* What the boys discover while hunting * The passing of the years * A final observation

Inside the castle's walls, all was a celebration. Music arose from strange and wonderful instruments, happy voices sang beautiful songs, footmen danced with serving girls, butlers with cooks, pages with each other. Of a sudden, I realised that there were those who were not in attendance at this joyous display. My two ladies-in-waiting, Rose and Lily, were nowhere to be found. When questioned about this, the butler informed me that they were last seen in the Spring Room, when I began to carry Cambel's stricken form from the castle. My love and I proceeded upstairs at the fastest pace my great size would allow.

When at last we entered the Spring Room, it was to a sight that was as strange as any I had seen during my sojourn in this curious place. The butterflies had hatched, their number consisting of far greater than one thousand individuals, and all of them swarming and fluttering and hovering above the bed which had until recently been mine. Occupying the bed were the plump forms of my two young friends, their bellies swollen and defying gravity's pull, their breasts like soft puddings topped with fat cherries for nipples, their thighs thick and mounded up such that they concealed the soft secrets of their womanhood. The girls were still, but their faces were smiling and their sleepy eyes were yet open.

"What is wrong?" I cried. "Has some foul spell now imprisoned you at the very moment of my own freedom? I cannot leave you here in such a state when you have been so faithful in aiding me in my predicament."

"No, milady," they replied, "we are not bewitched. We merely prepare ourselves for a long sleep. A sleep that will preserve us until the day when our destinies come to awaken us."

"But this cannot be!" I cried. "You must accompany Count Meta and I to my father's estates so our happiness may be complete. I cannot imagine celebrating my joyful union with my love in the absence of two I hold so dear."

"You must," they said, "for our destiny requires it. We are fat and young and beautiful, and we must remain this way until the day when your twin sons shall find us and marry us, and so we shall repopulate our land with strong and healthy heirs."

"My twin sons?" I said. "But when will this be?"

"They grow within you even now," the girls told me, reaching out and placing their soft hands on the fullness of my stomach. "When the day is at its shortest, you will deliver into the world two strong and handsome boys, who will grow into proud and powerful men. At their maturity, when the full force of manhood rages in their veins, the road to this castle will be opened to them, and they shall find their way here, where we shall be awaiting them. Go now, and be happy, for what seems like years to you, will feel like one long night to us." With that, they both closed their eyes and the great cloud of butterflies settled down upon them, covering their round bodies like a shroud. All the butterflies, that is but the one which flitted about my coppery tresses and finally alighted on my mother's gold pendant hanging deep in the cleavage of my bosoms. I placed my outstretched finger before it and was gratified when the delicate creature hopped onto my fingertip, spreading its wings full that I might see the beautiful blue and cream markings which so decorated its gossamer body. Then, without a warning, it too left my hand and flew to the bed where it joined the others in caressing my two sleeping companions.

Saddened by the absence of my two friends, we nonetheless set out for my return to my father's manor. The ride home was short, Polynesia carrying my greatly increased bulk with no apparent difficulty, my new riding garment clinging to my every bulge with a gentle firmness that was not restrictive in the least. Cambel rode at my side, and we arrived at my father's estate without any announcement. The house erupted in a flurry of activity as we entered the great hallway, and my father was summoned in such a hurry that he had not the time nor the inclination to stop and dress himself in anything but his sleeping clothes. He embraced me with all his strength, then embraced Cambel, too, thanking him for caring for me in our journeys in America.

"Let me look at you!" he said, stepping back and taking in all my new girth. "I see you have been eating well in the New World!"

"Better and more than you can imagine!" I replied. "And I shall tell you of everything in due course, dear Father. But first, I believe that Count Meta has something he wishes to ask of you."

"If it is for your hand," my father replied, "then he need not waste the time to ask, for my answer would, of course, be yes! And your grandfather shall be overjoyed at the possibility of seeing an heir before he leaves this earth!"

"Then we shall be married tomorrow," I said, gathering both men I loved into my ample form.

That night, after a generous feast attended by or family and neighbours, including my former paramour, Sir Henry, Cambel and I sat before the fireplace, sipping some fine porto, his hand gently caressing the bulge of my stomach wherein life was growing. "It is strange," I said, "that although I have grown quite enormous, no one comments on that fact. Could it be that they do not find it so queer?"

"They see what they want to see," he replied, "and what they want to see is coloured by what you want them to see. Your people have seen my people since the beginning of time, and yet you cannot agree upon whether we are tiny or tall, fair or dark, beautiful or ugly, mischievous and evil, or helpful and friendly. Your father sees you as the lush and lovely woman you were when you departed, while your grandfather sees you as a more slender version of that girl. Pity poor Sir Henry, meanwhile, who sees you in the most cruel fashion: he sees you as his ideal woman, lithe and willowy and forever taken from his grasp."

On the next morning, when Anna, the old retainer who served as my chamber-maid and lady -in-waiting, entered into my chambers to assist me in my dressing for the wedding, she let out a strong gasp, saying, "Look at ye! Ye've grown as fat as a prize sow!" She squinted at me, then said, "And yet, when I look at ye sidewise, ye seem not so fat at all. Milady, ye must've been consorting with the fey-folk, for ye've been fairy-fattened!"

"How do you see what none else can see?" I asked, surprised at her acuity of perception.

"I know these folk," she said, "for they've been kind to me since I was a wee child and near to fallin' into a deep well. I was saved from me doom, by a pair o' lads wi' bright shining eyes and wings on they shoulders. Let others curse them, let the church deny them, I will only praise them. And when I see one such as ye, touched by their hands and fed from their tables, I can only say that ye've been blessed!"

And I was blessed! For the wedding that afternoon was a most glorious affair, attended by staff and close neighbours and followed by an outstanding feast, upon which I gorged with great abandon. As was foretold, the two boys I delivered at midwinter's night were strong and healthy, growing quickly and becoming wise beyond their years. Bellamoure and Calidore, I named them, and we spent the summer months in my family's estates, the boys spoiled and doted on by my grandfather, especially Bellamoure who was by several minutes the eldest and heir. The winters were spent in Triamond, in Cambel's ancestral home, amidst the beautiful lushness of his lands. There, Calidore was the favourite, for all knew that he would inherit his father's name and throne.

I bore to Cambel four more children, three girls and another boy, and they were all of them beautiful and healthy and the toast of both lands. Their youth shielded the children from the efforts of travelling between the countries, but each year's journeys took an increasing toll on my love and I. Indeed, each trip sapped me of so much strength that I would arrive at my destination much less plump than when I started, much to mine and Cambel's dismay.

On the cold winter's night of their sixteenth birthday, the twins set off unaccompanied on a hunting expedition and did not return for three days and nights. It was the first time they had been gone so long, and although I trusted their judgement and wisdom, still I became afraid when they did not return the second night as planned. By the time the sun rose on the fourth morning, I was nearly frantic and had just convinced my dear husband to set out to search for them, when there arose a great commotion in the grand hallway. Rushing down to see what it was, I discovered my two sons had returned and with them were Rose and Lily, my two long-lost companions. After great embraces and tears all around, we had the staff prepare a great feast, where I ate as I had not eaten in these many years. We spurred each other on in feats of consumption that would have exhausted all but the stoutest of men, finishing our orgy of eating by being fed by our respective men. It was at this moment, immobilised by the weighty feast, that my sons chose to announce their betrothals to the fat and beautiful young girls, who had not aged one minute in these sixteen years.

So, they were married, and in the fullness of time, my grandfather died and all his titles passed to his son. But my father had grown to love the fair lands of Triamond and had also grown too weak to make the journey back and forth again, so he slipped away one night to be near his daughter and his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, leaving mastery of all his affairs to Bellamoure and Lily. Calidore and Rose, meanwhile had assumed the stewardship of Triamond, freeing Cambel and I to spend our days in idle exploration and joyous sensuality. I remained quite fat as the years passed, to my love's unending delight. Our children, too were plump as were their children. Indeed, when one travelled through our lands, it was clear that plumpness had become the fashion. Young maidens spent their days in happy gluttony, for it was the fattest and the healthiest who were the most desirable matches for the stout young men.

Age did not hobble us, but it did serve to weary us, for with each passing year, the journey between Angleshire and Triamond grew more and more taxing, as if the lands were drifting apart. Changes were occurring in England and in the rest of the world which had no effect in my new home except to make the desire to see my ancestral manor weaker and weaker. Eventually, Bellamoure and Lily, too, felt their place to be in Triamond with the rest of their family. So, one dreary Samhain eve, when all the worlds are closer together, they crossed to the west and appeared at our door, with their seven fine fat children in tow.

I do not know what has become of Shepcester manor, whether the lands have gone fallow, whether the stones of my childhood home have crumbled into dust, whether there are any who still remember my face or my family. I only know that of all the things I have gained since that strange night so many years ago, most precious are the freedoms I have found in my new world.

The End

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