“To get to the stomach, we’ll first have to pass through the tunnels of the large and small intestines,” Tesel told his army as they passed by the rectum. From there, one could see passing out of it the bodies of the slain in the battle they’d just fought against Aisa’s men. Groans of annoyance from Tesel’s troops behind him were his only reply.
“And after the stomach, to Gaya’s breasts to feed from?” Lia asked, hoping to raise the soldiers’ spirits.
“Yes,” Tesel said “Then we can finally be nourished.”
The fecal smell of the area was overpowering.
“I can smell that nourishment already,” Fil said with a scowl.
The soldiers continued grunting in disgust as they left the rectum and entered the large intestine, trudging along in all reluctance. Their feet often got stuck in the thick, knee-deep mud of this anatomical sewer.
“Patience!” Tesel called out. “We’re almost there.”
Finally, nearing the upper end of the small intestine, where they’d soon enter the stomach and leave the worst of the smell, Tesel’s troops were beginning to revive good spirits. But they noticed a gigantic, long, worm-like animal lying immobile along the side of the tunnel. It seemed to be sleeping.
Lia looked back at the others with her finger to her lips. “Don’t wake it,” she whispered to Fil, who passed the quiet message on to the men behind, who passed it on, and so on.
They all crept by as quietly as they could. They could hear it breathing and softly snoring…or was it snoring? Was it eating? No, it wasn’t snoring, it was making slurping sounds.
The soldiers looked in awe at the size of the beast. Its length was almost the entirety of that of the small intestine. Its diameter was almost twice the height of the average man among them. Even the slightest noise any of them made would cause all of them to shake in fright. If they drew its attention, would it find them appetizing?
Tesel, Lia, and Fil reached the far end of it, by the exit of the small intestine. They saw its head. It was huge. A man behind Fil made an accidental stomping sound of his boot on the muddy floor, loud enough to attract the worm’s attention. It turned its head around to face Tesel and Lia.
“Kappitta,” he whispered to her. “I’ve heard stories about this monster. It’s been eating Gaya’s food…starving her.”
Of a puke-pinkish colour, it had huge, black balls for eyes, and a toothless mouth large enough to fit a man inside it. In fact, just then it demonstrated this ability with the one who stomped on the ground. His scream when put inside was muted as soon as Kappitta closed its mouth. Now the giant parasite was looking at Lia.
“Attack!” Tesel shouted, flailing his sword.
All of the soldiers standing along the great length of the worm stabbed their swords into its side, causing it to let out a deafening wail. It then used its tail to slap the rearguard of Tesel’s men, smashing their bodies against the wall of the intestine tunnel and crushing many of them.
The survivors rushed up ahead to get as close to the front as the space in the tunnel would allow. Tesel, Lia, and Fil were thrusting their swords at Kappitta’s face to keep it from taking another victim into its mouth. The men behind continued stabbing at it with their swords, and it responded by pushing its body against them, crushing more of them against the wall of the tunnel.
It managed to fight past the jabbing of the swords of Tesel, Lia, and Fil to get another screaming soldier in its mouth. It sucked him deep inside its body. As his body traveled through the first quarter of the length of Kappitta’s body, he could be seen punching and kicking bubble-like bulges at the side facing his surviving comrades, all of whom shuddered at the sight. Soon, the punching and kicking stopped, replaced by a disturbing stillness. No more bulges.
Tesel, Lia, and Fil were jabbing and slashing at the worm’s face with greater ferocity and intensity, not only to prevent another soldier from being eaten, but also while stepping closer to it so the rest of the soldiers could pass behind their three leaders and get safely out of the intestine and into the stomach. Not all of the warriors were able even to get to the head: Kappitta kept undulating its snaky body to crush many of them against the intestinal wall.
As the three continued poking their swords at the giant monster’s face, one more man got sucked into its mouth, screaming, kicking, and flailing his sword in all futility. Lia grabbed him by the feet and tried to pull him back while two of the women fighters replaced her at jabbing their swords into its face; but Kappitta gave one huge suck and pulled the man all the way in. It almost pulled her in with him, too, except that Tesel pulled her back with all of his might.
After falling back with her against the wall of the tunnel, he shouted, “Run! Now’s your chance, while it’s feasting on our poor comrade and is distracted! Run!“
They all ran out…except for one of those two women fighters, who got sucked into Kappitta’s mouth. Its mouth closed before she had a chance to scream. She traveled through its body, her life fading away without any struggle, for she was content to have sacrificed herself to help save her comrades.
The last of Tesel’s men scrambled out of the intestines, and the survivors got into the stomach. They collapsed on the swampy floor in exhaustion and just lay there, panting and gasping. As they looked all around the large, dark, empty cave, they noticed the conspicuous absence of something–digested food.
“Kappitta must have sucked all of Gaya’s food into its body,” Lia said. “It didn’t just kill our comrades; it’s killing her, too.”
“And look around us,” Fil said with despondency in his eyes. “Look at what else is lacking: so many of our comrades!”
Tesel was counting the heads of all the survivors with a frown on his face. “We must be reduced to about half of our original number,” he said with a sigh. He heard a loud collective groan from his men. “Yes, the rest of our campaign will be harder…but not impossible!”
He now heard an even louder collective groan from them.
Then, they all heard voices from high above:
Damnissheevergonnawakeup?Ineedhermybusinessisgonnatakeadivewithoutherstarpowerifshedies.C’monGayasnapoutofit.
Isthatallyoucareabout,Asa?Makingmoneyfromfilminghertitsandassandfuckingandsucking?Youaresuchacreep!
Shutup,Lila.I’mabusinessman.Ihavetocareaboutthosethings.
AndGaya’smyfriend.She’salsoahumanbeing,andIcareabouther.
“Do you hear that, comrades?” Lia said, standing up and reenergized. “The gods are telling us that we mustn’t give up hope!”
“How do you know they’re saying that?” one of the weary soldiers said. “You can’t understand their muddled speech any better than we can. For all we know, they could be saying that we should give up on Gaya.”
“I know through the feelings in their voices,” Lia said, hearing a harrumph from the soldier. “I also know that we mustn’t give up hope precisely because things are looking so hopeless. Look around you, you slothful soldiers! Look at the lack of food in Gaya’s stomach, its emptiness apart from our presence here; there’s a lack of food because Kappitta has been eating it all. We must find the strength to carry on, because if we don’t, she will die, and then we will all die!”
“We’ve passed through the worst,” Tesel added. “Now we will go up, out of her stomach, and to her breasts, where we can feed from her mammary glands. That nourishment will give us new, needed strength. Then we’ll go to her heart, to feel what she feels, to make our pity for her grow, to motivate us to fight harder for her sake. I assure you, troops, that things will only get better for us from now on until we face Kappitta and Aisa’s men for the final confrontation. That final battle will decide, once and for all, everyone’s fate: will that giant worm and the enemy die, with some of our own, or will we die, and then everyone dies, including not only our enemies, but Gaya, too.”
“Now, will you give up like the cowards that Aisa’s men called us as we retreated here, or will you stand up and fight for Gaya?” Lia asked. “There’s milk in her breasts, waiting for us.”
Hungry to be fed, the soldiers had motive enough for the trip; so they got up and marched out of the stomach and up towards Gaya’s breasts.
Infinite Ocean 