Predators and Prey

Ofelia looked off the edge of her upper cliffs. She then looked to her side - and was surprised to find a boot stuck in the slime. It looked like someone had tried to walk up to the cave, but then turned around when they hit her slime. She noticed some parts of it were glowing. This was odd - most prey didn't know how to deal with her - her kind were usually very subterranean - she was one of the more adventureous ones, who liked to live a bit closer to the surface to taste new kinds of prey and find neat stuff.

She sniffed the air. She was further surprised to see that whatever it was had run inside the lower cave system, rather than back into the forest. Ofelia tried to puzzle this out. Maybe...it was some other kind of underground species. That would explain why they headed to a cave for safety and why they seemed to know about her kind.

Ofelia headed back into her cave, then further into the tunnels. She had a few lines here, but started to set up more from the higher levels. This was a prey that she was very interested in catching now. She crawled to the ceiling, making and hardening a nest of slime to wait in. She then set down lines all along this central cavern. She would probably come here...if she was a very magicly attuned prey she'd be mentally attracted here. If not, it was still likely she would pass this way.

The water elemental didn’t respond to Petal’s protests, save to lower her feet into her waiting mouth. The elemental’s mouth, though clear and made of water, felt much like a real one, though unusually wet. The feet slid into her throat without much fanfare, and the elemental began to swallow. The strong muscular contractions in her throat pulled petal’s feet down farther. Her soft, moist lips reached Petal’s legs, then her hips, her chest, her neck. With one last gulp, Petal’s head was pulled into the elemental’s wet, clear mouth and into her tight, slick throat. Petal could clearly be seen descending down the esophagus and curling up into the elemental’s huge, transparent belly.

The inside of the elemental’s stomach was slick, damp, and soft, though there was no digestive juices yet. “I will take only part, but I need to decide on which part first,” The elemental said, looking down at Petal trapped in her belly. Dozens of tiny gelatinous projections began gently poking and prodding petal all over. “It is not as easy as I thought finding the part I want. None seem too appetizing…Maybe I should just look elsewhere…”

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The terra elf suspected that the glower was aware of her. She needed to find a small passage where the glower couldn’t reach her. She looked all around her, not only for said passage, but for the telltale lines of slime that glowers usually hunted with. And for the glower herself. She could not rely on her ears, as the glowers had ways of distorting their sounds as to always sound like they were far in the distance.

Gradually, she made her way deeper into the cave, carefully picking her way amid trails of slime and dangling sticky lines. She stopped suddenly, why had she been going deeper into the cave? That’s where the glower was probably waiting? What drew her there? She looked deeper, the inviting darkness reminding her of her home. Behind, the bright light of the blinding sun could be seen back in the entrance. Yet that’s where her path should have been, but something compelled her to head deeper. She could not think why.

That in itself set off a new alarm in her mind. She remembered legends, that glowers were able to lure those with an affinity for magic, something they did to the air drew magical beings near. And she was an elf, to whom magic came naturally. She turned around, though her will seemed strangely reluctant, and tried to make her slow way out of the cave.

"the water thing will not touch the jeanne please"Petal says pressing her hands against the stomach walls,an outline of her hand can be seen on the outside of the elemental's stomach,she wondered what part of her the elemental would take and wondered if she would be able to survive without it.Petal swallowed nervously blushing as she felt her breasts get prodded,"the petal wonders why is the water thing doing this to her"

The boy saw the water elemental swallow the plant thing and then noticed the girl was in danger.. he sneaked up behind the girl and covered her mouth with his hand.. he then dragged her out of sight while the elemental wasent looking. "shhh... listen, when i remove my hand.. keep quiet.. ill help your friend"

Jeanne looked at the boy in confusion. Is this the point where she slapped someone trying to grab her on this planet, or begged not to be eaten. And how the heck was he supposed to beat a water elemental.

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Ofelia continued moving around her home caverns. She wished she had spent more time exploring these...her friends had been right to call her crazy for going surface hunting. She might be loosing her edge at proper hunting.

She then smelt magic in the air. Ah, so the prey was a magical creature of some sort. She might be able to identify it now. She was confused...it was like an elf...but less...hmmm. She searched for the right word in her mind. If a regular elf were an apple, this one would be a potato from the taste she was building up. Interesting. She'd heard of glowers who hunted a type of elf underground - was this one of those? She was exciting at getting to meet and eat new species...but that was if she caught her. This was something even better suited to moving underground than she was.

She closed her eyes. Time to start thinking like a real Lucicamp, not a fisher on the outside. She remembered her strands would have an attracting effect on the elf. But maybe the elf knew that. She would have to have an attracting affect as well. She had an idea. She guessed roughly where the elf was. She then began to lay down lots and lots of slime, creating a large ball. She tried to put as much power into it as she could. She then slimed her way back outside. She set up threads by the cave mouth. Her hope was the elf would mistake the slime ball for her trying to attract her back into the cave. She might head for the surface. With the sun shining in, it was not impropable she would miss the strands in her hurry to escape. Ofelia smiled. This was real hunting!

The boy removed his hand and let her get back together.. he then went into his backpack and pulled out 2 large jugs of water.. he spoke quietly "stay low and keep quiet.." the boy took the jugs and started to peak around seeing what was going down..

“If I find a good part on you to take, I won’t need one from Jeannie,” The elemental said. “But does Jeannie have better parts? Wetter?” She asked, becoming annoyed at her inability to find something suitable on Petal. She looked toward Jeannie. Or rather, where Jeannie had been.

“Jeannie is missing. She should not be missing,” The elemental said, stating the obvious. She walked forward, looking around for Jeannie, moving smoothly despite the extra mass in her stomach.

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The strange urge to go deeper into the cave was growing stronger, she nearly turned back. But it was unnatural, and that let her rational mind resist the urge. She could but assume the increase in strength meant that the glower was getting closer. She forced her reluctant feet to run, moving along the safe path she had discovered before. Before long, the urge began to receed behind her, and the bright, uncomfortable light could be seen in the cave entrance. She put her dark goggles back on and sprinted as hard as she could, pulling her cloak tight about herself. She reached the cave entrance.

Several sticky things caught onto her cloak. Running as she was, her momentum caused the cloak to be ripped from her body, exposing her skin to the harsh light. Something else caught hold of the flintlock rifle she held and tore it from her hands. Another one of the sticky strands brushed against her face, adhering to the goggles she wore. They were yanked from her eyes, letting the light of the sun reach them. The terra elf screamed as the blinding light burned into her sensitive eyes. Blinded, she stumbled on a rock and fell to the ground. Whimpering, she covered her eyes with an arm and got to her feet again. She slowly stumbled forward, trying to feel for obstacles with her other arm. She stumbled and fell again.

Ofelia moved down the side of the slops, from the upper caves to the lower caves, her sticky body adhering to the wall. She finally saw her prey, stumbling around outside in her undergarments. She realized her lines had pulled off her equipment. She then realize that from the paleness of the creature, it was one of those underground elves. She the realized the elf had a rather buxom chest and plenty of curves and meat, and she licked her lips. Moving forwards, she simply picked the elf up, taking her back into the darkness of the cave so the sun didn't spoil her. Ofelia didn't like the sun too much either.

"Deary dear." she said to the elf who starting to be able to see again. "You shouldn't be running around in the sunlight like that without covering up properly. You could get a nasty burn. You're a...Terra Elf, aren't you? My name's Ofelia, what's yours? How did you get here?" she babbled happily as she moved further into the shade.

Petal gasped,prodding the elemental's stomach wall "if the jeanne human is missing that can only be bad"she says in a panicked voice,petal started pushing at the stomach walls trying to get out she wanted to be outside to just help find jeanne "if the jeanne human is missing the petal must come out and help,but the petal must feed the water thing so she does not hurt the jeanne human"and with this in mind,petal began excreting a red cherry flavoured substance from her body,into the water elemental's stomach.

The terra elf gasped as the giant hand picked her up. It was much too strong for her to have any hope of forcing it open, nor did she imagine she had much chance of escaping if she did manage to get loose again. Her equipment, cloak, and goggles were tangled up at the entrance, she could not go outside as is. She had a small knife on her person still, but even if she could reach it in the glower’s tight grip, it would do little but anger the glower if she used it on her. Weighed down by a sense of defeat, the terra elf sagged in Ofelia’s hand.

When Ofelia spoke, the terra elf looked up at her. Though her vision was still blurry from the burning sunlight, she could still see the glower’s face. Captured as she was, the terra elf decided there was nothing to be gained from being rude to Ofelia. “I am,” she said. “I’m Breida, of the great city Beyr, beneath the Frost Peak. I was journeying to visit my kin in the city of Ostenna beneath the Ascarlin Mountains. I came to the surface…” The elf glanced up at Ofelia’s face, feeling a touch of bitter irony. “To avoid a group of glowers that had taken up residence in a segment of the connecting tunnels. I thought I could wait out the harsh day in this cave.”

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The elemental looked down, seeing Petal through her transparent body. She watched as the liquid Petal gave began pooling in her stomach. “Contaminated, but not too much,” The elemental said. “But I am confused. Jeannie is not prey, yet you desire to find her. Why is- no. You are urgent, and have given me water. It is little, but I will be satisfied with that for now.”

The elemental’s humanoid form wavered, then began to collapse back into water. Her structures lost their solidity and became simple liquid again. The water elemental sunk back into a puddle, dyed pink from the fluid Petal gave her. Petal was left standing in the puddle of the elemental, no longer trapped or contained. Slowly, the elemental flowed away from her feet.

Petal gasped standing up at her full height,she was a little creeped out by what the water elemental had just done but she kept quiet about it none the less,Looking down petal could see the liquid that was now moving away from her,smiling petal jumped away from the water like liquid "the petal must find the jeanne human the petal wants to be friends with the jeanne human and look after her"she says truthfully looking all around her to try and find jeanne.

"Haha!" giggled Ofelia. "Well, looks like you sort of messed up on that one, didn't you? So...there are whole cities of elves far underground? And lots more glowers too? That sounds pretty interesting. I left to go up here when I was pretty young and don't know alot of the important old ways. I may want to try going there, though. Hunting for you underground was a lot more fun than just fishing for people walking underneath my cliff."

A glimmer of hope came to Breida, maybe this predator was more interested in information than a meal. “Yes, I suppose I did,” Breida said, “Not to mention that the surface has it’s own host of predators. At least, when the end comes, it won’t be under that blasted sunlight but in the underground. I should thank you for that at least.”

“But yes, there are numerous cities of my kind far underneath the surface of Felarya,” Breida said. “To the best of my knowledge, Beyr is the largest of them, though Ostenna is fairly large too. Both of them are beautiful places, set in the largest caverns, built around and among mighty columns of natural stone. We work with the natural caverns, rather than just plowing over the terrain like the humans did with Negav. It’s as much a work of art as it is a settlement.”

“And there are more glowers as well. They often dwell in the natural caverns, or in the largest tunnels dug and abandoned by us. They make traveling between cities…interesting, to say the least. There is a constant struggle, ever they come up with new ways to trap and ensnare us, and ever do we invent new ways to counter their traps. Life in the great caverns under frost peak is rarely boring, I’ll tell you that.”

“Tell me, have you ever been there? Have you seen the city of Beyr?” Brieda asked. She was only partially asking out of curiosity and an attempt to delay being eaten. If she could actually convince Ofelia to go to the city, she might just live through this yet. What Brieda neglected to say was that Beyr was as much a fortress as it was a settlement or work of art.

the boy watched everything with a confused face.. then put the water back and went back over to the girl. "it looks like your friend got out, i guess its safe.." the boy reached a hand to her to help her up while he was throwing his backpack on. "ill help you up."

"Mmm...no, I've never been." said Ofelia. "A whole city full of elves...." She licked her lips. "But I doubt I'd be welcome though. But just being near there and getting all those meals would be fun. And seeing more Glowers would be nice too." She looked at the undergarments that Breida was wearing. "Ohh, I see you Terra elves have some nice working with clothes. Those are pretty. I'll like to add them to my collection." Of course, she was looking at Breida's ample chest as well. Not able to resist, Ofelia placed the elf into her mouth up to her waist and started to suck, running her tongue over the elf. She paused and then took her out.

"Wow...you're the tastiest thing I've ever tried." she said. "Maybe I'm used to underground food." She paused. "I'd keep you as a pet and tasting candy, but I already got an elf for that. I don't need two..." she said, moving back up to her cave. "And I'm hungry for some dinner around now. Hmm... what to do. I guess I'll have to eat one of you." She said, entering the cave. She picked up G.

"Sorry G, but I may have to eat you after all... or maybe not. I did catch this elf and it would be a waste not to eat her after all that work..."

She contemplated her two potential victims. On one hand, G didn't seem brave or resourceful enough to try and escape, like Breida. On the other hand... she was intrigued by Breida's stories, even if the elf might try to get away at some point.

the boy sat there with his hand out for a moment and then walked over into sight of the dryad girl. "hay if that girl was your friend shes behind the tree over there in some kind of shock, i saw that elemental try to eat ya so i pulled her away from the action for her safety." the boy then turned to an opposite tree and sat down. "there ya go i tried to help." he said a bit annoyed with the end result.

Petal giggled clapping her hands happily as she moved arounf to where jeanne was with a delighted squeel petal jumped happily onto jeanne,"the petal missed the jeanne human the petl thought the water thing was going to eat the jeanne human so the petal secreted juice for the water thing"she says happily hugging jeanne before getting to her feet and looking in the direction that the amazons had gone off in "and now the petal will get the jeanne humans things back"she says before charging after the three amazons with heavy thuds upon the ground up ahead she could see the three amazons,hissing petal increased her speed chasing after the amazons.

Jeanne could only watch as Petal ran off. She shifted, a bit uncomfortable being left with the strange water elemental. "Be careful, Petal!" she managed to shout, trying to follow.

The three Amazons heard Petal coming. The leader with the bow leapt to the side, the one with the gun firing and just catching Petal's shoulder. The one with the spear knelt down in front of her, taking a position to skewer Petal.

Petal gasped almost tripping as a bullet pierced the skin in her shoulder,petal grinned she saw the amazon ready to skewer her ad leapt up high into the sky landing just behind the amazon "give the jeanne humans things to the petal....NOW"she yells malice clear in her voice,petal runs at the one with the gun wrapping a vine around it and yanking it away throwing the rifle into the face of the amazon with the spear.

Yuta, the blond leader with the bow, got to her feet quickly, firing but missing. She quickly readied another arrow.

"Don't let her get away!" she said. Heila had dropped her spear. Angry, she leapt right onto Petal, trying to strangle her Kiera crawled quickly across the ground, trying to pick up her rifle again, her long black hair getting in her face.

Petal smiled managing to bite into Heila's arm,Petal groaned fallen down to the ground but she wasn't done yet even with heila strangling her this didn't bother petal as she had an alternate way of getting air into her body that the amazons did not know and the only reason she fell over was due to heila's weight,petal gasped chewing on heila's wrist happily,looking around petal could see kiera going for her rifle and petal had a few vines restrain kiera and more pulling her rifle underground.

the boy continued to sit against the tree watching everything with little interest.. he then saw the girl standing there worried about the plant girl... he then stood up and started walking in the direction of the action.. "ill go give your friend a hand... jeesh..."

Yuta realized that she wasn't going to get a shot off with her bow. Simply gripping an arrow in her hand, she leapt forwards to help Heila, ready to stab Petal with the paralyzing tip. Kiera tried to stand and tripped, the vines still wrapped around her legs. Her rifle was gone, so she tried to find Heila's spear and stab the vines with that.

Petal went wide eyed knowing what Yuta had in her hands she struggled trying to get to her feet but failed she smiled to herself knowing that she was building up an immunity to the poison they were using,petal gasped closing he eyes waiting for the moment when the arrow would be plunged into her skin but she held firm sending more vines out to restrain Kiera's arms pinning her whole body to the ground.

the boy walked in through the bushes and saw the massive amount of carnage the plant girl was doing..after a second he stood against a tree a few yards away.. "go ahead and give me a thumbs up to help ya out.. looks like you got those amazons tied up.." he snickers and continues to just stand against the tree.