June 2023 Prompt: Old Books Bring Out Old Age

“Damn it. How is there so much dust up here?”

In an old manor home, two men were in the building's attic. They were sorting through boxes of books that had accumulated over the decades from the previous owner’s time in the house.

“My Grandfather was a professor, of course, that meant he never cleared out or did a culling of his books,” Charlie said, wincing a bit as he opened another box, catching sight of a silverfish scurrying away from the disturbance. “Of course, he could have just been a hoarder.”

“Did the old guy ever look through these since he put them away? Or did he just leave them here to rot?” Charlie’s friend, Klyde, asked from where his skinny form was up against a shelf that was bowing under the books it was holding up. Brushing the cobwebs and dust from the book spines, Klyde squinted at the titles. “What did your grandpa study?”

“Something involving the occult and old rituals. I think he focused on stuff about older men too,” Charlie said, trying to recall what he knew about the older relative’s work. “All I really know about him was that he was a fairly big guy.”

“Really?” Klyde asked, wondering what he meant when he focused on a specific phrase. “Wait, rituals and older men?”

“Apparently he was looking into some old cultures and worship groups that were dedicated to masculinity and older men, treating them as an image of power and virility,” Charlie said, pulling up a book from one of the dust-coated boxes. Opening it up, he found the book full of sketches of larger-than-life men, thick with muscles and fat all covered in a healthy layer of body hair. “Jesus, take a look at some of these.”

Klyde looked over from where he had been searching through, wiping his face with his shirt before taking in the sketches Charlie was holding up. “Jesus, those are some huge guys. Sure they’re not your old man’s drawing fantasies?”

“No idea. Though from what my parents said, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Charlie said, putting aside the book as he and Klyde continued their work taking down boxes before coming back up in a repeating cycle. The two college-aged men kept finding more books filled with drawings and sketches of huge men, they even came across old photographs that must have used some techniques to make the men in them look like they rivalled the size of houses and trees.

As Klyde went through the dusty attic, passing by to pick another box, he stopped when he noticed a book in the far corner. Though he saw it was surrounded by dirt, the book itself looked clean as if it had just been dropped in the room. Shrugging to himself as he figured either he or Charlie dropped the book when the two were bringing down boxes. Klyde crouched down before reaching for the book, hand passing through the cloud of cobwebs before picking up the oddly clean book. Finding the cover feeling oddly warm, Klyde held up the book, hit with a faint smell that reminded him of a musky locker room.

“Ugh, was this book left to soak up a shower?” Klyde groaned, coughing a bit before he let his curiosity guide him as he opened the book. Rather than being greeted by the sight of research notes or even pages of immense men, Klyde found the book filled with weird symbols and signs he didn’t recognise. Flipping through the pages, he could have sworn the glyphs seemed to move across the aged pages. The symbols began to glow softly before Klyde exclaimed, dropping the book so suddenly he might as well have been burnt by it. The weird book landed on the floor with a thud, shaking out a cloud of dust, though through the haze Klyde could see the book still faintly glowing. The light seemed to form a line through the dust, snaking through the floorboards before coming up to Klyde’s feet. As soon as the light touched his body, Klyde found himself frozen, his body filled with a warmth like he was by a campfire as the light flowed into him.

Letting out a moan, Klyde could only breathe as the energy filled him up. His body swelled out under his loose clothing with the flow of energy pumping him up. “W-What’s going on?” Kylde brought his hands down to feel his stomach, the energy focusing there as it swelled into a gut that was now pushing against the front of his shirt. As he did that action, he noticed how his arms had thickened out, bulging with strong muscles he didn’t possess just earlier today. Klyde took in the sight of his powerful muscles flexing, stretching within the confines of his clothing. He took an unsteady step back, causing the floorboards to creak ominously and he himself grunted as he felt his feet being pinched. Looking down over his now impressive chest, seeing the dark hairs sprouting from his collar, having to lean forward and causing his belly to snap his belt as his pecs popped some of the buttons off his shirt. Sighing in relief at the effortless wardrobe malfunction, Klyde looked further down his newly grown body, seeing his legs thicker with the new muscles as his pants rode up to partway around his calves. Going further down, he saw how his shoes struggled to contain his bigger feet, just curling his toes made the sneakers creak ominously.

Klyde gasped when a surge when through him, his body pulsing with size. He moaned a bit, his body pumping larger, muscles bulging larger, his swollen gut spreading out further. His clothing began to tear with a series of rips and pops, exposing not only his massive form. Klyde found his body more hairy, though he noticed instead of darkening, the hair was getting lighter in colour.

“Fuck, getting so big.” Klyde moaned, his voice easily several octaves deeper, bringing his hands up to cup his solid pecs, feeling the hard muscles as his head and broadening shoulders pressed against the now-low ceiling, growing bigger and bigger.

…

“Hey Klyde, what is going on?”

Charlie called from the foot of the ladder, wondering what was taking his friend so long, but also about the weird noises he was hearing. Before the slim man could take a step up the ladder into the attic, the creaking floorboards let out an almighty crack before giving way. Charlie barely managed to step back as something big landed in the hall, shaking the ground as dust rained down the hallway.

Coughing, Charlie blinked to try and see through the cloud of dust before a deep groan sounded out. Trying to see, he could only gasp when a huge shape rose from the collapsed section of floor, filling the comparatively small hallway with its size. As the dust settled, Charlie couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Standing before him was an immense giant of a man. His broad, hairy shoulders brushed against the walls, cracking them slightly. The dust coating his immense form coming off as rivers of sweat began to come off him, making the dusty hall smell more like a gym locker room. Looking up, Charlie saw a massive hairy gut filling his view, covered in dense hair before reaching up to swollen slabs that were pecs. Each slab bounced with a thick nipple pointing down, the hair coating the pecs was light in colour, either from age or from the dense dust.

Finally coming up to the behemoth's face, Charlie was shocked to recognise it as Klyde’s, though it was bigger and older as a dense beard covered the face, salt and pepper that framed his mouth and almost blocked the view of his thick bull-like neck. The once full head of hair had thinned away, leaving a bald dome that towered high above him.

“Uh… Charlie,” The massive man said, his voice alone practically shaking the walls with how deep it was as the immense Klyde looked down at him. “I think your grandpa was onto something… also, got any food?” He asked, reaching a baseball mitt-sized hand to rub his enormous gut.