Gemhunt 1: The Azure ring (Patreon)

For Silvia Deibin, there was no greater find than an abandoned mansion sequestered within the depths of a woodland. The fox with brilliant black and silver fur had a distinct taste for items of extreme luxury. Especially jewellery. They called to her. It was something in the way they glinted so beautifully under the light that practically begged her to take them.  As a child it has gotten her in trouble many a time as she took jewellery from the houses of nobles her mother worked at.  It got her mother fired of course, but that was not Silvia's concern. Her growing mind slowly learned to take more subtly, stealing unloved or unused pieces from the depths of jewellery boxes. It was a blissful start to her thieving.

Now it was harder of course.  She had to make her own way into homes. Thankfully she learned most of the skills she needed. How to walk quietly, how to hide and how to pick locks. However, Silvia was never one to pass an easy mark. When she had entered a small town and heard an old story about a century old mansion that had been abandoned and untouched. It was supposedly haunted, but little ghost stories never kept her away before. Silvia went to the manor thinking back to the “haunted cave” which was nothing more than a silly old man trying to protect a stash of pirate gold. That haul sold on gave Silvia her newest clothes. Dark indigo which perfectly blended into darker shadows. It was a long-sleeved cloak, with a few similarly dark belts to keep the fabric from being far too loose.  The black fur on her face kept her quite hidden in the shadows. Today however stealth wasn't needed. An abandoned house meant easy pickings. 

Silvia looked at the manor, rubbing her gloved hands together with greedy desire. She was sure that even if other thieves like her had sifted through most of the rooms she would be able to find some hidden treasures. There would be some locked jewellery box, or hidden room. She had a good instinct for where the fancy types would hide their jewellery. Some very tricksy places indeed. With a determination to find such treasures, Silvia set upon the manor. A dagger held in one hand, as the occasional beast would be drawn to abandoned homes. The spoiled food within was tantalising to them. Plus, there was always a chance of other thieves and scavengers, most of whom weren't fond of sharing loot. Silva sure wasn't, although she wouldn't resort to violence unless forced. 

The first hour of searching was a bust. The first course of action was to check the obvious spots. The walls were baron of paintings, although a clear difference in the way the sun had bleached the walls showed there had once been many. Bookshelves tipped onto the floor; any worthwhile volumes taken. Jewellery boxes either stolen or dashed over the floor with not an ounce of silver nor gold remaining within. Even a wall safe hung open, metal scratched by some strong type who'd forced their way through the lock. Silvia tutted at the sloppy work, thinking she brought some level of elegance to the art of theft.  However, armatures were her favourite kinds of thieves to go against as it meant it was unlikely anyone sniffed out the good stuff.

Her first stop with better odds was the cellar. Particularly the wind cellar. Most average thieves would assume the kitchen in a place like this would be nothing but rot, but Silvia knew that anyone with a manor this big had at least one bottle of wine worth selling and that would be down in the wine cellar. Heading down there though immediately hit Silvia with the most wretched smell of rotten fruit she had ever experienced. Looking around she saw two barrels filled to the brim with a blackish blue liquid. It looked like a vile bruise. Doing her best to stomach the gross smell, Silvia headed deeper in only to find it had already been picked clean.  There was however a note. 

“Theresa, Madame Wedderluz has gotten stuck in her hidden study. Heavens know why she went there with the,” a few words where bespeckled with a dark blue ink that made it illegible. “The staff are leaving and taking what they can. I have grabbed enough for us both to live our lives. Meet me at the Kin Shrine at the North of the grounds.”

“Hmm. Guessing any hidden spots would have been robbed by the staff. Except… maybe the study. No way would they have gone in there, especially if it could have freed their boss. I bet I'll find something of worth in there. Now…if I was a hidden study, where would I be?” Silvia thought to herself before she began her search. Every wall she began to tap, testing its hollowness. She began moving any loose furniture in case it was blocking the entrance. She used her dagger to pry between loose wallboards to try to find any little hint. Just as she was about to give up, she found an oddly arranged bit of furniture. Maybe a makeshift barricade to keep Wedderluz trapped. With a little examination, she found barely visible seams in the paint. Moving the obstructions, Silvia used her long thing dagger to work the seam before catching it on the locking mechanism. She gently worked her blade around before it let out a loud click.  One quick yet careful pry and the door opened up. Silvia smugly tossed her dagger around in her hand before sheathing her blade. “Heh, can’t hide anything from me.” 

Heading into the study, Silvia was hit with a familiar and incredibly foul smell of spoiled fruit. She didn't know how it could be so strong until she pushed a little further in. The room was absolutely coated with a thick black and blue mush. It was so unpleasant; Silvia was never happier to have a strong stomach. It didn't matter if she wanted to hurl, she would sift through this untapped room and find whatever she could. After a few moments of searching, she managed to find a prize. She may have had to sift through the grim mush that covered most of the floor, but it was worth it as she pulled up a ring. Next to it, she also found a leather-bound journal. She took that too, hoping it held further secrets. Maybe other secret rooms, hopefully an unknown treasury.  Wanting to get a look at her prize, Silvia took it out of the study and took it down to the kitchen, having seen a bucket of water within. 

Silvia nearly foamed at the mouth with excitement as she cleared the muck off. Small glints of gold appeared. When fully exposed the fox smiled ear to ear. It was a golden band, with an incredibly intricate design. Elegant floral patterns etched in with an inlay of rose gold. However, the main focus was a stunning blue diamond of extremely excellent quality. It was fairly large and was cut beautifully. Silvia knew however a ring was best admired on one's finger, at least that was what her greed told her. She quickly took her glove off and slipped the ring over her finger. It fit flawlessly over her index finger, sitting neatly. It looked stunning especially against her dark fur. “Hmm.  Maybe I'll keep this one…it just looks too good to get rid of.” She mumbled to herself. The gemstone gave off the faintest glow which the thief missed.

With her urges for jewellery satisfied, Silvia began to flick through the journal. A diary in fact of the owner of the home. Silvia read the words aloud to herself as she flicked through them “Finally today I heard word from my explorers. They had found a small village in the … smudges here too?” She grumbled. The book. Was bespeckled with the same blue as the note. Perhaps this baroness or whoever she was had a think for juice?  Silvia shook her head before returning to reading. “The locals had quite a stunning gem apparently, so my darling explorers secured it for me. Apparently, the villagers called it the Lanmei. Whatever that means. All I know its a big glistening Azure diamond.  It has been taken to my jewellers to be set within a ring to match my beauty. I shall be wearing it by the weeks end.” As Silvia red, a stranger tingling began to spread over her finger near the ring. She shrugged it off, wanting to continue to read. 

“My ring arrived to me today and it fits like a dream. I was worried it wouldn't have fit; however, it was perfectly snug. So “It's off now, you old crone, and now it's mine. Bet it looks better on me than it ever would have looked on you.” She thought to herself snuggly. She began flicking through the page, reading the baroness rattling on about anything and everything. It was all so full. However, Silvia's eyes widened as the tone of the writing drastically changed.  Silvia could no longer bring herself to read aloud.

The ring…the ring is cursed.  I do not know if the diamond was always cursed or was cursed due to me taking it. Either way, the second I put it on it began to affect me. It started as this bloating in my stomach. But it never stopped. The blue. It leached into my fur. I woke up with my whole arm like it. In an hour my whole body was one grim colour. But that was only the start…

Silvia looked down at her own hand and noticed something horrifically strange. Her finger around the ring was all a singular bright blue. Seeing it made her stomach drop. Then again, maybe that was something else. Immediately Silvia tried to take the ring off, covering her hand in water to try make it slippery however nothing could work. It was stuck. She looked to see the blue streaking over the fur of her hand, trying to cover every inch. Immediately Silvia began scanning the following pages. 

The ring's curse has progressed. It's… filling me. Every doctor I've seen has been no help. Even mages can't break the magic. All they can tell me is that it's juice. Blueberry juice. I can feel it slosh as I walk. It's so heavy. So…. unbearably heavy. My subjects look at me differently, I hear them talking about me. About my blue body. They think it will be the end of me. To them I try to maintain a confidence but…here in my private study is the only place I feel I can be sincere. I…I don't know what I'm going to do. I've sent for a holy man from the land the diamond had come from. I only hope I last long enough. 

Silvia looked back from the book to her hand and saw it was solid blue. Even the pads of her hands had stained the same blue. A cruel thing she noticed was that her fur nearly matched the dark indigo of her cloak. Her stomach felt awful, a sick rumbling spreading through her body. Why was it being so fast for her? She whimpered knowing her time was short of she didn't figure something out. She eyed her dagger, thinking of cutting the ring off. Yet…with how the blue stain was spreading she feared it was all far too late. Silvia returned to reading as fast as she could. 

I have managed to …stall the swelling by having my staff “juice” me. We filled two barrels of the stuff, and I finally looked like myself again. But I can feel it. The bubbling. The churning. It's like a stomach ache that won't end. 

The words shook the fox as she felt the sensation starting. A stomach ache she could practically hear, like a storm rolling in over distant lands getting far too close.  She began to think desperately on what to do. The nearest town was at least a mile walk and even then, could the people there help? By the sounds of the journal doctors and mages couldn't help. She was utterly lost. All she could do was watch as the blue stain in her fur vanished behind the sleeve of her cloak. She could still feel the tingling that was like spiders crawling up her arm. Part of her hated that she couldn’t track the colour change, however there was a small relief in not having to see her prideful fur get tainted. With the sincerest hopes, Silvia kept reading hoping for something to give her an ounce of hope. 

Those… bastards locked me in. I can hear them ransacking my home, My ancestral home! I’m trapped in my study. I came in here to celebrate that I had gotten some shrine from the people who had this diamond. They worshiped this fox god, had a statue dedicated to it, which had arrived earlier, and I just wanted a private moment to be relieved.  I was going to pray for it to end this curse after but… those peasants shut me here… and I can already feel the juice filling me. There's no way for me to escape… but if I do, I am going to burn that whole village to the ground! I'll have every trace of them erased! 

With that Silvia knew that there was nothing more in the book that could help. The rest would only be the last words of a cruel old baroness. With a fury at her own potential fate, the thief tossed the book. It landed into one of the open barrels of rotten juice and sunk into the mould. The words turning forever ineligible. The normally well collected thief had entirely descended into panic. She could feel the diamond's cursed effect snaking over her chest and shoulders and up her neck. She glanced at herself in the reflection of her stolen prize to see the silver glint of her fur on her neck get suffocated by the strangling blue hand of this curse. What could she do other than be furious. She tried once again to pull the ring off, yet it didn't even budge. It felt her hand would come off sooner, yet the grumbling in her stomach told her that her fate was already sealed. That was when, through the scum covered window of the kitchen, she spotted the shrine through the park. Silvia was never a holy woman before, but if it meant her life she would convert to a monk of goodness. Without a second to waste, she sprinted back to the closest door to the outside to make her way to the shrine. 

Time was limited. She could feel it. The terrible spread of blue was reaching its last few unexplored inches. It had snuck past her hips and down her thighs, she could also feel it racing over her other arm. Her whole face was coated and while she couldn't really see it, her messily tied braids behind her head joined in on the uniform azure. By the time the cold night air hit her face, the last little specks of silver were swallowed up.  Even as the wind howled past her ears, she could still hear the sound of her belly growling and bubbling. She barely made it five feet up the massive garden before the fox stopped on the spot, clutching her stomach and groaning in pain. She felt full. Unbelievably full. Never had she eaten a meal that even compared to it. A foul bubbling came from her gut so strong she could feel it on her fingertips. The juice had started and was so fast.

The baronesses' words were true. She could feel the weight forming within her. Silvia snapped her eyes forward and began to rub once again, until her gut began to wobble with each stride. She gazed down and saw that in only a few seconds, her belly had visibly grown, protruding as if she had swallowed a melon whole. It was relentless too, swelling further before Silvia's shuddering eyes. She began walking fast, not wanting to feel the liquid inside of her belly shaking around. A glaring issue pronounced itself with a band of pressurised pain running over her belly.  Her belt, once worn to keep her cloak neat now tried helplessly to hold back the oncoming flood of juice. The dark leather struggled and strained, audibly creaking as her belly grew against it so much so it bulged over the top and the bottom of the belt too. It didn't take long before the buckle buckled, sending the belt to the floor. Now just worthless scraps. 

 However, her next step revealed a new horror. She could feel the juice slosh within her legs. Mainly her thighs, welling up inside them making them fill Silvia's once loose pants underneath. A shiver ran down her back as she realized how grim this curse really was. Despite her fear however, Silvia pressed forward. She had to. With every step she felt as more and more juice filled her thighs, even pooling down into her calves. She felt so incredibly nauseous at the sensation, not helped by the multiple gallons bulging her stomach out. The weight of her gut was getting so extreme. That Silvia had to cup her hands beneath her gut and hoist it up. She looked beyond pregnant even with her cloak obscuring most of her frame.  For someone so agile on their feet, all the weight so oddly placed at her core made Silvia feel uneasy on her feet. The curse revelled in her misfortune, taking every opportunity to ruin the once slim and petite thief's body. 

Steps began to grow laborious as Silvia's thighs thickened wider and wider. Each was thicker than the fox was before putting on the cursed ring, like tree trunks that narrowed in cones down to two desperately over encumbered feet. Her ass and hips had grown to match, making her look cartoonishly pear shaped. Her gut kept spreading far beyond even the most bloated parody of what a body could be. To make matters worse, the juice began to spread into Silvias chest. She could feel the tingle within them that made her eyes widen. “N…no. not there too…” she stammered helplessly, watching her once rather small boobs turn to bloated balloons. From fist sized up to the size of her head in the time it took Silvia to take one staggered breath. She had to take one arm off her stomach and bring it up to try to support the new growth. No matter what, it felt like an impossible amount of weight to drag along. She was growing all over and it was getting faster. The only slim glimmer of relief was that the statue was close. Barely a hundred feet away. She refused to give up. 

Fabric across the thief's body began to groan as it reached her limit. Her cloak was thankfully quite large and stretchy however the undergarments she wore were much more fitted. She could feel the seams tearing, allowing bumps of bulging blue flesh to peek through. With one last step, her pants finally gave in to her legs and ass, ripping to pieces before falling past her cloak to the floor. It made Silvia blush a rich purple, knowing that all that stopped her panties from being shown to the world was her cloak, which was steadily rising up her body. It once had hung around her knees now it was barely a few inches below her crotch. Just as her mind became enraptured with maintaining her lower modesty, her chest decided to beat it to the punch. The voluptuous cleavage strained against the double-breasted front of the cloak until its top buttons popped off under the pressure. Within one sudden surge, her two humongous boobs pushed out into the open. What had once been an undershirt was now working as a drastically overstrained bra which barely covered the nipples of the swollen udders. Silvia whimpered, feeling the immense pressure behind both of them which added a new and incredibly strange sense of pleasure to the overwhelming experience. 

The distance was getting shorter and shorter, but each massive exertion of effort got Silvia less and less far. What had once been an effortless step had become a pained waddle. Her thighs pressed into each other almost down to the knees, and her belly hung a mere few inches above that. It was beginning to meld with her lower body into forming one curve that swallowed up more of her legs with each moment. Her arms, the final bastion of unrestrained movement, began to well with juice too. They plumped into her sleeves, straining the cotton with a rapidly increasing pressure. Silvia's chest popped button after button as they and her gut turned her torso into three ridiculously large spheres with a helpless fox desperately trying to hold them all together. She wished desperately she could try and juice herself like the baroness had done, however she had thought of the idea too late. Her nipples had swollen far out of reach. She was snapped from her desperation by a cool breeze between her legs which told the thief that her cloak had tugged up to reveal her crotch. Her cheeks would have burned bright red, yet even her blush had been infected with the curse.

With each wading waddle, Silvia began to get a little more hopeful. The statue she had been looking for was only ten feet away from her. She could make out the details of it clearly. A two headed nine tailed fox made of exquisite blue quarts with decorations of gold. Just as it felt in reach, Silvia felt a sensation that she never thought she would ever feel. Her stomach, alongside her crotch and ass, pressing against the cold stone - paved ground. There was a moment of relief as the weight was lifted from her feet and spread over her expansive gut. Then she realized her feet weren't touching the ground anymore. Her eyes went wide, and she desperately began wobbling around moving every part of her body. Her feet helplessly kicked against the divots they began to sink into. Her arms began doing the same, swelling out of identifiability. 

As much as the thief kicked and fought her body had become her prison. Her shoulders and chest pressing against her head, pushing her jaw shut to the point she had to make an effort to speak. And speak she did. Her one last shot was hoping her voice could carry her where her feet could not. “G… od. Kin. I beg of you. Pl..please remove the curse from me. I will return the ring… I'll bring it back to where it belongs! Back to the land it was taken from. I…I will do anything! Please!” She called towards the twin-headed statue, voice gradually getting more muffled as her chest swells against her face. No reply came other than the deafening sound of her own belly. 

The poor foxes mind was a mess of emotions, It with the fear, the panic and the subtle rage at her own greed. She wanted to promise to herself that she would never steal again, that if she could just make it through this horror, she would move to an honest town and get an honest job. Yet she knew the truth. That wasn't her. It never could be. Yet, more than the sickness of a thousand gallons gushing through her body, or the pressure in her skin ready to pop, was the thought that she was nothing. A thief, a petty goalless thief. It was only the slightest bite at the back of her mind, but it hurt more than anything. To avoid it, Silvia was happy to embrace the pressure. Her hide finally gave way. 

When Silvia saw a bright white light, her heart sank. However, instead of the eternal rest or unending sea of gold and was expecting post mortem she saw a two headed fox. One head was golden, the other white. Their eyes like gemstones. A fan of nine tails sat at the beings back. They seemed amused. A slight smile on the gold one’s lips. “I told you brother.  This mortal prayed to us. In its last moments no less. Perhaps this will be our champion.”

“Do not put aspiration before thought, sister. This welp is less than ideal. I can taste it in the air. She's a thief, a scoundrel, and an opportunist.”. The white one spoke. 

“Then perhaps, brother, we should be the ones to give her an opportunity to change.” The golden one argued. Silvia barely caught the conversation as her head span, trying to make sense of the imperceivable. However, as both heads locked eyes on her, she focused up fast.  

“Speak mortal, what is your name?” The white one asked. 

“Silvia. Silvia Deibein. Y…your holiness.” 

“Spare us the worship, we did not bring you to our realm to grovel.” White continued. 

The gold one however interrupted. “You may call me Sugi. My brother here is Suné. We together are Kin Please…forgive him for he is judgment given form, whereas I am forgiveness given form”. 

“O…of course. I suppose…that's fine.” Silvia stammered, barely having a grip on what was happening. “W... what's happening? Last thing I remembered I was …oh god I exploded, didn't I?” she grabbed her head, distraught at what had happened to her.

“Yes, Silvia. Your body gave in to the curse we put on the Lanmei. The Azure diamond as you know it.” Sugi told her, sounding almost regretful. 

“And you deserved it.” Grumbled Suné, glaring intensely at the thief, as if counting each gold coin she stole against her very soul. 

“But that does not mean that your time is up. Not if you agree to be our champion.” Sugi offered. 

“W... wait what? Your champion? I'm just…I'm just a thief. A good one at that but…I'm no fighter. Not really. “Silvia stammered out nervously. 

“We don't need a warrior. Enough blood has been spilled over our people's sacred diamonds.” Suné replied. 

 No. We need a thief. See… our people, the Hōseki, held nine diamonds as sacred. One for each of our tails. We wish for them to be returned.” Sugi explained. 

“Given what happened to that one with that horrid woman, it would be likely that the rest could be owned by others just as greedy as her.” Suné added. 

Silvia couldn't believe any of it. Being a champion to a deity? It was far beyond the lowly thief she had been. Could she handle such a responsibility? It wouldn't be the first time she would have stolen to save her life, even if it was the first time the deal was made post mortem. She looked up to the deity and gave her most confident look. “I’ll do it. I can steal back these gems. If it means I can live and go back to normal after, I’ll do it.” She bargained. 

“Of course! In fact, … we shall grant you our boon. You'll be able to heal back from grievous wounds. It will leave a golden scar though. A wound without reminders is like a mistake with no lesson.” Sugi informed her with a happy smile. Her brother still seemed curious, however. 

“Do not think you will be able to take our boon and run. The curse that affected your body will remain. Dormant most of the time. But it could, at any moment, flare. You'll blow up all over again and pop. You'll heal of course but…you'll never be free of that till your duty is done.” he warned. 

Silvia grumbled. The thought head entered her mind to take whatever deal she could get to return and never hold up her end of the bargain. However, she could not be too furious. She had a second chance and that was something she couldn't say no to. “Fine…I accept these terms. Oh ...and I thank you for your gifts.” she thanked, trying to sound as genuinely positive. Yet one inescapable thought entered her mind. “Wait a second. What if I blow up mid-stealing back your gems? I could lose the opportunity and miss the diamond.” The twin heads of the deity looked to each other, both in deep thought. Neither had considered such a detail. They began to confer in hushed tones, seeming like an argument between the two. It was so fast that Silvia could not pick up on anything more than the tone of each head. Just as it felt as if she was catching the vibe of the two, they again snapped forward. Most oddly, this time they spoke in unison. 

“We shall be traveling with you in an earthlier form.  We will be able to communicate telepathically with you, and we shall use our powers to hold back the curse during moments you need us to,” they spoke, as they did so their hands reached out. They grabbed hold of Silvias ears, thumbs pressing against the inside of them. Silvia couldn’t see what they were doing but could feel a slight sharp pain in both ears. The deity then stepped away, looking down to the thief. “You have been given our boons and our task. We return you now to the earthly realm. We know not where the diamonds are, you will need to use every ounce of cunning. We believe you can do it but do not fail us.”

Before Silvia could ask any further questions, her vision went black once more. As her sight returned, she no longer looked into a white void but instead gazed up to a big blue sky filled with soft white clouds. She gasped as if hungry for air before sitting up. Her mind was still horridly dazed, struggling to comprehend what had happened. If it happened. What if it was all a dream? She prayed it was all one large dream until she looked around more and saw glaring evidence it wasn’t. The first thing she noticed was that the entire area around her was absolutely coated in blueberry juice, with her lying in the epicentre. She was naked, with tatters of cloth all around. She looked over herself, grateful to see her fur had returned to its previous black and silver. That was when she saw a strange golden streak running across her stomach. She gently traced it with her finger, it still felt like her. She could feel through it. That's when her mind caught up to her. The scar that Sugi had warned her about. It was true. She had become the champion. She immediately stood up and looked over her body to make sure the rest of her was normal. 

It wasn’t. 

The first thing she checked was her ears, especially where she had felt the poke of pain. She could feel two little studs which had never been there before. Worried of how the earrings looked, she began heading back towards the house. She wanted to see for herself. Finding one relatively clean window she glanced at her own reflection however something demanded her attention much more than some subtle jewellery. On seeing herself, Silvia saw that she now had… tails. All swaying around totally normally... Immediately she tried to turn to see it more directly, hoping it was just a trick of the glass. However, it was true. She had nine tails all identical to her original. Her mind was torn between thinking it was incredibly odd and kind of loving how it looked. She wagged them around, realizing she could move each tail independently. “That's…going to take some getting used to,” she mumbled to herself. Her mind screamed that she should find it odder yet the fact she had turned into a blueberry, exploded, and met a deity all in the same day made some extra tails seem much more normal. “Guess this is just a side effect of being Kin’s champion.” With the more glaring change out of the way, Silvia went in for a second examination at her earrings. One was a small, brilliant pearl, the other was a solid gold. She did love the shine of them although she wondered how she would actually communicate with the deity with them. With a heavy heart she noticed that the cursed ring was still attached to her finger.  The fact it could flare up again certainly did put a pit in her stomach, it was certainly enough to motivate her to search for these ten diamonds. 

But first and foremost, she needed a tailor. One who could make very …very stretchy clothes.