Fertility Potion, The
Upstairs, in the quaint kitchen of The Great White Witch’s cottage. The witch herself sat at a diner set, sipping coolly from a fine china teacup. Things were certainly much quieter after the defeat of the Abominable Warlock, strange as it were. She expected miles of lines to be at the shop door, seeking help with reconstruction of the village of Hermit, but the only business she’d received all day was a Leshy requesting a magic foot cream. “I guess they just wanted to give me a break,” She thought aloud. “Maybe they thought I’d have my hands full with Abi’s community service, which reminds me I haven’t heard a peep out of him since I sent him to dust the crystal cabinets…”
She floated back down to the floor with grace and headed for the Stairwell, carrying the tea tray with her -using her levitation powers- in case the little sprite was thirsty.
When she reached the very bottom of the winding staircase, she was at the basement floor. The room smelt fusty and slightly “pickled” from all the embalming and storage of dead frogs and worms that had gone on down here. A fire pit at the centre of the room. A stuffed alligator sat atop one of the crystal cabinets and right on the bottom shelf, lay a puffed-out sprite, about to fall asleep in the feathers of a duster.
“Abi, don’t fall asleep in that, it’s not good for your lungs.” The Great White Witch fussed, picking him up and holding him in cupped hands while she blew the dust out of his platinum blonde hair.
He rubbed his cardinal red eyes and yawned. “Well It’s hard to stay awake when you are dusting with a brush three times the size of you; the weight of it nearly tipped me off the shelf twice!”
“Oh, stop your griping, it’ll build character and put some hairs on your chest.” She teased, lightly poking him in the chest. “Here have some Tea, It’s Chamomile, good for the belly and the soul.”
She sat on one of the steps and placed the tea tray in her lap and rested Abi on it. She poured out a small drizzle of tea into a cup and with a flick of her hand, magicked a miniature straw to appear and handed it to Abi.
“Why do you waste magic making these tiny straws? Why not just shrink the cup?” Abi queried; his blonde brows furrowed.
“It’s something vaguely to do with science and particle physics; If I shrink something the particles come closer together, making the object denser; at best, I make it too heavy for little people to carry, at worst, The particles bounce back and cause the item to explode and I like this tea set.” She explained.
“Hold your horses a second, so you can cause me to swell up to the size of a Mage & Fae Tournament Stadium but you can’t shrink a cup?”
The Great White Witch sighed. “I didn’t magically make you wider; every blood vessel and muscle fibre just got pumped up full of Pixie Dust until it finally hit your intestines then all 25ft of it ballooned up until…” She made a popping sound with with her lips.
Abi just frowned at her, unimpressed and suckled up his tea.
“Can I have some more?” He asked.
“What’s the magic word?” She cooed, staring down at him.
“Eleka Nahmen Nahmen Ah Tum Ah Tum Eleka Nahmen?” He flashed a cheeky grin at her. “Just kidding it’s ‘please’, do I have to say it every time I want something? That sounds so monotonous…”
“Gosh, you’re full of questions today, Little-Bitty Pretty One.”
“Don’t chide me, I’m much older than you.”
The Great White Witch chortled and levitated Abi by the scruff of his cotton jumper.
“Yes, but based on how our lives have turned out, I’m clearly the wiser.” She smiled and raised up her lovely red eyebrows, all smug.
Abi folded his arms as she lowered him back down onto a saucer and refilled his cup. As she picked up her own cup of tea, there was a knock on the shop door upstairs.
“Ooh! Break time’s over!” The Great White Witch said excitedly.
She lifted Abi and the tea tray back upstairs and placed the set on to the coffee table in the shop foyer.
“Be a doll and grab another tea bag from the kitchen upstairs, pretty please.” She asked, warm and polite. “We must have a fresh pot for the guest.”
Abi looked at the enormous towering stairs and sighed, before he began his climb.
She swept the dust from her gleaming white dress and fluffed her red hair out of her face. With a stretched wide smile, she opened the door to for her new customer.
“Welcome to The Wishes Emporium.” She cheered, her freckled cheeks glowing rosy.
The guest at the door didn’t seem to be too cheery. It was a beautiful Nymph with long, black winding hair and skin as dark as coal, wrapped scantily in vines and leaves. Her brown eyes were puffy from tears though still shining with a glint of one last hope.
The Great White Witch gently took her hand and led her into the lobby. “My, how may I help such a rare beauty?”
The guest sat upon the cosy, velvet coach while The Great White Witch took the armchair.
“Mrs. Witch…” The guest started.
“Please dear, all my friends call me Cinnamon, Cindy if you’d like.”
“My name is Bellula.” She cracked a smile.
“Oh, what a beautiful name to match your face, rolls nicely off of the tongue, like a nice, fresh pot of tea would if my assistant would hurry up…”
“I’VE ONLY JUST REACHED THE TOP OF THE STAIRS!” Abi shouted.
Bellula and Cindy giggled together.
“See, you’re laughing now, what could be so bad, my dear?” Cindy asked.
“Well, My husband and I… we’ve been trying for months to have a baby but to no success, doctor’s daren’t help us because my husband is… well…” Bellula handwaves for Cindy to come closer before whispering in her ear. “… A Centaur.”
“Oh dear and I thought we were done with racism towards hominid interspecies relationships years ago.” Cindy Tutted. “But your problem Bellula, will not be an easy one to fix, my sweet.”
“I’ll do anything, Mrs- I mean Cindy, I’ve always longed to have a baby, even when I just a sprout and I couldn’t bare to carry another man’s baby, not after everything my wonderful Cerulean has done for me.”
Cindy smiled warmly and put her hands on her heart. “Then I’ll work my magic then… Abi, don’t worry about the tea, My customer will be taking a potion instead.”
Abi’s growls of frustration could be heard all the way from the Kitchen upstairs as Cindy and Bellula ventured into the basement.
“Now let’s see here…” Cindy hummed as she conjured up a podium and a spell book at the far corner of the basement. “Here we go!” She held the book, suspended it in the air with her mind as she set up her huge cauldron.
She let out a “FIRAIRES!” and the firepit ignited and with a soft. “Aquarius.” The cauldron began to fill with bubbling water.
“Now sweetie, all nymphs whether water or earth bound like yourself suffer with fertility problems, this is all thanks to a curse placed on them by the jealous goddess Hera, who was sick of her godly husband and brothers fooling around with Nymphs at the expense of their celestial wives.” Cindy explained. “I have a potion here that will temporarily render you fertile to every man or hominid creature, you are to drink all of it and then well… ride your husband. By morning light tomorrow, if you have done as I say, you shall have your baby.”
Into the witch’s brew, Cindy threw Fennel seed, Garlic, A dead frog, a slice of salmon and a punnet of strawberries. “For flavour” she stirred a huge wooden spoon around the giant pot as the water grew slimy and green in colour. It looked like pond scum but it smelt like mint sauce and springtime.
Cindy snapped her fingers and a bundle of glass conical flasks and a ladle drifted towards her from the cabinet. she gathered some of the potion in the ladle and served them into the flasks one by one before placing cork stoppers in their tops and shelving them to be labelled. One bottle of fertility potion remained open and was handed to Bellula.
“Bottoms up, my dear.” Cindy smiled.
Bellula pinched her nose and tipped the glass to her pretty lips. As the bitter, fishy taste hit her tongue, her eyes widened with shock and she guzzled the whole bottle as quickly as her gag reflex would let her. The strawberries hadn’t done much for the tang of slime and spices.
Cindy laughed as Bellula shuddered and pulled a disgusted face upon finishing. “I probably should have added pineapple to make it taste better…”
Bellula rubbed her tummy. “Is my stomach supposed to feel this full?”
“I’m afraid so, sorry I should have warned you the potion comes with a bloating side effect; it’s so infamous it’s called Hera’s Revenge, but fear not you’ll have a bit of a swelly belly for an hour or two and then you’ll…”
Bellula stumbled backwards into a cabinet as her tummy puffed up before their eyes.
“Deflate… um… that’s not supposed to happen…” Cindy gulped.
She snapped her fingers and the armchair appeared in the basement and she ushered Bellula to sit on it. She snapped her fingers again to make a stethoscope appear and put it in her ears to listen in on her pulsating tummy.
Bellula’s full stomach was gurgling away like a witch’s brew.
“Goodness.” Cindy gasped in astonishment and put her hand to her cheek. “Me Oh My, The potion is a potent one but you’re not supposed to have that much of a reaction!”
Bellula winced, she felt like she had a big, ever-growing burp was trapped in her stomach. “Am I allergic or something?”
“Let me check the spell book again…” Cindy said, trying not to alarm Bellula any further.
She stepped back up to her book and reread the ingredients. Yep, they were all right, she had made sure not to use Toads that can exasperate the bloating effect, she had measured the amounts carefully beforehand, so what could have been wrong?
She read through to the end of the page and found a warning in red ink “Not to be consumed after performing oral forms of sexual stimulation.”
Cindy’s grey eyes widened.
“Um… Pardon me Bellula…” She gulped. “Had you um… performed relations… on Cerulean before coming to… visiting me?”
“Well not since last night,” She puffed, glistening with sweat, her poor, doughy belly was now hard and bulbous. “He’s got such a voracious appetite for sex, he’s an animal, I try to please him in any way I can.”
She grunted as she felt the tight constraints of the vines and ivy belt pinch against the skin of her growing belly. She huffed and puffed as the pressure of the belt bulged her stomach into a squashed ‘8’ shape from the bind it was in.
“Would you say one of those ways involved…” Cindy flushed pure pink. “Swallowing?”
As Cindy finished probing, the belt gave way with a mighty crack and Bellula’s gaseous stomach swelled forward and outwards, squashing her into the armchair. She let out a sigh of relief from the release of pressure before the pinching once again returned as her swelling form pressed against the arms of the chair.
Cindy raced up to Bellula and pressed her cold stethoscope onto the taut skin of her smooth rounded tummy.
“Cindy! What is happening to me?” Bellula wailed. “I feel like a parade balloon!”
“Well… the… results of you… performing… on your husband has created a strange reaction in your stomach, it’s acting as a catalyst for the bloating.”
“Well could you make it stop? I can’t keep growing, there’s no way my husband will sleep with me like this!”
“I’m afraid my dear, all I can do is let Hera’s Revenge run it’s course; if I make you drink anymore tonics, it could alter the effectiveness of the fertility potion or worse, create more side effects...”
Bellula huffed, her stomach loudly bubbling with the rise and fall of her breath. She looked like a big juicy, ripened pear that was still growing much thicker and sweeter. Her little cheeks blushed as this swollen mound begun to push up against her breasts. The band of her ivy leaf bra and the vines that wrapped around her hips were growing tighter.
“I do think I should at least try one thing so that you don’t burst…” Cindy hummed, thoughtfully.
“I COULD POP?!” Bellula screamed.
Cindy pulled the rim of her hat over her face, embarrassed, she just wasn’t a fan of the shouting. “Well, I’ve seen some pretty messy Magic Build Up Disorder flair ups in my time to know what happens when you let a person get too full, so let’s just say it’s in the realm of possibility and let’s not take any chances.”
“Oh mercy…” Bellula sighed.
“First let’s try to dislodge you from that armchair: you’re coming dangerously close to outgrowing it.”
“Am I? I hadn’t noticed…” Bellula said, cross, fed-up and blushing.
Cindy sighed. “Well just think of it as practise for your pregnancy, at the end of the day Centaurs are not small creatures…”
Cindy pulled an oil from the cupboard and poured a little down Bellula’s sides, to add a bit of lubrication to pull her from the seat. She held onto her hands and pulled. The leather arms of the chairs squeaked and creaked before releasing Bellula’s expanded sides. Without the confides of the chair to pin her down, Bellula and Cindy realised a different problem in their mitts; all that gas continuing to fill Bellula’s tummy was making her lighter by the second. She perched on her tippy toes in an attempt to reach the floor. Cindy waved her hand and magicked the vines around Bellula’s legs to hold her to the leg of the heavy armchair. Her taxed belly let out a sickly growl as all the liquids and bubbles in her tummy unsettled and wobbled, as she swayed around in the air. Bellula was turning as green as her ivy costume. Cindy held her bloating, rounded figure and pressed her head against her stomach.
“Not too long now Bellula, sounds like you’re almost done digesting.” Cindy hummed. “Let me see if I can find an ointment to help sooth any stretchmarks…”
“It’ll probably be too late for that…” Bellula grunted and with a hiccup her waistline blew up another inch.
Bellula now looked like a fat, succulent orange, practically bursting with ripeness. Her now inflated band size pushing her heaving bosom up towards her chin. Her hips stretched wider apart to accommodate the uncomfortable, enormous bloated mound billowing on top of them. A rumbling gurgle rolled across the stretched out skin. She huffed and she puffed as her big gassy belly continued to expand. There was an immense pressure building from the top, bottom and sides of her ballooned gut that travelled towards the centre; it felt like a pin was being stuck in her belly button from all the stretching that was going on. She grunted as her stomach jiggled and let out one more bubbling moan. Cindy backed up against the wall and hid behind her hat. Anticipating the worst.
Bellula let out one more anguished groan and clutched her belly before her belly button finally popped out like the safety button on an open jar! She let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t feel anymore stretching, she just felt like pressurised tank and was all floaty and sick.
Cindy looked out from behind her hat and slowly and cautiously approached Bellula and gave her bloated patient’s tummy another listen.
“Well your tummy’s finally empty… save for all the gas of course.”
“Oh Mercy, stick a fork in me because I’m so done with this…” Bellula moaned, still pale green with queasiness.
Abruptly a little scream could be heard coming from the stairwell to the basement. Tiny Abi was awestruck with pure terror at the sight of Cindy’s expanded customer. Before either Cindy or Bellula could say anything, he’d turned and fled.
“Hold on tight Bellula, I’ll be back in a shake of a lamb’s tail…” Cindy jittered, quickly slinking off to catch Abi.
“Well it’s not like I’m going anywhere…” Bellula huffed, swaying like a balloon in the breeze.
When Cindy finally caught up to Abi, she called after him. “Abi, whatever is the matter?”
“Stay away from me you Crazed Demon!” Abi screamed as he hid in the space under the cooker.
Cindy knelt down on the floor and peaked under the stove. Abi was pinned up against the back wall like a frightened mouse, his tiny knees knocking, his breath fast.
“Abi? It’s okay…” She cooed, her voice high and soft. “Come out, I’m not going to hurt anyone, I promise.”
“Oh Yeah? Then what were you doing to that poor girl down there? Was blowing me up not enough?” Abi Snapped.
“Okay, You and I both know that wasn’t my fault, get out from under the stove and talk to me properly please.” She sighed and reached under the stove to grab him.
As Cindy got close to reaching Abi, He bit her finger, hard. Cindy let out a yelp as he sped off from under the cooker in the direction of the stairwell.
She pointed directly at him and cast a bubble around him and lifted him from the floor. She approached Abi as he was trapped in this floating hamster ball and stared at him crossly as he kicked and screamed to get out, but her eyes soon softened as she saw each little strike and yell and tantrum got progressively weaker until he curled up like a scared woodlouse and started weeping.
She magicked a cosy piece of linen into her cupped hands and released him from the bubble, letting him drift gently down into this tiny blanket and swaddled him like a baby. She shushed him as she cuddled him against her bust as she carried him to the dinky cubby hole that she’d created for him. She levitated the doors open and carefully placed him into his little matchbox bed.
She stroked a finger across his fluffy blonde head and his soggy, red eyes finally looked up at her.
“Shhh, Have a little sleep.” She hummed, comfortingly. “I’ll come back and talk to you when you’re more level-headed, maybe with a nice warm cup of tea, eh?”
He still whimpered a little as he closed his eyes, so Cindy kept stroking his dinky little head and shushing him softly until his hiccups and breathiness slowed down into a sleepy purr.
Cindy lifted her hand away and sighed as she levitated the cubby doors closed. In a snap of her fingers she teleported back down to the basement.
“Now Bellula, Sorry about-“
*BURP*
Bellula’s circumference had shrunken down quite a bit since Cindy’s absence. Her belly jolted with a hiccup before letting out another cacophonous belch.
Cindy flapped her hat in Bellula’s direction.
“Good Gravy. Hera’s Revenge seems to be wearing off then.” She huffed, wafting away the strange smell of soup and cut grass.
“Yep, I’m Feelin’ *BURP* much better now.” Bellula pat the underside of her stomach as it slowly started to reduce down in size. “My tummy still hurts a bit though…”
“Well after all that stretching, you’d think it would. I’m just glad you’re starting to get back to normal before any major incident.” Cindy flicked her wrist and a scented candle poofed out of thin air. “Don’t mind me…”
She lit the candle and floated it around to clear up the gaseous smell but Bellula let out another rumbling burp which blew out the flame. Cindy tutted. “I guess I’ll sort this out another time.”
“What was the matter with the tiny screaming man?” Bellula asked as her feet slowly began to return to the floor.
“Oh, that was just my assistant, I think he might have PTSD after I defeated him.” Cindy said, nose pinched. “I call him Abi; He’s serving me as part of his Community Service.”
“Hold on, does that mean HE’S The Abominable Warlock?” Bellula Gasped.
“I’m afraid so, I decided that by guiding him to serve as a Witch-For-Hire’s Assistant, he could make up for all the damage he’s done.”
“Wow, You really are The Great White Witch.” Bellula Smiled.
Cindy Blushed and managed a coy smile.
Finally, Bellula was deflated back down to her petite, curvy self and relaxed into the chair with a flop.
“Whew, thank you Cindy, I hope after all this trouble the fertility potion works.” Bellula shook Cindy’s hand. “At least with all that distending I’ll be nice and limber for Cerulean, Huh?” She laughed with a wink as Cindy glowed bright red with embarrassment and buried her face in her hat.
After she had waved Bellula off, she returned back to the cubby hole with a tray full of Lavender Tea for her and Abi to share. She levitated the door open.
“Peace offering!” She said as she placed the cup into the cupboard.
Abi was still huddled in his blankie, sat upright facing the doors.
“It’s Lavender Tea, it’ll help you sleep; not that you need much help with that my Hard-Working Assistant.” Cindy smiled coyly at Abi but his expression of displeasure didn’t budge an inch.
“I hate this…” He mumbled.
“Okay you’re sick of tea I understand-”
“IT’S NOT THE TEA!” He growled, before stopping himself getting angrier. “It’s just… this feeling... make it go away.”
Cindy put her hands into the cubby hole and lifted Abi out of it and looked down at him with soft, concerned eyes.
“Why don’t you talk about it with me and I’ll see what I can do?” She said, running a thumb across his fluffy blonde hair.
She floated in mid air, poising to listen, with Abi perched in her hands.
“I’ve never been good with fear…” Abi started. “I got bullied, I had nightmares, I was scared of the family dog! And whenever I got scared, I would just curl up, all pathetic… like I am now.”
Cindy furrowed her brows, saddened.
“One day, when I was still young, a voice called me to the forbidden section of the School Library.” He held his hands against his chest. “I can still remember the feel of its enchanting pull in my heart now; the voice promised me I’d never be afraid again, for once, everyone would fear me. I was led to a book of Dark Magic, sealed within an Obsidian case. I reached out and felt its electrifying power; All I was to do was to take the highest branch of the Cypress Wood Tree from The Hermit Mausoleum’s Graveyard and bring it back to the accursed book and I would have mastery over life and death itself. Upon attaining its power, with The Cypress Wood Wand of Death and The Black Magic Journal of Bones China by my side, I knew no fear and I was only going to grow more unstoppable, That was, until you came along…” Abi sniffed. “Now I have no Magic, no power and I’m afraid again.”
“Aww, it’s okay to be afraid Abi.” Cindy cuddled Abi into her cheek and lightly rocked side to side. “But when we’re afraid, we should use our magic to protect ourselves, not to hurt others.”
“What’s the difference?” Abi scoffed.
“…Well, why don’t you let me figure that out for now and I’ll keep protecting you until you learn?”
“Okay…” Abi Sniffed.
Cindy planted a little kiss onto Abi’s cheek and carefully placed him back into his tiny matchbox bed.
“Goodnight Abi.” She said, closing the cubby hole doors.
“Goodnight Cindy.” He murmured from under his covers.
She teleported back down to the basement to light a few scented candles to clear out the strange wafting smell of acid and frogs spawn, but little did she know evil stirred from the bowels of the Abandoned Kingdom. Amongst the rubble of the destroyed temple where she and The Abominable Warlock had crossed wands, a saccharine voice beckoned.
“Abi…”