(This story has two endings. The story contains bursting/the preds being defeated, so be warned!)
 
 
The sound of her own heartbeat in her ears battled against the metallic sprays of coin and other wares as Nat ran to hide in the beasts’ lair. How did it come to this? She was following the plan exactly as they had laid it; flank the beast from all sides, surround and overwhelm it. But the plan had seemingly been a failure before it had even begun; as her elven companion was snatched almost instantly when they entered the chamber. Worse, their fighter had gone running after the monster blindly and without consideration. She saw his end, disappearing into that thing.. It wouldn’t be her. She stopped, hiding behind a pillar to take a breath. ‘Think..’ The howling of distant wind was now the only sound to be heard. That and her panting. She had escaped, if temporarily. There had to be an exit from this place.. While she examined the walls, the arches, and the alcoves of the stoney chamber, she froze when she heard metallic clinks. Footsteps. It had to be the beast. Nat gripped her sword, gently unsheathing the gleaming weapon so as to make as little noise as possible. The clinking grew louder, and louder, and she swore she could hear the breathe of the monster. It was now or never. Dashing from behind the pillar, she emerged, sword swinging - And clanging haphazardly into the stone. It wasn’t there. She darted around, thinking she had just missed it, but no. There was no sign of it. She sheathed the metal once again, and slowly made her way back into her hiding spot, turning away from the center of the chamber. Then she heard the clink again, and it was too late.
 
Without a second to react, she was grabbed. Face-to-face with a handsome, grinning face. Then teeth. Then wet. Then darkness.
 
 
 
 
 
 
***
 
 
 
 
 
 
It was a fine sunny day up in the white mountains, where a cool chilly mist settled dew onto the tough grass and heathers that speckled the land. Tackling one of these gracious green slopes came two hikers, steadily making their way along the wild path across the mountain, seeking adventure. The lead of them put down his travel bag; an oversized brown rucksack, which he had used to lug his gear up this forsaken mountain. A happy sigh resounded from under his mask; they had reached their destination. A stammered voice spoke up behind him, “Finally.. this would have been a lot easier if we just asked to go with them when they were in the shop earlier… we are not fit for this wilderness business, Rod.” The elf turned to his companion, a scarlet, wrapped up tiefling, with two stubby horns. “Come on Eli. This kind of thing is once-in-a-lifetime! Those guys were real adventurers! Going on a real adventure practically behind our garden! It was a struggle, but it was worth it.”.
 
 
 
 
Eli wasn’t as impressed or excited, but even he was in awe at the structure before them. Hidden behind the misty peaks of these mountains laid an old mountain hall, a place of residence for a clan of warriors in times long gone. Rugged and cracked, the square building was carved into the cliffside of the green mountain in front of them, with a clear path of beaten down grass leading to it’s entrance. “So that’s it.. That’s where they went to fight the manticore? And its.. Treasure or whatever..? Are we.. are we g-” “Don’t be silly; Eli! We are absolutely going in there. We didn’t come all this way not to! Come on! We can leave our stuff here and come back later to set up camp.” And before the tiefling could object, Rod was gone. He sighed, and dropped his own rucksack, before jogging off behind him.
 
 
 
 
A rag tied to a wooden pole flapped loosely in the wind. Rod and Eli approached the old structure; following the clear tracks of the adventuring party that had come through before them. Rod had sold them some potions at a shop in their hometown where he worked; and he was immediately taken with them. He eavesdropped on a conversation they were having in one of the aisles, where he learned of their purpose; to slay a mighty beast. A manticore! And in turn, to loot some of the valuables it had no doubt been hoarding. He rushed to Eli’s farm to tell him about it that day, and begrudgingly, the tiefling abandoned his duties to go and see this fantastic place these adventurers were supposedly going to, leaving a day after they had. And here it was in front of them. The doors were pried open, giving them easy entry.
 
 
 
 
There were several long tables with long-since degraded and dishevelled plates, knives, forks, and some tools rotted and worn away laying about on them. More fresh was the fireplace that had been set up in the middle of the room; the ashen remains of which were still slightly orange, clearly having only gone out recently. “Oh, man.. Eli.. this is where they stayed last night! This is so exciting.. We’ll get to stay here tonight if we want! Heh.. and, when we get to it.. We’re nabbing some of that treasure, yeah?”
“If those adventurers let us take any, you mean.”
“Bah! I’m sure they will.. Adventurers are always nice! Good spirited people. They’ll let us take a few coins, surely!”
 
 
 
 
The two continued on, passing a few skeletons. Eli stopped at any given opportunity to examine these; clearly more fascinated by the macabre than any gold or treasure that would otherwise entice anyone else. There was a particularly pristine knife stabbed into the skull of one, and with him effort, he yanked it out. No rust. He may not have been fond of the journey but.. He wasn’t going to pass on the opportunity to yank a few valuables.
 
 
 
 
At the end of the great hall, behind the throne of whatever lord once ruled this house, was a doorless entrance to a hallway. The other exits to this room had caved in or were too overgrown with wild heathers and moss to enter, so this was the only other way the adventurers could have gone. It was a long, and narrow passage, with sconces holding torches lighting the way forward. Rod chuckled, and took a torch from the wall to use himself. “Grab yourself one, Eli, let’s go on! The treasury has got to be down there.. I can almost taste the riches now..” Eli shook his head and pushed past Rod to take the next torch, and lead on from there.
 
 
 
 
Rod stopped about halfway down this hallway to investigate something that caught his eye; something shiny and round. Eli was walking a bit ahead of him while he knelt, shining his light over it. It was a single gold coin. Smiling, he looked down and fumbled with his pouches, pocketing it and ensuring it was secure. As his eyes returned from his his vestments, he found himself looking into the eyes of another. Before he could yelp in surprise, a squishy green hand rose from the ground, almost moist in its pure softness, to cover his mouth. Glancing down, he saw more of whatever this creature was.. Rising from the gaps in the bricks. After a few seconds, it had more clearly formed a humanoid shape, and his eyes widened in horror as he realised it was a gelatinous slime. It’s other hand held his back, and prevent him from fleeing, while the slime licked it’s lips.
 
 
 
Rod blushed. Monsters were devious and slimes were no different, as this one had a handsome and youthful face, with springs of slimy ‘hair’ covering one of it’s eyes, and a slim, softly details body. He wriggled in his grip, but it was too little, too late. The slime boy’s jaw opened, and he reeled back, before lurching forward it’s entire mass. A wooden bonk echoed down the hallway, as Rod dropped the torch he was carrying. From his perspective, the slim had devoured him, and he rapidly travelled down it’s throat. From an exterior point of view however, the slime had moreso engulfed him; Rod had not really moved from where he was, but the slime had pourded over, and reformed all around him. After a few seconds it had regained it’s humanoid shape, and the elf occupied a space in the boy’s now massively swollen belly, stretched thin enough to be translucent. It lay with it’s droopy legs supporting the gut at either side, while it lounged against the cold ground enjoying it’s new meal. The flame from Rod’s torch was still burning on the ground, and casting it’s light against the swollen stomach made the dark shape of Roderick visible inside it as it began to groan, and lightly convulse.
 
 
 
 
Rod grunted and struggled to find his orientation in his slimy green prison. The sounds of his grunts, and shortly thereafter the the slime’s gurgles, were reverberated inside the gut, like he was under a bowl. He did his best to struggle, but the slime was constricting, and his movements, sluggish. After only a few seconds freshly landed into this beast’s gut, he could feel the walls start touching off him, as if they were poking him. It became more and more frequent, and he realized with horror that it was already trying to digest him; the slime gently yet firmly corralling his body. He managed a kick. Then another, but it was no use. The swollen round form swelled out awkwardly and painfully to accomodate his struggles, straining under the pressure, but it did not relent. He felt himself becoming hotter, becoming wetter, as the slime worked on him and the air became thin. He was getting tired. Quickly. He punched out, fruitlessly, vision getting blurry. Another futile kick was answered with a painful growl from the slime’s gut, but to no avail.
 
 
 
 
His vision was about to go dark, when suddenly he was rocked violently. Then again. And again. His eyes widened as, with a wet splash he was deposited onto the hard ground of the hallway, with the slimy goop reforming and dissipating back into the cracks of the floor. Gasping and glancing up, he saw Eli, wielding the dagger he had picked off the skeleton earlier, and a hand outstretched for Rod to take. “Be more fuckin’ careful, would you?” Rod nodded. They took a moment to gather their wits once again; with Eli removing some of his wrappings and shirt to dress Rod, whose clothes were now too damp with slime goop to wear in this cold weather. “Is it..?”
“The treasury is just ahead.” Eli affirmed. “Let’s go, before another slime eats you, huh?”
 
 
 
 
Their lights creep up the dark hallway, approaching the glow at the end of this dank tunnel. Rod is eager to get his hands on some more gold, not just for the sake of riches, but to make this trip worthwhile. He didn’t intend to return from this trip empty-handed, especially after being devoured by a monster and embarrassingly being rescued by his friend. Passing the threshold and under a fallen-apart door that was supposed to keep plunderers such as them out, the tiefling and the elf find themselves in a large, cavernous room. It’s general shape is that of a huge hexagon, with steps dropping central nave down slightly, and pillars the separated the middle from an aisle that circled the entire room.
 
 
 
 
This room, too, was illuminated by torches, and so the two abandoned theirs at the door. The glint of metals in the chamber, confirmed what Rod had been looking forward to this entire time. Piles and piles of gold, in moundss high enough, they created walls and passageways, littered the area chaotically. Chalices, coins, mugs, vases. Even silverware. The place was loaded. Rod thought to himself; ‘This was here the whole time?!’ While Rod piled coins into his pockets, Even Eli found himself in awe of the place, and, dumbfounded, went around some of the piles to see for himself what else might be found here. He ran his fingers through some of the goods, feeling that metal in his hands. Heavy. Cold. Gold. He didn’t like to show his emotions to Rod that much but, he smirked now that he was alone. With all this gold, he could quit the farm. Then what? Build a manor? Buy more farms? Buy the entire town? The possibilities were endless.
 
 
 
 
While he chewed on these thoughts, he hadn’t entirely paid attention to where he was going. He was brought back to reality when he walked into something soft. It bounded him back and knocked him on his ass. Slightly dazed, he looked up. His eyes widened as his ears picked up those low, rolling sloshes behind thick armoured scales, realising what he was looking at.
 
 
 
 
Roderick meanwhile was giggling aloud, practically playing with the gold. His pockets were full of coins and anything he could stuff into them. “Eli! We’re in business forever if we get back to town with this stuff! Do you think those adventurers are in here somewhere?” His voice echoed through the chamber, awaiting an answer. “Eli?”
 
 
 
 
The elf staggered to his feet, the weight of the gold keeping him weighed down somewhat. He rounded a pile of trinkets stacked higher than himself and called again. “Eli? Are you too enamoured with the gold eh? And here I thou-” He stopped, frozen. Around the corner stood a magnificent, scaled beast. He stared at it in awe, from bottom to top. It had the lower body of a monster, like a dragon. Four thick legs with pointed deadly claws adorning each. At the base of it’s neck was the torso of a humanoid, with great big horns on his head, a beautiful face, and clawed arms, not too unlike a centaur, or a naga.
 
 
 
 
Rod looked down again when he heard a crack of metal. The lower half of the beast had it’s scales stretched across a widely bloated body, and he realized with horror that the noise he had heard was the sound of armour crunching inside there, muffled by gurgles and flesh. Putting the pieces together, he realised that in the huge belly of this monster was all that was left of the adventurers. Then he saw, it was slurping down someone else, and his spine shivered. The cat-like tail and the scarlet skin gave it away. It was eating Eli.
 
 
 
 
He was frozen in place. The beast made a long, guttural sluuuuurp, followed by a deep gllllp. Again. Sllrp. Gllp. Sllrp.. Gllp. Each time, more and more of Eli disappeared. After each gulp, the humanoid belly would poked out more, and more, until only the tiefling’s red tail dangled out of his mouth. With a final suck, it gathered up his tail like a loose spaghetti, and downed the rest of the meal, rounding out that pale fleshed orb. Rod could see the bulges of Eli inside it, struggling and pushing with a glk and a grrrrn... The monster licked his fingers, let out a wretched belch, before its eyes lazily met with Rod’s. Horrified, he tried to run.
 
 
 
 
He heard the monster following him - the swaying of it’s underbelly made a telltale sloshing noise - behind him. He picked up his legs to run at full speed. But he only made it a few steps. The gold. The fucking gold! It weighed him down too much, and he lost balance, falling and sliding along the hard ground. Wincing, he flipped himself upright on his back, only to see the monster looming over him. But it didn’t stop. It stepped over him, until he was face to face with it’s massively stretched underbelly. The scaly gut hung threateningly above him before suddenly coming down, and smushing him into the ground. Rod’s world became one of darkness. The only thing he could perceive was the loud sloshing from inside that hellish pit, groaning and rumbling on top of him with a terrible weight. He couldn’t struggle, and he couldn’t see. Just darkness, and gurgles. A warning of what was to come.
 
 
 
 
When the bulge was finally lifted, Rod was dazed, and too slow to react in any meaningful way. Before he knew it, the Manticore had reached down and hoisted him up. Held aloft in the clawed hand of the beast, he got a good look at him. His skin was fair. Perfect, and beautiful. His hair, though long and unkempt, was clean and shining. The monster took a few steps forward, before Rod found himself pinned against the wall of the room. Holding him aloft was the squirming gut that Eli found himself in. Gripping it, the elf blushed. He couldn’t help it. Between his looks, his warmth, the huge belly gurgling, and his predicament, he was quite flustered. The Manticore seemed to notice, and revelled in it, seemingly chuckling. Rod was removed from the wall, and hoisted aloft one last time. That pretty face now licked it’s pursed lips, and the beasts maw opened wide.
 
 
 
 
Rod was plunged beyond pointed sharp fangs, into the monster’s gullet, the light quickly fading as it quickly gulped him down. Gllp. Gllp. Glllllp.. Gllllrrllp.. Each time, with more effort as all around him the fleshy walls pulled him down. There was a tiny reprieve, but it did not last very long, as the noisy, cramped stomach, was already full with Eli, and there was already next to no room as it was.
 
 
 
 
Slowly the elf’s pale feet slid down into the monsters throat, tongue licking around his toes before his mouth clamped shut around them, swallowing the boy whole with one last effort. The Manticore’s humanoid belly ballooned out even more, the bulges becoming slightly more defined as it now contained two entire people inside it. At last, he felt the the rest of his last prey curling up inside his belly, and it stopped growing. Before him now was an absolutely engorged orb of gluttonously fed flesh, worriedly swaying to and fro with the weight of all he had devoured. Clumsily, with both stomachs completely packed to their brim, the Manticore sluggishly returned to his sleeping point.
 
 
 
“Eli!” Rod muttered. “Eli can you hear me?” The walls of the stomach grounded deafeningly around them. “Rod.. it ate you too!” The pale belly was sagging with the weight of them in it. The Manticore looked over it, curious, it’s pale navel stretched quite thin. “Yeah.. is.. Is this it? I think this is it..” What gold Rod had not lost, was now spilling out of his pockets and dropping with wet splashes into the acidic pool of the Manticore’s belly. “Not yet.. Rod.. we can still make it.. It ate way too much.” The monster’s eyes widened as it realised it had swallowed quite a bit of gold with that last meal. It heard the muffled but calm voices talking inside its ridiculously large stomach and began to rub around it’s sides, worriedly trying to soothe it. Then they pushed. It winced. The stomach made a pained and worried grrrrnn as it stretched out of shape. He staggered.
 
 
They pushed again. The grrrrnnnn was louder this time. The Manticore held his belly delicately. His eyes widened.
 
 
They pushed out. In all directions. Then, there was light.
 
 
With a thud, the paid landed in a mess of goop on the ground, with the remains of the monster nearby them. Eli, completely soaked and dropping, crossed his arms. “I am never going somewhere with you again.”