Dark. That was the best word.

The Eronmar Mines were dark.

Black rock and shadows lit only by intermittent blue torches, the mine tunnels were about as dark as things got. Thankfully, the work itself wasn't as bad as Ishiar had thought it would be. The Ironbellies had given them special pickaxes (which they affectionately referred to as the "Wuss Picks") that used magic to break through the stone without damaging the metal. The miners' stock only had a few such tools, but it was a necessary luxury since Ishiar and Sudvana had no experience in mining. It was hard to say whether that applied to Blast. While every different excuse to blow something up seemed roughly equal to her, she brought down rock formations with surprising precision. And unnervingly quickly. She seemed to delight in scampering from cave to cave planting explosives in intricate patterns and lighting them, without bothering to tell anyone. She had exposed several veins of blue iron, however, and even Gairanda was impressed with the progress the team had made. They had sent up several baskets of ore already, and she was close to declaring that they had earned their room and board for the day. Technically, they had earned it for the whole week.

Blast's honey-colored skin was covered in dirt. She seemed to attract it, even more than the others. Black smears covered her cheeks like rouge and her borrowed overalls were more or less an entirely different color than they had started. Gairanda watched her passively as she studied one of the walls of the tunnel.

Blast had stopped many times before, typically just before blasting something apart. However, something about this particular, nondescript wall of stone seemed to give her pause. She knocked on the rock with her knuckles, sniffed at it, and even licked it once or twice. She prowled around it, her eyes locked on the rough, black surface. Gairanda couldn't see anything interesting about it at all, but Blast seemed almost mesmerized.

Ishiar and Sudvana were standing nearby, having stopped momentarily to rest their arms. Ishiar likewise watched for a moment--though she had only known Blast for a short time, it had been long enough to know that her strange behavior was not always as random as it seemed.

"What is it?" She asked.

Blast looked at her, grimaced and pinched her nose with her finger.

"She thinks the rock smells bad?" Gairanda asked flatly.

Blast held out her hand and made a so-so gesture, already looking back at the rock.

"Blow it." Gairanda said.

Blast frowned and she shook her head emphatically.

"Does that mean she doesn't want to?" Gairanda asked, turning to Ishiar.

"I think she means it would be a bad idea." Ishiar replied.

"Actually," Sudvana said, a concerned look crossing her face, "I think she's worried."

"Well, we've got enough ore for now anyway," Gairanda said. "Let's call it a day."

Over the next few days, the girls continued their work, spending their off time exploring Eronmar and getting to know it's inhabitants. Sudvana had almost replenished her enchanting supplies and had already learned quite a bit about metalwork from the inhabitants--the Ironbellies were exquisite armorsmiths, better than any she'd ever met. Ishiar spent the nights exploring the numerous drinking halls the Ironbellies had. While Sudvana found their drinks a little too biting for her taste, Ishiar liked a drink with a little hair on it. Blast, meanwhile...well, nobody ever knew what the hell Blast was doing, but they'd occaisionally catch glimpses of her, following around a group of Ironbellies, peeking her head out from under a wagon, hanging upside down from one of the tapestries, or whatnot.

Each morning they would return to the mine and resume their work. After a few days they started recieving coins as pay, which was a helpful bonus.

Blast, however, seemed to be getting weirder. They'd catch her pushing girls out of new blasting zones and there were areas she would refuse to enter. After she took one sniff of a wall and disabled the entire series of blasting charges around it, one of the mining foremen felt it was time for a chat.

"She's disrupting our work, Gairanda."

"I know, but she seems to sense something about certain parts of the mine." Gairanda replied, exasperated. "She's been quite good at spotting ore veins and is a very skilled demolitionist; maybe she thinks there will be cave-ins. Hell, she could be an earth mage for all we know."

"And for all we know she's just being a twit," the foreman responded. "That's the problem--she hasn't given us any reasons. The miners have started complaining. What am I supposed to tell them?"

"Blast thinks there's certain places that aren't safe."

"How do you know? She never talks."

"Yes, but her friends can communicate with her, and they--"

Gairanda's sentence was cut short by the sound of screaming coming from deep within the mine.

"Is that one of the places she told us not to blast?" the foreman asked.

"She hasn't been down there," Gairanda hurriedly replied. Both women were already running down the tunnel towards the sound.

Within moments, their way was blocked by a pair of burning red eyes.

*******

Ishiar was working by herself this morning--Blast and Sudvana had been asked to remain higher up in the mine, for reasons that weren't hard to guess. Work had been slow--they hadn't found much down here, so the team chief had decided to just start blasting big holes in the rock until they found a vein. Blast hadn't run by screaming yet, so theoretically whatever horrible thing was scaring her wasn't in this part of the mine.

"Everybody get clear," the Ironbelly demolisher said as they finished setting the last charge. Ishiar stepped back with the rest. There was a deafening crack and a rumble as the chamber rapidly filled with billowing dust.

Ishiar had been around for several demolition blasts; enough that she had grown used to the sound of stone being blasted apart. Something about the noise was different this time; she couldn't quite place what it was. It was almost drawn out, echoing like thunder.

When the dust began to clear, the reason became apparent. Behind the blasting area was a gaping black hole--the blast had opened up into a pre-existing cavern!

"Get the guards," the team leader yelled.

Ishiar's heart skipped a beat as she saw something gigantic become visible in the dust behind the team leader.

There were clangs of metal and yelps from several different directions at once.

The giant black form snatched up the team leader.

Ishiar, suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she was unarmed, started running back up the hallway. She heard a bestial *GLOMP* from behind her. A moment later, she saw the flash of several more creatures teleporting into the tunnel, blocking her path. They were demonesses--succubi, demonettes, and gigantic thaegons.

The succubus at the fore stepped forward. She was wearing a dark, opalescent bodysuit that was cut rather scandalously, revealing far more of the succubus' skin than it covered up. It glistened like black oil as she moved. Dainty little horns poked out from her forehead and she was wearing a shining, silken black cape that was tied to her wrists, giving her voluptuous body a hint of regality.

She looked directly at Ishiar. "Come now," she said, "there's no need to do this the hard way, darling."

Something about the way she said the word "Darling" made Ishiar feel like she had worms in her stomach. She took several unconscious steps backward until her back hit something. Something thick, warm, and furry. She didn't even need to look to know what it was--it could only have been the massive, digitigrade leg of a thaegon. This theory was confirmed when she felt a massive hand clamp around her neck and squeeze.

Ishiar's heart was suddenly pounding hard, almost drowning out the distant screams that filled her ears. The beast lifted her off the ground and pulled her to it's face; it had a ruddy, dark-red complexion, long, serrated horns, and eyes that burned like little fires. It's lips were curled into a snarl. Ishiar was so close that she could feel the thaegon's enormous bosom pressing against her abdomen.

"Kathuk mach gachun?" it said.

"Um...right back atcha!" Ishiar replied, such as she was capable, what with her compressed trachea and all.

"Oh, silly darling, she wasn't talking to you," the creepy succubus said. "Shok nuka gachun, dusai."

The thaegon got a dissappointed look. "Uk krana?"

"...Shavel."

Ishiar craned her neck to look at the succubus.

"Oh, don't worry," the succubus said. "I told her that dinner time isn't until later."

Ishiar was about to give a sarcastic reply when she felt a gigantic, warm tongue wedge itself against her neck and begin dragging a slimy trail up the side of her head. Ishiar's limbs started twitching out of sheer creep factor.

"Oh," the curvaceous demoness continued, seeing Ishiar's reaction, "I did tell her she could have a taste."

"Mmmmmm," the thaegon said after withdrawing it's gigantic tongue. The thaegon's breath was foul--she could smell it's saliva on her cheek. She didn't dare to imagine what it's insides smelled like.

"Bring her!" the succubus called out, now striding back down the stone corridor.

Ishiar was unceremoniously slung over the thaegon's shoulder. She kicked impotently in protest, more to make a point than anything else. She rather wished she'd thought to bring her sword. But as she noticed all the broken Ironbelly weapons scattered on the ground next to bloated-looking demonesses, she realized it may not have been such a bad thing to forget after all.

She was hauled into the adjoining cave, which somehow managed to be even gloomier than the one she was just in. There were sounds like running water and tiny waterfalls dripping into hidden pools, and it smelled a bit moist. She couldn't see much, though, besides a big hairy thaegon butt. It's tail was swinging back and forth as she walked. It would have almost been hypnotic if not for the aggressive, stomping gait of it's owner causing it to jerk violently from one side to the other. Ishiar could almost make out it's muscles bulging and flexing underneath the coat of coarse fur that covered the thaegon's lower half.

Ishiar's abdomen thumped against the thaegon's hot shoulder with each clomping step, causing her arms to wag in the air.

She noticed that this thaegon didn't have any wings...come to think of it, neither did the creepy succubus who appeared to be their leader.

She tried to lift her head and get a look around. Rather than torches, this part of the cave was illuminated by a dim, blue fungus, and the cave itself was much larger than she had expected--flat, but very wide.

She could make out the forms of dozens of demonesses, some prowling towards the tunnel she had just left, others looking at her and smiling, sometimes blowing her kisses. Attempting to escape would be...well, it would be short.

After about a half an hour, they came to a stop. She had long since lost sight of the Ironbelly tunnels and had entered what appeared to be an underground city. This area was more brightly lit--the fungus was stronger and there was more of it. It hung from the walls in great cyan clumps, looking almost like sedimentary rock, casting the entire cave in a blue hue.

Still slung over the thaegon's shoulder, Ishiar heard a jangle of metal and felt something cold clamp around her ankles. From her experience in Kikagonroth, she remembered what manacles felt like. The thaegon tossed her to the floor with a hard thud and a demure demonette pulled her hands behind her back and slapped a pair of iron manacles on her wrists. With a sudden yank, the demonette pulled her backward and locked her ankle and her wrist manacles together, leaving her bent backwards and locked in a prostrate position.

[i]Great,[/i] Ishiar thought. [i]Now I'm proper fucked.[/i]

But she finally had a chance to look up from the ground. Doing her best to get up onto her knees, she saw that she was indeed on the outskirts of a city. Buildings carved or shaped out of the stone rose up from the cavern floor like hollow bricks, studded with simple stone windows. There seemed to be very few light sources aside from the fungus--the insides of the buildings seemed totally dark.

"Oh, we don't live here, darling," the creepy succubus said, noticing her curiousity. "This place is entirely too...spartan. This is a military camp for our scouts, and a holding pen for new slaves until we can transport them to our home."

Their home--"You mean Faneglut?" Ishiar asked, terrified of the answer but unwilling to show it.

"Yes, my delectible lover," the demoness replied. "You'll be there very soon."

Ishiar swallowed and clenched her lips together, her throat suddenly dry. "There's a portal down here?"

"Oh, my dear, no," the demoness continued, almost laughing. "If there was a portal down here we surely would have conquered this world. No, I'm afraid we must resort to other means of...transporting our prisoners. And because you're the clever one, I'll give you the honor of the grand lesson."

She smiled as she motioned to one of the other demonesses. To her horror, Ishiar saw her drag forward another captive--an Ironbelly she had met in town named Salinthe. She was completely naked except for a set of iron manacles and a badly torn robe. It looked like she had put up a fight, and lost. Like Ishiar, her arms were chained behind her, but her arms were chained to her neck instead of her legs. A long chain led from the tight neck-manacle into the hands of a giant, muscle-bound thaegon.

"As you know," the demoness said, "my kind can gate ourselves into the mortal world, provided we have an anchor of some sort--something to show us where we're going. This allows us to come to your world and...share our unique pleasures with you." She gave Ishiar a lascivious look. "Returning to Faneglut is even easier, since we don't need an anchor. But we can't gate anyone else. Our power only works on ourselves." she pouted for a moment before looking over to the thaegon. "But, there's a loophole."

The thaegon pulled on the chain it held, bringing the naked captive close to her. Salinthe was young, and very slight of build for an Ironbelly--Ishiar had been told that she was a priestess. Her face was clearly afraid, but unwavering, her lips tightly pursed together just as Ishiar's were. The thaegon looked down on her with a sadistic smile, with thick, white fangs overhanging it's teeth.

"You see," the demoness continued, "we cannot teleport anyone else, technically...but it's a well-known fact that stomachs, any stomach, from any creature, is all but proof against teleportation of any kind. So, what would happen if, say, a demoness were to swallow someone else, and then try to gate back?"

Ishiar yelled out in protest, but the Thaegon had already lifted Salinthe off the ground and started devouring her. It took giant, glomping swallows, grunting like a wild beast as it brutally engulfed her. With just a few biting gulps, she had forced the entire girl down her gullet. It made a breathy noise of triumph, clacking it's fanged teeth together a few times in celebration of it's conquest. A shrill cry erupted from it's now-spherical belly, muffled by it's thick flesh. Suddenly, the beast's form distorted, and with a THWUMP and a flash like a torch burning itself out, the demoness vanished, leaving only a whisp of smoke.

"Well then, the universe just doesn't know what to do!" the demoness laughed, turning back to Ishiar. "There's no way out of a demon's belly, so if the demon goes, I guess you have to go too, don't you?" she smiled.

Ishiar shuddered. Her heart was fluttering, her stomach turning with fear and excitement. The demoness circled around her, smiling.

"Who are you?" Ishiar asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

"Oh, how sweet!" The demoness knelt down next to Ishiar and slid her hand around her back, pressing her other hand against her chest in a vague approximation of an affectionate gesture. "You want to know my name." She leaned her face close--so close that Ishiar could feel her sweet breath, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to bristle so hard she felt they might leap out of her skin. "Ours is going to be a beautiful relationship, I can tell," the demoness said softly.

Pulling back and returning to her feet, the demoness responded properly. "My name is Ushan Isalla. You may call me Ushan...when I'm pleased with you. The first way you can please me is by telling me your name."

Ishiar gulped again before answering. "Ishiar."

"Ooohhhhhh," the demoness shuddered, "you want to please me." She descended on Ishiar again, this time sliding a hand under Ishiar's skirt and into her panties. "Thank you."

Ishiar merely yelped slightly at the gesture, her legs involuntarily squirming against their manacles. Trying to catch her breath, she looked at Ushan. "Are all demonesses like this?"

Ushan sat down and wrapped her legs around Ishiar, thrusting out her chest so that her breasts were merely an inch from the other girl's nose. Tilting her head down so that her forehead touched Ishiar's, she said "What do you think?"

Ishiar looked up into a pair of dark, purple eyes. They seemed as deep as the cavern itself.

"I--m--muuhhhh!" she stammered.

Ushan craned her head forward and whispered into Ishiar's ear. "My thoughts exactly."

As Ushan peeled herself away and stood up again, Ishiar managed to speak a more coherent sentence. "You're going to eat me?"

"You say that as if it was a question!" Ushan replied with a smile. "Oh, but you're afraid. Don't worry, I wouldn't think of letting you down--not now." she said, rubbing her hand up and down on her tummy.

"Letting me down?" Ishiar asked.

"Oh yes, darling. I like you far too much. You see, so many slaves get swallowed, then thrown up once they get to Faneglut. That's hardly fulfilling at all, for either party, wouldn't you say? So...I'm going to do something very special for you."

Ushan pulled out a tiny glass vial. The liquid inside had a slight, violet glow to it, and it was stoppered with a small, spherical cork. Pulling the cork out, she knelt down and held it near Ishiar's face. It had a surprisingly pleasant fragrance, like a flower.

Suddenly, Ishiar felt a jab from behind, like something pierced her skin. Moments later, she felt a dull ache begin to spread through her veins. Her heart started to feel like a swarm of bees were having a sting-orgy inside it. Turning around, she saw another demoness stepping back, holding a poisoned needle.

Ushan pursed her lips. "I'm sorry, my darling, but otherwise you would not drink it." She smiled sadly. "Nobody trusts my kind, such a shame, such a shame."

The dull ache in her veins started to gain strength, turning into a throbbing pain, like something was trying to pry them all open. Ishiar was already starting to lose her balance.

"Please, drink it, it will make you feel better." Ushan said. She held the vial up to Ishiar's lips and gently poured the liquid into her mouth. It tasted wonderful--surprisingly wonderful--and the pain started washing away before she'd even swallowed it. As it descended into her belly, she felt a pleasant warmth spreading through her limbs, almost making her forget she'd ever been poisoned. Despite the sensation, she remained suspicious.

"What was that?" Ishiar asked.

"Succubus honey, of course!" Ushan replied.

Ishiar felt like she'd been stabbed again, only this time, they hadn't had the courtesy to do it physically. Honey--the liquid produced by the breasts of most species--was usually an aphrodesiac, but demoness honey was also said to make it very hard for the drinker to resist the person's will. It was like half love potion, half mind control spell.

"From who?" Ishiar asked.

For a moment, Ushan actually blushed. "Don't be afraid. Succubus honey doesn't take over your mind so much...Our normal powers do that. In fact, when imbibed by your species, it has healing powers. Very strong healing powers. So strong that they can keep the person's soul from leaving their body even after they've died, meaning they can still be healed and brought back to life."

"So...uh...why?" Ishiar asked.

Ushan's stomach suddenly growled loudly. "No, no, no!" She said, looking down and patting her stomach. "You're giving it away!" She blushed again. It was an unnerving sight. "You see, my darling Ishiar, I intend to return to Faneglut, and I wouldn't dream of leaving without taking you with me. So I need to make you my meal. But you see, my dear, you're far too precious to disappoint. I can't just barf you up once we get there. So instead, I gave you my honey, so I won't have to."

Suddenly it dawned on her.

"You're going to resurrect me once I'm shit!" Ishiar blurted out.

Ushan took a step back as an offended look appeared on her face. "I suppose, if it suits you to describe such a beautiful gift in such a tragically crude way." She pursed her lips chidingly. "But come now, don't you want to find out the truth? Don't you want to see..." she shimmied up and placed Ishiar's face against her soft navel, "...what I'm like? What it would be like to become part of me?"

Her stomach groaned again. Having Ishiar's head pressed up against it made it quite loud.

"I know you do," Ushan continued, gently patting Ishiar's head and cradling it against her. "You do. You don't want to admit it, but you want to be my meal."

Ishiar opened her mouth to argue, but didn't even know where to start. The whole thing was too absurd and stupid to form a coherent counterpoint to.

"You're going to eat me no matter what I say," she finally said.

Ushan simply stroked Ishiar's hair. "I wouldn't think of doing any less, my dove."

"Just answer me one thing first."

"Anything."

"Will I ever see my friends again?" Ishiar asked.

A part of her was surprised at the question.

Ushan stopped. For a moment, she simply looked at her, her deep purple eyes inscrutable. It lasted only a moment before Ushan smiled, licking her lips as she did so. "Oh, it's a promise."

Ishiar's eyes went wide, just before Ushan's lips did the same. For one frozen moment, Ishiar found herself looking into oblivion.

A tunnel of pink flesh, opening itself up to recieve her, thick strands of saliva hanging down and oozing from it's roof to lubricate her passage. A set of perfect white teeth, almost absurdly small now compared against the gaping mouth, ringed by a set of wet, sensuous lips. In her mind Ishiar could already feel herself sliding down that warm throat, it's juices slithering by her and pushing her to her final destination.

She didn't have to imagine it for long. Her face pushed into the soft, pliant wall of Ushan's palate, sliding against it as her head was tilted downward by the pressure of the rest of her body. Her breath caught as she felt her forehead push into the throat. It's warm flesh quickly wrapped around her face, engulfing it. She could feel it everywhere, like a giant, slimy membrane stretching over her cheeks, her clenched eyelids, her nose, her lips. It started to slide past her like she was pulling a tight, fleshy sock down over her head, further and further until it slipped over her chin and slithered quickly over her collarbone.

The throat stretched out as her shoulders pushed in. She felt the succubus' wet lips touching her back, strangely cold compared to the warmth of the throat. As her arms slid inside, she became aware of a dozen tiny sensations just beneath the surface as the stretched muscles of the throat adjusted themselves to optimize her passage through them.

It dawned on Ishiar that she wasn't even resisting.

It wasn't surprising in theory--I mean, that was what succubi were known for--but it didn't seem like she'd been seduced into not resisting, so much as just...confused? It was more like she just didn't care that much, and she wasn't sure why not. But as her elbows penetrated the crest of the throat, she was starting to realize just what was going on. Her face had finally reached a tight sphincter of muscle, visible underneath the wrinkled tissue at the bottom of the throat.

Knowing exactly what it was, Ishiar finally felt that some sort of response was in order.

"Aw, fuck."

The sphincter opened up and all of the sudden the whole throat seemed to press down on her, eagerly pushing her in. The small symphony of tiny muscles that surrounded her seemed to all know just where to squeeze in order to push her wiggling body into the waiting stomach.

Her face popped into a pocket of hot, acrid air. As a drop of warm liquid hit her cheek and began to roll down her face, she realized there could be no doubt as to where this was. A hot feeling followed the droplet's trail, creating a lingering path of sensation along her skin. Before long, another drop hit, this time splattering against her forehead. She felt the succubus' throat wrapping around her thighs and she lurched forward again. The warm wall of the stomach bottom pressed up against her head. As the succubus continued to swallow, the stomach stretched to accomodate it's enormous meal. What could only have been a cavity the size of a grapefruit slowly expanded as more of the poor girl was forced into it. Rivulets of thick liquid had began to pour down her shoulders and head, dripping off of her only to pool together in the bottom of the stomach. The soft and pliant stomach gradually stretched, becoming tighter as more of the girl's body was pushed into it's cramped confines. Finally, her feet reached the mouth and with one strong contraction, the whole of her legs were shoved into the stomach with a splurting noise. With that, the esophagal sphincter clenched shut and Ishiar's journey seemed to be complete.

Or, perhaps, it had just gotten started.

Her whole head and upper body felt naggingly hot, already soaked in the succubus' bile. She adjusted herself such as she could so that she would be upright, trying not to breathe the fetid air that was only getting fouler now that it was filling up with digestive juices. Her feet, now buried in the pool of liquid, started to tingle and feel very hot. The whole stomach was very tight and Ishiar could feel cords of muscle through it that were slowly kneading her, keeping the entire organ in constant motion. There was an overabundance of information from her senses as everything seemed to be shifting, pushing, and sliding up and down against her skin in every place at once. There was a constant set of squelchy, drippy noises from every which way, along with the dull sound of the succubus' circulatory system. Her whole sense of equilibrium swayed wildly as the succubus started moving. With each motion the whole world seemed to pull itself one direction or another.

Ishiar's whole body was sloppy with digestive juice now. Her skirt and panties were soaked. Her nipples stung under her armor and her eyes burned.

It was strange. Every creature seemed to have a different sort of stomach.

She realized it was an odd thing to be thinking about now.

Or maybe it wasn't. Considering the circumstances.

Who knows.

The Kari's belly had mostly been gross. Roomy, but full of little bits of half-digested sludge. Bones, blobby tissues, wads of half-digested clothing, even a rock or two. It's stomach juices were thick, like slimy syrup, and it didn't tend to move that much--it more poked at you and squeezed than kneaded.

Blast's belly was...nothing like this. It was soft, and clean, and pleasant. It didn't seem to squeeze or churn, so much as just...hug. It was nice to you.

This one, though...there was something about it. Something about the way the slimy flesh felt against her bare skin, gross as it was. Something about the smell, foul as it was. Something about the firey sensation on her skin and the helplessness she felt.

Something about the thought of being taken apart and put back together as part of this creature's body was somehow making her private parts tingle in a way that had nothing to do with the acid. She realized that she was almost excited--almost being pleasured by this creature making a meal out of her.

Again, she would have chalked it up to the whole "Succubus" thing, but there was more. She suddenly remembered that something similar had happened while she was in the Kari's belly--she'd just been too distracted trying to escape to realize it.

How? How could she be enjoying this?

Now that the possibility had freed itself in her mind, she realized she was really enjoying this. The slithering of the oozing stomach walls against her felt incredible. She almost wished they would push on her harder, digest her faster. How? This was so absurd! How could you like being digested? How could she like being digested? By a creepy demon who had taken her captive, no less?

Well, when all else fails, may as well ask the expert.

"Ushan?" she said gingerly.

No answer. With the noisy stomach busy digesting her and the few inches of flesh she had to get through, she probably didn't hear her.

"USHAN!" she yelled.

"Oh," Ushan replied. Her voice sounded very strange from in here, reverberating from her lungs sitting just above the stomach. "Yes, Ishiar? Are you enjoying yourself inside my little tummy?"

Ishiar could feel Ushan's hand through the stomach wall as she rubbed her belly.

"Yeah, um, about that," Ishiar said, as loudly as she could. Her voice seemed very loud in her own ears, echoing off the stomach walls as it was, but she was getting used to that. "Um...WHY am I enjoying this?"

"Ooooh darling, darling darling darling..." Ushan said, trailing off as she patted her stomach. "Nobody's given you the talk, have they?"

"What talk!? Is it just because you're a succubus, and you're screwing with my brains?"

The stomach shifted as Ushan walked somewhere, then there was a massive, thumping *SPLURDSH* in the belly as she sat down.

"Kitten," Ushan said, "this is no secret."

"What's no secret? Whatever it is, it's news to me," Ishiar replied.

"People--all people--love to be digested."

"Bullshit," Ishiar said. She had seen enough people devoured screaming to know they weren't looking forward to their fates.

"It's true, darling. Is this your first time?"

"Yes...er, no...I mean, I've been eaten once or twice before. Well, once for real." Ishiar said, hoping Ushan didn't ask for an explaination.

"And you still haven't realized it?"

"Realized [i]what?[/i] That I [i]like[/i] it?"

"Yes, darling."

"But--wh--ah--" Ishiar stumbled on her words. It was true, she apparently did like it, but...what the hell.

"Everyone likes it. Whether it be in the depths of a succubus, a snake or even a sadistic harpy, everyone loves the feeling of a hot belly wrapped around them. It's just that not everyone knows it yet. Not everyone can admit it."

"Why not?"

"Why, because if they did, they'd go extinct!" Ushan said, as if explaining it to a child. "Can you imagine? People flinging themselves down each other's throats, willy nilly? There'd be no one left to reproduce!"

The stomach wall contracted suddenly, contorting Ishiar's back and rather abruptly reminding her where she was.

"That's why we exist, you know." The succubus said. "We give people what they're too afraid to admit they want."

There was a moment of silence. Ishiar realized that it did make sense, in a twisted, demonic sort of way.

"And," Ushan said, savoring the moment, "Right now, I know exactly what it is that you want."

The stomach contracted again, this time hard. It distorted Ishiar into an impossibly awkward position, squeezing every part of her as she realized--to her horror--that her body had already begun to come apart. She could still feel everything--the hot flesh as it rubbed against the raw bone of her arm, squeezed off at the shoulder and now slithering down to the pit of Ushan's stomach. Every part of her seemed more aware than ever, and she seemed--impossibly--to be on the brink of a kind of orgasm she'd never had before. She squealed, making a gurgling sound as ooze began to fill her half-dissolved lungs.

"Now feed my hungry belly, slave." Ushan said. "There is much I must do...not the least of which is to attend to your sale..."

Ishiar could no longer reply. Her organs, now half-exposed, tingled with an incredible feeling of both pain and pleasure. She heard a deep, wet yawning sound as Ushan's intestine opened up at the bottom of the stomach and the two pieces of her arm--now detached both at the shoulder and the wrist--slurped inside. Though they were no longer even attached to her body, she could still feel them. She could feel the hot, bumpy walls of the intestine as they were pushed through it. She could feel the tingling of her twitching muscles as the skin around them was dissolved. What was left of her body was contorting all on it's own, lost in the overwhelming, burning pleasure of digestion--pleasure Ishiar hadn't even known existed and could still scarcely believe. The stomach walls rose around her as her body began to slip downwards, finally coming apart into a series of chunks--her torso and head, a hip with one leg, another leg, and two arms, one missing a hand, the other slithering through the intestines.

She felt a powerful, physical satisfaction as the intact pieces of her stewed together with the half-digested strips of tissue that had sloughed off, forming a thick, chunky stew that was slowly draining into the hot, hungry tube of the succubus' intestine. Each piece of her slowly pushed, slid, or poured into the tube, filling her mind with sensation as they slid through, describing every part of Ushan's intestine along the way. Finally her head drained in and she lost all awareness of the stomach, feeling only the blessed heat as her disintegrating torso was pushed at a brisk pace through the succubus' dark depths, each thick phillae on the intestinal wall absorbing away a tiny piece of her as she passed. Sometimes the intestine would stop and scrape her back and forth against a patch of phillae before putting her back on her path, doubtless to ensure that nothing was wasted.

Incredibly, even the parts that were absorbed, she could still sense. In the depths of her mind, she could feel an outline of the succubus' veins. She could feel it whenever a piece of her was deposited into a patch of muscle tissue or converted into a tiny bit of fresh, beautiful skin. There was a little twinge in her senses each time a little piece of her was stacked onto the succubus' buttocks and a thrill each time a piece filtered into her breasts to make them a bit fuller. But most of all, being part of the succubus' body, she began to become aware of the soul that pulsed within it. It was not the sadistic monster she had expected--in fact, when their souls seemed to brush together, the succubus seemed very gentle and kind...almost vulnerable.

Now Ishiar knew why the succubus seemed to think that keeping her alive for the whole of digestion was a gift.

What little was left of her--a large, rapidly thickening bolus of shit being pushed with great effort through the remaining length of Ushan's intestine--began to collect into the rectum, thus confirming her status as succubus crap. Somehow, even that seemed pleasant.

A part of her wondered at which point the soul would have left the body.

The succubus, seeming to sense the question, answered her--not in words, but somehow just by their being together.

~The stomach holds the spirit inside the body,~ the succubus explained. ~It can't leave until it's pooped out. As a result, the soul stays in the body until a few minutes after it is excreted. The soul stays with the body for the whole of digestion, just as it did for you.~

That would have been horrifying news, had Ishiar not experienced what she just did.

~The truth,~ the succubus continued, ~is that since the soul is still around, any girl can be resurrected, provided you do it quickly enough after they are shit out. The soul doesn't give up on the body until the poop gets cold.~

~But then,~ Ishiar asked, ~why did you give me the honey?~

Ishiar isn't sure how she could tell, but the succubus blushed again. ~Because,~ she explained, ~it does make your soul linger a lot longer...but not inside you. It makes you linger inside me. That's why we can communicate. It will be a day or two before I can return to Faneglut...it would have been a shame to leave a catch like you cooling off in some corner somewhere. Speaking of which...~

Through her awareness of the succubus' body, Ishiar could feel her pull off her leather thong and squat over. The muscles around her rectum contracted and the thick, backpack-sized ball of shit that used to be her body was slowly forced outward, compressed into a long, snakelike log as it was forced through the tight confines of Ushan's anal sphincter. It took a good fifteen seconds for the whole mass to be shoved out through the tiny hole, and each second Ishiar could feel the tight sphincter pushing around her, the muscular rectum constricting, and the cold air outside as her remains piled up on the hard stone floor. Her vision seemed to be in a dozen places at once--sitting in the succubus' colon, looking up at her ass from the ground, sitting inside her breasts, thighs and everywhere else she'd gone, and everything in between. She could still feel them all.

The succubus walked away from the pile of shit, small tendrils of steam rising off of it in the cool subterrainean air. As it cooled, Ishiar felt her awareness of it beginning to fade, as if the heat it contained also contained her very essence. As the last of it's warmth bled away, Ishiar found herself aware only of Ushan's body--her jiggling breasts, her firm thighs, all from the perspective of being inside them.

Ishiar just let herself sink into the blissful sensation, letting herself forget everything that had happened. It had been quite a day.