FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rodney and Lauren:

*A Short Story Based on *

Bovine Indulgence

By Shalion

"Tell me what you'd like your body to look like." Said Rodney.

"What's to say? I want to be fat." Lauren's voice issued from the small, decorative pendant she wore at the base of her wide, black and white mottled neck.

"There is a lot to it, trust me." Said Rodney, "Some could rightly claim that you're fat now." To emphasize his point, Rodney grabbed a handful of soft, doughy fur from the neck of the large cow lying lazily next to him on his living room rug.

"All right, I'll try to be more detailed. You are the doctor after all." The cow turned her head and nudged Rodney in the shoulder before lying back down onto the warm mat. "I'll try to put into words the way I picture myself in my mind."

Rodney waited for Lauren to collect her thoughts. As he did, he got up off the floor halfway and settled his back against Lauren's wide chest; his shoulders rested on her ribs and with one hand he scratched her neck while the other rubbed up and down the dip into her "slim" belly below her ribs.

At last, Lauren spoke again, "I want a big soft body."

Rodney was about to say, "That's all?" but he closed his lips when she continued.

"I want to feel my belly rubbing against my legs all the way down to my hocks while I walk. I want my chest to hang down past my knees and my brisket come out as far as my nose. I want my neck to be wide, thick and heavy, with skin dripping from the underside. I want my back to be so broad that you'd have to do the splits to sit on me. And I don't want you to be able to pinch any of my hip or tail bones ever again.

"Is that specific enough?"

I brought my face to where she could see mine and I smiled, "It's enough to start. Now, it's not very healthy to gain fast, but I don't suppose that you'd want to be sixteen or eighteen by the time you've gotten there, do you?"

"No, of course not... I'd have hardly any time to enjoy it, five or six years only."

Rodney rubbed Lauren's belly, it was soft and followed his hand a bit, but was firm underneath. "I hope you don't mind stretch marks." He said, "I'm pretty sure you can get there in three or four years with little or no effect on your health, but you would have stretch marks, even if I lathered you up with lotion daily."

Lauren laughed with her cow's voice and I needed no translation. "I think that would be great. Stretch marks... and lotion. I'll wear them with pride. When can we start?"

Rodney grinned at her, "Feeling hungry?"

Lauren mooed loud enough to shake some of the decorations on the wall. Afterwards, the pendant on her chest issued, "Only enough to eat a horse!"

Rodney laughed as he rose from the comfort of his seat next to Lauren, "You shouldn't talk about eating horses, they're a lot closer to cows than you think. Someone might think you a cannibal."

Lauren quirked her head at Rodney, "Just shut up and get me something to eat before I die of hunger."

When Rodney returned, his arms loaded with several sacks which reeked of deliciousness, Lauren felt her mouth begin to water at once, and her desire rose. The large, intelligent cow stuffed her face into the food with similar greed found in her lesser cousins. Even after a thorough day's grazing, she ate; and out of a passion for her ideal body rather than out of a need to fulfill hunger. The simple fact was that, after the first sack, she didn't feel hunger at all (and would have even been fine to go to sleep even without it). But Rodney tended to her with such love and devotion, that Lauren could scarcely believe the man to have been insane by any definition just not a year ago.

Lauren's stomachs swelled inside her and when her voracious desire to consume became opposed by a growing pressure within her abdomen, she consented to being handfed, slowly, by the small, but attractive, biped. She hadn't moved yet from the floor of Rodney's living room since she had gotten there. Despite being the largest room in the house, it felt cramped for Lauren, there was hardly enough space to turn around, but it was indeed comfortable. Her sharp hooves would destroy the soft mat she lied on in a few weeks of use, but it was far superior to straw as a bedding substrate. Humans desired comfort above all else, apparently, and Lauren was not one to deny that she tried to get as much of it as possible.

The man fed her and somehow managed to massage every part of her body at the same time. Rodney's arms and hands moved with astounding dexterity and precision granted by detailed anatomical knowledge. Lauren knew his past and couldn't help but feel that she had the best person she could possibly ask for to care for her and lavish his attention on her. Lauren swallowed what Rodney offered in his hand as the massage continued up and down her neck muscles with only the most minor interruptions. She didn't even taste the potent grain/soy mix at this point and settled into a peculiar state as her belly felt both numb and astoundingly bloated. Lauren breathed deeply and wanted to drift into sleep, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the man doting on her.

Rodney had a tall, lean body, muscular in the chest and arms; his "coat" (as Lauren saw things) was a rich loamy brown like the bark of an oak. Though he moved to right in front of her face when he wanted to get her attention, she could see him moving about in a far wider radius than he apparently realized. He pushed on her belly, rocking her a bit and the motion helped to settle what gurgled and churned deep inside her. Lauren wondered briefly if a human woman would find him attractive. She couldn't guess, having access to mainstream human society only through television and the internet; Besides, Rodney was anything but mainstream. Still, Lauren felt herself attracted to Rodney's strong arms, they had to be strong for the size of the animals he worked with, and she felt an odd security in their caress.

For an odd moment, she wanted to see Rodney with his shirt off and brought images of his ripped back and shoulders into her mind as well. The moment passed, but Lauren, somewhat dazed now from her stuffed belly, felt here was a provider that on whom she could count. She couldn't help but trust the man, however, as Lauren started to doze, the image of her own grandmother, fighting for her life not 100 feet from where she lay now came to mind. Her body, horribly bloated beyond any recognition or function, and the man who had caused it, the man who now rocked her overstuffed belly as the world faded from her conscious mind.

* * *

The next few months heralded a great many changes for Lauren. Life as a feedee, at least one in Rodney's care, wasn't like anything she had imagined. For one, in the years she had spent living in the forest with her mother and small family, getting by on summer grass in the fat seasons and low, tough branches in the winter, Lauren had fantasized of food aplenty, of long days lazily gorging herself and resting at all hours of the day. Now, Lauren thought as she shook her head and trotted her second lap around the property, I'm busier than I have ever been since we've come back to live with him.

Rodney demanded that Lauren train her body, both to build muscle and to stimulate her heart (though more of the former than the later). He also gave her a strict diet that wasn't entirely what she had expected either. Lauren had thought that she could just lay back and eat all of the tasty grains and human fabricated sweets that she wanted, but Rodney explained that this sort of diet was even more unhealthy that the weight she desired. Lauren was expected to graze in her free time and then still gulp down first three, and then four and now five meals a day. The sheer volume was overwhelming, but Rodney worked slowly and patiently, even if he was a bit overeager. When Lauren asked him to slow down, he did so promptly, and Hollie told her that this was a significant change over the Rodney she had known before she had left.

It was hard; Lauren had to admit that work went against the whole idea of being a feedee in her head, but then wasn't she the one who wanted to become spectacularly fat in so little time? She did regret the lost years as she jogged, almost half her life was past now. She honestly never paid Rodney much attention before she had left with her mother into the forest, and when she finally realized what she wanted to do with her body, she was already gone into exile, far from the one man who could offer it to her. Lauren snorted as she thought of the countless fights she had had with her mother, the disappointment when Cathleen returned with news that Rodney had sunk deeper into depression and madness after the first year, the sheer elation when her brother reported back from spying on him that he finally seemed to have recovered.

The image of her grandmother was forever burned into her mind, but Lauren's passion for her vision of beauty could not be undone by even so strong a warning.

Lauren slowed down, sides heaving, as she caught her breath. It's a funny sort of exercise, Lauren thought, _that becomes harder the more you work at it. Rodney's plans include downgrading the intensity and length of workouts in the future, not intensifying them. _

It took so long now for her to finally calm down after her short jog, that Lauren became bored and grazed even while she was still huffing. She took the grass in her mouth and clipped it with her bottom teeth against her hard upper palette, then, pulling up, she tore the grass stems away from the rest of the turf. She gave a few quick chews and swallowed, knowing from experience that no matter how much she chewed it going down, it still had to come up again. The movement of her mouth relaxed Lauren, one good thing about trying to gain weight was not having to worry about how much forage she needed to eat. The grass is just another drop in the bucket, my real Calories are from my meals. It did not take long for Lauren to fill her rumen, the spring grass was already tall and eager to be free from snow's clutches. As she walked, her cud began to come up and she stopped pulling fresh grass from the earth. Settling in under the shade of a decorative circle of trees, Lauren chewed thoughtfully, the slimy bolus natural to her and much more flavorful the second time around than the first. As she chewed, she daydreamed, trying to remember what her body had looked like last year, admiring the progress she had managed so far and still looking forward to what she might accomplish in the future.

Despite her asking him, Lauren had never actually been weighed. She wanted the proof of progress, but Rodney was adamant for reasons he never made clear. Still, she was satisfied when he told her that she had probably added almost 500lbs to her frame in the eight months since she started her "diet." Not having the opportunity to look at herself everyday, a luxury most humans took for granted, Lauren could really tell the difference when she saw herself over the winter with help from Rodney and a large hand mirror. She compared the perfectly memorized images against what she remembered from the day she started and the other two times Rodney had taken the trouble before the winter (she had numerous photos of herself on her home computer, but she liked the "in person" images the best), pleased with the thought that she was even bigger and softer now.

Lauren remembered how her belly had had a slight tuck when she came to the farm, as well as sucking in perhaps four or five inches from her wide ribs on either side. Now her abdomen matched the width of her ribs and more, she couldn't even now hope to squeeze into a dreadfully tight human door (she had a thin scar on her left flank from when she had tried over the winter). Her ribs had softened and padded themselves and now the skin rolled up and down with Rodney's hands when he stroked her. The same was true of her neck, she had already had to have her leather necklace expanded five times and it was getting tight again. Lauren found that she took after her great-grandmother in the way that her brisket grew. It was tight and round and hung close to her body when she first came to the ranch, but with the advent of access to ample amounts of surplus fat, its growth surged more than any other part of her body previously. Though it was still small compared to pictures she had seen of her ancestors, it reached out more and more, now it was more than halfway out the length of her neck; her profile was now similar to a U turned on its side in how her neck came in towards her body, only to puff out into her brisket. Of all her changes, Lauren was most concerned about (and most pleased with) her gut. The slight tuck was gone almost as soon as she started her diet and now was sagging delightfully lower and lower past her chest, even as it too deepened and sagged itself. Her loin had risen into a pretty hump of its own that cushioned her lower back.

However, as much as Lauren enjoyed the look of her body, she reveled in the sensations that went with living in it even more. Lauren was aware she was still lazily chewing cud even though her mind was far away (and not so far away), reviewing the more subtle changes in sensation that had crept up on her over the last months. First and foremost, the most noticeable change had been in her brisket. Its growth had been the fastest and, truthfully, she was not used to its weight yet. It bobbed and waved back and forth as she walked and as she gained, it only increased in the range of its movements. Although it did not in anyway throw off her balance, she found the sensation unnerving as this clump of flesh on her front wanted to move in one direction as she turned in another. Also, if she jogged too quickly, her brisket started to hurt her skin as it jumped and threw itself down again and again without any support. For all the minor discomfort, however, she loved the feel of it, and Rodney did too. She liked when he put his strong hands into the flesh there, molding it like clay; if he twisted it so that it hurt just a little, it sent a thrill up her spine and made her backside drip. Secondly, Lauren noticed how her belly had changed, though this took more time to get used to. Her belly dropped and began to noticeably alter her stride sometime in the winter. Rodney had pointed out the differences as her hind hooves slipped more and more outwards as she became bowlegged. Lauren hadn't noticed then, but now she recognized (and reveled in) the signs that her fat was conforming her body to its own wishes.

When she had come to Rodney's home, Lauren's belly had rubbed the insides of her legs occasionally (this was not unusual given the size of the udder). Now, however, it was always in contact, all the way down to her knees and more. Shaving the fur on her inner thighs and belly helped, but as the heat increased as the season moved towards summer, Lauren was discovering that the area could become very uncomfortably sweaty and sticky. Lauren noticed a bit of a change in the sensation of her udder as well. It was now even with her belly, but the area was quite a bit firmer still than the fat between it and her ribs. Her udder was shaven as well, more of a mark of pride as a dairy cow and a fashion statement than out of any sort of functionality (though Rodney insists that it does in fact decrease risk of mastitis). The circle where Lauren was shaven was becoming ambiguous as her belly flooding downwards. What was peculiar was that Lauren noticed decreased sensitivity in the organ between her legs. While still relatively firm from never having borne children (or milk), it grew softer and with that softness sensation decreased as well. Lauren found she could put more weight on her udder while sitting and lying before becoming uncomfortable. It grew more like her belly fat in that it didn't respond the same way it had when squeezed, compressed or even twisted. When asked, Rodney had said this was due to fat invading the mammary tissue and even the fact that Lauren was steadily loosing the ability to produce milk (as well as increasing the likelihood of death during childbirth), didn't phase her (it, in fact, stimulated her).

The last thing that Lauren took account of before getting up for her second midday meal was the fact that even her tail felt heavier. Her loin had now buried her tail head and moving it now felt almost like she had to move it through some liquid (though not nearly as dense as water). She found that swishing it far to either side of her flanks to rid herself of flies was becoming more of an effort. Rodney said this would become a major problem for her health eventually when she couldn't fend off against biting insects and told her honestly that if she became as fat as she wanted, she would need to spend the mornings and evenings (in the summer) indoors when the mosquitoes and flies attacked. Lauren didn't mind this small price either, her stall was comfortable, and had access to the internet. After all, when she weighed what she wanted, she wanted to become rather lazy, a queen for Rodney to worship and care for. Yes... the image is rather nice.

Lauren swished her heavy tail side to side as she heaved against her great bulk and rose to her hooves. She swallowed her cud and walked briskly, but not too quickly, to the barn.

Rodney was waiting for Lauren when she arrived. He said, "You're late. Have you been off daydreaming again?" Rodney's face was stern, but he couldn't hold the façade for long and burst out in a wide smile.

"So what if I was? You're more a dreamer than I." Said Lauren, sticking out her tongue.

Rodney slapped her firmly on the thigh as she walked past him and into her stall. The shockwave traveled up her belly, into her neck and came down again, only to travel back twice more before fading. Rodney huffed out a breath, "God, I love that."

Lauren looked at him indignantly and swatted at him with her tail. He swept it aside easily with his forearm.

"You're getting slow." Said, Rodney. "You used to get me every time... You're getting faaat!" He said this last stretching out the last syllable into tones much higher than his normal baritone.

Lauren only smiled and walked the rest of the way into the stall. Rodney followed, letting the gate close behind him; there was no latch, but the hinges were designed so that the gate resumed its closed position whenever it was opened from either side. Lauren turned and spread her stance wider, as Rodney had taught her, to more evenly distribute her weight and, hopefully, preserve her joints for the future.

"Where's the grub? Can't you see I'm withering away?"

Rodney stalked forward and pinched a roll of fat that was forming at the base of her neck, "I can tell."

Lauren huffed a breath through her nostrils, "I am carrying a bellyful of grass here; I have only got four and a half more hours before I'm due for my next meal, so get's get on with this."

Rodney looked concerned, "I'm not going too fast again am I?"

For an answer, Lauren moved forward and put her head on Rodney's shoulder. When she backed away and set her hooves apart, she said, "Not at all, lover. I am used to it, honestly. I know I am not really hungry, but I've tricked my belly into thinking I am. I am eager to chow on something a bit heavier than grass, that's all. It's become habit." At this last, Lauren gave Rodney a cheerful smile and then afterwards, he opened the crate he had stowed in the corner.

Inside the crate were her regular rations for midday meals. Similar to her morning meals, the dense feed was loaded with carbohydrates for when she was active during the day. But unlike her breakfast, the grain was laced with soy for added fat and didn't contain the slightly bitter taste of the multivitamin powder in the morning food. To her personal trough hanging on one side of her stall (the other's subsided mostly on grass in the spring and summer and the multisided feeding trough in the main thoroughfare went unused until winter), Rodney poured the carefully premeasured meal. Lauren placed her snout into the trough delicately (Unlike most with her obsession, Lauren did not like being degraded and called a slob, or especially Pig; except during special, and heavily scripted, circumstances), but ate with enthusiasm.

"Mmmm... still delicious after all these months of eating it." Said Lauren before licking up another mouthful and crunching down on the crumbled (but not powdered) mix of wheat, soy, corn and other starchy grains. Rodney had tried the mix himself before and found it dry, hard, and fairly tasteless. Lauren, however, claimed that it was a pleasing mix of both sweetness and savoryness, of which she never got tired. Her only complaint at first was that it was too filling and left her struggling to eat more later during the day. Rodney smirked as he thought of how she had kept with his designed diet and now powered her way through tens of thousands of Calories a day.

Lauren didn't like it when Rodney stroked her while she ate (at least for her regular meals) and he kept his hands free, however, his eyes were glued to her body. Lauren ate quickly, but Rodney could tell that she savored every bite. She had explained to him that not only was she hopelessly addicted to the idea of becoming fatter, she also simply liked to eat. It explained how she managed to not only avoid loosing the fat on her body in the wilds, but also the few extra pounds she had been able to scrape together from foraging. "The forest does provide really well for having most of it gone to suburbs and farms." She had said. "I don't know why, but I always seemed to be the first to find fresh berries and fruits, and, of course, grass and leaves were abundant; even bark isn't that bad when that's all there is to eat. I suppose that I sniff better than most... or was looking harder than most" Lauren had all but blushed at this admission of her early development of her fetish.

The trough was angled at the bottom so that Lauren could easily lick it clean, which she did eagerly. Rodney wiped the steel trough down with a damp towel after the cow had backed away. Lauren let out a sigh and gave a loud belch smelling strongly, but not repulsively, of compost. She didn't excuse herself (cows, after all, are very gassy by nature and couldn't be expected to excuse themselves every few minutes) and instead let out another sigh. "I think I'm done grazing for today." She burped again less intensely, "I'm stuffed and I can feel my cud coming up again."

Rodney watched as muscles, still very visible despite the fat, spasm at the base of her neck and draw upwards. Soon, Lauren had a slimy green lump she was chewing and Rodney was so desensitized that he didn't give it a second thought. Instead, Rodney turned to go. Lauren's "voice-box" issued her question as she continued chewing, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go and get Hollie so we can work on Mary's belly some more. I need her help to get towards the middle, it's incredibly difficult without the crane and I need every pair of hands, or rather hooves that I can get."

"Can I help?"

Rodney shook his head, "You already said that you're stuffed, straining yourself will give you stomach cramps. I've already got James and Denise helping as well, besides, I wanted to spend a little extra time together tonight, and I don't want you already exhausted."

Lauren's eyes brightened and she didn't press him as he left.

Lauren was more bloated than she had let on, she felt sick to her stomach. After Rodney left, more "cud" came up involuntarily and Lauren was struggling to keep it all in her mouth. There was almost as much grain as grass pulp and Lauren was caught in a nearly constant juggling act between her mouth and her rumen as she swallowed only to have more come up a few minutes later. In truth, Lauren had sincerely hoped that Rodney wouldn't have accepted her help, especially since she was struggling to contain her last meal. Lauren wasn't inclined to manual labor, either physically now, encumbered as she was, or mentally.

When Rodney had mentioned what he wanted to do later that night, Lauren immediately grew moist. What Rodney did to her felt so good that she couldn't imagine a bull being any better. But more than stimulating her body, Rodney's touch and his games reinforced her belief in her choice to change her body. Rodney made Lauren feel so loved, so needed, so desirable that it was pleasure all in itself. Lauren knew that even if she wasn't as close to Rodney in his heart as her mother, she was the one he thought was beautiful, she was the one he lusted for; it didn't hurt that Lauren felt it ignorant to believe that a heart could only be big enough for one other alone either. Of all of the foolish human notions she had been introduced to, she found monogamy to be one of the most foolish (first foolish was pop entertainment news, and second was clothing, when the weather was mild at least).

Having something to look forward to took Lauren's mind off of her churning gut and she pushed her brisket against the gate as she walked out of her stall. She took pleasure from the way it squished before the gate began to move and she left the barn for a light walk. Walking slowly, Lauren swayed her belly a bit more heavily than she needed to and her stomachs settled. Her cud stopped coming up involuntarily and inside, she began the delicate work of moving the grains deeper into her complex stomach while keeping the grass pulp up close. It was semi-conscious and semi-automatic and there were no human words to explain how exactly she did it, nor what it felt like; though, between herself, Cathleen and Hollie, they had come up with a rich vocabulary simply for digestion in their own language.

The thought made her think of the rest of her family. Lauren was close to her mother and to her sister, but, unbeknownst to Rodney, she was actually a bit of a loner with regards to the rest of her family. All of them were her brothers and sisters, but they did think a little bit differently. It was subtle, but they seemed a little more concerned with earthy things, like weather, growing things, good grazing habits and things like that. They weren't precisely anti-human, but they didn't care for fancy electronics, or even books. Almost to a one, none were interested in the internet (which had been an intensely fascinating... thing, growing up) or human culture, in fact, many felt trapped by knowing that outside of this pocket of tame woods, suburbs and farms spread out in nearly all directions and that there was no escape should they ever be discovered.

Lauren attributed it to the fact that they hadn't grown up and lived their first adult years with Rodney reading them books and letting them watch television. It was strange now that she thought about it; growing up, her body had matured rapidly, much more rapidly than her mind had. When she was two (and even this she learned was late for a normal Holstein) Lauren and Cathleen both had adult, sexually active bodies, but she and her sister still felt like kids inside. Lauren thought it might have been due to growing up "like a human," but still, she couldn't have hoped for a happier childhood; she had watched old reruns of SpongeBob Squarepants until she was four. Lauren let out a sigh and summoned some of the grass fermenting her gut and chewed thoughtfully.

Rodney hadn't been sane even then, this she knew now. But when she had been a child, in soul, if not body, he had been at least functionally insane and none of his warped views affected his being a good father. In a human, Lauren's memories of Rodney as a father might have dulled desire for him, but as it was, it only intensified the love she felt for him. From the moment she had grown to be interested in anything other than her mother's teats, Rodney was there. Lauren laughed at herself, she was, after all, his prototype; she and her sister both, so it was only natural that he shower attention on them.

Learning proved so easy for her, that Lauren was surprised when she discovered that her own mother (who had seemed infinitely wise at the time) couldn't wrap her mind around even simple math problems. Even today, she didn't show any interest in improving her arithmetic, and Lauren was fluent in simple algebra. For what she lacked in math skills, however, her mother made up in her voracious appetite for literature. She was extremely well read and wrote stories and poems herself and even shared them on the internet. Rhyming phrases never came to Lauren's mind and she didn't have the patience to write down page after page of text; she preferred to daydream and spent a lot of time chatting and role-playing on the internet.

Something began to itch Lauren's udder as she walked through the tall grass, going nowhere in particular. She lifted her right foreleg off the ground and stood balancing as she reached her head down under her belly. She stretched and found her neck not as mobile as it had once been. She strained and managed to get to her udder without falling over, but only just. Lauren licked the shaved skin and tasted numerous ants momentarily before they disappeared down her gullet. The soft pink flesh gave way under her tongue as she lapped around her teats and Lauren found herself growing moist. She stopped; somewhat disappointed that she wouldn't ever be able to suckle herself. This was the closest she ever got to the human concept of masturbation, and now she found herself slightly envious of their ability to reach and manipulate their own sexual organs; despite their small weak bodies and their odd, unstable bipedal movement. Lauren stood resting for a moment, such would have been effortless hygiene last autumn, but now it took her breath away; but the fact only excited Lauren further.

Right on schedule, four and a half hours later, Lauren took another helping of feed. This time, Rodney added some dried blueberries and strawberries for flavor and it was simply divine. Lauren couldn't imagine eating something as unpalatable as bark as she devoured the wholesome and unbelievably sweet and rich food. Lauren ate it all without fuss and even managed to keep it down without complaint. It helped that she hadn't grazed in the intervening hours and the grass was now digested enough to pass further down, leaving almost her whole rumen to accept the new delivery. Rodney left right away after he poured the grain, mentioning something about having left a wedge under Mary that would severely bruise her if he didn't get her cleaned and set back down in time. Still, he managed to promise to see her later as he walked out.

Despite being a larger and heavier meal, it kept down easily, and Lauren was comfortably overfull, instead of painfully bloated. She settled down into her bed of straw, putting down first her chest, again it squished against the floor as she fell, and then her rear end. Her rear was getting a little more difficult to ease to earth without throwing herself down onto the floor, but Rodney ensured that she grew stronger as well. Once on the ground, Lauren twisted her hips, and with them her belly, away into the middle of the large stall, settling into a position she could relax in for the hours until Rodney came for her. Her gut weighed heavily on her left leg, her right perched on top of it. This sight made her rage for Rodney's touch and she felt her rear dribbling slightly.

However, the grumbling complaints of her belly made clear to her that she could expect punishment from that kind of overexertion and Lauren promptly settled herself down. Lauren had deliberately relieved herself right before her feeding and was determined to spend the next five or so hours catching up on some neglected friends and answering her E-mails without the distraction of having to get up and go before she and Rodney could have some fun. Her head turned towards the monitor and the cursor flashed like a darting fish to her merest thoughts as she talked with people from around the world, for all eyes, as an ordinary human.

When Rodney was finished with Mary for the day, he napped for at least an hour. Under her belly had been a number of infected bedsores, healing was complicated by constant contact with the floor and poor blood supply and treatment was very specialized and very difficult. When he finally awoke, Rodney found that he had overslept and was hard pressed making preparations for tonight's surprise for Lauren.

Tonight wasn't particularly special, but it was special enough to warrant the preparation of some particularly satisfying goodies for Lauren. More than any other cow he had known, Lauren enjoyed human dishes. Rodney made sure that every time he appealed to her for lovemaking, he brought a sizable selection of food for her. Despite being an herbivore, there was a surprising array of foods that she could enjoy, if not live on. Of course, primarily meat dishes like steak and ribs or even lobster were out of the question. Mostly he made her pasta dishes, fancy salads, vegetarian sandwiches and soups.

Tonight, like most nights Rodney sought her attentions, he made her a four course meal to replace her last meal of the day. For an appetizer, he fried some spring rolls in a pan and laid them out with cabbage leaves and the packaged soy sauce (nothing fancy, they were just from the freezer). For a first main course, Rodney thought she might enjoy a large Caesar salad. This too was easy to put together, although it took time chopping all of the extra vegetables she liked as well as some slices of pepperoni. Although roughage is more substantial for an herbivore, the second main dish is where Rodney concentrated his efforts... and Lauren's Calories. It was three parts, the first was a large quantity of crab cakes that I made from scratch. He made sure to go easy on the crab and heavy on the onions, peppers and the breading. With this, he also served steamed asparagus, swimming in butter, and mashed garlic potatoes, with the skins, like Lauren likes. Both main dishes occupied large, platter sized plates and were enough food for a gathering of people. For desert, Rodney was most creative, Lauren liked most anything sweet and most deserts luckily did not contain meat. Tonight, Rodney, since he was strapped on time and spent most of it making crab cakes, made a simple pudding. It occupied a large mixing bowl to the brim and was piled high with whipped cream and cherries.

Rodney carefully carried each plate to a large, stainless-steel, antique serving trolley that they used in fancy restaurants and hotels in the late 20th century (Rodney had actually gotten the thing at a local yard sale for $40). Once the plates were secure, he wheeled it into the barn, the wheels clattering over the grooves in the concrete slabs. To complete the image, on top was set a table cloth, two empty plates, one set of silverware and two tall candles.

It was rather late, but not late enough to warrant the inactivation of the overhead lights and the bright glare ruined the effect of the candles, but Rodney knew that Lauren would appreciate the effort, she was a cow with some class and appreciated many human fineries. Rodney found her lying mostly on her side, deep in a chat room with goodness know how many other people. Rodney had never overcome the innate nervousness when his denizens talked with other humans, despite the fact that nothing even remotely resembling misfortune had ever come of it. Rodney wheeled the heavy cart into her stall. She told him she'd shut down the computer and Rodney went and got a foldable chair from a closet.

When he returned, he found Lauren sitting, dog-like, on her heavy haunches, her udder and a portion of her gut spread out on the floor under her chest. Rodney looked at her quizzically, "Isn't that uncomfortable?" He said, putting down the chair beside her.

"What? Oh, how I'm sitting? Only a little, but I wanted to 'sit' for dinner and if I lied down, then my head would be way down there, and you'd be leaning over me the whole time."

"You could stand," suggested Rodney.

"I'd rather sit," Lauren repeated, and Rodney didn't press any further.

Rodney ate his own dinner alongside Lauren. For every four or five spring rolls he drizzled soy sauce on and placed gently into her waiting mouth, he took one for himself. Lauren munched thoughtfully, completely chewing her food and getting the most out of the flavor. Rodney didn't blame her at all, after all, when your diet consists of mostly mashed grain and grass, who wouldn't want to take their time with this?

The platter containing almost three dozen spring rolls was soon empty and after swallowing the last bite, Lauren gratefully cleaned the plate of the cabbage leaf garnish. "Dipped in the soy sauce, it's almost as good as the spring rolls." She said.

For the next platter, Rodney took some of the salad aside for himself and proceeded to drench both salads in aCaesar dressing he had gotten from a gourmet organic food store in town. He tossed the bigger one with enthusiasm and then mixed his own as Lauren tucked in her portion. In this too she ate surprisingly delicately. Her tongue was slightly prehensile and with years of practice she could grasp small portions and pull them into her mouth. She chewed, crunching carrot slices and bursting tiny tomatoes, but never once did she splatter Rodney during the entire meal as he sat at her side and helped her eat with his "nimble" hands.

The salad took a long time and the couple talked. Rodney talked about new things coming out with the company he had worked for and possible benefits for himself and the cows as a whole, she talked about her online friends and the pictures she was working on; neither really caring about either of those things, but they listened because they knew that the other one did care.

Soon the salads were gone (Lauren lapped up the dregs of Rodney's salad so again, there were clean plates except for her saliva), and he reached under the cart and brought up a covered platter. Steam rose as Rodney uncovered it and Lauren took in a deep breath and her mouth dripped a little out the sides of her snout. "Wow that smells good. What are those little fried balls?"

"They're called crab cakes. They have little bits of chopped crab in a breadcrumb dough with onions and peppers. You can eat them plain, but I prefer mine smeared with sour cream." To demonstrate, he slathered up a meatball sized "cake" and bit into it.

"Hey, me first!" Lauren protested.

"Too late," Rodney grinned around a mouthful of savory crab meat.

Lauren alternated between having Rodney feed her one by one and taking them herself. In between (so as to not overdo a good thing), Lauren took stalks of asparagus (five at a time) and shoveled mashed potatoes. Lauren took it easy and didn't rush; even so, Rodney could tell that she slowed a bit as the second main course disappeared. She asked more and more for Rodney to feed her and occasionally emitted low moos and rumbles in pleasurable stuffing.

Lauren let out a pleasant sigh of relief as the last crab cake disappeared down her gullet. Even so, her tail swished back and forth in anticipation for what Rodney was, even now, drawing from the bottom tier of the cart. Rodney hoped that Lauren wouldn't be disappointed with a simple pudding (after all, she had had splendid cakes, éclairs, and fancy pies in the past), but he had nothing to fear. The whipped cream dressed, yellow pudding drew forth a last rumble of hunger from her wide sagging gut.

"That smells simply fantastic!" Said Lauren.

Rodney only nodded as he began to spoon-feed his beloved. However, after several minutes and no obvious change to the level of the rich, semi-solid dessert, Lauren grew impatient. "Oh, this is taking too long; I'll eat the rest myself."

Far be it from Rodney to get in the way of something Lauren wanted to eat. The previous signs of overfilling evaporated like mist in sunshine as Lauren dunked her snout into the bowl. First, she lapped up the remaining whipped cream and then stuck her mouth right into the pudding. Keeping her mouth almost closed, she sucked, seemed to inhale, the dessert into herself. She did not even lift her head from the bowl, even to breath, instead alternating between sucking and breathing through her nostrils. In no time at all, the large mixing bowl was devoid of pudding, except for residue on the sides, which Lauren began to lick clean.

After this dish too, was nothing more than a slobbery dish, Lauren heaved a low groan of pleasure and pain intertwined. She licked the yellow from her snout and said, "Oh my gosh, that was good! I'm sooo stuffed!"

Rodney got up from his chair and stood back beside Lauren's flank, rubbing her burgeoning flank. "Now here's a feedee!" He complimented as he rubbed up and down her swollen belly.

Lauren was incredibly full, and yet the pain was not overly intense. Human foods did not seem to fill her the way that dense grain did and she wondered at the fact that so many humans became overweight when their food was mostly air. Still, the sheer volume made up for this and human food was so incredibly flavorful and delicious, she cursed the fact that she could not live on it, that everything she had eaten were only so many empty Calories for her... but that wasn't all bad, not at all, She thought. Lauren's stomachs calmed and even pressure seemed to ease with Rodney's touch, almost as if he were eliciting the response himself by some supernatural means of command. Rodney had made an art of romantic subtlety, and when he moved from soothing massage into sensual foreplay, she didn't know.

His strong arms caressed and her soft and giving flab. Rodney was tall enough and strong enough to make his massage deep and penetrating from the top of her back to the lowest, most saggy portions of her belly. The human got on his knees and brought both hands down smoothly on either side of her belly as it thinned towards the floor. Towards her rear, he compressed both fat and the inside of her udder; again and again he ran his palms down her smooth fur, squeezing the buried milk producing glands, occasionally pausing long enough to finger one of her virgin teats. Even though it wasn't a sexual organ, Lauren felt a thrill in her loins and began to moisten; whether in sympathy with Rodney or in its own virtue, Lauren didn't know. She let Rodney continue his sensual massages, she knew better than to rush him, even though she was aching already from need; Rodney took as much pleasure from touching her body as he did the actual act.

Eventually, Rodney did move around to her rear, pulling his old stool near with his ankle. Lauren smelled his sweat, he was almost dripping already. He breathed hoarsely, thick and lusty, and on his breath Lauren caught the heat of his desire, the sheer intensity of which almost overcame his own personal odor. She backed up a bit, lifting her tail and swishing it aside eagerly. Lauren faced forward so she couldn't see Rodney, but she didn't need to, she felt everything. Rodney fingered her gently at first, but then inserted his hand relatively quickly. Lauren huffed at the sensation, mooed and bellowed when Rodney slid in deeper. She backed up onto his strong arm, clenched down on him deep inside her. Pleasure built up around her like heat, ever rising, Lauren wished it would never quit. Again and again Rodney thrust into her, the sensational pleasure beating her like waves. Lauren couldn't contain the waves, they surged and carried her away, rising ever higher. Later she was told that Rodney slid out and finished with his true manhood, but at the time, she didn't even notice as she climbed into orgasm. The explosion of pleasure lasting so long she felt that she must simply burst.

Lauren came down as if off a high. She was panting, sweating, oozing gratuitously out her rear end. "That was so good!" She panted. "How did you learn how to do that?"

"Years of practice, sweetheart." Said Rodney (not without a hint of pride), wiping off his bare, slimy arm.

Rodney worked Lauren twice more that night, they honestly weren't as intense as the first, but still well worth the effort. All too soon the night was over for them and Rodney politely cleaned up the minor spills from her stall while Lauren went outside to relieve herself (it was hard holding it in, primal instinct told her to go every time that Rodney worked her to climax). When she returned, the stall was wiped clean and a fresh layer or straw had been laid down.

Always terribly practical, Rodney started, "I laid down some new straw over the old. I'll come in tomorrow and change-"

Lauren interrupted him by waddling into her stall, leaning up against the frail man. She could have easily knocked him over, it was a delicate balance to press hard enough against him so that he could feel her but not so hard as to make him stagger. "It's been so nice being with you tonight... Won't you stay and hold me for a bit?"

Rodney smiled and threw an arm over her at the base of her neck and hugged her tightly. Lauren mooed softly, almost like a coo, secure in the embrace of the strong, if tiny, man beside her. Again, the moment was over too soon as he released her and made his out of the stall, this time for good. Luaren wanted just a few more moments of cuddling, but she knew he needed his sleep; her grandmother wasn't at all easy to care for and took a lot out of him. The large, black and white cow settled comfortably into her simple bed of straw and yawned, tired herself from stuffing and her exertions afterwards. That night, she looked forward to another day's hard work at attaining her desired form, and her dreams were filled with the strong and yet gentle touch of her lover.

* * *

The year came and went slowly for Lauren. Endless days of training her body wore on her and only the sight of progress kept her spirits up as she devoured more food than she could have possibly imagined (that and the increasing glint of lust in Rodney's eye). She finally stepped up to six meals a day before the end of summer; they were all small meals, but the plan intended for them to increase in size over time. Even so, it was a hard and heavy schedule, made harder by the fact that Rodney grew more strict about lapses in grazing, always hanging the threat of a displaced abomasum over her head. Still she dived into the challenge and, indeed, her body adapted over time.

By thanksgiving, Lauren consumed her six meals daily with ease and grazed between all of them (she even began to imagine hunger for each helping of high yield food). Once her over eating became natural, Rondney began increasing portions, slowy.

"The many meals a day has an additional benefit besides allowing for a greater volume." Rodney explained one night, "They should keep your metabolism relatively high, so that if you ever want to loose some weight in the future, you can count on that option being available to you."

Lauren laughed, "I don't see that happening any time soon."

Rodney only nodded and poured the measured meal into the trough.

The year of '52 held the coming of Lauren's thirteenth birthday, a day she eagerly looked forward to this cold winter's day in early January. As she yawned and stirred, still in the dark pre-dawn light of morning, Lauren thought of the presents that Rodney would surely shower on her (perhaps and entire day of lovemaking); but the thought was tainted by anxiety and dread that while she felt like a young adult (barely out of her teens even) her body was that of, by comparison, a young grandmother, already over the hill and past her prime. Lauren yawned once more and began to stir, to set into motion the ritual that would bring her to her heavy hooves. Lauren's diet and hard work over the last year had wrecked enormous changes on her body, many weren't pleasant, but she reveled in finally having a body to be proud of, though she still thought she could "fill out" some more to attain a perfect visage of gluttony and obesity.

Lauren still wasn't sure how much she had gained and Rodney admitted that his "estimates" were becoming only speculation as she drew into a new size category, but she knew that it was staggering and that she liked it. Lauren had developed a cornucopia of stretch marks that riddled her flanks, chest, ribs, back and brisket. Lauren honestly couldn't notice them and only saw the marks when Rodney pointed them out. Mostly they were covered by fur anyways, and if they didn't hurt her, Lauren was happy enough not to care.

From what Rodney told her, Lauren was sitting comfortably in what he called BCS 12; Lauren didn't like to be categorized and refused to think of her precious body as fitting into some predefined "mold," however, she did like daydreaming about attaching features from the next category up on her body and visualizing herself in her mind. It had been well before Christmas when Rodney began subtly hinting about stopping weight gain. "Beyond this," He had said, "Handicaps become noticeably worse. A cow could lead a perfectly normal life at this weight with almost no compromises. Bessie managed a pregnancy at this weight, and though it almost killed her due to an error on my part, both she and the offspring lived with no ill after effects."

Lauren knew this last was a less than subtle hint that if she ever wanted calves she needed to stop right now and perhaps go back a couple hundred pounds. However, Lauren had no such desire. She would gladly sacrifice that part of her and she was willing to make several more concessions to her quality of life to have a "better body." Of course she had no intentions of immobility (beyond fantasy) but that did not mean that wouldn't be willing to put up with a little added awkwardness, a little more difficulty walking, more shortness of breath and so on. To be frank, she still felt too fit, even considering that her strength would fade with the coming years. She had gained, but not yet begun to feel any sort of real impact on her daily life; this simply did not fit into the life she had imagined for herself.

Such thoughts and more buzzed through Lauren's waking mind as she worked to get up on her feet. Getting up was the most strenuous activity she now performed and Lauren now found herself choosing where she lay very carefully now. She began by rolling onto her gut, the great mass of flab compressing itself and then widening around her. One of the most startling changes was the entry of her flanks into Lauren's field of sight. From where she lay, she could clearly see the edges and more of either side of her belly even staring forward as she was; before she needed twist her head to look at even a portion of herself, the entry of her body into her everyday sight was a new landmark in her journey of expansion. Her sides widened and contracted as she breathed and the sight was both comforting and disturbing. Positioning of the hooves was important now to getting up, it could now be relatively effortless or quite exhausting, all depending on where her hooves were planted to start with. A wide stance was key, but not so wide as to loose the strength at her core. Lauren pushed against the ground seeking to hold her down, first with her front legs and then with the back. Her flanks retreated to barely visible slivers on either horizon of her vision as her belly dropped down, sagging more than halfway down the distance between her hocks to her ankles.

Lauren hated being woken by an alarm so she worked hard to develop her internal clock over the past two years. Her efforts had paid off so now she could stand dignified at the gate of her stall when Rodney came in with her first meal of the day instead of being pinched and prodded awake to maintain Rodney's strict schedule.

The man who had allowed her to progress towards her dream more than she had ever thought was possible while scraping a living in the woods opened the well oiled side door soundlessly and crept down the aisle, a ghost to be seen and not heard, a large sack lay across one shoulder. The addition of the sixth meal had divided her once single morning meal, making the first even earlier and pushing all the others back and compressing the time in-between them slightly. As a result she was now an "early riser" out of a need for time rather than preference. She knew that she was actually the first to wake almost everyday now that winter had settled in and that the sounds of her gorging had become the alarm for those who liked going to sleep before dusk and waking just as dawn began to burn the horizon.

Rodney smiled and whispered, "Good Morning," as he poured her scientifically formulated (and yet no less delicious for that) first meal into the metal trough, putting his other hand into the flow from the sack to muffle the sound. Sack empty, Rodney rubbed his eyes and yawned. He stopped to rub her snout briskly and even tickle the hanging flab under her snout before leaving to, Lauren knew, get another hour or two of sleep before his day started.

Lauren watched him go before leaning over the piled food below her snout. At the opening of the sack, the scent of the mix had awakened her hunger and it twisted her insides like a vice. Lauren lapped up a mouthful and munched quietly, already she could hear the rousing of James and Jack; the two had grown close and liked getting up and watching the sunrise together. As she was still eating, truly enjoying the meal despite the bitter aftertaste of the multivitamin additive as real hunger was quenched after her night's fast. Lauren ate most of the day out of the habit she had forced upon herself instead of need and what hunger she did feel was greatly exaggerated. Jack and his brother walked before her to the door into the frozen wasteland (or perhaps wonderland) beyond as quietly as they could with hooves on concrete. James smiled at her, his eyes bright though rimmed with sleep gunk that he would probably rub off on his brother later that morning. Jack too smiled, but in his eyes was a different message; they were like when he looked down onto a worm or some other vaguely repulsive, yet harmless creature. Lauren knew he didn't approve of how she had chosen to pursue her desires, just as his sister Sandra didn't nor Denise either. The looks they gave her were always the same, condescending with just the slightest hint of malice. Lauren paid them no heed, however, she had her mother's approval, if not acceptance, and her word was law in the small family. And so the two left and Lauren continued to eat.

Lauren's littermate, Cathleen woke as Lauren was finishing what was in her tough. Lauren didn't feel full, she had learned a while ago that her diet was easier if one did not think in terms of hunger or fullness, she simply registered the fact that her trough was empty and was relived that the hunger of morning was now past. Cathleen ambled into the "common area" of the barn which was actually just the wide corridor that separated the stalls on one side of the stable from the other. Half of the central silo's grain troughs were removed in favor of hanging hay bales and Cathleen walked over to them and helped herself; she was obviously trying to be quiet, but her hooves clattered much more loudly than either of the boys'.

Lauren pushed her way out of her stall and waddled over to her sister, swinging her belly side to side in a carefully measured way. It felt so natural, the swing and sway of her body as it moved nearer her sister, the bounce of her brisket, the weight of her body on her hooves. Her sister's mouth was full and chewing slowly, eyes bright with anticipation and greeting. For a moment, Lauren couldn't imagine how the others got along with their thin, trim bodies; the way that her thick legs rolled along the curve of her belly, arching wide and rolling back, putting a sway into her sagging gut below and setting it into pendulous motion. Everything felt so right. Cathleen continued to chew, but both made polite greetings by sniffing each other. To keep quiet, they used simple terms that could be conveyed mostly through body language (and even a measure by scent) making quiet moos and growls only when nothing else would suffice; after all, Hollie was self-appointed leader of the "herd" and she liked to sleep in, especially in the winter.

Winter was a time of settling in, and of boredom. Most of the bovines didn't leave the barn except to stretch cramped muscles, or those who insisted on foraging for themselves off the land. Cathleen, like her sister, was more practical than that and was, in Lauren's opinion, a more lively and interesting chatterer even than herself. Days were spent in chatter, they had to, what else was a cow to do but go outside and shiver in the cold? (Though Lauren had to admit that she felt this winter's bite less harshly than any other winters before due to her newfound coat of insulating fat) It was in this spirit of amiability and seeking to kill time that Cathleen started.

"How was your breakfast?" she asked, the phrase so common and abbreviated that she needed only a swish of her tail and the posture of her neck to convey the meaning to her sister.

Lauren lunged her head downwards with enthusiasm, simultaneously tapping the floor once, quietly, with a front hoof, with these gestures she said, "The first meal of the day is the best!" Though this was paraphrasing, out of context, the gestures simply meant "number one is best." It was Lauren's spirit and energy as much as anything that transmitted her intended meaning. Lauren repeated her sister's initial question back at her.

Cathleen paused a moment, chewed once more and swallowed. She tilted her head back and forth, saying, "So-so." Lauren, who was closer to her sister than to any other, save Hollie and Rodney, knew that she also implied that she'd much prefer to have some fresh, crisp grass than the stale, dry hay feed.

A few moments later, and Cathleen quickly changed the topic from food to weather, despite the fact that it was more cumbersome to discuss in silence. Lauren noticed her sister's maneuverings but didn't comment on them, instead throwing herself into the new, breezy and entirely pointless conversation, putting only half of her mind into it. This was a new behavior that Lauren really did not care for since her body had begun bloating far beyond mere chubbiness or baby-fat. For a long time now, she's been heavier than her sister, but now, standing before her, Lauren could tell that she was far more than double her weight, almost double her width even.

At first, Cathleen had teased her about her weight, her "pudge;" nosing her belly when she wasn't looking, making her jiggle slightly and making pig noises when she ate. Eventually this had stopped and Lauren couldn't even remember exactly when. Cathleen was afraid, this she knew without a doubt, afraid that her sister was killing herself, afraid perhaps that she'd end up in the "other barn" as it was referred to amongst the family. While her younger siblings sometimes gave her looks of disgust that almost thrilled her in a vague sense, Cathleen sometimes looked at her with worry, with concern written on her face, only to cover it up the moment she realized she had looked. This was what bothered Lauren more than anything her other siblings could do to her.

In fact, Lauren was annoyed at her sister, even as she chattered mindlessly with her, the feeling almost resentful. As if I couldn't control myself, she thought, As if I'd eat myself into immobility and be too stupid to stop. As if I'd become my grandmother. Unbidden, another thought wedged itself into this train of thought, As if I'd have time to get that large. As quickly as it came, it evaporated, leaving Lauren devoid of her anger, just a bit empty for the loss of it. Well, when I am happy with my body and I stop gaining, she'll see there was nothing to worry about. I'll be fit and healthy and beautiful and everyone will realize how stupid they'd been to think I would follow that course to its conclusion... Conclusion... Conclusion... Conclusion

That last word stuck in Lauren's mind like a broken record and she forced herself back into her conversation to drown out the words.

"...and the snow might lessen if El Niño keeps its current track and pulls some of the moisture away from the east coast."

Lauren blinked at her sister, her mind struggling to catch up with the half remembered conversation. Everything was heavily paraphrased, using words only for "El Nino" and "moisture" and "east coast."

"Well, that'd be nice." Lauren managed weakly. She sifted her weight on her hooves, aware of the tangible exertion, not actual pain or even strain, that was demanded of her muscles and joints to support her girth.

The movement didn't escape her sister who broke off what she was about to say even as she drew breath. That look of concern, of fear, entered Cathleen's eyes and she said, "You can sit if you'd like."

Lauren's brow's furrowed and she said sternly, "I'm fine." She moved forward dominantly, almost aggressively, raising her head and using her height advantage over her sister. The effect was the same as if she had shouted. Cathleen averted her eyes, adopted a submissive posture and took some more of the hay from the bale; there was no more inane babble to pass the time, only silence and it was far worse than even Cathleen's pity and fear for her had been.

Guilt made it both hard to leave her sister and to remain near her. Lauren was too proud, fiercely proud, to even consider an apology (one of the qualities that Hollie had told her could make her a good herd leader one day; pride, in oneself and one's family, but also tempered with reason). In the end, it was practicality that won out. Lauren stood beside her sister, both comforting her and oddly, driving the wedge further between them with silence, as she gulped down the hay, seeking to fulfill her "quota" of roughage for this respite between meals.

Several more hours passed while Lauren swallowed, swallowed, swallowed, and then when her rumen was about half full (she had developed an acute sense of her stomach's volume over the past months), began to chew, chew, chew. At one point, conversation returned between her and her sister, less animated perhaps, but still an equally good pastime; Cathleen had a knack for gathering loose bits of gossip and useless facts and news that one could spend hours discussing. Neither spoke of the incident earlier that morning, nor the long silence afterwards.

The black of the window turned to slate grey tinged with pink when Rodney arrived with Lauren's second morning meal. He stuck around just long enough to pour her feed quietly into her trough, Lauren could smell the fresh blueberries and dried bananas he had added, and whisper into her ear, "I'm going into town today to get some supplies; Hollie looks like she's come down with a bit of a cold and needs something stronger than animal "tylanol." I'll be gone until dark, E-mail my mobile PC if you need anything. Your meals are already made and are where I always leave them." Rodney paused long enough pat the side of Lauren's belly. "Make sure you get your roughage." Said Rodney with a wink. Before Lauren could think of anything to say, the human was gone and Lauren knew she had nothing to look forward to that day but more food (though that wasn't bad, not at all, thought Lauren, smiling inside), cold, and long talks with Cathleen, and eventually her mother, about weather, sports, new human entertainment news, movies and a dozen other topics, each of which was used to attack and dismember the long, unending days of winter.

Lauren ended up taking her meal and savoring it very slowly; as if by eating slowly enough she might not finish until it was time for her to fetch more out of the feed closet attached to the side of the barn. Of course it didn't last, only the sweet tanginess of the blueberries hung on Lauren's tongue as she, almost reluctantly swallowed down the last bite, leaving her trough shining with a thin shimmer of her saliva. Instead of going back out into the common area, however, Lauren remained in her stall. She nosed her monitor along its arm to nose level where she stood, reluctant to flop herself down again only to force herself back up perhaps as few as a couple minutes later.

It was, in fact, over two hours before anyone else awoke and the sun shined in through the high windows on all sides of the barn as Lauren flicked through interesting Wikipedia pages, having already answered all her E-mail, made several forum posts, updated her Blog, and found no one to chat with, even in other countries, which was surprising.

Leaving her computer to finish shutting down, Lauren trotted gaily into the common area, hoping to integrate herself into some conversation that could now be held without fear of waking others, when she came upon her mother. Hollie was shorter than Lauren as much, much, thinner. She maintained her figure with eye watering discipline, reveling in the structure of her bones and muscles; she was in no way emaciated, in fact she radiated health, though she would have been considered thin, even among normal Holsteins. Despite the fact that she was slightly shorter and much lighter in body, Hollie had a gravity about her such that Lauren felt she was the one diminished in her presence; it was as if her spirit were too large for her body. After all it had been Hollie who had led them through the forest all those years (even though it had been her idea to retreat to it in the first place), and Lauren still remembered the lean times in winter where surely some would have perished if it hadn't been for her leadership.

Lauren paid her the proper respects and postured her submissiveness, but Hollie brushed them aside with a casual greeting, a lick on the side of the snout and a brief, but affectionate nuzzle.

"Good Morning," Said Hollie.

"Good Morning," Replied Lauren.

"Do you have anything planned yet?"

"Planed? For what?" Lauren asked.

Hollie pushed her snout into Lauren's soft brisket. "For your birthday, of course! It's just two days away."

"Oh..." stammered Lauren, she hadn't actually given the matter any thought. "Well, I kinda thought that Rodney might have a surprise for me."

Hollie smiled at Lauren as one might smile at a child whose kite had flown away on a stormy day and said, "Well, I didn't think the wind would be that strong." She said, "Lauren, dear. You should really put some effort into your special day. If you rely on others for everything, you're going to be disappointed."

Lauren nodded, abashed for she knew that Hollie was referring to more points of her life than simply the coming birthday party.

"It's not everyday you turn thirteen." Hollie said before walking away to stand under the heat lamp; the crowd parted for her as if the very solid cows were as insubstantial as mist. Hollie sneezed and stood almost shivering under the heat with her winter cold, but somehow her strength was not diminished.

Lauren stayed long enough to fill her belly with more hay and then left out into the snow, thinking about her mother the entire time. She stood outside, admiring the winter landscape, the cold chilling her skin but not affecting her core in the slightest; she was comfortable, but still she thought about her mother.

Lauren never did understand why her mother let her pursue her desires if she was going to continue pestering her about it in her own subtle way. Lauren knew her mother disapproved, she even tried to get the others to share in her exercise sessions to shed even the modest fluffiness that cows were expected to have. Why did she let me? Lauren wondered. She sifted her bulk again in the snow, the sense of exertion was building into an actual ache the more hours she spent on her feet. Lauren walked off around the barn, though it was still over an hour before she was due to eat, indeed, was rather full to even think about taking in another whole meal. Lauren paced and looked out over to the forest, still thinking about her mother, still wondering.

She probably just wants me to be happy. That's the simplest explanation, thought Lauren. If she wanted me to be happy, then why does she pester me about it? Keep reminding me?

You're making too much out of a simple comment, she just wants you to be more active in your life, she doesn't want you to sit back and let Rodney take care of everything. It's that she doesn't want you to become idle, not that she disapproves of the choices you've made.

This made sense, but then a more sinister thought crawled its way out of the chasms of her mind.

Maybe she hopes I'll fail to control myself, maybe that's why she lets me gain. It I end up a fat helpless lump like Mary, then that'll send a message to the others who were thinking about it. They might pretend, but I know there are more like me. This is Hollie's way of controlling them.

That's nonsense, Hollie would never be so cruel.

She would be that controlling.

She might, but it doesn't even matter if it is true.

It doesn't?

No, I'm not going to be like Mary, by this summer, by next winter at the very latest, I'll have the body I've been waiting my whole life for. I'll stop and I'll be healthy and fit and no one will be able to give me those criticizing looks again. They'll know I can control myself.

Can you, though? Can you control yourself?

Lauren forced her mind away from these dark places, insisting that she had the strength within her; it just wasn't time yet.

Lauren knew that by the time her legs started to ache it had been far too long for her to be on her feet. So before tenseness became pain, she kicked away some snow to create a swallow hollow on one side of the barn, as a modicum of protection against the wind. She dropped her body straight down, folding her legs under her warm gut, snow flurries floated away like autumn leaves into the light breeze all around her. Lauren wiggled a bit, adjusting her fat; it was cold, very cold at first, but her body overcame the chill relatively quickly and she grew comfortable.

Lauren's great heart beat a little slower as she dozed, not really sleeping, but dreamily staring at the forest, her eyes glazed and her lids drooping half closed. Her body radiated heat as if she contained her own furnace, cold couldn't touch her. She slowly sank deeper into her hollow, her heat and her weight collapsing the snow under her, until she felt the buried grass against her ankles and hooves under her body, but still she drowsily stared at nothing, mind wandering.

Hunger was what brought her out of her trance. Lauren got up and wiped away the frozen slobber on the side of her snout. Lauren felt the emptiness within her and knew that she was probably late for her first midday meal. She walked around to the shed door and pushed down on the lever of the door knob that opened it, the vacancy in her gut causing mild discomfort. Lauren knew it wasn't real hunger, it was imagined, resulting from her past year and a half of a vigorous and strict eating schedule. Her body yearned to be back on schedule, that was all; it wasn't hunger, Lauren had almost always been hungry in the forest and this definitely wasn't it.

Lauren found her sacks of grain just inside the door thankfully. She couldn't hope to even begin squeezing through the tall narrow door. She grabbed the one marked, "11:30" with her teeth and walked away, closing the door with her tail. Greedily, Lauren tore into the sack, her hunger might be imagined, but she took advantage of it to help her with her meals. Every time she ate, in fact, it helped to imagine having spent the last few days fasting. It made the food taste better, made her more eager even if she was eating herself into nausea; and most importantly, if there was hunger, then she couldn't feel guilt about having eaten.

Lauren belched as she ate, releasing pressure. At first she gobbled it down, but the time the sackcloth was almost empty, she was lapping at her food gingerly. Lauren didn't think about how full she was, had done so for so long that she had trouble even recognizing the feeling when she wanted to. She simply acknowledged that there was food in her belly, that she wasn't in enough pain to be concerned and the fact that she still needed to get some more roughage into her before the next meal.

Lauren decided that that could wait until later. Right now, it was her responsibility to exercise, between her midday meals and between her last midday meal and her first evening meal as well. Lauren trotted through the grass by herself, swinging her sides and puffing hard breaths into the cold air where they froze instantly. Hollie used to exercise with her mother, but she couldn't keep up with her now. Her hind legs dug into either side of her gut as she tried to pull into a jog from a trot, but not quite able to get her belly swinging fast enough to let her legs move the way they needed. Lauren bruised herself trying before settling for a trot, though she would not have considered such exercise before the winter. Lauren's large heart pounded in her chest and her ears, her great chest heaving despite not having so much as run a single step. Lauren was out of shape before she had even begun her diet, and though she was stronger now, she was also nearly twice as heavy.

She slowed to a steady walk to catch her breath, but trying to keep her heart rate up. She could see her flanks sweating on either side of her as they swung, leaving cold steam in their wake as they reversed direction. Lauren was starting to feel a bit lightheaded as she panted and she knew that was a bad sign. She needed more exercise, that much she knew despite her exhaustion, her muscles were just warming up, eager for more, but she was too tired... too fat.

Lauren was so overexerted that she felt nauseous. Her stomach cramped and ached and her food came up, far too much to contain in her mouth. Lauren stood looked dumbly at the pile of slimy, not even partially digested grain steaming on the snow, slowly sinking. The only thing that went thought Lauren's mind was the waste. Fuck, I need that food! It's mine. So Lauren did the only thing she thought of, she bent and lapped the grain back up and into herself. Back into position, Lauren thought, licking her snout, back into my hips, my belly, my neck... Lauren decided that she'd talk to Rodney that night about uncovering Mary's pool so she could work out in the water. Running, even jogging just wasn't an option. She thought about blowing off the rest of her work-out for a long time as she trotted along at a steady rate she could maintain, thought about it so long that soon her internal clock, and her imagined hunger, alerted her that she needed her second midday meal.

Having forgotten to collect some of the hay during her work-out, Lauren wolfed down her next meal, and then, before she could think too much about it, went back into the barn and tore at the hay bay until she thought her sides might burst. She felt, rather than saw, others staring but she was beyond caring about anything other than the pain, the glorious pain in her gut. Lauren flopped down into her bed and stretched, struggling not to moan. The pain made her moisten and leak and Lauren longed for Rodney to come and ease her urges. After just a couple minutes, Lauren's cud came up with such volume she was almost puking again. She chewed, swallowed and more came up, Lauren juggling between her gut, her mouth, and once, the floor. Lauren was in too much pain, and wicked pleasure, to even work her computer, to do anything but continue this mindless juggling act.

After almost an hour had passed, Lauren's gut settled into a delicate truce with her and Lauren lay there, feeling too bloated, and just a bit disgusted with herself. She checked the internet, still not moving for fear of upsetting her stomach and found some new forum posts, and some of her friends online. Before she knew it, it was 4:30 and she needed to get her first evening meal out of the shed.

Rodney drove his truck down his long driveway and pulled it along side his house. Before he even turned off his engine, Lauren and Hollie were coming up to greet him. Both of them showered him with their greetings of nudges and licks, taking long draughts of his scent after so long an absence. Rodney was sore from a whole day spent shopping and driving and was relived with both of these cows' help with the groceries and supplies. With a bottle of water, Rodney gave Hollie her long needed cold pills and then she left with a last nuzzle and an affectionate kiss from Rodney. Lauren lingered a bit to help him finish up. Grabbing the last parcel, Rodney said, "I've got it from here, I'll bring out your dinner a little later when I get my groceries put away." Lauren nodded but still lingered around the porch. Rodney could see her through the windows, waiting for him in the early winter dusk, so he went back outside after putting the perishables away.

He stroked her neck and asked, "What's the matter? Was there something you needed to talk to me about?"

Lauren nodded and her pendant spoke for her, "Yes." She paused, so long that Rodney was about to ask her to continue when she said, "I had a hard time today, I threw up after exercising."

Rodney became immediately concerned and held her tightly, "You can slow down if you like, you know you can stop at any time, I'll?"

Lauren interrupted him, shaking her head, "No it isn't the diet, not at all, its..." Lauren grew hot under Rodney's arms and, this close, Rodney could smell her scent change; she was embarrassed. Rodney rocked her and Lauren leaned into it, letting him sway her back and forth under the patio. He rubbed the top of her head, running his hand down into the dangling fat under her neck. "You can tell me what it is, I need to know to help you."

Though Lauren didn't move, her voice sounded from her necklace, "I'm too fat to exercise anymore. I threw up because I was stuffed and I wore myself out just trotting, I couldn't even start jogging, my belly was in the way."

Rodney tightened his grip pushing his arms into her fat around her neck. "I told you were going to have to downgrade your exercise eventually, first running was too hard and now jogging. But you can walk and trot all you want. Why should you worry?"

Lauren snorted and moved her shoulders in her impression of a shrug. She said, "I was wondering if you could uncover and clean the pool so I could exercise in it, you know so I won't tire out so fast."

Rodney tickled under her chin again, "That's a great idea, Mary's not using it, but you can." He rubbed her ears and whispered into them, "...and remember you can stop anytime you feel comfortable with your body."

Rodney had the pool uncovered and cleaned the next morning, really all it needed was some more chemicals, a refilling and a brush down for the light algae growth. This day went much more smoothly for Lauren, with thankfully, absolutely no vomiting. She didn't wear herself out and she didn't sleep in past one of her meals, she felt cheerful, with more energy; her eating schedule didn't feel like a burden, just as Rodney intended.

With three meals and hay besides tucked carefully within her, Laurne waded out into the pool, comfortably overfull and light hearted. Rodney was beside her, wearing nothing but trunks, depending on the barn's heating system to keep him warm. She enjoyed looking at him, his well sculpted body, his lines and masculine curves, and his strong arms and back.

Lauren could feel the water supporting her body as she walked first knee deep and then it was up to the base of her neck. I can't believe that her aunt could have drowned in water so shallow, She thought as the story rose unbidden to her mind; she said nothing of it though as Rodney joined her, the water impeding his movements, his natural grace until his looked hilarious to her in the water. Lauren had never swam during her prior years on the farm, hadn't done so much as wade into a stream in the hills above Rodney's farm when she and her family lived in self-imposed exile. The water rose higher up her neck and she felt herself loosing her solid, confident grip on the ground under her. Her breath caught in her throat, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe._ _ Lauren shut her eyes, struggling backwards, flailing, suddenly the story of her aunts last moments came back to her, imagined because she had never seen the recording, but seeming all too real. A fat cow in a shallow pool. Dead. She cried, she begged and then her feet were on the ground again, water barely above her brisket; Rodney was panting beside her. Lauren tried to compose herself, but tears still ran down her face.

Rodney was bent over, hands on his knees and said, "You don't have to if you don't want to, Lauren there are other ways."

Lauren shook her head, left without her "voice-box" in the pool. She was determined to learn to swim, if she couldn't then this would be one more aspect about her life out of her control. She nudged Rondey in the shoulder after he caught his breath and strode back to the deeper side of the pool. Again the water climbed and her breath caught in her throat. She stopped, forcing herself to breath, forcing her airways open. It took time, it took effort to overcome the initial reaction, but Rodney was there beside her and had already vowed to stay by her side as long as it took for her to learn to swim.

She didn't swim that day, didn't so much as float, but it was enough that she could stand neck deep in water and not choke and flail. As Lauren walked out of the pool, let Rodney towel her off in preparation for the cold outside, Lauren stared at her grandmother lounging in the center of the barn's enormous empty space.

Perhaps lounge isn't the correct word, Thought Lauren, _Maybe spread-out, collapsed, congealed, piled would be more suitable. _

Whichever of these words was appropriate, Lauren's grandmother was still, even after loosing over a full ton of flesh, the most incredible culmination of obesity she had ever seen. Eight feet into the air her body rose, sitting in a four foot deep pool of her own fat. Lauren could not deny that she was spectacular, so beautiful that she was envious, but only on a conceptual level. However she might try to romanticize it, she could see plainly that her grandmother was suffering under her weight. Nothing of her body remained functional without assistance; Lauren had seen the tubes leading into and out of her body all of Rodney's efforts, despite how he tried to hide them in the ambiguity of her own flesh. This isn't right, was never right. Lauren thought.

Whenever Lauren visited her grandmother, as she would be daily from now on, Lauren suddenly realized, she brushed up against her flank. Rodney told her that, this far out and this stretched apart, she probably couldn't feel it, but she did so nonetheless. Lauren leaned against the four foot high wall of fat that kept her forever separated from touching the more sensitive remains of her body, careful that she didn't pinch or cut her fragile skin with her hooves. It is good that I see her everyday, Lauren finally decided, She reminds me where I came from, where I'm going... and oddly, reaffirms my belief in myself. Never like her. She thought, I'll never be like that.

The rest of the day passed slowly, but she still couldn't think of anything she wanted for her birthday. There was sex, of course, but that was a given. She had one idea that night as she shut her eyes, not bloated, not exactly, but very, very full and very, very sleepy. It was a lame idea and Lauren felt sure she could think of something better come morning.

The next morning, Rodney brought out Lauren's birthday breakfast... another helping of feed. Granted, it was spiced with strawberries, blueberries, slices of mango and banana, but it was still essentially the same. Rodney had toyed with the idea of catering all of her meals today, but with six, and more things to take care of besides, there simply wasn't time. I would've done it if she'd asked, Rodney thought, She must have different plans. Besides, I have some fresh goods for a nice dinner tonight and I've got a very special treat for her after dinner as well... Rodney smiled lustily at the thought and felt almost guilty afterwards. After all, this day is for Lauren, not myself. Why should I be concerned about my own needs on her special day?

Lauren was awake and waiting for him as usual. Rodney placed the large metal bowl he was carrying onto a collapsible table and let her eat. With the softer fruits it would have been impractical to carry it in a sack and pour it into her trough. Lauren slurped greedily, clearing enjoying herself, as she always did in the mornings, and Rodney stuck around to watch, having gone to bed earlier the last evening for today.

She ate non-stop, and when she looked up from her empty bowl, Rodney asked, "What did you want to do today for your birthday? Tell me your wish and I'll do my best to make it happen." He winked at her in what he hoped was a playful and simultaneously romantic way as well.

Lauren looked down at the floor, she held this pose for a long while and then finally shrugged. She said, "I want to be weighed. I want to know how heavy I am."

Rodney was honestly surprised to be requested of this service which he had seen only as a pleasure for himself, he said, "What do you want to be weighed for? You don't need a number to quantify your beauty."

Lauren shrugged, "I don't really know, I'm just curious I suppose. So are you going to give me my birthday wish or are you going to keep arguing with me?" At this last, she cocked her head and gave Rodney an exaggerated wink.

Rodney threw up his arms, "No not at all... I just thought you'd want something... more."

Lauren stepped forward and placed her head on Rodney's shoulder. "This is just the first thing I want to do, I can think of some more things we can do around the ranch later today... maybe we could break in the pool..."

Rodney grinned slyly and opened the gate for Lauren. She stepped out and he led her across his property to the tool shed on the far side of his house.

The large automobile scale was so disused that it didn't function when Lauren first stepped on it. Rodney had to spend over half an hour checking the internal cables and mechanisms. Eventually, he found that the power cable had been somehow stripped in the intervening years and the wire rusted through. It took only a few minutes to cut away the damaged cable and tape in a new section. Once repaired, the scale display lit up: 00000.0lbs.

"Ok, Lauren, you can step up now." Said Rodney.

Lauren complied and walked up the short ramp, swinging her sides with feminine grace. She planted her hooves onto the ridged steel plate and sank visibly into the surrounding frame. The display lit up: 02538.7lbs. Rodney called the figure and Lauren said nothing, her expression unreadable. After she was down, Rodney patted her head, "Satisfied your curiosity?"

Lauren shrugged, "I guess so... I think I worked myself up a bit for this though." She laughed, "The number doesn't even mean anything to me, I don't know how much I weighed when I started, or how much I'll weigh when I'm satisfied with my body. Heh, all I know is that I'm half a ton heavier than a normal Holstein should be."

Rodney threw his arm around Lauren's neck, "That's why I never suggested weighing you before. All it is: numbers; they don't mean anything and, trust me on this, it is really easy to become much too caught up with them."

Lauren nodded. A few moments later, she said, "Feel like a swim?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Said Rodney. The two then turned their feet to the Big Barn, their first stop on an exciting and stimulating day.

Lauren was present when Mary died later that year, in the summer of '53. Despite not being able to see any outward sign, either of improvement or decline, Rodney continually claimed that she was becoming more and more unhealthy. However, it was not until May that he finally said she was dying. The news came as a shock to Lauren even if it didn't have quite the same impact on anyone else in the barn, save possibly Hollie herself.

Lauren had always assumed that Mary would always be there, she was a daily figure in her life as her climbing weight required her to exercise in the pool near her. It hardly made sense, but to Lauren, her sheer massiveness had made her impermeable in her mind, even though she hardly knew her. And now she was dying...

Rodney planned to let her go shortly...

Most of her internal organs were failing at this point, it seemed that Mary's body was finally giving in, both to her extreme weight and also her now advanced age; in fact she had already stopped breathing, only the blood oxygenator affixed to her "neck" at this point kept her alive. Hollie, and of course Rodney were there, so was Cathleen and Lauren. The four calves born after them were there also, but none others; Hollie had invited only those who had been around Mary, however shortly, before Rodney had started her more severe gains.

Lauren had mixed feelings as the small ground stood at the base of the towering cliff face of rolls and chins that was the front of Mary. Despite having grown to full height before leaving, though in her mind, Lauren considered herself still a child at the time, she could hardly remember Mary as she had been. She remembered that she had been simple, hardly more than an unaltered Holstein. Lauren nodded her head slightly at the memories, but yes there was that special spark of something in her. She was compassionate, and loving and oh so very large... and lovely. Mary had always been extremely fat for Lauren and she wondered if that had had any effect on the development of her libido... Lauren drove such thoughts away, after all this was supposed to be a somber moment, soon the spark that was Mary would flee and there would be nothing left but her enormous corpse.

Even as Lauren gazed upon her now still, and yet no less magnificent form, she had to agree that this was the image she would think of when she thought of her grandmother. The enormous, fattened blob ever found herself in Lauren's thoughts, many times in her dreams. Lauren could not deny that she was attracted, not physically to her grandmother, but at the thought of being so absurdly obese. It thrilled her and occupied many of her fantasies. But also laid before her was the grim reality, a warning forever of the harshness of real life. Mary suffered terribly, especially in these last moments of her life, ever effort on Rodney's behalf was needed to keep her alive even this long. Thus it was easy to banish any trace of desire to become such in reality; all Lauren had to do was draw upon the image of her grandmother, all her long years of abuse at the hands of Rodney, the one who had loved her most of all, and her fantasies remained that, just fantasies. Lauren could not thank Mary enough for that gift.

Her death was strangely anti-climactic. After nearly an hour talking among each other about Mary's life and each saying their farewells to her; for this Rodney had managed to pry open a single ear from a heavily collapsed fold over the left side of her face, Rodney simply turned off the machines one by one. Lauren saw that his cheeks were a fiery red and his eyes swam with unrestrained tears, how much it must hurt him to see her go, especially with so little improvement for all the work he put in trying to make her healthier. There was never any sign that she passed, still in life, now Mary was still in death also, surely perishing mere moments after the machines stopped enriching her blood for her.

Lauren left with her sister and younger siblings while Hollie and Rodney shared a short moment together. Looking back over her should for what would be the last time glancing her grandmother, Lauren made sure to burn the image into memory so as to never forget her, or Lauren's promise to herself

Never like her... Never like her

Five months later, Lauren found herself lounging in her stall alone late in the morning. Though summer's heat had died off, the chill had not yet cut the numbers of the numerous insects that descended in the mornings and evenings. As Rodney had predicted, the fat at the base of her tail impeded its movements and the sheer girth of her body prevented her tail from functioning as an effective swatter anywhere on her upper body.

Lauren stretched on the ground, lying in her own fat; her weight had increased sharply this year, there could be no doubt about that. Though never weighed, Rodney said, at a glance, that she had gained well over 500 pounds so far over the year. Lauren sat on her mat of straw, her chest and forelegs on the ground and her hips turned out to the side, legs splayed as opposed to tucked inwards. Her right leg rested helplessly on top of her belly, skin touching down to the ankle while the left was pinned under the great fleshy mass, only the hoof was visible. Her great paunch flooded across the floor, a thick sac of flab falling from the heavy barrel of her torso. Heavily engorged, there was almost no definition left on Lauren's body, no ribs, no hip bones, no spine, all was unanimously covered with a thick down of comfortable, luscious fat. She reveled in the sensations of her body as she moved, the way the roll of fat that bunched between her back and the ground grated against the skin and folded deeper, the enormous sac of brisket that all but covered her left forehoof and left it asleep at times, tingling at others. Her neck had grown heavy and thick with additions so that it was becoming a burden to lift, but still she was not satisfied; Lauren wanted more.

She shifted her bulk, luxuriating in the way her flesh moved in opposing directions, masses of adipose and cellulite resisting the movement of her limbs and muscles with their inertia. She lifted her head slightly and took in the swell of her belly as it ponderously heaved with every breath, Lauren finally had a body to be proud of... but it wasn't quite perfect. To Lauren's eye, there were still areas to be filled out, others that still looked too tight, too firm. Another couple weeks surely, and then I'll be perfect. Never mind that she had said that same thing to herself a month ago, there was still room for improvement; and for further expansion.

Lauren continued to idle in her stall until finally, the need to reliever herself, and the need to obtain her daily "requirement" of roughage, drove her to begin lifting her bulk.

Having surely more than doubled her weight since starting this venture, Lauren found that getting to her feet had become a strenuous and loathsome activity. She first drew her limbs towards her, though she was not able to get them quite as close as before as her legs, thighs in particular, had become thick and meaty. Rolling over onto her belly was still virtually effortless, but the actual lifting took almost all of her prodigious strength. Her belly and rear end weighed heavily on her, but likewise her wide chest and fatty brisket. Though the whole procedure took only about 45 seconds, Lauren was winded and took many minutes afterwards to recover. Of course, she did not stand still the whole time, she walked leisurely out of the barn and into the brilliance of the autumn foliage in the pasture. Lauren developed her waddle with pride, swinging her massive gut with both enthusiasm and perfectly balanced grace; it would be hard to knock her over, even at the point of her furthest extension. Her waddle proved to Lauren that she was made to be fat, the feel of her swaying flesh and the way her legs moved around the massive burden, tucking in long steps perfectly timed with the absence of her pendulous belly, she didn't know how she had gotten along before her sudden surge in girth.

Lauren moved to the outer edges of the pasture and took care of her business, not winded in the slightest after her exertion in the barn; granted she ambled along at her own sluggish pace the whole time. Despite having already tucking in two meals this day, Lauren vacuumed grass into herself with gusto, having tricked her mind into believing the absence of fullness was hunger over the intervening months. It was necessary, in Lauren's opinion, to be able to consume the needed volumes of both grain and roughage. Rodney warned her off of these imaginings with words like "eating disorders" and "desensitization" so Lauren had stopped chatting to Rodney about her strategies for obtaining her perfect body, making promises that she never intended to keep, to keep him from harping down at her.

After all, Lauren thought heaving a massive lump of soggy grass down her throat, Who is he to tell me about mental disorders, He's the one who went crazy for over half a decade. _ Lauren didn't even notice the additional mouthfuls that she ingested as she fumed. _I'm fine and I'll be quitting soon anyways, so what's the big deal? Everyone will see that I'm fine as soon as I quit.

Pain rose in her abdomen, but Lauren was so used to it that she hardly even noticed as she continued to strip the turf of its last bounties before winter's grasp took the rest of it. The mindless action of eating was soothing for Lauren, it took her worries from her and brought her pleasure, it was almost hypnotic.

By the time the pain in her over burdened belly had grown to such intensity that it aroused Lauren from her stupor, over an hour had passed, but again she was unfazed, such was common nowadays to loose herself in binging. By this time Lauren had trained her stomachs to accept massive quantities of food readily, and she knew for a fact, despite never having tested it, that she could easily eat three times the normal volumes her siblings ate in one sitting. Thus the fact that Lauren was in pure agony meant that she had devoured a sizable heap of grass in her mind's short hiatus. Lauren's cud came up volumously, in fact it had been coming up but it was only now that she was able to scrap together memories of it. she bit down and restricted the flow up her gullet, clenching her throat down like a vice on the erupting flood of the bolus. Still very possessive about what she took the effort to shove into her body, Lauren refused to let any of it get away from her. Again, thankfully, he near constant battles to retain the massive quantities she ingested had desensitized her body. Her gag reflex was almost shot and Lauren sometimes had to consciously force her cud to come up during less intense feedings since it wouldn't come up on its own.

It was with great difficulty that Lauren made her way back to her stall, her naturally large digestive system feeling like it was invading half of her ribcage. She collapsed into her stall, panting and unable to catch her breath. Lauren, for the first time in several moons, cursed what a glutton she was, seeing as Rodney would be delivering her third meal of the day fairly shortly...

Rodney had known that Lauren was getting herself into trouble for some time now. At a glance, his expert eye told him that she was well over 3,000lbs and well into BCS13. Despite his urgings, Lauren refused to see reason in stopping or even slowing down her rate of gain. Granted, she was entitled to her vision of beauty, but Rodney was desperately afraid for her long term happiness. She was fit and active now, but what about in her twenties? Would her joints and bones hold under so much pressure? Rodney didn't think so, not if she got much heavier anyways. It was with a heavy heart that Rodney continued feeding Lauren throuout the summer and now at the dawning of fall, there seemed no halting Lauren's prodigious gains. Still there was something that thrilled Rodney about Lauren's reckless rush into obesity, something that fed deeply into his libido. However much he might try to rationalize it, Rodney still felt the old urges. Like an alcohol addict, he would never be free of the urges; even if he never acted on them.

Rodney carried the heavy sack over his left shoulder as he entered the barn. Though still on a six meal a day schedule, the volumes had increased tremendously to fit Lauren's constantly growing capacity. The 30lbs of dense nutrition weighed heavily on both his body and spirit as he continued to enable Lauren down a path that would see her to a quicker and more miserable death. When he got to her stall, he masked his face, though he knew he couldn't mask his scent, not from her broad nostrils. Lauren was spread out in all her glory on the floor of the stall, she was chewing a large mouthful of cud.

"Here's brunch, Lauren. I hope you haven't filled up too much." he said kindly noticing the tautness of her abdomen. Lauren whuffled softly, almost like a sigh, and pulled herself across the floor to the trough. Swallowing the cud, she took small mouthfuls, eating delicately, but unable to hide the expression of pain on her face, at least to Rodney. He frowned, obviously Lauren had pigged out in the pasture and was struggling to breathe let alone eat more. Amazingly, she wolfed down over half of the feed before collapsing on her side, taking rapid shallow breaths. Lauren shut her eyes, cringing with pain. Rodney went to her side, and rubbed the hard, taut part of her behemoth belly. Not for the first time, Rodney took a serious tone with Lauren, "You can't keep eating like this, Lauren. It's not healthy. You could even burst your stomach." Lauren moaned but whether in pain or from the start of one of his "lectures" he couldn't tell. He shook his head, "You shouldn't get used to eating like this anyways, stopping your weight gain is going to require transition, you can't just up and stop when you're finally happy with your body. Do you really think you can cope with two meals a day as you are? Or even four?! You haven't felt hunger in over two years, you need to get used to it step by step, or it'll drive you crazy." As Lauren lay recovering, Rodney couldn't tell if anything was getting through to her... she hadn't even opened her eyes yet...

Lauren was momentarily absent from her stall. The moment Rodney's words began to fall on her, she had retreated from the terrible pain stretched from right under her heart down into the pit of her expansive belly. For a time she was sure that she had finally ruptured the overtaxed organ and would quickly die of sepsis, so great was the pain. Finally reaching a place where she had escaped from the pain on the surface, Lauren found herself in a dark place, dreaming perhaps, but it did not have the same flavor as her nightly haunts. For one thing she was looking down at herself in the void... then suddenly, she was herself.

The vividness of the transition was so intense that Lauren was sure that she had awoken. Indeed, she felt entirely lucid, but her surroundings were vague and indistinct. She had the sense of being out on the pasture, but there were no buildings, no objects to speak of, even the blades of grass flowed into and around themselves indistinctly. Lauren began to traverse this odd dreamscape and found that the body she had "entered" felt quite different; as she turned her neck around, it became much more distinct than even her surroundings.

Lauren was massive, even by her own warped reckoning. Her flanks consumed the rear half of her vision. Her birth markings stretched abominably out of recognition. Her front legs were knobbed and distorted by cellulite almost absorbed into her torso, of the rear half of her body there was nothing to see... then sensations from her body began to flood her mind, hitting her like a hammer. First was the strain on her legs. She, apparently, was standing but she could also feel everything from her chest to her udder resting on the ground, despite this, the majority of her weight rested on her hips and shoulders... it was devastating. Lauren immediately buckled and fell less than a foot onto her belly, it squished outwards in a way that was arousing, but Lauren was still too assaulted by her senses to take any pleasure from it. Lauren was rapidly realizing just how hard it was to move... anything; even her tail seemed stuck in sand. Even though she succumbed to gravity, Lauren was panting for breath and her heart was racing. She tried her limbs, but her thighs were too thick to be of any use, her upper limbs could bend a little, but rested on her fat brisket at the moment, it was hard to lift them any higher, and impossible to straighten them out.

Lauren rested her head onto her flowing brisket; she could have chewed on her fatty chest if she had wanted too. But there was to be no rest for her. She didn't understand how she knew, but the fact suddenly dawned on her that she was older, perhaps years older. Even as the knowledge desended on her, Lauren's body began to change... rapidly. Hunger, the likes of which Lauren had not felt since the depths of winder in the forest stabbed at her. In response, dense, almost liqiud food seemed to flow down her gullet, though Lauren noticed no visible source. However, the hunger did not abate. She swallowed hungrily, trying to satisfy the intense hunger, but her already engorged body began to grow and increase its girth before her very eyes, and worse, Lauren felt herself aging as well.

As if time had sped up, Lauren watched her life flash by before her eyes helplessly, living out an immobile existence. Lauren tried to fight it, tried simply to stand, but her strength bled out from her muscles as if she were being drained of all her vital fluids, leaving only useless masses of flesh behind. Her heart raced like she was running a marathon, adrenaline pumping through her veins from her sheer terror. Finally, she stopped swallowing voluntarily, but the food continued to flow down her gullet... in ever greater quantities. Even as Lauren grew more and more feeble, her burden increased exponentially.

Her belly, already flooding onto the ground, began to spread out wider, increasing its girth to the point where Lauren felt her whole body being lifted up; she was helpless. All too soon her hooves were leaving the ground, her front limbs growing so startlingly fat that her flesh began dripping down around both te anckles and down onto the hooves themselves. Simply breathing became laborious. Her heart forced its way into her throat, its beating drummed in her head surely she would crash soon. But oblivion did not take her quite yet; she continued to expand for what seemed many more years.

Lauren was definitely into her mid-twenties by now. She could feel it in her aching bones and she simply felt her years built onto her. Nearing the end of her natural life, Lauren felt as large as her grandmother. She was deaf, blind and was unable to so much as twitch her tail. Lauren was sure that she should have been dead, barely able to draw rasping breaths into her fat cramped ribcage, and yet she was kept alive in this waking dream, to suffer the entirety of her pathetic life. Her hips ached continuously, both dislocated by the thickness of her thighs and the rising tides of her flesh. Almost devoid of sensory input, Lauren was not able to forget the contours of her stretched and bloated body for near constant and totally random quivers were sent out along her skin. This really was a most heinous form of torture as Lauren lived out her last moments; never was her hunger satisfied the entire time, it continued to burn inside her, leaving her feeling ashamed for her desires.

No more! she shrieked in her mind, Please end this!

A voice drifted back to her frayed mind, so distressed was Lauren that it took many moments to realize that it was in fact her own. But this is all that you have ever wanted, a most perfect and beautiful body.

No, no! Lauren screamed, It hurts too much!

Isn't beauty worth a little pain? You have been trying so desperately these last years and many times you have been in similar discomfort.

Lauren could not deny this, if she could have, she would have lowered her head in shame. Many nights, she had eaten herself into agony, sure that either her stomach would burst or that she would simply stop breathing, and yet she had always driven on... but there was one factor that remained.

I promised... She muttered to herself.

Promised?

I promised that I would never be like her, like my grandmother. It doesn't matter if she is beautiful, the ultimate height of what being fat can be. It still isn't right. Rodney knows it and I know it. I don't want this... I can be happy without perfection...

As if triggered by the words themselves, the dream began to fade away. Lauren escaped the pain of her imagined body and sank in a deep dreamless slumber. Sweet relief.

Rodney was still there when Lauren woke several hours later. Concerned that she had eaten herself into stupor, Rodney knew she would need to be comforted when she came to. Also, Rodney had put this off far too long. Lauren was developing habits akin to a mindless pig, it was demeaning to the gifts of intelligence that he had gifted her with, despite the way that it thrilled him physically. He resolved himself to tell her to stop when she awoke. He practiced what was sure to be long hours spent in argument as he sat beside her, obscenely stroking her massive paunch, leaning back against the soft padding of the underside of her chest.

He detected her stirring and knew that Lauren was coming around. Moving around, Rodney knelt on his knees before her great head. She fluttered her eyes open, the large orbs taking in the stall for several moments before recognition finally shined within them. The pupils turned to Rodney and Lauren lifted her head off the ground slightly, leaving a heavy mass of cellulite still clinging to the floor under her chin. She yawned mightily before speaking.

"Rodney, thank you for staying by me all-"

"You don't need to thank me, it was the least I could do." Rodney interrupted, stroking behind the crest of her skull.

There was a moment's pause before either of the lovers spoke again. Lauren was the first to break the silence. "Rodney, I've been such a fool, a stupid fool..."

Rodney didn't respond, sensing where she was going.

She shook her head, "I've been acting like this can just go on forever. It's been so... pleasurable, my new body, all of the food... and your attentions."

Rodney blushed furiously, both with embarrassment at her recognition of his desires and with shame that he had been a leading cause of Lauren's relentlessness.

She continued, "I don't want to be immobile. I don't want to be hooked up to machines or need medical attention everyday. I want to be normal, fat and normal. I've just realized that I already am..." Lauren gave a bovine laugh, jiggling her girth for Rodney's amusement, "And I've been fat for quite some time now. Will you help me?"

Tears shining down his cheeks, Rodney grasped Lauren's thick neck in reply. He stroked her cheeks and looked deeply into her brown eyes. "Of course."

The work began the very next day. Rodney insisted on keeping to her previous diet for now, so Lauren already had two large meals tucked away into her elephantine innards by the time the morning came. Rodney lead her around the back of his house.

"I think it would be a good idea to keep track of your weight, at least until we are sure that you aren't gaining anymore." Rodney explained, "It's really difficult to keep track of those little pounds, even an expert like me."

Lauren teasingly licked up the back of the cap Rodney was wearing, sending the brim down past his eyes. He laughed, the sound musical to Lauren's ears. A new sense of calm had taken her, whereas before she was constantly day dreaming of a larger, better body, the anticipation driving her wild at time, now putting that past was like dropping an enormous burden. Goodness, knew that she had enough of that already. Swelling nearly down to her ankles, her belly swayed left and right, perfectly natural to Lauren. Her fat thighs rolled up and down the thickness of her gut between them and the fact that she could never manage a run, or hardly a jog, at all anymore did not wear on her. She kept up with the biped with relative ease but she knew that she had sacrificed forever, her speed advantage over the small man who could now run circles around her fat wobbly form whenever he liked. But he walked her gently now, one hand resting on her shoulder, almost lending her some of his strength by his mere contact.

Lauren climbed up the steep metal ramp to the car scale. Fighting against the incline, however short it was, took more out of Lauren that she cared to admit. She huffed air out of her nostrils when at the top, but would not allow herself to appear out of breath. With her sharp eyes, Lauren saw Rodney's eyes widen with what appeared to be shock. Leaning her head over the pipe gate, Lauren asked, "What is it?" thankfully her electronic voice did not betray her own worry.

"Oh, it's nothing." said Rodney, "You're just a lot heavier than I was expecting."

News that would have once delighted her, now mortified Lauren. Still she needed to know her new, and hopefully last, weight. "How much?" She asked.

Biting his lip first, Rodney said, "You weigh 3,321 pounds."

Lauren bit back a gasp, she had gained 800lbs since the start of the year and winter fall had not even yet come. "You're kidding..." She said trying both to disbelieve the shocking news and to prevent her lust from showing on her backside.

Rodney shook his head, "No, you've really pigged out this year. I have seen a gain like this since your great-grandmother, Bessie."

Lauren frowned at being compared to her unaltered Holstein ancestor. To think of being like a mindless beast. So filled with resentment, she nearly lashed back at Rodney, but she bit her tongue at the last moment, she had no one to blame but herself. She took a glance back at her heavily padded, smooth back; the incredible width of her torso, easily twice that of most on the farm, and nearly triple that of her thin mother. She asked tenetively, "Do... Do I need to loose weight to stay healthy?" The question posed was hard for her, stopping her gains was one thing, going back on all of her hard work was another entirely.

The man below on the grass too a long hard gaze at the massive bovine on the platform. Almost a minute passed before he stated, "I can't tell just by looking, nor even with tests. Regular physicals will give me warning signs as age bears down on you, but other than that, there is no way to predict how you'll react to your weight when your youth starts fading." Seeing the expression on Lauren's face, Rodney added, "But I think you're more than fine for now. Let's just concentrate on slowing down your gains."

"Slowing down? But I'm so fat, Rodney. I need to stop gaining right away."

Rodney breathed out a sigh, "Lauren, your weight is an incredibly complex balance. You are addicted to your heavy diet now, you need to slowly adjust, otherwise it's not going to be present. Trust me, you're going to be begging me to slow down when we get started. I want to stabilize your weight by your coming birthday."

My birthday? Lauren thought. Surely it won't take that long...

Much to Lauren's surprise, Rodney had Lauren keep on her heavy diet for the first week, apparently to see where she was in terms of gaining. Despite her surprisingly high weight, Lauren was still astounded to see that she had gained 21 pounds. Using his background in microbiology to synthesize her metabolism, Rodney divided her excess caloric intake into the remaining weeks before the end of the year, creating a promising reduction schedule. Reductions came out across all the meals, removing a hardly noticeable amount at a time. In time, Rodney planed on reducing Lauren down to three meals a day.

While not exactly keeping it a secret that she was beginning to cease her weight gains, she was still astounded when Hollie came to her stall privately the very evening of the start of her "diet."

"I'm very proud of you." Was all she said, but it rendered Lauren speechless. In the coming weeks, the gossip spread quickly, mostly through her sister who greatly encouraged her. Without Lauren ever knowing how, her weight became public knowledge in the barn within days of her weekly weigh-ins. That proved to be the basis of many jokes, many often calculating exactly how many of themselves Lauren weighed. Lauren didn't care to be such a center of attention, much less the butt of many jokes, but Cathleen was always there, supporting her, even as Lauren began having to deal with the reemergence of a sensation once lost to her: hunger.

The pangs started immediately after the removal of one of her midday meals. Rodney recommended still sleeping the same amount of hours to reduce morning hunger, so the remaining three meals were spaced farther apart from her first and last ones. While Lauren was always ravenous when she awoke from her nightly fast, she was also immediately satisfied with a meal; being hungry during the day was something that, while not forgotten, was something that she wasn't used to anymore, and in fact, went heavily against the way that she had trained her body over the years.

With the reduction of a meal, her others grew substantially, spreading out the remaining contents, but they were still much less than what they had been previously. Lauren found that she was no longer satisfied when she ate; satisfaction she now realized had translated into painful overfulness. She was full after meals, or so she kept telling herself, but the lack of pressure, the tautness of her rumen, begged to differ, arguing with all she had taught herself in order to cope with her old diet. Lauren could not even compensate by eating forage, Rodney insisting that she keep her old quotas, large as they may be. That truly did not make sense to Lauren who had long considered grass as merely topping on the cake, How many Calories could there possibly be in a few mouthfuls of grass? Still she kept on with it, past even what would have been the boundaries of her willpower, after all it was easy when her human measured all her meals for her. Lauren kept telling herself to simply accept what Rodney gave her and everything would be fine.

Later, near the close of Autumn, things weren't fine. Lauren lay awake in the middle of the night, racked by hunger. She hadn't had a "decent" meal in weeks. In fact, she had felt continuously hungry for the past four days, even while eating, the crushed grain hardly put a dent into the gaping maw she felt within her abdomen. It had been getting bad, but with the reduction of yet another precious meal, Lauren felt as if what she ate every day would not possibly sustain her. Yet every week, as she grew continuously fatter, her weight begged to differ. Granted, she had cut her gain down to nearly a quarter of what they had been previously, but that was hardly consolation.

Lauren twisted as her innards cramped, screaming at her to retrieve more to satisfy them. She panted and sweated profusely, ashamed that she was no better than the drug addicts that she saw on video clips on the internet, but still the thoughts did nothing to ease the pain, nothing did, even medication. Rodney told her she would adjust, she just had to deal with it, but right now, Lauren didn't thnk she had the strength. Immediately, she knew that if there was food in front of her, she would eat it, despite her desire to remain fit for her elder years. Her behemoth gut gurgled loudly, churning at least twice an hour. The sound was unhindered, nay amplified by her cavernous belly and she often woke some of the lighter sleepers in the barn. She earned their enmity, but Hollies protection was stronger than ever now that she had decided to end her Feedee career, and had already made so much progress, but again another horrid pang swept through her, tearing seemingly at her very soul and Lauren was hardly able to endure.

Knowing now that she could not even accomplish the uneasy and nightmare filled sleep she had gained last night, Lauren got to her heavy hooves and left quietly outside; there was a half heard comment of relief from one of the denizens of the barn as she strode out into the night.

Lauren felt weaker than she ever remembered, the hunger seemingly drawing from her vital aura, still she managed to keep moving her feet. Lauren hoped that by walking she could take her mind off the pain, but as her eyes came across Rodney's house, visions of the wonderful human delicacies filled her mind's wandering eye. Puddings, brownies and assortments of pastas drifted by, she could smell them, almost taste them, the visions made her mouth water profusely. Lauren hadn't had a single bite of human crafted food since the start of her diet, and despite Rodney's assurances that he'd whip up occasional treats for her once she'd stabilized her weight, to Lauren's hunger strained mind, that day seemed far, far away, a likely impossibility actually. Unconsciously, Lauren's hooves turned in the direction of Rodney's house.

A delectable smell entered Lauren's wide nostrils, the scent of food; it nearly drove her mad. She trotted as best she could towards the origin of the scent, her previous weakness forgotten. Her neck jiggled this way and that. Lauren's steps fell out of her carefully crafted rhythm, her knees crashing into the rear of her massive swaying flanks. She nearly stumbled twice, but Lauren didn't care, she hardly even thought at all, nearly stripped of all her higher thoughts. Lauren's world consisted of the smells in her nose: cooked vegetables, a thick milk based sauce, butter, fresh bread. The details became clearer all the time and Lauren wished she could move more quickly towards her destination, but her fattened body proved too much a burden, even in her aroused state.

Finally she found the source of her desires, Rodney's trash bin. Inside was the leftovers from his meal, sautéed asparagus, fetichne alfredo with chicken, and some rolls. Lauren had never seen so wonderful as sight in all her life. She immediately sunk her nose into the metal receptacle, only to have it clamp tight around her fat neck. Nearly bellowing out her frustration, she knocked over the can, spilling its contents. Lauren inhaled everything not made of plastic or metal, even other less satisfactory organic matter. Only after everything was gone did Lauren recover herself. She had never felt such shame, it bored into her soul. Surely she was not even worthy of staying healthy if she was reduced to this. She should go and hook herself up to a feeding machine...

Still, her belly was satisfied, for the moment, and Lauren cleaned up the mess she made, much more silently this time, seeking to erase the evidence of her misdeed. Lauren crept back to the barn, easing her wide load down onto her bed of straw. She belched and though was horrified at the thought, she knew that she hadn't had such a sweet tasting burp in a long, long time.

After the first incident, only two days passed before Lauren began sneaking food almost every night. Each time, she told herself that she wasn't going to do it, but with each reluctant capitulence, it became easier to give in to her cravings. Of course, Rodney did not produce enough garbage to satisfy her night after night, but it was simple enough to get into the food shed, Rodney never locked it, having absolute trust in his family. She managed the latch with ease, her snout and tongue operating with equal dexterity of a human hand. She even made sure to only steal from already opened sacks and from different food stuffs each time. However, there was now hiding from the absolute truth of the scale, and her nightly raids showed after only a single week, in which she more than doubled her small gain rate.

Lauren was truthfully distraught at the news, she didn't think that her nightly "snacks" would have so much of an impact. Rodney came to her as she stepped off the scale, shame burned hot inside her, but she was unable to blush. He threw his arms around Lauren's neck, holding her tight. He said, "Don't worry about it, we all have our ups and downs. You'll get there."

Lauren's eyes widened in surprise at Rodney's misinterpretation of her body language, but she quickly regained control of herself. She couldn't bear it if Rodney found out she was cheating on her diet, was simply too weak willed. Mixed feelings of guilt and relief pressed her to generously lick the man beside her. He leaned into her kisses, caressing her soft neck, hopeful that this was but a minor setback.

Rodney hardly even paid attention to Lauren's sudden spike in her gain rate. After all, she had gone up a couple times in the past (though never to the extent as the current trend); it was all just part of the complex balance of metabolism. Never once did the most simple solution occur to Rodney, so great was his trust in Lauren. Instead he chalked up the increased weight gain as her body's attempt to hold on to precious reserves. Rodney modified her diet, delaying her next ration reduction for another week and a half. Also, Rodney planned on intensifying her workout schedule; squeezing a few extra Calories out of her workouts could convince her body that its not starving as well as further reducing her overall gains. Rodney sighed as he flicked off his monitor screen, he never thought that simply getting one of his cows to stop gaining would be so hard.

Lauren was indeed relieved at the delay in her food reduction, but she was less than enthusiastic about Rodney's new workout schedule as they met in the pool the following day.

"It's only 20 more minutes per session, honey. Not even an extra hour a day."

Lauren snorted, almost in disgust since she was robbed of her voice while up to her neck in water.

"Lauren, you need to do this." Rodney pleaded, 'Besides, a little extra exercise won't kill you, you know."

Looking slightly abashed, the one and a half ton cow followed Rodney into deeper water to start her laps. Lauren kicked her legs at the water, freed of her massive weight due to the buoyancy of her fat. She had long ago overcome her initial fear of water, now it felt like a second home. But still, Lauren dreaded spending yet more time here in the pool working until her breath came in gasps and fire burned in every limb. Sweet as he was on the outside, in the pool, Rodney worked her like a dog until her back, which she couldn't properly wet since she was too buoyant to dive, was slick with both water and sweat. Lauren's mottled black and white back shifted side to side quickly as she doggy paddled round and round the pool. So deep was the fat covering that the skin had no problems sliding side to side with her very kick, especially the slight rise of her loin which was extra fatty. Lauren swam with her head at the water's surface, letting her prodigious neck sway to and fro below the water line. Her soft brisket made for a poor surface with which to break the oncoming water and Lauren felt it bend back and forth, left and right as she propelled herself forwards. Supported by the water, she gained easily four additional feet of width as her flanks were pushed upwards by the water. Thankfully, that effect made more room for her flailing limbs to maneuver, even if it made the difficult task of moving her great body around and around no less difficult.

Deep breaths turned eventually into pants, but Rodney pressed her on. "Push yourself." He would say as he guided her, occasionally helping her turn if she went off course, "Feel the burn!" Lauren didn't want to feel the burn, never had and probably never would, but her desire to stop gaining extended at least as much as to keep with Rodney's program. Her thighs and chest burned; it was a vast improvement over the constant cramping she had experienced when she had just started, when she had really been out of shape, but that hardly mattered to Lauren who was, at her heart, a creature of comfort. When it was clear that she could go no more, Rodney clicked a timer, claiming that breaks weren't part of the work out, and pushed Lauren into shallower water. One good part of this was that while she struggled to catcher her breath, Rodney darted around her enormous frame like a small fish, massaging her weary and aching limbs through sometimes over a foot of cushioning fat.

After the newly extended workout, Lauren trudged wearily up the ramp out of the pool. She felt as if she weighed 6,000lbs. Still, she swung her belly to the right and it was simple enough to slide into her familiar rhythm. Lauren accepted several departing hugs from Rodney and glared at him when he slapped her hard on the back of one thick haunch. "Good work-out, Lauren! See you tonight. Mary needs some more cleaning."

As Lauren left, she could help but note the vast emptiness of the front half of the barn. Even though she hadn't been quite aware of it at the time, Lauren looked up to her grandmother, even drew inspiration from her at times; even if she hadn't known her very well, not being able to interact with her much after returning to the ranch. It hurt Lauren much more than she expected, even all this time after her death. Lauren turned to leave and when she got back to her stall, she collapsed readily into her straw bed.

By the start of winter, Lauren had indeed managed to reduce her gain rate some more, but seemingly not nearly enough. Now every week she was about seven pounds heavier, two more than she had been before her sudden and increasingly mysterious spike. Lauren was well into her 3500's and with only five more weeks left in the year, it seemed unlikely now that she would reach Rodney's original goal of her birthday. Rodney was thoroughly confused, despite increased exercise and now two more ration reductions, Lauren's body simply refused to stop gaining any less. I should be seeing, one maybe two a week at this point... almost all of the excess Calories are missing from her diet, and she's exercising more than ever. What could be the problem? Rodney thought to himself. As he sat alone in his spacious living room, finally the grim thought came to him, Have the excess Calories been removed?

It only took a few days to discover the truth. While Rodney never thought Lauren would stoop low enough to dig into his garbage, she was, at this point, stealing massive amounts of grain from the shed. Only the fact that there was such an abundance of sacks and bales of hay had kept the truth from him for so long. Almost 30lbs of food was disappearing from the shed every night; there was only one explanation.

Rodney waited in the shadows between the house and the shed, hoping against hope that he would discover nothing during his stake-out. Hours passed and Rodney began scolding himself for his doubt in his beloved. As he was thinking about quiting, however, there came a sound that stopped him dead. With all of the dead, crispy leaves littering the lawn, it was impossible for the large figure to move silently. It would have probably been beyond the capabilities of the figure in any case because its breaths came heavy, if not labored, and its hooves struck the ground with great force. The shadow was most definitely Lauren, her girth and the sway of her body was unmistakable, even in the dim starlight. Rodney had to stifle a sigh as Lauren drew closer to the food shed; he couldn't confront her until she was caught in the act. Effortlessly, the behemoth bovine manipulated the latch and grabbed the handle with her teeth. Pulling the door back, Lauren procedded to stick her long neck into the interior of the small outdoor room; so wide was she that she could only manage up to her shoulders, but that was enough to begin to feed.

She gorged with gusto, it was apparent to Rodney that she had likely been anticipating this all day. Stepping out of the shadows, and still utterly unnoticed by Lauren, Rodney approached from behind. He mumbled, "Lauren..."

The one and a half ton cow started, nearly falling over when startled out of her small center of gravity. Lauren caught herself several steps to the right, but not before banging her thick neck against the door frame. She pulled herself out from the comparatively miniscule shed clumsily and stared at Rodney for a full minute, utterly speechless.

Finally it was up to Rodney to break the ominous silence. "I don't remember any midnight snacks in the diet I worked out for you, Lauren..."

Lauren hung her head low in shame, almost forgetting to speak, "...I- I'm so sorry."

The man shook his head, "Don't apologize to me, this was all supposed to be for you. I thought you wanted to stop."

She lifted her head slightly to look up at Rodney; he knew that she would be blushing furiously if she was capable. "I do... I really do, its just... It's just that I'm so hungry." She looked away for a moment, and then turned back, "I'm hungry all the time. The only time I can be comfortable... when I can be happy, is when I'm eating." Tears began forming in her large brown eyes, "I'm such a pig! But I can't help myself... I deserve to be like Mary."

At her last words, Rodney surged forward, gripping Lauren tight, "don't talk like that. You don't deserve that. You can do this, I just need you to be honest with me." he paused and then continued, "Why didn't you tell me sooner that you were suffering so much?"

"I was... embarrassed, I supposed. I didn't want you to think I was so weak." Here she let out a nearly manic chuckle, "But I guess that didn't work out so well, did it."

Sensing her stress, Rodney pulled back a bit and looked deeply into her eyes. "You're not weak, Lauren. You're one of the brightest, most adept cows I know. You just have a lot to deal with" He tugged lightly on one of her sagging jowls and smiled. Lauren seemed to cheer up a bit. "I love you so much." said Rodney.

"And I you." Lauren said as she snuggled up closer to the thin man.

They held a moment before Rodney spoke, "You should have spoken to me sooner, there is such an easy solution to your hunger issues..."

Lauren stood still in her stall while Rodney lay on his back under her torso, appearing almost to be servicing an automobile. Lauren felt him groping her dangling flesh, pushing himself forward and wiggling with his shoulders; at this point, Lauren's belly was less than a foot off the ground when standing. She felt a thrill up her spine as Rodney's hand finally pushed very high up the inside of her right thigh, the area so remote as to have had a relative lack of sensation for many months, if not years; it felt good, almost erotically so. His palm smoothed against the inside of her belly, high up on the pink flesh marking her never used udder. Rodney quickly scrambled out from under her and Lauren was sorry for his absence.

Taking a few deep breaths, Rodney gripped Lauren's shoulder, "There... it's done."

Lauren was still a little dubious as to the effectiveness of the plan, despite a general grasp of the parts involved, "So, this patch is supposed to make me less hungry?" She asked, not for the first time.

"Yes," said Rodney, "I made all of you with a rather severe leptin deficiency and leptin is the hormone that tells the brain when the stomach is full.

"Now you, my fat friend," Rodney took the time to rub up and down the great outward curve of Lauren's abdomen, "have additional trouble due to certain... life choices. The others here who are thin deny that part of themselves wholeheartedly, until they barely notice the hormone deficiency. You, however, my dear, have the trouble of balancing. You have to overeat, but not so much that your gaining anymore."

"And you said before that I eventually wouldn't need the patches?" asked Lauren.

Rodney nodded, "Yes, once your body adjusts, as I was hoping it would have more rapidly, I can decrease the prescription until your hunger levels are where they need to be to maintain your weight."

It all seemed much too simple for Lauren after all the pain she had been through. Merely a single green patch enough to curb years of habit? It didn't seem possible, and yet Rodney seemed confident that this was the solution and Lauren was desperate to try anything at this point.

Indeed, the patch worked wonders, though the first few days, Lauren felt hardly any hunger at all and had trouble even finishing the meals prescribed to her. After scaling back the prescription, Rodney's diet for the first time felt manageable. Lauren used the remaining weeks accustoming herself her to her hunger at manageable stages. Cutting out the pilfered food, her gains dropped to a minimum right away and on the week of her fourteenth birthday, Lauren was happy to announce that her weight was finally stable, fluctuating by no more than three pounds both up and down each week.

The celebrations were enormous, as Lauren's struggles with her weight had been common gossip all through the Christmas season. Hollie beamed with pride, looking upon her daughter who outweighed her by over 2,500 pounds. There was food in excess and the irony that her cessation of gaining was celebrated with human forged delights was not lost on the one morbidly obese resident of the barn.

Rodney made love to her soft, pliable body many times that day, seeming to find new ways to please her with every new roll or crease in her now vast vessel.

After one such session, nearing the end of the day, Rodney slowly fed dense pound cake donuts to his lover, both making an exception to the diet for this special day. "You haven't yet told me what you want for your birthday, my dear."

Lauren savored the sweet delectable, crushing it to pulp and letting the sweet mixture slide down her gullet, like so many more treats before it. She crawled heavily towards Rodney, inching only a few centimeters closer with her belly hindering her. "I;ve gotten so much I really don't think I could want anymore... except you. Just stay with me... forever."

Rodney needn't say anything, he simply hugged her close, not spoiling the moment even with food.

It was a new thing for Lauren not to be the center of attention in the barn. It harkened back to the first year in which she lived here, when she still openly hid her desires from Rodney, even though her knew about them from nearly the first time they met (in sanity) thanks to her motor-mouth sister. Lauren no longer drew unkind glances from those around the barn who rejected her path... in fact, she drew hardly any glances at all anymore, save from quickly hidden stares of admiration from those she suspected of wanting to be more like her. It was not at all surprising to Lauren then when two more of the barn's younger residents began filling out over the course of the year. They did not hide their intentions, and actually looked to Lauren as a sort of role model, or at least a figure head wiser in what to expect, and she was delighted to take them in under her wing. In this way, the barn became divided, but Hollie was always there to prevent any disorder and even managed to quell most animosity so there was peace and happiness abound.

Cathleen became fairly quiet during the start of the year, but even a slight lapse in her chatting was rather odd. Lauren was hardly able to pay attention to it, however, she was still trying to adapt to her growing hunger between meals. Her leptin prescription had been cut in half and she was usually pretty cranky and wanted to be left alone the last couple hours before her midday and evening meals. Also, in speaking with her two acolytes, Lauren found she had a lot to say on the subject of being a feedee. What started as a simple list of reflections, as much suggestions as anything, quickly blossomed into the foundations of a full length book. Thus it was with great surprise that Cathleen made a great announcement near the end of spring.

Lauren looked up from her evening meal, still carefully measured and served in her private trough at an assembly gathering at the end of the barn, where she herself had made her own announcement earlier that year. She left her grain with only a slight moment of hesitation and pushed her way out into the central isle of the barn. She stilled her waddling, her flanks so wide that she nearly filled the double gate. She took tiny steps unconsciously, having done this small maneuver many times before. Once the retracting doors fell onto her hips, she was free and with a heavy arch of her back, she was in motion. Despite the 20-odd members of the barn, the press did not seem heavy, at least to Lauren, though that may have been due in part to the efforts of others not to be pinned by her tremendous bulk. Lauren wanted to know what the important news was, or at least who it was coming from, but as she ambled towards Denise, a close friend of hers, born in a set of triplets after her and Cathleen's own, the second part of her wish became clear. There was a slightly raised dais at the far end of the barn, something that Rodney had thrown together after Hollie's pleas for a little more ceremony for important matters in the family. Upon it stood hollie foremost, but to her right stood none other than Lauren's sister. She wore an ecstatic expression, full of anticipation and... Pride? On the other side of Hollie stood one of the few bulls of the barn, James. Lauren knew that him and James were close friends, even if she didn't know him incredibly well. Lauren was puzzled as to what the news could be.

Hollie's voice rang out easily throughout the barn, even to the last rows where Lauren was forced to stop, finding no further gaps suitable for her size. Hollie spoke with her true voice, in the cow's tongue that she had learned from Cathleen and Lauren themselves after they had developed it in near infancy.

"This is a great day!" Hollie begun, "For not only the two standing here with me, but for all of us as a whole. My Daughter has something very important to share with us. Something she has been waiting these last few months to confirm. Will you please, Cathleen?"

Hollie stepped back and Lauren's thoughts were abuzz, grasping at what she felt she should have known before now. With a wide grin on her snout, Cathleen uttered two words that sent cheers throughout the conclave, "I'm pregnant!"

Lauren was so shocked that if took her several moments before she could add to the din filling the barn. The roars and shouts of glee took nearly five whole minutes to die down. There hadn't been any consideration of new calves for years as everyone shared Hollie as a mother. Now James's presence became obvious, but Cathleen still proclaimed, "James is the father." Another few moments of silence followed, after all, James, unlike several other litters in the barn, was a full blooded brother, sharing the same father as well as mother.

Despite the now revealed incest, the small crowd remained ambivalent in the short moments Cathleen paused. She continued, "I want to thank Rodney deeply, without whose help, none of this would have been possible." Seeing him for the first time, Rodney walked around a far corner and stood briefly on the dais and waved. Then he stepped down, obviously not wanting to steal the show. Lauren still spoke, "thanks to an implant of Rodney's design, James and I can have children without befouling the blood." Smirking, James turned to reveal the long vertical scar on the rear of his scrotal sac. Again, another detail that Lauren had noticed but never put any thought towards.

Turning back, this time Cathleen shifted position, facing those assembled diagonally, emphasizing her belly. "I'm four months along now and I apologize for any misdirecting answers I might have given to questions about my size. Really I can't tell you all how much this means to me and James, to be the first parents here since my beloved mother, and future grandmother, Hollie." The latter beamed at her daughter's words. "Rodney says that I'm carrying three and that they are all perfectly healthy!"

Again there were more cheers from the crowd, but Hollie quickly silenced them with one motion of her tail. Cathleen shook her head, "This is the beginning of a brand new future for us, all of us as a species. Rodney has said that he could do the same for any of you as he did for us. We can finally continue the line!"

There came thunderous applause at the end of Cathleen's speech which Lauren doubted even Hollie could easily quell, if she had wanted to at all, that is. Lauren felt a broad smile on her own snout, filled with happiness for her twin. Lauren was very familiar with the sensation of fulfilling a life long goal. Still, the moment was tainted by the fact that, of all people, she should have known; the signs were perfectly clear now, and though Lauren knew that hindsight was 20/20, she thought she may have been neglecting her sister of late. A twinge of guilt coursed through Lauren and she resolved herself to re-strengthen her bonds with her sister and perhaps forge some news ones. Lauren, realizing that she'd soon be free from having to worry daily about her weight, felt as if she had been introverted for far too long. This was a new day to get out there and start making waves (large ones in Lauren's case.)

Cathleen's pregnancy and eventual birth proved to be a milestone for change in the family, even the foundations of the society they had built up over the years. Though unspoken, there had always been a sense of survivalism among the altered Holsteins, everyone seemed to only think about fulfilling their needs, just getting by. Lauren had to admit that she fell among this category; after all, were not the life choices she made highly selfish ones? But after the births, there came something new to the family, something that none had ever realized had been missing... _hope. _ Hope for a future.

There were the calls and mewls of young calves in the barn for the first time since Hollie had fled into the forest, and they were not to be the last either. With Cathleen's first successful birthing, and second pregnancy shortly thereafter, other pairings soon followed up. Hardly a monogamous species, all of the males were soon altered by Rodney with enhanced genetic diversity and they had their hooves full nearly year round with love interests and females simply wanting children if not a relationship.

Lauren couldn't help but feel giddy with all of the lovemaking around her. And she was filled with pride and happiness for her twin, bearing young even at her age. However, the new romances served to remind Lauren that because of her efforts to transform her body, a pregnancy would be almost as good as suicide at this point. The fact that Lauren would never have calves of her own weighed heavily on her thick shoulders as more and more rounds of courtship erupted all through the year until only herself, Hollie and one of Lauren's close friends and fellow feedee had become pregnant at some time or another.

A friendship that began with the opening of her innermost feelings and desires to Lauren became as close as that between herself and Cathleen over the course of mere weeks. The first and foremost of Lauren's small following, Denise listened with rapt ears to Lauren's first reflections on her struggles and eventual triumph over her passion for obesity. She was, in no small part, intrical in the development of Lauren's new confidence in speaking with others. The year of '54 heralded the transformation of Lauren from barely accepted social outcast to an esteemed figurehead almost as revered as her sister Cathleen (Who soon became nicknamed "Mother" in spite of both her and Hollie's protests). Lauren talked about accepting their natural gifts, as bestowed by Rodney, letting themselves be who they were. Of course, tempered with that was always a message of balance, keeping reality in check with desire. Lauren found she was quite proficient at helping other's with their problems; even those not relating to the fetish and many who did not share the same appreciation for the body type as she began to drift to her for advice as her speaking skills grew.

Many, many times, Lauren spoke of the beauty of fat, the way that it flowed around the body, mostly irregular, but also with an often hidden symmetry also. She spoke so often that she soon found words inadequate, so Lauren took up painting as well, learning to use the brush as a second hoof. Almost everyone had to acknowledge her skills even if many did not appreciate the content. Lauren was looked to as a patron for everyone who wished to "fill out" and her number of companions grew as the population of the barn took a steep climb. For the first time in her life, Lauren felt drawn away from the computer to the people around her. No longer did she seek to while away the hours, indeed, she hardly had time to spare and often had to beg those around her to slow, especially during those times when her weight got the better of her.

Living with a 3,500lb body proved to have its own special set of challenges as Lauren settled more and more comfortably into her frame. Almost like making a dent into a sofa over time, it felt to Lauren as if she were almost sinking into herself, letting her fat overflow and setting its own course; there was no fighting it, one simply had to adapt. Little by little, Lauren re-learned to live with hunger. By the time that Rodney took her off her leptin patches, Lauren was almost as hungry between her three meals as at the very start of the program, however, now her strength of will was more than enough to match it. Lauren was able to cope with the pain now, and even her belly ceased its daily complaints, save for the occasional, and often entertaining moment. Stretch marks still permanently scarred most of her underbelly as well as her chest and shoulders. They faded somewhat with creams and herbal treatments, but the fact remained that Lauren had simply gained too much too fast; but she wouldn't have had it any other way. In fact, as time passed, her skin began to feel better than ever, it stretched out a bit, as if finally having a chance to grow properly to cover her frame. Her belly sagged a little more and was easier to push and rub against with her legs. Her dormant udder, previously stretched taut grew creases and lines more telling of her age, giving Lauren airs of maturity and wisdom, at least as far as cows see the world. Despite her increasing age, Lauren had never looked so good, nor felt so good in her life.

By the time Lauren was 17, the barn had changed utterly. Of course one could hardly even call it the barn anymore as Rodney had build many new stalls in what was once Mary's quarters to house the growing population of the family. With at least two dozen young ones heading into their first or second years with just as many behind them or in their mother's bellies, the whole of Rodney's ranch was abuzz with activity that it had never truly seen in the past. As Hollie aged and grew a little more infirm, a little weaker every year, she started to let others take up responsibilities one at a time. It was a gradual process, one Lauren hardly noticed as it started, but eventually she became one of the leaders of the family. Among her was her sister Cathleen a couple others whose personalities or wisdom had garnered exceptional reputations.

The duties that Lauren found herself in charge of were really quite minor. Prone to lethargy brought on from her massive weight, Lauren gladly let her sister Cathleen garner more of Hollie's dispersing responsibilities, soon even another older male started to outshine her in accomplishment, but Lauren was perfectly fine with being left behind.

Lauren's small collections of friends and affiliates who shared her desires grew quickly after the "baby boom" began to lose some of its vigor. More and more cows and the occasional bull came out after one or two pregnancies, securing their bloodline before investigating more personal matters. Lauren was still, by far, the fattest on the ranch, but now Denise and two others were up over their first ton and still climbing slowly. None of them fed nearly as obsessively as Lauren had, so she was confident in their continued health and quality of life.

It was spring and still early in the morning when Lauren walked with Denise to a small meeting of Lauren's following near the edge of Rodney's land. The old barbed fences still remaining were only for show; in reality there were large gaps secreted in many places, allowing everyone to easily venture where they please. Where Lauren and Denise waddled towards now was a shady outcropping of the surrounding forest, not densely wooded, but with enough shade to quell the sun's intensity on many of whom found their heat tolerance lacking.

Despite her promise to stop gaining, Lauren had picked up stray pounds here and there over the years. Not feeling quite as fit as she used to, Lauren reluctantly became more inactive. Despite a reduction in her diet, one that Lauren gave even more reluctantly, she was certain that she had gained at least another 75 or even 100 pounds since her 14th birthday. Lauren moved with her characteristic sway, her motions as unique as her personality and just as graceful. Despite her weight, she moved with little effort, even if in reality her gait was very slow. Flanks tilted side to side, setting almost a ton of flesh in motion. Broad shoulders, smoothed over with fat, still pumped visibly beneath the surface of skin furred black. Her legs slid across the bloated sac hanging down to the ankles and pushing out slightly behind the knees. Rodney kept her legs and inner belly shaved and well moisturized so they slid silently across the impeccable pink surface despite four full feet of contact from her thighs to her udder. A still tight ligament under the skin bisected the fat draping down from the matron's neck and chin. Curving inward like a crescent moon, the fat then bulged back out into a sac as large as her head that bounced lightly below Lauren's cheeks.

Dwarfed by the elephantine figure beside her, walked Denise. She moved a little awkwardly at times, still trying to move like she had before gaining well over a quarter ton; but Lauren had faith that she'd learn how to let her own body steer her movements soon. Mostly white, with scant black stripes, Denise was a mature cow only three years younger than Lauren herself. Like Lauren, Denise had never borne calves, but unlike Lauren who at times longed for young ones of her own, Denise had consciously chosen not to breed. The mark on them was evident in their udders, which had never filled out nor developed other characteristics readily visible on even one time mothers. Lauren thought that this only strengthened the bond they had. Denise stood at least half a foot shorter than Lauren at the shoulder; that is, the estimate of where her shoulder was, not the padded skin that rose near a foot above it. As they walked, Denise's eyes frequently darted over Lauren's figure, not that there was much else to look at all to Denise's right, so large was her companion. Lauren could have blushed at the attention Denise paid her; it was obvious how much she admired Lauren's body and she was constantly asking her about her condition, how it felt to be so large. Lauren was only too happy to oblige her.

When a little less than half of the distance remained between them and the meeting place remained, Denise broke the silence they had been sharing for the past several minutes. "Did you plan a topic for today's meeting, Lauren?" asked Denise.

Lauren's breath was starting to grow heavy in her chest from the "long" walk, but she only gave a few moments pause while she considered the question. "I've not had any bright ideas this week. I thought we might just sit and talk. Do you have any suggestions?"

Denise turned away to the left just slightly before saying, "Well... I still haven't gotten the hang of walking like you. You make it look so easy and you're nearly twice my weight! Maybe we could practice a little..." she stopped when she noted Lauren's soft chuckle. "Lauren?"

"Oh, Denise dear, it's not something I can just teach you. I can't prance around for everyone and have them practice my steps. That wouldn't work anyways, like you said, I'm a lot fatter than you." Lauren eyed her up and down, "But I'd not say I'm twice as big as you. I'm not quite that fat, not yet anyways." Both bovines laughed merrily at Lauren's jest.

"But seriously, Lauren, I-" Lauren tried to continue before Lauren interrupted.

"Listen Denise, this is not something I can show you, or even teach you. It's something you have to find for yourself. Stop fighting, and stop worrying about it especially. Calm your mind and try to find your own rhythm, your body will slide into it, it's only natural. The more you think about the way you move, the more you hinder yourself."

Denise bowed her head in deference to her elder. Yards passed with agonizing slowness, especially for Denise who could have been moving nearly twice as fast. The copse that was the sight for the weekly meetings finally came into sight and Denise said, "There was one thing that I thought we could do today..."

Almost twenty cows were gathered in the shade of the trees, plus one portly bull. Most were standing and only a couple, including the other members of the "2000 club," reclined in the shade, but all of them dipped their heads briefly in deference to Lauren as she ambled into their midst. General greetings were abound as Lauren moved into the perimeter of the gathering and Lauren responded as best she could to as many as she could. Taking Rodney's sound medical advice to spare her joints as much as possible, Lauren collapsed slowly onto her gut without preamble. Her flanks spread out over the thin grass as her belly was smushed against it; she turned her hind legs to the left, allowing more room for her prodigious assets. Densie took a seat beside Lauren and slightly forwards. Only able to swish her tail far enough to cover her hindquarters, Denise assited Lauren by keeping flies and other winged insects off of her chest and neck while the meeting took place.

Mere minutes after the arrival of Lauren, the wandering members gathered more closely around Lauren, all facing inwards and other stragglers showed up. When it appeared that everyone who was going to come had come, Lauren began: "I want to welcome you all to yet another of our weekly gatherings. Thank you all for coming!" More cheers and shouts rose from the crowd, several cows settled down where they were, most imitating Lauren's posture. "First, does anyone have any announcements that they'd like to make?"

A short and rather plump cow raised her head for acknowledgement. Her name was Bindy, a young cow conceived during the first furious months of the baby boom. She was 26 months old, but already full grown and sexually mature as a cow's growth rate determined. She was one of the first cows born on the farm named by family members as opposed to Rodney. She said, "I wanted to say that I've decided to have calves and Derick has agreed to father them for me!"

An announcement of this degree overshadowed almost anything else brought up in previous meetings. Bindy's words were met with a thunderous bovine applause (which consisted mainly of loud bellowing amid clacking hooves). Even Lauren managed to lift herself off a bit from the ground, stamping her hooves on the turf. With a proud grin on her face, Bindy took a seat on the grass, her nearby compatriots rubbing their snouts against her shoulders. It took several more minutes before someone else had the nerve to bring up more news after such an opening announcement. One cow told the others about her upcoming birthday and then others gathered the corage for less impressive announcements of weight goals achieved, new love interests, and interesting events of both skill and circumstance. The first hour easily passed as the assembled females, and one male, degraded the announcements into informal gab and gossip. To Lauren this was the most special part of the meetings; when everyone was most relaxed and themselves, unguarded. In a way it was most kin to her central philosophy of letting go and letting things take their own course.

It was only after the chatting grew stale and the members began splitting into their own groups that Lauren took action and called once again for order. She spoke softly, but the sound of her voice, deepened by the thickness of her neck, was distinct and carried enough weight to bring near silence in moments.

"Now that we've gossiped about all of the news here on the ranch, Denise here wants to talk about a new activity for our group that I think we can all get behind." Lauren said as she gestured strongly to the single ton bovine next to her.

As Denise spoke, she gave a couple swats of her tail towards Lauren, sending flies buzzing away off her prodigious hide, "We all know how prosperous life has been these last couple years. The children are flourishing, our lives are comfortable and we all manage to learn new things every day. I've been thinking for a long time now that we should celebrate our good times. We should have a party, maybe even a festival if we can get enough of the others to join us!"

The words were met cheers and applause even greater than that of Bindy's announcement. There hadn't been any truly special parties within the living memories of many of those gathered, and never had even one in the far off past had been conceived by the residents of the barn themselves; to all, this was truly a brilliant idea.

"A festival!" someone shouted.

"There can be banners!" cried another.

"... and streamers!"

"...and food!"

A great ruckus rose at the last suggestion; most any excuse to grab some extra nutrition was welcome, especially among this particular sect of the bovine community. Most of the rest of the gathering was spent making suggestions as to themes, what food and drink was needed, and how to procure the needed supplies. Lauren was happy to provide her input, but for the most part, she resigned to letting Denise head most of the decisions. Although, she couldn't help but stick her hoof into the discussions of food preparation.

It was well into the afternoon when the first cows began to disperse from the copse, everyone promising to spred word of the party and gather as many as they could into the effort. Lauren and Denise lagged behind until only they and a couple others were left and then they too rose and bid their farewells. Denise provided a friendly, and sturdy, shoulder to lean against as Lauren struggled to her increasingly heavy hooves; being leader was only partially the reason why Lauren was last to leave every meeting nowadays. Lauren walked a wide arc to turn back towards the ranch, Denise right at her side. However, before they had left the shade of the trees, there came a ruslting in the grass and a large figure walked towards the retreating pair from deeper in the forest.

Denise started, but Lauren remained placid, not even turning towards the oncoming shadow, having already identified her by scent. Cathleen strode next to Lauren on the side opposite of Denise. She was the shorter twin, but still quite tall on average. While downright miniscule in comparison to her bloated sister, or even Denise, Cathleen could not help but show some excess from her repeated pregnancies. Every year since her initial announcement, she had been pregnant, and even now, she was heavy with her fourth. Her belly was wide and spherical, not at all saggy. Her udder was enormous compared to the two virgins. It hung down between her hocks and was coursed with thick veins. All four teats were as large as a man's thumb, but still the bisecting ligament holding up the large pink sac was firm. She was still heavy with milk from last year's pregnancy, not yet having entered her dry period.

Cathleen nudged her sister's fat flank in greeting. "Well, hello, Cathleen. I haven't seen you since the start of the meeting, where'd you run off to?"

Cathleen took up a comfortable stride next to the other two as they continued their way towards the pastured land, allowing a slow pace for her over burdened sibling, "I left about halfway in to relieve myself and when I came back, everyone was so busy talking, I couldn't find my way back in again." Cathleen looked over Lauren's broad back to Denise, "I think your idea of a party is fantastic, Denise. It's about time we gave some appreciation of all the gifts we've had in the last couple years."

"Due in no small part to you and James's efforts." Said Lauren with a smile.

Cathleen looked away for a moment and then returned, "You're going to need to talk to Rodney about all of this, after all, the supplies at the very least are going to have to come from him."

Lauren nodded agreement, "Yes, but I don't want him too caught up in the celebration. I know he means well, but this is really for us and having him work on it seems a little odd. Besides, if I know him at all, if he gets involved a little, he's going to working through the night on expanding and improving... and he already has so much to do around here for all of us."

Cathleen nodded. "That's Rodney all right. Hopefully one of us can talk him into just giving us the supplies we need and letting us handle the work... and if we can't then Hollie certainly can."

Lauren laughed, everyone knew that she had him wrapped around her metaphorical pinky. The three cows walked back to their barn in light the discussion the whole way, and in lea of Cathleen's arrival, even Lauren felt some of the weight removed from her hooves.

The celebration grew to quickly envelop every member of the ranch outside of infancy. Anticipation grew, yet even with every member of the family supporting it, the sheer scale of the designs kept the celebration at bay. Supplies were ordered, yet improvements made afterwards rendered them inadequate until more could be ordered. So the pavilion and myriad banners and colorful decorations sat safely in their crates as the special part was delayed for first one week and then two as all awaited the final materials necessary to begin setting up.

Lauren, in the mean time was preparing for her much dreaded physical. Even once every four months seemed too often for Lauren who did not scoff at their medical importance so much as withdraw from being reminded that she was growing older and the costs of her lovely body were finally having to be paid. Despite Rodney's assertions that she do nothing out of the ordinary on the days of her physicals, Lauren stretched for a full half hour beforehand and ate only grass for breakfast, and then only enough to cut the edge off her hunger. Rodney was waiting for her in a somewhat secluded section of field behind his house in the "front yard." There were some others visible in the distance, but this was as much privacy as could be asked for anywhere else other than the woods.

Rodney had his clipboard with him, ready to mark Lauren's failing performance, or so she saw things. The man strode up to her and hugged her deeply.

"Right on time, Lauren. Need a minute before getting started?"

The cow over 17 times his weight shook her head, setting the folds of her neck and brisket aquiver.

"Ok, let's start with your weight. If you'd just step on the scale please." Said Rodney.

Lauren hated that "doctor-tone" that came into Rodney's voice whenever he was concentrating on something medically relevant. To her, it made him sound detached, as if her life were only pieces of a puzzle, or a math equation, not things that could add up to her living to see 28 or only 18. But she deeply respected his medical expertise and so did not hesitate or complain to any request he made of her.

The ribbed steel ramp creaked and bent a little under Lauren's immense girth, she was one of the heaviest whose weight needed to be kept track of outside of the now non-existent "Big-Barn."

"Thirty-six hundred, fifty-four pounds." Rodney muttered noncommittally for Lauren to hear as he wrote the number on his clipboard. As Lauren carefully managed to turn back around in the now tight space of the scale, she would have preferred surprise or even a shocked, "you really need to lose some weight!" to his apparent apathy.

For the next half hour, Lauren stood still for Rodney to feel around her body and take baseline heart and respiratory readings with a stethoscope. Mostly, he groped in non-visible areas including between her thighs, on both side of her belly, under her chest, and in the folding areas between her neck and shoulders. A hint of a smile peaked on Rodney's face as he concluded with swiping a clean finger under the thick crease under her loin and above the thighs, picking up only minor skin debris; it decreased Lauren's anxiety immensely.

"Well, you are certainly one very hygienic cow, Lauren. No skin infections anywhere, your lungs sound clear and your resting heart rate is normal."

Lauren heaved a sigh, both in relief and anticipation for what of course came next.

"Now we just have to check your fitness..." Rodney said, walking forward. He quickly pinned a small plastic button on Lauren's neck. She felt the pinch as the wireless heart rate and blood oxygen monitor bit into her skin. Rodney took the paper thin display from the pin's wrapper and stuck it under his clip. "Let's start by checking your flexibility. Lift out your front leg as high as you can, and remember to tell me when it hurts."

Already knowing the routine by heart, having practiced it for the last three years, she lifted her right front hoof, compensating for her weight with the remaining three. She could just barely reach a 45° angle lower from her shoulder, a far cry from her youth when she could reach almost even with her shoulder. As part of the physical, Rodney stepped forward and gently lifted the limb higher. When they had started, Lauren had felt no pain however high Rodney lifted her leg, barring excessiveness. Now Lauren, seconds after the joint creaked audibly, felt a sharp pain in her upper shoulder and she made a head motion for Rodney to see. The process was repeated quickly with the other limbs, save that her hind legs were bent backwards instead; they were done in under five minutes.

"Now we just have to get your heart pumping a little, Lauren. Remember, stay calm and go as long as you can. Start walking and then move faster until you're going as fast as you can manage and keep it up."

Lauren swallowed and took a deep breath as Rodney pulled out a small laser pointer that would measure her speed. Releasing her air, Lauren swung her belly into a smooth, rolling walk. She kept this up for about half a minute, moving around Rodney in a wide circle, her muscles were already warm and as ready as they would be. She moved out of her comfort zone, willing her limbs to move faster. Immediately, Lauren lost her prized rhythm and her left knee crashed into her belly, bouncing off to the side. Taking another deep breath, Lauren tried to develop a new rhythm and succeeded at least partially. Her dangling fat bounced hard and pulled uncomfortably at her skin.

"Faster, Lauren, your heart's still beating too slow." Rodney called, slowly spinning around to keep track of Lauren. Lauren closed her eyes and tried to get more out of her fat body. Ignoring the ungainly way in which her legs were forced to move around an enormous belly with too much inertia to move quickly enough, Lauren managed to climb into a slow trot, the fastest she had ever moved since her last physical. Rodney did not call out, but Lauren maintained the speed, even now trying to smooth out her motions, but it was desperately hard. In seconds, her muscles began to burn, and thankfully not to cramp. She began breathing deeply and then panting, all the while her large heart thudded, eventually moving into her chest.

Seconds passed like hours and all too soon, it was everything Lauren could do to manage the speed, she slowed involuntarily back into a swift walk, but even that did not help very much. Blood pounded in Lauren's ears and her legs ached unmercifully. She consciously stumbled, falling slowly and in a controlled fashion onto her chest and then rolling onto her side. Lauren's mammoth gut heaved as she gasped for air, pink flesh flowing up and down. Rodney waited patiently for her to recover. He stroked her head and wiped fresh sweat from her brow. Before even catching her breath fully, Lauren had to ask, "How did I do?"

Rodney shook his head, "Not very well, and certainly much worse than last time." Lauren's heart sank as she prepared for Rodney's figures and his new scheme for keeping her aging body active. She almost ignored him, but her curiosity as well as reason got the better of her.

"Thanks to Cathleen, who has been doing the same exercises as you have, I've been able to see how far off from, for lack of a better word, 'normal' you are for your age. Cathleen can jog for about fifteen minutes at 14MPH. Last time you trotted at an average of 6MPH for four minutes. Right now you had a top speed of 6MPH for about ten seconds, and you stopped after three minutes. Your heart rate spiked and your O2 levels dipped dangerously." He shook his head, "I'd definitely say this is cause for some concern."

Abashed at her retched performance, Lauren sighed briefly, then continued gulping deep breaths. Between them, she said, "I... I couldn't find a... good rhythm. Everything was bouncing around... and my energy left me right away."

Rodney nodded and rubbed up and down the crest of her belly as it shifted up and down. "Things get that way as you get older, your stamina fades and you get a little more stiff in the joints. As a friend and as your doctor I really think it's time to put some effort into trimming off a little of this belly of yours." He padded and squeezed her flesh playfully, but Lauren only moaned, knowing he would demand of her even more sacrifices from her diet. "Ohhh... why do I have to get old?! ...especially when you don't."

Rodney quirked his eyebrow at Lauren's strange remark, "But... I get old too Lauren, just-"

"Forget I said anything, Rodney." Lauren pleaded, having let loose some of her most private thoughts in her despair.

Rodney let the matter drop, at least for now. "Well, as I was saying, it's time now that you try and get some of this weight off you, lest you loose your remaining energy and mobility in the upcoming years. Really, Lauren, thirty-six hundred pounds is too much for you to be carrying. Mary was immobile at thirty-nine hundred, even if she was quite a bit shorter than you." Being compared to Mary in anyway made Lauren listen with rapt attention to rodney's sentence on her. "I think that you need a minimum grain diet, with most of your nutrients coming from grass and hay. You've been gaining these last couple years, and despite keeping it a secret for you," he jabbed at Lauren's prone belly, "it's starting to show. I'd like you to get on a slow loss, about the same as much as you've been gaining. Maybe within the next year and a half you can get back down to what you weighed when you were 14, though long term, I'd like you down below 3,000 pounds."

"What?!" Lauren couldn't help but exclaim, "But I'd have to lose over 600 pounds!"

"Lauren," Rodney said sternly, "You're going to be in your early twenties by the time you can even think about reaching this goal, problems might start cropping up as soon as 21, and then is not the time to start losing weight. Besides, you're thinking too much in human values. Six-hundred pounds is not as much as you think for a cow your size; with the right conditions, your body should naturally shed the first couple hundred easily. I guarantee that you've got at least 300lbs of water retained in there." Rodeny tickled under Lauren's arms and both laughed, lightening the tense mood between them.

Lauren sighed and looked back over her body. "Six-hundred pounds... That's still so much. I'm not at all sure I'll look right after losing so much..."

Rodney hugged her tightly. "You know I'll always be attracted to you Lauren. Isn't your health worth just a little of this?" He grabbed some fat at the base of her neck, "Especially when you have so much already?"

Lauren pushed at Rodney playfully. "You just say that because you know I could never get below a ton even if I tried."

Rodney leaned towards Lauren's lips, "You caught me..."

Lauren and Rodney kissed long and hard, trading breath beneath closed lids. Lauren finally pulled away. "I'll do it Rodney, but I'm going to need help with my hunger again, maybe the whole time I'm dieting and I'm not going to start anything until after the festival."

"Done and done sweetheart, but I'll hold you to your word when it's over... it really looks like its going to be spectacular."

"It couldn't have happened without you, Rodney."

The day the festival was set up, the ranch was truly a grand sight to behold. It had become so colorful and dotted with pavilions that it looked as if a small circus had set up on my lawn. Though forbidden from helping, except for the most minor tasks, the intelligent cows had managed to set up everything without too much trouble. Lively music sounded from speakers set all around the perimeter of the small fair and everywhere, there was food, chat and merriment of all kinds. Some of the most artistically inclined had set up their most recent works of art under one brightly hued tent, in another, two bulls were deep in a test of strength, horns interlocked and trying to force the other to the ground. Rodney walked among them all overjoyed to see such enjoyment and spontaneity out of his creations.

For the most part, he was an observer only, but Hollie was kind enough to keep him company during the festivities, her own status somewhat alienating her as well. Hollie was the oldest living bovine here; at 22 years of age, she was still rather active, but her thin frame now looked rather wasted as opposed to healthy. She still carried excess skin from her brief period of fatness and her many pregnancies, it collected mostly under her neck and chest, but also on her chest and hips. Her udder sagged, the central tendon loosening over time; it hadn't held milk in many years, but it was still quite heavy and the inner tissues were not up to the task of supporting it. About half of her outer ribs showed and her spine was scarcely covered with her hooks and pins jutting out sharply. She was the only one on the farm whom a real rancher might want to increase their weight.

Her mother's blue eyes shone, slightly clouded as she strode alongside Rodney. The two long-term lover chatted with each other and integrated themselves into existing conversations as best they could. Around midday, there was held one of the major events of the festival. As it was conceived of by the fat fetishists of the family, it was no surprise that there was an eating contest of truly massive proportions.

Laid out under the large central pavilion were two long low tables. Almost Japanese style, most of Lauren's conclave, including herself, laid upon mats in front of the table, there were also a few others of a non-fat oriented persuasion as well. Thus, the tables were quite densely packed, to the point where many's flanks were touching. Right now, there was an entire bale of hay, a full 40lbs, in front of each cow, but that was only stage one of a three part contest judged on both the speed and capacity of each cow.

Lauren, the favored winner of the competition sat at the head of one table, really, given her girth, that was the only real option as she would have taken up space for three cows if seated in the rows. On Lauren's right laid Denise and on her right laid the third heaviest on the ranch. Those known for a voracious appetite descended from Lauren down the table and eventually onto the one beside it. Most everyone at the party gathered around, some few were so disgusted by ideology of Lauren's sect that they refused to come (despite no one having thought the fair a bad idea), also the second and third courses were being brought out in volume, ready to be brought out to each contender immediately upon finishing their course.

The small crowd, consisting mostly of lanky yearlings just starting to fill out their new height, parted like water for Hollie and Rodney alike. Both headed instinctively for Lauren's side of the table. The super morbidly obese bovine was spread out in all her glory before the table stretching down from her head. Despite her obvious discomfort, she sat as the others did, balancing on her belly. Both flanks spread wide, equidistance from her spine. Her front legs were folded under her chest, invisible for all of the cellulite and her legs and thighs straddled her bulbous gut. Her assets were so large that her legs were hardly bent, though they had to turn outwards at a very wide angle from each other; she kept both hooves on the ground, keeping a small portion of her weight under control at all times. Under each cow was a wide carpet for comfort during the prolonged affairs of the contest. While one was enough for even the prodigious bulk of Denise, Lauren required two, again displaying the large disparity between the obesity of Lauren versus everyone else in the family. Hollie went forward and licked Lauren's cheek, giving her her blessing and spoke several words to her in the bovine tongue that Rodney had yet to grasp. When she left, Rodney felt obligated to go forward as well.

He placed his hand atop her soft shoulder, squeezing slightly, "Feeling ready for the contest, Lauren?"

The large cow laughed, shaking the loose skin all around her body, the voice issuing from the pendant on her breast said, "Oh Rodney, this isn't going to be a contest, it's going to be a massacre."

Rodney grinned, "I don't know, it's been a long time since you've last gorged and I think Denise has been training for this for a while." In response, the cow on Lauren's right flashed her teeth and winked merrily.

"Well... if anyone gets second, I'd want it to be Denise. I have to admit things would be a lot tougher without her around." Turning her head to the cow in question, Lauren said, "Good luck!"

"back at ya," said Denise.

A few moments passed as Rodney stroked up and down Lauren's heavy neck rolls before he added, "This really is a way to send your old diet out with a?"

Rodney got no further before Lauren interrupted with a very un-cowlike hiss, "Shhh! I don't want anyone to know about that yet."

Leaning into her ear, Rodney whispered, "It's not like its anything to be ashamed of..."

Lauren shook her head, "You wouldn't understand, now get back, or I might bite your hand off when we get started."

Not entirely sure if her threat was made in jest or not, Rodney backed up to where Hollie had decided to watch from farther down the table. He spoke to her quietly just as the last cart of food was wheeled out and put to the side. "This contest seems to mean a lot to Lauren, huh?"

Hollie, to whom Rodney had no secrets, medical confidentiality or not, replied, "Can you blame her? This could be the last time she has to be herself."

Rodney nodded in agreement, but knowing that he simply didn't have the same insight into the inner machinations of his more physical love mate as her mother.

Lauren's empty belly churned silently within her, a hunger gaping within her expansive middle burning at her every nerve. Lauren, however, knew how to cope, but even her patience was beginning to wear thin as she waited for the cue to start into the pile of roughage before her. Despite over three years since having stopped actively gaining, Lauren was still the same at heart, still the same glutton. Food was still a pleasure for her, one of the finest in this mortal world, and now, with nothing to look forward to for essentially the rest of her life but small portions and insubstantial meals, Lauren needed this outlet, this gorge, like she hadn't needed anything since finally breaking down and revealing her desires to Rodney all those years ago.

Rodney couldn't understand, he expected her to start her diet as soon as he laid out all of the facts. He had his urges, but in curing his insanity, he had rejected their very essence; he made love to Lauren simply because he was a man and had his needs, but he couldn't, no, was incapable of relishing in gluttony and fat like Lauren could. She still very much loved her body, loved food as well. And though she hadn't talked to Rodney about it, nor even had the nerve to bring it up privately with her mother yet, Lauren was having second thoughts to the extreme measures just to get an extra year or three out of her bloated body. These thoughts and others were wiped clean, much to Lauren's relief, when the chime of a large bell signaled the competitors to eat. Almost immediately Lauren lost herself in pleasure.

Everyone ate with their utmost ferocity, but it became clear all too soon that this contest was indeed a battle for second place. Rodney had seen Denise train hard for the contest ever since she had conceived of the fair. Indeed, he had helped her on several occasions and given her pointers to help increase her stomach volume. But even a month and a half of hard work on Denise's part paled in comparison to the massive eating machine beside her. Lauren had a real skill for over eating that hadn't paled with even three and a half years of dieting. An off moment of insight passed over Rodney, This is who she is. But the moment passed and left Rodney none the wiser though the words reverberated around his skull with a weight that belied their simple nature.

Sticking her nose into the pile of densely packed hay, Lauren practically inhaled the contents at a rate that was almost disgusting. She was finished by the time that Denise had finished half of her and most others were barely starting. Letting out a small, polite burp, Lauren still had a glint of hunger in her eyes as a member of those running the contest rolled a tray beside Lauren and slid her second course in front of her with his nose. Retreating, lest being caught in her feeding frenzy, the bull waited patiently for others to finish the hay.

On the cheap aluminum platter rested the second course, spaghetti. Out of necessity for the sheer volume needed, it was a cheap brand and was only buttered, but the family sized tray was piled high with easily twenty or thirty pounds of the stuff; Rodney doubted that the try could support its contents if lifted from the edges, so high it came over the brim. Lauren plowed her snout into the tray without a moment's hesitation. Never lifting her head from the pile of pasta, Lauren was just gulping down its contents, not even chewing, she swallowed and pulled more into her mouth and swallowed again. Her eating rate was increased further by the long strands that pulled themselves in as she gulped down perhaps a half pound at a time. Rodney hadn't seen her eat like this except in the very heights of her passion and wondered why she was taking such effort when her closest competitor hadn't even finished the hay yet. Her gluttony on full display, many in the crowd were shocked at the spectacle that Lauren was making of herself. He heard murmurs quietly spreading among the less accepting members of the family, and Rodney frowned. Though he would do nothing to stop her, Rodney wished ferverantly that Lauren would not damage her reputation too severely during this debacle.

Seemingly encouraged by her superior's gusto, Denise picked up her own pace and managed to start into her spaghetti by the time that Lauren was finished the last fourth of her tray. At first, Denise tried copying Lauren's technique, but her gag reflex was too strong and she started choking. Rodney started forwards, but Denise quickly recovered with a few laps at her water bowl and started again at a more reasonable pace. All too soon, Lauren's heavy plate was tucked away within her innards, over 60lbs of food not showing at all on her enormous girth.

Last came a 25lb chocolate cake. Again the brand was cheap, but the size could not be distributed. Lauren took a little more time savoring, but only a little. She still gnawed hungrily at the dish, oddly not spilling many crumbs, working from the center outwards. Denise, far ahead of any others by this point was only halfway done with her second plate by the time Lauren announced her victory with a resounding belch. The same bull who serviced her half of the first table brought forward a very elegant royal blue ribbon and set it before her (only after it had arrived had anyone realized that it was set with a pin rather than the intended adhesive back). Lauren nodded her head in defference, and with an odd glint in her eye, leaned over to the bull and whispered something in his ear. The young bull's eyes widened but he apparently acquiesced to the request of a distinguished matron 15 years his senior. Rodney wondered at what might have transpired until the young bull toted out yet another dense cake for Lauren. While not at all surprised by the ability of Lauren to handle so much food, he did marvel at the audacity of claiming a fourth plate, making it look as if food in volumes such that it was challenging for others to fully consume was not even enough to satisfy her. Rodney shook his head, She is making a pig of herself, what is everyone going to think? He had to fight down the very strong urge to go out and stop her, not only to prevent damage to Lauren herself, but also the people whom she took under her wing and idealized her. A less than subtle nudge from Hollie beside him helped to steady Rodney as his feet twitched in the grass. Surely Hollie can control some of the flak that will be flung towards Lauren from her gluttony today.

As the last morsel of chocolate cake disappeared down Lauren's gullet, and as Denise was finishing the last pieces of her first, the gluttonous giant finally heaved a contented sigh. She looked at her surroundings as if taking them in for the first time. As if arising from a daze, she watched the others continue with the competition, most of whom were still working on their second plate. With painful groans escaping her, Denise finished the last piece of her cake, and Lauren rewarded her with an affectionate lick on the cheek. Denise was still taking painfully shallow breaths as she was handed the yellow second place ribbon. Surprisingly, a rotund young bull, the very bull who often attended Lauren's meetings despite the gender disparity, came in third, beating out the other one ton females just down from Denise and Hollie. He wore a wide grin on his bloated face, his red ribbon turned blue in his eyes. Before the competition had ended, however, as soon as Denise had recovered somewhat, Lauren raised her 3,600lb body off the floor and waddled towards the shelter of the nearly abandoned barns. Rodney started to follow, but Hollie once again stopped him with her body. Before he could ask, she said sternly in a tone not often synthesized, "She doesn't need you right now, she needs privacy and the one person on the farm she can relate to."

Rodney looked downcast, but let them go even after Hollie stopped blocking her path. Because Lauren walked so slowly, it was up to Hollie to stop others from trying to follow her as well, already the gossip at the spectacle was rising to a fevered pitch, many had already lost interest in the competition and dropped out, just to watch where the fattest and most gluttonous cow on the ranch had gone. Rodney could only look at his feet and wished that Lauren trusted him enough to come to him in her own time.

In the old food closet of Mary's barn behind the pool, Lauren found the seclusion she wanted after losing control at the eating contest. Denise was with her and helped by closing the sliding door behind them. Lauren pulled the chain on the aging light bulb and was relieved when it didn't immediately pop. First clearing away some floor space among Mary's abandoned medical devices, Lauren prompted collapsed onto the floor, splaying out her hind legs mercifully. Denise took a spot in front of Lauren and eased her own considerable girth down to earth. She waited patiently for Lauren to speak, even as the moments began to turn into minutes.

At last Lauren spoke, "Thank you for coming, Denise. It's really nice having you here."

"It's always good being with you, Lauren." Said Denise.

Bashfully, Lauren turned her head away, "Look, about the contest..."

Denise stuck out her head and turned back Lauren's snout, taking her full gaze, she said, "You don't need to explain anything, Lauren."

"But I do, I really do. And I think that you're the only person who could understand what I'm going through right now. I know I've never spoken to you about this but it started earlier last year..."

Lauren went on to open her heart to Denise, first telling her about her failing mobility and the weight that slowly continued to rise just over a year after declaring to everyone that she had quit forever. The tale culminated with her admittance that she couldn't manage anything above a slow walk and Rodney's plans for her diet for the rest of her life.

"...and I know I'm too fat already, just walking tires me out like it never has before. I want to live but... but..." Tears started streaming from Lauren's eyes, but Denise respectfully gave her elder time, "I don't want to give up everything I love in life. I love my body and I love food. I've given up food for the last three and a half years just so I could walk, but I can't give up both. The idea of giving up even a little is repulsive, I worked so hard for so long, and yet... and yet I want to live too." Lauren shook her head and Denise remained silent, realized that Lauren had been holding this for longer than was probably healthy.

"It's not right, Denise, it's not right at all..."

For the first time since entering the closet, Denise spoke, "What's not right?"

"I don't know if you'd understand." Lauren said, shaking her head, "I'm old, I can feel it, but I don't feel old. And I don't mean that I'm young at heart, I mean I feel like I should be younger." A fresh stream of tears came from her large brown eyes, "It's so cruel, I feel barely middle aged and yet my body is that of a great-grandmother..." Lauren was silent for so long that Denise reached out and touched the side of her neck with her snout, thinking her outpour over, but she continued, more quietly, calming somewhat.

"I grew up with Rodney, you know. I grew up with the internet, with books and with him always there, teaching me, careing for me. He was my father. It's confusing... by the time I had learned to read and write, by the time I was just growing out of Nick Jr. and the Disney channel, I was already an adult. All of the things I did, all the things I watched and learned about told me I was a child and then Hollie whisked me away into the woods... I should be grateful, because it helped me grow up... fast." Lauren once again took a long look into Denise's eyes, "I was raised almost like a human child, and though now, all these years later, I know I am so very different, some part of me feels human... and it hurts. It hurts knowing I'm going to die probably within the next decade or even the next few years depending on what I'm going to choose to do right now. Either way, it's too soon, much too soon."

Lauren once again dissolved into sobs and Denise could do nothing but be there for her; which was all that Lauren really wanted anyways. When Lauren finally regained control of herself, it was to say, "I... I hope I haven't ruined the image of your strong, perfect leader."

Denise only smiled and licked Lauren softly on one flabby cheek, "I realize now that you're stronger than I've ever realized. To go through what you have... I could never cope. And look at what you've built here on the ranch, you've brought so many of us together. I can't thank you enough for all you've given of yourself."

Lauren dared risk a smile.

"So... I take it that you're afraid of dying, yet you don't want to give up the most fundamental things that make you happy, that are who you are, right?"

A little shocked at Denise's neat summation of her near half-hour's ranting, "Well... I guess you could put it that simply..."

Taking a deep breath, Denise said, "Well... would dying when you're 22 honestly hurt more than dying when you're 28? You said both were too soon."

"They are! I feel like I should live another couple decades at least! I-"

Lauren interrupted before Lauren could escalate herself again, "Then shouldn't you be happy for the years that you have? You can't do anything about dying in the next decade, except choose to live happily for the next few years or deny everything you love and try to squeeze by for several more years... either way, Lauren it's time to start letting go. I'm not young anymore myself... and while I grew up thinking that finding a frozen apple during the winter was a miracle, I know it does no good to worry about things you can't change. Plans are good, and it's a gift over our lesser brethren to be able to conceive of the future, but this, this anxiety you're putting yourself through... its downright human, and the Lauren I know would know better than to dwell on things that haven't even happened yet."

Denise straightened her spine and raised her head up to almost her full height. "It's time to decide what you value more in life. I can't make the decision for you, but I can say that living happily for a year is worth more than being miserable for three. Now... I think that there's still a lot more festival to enjoy and we're only burning time sitting in here."

Lauren smiled broadly and wiped the last of her tears off on the coat of her shoulder. She reached forward and embraced Denise with her neck, "I'm lucky to have a friend like you, Denise."

Snuggling against her larger companion, Denise responded, "I'm lucky to have someone like you to look up to... and around to." She stuck out her tongue and Lauren laughed.

Cathleen rose smoothly in place and Lauren said, "I'm lucky to have you around for more than one reason... lend me a hand"

Only too happy to help, Cathleen braced against Lauren's shoulder as the heavier cow rose a little shakily to her feet, her belly and udder jiggling.

"Phew... You know, Denise, I think I ate a little too much." Said Lauren as she left the secluded and dusty closet. Denise only laughed harder.

The next day, after the small fair had been packed up and put away for autumn (as the celebration was agreed to be held twice yearly for the shorter lived bovines) Rodney was pulled away from the storage sheds by Lauren. The two spoke in private under the awning of his porch. Although the porch was more than accommodating for a normal sized Holstein, Lauren, who was both tall and very, very wide took the safer option of sitting with her chest and forequarters under the porch while the rest of her spread out over the lawn. Rodney moved a chair close to her and let her start.

"Rodney, I've been thinking hard since last night about a lot of different things, including where I want to go in the next few years."

"Lauren..." interjected Rodney.

"Please let me finish, Rodney." When he capitulated, she continued, "I've decided that I want to lose weight, but..." even synthesized, her voice grew tight, translating her emotions, "But I'm not going to give up everything I enjoy in life just to live longer." Lauren gestured to the rest of herself with a flick of her head over her shoulder, "This, all of this is who I am. I love my body, and I love eating... I just cannot go back on everything I've lived my life for so far, even if it costs me the latter years of my life. Rodney, I've thought a long time about this, and I'd rather die five years from now at my weight than live for another ten and have to eat nothing but grass and drop half a ton. So I want you to help me diet in my own way. Can you do that Rodney?"

Rodney was silent for a long moment as he thought. How could she want this? She needs to lose as much as she can right now just to stay mobile! Doesn't she value her life... I don't want her to leave me... a flood of emotions tore through Rodney in those moments, most conflicting but reason finally came to the rescue as Rodney remembered that she had come to him for help, not to tell him to back off. It was his duty as a friend and a lover to help in any way he could. After all, he resigned, it is her body. Rodney also had to admit to himself that he would be there whatever her circumstances might be. What came out of his mouth finally was, "I can. I can for you, Lauren."

Lauren flashed him a smile and proceeded to tell Rodney about how she wanted to approach her diet. First and foremost, she didn't want any weight goals; to her if she lost any weight at all that was an improvement, certainly she wasn't looking to lose anywhere near 600lbs. Lauren wanted a Leptin supplement to take the edge off her appetite, but not so much that she felt she couldn't eat anything. Also, Lauren wanted Rodney to help her with water aerobics to replace the exercise routine she had given up when her stamina had begun to decline in earnest some nine months ago, really anything to help keep her on her feet. Lastly, Lauren said that she reserved the right to stop the diet whenever she thought that there wouldn't be that much of a difference anymore.

"Well, that's silly Lauren, a good diet can always make a difference."

She flashed a grin, "Then it doesn't matter if you agree to accept my terms then, does it?"

Slightly taken aback, Rodney still nodded his head.

Getting up took a few moments for Lauren since Rodney was unable to provide any sort of real assistance, when she did, though, "You know... I really liked it when you used to bribe me with a large meal for a good time, Science Man... I miss it, in fact." Lauren turned and waddled away, her swaying movements mesmerizing Rodney for several moments. After she was gone, he quickly left to fabricate some more of his special green patches.

The first week of Lauren's diet, she gained three pounds. After a minor adjustment, the following week she lost two pounds and then the next, she lost four. After that, Lauren started losing an average of 5-6 pounds a week. Despite Rodney's claims that the first weight lost would be water, and come off more easily than real fat, Lauren was encouraged. Lauren started water aerobics in the pool; Denise often joined her in support. Mostly it consisted of stretches and light activity to get her heart pumping, it felt invigorating after so many months of relative inactivity. However, on land, Lauren was still feeling her weight as much as ever, and with Denise hanging around her as if on an umbilical, it became easy for Lauren to ask her for things that she might have otherwise gotten for herself.

After losing a grand total of 84lbs, Lauren's weight lose ground to a near halt, each pound lost off set by more gained another week. For her efforts, Lauren wasn't rewarded with so much as an iota of visible loss, though she did indeed feel slightly better physically, though she attributed that to her renewed exercise rather than her lost weight. After the weight simply refused to come off anymore, Lauren went back to Rodney to ask why it had stopped so suddenly.

"Well, honestly Lauren, I can't say for sure off the top of my head. I would have thought you'd still be losing weight, especially considering how heavy you are. You've definitely burned through your water weight by now, and maybe a little fat. But your body is really struggling to hold on to your weight." He shook his head, "I guess you've been heavy for so long, that you body's gotten used to it. You see, we each have a "comfort-zone" that our bodies naturally tend to push towards in weight. Some people's zones are higher than others, sometimes very much so, but I've never heard of anyone of your comparative obesity struggling to lose weight so much. I mean 600-800 pound people readily drop hundreds of pounds, even if most gain it back right away. But Lauren, the weight just doesn't seem to want to come off at all, and that has me concerned, especially given these metabolism readings..."

"Save me the jargon, please, Rodney. Are you saying that I'm probably not going to lose a significant amount of weight in the future without an extreme diet?"

"Well... I mean you could still lose some if you made some reductions in your diet..."

"Enough to matter..."

Rodney finally lost his patience with her, "Lauren, you're the one who keeps telling me not to set weight goals! I'm telling you, it would take 600lbs and more to make a difference in the long term, even 300 wouldn't help that much. You need to get on the ball or you're going to lose everything!"

Lauren was silent for a moment after Rodney's outburst and he immediately regretted it. "Well, I think this diet's gotten me as much as I can expect. I'll still exercise with you, Rodney but just let me eat what I want... and take the patch out from between my legs would you."

"Lauen... please think about this. You mean so much to me... I don't want to lose you."

She snuggled up close to Rodney, "I know Rodney, but I want to live in the moment, like Denise has been teaching me. That's going to mean letting go of me at some point. I mean even mother hasn't been feeling too well of late. You need to prepare for both of us to leave us, my young immortal."

"Please don't talk like that, Lauren..." Rodney said quietly, he hated her newest pet name for him.

"I want to be happy, Rodney. But I can't do that if you're not happy with me." She leaned against him, letting her brisket graze the crotch of his jeans, "Won't you come back to the barn with me. You can take off my patch, and maybe find something else as well?"

Desire rising, Rodney felt strong enough to ward off his despair for the moment as he followed Lauren out to her stall.

It didn't take very long for Lauren to tell that she was gaining a substantial amount of weight. She could feel the pressure on her joints and mere months after the cessation of her diet, Lauren felt that she was at her heaviest ever, and the weight still kept piling on. But Lauren couldn't bring herself to do anything about it. She was happier with her figure and her portions than she had been even while she was gorging during her "growing-years." She didn't force herself to eat, but Lauren didn't hold back either, she ate went she was hungry and Lauren could see nothing wrong with that. Of course, it was handy having Denise around to bring her meals at those times when Lauren couldn't muster up the energy to get up. Though far from immobile, in Lauren's opinion, she still found it increasingly wearisome to move about, even if her graceful gait hadn't yet abated her.

Gradually, very gradually, Lauren became more sedentary as the months passed. Occasionally she used to ask people to come to her stall if they wanted to chat, preferring instead to go to them; now it was the other way around. Also Lauren wandered less about the grounds, usually doing her business at the bare minimum distance required. Despite the effort, however, Lauren made sure to make the trek to the copse where her weekly meetings were held, despite now needing to rest about halfway through. Concerned about her ability to care for herself, Denise traded stalls with one of Lauren's neighbors, and Lauren was grateful for the friendly company... and greater ease of service.

In the fall of the year of Lauren's 18th birthday, she found herself walking alongside Cathleen. The fall celebration had passed the two sisters taking time to catch up with one another. While Lauren has been living free and easy for some time now, Cathleen has been increasingly busy with her growing children, all eight of them. For the moment, however, the two were free of responsibility and were, for the most part, enjoying each other's company.

Despite being of identical age, the two sisters were now very different physically. Cathleen had a well worn, mother's body. Now almost two years since delivering the last of her children, Cathleen's udder was shrunken and free of milk, however, it was still very large and heavy. It hung well down past her belly between her legs, the central ligament holding strong despite it's frequent use, more than a match for Lauren's own. Not one to skimp of meals, Cathleen's belly was even with her chest, however, she still boasted definition on her aft ribs, spine as well as her hooks and pins. For her age, Cathleen was extremely healthy and fit, the model Holstien for her age category.

Beside her ambled along Lauren, whose extreme weight and age were weighing much more heavily on her. Her breaths came deep and steady, but it was all Lauren could do to keep up with her sister who had halved her walking speed just to stay with her. Lauren didn't know how much she weighed, but she was sure that it was more than she had ever weighed in her life. The last year and more had all but robbed Lauren of her much prided grace in movement. Her knees felt stiff and a persistent ache in her right hip had Lauren resting from her walks long before she felt winded anymore. Still she just managed to keep from bumping her belly as she walked even if she could no longer manage the rolling swagger of yesteryears.

Finally she could bear the pain no more, "hold on, Cathleen. Let's rest here a moment, my hip's hurting me again."

Cathleen strode effortlessly back to where Lauren had stopped and the taller sister could not help but feel a little envious at her ease of motion.

"Maybe you should have Rodney look at that, I heard that hip pain in older cows, especially heavier ones can be a sign of hip dysplasia..."

"I know, Cathleen, and I already told him about it. He said the only thing you can do about it is take pain killers, lose weight or have surgery. But surgery is pointless on someone as heavy as I am."

Cathleen was about to open her mouth to speak, but Lauren snapped, partially out of pain, "I know what you're going to say, so don't bother. It's too late to think about losing weight anyways. I'm at the age where it won't make a difference."

"It always makes a difference, Lauren even if its not the sort of impact you hope for." Cathleen smiled brightly at Lauren and she couldn't help but feel guilty for her outburst.

"I'm sorry, it's just my hip..."

"I know, you don't have to say anything."

Lauren took a deep breath, still standing on her three good legs, "It's funny, you know, looking at the two of us; how much of a difference our choices can make in a lifetime..."

"Lauren... your choices are just as good as mine. You and Rodney... I could never have that. And you've lived doing what you love. Sometimes, I wish I could be as happy and carefree as you."

This surprised Lauren. Her sister, envying her? Though fairly sure she was just saying that to be nice, Lauren was still nonetheless touched. Limping over, Lauren snuggled against her sister. "You're right, Cathleen. Whatever happens, I think I can be happy. You're here, Mother's here, and Rodney, all of you are with me. I think that's as much as I can ask for."

Cathleen graced Lauren with another smile and the two walked on, chatting about theirs lives and nothing in particular.

<+ any material pre-20's>

It was summer after Lauren's 19th birthday and Rodney and she were making love in her stall. Rodney thrust hard with his arm, naked down to his boxers. Sweat beaded his brow, but Lauren was drenched with it. It was only the first time of the evening, but Lauren was already exhausted. She stood, belly down firmly to her ankles whereas before they had simply been entering their space. Despite making no comment about it, Lauren was visibly fatter. It showed on her shoulders and neck, both of which were thicker, but more obvious was the full foot in width she had gained across her back. Lauren's heart beat, but more from exhaustion than excitement. Rodney worked her masterfully, sending waves of pleasure up her spine, but it was conflicted with the weakness in her limbs. Lauren felt as if she were trying to lift some massive weight on her back and she knew this was simply the mass of the body she valued so dearly, even locking her legs only postponed her collapse, and increased her agony. As the final straw on a house of cards, Lauren's right hip flared, lacing molten fire all the way from her thigh to her lower back on that side of her body.

Between pants, Lauren gasped, "...Rodney! ...Rodney! ...I..."

Lost in desire, Rodney roared back, "Lauren, yes, Lauren!"

"I... I can't... I need to lie down!"

Tipping forward, Lauren collapsed heavily onto her chest, pulled Rodney with her. The suction around Rodney's arm proved too great, but pulling even a comparatively small body such as his, hurt Lauren's vaginal walls terribly. Still gasping for breath, Lauren apologized incoherently, starting to feel lightheaded from exertion.

"Lauren..." Rodney muttered. Under his breath he said quietly, but not so quietly that Lauren couldn't hear with her ears trained on him, "Why wouldn't you listen to me?" Just trying to catch her breath a challenge, Lauren wasn't in a position to argue with Rodney as he packed up his things, and the remains of the enormous meal he had brought her and left rather abruptly after making sure Lauren hadn't injured herself. Tears rolled down Lauren's snout, she had never once felt inadequate for Rodney, until now.

It was some weeks before Rodney made love to Lauren again. Lauren asked Rodney to try doing it while she was already lying down, but the experiment quickly failed; more due to Rodney's lack of passion than anything else. For the first time, Lauren felt unattractive, as if she weren't able to elicit a response from Rodney. Indeed, it was her weight that became a constant reminder for Rodney that she was growing more and more incapable, and that much closer to her ultimate fate. Rodney took some time to reconcile himself to the fact, but in that time, Lauren slipped into a depression, using food as a main source of comfort. Unbeknownst to her, Lauren's weight finally ballooned up past 3,800lbs.

"Lauren, how much longer are you going to lie in there? People are starting to worry, I'm starting to worry..." Denise spoke to Lauren who had refused to come out of her stall for nigh on three weeks now. Denise had been there in that time, dutifully bringing Lauren her food and removing the waste bucket she used in lea of going outside. But enough was enough; Denise's role model was shaming herself and in turn everyone who looked up to her. She couldn't stand seeing such a beautiful and charismatic cow do this to herself. Lauren banged on the door to the stall with one hoof. "It's about time you came out, don't you think, Lauren? You can't stay in there forever!"

Lauren finally responded to Denise's persistence, "I don't want to come out! Rodney can't stand to look at me anymore! I'm fat and useless and old. I want to die!" More sobs erupted from behind the sealed sliding door.

"Lauren, I've been waiting all this time for you to get over this, but I can see now that this is a serious problem. Let me in so we can talk about it."

"No, Denise... just go away will you? Just go away or bring me some more barley... I'm hungry."

Denise couldn't believe how much Lauren had become like a child, that struck a nerve. "No, Lauren. I'm done fetching you food. Let me in an talk about this like an adult or sit in there and starve!"

Several soft thumps announced the rising of the near two ton bovine, but instead of unlocking the door, the wood behind the sealed grate of the viewing portal slide aside, revealing Lauren's eyes. They were red and tear streaked, but there was a more familiar ferocity within them that Denise almost felt relief for, until she realized that it was being trained on her. "You wouldn't..." Lauren practically growled.

For once in a position of control, Denise found it easy to deny the two ton baby. "No Lauren. Not until we talk."

The wood slid closed and a heavy slapping noise confirmed that Lauren had laid back down. She refused to speak anymore and Denise was finally forced to leave.

Thinking over the next few hours about how to gain admittance to Lauren's stall proved unnecessary as a scant four hours later, Lauren was begging for food through the thin wood wall separating her and Denise's apartments. Lauren would have probably agreed to giving up her computer or one of her legs at this point, so it was easy to buy her off with even a modest bucket of grain.

When the gate unlocked, Denise slid it aside and walked through the more familiar double swinging gates. Denise handed the gargantuan cow her bucket who immediately began wolfing it down, and took a seat in front of her bed. The food was gone within three minutes and Lauren eyed Denise dangerously. "Well, you've forced your way in here nicely haven't you, Denise?"

"Lauren, I'm sorry but I wanted to talk to you. It can't go on like this, look at yourself, you're eating yourself to death." The words were painful for Denise, and almost contradictory to her firmly held ideologies, but they needed to be said once she had gotten a good look at Lauren.

Yet again, she was visibly heavier, but to Denise it was definitely detrimental to her health and so against her philosophies. It wasn't much on her vast frame, but seeing it at all after so little time as three weeks was proof that Lauren had been busy. Denise almost grimaced when she thought that every new inch on her frame was due to food that she herself had fetched for her. Lying down Lauren was wider than Denise had ever seen, and more fat dangled from her neck. Shoulders had crept farther up the base of her spine and her cheeks were just a sliver fuller. Though Denise could not deny that Lauren was even yet more attractive, she was threatening to immobilize herself with her conditions, if she already hadn't.

"I already ate myself to death a long time ago..." Lauren muttered, her tone losing her initial anger and sinking back into her despair.

Denise couldn't stand watched her valued mentor bash herself, especially considering the cause. She knew about her and Rodney, everyone knew. And Denise was a little surprised to find that she harbored anger for the man who had reduced Lauren so. "Lauren, you need to keep going on, you're not even twenty yet. You've still got the rest of your life ahead of you."

"What's the point, Denise?" Lauren's eyes gaped hungrily at Denise's looking desperately for answers. "What's the point when he won't touch me? He was everything, he..."

Denise interrupted before she could begin a tirade, "Rodney... Rodney has his own issues. Why are you doing this to yourself because of him?"

"All my life I've done everything I could to be beautiful. I ate and ate and ate until I nearly killed myself and after all that, this is all I have to show. I used to think that fat was beautiful, but now..."

"Lauren, can't you see? You are beautiful! I'd give anything to have your body, and I still work at it, a little everyday." Denise looked around and found a copy of the book Lauren had written off a shelf. "Look Lauren, you wrote this,"

The thick pile of printed pages was bound by a simple plastic spine. On its cover read, "Fat and Happy: A guide to balancing beauty and life."

"Are those not your words? Are you telling me that this is nothing but a bunch of lies? This used to mean something to you once."

Lauren looked at the book as if for the very first time. With her nose, she turned to the introduction. Her eyes were shining with recollection and Denise waited until she had finished her book's opening words.

<Maybe include words here>

Lauren heaved a great sigh as she finished and when Denise looked again into her mellow brown eyes, she could see that she was whole again, if still troubled.

"I've been so... stupid. I forgot that I had done all of this for myself, never for Rodney." She turned and glanced over her shoulder back at her prodigious body expanding behind her. She winced as if just noticing her gains, "Denise, I don't think I've been balancing my life very well..."

Denise went forward then and pressed her own fat chest against her larger sibling's. They crossed necks, both dripping tears of happiness on each other's shoulders.

Although renewed at once again overcoming grief and pain, Lauren's body fought bitterly for every pound on her fattened body. Once again, Lauren was forced to resign her diet, though this time accepting a permanent Leptin patch to ensure that her weight was stabilized and not growing. However, the damage was already done. Between her worsening hip problems and her extreme weight, Lauren was forced to accept that she was now bedridden. She could stand and even walk a little when she needed to, but that was all. Lauren could scarcely make it out of the barn before being forced down by the pain in her hips, now spread to both sides.

Very shortly after her 20th birthday, Rodney diagnosed Lauren with type II diabetes. That meant a drastic change in her diet as well as daily injections. It was a fairly miserable state to be in, but even staying in bed for the most part, Lauren didn't gain anymore weight and actually began dropping stray pounds here and there as time passed. Denise and Cathleen and even Rodney (who had finally come to terms quickly after seeing the damage he had done to her) were always there for her.

Lying in her stall, Lauren was now 21 years of age. While not having gained very much since the development of diabetes, the very fact that she was so enormous, weighed heavily on her aging bones. Standing up, as she rarely did nowadays, Lauren's belly dripped down to the tops of her hooves, within six inches of the floor for the majority of its surface area. Spreading out twice the width of her shoulders on either side, her flanks defined Lauren as the fattest cow on the ranch. Multitudes of rolls bunched at the base of her neck, sitting or standing. Multitudes of folds and globules of flesh dangled from the age-loosened skin of her thick neck. Her brisket was lumpy and dangled as if hung by a single string, coming even with her snout. Lauren's loin was awash with fat, spilling over her thick, meaty thighs Where she lay for most of her days, Lauren filled nearly half of the floor space of the roomy stall.

She drew deep, steady breaths, content, if not full, after her breakfast. Despite her conditions, Lauren had finally found peace. Like Denise had said to her several years ago, Lauren had finally managed to let go of most things. She took her downward progression in health in stride. She did what Rodney recommended, but not really trying too hard to live longer. She was living in the moment once again. She now lived for the special moments that she and Rodney shared as well as lending Denise her insight, though her younger sister had masterfully embraced most, if not all, of her philosophies. Of everything she had accomplished in life, Lauren was most proud of her young protégé.

Filling all of the gaps in the sect of fat fetishists that Lauren was now no longer able to fill was Denise. She took the added responsibility with stride and led the small group to ever newer heights of creativity and affluence. Lauren was well aware that she was gradually being phased out many group activities, become something of a relic, but again she was fine with this, Lauren was done worrying about things about which nothing could be done.

Lauren was dozing lightly with the ease of which only advanced age could bring when Denise walked into her stall and woke her gently with a nudge of her snout. Lauren fluttered her eye lids open, her brown eyes just slightly clouded and beheld Denise in the prime of her life. She carried her 2,900 pounds with great ease, having finally found her own rhythm. Her flanks and hips spread wide, carrying most of her weight in her belly. Denise's neck and brisket was not greatly folded, and the folds that were there were ordered, almost classy. Here, Lauren thought, is a gorgeous face to represent our community.

"Howdy, Lauren." Said Denise merrily, taking a seat on the remaining floor space. "How're you managing today?"

Lauren thought about how kind it was of Denise to visit her everyday, "Oh, I'm managing alright." Said Lauren with a chuckle, "What's new outside the barn today?"

"Well, I think you might like to know that Cathleen is a great-grandmother now."

"Really?" asked, Lauren, brightening up, "Who's the mother, would it be that young one, April? She always struck me as mother material."

"That's right, you ol' gal. she gave birth to two live ones last night." Denise laughed, "Poor Rodney's getting concerned about how he's going to house all of us at the rate we're expanding."

"He'll think of something, he's always full of plans. Now tell me more about yourself, you look gorgeous, are you still gaining?"

Denise could have blushed, "Aw, thank you. That means a lot coming from you, and yes I am still gaining, at least for the moment. I think I'm going to stop soon though."

"All for the best, dear."

"Hey, did you want to hear this story from last week's meeting? It's so funny..."

Lauren and Denise chatted for a long time. Lauren happy to have a fresh source of news and some lively conversation, Denise happy to be with her respected elder, always learning from her. But, as all things do, their time was soon over as Lauren had other things to take care of around the ranch. Lauren once again fell into an easy doze, reminiscing about days past in her mind; always she luxuriated in the sensations her body fed her. Even so disabled, Lauren could not deny she loved being fat. Also, from the way Lauren saw things, she is much better off than Mary ever was, poor thing.

Lauren rested easy the rest of that day, and well into the night, even after Rodney came to deliver her nightly injection. Waking in the middle of the night, Lauren found herself oddly alert, not at all sleepy. She looked around in the near pitch dark of her stall. Pressing backward with her front legs, she managed to get her front hooves on the ground, her belly still pressing against the back of them. Reaching to the side of one wall, she managed to grab her computer's interface and get it around her forehead. The machine whirred to life and Lauren quickly opened a new word document, her actions completely unhindered in cyberspace. Feeling the urge to write like she hadn't felt in years, Lauren began, "My Memoirs: The life of an obese cow. By Lauren..." Silently new words scrolled across the screen and all through the rest of the night.