Chapter 18 - springtime blooming: part 1

48.
Upon the vast ceiling of the great wooden hall new leafs had started to sprout. Bare, knotted branches had broken, here and there, into patches of vivid green. Far below a great number of impossibly slender girls had woken at last from their long slumber. Having emerged from deep within the hollows of the earth, they traipsed now once more across an earthen floor where traces of snow still lingered.

As she took in the strange women, and the hall in which they danced, Faye felt as though she was watching it all from a great distance, as if through a strange mist, or a pair of ill-adjusted binoculars. She had a vague memory that the place, which she was sure she'd seen before, had used to feel a lot more vivid, a lot more real. Now it was distant. A faint, washed out image, very much like a dream.

Looking at it all Faye couldn't help but feel that something else had changed. Something, someone, was missing. She seemed to remember a woman, tall and imposing. Where could she have gotten to?

49.
Her hair a tangled mess, her gaze glassy and dull, Faye had only just gotten herself out of bed. Her thick thighs rubbing she staggered downstairs, old steps creaking under her feet as slowly she plodded to the bathroom on the second floor.

Though her head was still hazy, Faye felt more awake than she had in months. Over the last few weeks, as the days had grown brighter, she'd started to find it easier to get up from under her covers. As the snow blanketing the town had faded, unveiling once more the vast, grassy hills buried beneath, the girl seemed to have gotten some of her old energy back.

Leaning over the sink to splash some water on her face, Faye absently studied her reflection in the bathroom mirror. What she saw there did not please her. Over the last several months she'd paid little thought to the state of her figure. She'd hardly noticed as her once lithe body had softened and spread. Even as she'd found herself forced to struggle to fit into even the roomiest of Annie's old clothes the hungry girl had happily ignored what her appetite had done to her. She'd known, of course, that she'd gotten a little heavier, that she'd put on a bit of weight. But for the many months she'd spent happily stuffing her fat face nobody had ever made a big deal of her swelling frame. So, tired and sluggish as she'd been, Faye had simply ignored the way her body was growing.

Frowning, she ran her fingertips along the side of her face, taking in the damage her poor diet had done. Her cheeks round and rosy, the line of her jaw lost to a soft second chin, Faye found she hardly recognised the girl reflected in the mirror before her.

Her features were still the same. Her mouth was still as small and her lips still as soft and full. Her adorable button of a nose remained as tiny and pert as ever it had been. Yet in the middle of her newly florid face they all looked so different. Her wide blue eyes, once so very prominent, seemed, as they sat surrounded by her puffy well-padded cheeks, ever so slightly to have shrunk.

Straightening her back Faye let out a sigh as she studied her swelling figure. The solid lines of her once shapely silhouette had softened, her toned features lost under a layer of loose pudge. Her swanlike neck, sleek shoulders, and lean arms had all filled out. Her breasts, though less modest, weren't nearly as perky as they'd once been. Her tummy, once tapered and tight, had turned into a billowing belly, two pairs of thick love handles on either side. Her hips had grown wider and fleshier. Her once lean thighs had turned to hefty trunks of quivering jelly. Once so amazingly slender and sleek, Faye had turned into a plain dumpling of a girl, well-fed and weighed down with fat.

It was, she thought as she grabbed two handfuls of her overgrown gut, a strange sight. Both hands full she found she still had plenty of flab round her waist left to spare. Her flesh was so squishy and soft. Digging her fingers into it, she marvelled at how it yielded to even the slightest touch. For a short moment she found herself absorbed in squeezing and poking at it. Mesmerized by the way it shifted and shook.

Warm and soft though her tummy was Faye still couldn't help but be disturbed at the sight of what the last several months had done to her. This wasn't, she thought, what she was supposed to look like. It wasn't who she was supposed to be. Her eyes wide and worried, she found her gaze had drifted to the strange ring she wore 'round the fourth finger of her left hand. She was fiddling with it, stroking its smooth, milky surface, twisting it 'round the finger on which it sat, and on which it seemed still perfectly to fit. The feeling of it against her skin, its pale metal strangely warm to the touch, seemed somehow to reassure her. Looking once more to her overfed reflection, Faye felt a stab of guilt. As if, somehow, she'd done something very wrong. Something she ought never to have done.

50.
Her thoughts seemingly somewhere far off, Faye sat staring absently into space. Her well-padded posterior placed on an unoccupied chair, she said very little as she watched Niall and Oscar work.

Kneading between his powerful fingers yet another lump of soft dough, Niall found himself frequently glancing in the direction of the girthy girl, quietly studying what the last few months had done to her. Taking in the way her thick thighs had come to spread over her seat, observing how her belly had started droop towards her lap.

Chubby and slow Faye was no longer the slender, stunning girl he'd found that night up on Auberlynne Hill. Some might say that she had let herself go, that she had allowed her love of food to rob her of her beauty, to ruin her once almost impossibly slight frame. Niall, on the other hand, thought her lovelier now than ever. The way her figure had softened, her face turning pudgy and round, her once lean curves now alluringly juicy and thick; it was to him the most wonderful thing he'd ever seen.

Studying her thoughtful expression, Niall thought Faye more alert than he'd seen her for several months. A slight frown on her face she seemed to be mulling something over. Her furrowed brow making her come across as concerned, perhaps worried even.

"You're up earlier than usual," he said, a smile on his face; "had yourself some breakfast yet?"

"What? No, not really," answered the girl, blinking as she found herself suddenly brought out of her ruminations.

"Sounds like you could use a meal then," Niall grinned. "Want me to whip something up?"

Saying nothing for a moment, Faye furrowed her brow, her lips forming a thoughtful pout. Finally, one hand resting on her squishy tummy, she nodded in agreement.

"Well, if it isn't too much trouble," she said, a dozy little smile on her face.

"Of course not," said Niall. "You don't mind, do you?" he added, turning towards Oscar.

"Not at all," said the heavy-faced baker. "You go ahead."

As Niall, having washed his hands, turned to head up the stairs towards the Kendrick's private kitchen he thought he saw a flash of a knowing smile on the usually stolid town-baker's face.