A Warm Rest

Drew shivered and tried to pull her jacket closer around her. She had just been walking home, when a blizzard rolled in unexpectedly. She could barely see two feet in front of her, and it was freezing now. Even the wolf’s fur coat couldn’t help her in this weather. Snow embedded itself in her hair, fur, and clothes. It was a struggle to push against the howling winter wind as she continued down the sidewalk, or at least what she presumed was the sidewalk. She tried to dig inside her purse and grab an umbrella, at least to block this wind.

She pulled out the umbrella and deployed it against the wind, successfully blocking snow from that direction, if making it a bit harder to move. She breathed a very visible sigh of relief, and kept pushing forward. If she’s right, she should only have about two more blocks to go. She can see a bus station as she passes it, giving her an idea of where she is. She smiles, glad to know she’s at least making progress. To her, it even feels a little warmer now, if just from blocking the slices of air.

However, almost immediately after this thought, the gust had a change of heart and direction. Her umbrella jerked hard to her right, pulling her off the ground and knocking her into deep snow off the side of the sidewalk. She groaned and barely tilted her head up to look at her umbrella still locked in her hand. It was completely inside out, trying to break itself further. She herself was buried under a ton of snow now, freezing to death. Rather than try to get up now, she just made an attempt to curl up in the snow, preserving any possible body warmth.

She stayed like this for what felt like a few minutes, when she heard a loud voice call through the howls of the wind, “Hey! Do you need any help, perhaps?” She tried to respond to the masculine voice but found nothing coming from her throat. She could hear snow crunching very close to her, and just barely see the paws of what looked like a fox.

The voice spoke, “Wow, you sure do need some help don’t you?” Again, she tried to do anything, but found no power.

The voice came again, “Well, okay, I usually ask to make sure, but life and death, huh?” Drew felt paws lift her from the snow, disorienting her enough to the point where she couldn’t keep her eyes open. But then it didn’t matter, as she felt the most delightful warmth. Whatever it was was tight, but the warmth to her numb flesh left her uncaring of its source. She felt the warmth progressively overtake her body, moving down across her neck, chest, legs, and finally she felt her toes slip inside. She heard the steady beat of a strong heart as she passed by it, being pushed in waves. And finally, she felt herself spill into a hot muscular sack, binding itself tightly to her shape.

As she thawed, she blinked open her eyes, revealing… nothing. It was dark, but she could feel ripples in the walls of her confinement, as well as a slimy layer. She was almost immediately be able to deduce where she was, and started pushing out against the walls of the stomach of her captor.

“Shh, shh,” came a soothing voice from around her. She stopped in her struggles, and felt a tight embrace of arms through thick flesh.

“W-Where am I?” she asked.

The voice chuckled, “Inside my belly, as you might’ve figured out. But don’t you worry about anything happening to you. I’m just here to warm you right up. Y’see, I’m an arctic fox, made for this sort of weather. And you my dear, are safe inside me. I can control my stomach so I don’t break down my passengers like yourself.”

Outside, an arctic fox stood in the blizzard, unfazed, with a heavily distended belly. He rubbed it gently, comforting his inhabitant. “My name’s Wyn, and you?” he asked.

His occupant answered, “M-my name’s Drew. Thank you for this.”

“No problem!” he exclaimed, as he retrieved her belongings from the snow, including her shoes which fell off while he was slurping her up. He crammed them inside her purse, then threw it over his shoulder. “Always happy to help a freezing animal.” Wyn was able to easily walk through the snow, maintaining a solid grip on the ground despite its instability. He felt Drew adjust as she made herself comfortable, snuggling into the soft, warm bed of the belly. He smiled, and started to walk back towards the sidewalk. He had seen where she was walking before, pawprints easily visible in the snow, so he followed her lead.

As he walked, he held his hanging belly and asked it, “Where do ya live, little lady?”

She murmured, “If you keep following where I was walking… Two more blocks.”

He cooed into his belly, “Perhaps… you’d be interested in getting to know each other better?” Though he couldn’t see, she smiled at the thought. She looked at his muzzle indenting his own belly, and rubbed it from within.

“Perhaps, Wyn,” she cooed back. “Maybe some nice hot cocoa to get you out of this weather. Even an arctic fox like you surely wouldn’t want to bear the cold forever.”

He grinned, muzzle still buried in belly, saying, “So it’s a-- woahoah!”

From inside his stomach, Drew could see Wyn’s muzzle cease denting his belly, then she felt as if she was slung onto him, despite being inside him. She could feel herself laying on something rather than being suspended in air by muscles. She poked the stomach walls, asking, “Hello? Wyn?” No response. She became more active, but there was still no response from the fox.

Outside, an arctic fox with a distended belly laid on his back in the middle of the sidewalk, near a patch of ice. There were scratch marks where he tried to grip onto the ice, but now he was clearly out cold. His belly’s shape became irregular with struggling, someone inside trying to get the attention of its owner. The stomach growled.

Drew, despite all her warmth, was rather worried now about her state of affairs. It would seem that Mr. Smooth-talker Wyn failed to watch where he was walking and knocked himself out. She tried to locate something like his throat, but couldn’t determine the location of anything within the dark, tight chamber. However, she did feel the presence of a much thinner liquid, not at all like the wall’s slime. She was very concerned indeed. She tried to shout through the walls of flesh, but the sound was quickly dispersed by the hoarding howling winds outside.

As warm as she felt, she was starting to feel even warmer. A thick substance pooled beneath her, so she quickly flipped, putting her paws around the fox’s back, and her own back against the top of the stomach. Unfortunately, this maneuver increased the pooling of stomach juices in certain areas, particularly the deep pits where her limbs were now. She growled back at the stomach and decided, good samaritan laws be damned, she was getting the hell out. She attempted to slice her claws against the walls, but only felt herself softly swipe against them.

She pulled a paw out to inspect it as best as she could in the darkness, and realized it was dripping. Drew tried to shake off whatever was on her, only managing to shake off melting parts of her paw. This deeply frightened her, punctuated by a loud gurgling around her. She felt the walls shift, then she slipped and briefly submerged herself in the stomach juices before resurfacing. She gasped, unable to shake off the feeling of endless dripping across her entire body.

She was finding it harder and harder to struggle within the belly, and it certainly seemed like Wyn was never going to wake up in time. As she tried to take a deep breath to scream again, a loud, resounding belch echoed around her. The scream was drowned out by the noise, and she couldn't muster up the strength for another one. She tried to lift her paws back up, though they were notably stuck to the stomach goo. She noticed that she seemed to be slowly descending into the acids, despite them not raising. The air, or lack thereof, was starting to get to her, but she thought, at least it's painless.

*/^\*

Wyn gasped awake, coughing. He sat up on a sidewalk, snow peacefully falling around him. He smacked his lips, trying to remember something… then he released a small burp, and placed his paw over his muzzle. He slowly looked down… his belly was smooth and smaller now. He poked it tentatively, and his finger simply sunk in, the texture of his belly smooth as butter. His stomach rumbled lightly, and he put a paw on his head, saying, “Oh man… oh no… D-Drew?” A growl responded to him, but not from her.

He sat there mourning his briefly known companion when suddenly a phone near him rang. He turned and saw a purse, an electronic light appearing from within. He whined, and panicked. He quickly grabbed the bag, with all of its contents, and shoved it into his maw. The taste of the purse was terrible, the leather making his eyes well up a bit. As he finished cramming in the purse, he grimaced and swallowed hard.

When he got the bag down his throat, he sighed and let out another whine. He put a paw over his re-distended belly, massaging it. He knew this would make him sick later, and it was probably a criminal act, but he panicked and… he didn't mean to digest her! It was an accident. He chided himself for trying something so dangerous and not being more careful. He had held people in his stomach before, but it was always in safer conditions, and he had never digested someone before.

His thoughts were broken as his stomach started to ring and faintly glow. He whined again, and used his stomach control inversely to speed up the digestion of her former belongings. He got up, brushed himself off, quickly glanced around, and then hurriedly walked home.