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“Wait, what do you mean he is your brother?! I thought you told me you were sure they were lying!” Meteora asked.
“I was, but I remember now!” Mariposa replied.
“So they were telling the truth this whole time?! Does that mean that girl really was…”
“Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no! I’m so sorry! I thought…” Mariposa looked down at shrunken Marco, seeming like she might actually start to cry.
“It might not be too late,” he said, “When I was inside, I thought I heard her. Star could still be alive!”
“Bork, can you do magic yet?” Meteora asked.
“I don’t know, how do I tell?”
“Try casting a spell!” Mariposa stuck out her hand, put on an intense expression and yelled in imitation of her sister. Nothing happened.
“So you haven’t absorbed her powers yet, maybe she is still alive!”
“But how are we supposed to get her out?” Mariposa asked.
Back on Earth, Marco might have suggested trying to throw up, but he knew that the first thing you had to learn to survive in this dimension was how to suppress your gag reflex, otherwise you’d probably starve. Frustrated by the lack of ideas, he felt the urge to hit his fist on the ground, only to be reminded of the bindings around his wrists and ankles.
“The rope!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, right. Sorry, let me get you out of that,” Mariposa said.
“No- I mean, yes, untie me- but do you have any more?” Marco asked.
“Sure, I make more every time Grobb cuts my hair,” she answered as she reached over to undo his bonds.
“Good, maybe we can use some to save Star,” Marco explained.
“So Bork swallows some rope and we hope the girl grabs on? That could work,” Meteora agreed.
“Ugh, you’re too slippery,” Mariposa complained, fiddling with the tiny knots.
“And whose fault is that, exactly?” Marco asked.
“I said I was sorry!”
“Here, let me just…” Meteora walked over and bent down next to them. She stuck out one finger and extended a claw, snapping through the thin bindings in a single swipe.
“Thanks,” Mariposa said. Standing up, she rushed over to another part of the cave and quickly dug through a pile of assorted junk before walking away with a coil of thin, tightly braided rope.
“Alright, here it goes,” she announced, before sticking the end of the line in her mouth. She worked it around visibly with her tongue for a moment, trying to get her body warmed up to the idea of swallowing the coarse twine. Eventually, she just forced it to the back of her throat and gulped audibly. Taking on a look of concentration, she focused on her throat and swallowed again.
“I think it’s going down,” she said uncomfortably over the blockage. She fed more of the string into her mouth, swallowing again and again.
“How do we know when it’s in deep enough?” Meteora asked.
“I don’t know, just keep swallowing until we’re sure,” Marco answered. The cave fell silent for a moment, save for the crackling fire and the recurring sounds of Mariposa swallowing.
“I think that’s enough,” she mumbled.
“Alright magic girl, if you can hear us, grab onto the rope and we’ll pull you out,” Meteora instructed, addressing the general area of Mariposa’s exposed belly. A rather tense moment followed as they quietly waited, unsure of what was going on beyond the teen’s skin. A minute or two passed before anyone had the nerve to make the call.
“Okay Bork, pull her out,” Meteora said. Slowly, Mariposa began to pull on the rope, trying to ignore the somewhat uncomfortable feeling of the foreign object sliding the wrong way through her throat. Marco watched with desperation as the saliva-soaked line came back out from her mouth, growing longer until it nearly reached the floor at her feet. Why had they made her swallow so much? The suspense was unbearable!
“I think I feel the end coming up,” she told them.
“Come on Star…” Marco whispered. She pulled out a few more inches…
“…I… I guess it is too late,” Mariposa admitted solemnly. The end of the line dangled from her hands, dripping and empty.
“…No, I’m not giving up that easily,” Marco declared, with all the gravity his hardened adventurer’s voice could muster. “Mariposa, hand me the rope.” She lowered the end down to him.
“If you’re planning to hang yourself over this you might as well just let me eat you after all” Meteora remarked.
“Grobb!” Mariposa scolded.
“No, she’s right,” Marco said.
“You are trying to hang yourself? Man, that’s dark.”
“No, I mean about getting eaten, but not by her.”
“Wait, you mean you want me to eat you?” Mariposa asked.
“Yes,” Marco answered as he finished tying the end of the rope around his shoulders and waist. “I’ll go into your stomach, find Star, and then you can pull us out.”
“Seriously? But, but I could accidentally bite you in half, or the rope; or you could get stuck-”
“It’s alright Mariposa, I trust you.”
“How could you possibly trust me after everything we just did to you!?”
“Because we’re family.” The two girls glanced at each other. He was right, family trusts family.
“Meteora, do you know a spell that can make some sort of light?” he asked.
“… Oh, you mean me, right… Yeah, I could use our old nightlight spell,” she replied. Holding out her hand for a moment, she conjured up a tiny object. “It makes a little glowing crystal.” She reached down and handed it to Marco. “I’ve never had to make one this small before, though.” Marco took it. It was roughly cylindrical and a bit bigger than his hand. He tied a length of rope around it and fastened it to his lifeline.
“Alright, I’m ready,” he said. Mariposa reached down and picked him up, holding the other end of the rope in her off hand. She looked nervous and guilty, but also determined to help make things right. She brought him closer to her face.
“Good luck in there, um…”
“Marco,” he finished.
“Good luck, Marco,” she said, opening her mouth.
“Wait.” He interrupted.
“Huh?”
“Don’t you want to wash me off or something first?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m still covered in all your, um, stuff,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, my stuff from my body,” she replied. “Besides, you’ll be easier to swallow this way.”
“Alright then, I guess if you’re okay with it.”
Mariposa opened her mouth again. She hesitated for a moment, her breath washing over him as he dangled in front of her. But then she closed her eyes and began to guide his feet past her lips. She slid him inside slowly and carefully, her tongue cradling him as she attempted to make this as comfortable as possible- something she was definitely not used to doing for her food.
For Marco, it was warm, squishy, and wet- much like the last orifice he had been in- but her tongue was a bit more firm and the smell was completely different. Rather than her natural scent, the overwhelming smell of garlic and halitosis wafted over him, a reminder of her steady diet of garlic spiders and lack of oral hygiene. He began to curl up a bit as his chest passed between her teeth, his feet coming up against the entrance of her throat, still tightly blocked by her tongue for the time being.
He watched her lips pass overhead, then her teeth, before he felt his head come to rest on the tip of her tongue. Then she slowly withdrew her hand and gently shut her mouth. As her lips wrapped around the rope which tethered him to the outside world, he felt her tongue begin to wriggle beneath him and the saliva in her mouth begin to crackle and slosh as she gently sucked on his form, coating him in a new form of lubricant.
After a few seconds, his eyes began to adjust and he started to make out some faint details thanks to the dim light of the crystal. Little bubbles of frothy drool formed and dissolved around him as the undulating form that was her tongue gently rubbed against him and kneaded him against the roof of her mouth. If he tilted his head back a bit, he could just make out her off-white teeth, shining faintly with the same glistening saliva she was currently covering him in.
Thanks to him already being pretty well lubricated, it didn’t take long before she decided he was ready. He felt her pause for a long moment and knew what was about to happen next. Looking forward, he saw the back of her tongue suddenly drop a bit as the front of her mouth contracted, pulling his feet slightly over the slope as he was pushed to the very back of her throat. He felt her take a deep breath through her nose.
*GULP*
His squishy surroundings pressed in against him. As careful as Mariposa was trying to be, there wasn’t much she could do to tame her throat as its hungry muscles wrapped around him, taking him into their tight grasp as her tongue sent him squelching over the edge.
A heartbeat pounded in his ears as the rhythmic contractions began to squeeze him down the length of her neck, though whether the heartbeat was his or hers he wasn’t sure. He heard the rush of air passing in and out of his sister’s lungs as he passed into her chest, now completely lost from the world except for the line of braided hair that disappeared back up the tightly shut passage above him.
Finally, after a few seconds, he felt his feet curve a bit to the side before leaving the restrictive confines of the teen’s throat. The rest of his legs and then his torso soon followed as he was pushed through the opening sphincter bit by bit.
As Marco felt his shoulders begin to slip from the slimy embrace, he instinctively braced himself for a fall, but he hardly dropped the length of his forearm before the rope caught him, leaving him dangling at the roof of Mariposa’s stomach. He came the rest of the way down in a series of jerky drops, falling short distances as waves of peristalsis carried more rope down her throat before finally landing with a light splash in the pool of his sister’s digestive juices. He sat up, chest-deep in the warm fluids and tried to wipe some of the various slimes off his face.
“Marco!!” came a sudden familiar voice. He hardly had time to turn before something crashed into him, knocking him back into the brown soup as a pair of arms wrapped around him. He pushed himself back to the surface and blinked through the dim crystal light.
“Star!!” he exclaimed, turning to hug her back. “You’re alive!! I was so worried! I thought she might’ve already digested you!”
“Phfft, an anti-digestion spell was, like, the third spell I was ever taught,” Star remarked, “How else do you think I survived fighting all those monsters as a kid?”
“But then why didn’t you grab the rope?” he asked.
“I tried, but it was too slippery. When I got up to the hole at the top it just pushed me off.”
“Of course. Here,” Marco took a length of the rope and wrapped it around her waist and shoulders a few times, making another makeshift harness like his own.
“That should hold,” he said. “Wait, you have an anti-digestion spell, but you don’t have a spell to get yourself out of a stomach?” he asked.
“Well I’m sorry, would you have preferred I blast a hole through your sister’s chest?” she asked. “Besides, I knew my squire would make it in time.”
“In time?”
“Yeah, the anti-digestion spell only works until I run out of energy, and with the way she was bouncing around before it was hard enough just trying to swim. Not to mention I had to deal with a bunch of those things.”
Star pointed at something floating nearby. Marco squinted in the dim light, but all he could make out were a few small lumps of whitish stuff floating in the acids.
“Yeah, they don’t look like much now, but before she digested them those garlic spiders were crazy,” she explained. “Who even likes garlic anyway?” Marco just started to laugh in response before letting out a sigh of relief. It was good to have Star back. Then another thought crossed his mind.
“So, um, how much could you, um, hear in here?” he asked. He saw Star’s face turn a bright shade of red, even in the dim light.
“Everything,” she admitted, “In deafening detail.”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“…Your sister has good taste,” she remarked.
“Star!!” Marco scolded.
“What? I’m just being honest!”
A sudden voice interrupted them.
“Okay, get ready. We’re gonna pull you up,” Meteora announced from beyond the stomach walls. The two looked at each other and nodded in unison.
A few seconds later, they felt a tug on the rope. Star was lifted up first, then the light crystal, then Marco. They gave one more look down at the rippling pool of brownish chyme and the pink undulating walls, hoping that they were about to see it all for the last time.
When Star neared the roof of the stomach, she aimed her head straight at the approaching sphincter. As her blonde hair pressed against the tough, wrinkled surface, she stiffened her back, trying to remain upright as the rope pulled at her torso. She felt the wet flesh squish above her as the pressure built, until the muscular ring finally gave way and she was suddenly pulled up into the throat beyond.
Marco watched as she was gradually drawn through the opening, disappearing from view as the sphincter closed behind her boots. A second later, the light crystal was pulled through, leaving him in the natural darkness of his sister’s belly. He heard a loud gurgle sound from somewhere below, as if the stomach was upset at being deprived of its meals.
Finally, Marco felt his own head reach the roof. The poor sphincter, a bit tired at this point, opened a bit more willingly this time. Marco felt his head become quickly engulfed by Mariposa’s esophagus, the tight flesh sliding firmly over his face as he was pulled upward.
Between every tug bringing them closer to their escape, they could feel another wave of peristalsis roll over them, as the teen’s body naturally tried to keep its meal down where it belonged. But they could feel the slick walls sliding past them as they rose, reassuring them that they were heading in the right direction.
Star felt a change in texture as her head squished against the back of Mariposa’s tongue, and one tug later she saw light- her first sight of the outside world since being swallowed.
“Yes! Freedom!” she called as she was pulled out onto the teen’s tongue, displacing the large pool of saliva that was building up- since the girl wasn’t exactly in a position to swallow it.
Meteora came over to support Star as she was pulled out of Mariposa’s mouth, so Mariposa could continue bringing up the line. She held the tiny girl upright in her hands, looking down with an awkward expression.
“Heeey… So, um, sorry about the whole ‘feeding you to my sister’ thing…” the half-monster offered.
“Well, you have done worse things,” Star muttered in response.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Nothing!” Star quickly corrected, realizing that bringing up her forgotten past now was definitely a bad idea.
The next moment, Marco came sliding up over the drop of Mariposa’s throat, slipping out quickly since nothing else was dragging through her gullet behind him. The girl pulled her brother out gently, leaving behind a long, thick strand of drool that followed him all the way outside. She closed her mouth as soon as he left, letting him dangle for a second as she swallowed the pool of saliva that had accumulated inside. A fleeting image came to his mind as he imagined the journey that blob of drool was currently taking, down into her waiting stomach below.
Then their eyes met, and they stared at each other for an awkward moment, before Mariposa suddenly started to gush.
“Oh my gosh I was so worried you wouldn’t make it back out and I would have to just sit here in the cave knowing you were dying inside of me and I would just cry and cry and-”
“Mariposa!” Marco interrupted, “It’s okay. I’m fine, and so is Star.” She stopped, gave a sigh of relief and grew a small smile.
She and Meteora placed the two of them safely down on the cave floor, where Marco undid the makeshift harnesses he had tied around them. Once they were free of the rope, Meteora stepped forward.
“I guess I should get you guys back to normal size,” she offered awkwardly.
“That would be nice,” Star replied. The monster-girl extended her arms, a faint green glow appearing around her hands, gradually brightening as the spell grew, until she released it, bathing the two of them in a stream of green magic.
When they opened their eyes, they had returned to normal and Mariposa was standing in front of them with her hand reached out.
“I, um, think this is yours,” she said. Resting in her palm was a tiny, crescent-shaped trinket.
“My headband!” Star exclaimed excitedly. It was still tiny, and noticeably worse for wear, but she was happy to have it back. She took it from the girl’s hand, but then stopped and did a double take.
“Wow, you look good, girl” she complimented. With all the urgency, Mariposa of course hadn’t had the opportunity to put her clothes back on after her little adventure with Marco.
“Star!!” Marco complained.
“What, you don’t have to be the only hot one in your family!” she insisted. Meteora burst out laughing, mostly at Marco’s expression since she wasn’t totally sure about the rest.
“She’s my sister!”
“So? You’re telling me she’s not attractive?”
“No!” he insisted stubbornly.
“Oh, yeah? Then tell me. While she was having her fun with you, was she the only one who ‘finished’?” Star asked.
“Uh… let’s just hurry up and get home so everyone can get back to their normal ages,” Marco replied.
“You mean before your sister gets pregnant,” Star teased.
“What’s ‘pregnant’?” Mariposa asked.