# HNTBL 48: Be Extra Filling

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

How Not To Become Lunch: 48 - Be Extra Filling

*slosh* *slosh* *guuurgle*

The sounds of the hyena-girl’s gut dominated over even his own heartbeat, pounding in his ears.

Jack felt the swaying of her gut, rocking him back and forth with each step, as his predator carried on down the hall from the spot where she’d devoured him. The dull thuds of her paws on the unreachable ground only hammering home his place as the latest in a long line of stomach contents for the growing girl’s hungry body. And even though he knew it was pointless now, he still struggled and fought as best he could in furious defiance of his fate, just like every other human he’d ever seen take the plunge through a pred’s digestive system. And just like with each of those countless humans before him, his predator simply kept on walking.

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it!? came one of the few coherent thoughts still flying through Jack’s head. How long did I really think I could go before I ended up here!?

He gave an exceptionally hard shove, and suddenly his whole world shifted dramatically. The abrupt lurch only pushed him further into terror. And his hopelessness only compounded when he then realized that the most he could do was make his predator stumble, and that even that only made things worse for himself.

Still, he couldn’t keep himself from struggling now even if he wanted to. His body was moving nearly on its own, pushing in vain against the oppressive, slimy walls.

Then things got tighter. Much tighter. Quickly, the minuscule pockets of available space pressed flush against him, and the more yielding folds against which he’d been thrusting and shoving became taught and firm. The stomach pressed harder and harder against him, conforming to the shape of his poor, curled up body. Terrifying thoughts of digestion began to fill Jack’s mind, threatening to swamp any remaining reason he had left.

He began to hear sounds coming from his predator, muffled whines and groans vibrating from up in her throat, nearly inaudible to him over the crackling and squelching in his ears. This was it, her stomach getting to work on him, rushing to attend to her special, marked meal, all to the hyena-girl’s immense enjoyment. How long would he last under her gut’s suffocating hunger? How long did he want to last?

The walls pressed tighter, and tighter still, slipping against him in their eager onslaught, rubbing their digestive cocktail deep into his skin. He lost hold of his senses, or perhaps he abandoned them, unable to bear the experience of full-on, fervid, all-obliterating digestion. He didn’t want to know what it felt like when the body around him began to render and devour his own. Cowering in his mind of frantic, indistinct thoughts, he knew only the ever-present, all-encompassing touch of squirming, suffocating, slimy flesh, constantly moving over every atom of his exposed skin in a timeless, black void.

And then, suddenly, there was cold. It shocked him, sending a shutter through his entire body. A stray fragment of rational consciousness returned to him, like a panicked hand managing to grasp a hold, and he took a huge, shuttering breath. The air was still fetid and moist but it was fresh, almost like ice in the lungs of his roasting chest. For a moment he felt the vague recognition that his body, while still held unbearably tight by firm, greedy muscle, was now straight rather than curled up.

The cold spread over him, from his face, over his drenched, slicked-back hair, under his chin and down his neck. He saw a beam of light strike his tightly-shut eyes, but they were still too caked with slime to open.

It wasn’t until he’d taken several deep, heaving breaths, and the cold had reached past his shoulders and onto his dripping chest, that his scattered, panicked mind finally realized the unbelievable truth: he was being freed.

And that’s when he fell.

Gravity suddenly stealing control from the slick gullet which had held him, his belly and legs quickly slipped free with an accompanying retch and he tumbled head-first toward the ground with an especially wet splat.

Still panting and heavily dazed, but with the newfound cold spurring him back to life, he clumsily wiped an arm across his face, clearing away a bulk of the slime. He blinked, and in the fleeting glimpses saw that he was still more or less in shadow, but nothing compared to the utter darkness he’d just left. There was a bit of light coming in from somewhere, just enough to illuminate his surroundings. Shifting onto his back, he looked up.

He saw only a single figure standing over him, one with no fur. For a moment he thought maybe Zach, or even Ozzy had come through after all, but he quickly realized the student was a girl. And as he managed to focus, he also realized that the student wasn’t a human…

“S… Sarabeth?”

…

As if that edible fool would dare think that I’d be his personal bodyguard. I’d sooner swallow him myself- gladly- if not for Fiona’s sake. Look at him: pathetic, desperate. What in the world does a powerful, objectively beautiful huntress like her see in him?

Certainly, it wasn’t what Sarabeth was seeing, not while she followed Jack down the hall at an inconspicuous distance, watching him point his wand frightenedly at every passing soul that breathed.

This will be a fitting end. Deprived of Fiona’s mercy, he’ll meet his fate just like any other human, a common meal for a predatory passerby. She could already see several students sizing him up, and she cursed the fact that most of them already had full bellies from their recent lunches. But not all of them. No, there were always a few predators keeping their stomachs reserved for a live, squirming human. And he would be by far their most appealing prey.

Yes, this is it. Her eyes widening slightly in anticipation, she saw the pieces take their places as the scene began to unfold. There were not one, but two predators making their approach. The naga reached him first, hardly making any attempt to conceal herself. Sarabeth might have criticized her technique, if the vampire were not so keenly eager for the promising sight of the snake-girl’s mouth closing over Jack’s head.

Sadly, it did not. Sarabeth heard from down the hall a number of syllables stumble from the human’s mouth, and suddenly the naga was recoiling. But despite the eager predator’s ineptitude, the vampire was not furious. Quite the contrary, she was rather satisfied that a much more talented hunter would be the one to claim the delectable prize. Because it was hardly more than a second after she heard Jack’s relieved sigh, that she watched the second predator tackle him to the ground.

Sarabeth felt a shift within herself as she watched the hyena take hold of her meal, strife giving way to satisfaction. She could feel the finality of it, knowing by virtue of her ears that none of Jack’s companions were anywhere to be found. He had survived quite a time longer than she had expected, but this would be the end.

She watched her hungry schoolmate plunge her muzzle down around her marked meal’s head, and Sarabeth reveled silently in her victory.

No longer would Fiona be distracted by this nuisance. With him out of the way, she’d have only that Conri boy left to overcome, and then Fiona would be hers once more.

…Yes, only Arthur…

…How would she take care of him? He certainly wouldn’t be disappearing down any gullets. And Fiona didn’t seem to be losing interest, in fact she’d been seeming more and more attached to him by the day. To get her free of him, someone… well someone would have to convince her to leave him, to pull her away.

…But… but she couldn’t do that. Not Sarabeth. No… she couldn’t walk up to that table of theirs, she couldn’t call out for attention, she couldn’t compete with that lowly mutt, it would be far too brash, far too… brave.

…No, come next lunch period, she would be back to her lonely seat at the outskirts of the lunch hall, watching Fiona from afar as she settled in with her new classmates. She’d be there day after day, hardly ever speaking to Fiona again, doing nothing and achieving nothing.

As it was now, Fiona hardly even seemed to notice Sarabeth anymore. She’d never once heard her own name come up in their conversations. The only person outside of that table whom she ever seemed to mention with any regularity was-

Jack… By all the unfortunate, uncultured, imbecilic-! Jack!

The realization began to sink in like a meal into a maw. Somehow, by some exceedingly cruel twist of fate, and against all likelihood, she needed Jack. He was her only hope. This human, this marked human was the only person who could get through to Fiona. This vexing, burdensome, irk of a human was-

*gulp*

…Sliding into the stomach of a hyena girl.

Sarabeth’s face grew long and pallid as she watched her cursed foe disappear into the rounded, wriggling bulge of the satisfied predator’s stomach. None of his companions were anywhere nearby; she’d been celebrating that fact just a moment ago. No other passing mage would think to save him now, not once he’d already taken that final plunge. He’d been well claimed; no more than a meal; finally put in his place.

…But Sarabeth couldn’t leave him there.

As the hyena-girl began to walk again, the vampire did as well, faster and faster, just up to the limit of conspicuity. Sarabeth gained ground, closing the distance; the weight and struggles of the other girl’s fresh meal slowing her down.

Behind her quiet, well-composed expression, plans and details, actions and reactions, and all manner of thoughts in between raced through her mind, forming together into a tactical and tactful plot. She knew this girl would not be keen to give up a meal as delectable as Jack. In fact, even if she could be convinced to part with her lunch, Sarabeth couldn’t have knowledge of this event free to the open ears of gossip-prone children. The vampire would not tolerate any rumors that she had stolen another’s meal, or that she was some savior of humans, or worse, a friend of Jack.

No. There was exactly one way this ended quietly.

Sarabeth grew closer and closer to the hyena, listening intently to the active sloshes of Jack’s struggles within, silently willing him to continue to fight even as she cursed herself for it.

…And then the vampire passed right by. Not a glance or a word in the other girl’s direction, she simply walked impatiently by, as if she were in a hurry to get to class. The corridor took a bend up ahead, before which there was only a single classroom. Sarabeth kept her ears trained on the heavy steps and the noisy belly as she pulled ahead and rounded the corner.

As long as that is not her class… she thought to herself.

She felt a touch of relief when her strategic risk paid off, hearing her target continue past that class and down the hall.

Completely unsuspecting, the hyena rounded the corner a few seconds later. Quite happily distracted by her warm, stuffed midriff as her stomach prepped its new arrival, she never even saw the pair of hands dart out from the barely-cracked door of the darkened janitor’s closet. One held her muzzle silently shut, the other grabbed her arm, and the next thing she knew, she’d been hauled into shadow and out of sight.

And then came a sharp pain in her neck.

“Mmmph!”

Sarabeth felt the other predator immediately begin squirming in her grasp, and she flexed her fangs buried within the fur-covered flesh. The hyena was stronger than her, but she had hunted well, she’d taken her quarry by surprise. She only needed a few seconds, just a handful of moments of confusion and uncoordinated struggles, and then it would be too late.

The previously proud predator began to shrink in the vampire’s clutches, slowly at first, but at a rapidly increasing rate. If the hyena had gone straight for Sarabeth’s head, or the single arm holding her in place, she very likely would have gotten free. If she’d solely gone after the hand holding her muzzle shut, she’d almost definitely have been able to call for help. But in her panic, she clumsily bounced between the three, failing to effectively fend off any of them, and that gave the vampire just enough time.

It was a rather sharp whine from her victim that signaled Sarabeth’s victory. All the struggles aimed at her abruptly ceased, and instead the hyena’s entire focus was suddenly pulled quite heavily to her bulging belly.

The hyena was getting smaller by the second, but the bulge was not. And that meant things were getting tight. Uncomfortably tight.

Sarabeth slowed herself now, letting the discomfort in her prey’s gut sink in. She had to be careful now not to shrink the hyena too far too quickly, or else she might not have a chance to-

*glrk*! *glrk*! *glrk*!

Perfect.

With far too large a meal inside, the furred girl’s body had come to the natural, instinctive conclusion that, as tasty as he was, Jack had to go. Sarabeth watched in the dim light as the bulge began to work its way back up the throat it had only just descended. The taught skin seemed to hold the boy inside so tightly that he could hardly even wiggle, so tight that she could even make out the finer contours of his form. She was forced to withdraw her fangs as he passed, and release her hold on the hyena’s muzzle so she could open her jaws, but by this time the other predator had all but forgotten about her, far too distracted by the ex-meal clogging her airway.

With a wretch and a splat, Sarabeth watched Jack come tumbling back into the world of the living, thoroughly soaked in slime so foul that the vampire couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose and turn up in disgust. His panting was matched by that of his ex-predator, but while he seemed unable to do much more than lie on the ground for the moment, the hyena quickly whirled around to face her assailant.

Their eyes met, and the furred muzzle began to part, but whether it had been for an insult, an exclamation, a cry for help or even an attack, no one would ever know, because Sarabeth wrapped her hand around it once again and forced it back shut. The poor hyena girl was considerably smaller now, the size of a young child, and her diminished strength was now well within the vampire’s ability to manage.

With a predatory intensity in her eyes, compounded by the furious indignity of the circumstances, Sarabeth stared down at the girl. Then she pulled her close, chest to chest, wrapping a free arm around the hyena like some loving embrace, except she also buried her fangs back into that vulnerable neck.

The muffled cries started up again, but growing slowly fainter and fainter. The vampire felt the furry muzzle slip from her fingers as it shrunk away. And just as she withdrew her fangs for the final time, she heard an unfortunately familiar voice mutter her name.

“S… Sarabeth?”

The vampire looked down at the boy. Her expression was still firm and solid as stone, but there was a clear anger in it now, the light from the cracked door painting a vertical beam down her face as Jack looked up.

She cursed silently to herself. She’d been hoping she might’ve been able to make her exit before he’d come to, but she’d known that was not a guarantee, and she’d planned for this unfortunate possibility. She couldn’t do away with him to ensure his silence, so she’d have to do the next best thing.

For the moment, that meant watching and waiting as the marked boy peeled his slick body from the floor and slowly glanced around, trying to gain his bearings.

“Wha… what happened? Where are we?” he asked in a labored voice, managing to sit up.

“You were swallowed,” came Sarabeth’s flat reply. She needed Jack to regain his comprehension, to understand exactly what had happened, so he’d understand what came next.

He focused, in the dim light, noticing something moving erratically up near the looming vampire’s face. He tried to wipe more of the slime from his eyes and squinted.

It… it looked like a little toy-sized dog. But it was alive, wiggling and flailing, hanging by its short little tail pinched between Sarabeth’s fingers. …No … not a dog, a hyena. The hyena! The one that had just-

Jack flinched as he once again came face to face with the face which had just devoured him, even if it was now the size of one of his action figures. And in the following few moments, with the panic gradually leaving his mind, he managed to piece together what that sight meant. Sarabeth must have picked up on this, because just afterwards she began to move.

In a slow and delicate motion, she extended her arm, letting the shrunken pred catch the light peeking through the door. She wanted to make sure Jack could see exactly what it was, who it was. She stared down into his eyes the entire time, until she was utterly convinced he understood.

Then she just as delicately pulled her arm back. She brought her hand to her face, up to her mouth, her red lips parting with her hand close behind. Taking her eyes off Jack for just a moment, she glanced up at the tiny, frantic furball she was holding. The hyena was staring down, down into the deep dark abyss below, struggling even more frantically than her own meal had been just a few moments ago. Clearly the poor girl wanted to be released.

So Sarabeth released.

It didn’t make so much as a sound, the ex-predator landing on the vampire’s tongue. Sarabeth closed her mouth, with all the composure and elegance for which she was known, and looked back down to Jack. She locked eyes with him again, her expression subtly growing colder and harder. He felt a deep chill take his body, feeling physically unable to look away from the intense stare.

And then there did come a sound. A faint, dainty little noise. Hardly even noticeable. Nothing compared to the onslaught of sound and sensation that Jack had just lived through. Just a simple, innocent little-

*gulp*

Sarabeth’s stern face wrinkled in disgust as she felt the fur slip against her throat.

Jack shivered, but did not dare look away. Seeing one pred eat another was a rare enough sight; seeing a refined girl like Sarabeth partake was somewhat of a shock; and seeing the deathly serious intensity in her eyes made it clear that she meant it as a message. A message she was about to make abundantly clear.

“Listen very closely, Jack,” the vampire instructed, speaking with an elocution as sharp, clear and threatening as her fangs. “If you ever tell anyone about what just transpired, if you so much as breathe a word about my rescuing you, or the unfortunate fate of our previous schoolmate: you will be next, and I can personally guarantee- I will ensure- that it is not pleasant.”

She continued to stare him down, until it became clear that she was expecting some kind of response.

“N-no one will ever know,” Jack muttered.

“Excellent. …Now, leave.” She gestured toward the door.

He nodded, pushing himself precariously to his feet, barely managing not to slip. He moved for the door and reached the handle, but just before he slunk out, he paused and turned back to Sarabeth.

“Thank you,” he said, shaken, but wholly earnest.

Sarabeth met the sincerity in his eyes, and her expression softened just a bit.

“You are welcome,” the vampire replied politely.

Originally Published: 1-Feb-2022