Puryderi "Puffy" Pottinger was a bright-blue balloony northern crested newt. He was born out of living latex and newt D.N.A. due to a lab accident. Despite his outcast beginnings, he made many friends, and he lived most of his balloony life happily and cozily in an apartment complex somewhere in Central Furritannia. However, when dog bullies next door threatened to tear him apart like a chew toy, he was forced to move to Furrica for his mental and physical health. The friends he had back home never remembered to call him, and he became quite lonely.

He thought he'd simply deflate with melancholy until he met a 12 foot tall red dragon, a balloony like him, only much fatter. He wanted to say hello, but instead he squeaked out a sigh. The dragon was sad to see a fellow balloony so downtrodden and asked Puffy what was on his mind. Puffy waxed poetic about his old days back home when his friends would visit him, have dinner with him, and even play games with him. Hearing Puffy's sorrowful tales made the dragon sad, so he promised to be his friend. The dragon introduced himself as Ceralor, and the two have been best buddies ever since.

However, no friend of Ceralor's would spend too long a time without having a bit of time with his own best friend, the air tank. Puffy was taken aback by the thought, since he was born without valves or plugs and the only times he ever changed in air pressure was deflating slightly whenever he went to sleep. However, for Ceralor, where there's a will, there's a way. Ceralor went to fetch a friend's special magical air valves, removable and reusable, for whatever purposes come to mind. The purpose Ceralor had for his new friend was a special test of their friendship. Could Puffy stand to be puffed up beyond his normal capabilities?

Puffy thought Ceralor was nuts, but he wasn't forceful or bullying with his suggestion. In fact, he presented such things as a new opportunity, to see the world from a new perspective. Puffy, oblivious to the play on words, decided to give it a go, and he stuck one of the valves onto his belly, another onto his frills, and yet another onto his tail. Their fusion to his system stung a little, but it was like getting a booster shot; he'll only get better from here. Ceralor quickly found three magic air tanks, the kind he liked with infinite capacity, and attached them by hoses to Puffy's valves. Puffy had no idea what he'd be in for when Ceralor turned the tanks to full pressure.

Puffy felt the excess air fill his parts, which at first frightened him, but soon relaxed him with a warm glow. Already the first several seconds and he was doubling in size, growing just as fat as Ceralor. Puffy wanted to thank him for the interesting experience, but Ceralor was nowhere in sight, and by the looks of things, he wasn't through with puffing him up. A minute in, and Puffy was beginning to worry again, seeing as how he was now 30 feet tall, five times his original height, and still getting bigger by the second.

Something in his mind compelled him not to worry so much, as he in some strange way enjoyed the feeling of becoming so incredibly large. 40... 50... 60 feet tall, now 10 times his normal height, and still inflating. The only thing that concerned him at the moment was the fact that his girth seemed to grow faster than his height, as he now resembled a sumo wrestler more than his usual pudgy self. 70... 80... 90... 100 feet tall he grew. Now he was starting to get a little translucent as the rays of the sun made him glow like an artsy lamp.

Still he inflated far beyond limits, now creaking a bit as he swelled, but somehow he managed to keep going, as if whenever he thought he'd burst, his skin would stretch farther until he could comfortably take in more air, and more air he took! 120... 140... 160... 180... 200 feet tall he was after almost 7 minutes! He wanted to stop, if only just so he could take a break to just appreciate where he was at. No chance, though, as now the tanks were out of reach, and even if he could get them, his fingers were so large and round that he couldn't possibly manage to turn off the tanks.

250... 300... 350... 400... 450... 500 feet in around 15 minutes! No way he could take any more, especially as now he was getting a bit too fat. He was still mobile, however, but he daren't move, lest he accidentally step on something that could cause him harm. However, seeing as how he could take so much stress and not rupture, perhaps he'd harm it more than it would harm him. Still, not taking chances, especially as he started to get into the high hundreds. 600... 700... 800... 900... And finally 1000 feet tall, as tall as a skyscraper, and about as wide as one laid down!

The air stopped. Seconds later, Puffy could hear the clatter of the tanks falling in the distance. The huge newt noticed he could see through his stretched out body, and he decided that until Ceralor shows up again, he wouldn't budge. "What a crummy friend", thought Puffy, "leaving me alone and in such a terrible state. It was fun for the first few minutes, but now it's humiliating!" Angrily, Puffy reached his wide arms over his valves, and ripped them off. Strangely, instead of releasing air, the spaces where the valves used to be released a ripple of rejuvenation across his body, strengthening his skin back to opacity, and stretching out his body until he was less obese and more chubby.

Though now well over 1000 feet tall, Puffy felt content that he would not burst. He even touched the top of a sharp radio antenna on a nearby building, and though it stung, there was no rupture or even a hiss. Puffy confidently strode over to a nearby water basin and waded in, floating atop the water's surface like a giant pool toy. He was about to relax when he noticed, floating beside him, was Ceralor, inflated just as big as he was. Puffy asked hysterically where the dragon went off to, and the dragon answered that he needed to get some more tanks.

Though he never stayed that size forever, from that day forward, Puffy never went more than a week without puffing up to at least 12 feet, just like his friend Ceralor. Every holiday, Puffy would celebrate with a special inflation. Every Valentine's day, he'd be a 50 foot cupid; every Thanksgiving, he'd join the parade balloons at 100 feet tall; and every night of Ceralor's birthday, he'd let him inflate him to even greater heights, higher and higher until he was big enough to treat the nearby lake as a pool, and they'd play and float until sunset, when the tired Puffy would yawn himself back to normal.

Puffy briefly considered using his newfound powers of inflation against the dog bullies that forced him away from his home, but he decided against it. He had nothing to prove to anyone, especially with Ceralor around. If anyone else wanted to be his friend, they'd have to prove that they had no beef against balloonies of any shape or size. Of course, he wasn't bitter, and he'd often agreed to disagree. Just because he was now huge didn't mean he wanted to be mean to anyone. He just wanted to have company, no matter their type, passion, or air pressure.