For -I would hope obvious reasons- Trigger warning for blood, and still living organ consumption.
If your squeamish, my apologies…
- - - -
'Why did we decide this was a good idea, again?' Said a part asking the right question.
'I dunno, but it wasn't me,' said another in ignorance.
'I'm pretty sure we're in its stomach, please let us only be in its stomach and not somewhere even more gross…' said one who most of them hoped was correct.
'He's back…' said one who just had to bring it up.
'I hope we don't have a concussion or something, that was a pretty nasty nose dive…' said a side, bringing up a good point.
"Let's get this over with" Shepard stated, trying not to get any of the stomach acid or bits of massive fish carcass in her mouth…
She then began trying and failing to climb up the massive stomach lining of the creature she vaulted herself into. "Could you not, right now? Please?" She begged to herself, not realizing or caring about the fact that she was alone.
*thump* as the beast Shepard had willingly stepped into the belly of once again dropped to the ground, she too, fell, but not to the ground, but instead into a massive puddle of squishy, boiling hot, stomach acid and half digested fish.
The only reason she could still move, and not get flash fried or eaten to death by the acid, is the thin layer of magic skin still enveloping her. The same couldn't be said for the smell though.
"Would you just shut up for once in your god forsaken life, and just let me think?!"
…
…
"Thank you…"
As she looked at her palm, she began to push and pull at the mana skin with her will, testing to see it's limits, she made the mana wobble, dance, condense more, loosen up, and even harden, and as she does that last thing, an idea strikes in her mind…
A moment past before a rictus grin planted itself onto her blood covered face.
- - - -
On the outskirts of the clover kingdom, near the boarder with the heart kingdom and the grand mana zones of ice, snow, and hail, and just east of a cabin that itself is south of the second furthest town from the capital, lays a clearing.
In that clearing, used to be a natural abundance of snow and sleeping flora.
On the ground where there once was a pristine sheet of snow, now lay a massive runic array, as large as the clearing itself, the ground had become a muddy mess from the melted snow, and steaming from the considerable amount of heat still slightly emitting from the now defunct runic array. in the center of that array, and subsequently, that clearing, was a writhing juvenile Dire Bear.
The creature in question was slamming itself into the ground over and over as it growled and pawed at a wound on it's stomach, but as it continued to do so, it suddenly went berserk rushing out of the clearing as it started charging at trees, uncaring if the pain as it awkwardly threw itself chest first into anything it could find…
Eventually it's desperation increased dramatically, and it unknowingly lumbered in the direction of a cliff.
It's frantic charging was interspersed with slamming itself into anything it could, in an attempt to dislodge it's unwanted intruder.
Too distracted with trying to get the thing inside of it out, it never even noticed that sudden drop, let alone attempt to stop.
As it rushed it slowly became more and more clumsy, before crashing to the ground just before the cliff edge.
Then, as if drunkenly confused, it shook it's head, and growled out blearily, it attempted to stand again, it only managed to push itself up to the edge of the sheer cliff, then it fully slumped.
Unequipped to deal with the weight of the Dire bear, the cliff broke where it laid at it's edge, and it subsequently fell to the abyss of pearlescent hail below.
- - - -
The thrashing of the bear keeps on getting more frantic, I suppose it's feeling the effects of my little experiment…
That experiment being, the molding of my mana skin around my fingers and toes, into more claw like shapes. sharp enough to pierce into the flesh of the stomach.
Now, I have no real clue about the anatomy of a Dire bear, -they were considered extremely dangerous creatures, so the Oldman hadn't gotten to them yet- but I feel that if I just follow that hole at the top of the stomach, I should probably get somewhere
After this understanding is reached, I continue to climb up the organ, only for the beast to, do, something?
As everything suddenly turns one hundred and eighty degrees, with the hole I made now facing the ground, the only thing keeping me from leaving the insides of the bear was my fierce grip on its innards.
My climb just became much, much harder…
'But, one move after another yeah?' I think to myself as I scuttle upside down towards the hole I didn't make. Trying not to let the blood rushing to my head lead to an unfortunate accident.
As I make it to the hole I feel the bear jump, and have to harden my grip as I feel it start to jump up and slam its stomach into the ground again, trying to dislodge me… I try to pry open the hole before me, hoping that it's the throat hole, and not the shit hole…
Before I can get it full open, I am alerted to a noise behind me, I look over and see a pale, see through liquid pour into the practical cavern I was in, saliva.
Seems this one was the hole to the shitter…
I quickly change course for the other hole.
And slip through it as i get covered in a frankly gross amount of saliva.
But that doesn't stop me from getting a good grip and starting to climb up it's throat.
It seems to have gotten more frantic, or atleast, it had started jumping harder.
There was an almost rhythmic pattern to the movements…
Oh shit, that's not it's movements…!
That's it's heart!
[Ding]
[A. Rank. Object. Identified. Locating.
Locating.
Locating…
Found.
One. Point. One. Nine. Eight. Meters. In. Front. Of. Host.]
'Ok, but how do I get there?'
[you. Know. How.]
'What?' I glance at my clawed fingers…
'Oh no…'
"This is gunna fuckin suck…." I say, trying not to choke on the gross mix of saliva and blood.
I begin to, dig into the throat of the beast, even more than I already had, my face is quickly flooded with blood. I was blinded to the red just as fast, but I kept on, scratching and clawing and pushing the raw flesh out of the way.
The taste was repulsive, but I continued onward, getting more frantic as I felt it's heart start to beat faster.
The closer I got to it the more piping hot blood gushed into my face and all over my body.
And the more I dug, the more I focused on my Ki sense to find it's heart.
And then my claw brushes against something beating like a drum, and moving like one too.
I place my hand on it, and I can feel that this is the source of it's ki, it is terrified, but over that terror is a cloak of sheer bloodlust, so massive that it could never be naturally occurring in a beast like this... I claw a little bit of the area around it, so I can have a stable hold.
I spit out it's blood and fully open my mouth, shark like teeth on full display, and a resolve to put the beast out of its bloodlusted misery, before it could hurt anyone else.
I sink my head into it and clench my jaws and with a *Crunch*.
And a *Gulp*. my face is firehosed with blood, it tasted terrible, the blood had gotten into my ears, which might lead to an infection… but at that point I was a bit too gone to care.
I took another *Crunch* and another *Gulp* the second bite was worse, more blood… but not terrible…
Why the hell was I doing this again?
It went on for what felt like hours, me eating that heart… it was massive. It I think after my, fifth? Bite, the blood stopped pumping and the body seemed to bu to a stop…
But then it was like gravity had left both me and the body, as I was slammed into the top of the small area I made, and that feeling of vertigo didn't go away, until my stomach dropped and the split second question of 'did that damned bear drop us off a fucking cliff!?'
And just as I asked that question to myself, we hit the ground. And everything went black…
- - - -
This chapter was a bit of a odd one for me, sorry if I was too gory… I'll add a trigger warning at the beginning of the chapter just in case…
But anyway, remember to comment if you want to,
Also, what do you think Shepard's last name should be? I'll pick my own if there aren't any comments on this, so, keep that in mind. I'll consider any recommendations that get put here!
See ya next time, when Shepard deals with the *gasp*! Consequences of her actions!
Edit: the name of this chapter was meant to be an allegory for flesh eating bugs, but I not only did I misspell both terms, Apatura Iris, the kind of butterfly mentioned, eats rotting carcass meat, and the other bit, Dirofilariasis, is a desease transmitted from dogs, and effects the lungs more than it effects the heart.
So my research was incomplete for both, which is why I'm changing the title to something more accurate to the idea I want to convey.
Thanks for reading.