A Giant Test

Vios wiped the sweat from her brow and looked proudly upon her new home. After just about thirty moons of digging, she had finally managed to carve a respectably sized den in a stone cliff in the center of her territory. It might’ve gone faster if the squishies in one of the towns could have made her one of those tools they always use, but apparently making one large enough for a giant would have ‘been expensive enough to drive them to ruins’. And protecting ruins wouldn't earn her much tribute, so...

Still, as a plains giant, Vios could scrape out stone as if it was clay, so she made do. Between needing to patrol her territory, checking in with the squishy towns, attending to their tributes, dealing with intruders, and scraping together enough food to satisfy herself, it had taken Vios longer than it should have to dig out her new den. And she had yet to truly finish either. She wanted to make one of those comfy-looking bed things that were always in squishy homes, and she still needed to carve out a separate, larger area for hoarding the sparkling trinkets she’d collected from bandits and tributes. She had a long way to go before she could finally sit back and rest in her den after a week of patrolling.

A loud rumbling in her middle made Vios grimace. She was starving. The giant had been carving out stone for the last four days straight in an effort to finish her den, which meant that she hadn’t been hunting. Vios had swallowed her last beast (a bear that had been a bit too cocky and wandered into the new ‘cave’ it had found) yesterday. Now she was ravenous.

She needed to go out and find food. But she was so damn hungry that she couldn’t even think straight. Every growl of her stomach was accompanied by a strong punch to the gut, reminding her of just how empty she was. Daemos below, why had she done this to herself? Without a full belly, a giant was no more useful than a shriveled-up tree.

Vios began to trundle through the trees, a hand on her poor, flat stomach. For a giant to have a flat gut was not only rare but completely disgraceful. Vios couldn’t chance going around like this! Another giant would stomp into her turf the moment it caught wind from some stupid squishy traveler about how weak she looked, and while Vios could definitely handle her own in a fight, she really didn’t want to deal with her own kind. They were clumsy, smelly, idiotic, and gross. Vios really wished that she had been born a stone giant or a storm giant, but no- she was just a runty plains giant.

The giant was shaken awake from her thoughts as she stumbled, her legs getting caught on something. She looked down. She had stepped into the nearby river on accident. It was a good river; swift enough to be clear, upstream from any squishy town so their scent didn’t permeate it and make her even hungrier, and it was even deep enough at points that she could sink up to her waist while still standing, letting her bathe like the squishies do.

As Vios started to continue on, she licked her lips. They were rather dry, weren’t they? And her throat too… when had she last been to the river to drink? It was before the bear, at least… Giants could go longer without eating or drinking than smaller creatures, but even for a giant, going two days without drinking was pushing it.

Vios knelt down in the stream and brought her lips to the cool water. It felt refreshing on her tongue and cheeks. She gulped a few generous mouthfuls down before standing back up, sighing. She almost felt like a new giant! She didn’t even feel as hungry as she did before so going hunting would be much easier! Maybe she’d even manage to find enough to give herself a nice potbelly before she ran into any squishies!

Once again, Vios made to leave the water but stopped. An idea had struck her. Her problems right now were that she was weak from being empty and that she couldn’t risk being seen empty. But she couldn’t just stuff any random thing in there; two of her brothers had died from cramming too many things into their gut that wasn’t ‘food’ enough to keep them alive, so they had starved with giant, malformed guts.

But water was plentiful enough to stop Vios from being hungry, and it also went away very quickly, so it wouldn’t stop her from being able to eat actual food. And water was good for living stuff anyways, so filling herself with a lot could only mean good things! It was perfect! Why had she never thought of this before?

The giant got down on all fours, her arms submerged up to their elbows by cool water. She lowered herself down enough for her mouth to reach the water, then opened up.

The flow of the river naturally pushed water into Vios’ mouth. In fact, Vios didn’t even have to swallow; she just kept her throat open as if she were going to swallow a bear or a cow and let the river push directly into her belly.

Vios closed her eyes, content. Her belly was already feeling much better. It had even stopped stabbing her with hunger every few seconds! Vios kept drinking for a minute, then stopped and rose onto her knees to catch her breath.

The giant belched wetly as she leaned back on her haunches. She looked down at herself. Her stomach had already developed a cute bump, as if she had eaten a pack of wolves. She gave it a good slap. Instead of there being a solid thump like usual, the impact sounded almost hollow, and Vios could feel the river water sloshing around inside of herself. She chuckled and did it again. What a weird feeling! And what a weird sound! It wasn’t as good as actually being full of food, but she still liked it. She was full enough now that she wouldn’t worry much about any squishies spreading rumors, but... If she drank even more, she could look like she was eating EXTRA well, and then no other filthy giants would dare come near!

Vios sucked in enough breath to rustle the leaves on a nearby tree, then bent forward and plunged her jaw beneath the river’s surface again. The river was already flowing into her faster than she could drink otherwise, so all Vios had to do was sit and wait to get a belly that any giant would be envious of.

A minute passed with the river constantly surging down Vios’ throat. She was starting to feel pleasantly full, which had become a rarity for her since beginning her protection racket of the squishy towns. She shifted to support her weight with one arm so as to reach down and feel her stomach with the other. It had swollen a solid amount from just a minute ago - hell, Vios swore she could feel it growing underneath her very fingers.

Vios couldn’t help but giggle as something tickled her throat. Had she just swallowed something other than just water? A good amount of fish had probably already ended up in her gut by now, but that tickle felt too big to be a fish… well, it’s not like it really mattered. Vios could count the number of things she had ever eaten that made her sick on one finger. Besides, it would just add to her ever-more impressive middle, whatever it was.

The giant moaned softly. Her gut had grown enough that she could feel the drag of the river tugging at it, just as it did her arms and legs. It felt incredible, as if the entire upper side of her bare gut was being massaged at once. At this point, her hand was on her stomach more to measure her size than to rub since the river was doing a better job than Vios could hope to do.

A fully grown Plains Giant is capable of holding its breath for maybe ten times the length of a squishy. Vios, being on the runtier side of giant-kind, could only manage about seven. And she was starting to hit her limit - in more ways than one.

Vios had likely swallowed enough water to keep a squishy settlement satisfied for several full moons. Her stomach felt massively bloated, bobbing against her legs in the river. In fact, as she ran out of breath, she could feel the apex of her belly starting to rub against the gravelly bottom of the river. Vios screwed up her face, the pressure in her lungs barely greater than the pressure in her gut. Just a bit more, Vios…. Just a bit more…!

The soggy giant raised her mouth from the river’s surface, spluttering and gasping for air. She slowly dragged her heavy frame upwards, groaning as her stomach fought to stay low. It was so heavy… Vios managed to return to her kneeling position, but she felt as if her legs were getting crushed by the absurdly sized gut she had dragged up with her. She had to reposition herself, planting her ass on the river’s bed with her legs out in front of her - though about half of her legs were being covered by her own stomach.

Vios leaned back on her hands and let her head lull back, moaning happily. The river was getting a chance to massage her lower belly now, giving the monstrous amount of flesh as amazing an experience as the top had received. The giant raised a hand and gave her solid gut a heavy slap, feeling the contents slosh heavily inside of her. She laughed. Her stomach rumbled loudly, overpowering even the sound of the river, and then -

*BBBBBBRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOORRRRRP!*

Vios roared with laughter again, her stomach bouncing along with her mirth. She’d never heard a belch that loud, even from her fat-ass older brothers! And the size of herself - she was nearly as big as she was after that feast the squishies in Acomb had prepared for her a few moons ago! And she could do this whenever she wanted, too! She was almost angry at herself for wasting so much time being tiny and hungry!

The great giant scooched her body around until she could lay her head on her arms on the bank of the river, with her toes just barely sticking out of the water on the far side and her gut sticking up into the air like one of those stone statue things squishies seemed to love building. Vios sighed contentedly, closing her eyes. This was the life…

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“Excuse me, giant lady? Could you wake up please?”

Vios grumbled, half awake. She had apparently been so at peace that she had fallen asleep in the river. She stretched her limbs out, yawning wide enough to swallow a house, before relaxing again against the river’s bank.

She smacked her lips and lazily opened one eye, glancing to her side. There was a squishy woman there. She was thin and tanned with long scruffy-looking red hair, dressed in some kind of sleek and shiny green clothing that Vios couldn’t tell the material of. And she was looking up at Vios with what seemed to be irritation.

“What do you want?” Vios asked bruskly, scratching her still bloated tum. It seemed to have gone down a bit already but was still more than large enough to be satisfactory.

“I’d appreciate it if you could stop blocking the river. You’re flooding my home.”

Vios looked around. Oh hey, would you look at that? The river had risen above its banks next to her, partially spreading out into the forest. But nothing major. She looked back to the squishy next to her. “Right. Even if this was enough water to flood something, there’s no squishy town close enough for anything to flood. Also, why should I care?”

The small woman huffed and crossed her arms. “Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you can cause environmental disasters! Do even know how many homes of pixies and ground squirrels you’ve destroyed?”

Vios snorted. “Pregnant? Like I’d be this tiny if I was pregnant. And why should I care about… whatever a pixie is? Or squirrels?”

“Hey, be nice!” The woman demanded, hands on her hips. “The Guardian of the woods has been letting you live here since you’re not human, but that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want!”

Vios stared at the woman for a moment. “...Excuse me? I’m the only ‘guardian’ around here, squishy. And this guardian is trying to enjoy herself right now, so why don’t you scram before I do something you’ll regret?”

“You don’t even know where you are, do you?” The irksome woman droned on, apparently not getting Vios’ threat. “You’re in faerie land, giant! And don’t even try to act like some kind of ‘guardian’! We know about your kind! All you do is eat, wreck stuff, sleep, and eat some more! I don’t even know what Ferne is thinking letting something like you rampage around the forest!”

Ok, this little brat was starting to get on Vios’ nerves. She opened her other eye and shifted her body to look fully at the tiny figure, her gut splashing loudly into the pooling river beside her as she turned onto her side. Vios leaned down, getting as close to eye level with the woman as she could. “I don’t ‘rampage’, pipsqueak. I’m running a legita- legiti- legi… a solid protection business. I don’t give a hydra’s ass if you’re a human, a dwarf, or whatever a faerie is. You’re all just meal tickets to me. But if you’re gonna be this annoying, you might be better off as just a meal.”

Most squishies would go running by this point. But this woman just crossed her arms and looked down her nose at Vios, despite the fact that Vios’s head was just taller than her. “Please. You look just about ready to pop, even if you’re not pregnant. I doubt you could stomach me right now, let alone an actual meal for something as needlessly big as you.”

Vios scowled. How could something so small be such a giant pain!? “You talk about knowing how giants are and think that this is full for a giant!?” Vios patted her gut, which had partially sunken into the riverbed from its own weight. “I’ll have you know that I’ve eaten things just as big as me before - and that was after devouring a whole town’s worth of food!” None of which was technically a lie. Vios had felt like exploding for a full day afterward finishing off that wyvern, sure, but she had managed to do just as she said.

“Oh yeah?” The squishy retorted, raising an eyebrow. “Prove it.”

Vios narrowed her eyes. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, you overgrown twig!” The rowdy woman crowed, smirking. “If you’re not just putting on a show to scare me off, then prove it! But don’t make yourself explode trying~.”

A vein was starting to throb in Vios’ temple. “I wasn’t asking you to repeat yourself, squishy!” She hissed, which might as well be a roar from the tiny woman’s perspective. “Why do I need to prove myself to you!? Hells, why haven’t I just eaten you already!?”

The woman stared up at Vios for a moment, then stopped. Her expression, formerly mocking, seemed to twist into excitement for a moment before softening. “I mean, sure, you could just eat me,” The woman finally responded, twirling a strand of curly red hair around a finger. “But if you’re a so-called ‘protector’, then wouldn’t it be better for you to have more ‘squishies’ to protect for more… whatever you get out of protecting them. And by them, I mean us?”

Vios usually found pride in being more clever than most, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something all of a sudden. She scowled. “Well… Only if it’s worth it for me. I doubt a lone squishy like you would have anything to offer me to make it worth my effort.”

The woman put a finger to her chin. “Oh, but I did mention it, didn’t I? That this is faerie land? There’s far more than just me in these woods. They’re all just far too small and shy to show ourselves in front of something so tall!”

This woman was acting totally different all of a sudden, but… hey, this is how she was supposed to be acting from the start, so if anything, this was progress! Vios smirked and replied, “If there are lots of you, then great! Scrape a tribute together to show me, then we can talk!”

“Oh, but…” the woman sighed, resting her full head on her hand. “Well, you see - and I mean no offense, but... your tale of killing and eating something your own size is so outlandish that I can hardly believe it myself, even after seeing your monumental girth! How could I possibly convince the others that you possess the strength you claim to have?”

Vios hadn’t killed that specific wyvern that she had eaten, but she had killed wyverns before, so she was still totally fine going along with that, right? “Prove myself? Didn’t you already say that they’re all cowering from me? And, I mean, look at me! What more would I have to do!?”

“Well… I suppose if you could prove at least half of your claims to me, then I could fully believe in your strength and personally vouch for you…” The woman sighed again, shaking her head. “But there are simply no great beasts around for you to kill! And there’s no way I can scrape together enough food to prove the latter half of your claim…”

Vios bit her lip. She really didn’t need another group of squishies to protect, but… nothing ever came out this way anyways, and even if it did, it was right next to her den, so she could get here quickly… and it would mean even more tribute… and Vios really liked the idea of showing this cocky little woman that she wasn’t just a weak, brainless giant. “...Fine. You know what? I’ll prove it. Right now.”

The woman’s eyes widened, gasping loudly. “You will? But how?”

“The same way I got this bad girl,” Vios smirked, giving her belly a solid thump. She pushed herself back up onto her knees, the water inside of her gut sloshing heavily as she did. “I’ll get a gut big enough to crush your whole stupid forest, just you watch!” And, with one last deep breath and a glance at the small woman (who seemed to be smirking now for some reason), Vios bent down and plunged her mouth into the river.

The giant, impatient to prove herself to the brat, didn’t wait for the river to do all the work this time. Instead, she greedily sucked water down her gullet even as the river flowed into her open throat. Turns out that she had been wrong earlier; she could drink faster than when she just let the river do the work.

Vios’ stomach, which had still been swollen enough to nearly reach the riverbed, quickly made contact with the gravel once more. Her skin, despite having the notable thickness of a giant, had grown taut enough that the gritty riverbed tickled her stomach. But it soon stopped tickling as her belly pressed harder and harder into the gravel, compacting it beneath the weight of hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of water.

The giant didn’t think. She didn’t think about how tight her stomach was starting to feel, or how much her stomach was urging her to reverse the flow of water, or how heavy her gut felt compared to her body. She just kept guzzling the river water, determined to demonstrate just how competent of a giant she was.

She began to groan as her stomach spread outwards. She almost felt like she was resting more on it than the riverbed now, much to her belly’s dismay. It certainly did not like the extra pressure. But if Vios stopped to reposition herself now she wouldn’t be able to convince her body to start again. She had to keep going! More! MORE!

Her body was fighting her, her muscles convulsing and her eyes watering. She needed to breathe. She needed to stop. She needed to keep going. She needed to drink. Her belly was shoving hard against her breasts, which has been hanging loose before. It pressed against her legs as well, forcing them outwards and putting even more weight onto itself.

She couldn’t- she COULD- no, she-  she couldn’t- she- she…!

Vios ripped her head from the water, gagging and spluttering and belching. She heaved, the torrents of water within her threatening to become a new river flowing from her body. Her own body weight was threatening to force everything out, or even rip her apart! Vios pushed against the river bed hard, forcing her distended body to shift towards the bank. She dug her fingers deep into the soil and thanked the maker that she found the purchase of solid stone a ways beneath the soft sand. She forced her fingers in deeper, grit her teeth, then pushed with her feet while pulling against the stone.

The giant’s bloated form rose from the water and collapsed onto the river’s bank in exhaustion. Her gut, freed from the suction of the river’s bed and the water itself, rose into the air until it towered above the giant for a brief moment. Then gravity overcame balance and the gut tipped over towards the trees. It landed with an earth-shaking CR-ACK as a dozen trees were flattened into splinters.

Vios moaned painfully as she lay still, her stomach trembling. She’d overdone it. She had really messed herself up here. She couldn’t move even if she wanted to. It was a damn miracle she’d been able to get herself out of the river, really. Her stomach was easily the same size as her - maybe even larger. It was groaning almost as loudly as she was, her poor belly struggling to cope with an entire pond’s worth of water. Dear Daemos, why had she done this to herself…?

An incessant giggling started up from the direction of Vios’ chest. The water-logged giant wearily glanced down. The red-haired squishy had climbed up her top at some point and was reclining on the side of her breast, poking at the giant gut that was flush to the giant’s breasts. She pushed a hand in hard and Vios winced. “Euuurghh… St-Stop th-*HIC* that…”

The woman held her hand there for a moment longer, then released. She cackled again, then flipped over, laying across Vios’s breast facing her head with her legs up against the giant’s bulbous belly. She grinned mischievously as she drummed her toes against the tight skin next to them. “Oh, sorry about that! I was just admiring how impressive of a stomach you have, oh great giant! You did end up squishing some of the forest like you said, but you did also drain enough of the blocked river to stop the flooding, so it evens out! Probably! So you’re totally worthy of being a protector! Also probably!”

Vios panted, feeling another spasm of tension ripple across her stomach. She was too preoccupied holding herself together to try and dig through whatever the squishy was really saying behind her condescending tone. “H-Haah… t-told *UUUURP* you…”

The squishy hid her mouth with a hand, though she couldn’t hide the mirth in her eyes. “Well then, miss all-powerful guardian- I’m looking forward to seeing more of you in the future~!”

“L-Likewise…?” Vios managed to get out before something inside of her bumped hard against her taut side, eliciting another wave of tension. Ooooh man, what had she swallowed alongside the water? She hadn’t been paying attention… Vios really hoped that she wouldn’t have to prove herself like this again… ooooh, her poor belly...