As I woke up I felt a headache, my head hurt a lot. There seemed to be some magical purple light around me. As I looked at the floor, it was writhing up and down. It is completely made of flesh. There were cocoons around me, the people I saw Abby eat, or well Mimic and Abby, the monsters, they were being purified or something. They were wrapped tightly in the cocoons. One of them had a sheep, it seemed to be getting, digested by the cocoon. “Oh, great.”

After wandering around for a while, I saw there was no exit at all. Far above me is a hole. Which is probably where I came from. Mimic suddenly appeared before me. “Abby?”

“No, Abby is outside, but she can hear you, once she wakes up.”

“Oh, where am I?”

“You are inside of Abby, she got knocked out by the fall. She wore me as a suit, she will be fine. She just needs to wake up first.”

“Alright, can you tell me what happened?”

“Yes, I can, Abby swallowed you whole to prevent you from getting hurt by the fall.”

“Fuck.”

“No need to worry, once she is awake, you will be free to go.” He pointed at the cocoons, “Those won’t be free to go, they will slowly be digested and, or purified for the Ethereal Vortex.”

“Yes, I get that. What are you? Or what is Abby?”

“What I am is not interesting, you can see me as a parasite. I got shoved into this body against my will. I lay sleeping inside of Abby, following her life, yes, even those parts, Steve. Then she woke me up with a cry for help when those mushrooms attacked. She had been knocked out because her internal organs were being re-arranged as I woke up. Abby is no longer human, I used to be connected to a hive mind, not agreeing with the decision to get shoved into Abby, I broke my connection. Abby and I slowly became friends. Finding out we have many things in common.”

Suddenly, everything moved, and I face planted in the flesh, it was soft, squishy, and icky. Slowly I got up and sat down. Everything moved. “Go on Mimic.”

“Square is a part of our hive mind, Abby can connect people to herself and control them. She can allow them free will. Square has free will, but a piece of me allows him to become much smarter.”

I suddenly heard a voice, “Steve?”

“Yes, I am inside of you.”

“That is strange, uhm I am going to make my way to the airship before letting you out, we fell into a volcano. I see the airship in the distance.”

I sighed, “I guess I don’t have a choice but to agree?”

“Oh, you can disagree, do you want me to put you into the lava in front of us?”

I let myself fall, and I immediately regretted it, “No, thank you.”

“Then shut up and speak with Mimic, wait, ugh, never mind that fall must have given me a concussion.”

Mimic left for a moment, then he came back. “Your concussion is fixed, Abby.”

“Thanks.”

I grumbled, “This is shit. This is where you are usually?”

Mimic nodded, “Abby spends some time here too. She is the beauty and brains, I am the brute force.”

“Alright, and why are you immortal?”

Mimic smiled, “That is too big of a secret, Steve. You will need to find that out yourself.”

“Alright, so, you are going to help us on our journey to stop the void?”

Mimic chuckled, “No, we’ll tag along, you can do the hard work. You don’t want me to fix it in a few seconds, do you?”

I sat up and hung my head, “It would be nice.”

“Sorry, that is not how we roll, right, Abby?”

“No, despite how much I care for him, he can do it himself.”

I stood up, “Okay, it is strange for your voice to echo inside here, Abby!”

Mimic came closer, “It is interesting to have people or things roam around here. Maybe we can make it into a hunting ground?”

Abby sighed, “You want to turn my stomach into a hunting ground Mimic?”

“Yes, it sounds like fun.”

“Mimic?”

“Yes?”

“I already have no intestines, that is bad enough.”

“Can we discuss it?”

“Yes, we can. Let the sheep go, and see what the sheep does.” Mimic seemed to be thrilled. He cut down the cocoon and the sheep scrambled up. It started bleating as it stumbled around.

Abby grunted, “Get rid of it, please.” Mimic charged at it and sliced its neck, then he dragged it to a certain part of this fleshy cave, and a pit of acid appeared. The sheep got boiled in the acid pit and went down. Everything started making a gurgling noise. Abby cleared her throat, I could hear it. “That was no success Mimic.”

“Yeah, I have to agree.”

I waited for a couple of hours as I observed their dynamics. Mimic offered me raw meat, I respectfully declined. Somewhere, Abby had caught a rabbit and swallowed it whole, it fell down next to me and Mimic wrapped it up in a cocoon.

“Steve?”

“Yes?”

“The ship has crashed here, at the edge of the island, it seems to be almost falling off. There is no one around. One moment,” Abby heaved and panted, I could feel her body vibrate. “Alright, it is on land.”

I got up, “Alright, let me out.”

Suddenly, I heard Lory. “Abby!? You jumped off, you insane woman. Where is Steve? Have you seen him?”

Abby burst out in laughter, “Oh I have seen him alright, one moment, step back, please.”

Mimic looked at me, he waved, “it was fun to have company.”

“What do you mean Mimic?” Suddenly, the ground I stood on got launched towards the hole, I could feel myself return to my normal size as I got vomited out with all kinds of slime and goo, I rolled onto the ground. I rolled on my back and looked at the dark sky. “Oh, thank god, the sky is beautiful compared to your insides, Abby.” Both Lory and Abby stared at me.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Abby looked at me, “Are you alright?”

I gave her a thumbs up, “I can honestly say, I did not expect to get saved and carried here in that manner, but your insides are an interesting place.”

Lory looked at me, then Abby and back at me. “What the fuck did you do, Steve?”

“I did nothing, she shot purple goop at me. She saved me from becoming a pancake.”

Lory looked at Abby, “You ate Steve?”

I heard laughter coming from somewhere. Funk walked over, “Did I hear that right? Oh my god, Steve, you are not dead!?”

“Where are Haley and Bella?”

Funk pointed somewhere, “They landed in the bushes.”

“You landed inside Abby, I mean, did you not see the wet floor sign? You even had pants on.”

I chuckled, “Haha, very funny.”

Lory sighed, “Steve, we are married, you should not be spending time inside other women.”

“Lory?”

“Yes?”

“I love you a lot, but fuck you.”

She giggled, “Sorry, I could not stop myself from saying it. I am glad you are not dead, thanks, Abby.”

She smiled, “You are welcome. He got the tour from Mimic.”

“Yeah, he is a nice fellow. He kept me company. But damn, that sheep was annoying.”

Abby giggled, “Yeah, not one of my best ideas.”

Funk looked at me, “Sheep?”

“Yeah, it got drained into an acid hole.”

Haley ran over and hugged me, “Oh my god, dad, I thought you were dead!” Then she looked at all the slime, “Ew, you got slime over me, and what is this other stuff?”

“To be honest, I don’t want to know.”

“How did you even manage to survive? Did you use your ace?”

I looked at Bella coming out of the bushes. “Abby ate me.”

Haley looked at Abby, “What?”

“Yeah, it was either that, or he would be dead. Sorry, Steve.”

“Yeah, no worries, otherwise I would have fallen into the lava. Hey Bella?”

“Yes?”

“Did you know, Abby has no intestines? She probably never needs to go to the bathroom.”

Abby sighed and the others laughed. I had to admit, I am glad I am alive, but that was awkward, it did not feel too bad, to be honest. It reminded me of what the white slime showed me. Another flesh cave, maybe I have been inside a creature like Abby before, I am not sure what she is now.

I looked around, “Where are we, and what is our game plan?”

Bella sighed, “We barely managed to land on the edge, like the other side of this island. You will need to travel quite a ways to the capital. And, I need to repair the airship. That might take a week, or two.”

I sighed, “I hear rushing water. We can check it out, I have to get cleaned up.”

Lory nodded, “I am not touching you as long as you have Abby goo on you.”

Abby looked at Lory, “Really, that is not nice.”

Lory looked at her, “You ate my husband, that is not nice.”

“But, I saved your husband, that is a nice thing to do too.”

Lory put her hand on her chin, “Alright, I can let it slide this time.”

Funk just laughed, “I hope he did not give you indigestion.”

Abby laughed, “With that blockage out of the way, I am no longer constipated.”

Haley helped me up, she already had slime all over her, even in her tail and hair. As I walked, I waved my arm around and globs of slime fell on the floor. Haley chuckled, “That is gross.”

I looked at her, “Look who is talking.” We soon made our way to the river. It seemed to be good, fresh water and I sensed no dangers. I am going up ahead to clean my clothes and me. Lory and the others nodded. Once I had some peace and quit, I undressed myself. I found a place that seemed to be like a hot spring. After cleaning myself up in other water, I felt the hot spring, it seemed to be a comfortable temperature. I whispered, “Lory!?”

After a few minutes, she found me. “Hello Steve, you whispered for me? Oh, you are naked, and clean.”

I chuckled, “Look what I found.”

Lory walked over and felt the water, “Is it a hot spring?”

I started undressing Lory, she smiled at me, “This will be fun.” We stepped into the hot spring. “Oh, this is hot!” She smiled, “But it feels good on my skin.”

She rubbed her hands over my back, “Why did you not use your ace? You did not have to let Abby do that, I know she is a friend and all, I am trying to play it cool, but if she were any other woman, I would have fucking murdered her.”

“What, for saving me?”

“She ate you and violated your body.”

“Yeah, well, I panicked, and you know what I think about that ace. I did not mean for her to violate me, and I had not thought you would feel so angry about it.”

Lory growled, “You are mine, not hers, and I know you love and care for her.”

“I don't have anything with Abby, if I were more accustomed to using my, you know, I would have used them, but I never used them before, or even sprouted them.”

Once my body had acclimated to the warm water, I started giving Lory a massage, I felt extremely relaxed. Lory smiled at me as she finally seemed to ease up, “This is a good find.”

“Yeah, it is a good start for our journey, after the rough landing, I have a perfect idea to make you feel better, my love.”

I pulled out a few candles out of my inventory and lit them on the edge of the hot spring. Lory beamed, “Is that what you want?” She came close and gave me a slow and gentle kiss. “That indeed seems to be like a great idea before starting a new adventure.”

I pulled her close to me, “Yeah, now shut up Lorraine, it is getting hot in here, but that must be you.”

She giggled, “Are you going to tease me now?”

“Just a little, pretend I am a pirate and give me that booty.”

Lory kissed me again while giggling, then she put her finger on my lips, “No more teasing, just shut up Steve.”