One of the more many hellish aspects of being a prisoner within Jo's maw that thus far I have neglected to mention is how startling it was each time the spoke. Since most of the time I could never predict it coming, the sudden shift from relative serenity to the erratic movements and sudden echoing noise of her voice made my heart jump into my throat almost every time. As if the experience as a whole did not put me on edge in general; being in a situation where you're aware you could be killed at any time does that to you; suddenly being subjected to the boom of her voice and the erratic movements of her tongue and jaw only raised my blood pressure ever higher. This shock, of course, was only made worse in the state I was left in after Jo's little allergic reaction, and the cunning way she was able to use even that against me.
"Well, how was that for a ride, little guy?" Jo inquired of me, still lying on my stomach between her lip and incisors with a slowly dulling headache- one that wasn't helped by the sudden movement of her jaw. "You got lucky, I must say- I could've sneezed you right out of my mouth, and that would've been awful. I much prefer you as a little speck in my mouth than a blood splat on the floor. It's far more fun. Though I suppose you have been pretty lucky, to still be in there at the moment."
Her musings weren't wrong, on both counts. I still thanked whatever god there was that I wasn't presently meeting with him or her in Jo's small intestine, or for that matter on the blood splat where my body, forcefully rocketed free of my prison by an allergic reaction within the giantess, could have formed upon hitting the floor miles below. Still, there were at least fifteen hours left to go, so there was still time for disaster to strike. I just had to keep strong my mindset that I could survive this oral imprisonment just fine.
"Anyway, since I'm so nice, I'll give you some time to recover while I get ready to go running," she continued, eventually making me decide to move away with some difficulty from her lips to somewhere slightly more stable. "Well, I mean that in that I won't sneeze again. You just taste too good to leave in peace." The familiar giggle echoed through the maw as I flopped down again against her molar teeth, sick of having to walk around while being thrown up and down constantly by the powerful yet spasmodic jaw below me. I knew, however, that I was going to have to get used to it if my tormentress had decided to go for a run; such an active pastime was sure to make her mouth a new and different kind of more uncomfortable for me.
True to her word, Jo didn't sneeze again. She decided to ensure this by condemning two allergy tablets to the depths of her body. "Look out below! Cargo going down the hatch!" resounded through the stuffy cell like an announcement at a train station, mercifully warning me of the two white, powdery-looking pills, each about twice to three times my size, tumbling onto her tongue, which for once held them still. Fortunately, I knew by instinct what was coming next, and was able to crawl frantically into a little nook between her teeth as a cascade of water rushed through her lips, taking the pills in its flow like tree trunks in a flood and carrying them down the crashing waterfall of her throat. Not for the first time, I felt like I was in the midst of a rushing river in flood, all thanks to my colossal co-worker completing the mundane act of downing a glass of water. The seemingly never-ending torrent eventually grew smaller and then stopped entirely, culminating in a refreshed and certainly exaggerated exhalation from the titaness that sent a hot, steamy gale rushing past me. It was like standing under a hot fan in a sauna, except the air in a sauna didn't usually (if ever) smell like digested cake mingling with slowly decomposing eggs.
As Jo prepared to go running in whatever way she did, she allowed her tongue to grow inquisitive again, prying me from my spot between her teeth and subjecting me to yet another tasting session. Since being pulled around her cheeks and palate like some sort of miniature mop was now a regular experience for me, the fear had worn off from it, leaving only the general arousal I sustained from being used as her little sweet. This arousal, without fear to tell me my co-worker probably wouldn't kill me by doing this, could manifest itself in my conscious, and I began to note things I previously had been too scared or filled with adrenaline to notice. For instance, the great beast of a tongue, which had brushed up against me like wet sandpaper during her licking session she subjected me to and in my first welcome to the horrors of her morning mouth, was noticeably smoother now, despite her mouth still being relatively grimy. The lack of the huge colonies of bacteria that had formed the disgusting white biofilm coating her tongue that morning meant that the entire texture of the tongue seemed to change; though I could still feel all of Jo's individual taste buds poring at my skin as she savoured the flavour I apparently had, they didn't feel as rough or sandpaper-esque as they did in the stinking hellhole that was her maw before she killed off the bacteria with brush and mouthwash. That said, I did have to wonder with some disgust how much bacteria and other detritus I was picking up by being used as Jo's cheek swab; if it wasn't a biological marvel enough that I was less than an inch tall, GCSE students could put me under a microscope and examine her cheek cells on my own body. The thought, despite my situation, made me laugh more than I'd like to admit as I pictured the absurdity of being used in such a way.
Unfortunately, the idle tasting did eventually come to an end, as Jo had changed into her running clothes- whatever those were- and let me slam into the wall of her teeth as she tilted her head down to tie her shoes.
"I have to wonder what'd be worse for you, being trapped in my mouth in the state it was in this morning, or being trapped in my trainer after I'm done running," she considered. "Or even my sock. Ooh, with my foot inside the sock! I bet you'd hate that. Unless you've got a foot fetish too, you tiny perv?"
After hours of being verbally tortured like this, I felt I had to at least comment. After coming back from my last break with my resolve bolder than ever, standing up to her seemed a way of at least retaining a shred of my humanity.
"Sure, that'd be pretty awful," I shout back at her, and for a moment doubt whether she can even hear me. "But after what you've put me through in here, I feel like I'd get through it. The smell can't be much worse, surely."
I like to imagine the look that crossed her face in that moment as one of shock as she registered that I'd actually responded to her, before returning to her trademark smirk and firing back.
"Ooh, actually talking to me now, are we? You must be having way too much fun in there, to so boldly question the lady who could easily end your life in a split second," She clicked her teeth together, threateningly; the sound echoed around me as the boulders smashed against each other all around me. I'll admit, my boldness weakened enough from that to make me slightly scared again.
"Oh well," she continued, "life's about to get a lot more uncomfortable for you now, so you can save your smart remarks for we get back. I've got a bacon sandwich to burn off."
From all around her mouth, I suddenly could hear music, muffled but loud enough to discern lyrics- not that I knew the song. It took me about fifteen seconds to realise the sound was coming from earphones she'd plugged in to listen to while she ran. The sound actually reverberated throughout her entire head, which I honestly thought was pretty cool. My wonder, however, was quickly bumped down my list of priorities; the endurance trial had started.
At this point, one may be wondering what exactly Jo running, an action she does with her legs and at most her torso, arms and legs, has to do with making my experience in her mouth more uncomfortable. Considering at first the only effect was the jostling I experienced as her feet hit the ground with more force than at walking speed, I honestly thought the same. I could survive being lightly bounced about her mouth a tad; that was fine, if a little sickening after a while. The thing with exercise, running in particular, however, is that the longer you do it, the more it affects you- and this can increase perpetually until exhaustion. While it is understandably rare for someone to be in Jo and I's situation, this system can have very uncomfortable effects for the latter party if they find themselves in this situation- as I was about to learn.
After five minutes, I could hear alongside the music and the booming of her feet on the distant pavement the powerful pounding of her mighty heart below me in her chest, pumping more blood to her muscles to keep up the speed and energy output of the colossus powering down the pavement. This was accompanied by her need to suck in more air to fuel the organ in its task; at first, this merely constituted me hearing a faster, more vigorous airflow through her nasal passages above my prison. Eventually, however, she decided to switch to getting in air through her mouth, meaning more and more significant quantities of air were sucked down Jo's gullet and expelled in a foul cloud. My tiny form, being subject to the various forces acting in her now active wind tunnel of a maw, was suddenly constantly in danger of being sucked down the giant windpipe, or perhaps even worse. It got steadily more and more powerful as time went on, eventually increasing to gale-like proportions of air being inhaled and expelled from her lungs, tugging my poor form about like a ragdoll in a hurricane. The loud sound of her breathing joined the cacophony of other noises bouncing about the echo chamber of her mouth, making the unholy orchestra of sounds even more chaotic. The icing on the cake was as she ran, her rank saliva continued to build up at what seemed to be an even faster rate than before, though something about it seemed more bubbly and foam-like than the warm, wet goo I was used to in my imprisonment. This I found she periodically expelled from her mouth in a forceful spit; how she presumed to ensure I was not a part of any of these wanton projectiles was beyond me, and hence I took it upon myself to avoid it as much as possible, making for once again the relative safety of her inner cheeks.
Despite all the chaos, I was able to find at least a few benefits of the new situation I was in, huddling up against the wall of her molars to try and protect myself from the gale-force winds and bouncing up and down like a space hopper. For one, every intake of air, no matter how powerful and how much it tried to suck me into the depths of Jo, was fresh from outside, and I, having been forced to breathe oxygen-deprived air in the stagnant atmosphere of her mouth in normal circumstances, readily gulped it down, helping to revitalise me and abolish the last vestiges of any headache I was suffering. Moreover, the dependence on her maw for air meant that my world was essentially bathed in light from the outside world, if only a small window of it; a pleasant contrast to the general gloom. Her mouth was also noticeably drier than normal, meaning I didn't feel almost as slimed as I normally did in my imprisonment. All the air entering and exiting it dried the saliva coating everything quickly, and the saliva she was producing to replace it didn't quite do the job as well. Thus, everything was, while damp, somewhat more agreeable, and I took solace in this amid all the other chaos.
Of course, what I failed to remember was that in the situation I was in, any perceived benefit could be a double-edged sword.
Without warning, Jo sent a cascade of water squirting into her mouth, presumably from a water bottle she had brought with her. Fortunately for me, the bottle was made so that it squirted rather than poured water into her mouth, and thus I was able to avoid the initial drink, but Jo's habit of swilling her water around her mouth immediately caught me up in its swell and dragged me back into the chaos. Once again, I found myself in the terrifying situation of being pulled towards her throat by a torrent of water, but by kicking desperately to the surface of the churning waters I was able to once again grab the lifeline of her uvula and cling on for dear life, letting the water disappear below me. If the giantess realised I was at the gates to her throat, she didn't acknowledge it, instead continuing to pace along as she had been for the last twenty minutes, continuing the chaos I was now slowly becoming accustomed to.
I held onto her uvula for as long as I could, but eventually a combination of the vigorous bouncing and arms crying out for reprieve made me drop back down to her mouth, landing on the back of the tongue and bouncing involuntarily to the centre. By now, thankfully, it appeared as if Jo was nearing home; hear breathing and the jostling was slowing noticeably, until the bouncing stopped entirely and all that was left was her heavy breathing, accompanied by her pounding heart rate slowing similarly and the music disappearing as she took out her earplugs. Sitting down on her tongue, I felt her rush of awful, more humid than usual breath rush past me out into the gaping hole of the outside world; honestly , it was somewhat tranquil to have that wind behind me and to look out of her gaping jaws through her lips, like looking through a giant window.
I should be thankful for it really; without that window, I never would have seen the water bottle, cap unscrewed, coming for her mouth.
I would never escape in time. There was nowhere to hide; I was trapped like a deer in headlights as the water bottle rested on her lips, the head tilted back, and the water began to rush through the cavern. It was like watching a tsunami begin to run across the land, uprooting and taking anything in its path. But I wasn't willing to go down that way; not without a fight. So I stood up, getting a good grip on Jo's tongue, and when the water rose to meet me, I jumped into its churning depths.
Swimming for my life in those terrifying few seconds as Jo emptied her water bottle down her gullet was probably one of the most exhausting and terrifying things I've ever done. Even when I felt myself being slowly pulled back towards the black hole, I swam as hard as I could, kicking with all my miniscule might against the powerful current and practically grabbing at water as I did the frontstroke. More and more came, pulling e further and further back; yet by whatever miracle, just as I passed below her uvula once more (no jumping for it this time; I was far too low down) the current began to slow, and eventually trickle to a stop, leaving me utterly exhausted lying down on the surface of her tongue. As another exhalation of refreshment came barrelling over me like a foul tropical monsoon, I almost considered just closing my eyes and succumbing to exhaustion right then and there, at the back of Jo's monstrous tongue.
Almost.