Nari closed his eyes, bracing for impact, as he plummeted headlong into a churning sea of Sarne’s hot saliva, swirling at the base of her mouth as she tossed him downward into it.  He gasped in a final breath just before breaking the gooey surface of the liquid, and found himself in the shallows of her soft, wet mouth.  Sarne’s spit began seeping slowly over Nari’s body, soaking his clothes and causing them to adhere to his body.  He struggled get a sense of gravity as Sarne slowly tilted her head back into its normal position, allowing Nari to sit sprawled horizontally next to a row of molars, just off to the side of her robust tongue.  Nari coughed, wiping the sticky strands of soggy fluid from his face.  He opened his eyes just in time to watch Sarne’s gigantic, cushiony lips coming back together.  The light seemed to be swallowed up on the opposite side of her mouth.  A final crack of the glow from the cave slipped in before Sarne closed her mouth all the way, throwing Nari into utter darkness.

                Nari tried to steady his breathing, hugging his sopping arms to his body to calm the shivering.  He closed his eyes again, and inhaled slowly.  With each breath, he took in the wonderful, sweet scent that was fogged heavily around Sarne’s powerful mouth.  From the earthy smell, he was reminded of running about in the fields as a toddler while his father worked to sow the seeds for the harvest.  He smiled, and calmly sat, not moving a muscle.  Nari was vaguely aware that he might be dead very soon, and he wanted his final thoughts to be of a happy place, with his parents, and not the fact that he was currently residing next to the burly, saliva-saturated monster tongue of the village’s omnipotent goddess.

                The young boy remained here for several minutes, as the air supply slowly dwindled in the muggy atmosphere.  Eventually, the gummy feeling of Sarne’s flowing saliva around his legs didn’t bother him, and he actually welcomed it.  It was warm, and almost comforting as well as the smell of Sarne’s breath, reminding him of the steam pits around the coastline of the island.

                Finally, after having remained perfectly motionless and silent for what felt like an eternity to Nari, who had resolved to replay every memory of his old home down in the village through his mind, his eyes had to adjust as light flowed into Sarne’s mouth.  Her lips were parting slowly, a dangling, crystal strand of spit hanging and wobbling in the air from the top of her lip as she opened her enormous jaws to their fully extended position.  Then, the light was partially blocked out for Nari as Sarne’s hand came into view, pressing itself against her lips.  Her fingers pinched together, and reached in purposefully for him.  She grabbed him gingerly between her fingertips and removed him slowly. 

Nari took a deep breath of the suddenly cool air around him, his neck perspiring somewhat from the heat of Sarne’s mouth.  He was lowered slowly onto Sarne’s waiting, opened palm, and deposited in the velvety center.  The goddess raised her hand slowly up to her eyes, which were squinting somewhat, accentuating the cutting glare of her silver irises.  Nari flinched to stare into them, but this time forced himself to continue, keeping terrifying eye contact with the three-hundred-foot deity.

                “Why do you do this, sacrifice?” came the confident, booming voice.

                “What?” squeaked Nari, too shocked that he wasn’t on his way to the hulking stomach of the goddess to think clearly.

                “I have swallowed many young ones before, in the times past.  All of them cried, and screamed, and resisted the honor of being made a token of my amusement.  But you.  You do not cry or scream.  You do not make a noise, or a movement.  You are different.  Why is this?”

                Nari was silent for a moment, biting his nails. 

“Speak up, sacrifice, or I shall become angered.”

                “I don’t know,” whispered Nari quietly.  Sarne considered his answer for a moment, nodding again.

                “Your obedience to your goddess has stayed my wrath for the time being.  I do not believe it would amuse me now to swallow you whole, as I was planning to do.  As you know, I am a giving goddess, and reward those who show loyalty to me.  Therefore, I offer you the following gift.”

                “W-What?” stuttered Nari, surprised.

                “A choice.  Either I put you back in my sacred mouth, and swallow you as the sacrifice you were meant to be…” she began, letting this possibility sink in for a moment for the tiny boy in her hand.  “…or, I shall keep you.  As my slave.  You will do everything I ask of you.  You will do any work I require of you, and you will amuse me as I see fit.  Now, tell me.  Is this what you wish?”

                Nari nodded his head slowly at first, but eventually realized that he was being given the opportunity to live, and so quickly began shaking his head enthusiastically.  Sarne nodded, understanding his choice.  She breathed out slowly, sighing, before speaking again.

“What do they call you down in my village, slave?” questioned the goddess calmly, verbalizing steadily.  “You must have a name.”

                “N-N-N…” began the young boy, his throat dry again.  He swallowed with effort.  “N-Nari.”

                “Nari,” responded Sarne, wrinkling her colossal nose somewhat in disapproval.  “This name does not please me.  You will have another.”

                “Yes?” said Nari in the same low voice, the saliva from Sarne’s mouth slowly drying around his body in a thick, slobbery layer.

                “Vaw.  Your new name shall be Vaw.”

                Nari cringed a little to hear this title being given.  He didn’t remember a great deal about the ancient tongues of the island’s people, but he did happen to remember a thing or two from the little his father had taught him.  “Vaw,” as he most closely remembered it, translated to mean “little slave” or “little breathing toy.”  Essentially, it was used to describe pets in a positive, regal light, but when used on a human, it was a brutal insult.

                Of course, Nari didn’t intend to protest this naming choice by his new owner.

                Sarne’s hand lowered slowly, flattening against the ground.  Taking the hint, Nari cautiously crept across the plain of soft, uneven flesh and stepped off the end of the firm thumb, back to the cave ground.  Nervously, Nari turned back around, holding his hands together to keep them from shaking again.

                “I have spared you this day, Vaw.  But remember: if you disobey my commands, or forget your place, I can just as easily make you a dishonorable sacrifice and swallow you anyway.”

                Nari nodded slowly, staring into the billowing, mountainous fold of the golden robe that hung over the goddess’s body.  Seeing this reaction, Sarne continued.

                “As you are my slave now, you no longer have the privilege to be as near to my sacred crown, and must remain nearest the ground as possible.  In time, you may prove yourself worthy to rise up again, but for now, you will remain in you proper place: below me.  Throw yourself back to the floor again, Vaw,” she ordered sternly.  Nari obeyed, trembling, and flattened himself against the cave ground, looking down.  Then, remembering what had happened before, Nari kissed the ground, his cheeks turning colder.

                Sarne chuckled, the low, booming sound echoing through the high halls of the cave.  “Good.  Good, young, little slave.  You learn quickly.  Keep yourself on this path, and you just might avoid being sacrificed.  Now…” she continued.  “You may rise, and face your goddess again.”

                Nari obeyed again, his mind swimming.  Things were happening so quickly he didn’t even have time to process them.  All he knew was that he was alive, and the longer he could keep it up, the better.  It was the only clear thought in his utterly befuddled brain, his entire being completely overwhelmed by this literally larger than life goddess, who seemed to embody every rumor he had heard of her, perhaps not physically, but in her accepting graces and strict expectations alike.  He looked upward, and Sarne tilted her chin downward slightly to get a better look at the young boy, who, to her, was only around an inch tall.

                “Now step forward, Vaw, and I will instruct you in your first task to please me.”

                Nari did as he was told, taking several steps toward the hilly, rippling folds of shining golden robe.  Suddenly, the hills shifted, and the lumps in the fabric rolled off the sides, making way as a large, ovular shape made its way toward the edge of the robe.  Nari stepped back in shock as Sarne’s nearly forty-foot-long ped slid out from under the robe, her golden-brown skin almost glistening, her toes parting dramatically, her pinky alone looking about as long as Nari’s entire body.  She flattened both feet onto the ground, as she pulled her entire body into a more comfortable seated position, rumbling the entire cave with her motion. Finally, she slid both forward, sending up clouds of dust and pebbles as her toes shoved through the microscopic debris littering the ground.

                Nari held his ground as Sarne’s foot came to rest within touching distance of him, her big toe facing him.  Nari’s eyes widened.  He realized that if he were to grab onto this massive, meaty digit, if he stretched his arms all the way out, he would just barely be able to touch each end of Sarne’s perfectly curved and clean toenail.

                “Your first duty, young slave.  Cleanse my hallowed feet of the filth that erodes my mountain, and perhaps I will postpone your sacrifice in my sacred mouth longer.”