All Fun And Games with Elsie

[Well, here's Elsie, from my doodles.
Basically, she's... one creepy fuck.

P.S: I doubted a lot about the sign at first. I wanted them to realize they weren't in Kansas anymore, and by the time I realized I had ranted on too long and probably had a completely different plot growing out of the beginning, I had the exact perfect setup for what I intended to happen. I apologize for the extreme length; Part 0 can be safely skipped, it doesn't contain sexy preds anyway. It's just me on rapid fire comedy... a lot like the rest. I really could've spread it better amongst the characters, but I didn't want them to be a quartet of clowns. I preferred to have a single loon cracking at everything, spread it unevenly and make four personalities that were different.]




Part 0- 'Beware Parrot'



"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"You won't get there if I kick you out of the car." Herman smiled, turning away from the steering wheel for a moment.

Gabriel looked back at him for a moment.

"Sorry, just wanted to drive the point home." he smiled.

Alicia looked to her side, at both of them.

"Look, I'm sure we'll find our way. After all, that guy at the gas station said this place was kind of a shortcut."

"But turning back is still an appropriate choice, isn't it." Gabriel grinned. "Seriously, admit it, you're completely lost."

"I'm not lost, I know exactly where we are!"

"Really? Where are we?" Gabriel laughed. "Come on, this should be a good one."

"Well, I'd say we're in... Felarya."


Alicia and Herman looked at him for a moment.


"What?" both exclaimed in unison.

"Felarya, I saw a sign a few miles ago!" Herman grinned. "See? I'm paying attention, at least."

The car stopped all of a sudden.

=====

Alicia walked out of the car, hands on her brown hair for a moment. From the other door, Herman walked out, his smirk over his black goatee seemingly impossible to remove. He seemed to think this was... funny.

"This..." she snarled "is the LAST time we're taking a shortcut."

"Come on, that guy in the gas station said we could cut through Felarya if we took that road."

Alicia looked around, with a contemptuous stare.

"Well, do you know where the road is? I've read the map all over three times, and I've never found any Felarya." All around them, they were surrounded by long, long grass, reaching up to her bluish green skirt... and come to think of it, it was the same color too!

Herman took a deep breath in.

"No, but it's okay."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know what species this is either." he said, kicking the grass a little. "So all in all, I think we're off to a good start."

Gabriel rolled his eyes inside the car. Herman's good mood became indestructible in the strangest situations. He often wondered what drugs he did, in which dose, and in which order. He wanted some too, because the retard often got by on sheer dumb luck. The world seemed to like him, which only made him all the more annoying; his good luck was seemingly endless. It was like he had been raised by Bugs Bunny and Felix. Which was probably the case. Add to it that he was a law student, and you'd surely walk away offended.

Next to him, Alicia was downright mundane. Even though mostly everyone considered her excentric, and that was a feat amongst mathematicians, she was a lot more accessible, down to earth than Herman, and unarguably far more intelligent, a lot more sportive (the mention of which was the only thing that could cast a cloud over Herman's face), and a lot more imaginative. She could be very stupid when angry, though; she seemed to think of herself as a force of nature those times. No one told her, but they all found her a little more sad than scary.

Gabriel himself wondered sometimes how he'd wound up with those two students recently turned professionals. Probably, it was peer pressure. He'd met Alicia in a bar... and cliché as it was, after meeting her friends, he'd started hanging out with the crowd. He himself was a rather unprofessional webpage designer, and most often a reader of the strangest tastes, going from DIY manuals all the way to foreign authors.

And finally, next to himself, he smiled, looking at Brenda.

Brenda, last in their group, was the artsiest of the four. It was hard to think of a time when he hadn't seen her sketch something on the edge of a page. He'd seen a lot of it- most of it was pretty funny, judging from her face. He'd never been able to understand the jokes, though, because he didn't go into the same circles as she did. That girl needed a lot more food and exercise, though; she looked as skinny as a matchstick, usually hiding this under several layers of cloth which she wouldn't need if she had a few more layers of fat.

She wasn't sketching right now, though. She was looking out of the window. He stretched over, and looked as well.

"So what'cha looking at?"

"The clouds. They're nice, aren't they?" she asked, pointing at the horizon. "I wonder how tall that tree is..." she said, pointing at one tree, so far in the horizon that he had to wonder how tall it was, too.

"Do you want to sketch that tree?" He thought he knew her by now...

"No." she answered, with a surprisingly dry tone. "I'd rather we were home already!"

"Don't we all." he sighed. "Why'd we let him drive?"

"It's his car."

"Ah."

The two missing people got back into the car.

"We're going to backtrack to the sign." Herman sighed. "Don't really see what good will it do, but hey! Anything helps!"

"If that doesn't help, I'll call help." Alicia pointed.

"Well, that's a relief. But do it fast." Brenda said.

"Of course."

"I mean there's storm clouds on the horizon." she said.

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Herman replied, with genuine surprise.

======

Not long after, the four of them got to the sign. Herman was the first to get off and read the sign, together with Alicia. Behind them, Brenda and Gabriel waited in silence. A moment later, Herman called them.

"Hey! Get a load of this." he chuckled.

The two of them got down, unsure of what to expect. What they saw was their two friends standing right in front of a section of smooth, purple marble, with words carved in them.



"DO NOT READ THIS MESSAGE ALOUD UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!" he read aloud.
"You are in Felarya now.
If you don't know what that is, keep reading.
You are not where you used to be.
The sooner you accept that, the better.
Anything large enough to swallow you WILL try to do so.
Specially if it looks human from the waist up.
The smooth-skinned things with insect wings will eat you, as well.
Those will eat you even if they're smaller than you.
They are fairies, if that helps you identify them.
Being swallowed WILL kill you, make no mistake.

Do not talk to anything unless you have no alternative!
They'll all be very nice, until they're not.
Do not run either! HIDE IF YOU CAN! This is vital!" he exclaimed, with a frightened gesture. "Man, grafitti gets worse every year..."



"This isn't grafitti." Alicia said. "This is literally set in stone..." she grimaced. "In the middle of nowhere."

"Well, it's stupid anyway!" Herman shrugged. "What's dumber, fairies eating people, FAIRIES of all things, maybe if it read 'Beware Parrot'..." he shrugged. "...or an idiot with a hammer and a chisel in the middle of nowhere?"

"Grafitti is a FUN crime." Brenda giggled. "But... I'm still not sure we can ignore this thing..." she shrugged. "It's not just an idiot with a hammer and a chisel. He also carried a block of marble all the way from here..."

"Well, what do we do, then!?" Herman asked, frowning and sounding exasperated. This, of course, was probably an unique event due to some kind of cosmic realignment.

Gabriel moved in to keep reading.



-HIDE IF YOU CAN! This is vital!-

-The nearest safe place is to the north, ten horizons away.-
-Find a tree that has a wooden cross on its branches.-
-There is an entrance to a bunker hidden in its roots.-
-It's safe there.-

-Best of luck in this brave new world-
-(Make your own if you can)-
-Because it's up to you now whether you like it or not.-
-Locust-

-P.S. If a giant centaur finds you, you'll feel the ground shake.-
-HIDE, DROP TO THE GROUND, STAY STILL AND KEEP QUIET UNTIL IT LEAVES!-



"Centaurs?" Gabriel shrugged. "Okay, this is a load of bull."

"Hey, look, there's a..." Brenda advanced towards the stone, and reached down, pulling out several thick blades of grass. "There's another P.S. here! It reads..."



-P.P.S. You might want to leave metal vehicles behind, they attract stormseeker birds.-



"Stormseeker, now..." Gabriel shrugged. "Look, just use your cellphone at once, Alicia. The sooner we get this over with, the safer I'll sleep."

Alicia took her cellphone from a pocket, which she quickly started fiddling with.

"Curiouser and curiouser..."

"Is anything wrong?" Herman asked, raising his eyebrows.

"We've got an excellent signal here." she shrugged. "It's even better than downtown at home."

"Must be less cluttered." Gabriel mumbled.

"Well, at least, it's a mercy." She called. It wasn't long until she heard something.

"Hello?" a young woman's voice asked.

"Hello. We... seem to be lost, actually. We were on our way to the city, when... well, we seem to have gotten off road."

The four stragglers shuddered, hearing the tone of delight in the reply, though only Alicia knew its exact words.

"What?" she gasped. The voice in the phone giggled, and then asked again, patronizingly.

"What kind of question is that? Of course we're human."

Brenda gave her a strange look.

"Look, this isn't the place for stupid jokes." Alicia said.

"What's wrong?" Brenda asked.

"Be quiet!" Alicia exploded. She always did that when someone bothered her while on the phone. Then she turned back to her cellphone. "Sorry? What... what are you talking about?"

Herman seemed to glare at Alicia, which was probably a miracle. She clenched her teeth...

"We're here, lost in the middle of nowhere, and you giggle at me on the phone!? Who the hell are you? You can be sure your boss won't be happy about th..." she exploded, when Herman suddenly jerked the phone away from her.

"Leave this to me." he frowned. "Sorry about that. It seems we're more distressed than we thought at first." he smiled, returning to his usual friendly self.

The voice giggled again.

"Yes, we're right next to a sign that reads 'you're on Felarya now'..." Herman chuckled. "And it's set on stone. I guess grafitti does get worse every year."

The tone of the voice sounded dubious for a moment, in that murmur always escaping from a cellphone.

"Wait, are you Amish or something? I really can't... place your accent." he chuckled.

The voice sounded a little annoyed for a moment. Gabriel wondered what was wrong...

"Any luck, Herman?" Alicia finally blurted.

Herman glared at Alicia, and put the phone on speaker.

"I'm Herman. Pleased to meet you, Levire. Now that's a name I've never heard before. Did you make this sign on the stone?" Herman asked, winking at the others, and holding out the cellphone.

"Hm? No, some weird guy came one day. We tried to eat him, but we..."

"Levire, can I be honest with you?" Herman asked, sounding like his good mood was on the verge of truly breaking.

"Sure! Why not?"

"Levire." Herman hissed, dragging his voice. "We're lost and scared in the middle of nowhere, and we found a truly frightening sign. This was our only hope to contact anyone who could help us. So could I please, please ask you to stop this stupid charade? We really need to talk to the rangers right now. If there's any shred of compassion in you, please, just stop it. Let us talk to them."

No one could argue with Herman on this one. He had been saying what everyone had been wanting to say.

"Umm... I really like you, whoever you are, but I can't help you there. I don't know what those rangers are; are they tasty?"

Herman repressed a shiver.

"Levire, this joke's went WAY too far. Maybe it was funny at first, but now, stop, please. There's a storm coming, I'm tired and annoyed and I just want to go home."

"Yeah, that's what they all say..."

He let out a gasp. Alicia lunged at him, and catching the cellphone, hung up.

"Sorry, I never thought of that." he mumbled.

She shook her head, and then called again. But she forgot to turn the speaker off.

"Hey! Why'd you hang up on me? That's not nice!"

"Wha'...?" she mumbled, hanging up again. Then she called again.

"You're the mean lady from the beginning, aren't you..." the voice came on the phone again.

Taking a deep breath, Alicia shook her cellphone.

"Call a different number." Gabriel cut in.

"I KNOW!" she yelled. Then she dialed a different number.

"Hello, police?" she asked.

"The mean lady makes phone pranks too?" the voice said, in a reprehending tone this time.

She hung up again, taking slow breaths, and blinking.

"You can leave it to Herman, he's relentless..." Brenda mumbled.

"We're not talking to those twits." Alicia grunted. "We aren't going to talk to them. We are NOT."

"Just a little, maybe..."

"A little is too much! They're pests. I'm reporting this as soon as we get home..."

"If." Herman said. "Look, I'm a lawyer. Leave it to me."

"It's MY cellphone!"

"Use mine." Gabriel offered.

"No, don't!" Alicia yelled. "We're not going to..."

"They can't intercept everything." Herman said. "You distract them, I'll see if..."

"It doesn't work that way." Gabriel cut in.

"Isn't it that one device can only intercept one call at a time?"

"No. Where'd you get that idea?" Gabriel asked, checking his cellphone.

"Look, just stop calling for a moment. They'll tire of the joke at some point." Alicia pointed. "Then they'll leave us alone."

"How strange..." Gabriel sneered.

"Alicia, it'd be easier for me to simply smash your face right now. But I think I'll try to reason instead." Herman rolled his eyes. "This is only because you're a lady, though, so be glad I've got a double standard."

"What is it?" Brenda asked Gabriel, trying to stay away from the conversation.

"There's nothing to argue!"

"Look at this..."

"There ALWAYS is something to argue. For example, your working hypothesis is that those people will get bored eventually."

"There's nothing there."

"It's not a hypothesis, it's a FACT."

Herman closed his eyes for an instant.

"I know."

"However, my working hypothesis is that they're using a machine to intercept the call. I don't know if they'll remember to plug it off before going to sleep." he continued. "Unless they knew we'd get lost and call on our cellphone, then they had no reason to turn it on just because of us. So unless you can think of a logical reason why they'd turn it off after ruining our day, I'd say I can't think of a logical reason for them to turn it off at all."

"What's it supposed to be?" Brenda mumbled.

"Your point being?"

"But there are satellites all over the world..."

"My point is that we're at their mercy, we'll have to get past them. On the phone."

"And we're getting no signal."

"We are NOT doing that! We're not going to jump through hoops-"

"This is bad..."

"Not your call anymore, Alicia! Gabriel?"

"Guys, you might want to look at..."

"I said no! Gabriel, don't..."

"You two, stop arguing and look at this!" Brenda exploded.

"What is it?"

"The GPS in my cell is dead. No signal." Gabriel said. "No satellites."

"Are you joking? It must be just blocked."

"By someone outside of the army?"

"There's fat creeps who can fix up a computer in a cave with a box of scraps and hack the ARMY with them!" Alicia exploded.

"But they'd burn up in the sunlight!" Herman exclaimed. "And that didn't sound like a fat creep!"

"Maybe it was his girlfriend!"

"His girlfriend, listen to yourself, woman."

"His sister, his cousin, what do I care?"

"Maybe YOU don't care, but this is getting worse by the second! There's someone out there who doesn't like cellphones, and they don't want us to get help!" Herman said, suddenly out of character. Gabriel had never seen him so agitated. "I'm worried they might want to hurt us."

Herman? Worried? That was definitely proof they had just went down the rabbit hole...

"Meh! They'd get caught! They're not going to..."

"I'd still be maimed or something by then!" Herman growled. "We'd all be! All it takes is a nutcase for us not to return from here whole!"

"You worry too much." she spat. "Just shut up and be the airhead you always are."

"I don't, you goddamn moron!" Herman spat. "I worry EXACTLY what I have to worry! People get caught all the time, Alicia, and they rip people open all the time too! Want it to happen to you?"

"Nothing's going to happen to me."

"Feh! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. This is an horror movie. We'll now proceed to get picked off by some huge jerk with a cleaver. Or maybe we'll fall on traps one by one, until we meet the disfigured monster who set them up, and find out our companions are still alive, so that we can all get tortured and scream for Quasimodo! Wait, I've got a better idea. How about a monster truck? Yeah, we'll get run over in the open field. Worst part is, we'll never know who did it. No, no!" he snapped his fingers. "Forget monster truck, Let's go for just monsters. Some of those fairies would be nice!"


=====


Be careful what you wish for, they say, you might get it. This is a sovereignly stupid adage, however: people get what they get, wishing in itself doesn't have any consequences unless you do it when there's something else you should be doing. In Felarya, it's more of a matter of how loud you wish it; you can wish for whatever you want, the chances of getting it aren't influenced by whether you wish it or not. But it's better to wish in silence. Because if you wish loud enough, something's going to hear you. Unless by "it" you meant eaten, you probably aren't likely to get it.

In this case, for example, Herman didn't get what he wished for. But he still regretted wishing for it.

Because, first of all, Alicia slapped him on the face. He stood back, reeling, holding his cheek. Then he glared at her, his face transmuting into a mask of pure rage, his teeth bared, glaring at her angrily, his fists clenched at the sides of his body, shaking. Before him, Alicia seemed to be wondering if she'd done the right thing or not, probably about to commit herself to it being the right thing or die trying. There was a distant rumble of thunder. He stepped forward, with violence in his every feature, his heart and ears pounding with adrenaline.

"Herman, calm...!" Gabriel started.

"You BITCH!" Herman roared, thunder rolling around him...

...and behind him, the car empathically (emphatically?) exploded before everyone else's bewildered eyes.


Herman gasped as he hit the ground, his back burning. The shirt had taken the worst of the heat, but the blast had definitely left a mark. Behind him, a huge bird stood by the burning wreckage.

The thing was huge, over twenty feet tall, with glowing green eyes, red, spiky feathers, and a very long beak. In seeing it, Alicia felt horror, revulsion, surprise, bewilderment, wonder, sudden comprehension, ironic relief, and so many other things. None of them was compassion...

"What... is that?" Gabriel managed to say, feeling some of the same things. Brenda didn't speak a single word.

Herman looked at their faces, and then flipped around, landing on his seared back. Looking at the animal, he took a deep breath, and asked the obvious question.

"What... did that do to my car?"

"It exploded." Gabriel pointed. "The stormseeker?"

Herman sighed, and nodded.

"Help me..." he mumbled. "Please... help..."

"I think we should've paid attention to the sign..." Brenda said, looking behind herself. She stifled a gasp, realizing the bird had its eyes locked on her. "Oh, no. Don't tell me it's..."

The bird hopped towards her, and as she turned around, screaming, it caught her in its beak. Then it hoisted her up, and with a swift release, it started the slow process of swallowing her.

All in all, just like Herman wanted, maybe the sign should've read "Beware Parrot." instead.

Gabriel ran towards the bird, caught in the thrill of adrenaline. Obviously, he didn't have a plan... just enough guts to feed a pride of starving lions and still have enough left over to get an award for the organ donor of the year.

"Oh no you don't...!"

A single electric shock leapt from its plumage and threw him to the ground, as the bird kept trying to swallow the bony, tiny Brenda. It was an endless task, and to Alicia, endlessly fascinating. She knew most birds didn't chew... and that some things got swallowed whole, like worms... but it had never occurred to her that watching one could be so morbid an experience, so horrifying, so close. As its throat swelled out, as her feet seemed to drag closer and closer into its beak, Brenda seemed to be gone...

...then as suddenly as it happened, it stopped. The bird thrashed a little and spat Brenda out, bewildered, and shaking, into the ground. She was sobbing lightly, and holding her shoulders.

"I guess she was too big." Gabriel thought to himself. "For once."

Trembling, he went up to Brenda, and helped her get up. Shaking, she slowly got up, as the bird seemed to shrug and leave to seek a meal elsewhere. It'd thought for a moment about befriending the thing, it was too big to be food, but frankly, it was hungry.

"I'm sorry for what just happened." Gabriel said. "I'm sorry for you, but we really, really need to get Herman up... and start moving..."

"The sign..." Brenda said. "The sign, it..."

"We should've paid attention, yes. Thankfully, now we can."

"... it's gone..." she mumbled.

"Eh?" Gabriel mumbled, turning around. He suddenly realized most of the writing (most of the carved writing) was gone. All it read now was

-You're in Felarya-

Grimacing to himself, Gabriel realized that all this about giant centaurs, man-eating fairies, disappearing grafitti, exploding cars, phone pranks and beware parrot was a little more real than he'd been willing to believe at first.

Moving towards the stone, he ran his fingernails over the stone, wondering what the fuck had just happened. As he did, he shook in pain for an instant, his charge grounding. A crawling sensation crept over his numb fingers, but he was sure that the stone letters hadn't merely receeded into the stone. It was smooth. Maybe it was a screen... but no, he'd seen it was carved... some jerk had made a sign that disappeared after read. For what reason, he didn't know.

Well, at least, someone had given him a heads-up. Without that sign, all of this would've been impossible to make sense of. And now that he'd seen the letters disappear, he knew he was out of his depth... though, frankly, the bird alone would've been enough. Now he knew exactly what has happening, though the specifics still eluded him. And it was all thanks to the sign.

To himself, he hoped the person responsible for it died a slow, agonizing, humiliating death.

======

An hour later, the clouds had already covered the sky, and it had started raining. At first, only Brenda had been wet, from the bird, but now everyone was wet. Gabriel and Brenda were holding Herman up, and Alicia, despite being the only one unharmed, seemed to have been the most fazed of the bunch. Probably, because unlike the others, she had barely tasted adrenaline.

It goes without saying that they decided to go north, where the sign had promised a safe spot. Bufetting winds and pouring rain, however, were a more immediate concern. Wherever this Felarya was, nature sure loved to show off. Their own voices were drowned by the nearly opaque downpour, compounded with a wind so chilling that they could swear they'd already died.

But in the end, the storm died down, though the clouds remained in the sky, crackling, promising their public an encore. However, they had to make something of this pause...

"We... won't make it..." Gabriel mumbled.

"Yes, we... make it..." Herman mumbled.

"No..." Gabriel sighed. "It's not going to work... we won't last an hour at this rate..."

"We HAVE to make it. It doesn't matter anymore if we can or can't."

"No, we don't, that's what I'm trying to say! We need shelter, we need it now. It's the rule of threes... lack of food will kill you in three weeks, lack of water in three days, but no shelter..."

"The stormseeker just tried to eat us, and you think that applies?"

"What do you mean?"

"For all we know, that's not valid here. For all we know we just developed superpowers..."

"I don't feel any different." Gabriel stopped him. "Whatever this is, I'm sure I'm the same person."

"That still isn't a good idea. There's a safe place we know of..."

"Are we even SURE it's there?"

"If we wander around we'll get lost!"

"No, Herman, Gabriel's right... I don't think I'll get too far either..." Alicia sighed after a moment.

Brenda motioned towards a tree. It was looming just over the horizon.

"That's the closest we've got..."

"We'd go off course. If we never..." Herman protested.

"We'll never if we die!" Alicia protested. "We're not going to make it like this!"

Herman shrugged.

"I'm just following..." he laughed.

"If only we had your car right now." Gabriel mumbled. The group turned direction, and proceeded towards the only tree in sight, to their right, just over the horizon.

"Well, now this'll be a trip to remember..." Herman chuckled.

"Herman?"

"Mh?"

"Shut up."

======


Gabriel let out a gasp as he came closer to the tree, now halfway towards the horizon. As it turned out, that wasn't just a big tree, it was a VERY big tree. And there were several trees around it. All the better, shelter was even closer than they'd thought at first. But his perspective got even wider as he realized the angle at which he was looking at it.

According to his estimations, the largest of those trees was defying the laws of gravity several times over. He tried to look at his companions... Herman spoke up for the rest of the group.

"That... that's a prop, right?" The burns on his back seemed to have stopped bothering him.

"It'll do either way." Alicia answered.

"Doesn't it look... big enough to eat us?" Herman raised his eyebrows.

"Tch. Now you're just being ridiculous."

"Don't worry about that, the sign directed us to a tree... I guess the trees are safe." Brenda said, worried. "I can't imagine a centaur climbing a tree."

"I've got a hunch we'll be proven wrong soon. All of us." Gabriel sighed, smiling. "I hope I'm wrong, though."

"Can't trust the trees, what's the world coming to?" Herman chuckled. "We're done without shelter, right? Let's go there. And if we find fairies, we'll just say we don't believe in fairies until they die."

"Could we try the cellphone again...?" Brenda mumbled.

"We could, Brenda, but we shouldn't, I've got a bad feeling about it..." Herman smirked.

"Really?" Alicia chuckled.

"I think these girls really meant us harm, Alicia. They weren't your average phone pranksters... they were just... I can't put my finger on it, but they... they weren't like us. They were... my gut tells me they belonged somewhere with sleeping pills, padded walls... and straitjackets. Lots of straitjackets."

"Fair enough." Alicia laughed. "It's never led you astray, has it?"

"Jerk." he sighed. "You can let go of me, Brenda, Gabriel, I think I can manage now."

His two friends let go of his shoulders. He slumped a little, but managed to stay up, just a little hunched.

"I guess the rainwater helped with the burns..." he chuckled.

"Can't you stand up straight?" Alicia demanded.

As he stood up, his face flushed red, and he grimaced in pain.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll manage-" he said, in a thin voice. Then he moved forward, towards the colossal grove in the distance.

======

It was only twenty or so minutes later that the four of them reached their next obstacle. Or rather, Herman found it... the others found Herman had found it.

The ground before him, deceitfully covered with more of that otherworldly bluish grass, hid a mortal trench. He could see where it ended, but when he walked over to see how deep it was, he found out the hard way where it started. Maybe he'd have been more careful, but he'd smelled something distracting...

With a short scream, he managed to hang on to the edge, where a particularly thick set of crawling roots seemed to be glued to the ground. His hand clamped on the thing like he were a monkey, and soon enough he realized those roots weren't enough to support his weight. His other hand quickly caught more roots.

As his companions ran over to help him, the ground in which the roots were anchored started giving way in clumps.

"No! You'll fall too!" he managed to yell. "It's too unstable!"

His companions stopped. Gabriel took Brenda's hand.

"I'll go first, pull me up if you have to!" Gabriel barked. Then he moved on, until he was standing right next to where Herman was clinging on for his life. As if on cue, the ground gave way beneath him, in front of Herman... Gabriel, quickly enough, released Brenda, and got on the ground, trying to spread his weight as far from the edge as possible, grabbing Herman's hand.

"I've got you! Brenda, pull us up!" Gabriel exclaimed. Brenda hesitated for just an instant, before grabbing his foot and pulling him back. Alicia quickly came over, and started pulling too. The ground was unstable, everyone was weak from an hour of powerful storm. But as adrenaline and purpose took over, their strength returned in full force.

That is, until Alicia looked over the trench by accident. She stifled a gasp. Brenda saw her, and then looked forward. Gabriel realized something was wrong, and looked forward. The only one left was Herman... who neither could nor wanted to look.

"Don't... let go of me..." he gasped. "Please, don't let go..."

"I've got you... pull us up, FAST!" Gabriel barked.

Alicia and Brenda quickly pulled him back, trying to beat the creature that returned their gaze from over the trench.

This was a colossal bird, maybe bigger than the other one. It looked like a massive, dull brown pheasant, over twenty feet tall. And it had them in its gaze. It was maybe a hundred feet behind the trees, but when it stopped, it turned to face them, and started running towards them, its beak open.

"What's that thing?" Brenda spat, pulling Gabriel's foot as hard as she could.

"I don't care, pull! We've gotta get outta here as soon as we can!"

The two of them pulled, but they were too slow. That thing was too fast, and it was already over the edge of the trench. It took a large leap...

...and fell inside the trench, to everyone's relief.

"What are you waiting for? Pull us up, before that thing gets to us!" Gabriel chuckled, looking down. The thing was now in the bottom of the chasm, up to its talons in murky water.

"Oh, sure..." Brenda laughed, ecstatic in relief. "For a moment, I thought we were screwed..."

The two of them finally managed to get the whole group over. Standing in a round, Herman was the first to speak.

"Don't bother peeking over... I almost got myself killed that way." he mumbled.

"How deep is it?" Brenda asked.

"It's... around fifteen metres deep, if you ask me." Gabriel commented. "And around thirty wide."

"That's a hell of a trench." Alicia commented. "Who dug this?"

"Well, it's probably to keep the centaurs out." Herman mumbled. "Whoever's in there must be friendly."

"But how'd they dig this?"

"With machines, with explosives, I don't care..."

"Wait." Gabriel said, looking again over the trench. Once more, across the trench, a pair of eyes belonging to a dull brown giant pheasant locked on them. And then it started running towards them, its beak wide open...

"Run!" Herman exclaimed. But no sooner they'd stood up, the pheasant had already jumped over the trench, taking a leap of faith...

...and once more, it fell inside the trench. There was a strange sound, like violent fluttering, as it fell on top of the other animal.

"Caw?" a sound came from below.

"What was that...?" Alicia grimaced. "I'd never seen anything like that..."

"It's a very big bird." Herman shrugged.

"I mean... it failed to calculate the distance. And so did the other one." Alicia pointed. "You don't think..."

As she said this, her attention returned to the other side of the trench. Where a third pair of eyes had locked on the group of four. They also belonged to another of the same species, and it did the same things as the others. That's when they... did nothing, because just like the others, it fell inside the trench. There were three sets of violent flutters, followed by some cawing.

"Hehe." Herman giggled. "That thing wouldn't last a second in the wild."

The four of them made the same realization simultaneously.

"You don't think..." Brenda gasped.

"It's not to keep anything out..." Alicia exclaimed.

"It's to keep those birds in!"

"What? Why'd you say that?"

The three of them stared blankly at Herman. As they did, behind him, another bird fell into the trench.

"No, really, I don't get it."

They shrugged.

"And what's this smell?" Herman asked.

"Smell? Oh, I just noticed..." Brenda grimaced, realizing the scent. It was pungent, rotten, at the same time mild... "What's this smell...?"

"Wait. I know this smell..." Alicia rolled her eyes. "Chickens."

Gabriel grimaced.

"Them... so we're in a farm..."

"There must be some way to get across."

"Get across? You do realize we're chicken magnets, right?" Herman growled.

"It's a little too late to turn back now. If the storm hits us again, that's it." Gabriel said. "Like it or not, we'll have to be brave from now on if we want to survive."

Herman let out a rictus.

"I was kinda hoping no one'd say that."

"There's no denying it." Gabriel continued. "We're not where we used to be. The sooner we accept it, the better. We'll need the best of luck in this brave new world, and that means we'll have to make our own luck." he finished. "Like it or not, it's up to us now."

Herman seemed like he was about to say something, but then he decided to just nod. Brenda and Alicia nodded, too. Gabriel smiled.

Another bird fell into the trench.

"Are those things ever going to stop?" Brenda asked. "They're like lemmings..."

"Really? Let's hurry before they build a ladder, then."

"We'll go around the trench, then." Gabriel said, taking off his coat. "I'll leave this here, that way we'll know if we go full-circle around it without finding a way."

"And if there's no way?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"No, I asked what if there was no bridge to- oh, what the hell." Herman sighed.

Part 1- First impressions

======

Herman sneered as he saw the root. His luck hadn't changed, obviously... there always was a way, no matter how ridiculous this was. In this case, for some reason, whoever had dug this gigantic trench had seen fit to leave a root over it, like it were a bridge. That root was too narrow for those giant birds, now disoriented in the trench, to cross. But him, and his companions, would probably make it across with just a little care.

Turning around, he looked at Gabriel.

"Are we crossing that bridge?"

"Of course we are."

"What about the birds?"

Pursing her lips, Alicia cleared her throat.

"I... think that one a few minutes ago was the last of them... I'm not sure, but there must be a limit to how many birds that size can you cram in any given space. After all, they'd run out of food, eventually..."

"But if they were just spending the night here, we're screwed, right?" Herman asked.

"I don't think those are migratory birds."

"On the contrary, I think they are. With a landworm tied over their eyes, at least."

Brenda shrugged.

"How do things like those stay alive, anyway? It's a farm, I'm sure... someone must have been feeding them."

"Feeding them hormones and toxic waste." Herman remarked. "I think I saw one of them that was thirty feet tall and plenty fat to boot..."

"Well, they're obviously carnivores." Alicia shrugged. "There's no way something that dumb could hunt for itself, and in those numbers... I wonder where'd anyone find enough meat to feed them, though. It makes no sense to feed them humans, or to be carnivores, there's a reason why no one keeps carnivorous cattle... they must be omnivores... unless..." she grimaced. "Maybe they're not cattle, they're watchdogs?"

"I don't think so." Herman shook his head. "Unless they're supposed to watch TV, that is."

"Let's find out." Gabriel said, walking over the roots. His other three companions quickly followed him.

======

Just like Alicia had pictured, that had been the last bird in the grove that the trench protected. Once inside, nothing seemed to bother them.

The same as outside the trench, the grass was a strange hue of blue-green, only inside, the trees were far more densely packed. Rather than being able to spy one over the horizon, this place was almost a forest. All they could see from over the raised root was a small, sparse grove around them, or a trench separating them from the rest of the world.

"It should be a pushover here to find shelter." Alicia said. "And if there's food for them..."

"You got a gun to hunt with?" Brenda pointed.

"We've got brains, which those birds obviously didn't have."

"Can you kill things with your brain?" Herman asked, blankly.

"Considering the alternative's that we're going to starve or freeze to death, I'd say there's nothing wrong with thinking positive this time."

Herman let out a chuckle.

"You're starting to sound like me..." he grinned. "So, what do we do now?"

"We find shelter, obviously." Alicia replied.

"Wait, we can't pretend whatever rounded up those birds just isn't there!" Brenda complained.

"Actually..." Gabriel shrugged. "You're right. So... we'll be looking out?"

"Can't think of anything to add." Herman shrugged, smiling. "Let's go... be careful, everyone. Oh, and one more thing..."

"Yes?" Alicia asked.

"Dunno you, but I'm not a kabuki stagehand... just wanted to be clear on that account." Herman sighed. "So, in case of critical stealth failure, no hard feelings, please?"

"Of course. We won't hold it against you."

Herman smiled a last time.

"That's good to hear..."

"Still, we can probably make it to the safe spot without food. Just saying, if the sky clears, we make a run for it, okay?" Gabriel pointed.

"Assuming we haven't caught a flu or anything of the sort by that time, that is..." Herman pointed. "I'm all for it."

Gabriel sighed.

"Try not to make noise."

After going a little into the grove, Gabriel heard something. A strange, sharp humming. Had he known better, he'd have hid. But he didn't.

"Hear that...?" he whispered.

Brenda stopped.

"Yes..."

Something was humming, and then it was mumbling instead.

"Someone's here..." Alicia said, looking around. "It's a woman."

Herman blinked.

"And she's pretty old-fashioned."

"What do you mean?"

"That tune she's mumbling... I know it."

Brenda frowned.

"It DOES kind of sound familiar, come to think of it..."

"...arararaa, rarararaara... ra-ra-ra, ra-ra-raa..." the voice sounded.

"She's an awful singer by the way."

He got a very strange look from everyone.

"Tonight, I'm gonna have myself, for a good time... I feel light, -ight -ight -ight... and the world... turning inside out, yeah, floating around, in ecstasy... so... don't stop me now, don't stop me now 'cos I'm- Having a good time, HAVING A GOOD..." Herman stopped himself in time, before their irritated eyes.

"Don't do that again. Ever." Alicia said, baring her teeth.

"Okay, but I think we could trust her. I mean, I think she's..."

"What?"

"Well, how bad could it be? She likes rock, after all."

"She could be as deranged as the girls in the cellphone, for all we know." Gabriel said.

"Oh, come on, it's just a woman. We're four, I'd say we check if she has a gun, that's all there's to it."

"If she's not worried about these birds, I'm worried about her." Alicia pointed. "Look, let's just hide somewhere and be done with it."

"Without saying hi?"

"She doesn't need to know we're here."

"She might be friendly, and frankly, scared as I may be, I'm not going to give up on this one courtesy. We should at least introduce ourselves."

"And if she's dangerous? If this were a safe spot, why's the sign not mentioning it?"

"Why did we believe the sign, anyway?" Herman grimaced.

"Because it was right."

"Look, I get it. I'm a man too, and she sounds nice, but really, we should NOT, we haven't even seen her, she might be one of those centaurs. If she finds us, we'll just say we're sorry, then we'll introduce ourselves, stay for a chat. She'll get it." Gabriel tried to reassure him.

"But... what if she doesn't?" Herman asked, sounding sad.

"Then she's not really friendly." Brenda cut in.

As much as Herman disliked this pragmatic logic, he kept most of his discomfort to himself. He wanted to believe he could trust whoever he could find, but he had to admit that there was more at stake than his comfort.

"raaag araddra bahr, aboot thow, who-who-whow-whow-s'plop...!"

He also wanted to believe that wasn't the best she could do with the song. If songs were windows to the soul, screw shelter, the first order of business was to get the hell away from there as soon as possible, and never look back.

Brenda found something.

"Hey, look." From above another, tall root, she pointed. Her companions joined her quickly...

The first important feature they'd seen in a long time turned out to be a majestic, enormous lake; it was easily 500 feet across, more than twice as wide, and looked like it was fairly deep, too. Wide swaths of green vegetation covered its margins, growing out of the mud, to about ten feet high. Its waters, albeit a little murky in places, looked extremely healthy, full of minerals and wonderful nutrients.

At least, judging from the size of the crocodiles...

"Let's avoid that lake." Gabriel suggested.

"Seconded. There should be something we can use as shelter, a raised root, or something..." Alicia nodded. "I'd never seen trees this size..."

The group moved away from the lake, treading in the thin, hard mud, looking for a raised root. Brenda broke the monotony of the search with another lateral find.

"What's... that?"

She pointed somewhere high on a tree. As everyone looked at it, they grimaced. One of the trees had horizontal markings on its trunk, parallel to each other, very narrowly spaced, starting at fifty feet tall, and continuing all the way to... more than double that.

"Wow." Alicia said.

Herman, for once in his life, kept quiet.

"What do you think that is?"

"Probably some sort of musical instrument...?"

"They kinda look like someone marked their own growth..." Gabriel shook his head. "Either that woman's taller than we thought, or..."

He didn't complete that sentence, for a thrumming sound started rolling into the air. He quickly turned around, seeing a shiny silhouette flying towards him on a ramming course. He barely managed to duck away from it...

As it stopped in midair, forty or so feet in front of him, it turned around slowly, while rising. The four of them backed away a little, watching the insect position itself, the diffuse light reflecting on its golden carapace, its two huge, blue compound eyes blank as any eye could be, taking in the entirety of its surroundings, its wings thrumming menacingly in the air, before the four cringing stragglers.

The four of them ran off, behind a tree, watching the dragonfly zoom too close for comfort. At that point they realized there were several of them...

"In there!" Brenda squeaked, pointing at a root, raised very high, arching over another root. That created an acceptable, dry cave.

They didn't have the time to think about it twice.

======

Meanwhile, the lone occupant of the grove hadn't learned of their existence yet. She was merrily plucking fruits from the trees around herself, trees she'd planted herself in this cyclopean grove. She'd had a little help, of course. Well, a lot of help. But it was okay.

Even for Felarya, Elsie wasn't just big. She was humongous. As she plucked more and more of the fruit, whose taste she'd long since grown sick to death of, placing it inside a barrel, she wondered if anything'd break the monotony today or if she'd have to do it herself.

Boredom was one of the main challenges of living alone, which was in itself one of the changes her life had went through recently. Some company would be nice, but, as she quickly reminded herself, it'd be some more time before she settled for living with something she could eat instead. No... frankly, a little flavor would be even nicer.

Her song concealed (revealed?) some impatience, as she realized something was amiss.

Around her, she couldn't hear a single glouteaux. Not even a single one. Those annoying things... had all grown quiet long before naptime. Maybe they'd all gotten themselves into the trench again?

Sighing to herself, she pictured the lengthy process of getting all that live meat back up to level. She'd probably have to add a barricade to go with the trench anytime now. Those things... how'd they survive in the wild?

Leaving her task half-complete, she went towards the trench with slow, nice steps. The ground trembled a little beneath her feet... that was quite satisfying to hear. Just knowing she was huge and strong made for a nice mood, most of the time. These stupid birds were a nuisance, but they were necessary...

Looking down at herself to confirm once more that she was the beauty she saw in the water every time she looked, she ran one hand over her side. Then she realized what she was doing.

"Gee. I need to get laid." she mumbled to herself. Then she shrugged, and walked towards the edge of the grove.

Sure enough, the simplest answer was often right. And annoying. Down inside the trench, waddling in the shallow mud, there were a few dozen fowl that she would now spend a long time pulling back up. They were also covered in wet mud, too, so they had this smell she'd had to get used to...

Well, everything had a price.

Slowly putting one leg, which was itself longer than the depth of the trench, down into the bottom, she heard the mud splash up. Then she carefully placed her other leg, trying not to lose balance in the mud. With a rack like hers, that could hurt.

Yeah, a mixed blessing. Of course, she'd seen others the same size or a little bigger (maybe not anymore, it'd been some time ago), but maybe, just maybe, they hadn't been designed for anyone with two shapely legs and a nice bottom like hers. Maybe you needed from four to eight legs to have a breast that size and get away with it. But it was okay, she loved her breasts anyway. No matter how annoying they got sometimes. Not like she had much choice... or did she?

Crouching, she got on all fours, and started going around the trench, picking up the damn birds and getting them up. Someday, she'd have to find a way to keep them from falling in, at the same time she kept them from wandering off.

It wasn't long until she was done. Getting up, and brushing her hand on her hair, she suddenly felt all sticky. Looking down, she realized she'd covered herself in mud, mud where the glouteaux had been. Her entire front was all covered in it. Its penetrating scent made her grimace... just the way she liked it.

It gave her an excuse to wash it off, after all.

Going over her trench, she went towards the lake. At her size, it took her a couple minutes to get there. When she got there, it was more like a pond than anything else. Digging in a broken, hollow stump, she found a large pavilion cloth. Trying to take a bath at this point would've left the water all swampy. So she just soaked the cloth, rubbing off all of the dirt from her body, following her own curves a little slower than she should.

For a moment she wondered just how long had she spent feeling herself up and how much had she been really washing herself off. Then she shrugged, thinking it probably didn't make a difference. No one was watching, not that she didn't like it. Maybe if someone had been watching...

======

Herman, back under the root, and definitely nowhere to watch, shivered.

"Don't you ever have that nagging feeling you've just missed a unique, though shallow and not life-changing, yet pleasurable experience?"

"What, you had a snuggle waiting for you at home?"

======

Back to Elsie, after getting the dirt off her body, she hoped it'd rain soon. And finally, she realized, all of a sudden, she was in the mood for meat. So, raising her gaze, she walked up to a tree, and pulled something down. A large, white-gray cloth... which as she unfolded, she realized it'd gotten pretty battered. It was rough, and the embroidery was all uneven. She'd have to ask Thory to fix it later. For a moment, she licked her lips, realizing that it'd gotten this roughed up because it'd been on her. The thought was oddly exciting, to think that thing couldn't cover her body impunely. Then again, so was everything lately.

Looking up, feeling the warmth in her own cheeks, she wondered if next time it rained, she'd stand out in the open and take a cold shower. It didn't seem like a bad idea, and frankly, she needed one. Well! Whatever. She sure lost a lot of time thinking. Putting her arms in a couple uneven rings on top of the cloth, she pulled it down to her knees, and tied a couple straps to her waist. Then she wiggled her fingers... looking beside herself. One of those birds had wandered near her.

She had to hand it to them, they were wonderful that way.

Reaching down towards the bird, she hoisted it up by its neck. It protested a little... she went back towards the hollow and pulled out a last object.

Its wooden handle felt kind of thin, frail in her hand, and a little short... it took some willpower not to snap the wood in her hand, just to hear it snap... she was careful not to press her thumb against the edge, too. Then she pulled it out completely, taking the (relatively) small hatchet in her hand. Pacing calmly towards the stone somewhere in her domain, near where she grew her melons, she wondered for a moment if she'd caught a whiff of...

"Is it me, or something smells British here?" she whispered to herself. No answer. "Is anyone here? You better come out where I can see you."

Looking around, she grinned to herself. There was nowhere to hide in her domain... if anyone had gotten there, she'd find them out sooner or later, and make them know just where had they set foot. But at the time, she had other things in her hands, literally. And they were starting to demand attention.

"I guess not." she shrugged. Well, that could happen.

Pacing once more towards her destination, the scent she'd caught seemed to nag at her. Well, it wouldn't be the first of false alarms.

======

Herman looked down, blushing furiously. Everyone else was fanning themselves with their hands. As they heard her steps leaving, Alicia broke the silence.

"What'd you eat?" Alicia gagged.

"I swear, it was just fish and chips!" Herman mumbled.

"Just fish and chips?"

"Okay, I had some tea with it. It's not that bad, anyway!"

"She almost found us." Brenda said, putting a hand to her chest.

"All I saw was a foot." Gabriel said, looking out of their hiding spot. "I guess... she's just big."

"Did she look big enough to swallow us?"

"Yes, but she looked human, too. All the way up."

"Did you see all the way up?"

"Well... no, but..." Gabriel mumbled.

"So for all you know she could have a horse's head coming out of her waist." Alicia pointed.

"Oh, a reverse cent... don't be ridiculous, how would she talk?" Herman exclaimed.

"Well, it'd be good news if she were a reverse centaur. If she looks like a person from the waist up..." Brenda pointed.

"And if she looks like a person from the waist down too?"

"Now you made me wonder..." Gabriel said. "But it's still better to stay here, let's not take any chances, okay?"

"Okay." Herman replied. It was at that point that he heard a rattling sound.



He hadn't just bothered the people with him. The original inhabitant of this burrow also was really angry, and it looked like it wanted to ask him what had he eaten, but since it couldn't, it'd settle for eating him. If anyone was going to stink up the burrow, it was it.



A hiss made him turn to his side, where the rattling sound came from. From the sparse light filtering through the roots, he could see... red, black, beige... no, pink, slightly yellow, though...

"What colour had to go between black and red for it to be poisonous?" he asked, pointing at the viper.

His other three companions, drawn to notice the snake, let out a short wail, and quickly scrambled out of the burrow, followed finally by the Amazing Common Sense-less Man. A few caws outside told them these pheasants had come back in full force; looking out, several of those birds were chasing dragonflies.

The others quickly zoned in target, and then cawed as they moved in to eat. Letting out another scream, the group ran like they were being chased by... giant turkeys. For a moment, something interesting happened... as they turned around a tree, the chickens lost track of them, and kept running forward.

"Those aren't very intelligent, are they?" Alicia asked. "They can't be nat-"

She was interrupted by a very sudden THUMP. It was followed by a CRACK. And then a SQUISH. Afterwards, RIP. Another THUMP. Several more cracks. Crack, thump, squish, rip... then sigh. Followed by another squish.

Herman immediately turned towards the source of the noise. It was a hell of a sight...

From where he was looking, she was humongous. He didn't have to crane his head too much, but that was just the distance. A distance he didn't dare measure. And if he got over her size, he'd see that she was a thick-bodied, pale woman. She was a little fat... specially around the bottom, where she was really round. He could only guess as to what she looked from the front, but he could see that she had broad shoulders from this angle, and if he was seeing right, she had... a breast that was impossibly... gifted.

Then upon second sight, he realized she was slightly disproportionate. Taking every thing by itself, they were nice, but all put together, compared to each other, she was a little less like a woman, a little more like a grotesque doll, working on something that cracked, squished, thumped, ripped, hummed... she raised a hand towards her long, long hair. It'd go at least to the middle of her back. He thought he saw blood covering her hand, and then he was sure... a lock of hair was now drenched in it, leaning against her back, away from her face, leaving a hair-thin red imprint on her back...

He moved towards her, guided more by morbid fascination than visceral, primal attraction. She was like a car accident... it was impossible to look away, it was impossible to stop staring. Even at this point he realized she probably wasn't his type, but he still wanted to know more... to understand how was this even possible...

He looked behind himself, at his companions. They were all amazed, too, everyone was out of their depth here. He had no doubt that talking to her was a huge step. It'd mean they couldn't find a place to hide anymore. Yet they needed help with these birds... they couldn't just avoid them until they found another hiding spot, they were just too many, too big, they were too tired...

He'd heard her singing. He'd heard her speaking. She said she knew they were here. He also knew she... probably ate those birds and was probably right now... Herman wasn't one to make decisions for everyone when he knew it wasn't his call, but no one seemed to have a better idea. Everyone thought he was a lucky idiot, no one ever agreed with what he did. He pretended to turn towards her. Then he turned back. Everyone was looking at him.

He sighed, with a grimace.

-Okay, I'm the LUCKY idiot here.- he thought to himself, turning back towards...

...halfway while moving his head, he caught sight of another one of those birds. Stupid as they were, they were RELENTLESS. Half a mile away from him, maybe less, its head turned to face him, it started running... at this point, Herman didn't think it was funny. It had stopped being funny long ago. Now it was dreadful. Those things would follow him to the gates of hell, to the end of the world... he'd see those eyes in his dreams forevermore... those empty eyes, devoid of intellect and yet not needing it!

-Well, are you feeling lucky, punk?- he thought to himself. -ARE YOU!?-

He sighed, and moved forward, until from his point of view, the bird disappeared behind a tree. Advancing towards her, wondering at which angle would she listen to him better, how loud would he have to yell... how rude would that be, and how would she take it. Would she be angry...?

-Anything's better than getting gobbled up.- he thought to himself. -She can't be worse than a giant turkey.-

Taking one final look back, he realized his companions had just faded from sight. They were no longer peeking over the tree. They hadn't given him any signal. Were they... leaving it to him?

Looking around a last time, realizing he was truly alone now, he saw a bird. A grimace widened in his face. He couldn't avoid them forever, this one was close. He looked up at her, she'd stopped doing whatever she was doing, her hands were resting idle, her arms somewhere aroud chest high. There was some kind of intensity radiating from her.

"Miss?" he mumbled. "Erm, missy?" That didn't work. "Excuse me, beautiful..." he spoke up. No reaction either. It didn't work. Maybe he was too small. "HELLO!?" he tried. Then he gasped a little, as he saw her hands once more turn down towards...

"ERM, CAN YOU HEAR ME?" he tried, again. No use. She turned again towards what she was doing, softly... maybe she meant to stop... he ran behind a tree, hiding from another bird, only able to see part of her ear from an awkward angle, his heart pounding in his chest. He hadn't been able to get to her... of all the important things that he'd had to do in his life, this was the only one he had to do now. She didn't answer.

"PLEASE, LISTEN TO ME!" he tried, again. She seemed to peek over her shoulder for a moment, he caught a glimpse of her face. All he could know now was that it was round, but a little shiver ran down his spine and up from somewhere, the adrenaline betraying him. To his sedentary life, danger, actual danger was such an alien feeling, the closest he could think was lust at the moment. All he could do was want he wasn't anywhere near this place, wish the vision he was having right now belonged somewhere else, somewhere it was okay not to feel threatened... somewhere all he needed to know was whether he'd hit that or not...

He once more looked up at her. She seemed to be considering something, she had a hand bent over her mouth. Maybe she had heard him? This was no moment to relinquish hope.

"HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" he tried, again. She turned back to whatever she was doing, her face turned a little away from him. He came closer, he still couldn't see anything. He took a deep breath, letting the adrenaline take over. It had an idea, he didn't.

"DON'T IGNO-"

======

That's when she violently turned to him, and he finally got a good look at her. A gasp stifled what he was about to say, blood thumping in his throat, abandoning his arms, face, and interestingly enough, crotch. Only his knees had anything left in them, the rest of his body was numb and shivering, from his guts to his fingertips. His eyes were under a different spell, however; she was still so different, so monstrous, so terrifying, he just couldn't look away.

Casting her shadow over him, she let out a "Tch", licking her lips. He barely even registered it. Her eyes were wide, glancing over him, he barely caught their color. All he noticed was that they were squinting, she had a smile of sorts- he thought it couldn't be good- and yes, indeed, she had large breasts that he didn't have time to think about. She was wearing only an apron, white, with frills, which at this size and unevenness, looked more grotesque than cute. If it wasn't the bloodstains that made it look that way, the gigantic cleaver on her side might be behind it. It was drenched in blood -and some other things-, soaking and rolling down her massive thigh.

She took a deep breath, seemingly swelling out a little more than she already was. Then she breathed out.

"You the mailman?" she asked, sounding oddly hollow.

"What?" he replied. It didn't matter now what he said- as long as he talked, he was probably fine.

"I asked if you were the mailman." she said. "That should be an easy one. Are you the mailman?"

"Nn... no, I'm a l..."

"Then are you the milkman?" she continued in the same tone as before. He sucked in air through his nose.

"I'm not the mailman, and I'm not the milkman." he continued, wondering what the hell was that about. "I'm... I'm just... listen, please, me and some friends..."

"Here, let me get a good look at you." she ran her free hand on her apron, leaving a red handprint... he stood forward, and stood straight... when suddenly she swung a massive hand at him, catching him. Her fingers busted the air out of him as they clenched around him, and then he found himself hoisted up. There, she held him in a hand, and he tried very hard not to look down, which was tough. She was holding him level to her forehead, not to her eyes, and a bit too far for his liking.

"You wanted to say anything?" she asked, raising her eyebrows a little. Not enough to wrinkle herself, just enough to- he stopped himself from completing that thought: for some reason, he felt she wasn't being sincere. Maybe it was her face, that seemed to take priority over just how exactly was she raising her eyebrows. He shivered, looking down at her eyes, her smile in his visual field, he couldn't help but look down, towards her small smile, in turn it drew his eyes towards her cleava... her nipples were peeking over the apron, he tried not to...

Too late. He looked, in a very unfortunate angle that also showed him the ground. Needless to say, that made it even more difficult to talk. He closed his eyes, feeling the vertigo settle in, as he crumpled himself in her hand.

"What's the matter?" she grinned, bringing him closer to her mouth. "Is anything wrong?"

-Please, Herman, this is for everyone!- he thought to himself. He stretched out his neck, and forced himself to look into her eyes. Now that he looked- they were an unnatural shade of purple.

"Err..." he began. "Well, you see..."

"No, I do NOT see. Don't talk like that, it's annoying." she boomed. Well, she wouldn't have boomed if he weren't so close. "What is it? Out with it. Now!"

Herman shrugged.

"Sorry..."

"Don't say sorry, you're not! Tell me what..."

His answer was more heaved than anything else, the adrenaline wrecking through his manners. She didn't have any either.

"Well, I got lost, dammit!"

"So you crossed the first trench you found?" Such a quick reply, she wasn't nervous...

"I thought I'd find civilization there." he tried, his clenched throat threatening to drown out his voice. He was too nervous.

"Really? You thought? And what did you find?" To think all this sounded like a game to her already. No, he was jumping to conclussions... she had to be a nice person, he had to believe she was good, she'd have only the best in mind for them... or else they were all going to die.

He sighed. Time to change conversation.

"This is all a little overwhelming, could we talk on the ground?" he tried.

She tilted her head, putting a hand to her chin. For some reason, she seemed so vacant...

"First, what you found. Then maybe I'll put you down."

Was it him, or was she actually trying to make it frustrating... nonetheless, he needed to do it before she decided to raise the bar.

"Trees. Birds. Roots. Snake. Cave. Lake. You." he mouthed out. "Will that do?"

She stopped for a moment again. Then she smiled.

"Yes. Ground. Talk. Okay." she chuckled, sitting down, crosslegged. It was then that he realized his pants had been painted with leftover blood from her hand. He blinked a few times, as she put him down.

"You were shivering quite hard in there."

"Eh..."

"I like it when they shiver." she grinned. He looked at his own thigh, now stained red. "So, you're just lost?"

"Yes, me and some f. Friends..."

"So it's not just you..." she cooed. Herman frankly found that sound completely out of place. This wasn't a bar on Saturday night. This was the middle of nowhere, somewhere before a few dozen carnivore humongous and relentless birds, off the road, after a giant pyrokinetic (electrokinetic?) parrot had set his car on fire. "Who'd have thought?"

"Yes, we're four."

"Mmm..."

-That better be just she's happy to have company, because the hairs on the back of my neck just up and left.- he thought.

"What is it?"

"Nothing... I guess... oh, right. We found a sign... it read something about us being in Felarya now... you know what that is?"

"Never heard of it." she grinned.

Transparent bluff, obvious lie, even for him. However, he had problems finding the right words. He couldn't think of how to call her on it, he didn't even know why had she lied... he didn't want to upset her, not like this... not here of all places, not at this moment, not when she had a cleaver bigger than him at hand. Maybe he'd ask later.

"So, erm, about those birds... is the. There anywhere sa. Safe from them here!?"

"I guess... hm... no!" she laughed.

Herman pursed his lips. Her laughter was just laughter to him. Maybe at some other time, he'd have thought it was beautiful, but at the moment, she was completely out of line. And covered in blood.

"What's so funny?" he grunted. "They'll eat me!"

"And you don't think that's funny?" she asked, shamelessly.

"No, dammit, I don't think that's funny... what's your name?"

"Call me Elsie. And you?"

"I'm Herman." he replied, his eyes locked on hers. "Are you sure there's nowhere safe?"

"You'd know better than me." Elsie chirped. "I've never had any problem with my birds."

"Oh, they're yours?"

"Yes. They're my... what's the word...?"

"Guardians? Cattle?"

"Cattle, that's the one."

That was all probably interesting, and before he knew it, Herman was trapped between the temptation of letting his guard down, and the justified need to stay tense... there was already one of those birds... going after him. Why was she acting like nothing was wrong? Because nothing was wrong and it was right to relax? He still didn't know if she was friendly... he'd have wanted to believe she was a nice person, but she was acting like a callous psychopath. What was so funny about being gobbled up? He started feeling faint. Too much emotion.

"You might want to keep running." she replied, with a smile. "Just a heads up. Why don't you see if you can find somewhere to hide?"

Herman looked at her. She looked large enough to hide behind, but how do you ask?

"How about there?" he asked, pointing at her apron's pocket. Incidentally, it was right over her -anything large enough to swallow you WILL do so- and he realized he'd just made a booboo.

"If you insist..." she grinned. He took a faint step away, but she caught him, and hoisted him up to her mouth. He kept his eyes locked in hers, her mouth was still closed. Then she flipped him over, keeping him between two fingers...

"I meant your belly pocket!" he cried, twisting backwards, looking at her upside down.

"Is that some euphemism for stomach?"

"I don't want to be swallowed!"

"I wasn't going to. Though it sounds kind of tempting, now..."

"Look... don't tease me. Not here, not now. I'm... I'm tired, I'm scared, I'm... totally... just... nothing. Clueless. Can you please just let me hide in your pocket?"

"Right over my tummy?"

"If you have any other pockets..."

"Why not between my breasts?"

Herman had to stop talking. That comment was completely inappropriate. No, he couldn't think of an appropriate reply in time. All he managed to say was...

"I don't know..."

"Is anything wrong with them?" she pouted. Now she was insecure? Another change of direction, so sudden, so dizzying... he didn't want to think about it anymore... he couldn't keep up...

"I don't think it'd be appropriate." he managed.

"Why, are you married?"

"Haven't you been listening? Not right now, please!" he barked.

"If you say so." Elsie shrugged. Then she stood up, sighing a little annoyance. "Just so that you know, being a little less 'appropriate' would've been really nice of you. So, we should look for your friends now..."

"Yes please." Herman sighed.

She dropped her cleaver on the rock. Now that he was high enough, he could finally see what she'd been doing. Exactly what he suspected. The top of the rock was flat, somehow... serving as a cutting board. She'd butchered one of those birds, ripped its innards off, broke open its chest, beheaded it, torn its skin free... the bloody mess ran down the rock, like a sacrificial altar. He tried not to think of how much meat was there...

"Where do you think they are?"

"I don't know... I went towards you, and then they disappeared behind me..."

"And why'd you go towards me, Herman?"

-Why'd I go towards her?- he asked himself. -Ah, right... because I'm an idiot.-

"I... thought... since this was your home, we should introduce ourselves..."

"And here I thought it was my good looks." she sighed, biting down on her lower lip. Still no reaction from him.

"Oh. That too." he said. She smiled in response. "Though you're not exactly my type..."

"That..." she stopped smiling. "would've been best NOT said."

"And besides, we couldn't hide forever..."

"I KNEW you were there." she replied, a grin widening. "I KNEW you were there."

Herman gulped. Then, after taking a deep breath, he shivered a little more. Now that he was this high, just having to look at her eyes, he felt a lot safer. Besides, after what she'd said, maybe she'd like Herman Classic. Maybe he could drop the kid gloves for a moment...

"Well, we KNEW you KNEW we were there."

"But did you KNOW I KNEW that you KNEW I was there?"

"You were the one to tell us, remember?" Herman smiled, still shivering a little. "You said you had found us. So why do you ask?"

"No reason." she smiled back. "So how'll we find them?"

"Well, we'll... follow the chickens?"

"And here I was hoping you wouldn't figure that one out." she grinned, looking around. She quickly found one of her fowl, running towards some direction.

"A last reason why I was following you is because I was hurt, and I couldn't hide..."

"If I were hurt, I couldn't do anything but hide."

"What I meant... I found a place to hide, but I got chased out by a snake, and I wouldn't be able to find another place, not with all those birds..."

"Poor you."

"Say... I really have to know this one." he said, taking a deep breath.

"What is it now?"

"You look big enough to swallow me... Are you going to..." he started, but she cut him off, with a patronizing sneer in her voice.

"Is that some kind of challenge?"

"No, but..."

"Well, it's kind of stupid to ask, if you think about it." she replied, with a grin.

"Then..."

"No, I'm not." she answered, still smiling. There was a trick, there was a catch, he could see she didn't mean exactly what she said, he didn't know whether to press it or not... in the end, he decided to press.

"You're not what?"

"I'm not answering. What were you thinking?"

"You know, just saying no would've worked."

"Would you believe me? Why'd you think I would gobble you up?"

"We found a sign..."

"The same one that read you were in Felarya?"

"Yes, it warned us that anything large enough to eat us WILL do so..."

"I might do just that..." she replied, holding him in an open hand, and bringing her other finger towards him. He moved away, but she was too deft; one of her fingers snuck beneath his shirt. Her hands were COLD.

"Erk!" he struggled. She just hummed, closing her hands around him.

"I don't like it when people don't trust me, Herman..." she cooed, her finger running circles over his torso.

"Well, sorry... I guess I'm just tired, and..."

"You're going to keep using the same excuse over and over... and over, aren't you."

"My bad. I'm sorry, but..."

She stopped, placing him in front of her mouth. Then she licked her lips.

"You're sorry and I'm hungry. Do you want to make it up to me?" she grinned.

He paused for a moment.

"Can't think of a way how." Herman finally replied, his eyes locked on her teeth. "It doesn't look like I'd be a lot of food, either..."

"We can't know until we try..."

"Yeah, well..." he laughed, nervously.

"And you smell just... so ambrosial... I can't hold it any longer..." she bit down on her lip, grimacing. He was left to wonder once more just how crazy she was, because he was almost certain she hadn't meant a word she said until she actually said it.

"Els...?" he mumbled, when her tongue stuck out of her lips. He let out a shrill, muffled cry as she rubbed something red and thick against his shoulder, breathing heavily.

"Mmm! Even through your shirt, you're just irresistible! That sign made just so much sense..." she said, looking so genuinely happy it was scary... no, happy wasn't the word. She looked like she was in a daze, and could be dangerous.

"Irresistible? Me? I'm flattered... but..." Herman tried, subconsciously (and consciously) realizing that not realizing the situation was the best course of action. Her hand, and him on it, was shaking slightly. And her lips trembled.

"I'm serious, you are! Are your friends as delicious as you?"

-I don't know, I never licked them. I bit Gabriel once, though, he's pretty salty.- he thought. But he didn't want things to go in that direction. The danger was getting more and more real over time. He already knew she was crazy... now it was time to figure out just how to keep her from acting on that crazy.

"... Let's... leave this conversation for later." Herman mumbled, nervously.

She took another pause, tilting her head. Then she opened her mouth, slowly.

"Fair enough." she finished, pulling on her apron to vigorously rub her saliva off Herman, despite his protests. Then she walked up to one of the chickens, each barely coming over her mid-calves, then past it, looked around, found a couple more... and from there, two itty bitty people in their sights.

"There." she said, walking past the two chickens, standing right next to two people. Then, as the chickens stood near her leg, she kicked them off. Leaning down, she grabbed a couple more people, once more holding them level to her forehead, like she had done with him, first.

"Hello." she grinned. "I'm Elsie. You're Herman's friends, aren't you?" she asked, before deigning herself look at them. A man, slightly scruffy, but quite handsome... a little girly, though. He wore a trenchcoat, jeans, and a shirt. Next to him, a woman in a blue, serviceable light dress.

"Yes, we are." the man said. "I'm Gabriel."

"I'm Alicia..." the woman said. "We lost Brenda, she must be somewhere else..."

Elsie looked down, and around.

"Well, I'm sure it's nothing she can't handle." she laughed. "They're pretty dumb."

"Relentless, though." Alicia pointed.

"If they find her, we'll know. Don't worry... they've never eaten anyone."

"Not for lack of trying, I guess."

Elsie laughed.

"That... is true. See?" she added. "You're not as tense now, are you?"

"I..." he laughed. "...really need a nap." he mumbled.

Elsie's eyes turned to Gabriel and Alicia. They had looked down...

"See anything you like?" she tried. She was met with tortured silence.

"So, Herman..." Alicia began, to which the giantess quickly hid Herman inside her pocket. "I was talking to him!"

"Now you'll be yelling at him." Elsie beamed.

"So, what's your opinion about her so far!?" Alicia caved in, so quickly Elsie let out a little chuckle.

"She's...! Well, she's flirty, and...!"

"Wh... what...!? No! He was the one flirting with me! He's too forward, it was making me uncomfortable..." Elsie blurted. Alicia would've believed her, until she saw her blushing with a straight face. That's when rather than would have, she decided to just believe her.

Once more, everyone lapsed into tortured silence. She let out a giggle, shattering whatever Alicia had wanted to believe.

"Well, I need my hands, so if you'll get down..." she added, lowering her hands for a little. "We'll keep talking later." she brought them down, into the pocket in her apron, where the three of them were unceremoniously dropped.

Herman tried to stand up, but there was nowhere to stand. He kept falling back to the steep bottom of the pocket, where, he noticed, his pants were still leaving bloodstains. Finally, he had to settle for sitting down in a place where he could barely fit a foot. Next to him, Alicia was looking at the side.

"She's also a little... funny, so to speak." Herman added, still shivering.

"Me? Funny? Funny how?" Elsie asked.

Herman didn't answer.

"Funny how, Herman?" Alicia asked.

"Really funny!" he cried. Then he leaned towards his companions. "Creepy." he whispered, not daring tell them the whole story.

No one answered. Herman's red face and moist skin were left to interpretation. He also had a strange smell which no one could really place...

"Hey, I can see her belly button behind the cloth." Alicia said, giving it a poke; the world stopped and shook a little in response.

"Stop that, you three!" Elsie giggled. "That tickles!"

"SORRY." Alicia barked. Then she turned to Herman. "What were you thinking?"

"I tried to ask you... you didn't answer. My... back still hurt. We couldn't find a place to hide with all those birds around us."

"So you asked the girl who was covered in blood?"

"It... seemed like a good idea at the time."

"You do realize we're basically at her mercy now?"

"Look, just, please, quit it..." he protested. "I did what I thought best at the time."

"We know." Gabriel answered. "But she's... creepy, like you said."

Herman sighed.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

They suddenly felt how she bent down to grab something... then, gravity doubled as she stood back up, pressing something against them. It was... huge, rough, dry, round, inert, Gabriel had to move away not to be crushed between her belly and it. And it smelled like fruit.

"What were those doing here?" they heard her mumble.

That's a great story !
It's really well written and I love how you depicted the progressive discovery of that strange environment, where you feel really anything can happens.
I'm really curious to see what will happens next ^_^

Thanks a lot.

I'm really curious too, I've tried everything and nothing fits...

Definitely want to see where this is going. The bouncing between comedy and horror feelings makes a good contrast.

(WARNING- it's got gore near the end. Vore too. But I'm not worried the vore upsets you.)

PART 2- Arbitrary

Brenda's lungs were burning, her bones aching. This wasn't funny anymore... too darn many birds. Too darn many of them. One was enough. She'd had to run, and every time she ran, she had to hide. The thing then started going in circles, clueless. But even clueless like that, it wound up finding her... and if it didn't, another one did. She had been running too much. There was no way to hide from all of them... she looked around, scared. Anytime now, another one would look at her. And she'd have to run. She could try just to go around the trunk she was leaning against, but what if there was another one lying in wait?

She wasn't built for prolonged effort, and knowing it was to save her life wasn't helping either. More than not being caught, she just wanted to be far from that place. Far, as far as possible. Somewhere she could take a nap and never wake up...

Then she heard something loud. Very loud. Something boomed on the ground once, then again, then closer, and as she took a few tentative steps to look around and make sure there were no more of those birds, she looked back...

The biggest pair of calves she'd ever seen led right up to a grotesque, white apron with red handprints on it, which nevertheless barely covered its wearer's thighs and hips. In the middle of it, there was a pocket, with three squirming lumps in it... and right over it, a massive pair of melons. She couldn't tell which of the pair was larger, but one thing was sure: at that size they were impossible. Each of them was larger than a house, and fuller to boot- the giantess regarded hers with such an avid, yet satisfied gaze, holding them close to her body, caressing them lightly, almost unconsciously, rhytmically with her breathing, which would've been imperceptible in something smaller. She didn't have those melons when she'd last seen her.

Her breasts were still bigger than them, though.


Peeking over the melons, the giantess put them on the ground for a moment, and sat down in front of Brenda, who lost her footing.

"Hello." she grinned. She had a strange way of making that greeting sound like she didn't really want to talk.

"Ah, hello." Brenda answered.

Elsie reached down for her, and put her on her palm, quietly. "Hmm, you're really small."

"Oh."

"Very skinny, too..."

"I get that a lot. Err, my friends?"

"In my pocket. Don't worry, they're fine. Oh, I'm Elsie."

"Brenda. So, we're all safe now?"

"Yes..." Elsie smiled. "Are you eating well?"

"I... think so. I'm just little that way."

"Ah, well. We might have to do something about that..." she licked her lips. "Maybe I'll put meat on your bones later."

"Err, no, thanks, I'm fine..."

"You'll be better than fine." she grinned. "C'mon, a little fat never killed anyone..." she caressed her belly.

Brenda gulped.

"That could've been a lot sexier if you weren't covered in blood..." she chuckled, nervously.

"Hm? Oh, the blood. Right." Elsie chuckled, too. "You're the first person to point it out today... you're not into girls, are you."

"Not that I know of..."

"Good, neither am I." she grinned. "Lesbians creep me out, dunno about you."

Brenda let out another chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"No, it's just... it's all so... I'm so relieved." she continued chuckling. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." she winked. "You'll be even more relieved soon, at least there'll be more of you relieved."

"I told you..."

"I'm not going to pay you any attention, you know? People as skinny as yourself are a challenge to me. Maybe I'll let you know my secret, too. Wouldn't you like to be this juicy?" she grinned, running a hand from her belly to... above her belly. she winked, dropping her in her pocket. Brenda landed on top of Herman's crumpled form.

"... whoa." was all she managed to say.

"So, did that last part remind anyone of Hansel and..." Herman asked, quite casually.

An indistinct grumble coming from his left, and a rumble he felt through his entire body told him to shut up.

"...Gretel?"

Even in Felarya, Herman didn't speak body language.

"Herman, weren't you the one to trust her first?"

"I feel what I feel, Alicia."

"Well, let's hope not. She doesn't sound that reasonable, if she gets into her head to..."

"You aren't talking about me in there, are you!?" Elsie cried.

A pause.

"NO!" Brenda yelled. "She's got a point, though... talking's not going to do us any good."

A rumbling thunder filled the air. The giantess stopped walking.

"I'm going to take a cold shower! I'm going to leave you all on a branch, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks for the heads up!" Gabriel answered, unsure of what else to say.

"Good. Maybe we can keep talking when I'm not covered in blood!" Elsie chirped. Then the pocket in which they were swung a lot, rose, shook, and finally it stood still, balancing itself on a tall branch, abandoning them for a while. They learned soon to stand very still- or else the apron would start balancing itself again.

======

Their hostess outdid herself that evening. Though she didn't have much in the way of accomodations, she was happy to serve them some stewed meat and melon for dinner. It was interesting to note that those chickens did not taste like chicken. They had a tough, stringy consistency, more like an old buffalo than a bird... though it wasn't really all that much, the peace she brought them just by laying them on a flat surface away from the reach of these birds was more than they could ask for. They were left to wonder where'd that table come from, while her face loomed more than thirty feet above them, happily chomping on a piece of meat of her own.

"I don't think we'll ever be able to thank you enough." Herman said, slowly, once he was done with his meal.

"Meh, it was nothing." Elsie grinned. "But if you want to try, I'm not going to stop you."

He let out a chuckle. Yes, it was nothing. And this cast her actions in a different light, she hadn't been scared, she hadn't shown any sympathy, because there was nothing to sympathize with. She knew it'd be nothing to put them out of danger, they had nothing to be afraid of.

-Or maybe I'm overthinking it.- he thought. Nevertheless, her grin seemed a lot more sympathetic now. And a lot more intent. So intent, in fact, that he was starting to feel her as an equal, starting to consider...

-Mmm, kinky.- he thought, with a quiet smile. -Actually, the thought of finding her doable is kinda amusing.- he thought to himself, too. -Though if I said that out loud I'd probably get sued.- he thought to himself again. Then he grinned, trying not to chuckle at the joke he'd just told himself.

"Is anything the matter?" Gabriel asked.

"I'm going to sue myself." Herman grinned. "Inside joke."

"Damn." Brenda said. "Can't you ever tell one we ALL can understand?"

Herman gave her a knowing nod. In this case, it meant "No."

"C'mon, tell me." Elsie suddenly said, crossing her arms.

"It's no use, you might not find it funny."

"Can't know until you try." she insisted, smiling.

"It's on bad taste."

"Then, you deserve to be exposed."

"It's kinda long..."

"Now you went and made me curious." she grinned.

"It's a bit lewd."

"I like them that way."

"It's about you."

"Then I HAVE to hear it. What's going on in that little head of yours?" Elsie laughed, bringing a finger up to his face.

"Ah, okay, but don't blame me if you don't like it."

-Just say it out loud.- she thought to herself. -Anything that gives me an excuse to freak out...

"Maybe I will..."

He blushed preemptively, taking a deep breath.

"Well, you see... I think I let my guard down a little too much here, because I was just noticing how gorgeous you are."

"Just now? What were you doing the rest of the time?"

"Well, from there... I..." he. "How do we put this in words? After a little, I realized the thought of it was kinda amusing."

"The thought of wh- oh, I get it. Amusing. It better be amusing in a good way." she smirked.

"Maybe. But calling it amusing is wrong..." he chuckled. "Get it?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

One glouteaux looked up and saw some prey. It ran for it... straight into the tree, and bounced off, stunned.

"No one does..." he sighed. "And that's why I never tell any jokes."

"Well, you're quite the jester, Herman." Elsie replied, visibly not amused. Her gaze was now... bored? Horny? Maybe both. She was most definitely thinking dirty thoughts, but not exactly amused with him. He looked away.

"He's not very funny." Alicia said. "But he's always optimistic. At least, up to now, I've never seen him stop thinking positive."

Herman shrugged, smiling briefly.

"Now what about you, Elsie?" Alicia smiled. "I don't mean to intrude, but... we've never seen anything like you! If anyone had told me, I'd have said it was impossible... sorry, but... what are you?"

Elsie shrugged, with a little smile.

"It's okay. I'm not really sure myself." she blushed.

"Then...?" Alicia asked. "I'm completely... I don't know what to say, I didn't think anything like you was possible... sorry, again..."

"Shows what you know." Elsie grinned. "It's okay, really. I know, I'm a wonder."

"Can you at least give us a hint? I'm really curious..."

"A hint..." Elsie smirked maliciously. "Mmm..."

Gabriel wiggled his fingers. This was amusing. Mathematician, and freak of nature. He knew already the conversation would go nowhere fast, probably those two women already did, too, but that didn't mean it wasn't amusing.

"I don't really know if I want to tell you, Alicia. Sorry." Elsie replied.

"Makes sense. Then... does it have anything to do with the fact that everything we've seen here is humongous?"

"Maybe. I don't know why is that myself." she paused. "It sure helps me stay fed, though."

"Ah, you hunt?"

"No... not really. I'd love to, but I'm a little slow, compared to everything else."

"You mean the centaurs?"

"You met them?" Elsie asked, suddenly stirring. She seemed to turn very serious all of a sudden.

"No, the sign mentioned them. Why do you ask?" Alicia asked, turning a lot less casual as well.

"Ah. They're a nice bunch." she smiled. "And the smaller ones are delicious. They go well with melon." she added hungrily.

"You... eat centaurs?" Alicia asked, puzzled. "Aren't they... sentient?"

"Eh? What does 'sentient' mean?" Elsie asked, looking... not exactly puzzled. She was clearly exaggerating. She either knew, or didn't really care... either case, she wanted them to think she was puzzled... Alicia started feeling uncomfortable...

"Sentient means they can think. But you already knew that, right?" she asked, direct as always. Herman felt a shiver run down his back.

"Umm... if they talk, they're sentient, right?" Elsie asked, sheepishly. Herman's lawyer sense tingled- he was just about to direct Alicia not to answer that question...

"Yes. And if they're sentient, they're people. You shouldn't be eating them." Alicia stated, calmly. Herman's brow twitched, he had a feeling she really shouldn't have went down that route. Herself, Alicia had suspected the locals wouldn't think of it as something wrong... but looking into Elsie's eyes, she had already figured out that whatever the norm here was, this one KNEW she was right.

"Err..." Elsie suddenly pouted, biting her lower lip. She looked away, like she'd just been rebuked, shrugging, holding her arms, as if trying to shrink away from Alicia. "Ah, I g-guess... yes, yes they are..." she mumbled.

"Well, it's..." Alicia continued, preachish as always. How would she have known she was preaching to the wrong crowd?

"It's what makes them so delicious." Elsie cut her off, grinning, her teeth moist, once more spreading her arms, her presence swelling as she shook her hair and took a deep breath. "They can run, but when you catch them, you know you've caught something, because they beg for their lives, and I love it when they beg!" she chuckled, looking down at her guests.

-Oops.- Herman thought to himself, looking around. What she'd just said didn't exactly sit well with everyone, specially him. To him, it was twice as bad...

"Oh, that's... interesting." Alicia said, suddenly very uneasy. "Well, we had to be going..." she said, putting away the melon she was eating.

"And when they cry, it's even better. You just have to hurt them a little, and listen as they go from tough to complete crybabies... in a blink." her eyes narrowed, a cruel glint peeking through them. "It's quite satisfying, actually, to think that all life is so fragile, and even the intangible, the invisible is so weak we can just EAT it too." she brought her hand closer to her uneasy guest...

"Huh. Well, goodbye." Alicia said, trying to avoid that greasy finger...

-Smooth, Alicia! Smooth with a capital $#/¬!- Herman thought, angry at Alicia... why did she have to go and see if she could make things worse!?

"Have you ever held a life in your hands, Alicia!?" she grinned, sounding quite excited as her greasy thumb hit her on the chest, her other fingers wrapping around her back.

"Ah! No, I haven't!" she cried.

-Double oops.- Herman thought, looking into Elsie's eyes. He gulped.

"How about somewhere else?" Elsie asked, licking her lips. Alicia suddenly grew very wary... that just like Herman had said, they had a psycho with a cleaver after them.

"Elsie, you're scaring me!" Alicia exclaimed.

"Yeah... Fitting... isn't it? Tell me, did you believe that sign?" Herman caught a glimpse behind these twitching lips, drool was pooling against her toothy grin, and any minute now it'd start streaming down her mouth. Alicia must've been feeling her shake- was she a junkie of sorts!? Who the hell was this woman!?

"Look, if this is a joke...!"

"You wish it were."

"Stop." Herman said, with a very thin voice. "Look... stop. Just stop."

Elsie's face softened for a moment as she looked down, towards him- and a little drool escaped her mouth. She quickly sucked it back in, and gulped, but she was still salivating to a painful degree.

"For mere stragglers, you were doing so well. Weren't it for the storm, or the snake, you'd be safe by now." Then she put on again that psychotic grin. "I'll have to see that sign, later. Maybe I'll alter the directions... more prey for me. Matter of fact, you didn't do anything wrong. Up to the point where you trusted me... I guess I just look that trustworthy!" she laughed.

"It's not funny..." Brenda protested, shivering. "Stop it, it's not funny!"

"So tell me, where's this sign?" she asked, calmly. "If you tell me, I promise not to eat you until I've changed it. What about it? You'll live longer..."

"How about you don't eat us instead?" Gabriel asked, taking the lead. "I'll tell you up front we're not settling for less."

"Gabriel..."

"I'm not settling for less, Alicia."

Reassured (wrongly) by Gabriel's words, Alicia seemed to recover her usual adamant attitude- much to Herman's horror. Sometimes, she was admirable. Sometimes, she was just sad. Sometimes... it was the completely wrong thing for the completely wrong moment. He grimaced, watching her take a suicidal stand for no good reason... for no good reason, just like she usually told him he always did things.

"He's not telling the truth..." Alicia said, though Herman could already tell in her tone that she was about to raise the ante. He wondered for an instant if that giant smirk meant their hostess knew too, or if she just didn't care...

"Well, then..."

"WE are not settling for less." she barked. "If what you want is that sign... we're not settling for anything less than that."

"Oh, you're not? Well, aren't you screwed... shrewd." she giggled for an instant. "Shrewd people taste the best."

"Err, you already ate!" Herman cut in.

"Oh, there's always room in me for new people." Elsie chirped. "And you don't take up much room anyway."

Herman was about to say something, but he cut himself off. Saying he didn't want to get eaten wouldn't matter much. Saying he was a person would lead down the current road if all signals were right. He still needed to think the right words, and at this rate, he'd never find them!

Looking around, he found Brenda, who was right now on her knees, wrapping herself with her arms, sobbing, or maybe just shivering, almost as hard as Elsie would. Herman recalled the bird that'd already eaten her before, and couldn't help but grimace. This was all probably a lot worse on her than anyone else; that sneak peek of what awaited her probably was passing through her mind right now.

He couldn't help but realize that they were all on a table now, forty feet up from the ground. There was no exit. They were most definitely at her mercy. Their only bargaining chip was that sign... maybe Alicia was doing the right thing. Elsie would've probably brought up the topic on her own too...

"Well, if you eat me, then no one's going to tell you anything." Alicia replied, a little stiff, feeling the warm fat all over her body and clothes. Elsie twirled her thumb a little over her prey's chest, smearing the greasy residue all over...

"Somehow, I doubt that." she answered. "Specially those two over there... Herman and Brenda."

Herman's knees froze as he heard his name. His face turned towards his captor, shivering lightly. She was looking back, with that smug smile in her face.

"He's got those amusing and wrong thoughts... doesn't he?" she winked. "What do you say, Herman? Don't you want to tell me now? We can do something amusing and wrong in the meantime, together..." she grinned. "After I've had the rest of your friends."

"Herman, don't!" Gabriel cried, to his surprise.

"Please, no!" Brenda added, to his amusement.

"You... are NOT..." Alicia spelled out, in her most declarative tone, much to his annoyance.

"WHO you ALL take ME for!?" Herman protested. "No, Elsa!"

"You can call me Elsie, I don't mind." she grinned. "You're going to end up eaten either way."

"Look, you may be the hottest woman I've ever seen..." he began, barking...

"Hm?" she suddenly had a very, very wide smile in her face. That was enough to render him speechless.

She stayed quiet.

"Go on." she giggled, blushing. "Please, go on."

Herman blinked a little.

"...nevermind."

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Elsie grinned. "Go on, it's the least you can do."

Looking around, Herman wondered what was everyone thinking. But this time, they weren't looking at him, they were looking at her... he couldn't tell what did they think about what he had just been asked to do. He was, once more, alone on whether he should do this one or not. Frankly... okay, he could finish that sentence.

"I wasn't thinking seriously about anything like that." Herman mumbled. "That's all, I'm simply not tempted to do anything with you."

"Hmm..." Elsie said, suddenly bringing her other elbow to the table, with Alicia still in her other hand, protesting with every small movement. "Hadn't I told you it was best not to say that?" her smile narrowed back into something believable. "Or maybe you want to be eaten first?"

He gasped, shivers running down his spine.

"I'm all by myself here..." she pouted. "That was so cruel of you, Herman." she cooed, bringing Alicia's slick self up to her lips.

Herman gulped, clearing his throat, trying to think of a way to get back on tr...

"L... look, let's...!"

...speaking of tracks, he realized Elsie didn't really care for the sign- she wouldn't have turned on Alicia the moment he said the wrong thing if she actually- she was trying to make him responsible for Alicia- she was- this was too much to take in at once, his pulse quickening even as his blood froze again, his friend coming closer and closer to the giantess' plump lips.

"WAIT!" he managed to bark, breathless, as he saw Alicia stop short of her lips. "Don't... Just... what do you want? What do you really want?" he whimpered.

"Mmm." Elsie brought her other hand's fingers towards her victim, her lips parting, her tongue peeking out, a gesture that managed to be threatening...

-Figures, I asked a woman what she really wants.- Herman grimaced, his breath turning ragged and irregular as the panic started to settle... yes, settle. He'd probably be in panic for the rest of his short life. -This is my fault... I took that shortcut, I talked to this monstrous doll...- his knees went weak as he paled, seeing Elsie's fingers wrapped around Alicia, darting towards and away from her, deaf to Alicia's cries of pain and protest- that giantess was hurting her, with her fingers, and he could only watch, as her pride went down the drain, as her adamant broke bit by bit, as his once-proud friend was reduced to whimpering and crying, as Gabriel cried for her to stop...

Herman cried as well. It didn't work- she acted as if she was deaf- or she just didn't care. He clutched his chest, the meal in his stomach starting to feel both too heavy and too light, goosebumps spreading through his arms, back, face... and tongue. He closed his eyes, dropping to his knees, powerlessly. She'd really brought that point home.

He looked up again just in time to see a lump disappearing down her throat.

"So this is the end." he thought to himself. "If only..."

He gulped as he saw Gabriel struggle even before their hostess turned killer got a hold of him, as if he wasn't sure whether he was to resist or not. He couldn't blame him... who'd have wanted to abandon Alicia to her fate alone? Was there really nothing they could do for her anymore? A good part of Herman already knew the answer, but there was still enough of Herman that didn't know it. He tried to look away as Gabriel was brought up to the same pair of lips behind which Alicia'd just disappeared.

And then he realized Elsie's eyes were trained on him. Those smug eyes... if she weren't so beautiful, he'd be thinking about doing NASTY things to those eyes... he'd have gladly hurt her, come to think of it, he really wanted to hurt her. If he could put her through even a fraction of the horror she'd just put them through... his hands clenched for an instant, and then he looked away, again.

"Mmm... what's the matter?"

"This is my fault..." he whimpered.

"Louder, I can't hear you."

He let out a snort, looking at her. He wondered why'd he ever thought he hated Alicia... the person he was to hate was here. Right in front of him. The monster.

"You monster..." Herman growled. "We... we trusted you..."

"Mmm..."

"You're pretty happy about this, aren't you!?" Herman cried. "You're sick."

"You just noticed?" Elsie grinned. "My eyes are up here."

His head twitched a little.

"But my breasts deserve some attention too. They're down there. Just a little under where you're looking, that's my throat. Not so low!" she chuckled. "That's the table, Herman. Table, breasts, throat, eyes."

-You just keep right on talking...- Herman thought to himself. -They're lost. I've gotta accept it. No amount of sweet-talking's going to get me out of this. Nothing can save them now. I need to focus! It's a pretty steep drop from this table, I don't think I can make it. Much less Brenda...- he thought, looking at his last remaining companion. -I guess... wait, she's safe. Elsie said she wanted to... no, there's no guarantee that's a fate better than getting eaten.-

"So, Elsie... I guess I'm next, am I not?" Herman asked, sighing. He was better off hiding the hate in his voice.

She shrugged.

"Yes, maybe. Maybe I'll talk a little longer with you... as for her, I'll fatten her up first."

"No." Brenda whimpered.

"Brenda?" Herman let out, surprised.

"I'm not going to let her do anything to me..." she gasped. "I'd rather be just eaten."

"Brenda!" Herman cried, surprised. Then he lowered his voice. "That might buy you some time..."

"Herman, do you even realize what you're asking me to do!?" Brenda exploded. "I'm not letting her touch me!"

"Yes, what side are you on?" the other one giggled, leaning a little closer. Her lukewarm breath had a scent he simply couldn't place, but it was driving him insane- he could swear he smelled Gabriel and Alicia's essences in her mouth, he didn't know if that was possible, but it felt that way! To think that soon enough they'd be broken down just because someone thought they'd make a nice dessert was sickening... as if to add insult to injury, she was going to get away with it. It felt like the whole darn world had just flipped on its head only to screw with the people he cared for! What purpose was there to this madness!?

"You... I won't let you do anything to me..." Brenda gasped, looking up at Elsie. "I won't!"

Elsie shifted her legs under the table, her grin widening. Herman realized Brenda, next to him, felt the same way about this cosmic injustice.

"Give it your best shot." she smiled. "Short of killing yourself, I don't see it happening."

Herman gulped. No. She couldn't seriously be thinking of... she couldn't...

"We taste the same dead, Brenda!" he cried. "Don't do anything too stupid... there's gotta be a way we can somehow get past this..."

"I'm not... letting her do anything to me..." Brenda repeated.

Herman gulped, clenching his teeth so hard he feared they'd explode. He took a false step and tripped... to his captor's amusement. Then he stood up, on shaky legs, and went up to Brenda, looking at Elsie all the way through.

"Brenda, I think I found a way..."

"Be quiet already!" Brenda whimpered. "You're wrong!"

"Look, if we both jump down over there..." he said, looking at the edge of the table farthest from Elsie. "Maybe..."

Brenda looked into his eyes for an instant. She was taken aback a little when she realized he actually was serious. She gulped, feeling her body warm up in anticipation... maybe she was going to die, but...

As she stood up, weakly, Elsie's hands lowered themselves over the table. Brenda looked at one of them for an instant, just as it jumped towards her and-

...too late. That second wind of courage had come to her too late, and now it was gone with the wind, as she was brought to her killer's grinning face. Deft and quick fingers rapidly pulled apart zippers and stitches all around her body; she covered herself with her arms, feeling the fabric lash and rub against her ears. She barely heard her own cry over her racing heart.

"HERMAN! RUN!"

Barely did she notice the transition into somewhere warm, sticky, slimy, lightless, where one greasy, slick surface after another rolled over her body, all the while a rough surface rubbed her mercilessly. Her own struggles saved her eater the trouble of savoring her; she heard a resounding hum all over, before an unresolved sensation of vertigo and the sudden disappearance of any rough surfaces left her to guess her fate, in a deep lot of something with the consistency of chunky, stringy, sticky and slick mud.

"Brenda!?" someone cried in her ears. She recoiled instinctively, before she realized it was Gabriel's voice...

"Gabriel? Alicia?"

"We're here..." Gabriel mumbled. "How's Herman?"

"He... he's still out there... on the table..."

"Damn..." Alicia cried. "I hope he gets away..."

"What do you mean!? He got us into this mess in the first place!" Brenda snarled. "He took that shortcut, he talked to her..."

"Well, none of that matters now. If he dies... we're all dead..."

Brenda shook her head.

"He said he had a plan. And she seemed to like him the most of all... I think she'll let him live."



======



"That was pretty stupid of you..." Elsie grinned, looking at his ear, while his head was peeking from between her fingers, cheek on the ground. He wasn't looking back. Frankly, it was a little funny- he'd tried to run away. He could run as far and as fast as he wanted, but at the distance he started running, he'd never get far enough. "Couldn't you see there was no way out?"

Barely she felt his breath on her middle finger, soft, but irregular, as if he were sobbing. She caught a peek of his cheek under the red light of the sunset, contorted once more. His struggles felt like little more than a little twitch... he actually tickled a little. Letting out a long sigh, she waited for his struggles to die out in her hand. Then she released him.

He twitched a last time, before getting up and once more running for the edge. She let out a tch, and then cupped her hand in front of him, shoving him backwards- and he'd have broken his head against the table, but she caught him.

"It's high time you stopped trying." she chirped, merrily. "Maybe we can talk a little more, I like you."

"But I don't!" he barked. "You ate them all..."

"That I know."

"How could you!?" he mumbled. "Please, spit them out..."

"That's not gonna happen." she grinned. "So you can put away those puppy eyes now."

"But... we're so... they wouldn't have made a meal, all of us put together wouldn't make half a meal!" Herman cried.

"Everything else did, and they're part of it now."

"Look... please..." Herman gulped, making a pause. He closed his eyes, his throat twitching.

"That's enough of you." she sighed. "You can give up on them already."

"Just give me a moment to find the right words..."

"Why? You tried to run away. You don't get to try and save them anymore." Elsie smiled. "Just try and save yourself now. You already know the right words."

"It was...!" Herman's voice went away as he shook his head slowly. "...a mistake." he mumbled.

"What do you mean?"

"Erm..." he began, with some difficulty. "Elsie, you don't understand... this is my fault..."

"How so?"

"I took the road that wound up throwing us here. And then... I talked to you. It was a mistake I made- and unless you throw them up, they're going to die because of me..." he said, his voice beginning to sound cracked.

"Really?" she smiled. "Well, don't feel bad, please."

He let out a dry chuckle.

"How can you say that?"

"You didn't know that road went here, and besides... if you hadn't talked to me, who knows what I'd have done?" she winked. "I appreciated that, really."

He chuckled again.

"But they're dead now, because of me..."

"No, because of me."

Looking into her eyes, he grimaced.

"But unless I do everything I can for them..."

"I promise you this: nothing you say or do is going to make me spit them out." she laughed, with more than one note of pride in her voice. "How's that?"

"But I can't..." Herman mumbled. "I can't just stay here doing nothing... it's not fair on them..."

Her expression softened for a moment.

"Herman, please, just..." she sighed. Then she looked away, with a grimace. "What am I doing? You're just..." she shook lightly.

"This doesn't have to be this way!" he cried. "Look, whatever eating us means to you... I swear it's nothing compared to what letting us live will mean to US."

"And who says it means something?" she barked, shaking harder... once more, she was shivering.

"You're shivering." he replied. "I'm not sure what I'm dealing with, exactly, I don't know what's going on in your head, but..."

"Save it! I've changed my mind. I'll eat you." she answered, breathing quickly.

"What...!?" he grimaced, looking into her intense, confusing gaze-

No, no more. He couldn't keep this up. He couldn't talk to her.

Usually, he could pretend people were listening- but that was always from the perspective that those people wouldn't kill him and hadn't just condemned his friends. They... they were condemned now, and she wasn't really paying attention to him. She was just waiting for him to say something funny again. He couldn't take it anymore.

-I don't know her.- he gulped. -I always thought... everyone, deep down, was worth knowing... and I really wanted to know her, but I just... I don't want that anymore. I can't do this. I can't keep trying to get a read from her. I couldn't convince her in time. My friends are already dead.-

For some reason, this thought brought a smile to his face. There was a certain joy in powerlessness. Some sort of spiteful peace, knowing whatever came from there on wasn't anymore up to him, but the world's unbridled cruelty: even with his friends this close, he might as well have been watching them fall off a mountain. The universe was just a cosmic joke. Elsie was the punchline.

Frankly, that wasn't very funny. But he felt all the better for hearing it.

"Okay."

"Okay?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"But give it some time..." he said, with a final grimace. "I can't face them... not like this."

"Oh, you don't get a say..." she grinned, exhilarated. "That's part of the fun, actually." Then her other hand leapt at him; she quickly pried off his shoes, socks, shirt, and ripped off his pants. The obvious followed.

======

She thought she had really liked him. But frankly, after having given him so many chances, and knowing he'd be gone one way or another, the sense of closure that came with his flavor felt like a welcome relief. It was always a little tough to end things -end lives- like that. People could be very interesting, after all, if they were given a chance. Then again, they were interesting without a chance, too, and quite palatable. Of course, she learned that last one just as she learned not to eat them (on an empty stomach).

She still had to wonder sometimes if this was really necessary. The obvious answer was that it was not- but still, there she was. If it wasn't really necessary, she wondered, why'd she have to go and do it? Why couldn't she have just made friends of them?

Looking up at the first stars, still feeling struggles inside herself, she wondered why. It wouldn't really have been too hard to let them live, maybe help them. And it'd have been interesting too. There was something about a sign, too, maybe she could've cared more- but for whatever reason, she hadn't really been interested in getting her hands on more humans. They always were more trouble than they were worth- like some were being right now, bothering her to the point she couldn't really enjoy a good meal under the first stars and over a nice sunset. And if they didn't make trouble, one'd trouble herself.

Nekos didn't let little things like sentience or prey's feelings bother them, she really needed to take a cue. Herman wouldn't be feeling sorry for himself for long. Neither should she. And if it was unfair... well, it had been unfair against her too. Come to think of it, she knew the reason why she did that, despite it was seriously unfair. It wasn't anything against them. She did it just because she liked doing that, just like anything that size did...

-Does that mean I deserved it?- she wondered, wrinkling her nose a little. -Does that mean I'm a monster?-

She was still in time to spit him out. Why hadn't she just swallowed him? It wasn't like they had any unfinished business. She didn't have any questions left, either... all she wanted now was to get this over with. But he had said he didn't want to see his companions, and if she ate him by that point, they'd be irrevocably lost. He wasn't bad either, maybe if she gave him just a few more mi-

Oh, oops.

So mindless had she been savoring him, that by the time she realized she had munched on him, she had, well, munched on him. An unpleasant, crunchy feeling had filled the back of her mouth; she tilted her head backwards, and licking what she found, feeling the hard, ironlike taste on her tongue, she just gulped whatever remained of him. But now it left that unpleasant taste in her mouth, which she removed by sucking a little on one of her fingers that still tasted like chicken (bull?). Gulping again, she felt their struggles renew. Whatever happened to them, it was their problem now.

At the very least, he wasn't going to face anyone like that. Now she only had to wait for the mailman.

======

Thin, acrid air robbed her of every last bit of strength as despair turned to resignation and denial. She still held tight to some hope that this all turned out to be a nightmare, crawling over the soft, warm, churning mess, trying to feel her warm blankets and sheets somewhere in all this. Maybe if she felt something hard and cold, it'd be the edge of that large, large bed.

Her entire body ached, as if burning slightly, but slowly everything became numb. She suddenly felt she touched something rigid- but it was warm, too warm, and it was split in two, no, there were two, they were long... and they were smooth, round, warm... and near the end... they were cracked. Her hands slid a little over, finding a smooth, squishy end of something warm, wet, smooth. She wondered for a moment what that was, but in the end, as her fingers fell asleep, she came to the conclussion it didn't really matter.

Maybe in five more minutes...

======


[I'm not used to adding comments AFTER a story, but in this case, I'm simply not sure if this ended right- this chick was supposed to be fickle as hell, and I've got no idea how to showcase that, considering that only one thing could've happened. Either she let them go, or she didn't, but I couldn't do both.

If you have any thoughts on the matter so far... do tell. Anything helps.]

Pretty good. It works out and meshes nicely with the overall hopelessness of the the story, and showing how Elsie thinks over her meal at the end definitely was an excellent idea. A couple spelling errors but otherwise a good ending to a good story.

wow that story was definitely captivating. Slighty disturbing too but very well written and thought of

Well, thanks, both of you.

I was aiming for that disturbing feeling- there's stuff that you simply can't enjoy without a fetish, for instance Elsie. She might look nice on paper, but that's because I drew her hot... in person, I think she'd look a lot less wholesome. Tits that big have a name made up of greek words, after all...

But Herman and co. were the most disturbing part for me. There's things they simply couldn't accept straight away and they'd obviously suffer for it; I hoped we'd see their suffering coming and dread what was going to happen even before we were sure it would.

Thanks for the "excellent", MrNobody13. However, this isn't over yet. There's a context to how comes it she's so strange for a pred.

All Fun and Games, Part 3- Bears and You

Hard vore warning.


That strange, pleasant feeling again. Like being all fuzzy inside, like being made of cotton, stuffed with clouds, so light the cool breeze around herself could lift her into the sky. Above, the clouds dark and vaulted, a handsome lightning storm in the horizon. No feeling could compare to the absolute wonder of the reverie at dawn, when thinking about the world, it felt like a wonderful, friendly place. There could be nothing but good things in it, things as good as being full of fuzzy, tickling clouds. Her shoulders, her back, her hips, her knees, her belly, it was all butterflies in a cool breeze. She smiled as a few first flashes of thunder softly lit up the dark day sky, the handsome crack of thunder her only company.

She looked at the eastern horizon, turning her head. A nagging feeling suddenly filled her neck, and then she just had to rub her shoulders against the grass, letting out a sigh as her sprawled legs worked at turning her towards the source of the thunder. Her legs slowly rose, her feet touching the soft, moist grass, pushing her body away from the ground...

One of her feet slipped. With a little gasp of surprise, her hip hit the ground instead of getting her up; her head shook quickly but strongly for an instant. She had a strange feeling on the back of her head; her nose and mouth were filled with an odd sensation. Raising her neck, she let out a wince as her hip warmed up. Hopefully that wouldn't leave a bruise.

Her arms withdrew behind her body, and started pushing her up into a sitting position. At first, it was hard, but then it got easier. She moved her shoulders around for a moment, and then stretched, letting out a yawn. The spell of reverie broken by the sudden loss of balance (while lying down, at that!), this day was shaping up to be more of the same. She brought her knees closer to her chest, until they were touching her- she realized she'd been sweating throughout the night. That must've been why she slipped... her leg moistening the ground, her foot slipping on it. She rubbed her shoulders, and forehead. Yeah, sweat, and a lot of it. It kind of made her want to recall what had she been dreaming. All she could remember was that it was kind of a good dream... a really good dream... no, come to think of it, it wasn't that good a dream. She'd had better dreams.

Letting out a heaving sigh, she rose from her inexistent bed, feeling the pull of gravity protest first, and then shut up. It was a strange feeling, which for some reason never failed to make her giggle. The ground felt like a mile away! And it was, probably, more or less... how much was a mile again?

Well, it didn't really matter. She took a few sluggish steps towards her apron, hanging from a tall branch, and then pulled it down. Grinning to herself, she watched her cleaver slip from above her apron- the grotesque piece of metal had been placed above her equally grotesque piece of frilled, bloodied white fabric. Putting on her apron, running her arms into the rings she felt the fabric protest a little more than the last time it was forced against her skin. She wondered how much longer that thing could hold its own against her.

For now, it stood, even if it failed to cover her nipples. She wondered if it'd stand for the rest of the day too?

======

First thing she did in the day was going up to her crops, right by a specially tall tree, on raised ground, lined with a short wall of stone, so that the birds didn't trample those poor little things, and the wind didn't wipe her carefully prepared soil. The crops were as annoying as the glouteaux, but in a different manner. Those things were ever so patient, ever so quiet. They never protested, never feared, never showed pain. They just quietly died on her if she ever failed them. And she felt demanded, in a way. No vegetable should be able to make demands, on threat of losing its verdant flavor.

But it was okay. Unlike the glouteaux, the crops existed only because of her. They were like her edible children... and just like she'd once made her father proud, she was proud of those little things for growing so big and healthy. She was proud of herself because she knew it was only because of her. And she was merry in general... because just like that, there was nothing she couldn't do to them. Except hurt them. Maybe that'd be a little satisfying, from time to time.

Come to think of it, some plants did feel pain. Pity they were too hard to find. And... oh, right. As Ma had told her, hurting one was ALWAYS off-limits. No matter how small, if she ever hurt one, they'd all be mad at her- plants had friends everywhere.

Unlike her.

She thought about it, realizing it had rained last night. There was no need to water anything. The cauldron she'd filled with stagnant water was completely unnecessary.

"But you'll always be with me, won't you?" she asked, stopping for a moment to feel the fruits. Her contact was gossamer, careful. She knew it was best not to hand those fruits too much, even if she really liked touching things, giving them a hard squeeze, caress every bit of them, see if they moved... her hand reluctantly abandoned the watermelon, realizing her mouth was already salivating. Strange, because she wasn't hungry, even without having had breakfast. Her pulse was hastened, and her breath was slowed... what could this me...!?

-I'm hot for watermelon now? - She wondered to herself. "I need to get laid..." she sighed.

Either way, all she could do was chuckle at her own occurrence while surveying the rest of her orchard. A watermelon fetish. Yeah, right. Good one, Elsie. It wasn't fertilizer day, and the ground was still that finely powdered dust plants were best at growing in. She dug a handful of it, feeling there were no clumps as it slipped from between her hands, a part of it falling as a dust so fine it almost felt like a vapor carried by the wind.

There was nothing wrong with it... her plants just wouldn't need her for the rest of today. There weren't even any weeds for her to pull out and rip apart little by little. Damn, she'd love tearing something to shreds with her fingers just to pass the time.

Her finger once more danced as gossamer curtains over a green sprout, wondering if she really cared to pull it off. Just then, another sound came from behind her. She grinned... something for her to tear apart had just appeared. Only for a moment did she wonder what that noise was... sounded a lot like a very, very guttural groan. She didn't recognize that from anywhere, but it was so close to the ground that she felt it couldn't be too big.

======

Her knees protested a little as she got up. Sitting on her knees had some unpleasant side effects, like her legs aching immediately after getting up- but sometimes they gave her something to do. Just around the same days she plucked out every hair from her body, she rubbed a warm, porous stone over her legs to make sure they stayed pretty. She had to hang on to a tree to get up, and prop herself up while her legs regained their strength. And then, taking a deep breath, her grin spread wider at the prospect of new victims.

Licking her lips, just in case, she took a few steps, which albeit slow, were wide enough to bring her within eyeshot. She wanted whatever that was to see her big, toothy grin. She wanted it to see her whole body. She wanted whatever that was- WHATEVER it was- and she wanted it now, all to herself, forevermore. Whatever it was, it was making her feel sick to her stomach with (misplaced) jealousy.

And soon enough she saw, with a little shrug, what her next victim would be.

The creature was round, brown, four-legged, and fuzzy- probably half as long as her foot. Just the right size to be squashed, she thought, and next to it, there were four others. They looked pretty small, less than half its size.

Smirking, she watched them turn towards her. Four of them ran behind the large one- and the large one let out quite a brave roar, while withdrawing slowly against its little companions. Elsie rubbed her chin... if her intuition was right, the large one was their mother. Oh, so cute, they were a mommy and her kids... it kind of compensated for the fact they all had very wicked-looking fangs and claws, the kind that'd leave a scar if she got too reckless!

Without noticing, she was already shivering in anticipation of the things she was going to do. Protecting its children? That was rich. Nothing could protect them from her! A low giggle escaped her throat, though it came out so distorted it might as well have been a hiccough. She put her hands behind herself, and undid the knots on her apron. This was going to be SUCH a joy. Hastily, over her shaking fingers, she pulled the cloth rings down her arms, gripping all her clothing in one hand, now clad only in her own sustained threat and a headband she wasn't even wearing correctly.

She kept up that creepy giggle of hers, almost a hiccough, as she wiggled her fingers. The bears seemed to feel what she was going to do- she was so happy now! They got it!? All the more wonderful! They turned tails and ran.

Damn they were fast! She almost gasped, she hadn't expected those things to be so fast- then she took a single leap of faith and swat them with a whipping movement of her apron. They lost their footing for just a moment, in which she bent to her knees, letting out a little laughter- she'd fallen almost forty feet in a fraction of second, of course it made her feel a little giddy. An instant later, she brought down her apron again pulled one edge under the feet of the lumps squirming inside. Pulling it up, she held it by two ends and started spinning it- their claws wouldn't help them much in cutting through the apron if they were dizzy.

But no matter how much she spun her apron, it looked like they weren't dizzy. Resorting to a different resource, she instead folded the apron with them in it and stood up -once more letting out a soft giggle, gravity sure was hard on the head-, and staggered as best as she could towards her table. Shaking her apron, she softly dropped her next victims there: they answered with a series of growls and roars. She thought about sitting in front of the table, but that'd mean putting her chest uncomfortably close to their claws. If only she could just stick her chest out at them and let them swing away all they wanted, feeling their claws tickle harmlessly against her flesh standing with impunity... ah, no. That wasn't her. She had to back off from the mother.

And it wasn't really fair that she had to. She was going to kill them, so why couldn't it go the way she wanted? She was bigger!

======

Ah, well, now, how would she hurt those cute little things? Ah, right! The cauldron. Looks like that water wouldn't go to waste after all...

Leaving for an instant to pick up the cauldron, she returned to her table, finding the creatures already looking down from the edge. It wasn't a long fall... and if she just placed the cauldron beneath them, it wouldn't be much of a fall at all, would it! Would they jump down if she offered them a water landing?

Smirking, she decided to test her theory. She placed the cauldron just beneath the edge, and licked her lips in anticipation. These creatures were already making some unfamiliar sounds, the smaller ones making the highest-pitched ones. All in all, the scene was kind of cute- four itsy-bitsy beasts on the edge of a table, looking down into a cauldron full of water. Then they backed off- Elsie guessed, with a grimace, it was because of her. That was flattering, but also kind of irritating.

She went around the table, for the other side, making the beasts once more edge away from her. They could only edge away so much, though- they were careful not to fall over the edge. She only dwelled on that for an instant, though, as she tipped the table to drop them straight into the cauldron. For a moment, she recoiled from their cries... feeling that something inside her empathized with them, something wanted their plight to be over. She grimaced and looked away.

Why? Why hadn't she managed to get RID of that!? Mercy. No one ever had any mercy, why is it SHE had to go and feel it now?

-Maybe I'm just so cruel it's striking? Maybe I'm the one who makes them something to empathize with? - She thought to herself. -But what about them? They'd eat me if only they could! Bears are like that.-

Bears. Yes, they were bears, now that she remembered it. Those things swimming in her cauldron now, they were called bears, she'd seen a picture once. And they were nasty motherfuckers of doom. Vicious as hell, especially when defending their young. Ah, that must've been where she'd gotten that from... a part of her remembered bears. She couldn't tell where she remembered them from, though. Maybe some silly book.

Smacking her lips she turned back to the cauldron. She had started this, now she'd end this. Grabbing the edges, she started shifting the cauldron around, a smile forming in her lips again. How much more could they take of this?

Come to think of it this wasn't fun. Ah, if only she was more creative... no, she just wanted to give it up this time. The mood was broken- she didn't want to hurt those bears anymore. She wouldn't know how to enjoy it. Disappointing as it felt, she had lost interest; they wouldn't even have made a good breakfast. Too many claws and...

She sighed, what was getting into her? Let them go? Not in a million years. Nobody was letting anything go. Specially not her. Too many claws? Well, kill them, cut out their claws, rip 'em inside out and bear salad coming right up. That was starting to sound good. Better do it now before she chickened out completely.

Carrying the jar all the way to her cutting board (a massive rock with a flat surface), she plucked a couple bears through a folded apron, and placed them on top of the rock. They were squirming so nicely in her hand... it was a shame they weren't good eating. Well, alive, at least. Last time she'd eaten something with that much claw she'd nearly choked on her own blood. She wasn't a naga.

Pulling a face at her little occurrence, she raised her cleaver and struck true on one of the cubs' heads, hearing its last squeal. Then she performed another swift movement, cutting through another bear. Their blood was running down the rock, already red with the blood that had seeped into every crack it could. She'd have to clean it up one of those days.

Then she heard the mother's squeals... and its kid's squeals at realizing that its mommy was scared. They kind of rang in her head, reminding her of what had happened to her own mother. Eaten, eaten just like that, just like nothing, just like everything she'd ever been, had or done, it all had meant less than a whisper in the wind, and there was nothing she could ever have done about it. Just like everything in the world... just like this entire grove, just like her entire life, just like every friend and family she ever had, to whoever rightfully wanted a piece of her. It'd all be meaningless. All she had was herself to know just how wonderful she was. And it rang every bit as empty as it sounded.

And every time she stopped to think of that, it didn't make her feel any wiser or more peaceful. It made her feel giddy with the need to go find something and crush the life out of it. Pity the only thing she could really crush were humans- everything else had claws, teeth, hooves, spikes, and knew how to use them.

The remaining cub now clung to its mother's back; the mother was swimming towards the edge of the cauldron. Elsie wondered how to separate them without getting a nasty claw mark in her hand. She didn't want to just beat the things to death; these embittering thoughts had rekindled a flame of utter sadism in her.

Once more grasping them through her apron, her fingers worked deftly to wrench the cub from its mother, and then pull it out. The mother struggled, trying to hang to the apron- which the giantess just flicked her through, with a single finger, tossing the bear back in the water. Now for the cub, she placed it on the stone, right next to its siblings' bodies, and raised her cleaver.

The creature seemed to panic for a moment, releasing a heartrending cry. Its mother answered with something the likes of it. And Elsie just brought down the hatchet- nearly splitting the cub in two, but she didn't. She just chopped off the skin off its legs, to hear it cry in pain. Turning to its mother, powerless to stop her, able only to cry in protest and horror, she...

...felt disgusted at herself.

-If anything is not necessary, it's this. - she pursed her lips. -Ah, fuck it.-

She raised the hatchet again, and cleaved the cub in twain. Its mother stopped screaming for an instant, as it held its breath.

Then it roared again, stopping for no reason only to roar again, while holding to the edge of the water. Met with no response, other than Elsie's curious gaze upon her, it suddenly broke into flailing, roaring in pain and loss. Even though it was an animal, she could see just how much pain she'd caused her. Pointing her smile at her, she shrugged.

"I think you were a good mother." she chuckled. The bear suddenly stopped- and Elsie's eyes lit up. Had it really paid her any attention?

No, or maybe yes, because it kept thrashing a while afterwards. Had it stopped just to regain its breath, or had it resumed only because it felt insulted? She hoped it was the second... it meant she'd meant something. Now for the big finish...

She plucked a few nails from a nearby branch. Well, nails to her- to the mother, they'd look like spires, or pipes. This probably was a moment to remember, she wanted a memento. She held the nail between her fingers, and raising it, she pricked the bear straight in the heart with it. Then she pulled it up by the nail she'd just driven into it.

Mama bear just squirmed for a while, choking on its own blood... and then it went limp. Elsie placed its body on the stone, giving it a moment...

Then she just put the cubs in her mouth. They still had too many bones- so she chewed their bloodless remains until there was nothing sharper than her teeth inside her mouth. With a gulp, she suddenly felt empty.

Maybe that emptiness was actually the emptiness of her heart, devoid as it was of love. Thinking about it gave her a shoulder ache; maybe that was actually the ache of her heart, devoid as it was of love. And upon dwelling on it for a moment, she felt sad, but a little more enlightened... well, enlightened wasn't exactly it. Psychotically giddy was more like it.

This didn’t answer why she had done this. Well, that bear would remind her not to ever be that much of a monster again. But she HAD to be a monster- she didn't want to be the weakling everyone saw.

Weakling...

Come to think of it, that was why she'd done it. She had always been too weak. She was too weak now, she couldn't even touch those bears while they were alive- and they weren't the most dangerous thing there was. All she had was her ruthlessness; she was always too vulnerable. Always at the mercy of whatever crossed her path, always having to mind her mouth, never able to be herself, without a single peer in this rotten world, how could she be anything but a monster!?

Without a single peer- that wasn't true. But for some reason, Thory and Rozal just felt... she didn't want to depend on them. They were strong. She wanted to depend on herself, and their support- friends were there for a reason, but how? How did she ask for support? How did she ask for comfort? She'd never comforted them. She'd never been useful to them. Not a single time. And opening up... it never paid off.

-Isn't there a single person in the world I can open up to? - Elsie wondered. -And isn't that exactly what I don't want to do?-

Such thoughts ill-suited her. She had lost track of the number of times she had been thinking down that road. And she never found out anything new. She was contradictory. Duh. Now what?

Now she ripped the bear apart, ate its insides once it was done bleeding, and then followed up with some greens, because it was healthy. No way to go wrong with that.

I'm really enjoying your writing style. I need to set aside more time so I can read more, as they are pretty long stories. But very enjoyable reads indeed.

gt500x wrote:

I'm really enjoying your writing style. I need to set aside more time so I can read more, as they are pretty long stories. But very enjoyable reads indeed.

Thank you. That's all I could ask for.

======

All Fun And Games Part 4- Bears Upon Me

"Hello? Is the Big Bad Bear here?" the girl mumbled, looking around in the forest. Darn if this forest was massive- beyond comprehension, beyond possibility, beyond health, beyond anything, there couldn't possibly be a forest this big. The trees seemed to stretch so high they trapped the clouds, the grass was so tall she couldn't see, the roots of faraway trees emerged from the horizon...

"Hello...?" she asked, again, blankly. Her terror was only known to her- her voice didn't betray it in the least. She was lost and alone in a ruthless world of green and brown, and until the reality of it finally sank in, she'd keep oblivious to the obvious.

"Dad? Are you here?" she turned around, without trying to even move the grass. This whole world was so big and full and there she was, standing alone in the middle of a place she'd never been meant to occupy. She was starting to shiver. Dad always said she shivered too much...

"Mommy...?" That was a stupid question, mom was gone. She remembered that much. "Will?" Again, a stupid question- she could only wish there was someone she recognized, someone in this whole mess. "Mail? Is the mailman here?" she asked. Now, rather than obliviousness, her voice was heavy with despair. She gulped. The next words she was going to utter were a death sentence. She couldn't speak them aloud. No one would ask for "someone, anyone". Not in this huge, cruel world...

All she could do was wander vacantly, almost deliriously, until she came to a... a door. The door to a house. She opened the door, and walked in.

No matter how alien this place, with its pink walls, its tile floor, a single room, she seemed oblivious to it all. She jumped on one of three chairs to a square table, right in front of a plate of soup. She was hungry...

Picking up the spoon, she took a sip of the soup. It was too hot.

"This one's too hot!" she complained, getting off the chair, dropping the spoon. She felt she kicked something under the table, but she didn't pay it any mind. She just jumped to the next chair, sipping the next plate of soup.

"This one's still too hot!" she cried, throwing away the spoon. Then she looked over the table at the last plate of soup, right opposite her. She got down from the chair, and then went around the table, climbing up with some effort. This last chair was too tall, and too small, like it had been meant for someone just a little bigger than her. After a while, she managed to sit down, pick up the spoon, and try the soup.

She drank the soup avidly and in silence, with struggling movements, spilling a lot of it on the table and on her dress. It was a pretty dress for a pretty girl, full of details that detracted from its practical value, heavy, with all the layers of cloth that are to be expected of someone with thin and delicate skin trying to survive in cool and unforgiving weather. And when she was done with the soup she felt really full.

There were three beds in a corner. She tried to go towards the closest one, but it was too high, and there was no way for her to reach it. Then she went for the second bed, and despite it wasn't that high, she saw, from beneath it, a bed that seemed just about the right size for her. It was tiny compared to the other two beds, but it would do.

She went towards that bed, and laid down, wrapping herself with the covers without undressing herself. Warmth was all she needed now.

For what it lasted, she was just lying on the bed, content with its fuzzy warmth, and everything else seemed so distant the world might as well have never happened. But it had to come to an end- as something banged on the door.

Peeking from over the bed's edge led her to reale the bed looked a little like a wooden box with a mattress and covers on the bottom. Peeking at the door, something was trying to force it open. Covering her mouth not to scream, she rolled over in bed- the door was strong, wasn't it? Something, just something was trying to bring the door down...

And then there was a sound, more like a CLACK than a bam. Something was trying to bring the window down- and it was just flimsy glass, it'd give soon! Looking at the window, all that was visible was a shadow, something black or brown, jumping and slapping at the window, then bouncing back down. Nothing too clear was visible.

She just rolled over, face-down, hearing the CLACK and the BAM grow more frequent. CLACK. BAM. CLACK. BAM. CLACK. BAM. And then there was a PAF- as something banged on a wall from the outside. CLACK. BAM. PAF. CLACK. BAM. PAF. The house was shaking under the stress of those three intruders trying to force their way in.

The little girl raised her gaze over the edge, and saw the second intruder break the window open, roaring- now she could see it, it was a bear! Black andbad, the bear was now squeezing its body through the window, growling, crawling past the glass with impunity. She tried to jump over the edge, but then she saw another bear- the brown predator had finally managed to bring the door down, its jaws were hanging hungrily, its fuzzy snout pointing at her, a trickle of drool falling from its pink tongue, its beady eyes the most horrifying sight in the world. It was grunting hoarsely, enthusiastic in its starvation.

Another bear, bigger than the other two, managed to break open part of the wall, and jogged into the room, its white bulk looking every bit as frantic and hungry as the other two, an aphonic, nervous roar coming from its throat. The bear that had come through the door shoved the table off the way, advancing towards her with a decided pace. The other bear stood up and slapped the bookcase, tossing it down. The third bear was just advancing towards her slowly.

More bears appeared- there'd been bears hiding under the larger bed, there had been bears behind the bookcase, there were bears ebearywhere. The situation was already worse than unbearable, now it was looking grizzly for the girl, the only one unable to bear the situation. Dozens of snouts were pointed at her, they had her surrounded from every direction; as she turned towards the corner, hoping that maybe she could hide behind the bed, she saw that spot was already taken up by several koalas.

"But koalas are not bears!" she cried, as hungry snout after hungry snout surrounded her, grunting and gasping, their foul, moist breath washing over her, their teeth looming closer, ever closer...

======

Nimble she crawled over the muddy moat, aiming for the grove inside that barrier, the cloudy sky the only witness of that swift display. There was no one in the sparse wilderness, much to her surprise. In this place, with their heads so tall and their vision so unimpeded, she would have thought it was more likely to see someone. Well, likelihood was just that.

Now she looked forward to satiating her hunger in this place. There was a giantess here, unprotected, alone, vulnerable, a little smaller than her- she bared her fangs at the thought. This'd be a piece of cake. Just find her, she stood no chance. She knew that firsthand- she was useless in a fight. And she was slow and sluggish too. She could've killed the lone occupant of the grove anytime she wanted- but only now she was coming for her, around a month from the last time they had met.

"Nugh... hrrf..."

And she'd decided to sleep in late today. The dridder had to wonder why, really. It didn't make much difference anyway, this wouldn't be difficult, either way. Guided by her asleep mumbling, she tracked the sound to its source...

...and gasped in silence.

That smaller giantess had apparently been eaten by this bigger giantess. The dridder stopped for a moment to get a good look at her.

The features on her sweat-covered face were the same, and so was her hair, but now she was... didn't giant humans stop growing once they matured? Well, she learned something new every day- or maybe, just like she thought, she'd been eaten by this other one.

"Hey, wake up, Elsie!" the dridder cried.

"Pandamonium!" the giantess cried as she sat up, gasping in terror. "Ah, huh, Thory. Hi..." she smiled, sounding a little relieved.

"Elsie?" Thory barked, in disbelief. "What in the name of Crisis have you been eating?"

"Bears. I mean... Nekos, mostly." Elsie sighed. "Why'd you wake me up?"

"I came over to visit, that's all." Thory lied. "So how've you been?"

"Polar."

"Eh?"

"Fuzzy and peachy." Elsie said, her eyes darting around quickly.

"You don't look fine."

"Just a nightbear..." she yawned near the end. "Nightmare."

"Really? Sounds fun, what was it about?"

"Just a silly children's book I read once..." Elsie said, with a dismissing gesture. "I'll be fine. Just give me a second to get my bearings."

Right there, Thory noticed something near her friend's cleavage.

"What's that?" she said, pointing at it.

Elsie fiddled a little with her new acquisition, letting a grin flit over her features.

"It's a trophy." she chirped. "I had bear yesterday."

"Oh, is that what a bear looks like?"

"Actually this is just the head, the body was too big to make a necklace." she shrugged. "But I kept the skin, I can show you if you want."

"You didn't just gulp it down?"

"They've got claws, and... and you know what that's like for me."

"Yeah. How'd you get those bears, anyway?"

"I guess they just popped in..." Elsie rubbed her chin. "Can't think any other way."

"Uh-huh." Thory said, realizing there were two things in her mind right now. Should she ask about why was it Elsie'd grown so much, or should she just cut out with the niceties and talk business- meaning, that she was here for prey, and couldn't really care much for any other conversation topics right now.

Best be frank. This was going to happen sooner or later.

"Oh, by the way, I'm hungry." she said, with an ineffable smile.

Elsie looked at her strangely. Whenever Thory opened her mouth to talk about food, she got that amiss feeling in the back of her throat- that one day that tattooed many-legged hybrid might not want to eat scraps anymore and might come for her. Then again, if she'd wanted to eat her, she'd have already done so. Then again, again, mentioning any of those things wouldn't lead her anywhere she wanted to be.

She just stood up.

"Aye... got fowl and crocs." she mumbled. "And veggies."

"I'll take the fowl. Hey, how come you never have any nekos?"

"Not for lack of trying."

"You don't look like you hunt much. You're kinda round."

"I like it that way- why are you asking?"

"You said you were eating nekos, mainly, so..."

"Sorry, my bad." she replied. "I don't really get much neko."

"Why not?"

"Too fast."

"You should be faster."

"I'm fine." Elsie sighed.

Thory pursed her lips.

"You know, there's something I've never understood." she said, looking away.

"Hm?"

"You're so big and fat, but you never hunt anything... so how did you get that big, anyway?"

"..." Elsie grimaced, still looking away, as she hoped Thory would be able to find a different conversation topic.

"You are a damn slob."

"..."

"How is that possible?"

Elsie turned an annoyed look her way, sighing.

"First, I'm not big and fat. I'm big, and beautiful." Elsie said, raising a hand towards her chest. "Second, I rarely hunt, that's true. But there's other ways to get food."

"Whoring out?"

"I do hunt, glouteaux. And I grow a lot of vegetables."

"But doesn't anything come to eat your vegetables too?"

"When was the last time you saw an herbivore around here?" the giantess sighed.

Thory shook her head.

"Well. You have a point."

"Watch that mouth of yours." Elsie barked.

"Start hunting something else." Thory replied. "How do you stay safe while hunting, anyway? How come it a kensha hasn't eaten you?"

"Magic."

"Don't lie to me. You can't use magic."

"That you know of." Elsie growled.

"You can't use magic and that's a fact."

"Are you going to tell me about myself?" Elsie answered, trying not to sound too rude. This was still the closest she had to a friend- and the only smith in thirty horizons.

"You can't use magic, I know that much, I'm your friend. So what's the deal?"

Elsie grimaced in a little disgust.

"Shut the fuck up." Elsie grumbled. "Why do I always have to put up with this...?" she had enough sense not to finish the sentence.

"Put up with what, exactly?"

"You trying to tell me about myself."

"You can't use magic. So don't lie to me."

"Call me a liar again, and..."

"And what?" Thory tilted her head, raising her brows. Elsie was looking down at her- but she knew exactly how much time to live she had if she tried to get physical with Thory. And she didn't want to guess as to what would happen if she tried to deny a hungry dridder a meal.

"Call me a liar again and..." No, she didn't want to finish that sentence either. If she stopped talking, it was her loss, not Thory's. That venom-hearted bitch could very well go through an entire lifetime without ever talking to any particular person. True predators were like that.

"If you're not going to finish, don't start." the dridder chirped.

"...yeah." she turned around, going for the trench. These fowl were usually there. She had never realized how long the distance to the trench was... this grove felt too big at times. Specially when Thory was in one of those stupid moods.

"So what were you going to say, anyway? Just out of curiosity?"

"..." Elsie just strode as fast as she dared towards the trench, until she finally reached the border. Beyond was the horizon of these blue-grassed fields, and just below was the mud on the bottom. She went around the trench.

"Not talking to me?"

"It's not like that. I just can't think of a thing I want to say."

"Not very creative, are we?" Thory giggled. "Why don't you tell me what you did to those bears?"

"I butchered them for meat."

"Cool."

"..."

"Why so quiet?"

"You called me a liar." Elsie said, quietly.

"Well, you can't use magic."

"..."

Elsie just glared at the air the other way. Suddenly, someone slapped her in the back.

"If you're angry you shouldn't keep it to yourself, Elsie!" Thory laughed. "Really, come on. I shudder to think what you do with all that anger you keep bottled!"

Elsie let out a chuckle too. She hadn't meant to... but something had been actually funny. Yeah, Thory would shudder to think of what she did. Maybe she'd even lose her apettite and pass on something's liquefied insides...

"So what's that about magic?"

"I make potions."

"Ah."

"Give me a moment, please." Elsie chirped, crawling down the trench at a set location, right next to a small rock. She lifted the rock for a moment.

"What's that, a trap?"

"It's just the mail. Didn't get any." she said. "Nevermind, let's keep looking."

"Mail?" Thory tried the word a little. "Were you expecting any letters?"

"... yes." Elsie smiled, a dreamy gaze being cast off into the distance. It'd have stayed there if Thory hadn't seen fit to open her mouth.

"From a special someone?"

-How did I get myself into this?- the giantess wondered. -I don't want her asking about that. How do I get myself OUT of this, more importantly?-

"What about you, Thory?" she grinned, looking back at her, too intent to dismiss. "Anything new in your life?"

"Just... the usual." Thory said, pointing away with a finger, as the two of them kept wandering around the trench. "Ah, I caught a harpy the other day."

"A big one?"

"A little smaller than me. It wasn't so different from catching a smaller harpy, though..." she grinned. "I just had to be a little more careful to bite her, that was all. In hindsight, it was kind of disappointing. Ah, I've been working on my weaving! I'll make you a new apron later, for the meal."

"I still have the old apron."

"Hey, that was when you were shorter than me." Thory pointed. "And I'd like to try again, you know? I didn't think you'd actually wear it, the frills were all over the place, I had sewn it wrong, it was grotesque, it made you look like a monolith. You only wore it to embarass me, didn't you?"

"No, I actually liked it." she answered, honestly. "I'm still wearing it."

To her surprise, Thory laughed. In hindsight, she shouldn't have been surprised.

"Wearing it right now? Around your little toe? Seriously, you can't be still wearing that thing! If it was snug then, right now you'd burst out of it."

"Well, I can go without it anyway. It wasn't like the apron was for the cold."

"Yeah, you know, maybe I can do something else than an apron. You need anything? I've been working on my smithing, too. So if you'd like a new shovel or a pot..."

"No, thanks. I like the shovel and the pot."

"I like smithing too. How's the cleaver doing?"

"It's alright too, don't worry. I appreciate everything you do for me."

"Yeah, can you appreciate it with a glouteaux?"

Elsie let out a sigh.

"Sorry it's taken so long. Usually I can't walk two steps without tripping on one, but... I think something happened."

"Have you thought of putting them all inside a pit rather than making a moat? I always thought it was kind of a waste to dig this huge trench, myself."

"The trench... well, yes, it is kind of a waste. But it keeps them feeding on their own until I want to eat them. It's not easy to go hunting for one every time I want meat."

"If you want. It's still a pretty big trench, though."

"Let's go see the greens, instead..." Elsie offered. "Maybe later we'll see some glouteaux, they appear when I don't want to see them."

"No, let's keep looking."

"It's not working."

"I hate greens! Since when do you eat greens?" Thory grumbled.

"The glouteaux sometimes do. It's my little secret, though." Elsie grimaced. "I had to pile up some rocks to keep them from my greens, but sometimes, one of them just stands there and the others use the poor sap as a stepping stone." and with that, she moved back towards the center of her grove.

"Where are you going?"

"With them." Elsie growled, disappearing into her grove. "Nobody eats my greens without my permission!"

"Look, it can't be THAT much of a big deal..." Thory sighed. Then she heard a squawk- only a few hundred feet ahead, she could see the unintelligent eyes of one of those massive wastes of flesh. And another, and another- "Hey, Elsie! Wait, I..." the realization that she didn't have to tell Elsie about the birds suddenly got into her head. Of course, she'd feel a little bad for a while, but a bird was just a bird. "I'll keep them busy!" she cried high. "With venom, we can have soup together afterwards..." she added, in a lower voice.

Oh, boy, the promise of a good meal that those birds were. Thory scrambled at a frantic pace towards one, and grabbed its defenseless bulk quickly, biting it in the neck. After a moment of very special warmth, where she could feel parts of herself that she couldn't before, beating and wriggling inside her, she grabbed another one of the giant fowl and bit it too. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, right? Two birds, why not three? There were over nine of them here. Elsie had no reason to be greedy. Neither did she, but then again, unlike Boobies over there, she didn't know where was her next meal coming from...

"WAaaAAGh! Help!"

A shrill, uneven cry alerted Thory that one of those moments where people had to remember what friends were for had just occurred. She dropped both birds just over the edge of the trench, letting the venom run its course, and ran towards the source of the cry. On her honor, she'd be there for a friend in need.

======

The scene Thory came to bear witness to was kind of fuzzy, but on the larger picture it was a matter of black and white. There were no shades of gray here- only Elsie, paralyzed in panic, and in front of her, having seemingly just seen her, a giant quadruped.

Its thick body and claws suggested an omnivore, with black on white fur. Its two beady, masked eyes and long white black-tipped snout could've been cute if it weren't for those vicious teeth. It was pointed towards her friend... and moving slowly, its jaw slightly open, its tongue out. The creature had to be at least 70 feet at the shoulder- which was just over Elsie's bellybutton. But as a barrel-chested quadruped with stocky legs, it obviously beat the giantess in strength. Thory didn't feel she was to contest the creature's strength, either...

"Elsie! What are you doing? Run!"

"A... ah..." Elsie mumbled, frozen in fear. "Alright!"

She turned around, and ran- Thory grimaced in a bitter, nameless feeling, seeing the giantess' paces quickly overtaken by the beast's paces once it started running. Elsie turned around for but a moment and saw it too... and she TRIPPED!

"Klutz!" Thory roared, angry as hell- how come Elsie was THAT slow!? It reminded her of a human!

"It's not my faAAH...!" Elsie cried, looking back for another moment- there didn't seem to be much she could do- that girl was going to get ripped apart by a hungry black and white monster- but it was her friend and she couldn't just-

"ESCAPE!"

The next thing the monster knew was that somebody had just punched it in the ear with enough strength to cut it. It growled and roared as it stood back for a moment, its jaws wide open and ready.

"I, I can't..." Elsie managed to stand up, realizing she'd just about sprained her ankle- just a little more and she wouldn't be able to run- Thory wouldn't have much time- that monster was going to kill them both- and now what!?

======

Now she jumped on the nearest tree, used Thory's abdomen as a step...

"WAIT WHAT!?"

...and threw herself on a branch. From there, she stood up, and holding as tight to the tree as she could, she tried to stay out of reach from the black and white monster.

"What'd you just do!?" Thory growled, looking up, with a look in her eyes that would make it self-defense. Elsie scrambled to the next branch, with some measure of success, and from there, once more she hugged the tree as hard as she could- while looking down at the dichromatic omnivore, squealing in anger, taking a hop at her friend (well... former friend).

"Sorry! Now run!"

"Say I run, what next!?"

"I don't know, think of something!" Elsie cried.

Thory took a final look at Elsie, then at the giant ball of fur with claws and teeth. It looked angry.

Come to think of it, retreat was another of a warrior's options.

"Hang in there, Elsie!" Thory cried. Then she skittered off at a speed Elsie wouldn't have believed if she hadn't seen it firsthand. The furry ball of fury, on the other hand, needed a moment to believe it, whether it had seen it or not- so it tried to give a little chase. It quickly broke off pursuit, though- returning its attention to the pussy on the tree.

======

Resisting the urge to make a joke on firemen and cats stuck on trees, the beast just let out a low, gurgling roar. And then another, while keeping its eyes locked on the woman: it had never seen that much edible meat anywhere. Elsie looked like she was full of juicy, tender flesh. But the monster wasn't full of juicy flesh. This hardly seemed fair at all.

The beast decided for a moment whether it should berate itself for cribbing off one of Terry Pratchett's best jokes, or do something about the fact it hadn't had its fill of her. In the end, it decided to be pragmatic about it, and stood on its hind legs, swinging away with its claws. The branch was still a snout's length away, however, much to its chagrin.

Every time it looked into the woman's eyes, the creature wondered what was wrong. She looked scared, but every time it looked around, it saw no real reason to be scared. That woman needed to live in the present. Just like it, which right now wanted a piece of her. Of course, once it had a piece it'd try to take the rest, but greed was a virtue, after all, wasn't it?

It tried to bark out a little. Maybe if he got her attention, she'd get down so they could get to business. That didn't work; she seemed pretty uninterested in talking. Which was strange, because only moments ago, it had been impossible to shut her and her companion up. They were giving it a migraine.

Ah, come on. There had to be a way to get to her, she was just a snout away. It wasn't like that was an impossible distance.

The beast withdrew a little from the tree trunk... and then ran on all fours towards it! With a hop at the end of the sprint, it tried to clear some distance. All it managed was half a snout- just enough to scratch the bark under the branch.

Rome wasn't built on a day, so it withdrew once more, and tried the hop again. This time, it managed to get the lower side of the branch. She heard a high-pitched... moan? come from the woman- was she like the people at the circus? That obviously meant it was doing something right! It'd get the trick right this time!

It withdrew once more, hopping at the end of a short sprint a third time, trying to get a little higher. It managed to get the lower side of the branch, but more exactly this time! Practice makes perfect, after all!

The next attempt saw the beast falling beneath its potential, scratching below its first mark. And the next... aw, drat, had the third one been just luck?

It looked up at the woman, and asked for a second opinion. She just closed her eyes, and made a sound like she was crying. There were tears in her eyes, too. Wow, cool! It'd been hella moving, then, if it had moved her to tears! Of course it just needed a little more practice! But in the meantime, it had already been getting hungry even before the rehearsing, and some idiot had cut its ear open with a punch. Geez. The nerve of some people.

Just then the critter turned its attention to the vegetables scattered over the ground. Of course, they'd been there all along, but it had been hoping to accompany the salad with some meat. Now it looked like the meat would have to wait, its tummy was rumbling right now, and it needed something to replenish the liquids and minerals. A pro of its proportions couldn't make do with less than the best.

Some honey to go with it would've been nice, though! Or a sugar cube. Ah, well, beggars couldn't be choosers... so it just started digging its snout in the veggies it had trampled. Man, those were some really good vegetables! It was almost unbearable not to eat them with some tender meat. Oh, accursed fate... damned to eat nothing ever but vegetables, just because vegetables were about the only thing that couldn't outrun it.

Well, some had it worse, though, it reflected, while digging into some watermelons. Man, were those some SWEET watermelons. And the melons! Those melons were celestial! There was a real plethora of broad, green-leaved veggies, and they couldn't get much fresher than this- they could've been washed, though. And some of those roots were just like OH YEAH! It never suspected it'd be a fan of beetroot, but if life gives you sweet veggies, what do you do? Protest? Or dig in, rip out, and have some carrots while you're at it? Oh, the taste of onions. Mmm... onion, tomato, lettuce...

Wait a moment, was it the right season for all those things? They might've been past their expiration date... hey, wait. This was prolly one of them greenhouse thingies, huh? Mmm... greenhouse... come to think of it, maybe there was some picked fruit around? Looking around, its suspicions were sweetly confirmed. It could see a bucket of the stuff! No, two! Man, this was like a tantalizing dream... if only it had the meat to go with the stuff!

On its way to the buckets of fruit, the bear saw something- a bird. Fowl. Mmm, fowl. And it looked like a pretty dumb fowl, too- it had to be one of 'em turkeys it heard so much about. The monster approached slowly, intercepting the fowl, and raised a paw. It let out a bark. Odd, was the thing blind and deaf or something? Ah, who cared? One swipe of its paw, and it was all over the place.

Mmm, fowl. Mmm, picked... what was this fruit called again? It raised its face towards the woman on the tree, she might know. But she just closed her eyes when it tried to ask, and let out a sharp hum.

Bitches be crazy! But damned if it was going to let that ruin its day. Meat, fruit, veggies, all it could ask for now was some bamboo.

Mmm, bamboo...

======

As the creature trampled and devoured every crop she'd so lovingly raised, occassionally it looked up to shoot stares at her, with those beady eyes lost somewhere in the dark stains around them. It growled at her, too- warning her what was to come if she came down. Sometimes, it even leaned on the tree, or charged towards the tree, aiming obviously to reach her feet in a hop. And it was close, too. SO CLOSE. For a moment, she wished she was small, small enough that the thing wouldn't notice her, small enough Thory wouldn't notice her, small enough Rozal... Rozal always noticed things, no matter how small they were. Elsie was sure enough of that.

Thory was taking her time- had she perhaps abandoned her? Hopefully not. But what if she was angry over being used as a step? She hoped her friend would understand- she hadn't meant any harm, she really, really hadn't- there was no other way, there really was no other way! What was done was done- if only she'd never moved away, if only she had been quieter when the beast had noticed her, but now there it was, that vile monster, with its gurgling roars and its insatiable voracity. It was only a matter of time now- either that thing would leave, of she'd fall off the branch.

Her footing was precarious, and now it had become slippery with her cold sweat. She was wondering how much longer could she hold, despite she'd been holding on to the tree for what already felt like an eternity. Then she felt a burning sensation on her chest- no, more exactly, on her breasts. And on her belly, and around the inside of her thighs and arms...

She was shivering again- realizing that clinging naked to that much rough bark naked had consequences. She could only imagine how many small scrapes covered her by now. By tomorrow she could be covered in scars from head to toe- if she lived to see tomorrow, that is. Every part of her that had just been exposed to the air was burning... and looking down towards her arms for a moment, she realized that there were parts of her which were actually bleeding. It was frustrating to know everything she cared for was really fragile, and that her beauty was something that could simply be DESTROYED by a DUMB BEAST without even TOUCHING her! That all her friendship could be good for was rendered into NOTHING by a DUMB BEAST without even TRYING!

"Hurry up, Thory...!" she said, in something very close to a gurgle. "Help... me..."

There was no malice in that beast's eyes. Elsie wished there was. Something, anything, something that made all this personal. But that thing would never care her name was Elsa or that she had been an orphan. To it, she was just meat to bite, bones to break, marrow to suck and innards to feast on. Well, it could be worse. It could've intended to swallow her whole and alive, let her know how little it cared while it kept eating.

It didn't matter how much she thought about it- the thing wouldn't go away. Not just from thinking. But there seemed to be nothing else she could do, except try to keep standing, without falling, without peeling herself against the tree -which now sounded impossible-. Every time she thought about it, it felt a lot more frustrating. It made her want to let go, hope the fall broke her head, and let the thing eat her. Thory was not new to loss, and Rozal could handle it. She knew they were both perfectly capable of coping without her... everyone could do just FINE without her, and it bothered her so much!

"Get back here..." she gurgled between clenched teeth, with a clenched throat. "Why won't you get back here...!?"

She resisted the impulse to clench her fist, she needed to hang on. Whatever happened, she had to hang on, as Rozal's words pounded in her ears.

'The living who abandon their chance to live accomplish nothing. Such an act would be the greatest tragedy.' Rozal had quoted. She'd never said where had she heard it, but they were words to live by. Rozal could go on forever about how wonderful it was to live, but as she said, only with music could the feeling ever be caught in full. She'd once spared a man just to give Elsie a helping of music, for her to know the joy of living. It was strange to think Rozal, too, was one of those predators- ever unapologetically aware of their impact in other lives no less wonderful than their own. All for the sake of size!

'And when I realized that I had nothing left to live for', Rozal quoted, 'I decided that if I was to live for something, I would have to still live for that day to come. I lived for that day in which there would be a reason to live.' she had said, with those ineffable eyes of hers. She wasn't heartless, as Elsie had often thought- Rozal had a heart just like she did, hell, even though she had suspected Rozal was actually even more screwed than she was- she made sense in her own way. Elsie had to admit to that...

'If my life was nothing but pain...' another quote went 'and death ended my suffering...' it followed 'even then I would choose to live.' it ended. There was a pattern here- and she'd never asked Rozal why. What was it about this theme that strung such chords with Rozal? How come she loved it so much? All of a sudden, she was struck with curiosity. Trying to bring strength from whatever corner of her body she could, Elsie realized she was looking forward to asking Rozal why...

"Rozal- I want to live..." she mumbled. She really should've tried to learn more from her. Rozal was wise- and only here did it seem to matter at all. Nothing she did or had done was going to help her now. "Minalca, please!"

She realized that had been foolish. This was still a cruel, heartless world. Even if it was made of good people, it didn't matter how much she prayed or to who- all she accomplished was keeping that thing amused with her cries. Now, it was just a matter of how long would it be until she couldn't hang on anymore. As soon as her hands started to ache, she knew that this situation couldn't be supported much longer. If no one came to save her soon, she'd be at the mercy of that meat-eater, she'd seen its maw, red with the blood of her livestock. Not for a moment would this world stop being itself- much like everyone in it. Nobody would ever stop being themselves, to the last second- and that included her!

If only she knew what that meant. Who was she, anyway? The orange sunset continued its merry descent, ignoring her.

Trying to look for some clarity, something, anything that made this AT LEAST feel right... she couldn't find anything. She couldn't think of a single thing, even in the verge of death. The emptiness of this feeling kept her busy for a while, until she heard a metallic clatter.

Looking down as far as she could without moving away from the tree trunk, she realized that she was on the verge of death only now; up to now she had been safe. The creature had found her cauldron, and it was hanging onto it with its teeth. Placing the cauldron down just below the branch, the creature started fiddling with it, trying to place its mouth down. Elsie wondered for a moment just how round the base was- she had never bothered much about it. But right now, she thought there was no better shape for a cauldron than a cube, because, obviously, that'd meant Thory had made a sphere. Please, make it a sphere...

The creature moved right below her, into a blind spot. She heard a clang. A shuffle. Please, a sliding sound of bone over metal. No sliding sound. Please, a slide, a slide, a slide! Another shuffle. A PWOK. Another shuffle. She grimaced, clenching her teeth, feeling the tree shake slightly from the massive animal trying to reach that branch...

And with a deaf noise, she realized it had poked the branch, a lot more this time. With another noise, she felt a slight current running right under her feet... and with another, she felt a sharp, brief pain on her foot. She hoped it was just her imagination. Then she heard another whoosh...

Yes; the last one had been her imagination anticipating the pain.

This one wasn't.

"GAAAhagHghagh..."

Her incoherent screech permeated the air for but a moment as the monster realized its tactic was working. Hurt her feet enough and she'd give up. Elsie tried shifting one foot away, thinking about all the things she couldn't think anymore. It didn't take her half of a second to get sidetracked and find thinking simply impossible- she was horrified, she had frozen together with the world, her body would not answer her...

"Elsie!" Thory's voice broke through, gasping. "Hang in there for a little longer... haaa" Was that a wheeze? "I'm almost..." a cough. "...ere!"

All she managed to answer with was a lowly squeak... she had taken her time, but now there was nothing she could do but put her faith on her. She imagined for a moment the body fuzz of her abdomen, her long striped legs, her skin, so pale and tattooed, her short blonde hair, and those gray eyes that were almost black- she couldn't look, she couldn't move her head at all. She could only sob in silence and hope for the best, from her friend.

The tree shook a little, like the monster had jumped again. She heard Thory gasp quickly, and then there was a sharp, piercing pain in her ankle.

"Wh...!" she mumbled, suddenly everything seemed to spin, her grip on the tree became faint, she felt herself falling, falling, falling for what seemed like an eternity. There was another feeling then, something fuzzy, something soft, something like a cloud, warm and inviting, breaking her fall, making her feel as light as a bubble.

The world seemed to be made of pink heart-shaped bubbles for a while, and she was bouncing on one, together with a giant giant panda that was really happy to see her. And there was cotton candy there too, it was pink and there were apples covered in candy and a nice lady said she could have all of it. Then she went to the ferris wheel, together with a red-haired stranger, who didn't stop saying...

======

"Elsie, Elsie, are you okay? Answer me..." a voice asked, gasping.

"Wheee...!" she giggled, exhilarated. Then she cleared the birdies flying around her head. "Thory...? What happened?"

"Well, I, ah, I..." she gasped. "I've got good news and bad news..." Thory mumbled, still out of breath, with a little tone of doubt in her voice.

"Really? What are the good news?" she giggled.

"Well, I kind of... killed the monster." Thory said, trailing off near the end. She sounded like she could barely breathe.

"And what are the bad news?"

"Well, it died. When you fell. On top. Of it. I missed with the knockout dart... I had ran all the way... then ran back... I was out of breath..." Thory was still panting like a dying rhinoceros.

"Ah..." she giggled. "Is that why I can't feel my body?"

"I would ho... pe it is-"

"I feel like I'm flyiiiing..." she kept giggling. "I feel so liiiiight..."

"You might be experiencing some side effects from the poison, too."

"Aww, the stars are so shiiiinyyyy." Elsie sighed. "How long does it take to wear off?"

"Well, if, it hasn't worn off yet, give it." Her voice still short-circuited all the time, cut off by persistent lack of breath. "eight or so hours."

"Reeeally? I feeeeel liiiike a dummyyyyyy!" she giggled. "Dummyyyy, it sounds funnyyyy!"

Thory gulped.

"Also, Elsie. If. You have ahh... ny healing potions, now's the time to use them."

"But I don't have any..."

"I knew it!" she groaned. "Why did you tell me you had?" she managed to blurt somehow in a single breath.

"Mmm..." Elsie shrugged. "Can you check the mail for me? I want to take a nap..."

======

Though her sleep was profound and restful, waking up was a nightmarish experience. As the events of the past day caught up with her, the third thing she noticed was that she was covered with itching and burning scratches. The second thing were very sore muscles and powerfully aching joints all over her body- despite the fact she'd been sleeping on the soil all night, yesterday had been a truly trying day for her body. But the first thing was a total mess where her orchard used to be.

She rose with some difficulty, letting out a gasp of pain, and crawled a little closer to her orchard. The soil she'd tilled so carefully, the greens she'd so lovingly watered, the tubers she'd done all she could for, all of it was now dug up, torn apart, stomped on, and covered with five-clawed tracks like those of a bear. All of it had been destroyed- and she had only narrowly escaped the same-

"Hey, Elsie." a familiar voice asked, behind her. "You finally woke up, how are you doing?"

She couldn't find the words to answer. She had lost everything she'd ever worked for, it felt like cosmic disappointment. In this whole world, there was but one thing she'd added to it, she'd poured her heart into it, and now, it was... done for. Her grove, her orchard, her home... wrecked by a bear.

"Elsie?"

"It's gone." she mumbled, her voice thin; her throat was still sore. "My whole orchard..."

"Well, you're alive. Get over it."

One of her hands rose to her collarbone, just under her throat. She grimaced, in silence.

"I'd worked so hard for it..." she sighed. "I got most of my food here, and now... it's destroyed."

"Guess you'll be down to hunting then. Better start early, you're a slob, it'll probably take you all day long to get a meal."

Elsie looked back at Thory.

"I'm not a slob." she hissed. She hadn't meant to, but any other sound was out of the question in her current state.

"Whatever. Get going, we're going hunting."

"I can't..." she mumbled. "It hurts."

"I said get over it, now." she snarled. "You can't mourn those stupid plants forever..."

"I mean it hurts all over!" she cried. "I clung to a tree all day long, I pulled some muscles, I'm even aphonic... I'm, I can't."

"You've had all night to rest, now..."

"I can't!" Elsie cried, her eyes starting to struggle to stay dry. "I can't, Thory!" she coughed. "I... really can't."

"You're just being a brat now."

"I know my own body!" she tried to bark; all she managed to do was cough. "If that's all you're going to do, then get out, dammit!" she coughed. "Get out..."

"Ah, for what it's worth..." Thory advanced, putting an arm on the giantess' shoulder- she shrank away from her grasp. "Come on..." the next attempt was simply parried.

"Just leave me alone!" Elsie cried. "Leave me alone."

Thory let out a growl, rolling her eyes for a moment.

"Stop being an idiot!" she continued, grabbing her shoulder again...

"Back off!"

Elsie's strength took Thory completely by surprise- but she had no technique at all. All that she managed to do was flail away at her with her arms, and push her back half a step of her front legs before she steadied herself. Even if the humanoid was bigger, the arachnid had the advantage everywhere else.

"Decades too early." Thory scoffed. "Get up, damn you!"

"Thory, I..."

"I said get up!"

"Thank you." she sighed, looking away. She had to say this- she couldn't simply leave it unsaid after tonight, but right now Thory was being a bully. It had been difficult to say...

"Get up."

Nice habit some people had, completely ignoring those who talked to them. But if she didn't say it now...

"If you hadn't been there, I'd be dead right now. Thank you-" she began, nervously, before getting cut off.

"I said get up. So get up and shut your mouth!"

"My life doesn't revolve around hunting!" Elsie coughed. "I've got other things to do, I can't go hunting with you."

"And what are those things you've got to do?"

"I need new seeds, Thory, I'm almost out of firewood- and there was one other thing too, some ingredients I can't grow here." Elsie hissed. "And I'm not in any shape for either thing. Let me rest, please? I deserve some rest."

"What friend would let you stay here to wallow in your self-pity?" Thory growled.

Elsie sighed.

"Ah, well, let's go. But to the west. I've got other things to pick up there, who knows, you might catch a thing or two."

It's really an interesting story Especially in how you handle Elsie's character. She is ruhthless, cruel and insane but in the same time desesperatly alone and scared of everything. I'm hoping she could find peace at some point ..

Hmhmhm. You have something good here.

The point of fact is that I think you are doing well with Elsie here, letting her roll along at first, but now she's going to have to adjust, and learn how to deal with her new lifestyle. She's more adjusted now, in terms of how a reader looks at her, because now you can see who she is a bit better. You also, I think, did well on adding the humor through the bear's perspective and effects of the venom dart.

I couldn't find any issues with this, except maybe you could describe the feeling of the poison after she had 'cleared the birdies' a bit more. Overall, a good piece and well-written.

I do wonder how Elsie is going to cope with this.

. . . Bears . . . Oh god, they're everywhere!

Thanks a lot for your comments.

It was a challenge to respond to those comments- there's so much I wish to tell you all, but I'd sooner not, so as to not spoil anything: I'll just tell you that I've already written the whole series *phew!*. You can count on it that All Fun and Games won't be left unfinished! My only challenge from now on will be not to spoil anything, no matter how many opportunities to say it in a funny way it'd give me, and give everyone the time to let things sink in.

I let Elsie roll along at first, yeah. I was trying to introduce her slowly, let you get to know her- but slowly. I wanted you to fear and hate her for a while before showing just how vulnerable and needy she really was. If I'd tried to drop all of her in your lap at once, not only wouldn't you have had the opportunity to dwell on what you knew and see her in several different lights, which would be a shame- dropping twelve hundred tons of woman in your lap would prolly count as murder (for Bobo the bear, it was ). It was darn hard, too- I tried to make sure she seemed like the same person all along, that nothing I did afterwards contradicted the rest, even if I was going to be going over several diferent facets of her... that was what kept me so long with Part 2. That is in the past now though.

Ah, MrNobody13, bears everywhere? Don't worry. It gets worse...

Bears and You... that was some f'd up stuff. I liked it very much, yes I did.

Well, I'll tell you a little spoiler.
Those are the titles of the next parts.
I've coldly calculated the effect of this spoiler, don't worry.

Part 5- My Alchemical Romance
Part 6- Vulnerable
Part 7- Closure
Part 8- Call me Mommy
Part 9- Let it Bleed
Epilogue- The Rest is Easy

Part 5- My Alchemical Romance

[WARNING- this story contains moderately explicit narrations of experiments performed on animals without appropriate approval and under less than optimal testing conditions. It's still pretty funny, though.
WARNING NO. 2. In this story, the words lizard, alligator, crocodile, gator, and croc will be used synonimously. I know crocodiles and gators are both different species from lizards- but it should only bother compulsive hairsplitters. The words are being used interchangeably for the sake of smoother reading only, so as to not repeat the same word every sentence, as is usually my problem with the word "then"]

Thory hopped over the trench, calmly shrugging as she saw no birds down in it this time. Her friend's grove was a peaceful place by now, no doubt- it had been a week since the giant giant panda attack. Hopefully, Elsie wouldn't have gotten herself into more trouble. For all that could be said of that young woman, she sure knew how to stay out of trouble. Just in case, however, Thory had brought with herself a small axe and a shortbow this time. Better safe than sorry, as that last fight had taught her.

She quickly found her way to the veggies. The giant farmer was talented, she had to give her that, though without her prodding, probably none of that would've happened by now. Her orchard was once more full of vegetables of all kinds- broad-leaved, tube-leaved, flowery, without flowers, with tubers, without them. The really impressive thing, though, was that they were all Elsie-sized vegetables- this is, too big even for Felarya. They were at least twice as big as Thory would've expected- some of them even came up to half of the difference between the ground and her abdomen. There were less lettuces than before, too.

She heard a hum from somewhere around her. That off-base humming, it had to be her friend. She quickly followed the source of the noise...

...and found a most interesting sight.

Elsie was kneeling down, tending to some bushes, all of them sporting some small, broad-leaved crimson flowers. Pulling the weeds from between the roots, and squeezing a soaked cloth to water them, she seemed to be quite content for the time being. When she saw at her like that, she wondered sometimes what was going on inside that young woman's head. The flowers were beautiful, anyway, though as she felt their scent, she had to wonder why was she doing that with the cloth.

And then, Elsie had the idea to take the soaked cloth and rub it over her collarbone, scrubbing her breasts insistently, with a vacant expression on her face. She stopped after a while, and continued with her belly, once more squeezing the cloth against herself, slowly going lower and lower with it, until, almost teasingly... she turned to her buttocks before it got to the good part, much to her chagrin. When she raised that cloth back, she opened her mouth a little, and squeezed a few drops of the liquid in her lips, rubbing and smacking them together a little, a pleased smile coming over her features. She soaked the cloth once more on the bucket she had failed to notice, and then wet her neck, letting the wind dry her bit by bit as she stood up. Pulling her hair to the front, she scrubbed her back with the towel, and her thighs followed. She seemed to take special note of her thighs, making certain she was well-soaked before continuing down to her shins.

All in all, this made Thory suspect she'd known she was coming, and was waiting for her right by the flower bush, soaking herself and letting the wind cool her so as to better enjoy the warmth in her long, long embrace... well, she didn't want to disappoint!


So, all in all, she approached carefully and...

"AIIE WHO'S THERE!?" Elsie cried, suddenly jerking away from her.

"Hey, don't yell like that, it's just me!" Thory complained, the mood squashed by her scream.

"Well, just so that you know, you could give me a yell if you come over to visit." she protested.

"I could, but what if someone else was there? They'd know I was here too." Thory shook her head. "You don't think like a soldier."

"I had never wanted to be a soldier, Thory." she replied, calmly.

"Well, you're not going to live long being just a... what are you, again?" she replied nonchalantly.

"A gardener. I'm happy with my vegetables- can we leave it that way?" Elsie asked, turning her gaze away.

Oh, cute. Not cute enough, though.

"Alright, I don't think I'd be too happy teaching you, either way. You haven't got the legs."

"Err, they... okay." Elsie sighed. She didn't want to argue there. "So, what brings you here?"

"I was just passing by, wanted to know how were you doing."

"Ah, I'm doing great. I'm healed, thankfully there's been no scarring..."

"Scarring would've helped you build character." she interrupted.

Elsie grimaced.

"I think I have just about enough character." she said, taking the soaked cloth and rubbing it over her arms. The spell had been broken, however, now instead of ecstatic, she seemed to be nervous and embarassed while doing it. "By the way, nice hair..." she said.

The dridder beamed.

"You noticed?" she ran a finger over her hair. Unlike last time, it was short, all around her head, a blonde covering for her forehead, ears and eyebrows. "Do you like it?"

Elsie smiled, giving her friend an once-over. She had those big mischievous eyes, and that small mouth. That new hairstyle combined with these two things maximizing her natural cuteness together with her pale torso and fuzzy arachnid half. These abstract, black tatoos in her arm -maybe arrows, maybe hooks, maybe letters in some language- added a little mystery to the mix.

"It really suits you, you've got to be the cutest thing I've ever seen."

"Oh, thanks!" Thory giggled. "Say, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" Elsie asked, while scrubbing her arms. Only then did Thory notice the liquid had a blackish tone- like water from washing clothes.

"I mean, what's with that liquid?"

"What liquid?" Elsie asked, nervously, while scrubbing her left armpit. "Would you mind giving me some privacy?"

"You should've asked for that first, not last. Come on, tell me what that liquid is."

"I ask again... hm..." she turned to the other armpit. "What liquid are you talking about?"

"The one you have in that bucket, the stuff you're running all over your body."

"Eh, this? Ah... it's..." she stopped for a moment, and grabbed the bucket. Compared to her, it was quite tiny... she swallowed all of it greedily, and then shrugged. "It's..." she belched "nothing!"

"I saw you putting that on the roses before."

"It's just water..."

"That stuff was almost black."

"Was it?"

"You're a big stupid oaf where it comes to lying, Elsie. What the hell was that liquid?"

"Ah, it's..." she grumbled for a moment. "I've got no idea how to explain what it is, Thory."

"Well, since you put it on the flowers, and you put it on your breasts..." Thory's face suddenly twisted in concentration, trying to find a relation between the purposes Elsie had for both boobs and bush. "Elsie, is it some sort of universal fertilizer?"

Elsie looked at her, bemused.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because if you have one, you should share it."

"It's just a... tonic!" Elsie blurted, nervously. "To replenish salts."

"A what, to do what?" Thory exclaimed.

"Salts, in the ground..."

Thory cleared her throat.

"You're right, I don't really care to understand it. I just wish you could do something useful; that monster nearly killed you."

"Ah, don't worry about that. I've been making some stuff, just like you suggested."

"And how's that worked out for you?"

"Well... I have a couple healing potions, just in case someone gets hurt."

"I don't see how is that going to stop a giant monster."

"I've been meaning to do some other stuff, but I don't have the recipe."

"Where do you get the recipe?"

"I've got no idea." Elsie replied. "All I can do is that healing potion, an ointment for wounds, and that tonic."

"And the fertilizer."

"What fertilizer?"

"I don't think salt makes plants grow to colossal sizes, Elsie. Have your plants been eating each other or something?"

"What do you mean?"

"None of those plants is supposed to grow to that size. So what did you put in them, whole live fairies?" Thory asked.

"Eh, huh..." Elsie made a sound between giggling and coughing, then gasped. "Just the usual."

"Now the usual had to go and make me curious." Thory smirked, looking serious. "What's the usual?"

"That's my secret. And even if it wasn't, you wouldn't be tell what are the things I'm using- so what's the point anyway?"

"Wow, you don't like explaining."

"That's right, I don't like explaining myself." Elsie spat. "Though I do have one last recipe, maybe you'll like it."

"What does it do?"

"I can do better than tell you, I can show you." the giantess grinned, turning around.

Thory followed her towards a small hole, where one of the glouteaux was lying.

"You were right, the trench was kind of a waste." she added, pulling out the glouteaux from the hole. Then she shook it slightly.

Thory gasped; that thing looked almost dead. Rather than the brute exuberance of its kind, the light in its eyes was dimmed- and it could barely even do that gobbling sound at all. Its breathing was slow and shallow- as if it were dying. Come to think of it, she recognized those eyes- the poor thing was in agonizing pain.

"What did you do to that poor fool?" Thory grimaced.

"Ah, just gave him a taste of a new recipe I got." Elsie replied, proudly. "Look." she started poking the fowl all over. In most spots, it was irresponsive- but when she poked it on its belly, the animal writhed in pain. "See? Looks like its tummy hurts..."

"Just put the poor thing out of its misery already! It's painful to look at! By Sineria- you messed with the dumbest thing you could find? It wasn't going to fight back, it can't! Elsie, what sort of sick bully are you?" Thory blurted.

Her friend looked at her in the eyes, trying not to look guilty.

"You haven't seen the best part."

"You mean there's more...?" Thory grimaced. "I told you, that's painful to look at! You're not just doing it to that poor bird..."

"I'm PREYING on this bird."

"Well, try not to be so cruel about it! It's making ME feel guilty! By Sineria, I can see it shedding tears!"

"Oh, don't be squeamish." she said, putting that thing on her sacrificial rock. Raising her cleaver from the ground next to it, she released the unmoving bird- and split its chest in twain.

"Better..." Thory mumbled, looking at the bird. It had died in pain- but at least, now its pain was over. "What the hell did you do to it?"

"Look, I know it's a little cruel. But you'll see it's okay..." she dug with her fingers into the chop, and tore the bird's chest open.

"It's not a little cruel, it's abhorrent and unnatural!" Thory grumbled. "Was that necessary?"

"I ask myself that all the time..." Elsie sighed. "I'm glad we're getting to know each other better." she smiled afterwards.

Thory was left in silence, looking at that woman. So big, so fragile, so beautiful, and yet so cruel. She was... kind of pathetic, in a way.

"That you do... what's the news?"

"This." Elsie smiled, pointing her towards an organ that looked like it had been engorged brutally, and was so soft, that when Elsie poked it, it stayed indented. That... was disgusting. "I have something that makes the liver swell up and soften!"

"By Sineria..."

"Of course, since the liver wasn't meant to fatten, like this, it hurts the animal... it stops eating so I had to force-feed it for a while."

"A... a... a while..." Thory grimaced. "I don't think I want to hear anything more about this potion of yours. I'm already queasy."

"But don't you think it's really clever?"

"Sure, whatever... what do you do with those livers, anyway? Why do you put the poor things through this?"

"Well, fattened liver is tasty."

Thory gulped a little, and shook her head.

"And they say dridders are scary."

"I get the base from migratory birds. If you can cut open their heads in their sleep..."

"Quit it." Thory grumbled. "I'm good..."

"But I haven't told you about the rest of the elaboration process!" Elsie groaned.

Thory gave her a good look right in the eyes. She looked disillusioned. The woman was talking about disemboweling birds she'd poisoned and she was sad because no one wanted to talk about it? Then it clicked. She was poisoning birds, caring for that entire grove, the flowers, the veggies, obsessively growing ever bigger vegetables, making a trench, disemboweling happily those birds... come to think of it, there were some animals she knew with similar behavioral patterns. Let's see, when they were digging holes and ripping up corpses and playing all day long that meant they...

"You need to get laid." Thory said, stretching a little. Elsie rolled her eyes; Thory seemed to have a point, but it was kind of annoying to be reminded of that by anyone else than herself.

"So, why are you armed this time around?" she asked, nervously. Seeing an armed dridder, capable of hacking her guts open or making them melt away was a threatening sight, friendly or not.

"Ah, well, just in case you needed some help with something while I was here." Thory shrugged. "Though it's kind of a stupid idea. I've been out there for like thirty days, Elsie- by the time I got here you could've been torn up like a shed skin amongst hungry rats." she spun her head around a little. "And now you're telling me that you're not in any condition to fight? So..." she stopped.

"So...?" Elsie tried to continue.

"What the hell, Elsie? You're a sitting duck and you're okay with that!?" she spat.

Elsie grimaced.

"What... do you suggest?"

"Well, these potions would be a good start! You know, the ones that would make a difference in an actual fight?" Thory tilted her head.

"I don't have the recipes." she answered blankly.

"What are you going to do, then? Because I haven't seen you do anything to find them!"

"You haven't been here!"

"And what have you been doing? Waiting for something to come up to you and rip and tear your guts?"

"It's not like that, I've been busy..."

"Too busy to watch out for your life? It's a damn wonder you're still alive, do you know that!?"

The giantess grimaced.

"You have no idea..."

"And now I return and watch you give yourself a sponge bath in the middle of those rose bushes. They weren't there the last time I checked- so I'm guessing you've been planting roses. Roses, Elsie, you've been planting roses, recovered your vegetables, you've been cramming that SHIT down those poor birds' throats- don't remind me of any details- but if you're attacked by a monster again you'll just put your head between your legs and keep bending until you can kiss your ass goodbye!?"

She was raising her voice so much...

"But I can't..."

"At least you could've taken a fighting lesson."

If looks could kill, Thory would've been forced to kill Elsie before her stare did anyone in. And she was feeling tempted to; if she had to pick between a warm bowl of soup and a painful memory... she tried not to keep thinking down that road. She'd promised Rozal she'd look out for the girl.

"I still don't know why is it you won't take fighting lessons, you're obviously cruel enough. That's the first thing we try to teach kids and usually takes the longest."

"Because..." Elsie's voice died out before she could finish. "Because I... I don't work that way. I'm just weak." she tried again.

"Nice excuse."

"I'M not lying..." she began, raising her voice.

"Yes, you are. Nobody who's 'just weak' can get that big, so don't pull my leg."

"By that reasoning I should already know how to fight." Elsie's voice was already quivering.

"Or run, and you don't know either." Thory replied.

What?

"Well, you're wrong."

"No, you're lying." Thory chuckled. "You're not weak, you can't be."

"When I'm running, I find it hard to keep balance. When I move too fast, my head spins!"

The dridder just let out a derisive snort.

"You're lying."

"No."

"I have no idea why you are lying, but you are. Don't argue with me."

"Don't argue with ME either." Breath was starting to fail her.

"You're lying to me."

"Well, go fuck a naga! I'm sick of your attitude!" she barked away with a rictus of hate.

"You're lying to me. What's the matter? You're afraid of blood, aren't you."

When Thory got stupid, she got really stupid. Elsie had a way to prove that, though. She grabbed the dead bird, and squeezed her hand down its broken chest, ripping off an innard, still dripping with blood. She crammed it in her mouth, chewed a little, and spat it out. With her other hand she dug inside her mouth, before showing her palm to her (on-and-off) friend.

"Does it look like I'm afraid of blood, now!?" she growled, blood streaming down her lips, chin and neck, hands soaked in the stuff. At the point, she'd have eaten the dridder- except of course for the obvious detail. If she tried to make it about violence, she'd come out on the losing side and there'd be -if she knew Thory- no mercy afterwards.

"You're lying. You're afraid of something, I don't care if it isn't blood..." Thory shrugged.

"You don't care you're hurting my feelings." those words sounded hollow even in her own ears; if it had come to this, it meant she'd hit rock bottom. Nobody would listen to something like this. Nobody would EVER listen to those words...

"You're lying, that's all." the dridder answered, nonchalantly. "Tell me the truth."

"Stop repeating that."

"You're lying." she repeated.

Elsie shook her head. The right answer wasn't to tell her the truth anymore- it was to hurt her. But if she hurt Thory she would survive only long enough to beg she didn't melt her innards. She had to steer away the conversation.

"By now I'd know better than to listen to you."

Thory was still looking at her. She had that smile- it was smug, it wasn't predatory, but the giantess wished it were. That way she'd at least have a good excuse to go down fighting, try at least to punch her jaws off and pull her legs out one by one. Then maybe give her remains something for the liver...

"I know I can be a jerk sometimes, but you don't have to get that furious either. You need a thicker skin."

Elsie grimaced, realizing she'd covered herself in blood. All for the sake of a childish tantrum. Now she felt really stupid and humiliated. Why was she still here? Why did she still let her live? She looked away, her features twisted in chagrin and anguish.

"Yes." she sobbed, trying not to cry. It was easy, as long as she didn't say a thing either.

"You know I'm right. You're a sitting duck here. We must do something- and if you won't pick something to be done about it I'll have to pick for you."

"Okay..." Elsie sighed. "I'll pick. I'll try to do things my way, first... and if it fails, we'll do things your way."

"Very well, what are you doing, then?"

"I'll see if I can get recipes, ask my aunt. It shouldn't take longer than a week..."

======

One week later, Thory came over again, jumping over the trench and looking around to find Elsie happily stirring her cauldron under the shade of a gigantic tree. She wasn't even distracted enough not to notice her.

As always, Thory appeared from behind. The woman just turned around for a moment, still stirring the cauldron with a long wooden spoon that might've been a club once.

"Oh, how are you doing? I was expecting you." Elsie grinned. If she had a good trait about her, it was that she got mad she didn't stay mad for long.

"I'm doing well, Elsie. Did you make those?" she asked, pointing at a few vials on the ground, full of interestingly-colored liquids.

"Yes. I even made something to wash my apron." she said, showing her the frilly, grotesque abomination of cloth, now without any stains that could be used as an excuse to toss it into a fire. Thory grimaced.

"I could make you a new one..."

"I like this one."

"You look like you're going to make it explode!"

"Suits me." Elsie raised her eyebrows. "Now there's just a problem..."

"Really? What?"

"I need some guinea pigs." she smiled.

"Guinea pigs? Can't you use something else, do the potions call specifically for guinea pigs?"

"I meant that I needed something to try those potions on. If it fails, they could explode, or worse."

"Ah. What do you have that we could use as guinea pigs?"

"Well, I only have some alligators and my fowl."

"And what would be a better test subject?"

"Humans. But it's not like you could just run out and catch a handful." she grinned.

"No, those things come and go as they please. I think the unpredictability is kind of what makes them so nice a meal..."

"Really? I thought it was how out of their element it was. That's the biggest part of their appeal to me."

"What's not to like, anyway?" Thory laughed. "Either way, let's see. We have to make the crocs sample all of those potions, right?"

"Yes, and we have to be careful. Some potions don't mix well..." she smiled. "We're about to find out which ones."

"Oh, experimentation." Thory chuckled. "This is going to be fun, right? Just jot down what is it every potion does to a croc. Ah... none of those are like your potion the other day, right?"

"The one that causes liver failure?"

======

After gathering up some crocodiles and placing them on top of the table, all of it done with her extremely useful apron, a few massive (but not at all in comparison) flasks lying on the floor, the two of them were just looking at the table, wondering one thing.

"So, how do we make them take it?"

The question had been hanging in the air for a while. Unlike them, animals could breathe and swallow at the same time- getting any of them to swallow anything was going to be a mess. Nobody wanted to touch a 30 foot crocodile, not even a 15 foot crocodile, hell, the 10 foot crocodile was still too menacing, with a skin too rough for Elsie's body- and jaws too huge for Thory's fingers. Those things packed a mean bite, as Elsie had no desire to find out.

And these crocodiles stood really still on the table. Their unblinking eyes were almost daring them to move closer- something Elsie didn't want to, with a chest like hers, she had to keep her face distant from anything she wouldn't let near her nipples. That included pointy teeth. Hell, if they moved, but they didn't- they just laid there, almost smiling.

"Maybe you could bait them? Put the potion in the meat?" Thory offered.

"Meat isn't known for its ability to hold liquids. Specially not while being eaten by hungry crocodiles." Elsie grimaced. "Ah, screw this." she looked away.

"What are you doing?"

Grabbing her apron, she folded it several times over, and then put one of her hands inside the resulting trick, creating a makeshift animal handler glove. Grabbing one of the smallest crocodiles, she held it with its face up, tight enough that it couldn't escape her. Using another of her fingers, she baited the thing into opening its mouth.

"Okay, pour it in if you see an opening." she said, playing with the crocodile's mouth. She tapped her finger lightly in its nose, waiting for it to snap- immediately she'd withdraw her finger. After the first time, she realized it'd been close. The second time, she was a little giddy with adrenaline. The third time, she was laughing.

"Whoop!" she giggled, withdrawing the finger. She brought it back on too soon, however, and the fourth time...

"GAH AIEE OIIAAAIIEE!" she barked, as the crocodile managed to bite her finger. She felt the sudden shock that ran through her arm, followed by clear and present pain; the crocodile was twisting too hard in her hand, trying to get a piece of her- and it might even succeed! She squeezed her itsy-bitsy predator with all her might, and dislodged the animal from her finger- just in time, too. She saw something red in her finger- and it might not be all blood. Sucking on it, her face contorted a little; it still hurt, it hurt like its teeth had ripped into the inside! And that had been a small alligator- had she picked up the biggest one there, she might've lost a finger.

"Oww..." she mumbled, looking, pained, at her finger. That had been really unfair- why couldn't it be at least a good loser? It wasn't like she was going to let it go for that!

"Are you okay?"

"I think it almost got a piece of me..."

"Really? Let me check..." Thory looked at her finger. "Well, it's kinda deep, but nothing that can't be fixed. Just give me a moment..."

Thory picked up something from a bag on her waist, a small strip of gray cloth as it seemed. Then she wrapped the thing around the wound, and tied it up.

"There, you see? As good as new. Now, where were we. That didn't work- so how do we open its mouth?"

Elsie rolled her eyes a little, still fidgetting with her finger; it took a slap on the wrist to keep her from doing any more of that. She gasped quietly, and after handing over the wrapped crocodile, she scurried off, careful not to let her legs touch the hot cauldron, and came back with something macabre, as usual.

"What's that?"

"It's a wingbone, with a thick bone, there's still meat in it." she raised her eyebrows. "So lessee if this works..."

Elsie brought down the wingbone on the reptile's nose; it didn't do anything. It took some bothering it, some smacking it lightly, for the animal to try and snap its jaws around the bone it couldn't rip.

"There, now!"

Her friend poured a gulp of liquid down the reptile's throat. With anticipation, they looked expectantly at the creature...

It was still struggling. But now, unlike before, it seemed to be winning...

"Drop it on the ground..."

...but the moment Thory let go of any pressure, the crocodile slipped out of her grasp, and went flying into the air.

The strange thing was that it stayed there, and squirming in the air, it floated slowly out of grasping range, ever higher. Carried away by the winds, the reptile soon became a strangely familiar, green spot in the distance.

"Well, it'll have to come down sooner or later." Thory shrugged.

"So... this one isn't apt for personal use." Elsie hummed, marking the flask. She didn't want to fly up into the air, either. The sensation of weightlessness could prove to be nice, so maybe...

"What if we try again, this time keeping the alligator tied to something?"

They exchanged a blank stare.

"Maybe later." Thory sighed.

She reached for a flask...

"Umm, Thory..."

"What?" Thory asked, as she poured down the liquid into the croc.

"You don't need to test that one..." Elsie mumbled, shy.

Thory looked at her in the eye for a moment. Then she looked down at the crocodile.

Its skin tone was darkening, and turning ever more reddish- until it turned purple. She frowned.

"What, was that supposed to happen?"

"It... it was just fruit juice!"

"Remind me to never drink fruit juice if you touched it."

Next flask, next alligator. Maybe this alligator would be reutilizable.

"Maybe this will give you an edge in a fight..." Thory grumbled as she held the alligator in the folds of the apron. Elsie poured the liquid inside its throat, looking expectantly as it swallowed. The animal let down with its struggling, much to Thory's surprise- now it was just writhing and squirming sluggishly- as if it were weakened, like poisoned...

"But how do I get them to take it?"

Thory looked at her strangely.

"Just kidding!" Elsie grinned nervously. "For the record, this one makes two on a row that didn't die in unfathomable ways. Okay, I'll hold the next one..."

With Elsie holding the alligator and the bait,Thory poured some of the liquid in the crocodile's mouth. Without a real choice in the matter, the animal swallowed.

"Err, ah, what do we do now...?"

Prying out the bone from the animal's mouth (and the animal's mouth off the bone), the giantess looked at the crocodile she was holding wrapped up in cloth. It had stopped moving in her hand, its closed mouth pointed upwards.

Then it snapped at the air, and shook wildly- it was now writhing like it had an epileptic seizure. Elsie felt a strange smell, and then a certain warmth rising from the animal's breath. With an instinct she couldn't really place, her friend dropped the animal in the ground, away from the apron she'd turned into a makeshift glove... just before it exploded and its remains caught on fire.

Even then, the two women kept looking at the burning corpse for a while, before one of them could speak.

"Combo breaker!" Elsie grinned. "So, I'll just leave this here, reading 'do not drink or I'll kill you', that way, anyone who drinks it because they can't read dies?"

Thory frowned.

"Let's keep looking."

"Say... do you think that croc's safe to eat now?" Elsie asked, raising her eyebrows.

The dridder could just grimace.

"What's going on in your head...?" she shook her own, and picked up the next crocodile with Elsie's silken cloth. Now it was time for take two.

"Pass the other potion."

Thory poured down another would-be potion down its throat, wondering if it would explode, float away, or what! Apparently, the only thing Elsie was good for with chemicals was to prove how dangerous they could be.

The third alligator did something after swallowing, but it was hard to see. As it struggled to free itself, it became harder to see what it was doing- because now it was invisible. Elsie just grinned.

"Wow, look, I actually got one right!"

"Cool..." Thory mumbled. The one that went right, and now she wasn't sure of what to do with it. "...what do we do with it?"

Elsie shook her head.

"I'll... dispose of this invisible crocodile in... the pit. The one I use for..."

"Yeah, good call. Now get rid of it before it bites someone..." the dridder continued, a little alarmed. Invisible gators... what was the world coming to?

Elsie pantomimed holding something dangerous in her hand, within the folded apron. Standing up with some difficulty, and walking up to a nearby pit, she lowered her hands near the ground and let go of her catch- a loud PLOP reached her friend's ears as something heavy hit the muddy bottom of the pit. She returned, a little disoriented, towards the table, where she picked up another crocodile and baited its jaw open.

"Okay. We've used up the smaller gators..." Thory mumbled, as Elsie poured down the liquid for the sixth time, this time on a ten-foot gator.

The gator shook slightly after drinking. Its consistency seemed to change slightly; the two of them took a closer look.

On closer inspection, it seemed to be sprouting hair. The back of its head was now covered in a short mane of dark hair! Brunette crocodiles- that was another thing alchemy was good for. Thory shifted the crocodile- the rest of its body was now also covered in shaggy, dark fur; its legs, its tail, its underbelly, the rest of its head.

"It's an aberration..." she mumbled.

"No problem, Wily!"

"Alf!" Thory barked. "We're not made of cats- or lizards, or whatever..." she sighed.

"I'll shave the thing later." Elsie rolled her eyes. "When it's sleeping. Or something."

"Or something?"

"Maybe there's another that causes hair loss?"

"You have a sick imagination..." Thory winced. "Let's move on to the next..."

Taking a different liquid, Elsie wondered if she'd pour a second potion down the same crocodile. It wasn't dead yet, after all. But when they tried to bait it, it seemed to have learned something- as this time around it wouldn't open its jaws, no matter how much or how hard they tapped its nose.

That's when Elsie got worried she might be reaching her limit too- she was starting to feel some compassion for the animal that was now refusing to allow her to trifle with it. It was just a ten foot croc, but she didn't feel good about herself as a per... oh, come on! If Thory wasn't chickening out, why would she?

"Hmm, get a bone with more meat in it." Thory hummed. "I think this one's done for."

Elsie looked at the wingbone in her hand. It didn't have half the meat it used to, right... but saying it was out of meat was a little of a stretch. And yet, she quietly went and looked for a different bone.

The really sad thing was that it worked. The animal once more snapped happily at the meat in the bone- and she poured another potion into it.

Taking a deep breath, she withdrew a little. Thory realized the animal had stopped struggling- so she lowered it to the ground. They were just in time to watch its hair go white, and the frame beneath that hair seemed to deflate; the creature seemed to have turned flat, but a sudden gale carried away its hair, revealing a pile of white ashes that also left with the wind.

"It chose poorly." Thory sighed.

Elsie shrugged. No point in thinking about that crocodile more than she already had. It'd only be depressing thoughts, and she had more than her fair share of them...

"By the way..." the dridder turned to face her. "Which potion was it you had made before, the one that helped you hunting? You mentioned one."

"Invisibility, I already knew that one." Elsie sighed.

"Why the sigh?"

"I'm just..." she sighed again. "It's nothing, just a little tired of this."

"You barely did anything!"

"I've been watching those crocodiles drift in the air, explode, fall apart into dust..." she grimaced. "It's not that I'm TIRED-tired, just sort of sick. We should start wrapping it up."

"I really don't understand you. I really, really don't understand you." the dridder shook her head. "But let's get on with it, then. You hold this one, I'll pour it in."

Elsie held the next crocodile and baited it, while Thory gave it a drink that glowed in darkness. The reptile let go of the wingbone...

...just in time to start squirming a lot harder. Before their very eyes, its hide tore up like the witness of a dance of invisible blades, the newly sported lacerations slowly oozing blood. Releasing the creature on the ground, she watched it try to weakly slither off... it didn't go far before it stopped for a moment. It kept moving a little after... frankly, it wouldn't get very far at this rate.

Thory reached for it...

"No, let it go." Elsie said, picking up another lizard. Holding it like the others, Thory answered its carnivore cry of "beer me!".

This time, there were no visible effects. The two of them looked at each other and then shrugged- just before Elsie put it back on the table, and scrambled off towards the escaping, wounded lizard, much to Thory's short-lived delight, coming back to hold it still.

"Give it the same."

"What?"

"Give it what you just gave that other lizard."

"What for?" Thory asked, but she was already doing just that. Beering the helpless animal, she waited for a moment, to see if any reaction ocurred.

"The chiral reaction is down." Elsie commented, watching the lacerations on the animal's hide close like zippers. "This one works!" she grinned.

"Well, that's two working and you only made three lethal potions- or two immediately lethal potions, two debatably lethal ones, a fruit juice with strange side effects, and of those working, one you already knew how to do, while the other one you actually succeeded in making is widely regarded as the simplest recipe of all... but good job." Thory shrugged.

"Okay..." rallied by the last success, Elsie picked up another gator. "Let's see if I can make it harmless twice in a row! Let's see... give me THAT one!" she grinned, pointing at one of the few drinks left untried.

Thory took the last cocktail for tonight, and gave the reptile a sip.

Interestingly, nothing happened.

"Yes!" she grinned. "It's not dead, so... it worked!"

"That depends." Thory looked away. "What does it do?"

"Ah, err..." Elsie blushed. "Well, I don't remember which is which, frankly."

"What potions were you aiming to make?"

"A... actually, I'm not sure, the titles weren't very demonstrative."

"What? Then how did you decide which ones to make!?" she spat.

"I just... made them all!" Elsie sank into her shoulders.

"And you could read the recipes, but not the effects?"

"It's not like that... the effects were all full of long words!"

Thory sighed.

"When you say 'full of long words', what exactly do you mean?"

"I mean..." Elsie gave a mighty shrug. "I need a thesaurus."

"You should've told me this earlier." Thory frowned. "I ate one the other day, I could've saved one for you."

"Thory, a thesaurus isn't a lizard."

"..."

"..."

"So, what now? We're going to let it off?"

"No... I could get some bits and odds, so maybe I can piece together what it does. Let's see... I think this one was a potion of... was it metal, or iron... guard?"

"More importantly, what does it do?" Thory tilted her head. Elsie had a good head on her shoulders- if only she used it more!

"It did something to iron..." she hummed. "Let's see, I think I had something made of iron around here..."

With Thory holding the crocodile, Elsie left for a moment and came back with an old piece of scrap metal she hadn't handed over to the only person who could find use for it. An old... motorcycle.

"Hey, that has wheels! How'd you catch it?" Thory asked, surprised.

"I found it lying there once." she replied, quite nonchalantly. Then she tapped the animal's jaw with the frontal guard... getting a reaction. The creature bit it... and ripped off part of the motorcycle. As she pulled it back, she felt very little resistance... the thing had cleanly been ripped apart.

This left her with a little question...

"Is this normal, or..."

"No, it's not normal. Metal screeches when it gets ripped apart, let me check the thing out..."

Thory quickly examined the metal device. Aside from a lot of shape details she didn't care for, the shape of the bite mark was blurry- and hanging smoothly like drops?

The thing looked like it had been half-liquefied while it had been bitten- damn, this looked epic!

"So?" Elsie asked. Thory just flashed her a smile.

"Would you mind if I hang on to this one? It might come in handy."

"They were for me, Thory! I'll make you one later."

"Mmm... maybe we can split by halves?"

Elsie raised her eyebrows. Well, if she so badly wanted it...

"Okay, by halves. So, it's good for breaking metal?"

"That's right. It'll really come in handy to me, thanks a lot."

"Well, then..." Elsie sighed, standing up, stretching her legs. She really needed some time to herself after all those mishaps and horrors. "I'll give you a flask to pour in half of it. But before that, there's a last recipe I wanted to try out..."

"Shall I get another crocodile?"

"This one isn't about crocodiles, it's more like some sorta cookie." she chirped. "It was easy reading, good ol' fairy script." she rolled her eyes, taking a ball of flour-covered dough from a burlap sack under the table. Thory had to wonder about the hygiene of that thing... there could be something in it, it was rolling and twisting on its own in Elsie's hands after all. And then, unfolding the apron, she picked a page from her belly pocket.

"The recipe says it does that." she grinned. "I'm actually doing it right, it says the end result is delicious. But I can't read anything on this part, I wanted to know what you thought..." she handed over the page. Thory quickly read it...

"Well, after you add everything nice..." she squinted. "Here it says you should add... it's a variable. Usually it can only be one thing, but if you have another freedom..."

"Hm?"

"As far as I can read, you can really add anything as long as you get all of it inside the dough." Thory replied. "Here, it reads you... should use something you can't eat?"

Elsie gasped quietly, and then pointed at the remains of the motorcycle in Thory's hands. Thory let out a small chuckle, and then complied, handing it over for her to press the two objects together.

The hungry, primeval mass swiftly covered the metal object, with a SCRUNCH. Thory looked at it, alarmed.

"D-don't forget to put flour in your hands..."

"Of course." Elsie grinned, taking some flour from the same burlap sack to keep her hands dry of that mixture. Squeezing and rolling the ball of dough, the metal object inside kept screeching and crunching. It wasn't until the loud BLOOP that Elsie got a little alarmed; the dough was getting darker and redder. "So...?"

"And... when it's done you put it in the broth you boiled before..." Thory said, turning to the cauldron. "So, is that why you had been toying... toiling with that cauldron when I got here?"

Elsie dropped the dough in the cauldron, watching the steam surge around the cold dough! The crocodiles had already gotten off her mind, now this was something else. She wasn't sure what came next, but it would probably be delicious.

"I wonder..." Thory grimaced. "Just who cooks something 'squirmy' anyway?"

"Hm?"

"Here it says that you'll get something squirmy and positively delicious."

"Squirmy? I thought it was creamy." Elsie's eyes narrowed.

"No, it's squirmy. I've seen this word before, unless you think humans are creamy, I don't think it means what you think it means. And why is it they refer to dessert as a she?" the dridder frowned.

Now she felt really curious... the two of them stared in silence for...

"I think they're done." Thory said. "Here, it says fifteen minutes..."

"Okay, let's get them out." Elsie took a deep breath, and once more taking her apron, she folded it around her hand and caught the mass in a brief moment- just brief enough to feel it was now lumpy -with huge lumps- on the inside. Pulling it out of the water, she put the squirming, lumpy mass aside for a moment.

"This... is supposed to be edible?" the dridder grimaced.

"Give it a moment." Elsie grinned. "Let's see, now."

Taking the spoon she'd stirred the cauldron with, she tilted off the cauldron, carefully rolling it away from the firepit. Thory's eyes were locked on the squirmy lump of dough on the apron for the time being... her front legs instinctively twitched. Whatever that was, she wanted nothing of it, at least for the time being.

She gulped as Elsie leaned away, and away, trying to reach something she'd left just out of reach- and then gave up on trying to just reach it. She got on all fours, and crawled a couple steps towards a large flat metal plate- if the dridder's eyes didn't fool her, that had been something else until it had been flattened with a rock.

But there was now something more interesting to look at: Elsie's wiggling rear as she crawled towards it. She enjoyed the view for but a moment, just until Elsie got back to her fire, placing the flat metal plank on it. Only a moment later, she took again the squirming mass in her hands, and tore it in six handfuls- before casting them right into the plank for cooking.

The smell of cooking dough was ever so particular.

The giantess quickly flipped over the cookies with the spoon -some layers of iron stuck on them-, the smell growing even stronger with the other side baking up. And much to Thory's surprise, that once-squirming mass was starting to smell pretty good. Her throat started feeling a little dry... there was something just delicious about it, and she knew it.

She knew it because she could recognize that smell. It was her favourite!

Tapping the six cookies with the spoon, Elsie recognized an acceptable level of rigidity and the right color to be described in the recipe. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the metal plate out of the fire, and once more

The hardened lumps then melted away, revealing something even harder inside- something that looked like bodies. Elsie moved closer, looking at the rust tan bodies... and picked the edges of her apron, giving them a soft rub. They were warm bodies- even more, they were breathing.

Surprised almost out of her wits, she wondered if all humans came to be like this... she was sure SHE hadn't been.

"Hey! Look at this!"

"I'm... not sure if I can take much more of this..."

"Come on, it's something you love! Bet you hadn't seen how they were made!"

"Eh?" Thory scrambled closer- and there she gasped pretty loudly.

"See? Humans. Funny that, I always thought humans were made by other humans..."

"Yeah, me too."

"Whodathunk?" the giantess shook with laughter. "Well, the stork and the cabbage should've tipped me off on what this recipe was meant to- ahahahaha!"

Thory couldn't help but laugh a little too. Every time she ate a human, she couldn't help but listen to a tirade on how their lives were precious things, and how they were people, not just animals. And after all... they were a kind of fairy pastry?

"Heh, well, it IS kinda funny... I mean, they always tell me how they're people, and they're pastries!"

"Yeah! I would never have guessed!" Elsie giggled. "Oh, just wait until Rozal hears this."

"Rozal?"

"Yeah."

"I can't wait to see the expression on her face!" Thory grinned. "And you know, your cooking didn't come one moment too early, it's a good way to close the day. I've gotta get going- I don't want to run home in the dark, and I've gotta positively be there today."

"Any particular reasons?" Elsie grinned.

"I don't want anyone to steal my spot. Just like you have this place- I have a spot, and it's MY spot." Thory grinned. "Well, you can keep testing things without me, right?"

"Right." Elsie smiled. "I'll handle the rest- for now..." she grinned, as she picked up one of the humans from the batch. She still hadn't waken up. "Enjoy."

Elsie looked at the morsel in her hands. She was a lot larger than most humans she had seen... and one of a six-pack, too. The tallest human she'd ever seen would've come up eye level with the nipples of this one, at best. That might have been because she used cabbages she'd grown herself...

Her figure was as full as she could ask for, and still limp, though she was breathing. She had hair both short and black, but glossy- and reddish skin. If only she'd wake up and scream; it'd be funny to watch her claim she was a person, cry for her life, unaware she was but a cookie. And she'd just stand there, looking into her eyes, smug, as if she knew something about her that she didn't.

Poking her next appetizer in the belly, she slapped its face a little. The primeval meal before her was a little roused from her sleep, but all she managed to do was open her eyes, and shake her head a little. It took another moment or two before she opened her eyes to the fair, colossal sight before herself...

...but by then she just found herself engulfed in a very familiar sensation. Maybe what had just happened was nothing but a dream, and this was real. The darkness once more around her, the moisture everywhere, that familiar warmth. Why would she have dreamed of something else than this? Nothing but this existed in her heart. But now she dreamed of something, something she was feeling, aside from that warmth... something that was feeling her as well, something... something irregular, something that was not smooth. Instinctively she ran her hand over it, feeling it as well. She tried to explore the world around herself. As she did, something stung in her eyes- so she closed them, as they gave her nothing. She took in a deep breath, feeling with it the scent of... she couldn't explain it, but this smelled like hunger. This scent made her hungry, so hungry she could've eaten the world- the dark, damp, warm world. This smelled like food, but she couldn't tell where was it coming from. All around her, all she felt was slick, damp walls, both rigid and yielding, throughout her entire body. Even though she tried every inch, nothing seemed to change, nothing except her own feelings. Yes, HER own feelings, something inside her told her...

...and then, she felt herself falling. But even after the fall, she was still in the right place. Maybe even better than before- she had no recollection of breath for more than a brief period, but this seemed like the best place to be. It was tight, but yielding, and it had the feeling of flesh- for so it would be described- all around her. This was the place for her.

Elsie grinned, feeling the creature settle in her belly. She'd been really squirmy in her mouth, but now she wasn't anymore- strange. Well, she was at least three times as filling as any other human- she had to grant it that.

Picking up the second morsel from her place, she smiled at it- the creature had already sat up, and had been looking around for a while. It had even stood up, taken a few steps- not that it particularly mattered. Elsie'd had enough curiosity for a day- now it was time for a well-earned meal. That reddish skin tone, that glossy black hair, now that she saw them, those golden yellow eyes, they made for the most delicious combination ever. It was kind of strange to think that someone like her would ever eat those... but she had that feeling every time she ate something lately. She had a lot to accept, even now.

Taking a deep breath, she brought the squirming morsel -this one was squirming! Great!- to her mouth... and deposited her powerfully writhing bulk between her lips. She struggled -and she struggled hard-, but Elsie was just too massive to be fought with. No claws, no fangs, no problem. Breathing slowly, she realized she was shivering... in delight. She did that a lot, come to think of it- giving her best friend a close look, she grinned. No point in letting that bother her now... right now, she put a few fingers to her neck, spread vertically from over her collarbone to just under her jaw. This one struggled hard; she tried not to grin, because if she did, she'd laugh next, and that'd make her treat escape. She breathed slowly, through her nose, sloshing the reluctant meal against her palate, against the side of her cheeks, breathing only a little faster- again, out of delight.

She took a deep breath next, and after exhaling, just to build up anticipation, she swallowed. Though the pastry was thrashing, there was nothing it could really do... she was too slick, and so was her mouth.

And now, sighing, and grinning, feeling that one of the treats was thrashing inside her, fighting tooth and nail a battle she couldn't win, with a parasite to snatch up her air- oh! Now both were thrashing... were they fighting for air before fighting against her? That was good... it was even better, and the sooner they used up the little air in her stomach, the less of a chance they'd have of hurting her delicate, erm, heart.

Reaching for the third...

Much to her chagrin, the third individual seemed to catch on to what she was doing... and scrambled away, running, almost hopping, before her arm was halfway to her. Elsie put on a very ugly face.

"Oh, no, you're not URP escaping!" though the beginning had been uttered as a challenge, she couldn't help but let out a shy laugh at the end. That third human was really fast, unlike... humans? Well, it was silly to think of that right now.

Thory, who was now finishing her third, scrambled away towards the human- only the dridder's incredible speed allowing it to catch up to the preternaturally swift exemplar. She fumbled a couple times, but in the third, she caught it.

"Good, now..."

And ate it.

"Eh?"

"Mmm..." she smiled. "Good stuff."

"I was going to eat that..."

"Well, make yourself some more!" Thory laughed, caressing her belly. Elsie watched, with a little surprise, that her friend had stuffed herself to a point she wouldn't have believed possible- if she'd ever gotten that full, she'd have burst! Maybe dridders had naturally stretchy insides... or maybe it was just Thory was used to stuffing herself silly?

Ah, well, nevermind. She had a point.

"Well, it's been fun..." Elsie laughed, as she sat up. "I'll keep checking some more potions later."

"Okay, but don't wait for me next time!"

"Yeah..." Elsie grinned. "I wonder why did I do it this time..." she sighed to herself. "Bye!"

"Bye."

And as Thory scampered off into the distance, Elsie was left to wonder why had she done it this time. She also wondered if she'd make more humans...

No, she wouldn't. Delicious as they had been, once the clock hit twelve, she had now the leftover dough from where they'd hatched... not a pretty sight, to say the least. She wouldn't want to see that ever again...

======

Strange, she'd been opening up fowl with a hatchet after excruciating them contra natura. In hindsight, she understood where Thory was coming from when she said it hurt her too... all this, it was just like she thought. All this cruelty she was putting into her meals, all of it was only making her see everything as a person. Why else would she hurt them? Could one look at others as people from the very beginning, and then do unto them as she did, break them, and then break them down?

-But I like it.- she thought. -I like it! Why do I feel like trash afterwards?-

She sighed again. The answer, or maybe just one answer, got to her. Maybe she just didn't know when to stop, maybe fear could be enough. But if she stopped- then she wasn't a predator. And that led things... where? It wasn't so much a matter of pride by that criteria as a matter of fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear that someone might try to hurt her... fear of trusting something, and the need not to simply leave things alone.

-Is it true that I'm as weak as I think I am, or am I just some self-absorbed crybaby?- she thought, kind of bitter. -Why don't I tell the world my excuse already? Maybe it IS all in my head. But... what do I do!? I don't want to keep up like this. And I don't want to... I don't want to...-

Looking up at the moon of dusk, the sun already low in the horizon, the answer seemed to elude her. No matter how hard she thought about this, she could only be sure of one thing- that she'd done some pretty sick things today, and not just today. At times like this, she felt like getting a nap and never waking up.

-Okay, what is my problem? Being cruel is a guilty pleasure that's getting a little too guilty.- she kept thinking. -Really, humans are pastries? That's only making me feel even more sorry for them!- she grimaced. -No, let's keep thinking on this track. But if I were to stop eating people, what do I do? I'm sedentary! I'm a sitting duck.- she grumbled. -If I stop killing them, they'll know where I am, they'll kill me, predation's always been just a nice excuse.- she put a hand in her belly. Even though they had stopped fighting inside her, she still felt contented. Part of her, at least. -Now what am I to do? Stop eating people? Do I settle for desisting in my cruelty? I never believed that law of the jungle crap anyway. And if I stop now... then up to this point, I've been doing awful things. Am I ready to...?-

She sighed between clenched teeth.

-Ready to what, now? Nobody's judging me but myself. I know I can live with what I've done up to this point! Anyone can. But what now? I can't think of what comes next if I stop.-

Argh, all this. She had lost count... no, she had never gotten this far before. This was new... now she knew herself a little better...

That was a lie, she was still as lost in herself as always. She wouldn't be able to tell herself in the mirror... but even if she didn't know who she was, she could always tell who she was to become. If only she could match that with who she wanted to become, if only there was any peace of mind to be had.

Either way, right now was a good moment to sleep.

Part 6- Vulnerable

[WARNING- may contain lampshadings of Mary Sue, flying crocodiles and senseless violence.]

Mira que son bestias como están a la de tiros,
y nosotros entre medio sin comerlo ni beberlo estamos.
Mira que son bordes, como juegan a ser hombres,
con los tanques, las batallas, las conquistas y el poner medallas.

Look, they are beasts, shooting there at each other
and ourselves in the middle, we have drank nor ate nothing of it
Look and see those borders playing make believe they're men
with their tanks, their battles, their conquests and awarding badges.)

Mecano (Ana Torroja, José and Nacho Cano. A literal translation would be "Mechano"), "No pintamos nada" (We didn't paint anything). From "Ya Viene el Sol" (The Sun is On Its Way Here) 1983.


======


Sometimes, she just laid against a tree like this. She had her apron between the bark and her skin, her head just resting on the trunk, only her hair protecting her delicate skin. The shade was so pleasant, her whole body warmed from within, the cool breeze all around. It was just like being a cloud...

Damn, there was a gap in the shade, and now it was just over her shoulder. It was getting too warm, it'd get red anytime now. She tried to sidle over a little, some of her hairs caught in the bark pulling on her scalp, making her grimace briefly, as she readjusted her position.

Then she realized she'd readjusted it wrong; she'd moved where the sun would be next. This time, it landed on the inside of her elbow.

She covered her shoulder with her hand, trying to catch the rays somewhere less sensitive. Resting her head on her hand, she realized she was in an uncomfortable position.

What if she just let the sun run her over as much as it wanted to? But it was too hot, too bothersome; the idea was promptly ran over. She had to think of something else.

She grabbed the apron from behind herself, and tried to cover herself a little. Just a little. Strange, it looked like she'd sweated a lot there. And she felt thirsty, really thirsty... which was strange, her mouth felt wet. Wet, like she had smelled something that made her hungry.

Rubbing her hands on the grass where she'd sat, she found it wet too. She'd been sweating, but it was still so pleasant. She could do that forever and ever, she would do that forever and ever, just lie there, in the shade, with that smell all around...

Raising her head, she decided to crawl on the ground a little and move away from the tree. Maybe if she just laid there on the grass she'd find something more comfortable. Dragging herself, belly and everything, she realized she was all moist with sweat. Her body was cooling itself quickly on the breeze, specially in the small of her back, where the apron had shielded her. It tickled a little, she thought, catching another whiff of that essence.

With a small grimace, she offered her back to the breeze, lying on her belly. There was a limit to how much it could cool her. Extending her hand, she took a handful of water from the pond at arm's reach... and rubbed it on her face, her cheeks. Slowly, drawing her finger softly, caressing herself as she so loved doing, she ran her moist hand down her chest, over her belly. As the breeze cooled the water down, she took a deep breath-

That scent!?

She rolled on her side, and looked around- immediately she found out the source of that scent. Where her belly had been, there was now a flesh-colored puddle. And looking down at herself, with slowly dawning horror, she saw that her body had been transformed into a grotesque parody of a melting ice sculpture, her now featureless flesh eroded and melting off.

She tried to push herself off the ground; her hand melted on top of her forearm, a different taste filling the back of her mouth as her head lashed forward and down. She barely managed to avoid hitting her head as she lost her balance, feeling the cold rise through legs she couldn't anymore sit up to look at. She clenched her teeth, ready to scream only a moment later- that different taste, now almost distinctly blood, answered her, a cracking sound echoing between her ears. Her tongue explored her mouth, finding only curiously painless sharp edges that fell apart at the slightest provocation... all at the same time, her gums and tongue swelling to the point she couldn't move anything inside her mouth, she could only feel her teeth turning to a tasteless dust upon contact.

She tried to breathe harder, and felt something clogging one of her nostrils, something the smell of which she recognized- it was her own smell! She was clogging her own airway somehow; surprisingly enough, she kept breathing, feeling her own deluged flesh become a sword of damocles, looming ever closer to her lungs, her throat useless as it melted from the inside out too, her gag reflex somehow disabled- she couldn't reach anymore the pond to take a look at herself- what was left of her arms wasn't enough to reach her face- her lungs stiffened until she couldn't breathe. Through itching eyes she had a brief flash of what other parts of her looked like, oozing out like the most monstrous of ice creams in a summer night.

But that wasn't the worst part. She knew this would happen one day, that was the worst part!


======


Gasping, she tried to sit up, but it was too hard; her body was still smooth and yielding, or rigid where it was appropriate- covered in cold sweat- she wanted to check she still had all her limbs- as she opened and closed her hands, she felt the flesh right under her thumbs. If she sank her nails in it, it hurt- and then it kept the imprint. She kept fingering the area, wondering how long it'd take for the imprint to disappear- please, disappear, please disappear!

While she did this, she fiddled with her feet, trying to feel her big toes, the bones inside her feet, her heelbones... anything would help right now, anything to let her know she was still solid, she hadn't melted, she wouldn't melt...

In the end, she sighed, and exerting visible effort against her heavy chest, she sat up. Looking down, she realized she was still solid (or at least, as generally rigid as she had always been), only sweaty. Putting her finger to her wrist, she felt her own pulse. It wasn't beating that fast.

-It's that nightmare again.- she thought. -Well, people don't melt. And I... well, I don't think I melt, I'm made of meat...- she held her shoulders, letting out her breath over her chest and arms, feeling it cool her together with the sweat. -Well, back to sleep...- she looked away. -I'm not going to melt!

For some reason that wasn't reassurance. Melting was one of her biggest fears, even after that bear's attack. And now, she was thirsty... unfortunately, she also was the closest thing to the Wicked Witch.

She sighed. She wasn't that thirsty, she decided, with a grimace. It wasn't that water would melt her, it wouldn't... but there were other things to dwell on, other things to paralyze her. The angst that came every time the smugness wore off, for example. She had realized she wouldn't be so cruel if she weren't so weak, and last time... damn. She couldn't remember what conclussion had she arrived to. There had been some meals with Thory -oh, god, that had been disgusting, in hindsight... thankfully, that wasn't anymore in her stomach-, and a lot of practice with the crocodiles... she had been making potions. But aside from that... she had... what had she thought?

Like thinking had ever gotten anyone far in life, she thought with a grimace. Thinking wasn't going to solve anything, or else it would already have. Yeah, that had been the last conclussion... that she didn't know what to do. She was lost, her petty, cruel, vulnerable self couldn't come up with a way out.

And knowing she was vulnerable always ruined her mood when she thought about it.


======


"Ghng..." the man grumbled, taking a puff of his cigarette and breathing out of the armored carrier. "I feel like ruining a vulnerable bitch's mood..."

As his men knew, that was what he said at the beginning of every day. Stach Tobias was a reputed hunter- without a good background, which made it all the stranger that he had any ability to plan at all. Thinking about killing things and actually killing them were two different things; even without a good reason why he should know the second, Stach had bridged the distance between the two. They'd never have believed they'd gotten him for free when hiring extra muscle- and even then they wouldn't have ever believed he'd be leading them one day.

The man was a strange sight- his camo pants had a distinct contrast with his zebra-striped white and gray shirt, on top of which he had a navy blue, stuffed, smooth leather jacket. It looked like he'd just tossed on stuff he had picked at random with his eyes closed in a costume shop. Looking at his face, with those rapacious brown eyes, and that smug, unkempt smirk, surrounded with so much stubble it was starting to form a lock-shaped beard. His wild hair looked more at home in a hobo's face than in his own, but being a little buff to boot, it did kinda look good on him. Healthy.

"Are we there yet?" Stach, yawned.

"Nay, sir." Andreas, the driver, replied. He was blonde, with a goatee. Unlike him, he was in uniform, with a green pattern of slashes.

Stach gave a mighty shrug, as if he was trying to stretch in a straitjacket. Then he sucked on his lips.

"Are we there yet?"

"Nay."

"Are we there yet?"

"We won't get there, sir, ever, if we don't know the right coordinates." Talía said, from next to him. Stach rolled his eyes- he'd always wanted into the chick's pants, but he couldn't have found his way there with both hands and her mother's advice. Some people just aren't meant to reproduce.

"I was expecting you to have thought of something." he grumbled. "What do they pay us for? Do we have the LEAST idea where we are?"

"Yes, sir, we're in Felarya."

Stach breathed out through his nose.

"So you're funny now, eh, Andreas?" he growled. "Why do you say that?"

"Felarya, sir. I saw a sign a mile ago." he replied. "I might've thought of little, but at least I'm paying attention."

Stach and Talía looked at each other for a moment.

"Retrace our tracks." Stach commanded.


======


Walking down from the personnel carrier, Stach twitched and jumped as he strode towards the sign. Behind him awaited an assortment of vicious vehicles that wouldn't have been out of place in a monster truck rodeo, army surplus material, or a children's design contest (maybe all three), with the brown, escalene rectangular triangle insignia of the Combined Arms Basic Response Armored Squad, or CABRAS. Known worldwide by their unforgivably vicious tactics, their overkill, wasteful use of weaponry and their gung-ho attitude, they were said not to leave a single blade of grass alive where they went. Personally responsible for the extinction of several species (guilty of nothing but of being all in the same place right where a rocket hit) they were meant to protect from criminal forces intent on stealing them, and of several monuments that had been destroyed in similar occassions, CABRAS was widely renowned as a bunch of nuts, almost as dangerous to the world as they were to themselves.

"Do not read this message out loud under any circumstances." he mumbled. "Wait, once more with feeling, DO NOT FUCKING READ THIS MESSAGE OUT LOUD YOU MOTHERFUCKER UNDER NO FUCKING CIRCUMSTANCE, FUCK!" he growled. "YOU KNOW WHAT, BITCH? YOU'RE IN FELARYA, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! AND YOU'RE GONNA GET EATEN, GOT IT? YOU GETTING IT, SHITHEAD? SO GET IT! THEY'RE GONNA SWALLOW YOU! IF IT'S BIG IT SWALLOWS AND IT'S GONNA SWALLOW YOUR ASS! GUESS WHAT IT SWALLOWS? YOUR ASS!" he barked. "AND THERE'S EVEN SOME OF THOSE THINGIES THAT ARE SMALLER THAN YOU BUT THEY'LL SWALLOW YOUR SORRY ASS ANYWAY! THEY HAVE WINGS... AND THEY'RE FAIRIES, ASSHOLE! FAIRIES ARE GONNA EAT YOU!" he roared. "FAIRIES, FUCK IT! FAIRIES ARE GONNA EAT YOU, ASSHOLE! THEY'LL EAT IT AND YOU'LL DIE! YOU'LL FUCKING DIE, ASSHOLE! BECAUSE THE BITCHES ARE GOING TO FUCKING EAT YOU! NOW IF YOU'RE NOT AN ASSHOLE YOU'LL BE GOING TO THE ONLY SAFE PLACE HERE! NORTH OF THERE, WHERE THE ARROW POINTS! GOT IT MEMORIZED, ASSHOLE!? YOU GO WITH THE FUCKING ARROW, UNTIL YOU SEE A FUCKING TREE, MOTHERFUCKER! A TREE WITH A CROSS, SO GET BENT YOU ASSHOLE! AND YOU LOOK FOR THE ENTRANCE IN THE ROOTS, MOTHERFUCKER!"

He turned around, winded after this display of utter scorn. In his defense, he was needed to practice his outdoors voice.

"Nothing we didn't know." Stach shrugged, sighing calmly like nothing had just happened. "We ought to look in the roots, though. Someone might be stranded..."

"SIR BEHIND YOU!"

Stach's mouth fell agape for just an instant, the cigarette falling from his mouth, as he jumped to his left, rolling on the ground and pulling out a stun gun. Where he had been, the massive jaws of a crocodile (or maybe an alligator) had snapped shut.

Just next to him, several subordinates had already pointed assault rifles at the lizard. A veritable shower of piercing steel narrowly missed the animal as it zipped through the air, escaping. Stach rolled on his shoulders, looking at the rapidly escaping figure.

"I guess the coco was high on fairy dust." he grumbled. "TRACK IT."

"Sir?"

"I SAID TRACK IT." he barked, at no one in particular. "Tell Stein to lock on it. We're getting to the bottom of this..." he growled. "You can take it to the motherfucking bank."

"But sir..." Talía began. "What good will that do?"

"Track it first, whine next!" he growled. "Maybe later we'll leave it half-done."

"I disagree. We should ignore the crocodile..."

"We'll talk after tracking it!"

"Sir, we have a trail." one of the mercenaries cut in. "We are ready to track the crocodile."

"Oh yeah." the man grinned. "Now, what were you saying?"

"We were told not to get too greedy; we should count ourselves lucky this mission isn't dangerous."

"Then I'll make it dangerous."

"With all due respect, what for?" Talía yelled.

"Nothing in particular, just... if there's a coco that flies, who knows what else will be there. Maybe something worth killing."

"We shouldn't kill unless we have to."

"Well, I'll bet my pinky we're going to have to kill something. And if we don't, we might want to record it; who knows how many people have been killed by flying cocos? For all we know, that thing's in a pit of nightmares full of aberrations the sort of which has never left survivors."

"All the more reason to avoid that place!"

"If we're the first to survive we can warn others." the CABRA lieutenant chirped. "Don't sound too shabby, huh?"

"Would you bet our lives on that?"

"I'd bet my life on you all, c'mon, you aced Lamina, didn't you?" he grinned. "We've got enough large weapons to blow off a dryad's toes."

"But what if that doesn't help us? What if the threat is incorporeal, gaseous?"

"Say whatever you want, but if that coco's alive I'm not worried."

"What if it's subterranean? You know as well as I do that we don't have anything to deal with being attacked from below!"

"We'll use the seismic sensor, if it reads something we'll call it a day. Okay? Now let's get back in there, it looks like it's about to rain and I don't like getting wet."

"You're missing the point! We have a good situation, we shouldn't jump into a worse one for the hell of it!"

"The most likely thing is that we find but flying cocos!"

"But what if we don't?"

"We escape. Duh."

"Why don't we escape from the beginning?"

"There's still potential for fun and profit. Now let's go." he barked.


======


Once she was certain she was still solid, that it had been a nightmare and nothing more, she sat up and clutched her legs. Right now would've been a good time to hug someone, anyone. However, croc hide wasn't known for its reassuring properties. Being no tree-hugger, more of a slash and burn farmer than anything else, rendered the second idea unavailable. If only she could talk to someone.

Returning to where she'd left off yesterday night, she examined the flasks she'd filled with different liquids. Some of them would have to be discarded, she thought, as she raised them to a tall knot in a branch where they'd be no problem. But some of them had actually accomplished a purpose... well, something of a purpose. She'd always known how to do the invisibility one, but she'd always known she could be sniffed or heard anyway. Eating metal was probably the dumbest thing she'd heard in some time, why would she ever want to? She put that potion away with the others.

There were two potions left in her hands thoughts when she heard a couple engines. She smiled- loneliness was sometimes a problem, but nothing beat the feeling of some fools suffering for her. Animals were troublesome to hurt (cattle excluded), but people were a delight, they rationalized the pain, and there was something just too cute about it, something so cute she could tear off their limbs one by one with a smile just to watch how beautifully they suffered. Come to think of it, it was weird that she felt this way... when only a few moments ago she had been thinking about giving up cruelty entirely.

That only made this even more exciting- even she didn't know how would she answer! Would she kiss them, hug them, or would she bite them? She had any of a number of options... and things only got better from there! She couldn't wait to see how would things go, as one of her hands instinctively drove towards her cleavage, concealing a potion there. As for the other... there was room for only one: she walked up to the nearest point of the trench, and put the potion on the bottom, before moving towards the dying sound of those engines, donning her apron as she did.

The source was on the other side of her grove, having just crossed the trench: a large four-wheeled vehicle. It looked armed, and it had those wheels that were so big they were even funny. It was almost like it was pulling a face, with those huge black rubber wheels distorting the front. It had plenty of weapons on it, too, or at least, it looked like weapons. A catlike smile formed on her face, she had more or less an idea of what to do: the revving sound had only stopped a while ago, any occupants wouldn't be too far. She noticed there were tracks both inside her grove and outside, as if it had jumped off a ramp. But there was something more interesting.

There was a lone human, kinda close to it. Male, apparently, in some really flamboyant clothes. Black leather jacket, those rough, ugly blue jeans -she'd have to get him off those, they were like sandpaper-, and strangest of all, a shirt with what seemed to be a zebra pattern. The face was unremarkable in comparison- he was a fuzzy mess, his medium hair was so cute! She really wanted to ruffle it! It was a shame, maybe that was a hairstyle... but it wouldn't be for long!

Bouncing with every step, shivering as she did, she showed herself to the sluggishly walking man... by kicking the jeep. Soft, just to tip it over... she didn't want to hurt her foot. She just wanted to be sure all of its weapons were rendered useless. For a moment, she thought about squashing it underfoot... then she decided against it, metal had a tendency to hurt. Besides, he already had this cute expression as he turned around, locking his eyes on her foot, and then looking up, stopping for a moment before reaching her face. Who could blame him, anyway? And what for? It was sooo nice to feel desired...

"Hello!" she said, cheery, with a huge smile. It was almost impossible not to betray herself- she wanted to play! Ruffle his hair with her nose, and then eat one of his limbs, or maybe just kiss it...

He staggered backwars a little, but composed himself quickly.

"Ah, hey." he chirped. "Nice apron, by the g-guhway."

-Nice save!- she thought to herself. Such composure... she wanted to feed him a cookie for it.

"Thanks, I chose it myse -teehee!-" she couldn't help but giggle near the end. Frankly, talking was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Well, it suits your figure..." he replied. It was strange how his eyes didn't match his words- if looks could kill, this one was a good attempt. And so futile, she couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh, you flatteehee!" she couldn't help herself. "You're just too k-keehee-kewt-eehee! I'm going to ruffle your h... hehe! Hai-heehee!" It was when she said this and knelt down, her whole body jiggling a little as she put herself on her knees.

Needless to say, if Stach was finding her creepy at this point, now he'd seen enough. He knew he was cute- to women not in full use of their mental capacities, such as those found in asylums and high school. All of them insisted in ruffling his hair, notably. He had to beat them off with a stick: none loved him- just his hair.

And his hair wasn't interested in shallow people.

So his hair made him pull a bigger stick (to beat the bigger girls off) from his back, a machinegun... which made Elsie's hands recoil the moment she saw it.

"Oh, but that's not nieeehheeeheee!" she giggled again. She was still giggling, but she'd recoiled. That meant she knew it'd hurt her, and that was good... but she was still giggling. Strange, he'd never seen anything giggle this much, not even fairies. He thought she was nuts... specially evident looking at the face she was pulling without noticing. Her hands shook, her shoulders shook- she was shaking. And she was still giggling, trying not to let it come out. A couple loud, nasal snorts escaped her- this girl here was probably the mother of all creeps.

"It-teeheeee!" she squeed next. Stach's face steeled.

"Keeheeteehee. Can't you talk?"

"Ghnee! Not with this... corse on... hehe..." she cackled. "It's too tight... just give meeheeheehee a momenT- teeEee!..."

"As long as you stop neighin geeheeheeinging." Stach grumbled. She rolled back, sitting on her rear this time. He watched her feet; if they shot out towards him, that was it. He started withdrawing slowly- with her legs half-spread like that, it might've been taken the wrong way by an onlooker. Then again, he thought, that part was probably just as good at choking the life out of him as any other. Even her armpits looked deadly.

She twisted back, trying to reach for the knots in the middle of her back. After a little struggle, she figured undoing them was going to be tough while sitting down- but she persevered; if he shot her, it would probably be... a mess. Now all she needed was to disarm him, and then find a way to take care of whoever was there with him- the last thing she wanted was to get dominated. If this guy had that much gun and was acting so smug, it wasn't just a stray car. This was something else. Something dangerous. There could be more armed people, she was getting scared- why hadn't she escaped instead of going towards them?

Well, the fear was getting to her now. Too much fear, too much cute, too tasty, so much to think that thinking was getting difficult! She was torn... it tickled. And it sent shivers throughout her body. She really wanted to curl up into a ball and give them all a big hug- thinking straight was getting too hard. How did she deal with such a situation?

First, she needed to get something of a position of power. Being 130 feet tall, check. Getting a hold of him...

"Ah! Good..." she mumbled, taking a massive breath to pretend her apron had been too tight. Actually, the apron had been tight at one point, but now it was long since distended. Silk will do that on a woman if she gains weight while wearing it. She heaved a sigh, realizing she finally had that idiot in hand. "Now... where were we?"

Before Stach could react (reaction time had always been one of his weaknesses, not being actually a trained soldier; maniac in charge had always been more like it), she had swung her apron. He hadn't measured its length- it had been too hard, he was trying not to really look at her too much. No time to get smitten, and nice boobs or not there was something off about her proportions, so if he was going to ogle he better did it right- turns out ogling would've been a good idea after all. The next thing he knew was that he was rolling along the ground, the minigun out of his hands- and then a woman's upside-down face, her brown hair drooping all around him, covering the world. If he raised his eyes, he got a good view of her naked cleavage. When his face returned to her, she seemed elated he'd looked. Well, a slut. Duh, nothing new there.

"Mmm, chum." she smiled, licking her lips. "So, did you bring many friends?"

Stach coughed. He reached for the minigun- and so did she. She laid a single finger on the barrels, and closing her eyes in delight, squished the metal barrels against the wooden root they'd landed on. The madman just grumbled a little. That gun had been expensive. He was going to kill her, so why didn't she just take it with some dignity and let him go unscathed?

"If you have any other toys..." Elsie grinned, as she saw him dig for something in his pockets. "Throw them away. I'm not letting little toys get between you and meee..." she purred. If only there was time to savor this... but damn, he was going to make it just business, probably, act stupid.

"Alright." he replied, much to her silent delight. She hadn't expected him to go with it so quickly; usually, everyone had more of a spine than that. But he was so nonchalant- did this mean he was going to pull off an even nastier surprise? She really wanted to believe it was her beauty and seductive tone, but she was getting a strange vibe from this man. Something in her believed he belonged somewhere with padded walls and straitjackets, lots of straitjackets. Tossing off a revolver, three concealed knives and a stun gun, he looked back at her. "There, I'm unarmed, gorgeous, so don't get carried away, okay?"

His act was paper-thin, but he seemed to know the right words, the right chords... to get eaten. She had at least three comebacks ("I'll make sure nobody carries you away either!" "Oh, I think you're worth getting carried away..." "Okay, I'll just have breakfast..."), but she knew he had something up his sleeve. It was getting under her skin- but she didn't know how to pull it out. She couldn't trust him, and she didn't know how to get out of this one- Did she yell "what are you hiding?" Did she bluff and say that she was looking forward to his next move? Did she just eat him and hope she could repeat the trick with the next dummy? Would there be another dummy? Would she have to spit him out and apologize? Would she be put AT THEIR MERCY!?

"Look, I know you have something up your sleeve." she grinned, pinning him by the loose jacket. "So why won't you just be a good loser, darling?"

"But I am, ah, a good loser!" he protested. "I lost at rock-paper-scissors, that's why I'm bait."

Elsie's eyes widened: leaning on her arm, she raised her head, looking around, somewhat distracted thinking of the sight she was favoring him with.

No life signs anywhere around her, no matter where she looked. She sighed in relief, pouted...

...and then saw a few intermittent flashes coming from the edge of the trench- heard the resounding thunder- the first thing she did was roll away, but her flesh still got torn apart by the swarm of metal shreds. Driven by adrenaline, she scrambled behind a tree... Stach jumped off the ground, and scrambled towards his friends as soon as they stopped shooting.

"No, you idiots!" he barked. "She's clearly immune to gunfire..."

-I am what?- Elsie thought, trying to be quiet while grunting in agony. -Okay, maybe I can still play it from that angle, maybe they'll leave me alone if...-

"...so whip out the large-bore artillery! The stuff that makes a dryad's head asplode! And set her on fire, too!"

"Whait...?"

"And there's no way we're getting out of this without a fight anymore! We already shot her, she's out for blood!"

"NO!" Elsie cried, desperately. "I... I, I'm not mad! I'm totally okay with this!"

"She's there, KEEP SHOOTING! Cochrane, call the artillery forward!" Stach growled. Elsie gulped. "No time to get into position, fire! Through the tree if you have to!"

-Wait, if that stuff goes through trees, then...- she thought.

"AAAIIIEEEE!!!"

======

The first order of business for her was to scramble away while the adrenaline lasted. She'd always been kinda awkward, but only now did it really bother her; she was shivering in fright and panic, and the bullets inside her body were starting to feel a lot less dulled. Her right side felt like a steamroller was running it over from the inside, her rear getting another serving of agony. Her shoulder...!

Her shoulder was feeling cold! Her arm...! By Minalca, no! From what she knew, that'd mean... no, just no! She tried to shake her arm, feeling surprised at its lack of response- the rest of her body was feeling cold too, despite the warm feeling running over her skin- just how much was she bleeding?

They'd gotten her- they'd gotten her- if they were this powerful, if they could simply kill them with a volley of gunfire, why did anything give them trouble at all!? How come humans hadn't conquered the whole world already? She let out a groan as she reached the trench. There was no way she could cross it at this rate- if they saw her now they'd be shooting at her, but if they saw her they'd...

There was no time. She jumped (or more exactly, crumbled) down into the trench, digging into the shallow, foul mud on the bottom with her fingers, one of her hands growing number by the second. With every breath, she felt her chest growing colder and colder, her lungs stiffening...!

With shaking hands, she took the vial she had in her cleavage. Uncorking it with her teeth, she gulped down its contents; with a crawling sensation, she felt the cold get staved away. But she had still lost too much blood... she was probably going to faint anytime now.

Digging again with her fingers, her sense of urgency now undermined, in the verge of giving up, breaking down and just lying there crying, Elsie found the second flask. Once more, she ripped off the large cork...

...she now had half a cork in her mouth.

"This way! IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY!" Stach roared.

Thinking faster than she evaluated the appropriateness of every answer, she popped the vial in her mouth and cracked the glass with her teeth. Raising her tongue to her palate, she swallowed carefully, and then spat the glass on the ground, quickly covering it up with some mud from the edge of the trench. Then she crawled on forward, hoping she had no more glass in her mouth- the texture, that smooth tastelessness lingered in her tongue and palate, urging her to spit again, throw up if that's what it took, but make sure there was no glass in her system! Please!

She felt something sharp brush against her knee as she crawled. She hoped it wasn't glass. She hoped it wasn't sharp. For once, she realized, she wasn't worried whether it'd leave a scar... as long as it didn't draw blood, there were sharks up there out for blood...

"THERE! SHE WAS OVER HERE!" she heard that man scream. That monstrous man... yeah, monstrous. She didn't understand him and she didn't care to. He'd looked so innocent at first, and the next moment he was out for blood. Now he couldn't see her- the last potion had seen to it.

"But sir, there's nothing we can see from here."

"Then she must've went in the trench!" he cried. "Yeah, I can see her tracks over here, and her blood down there. I'd say she went somewhere that way."

She gulped. That really sounded like he'd turned her way as he spoke.

"But shoot the place all over, just in case. I dunno how deep that trench is, there might be monsters in there."

-My ass...- she thought, invisibly grimacing. -It was nice knowing you always had my back, giving a good image for the team, but this is good...-

DAKADAKDAADKDAAKADAKADAKDAAKDAAKDAAKDAAKA!

Several sets of assault rifles spewed burning lead and steel at the mud in the bottom of the trench. They seemed more concerned about the zone closest to them than the angle at which Elsie actually was: she realized she'd actually made a pretty good time where it came to crawling.

-...luck.- she completed. -Thank you, Minalca.-

"Well, she couldn't have disappeared." the man growled.

"We don't know, Captain Tobias; she might've teleported."

"Phew..." she sighed, relieved.

"If she teleported, there's nothing we can do anymore..." Stach admitted.

"Oh nice."

"...so we're assuming she didn't and working our way from there."

"Oh crap." she thought, and started by raising her head from the trench...

"Start by shooting at the horizon, one-eighty..."

...lowering her head so as to not to get scalped with hot steel, waiting for a moment...

"Now we're bringing out the thermal scanners."

...meekly crying to herself "No, not the scanners"...

"Ah, and your little dog too!"

...and sighing.

-No, not the dog, anything but your dog!- she grimaced. This guy didn't skimp out on nails for the coffin, did he? If only she had caught him sooner... no, how long had those reinforcements been waiting? Probably long enough, probably he had them there from the beginning. And he thought he couldn't kill her with bullets? She wished he was right. She so wished he had been right. Damn, she should've lied, said she was friendly- but he just looked so powerless! It was impossible not to believe he was actually at her mercy. He'd tried to kill her, with the minigun, and she'd beat him... if only things had stopped there, it'd have been a nice breakfast. He even ogled her... after seeing her beauty he'd decided to go and destroy her anyway! And now she had a full belt of bullets lodged on her side, shoulder, and rear. All things to thank him for. Captain Tobias was going to pay... no, wait.

Strangely, she didn't want revenge. She would've settled for having him gone from her life, to believe it was safe to forget him. Him, and those nameless gunners who were the real cause of her pain. Tobias wasn't alone, but she was. For some reason, that hurt too.

But right now, she had a dog to outrun, and unless she focused on the task at hand -which was nearly impossible- she was going to get another generous serving of hot metal (and burning petrol, and some high explosives for the road). So crawling quietly out of eyeshot, she scrambled up the knee-deep trench. Rubbing her front and arms on the grass so as to not leave any mud stuck that would betray her presence, she stood up, feeling that there WAS metal lodged in her body- and it was going to hurt all the way.

Turning her face for a moment, she saw the reason why she hadn't heard ANYTHING at all. Why the humans had gotten so far away from the jeep in so little time... she had been expecting a few people in the bushes around the jeep, but she hadn't been expecting a dozen people... on top of a large, squarish, smooth white vehicle drifting soundlessly a fair distance off the ground.

Sucking it up, she stiffly walked away from her grove; if she didn't move quickly, the dog would catch up to her. Now, if she remembered right, east was that way, and she had to go west... or was it north? No, it was east. Definitely east.

======

Thory took another sip of soup. This one was starting to get a little stale... she'd have to go hunting again later. But for now, she had other things in her mind.

The cave in which she was had a fair amount of light, part of it coming from the entrance, and part of it coming from a small, bronze lamp. She didn't know what was it with the lamp, it had to be magic- in either case it hadn't backfired yet, and it provided her with enough light to ply her trade.

Leaving the cocooned bird she'd been drinking from away for a while, Thory focused on the red-hot iron in front of her. She knew, more or less what was she supposed to do, but it never came out right. She was still a hundred years too early to match her father's skill- or her mother's, or her little brother's... she'd been thinking about giving up smithing a few times already, but there was something that just drew her back. Maybe it was her self-love, as weaving hadn't produced better results. Elsie's apron could attest to that.

Well, now... she hammered the steel. Forge it hot, keep it hot, lengthen it, she kept pounding away, trying to keep it long. The steel couldn't fracture, the ingot had been good. She'd cast it herself off perfectly good salvaged human steel! Why was it humans didn't have this problem with their steels, but when she recycled it the stuff always turned brittle? Well, almost always. One day she'd figure it out... or maybe ask her dad. W'ever.

Seemed like this ingot wasn't going to fracture on her, though. She could make a blade out of this one, then? Awesome. Bringing the ingot, now red-hot and flat towards the edge of the anvil, she pounded at the edge. Thinner, thinner. All she had to do next was fold it and she'd get one of those edges that saved lives by taking lives.

"Thory!?" someone cried from the outside. Her heart jumped, her mouth smirked in annoyance. Of course she liked Elsie, but she sure had the worst of timings. Turning to the entrance, of course there she was; her massive silhouette cast a short shade against the sunlight. But she was propping herself up against the edge of the wall. She probably couldn't see in, her eyes still set to noon. "Thory, are you there?"

Thory scampered towards her.

"Hello." she said, halfway through the dark swath between the light of the lamp and the light outside. "Elsie! You never visit me, what brings you here?" she smiled.

There was no real need to ask- she could tell it wasn't a visit for pleasure. And that was a darn shame- the girl looked fine enough to play with for a while. Elsie's face told everything, though- except the details. "Was it a bear?"

"Humans."

Okay, Elsie WAS a wuss, but...

"You eat humans."

"They brought weapons- the kind that hurts. I had to escape- they almost killed me!"

That was a little of a shock. They had managed to hurt her? Impressive. But almost killed her? Thory didn't know what to think. Was she exaggerating, was she really that weak, or were they really that dangerous?

"What did they use?"

"They had artillery... but all they needed were guns."

"Were they carrying the guns themselves?"

"Yes- but they were big guns!"

"Aha..." Thory's eyes narrowed. She really didn't know what to make of this.

"I drank one of the healing potions... they hit me over here..." she ran a hand over her side. "And here, too." The brunette pointed at her shoulder. "It hurt the most here, though..." she pointed next at her rear, just above the butt. "I was losing too much blood."

"Ah! They probably just got lucky, then."

"Don't tell me they just got lucky." the giantess grimaced.

"Well, that's just..." Thory stopped as she saw her grimace. What was wrong with them getting just lucky? Did Elsie want to think herself weak? "What really happened, Elsie?"

Elsie sobbed in response.

"Now you don't believe me either?"

"I'm not really sure what to believe anymore." Thory replied. "I don't understand you."

"What is it you don't understand!?"

"I said they just got lucky, what's the problem with that?" Thory replied, frankly.

"That I don't want to go through this again, lucky or not!"

"Ah!" Thory raised her eyebrows, almost sarcastically. "Sorry, my bad there."

"..." her gaze was murderous for a moment, and then it relaxed.

Thory really didn't understand her. So big, so vulnerable?

"And why did you come to me?"

"I, uh... don't know anyone else around here. And you fight..."

Thory didn't know whether to point that she was trained to fight creatures around her own size, armed with a sword or spear. She wasn't trained to fight against creatures that could hide in the grass and kill Elsie too. For those, you wore long, thick clothing, and sometimes rubbed alcohol on your exposed skin to keep them away.

"We'll see what we can do." she said, reassuringly. Seeing the giantess struggle with something she wanted to say, she just had to sigh, and cut out her stuttering with "What's wrong?"

"They... they were going to track me!"

"What!? Track you?" Thory sounded alarmed, all of a sudden.

"They said... they were going to use..." she trembled. "a dog..."

"And yet you came here. How considerate." Thory sighed, annoyed.

"I'm s-so-sorry!" she screeched.

"Well, what's done is done." she rolled her eyes. "But you owe me. Now, we have to see what can we do about your bullets... pray tell, the crocodile, the one you gave the iron-eating potion..."

"Uh?" her guest's eyes widened in surprise. Clearly, she didn't think that topic was going to come up.

"Is it okay?"

"Yeah, I guess... if they didn't kill it, that is..." she was running her hands over each other, nervously. Thory really couldn't bear to see her like this...

"By now, come in! Watch the ceiling." Really, her friend was humongous. Thory went up to the bottom of her cave, and came back with a flask, only to see the giantess sitting on her knees, her head past halfway to the ceiling. She didn't know Elsie's exact size... she doubted anyone had that much tape. She seemed uncomfortable- the rocky ground was not an issue for the dridder, but she'd added a little dirt anyway just for convenience. Her guest was probably trying the comfiness of the dirt layer to its limits... and beyond.

"What's that?"

"The potion you made last time. The one that allowed the gator to eat metal. You see, Elsie... if this potion is what I think it is, then you might have just the right tool to get out of this situation."

"What do you mean?"

"It left me thinking." Thory chirped. "It sounds awfully strange, doesn't it? Who'd make a recipe to allow people to eat metal? That's the silliest thing I've heard in some time. I mean, what for?"

Elsie's face, in the darkness, seemed to be thinking. Ah, poor girl. A good head wasn't always a good thing.

"It had to have some other use, I don't know. So I checked around, I've got a few books here... and as it turns out, there's some records of a potion that does just that, amongst other things."

"Eh?"

"Well, there happens to be a recipe that goes like this: whoever uses it has metal at their mercy. Metal armor is useless, metal weapons are worse than useless. It all comes apart and melts instead of touching the user. Unless it's magical, in whose case, best one wins. But, Elsie, as it turns out..." she smiled, near the light of the lamp. "If that is what this is, it's going to make us untouchable. Powerful they may be, but guns are usually nonmagical, so we win anyway, see?"

"Oh! But that sounds too convenient..."

"´Too convenient?´" Thory spat. "Elsie, does it sound convenient that recipes are useful? They had to be good for something, right?"

"Yeah, but I just happened to do right the one we need right now..." Elsie rolled her eyes.

"We'll have to seize the chance and live with it. We're lucky, what else do you want?" Thory shrugged. "Okay, let's give it a try. I'll take a sip... then you'll smack me with this old pipe." she added, handing Elsie a length of thick pipe. Taking the metal pipe in one of her hand, about as long as her forearm, Elsie's jaw hung down for a while...

"Where do you get this stuff?"

"You'd be surprised, all the good stuff people throw away." the dridder chirped. "Those fairies in that outpost down south, they break a lot of stuff, luckily for them they have the brain not to play with sharp and pointy things."

"Oh, I'd..."

"Get to it." she said, taking a sip. "Hit me."

Elsie looked down at the pipe. Then back up at her.

"What are you waiting for? I don't have all day, I don't know how long this lasts."

"You're... sure you want me to hit you?" Elsie was so reticent...

"Yes, now hit me."

"Ah, why don't you hit yourself instead?" Okay, that was it.

Thory pulled the pipe out of her hands, and letting out a groan, raised it towards her head. Then she smacked herself on the head.

There was a strange squelch...






...and then she put the pipe forward for her friend to look at it. It wasn't bent- it was... squashed like silly putty. Metal didn't work that way.

"Thory, are you sure it was metOUCH!" she rubbed her head, where the dridder had smacked her with the bent pipe. "Okay, it's metal... no need to beat me..."

"You deserved it. Now, go wait outside, I'll get my armor. I'll be damned if those meddling kids and their wretched dog follow you to my home..." Thory grunted. "Also, we shouldn't use the drink straight from the beginning, those people usually talk to each other. When we have them cornered and they have us cornered too, we'll turn the tables on them; until then, we should keep our trump card to ourselves."

"What? Why?" Elsie asked. She obviously thought this was going to be easy.

"Because people figure tricks out, we need to make sure they don't have time to think of anything. Sounds odd, but even the dumbest can get so smart you'd be surprised when it comes to screwing up your day. I'm talking from personal experience here." Thory shrugged. "I wonder if those humans were clever, either."

-That's a good question, was he clever or maybe I am a dummy?- she thought to herself.

"But it's okay, nothing to be ashamed of. It's still pretty strange..." the dridder mumbled, over the sound of chattering metal. "...you're so big, Elsie, and you almost got killed. I just can't get over that; I kinda thought larger meant stronger. I guess that's not the case..."

The other woman rolled her eyes, and turned around carefully, feeling the stone under the dirt touching her toenails. Damn this was bothersome, she thought as she crawled out of the pit, straightening up once she got out, and looking around. She then realized the futility of it- there was just too much grass out there, it'd conceal them, there was not a snowball's chance in hell she was going to see them like this! Even from that high up, trying to look at someone who just had to duck...

The dridder scrambled out of the cave a moment later, wearing a cuirass, carrying a long hammer, a shield, and a somewhat aged silk sack full of what seemed to be sand.

"Well, now, I'll go first. They don't know me."

"What's the hammer for?"

"In case I have to hammer some sense into you!" she barked. "I really, really can't believe this, Elsie..." she mumbled, quickly scampering off into the distance, the hammer strapped to her abdomen and the sack in her hand.

great chapters here

I chucckled at those poor crocodiles being experimented on XD
the "it chooses poorly " line was priceless !

And great work at depticting Elsie's twisted and demented mind. She is desesperatly alone, lost and frightened. you really can't help but feel sorry for her ^^;

Ever so glad you enjoyed it, Karbo.

======

PART 7- Closure

[WARNING- this chapter contains vore, but that's not what I'm worried you'll dislike. It also contains over-the-top violence and bi-on-het action, not to mention opportune moments of author appeal. I have to motivate myself to write, you know!
There's F/m hard vore here and it gets really, really personal if you know what I mean. So personal it evolves into consensual. Yes, hard vore. Well, kinda hard, mostly hard...
You'll have to see for yourself.]

[...]"La única solución, engañar al matón,
despistar su atención.
Cantale una canción, bailale alrededor,
dile sin corazón.

Entre más cerca estás, más emoción.
Entre más sangre cae, más ovación.
Entre más cerca estás más emoción
entre más sangre cae más ovación
hoy el público pide diversión.

Sus oídos no oyeron tu canción,
y sus cuernos se hundieron en tu voz.
Entre más cerca estás más emoción
entre más sangre cae más ovación
Hoy el público pide diversión."

([...] There's but one solution, distract the big butcher,
befuddle its attention.
Sing for it a song, go dance around it now,
call it a heartless jock.

The closer you are, more emotion.
More spilled blood is more cheer.
The closer you are more emotion
More spilled blood is more cheer
today the audience calls for fun.

Its ears didn't hear your song,
and its horns sank into your voice.
The closer you are more emotion
More spilled blood is more cheer
today the audience calls for fun.)

Mecano, "La Fiesta Nacional" (National Party), from "Dónde está el País de las Hadas?" (Where is the Fairy Country?), 1982.




Thory's pace was impossible to follow. Elsie even doubted Rozal was that fast! It was impossible to follow that woman, in any sense of the word, and she never thought anyone could've matched her pace. But if anyone did, it had to be Thory. It was a surprise for her when she finally stopped, giving her an opportunity to catch her breath -as catching up would've been impracticable-, because the way back felt a lot shorter than the way out. Then she gestured for her to get on the ground... it was a good thing Thory had taught her all the secret hand-signals.



Meanwhile, Stach was in the logistics trailer, a small room full of computer screens with several chairs nailed down, following closely the movements of the forward team led by his wretched dog.

"The scent seems to have gotten stronger, sir. We must be getting close... what's that?!"

"Give me a visual!"

The team camera turned to face the new subject. A dridder, clearly armored, laying against the sky, just over the horizon...

-What the hell? But it was HER smell that had gotten stronger!?- Captain Tobias thought. -Well, it's obvious! That dridder killed and ate her! Now I just need to yell the part they need to hear...- he cleared his throat. "Heaven here! Team Abyss, pick up team Mist! Team Mist, withdraw, fall back!"

"Captain, she's advancing upon us...!"

-That's too fast, they're not going to make it...- "Abyss, deploy artillery NOW! Mist, open cover fire!"

"Cover fire? For whom?" the leader of the Mist team asked.

"YOURSELVES, IDIOT!" Stach barked into his mic.

Mist, the forward team, opened fire. They were just carrying assault rifles- there was no way they were going to do any real damage, even with AP ammo, but maybe if they went for the eyes, they'd distract her long enough for Abyss, their support team (and getaway route; dogs had to be followed on foot, but you wanted something FAST following them in case they met a bitch to double away from. Stach's plans had plenty of weaknesses, such as incorrect prioritizing, but lack of foresight wasn't one of them) to pick them up and scramble out in the double.

Stach wasn't surprised when he saw the dridder raise her shield, and block their fire. But she stopped...

"She's stopped, go for the legs- SPREAD...!" a sudden hunch corrected him near the end...

...but it was too late.

She had stopped to hurl a large sack of brown silk, full of... he didn't get to know what it was. All he got to know was...

"Aaaah!!!aa|@#º...·$%·./..." Mist's transmission went blank!

"MISSILEEEEE!!!" he cried.

Missile was the little dog's name, by the way. He wasn't calling an attack.

-We lost Mist...- he thought. -Squashed under a sack. Shoulda seen it coming!- he grimaced. -But such a deadly response... no, there's no time for this!-

"ABYSS! I told you to deploy artillery!"

"We've lost contact with Mist..."

"SHOOT THESE GROUND-TO-BITCH MISSILES ALREADY!" Damn, a relapse right now?! This was the worst possible moment... "I MEANT THE SUR-SUR-SUH-FACE TO BUS-BU-BUR-BURR...!"

Not now, not now, PLEASE NOT NOW!

"Firing!"

-Spectacules!- he thought. -Not now, please not now! I need a clear mouth more than ever!-

Visuals from the Team Abyss camera showed the dridder raising her shield. Well, fat lot of good it was going to do her. Those were to-air, fat chance of blocking anything; even if they missed (which they wouldn't), they were meant to tear an armored airship to bits after exploding a fair distance away from it. Against one of those flimsy bronze-age shields, hah! She might as well have painted a target on her face! They were also moving near sound speed- she wouldn't have time to...

...what?

She leapt out of the way, obviously having an EXCELLENT reaction time, and kept her shields trained on them anyway! No, it must've been a contrived coincidence she still managed to put that in the middle...

They exploded. Fat lot of good it did her to block with the shield, it had been turned to cinders right away together with the rest of her inside the dust cloud-

-NO! She... has something up her sleeve!- Captain Tobias' sixth sense told him. Maybe it was something he'd barely caught for but a fraction of second on camera...

"Fire again!"

"Captain, she's..."

"I SAID FIRE AGAIN! THREE MISSILES THIS TIME, RIGHT INTO THAT DUST CLOUD! DON'T GIVE IT TIME TO CLEAR UP, ROGER?"

"Roger."

And so, three more missiles went straight into the dust cloud. Another explosion rocked the camera, even from that distance... and yet Stach had a very, very bad feeling.

It was confirmed when the spider woman skittered out of the dust cloud, UNSCATHED. Just without her shield, and her armor was hanging. All of a sudden, she swung a massive hammer, and...

"MOVE IT!"

"Roger..." the mobile artillery unit answered. It quickly shifted into back gear, but the dridder was really fast; it managed to gain something of an advantage while they were marching backwards and building speed, and then threw the hammer.

The captain's eyes widened as he lost contact with Team Abyss. He took off his headpiece, and staggered away from his chair inside the trailer, rubbing his head angrily. What could've went wrong!? There was no way the air-to-air missile hadn't caused any damage. Predators were tough, yeah, but they weren't THAT tough! Air-to-air missiles... it had been an air-to-air missile... she should've been torn apart by armor piercing, high-velocity shrapnel, by inordinately deadly ordinance, by so much red-hot metal scrap. WHAT had been wrong!? He should've told them to go armed with lasers...

"It's magic. Why didn't I foresee this!?" Stach Tobias whimpered. "I didn't expect that much resourcefulness. And it was all from a random pr..."

Even before those words escaped his mouth, he realized he was wrong. This one had been prepared... no predator would come out armored for a hunt. Stupid him! He should have told Mist to scatter from the beginning. This meant she hadn't eaten the giantess, she was in league with her, and had come to flush them out... but Mist, Abyss, Missile... all gone, just to one dridder. What was she, some sort of giant Rambo? HOW could there be magic to stop an air-to-air missile, anyway!?

He had a decision to make. They either stayed here and tried to avenge Mist and Abyss, or they took flight and regrouped to fight another day.

Why was it so difficult, he wondered? It's not like he thought he had much in chances to escape. Even then, he wanted to be sure of what was he dealing with.

"Deploy all nonstandard weapons. I want the photon cannons, the phonon cannons, the proton cannons, the electron cannons, the positron cannons, I want the catapult loaded with damn big rocks!" he barked. "And I want these rocks to be set on fire!"

"But that would damage the catapult!"

"If that happens..." Stach lowered his gaze. Darkness seemed to creep around his eyes. "...we'll have to..." he raised his finger; a lightning bolt fell from the sky. "Buy a new and bigger catapult, to throw the smaller catapult with!" he proclaimed, accentuating- every- WORD!

Well, he needed to buy new buttons too. But damn if he wasn't fun. He would also probably be a nice treat: ham and cheese weren't so common around here.

But not everyone can just get eaten, and so...

As Stach went up to the chest on the back of the room, and dug around in his trash like any proper packrat, looking for a specific object, someone walked into the trailer.

"Tobias, you imbecile!" were her first words.

"Talía." he mumbled... and in response, he got a kick in the ribs. A short gasp later, he rolled on the ground and looked up.

"I knew this was going to happen!" she barked. "Now get away from the command post, we're leaving!"

Tobias grumbled, standing up slowly.

"Save it, I'm not in the mood for your bitching..."

"Give me your sidearm." she said, without any hesitation.

"What!?"

"Give me your sidearm."

"No, YOU give ME the- YOUR sidearm." he replied.

"You were hired to follow orders. Give me your sidearm!"

He let out a hiccough, followed by a giggle.

"LOOK AROUND YOU, WOMAN, I RUN IT!" he barked, pointing at himself insistently.

She didn't answer. He gulped. In a straightforward physical confrontation, she'd get him. Far as guns went, she'd get him. In words, she'd get him. He had only one thing to play on here- damn that bitch! Damn her so much. Why did she have to grow a spine NOW of all times?

If she finally called on everyone to decide where their loyalties laid, he was at a clear disadvantage. She... was a bona fide soldier. He was just the egomaniac in charge.

"Give me your sidearm." she repeated. He smirked- she might not act like it, but she was in no position to make ultimatums. She was scared shitless, that's why she was doing this!

"You're dismissed." he replied.

"You're deluded. I don't take orders from you."

"Do you stand by that statement?" he grinned.

The two people with him on the room were already turned to this conmotion. He turned to them for a moment.

"This looks like sedition to me."

"You are the only one who is guilty of sedition, Private Tobias." Talía replied. "You have been, for a year."

-Which is exactly how long it took you to grow a spine.- Stach thought to himself. -Well, to be fair, most people never do.-

"Take her away." Stach grinned. "Lock her up."

"Like you would." Talía chuckled, looking at her two comrades, as they moved closer. "Take this buffoon away."

The buffoon looked at her in the eyes. Much to her surprise... she felt arms wrap around her shoulders.

She never thought it'd work- they'd been hired together with Stach! These were his goons- had he planned this from the beginning!?

"Accompany us, Lieutenant."

"You...!" Talía growled. "You think you've got everything under control, don't you!?" she cried, as she was dragged out of the trailer. "You'll get us killed. I always knew you'd get us killed, you madman!"

Heck, he had to admit she had a point there. They had nothing to win, and a lot to lose that way. But he didn't care to let it end like this- that dumb bitch had just went and made it personal. Talía...

Well, he'd butcher that predator, that'd earn him some points with the boys. And shut that bitch up.

"You'll kill us all, Tobias!"

Stach walked out of the trailer.

"Hold it, boys." he spat, looking at her in the eye.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

Their eyes searched each other for any signs of weakness... and then, Tobias sighed to himself.

"Hey, everyone!" he announced. "Gather round, fellas. I'd like to tell you all something... see Lieutenant over here?" he grinned. "She thinks I'm going to get everyone killed, setting up this ambush. She's wrong, of course, but the thing is, I've just realized..." he chuckled. "The thing is, I've seen how fast those things are. I don't think we can run from them, so there's no need to bother thinking if we should or not fight, but you know what? I've just realized, since we know what doesn't hurt them, we might as well put it somewhere it won't break. So, ah, we ought to get the supply truck out of the way, if it's hurt we'd be toast, don't you think? The tank, the APC and the IFV, we know they won't do much either, so we might as well put them somewhere the paint doesn't get scratched off."

He didn't know where were those words coming from- Tobias had never really understood himself. He just sort of went with the flow, all the time, and then made the best of what he felt right. And as of right now... just seeing all those people gather around himself, he knew what was going to happen. He knew the right thing to do. He had to prepare- not only to win, but to lose. In either case, he wanted to minimize his losses.

"Same for the logistics trailer, I'll be present in this fight. If anyone doesn't want to be here, that's A-OK with me. I don't need EVERYONE to win this fight. Lieutenant just needs a break, for instance. But I'll need people to keep her company and guard our precious equipment. So I'll ask y'all to make two groups- one to watch the stuff while we duke it out, one to duke it out here."

He smirked to himself as a murmur rose throughout the ranks...

"Ah, and don't worry about missing the fight. We'll be transmitting it live. Andreas, make sure you get it on DVD, okay?" he nodded at one loyal man.

With another bounce to his step, he returned inside the command trailer. Digging in his trash again, he took a couple items. A long, black stick with a white tip, probably used to make flowers spring from a hat, and a small autoinjector.

"No guts, no glory." Stach mumbled. Artificial guts would work just as fine: no one would ever know anyway. He couldn't read the acronym on the side of the syringe, but he knew one thing: one prick, and he wouldn't be chickening out anytime soon.

But just in case, he thought, postponing the getting wasted for AFTER he was done thinking, he needed to use the printer. He dug something out of his bitz box, a crumpled envelope.

And then he took a deep breath, grimacing profoundly. He knew he couldn't write wasted, though he had never been wasted before, writers and artists worked BETWEEN trips. Still, the anticipation was killing him: soon enough it was probably going to be one hell of an unfucking intense afternoon.

======

Far in the horizon, she saw the grove. Surrounded by a trench, loaded with sparse trees, she could only wonder, as she laid flat against the ground, about how she'd left this place at dawn and now that she returned it was dusk again. Now she had a warrior with herself, too, and a vial of weaponized potion in her hand.

"Elsie, I've got a confession to make..." Thory grimaced, as she held the cuirass with one hand, one of whose straps had disintegrated during the explosion. Her ornate shield had also been nearly totaled.

"Huh?"

"Those missiles would've killed me, but I used the potion... and I think the effect's wearing off." Thory grumbled. "It just bought my way out of the situation... but I think they'll be ready to deal with us the next time."

The giantess... didn't know what to say.

"Well, I'm... not sure what to say, but... if it means you're alive, it can't be wrong..." she tried.

That's not what she thought. All she knew was that a lot of things she didn't understand had happened, and now things had turned somehow worse.

"Sorry I gave away our little secret..."

"Err, Thory, if you think we should head back and take our time..."

"Bah, no. Those survivors were pretty tasty, you know... and I wouldn't live with myself if I just left this halfway done. It's your home, we've gotta clear it before they tear it apart. Who knows what they did while you were out?" Thory grinned. "I'll be darned if I let some little humans with big toys keep me from helping a friend."

"But aren't the seekers mostly humans? You said that they were very important..."

"Those are not the seekers, I'm sure of that!" the dridder replied. "Now let's see. There's always a way, no matter how obsessed they are. Actually, that's why they get so obsessed, because there's always a way and they know it." she grinned. "You said the man's name was Captain Tobias, right?"

"Have you heard of him?"

"No, and if I have a say in it, I won't either." Thory tilted her head. "But that's enough talking... I can't see anything important from here. And if we charge in, they'll know we're there. But there seems to be no other way..."

Elsie hummed.

"I can think of a way, actually. Maybe if I just stride in, protected..."

"Would you bet your life on it?"

"Err, no..."

"Too bad, I'll make you. Drink up and walk in, or I'll eat you myself."

"Wait, what?"

"What you heard!" Thory replied, grabbing her hand and pushing it up to her mouth. "Drink up."

"Hey, you can't make me!"

"It's time you grow up already!"

"Why don't you drink up and stride in yourself?" Elsie suggested.

"Oh for crying out..." she snorted, pulling the potion from her hand. "This is the last time I drink something that glows in darkness for you!"

"Ah, there's another potion. Right by the tree in the center of the orchard... you know, the one I got on? In the old nest, there's a flask. If you find it, give me a yell, and I'll go in and join you."

"*gulp* I thought you weren't..." Thory let out a loud sigh. "...going to fight!"

"Well, just... you know, if..." Elsie started twiddling with her thumbs. "If you can get past them, maybe I'll... err... join you for the rest."

"For the rest, eh?"

"I just want..." Elsie sighed, raising her gaze towards Thory. "I don't really know. But what they did to me... I want to see it when they're finally gone. I want to know it's over, and I want to see it end."

Thory returned her gaze, looking a little surprised for a moment. Then she smiled, knowingly.

"Closure, is it?" she chuckled.

"Yes." Elsie smiled weakly. "That's what I want."

"Well, you'll have it, Elsie. Trust me on that." she grabbed her shoulder, and winked. Elsie blushed. For a moment, she had felt understood, now she felt understood and accepted- and while not totally unpleasant, it was really making her uneasy. She didn't know just much did she really understand... just enough to accept her, or just enough for this moment? Would she blow this, now?

"See you in a minute."

Elsie bit her lip... Thory had to be okay, potion and all, but as she said it, they'd be ready. If their raw reaction was any indication, she was too scared to go anywhere near their prepared response.

And yet a part of her felt tempted, too tempted. She needed to confront them, she needed to talk to them, she needed to know why had they wandered into her grove. Why there of all places? What had they expected to accomplish? And when she got the answers, which she was already suspecting the worst, she wanted to eat them. She wanted to know they'd be gone forever, that there'd be no need to ever fear them again. That the world was one group of them closer to making sense.

Of course, she knew she was something monstrous herself. She'd meant to kill Captain Tobias. Yes, kill. Eating him was just adding insult to injury, what she really had wanted was to kill him! Kill him for trying to trick her. Kill him for thinking of harming her. Kill him- kill the bully. Whether he was weaker or not didn't matter: what he'd done with his plan and companions was bullying her, he'd scared her, and then he wanted to hurt her! He didn't KNOW her. For all he knew, he was prepared to hurt the most beautiful of harmless flowers.

The thought of it made her want to cry; there were already sobs trying to work their way up her throat. It wasn't just predators- everyone was just in a contest to see who was the cruelest! Well, she'd win, Rozal and Thory could eat her dust! And Tobias too! She'd eat him afterwards. But it'd be slow, and humiliating. She'd kiss him, and nibble on every inch of his skin. Linger on his privates, make them bleed, then make them...! Make them... okay, not that. But something had to be done to them, she just didn't know what yet. Or maybe she did.

Well, it wasn't very imaginative, but it'd be a nice change. She had never gotten to last base with anything- rarely did she even cross first base with prey [and never had she really had the chance with anything else], plus she quickly regretted every time that happened. But him...? Well, there was a first time for everything... maybe he'd die confused. That'd add even more insult to injury... rape and torture, followed by murder and consumption for the cherry on top. Justice couldn't ask for more. Well, maybe she'd lecture him too, before she started. And he wouldn't get even a whimper in, she wouldn't let him talk at all. She'd be ruffling his hair, stopping his mouth... with her belly. He'd spend the short rest of his life as a plaything; if he enjoyed it, so much better: to squeeze whatever sick stuff he had in his brain out and put there instead what she wanted... destroy the intangible, take his cunning, his pride and ruthlessness, take that ARROGANCE and reduce them to nothing, eat them together with the rest of him, what more satisfaction could she hope for!? That'd be even better than hurting him, because it was even worse!

She was letting him matter too much to her, she realized, but she'd enjoy this like never before. When this night ended, Tobias would be no more a danger, he'd be just a funny colour on her pee.

Maybe not even that.

======

Thory quickly realized that they'd been paying attention, just as she feared. One of those days she'd really understand how was it they did that, rather than just get a rundown of it explained by a Seeker. Either way, the next volley of fire was almost imperceptible- all she could tell was that there suddenly were burns all around the lower half of her body, followed by a rock that flew straight for her head! And the rock was on fire!

She barely dodged the burning rock, but it still grazed her shoulder- and it had sharp edges. Blood started pouring down steadily... she felt the thing on one of her leg joints, and let out a yelp as she was brought a little lower, one of her knees jerking down.

"It's working! Shoot again!" someone said. That had to be the leader.

Thinking quickly, she took aim and hurled her hammer again. It smacked right into one of the large unconventional artillery pieces, smashing it with enough strength to render it useless, if not too deformed. Then she took a deep breath, feeling something warm in her throat- apparently, one of those attacks had torn her apart from the inside out!? Well, she'd disabled one machine- only six more to go...

She scrambled towards the next machine, and kicked it. She did that just in time to avoid the photon cannon -or, in layman's terms, the laser- that would've been spot on otherwise. That changed little, though... she still had several more machines and a catapult to deal with.

She would've bent down to catch one of the humans scrambling around, trying to save their lives, but right now she was starting to feel her stomach churning... and not in a healthy way, exactly. She could taste her blood already- she'd gotten the jump on one machine and dealt with two more quickly, but there were still more than enough to kill her! Volley after volley of gunfire was hitting her everywhere, to no effect- but the constant rumble of weaponry was deafening, and it was getting hard to focus on...

BOOM!

Another one of those missiles hit her- even if the potion stopped the shrapnel, the cuirass had to deal with the explosive force, and it still tossed her around inside a smoke cloud. She tried to focus, go for one of those machines, crush it... only six more to go!

But her endurance would only hold for so long. She managed to go halfway to one of the machines... when her legs refused to crawl anymore. She fell over, and tried to drag herself behind a tree, feeling the shame. So much for a frontal attack. They'd torn her apart, she was going to die. She already would have, if it weren't for that drink Elsie had accomplished through sheer chance. She hadn't really expected them to be prepared... how do you shoot someone without metal? They were supposed to have all metal weapons, they weren't supposed to have those bizarre weapons. A catapult, please! That thing stuck out like a sore thumb! She needed a respite... raising her fingers to her mouth, she let out a high-pitched, whistling signal. Hopefully, Elsie would be faster than those siege weapons could turn...

Quickly enough, she heard booming steps scramble close as fast as they'd carry themselves. Heh, Elsie running! She thought she would never see the day! And if she didn't bring anything to heal her, she probably wouldn't actually get to see it either!

She heard a few thumps, and a metallic screech. Then a twang... and a fluttering sound...?

...and a "B'KAW!?" "CAW CAW!" "CAaaW CAW CAW!" "AAAAIIEEEAARGH!" "Shoot the bird, shoot the bird! Use the mortaAAAGH!!" "Captain! There's two of them!" "There's two of them, captain!" "Two, and two- three!?" "Four, captain!" "No, the first one for both was the same! We don't have two plus two birds, we have a first bird and two second birds!" And then a loud, loud CRUNCH! followed by "She's here, I knew it!" "Captain, the catapult caught on fire!" "Hurl it with the bigger catapult!" followed by another TWANG, followed by a loud "SHIT! IT HURTS!" and then another CRUNCH.

======

What Elsie had done upon reaching her grove was first round around the trench, looking for some of her fowl. They were naturally carnivorous- not naturally invulnerable, but they were naturally moronic. So they'd make for a good second line of attack.

She felt guilty using Thory as the first line, but it was too late for that. Maybe if she'd been paying attention and hadn't rushed off like that- if they'd talked, maybe they'd have gotten somewhere. Right now, though, all Elsie knew was that she didn't want to go in first and die.

Hell, even coming in after the birds felt like a test of courage and valor! If she could, she wouldn't go in at all. Even with a draught of supremacy over metal... this was far from a battle she'd already won.

Either way, she quickly found three birds Tobias had missed... and armed with chicken, she had scrambled towards Thory's position. Once there, seeing everyone was distracted with her, she had the quick wit to notice a few sentries posted away from the main conflict- and that they'd seen her. Several vehicles' main cannons turned to face her...

So she swung the chicken again and tossed it right at the kill zone. While the glouteux was only flesh, it was braindead- and it tried to gobble the creatures it was presented even as its own wounds bled it dead. Then it ran right into the riflemen, hungry for manflesh, squawking as it drew fire from every direction... as far as distractions went, it couldn't really get better than that, could it?

The nearest vehicle's turret couldn't turn completely by the time she reached it; Elsie tipped the vehicle over swiftly.

Much to her horror and amazement, something came down from the canopy- pointing at her! She held up a giant hen as a shield against the next machine, gasping as she felt what it was firing- it was so hot, it was burning, it was a flamethrower! That was the same hovervehicle as before!

For a moment it stopped to reload, and all she could do then was smack it with a fried chicken. Before anything else fired at her, she quickly jogged behind a tree, while the hovercraft (full of fried chicken) tumbled away. Several people hopped off- and deployed parachutes. But she didn't have time for that, as one of the vehicles suddenly came right by her, its main gun pointed- she hopped over it immediately, but came up short, needing another hop in the middle that came up short and put her in the field of view of a-

Flinging the carcass against that machine, she took a leap of faith away from.

Just then she turned right to see Stach Tobias, strings on his back leading up to a white, large sheet, snagged on a small branch, he was hanging off the ground... a small stick in his hand- the sparks on the end probably told her everything she wanted to know about it.

"Negation!" he cried, pointing the stick at her. A ray flew towards her...

So she did the only thing a quick-thinking woman could do in her situation: toss a giant chicken at him to block the ray, and then dash into him before he got his bearings, with a backhand slap that destroyed what was in his hands. She took that instant to look away, just in time to see a flaming catapult fall into her side. It bounced, but it was too hot and full of pointy edges!

"SHIT! IT HURTS!"

And then she scrambled towards the final vehicle, now speeding away from her; with a quick movement of her hand, she squeezed the metal into oblivion just before the turret could point at her. The crunching sound was a little unexpected, but now all that remained was a huge catapult and a last machine that had gotten itself pinned between a root and the giant chicken on top of her.

======

"That's enough of you!" Elsie's voice cried. "You all really were out for my blood." she sounded displeased. "This will not go unpunished..."

"Cut out with the ham, dammit! I'm dying!" Thory cried.

"Huh? Oh, of... of course." she stated, as she went up to Thory, appearing from behind the tree she had been hiding behind, pulling out a small flask from her cleavage, and uncorking it with her fingers.

"I was right, they could've killed us."

"Well, they can't anymore. It was intense, actually..." Elsie sighed. "Having to destroy their machines before they killed me. I was lucky they changed direction so slowly."

"Heh, you tell me..." Thory said, as she brought the mouth of the flask up to her lips. She had to stop for a moment, to cough out some blood, before Elsie's worried eyes. But anyway, she managed to drink up, and keep it down for long enough to have it take effect. Then she finally relaxed...

...and coughed up a lot more blood.

"Thory!"

"It's okay, it's blood I'd lost already. I'll be okay." the dridder grinned. "We fought aplenty tonight."

"We're not done..." she licked her lips, grinning. "I'm not done with them. And I've waited long enough."

Elsie turned away, while Thory stood up weakly. She was kinda curious as to what was the big girl going to do.

======

Getting on all fours, Elsie inspected the ground. Finding one of the overturned machines, she raised it for a moment, making sure it was pointing away from her... and bit down on the metal.

Under the effects of this potion, it didn't offer much resistance. She just ripped off half of the machine, and calmly chewed it as the metal dissolved into something creamy in her mouth. Taking a deep breath, she savored the metallic taste, and gulped. The metal kept feeling more and more fluid as she swallowed... not to mention lighter. After a moment, she could swear she'd just been drinking milk.

Healthy bones needed iron, so she finished the machine in two more bites. The metal felt not filling at all... it was like it disappeared inside her, she just wanted more of it. There hadn't been a person inside, either.

Crawling away from her current position, she quickly pulled two soldiers from under a root. Thory had to ask herself how had she found them... but it was best not to soil the moment. Tonight was her night, probably, nothing would bother her anymore. Everyone had a lucky day after a while- today just happened to be Elsie's. Giving the two soldiers a lick, a single lick that destroyed their rifles, she took a deep breath- and much to her surprise, shoved them deep in her sweaty cleavage. For some reason, Elsie seemed to radiate a certain happiness...

This was going to be a good night.

The next machine Elsie found, she consumed quickly- and, as Thory noticed, her belly showed nothing for it. She wasn't so much consuming as simply annihilating- but she was quite intent either way. She had been hurt, now she was exacting her revenge. Everything that had harmed her would now be assimilated, or annihilated. She quickly lost count of the troopers the giantess had caught, and placed "away" for later. Then she stopped for a moment... and plucked one.

Unwrapping him quickly, he let out a little scream; Elsie didn't so much undress as pull apart and wait for the buttons or seams to give. But when she had him bare, she quickly lapped him up. She didn't give herself the time to savor him before she was unwrapping another one, at a frantic pace. And every time one of them let out a sound, her smile would widen a little...

When she had four of them in her mouth, she finally stopped for a moment. Then she swallowed, stretching for a moment, letting out a sigh once the massive bulge had went down her throat. Justice was only beginning to get served, though... she ran her tongue over her mouth, feeling the sweet taste of revenge. Beginning the process anew, the ranks between her gifts thinned frantically. It'd take a lot of humans to make a meal for her, but after having kept her stomach waiting for all of today, her appetite, albeit ravenous, would be short-lived: this small army would probably suffice.

Eight, twelve, sixteen... that began reminding Thory she hadn't really eaten anything either today. She just took a whiff, and followed the strong scent of adrenaline in the sweat to its source. She quickly found around thirteen of them. Remembering Elsie's doings, she lapped their guns a little, just to destroy them... and held them in her hands. Then she returned to Elsie, who by now would've eaten over twenty of them.

And if her belly was any indication, she was only getting started. A faint bulge was starting to show, proving blood was answering the call, proving there was blood to answer the call. Still not taut, her smooth skin was glistening with sweat... a testament to how much had she suffered for this. And as her longing eyes drifted lazily over the crowd in Thory's fingers, they locked on one of them.

She pointed at him. Thory handed him over... and Elsie pulled off his jacket.

"I'm Elsie." she cooed. "Tobias, weren't you?"

He let out a snort.

"Stach. Stach Tobias..."

"I'll call you Tobi." she cut him off. "What you did to me was horrible. Why did you come here?"

"We were following a flying coco. Crocodile."

"Oh..." Elsie smirked. "I see... and you just needed to invite yourself, and point a gun at meee..."

"Quit it. If you don't know how things are, I'm not explaining them to you."

"You pointed a gun at me..." she smiled. Whatever things were, right now, nothing was going to make it about anything else than her. Right now, it was all about her. He wouldn't be able to take that away from her. SHE would take right away from him. "You had no right..."

"You are a predator. A threat."

"You were not very nice." she smiled. Who cared what he thought?

"I was trying to survive!"

"Are you trying to reason your way out of this?" she giggled. "Cute..." she added, gripping him strongly. The hand around him suddenly clenched around him, while another finger went up to his hair, and ruffled it. Then she rubbed her monstrously large tongue over his neck... "It's so cute when you think it's going to help you..."

"Then eat me and be done with it!"

"I could." she grinned.

Tearing off his shirt, she brought him even closer to her mouth. There, she just licked him over a little, while thinking of something else to say.

"Why are you so mean?" she giggled. "I don't know why you have been such a jerk to me. What have I ever done to you?"

"You wanted to eat me!"

"No, I was being nice. But you really wanted to bully me, don't you..." she giggled. "Because you're a jerk." she grinned. Not necessarily true, but it was so, so good to tell him all that she wanted to say. He'd listen, he had no choice at all. And if she didn't have his attention, she could always take the rest of the world away from him. "I could've had so much fun with you... was all this really necessary? Think about it, was it necessary at all?"

"YES!" So defiant. She couldn't wait to break him...

"Aw, that's mean. But I forgive you. Because it's just your frustration talking, and anyone can have a bad day." She felt the burn on him as she pulled out his shoes, and his socks. Then she turned him around, facing away from her... and placed her tongue on his back.

"You know it isn't true!"

"Mmm."

"Whatever you say, you know I was justified in everything I did!"

"Mmm!"

"And one day you, and everything you love will ALL be gone just like...!"

"MmmMM!" she giggled. She didn't mind his words one bit, not here and not now.

-Hate me.- she thought -Hate me all you want, hate me more, because I want you to hate me. I love it when you hate me.-

"You've always hated predators, haven't you? That's your problem, isn't it?" she added, barely able not to laugh. All this unfriendly teasing was so much fun... but SO much fun... "You're angry, because you're weak, little and scared." she giggled, pulling out his pants next. He bent his knees- and she once more clenched her fingers around his shape, straightening his legs, and then running her index over his crotch. She faked a gasp... "WHAT'S THIS!?"

"G... get off me! This is too much!" he cried, turning to look at her... she just turned her wrist, making sure he couldn't look at her; all he accomplished was flailing around with his torso, her finger still somewhere he didn't want it.

"But... what's this?" she asked, again. "It's so hard and tiny..."

"It's not hard!"

"But it is tiny. Maybe that's why you're so mean." she added, thoughtfully. "I wonder what it tastes like? Does it taste the same as you, or not?"

He shuddered.

"Why are you shivering?" she asked. "Did I say something strange?"

"I could ask you the same question..." he replied. "Why are you shivering?"

"Because I'm thrilled!" she giggled. There was no way to make any of this wrong. She could accept herself, warts and everything, knowing he would too. He had no choice in the matter. "Here, feel it right from my tummy." she grinned, bringing him face-on with her tummy. Tummy, indeed. How childish... but it suited him perfectly. He was going to be crushed, completely, he'd be disciplined, and then he'd fuel her when she decided it was the right time. Treating him like an adult now? She didn't feel like it.

"Call me mommy..."

"WH...uck?" he gasped.

"I said, call me mommy." she continued. "I want you to call me mommy."

"What the puck?" he cried. "Are you out of your mind?"

"No..." she sighed. "I want you to call me mommy!"

"Am I your boyfriend... or something?" Stach cried.

"No! You're an unruly kid!" she barked. "Mommy's going to teach you a lesson!"

-This is so disturbing...- Thory thought, as Elsie rubbed him against her own belly, ever lower.

"Unless you ask mommy to stop..." the giantess said, suddenly having a few fetishes of her own... "Mommy's going to eat you up."

Stach's eyes widened as he realized he was right now between the devil and the deep, blue sea. Full of disturbed mermaids. Not only was he going to die... but now it had to be like this, in some humiliatingly bizarre parody of a disturbing fantasy? And... eh... come to think of it... what exactly did this tell him about her?

-The way she moves so awkward and grips me so rough, it reminds me a lot of when that girl in the bar complained about it being the first time for the guy she'd bedded, he was a total oaf too...-

He tried to raise his arms.

"No, don't!"

"I'm your mommy and I can do whatever I want to you!" she cried happily, much to his horror. Then she brought him up to her face, and parted her lips just slightly... bringing his crotch towards her mouth. If this was what he thought it was...

"Stay away, you're not a rabbi! You can't do that with your teeth!" he cried. She kept getting closer. "Nooomno-" He almost said it. "omnomnom-" He was distracted, it seemed. "nononomononooo...! No! Look, just... cut it out! I mean, no, don't cut anything out!" She touched him. Her mouth parted only a little bigger, and a little, and another little... he was being pushed in, this was not going to end well...

Her lips suddenly parted widely, and with a cough he just had to say it as her teeth suddenly dominated his attention.

"Make it squeak...!" he squeaked, her jaw clamping down around his chest and then sliding lightly. The pain took an instant to manifest- but when it did, his shoulder, chest and arms were on fire. Fire with teeth, fire making him bleed, fire moaning weakly through a throat that no longer answered to him. He felt his own throat groaning even before he felt her tongue rolling around the wounds, lapping his blood- and where it was, for a moment, there was no pain- which only served to stress it even harder when the pain returned.

"Ah... ugh... guah..." his mind was starting to melt. Too much pain and he was too much of a wuss, her smug smile didn't matter anymore. There wasn't a thing he wouldn't do, a thing he wouldn't say, if it meant the pain would just stop. Her tongue returned for a moment, together with her lips, rolling over the side of his body, over the wound. He couldn't anymore control his own mouth... he was just glad it wasn't forming words.

"Amgnoah..." the gibberish stopped as her lips temporarily covered his head. He couldn't talk into her lips, and he couldn't mind the saliva covering one side of his body. Not as long as it was warm... he could hate her, but not like this. Not when she was all that stood between him and the current. When he felt her teeth coming closer, he could only let out a squeak, cry, feel her tongue roll over his shoulder and then around his ear... why, why was she doing this...? She wasn't going to bite him again... was she?

"GAwAAaaAGH! AAGHAAAK!" He squirmed like never before as her teeth came for the briefest moment into the side of his face, slicing into his eyelid- his eye suddenly went blind, blood trickled all around his head, several muscles throughout his body were pulled... and yet she managed to top it all, for nothing was more painful than suddenly being outside of her mouth, burning up in the wind! Even grimacing was painful now, her teeth had ripped into his lips, letting him taste not just his blood but also his flesh. There was a smell- he could only identify it as death.

His voice abandoned all pretenses of intelligence even before his mouth did- he could feel himself growing less coherent, incapable of thinking straight anymore. There was too much pain- he wasn't even forming words anymore. What muscle memory his tongue had... his language was waning, now his own voice sounded like mere squeaky sounds in his ears...

"Thuh-there's no need for this. Duh-don't be cruel for its own suh-sake, juhh-sst k-kuh-kill m-muh, just..." nothing. She had already made up her mind; anything he said was probably just going to be used against him. "Oh, well, fuck this!" he cried.

As it turns out, it was going to be used against him. He'd just picked the wrong words. Then again, he couldn't pick any other words anymore.

Her sly smile wasn't what scared him- he was used to people looking at him like they wanted to rip him apart. It was her enthusiasm, which she was glowing with, what troubled him. In a swift movement, her lips wrapped around his waist and side- they were too big to wrap around a smaller section. Her tongue ran in circles around his belly, and between his thighs, through his underwear- this was a whole new level of intense and awkward. He tried to struggle off, protect whatever little dignity he had left- but she had his shoulders gripped tightly, and her lips were too strong to bring his knees up against them, even if his whole body hadn't been lacerated like that. His abdomen quivered and shook violently every time that huge, rough and moist surface brought itself to him, every of her hums was a maddening reminder that he wanted to be far, far, far from this place! He struggled with his throat to keep down any more moaning, any more cries of pain!

Trying to keep his mind (and the Netherlands, for the sake of preserving the national dignity) off the gutter, Stach tried not to think of how moist his underpants were, or how much pressure was rolling on and off his body. The sensation was too intense- willpower could only do so much, autonomous nervous reaction didn't factor things like this to evaluate response... other than if they were happening, acknowledging it didn't help things.

As for her, sure, she was kind of tossing away her oral virginity- but she couldn't think of a better way to do it than this. Adrenaline and other things had been boiling inside her all day long, and the only thing she could think of right now was hurting this individual as much as she could. And she was enjoying this- because he clearly wasn't, his legs trying to push off her tongue, his shoulders' feeble struggle in her hand, the delightful flavor of his trembling belly. Running her pinky over his hand, she felt it was frozen stiff, its fingers wrapped around thin air, as if miming a claw, and trembling. She'd love to see him try something now.

Several trickles of drool made their way out of his whimpering lips, painfully aware that he wasn't getting out of this alive, that she hated him to no end, that if he let out not a peep she'd go on, that if he let out a peep she'd go on, that there were people looking, people listening- she was holding his men between her breasts to exactly THAT end, if he said anything they'd know, if he tried to enjoy it they'd know, if he tried to sell out their backup they'd know! If she didn't kill him, they would... right now he envied their strength of character to no end, he wanted to be strong enough not to cry, not to show any weakness... he didn't want to be a squealer. Not now, not in the ONLY moment that mattered...

They'd kill him. But they'd kill him faster if he sold out their backup, unless they killed him slower... but there was no going back, now that she had done that to him he was dying, but if he did that he'd be dying for the rest of his life!

As long as it was a short life...

"GhhAAAH N. Nuh Duhn't." he coughed "St... stuhp ah'll Y-Yuh-yield Th-th-HACK rest W-WuH Aren't ah-ahll, th-thuh's more ah can t-tell wh-whERE..."

Even if his words had been mangled so thoroughly, if his mind had been mangled so thoroughly, she could recognize what he was trying to say. It was music to her ears- he was probably trying to sell out someone else. She liked those offers.

Because when they offered that, she could just turn them down and savor their despair, slow and nice. She ignored his words, just rolling her tongue around his quivering body with a little more vigor, feeling him squirm, recoiling powerlessly in her hand, hoarse grunts as he kept trying not to let out anything at all. But he'd break. Tobi wouldn't be brave, he'd break. She'd see him break if it was the last thing she did.

Agony lancing through his body, he bucked violently in her grasp, incapable of freeing so much as a finger, incapable of getting away from her tongue. New pains sprung as his pulled muscles gave up one by one. He couldn't anymore keep away from her, her tongue was felt in full over his lower body, even through the trunks, which wasn't stopping her- and it wasn't stopping him either, he could feel it, there was pleasure buried somewhere beneath that crushing load of fear and pain.

"Thuh...'s mMOORE...!" he tried again, had she not heard him? Maybe she didn't care? "Ah'll... guh-g-get th-thuhm..."

She didn't respond, she hadn't heard him whimper... Who'd hear him whimper? He needed to be clear, he needed her attention...

"S-st-stuhh-ah-AH! STUHP! Ah'm tr-th-trying..."

"Mmm!"

She had been ignoring him.

Upon this revelation, his voice lapsed into a wordless, tortured, hoarse shriek. Stach was a squealer, and he'd gotten to the limit of his strength. If anything, he had to go for what she really wanted.

"W. Wuh- wait, st-st'p it! M-muh... mommy st... stuhp! STUHP! STOP!"

That was what she had wanted him to do the most: the proud little wretch had finally given in. His pride and arrogance had finally been CONSUMED, she'd finally taken EVERYTHING from him.

Now all that was left was a toy.

She redoubled her efforts- and so did he, trying to struggle free so much that she had to turn him slightly. His sobs were music for her ears... but then, she stopped, a while after she realized she wasn't getting the same hard reaction anymore.

"That was all?" she asked, genuinely disappointed.

He couldn't answer: he was averting his face as best as he could, slobbering through the throat, blood and tears mixed much to her delight, his face and body marred by bite marks throughout. When she finally turned him so that he had no choice but to look her in the eye, she saw one of his eyes on the verge of bursting, its sclera red and its eyelid slit sideways, blood running down his face from a wound on his forehead. His face... was the first step to closure.

"I'll forget your face, you waste of flesh, you little piece of scum, but you'll never forget mine." she sighed merrily, blowing him a kiss.

Then she tore away his trunks- or rather, whatever was left of them. Disappointingly, he didn't fight back anymore. That had been all, indeed.

"I won't let you." she pouted, her eyes still locked on his eyes, her tongue still probing him for pain. "Not you."

Very carefully, she engulfed him for the last time.

Scalp, fingers and chest were sliced and smashed with incredible precision, she screamed from a closed mouth with a voice that wasn't hers... blood had never been a her favourite, but knowing that it was HIS blood was enough. Ripping his shins between his molars, she blew out a mouthful of air... and swallowed.

For the last moments before he lost consciousness, he was glad to be going down her oesophagus. This way, there wasn't anything more she could do unto him. This way, all she was going to do she'd already done... a maddened giggle escaped his throat as he landed a bleeding lump of broken limbs into a mass of... what was this called again, the primary mass or somesuch? This stuff, the matter inside the stomach? Not yet processed? On its way to the small intestine? After chewing, he knew it was the alimenticial bolum or something like that, but afterwards... Quilum. That's what it was, quilum! No, wait, was it quilum with or without the added secretions? Wasn't quilum the one AFTER the small intestine, come to think of it? No, wait. Bolum, quilum, quimum...

Well, he'd be quilum in a while! She'd mortally wounded him, but he wouldn't have lived long anyway. Her stomach was already on full drive. Oh, come to think of it, he had been chewed! Most predators didn't... all of the bodies beneath him, those he couldn't really feel, not in this state, they were whole! This had to count for something!

"Ah ah-ah-am thuh-th...! The... bolum!" he mouthed quietly, like giggling, before being cut off by a gasp, his insides suddenly feeling cold, deathly cold. He coughed- this place was too humid, he couldn't breathe anymore- right now his body was like a shell more than ever: intense pressure had fractured it. Broken everywhere, the few organs that remained intact felt more like a curse than a blessing. But he'd bleed, or more likely choke, the remains of his face lighting up with the remains of a smile at the thought that soon enough the pain would stop. All he had to do for that was leave this shell here, after all!

He couldn't be happier to relinquish everything to her.

======

But he hadn't been much food either. A limp, moist waste of flesh she'd just disposed of couldn't ever be much. She needed more.

"Oh, but I'm still hungry..."

"Here, let me help you, mommy." Thory's voice said, suddenly from right next to her ear... popping one human, already undressed, right in her mouth. Elsie opened her mouth, feeling her face warm...

...warm!?

The next thing she realized was that Thory's lips were upon her and her tongue had invaded her mouth together with that human- and there were two unwelcome girly hands on her chest, rigid and strong as they were- why was she feeling breasts rub on her back!?

Elsie shuddered, and pushed the human back into Thory's mouth- wrong turn, wrong turn- she pulled back herself, and scrambled away, before Thory's surprised eyes.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" she cried, looking at the dridder, who'd just gulped down something.

"What? What's your problem, it's just a..." she sighed in annoyance.

"Look, I... I don't..." Elsie hiccoughed.

"After what I just saw, I can't take you for the picky type." Thory grinned, pretty smug.

"What... what's that supposed to mean!?" Elsie cried, standing up to her full height. The dridder, albeit shorter, didn't look any less menacing- specially considered the recently added sexual aspect to her predation. Before, she'd been risking her life. Now, she was risking... no, now she was realizing Thory had never seen her with the eyes she had been thinking!

"You just screwed food. With me watching. Two and two are...? You know I like you, too." her grin was now the sickest thing in the world.

"WHAT!? I don't know where'd you get that..." Elsie mumbled, shivering.

"Look, stop acting stupid. That's enough of the shy act, let's fluff our pillows together! Please, mommy!"

Elsie gulped, trying to stand as tall as she could, as far away from her friend -well, former friend- as possible. Her legs, skittering on the ground, all of a sudden had a slimy note to them- she couldn't feel but the utmost disgust at her bulbous abdomen, at her chest behind that cuirass, her eyes- god, those eyes, the way they were looking at her...! They were lusting for her, to make her hers... her mouth, already wet, her lips glistening with saliva -no, with drool- her tongue, all of a sudden so much more repulsive and slimy. She couldn't bear a single touch of that organ, and her hands... a shudder of epic proportions ran up her spine as they reached up towards her chest.

She parried these two hands- and instead they went down; as if an electric current ran through her nerves, the giantess scrambled away, covering herself.

"Ah, look, won't you just stay still!?"

"CUT IT OUT! NO MEANS NO!" Elsie barked, angrily. "GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD!"

Thory stopped for an instant- then she shook her head, as if to dispel her words.

"What's your problem!?" she growled. "What happened here?"

"I told you no means no!" Elsie cried.

"And why not, anyway? What's your problem?"

"I'm straight!"

The dridder just let out a snort.

"No such thing, Elsie. Do you like me, or not?"

"You're not my type!"

"Well, what IS your type, anyway? People who tried to kill you?" she threw her hands up. "Do you have some sort of human fetish I don't even want to hear about?"

"That was..." Elsie turned red, but not in embarassment. She was red in anger and frustration. "That was just the moment- that was none of your business!"

"Well, what's that supposed to mean!? You did that, I was there, you know!? All of a sudden I'm not a person!? I don't count!?"

"Look, it...!" she yelled in response. Then she realized she was yelling. "It was a mistake." she lowered her vocie.

"Mistake, she says." Thory snorted. "A mistake, she says..." she threw her hands up again. "I come all the way here, get hit by who knows what, face certain death... I guess that was a mistake too." she shook her head, lips pursed.

"They're two different things! I... I don't know what came over me, I shouldn't have..."

"Neither should I!" she spat. "Riddance. Try not to get more fucked up than you already are, big girl." she added, scampering off at her own pace, twice as fast with the irritation. It wasn't long until she was but a dot in the horizon which Elsie couldn't bear to look at.

For a moment, she wondered what was it Thory shouldn't have, either. She hoped she meant the grope and kiss- and she dreaded she had meant coming all the way here. She dreaded she meant EVERYTHING... without her, she wouldn't have much in the way of metal, but with her, she would have to put up with... god, were there any signs, really, that Thory liked her? Any signs at all? She couldn't think of a single one. For once, being wanted wasn't flattering- if it had led up to that moment with the dridder-

DRIDDER. She'd just scorned one... who seemed determined to have her, would she also decide that she'd have her, one way or another...?

Please, she had to trust Thory, she hadn't went so far as to actually rape her -though she had taken too long to get the message. She wanted to think she didn't mean wrong... that woman was just a slimeball, it wasn't her fault- wait, SHE was calling HER slime? After what she did? No wonder she got the wrong message, she was right- but what the hell was wrong with her, anyway? The contents of the message weren't up to discussion, NO meant NO! Why was she even considering this ridiculous line of thought? Thory was slime, and nothing more! The rest wasn't her problem!

But she had helped her so much, for so little, as she told her. She thought she was a friend- NO! She was trying to guilt her. She was trying to GUILT HER into having sex? What sort of sicko had she been hanging around!?

Something wriggling in her cleavage reminded her of a detail she'd almost forgotten- with those people trapped in there, no wonder she gave the wrong image! She buried her face in her hands- the shame. Never in her life had she felt ashamed like this. Angry, ashamed...

Well, there was still something she could do. Pulling out someone from her cleavage, she looked at him carefully. Her intentions hadn't crystallized yet- but for one, bringing suffering was high in her list of things to do.

"This..." nobody was going to argue with her anymore, even if she had to bite off their jaws herself "...is all your fault."

A smile crept into her lips. Nobody was going to take this night away from her.

Sorry, I'm only on part 5 so far. But I thought Bears Upon Me was very beary good.

Part 8- Call me Mommy

[Now that we're approaching the ending, I'd like to thank you for having read this story.]

Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
I'm exposed
and it's no big surprise
don't you think I know
exactly where I stand
This world is forcing me
to hold your hand

'cause I'm just a girl, little old me,
Don't let me out of your sight.
I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite,
so don't let me have any rights.
Oh... I've had it up to here!

The moment that I step outside,
so many reasons
for me to run and hide...
I can't do the little things
I hold so dear,
'cause it's all those little things
that I fear.

'cause I'm just a girl,
I'd rather not be,
'cause they won't let me drive
late at night.
I'm just a girl,
guess I'm some kind of freak
'cause they sit and stare
with their eyes
I'm just a girl,
take a good look at me,
just your typical prototype.
Oh... I've had it up to here!
Oh... am I making myself clear?

I'm just a girl,
I'm just a girl in the world...
That's all you'll let me be!

I'm just a girl, living in captivity,
Your rule of thumb
makes me worry some.
I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?
What I've succumbed to
is making me numb.
I'm just a girl, my apologies,
What I've become is so burdensome.
I'm just a girl, lucky me,
twiddle-dum there's no comparison!

Oh... I've had it up to!
Oh... I've had it up to!
Oh... I've had it up to here.

No Doubt, "Just a Girl". Tragic Kingdom, 1995



The first rays of the sun broke through her eyelids, her pupils contracting even before she opened her eyes. With the coming dawn, yesterday was gone, tomorrow began. Now it was time to take in everything today could offer.

With some difficulty, she stood up, staggering a little. She always did, she was kind of bulky after all. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. A vigorizing layer of morning dew covered her; she quickly shook it off, feeling just a little colder like every time- but now at least she'd start feeling warmer.

So she trotted away for a little, being careful with a sunken area full of mud. Some days had good things in them. Some days had great things in them. Some days had awesome things in them. Yesterday had been a day to forget- and just now, today had looked like one of the best days.

Three small figures in the distance. Small, around man-size. They had the manner of one seriousy helpless and hopeless about them- the only kind she'd want to bother with.

It was a great way to start the day.

======

She tried not to sigh too loud in this sleepless dawn. Next to her belly, on hammocks placed over a couple roots, these four survivors were sleeping. She had to keep an eye on them, though: wouldn't want them to try anything sneaky while she was asleep. Wondering for a moment why was it so hard for her to trust them... maybe knowing they knew where she lived was enough to make her feel a little hostile. Knowing she'd pushed herself so far as to spit one of them out was enough to resent them. And knowing they'd go away managed to be the worst part despite all.

-I'm really screwed up.- she thought to herself. -Am I really this lonely?

Feeling a little whisper near her ear, she turned, seeing one of them.

"Hello. I wanted to talk..." he mumbled.

She shook her head.

"What about?"

He sighed.

"Well..." he began. "Though you... did that to her... you stopped in the end, and I..."

"You what?"

He grimaced.

"I'm not sure how to say this. You stopped... no, you actually took it back. You scared us a lot... but... what I'm trying to say is that you can't be as bad as you seem."

She leaned towards him.

"Not as bad as I seem?"

"That's right." he shrugged. "You can't be as bad as you seem... I guess, you're just... too different. It's been a hell of a day for all of us, and she almost got herself... you almost... you ate her." he sighed.

"I spat her!"

"I know. It's... strange for us. I've never had to be spared by anyone..." he shrugged. "Like you said, I can keep harping on and on about how different this place is and what a bad day it's been. But I've got faith that you're a better person than we think. Maybe it's just my Stockholm acting up... though, you know, Alicia would kill me for that..."

"Maybe you should just be quiet then."

"No... that's the wrong answer, in my heart I'm sure of it... I just want you to know I won't hold any grudges."

"You shouldn't."

"I won't."

-For all the good it'll do me- she thought to herself. -you might as well swear to spend your every breath from now on seeking revenge. I think I'd like that, at least that way I'd be important to you.-

"Hm." she answered.

He nodded.

"I'll be going back to sleep now."

She nodded. Suddenly, words came to her throat. It took her a moment to recall his name. This was probably their last moment alone and together... the words got stuck in her throat, unable to come out. She really wanted to... there had to be a way...

"Wait..."

He stopped.

"... Herman." she said, finding it in herself how to recall his name.

"Yes?"

"Will I ever see you again?"

Herman's mouth fell ajar for a moment. He hadn't expected that question.

"Forget it." she quickly added.

"I hope so, Elsa." he answered. He sounded too unsure...

She concealed her chagrin as he went back to sleep- she'd come to expect that guy would always know the right words and say them, she was almost taking them for granted- and now that he didn't know if they were meeting again, he couldn't even tell her a lie just to be nice. What a strange man! Strange and cruel, though he'd never know that last part. A long part of her life was spent realizing that no one ever knew how cruel they truly were...

She shifted her position, uneasily thinking about the mailman, feeling her throat clench as she longed for his familiar scent, unable to stop herself from worrying needlessly over people who, she knew, didn't need her. Those thoughts always made her feel so cold, despite she had such a thick skin.

======

"Hey you!"

The three of them stopped- and fell on the ground. Then they scrambled away. Silly them, they could run as far and as fast as they wanted- they'd never go far enough!

"Wait..." she declared. Then she stopped herself. Why talk?

Bending down a little, she grabbed each of the three with her left hand, delicately, and raised them up to her chest.

"Gaaahh!" one of them yelled. Its voice was high-pitched, but it sounded somehow circumstantial. She was sure he'd sound better at some other moment.

"I'll put you back down, if you don't run." she offered. "You don't have to."

One of them was still yelling. He was... human. Poor little thing- he wasn't even dressed for the weather.

The man hadn't stopped yelling- only he had now crumbled into a ball. She let out a 'tch'.

"Oh, sorry." she continued. They still hadn't spoken a single word. Lowering herself to her knees and placing her hands on the ground, she thought about introducing herself, just as one of them crawled, pushing his head against her hand, until he was out of it, kissing the dirt with his scalp. The other two just stood up weakly on the ground...

"Sorry about that, I suppose he's scared of heights." she said, with a very frank but very measured tone.

The woman looked at her, confused and scared. They had good reason to be, she thought to herself. Let's see what could be done for them.

"Don't try to run away." she repeated. Damn, she thought so much about what to say, and in the end never got too far. She always expected them to do most of the talking.

The woman's eyes moved towards the hairy lower half of her body. She took a deep breath.

"What...?" she stopped without even finishing the question.

-If you don't mind... you should calm him first. Or else, I'll have to answer everything twice.- she thought about saying. -No, that's too callous. I better let him calm down on his own; there's nothing I can really do about it.-

"Have you ever heard of Felarya?" she asked, calmly. She already knew the answer.

"Miss Hare?" the second man spoke up. The first one was still panicking, sobbing, rolled up in the ground... the woman, Miss Hare, turned to her.

"No, I can't say I have. I don't even know how to pronounce it..." she mumbled.

"Well, that's too bad. Because that's where you are right now. It's a strange world, drawing people like yourselves into itself all the time."

The two of them looked at each other, and then at her. Their faces had yet to catch up to the situation...

"I'm not lying to you, and I'm really sorry for your plight." the giantess added, quickly. "I can only imagine how it'd feel to be removed from wherever you belong, placed into a situation like this."

"What did... you mean by people like ourselves?" she replied, in an ineffable, curious tone. From her voice, she realized she was hyperventilating- too bad. Hopefully she wouldn't faint.

-What did I mean by people like yourselves?- she wondered.

"I'm not really sure what I meant, frankly..." she cut herself off. "But that's your current situation."

"How do you know this!?" the woman asked, sounding suspicious. "And how do we get back?"

"I know this... because I've seen it happen before." she replied, trying to stay calm, but sympathetic. "How to get back, I..." she decided to lie for the time being. The only thing close to a way back was half a world away: they needed to get their priorities straight first. "...really have no idea right now, you might want to ask somebody else. Now, I wouldn't want to drop everything in your lap all of a sudden, but there's more- please tell me once you are ready." she continued, servicially. It was all she could do for them. "A good first would be to calm down, you're all going to hyperventilate!" she added, with a little more emphasis.

Even then, she hoped they'd be quick about getting ready. She was feeling really, really empty, and they were just standing there, draining on her patience and looking delicious...

After a few minutes of walking in circles, holding their heads, crying to each other, and generally depleting her patience, the acrophobe managed to stand up and sit on the ground.

"If... if you do that again, I'm going to rip your guts off... err..." he began, nervously.

"You might want to introduce yourself first." she replied, with a warm smile. "Be polite, if you can."

"Polite, so that you don't have to yell to bullshit me?" he barked.

"Not at all." her smile disappeared. "Freely given advice, nothing else." she ran a lock of curly black hair off her face, letting him look at her brown eyes directly. "Whatever you have on yourselves, even if it's just your manners, you need it more than ever. Hang on to it, hang on to what it makes of you, remember who you are."

"I'm a pissed off acrophobe, that's who!" he screeched. The centaur raised one eyebrow, looking at him- he had narrow eyes, a pale, yellowish complexion, an angular chin and thinning hair that had already abandoned his wrinkled forehead. He was also dressed in what looked like a broad robe and sandals.

"Weasel! Sorry, great spirit, he's not usually like this..." Thankfully the woman had stopped hyperventilating.

"Of course he's not." she smiled. "That'd be too convenient."

"Ah, my name is Starlight Hare. I am Starlight Weasel's sister, and this man over here is Sparrow." the woman said. Starlight Hare was a lot like Starlight Weasel- only somewhat thicker, shorter, fatter, and she wasn't balding. Oh, she was a woman too, despite which she was similarly dressed to him... must've been an unisex trend.

"An honor." Sparrow replied, seemingly still a bit short of breath. He had similar features to the rest, except his face was somewhat more square. So, Rozal assumed, they were either a family, or a very distinct ethnic group. Then she decided for ethnic group: only the Starlight brothers had admitted to being related by blood, and Sparrow was dressed very differently from the other two, a long, featureless dull coat on his shoulders, a gray shirt of some sort beneath, and a brown short something she couldn't quite describe around his waist and thighs. He was also more tanned and more toned- plus there was a really strange, broad scar on his right cheek.

"I'm Rozal." she smiled. "You will not refer to me as a spirit." she added, a little more seriously- if they were this worshipful, a little discipline would help them get on their feet faster. "It's a pleasure- but we have to get to business. Tell me once you are ready to hear me out."

"Spit it out or I'll make you!"

"Weasel!"

Worshipful her ass. Well, that'd probably get things done faster and save her the trouble of making up a title for them to use.

"It's okay, I know. It's the fright talking." Rozal said- damn, she hadn't thought about that carefully enough! She'd just patronized someone she'd just picked up...

"FUCK! I'M TERRIFIED, YES! Who wouldn't be with her deformed mug here, rotter!?"

Telling him right now that she wasn't his enemy wouldn't help- all she could do was give him some measure of control, then take it kindly away. The easier he adjusted, the better for everyone. Specially her, she was hungry- but the time to bring that up didn't seem to come.

"The matter is, you look like cityfolk." she continued.

"And you look like a horse-shagging redneck bumpkin's overfed bastard child!" Weasel barked. Rozal had to repress a wince- that was a new one. It wasn't making ignoring her stomach any easier. She turned to the woman...

"Hare, are you okay with him talking for the three of you?" she asked, calmly.

"I'm talking for myself!" Weasel cried.

"Miss Hare, Master Weasel... forgive my impertinence, please... let me handle this." Sparrow sighed. Miss, master... nobles? -I found a live one.- she thought to herself.

"WHATEVER YOU...!"

"Brother, it would seem convenient at this point to take him up on his offer." Hare cut in.

"Feh!" the acrophobe snarled. "Go touch the horse then, knock yourself out, it's all you're good for."

"I thank you for this kindness." Sparrow replied quickly, with a bow that seemed almost exaggerated. Then he turned to her. "Yes, as you say, we're from a city. What's the matter?"

"Most of Felarya is a wilderness, populated by... quick and dirty, it's full of giant maneaters." Rozal sighed. That was incomplete information, but it was relevant and it'd get the point across the fastest. "Anything you see that can swallow you will do so."

"You too?"

"No, of course not."

"Then why did you say ANYTHING, you miserable rotten pile of lies?" Weasel interrupted again.

"The truth's much more complex, but I did say quick and dirty." she replied.

"So if we meet other... like yourself..." Hare cut in.

"Giant centaurs." Rozal's gaze drifted away, holding back a wince. She'd just used the word "giant" to describe herself, it fit their perspective, but from hers, it sounded so false...

"We're in trouble?" Hare cut in.

"Were I someone else, you'd have gotten explained the natural order of life instead- the big eat the small, and all that: maybe not even that. But it'd be immensely callous of me to tell you to believe yourselves morsels. I know that up until moments ago, danger felt like another country, and the thought of being eaten was not a part of your life." There. Now that she said it, they wouldn't bother saying it themselves.

"Couldn't we... have talked about this?" Hare chuckled, nervously.

Her tail swished behind her. Her stoic expression made it clear she didn't believe it.

"I don't think that'd work." she decided she should go on about this: it was important AND interesting, enough to calm people down. "To debate, you need equal terms- and if your life were on the stake but mine were not, you'll get flustered, believe me. Now imagine trying to deal with an individual who's not been raised with the same ideals as you, but loves their way of life as much as one can love their own freedom, enough to ignore yours." Once more, a lie: freedom had nothing to do with this. It'd help the point across, she reminded herself. "The sooner you come to terms, or to grips, the better." Rozal raised her eyebrows, a little relieved- the important part was over. "Now... I'm hungry."

Sparrow's gaze was blank. So was the others'...

"Huh...?" the three of them said, almost in unison.

"I'm hungry. I'll go look for breakfast now... I can leave you here, or you can come with me. But if you come with me..." she grinned. "you have to help."

"Look at the size of your gizzard, nobody can help you enough!" Weasel cried.

"You won't know until you try. I could use three more pairs of eyes, to be honest. We can play a game, too!" she smiled. "Do you know the rules to "I spy"?"

"Yeah, like everyone between the ages of three and five." Weasel cut in.

"I'm a child at heart!" Rozal let out a chuckle. "I get that a lot. Don't worry, no offense taken..." at a loss for words, her eyes shifted towards Hare, whose mouth was already stirring. "...Hare, is there something you want to say?"

"Look... I'm thankful for all this, but... if everything wants to eat us, why do YOU want to help us?" Hare shrugged.

Rozal nodded, pursing her lips. This was hard to explain... she refrained from saying "Right now, it's the other way around. I want to eat you, everything else doesn't even know you exist...", that kind of levity wouldn't help them believe her.

"Good question." she followed quickly. "People are interesting to talk to. I could eat you, but then, I'd only have your fear to talk to, or maybe your resentment, your fatalism? It varies, in general. Besides, you're just three- some people can make do with that, but I can't. I'd be teasing myself."

"So if you ran out of fingers to count...!?" Weasel started.

"I'd have kept my distance, Weasel. Any of you could've been a friend in different circumstances, no matter how many of you were there; I know that much."

"Pshaw, for this, for that, for that too? If you don't stick to one reason it's because..." he barked, smug.

"...I'm looking for the one you'll believe?" Rozal crossed her arms over her chest, held by a wide strap, as she pursed her lips. "A cynic, I see. If you want to trust me, you will- so here's a true fact about me: I don't put much stock in words. Reasoning, here, is at best a hobby and at worst a distraction. Or a waste of perfectly good time, like right now." she grumbled recriminatingly. "I'm hungry and I can't live your life for you. Trust me, or don't, but MY life goes on. Come with me, or don't."

The acrophobe let out a snort.

"Can you guarantee our safety, or did you think we're stupid?"

"No, and not yet, against all proof." she said, wondering if she really meant it. Probably not.

Weasel took a deep breath. Behind his eyelids, his brain seemed to be processing a question he didn't dare ask directly.

"And after that? After we watch your morning pig-out?"

Rozal tilted her head. Nice way of not asking. Well, she'd answer the unasked question either way, as directly as possible.

"I'm not really sure. I suppose we can talk some more, if we want to, then I'll drop you off somewhere safe and sound, assuming no complications."

"Assuming no constipation?" he retorted quickly. Hare was already staring at him, like everyone else. Such bad taste... he wasn't helping at all.

"I take it that he cares for you two- I'll excuse his attitude on account that I assume him worried. This time." Rozal grumbled, making it clear she didn't want to do it again. Then she turned back towards Weasel. "The Great Rocky Fields" she waved her hand around "are a dangerous place. Countless people get devoured every day, by harpies, centaurs, or rarer fare."

"Harpies." Weasel frowned.

"Yes. I take you have an idea of what you're looking forward to." Rozal raised her gaze. "Like yourself, or like a bird of prey, only gargantuan."

"More like YOU freak and your unnatural smelly behind, not me."

"Actually, I think they're more like you. No, definitely, they're like you." Rozal smiled. "Now, my patience is running really thin; I'm sure all of you have been hungry at one point or another. So will you come with me, or not?"

"I'm not!" Weasel cried. "I'm not letting you touch me again with a STICK, monster!"

-This is only a bad day, for both of us. But he is harmless, I should do justice to that detail.- Rozal thought.

"Well, I can't count on your pace being anything like mine- so I suppose I'll have to get creative." she smiled, bringing her fingers together, to her lips.

So far they hadn't been too intent on it, but come to think of it, it was as good a moment as any to give her a good once-over.

All in all, the first thing that stood out was that Rozal was massive. Even resting on her knees, her equine half was at least thirty feet off the ground, and her human half was at least ninety feet high in the air. Her body was tan-haired, but her skin was fair. Her torso and arms were buff, but not too much- and her breasts were held in a top that apparently was tied up on the back. Though they were massive, on her they didn't look impressive. More than anything, her black curly hair, framing a face not hard on the eyes at all, seemed to be the focus of their attention- they could spot a rope acting as a band to keep it from drooping over her eyes, and when she had moved, they spotted a long ponytail, also held by a thickly knotted rope. Her brown eyes were huge, and looked out of place in a face that young. Her small, disinterested smile, albeit not very friendly, looked harmless enough.

She lowered one hand towards Weasel, opening her mouth...

-No, that would be foolish.- she thought.

"I had a stupid idea right now." she smiled. "I suppose we'll just have to count on you to get over it."

"Like you could have any other kind!" he snarled. "Go away with the swine already!"

"Well, you're scared of heights, so I guess all I can do is get your consent." she added. "Weasel, can I do something to you that you won't forgive me for, even if your friends do?" she grinned.

"What... are you hatching in those rotten noodles of yours!?" he cried, alarmed.

She just looked blankly at him. That mischievous glint- he didn't like it.

"Oh, I see..." Hare said. "That'd be okay with me."

-Should I point she's the one who'll have to live with him knowing she said that? Or should I just help them?-

Bringing her hands forward, she extended one for Hare and one for Sparrow.

"Weasel." Sparrow extended his hand.

"Don't worry about him- I'll deal with him. Close your eyes and take a deep breath, both of you. When I tell you to, hang on tight to whatever you can."

Weasel looked, dropping to his knees and looking away as his friends suddenly rose, rose, rose away from him, into the unbearable heights...

"As for you, Weasel..." a voice from above said. She was an enemy- she wasn't trying to be reasonable, all she said was lies, LIES! He wouldn't be carried away from the ground...

"No, go away, go away, go away!" he scrambled away on his knees. Even being away from the ground felt like too much to bear...

"You'll find it in your heart to thank me one day. I'm sure of that." she nodded, both hands catching him. "Ordinarily I would've let you have your way, but I couldn't do that to your friends."

Between her palms, he squirmed. Standing up on all fours, she marched away. Hare and Sparrow felt their hips go up and down with every half-step she took, hanging tight to as many loops in her black locks they could handle- as promised, it was a rough ride.

"So... how do we help you with breakfast?" Sparrow asked, hoping he wouldn't get the wrong answer.

"Just tell me if you see anything."

"And what do you eat?"

======

Strange, stupid dream. This one had left her just simmering here in despair for very long. She didn't know how long had her stomach been gurgling for, but until it hurt, she didn't have the energy to get up. Yesterday had been horrible, and crowned with the mother of all sick dreams. Whatever that man's name had been, whatever they were called, keeping her up? What was wrong with her to feel so enervated, to miss that little piece of...

She sighed- her glouteux, all killed by those morons yesterday, the ones that almost got her, had started to reek. Day-old carrion, her longtime favourite! Specially when charred so hard it was almost mummified. That was tough- every glouteux, every single one, dead! She could kill them one by one to make best use of the meat, but all dead at once? She couldn't use it all. A lot of it would go to waste, probably.

And to think about what happened with Thory, as she checked her mail... no, she couldn't even think about it. She couldn't. Slime! Whatever she did to whatever she wanted whenever she wanted in her own home was none of that many-legged hybrid's business!

Picking a tight-knit net full of brown leaves hanging from a tree, one of the things she'd had the foresight to place, she dumped it into a small pit, just over some half-charred branches. Picking leaves... another one of her hobbies. Pick leaves. Feh, obviously. She'd been made to pick leaves...

-Actually, I enjoy picking leaves.- she thought to herself, sighing. -It's nice.

Taking another object she'd hidden away, a small tankard she'd once made away with, she spewed a little of a dark, oily liquid on top of the leaves. Now all she needed was to burn it before the wind came and spread the leaves. She had a tool for that, thankfully. A large magnifying glass- it looked ridiculously small to her, holding it with the tip of her fingers, but it would work. All it took was patience, now. Endure the rot for as long as it took, and the bird's swollen, stinking meat would get edible again. Ignore the insects- they would die, they would burn, then she'd eat them too if they were stupid enough to stay there.

But no matter how long she held the glass, it felt like nothing would happen. She couldn't even see the tiniest of charred spots- and when it got cloudy, she gave up. With a little sigh of annoyance, she took to looking for something in the canopies, from where she recovered a massive glass vial- just a bit too small for her. A failed potion. Tossing it inside the firepit, the glass snapped and exploded... setting the fuel alight, and with it, the leaves and the branches.

She shouldn't have done that. Glass was hard to come across... then again, she was annoyed. Just so... angry. There was nothing to hurt now. She was alone with her rage, the corpses of half a dozen birds, and several dozen troopers' clothes and equipment, in several states of destruction, now strewn all over the place; their owners were right now no more. She'd made sure there wasn't a single one left, checked several times, looked around just to be sure, checked the trench, and the only exit. She had slept so little, intent on making sure not a single one was left alive. Maybe that hurt her digestion...

...for some reason, that felt annoying right now. Thinking she hadn't been able to destroy them properly, that her deathtrap within had not been able to make the most of the victims she'd so intently tossed in it... oh, what the EFF!

The fire was burning away too fast, probably from the potion. Groaning, she thought about taking the cleaver- no, Thory had made it. For her. She couldn't touch the thing anymore. Angrily, she ripped off a big branch...

...and squashed every bone inside the bird. Then she raised the branch again, with some difficulty, and crushed it again. Digging with her hands into its body, she tore the thing apart- and hanging it from a stick, finally put the bloodless carcass on the fire, her gaze still vacant.

Looking up, she wondered how much sunlight she'd wasted already. For some reason, she couldn't really seem to focus today. Miserable, that was how she felt. And stupid. Stupid and miserable. She envied the bird- it had never had a care in the world. Just went on with its shallow, stupid, automated response life. The bird didn't care when she spirited it away, it didn't care when she killed its companions, it didn't care when it got grabbed by the throat and shown a cleaver. Why should SHE care for that bird? It didn't care for itself! It had always, always been just BRAINDEAD!

That made her think of Rozal. Why the hell did she complain about people who didn't care? The people who cared only made it worse!

She couldn't see the pain in her own grimace as she thought that. Her visage was disgust personified, the hate, sadness, scorn and despair invisible, but only because she had only one face. Looking up at the clouds, she could only wonder one thing.

"How did it come to this?" she barked. "How did I get myself HERE!? How could I..." she shook her head. "How could I."

She could think of a moment where everything got turned on its head. She really should've thought harder before making that choice... no, it wouldn't have helped. The more she'd thought, the more she had wanted to do it. And in the end, she did. There was no averting it. No matter how much she thought, she'd never have believed she'd have put herself in this situation. Thinking harder would only have made her dive in even more enthusiastically.

-Not even the wisest knows the end of all paths.- Rozal used to say. -All we can do is make peace with ourselves and hope for the best.-

Hope for the best. She had been doing that all the time... now looking at her one could tell how that had ended.

Well, at least she couldn't imagine things happening any other way.

She could wonder, though, if that was a good or a bad thing. Luckily, the meat got done by then- it was already so black it'd crumble into dust in her mouth. If only she could eat in peace...


======


"Grr..."

Sparrow sighed.

"Sorry..."

"No, it's not your fault. It's like someone had been around here lately and scared off everything in here!" Rozal barked. "But I'm hungry either way." she pursed her lips, gulping.

Nobody spoke for a moment.

"So what happens now?"

The centaur took a deep breath.

"Well, I didn't want to do this." she grimaced. "When I first saw you, I thought I wouldn't."

Hare looked at her, starting to feel something cold and heavy accumulate in her innards.

"Ehm..."

"It had been six months- I guess my willpower has its limits as well." Rozal sighed, turning her eyes to them, leaving her head still, as they were clinging to its locks. "I really tried, but old habits make you."

"Rozal...?" Sparrow chirped, nervously, trembling lightly.

"I'm not sure I should. It can't really be wrong..." she continued. "but I'm trying not to, I really am. I just want you to know that."

"Ah, what is it?" Hare asked, her pitch trembling.

Rozal's eyes once more shifted to them.

"I guess we might as well go visit my daughter."

"Huh? Ah, phew. You got me worried there for a second..." Hare sighed, relieved, trying not to get too relaxed. She was still holding on to Rozal's curls.

"She won't eat us either, right?" Sparrow asked.

Rozal grinned nervously.

"Well, coming from her it'd be really strange!" she said, trying not to shrug. "I don't think she eats people like you."

-People like us.- Sparrow thought to himself. -That's what she meant by people like us... she meant humans.-

"Do you mean humans?"

"I... yes, more or less." Another lie. No need to explain about nekos, elves, and all that jazz.

"What do you mean by more or less?"

"I'm not really in the mood to explain anything of the sort." Rozal sighed between her teeth. "I'm really, really hungry."

Hare's feet shifted over her clavicle.

"So..." she asked. "What kind of person is Elsie?"

"Well..." Rozal grimaced. "She's..." What words could be said about her? "She's smart, and works hard." Rozal smiled weakly.

"Is she a giant centaur?"

"She's adopted, actually." Rozal smiled a little wider. "I remember when she was little." she let out a short chuckle. "She was so little, when she sat on the ground, her legs hung down!" she chuckled a little harder, but only for a moment.

Hare gulped, wondering whether she'd say this or not...

"Rozal..."

"Yes, Hare?"

"What is it you're not telling us?"

Rozal looked down for a moment, a brief flash of sadness in her face.

"It's nothing..." Rozal sighed. "She's got a nice orchard, I'm sure she won't mind me joining her for a late lunch. I'd like the two of you to meet her, she rarely gets any company..."

"Is something wrong?" Sparrow asked, his face softening. Rozal looked at the two people around her... no harm in a little truth, a little truth they had asked for, a little harmless truth after all this mess, something to relate to. And besides, bottling herself up wouldn't do her any good, be it any of their business... or not. As long as they were civil enough to keep from giving her any good advice, there was no reason to bottle up.

"Well, I... just... we drifted away from each other six months ago. I thought she just needed space, I'm really, really overbearing, overprotective, even a little invasive, she was too clingy, too dependant- I thought she needed to be alone for a while to grow up, become her own woman, but... I've been worried for a while already, worried she might..."

"You haven't seen each other in six months!?" Hare cried, surprised.

"I... yes." Rozal grimaced. "I'm feeling a little ashamed, to tell you the truth." she shook her head lightly. "I've been giving her space, trying to let her make her own mistakes... and now I'm coming back to see her, not because I'm worried, not to see how she's doing, but because I'm hungry? Maybe it's the right thing, but I'm doing it for the wrong reasons. To tell you the truth..." she sighed. "I'm kind of tempted to just eat you three and run away."

"Well, th-thanks for not!" Sparrow stammered.

"There's nothing wrong with what you're doing!" Hare rushed to say. "It's customary where we're from to welcome guests with a meal, and besides... you don't want to avoid her forever, right? This has gone on long enough, it's been six months, right? Do you want it to be six years? Might as well do it now, for all the wrong reasons."

"I know all of that, but still..." Rozal gulped. "I'm scared."

"Should you be scared of your own daughter?"

"It's not like that. It's not her I'm scared of... just..." Rozal looked away. "I'm scared of how things might be between us now. I wonder if she resents me, or...!" her lips twitched. "I'm... she's..." she grinned nervously. "Maybe I'm just making excuses, but I'm almost two centuries old, and she's a tenth of that. Six months don't feel the same to us. What if she thought I abandoned her? What if she's learned already to live without me, and doesn't need me anymore? It's bound to happen someday, and when it does, what will she think of me?" she shrank in her shoulders. "I've always stayed close to her, ever since..." Pursing her lips, she cut herself off. "Just like me to ramble on. Don't let me trouble you, nothing's going to go wrong here."

Raising her eyes, she pointed towards several silhouettes on the horizon with her nose, so as to move her shoulders as little as possible. "See that grove in the distance?"

They looked. There were massive trees on the horizon, spread very far from each other, though most visible only from Rozal's shoulder- and one of them, right ahead, was surrounded by smaller trees. There was a colossal trench around the grove...

"That's where she lives. I helped her make it." Rozal smiled. "Sometimes, I wonder if we overdid it a little."


======


Funny that, she couldn't.

The carbonized carrion looked exactly as appetizing as day-old carrion. She forced herself to take a couple bites- the rot had conveyed a special taste after cooking to it, but she couldn't bring herself to care for it. The all-consuming, painful hunger in her body, faced with that possible meal, had decided to shut up, sit in a corner and mope. Just like her.

But she knew she HAD to eat something. Maybe vegetables- one of the things those morons hadn't destroyed. For the time being, anyway, if she so much as put something in her mouth she'd throw up. Not out of revulsion, but sheer rage- maybe it was best to calm down. But she couldn't do it herself.

Then she heard a branch snap- someone was here? Someone big. Was it Thory? Or someone else?

Frankly, today of all days she couldn't be arsed to get up and go look for it. She was just too...

...lucky.

Alone, she couldn't calm down. Maybe she'd meet a new ear to talk off, or someone she could sympathize with. Now she needed that more than ever.

Walking slowly (but surely) towards the stranger, making sure not to conceal the noise of her steps, that she had put on a face that at least said "I'm playing local", and rubbing her eyes to make sure there were no tears (there weren't), she took a deep breath and hoped her voice wouldn't give her away. Last thing she needed was to get mocked or looked down on.

-But if you never trust people to have a better nature, why...?-

Enough of Rozal's pearls of antics. That big fat bitch was eating people like herself. What could she know!? The self-righteous, judgemental retard... nothing was ever good enough for her, always prying into her business, so controlling, making every second an endless torture. Always pretending to be wise, to understand, pretending to listen just so that she could say what she wanted to make what she wanted out of whatever she wanted. Right now if she saw her face she'd...

Taking a deep breath, she emerged from behind one of her trees, taking a look at the stranger.

For starters, he was massive. Albeit a high-riding taur, he wasn't as tall as her- though maybe if he stood up straight instead of being hunched over, he'd be a fair bit taller. His human half could be around the same proportions as hers, and somewhat chubby, but even under that fat she could tell there were muscles. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten away with just scars so many times.

He was bathed in scars all throughout his body, like he'd been painted with a knife- even under the human half, where the structure of a four-legged lizard, not unlike a crocodile, only ink-black with orange mottles, followed. He'd been leaving mud tracks, his body was covered in it. All in all, he looked kind of unpleasant, but there was something attractive about him. Maybe it was how frank his eyes were- as they turned towards her, they had this wary look in them. She couldn't help but smile- what was there to be wary of?

Cautiously, his breathing slowed, even as he tore another shred of the infested carcass he had in his hands. A pool of dry blood on the ground denounced where the bird had bled to death yesterday- strangely, there was abundant red on his lips.

"Hi...!" she began, trying not to sound shy. She needed to sound sultry, this was a bona fide, manly man... what could possibly go wrong here?

What could possibly go wrong, indeed. He kept eyeing her warily, as he chewed the shred of carcass with his mouth open. The pieces he swallowed were too big- he didn't say a word, instead just still looking at her naked form, so intensely- why was he focusing on the eyes? Did his eyes just drift down to her throat...?

One of his hands swung a little- she shuddered, he was just adjusting his grip to take in another shred of carrion. He almost didn't chew this one. Eating carrion- well, it obviously wasn't all he ate all the time, he looked pretty fat. And he didn't look too healthy, either, come to think of it. He looked healthy enough to tear her neck off and eat her... one of her hands instinctively drifted up towards her neck, a phantom pain anticipating the bite.

-Don't be a stranger, Elsie, he's just... he's not talking because he's eating... wouldn't want your guest to bite his tongue, would we?-

She tried her hardest not to shiver, but she couldn't help taking a step back. She leaned on the tree, wondering if he'd notice her fear. Suddenly he took a deep whiff, and let out a snort.

"Hmffo." he replied, finally, mouth full of carrion. It was vague, but it probably was "Hello." He just shook his head, and then walked away- getting too close for a moment to her, following his nose, as he found another dead carcass. She dared not get closer... now he had his back towards her.

And now he didn't as he had turned around, really quickly, to keep her in eyesight. She began wondering what would he do when he had finally eaten all the carcasses here. Her smile began to betray her nerves as she gulped.

"Say..." she had a sudden idea. "...I think I've seen you before."

For a moment she caught him tilting his head, with an expression of utter disdain in his face. She... didn't know what to make of it, she wanted to talk, he obviously didn't, yet. Maybe there was a way to make him open up a little. She'd have loved to open up some too, to someone. If that someone was more interested in eating carrion than actually listening to her, all the better: he wouldn't judge her.

But this place being her home turf, she should be the best hostess she could. Wouldn't want him to think she didn't find him someone worth doing her best for, this guy had some huge teeth, double the reason to be nice to him...

"Would you like some fruit with that?"

He kept chewing. His jutting tusks made it hard to read his mouth, but she thought she caught a note of disgust in his eyes.

"You don't eat plants?"

He seemed to think about it for a moment. With an annoyed gesture, he shook his head, not a moment did he stop eating, still chewing with his mouth open... red still trickling from the edge of...

"Err, are you hurt? Your mouth's..."

"Hrmm!" once more, an annoyed hum surging between his teeth.

She winced for an instant, rebuffed yet again. Even knowing he probably didn't mean it, that he was probably just hungry, it did put a dent in her esteem, and in her hopes for the afternoon. But she wasn't ready to give up just yet, she could try a little harder...

"You know, that thing's not nearly as tasty raw as it is when you cook it." she beamed.

This time he barely bothered to make a nasal grunt. She took it as a sign to go on... the wrong way.

"Let me cook it, just a few minutes until it's well done..." she offered, vigorously, with conviction. How could he say no to that?

This time when he turned around the hate was almost palpable in his face, scrunched with obvious irritation as he jealously hunched down around the carrion he was tearing with his teeth, meat she wouldn't take away from him for any reason: Elsie suddenly recalled how unspeakably annoying it could be when someone offered so vigorously to cook again a meal she was already eating. She'd just went and put her foot in her mouth in the only topic she knew she should be careful with men: food. If she didn't want to put her foot in his mouth next, she'd better start acting less annoying.

"Okay, okay. You're eating. I'll leave you to it." she said, her heart sinking in her chest. Too bad, he didn't want to talk... now she felt so empty...

"Hmm." he sighed through his nose, breaking eye contact. He returned his full attention to the meat in his hands- the carrion that had been about to go to waste.

Come to think of it, she could remember him from somewhere. Yeah, she'd seen him before, with Rozal, from a safe distance away, of course, when she was much smaller. He rarely was alone back then...

"Hey, wait!" she turned around grinning. "I know where I remember you from!" his eyes narrowed, his mouth stretched in annoyance, as he gulped in resignation, opened it and faced her.

"Quit it, I'm eating...!" he began, energetically, spitting some red liquid from his mouth, but she was too enthusiastic.

"You're the one who always was with that girl..." his eyes widened for an instant, as she drew a circle with her finger around her face, oblivious to his fists clenching and his arms tensing. "...the one with the red eyes, right? What happened with her?" He spat out the carrion and...

"GHRAAA!!" the squamataur roared, tossing the meat in his hands away. The sudden movement made her let out a startled yelp- but it became worse when the taur grabbed something from next to him, a tree...

"Did I say something wr...!?" she asked, terrified, when the ground under the tree bubbled for an instant...

"BUZZ OFF, WOMAN!!" he barked. With a sickening squelch and a rumble, the tree came loose from the ground- and holy shit that was one big tree...! She turned around, and pushing herself away from the nearby trees to keep her balance, she tried to run, run as far and as fast as she could- maybe she'd never get far enough! Who knows how fast those things were!? And he was armed! He had a tree and knew how to use it!

"RRAAAAAAGH!!" she heard behind herself, frantic steps booming on the earth, loose foliage ruffling against the trunks. He was carrying a tree, he was handicapped, maybe if she really tried her hardest...!

"SorryyyYYYY...!" Adrenaline gave what it could, but something would have to give here. She needed support, her chest was bouncing so much it was painful, her lungs had never handled this kind of stress -correctly- and her knees were aching. Farther away she saw the edge of her grove, the trench that separated it from the rest of the world. Maybe she could lose him there if she just...!

"AAAaaaiiiie!!" she cried, taking a leap of faith. Maybe if she cleared the whole distance in a single hop- she had longer legs, it was impossible that the rolypolytaur could do the same, he'd have to slow down, or else...

She fell in the middle of the trench, her knee bouncing against the wall. No time for this, she crawled up the trench and kept running... just in time to watch how the fat hybrid couldn't. He slowed down upon seeing the trench, then took a little hop into the mud, and finally climbed it up. There was now another distance between them, it hadn't slowed her down as much as him (and the tree hadn't helped either). She stopped, propping herself on her knees, looking at him, gasping in silence, trying to resist the weight of her chest pushing down, tempting her to fall to the ground and keep panting. If he'd caught her, he'd have... who knows what would've happened. But she was sure it was something no one wished her.

No one she knew at least. Either way, now she had another invader. Well, whatever... her grove was probably not going to be hers for a while. She should've gotten the message.

"Mi... Minalca..." she gasped, watching the squamataur turn around and return to its business: fattening itself up on the dead bodies of her birds. Well, she couldn't blame it. But now, after that wake-up call, she was hungry... and hunting was out of the question, her whole body ached from this stunt she'd pulled. Next time, she'd have to remember her biological mother's words: don't talk to strangers, specially when they're eating... and you're not.

Well, probably it was just a matter now of watching her grove and waiting for the stranger to leave it alone. Everything she owned, her whole life, was in that grove. Thinking about someone else living in it, chasing her out of it... it was probably a feeling to get used to. For some reason, this one didn't feel as offensive as the men yesterday. Which left her thinking... why? Why was it the ones yesterday bothered her, and today's squamataur didn't?

No answer...

She'd have wanted to know what was his name, at least. Well, there were other things to do now. Kill some time, that guy was probably going to take his.

And then as she turned around, she saw a figure in the distance. One she recognized. Peeking around a hill, her black, wavy hair over a fair face...

"M... ma?" Elsie gasped, a smile forming in her face. "Ma!" she walked towards her, as the rest of her mother went over the hill and trotted up to her. She had something on her shoulders, under her hair- and she was holding a third...


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Spoiler:

[/sblock]

"SHOOT THESE GROUND-TO-BITCH MISSILES ALREADY!"

ok this quote made me laugh out loud XD

Those were powerful chapters here. Elsie is such a fascinating character. She is totally screwed up, cruel and sadistic, but so desesperatly lonely and afraid that you can't help but root for her somehow.. Also the moment where she assault the troopers while throwing glouteux was just priceless !

Karbo wrote:

"SHOOT THESE GROUND-TO-BITCH MISSILES ALREADY!"

ok this quote made me laugh out loud XD

Heh... Stach was fun while he lasted.

Karbo wrote:

Those were powerful chapters here. Elsie is such a fascinating character. She is totally screwed up, cruel and sadistic, but so desesperatly lonely and afraid that you can't help but root for her somehow..

Glad this is still special- I was worried it'd stop being special before its time.

Karbo wrote:

Also the moment where she assault the troopers while throwing glouteux was just priceless !

Yah, I'm kinda proud of having come up with the glouteuchucks. Figured it'd totally fit with the character, and the theme too. Fights are already a big mess to write in a way you can follow the action- I always aim for simple and decisive with at least a couple turnabouts to keep the tension up.

gt500x wrote:

Sorry, I'm only on part 5 so far. But I thought Bears Upon Me was very beary good.

Take your time, mister. The story isn't going anywhere- that's the great thing about literature, it can be put in hibernation when in tough times.

Thanks for your kind comments. We're close to the end- only chapter 9- Let it Bleed, and the epilogue- The Rest Was Easy, remain.

I'll have them up shortly.