Strange Friends

I'm really enjoying that story ^_^

You describe very well their feelings and this game of cat and mouse between those two is just fascinating !

Thank you. I'm glad my story is rolling along nicely and seems to be doing okay. Here's chapter seven, where Calimn pulls out all the stops to try and catch poor Swiftlit. This has vore in it, so do not read if vore offends you.

Chapter 7: Tricks and Traps

Calimn scooted the first box over a bit, adjusted the second, and nudged the third forward. She was lying on her stomach at her usual spot, with a trio of wooden crates in front of her. Each was just big enough to contain a crouched human, perhaps three feet by three feet by three feet. She had a surprise for Swiftlit today.

She smiled, a grin that contained equal parts hunger and playfulness. She would get him today, that was for sure. She could already taste that tingling sweetness that he had, and felt her mouth start to water. She shook her head to clear the thought; she needed to keep her mind sharp to catch him, skittish as he was.

It had been three days since he had last shown up and subsequently run off. He seemed to take three days to recover from the shock of nearly being caught each time in about that long. He would show up sooner or later. He generally came around noon.

She waited for him, relaxing and occasionally glancing at his usual hiding place now and again. The day wore on, sun reaching its zenith and then beginning to descend again. Calimn laid under that bright sun, basking in its heat, and napped. Half-awake and half-asleep, she daydreamed about how well her plans to catch the boy would go.

He would be along any minute now, peeking out from behind that tree. She could taste him, practically, so salty-sweet she could hardly bear to swallow him. She did, though, after having sucked all the delicious flavor from him . . . he went down silky-smooth, a small bulge in her throat that . . . tickling in her tummy . . .

* * * * *

Swiftlit couldn't keep going. Not like this. Not constantly terrified. Even when there was no danger, his mind started to weave horrendous scenarios that just kept getting worse and worse as he continued to sit there in his underground house. He was going to go completely insane if he didn't get out of his burrow and do something.

He had nothing to do, though. He had cleaned up his burrow and made a plughole for the entrance, a circle of earth and moss he had gouged straight out of the ground that hid his home perfectly. He was far too frightened to go wandering around in the forest, fearful of beasts and other dangers. All he could do was sit here and lose his mind as waking nightmares paraded through his head.

The mermaid-

He crushed that thought in an instant.

There was nothing in the world that would make him go back to that terrible fish-woman. He had nearly been eaten by her three times already. He would have a heart-attack if he had to endure another visit with her. No, he would never go back. Never.

* * * * *

Calimn started awake. She hadn't even realized she had drifted off to sleep, easing into a dream of eating Swiftlit so gently and subtly she had been asleep before she knew it. She sat up, wiping some drool from the corner of her mouth, an indication of how vivid the dream had been. Well, at least she hadn't slept too long; the sun was still up . . .

On the other side of the sky from were it had been when she had gone to sleep. It was morning again, just a few hours after sunrise. She had slept the whole afternoon and night! She hurriedly looked at Swiftlit's hiding spot at the edge of the forest. He wasn't there.

She had missed him! Her plan to catch him, all that time spent setting her plan up, wasted! She had spent two days searching the river for ships with the right cargo, even sparing the crews of the ships when they answered her questions on what they were carrying. That had taken a lot of willpower, and a long time to get the sailors to tell her about their goods.

It wasn't fair! He was the only human she had spent so much time on and more than one try to catch, and now she had missed him. There wasn't any guarantee that he would come back, either. She had talked to him the last three times, but now she hadn't and there was no way of knowing if he would return or not.

She shook her head, hard, and slapped herself on the cheek lightly. No, no, there was still a chance to get him. Who had said, after all, that he had come by? Maybe he was late, or delayed, or just busy. She didn't really know what the small folk did in their spare time, other than shipping and fishing, but surely they had things to do when not being food.

She settled down, rolling to lie on her stomach and prop her head up on one hand. He would come back. She was sure of it. All she had to do was be patient and wait. And she would.

* * * * *

Swiftlit finally broke on the morning of the fifth day. He was exhausted from the constant tension of his paranoid fantasies. He couldn't take any more of sitting here, with nothing to do but go searching for fruit and edible vegetation when he got hungry or looking for a stream when thirst hit him. He had to talk to somebody, or he would lose it.

And there was really only one person he could talk to.

He got up and went to see Calimn. Her presence terrified him, but at least she was real. The infinite parade of imagined horrors that came when he was alone was far worse. He could talk to her and have the anxiety of her proximity ease the more frightening imaginings of his mind. Replacing a greater fear with a lesser one, basically.

He snuck through the Miragia Forest, moving faster than usual and less cautiously. He was eager, in a way, for the heart-pounding conversation with the mermaid. Anything was better than those waking nightmares. He just couldn't keep going if he had to endure those horrifying ideas.

He was still very cautious as he went through the forest, and that alertness was what saved his skin.

One moment there was nothing there, and the next he was surrounded by half a dozen giant lizards. They were huge, close to thirty feet long, and came out of nowhere, literally just popping up right in front of him. He yelped, instantly backpedaling away from the blue-scaled reptiles with his hands flung up in front of him in a futile attempt at defense.

They didn't do anything, merely taking a few steps forward to keep close to him. His eyes darted around, looking for a way to escape. All he saw was six sets of bright yellow eyes staring at him, no way to run without going straight at one of the lizards. He was trapped.

He kept whipping around, trying to keep his eyes on all the beasts at once, spinning back and forth in an attempt to watch each and every one of the reptiles. They weren't attacking, just standing in an irregular circle around him, none any closer than five or six meters. He kept twisting around, breathing fast and shallow with fear.

Suddenly something moved in the corner of his eye, one of the creatures leaping at him with a wide open mouth. It was more than big enough to swallow him whole, and it looked like that was what it planned to do. His reflexes instantly took over at the sight of the movement, and he darted sideways so fast he nearly broke a leg.

The duplicator gecko wound up with nothing but a mouthful of dirt. The human it had trapped had been turning around too much, not giving it a solid opportunity to sneak up behind him and swallow the boy. Now the human was gone, vaulting over the back of one of its duplicates in an amazingly long leap. The gecko slid back under the surface of reality slowly, copies vanishing as it left. It would have to go hungry for today.

* * * * *

Just as Calimn had predicted, Swiftlit showed up. She had gotten a little worried about him, that he had been eaten by something or involved in some accident on his way here. The thought of him dying before she got to eat him upset her, what with all the work she was putting into catching him. This time, though, he would be her lunch for sure.

She looked down at the little morsel, excited by the sight of his small frame shaking minutely with fear. She couldn't wait to eat him. It was a sure thing this time. There was no way he was going to escape, not in a million years. She schooled her face to a pleasant smile and sp-

Wow, he looks . . . messed up, she thought. He seemed exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes that spoke of lack of sleep. He was tense and trembling, but he was somehow . . . slumped, too. His eyes were dull, tired, and frightened all at once. It was an unhealthy combination.

She was taken aback, but she was also glad. Tired was good. Tired was great, even. He would have a harder time concentrating, and he would have more difficulty evading her if it came to a physical ambush. She quickly gave him a worried look and spoke, eager to get her plan moving.

* * * * *

"You okay? You don't seem yourself today."

He wasn't anything like okay. He had barely slept in the five days since their last meeting, and what little sleep he had managed to get had been filled with nightmares. At least half of them had been of the very mermaid he was talking to eating him alive. He shuddered, and then responded.

"I'm just . . . r-really tired i-is all."

The mermaid smiled. The smile held sympathy, but he knew better than to trust her. The concerned expression was a ruse to get him closer, and even if it wasn't she would eat him if he approached her. He made sure not to look at her mouth as she spoke, remembering his previous experience.

"Oh, that's no good. Well, I know just what you need. You're probably hungry, huh?"

He was, actually. Before he had been too scared to realize it, but now he could feel how empty he was. He burned energy like a furnace, his constant state of panic eating up calories very fast.

"Yes, I am kind of hungry."

* * * * *

Calimn smiled at his response. "The easiest way to fill your own stomach is to exploit someone else's", as her mother had always said. She could very well have him with this. She indicated the three crates in front of herself with a sweep of her hand.

"I got these crates of food just for you. You can have some right now, if you want. Just come over and have some." she urged, trying to hide in her internal excitement.

He looked at the crates cautiously, scrutinizing them with a suspicious squint. She realized just how tired he was when he took several steps forward before stopping. He would normally never do such a thing. Her heartbeat sped up, instincts flaring up as her anticipation increased. He was so out of it she practically had him in her mouth already.

She was really going to get him this time!

He paused, freezing in mid-stride, and backed off a bit. He slapped himself, obviously trying to clear his sleep-deprived mind. Well, he could slap himself all he wanted, he wasn't getting away this time. He gave her a nervous glance, looked back at the crates, and then back at her. He didn't move.

"I d-don't think so. N-no, I-I'm not getting c-close just for food. I'M food to y-you."

True, but she had to convince him otherwise if she wanted to get ahold of him. Time to switch over to second phase of her plan. She picked up the crate on her left, his right, and popped the top of it off. Inside was some fruit, the size and bright golden sheen declaring them to be dragonapples.

"If you don't want any, I guess I'll have to eat it all myself . . ."

She tilted her head back and lifted the container up, tilting it so the fruit fell into her mouth. Once they were all in, she closed her mouth and bit down. She didn't really like fruit, but dragonapples were acceptable. They had a sweet taste with a cinnamon bite to it, but they were really too small to be a viable source of food.

And they didn't hold a candle to humans when it came to pure deliciousness.

She made a great show of eating them, though, chewing and humming "Mmmmmm!" as if they were the best thing in the whole world. He reacted much as she had predicted, gaining an envious, hungry look to his demeanor. She swallowed, and smiled, reaching down to pick up the next crate. She crushed the empty one in her hand as a human might crush a soda can, tossing the destroyed container aside.

This was her best plan ever.

* * * * *

Swiftlit trembled as the mermaid ate the fruit in the second crate just as she had done with the first, wanting to go and eat some himself but too scared to move. He had to fight to keep his eyes off of her mouth as she ate, and he nearly froze up again when his gaze wandered to her lips once. It was excruciating, caught between wanting to join her in the meal and fearing to join her AS the meal.

She finished the second crate, and clenched her fist on it as with the first. The sturdy box was instantly crunched into a mass of splintered boards. He shook, realizing just how much strength a giant like her had. She had ripped the crates open with a casual flick of her finger, and he could imagine-very vividly-what would happen if she did the same to him. He'd lose a limb at the very least.

He finally plucked up the nerve to speak as she reached for the third crate.

"W-w-wait! W-wait a minute, I want some!"

She looked up at his shout, surprise crossing her face.

"I thought you wouldn't come over and eat any. That's what you said, right?"

"Y-yeah, but I ch-changed my mind. I . . . Could you b-back off? J-just a little, s-so I can eat without y-you trying t-to grab me?"

She gave him a hurt look, pouting a bit at his words.

"I'm insulted. I wouldn't grab you. We're friends, remember?"

"Not even close. You j-just want to e-eat me."

She threw up her hands with an exasperated huff.

"I obviously can't be nice to you. I got you all this foo- . . .Fine, I'll go in the river, since you don't trust me."

She pushed herself up on her hands, swinging around to crawl back into the water. She swam out a bit, turned, and sank down until everything below her nose was submerged. He waited until the wake of her movement in the water had disappeared before approaching the crate. He kept a wary eye on Calimn as he pried the top off of it.

His mental exhaustion really HAD affected his judgement, because the idea that the gift might be a trap never even crossed his mind.

There was only a large chunk of soil in the crate, with a mass of long green-brown vines, each about as thick as his thumb and several meters long, growing out of it. They were coiled up initially, but when his breath touched them they sprang to life. He screamed as they lashed at him, leaping back to avoid them. Despite his speed, his sleep-deprived reflexes were not quick enough to keep him from being grabbed.

The vines wrapped around his wrist. He tried to run, but he only got about twenty feet before he reached the end of the vines' length and was jerked to a halt. His feet flew out from under him as the vine snapped taunt, and he slammed into the ground, the breath knocked out of him.

He was trapped.

* * * * *

Calimn cheered as the boy got caught by the grabbing vine she had placed in the last crate. Her shout sent a flock of mirror birds-or maybe it was just one?-flying from a nearby tree, their bright feathers glinting like a reflection of the brilliant smile on her face. She swam up to the edge of the river and climbed out, water pouring off of her as she walked herself over to him on her hands.

She was ecstatic that her plan had worked. She had spent several hours searching for the grabbing vine, and some time to get it primed in the crate for him. She had him now. He was back up and darting around, bouncing at the end of the vine like a rabbit in a snare. His frantic struggles had her mouth flooding with saliva instantly.

Her belly growled, ready and waiting for the meal to come.

* * * * *

Swiftlit was howling, trying desperately to get the tendril wrapped around his wrist loose, tearing at it with his free hand and swinging his caught limb wildly. The vine ignored his struggling, keeping a firm hold on his wrist. The mermaid was rolling around on the ground a few meters away from the crate, for no discernible reason. She was drying herself off, why he didn't know, and the predatory grin on her face had his heart doing horrified flips in his chest.

She reached over and pulled the crate closer, the vine towing him along with it. He watched as she reached into the crate and plucked the vine holding him. Hope flared in him; if she had snapped the vine it would let go!

It didn't let go.

It just tightened.

* * * * *

Calimn watched as Swiftlit's face fell. That she had finally caught him made her so excited!

"The vine stays on for a couple hours if it gets severed. It won't let go until it gets some water on it. That's why I dried off. And guess what else? . . . It's edible!"

She put the end she had pinched in her fingers against her lips, and sucked it in a bit. She had him now, and she was going to have as much fun with him as she could. She started to slowly suck the vine up, relishing the slightly sour-bitter taste of the plant. It would make his sweet flavor at the end all the more delicious.

* * * * *

Swiftlit was screaming, straining backwards to keep as far from the mermaid's mouth as he could. His heels were dug into the dirt, but he was still getting dragged forward, leaving twin furrows behind himself. He was no more than fifteen feet from the mermaid now, the vine's other end disappearing past her lips inch by inch.

He pulled at the tendril tethering him, trying to backpedal, and slipped. His feet slid out from under him, towards the mermaid, and he landed on his back, swinging around and being dragged. He was shrieking the whole time, trying to get back up but unable to with the vine constantly pulling him along.

His heart was going to explode if this continued, beating so fast his pulse had become one continuous rush that roared in his ears. He couldn't seem to breathe, though he could scream perfectly well. Fear was growing in him, out of control, black flowers budding and blooming as they consumed his mind. He managed to speak through the terror, yelling at the mermaid.

"STOP, NO, STOP, ST-NO, I DON'T WA-NO! NONONONONONO! LET GO OF-LET GO! STOP EATING ME!"

The mermaid ignored his wails, slurping up the last bit of the vine. A moment later she sucked his arm into her mouth.

At that point he went mad.

Calimn was going to eat him.


Chapter seven. Calimn makes traps inside of traps and manages to catch Swiftlit. Chapter eight will be up as soon as I work it out and polish it up a little. Critiques are welcome and appreciated.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

ohh great chapter ! Sneaky Calimn XD
Somehow I saw that one coming

Now I'm really curious to see what will happens next. As far as I can tell he is pretty screwed ^^

Damn; a cliffhanger! :p How clever of her - but how mean! I felt for both of them, there. The boy's fear and tiredness and hunger and hope... And Calimn's excitement at having got him. It's hard to blame her for trying. Most of me hopes that he'll survive... but if Calimn does eat him, I suspect I'll be pleased for her.

Thank you. Well, here is chapter eight. We have an unexpected guest show up.
EDIT: This has vore in it. Apologies for the late warning.

Chapter 8: Tense Negotiations

It was rather ironic that Swiftlit nearly went insane from fear visiting Calimn when that had been what he had been attempting to avoid.

He was trapped, his arm inside her mouth, with the rest of him outside but pressed against her lips in a parody of a full-body kiss. He was thrashing furiously, no longer even screaming but simply emitting a shrill, continual whistle like a teakettle on the verge of boiling over. He was barely conscious, pushed so far into the realm of panic that he was on the edge of insanity.

His mental state had become something like the mind of someone having a nightmare, splintered but hideously clear details and blurred lines. He could feel the gentle but firm grip of her soft lips on his arm, her tongue coiling around and stroking his entrapped limb like a monstrous serpent. His arm was warm, the heat of her mouth a pressure on his arm, saliva soaking the caught limb.

She was breathing through her nose, and every exhale had his hair ruffling, the same heat that was encasing his arm washing over him. She was enjoying him, giving a joyous hum of pure pleasure as she sucked on his arm. She was going to eat him, very slowly, and there was nothing he could do about it.

* * * * *

Calimn had been waiting for this moment since she had first encountered the boy. She had spent so much time and effort getting ahold of him, pulled out all the stops to finally catch him, and now, at last, she was going to eat him.

He tasted even better than she remembered, a bright, delicious tingling on her tongue that made her want to pull him all the way into her mouth and swallow him immediately. She ignored that instinct; she had spent more time on Swiftlit than any other humanoid in her life. She was going to take her time with him, draw the pleasure of eating him out as far as she could manage.

She just sucked on his arm very gently, getting as much flavor as she coax out. She sighed contentedly, closing her eyes halfway. His sweet taste, with that unique tickle of adrenaline, was just so good . . .

A furious shout interrupted her.

"You JERK!"

* * * * *

Asil had come to investigate the loud yell of triumph that had emanated from the Jewel River, and discovered the mermaid she had met a couple weeks earlier while looking for a particular human. The mermaid had caught something, a small male human, and had his arm in her mouth. She was smiling gently, sucking on his limb idly as she hummed with pleasure.

The fairy had been about to leave when she had noticed something about the human. He was small, with fearful green eyes and messy, mousy brown hair. She recognized him instantly. She could never forget that speedy little cheater. He had made her hit a tree and shrugged off her shrinking magic, breaking rules left and right.

That mermaid had lied to her! The fish-woman had said that she had eaten the boy, yet here he was. She had lied and kept him to taste whenever she wanted. After Asil had nearly given herself a concussion chasing the tetchy little human. That was just . . . just . . . she didn't even know a word bad enough to express herself.

She went for her default.

"You JERK!"

* * * * *

Calimn looked up, and spotted a fairy, grown to about sixty-five feet tall, hovering over her. She looked mad, glaring down like an enraged gargoyle. She seemed familiar, bright dragonfly wings and chocolate-colored skin, plus a head of br-

Oh. This was going to be bad.

She went from blissful to a mix of anxious and seriously ticked off. She had been about to enjoy a long, peaceful, perfect session of eating, and here comes somebody to ruin it. Could she not get a single break, just one? She had toiled for two weeks trying to catch him, and now she couldn't even relax and eat him properly.

"You are such a jerk! A mega-jerk times a million and one! You said you ate him! You lied! Liar!"

Calimn didn't bother to try deceiving the fairy a second time. She was too frustrated with the worst-ever timing of the fairy's appearance. The mermaid shifted the boy's arm to the side of her mouth to speak and snapped back at the sprite with quite a bit of venom.

"Well, so what. If you couldn't catch him, it's your own fault. I spent days trying to get ahold of him and he's mine now. So buzz off and go play in some feyweed."

She didn't expect what happened next.

The fairy landed, reached over, and yanked the human right out of her mouth. His arm came loose with a loud 'pop!' from the suction. The fairy held him, taking a step back as the mermaid reared up on her tail, powerful muscles holding her steady, to look the fairy in the eye.

"You'd better give him back."

* * * * *

Asil wasn't going to give the human back. The mermaid had lied, and that negated her claim to him. Asil had found him first, used up magic to try and shrink him, and chased him all over the place. She had EARNED him, unlike the mermaid.

She stuck her tongue out, and let the mermaid know what she thought.

"You're a liar, so you don't get him."

The mermaid flushed, skin going from light blue to a dark teal color. She was Angry with a capital A. She puffed furiously for several seconds, but then slumped, the fire leaving her eyes. She obviously knew Asil was too much for her to handle on land. She turned around and went back to the river, sliding in with a sigh of disappointment.

"That's right, you better get back in the water! Liars don't get honest peoples' food!"

Asil looked down at the tasty little snack in her hand, and licked her lips. He was struggling wildly, but seemed to be only semi-concious, eyes glazed with terror. His failing tickled her palm, making her giggle. She was going to enjoy this. A meal earned honestly was the best meal of all, as she often told herself.

"Let's see how you tas-"

"Eat water, you food-theif!"

* * * * *

The word "water" brought Swiftlit back around. He was dizzy, vision blurry and with a headache from thrashing around so furiously. He had nearly given himself a case of whiplash, flinging his head around so intensely, but he was beginning to recover from it. He looked up, and saw Calimn in the river, drawing her tail back. Someone had him in her hand, the fairy that had chased him a few weeks ago. He wondered what was going on.

Then Calimn's tail hit the water, sending up a massive wave. With an expert flick of her dexterous tail, she cut the base of the wave and sent it through the air like a missile of liquid the size of a small house. The mass of water flew at him, and he screamed.

"NO, I HATE WA-"

Then the wave hit him. It was like running into a brick wall. The air was knocked right out of his lungs, and his body bent backwards in a U-shape in the fairy's hand as the weight of the water slammed into him. He felt the fairy stagger, and she actually fell, not expecting the impact of several tons of water. She crashed to the ground and dropped him.

He recovered his breath as he fell, and let out a screech; his weight had increased enough from the deluge that he would break half his bones when he hit the ground. He was going to die. He had a brief moment, just an instant before he landed, where he was relieved.

At least he would not have to endure all this fear anymore. He wasn't going to be eaten, and he wasn't going to drown, either. He accepted it. He was finally going to be released from all this nonsen-

Fate decided to throw him a curveball.

He landed on Asil's chest, bouncing and rolling off her to reach the ground without so much as a scratch. He laid there, gasping, and realized that he was alive. The fairy sitting up beside him and yelling at Calimn snapped him out of his trance. He had to get away from here while the two were fighting. He couldn't get up though; he was too wet and heavy.

Wait . . . Calimn had rolled around in the dirt to get dry . . . He could, too!

The ground where the fairy was sitting was wet with Calimn's giant splash, but he had fallen far enough that he was in a relatively dry area. He could get dry. He immediately began rolling around as well as he could with his weight. He just had to pray that he could dry off before they remembered what they were arguing over.

* * * * *

Asil was madder than a boom bee on red-flower-picking day. The mermaid had hit her with a wave of water, and her fall had damaged one of her delicate wings. She couldn't change size now, stuck as a giant until her wing healed. She was a little scared about her wings, the most important part of a fairy, being hurt, but because she was big it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

"Look what you did to my wing! It's all messed up!" she shouted, getting back up.

She reached back and lifted the injured member, a small tear in it where it had twisted under her. It was minor, and probably would heal in a few hours, but Asil was still furious.

"You deserved it! I spent a long dang time making that plan and setting it all up, and you ruined it! Two weeks worth of work! Two!"

"You're a mega-jerk and a liar! You lied about the boy, and then you messed up my wing! ALL your plans should get ruined!"

At the mention of the boy, they both looked at Asil's hand. It was . . . empty. They looked around hurriedly, but there was no sign of the human they had been arguing over. He was gone.

"Oh, that is just PEACHY KEEN!" the mermaid yelled, throwing her hands up.

Asil wasn't able to fly, but she started to march off. She had had enough of this. Forget the boy. Forget the mermaid. She was going to go home to Lakeland and stay there once she could fly. She was done with this jerk mermaid. She would never come back to this side of the river again.

* * * * *

Calimn watched the fairy walk off, seething. That idiot had cost her the best meal of her life. There was no telling when Swiftlit would be back, or even that he would come back at all. She had spent so much time and effort just to get nothing but a quick taste. It was the most unfair thing in the world. She HATED to have her plans fail.

She had never been so upset. The boy had become her golden goose, a nigh unto unattainable prize. She wanted to eat him so badly . . .

She climbed back up onto shore and flung herself down, lying on her empty belly. She would wait. He had come back before. He would come back again. She would get him. Sooner or later, she would eat him up. And she would enjoy every second of it.

* * * * *

Swiftlit ran all the way back to his burrow, having to go at a normal human pace with his lingering dampness weighing him down. He opened the plug at the entrance, jumped down, and yanked the makeshift door shut behind him.

He wasn't going to come back out for anything!


Well, chapter eight is done. Calimn can get pretty mad when her plans and traps get ruined. Chapter nine will be up once I figure it out. Critique as you like.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated

I read up to the beginning of chapter 3 so far, and I think the story is going into a pretty interesting direction! Your writing style is unique, and I don't know if this was intentional, but I've found quite a few instances of alliteration which gives it almost a poetic quality. The prologue was a little hard to understand, though, and I think you want to make sure that you aren't being repetitive; Instead of using the same noun, try finding a synonym for the first few restatements of it. You probably didn't do this on purpose, though, and the story so far to me is suspenseful and gripping, and I'll finish it when I get the chance.

Thanks for the advice. I do have a kind of poetic style to my writing, and I write poems all the time. Words are kind of my thing. I'll keep word repetition in mind during the rest of my chapters.

I really, really like this story. You better continue it, or I'll hunt you down. That's a compliment, by the way.

No, don't kill me! *starts typing furiously* lol. Here's chapter nine. Even though Asil's long gone, her interruption has changed how the two interact. Has vore, so I would advise against reading if you dislike it.

Chapter 9: Unique

Calimn swallowed the last of the neko sailors with a sigh. She could feel all eight of the cat-people struggling in her stomach, a pleasant tickle in her gut, but she wasn't satisfied. There was something missing, something off.

Oh, she still loved the taste of humanoids, and they were filling enough, but there was a kind of blandness to hunting them. Lately she had been troubled by this unfamiliar sensation, this peculiar feeling of boredom that made her meals rather . . . dull. Her former enthusiasm in trapping and confusing her food was gone, replaced by a lackluster feel that was beginning to make her depressed.

She looked up at the sun, working out the current time in her head by its position in the sky. It wasn't quite to its peak yet, indicating that it was close to noon. Her moodiness turned over quickly, changing into bright excitement that revealed itself as a large grin. It was just about time.

She started swimming back up the Jewel River, towards her favorite spot on the Miragia Forest's side. She had a hunch that he would show up today. It began to rain as she headed for her little place on the banks of the river.

* * * * *

Swiftlit was having an intense mental argument with himself. He was deep in his underground house, sitting on the floor of loose earth and muttering to himself. It was dark in his burrow, with the only indication that the small boy was there at all the murmuring in the blackness.

"There's no way I'm going back to see that monster. She'll eat me so fast I-"

"Would you rather sit here in your hole and go crazy?" his mind asked back

"She'll EAT me if I go!"

"Only if you get too close. She's not the most mobile of giants. You know what she can and can't do. If you stay here you're going to lose your mind." his reason insisted.

He had to agree with that. It had been four days since his most recent encounter with the mermaid, and the closest to being eaten by her he had ever been to date. Nothing but nightmares had filled that time, during both his fitful snatches of sleep and his waking hours. Disturbia clawed at him whenever he was alone, intense fear that had neither form nor any base in reality.

He stood, mind made up. He had to go see her, even if it was dangerous. He would go mad otherwise. All he had to do was stay alert and make sure he didn't get close to her. He scurried down the tunnel that led out of his little den, then climbed up to the plug of dirt he had fitted over the entrance to his home. He pushed it open, the moss growing in the plug holding the soil together.

He peered out with the utmost caution, turning three hundred and sixty degrees to make absolutely sure that nothing was waiting for him. No beasts presented themselves to his eyes, no dangers at all. Assured that the coast was clear, he crawled out of the hole and pushed the plug back into place. It blended so well with the rest of the ground around it that only someone who knew exactly where it was could have located the burrow.

He patted the makeshift door firmly into place and looked furtively back and forth, watching for any movement as he headed out into the thick jungle. He went about the forest silently, never making any noise but for his shallow, nervous breaths. He had so little weight that his footfalls were completely silent, barely even making an impression in the moss and earth of the jungle floor.

He was nearly to the river when something tapped him on the top of his head.

He jumped nearly twenty feet and, unable to control his flight, flailed wildly in the air before crashing into a tree. He managed to stifle his scream of fright, reducing it to a muffled squeak. He bounced off the trunk, thrashed some more as he fell, and landed in a tense crouch. He looked around, eyes wide.

There was nothing there.

Another tap on his arm made him look down sharply. There was a small wet spot on his forearm, a drop of clear li-

WATER.

A few more drips hit him, then a few more, and it continued to increase as he stared up at the sky that had decided to suddenly and brutally betray him. He was terrified of water; he couldn't swim at all and had nearly drowned in Calimn's river a few weeks ago. Not only that, he became incredibly heavy when wet, barely able to move and therefore vulnerable.

Now water was coming to kill him from the air itself.

He ran here and there in a panic, zig-zaging towards the river while trying desperately and futilely to avoid the rain that was coming down. Though it was only a gentle shower, he was frightened out of his mind attempting to dodge all the raindrops. He was damp by the time he reached the place he had first met Calimn, and the rain finally stopped as he sighted her.

* * * * *

Calimn was glad to see Swiftlit. She had been anxious about his abnormally long absence, worried that her prize prey might not come back. Yet here he was, just like always. Why he came back time and time again was a mystery. She thought he was lonely, starved for companionship even if the companion in question saw him as food.

She licked her lips, anticipating his wonderful tangy taste, a kind of sweet fizz on the tongue that was unique. Most small folk had a hint of it to their flavor, part of what made them so delicious, but in this boy it was intense and absolutely beautiful in the mouth.

She stretched out on her stomach, putting her head on her hands and gazing down at him. He was shivering, and not just from fear. She herself had no problem with rain, used to the coolness of the river she swam in all day, but he was probably cold. He was a little wet from the rain, and shivering from both the chill of it and from fear. Well, he'd be nice and warm once in her stomach with the nekos.

They weren't moving around anymore.

She considered him, thinking about how to draw him closer. He was exciting to play with, naive but far from stupid. She decided to try something new.

"You look cold, Swiftlit. Want to cuddle?" she asked.

She gave him a sly, suggestive smile. She knew that many of the small males were attracted to female giant predators, and sometimes a pose could make them hesitate long enough to grab. Calimn didn't feel any attraction to prey herself, and used it only sparingly as a hunting technique. There was a naga named Vivian* at the Chordoni Falls that specialized in such things, or so her harpy friend Jab had told her, but Calimn just didn't use it.

She wasn't all that good at it either, apparently, because the boy didn't react other than to shake his head. Maybe he was too young for that technique, or maybe he just was too scared of her to be attracted.

"No. You'll just eat me."

The mermaid nodded. There was no use trying to deny THAT particular fact anymore, not since she had nearly slurped him up at the end of a vine like spaghetti last time. She couldn't use the "I'm not going to eat you, let's be friends" approach any longer. All she had to work with now was logic.

"I'll eat you, yes. Would that be so bad? It'll be nice and warm inside my stomach, at least."

He blinked slowly, shaking his head in denial. She noticed how incredibly tired he looked, eyes dull and bloodshot. He appeared so exhausted she had no idea how he was even still standing and awake. She had a good chance of making him into a meal, if she played with him the right way.

"Come on. It'll be comfortable in there, soft and quiet and dark." she soothed, voice becoming slow and gentle.

His eyelids drooped, just for a second, and then snapped back open.

Calimn felt exaltation rise in her chest. She could probably lull him right to sleep, if she kept this up. Then she would have him. Her stomach muttered, empty of its former contents, demanding to be fed again. It would have something else to fill it soon enough.

"I . . . I-I'm not . . . No. No."

She wove more gentle charm into her speech, adding a rhythm to it that made her words into a subtle lullaby.

"You know you can trust me. I promise it won't hurt a bit. I'll just taste you for a while, and then there'll be a quick gulp, and done. I'll be very gentle. You won't feel a thing."

* * * * *

Swiftlit could barely stay awake. He hadn't been sleeping much, maybe a few hours a day, and now that he was here with Calimn his adrenaline levels had dropped. With his constant supply of liquid panic gone, he felt drained, absolutely exhausted. His rest had been limited by horrendous nightmares, terrible dreams that had him jerking awake with a scream before he could get any real sleep.

That constant fear-induced insomnia had turned him into a wreck. His eyes ached, he couldn't concentrate, and the mermaid's melodious, soothing voice was definitely not helping him keep his eyes open and his brain running.

" . . . and you'll be a part of me. You won't have to worry about anything ever again."

He hadn't caught most of her words.

"Wha-?"

* * * * *

Calimn knew she had him. He was practically asleep on his feet, wobbling in place with his head nodding now and then. He wasn't paying attention, either, because he never looked up when she began to very, very slowly creep toward him. She moved only a foot at a time, shrugging her shoulders and wiggling forward on her belly a little bit at a time.

She kept talking as she did so, continuing to put him to sleep with her lullaby voice.

"Really, there's nothing at all to be afraid of. You'll be warm as toast and perfectly happy in there. You can take a nice nap, and forget about being afraid. A good, really loooong nap sounds great, doesn't it?" she whispered, now almost close enough to grab him.

He hummed, barely conscious now.

"Nice . . . ni . . . nap . . . sleep . . . slee . . ."

He fell asleep a few moments later, quietly sliding to the ground.

Then she reached out, with excruciating slowness so as not to wake him, and wrapped her hand around him.

She had caught her little prize.

* * * * *

Swiftlit jerked awake as he felt the rush of being lifted. He couldn't figure out was going on for a second, and then he realized Calimn had snuck up on him while he was passed out and had him in her hand. Her huge fingers were curled around his body, her grip warm and soft but absolutely, inescapably firm.

Adrenaline instantly pulsed through him, accompanied by an explosion of terror that woke him up like a slap to the face. He started screaming as the mermaid lifted him toward her open mouth. She was slow about it, playfully going "Ahhhhh" as she brought him closer to her maw.

Her tongue slid out to greet him, lapping at his face and one free arm idly. She hummed some cheery tune, happy at catching him, as she tasted him, coiling her tongue around his head. His vision cut out as she pulled the upper half of his body into her mouth with gentle but irresistible force. He kept shrieking even though he knew he was dead for sure this time, and nothing he could do or say would make any difference in his fate.

* * * * *

Calimn let go of Swiftlit's legs and sucked the boy entirely into her mouth, reveling in his incredible flavor. It was worth every minute of the three weeks it had taken to finally catch him. There was no one to interrupt her meal now, no one but her and her prey. It was utter bliss.

She kept him in her mouth for almost an hour, teasing him around with her dexterous tongue and letting all that tingling sweetness soak into her taste-buds. It was such a beautiful moment, finally with her ultimate prize, her very own golden goose, in her mouth. At last, she began to swallow him . . .

And couldn't.

He was just too good to let go of. Now she knew why she had become so bored with her other food; they didn't satisfy her on the same level as Swiftlit did. She hunted them because it was necessary for survival, but she hunted him because it was exciting and fun.

He was her perfect prey, blisteringly fast, paranoid enough to be a challenge to capture, and delicious. He made her think more than any other humanoid she had yet encountered, forced her to push her mental boundaries and imagination. It would be a foolish thing to eat him.

Reluctantly, she opened her mouth and plucked him from where he was thrashing on her tongue. She held him by the back of his dripping shirt, then put him down. He started crawling slowly away as soon as he was back on the ground, coughing up some of her spit that had gotten into his mouth as he screamed in hers.

She watched him go, wanting to pounce on him again but holding back.

She slid back into the river as he vanished into the undergrowth, still dragging himself along like a broken-backed animal. It began to rain again, the same light shower as before. She sank farther into the water, until only her eyes showed, and blew a few bubbles.

He would be back. He came back every time. Every. Single. Time. It was part of what made him so prized by her.

All she had to do, really, was wait.


There's chapter nine, where Calimn changes how she sees Swiftlit. Now he's not just food, he's VALUED food, almost a pet. Chapter ten will be up when I can get it.

Felarya is Karbo's

*Reference to Vivian - Vivian is also Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated

Ahh thanks mate! Another chapter was just what I needed to let my imagination take over and erase the troubles of the day from my mind.

Oh btw I saw a few spelling errors. Unfortunately I forgot where they were...

Well that puts a new turn in their relationship! Re-huntable, re-usable food! The first step towards friendship!

I'm glad she finally caught him and got to enjoy him. (Even though she may become addicted...) Now I just hope his mind stabilises and he's able to adapt to living in Felarya...

wow I'm fearing for his sanity ( or what is left of it ) XD

The more of this I read, the more I want you to write faster. That and I think Rai could calm him down some, be a friend, or both. Not to mention that Rai could keep up with him. I love that little paraniod psyco.

Thank you, everybody! Well, here we go with chapter ten. Swiftlit has moved up in the world; now he's not just prey to Calimn . . . he's SPECIAL prey. Has vore in it, so avoid if you do not like vore.

Chapter 10: Choice?

Swiftlit was lying on his back, hidden away in his burrow, trying to figure out how he was still alive. Calimn had let him go. He had been this close to being swallowed, and then he had been spat out and released. It made no sense. She had caught him, had him in her MOUTH, even, but she hadn't eaten him.

He trembled at the memory of being in her mouth, unable to see in the dark, slick cavern and screaming as- He shook his head to get the image out. That was over, and he was still breathing. No use dwelling on it until he went crazy.

It had been two days since then. He had managed to sleep some, so tired that even his continual nightmares couldn't wake him, and was feeling somewhat better. His paranoid fantasies had started up again, though, and to evade them he had to occupy his mind with the new question of the hour. The question in question was: Why, precisely, had the mermaid released him?

He had come up with a few ideas, most of them ridiculous. She might want to torment him further, or had felt pity for him. Maybe she just liked him. Perhaps she had only wished to taste him, rather than eat him. He debated and mused over the possible answers, but he just couldn't come to a solid conclusion.

The only way to confirm the reason for his release was to go straight to Calimn herself.

* * * * *

Calimn hadn't been expecting Swiftlit to come back so soon. Usually he took half a week or more to recover from their encounters, but he had never returned in less than three days. Not that she was complaining; she was elated to see her little prize again. She kept the excitement from her face, though, not wanting to scare him off.

She put on a bored, indifferent face. He was crouched in his usual hiding spot behind a tree at the edge of the Miragia Forest, shaking slightly and obviously frightened. If she acted too eager to see him, he might run off. Furthering her false "I-don't-care" attitude, she let him speak up first.

"U-um . . . um." was all he offered, hesitant.

"Um? If you want something, you're going to have to be clearer than that."

"W-well, I was w-wondering . . . why did you . . . uh . . . l-let me go? Th-that last time, I m-mean."

"I just wasn't hungry. That's all."

"You really shouldn't l-l-lie."

She blinked at him. She was very good at lying, able to weave falsehoods that were nearly impenetrable to even extreme scrutiny. He had called her out on this lie, though, and not on a mere guess. He was very sharp when it came to reading her words, more so than she would've expected.

"I'm not lying."

"Y-yes, you a-are."

There was a moment of awkward silence. It stretched for several seconds, heavy and oppressive, before Calimn decided to fess up.

"Okay, if you really want to know, I'll tell you. I . . . want to keep hunting you."

* * * * *

Swiftlit was stunned at her announcement. He had considered that possibility, that she wished to keep on terrorizing him, but to hear her say it was a shock. The idea of being endlessly trapped in a cycle of being chased off and drawn back was absolutely horrifying. His heart dropped straight to his navel, an agonizing mix of raw terror and despair.

He could imagine this going on for years, decades, even, him running away only to always return to avoid going insane. She would just keep torturing him, playing with him and catching him over and over and over and over, but letting him go each time. An eternity of cat-and-mouse, until one of them died. He was sure he would go first, either from a fear-induced heart-attack or by her finally giving in to hunger and eating him for good.

Forever . . . a chase that would go on forever.

He couldn't take it. His chest throbbed horribly, pulse becoming irregular as fear rose to a fever pitch in him. He was sure this was going to be the end. He was going to die of cardiac arrest right here and now. He was actually happy to go, fine with the fact that his heart had clenched into a knot and his lungs couldn't seem to work right.

Anything, even dying, was better than being Calimn's plaything for the rest of his life. He blacked out, the pain of being so afraid easing as he sank into that comforting dark. Finally he could relax. It was all ov-

He came to a few seconds later on his hands and knees, gasping for air.

Calimn was still in her initial position there on the riverbank, but she was pushed up on her hands and looked concerned. He couldn't tell if the look was genuine or not, but it was something of a comfort. Quite a comfort, really, considering he had nearly scared himself to death in the most literal sense of the phrase.

"No. I-I'll never let you d-do . . . I-no. I won't l-let you hu-play with m-me like th-that. I'd r-rather be d-d-dead."

* * * * *

Calimn was worried. His words were stuttered and fearful, but he was completely serious. She was actually afraid he might . . . well, commit suicide. She wasn't SURE if he would, but it wasn't out of the question.

He wasn't exactly the most mentally stable of humans; he came back to see a giant predator that had tried to eat him several times, he had displayed fits of near-insanity-level hysteria twice already, and he suffered from insomnia, if the dark circles under his eyes were anything to go by.

She had to make him accept her wish to keep trapping him. She was going to have to reason with him, somehow, make him see things her way. It was going to take some work. She made her voice gentler, soothing and very quiet.

"Look, I'm not going to eat you or anything. I just want to play a little bit. That's all. A quick game, just for a short while, and then you can rest a few days before you come back again. It will only be once or twice a week, no more."

"N-no. Y-you're going t-t-to torture m-me forever and e-ever and e-ever. I-I'm not go- I c-couldn't take that. I'd di-No. J-just . . . no."

She shook her head at his accusation. She was no torturer. She never hurt her prey, ever. She played a little, prodded gently to make them wiggle about in their adorable manner and squeak, but she didn't inflict pain. That . . . that was just not her thing. Food was there to be eaten and toyed with, not tormented.

"I swear, I won't hurt you. No pain at all. I might . . . you know, hold you down, poke you a bit, but I won't do anything more than that. And that's if I catch you. You can still run and dodge all you want."

"Th-that doesn't matter! I can't deal with th-I just-no."

She flinched a little at his sharp protest. He was being surprisingly firm on this, not responding with his usual meekness. It was going to take some effort and a lot of talking to bring him around. She wanted to hunt him, no two ways about it, and that meant he had to be willing to play along with her.

Looking at him, his bite-sized body that trembled constantly, she wanted desperately to leap on him and eat him up. It was an instinctive reaction, a desire as old and universal as the predatory need to chase that which ran. She couldn't help feeling it, but she could hold it in check. Despite holding the urge back, her body knew what it wanted.

Her belly growled, loud enough for him to clearly hear it.

"And th-there's THAT, too. Y-you'll eat me i-if . . . if you g-get hungry enough."

"I promise I won't. I'll eat a lot before I . . . play with you. So I'm not tempted. Well, not AS tempted. I'll taste you a bit, maybe, but I won't swallow." she assured him.

"Why do you want to do this? Why not just eat me and be do-WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!"

* * * * *

Swiftlit screamed up at the mermaid, not caring that she was a hundred times his size and could squish him like a bug. He had had enough of this madness. He was stuck in a psychotic deathtrap of a jungle, no idea how he had got here and unable to go back to wherever he came from, constantly scared out of his mind, with everything wanting to eat or kill him.

His fears and frustrations, the terror of his existence, his mental exhaustion, all of it came pouring out of him. He vented all that pent-up emotion at once, the explosiveness of it making Calimn stare down at him in astonishment.

He let everything out in the loudest, clearest, and most aggressive speech he had ever made.

"I CANNOT KEEP GOING LIKE THIS! I'm scared to death every day, everything I run into wants to eat me and I don't know what's going on! I can't sleep because of all the nightmares, and you're in half of them eating me! I don't know where I am, or how I got here, or ANYTHING! Can- I thin-ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, CALIMN?!- I've had enough of this! I've had . . ."

He slowed down, tears starting to run down his face in little rivulets.

"I've had enough."

* * * * *

Calimn was startled at how hot he had gotten, and how upset. She had never seen any emotion from him besides fear, but apparently he had some serious frustration boiling somewhere deep down, and it was just as intense as his paranoia. She waited until he was finished crying before saying anything to him.

" . . . Do you feel better now?"

"Y-yeah. I-I'm sorry I k-kind of blew up on you."

The mermaid sighed. She knew what was going on in his head now, but now she also knew that her prospects of getting him to agree to play with her were very slim. She had to try though. The unique thrill she got while attempting to lure him close was something she just couldn't give up.

That excitement, the exhilaration of testing the limits of her hunting ability and the imaginativeness of her tricks, was indispensable. The rush, the elated feeling that came when she trapped him successfully, the increased pace of her heart as she held him in her hand . . . she just loved it.

She brought forth the suggestion slowly, tentatively, very careful not to push too hard.

"I'm sorry if I upset you. We can just forget the games for now. What do YOU want to do?"

He looked surprised. He obviously hadn't been expecting her to ask him what he wanted.

"Just . . . just talk. I g-get these c-c-creepy ideas i-in my head when I'm not t-talking to you. L-like n-n-nightmares, except I-I'm awake and th-they're even worse."

"Daymares? That's pretty bad. Why don't you tell me about it?"

"Well . . . mostly they're about . . ."

They kept conversing until the sun began to set.

Calimn looked out at the horizon, noticing how little of the slowly fading daylight there was left, and interrupted his tirade.

"You should get going, probably. It's a lot more dangerous in the jungle at night. Where do you live, anyway?"

"Nowhere I'd tell you about." he laughed nervously, rising from his place beside the tree.

She sighed, having anticipated the answer. He was far too cautious to tell her where he spent most of his time, even if she probably couldn't get there.

"So, will you come back soon? Tomorrow, maybe?"

"Probably. It's not like I have a choice."

"You've had a choice from the start. You can run off and never come back, if you want." she said, knowing that he wouldn't but feeling the need to say it anyway.

"Are you sure? Because I'm not."

With that sad statement, he scurried off into the Miragia Forest, leaving her alone.


There we go, chapter ten. Calimn tries to reason him into playing along with her faux-hunts without success, and Swiftlit has a little meltdown

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

And so the track to freindship, or insanity, begins. Keep writing, I love this story.

Thank you. Here's chapter eleven, where Swiftlit and Calimn develop their new relationship a little more. More from Calimn's perspective, this time. Has vore, so do not read if you actively dislike it.

Chapter 11: Playtime

Calimn was waiting for Swiftlit in the usual spot, laying out in the mid-morning sunshine and anticipating his arrival with excitement. He had come back to see her twice since his refusal to play along with her, and both times they had just talked. He never got close to her, staying in his hiding place, but she hadn't attempted to get him any closer.

Today, she was sure, would be different. She had refrained from pushing him on the matter of her hunting him for recreation, not wanting to drive him off, but she was ready to ask again. He would be more receptive to her idea now, she guessed, and she felt a thrill of joy at the idea.

She would start off slow, and not press him too much. She didn't want to upset him, and she certainly didn't want to hurt him. She had even taken precautions against getting too hungry around him.

There were six fair-sized fish in her stomach, all of the tasty creatures halfway digested and no longer wriggling around as they had been a few hours ago. She wanted to be nice and full when she met with Swiftlit, and sated to the point that resisting the urge to eat him would be much easier.

She would bring him around this time. It was going to be so exciting to finally start hunting him again, that exhilaration of their cat-and-mouse game returned to how it had been when she had initially met him.

She grinned when he appeared, just like always, in his little spot.

* * * * *

Swiftlit felt scared, being here with Calimn, but not nearly as frightened as he had been before. She was still deadly dangerous, of course, and he trusted her no farther than he could throw her. Given that she probably weighed two or three hundred tons, he didn't trust her at all. He stayed well out of her grabbing range, and was ready to run the instant she attempted anything.

Still, he felt far safer than before. She didn't try to lure him close anymore, and never attempted to come close to him herself. They had come to a kind of agreement, he believed. He could come and talk to her, and as long as he stayed out of her reach then she wouldn't try to eat him.

He felt so comfortable with this arrangement, in fact, that he emerged from his usual spot and sat on a large tree root. The mermaid smiled at this progress, and then spoke.

"Well, you seem unusually confident today. Why not come a bit closer? Hop right into my hand, even?" she laughed jokingly.

He shivered at the thought, but he could appreciate the humor behind it. He managed a nervous smile. It became less smile and more nerves, however, when she pushed herself up.

* * * * *

Calimn made sure not to move too fast, knowing that motion scared him, as she began to slide into the Jewel River. She pushed herself back with her hands until she was halfway in, then flipped her tail, curving it into a scoop-like shape to catch as much water as possible. The cool water poured over her, wetting her skin and running in glinting rivulets over her body.

It felt wonderful, the water lovely and soothing as it trickled off her. She loved sunbathing, but she had to splash herself occasionally to keep from overheating and drying out. It was the only drawback of being a mermaid. Well, that and the fact that she couldn't move around on land very fast.

Then she noticed Swiftlit had backed off, staring at the large puddle spreading out from her with fearful eyes and a pale face. She wondered why he would be afraid of just a little water.

"What's wrong? Are you scared of water, or something?"

"Y-y-yes. I g-get really h-heavy when it t-t-touches me. I c-can't move m-much or s-stay up in i-it."

Now THAT was an interesting fact. She had managed to get a vital piece of information on what he was vulnerable to. He couldn't swim, and liquid made him heavy if he was doused in it. She felt her heart speed up with the anticipation of using her new knowledge to catch him. Possible plans and games popped into her head with his admittance, each more exciting than the one before.

"Hmmm . . . Well, I could teach you how to swim. I'm an expert at swimming."

* * * * *

Swiftlit trembled at the very thought of getting into the river. Not only would he sink like a stone, but if he got wet he would be completely at the mermaid's mercy. One dip, one splash, and he wouldn't be able to move at anything faster than a snail's-pace crawl. He would be incredibly vulnerable. There was no chance he would accept her offer.

"N-not in a m-m-million years. I-I'd drown, or you would e-e-eat me."

She gave an exasperated huff and scolded him.

"Hey! I told you before that I'm not going to eat you. If you keep saying that, I'll just leave."

"But you WOULD try to eat me!"

Her scowl deepened, and she turned away from him. He panicked as she started to swim farther out into the river; she was going to leave him all by himself, with nobody to keep him company besides an endless march of nightmares and paranoid fantasies. He couldn't take that. It would drive him to insanity.

"W-w-wait! St-stop, don't l-leave me h-here alone! Wai-stop I- Calimn, sto-I'LL GO CRAZY!"

He was so scared that she was going to swim off that he actually ran forward, nearly to the edge of the river. He skidded to an abrupt stop several feet from the water, too afraid to advance any further. The sound of the liquid death lapping at the bank of the river and the deceptive slowness that hid its lethality froze him in place.

He couldn't move, staring at the mesmerizing flow with his heart pounding, unable to either step forward or back away. It was like when he looked at Calimn's mouth, a kind of terror-infused hypnosis, though not as strong. It was still severe enough to keep him rooted to the spot, and he only snapped out of the trance when he heard Calimn's shout.

"SPEEEE-LASH!"

His head snapped up, just in time to see her sweep her tail towards him in the water. She was several dozen meters out into the river, but the massive tidal-wave she made was huge and coming straight at him. He immediately ran, trying to keep ahead of the wave as he darted farther inland.

He didn't dare look back, but he felt the sudden coolness as the wave's shadow came over him. He was fast, amazingly fast, but the wall of water was enormous and even faster. He pushed harder, trying to outrun the hazard, but to no avail.

It crashed down on him, and it felt like the sky had fallen on his head. He was knocked flat, slammed into the ground by the sheer weight of the water. The impact was tremendous, driving all the breath from his body, and there was a brief rush as the wave passed over him.

He tumbled for a quarter of a second before the sudden increase of weight that always came with his getting wet asserted itself. He was pulled down, anchored to the earth by a hundred and eighty kilograms that instantly added to his weight. The wave died, spreading out in a large field of shallow water as it dissipated.

* * * * *

Calimn squealed with joy when she saw him lying on the ground, sopping wet but perfectly unharmed. She had gotten him! The surge of triumph made her giggle, elated that her plan had worked out. She swam up to claim her prize, picking up the immobilized boy.

She was surprised by how heavy he was now that she had drenched him with river-water, even if she had been expecting the change. He was still soft, flesh and blood, but if she closed her eyes she could easily imagine that she was holding a lead statue. He had become as dense and heavy as stone. It was really no wonder he was so terrified of water.

She bounced him on her palm carefully a few times, testing his new weight, and then gripped him. He was screeching incoherently, a long string of hysterical nonsense and babble, but she was too happy to have caught him to be annoyed with the noise.

"YEEEE-ES! I caught you! I mean, you fell right into that trap, but it was still great! The look on you're face when I splashed you; PRICELESS!" she laughed, grinning at him.

He just squeaked out something that sounded like "legglegoo!" that she took for "Let me go!"

"Nope, nope, I caught you fair and square! I win! Perfect catch! Man, that was so much FUN! Let's play again once you dry off!"

He thrashed furiously in her hand when she said that, the tickling combined with his adorable wiggling making her laugh even harder. He was just so cute that she hugged him to her chest, him nearly disappearing in between her breasts. He squirmed harder, trying to keep his head up where he could breathe, and wheezed.

She hurriedly released him from her embrace, holding him more gently. She didn't want to crush him, after all. He was her little prize, the perfect prey for her to test her hunting skills on. She could trap him as many times as she liked, now that she had decided not to eat him.

Her hunger woke up at that thought. Her previous meal was gone now, her stomach empty again and, if the loud complaints were anything to go by, in need of more food. She started to salivate, encouraged by Swiftlit's flailing and yelling. She wanted to eat him, and badly.

She held the urge to pop him into her mouth back firmly. She had told him she wouldn't eat him permanently, and she would keep her word. He was far too fun to swallow, as she had never learned how to regurgitate her food. She couldn't resist, however, tasting him.

She held one of his arms still, regardless of his struggling, and sucked his limb in up to the elbow. That intense tang of his spread across her taste-buds as she pressed her tongue against his hand, a bright, delicious tingle that made her mouth instantly flood with saliva.

The mouth-watering flavor was so incredible that she almost slurped him up right then and there, but she managed to resist the instinct. She lapped at his fingers a few more times, his fighting tickling her tongue, and then reluctantly released his arm from her mouth. She licked her lips, desiring to continue, but was too worried that she would give in to temptation and swallow him if she kept going.

She gave him a quick, final lick, on the face this time, and let out a satisfied sigh. His shrieks had finally gained some coherence, and she listened.

"Y-you said to f-forget ab-b-bout the g-games! I th-though it w-w-was over!"

"I said to forget about them FOR NOW. I want to play, and is that too much to ask?"

"Y-Y-YES, YES I-IT IS!"

She sighed again, this time with exasperation at his stubbornness. She hadn't done him any harm, even kept her promise not to eat him despite how exquisite his taste was, and he still wouldn't agree to go along with her game.

"Seriously, it's not like I'm hurting you or anything. I'm not going to eat you, and I didn't stick you all the way in my mouth. It's not that bad."

"N-n-not th-that b-b-b-bad!? D-do y-you know h-how s-s-scared i a-a-am!? I-I'm not p-p-playing with you, n-not ever!"

"Really, it's just a GAME, Swiftlit. You can trust me. I swear you can."

He gave a terrified but paradoxically outraged squeal at her statement, a wordless denial.

"Okay, I'm going to let you go, and you can scamper off to wherever it is you go when you're not with me. You can stay there, or come back, or do whatever. But if you want to talk or change your mind about wanting to play with me, I'll be right here every afternoon. And you CAN trust me."

She was about to put him down when she impulsively gave him one last lick, a final sampling of his flavor.

"Mmmm. Why do you have to taste so good? It makes not eating you really hard."

"St-stop T-T-TASTING me!"

She giggled, sticking her tongue out to slide it along his neck with a mischievous grin.

"Stop tasting so awesome."

Then she put him down. He shot away the second his feet were back on the ground, slower than usual with her saliva coating his head and arm but still unbelievably fast for something so small. He was gone in a flash.

Calimn went out into the river, then rolled onto her back and began floating downstream, watching for prey to eat. She was confident that he would come back. He always did.

She started humming a little ditty to herself, and lost herself in the joyous tune. She smiled, thinking of how she would get him next time. Maybe she would talk him close, or pretend to leave like in this encounter. Perhaps she would spit a jet of water at him-carefully, of course-or splash him. The possibilities were only limited by her imagination.

This . . . was going to be fun.


There we go. Calimn restarts the little cat-and-mouse game, much to Swiftlit's distress. She also learns that he's afraid of water. Either way, critique and comment as you like.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

Yes, I do believe that you picked the perfect title for this story His sanity being pushed to the limit over and over again and Calimn enjoying this 'game' as much as she possibly can makes a very strange friendship.

Oh dear, they really are addicted to each other. Good continuation; I particularly like the way you describe her appreciation of him.

Thank you. I have a little section here with a brief look into what Swiftlit and Calimn do while they are away from each other. It takes place right after the last chapter and is told entirely from Swiftlit's perspective, then entirely from Calimn's. Has vore, so avoid it if you dislike vore. Critiques and comments are welcome.

Chapter 12 (Swiftlit): Intersection of Chaos

He just didn't know what to do with himself. Calimn was going to keep tormenting him forever. She was going to keep at her "game" of hunting him. He had been so sure they had reached a sort of unspoken agreement not to continue the chase. He had been very, very wrong.

Her saliva from where she had licked him was just now beginning to dry, making his left arm and face feel sticky. He shivered, still able to feel her tongue against his hand. It had moved under his fingers like some kind of slick serpent, warm and yielding but incredibly strong, rubbing on his palm, tasting him.

He had even been able to feel her pulse through the muscle, the excited one-two beat pumping in the underlying blood vessels a indicator of how much she enjoyed his flavor. It had been a horrifying experience, with his arm stuck in her mouth, him unable to see her tongue but able to feel it. It had been like having his hand down a hole and then feeling something brush his fingers, except a thousand times worse.

He started to chew gently on his hands, a thing he did when he was nervous and thinking, as he wandered around the Miragia Forest. He didn't want to go home to his burrow. If he did, he would start thinking up nightmares and drive himself insane. And if that happened, it would start his cycle of going to Calimn all over again.

Maybe he would never go back to that home. He might as well begin wandering around this strange world-Felarya, Calimn had called it-again. Nothing could be worse than continuing this eternal game with the mermaid, always being caught or chased off but always coming back, unable to break away from her.

Who knew how big this jungle was, or what was in it? He might find some marvelous place to live at, somewhere he could relax, free of worry for once in his life. Someplace with no monsters wanting to eat him, and only minimal amounts of water to present a hazard. And those golden fruit-things he liked, dragonapples. A nice, peaceful place.

The fantasy, a happy one for once, was so entrancing that he forgot himself. He didn't notice the shimmering section of air, like a patch of heat haze, until he walked right into it.

Suddenly he was flying in all directions at once, the feeling of being everywhere and nowhere at once immediately registering in his mind.

This was how he had felt before, the sensation of falling in every direction, suspended in eternity. It was how he had felt while he was . . . something else, the thing he had been when he had been part of the mad swirl of chaos he had emerged from. It was home. The original. His true point of origin.

He started to weep with the familiarity of it all, the joy of finally being as he had once been overwhelming.

The dimensional vortex couldn't handle the abrupt interference of the boy. It was not the place he had come from, not the whirl of psychosis that he had been formed in. The boy was a dimensional instability in and of himself, an inherently chaotic thing that would destroy or alter drastically any abnormality in reality. No portal, no vortex, no instability could possibly stay intact if he touched it; his mere presence was like throwing a wrench into a blender.

The vortex blew apart.

Swiftlit was thrown fifty feet, spinning through the air. The fact that he was falling didn't even register; he was still stunned into silent ecstasy at the brief, fleeting touch of what he had been before. He still had tears of joy running down his face as he hit the ground.

Any human of normal mass would have been killed by the impact of the fall, but his loose tethering to reality saved him. He had so little weight for his mass that there was almost no force behind his hitting the ground. He would have a slight bruise, but no more. The impact barely hurt, but it forced him out of his entrancement.

He didn't get up. There was no point. He just laid on his back, still crying, but the tears had turned bitter. He had held the truth of his own existence for the barest moment, only to have it ripped away from him. He was decimated. There was no more meaning to his life. He was nothing, just an insignificant, meaningless nothing.

He laid on his back and let his anguish out in one long, terrible shriek.

He got up, after a while, and went back to his burrow. He could never go back to what he had been. He would have to stay as he was, and cling to the only thing he had left.

Calimn.

* * * * *

Chapter 12 (Calimn): Jab and Lessons

Calimn could hear her friend Jab coming well before the harpy showed up. The loud strings of swearwords, comments, and ear-melting turns of phrase were an instant identifier. The harpy landed on the riverbank, swooping in from the Miragia side.

She was small for a rock harpy, just a hair over eighty feet and with barely any chest, a slim figure although she was an adult. Her hair and feathers were sparrow brown with darker speckles, the pattern even spread to her complexion. Her skin was deeply tanned, freckles spotting her whole body, particularly on her face. Her voice was sweet and cheery, but the words . . .

"So, you called me all the way out to this dump of yours so's I could teach you what, you useless minnow? No, wait, shut your mouth before I rip your tongue out, I'll guess. You're SOOOO helpless that you need me to help you eat. That'll be hard, considering that I want to puke every time I see your ugly fish-face. I suppose I could lend you a wing, since you're such a pathetic little piece of shark-bait. What'cha want to learn, moron? How not to be so useless? No, wait, how to sew your mouth shut so you don't have to hear your own stupidity pouring ou-"

Calimn interrupted the harpy with a cough. Jab was a great friend, but she really didn't know when to shut up. She could keep talking for hours if left unchecked. It had taken a while for Calimn to get used to her friend's tendency to jabber-hence her nickname of Jab-and harpy dialect, but now she was quite comfortable with it.

"Ahem. Well, I wanted to ask you to teach me a few more of your tricks. You know, spitting things up and stopping digestion or speeding it up. You taught me how to flex my throat and drool on command, but I really want to learn how to cough stuff up and slow down my digestion."

Jab grinned, a pleased smile that lit up her pleasant face.

"Ha! Bow down to my genius in the art of digestive control! I'll teach you, idiot, and I'll make it simple, so that even a moron like you could get it down pat. Let's start with coughing &*^% up."

It really wasn't long before Calimn had gotten regurgitation down. Jab was an excellent teacher, the harpy providing precise, if verbally abusive, instructions. A few hours of lessons, and the mermaid could
spit up anything she swallowed. This progress excited her immensely.

She had a reason in asking this favor of Jab, other than the pleasure of learning something new and talking with her friend. This way, she could take her games with Swiftlit even further. Now she could "penalize" him when she won not only by tasting him but also by going the extra step and swallowing him entirely. The idea of feeling him go down her throat and squirming delightfully in her tummy was appealing to the extreme.

They were going to have lots of fun.

She brought up the human-sized stone she had swallowed as practice easily, tightening her stomach muscles. She rolled the muscles in an upward wave, pushing the rock up into her esophagus and then heaving repeatedly. It wasn't the most pleasant of processes, giving the feeling of vomiting, but it would let her play with Swiftlit in an even more enjoyable way.

She finally gave one last dry heave, and then coughed the rock out into her palm. Jab gave her a big grin. Calimn grinned back, excited. She was finally going to get the full experience of eating her little prize. She couldn't wait to catch him again.

Learning to turn off her stomach was a lot harder.

"Come on, dummy, you can do it! A @#$&ing GLOUTEUX could do it! And as brain-dead a bucket of chum as you are, there's no way you're as stupid as a glouteux. Just tighten up, think about it, and do it right or I'll pull off every scale on that fat tail of yours and make you eat every single one of them!" Jab encouraged.

Calimn concentrated on her stomach, consciously willing it to shut down. It responded, acid production slowing down, digestion grinding to a halt. The citroise she had eaten sat inside her belly, mashed up from her chewing and swallowing it, but otherwise perfectly unharmed. It had taken two days to get to this point, a lot of intense concentration and effort.

Two days, but worth it. Now she could REALLY play wi-

"Oh, dang! I forgot about him! Jab, thanks for helping me out with this. I'm REALLY sorry, but could you head home? I've got a big-time meeting with someone. I really, really am sorry."

The harpy, far from being offended, laughed.

"Sure, I'll head back to the Falls. I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

Calimn was so surprised by Jab's erroneous reading of her statement that she lost control of her stomach. The abrupt re-starting of her digestion made her hiccough and give a startled burp. Calimn quickly covered her mouth, cheeks darkening to indigo with embarrassment. Part of it was from her accidental burp, but more was from her friend's completely inaccurate guess.

"I don't have a boyfriend. He's just-"

Now that she thought about it, what WAS Swiftlit to her? Her wasn't a friend, and certainly she wasn't anything close to romantically interested in him. He was food, but not in the same way as other prey was. He was . . . well, kind of like a pet, of sorts. An edible pet. Kind of.

As Jab flew off, the mermaid swam further upriver, towards her favorite spot. She was still trying to figure out where, exactly, her little prize stood between 'food' and 'pet' when she got to her place and crawled out onto land. Swiftlit wasn't here yet, but he would be soon, she was sure. She finally decided to lay off trying to place him and let the issue go.

She got to play with him, and that was just fine. She could eat him now, but she didn't want to digest him. He was the best prey she had ever encountered. She still ate humanoids, but there was only one that she hunted for pure sport.

Swiftlit.


Chapter twelve, in two parts. We see Swiftlit resign himself to being stuck with Calimn, and learn that Dimensionally unstable boy + Dimensionally unstable anything else = Chaos. Calimn learns a nifty trick from her harpy friend Jab, and briefly questions her relationship with Swiftlit. Not for long, as she just tallies him down as "FUN" and lets it go at that.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named character's are mine unless otherwise stated.

This is getting better and better! Excellent description of their contrasting perspectives. Swiflit is very much a creature of emotion, and his brief joy was poignant. The harpy-talk was fun; nicely done.

Keep it up. I like it. Write more.

Thank you. Well, here's chapter thirteen, in which we see Swiftlit and Calimn interact a bit more. Has vore, so do not read if you dislike vore.

Chapter 13: Contact

Calimn was so excited she could barely hold it in, the sunny, bright warmth of joyous anticipation growing in her bosom, a vibrant flower that bloomed in her heart. It was like having sunshine inside of herself. She absolutely couldn't wait for Swiftlit to show up. The exhilaration of catching him would have an added layer of fun to it now.

She rubbed her belly when it growled, patting it. She didn't need to stuff herself before meeting Swiftlit, not anymore, and she wanted to be hungry when she played with him this time around. It would make him taste better, and she would appreciate him more. It was going to be awesome from now on, her games even better than before.

She had learned a new skill, and planned to put it to good use. It would be wonderful to be able to finally enjoy him to the fullest. She let off a happy squeal just thinking about it. When she caught him . . .

* * * * *

Swiftlit emerged from the Miragia Forest, and found Calimn lying on her belly in her favorite spot. He sat on a thick tree root, using it as a low bench, keeping one eye on her the whole time. He hadn't wanted to come back to her, but his paranoid fantasies, as always, had forced him to come here, or go mad.

He was terrified of the mermaid, his fear showing in his wary gaze and trembling body. She was many times his size, more than a hundred and fifty feet long in total and weighing somewhere between two and three hundred tons. A giant, and a dangerous one. She could swallow him whole if she liked, or crush him with one quick slap.

But he was stuck with her.

* * * * *

"Okay."

Calimn blinked at the statement, wondering what Swiftlit was saying 'okay' to, precisely. She wondered at the possible meaning, puzzling over it for a bit. Her quick mind worked it out in a few moments. A grin spread over her face in an instant, a brilliant smile that lit up her whole face. Even though she knew what he meant, she couldn't resist teasing him by asking anyway.

"Why, what do you mean?"

Swiftlit put his head in his hands, an expression of his exasperation. He knew that she knew what he was talking about, obviously. She noticed the faint impression of teeth on his knuckles, crescents of reddened skin. Had he been biting himself?

The idea was odd, but she couldn't blame him for it. He tasted absolutely delicious. If she were him, she would try to eat herself, too. Her mouth started to water at the memory of his flavor, that blissful tingle which tickled the tongue. She sucked up a bit of drool that had escaped from the corner of her mouth, not wanting to scare him off with the sight of her salivating.

"You know wh-what I'm t-talking about. This g-game of yours. I'll p-p-play."

* * * * *

Swiftlit couldn't believe he was agreeing to being her plaything forever. He didn't want to do this, at all. She was a nightmare, literally, invading many of his terrible dreams and frightening horrors that he dreamed up while awake. She ate him in all of them. He had nearly been eaten by her for real three separate times, but he needed her.

Left to himself, he would drive himself into the deepest pits of insanity. When alone, he began to think up disturbing, terrible scenarios that bordered on waking nightmares. He couldn't stop doing so, either, no matter how hard he tried. It was an inherent part of him, a byproduct of the paranoia and fear that always was festering in him like a disease.

He had to keep himself occupied, and that meant he was firmly tied to the mermaid. If Calimn wasn't around to talk to, he would lose his mind, so he had to agree to play with her. It was as simple as that.

She was apparently delighted by the fact, a giggle of mirth bubbling up from inside her. She laughed, then propped herself up on an elbow and continued.

"I have a really fun game to play. I call it "Swing", because it can go one of two ways. Your way . . . or my way." she announced, giving a smile at that 'my way' that made his heart do a frightened somersault.

"How it goes, is that you come closer, halfway between me and you're hiding spot. Then I ask you something, and you answer. If you can't answer, then you have to take a step closer to me. If you CAN answer, and correctly, then you take a step back."

"Wh-what happens i-if I get t-to my hiding s-spot?"

"Well, you can . . . um . . . uh . . ."

* * * * *

Calimn hadn't really thought about what he would get if he won. She had been so excited and sure she would win that she hadn't factored in for his being victorious. What would he want, anyway? Hmmm . . . Maybe a . . . no, he wouldn't want to eat that . . . Perhaps . . . no, he hated water . . .

An idea popped up in her head abruptly, as she remembered a previous attempt to catch him.

"You can feel along my tail. Or maybe inside my mouth?" she suggested, teasingly opening wide to let him see inside her maw and giving an impish grin.

He shivered, and shook his head.

"I d-don't want to get c-close to you, a-and I REALLY don't want t-t-to get in your m-m-m-m-m-"

"Mouth?" she offered.

"Y-yeah. You'd g-grab me."

She huffed in annoyance, disappointed in his lack of faith that she wouldn't harm him. She always played by the rules of her own games.

"I swear on my singing voice that I won't grab you if you win and want to get close. I take my singing very seriously, too. May my vocal cords explode if I break this promise."

He looked alarmed at the idea of her throat bursting, but retained his suspicious look.

"You p-p-promise?"

"Cross my heart." she assured, tracing a quick X on her left breast.

He hesitated, but eventually got up and cautiously came closer. He stopped halfway between her and the forest.

"B-before we start, wh-what happens if YOU w-w-win?"

She laughed, a sly smile erupting over her visage.

"Well, I get to 'penalize' you."

* * * * *

Swiftlit had no clue what 'penalize' meant, but he could guess it had something to do with her tasting him. She had done so last time. It made his heart start pounding with fear, but he was comforted by the fact that the game could easily turn in his favor. All he had to do was answer some questions.

"A-Alright, let's d-d-do this."

Calimn smiled.

"What is my name?"

"Calimn." he responded, taking a step backward.

It was about a hundred more paces to his hiding place beside the tree.

"What am I?"

"A giant mermaid."

"Where do you live?"

He hesitated. He didn't want to tell her that. She wasn't all that mobile on land, but if she ever managed to drag herself into the jungle far enough to find his house, he would be in deep, deep trouble. But if he didn't answer her as per the rules, he would have to get closer to her. An idea came to him. After all, he didn't have to tell her EXACTLY where his burrow was.

"I live out in the forest."

Calimn frowned at his answer, obviously having hoped to learn where he stayed, but she shrugged, accepting the response.

"Can you swim?"

"No"

The session continued, her asking simple questions that he answered easily. He felt a thrill in his chest; this was easy. It was only fifty or so questions from being back at his original position. Then he could find out what Calimn's tail felt like.

It was very beautiful, with bright grass-colored scales that gleamed in the sunlight. He wondered what they would feel like. Although he was frightened to approach her, he knew she would keep her word. It was an instinct, a surety; something in her voice told him that she wouldn't break that promise. He answered another question, and backed up another pace. He was going to win!

* * * * *

Calimn saw the hope and happiness growing on Swiftlit's face, and smiled. She was making sure to keep her inquires strictly limited to things that he knew for sure. She was letting him win. Even though she hated to lose, being beaten on purpose didn't bother her.

She laughed on the inside, a cunning, playful laugh. Her pretending to lose was a set-up, a trick to increase his willingness to play, and to provide all the more entertainment when she turned the tables on him. She made sure to keep the excitement from view, though, holding a mask of pleased competitiveness in place.

He took the final step back and grinned, clearly glad to have won. She smiled back at him, and clapped. Then she brought her tail around, curving it so that the tail-fin was right beside her head. It was incredibly flexible, and she had no trouble with keeping it there as she beckoned the boy forward.

He came over to her, very slowly and shakily, his approach hesitant and nervous. He looked ready to run at a moment's notice. He still came to her, though, displaying that he trusted her far more than he usually let on, or at least trusted her word.

Her hunger, previously forgotten, woke up in a hurry as he got closer. She quickly tensed up her stomach muscles, cutting off the gurgle that had almost escaped. Even if he was trusting of her, he would dart off upon hearing her belly growl. She held in the desire to snatch him up and eat him as he drew level with her and reached out to touch her tail.

* * * * *

Swiftlit was sure he was crazy. Even if he had wanted to see what her tail felt like, being this close to her, right next to her head-and MOUTH-was completely insane. He was shaking so hard his teeth were chattering, so scared he scarcely dared to breathe. He was staring at her face, watching intently for any motion. He trembled; one quick jerk of her head, a snap, and he would be in her mouth.

He made a point not to look at that smile, knowing that he would freeze up temporarily if he did. He instead stared at one of her emerald-green eyes, nearly as big as he was. She looked steadily back at him, the glint of amusement evident in the depths of her pupils.

He kept watching her head as he waved his hand around, trying to touch her tail without taking his eyes off of her. The silent laughter in her gaze increased, and her tail shifted to where his hand was, pressing against it. He slid his fingers along her scales, and was so surprised at how smooth they were that he looked away from Calimn's eyes and at her tail.

Her scales were very shiny, bright in the afternoon sunlight. They shone a brilliant shade the same color as spring leaves, and felt just as lovely as they looked. They were very sleek, not soft but not hard, pliable and bending slightly when he pushed a bit. The hand-sized scales interlocked so seamlessly that he couldn't even feel the transition from one to the other.

He was so enamored with the beauty of her tail that he nearly jumped out of his skin when she tapped him on the shoulder lightly.

* * * * *

Calimn withdrew her tail, allowing it to relax into the normal position, and smiled at the tiny human. He gave a squeak as he tensed up, staring at her mouth. He appeared paralyzed, perhaps frightened into immobility by seeing her mouth so close to him. Another interesting aspect of him; he was so scared of being eaten that he would freeze if he looked at her mouth.

She stored the information away for later, already thinking up games to utilize it, and considered Swiftlit. He was still stuck, unable to move, so she had time to think for a moment.

It had been nice, actually, when he had stroked her tail, the feeling of his minuscule hands brushing against her scales. The relaxation of not feeling the need to catch him had its own merits. She decided to continue the gentler interaction, and smiled at him.

* * * * *

Swiftlit broke the paralysis, tearing his eyes away from the slice of white teeth that were exposed. He was about to back away when something came up from behind him, blocking him. It felt like a soft, warm wall; her hand. His heart-rate skyrocketed instantly, terror driving its black thorns into him.

"NO! Y-you s-s-s-said you w-w-would-d-dn't grab m-me!" he screeched, trying futilely to back up.

"I'm not grabbing. I've decided to let you . . . have a bonus prize, kind of."

He stopped screaming, and even his shivering and pounding heart slowed. She was being sincere. He tensed up when she extended one finger, but she only held it out to him, a simple, wordless offer. He reached out, very tentatively, and touched it.

The digit was yielding, very pliant. It's quiet warmth and softness was soothing, somehow, and he was calmed by the contact. He was still frightened, but his fear had been eased down to manageable level, reduced to mere nervousness rather than stark terror.

He felt something, a strange shift in himself. It was like the fear had changed into something more . . . gentle. Maybe it was the adrenaline easing off, but he had to marvel at what was happening. He had come here, to this world, with no knowledge of who he was or where he came from. He had been alone, knowing nothing but terror and that first feeling, that first sensation, that sense that he was falling from nowhere. He had been alone, completely.

Now he had found another mind, another thinking being. That fact alone, that she was sentient, made a connection with him. She was frightening, but she was also the one creature he had met that was like himself, besides the fairy. He leaned into her finger a little, hand pressing harder, feeling the give of the digit. This was reality. He could never go back to the place he had come from, so he had to take it as it stood.

* * * * *

Calimn felt Swiftlit's tiny hand on her own, and smiled inwardly. It was kind of nice, feeling this small human's palm pressed against her forefinger. He tentatively pushed down a bit, and for the first time since the beginning of their little cuddling session her appetite asserted itself. She wanted to eat him quite badly.

She held in the urge to gulp him down. She hadn't won, so she couldn't eat him this time. Those were the rules, but she just couldn't resist tasting him. Her tongue slipped out from between her lips, and she licked his palm. His special flavor, that sweet buzz on her taste-buds, spread over her palate. He was far too delicious to leave it at that.

She was about to slurp his whole arm into her mouth for a more extensive sampling, but he quickly withdrew his fingers. Then he jumped right over the curve of her hand and escaped, dashing out of reach in a blindingly fast series of long bounds.

She didn't even try to grab at him. He was too fast for her-on land anyway-and she wasn't interested in exhausting herself trying to get ahold of him. She wanted to taste him some more, of course, but she had promised not to grab him. She might lie and use a lot of trickery, but she always kept her word. She just watched as he ran off into the forest, vanishing into the foliage with a long string of frightened, barely coherent screams.

"N-n-no, noeatm-m-m-men-n-n-nonononono!" was about all she could understand out of the mess.

She just laughed. He would be back. Then she could play another round of "Swing" with him.

And she would win.


There's chapter thirteen. A calmer moment between the two. Unfortunately, Calimn is just lulling Swiftlit into a false sense of security for the next round of their game.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

hehe Calimn is so mischievious and sneaky
Seem like things are getting further and further. I really wonder how all that will finish ^^

Calimn is indeed very tricky. Here we are with chapter fourteen. A second round of "Swing". Too bad Swiftlit doesn't know about Calimn's new trick. Has vore, so avoid if you actively dislike vore.

Chapter 14: Fair Play

Swiftlit went back to see Calimn two days later. He couldn't help himself; he would go crazy if he didn't visit her. He also, in some inexplicable way, trusted her.

It wasn't as if she didn't frighten him anymore, but he had . . . come to grips with how she worked. She was incredibly clever and gifted at deception, but as far as he knew she had never gone against a sentence with "I promise" in it. All he had to do was play by the rules and he would be at least somewhat safe.

She had promised not to eat him, after all.

He emerged from the Miragia Forest and sat down at his usual place, on a tree root right at the edge of the jungle. Calimn, too, was in her usual spot, lying on her stomach on the bank of the Jewel River, tail in the water and human half up on shore. She smiled when he appeared.

* * * * *

Calimn was about to burst with excitement, even if she was holding it in check so as not to scare away her little prize. Today was the day. She was going to finally feel Swiftlit slide all the way down her throat, into her stomach. She wondered how it would be, with him thrashing against her insides. In a hurry to find out, she spoke first.

"Well, hello there, Swiftlit. Feeling extra tasty today?"

Her words made him gain an alarmed look, and shrink down into himself. Thinking he might run away before she could get started with her plan, she hurried to reassure him.

"A joke, just a joke. Anyway, let's get started with another round of 'Swing'. Want to play?"

He shivered a bit, but nodded. She grinned, anticipation growing. Her hunger was growing, too, stomach demanding to be filled. She hadn't eaten any breakfast, and it was nearly noon. She had refrained from eating anything this morning, just for Swiftlit.

She wanted to enjoy him as much as she could, and she didn't want anything else in her belly besides him. No interference, no excess food in there, a clean system. Just a nice little snack fighting inside her, alone. Her stomach growled loudly, telling her to hurry up with eating him.

* * * * *

Swiftlit felt his heart knot up as he heard the mermaid's belly groan, fear sucking all the moisture from his mouth and sending his pulse through the roof. She was hungry, and that was bad news for him. She would ea- no, she wouldn't eat him. She had promised not to.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, trying to bring his heart-rate down to a manageable level. It didn't help much, but he walked over to the starting point for the game anyway. Now he was halfway between Calimn and his tree root, ready to start playing.

Calimn grinned, and asked the first question.

"What is your name?"

"Swiftlit"

He took a step backward, toward his hiding place. He felt a tad more confident now, even if he was still frightened. He had won this game once, and if he had won once he could do so again. He didn't want to "cuddle" if he managed to win this time, as that had nearly ended with him in Calimn's mouth.

He decided he would ask for some dragonapples as a prize. He liked those gold-colored fruit, and the mermaid seemed to know where to get them. He shook at the memory of her catching him using two boxes of dragonapples and one box of grabbing vines.

Calimn's eighth question took him off-gaurd.

"Do you like me?"

"What?"

Calimn blew a raspberry, laughing.

"Bzzt, that's a question, not an answer. Take a step toward me."

He did so. It was fine, as he was still a long way from her and therefore able to afford taking a few steps toward the mermaid. Why had she asked him that, though?

"Okay, same question."

He opened his mouth to answer, but stopped, hesitating. How DID he feel about Calimn? He had never considered that before, not once. She had just been THERE, a terrifying monolith that his life had been tethered to since meeting her.

She scared him to death, of course, but he didn't entirely dislike her. She had a certain charm with that vitality of hers, and her pleasant attitude was rather nice. Her presence, too, allowed him someone to talk to, a way to erase those daymares from his head. It let him stay sane, and he was grateful for that.

"Yes."

* * * * *

Calimn grinned at his answer. He liked her. That was good to know. If he liked her that much, then he would LOVE being in her belly. She barely held back the urge to lick her lips, and got ready to turn the tables on the boy.

"What is a Kensha beast?"

"A what?"

He took a step forward when she laughed and beckoned him closer.

"Where is Bulvon Wood?"

"Uh . . ."

Step.

"Are slug-girls male or female?"

"Female?"

"Nope, both."

Step.

She kept up the barrage of questions, pulling out everything she knew he had no knowledge of. It wasn't hard, either; he was fairly new to Felarya, as far as she could tell, and very ignorant on the land. Soon he was no more than fifty feet from her, nearly in grabbing range.

"How old am I?"

"H-How am I s-s-supposed to know!? Th-this isn't f-f-fair! I can't even t-tell what half the s-stuff you're t-talking about IS!" he yelled, his nervous stutter and trembling getting progressively worse the closer he got.

Calimn just stuck her tongue out and snickered. What she was doing was a bit underhanded, but perfectly within the realm of fair play. They were legitimate questions, and turning the tables on Swiftlit was not only fair but also hilarious.

* * * * *

Swiftlit was on the edge of breaking under the stress of his impending loss. Calimn had him trapped, with his back to a wall and no way out. How had he been such a fool to think that he knew more than she did? He was new here, and he so rarely came up out of his hole that he had almost no knowledge of anything besides what Calimn had shared with him during their talks.

He took another step toward her. Now he was only twenty feet from her, well within grabbing range. She was lying flat, with her chin resting on the ground and smiling triumphantly. He was going to lose, and he couldn't get out of it.

He was within three meters of her when her smile took on a terrifying aspect. It transmuted, becoming larger, toothier, more impish . . . and hungry. Then she opened her mouth wide. She wanted him to walk in.

He froze up when he looked into her mouth, the sight paralyzing him with terror. The massive wave of adrenaline that blasted through him made everything crystal-clear, every detail sharp and agonizingly perfect. He couldn't move, he couldn't look away, and he couldn't think.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break the paralysis holding him down with clawed fingers. It felt as if he would shatter if touched, muscles taut to the point of snapping under the strain. How much detail he could see in the mermaid's mouth was excruciating, and no matter his efforts he couldn't look away. There seemed to be no warmth left in his limbs, but his pulse could be felt in every inch of his body, hammering so hard he thought his skin might suddenly rip apart.

Her tongue rolled out over her teeth like a carpet going over a step, a plush pink path to his own personal hell. Farther back he could see the pink teardrop of her uvula, and beyond that the darker tunnel that was her throat. The sight of it terrified him.

* * * * *

Calimn saw Swiftlit tense, muscles and tendons becoming clearly defined as he froze. She could see every line of him become harder, his shaking turning more into pure vibration rather than actual movement. He was trembling so hard and at such a frequency that she could hear his teeth chattering, so rapidly that the noise they made was a wasp-like buzz.

He couldn't move, that was for sure. He didn't even show any sign of running when she put out a finger, placing it on his chest. She could feel his tiny heart fluttering in there, racing at an incredible pace. She laughed inwardly, and withdrew her hand.

She scooted forward, until her lips were almost touching him, and whispered right in his ear.

"This is one you don't know yet, but you will in a second. What is it like inside my tummy?"

That line broke him. He let out a piercing squeal that was completely inhuman, most closely related to the cry of a dying animal, and bolted.

She had been expecting that, and she knew how fast he was now. She gauged his pace, and shot her tongue out at the last moment. She coiled it around his ankle, catching him. He fell flat on his face with a scream, and immediately began scrabbling at the ground, screeching out a stream of nonsense and blabber.

She began drawing him slowly, gently, and implacably towards her open mouth. She ignored his incomprehensible protests, too busy delighting in the taste that was spreading over her palate. She had him now, and she was going to take her sweet-literally-time with enjoying him.

She pulled her tongue completely into her mouth, and closed it, lips coming down on his leg.

* * * * *

Swiftlit had reached the pinnacle of panic, his mind becoming an unending plain of horror and splintered sensations. He was screaming, but he couldn't hear his own voice over the sound of his heart trying to explode. His leg was trapped in Calimn's mouth, his other kicking furiously at her lips as he clawed at the dirt, attempting to rip his leg from her maw.

At this point he wouldn't have cared if he lost that leg. She was going to eat him. She had said so, and he believed her. She was sucking him farther in, now with the entirety of his left leg in her mouth. She was humming "Mmmm . . .", eyes half-closed with pleasure as she tasted him. He put his free foot against her lips and pushed as hard as he could.

Bad idea.

With a playful giggle, she pulled that leg in, too, and slurped him in up to his chest. He lost it completely at that point, screaming his head off as flailing his arms wildly, frantic as a mouse cornered by a cat. He didn't even think to try and push with his arms, so great was his terror. He just kept waving his arms like a person on the verge of drowning as the mermaid sucked him in up to his neck.

Now all that was left outside was his head and one arm.

* * * * *

Calimn couldn't believe how good he tasted. That particular flavor of his, that kind of tickling sweetness, had actually increased, becoming ambrosial. She wanted to swallow him right now, but she also didn't want to do so. That taste was amazing, as were his struggles in her mouth.

He was trying hard, flailing his limbs inside her mouth. It was wonderful, his thrashing tickling her palate and making his sweetness further soak into her taste-buds. She could still feel his arm and head outside, his one free hand slapping futilely against her lips as he screamed and swung his head around frantically.

She rolled over, stretching out on her back. She just laid there for several minutes, taking in the feelings of him fighting in her mouth, his taste, and the warm sunshine on her skin. She finally reached up and extended one forefinger, pushing him all the way into her mouth.

He went in with one last scream.

* * * * *

Swiftlit's world became a blur as Calimn rolled over. He kept struggling even though he knew he was doomed, reaching with his one hand towards that sky. It was just like when he had been drowning; the inability to get any air, trapped, limbs heavy, on the verge of death, and trying desperately to attain something he could never reach.

He kept fighting even when she put one finger on the top of his head, pushing him down into her mouth with the slow but inescapable inevitability of death. He screamed out once more as he slipped between her lips, crying out to that one last glimpse of sunlight.

Then he was in the dark, in the pitch-black of her mouth. He kept shrieking even though her saliva was getting into his mouth as he did so, howling as her tongue rolled and shoved and prodded his body. He thrashed, reminiscent of nothing so much as a landed fish; gasping for breath and flailing against certain doom.

Then he was tumbling backward, toward her throat. The muscles of her esophagus gripped him, pulling him down, down, down, into the depths of her body. He went down her throat crying and screaming. Then he fell into her stomach.

It was hot, humid, and as dark as a moonless midnight. By now he was soaking wet, and heavy, but sheer panic forced him to continue thrashing. He pounded at the walls of her stomach, the soft, slick flesh yielding but absolutely implacable. He was trapped, and he was going to die.

Calimn had finally eaten him.

His sanity snapped with that realization. He blacked out, no longer conscious or coherent, but still moving. He hurled himself against the inside of his prison, making horrendous noises that went beyond screaming. He just kept howling with raw insanity and terror.

* * * * *

Calimn felt Swiftlit slide down her gullet, running a finger down her throat to follow the wriggling bulge that descended. His wiggling tickled, a marvelous sensation that eased into her belly smoothly. A moment later and she gave a sigh of pure pleasure, completely satisfied. He wasn't much to look at, but once he was all the way down his liquid-altered weight made him feel quite filling.

She gave a small chuckle when he started to thrash in there. He was really fighting hard, bouncing around inside her belly like a pinball. It felt lovely, like a massage from the inside-out. With a gentle, happy smile, she rubbed her midriff, giving a slight burp as his struggles brought up some air.

"Ahhhhhh . . . That was delicious. Hope you don't mind, Swiftlit. You lost, so I get to swallow you."

She suddenly thought of something, and laughed.

"By the way, I win."

She couldn't hear him screaming in there anymore, so she guessed he had finally calmed down. He wasn't fighting either, his presence reduced to a warm weight in her belly. She was keeping her digestion in check, and had made sure to swallow some air for him, so he was still alive and perfectly fine. She decided to tease him a bit.

"So, about that question just before I swallowed you . . . What is it like in my tummy?"

She listened.

There was no answer at all. She sighed; he was probably mad at her for swallowing him. Well, he could be a grouch and not answer if he wanted.

"Fine, be that way. Sore loser."

Silence.

"If you're going to be a jerk about losing then I'll leave you in there."

Silence.

"I mean it. I can keep you in there for a whole day if I want. Jab taught me how."

Silence.

"Come on, Swiftlit, it was just a game. You don't have to be mad."

Silence.

"Seriously, if you don't quit with the attitude I'll keep you in there all day." she told him, beginning to get nervous.

Silence.

"Swiftlit, I'm sorry if you're mad at me, but I won fair and square."

Silence.

"Really, this isn't funny, and it's not nice. Stop being a sore loser and say something."

Silence.

"Swiftlit . . . Did I hurt you? If you banged your head on one of my teeth or something, I really am sorry."

Silence.

"Swiftlit? Are you okay?! Answer me!" she yelled, now genuinely frightened.

She rolled over onto her belly again, sitting up, alarmed. She clenched her stomach, then heaved a few times, bringing him back up. His increased weight made it a bit difficult, but she kept it up until he was in the back of her throat. With a last "urk-!", she coughed him up and spat him into her palm.

She gasped at the sight of him. He was deathly pale, not moving at all, not even twitching. His eyes were rolled up in his head, nothing but whites visible, and there was blood running out of his mouth from where he had bitten his tongue.

"O-O-Oh my . . . O-Oh, I . . . I KILLED HIM!"

She started to tremble. She hadn't meant to hurt him. It had just been a game, just a fun round of "Swing". She put his . . . body down hurriedly, suddenly not wanting to touch him. She had killed him. Her and her stupid, stupid, STUPID playfulness. She began to cry, sobbing with her face in her hands. Her and her STUPID games.

* * * * *

Swiftlit came back to himself, head fuzzy and muddled, with the sound of thunderously loud crying in his ears. He was lying in a puddle of spit on the ground, unaware of how he had gotten here. Hadn't Calimn swallowed him? He couldn't sit up, not with his current weight and exhaustion, but he looked over at the mermaid.

She had her hands covering her face, crying. She hadn't noticed his being awake yet. How he was still alive he didn't know. He had passed out in there, and he wasn't eager for a repeat performance. Maybe she had thought he was dead, so if he kept playing dead . . .

He hurriedly rolled his eyes up in his head and suppressed his breathing when she looked up and apologized to his "body".

"Oh, Swiftlit, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to- Ah, I can't do this. It . . . It was just a GAME! I never meant to . . . to kill you. I just wanted to play with you, that's all, because you were so fun to trick and s-"

He could feel himself getting lighter as the sun dried him off. In a little while he would be dry. He laid there, playing possum, for a good ten minutes. Finally, he was light enough to get up and run with a reasonable chance at escaping.

"-ut, if you come back as a ghost, please don't haunt me. If you come back like that, just come and talk to me. I am so, so, SO sor-"

The look on her face when he leapt to his feet and darted for the forest was that of utter astonishment. She tried, belatedly, to grab him, but she was a second too late, and he was a second too fast. She caught nothing but a handful of air. He was gone in an instant, sprinting for his burrow even as Calimn yelled for him to come back.

"WAIT, SWIFTLIT, WAIT!"

"NO!" was all he shouted in return.


There we go. Swiftlit shows that he can be rather clever in his own way. Playing dead: Always the best option. Critiques and comments welcome.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

Ha. Looks like Calimn isn't the only sneaky one in this story.