Content
HNTBL: Other Tails
(a “How Not To Become Lunch” spinoff)
Chapter 11:
Sticky Situation
“You just have to go down this hallway, this isn’t the end of the world,” Olly thought to herself, taking deep breaths as she walked, increasing the speed of her pace every so often. With every hungry glance, she simply moved faster, or pointed her wand. The mark really took a toll on her. She was not nearly as confident as she used to be and was even more wimpy when using magic. She never really thought about the danger of predators, not since she started acing magic classes. Now, she was mentally back to square one. Hopefully she didn’t stumble into any particularly hungry students today.
Candace could smell the marked human moving through the crowd. The little hints of fear in her scent made the promise of her amazing flavor all the more enticing. Her eyes found the tall skinny girl with the tantalizing mark that promised deliciousness. Candace followed with a few students between her and her target, waiting for the right moment. She was a toad pred and her deadly tongue began to salivate, coating itself in the sticky saliva that would adhere to her prey and restrain them.
Olly hadn’t noticed the toad girl yet, she wasn’t used to maintaining high alertness like this. The mage kept walking, now much closer to her next class, already eyeing the door with rising anxiety.
“Just get to class. Just get to class,” Olly thought desperately.
Candace saw a tiny break in the crowd and, Thwiiippp Sllap! She hit the marked girl on her ankles. Her bright pink tongue stickily adhered to them; she could already taste the mark. She gave a hard jerk to pull the meal off her feet, and then began the task of dragging the girl across the distance between them, her belly growling in wet anticipation.
Ender saw Olly and was about to wave at her when he heard a strange sound and Olly’s head disappeared from view. He began pushing through the crowd, avoiding predators, as he made his way towards the place he’d seen her last.
Olly yelled out of shock when the tongue pulled her. It was fast, sudden, and utterly terrifying. She was used to acting before predators, not after; being already spotted and dragged closer to their mouths had her completely caught off guard.
She tried to reach for her wand, but the motions of the tongue forced her to fall down, as her weapon slid out of her hands. “NOO!” Was she actually about to get eaten?! She wouldn’t let it happen! But what could she even do to save herself? Only then did she look back towards the predator who caught her, realizing that there wasn’t even that much of a distance between the two. All hope seemed lost, until her eyes caught a glimpse of Ender through the crowd.
“ENDER!” She shouted his name at the top of her lungs, hoping that he would hear her, find her, and hopefully save her.
Ender heard Olly’s desperate call. He’d made a few of those himself. He dodged a neko, pushed through some humans irritably and found Olly. She was being pulled into some hungry toad’s gaping maw, her calves firmly in the mouth which began to close on them.
Candace felt the marked girl’s bare calves enter her waiting mouth. “Marked prey… sooooogooooddd.” She felt the little human’s marked feet at the back of her mouth and her throat opened to accept the delicious meal. She wanted to enjoy this.
She must have dropped her wand, Ender realized. He looked around desperately, to see it get kicked away by a random- “Was that a fox foot!?” He didn’t have time to concentrate, and hitting the toad with ‘pellere’ didn’t seem like it would do much, unless… “Olly hang on!” he said to reassure her. He opened his school bag desperately.
The desperate girl couldn’t really do much at this point. She could have tried to squirm, but to achieve what? Her feet and soon enough entire legs were already inside the toad’s mouth, she was really losing every semblance of hope she had left… Until she heard Ender’s voice.
“Y-You there? Help! Please help!!” She yelled, looking at him with wide, wet eyes. She had never gotten this close to the gullet of death.
Candace closed her eyes and savored the first GULP. This marked prey was hers now, destined to be tummy food. With her throat holding the ankles she opened her huge mouth to take more of the skinny girl into her.
It was all happening so quickly. A little too fast for Olly. It’s like her brain froze. With all the yelling, the overwhelming fright, the movements… It’s like she mentally gave up. Soon, she would be swallowed, she would become food, and that would be the end of it. Perhaps, it would be for the best. It had only been a couple days, but every single second of her life had become dreadful, even when in the safety of her home. The mark was a nightmare that was slowly sucking the life out of her.
Ender heard the GULP! and saw that greedy mouth open for more, but he found what he was looking for in his bag. “Olly grab my ankles!” He placed his own feet between Olly’s armpits, anchoring her for the moment. He stood at the entrance to that open, wet, gaping maw.
Candace opened her eyes wide to see that weird, tough-looking human who hung out with that fat naga Slee. “Two at once,” she thought for a moment, beginning to close her arms around the boy.
Ender threw his disgusting shake powder right at the back of the wet throat where Olly’s calves disappeared.
The toad felt something dry and absolutely disgusting hit the back of her throat. It’s horrid taste matched only by the dry, itching need to cough that it brought. Candace stubbornly tried not to cough and thereby open her throat back up for a few seconds, but then, ACK KHUMM. Olly’s ankles were free of the throat.
Olly felt the muscles expand around her and the mouth open wider, too wide for a swallow. Her paralyzing fear faded as she felt herself being pulled by… Ender! He had saved her after all!
Ender moved his arm correctly, breathed, and “Propero!” The spell struck the toad girl in the chest. It wasn’t dramatic, besides his yelling; the toad just kind of sat back on her butt, she was still coughing and Olly slid wetly free.
“Going to have to buy a new shake container. Oh well,” Ender thought, feeling somehow detached from the deadly situation he was interfering in.
“What’s the difference? Why did I save Olly but not those kids Ethan ate?” he wondered.
He helped Olly up while the toad girl coughed powdered protein from her throat. “That can’t last forever. We have to go.”
With Ender’s assistance, Olly got up as fast as she could and ran with her friend, saliva and goop dripping from her legs. “T-Thanks -- pant -- T -- gasp -- Thank you E-Ender…”
To think that less than a week ago, she’d saved his life. Though, admittedly, he was in less danger than Olly.
The girl slowed down, realizing they had already run by her class. She managed to stop, forcing Ender to stop as well. “I… I’m really grateful, Ender. But if I don’t show up before the bell rings, I’ll just get eaten again.”
“Oh, right yeah.” Ender turned around, his adrenaline-fueled running coming to a halt. He let Olly lead him to her class. Then he looked up at the clock; he HAD to go too. The vampire hall monitors were already taking up position at the ends of the hallway. Everyone was focused on the still coughing, wheezing toad.
“She’ll probably take this personally,” he thought.
He ran and ducked into history class in a rush. This garnered a lifted eyebrow from Mrs. Dracoria, but not much more. He was always on time, polite, and did his homework. He’d text Olly after school. He smirked to himself; maybe Slee would have been proud of him?
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Ender met Olly after class to walk her to the lunchroom. She had no wand till she could get another. They sat among the human kids, though slightly distant. He noticed the toad girl who’d tried to eat Olly enter. She’d apparently found another human to occupy her hungry guts and her meal squirmed and writhed noticeably in her belly.
Ender looked at Olly and asked, “You ok?”
Olly replied almost immediately with a toneless, “No,” and sunk her head into her arms, not even looking at her lunch. “But… Seriously though, I’m really grateful for what you did. You saved my life, Ender.” She slowly glanced at the boy and put on a small smile. She now fully viewed him as a friend, a valuable one at that. “Mayb--”
NOM! There he was! Kyle, the fox who’d marked her had come to claim his catch. Of course, Olly immediately started squirming, trying to pull her head out of the hot, eager mouth… To no avail.
Ender looked on in horror. Being marked was not going well for Olly. His mind assessed; cold, calm. He made a decision. Not waiting to hear that first gulp, he ripped the wand he had strapped to his forearm off, and jumping on the table, pushed it into Olly’s grip. Then, with every bit of force his muscular form could muster, he unleashed a headbutt on the tip of the foxes wet nose. No need to worry if this caused the fox to bite, Olly was already marked. He also knew Slee’s thoughts on the matter and had to respect them. “Cold. Cool. Calm. Breathe.” He stayed focused observing the effects of his vicious headbutt and hoping Olly could use his wand to free herself from Kyle’s mouth.
Kyle honestly wasn’t expecting Ender to interfere, the unforeseen surprise only made the attack more effective. The fox fell backwards and instinctively opened his jaws to let out a whine-esque noise. This way, Olly didn’t even have to use a spell. She still held the wand though, just in case.
Once Olly slid her head out of the fox maw, she stood her ground and pointed the wand. Suddenly her confidence returned, she was ready for some well deserved payback. “Forta pellere--”
“NO!” The fox roared and dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding the strong blow, then he pounced on the girl again.
Olly shoved Ender’s wand into the predator’s mouth and narrowed her eyes “I’m going to obliterate your throat!” she yelled. In response, he clawed at her arms and forced her to loosen her grip on the wand again. It fell from the foxes’ mouth, clattering on the tiled floor.
The fight had already gathered a few curious stares, students began wondering who would win in the end, or at least-- who would resist until the principal showed up or something.
Candace the toad saw this break out, and ever the opportunist made ready to take revenge on Ender. She could still taste that horrid powder.
Ender tucked and rolled off the table, arriving at the struggle between Olly and her would-be predator. He caught a strange motion out of the corner of his eye, seized a stunned kids meal tray and placed it between himself and the extending tongue of the toad.
“Gotcha you little-” The tray shot back towards Candace, hitting her in the face with a metallic, SPUNggggg, then falling to the floor with a sound like a crash symbol.
Ender kicked the fox directly in the throat, which had Olly’s hand nearly in it. He then jumped on Kyle’s back, applying his best chokehold.
“Thanks Dad,” he thought bitterly.
Kyle yelped again at the kick on his throat, letting go of Olly. She grabbed the wand off of the floor and stood up, ready to strike and hit her target this time, only to see Ender deal with the fox all by himself. It surely didn’t feel as satisfying, she wanted to be the one to hurt him, but that chokehold seemed pretty strong… She just stood there with a smug expression, crossing her arms, watching as the predator struggled to fight back. Ender managed to overpower Kyle!
A few gasps could be heard from the crowd of students. Some cheered - mostly humans - some complained and deemed the fox pathetic. But some, well, they were concerned for the two human kids. They stopped the hungry predator, sure, but now they had to face the consequences for doing so in a rather violent way.
“Detention.” The dreaded word left the lips of a teacher who had watched the entire scene, their eyes piercing through the masses and staring directly at the humans, finger pointed directly at Ender.
Kyle couldn’t help but smirk and appreciate the karma, despite still hardly being able to breathe.
Ender released the fox, surveying the room of stunned humans and predators. The toad had a face full of mashed potato and gravy, a bit of chicken idly tumbled off her mess of a face to the floor.
“Are you happy now dad? I did it like you taught, now everyone hates me.” His eyes fell to Slee. “Not you, don’t look at me like that.” He really didn’t know what she was thinking, but hot tears of embarrassment gathered in his eyes. He turned and ran.
Olly stood there and watched as Ender ran away. She didn’t know how to properly react. Was she involved in the punishment as well? It’s not like she was the one to nearly strangle the fox; hell, she didn’t even use a single spell on him. Maybe Ender was the only one in trouble? And while she was very relieved at the thought, a somewhat devastating question entered her head. “Was it my fault?”
Had she been more careful, Ender wouldn’t have had to intervene. Being totally real, it was more likely Kyle’s fault in the first place for instigating the fight. Had he really expected Olly to give up? Had he really expected her friend not to fight or try to defend her?
Either way, before Ender could get too far, something gripped his legs. Something scaly, red, and incredibly familiar. Slee had watched the scene as well, it had basically been impossible to focus on anything else. She made sure to wrap her tail around his legs hard enough to halt him, and then… She slithered up to a random table full of predators - and a few humans - only to push all their food off the table. A few dozen “Hey!”s and the rudeness itself were enough to pique the attention of that teacher again.
“And you get detention, too.” The teacher proclaimed irritably.
Without a single word, the young scarlet naga managed to show empathy and effort to keep her friend safe. Even if that meant sentencing herself to an hour of utter chaos. To be fair, this was no big deal to her. It’s not like she thought she could be a target. Too big to be eaten by most. She could at least try her best to prevent fellow ‘bad’ students from snacking on Ender throughout the upcoming punishment.