"Nnngh…"
Ash groans as she slowly blinks her eyes open, trying to gather her bearings. She doesn't recognize where she is, lying atop a warm, almost spongy ground that seems to stretch on for miles. The wolf's nose picks up the scent of fresh meat, but she can't see where it could be.
What she does see is a vast expanse of this brown surface beneath her, then the surroundings of a pale green and a sky of beige. A nearby tower, looking to be made of glass and full of water, catches her attention – And she gasps, realizing what's going on.
She's tiny, barely half a millimeter tall, and in someone's house. And going by the scent and texture, she's atop a freshly-cooked steak, plated and sat on their table.
The wolf has no idea how she got here. All she can remember is something vague about some kind of mission and a target or something, but no details are coming to her. But that's the least of her concerns right now – She knows she needs to get off of the meat if she doesn't want whoever's steak it is to eat her!
And her time is running out, as she hears the sound of footsteps nearby. She looks, and her expression falls as she sees a familiar stag heading to the table while carrying salt and pepper shakers.
"L-Louis?"
The deer doesn't react to her tiny, no doubt completely inaudible voice. Ash doubts that even her own sensitive ears would be able to hear someone as relatively small to her as she is to him!
She watches as the giant (to her) buck sits down, and her expression falls as he raises the shakers above the steak – Above her!
Salt grains and pepper grinds fall from the shakers like giant white and black boulders, impacting near her and making her have to jump to avoid being crushed beneath them! It's no easy feat, as the soft surface of the steak isn't giving her much grip for her attempts to dodge the gigantic particles of seasoning.
At one point, a grain of salt lands on her tail, making Ash yelp in surprise! She pushes against the object nearly as big as she is, trying to wrest herself free but finding her paws slipping on the damp surface of the meat, giving her no purchase!
It's only when the grain begins to dissolve a bit that she's able to pull her tail out from beneath it, at which point she falls onto her rear, panting from the exertion.
"Louis, wait, please! I'm on here!"
Again, her pleas go unacknowledged as he stabs the fork into the meat a bit away from her, before using his knife to cut into the food – The blade directly above her!
"Ack!"
Ash runs to the side as the knife comes down, cutting into the steak right where she had just been!
"Louis! Please, stop!"
Still nothing from him, as he starts cutting again, making a nice strip – And again, bringing the knife down close to her, forcing her to dodge the other way!
Ash feels some reprieve when he keeps making strips away from her, but then he turns his plate ninety degrees to the side and starts cutting again – It seems he's making little bites for himself! Again, she needs to quickly dodge the metal blade that almost seems like it's following her, no matter how far she runs from it!
It's only when the steak is nice and diced that Louis sets the knife down, but he still holds his fork while eyeing the steak, as though deciding where to start.
"Please, don't! You'll eat me!"
The third time trying to get his attention isn't the charm, it would seem, as he takes a piece from near the edge and brings it to his mouth, quietly chomping on it before swallowing it down.
Another piece gets taken, this time from the other edge. Ash wonders why he seems to be eating the steak at random like this, but she knows she isn't overly familiar with Louis's dining habits – Perhaps this is just how he likes to eat steak? It certainly seems so, as he takes several more pieces into his mouth without any apparent pattern!
Her attention is caught when he uses his fork to take a piece adjacent to the one she's on, the movement knocking her onto her rear! She realizes she's in danger no matter where she stands – She needs to get down!
But when she peeks over the edge of the freshly-removed chunk of steak, she cowers a bit. It's quite a long way down, and the landing onto the plate wouldn't be a soft one!
Before the wolf can do anything, though, her ground quakes, and to her horror, she finds herself being lifted up to Louis's mouth!
"No, no, please, Louis, don't-!"
The deer closes his mouth around the fork and withdraws it, leaving both the meat cube and the tiny canine atop it inside!
His teeth rise and lower as he idly chews his food, mashing the meat into mush. Ash, though, does her best to avoid being crushed, and in a moment of quick thinking, she jumps to his tongue, grabbing one of the bumpy papillae and fighting against the slick surface to keep her grip!
A loud Glllp sounds behind her as Louis swallows the meat, but before the wolf can plan a course of action, she sees his mouth open again – This time bringing a rush of cool water! He's evidently sipping his drink, but the force of the water makes her lose her grip on his tongue!
Ash yelps and sputters, trying in vain one last time to call out to him, but she can't even get a word out before she's brought to the stag's gullet, before-
Glllck!
The wolf suddenly finds herself in free-fall as she drops into Louis's esophagus, washed rapidly down by the water around her! She barely has any time to react as she's brought deeper into his body, slipping down the tube of muscle. Her descent pauses as the water reaches his cardia, but this reprieve is short-lived as she drops through into his stomach!
The first stomach, anyway; she knows ruminants like Louis have multiple. But she isn't exactly keen to explore this for herself!
"Louis! Please, can you hear me? You… You…"
"Ate you?"
Ash's heart skips a beat as her expression falls. "You… You could…"
"Hear you? Or knew you were there the whole time? The answer is yes to both."
The wolf stumbles a bit, climbing onto an unchewed chunk of meat. "But… Why did you… If you knew I was there?"
"Well, I'd say to teach you for trying to break into my home, but I don't reckon you'll be around too long to learn that lesson." Louis chuckles softly. "That's what happens when you try to go after a prey with a shrink-slash-memory ray…"
There's a deep rumble, and Ash feels her meat cube moving – Squishing deeper into the rumen, toward the reticulum! The walls here are more active, tossing her about and making her have to fight to cling to her safety cube!
"Look- Gah! I'm sorry! Ahh! Can't we- Can't we talk about this?"
"What would you like to talk about?"
"I don't want to- To die!"
"And I didn't want my house broken into. Your point?"
"I don't even remember doing that!"
"I do. You were muttering something about 'getting' me. I just acted in self-defense."
Another rumble. A lot of the meat gets taken back up the esophagus to be chewed again – But Ash finds her piece is staying right where it is!
"What the- Why am I still here?"
Louis responds, speaking with his mouth full. "Dun wanna chahns ya gehhin awahy."
The wolf parses this as "Don't want to chance you getting away", and she yelps "Please, just let me go; I won't bother you anymore! I promise!"
A deep swallow sounds out, and his mouthful, along with Ash and her cube, slips deeper into his digestive system – Into the omasum!
"And risk you remembering your mission, whatever it was? Nah, I think I'm good with where you're at." He chuckles softly. "Now please be quiet and digest."
The cube she's on certainly seems to be digesting, growing softer with every passing second and seeming to melt into the rest of the mush! Ash does her best to keep out of it, but there's really nothing she can do.
"Please, Louis! Don't… Don't let me digest…"
This time, she gets no answer from the predatory deer, and she shudders as she realizes she's beginning to grow softer as well! It's doubtful, even if he did somehow let her out at this point, that she would make it very far in this state…
Another deep rumble, and everything in this chamber is forced deeper still, into the abomasum. Ash sinks right through the mush into the pool of green digestive fluids, sinking into them and finding herself without the strength to fight anymore. She shudders as a tingling numbness spreads through her body as it begins to break down. She yawns, her energy rapidly sapping away.
Just before she passes out, though, she hears Louis's voice once more.
"I do hope more of you try to come after me, you know – This was certainly quite fun!"
