Chapter 9: The Escape

Thistle got back to her feet and brushed herself off of a few peasants that clung to her body. They screamed as they plummeted to plop by her toes.

“You idiot!”, she shouted. “Why would you wake her up Laddleplug? I’ll still get out of here. All you’ve done is make it harder for all people inside her.”

Laddleplug’s magically amplified voice shouted back.

“You would’ve killed them anyways.”, he said.

“They should be lucky to be killed by a dragon like me.”

“You are no dragon!”, Laddleplug retorted. “You’re just some draconic monster, playing with powers no mortal should have.”

“I’ll show you monster. I’ll rip you to bits and send those parts down Arafiel’s way.”

“You’ll go no further!”, Laddleplug shouted and he cast a great fog spell.

Opaque mist swathed the city and hid him from view. Thistle couldn’t find him before and she couldn’t now, but she knew he was somewhere in the fog. She stamped her feet randomly, and even belted out a few more blasts of her acid breath. Hundreds more suffered, died, but she didn’t find him. She didn’t recognize his scream from the victims she blindly killed.

Then, she had an idea.

“Fool!”, she shouted. “You forget I’m also a druid still. Nature heeds my call.”

She waved her hands and conjured a whirlwind to whip away the fog. Laddleplug finally came into view behind the mists, sitting on a magic carpet. The magical transport floated above the buildings on the far end of the city from Thistle’s perspective.

Thistle flapped her wings and flew towards Laddleplug, who quickly commanded the carpet he was on to head towards the gut’s entry point: a ringed sphincter within sight.

The black-scaled monster-woman faced down as she soared forward. Mobs of people were stumbling over from the churning quakes of Veezla’s gut. Though the titaness didn’t seem to be digesting them, as she had supposedly promised, while awake the tail gut did stir. It was its own sort of hazard, as many people fell over to be trampled by one another.

Thistle upped the danger by opening her mouth and breathing her acid breath directly down as she flew above the streets. Hundreds melted beneath her acrid breath. Once done with that, she reached out her hands to scoop up clumps of building and building bits, which she greedily stuffed in her gob and gulped.

Inside Thistle’s gut, Arafiel soon had company in the form of dozens of other screaming people. They plopped atop and around her, too terrified and agonized to really talk to and coordinate. Everyone pushed and shoved each other in the gut. All the contact further irritated their melting and burning flesh. The drow didn’t have much longer in there.

On the outside, Laddleplug turned his head to watch as his carpet soared forward. Thistle was fast now, faster than him, but he had a really good head-start, so he wasn’t too concerned about taking a peek at what was going on.

Thistle was ravenous, vindictive, and utterly intoxicated on her power. She lowered her tail to cleave through the buildings as she soared his way. A flap of her wings sent mobs below flying as she gave herself a burst of speed. She tipped her toes into some of the taller structures. Stately towers of wood and stone collapsed on contact with those black-nailed digits.

The sphincter was upon Laddleplug. Re-summoned his orb of light, then he waved his hands and shouted the words to cast his door opening spell, which thankfully still worked on the sphincter itself. The fleshy gate squelched open and he flew through.

Thistle was right behind him. She had been gaining speed all the while. However, the living tunnel back to Veezla’s human gut was a little more of a tight fit for her. Still, he just narrowly dodged her grabbing hand as she entered the esophagus-like passageway.

“Grrr, I’ll get you little gnome. I’ll make you suffer. I’ll make you beg!”, shouted Thistle. She dug her fingers into the flesh at her sides, never managing to pierce it, though. Veezla’s flesh was invincible even to Thistle. Still, with her strength, the dragon-woman pulled her self up and after Laddleplug.

“You’re intolerable.”, said Laddleplug. It was the best he could come up with as he held his focus on the spell.

Going into Veezla’s tail gut was easy, since the titaness’s body naturally wanted to bring what it thought “food” inside it. Getting out was not what the tunnel was made for, so he needed to keep the spell going to stop the fleshy walls from closing around him and bringing him back towards the tail gut.

Of course, the thought gave Laddleplug an idea. He waited till he cleared the sphincter back to Veezla’s human gut, then lapsed concentration of his spell.

Thistle was suddenly squeezed as that tunnel of flesh gripped her tight. Alas, Laddleplug was a bit too late. Once of her arms poked past the sphincter.

Thistle felt Veezla’s body trying to tug her down. Even the casual, automatic processes of the titaness carried immense strength. But, with all her might and a conjured whirlwind behind her back, the draconic-druidess managed to pull herself up and in Veezla’s gut.

Here, the acid stung at Laddleplug’s eyes. Veezla hadn’t turned off the problematic digestive fluids within her human gut, as he knew well. His carpet’s tassels looked frayed and soggy from the acrid, torrid air. He hoped the magical item would last long enough to make it to that sphincter towards Veezla’s throat, which loomed near the top of the living chamber. He had his light orb to guide him still, thankfully.

“Where do you think you are going!”, said Thistle. The acid didn’t affect her nearly as much, though her eyes did sting. A titan could eat anything according to legends.

“I’m going to to get you and devour you. I can feel everyone I swallowed wiggling inside me. No wonder the big types do it so often. I think my first stop once I leave this gut and the cave Veezla’s in will be your home village. That nice little forest town by some hills. I remember where it is. You gnomes have been freeloading off nature a bit too long if you ask me. Since I’ll be nature’s ultimate protector, it’s only natural you’ll be giving back to me.”

She flapped her wings and flew after a shuddering Laddleplug. The gnome steered the carpet to narrowly dodge a chomp. Just after that, some acid fell from the stomach’s “ceiling” to splash by Thistle’s eyes. She shook it off, but paused to do so.

Laddleplug was too far ahead of her now, so she inhaled and shot a gale of acid breath his way. The gnome steered his carpet out of the way in the nick of time. He cast his passage-opening spell again and the sphincter to the throat squelched open. Thistle followed in after him.

With the throat flesh undulating and dripping their slimy and slick fluids all around him, Laddleplug rode. Veezla must’ve felt something going on, as she swallowed at a point.

Excess saliva fell down the throat as big globs. If just one of those hit the carpet, it’d be inundated. Laddleplug didn’t want to find out how wet the carpet could get before it stopped working.

He managed to dodge all the drops, just narrowly missing the last one. They instead plopped onto the enraged face of Thistle, who was pulling herself up the throat right behind him. It brought him some time, enough to finally get out of the throat and back into Veezla’s mouth.

The lips were open, light from the glowing fungi of the cave reaching that maw.

“Yes!”, he shouted. “Free at last!”

“Not so fast!”, said Thistle. She had just poked her head past the uvula and exhaled a blast of acidic air. As Laddleplug soared out that cavern of the maw, his carpet was singed. With half of it melting away fast, he started to descend rapidly. He had no choice but to cast a slow-fall spell to avoid splatting on the cave ground.

Thistle knew this, and she quickly flew after him. Just before he hit the ground, she pounced on him. Her foot fell upon him and pinned him to the ground. She applied a bit of pressure.

“Got you!”, she said. “And I’m free too.” She shook her body free of excess spit and other fluids.

“Finally, Laddleplug, the last little lose end from my days as a mere, mortal druid. I’m going to squash you out of this realm, then I’m gonna wipe out your home village, and enjoying flattening and devouring every single one of your kind I can find!”

“You will not”, boomed a powerful voice. It echoed around the entire cave.

Thistle looked to see the back of a purple skinned hand coming her way. It was wider than she was tall.

“No, how could-”

The hand smacked into Thistle and knocked her over hundreds of feet in the distance. Before she could scramble up and run, the soft palm of the hand came down on her. Its weight pinned her with ease.

It was a hand of Veezla. She was awake and alert. Her big purple eyes, taller than buildings, settled on Laddleplug. The gnome slowly stood up. She set a finger from her other hand to the ground by him.

“Are you hurt?”, she said. Her voice had a powerful, primordial quality to it. But, it was also oddly gentle in a sense.

“I-I, I thank you.” said Laddleplug. He quickly hopped up onto her finger, which was as a hill to him. He settled on the soft pad of that finger.

“You seem exhausted.”, said Veezla.

“I am.”, he replied. Somehow, she could hear him. Must be some sort of titan sense.

“We weren’t from the city you ate.”

“We?”, spoke Veezla. That tone of voice hit Laddleplug again. The volume rumbled his entire body, but Veezla spoke with a sort of listlessness in her voice. It was as if she had seen and heard most everything, and it leaked into her voice. Her words were fluent, but came out with that subtle sort of archaic tone.

“I, yes. My name is Laddleplug.”, he began. “There were four of us, and we met Barns, the one who got that tree out of your teeth. But, one of our own betrayed us and took the Dragon Orb. Her name is Thistle. She’s the one under your hand.”

“Is that so?”, spoke Veezla.

“Yes. What do you intend to do with her?”

“She must be punished, of course. I haven’t settled on how.”, said the titaness.

Veezla’s right hand pressed its fingers down. Thistle let out a scream as the digits broke the knee-bones of her legs. She begged Veezla to stop, but her words were ignored.

“That is a start.”, said Veezla with the fainest sort of smile.

“Even with the stolen power of the Dragon Orb, she is still but a bug to me. She will not be a threat. I’ve calmed down my tail-stomach again. Hopefully my surprise awakening hasn’t hurt Glainberg too much.”

“I see.”, said Laddleplug. He was disheveled and wet still, from the days harrowing events.

“Can I ask you something?”, said Laddleplug.

“I suppose.” said Veezla.

“Why did you help the city? Even after Barns got a tree out of your teeth, there was no reason to save an entire mortal city. I mean, isn’t it annoying to have to not use an entire stomach of yours?”

“A fair question.”, said Veezla. Her breath washed over Laddleplug with every word she spoke. Even the slightest movement of her gigantic frame vibrated the palm beneath him. She was immense.

“I have gotten pointless destruction out of my system, millennia ago. Now I rampage to feed and not much more. I admit, I find you mortals a curious sort. So tiny, yet so determined and happy. That happiness leaks over to me. It’s... quaint. Yes, I think that would be the word you would use.”

Laddleplug softly smiled. Something about a titaness calling his entire existence quaint seemed funny.

“Also.”, said Veezla. “I wanted to ensure some life on Igrisos survived. I worry about recent developments, that the entire continent could-”

The titaness paused. Laddleplug did as well. Even the draconic-druidess ceased her whimpering. They all felt something. Something big.

Quakes.

Rhythmic tremors that shook the entire mountain. The sounds of swaths of forests being flattened reached Veezla’s hyper sensitive ears as they echoed through the entry of her cave. She heard stones rumble off the slope of her mountain lair.

“It can’t be, could it?”, said Veezla in about as soft a tone as a titaness could.

“Is that an avalanche?”, said Laddleplug.

The entire ceiling of Veezla’s cave started shaking and crumbling. Light flooded the chamber as the very top of the mountain was torn off. There was no sky to greet the three within. Instead, they saw a big, sky-blue eye staring back at them.