Kingsbury Harbor, ch. 15: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (Patreon)

The Clamshell Diner buzzed with the frantic dinner rush, the clattering plates competing with the noisy chatter from the crowded tables.  Walt yelled at Baker through the kitchen window, the grizzled cook’s hoarse voice overpowering the rest as he barked orders at the scrambling young man darting between customers.  The older man’s cigarette strained croak somehow managed to hold multiple conversations with the regulars seated at the counter while also directing the steady stream of people trickling through the door as the shops closed and the docks wrapped up for the day.  It was frenetic, barely controlled chaos, but Sawyer didn’t see or hear any of it.  He couldn’t stop staring at Collin.  He hadn’t seen the other man since college, and everything else faded as he gawked at his short, stocky friend, trying to wrap his head around the dramatic transformation the dark-skinned hunk had undergone.  

When Sawyer last saw him, Collin had been long and lean.  His friend should have stood a few inches taller than himself.  He should have topped out at an impressive six-foot-four with a tapering, athletic physique, and he shouldn’t have had to crane his barely-present neck to look up at Sawyer.  Based on where the top of the shorter man’s head hit his torso, the stunned brunette now guessed his friend to be less than five feet tall.  

Collin had always been quick and nimble, a far cry from the broad, lumbering little bulldog Sawyer had run into downtown.  When he heard the man calling his name, he could only stare in shocked silence for several awkward moments, unable to reconcile the Collin he knew with the thick, wide version grinning up at him.  His friend’s features were still recognizable, but the other man’s handsome charm was now a warped, masculine swagger with his exaggerated lantern jaw, overly broad shoulders, plump pecs, and burly biceps making his stubby arms seem even shorter.  Instead of the agile legs that always carried him so deftly across whatever court or field he played on, Collin’s squat frame was now supported by a pair of meaty trunks, with a round, ample rear straining against the back of his pants.  Had he still retained his full height the tiny stud would have been a mountain of a man.  As it stood he was more of a curiosity, though his striking proportions still turned heads and his overwhelming personality still made him seem just as imposing.  

“Hey man, drink it in,” Collin grinned, leaning back against the booth.  He folded his beefy arms behind his head, looking at once both massive and tiny.  With nothing to compare him to, the now-burly man’s muscled build would seem hulking and powerful, but surrounded by the average height crowd his loss of size was further accentuated by how large all the furniture seemed.  While Sawyer's elbows on the table supported his lean frame, the linoleum surface seemed to hit Collin in the middle of his chest, and the taller man knew his friend’s feet weren’t touching the floor.  

“It’s just a lot,” Sawyer laughed awkwardly.  “I’m not used to being taller than you.  How did this even happen?”  

Collin shrugged his bowling ball shoulders, folding his hands together on top of his buzzed scalp.  “Come on, dude.  You know how this town works.  This really the weirdest thing you’ve seen around here?”  

“Not at all, but that doesn’t mean it’s not weird,” Sawyer said.  “I go work in the city for a few years and I come back to a pintsize wingman?  I don’t care what town this is...that shit’s not normal.”  

“You mean you chased a girl to the city and then she dropped your ass,” Collin said, his arms landing heavily on the table when he leaned forward.  “I told you how that was going to play out before you left.”  

It was Sawyer’s turn to fall against the back of the booth as he sighed and shook his head.  “You weren’t wrong.  Didn’t even make it six months before Aubrey realized how many more options she had in the city than in the Harbor.  I can’t really blame her.  It was real clear real quick that we weren’t going to work out.  What I didn’t anticipate was how hard it’d be to find a job out there.  I thought I was good ‘cause I have a degree, but fuck, man, I was working four part-time gigs and I still couldn’t cover the bills.”  Sawyer rubbed the look of defeat from his face and forced a smile.  “Never thought I’d wind up broke and back in Kingsbury, though.  This place doesn’t change much, does it?”  

“Bro.  Look at me.  This place is constantly changing.  You just get used to it after a while,” Collin corrected.  

“That’s right, you were about to tell me how you…” Sawyer was interrupted when Collin abruptly waved and motioned for someone to come over.  The taller man tried to keep his expression neutral when another burly, stocky brute of a man waddled up to the table.  He looked to be pushing middle age, but other than his olive complexion and the dark, wiry hairs that covered it, he was a mirror image of Collin.  He looked to be about the younger man’s height, with the same short, thick frame and overly masculine features.  

“Bobby!  Good timing,” Collin said, scooting over to let the newcomer hop up into the booth next to him.  The rugged little man gave Collin’s scalp a rough rub before cocking his head and looking over at Sawyer.  

“And who’s this tall drink of water?”  

“This is my buddy Sawyer...we used to kick it back in college.  Sawyer, this is Bobby.”  The taller young man tried not to wince at the strength of Bobby’s stubby grip when they shook hands.  “Sawyer’s a Kingsbury boy too.  He just moved back from the city to try and get his feet under him again.”  

Bobby gave a knowing nod.  “Fuck...been there.  I ran that corporate rat race for years and I was miserable the whole time.  Finally decided to chuck it all and put down roots here.  Money’s not as good, but it’s still the best decision I ever made.”  

“How do you two know each other?” Sawyer asked, catching Bobby’s infectious grin.  Collin’s surprisingly buoyant mood had been uplifting enough, but there was something about the combination of the burly men.  He chalked it up to the novelty of their appearance, his curiosity over Collin’s unexpected change causing the dark clouds over his thoughts to part for the first time in months.

“From the temple,” Bobby said, plucking a fry from Collin’s plate. 

Sawyer looked at his friend as if he’d suddenly changed again.  “I didn’t know you were jewish?” 

“Not that kind of temple,” the dark-skinned man said, waving a stubby hand.  “But to answer your earlier question, that’s how we got to be like this.”  

“We?” Sawyer asked, slow in piecing together his friend’s meaning.  

“Should I show him?”  Bobby grinned and pulled out his phone.  “Believe it or not, this was me two years ago.”  

Sawyer’s jaw dropped when he looked at the unremarkable man on the screen.  He had thinning, sandy hair and an average, slightly doughy build that wasn’t overly tall but also wasn’t nearly as short as the man who sat across from him now.  Though he was smiling, the Bobby in the picture looked empty and lifeless, nothing like the beaming, burly little stud clutching the seemingly oversized phone.  If his friend hadn’t already opened the door, there was no way Sawyer ever would have believed the two men were the same person, and not just because of their appearance.  The Bobby in the picture seemed meek and timid, but the Bobby sitting across from him was like a force of nature.  Though they’d just met, Sawyer could already feel himself warming up to the strapping little beefcake.  

“Much better, right?” Bobby asked, motioning to the bulging pecs that nearly rested on the table.  “That guy was lonely and miserable.  This guy’s never been happier.”  

“But...but how do you even…” Sawyer stammered, at a loss for words.  “I mean, yeah, you guys are jacked, but what about…” 

“Being short?  Who gives a fuck,” Bobby laughed.  “Seriously.  Everyone’s always so focused on height when it doesn’t actually mean a goddamn thing.  There’s an adjustment at first, obviously, but I wouldn’t go back to that old life for anything.  I’ve gotten laid more in the last two years than the previous forty,” Bobby said proudly, nudging Collin.  “Did you tell him about the best part?”  

Collin sighed and rolled his eyes.  “You mean all the support and brotherhood we found at the temple?”  

“Fuck no.  I mean the goddamn logs in our pants,” Bobby grinned.  “Okay, yeah, friendship and brotherhood and blah blah blah.  It’s all great, I get it.  But not as great as going from a tubby pencil dick to a fuckin’ stallion.  We might be short, but we’re still the biggest guys in town.”  

Sawyer let out a quick laugh, his face turning red.  “How many of you are there?  Is everyone like you two?  Like were they all one way and then...”  

“More or less.  Why don’t we go check it out?” Collin suggested.  “It’s not a huge crowd, but they’re all a great bunch of guys and you’re in the market for some new friends.  I can introduce you around.”    

Sawyer hesitated.  He wasn’t religious to begin with, and his friend still hadn’t said exactly what the purpose of the temple was.  There was a nagging voice in the back of his head reminding him what happened to people in Kingsbury who got too curious, but at the same time, he couldn’t deny how genuinely happy Collin and Bobby seemed.  His friend had never been overly dour, but now he was apparently worry free, a feeling Sawyer longed for.  “Uh, yeah, sure, why not?” he said, feeling out of place a short time later when they slid out of the booth and he trailed behind the stocky duo.  Though they were the ones who stood out, Collin and Bobby carried themselves with such confidence that Sawyer felt like he was the strange one.  

He tried to put himself in their shoes, imagining how the world would look if his eyes were two feet closer to the ground, and how his body would move if his legs were half their current length.  The lean brunette wasn’t vain, but he was surprised at the casual way the two described their new bodies.  Now well into his twenties, Sawyer was proud of the work he put into keeping himself toned and trim, and he couldn’t ever picture himself being so ambivalent about so major an alteration, massive dick or not.  His six and a half inches might not be the biggest, but Sawyer was happy with his package the way it was.   

Still, neither of the stubby pair seemed to be having any difficulty, and everyone around town appeared happy to see them as they waved and said hello to each person they passed.  Sawyer noticed how the two men walked a bit closer to each other than they needed to, and how their hands brushed together, but he didn’t say anything.  Collin had been an eager ladies man back in college, but if that had also changed he wasn’t going to judge.  Like everything else that was different about his friend, it was apparently working for him.   

“Here we are,” Collin said when they reached an unassuming building at the edge of downtown.  It looked like a small factory, or an old mechanic’s shop, with no visible signage of any kind.  There was a heavy, oak door that had bright gold hinges and a golden knob, with a matching bay door next to it, both painted the same deep crimson.   

“So what do you all, uh, worship?” Sawyer finally asked as they stepped inside the lobby.  He didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t the bland tile and fluorescent lights overhead.  There was an unmanned desk off in the corner, along with a few chairs that could have come from any waiting room anywhere in the world.  He felt more like he was waiting for an oil change than entering a temple.  

“Its name is Yara-ma-yha-who,” Bobby said, smiling at the perplexed look on Sawyer’s face.  “It’s a mouthful, I know.  If you think it sounds weird, wait’ll you see it.”  He opened a door on the far side of the lobby and nodded for Sawyer to follow, leading the confused young man into the main area of worship.  As the exterior suggested, the room looked like an empty warehouse, with exposed girders and bare, concrete floors.  There were a few rows of chairs set up, the folding seats giving way to colorful cushions on the ground as they neared the altar at the far end.  

“Is that him?  It?” Sawyer asked, looking at the crimson sculpture sitting on the raised dais.  The figure was that of a squatting humanoid, roughly the size of the men with him, but having less human features.  The thing squatting on the pillar was covered in gold-trimmed scales with a long, trailing tongue hanging from its mouth, looking like a mix between one of the stocky worshippers and a toad.  Sawyer had never seen anything like it, but he tried not to let his disgust show as he didn’t want to be disrespectful.  

“Sure is,” Collin nodded.  “Not the most pleasant to look at, but it actually helps you.  If you’re chosen, it swallows you whole and spits you back out, minus all the things that used to weigh you down.  Not everyone gets chosen, but you can tell who the lucky ones are,” he said, motioning to himself and Bobby.  

Before Sawyer could ask any questions, a group of men emerged from a door at the far end of the room.  The baffled young man was surprised to see a few men roughly his own height mixed in with a short, stocky crowd.  He was equally confused as to why several only had towels wrapped around their waist, his question anticipated as a pair approached.  

“I know that look.  They’re headed down to the sauna,” the taller of the two said, grinning as he extended a hand.  Sawyer couldn’t place the auburn-haired man’s age as they shook hands.  He didn’t look much older than himself, but he gave off a sense of authority that added years  “I’m Scott.”  

“Scott, Mark, this is Sawyer,” Collin said.  “Old friend from college who just moved back to town. Thought I’d show him around and maybe we’d go sweat out all that grease from Walt’s cooking.”  

“You must be a Kingsbury boy if you can stomach the Clamshell,” the short blonde laughed as he shook Sawyer’s hand.  

“Well, make yourself at home.  Any friend of Collin’s is a friend of the family.  We’re not the fanciest place in town, but we’re lucky to have the spring downstairs.  And don’t worry, it’s all men, so no need to be modest,” Scott winked.  “If you have any questions about what goes on around here, by all means, don’t hesitate to ask.  But you’re already in good hands.”  

“Thanks guys,” Collin said, ushering Sawyer towards the door he’d seen the towel-clad men pass through.  “Scott and Mark are the closest things we have to priests around here.  They’re the ones who brought Yara-ma-yha-who to town,” he explained.  “If you’re really interested I can give you all the boring details, but down here is the real gem of the place.”  

Sawyer could already feel the warm, humid air wafting up the stairwell as soon as Bobby opened the door.  He knew he shouldn’t go down, but his head was spinning, his brain too overloaded to question anything that was happening.  Nothing about the warehouse temple was even close to normal.  He knew it was odd that he was so readily accepting of his friend’s altered appearance, as well as the explanation for it.  Sawyer knew he should get as far from the building and the group as possible, but he was being driven onward by some unknown impulse.  Something in the core of his being told him he had to see this through to the end, no matter what that end looked like.  

He followed the pair down the rusty iron stairs, his feet landing on rough stone when they reached the bottom.  The dim room around them felt like more of a cave than a basement, and Sawyer could hear voices echoing from around the corner.  There was a wooden platform with a bench and a few makeshift cubbies for their belongings, and before he knew it the addled young man was stripping down with his friends.  

“Wow.  You, uh, weren’t kidding,” Sawyer laughed when Collin and Bobby had shucked their clothes and exposed the massive packages hanging off their compact frames.  He’d seen his friend in the locker room before and knew Collin had always been hung, but he’d never had the kind of long, fat club and girthy balls that now dangled between his thick thighs.  

“What’d I tell you?” Bobby laughed, shaking his wide hips and slapping his own swaying hose back and forth.  “I mean, your little guy’s cute and all, but come on now.”  

“Ignore him,” Collin sighed, giving Sawyer’s small, perky bubble a quick slap.  “Some people are easily entertained.”  

“It’s entertained you plenty if I remember right,” Bobby said with a smug grin, confirming Sawyer’s earlier suspicions.  The taller man blushed, a rush of embarrassment washing over him at the thought of standing naked in front of the pair.  He normally wasn’t shy about his body, with his ample definition and ripped abs he’d never had any reason to be, but looking at the burly duo with their monstrous equipment made him feel weak and insecure.  Bobby especially, with his rugged fur and squat little muscle gut, left Sawyer’s athletic physique looking thin and inconsequential by comparison.  

“Yeah, I was, uh, going to tell you about that,” Collin said, looking bashfully up at Sawyer.  “Didn’t want to overwhelm you all at once.”  

“You, uh, you might have failed on that,” Sawyer laughed, shaking his head.  “I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed at the moment.”  

“Then what are we waiting for?” Bobby grabbed Sawyer by the wrist and dragged him around the corner.  The stumbling, naked young man blushed and waved awkwardly as he was paraded past an alcove.  Several men, both short and stocky and of more average height, soaked in a small stone pool, giving him friendly, sympathetic smiles as he was pulled along.  

“We’ll introduce you to everyone later,” Collin said, waving as they passed.  “This is what we’re looking for.”  Sawyer barely had time to register the familiar carving of the figure upstairs in the stone above the rickety wooden door as he was shoved inside the steamy chamber.  There were rows of worn, wooden benches as in any sauna, though he couldn’t seem to locate the source of the pungent, spicy steam.  

“Pick a spot and make yourself comfortable,” Bobby sighed, hopping up onto one of the benches and leaning back against the warm, damp stone.  

Not knowing what else to do, Sawyer did the same, his eyes drifting shut as he tried not to overthink his circumstances.  He told himself he was just in a steam room with his friends, that there was nothing strange or impossible about it.  There was a perfectly logical explanation to everything he’d seen, and he’d find it once they’d relaxed and he was thinking more clearly.  He could already feel his anxiety fading.  His head still spun, but more the way it did when he was pleasantly buzzed and less like a panic attack.  Already he felt foolish for letting himself get so nervous about coming down to such a pleasant spot, feeling so at ease that he didn’t even care when his cock started twitching.  Based on what he’d heard Bobby say and the way the other man acted he guessed it wasn’t something he needed to worry about.  It was just the three of them in there, and Sawyer felt more of an exhibitionist thrill than any real discomfort at the idea of his hard cock being on display.  

At least until he shifted on the bench.  His position of leaning back against the wall was starting to feel stiff and awkward, and Sawyer’s heart started racing when he went to adjust himself and found his feet no longer touching the ground.  His first thought was that he’d just shifted too much, but as he kicked his legs he discovered a very real gap between the soles of his feet and the warm floor.  His anxiety flooding back, he forced his eyes open, nearly blacking out at what he saw.  

“Oh...oh fuck...what is this…” Sawyer gasped, his body already unrecognizable as the formerly lean frame became wide and stocky like his friends.  His toned pecs and ripped abs were gone entirely, replaced by a meaty slab that rested on a lumpy muscle gut.  On either side his arms were thick logs, and his eyes were wide with horror as he frantically kicked the pair of short, stubby tree trunks that were once his long legs.  

“What’s...oh!  Oh man, Sawyer, you...you’ve been chosen!”  Collin sounded more excited than afraid as he watched his friend’s proportions shift.  He slapped Bobby on an arm to rouse the hairy man.  “Go get Scott!  Tell him we’ve got another one.”  

The panicked brunette’s bulging new pecs heaved as he watched his body shrink and widen, his thin, rigid cock becoming as girthy as the rest of him as it seemed to extend ever upward.  “Collin...what’s happening to me…” he stammered, afraid to move.  

“Just relax, man.  You’re fine.  I know this is a lot, but this is actually a good thing,” the dark-skinned man said, putting a hand on Sawyer’s broadened, inflated shoulder.  

“No it’s not!  I don’t want to be like...like this!” the shrinking man cried, his expanding cock throbbing confusingly at the sight of his naked friend.  

It was a punch in his thickened gut, the surge of lust cutting through his terror.  Sawyer felt like he was seeing the other man for the first time, and he desperately tried to cling to what he knew was real.  He knew he should be towering over Collin as the other man comforted him, not looking at his friend as though they were equally sized, but he could feel a shift happening in his head while his body changed.  He was having to actively hold onto his dread as it tried to slip away with the inches that were melting off his body, an eager giddiness trying to take its place.  

“Dude, don’t fight it.  Just let it happen.  Trust me...you’ll be fine.  Better than fine!  You’ll love it, just let it all go,” Collin said, reading the struggle on Sawyer’s face.  “This is a gift.”

“Did...did you know this would happen…” Sawyer said, wincing as he shifted and felt his thick new frame rub against itself.  

Collin shook his head.  “No.  I mean, not exactly.  The way we bumped into each other, and you looking for a new path, it all felt like Yara was guiding you here.  I hoped you’d be chosen, but I didn’t know.”  

Sawyer groaned and rubbed at his plump pecs with stubby fingers, both loving the sensation and dreading the way his formerly nimble range of motion was limited.  “Fuck, man, I feel like I’m going to burst,” he whimpered, his wide eyes locked on the throbbing club that nearly reached his chest.  The fat organ had to be nearly eleven inches and was so wide his shortened fingers couldn’t come close to wrapping all the way around it.  

“I know,” Collin said with a sympathetic grin.  “But you’ll love what comes next.”  

Before Sawyer could ask, Scott’s now-towering frame filled the doorway.  “I knew there was something special about you,” the auburn-haired man grinned, looking down at the panting brunette.  “This is the hard part, but it’s almost over.”  

Sawyer gasped when Scott reached down and scooped him up, surprised at the other man’s strength.  His build was similar to the one Sawyer had just lost, but he carried the shrinking man like he weighed nothing, despite how thick and dense his new body was.  The sensation of being so easily manhandled, and how small he felt in Scott’s arms, was more than Sawyer could handle.  He whimpered and clung to the other man, loving the way Scott’s hands felt gripping his meaty new cheeks.  He felt like he should be embarrassed, and what remained of the old Sawyer was, but the person he was becoming wanted nothing more than to explore the taller man’s body in full.  By the time they reached the top of the stairs and entered into the makeshift cathedral there was barely a scrap of dread left, as if his lust was the only thing his brain could process.  

He squirmed and whimpered when Scott laid him down in front of the statue, hardly registering the group of stocky men in various states of dress seated on the cushions.  He could hear the handsome stranger addressing the crowd, but all Sawyer could focus on was the way Scott began undressing.  He moaned and groped at his warped little body, feeling his widened, lantern jaw and picking up only scraps of what was being said.  He heard something about being initiated and reborn, and finding his true purpose.  He was joining a select group, and as he looked through dazed eyes at the equally squat men smiling at him, he felt only joy at the thought.  

That joy was compounded when the now-naked Scott sat in front of him and scooped him up once more.  He was turned away from the crowd to face the statue, his vision going white when the surprisingly strong man lowered him onto the waiting cock.  Instead of pain, his eager new body seemed to willingly open and accept the thick organ.  Waves of bliss crashed against him as he writhed on Scott’s lap, relishing how large the other man seemed while experiencing the strength in his own tiny new body as he flexed and squirmed.  The statue seemed to move before them, its long tongue slithering against Sawyer’s bouncing pecs, its golden eyes burning into his own.  He couldn’t be sure it wasn’t all just an ecstatic hallucination when he came moments later, his thick club erupting like a volcano.  By the time his vision cleared the statue was back to its original position, with no indication that it had ever moved at all.  

The cheering crowd pulled his attention away from the statue and back to the group of men when he was turned back to face them.  There was a strange sense of disappointment when Scott’s thick cock slipped out and he was set on his shaking feet to face his new brothers, but he felt none of the mortified dread that he expected.  His life had just been irrevocably altered, he had no idea how he’d explain his new appearance or how people would react, and he would have to adapt to everything from his new perspective.  He’d just been fucked by another man in front of a crowd and was now standing naked and covered in cum in a warped, shrunken body, but all he could do was smile bashfully at the excited group.  Not only was there no fear over his new circumstances, the weight of his struggles over the past several years was gone, leaving him feeling truly content for the first time in recent memory.  He grinned excitedly when Collin approached, having to once again look slightly up at his friend as he was back to being shorter than the other man.  Sawyer knew what that meant, that he was lucky if he was even four and a half feet tall, but he didn’t care.  

“See?  Not so bad, right?”  Collin laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.  “And just wait...it only gets better.  So do you want to meet everyone, or get cleaned up first?”  

Sawyer shrugged as he looked down at his cum-slick body.  He knew he should clean himself up and put something on, but there was a voice in his head telling him he had nothing to hide from the group.  “Let’s meet the family.”  

*****

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