The next morning, Henry was awoken by the brig’s rusty door opening. His headache was throbbing and his whole body ached, but he never once regretted his decision. That innocent creature deserved a long life away from humans, deep beneath the waves. As Henry was dragged out onto the deck, he hoped she’d get just that. Thrown face-down onto the deck, Henry winced as several cuts on his arms and face were reopened. Slowly rising to his hands and knees, Henry felt a firm hand grab his throat and force him upright. Choking for air, he was forced to look Captain Lucifer in his rage-filled eyes. 

“You slimy, good for nothing piece of shit! You can’t just let my monster go and not expect me to slit your throat! Don’t worry, I won’t kill you outright. No, it’s gonna be just enough to give you the slow, humiliating death you deserve. You’re gonna writhe on this deck like the fish you are, begging for me to end your suffering. But I won’t.” 

Forced to kneel, Henry watched as the captain withdrew his sword, gleaming silver in the late morning sun. As his breathing hastened, Henry closed his eyes and anxiously awaited the cut that would end his life. 

Before the lethal slash could be dealt, the entire ship crashed to a stop, throwing everyone and everything across the deck. Henry was quick to his feet, looking out to see they’d come to a dead stop. The others regained their footing, muttering about the cause for the sudden stop. With a loud crash, a massive object broke through the surface only a hundred feet off their port side, sending water cascading down to reveal what monolithic being had found them. 

It was a woman. She was visible down to her shoulders, with the tops of her massive, pink breasts forming a small shore as waves crashed against them. Henry couldn’t believe his eyes, but he knew he was seeing the truth. Her axolotl features told him that this larger creature was related to the one he’d freed. Her cold, calculated stare at their ship gave Henry a horrible feeling. Despite so little of her being above the waves, she absolutely dwarfed the Goddess of Death.

“Man the guns! Port side! Hurry, men!” Captain Lucifer commanded, snapping the men out of their trances. 

The ship rocked again, sending most to their knees. Henry managed to hide behind a stack of crates, peeking out to see the monster lowering herself to eye level. 

No, she was raising the ship to eye level. A glance over the side confirmed they were hopelessly trapped in the palm of her hand, the drop much too far to survive. The massive creature leaned in close, studying the crew meticulously.

“Is this the ship who tried to take you?” She asked, holding up her other hand to reveal the smaller creature that Henry had rescued. 

“That’s them! They had me in a big net!” The smaller axolotl creature replied. 

The larger creature, the mother, scowled upon receiving her daughter’s confirmation. Her hand closed around the ship slightly, causing a few planks along the hull to snap beneath the weight of her pink fingers. The crew had almost finished preparing the cannons, waiting for the captain’s order to fire. 

“Your punishment…” The mother glared, her yellow, slitted eyes staring through Henry’s soul, “…is death.” 

“Fire!” Captain Lucifer ordered. 

The Goddess of Death let loose her infamous broadside, strong enough to tear most ships apart in one salvo. Unfortunately for Henry and everyone else, this creature was far, far stronger than any vessel built. Cannonballs bounced harmlessly off her face and neck, some even becoming trapped against the thick layer of slime. 

The mother let out an unamused sigh that ruffled the crisp, white sails followed shortly by a cacophony of laughter from the daughter. 

“Go play, sweetheart,” The mother calmly stated, resting her daughter on the other side of the trapped ship. 

“Reload! Both sides! Fire at will!” Captain Lucifer shouted, his voice full of fear. 

An unlucky pair of men attempting to reload their cannon caught the eye of the mother. She pinched the two men and the cannon, her fingers tearing through the deck. Their cries of terror were snuffed out with a loud, wet crunch. Henry watched her fingers open, revealing a flattened cannon stained with crushed remains. Raising her hand up to inspect the viscous liquid, the mother licked up the stain, savoring the taste. 

“My turn!” Came a loud cheer from the daughter. 

Henry could only watch in horror as the creature he’d once viewed as a vulnerable victim grabbed a deckhand and jammed him headfirst into her mouth, muffling his cries of terror. Biting down with a horrific crunch that made Henry shudder, she pulled the man’s legs away, tearing him in half at the waist. Blood and entrails splattered the deck as she swallowed the upper half of the man, now only a large bulge sliding down her throat. Tossing aside his remains, she smiled maniacally and grabbed another unfortunate soul destined for a similar fate. Henry wanted to look away, to save himself from more horror, but he couldn’t. He could only watch as the second screaming man was mercilessly bitten into, each massive clamp of her razor sharp teeth shredding through muscle and bone. In a few short bites, nothing remained of the man save for a few trails of blood running down her chin. Swallowing the last of her second victim, she grinned to show the terrified crew the scraps of cloth and flesh trapped between her teeth. 

Although far out of reach from the smaller daughter, the men high up in the rigging were not safe from the mother. She grabbed at one of the masts, snapping it off at the base like a dried twig. Ropes and cables snapped like loose threads as the mast, along with the dozen or so men trapped on it, were raised up to her awaiting maw. Their screams were different from the rest down on the deck, as they knew exactly what their fate was. Tearing off the sails, the mother smiled at the long toothpick packed with terrified seamen. 

The daughter momentarily stopped her own massacre to eagerly cheer on her mother. Henry watched on, seeing how the poor men were hopelessly trapped with nowhere to go. The massive creature bit down on the crows nest, taking the man holding on for dear life and a good ten feet of mast along with it. Chewing for a moment, her mouth opened again to take another bite. And another. With every bite, another man disappeared behind her massive, serrated teeth, never to be seen again. Once the mast was gone, she bared her teeth and ran her forked tongue over their surfaces to wipe up any last splinters of wood and scraps of cloth. 

“Watch this!” The daughter grinned, forcing a flailing man into her mouth and clamping her jaws shut behind him. 

She struggled to swallow the man whole, her throat undulating and flexing as she closed her eyes, eventually forcing him down on her third attempt. With her pink, flexing stomach so close, Henry could just barely hear the man’s screams. 

“What did I say about eating large prey?” Her mother asked sternly. 

The girl sighed, “Always chew my food.” 

Either due to hunger, or perhaps annoyance about being lectured, she punched her fist through the lower decks, raising it up to reveal a man who’d been hiding below. To satisfy her mother, the creature raised him to her mouth and bit down on his neck, jerking her fist away to tear his head clean off. Blood shot out everywhere as the man’s arms and legs spasmed for a moment before going limp. Tossing the now lifeless body in her mouth, she chewed dramatically and muttered, “Happy?” With her mouth full. 

Out of the silence, a voice piped up, “Please! Leave my crew and ship alone! I’ll give you all the treasure we have!” 

Henry dared to lift his head from his hiding place to see Captain Lucifer waving a white handkerchief. To his surprise, the mother did not promptly crush or devour him whole. 

“Are you the captain of this ship?” The mother demanded, baring her teeth in a frown. 

“Y-Yes! I’m sorry for trying to take your daughter! I’ll pay you, I promise! Just please, let us go!” 

The massive woman considered his offer thoughtfully, each second dragging on longer than the last. Finally, a grin appeared on the creature’s face. 

“I accept! Order your men to appear before me on this deck with all of your treasure! And make it fast!” She ordered, snapping her fingers. 

Henry let out a shaky sigh of relief. The captain disappeared below decks, followed by the few crew members above deck who were lucky enough to have survived. Eager to help get rid of the monsters as soon as possible, Henry began to crawl out from his hiding space, but suddenly froze. 

The daughter had noticed his movement, her massive, yellow eyes focused directly on him. Barely detectable, she shook her head no. Confused, and more than a little worried, Henry backed into his hiding space, earning a slight nod from the smaller creature. Glancing at the larger one, he realized that her satisfied grin had turned sinister. She allowed herself a satisfied snort, causing her frilled gills to shift. 

It wasn’t before long that crates and chests loaded with treasure began to cover the deck; the most humble of chests containing more wealth than Henry had ever seen in his life. The men stood around their plunder, silently praying that it was enough. 

“That’s all we have! Please, take it and spare us!” Captain Lucifer begged.

“Hmm…” The mother thought, “While I do appreciate you collecting your bounty for me, I’m afraid that I cannot allow any of you humans to risk exposing the existence of myself and my daughter.” 

The crew erupted into screams, promising not to tell a soul and begging for their lives to be spared. All they received in return was a toothy grin. Henry began to shiver, the realization that the monster never had the intention of sparing anyone. With a wink to her daughter, the mother launched her plan into action. As chaos broke out on the deck once more, the daughter lunged for the captain. Trapping him in her arms like a doll, she excitedly pounded her tail against the ground, smashing apart the railing and knocking cannons overboard. 

The mother grabbed at the tightly bunched men, her fingers shredding through the decking and demolishing everything in her path. Gold doubloons spilled with a crash as the remaining crew, about thirty or so men, were trapped in the palm of her hand. Her gaping maw yawned open, revealing her rows of pearly teeth once again. The men all screamed in unison as she tilted her palm, dumping the men and the deck they stood on onto her purple, forked tongue. A few men were missed, falling a great distance and landing on the tops of her mountainous breasts, becoming hopelessly entrapped by the thick mucus coating.

With an audible gulp, the men were gone. Swallowed whole by the grinning creature, satisfied with her work. As the men slid down her throat to inevitably be digested alive, she turned her attention to the ones clinging to her massive body. 

The first man she saw was near the water line, utterly stuck to her left breast. Henry watched as she lowered herself just enough so he slipped beneath the waves, left to drown. The second man was higher up, trapped against her right breast. With a casual poke of her finger, she reduced him to nothing more than a red smear against her otherwise perfect skin. That just left the final man. 

He had the misfortune of falling between the gargantuan, pink hills called her breasts. Using the same finger that had just snuffed out the previous life, the mother pushed him deep into her cleavage, grinning wildly. Using her free hand, she pushed her breasts together, no doubt crushing the man in an instant. 

“That’s that. All taken care of, except for one.”

“You said you’d spare my crew, you foul beast! Why have you kept me alive?” Captain Lucifer demanded, being set back on the deck by the daughter. 

“You see, Captain,” The mother spat, “My daughter and I could not decide which of us should claim your life, so we agreed to a…well, a sort of game.” 

“P-Please! Don’t do this! I don’t wanna die!” Captain Lucifer pleaded, sinking to his knees to beg. 

“You may not wish to die, but you seemingly had no trouble with dooming my daughter. You worthless, rotten human! How dare you believe your life has meaning?” She snapped, globs of spittle the size of buckets splattering the deck as she talked. 

The daughter again snatched Captain Lucifer up, this time holding him by a single leg. He screamed and begged for forgiveness, but the two creatures had made up their minds. Hooking her pinkie around his free leg, the mother grinned and winked to her daughter across the deck. With a nod, they began to pull. 

The captain’s cries for mercy grew louder as he was being pulled apart. After witnessing their brutality, Henry knew they were prolonging his torture. The captain’s clothes began to tear and his blithering turned into higher and higher pitched shrieks. With a sickening crack and subsequent tear, Captain Lucifer let out a blood curdling wail as his leg was torn off at the hip, the rest of his body remaining with the daughter. 

“Yay! I won!” She cheered, dangling the bleeding man above her head. 

Taking a moment to savor her win, the daughter began to eat her prize, starting with his remaining leg. The captain’s screams had faded to squeaks akin to a rat, his vocal chords having been torn to hell. Working her prey to the side of her mouth, she bit down on his femur, crushing the bone like it was nothing. Slipping his chest between her teeth, she bit down again. As her teeth shredded through his ribs and organs, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, splattering on the deck below. Before his head disappeared, he locked eyes with Henry. As Captain Lucifer opened his mouth, perhaps in an attempt to call out to the final survivor, the creature’s teeth clamped down, sealing the captain’s fate. 

It was too much to bear. Despite his best efforts, Henry couldn’t restrain from leaning forwards and throwing up on the deck. So much blood, so many deaths, such cruel fates, he couldn’t take it anymore. Coughing a final time and spitting, Henry turned to face the mother, who bore a look of surprise and anger at the sight of a final survivor. 

“What’s this? One last man, daring to hide from us? Well, no sense in drama, I’ll just finish him off,” She decided, grabbing Henry between two massive fingers and lifting him above her head. 

Despite knowing it would do no good, Henry instinctively kicked his legs and tried to free himself, if only to turn his slow descent into a freefall straight down the monster’s throat.  

“Mother! Wait!” 

Henry’s descent was violently brought to a stop as the mother snapped her head to stare across the ship at her daughter, “What? The job is almost done.”

“He…He’s the one who saved my life. You can’t kill him! Please!” She pleaded, her hands brought together with fingers interlocked in a similar fashion to the captain now in pieces within her stomach. 

“You know the rules. No witnesses,” Her mother replied, tilting her head back once more. 

“No! Out of all the humans aboard that ship, he was the only one who felt bad for me! Why should he have to die like them?” 

“Abyssus,” The mother began, “Even if I did allow you to bring him, he cannot survive at the bottom! These humans only breathe above the surface. Even if he could breathe underwater, the force of the ocean would crush him. I’m sorry, but you cannot take him.” 

The daughter, apparently named Abyssus, sighed loudly, “Let me hold him!”

Her mother obliged, and soon Henry was quickly scooped up and hugged by Abyssus. Her slime quickly stuck to his face as she smothered him in a big embrace, soaking his clothes in the clear goo. Any attempts made to escape her ironclad grip were futile, as he’d seen before. Before he could get too comfortable, he was suddenly lifted up to her mouth. Henry began to panic, wondering if perhaps Abyssus had decided to eat him after all. Instead, she chose to rub his face against her lips in an attempt at a kiss, smearing his head in the blood of her former victims. Henry could do nothing but keep his mouth closed and wonder whose blood was now covering his face. Her breath smelled awful, like a thousand rotting fish in the hot July sun. 

“I know! I’ll take him to the…” Abyssus stared down at Henry for a moment before shoving his face into her cleavage.

Forced between her globes of soft, squishy flesh, Henry began to suffocate. He could faintly hear Abyssus and her mother discussing something they clearly did not want him to hear. Right as Henry began to fear he would die smothered in her cleavage, Abyssus released him. Gasping for air, he looked up to see her grinning from ear to ear. 

“Fantastic news! We’re going to take you to The Island!” She beamed, giving him an excited squeeze.

“I mean…is my only other option her stomach?” Henry pointed to her mother’s belly, earning a confirming nod from the larger creature. 

“Awesome!” Abyssus cheered, “Let’s go there now!” 

Climbing into the massive palm of her mother’s other hand, Abyssus held Henry as they watched the destruction of the once mighty Goddess of Death. With no more effort than crushing a piece of paper, her mother reduced the vessel to a mess of splinters. The bow and stern survived somewhat intact, only to break apart upon impact with the water. Churning the sea to a frothy swirl, her mother washed away the remaining pieces stuck to her hand. When all that remained of the pirate ship was a few stray barrels and shattered planks, she was satisfied with her work. 

“There we go. It’s as if they were struck by a typhoon, or perhaps hit by a rogue wave. Now we can go,” Her mother stated. 

“Here! Get on my back, I’ll carry you!” Abyssus began, but was stopped by her mother shaking a finger. 

“No, it’s far too dangerous for you to be on the surface.”

“But…how will I breathe then?” Henry asked nervously. 

The enormous creature sighed, making no effort to hide how annoyed she was. However, it appeared her love for her daughter was stronger, evident by the fact he was still alive. 

“Abyssus, make sure he stays put. If I swallow him, then it’s his fault,” She instructed. 

As his chest was compressed in her daughter’s crushing grip, Henry barely managed to croak out a fearful, “S-Swallow? W-What do you mean?” 

His answer came moments later, as her enormous maw yawned open; her purple, forked tongue slithering out over her enormous teeth. With Henry pressed firmly against her stomach, Abyssus eagerly jumped onto the squishy, flexing muscle and sat down.

Henry’s nose was assaulted by the foulest odor in his life. He struggled to avoid throwing up, wondering just what diet the enormous creature lived on to produce such a smell. To say it was like death was an understatement. Where the breath of Abyssus was awful, physically being inside her mother’s mouth meant he couldn’t escape it. As her mouth closed, Henry caught a final glimpse further back of her uvula and the flexing tunnel that would surely lead to a painful death should he fall in. 

Finally, the toothy cave entrance slammed closed, bathing the mouth in complete darkness. Henry could faintly detect movement, a telltale sign that they were now underwater, and moving fast. His ears were filled with sounds he mostly couldn’t identify, but the deep growling coming from further back was most likely the stomach. It was as if her belly could detect the presence of a human and was now vocalizing its anger with being unable to digest him. Surrounded by such an alien environment after everything he’d just witnessed prior, Henry began to shudder in the arms of Abyssus. Perhaps detecting fear in her human, she gave him a reassuring squeeze. 

In an eager voice that echoed in the chasm that was her mother’s mouth, Abyssus said, “Hang on, little guy! You’re gonna love The Island! I’ll visit you every day! And the best part? It’s super remote so nobody will ever find you! Aren’t you excited?”