Jessi checked the date on her watch as she watched into the cave. April 18th. This was the date that Lara had told her to come if she hadn't shown up yet.
Lara had a tendency to oversleep, which could be a big problem for a bear. She would sometimes hibernate until mid-June. No alarm ever seemed to make a difference, and she wouldn't hear her phone. So she had come to Jessi last September, begging for help: maybe an actual visitor could rouse the bear, and hang around until she was sure she had woken up.
The cave looked fairly ordinary from the outside; just a small cavern in the mountains, far from any cities or towns. Once inside, however, it looked more like a quaint little house. The floor in the small kitchen was tiled, had electricity, running water, and a refrigerator sat in one corner. Cupboards were filled with canned food, though most of them, Jessi knew, had been cleaned out before Lara had gone to sleep.
Lara was truly an impressive sight to watch in those few months before hibernation began. The volume of food she could pack away was amazing; whole pizzas, hamburgers, and sundry other food items would disappear down the bear's gullet, sometimes hardly being chewed. Jessi made sure not to sit too close. She sometimes got the feeling that Lara wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the feast in front of her and a little fox who got too close.
Lara continued through the kitchen and into the bedroom. Like the kitchen, the bedroom was sparsely furnished, with a large, fluffy bed taking up the majority of the room. Lara was asleep on top of it, lying sprawled out. She wore no clothes -- understandable, as they would definitely chafe after sleeping for several months -- and her blankets had been kicked down to her feet, leaving her with only her thick fur to cover her.
Jessi whistled as she walked up beside the bed. Even now, at the end of her hibernation when she was at her most slender, the bear was large. But she wore her weight well, and Jessi couldn't help but be a little jealous; she would love to have a figure as buxom as her friend's.
Anyway, she was getting sidetracked. She was here for a reason. She reached out, placed a hand on Lara's shoulder, and shook it gently.
"Time to wake up."
Lara responded with a snort.
Jessi shook a little harder this time, raising her voice a notch or two. "Hey! You told me to come wake you up in mid-April, and now it's mid-April. Now wake up, you lazy bear!"
Lara mumbled and rolled over towards Jessi, who had to snatch her hand back to avoid getting it trapped underneath her friend's shoulder. For a moment, Jessi thought she had done it, but then Lara let out a loud snore.
Well, Lara had said this might not be easy. Jessi rolled up her sleeves -- more of a symbolic gesture than anything else, as the fox was wearing a short-sleeved shirt -- and reached forward again. "Come on, you big loaf, wake... oops!"
Jessi had intended to reach forward and give the bear a flick on the nose, but the bear yawned at just the wrong moment, and Jessi stuck her hand right into the open mouth. It closed again immediately, trapping her hand inside.
Jessi froze, not sure what to think of this unexpected turn of events. Her hand was soaking wet, resting against the bear's tongue. She tried to pull it back out, but the bear's teeth caught on the fur of her wrist, and Jessi was worried she might hurt herself.
"Lara, wake up!" Jessi almost shouted.
Lara responded by making another mumbling noise. Jessi felt the thick tongue move against her hand, pushing it backward. The fox lost her balance and fell forward, catching herself on the plush mattress with her free hand, as her other arm was pulled into the bear's muzzle up to the elbow. Her hand entered a tighter area which Jessi realized must be her throat.
Just a foot or two from Jessi's face, Lara's stomach rumbled.
"Lara, seriously," Jessi said, "you've really got to..."
Jessi was yanked off balance again as Lara swallowed, pulling her in up to her elbow. The bear shifted slightly, but somehow had still not woken up. Her throat was tugging on Jessi's hand and arm in waves now. The bear's thick tongue wrapped around the fox's arm, and her muzzle opened wide.
"Lara!" Jessi managed to shout. "Don't...!"
Her cry was muffled as the bear's muzzle closed around her head.
It was dark and moist, and Jessi's face was pressed against Lara's tongue. Wet, sloppy noises filled the fox's large ears, drowning out the outside world. The large tongue moved against Jessi's face, and Lara made a sound that sounded like a satisfied moan.
"Great, at least I taste good," Jessi said. She tried again to yank herself back out, but she couldn't get any leverage with her free hand, and her other hand was firmly wedged into Lara's throat.
It was when Lara swallowed again, pulling Jessi's head into her throat, that the fox realized she might be in trouble. She felt the bears saliva soaking into the pink material of her shirt.
"Damn it, Lara, this is my favorite shirt!" Jessi shouted, but the bear didn't seem to hear her. Her chest slid over the bear's tongue, and, with another swallow, Jessi was pulled deeper inside.
The throat was tight, too tight, and for a moment progress stopped. She could hear the sound of the bear's heartbeat lub-dubbing somewhere nearby, joining the wet noises of the throat pulsing around her. For a moment, she thought that Lara might choke, which was sure to wake her up, but then the throat pulsed around her again, and she was yanked deeper, the tongue tickling across her belly and is helped push her down.
"O-okay, Lara, this joke's gone far enough. There's no way you're still asleep after all this! Spit me out this instant!"
Lara swallowed again, and Jessi felt her legs start to enter the bear's mouth. Her head was pressed up against something firm, but it quickly gave way and slid into a more open chamber. A powerful, fishy smell assaulted Jessi's nose.
The stomach. Jessi's head had entered Lara's stomach. She gagged, and tried to fight, but what could she do? One arm was trapped against her side, and there was nothing to find purchase on in here, anyway. The best she could do was kick and squirm and hope that Lara woke up.
Swallow after swallow pulled more of Jessi's body into the stomach. Her chest quickly followed her head, and the bear's tongue was now pushing on her legs. Finally, she felt the cold air of the cave disappear as her feet entered the bear's mouth. Lara swallowed one last time, and in a final slide, the rest of Jessi's body slid down the throat and into the bear's stomach.
Jessi pounded on the stomach walls. "Wake up! Lara! Wake up! Please!" She tried to keep from gagging as the air started to grow thin. The stomach began to churn, eager to process its new meal.
Outside, Lara let out a loud belch, then rolled over onto her other side.
---
Lara awoke slowly, stretching in place for several minutes before finally getting up the gumption to open her eyes. She yawned, stretched again, then sat up, turning to look at the date display on the alarm clock by her bed.
May 2nd.
"Ugh, I slept in again," Lara said, rubbing her eyes. "Well, at least it's not as bad as same years." Oddly, though, she didn't feel like she had overslept. Normally, after spending several extra weeks hibernating, Lara would wake up starving, but she felt pleasantly full; in fact, she almost felt like she had gained weight.
Lara slid out of bed, stretching and yawning against. She made her way towards the small bathroom that adjoined the bedroom, walking up to the sink to splash some water on her face.
Now that she thought about it, something was off here. Wasn't Jessi going to come wake her up this year? She was almost sure she had remember to ask, and Jessi wasn't the type to renege on a promise like this. Lara hoped everything was okay; she would have to give Jessi a call after she had showered and woken up a little bit more.
Lara's stomach rumbled, and her lips parted in what might have been the loudest belch she had ever released; it lasted several seconds and echoed off the cave walls. When it finally finished, she noticed a tickle in her throat, like something was caught there.
Lara coughed, but whatever it was seemed to be lodged in tight. So she opened her mouth wide and reached in with one hand, sliding it down into her throat (good thing she was so good at suppressing her gag reflex!) She found the offending thing, hooking a finger into it, and pulled it out.
It was bigger than expected, and once removed, Lara found herself holding a soaking wet, pink, short-sleeved shirt.
"What?" Lara held the shirt up with both hands, staring at it. It was several sizes too small to be one of hers. "How did this get in my...? Oh." She looked down from the shirt to her rounded stomach. "Oh."
It seemed Jessi had tried to come wake her up after all, and had been less than successful. Lara didn't remember what had happened, but she knew how hungry she always was when she woke up after hibernation. The little fox had encountered a large bear with an empty stomach, and nature had acted to re-balance the situation.
Well, not much to do for it now. Lara hung the shirt over the side of the sink and walked over to the shower, reaching in to turn it on. While she waited for the water to heat up, she ran her fingers across her stomach.
"Well, thanks for trying, Jessi," she said. "Sorry about what happened. I guess waking me up didn't work out like we planned." Lara would miss the little fox, but it wasn't all bad. It was kind of nice to not wake up starving like she usually did.
Maybe she would ask one of her friends to come wake her up next year, too.
