Pairs of Pumpkins, Episode 11: The Teleporting Tours of a Top-Heavy Teenager Ch. 03/13

The room stood quiet and empty at the door after the sounds of footsteps faded into the distance. A gurgle broke the silence, the restless rumble of a hungry stomach. There were half-finished meals for six but Eva's sat untouched.  

Her chair lifted and pulled far out with a squeak, animated on its own. It creaked while the cushion sank with the deep imprint of a broad, bare rump. The chair lifted again, a quick scoot forward before Eva's half-empty wine glass abruptly fell forward, clanging on the table cloth and spilling its contents.

Anastasia Pridemoon, betrayer of Zarron and second daughter of his line of royal-blooded fox proliferation appeared in the chair, wearing nothing but her thick fur, both arms outstretched in a failed attempt to catch the glass.  

The force behind its fall was her own rolling wall of gigantomastic flesh, tremendously cumbersome breasts that rolled a half foot over the table while simultaneously filling her lap and pouring over the armrests of her seat. Even crushed in, she couldn't reach far past them and her panicked reach had failed to stop the glass from falling, thus breaking the spell that concealed her.

The only version of an Invisibility spell she knew was a primitive, runic magic that allowed no possessions to come along, including clothes. She'd used it occasionally as a teenager for sating various curiosities but it was a magic she learned without Zarron's permission. Since escaping a year ago, she might've spent more time invisible and naked than not. She'd grown quite comfortable with it now.  

Wine spilled onto the table, the extent of which her view of was blocked by her own body. She scooted back quickly, half-standing before she waved her outstretched finger and muttered a nonsense word. A bolt of frost shot from her finger and instantly froze the puddle.

Frozen in posture herself, she looked to the door. After a long moment confirmed no one was alerted, she pushed aside Eva's plate and place setting. Carefully, she rolled her chest onto the cleared space then brought her weight down to crush them enough to reach the tipped over glass and frozen wine. Delicately, she righted the glass before trying to pry the wine ice off the tabletop but it stuck in the fabric of the tablecloth.  

Eyes darted to Eva's dinner impatiently as she reached for her fork and used it to pry at the edge of the puddle until part of the ice broke. It came up in several shards, which she placed in the upright wine glass. After a quick survey of the scene, she pushed it further away.

Anastasia glanced to the door once more before taking her seat and pulling herself in with more care, now being able to see the extent of her own body. With the volume between her face and the table filled again with ballooning breasts, she moved close enough to feel pressure but not pain. Beyond that, the plate sat out of reach.

With a deep inhale and a wince, she leaned in further to grab it before leaning back to a more comfortable position. The compression on her chest that pushed it out in all directions also stabilized it and she set the plate down on the elevated shelf of her bosom. She eased in closer then back out, adjusting the position that made the curve of mastic mass flat enough to balance the plate. Her nose was close enough to smell it now, the food thankfully still warm. She salivated at the thought of snatching it right off the plate with her jaws.

That would be uncouth though and neither Zarron nor her mother, Portia were permissive of barbaric dining.  She took the fork and a knife and attacked Eva's neglected dinner with as much expedience as civility would allow. It was the first time in days she had the opportunity to sit and dine.

The interloping vixen lived on whatever water, bread and other scraps stolen from the kitchen but hadn't had a full meal since her covert return to the Manor, close to a week ago. She was here to learn how close Zarron was to tracking them down.

Ana was surprised to find the raccoon missing upon her arrival. Sneaking around for that first day, she looked for him all over the house but it became obvious enough when she found Eva and the Duos that they were all unsupervised.

Late that first night, she teleported back to the inn where her mother waited. She explained that if she was to wait for his return, it may be some time. Portia reluctantly agreed for her to stay as long as needed to get the job done but made her promise only to wait: not to pursue him. She would keep renting the room and keep a teleport seal clear for Ana's eventual, safe return. There was another rescue in the area she would carry out alone. Ana agreed to return weekly and check in, if Zarron did not return.

The primary goal of the risky mission was to find out how much Zarron knew and steal every magical means he might have of finding them. Ana had thought of all the ways Zarron might track them down for a year now and as they discussed it, her mother began to share her paranoia in the four months since their reunion.  

If they couldn't defeat Zarron, they could at least stop him from ever finding them and perhaps, steal back her eggs and put an end to the sales and enslavement of any more of her sisters and brothers.

The secondary objective was to steal any spell books that might help undo the soul-stealing magic that Ana witnessed the feline wizard, Madam Marmalade use on the three Duodecaplets she took with her.

Besides them, the sorceress had five other brothers of hers with what she assumed would be the same fate so their recovery plan moved up in priority. It would only be a complete success, if she found a way to restore the Duos to their former selves.

Anastasia eavesdropped on the remaining nine Duodecaplets talking their three absent brothers and bit her tongue not to tell them the full extent of what the sorceress did. Listening to their resentment, a new possibility became clear: they were primed to turn on Zarron.

The Duos kept their conspiracy rumblings to themselves until tonight. They considered the sale of their brothers a betrayal but stopped short of retaliating against him. Now Eva knew. Her anger could be the perfect catalyst.

After Anastasia returned to the Manor the first night, she'd gone directly to the library. There, she filled a magical sack with anything and everything that might scry on or otherwise locate her, her mother or any of the brothers and sisters they rescued. Some spells might help find siblings in need of help and perhaps Madame Marmalade too but the primary goal was to make sure Zarron would never find them again.  

After a thorough sweep of the Scrying and Divination sections, she went looking for anything on the forbidden school of Soul Magic: what Marmalade used on the Duos. For that, she dug into his hidden collection of dark magic tomes she wasn't supposed to know he had. In it, she found and took three books that sounded promising.

She also rifled through his stash of spell components, taking the most valuable gems. Some she might use as intended but they'd also go towards funding her and her mother's endeavors.

That was all within the first hours of her return. Afterward, she stashed the bag behind a large planter near the Main Hall Teleport Seal with a concealment enchantment on it, where she could quickly grab it on her way out.  

In the early hours of the morning she went for his copy of the Ledger next, the book where every child bred and sold was logged in detail. It was all memorized from before she fled but her information was a year out of date now.

It was in its usual place, near the front door of the house. She read through the recent pages, mentalling noting less than thirty new names added since her escape. After completing the transactions in progress before she fled, Zarron slowed down production dramatically.  

With the list committed to memory and everything else taken care of, she had now had to wait. She slept in a far corner of the library but in the day, stayed in the common areas to eavesdrop on brothers and sisters while waiting for Zarron's return.

Anastasia considered often how she might reintroduce herself to the family or if that was a good idea at all. Her old room was ransacked and defiled with obscenities, obviously by her sister. Their relationship had never been equal or even very good and she was well aware of her privileged position to be learning magic instead of cooking, gardening and housekeeping. Eva wasn't as smart as her though and wouldn't have been able to be a mage if she'd tried.  

Waiting for Zarron and having overheard the Duos conspiratorial rumblings, she needed to gauge where Evangeline's emotions were now that a year passed. Tonight made that unfortunately clear.

Her sister spent most of her days doing domestic tasks. Tending the green house gardens where they grew food, reading, cooking  sewing dresses of a fashion that took a turn for the darker, like the black gown she wore tonight.  

Evangeline also cooked and cleaned up around the house. The constant sighs and the lazy way in which she moved spoke to her mental state. Ana knew if she revealed herself to her sister and didn't win her over, it would ruin any chance of spying on Zarron and would make her escape more complicated.  

Everything she just said to the Duos justified that decision.

Duayne seemed the one most unaffected by the changes, spending the time between his custodial duties, either trying to cheer up Eva or playing games with their massive, dim-witted, inbred brother Stone.

Ana spent some of the past week with Stone as well, watching the towering brute spend hours alone, staring at the wall when Duayne wasn't tasking him with manual labor. She'd always hoped there was more behind those eyes and he demonstrated before he had a heart. Whatever was missing left him perhaps too simple to understand his situation.  

It was an unfortunate admission that to bring him along without the rest of them to help, would be a liability. With her gone, Duayne remained his only friend and a better one than she had been. Separating the two of them would be cruel.

After everyone went to bed, she would read in the Soul Magic books for a short while, then find a corner to recline in and sleep sitting up in a dark corner of the library. She couldn't risk giving form to a blanket but her uncommonly thick fur was enough.