Nala stands back, looking at the results of what she's just done, mostly to shed herself of unwanted bulk. Paka, however, now finds herself straining to stand under her own power as her weight has increased to as much as it can be before her great belly begins to drag on the ground. Mirmebe, a younger lioness, appears from her hiding place, shocked by what just happened.

Enjoy some more fine work by  sugarboy The conclusion of my recent commission

And here is the second half of the companion story:

Part One

If you enjoyed this, check out the start of the story at chapter one

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Nala's Venture: Paka's Wish Pt 2
By Shalion

Paka’s body was nearly a tawny furred wall of flesh from the top of her thickened back to the ground. Indeed, she appeared to be actually as obese as she could possibly be without her belly actually dragging over the ground. Nala could only gape at what she had just done.

“Ungh… oh, wow…” grunted Paka whose shoulders and haunches were trembling slightly as she struggled to hold up her own weight. She did not even try to turn to inspect herself, instead lifting up her head in concentration as she tried to acclimate to her new, imposing size. The necklace around her neck had moved further up, getting lost in new fat rolls which had formed behind Paka’s head. Even lifting up her head was not enough to disguise how much extra lard had just formed on the neck of the obese lioness, distending it and sinking down low into a massive hanging brisket that jutted out ahead of her forelegs.

Before Nala could say a single word, there was a disturbance in the undergrowth. Nala saw a spry young lioness spring from where she had been presumably hiding this entire time. Nala tensed for action, but saw that it was only Mirembe. Though, Nala would never have wanted her friend and playmate to witness what she had just done.

“By the gods!” cried Mirembe as she landed down on the flag stones, scraping moss away with her paws. She reached out with a trepidatious paw to tough Paka’s haunch. The soft flesh sank in readily to the slight pressure, even as the fantastically obese feline breathed hard just for the effort of standing upright. Mirembe turned to peer around Paka’s flank at Nala; she had to lean pretty far. “Nala!” she said in confusion and alarm, “W-what did you just do?!”

Nala shrank back - she could do that again now - and lowered her ears. “I… I…” she stammered. ‘I took advantage of a friend, just so I could feel a little better about myself.’ were the words she could never say.

Paka opened her eyes, whole body still quivering with the effort of the deeply buried muscles. She tried to turn her head, but was halted rather quickly by the new collars of fat bulging widely from her neck. Undeterred, she still spoke, “Mirembe, stop it! I asked…” she had to pause for several deep breaths. They rasped in her clotted neck and Nala heard a high-pitched wheeze in the back of Paka’s throat that had not been there before. “…Asked her… to do this.”

Mirembe moved from around Paka’s haunches, making an abnormally wide trail around the morbidly obese lion’s bulk. The young lioness was still drinking in the sight of her and seemed almost hesitant to touch her again, as if she might suddenly burst like a soap bubble. “…Do this? Paka, you’re…” Miremebe breathed in through her teeth, “I mean, you’re…” but the youth failed again, without even Paka glaring at her, the lioness seemed too preoccupied with standing up to chastise the youth.

Nala, with the memory of how much weight was straining Paka’s legs right now still fresh in her mind, made a decision. “Mirembe, we’ll talk about this later, I promise. Right now, Paka needs help. We ought to try to get her closer to the main living area where there’s water…” Nala hesitated again, would Paka even be able to get up on her own if she laid down now? She shook her head, driving away the dark thoughts. She strode up to Paka, her flanks expanding out to either side of her worse than the fattest hippo, almost three times as wide as Nala was now and more than four times as wide as Mirembe. They expanded and contracted very slightly with her deep, wheezy breaths. “Let’s try walking.” she said encouragingly to Paka. “It’ll probably feel better than just standing here.”

Paka’s focused her attention back on Nala, her eyes snapping around. “Oh… right, of course.” Paka took several more breaths, even breathing quickly that noisy wheeze could be heard each time she exhaled, and steeled herself for the redoubled effort.

At first, Paka did not seem to know which foot to move first, the strain on all four paws was that great. Then she grunted, shifted her weight and move one of her forepaws. The great hanging sack of her brisket wobbled and swayed where it hung in front of her. Nala took a step back as she struggled to move her hind leg on the same side. Her bovine flanks had made her hind paws very bowlegged, the toes pointing out from her body. It seemed difficult for Paka to move the rear foot forwards very much, the leg pressed into the belly fat welling against and in front of it. Paka tried taking a few more hampered steps like this before pausing. The expression on her wide flabby face was one of weariness and exhaustion. “It’s going to… take some time… to… get used to this.” she wheezed.

Nala was startled to see just how much of Paka’s stamina had been lost with the new weight on her body. “Come on.” she said to Mirembe and she gestured with her head for her to get on one side of Paka’s wide body while she took the other. “Let’s try to help her as much as we can. Paka, tell us if this helps.” Nala then proceeded to crouch slightly below Paka’s jutting flank, then leaned into the yielding flesh, feeling its massive weight on her back. On the other side of the bloated cat, surprisingly far away, Nala heard Mirembe grunting with effort.

Paka took a few more steps, in rapid succession this time. “I think… It is helping… a little.” she panted. It took more trial and error, mostly on Paka’s part as she fumbled with her new increased dimensions and smaller center of gravity. Once she leaned too far on Mirembe and they all had to pause as the smaller cat nearly collapsed under the staggering weight of just a portion of Paka’s huge body. But even as they all staggered together, Paka seemed to settle on a new gait, her legs adapting to the shape of her belly. Nala could tell by feel that Paka was trying to waddle much more widely than was possible with Mirembe and her pressing in on her flanks. That boosted Nala’s confidence, or at least made her feel less terrible than she currently was. Hopefully Paka would still somehow be able to walk on her own at least after this.

“Ah!” said Paka suddenly, just a couple minutes after they had started moving together.

“What? What is it?” said Nala hurriedly, afraid for the huge, vulnerable feline.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” she said and then Nala saw she was wearing a veritable grin on her fat, still-panting face. “I think my tummy just… grazed against… an uneven flagstone.”

Nala relaxed and they started moving again, still with agonizing slowness. “I’m sorry.” she said.

“Don’t be.” laughed Paka briefly between breaths, “I love it… Just… surprised me… is all.” Nala was not sure how she felt about that remark, but that was by far not the last rock, twig or root which would scrape against Paka’s low slung underside that afternoon.

Nala knew they could not get very far before Paka would need to rest and she despaired at how long it would take them all to see Paka to a place where Nala could be sure at least she would have easy access to water and other lions to do basic things she could no longer manage on her own. ‘If they are willing that is,’ Nala thought sourly. They approached a fork in the path and Nala began pushing the party in the direction that led back to the main living area of the shrine.

“Not… that way.” wheezed Paka.

“What?” asked Nala in alarm. She was getting tired herself from pushing into Paka’s hot, heavy flank.

“I heard what you… said before, Nala.” Paka lifted her head again, closing her eyes, she was just about at her limit now. “I don’t want to… go back to… the shrine. I want… to go… to the village.” panting raspily. Then she added just, “…Temple.”

Nala got her meaning, Paka wanted to go down to the village, where the priest lions lived and “worked,” that is to say, they were fed by humans to intervene for them on behalf of the gods and often became fat and lazy pets as a result. But the village was also down a steep slope, one that Paka could never hope to get back up now… “Paka, are you sure?” asked Nala pausing. “Your family’s all up here in the shrine.” Nala had learned enough of this pride to know that while they worked and occasionally stayed down in the village for extended periods of time, all of the lions in the big pride considered the shrine to be their true home. Even the priests like Enu came back up to socialize with their own kind regularly. But Paka had to realize that if she went down to the village, she would be effectively severing many ties with her pride, her family. And how would humans react to her grossly exaggerated size anyways? Nala hesitated, and doing so, gave the tottering Paka resistance to her newest sway. It inadvertently proved to be too much, Paka’s exhaustion precluding the possibility of catching herself and regaining balance. The hindleg near Nala’s haunch folded under the weight of Paka’s body and she was all of a sudden leaning her full weight on Nala’s back. Nala grunted, but could not support the mass of soft, but dense flesh. She squeezed out from under Paka’s collapsing flank.

The super obese lion’s own flesh slowed her descent and partially broke her fall, seeing as her belly fat was largely on the ground the moment her leg folded. Paka released a gigantic “Ooff!” as her fat was forced into her diaphragm far above the ground where she landed. The engorged lion’s back was not that much lower to the ground than it was when she was standing and Nala saw as she herself recovered a couple paces from Paka’s prone, round body, that while her left knee was pressed against the ground, her entire right leg was propped up at an angle across the bulging surface of a round, softened paunch such that she would not have been able to touch the ground with that paw even if she tried. Nala also got a full view of Paka’s hindquarters, which had thickened to the point where rolls of fat were literally dripping down over her tail head, even largely obscuring her nethers from view.

“I’m sorry!” cried Nala as she rushed forward to Paka’s head and shoulders. She reached out and stroked the huge, sagging shoulder area with her paw, trying to comfort her.

“You alright?” asked a still anxious Mirembe, who appeared from Paka’s other side.

“It’s alright. It’s alright” breathed Paka. “It didn’t hurt… much.” she added in good humor, but continued to breathe hard, causing her entire fat filled body to wobble with each noisy breath. She remained sitting in the awkward looking position in which she landed and Nala wondered how hard it must be for the heavy lion to try to adjust herself. “Good thing I’ve got so much… padding to break my fall.” she closed her eyes and took some more deep breaths. Even more so now than it had been for Nala, it took a very long time for Paka to catch her breath. She kept on panting and panting. “I guess this is… as good a place as… any for a break, eh?”

“Sure.” said Nala, still stroking Paka’s fur. Her shoulder was incredibly soft, it would have been easy to sink her paw in up to the ankle with just light pressure.

They had to wait even longer for Paka’s ragged breathing to improve, the shadows moving visibly along the ground as the massive cat struggled to recover the oxygen her tremendous reservoirs of flesh required. An hour passed and still Paka’s noisy breathing indicated that she needed more time. Nala could not see the sense in trying to get the overladen lioness to move again until she was completely recovered; they would just have to stop again and repeat this, whether they went to the living area of the shrine, or the much longer and more arduous trek down to the village. Nala eventually laid down back to back with Paka, her sagging skin near the ground worming its way under Nala’s own rounded back over time and actually making a comfortable support as she laid on her side.

Mirembe kept her distance, obviously disturbed by the sight of Paka’s body, occasionally coming in for another prod here and there, first and the great belly, and then the low hanging brisket, dancing away each time when Paka deigned to lift her head and notice the young cat. But Mirembe seemed to lose her initial caution after that. She returned from pacing around Nala and Paka, both obese, but Paka making Nala look like a waif in comparison to her now hulking figure. Without warning, she dashed towards Paka’s rump and then pounced, flying through the air to land solidly on the expansive belly. Mirembe actually bounced, but Paka was so wide that the smaller cat did not immediately tumble off and was able to catch herself with paws grasping pawfuls of loose skin.

Paka chuffed, but her protective blubber prevented the younger cat from knocking the wind out of her this time. “Watch your claws!” she growled without lifting her head. Nala, alarmed was sitting up now and looking across at Mirembe who was now spreading out and stretching on Paka’s wide flank, a mischievous grin on her face. “Well, Paka just looks like a great place to land on now.” she said, pouting at the look Nala gave her.

Before Nala could formulate a reply, Paka spoke, again not bothering to lift the weight of her head and expansive neck. “Well, you can practice pouncing on me any time from now on, Mirembe. I’m sure I make for a soft landing spot!”

The young cat rolled around, her body making a divot where it sank slightly into Paka’s encompassing pudge. “Yeah!” agreed Mirembe emphatically. And she began to purr, flopping back over and rubbing her shoulder blades into the great bulk under her “This feels better even than the straw mattresses down in the village.”

“It feels better than that for me too…” said Paka and Nala grinned as the two sisters began talking, chatting about nothing really other than Paka’s continued assurances that she felt perfectly alright and was happy with her current size and shape.

Nala rested this time uneasily curling in on herself to an extent that had not been possible that morning for her weight. Sure, Paka seemed pleased with the results now, but how would she feel a week from now, a month, a year? In the pit of Nala’s still oversized belly, she knew that even if she wanted, she did not have the power to reverse Paka’s transformation. If Paka was going to ever be anything other than a blob of a cat, she was going to have to make that happen herself, and clearly she had no inclination, and perhaps no ability, to do so now. Nala wondered whether or not she had just given Paka a shortcut to something she would have had anyways, or whether she had just catapulted Paka to a place that she would never have reached on her own, and now cannot possibly return from.

More time passed, Mirembe fell asleep on top of Paka’s body and underneath the still quivering mass of tawny furred fat continued to pant. It was impossible to tell whether Paka herself fell asleep at some point, and Nala did not check herself, fearful of disturbing her if that was what she was trying to do. Her breathing was not as deep nor as loud now as it had been previously, but the longer it went on the more Nala was staggered both at how much this added weight was affecting her, and also how much Paka had exhausted herself during the fifteen minutes or so they had walked from where this had all started. The second hour found Nala sitting up with her tail wrapped around her paws, her belly only modestly sitting on the ground between her hind feet. She watched Mirembe sleep and also wanted to make sure that if other lions came along this way that she had a chance to talk to them before they hounded Paka about her extreme appearance. Paka had now mostly caught her breath, but Nala was wondering if in fact, the overburdened cat would be recovered enough to try moving again before nightfall. She still remembered how much effort it took just for her to stay on her paws. But it was not a newcomer who prodded Paka back into wakefulness from her exhausted half-sleep.

Mirembe yawned and stretched, licking her chops. With youthful alacrity, she was quite instantly alert after her nap and she crawled up Paka’s fat filled shoulder until her head was leaning over Paka’s where she still was breathing rapidly through her mouth, her pink tongue waving with the still-wheezing breaths. Nala leaned forward onto her feet and moved towards them. She was close enough to hear Mirembe ask, “Paka, why don’t you want to come back to the shrine? I’ll miss seeing you.”

The lard-filled lioness opened an eye and tilted her head slightly upwards, again hampered by the fat congesting her neck. “It’s not that I don’t want to live there anymore.” said Paka, who could speak comfortably now, though her voice itself was more husky and tended to rasp now that her neck had all but doubled in thickness. She grinned up at the young lioness, “And I’m certainly going to miss seeing you everyday.”

Mirembe screwed up her face into a pre-teen frown. “Then why don’t you come back?” she reached down to tap at Paka’s extensive neck rolls with a paw. “I’ll bring you fresh meat from my kills if you like. That and the stuff the people bring up here some times ought to be enough, Paka. It wont matter if you can’t move around that much, or if Uzuri or anyone else won’t share food with you!”

Nala watched as a warm familial grin spread across the lion’s wide face. “I’d love that Mirembe, but…” she shook her head, in so far as she could, the thick fat even bulged behind her rounded ears. “I still can’t stay here.”

“Why, though?!” whined Mirembe who tapped harder on Paka’s soft doughy brisket, almost pounding on it.

“You know why.” said Paka pointedly, flashing her eyes in a surprisingly hard expression given her softened features. She sighed and relaxed, looking out ahead of her at nothing. “I’ve got everything I’ve ever wanted now. All I need now is a place I can get water and regular meals without having to move around too much.”

“But that’s h-“ started Mirembe, but was hushed by the huge lioness under her.

Paka shrugged, producing a rolling motion that carried Mirembe’s relatively slight frame along with it. “Sure, I could get both of those here, maybe, if Uzuri doesn’t turn everyone against me, or get Mother or Father involved. But you know how she’ll react when she finds out what I look like now. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Paka…” muttered Mirembe, but the youth said nothing else.

“Mirembe, you’re so sweet to your selfish sister…” With a small grunt of effort, Paka moved a thick paw upwards to stroke the younger lion’s forearm, and then, straining upwards against the girth of her chest and shoulders, to lightly touch her whiskers. “But you know that the only thing I’ve ever been good at asides from eating is the priesthood. Down in the village, I think they’ll appreciate me. They have never seen a lioness like me before and they certainly wont let me starve.” she sighed, “I think that’s my best chance to be happy now, but you’ll need to make sure that you come down and visit me once and a while.”

Mirembe looked away, but Nala heard her whisper quietly, “I’ll come every day.” And with that, Mirembe stepped lightly off of Paka’s rotund shoulder.

Groaning with effort, Paka began to slowly roll her massive frame onto her belly. Seeing this, Nala stepped in automatically to help, shoving her shoulder against Paka’s meaty body. Paka released a couple deep breaths after the effort but went back quickly to breathing about as normally as she could now. “Thanks…” she breathed.

“No sweat.” said Nala with a half grin. She was still filled with an mix of a emotions that made her unsure of whether she might laugh or suddenly start crying. Mirembe was still hiding her face on the other side of Paka’s bulk.

“I think it’s about time that we get moving again, don’t you think?” said Paka, though her enormous body remained inert for the moment, as the lioness apparently psyched herself up for the effort and pain to come.

“You feeling up to it?” asked Nala who was already positioning herself against Paka’s bulging flank.

Paka laughed, “Nala, if I’m still not ready after two and a half hours of resting, I’ll probably never be!” She took a deep breath and moved her paws, flattening the pads against the flat stones under her. She turned her head slightly towards Nala, just able to see her with one eye half closed against the heavy neck and cheek flesh welling against it. “This is my first time getting up at this weight.” she said, sounding excited, almost giddy.

Nala tried to share in Paka’s strange enthusiasm. She was sure she still did not fully understand this warped passion of hers, but seeing her fleshy face so willing for the mere experience of getting up at her incredible weight, of facing the uncertainty they both shared that she would even be capable of as much made Nala strangely happy as well. Seeing her expression actually made Nala eager for the experience too, so much so that a smile came easily to her face, the first one she had not had to force ever since the mark had been cut into her side. “I’ll help.” she assured the engorged lioness.

“You better.” laughed Paka, and she made sure that Mirembe was similarly positioned. Together the three cats strained upwards, Paka’s legs slowly straightening as Nala and Mirembe pushed Paka’s expansive flanks inward towards her body. The flesh that had been pressed outwards by the ground fell again towards the ground in a single motion, Paka grunting with the effort. It came as a surprise when it was Paka who said, “Let’s go already, now to the left.” Nala had not even noticed Paka was fully upright when she had spoke, her belly flowed towards the ground so far that Nala could not easily see whether it rested on it or hung barely a couple inches above. Only Paka herself, really could tell that with any real certainty anymore.

Nala chuffed a short laugh. “That was easier than I thought it would be.” and they began to walk at Paka’s glacial pace, again, her waddling causing Nala and Mirembe’s bodies to sway in turn, but the Pridelander was getting used to the motion. They might have even been moving a bit faster now…

“If its easier than you thought.” said Paka who for the moment could mange to talk easily, “Then you ought to haul up more of my weight.”

“You’re the one who wanted it in the first place, Paka!” laughed Nala and surprised herself by honestly and truly laughing. After that she surprised herself again. She did not feel so much like crying anymore.