When I say this creature in front of me had long teeth, it was from the smaller perspective of an ambiguous blob. But to me, they might as well been swords of ivory made from some primeval beast.

Unsure whether it's an indigenous species of this new world, since for all I knew it might've come from any number of gene pools in this place, given my origins, and assuming that I wasn't among the natural order. What I did know was that I didn't know. If I was taught biology, or any taxonomy in general in my previous life, maybe I could've given a cross between several creatures for a better description. Unfortunately, not a single thing came to mind.

A member of the quadrupeds, a blocky head disproportionate with its overall size, predatory legs thicker around than any human's for sure, despite standing less than half one's height. Bare purple skin, wrinkled and translucent enough to reveal the sliding sinew, muscle, and veins underneath. The more disturbing aspect of its skin quality was how visible its singular eye was. If it looked to the side, one could see it roll in its socket. At least its internal organs knew well enough to keep things private underneath the rolling sheets of muscle.

But the teeth. Each one practically looked designed for a good tearing with curving serrations like notched scimitars. That fact alone made me hesitate to throw myself immediately into it's jaws. It had to be a painful, miserable experience to be caught in those, just like how I got cut into pieces. Worse even.

Whether I was ready or not, it didn't seem to care. In one, two, three bounding strides, it had me. The room disappeared, and a blanket of dark purple covered what should have been the end of my life.

Should have been. Could have been. Ah, if only if it were that simple.

I suppose I was somewhere around where it's stomach would be, after a short trip down its gullet, that I realized nothing much changed other than my location. Its teeth didn't seem to hurt, nor did I feel the tearing from before. The glutton might have swallowed me whole.

What's the point of those things then if you're not going to use them though?

No doubt its stomach juices were trying to work their way through me, but I didn't feel anything. No excruciating burns or even the warmth of its insides. Just the rough undulations of its digestive process, as it slowly worked me through its bowels. But to be completely honest, I wasn't even sure if this creature could digest me.

That said, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that not feeling anything simply meant I didn't have the nerves to feel. Which is an interesting thought, considering how I can't see myself to tell if I'm dying. But what I could feel, was a familiar electrifying jolt.

[Proficiency requirements met. Minor Acid Resistance awarded.]

[Minor Acid Resistance: Whilst suffering extreme burns, you have gained minor resistances to a number of caustic substances. +1 vitality, +1 endurance.]

Well, that says it all I suppose. Not that those burns bothered me in the slightest.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Other than that, there were a few other interesting things in here. Curls of metal, the bones of other small creatures, even a half-digested finger. I pity the one that had a digit taken by this thing. There's a ring around it too. Double my sympathy, but hard to see how someone would involuntarily lose their ring finger like that.

Gradually, after what felt an eternity, its stomach squirmed, contracting and expanding to exhume its contents to the intestines. The intestines are a curious sight, and to my sense of touch very smooth, but in other places bumpy where large collections of villi developed in uneven striations. Coincidentally, the bones of the finger and other various contents of its stomach had dissolved into a thick paste by now, which oozed along with me. I didn't see the ring either, making it a wonder that I managed to get by.

But a little while later, everything ground to a halt. The cause appeared to be, oddly enough, a blockage. I suppose it's what happens when corroded metal finds its way into the intestines of a living thing. A large build up of the stuff choked further progress, and I was pushed up against it. Since I wasn't entirely fluid like the rest of its stomach contents, I just so happened to not fit through.

I'm stuck here until it dies of constipation then, huh?

Not a pleasant idea. Nor one I wanted to have happen. If I wasn't going to die, I didn't want it drawn out as the future excrement of this thing. Leaving might be a possibility if I can push the clog forward and come out in the ever so classy practice of excretion. How long is that going to take though?

Flaring myself out against the flesh around me, I pushed my all against the clog, but it didn't yield a single bit. Everything was far too stretchy to gain any decent 'footing'.

Since going out the drain isn't an option, going the other might, as unlikely as it sounds. The question there is if I actually could.

If only I had teeth like it did, I could tear through...

Eating it from the inside out. That's a bit frightening. Would it even be possible? I haven't tried eating anything, nor had the opportunity to as far as I'm aware.

Hey voice in my head, can you hear me?

If I was going to get any answers, it was coming from it.

Can I eat?

Calling out like this probably won't work. It's still worth a try.

Several minutes passed before I was rewarded by an answer.

[Consumption of other organisms other than oneself is possible through the natural process of Phagocytosis.]

Pha-go-what... never mind, that's all I need to know.

But how can a body like mine eat something from the inside anyway? Nothing but blanks drawn on that twister of a word the voice said too.

I guess I can start by spreading myself as far as I can backwards.

Which I did, slowly creeping along the creature's intestinal walls, into every crevice, as far as I could reach. If I could, I would've shaped myself into something narrow like a needle to pass through the blockage, but try as I might, I couldn't shape myself to that extent. Flattening the mass around me was as much as I could manage, let alone any complex geometry.

I could feel everything. Touch is an incredible thing. It's abstract in how little information it can give you, and yet that little bit is all you need to tell if something is soft, rough, hard, plush or patterned. It can convey so many things beyond what the environment has to say alone.

But for me? Instinct. Raw and unpredictable carnal hunger. It sprung up with little warning, and before I could even resist, it flooded what little reason I had left.

Taste? Unnecessary.

Texture? A luxury.

All it took was a burst of tactile contact from everywhere at once to tell that I could consume it all.

I wonder, after all this time inside the belly of a monster I've never seen before... who's really the predator here?

SSS

[Caution: Host has fallen into a comatose state.]

[Notice: Assimilation of foreign organic material in progress.]