The Other End of the Rainbow - Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Lucy stared at the doll, wishing there was somebody else there to talk to, to get their opinion... She looked behind herself, even though she knew there was nobody there - if she had seen anyone, it likely would have just made her more nervous - then turned back to the corn, and the doll stuck in it.

It didn't look dangerous in the slightest, which made her feel even sillier for her reluctance. Clearly, as strange as this whole thing was, the doll was alive in some way, and in distress... Why wouldn't she help it out? She was a good bit bigger than it, if something went wrong. Even if it didn't help her, like it had promised, she doubted it could hinder her all that much.

"Okay," she nodded, making her decision, stepping back towards the corn stalks. She grabbed for one of the leaves, wrapped around the doll's leg. A small shock ran through her, making her yelp, but almost instantly the leaf uncurled itself, pulling back into the wall of corn. She pulled her hand back, too, surprised by the movement, then hesitantly touched the leaf around the other leg as well. This time, thankfully, there was no spark or sting, the leaf just shuddered and slid away.

In no time, the doll was free, the leaves that had held it captive putting up no resistance. Lucy easily caught the doll after the last leaf retreated, letting it hop down out of her arms and onto the ground, kneeling down to see it more easily.

"Fank yew so much!" the doll gave her a hug, its tiny arms barely wrapping around her leg. "I thought I'd be stuck thewe fowevew!"

"You're welcome," Lucy told it, deciding it was best to be polite. "Y-You can help me, can't you? So that I'm not in this place forever? I'm not really supposed to be here, and I'm lost, and..."

"Oh, you poow baby," the doll patted her knee condescendingly.

"I'm not a baby!" Lucy insisted, despite the damp diaper lurking, barely hidden, under her shorts.

"Sowwy, just an expwession," the doll told her. "It's a good thing you hewped me when you did... Neither of these paths lead out."

"Really?" Lucy blushed, looking at the two openings she'd been running through over and over again. She wasn't sure why she was surprised at this stage, considering she'd seen no evidence in her previous trips that either way was correct. "Then, what am I supposed to do?!"

"We hafta go thewe," the doll pointed at the passages on the other side of the mud puddle.

Lucy squirmed, remembering watching the leaf get sucked down into the muck. "D-Do we have to?" she gulped.

"Don't wowwy," the doll smiled at her. "I know the way!"

It trotted off, Lucy trailing behind, heading towards the right side of the mud puddle, then hopping right in. Lucy gasped, half expecting it to sink instantly, despite how confident it had sounded; instead, it remained exactly where it had stepped, at least until it turned and beckoned to her. "Come on!"

Lucy bit down on her bottom lip, inching closer to the edge of the puddle, then stretching one foot out, gingerly lowering it right by the doll, half expecting the mud to come to life and rip it off her foot - maybe taking her whole leg with it. Instead, the ground felt solid, just as much as the rest of this maze. Holding her breath, she settled her weight down on that foot, following it with her other.

"Good job!" the doll complimented her. "Now, pay attention!" It hopped diagonally away, landing and staying on the surface in another spot. Lucy was still unsure, taking her time with that one, but when it didn't dump her into the puddle, she began getting more and more confident, taking less time to step into the dirty abyss after the doll as it jumped to the side, forward, sometimes even backwards. Lucy felt sure they had to have crossed the whole thing at least once over, but the doll kept going... So, she followed. She had no clue what was happening, how this was working, so that seemed like the safest thing to do. 

Finally, the doll hopped over to visibly solid ground on the other side, declaring, "Ta-da! That's it!"

Lucy, glad to be done with this, did the same - too much so, it turned out. Instead of just stepping, she decided to jump as well, only for her foot to slip as it landed. With a gasp, she waved her arms, trying to regain her balance for a split second before falling backwards, right on her diapered backside.

It didn't hurt - the diaper likely would have prevented most of that anyway - but that only made her worry more. There was very little impact when she hit the ground, as it seemed to ripple beneath her, and then try to suck her down, pulling her deeper into the puddle. Instantly, her slightly wet diaper flooded as she started to flail, her desperation growing all the worse when she felt warm mud flowing into her shorts, then past the legbands of her diaper, pouring inside, making her sink faster and faster.

"Help me!" she yelped, as if that little doll had any chance of doing anything for her.

It turned out, luckily enough, that she could. When Lucy's panicked eyes turned to it, it was running back to her, a stalk of corn in its hands. Lucy grabbed at it, not even thinking that the most likely result of that would be her pulling the doll in with her, not until the exact opposite happened. 

It wasn't possible that something as small as the doll could be so brave - though, it wasn't really any less possible than any of the other things that had occurred since she'd gone chasing after that rainbow. For a few moments, nothing happened, then she felt her body's movement change direction. The mud resisted, trying to hold her tight, but, after a few tugs, Lucy nearly shot out of the puddle, tumbling forward, stumbling and falling onto her stomach with the sound of ripping.

She laid there, heart thumping, for a few minutes before daring to get back to her feet. She gasped when, while slowly standing, a couple scraps of pink slid down her legs, reaching for her shorts. She grabbed for what should have been the middle of them; however, that part of them was gone, no doubt sucked into the depths of the mud. Parts of the legs fluttered to the ground, streaked with mud, leaving her with nothing to cover a diaper that now had quite the sag to it, since it had also collected an awful lot of mud.

"Gross!" she squealed, wriggling in place. How was she supposed to deal with this?! Her diaper had already been pretty obvious, and - if she had any shred of good luck - she wouldn't be running into anyone other than the doll in this maze, but she didn't want to have to walk around like this! She didn't trust the tapes on her diaper to hold up to a retaping, however, and the one thing she wanted less than to waddle around with her pants full of squishy mud was running around in just a t-shirt.

"Awe you okay?" the doll fretted, pacing in front of her.

"No," Lucy pouted, grabbing at the remains of her shorts. There was no way to fashion anything useful out of them, so, instead, she tried to wipe the mud off the outside of her diaper as well as she could, then tossed the scraps to the puddle, watching them get almost instantly sucked under. "Where to?" she asked with a sigh.

The doll turned to the right, then the left, before pointing back in the first direction. "This way!" it declared. "Come on!" Lucy followed, wrinkling her nose as she waddled through the entryway. 

"What... Who are you?" Lucy asked, finally. It didn't make as much of a difference now, since she'd already trusted the doll, and it had saved her from the mud; the path seemed to stretch on for quite a ways, though, and it would be nice to have something to talk about.

"I'm not suwe," the doll replied. "It's hawd to think stwaight in hewe."

Lucy nodded in agreement for a moment before the implications of that hit her. "But... You do know the way out, don't you?"

"Of couwse!" the doll nodded. "That's the onwy thing I was thinking about whiwe I was stuck, getting out of hewe!"

"So, you came from the other side of the field?" Lucy surmised. "Is the forest still there? I mean, it should be, but this field isn't supposed to be this big, and..." They turned a corner, only to find a blank wall of corn. "A-And..." Lucy shook her head, trying to keep talking and pretend nothing was wrong, until the cloud of fog washed over her mind, making it go blank for a long moment.

"Awe you all wight?" the doll asked, snapping her out of it. "I'm sowwy, maybe my memowy isn't as good as I thought..."

"I-I'm fine," Lucy nodded, looking down at the thing - though, maybe, not quite as far down? Or was that her imagination? "We know it isn't this way now, at least..." She felt a little better, having someone else with her, especially someone who didn't seem to be affected by whatever was happening to Lucy. She didn't have to worry about trying to remember which way she'd been anymore, so hopefully that would allow her to find her way out of here...

Lucy opened her mouth as they started walking again, wanting to continue her conversation before they'd been stopped, but she couldn't recall what they'd been speaking about, and was too embarrassed to ask her companion. Instead, she chose a different question: "How long have you been here?"

"I weally don't know," the doll said. "Too long. Oh, wait, this is it!"

She turned, and Lucy trailed behind, waiting to see if she heard anything that would indicate the doll had made another mistake. She felt a bit bad, but the doll didn't seem to be any worse for the wear after that last dead end, so hopefully, if there was another one, she'd just let Lucy know, then turn around.

After a couple seconds, Lucy followed, taking the corner, and finding another corridor of corn, with the doll already halfway down it. "Hold on!" Lucy called, trying to walk a little faster - it was hard, with her already thick diaper, now full of mud. "Sorry, I just... had to rest..."

"Don't you want out of hewe?" the doll asked, sounding somewhat annoyed for the first time.

"Sorry," Lucy repeated, blushing. "Do you not get tired? You have such little legs, I would think..."

They turned again, just as Lucy caught up with the doll. This time, almost immediately, Lucy saw the end of the path, trying to duck away, pretend she hadn't intended to go that way. She squeezed her eyes shut, leaning against the wall of corn as her brain seemed to scramble inside her skull again.

"This place is confusing, isn't it?" the doll stepped out from the short, pointless branch it had chosen, shaking its head. "I didn't remember all of this... But don't you worry, I'll get us out!"

"O-Okay," Lucy nodded, turning as the doll marched past her, then kept going. Lucy glanced back, in the direction she'd been facing which seemed to keep going... Wasn't that the way they'd been headed? It was all starting to look the same to her... Probably, she'd just gotten mixed up when she backed out of that dead end...

She caught back up with the doll, thinking again that it seemed bigger. When she'd seen it hanging up, it had looked like a regular doll, hadn't it? Her memory wasn't so great anymore, yet surely she would have noticed if it was something that reached up to her waist... Maybe even a little higher. She also could have sworn that the diaper under the doll's shorts had been pushing out against the pink fabric more, filling them with a lot more bulk...

She shook head head; that was silly. She'd just been projecting, seeing a doll that had a similar outfit to her, then assuming that it must also have been just as thickly diapered as she was... That was all there was to it.

"Here we go!" the doll announced. "This is definitely it!"

Lucy wasn't sure how the doll knew that, since the opening looked just the same as every other one they passed, but she was willing to believe her guide... Only to find herself face to face with another dead end once they actually went in. She gasped, quivering as her knees threatened to give out.

"Silly girl," the doll scolded her, taking her hand and guiding her back onto the main path. "Why did you go that way?"

"I... I-I just..." Lucy pouted, sniffling. Something about that accusation seemed wrong, but she couldn't place what. "Sowwy..." she stared down at her feet, embarrassed.

"Just listen to me," the doll urged. "I'll get you where you need to be. Trust me."

"Okay," Lucy nodded, toddling after it. That had been what she was doing all along, hadn't it? Why had she gone ahead and chosen a path herself? That was pretty dumb of her... She stared up at the doll, admiring it... It seemed so big and strong... It was really no taller than her, yet it seemed larger, somehow, more competent... Why would she ever want to go in front of it? This place was so huge and scary, and the doll was definitely big enough to protect her from anything she might run into inside...

Lucy shook her head, flipping a few strands of brown hair out of her face. For a moment, she thought nothing of it, then she reached up and grabbed it, pulling it back around where she could see it. Her hair hadn't always been that color... Had it? Her mind was so mixed up at this point, she honestly couldn't recall, but it didn't seem right...

"This wooks famiwiaw," Lucy looked around at the walls of corn, frowning, both at them and at the trouble she was having controlling her own tongue. 

"Doesn't it all, though?" the doll asked, and Lucy had to nod.

"B-But that weawwy does," Lucy whined, watching the doll choose a path.

"Don't be a scaredy-cat," the doll urged. "You'll never get out of here like that..."

"I'm not!" Lucy insisted, stomping forward. A moment later, she stumbled back, reaching a hand up to wipe her suddenly wet chin, only to feel it dampen again after another second. Was she... drooling? She shook head head, shivering as she watched the doll, staring up at it.

"No time for dawdling," it told her. A wave of relief washed over Lucy - she'd been so sure she was going to get in trouble, somehow, that she was happy to just trot after the doll when it wasn't mad. She reached up, taking the doll's hand, though it was a struggle to keep up with its longer pace, especially when, after every few steps, she had to wipe her mouth with her free hand.

"This ought to do it," the doll declared. "I think once we go through here, we'll both be exactly where we need to be..."

Lucy gulped, her confidence in her companion not exactly waning, despite her bravery doing just that. She didn't like those dead ends, the way they made her feel, and she didn't want to have to do that again. She stared down at her feet and asked quietly, "C-Could you go ahead fiwst and check? I just... My feet awe huwting, so I thought I'd..." She shrugged sheepishly.

"Don't you trust me?" the doll looked down at her with its shiny black eyes, which somehow looked hurt despite not having actually changed. "Sure, I made a couple wrong turns, but this place is huge, and I'm trying my best, and..."

"I do!" Lucy promised. "I just need to west."

"Poor baby," the doll shook its head. 

"I'm not a baby!" Lucy let go of the doll's hand to cross her arms. 

"Oh, no?" the doll smirked. "You're wearing a diaper, sweetie."

"S-So are you!" Lucy blushed.

"Such an imagination..." the doll shook its head. It turned to Lucy, and, for the first time in a while, Lucy really looked at it. Its shirt was yellow, tied at the bottom right under the thing's breasts, which seemed much bigger than any toy's should be, exposing the doll's belly button. The shorts were pink, though a darker shade than Lucy thought they should have been, and even smaller and tighter, to the point where, even before the doll unbuttoned them and pulled them down, exposing the lacy, black panties beneath, it was obvious there was no diaper there.

"Big girls don't wear diapers," the doll told her. "And they definitely don't make poopies in them." She reached behind Lucy, giving the diaper a pat. Lucy whimpered and wiggled, wanting to argue, positive that it wasn't her fault, but unable to think of what else could have caused that huge mass in her pants.

"Don't look so sad," the doll said, reaching to Lucy's shoulder, pulling a blonde pigtail from behind her back and setting it gently agaist her chest. "That's just what babies do..."

"B-But..." Lucy sniffled. "I-I'm not..."

"You know what?" the doll said, reaching down and easily scooping Lucy up. Lucy squealed in surprise, looking down at herself, noticing only then that her shirt seemed to have grown, somehow, stretching out - though just barely - into a dress, albeit one that left her diaper quite visible underneath. Or had she been wearing this all along? It was so cute and frilly, it certainly seemed like something a baby like her would wear, and the sight of it, along with her blonde hair, were ringing a bell somewhere deep in her mind, making her sure she'd seen that combination somewhere... "Maybe you are ready..."

The doll stepped closer to the wall of corn, then extended her arms, with Lucy in them, towards the stalks. "Don't you worry," the doll cooed. "It's time to rest..." 

Lucy didn't give it much thought, just let her eyes start drifting closed obediently, until she saw four large leaves extending outwards, reaching for her arms and her legs...