Technical Difficulties
By PrinnyDood

It was a crisp, pristine morning in the sparsely forested park, and Serria surveyed the two-dozen young women she would soon be escorting to the most elite school in the world.  Bright-eyed, fresh faced little things eager for their first day of study, they clustered together in small groups, or sat near each other on benches, giggling and whispering to each other in excitement.  They were all aged between eighteen and nineteen, the minimum age for admittance into such a prestigious institution of learning, for it would be pure recklessness to teach a child something as powerful and dangerous as magic.  Uniformly dressed in the navy and white outfits they had been issued the day before, Serria noted with some disapproval that the blouses were tighter, and the skirts shorter than she remembered the last batch being.  She made a mental note to have a talk with the fellow in charge of instructing the tailors later.  She was self-aware enough to realize that, at least in part, her annoyance stemmed from how youthful and pretty the young women looked in their uniforms, but quickly reminded herself that she was barely over thirty, and given her figure, had a ways to go before she needed to be envious of any woman.

"Alright!  That's enough dallying!" Sarria shouted, making herself known and startling the crowd into silence, "You won't be having any time for that once classes begin, learning sorcery is a serious, deadly business.  None of your teachers are going to tolerate anything less than total dedication."  Despite her stern demeanor, Sarria smiled inwardly at the looks of wide-eyed apprehension on the faces of the girls, some were even huddled together in little surprised clumps.  Sarria had never been able to resist making a dramatic entrance.  "Now, I'm Professor Hart, and I'll be guiding you to your destination.  I expect you all have your identification with you, as well as the crest that was sent along with your notices of acceptance.  If you have any questions, now is the time."

"Ohhhhnooo!"  Sarria clenched her teeth in frustration at the feminine squeak of horror.  A petite blond girl was searching through her bag frantically, and she looked close to tears.  "I'm soooo sorry, I forgot my crest!"  

Serria looked at  the trembling girl sternly, "What's your name?"

"Umm, Lina.  Lina Tervor," she replied very quietly, looking at the ground the whole time.

"Well, Miss Trevor, it was clearly stated in your letter of acceptance that the crest is needed to prove your identity, and prevent forgery."

The girl swallowed, "I know, I was so sure I packed it..."

"Alright, I'm willing to delay departure by ten minutes for you.  If you can't get back here with the crest by then, you'll just have to wait until next year to begin classes.  Understood?"

"Thank you sooo much!  I don't live far from here, I'll be back in no time!" the girl replied as she sprinted off enthusiastically.

"See that you are," Serria said suppressing a smile, even though her target was well out of earshot by then.  Enthusiasm was good, she knew, so long as it didn't interfere with one's judgment.

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Lina tore down the pavement at top speed, ignoring the stitch in her side.  Her friends Alixia and Breinna had been accepted too, and they hadn't forgotten their crests.  If Lina ended up a year behind them over this, she was sure she would die of humiliation.  When she finally made it back to her parent's estate and tore open the front door, she was overwhelmed with relief to see the butler waiting for her holding the crest, probably having found it while cleaning her room, and foreseen her plight.  Checking the clock as she retrieved the precious item, she noted that she still had almost seven minutes left; more than enough time to get back.  

Unfortunately for her, there was no way for her to know that missing her departure would have been the luckiest thing that could have possibly happened to her.

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"I can't believe she forgot it!" Petra murmured to her tall, dark-haired friend, "Do you think she'll make it back in time?"

"Who knows," Emilia replied conspiratorially, "but if she's enough of an airhead to forget it in the first place, she'll probably get lost on the way to her house."  Both girls giggled unkindly, but went suddenly silent after as they noticed that the scary Hart woman was nearby, and glaring in their direction.

"I'm back!  I've got it!" a breathless Lina exclaimed as she skidded to a halt next to the teacher, sending a ripple of surprised conversation through the assembled girls.

"Alright ladies, now that everything is in order, shall we be on our way?" Miss Hart's voice rang loud and clear across the sea of young females, causing them to fall into step behind her as the teacher led them down a wide, cobble-stone path.  Petra took Emilia's hand nervously, shivering with excitement and apprehension in equal amounts.  

They took notice as their guide began to speak again, this time in an easy, lecturing tone: "As I'm sure you all know, the only way to reach the school is via Teleportation Rune, for security reasons.  Since 18 is the minimum safe age for teleportation, this is likely going to be a new experience for many of you.  Be assured: it's quite safe and not at all unpleasant.  Did you know that the reason Teleporters are currently segregated by gender is an archaic hold-over from when they were first instituted?  Originally, they were so primitive you couldn't use them safely without first stripping nude, and as you can imagine this made mixed gender Teleporters very unpopular.  One of the primary advances in..."  The teacher continued her explanation, but Petra and Emilia has stopped listening, as they had become deeply involved in a whispered discussion about how they might use magic to cosmetically enhance their appearances. 

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The gargantuan, salamander-like amphibian lounged in it's subterranean lair; the warm, moist cavern providing a very comfortable habitat for the creature.  The cave was dimly lit by the blue phosphorescent fungus that thrived on the walls and ceiling, their light reflecting eerily off the small central lake that dominated the cave's features.  The beast was more hungry that it had been since finding it's wonderful new lair, and was dimly aware that it had been almost a week since the last time food had arrived.  A few more days, and it would have to leave through the underwater tunnels, and hunt for it's food as it had done most of it's life.  Still, what it could catch was bitter and hard compared to the delicious morsels it had so recently become accustomed to.

As though in response to the creature's growling stomach, the spot it was watching intently lit up with luminous activity, the bright, eldrich glow issuing from the rune on the floor heralding the arrival of soft, sweet nourishment.  The beast rose to it's feet excitedly, trotting over to the glowing rune in preparation for the feast to come.

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This first thing Petra noticed after passing through the teleporter, was that their destination was far darker than she had imagined it would be.  She found Emilia's hand again as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.  After just a moment, she heard a wet slapping sound, followed by a high-pitched yelp and than a more muffled, almost obscene squelching sound.  

"What was that?" Petra murmured, confused and concerned, as she squinted into the oppressive blackness, but couldn't make out any shapes, only faint blue patches of light all around them.  That odd sequence of sounds repeated again: slap, yelp, squelch, and a din of frightened female whispers rippled through the group in response.  Petra was beginning to grow genuinely scared, surrounded by unfamiliar darkness and strange noises, when Miss Hart's confident voice cut through the blackness

"Please stay calm, we're all perfectly safe.  The teleporter seems to have suffered some kind of technical error.  I'm going to create some light,"  she then spoke several quick, unintelligible words, and the cave was suddenly filled with brilliant white light.

Petra had to cover her eyes while she adjusted to the glare, and when she could finally see again, her heart almost stopped at the sight before her.  She had never seen an animal so huge before; it's lizard-like head was held at least a dozen feet off the ground, and the rest of it's body was so enormous she couldn't begin to guess at it's full size.  Even more terrifying, it seemed keenly interested in the soft, tiny creatures huddling together on the now-dormant rune, staring up at it in mute shock.

Before anyone could react, it opened it's mouth slightly, and it's massive pink tongue sprang forth with deadly accuracy, striking a girl just a few feet from Petra full in the chest with a wet slap.  She cried out as she was whisked along with the tongue as it withdrew, all but one leg disappearing into the creature's mouth.  The solitary kicking limb vanished with a decisive slurp, and the monster's throat rippled as it swallowed, making a horribly familiar squelching sound.

At this point, the women had gotten over their initial shock, and began screaming and running around randomly in blind terror.  Petra and Emilia, of course, were no exceptions.  Everything was a blur of frantic movement, and Petra was having a very hard time seeing anything, but she somehow maintained her hold on Emilia, even through the sudden, staggering force of the sticky tongue slamming squarely into her back.  Unfortunately, this caused Emilia to stagger in response to Petra's abrupt stop, spinning to the side and reflexively catching herself on the nearest solid object; in this case, the creature's sticky tongue.

The world blurred around Petra as she and her friend were whisked through the air, stuck hopelessly to the huge organ as it pulled them screaming into the beast's mouth.  Everything went utterly dark as hot, gooey saliva instantly soaked through her clothes, slicking her hair to her head at the same time.  Both young women flailed in blind panic, clinging to one another in the brief moment before the creature swallowed.  They were shoved back towards the amphibious thing's throat unceremoniously by it's massive tongue, and were soon sliding easily down the fleshy tube, wiggling ineffectually as they approached the stomach that would be their final stop.  Petra was quite preoccupied by the realization that she was about to be digested, but were she not, she might have been curious about the extremely improbable series of events that led her to such a fate.  Not that understanding would have done her much good anyway.

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Serria Hart was stunned into dumb inaction by the shear absurdity of the events taking place around her.  She knew that in a small percentage of teleportations an error could occur, the results of which being that you were sent to the wrong destination, but you would still only end up at one of the other valid teleport destinations.  No harm done but a few minutes wasted.  

Such an error had clearly taken place, but Serria was unaware of any destination located inside a cave.  Let alone a cave inhabited by a building-sized amphibious monster.  She watched in horror as yet another squealing girl was swept off her feet and into the beast's waiting mouth, it's throat rippling briefly as it swallowed her without hesitation.

Serria snapped herself back into reality, remembering that it was her duty to protect these girls, even against the most unforeseeable of threats.  Collecting her wits, she quickly decided there was no time for finesse or subtly.  With the pace that her charges were being consumed, the direct approach was the only viable option, and bisecting somethings head is about as direct as you can get.

Summoning the necessary energy and coaxing it into the form of a nearly two-dimensional plane of force took all of Serria's focus, the words and gestures flowing into each other with familiar ease.  She was almost done when she noticed that her incantations had caught her target's attention, and reacted almost to late.  Frantically rushing her attack, she hurled her spell at the creature even as it lowered it's head to examine her, the lethal saber of force sailing over it's head harmlessly, missing its mark by a huge margin.

Serria blinked in disbelief, so stricken by her bad luck that she couldn't even react, until the creature's tongue actually smacked into her chest, throwing her to the ground roughly.  She tried to beat the adhesive organ away ineffectually, only succeeding in getting her arms stuck as well.  Hopelessly glued, the sorceress writhed and twisted as the tongue pulled her through the air toward her doom, her wriggling form finally disappearing into it's mouth with an efficient snap.  Surrounded by sticky, undulating flesh, Serria moaned in despair, knowing she'd wasted the one shot she'd had at the creature.  While she possessed the power to blow it apart from the inside, she was utterly incapable of the calm focus necessary to do so, not while she slid head-first down it's rippling, muscular throat.  And the chances that a massive stomach already occupied by a half-dozen panicked girls would be any better seemed slim beyond hope.

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Lina huddled in a tiny crevice in the wall of the cave, currently out of the monster's field of vision, watching helplessly as it's tongue darted out again and again.  It seemed there was no escape from it's unerring accuracy, and each time the organ returned from whence it came, it carried one or more of the frantic, terrified girls with it.  A cacophony of feminine screams mixed with the horribly wet, intermittent swallowing noises, echoing throughout the cavern as the crowd of young females gradually thinned.  

The creature was efficient and utterly merciless in it's task, slurping up Lina's friends and peers with all the regard a frog gives to a cricket.  Soon the screams had died down considerably (or rather, most of those screaming were quite muffled due to their location inside the creature's stomach), and the remaining girls had adopted Lina's tactic of hiding in the nooks and crannies that peppered the walls of the cave.  With miss Hart's spell of illumination still in full effect, Lina could easy make out the creature's massive, sinewy form as it moved about the cavern, rooting out the hiding women one by one.  Their numerous hiding places provided only temporary cover, and no real protection once they were discovered.  

Once located, the girls didn't last long.  The monster's searching tongue was easily able to squeeze it's way into the places where they hid, within moments pulling them screaming and wriggling from their sanctuaries, to be devoured like all the rest.  

Lina could barely stand it.  Knowing, without doubt that it would soon be her turn, and that there was nothing to be done.  No escape.  Her heart thundered in her chest as the creature approached her hiding place languidly, it's stomach notably fatter than before.  Pressing back into her hiding place as tightly as she could, she wished furiously that her stupid, stupid butler hadn't been so quick about finding her crest, that she might have avoided this fate.  Fresh tears pricked the corners of her eyes as the huge pink tongue extended towards her.  All light from the illumination spell was blocked out as the organ squeezed it's way into her hiding place, filling her ears with slimy, obscene sounds as it worked it's way toward her trembling body.

Warm, squishy tissue suddenly pressed firmly onto Lina's chest and torso, drawing a yelp from the frightened girl.  Before she could really think about anything but her own dread of the doom that awaited her, the tongue began to carefully withdraw, tugging hard on the front of her uniform where it had adhered.  With desperate strength she wedged her arms and legs against the narrow walls at her sides, crying and whimpering in fear.  Not at all surprisingly, Lina wasn't strong enough to resist the tongue's withdrawal, but as it turned out the fabric of her uniform began to give out before her strength did. 

The buttons of her blouse popped one after another, followed by the sound of cloth shredding as her uniform came apart at the seams, failing under conditions it was never meant to endure.  Lina's limbs trembled with effort and beads of sweat formed on her firm young flesh, as she was ever-so-slowly pulled from the crevice by her increasingly tattered clothes.  Then, as though by some miracle, her clothing finally tore free from her all at once, her skirt and blouse exiting with the tongue, and herself falling back against the far wall of her hiding place.

Alive and no longer stuck to the end of that abominable tongue, Lina released a shuddering sigh of relief, grateful beyond belief that she was not joining her clothes (and peers) in the belly of that monster.  She could see nothing of the creature from her position, but tried to slow her rapid, staccato breathing for fear it might return.  Now clothed in nothing but her sensible white bra and panties, she felt somehow even more vulnerable than before.

Seconds passed, and Lina's breathing gradually evened out, and she began to wonder hopefully if it had indeed given up.  This left her in a difficult position, as she couldn't leave her hole without risking the monster's attention, but she also had no idea when, if ever, rescue might arrive.  She could see the illumination from miss Hart's spell beginning to fade as the light pouring into her hidey hole slowly dimmed, and realized that she had to act soon, or risk trying to escape in utter blackness.

As Lina edged gingerly forward, the little remaining light vanished all at once, bathing her in oppressive darkness.  For a moment she thought the light spell had ended, but the squishing sounds and sudden humidity told her it was far worse than that.

"No!"  Lina squeaked as panic gripped her body, her flight or fight reflex screaming in her fear-addled mind.  But there was nowhere to go, and no way to fight.  She wiggled back to the far wall of her crevice once again, her rapid breathing causing her pert young breasts to bounce slightly with each expiration.  It didn't take long, waiting in the dark for the slimy touch that would seal her fate, before she felt the tongue's sticky embrace.  This time there were no clothes between her and the hot, seeking organ, and she shuddered as it's adhesive saliva contacted her bare flesh.  It pushed harder than before, forcefully pressing her against the wall at her back, making sure it had a firm hold on her.  She squirmed helplessly, but the massive tongue ignored her protests, shifting and undulating until she was thoroughly glued to it's tip.  Now stuck from her slender throat down to her bare thighs, Lina couldn't resist being carried along as the tongue withdrew, horribly slowly, as though relishing it's victory.

No amount of twisting or pulling seemed to make a difference, and in her increasingly desperate struggles she made the error of trying to shove the tongue away with her arms, to predictable results.  With her limbs now stuck as well, Lina really had no options but to squirm and cry as she was brought ever closer to her doom.  The moment she cleared the boundary of her sanctuary, she was jerked off her feet with sudden force, a exclamation of fear and surprise escaping her lips.

Struggling and kicking feebly as she went, Lina was pulled rapidly through the air, bound inescapably to the creature's tongue.  Moments later darkness enveloped her, and she shuddered at the feel of heavy, hot saliva coating her semi-nude form, rolling thickly over the supple curves of her young body.  Viscus liquid and spongy flesh surrounded her wiggling form, and the adhesive that held her to the tongue was rapidly loosing it's hold in the moist environment.  In terrible irony, Lina found herself clutching at the tongue, it's sticky embrace now the only thing between her and a one-way trip into the belly of the beast.  Her defiance was short-lived however, as the tongue dislodged the crying female and stuffed her to the back of the throat in a single, efficient motion.  One thunderous swallow later, and she was sliding smoothly down towards her inevitable fate. 

Lina had expected her life would come to a close at a much later date, and never imagined it would happen digesting in the stomach of some improbably huge monster.  Squeezed tightly as she was amongst the slippery, squirming female bodies surrounding her, Lina could barely move in the cramped space.  Even if she could, it would have done little to slow the work of the digestive enzymes coating her nubile body.  Trapped in the oppressive darkness with nothing to do but wait for the inevitable, Lina took some small, odd comfort in the knowledge that she was not enduring her fate alone.  But given the nature of that fate, it was a very small comfort indeed.

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The enormous, nameless amphibian settled into it's favorite spot in the cave, the frantic struggles of the numerous soft, warm creatures in it's belly producing a very satisfying sensation.  There had been an unusually high quantity of the delicious little morsels, and the creature greatly enjoyed digesting it's generous catch.

The creature didn't understand (nor was capable of understanding, really) the complex series of human errors that resulted in groups of tender young human females being erroneously delivered to it's home on a fairly regular basis.  Nor did it know that it's cave had once been the staging ground for a high-end smuggling operation.  All it knew was that so long as the flow of sweet, soft prey items continued, it would continue to happily consume them.  

Sadly, no one ever did find out what happened to Serria Hart and her would-be students, chalking the disappearance up as another 'unsolvable mystery'.  Even more unfortunate (for the female population anyway), was the fact that fixing the ongoing, but 'harmless' teleportation errors was a very, very low priority.  The tragic result being that many more young women found themselves unwillingly contributing to the nourishment of a huge monster.  All due to a simple technical error.