Elaine's eyes opened almost the same instant as her phone began beeping beside
her, the alarm set for bright and early. Her hand slapped the phone screen, setting it to
snooze even though she had no intention of staying in bed. She all but bounded into the
bathroom, the mirror revealing a mid-brown furred face with darker brown hair that hung
in a dishevelled mess skewed to the left from how she had slept.
'Hehe.' She giggled, taking a few moments to try and straighten her hair until it hung at
its usual shoulder length. She'd figure something better out after a shower, which she
saw to among the other usual morning rituals.
As she'd finished, she heard her phone chiming from the bedroom outside, reminding
her that she had slapped snooze in her excitedness to be up. She hastily dried herself
and returned to her bedroom. Once the alarm was silenced, she sent a quick text
message. Any preferences for breakfast?
Elaine dressed and headed to her kitchen. It was fifteen minutes by the time she
received a reply. Just toast or whatever you're making is fine. I'll be up in five.
'Toast.' Elaine sighed, already making herself a small coffee. 'No sense of adventure,
Tara.' She finished preparing her coffee and began making a batch of quick ready
miniature pancakes with sugar slivers, a sweeter than usual dish, but this was
something of an occasion.
They were just finished when she heard her door chime ring. As she turned off her
stove to let them simmer the last minute, she rushed to her front door and opened it,
revealing Tara. Her daughter's fur was a paler brown than Elaine herself, but they both
had the same dark brown hair and blue eyes. The younger mouse had dressed casual,
jeans and a sleeveless top, much unlike the dress suit her mother was wearing.
'Come on in!' Elaine beckoned. 'I just made pancakes.'
'You're chipper as ever.' Tara observed as she stepped into her mother's apartment.
'No actually, you're a little too excited for something as simple as today.'
'How often do we both get a day off?' Elaine grinned. 'I'm excited to see the docks
where you work. A place like that has to be more interesting than the boring office I get
trapped in every day.'
'It's not... that exciting.' Tara shrugged. 'It's just a dock. I sort Size One containers for
delivery. That's pretty much it.'
After the pair had eaten breakfast, they headed out of the apartment building. A
former Felid residence, the house had been renovated extensively to function as a
small, contained murid community. With basic medical and educational facilities, most
murids wouldn't need to leave during hunting hours, provided they'd stocked their
pantries and fridges. By now though, it was after 8am and no citizen would be legally
permitted to hunt another.
The mother and daughter made their way to the train terminal that stopped at this
end of their block, a slightly raised platform separated from what had once been the
sidewalk for felids. From here a lift carried them up to a more elevated platform where a
train was waiting for its departure time. In short order, they were on their way.
'I've never seen this part of the city.' Elaine exclaimed. 'The river really is huge.'
'They excavated it decades ago when they built the docks.' Tara explained. 'It was the
only way a landlocked city could receive shipping without building a hundred more train
lines.'
As the micro rail carried their train closer to the murid station for the area, Elaine
continued to marvel at the scale of the city's infrastructure much to Tara's halfway
confused amusement. Tara had to remind herself that she'd been young when Equality
had taken effect, so she'd mostly grown up in a world where this was all... normal. Her
mother had lived most of her life as a scavenger, never knowing much more than life
inside the walls of a single house. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. The life Elaine
must have lived was certainly one that had earned the sights Tara was taking for
granted.
Once down on the boardwalk, Tara led Elaine to a section of the docks that was
tourist friendly and had provided walkways for murids and other smaller folks. There
was a bustle of activity, dock workers, forklifts, and small trucks moving across most of
the large pathways between each dock and pier. From one of the murid platforms, the
two mice rested against the safety railings and spent a few moments watching a ship
slowly pull into one of the larger docks across the opposing river bank.
'You can see most of the water from here.' Tara explained. 'From this spot you
probably get the better view.'
'That's not true.' A nearby voice interjected. Elaine turned and saw a felid woman, a
wildcat by her stature, with pristine white fur. Her blue eyes matched her outfit and she
stopped short a respectful distance from the pair from the larger walkway.
'Oh...' Tara's eyes widened slightly. 'H-hi Therese. Didn't think you were rostered
today?'
'I'm not.' The cat gestured to her casual day clothes. 'I just handed in my notice. As in,
immediate. Found somewhere less back breaking to work. They might take it easy here
on you folks, but I still have to do heavy lifting here. Hated it.'
'Understandable...' Tara shrugged, still looking less than comfortable.
'Nice to meet you, dear.' Elaine interjected. 'Tara doesn't seem intent on introducing
me, so I'm Elaine. Tara's mother.'
'Ah, I see it.' Therese smiled. 'And as I was saying, there's a much better view from the
upper level near Alexander's office.' She pointed up as she spoke towards one of the
elevated platforms towards above where they were at the moment. The office was a
lightweight portable block unit that had been situated near the end of the platform
pathway.
'He won't want us there.' Tara shook her head.
'He's not there himself.' Therese shrugged. 'I just left my letter on his desk. He's too
busy down here somewhere micro-managing some other poor asshole. Another reason
I wanted out of this place. Anyway, I'm done. Maybe I'll see you around.'
Elaine returned Therese's brief wave as the cat turned to walk away.
'Ugh.' Tara shuddered. 'Never enjoyed talking to her.'
'Why?' Elaine asked, still smiling. 'She seems nice.'
'Always eager to describe her latest hunt to me. Or other murids.' Tara sighed. 'And
she hunts... far more often than she needs to. It's completely inappropriate.'
'Let's go check out that view she mentioned.' Elaine pointed to where Therese had
indicated and already beginning to walk. Tara sighed in frustration, but stepped in
behind. It took the pair with their small strides a good twenty minutes to make the trek
up to the area beside the elevated walkway. They peered cautiously to make sure there
were no larger folk already up here. There was a murid walkway across the platform, but
it connected directly to the train bays farther behind them and would have taken twice
as long to reach had they backtracked.
Once the coast was clear, they cautiously made their way towards the mounted
office block. Already from here it was apparent there would be a much better view, but
something troublesome kept nagging at the back of Tara's mind.
Elaine was already looking away, out over the water from this height it was clear
where sections of the river had been excavated. The process of artificially widening the
flow to allow more ships to pass in and out, as well as facilitate the construction of
more docks, looked as though it had been a painstaking process. In her excitement, she
had pushed ahead of her daughter at an increased pace and was now only a few metres
from the office block.
'Mama, wait!' Tara called, breaking into a run to catch up. 'We really shouldn't be up
here! Just wait a second!'
Elaine stopped, just long enough to take Tara's hand, then continued dragging her
daughter towards the wall of Alexander's office. Once there, they followed the wall
around to the back of the structure and through to the other side. This was the end of
the platform and there were only a few metres left between this side of the building and
the platform's edge. They'd have to be extra careful here, since the railings were
designed for the larger folks rather than people of murid size.
'Oh, your friend was right.' Elaine gasped, finally letting go of Tara's hand and taking a
few more tentative steps forward. 'This view is amazing.'
Tara sighed and fidgeted, but her mother was right. Facing northward, from here they
could see the river stretching out across the savannah at the city's borders, and the
borderline where the city itself gradually gave way to rural areas and smaller docks
along the banks until giving way to more open plains.
The two stood there for a few moments, transfixed by the view. Tara was growing more
concerned each moment as her mother shifted closer and closer to the edge of the
platform to increase her view.
'Mama, please. That's enough.' Tara spoke softly. 'We should go now before we get
into trouble Alexander could come back and if he sees me here, I could lose shifts. Or
even my job.'
'Alright, let's-' Elaine stopped mid-sentence as she turned to face Tara, but something
else immediately caught her attention. As Tara turned to follow Elaine's gaze, she was
expecting the worst, to see Alexander scowling down at her. Instead she was met with
the vibrant blue of Therese's eyes leering down at her, accompanied by a gleaming
toothy grin.
'Couldn't help it, could you?' The white felid asked, leaning forward slightly as her grin
slowly turned into a smirk.
'What are you doing here?' Tara asked, a hint of fear offset only by the legal
protections she knew were in place. Therese had been able to sneak in behind them
without a sound, the kind of stealth smaller felids were famed for and normally used
only when hunting.
'The view of course.' Therese replied, taking another silent step towards them. 'After
all, I just quit my job here. Might not get another chance to see this.'
'We were just about to leave.' Tara said, her voice shaking slightly as she noticed how
close Therese had stepped to them. Something about the cat's movements and
mannerism felt wrong, like she was prowling rather than conversing. 'The view's great,
but we're not supposed to be here.'
'Nobody will know.' The cat grinned again. She held out her hand, placing it gently
before Elaine on the platform.
'That's alright, dear, I can walk.' The mouse said with an awkward smile. 'We'll go back
to-!!' Her words were cut off as Therese raised her hand slightly before sweeping the
older mouse woman into her grasp.
Tara's hands raised to her mouth to stifle a startled scream. Therese couldn't be doing
this. Not in broad daylight? 'What are you doing?' She demanded after a moment.
'Using a blind spot.' Therese replied as her tail swept around and battered Tara from
behind. In the next moment the younger mouse was in the cat's other hand. 'The
surveillance cameras can see every part of the docks except for this spot right here.
Thanks to that big ugly office block behind me.'
As Elaine managed to wriggle her head free enough to gasp for breath, she was just in
time to witness Tara being stuffed between the felid's breasts. 'W-what? No! Let her go
you monster! You can't do this!'
'Weren't you paying attention to what I just said?' Therese smirked, raising Elaine to
her lips and making a deliberately slow show of licking them in anticipation. 'In this
camera blind spot, I can do what I want. And I want a pair of mice for breakfast.' She
punctuated her terrifying words with a slow lick across Elaine's head, ruining her
carefully combed hair.
'No, please...' Elaine sobbed. 'Let my girl go! She doesn't deserve this!'
'Can't leave a witness.' Therese smirked, her mouth giving a terrifying glimpse of its
dark interior to Elaine as she spoke. 'Besides, it's not about what you mice deserve. It's
about what I want, and if I can get around this stupid set of laws to get it, then I will.'
'No no, please!' Elaine felt tears well in her eyes. This was her fault. She'd fallen for
this cat's line about a good view and let herself be fooled into making herself vulnerable.
Worse yet, she'd dragged her own daughter into the situation and would now be the
cause of both their demises. She'd wanted so badly to believe in Equality, to believe that
this young felid was simply being nice, and had allowed her naivety to override her own
good sense as well as the warnings Tara had tried to give her.
Her attempt to scream died in her throat as the cat's mouth opened wide before her.
Therese tilted her head back, lifting Elaine up higher and giving the mouse a thorough
and horrifying view of her immediate destination. The morning light gave the pink and
red flesh of Therese's mouth a glistening sheen, and the pearly white teeth framed it all
like the gates to some mythical afterlife as the tongue extended forwards to catch its
prize.
Therese released Elaine from her grip, letting the mouse fall the short distance onto
her barbed tongue. Instantly the tongue withdrew, dragging Elaine inside and bringing
her face to face with the cat's uvula. Just beyond, the dark flexing flesh of her throat
muscles twitched with a horrible wet smack as its anticipation grew.
Elaine's whimpers were outmatched by the slow moan of pleasure that Therese
made, her tongue cupping Elaine's twitching form and soaking her clothes and fur
through with the thick, pungent drool. The mouse was slammed into the hard palate
over and over, held in place as the tongue caressed and violated her in ways that made
her thankful that the cat had at least not taken her clothes. Each motion threatened to
snap bones if Elaine tried too hard to resist, forcing her to fight her own instincts to
attempt to prise her limbs between the felid's teeth. Her drool matted hair was dragged
everywhere by the coarse motions, being strung across her face, tangled around her
ears and even wrapping haphazardly around her neck as she was twisted and rolled by
the tongue.
Elaine knew it was only a matter of time before this would end, and the thought of
what would happen next triggered a traumatising flashback to years earlier. A terrifying
sight of the same ordeal but being suffered by another, witnessed by Elaine from safety
but no less devastating. The day her second child, Tara's younger sister, had been taken.
Tears now loosed freely from Elaine's eyes and became indistinguishable from the
pooling saliva after mere moments. The mouse mother's incompetence and
carelessness had cost her her youngest child back then, and now it would cost
everything she had left.
'Tara!' She tried to scream out, tried to twist her body to be facing back out of
Thereses mouth in the desperate hope her daughter would be able to hear her final
apology. 'Tara, can you hear me?!'
Therese growled, deafening the mouse woman with playful aggression as she once
more pinned the mouse to the roof of her mouth, far more forcibly this time. Saliva
pooled around her face, making it hard, then impossible to draw another breath. As her
squirms and desperate attempts to flail free became more erratic, Therese's soft yet
deafening laughter filled the mouse's ears and the tongue finally relaxed.
Elaine gasped, filling her lungs with the hot, fetid air of the cat's breath. The whole
mouth shifted momentarily, allowing another sliver of light to briefly illuminate the
throat for a few terrifying moments. She tried to push herself backwards, but her drool-
soaked hands and the backward pointing barbs of the slick tongue made any resistance
completely impossible. Therese's uvula and the throat behind were still right there,
twitching and flexing in soft shadow gulps as though practicing for the real thing.
Tara struggled from her own prison, stuffed headfirst between the cat's breasts and
trapped upside down. As soft and warm as it was here, it was still almost impossible for
her to do anything but squirm uselessly and only her toes and the lower half of her tail
could still feel the cool morning air. The sounds of Therese's breathing and exciting
heartbeat left her with no illusions as to what the cat was planning, and the mouse was
forced to conclude that her mother's life was measured in minutes at best, if she was
even still alive at all.
She increased her efforts to escape, reasoning that if she couldn't get herself back
out the top, maybe she could squirm the rest of the way down and escape under the
cat's shirt. With a few more moments of exhausting writhing, she managed to get herself
a few inches deeper only to feel Therese pinch two fingers around the tip of her tail and
pull her back to where it was.
'Dammit...' She felt her eyes sting with tears of frustration and fear. Therese had her.
She had them both. And she intended to finish this...
Elaine felt Therese lower her head momentarily, followed by a brief yet booming
chuckle as she lifted once more. The brief respite was over in an instant as Elaine felt
her saliva soaked form once again slip deeper into Therese's mouth, this time
accompanied by an increase in pressure from the tongue below.
'Oh no... no no!' Her despair, already feeling at its zenith, reached a new peak as her
already cramped form felt the squeeze from all directions except the one that the throat
had deemed.
A loud, wet gulp deafened her as the cat's tongue lifted and forced her backwards.
Cramped in the increasingly small, hot and slippery space, Elaine felt the momentary
drop from gravity as the throat contracted to pull her deeper. The pressure returned a
split moment later, and then a second loud gulp rang out.
This time, the pressure didn't relent, but rather shifted. Elaine felt herself sliding
deeper, the slick surface of Therese's gullet passing around her with forceful squelching
clenches that drove her down with a pool of saliva, making it impossible to draw another
breath.
The ordeal wouldn't last long, Elaine knew. But also knowing what awaited at the
bottom of this trip made her wish it would last much longer, even if it meant drowning in
the cat's foul drool. Inevitably, she reached the end, and after a brief buildup of pressure
she felt herself squeezed through the upper sphincter into Therese's stomach...
Tara fell into hysterical sobbing as she watched, Therese having pulled her free just
long enough to watch the ripple in her neck's white fur as Elaine slid down behind it. Her
tears dripped onto the cat's tightly wrapped fingers that kept her before the terrifying
sight. Her own mother, swallowed alive before her eyes.
Therese lowered her head, bringing her eyes to meet the tear-filled gaze of her next
prey and followed with a slow grin. 'I wish I could have stripped you both, but there's
less chance of leaving evidence this way.' The cat tapped her neck a few times with two
fingers, before bringing those two claws to Tara's chin and lifting her head gently yet
insistently.
'What are you waiting for?' Tara demanded. 'Finish it, you bitch!'
Therese's grin turned into a smirk. 'When I'm ready. When I feel your little mama stop
squirming, then you can have your turn. And who knows, maybe I'll find someone else
before the morning's over. Now go back to being quiet, little mouse.'
Elaine felt herself drop as the sphincter finally released her. The smell was already
vomit-inducing, and her inability to see where she was about to land made the next
moment all the more terrifying. She expected a splash, but the stomach seemed empty
at this time. Instead she landed on the slimy creased surface, sliding into the lowest
part like it was a disgusting organic bowl. Only here was there any amount of liquid
enough to partially submerge her, and she instantly felt the tingle of digestive fluids on
her skin.
'No no, I... I can't... not like this...' The mouse scrambled to get herself back above the
shallow pool, but it meant an upward climb on the slick, sloped and constantly moving
surface of the stomach walls. The motion combined with the scent caused her to heave,
her next breath catching a splash of the foul juices and sending her into a fit of violent
coughing.
She fumbled in the dark, losing her footing and sliding back down into the bottom of
the pit. As she stood again, she spread her arms and felt the flesh either side of her,
realising just how cramped the stomach's interior actually was. A split moment later as
if reacting to her touch, the stomach walls clenched with enough force that she felt like
her bones would break. After they released, she dropped to her knees and slipped onto
her side once again, cursing her fate and swearing that the pool of liquid beneath her
was getting deeper.
'Ooh, that felt like a good one.' Therese moaned softly. Now sitting on the walkway
with her back leaning against Alexander's office block, she had Tara held up against her
belly where the mouse would be forced to listen to the gurgles and faint cries coming
from inside.
Tara was beyond distraught by this point. Knowing her own encroaching fate was one
thing, but being forced to listen to her mother endure it before her was absolutely
sickening. Therese truly was a monster to even have such a twisted mind.
Elaine couldn't tell how long it had been, but she could tell the air was getting worse.
The acids were rising, soaking into the already saliva-soaked fur and clothes she wore
and clinging to her increasingly irritated skin. Tears were no longer falling from her eyes,
whether because her body had succumbed to numbness or her tear ducts were simply
out of tears to give, she couldn't tell.
She tried to push herself upright again. She knew it was futile, but her body was being
driven by treacherous survival instincts at this point, compelling her to seek a way out
even though there wasn't one to be found. Another clench of the stomach walls came
and another breath was driven from her lungs, leaving her coated in viscous acidic
slime.
Trying to inhale again, Elaine felt her legs give out. Falling back onto the sloping walls
behind her, she sank back down for what she knew was going to be the last time.
Despite the adrenalin she felt, her body had no more energy to give. Her mind was
beginning to feel the fog that came with the lack of breathable air, and despite the
desperate efforts her lungs were making, there was simply no more energy to be drawn.
The acids lapped at her flesh, encompassing her legs, tail and most of her torso. Only
her shoulders and head remained above the fluids for the moment, but it wouldn't take
much to shift her position and submerge her completely. Above her, just audible over
the gurgling and squelching of Therese's stomach, Elaine was able to make out the cat's
next words, the most devastating thing Elaine would ever hear...
Tara felt herself lifted to Therese's face level once again. The cat's expression was a
sickeningly sadistic grin of satisfaction and her hot, stinking breath reached Tara's nose
as she let out a satisfied sigh.
'Did you feel that one?' Therese asked. 'I think your momma finally gave up. So, it's
your turn at last.'
Tara felt a moment of bravado. A moment of defiance that would let her state her last
words with purpose and clarity. 'I...'
The moment passed, and the feeling and the words it would have driven died the
moment Therese opened her mouth. Tara saw it, and her will broke. The perfect, pearly
teeth and fangs framing the pink, barbed tongue. The ridged hard palate, leading into the
soft, leading to the downward hanging uvula. And the darker flesh behind in shadow,
twitching and flexing in anticipation of a second, savoury morsel. A few strings of saliva
joined upper teeth and palate to tongue, and a waft of hot, stale breath preceded the
tongue extending to catch her as she was lowered inside.
Tara squeezed her eyes shut tight and began to hyperventilate as the tongue probed
her paralysed form. Tears welled, and she began sobbing once more. Knowing Therese,
this ordeal would not be over quickly.
Elaine heard the moans of pleasure from above. Even through her fading, fog addled
mind she could make out the horrifying sounds of Therese savouring Tara the way she
had savoured her. Despite it all, Elaine's stinging eyes had no more tears to give, and her
voice had no more cries to make. She could do nothing but twitch in the rippling acids,
cradled by the steadily churning stomach walls around her.
She whimpered as it all shifted again, feeling the vile fluids wash over her head and
make her strained breathing even more difficult and painful. The rocking continued, a
steady thumping rhythm that made the acids ripple again and again. Elaine realised that
Therese was walking somewhere. Which meant that Tara...
Elaine felt her burning lips pull into an attempt to cry again. But she managed nothing
more than another, final breath of corrosive digestive fumes...
Tara could feel Therese stand, the sudden jolt in her equilibrium felt even over the
cat's relentless tongue tossing her around. If Therese was walking somewhere. It would
only be a matter of squeezing a leg or an arm out between her lips and someone might
be able to spot her situation.
Her efforts only seemed to amuse Therese, with the cat occasionally taking a few
longer strides that only dislodged any precarious leverage the mouse managed to grab.
Tara felt her fear and frustration rise in equal measure, almost paralleled by the building
saliva that drenched every inch of her form.
'Let me go!!!' She managed to scream, gaining just enough leverage to land a kick
onto the cat's palate.
'Mrrff...' Therese grumbled and pressed her tongue up, forcing Tara to give up her
position before she slid deeper. Something slipped across her face, and a blast of
breath on the back of her head made her realise exactly where she was.
'Ohh, no no...' Tara whimpered, feeling the pressure increase. It seemed that Therese
had decided that the game was over. Which meant any second now...
'GLLLK!' Therese swallowed her mouthful, sending the second mouse to her mother
with a blissful sigh. She had made her way back to the lower dock, where the mother
and daughter had originally been standing when she found them. With a quick bound
and swing, she climbed onto the railing and sat down, giving what might end up being
her last look out over the river from this place.
'Actually...' She muttered to herself. 'The view probably is better from here after all.'
