chapter 8

Hans and Greg made it back out to the road and were quickly able to catch a ride to the nearest village, and eventually catch a bus to their hometown. There were two final notable and rather peculiar phenomena that happened though.

First, although it took them a bit to notice after they made it to the village, Hans and Greg noticed that only 4 days had passed since they had gone down into the valley. Apparently, they surmised, the cottage was as good at bending time as it was cooking highly fattening meals.

Second, when they boys did make it back home, none of their friends and families made any sort of comment about their new fatness, and they never had to provide any justification for why they had suddenly ballooned up. In fact, only Greg’s mom seemed to notice anything had changed at all, saying, “I can’t put my finger on it, but you look so grown up and manly!” (Greg just smiled at this and rested his hands on his belly).

Hans and Greg never were able to find the trail leading down into the valley and magical cottage again. The low resolution satellite imagery of the area was simply covered in thousands of acres of forest and blurry dark green growth, and it was impossible to know exactly where they had been. Since neither of them had thought to make note of where the country road and trail had met, they eventually gave up the search.

In the end, both boys agreed that, as enjoyable as their stay in the cottage had been, it was perhaps a bit dangerous (if not tempting) to return, and it would be best to simply let the trail run cold.

Both boys, though they briefly considered trying to lose their magically-gained weight, decided that in the end, they enjoyed their plump new bodies far too much, and decided to keep their rotund figures. In fact, their appetites never did completely go back to normal; after getting used to feeding so often at the cottage, they now felt constantly hungry, and both Hans and Greg continued to slowly pack on the pounds as the years went by.

And thus, they lived happily (and fatly) ever after.

The end.