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Gave a try to not only an ambiguous ending, but also to being limited to only one single character driving the story forward. It's much tougher than if there were two of more, that's for sure! Hopefully the end result is worthwhile!
In the history of the world, many species have gone extinct. That was a fact of life, fact Marble was very familiar with. He was pretty sure he was the last turtle with a shell like his. Most other turtles had green or gray shells, speckled with black and brown, but Marble didn’t. Some would say he was unique. The truth was that his species was...pretty much extinct. Natural selection wasn’t kind to turtles with bright red shells, with a white, round swirl on top of it. His size wasn’t of much help, either. The only thing he lacked to resemble peppermint candy was a wrapper.
It was pretty depressing to know his life expectancy could be cut short anytime by a predator, but at least Marble wasn’t putting himself in any unnecessary danger. Staying underground most of the time meant he was safe, but it was just...so boring! Watching the wet dirt that formed the riverbed tended to get old quickly. Besides, there wasn’t that much space, not even for a turtle his size.
The river was murky, murkier than usual. Marble peered from his tiny den, looking around, examining the mud all around. His vision was limited due to all the dirt and debris that was coursing down the river, it didn’t seem like there were any weeds nearby. Odd! Usually there were a few weeds he could snack on. “Well this can’t be good, can it?” mumbled Marble, sinking a little into the mud. He really, really, really didn’t want to go outside, but...
...but it was either that or being hungry until the river cleared up. Life was hard enough without being hungry. No, that couldn’t stand.
Swimming down the river was nerve-wracking. Even though the sky was clear and the sun was shining strong, the river resembled molasses instead of water. Even swimming through it was an ordeal! Marble moved his flippers, trying to get through, hoping to see the telltale swaying of aquatic grass at the bottom of the river, but there was no such thing. There didn’t even seem to be any fishes around! Had he missed something recently? Did literally everything in the mile nearest to his home decide to leave?
Perhaps he should have taken the state of the river as a bad omen. It’d have spared him the trouble he’d get in.
One hour later, Marble was fed up. He wanted to return home, food be damned. Turning around, Marble swam against the current, straining his eyes to see anything. “Hello? Anyone here?” he shouted. There was no response anywhere. Marble stopped swimming, letting himself be carried downstream by the current, in disbelief at the state of everything. Where...was his little home? How far up the river was it?
He was about to lose hope when he heard something downstream. It was some sort of splashing noise, the noise of something entering the water and coming out, over and over...where did that come from? Could it be help? He really needed someone, and he was willing to take a risk if it meant not being lost! That was why Marble did something until now he had always made sure not to do.
The turtle went up to the surface of the water. His head peered out, examining the area. Marble’s very colorful shell was visible, he really hoped the few seconds that’d take him to get his bearings wouldn’t be enough for a passing bird of prey to see him and swoop down to capture him. It’d suck if he also was prey because of such a basic mistake!
In the end, it wasn’t a bird what he should have been worried about. Marble surfaced to get his bearings, and what he saw was a bear.
The bear was right there, drinking water, lots of water. Much to Marble’s chagrin, it turned out it wasn’t as far as he thought it’d be. It was closer, much closer.
It was a mere foot from where he had surfaced. The turbulent water ensured the turtle wouldn’t see the splashing and movement near of where he was moving. Marble had emerged almost underneath the bear’s muzzle. He did it close enough to catch a glimpse of the bear’s form before he was slurped by the tongue getting water from the river.
“Wait, I’m not wat—!“ Marble barely managed to say before he was caught by the tongue, it lifted him immediately, immersing him into a warm cavern very different to his home. He was able to catch a glimpse of the long and yellowed teeth before he hit a bump in the tongue, the muscle smacking him so hard he was dizzy for a moment. The bear never noticed a thing, it just kept drinking, while Marble was tossed around by the water, riding the tongue like it was a wave. His flippers flapped around, trying to catch onto something.
What he caught onto was a fang. His flipper smacked the tip of that fang, bringing him back to his senses, the pain telling him if he didn’t do something quickly, he was as good as dead. What awaited him inside the bear was far more painful and slower than touching a sharp fang!
It all had lasted just a few seconds, but to the turtle it seemed almost eternal, and the fact he was disoriented made it worse. The bear didn’t even notice something was wrong, the turtle hitting a tooth may have been misinterpreted as some water splashing against it. This made Marble’s heart drop: that big bear didn’t even know he was there. It was matter of time before he was sucked down that gullet, into a pit that’d be his doom.
Getting swallowed felt like he was in the river once again, just that instead of being in a wide, muddy stream, he now was in a tunnel, a tunnel that was terribly warm. Marble was small, but not so much he didn’t feel the constricting esophagus envelop him. Going down the throat was sudden, the pliable muscle that was the tongue being replaced by unforgiving flesh. Marble couldn’t hear a thing, the water was covering his head, being the force pushing him deeper into the bear, the noise of being swallowed overshadowing everything else.
In matter of seconds Marble plunged into the place that may be his tomb: the bear’s stomach. As soon as he fell into a pool of semidigested food, Marble lost all hope. There was no reason to think he would be able to leave the stomach, at least intact! The turtle fell under the surface of the water, the viscous liquid already filling all his vision, nothing but slop in here. He couldn’t even see what color it was!
“There has to be something I can do...!” Marble muttered, paddling around as quickly as his flippers allowed him. It wasn’t going well, it felt like he was swimming in tar. Not only that, the exposed parts of his body were starting to feel...weird. Tingly. Not good, that was for certain.
Searching the bear’s stomach for anything that could be of help was fruitless. All he found was what felt like fish bones, pointy but brittle bones that weren’t good not even as toothpicks. The bear’s acids had softened those spines – not that they were known for being tough, really, but to Marble it was a reminder of what could happen to him if he stayed for long.
But there was no choice.
Not having any other option, Marble did the only thing he could think of: he retreated into his shell. Pulling everything inside was awkward, but he did so, until there was nothing left. Pieces of leathery hide blocked the holes of the shell so the thick liquid of the stomach wouldn’t touch him.
This was it: he was trapped. Not only in a stomach, but now in his own shell.
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Living underneath the riverbed meant you were seeing the same muddy wall most of the time. Now he didn’t have not even that much in here, due to the lack of light.
Not that he would have idly stared at a stomach wall! While he stayed inside his shell, tucked away, he kept thinking about what he could do. Obviously forcing the bear to throw him up wasn’t going to work! What was he supposed to do, swim so fast he would hit the wall hard enough for the bear to feel it and throw up? That’s not how things worked!
Trying to make contact with the bear hadn’t worked either. Marble had swum to the driest spot he could find, devoid of those slimy acids that threatened to disintegrate him, and shouted as loudly as he could: “Excuse me! There’s been a really really really big mistake! You ate me and—I want out, okay?! I want to be outside!”
No response.
“Look, I’m sorry! If you let me out I will—I’ll make it up to you, I promise! Just let me out!”
Still no response. Did the bear even hear him from the depths of its organs? Marble held back the urge to sob. “If you can hear me...please do something to show me you can hear me. Anything! Pat your belly or say something or tear apart a tree...I don’t care what you do, just do something!” And then he waited, and waited, and felt his hopes be torn asunder like a house in a tornado. The bear couldn’t hear him.
Well that meant he couldn’t rely on the bear to let him out. Why...why did things have to be like this?!
Seeking a way out himself was useless. Not only he would be exposing himself to the belly juices that could break him down, he also couldn’t see a thing. It felt like the stomach was quite big – or more like he was quite small. It’d be like finding a needle in a haystack.
At times like these, he wondered if being alive was fate’s way of trying to crush him under its heel.
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The ennui of being trapped in a stomach with nothing to do other than hide in the shell was interrupted by the sound of something splashing into the stomach. Marble didn’t react, he was too busy hiding in his shell to avoid the acids.
If his internal clock was correct, it had been...almost an entire day since he had been eaten. So far the bear hadn’t eaten anything, and although Marble hadn’t given it much thought, he guessed he wasn’t the only one who was having trouble finding food. The river lacked aquatic grass, maybe there also wasn’t good prey for the bear out there in the wilderness.
The scent that filled the stomach wasn’t one Marble wanted anywhere near him. Even through the acidic air of the stomach he detected the scent of blood. It seemed the bear had managed to find prey – live prey, torn to pieces by the bear’s fangs and ingested, just like the turtle had been.
“...if it had seen me then maybe it’d have chewed on me,” Marble realized. It may have been a good thing it hadn’t seen him at all. At least it meant he still was alive instead of in little pieces like whatever this unfortunate prey was now.
It took hours for that meat to be processed. Marble let himself be carried around by the stomach’s movements, swaying from end to end of the stomach, like a paper boat in a storm. His shell was resisting rather well the acids, and not a drop was leaking inside the shell. The leathery hide that covered the holes was starting to get damaged, though. When Marble noticed that, fear gripped him: if he stayed too long in there, the fluids could start leaking into the shell.
How long would it be before that happened?
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Marble couldn’t watch the food be digested, but he sure felt it. Even though the shell he felt the impact against the mush. It was like he was crashing against a bunch of curdles, like a dune made of thick mud. Usually he got stuck to it, but the stomach always managed to pull him away, unsticking him and moving him to the other side of the stomach. Sometimes he even sank to the bottom, beneath the surface, submerged in a lake that would be far more dangerous if he didn’t have his shell.
It took quite a while before crashing against the food had a result other than getting stuck on it. Marble felt how he got through the food. It had been processed for so long it just wasn’t enough to hold him anymore. It worried him, he had to admit. “...I hope my shell will last...” He could picture it: his shell all chapped and softened, the white and red design on it rotting away, revealing soft flesh...
“I want out of here!” Please, let him out before his shell got too damaged!
There was some reprieve, thankfully. After many hours, the level of liquid started descending, draining noisily into the intestines. The current dragged him little by little, it not being strong enough to carry a heavy shell, but it was matter of time before it got to the other side of the stomach. The current took him to the valve – but he was too bulky to go through it. Marble noticed the shell slammed against it, the hard object lodging itself right on the entrance.
Not even the natural route would allow him out! Even if he managed to push himself down that narrow tube, there was a good chance he would get stuck somewhere along the line. No, that was too risky! The last thing he needed was to be even more trapped! Sighing, he let his flippers come out of the shell and pushed himself away from the sphincter, swimming away as well as he could against the current. Great! A reminder of what led him to his predicament. “I don’t appreciate the constant reminders!” he shouted at the emptiness.
There he was, all alone in a stomach that was far too big and far too hostile for him. Slowly, he let his head come out. The darkness was as thick as ever, impenetrable, all this time inside the bear hadn’t let his already mediocre eyesight get any better. Slapping his flippers against the lining of the stomach, Marble managed to drag himself to the other side, until he hit the other end of the organ. What was he supposed to do now?
There was no way out, and he had no intention of letting himself die. He had to survive, until...
...he didn’t know until what.
Marble wished, not for the first time, that he was back in his little den under the river.
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The turtle should have seen coming the problem that’d come up after the first day or so of stay inside the bear’s stomach:
Hunger.
It was ironic, being hungry while pretty much being food for a much larger being. There certainly was no food in that digestive sac! No weeds, no grass, not even a fruit. The bear did eat a few berries and roots, but Marble would rather die than eat something that animal had chewed – not to mention something about eating acid-drenched food seemed rather dangerous. If he sated his hunger but put himself in danger in the process, then what was the point?
At least he knew he could last quite a while being hungry. Turtles were able to survive months without food! What he was worried about was water. Without water, he would live a week at most – and it wasn’t like he could drink any of the water that entered the bear! The mere thought made him feel sick.
Still...it was tempting. Letting himself be pushed around by another digestion session, Marble slapped away some of the food that had splattered all over his shell. Testing the surface of any flesh that had been in contact with acids so far revealed quite the grim picture: even though it had been sporadic contact, the flesh of his flippers felt softened, almost doughy. That just couldn’t be a good sign.
Once he tucked all of himself into his shell as well as he could, he sighed quietly. This was starting to get monotonous. Who would have thought being trapped in a stomach could be monotonous?
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Two days.
Three days.
Four days.
Marble had seen food enter, be digested, and leave. Many times it had happened, and at no point he got the chance to do anything.
The fourth night inside the bear was starting. The heartbeat had slowed down a little, the breathing he could hear had gotten steady. Could it be...? The bear was asleep. Marble walked around – so far every time the bear slept he had done so as well, since he wouldn’t have a chance any other time. He feared falling asleep and splashing into acids, at least by sleeping when the bear did he reduced the odds of that happening.
Still...right now he felt wide awake. He didn’t want to sleep. Not when he was finally going to try something, something that was unlikely to work. He was going to try to ascend up the throat.
If he didn’t try now, he would never have the chance ever again. The dehydration was starting to get to him. If he failed now, he was doomed, since he didn’t think he’d have the strength to try again later. This was his one and only chance.
The turtle dragged himself to the stomach wall. Careful, he examined his surroundings. He couldn’t see a thing, but maybe he’d notice anything if the bear swallowed spit? Like where the liquid came from?
It took him the best part of an hour to find it, but it wasn’t like he had anything else better to do. He forced himself to keep going, no matter how difficult, no matter how tedious it got. It was life or death, after all! And soon his efforts were rewarded. A cascade of spit fell on Marble while he was checking a place. The esophageal sphincter had to be up there! Up a slope. “This is not going to be easy.” Turtles weren’t known for being good climbers, this was only going to get harder.
Millimeter by millimeter, Marble dragged himself up the slope. The muscle underneath didn’t fight it, it let him go up without much complaint, every time his flippers hit the surface of the slope it all just quivered for a brief second. Acid foamed when he made contact with the flesh, he could pretty much feel his already damaged flippers be softened even more.
It was a mercy the stomach was so dark. If there had been any light and he could see the state of his body and shell...he was sure he’d faint. By now he was sure his shell had lost the white and red design his species was known for. Surely by now it was discolored, the red corroded into a nasty brown, the white dirty and showing the inner layers of hard chitin...
“I have to focus!”
There it was: the sphincter. A cursory touch showed it was the same size than the one going into the intestines – it was going to be difficult to pass through it. Marble cursed inwardly. He was a small turtle, that was the whole point of his existence! Why couldn’t he be just a little bit smaller! Still...he had to try. Pushing a flipper through the sphincter, Marble flopped it around, trying to get a feel of what was right on the other side. The tissue felt firmer, more active. Getting through the sphincter was merely going to be a minor obstacle compared to what was coming.
Slowly, Marble pried the sphincter open. The passageway fought back, trying to constrict him, but he just kept going, making his way through the gateway, protected by his shell. It was a good thing the bear was asleep! He wouldn’t feel this sizable object trying to make its way up the throat.
It felt like the entire world was conspiring to defeat him. The sphincter, the esophagus on the other side, it was all trying to push him down, not wanting to let the bear lose a meal it didn’t even know it had obtained days ago. Marble got his head in. The sphincter clamped on his neck, surprising him, like a really big hand had just grabbed his neck and was trying to choke him to death. Afraid, Marble pushed more than he had before, until the sphincter slid over to his shell. The turtle hurried to take a few gasps of breath, freaking out. “That was too close! I could...have died...!”
The noise of the sphincter moving bit by bit over his shell was sickening. It was like a constant sleeeech, slimy and horrible. Marble could feel the esophagus constricting, trying to push him down, but for once the bulkiness was on his favor. Without the water pushing him down into the stomach, the tunnel had difficulty getting him to return downwards. The peristalsis kept fighting, but Marble didn’t give up, he kept going upwards, it was a battle between the unrelenting digestive system and a turtle who didn’t want to die!
Ascending may have taken hours, he didn’t know for sure. Marble kept going up, every inch was like torture. He just wanted to lie down and rest, but he couldn’t! Not if he wanted to leave! And especially not now, that was his one and only chance! Bit by bit Marble ascended, listening to the always constant heartbeat, feeling it get louder when he passed by, the calm breathing that felt like a lullaby trying to convince him to give up.
Finally, he felt something change. His flipper hit a rougher surface, very different from the rest of the esophagus. It took him just a moment to realize it was the base of the tongue! Finally, he had reached the throat! There was much more space now, enough for him to move without having anything clamping on him. Spurred by the possibility of victory, Marble crawled onto the maw, eager to go outside, wanting some fresh air, anything that wasn’t darkness and acids!
There was light! Light filtered through the bear’s lips and jaws. There was just enough for him to get a good look at the surroundings. At first Marble was glad to finally be able to see something, until he realized what he was seeing:
An impenetrable wall of teeth and fangs.
The bear’s jaws were clamped shut, and Marble certainly didn’t have the strength to pry them open, not even if he was rested. “No...” he exhaled, weakly dragging himself to the tip of the tongue, experimentally pushing the teeth with a flipper. It was like trying to push a rock. “No...no!” he wailed, mindlessly hitting the wall, frantic. It couldn’t be he had gotten this far only to fail! What a bad joke! This was worse than if he had stayed in the stomach!
No matter what he tried, he was unable to make the maw open up. Soon he just laid down on the tongue, hopeless. This was it. He had come this far for nothing. He was doomed.
When the bear awoke, a tiny, tiny spark of hope entered his mind. If the bear was awake then it had to open its mouth at some point, chance he could use to escape! True, he was weakened and he would have to deal with a bear who would certainly try to investigate what had just fallen from its mouth, but...it was either that or succumbing to digestion. Anyone would choose the unlikely possibility of surviving!
The tongue underneath him moved, swaying him from side to side. The bear had noticed the presence of something in his mouth, something small and tasty. Marble clung onto the tongue the best he could. Right...he had forgotten about this! He forgot the bear may not be so willing to just open its mouth without being interested in what was in it! So even if the bear opened his jaws, it was possible he would fail to escape! How could fate be so cruel?!
The tongue inclined, trying to get him back down, pressing him against the palate like he was a small piece of candy, like the bear had seen the design he used to have on his shell and had decided to taunt him for it. Flashes of light blinded the turtle, the mouth opening.
Who would give up first? Who would win? Would the bear manage to swallow the small intruder in its mouth, or would Marble manage to slip out, to leave the mouth and run away? Would the turtle be swallowed, sent to the stomach again, to never come out ever again? To die of dehydration and be digested once he was in no state to keep resisting? Or would he make the right move, sneak through the teeth, and weakly get away from the bear until he was safe?
While Marble clung onto the tongue, he just kept wishing he was back in his riverbed home. Both opponents were tenacious, neither wanted to concede ground. It was a stalemate.
But at some point, somebody had to lose.
In the history of the world, many species have gone extinct. That was a fact of life, fact Marble was very familiar with. He was pretty sure he was the last turtle with a shell like his. Most other turtles had green or gray shells, speckled with black and brown, but Marble didn’t. Some would say he was unique. The truth was that his species was...pretty much extinct. Natural selection wasn’t kind to turtles with bright red shells, with a white, round swirl on top of it. His size wasn’t of much help, either. The only thing he lacked to resemble peppermint candy was a wrapper.
It was pretty depressing to know his life expectancy could be cut short anytime by a predator, but at least Marble wasn’t putting himself in any unnecessary danger. Staying underground most of the time meant he was safe, but it was just...so boring! Watching the wet dirt that formed the riverbed tended to get old quickly. Besides, there wasn’t that much space, not even for a turtle his size.
The river was murky, murkier than usual. Marble peered from his tiny den, looking around, examining the mud all around. His vision was limited due to all the dirt and debris that was coursing down the river, it didn’t seem like there were any weeds nearby. Odd! Usually there were a few weeds he could snack on. “Well this can’t be good, can it?” mumbled Marble, sinking a little into the mud. He really, really, really didn’t want to go outside, but...
...but it was either that or being hungry until the river cleared up. Life was hard enough without being hungry. No, that couldn’t stand.
Swimming down the river was nerve-wracking. Even though the sky was clear and the sun was shining strong, the river resembled molasses instead of water. Even swimming through it was an ordeal! Marble moved his flippers, trying to get through, hoping to see the telltale swaying of aquatic grass at the bottom of the river, but there was no such thing. There didn’t even seem to be any fishes around! Had he missed something recently? Did literally everything in the mile nearest to his home decide to leave?
Perhaps he should have taken the state of the river as a bad omen. It’d have spared him the trouble he’d get in.
One hour later, Marble was fed up. He wanted to return home, food be damned. Turning around, Marble swam against the current, straining his eyes to see anything. “Hello? Anyone here?” he shouted. There was no response anywhere. Marble stopped swimming, letting himself be carried downstream by the current, in disbelief at the state of everything. Where...was his little home? How far up the river was it?
He was about to lose hope when he heard something downstream. It was some sort of splashing noise, the noise of something entering the water and coming out, over and over...where did that come from? Could it be help? He really needed someone, and he was willing to take a risk if it meant not being lost! That was why Marble did something until now he had always made sure not to do.
The turtle went up to the surface of the water. His head peered out, examining the area. Marble’s very colorful shell was visible, he really hoped the few seconds that’d take him to get his bearings wouldn’t be enough for a passing bird of prey to see him and swoop down to capture him. It’d suck if he also was prey because of such a basic mistake!
In the end, it wasn’t a bird what he should have been worried about. Marble surfaced to get his bearings, and what he saw was a bear.
The bear was right there, drinking water, lots of water. Much to Marble’s chagrin, it turned out it wasn’t as far as he thought it’d be. It was closer, much closer.
It was a mere foot from where he had surfaced. The turbulent water ensured the turtle wouldn’t see the splashing and movement near of where he was moving. Marble had emerged almost underneath the bear’s muzzle. He did it close enough to catch a glimpse of the bear’s form before he was slurped by the tongue getting water from the river.
“Wait, I’m not wat—!“ Marble barely managed to say before he was caught by the tongue, it lifted him immediately, immersing him into a warm cavern very different to his home. He was able to catch a glimpse of the long and yellowed teeth before he hit a bump in the tongue, the muscle smacking him so hard he was dizzy for a moment. The bear never noticed a thing, it just kept drinking, while Marble was tossed around by the water, riding the tongue like it was a wave. His flippers flapped around, trying to catch onto something.
What he caught onto was a fang. His flipper smacked the tip of that fang, bringing him back to his senses, the pain telling him if he didn’t do something quickly, he was as good as dead. What awaited him inside the bear was far more painful and slower than touching a sharp fang!
It all had lasted just a few seconds, but to the turtle it seemed almost eternal, and the fact he was disoriented made it worse. The bear didn’t even notice something was wrong, the turtle hitting a tooth may have been misinterpreted as some water splashing against it. This made Marble’s heart drop: that big bear didn’t even know he was there. It was matter of time before he was sucked down that gullet, into a pit that’d be his doom.
Getting swallowed felt like he was in the river once again, just that instead of being in a wide, muddy stream, he now was in a tunnel, a tunnel that was terribly warm. Marble was small, but not so much he didn’t feel the constricting esophagus envelop him. Going down the throat was sudden, the pliable muscle that was the tongue being replaced by unforgiving flesh. Marble couldn’t hear a thing, the water was covering his head, being the force pushing him deeper into the bear, the noise of being swallowed overshadowing everything else.
In matter of seconds Marble plunged into the place that may be his tomb: the bear’s stomach. As soon as he fell into a pool of semidigested food, Marble lost all hope. There was no reason to think he would be able to leave the stomach, at least intact! The turtle fell under the surface of the water, the viscous liquid already filling all his vision, nothing but slop in here. He couldn’t even see what color it was!
“There has to be something I can do...!” Marble muttered, paddling around as quickly as his flippers allowed him. It wasn’t going well, it felt like he was swimming in tar. Not only that, the exposed parts of his body were starting to feel...weird. Tingly. Not good, that was for certain.
Searching the bear’s stomach for anything that could be of help was fruitless. All he found was what felt like fish bones, pointy but brittle bones that weren’t good not even as toothpicks. The bear’s acids had softened those spines – not that they were known for being tough, really, but to Marble it was a reminder of what could happen to him if he stayed for long.
But there was no choice.
Not having any other option, Marble did the only thing he could think of: he retreated into his shell. Pulling everything inside was awkward, but he did so, until there was nothing left. Pieces of leathery hide blocked the holes of the shell so the thick liquid of the stomach wouldn’t touch him.
This was it: he was trapped. Not only in a stomach, but now in his own shell.
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Living underneath the riverbed meant you were seeing the same muddy wall most of the time. Now he didn’t have not even that much in here, due to the lack of light.
Not that he would have idly stared at a stomach wall! While he stayed inside his shell, tucked away, he kept thinking about what he could do. Obviously forcing the bear to throw him up wasn’t going to work! What was he supposed to do, swim so fast he would hit the wall hard enough for the bear to feel it and throw up? That’s not how things worked!
Trying to make contact with the bear hadn’t worked either. Marble had swum to the driest spot he could find, devoid of those slimy acids that threatened to disintegrate him, and shouted as loudly as he could: “Excuse me! There’s been a really really really big mistake! You ate me and—I want out, okay?! I want to be outside!”
No response.
“Look, I’m sorry! If you let me out I will—I’ll make it up to you, I promise! Just let me out!”
Still no response. Did the bear even hear him from the depths of its organs? Marble held back the urge to sob. “If you can hear me...please do something to show me you can hear me. Anything! Pat your belly or say something or tear apart a tree...I don’t care what you do, just do something!” And then he waited, and waited, and felt his hopes be torn asunder like a house in a tornado. The bear couldn’t hear him.
Well that meant he couldn’t rely on the bear to let him out. Why...why did things have to be like this?!
Seeking a way out himself was useless. Not only he would be exposing himself to the belly juices that could break him down, he also couldn’t see a thing. It felt like the stomach was quite big – or more like he was quite small. It’d be like finding a needle in a haystack.
At times like these, he wondered if being alive was fate’s way of trying to crush him under its heel.
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The ennui of being trapped in a stomach with nothing to do other than hide in the shell was interrupted by the sound of something splashing into the stomach. Marble didn’t react, he was too busy hiding in his shell to avoid the acids.
If his internal clock was correct, it had been...almost an entire day since he had been eaten. So far the bear hadn’t eaten anything, and although Marble hadn’t given it much thought, he guessed he wasn’t the only one who was having trouble finding food. The river lacked aquatic grass, maybe there also wasn’t good prey for the bear out there in the wilderness.
The scent that filled the stomach wasn’t one Marble wanted anywhere near him. Even through the acidic air of the stomach he detected the scent of blood. It seemed the bear had managed to find prey – live prey, torn to pieces by the bear’s fangs and ingested, just like the turtle had been.
“...if it had seen me then maybe it’d have chewed on me,” Marble realized. It may have been a good thing it hadn’t seen him at all. At least it meant he still was alive instead of in little pieces like whatever this unfortunate prey was now.
It took hours for that meat to be processed. Marble let himself be carried around by the stomach’s movements, swaying from end to end of the stomach, like a paper boat in a storm. His shell was resisting rather well the acids, and not a drop was leaking inside the shell. The leathery hide that covered the holes was starting to get damaged, though. When Marble noticed that, fear gripped him: if he stayed too long in there, the fluids could start leaking into the shell.
How long would it be before that happened?
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Marble couldn’t watch the food be digested, but he sure felt it. Even though the shell he felt the impact against the mush. It was like he was crashing against a bunch of curdles, like a dune made of thick mud. Usually he got stuck to it, but the stomach always managed to pull him away, unsticking him and moving him to the other side of the stomach. Sometimes he even sank to the bottom, beneath the surface, submerged in a lake that would be far more dangerous if he didn’t have his shell.
It took quite a while before crashing against the food had a result other than getting stuck on it. Marble felt how he got through the food. It had been processed for so long it just wasn’t enough to hold him anymore. It worried him, he had to admit. “...I hope my shell will last...” He could picture it: his shell all chapped and softened, the white and red design on it rotting away, revealing soft flesh...
“I want out of here!” Please, let him out before his shell got too damaged!
There was some reprieve, thankfully. After many hours, the level of liquid started descending, draining noisily into the intestines. The current dragged him little by little, it not being strong enough to carry a heavy shell, but it was matter of time before it got to the other side of the stomach. The current took him to the valve – but he was too bulky to go through it. Marble noticed the shell slammed against it, the hard object lodging itself right on the entrance.
Not even the natural route would allow him out! Even if he managed to push himself down that narrow tube, there was a good chance he would get stuck somewhere along the line. No, that was too risky! The last thing he needed was to be even more trapped! Sighing, he let his flippers come out of the shell and pushed himself away from the sphincter, swimming away as well as he could against the current. Great! A reminder of what led him to his predicament. “I don’t appreciate the constant reminders!” he shouted at the emptiness.
There he was, all alone in a stomach that was far too big and far too hostile for him. Slowly, he let his head come out. The darkness was as thick as ever, impenetrable, all this time inside the bear hadn’t let his already mediocre eyesight get any better. Slapping his flippers against the lining of the stomach, Marble managed to drag himself to the other side, until he hit the other end of the organ. What was he supposed to do now?
There was no way out, and he had no intention of letting himself die. He had to survive, until...
...he didn’t know until what.
Marble wished, not for the first time, that he was back in his little den under the river.
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The turtle should have seen coming the problem that’d come up after the first day or so of stay inside the bear’s stomach:
Hunger.
It was ironic, being hungry while pretty much being food for a much larger being. There certainly was no food in that digestive sac! No weeds, no grass, not even a fruit. The bear did eat a few berries and roots, but Marble would rather die than eat something that animal had chewed – not to mention something about eating acid-drenched food seemed rather dangerous. If he sated his hunger but put himself in danger in the process, then what was the point?
At least he knew he could last quite a while being hungry. Turtles were able to survive months without food! What he was worried about was water. Without water, he would live a week at most – and it wasn’t like he could drink any of the water that entered the bear! The mere thought made him feel sick.
Still...it was tempting. Letting himself be pushed around by another digestion session, Marble slapped away some of the food that had splattered all over his shell. Testing the surface of any flesh that had been in contact with acids so far revealed quite the grim picture: even though it had been sporadic contact, the flesh of his flippers felt softened, almost doughy. That just couldn’t be a good sign.
Once he tucked all of himself into his shell as well as he could, he sighed quietly. This was starting to get monotonous. Who would have thought being trapped in a stomach could be monotonous?
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Two days.
Three days.
Four days.
Marble had seen food enter, be digested, and leave. Many times it had happened, and at no point he got the chance to do anything.
The fourth night inside the bear was starting. The heartbeat had slowed down a little, the breathing he could hear had gotten steady. Could it be...? The bear was asleep. Marble walked around – so far every time the bear slept he had done so as well, since he wouldn’t have a chance any other time. He feared falling asleep and splashing into acids, at least by sleeping when the bear did he reduced the odds of that happening.
Still...right now he felt wide awake. He didn’t want to sleep. Not when he was finally going to try something, something that was unlikely to work. He was going to try to ascend up the throat.
If he didn’t try now, he would never have the chance ever again. The dehydration was starting to get to him. If he failed now, he was doomed, since he didn’t think he’d have the strength to try again later. This was his one and only chance.
The turtle dragged himself to the stomach wall. Careful, he examined his surroundings. He couldn’t see a thing, but maybe he’d notice anything if the bear swallowed spit? Like where the liquid came from?
It took him the best part of an hour to find it, but it wasn’t like he had anything else better to do. He forced himself to keep going, no matter how difficult, no matter how tedious it got. It was life or death, after all! And soon his efforts were rewarded. A cascade of spit fell on Marble while he was checking a place. The esophageal sphincter had to be up there! Up a slope. “This is not going to be easy.” Turtles weren’t known for being good climbers, this was only going to get harder.
Millimeter by millimeter, Marble dragged himself up the slope. The muscle underneath didn’t fight it, it let him go up without much complaint, every time his flippers hit the surface of the slope it all just quivered for a brief second. Acid foamed when he made contact with the flesh, he could pretty much feel his already damaged flippers be softened even more.
It was a mercy the stomach was so dark. If there had been any light and he could see the state of his body and shell...he was sure he’d faint. By now he was sure his shell had lost the white and red design his species was known for. Surely by now it was discolored, the red corroded into a nasty brown, the white dirty and showing the inner layers of hard chitin...
“I have to focus!”
There it was: the sphincter. A cursory touch showed it was the same size than the one going into the intestines – it was going to be difficult to pass through it. Marble cursed inwardly. He was a small turtle, that was the whole point of his existence! Why couldn’t he be just a little bit smaller! Still...he had to try. Pushing a flipper through the sphincter, Marble flopped it around, trying to get a feel of what was right on the other side. The tissue felt firmer, more active. Getting through the sphincter was merely going to be a minor obstacle compared to what was coming.
Slowly, Marble pried the sphincter open. The passageway fought back, trying to constrict him, but he just kept going, making his way through the gateway, protected by his shell. It was a good thing the bear was asleep! He wouldn’t feel this sizable object trying to make its way up the throat.
It felt like the entire world was conspiring to defeat him. The sphincter, the esophagus on the other side, it was all trying to push him down, not wanting to let the bear lose a meal it didn’t even know it had obtained days ago. Marble got his head in. The sphincter clamped on his neck, surprising him, like a really big hand had just grabbed his neck and was trying to choke him to death. Afraid, Marble pushed more than he had before, until the sphincter slid over to his shell. The turtle hurried to take a few gasps of breath, freaking out. “That was too close! I could...have died...!”
The noise of the sphincter moving bit by bit over his shell was sickening. It was like a constant sleeeech, slimy and horrible. Marble could feel the esophagus constricting, trying to push him down, but for once the bulkiness was on his favor. Without the water pushing him down into the stomach, the tunnel had difficulty getting him to return downwards. The peristalsis kept fighting, but Marble didn’t give up, he kept going upwards, it was a battle between the unrelenting digestive system and a turtle who didn’t want to die!
Ascending may have taken hours, he didn’t know for sure. Marble kept going up, every inch was like torture. He just wanted to lie down and rest, but he couldn’t! Not if he wanted to leave! And especially not now, that was his one and only chance! Bit by bit Marble ascended, listening to the always constant heartbeat, feeling it get louder when he passed by, the calm breathing that felt like a lullaby trying to convince him to give up.
Finally, he felt something change. His flipper hit a rougher surface, very different from the rest of the esophagus. It took him just a moment to realize it was the base of the tongue! Finally, he had reached the throat! There was much more space now, enough for him to move without having anything clamping on him. Spurred by the possibility of victory, Marble crawled onto the maw, eager to go outside, wanting some fresh air, anything that wasn’t darkness and acids!
There was light! Light filtered through the bear’s lips and jaws. There was just enough for him to get a good look at the surroundings. At first Marble was glad to finally be able to see something, until he realized what he was seeing:
An impenetrable wall of teeth and fangs.
The bear’s jaws were clamped shut, and Marble certainly didn’t have the strength to pry them open, not even if he was rested. “No...” he exhaled, weakly dragging himself to the tip of the tongue, experimentally pushing the teeth with a flipper. It was like trying to push a rock. “No...no!” he wailed, mindlessly hitting the wall, frantic. It couldn’t be he had gotten this far only to fail! What a bad joke! This was worse than if he had stayed in the stomach!
No matter what he tried, he was unable to make the maw open up. Soon he just laid down on the tongue, hopeless. This was it. He had come this far for nothing. He was doomed.
When the bear awoke, a tiny, tiny spark of hope entered his mind. If the bear was awake then it had to open its mouth at some point, chance he could use to escape! True, he was weakened and he would have to deal with a bear who would certainly try to investigate what had just fallen from its mouth, but...it was either that or succumbing to digestion. Anyone would choose the unlikely possibility of surviving!
The tongue underneath him moved, swaying him from side to side. The bear had noticed the presence of something in his mouth, something small and tasty. Marble clung onto the tongue the best he could. Right...he had forgotten about this! He forgot the bear may not be so willing to just open its mouth without being interested in what was in it! So even if the bear opened his jaws, it was possible he would fail to escape! How could fate be so cruel?!
The tongue inclined, trying to get him back down, pressing him against the palate like he was a small piece of candy, like the bear had seen the design he used to have on his shell and had decided to taunt him for it. Flashes of light blinded the turtle, the mouth opening.
Who would give up first? Who would win? Would the bear manage to swallow the small intruder in its mouth, or would Marble manage to slip out, to leave the mouth and run away? Would the turtle be swallowed, sent to the stomach again, to never come out ever again? To die of dehydration and be digested once he was in no state to keep resisting? Or would he make the right move, sneak through the teeth, and weakly get away from the bear until he was safe?
While Marble clung onto the tongue, he just kept wishing he was back in his riverbed home. Both opponents were tenacious, neither wanted to concede ground. It was a stalemate.
But at some point, somebody had to lose.
Category Story / Vore
Species Turtle / Tortoise
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 20 kB
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