A story trade I did with https://twitter.com/lichinthesystem and you can read his half here: https://twitter.com/lichinthesystem.....101059077?s=20
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Percival looked down at his phone, scowling as he looked up at the building in front of him. The neon signs flickering sporadically, partially covered by the vegetation growing up the building’s sides. Grumbling, he checked his phone again, scratching his head. “The job listing said this was supposed to be a cleanish building, but it looks so worn down it may as well be rubble.”
He shrugged, his sword jostling on his back, taking a step into the building before stopping. “Urg, dammit, what did I need to find again..?” He looked at the job detail that the client had sent him.
URGENT HELP NEEDED: I have lost my grandmother’s necklace! It is very important to me that I get it back as soon as possible. WARNING, whatever you do, do NOT put it on. $$Reward$$
“Right, I have to find this poser’s necklace. At least there’s money in it for me afterwards.” The wolf said as he pocketed his phone again and pulled out his flashlight. Doing a general sweep over the lobby of the old building Percival noticed that it had looked looted. But there were traces of ratfolk making this building their home.
Percival put a paw on the floor and all of a sudden he felt a shot hit his butt. Yelping loudly and jumping in the air, the wolf reached behind him and pulled what appeared to be a small dart with a chamber for some liquid. He couldn’t tell because it was empty. The wolf stared at the dart for a moment, “What the hell is this?”
He shrugged and dropped the dart, taking a step on to the stairs. A click heard in front of him before another dart gets shot into his gut. “This is getting old!!” The wolf shouted as he grabbed the dart and pulled it out quickly, holding it in his fist and charging up the stairs.
There was a chorus of clicks, Percival grunting, and his heavy paw steps running up the flight of stairs. Eventually the wolf panted as he came to the second floor, completely out of breath.
“W-Who puts 3 long flights of stairs to get up 1 floor??” Percival groaned, pulling out another dart. “And who decides to booby-trap almost every step???” he shouted as he shook his body and 15 more darts loosened themselves from where they stuck out of his hide.
“They don’t even do anything! Just hurt like a-ah whatever..” the wolf said in a defeated tone, still panting heavily.
“Man, I don’t usually get this winded. What’s wrong with me..?” He thought to himself. He looked down at himself and his eyes widened. Normally his tank top was a little tight on his rounder gut, but his tank top had been pushed up to his moobs. MOOBS?! Percival was fat but he was proud of his pecs, looking down in worry at his frame, which has put on at least 180 extra pounds.
His stomach was overflowing past his pants, which had popped open while his waist and butt had put on a bit more weight. The wolf blushed as he tried to pull his shirt back down, but had no luck. Wiping the sweat from his forehead he groaned as he felt that even his face had plumped up a little.
This is not what I signed up for!! The wolf shouted to himself in his head. Just have to be careful of these ratfolk traps…
Stealthing through the second floor was tricking with the added weight. But taking time to search for traps allowed Percival to make it to the next set of stairs.
Looking up at the next flights of stairs made the wolf’s ear flatten. “As if they weren’t already hard enough.” Grumbling and lifting up his stomach he started the long and laborious climb to the 3rd floor, taking care to also avoiding traps there too.
Percival’s pants and huffs could be heard before he could be seen. As he caught his breath at floor 3, he looked even more annoyed, in front of him appeared to be a maze. Made entirely of office supplies.
“Yeah I’m not doing this.” He mumbled to himself under his breath. He started to lift a leg over one of the knocked over filing cabinets and yelped in surprise. He stumbled back and fell on his butt, his entire frame jiggling slightly as he looked around.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a rat tail bobbing through the maze.
“Hey, I see you over there rat!” Percival shouted. “Show yourself, let me pass and I will think twice about vanquishing you!”
The rat tail shot up in surprise, sinking beneath the maze before the figure jumped on top of a desk. The rat had sleek black fur with white spots sprinkled through it’s coat. “I see you’ve managed to evade all of our previous traps!” It said as it looked at Percival. “OR at least most of them.” It let out a mischievous laugh. “MY name is not important and I don’t care about yours since you’re trying to steal from us!”
Percival had to take extra effort to get himself standing again, blushing as he felt his pants seams ripping leaving him in his jockstrap and tank top, his sword strap digging into his fat body uncomfortably. “Listen here runt, I just want 1 stupid locket! I don’t want to hurt you if I can help it, URF, work with me!”
“Oh, I won’t hinder your progress any further, however the rest of the guards might not be so kind. All that’s required is for you to pass our maze! The treasure is just on the next floor!” The giant rat said.
All of a sudden a stapler flies from an unseen corner and hits the rat in the head. “Quiet you dolt, do you want him stealing his weight in gold?”
Percival smiled at the thought of that but shook his head. Thankfully with his height he could make out most of the maze, taking slow and steady steps. He turned one corner and was surprised to see another ratfolk crouched down, a smirk on its face as it jumped onto the wolf's muzzle.
“You took a wrong turn bub!” It chittered in his ear before prying open his maw and shoving in a capsule.
Percival reflexively swallowed, gasping and flinging the rat away who dashed into the shadows. “Ugh, I hate th-BWUARRP” He closed his mouth and looked around.
A gentle HISSSS could be heard from his stomach as it started to look a little more firm.
“Urg, why did these ratfolk have to get me with a damn helium pill?” He stifled another burp as he looked for the right path. He eventually made his way to the end of the maze, thankful that he had a height advantage. “Whew, just one more flight of stairs and I’m done!”
Percival didn’t bother to look behind him, wanting to put the maze behind him. Building up the willpower he started the climb to floor 4. By the time he got up to the floor he was covered in sweat, panting and groaning from the effort.
The sight that he saw at floor 4 made his jaw drop. The entire floor was littered in gold and trinkets, and thankfully no ratfolk. “Alright, now I just grab the locket, and I’m so glad I have a rope to climb down this stupid building!”
He surveyed the floor carefully, having no luck finding the locket until he noticed it hanging up in a jewelry box. “HA! At least they guys were nice enough to put it out in the open for me!”
Percival ran for it and quickly opened the box, pulling the locket out and made the motion to put it in his pocket. The locket fell from his hand and clinked on the gold pile below.
“...Right.” He leaned down to pick the locket up and thought for a moment. Without regard to the warning he slipped the locket over his head so it layed between his moobs. “There now all I need to do is make it down from this building in one piece!” the wolf said as he unwound the rope on his scabbard, giving it a good tug.
Confident the rope would hold him he looked for a strong item to tie the other end to. What he failed to notice while in his search was that his stomach was rounding out even more, the HIIIISSSS coming back more forcefully.
Finding a sturdy looking golden statue he tied the rope to it and tossed the rest of the rope out of the window. Looking down he shivered, 4 stories high was a long way to fall. Gulping and slapping his chubbier cheeks he started to climb out of the window.
He made good progress as he climbed down, focusing too much on the rope and less on his own expanding body. His stomach was looking more and more spherical, an occasional burp escaping his mouth.
“Keep going, I’m halfway there!” He thought to himself, but when he reached for the rope he found it was getting more and more difficult. His belly had gotten so big that it was starting to puff up his limbs, making the wolf almost let go of the rope. “CRAP, CRAP, CRAP. WHY AM I INFLATING??” He looked around for any other ratfolk but saw none, his eyes did flicker to the locket, which was pulsing with a dull gray magic.
With increasing difficulty he reached for it and took it off, holding it in his paw as he looked down again. He still had 2 stories to go. Closing his eyes he let go of the rope, and feeling himself fall. When he expected to splat on the ground he opened his eyes and was surprised to see himself floating down to the ground, his tail wagging behind him. Thinking quickly he started to belch, making his spherical form start to shrink.
Eventually his paws touched the pavement and he collapsed, exhausted from his adventure, belching until he was back to his fattened size he got a message on his phone.
“PLEASE return the locket to the guild office by 9pm tonight for payment.”
Checking his phone's clock and seeing it was 8:45pm he bolted up and half waddled, half ran to the office, ready for the adventure to be over and to hopefully find an antidote for the bloat darts.