The crowd today was more than one would expect for such a thing as showing off a new fertilizer, but then, the company that made it wasn't some small broker, and so they'd literally shelled out a large wad of cash, which explained my presence, being an employee of one of the largest technology firm on the planet, and my friend beside me who I'd invited just for the heck of it, and he'd come for the same reason, because he'd had nothing better to do.

“And these, ladies and gentlemen, are only the first test, grown in simulated conditions, including volcanos and arctic, most of them, even harsher than the real thing. Out in the wild, and under real world conditions, we actually expect them to do even better, and as a test of how sure we are of our product I direct your attention to the table we have prepared for you,” and at the speaker, a human,'s words every eye turns to the table, laden with more food than anyone could expect to eat in a month, and all of it tantalizing to look at.

“Every item there was raised made using our crops, the meat even comes from animals fed them their whole lives, without any reaction at all,” says the speaker, and the crowd, a mixture of anthros and humans gives light applause as the whole group begins to shift, but as my friend, a black jaguar anthro got up to join them I grabbed his arm and shook my head.

“So what did you think of the presentation?” I asked Jag as we waited, the presentation having been a three hour lecture on how the fertilizer worked, and exactly what it did for the plants grown using it. Now I had a background in engineering, and so knew how to sit through such things without being bored, even when I had no idea what the speaker was talking about, but I'd only known Jag for a little while, and so I wondered how he'd taken the whole experience.

The feline yawned to himself as he rested one of his paws against his cheek, trying his best not to fall asleep while this one person was giving their speech. It was true that he had nothing better to do and showing off fertilizer was probably going to be the pinnacle of his day. Well at least he had decided not to be lazy and probably showed everyone that he could actually go out and do something rather then lay in bed or wander about his house.

Although maybe instead of going with Moonfang he should have stayed in bed, since this entire speech was becoming nothing but a big blur to him. His eyes shut halfway and he started to daydream a little, following a made up trail with his eyes around the speaker and then around some other people that were in the room. With another yawn Jag shook his head and tried to look more interested. All this talk about food was kind of making him hungry, his stomach giving a light growl as he blinked a few times to keep himself awake.

Soon the speaker finally goes silent and Jag follows in with clapping with the rest of the crowd, trying his best to do it enthusiastically. With it finally being food time, he sprung up and was about to leave the table, but felt his arm being grabbed and his body pulled back into the seat. He glanced at Moonfang and nodded to him before looking at the crowd getting food. He hardly noticed anyone giving him a weird look, mostly cause of not paying attention, but a black spotted feline at a table with a wolf may have looked a bit weird to a few.

“Oh the presentation, yeah…um…” Itching his ear he gives a little smile and looks about again. “Yeah! Best three hours of my life. Wasn't boring at all. Made a real impact, can't wait for them to actually grow a whole bunch more of that food and serve it to other people.” He looked back at Moonfang with a smile on his face, giving a little nervous chuckle, trying to make it look like he'd paid at least a little attention to the speaker.

He tried his best to hide it, or at least I thought he was trying to hide it, but I could tell, the feline had been bored out of his mind through most of the lecture. Not that I could blame him, I myself had expected something ore than talk at a gala like this, with some of the greatest minds in the bioengineering field here today, and yet all the speaker had done was speak, giving nothing visual to help accentuate the verbal part of the presentation.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I at least expected them to have some kind of visual presentation to go along with this, but looks like the firm blew the whole budget on getting everyone here, so I guess they had to take the cheap option when it came to actually telling us about their product,” I apologized, smiling at him. I knew this probably wasn't his cup of tea, and though my ears were a little worse than his I could hear his stomach growling at the prospect of food. Heck my own grumbled a little bit at being able to smell it, and yet not being able to touch.

Turning back from him I was surprised to find most of the crowd had already gotten as much as they cared to get and left. That fact became less surprising when I considered the kind of clientele that had shown up for the presentation, most of them being among the upper classes of society, and thus used to taking only small meals. Many had already left the room where the presentation was being held for the outside patio, and as the last one drifted out of a sight, and we became the last two in the room, I walked over towards the food table.

“Come on, time to grab as much as we can carry,” I said to Jag with a grin, and got up from the seat. The table was still laden with many different kinds of food, and my mouth began to water at the sight of it all. So much so was I focused on the food that I didn't notice a small pipe in the ceiling overhead was vibrating, as if inside the pressure was building up until it was ready to burst.

He kept glancing from side to side as people went up and grabbed some food and then began to sit back down in a pretty orderly fashion. He also tried his best to eye what they exactly was up at the buffet, but couldn't get much of a glimpse, barely catching things on other people's plates as they walked by him. Turning his attention back to Moonfang, he shrugged lightly at him and chuckled.
“Oh, Don't worry about things. It was fun to actually get out of the house and do something rather new. It would have been nice to at least have a pie chart or something to see, but three hours of straight talking, I'm not sure how some people do it or get away with it, hehe.”

Jag glanced down at the floor some, looking down at his legs and swaying them gently from side to side to try his best and kill time as everyone else went up there to get there food. He suddenly perked his ears up as the room got almost too quiet and he looked about, seeing one last person head out to the patio. He slowly looked around the entire room, the two of them being the only ones left. As Moonfang got up and began to walk toward the food table, Jag did the same, stretching his back and arms out some and trying not to yawn as he followed behind the wolf. Glancing over at the food, Jag licked his lips a few times, but stalled as his ears perked a bit, looking upward as he heard something vibrating overhead, squinting some to try and see what it was.

“Hmmm…weird?”

The food made me happy I'd come, and grabbing two slices of bread, made from grains raised on the fertilizer, I set it on a plate, and then, reaching into the pile I felt something slip, and looked down to find the belt pouch I was wearing had slipped open, and a coin rolled out and under the table. Cursing my luck I set my plate with the two slices of bread on it on the floor in front of the table as I crawled under it, grabbing the coin. As I was under there I heard Jag's words and turned to ask him what he was talking about.

At the same time a light hiss flew across the room, and as I crawled out from under the table I looked up to find Jag was gone, and overhead the pipe had split a seal, sending a small jet of gas down on the table, although it was already fading away by the time I got up. Looking around for him I could not find Jag anywhere, and figured he'd run off to find someone to tell about the seal, which was already closing back up, and so I chuckled, lifting my plate back up, and not noticing the tiny weight that had added itself to it, or the dark dot in the very center of the bread, which was jumping up and down trying to catch my eye, until I laid a slice of baloney on top of it, blocking it from view as anything more than a tiny lump in my soon to be finished sandwich.

Jag looked back at Moonfang as he heard a light clutter of something hitting the ground as he looked up at the pipe. He half turned to glance over at Moonfang going underneath the table before staring back up at the ceiling as another noise caught his attention and a loud hiss began. Jag closed his eyes some as he got a blast of whatever was in the pipe right to the face, causing himself to stumble back some and a second later fall on his back, on something rather soft as well.

He opened his eyes and began to look around, breathing a sigh of relief that he wasn't hurt. He then began to get up and then looked down at the ground, yelping some seeing that it was brown. Another yelp escapes him as he looked up in front of him to see Moonfang larger then he had ever been. With a glance about all he saw around him as a large amount of oversized food, which made him very nervous. He began to jump up and down, waving his arms in the air and shouting up at the wolf, trying his best to get his attention somehow.

“Hey! Moonfang! Down here! Look at me! Help!”

He began to back up seeing something coming down on him, and let out a muffled yelp as he felt a slice of meat placed on top of him, making him start to wiggle about to try and work the heavy piece of baloney off him.

Wondering where it was Jag could have gotten off to I finished my sandwich, placing atop the baloney a slice of cheese and lettuce, before putting on the other slice of bread. Looking around I found no trace of my friend, but didn't worry too much. After all, he'd turn up eventually, or so I thought to myself. In the meantime I looked down to my plate, and decided that the sandwich was enough for me, at least for now.

The presentation wouldn't resume for at least an hour, and so I had plenty of time to come back for more should I choose to, and thus, with that thought in mind, I walked back to the seat where I'd been sitting and set the plate with my snack on Jag's. Lightly picking up the sandwich I looked back out onto the patio, where the clientele of the company made small talk with the one's hosting the luncheon, and I felt like barfing.

This whole thing had been a farce, with little real value scientifically, though many of the words sounded very much like they were real, it was all just technobabble, designed to distract the listener, and probably make them a little more willing to let the company take a few hundred from the bank in order to fund more research into the product, which, though it might work, only the ones who made it had any idea how, and were literally feeding the upper echelons of the company a steady stream of junk.

Muffling a few calls for help underneath the baloney, Jag tried to find a way out, but just found himself basically doing circles underneath the slice of meat. He then felt a few other things being placed on top of him, worrying him even more since now there was an even greater chance that he wouldn't be seen and helped. He sighed some and rolled onto his back, trying to use his feet to push up on the sandwich layers, but it didn't do much.

He could feel himself being carried, or at least thought he could since he felt a bit of movement around him, mostly the sound of air rushing past him as the plate moved with Moonfang. He then felt everything stop and then the sandwich began to rise into the air, causing him to start and wiggle about a bit more. Through all of the sandwich toppings, Jag could still hear a bit of a loud rumbling coming from below him and that's when he really started to panic. He remembered that this was a sandwich that he was in and with the two of them being hungry, he knew what was going to happen to the sandwich.

“Help! Moonfang help me! Ahh--!”

Jag felt a bit of air brush by his footpaws as a large bite was taken just under him. He quickly began to circle underneath the toppings and managed to stick his head and paw out, waving frantically for help.

“Moonfang! Stop eating!”

As I chewed on my first bite of sandwich I swore I could hear a high pitched whine, like a scream, but not. Pulling the snack away from my maw I looked around the room, turning back towards the pipe, which I was sure was the only thing capable of making the noise, and yet, if I hadn't known any better I would have sworn the sound had come from in front of me, but looking that way showed me only the door way to the reception hall in which I sat, and no one was out there, at least not as far as I knew, and then I heard something even odder. It sounded something like Jag's voice, and yet distant and high pitched. As if he were far away and sucking helium gas while shouting something out.

“Jag?” I call out, looking into the plant that lays beyond the entryway, but not moving to go into it. After all as an employee of a rival company it would look highly suspicious if I were to go snooping around looking for a voice I thought I heard. Standing up I stared as hard as I could into the darkness, but after a few minutes decided it had to be nothing. With nothing better to do until Jag showed up I took another bite of the sandwich, and the tiny lump inside it vanished into my maw with it, as I slowly began to chew it into paste.

He sighed in relief as he saw the sandwich being pulled away from the large wolf mouth in front of him. He took a few deep breaths before starting to yell to get his attention again, hoping to point him down toward where he was in the sandwich. He called out to him as loud as he could, trying his best to wave that one paw around in the air to try and get his attention as well, but so far all he had gotten him to do was pull the food away from him, he hoped that give him enough time to get Moonfang to notice him.

“Yes! I'm right in front of you!”

Jag struggled some to pull himself out from in between the sandwich, getting his second paw free and waving frantically as he saw Moonfang stand up and start looking around some more. He growled some and let out as loud a roar as he could.

“I'm here!”

Soon he felt himself being pulled in closer to the wolf's mouth and it opened up in front of him, causing him to yelp some at the sight of the pink maw coming near him. He wiggled a bit and tried to drag himself out of the food, but found himself inside of the maw with the sandwich, starting to wiggle about to avoid the teeth, sliding free of most of the food and trying to get a grip on the tongue.

The second bite from the sandwich tasted a bit different from the first, and I couldn't figure out why. And just before my lips had closed around it I had been sure I'd heard Jag's voice, though what it had said was a complete mystery to me. Still it had sounded urgent, and I wanted to go into the building to search for him, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I liked Jag all well and good, but I'd worked hard to get where I was today, and I wouldn't throw it all away just because he wandered off. Besides, nothing in the plant should have been active today, and he should have been fine as long as he didn't fall into a vat of chemicals or something, of so I thought.

With that thought firmly in mind I proceeded to chew what was in my mouth, and as I did I felt something odd. Like a tiny dot of flavor that shouldn't have been there. Moving it around with my tongue I couldn't shake the impression that it was furry, and at the same time warm, and yet, the food here was supposed to be completely healthy, and the only thing I could think of that would cause the feeling in my mouth was mold, though as I moved the tiny dot around my mouth I didn't think it tasted like mold. It actually tasted quite good, to tell the truth, and slowly I covered it with saliva in preparation to swallow it down.

The feline flavor was what gave that bite of the sandwich a kick, a bit of a rare taste due to Jag being such a rare species. Although he didn't much favor being toppled about inside of the wolf's mouth, trying to hang onto anything to get his balance. His fur was quickly matted down with sticky saliva inside of the maw, bits and pieces of the sandwich sticking to him as the tongue worked over him, his paws grasping at it as he wiggled about and tried his best to hold onto it. This wasn't his idea of going out and doing something. He called out for help again, trying to yell as loud as he could in the echoing maw. The tongue pushed about against him, tasting his body and causing him to wiggle and squirm even more.

Nothing more then just a sticky, soaking feline, Jag let out a loud whimper as he crawled forward on the tongue, trying to move closer to the front of the mouth, but then felt his body sliding back some. Glancing behind his shoulder he saw the back of Moonfang's throat, his eyes adjusting some to the darkness around him to see it pulse as a bit of food made it's way inside. A cold shudder crossed Jag's mind and he grabbed a hold of the tongue, wrapping his arms about it and hanging on for as long as he could, not wanting to get swallowed by his friend.

“Help! Don't swallow!”

I heard it that time, I was sure of it. Jag's voice. Muffled and distant, yes but still his voice. Yet, at the same time it had sounded close too, and I couldn't shake the feeling that he was somewhere nearby. So thinking I decided to look up, thinking he might be on the roof somehow, and with the building's glass ceiling I would be able to see him easily. I had however forgotten in my moment of panic that my mouth was full, and the instant my eyes went up I felt everything in my mouth slide down, and with one gulp I swallowed it all down.

For a second I was concerned, as I had been near to spitting out that one little bit that had tasted warm and fuzzy. Still it had seemed alright, after all they wouldn't have let anything dangerous get into the food considering the type of guest the company had at the luncheon, and so as the squishy lump in my neck made its way into my body I pushed the tiny furry dot out of my mind, and looked all about, hoping to see some sign of Jag, but as before finding none at all. Now I was beginning to get concerned, and I felt my stomach begin to churn harder because of the stress I was feeling, just in time to receive the latest load I'd sent to it.

Inside of the mouth, everything goes still for a few moments, another sigh of relief coming over Jag as he shook some chewed up food out of his fur and began to crawl forward on the tongue. A brief second later he felt a vertigo sensation and his body fell with the rest of the food to the back of the mouth. He felt a swallow around him tug him into a dark slimy passage and he began to whine and wiggle on his way down, knowing exactly where this was going to lead him to. He wiggled and squirmed as best he could as he felt the throat tugging and pulling him down, a deep grumble echoing in his ears as the bulge containing him went down Moonfang's throat and then disappeared into his stomach.

With a wet plop, the contents containing Jag fell into the stomach and he began to churn around with the rest of the food inside the hot, smelly stomach. He wiggled his nose and tried to cover it with his paws, but found himself in too much movement to stay anywhere for long. He began to wiggle and pound against the stomach walls as best he could, trying to get Moonfang to throw him up.

With a light toss I threw the rest of the sandwich into my mouth and began to look around at the silent walls around me. I had been sure I'd heard Jag's voice that time, and he'd sounded like he was in trouble. Yet at the same time the only place he could have been was in the labs, and I was still unsure of what was back there, and of course of getting caught and finding myself in a world of trouble and lawsuit. Still I couldn't just leave Jag hanging, and so getting up I made my way over to the entryway that led deeper into the facility.

Searching around I tried to find some trace or sign of Jag anywhere, which was actually quite difficult as the room where the presentation was being held was right off the main lab floor, probably with the next part of the presentation being the practical side of everything, where they demonstrated the fertilizer and the ways in which it was made for all to see. Luckily this meant the area was relatively well lit, and swallowing down the remainder of my snack without chewing it at all I made my way into the halls of the lab, intent on finding Jag.

Coughing and sputtering some in the hot, dark stomach of the wolf he tried his best to call out for some type of help, using his paws to beat against the stomach walls whenever he got a real chance to do so. His body felt heavy and wet as he tried his best to move to one part of the stomach, trying to get away from all the noise and movement inside. He then heard something above him and looked up, yelping loudly seeing the rest of the sandwich being swallowed down whole, plopping right next to him and causing the tiny feline to shiver some. Seeing that he was alright he did his best to get on top of the sandwich, hoping that it would prevent him from moving around too much as he took a few deep breaths.

“Moonfang! I'm in your belly! Get me out of here! I'm not food!”

Jag kept losing his balance and falling down on the sandwich, feeling Moonfang's body moving about from the inside.

Feeling a little upset to my stomach I walked into the main lab floor. Inside my body, my belly was grumbling with displeasure at something and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. It felt almost as if something were scratching at the walls of my stomach trying to get out, but the only thing I'd eaten today had been the sandwich and that little furry bit of mold couldn't have been alive, could it? No, I was just imagining things. I had to be.

“Jag! Where are you?!” I cried out in a hoarse whisper, hoping for him to hear me and no one else, all the while patting my stomach with my palm, which sounded like the dull thud of a bell, wishing for it to calm down, at least until I could find Jag. Then I spotted a fountain, marked conveniently enough as drinking fountain, and patting my stomach harder I made my way over, hoping to drown the trouble with some ice cloud water.

The feline tried his best to push himself against the stomach walls, trying to upset the stomach in anyway that he could in order to get out of this alive, since he surely wasn't made to be food for a friend, even if he just happened to be the right size due to some accident. He could hear each loud gurgle around him, the stomach obviously a bit upset with him being there, so he tried even more to try and force Moonfang to get him out, whether he knew it or not. He then heard Moonfang's voice echo around him some, calling back as loud as he could.

“In you!!”

He felt each pat from the outside, which echoed out loudly as a thud around the tiny feline. He growled some and pushed his body against the stomach walls, another pat forcing him down onto his back.

Walking forward to the fountain I suddenly heard something very odd, like he hiss from before, and looking over I saw another pipe ready to burst, probably having scared Jag deeper into the lab. Unlike the one about the presentation hall though, this one was easily readable, and after a long series of number that was the compounds different measurements, including the temperature and pressure in the pipe was its name, written in plain speak.

“Biological Restoring Agent?” I read, not sure what that mean, and then all at once the pipe let out a sharp hiss, and suddenly a stream of super cool, very high pressure gas shot out, striking me in the chest. As it hit I felt like every cell in my body was being ripped apart, and then, with a flash of pain I was thrown to the floor, and a terrific belch escaped my lips. Twisted over for a second I slowly opened my eyes, being assaulted now by a smell that I felt was horrid and rank, and reminded me mildly of vomit, to behold the form of Jag, covered in various fluids, though seemingly unharmed, and looking for all the world like he'd gone through a blender.

Inside of the stomach Jag pushed himself against the walls again and then whined some as he started to back away from them. His fur began to tingle lightly as he touched whatever had started to come coat the stomach walls. He raced through his mind and then whined again knowing that it was acid, coming in to start and break down everything that Moondfang had eaten, which included him. He shuddered some, shaking his head and took a deep breath.

“MOONFANG!”

Then something else happened, the feeling of his body starting to pulse as the stomach around him rumbled and he felt himself crash into the side of the stomach wall with such a force that he thought something really bad had happened to Moonfang. No more then a second later hitting the stomach wall he felt his body being pulled upward and a sudden loud belch around him splashed him into a light filled room, which was rather cold and made him shiver as he felt his body acting a bit weird. He glanced to the side hearing his name and then looked at his body, having been big once more. He sighed in relief and let Moonfang help him up to his feet, coughing and wiggling his nose some to get some foul acid out of his mouth.

“Some pipe broke above me and the next thing I knew I was being made into a sandwich and getting up close and personal with your insides…”

"Hmm? Well then, I guess this wasn't such a boring presentation after all," I told him, and looked over at the pipe, wondering what could have been in the one over the presentation area that could have caused him to shrink. At the same time I felt a grumble from within me, and looking back towards that area I saw that no one had come back in yet, and with a quick paw I literally dragged Jag back into the room before we were caught, and then, stepping in I saw the table of food and went over to it, drooling at the sight of it all, preparing another sandwich in quick succession and then offering it to Jag without thinking about it.

Chuckles some to himself and nods a few times at what Moonfang had said, wiping his fur off a bit as he started to dry in the air around him.

“Well I guess it wasn't that boring…heh…”

He smiled at the wolf and stretched his arms in the air and then found himself being dragged back to the room we had already been in, back where all the food was. He carefully followed Moonfang back over to it all and watched him prepare another sandwich, finding it being offered to me a second later. Jag smiled and took it from him, taking a bite from it and murring some as he chewed and swallowed, his mind giving him a reminder that while he may have been in a stomach no more then three minutes ago, he was still really hungry. Although he was keeping an eye out for any pipes that had it out for him now.