Strange Friends

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 10: Choice?

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I'm not lying."

"Y-yes, you a-are."

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

"I've had enough."

* * * * *

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

" . . . Do you feel better now?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They kept conversing until the sun began to set.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

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

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

Chapter 11: Playtime

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

She gave an exasperated huff and scolded him.

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

"But you WOULD try to eat me!"

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

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

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

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

"SPEEEE-LASH!"

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Stop tasting so awesome."

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

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

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

This . . . was going to be fun.


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

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

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

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

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

Chapter 12 (Swiftlit): Intersection of Chaos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The vortex blew apart.

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

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

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

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

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

Calimn.

* * * * *

Chapter 12 (Calimn): Jab and Lessons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They were going to have lots of fun.

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

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

Learning to turn off her stomach was a lot harder.

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

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

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

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

The harpy, far from being offended, laughed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Swiftlit.


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

Felarya is Karbo's

Named character's are mine unless otherwise stated.

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

Keep it up. I like it. Write more.

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

Chapter 13: Contact

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

But he was stuck with her.

* * * * *

"Okay."

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

"Why, what do you mean?"

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

He shivered, and shook his head.

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

"Mouth?" she offered.

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

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

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

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

"You p-p-promise?"

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

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

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

She laughed, a sly smile erupting over her visage.

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

* * * * *

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

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

Calimn smiled.

"What is my name?"

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

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

"What am I?"

"A giant mermaid."

"Where do you live?"

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

"I live out in the forest."

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

"Can you swim?"

"No"

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

And she would win.


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

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

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

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

Chapter 14: Fair Play

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

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

She had promised not to eat him, after all.

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

Calimn grinned, and asked the first question.

"What is your name?"

"Swiftlit"

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

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

Calimn's eighth question took him off-gaurd.

"Do you like me?"

"What?"

Calimn blew a raspberry, laughing.

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

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

"Okay, same question."

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

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

"Yes."

* * * * *

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

"What is a Kensha beast?"

"A what?"

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

"Where is Bulvon Wood?"

"Uh . . ."

Step.

"Are slug-girls male or female?"

"Female?"

"Nope, both."

Step.

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

"How old am I?"

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

Bad idea.

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

He went in with one last scream.

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

Calimn had finally eaten him.

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

She suddenly thought of something, and laughed.

"By the way, I win."

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

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

She listened.

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

"Fine, be that way. Sore loser."

Silence.

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

Silence.

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

Silence.

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

Silence.

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

Silence.

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

Silence.

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

Silence.

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

Silence.

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"WAIT, SWIFTLIT, WAIT!"

"NO!" was all he shouted in return.


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

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

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

As ever, lovely descriptions. It was nice to see him turn the tables, in a sense - albeit accidentally. Plus, Calimn found out both that he likes her... and that she herself cares about him.

What a delightfully complicated relationship they have!

Just a thought, DON'T DO THAT AGAIN, STUPID MERMAID!!! Swiftlit could off himself with that much panic.

Cool am liking the story really well written 'n stuff

Thank you guys. Here we are with chapter 15, in which the two have a brief argument over the nature of the word "eating". Vore, but no eating.

Chapter 15: EATING is not the Same as Eating

Calimn waited a week for Swiftlit to come back. She left her place on the riverbank only to go hunt, and always kept an eye on his hiding spot. She knew he had to come back eventually, pushed back to her by his daymares, so she just kept up her vigil.

She was worried about him, though. Thinking that he had been dead, that she had killed him with her carelessness, had made her realize just how much she valued him. He had gone from food to a kind of edible pet, and had become her main source of amusement. She liked him, not only because he was immensely fun to hunt-and eat-but also because of his intrinsic value of being himself.

He was really quite adorable, if she ignored her stomach's insistence that he was there to be digested. He was small, jittery, and very fast. He made her want to laugh, just for how paranoid he was. It was funny to see his pupils shrink, his starting at every little movement. He was like a duiker, his fear and size making him cute.

It did annoy her that he had outwitted her by playing dead, but most of that was mitigated. She tricked him all the time, and turnabout was perfectly fair, so that could be forgiven. She just wanted to talk to him, and start over with their game.

She would make sure to be much gentler with him, and she wasn't going to swallow him until he accepted that she wasn't going to harm him or digest him. Her waiting for him was not in vain, because he showed up at the edge of the Miragia Forest after eight days.

"Swiftlit, there you are! Jeez, I was really worried you might have gotten into trouble. Can you come over here, please? I want to talk to you."

He shook his head.

"N-not on y-your l-l-life."

She flinched at how hard his voice was. Usually he was very meek, soft-spoken and with a slight stutter that progressed as he became more afraid. When in a full-blown panic, his speech turned into a mess of gobbledygook and barely recognizable normal words. Now, though, he had a much firmer tone, even if his words were still unsteady.

"What's wrong with you?"

* * * * *

Swiftlit couldn't believe his ears. Calimn had eaten him, broken her promise not to do so, and she asked THAT?

"Wh-wh-what is wrong w-with ME?! Y-you ate m-me! You p-p-promised not to e-eat me and y-you d-d-did anyway! I-If you th-think I'll j-just walk r-r-right up to you after th-that, you're c-c-crazy! I c-can't trust you! At all!"

She held up her hands, palms toward him, a gesture that was half placation and half denial.

"Woah, woah, that's not how it was."

"THAT'S EXACTLY HOW IT WAS! You a-a-ate m-me!"

The mermaid shook her head, then pushed herself up on her hands and moved closer to him. She halted when he backed up and screamed at her to stop.

"YOU STOP RIGHT THERE! Y-you're not g-getting close to m-m-me, ever again! Y-you ate m-me!"

"I did NOT."

Swiftlit was about to explode. He was terrified of the mermaid, but at the same time he was infuriated. He rarely felt anything besides fear, so he really didn't know how to deal with anger. The bizarre combination of panic and rage made for a chaotic mix. He had to let off some of that emotional pressure somehow, so he wound up yelling and flailing his arms as he was prone to do in most situations.

"STOOOOOOP LYYYYYINGGGGGGG! You a-ate m-me, th-there's n-n-no way you c-can s-say y-you didn't, so s-stop s-saying that!"

Now Calimn was starting to look ticked off. She sat up on her tail and glared down at him sternly. His level of fear boosted, but he still didn't run. He was too far into hysteria to run; it felt like he was boiling from the inside out. The mermaid's next words were like granite.

"You need to calm down."

"REEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

* * * * *

Calimn was annoyed now. Swiftlit was out of line, WAY out of line, and out of control. He wouldn't listen to her, and now he was just making odd squealing sounds, flinging his arms around randomly. He was angry, that was obvious enough, but he also was shaking with fear and even was crying. He was going to hurt himself if he kept that up.

"Cut that craziness out. You'll have a heart-attack. Or punch yourself in the eye. Just quit it."

He ignored both her words and her no-nonsense tone, continuing to screech up at her. The noise was beginning to grate on her nerves; it wasn't all that loud to her, because of how tiny he was, but it had a keening, high-pitched quality to it that made her ears hurt.

"Stop. I'm warning you, you'd better quit or I'll . . . um . . . "

What would she do? She didn't want to hurt him, and besides that he was too quick for her to catch as long as he was dry. Wait . . .

She reached up, pressing a finger up under her jaw, kneading gently. Her mouth began to water, the stimulation of her salivary glands and her augmenting thoughts of how good Swiftlit tasted increasing the salivation. Jab's lessons had come through for her again. Once she had a good amount of saliva built up, she took aim, and spat.

She was quite a good shot, and the bullet of liquid hit him right on the chest, knocking him back a step. She had been careful not to impart to much force to the missile, and she had gauged the pressure perfectly. He had snapped out of his fit of hysteria, and stood there sopping wet and gasping.

He didn't stay up long. He had a peculiar trait, she knew, that trait being that he was very light and fast . . . until he touched any kind of liquid. One splash of water and he would be too heavy to walk. The increase in weight was almost instantaneous; one second he weighed next to nothing, the next he couldn't even stand up straight.

She could tell when his density changed. His legs buckled, trembling for a moment before giving way. He went down hard enough for her to hear the thud, two hundred extra pounds added to his body slamming him to the ground. He started screaming again, but there was no anger anymore, just fear. She pulled herself over to him and picked him up, keeping a gentle but firm hold on him.

"Now, are you going to cool off, or do I have to hold onto you?"

He just gave out a series of sharp squeaks. She sighed. He wasn't going to calm down anytime soon, so she decided to get more comfortable. Sitting up on her tail wasn't difficult, but if she stayed like that for too long her fin would go to sleep. She laid down on her belly, putting him between her breasts and pinning him down.

* * * * *

Swiftlit decided that being enraged was not the best way to go when arguing with someone a hundred times his size. His anger had been extinguished like a candle in a gale, with his heart now dominated by it's usual ruler, fear.

Not that he was any more calm than he had been before. He was still screaming, struggling to get out from under her. He couldn't move, regardless of how hard he tried. There was no way to worm out from beneath her breasts, no leverage. He was firmly trapped, only his head still free, the rest of him kept immobile by the soft weight of her bosom.

It didn't hurt, but there was a lot of pressure and mass on top of him. It felt like being caught between a pair of warm pillows, actually rather comfortable if he ignored the compression. Not that he was at all interested in staying where he was; he kept yelling and squirming, desperate to get away. She had eaten him, coughed him up or something like that, and she would eat him again.

"Would you stop screeching? It's annoying, and I'm not hurting you. Fight, don't fight, do whatever, but I want you to quit with the noise."

He did quiet himself, hoping not to be eaten even though he knew he would be once she was done tormenting him. The mermaid looked down at him, her face upside-down from his viewpoint, and smiled. He quickly looked off to one side, not wanting to be mesmerized by the terror of seeing her mouth this close.

"Thank you. That's much better. Now, this isn't so bad, is it? We're just sitting here together, talking . . . sort of . . . and it's a great day, sunshine, not a cloud in sight, just blue skies. Oh, wait, you can't see, can you? Here we go."

She rolled over, him still trapped in her bosom, and laid out on her back. The pressure had been reduced, allowing him to breathe properly, but he still wasn't going anywhere, immobilized completely except for his head. The lessening of the compression, however, gave him hope, and though he refrained from shouting, he started to struggle again.

* * * * *

Calimn giggled at the boy's thrashing. His wriggling tickled, like a feather on the skin, and she didn't have to deal with his squealing anymore. She just laid back, enjoying the feeling, and waited patiently for him to tire. There were two suns up today, a large one with a smaller right beside it, providing more sunlight, and she was glad for it, stretching out to bask in the warmth.

It was nice to be able to just sit here with him stuck, no need to catch him or get up, a nice change of pace. She started talking to him.

"You comfortable?"

"No! . . . Yes . . . S-sort of." he admitted, struggles beginning to slow.

"That's good. It's nice to sunbathe and calm down now and then. Just you and m-"

She cut off with a yawn, feeling him freeze up as she did so. He was scared of her mouth being open, even if she wasn't interested in eating him. She wiped a bit of moisture from the corner of her eye and flicked it away. The sunshine was making her sleepy.

"Sorry. I like to nap when it's nice out like this. You don't mind, do you? You can go to sleep, too, if you want. I probably make a good bed."

"No, n-no, d-don't go to s-sleep! Y-you'll r-r-roll over and c-crush me!" he protested.

She laughed at his silliness. She had him in the best place to keep from doing just that, and she almost never moved around while asleep. Only if she had a REALLY good dream did she ever shift around. Like one about eating him. The thought made her hunger assert itself.

She reached down to rub her stomach as it muttered to itself, the sound making Swiftlit start screaming and squirming again. She didn't want to eat him again, not so soon after he had almost died from her last session of playing with him. Actually . . .

He hadn't almost died last time. He had been playing dead, to trick her. Clever of him, but she was a liiiittle bit irritated with the fact that he had outsmarted her. And made her cry over him. And ignored he plea for him to come back when he had run off . . . Surely he wouldn't mind if she swallowed him again.

Well, not mind MUCH.

* * * * *

Swiftlit was calmer, now that he had accepted that he was trapped, in the mermaid's power. He was still frightened, but she didn't seem interested in eating him anytime soon, and without impending consumption he was able to keep his fear limited to mere nervousness.

It wasn't that bad, really, once he managed to let go of his fear. He was quite comfortable, cushioned by her breasts even if the pressure was holding him immobile, the flesh soft and very warm. As Calimn had said, it WAS a nice day, a blue sky with a doubled sun system and no clouds. The warmth of that light, combined with that of Calimn's body, made him lethargic.

He was tired, very tired, now that his adrenaline high from being caught had worn off. He could feel Calimn's heartbeat against his back, a slow, powerful pulsation. It was soothing, the sensation lulling him to sleep. He was so exhausted. He really needed to get some more sleep. Maybe he would take a nap, a long one, in the mermaid's bosom.

His eyes started to close, the boy drifting towards sl-

The mermaid's stomach growling just below his feet knocked him right out of dreamland, had his heart hammering away in his chest instantly, his mind screaming at him to run.

"GET UP, YOU FOOL! YOU FORGOT SHE'LL EAT YOU!" his brain shrieked.

His sleepiness was gone in an instant, wiped out by a shockwave of adrenaline that went through him like a tsunami. He screeched, thrashing furiously but futilely, trying to escape. He was such an idiot! He was an idiot and now he was deader than dead.

He looked back, seeing her looking down at him with hungry eyes. She reached up with one hand, very carefully pinching his head and pulling him free. Then she switched hands, holding him by the back of his shirt and dangling him over her face. She licked her lips, and he started to kick and flail wildly.

* * * * *

Calimn really, really wanted to eat Swiftlit. She had him by the back of his shirt, hanging over her face, still on her back and considering him. His frantic struggling was so enticing, the motion incensing her instinct to eat him. He was begging to be put in her mouth, all cute and wriggly. She didn't want to be mean, but this wasn't really 'mean'. Having a snack wasn't being 'mean'.

She would spit him up, after all. He had been sneaky last time, pretending to be dead, but she knew his tricks now, and that her swallowing him didn't hurt him. Scared him, maybe, but nothing else. She licked her lips again and opened her mouth, planning on lowering him in.

"S-s-s-stop i-i-it, C-C-Calimn! S-s-stop E-E-EATING m-m-me!" he screamed, barely coherent anymore.

This again. She sighed, and responded to his protest with exasperated patience.

"For the last time, I am NOT eating you."

"Wattalpinbou!" was the only thing he yelled back, but she guessed it meant "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not eating you, I'm just eating you."

"WHAT!?"

That she understood.

"I'm eating you, not eating you. You get it?"

"NO! E-E-Eating m-m-me i-is e-e-eating m-me!"

"Not technically, it isn't. Eating is not the same as eating."

"WHAT"S TH-TH-THE D-D-DIFFERENCE!?"

"Eating you is when I digest you. Eating you is when I just taste you and then swallow."

"Th-that's the s-s-same th-thing!"

Calimn sighed, putting her free hand on her face. How could he not get it? It was two completely different things. She tried to explain it more clearly.

"Ugh, it's like this: If I EAT you, I swallow you and you get digested and become part of me. If I just eat you, then I swallow you and cough you back up before you get digested. Now do you know what I mean?"

* * * * *

He finally understood. She really HADN'T broken her promise. He wasn't going to die. He might be swallowed, which was horrible enough, but he wouldn't die.

"I-I-I g-get i-it."

Calimn smiled, the grin at first just pleased, then turning mischievous.

"Good. Now I hope you don't mind if I help myself."

She opened her mouth again, beginning to lower him down. He panicked, thrashing about again, twisting around by his shirt, feet trying to run but with no ground to run on. She was giggling as he kicked ineffectually at the air. He might not die, but he was still deathly afraid of being swallowed alive. He kept yelling even as she sealed her lips around his waist and let go of the back of his shirt.

"C-Calimn! C-Calimn, d-don't s-s-swallow me! R-really, d-d-don't d-do it!"

She glanced at him, opening her mouth a bit to speak around him. He had to grab her upper lip to keep from slipping farther into her mouth, hanging on desperately.

"Why no'? You're de'cious. An' nu'rishious." she snickered, her laugh vibrating his ribcage. She started to suck him farther into her mouth, pulling him in up to his neck, leaving only his head and arms free. He couldn't take it, and started to fight, screeching and trying to pull himself out.

"C-C-CALIMN! T-t-taste me, p-p-play with m-me, ch-chew on m-me, I-I d-d-don't c-care, just d-don't s-s-swallow me!"

Her sigh washed over him in a warm rush.

"Come on, i's no' so ba'. Don' be a worrywar'. An' chewin' is gross."

Suddenly her tongue coiled around him, the tip sliding up under his shirt to tickle him. He burst out laughing, terrified but unable to stop. Calimn chuckled, and kept at it until he finally was forced to let go. Then she pulled him all the way into her mouth.

* * * * *

Calimn slurped Swiftlit up, happy at not only his wonderful flavor but also at tickling him. It had been tremendously funny to do that, and to hear him laugh in such a way. He was such a silly thing, even scared when someone was tickling him. She hummed, glad that she had him in her mouth.

She was on the verge of swallowing him when she hesitated. He had begged her not to swallow him, and that made her pause. It wasn't like she was hurting him, and she would cough him up after a while, but . . . Well, she didn't want to make him mad. She could always eat him-but not eat him-later, when he had accepted that it was okay.

She opened her mouth and rolled her tongue forward, sending him tumbling out onto her palm. He was soaked with saliva, twitching, and making faint sounds of alarm. He seemed unharmed, but was only semi-concious. She turned over, onto her stomach, and put him down. He fell, too wet to stand properly, and she just laid there and watched him until he had dried and gotten up.

Neither said anything for several minutes, neither moving. Swiftlit was the first to speak.

"You . . . d-didn't s-swallow me."

"Nope."

"Wh-why?"

"Just decided to."

"Oh."

Calimn extended a finger, making sure to move slowly, Swiftlit taking a step back but allowing her to touch him. She patted his head, very gently and carefully, and smiled. He was just so small and adorable she wanted to eat him up. Or hug him. Or both.

"See you tomorrow?"

He backed out from under her finger, then ran off, but he did give her an answer as he vanished.

"Yeah!"


Chapter fifteen. Swiftlit has a second meltdown, and gets an impromptu timeout from Calimn. Calimn eases up on him a little. Critiques and comments are appreciated.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

I found what Swiftlit needs: a waterproof suit and a wingman.

Indeed, though he'd probably be too scared of the wingman to go with him, lol. Well, chapter sixteen. Swiftlit's trust of Calimn solidifies, with quite a bit of comedy. Vore is in this story, so avoid if you dislike vore.

Chapter 16: Trust is Being Warm

Swiftlit woke up freezing cold.

He was in his burrow, curled up in his salvaged sleeping bag, and shivering. The air had an iciness to it that even penetrated into the cloth of his makeshift bed, chilling him. He had never felt this cold, not even when he had been drenched in cool rain on his way to see Calimn, never in his life. It felt like he was going to freeze to death.

He got up, instantly regretting it when the meager warmth of the sleeping bag dissipated, leaving him even colder. He trembled, goosebumps forming millions of minuscule hills on his skin, and went out of his den, crawling down the tunnel that led out. He popped his head out of his hole, lifting the plug, and looked around.

There didn't seem to be any monsters around. Once he had come out to eat and found himself face to paws with a massive, six-legged wolf. Thankfully he had ducked down before the beast could detect him. He could still recall that dull gleam on its vicious claws, the terrible crescents barely a foot from his face. He climbed out of his tunnel, replacing the plug and making sure it was secure and nigh unto invisible.

Why was it so COLD? He could see his breath, coming out in long white plumes every time he exhaled, like miniature clouds. It was frigid, the sky grey and cloudy, the air still and wintery. He rubbed his arms, hugging himself in a futile attempt to get warm. His teeth were chattering, and for once it wasn't from fear. He looked around, beginning to walk through the Miragia Forest, hoping the movement would help warm him.

The jungle had become a dull backdrop, the normally bright, vibrant hues seeming to be faded towards grey; even the colors didn't like this vicious cold, the sting of ice in the very air. It felt like his throat was going to freeze with each breath he took, chill sitting in his lungs like ice water, frosty splinters winding through his chest as the cold leached through his flesh both inside and out. Where this sudden frost had come from he had no idea, but it was sucking all the heat out of his body faster than he could produce it, and it was beginning to numb him. Though there was no snow, frost crackled under his shoes as he wandered around, crystalized moisture that glinted on the moss and earth in a silver sheen.

He went to see Calimn. He had told her he would come today, and he also wanted to ask her about this abrupt plummet of temperature. He made it to the river, and was dismayed to find a large rim of ice extending five or six meters out into the water. Calimn wasn't there, obviously prevented from coming by the ice. He would have t-

"Hey, Swiftlit!"

* * * * *

Calimn waved at the tiny human boy who was standing on the bank of the Jewel River. He started at he yell, then waved back. She was enthused to see him, and excited about the ice. There was a cutoff of cold air about twenty feet out from the Miragia Forest, and it was there that the ice stopped. It was a temperature distortion, just one of the odd quirks of the forest. You really never knew what would happen in that stretch of jungle, and distortions like this were fairly common.

The freezing conditions seemed strictly limited to a small chunk of the jungle, the ice extending several kilometers up- and downriver. She was outside of the dome of cold, and she was perfectly warm despite the fact that there was a sheet of frigid natural glass half a meter thick only an arm's-length away.

"Hey, come over here!" she called to him, motioning him closer. He leaned forward, but didn't move from his spot. He was very pale and shaking, these conditions not entirely from the cold he must have been feeling. He shook his head rapidly, and yelled back.

"N-no, I c-can't s-s-swim! You know th-that!"

She knew he couldn't swim, yes, but he could move across the ice perfectly fine. It was thick enough to hold such a small human, easily thick enough.

"Just walk on the ice. It won't break. You weigh almost nothing anyway. It's fine!"

* * * * *

Swiftlit was hesitant. Besides being eaten, he couldn't think of anything that scared him more than water. If that ice cracked for some reason . . . he would be dead. Water made him incredibly heavy, barely able to stand, let alone swim. He had nearly drowned once in this very river, and he wasn't eager to test his luck a second time.

Still, he trusted Calimn. He had finally accepted her as someone he could get along with, even if she liked to mess with him. And scared him. And might swallow him. But she wouldn't eat him permanently. That much he was sure of. She had promised him that, and he believed her.

He wasn't quite aware of why he put such faith in her. She was tricky and a practiced liar, an ace at deception and misdirection. He supposed it was comforting that she wouldn't digest him, even if just swallowing him was bad enough, fear eased by that fact-albeit only when he wasn't dangling over her mouth.

He stepped out onto the pale transparent plain, ready to jump if he heard the crackle that bespoke weak ice. Nothing happened, no snapping sounds, nothing. He took a few more steps, still cautious. It seemed solid enough. He tapped his foot on it lightly, then stepped on it a bit harder. It elicited nothing but a "poingk!", that peculiar sound that thick ice made when stomped on.

He relaxed a little, and started to walk across the ice. It never made a sound, perfectly solid. He had to watch his footing on the slippery surface, but other than the risk of falling down he seemed to be in no danger. He was almost to the edge of the ice, no more than twenty-five feet from Calimn, when he hit a weak spot.

There was a loud crack, and he felt the ice shift under him. He screamed, sure he was going to plunge down into the water's deadly, crushing embrace, and leapt. Between his panic and his lack of weight he flew up ten feet and twenty forward, crashing into Calimn's face and grabbing onto her nose.

* * * * *

Calimn was startled by his incredibly long leap, and by his colliding with her face. Even though she was aware of how light and mobile he was, she just wasn't used to a human being able to jump so far. He was clinging to her nose, keeping a tight hold and shaking, staring down at the water that was lapping at her collarbones just below him.

Uh . . . you can let go now. I've got you." she told him, bringing a hand up out of the river for him to stand on.

He nervously slid off the bridge of her nose and stepped onto her hand, pointedly avoiding any lingering water in the creases of her hand. She was amazed by how trusting he had become. He never would have considered getting this close to her before, at least not with explicit promises not to grab or eat him. She smiled at his new confidence in her.

"Wow, you're brave today, aren't you? Came right up to me, and gave me a hug, too. I thought you didn't trust me. Was that a ruse?" she laughed.

He suddenly became rather odd, attitude not afraid but . . . shy? He was acting nervous, wringing his hands together, but he had a slight smile on his face and wouldn't look straight at her. The though to him being shy, for some reason, she found hilarious. She laughed at her absurd little coward.

"N-no, I trust you."

How much he had eased off of the fear was really astounding. Even his stutter had nearly disappeared, that particular nervous habit of gnawing on his hands also gone, if his unmarked fingers were any indication. She expressed her mirth with another chuckle, and patted his head with her pinky.

She was surprised at how cold he was to the touch, skin like ice. There was even a little bit of frost in his hair, and he was shivering quite a lot, not all of it a symptom of his ever-present nervousness. She was a bit worried about him, being that cold.

"Want me to warm you up?"

* * * * *

Swiftlit had forgotten how frozen he was, the adrenaline rush of the breaking ice making him immune to the sensation for its duration. His hands and feet were numbed, muscles stinging from the sudden transition from frigid to normal temperature. He very much wanted to get warm. He nodded.

"Yes, p-please."

He expected her to grasp him in her hand, wrapping her fingers around him like a heavy, heated blanket. She didn't, instead bringing him towards her face. He felt a twinge of fright, but he ignored it. She wouldn't hurt him, and she had sworn not to eat him. She was probably going to press him against her cheek, that was al-

He froze at the sight of her mouth opening up. He fought the paralysis, loosening up and managing to shake it off with the knowledge that she wouldn't digest him. His heart was thudding, denying his reasoning, but he kept his fear down. She was probably just going to breathe on him, warming him up with the heat of her breath, that was al-

Her tongue slid out and came to rest at his feet, forming a rosy bridge between her hand and mouth. Panic, sitting in the dark of his pounding heart, began to strike the twin rocks of fear together frantically, raising sparks that showed flash-images of horrors. That primal fear of being consumed caught quickly, tinder for the flames of fright.

He took a step back, giving a frightened 'Eep!', but found himself trapped. He was in the plam of her hand, literally, surrounded by water that was as dangerous to him as a field of daggers. He couldn't get away. He looked back at Calimn's mouth, fearful that she was going to just snap him up, but she hadn't moved.

She pulled her tongue in to speak.

"Hop in. It's nice and warm in my mouth. You can go to sleep in there, if you want. Use my tongue as a blanket, even." she suggested jokingly.

"Uh . . . uh . . . m-maybe you c-could just h-hold onto me?"

She turned her head away, with an offended 'humph!'. He didn't know what he had said to make her do so, but he could tell she wasn't actually upset, just being . . . well, herself.

"What?"

"You said you trusted me. Obviously that was a lie. If you REALLY trusted me, you would say 'Thank you, Calimn' and jump right in."

"Calimn, y-you know I'm s-scared of being eate-"

"And snuggle up under my tongue." she added, still refusing to look at him.

"I don't thi-"

"And cuddle the inside of my tummy."

"Whoa, you are NOT s-swallowing me!"

* * * * *

Calimn glanced at Swiftlit out of the corner of her eye, trying not to giggle and give away her game. Teasing him was fun, and if she played with him he might get into her mouth after all. He had gained a lot of confidence in her seemingly out of nowhere, trust going from zilch to solid in just a night. An all-or-nothing human, was her Swiftlit.

"Come on, Calimn, I'm c-cold. Could you just breathe on me or s-something? Something without me being in your m-mouth?"

She considered it. She could humor him, but he wasn't in any danger of freezing now that he was out of that cold zone, and she really wanted to taste him. Besides, it would be a good test of how much he trusted her. If he could walk into her mouth willingly . . . well, it would be pretty interesting to see him do THAT.

"Uh-uh. You, in my mouth, with tongue cuddling, or you can sit there and be cold."

"I'm not cuddling your t-tongue! That's just weird!"

"Then will you hug my insides? Tummy hugs?"

"Th-that's even weirder! And scarier!"

"So you'll do it?"

"NO!"

"Guess you'll be cold then." she asserted, keeping her head turned from him.

He was quiet for several minutes, thinking hard. He was chewing on his hands, a nervous habit that appeared when he was pondering something he didn't like. It made her envious; she wanted to taste him, too.

" . . . How about-I can't believe I'm saying this-you can hold me in your m-mouth. I want my head out. And PLEASE do NOT s-swallow me."

Calimn was delighted, an explosion of sunny joy flaring up in her chest. The gladness that he had finally accepted her, trusted her this much, was like a little sun inside her heart, a joyous pressure from within. She couldn't help but give an enthused squeal, that bright nova of happiness making her want to burst out laughing.

"Okay! You want to walk in on your own, or do you want me to be the big, bad monster and 'eat' you myself?"

"Everything is a g-game to you, isn't it?"

"Pretty much. So, do you walk in or do I gobble you up?"

He chewed on his hands some more, making her drool with envy, anticipating his flavor. Finally, he took a deep breath, probably to steady himself, and answered.

"I can't go in th-there myself. Just b-be . . . gentle."

* * * * *

Swiftlit saw the mermaid's face soften, genuine caring entering her expression. That concern calmed him down a little, easing his pulse back to a more normal pace. She rubbed his head with one finger, very lightly so as not to hurt him, and nodded.

"I'll be gentle."

Then her face became impish, a big grin loaded with mischief and playfulness spreading like wildfire. She ran her tongue over her lips, the sight of it rooting him in place. He tried to keep calm, assuring himself that she wouldn't swallow him.

She won't eat me, she won't eat me, she won't eat me, she won't eat me , she really, really, REALLY won't eat me, he thought, repeating it over and over in his mind like a prayer.

Her mouth opened wide, a slick pink cavern. He was paralyzed, but he still kept going with his mental mantra. She wouldn't eat him. He kept it up even as her tongue extended, curving around behind him, getting ready to strike like some kind of terrible serpent. He held his breath, heart hammering against his ribcage, anticipating the inevitable entrapment.

Her tongue coiling around his legs was his breaking point.

Terror blasted through him, a flood bursting the dam of his 'she won't eat me' reasoning. This was panic, and there was no logic in the multiverse that could possibly negate it. He started to fight instinctively, resisting being eaten. He tried not to scream, but sharp, frightened whimpers escaped him anyway, becoming louder as Calimn's tongue pulled him into her mouth for a sampling of his flavor.

She seemed to enjoy his struggles, smiling, eyes half-closed as she slurped him in up to his chin, nothing but his head exposed. Just like he had asked of her. His view shifted from vertical to horizontal as she switched positions, moving so that she was floating in the river on her back.

He began to calm down after a while, adrenaline levels dropping as he let go of his fright. The portion of him in her mouth was warm, the previous cold eased by the heat of her breath and body. Once he had eased off of his fear, he could actually relax. The warmth of her was comforting, the chill that had seemingly etched itself into his bones slowly dissipating.

* * * * *

Calimn was savoring that delectable flavor of Swiftlit's. Why did he have to be so delicious? It made holding back difficult, hard to control the urge to suck him all the way into her mouth and swallow him. So good . . .

She started at the loud squeal he gave when she accidentally curled her tongue around his chest and pulled him in a bit deeper. She hurriedly apologized and used her palate to push him back up to his original position. He thrashed a little, which tickled and pleased her immensely, but eventually calmed.

She floated for some time, waiting for the cold area to disappear and the ice to melt, just relaxing, tasting that tingling succulence and humming her pleasure out in a "Mmmmm . . ."

"C-Calimn?"

"Mm?"

"You wouldn't e-eat me for real, w-would you?"

"I don' 'hink so. You're pre'y 'as'y, bu' I like you a lo', so no."

She looked over at the Miragia Forest side of the river. The ice had receded in the two hours they had been together, nearly gone. The flash-frost was gone now. She sighed, reluctant to let him go, but swam over to the bank of the river and climbed up on shore.

The ground was still quite cool, but that would fade quickly now that the sun was back out and the cold zone had dissipated. She spat him out, then set him down and wiped him off as she could. He finally was able to get up and move freely, and he sat down on his tree root.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Warming me up. And being gentle. And not swallowing me. A lot of things."

She beamed at him. He really trusted her. It made her feel excited and warm on the inside, that small but powerful sun returning. The joy of it, plus his inherent cuteness, made her impulsively lick him. He shivered and muttered something that sounded like "stop tasting me", but it was a half-hearted request.

He left once he had returned to his normal weight, with a promise that he would come back tomorrow.

* * * * *

Swiftlit had never felt trust of this level before in his life. He had really never felt trust at all. He had never thought about how it would feel to have that kind of confidence. Now he did, though.

Trust felt like being warm.


Chapter sixteen. Calimn and Swiftlit take one step closer to being friends. Comments, critiques, ect. are welcome.

Felarya is Karbo's

Named characters are mine unless otherwise stated.

I'm really enjoying that story a lot !

It's really very well written with vivids and great descriptions and you depict those two characters and their emotions very well ! The joy of Calimn of earning his trust gave me a warm feeling, and then it made me chuckle when she turned back into her usual mishieviousness

You could almost end here I think, as the two accomplished their goal so to speak. though of course, I would like to see how that strange relation will evolve from there ^_^ ( and maybe see Swiftlit affirm a little himself, now that he isn't so deathly scared ? )

I'm not quite done with this story yet. There will be some more soon, probably over Swiftlit and Calimn's interactions now that they have reached a higher level of trust.

Thank you for the praise. I'm glad my story has gone over so well with everybody.

And my prediction was prove right. Point for me. I still think Rai would like Swiftlit. Those two could be good friends. I can see it now. Swiftlit sees Rai, notices strange look, notices sword, panics.

lol my character is hiding in the bushes and looks like the fauna itself


On another note I Realy like you characters especially Calimn