676

26 woke up, shivering. What had happened to him felt almost like a dream, or rather a ghastly nightmare, but he knew he really had been eaten by that horrible Glaceon. It's just that being reformed made the whole experience slightly vague in his memory, as usual. It seemed to be the one mercy fate gave him; he probably wouldn't be able to sleep if the memories of all the digestive systems he had visited were particularly sharp. Of course, it did come with a downside: every time he had been eaten was as horrifying as the first time, every time he was digested as painful, and every time he had died to feed some gluttonous beast felt very very real at the time.

“Ugh, stupid Glaceon.” 26 heard a familiar voice say.

“Who's there?!” he gasped, terrified it was yet another predator. Fortunately, it turned out to be a blue mouse in a yellow shirt. “Oof, that's a relief. Sorry, I didn't hear you coming, you startled me.”

The other mouse grinned. “Sorry about that.” But then he frowned. “Are you wearing my shirt?”

“Wha-” Suddenly 26 recognised the short yellow shirt with the 26 the other mouse was wearing. “No, you're-”

But a third mouse interrupted him. “Sorry to interrupt you and your brother, but I think I smell-”

26 interrupted the interrupter. “Hey, you're wearing my shirt, just like him! Was there a sale on them?”

Two mice, obviously twins, arrived in the small clearing. “You three look identical, you know,” said one of them.

“Especially with the shirts,” said the other, “isn't it hard to keep each other apart if you dress the same?”

“You should talk,” said the first mouse 26 had met. “Why are you both wearing a 26 shirt?”

Three more mice came. “What's going on?” asked one.

Seven identical looking mice, all of them wearing 26's shirt, were talking in front of him, and he was getting annoyed by the obvious prank. “Oh, haha, very funny, you lot!”

“What's funny?” asked the fifth mouse.

“You and your brothers dressing up like me!” said 26 sarcastically. “Haha, so hilarious to confuse me. But for your information, I was just devoured whole and alive by a Glaceon, and I'm not in the mood to get a headache from you lot!”

But even more identical mice had arrived, too many to keep track of. “Hey, I just reformed after being eaten by a Glaceon too!” said the seventh mouse.

Many cries of “So was I!” echoed in the small grassy field.

“I'm so sorry,” said 26 sadly. “That horrible monster eats so many mice... I hate to think all of you had to experience his horrible stomach.”

“So many times,” sighed one.

“It hurts so much.”

“That horrible thing should get eaten himself!”

“Hey, you smell like me! And you too,” said one of the mice, changing the subject.

26 sniffed. The other mice all smelled like him. “That's weird...”

“Hold on, are you thinking what I'm thinking?” said a mouse.

26 had a thought. “I think I'm thinking what you're thinking! You mean we could all be... Brothers? Maybe we're Quintuplets? Octuplets? Triplets, even? How many of us are here?”

They began a headcount, which had to be started over several times since every head looked the same and they kept losing count. Eventually, they counted twenty-six of them. “So we're... Sexvigintuplets?” Asked a mouse.

“I can't believe mum and dad never told me about all of you!”

“Neither can I-” began 26. “Hold on! How do you know mum and dad? They can't have hidden twenty-five brothers from me if you lived with them too!”

They quickly began to compare their pasts with one another, and found all of them had the same past. “But... That's impossible!” said one of them.

It was silent for a while. Then a voice said: “What does it mean? We can't all be 26!”

“Maybe we can? Maybe something weird happened when I was reformed and now there's twenty-five more of me!”

“Of you? Of me!”

Other voices began to speak up, but 26 said: “Stop it, all of me! If we all really are me, let's not argue. We should enjoy it instead.”

“I'm right!” said another 26. “We could play games together, or talk.”

“And we could play a prank on someone like this!”

“Yeah!”

“And together we'll be safe from horrible things that want to eat us!”

“I very much doubt it.”

“Of course we'll be!” said 26 happily, before realising the last voice that had spoken sounded different. “Uhh... Does one of you have a sore throat? Also, why is your voice coming from so high up?”

The heads of twenty-six mice turned into one direction together, and they squeaked in shock when they saw the Glaceon there towering over all of them with an evil grin on his face. “Well, well, look at that,” he said, “a snacky-feast!”

“It's Viktor, run!” squeaked a 26.

But another voice, near the Glaceon's huge front paws, spoke up. “No! There's just one of him, and 26 of me! We're safe if we stand together!”

26 and the mice around him stopped running, realising it was true. “Yeah!” said someone. “We'd even be bigger than him if we stood on each other's shoulders! Twice as big at least!”

26 and the other 26es took courage from that and walked towards the fox pokémon. “There's an army of me now, you great big meanie!” said the mouse who had spoken up first. “This time, you'll be the one who runs away!”

Viktor slowly sank through his front legs, lowering his head down to the ground. Several voices cheered that he was surrendering, but his grin had only widened. When his head was level with the 26 who was leading them, he spoke. “An army, you say?”

26 shuddered, seeing himself stand in front of a head twice the size of his whole body, and worse, a very large maw. “Y-yeah!” said the other 26. “W-we're not scared of you any more! Th-there's 26 of me now!”

Viktor's horrifyingly large tongue flicked out, and he slowly licked his lips, making all the mice shiver. “I know, it's like a dream come true.”

“F-for me, yeah! My army will- Yuck!”

He broke off when the Glaceon licked him, covering his from tip to toe in drool. “Army? More like an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

“S-stop it!” squeaked the soaked 26. “I-I warned you! 26es, atta- AAAAAA!”

With a sudden movement, the other 26 was knocked off his feet by Viktor's tongue and fell onto it, as the Glaceon cocked his head back and threw him right into his horrible mouth. The other 26es froze as there was a swallow and a tiny, squeaking bulge was visible in the fox's throat, sinking down rapidly. They could only stare in horror at how the other 26 had already nearly reached the gluttonous Glaceon's gut, which rumbled ominously.

Another 26 shouted: “We have to save him! Attack, everyone!”

As the mice began to rush towards him, Viktor's maw snapped open and shut, enveloping the front row and standing up. Terror struck 26 as he saw the Glaceon's mouth so full he could barely close it, a mouse squirming in each of his cheeks, another two of him half inside, their rear legs squirming outside, and a fifth mouse's tail wiggling between Viktor's lips. With another quick cock of his head, all five 26es were fully inside. There was a loud swallow, and a big, squirmy bulge descended through Viktor's throat as he looked delighted, then hungrily stared down at the twenty mice who had frozen in terror.

“Run away!” yelled someone. 26 didn't need to be told: he, and all the other 26es, were already fleeing for their lives in panic at seeing themselves get devoured six times. Suddenly a furry blue tail flashed from ahead and knocked into 26 and the other mice with the force of a bus. A little dazed, 26 and six others were wrapped in the tail's broader end and, before they knew what was happening, soared through the air in freefall. 26 screamed, until he saw where they were going to land: then he screamed even louder.

They were tumbling towards a huge, horrifying maw that was opened wide and awaiting them. 26 saw his own face, terrified and in panic, disappear down the nearly black gullet at the back, behind a row of limb-sized teeth and a huge, fleshy tongue. He couldn't keep his eyes off the monstrous jaws that awaited them, even when the other six mice tumbling below him obscured most of it. There was nothing they could do to avoid their fate in the fox's belly.

They began to fall into the huge maw, the first of them fell directly down the gullet, and the others landed in a heap inside the mouth. But even a maw this size had trouble accommodating seven mice: when 26 landed, he hit another 26 at the front of Viktor's maw and bounced off with a great thud, flying over his head and landing a little distance behind. He scurried into some tall grass and watched the Glaceon eat the other 26es in horror, knowing he couldn't do anything for them except watch and count along, wishing some would escape. The Glaceon's greedy gut was already distended with eleven mice and grew with every additional 26 he gobbled up.

With a great pounce, Viktor caught three fleeing 26es that became a single big bulge. A frigid beam of ice froze two more, who were quickly swallowed. Another two were digging into the ground, but a single scoop of the great paws dug them out and threw them into the merciless fox's awaiting jaws. Another four were caught by their tails and slowly lowered into his mouth. One more was trying to sneak away, spotted, and devoured.

26 stared at the quite rounded and slightly swaying belly. “Twenty-three...” he whispered, feeling sad for those being digested inside and shivering. But the other three were nowhere to be seen... Maybe they got away? Viktor stood perfectly still and turned his ears in various directions. Then, suddenly, he bolted away into some bushes. He came back a few seconds later, a small bulge in his throat and walked to a tree, looking up at the bark. For a while, 26 wondered if he had given up, but then he spotted a tiny blue and white figure a bit over a metre up, trying his very best to climb up over the rough bark. Viktor could easily have stood up on two legs and eaten him, but instead opened his maw under him and waited, occasionally kicking the tree.

26 fervently wished the other 26 to escape, and nearly cried out when he suddenly fell and disappeared into the Glaceon's maw. He sadly realised there was only one 26 left, but at least he seemed to have escaped. Viktor was walking into 26's direction now, and he knew there was no-one else hiding near there.

It wasn't until Viktor was barely three metres away that he realised he was the final 26 himself. He began to scurry away, his heart thumping with fear, but felt a strong snag on his tail and was lifted in the air by it. He squirmed, but it was no use. Viktor lay down on his back, his round belly very noticeable and scary. “P-please don't eat me,” said 26. “You'll get super fat, and you've clearly had enough!”

Viktor's face left little doubt about his fate. “Aww, but the other twenty-five of you are feeling lonely without you.”

“Wh-why don't you spit them out, then?”

Viktor lowered 26 towards his terrifying maw and began lapping over him. He struggled against the gross wet tongue, but just dangled about a bit. “What, into the wintry cold?”

“A-actually, it's April. And even when it was winter it was quite warm all the time... Just don't-AAAA!!!”

Viktor let go of 26's tail and he dropped straight into his maw, his face towards the darkness of his throat. He tried to crawl back out, but was thrown about in the mouth by Viktor's tongue playing around with him. He tried to hold on to a tooth, but they were too slippery. “Stop it!” he yelled. “Stop it right now, you horrible thing!”

In response, Viktor tilted his head backwards, and 26 found himself sliding slowly into his gullet. He tried to crawl back, but the tongue he was lying on was far too slippery with saliva. He reached the gullet and looked down into a deep vertical tunnel. He could hear gurgles and squeaks come from deep down. With a great swallow, he was forced into the Glaceon's throat and pulled down by the strong muscles, despite his attempts to get stuck or bite into the walls. It was very tight and warm, and the terrifying sounds of the stomach only increased as he neared it.

He was forced through a sphincter and into an even tighter space. It was pitch-black, but he could feel and hear all the other mice he was pressed between, their furs already soaked with acids. They were all constantly moving between each other, whether because of the stomach kneading them, Viktor rubbing his fat gut, or just their squirms 26 didn't know. He couldn't help but struggle in mindless panic too as a mild tingle all over his body turned to an itch and then increasing pain from being digested. Sometimes he hit a wall, where a slight red light came through, but he was always rubbed away from them after a while. 26 soon lost consciousness.

–

26 woke up, shivering. What had happened to him felt almost like a dream, or rather a ghastly nightmare, but he knew he really had been eaten by that horrible Glaceon. It's just that being reformed made the whole experience slightly vague in his memory, as always. He sat up, noticing he was in a field with another mouse. “Ugh, stupid Glaceon,” he muttered.

The other mouse jumped. “Who's there?!” he gasped. “Oof, that's a relief. Sorry, I didn't hear you coming, you startled me.”