The Halloween Costume By Darkwulf -------------------- A thousand more apologies to Athelind, for mangling his character like this. To anyone that hasn't met him yet, he's not quite like this. Apologies go, too, to FurryMuck's Liliana. She's not the Lillian in this or the previous story, nor is Lillian the Liliana from her and Athelind's submitted logs. When the first story was written, Athelind hadn't yet met her, and I didn't know she had a cat form. An interesting coincidence on all counts. Regards to Quelonzia Stormdancer, for being a good sport about letting me take liberties with her husband. The reasons I created Lily instead of using her were that I didn't want Athelind to guess the story's end too soon, and that I didn't (and still don't, really) know her well enough to guess if and how she'd like being used in stories like these. -------------------- Athelind Stormdancer settled comfortably back into the soft, pappasan-style chair that Lillian had bought him a few weeks ago. The round, dish-shaped frame of bamboo creaked, but didn't give under his considerable weight. In the months that had passed since Lily's deception, the dragon's waistline continued to expand, though at a much more relaxed pace. The tabby cat had been relieved to discover that he wasn't angry with her for causing him to gain so much weight. With that discovery, the tricks and schemes had stopped, and she had let nature take its course. Of course, the relief wasn't all Lily's. Athelind himself was delighted to discover that someone had been attracted to him, even with all of his extra weight. He was intrigued further by the way she'd conspired to put even more weight on his frame. Since then, they had seen each other often, kindred spirits drawn by an unusual, but mutual, attraction. As a joke, he'd even had the phony weight-loss flier she'd sent him framed, and hung it on his wall. On this particular afternoon, Lily was over, fixing dinner for both of them before they left for a Halloween party on the other side of town. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do?" he called. "I hate to leave all of the work for you." The gray tabby emerged from Athelind's kitchen, smiling warmly. Passing him a plate of fried cheese balls, she gave him a quick hug. "Oh, don't you worry," she said in her soft, gentle voice. "I like cooking for you. It brings back memories!" With a grin and a sheepish blush, she retreated back to the kitchen. Athelind chuckled and popped one of the nuggets into his mouth. "Fair enough, then. I'm still curious about the party, though. I have no idea what costume you picked for me, and it starts in a couple of hours." Lillian's cheerful voice drifted back from the kitchen, "It's all taken care of, hon. Don't worry about it." -------------------- After dinner, Athelind and Lily relaxed in the living room, the dragon in his comfy pappasan chair, and the cat in one of his recliners. "You really ARE an excellent cook," he complimented her. "Now, I'm dying of curiosity about the costume," Athelind pushed. "There's not all that long left, and I still haven't heard a single thing about it." Lily smiled and leaned over, kissing Athelind lightly on the cheek. "Well, I suppose it's close enough to time that I won't be spoiling anything. I thought a long time about your costume, and I finally came up with an idea." The tabby cat blushed softly as she continued. "It's to show you how I think the world of you." Athelind blushed a bit himself at the compliment. "Now, now, you silly cat. You've already GOT me. You don't have to flatter me like that to reel me in," he chuckled, causing Lily to laugh a bit in spite of herself. "Now, when do I get to see this marvelous idea of yours?" Lily slid smoothly from her chair and gave the dragon another hug. "I suppose you're right. We should probably start putting your costume on, so we're not late for the party." With that, she skipped lightly from the room, for all the world like a kitten half her age. "I'll just get a couple of things from my car before we start." Athelind shook his head and grinned at the retreating feline. Settling himself deeper into his chair's thick cushion, he closed his eyes in relaxation, drifting into a light doze. He was startled from his rest an unknown amount of time later by a sense of weight on top of him. With a smile, he pulled himself from his sleep, remembering that Lily sometimes liked to sneak into his lap while he was asleep. "Silly," he mumbled. "I thought that you said we should start putting my costume on?" "What was that?" her soft voice drifted from across the room. Athelind opened his eyes and blinked blearily, shaking off the fatigue brought on by a lazy afternoon and a good meal. Sure enough, his lap was unoccupied, and Lillian was just getting back in the house, toting a handled sack. "Huh. That's strange. I could have sworn you were just sitting on my lap." The cat shook her head and smiled, holding up her bag. "I leave you for a few seconds, and you're already asleep," she teased. Athelind shrugged and grinned sheepishly. "Ahh, but a moment without you is as a lifetime," he quipped, leering playfully at her. The dragon then yawned broadly, stretching himself out. It was then that he realized that the sense of weight hadn't left him. Blinking in confusion, he opened his eyes again. "Hmm. Weird..." "What is it?" Lily asked, setting the bag down near the entry to the room. "I'm not sure," Athelind said. "Whatever made me think you were on my lap is still there, and I'm not quite..." His voice trailed off, and he grimaced a bit. "Oh, no. You didn't..." Lillian smiled and patted Athelind's tummy. "I was wondering how long it would take. I found a new kind of the fiber I used on you during that little diet," she blushed. "It's encapsulated, so it doesn't start absorbing water right away." "You didn't put it in everything, did you?" queried the dragon. When Lily shook her head, he sighed. "Oh, good. Because you ARE a good cook. With as much as I ate, I'd hate to think that all of it was rigged." Athelind squirmed a bit in his chair. "Oof. But you DID use a healthy dose, didn't you?" Lily hadn't used this particular trick on him in months, only once since he had discovered the truth about his diet plan, in fact. But once the fiber's effects had begun, Athelind had recognized it almost immediately. Starting with a sensation of extreme fullness that only increased, the pressure that had stirred him from his light doze was actually coming from within. As the dragon wriggled himself deeper into his chair, trying to relieve some of the pressure, the odd ingredient had gone to work in earnest, beginning to bulge his stomach. "Oof." Lillian smiled and knelt down next to Athelind's chair, rubbing his rounded belly enthusiastically. "Don't worry about a thing. I figured this out exactly, and we both know how well I can do that." With a smile, she pushed Athelind's shirt up, exposing his pudgy, violet-plated belly and its growing bulge. And growing it certainly was. Athelind wasn't able to reply to Lily's reassurances, but could only let out a sort of wheeze as the pressure inside of him grew. Smoothly and steadily, as though he were being inflated from some tremendous air tank, his belly grew. The near-miraculous fiber absorbed all the moisture it could, increasing in bulk. After a time, the dragon's belly looked completely taut and round, like a full balloon. The pressure kept increasing, though, and Athelind remembered what would happen next. Lily's contented purr filled the room, stroking Athelind's bulging tummy as it continued to grow. For a moment, the smooth expansion halted, and the dragon seemed to hold his breath for a moment, waiting for something. He didn't wait for long, though. With a strange, popping creak, two of the interlocked violet plates on his belly separated, exposing a strip of soft, orange-colored flesh. Athelind gasped sharply at the sensation, and with the extra slack, his stomach began to expand once more. By the grin on Lily's face, and the sparkle in her eye, Athelind could tell that this was far from over, though. Reclined in the deep bowl-shaped frame of his chair, he couldn't even get the leverage to sit up any more, much less stand. And his midsection continued to balloon. Moments after the first separation, another creak and sensation of cool air on his exposed flesh told him that more plates had given up. Then, after a mere few seconds, it happened again. His belly felt incredibly stuffed, his sensitive skin growing taut to the touch, but he kept growing by the moment. He hiccupped softly, and a flurry of pops and creaks filled the room, making him wince. Athelind slid one hand across the expanse of his belly, assessing the damage. With a start, he realized that no two plates were touching each other any more, a wide and widening strip of flesh between each of them! "How much more?" he groaned, rubbing absently at his expanding midsection. Lillian smiled and gently poked at Athelind's exposed and sensitive belly flesh, so used to being tucked safely behind his tough plates. Her claw lightly pricked his tight skin, making him moan again. "Don't worry, love. You're not in any trouble. I figured this all out exactly." The dragon continued to swell, the stripes of flesh between his plates growing wider than the plates themselves! The last thought he could recall crossing his mind as his consciousness left him was that he couldn't recall ever being this full before, and that his belly was still expanding, with no sign of stopping. Eventually, his eyes drooped shut, his mind overwhelmed by the incredible pressure and his situation. -------------------- Athelind woke up an unknown amount of time later, a blanket draped across his incredibly distended middle. He gasped in shock as he saw the hill his body made underneath the cloth. "Round" was the first impression he got. He didn't think it was possible for a person to grow so round... Lily kissed him on the cheek as he goggled at his stomach. "Welcome back," she giggled. "You have marvelous timing. You're just in time to see your costume!" "Costume?" Athelind moaned. "This is part of the costume, and now it's done?" The cat smiled broadly and winked. "The perfect costume! The dragon who means the world to me, can be..." She whipped the blanket off of Athelind's body, the brush of fabric and rush of air making him gasp again. "The world!" Athelind's jaw dropped at the sight that greeted him. His belly was, indeed, nearly spherical, a tight ball that bulged from his frame. While he had been out, she had painted its entire surface. No longer orange and violet, he had been painted a stunning ocean blue. Expertly drawn continents dotted his surface, and fluffy wisps of cloud made the whole image look incredibly realistic. With a stifled groan, he realized that, with him in this state, the bamboo base of his chair must resemble the base of a globe! The last thing he realized was that most of his clothing had been removed to make room for the vast mural that decorated his tremendously swollen belly. "You never cease to amaze me," he murmured, laughing softly at the sight he must present. "There's only one problem." Lily smiled down at him, blushing with embarrassment. "What's that?" she asked. Athelind chuckled softly, the swell of his belly bouncing with the movement. "Well, unless you somehow installed wheels on my chair, I can't go out like this. And even if I miraculously grew wheels...I can't go out like this." Lillian smiled and leaned close to the dragon, her fur brushing across his exposed skin. "I suppose we should probably cancel the party plans, then," she murmured. With another of her cunning, feline grins, she plopped a pith helmet onto her head. "Maybe we can even get some use out of our costumes." Athelind smiled, laughing softly at how she looked with the helmet cocked jauntily on her head. "And what's your costume?" The cat grinned wickedly, kissing Athelind on the mouth this time, and drawing it out for several moments. "Mmmmm. A famous world explorer," she laughed... -------------------- THE END?