It was a beautiful day in the forest. 

The chill of autumn was just starting to take hold. The trees rustled in a gentle morning breeze, their leaves showing the first signs of changing color. It was among my favorite times of the year. That chill in the air made hiking less of an ordeal, as I wouldn't be sweating through my robes after only a few kilometers. Animals were fattening themselves up for hibernation and moving to higher elevations, meaning the risk of running into something dangerous was lessened. The bugs were dead, so I could save my wards for more important matters than pest control. And what season could beat the aesthetic of fall? Soon, these woods would see an explosion of color. Reds, oranges, yellows, and browns as the ancient wood prepared itself for the winter.

All except the oasis.

It had been a mystery in the Northern Mountains for about a century now. A span of forest in a rough oblong shape maybe 50 kilometers across that stayed the same year round. I could see it from the window of my office in the Calentra Mage's College faculty tower. Every year, it stood out like a sore thumb (or, perhaps, a green thumb) against the white of snow and the brown of dormant trees. Always pristine, untouched by time, the elements, and the inhabitants of Ardin, and nobody knew why. 

Well, I'll take that back. Someone knew why. The great Heptalia Rhystook, the College's pride and joy. A dragon-elf hybrid of tremendous repute, Heptalia was the youngest student in Ardin to complete their Grand Witch Doctorate, and discovered three new species of dragon in the process. Add to that her dozen or so groundbreaking papers on a dozen or so magical species, her irreplaceable pacts with the Fey Alliance to grant access to their lands for study, and her status as the only person who's not full dragon to be able to read, write, and speak Draconic, and she gets whatever she damn well pleases from the deans.

Two years ago, Professor Rhystook went, alone, on a college-funded expedition into this oasis. She was gone for two months, spent gods know how much beneficiary gold, and when she returned? Nothing. Not a word to any of her colleagues, no papers, no research topics… it was like she'd never even gone, and the million or so questions that plagued all of our minds were left unanswered. 

Well, if no one's gonna tell me, I'll just have to find out for myself.

Being of considerably less importance in the eyes of the deans, it took much more effort to get this trip funded through the College. Zaiha, they said, the oasis may simply be one of those places that civilization was not meant to touch. Yeah, screw that. I've touched lots of places that weren't meant to be touched, and while it hasn't always gone perfectly, I was more than capable of keeping myself intact and actually learning something useful from those situations. Like, for instance, don't stand in the summoning circle when you're attempting to contact other realms. 

That's a long story involving a snake boy and his demon boyfriend, but the point is, I've figured out by now how to handle myself in some rather life-threatening situations, and I'm fairly positive that nothing within this realm of reality can come even close to that level of danger. And guess what? By my maps, I'm right on the edge of the oasis, and the only thing I've encountered thus far has been a rabbit and a flock of crows.

It was day five of my trip. I had made very good progress through the woods thus far, better than I'd hoped. Supplies were looking great, and my equipment was pristine. I felt very good about the coming days. At my current pace, the oasis would take me less than two days to cross, but I fully intended to spend an entire week within its borders. Longer, if I found something interesting.

I pulled on thigh high leather boots over my tanned, athletic legs. I'd forgone much of my usual personal decoration for the sake of practicality, packing only a few sets of plain black traveling robes. The boots had stayed, though I'd opted for flats instead of heels. They would protect my legs well from the underbrush, and any snakes or gremlins that may be tempted to bite me as I pass by. 

With a wave of my fingers, I set my camp to packing up. My tent collapsed, folding itself up as my sleeping bag crawled out into the clearing like an inchworm and rolled itself into a tight bundle. A fire erupted in the pit I'd constructed the night before, a cauldron of bland, heavy soup warming up for breakfast. An enchanted hairbrush ran through my long black hair. I'd had it styled in a Hime cut before I'd left, but it was already starting to grow out. Normally my hair took forever to grow. Something about the magic of the land, maybe? I'd likely have to cut it again by the time I got back to civilization.

While my magic attended to the chores of the early morning, I pulled out the runed mirror I used to record my daily records. As a foreigner to an elven land, innately magic items were surprisingly hard to come by. The elves here were not born with magic, at least not anymore. Something about an ancient war against liches that purged the magic from their blood. Now, they relied on the power of runes, imbued with magic from… somewhere… through an art they called Calligraphy. I didn't pretend to understand it, but it was decently practical, and didn't waste any of my own energy. 

My hazel eyes stared back at me for a brief moment before a swirling purple vortex washed over the silvered surface, bathing my features in arcane light. Time to record my fifth straight day of nothing...

"Zaiha's log, morning of day five. I'm right on the edge of the oasis, according to these maps, at least. The woods in this place are surprisingly warm for this time of year. I'd estimate maybe a 4 or 5 degree uptick. Supplies are well in order, though I'm getting a little tired of manna soup, if I'm honest.

"Thus far, I have encountered nothing out of the ordinary. It's quiet out here, almost too quiet. I've spent enough time in these woods to know the patterns of life, and this… doesn't match my previous experiences. It's right around migration time. There should be birds flying, deer and elk moving north, bears in the rivers… hell, it's ice dragon mating season. I should have seen at least one flying overhead, but it's almost dead silent. I don't even hear anything at night… I have to admit, I'm beginning to wonder if Professor Rhystook reported nothing from the oasis because there really was nothing. Here's hoping today brings a little more excitement. I'll report back this evening once I've set up camp within the oasis."

The purple glow faded from the mirror, revealing my face again. I pursed my full, pouty lips, and my reflection did the same.

"Ready to finally get some answers?" I asked myself, then nodded so my reflection would appear to respond. Gods, I needed a break from this monotony, and soon. Despite the stellar company provided by me, myself, and I, I was starting to miss the creature comforts of civilization. I loved expeditions, but this was more like an extended hike.

I was about to toss the mirror back into my bag when my eyes caught a flash of green over my left shoulder. 

I whirled to face whatever it was, an offensive spell already building in my palm, but I was too late. The thing hit me full force in the stomach, knocking me over my cauldron and spilling hot soup everywhere. I winced in pain as it began to burn my skin through my robes. Wait, why was it burning at all? I had wards! I scrambled backwards on the ground, desperately flipping through my memories. I put my wards up last night… I put them up this morning… Had that single hit knocked down every one of my physical wards?!

As if by way of answer, another hit connected with the back of my skull. I saw stars, then a shape, then blackness. The last thought before unconsciousness took me was a dim recollection of what had hit me.

Was that… a giant vine?

* * * * *

Consciousness returned slowly. A winding path of iridescent bubbles colliding with my brain one by one, each one restoring a new sensation. My head hurt, and my chest was surely bruised. My magic was still intact, and still mostly full, so my subconscious siphoned a bit off to deal with healing. The floor I was lying on felt cold, and oddly rough. It was uneven, lumpy in some places and sharp in others. I could feel it digging into my hip, which meant my wards were still down. The sound of dripping water came to me next, soft, but magnified. I was in some sort of hard space, like a cavern or something, that the sound was reflecting off of. And was that... sobbing?

I opened my eyes. 

The first thing I noticed was the bars. I was seated in a rough, rusty metal cage, seemingly held together by thick green vines. The remnants of scorch marks on the few untouched surfaces showed that this had been a phoenix cage. I hadn't seen a phoenix in years; the only one I knew about was owned by Professor Rhystook on her estate. 

I wasn't alone in the cage either. With me were three women, all stripped naked, sitting on a pile of ratty old blankets and moldering pillows. Subconsciously I touched my own chest. Still clothed, for the time being. One of the women noticed that I was awake. I moved to speak, but she made a shushing gesture, and motioned for me to come sit with them. 

As I scooted over to them—carefully, so as to not get cut by the rusted metal—I looked around at the room outside of the cage. It was made from large slabs of grey stone, akin to the castle-like structure of the College buildings, but much older and much more dilapidated. Large sections of the walls had collapsed, vines several times thicker than my own body piercing through the holes, their offshoots winding this way and that along the crumbling stonework. The room was roughly circular, remnants of a red carpet still visible on the floor, their Repair and Clean runes sputtering and sparking with age. In the center of the room sat a massive flower, unopened, the tip of its sepals only a few meters below this cage. When it bloomed, its petals would likely fill the entirety of this chamber.

"Where are we?" I whispered to one of the girls. She was human, which surprised me. I hadn't seen many other humans during my time in Ardin. A pretty young thing, looked to be mid-twenties. Limp brown hair fell well past her shoulders, and her eyes were a shade of hazel much like my own, though hers were sunken from hunger and lack of sleep.

"I don't know," she whispered back. "The woods turned against us, we got separated from our caravan, and… now we're here."

I thought back to the flash of green that had knocked me unconscious back at my camp. The back of my head flared up again in pain; I directed more magic toward fixing it. 

"Me too. The woods thing, not the caravan. I'm Zaiha, what are your names?"

"Claris," the brown haired one said.

"Eveline," said a blonde-haired girl with vibrant green eyes. Another human.

"Olephia…" The last one was the only elf amongst the group. Her skin was black, with white hair and purple eyes. A drow, or whatever they called them in Ardin. I'd only ever heard the insulting name for them: Vichtasmar, which I believe translated to Lichslave. Talk about holding a grudge…

"I was the caravan guide, but a landslide took out the main path. And the next one, and the next. It's like the mountain itself was driving us toward the oasis."

A local, huh? Despite myself, my curiosity came back to the surface. 

"What do you know of the oasis? I'm actually here to study it."

"Then you are more foolish than you look," Olephia replied. "My village has passed on warnings since I was a child. Avoid the oasis at all costs. If the paths force you close to it, turn around and come back home. I tried to listen, but the caravan refused to turn back. Said it was superstitious nonsense. By the time I'd convinced them of the danger, the road behind had already been destroyed."

Oasis bad, got it. That was more information than the entire Calentra Mage's College had on the oasis in their library. I wonder how many of the stuffy robed idiots at the College had bothered to interview the drow about this place. Probably none.

"Well, stick with me. I'm a powerful sorceress. I'll get us out of here, and I'll make whatever put us in this cage sorry that they ever caught us."

"Keep your voice down!" Eveline hissed in a hushed whisper. "You'll wake her up!"

" 'Her?' " 

The pale blonde human pointed down at the massive flower beneath us. That thing was a creature? I'd never seen a sentient plant before. Once again, curiosity bubbled up, but I squashed it down. Plenty of time for study when I was out of here. Maybe I could get some valuable research data from its corpse, after I blew it the fuck up for daring to mess with me. 

"Don't worry. Sorceress, remember? Good thing about plants is they're all flammable. We'll see how tough 'she' is after eating a couple fireballs."

I closed my eyes, and let the magic flow to my fingertips. The air above my hands grew hazy as they began to heat up. Eveline and Claris cringed back in fear, wrapping their hands around the bars. Olephia made "stop it" gestures, her purple eyes wide with fear.

"Look, either we escape, or we stick around to find out what this giant plant wants with us. Very good chance the latter ends in death. I'm taking the choice that might let us survive." The air above my hands ignited with white hot flames. "I'm going to hit the vines on the far side of the cage. Once I do, move to that side and out of the firing range. I'll deal with the flower down below, then levitate us all to safety. Ready?"

Three tentative nods. I guess that was the best I could hope for. Here's hoping I actually managed to save more than just myself here…

Just before I released my spell, the vines surrounding the cage withdrew. My shot went wide, exploding in a brilliant but ineffective ball of fire against the stone wall. I didn't even put a dent in it. Worse, it appeared that those vines had in fact been the only thing holding the cage together. With its structural support gone, the cage crumbled. The bottom dropped out from under me, sending me tumbling into a waiting vine that ensnared me in a second. My hands were bound to my sides, sticky drops of some sort of viscous fluid surrounding them and stifling my attempts at magic. 

The flower below opened. Deep purple petals extended outward, filling the room just as I'd predicted earlier. They looked like no petals I'd ever seen before. They looked wet, slimy, and ridged. Almost like… tongues.

Claris and Eveline's earlier preparations had saved them. They now dangled in the air by the fragment of cage that still remained intact. Olephia hung by Claris's foot, desperately trying to keep herself from falling into the flower. A vine wandered up, almost lazy in its slow, contemplative movements. It gave the drow a callous slap, instantly breaking her grip and almost knocking Claris free with her. Olephia screamed. 

A large, gaping plant maw shot up out of the flower like a demonic venus fly trap. It opened its wide, fleshy red maw and snapped Olephia out of the air in a single strike, cutting short her terrified scream. A wriggling bump descended its stem back into the flower below. 

"I'll give you a little hint, sorceress," a low, husky female voice came from inside the flower. "Don't speak your plan aloud. The plants hear everything."

A pair of massive hands emerged from the flower, followed by a humanoid head and torso. The flower was some sort of giantess! Her skin was a pale green, smooth and unblemished, belying powerful muscles beneath. Her figure was rather feminine, with wide hips and large, bare breasts tipped with darker green nipples. Her hair was purple, like the petals around her waist. A pair of gleaming orange eyes glinted at me beneath a crown of five-petaled flowers, taunting me. On her back, three of those flytrap maws swayed in the air, taking playful snaps at Claris and Eveline. The two human girls shrieked. 

Okay, so that went rather badly. Still, this thing was sentient. That means it could probably be reasoned with. Maybe a conversation would be enough to delay it until I figured out how to get out of this? Gods, what was this sticky stuff? It was grabbing my robes, too. 

"Are you the guardian of this oasis?" I asked, my voice rather small compared to hers.

The flower beneath the giant torso began to wither. Petals were drawn back to the center, melting into her hips and ass. The stem split, forming two admittedly lovely and shapely legs. Her thighs were thick, her calves muscular, and she certainly was not lacking for an ass. I found myself blushing furiously as that ass rose and rose into the sky, until it was right at my eye level. 

"You really don't know what you wandered into, do you?" The giantess spread her arms wide, her fingertips grazing the walls on either side. "I am the oasis. Just as a single tree can take root again and again and cover a whole swamp, so too have I spread across this mountain. I am the trees, the vines, the bushes and shrubs. And you are invading my home."

"What–I didn't–I hadn't even entered your home… you… yet! My camp was still half a kilometer from your first tree!"

"Oh Zaiha…" A shiver ran down my back as she used my name. The plants really had been listening. "Do you know nothing of plants?" When I failed to respond, she huffed. "The roots, Zaiha. There are kilometers of roots for every tree, and mine extend well past the boundaries you've marked on your map."

"Wha–that's not fair! How am I supposed to know where your roots are?!"

The giantess shrugged, casually plucking the two dangling women from the edge of their cage. One of her plant maws snapped at them, and she gave it an affectionate pat. 

"I'm not too concerned with what you tiny little things do. The caravan I'll admit I was hunting, but you? You intrigued me. You're like that other one. The one with the horns."

Oh gods. "Heptalia?"

"Heptaliaaaa, yes. She was lovely. Very respectful. I gave her a cut of myself to take back to her estate. Named her Hellebore, after these." The giantess pointed to the star-shaped flowers on her crown. "I've never had a name before. I think I'll take that one myself."

The giantess—Hellebore, I guess—turned to look at me. Her eyes seemed disappointed, which made my heart skip a beat in trepidation.

"Sadly, you are not like her. Chopping my trees for your fires? Trampling my little babies underfoot? And you were so cute, too... I thought I'd get another engaging conversation, but it looks like you'll be just another snack."

Oh not again...

"H-hey, I can be respectful! I can have engaging conversations! D-don't jump straight to— heeeyyyy…" Hellebore squatted down right in front of me, her beautiful green face filling the entirety of my vision. "W-what are you doing?"

Slowly, deliberately, and without taking her eyes off me, Hellebore lifted Claris by her long brown hair. The thin little woman screamed in fear and pain. The plant giantess's long pink tongue slid out of her mouth and between Claris's legs, forcing her to straddle it. The poor human froze, unable to comprehend the gravity of the situation. She seemed right on the verge of fainting.

"Hey, no!" I shouted, redoubling my efforts to break free from this sticky goo. "You don't have to do this! Please, just let them go, and we can talk!"

"I don't have to do anything," Hellebore's voice said, though her mouth did not move. With rising horror, I realized that it was coming from one of the flytraps on her back. "I'm doing this because I want to. Humans and elves just taste so delicious… that's something Heptalia and I had in common, you know. We're both predators. But you? You're just a weak little prey, like this one."

The tongue retracted and green lips sealed shut, muffling what would be Claris's last scream. Hellebore swallowed audibly, a wet, horrific gllck. I watched the outline of my former cage-mate descend her throat, until she passed by the collarbones and vanished entirely into the plant's body. The mouth opened again, and Hellebore exhaled a satisfied sigh directly into my face.

"Haaaaahhhhhhh…"

Her breath was almost sickly sweet, like a mix of honey and several different flower fragrances. Numbly, I pressed my lips together, but also my legs. I'd discovered something rather embarrassing about myself, long ago. Remember that long story about a snake boy and a demon? Well, let's just say the situation was… similar to what I was currently experiencing. And beneath the usual response of terror when facing impending death, there was just a little spark of… arousal… But still! The whole "not dying" part kind of takes precedence in my mind! Stupid vagina… 

I turned my face away, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. I tried again to conjure fire, but the goo on my hands merely bubbled for a moment before the heat of my own magic forced me to stop. 

"Gaaaaahhhhh!" I screamed in frustration. "What is this stuff?! What have you done to me?!"

"Sundew tendril," Hellebore said simply. "It's a carnivorous plant that traps its prey with those little beads of sticky fluid. Seems to work just fine on sorceresses too."

"Fuck you! You fuckin… stupid…" I squirmed for all I was worth, but gained no leverage. In fact, all I did was bring myself into contact with even more of those sticky nodules, trapping my left leg in an awkward position up by my elbow. Hellebore raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, unimpressed by my attempts at escape. I spat in her direction, though even that was futile. I didn't even cover a quarter of the distance between us.

" 'I can be respectful,' " Hellebore mocked in my tone of voice. "Now, who should get the other one?" Heptalia dangled Eveline by her legs in front of me. "My babies up above are getting a little jealous."

If it was possible for a venus flytrap to growl, all three of them did it. They opened wide like little birds waiting for momma to feed them, their spiny "teeth" flexing as they waved back and forth. Each one vying for my attention. The insides of their mouths were blood red, the throat hole at the start of their stem twitching in grotesque anticipation. The flesh of the maws seemed almost pillowy, in a way. Like they'd be soft enough to sink into, yet heavy, like a warm, wet, slimy weighted blanket. 

No Zaiha, bad Zaiha. We like living, remember?

"You're sick," I snarled with all of my impotent fury. 

"You assume I see you as more than food. I don't. Do you bother with the feelings of fish?" Hellebore rocked Eveline back and forth like a pendulum. "Pick quickly, or I'll simply toss her in the air and let fate decide."

"Okay, okay!" I shouted. Eveline looked at me with pleading eyes. There was no doubt in my mind that this is exactly where she would have ended up with or without my attempts to interfere. Still, Hellebore seemed to be trying to stir up guilt like this was my fault, and in so doing gave me the chance to make this girl's end relatively painless. I had to take it. "Middle one…"

I'm sorry Eveline. I swear, I will survive this for all of us.

Hellebore lifted Eveline up to the waiting maw, and I looked away. I couldn't bring myself to watch. But I could do nothing about the sound. Eveline, for her part, didn't scream. She may have been unconscious by now, I didn't know. There was solid, meaty thwack as the plant's jaws closed, followed by a sucking, slurping sound as the girl's body was tasted. I shuddered, trying not to think about how that would inevitably be me next.

Come on, Zaiha, think! 

I had nothing. Every conceivable way I survived this relied on me being able to use my magic. And to use my magic, I needed my hands. There were certain things I could do intuitively, like minor wards or astral projection, but every offensive option and most of my defensive options relied on somatic elements. What was I gonna do, throw my ghost at her?

Finally, with a soft glurp, the girl was swallowed.

"And then there was ooone," Hellebore sang.

I stared back at her with all of the seething anger I could muster. Truth be told, it was all for show. I was terrified. My heart was beating out of my chest, and my limbs were trembling. I was out of time to come up with an escape plan; the other girls were gone. It was my turn. 

"I-I don't suppose there's any way to talk myself out of this?" I couldn't keep my voice steady. 

The flytrap maws melted back into her flesh, the heads turning a dark green and flaking away, their purpose served. Well, that narrowed my choices from four potential mouths all the way down to one. Honestly, of the options, I think I lucked out. At least the teeth in this mouth weren't sharp.

Hellebore stood. The wind rushed past me as the sundew tendril shot up with her, putting me at about belly height. Before I could recover from the sudden change in elevation, I found myself slapped right up against her abs, her left breast just above my head. 

"Oof!" I wheezed, squirming uncomfortably.

"Listen closely, you may be able to hear them…"

"N-no thank you, I-I'm not about to—" I was cut off as her stomach gave a loud growl, the sound vibrating through my entire body. I couldn't quite be sure, but I thought I heard a wail in the middle of it. 

My mind was beginning to overload. My breath came in quick, short bursts. This couldn't be happening. I was better than this. All of my life and experiences, reduced to a… a snack?! No. No no no no no. This could not be happening! I couldn't go out like this! I'd figure a way out, I always have! Please don't let it end like this!

The sundew tendril rose, dragging me up her body. I felt the soft, warm weight of her breast bearing down on me before I popped into her cleavage and she dragged me up to her throat.

"Awww, where's all that big talk now? Those fireballs you promised me?"

I whimpered in submissive fear. If I thought the vibrations of her stomach were powerful, her voice rattled me to my very core. For the first time, I truly felt my insignificance at the sheer size and power of Hellebore's massive body. Despair clawed at my chest as reality finally broke through into my brain. This was going to happen, and there was not a single thing I could do about it.

"Please, I'll do anything…" I hated how pitiful that sounded.

"Mmmmhmhmhm," Hellebore giggled, then removed me from her neck. I was lifted overhead, directly above her face. I made the mistake of looking past her at the floor below, trying to judge how far I'd fall if I came unglued. Oh gods, that was a long way down. At least 30 meters. Without my hands, I couldn't levitate. That was an even more certain death than what awaited me directly below.

"You have nothing to bargain with, Zaiha. I've no use for the trinkets and baubles from your camp, and I've already proven your magic a mere annoyance. The only thing you can give me is you."

Her mouth opened wide beneath me. The inside was a dark pink, almost reddish, with a lighter pink tongue. Soft, plush cheeks sagged inward under their own weight, grazing the tips of her bright white molars. Her smooth tongue rolled over her lower lip, edges curling upwards to form a funnel straight back to her throat. A glob of saliva dripped onto the center from the roof of her mouth, following that funnel down. My eyes tracked its descent, unable to look away as it meandered down the velvety surface toward the back, where it began to grow progressively more rough and bumpy. Past the edge of the tongue, barely visible in this lighting, her throat gaped open. Folds of flesh pulled taut and relaxed as the arch of her throat twitched, then widened. Her uvula danced, descending to touch the back of her tongue before bouncing back up, leaving behind a string of drool. She exhaled her sweet, floral breath over me, and the strand broke, spattering my face and chest with droplets.

"W-why do I have to give you anything?! Why can't you just let me go and we b-both go our separate ways and—"

Her lips clamped down on my right leg. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I shrieked. Warm, heavy pressure enveloped my thigh. Her teeth settled on my ankle. Just the weight of them resting there was enough to dig into my skin. I recoiled, pressing my back against the sundew as if it would somehow save me from my fate. My muscles strained for all they were worth, years of long hikes and intense physical exercise utterly useless against Hellebore's lips. I couldn't even move my leg an inch.

The lips softened and she pulled back, hooking her teeth onto the foot of my boot and pulling hard. I thought for a moment that my femur would be pulled straight from the hip socket, but then my heel popped out of my boot and the whole thing slid off. As the giantess turned to spit my boot out, I considered kicking out at her. The thought was just as quickly dismissed, like every other half-assed plan I'd come up with since waking her up. What would that accomplish? More mocking? Minor annoyance? She actually might dislocate my hip if I tried. 

The mouth returned, lips sealing on my tanned thigh. I whimpered as my skin was exposed to the full experience of being sucked on. It was so, so wet. Her tongue slithered up the sole of my foot and my calf, tasting me. It really was as smooth as it looked. The saliva provided a slimy layer between my leg and her taste buds. When she really dug in though, I could feel them rasping against my skin. 

"Please…" 

My left leg was deftly freed, the boot discarded. Her tongue protruded from her lips, curling under the knee and drawing my leg into her mouth alongside the other one. Hellebore gave a tremendous slurp, yanking me roughly through my robes up to my waist in her mouth. A quick pinch and twist ripped my underwear clean off. 

The collar of my robes was over my face. I couldn't see what was happening anymore. With my sight obstructed, the dominant sensation in my mind became the rough tasting my entire lower body was receiving. Surprisingly, it didn't feel bad. If I wasn't fighting off a panic attack, I might have even enjoyed it. The pressure was oddly comfortable, and she didn't bend me in any way I wasn't supposed to. Her tongue had a unique feel. Aside from the occasional texture of her taste buds, it was incredibly soft. My legs sank into it, feeling every flex of the muscle groups that controlled its movement. It was bizarre. A spot that was soft would suddenly flex and become solid, shifting my position to spread my flavor to every possible taste bud. I gave an unconscious squeak as my legs began to drift apart and pressed my thighs together hard. Her mouth wasn't the only thing that was wet...

Okay, I think I was starting to go into shock. My panic was beginning to subside, replaced with uncontrollable trembling that robbed me of any semblance of control over my limbs. I wanted so desperately to struggle, but all I could manage was weak little kicks of my feet. I grazed her hard palate with my toes. My breathing slowed, every exhale a pathetic, shuddering whine. This was really happening. I was going to be swallowed. Grey ate at the corners of my already obscured vision

"BOO!"

"Wagh!" I flailed, the unexpected sound rousing me from near-complete mental shutdown. 

My useless, gooey hands clawed at my robe until at least one of my eyes could poke through and see what was going on. The sundew tendril had grown another of those flytrap maws, and it was dangling overhead, giggling at my reaction.

"No passing out on me, Zaiha," it said with Hellebore's voice. Thick, heavy lines of drool fell from between its teeth and onto my body, soaking through my robes and making my skin slimy. I shuddered in barely contained revulsion. "I want you to feel every second of this. To be awake when my stomach starts digesting you. The other girls disappointed me. All three turned into useless sacks of meat the second they slipped down my throats. You had some fight in you, and it's so much better when they struggle. Don't prove me wrong about you twice, now."

Her massive tongue curled upward to cup my ass. I felt the air get sucked out of her mouth, the surface of her tongue molding to every nook and cranny of my lower half, forcing me against her hard palate. Saliva flowed around my legs, filling my thigh gap, the space between my toes, and the pits of my knees. Her teeth dug into my waist. I cried out for the second or two before her jaw dropped and I was very suddenly sucked into her mouth. 

It happened so fast, too fast to process in the moment. One second I was half-clothed and stuck to the sundew, the next I was violently dragged straight through my robe and between her lips. My sides and arms began to sting where the gluelike droplets had been ripped from my skin. The lips stayed open for a brief moment, showing me what just might be my last look at the outside world. Her teeth seemed to glow for a moment as they diffused the light, revealing the slightly yellow dentin beneath the enamel. Then she sealed me away, and my entire world became her.

"No! No, no not like this! Not like this!" Utterly blind,I crawled on my hands and knees toward her lips pounded my fists, still caked in sundew gunk, against the insides of her teeth. "Let me out!"

The moment a person's body becomes the entirety of your world is both a humbling and a terrifying one. Everything my senses were capable of perceiving, it was all Hellebore now. Her floral breath, the sliminess invading literally every inch of my body, the brief flashes of light through a portal that seemed so close and yet impossible to get to. But mostly, it was loud. My ears were filled with the slap and slither of wet flesh, the popping of bubbles, the breaking of saliva strands, and my own terrified blubbering. The constantly shifting pressure messed with my inner ear, giving me vertigo and throwing off my balance. 

My hands slipped out from under me as her jaw closed tighter, pressing the bare skin of my breasts into her taste buds. The whole mouth rattled with an appreciative moan. In an instant, I was pinned to the roof of the mouth and mercilessly sucked on. My ears popped as the pressure dropped, the air forced from my lungs with little more effort than squeezing toothpaste. Sharp pain built behind my eyes, like they were about to pop out.

With how hard I was being sucked on, I really got a feel for the texture of her tongue. It was a lot rougher than previously experienced. There's no texture in the world that really compares to how her taste buds felt; the best I can say was that it was softer than sandpaper but rougher than carpet, if both of those items were soggy. Through the haze of oxygen deprivation clouding my thoughts, my experience teaching biology at Calentra popped through to remind me that technically, I didn't actually mean taste buds. The bumps on a tongue were called papillae, and the taste buds were on the papillae. Thanks, brain. Now I could die in peace knowing that I was scientifically accurate.

The suction suddenly stopped. Her tongue dropped, leaving me stuck to the roof of her mouth for a moment before the suction broke and I collapsed in a heap on the soft muscle. I dragged down huge lungfuls of stale air and immediately collapsed into a coughing fit when I inhaled some of her saliva. Gross, gross, gross… I hacked and spat, adding my own bodily fluids to the pool growing in the indent made by my body. 

The back of the tongue dropped, leaving me scrabbling to find purchase. Hellebore was tilting her chin up. Finally, after so much teasing, she'd grown bored enough of me to swallow. Frantically, I slapped my sticky hands against her tongue, kicking my legs out to brace against her teeth. They were so slippery. Each time my foot slid from the hard, slick surface, I dropped another molar deeper. Light flooded in as she parted her lips, blinding me. She spoke two syllables that spelled my doom.

"Bye bye."

"Nooooo!"

The back of the tongue rose up, blocking off the light. My back contacted soft palate, her uvula smearing across my butt before flying up into the oropharynx to block off the nasal passages. With a sickening GLLCK that threatened to rupture my eardrums, I was forced back into the throat and seized by powerful muscles, dragged down into the depths of this giantess to fill her stomach.

Her throat was so tight. I was little more than a mouthful for this giantess, but even so I filled the muscular tube to the brim. Peristaltic waves groped my body from the tips of my fingers all the way down to my toes, rhythmically drawing me down toward her stomach, my hands scrabbling against the tough yet malleable tube in my wake. Thick mucosal lining smeared across my body, thicker and slimier than the saliva that had been swallowed with me. I tried to pull my hands down to my chest to minimize the risk of injury, but a second peristaltic wave immediately straightened me out again. In my mind, Zaiha the Biology Professor was reminding me that the average swallow for most humanoid species lasted about seven seconds from mouth to stomach.

As I traveled through Hellebore's neck and into her chest, a rhythmic pounding began to grow louder and louder, until the sound shook the walls and thudded in my chest. Hellebore's heart, beating mere meters away. The organ drowned out all other sound, its very presence dominating me with a constant reminder that this was a body I had entered. I was food for a living, breathing person, whose heart beat in the chest I was currently traveling through. Gods, how did I get myself into this?

Then I slipped past it, the beating receding into the distance, and other sounds made themselves known. The whoosh of her breathing. The pulse of blood in her veins, something that I could also feel in the muscle when it squeezed down my body. Soft, muffled groaning directly below me; the burbling of air passing through her digestive tract. That would be me soon. The moving through her intestines part. Hopefully not the burbling and groaning and suspiciously goopy splorching sounds. I had an idea, and if it worked, I might just be able to survive this.

After what felt like an eternity and not at all seven seconds, I felt a tight band of muscle on my feet. I had arrived at the entrance to the stomach.

I was squeezed through the sphincter and landed with a thick slap on the stomach floor. Wrinkled walls pressed into my body in uneven zig zags, the protective mucous layer making it difficult for me to readjust myself. I was utterly blind, finding my bearings solely through the uncoordinated flailing of my limbs as I fought back what was probably my third panic attack in as many minutes. I was in a stomach! She was going to digest me! This was the end of my story…

No, stop it. I scolded myself. You're not dead yet, and you wanna stay that way, right? Get a grip, you have a plan!

The average stomach is only around 30cm long and 15cm at its widest point while at rest, Professor Zaiha helpfully chimed in. If we bring Hellebore down to human size, you would be roughly 7 or 8cm in length, and thus would fill less than a quarter of her unexpanded stomach size. You are, quite literally, just a snack for her.

Oh, thank you, Professor. Just what I needed to help me calm down.

I rolled over onto my back, trying my hardest to control my breathing. The air in here was stale, and smelled sour. The taste of it on my tongue made me gag. I extended out my limbs as far as they could go, feeling fingers and toes slide over the ridges and valleys that helped churn her food into slurry. To my surprise, I was alone. Eveline and Olephia had been devoured by the flytrap maws, so I had no idea where they'd end up, but Claris at least had gone in the same way as me. Had she already digested? It had been less than ten minutes since she'd gone down! If that's the timetable I had to work with, I was suddenly a lot more anxious.

As if to prove me right, my back and my butt started to tingle. I shot straight up, my heel slipping on the slimy muscle and planting my face directly into the stomach wall. Immediately, my face began to tingle as well. Whimpering in fear, I pulled back, landing with a splash back on the stomach floor. Acid was already starting to pool around me up to my ankles. Digestion was starting.

"No, not yet!" I screamed, beating my fist against the stomach wall. "You sadistic bitch! I swear if I survive this, I'm burning this goddamn building to the ground! I'm gonna char your fucking face off!"

In response, a heavy slap connected with the wall I was pounding on, sending me ricocheting off three walls like a ping pong ball. I slumped back into the steadily climbing pool of acid, now up to mid thigh. My back and my butt were starting to burn.

Breathe, Zaiha. You know what you have to do. Just do it.

I bit my lip, plunging my hands into the viscous soup below me. Instantly, I felt the sundew secretions start to fizz and bubble, then the tingle of the acid touching bare skin. It was working!

"Come on, come on!" I urged, swishing my hands around to try and make it dissolve faster. 

A line of acid dripped down my back from above. It felt like a white hot needle was being dragged down my bare skin. I bit my lip harder to stifle my moan of pain, and I tasted blood. 

Finally, after about a minute of swishing, the last of my fingers finally separated. I was free! I had my magic back!

Immediately I enveloped myself in a protective ward, blocking the acid from doing any more damage. The red, angry spots on my skin flushed pink and healthy again as a wave of healing washed over me. With a satisfied smile, I conjured a small ball of fire over my palm, lighting my surroundings for the first time. 

After so long in darkness, it was fantastic to be able to see again. The walls were a dark red, slimy and in constant motion. Segmentation, the process by which food was mechanically broken down, was already getting to work, it seemed. Deep wrinkles ran across the surface of the muscle in meandering paths, each one contributing to an overall pattern solely designed to press and grind. Her acid was clear and slightly yellow in color. The walls were constantly sweating, beads of acid welling up on the walls until they trickled down the slimy wrinkles to feed the pool that now reached mid-calf. Thankfully, I really was alone. I'd been a little worried that I'd see something unpleasant when I lit up my surroundings.

I took a moment to catch my breath, then realized my breath was not the problem. The air in here wasn't just stale and sour, it was low on oxygen from both my panic attack and probably Claris's before me. With a wave of my free hand, I opened a small portal in my trachea, bringing fresh air from the outside directly into my lungs. And to think, I'd learned that spell to go swimming. 

I felt the top of the stomach touch my head, and I jumped. The fire in my hand grew bigger, but when it happened again, I realized what was happening. It was Hellebore's breathing. Every time she inhaled, my space deformed slightly when the diaphragm pulled down. Her heartbeat was still audible, though it was no longer the most prevalent sound in this giant body. Over top the constant percussion of blood being driven through her veins, a cacophony of sloshing, squirting juices, bubbling, groaning, creaking, popping, squeezing. A little dribble of saliva landed on my hair from the throat sphincter. Yeah I think it was about time to get out of here...

The fire in my hands steadily grew. It started off the size of an apple, then a cantaloupe, then a watermelon. I joined my other hand with the first, cranking the heat up. The flames grew whiter and whiter until the acid beneath me began to smoke, filling the stomach with acrid fumes.

I am the oasis…

Hellebore's words echoed in my head. If what she said was true, this giantess form of hers was only a fraction of the true Hellebore. Even if I managed to kill this iteration of her, every plant in this room and the surrounding wood would be out for revenge. I had no idea how deep I was into the oasis, but if I had to guess, I'd wager that this moldering room or castle or whatever was where she began her spread. I'd have to fight through roughly 25 kilometers of pissed off plant woman in any direction just to get free…

The roots, Zaiha…

Okay, further even than that. There was no telling how far her roots had spread. On top of that, even if I were to burn the forest to the ground, I'd never get all of her roots.

Reluctantly, I let the fireball fade. The moment my magic stopped fueling it, it fizzled and died, having used up what little oxygen remained in here. The stomach contracted, making me lose my footing and press my breasts and stomach against a slimy wall. Even though the ward spared me from her acid, it didn't prevent me from feeling the nasty, semi-crusted mucous clinging to my skin. Gross.

"Ooooaaaarrrrppp!"

Was that a burp?!

"Smoke? I take it someone freed her hands." Hellebore's voice vibrated the walls around me. Had she really not noticed the white hot inferno in her gut? That seemed impossible. "Seems like you thought better of it, though. Smart choice."

"Fuck you!"

"What was that? You'll have to speak up."

"FUCK YOU!"

"Mmmh… guess it wasn't important…"

I bit back my retort. There was no way she'd be able to hear me. I could barely hear myself over all the noise in here. Instead of wasting my time and my magic here, I'd have to concentrate my efforts somewhere where they'd be more productive and conducive to my continued survival. I cast a small magelight to illuminate the stomach again.

I turned my gaze downward and curled my lip in disgust. There, at the bottom of her stomach, half buried in the pooling acid, was my way out. The sphincter into her intestinal tract. It was a long trip, and risky. With a strong ward in place constantly fending off digestion, I wasn't even sure I'd have the magic to make it all the way through. But I had to try. It was my only chance at surviving this.

I plunged my hands into the tight ring of muscle, finding it surprisingly malleable. It was still several times stronger than my pitiful human body, though. I let a little magic flow into my fingertips, coaxing it to relax until I could slip my arms through. If I had to guess, I only had about half a tank of magic left since I missed breakfast this morning. I was really starting to regret those fireballs right about now…

My head slipped through, and then my shoulders. The magelight in front of me revealed a healthy reddish tube of meat that flexed in little rings as it tried to shuffle me along. Once my breasts popped through, it was smooth sailing all the way until my hips. Those got stuck in the sphincter for a moment. I huffed, annoyed. I didn't even have enough of an ass to take this as a compliment. 

Thankfully, I had some assistance in getting unstuck. A peristaltic wave just caught the top of my chest, decompressing my spine vertebrae by vertebrae until I popped through, fully in the intestine. Ahead of me, a curve led me downward, deeper into the body. 

This is the duodenum, Professor Zaiha happily reported. A typical humanoid duodenum is around 25-30 centimeters long, and connects the small intestine to the stomach, pancreas, and gallbladder.

I crawled on all fours toward the downward curve, slipping and squishing the whole way. Hellebore's heartbeat was even more distant now, and her breathing was beginning to fade into the background. Soon, all I'd be able to hear were the sounds of her digestive tract. 

I tumbled headfirst through the downward curve. It went a little farther down than I was anticipating. I tried to spread my arms and legs to control my descent, but the mucous-coated walls offered no resistance, and I landed with a splat in the hook where it began to flatten out. That must have been at least two body lengths. As I brushed my soggy hair out of my face, a wet gurgling sounded above me, and a mixture of foul-smelling liquids poured over top of me. 

"Yeeeeeccchhhh," I groaned, smearing away as much of the disgusting crap as I could. That would be bile and pancreatic enzymes. Because, as Professor Zaiha so helpfully pointed out, the gallbladder and pancreas added their contributions in the duodenum, and I'd just passed their ducts on my way down. 

No time for that now. Crawl!

I shuffled forward on my elbows, my feet squishing along behind me wherever they could find purchase. Before long, I came to another downward turn, and slid my way through to the small intestine proper. 

It was about this time that my mind caught up with my surroundings, and I began to notice the thousands of fingerlike projections carpeting the inside of the walls. They were about the length of my fingernails, skinnier than the tip of a quill, and packed so tightly together that they almost seemed uniform. Villi. These were what absorbed the nutrients from digested food. I ran my hand over them, watching them smear and stay put before the next peristaltic wave dragged me over them, and I slipped around the next corner. 

Suddenly, gravity changed. The wall became the floor, and I rolled over my shoulder onto my back. Hellebore was moving. She'd bent… forward? Backward? Well whichever way she bent, she suddenly went the other way now, and I faceplanted into the opposite wall. Her intestines weren't exactly roomy, but there was just enough space between me and the next wall to experience a brief moment of "falling." 

The ground dropped out from under me. For a moment, I was weightless. Then the roof collided with my back, and held me there until a sharp jolt threw me back into the floor. The floor that then became the wall, as my interpretation of "down" was once again challenged. 

I lay there for a moment, catching my breath. Through the ever-present cacophony of gut sounds, I heard her breathing slow, becoming more steady. Hellebore had laid down. She was going back to sleep, and this time she wasn't doing it in plant form. 

This made my job considerably easier. Up to this point it had all been downhill, but there was some uphill coming in my future. Now, it was all left and right. Still some up and down, but not nearly as severe, or tiresome. My journey had shifted from climbing and crawling to crawling. 

There was a lot of crawling in my future, though. The small intestine of a human averaged 7 meters long, and the large intestine was around 1.5. Using my earlier estimation for my equivalent size at 7ish centimeters, that meant there were roughly 120 body lengths in my future. Which, if we scaled that back up again, equated to roughly 200 meters, give or take. I don't know, mental arithmetic wasn't really a strong suit of mine while crawling through a fucking digestive tract, so forgive me if my estimations are a little off. In any case, that was a cake walk under normal circumstances. I'd hiked 10-15km a day on my way out there. Deep, deep inside of my heart, a little spark of hope reignited. I could do this!

Minutes ticked by. It was a good thing the intestines were a one way street, because there were so many twists and turns I'd never find my way out otherwise. Every one or two body lengths, there was another U turn. Left, right, up, down, diagonal, it was almost impossible to keep track of. Twice, after a particularly difficult corner that had me bunched up in a ball and then spit out onto the floor, I found myself facing the wrong way and had to shimmy on my butt for a bit until I got to the next spot, where I attempted to return to traveling head first. 

The guts around me bubbled and pulsed, the occasional groan from deeper in rumbling through my chest. I was starting to get a headache from the constant sound, my chest even feeling a little sore from all the shaking around. Every pitch her body produced was just right to make my chest thump. 

My progress was slow but steady, aided by the intestine itself. Whenever I struggled up a small incline, if I waited long enough, I'd get a small boost as the surrounding flesh clenched around me, shuffling me along. The villi squished under my hands and feet, their little tips tickling at my breasts, belly, and the tops of my thighs as I dragged myself hand by hand across them. My arms were beginning to burn at this point. One thing I hadn't taken into account with my earlier predictions was that all of that hiking used my legs. This was almost all arms. With the exception of a flexed ring of muscle when peristalsis caught up to me, there was nothing to push against. I didn't want to move at the speed of peristalsis. Peristalsis wanted to move food along at a nice, liesurely pace, over the next several hours. I couldn't stay in here that long. I had passed claustrophobic about 15 minutes ago. I wanted out.

A sudden wave of exhaustion rolled over me. I did a quick check of my magic, and my heart sunk. I was running on fumes by this point. It had barely been an hour! How was I so low already?!

As usual, Professor Zaiha had the answer. Fact of the day that I apparently forgot, digestion doesn't really happen in the stomach. The acids soften the food and turn it into a mush, but the actual breaking down of fats, proteins, fiber, etc. is done by enzymes in the small intestine. Since Hellebore's stomach acid had been so strong, it followed logically that the enzymes of her small intestine were even stronger. I kicked the wall in frustration, villi clinging to my toes. Why hadn't I factored that into my planning?!

Begrudgingly, I trudged onward. Planned or not, it wasn't like I had much choice in the matter. I had one avenue to survival, and this was it. Besides, I still had a very good chance. By my count, I'd already covered between 80 and 90 body lengths. The large intestine was right around the corner. Just a couple more curves, and I was out of danger!

I really should learn not to think like that…

Just as I completed a long straightaway, right before I hit what I expected to be the final U turn into the large intestine, the floor began to tilt upward. 

"No no no no!" I roared, scrabbling desperately as I felt myself begin to slide backwards. "Come on!"

It was no use. Hellebore rolled over onto her side, and I fell five body lengths back to the last bend of the intestine. 

I pressed myself against the wall, jumping and raking my fingernails down it, trying to secure any sort of purchase on the wall to claw my way back up. I knew it was useless, but I had to try! The villi were too short to grab onto, the walls too slippery to allow me to brace against them. I fell again and again, only to get up and launch myself with renewed desperation at the insurmountable obstacle that now blocked my path. 

I slipped back down for the tenth or fifteenth time, and this time, I didn't get back up. I had one option to survive now. The only way I was getting up that mountain was Hellebore's gut moving me up it of its own power. But that could take hours, and then I had the large intestine next…

The faint spark of hope that had kept me going to this point flickered, and was snuffed out.

I put all of my remaining energy into my ward and the portal that kept me breathing. If I was going to die in here, I'd rather not be awake for it. Exhaustion settled in my chest, my eyelids growing heavy. I'd pushed myself as long and as hard as I possibly could. I'd fought harder than I'd ever fought in my life, including my one previous experience with hungry giants. What an embarrassing way to go. Not only swallowed by a giantess, but so close to freedom. Unconsciousness tugged at my mind, and I let myself slip away.

At least I tried…

* * * * *

To my complete and total surprise, my eyes opened again.

I was back in a cage, this one new, shiny, and clean. The floor was laiden with fresh pillows and blankets, piled up around me in a nest of sorts. A pile of fresh fruit and vegetables sat at my feet. 

Hellebore's massive face stared at me through the bars, her chin propped up on her hands. She was laying on her stomach, kicking her massive feet behind her. Her orange eyes beamed with a childish, giddy excitement as she saw me stare back at her in exhausted bewilderment.

"I'm not dead?" I asked stupidly.

I gave myself a quick once over. Arms and chest were sore, and my head hurt, but besides that, I was okay. Completely empty on magic though. Not even a whisper left. It'd take a day or two to regenerate. But I'd made it out unscathed and with no lasting damage! Not what I was expecting when I passed out in her small intestine.

"I know, I didn't expect that either. Imagine my surprise when you came out still breathing."

I gave myself a suspicious sniff. My skin smelled like lavender and mint. Apparently I had also been bathed during my time unconscious.

Hellebore nodded to the food in front of me.

"Eat up."

I was too hungry to look a gift horse in the mouth. This food could have been nightshade and hemlock, and I still would have taken a few bites. Besides, Hellebore had me for gods knew how many hours, naked, unconscious, and vulnerable, and she had chosen to keep me alive. 

I bit into some sort of apple. Fresh, sweet juice spread across my tongue, and I almost cried. I devoured the rest of its crisp, delicious flesh in two bites, nibbling little chunks off the core until there was hardly anything left but seeds. I grabbed a melon next, pre-sliced and dripping with juice. 

"Why… why did you save me?" I asked between bites. I probably wouldn't like the answer, but I had to know. Now that my hunger and exhaustion were being taken care of, curiosity was my next most pressing need.

"Because that was the most enjoyable experience I've had in a very long time," Hellebore said. "I felt you crawling around in there all the way through."

"Well at least one of us enjoyed it," I said acidly.

Hellebore's massive green lips spread into an unsettling, hungry smile. I felt a small stirring in my loins, but also a sinking in the pit of my stomach.

"Rest and eat, Zaiha. Because we're going to do it again. And again, and again, and again…"

Hellebore stood, turning away and swaying her hips as she stalked off to the edge of the room. A curtain of vines parted, revealing a door that I hadn't previously seen. 

"I'm going hunting. The caravan whose blankets and pillows I stole is still out there. I'll see if I can find you any new friends while I'm out. And before you concoct another ill-fated escape attempt, just remember…"

She turned, beaming that same smile. The smile of a predator with their prey fully under their control.

"...the plants are always listening."