Chapter 1 - the sentence

"The accused, Brina Mero, stands accused of plundering the prince's garden. Further, she has been convicted and duly punished for this crime twice previously." the barrister read.
"Obviously." some smartass shouted from the crowd. Brina blushed. She knew her past punishments showed, especially in the tight dress they required her to wear to the royal court. She wasn't fat by any means, but for stealing a radish, she had been forced to consume 12 pounds of cheese. For being caught with a carrot that apparently was royal, she was chained down, and an amount of melted butter she had no way of measuring was poured down her throat. She had been slowed down considerably by this, and had gained more weight after. Now she sat at the mercy of the court, a little over 150 pounds, which was seen as quite hefty in the poverty-stricken kingdom.
"Do you have anything to say in your defense?" asked the barrister.
"I was starving at the time, and-"
"Clearly you were not starving. Add to the list the crime of lying in a royal court." the young prince suddenly interupted. "Unless anyone has evidence of this girl's innocence, I will take her justice into my own hands."
"She's even sucking in!" that same ***ing smartass.
"How dare you? I am not!" She hoped being libeled would help her defense.
"Another lie! I know precisely how to deal with her." the prince glared at her.
And that was that. She was led, chained, to a stable, where several men were waiting. One grabbed her and held her in place while another lifted up her skirt. A third then bent down, and she felt a sharp pain above and below her navel. Then another on the sides. Her arms were held back, and she was unable to see below her dress, but she heard a clinking sound and more pain in her navel. Finally, the dress was ripped off of her, and she looked down to see that her navel had been pierced, and two rings installed. A chain led off of the ring, and the biggest of the men held it, grinning at her. "Better get on the horse and do what I say." and suddenly a horse was running at her, and stopping right next to her. A man got off the horse, and simply walked away. The big man gave her a look, and jerked the chain a bit. It hurt a great deal. She got on the horse. He got on behind her, and they rode for quite a while, the sand in the wind occasionally stinging her naked body.
The large man led the horse through the desert to a building larger than any Brina had ever seen before. They disembarked at the door, and he led her in, still holding the chain. A man in a white robe approached them, and the large man, whom had never said his name, simply handed the chain to him and turned and left.
"I am Al Sababa, tender to the harem of the prince. You have become royal property, at least for a term, and so with that, I must ask that you follow all orders. Your life will be simple and predictable, and not difficult. Your punishment will be similar to previous punishments. You have nothing to fear, unless you choose to act out. Do you understand what I have said?" She nodded, beginning to cry. She hadn't seen anything like this happening. She felt fat, naked and exposed. He turned, and began walking, trailing the chain behind him, and she knew she must immediately begin following. He led her through narrow stone passageways that seemed very old, deep into the building and down many flights of stairs. She was quickly becoming out of breath trying to keep up, and keep the chain from yanking on her fresh piercings.
They reached a floor with a metal grate for a floor, apparently divided in two halves with a slot running through the middle. Al Sababa looked at Brina. "Have you become tired, following me?" She nodded. He smiled. "Good. You'll be well taken care of." and he dropped the chain down into the slot. Immediately, she felt a tug at it, and heard a clicking sound. She grabbed the chain and tried to pull at it, but it quickly pulled the other way, and continued to do so, pulling her past Al Sababa and down into a dark hallway. She was being forced to walk as quickly as she could to keep up, and sweat poured down her naked body. She gripped the chain tightly to keep it from pulling on her belly, but she worried she couldn't keep up for long. Suddenly, the chain took a turn down a hallway, and she almost slipped trying to do the same, barely keeping up, and mostly because of the pull of the chain, rather than her own efforts. Then another turn, and it just stopped. She almost didn't, but managed to stop just past the chain, with plenty of length left. She breathed heavily as she looked around her. She was in a small stone-walled room, no windows or any decorations, just a bed. A wide bed. She pulled at the chain, and found it was firmly anchored below the center of the room. She could wander the room, but could not exit it. She couldn't even sleep facing away from it on the bed. She sat down on the bed to test the softness, and then heard a voice.
"I hope you're hungry." A metal grate was lifted, and a large cake with the words "Welcome" in the frosting was pushed up through and slid onto the floor near her. She then heard a slow cranking sound, and in horror saw the chain being slowly retracted into the floor, right next to the cake. "It'll stop when you've eaten it all." She wanted to demand to know who was speaking, and why they would do this to her, but she didn't think she had time. She began to stuff cake into her mouth as fast as she could. She was feeling very full just a quarter in, and at halfway, was beginning to feel sick. She looked down past her belly at the chain, and saw it had only about 6 inches left. She crammed the rest of the cake into her mouth all at once, and the chain stopped. She took a few deep breaths through her nose and managed to swallow the several painfully large bites she had just taken at once, and began to sob. "It gets easier the fatter you get." She looked down, and saw a feminine face looking up at her. "Someday you'll just get to ride up and down these railways down here in a cart, being fed and feeding the prince's new finds. It isn't so bad."
"How... how often does this happen?" She was still sobbing, but trying not to, as this woman was clearly trying to comfort her.
"About 6 times a day. Sometimes more if the prince finds a reason to punish you." She didn't want to hear about being punished, but knew it would be best.
"What sort of things would one be punished for?"
"Anything that angers the prince. Not eating enough, mostly. If your belly rings get torn off, you don't even want to know what they do. Trust me, you want to keep them in." Brina looked down at her swollen belly, painfully full of the rich cake, and touched the rings. They were thick, and deeply set. She was still in considerable pain from the piercing.
"Do I ever get to wear clothes? Or be free from the chain?" She couldn't believe that this was just her life now. She had friends, a family, a boyfriend... and she couldn't imagine him wanting to be with her if she was any fatter. She hadn't even stolen the carrot, he had, and she had taken the blame, thinking it would just be another feeding.
"No. Don't ever ask about any of that to anyone else. They'll punish you for that. Oh, and for sucking in, ever. Seriously, they have sensors on your chain that can tell." Brina began to sob more, and heard a metal squeeking noise receding away, and knew the woman had left. She cried herself to sleep.
It seemed like practically no time had passed when she heard a different female voice. "Feeding time!" and saw a plate heaped with a dozen slices of thickly-buttered bread. She was still full from the cake, but as she saw the chain moving inexorably towards the bread, she leapt towards it, remembering the other woman's advice not to let her chains be ripped out. She didn't look at the chain this time, just ate as fast as she could on her hands and knees over the plate. Her mouth was so dry, coated in so much butter, she worried she would choke. Just as she was about done, shoving the rest of the second to last piece into her mouth, she felt the chain tug at her, and pull her belly to the floor. She crammed the last piece in with it, and felt it stop. She reached down, and tried to pull at it, but her fingers could only touch the rings themselves, and couldn't get at the actual chain. She painfully managed to get the chain up a bit, and found she had been given some slack again. She pulled at it, feeling the crank mechanism moving the other way as she chewed and swallowed the last of the bread, and then suddenly felt the crank reversing. She panicked. She had eaten everything! What was there- and then the grate was lifted up, and a large pitcher of milk or maybe cream was set out. ***, it was cream. She began to chug, at first standing, then having to kneel as the chain began to tug, and finally finishing it as she fell to the floor, pulled by the chain. The crank then moved quickly backwards, and she grabbed at the chain and pulled as hard as she could, gathering up as much as possible around her. She held her tightly-packed belly and cried in physical pain.