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Well 
Kuya gave me some wonderful inspiration for a Flame Legion warband with terrible luck, and an odd item I stumbled upon in Guild Wars 2 gave me a good idea for their first story! Involves a couple types of reluctant inflation, but also some popping.
The Steam Warband has to resort to a unique method of storing precious liquid metal when they forget to bring containers...
Liquid Bounty
By: IndigoRho
With an echoing thud Rex Steampyre dropped the last few feet to the floor of the spacious cavern, wincing as he narrowly avoided falling right onto his butt. A loyal member of the power-hungry Flame Legion and leader of the Steam Warband, Steampyre felt it was important to maintain some degree of awe in the handful of charr he commanded. Being clumsy surely wouldn't help. Still, there were other important matters at hand for him to deal with. By sheer luck he'd overheard scouts talking about the discovery of a mysterious new ore, one which could be easily molded and enhanced with magic. Some investigation of his own had pinpointed the caves the ore was found, inevitably leading him to a cavern overflowing with the shimmering, silvery metal. Now all he needed to do was gather the bounty and reap the resulting glory from his superiors.
Steampyre looked at the three warband members he'd brought with him, his most trusted. There was Brutus Steamsplitter, of course, a somewhat bulky warrior who served as second-in-command and excelled at keeping the warband in line. Besides him was Sabin Steamwalker, a short thief who's sleight of hand skills were only matched by his tendency to whine at a moment's notice. Last was Dolan Steamhammer, the warband's new engineer, who was occasionally capable of ingenious ideas. Unfortunately there were about a hundred terrible ones in between.
“How does it feel to be surrounded by more money than you'd ever know what to do with!” Steampyre boasted. “Once we've got all this ore melted down and hauled off to the Citadel we'll be able to live like kings, maybe even eat as well as the Imperator!”
Sabin seemed less enthusiastic about their bright future. “Why does this stuff need to be liquified anyways, harvesting it's gonna be a pain!”
“I don't know, because it's magic or something!” Steampyre snapped. “Wailing on it with a pickaxe just causes it to splinter and crumble, makes it useless. Apply some heat, though, and it melts like ice and stays liquid long enough to be comfortably transported back for proper molding.”
“Uh, Boss, what exactly are we supposed to store the stuff in again?” Dolan asked.
Steampyre snorted at the ridiculousness of the question. “In the specially treated kegs of course!”
The other three charr carefully looked around at the sparse bags of equipment they'd brought to the cave, the lack of true containers glaringly obvious.
“W-where are the kegs?” Steampyre asked, having somehow missed their absence during the grueling climb down into the cavern. “How are we supposed to get glory if we can't even bring a drop of the ore back home!”
“Well, we could always drink it?” Dolan chuckled nervously, only half-joking as he worked on some mental calculations.
Brutus rolled his eyes. “We need a serious solution, not one of your strange—”
“Dolan, you're a genius!” Steampyre interrupted with a grin, his warband looking at him in confusion. “Back at the Citadel I've seen healers fill their assistants up with regenerative water till they were spherical, just for ease of transport. Just imagine how much of the ore we could return with if one of us serves as the container!”
“But what if we explode!” Sabin frowned. “I don't want to end up like a splattered water balloon.”
“If a bunch of random acolytes can hold it together than so can you!” Steampyre insisted, taking a step closer to Sabin. “And thank you for volunteering.”
Sabin's frown turned into a look of sheer terror “Why me!”
“Because I need the others to operate the hand torches while I guide the liquid ore right into your muzzle,” Steampyre growled. “You've got the easiest job, so stop whining or I'll have them really test your limits.”
The thief stammered a string of incoherent excuses and complaints before reluctantly accepting his dangerous role, not wanting to earn the ire of his boss. With a few sharp orders Brutus and Dolan went to work torching the closest outcropping of ore. As droplets of silver quickly formed and began to drip off the chunk, Steampyre used his skilled Elementalist magic to collect the ore into larger globs of floating metal, before branching off a small stream leading straight to Sabin's open mouth. The thief winced at the warmth and gross taste, but dutifully gulped down all that was sent his way.
Sabin's chubby belly slowly swelled and rounded out as he filled with liquid metal, his tunic straining more and more in an attempt to contain his middle. He tried lifting it to help, exposing his brown gut for all to see. The chunk of ore was melting at a swifter pace, the stream of silver turning into a river, Sabin's belt creaking under the pressure of his bloated gut. Fumbling with the belt proved futile as his belly gradually got in the way, and he was unable to undo it before it simply snapped right off his pants. His middle was a good two feet wide by the time the first ore deposit had been harvested, and Sabin breathed a loud sigh of relief at the end of his ordeal.
“Ugh, I look like I chugged a keg!” Sabin pouted, reluctant to move out of fear he'd fall over and burst.
Brutus resisted a snirk as he looked over his comically stuffed warband mate, giving his gut a teasing poke. “Remind me never to face you in a drinking contest.”
Steampyre, meanwhile, was beaming proudly at the success of his idea. “See, you're the perfect container! Once we've finished filling you there'll be a small fortune in your stomach!”
“You're gonna make me drink more!” Sabin had hoped one chunk would be enough.
“Of course we are! We'll be rolling you back to the Citadel, end of story!” Steampyre ordered, causing the hefty charr to cower a little.
Without delay the process began anew. Sabin begrudgingly opened up to let the fresh flow of ore trickle down his throat, trying not to groan as he felt and heard his hide stretching to handle his gluttony. He couldn't believe just how much his body was able to contain, constantly expecting to spring a leak or outright pop. Instead he firmly held together. Unimpressed by the relatively slow progress they were making, Steampyre suddenly pointed a paw at another nearby ore deposit, and within seconds a roaring stream of flames shot out to melt it. The addition of a second stream of liquid metal caused Sabin to balloon up even more rapidly.
To Sabin's surprise his chest started to swell out as well once his belly expanded enough, causing his scrunched up tunic to tighten from the added pressure. The stitches of the seams gradually ripped until the clothing finally fluttered to the ground in tatters, much to the bloated charr's frustration. His arms and legs began to puff up, too, swiftly destroying his pants and ruining his boots in much the same manner. He was more gut than charr at that point, his extremities aggressively enveloped by his now spherical body. Sabin's eyes went wide in fear as low creaks began to accompany his expansion. Talking was impossible as long as the metal continued to flow, and he was convinced more than ever that he'd explode before Steampyre was satisfied.
The charr's internal pressure was intense, his overstretched hide terribly sensitive as he was inflated to his very limits. With his puffy paws and stuffed cheeks barely poking out from his blimped up body, Sabin was relieved beyond belief once the ore halted. He slowly rocked back and forth, groaning in dismay, his warband less than sympathetic. Curious pokes and prods to his taut sides led to whimpers.
“See, better than any keg!” Steampyre gloated. “Sabin you're a natural container, I'll need to keep that in mind for the future.”
Sabin only let out a pitiful sigh in response.
Brutus grinned. “Alright Boss, I'll get our fancy ore jug secured and ready for transport.”
“Not yet,” Steampyre said, his gaze wandering to the dozens of valuable outcroppings littering the cavern. “Sabin just proved we have more room for ore, and I intend for this mission to be nothing short of a spectacular success!”
Steampyre's eyes swirled bright orange and his paws glowed with molten energy, the charr bringing forth a thin geyser of lava amidst a large cluster of ore. “Brutus, Dolan, time to earn your keep!”
Before the pair could question or complain, two trails of liquified ore slithered towards their maws. Unwilling to anger their leader they both opened up, experiencing the same terrible taste Sabin had already. The enthusiasm Steampyre put into his flames caused the ore to melt faster than ever. Brutus and Dolan nervously watched their middles swell up, straining buttons and straps with ease. A second geyser burst from the ground, then a third, and a fourth. Dolan's trench coat came undone as the buttons flew off under the onslaught of his inflating belly, the shirt beneath ripping apart shortly after. He explored his growing gut with cautious curiosity, amazed he could stretch so much without feeling noticeable pain.
Brutus had been wearing a prized set of plate armor, which was quickly buckling from the pressure. One-by-one the straps holding his breastplate together were torn, till the entire piece launched off his swelling paunch and clattered to the cavern floor. The force was enough to stagger the warrior, who lost his balance and fell down onto his butt, belly jiggling comically. He was far more concerned with his bruised pride than the possibility of bursting, and struggled to maintain his composure even as his round middle immobilized him.
Though Sabin had a commanding view of his warband's expansion, the thief wasn't in the mood to enjoy the minor retribution. The others swelling up wasn't going to lead to his own deflation, and that was all he cared about now. He merely wobbled and pouted some more.
Armor continued to be discarded and clothing shredded as charr waistlines ballooned seemingly out of control. Steampyre looked on in glee as his subordinates swelled with precious ore, seeing nothing but glory in their growing girth. He was certain to be promoted after this, maybe even be put in charge of multiple warbands, or stationed under the mighty Imperator himself! With ambition dominating his mind, Steampyre made sure the ore didn't stop flowing until Brutus and Dolan were orbs, just like Sabin. Only then did he disperse his magic and relax.
The cavern echoed with the groans of bloated charr, the creaking of their strained bodies amplified to a much more ominous degree than reality. Steampyre walked amongst them, making sure they were in fact full enough for his standards, not wanting to leave a single drop of precious ore behind if necessary. Fortunately for them, Steampyre was content.
“You've all done an excellent job!” Steampyre bellowed. “I'm sure you're all literally worth your weight in gold, likely moreso!”
There was little celebration from the swollen trio, only a single question from Dolan. “Um, Boss, I just thought of another thing. How exactly are we going to get out of the cave now?”
Steampyre's triumph was crushed in an instant, the charr's face contorting as Dolan's words sunk in. “I...well, we...damn it!”
“I can't believe I nearly popped for nothing!” Sabin whined. “This is all your fault Dolan!”
“Quiet Sabin!” Brutus growled, still stuck on his back. “The Boss will figure something out, he always does!”
Steampyre turned his back on the others so they couldn't see the obvious stress on his face. A solution came to him quickly enough. “Ok, ok! I'll just climb out myself and grab the rest of the warband. Then there'll be more than enough of us to lift you lot out of this cavern and back to the Citadel.”
There were brief cheers before the ore-stuffed charr realized just how long they'd be stuck waiting for rescue, and Sabin's renewed complaints were swiftly silenced by Brutus' threats to roll over and pop him. Unfortunately even the minor success was foiled once Steampyre tried to ascend back up to the exit passage; the ropes they'd lowered were all frayed and ruined. Apparently at some point during their harvesting Steampyre's flames had singed them, leaving the charr with no easy way to scale the slick stones of the cavern wall. Steampyre's stream of curses alerted the others to some kind of issue, though he kept them in the dark until he could come up with either a good solution or a good excuse. His spherical subordinates provided unusual inspiration.
If his warband could swell to contain such ridiculous amounts of ore, than perhaps he could use his mastery over elemental magic to turn himself into a hot-air balloon. A little mixing of fire and water magic should be more than enough, allowing him to simply float back up to the passage with ease. The method wasn't very dignified, sure, but bribes and threats would ensure his witnesses never revealed the odd venture. A new round of bemoaning began once he revealed the situation with the ropes, followed by confusion once Steampyre explained his bizarre escape plan. Brutus managed to browbeat the others into supporting their leader—despite being rather unsure himself—leaving Steampyre with the actual hard part.
Steampyre took a deep breath and concentrated on his middle. Deep within his stomach he formed a tiny font of water, his belly rounding out as it slowly filled and sloshed. As a shaman he wore little compared to the others, and no tunics or coats struggled to handle his newly created gut. Only when his middle was a foot in diameter did he spark a molten flame. In an instant the collected water was flash evaporated, Steampyre cringing as he ballooned up dramatically and unexpectedly. He only just barely avoided falling over, catching himself on the cavern wall and hoping the others hadn't seen. A few wild adjustments to the volatile elements swirling inside his belly allowed him to regain control over his own expansion.
While his subordinates were forced to deal with a bad aftertaste and immobilizing weight during their inflation, Steampyre got to experience the strange feeling of being lighter the wider he got. The tattoos marking his chest stretched along with him, and the shaman felt his limbs growing stiffer as they slowly puffed up to take in the hot air expanding him. Steampyre's body was nearly spherical before a single paw finally lifted off the ground, then the other. He wobbled nervously as he hovered in the air, surprised his idea was actually working. If only the method were a bit less embarrassing.
Brutus, Sabin, and Dolan watched as their leader swelled up like a balloon and rose upwards, their morale boosted a slight amount. Steampyre's arms and legs bloated till they were mere domes jutting from his spherical form, his neck becoming a cushion and his cheeks rounding out. They'd have laughed if his inflation weren't so essential to a timely return to mobility. Small whiffs of steam leaked from between Steampyre's clenched teeth as he slowly rotated in the air, grinning in triumph. He carefully steadied himself with gusts of wind until he was floating belly-down, gazing upon his subordinates.
“And to think some of you doubted me!” He shouted. “This is far superior to climbing, easier too! I bet I could even use you as scouting balloons next time we go on a raid.”
With his attention focused on the trio below, Steampyre was woefully unaware of the sharp stalactite's protruding from the cavern ceiling. He continued regaling the others with the numerous potential uses for his inflation technique—most of which didn't involve him expanding, of course—all the while closing in on danger.
Dolan's drifting attention led to him seeing the hazard, though. “Uh, boss, you might want to look behind you!”
“Don't interrupt me Dolan, not while I'm detailing our next mission like—”
Steampyre's chastising was cut short as he felt the sting of a stalactite on his bloated back. Far too late the shaman realized his situation, unable to nudge himself away from doom in time. He'd let himself fill till his hide was much tauter than necessary, and the prolonged poke managed to rupture the charr with relative ease. The shaman let out one last yelp of surprise before the initial tear spread like wildfire across his spherical body, Steampyre exploding in a flash of warm air and scraps. Shredded bits of hide rained down upon his stunned subordinates. A long, awkward silence ensued as the trio tried to comprehend what had just happened.
“N-now how are we supposed to get out of here!” Sabin said, not particularly moved by his leader's demise.
“Maybe we can belch out the ore?” Dolan asked, blowing away a small bit of hide that'd almost fluttered onto his muzzle.
“Believe in the Boss, he's come back from worse!” Brutus shouted, wincing as he felt scraps of Steampyre bouncing off his bloated middle. “Once he finds a way to put himself back together or resurrect he'll return and rescue us!”
With little else to do the spherical trio continued bickering, forced to wait and hope for a miraculous solution to their plight. The Steam warband always seemed to have the worst luck...
Kuya gave me some wonderful inspiration for a Flame Legion warband with terrible luck, and an odd item I stumbled upon in Guild Wars 2 gave me a good idea for their first story! Involves a couple types of reluctant inflation, but also some popping. The Steam Warband has to resort to a unique method of storing precious liquid metal when they forget to bring containers...
Liquid Bounty
By: IndigoRho
With an echoing thud Rex Steampyre dropped the last few feet to the floor of the spacious cavern, wincing as he narrowly avoided falling right onto his butt. A loyal member of the power-hungry Flame Legion and leader of the Steam Warband, Steampyre felt it was important to maintain some degree of awe in the handful of charr he commanded. Being clumsy surely wouldn't help. Still, there were other important matters at hand for him to deal with. By sheer luck he'd overheard scouts talking about the discovery of a mysterious new ore, one which could be easily molded and enhanced with magic. Some investigation of his own had pinpointed the caves the ore was found, inevitably leading him to a cavern overflowing with the shimmering, silvery metal. Now all he needed to do was gather the bounty and reap the resulting glory from his superiors.
Steampyre looked at the three warband members he'd brought with him, his most trusted. There was Brutus Steamsplitter, of course, a somewhat bulky warrior who served as second-in-command and excelled at keeping the warband in line. Besides him was Sabin Steamwalker, a short thief who's sleight of hand skills were only matched by his tendency to whine at a moment's notice. Last was Dolan Steamhammer, the warband's new engineer, who was occasionally capable of ingenious ideas. Unfortunately there were about a hundred terrible ones in between.
“How does it feel to be surrounded by more money than you'd ever know what to do with!” Steampyre boasted. “Once we've got all this ore melted down and hauled off to the Citadel we'll be able to live like kings, maybe even eat as well as the Imperator!”
Sabin seemed less enthusiastic about their bright future. “Why does this stuff need to be liquified anyways, harvesting it's gonna be a pain!”
“I don't know, because it's magic or something!” Steampyre snapped. “Wailing on it with a pickaxe just causes it to splinter and crumble, makes it useless. Apply some heat, though, and it melts like ice and stays liquid long enough to be comfortably transported back for proper molding.”
“Uh, Boss, what exactly are we supposed to store the stuff in again?” Dolan asked.
Steampyre snorted at the ridiculousness of the question. “In the specially treated kegs of course!”
The other three charr carefully looked around at the sparse bags of equipment they'd brought to the cave, the lack of true containers glaringly obvious.
“W-where are the kegs?” Steampyre asked, having somehow missed their absence during the grueling climb down into the cavern. “How are we supposed to get glory if we can't even bring a drop of the ore back home!”
“Well, we could always drink it?” Dolan chuckled nervously, only half-joking as he worked on some mental calculations.
Brutus rolled his eyes. “We need a serious solution, not one of your strange—”
“Dolan, you're a genius!” Steampyre interrupted with a grin, his warband looking at him in confusion. “Back at the Citadel I've seen healers fill their assistants up with regenerative water till they were spherical, just for ease of transport. Just imagine how much of the ore we could return with if one of us serves as the container!”
“But what if we explode!” Sabin frowned. “I don't want to end up like a splattered water balloon.”
“If a bunch of random acolytes can hold it together than so can you!” Steampyre insisted, taking a step closer to Sabin. “And thank you for volunteering.”
Sabin's frown turned into a look of sheer terror “Why me!”
“Because I need the others to operate the hand torches while I guide the liquid ore right into your muzzle,” Steampyre growled. “You've got the easiest job, so stop whining or I'll have them really test your limits.”
The thief stammered a string of incoherent excuses and complaints before reluctantly accepting his dangerous role, not wanting to earn the ire of his boss. With a few sharp orders Brutus and Dolan went to work torching the closest outcropping of ore. As droplets of silver quickly formed and began to drip off the chunk, Steampyre used his skilled Elementalist magic to collect the ore into larger globs of floating metal, before branching off a small stream leading straight to Sabin's open mouth. The thief winced at the warmth and gross taste, but dutifully gulped down all that was sent his way.
Sabin's chubby belly slowly swelled and rounded out as he filled with liquid metal, his tunic straining more and more in an attempt to contain his middle. He tried lifting it to help, exposing his brown gut for all to see. The chunk of ore was melting at a swifter pace, the stream of silver turning into a river, Sabin's belt creaking under the pressure of his bloated gut. Fumbling with the belt proved futile as his belly gradually got in the way, and he was unable to undo it before it simply snapped right off his pants. His middle was a good two feet wide by the time the first ore deposit had been harvested, and Sabin breathed a loud sigh of relief at the end of his ordeal.
“Ugh, I look like I chugged a keg!” Sabin pouted, reluctant to move out of fear he'd fall over and burst.
Brutus resisted a snirk as he looked over his comically stuffed warband mate, giving his gut a teasing poke. “Remind me never to face you in a drinking contest.”
Steampyre, meanwhile, was beaming proudly at the success of his idea. “See, you're the perfect container! Once we've finished filling you there'll be a small fortune in your stomach!”
“You're gonna make me drink more!” Sabin had hoped one chunk would be enough.
“Of course we are! We'll be rolling you back to the Citadel, end of story!” Steampyre ordered, causing the hefty charr to cower a little.
Without delay the process began anew. Sabin begrudgingly opened up to let the fresh flow of ore trickle down his throat, trying not to groan as he felt and heard his hide stretching to handle his gluttony. He couldn't believe just how much his body was able to contain, constantly expecting to spring a leak or outright pop. Instead he firmly held together. Unimpressed by the relatively slow progress they were making, Steampyre suddenly pointed a paw at another nearby ore deposit, and within seconds a roaring stream of flames shot out to melt it. The addition of a second stream of liquid metal caused Sabin to balloon up even more rapidly.
To Sabin's surprise his chest started to swell out as well once his belly expanded enough, causing his scrunched up tunic to tighten from the added pressure. The stitches of the seams gradually ripped until the clothing finally fluttered to the ground in tatters, much to the bloated charr's frustration. His arms and legs began to puff up, too, swiftly destroying his pants and ruining his boots in much the same manner. He was more gut than charr at that point, his extremities aggressively enveloped by his now spherical body. Sabin's eyes went wide in fear as low creaks began to accompany his expansion. Talking was impossible as long as the metal continued to flow, and he was convinced more than ever that he'd explode before Steampyre was satisfied.
The charr's internal pressure was intense, his overstretched hide terribly sensitive as he was inflated to his very limits. With his puffy paws and stuffed cheeks barely poking out from his blimped up body, Sabin was relieved beyond belief once the ore halted. He slowly rocked back and forth, groaning in dismay, his warband less than sympathetic. Curious pokes and prods to his taut sides led to whimpers.
“See, better than any keg!” Steampyre gloated. “Sabin you're a natural container, I'll need to keep that in mind for the future.”
Sabin only let out a pitiful sigh in response.
Brutus grinned. “Alright Boss, I'll get our fancy ore jug secured and ready for transport.”
“Not yet,” Steampyre said, his gaze wandering to the dozens of valuable outcroppings littering the cavern. “Sabin just proved we have more room for ore, and I intend for this mission to be nothing short of a spectacular success!”
Steampyre's eyes swirled bright orange and his paws glowed with molten energy, the charr bringing forth a thin geyser of lava amidst a large cluster of ore. “Brutus, Dolan, time to earn your keep!”
Before the pair could question or complain, two trails of liquified ore slithered towards their maws. Unwilling to anger their leader they both opened up, experiencing the same terrible taste Sabin had already. The enthusiasm Steampyre put into his flames caused the ore to melt faster than ever. Brutus and Dolan nervously watched their middles swell up, straining buttons and straps with ease. A second geyser burst from the ground, then a third, and a fourth. Dolan's trench coat came undone as the buttons flew off under the onslaught of his inflating belly, the shirt beneath ripping apart shortly after. He explored his growing gut with cautious curiosity, amazed he could stretch so much without feeling noticeable pain.
Brutus had been wearing a prized set of plate armor, which was quickly buckling from the pressure. One-by-one the straps holding his breastplate together were torn, till the entire piece launched off his swelling paunch and clattered to the cavern floor. The force was enough to stagger the warrior, who lost his balance and fell down onto his butt, belly jiggling comically. He was far more concerned with his bruised pride than the possibility of bursting, and struggled to maintain his composure even as his round middle immobilized him.
Though Sabin had a commanding view of his warband's expansion, the thief wasn't in the mood to enjoy the minor retribution. The others swelling up wasn't going to lead to his own deflation, and that was all he cared about now. He merely wobbled and pouted some more.
Armor continued to be discarded and clothing shredded as charr waistlines ballooned seemingly out of control. Steampyre looked on in glee as his subordinates swelled with precious ore, seeing nothing but glory in their growing girth. He was certain to be promoted after this, maybe even be put in charge of multiple warbands, or stationed under the mighty Imperator himself! With ambition dominating his mind, Steampyre made sure the ore didn't stop flowing until Brutus and Dolan were orbs, just like Sabin. Only then did he disperse his magic and relax.
The cavern echoed with the groans of bloated charr, the creaking of their strained bodies amplified to a much more ominous degree than reality. Steampyre walked amongst them, making sure they were in fact full enough for his standards, not wanting to leave a single drop of precious ore behind if necessary. Fortunately for them, Steampyre was content.
“You've all done an excellent job!” Steampyre bellowed. “I'm sure you're all literally worth your weight in gold, likely moreso!”
There was little celebration from the swollen trio, only a single question from Dolan. “Um, Boss, I just thought of another thing. How exactly are we going to get out of the cave now?”
Steampyre's triumph was crushed in an instant, the charr's face contorting as Dolan's words sunk in. “I...well, we...damn it!”
“I can't believe I nearly popped for nothing!” Sabin whined. “This is all your fault Dolan!”
“Quiet Sabin!” Brutus growled, still stuck on his back. “The Boss will figure something out, he always does!”
Steampyre turned his back on the others so they couldn't see the obvious stress on his face. A solution came to him quickly enough. “Ok, ok! I'll just climb out myself and grab the rest of the warband. Then there'll be more than enough of us to lift you lot out of this cavern and back to the Citadel.”
There were brief cheers before the ore-stuffed charr realized just how long they'd be stuck waiting for rescue, and Sabin's renewed complaints were swiftly silenced by Brutus' threats to roll over and pop him. Unfortunately even the minor success was foiled once Steampyre tried to ascend back up to the exit passage; the ropes they'd lowered were all frayed and ruined. Apparently at some point during their harvesting Steampyre's flames had singed them, leaving the charr with no easy way to scale the slick stones of the cavern wall. Steampyre's stream of curses alerted the others to some kind of issue, though he kept them in the dark until he could come up with either a good solution or a good excuse. His spherical subordinates provided unusual inspiration.
If his warband could swell to contain such ridiculous amounts of ore, than perhaps he could use his mastery over elemental magic to turn himself into a hot-air balloon. A little mixing of fire and water magic should be more than enough, allowing him to simply float back up to the passage with ease. The method wasn't very dignified, sure, but bribes and threats would ensure his witnesses never revealed the odd venture. A new round of bemoaning began once he revealed the situation with the ropes, followed by confusion once Steampyre explained his bizarre escape plan. Brutus managed to browbeat the others into supporting their leader—despite being rather unsure himself—leaving Steampyre with the actual hard part.
Steampyre took a deep breath and concentrated on his middle. Deep within his stomach he formed a tiny font of water, his belly rounding out as it slowly filled and sloshed. As a shaman he wore little compared to the others, and no tunics or coats struggled to handle his newly created gut. Only when his middle was a foot in diameter did he spark a molten flame. In an instant the collected water was flash evaporated, Steampyre cringing as he ballooned up dramatically and unexpectedly. He only just barely avoided falling over, catching himself on the cavern wall and hoping the others hadn't seen. A few wild adjustments to the volatile elements swirling inside his belly allowed him to regain control over his own expansion.
While his subordinates were forced to deal with a bad aftertaste and immobilizing weight during their inflation, Steampyre got to experience the strange feeling of being lighter the wider he got. The tattoos marking his chest stretched along with him, and the shaman felt his limbs growing stiffer as they slowly puffed up to take in the hot air expanding him. Steampyre's body was nearly spherical before a single paw finally lifted off the ground, then the other. He wobbled nervously as he hovered in the air, surprised his idea was actually working. If only the method were a bit less embarrassing.
Brutus, Sabin, and Dolan watched as their leader swelled up like a balloon and rose upwards, their morale boosted a slight amount. Steampyre's arms and legs bloated till they were mere domes jutting from his spherical form, his neck becoming a cushion and his cheeks rounding out. They'd have laughed if his inflation weren't so essential to a timely return to mobility. Small whiffs of steam leaked from between Steampyre's clenched teeth as he slowly rotated in the air, grinning in triumph. He carefully steadied himself with gusts of wind until he was floating belly-down, gazing upon his subordinates.
“And to think some of you doubted me!” He shouted. “This is far superior to climbing, easier too! I bet I could even use you as scouting balloons next time we go on a raid.”
With his attention focused on the trio below, Steampyre was woefully unaware of the sharp stalactite's protruding from the cavern ceiling. He continued regaling the others with the numerous potential uses for his inflation technique—most of which didn't involve him expanding, of course—all the while closing in on danger.
Dolan's drifting attention led to him seeing the hazard, though. “Uh, boss, you might want to look behind you!”
“Don't interrupt me Dolan, not while I'm detailing our next mission like—”
Steampyre's chastising was cut short as he felt the sting of a stalactite on his bloated back. Far too late the shaman realized his situation, unable to nudge himself away from doom in time. He'd let himself fill till his hide was much tauter than necessary, and the prolonged poke managed to rupture the charr with relative ease. The shaman let out one last yelp of surprise before the initial tear spread like wildfire across his spherical body, Steampyre exploding in a flash of warm air and scraps. Shredded bits of hide rained down upon his stunned subordinates. A long, awkward silence ensued as the trio tried to comprehend what had just happened.
“N-now how are we supposed to get out of here!” Sabin said, not particularly moved by his leader's demise.
“Maybe we can belch out the ore?” Dolan asked, blowing away a small bit of hide that'd almost fluttered onto his muzzle.
“Believe in the Boss, he's come back from worse!” Brutus shouted, wincing as he felt scraps of Steampyre bouncing off his bloated middle. “Once he finds a way to put himself back together or resurrect he'll return and rescue us!”
With little else to do the spherical trio continued bickering, forced to wait and hope for a miraculous solution to their plight. The Steam warband always seemed to have the worst luck...
Category Story / Inflation
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 100 x 100px
File Size 81.1 kB
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