm was set off, but perhaps it was just a bird” I lied quickly and as best I could. “Well, shoo you old bat, I’m trying to sleep” she told me off gesturing for me to leave in a display which made her wobble slightly. I backed off as she suggested and shut the door behind me. Though something bothered me about the way the blanket had looked draped over her bulging midriff.