Chapter 5: The City

“I can’t believe it, how?”, said Laddleplug. Grome bent over to offer his big strong hands to the gnome. The gnome stepped up and was hoisted on the barbarian’s shoulders. He hurriedly pulled out some parchment and started sketching what he saw.

“The city, Glainberg, it’s intact?”, said Thistle. “You think people are there?”

“The lights are on.”, said Laddleplug.

“This... complicates things.”, said Arafiel. “But we still have a mission, let’s go investigate.”

The party walked the few hundred feet to the start of the city. Glainberg wasn’t a walled city-state on the outside nor was it one in here. The entire city was thin in width but had long streets. The tail stomach was calm, but a stomach was a stomach. The ground still shifted under their feet now and then; the walls lightly undulated. The city seemed as though it was set in a valley of flesh really.

Wooden planks were setup to make a “road” of sorts. That was one of the thing Glainberg was known for: its plank roads despite being an inland city-state. Here, much of the road was broken now, and all of it was a tad warped from the fluids lining the living floor. Lanterns hung on the ropes between the wood and stone buildings, which served to light up the city quite nicely.

In the settlement, people were walking around the city as though it wasn’t inside a monster-woman’s gut. No later than the party reaching the first house did someone come up to great them. He was a fair-skinned older man with pointed ears, spectacles, and the clothes of a craftsman. Arafiel knew at a glance he was a half-elf.

The man reached out his hand to shake. The party was still surprised to see people living here, let alone any of the city intact. Only Grome reached out to grab his hand.

“Name’s Flynly”, he said. “Welcome to Glainberg.”

Grome smiled as he finished shaking the hand. All others stared on. Laddleplug spoke.

“How are you alive? Why’s the city intact?”

“Why, we’re all here thanks to Veezla, and one special hero in our midst hehe.”, he chuckled happily.

“I don't understand. Your city should be slurry by now?”, said Arafiel.

“Oh no no, Veezla isn’t digesting us.”

“What? What’s she doing then?”

“She’s just letting the city, and everyone in it, live in her for a bit. I assume that’s why you’re here, word must’ve got around?”

“Duh, no we’re here for the Drag-”

Arafiel put her hand over Grome’s mouth.

“We were here to rescue you all, if we could. We heard the city got eaten.”, said the drow.

“Oh it did.”, said Flynly.

“Then why are you are around here, seemingly... happy about things.”, asked Laddleplug.

“Let me explain, it’s one wacky tale. Someone from our village, a ranger by the name of Barns, accidentally stumbled upon Veezla. He was exploring her cave at the time, which he hadn’t heard was hers, and heard signs of distress. He walks up to the titaness and she doesn’t eat him, but asks for his help getting a tree out from between her teeth.”

Everyone listened, eyes-wide and speechless. The half-elf continued.

“So Barns had to get a tree out from between her molars. He braved her mouth, hoping not to be swallowed. The tree was heavy, but he cut some branches with his sword, then jabbed an arrow into the trunk with a rope at the other end. He got Veezla to grab the other end of the rope, somehow, and she pulled it out.”

“So, as a reward, she ate the city?”, said Thistle.

“Oh no... well... yes. she offered him a favor in return, and Barns said he wanted her to help keep the city safe from Mary Sueddon. I’m sure she’s still the big concern of the continent back on the outside right? Anyways, that was the best way she could think of to handle the request, Barns agreed, and, well, I’m sure you heard about her slithering up and swallowing the city down right?”

“But, how’s the city so intact? It was devoured?”, asked Laddleplug.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly intact when it arrived. Veezla did her best to bring us here slow as her body could, but it was still a bumpy ride. A bunch of buildings broke, but we just gathered what pieces we could and put them back on. She even swallowed a few dozen trees, that one stuck in her teeth included, to give us more materials to work with before heading to sleep.”

“So you say she can control whether her stomach’s digesting or not? If that’s so, how come we were feeling a sting earlier in her human stomach?”, said Laddleplug.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that. We were only in that stomach for a little bit. Maybe she can control that separately.”, said Flynly.

“I, hmmm.”, spoke Laddleplug. “I guess that makes sense.”

The half-elf twitched his nose.

“Say, you all smell a bit like lemons. What’s going on with that?”

Thistle brought her elbow to her mouth and sniffed it. “He’s right!”, she said, then gave her arm a lick. She smacked her lips. “We taste like lemons too.”

Grome started licking the fingers of one hand, chuckling. Laddleplug reluctantly tasted the tip of his pointer finger.

“Oh dear.”, he said. “Instead of an anti-acid spell, I must've cast a lemon-acid spell by mistake. That’s why our skin was getting irritated in her stomach. It’s a good thing we didn’t stay there long, and that she wasn’t planning on digesting these fine folk.”

Arafiel hid her anger at that to keep a pleasant front for the party.

“That’s a very interesting and wonderful story. I guess you all don’t need to be rescued after all, but there’s another reason we’re here Flynly.”, she said.

“Oh?”

“We need the Dragon Orb.”

“The Dragon Orb? That’s the city’s greatest treasure. Why do you need that?”, said Flynly.

“To help defeat Mary Sueddon, of course.”, said Arafiel. She worked her best smile. It wasn’t entirely a lie, that’s why people would pay handsomely for that draconic artifact these days. That the party didn’t intend to use it themselves was something she left unmentioned.

“Hmmm”, said Flynly, stroking his chin. “Well I don’t have it, nor does the city museum anymore. We gave it to Barns as a reward for saving our city. If you want it, you’ll have to talk to him.”

“And where might he be?”

“At the pub. C’mon, I’ll walk you all there.”