When, at last, the building of their new home was complete, the main physical exertion Laudna engaged in was riding, which was indeed vigorous exercise. But it was never very hard riding. She rarely even went as fast as Bells Hells had when they'd been traveling on horseback. And she didn't do it every day. There were plenty of days where she didn't even leave the cottage, spending the entire day instead at her loom or at her crafts table. It was easier, some days, to not have to deal with the outside world. Her basic looks might no longer repel people the way they once did, but all the memories remained difficult to shake, especially here, where she almost met her death before Imogen stepped in and saved her.
(And now, too many of the neighbors instead treated her as the legend she had accidentally become. She didn't care for that, either. It felt too similar to being treated like a monster.)
There were things, on the other hand, that had changed as soon as soon as her nature had. Obviously, she had known, she now needed to eat regularly. She had not been without an appetite when she'd been undead. Indeed, during her long walk across the desert, the hunger and thirst had been awful, even after she'd suffered from it for so long it lost its edge a little. But she had still survived without eating or drinking.
It was hard for her to gauge whether she now enjoyed eating more than she would've. But either way, she absolutely enjoyed it. While they were still traveling, she took to trying out any dishes particular to the area that weren't too expensive. When she and Imogen settled down in their cottage, she taught herself how to make some of them, and also how to make all of Imogen's favorite meals. She had even gotten Zhudanna to finally hand over her recipes while they had happened to stop in Jrusar. She'd had a conversation with Pretty about exactly how he'd cooked as well. She made pies and cakes, and learned how to fry poultry and cook all sorts of vegtables. Imogen cooked too, sometimes, but Laudna was the one of them who had really taken to it in their new life together.
She even started to choose favorite dishes of her own. She thought she might have had one once, as Matilda Bradbury, but those memories remained too dim to be sure. Now, as Laudna, she finds she loves thick tomato soup and berry tarts, and roast beef, when they can get it. Also, anything with butter. She put it either on or in anything it would go on or in.
Even when she made a lot of food, she and Imogen always cleaned their plates. They'd both been raised to. Imogen has said more than once how much more delicious Laudna's cooking was than most of what she had eaten when she was young.
Laudna had been completely skin and bones when she and Imogen first met. She'd eaten more when traveling with her, although the priority had always been keeping Imogen fed on those occasions when their coin had run low. By the time they'd reached Jrusar and first met the rest of Bells Hells, she'd put on a little weight, enough so that her thinness, Imogen had commented, was no longer one of the scary things about her. But it had been a pretty slow process, taking most of the intervening two years.
It didn't take quite as long, after they settled down, for Laudna to start gaining more weight. Not that she was the only one. Imogen, too, got a little plumper. Also, her thighs got deliciously thick. Laudna's got a little thicker and stronger, too, but not as much.
It took a few more months for her to really start getting plump. She and Imogen had long discarded their adventuring clothes for newer, more comfortable blouses and skirts, and leggings suitable for riding. Some of them had been loose on Laudna at first. Now they stretched around her. She hadn't needed to adjust anything yet, but she was starting to wonder.
That was also what made her really notice, too. Well, that, and she was starting to fill out her favorite armchair a little more.
At first she and Imogen didn't talk about it. Laudna wasn't even sure what they were supposed to talk about. Whether or not she minded, she supposed. But surely, she thought, she'd show some sign of it if she did. The two of them had talked a lot, after it was all over, about the need to tell each other when something was a problem for them.
Then came the night a piece of embroidery gave Lauda such trouble she got determined not to go to bed until she'd gotten it perfect. Even after she lost count of the number of times she had to cast Mending because she'd ripped the stitches out in frustration, she kept going. Imogen pleaded with her multiple times to just put it down and come to bed, until finally she broke out the Telekinesis, and when Laudna found herself lifted into the air and finally looked up, she expected her wife's exasperated expression, but was alarmed to see the surprised strain on her face.
Which Imogen must have seen, and it caused her to drop the spell. Laudna fell to the floor, and the thud as her butt hit it was tellingly loud.
Not that Imogen even reacted to that. Instead she was just bending over and helping Laudna up, with a "Sorry, so sorry. Are you all right?"
"Perfectly fine." And she was; she'd hardly fallen that far. "I suppose I've gotten a little heavier than you expected," she added. Without even thinking about it, really, but a moment later she worried for Imogen's response.
But Imogen smiled, and said, "I'm glad to see that, you know. I like how you look now. And how you feel."
That was not something Laudna had thought she might say. But, she decided, she wasn't going to complain.
Laudna noticed after that, on both that night and future ones, how Imogen touched her front. And not just during sex either. Often in the morning, when she woke up to Imogen spooning her, her hand was on her stomach. She thought she brushed up against her hips a lot. She often leaned back against her when they were on horseback together.
For her own part, Laudna found her new shape sometimes took some getting used to. It kept catching her unawares when she did things like have something on her lap, or try to squeeze into their pantry. For some time, those were the main things she thought about her recent weight gain: that it was inconvenient at times, but at least Imogen liked it.
But then, slowly, Laudna grew fond, for her own part, of her increasing weight. It made her feel like a different person than she'd been, all those years she'd spent running and hiding, with no company save Delilah. It was a good reminder that she literally wasn't what she'd been back then, although she supposed figuratively was more important in this case. And it was also a reminder that she wasn't going hungry and thirsty anymore, and she could hope she never would again.
It was about a year after they settled down into their cottage that she and Imogen started talking about a wedding ceremony. They'd long agreed, of course, that they'd pretty much been married since Lieve'tel and her matron had done what she'd done for them, but a ceremony with everyone there would still be very nice to have. They quickly agreed they'd have it there, in their home, at whatever time their friends could all be gathered together. The intervening months could easily be used to make the decorations, plan for a banquet, and possibly get another table and some more chairs.
And, of course, to make the dresses. That would be one of the most ambitious projects Laudna had ever embarked upon, but she was getting very good at sewing. But she'd have to be clever, about making her own dress. Give herself just a little bit of room to grow.