FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The world was upside down and my head pounded like the stomp of a thousand as they march across the back of my eyes. The window to my pod had cracked in the tumble, and I couldn't clearly recall the entry, only a vague image of a vast brown something above me before... Well I guess before I crashed

Ship_I muttered, annoyed in the extreme, _What happened? There was only faint apologetic shrug and a sensor read out of incredible and unexpected crosswinds.

I checked myself over, no serious damage, the pod restraints had held. The headache could have been due to burst blood vessels and swelling, in any case, it wasn't fatal. I managed to crawl out through a crack in the hull once I'd wedged it apart. The encounter suit was shot, but the atmosphere hadn't killed me either so I supposed it would be unnecessary. I did extract the lining and a few liters of water--necessary since I'd landed in the depths of a sand desert. The liner kept moisture in for the most part, and would protect me from the worst of the sun.

The dunes I had crashed into were now a glassed crater. Only the kilometer of tumbling beyond the initial crash site had kept me from a rapid experience of Roast Omo ala desert! Beyond the dune I'd struck were... more dunes. Beyond those dunes were even more dunes. My choices were as infinite as the grains of sand under my feet, and about as welcome. It was hot, near fifty degrees, and dry enough to make my hide seize up and crack after a few hours of exposure. The suit liner was a life saver for sure, though my muzzle had become a mess of black seams and scabs. Ship promised me rescue as soon as a dropship was available, though that would be two days hence. I was told to do my duty and gather samples of life. My retort was as quick as it was pithy, "What life you stupid hunk of metal?!" I literally screamed it at the sky though all I needed to do was think it quietly as a mouse to be heard and understood. You must recognize, I'd had one hell of a miserable day. I even considered abandoning my duty, but Ship might have taken that as good enough reason NOT to rescue me. Dereliction of duty was certainly high on her list of things that warranted a firm marooning!

So, with few options open to me, I began to dig. I chose the bottom of a valley between two dunes. I used bits and pieces strewn from the ship to act as barricade against the encroaching sand, as well as a makeshift shovel. It was slow and tedious, but I had little else to do so... I had gone down only a few meters by the second day, but already I was finding signs of life, or at least, remnants there of. Ring like bones were common as sand. Little teeth were twice as common and distinctly carniverous. On the rare occasion I found a handful of others, nothing even remotely in ownership of a spine, but curious none the less.

Another half a meter and I met my first still alive life form. It was a faint pink in color, and worm like, about as big as my greater thumb, and it was gone before I could get a good look at it. Down and down I continued in hopes of capturing one for dissection. It was well past midnight as far as the planet was concerned when I gave it up, though with it's seventeen hour day, that didn't mean much. My internal clock suggested I'd been awake and digging for a whole nineteen hours straight, not even Ship could argue I was letting off any slack!

I sat down in the pit, then broke open one of the two recovered meals, a simple bit of self heated mush, but wonderful after hours of hard labor. That I followed up with a mouthful of water and--to my abject horror--I managed to spill a trickle down my chin and onto the desert sand. Part of my less sane thoughts suggested I scoop the sand up to suck the moisture from, but that was rediculous. Oh if only I had!

Not two minutes later I discovered one of those worm like lifeforms as it squirmed in little figure eights through the wet sand! I had just found an empty container and had reached down to scoop the little thing up when... the entire bottom of the pit shifted. There was a blast of sand, around me, and my tail, feet, and butt found themselves waist deep in a shifting, almost liquid environment! Another blast threw even more sand from the pit in a huge font, and only then did I see the ring of plated flesh as it lifted free. A third blast, and the sand was cleared from the throat, coughed out before the circular maw clenched down.

Those teeth, so interesting, almost dinosaur like, they now surrounded me. A perfect tube of dusty pink flesh dotted with double rings of teeth had encircled me. Another double ring sat a few centimeters below, then another below that and below that... and I realized rather quickly that I was in some extreme danger as those rings clenched inwards on my tiny form! He could have eaten ten of me at once, as large as he was!

Ship!_I cried in panic as I realized my fate, _now or never! Help! Her reply was as simple as it was devastating, Never.

I let out a high pitched scream as the worm swallowed, once, and those toothy rings sank down on me. Where I had once been seated and eating my dinner with joy, had within a matter of seconds become the reverse. The joyful desert had decided to eat me! The... you couldn't even call it a jaw... the muscular throat contracted, a toothed ridge formed above my head, then lowered. The tight ring above me was too narrow to even think of escape, and the teeth so sharp that to try would have sliced me to ribbons.

A second ring closed in, this at chest height and--bit in. I screamed in agony as those wicked fangs sank through the suit lining and punctured my hide. Then they pulled and I found myself propelled downward, rump first onto a second set of teeth just as they were closed about my hips, then a third about my ankles and tail! The whole worm heaved and the light above vanished. I could detect a powdery cordite smell as it burrowed and hear the constant abrasive rush of sand. Each push of it's body though was a horrible agony in my flesh, as it squirmed through the sand, it swallowed me, it rubbed the bulge of me against the earth and down I went.

The sixth, and last double ring of toothed ridge at last passed beyond my head as I fell into what could only be the monster's stomach. There was air, there was. The fumes within were enough to make my eyes burn and throat nose sting. The moisture within was minimal, not a watery gullet, but a thick sludgy tar like mucous that stuck to my ankles and toes like glue. I tried in desperation to claw my way up the tight confines, but the throat was an interlock of damp flesh and sharp fangs. There was no escape that way!

Blood soaked the inside of my suit and leaked beyond, moisture which seemed to stimulate the gut of the monster, for more of that tarry sludge spilled from pores in the walls. There was no where to escape it, though the suit lining seemed to protect me some... where it remained intact at least. Escape was my first concern, and so I attempted to claw my way through the stomach lining. It was tough however, as tough as old leather, and I hadn't any tools to cut it. At the other end I found a small orifice, no wider than a hand span, and with sudden realization, I knew I would sooner or later exit through through there.

Panic set in, horror at my situation, desperation of claustrophobia and fear of such a terrible death. I screamed and struggled, slashed and punched, but the walls just crushed ever inward as the gut settled to contain my small form. Air leaked out bit by bit, I couldn't hear it, but I could feel the pressure drop and the walls push ever closer. It was also incredibly hot, friction I supposed. The digestive tar drew ever deeper and closer the more and longer I remained.

Eventually exhaustion set in. It wasn't something I chose, nor something I welcomed, but perhaps a mixture of strain, distress, and low oxygen did it; I fell unconscious. When I woke again, my skin itched and my wounds burned, but I still lived. To my utter dismay however, the stomach had collapsed entirely and now compressed me from all sides. I was practically swimming, if said could even be attempted, in an enveloping pool of sludge. It had gotten in my suit through the holes, and was more like a cocoon than digestive soup.

I felt incredibly weak, as if even an attempt to move my head was too much to contemplate. The worm still moved, and my body was jostled back and forth with the bunch and stretch of it's undulating form; I let it bunch and stretch my body, too weak to do aught else. _Ship_I begged quietly and detected her reply, she was with me. That was enough, for now. Maybe later when I had some time to think, some time to gather my energy, maybe I'd find a way out.

Hours passed, a day, I felt no worse for wear. My wounds had healed, my pains halted, but I felt no stronger. In fact, I felt weaker than a kitten and so thirsty, so thirsty I even tried swallowing the tar... it was oily, tough as chewed gum, and so bitter I immediately regretted the attempt. Nausea clutched at my stomach and my tongue pushed, but I didn't even have the strength to spit it out; I was resigned to the flavor of it.

Something was wrong, I realized, I was too weak, there was no reason I should have been so weak! Another round of panic set in, but the only result was a faint twitch and clench in muscles that didn't respond properly. Then, even my inner muscles began to fail as my cloaca expelled itself into the suit, a wet warmth that leaked through the numerous gashes and soaked into the pool of tar. Within minutes, even memory of the wetness was gone and I could feel a bulged mass of that mucous wedged between the folds of my gaped cloaca... it seemed to have expanded where ever water touched it, and flowed inward to seek out more.

Hour by hour, I felt the mass enter me, not only through my genitals, but the bit I had tasted, had grown and swelled toward the back of my throat. Even my poor nostrils were penetrated by the viscous mass as thick as clay and slippery as glass. Where it touched, it sucked free the moisture and left my skin cracked and bleeding. My weariness grew and grew as the very moisture of my blood was drained a few drops at a time.

I wept, and my eyes soon ruptured, filled with a searing ache as the mucous flowed into them, into my sinuses, into my lungs! I could not breathe, I could barely think, all that remained was the exhausted suffering of my starved mind and the horrific sensation of thirsty violation. My bowels were impacted, my stomach full, my lungs inflated, my sinuses ready to burst with pressure.

There was a crack and a shock of sensation through my nerves like lightning. The pain was incredible and the location disorienting. I wanted to scream but there was no air with which to scream. I wanted to struggle, but my desiccated limbs had long since died, numb. The pain, that lightning of such intensity, that crack--was my skull giving way as the pressure increased and the hungry worm demanded the moisture within.

I did not die from it, not immediately. I was witness to the experience. Every horrific second of that penetration through the looped folds of my very being, as sections of thoughts just... stopped. As my internal self was drained of moisture and life, I grew confused and lost my fear. I did not know what was happening, nor did I know why I was in such pain. Hour by hour the world made less sense as the core of _me_was sucked dry.

From above, Ship quietly watched and witnessed, contented with the new data to add to her hoard. She was pleased, this experience had been incredibly intense. In the silence of the void another clone was prepared and a new, primarily useless set of memories were fused into her empty skull. Before I had even died, a copy of me crashed into the desert and woke bewildered and alone, a snack for the next worm. A few dozen kilometers away was another crash, and another, and another... in all over twelve hundred wrecks dotted the desert. The fauna was thriving.