A warm, clear day in Serenity finds you out for a walk along the trails in the local park at the edge of town, taking time to get some fresh air and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. The particular trail you're on leads you on a loop around Lake Arborea; about a five-mile hike in total. It's nothing you can't handle, you figure, and you look forward to taking in everything you'll see and hear on your walk.
About fifteen minutes after you set out, you pass a cozy-looking house in the distance, seemingly situated right on the border of the park. From here, you can see it has a driveway leading back to the main road, and it has a makeshift path leading to where you are.
How odd, you think. It appears someone wants easy access to the trail, or perhaps to the water.
Speaking of which, you hear a splash of water nearby, almost as if someone is climbing out of the lake! You turn to look, but you can't spot anything moving other than the ripples along the water's surface. Whatever (or whomever) it was, they seem to have disappeared into the woods.
You shrug and resume walking, figuring they must not want to be seen right now.
As you make your way along the trail, though, you get an odd feeling that you're being followed. But when you peek behind you, you don't see anyone there, nor do you spot anything that looks out of the ordinary. It's just a lakeside trail through the woods, as far as you can tell.
However, when you set off again, you hear a twig snap directly behind you, startling you.
You turn around, only to once again be greeted by nothing but a quiet dirt path with trees to one side and a lake to the other side. It's almost too quiet, in your mind. But with no sign of anything to justify your worries, you sigh and uneasily turn forward again…
…only to run directly into a tall snow leopardess wearing naught more than a black bikini, staring intently at you!
You jump in surprise, stumbling backward a bit as you take in the sight of the splotchy-furred cat in front of you. She stands about six-foot-three, by your estimate. Her snowy-white hair reaches down to the top of her chest, and both her hair and her fur are slightly poofed like they were freshly dried off. Her heterochromic eyes, blue on the left and green on the right, are focused intently on you. And her long, floofy tail sways behind her, almost like a cat stalking its prey.
Prey?
Just as the notion processes in your mind, she suddenly whips out an odd device that looks almost like a remote control and points it at you. You're engulfed in a bright flash of light – And when it clears, you find yourself about four inches tall, lost in the bundle of your clothes that haven't shrunken with you!
A white-furred hand with sharp black claws reaches into the pile of cloth, fishing around until it finds you, at which point it grabs you and pulls you out! You're lifted up by the snow leopard, who's giving you a look like one might give to a tasty snack.
Finally, you ask her what she's doing, not wanting your suspicions to be true.
To your surprise, she answers you rather bluntly and in a matter-of-fact tone. Less surprising is her response itself, confirming what you're dreading.
"I'm getting ready to eat you."
There's something about that powerful voice that catches your attention. And those mismatched eyes certainly seem familiar…
Suddenly, it strikes you! You nervously ask if she is Empress, the drummer for the rock group you saw the other day.
"I am, yes; I hope you enjoyed the show. Now, please wiggle for me while you're inside."
You've heard a rumor that the snow leopard has a tendency to eat tiny folks. But you never gave it much thought, considering you, up until a moment ago, weren't a micro yourself. It seems those rumors are true, though – And that she's perfectly willing to make someone a micro to sate her hunger.
You're brought back to reality as Empress opens her mouth in front of you, revealing a cavern of slick black flesh within. Behind her sharp leopard teeth, her tongue quivers softly in anticipation of getting to taste you, and her throat ripples and flexes, already preparing to swallow you. Despite the dark coloration, you can make out the ridges of her palate leading back to her softer velum. At the back of her mouth, her uvula sways side to side in time with her eager breaths. Speaking of which, her breath smells oddly sweet, like hot chocolate! No doubt this is just her natural scent, considering it's well out of season for her to be having such a drink, but it's a strangely calming aroma all the same.
You aren't given much longer to look into her maw, though, before she drops you onto her wet tongue. You land on the slick muscle and are readily pulled into the humid cavern with a dull thup, leaving you surrounded by dark flesh. Then, her teeth clack shut, trapping you entirely within the snow leopard's mouth.
Despite the lack of light, you're still able to faintly see the dark flesh all around you, almost as if you've got some kind of night vision. You don't bother questioning it – You've got more pressing concerns right now.
Before you can do anything, though, the tongue lifts up, pinning you against the rough palate directly above you! You squirm as the muscle presses against you, dragging against your form. Thankfully, the bumpy texture of the papillae on her tongue isn't a scratchy one like you were expecting of a felid like her; instead, it's much more akin to being licked by a dog. Granted, you've never been licked by a dog whilst within the mouth of one, but you imagine if you were, it would be something like this.
Empress works you all around in her mouth, her tongue stroking against every inch of your tiny body to extract as much flavor from you as it can. The black muscle curls around you, squeezing your tiny form. A rumble becomes audible from somewhere below you, growing in intensity the more she slurps on you. She's purring at your taste!
Or perhaps she's purring because of your squirms while you try to resist the wet muscle. You know full well it's pointless, but your survival instinct still tells you to at least try to save yourself, no matter how fruitless an endeavor it would ultimately be.
Plus, she did tell you to wiggle while you're inside her… You doubt that complying will convince her to let you go, but you don't really have anything else to do right now. It seems you're going to be food for the snow leopard.
As if to confirm this, the tongue relaxes once more, leaving you at the back of the muscle. Her uvula hangs directly over you, swaying side to side like a pendulum of black flesh. Your feet dangle over the back of the muscle, right above her flexing gullet. You try to pull yourself away from it, but you're not making much progress; her tongue is too slick for you to grip.
This conundrum only exacerbates as Empress tilts her head back, causing you to slide off her tongue and drop into her pharynx. You make a desperate grab for her uvula, but the flesh slips right out of your hands as you land feet-first in her throat.
Then, she swallows.
With a deep glllp, you're pulled downward, crammed into her esophagus and pushed along the tunnel by a rolling wave of peristalsis. The squishing of wet flesh sills your ears, as do the rumbling purrs of a very happy cat. Despite your situation, you can't help but take some comfort in knowing you're pleasing her this well.
A firm heartbeat and the whooshing of air sound nearby, and you reckon you're passing through her chest now. A moment later, your feet press against a tight ring of muscle that readily parts, letting you squeeze through and drop into the chamber beyond.
You land in the snow leopard's stomach with a wet splat, the rubbery flesh cradling you as you settle within the digestive organ. A faint squish above you shows her cardia has sealed shut once more, trapping you within her belly.
You look around, still somehow able to see, though the black flesh makes it hard to make much out. You can see the folded rugae lining her stomach, and you watch as they idly shift and contract, squeezing in and out, already preparing to process the food inside her belly.
Food… That's all that you are now.
You press your hands against the walls of the stomach, feeling the slick and rubbery flesh. It pushes back against you, as though trying to dissuade you from escaping. Her stomach wants you all for itself, and it isn't going to give you up if it can help it!
With a sigh, you sit down in the middle of the chamber, resigning yourself to your fate. There's no point trying to fight – You've been claimed as a meal, and Empress is as keen to let you go as you were to let go of any tasty food you've eaten before.
It's only now that you take in just how warm everything is. She's a snow leopard, and her thick coat of fur keeps a lot of her inner heat from escaping her body. Good for a cat who primarily lives in winter climates; less good for a prey caught in her sweltering belly. You feel like you could almost melt in here.
Granted, you know you eventually will, but still.
The humid, muggy air hangs heavy around you, making you feel dazed and weak. You can't tell how much of the wetness on you is from the thorough tasting you received, or from the perspiration from being stuck inside her stomach.
With nothing else to do, you lie on your back, letting the warm flesh cradle you. As you give in to your fate, you can't help but feel like her stomach is reacting positively, the folded walls shifting to give you some comfort in your final moments. A particular fold lets you slip into it as the dark flesh squeezes you gently, almost like a reassuring hug, as though thanking you for making this easy.
You chuckle softly and caress the rubbery flesh. Despite everything, this feels oddly nice, as though Empress's belly is making this as relaxing for you as it can, perhaps aiming to lull you into a comfortable rest from which you know you'll never awaken.
A yawn escapes you, and you snuggle against the folded rugae, settling in. You can feel a tingling numbness spreading rapidly throughout your body, the heat and the digestive fluids both working to melt you away as nothing more than sustenance for the snow leopard.
Honestly, it's not a bad way to go out, you reckon.
The walls squeeze you once more in an appreciative embrace while digesting you, and you close your eyes and let yourself fade out, letting them have you.
By the time the walls release again, there's nothing solid left. The stomach rumbles happily, letting your remains pump deeper into Empress's body, all hers to absorb and make a part of her.
Outside, the snow leopard rubs her belly appreciatively, happy to have had such a nice meal today. As she licks her lips, savoring the remains of your flavors still on her tongue, it's clear she'll be thinking of you for quite a while.
