Sierra plodded along, tailing her mentor down the shadowy passageway.  The light from her headlamp only revealed the massive stone blocks from which their path had been hewn.  Ahead of her Dr. McLallin paused for a moment, examining the floor before them.

            “Careful crossing, Sierra.  The brickwork doesn’t look as sound as it once did,” the archeologist cautioned before she continued on.

            Sierra’s light bobbed up and down, signaling her acknowledgement to her professor’s warning.  She glanced down towards her booted feet and her headlamp illuminated the intricate brick along which they tread.  Sierra kicked a loose stone ahead of them, the sound of it clattering and echoing till it came to rest some distance on.  She sighed and while seeming to examine a patch of pictographs along the wall of the passage, reflected upon what had gotten her here.

            Sierra, the eldest of three pups, had graduated at the top of her class from a Midwestern university, majoring in three different fields: anthropology, archeology and geology.  Throw in a minor in religious/cultural studies and it was pretty easy to see why she had been accepted to nearly every institution she had applied to for her graduate degree.  However, it was Dr. McLallin’s work on pre-Columbian Meso-American cultures that had interested Sierra the most, having heard of the world-renowned archeologist’s exploits, including the discovery of a long lost temple-palace to the plumed serpent god, Quetzequotal.  Dr. McLallin was initially hesitant to take the young canine under her wing, but Sierra quickly proved her worth and as her professor said:

            “I can see a bit of myself in you at your age.”

            While giftedly smart and intelligent, Sierra also possessed a very attractive body that turned more than a few heads as she crossed campus.  She was a canine-morph, a mix of yellow lab and spotted mutt.  Her coat was a light golden brown with the occasional sienna spot, including the patch that surrounded her left eye.  Sierra had polychromic eyes; one a light powder blue, the other the color of coffee.  Her hair, when not pulled back into a pony tail to keep it out of her work, fell about her in muddy blond waves, ending just beneath her shoulder blades.  Standing five and a half feet tall, her body did not attest to long hours spent in the lab, but rather to frequent trips to the gym and recreation center.  Lean and muscular, her athletic frame still had its share of soft curves; ample breasts, supple hips and a round but firm ass.  With her usual attire of faded denim jeans and white undershirt, it was not hard to understand why her lab sections were always full.  A warm and friendly attitude rounding out her personality, Sierra was incredibly well liked in all the departments in which she was a teaching assistant.

            A shout from Dr. McLallin broke Sierra from her contemplation.  She cast about for a moment regaining her bearings, and was able to spot her professor’s headlamp turn a corner.  Cursing at herself under her breath, Sierra sprung after the archeologist, noting the various glyphs and murals that lined the passage as she dashed by.  She skidded around the corner and nearly collided with Dr. McLallin, who stood examining the entrance to a large chamber.

            Beyond the reach of their headlamps wan light trickled down from an overgrown opening in the high vaulted ceiling.  The floor here was mosaic, few tiles missing from the elaborate patterns of geometric shapes, curves and figures, seemingly untouched since they were laid down.  The walls, what of them the pair of academics could see from their vantage, were even more elaborately festooned, decorated with carvings, frescoes and glyphs.  In the corner of the room stood large decorated pillars, stretching up into the velvety shadows overhead.

            The headlamp on Dr. McLallin’s hardhat began to scour the threshold on which they stood, probing for any danger that the designers of the structure may have hidden to discourage intrusion.  Sierra followed suit, closely examining her half of the doorway for anything that might signal a secreted trap:  a pressure plate, trip wire, anything.  Their search turned up nothing and with a glance of contained excitement at the graduate student beside her, the professor stepped into the chamber with Sierra close behind.

            Sierra immediately turned and began examining the wall by the entrance, looking for any clues as to the nature of the room in which they now stood.  A heavily stylized border framed the threshold, appearing to simulate a double helix.  She stood perplexed by how intricate the details of the border were, including how the helixes actually spiraled around one another, as opposed to simply overlying each other.  Her gloved paw traced the left side of the entrance until she noticed a series of pictographs above a small hole.  A sunburst and lines angled down were centered the hole, and shining her headlamp into it, Sierra smiled.  Reaching to her belt, she undid the snaps to her hammer’s holster, pulling free the rock pick.  Giving the tool a quick spin in her paw, she examined the hole once more.

            Sticking the handle of the pick into the hole, Sierra felt a pressure plate at the back of the opening trip.  A deep grinding and rumbling filled the chamber, the sound of stone against stone, until it came from overhead.  Glancing towards the roof of the chamber, Sierra smiled as her assumptions about the glyphs were confirmed, several massive stone slabs sliding away and allowing in more diffuse light.  Though it was no direct sunlight, the light that did trickle down helped to push back the gloom, revealing more of the chamber.  Her otter-like tail wagging with anticipation, she began to cross the expanse of the room to where her professor stood studying a large mural.

            “Looks like you’re picking up on the tricks of the trade, pup,” Dr. McLallin said, addressing Sierra while still looking at the mural.

            “I’ve learned from the best,” Sierra replied, tossing her hammer into the air, flipping it end over end before catching it.  The archeologist chuckled before going back to her survey of the wall.

            Carvings, their paint now long faded and chipped away, depicted various figures all dressed in all manner of garb.  Smaller hieroglyphs clustered underneath each of the figures.  Arrayed into a semi-circle, the figure’s all faced inward towards a large circle.  Attached to the circle were seven semi-circles.  Hieroglyphs were arranged in the middle of the figure.  Dr. McLallin ran a paw over the carvings and sighed, eyeing the mural earnestly.

            “What do you see?” the elder scholar asked, turning to face Sierra.

            “Hmmm… Limestone, heavy on the chemical dissolution due to the tropical climate along with…” the grad student reached out and touched the central circle, dragging her gloved fingers across its surface before drawing her paw back to examine her fingertips, then continued.  “…Looks like some sort of rhyolite that’s not native to this area.  Huh.”

            “Uh-huh.  Geology aside, what else?”

            “Well, the limestone is characteristic of the construction of the pre-Columbian cultures.  Additionally, the figures, which appear to be either Mayan or Aztec by design, are dressed most likely in some sort of ceremonial garb.  From what it looks like, they’re worshipping, praying, revering, honoring, whathaveyou, the entity represented in the middle by these circles,” Sierra said.

            “Very good.  Now the question is who or what is this figure in the middle?  And these glyphs here,” Dr. McLallin pondered aloud, tapping the symbols in the center of the middle figure.  “What do they mean?  Do they look familiar to you?”

            Sierra stepped closer, throwing the worn characters into sharper relief with the light of her headlamp.  The glyphs did look familiar, like symbols she had seen once before.  She racked her brain as she stared at the mural before her until a figure at the fringe of the mural, making a border, caught her attention.  It was snake-like, a long serpentine body connected to a large head, a great mane of plumage sticking out from behind the head.  Smiling, Sierra turned back to her mentor, who was smiling as well.

            “Quetzequotal.  Just like the one you found at that temple years ago,” Sierra stated.

            “Indeed.  So, who are our builders then?”

            “I dunno.  Still stumped, because while the presence of the plumed serpent would suggest Aztec, the Mayan also had him incorporated into their mythology.  Could be a precursor, similar to the Olmec or some later amalgam of the two, again, like at the temple.”

            “Very, very good, Sierra.  I think you’ve nailed it on the head.  The hieroglyphs are Aztec, while the figures draw on Mayan influence.  The central figure, if my translation is correct, is Ly-bel.  Before the temple of Quetzequotal, we hadn’t any clue of her existence.  From what we could piece together, Ly-bel had a bit of a ritual cult, offering sacrifices of food and grain as opposed to the more widely known blood sacrifices.  No other depiction of her has been found than this collection of circles.”

            “So, some sort of fertility or harvest goddess?”

            “As near as we can figure.”

            “And by we, you mean you, right?” Sierra inquired, looking at her mentor out of the corner of her eye.

            Dr. McLallin suppressed a chuckle, and went back to examining the mural.

            “Could this be a temple dedicated to Ly-bel?”

            “Well, considering the grain motifs and prayers written here and in the entrance passage,

I’d say so,” the doctor replied.

            “So if this is a temple to a deity, then where is the altar or sacred chamber?”

            “That is what we are here to figure out.  As you pointed out so quickly during your initial inspection, the figure representing Ly-bel is carved from different material than the rest of the figures.  Not even I would have picked that out.  Hopefully you might be able to sniff out something else,” Dr. McLallin explained, playfully tapping Sierra’s nose as she did.

            As Dr. McLallin continued to gaze at the mural with greater scrutiny, the younger academe walked along the walls of the chamber, stopping to note any significant carvings or inscriptions.  She was able to find several more occurrences of the dark rhyolite, all used to depict the figure of Ly-bel.  Several hours had passes and Dr. McLallin had moved on to the mural, continuing to “Hmm” and “Ah” softly.  Sierra sat propped against a column, jotting down notes in her field book when a glare hit her eye.  Looking up, she spotted the source of radiance.

            In the very center of the chamber, a shaft of light managed to infiltrate down, scattering a thousand points of glittering light scattered about the room.  Standing up, Sierra moved towards the column of illumination and gasped softly to herself.  There, set into the chamber floor, was another carving of Ly-bel, this time made from a quartz-rich granite.  She cursed herself that she hadn’t spotted it in the dim light sooner.  Putting her field book back into her belt pouch and pulling free her rock pick once more, Sierra walked the circumference of the carving, stunned by the brilliance of the quartz embedded in the rocky matrix.  Stopping at the base of the carving, she noted another hole similar to the one she had found on the wall earlier, ringed with the same double helix motif.

            The hole was angled oddly, and in order to see into it properly, Sierra had to kneel on the surface of the carving.  Pardoning herself as she dropped to her knees, she tried to view the hole, but the angle thwarted her attempts.  Going out on a limb, Sierra slowly inserted the shaft of her hammer into the hole.  The hammer sunk halfway up its shaft until she reached the bottom of the hole.  Nothing moved or budged, no pressure plate tripped, and the triple-major sighed in frustration.  Extracting the pick, her ears perked as she heard a fain click, coming from where Dr. McLallin stood.  The archeologist’s foot sunk slightly, and she looked down at her boot, and as another grinding filled the chamber, at her student.

            Sierra let out a yelp as the floor fell out from beneath her.  Reaching out with her free paw, Sierra scrabbled to grab on to anything as she fell.  A split second later she was able to snag the lip of the hole as an ever bigger abyss opened up beneath her.  She winced as she felt something scrape harshly against the pad of her paw, a nodule of feldspar having pierced her glove.  Hanging in space, she kicked her legs for several seconds, afraid of losing her grip until she felt her boots rasp against something.  Drawing her legs up higher, Sierra was able to brace her feet against something solid.  The crash and dim of the collapsing stone subsided and she let out a cough as the dust began to settle.  Coughing into her shoulder, a golden glimmer from below her caught her eye as it reflected the light of her headlamp.   Aiming her headlamp in the direction of the glimmer, Sierra gasped at what she saw.

            “Are you alright?” rang out Dr. McLallin’s voice from above.

            “Yeah… I, I’m fine,” Sierra replied, her attention captured by the glimmering object.  “ I… I think I’ve found something!”

            “That’s great! Hang on though, and I’ll try and help you back up.”

            “I’m fine, though I I’m not sure I can say the same for my gloves.  It’s too dark for me to see much, but there might be another way down here,” said Sierra, her headlamp’s light dancing about as she assessed her situation.  “What about that cross-passage we skipped over back towards the entrance?  Maybe that would lead down here.”

            She heard a contemplative sigh come from Dr. McLallin, followed by the sound of the archeologist’s boots above as she paced, a few pebbles clattering down and past Sierra.

            “Are you sure you’re alright?”

            “Positive.  If it weren’t for this new chamber down here, I’d have hauled myself back up and out by now.”

            “Been hitting the rock wall up at the REC much?” Dr. McLallin inquired playfully.

            “You know it!  I’m pretty sure I can safely drop to the floor from here.  I’ve got my feet braced against…” She paused as she looked at her boots.  “Well, against something.  Looks like the same stone the Ly-bel carvings are made from.”

            Sierra paused again as she took in what exactly it was that she was resting her feet on.

            “Shit!” she exclaimed, nearly loosing her grip as it dawned on her what she was looking at.

            “What!?!  Sierra, what is it?!” came Dr. McLallin’s frantic voice.

            “It’s… It’s a gigantic carving of Ly-bel!  It’s a statue, probably ten feet tall and a time and a half that wide.  And there’s one on both sides, too!  I think we’ve found the temple’s inner sanctum!”

            “Fantastic!  Were the statues damaged in the collapse?”

            Sierra holstered her hammer and with a quick double check to where she would land below, swung herself off the stature and dropped to the rubble strewn floor a dozen feet below, rolling as she hit.  Popping back to her feet and dusting herself of, she checked the condition of the immense sculptures.  They were intact, no chipping or breakage had occurred as a result of the rock fall.  From the floor of the chamber, to statues loomed even larger, power and presence radiating from their forms.  The top most hemi-sphere, what Sierra assumed to be Ly-bel’s head, was just barely visible over the enormous curvature of the statue’s nearly spherical breasts.

            “The statues are undamaged, save normal wearing and weathering.  They’re incredibly smooth, especially for such a hard material,” Sierra reported at last as she ran a paw over the titanic expanse of the statue’s abdomen.

            “Fantastic!  Have you been able to find whatever it was that you saw?”

            The grad student had nearly forgotten about the object she had spotted earlier, so engrossed was she by the statue and its beauty.  Her paw had unknowingly moved to her own washboard stomach as she stood gazing upon the sculpture.  Snapping back to reality, Sierra turned about, looking again for the glimmering item.  Turning around, she finally located the object of her search and gasped in astonishment when her headlamp fully revealed it.

            Set upon a heavily decorated pedestal in the center of the chamber was an orb-like statuette of the sculptures of Ly-bel.  Made from what appeared to be solid gold, it had a coppery hue to it as well, characteristic of the gold ore from the region.  A squared spiral design across the middle of the orb was inlaid with dark, almost black jade.  Rose quartz domes made up its breasts, smoky-clear quartz forming the arms and legs, which were nothing more than rounded hemispheres.  The figure’s head was the most stunning, made from a single piece of turquoise.  A single large fire opal was embedded in the sphere of the body, near where the navel would have been.  The orb was just over a foot in diameter and blazed with a coppery-golden radiance in the light of Sierra’ headlamp.

            She stood awestruck by the sheer beauty of the figure, her mouth agape.  Nearly trance-like, she moved with reverence towards the pedestal in which the artifact rested.  A sound reached her ears as she moved forward, and it wasn’t till the second time that she heard it that Sierra realized that someone was calling her name.  Breaking from her daze, she had to wrench her eyes away from the orb, fixing her gaze on the slanted beams of sunlight that made it down the shaft she had fallen.

            “Sierra?” called Dr. McLallin. “Are you still with us down there?”

            Sierra had to suppress the urge to look back at the orb, but she managed to reply; “I’m still here.  It’s… It’s… It’s just so beautiful…”

            “What is it?  What have you found?”

            “It’s an idol, I think.  Maybe a sacred fetish, but whatever it is, it is definitely connected to Ly-bel.”

            “Amazing!  This is fantastic!”  The excitement was evident in the older archaeologist’s voice.  “I’m going to try and find a safe way down.  Don’t move anything or touch anything.  We need to catalog it in situ.”

            “Gotcha,” Sierra said as the urge to look at the relic grew stronger.

            “Don’t. Touch. Anything. Hear me?”

            “Yeah. Don’t touch.”

            “Good girl.  Again, touch nothing!  I’m on my way.”

            With that, Dr. McLallin disappeared from Sierra’s range of hearing.  For her part, Sierra grunted an acknowledgement, for she had turned to look at the idol, and was once again under its spell.  She was drawn forward as if she had been hypnotized, the orb seeming to whisper her name.  Her tail began wagging, unwilled in her excitement, as she stepped up to the pedestal.  A faint voice in the back of her mind nagged at her, saying this was wrong, but another force quieted it and urged her on.  She raised her paws, unconsciously flexing her fingers, as she made ready to pick up the statuette.  Licking her lips in anticipation, she placed her paws on either side of the orb, cupping the arms in the crook between her thumb and fore pad, and lifted.

            No rumbling, no sound started; nothing happened.  She lifted the idol higher from its resting place, but still nothing occurred.  The pedestal did not retract into the floor, no trap sprang, no boulder chase ensued.  Smiling gleefully, she turned the orb over in her paws, carefully scrutinizing the heavy golden artifact, still captivated by its sheer beauty.  She turned to move back towards the bottom of the shaft to where the sunlight faintly filtered down from far above.  The grad student had only taken a half dozen steps when she noticed that the orb had begun to glow on its own accord.

She took another step and then froze as the orb began to shed more and more light, the same golden copper as the orb itself.  A soothing, gentle warmth had also began to emanate from the figure, Sierra being able to feel it through her gloves.  She cocked her head as if in a stupor and stared at the now shining statuette.  Its brilliance suddenly flared and Sierra barked in surprise as she felt a shock of some sort discharge from the orb, though the hole in the glove, and surge through her whole being.  A force began to pulse from the orb, causing her hair to flutter as if in a breeze, washing over her body, filling her body with sensation from the tip of her muzzle to the end of her tail.

Her paws were still latched onto the orb when warmth began to fill Sierra’s core, deep in her stomach.  It grew and swelled, extending up into her bosom and down into her waist, buttocks and thighs, but remained gentle, almost comforting.  Sierra’s eyes grew wide and she yelped quietly in surprise as a sudden pressure around her waist snapped her from her trance.  She gasped softly as she felt herself swell, her stomach seeming to inflate outwards, quickly tightening her belt and jeans.  Her ass and thighs began to swell as well, and her tank top grew taught as her breasts started to grow, quickly filling the cups of her bra to their brims.  As her stomach continued to expand outwards, it filled the increasing gap between her belt and shirt, her once rock hard abdomen muscles buried underneath a thick layer of soft, jiggling fat.  Sierra sucked in her breath, hoping that her sudden bizarre growth would soon stop.

As if aware of her growing concern about the growth, the pressure dissipated and her inflation stopped, then stopped.  The warm sensation that sufficed her whole body now retreated back into her core as the glow of the orb dimmed. Sierra was now able to free a paw from the radiant orb and, very speculatively, began to probe her new softer form.  Her paw sunk deep into her fattened belly, and she was amazed by how good, albeit peculiar, she now felt.  She gave her tummy a pat and laughed as it rippled.  She continued her examination for several moments until she heard something, almost like someone yawning softly near her ear.  Her ears perked forward and she cast about, searching for the source of the sound, but as she looked about the chamber found nothing.

“H… Hello?” asked Sierra softly, but no immediate reply came.  The yawning sound came again, this time from the orb she held in her paw.  “Was that you?”

“Yes child, it was.”  The voice was gentle, feminine with an ethereal tinkling, like crystalline chimes.  The light of the orb pulsed with the rise and fall of the voice.

“You… You can talk!” Sierra exclaimed.

“Indeed, I can, and I’ve been asleep for several centuries now, and I have you to thank for waking me once more.”

“Waking you?  What, or who, are you?”

The orb pulsed for a moment and Sierra felt warmth wash over her once more, extending out from the figurine and then retreating back in.

“I have been asleep for far longer than I thought.  I am, in essence, Ly-bel,” the golden idol chimed, glowing brightly for a moment. “Or, better yet, I am but a part of the bountiful lady’s will, a relic in which she encapsulated a portion of her divine being and sent to this plane so that her worshippers might have a connection to their goddess.  As you have seen for yourself, Ly-bel was once a mighty goddess of the people of this region, who were dutiful and devote, but darkness descended with the coming of the pale skinned conquerors, the conquistadors as you know them, and Ly-bel and I were forgotten.  Then you came along, after these long, quiet centuries, and have awoken me.”

Sierra stood for a moment, stunned, her paw absentmindedly rubbing her newly ballooned belly as she ran over this revelation in her mind.  Part of her knew, instinctually, that what was happening was real, but the scientific and analytical portions of her mind still doubted, incredulous, attempting to figure out and rationalize what was happening.  As she started to run things over in her mind, she became more and more aware of what had been done to her once lithe form.  The orb brightened for a moment and then dimmer just as quickly, drawing Sierra’s attention back to it.

“Ah, I see you’re unsure of what has been given unto you.  Your forgiveness, if you will, but it was merely the caress of the goddess as I woke.  A blessing and a gift, for reviving me.”

‘A mere caress!?!’  Sierra screamed internally.  ‘A caress caused this?  How is this even possible?  There is absolutely no scientific explanation for…”

Her search for a reason was interrupted as the figurine of Ly-bel thrummed in her paw, causing Sierra to grasp it in both paws to keep it from escaping her grip.  It glowed brighter and warmed again, almost to the point where it was hot, a similar warmth rising inside her once more, spreading through out her more voluminous body.

“You would dare question the power and gift of a deity?” the orb boomed as Sierra felt herself begin to swell anew.  “Well then, let this lesson in belief be a testament and erase any doubt in your mortal mind!”

Sierra’s eyes widened in awe as she felt Ly-bel’s magic wash over and through out her whole body.  Her stomach pushed out further, and she could feel her jeans tighten as her ass and legs filled.  The leather of her belt began to creak as she swelled, her belly attempting to flow over and under the belt.  The straps on her bra were quickly sinking into her soft jiggling flesh as her breasts ballooned outwards, rising out of their confining cups like over-yeasted dough.  Sierra’s tank top, once only snug across her chest and exposing a small strip of her lower midriff, continued to creep upwards as she grew, the undershirt no longer able to cover the furry expanse of her dome-like belly.  Its bottom edge was now firmly tucked between her steadily swelling stomach and burgeoning breasts, and the ribbing was beginning to stretch under its inflating load.

With her paws still adhered to the goddess’ relic as if by magnetism, Sierra could feel her arms grow heavier as the weight continued to pile on, her once well-toned arms now losing definition as the softened.  She was forced to widen her stance, spreading her legs further apart as her thighs fattened and pressed against each other.  A slow popping sound accompanied a small release in pressure as the seams on the sides of her jeans began to fail, and small, soft bulges of furred flesh pushed outwards.  Her belt continued to creak and strain against her burgeoning frame, her rock hammer and its holster now digging into her side as her enlarging love handles flowed over them.

As she continued to inflate, her body infused with fat and Ly-bel’s magics, the faint sound of ripping material breaking one thread at a time reached her ears.  It took a force of her will, but Sierra was able to turn her eyes away from gazing into the fire opal and look for the source of the sound.  Turning her head, she spotted what was tearing.  The seat of her denim jeans had begun to split as her ass, already forming a shelf that jutted out several inches from the small of her back, continued to fatten and swell.  The tears propagated laterally and her butt, now exposed for all the world to see save for her incredibly stressed underwear, quickly filled the rapidly increasing gaps.  Even her lower legs had begun to increase in their size, pushing against the confines of her boots.  Her boot laces began to stretch and unravel as the pressure upon them steadily increased.

As the weight continued to pile on, her mass and girth steadily expanding, Sierra turned back to face the spherical figurine.  The part of her mind that was not captivated by the idol’s splendor, the part that still sought a reason for the miraculous transformation she was experiencing, could fin no other explanation for what was happening to her.  Some part of her told her that she should be gravely concerned about what was happening, but she ignored it, comforted by the presence of Ly-bel.  No discomfort, save from her increasingly constricting clothing, came from her growth: no bloating, no disquieting pressure, nothing bad was she able to discern.  In fact, she had begun to feel better that she ever had in her whole life, the pains of her fall and the ache in her shoulder from arresting her fall were gone.  She felt positively wonderful, invigorated with an energy she had never known before and empowered by whatever force or magic Ly-bel was infusing into her swelling body.

Sierra winced as she felt her belt bite deeper into widening waistline, lost deep within the furrow that now resulted from her enlarging belly growing and overflowing the now comparatively thin piece of leather.  She sighed in momentary contentment as she grew, reveling in the sensation.  The restriction caused by her belt was now becoming sharp, almost painful, similar feelings beginning to emanate from her tightly confined calves due to her boots.  The discomfort began to overpower the sensation of Ly-bel’s workings and as if in response, her growth slowed and then grew to a halt, the warmth and sensation retreating back into her now more deeply buried core.  Tingling ran up Sierra’s arms and withdrew into the orb, the figurine cooling back to its comforting warmth.

Only the faint sounds of stressed leather and fabric punctuated by the occasional pap and creak reverberated in Sierra’s ears.  Breathing in slowly, she grimaced.  Her now woefully too-tiny bra, in combination with the tank top that clung constrictively to her gigantic chest, made it difficult for the fattened grad student to breath as freely as she wanted.  Even her gloves felt tight as her paws and fingers plumped.  She still held the orb before her, and even though its radiance had subsided, she struggled to pull her eyes away.  Managing to finally free her gaze, Sierra sucked in her breath in surprise as she surveyed her greatly enlarged form.

In the span of only a few short minutes, Sierra had grown from fit and trim to a bulging beauty.  By some wonder of modern fabric design her clothes still struggled mightily to contain her form, but were slowly failing in their endeavor.  The corpulent canine easily weighed in the neighborhood of 425 lbs. to 450 lbs., having accumulated nearly 250 lbs. from the lesson in belief that the orb had given her, in addition to the sixty to seventy pounds she had gained in the process of waking the artifact from its slumber.  Still marveling at herself, Sierra heard the orb sigh.

“Are… Are you alright in there?” asked Sierra in a whisper, looking once more to the statuette.

“I… I am fine, my child, just a little… A little older and further removed that I had thought.  My connection to the goddess has grown wan in the intervening years since the devoted last offered up prayers in Ly-bel’s name.  It merely took a moment to reinforce the channel once more and draw upon her divinity to replenish my magics.”  The figurine paused, sighing again before continuing on. “I hope that this brief exercise of the generous one’s power has assuaged all doubt and disbelief that you may have had.”

“It has eased all fears and questions,” Sierra replied as she humbly hung her head, causing her new double chin to bulge out as she pressed her chin to her chest.

“At peace, young one, at peace.  Granted it did take a good measure of my own mystical energies to do so, for I had not anticipated on the falling as low as they had, but this lesson will serve you well in the long run.”

“You mean you nearly spent yourself to teach me this?” Sierra asked worriedly, her head snapping up in shock and resulting in her whole body jiggling and shimmying for a brief moment.

The orb glowed and laughed lightly, a wave of comforting warmth washing over the young fur.

“Again, peace, peace.  I am well, my sweet Sierra, and I was never in danger of extinguishing my light.  The divine magic of Ly-bel infuses this temple and would have sustained me, in addition to the softly whispered prayers still praising the fertile goddess in all her guises.”

Her fear fled her as she listened to the relic’s words of reassurance, and Sierra’s expression calming as a smile graced her face, her now chipmunk-like cheeks dimpling as she did.  As she released the breath that she had drawn in her surprise, she winced as the increasingly intolerable tightness of her clothing reminded her of its pressured presence.  Seeming to respond to the flicker of pain that had caused her to grimace momentarily, the spherical figure brightened and dimmed before addressing Sierra once more in its chiming song-like voice.

“ You have greatly pleased not only me, Sierra, but also the Great Ly-bel, for having revived one of her most precious relics from its deep and dreamless slumber.  We are of greatest gratitude for this seemingly small action, and would ask but one favor more of you.  An honor beyond your greatest reckoning in its vast magnitude, but one the goddess would not force upon you without your consent.”

Her mind raced at the prospect of some greater gift than she had already been given, no with doubt or worry, but with hope and wonder.  Sierra shifted nervously on her feet, and as she did she gasped and winced again as her belt, panties and bra bit into her soft flesh once more.  Biting her lip, she willed herself not to appear weak in such a wondrous moment, but her constriction pierced her thoughts.  Again the orb flickered and flared in response to her predicament, and this time cooed in sympathy.

“My poor daughter, forgive me!  In my haste to instruct you in the wonders of the bountiful lady, I did not have the foresight to remove anything that might confine your growth.  Do not worry, as I shall avail you of your restricting garments, as you may find it a trifle more difficult to undo their fastenings now.”

The orb began to glow brighter once again, and Sierra felt the warmth from her own core radiate throughout her being.  As the sensation grew and the now familiar gentle pressure the preceded her expansion returned, the voice of the figurine whispered, tickling, in her ear.

“My apologies, blessed Sierra, as there will be a bit of pain, but fear not.  It will be brief, I assure you, and your body will gain its freedom.”

For the faintest of moments it felt as though someone was brushing their hand against the tips of the fur on the furthest part of her belly from her, just where it rolled out of sight.  Sierra began to ponder the meaning of the words of the orb when the statuette swiftly rose in the air.  With her paws still firmly held in place, this resulted in her doughy arms raising above her head and causing her to roll her head back to keep her gaze upon the relic.  The straps of her bra sunk further into her fleshy shoulders as she did this, but did not pain her, despite the awkward angle at which she now held her arms.  With no further warning, the light of the figurine flared with dazzling brilliance and vibrated intensely in her paws.  Her own inner warmth soared and the outward pressure jumped, forcing her to bite down on her tongue to keep from crying out.

Her expansion this time was not the gradual swell as it had been before, rather all in one fell swoop in the space of a few breaths.  A chorus of rips, pops and creaks seemed to fill the chamber air as Sierra’s clothing finally began to give up the ghost.  First to go were her overstuffed jeans: seams sundering and the teeth of her zipper yielding to the surge of growth beneath her widening waist.  For an instant, just before the final threads frayed and broke from the strain, her denim were as a second skin, akin to a water balloon filled to the point just before it might burst.  An avalanche of soft flesh spilled forth in a jiggling cascade, the elastic waistband of her now shear underwear snapping soon after her jeans had been rent.  The tattered remains of the pants now draped over her lower half, held in place by her stubborn belt, which was now effectively cutting her in half.

Next to surrender to her fantastic expansion was Sierra’s tank top, which was now serving as an over stretched sports bra.  The lateral tears that had formed across her front had now merged into one large diamond-shaped opening that exposed her enormous, bulging breasts overflowing her pitifully small scrap of a bra.  Her now soccer ball sized breasts had long since over brimmed the C-cup sized garment, the canyon created by her cleavage nearly half a foot long.  The tear continued to propagate, to the collar of the shirt and its lower hem, splitting cleanly down the center valley of her mountainous mounds, which pushed forwards in spite of their partial confinement.  Her breasts quivered like twin sacks filled with gelatin until a second later when Sierra could hold her breath no longer.

Crying out, she gasped in pain, her eyes watering and blurring.  Panting for a moment as she drew shallow breaths, she gathered herself and inhaled deeply.  She tried to hold it, but the constriction of her chest and abdomen by her bra an belt respectively was too great, too sharp, and Sierra cried out again.  A prayer to Ly-bel for strength raced across her mind and she felt a sense of reassurance calm her frantic thoughts.  The growing graduate student resolved herself once more and drew another mighty breath, then wrenched her eyes shut and flexed her fattening frame.  At first there was nothing but the confining pressure, but as beads of sweat began to dampen her brow, Sierra felt the offending items give.  She could feel the metal wires in the hooks and fasteners of her bra first contort under the tremendous pressure stretching them before they could be stressed now more and gave.  Similarly, the leather belt that encircled her waist could handle no more and failed, splitting at the hole where it was fastened.  With a simultaneous boom and snap, her belt and bra flew from her ballooning body to far corners of the room, the sound of their breakage muffled by her plushness.  Sierra’s body quaked for several moments, waves cascading through her, in wake of its release from body.

Still holding her breath, her swollen cheeks puffing out, sierra tentatively opened an eye, hoping that it was over, and spotted her bra lying in the corner where it had landed after being flung by its snappage.  With a big whoosh of escaping air, she finally released her breath and inhaled deeply, giggling softly as she became lightheaded.  Both eyes now open and fixated once more upon the brilliant spheroid, she drew another breath and sighed as she could feel her explosive pulse of expansion halt, leaving a tingling sensation on her skin.  The shining statuette dimmed its golden light to a glow as her own inner warmth cooled in kind, though remaining larger than it had before.  Though no force compelled her to continue holding the orb aloft as she did, Sierra did so as she broke her concentration from the artifact and marveled at her further fattened form.

Once freed from their bra cup bindings, Sierra’s breasts had ballooned a little more, still retaining some of their pertness as well as their near spherical roundness.  Jutting out from above her tawny fur, even her nipples had become engorged as they were now the size and length of half a thumb.  Though still nestled snuggly in the torn remainders of her tank top, Sierra’s oblong mams had rolled to either side of the upper most curve of her gut.  Starting from beneath her breasts, her beanbag like belly pushed forward in a single graceful arc.  It extended before her nearly two feet at its furthest distance, her cavernous belly button now level with her former waistline.  Her stomach had begun to succumb to gravity’s insistent downward pull, forming a crotch covering apron that reached the middle of her thick thighs before curving back up to merge with the sizable love handles she had developed.  In turn her love handles, once held checked by her now busted belt, rolled gently out from her sides and rested upon the uppermost curve of her hips, extending around to her backside where they tapered out on either side of the small of her back.  Her ass, once easily defined as almost bubble like, had crept upwards as it expanded outwards, wedging up against the base of her tail.  Had her tail been at rest, not up and wagging in unanticipated joy, Sierra would have found it difficult to tuck her tail between her legs as the curvature of her butt from the base of her tail to where it ended, forming a deep crease as it met her thighs, was not greater than its length.  The cheeks of her ass were nearly two feet in size and almost perfectly smooth except for a deep dimple on each.  Her hips had blossomed once freed from her jeans, emerging from beneath her love handles and flaring out before curving back to her knees where they had begun to roll over onto her calves.  At their widest, each fleshy hip was now as big around as her waist had been prior to her picking up the orb and awakening it.  Her lower legs, still held tightly by her boots, bulged out from the gap that had been made between her bootlaces and the tongue of the boot, but caused her only mild discomfort.

As she wondered at her body, it dawned upon Sierra that her swollen cheeks now intruded into her field of view.  Pressing her chin against her chest and looking down, she could see that the roll of fat that was her double chin had grown as well, reaching a good third of the distance to the start of her chasm-like cleavage.  She glanced over at her arms and gaped, her jaw dropping at how fat they had become.  Her upper arms were easily as wide as half they are long, making a fold at her elbow.  The leather gloves that once fit comfortably were now stuffed with pudgy paws and sausage-like digits, her wrist creasing where it met with her forearm.

“Praise Ly-bel,” whispered Sierra in amazement as she took in all the changes her body had undergone.

Sierra felt no embarrassment or any kind of negative emotion as she surveyed her form.  Rather, she felt a happiness and confidence in how she looked now, wondrous even.  She sighed and smiled, dimples forming on her cherubic cheeks, and turned her gaze back to the golden figurine.  What the voice of the orb had said was true, as Sierra now fully understood what it had meant.  Her body had gained its freedom, and not solely from the bonds of her clothing.

The light of the statuette flickered for a moment, dimming before flaring back to a brilliance that chased the shadows of the chamber into the furthest corners.

            “Praise be indeed,” the orb replied with a smile in its voice.  “It has been too long since I have heard those words.  Do you feel better now?”

            “I do, thank you,” she answered, nodding her head so that her cheeks and chins bobbed and wobbled.

            “Wondrous.  It is evident not only in your ways, but now also in your aura, that your belief and faith in the generous one has grown immense, greater in volume than your body is now.  Even now your inner fire burns brightly, my own light reflecting this.”

            It was true, as the warmth that was once diffuse and long buried deep in Sierra’s core by question and doubt now blazed mightily throughout her.  It filled her with comfort and serenity that she had not known in her scientific endeavors, for while experimentation and investigation had brought determination and drive, they had left questions and a need for proof and reason.  These urges were now calmed and soothed by Ly-bel’s presence.

            “My precious child, it has come time for you to hear what Ly-bel would ask of you.  Release me from your grasp, and I shall tell you of her will.”

            Sierra opened her mouth to protest, fearful that releasing the relic would damage it, but the voice softly hushed her, sensing her concern.

            “I will not be harmed, sweet one.  Worry not.”

            Trusting in what the orb said and feeling a glow of reassurance from within, she let go of the artifact.  To her wonder and amazement, the orb hung in the air, shedding its golden light even brighter.  Letting her arms fall, she felt them come to rest sooner than she remembered, as they now rested at an angle supported by her rolling sides.  A gasp escaped her lips as she watched what appeared to be coppery flame wash over the floating relic.  Under its own power, and as the flames grew in size, the figurine rose through the air until it hovered nearly eight feet off of the chamber floor.  With a combined whoosh and flash, the flames exploded outwards and Sierra scrambled to shield her face from the onrushing flames.

            She held this pose, but felt no heat, no consuming fire.  Only the inner flame of Ly-bel burned within her, stronger than mere seconds ago.  Light filtered through her closed eyelids and Sierra felt someone push down on her arm and cup her cheek, the orb’s voice calling her name.  Hesitantly, the grad student opened her eyes and started at what she saw.

            Floating before her was a smiling figure made from the same coppery-gold flames that had enveloped the orb.  It was feminine and feline, and smiled warmly at the startled Sierra.  The cat possessed the spotted coat of a jaguar, and was dressed in garments not all the dissimilar to the ceremonial vestments the figures on the mural in the chamber far above.  The feline was also graced with generous curves and ample flesh.  Large, globular breasts rested on a beach ball of a belly.  Wide hips and an expansive ass rounded out her figure, though she appeared smaller than the greatly fattened frame of her waker.  Her being was transparent; the statuette at her core, and the light she gave off bathed the room in golden radiance.  The jaguaress withdrew her paw, uncapping Sierra’s face, the graduate student turning and fully staring at her with awe-filled eyes.

            “You’re… You’re beautiful,” Sierra finally managed to stammer, recovering from her surprise.

            The jaguaress laughed liltingly and sweetly, thanking her.

            “It has been long since I last took form, and searching your heart and mind, I found this form to be best,” she said as she stretched where she floated, her serpentine tail flickering from side to side.  “However, I am no where near the captivating beauty that you now possess, blessed child.”

            Sierra beamed and blushed at the compliment, her plush cheeks flushing deeply.

            “Now,” the feline image said, locking her eyes upon Sierra’s, “I think it would be easier to consider what it is that Ly-bel will be requesting of you now that you have a face to put to my voice.”  She placed her paws on her expansive hips before continuing.

            “I ask that you do no take our goddess’ call lightly.  Ponder it long and deep, with all you heart, soul and being.  While you have just found her, you are already held close to Ly-bel’s great heart.  The world and its people that once knew and spoke her name have dissipated into the mists of time, but the day for her return has come at last.  Our bountiful lady will ask of you, and you will have to sacrifice some small thing, but the joy, rewards and wonder you shall reap of your faith in her shall forever replace it.  Will you hear now, daughter of Ly-bel, what you goddess would have of you?”

            Sierra stood for a moment, mulling over the jaguaress’ words, and then nodded.  Her eyes and smile beamed as she did, her jowls jiggling as her head bobbed.  The feline of fire returned the canine’s smile, then closed her own eyes and cocked her head as if listening to some distant sound.  The jaguaress nodded in turn and sighing, reopened her coppery eyes and addressed Sierra.

            “Heed these words, and hold them close, as they are the edict of the bountiful lady, Ly-bel.  The goddess requests that you, Sierra, might become her representative here, on this mortal plane.  Become the fertile goddess’ being in flesh, so that the world might once again learn of her, and love her.  This is what Ly-bel asks of you, to become her first and greatest cleric in this world that has subscribed her to the forgotten lore and myth.  If you so choose to have this honor bestowed upon you, you will be the goddess’ incarnation and the leader of her devote.  However, in doing so, you must forever forfeit the feel of the earth, which you hold high and dear, from beneath your feet.  Fret not, for your needs and desires will all be met, but this is what you will have to forego if you are to answer the goddess’ call.  As your own faith in her mysteries has grown, let her faithful in the world so grow, and the power that she would vest in you swell in kind.

            “This is the word of Ly-bel, and what she would ask of you.  You know the boon that she would bestow upon you, blessed and sweet Sierra, and also what you must surrender.  Reflect now and meditate before you answer, and answer only with your whole and undivided heart.”

            The flickering feline lowered her eyelids and her fiery gaze seemed to peer into Sierra’s core.  For her part, Sierra lowered her head and stared at the toe-hiding horizon of her belly.  Her heart had already made its decision, but in the back of her mind, she struggled to convince that small, now tiny voice that still held a measure of doubt.  It did not question the grandeur of Ly-bel nor the gift the goddess offered her, but rather the nature of what it was that she had to sacrifice.  To give up the feel of the earth from beneath her feet?  What did it mean?  Given her choice in professions and areas of study, the earth was her lifeblood.  Was the faith that she had had instilled in her worth foregoing her connection to the ground and its buried secrets in their many multitudes, worth becoming Ly-bel’s living avatar?

            Her mind began to race anew, and for a moment, the assurance in her heart and the fire in her core faltered.  She now began to question her worthiness and as the voice in that turbulent pocked of her mind grew, she looked at her body with suspicion.  Sierra sighed heavily under the conflicting emotions that she struggled with and nearly voiced her uncertainty when she looked back to see the jaguaress looking down at her with happy and tranquil eyes.  Reassurance spread through her and she muted the dissident voice for good.  The flames of her faith flared with conviction as Sierra smiled brightly, knowing that her answer was without doubt or worry.

            “Yes.  I will serve our goddess, the joyous Ly-bel, to the fullest extent of my capacity, and in any manner that our lady would see fit,” she answered proudly.

            “And you have weighed the sacrifice that you must make with full knowledge of what it is you are to give up?”

            “I do.  I surrender myself to her will.”

            “So be it then, that you, Sierra, are to become the goddess’ incarnation and leader of her faith,” proclaimed the jaguaress, growing brighter.  “But first, let us be rid of the last vestiges of the life you leave behind.”

            Cupping her coppery golden paws together, the feline raised them to her mouth and whispered for a moment into them, then blew across them.  From the tips of her fingers danced forth a shower of golden flecks, the cascade washing over Sierra’s ballooned body in a thousand glittering sparks.  The former grad student squealed with delight and laughter as the points of light caused the tattered remains of her clothing that still clung to her frame to evaporate like fog before the sun; boots, gloves and all.  She squirmed as the material held in her folds dissipated, tickling as it did so.  Her body, save for her gossamer coat of golden brown, was now stripped naked, and though the air was humid, a shiver ran through her, making her body quake as she shivered in kind.  All that remained of her former attire was the yellow hardhat that crowned her head.

            “There,” said the jaguaress as she surveyed her handiwork, pausing before continuing on.  “Now, my chosen and sacred Sierra, the time has come for you to submit yourself.  Grow into your role, fill your duty and flame the fires of the faith in Ly-bel.  The essence of the bountiful lady fill you…”

            The pressure that had preceded her previous expansions filled Sierra again, but was now greater than it had ever been prior.  Her inner fire now raged and coursed through her as the avatar of the golden orb spoke.

            “…And her love and power swell not only your heart, but all of you.  The goddess becomes you, and you become her.  May the divine and the devote meet within you and never know any bound.”

            As the jaguaress had spoken, the flames that comprised her being had grown brighter and more agitated.  The feline’s eyes were now blazing orbs of coppery fire and as their light fell upon Sierra, the sensation of growth that she had experienced before reached new heights, but was held at bay as if by some barrier.  With a chamber-echoing boom of a roar, the fiery feline’s form broke down into a brilliant cascade of flame that engulfed the supplicant canine.  The licking flames held no heat, only surrounding Sierra in their radiance.  The fire danced amongst her fur and in her hair, causing it to appear as if caught by the wind and she laughed as she watched herself shine like a coppery lantern.  She raised her muzzle slightly and, holding her swollen arms outspread, cried out in her mind as she felt the force holding her expansion weaken.

            ‘Ly-bel!  Your daughter and servant stands ready!  Embrace me, O generous one!”

            The blockade that had been barricading her body’s impending growth gave way and Sierra began to blossom anew.  She gasped as she felt her body push outwards, slow at first, but then as if a levee breaking before a flood, her fattening frame spilled forth.  Her mind was overwhelmed by the torrent of sensation that raged through her as she ballooned, moaning in pleasure.  The pleasurable feeling suddenly skyrocketed to near orgasmic levels and Sierra threw back her head, howling in ecstasy as her hardhat fell off.  As the helmet was thrown from her head, it struck and bounced off the swelling mass of her ass, rolling off the edge of her butt cheek’s steadily increasing expanse before clattering to the chamber floor.

Already another two hundred pounds had found their home on Sierra’s body, settling about her at near constant rate now.  Her leviathanic guy now protruded out far ahead of her, nearly three and a half feet at its furthest extent before rolling back to meet her body where it crept down her barrel-sized hips, poised to soon encroach past her knees.  Her breasts, now resting firmly on either side of the apex of her belly, had blown up immensely, having grown from spheres reminiscent of classroom globes to the size of prize winning pumpkins.  The initial onrush of her latest expansion forced her to widen her stance even further, far past shoulder width, but even thus her tremendous legs still met and squished to her now engulfed knees.  Were her arms not held out from her sides, and if the rolls and love handles that were accumulating there did not create the fleshy slope they did, Sierra might have been able to cup a paw under the distant swell of her hips.  And still she grew.

            Out of breath from her joyous howling, Sierra panted and quivered with passion.  Her vision had grown hazy and her mind fuzzy, still locked by the rapturous pleasure her transformation was giving her.  Recovering for a moment, she lowered her arms and laughed a belly-jiggling guff as they now stuck out at a nearly sixty degree angle from where they had been able to hang only a short time ago.  Now easily the diameter of a small car tire, inner tube and all, and extending a quarter of the distance past her elbow to her almost non-existent wrist, the colossal canine’s upper arms spread out as they rested on her swelling sides, her paws idly playing with a deep roll.  Tucking her fingers under the roll, she giggled as she wondered at not only its depth, but also at how her paws sunk deeper and deeper into her plush fat until the combined bloating of the love handles and her arms caused the roll to outgrow her paws from where they rested.  Lifting her arms, she was surprised by their bulk, but also by how light they still felt.

            ‘Surely this must be the magic of Ly-bel, enabling me some measure of freedom for my arms though they are swathed in what would normally be near-immobilizing fat,’ Sierra pondered passively as she dropped her arms back to her sides, sending shockwaves racing across her expanse.

            Turning her head, she quickly found that her softball-sized cheeks, in addition to hampering her field of view, along with her bib-like chin fold greatly limited how far she could rotate her head.  Craning her neck as far back as she could, Sierra could barely see beyond her softened shoulders and out of the corner of her eye spied only a vista of tawny fur.  Bringing her head back around, she reached as far back as her inflating arms would allow.  Grunting with exertion, she strained to get her arms into the position she was trying for, and when she was finally able to, she gasped in joy as she was rewarded with double pawfuls of plush, yielding furred flesh.  Before her shoulders tired she was able to sink her paws several inches into her titanic caboose and not meet any strong resistance save for the stretch of her supple skin.  Bringing her arms back to rest (now at an angle even closer to perpendicular), she delighted in the feeling of her fat spring back into place.

            She sighed and closed her eyes, the flickering of the encompassing golden light still diffuse through her eyelids, content to lose herself in the sensations her expansion brought.  Where her belly now encountered her blubbery legs after its long and graceful arc from its furthering horizon had migrated south of her knees, her ass no that far behind at the topside of the back of her knees.  Fat infused every part of her being, and Sierra could think of nothing greater that the divine transformation she was experiencing.  Even now the largest and upper-most roll on the insides of her tremendous thighs had begun to merge with her swelling stomach as it forced its way in between her legs.  Her stance was already almost as wide as she could get with out fear of losing her balance, which, thanks to her massive belly and colossal ass, was beginning to falter as their combined mass pulled her down.

            Sierra shuffled her feet even further apart, struggling to accommodate the growing girth between her massive legs.  She felt certain that her posture now easily recalled that of a sumo wrestler as she bent her knees to become more comfortable, if that were even possible.  As she eased her legs and lowered herself, a sudden cool sensation shocked her back upright with a yelp.  A puzzled look crossed her face and she began to bend her knees once more when the cool sensation spread forth from its point of origin a second time, but a fraction of a moment sooner than the time before.  Sierra froze, her knees and legs quivering and jiggling from the buried depths as she held her half-crouch, and the feeling continued to spread, moving outwards from its source, but away from her at the same time.  The gargantuan grad student nearly fell back on to her titanic tush when it finally sank in what was happening.

            Her belly’s lowest expanse had come into contact with the cool hewn stone brick of the chamber floor.

            To make sure this was actually happening, Sierra exerted with all her might and stood up as straight as she could, heaving her stomach up, and having to arch her back to do so.  Sure enough, for as her ballooning body lifted, the sensation dissipated from what she now realized was part of her.  In her excitement and shock of this revelation, she nearly let herself teeter over backwards on to her behemoth of a behind again.  Catching and calming herself anew, Sierra began to lower herself again and though prepared for her belly to come to rest on the floor, it was sooner still when flesh met stone than before as her expansion had yet to slacken its pace.  Making on final adjustment to her positioning, she squatted and felt her gut ooze forth along the ground, now fully five feet ahead of her.  Armed with this knowledge, Sierra closed her eyes once again and waited for the now certain.  Within not even a full half minute she raised her eyebrows and smiled contently as she felt her astonishingly fat-engorged ass touch earth and spread outwards.  Though parts of her once lithe body that would never have shared contact with the same surface how rested simultaneously upon the floor in steadily increasing amounts, Sierra struggled to hold her footing, as to remain pawfast with the earth.  Even as her large inner thigh roll brushed brick, sending shivers quaking through her tremendous body, and her knees trembled on the verge of buckling as they held her stupendous size up, it dawned upon her that she fought a battle she need not fight.

            “Rest then, chosen child, for you no longer need to struggle.  The time of your sacrifice is as hand,” whispered the golden orb’s voice into her ear.

            Sierra sighed and nodded, her chins bobbing and bouncing, resigning her fate to the divine will of her goddess.  She held her stance for a few moments longer, letting her blubbery underside grow and spread till the whole length of her thighs, from hip to knee, rested upon the floor in addition to her butt and gut.  She smiled as she let her whole weight settle upon the ground and spread outwards, her knees no longer trembling once the strain that they had to bear was lifted from them.  Straightening her knees as best as she could, Sierra sought to become as comfortable as she could and sunk deep into her fat.  A giggle escaped her lips as she could feel the roll of her upper leg push under and lift her keg-sized lower legs as it advanced.  Pointing and pushing her still dainty feet down, she could still make her footpads flush with the floor with a little effort.  As she did so, however, she felt her paws being slowly pulled back towards her as her fattening ass, belly and legs pushed her higher off of the floor.

            Within a few moments her bloated, ballooning body had raised her back to the height she had just hovered at with bent knees.  Her feet still touched earth but as she continued to from and expand, the back of her heels lifted.  Sierra pushed down with her legs against the swelling and swaddling fat, and could still force her feet flat, but when she relaxed, her heels hovered off of the ground.  Mere moments past and she was now halfway between her squat and standing with her legs wide spread, heels fully free of the floor.  And in the space of a breath she was back to the same level she had been prior to bending her knees, her legs as wide spread as they could go with doing a full split.  Leaning back on to her behemoth buttocks and stretching as far as she could, the overly corpulent canine felt the whole length of both feet briefly touch stone, but as she strained to hold still her heels were pulled up and off the floor for good.

            Sierra’s burgeoning continued unabated as she lost sight of the floor, her field of view now dominated be the horizon of her mountainous mams and gargantuan gut.  When her inflating underside had pushed her close to her original standing height, only the balls of her foot paws still rested upon the cool chamber floor without effort.  She quickly swelled beyond this, with only her toes touching the hewn limestone bricks.  Moments later only her tiptoes remained in contact and seconds later they too slipped loose of the stone.  Grunting, stretching and straining as best she could against her all encompassing encumbrance, she could only make her toes touch and they lost heir purchase a fraction of a second later despite her struggle.  Riding the calming waves that rippled through her caused by her rocking, Sierra smiled blissfully and closed her eyes again.  Her footpads had had their connection to the earth truly and wholly severed, her body having outgrown their reach, purpose and use.  The sacrifice that Ly-bel had asked of the fattening fur had been made and happily so, as Sierra felt no remorse and the “loss” her footing with the ground.  In fact, her connection was even greater now, if sheer surface area contact were the deciding factor, which was still growing.  She lost herself once more in the wondrous sensations brought about by her growth, her paws massaging what of her body they could reach as her mind emptied save for thoughts of Ly-bel.

            Her amazing expansion continued for several more minutes before Sierra noticed that it had begun to slow.  As her fattening infusion ground to a halt, she let out a tiny whimper, wishing that her inflation had not ended.  The outward pressure of her growth dissipated and the all-infusing heat withdrew, from raging inferno to blazing fire, but remained strong within her.  Through closed eye she could sense that the coppery flames that had engulfed her in their brilliance had grown dim and no longer could she feel tem dancing about her massive frame.  The room still glowed, the mush she could sense, but she did not know form what source, assuming that is was the orb.  With a disheartened sigh that lamented the end of her incredible inflation, Sierra opened her eyes only to gasp and squeal in joy of the sight that she beheld, or at least, what of it she could see.

            In the few short minutes that her eyes had been closed, she had grown from simply massive to mind-boggling enormous, if such words could even do justice to try and classify her vastness.  If he hadn’t been able to discern that the sensations her body was sending to her bewildered mind were in fact real, she would never have believed that the literal field of flesh ahead of her was her.  Sierra would have jumped up and down in excitement had she been capable of the movement, but at best she now bobbed in the sea of her own fat and sent waves racing across her surface.  Her initial giddiness now passing, Sierra attempted to figure out just how colossal she had grown.  Leaning back and forth, side to side, as best as her body would allow, she could only begin to guess at her size, but she was certain that she was nearly the same radius all the way around, if not a bit longer in the front and rear.

            Her breasts had become immense, almost beanbag-like in their size but still retaining a measure of their round pertness.  They had elongated slightly, giving them a subtle blimp-like quality to their appearance, although they were filled with soft quaking tit-flesh as opposed to lighter-than-air gases.  At three feet long and two-thirds that in width, each breast easily surpasses their possessor’s original weight by a time and a half.  Capping each monstrous mammary was an equally large nipple close to the size of a small soup can, standing erect in the humid air as a result of Sierra’s movements and general arousal.  Between her breasts her cleavage was truly canyon-like, starting at the edge of her chin and plummeting deep and opening where her belly flowed forth from in between her boobs.  Her breasts would have easily reach the floor were it not for her massive stomach, but as it was, they now rested upon her gigantic gut, separating slightly and making gentle impressions into its soft and supple surface.  If her breasts were akin to mountains, her cleavage likened to a valley, then her stomach could be likened to an immense glacier pushing out ahead of her and clearing anything from its path.

            Stretching forward in a great furred cascade, Sierra’s behemoth of a belly was easily the more dominate feature of her form.  It flowed forth in an almost unblemished wave, except for a single roll of tractor tire proportions that rung round her, and could have served as a king-sized water bed for its plush and luxurious appearance.  Its whole expanse still shimmed from the gargantuan graduate’s futile movements and small ripples could be seen racing over its surface when she sharply exhaled.  From summit to floor, her monstrously fattened midriff had crested at nearly six feet, and surged before her almost twice that to where is retreated back towards her.  The pad it had made, on which Sierra now rested, bulged outwards form her immense mass and weight, even beyond where her splayed feet now rested upon its surface.  The combined bloating of her belly and ass had lifted her further from the floor than she thought, as her down pointed toes hovered over a foot from the stone.  Though it may have not equaled her belly in height, Sierra’s incredible ass rivaled it in sheer immensity.  Each cheek of the corpulent canine’s ass was readily the size of a boulder, ballooning out behind her in near-spherical masses expect for where they rested upon the floor, pooling and flowing outward.  Her butt had also crept further upwards, effectively trapping her tail between its upper reaches and the lowest roll of flab on her back, which itself closely resembled a child’s stacking ring toy.  The great fleshy orbs of her buttocks were now well over four feet in diameter each, from crack to furthest point, and curved back towards her after their ellipsoidal expanses stuck out almost six feet behind her.  At her original size, Sierra could have easily made a full-sized bed from just one of her now colossal cheeks if she wouldn’t have sunk deep into their soft volume.

            Sticking out from her spread-eagle, her legs were almost beyond comparison, at least what wasn’t obscured or enveloped by her stomach or ass.  Her hips and thighs jutted out from beneath her massive love handles-turned-love shelves in monstrous bulges.  Sierra’s humungous hips extended over five feet from her side and would have been easily seen had her belly not obstructed the view of them.  Their burgeoning expanses cascaded down past her long buried knees and over halfway down to her fat little (by comparison) feet.  Even her calves were incredibly inflated, each now the diameter of a barrel and flowing over and on top of her paws.  Had she been able to stand, her lower legs would have pooled over her paws and rested on the floor a foot on all sides.  As it was, the best she could do now was wiggle her toes and slightly pivot her foot at the ankle.

            Held out at almost ninety degrees from her side, the remnants of her amorphous arms now rested not only her monster truck spare tires but also on their own great forms.  Sierra might have been able to bend her arms, but her tremendous upper arms bulged forward half the way to her wrists and would have absorbed them had her forearms not ballooned to over a foot in diameter themselves.  As it was, her paws stuck straight out from the fleshy hemispheres and although she could still flap them up and down and side to side, they rested calmly on the bulge of her forearm with her fingers lovingly and gently stroking her supple and plush fat.  Sierra’s face had also fattened greatly, her cheeks having swollen to nearly the size of soccer balls and forcing her eyes to squint.  The tip of her muzzle emerged from between her cheeks, her not the most recognizable and distinguishable feature.  Her neck was now nearly non-existent, the single slab of fat the ringed it looking as though she wore a neck brace before merging into her giant double chin.

            Using what mobility she could still muster, Sierra leaned as far forward into her belly as she could.  A surprised gasp escaped her lips as she spotted a change in her fur on her titanic tummy’s distant horizon.  The same squared spiral design that etched the orb now encircled the canine, her fur having darkened or lightened accordingly where needed to propagate the pattern.  Around the widest roll of her arms and on the biggest bulge of her hips a double helix pattern, not all the dissimilar from the one she had spotted earlier, had made itself manifest.  Even the color of her coat had undergone a subtle change, having lost its golden-brown in favor of a more golden-coppery hue.

            Relaxing, Sierra shivered as a bolt of ecstasy ran through her mound of a body.  The jiggling and quivering of her fantastically fattened frame nearly brought her to orgasm and she bit down on her lips and screwed her eyes shut to keep from squealing.  Although it didn’t exactly help the situation, she stroked and rubbed what of herself she could reach with her paws and feet, opening her mind to the miracle that had just unfolded upon her.  Mentally probing her depths, she could feel her inner fire blazing like a furnace as well as a serenity and peace of mind that she had never known in her academic endeavors and scientific pursuits.  Concentrating and focusing, she felt something that hadn’t been there before her transformation.  As her mind caressed it, she felt it thrum with power and authority, and she instinctively knew that this was the presence of Ly-bel that had been instilled within her.  A portion of the goddess’ divinity had been given to Sierra and grasping it with her mind, power and essence flowed through her.  Sierra could almost sense the whole of the world as her mind held this connection.  Focusing and molding the connection, she thought that she could almost feel and hear each of those who acknowledged the goddess in all her forms and all those who had the potential.  Her mind ached as she struggled to focus even further, but the connection suddenly dimmed and withdrew as a powerful but feminine voice addressed her, telling her to not strain herself.  A gentle pressure on the surface of her belly brought her out of her trance.

            Opening her eyes, Sierra was greeted by the sight of the jaguaress kneeling upon the soft expanse of her stomach, smiling gently and knowingly at her.  The colossally corpulent fur smiled back, deeply dimpling her cheeks and nearly squinting her eyes shut.

            “Congratulations, my priestess.  The great and wondrous Ly-bel be praised, as you have unwaveringly sacrificed what the goddess asked of you.  You have become the greatest joy to her upon this plane in many cycles,” the flickering feline said, reaching out to brush a stray strand of hair from Sierra’s face.

            “Thank and praise me not, for this is the blessing and work of the bountiful lady.  I am but her supplicant,” replied Sierra, her muzzle blushing and nuzzling her cheek against the jaguaress’ cupped paw.  The jaguaress cooed and patted the former academe’s cheek before addressing her again.

            “True as that may be, blessed and beautiful Sierra, but had you not found and awakened me once again, none of the wondrous events that have unfolded here today would have come to pass.  Instead, I now call you priestess and daughter of Ly-bel, first of the goddess’ new followers, and my possessor.  You have received a boon that had been bestowed upon no other, and know first-hand the presence of divinity.  Even now Ly-bel is present within you, a near direct line of commune to her as you are her incarnation made flesh.

            “This connection, this portion of the goddess, in not only your connection to the generous one, but also to all who could come into her presence and praise her name.  In time you learn full well the mysteries and magics that your connection can provide you, so long as you are wholly devote.  For now, until such a time as you have mastery, you can use it to call to you and to this sacred temple those already known to the goddess who would serve you and Ly-bel.  Each day you will come to better understand the nature of the divine spark within you and the wonders through it you can work.

            “A warning though, precious daughter, to not let this inflate your ego too greatly.  While you are Ly-bel’s chosen and her highest priestess, you are still her representative and servant.  There are those who would flatter and pray to you, but those prayers and praises should be passed through you to the goddess’ ear.  Powerful and potent though you are, you are to remain humble and true to our lady.  Her love is boundless, this is sure, but do not risk her wrath.”

            Sierra nodded, her whole body undulating as she did so, taking the jaguaress’ words to heart.

            “Now, the time has come for met to rest, if only for a little while.  Worry not, for I will be with you in spirit, if not in body.  Call out to those who will heed this heralding of new and blessed time to come, those that will sing the praises and know the abundance of the generous one’s love.  Remember, if only this, that as Ly-bel’s faithful grow and spread through out the world, so shall you grow in kind.  You are blessed beyond reckoning, my priestess, and I am forever indebted to you for awakening me after the long slumber of centuries.  I must go, but I will be at hand,” the jaguaress said with love and comfort, but paused and turned her head to look at something.  Smiling brightly, she turned back.

            “It seems that your first and most faithful attendant approaches, even as we speak.  Treat her well, and she will be unbendingly devote to you and Ly-bel.  Blessings of the goddess, sweet Sierra.”

            With that the jaguaress closed her eyes and burst into a thousand motes of golden light.  The orb, which has hovered within the feline’s fiery form, seemed to pull the glittering cloud within itself.  It hung in the air for a moment and then dropped onto Sierra’s belly, sinking deep until only half stuck out form her squishy soft surface.  Peering down at the relic from between her behemoth breasts Sierra smiled and laughed, sending waves through her gigantic body.  She truly had taken on the aspect of Ly-bel, if the artifact was any indication, as Sierra now resembling the ball-like shape of the figurine and surrounding statues.  She pondered for a moment the jaguaress’ last words, but a tug on her connection to Ly-bel pointed off to one side.  Craning her neck as far as she could, she spotted a light shining through an opening in the chamber she hadn’t noticed before.  The circle of light grew bigger and the sound of approaching boot steps soon reached her ears, and Sierra sunk back into herself with a knowing smile, feeling the spark within.

            Dr. McLallin walked into the chamber and froze, trying in vain to comprehend the hill of furred flesh that dominated the chamber before her.  The archeologist tentatively reached out and brushed Sierra’s side, the colossal canine giggling as she did so.  Incredulous, the seasoned academe walked around to her student’s distant front, surveying all that she could.  With her paws on her hips, she came to stand in Sierra’s range of view and looked up into her pudgy face.

            “What in God’s name happened to you, Sierra?” Dr. McLallin asked after a long silence, shaking her head in disbelief, sending her own golden blond hair swirling.

            “Ah ah ah, I think that you mean ‘In the Goddess’’ name, and you already know it, Jenna,” Sierra replied calmly and authoritatively, addressing her professor casually.  The vixen looked up at her again and smiled, sighing heavily as he locked gazes with Sierra.  Jenna cocked an eyebrow as she spotted the orb nestled within its soft indentation.

            “I thought that I had told you not to touch anything, and lo, you just couldn’t listen, could you?  Sierra, can you tell me the first rule of artifact retrieval?”

            Sierra had to suppress another body quaking laugh as she replied. “Do not more an artifact until it has been cataloged in situ, and even then only with gloves.”

            “And you just had to ignore it, didn’t you pup?”  Jenna replied as she gently nudged the leading edge of Sierra’s soft belly with her boot.

            “Awww, come on, Jenna,” Sierra pleaded teasingly, a glimmer in her eye.  “Sometimes you just got to have a little faith in things.  It’s amazing what it can do to a person.”

            “Oh really?” Dr. McLallin responded, shuffling in place as she felt warmth spread through out her.

            “Oh yes,” came Sierra’s response as she closed her eyes, concentrating as she sought to fan the spark she felt within her mentor.  “Let me ask you, Jenna, have you ever felt the overwhelming and undeniable presence of the divine, or have your years spent muzzle deep in the tomes of science dulled you to its miracles?”

            The vixen shuffled again and, after a moment’s hesitation as her mind recalled that incident years ago at the temple-palace to Quetzequotal, she replied no.  Her paw unconsciously tugged at the waistband of her shorts as the warmth continued to grow, her canvas pants seeming to be growing tighter.

            “Then perhaps you’d like to hear just what exactly happened to me and what was revealed, and what it is the great Ly-bel would ask of you…”