It was fucking disgusting.

  I would not wish this on even my worst enemies, not my high school bully John or even Adrien. Well. Maybe Mark.

  The inside of the dragon’s mouth and its throat smelled of corpse rot, of decay. It was slimy and hot, and as soon as I was entirely inside it, I was encompassed from head to toe in its thick saliva, the ooze coating my body completely, cloying to my fur. A tremor of revulsion swept over me. Thankfully, my cat form had a stronger vomiting threshold, and nothing appeared to be coming up. I tried to crawl forward, my lungs already complaining from my held breath, but found the dragon’s throat too slippery to make any movement, my paws just sliding on the cordlike flesh. Instead, I let the constricting muscles pulsing about me force me down.

  For some reason, I just hadn’t expected it to be pitch black.

  Of course, it made sense. There was no way for light to get inside something.

  Tam? Wren? I called, though it was more for my own comfort, my body being squeezed through the dragon’s gullet, presumably toward its stomach. It was a very unappealing and painful experience, my health bar taking hits.

  There was a flurry of mental reactions.

  You got eaten too, Lee! I’m so sorry.

  Never thought I’d be glad to hear that shit voice.

  You’re both conscious?! I shouted back, shocked and delighted.

  Damn wish I wasn’t. It’s been ass. This was followed by a softer, Wren’s been alternating between healing us. But we’re losing the battle.

  So that meant that the dragon’s body had been interfering with the [Mindlink]. Some sort of natural comms scrambler. Maybe something it developed to stop its prey from sending thoughts back to each other? None of the other species we’d seen here had spoken aloud.

  Still, it was good to know that wherever Tam and Wren had ended up had some breathable air.

  The muscles about me squashed me tight, oxygen wringing out from my lungs, and I was starting to realise how awful it had to have been for them. The panic from lack of air made me try to breathe harder, my heart hammering in my chest, but all I was inhaling was rotten dragon spit, so I clamped my mouth shut, despite the screaming of my lungs. Health started pipping down. The size of my HP bar and innate regen would keep me alive for some time, way beyond what I should’ve been able to normally struggle through. I did not envy what Wren and Tam had to have been constantly suffering.

  “Ass” was, for once, an understatement.

  It take much time for you to find each other? I asked, fighting back my instinctive dread, knowing this was basically prolonged dying.

  Switching [Saintly Intent] to [Healing Hand] on myself to fight the damage didn’t do anything to lessen the pain of not being able to breath. My lungs felt like they were on fire, choking on nothing. I had no idea how my brain was still functioning. This kind of ridiculous seesawing in health would only ever work with game logic, like slamming down a cheese wheel on the brink of death in Skyrim.

  This boy’s a long motherfucker. I tumbled for a bit, and I'd been clawing my way back up, barely conscious, when Wren found me in the nick of time.

  You still cat?

  Yeah, figured I’d take less damage remaining this size, considering this bugger’s constrictions.

  As if to punctuate the point, the dragon's gullet squeezed me, crushing my bones and grinding me along. It was the exact same reason I'd chosen to transform too. To put it simply, my hitbox was smaller. The dragon had less of a chance to hurt me like this.

  Metaphorically, I breathed a sigh of relief that Tam and Wren were together.

  It appeared luck was on our side.

  Even if none of us could really breathe.

  And we had no clear way out.

  And there was no way to communicate with the others.

  Despite how dire the situation seemed, surprisingly, things were going to plan. Actually, it was going better than I’d thought. I’d been expecting Tam and Wren to have been unconscious and separated. I'd anticipated having to rely on [Stubborn] to reach them both. (I wouldn't be telling Axel that, though.)

  You can't cut out? I asked, hoping we wouldn't have to commit to the worst version of my plan. With Tam still feline and unable to do much more than scratch, I directed the question to Wren.

  She said, Even with [Keen Steel], I can't get any deeper than the stomach lining. While healing, I've been trying to cut through, but it's like there's steel under it or something.

  That meant there was only one viable option left.

  This was gonna suck.

  Sorry I took so long, I said.

  Apologize when we’re in the green, dandelion.

  I flashed [Echolate], watching as the inky nothing took shape in the blueprint that pulsed outward, Wren’s and Tam’s tracker dots now bowling ball size and their outlines only a short distance away. It looked as though the dragon’s organs widened a little bit past its long throat, and that’s where Tam and Wren were. That meant we were likely a third into the dragon’s body.

  Resisting the urge to breathe deep to still myself (since I’d just inhale stomach juices a la dragon at this point), I instead skipped the patterns of inhales and exhales, a sharp pain stabbing going through me, and focused on what mattered.

  Gigi, Jye, Wren, Tam, Axel.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  We could do this.

  I explained what I wanted Wren and Tam to do as the muscles around my body squeezed me on closer to them, my body fighting the urge to tense up. The feeling was everything awful about massages times infinity. It was how I imagined MMA fighters grappled others into unconsciousness.

  And loverboy agreed to this? Tam inquired, shocked.

  Ignoring the way she'd referenced Axel, I replied, Agreed is a strong word.

  I think it should work, with all of us. Makris has been keeping track of the numbers.

  So long as nothing interrupts you all, it should fly, he said, addressing me for the first time without insulting me. It was probably just pure panic on his part. He couldn’t rally hate for me when his concern for the girl outweighed it.

  The truth of it was clear. If this didn’t work, there was no other way of getting out of this creature's stomach in time. I'd considered going out the other end, but with how long the dragon was… we'd be done before reaching it. There’d be less oxygen the further we went in, and healing couldn’t only combat so much before we lost consciousness.

  Finally, I was coming up on Wren and Tam, the green glow of Wren’s [Healing Hand] the only light in the wet cavern of the dragon’s stomach. There was a sharp long drop, and I heard a squelch of muscle contracting as I sloshed down. When I glanced back up, there was no gap through which I’d come through, the flesh tightened closed. No coming back that way. The climb back up alone required sent my mind reeling.

  The good news was there was some air here, as I’d anticipated based on Wren’s and Tam’s consciousness, the area larger and deeper and cat-neck deep in liquid, and I bobbed toward Tam and Wren and their green light, bumping into part digested items I would rather not examine too closely, the gases burning my nostrils with smells I couldn’t even describe.

  As I aligned with the two party members, I extended my claws to dig into the fleshy walls, barely buried to their quick before meeting hard raw cartilage; no wonder Wren couldn’t cut through. Snagged to the stomach lining, I was stopped from moving further along with the continuous swelling and rippling of muscle surrounding us. With a shiver of disgust, I summoned Mirror who appeared in cat form too. The double vision this time barely even mattered, considering how dark it was.

  Thank fuck for that.

  Mirror slipped slightly further down the organ before I used its claws to attach to the walls as well, the acid juices pooling about the half party. Then, extending a paw, I laid Mirror’s right one onto Wren.

  I activated [Healing Hand] from Mirror onto the girl, the green joining hers and further illuminating our small group. [Saintly Intent] here would just be a waste of mana, and I needed to maintain a reasonable equilibrium. Wren’s body perceptibly loosened, the healing clearly easing the tension in her small form. She hadn’t been in here that long, but even my brain was beginning to melt, the anxiety of low air, the continuous drop and gain of my health, like a fire torching thought inside my head. With a bitten back groan, I refocused.

  You ready, Tam?

  Is this really the best you got?

  You’re just gonna have to grin and bear it.

  In the dimness of the dragon’s stomach, I swear I saw Tam’s cat mouth smile.

  Let’s go then, sunshine. She paused. And thanks for the rescue party.

  Tam thanking me? Wow. This might almost be worth it.

  You’d have done the same for me.

  The cutthroat laughed hard into our connection.

  Let’s do it! Wren added, emboldened, though her voice was weaker than I’d have liked.

  It was a simple plan, really. How do you get something out of anyone’s stomach?

  Regurgitation.

  We just had to get it all jump started.

  Tam and I both triggered [Cloudeath].

  I redirected [Healing Hand] to Mirror, followed by me channeling Axel’s [Drain] into one of the paws that I’d dug into the dragon’s flesh. It was the first time I’d used it, since no one in the team had volunteered to play target back at base.

  As the energy of the dragon began to fill me, the ability siphoning its vitality, a surge of adrenaline buzzed through my body. It directly contrasted the aching pain of low oxygen. Each second that passed was like a shot of Redbull injected straight into my veins. This could easily be addictive, and the tangible drip of stamina and mana it refilled in my bars was serotonin to my brain. However, the experience quickly sobered with the thought that Adrien had probably felt the same sucking the life from Axel.

  I’d considered using Jye’s [Shockshot] intermittently for the extra damage, but since it stunned opponents, it was the direct opposite of what we needed to happen. The only other ability we could use [Groundsmash] only worked on things identifiably considered flooring. I didn’t think it was worth testing out on the dragon’s stomach, lest [Channel’s] “repercussions” for failing to activate ruin my plans entirely when it drained my full bars.

  Noxious fumes billowed about Tam and me, merging with the other gases and spreading, and it was impossible for us not to breathe it in. The crux of my plan lay on the hope that the healing granted from my, Mirror’s, and Wren’s [Healing Hand] would compensate for the abiltiy’s damage and keep us sane enough even through the pain. Whilst I could only use one [Healing Hand], [Drain] was providing a similar service for me. It was why sending in Mirror alone wouldn’t have been enough.

  Without all of us in here, someone would’ve died waiting the rescue out. It was a delicate balance in mana and stamina consumption and health regen. All that said, though, none of this healing stopped the gas from affecting us.

  We were in for some real agony.

  In preparation, I’d warned the others to clench their eyes shut, and we all had, but still the fumes somehow dug under both sets of my lids, stinging into the mucus of them. It seeped into my nostrils, searing down my airway, and within seconds I was hacking up blood, my throat slimy and raw, mouth tasting of copper, though [Drain] seemed to heal the damage soon after it happened, the blood stopping and then starting, endlessly. Through the wet echo of the dragon’s stomach, I heard similar reactions from Wren, Tam, and Mirror.

  It was worse than not being able to breathe.

  This was torture.

  Still, we had to push through.

  Keep going, I urged, my mind swimming.

  It would work. It would.

  On the outside, I had to assume the others were fulfilling their end of the plan.

  We were being poisoned but healing at the same time, the mix of pain and relief blending into a despairing numbness of existence. The sting of low oxygen, the burn of the fumes, blood pooling into our lungs, blistering cysts blooming from the poison, the soft pip of our health dropping and returning, and the anaesthetic stitch of the abilities mending the damage, all blurred into one thing: suffering.

  And it seemed to have no end.

  Just a little longer, guys.

  It was excruciating. It was continuously dying and having no escape. And yet, I found it easier than I should've. That acknowledgement, in and of itself, should've been concerning. To me, this feeling of choking, of compression, of blood flooding my mouth, was very similar to a panic attack, just one that never ended. It was a different pain from when my hand had been stitched. That was visceral, sharp. This was forever and smothering.

  I was asking a lot from the others, but this had been my life for years.

  After an indeterminable time, Tam spoke, voice strained, I’m never listening to you again, babes.

  I didn’t blame her.

  Wren’s about to lose it, Makris exclaimed, worry tightening his words.

  There was only so much a child could handle, after all. She’d done well.

  I'm so proud of you, but you need to keep going. We’re nearly there.

  My words were a lie. I had no idea if my plan was working at all. There was no way of knowing.

  Perhaps I’d just killed us.