“I think I’ll give the girls your airship to play with,” she said, cleaning her mouth with more water, “I hope you don’t mind.”

“I guess I won’t be needing it from now on,” he said, and found her smile of response to be most rewarding.

“Well if you’ll just make yourself at home on my tongue, I’ll be ready to swallow you in a few minutes.”

“Do you want me to slide over your lip?” he asked.

“Yes, that’ll be fine, and thank you for all the courtesy you’ve shown in the face of the inevitable. I appreciate you being polite in front of the children too.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, “I wouldn’t have done anything else.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” she said, “And that just makes you even more … MOUTH WATERING!”

She positioned him on her open palm in front of her lips and opened her mouth. He slid over her lower lip, pressing his body against it as much as he could, moving as slowly as he could, to enjoy the feeling of that lip pressed against his face, his neck and his chest. He hoped that the delay he was causing would not annoy her or cause her to think that he was stalling.

Once he was fully inside her mouth, he lay comfortably on her tongue, and realized how difficult it was to lie still in one spot on such a slippery surface, which would change its shape a little with the slightest movement she made with her tongue. Still, that would be nothing in comparison to the challenges he would face during his rapidly approaching vertical journey, he thought.

He could feel the slightly rising back of her tongue against his cheek like a pillow, as he laid his head on its side. For a second, he almost reached out with both arms and pulled himself into her throat ahead of schedule, and then he didn’t need to. For a man that size, there was nothing one could do to prepare for the unbalancing and forceful effect of the sudden gulping movement that the giantess made. It drew him from the top of her tongue into the top of her throat, and nothing anyone in that situation could have done would have prevented his sudden descent.

He stopped halfway down her throat, and suddenly found himself being heaved back up again. In no time at all, he was back in her mouth, and then sliding out on an outstretching tongue and onto her palm.

“You were expecting another gulp, weren’t you?” she laughed.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to come back from that position in any event,” he said.

“I know. I almost gulped you down too far. I wasn’t really going to gobble you all the way down. It’s been fun to give you such a convincing fright though.”

She went and fetched a large cage and filled it with whatever would amount to modern comforts for a lad his size.

“This will be your home from now on,” she said, “The girls and I will keep you as a pet. So you were still right about not needing your airship. Is there anything inside it that you want though?”

“I do have a bed and pillow that I’m used to,” he said, “And I brought along a number of books to read on my journey.”

“I’ll hold the ship with both hands while you get those things out then,” she said, “You won’t be able to fly off in it, if you had any ideas about doing that.”

“I won’t,” he said.

Once his things were placed in the cage, she took it to her bedroom and put it beside her bed on a table.