The Health Cruise

By Shalion & Gahtren

Chapter Eight

[Shalion]: Collin noticed as they slid smoothly along the fourth deck that all of the cabins were much more widely spaced than what he had recalled seeing below the previous day, but not only that, all of the doors they passed by were at least one and a half times larger than standard, in fact many of them were double doors. The appearance struck the fattened leopard as odd, even if for him at least they offered the promise of at least being able to enter and leave the cabin without taking a bath in butter. In fact, Collin found himself licking the butter from the fur of his thick forearm before he saw that Ora was glancing his way and he stopped in embarrassment.

They finally stopped before an inconspicuous set of doors labeled "418." Ora let the pair of fatties into the doors, handing both of them a set of key cards. Collin had actually considered their previous room to be fairly lavish, but the sheer size of the room they were now in blew him away. What the suite lacked in complexity, it was nearly all a single open space, it made up for the elegance of the decor. Almost as soon as Collin walked in the door, the leopard marveled at an artful crescent shaped chair that was nevertheless built wide and deep enough even for an ass as grand as his own. The nine-hundred pound cat took a seat in it and continued to gawk at the room, from the open kitchen suite to the glass paneled balcony. There were only one set of interior doors visible. Did that mean that Serka and himself would be sharing a bedroom now? Also, while Collin took in the strange furniture for what it was, there were definitely a number of things around the domicile that the overgrown cat did not recognize and could not begin to guess at a potential function, assuming of course, that these 'appliances' were not in fact more pieces of art.

Collin barely noticed as Ora moved over to a slender white plastic bar mounted on a wall in the kitchen. She pressed and held a button and spoke, "Two ship brochures please." Then the slender bar extruded two pieces of paper which the bovine folded and placed upon a convenient table. So that thing must have been a printer, thought Collin, but he had never seen one so slender before, and where had the paper come from?

"I'll leave these here." said the attendant. "Please relax and get used to the new room. I'll be back with some scrubs for Collin. I'm sure you both will be far more comfortable in here. Enjoy!" And with a few quick steps, the cow was gone, leaving the dragon and the young leopard alone together in a room that was beyond explanation or belief, if only because of the fact that all of the furniture, and even the layout of the suite itself, that could be seen seemed to be designed to accommodate persons at least of their size comfortably. Collin thought that even the chair under his titanic bulk was a bit generously proportioned for his size.

"Serka..." said the overfed cat a little shakily. "Something doesn't seem right here..." and by something, he meant everything.

[Gahtren]: "Heh... I think I noticed Collin..." Serka was shaky herself, going over to the table and reaching around her fat to pick up the brochure, there was a reason why it was so thin... it was all digital. Though what appeared on the brochure shocked Serka the most, there were directions on the brochure about moving a finger or claw along the screen and intractable options, or just using voice. The title on the brochure said 'Welcome to the Health Cruise!'.

Serka was silent as she was reading the brochure, it gave her information about the cruise itself, talking about one can be fat and happy. As if that wasn't enough, the dragoness noticed information about an all-you-can-eat-buffet, and it didn't skimp on showing the foods available, platters that towered with portions that she and Collin could eat. She re-read text that literally encouraged over-eating and even hedonism, mentioning about how there are always helpers and automated machines ready to assist to 'make your cruise feel lazy and even immobilizing! Pampered from head to toe'.

Serka had enough, she shockingly dropped the brochure back on the table, as it didn't make much of a sound when it landed on the piece of furniture. "Oh my god... Collin..." The dragoness waddled over to the feline, bending over, grasping him by the shoulders, her face of pure, utter shock. Not even caring that her breasts were sticking against him.

"Collin... I...I know this is going to sound strange, but... I don't think we're on our ship, the 'other' ship, matter of fact: I don't even think we're in a world that we used to know anymore." Serka was understandably, and gently, rubbing Collin's fat shoulders, as if to make herself sure she wasn't dreaming. "I don't mean to be awkward here but I'm still trying to process every bit of information that I've just read, and that brochure says it all, either we're going crazy or we entered in some alternate universe where... where FAT is a THING now." She lets go of Collin, waddles back to fetch one of the brochures and firmly puts it in his fat hands.

[Shalion]: "Serka, seriously that just sounds cra..." The fattened leopard bit his lower lip as he looked down at the brochere in his paws, the impossibly thin, digital brochure, "...zy." he finished as he began fingering the nearly translucent screen like he would a smart phone.

Several more minutes passed as Collin exchanged breathless and frantic whispers with the oversized dragoness. "It can't be!" and "That's impossible!" were exchanged several times. Collin felt his anxiety as a deep sinking sensation that went on and on and he could not help how it aggravated his beleaguered heart into an uncomfortably fast pace, warming his fluffy cheeks under the spotted fur. Despite how he was feeling, though, all of his nine-hundred and fifty pounds remained solidly where it was as he held onto the brochure between his heaving breasts with plump fists, as if the thing might suddenly fly away if he let go of it for an instant. It made about as much sense as anything else.

And it was not just the technology either, the brochure in his hand and the mysterious objects and furniture in the suite, as well as the facilities listed in the device he held. As Serka had said there seemed to be a completely alien culture portrayed in the flashing screens, one completely obsessed with fat, gluttony and hedonism as far as Collin could tell with no other reference points. The average size of the models in the many photos Collin saw was around six-hundred pounds, making Serka herself barely larger than average and people Collin's own prodigious size were also seen, unbelievably, with little asterisks noting that possibly even larger guests might be accommodated for certain activities! It was simply too much for the young man to take in. Collin dropped the brochure numbly from his fat fingers, instead of falling to the floor, it happened to land on the wide love handle to his right side and lodge itself in a convenient roll, the fattened leopard lifted his heavy arms and covered his face and head, arm fat draping over the wide, flat man breasts. "This can't be real, Serka, it can't be. It has to be some kind of crazy joke..."

Without even realizing how much time had passed, there came a knocking on the door. Before either of the fatties and their slowed reflexes had a chance to respond however, Ora was already letting herself into the suite, a large bundle of clothes in her hands. Despite the size of the bundle, Collin could see that there was at most two pairs of scrubs in his size in her arms. "I hope you two have had a chance to make yourselves more comfortable." said the cow, charming and demure as ever.

[Gahtren]: "Y-Yeah, Ora, we're just settling in." The dragoness looked at Collin, "Listen, Collin," she whispered to the leopard, "You can't mention to her that we're from another dimension, I know this is crazy but you need to not panic." Serka was worried about Collin now, he was already starting to hyperventilate, at least she hoped he wasn't. She knew about his weak health and getting over-exerted or stressed could... not be good for him. The dragoness was trying to calm the leopard down with her words and not sound too out of place. This was hard for her to take in as well, it wasn't easy, but the best she could do was not to have Collin tell this to anybody.

"Collin... I don't think anyone, even Ora, is aware of our situation. Just stay calm... okay big guy?" Serka reassured him.

"Now Deary, I would recommend the biggest of you two may want to get washed first." Ora suggested as she came out of the bathroom, fortunately not overhearing their conversation but getting a little close to the two with that warm smile.

"Oh! Goodness me, Collin seems to have made himself comfortable already." Ora giggled, "Well, in that case, Serka, would you like to join me then?" The dragoness raised her brow, join Ora? That was just... strange, very strange, a little nerve wracking too, she had difficulties bathing true, not able to bend down or reach certain areas with her big, black, scaly gut in the way.

"Uh... well..." Serka scratched her scaly head, unsure, it only made Ora giggle.

"Deary, I hope you read the brochure, but guests over six-hundred pounds are required to have an assistant. Even our advanced tubs can't get every crevice." She giggled. As Serka blushed heavily, the dragoness sighed, Ora seemed... trustworthy enough.

"Alright, alright, just... oh jeeze, we're both ladies here after all." Serka had to follow Ora to the bathroom.

"You'll be up next Collin deary!" Ora called back to Collin as she went in the surprisingly very large bathroom with Serka. The dragoness was in shock, the biggest feature of this place was the shower-stand, if she could even call it that. It looked like something with a very large, smooth seat built-in the shower, a large head up-top signified that must have been the shower head, with holes everywhere on each side of the shower, even some on the seat. It all looked smooth, clean, almost futuristic looking surprisingly enough. A digital screen was on the shower, it showed multiple options, modes, even a temperature gauge?

Serka sighed and started to take her clothes off in front of Ora, the fat dragoness wobbling as she took off her blouse, while Ora was getting the shower set up for the seven-hundred plus dragoness.

[Shalion]: Inside the noticeably more spacious bathroom, the seven-hundred plus pound dragoness pulled off her tight clothes with some light assistance from the bovine cruise attendant. The cloth of the big garments made a sound as they rasped over the black and purple scales, most of them with dark skinned fat brimming between their shiny, hard, curved surfaces. Serka's prodigious and heavy chest dropped by over half a foot once Ora had unhooked her oversized - and yet still too tight! - bra with the industrial wire support structure. It was almost futile trying to maintain any sense of dignity, even if she were to use both arms across herself, despite how thick they were and how they sagged even at the forearm. One of Serka's gluttonously inflated mammaries was easily a match in girth and weight as the bulk of Ora's own torso.

"There we are." said the bovine, however, as if Serka's rampant body were not something to be ogled at or perturbed by, once the dragoness was unclothed. "If you'll just step into the shower now, dear."

Serka, mindful of her own thick tail which fell mostly to the ground and was itself so rotund that it was difficult to bend in any meaningful way, the bathroom was more spacious yes, but still Serka took up most of the available space as Ora pressed her back up against a wall to let her by, did so. The morbidly obese dragoness took a seat on the wide bench in the shower unit, sitting on her fat tail and fatter buttocks as usual. Although it had already been mentioned, it was even more unnerving to watch as Ora stripped herself down to her small clothes, leaving on only a thin linen cloth for her chest and pelvic area that Serka was sure would barely hide anything once wet. She came into the unit and shut the door. At some unknown gesture Ora made, the water came on, shooting towards Serka from not just the ceiling taps, but from pretty much all around her, including under her generous ass.

Initially, as Ora began to lather up the dragon's large surface area, it was hard for Serka to be comfortable. Certainly, not since she was a toddler had anyone given her a bath, and yet she was terrified of giving Ora any reason to think there was anything strange about either herself or Collin. She still had not an inkling of what might have happened to transport both herself and Collin into this strange place, but at the very least Serka had seen enough sci-fi television to think that it was best not to call attention to themselves immediately. Though honestly, if being washed like this was what she had to do to fit in...

Serka immediately recognized the benefits of having a second person scrubbing herself as soon as Ora began plying into the dragon's various folds and creases. Under her own generous belly, there was plenty of airless spaces that had been sorely neglected recently, or perhaps ever since they had formed in the first place. Hell, Serka had enough trouble as it was just getting all the way up under her boobs let alone her own heavy belly which was almost too heavy for her to lift up on her own now.

"Dear, I'm just going to lift up the belly now." said Ora as she reached up and began to pull something down from the ceiling.

"What's-" started Serka, but clamped her mouth down on the question, reminding herself to act casual. Instead, she watched as Ora pulled down what looked like an opaque, thick plastic membrane down from she knew not where it had been earlier. It seemed to stretch at the touch of Ora's hand and once it was lowered close to the ground near the terminus of Serka's black scaled paunch, it conformed to its shape as it began to take its weight. Despite the softness of the material, however, as Ora somehow bid it to begin going back up, it hauled Serka's heavy belly up with it, allowing the water jets to shoot water upwards from the floor, scouring its underside with pleasingly warm and aromatic water. Serka sighed in perfect comfort, leaning back into the wall behind her where she could still feel the water jets pushing hot, scented water against her. Ora knelt and cleaned her even further. No, this was not very hard to get used to at all, thought Serka. But there was one thing that still concerned her and that was the even more rotund cat sitting just a few yards away in the other room.

As hard it was for her to even grasp the idea that they were now in some kind of alternate reality or dimension - and she was quite sure she had not yet, not really - it seemed to be making a nervous wreck of Collin and that stress was the last thing he needed, she knew. It was troubling to know even more about Collin's many health issues and it made Serka feel even more protective of Collin, knowing how fragile he was right now. It was impossible to fully enjoy the luxury of the hot water bath and the feel of Ora cleaning her fatty folds knowing he was out there by himself. If only the young cat knew about her feelings towards him, or would accept them how she wanted to express them. Serka licked the top row of sharpened teeth in her mouth as she thought of Collin's rolly polly pudge, so extreme and making him so damn, fluffy! And those spots! Serka allowed herself to roll her eyes inside closed lids. Every time she saw him, she wanted to grab onto his flab and squeeze it until he mewled like a kitten. Serka wished that Collin knew how seeing him electrified her... and yet all that weight was killing him too, she knew. Despite all the time rehabilitating him through webcams from being nearly bed bound, he was still almost a hundred pounds heavier than when they had first had contact with each other, and though Collin did not blame her for it, it had more than a little to do with her own encouragement. Collin might be able to move around a little now, but his health had certainly not improved in the past year, and that was before she had known about the diabetes. The fact that Serka's own health was relatively flawless compared to his made it an even harder pill to swallow, adding to the weight of guilt she felt at her ulterior motives in inviting Collin onto this cruise in the first place.

Before Serka knew it, Ora was getting back to her feet and the water was shutting off. "Alright..." said Ora, taking a few deep breaths of her own. The thin cloth clung to cow's own slightly chubby two-hundred and twenty-five pound frame just as Serka had expected. "I think we're all cleaned up now, don't you think?"

"Y-yeah." said Serka weakly. Honestly, she could have stayed with the hot water on for another hour if Ora had let it. But the dragoness noticed that her belly remained in the sling. "Um, but are you going to let me out of this thing?"

Ora chuckled a little, "Of course, Serka. We just need to get you all dried off." and with that, she clapped her hooved hands together and the jets came back on, but instead of water, they now were spraying warm air, particularly under the dragoness's jutting belly. Serka sighed as the heat sank into her scales and her dark, fatty skin. She felt like she would just melt onto the floor as she leaned back and closed her eyes.

[Gahtren]: Serka was enjoying herself at this point, she felt like her issues and problems went away for brief moments as the dryer jets soothed her obese, scaly form. It almost felt like she was wallowing in herself, and it actually felt good... that until a few minutes after the jets stopped, and Serka almost didn't open her eyes that she felt so relaxed. She heard Ora giggle as Serka opened up one eye. "Enjoyed it dear?" Ora asked with that addicting warm smile of hers.

"Oof, your kidding me right? It was out of this world." She realized the irony in that comment, seeing how they were in a different world altogether, and soon she started to wonder what else would happen here, what else had changed compared to the other world they were in. Serka was tempted to ask Ora so many questions, but it wouldn't be smart, and it felt like she would ask stuff that would be normal to most people, a 'common thing'. The dragonesses' train of thought was halted as the material that was hefting her stomach up seemed come down automatically, there wasn't much noise to it either, aside from the very subtle 'hum' it made as it moved. Serka would have thought such mechanisms would be noisy as all hell, but this thing didn't seem to make much of anything.

After it was finally taken off of her stomach, the dragoness started to heft herself up, with the help of Ora of course, as the kind bovine assisted in getting Serka off of her placement. The feeling of her ass conforming back to normal as her tail still had a firm resting spot until it lightly flopped on the shower floor. "Felt good getting areas cleaned that haven't seen the light of day for a while." Serka commented, feeling an almost unnatural sense of being much more cleaner than before.

Ora giggled, "well dear, it's common for everyone." The bovine stated as she assisted with getting Serka out of the bathroom, "Now deary, I brought you a new batch of clothes, your old clothes were... much too small looking, I didn't know what you usually like to wear so I tried to find similar clothes." What Serka would have assumed would be something along the lines of sweatpants and a shirt, she assumed poorly, as what Ora held up was possibly the largest pair of jeans and a shirt she had ever seen. Instead of the tight looking jeans that she wore last time, these were practically tent like, even almost looking stretchier then the previous pair. While at the same time, a large dark blue shirt seemed quite oversized for the normal person, but with Serka? It almost looked like a comfortable fit.

"I also took the liberty to get you new undergarments as well deary." Ora brought up, making Serka blush as the bovine seemed to bring out a larger pair of underwear and a bra for the dragoness.

"Jeeze Ora, you get tired of doing this?" Serka asked bluntly, as the bovine gave her a quizzical look.

"Good heavens no! It's my obligation to assist the larger patrons deary, and I've been most dutifully assigned to you and Collin." Ora seemed to take her job very seriously, it actually surprised Serka how much dedication she showed, "I've always enjoyed assisting people Serka," she giggled, "I have two sons and a daughter, all three of them are around Collin's age and they're about his size, they have the best care you can ever imagine from a supporting mother such as myself." As she explained that, Serka did her best not to immediately ask to repeat what she had just heard, and was trying to let that sink in... "So yes deary, having three beautiful kids at that size makes a mother like me proud, and I'm more than eager to show you and Collin what I can do."

Serka was speechless, the last thing she didn't expect was Ora to start explaining why she took this position, and that wasn't the closest thing that shocked her the most. It made Serka almost gawk when Ora mentioned about having three kids that were about Collins age and size, and the dragoness had to restrain herself, but she was mostly just holding her mouth open in speechlessness. "Buh... what...?" What took Serka by surprise was just how passionate Ora was, she clearly didn't seem to mind offering any assistance to either of the morbidly obese duo.

Serka and Collin were really in another world, a -very- different world. If it wasn't clear enough the last time, Ora's statement gave Serka the reinforced belief that it wasn't just the cruise, it was the -entire- world she and Collin used to know. Having three kids at 900+ pounds? That would just be downright unhealthy, and thinking how Collin struggled to move around, it only made sense why everything on this ship was so automated, so easy to use. Serka was already making Ora looked confused, as if the dragoness had grown 3 extra heads.

[Shalion]: While Serka was being pampered and cleaned in the bath, Collin found enough time to calm down from the existential shock that the bovine attendant had delivered. His laboring heart rate reduced from a roar in his ears to a fast thud he could feel in his fattened, sagging neck. With effort, the fattened leopard pushed himself to his paws, his weight instantly making his paws hurt with the familiar ache, and waddled over to where Ora had set down the large pile of cloth that amounted to just two sets of very basic scrubs. Collin reached over the mass of breast fat seated underneath his arms and unfolded a top, watching the huge amount of cloth billow outwards. For Collin, he was used to having to stretch his clothes into new and ill designed shapes in order to match his extreme body shape. To see something so enormously huge unfurl across his front, it looked at first as if this... thing, this tent, would be far too big for him. But the fattened leopard had to remind himself that he had quite a lot of girth at his sides that needed covering too.

Collin put it back down, though given the reach of his fatty arms, it would be been practically impossible for him to fold it back up. The leopard spent a moment listening to the sound of the water from the bathroom and the scent of steam coming up from under the door. But it was only a moment, as the mounting pain in the leopard's legs and lower back prompted him to move back into a more comfortable position. Waddling around the cabin, Collin soon found himself plowing his massive rear end into an equally massive and preposterously wide recliner. The leopard was shocked enough to actually yip a little as when he leaned back, the chair reclined, or perhaps morphed entirely backwards, simultaneously lifting up his swollen, fluid-ridden legs with barely the whir of a motor, though the motion was far too smooth to have been accomplished by gravity alone. Collin looked up to see the top of his mammoth belly quaking as his heavy breasts fell back under his chins. And there he rested for several minutes, taking deep, rasping breaths and feeling the weight of his JJ's on his chest. 'What is this place?' Collin questioned himself, looking up at the ceiling. That question and plenty of others buzzed around his thoughts, but the fattened leopard had no answers. Sure, Collin had seen plenty of the same sci-fi movies that Serka had, but his initial reaction was to be frightened at the prospect of being ripped out of his world and into some alternate version of reality. He thought that he ought to be feeling especially vulnerable, given his tremendous size and lack of nearly all physical abilities of any kind, save gluttonous gorging. Only the nature of this particular reality, its obsession with obesity, even to the extent of Collin's own imposing state, seemed to offer any hope of avoiding a complete disaster... And Collin had to admit that he had never sat in anything more comfortable than the recliner he was sitting on now. He closed his eyes and it seemed like just a moment had passed before Serka and Ora were emerging from the bathroom, veiled in steam.

Collin was surprised to look up and see Serka decked out in a shirt and jeans, her scales shiny and moist were they were revealed in a deep collar on her chest as well as a tantalizing line of belly scales between the bottom of her shirt and the waistline of her jeans. At first, Collin had thought that the shirt was riding up on the dragon's own prodigious belly, but no, it was not tight on her at all, but rather looked to have been designed that way deliberately. Again, the male leopard felt that intense feeling of interest in the way that Serka looked, that mental sensation that was divorced from the physical reaction he used to have before his testicles became marinated under pressure in his own body heat and diabetes had run amok with his internal hormone levels.

"Alright, dear, let's get you cleaned up as well." said Ora tirelessly, water still clinging to the fur on her head and neck.

Collin went through a similar process as Serka did, only the leopard's great, nine-hundred and fifty pound bulk left even less room for Ora to work in herself. In fact, as Collin tried to move past her standing flush against the wall and into the shower stall, his soft blubber still pressed both against her front and the side of the shower stall opening. It was a relief for Collin to be able to sit down and receive an actual full shower for the first time in ages, as the fattened live-at-home son had been resigned to sponge baths for nearly three years now. The level of comfort and cleanliness Collin experienced was indescribable as he too had areas, especially towards his groin and the insides of his thighs that had not been cleaned properly in ages, if ever. Ora took more time with Collin than with Serka as she examined the state of neglect of the leopard's skin and fur in the airless confines of extensive and labyrinthine fat creases under his belly, but more so deep between his fattened, log-like legs. Collin, in fact, needed actual medical attention as much as he needed a good shower as there were many rashes left untreated from accumulated sweat, oils and bacteria in many of the deep places. Ora crouched under Collin's massive and heavy belly, rubbing salves and ointments into dozens of fat rolls and creases, some large and deep enough to stick her entire hand in, others only as deep as a finger, but Collin's extra two-hundred and fifty pounds and softer skin had lead to a lot more development of rolls and odd features than existed on the dragoness.

Ora worked on Collin for almost an entire hour between his legs as the water fell slightly down on him in a gentle mist, reduced by the laboring attendant to better apply her medication, before she even so much as grazed a finger against his genitals. But when she did do so, she did it without invitation or so much as a word, parting the tight flesh that kept his manhood tightly impacted into his groin and letting both organs fall loosely with a shock of sensation and exposure to cool air. Collin jumped, but weighted down as he was, the movement amounted to nothing so much as a wobble of his fattened form. Collin felt Ora manipulate him then in a clinical fashion, still perfectly invisible to him from under the mass of belly fat hoisted up far in front of him so that the top of it was practically level with his chin, turning him left and then right, then layering cold cream onto the moist skin of his sheath and ball sack. Collin shivered, the ointment feeling icy initially, but then cool and slightly prickly after. The young man wondered if Ora would say anything, but she went on to other areas wordlessly, as if her manipulations just then had been of no more consequence than the dozens of other red and inflamed fat rolls from before. Maybe it was not, Collin wondered, as Ora gently eased the organ back into place and closed the tight, fatty flesh around it once again.

Even before it was over, Collin felt refreshed and clean in a way that he never expected to feel again, had not even suspected that he could feel. It would have made him feel tremendously more confident about himself, except that there was still the reality of the situation - or the non-reality? - to consider. As much as he wanted to like and get to know Ora, especially since she had so casually touched his privates and cleaned him, Collin could not forget that this was not the Ora, or the version of her, that he had met when he had first boarded the ship and that she belonged to a world that was not his, a world that seemed to worship fat and encouraged people to get to at least Serka's weight, if not Collin's own tremendously morbid size or beyond.

"Th-thanks." said Collin nervously when it was all over and Ora even helped him pull the billowing scrubs on over his head. "That was a..." how to describe the best hygienic experience of his life? "...a really good shower."

The attendant just tittered her same laugh and touched him gently on his thickened arm, "Think nothing of it, dear. It's what I'm here for."

The scrubs, though only basic clothing, fit Collin better than anything he had brought for the trip. There was not even time to dwell on that fact or the quality of the cotton cloth, though as Ora yanked up brand new, plus size undergarments up into the folds between his thighs and over his round, sagging buttocks, quickly followed by enormous bottoms with a sack-like extension out in front for his ponderous hanging belly. An enormous ring of elastic material banded the huge garment, from just over Collin's tail all the way around to the front of his exceedingly wide frame. Collin had just a moment to look at himself in the mirror, seeing that he looked surprisingly, almost like a regular person as opposed to an invalid with something terribly wrong with him, before Ora herself was urging him out the door and onto some other piece of furniture in the cabin, almost as if she were more mindful of his limited mobility than the cat was himself.

Collin sat for just a moment, spotting Serka now sitting in the recliner he had occupied some time ago. For some reason, the fact that they were sitting together, more polished and clean than either had experienced in the longest time, if ever, along with this bovine attendant who had done all of the hard work while barely breaking a sweat, quite absurd. Collin let out a spontaneous and nervous laugh that set his belly shaking even though its bottom rested heavily on the ground between his feet.

Ora crossed her arms, "And what's so funny, may I ask?"

Collin looked between her and Serka, who was also starring now as well. "I... I don't know..." he said honestly at first, but realized quickly that this was not a very good answer. "Maybe I'm just... happy." Collin thought of saying this as a way to appease Ora, whom he still felt he should not trust entirely. However, as the words exited his mouth, they had more of the feeling of truth than he would have imagined.