"Just a little further." Markus said, trudging through the sand as he led the party forth, his staff held aloft to cast an array of light around the party that both protected everyone from the sandy wind and pointed towards their destination. The great sage was well experienced, and he had led his fellow magic-casting companions through thick and thin. This seemingly endless ocean of sand and sun was not the hardest thing they had gone through, not by a long shot. "I can sense its lingering arcane energy more clearly with each step. The buried temple is close." He determined sagely. "Beware the sand worms. We are likely to encounter any as we press forth."
 
From behind Markus leading everyone forward, Auria gently elbowed the green healer in the center of the four party pack of mages. "Do you remember what we said about sand worms, Lumia?"
 
"O-oh!" She jumped slightly at the nudge, having had her focus scanning the vast desert around the group for any signs of danger. "Y-yes! They travel silently through the sand, but a rumbling disturbance at your feet will tell you when they're about to strike. As long as you don't freeze up when that happens, they won't get you." Lumia dutifully recalled from memory.
 
Auria nodded, and her smile fueled a sense of pride in the young healer. Lumia was the outsider to the group, and not by anyone present's choice. It instead was the Heroes Guild that assigned midlevel and even novice warriors into the parties of some of the most experienced and reputable groups available. It was a method to attempt to cultivate even more legendary heroes through experience and partnership with the ones they already had, but it had not been established without complaint. Many high-level warriors argued that having a rookie tagging along would only achieve dragging the whole team down, and Lumia was determined not to become an example. She felt fortunate that the mage group she had been assigned seemed accommodating, but that only encouraged her to work even harder for them.
 
Lumia knew she could easily bring value to her team as a healer, even if she couldn't fight on her own. Her dedicated affinity towards healing magic, and her frail, dainty physique meant that her attack would probably be closer to 0 than 10 if judged numerically, and she knew Markus himself has been ranked far past the hundreds. Healing magic was always an asset however, even with someone as inexperienced as her.
 
Though that wasn't the entire truth, as Lumia had her own ace-in-the-hole. "Mimic Move" was a famously gimmicky spell where one could temporarily replicate an attack from their target. To hit someone with their own skill was a novelty at best, as in most cases, one would be attacking with a technique they were unfamiliar with against the person who knew it better. Not only that, but if the mimicked skill involved something the caster didn't have, such as Lumia not having any sort of physical weapon, there would be no means to carry it out. It was very fortunate for Lumia then to be surrounded by three reputably powerful magic casters. Although it took all her energy, if need be, she could replicate a spell from anyone in her party. Since Mimic Move technically wasn't an offensive skill in and of itself, it was something she could learn, so even someone as weak as her could fall mighty beasts in a single strike as long as she wasn't separated from her team.
 
Although the shielding light from Markus protected the group from the sun overhead and the occasional dust cloud of sand blowing their way, Lumia was feeling it in her legs by now. She had hardly been on any adventures that had lasted this long, and they hadn't even reached the temple yet! Still, she did her best not to show it. She would prove herself, at the very least, a net positive to the group's efforts!
 
Markus suddenly put a hand up and stopped, signaling to the group to stop as well. Everyone watched in silence as he peered around their surroundings, in intense focus. His head snapped towards the direction of an unassuming sand dune, and with a mighty wave of his staff, he blew a large chunk off of it, revealing the very top of a buried spire. "We have arrived."
 
"Yep, we sure have!" An unfamiliar voice rang out from seemingly nowhere, chuckling with a sneering satisfaction.
 
In an instant, the entire group of mages shifted into defensive stances in response to the mysterious voice, except for Lumia who was half a second late.
 
"W-what was that?!" Lumia asked aloud, clutching her healing staff hard as if she could even cast offensive spells through it.
 
"The leader of our rival group." Auria whispered. "Rogues who excel in stealth, trickery, and dirty handed tactics. Stay behind us."
 
"Zeke!" Markus declared accusingly into the open desert. Lumia recognized the name. Zeke's party was just as reputable as the mages.
 
"Yep, I'm here. Congrats, ya caught me!" The voice said again mockingly, and Lumia followed its source to an empty area where a lithe and roguish man looked to literally melt into existence as if a revealing stream of water had poured over him. "Invis potions are quite the toy, aren't they? Maddan never disappoints." He stared at the group with a smug expression, pinching the edge of a knife between his finger tips and flipping it in his hands as his spoke, catching it by the point each time.
 
"What do you want, Zeke?" Markus demanded in a hostile growl.
 
"Two things!" He grinned, flashing two fingers up. "One: To thank you for finding the temple for us, and two: To plunder all its lost treasures and sell all valuables we can find. Now listen closely, we can do this the easy, or the ugly way, and let me tell ya, I'd much appreciate the prettier option. Leave now, or you'll regret it."
 
Markus scowled with contempt, and Lumia was impressed how Zeke somehow wasn't phased. Her nerves began to well up as she realized she just might be in for a rival battle with and against warriors way out of her league.
 
"Those scrolls in the temple are worth more in text than in the black market." Markus argued.
 
"Ehhhh, I beg to differ. Maybe for you zen-meditating magic monks it could be, but magic don't make the world go round. Money does. Buuuuut, speaking of magic. Got some of my own. Store bought, maybe, but that just proves my point." With an arrogant grin, he whipped out an amber gem which shimmered in the sunlight.
 
"A warpstone!" Auria deduced too late as two more people were warped to either side of Zeke: Maddan the alchemist and Rezin the illusionist, both masterful in their respective crafts. But there was something else, too. Lumia squinted her eyes, trying to see behind Zeke at what appeared to be a floating quiver of arrows.
 
"Now, can I have yer answer already?" Zeke challenged, finally catching the knife by the hilt, slicing a few strands of stubble off of his chin, and then pointing it at the group.
 
"You will not rob that temple a single coin." Markus responded, completely resolute. Lumia felt like she should speak up, but didn't feel she had the authority to do so. She instead backed further behind Auria and Oldan.
 
"That's too bad. Well, you asked for it. Get em, boys!"
 
With the flair of a performer, Rezin whipped his cape up with both hands, emitting a ghostly fog through it. Markus intensified the light from his staff to combat it just before they were enveloped. Lumia's heart raced as her vision fogged up and swirled from the magic mist.
 
"Move out of the mist!" Oldan's voice called out, and Lumia did her best to oblige as she turned backwards and ran.
 
"Push forward! Forward!" Markus that time, his voice farther away. Lumia realized she was wrong in assuming they'd retreat back from the fog instead of pushing forward out of it.
 
When the magic mist subsided, Lumia found that she had been separated a good distance away from both her team and the enemy. Markus, Auria, and Oldan casted spells and summoned barriers in the distance in the wild skirmish against the quick and deceptive strikes of Zeke and his gang. It appeared the three needed all of their focus in order to keep up, none realizing that Lumia had exited the fog in the opposite direction. Her eyes widened as she witnessed the clashing styles of professional warriors square off, and she was for a moment relieved that she had unintentionally distanced herself from the chaos.
 
"No, I have to help! I just need to stay behind them." She told herself, clutching her healing staff and trudging forward through the sand. As she did so, she noticed something shine in her peripheral. "Ah!" She squealed, ducking under an arrow that whizzed over her shoulder. She turned her head towards the floating bow and quiver of arrows between her and the main skirmish. Like how Zeke had appeared when his invisibility potion ran out, so did her mysterious assailant.
 
_______________________
 
You watched with disappointment as your arrow flew directly over your target. Your archery skills were pretty decent, and you even had the element of surprise on your side too, but somehow she had been able to react just in time. You really thought you had a clever plan, but you only now realized that your bow and arrows hadn't been invisible like the rest of you. You'd have to ask Maddan how it works later. Maybe your invisiblity potion had worn off faster since you drank it before being teleported in. To add to your misfortune, your invisibility wore off fully then and there. You snuck past the mages at least, so it wasn't a complete failure.
 
"Dang." You whispered out loud as the healer spotted you. It wasn't reason to panic at least. She was only a healer. You notched another arrow and let it fly. Her eyes widened, but she managed to avoid it just like the last.
 
"H-hey!" She cried out. "Why are you attacking me!?"
 
"What? Because you're their healer!" You called back, thinking the reason should have already been obvious.
 
"You're with them?!"
 
"Yes! Now hold still!" You fired another shot, but unfortunately this girl was proving herself more evasive than the moving targets at the archery range.
 
As soon as you had spotted the healer, you knew she was just like you. The both of you had been placed into a party of professionals by the guild. Zeke had complained a lot, but he wasn't able to get his way in the end. You were going to have to prove yourself useful, and not a burden like he assumed. You knew you had no shot against the other mages, especially hearing the raw strength of their crackling fireballs and thunderous lightning bolts behind you, so you were thankful there was an easier target. Taking out the enemy healer would be an inarguable help. She looked greener than you too, and if she couldn't fight back, your win was guaranteed.
 
"Wah!" The healer gasped as another arrow flew by. It didn't hit her, but it came so close that it nicked the white robe above her shoulder, cutting a slit into it. "This isn't fair!" She cried out in a worried panic.
 
You did feel kind of bad, in all honesty. But it was group fighting 101 that one should neutralize any healer as soon as the opportunity arose. "Sorry, but there's no way in hell I'm going up against those mages. You have to admit, this is the best course of action I can possibly take." You defended yourself. The healer girl made a frustrated murmur in response, which was immediately followed by a frightened gasp as she dodged another arrow.
 
"I-I can't fight back!"
 
"Sorry, but that's the point." You apologized, beginning a march forward that would either help your aim, or push her further from her team.
 
_______________________
 
"Sorry, but that's the point."
 
This was bad. Bad bad bad bad bad! As a healer, one must always stay by their team. That was the golden rule of dedicated healers that had been hammered into her head ever since she picked up a healing staff. This was especially true when Lumia's only manner of defending herself still relied on being close enough to her team. She was too far away to cast Mimic Move on any of her teammates, and to do so on this archer would be pointless since she obviously didn't have a bow and arrow on herself either. She was a sitting duck, only being able to rely on her evasive maneuvers that were essential for healers and bards to practice if they were to ever find themselves in a fight.
 
It felt so unfair that she could be singled out like this. It felt like the archer was violating some unspoken rule even if, to some degree, she couldn't blame him. She recognized there was nothing she could do. It was desert as far as the eye could see, and her group was both too far away and focused fighting Zeke and his two other party members. It was a pure one on one, and she had no means to fight back.
 
"I-I-" She was about to try and reason again, but a rumble at her feet caught her attention, and she gasped as she remembered what that meant over the stress of avoiding the archer's arrows.
 
_______________________
 
"I-I-" The healer quivered like she was going to speak again, but you could tell something distracted her.
 
This was your shot, you determined, opting to fire at her while she was caught up in whatever it might have been. Regardless of your presence, however, she sprang out of the way of your arrow, where the sand erupted in her place. You gasp as a long and wormlike creature had burst out of the ground, causing a rain of sand all around. Although the healer had tumbled out of the way, your arrow still found a mark on the head of the sand worm immediately as it sprung up from the floor. It screeched an ear-rending cry and flailed in place, unable to dislodge the arrow in its eye. Both you and the healer watched in awe as the beast swung its noodly body back and forth. In the corner of your eye, the healer suddenly pointed her staff at the beast and chanted something you couldn't hear over the screeching. Before long, the sand worm had retreated back into the sand, having failed to remove the arrow.
 
You notched another arrow and aimed it at the healer as she pushed herself up from the sand. "What was that?" You demand. "What did you do just then? Did you heal it?!" You wanted an answer, afraid that she might have done something to it in hopes it'd come back and aim for you this time.
 
"I didn't do anything to help it. It tried to EAT me!" The healer insisted, and there was a deep sincerity in her voice, like she was insulted you'd even suggest that.
 
You sighed with relief, deciding to take her at her word. You'd probably feel the same in her situation. But, with that distraction over with, it was again time to take out the healer. As you pointed your arrow at her, you saw in her expression how she realized the same thing. Except something was a little different. She looked more nervous, rather than panicked and flighty like she was before.
 
As you study her expression, you're caught completely off guard as she suddenly dives in your direction. You let your arrow loose on reflex, but you witness in amazement how she somehow dives straight into the sand as if it were water, kicking up a small burst of sand where she fell through. Your arrow lodged uselessly into the sand where she had been standing.
 
"What the?" You bewilderedly muttered, scanning the expansive floor of sand and seeing nothing to indicate her presence whatsoever. For some reason there was a sinking feeling in your chest, but you chalked that up to be taken by such genuine surprise from…whatever the hell she just did. Had she really just gotten away from you? Could you not even manage to defeat a healer of all things? And why didn't she do that before?
 
It didn't take long before you see any form of movement underneath the surface of the sand. A rumbling underneath your very feet dragged your attention straight down, where you saw a slight rustle of sand directly beneath where you were standing, like the most miniature earthquake localized in a circle you barely fit in.
 
"Huh?" It took a second for you to realize that you should have moved, but it was a second too late.
 
The sand around you exploded upwards as a creature emerged from it, buried in sand underneath you. Despite the rising force underneath you, you yourself gained no extra height, instead feeling your shoes and ankles suddenly pushed to each other and enclosed together by some sort of damp seal. Said seal ran up the course of your body, instantly pinning your legs together, your arms to your side, and forcefully tilting your head upwards after sliding past your shoulders and enclosing around your face. It halted just short of running the full length of your body, which had everything below your face feeling warm, wet, and constricted together. An overwhelming dread overtook all your thoughts and focus, so much so that you almost didn't manage to catch a glimpse of the healer's face and white robes as the sand flowed off of her body.
 
"HUH?!?!"
 
_______________________
 
Lumia had no clue if this would work, but it was the only option she had. With the an arrow pointed directly at her, she knew eventually she'd be hit. She eyed the sand below her, and channeled the technique she had temporarily acquired within herself. Realizing she shouldn't waste any more time, she took her chance and dove forward, hearing an arrow whizz above just before the sand gave way for her body.
 
Grains of sand rushed past her form as she found herself jetting underneath the surface of the desert, and yet it was like she barely felt the sand around her body at all. It was both disorienting and yet freeing, being able to jet incredibly quickly in any direction with only so much as a wiggle for effort on her part. Like the archer's arrow through the open air, she moved just as swiftly underneath the sand, except she could change direction however she pleased.
 
As she zipped through the ground, the general lack of the sensation of sand around her made her sensitive to distinctive changes in pressure. She noticed two points of contact on the surface despite only being below them for less than a second. On a brand new instinct, she performed a circular loop backwards, before dedicating her velocity straight upwards towards the two points of contact she noticed earlier. As the depth of sand above her rapidly decreased, she obtained the urge to tilt her head back and open her mouth as far as it could go.
 
Lumia's head exploded upwards from the surface of the desert, where the open air now acted as an absence of propulsion that exponentially decreased her speed as her body launched out into the open. The thing that had been above her was instantly absorbed into her open gullet, fitting snuggly into her body and down her throat as easily as if it were tailor made to be shaped like her throat. Her body came to a stop just as her ankles were beginning to surface, temporarily freezing her in a majestic pose as her chest puffed out, her back arched, and her shoulders pulled back so that her arms stretched straight ever so slightly behind herself with her fingers in each hand intertwined. In that brief time, she felt a lump in her throat and mouth.
 
"HUH?!?!" The archer cried out, his face just barely sticking out from her surrounding lips, and Lumia was beginning to realize the full weight of what she had just done. "WAI-!!"
 
*GULP!*
 
Not able to hold the pose any longer, Lumia fell to her knees, reflexively taking one mighty swallow into her being that managed to seal her lips shut and push the archer's head down the back of her throat. Her stomach extended many sizes larger as she collapsed onto both it and her knees, which her legs had to angle in order to cradle her massive and squirmy gut. Her eyes shut as she automatically let out a heavy sigh of both exertion and satisfaction. Her white robe stretched out so far that it became see-through at the stomach, which settled into a rounded mold in the sand. Lumia's sand worm level appetite began rapidly fading away as her Mimic Move wore off, leaving her feeling bloated and exhausted. The kicks, punches, and general squirming inside her belly made for a comforting internal massage, and she wouldn't have been able to fight off the urge to fall asleep had the distant sounds of her teammates fighting Zeke and his crew not have kept her awake.
 
"Hmmmmmph!?!? Hmmmmmph!! HMMMMMMPH!!!" Her belly said, bumping and shaking all the while. It would have been easy enough to ignore, but now that Lumia had shook off her sleepiness, she was given time to take in her unorthodox victory.
 
"I can't believe that actually worked. But I didn't expect I'd actually swallow him whole!" She remarked out loud, spectating the most futile battle she had ever seen between the archer and her stomach walls. She watched with equal parts fascination and horror that she now held an entire human being hopelessly hostage in her own belly, but after hearing another muffled plea from within, her eyes narrowed with contempt and she puffed her cheeks. "That's what you deserve." She told him grumpily, smacking her belly as somewhat of a way to rub it in. Lumia's scowl was broken at a sudden sensation at the back of her throat rapidly being ejected upwards.
 
*Cough!* *Cough!* *Hurk!*
 
She leaned forward as she coughed large clouds of sand out of her being, and after a sizable burp, she simply let her mouth hang open as a stream of sand spilt out on the floor. When it had finally stopped, there was a large pile of sand with the archer's bow and quiver of arrows sticking out of the top. The archer himself was unfortunate enough to have not been ejected along with his property.
 
"Bleh…" She spat the last of what she could from her mouth, rubbing it with the back of her hand and now being more aware of the taste of sand on her tongue. "Gross…"
 
"HMMMPH!?!?"
 
"No, not you. You were delicious." She responded without thinking about it, which subsequently boomeranged back into her mind. "Wait, did I really just say that?" She blushed. "W-well like I said, you got what you deserved, picking a fight with someone who couldn't fight back."
 
*urp*
 
_______________________
 
*urp*
 
This was not happening…! This was NOT happening!!
 
You couldn't believe it. You didn't WANT to believe it! But the enclosed and slimy walls pressing in from all directions was giving you no other possibility. It was one thing to have been defeated by a novice healer, but swallowed whole by her?! How could that even happen!? How could you let that happen to yourself?! You just couldn't believe it, and yet…
 
"Let me out! LET. ME. OUT!!" You yelled in a panic, trying to push out your curled limbs as far as you can. You can only achieve earning yourself a few more inches of cramped space before the tightness and sliminess of her gut and the awkwardness of your position has you loose your footing quickly, curling you back to take up the most minimal space possible. Somewhere close by you could hear, and even slightly feel, the rhythm of her heartbeat drumming. Even as still as she was, the gentle rise and fall of her stomach from her breathing ensued you were always moving, or more accurately, being moved around.
 
You racked your brain for anything you could possibly have done to escape this situation. It seemed that punching and pushing against your captor's belly only achieved exhausting you. With your arms folded into your body, it would be a difficult task to reach behind you, but you quickly realized that it seemed your bow and quiver got lost somewhere on the way down her throat. You had nothing on you, except for a spare vial of invisibility. With your mind in a frenzy, you find yourself squirming about to reach for it despite not even thinking through enough about anything useful you can possibly do with it.
 
It took some effort, but you managed to reach over to the small pouch near your hip, using your opposite hand because the other would be even more awkward curled up as you are. You opened the flap and felt inside for it, only to discover that the already brittle glass had been crushed into basically a fine powder as a result of suddenly being confined in such a tight space. The liquid dampened your fingers as you realized what happened to it. With the pouch now open, it was able to all seep out.
 
"N-no… Wait…!" You muttered to yourself as you began to realize what was about to happen.
 
It was incredibly dark and cramped in her stomach, but that changed completely as, starting from her stomach and expanding towards the rest of her being, the healer began fading invisible. The bright desert sun shone on you like curtains being drawn in your bed chambers. Once your eyes got use to the brightness again, you were able to see the vast desert in all its glory, as if the healer wasn't even there. Alas, it was a harsh illusion of freedom, as the sounds of your team and the mages fighting was still completely muffled, and you could still feel a slimy stomach sac enclosed around your entire being.
 
The outside world was so tantalizing, and your efforts to somehow free yourself by pushing outward was revitalized, but the results were disappointingly the same. It was like you had been ensnared by some invisible magic spell, but even that would have been preferable over the humiliation of having been literally swallowed whole. You try to rotate your body around to face the fighting, realizing that your only shot at freedom would be if your team saw you.
 
"Z-ZEKE!! REZIN!! MADDAN!! HEEEEEELP!!!"
 
_______________________
 
Lumia found herself largely immobile due to her new weight. She rested her head on her hand as she propped an elbow on her enlarged stomach, spectating her opponent flailing uselessly inside her. He was really going crazy in there, which made sense. She couldn't imagine anyone else had ever been swallowed whole by another person before, much less a dainty little healer like herself. No one probably ever used Mimic Move on a sand worm before her. Her results spoke (or more accurately, muffledly pleaded) for themselves, and she couldn't help but feel more prideful and thankful about the success of her crapshoot plan than grossed out about what she had literally accomplished. It may not have been very lady-like, or even human-like, but he asked for it. If it meant winning the fight she had no business winning, she'd swallow him whole a thousand times over.
 
"Hmph. Jerk." She muttered, still upset thinking about how he tried to single her out like he did. She was so glad it blew up in his face. "Can't shoot arrows at helpless women like that, huh d-dummy?" Her usual mild manners gave way to a vengeful boast, although insults still felt alien coming from her own mouth. "How do YOU like being the helpless one, you…little snack? Food."
 
She attempted to listen in to the sounds of her belly as she recuperated her energy, putting an ear closer to where she best guessed his head was. His pleads seemed to have stopped for the moment, but his squirming intensified. She could just barely hear him mutter something.
 
"N-no… Wait…!"
 
She wondered what that meant. Was he trying to do something? Did he have a plan? She was about to give her stomach an admonishing squeeze, but then began noticing that her belly was somehow beginning to vanish from sight right in front of her eyes.
 
"W-what?" She stared at her extended stomach as it rapidly became more see-through, revealing her freshly caught prey curled up as he was. Despite the visual lack of belly around him, he still remained helplessly compact and floating slightly above the imprint of sand her invisible gut was still pressing into the ground. She realized he must've still had an invisible potion on him when she consumed him.
 
"Hee-hee~♪" She giggled at the absurd sight, getting a perfect view of him squirming and struggling within her as her body vanished from sight. She could see how he had to adjust to the sudden sunlight before frantically looking around to figure out what was going on, and continuing to futilely push out against her stomach walls which were no less strong or tight despite appearing absent. She watched him slowly rotate his general position through constant and rhythmic pushes.
 
"M-MMPH!! HPHHMPH!! HFHMMPH!! HMMMMMMPH!!!" Lumia witnessed him cry out, though his voice was just as muffled as before.
 
Lumia noticed he had turned himself in the direction of the main battle. With her own battle won, she realized she needed to get back to her team to help out. She had missed the whole thing so far, but she was relieved to see that Markus and the rest actually appeared to be pushing Zeke's group back.
 
With great exertion and wobbly legs, Lumia managed to push herself up from her knees, shaking on her legs as she calibrated a proper stance with her wildly shifted center of mass. Being invisible made the experience even more disorienting, but she managed to find her footing before long. The curled up ball that was the archer came up with her, stowed away in her belly and forced to go wherever she pleased. He made confused and muffled noises and movements as she did so. Once up, Lumia stared down at the bow and arrows halfway lodged in the sand at her feet.
 
"Might as well take these, I guess." She said as she pulled them from the sand, placing them both over her shoulder at her back. She had no idea how to use them, but after what had just happened, she felt more comfortable at least carrying any sort of weapon.
 
Looking up in the distance, she found that she may have been too late to even rejoin the battle. Zeke wore a scowl of frustration on his face, and he and his group were looking pretty singed from all of the spells that had managed to catch them. She tried running ahead, to at least patch up a couple of wounds for her team, though her speed was severely hindered due to obvious factors. Her extended stomach sloshed left and right with each slight twist of her hips, causing discomforting grunts and whines from her passenger.
 
"Hmph. You know what, fine. Fine! Take your stupid scrolls then." Zeke groaned, putting his hand up to signal a ceasefire. "But we ain't going easy on you next time. Screw all ya!" He spat, whipping out the warpstone once more.
 
"Huh?" Lumia said as she was suddenly enveloped in a bright light from within her invisible body. She tried shielding her eyes, but her see-through hand didn't do her any favors. After the light had become blindingly bright, it vanished, with Lumia falling to her ass on solid ground.
 
"Ahh!"
 
"Mmph!!"
 
The hot desert sun had seemingly vanished, as if swallowed up by the bright light as abruptly as she had swallowed up her enemy archer. As she opened her eyes, she found herself in the dingy shade of an empty city alley.
 
"Damn, that sucked." Zeke groaned. "I hate deserts, man."
 
"We were close. You got a good one on Markus, didn't you?" Rezin spoke up.
 
"No, I didn't. Cost him a few strands of sewing thread in his fancy cloak, maybe. They're all getting it next time, I swear. Maybe we should've had the rookie plunder the temple while we distracted them. Where even was he during the fight?" Zeke looked around. "Where even is he now?"
 
"Hmmmmmmmmph!!!"
 
Lumia flinched as the muffled cry within her belly brought attention to her direction. Her heart was racing once again, somehow ending up alone with Zeke's entire team. "S-sshh!" She admonished her belly as she smacked it, only succeeding in making more noise in the end.
 
"Rookie? Why're you curled up on the ground like that? Get hit bad or something? How, I didn't see so much as a single arrow fly." Zeke said as he approached the invisible Lumia.
 
The healer girl covered her mouth in worry, knowing she was mere feet away from being found out. She wouldn't make a peep, but unfortunately her stomach was much more vocal.
 
"Hmph! HMPH MF HMF HF HMPH!!" The archer yelled, frantically pushing against Lumia's stomach walls.
 
"Da hell? What kinda spell did they cast on you?" Zeke asked, getting right up to Lumia's face without realizing it. She almost gasped and some part of her was screaming to just make a break for it, but she was frozen in fear, which only intensified as Maddan and Rezin approached to see as well. Zeke leaned down closer to the archer, reaching a hand out.
 
"Tch!" Lumia giggled as Zeke's hand poked her belly, tickling her slightly. Zeke's hand quickly rescinded.
 
"Da hell?"
 
With a sudden vigor Lumia pushed herself from the ground, turnt tail, and sprinted off, wobbling all the way with her massive belly.
 
"Hmph?!! H-hmmmmmmph!!!"
 
_______________________
 
"Zeke! HELP ME OUT OF HERE!!" You yelled, frantically pushing against the invisible healer's stomach walls.
 
Your efforts to struggle were reinvigorated as you appeared to have gotten Zeke's attention. It was going to be an incredibly deep humiliation once they found out exactly what happened to you, but right now you were only concerned about getting free. The amount of hope and preemptive relief you felt seeing Zeke's hand reaching towards you had you the most calm you had been since getting swallowed. You briefly felt his hand as he pressed it into the healer's belly, causing a twitch through her that naturally went through you as well. It was then that you were suddenly lifted midair (or it looked like it at least), whipped around, and carried away.
 
"What?!! N-noooooooo!!!" You cried out as you realized the healer was making a run for it.
 
Her extended gut sloshed back and forth on unsteady feet as she did her best to leg it with her unfamiliar weight, shaking you around in the process.
 
"H-e-e-e-e-e-e-y!! St-o-o-o-o-o-o-p!!"
 
She didn't listen, of course. You couldn't even be sure she noticed your yells as she dashed out of the alley. There were a few townsfolk about that you had no chance at getting even a half-decent look at in your wildly swinging prison, only seeing how they stared with bewilderment and intrigue at your floating and curled up form before being pushed aside by the invisible force around you. Even if you knew no one was going to be able to accurately piece together what your deal was, each pair of eyes still felt like a ray of shame shone upon you.
 
The healer dashed into another alley, pressing her back against the wall as she caught her breath and peeked for Zeke and the rest of your group. You feared she might've actually gotten away with this, and that fear only got worse as you noticed her body slowly regaining opacity, beginning the process of sealing you in darkness once more.
 
"No! H-healer, go back! GET THEIR HELP!!" You pleaded.
 
_______________________
 
Lumia spotted another alley in the distance, and adjusted her sprint towards it. She turned the corner and immediately flipped around and pressed her back to the wall, flattening out against it as best she could to hide from Zeke's gang. She had no clue if they actually followed her or not, but she wanted to take as few chances as possible. As she listened to any of their voices or footsteps, she panted after realizing just how tiring running with a full belly like that was. As she waited, she noticed the invisibility potion was beginning to wear off by now.
 
"Mf! H-hmmfmm, hm hmph! HMF HMMPH HMPH!!" Her belly cried, but she wasn't paying attention to that. Her eyes and ears were scanning for any sign of Zeke.
 
After a few moments of sensing nothing whatsoever, Lumia let herself breathe a sigh of relief.
 
"The hell is this?!" Zeke's voice cried directly next to Lumia, the opposite side she had been watching.
 
"W-wah!" Lumia stumbled back, now face-to-face with Zeke, or they would've been if Zeke hadn't been staring at her enlarged stomach.
 
"There ain't no way I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing." He said, jabbing at her belly with his finger.
 
"HMPH!"
 
"H-hey! Don't do that!" Lumia whined, grabbing ahold of her stomach with both hands and twisting her torso away from him.
 
Zeke eyed her up and down. "You. You were the extra in Markus's party. Barely saw ya hiding behind the other two."
 
"W-what are you going to do?" Lumia quivered, clutching her healing staff close to her body.
 
"What am I gonna do? Girl, I should be asking that to you! Your stomach…You didn't really…You couldn't have…"
 
"HMMMMMPH!!!"
 
Zeke's eyes squinted in equal parts disgust and disbelief. "My god, girl. You really DID! That's his bow on yer back, too!"
 
"I-it was his fault!" Lumia blurted in defense of herself. "He took advantage when I was separated from my team! It was the only thing I could've done!"
 
"EATIN' him was the only thing you could've done?! The hell kinda class even are you!"
 
"A healer…"
 
"A HEA-!" Zeke slapped a palm to his face in utter disbelief. "You're telling me, rookie engaged against a healer and ended up EATEN by her!?"
 
"I-I'll find a way to spit him out, I promise!"
 
"Hmf! HMF!" The archer made noises that sounded like a repeated and pleading "YES" from with her.
 
"Calm down, lady! I ain't gonna do nothing to ya. I know it don't seem like it, but I got SOME sense of honor." Zeke said.
 
"Really?" Lumia breathed with relief, although still somewhat unsure and cautious.
 
"Yeah, and you know what? I shouldn't even be mad, so I won't be." Zeke crossed his arms, stepping back to the wall directly across Lumia and leaning his own back against it.
 
"You won't? Even though I…did this to your archer?"
 
"Listen girlie, if anything, you did us a favor. A gross, disgusting favor, but that's neither here nor there. Rookie there was one 'a those guild assigned warriors put into our team. Do ya know how important it is for my team to work with professionals? We focus on stealth! Maddan's got the potions for it, Rezin's got his magic tricks, and me? I'm da best got-dang rogue the guild has ever had the fortune to sponsor. But stealth is a delicate mother. If we're working with someone at even only 90% of our skill, we're ALL going to get found out, and now we gotta be responsible for an amateur?"
 
"Oh so… I removed him from your team?"
 
"Bingo, lady! You know, my team lives by a strict code. And I mean strict. I don't care if you're an amateur who was randomly assigned to us, or literally myself. You get caught, the team leaves you behind and don't look back. That's the way of a rogue, baby. And to me…Well, he looks pretty captured."
 
"Hmmmmph?? HMMMMPH?!?!" Her belly groaned and struggled. Lumia wasn't sure if it was in response to Zeke or not, because she wasn't even certain that he could hear him.
 
"The guild would penalize us if he ended up killed, and then they'd probably just assign us a new rookie. But the rules don't say nothing 'bout THIS, I know that for a fact. If he's there and alive, I say they can't penalize us, nor assign us someone new." Zeke shrugged, smirking at his own deduction.
 
Lumia didn't know if she liked what she was hearing. "But, what if I want to spit him out? O-or what if he gets digested?"
 
Zeke frowned. "You sure you can do either of those things?"
 
Lumia had to wonder if she really could. She only managed to achieve what she did because she had temporarily adopted the hunting strike of a sand worm. It wouldn't matter if she found another, she was certain sand worms were strictly enter-only in their actions. Spitting up something so large from her stomach was certainly impossible as she was, and the warpstone had proven that you couldn't teleport the archer without taking Lumia along too. She might be able to find some kind of monster with the ability to spit up things all the way lodged in its belly, but she wouldn't know where to look nor wanted to risk her life for him.
 
And digestion? She didn't want to digest another person, that sounded gross. But she wondered if her stomach acids were even strong enough to do so in the first place. Her attack potency was nonexistent by herself, so she wouldn't have been surprised if her acids were consistently dealing zero damage to him in there. She had heard somewhere that once someone becomes attuned enough with healing magic, simply being in their presence is enough to heal wounds. If she had any degree of that, he definitely wouldn't be melting away any time soon.
 
"Well. Uhh."
 
"No, right?" Zeke smirked again. "You know for a moment I let myself think that an archer might be able to make himself work on our team, and our scuffle with Markus was supposed to be where he could prove himself. But if he goes out and gets SWALLOWED WHOLE by a HEALER, then I think I got a pretty good idea where he belongs."
 
"So you really want me to…just keep him like this?"
 
Zeke shrugged cooly. "I mean why not? Gets us out of babysitting, and you get to live out your deranged snake fantasies."
 
"It wasn't a fantasy! He gave me no option!" She complained. "…But he was tasty." She whispered under her breath so only she could hear.
 
From within her, Lumia's passenger had gradually become more wriggly and vocal during the course of the conversation. Yet no matter how loud he got, or how much he moved, his influence on the outside world capped below even being able to disrupt Lumia and Zeke's chat.
 
"Yeah yeah, whatever the case, it ain't a bad thing having the legendary rogue Zeke owe ya one. So long as you keep him oughta our hair, even if that means keeping him in your gut."
 
"But, I-I…" Lumia stuttered, unsure of the idea of simply leaving the archer in her stomach.
 
"I would recommend learning some illusionary magic." Rezin spoke up from directly beside Lumia.
 
"Ahh!" She jumped, wondering how long he had been there. "W-why?"
 
"So you can do this." He answered, despite seemingly doing literally nothing. However Lumia quickly realized that her stomach had magically flattened out, or at least, it looked like it. "There's also a utility spell out there for magically lightening the load of cargo. I'd seek that out too." He said, and after a blink, he was gone and her extended belly was visible once more.
 
"Alright snake-lady, take good care of our rookie for us." Zeke nodded to her gut before walking off.
 
"HMMMMPH?!?!? HMMMMMMMPH!!!!"
 
Lumia watched as Zeke simply left her by herself, stunned that their interaction played out as it did. She slid down the wall to a sitting position to contemplate everything that had been said. Her belly thudded against the floor as she settled.
 
"HMMPH?! HMMMMPH!!?"
 
"Shut up, he left." Lumia told her belly grumpily, hugging it close so that he might better hear her. She put an ear on her stomach to better listen to him.
 
"WHAT?!" His muffled voice cried.
 
"I'm still mad at you, you know." She huffed as she crossed her arms, though her sharp glare soon faltered. "But I don't know if I want to just…keep you there. That sounds weird, even if the squirming feels kind of nice."
 
"You have to let me go! Please, you NEED to!"
 
Lumia grumbled. "If I did, I wouldn't be doing it for you, I'd be doing it for me. It sounds so awkward having to keep my stomach like this, and what do you even do for me after I beat you?" She asked him before leaning back into the wall, where she felt the bow and quiver at her back. It gave her an idea. "Unless…"
 
She stared at her belly and focused. With her staff in hand, she spoke out loud "Mimic Move" at her own gut. A technique instantaneously developed within her on an instinctual level. She whipped out the bow and an arrow, two things she had never touched before her devouring of the archer. Her hands and fingers felt like they moved by themselves as she competently pulled the tight bowstring back with an arrow notched and at the ready. Seeing no one else was down the empty alley, she let the arrow fly, whizzing through and hitting the wall at the very end.
 
"Actually…"
 
_______________________
 
Healers were famously defenseless targets on their own, which was why Lumia had garnered a slight bit of attention and intrigue during her rise up the ranks of the guild. Unlike any healer before her, it was found that when the situation asked for it, she could pull out a bow and let arrows fly to both defend herself and support her team. She may not have been a snipe-shot pro, but her skills were good enough to get the job done. She never let anyone get too close, but those who did allegedly said they heard another voice seemingly emitted somewhere around her being. Rumors quickly surfaced that she had called forth some sort of guiding spirit of archery to help lead her aim.
 
Very few found out the truth about you, no matter how hard you struggled or yelled to draw attention. Time moved slowly as you sloshed and swung within Lumia's stomach, as if you had been cast into an entirely new world, and one that could barely fit you at that. You tried everything you could do, even if that was a very short list. Pleads, begs, kicks, and yells, nothing brought you closer to freedom. You weren't certain when the first day had passed, but you knew it happened eventually. And then another. And then another. And then another.
 
Lumia felt slightly guilty, yet at the same time had an odd sense of pride for her quick thinking. She didn't want to be seen as a helpless little healer who could be so easily singled out and picked off. The archer in her belly was proof she was better than that, and with him held hostage, she could even defend herself without needing to mimic her allies.
 
"YOU'RE the helpless one…" She grumbled to her struggling belly, hidden behind her illusion. "If you want out, then it's your turn to prove yourself."
 
Well, you certainly tried.