Sorceress’ Apprentice, The

Shalandra waited patiently under the covers, not daring to move a muscle. When at last she heard Mistress begin to snore, she carefully climbed out of bed, threw on a dress, and crept quietly out of the bedroom.

As an elf, Shalandra was predisposed to a tall but pencil-thin physique. Back when she lived with her own people, she never gave this a second thought. But as a Magic Academy student, the more she had been exposed to buxom, broad-hipped human females, the less womanly she felt. Shalandra was tired of being a stick figure, and only Mistress’ forbidden magic could give her what she needed.

The Grimoire of Transformation was laying on the plinth, just where Mistress had left it. Flipping through various shapeshifting and cosmetic spells, Shalandra finally found one that promised to give her an hourglass figure. Seven guttural syllables later, she’d cast the spell and was eagerly awaiting the results. She didn’t have to wait long. Within seconds, she felt the fabric of her dress sliding over her nipples. Peering down the neckhole, she watched her flat breasts slowly rounding out. Soon after, she felt her butt and thighs begin to expand.

For a while, Shalandra reveled in the blossoming of her body. But as the minutes passed, her elation turned to worry. Just how big was this spell supposed to make her? Her curves had grown completely out of reasonable proportions, and their weight bore down heavily on her delicate elven frame. When she could barely stand, Shalandra decided enough was enough, and flipped to the next page. But her heart sank when she saw that the counterspell was a full page of elaborate syllables!

Her first two attempts to cast the counter briefly turned her skin blue and made her dress fall apart in shreds, in that order. Finally, Shalandra got through the spell without any obvious mistakes. To her immense relief, she felt herself getting lighter, and collapsed to the ground, waiting for her body to get back to normal. But even as her excess weight dissipated, her figure didn’t seem to shrink an inch. Curiously cupping her engorged breasts, she felt an odd change in their texture, as though they were getting firmer and more resilient. They also seemed to be rising up on her chest. And when she got to her feet, Shalandra found that far from being overweight, she was actually lighter than she’d been when she first cast the spell!

Reading over the counterspell once more, Shalandra discovered that in her haste, she’d accidentally pronounced the same line twice, which meant there’d be some sort of “rebound” effect. The only way to fix it would be to recast the counter properly, so she started reciting the syllables slowly, determined not to make another mistake. But when she had almost finished, her swelling bosom rose up into the field of view, obscuring the last few lines. Pressing her breasts back down with both hands, she finished recasting the counter, only to realize to her horror that she’d repeated a line again!

Suddenly, Shalandra let out a shriek as she felt her feet leave the ground! She made a quick grab for the plinth, but her fingers only grazed the stone. Her fear turned to panic as the spellbook fell away beneath her, its dense print too distant to read. Her buoyant backside angled her forward, and she came to rest with her back to the ceiling.

Her latest miscast had caused her belly to blow up as well. When her curves had no more room to expand, she slowly ballooned into a limbless sphere. Even then, the merciless magic didn’t relent, and she blew up ten feet across, then fifteen. As her back pressed against the ceiling, Shalandra wondered whether she’d crash through the roof and be lost to the sky, or simply explode when her body couldn’t take the pressure. She closed her eyes, waiting for the magical mischief she’d inflicted on herself to run its course.

The next thing she knew, Shalandra was being hauled out of bed by Mistress yelling at her to get her chores done. Knowing better than to ask questions, she got to work, figuring that her magical experiment had just been a bad dream. But when she went to disintegrate yesterday’s garbage, she noticed a pile of rags that looked like one of her dresses. Before she could investigate, the trash vaporized into a cloud of glowing particles, floating away in the breeze.