“Where the hell are we, Eckhart?” 
“I don’t know.” 

Lidia pressed closer to Eckhart, scanning the surrounding jungle, still in awe of what had transpired. He could feel her small frame shaking as she embraced him.   

Eckhart couldn’t make sense of it himself. One moment they had been on the University Campus, the next? A jungle of immense proportions closed in all around them. 

“I am missing my physics lecture,” Eckhart said more to himself than anyone. Somehow that was where his mind went. Despite appearing somewhere apparently by magic, somehow his mind went to the frustration of missing his advanced physics class. He had found that at the graduate student level, one could fall behind extremely quickly. 
“How do we get back?” Lidia asked.
“I don’t know. But we’ll find a way.

The two neera set out into the forest, in search of something familiar. 

***

Dash flailed about as he slid down the slick muddy waterfall, desperately trying to slow himself. Each rock, each, branch, each bend in the river was a potential opportunity to arrest his harried and rapid progress downriver. The hapless man groped for a handhold, but each one eluded his wet fingers. Kicking against the current did not slow him down to any noticeable degree. The best that could be done was to keep his feet downriver to ensure that any collision with a rock occurred with his feet as opposed to his head. 

The current carried him onwards, picking up speed and churning the river to a foam of white water. The occasional bump against a rock here and there physically harangued his attempts to stop himself and quickly reduced him to a collection of nasty bruises. Suddenly, Dash realized that it was taking him towards what appeared to be a sudden dropoff point. Dash flailed, but was as powerless as a leaf carried away by rainwater runoff. 

“Help!” screamed Dash. “Help!”

The water pushed him out into space.

Suddenly he was jerked violently backwards. A moment later, he was dangling from a cliff face. Just beside him rushed the roaring curtain of water, launching into air to fall several hundred feet, feeding the river below.

Looking up, he found himself dangling by his shirt collar. 

A woman, one hand gripping his shirt, the other wrapped around a thin but obviously resilient tree trunk, held him suspended in space. Her features were twisted in a snarling grimace against the strength of gravity. 

“Climb!” she urged through clenched teeth. 

Dash didn’t need to be told twice. Turning to face the cliff, he climbed, finding footholds by feel and curling his hands into handholds. 

The woman did not relinquish her grip until he scrambled over the top of the cliff. Together, they collapsed in an exhausted heap by the side of the waterfall. 

“You –gasp- saved my life,” Dash panted, muscles shuddering from too much adrenaline. He crawled to his hands and knees, looking at his rescuer.

She was sitting up from where she had fallen on her back. Her hair was such a light color of brown that it was just a shade away from blonde. Gold colored eyes were set in a symmetrical, fairly attractive face. 

Her frame was tall and thin, but with well-defined, toned muscles that stood out when she moved. She wore no clothing, save for a pouch made of animal skin on the side of one hip, and a suspicion of red paint here and there about her white skin. 

“Thank you. You saved me,” he repeated. 

The woman made no reply. Mutely getting to her feet, she extended a hand and helped Dash to his own. 
“I would have been killed had you not rescued me.” He made a definite effort to look at the woman’s eyes and not at her modest but attractive bare breasts. 

The strange walked over to where a spear lay on the ground, recovered it, and nodded to Dash. With that, she turned towards the forest and began walking away.

“Wait,” cried Dash, hurrying after her. “Who are you? I must repay you for saving me.”

“You should thank the gods,” the woman replied. The first words she had uttered since her harsh demand that he ‘climb’ the cliff. 

“What?” asked Dash, confused at her answer.
“You owe thanks to the gods, not me.” 
“The gods? For what?”

The woman looked at him with a deep measure of incredulity, as if he had asked a question with a remarkably obvious answer. Her reply was made up of four brief syllables. 

“For your rescue.” She turned once more and marched into the jungle. 

Dash hurried after her. 

***

The woman was not given to conversation. She preferred walking in quiet, measured steps, eyes alert to the world around her. Watching her, Dash realized that she seemed to not only notice, but be visibly aware of every rock, every fallen log, every tree, and every animal that might have made such places a home. 

After several miles of traveling in this fashion, he could take it no longer and tried to engage the woman in conversation. 

“Where are we heading?” Dash asked tentatively.  “I’ve no idea where to go. My friends and I were separated when a harpy attacked us. While we were busy fighting it off, we became… separated. I fell into the river and. Well. You already know the rest.”

True to her form, the woman made no reply. Instead she paused, clearly intent upon some aspect of a nearby bush. 

“Maybe, if you could show me the way back-“

The woman raised a hand and pressed a finger to Dash’s lips. He fell silent, watching the woman direct her attention back to the nearby bush. Raising her long serviceable spear, after a moment of careful calculation, she threw the weapon. The woman stepped when she threw, with a follow through that might have made any Olympian proud. 

The spear shot through the bush and embedded itself in the ground, heft quivering from the impact. 

The woman walked over, pulling the weapon free. Bending down, she rose with an animal that looked like a rabbit. Or somewhat like a rabbit. The ears were a bit shorter, the body a bit longer. And the head wasn’t quite right. But the closest comparison that Dash could see was that of a rabbit. It had clearly been run through by the spear.

“What… is that animal?” Dash asked, peering at it.
“Dinner.”

Fastening a cord to the animal’s feet, the woman slung it over her back. Then the woman continued walking, her bare bottom swaying beautifully with her stride. Dash had been staring at it a lot. If he was going to follow this woman around, at least she had an extremely nice ass to look at. 

After several moments of staring, he realized that for all he knew he was following this woman (terrific butt and all) deeper into the jungle and further from his companions.

“Can you help me find my friends?” he asked tentatively. 

The woman stopped. Turning to face him once again, she stared at him directly. “If I return you to your friends will you promise me two things?”

Dash nodded. “Of course. I’d do anything to pay you back. You see, I’m not from Felarya and I don’t-“

The woman held up her hand. “Firstly, when we find them, will you stop following me?”
“Absolutely. Evan has the tracking machine. With us back together-“
“Secondly,” interrupted the woman. “Will you please stop talking so much when we are walking? It makes it difficult to listen.”
“How can you listen if I’m not talking?” asked Dash, confused.
“I am not listening to you,” the woman replied, dismissively. 
“Who then?”
“The forest.” She spread her hands to either side, to indicate the world around them. “It speaks to you if you listen to it. It tells you of dangers, of food, of water. Like a good parent, it will look after you, provided you listen and follow its rules.” She looked at Dash. “Listening to the world is more difficult when someone else is speaking.” 
“I can be more quiet,” Dash agreed, somewhat put out that his attempts to get to know his new acquaintance were met with such opposition. “But will you tell me something first?”

The woman stared back at him, her expression neutral, her gaze icy. It seemed as much of an invitation as he was likely to get.
“Your name. Mine’s Dash. What’s yours?” 

For the first time, the woman’s face softened. “Nevenez,” she replied in a quiet voice. “My name is Nevenez.” 

***

They walked through the forest into evening. Occasionally Nevenez would stop to point to some branch or tree, stating that it had berries or roots that would help with their dinner. 

The purple berries were filled with juicy flavor that tasted so good, that it was like eating candy. The roots, when they stopped to eat them, were not bad after being roasted over a fire. Tamroots were what Nevenez called them, though Dash thought they tasted like potatoes. The rabbit was put over a small fire, roasted, and cut in half. Perhaps it was simply hunger, but the roots, the berries and his half of a rabbit were the best meal Dash could remember eating. 

“This is delicious,” he exclaimed aloud. 

For the first time, Nevenez smiled at him. “I am glad that you liked it. Although it is plain, with only a few berries to season it. But my grandmother always said that hunger adds flavor.”

“I think it tastes amazing. And I am so impressed that you know how to find so much food. However did you get so good at using a spear?” He tossed his head in the direction of the woman’s spear. 
“My father taught me the trick to using it,” she replied. “Hunger made me proficient. It seems hunger is good for many things.” And for the second time since Dash had met her, Nevenez smiled.  

***

Lidia stumbled as she tried to step over a plant root. It caught her foot and sent her sprawling to the ground. Putting her hands out to stop her fall only caused several painful scrapes along her palms. 

She rolled over in the dirt, crying. Eckhart sat down beside her. 
“You’ll be alright,” he told her, gently putting her hands in his. “It’ll heal soon enough. Besides, we’re sure to find someone before long. The forest doesn’t go on forever.”

“This one seems to,” Lidia sniffed, tears rolling down her cheeks, streaking the dirt that now caked her skin. “Oh Eckhart. What if we never find our way out of this jungle? What if it goes on and on?” 

“Don't think like that,” Eckhart assured her. “We will find someone who will help us. Don’t worry.”

He hugged the distraught undergraduate. For a moment, they sat together on the forest floor, taking comfort in each other’s presence. Finally, Lidia’s breathing steadied.

“We’ll find a way out of here. You need to believe that. You need to remain positive,” Eckhart insisted. 
Lidia nodded, allowing Eckhart to help her to her feet. 

“We keep walking. Until we find someplace suitable to spend the night.”

It was easier said than done. After walking for what seemed like ages, they still hadn’t found a place to sleep. 

Suddenly, an enormous toad hopped into view. It eyed them through large, bulbous eyes, periodically blinking membranous lids.

“What is that?” Lidia asked, backing away. 
“An enormous toad. Big as a car,” Eckhart replied, answering the rhetorical question with a statement of the obvious, although he sounded as if he doubted his own words. “Come on. We need to leave it behind. Run for that shelter.”
“What shelter?” 
Rather than explain, Eckhart took her by the hand, and began jogging towards what appeared to be an enormous stack of firewood, glancing back every few paces to keep an eye on the enormous toad. Worryingly, the toad took several large hops after them.

Each log of firewood was large enough to be a building in its own right. This afforded the two neera enough space to climb between the logs, hiding themselves within. Too narrow for the toad to follow them, they eventually stopped when they reached something of an open area, hemmed in on all sides and overhead by the stack of enormous firewood. 

Lidia, breathing heavily from exhaustion and nerves, sat down and leaned her back against a large wooden beam. “I can’t take much more of this. We’ve walked for hours and haven’t found a single person. Now we come across a toad the size of my car back home. We’re in a woodpile that looks like it was made by a giant.” She seemed to sag, the willpower to continue seeping from her. “Where the hell are we, Echkart? What’s going on? And how do we find our way home?”

Finding his own patch of soft earth beside Lidia, Eckhart held her hand. “I don’t know where we are. A place like this only ever existed for me in movies and storybooks. It’s as if we are in a world of giants. If that frog outside is indicative of the scale of the world around us, we’re awfully small to be walking around this forest.”
Lidia sighed with frustration, nerves making her hands shake. “It might have attacked us.”
Eckhart tightened his grip on her hand, reassuringly. “Yes, that was a close call. But we made it. Focus on that for now. We’ve already escaped one danger. If we can survive the giant frog, then we can survive whatever else this place can throw at us.”    

Lidia remained silent, save for her breathing. She had begun taking heavy breaths, trying to slow her heartbeat and calm her mind, imagining that she was back in yoga class.

“You believe me, don’t you Lidia? You believe we can make it out of here.”

After a moment, Lidia nodded, accompanied by a final heavy exhalation of breath. Shuddering, she stood and began pacing the tiny “room” afforded them in the center of the woodpile. Stress and the adrenaline from being chased by the toad had made her feet restless. Watching her, Echkart knew that after the adrenaline wore off, she would become exhausted. He was already beginning to feel tired himself. For a moment he resisted the feeling. After a moment’s contemplation, he decided that there was really no point, and let his heavy eyelids begin to close. 

“Do you think we will find our way home?”

The question hung in the air, slowly bringing him back to himself. He didn’t know any more than she did. But somehow that reply seemed insufficient. Bolstered spirits were what was needed. To achieve that would require optimism. 

“We have to believe it. Both of us have to believe it. We’re going to keep searching. Going to live long enough to find our way back home. Someday this will be a bad memory that we laugh over at the university dining hall.”

Lidia nodded, sitting back down beside him. While it was not cold, they scooted together, arms over each other for comfort. Soon, both fell asleep. 

***

Dawn seemed to come three hours too soon for Dash. Nevenez had shaken him awake at an ungodly hour, rousing him from a deep slumber. “We must keep going if we are to catch up to you friends,” she told him. “Come, it is time to get moving.”

The mysterious woman walked ahead of him, her eyes always scanning the jungle. She found a few bitter vegetables for their breakfast and offered him several sips from a water bladder to wash it down. For the most part, Dash continued to stare at her alluring bottom, mostly ignoring all else and relying upon her for nagivation through the massive labyrinth of a forest.

“How is it that you live in this jungle?” asked Dash, looking about him. Everything looked the same. It was unimaginable how anyone could prevent themselves from simply walking in circles. 

“How is it that you live elsewhere?” Nevenez replied with characteristic brevity. 
“Well there are buildings and automobiles and restaurants. There are street signs to tell you which way you are going.”
“You need a sign to tell you where you are going?”
“Well, no. But it makes things easier. Life is much easier. Much less dangerous.”
Nevenez nodded. “It is dangerous here, but it is my home. It is where I belong. And where you belong.”
“Why do I belong here?” Dash asked. “I am not from the forest. I need to go home.”
“The gods have brought you here,” Nevenez paused midstride to look directly into his eyes with a weighty gaze. “Home is a worthy goal but your presence here means that the gods have ordained you to spend at least some time experiencing the here and now. If that is their will, then it is for the best. And if it is for the best then why do you spend all this energy worrying so much? Do you believe that you know better than the gods and goddesses of the land and the sky?”  

“Well,” Dash stammered uncertain of how to respond. As the paused stretched out, his hesitation was interpreted as acquiescence.  
“Exactly,” Nevenez continued. “The reason for your purpose here remains to be seen, but it is certain that you have one. I do not understand how strangers to Felarya cannot grasp the most simple of concepts.” 

She turned, took a step forward, and was knocked off her feet.

The thick tail swept low over the ground, connecting with the native woman’s legs and sent her to the forest floor in a weighty fall. A moment later the tail connected with Dash’s chest, knocking the wind from the surprised man’s lungs. He was vaguely aware of another impact a moment later- this one his striking the ground after a prolonged hang time. 

It took several minutes for sense to return to the bewildered man. When it finally did, he became aware of a noisy struggle taking place several feet from him. Vision slowly swam back into focus resolving into a woman with a spear fighting a giant snake… that had the torso of a human.

There was a word for that sort of creature. Dash had read about it it before coming here. What were they called again?

Nake? Naka? N-something. 

A first attempt to stand resulted in pain exploding through his chest. The impact of the tail had clearly bruised several ribs. Odds were good that he shouldn’t be moving around. But from the looks of things, Nevenez needed his help. If he waited around, it was likely that she might not live much longer. 

Staggering to his feet, Dash braced himself against the tree trunk with one hand, the other one being slow to respond to his commands. Taking a tentative step forward, intense pain shot up his leg. Apparently he had twisted his ankle in the fall. Half-limping and half hopping, he struggled towards Nevenez and the snake person, his addled brain desperately trying to come up with a plan of action.

***


Nevenez had been in fights before, but never in one that had gone so poorly. The surprise attack by the naga had put her on the defensive from the outset, and he had kept up an aggressive attack until finally knocking her spear from her hands. Now armed only with arms and legs, Nevenez attempts to beat against her aggressor were quickly subdued. Now the naga’s coils were slowly enveloping her, tightening about her struggling limbs and forcing them against her body. Nevenez looked at her captor in horror. The male naga had brown hair, and a pleasant enough face. Several deep and serious wounds crisscrossed his human torso and snake tail, testaments of of Nevenez tenacious struggle to this point. Her sharp spear had even opened a large gash on the naga’s human abdomen. While undoubtedly painful, it was too shallow to be decisive. A collection of several deep, bloody stabs also adorned his snake tail, but none of them had penetrated the thick scales to the point of inflicting a mortal wound. 

Ultimately, Nevenez efforts had not been enough to save her. Now all that remained was for the naga to finish her. 

The thought made her panic, causing her heartbeat to pound in her head, lungs to heave with extra air. The idea caused a surge of adrenaline as the creature tightened its grip upon her until her bones creaked and her lungs expelled her breath. She tried to fight, to struggle, but the weighty coils encircling her body were as thick as tree trunks and impossible to throw off.

“No!” she wheezed with what little air remained in her lungs. “You can’t!”

The naga’s jaw distended, then rushed closer and enveloped her. Everything went black. 

Despite her struggling, her screams, the naga made short work of her. He accommodated her body, quickly swallowing her. Thick muscles forced Nevenez down into tight in a hot, fleshy embrace, squeezing from all sides except directly before her head. Ironically, the naga’s throat and belly were not nearly as tight as the thick coils of the snake tail which had squeezed the forest woman prior to ingestion. 

She struggled, futilely trying to slow progression deeper into the naga. The flailing moved the naga’s tail slightly, but had no further effect.

This was how it would end. It would soon be time to meet the gods. How long one could survive within the naga only time would tell, but there was enough time left for a prayer that the gods would open their arms to her spirit. 

They will, won’t they? Nevenez wondered. They will welcome me to paradise. I’ve always tried to be a good person. Have I done enough good that my soul will be light enough to reach the heavens?

She tried to embrace the idea that she would soon parish. After all, this was how the gods had fated her to end her days. Given a choice, it was hardly the fate she would have chosen. But if life in Felarya had taught the young native anything, it was that the gods’ plans rarely aligned with those of mortals. 

With that thought in mind, Nevenez tried to accept the death with what dignity could be mustered. Death could be met with grace, honor. She supposed that it would similarly be right to honor and pray for the naga who had devoured her, but while being squeezed tightly in the confines of its stomach, she couldn’t quite bring herself to pray for him. Yet, nor did she pray for deliverance from her fate. That would not be gracefully accepting the will of the gods, and therefore would be sinful. Instead, Nevenez prayed for herself. For forgiveness. 

Please, thought the hapless human silently, her body still being conveyed into the digestive system of the naga. Forgive my sins and welcome me into the Land of Hereafter. As my body honors and nourishes this worthy naga, allow my soul to find solace and comfort in your home. 

She closed her eyes in finality, though made no difference with regards to light. The darkness was absolute regardless of if her eyes remained open or closed. There was nothing else left to do but wait to be digested. 

Her life was over.

Then suddenly, a buzzing sound like a hoard of angry bees cut through her thoughts. The powerful aroma of cooking meat reached her nostrils, cutting through the thick chemical stink that had overloaded her olfactory senses since being swallowed by the naga.

And beyond all logic, there was light up ahead. Somehow daylight was shining through the naga’s very flesh. How was such a thing possible?

Strong hands grabbed her below her armpits, pulling her out. She came free of the alimentary canal easily, slime clinging to her body. It was like being pulled free of the crushing embrace of the Grim Reaper.  

And then Nevnez was out; free once more from the bounds of the tight, hot tube within the naga.  Breathless from her ordeal, from the brush with mortality, Nevenez collapsed in a heap beside Dash, both of them covered in the blood of the naga. Somehow, against all odds, the offworlder had saved her. The first breath of sweet, cool air scented with the spectrum of aromas from the forest filled her oxygen-starved longs was like an unnamable pleasure. A shudder of relief ran through her body.

“Nooooo! Nooo!”

The cry made her head snap up in alarm, searching for the origin of the sound. 

The Naga was lying on the ground nearby, looking in bewilderment at his severed body, his hands shaking. His snake tail had actually been sliced in half as cleanly as if it had been severed by the sharpest of blades. The creature was staring down at the severed stump of a tail, shock written across his face. 

“Why?” he pleaded, raising his eyes from the break where his tail had been cut to look at the two humans. “Why this?” 

Though Nevenez was brushing the slime and digestive juices from her face, the cry had made her looked up. Now her gaze met the naga’s. His eyes were filled with utter disbelief, the unspeakable pain he would soon feel still taking a backseat to shock. Despite her relief at being rescued, Nevenez found that she had no words to answer the naga's question. For a moment, silence reigned in the jungle. Even the ever-present birdcalls and the rustling of wind in the treetops seemed to preserve a stoic silence in deference to the naga’s pain. 

The naga’s gaze turned pleading, agony tingling his every syllable. “Help me,” he gasped. In that moment, against all logic, Nevenez was shocked to realize that she felt sorry for him. After all, he hadn’t done anything wrong, even if it would have resulted in a prolonged, painful death. Her death. 

But no. He hadn’t done anything so wrong as to deserve the suffering that must accompany being burned in half. 

Beside her, the offworlder struggled to his feet, his every movement punctuated a gasp of breath or a hiss of pain. He clutched one side of his ribs as stood awkwardly, favoring one leg. Pulling some strange object from his side, he stretched his arm out out before him, holding out the unfamiliar device to the naga. 

Perhaps it is an offering of some kind? Nevenes wondered. 

A beam of red light shot from the object. It lanced into the face of the naga, punching through the skull in a heartbeat and leaving a scorched, bloody mess behind. Nevenez fell back, losing her balance at shock of the site. Sitting up, she saw that suspicions of flames tickled the burned flesh of the naga’s face. He had fallen limp, very dead. 

“How did…” Nevenez began, but found that she hadn’t the words to even articulate a question. What manner of magic was this? Did the offworlder commanded the very lightning? 

Dash reached down to where she lay and stretched out a hand. Nevenez took it, though Dash clearly experienced surprising difficulty in helping her to her feet, his other hand protectively clutching his side. Both of their hands were covered in blood, Nevenez’s additionally coated in the late naga’s saliva. The offworlder was moving as if he was badly hurt, which was likely as the naga would doubtlessly have attacked him after incapacitating Nevenez. 

“We must go,” Nevenez spoke blearily, with another ultimately unsuccessful attempt to wipe away the blood and digestive fluids that still clung to her face. Covered in the same filth, her hands did little to clean her face. 

The offworlder surprised her again. Removing the cloth he wore over his torso, wiping the naga juice from her face. 

“Thank you,” she said automatically.  Suddenly realizing that this was the first thanks she had offered the stranger since being pulled from the naga’s belly, she hastily added, “And thank you for rescuing me. I am grateful to you and to the gods that you saved me in a moment of dire need.”
“Just happy to return the favor,” Dash grinned at her through his now perpetual wince of pain, seemingly caused by his injured leg and ribs. 

His grin was handsome. Gods above, Dash himself was handsome. Nevenez wondered why she had never noticed that before. She took his hand- the one that had not shot a bolt of burning light –and pulled the stranger in the direction of the nearest stream. 

“Come,” she insisted. “We must cleanse ourselves.”
Dash raised a hand to inspect the blood and bile that had covered his hands when he pulled her from the naga’s belly. “Not poisonous?” he asked nervously.

“No, but we do not need the scent of blood to attract more predators, more naga, or this one’s mate, if he has one.” She gestured towards the dead naga, so easily rendered lifeless by the outsider’s strange object that once again hung innocently against his hip. Before now, Nevenez had noticed the thing but had paid it little attention. 

Pulling the slow-moving offworlder along, she hurried them towards the nearby stream. Dash collapsed behind her, still grabbing his middle, and favoring one of his legs. Slowly regaining his feet, Dash voiced the pains that hampered him. “Damned monster knocked me twenty feet when it hit me with its tail,” he explained. “Feels like it broke a couple ribs. Did my ankle a bit of no good too. I’m afraid I can’t manage a rapid pace.”

Nevenes nodded in understanding, putting an arm around his shoulder. Supporting each other, the pair hobbled into the forest. Dash tried to speak once more, but Nevenez reminded him that the last time he’d insisted upon conversation, they had been caught off guard by the naga. 

Several hours later they had washed in a brook. It was delightful to clean the naga’s entrails from their bodies, making them both feel a bit more relaxed. An agonizingly slow walk had followed, their course taking them nearly a dozen miles before Nevenez pronounced them to be in a relatively “safe” neighborhood of the forest. They had come to a cluster of trees and thorny bushes where Nevenez revealed that she had stored a cash of equipment that had been buried after being wrapped in an animal hide. Stored within were several bundles of medicinal plants, a few animal furs that could be used a blankets, and a supply of dried fruits for food. 

Making a small fire, the pair clustered close together.

***


“You saved my life.” 

Dash looked over at the jungle woman. She had spoken without taking her eyes from the fire, as if addressing the flames themselves. 

“Just returning the favor,” Dash replied, attempting to mimic the emotionless monotone of his hostess.

Nevenez nodded, her eyes reflecting the dancing firelight crackling before them. “Had we not met, you would be at the bottom of a waterfall, I in the belly of a naga. We survived this day because of each other.” She turned to look directly at Dash, her expression was so devoid of emotion that practically froze his blood.

Her words were flat, cold things. But upon finally meeting her gaze, her gold eyes captured him like an insect trapped in amber. 

“It was the will of the gods that we meet, Dash,” said the forest woman in a low voice. With it came such an abject certainty of belief that it sent a shiver down Dash’s spine. “It was their divine will that brought us together.”
Dash shook his head. “There are no such things as gods. It was fortune. Coincidence. Luck.”

Nevenez slowly turned away, directing her gaze into the flames once more. “There is no such thing as a coincidence, Dash. Only a fool would doubt the influence of the gods after seeing the end of such a day as this. Their holy designs have brought you and me together. I believe that we are meant to be companions.”

Nevenez stood, walking around the flames to where she had a stack of fire, selected a log and placed it into the blaze, sending a shower of sparks towards the starry sky. Turning back to the firewood, she seemed to catch sight of something that held her attention. Bending over, she began scattering several logs, apparently searching for something in great urgency. 

A moment later she returned to sit beside Dash, much closer than before, he noted. She smiled over at him and for the first time, there was not only firelight illuminating her face. There was also happiness. Contentment. Simple joy-de-vivre. 

“Look at what I have discovered hiding in our woodpile,” Nevenez continued proudly. Opening her hands, the wild woman displayed two tiny figures. They appeared human, though they each had the ears and tail of a mouse.

“Are those,” Dash searched for the right name. It took a moment before it returned to him. “Neeras?” 

Nevenez nodded.  “The gods have bestowed their generous blessings upon us once again, Dash. This time they have brought us food. Surely you see that it is an auspicious sign. The last little ones I found were four tomthumbs, and that was three sunsets ago. That day I was able to determine that they too had been brought to Felarya by the gods and goddesses of land and sky.”
“How were you able to learn this?” Dash interrupted.
Nevenez gave him a withering look. “On that occasion, the tomthumb’s state of dress was extremely peculiar, and their campsite was in so glaringly obvious a location that it was as if the little dears were anxious to be eaten.”
“When you found them, is that what you did?”
The forest woman nodded.  “I did. But that  was three sunrises ago. That night I also found a magic wand. There was even a little magic left within it. Enough to make it glow, though it’s dissipated since then.  And yet, today I discover these neera actually in our campsite, hiding in the woodpile just waiting for us. This occurs on the same night that I realize we were drawn together by divine influence. The same day you rescued me from the belly of a naga. More signs of blessings from the gods. I wonder which in the pantheon of gods and goddesses of the Land and Sky are watching over us?”

She passed one of the neera to Dash, idly contemplating the fire.

Dash looked down at the little neera that Nevenez’s insistent hands had pressed into his. He found a tiny female looking back, horrified. “Hello?” said the diminutive creature, with calculated caution. Like all neera, she appeared human save for mouselike ears and a mouse tail.  
“Hi,” Dash replied automatically, though he was conscious of a look of scorn from Nevenez at his reply to the tiny woman. 
“My name is Lidia,” said the neera. She was curled up in a ball, arms around folded legs, as if terrified of the world around her. “I don’t know how I came here. I-I was in the city of Saltim. Then Eckhart and I-”

The woman looked over towards her companion and screamed. 

“Eckhart!”

A tail protruded from Nevenez’s lips, its owner clearly being shifted around on her tongue. 

“Nevenez!” Dash blurted, horrified. 

Her eyes went wide with worry. She swallowed, the tail disappearing between her lips, a tensing running through her neck as Eckhart the neera was swallowed, forced down her throat. Nevenez swallowed again to get him down. “What?” the woman asked. Looking about the campsite for a sign of danger, she turned back to Dash, concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“You ate the neera,” Dash blurted with unconcealed incredulity.
“Yes,” Nevenez nodded. She placed a hand against her taut belly. “Quite good. Oh no,” she looked suddenly back at Dash. “You didn’t want that one instead, did you?”
“I wasn’t going to eat either of them,” Dash replied. “After the day you’ve had, I’m surprised that you could.”
Nevenez once again looked confused. “Why not? Everyone is food for someone in Felarya. Best not to think about it too much. Do you not want that one?” She eyed the diminutive Lidia hungrily. 
“If she’s mine, can I let her go?”
“Oh, please let me go,” Lidia beseeched with pitying distress. “Please let me. I don’t wanna die.”
Nevenez gave Dash a calculating expression, then gently took the neera from his hand. 
“No!” cried Lidia, but it was too late.

Nevenez popped the little neera into her mouth, rolling her about. Muffled cries for help emanated from between her lips, though presently she swallowed. Dash watched the suspicion of a bulge in her throat slide quickly downwards. 

The forest woman smiled at him, and then drank from her water skin. 

“I was going to let her go,” Dash protested. 
“So I gathered, offworlder. But if you did not want it, why should I deprive myself?” Nevenez leaned over and put her arm around Dash as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “But now she is in my belly so think no more on her. Besides there are subjects we could discuss that you might find more interesting. For example, did you know that you are quite pleasing to look at?” 

Standing she gazed down at him. Dash looked at her belly and thought of the two neera whom she had swallowed a moment ago. 
Then Nevenez knelt, pressing her lips against his. Pulling back, his eyes met hers, the gold exacerbated in the firelight to make them nearly appear to glow. The were fixed upon him, and aflame with a different type of hunger. 

Tracing his cheek with one finger, the young woman licked it. Upon trying to stand, she pushed him back down with a sudden violence. 

“Ow!” Dash hissed a complaint as his ribs screamed.
Nevenez seemed more amused than concerned. “Do not focus upon the pain, Dash. I will make you feel something else.” 

Pressing close to him, she smiled, and kissed him again.

***

Lidia screamed as the horribly biological tunnel in which she found herself conveyed her to the stomach of the attractive female human who had just eaten her.

Not just eaten me. Eaten me alive.

The thought still seemed unbelievable. Eaten alive. A human eating her alive.

She had heard of humans before of course, but only as a story that parents told their children to scare them into behaving. Her own mother had used that threat in the past. “Eat your vegetables and go to bed. Humans eat up bad little girls who don’t eat their vegetables and go to bed on time.”

It was the most foolish of warnings because everyone knew that there were no such things as humans. 

But now, as she was forced through a ring of muscle into a stomach chamber filled with warm liquid that burned at the touch, she realized this had actually happened. 

Humans actually existed. 

And one had eaten her. 

Alive

***

Nevenez’s hands wrapped around Dash’s. For a long moment they held hands and looked at nothing but the fire. 

Suddenly Dash became aware that Nevenes was no longer looking at the fire, but at him.

Turning his face towards hers, she leaned in, pressing her lips to his once more.

“Nevenez, I-“

Gentle fingers pressed to Dash’s lips. “You talk too much, offworlder,” said Nevenez, moving atop him.

***

The intermittent gurgling of the stomach that tossed Eckhart and Lidia about in the shallow soupy brine of the human’s stomach was nauseating to say the least. Viscous fluid irritated their skin to the point that it practically overrode any other thoughts and quickly brought on an overpowering claustrophobia. Lidia just wanted the incessant irritation from the burning liquids to stop.

The occasional inversion of the stomach had occurred to this point but suddenly they began sloshing back and forth in a rhythmic fashion. A moment later, there was a feminine moan of pleasure from their consumer.

“No, deeper,” came the human’s voice. There was a brief pause. The rhythm changed ever so slightly, but distinctly. She spoke again. “Yes. Just like that. Keep doing exactly that.” 

“Is she… having sex?” Lidia’s incredulity was addressed to the darkness of the stomach. “Is she fucking that man?” Though it was pitch black in the stomach making Lidia impossible to see, her voice suddenly became colored with emotion so that Echkard realized that she was fighting back tears. “How can she do that now? When we’re dying?”

Eckhart didn’t reply, though the answer was obvious to both of them. It was because to the human, they were nothing more than food. Just as quickly eaten as forgotten. The human wasn’t even thinking about them, and probably would never think about them again. 

Abruptly bursting into tears, Lidia began to sob. Thrashing about in the water, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

“ARRGH! No! NO! NO!”

Suddenly she felt Eckhart beside her, trying to give her a hug. The sensation didn’t last long as they were both thrown from side to side within the stomach by a faster oscillation. The slurry of water, stomach acids and partially digested food sloshed two and fro from the incessant churning produced by the rhythmic motion of the human. The liquid swirled about them as they knelt together in complete blackness, trying to remain as steady as they could. 

“Lidia. Lidia! Come to your senses!” Eckhart urged in the darkness. “This panic gets us nowhere.”

“She’s fucking! She’s fucking right now! She’s not even thinking about us. We were just a pre-sex dinner. This is not how I’m supposed to die; in the belly of some naked mythical creature. I didn’t even believe that humans were real before today. They were always just stupid scary monsters from a fantasy story, like elves, nekos, and fairies. And now we’ve been eaten by one and we’re in her stomach while she fucks some other human! It’s insane. How did this happen?”

The neera woman tried to begin struggling again, but Eckhart grabbed her, held her fast as she heaved unsteady sobbs. “I didn’t know they were real either. I didn’t know, all right? But that can’t change now. They’re real. Apparently the story about Tryg Neil Griogair and the neera-eating human has some truth to it.” It was an old bedtime story. It was less popular than the tales involving neera-eating nekos, but no less known for all that. 

“Why? Why did I deserve this?” Lidia screamed. 

In answer, a prolonged moan emendated from their consumer. The rocking stopped.

“Ohhh,” gasped the human woman. The stomach shuddered about them. “Ohhh! That was gooood.”

Lidia began thrashing about madly, enraged and screaming her defiance. This time Eckhart did nothing to restrain her.

***

Nevenez relaxed with afterglow as she snuggled against Dash. His warm body was pressed against her back. His right hand was draped over her, hand gently caressing her breasts. Within her belly, the neeras she’d eaten seemed to have been stirred up. It was hardly surprising, since they must have been jostled about quite badly after that bout of lovemaking. Dash had been tender at first, slow and sensual. But their rhythm had naturally increased, becoming almost frantic until both Dash and Nevenez had climaxed into a prolonged moment of ecstasy. 

Every few seconds the occasional convulsion of delight still hit, little shivers of pleasure running through her in a sluggishly defusing orgasm. The renewed struggling of the little neeras were helping prolonged the heavenly sensation with their delightful wiggles. 

Grabbing Dash’s hand from where it was still gently squeezing her breasts, she brought it to her mouth and gave his thumb a kiss. 
“Wherever did you learn to do that so well?” she asked. 
“Something from a former relationship,” Dash explained. “About the only good thing about that relationship.”
Nevenez turned over and laid on her other side so as to face Dash. “Did she die?” 
“What?” The surprise in Dash’s face bore out the honesty of his answer. “No. It just didn’t work out. We went separate ways.” 

Nevenez nodded, not wanting to appear foolish. Yet it was hard to understand why two lovers would simply separate for no reason. But it wasn’t worth spoiling the moment asking about another girl. Instead, Nevenez reached up and played with the brown hair on the stranger’s- on Dash’s head. 

“Your hair is so short,” she pointed out. “Shorter than a child. Why do you keep it this way?”
“It’s considered stylish where I’m from,” Dash answered quietly. “It’s fashionable. Attractive.”
“It makes you look silly,” Nevenez giggled. 
“Well I am sorry that you think I’m silly.”
“Not you as a whole. Just your hair and how you have cut most of it off. Other parts are much more fun. Your face is very good.” She kissed his lips. “Your chest.” She placed an open palm to his chest, admiring the firm muscles. “You center is nice.” She ran her hands down past his abdomen. “And then there is this. This is delightful. Not too big. Not too small. Just right.”

Dash’s initial reaction was to have hurt feelings. “Not too big,” felt almost like an insult. But then her words were forgotten as he felt her hand move between his legs and delicately curl into a gentle grip around him. Nevenez smiled back. “You’re quite impressive overall.”

“I feel the same way about you,” Dash replied. 
“Oh yes?” Nevenez narrowed her eyes in sly challenge. “How so?”
“Your pretty face. Your chest.” She smiled as he pressed his hand to her breasts, letting his fingertips linger as they ran over her skin. “Your abs.” She laughed and swatted his hand away as he gently tickled her belly. 
“Stop that. You brushing the outside while the neera are jumping around like angry frogs inside makes it tickle too much.”
“They’re still alive?” Dash was incredulous.
Nevenez nodded, smiling. “Moving around a lot too. You should have had one of them.” She stretched, yawning, exposing the back of her mouth to Dash. He found himself wondering about those two little neeras. Nevenez’s throat was the last thing they had ever seen. It must have been terrifying. Odd to find her suddenly so kind to him, yet to the neera-

“You were telling me about what you liked about me,” she reminded him, idly running her fingers through his hair. “I hope that you have not yet exhausted the list.” 
Dash smiled. “I like your butt.”
“My what?” Nevenez asked, her eyebrows coming together in a visual question. The term was unfamiliar.
“Your butt. You know. Your backside. Your bottom. Your read end.” With one hand he reached over her side and grabbed what he meant, gently squeezing her. “You have a really, really nice butt.”

Nevenez elevated an eyebrow about a quarter of an inch, pressing her lips together in cynicism. It had to be said that she had caught Dash looking at her bottom in the most peculiar manner when they were walking earlier, though overall she hadn’t given it much thought. Why would anyone be interested in that?

“You do know what my bottom is for, don’t you?” she queried slowly. 
“Of course. But I think your impressive muscles back there look amazing.”

Nevenez found herself giggling. It seemed ridiculous but apparently Dash was sincere. His hand still fervently roamed across her posterior. 

“I have no idea why anyone might find that part of a person attractive, considering what it does, but I certainly don’t object to you liking mine.”
Dash gave one cheek a light squeeze. “Well that’s a relief. And you are attractive all over. But what I like most is who you are. Not just your appearance.” Another look of incredulity from Nevenez indicated that Dash would once again have to explain his meaning. 

“You’re a survivor. Tenacious, brave, and competent. It’s sexy as hell, aside from the impressive physique necessary to survive here. But you face down monsters and dangers of the forest every day. And you’re still standing.”

“I have survived by the will of the gods and goddesses of land and sky,” Nevenez nodded.
Dash shook his head. “By your own competence.”
Nevenez frowned. “Perhaps. But nothing is done without the will of the gods. As we ourselves saw today. It is the reason why we met.”

She rolled over again, pressing her adored backside against his waist. He pulled her closer, pressing himself against her, putting one arm over her side. The warmth and sensation of safety was a pleasure in its own right. It had been so long since she had even touched another person that simple contact was stimulating. She didn’t want the sensation to ever come to an end. 

“Do you think we will travel the jungle together from now on, Dash? Will you stay another few sunrises with me?”
“A few more days?”

Nevenez nodded. Despite not being in danger, she found herself afraid of the answer to her next question. Why should the answer to a simple question elicit such fear?

“It might be enough time to decide if we should spend our life’s time with each other. We have already saved each other once. Perhaps we are meant to save each other from loneliness? Be companions through life.” 

The peculiar fear built with the silence. Silence so long that for a moment there was only the crackling hiss of the fire, the long distance hoot of a night bird. Embarrassingly, her stomach chose that moment to emit a noisy rumble. The neeras within thrashed with a wild abandon, agitated. She fought down the impulse to burp and further sour the moment. 

Finally the woman turned around again to look at Dash. 

“Will you stay with me another three sun rises? Even if we first meet your tribemates?” she repeated, trying not to seem too pressing.
Dash closed his eyes. “I need to find my friends. Once we find them, we can talk about us sticking together I don’t want to live in this forest but perhaps you could come with me. See my home?”

Nevenez turned away from Dash to hide her disappointment. The forest had been home for her entire life. She could not imagine anything beyond it. In her entire life she had met no more than a hundred other humans. Never before had Nevenez even seen a town, let alone a city. What would leaving the forest entail? Such a thought was incomprehensible for the young woman. She had never left the forest, had never even been to a town. 

For what seemed like an age, she watched the tongues of flame lick the firewood, slowly eating them down to embers.

“If we go,” Nevenez finally said. “And I do not like it beyond the forest, can we return?”
“We can always return,” Dash assured her. 

Nevenez turned back to him, kissing him slowly, passionately. 

“Would you-“ Dash asked but Nevenez pressed her mouth to his once more. 
“Don’t speak,” she told him. “Not now. There will be time for that later.”

Rolling on top of him, Nevenez smiled once again. 

***

It took another two days for Nevenez to find and follow the trail Dash’s companions had made. From the story their tracks told, they appeared to have crossed paths with a group of nekos a day previously. While Nevenez couldn’t say what had occurred at their meeting, the nekos had set off towards the west while the three humans had wandered off to the north. 

Those two days were some of the most pleasant Nevenez could remember. She found her fondness for Dash was exponentially increasing, as was the sincere hope that he would agree to stay with her. Granted thing were much harder with him around. The handsome fool was helplessly loud when walking about in the world. Sometimes it seemed that he couldn’t make more noise if he had been trying. Additionally, Nevenez had never met anyone who was more picky about food. While mostly agreeable when it came to fruits and vegetables, he had turned up his nose at one bitter root, complaining that the taste was unpleasant. Certain animals had proven to be unappealing as well, the tree frogs she’d caught he’d completely snubbed, although Nevenez had repeatedly assured him that they were not one of the poisonous species. And he had flatly refused to consume anything that appeared human such as tomthumbs and neeras, which were Nevenez’s favorites. 

This point became emphasized on one occasion on the second day. Nevenez had delighted in the discovery a family of five tomthumbs hiding in a hollowed out tree. Ardently declining her offer to divide their numbers between them, Dash seemed extremely put off when Nevenez announced that she’d have them all for lunch herself. After she’d swallowed the first one, Dash’s eye’s had gone wide in apparent discomfort at the spectacle. Attempting to impress him, Nevenez had tossed the second tomthumb (this one a protesting adolescent male beseeching her to “just wait”) high in the air and caught it in her open mouth. She’d proudly opened wide to display the yelping, struggling creature on her tongue to Dash before swallowing the tomthumb whole. 

Surprisingly, this too only seemed to repulse Dash. He had wandered away and remained at a distance while waiting for Nevenez to finish the rest. It occurred to Nevenez that the feeble appeals for mercy from the remaining tomthumbs might be the reason Dash was troubled. To silence the last three (which consisted of a female adolescent, a young male, and an adult female) who were still begging for mercy, she quickly ate them, not even taking time to savor their flavor. 

While, Dash didn’t voice any direct objection to her lunch, his manner had been fairly reserved immediately afterwards, and seemed to look on her somewhat differently. 

Not liking this development, Nevenez decided to lift his spirits by making a joke about the whole thing. Intentionally belching loudly, she related a mirthful description of how the tomthumbs were now squirming about in her tummy like they were dancing joyfully. Certain that such upbeat hilarity would prompt a fit of laughter, or at least a cheerful comment about being happy that she’d had a good meal, she was amazed to see that it only seemed to intensify Dash’s discomfort, the blood draining from his face. Confused and disappointed that these highly amusing attempts at levity had apparently fallen flat, Nevenez dropped the subject and resolved to avoid it as much as possible in the future. 

***

“You keep staring at my bottom,” Nevenez laughed. 

It was a day later. The native Felaryan human had just looked over her shoulder at the offworlder. As was his custom, Dash was following behind as she walked through the forest. “It’s so funny to look back and see you staring at the same place all the time, with your jaw slack on your face. It is as if you cannot think of anything else while you look at it.”
“My jaw looks slack?” Dash asked with mock incredulity.
“Mmm hmm. Like this.” Nevenes tried to make her eyes bulge and let her jaw hang down and slightly to one side, doing a fairly credible job of mimicking the expression Dash often wore when walking behind her.  
Dash grinned back.  “Can’t help it. I told you I liked it. It’s pretty.”
“And I still cannot understand why you would think any bottom is pretty. But I don’t mind you liking mine.”

Dash came alongside her, patting her aforementioned bottom, and then pulled her into a fervent embrace. The couple kissed, Dash’s distinctive and pleasant aroma filling Nevenez’s nostrils. He smelled like the scent of the forest before a rain. His arms wrapped her in a hug, pulling her close. Each hug made her feel safe, each kiss made her feel loved. Together they were special. Surely the gods could see, just as she could that, they belonged together. Surely the gods, in their infinite wisdom, would hear Nevenez’s quietly whispered prayers that Dash would remain with her. 

Perhaps they could go to the place where Dash called home. He had told her of it. It was in a city in which there were, according to Dash, all manner of foods, of marvelous wonders, and millions of other humans living close together. Nevenez had considered her behavior to be exceedingly tactful in refraining from laughing at such a ludicrous assertion. Surely there were not as many as a million humans in the whole of existence. But then she realized that Dash was simply trying to impress her, so she let the exaggeration go unchallenged.   

*** 

It was an hour later when Nevenez found Dash’s companions. Unfortunately for them, they had also just been found by two giants; one a giant neko, the other a giant elf with red skin. Both were female. Both were attractive. Both were seated on the ground playfully poking at a human standing between them. 

“Let them go!” shouted one lone man standing between them, brandishing his fists. At his outburst, Nevenez looked around for who the human was talking about, only then realizing that the giants already held a human each. 

“Would you like it, love?” asked the neko.
“You wouldn’t mind, would you?” the red elf replied.

The neko shook her head, then scooped up the human, bringing him towards the red elf’s mouth.
“Open wide, dear,” she urged. 

“Wait!” 

Before she could stop him, Dash ran forward. Though still pained by the sprained ankle and bruised ribs from the encounter with the naga several days previous, he ran as fast as he could toward the two giantesses, his strange device that shot fire already in one hand. 

The neko took note of him at once, turning to stare at him. The human in her hand hovered before the face of the red elf, who had followed her companion’s gaze and spotted Dash.

For his part, Dash came to a halt thirty paces from the two giantess. Waving his hand that carried his odd fire device, so that the two giants could see it.

“Let them go or by God, I’ll burn you.” 

“Run, man!” R-mmph!”
One of the humans held by the giant elf began to shot. The elf visibly squeezed the human, silencing him. 

The giantesses shared a look of incredulity between each other. Turning back to Dash, the neko said, “And you’ll not use this weapon on us, should we turn your friends loose?” Her voice was sensual, a throaty purr. 

“If you leave us in peace, I will not use the burner on you,” Dash nodded, brandishing his strange device in one hand for emphasis. 

“Well then,” said the neko levelly, clearly unimpressed by the human’s threats. “I suppose then we will agree.” 

Slowly, carefully, the neko placed the man she held beside Dash, gently released him hand and leaned back.

“And the rest of them,” Dash urged. 

With obvious reluctance, the red elf put down the human that she held, allowing him to hurry towards where Dash and the other human stood.

Nevenez remained where she was, crouched in the brambles of a nearby bush, unobserved by anyone. 

The giant neko hefted the final human in her right hand. Leaning forward, she began to bring her hand holding the final human to the group of others. Suddenly, she threw the last human at Dash. the man screamed wildly and collided with Dash, knocking them both to the ground. 

From where she watched in the bushes, Nevenez gasped, barely preventing herself from speaking. No! 

In an instant, the neko was on them. Grabbing both Dash and the human that had crashed into him, she quickly knocked the weapon from the dazed Dash. 
The red elf, which seemed as surprised as the group of humans by this sudden attack, quickly lunged forward and captured the final two. 

“Well, that settles that then,” said the elf, leaning back. 
“It certainly does,” the neko replied, with a glare at Dash who was now struggling in her hand. “Instead of burning us with that strange fire gun of his, this little human is going to join our lunch.” She looked over at her companion. “But where were we before we were interrupted, my dear?”

The red elf opened her mouth wide as the neko brought the other human in her hand upwards. Dangling the flailing human over the red elf’s open mouth, she held him in position. 

Nevenez could hear the man screaming as he was released. He fell into the red elf’s mouth. The woman rolled the human around for a moment, then swallowed.

“Good,” the elf exclaimed. Turning to her companion, she continued, “Would you like one from me now?”
“No thank you my dear,” replied the giant neko, pointedly raising Dash between them. “You can have the other two. I just want this on.” To Dash she glared. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t threatened my lover.”

To Nevenez’s horroy, the giant neko opened wide and slowly put the struggling Dash into her mouth.

Nevenez stifled a shout, forcing herself not to react. Now that the giantesses were distracted with their food, the smart thing to do would be to depart. But she couldn’t tear her eyes from the giant neko. In her mouth she occasionally saw something being moved about, struggling. The neko opened her mouth again and out popped Dash’s head and shoulders. He tried to work free but before he could, the giantess clamped down on him again, holding him in place.

Tears welled in Nevenez’s eyes as Dash screamed in fear and pain. He was right there. She could see him. And yet, to act would not save him. It would do nothing except mean that she would die too.

The neko slurped Dash back into her mouth. A moment later she swallowed, a slight bulge moving down her throat. Smiling at the red elf, she watched as her lover ate the last two humans. Their cries were audible to Nevenez, but she barely heard them. She didn’t move. Didn’t react. 

Even long after the two colossal woman departed, Nevenez remained under the bush, trying to pretend the last hour had never happened. When she eventually did get up, she took only one step forward, then sat beneath the nearest tree, and gave in to her tears. 

Shock stayed any initial movement. The thought that now Dash was gone, suddenly and unexpectedly gone, now filled her mind. On the heels of that horrible thought was the question of her own conduct. Had there been something that she could have done to prevent this? Perhaps she could have stopped him from rushing forward. If only she’d known he would try to stop the two giantesses! Had she intervened then Dash might still be with her.     

It had been a long time since the last time she had cried. But she cried now, thinking about Dash inside the tummy of the neko. Like with the naga that had attacked her, she did not hate the neko for eating Dash. But for the first time in her life, she was angry with the gods. She and Dash were supposed to go to his home, to see a city. They were going to be happy.

And now, none of it would happen. 

Why? She asked the gods, tears once more beginning to roll down her cheeks. Why him? Why now, when I was starting to love him? I wanted to spend life with him.

The only answer was the subdued and ever-present ambient noise of the forests. The gods remained silent, as the gods so often did. Perhaps eventually they would speak in their own way, in their own time. 

Getting to her feet, Nevenez began to walk, aimlessly. She simply wanted to be away from where Dash had been eaten. Heart heavy, the lonely woman continued onwards, into the forest. 

The End