"It's not that bad, honest..." Smolder said as he took a small walk through the forest. For a young imperial dragon, Smolder had an... impressive appetite. While sure his mother did well in hunting for him, he always felt like that wasn't enough and would do some hunting himself when his mother was away doing... whatever it was his mother did.
It had been a few months since his mother found him, and said appetite had reared its head right after. Smolder had thought that this increased appetite meant that he was undergoing some sort of growth spurt or something, but nothing came of it, at least from what he could feel.
Any sort of flying practice would always result in him eventually having to land after only a few minutes to him, but in recent days it felt... worse? Like before the exhaustion from flying (or rather just gliding from a really high space) until he had to land felt like he was running for a while, but in the past weeks it was getting to the point where it felt like he was running for the whole day.
Today was one of those days, and when he let out his frustration, his mother tried to spell it out (or at least as well as one who communicated in roars, growls, and clicks could) to him:
He had gotten fat.
He couldn't believe it. He was eating fine! Sure he ate until he actually felt full (which was getting harder, somehow...), but that shouldn't mean he could be fat!
After his mother poked his (admittedly squishy) middle, it was the straw that broke the wagon and he ran off in a huff into the nearby forest.
Even if the canopy wasn't thick enough to hide him from his mother's sight, it was enough to give him some semblance of privacy as he trodded along.
At one point he had came across a fallen tree that was in his way. Instead of using his breath to torch it, he decided to try and jump over it and-
"Ahh-ooof!"
Somehow something had caught onto his middle as it crossed over the tree trunk, and he ended up sprawled on it instead. Scowling, Smolder used his juvenile wings to try and give him just enough lift to get him over the tree, grumbling all the while that, no, he did not get his belly caught on the tree and instead had just miscalculated the jump.
The sound of rushing water caught Smolder's attention as he saw a small lake with a waterfall flowing into it. Well, he was a bit thirsty from that flight practice...
Smolder didn't even take a second look into the lake as he began to lap up water from it, enjoying the cool feeling of the water filling his stomach.
After slaking his thirst, Smolder was considering looking for something to hunt before something else had caught his attention:
His face, reflected in the water.
But it couldn't be his face, as what was reflected in the water was...
Too round. The face was more circular than what he remembered his face looking like the last time he saw his own reflection.
Thinking that his eyes were just messing with him, he splashed his face with water to try and clean out any gunk in his eyes that could of caused this error...
But the round face still looked back at him, giving the same now worried expression Smolder had.
Doubt had now been seeded in Smolder's heart, his breathing speeding up a bit as he realized his mother could be right about his changes. He looked up in front of him and he then wished he didn't.
In front of him was the waterfall, perfect and unbroken by any sort of rock up stream. And as such, it served as a natural mirror to view Smolder's entire body in it's flabby glory.
He froze, more panic brewing within him as nature's mirror showed him how wide he had become, both in stance with his fore and hind legs, and how big his body was becoming in every metric but height or length. In a way he knew, when he had adjusted his gait a while ago to accommodate for his ever growing stomach causing him to wobble once he finally got full, but he had thought he just had something undigested, but that was just a lie he told himself.
Tentatively, slowly, while still looking at the reflection, he moved around to get a view of his side and it wasn't any more flattering than his frontal view.
He got a better clue on how much belly he had than when he saw it from the front, as the side view showed that it took up most of his midsection now. The only reason he didn't really notice it until recently was likely due to it just not hanging low enough to touch the ground.
But, what had really caught Smolder's attention during this view was... well his butt. He had noticed that rocks that were pretty rough to sit on were a bit easier to do so in the past couple weeks, but he had chalked it to "erosin" or whatever it was that made rocks smooth overtime. But this was...
He had actually turned around to get a better view of his own rear end before looking away to in front of him in realization of what he was doing.
He was looking at his own fat butt.
He was enjoying looking at his own fat butt.
What was wrong with him?!
Like, he did live with humans since he had hatched but he didn't think this sort of thing would be imprinted on him. It was... what was the word? "Gnarsistic" of him? to like his fat butt-
He did it again! He plopped himself down on the ground, letting his belly squish and prop his body up a bit as he tried to cover his head while trying to shake the thoughts out.
After a bit, and with only the sound of the waterfall for ambiance, Smolder finally picked himself up again.
He really needed to come to terms with the fact that, well...
He was fat, and it was his own fault.
Maybe. He was just... so hungry at times and mom didn't always give him enough to at least calm the hunger for a bit...
As he sat on his plush hindquarters to inspect the damage without the aid of a reflective waterfall, Smolder put a forepaw on his squishy belly.
Oh no.
Oh noooo.
It felt nice.
By the time he realized it, he was smacking it back and forth with his forepaws to watch it jiggle. He even held it for a moment to give it a bit of a squeeze an-
No. This had to stop. There must be something wrong with him to like this...
Right?
Smolder let out a few breaths to try and calm himself, but every time he thought about how fat he was now, it started to spiral into how bi-
Smolder shook his head harder, ignoring how his chubby cheeks wobbled at the force.
Standing up on all fours again, and trying to ignore everything about his body for the current time, he began to leave the forest. This time with a more hurried pace.
He needed to talk with his mother. Maybe she might have an idea on what was up with him...
----------------------
Honestly, literally poking fun at Ignatious' rounder body had borne a bit of fruit. He finally realized he had gotten fat, even if it took nature's mirror for him to realize it.
Sure, the lead up to this was useful as well. She hadn't expected her son to eat until he was physically full, but she did expect him to begin hunting for himself when the food she had hunted for him became not enough for the growing dragon.
And he had become consistent in flight practice. Even in recent days with all that fat, her boy was able to maintain the same amount of time in the air before he had to come down onto the earth.
He was at least growing. Growing round, mind you, but also growing in ways that wouldn't be noticable to the eye.
She had expected him to have a bit of a breakdown upon finally coming to terms with his size, but she did not expect him to be enamored with his own rear.
It could of been because of his upbringing with humans. They do prefer the rear, after all. (Though that is not to say dragons don't...)
Her Ignatious was learning, though she might now have to give him a talk on how a dragon should properly hunt...
Though she could also assuage his worry about his growing figure... He did have his dreams of crushing human cities after all.
She shook her head a bit. He was adorable now with all that fat, and he would look possibly dashing as he got older if he grew with it right, but...
She let out a snort as she flew over to where she knew Ignatious would pop out of the forest. She shouldn't worry about the far future for now. Smolder was her son, and like hell was she going to lose him again.
