# Finding What’s Lost: The Temple of Serenity

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

The pair blinked together, shielding their eyes as they came to a chamber with a massive glowing crystal at the roof, shining nearly as brightly as the sun itself. Below it grew several of the Lemurian fruit trees, not the small struggling saplings as they’d seen in Mexico, but full stout things that towered over Chloé, brushing slightly against the top of the cavern’s roof.

Welcome to the Temple of Serenity, came that same voice from the previous temple. Once again it spoke to them not in English, but to their minds directly.

“Wow,” Chloé breathed, “look!” She pointed up at the dangling orbs of the Lemurian fruit, swollen, moist, and ripe. Mika was looking too, but up at the cavern walls, lined with carvings.

“Put me down,” he ordered, eyes already studying the patterns. The snake girl obliged, her belly rumbling as he passed it by on the way to the ground, but he was too focused on the runes to notice. They were in a style that was distinctively native to the area, and yet the meaning was just as evident as the ones in the new world temples. He started deciphering even as he stepped off her palm. Meanwhile, Chloe quickly slithered off toward the trees, and the familiar, tantalizing fruit that dangled there.

“Can I eat a few of these?” she asked, plucking a ripe one, “I’m famished! Having all those tasty humans in my stomach without digesting them made me really hungr-” She paused, her eyes going wide as a new fruit began to blossom in the exact place from which she’d just taken. It ballooned from the branch, filling out in seconds and wobbling in place, ready to be picked once again.

“Eat as many as you want,” Mika chuckled, glancing up and marveling at the regenerating fruit. “I have a feeling we’ll have as many as we need.” The technology- or magic- in these temples is beyond anything I’ve ever seen, he thought, turning back toward the carvings he’d been in the middle of reading. “Obviously they’re part of this temple’s test somehow. Let me see if I can… Yeah, right here! Looks like you have to…”

About to chow down, Chloé paused and looked to her human, who’d suddenly gone silent.

“…Mika?” He was staring at the wall, so she slithered back over. “What’s it say?”

“Well, um,” he fell back onto his neutral sounding ‘archaeologist voice’ in an effort to stay objective, as if the words he was about to say wouldn’t have a profound. personal impact on the very course of his own life. “The carving here seems to depict a naga swallowing Lemurian fruit, followed by…”

Chloé’s widening eyes shifted closer to the etchings in the stone. She easily recognized the large carving of a giant snake woman such as herself. This one seemed to feature a cutaway, exposing the inside of her long throat. Within it there was a clear depiction of a Lemurian fruit, just like the one Chloé was holding in her hand, clearly on its journey down to the stone naga’s belly. But just a bit higher up in that throat, was the unmistakable little stick-figure carving of a human.

“Oh.” Chloé giggled and then started to grin. “Mika, does that say what I think it says?” she teased. She began subconsciously coiling herself behind him like she was trying to block his escape. If he weren’t so close to the wall she might have actually wrapped him up.

Mika glanced to each side at the huge scaly walls closing in, then up at Chloé’s human half, towering over him with a huge, almost devious smirk, shoulders gently wiggling in excitement. He cleared his throat.

“I, um, think so,” he agreed. She seemed to shiver, leaning in closer and licking her lips.

“Say it,” she almost whispered.

“It looks like for this test… you’re supposed to… swallow me,” he said. His heart started beating hard in his chest as he finally spoke the words. Not only that, but he felt a stirring in his pants. Thoughts he’d dismissed a million times rushed back to his head as all the blood rushed to his groin.

He took a breath as the familiar, predatory form of the naga closed in, finally reaching out to grab him. The next thing he knew he was in Chloé’s grasp as her serpentine body coiled below them. She leaned back, cupping her hands together against her belly. Mika shared a space with the large fruit she’d been holding, as it gently rolled against her supple midriff before coming to a stop beside him. Beyond the innocent barrier of warm, soft skin, came a loud, ominous groan as her stomach called out, hungry for them both.

The enormous naga giggled, positively giddy.

“I did say I wanted this to be special,” she remarked. “And what could be more special than a place like this.”

He couldn’t deny that. An entire temple dedicated specifically to his journey into her… Something about it just felt right. He put a hand out and touched her smooth skin, just next to her belly button. He couldn’t possibly help but imagine exactly what was on the other side.

“My stomach,” she teased, like she was reading his mind. “It’s been waiting for you. You’ve been waiting too, haven’t you? I’ve seen you looking at it.” Maybe she wasn’t reading his mind; maybe he was just that obvious to her. He wanted it. Badly. It was crazy and he couldn’t explain why, but he could hardly even pretend to deny it anymore. The other night, out on the ocean. He’d almost let her do it…

Chloé shifted her enormous hands beneath him, leaving one to hold him while taking the other away along with the large Lemurian fruit. She brought the snack all the way up to her beaming grin and deep, excited, hungry eyes.

“You’re ready, aren’t you Mika?”

“Y-yes,” he admitted weakly.

“Ready to feed me.” She flicked the fruit between her lips, and a moment later a distant crunch could be heard as she smashed it to bits between her teeth. He shuttered, half from the sheer thrill and half from mortal terror. She rolled the juicy fragments around on her tongue for a moment, savoring the flavor before sending them down her throat with an extra-loud gulp. A few seconds later, Mika, still down at her belly, heard a loud ker-splash from inside Chloé’s body, as the food she’d just eaten crashed into the waiting pool of her digestive juices.

Suddenly, a red light filled the room, startling them both. And that now-familiar voice spoke to their minds again.

Welcome it in unharmed, send it to your depths unharmed.

Chloé, a bit annoyed and flustered that her sexy teasing had been interrupted, stammered out a defense.

“I-I wasn’t going to do that to him!” she insisted to no one. “Not the chewing part, I mean!”

“W-wait,” Mika spoke up.

He craned his neck to see over the rim of Chloé’s fingers and back to the wall he’d been studying before. He thought it had just been a stylistic choice, but the carving did show a whole, intact Lemurian fruit on its way down to the naga’s stomach. Not only that, but it did also show said fruit going down first, before the little stick figure Mika- human.

“I think before you try to swallow… me… you’re supposed to swallow one of those fruits,” he reasoned. The revelation gave him equal parts relief and disappointment- or at least he told himself they were equal.

“But I just did!” the naga complained.

“You’re supposed to swallow it whole,” he pointed as best he could toward the carvings again. “Like the voice said: ‘unharmed’.”

“Hm…” she leaned over to eye the wall again. She’d thought it was a friendly wall that had finally given her permission to eat her cute human boyfriend, but now she gave it a suspicious look, like the tricksy wall it really was. “Are you sure I can’t just eat you now?” she asked almost casually.

Mika couldn’t help but shiver again in excitement at the question, but whatever logic and self-preservation he had left convinced him to give the correct answer.

“I-I’m sure. We should follow the instructions. It is a magical temple after all.”

“Ugh, fine,” Chloé agreed, rolling her eyes. She carried her future mouthful over to the Lemurian tree, where she plucked another fruit from the instantly regenerating branch. “But I don’t know why I can’t just swallow you now. It’s not like I need practice.”

“…Maybe it’s something to do with getting me back out?” he offered. There was a bit of worry, maybe even fear, creeping into his voice now, overshadowing the excitement for the moment.

Chloé frowned, almost guilty. She’d been so thrilled at the thought of finally gulping him down, that she’d maybe not thought too hard about the rest… When they’d been playing around out at sea, she hadn’t been worried at all, but since then she’d learned firsthand- rather uncomfortably- how hard it was getting humans out of her belly. Alive, that is.

“I guess it wouldn’t be good for you to be stuck in there forever… Trapped in my belly… All mine until I decided to move you lower…” She started out frowning but ended up smirking.

“C-Chloé!” Mika objected, flustered. She giggled.

“It’s okay, Mika,” she brought her huge, bright, beautiful eyes right up to him. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

He took a breath.

“Unless you wanted me to, I mean,” she added. Chloé saw the little bulge in his pants twitch, and she couldn’t help but giggle again. “For now, though, I guess we should figure out how I can let you back out. I don’t know how eating this is supposed to help though.” She brought the Lemurian fruit up between them in her other hand- huge to him but practically bite-sized to her.

“Magical temple instructions?” he repeated with a shrug. Looking over the snack in her fingers, she started smirking again.

“Maybe we’re just supposed to pretend this is you?” she teased. His heart suddenly skipped another beat. She raised both hands up to her enormous mouth, her words gusting over him in warm, humid eddies as she spoke. “Well, in you go, Mika.”

The stunned human watched as the pillowy lips parted before him, and the large, him-sized fruit was tossed inside. It landed with a wet splat on her tongue, her saliva instantly soaking into its skin- a feeling Mika knew all too well.

He watched the pink beast within spring to life, swelling and shifting, rolling the helpless morsel back and forth within the naga’s maw, visiting her teeth, her cheeks, her palette and everywhere in between as clear drool quietly rose in its wake.

Mika was almost sure he could feel it all himself, even as he stood limply in Chloé’s palm, with only the moist mists of her breath actually coating him. He noticed the edges of her open lips creeping into an even wider smile, and a moment later her tongue flexed again, swelling up high and sending the poor, doomed fruit slipping inescapably toward the shadowed depths of her throat.

Chloé watched the look on his face with excitement and arousal as she felt the mouthful slip back over the edge of her tongue, and then she flexed her powerful gullet in a loud gulp. And Mika watched the snack disappear, tickling the naga’s hand as he shuttered again.

Then suddenly, Chloé coughed. The earthquake, combined with the hurricane, knocked poor Mika over. The giant face before him frowned, pondering at the strange, rather uncomfortable sensation of the large lump squeezing into her neck.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Swallowing those like that feels… hard.” She was still working on the finer points of her English vocabulary. He noticed the little lump in her throat, only barely sliding down, almost completely stuck.

“I just watched you swallow an entire crew of sailors whole! Come on, I know you can handle one little fruit!” he encouraged. (Well, little to her anyway.)

“That’s different. Humans are smaller and you’re soft. This thing is big and hard.” She gulped again, harder this time, and suddenly there was a loud, wet, crushing kind of squelch. The bulge instantly disappeared under the force of her powerful gullet, slipping down in a drool-soaked mess of broken pieces, as red light once again flooded the chamber.

“…Oops,” Chloé apologized.

Mika stared in some combination of horror, awe and horny fixation. Her words from earlier echoed back through his head. Maybe we’re just supposed to pretend this is you.

“D-don’t worry,” she attempted to comfort. “That never happens when I eat humans. You’re soft and squishy, remember?”

“R-right,” Mika agreed with a reluctant nod.

“Let me just try again.” Chloe picked and prepared another piece of Lemurian fruit. Deciding to skip the foreplay this time, she casually popped it in her mouth, sloshed it around on her tongue a bit to get it all slick, and then gave another hearty gulp.

Mika saw her grimace again as the mouthful disappeared from view. She grunted and covered her mouth, barely managing not to cough this time. A bit lower, he could see the bulge lodging in her gullet again, but with a few more, somewhat gentler swallows, Chloe managed to move the thing along. The lump flexed and shifted as it sank lower, almost disappearing from view behind the beginnings of her breasts, but the stubborn mouthful still seemingly refused to go down smoothly.

Mika watched the naga struggle for a few more moments, even after the bulge had long disappeared from his view, until finally he saw her grimace hard and huff.

“Did you get it all the way?” he asked optimistically.

“No!” she rasped, frustrated and uncomfortable. “It’s stuck!”

“Stuck?” He frowned. “Um… Let me down. Maybe I can check the inscriptions for some hints or something.”

She did as he asked, all the while grunting and coughing lightly as she grappled with the blockage in her gullet. It was pressed right up against the entrance to her stomach. She could feel it! She just couldn’t quite get it. To go. In! Not without shattering the thing to bits, anyway.

Mika quickly glanced over the walls for anything helpful. Frowning, he saw the runic shapes change suddenly, taking on a more jagged and Nordic appearance. One section of hieroglyphs showed a group of men in horned helmets, raising axes against what looked like a trio of humans with feline features, cat ears and tails…

“Mika!” Chloé complained, coughing again and poking unhappily at her belly. “This isn’t fun!”

He looked away from that unhelpful section. What can I do!? He looked back to the carving of the human entering the naga’s throat.

“Am I… Am I supposed to help?” he asked aloud. It did show a human entering behind a piece of Lemurian fruit. Maybe it wasn’t just Chloé who had to get it in there in one piece? Maybe he had to help too? Physically? It didn’t seem too implausible, but… could he be sure? He’d already interpreted that carving two different ways, and if he was wrong this time…

“What is it?” the naga asked, seeing the look on his face.

“I… I think I might be supposed to go down your throat after it and, um, help you get it in,” he explained, very uncertain.

The idea alone seemed to dispel all of Chloé’s discomfort. She instantly smiled, but then a moment later, she frowned.

“But…” the enormous naga mumbled meekly, looking at her little human’s face. “But what if you do get stuck…” She pouted and glanced away, conflicted and guilty. She wanted to eat Mika. Like, really wanted to eat him. But she didn’t want to eat him! She promised she’d keep him safe…

Hesitating himself, Mika glanced around the room, searching for an answer. Luckily, he actually happened to find one.

“Hey, what’s that over there?” He peered through the strange light and started running toward what he’d seen. A moment later Chloé saw it too and started slithering, beating him there by a wide margin. She reached down to pick up their find.

“Rope!” she called out hopefully, recognizing the stuff they’d used to pull those sailors out of her stomach. Then she remembered how it had felt, and how it had tasted. “Rope…” she repeated again, much less excited.

“Really old rope,” Mika added, finally arriving himself and looking over the braided fibers. There was a large pile of the stuff, but it had clearly been sitting there for a long time. “Maybe the ancient naga used this to help with whatever ritual this is?”

He grabbed the best-looking length of line he saw, stepping on one end and pulling hard with his remaining weight. It held. That was a good sign. He started pulling to untangle it, feeling hopeful.

“I think we can use this,” he decided. “You hold on to one end, and I’ll keep the other, okay?”

Despite her worry for him, and the continued discomfort in her chest, she couldn’t help but start smiling as she nodded. Her mouth started watering even as she watched him haul out the line. She felt her belly rumble below the lodged Lemurian fruit.

By the time Mika had fully untangled the rope and turned around again, Chloé was full-on grinning and visibly eager. He felt his heartrate spike. In a flash, he remembered all the poor souls he’d watched the naga devour since he’d met her. The nights he’d spent sleeping in her mouth, wondering if at any moment he’d be swallowed down into her inescapable digestive abyss. Even her words from the night before repeated in his head. You’d just have to sit there and wait until I decided I was done savoring you… Then you drop into my lower stomach… and you’re turned into nutrients… every last bit of anything good you have will get sucked out.

His penis was throbbing as hard as his heart, fear and arousal fighting wildly in his chest.

She was just teasing, right? She wouldn’t actually… I mean, she has done that to plenty of other humans… Digested them? Turned them into nutrients- Gah! Stop thinking like that! This is Chloé! You trust her!

He steeled himself and handed the giant naga her end of the rope. She grinned at him eagerly as she took it between her enormous fingers. Excitement and hunger in her eyes.

“Alright, Mika,” she said teasingly, reaching out to pick him up with her other hand.

“Wait-”

She paused politely, and the fact that she’d listened to him gave him a new boost of confidence.

“Maybe just… lay on your back?”

“Oh! I like that idea! Yes!” The unpleasurable pressure in her throat didn’t seem to mean much compared to the promise of him in there as well. She laid back with enthusiastic promptness, grabbing him as she went and whisking him up to her face as she leaned her head against the ground.

Mika looked down at the smiling billboard of a face and thought for a frantic moment that she would simply drop him straight into her gullet from there, but she didn’t. Instead she placed him securely on her upper lip.

“Alright!” she said excitedly, shaking the ‘ground’ beneath her human’s feet. “Give yourself to me.” Her smile opened before him into a gaping canyon of pink, red and white. Her lips parted at his feet, and he gazed straight down into the shadowy maw of his natural predator.

This was your idea, Mika found himself insisting. Besides, it’s just Chloé’s mouth! You’ve been in there before! He glanced at the rope he was clutching in his hand. …But it’s not just like before. This time I’m actually going down her… He gulped himself as he stared down into the drop of her throat, then back at his lifeline.

What if she just let go after I went in? came the intrusive thought. He tried to shoo it away but he couldn’t help it. What if that’s how this is supposed to end. These are naga temples; just because there are more of them doesn’t mean I’m supposed to be there. What if all these ‘tests’ are just to teach her how to lure more willing snacks to their gurgly end? Sacrifices to the goddess. Nothing more ‘serene’ than Chloé sleeping after a nice full meal of human.

“Mika?”

The large, nearby voice rumbling from below shook him from his thoughts, even though she spoke softly. And that tone it carried, excited but also concerned. Innocent but caring. Chloé. Mika smiled. Whatever unknown secrets these tests carried, he knew her now. And he knew she wouldn’t just gulp him down for a random snack.

Across the not-too-distant stretch of her body, a low rumble sounded ominously from her belly where the stubborn mouthful rested.

If she can help it, Mika admitted. But there was no turning back now. Not when that gullet he’d fantasized about for weeks was right there waiting for him.

“Sorry, um, can you lean your head back a bit more? I don’t want to just jump in.”

“Oh, sure!” she replied cheerily.

The warm flesh below suddenly jerked, forcing Mika to grab onto Chloé’s nose for stability. She giggled at the little touches of his little fingers.

“Don’t make me sneeze!” she teased.

When the tremors stopped, Mika carefully stepped up the slope of the massive upper lip and peered down once again into the pink abyss. The upper ridges of her mouth formed more of a slope now, rather than a sheer drop, the familiar cavern inverted with her tongue held securely up and out of the way.

“Okay, Chloé. Here I go, just… go slow, okay?” Grasping his end of the rope tightly, Mika sat himself down on the edge of the naga’s massive upper lip, and then slowly let himself slip into her waiting jaws.

As he should have expected, the looming pink tongue which dripped overhead didn’t stay still for long. Luckily, the naga had enough sense not to just drop the whale-sized muscle’s full weight onto her precious little mouthful. Instead she let it press gently down into him, squishing him this way and that, soaking up his delicious flavor as he crawled slowly deeper.

“Mmmmm,” the naga hummed. Mika had always tasted great, but now he tasted even better somehow. Because she knew he wouldn’t just be staying in her mouth this time. Now she’d finally get to send him deeper.

Deep pools of drool accumulated around his hands and knees as he waded toward the waiting throat, ridged flesh becoming soft and squishy as he journeyed further. He felt quivers rattling the pink around him as she reacted to each move he made, as if in this moment her mouth were almost as sensitive as her lower lips.

He approached the large, fleshy mass of her uvula, laying in his path within her inverted maw, almost teasingly blocking his view. While he’d seen it plenty of times by now, he’d never really gotten too close to it before, thanks to its precarious position, always dangling above the precipice of her gullet. Now, though, he’d need to get past it.

Sloshing through the building drool, he moved as far as he could to one side, and tentatively set a hand on the sensitive blob, pushing it out of his way.

Chloé immediately gave a soft moan at the sensation, which quickly turned into a long fit of giggles as she felt the ticklish little digits pressing against the far reaches of her mouth.

Mika wasn’t really surprised to learn with certainty that the naga didn’t have a gag reflex. He imagined it wouldn’t do much good for an apex predator like Chloé to be foiled by a desperate human clinging hopefully to her uvula. The thought didn’t give him- very much a human- very much comfort. Especially not as he finally pushed past the blockage and beheld with his own eyes the trembling pink abyss that was the giant snake girl’s cavernous throat.

The world around him suddenly shifted, and for a brief moment he thought Chloé had decided to take the long-awaited gulp that they’d both been anticipating so desperately. But she didn’t- not yet, anyway. She certainly wanted to- terribly, intensely, longingly wanted to- but she held herself back. If this was going to be her first time actually, finally swallowing him up, she wanted to make it last. A treat like Mika deserved to be savored. So instead of dragging him quickly toward her depths, she merely let her head relax to its comfortable resting position.

Sitting now at the very innermost edge of the naga’s maw, Mika looked back to see the steep slope of Chloé’s tilted palette transform into a sheer wall. Her jaws were no longer a cave that he could carefully descend- or climb out of- but a humid well of rising saliva, with walls so slick he could never hope to scale them on his own.

Chloé knew he still had that rope he was holding onto which he could use to try and climb out, but she tried to ignore it for the moment, to pretend like it was only her Mika in there, trapped helplessly at the back of her throat, with nothing to do but wait until she decided to devour him. What a wonderful feeling…

Mika tried to view the rope as a ray of hope, but he knew in his heart that all this massive predator really needed to do was clamp her teeth and it would be severed, or even simply just drop her end. Even if she wouldn’t do either intentionally, surely these were such simple things that they could even happen accidentally.

He felt fear starting to grip him again in earnest, gazing up and out at the light of the outside world from his hot, dark confines.

He realized he was staring at the temple ceiling, way off in the distance, decorated with its intricate, antediluvian carvings, hiding their age-old mysteries in plain sight. He’d always liked to consider himself an archaeologist, an explorer and discoverer of ancient knowledge. He’d always imagined himself visiting these long-forgotten places, adorned with elegant architecture and large, mysterious monuments, every square inch a riddle he could uncover and understand. But…

Mika lowered his gaze back to eye-level. Staring at the undulating abyss that was this enormous naga’s esophagus.

The long, stony, immobile halls of his imagination were nothing like the organic, living corridor which beckoned him now. This was no archaeological expedition, there were no more inscriptions to translate, no more paintings to decipher, no clever bit of knowledge could save him from what waited down that long, fleshy tube.

His heart pounding and truly about to lose his nerve, he took a deep breath of the Chloé-scented air, something which caused her to giggle around him as his breath tickled her gullet.

…No… no, this place- Chloé’s body- wasn’t actually that different after all.

All the great structures of the ancient world, the monuments and temples, all the results of uncounted workers and leaders who poured their lives into every stone, insisting on their deepest desire that they might leave but some trace of their work and their lives for the eyes of the world, even into the distant future. How many had died building the Pyramids? The Great Wall? The Colosseum? Just to hope that one distant day another might gaze upon the result.

Here, all around him, deep in this pulsating flesh that could inexorably seal his fate, those same things were true. In a way, those same mysteries he had originally sought were right there, just having taken a different form.

His fate, his existence, his life. If right in this moment Chloé gave in to her instincts, what would remain of him? What would be left? What trace of his life would he leave behind? For the unseeing world outside, just a momentary bump sliding down her neck like all the humans before him. For her, maybe just a small weight stirring in her stomach. And then… finally, an extra bit of meat or fat stored somewhere in her perfect, enormous body? Another stone laid into the wall.

He looked around at the glistening flesh which surrounded him. Uncountable millions of trillions of little living pieces, all culminating into the mighty creature who held him. Each piece taken from things she’d once consumed; shunted down the very path where he now stood.

How many other humans had contributed to this body? Wasn’t its very existence proof of the existences that had been consumed, digested, absorbed; added on brick by brick like a living temple…

What an insult it would be, to refuse to explore the great temples of the world, left behind. Could he, Mika the archaeologist, really disrespect all those who’d gone before him, by refusing to explore this that they’d left behind? This amazing, beautiful place that was Chloé…

The naga waited, feeling him resting there, reveling in the sensation almost as much as she excitedly anticipated what they both knew was coming next. And after a very long moment of thought, the human within finally shifted. There, at the very back of her throat, Mika shuffled his legs out in front of him, and pressed his feet gently into the tense, expectant flesh of Chloé’s esophagus.

Beside him, her tonsils tightened, her tongue lifted instinctively just a tad, a loud, pleasure-fueled, ravenous moan rushed past him from the undulating reaches beyond.

Okay, Mika, the naga thought, teased beyond restraint by his delicious, willing foray into her hunger. In you go!

Mika’s world flexed sharply as the slick flesh around him compressed, shoving in against his body, transforming the familiar maw in which he’d once slept into an inescapable vacuum that pulled him firmly down into the gluttonous gullet of Chloé the naga. A long, heavy, deliberate gulp, dragging him unquestioningly in. Into her.

He squeezed his eyes shut and squeezed his hands tight on the rope as the huge rolling wave of muscle passed over him. And when the mighty squelch finally faded, all he heard was the vibrating pleasure of Chloé’s moan.

“Ooooohh, Mika!” she breathed, putting her free hand up to her neck to feel the bulge he made. He’d slipped a good few meters into her gullet, but the rope had held firm, keeping him from going any deeper- for now. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a looong time,” she admitted, giddy.

Almost feeling rather than hearing the lustful voice rumbling around him, Mika opened his eyes. The dim pink glow of her inner body allowed him to faintly see the glistening walls of pinkish red that wrapped themselves so completely around his entire being. There he was, in her gullet, like so many humans before him, like the prey he was.

“I… I think I have too,” Mika replied in kind. “…H-How deep am I?” he asked, amazed at how immediately he had lost all sense of space once Chloé’s body had taken over.

“Hm… not very far. You have to go a lot deeper,” she told him. The teasing tone vibrated in the muscle which held him, and he felt his rock-hard member throbbing through his pants against the slick walls of her throat. This is crazy! I should be terrified! But… I want to go deeper!

For a moment, he actually tried to crawl further along her gullet himself, but before he even got a chance, another powerful swallow slammed across his body. He felt her release a length of the rope, allowing him to slip further along with the wave of peristalsis before the line once again went taught and saved him from his one-way trip to her stomach.

This time, when the squelching stopped, he heard what had been the gentle thump of her heartbeat suddenly very loud in his ears. Not only that, but he felt the entire tight chamber gently flexing back and forth as the muffled sound of rushing air filtered through the muscular walls.

“W-Where am I now?” he asked, meek with wonder.

“Hm… right behind my breasts, I think.” He could hear the absolute pleasure in her voice- ringing quite loudly in his ears- and he felt it himself. He marveled at the slick flesh pressed across his face and imagined the huge, pillowy masses of Chloé’s beautiful chest resting somewhere above him, rising and falling with her breath just as he was.

“You’re getting close now,” she teased, something almost akin to a low growl in her voice. That feeling of him buried helplessly in her throat; part of her wanted nothing more than to just drop this silly string, swallow as hard as she possibly could, and send both him and that stupid piece of fruit rushing down into her waiting stomach. Oh, it would feel so wonderful! So amazing! To just finally claim her prey! But Chloé held strong. Mika was more than merely her prey! “One more should do it,” she told him.

Packed away inside the massive naga, invisible to the rest of the universe, the brave archaeologist braced himself for another wave of compression. A moment later he heard the squelching lurch of Chloé’s gullet, and a moment after that he felt it once more. Again, he experienced the powerful grasp, and the slipping and sliding against the slick walls of her throat, ushering him ever closer to her waiting stoma-

Mika felt the line grow taught, a bit sooner than he’d expected. Unlike last time, he’d only moved a few meters. Immediately he knew something was wrong.

“Um, Mika? Something’s… wrong,” Chloé confirmed. “There’s no more rope left.”

He felt his heart sink- somewhat ironically- into the pit of his stomach. There had been so much of the stuff there, he’d thought, but they’d never bothered to measure it! He’d been so excited to finally slip down her throat that the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. He’d underestimated just how massive she truly was.

“…Should I… pull you back out?” she asked, very audibly reluctant. He felt immediately disappointed at the idea. But what else could they do? He looked around almost longingly at the tight, oppressive, sacred depths, knowing now he could be yanked away at any moment. His hands were busy holding on for dear life, but he took a moment to brush the slick walls with his legs, feeling them flex and slip against his meager pressure. He looked down to see how they moved and-

“Wait, Chloé, I- I think I see it!”

Looking past his own feet and a few scant meters of empty gullet, the naga’s dim inner glow revealed the distinct, familiar color of Lemurian fruit.

“You can? Can you reach it?”

“Almost!” He crawled down the rope to the farthest reach, fully extending his arms in an attempt to get as close as he could, straining his legs as he stretched, but he just couldn’t quite make it all the way.

There was a sudden rumble from very nearby, sending a low tremor through the surrounding flesh. It came from the direction of the fruit. Mika felt goosebumps prickling on his skin against the thick coating of drool. Chloé’s stomach. It was just there, just out of reach, just on the other side of that stupid blockage. So terrifyingly close. Tantalizingly close.

Part of Mika almost wondered if he’d ever be able to escape this place, should he slip just a small distance deeper into her hungry depths. But Mika wasn’t listening to that part of himself anymore. He almost wasn’t even sure if he wanted to escape…

“Chloé, listen. I’m going to let go of the rope for a few seconds so I can go push the fruit through. Just don’t swallow again until I tell you, okay?”

“M-Mika!?” The naga’s eyes widened like full moons. Did he just say he was letting go!? She imagined her little human, casting off all connections to the outside world, fully adrift in her body, fully hers. Hers to claim! Hers to consume! Finally! “M-Mika, I-I” She wasn’t even sure if she was trying to warn him or encourage him.

“It’s okay, Chloé. I… I’ll just take a second.” He felt like he might have been lying, but he honestly wasn’t even sure himself. All he knew was that one moment he was holding that rope for dear life, and the next, there was only Chloé, holding him.

Suddenly breathing hard, with his heart pounding almost as loud as hers, he began his quick, desperate shimmy down toward the pesky fruit that blocked his passage. Within two seconds he was touching it. Chloé’s food, he realized. She’d eaten it, and he was touching it. Did that make him food too at that point? Really and truly her prey?

He shooed the thought away and focused on his task. Feeling around the stubborn, hard lump, his fingers glided against the slick knot of muscle that marked the final passage of all her meals into her stomach.

“M-Mika!” she called again, more insistent. She felt her entire chest heave, and to her it seemed like she was holding back a mountain. The overwhelming, unmistakable, animalistic urge to just swallow him.

Inside, the human shoved and struggled against the blockage, but with hardly any luck. While not even a snack for the naga, it was larger and more solid than his entire body, and was firmly wedged in place. Even slamming against it with all he could muster in these tight confines hardly seemed to do anything at all.

Except it was doing something. Every little move Mika made sent a flurry of enticing signals back up to the naga. Her prey was squirming helplessly, deliciously in her throat, right on the edge of finality. She caught the aftertaste of the man on her tongue. That amazing, delicious flavor that she’d been savoring for oh-so-many days and now there it was just begging to be consumed, devoured, digested away, oh-

“MIKA!”

Inside the naga’s gullet, buried deep beneath meters of flesh and bone, Mika heard the worn-down Lemurian fruit give a dull, wet crack as Chloé and her throat began to give in to the overwhelming pressure.

Suddenly it dawned on him; he knew what was about to happen.

In that moment, cold, mortal terror and panic grabbed hold of him. He turned his gaze back toward the rope and made a mad scramble for salvation. He heard the loud, thunderous squelch above as Chloé swallowed hard. The stomach below rumbled and gurgled ravenously. Every inch of flesh surrounding him leapt into motion, pressing, squeezing, grabbing at him, dragging him toward the predator’s most dangerous depths.

“CHLOÉ!!” the poor man cried as he heard the food lodged in her throat finally shatter with a heavy crunch, clearing the way completely for his ultimate descent.

…The wave of pressure ceased. He heard and felt his own ragged breathing. He heard and felt hers too, rushing through the living flesh around him. And he felt the rope, digging into his hands through the slick slime as he seized it for dear life.

As soon as she realized she could still feel him there, she started carefully pulling the line back up. The little lump that was her human rose further and further as she sat up straight again, until Mika finally emerged once more from over the back of her tongue, pushing her uvula aside as she tugged him free of her hungry grasp and spat him fully into her hands.

“Mika! I’m sorry!” She immediately hugged him tight, pressing his still very slimy form into the tight space between her pillowy breasts, not too far from the spot he’d been just a few moments ago. “I’m so sorry! I tried! I really did! But when you let go I just- I just couldn’t help it! I don’t know what…”

“Chloé! Chloé!” he yelled, repeatedly trying to get her attention until she finally stopped smothering him. “It’s okay! It’s fine! I… I shouldn’t have done that, it was stupid.” But even now, he glanced from her face down to her bare belly, the place where he’d just very nearly ended up… And he couldn’t even decide if he was happy about making it out.

“We’ll just have to… figure something else out and try again,” he reasoned, then added after a moment, “…later.”

“Yeah, later,” she agreed. “M-maybe I could eat a bunch of fruit so I’m not so hungry?” But even as she said it, she knew it was a lie. All the Lemurian trees in the world couldn’t furnish enough to fill her the way a human could, the way he could.

“Yeah, sure, and I think we should rest some too. I’m feeling pretty tired from… from the trip,” he replied.

“Oh, yeah, me too,” she replied in the same half-truthful tone.

The truth was she knew her failure had little to do with fatigue. She’d wanted him, she’d wanted to devour everything he was then and there. She slithered back towards the tree, gripping another piece of the fruit and munching down on it normally. The temple lights flashed red but they ignored it.

Mika heard the gurgling as her stomach filled, and even after that close call, he couldn’t help but want to be closer to it.

“I think I’m going to pass out, Chloé,” he told her. “Can I sleep in your belly button? It’s a little cold, even down here… The warmth would be nice.”

“Yeah,” Chloé smiled, laying him down in the small crevice.

He sighed, leaning back against the warm ring of soft skin. He heard the gurgling beneath him as her stomach began to churn the fruit she was eating, and he felt that now-familiar arousal at the idea that it had almost been him.

Chloé watched him, feeling his heartbeat slow with his breathing as he drifted to sleep. She ate her fill of fruit but eventually lost her appetite for the stuff and found herself toying with the infinite snack instead. She popped a last piece into her mouth and tossed it around on her tongue without chewing. Leaning her head back against the stone, she finally tucked the thing into one cheek and left it there before closing her eyes and hoping the morning would bring an answer to the temple’s challenge.

With her human lover curled against her belly, she drifted off too.

…

Chloé slithered through the Lemurian jungle, following behind the green-scaled snake goddess. The pair stopped, watching as a group of humans crossed the cobblestone road before them, hefting everything from butchered and prepared meats, to chests filled with gold and jewels.

“Is that all for us?” Chloé asked softly.

“No, my dear,” the goddess laughed, “what would we do with it?” She held up her hand, letting Chloé see her ornate gold bracelet. “They offer us more of the shining rocks than we could ever use as it is.” She gestured for Chloé to follow her as the humans passed, waving and smiling at the pair of naga.

“You struggle with the Temple of Serenity?” the goddess asked, startling Chloé.

“Yes!” she said eagerly, “is there a trick? Maybe a spell or something?” The green naga sighed in frustration.

“There is no one left to explain it to you; I suppose this cannot be helped.” She held up her hand, and with a flash a human appeared in it. He was adorned in an elaborate headdress and colored robe, and he looked up at the naga with a warm smile.

“You called?” he asked.

“I would like to use you to explain something,” the goddess said, holding the human up.

“As you wish,” he replied, nodding.

“This is the man that I went through these challenges with, many eons ago,” the green naga explained. “He is my most precious resource!”

“You flatter me, Goddess,” the man said with a teasing chuckle. The great snake woman sighed.

“I do not. Without the humans, we naga are but beasts!” She turned to Chloé. “Everything we take from them to sustain ourselves; we must give back; it is in truth we who serve them. Do you understand?”

“I… think so,” Chloé replied uncertainly.

“What do you believe you need to do in the Temple of Serenity?” the goddess asked.

“I have to swallow some fruit so Mika will be safe, and then swallow Mika?” she guessed nervously. The ancient human and his goddess shared a chuckle.

“No, my dear, you misunderstand. You are not swallowing him, he is entering you. Your test is to welcome him, to show deference and respect by allowing your human to come into what is his. The fruit is not for his benefit, but for yours; to teach you how to receive your priest properly.”

The goddess raised the human in her hand up to her mouth, and Chloé watched as the man almost casually stepped over her lips, stooping as he journeyed over her tongue. The naga kept her mouth open, allowing Chloé to see as the man stopped at the back of her throat, then stepped out, as if over a cliff’s edge, falling and disappearing from view. The bulge of the human's body raced down the throat, and the goddess sighed softly as he entered her stomach, without a hint of the expected *gulp* of a swallow. The naga closed her mouth, smiling at her young descendant.

“My body, your body, belongs to them. Do not devour your priest, welcome him in.”

“Wait,” Chloé called as the dream started to waver, “I have other questions-”

…

Chloé sat upright so quickly that Mika was sent sprawling out of her belly button, shouting with surprise as he tumbled down the side of her stomach. Luckily it slowed his fall enough that he wasn’t hurt, but he glanced up at her curiously.

“What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

The waking naga was silent for a moment, as her mind processed what she’d just learned, and then suddenly her attention was drawn to her belly. While she’d slept, her body had processed all the fruit she’d eaten, sending it all unconsciously on to her lower snake half. All except for one little morsel she could still feel bouncing around inside. That one, lone piece of Lemurian fruit she’d fallen asleep with in her mouth. One that she’d evidently swallowed while she was dreaming of what the naga goddess had told her…

“No,” Chloé finally answered. “I think we’re ready to try again.”

“Y-you do?”

She nodded, putting a hand to her belly and wiggling her hips, feeling the little thing tumbling about her stomach walls. One, whole piece. She smiled.

“Uh-huh,” she confirmed, “It’s time for you to finally go inside.” She rose up over him, her full, unrestrained glee starting to return.

“I, um, just want to make sure you’re- we’re- ready, is all.” She giggled at his cute little nervous face, now fully confident herself.

“Oh, come on, Mika,” she teased. “Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind about wanting to visit my tummy?” She rubbed the smooth skin playfully in full view. He gulped, feeling that strange longing again- and the instant tension in his pants- and he found he couldn’t deny it.

“I-I’ll go get the rope,” he agreed.

“No. No more silly rope.”

“What?” he muttered somewhat in alarm, “B-but-”

Chloé pushed a finger to his lips to shush him- which in reality meant smothering his entire face against the very tip of her enormous digit. That only made it more effective though.

“We won’t need it anymore. Besides, wasn’t it so much more fun after you let go?” she asked with a smirk. This snake was charming him and he couldn’t do a thing about it.

“I-I admit it was…” Crazy? Insane? Suicidal? “…thrilling, but…” But I don’t really want to be food. “…if you can’t control your stomach…”

“Mika,” she leaned in close, “it’ll be okay this time. Trust me.” How could he say no to Chloé’s cute, freckled, man-eating smile?

“…Okay,” he replied, butterflies filling his belly as he contemplated hers. “H-how are we going to do it this time?” She lowered her head all the way to the ground, resting her chin in front of him.

“All you have to do is come inside,” she said simply, her words revealing little flashes of her maw.

“You want me to offer myself up again?” he asked, smirking back at her. “Another sacrifice for the beautiful goddess?” Chloé felt a shiver run all the way down the length of her enormous tail.

“I love the thought,” she admitted, blushing, “but no. That game doesn’t end the way we want. We almost had it right, though. I thought I wanted you to give yourself to me- and I do- but I didn’t realize I was really supposed to be giving myself to you.”

Mika looked at her like he didn’t quite understand. He wasn’t used to her sounding this wise. She couldn’t even talk a few weeks ago!

“Don’t think of it like I’m taking you and eating you. Think of it, like… my belly is your home, and I’m just letting you inside.”

“My home?” he asked, raising his brows questioningly, but nevertheless smiling at the idea. She giggled. She liked that concept very much now that she thought of it. Like it was just right in some way. Her stomach; Mika’s home. A place he could always return to for safety or for love.

“It’s yours,” she reiterated softly. “All you have to do, is come inside.” And with that she opened her jaws wide before him. Her humid breath rushed outward, and he stared for a moment into the familiar, living cavern, his heartbeat quickening. Her throat seemed rather relaxed, and peering deeper, he found he could see well into her inner reaches. A long, fleshy, perilous tunnel, to a place that melted men like him alive. But he tried, instead, to imagine it as a friendly doorway. Tried.

This is it, he realized, stepping forward, Whether I can get out or not… I’m going into Chloé’s belly…

“O-Okay,” he said, a bit shaky, contemplating his potential last words as a man rather than a naga snack. “Here I go.”

Breathing out slowly, he clambered up her lip, climbing awkwardly over her teeth like they were a garden fence. His feet squished into her pooled saliva as he gripped the slimy tastebuds on her tongue, causing her to moan gently in excitement from his flavor as he made his way through her mouth.

His heart was pounding, and while he felt a very primal fear, he also felt that familiar arousal which struck whenever he ventured into Chloé’s mouth, and he couldn’t help but stop and look around curiously. A bit of the Lemurian fruit from the day before, about the size of his arm, was wedged in the back of two of her teeth, startling him.

She could tear me to pieces just as easily as she did that fruit, he thought, his heartbeat picking up. Am I…? His pants throbbed as he formed the undeniable thought. The notion of being nothing more than Chloé’s snack had instantly brought him to full arousal.

A warm blast of air ruffled his hair backward, causing him to blink. Chloé’s exhale was like a breeze on a summer day, and as she inhaled he felt goosebumps on the back of his neck from the sudden chill. He looked up as he neared the back of her tongue, seeing her uvula dangling overhead, slowly moving in time with her breath, and beyond that the twin orbs of her tonsils.

The pink, soft carpet beneath him shifted back and forth lightly, as if to teasingly tell him ‘You’re almost there’. Saliva dripped around him like rain, pooling around his ankles as he paused one final time. Her throat was calling to him, and he realized there truly wasn’t any turning back now.

Chloé seemed to agree, slowly closing her mouth behind him with an ominous *click* of her teeth. She moaned pleasantly around him once more, savoring his presence, his flavor. But she was not taking him, she reminded herself. She was simply letting him inside. With that firmly in mind, she relaxed her neck fully. You taste amazing, Mika, but I’m ready for you to go deeper!

Mika watched her throat expand before him, a long stretch of glistening, rippling muscle, leading off into her depths. For a split second he thought about asking her to open her mouth again, about giving up this whole thing, but he steeled himself and pressed ahead. Crawling on his hands and knees, he moved forward into the dripping passage.

Chloé shuddered as he slipped down her esophagus, but while the walls quivered slightly, they didn’t press down on him, and there was no swallowing motion as he moved further in. Below him a slow river of saliva trickled over his hands and knees, a river guiding him towards his final destination.

Mika frowned in curiosity as he saw a small flap swing closed in front of him, Her larynx, he thought distantly, continuing onward. It felt odd, squishier, less rigid than the rest of her throat as he ran his fingers over it.

Chloé giggled as he moved past it, “Whatever you were just touching, it tickled, like the feeling right before a cough!”

He marveled for a moment at the fact that no other human in his lifetime had ever been in a position such as he was now. Able to calmly take his time with his descent down the naga’s lengthy throat. Looking back, he saw the dimly glowing cavern of her sealed mouth, and realized he could actually crawl backwards with relative ease if he decided to. But he very decidedly did not. Crawling a few more feet, Mika could hear the sounds of her heart beating loudly, like a steady drum.

“Chloé,” he called, “Where am I?”

“Just behind my breasts,” she answered, smirking as she felt his tiny form pause. Mika winced.

“Please speak a little softer when I’m in here, I’m right next to your vocal chords, Chloé!”

“Sorry!” she whispered.

He’d been in that same spot just the other day, hadn’t he? She’d even said just the same thing. But this time felt entirely different! He hadn’t even noticed how loud her voice had been before, with all the stress and fear. It wasn’t even until that moment that he started to realize that the stress and fear was starting to leave him! Allowing the excitement of exploration to fully take hold; an archaeologist venturing into a hidden, sacred land.

The steady, soothing rhythm of Chloé’s heart gradually started to fade as he crawled further down, and a gurgling noise replaced it: the unmistakable sound of digestion. He thought about all the fruit she’d eaten the night before, and wondered if any of it was even still there, or if it had all been churned away. A hint of that fear returned to him, only fueling his excitement.

The walls of her esophagus were growing a bit tighter now, slippery and slimy against him almost like her womanhood. He couldn’t help but realize that everything there was meant to force him along this route, to overpower him and send him to Chloé’s stomach whether he wanted it or not.

“Y-You’re very close now,” Chloé growled, clenching her fists as she fought the urge to simply seize him, to let her throat just rocket him down against his will.

Mika saw the walls quiver, and for a moment he was sure they would collapse on him like they had before, the soft yet unyielding pressure driving him forward into Chloé’s stomach like a flood. But it didn’t come. She breathed around him, keeping her control. And slowly, he relaxed too, continuing on his way.

“Y-You’re down below my chest now,” she whispered, “I can feel every step…”

The idea sent goosebumps all up and down Mika’s saliva-soaked body. Was he really? Buried so deep in the beautiful naga’s body and still slipping ever deeper? He pressed on, feeling every rumble and shift of her immense body around him, until something caught his eyes and made them grow wide.

The passage to Chloé’s stomach. It was already spreading open as he approached, revealing just a glimpse of what was on the other side, but he just stared at the sphincter itself for a moment. He remembered vividly how the powerful muscle had completely crushed a Lemurian fruit larger than his own body. Tentatively, he reached out and laid the gentlest of fingers on it.

A loud moan shook his world, her entire esophagus tensed, nearly clenching up on him, the opening gaped wider.

“Go in!” Chloé rasped, a demand, a plea, an invitation all in one.

Mika took a deep breath, then dove against it. The tight ring of flesh pinched against his whole body, but he slowly forced himself through, wriggling a bit as Chloe did her best to relax and let him finally, actually slide inside.

Inside her stomach.

Mika slipped down the walls, feeling the wetness beneath his fingers as he splashed down into the pool at the bottom. He winced, readying himself for the itching of Chloé’s digestive acid… But none came.

I won’t let it hurt him, the naga told herself, willing her stomach to be still. It’s his to explore… I’ll keep it still for as long as he wants.

Mika stood up, looking around, feeling a sense of awe as he realized he’d been well and truly eaten. The walls undulated slightly as he walked through the open area, listening to the faint beating of Chloé’s heart somewhere behind him. Her stomach was much larger than a human’s would have been proportionally, and compared to the claustrophobic confines of her esophagus it was downright roomy. His feet splashed through the warm fluid around his ankles as he explored the humid chamber.

“How is it?” Chloé asked hesitantly. Her voice was loud, coming from everywhere at once, yet still muffled. The omnipresent nature of it made the whole thing even more awe-inspiring.

“It’s warm,” Mika said, “And… nice. It feels nice here.” He smiled broadly, leaning against one of the walls, letting himself slide down against it, “I wouldn’t mind riding back to town in a place like this,” he remarked.

“You don’t feel scared?” Chloé asked, “Like the others?”

“No,” he said truthfully, realizing the fact himself. “I don’t think you’re going to let anything bad happen to me.”

“I won’t,” she promised softly. And she smiled too; a warm, loving, happy smile.

Putting a happy, protective hand to her belly, she shifted, rolling over to get more comfortable. Mika shouted in surprise, sprinting along the walls of her stomach like a giant hamster wheel. Chloé giggled at the ticklish sensation, but apologized as she realized what she’d done.

“Sorry! I guess if you’re going to be spending more time in there I’ll have to be careful…”

“It was fun,” Mika laughed. “Go on, do it again!”

Chloé raised a massive eyebrow, then giggled again, rolling to the side across the open floor of the temple. Inside her, Mika’s feet raced along the ridged walls of her stomach, but eventually he lost his footing and began bouncing along her insides and down into the pooled juices at the bottom. He surfaced, laughing as Chloé joined him, shaking her whole body with their shared joy as they shared the moment.

“Mika, here’s my belly button, this time you’re resting on the other side of it!”

He looked up, as the ceiling seemingly fell inward. The ridged roof of her stomach pressed gently against the top of his head as Chloé pressed down on her belly button, then sprang back up as she released it.

I always did love her belly button, Mika thought wildly. He’d often slept there, listening to the faint gurgling as her food was digested, only this time it was him on the inside.

“…So, ready to move on yet?” she asked. There was a hint of something in her muffled-yet-booming voice that he couldn’t quite place.

“Do you really want me to come out already? I feel like I just got here…” he replied with more than a little disappointment.

“Not out! Silly Mika. In! I’ve eaten you now! You’re all mine! That means I get to move you down into my second stomach and digest you!”

He recognized that ‘something’ in her voice now. Teasing. Still, as her entire belly rumbled with a hunger that could devour an entire town, he found it hard to simply brush off her playful ‘threat’.

“Which part of my body would you like to become a part of?” she asked casually. “I bet you’d like to be part of my- what was the other word you used- boobs. Or maybe a teeny little extra padding on my belly. Oh, maybe you could even become a part of my pussy. Then I could still play with you…”

Mika felt his head spin a little as all the blood rushed to his groin again. Her teasing was so much more effective when he was literally sitting in her stomach. But she wasn’t about to let her win this little game.

“T-they all sound like such wonderful options,” Mika replied, not even lying. “I guess we’ll just have to see where I end up.”

He glanced down her belly and set eyes on her lower sphincter. Standing up, he started towards it, walking right up to the tight knot of muscle and even tracing his hand across it. He felt the deep rumbling of the second stomach beyond, the more powerful of the two, the one that dissolved anything Chloé sent there almost instantly.

“Mika,” she warned, a bit of that confident teasing disappearing from her voice “B-Be careful messing around there! I don’t think I’m ready for that one yet!”

“Just open it!” he insisted, doubling down on his victory, “I just want to see!”

Chloé hesitated for another moment, but took a deep breath, slowly forcing the portal to widen. Mika leaned forward curiously, marveling at the raw digestive power he knew he was bearing witness to, and just barely happened to brush the edge of the sensitive ring. He shouted in surprise as the knot of muscle suddenly snapped shut over his arm. Grunting, he pulled at it, but it would not budge.

“C-Chloé, open it back up!” he shouted.

The naga didn’t reply, feeling the rise of her predatory instincts again. Her lower belly sent her every signal it could, telling her to pull him in, to consume, to devour. He was just a tiny speck of meat in the vastness of her gut, hers to snuff out and absorb. Mika shouted in surprise as his skin began to itch painfully, the second stomach readying itself to welcome him with what would surely be a lethal reception.

No! Chloé thought angrily, forcing her inner voice down. With a deep breath she willed her stomach’s lower exit to open again, letting Mika slip free just before it snapped shut once more.

He scurried back, panting, and she felt a bit of relief as his little scurrying touches retreated from the danger within her.

“T-Thanks,” he shouted. “I guess we’re not ready for that one yet…”

“No,” Chloé agreed, pausing to breathe out a bit more tension. “…But that’s okay. Having you in this belly is still really nice.” She rubbed her Mika-filled midriff and smiled again.

“Yeah…” her human agreed, his own smile returning. He heard the soft rumble of her hand passing over the skin above, the light sloshing of the pools against the walls. In the absence of all their teasing and games, just… being there in that moment, he couldn’t help but feel utterly… serene.

Well Done, the goddess’s voice boomed in their heads. And out in the temple the world flashed blue.

Originally Published: 5-May-2025