A young cat anthro glanced down at a gold colored coin he found on the ground. The cat anthro, Luna, had just left the temple and was at the top of a large flight of stairs that led up to the temple. He stood next to a large red pillar that was adorned with gold Chinese letters that his phone translated to 'Surprise Mystery Temple' though he was confident that wasn't the name of that temple. The flight down stairs was long, and he wasn't looking forward to it. He hadn't noticed the gold coin coming into the temple. He could only assume someone stood by the large pillar, a pillar bigger than most tree trunks, to take a picture, went back downstairs, and dropped the coin on the way.
Here he was at a Chinese temple having a very peaceful day when he just found a random coin that seemed so out of place he was shocked nobody saw it.
He noticed the symbols '千万両' written on the coin, symbols that probably wouldn't translate into an English story at all and probably appear as just some weird question marks. It was a warm sunny day out with a hint of a chill, and surprisingly a vacant temple. Luna, the cat in question that saw the coin, had expected a gift shop of some sort within the temple, but then again he'd vacationed in more than a few tourist traps before.
Luna was an honest cat, he'd give it to someone if they lost it, yet the temple was vacant. 'Whoever lost this is probably long gone.' He figured he could just hang onto it and if someone asked, he'd return it.
Just as Luna tried to put the large golden coin, big enough to fit onto the palm of his right paw in his pocket, he couldn't move it! The coin was firmly stuck to his furry right paw. He tried to grab it with his left hand and yank it off, but it was as if the coin was part of his right paw, as if the entire thing was glued to his hand.
He immediately suspected glue, or some sort of adhesive stuck to it. Maybe someone put the coin there for him to pick up, as if it were some kind of weird prank, yet he saw no sign of a camera. The coin didn't have any indication that it had some sort of sticky adhesive when he picked it up. It just looked like an ordinary coin on the side he picked it up, and it would have stuck to the ground if the adhesive was on the other side. It perplexed him to no end. He could wiggle his fingers around the coin, but that was as much as he could do with his hand.
'I need a bathroom to wash this off, but where is one?'
He had just walked out of the temple and saw no bathroom, but he figured maybe he missed the sign. All of the signs that they retrofitted into the temple were Chinese that he couldn't read, but maybe his phone could help him out, even if it translated so poorly.
Moreover, the temple was so old that it existed before modern indoor plumbing did, but they surely put in a bathroom in the temple, or at least had signs to point to one. He'd just have to look around until he found it, or at least some form of running water to try to pry off this golden coin.
Luna walked around the temple seemingly aimlessly and pulled at the coin every few steps, neither going very well for the young cat. He had already explored most of the old temple before, so the details hardly mattered much to him. The temple was amazing, but the golden coin had his thoughts too distracted to focus on anything else.
What was more important was getting this coin off him. He'd never be able to go through airport security with a giant metal thing! Moreover, it was feeling heavier by the minute. It took Luna a moment to realize it wasn't just the coin that was feeling heavy, but he was also feeling so... lethargic! He couldn't describe what was happening outside of it and felt as if his own stomach felt akin to lead. Luna wasn't the kind of cat that exercised all the time, but he'd at least describe himself as fit enough to walk around without getting so tired.
With every step, Luna felt his legs shake from his own weight. He told himself he wasn't tired. He had walked around for ages before today, and it wasn't as if it was a hot day out either. He had no reason to be as exhausted as he was, yet the feeling of heaviness inside of him was getting worse, as if his very insides were holding onto weights that made it more exhausting to step forward.
Luna paused and took a deep breath. He glanced down at his body and ran a hand over the top of his clothes. His torso felt... harder in addition to heavier? It was as if he weighed more than 400 pounds, and so much of it focused purely on his stomach. 'Maybe I'm just getting sick from all of that new food I've been eating.' He concluded, but it was just a feeling of heaviness, not illness. His stomach had a bit of a jut to it, but nothing that told him he was as fat as he thought he weighed. A quick glance to the left and right, and a raise of his shirt confirmed he wasn't nearly that fat, yet he felt so much denser than he appeared to be.
Unable to keep going on with such a strange feeling of heaviness, a leaden feeling that focused so strangely on his torso rather than his legs, Luna took a seat on a nearby wooden bench. He thrust his rear upon that bench and, as he applied all of his weight to it, he could hear the bench creaking and groaning as if it were taking on an excessive amount of weight, yet here Luna was looking completely normal, just feeling bizarre!
'I guess I can't be sitting here long.' The young cat thought with a sigh. He could only assume the bench was old, though the bench itself had no wear and tear that indicated that it was as old as it felt. He swore he was causing the bench to bend down from how heavy he weighed. He couldn't get over how he just looked so ordinary, yet the world acted as if he was this massively obese person, even his own body felt that way!.
Luna didn't want to sit on this bench for long. He just wanted to be there long enough to understand what strange thing was going on to his body. He glanced down and raised his feet with seemingly ease while he continued to sit on the bench. He could only assume he wasn't that tired if he could lift his feet up so easily, yet he still had the feeling of heaviness, a feeling focused around his torso. He reached down to feel his stomach, and he felt something incredibly bizarre as he rubbed his fur. His stomach looked ordinary, but the delicate touch of his fingers gave him a sensation he had never felt before.
While he could still feel his fur and flesh, it felt almost like solid rock underneath his shirt, as if he had several stone abs, though he didn't show any muscles at all! Part of him wanted to pull off his shirt to get a better look at his body again, but he was technically in a public place and didn't want to pull it off too much. He settled for raising it just enough to get a look at his belly again. His furry belly looked slightly swollen, but it was barely noticeable. He gave the belly a poke, and it was almost as if a furry blanket was placed atop a rock, and here he was poking at it. He gave his belly a squeeze, but he couldn't pull a single ounce of fat or muscle, it all felt like a rock! He recalled the one time he had a pudgy belly from overeating one winter and how one could squeeze and pinch the fat in their body when they were overweight. Despite looking chubby, it was as if he were trying to pinch and pull skin and fur on his shoulder. He 'could' wrap his fingers around his warm furry body, but he couldn't pinch and lift it up at all! While he examined his belly, his chubby belly began to grow larger, though he was oblivious to the growth as he was more worried about how hard he felt. Plus, he was examining the rest of his body. His arms, his legs, even his cheeks to see how hard they were, though they felt normal to pinch and touch.
By now, Luna knew he had to at least get back to his hotel so he could figure out what was going on with some sort of privacy, and a way to get help if needed, since nobody seemed to be coming to the temple for one reason or another. He tried to pull himself up, only to find that it was nearly impossible to stand! He just couldn't lift his gut up. His body felt as if it were trying to lift an immense weight, a weight that no man could maintain. He put his hands onto the bench and used both his hands and legs to pull himself up. He managed to stand, but his legs quivered with the weight on his stomach. "Just... one step at a time." He told himself with a deep sigh. 'I don't know what's going on, and part of me doesn't want to know, but I've got to figure this out!'
Unfortunately, Luna couldn't get very far. His legs weren't just tired, but they were getting painful from all the weight placed on them. Moreover, his belly was visibly getting bigger and bigger. He tried to grab onto his furry growing belly, just as his shirt began to pull upwards from how big his gut was getting, but it was like holding a rock with a soft blanket over it. He swore he had made that comparison before, but it was hard to make a variety of comparisons over what was happening when he was already panicking so much about it! 'Nyah!' He grit his teeth and strained to hold his belly up, but to no avail.
His belly continued to grow and grow in size. Luna, once a normal cat anthro, was now looking beyond chubby with a belly far heavier than he could have ever imagined. With every pound, it felt as if an extra 5-6 pounds were added to his frame. Unable to help himself, he fell to the ground on his knees. Even on his knees, it felt so painful to hold up his belly as it kept growing. It was more tolerable on his knees, but still so painful. He just wished he could rest on something soft, like a giant pillow.
"Ugh." His shirt was now doing so little to hide his fat furry belly. He was looking more and more like an obese cat. The very 'fat' on his gut was spreading to his arms and legs, and it was weighing just as heavy. Unlike his gut, he could still lift his arms, though the arm with the coin was hard to keep up for long periods. He rested the arm with the glued on coin atop of his furry fuzzy belly as he tried to figure out what to do. He could try dragging his gut, but that sounded painful. He moved his legs back, as if to try to pull his stomach, but it was like dragging an anvil attached to him, a virtual impossibility to move.
Luna took deep breaths while his eyes fixated on his massive gut. He was glad his pants still fit, even if his top didn't. Still, he couldn't kneel here forever with a giant belly on display. Forget the hotel! He had to get help! He mentally kicked himself for not taking his phone with him. He brought a fancy camera to take high quality pictures and just opted to keep his phone off him so as to not be distracted at the scenery around him, the scenery which he now paid so little attention to in part thanks to his transforming body.
Luna raised his head briefly, not to look around at the beautiful scenery around the temple, but for any sign of help. He saw not a single soul in the temple but himself, and wondered about the hours of visiting the temple. He was sure he came when it was open, though nobody was really around the entire time, not even at the guard post, but the gates were open. 'What if they closed? But it's still bright outside. Is it a holiday? National fat cat day?' He tried to pull himself up, only to wince at how heavy his belly was. He knew there was no way he could lift this without assistance of some sort!
Luna then turned his attention to the coin in the palm of his hand. 'Is this coin... bigger?' He pondered. He put the coin down on the ground and tried to pull himself up with it. The coin was nearly big enough to use as a makeshift cane, though a very small one. He managed to stand up, but his belly was inches from the ground while he kneeled over, using the coin to support his weight as much as he could. The coin seemingly dangled from his palm. He figured if it was stuck to him, he may as well try to support himself on it. Who knows, he might break it that way!
Luna practically dragged his feet along the ground as he walked forward step by step. His gut wasn't growing anymore, but it still felt like a massive anvil, and he hated the idea of dragging his belly, as that sounded far more painful than lifting it. His top was feeling so uncomfortable that he wanted to just throw it off. His pants shuffled along the ground, just barely staying on him as well, but he was determined to maintain some form of dignity!
Luna dragged himself to the front of the temple. He wasn't sure how he made it as far as he did, but every step felt like an eternal struggle with his muscles screaming at him to stop. He fell back onto his knees at the entrance of the temple and let out a loud groan. "Uhn... someone help!" He called out. He wasn't quite outside the temple, just at the entry doors. Had he been able to walk another ten steps, he would have been outside.
Luna placed his paws on the coin again and tried to lift himself again, but with no avail. His body was just too heavy for even the coin to support himself. He raised the coin and glanced at the massive thing still glued so firmly to his hand. 'It feels like my body is made of this thing.' He did his best not to say any four letter words, or dare he say, the dreaded five letter words about his predicament. He was a massively fat cat that was so big he couldn't lift himself. He was, while not necessarily walking, he was a talking fat joke. 'Luna is so heavy that he can't lift his own gut.' He thought to himself with a sigh.
Luna glanced at the coin in his paw and carefully examined it. He thought about the stories he commissioned about becoming a Japanese cat, or another cat entirely. He had expected to be able to translate the Chinese words on the coin, but to no avail. Even if he were becoming a Chinese cat, there was no way he'd be as obese as he was. He was so fat that he couldn't lift himself! Massive obesity like that was for American cats, not Chinese ones.
"Does the coin look different?" He asked aloud. There was little point in thinking to himself, maybe if he talked to himself, someone might be able to hear him. "Gee, here I am stuck in place with a massively heavy SOLID GOLD COIN." He wasn't sure what the coin was actually made of, but as he inspected it, he slowly came to realize that maybe calling the coin gold was not as big of a stretch as he thought.
He then recalled an extremely old story about the man with the golden touch, a man that would turn everything he touched into gold. He pondered if maybe the coin was cursed in that way. If he was turning into gold on the inside, then that would explain a lot about what was happening to his body. His fur wasn't turned to gold though, just the gold coin he held onto.
'Okay, think Luna. What can you do?' His mind raced with ideas. He was immoble and stuck as a massively obese fat cat. He didn't just have the gut of a fat cat, he had the darrening arms and chubby face of one too. His arms weren't quite as heavy as his stomach. In fact, despite the coin in his hand being so heavy, it felt lighter than ever, as if he could toss his arm up in the air over his head and wave it around effortlessly, not that he was going to do that. He felt so cold on the inside, yet so hot on the outside.
"Someone, anyone? Help!" His breathing was quick, but he couldn't feel the pounding of his heart. He wondered just how much he changed on the inside, and it horrified him to think so. He was still Luna, wasn't he? He just felt as if he swallowed a round anvil, one that spread to his arms and legs in weight. He was so fat now that he couldn't even tell where his chin was. His shirt looked much more like a necklace, serving as a divider between where his head was and his fattening torso began, as there was no other easy way to tell. "Come on! I can't be the only one here!"
Luna sat on the ground with a heavy sigh. He tried to move his legs, but to no avail. It felt as if his legs were stuck in place. He leaned back a bit, but his belly was still so prominent as it jutted out in front of him and felt so heavy. He knew he was transforming, there was no denying that now that he was immobile, it was a question of what he was becoming. Was he becoming a statue? He knew of one kind of statue that sat like this, but why? Was it truly because of the coin? Maybe he'd be better off finding a way to cut off his hand. It sounded extreme though, plus it likely wouldn't reverse the current progress of the transformation.
Luna's mind wandered briefly away from his situation. He knew he had to get up, but he couldn't think of a solution to do so now. His body was simply too heavy. He was stuck there at the entryway of the temple, forced to see nobody even attempting to come in. His tail swished behind him while he kept one hand at his side, and the hand with the coin waving around, as if an attempt to signal someone. His body felt hot and heavy, but sitting in this position felt strangely comfortable, as if he could sit here for hours. He knew the odds of sitting there for a long time were probable, at least until he could find someone to help him out somehow. Maybe they could get him a wheelchair, or two when it came to holding his massive gut. He had no idea how much he weighed, but it was likely well over 800 pounds. However much he weighed, it was too much for the poor cat to carry himself, and likely for anyone to carry him.
Luna sat and waited for what felt like ages. His hand with the gold coin waved around in the air for help, some form of help to come, but not a soul showed up. He tried to pull up his feet, but he couldn't manage to do even that, as if his feet froze in place. He reached down with his free hand to try to pull up his feet, but froze the moment his fingertips tapped his paws.
Luna wanted to glance down to look at his feet, but he saw only a massively fat belly and his knees on his side. He was so fat that his belly was nearly pressing down on his feet, but it wasn't his fat that he was so horrified about. He wished he could feel his paws with his other hand to confirm what his feet felt like. He gently ran his fingers over his paws. 'Why do they feel so smooth? It feels almost like...' He didn't want to say that his paws felt as if they lacked fur. It was a step beyond that. His paws felt almost as if they were solid stone! He couldn't move even the skin atop his muscles. He curled his fingers and 'knocked' on his feet, only to hear thuds in return, as if he were knocking on a rock. He knew he described the sensation of feeling so much, but unable to glance down at his paws to confirm what they looked like, feeling was all he had left.
There was another sensation that made Luna almost feel as if he weren't in his own body, a sense of surrealism hit him with the predicament he was in. Part of his mind wanted to tell him that this wasn't real, but he couldn't pinch himself with the hand that held the gold coin. He tried to move his other hand to pinch his cheeks, but he couldn't spread his fingers apart from one another, as if they were glued together.
'There has to be something I can do.' Yet, the cat anthro's mind drew a blank.
Luna grabbed the hand that held the gold coin with his other hand. He tried to stand using both hands, but to no avail. He was frozen to the ground. He couldn't even move his legs anymore. He glanced down at his belly, and his eyes grew wide. While his feet felt smooth, his belly was taking on a look that was turning smoother and paler in color. He gave his fur a poke, only to feel a cold sensation and numbness from it. His breathing was shallow, and as he reached upwards to feel his chest, he couldn't feel the beating of his own heart any longer. 'How am I... what is... I don't understand!' He thought in a panic, though it was hard to express it, and he wasn't sure if that was because he was undoubtedly transforming, or because of something else.
Luna tried to move the coin as far away from his body as possible, but he found the arm that held the coin would not bend the way he wanted it to, as if his muscles themselves couldn't stretch straight out away. His arm movements were so limited that when he tried to bend the coin back to the ground, he found that he couldn't even do that!
'My belly is so big I can't move, I can't lift my legs, I can't bend my arms, I look like...' Luna slowed his thoughts and glanced in the distance. Just outside the temple, right across the street and barely caught his eyes, he noticed a 'lucky cat' statue positioned just outside a chinese shop. Luna wasn't sure what the names for those statues were, but he knew they were supposed to 'catch' good luck. The statues were of very fat cats. He then looked at himself, and then back at the cat statue. 'Oh... crap.'
Luna had several questions as to how this was happening, but there was no denying how much he looked like the statue of the cats in the window. He knew not what he had to do in order to change back or fix his form, but he had to think of something. Part of him almost wanted to try mimicking waving his hand to try to catch luck, but that would just be giving in to the form's desire. He kept the arm which held the gold coin up in the air while his other hand was at his side. He tried to lift his other hand only to find that it was starting to fuse with his belly. No matter how much he pulled at it, he just couldn't free his hand from his belly, as if it were glued onto him.
'I have to resist. I have to fight it.' While his fur was much paler, it was also much smoother, as if it really were made of marble. He couldn't reach down to feel it, but his body did feel cold and stiff. He could breathe, but it was hard to do so. He wanted to turn his head away, but his neck was too stiff to do even that.
Luna tried to wiggle. He tried to move any part of his body, but he found himself unable to do anything. Even his tail fused with his back, not that he could see it. Had anyone seen his back, they would have seen the tail now fused with the upper part of his back, curled into a small C shape, and stuck out only slightly from the rest of his very fat body. Still, for being so fat, Luna felt... At first, it was cold, but he was beginning to sense nothing beneath him, as if he were floating on a cloud.
Luna felt the hand that held the gold coin begin to wave in the air. Try as he might, getting his arm to stop waving around was like trying to get the rest of his stiff body to move. He wanted to turn his head to see his arm waving, only to find that he couldn't! He was frozen in place with the exception of his waving arm. The gold coin still had weight, but it didn't seem to matter to his arm. 'But it's so heavy. How am I... uhn.' Luna pondered with several questions racing through his head, but unable to move his lips the way he wanted to ask any one of them, not that there would have been anyone to hear.
Luna swore he could hear cracking in his lips as they forcefully curled into a cat-like smile, a sly grin with closed lips and whiskers twitching as they retracted into his cheeks, taking on a black color, unlike the rest of his much lighter paler body. He had no way to move his mouth, yet he must scream. He could only shout out muffled pleas for help with his big dumb smile. "MPPHHHMMMPHM!" He cried out. He couldn't feel his teeth or his tongue inside of his mouth as his lips sealed. He could only breathe through his nose, and his breathing was quick. His belly did not expand or contract with his quick breathing, nor did his heart pound excitedly, not that he knew if he still even had one or not.
Luna's nose pushed inwards until it was as flat as his whiskers. His lips were flat too, giving off the impression of a smooth face with the exception of his eyes that could only look down in fear as he took on the stance of that lucky cat he saw across the street. He hoped for something, anything to help him, but nobody was coming. It was a warm perfect day, though it felt as if the world itself was oblivious to Luna's transformation. His eyes began to close, but he strained to hold them open, like a child struggling to stay awake. Regardless if there was a way back to normal or not, he was going to fight this as damn hard as he could to the very end. His eyes slowly closed as his transformation finished...
The next day...
The temple was more crowded than ever today and donations were generous. While nobody could figure out what happened to the sudden temple's fortune, the rumor was that whoever installed the lucky cat out by the pillars actually caused the temple to amass a fortune of good luck. The strange thing was, nobody knew who installed the lucky cat, but it was popular among tourists to take pictures with the massively fat happy cat who was just a bit shorter than most, though that was largely because he was leaning. Many cat anthros leaned and found themselves at the perfect height. They'd mimic the obese cat's movements waving their hands in the air with glee on their face while others took pictures of them. The new lucky cat was quick to get several fingerprints and prayers of good fortune. Whether or not the lucky cat could bring fortune to others had yet to be seen, but it was unlikely he was going to be delivering any of that good fortune upon himself as he sat there and waved with a happy smile on his face, deep down his very mind transformed into nothing but marble, now nothing more than a decoration for the temple.
