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aspenwriter · 2 months

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Canaan's Bizarre Buffet, Part 3/5

(Commission for @WaffleLeech on twitter, all characters belong to him.)

“Are you heading for the castle today, Lia?” Asked a city guard.

“The Count is expecting me” replied an excited Lia “we’re set to close a deal on one hundred bottles of my best wine!”

Lia was a merchant. And she was pretty good at it. But today was set to be the finest day in her career. The Count of Watertree himself had grown enamored with the fine wines Lia was selling, and after a few talks and negotiations, she was finally invited to sign a contract to supply the castle.

That of course was how Lia expected this day to go. The worst thing that could happen in her mind was that the deal was delayed, a few days at best.

She was not expecting what was about to happen.

A flash of green light erupted from the bottom of the castle uphill, just a hundred or so feet from her. And the castle crumbled. The Count was still most likely inside.

And then a figure emerged from the ruins. It… it looked like a fairy? But fairies aren’t supposed to be hundreds of feet tall!

It must be a Demon! Thought Lia.

The Demon shrugged off the bits and pieces of the castle stuck on him and shook the dust and smaller bits off. Causing a bricks to shower on the city, impacting windows, carriages, and people… like the city guard that just recently had greeted Lia.

She was terrified. Completely paralyzed with fear.

But then she heard something that made her most primal instinct kick in.

The demon’s stomach began to growl loudly.

At this scale it was like the growls of a dragon. In the instant it was over Lia was filled with adrenaline. This was a dangerous situation, a dangerous place to be. The deal being impossible is the least of your problems now, her body said.

All around her she began hearing the screams of the running crowds. All over the city, she thought, people must be trying to find a way to get as far away as possible from the Demon.

She began walking back, slowly… but then the Demon made eye contact with her.

He had such a pleasant face, she thought, were he smaller she would have thought of him even cute.

However, there was a hunger in his eyes. The very eyes that were staring down at her.

She ran.

She ran as fast as she could, as far as her comparatively little legs allowed her. And yet it was not enough. It took the Demon all but one step to catch up with her.

Lia was so focused on getting away that she didn’t notice the Demon squatting behind her and reaching out. Maybe if she did she could have dodged the giant’s hand, but it was useless now.

She was caught firmly in the Demon’s grip. All she could do was scream and squirm, but it was hopeless. Even if she did break his grip she would fall hundreds of feet to her death, and even if someone heard her screams there wasn’t anything they could really do to help.

Lia prayed to the gods in a last ditch effort to be saved. “Please… oh please Gods above… please just let me go…” she whispered, eyes closed.

And then she felt the grip of the titan loosening. For an instant Lia thought that she had indeed been saved. That it was all over, it was just a bad dream due to the nervousness before the day she was about to close the deal of her life.

But when she opened her eyes hoping to see the morning’s sunbeams entering through her window, all she saw was the open maw of the Demon. He was just toying with her, he was just having some fun at her expense.

He just dropped her in his mouth.

Lia returned to futile panicked screaming.

“No… NO, NO!” She exclaimed as she felt the Demon’s tongue’s soft and wet touch. At this scale, the taste buds were just big enough to grab them as if they were some kind of moss or grass, providing a grippable texture for Lia’s hands.

With all the strength her panicked body could muster, she pulled herself up and sprinted to the gaping cave-like entrance that was the Demon’s open maw. There was no hope in this. All she could gain by jumping out was a fall to her sure death.

And yet she made the run. The adrenaline shooting through her blood making her sprint at a speed she had never seen before, she extended her hand without thinking and it tasted a small ray of sunlight.

In fact, the last ray of sunlight she ever felt touching her skin.

The demon closed his mouth, forever more shutting Lia inside his body. If Lia’s sprint had gotten her a few inches further the strength of the Demon’s teeth would have cut her hand off. And without the ability to get medical attention a wound like that would surely be fatal.

This, in due time, would prove to be a better alternative than digestion.

The Demon’s tongue pushed her upwards, against his palette. He uncaringly rubbed her strongly against his palette, his tongue getting the full extent of Lia’s delicate flavor.

He shuffled her around his mouth, pinning her between his check and his tongue. Then the other cheek, then the palette again. Lia was too tired to scream anymore. The tongue was so strong that by now every muscle in her body ached. The adrenaline’s effect had worn off.

All that was left of her was a numb body, covered in black and purple bruises and the Demon’s hot saliva, ready to be consumed.

She didn’t even fight his tongue as it pulled her downwards, nor did she try to scream, and spoke no final plea to the gods that had abandoned her.

All Lia did as she fell down the Demon’s throat was hope his digestion was quick and painless.

She was wrong.

———

“Did you see that!?” Said Sirin “that Demon ate someone!”

“We need to get out of here!” Said one of the dozens of citizens taking refuge at the Caged Rat Inn. The irony of the name wasn’t lost on anyone.

“And risk be devoured?” Said Sirin “you’re completely insane!”

“Well I’m not gonna wait here until he fucking eats me!” Said that same citizen “I don’t care what you say!”

Sirin watched powerless as the citizen stormed out of the room, heading to the first floor and eventually outside the inn. Then she returned to her place peeking out of the window. She wasn’t fit to run, in fact she wasn’t fit to do anything overtly physical, she was just the Count’s librarian. But the count was now dead and his library now among the rubble that was his castle.

She was lucky not to be inside the castle when the Demon arrived. Sirin was outside in the market district running an errand. Buying some rare books. That saved her life. Although she honestly wasn’t really enthusiastic about hiding like a rat either.

All she could do was wait and watch. She and a couple dozen individuals who knew running was probably useless decided to take refuge inside the nearest Inn they could find. But Sirin was a curious soul. Luckily the Inn had two floors and a stained glass window from which she could peek out.

The outside was complete chaos. Screams of terror and the booming sounds of the giant’s steps were all she could hear. And from her vantage point she could see the Demon going around picking people up from the street to devour. It was a disgusting spectacle but one she could not take her eyes out of. Her survival depended on her ability to keep track of where the Demon was.

He did so with a face of such an oblivious delight that Sirin couldn’t help but to be disgusted. It was as if he was mocking them. As if he didn’t hear the screams of terror and the pleas for mercy.

We’re prey, we’re just his fucking prey, thought Sirin.

What the hell was she supposed to do now? Even if she survived her livelihood was completely ruined, very literally ruined by the way. The city was done for. All she could hope for was to become a refugee or a scavenger. And then…

Boom.

Oh no.

Sirin looked from her vantage point and her fears were confirmed, the giant was heading this way.

She ran downstairs where the rest of the people were gathered and, librarian that she was, motioned them for their silence with a loud ‘SHHHH’.

All fell silent immediately. Sirin smiled, satisfied and content with their compliance. But then there was another boom. It made the glasses in the counter chime like bells as they lightly trembled, touching each other.

Another boom. The people trapped inside the Inn grew tense and restless. They nervously eyed each other, afraid to make even the slightest of sounds. Some fell to their knees and made silent prayers to the Gods, their lips moving but not a whisper coming out of them.

And then another boom. Closer still, this time glasses fell from the counter shattering in a million small crystals. Tables bounced off the floor. Some people even struggled to stay on their feet.

Another boom. They could hear the Demon humming a simple melody to himself, as if he was taking a small stroll at a park. Sirin silently cursed him for such a mockery of their suffering.

“I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE” screamed a desperate individual, panicked faces turning to him in terror as they couldn't stop him from running through the door of the Inn to the outside.

The fool! Thought Sirin. The absolute, stupid fool!

The man’s screams became an unintelligible babble. All that Sirin could discern from them was a “JUST DO IT!”. She wanted to run to her vantage point, to the small stained glass window. She wanted to watch what was going to happen. But fear prevented her from making even the slightest of moves.

All she could do was to stay still and listen. She listened to the demon crouching and the desperate man’s screams turning from brave and defiant to panicked and frightened. She listened to the Demon’s loud “AHHH” as he opened his mouth. She listened to the booming sound his teeth made when he closed his mouth and the man’s screams were no more. And she listened to the deafening sound of him swallowing.

All she could hope for now was that the Demon was stupid. Or lazy. Or both. Whatever it made him not check the building the foolish man had come out from.

But he did.

In helpless panic, the people of the Inn screamed as a giant hand pierced through the wall. They ran aimlessly as an equally aimless hand searched for new victims to devour.

“The basement!” screamed a lot of people at the same time “Make it to the basement!”

Sirin looked around, nervously and quickly. Where were the stairs to the basement again?

She felt someone bumping on her and the next thing she knew she was down on the floor. The giant hand was palping the ground, dangerously close.

The glass! Sirin thought. I could mabe drive him away if I make him touch the broken glass-

She felt his colossal fingers touching her feet, and moving to a pincer position.

No… NO. She thought.

She couldn't crawl away quickly enough. Soon, her leg was held in a pincer grasp between the Giant’s index finger and thumb. All she could do was to scream as she was held in the air and brought to the Demon’s face.

The next events happened very quickly. The Demon had no second thoughts at all about eating her, so all he did was drop her on his tongue, which was sticking out of his open mouth. Sirin didn’t think at all. All of her senses and mind shoot back to her most primal instinct of survival. So she stood up and ran. She was fast, faster than she ever was in her life. Faster than a librarian should be.

And she outran the Demon’s closing mouth.

A brief flash of brightness shot through her eyes. She had done it! She had escaped! She was going to survive this whole terrible ordeal… until she remembered the Giant’s mouth wasn't on ground level.

She screamed as she fell down. The Demon, not wanting to lose his prey, motioned to grab her, but all he could do was to awkwardly move his body trying to catch the screaming, falling woman… and it worked, somehow.

The Demon, unable to catch her with his arms, thought quickly and tried to soften her fall with his body. All this did, however, was make the woman awfully fall inside his tunic.

Sirin tried to grab onto the white fabric, or to the Demon’s cinnamon coloured flesh, but it was useless. She found herself desperately grasping for something to grab but ended up rolling inside the Demon’s tunic, the fabric slowing down her fall.

Then finally, something soft. She landed on a sort of… throbbing, warm, log… Sirin screamed in disgust once she figured it out.

She looked up to see the Demon staring down at her, partly aroused and partly sincerely and severely embarrassed. Sirin looked fast for something else to grab on, but only found that jumping would result on a several feet long plunge to her death and staying here would prove fatal too once the demon simply shoved his hand under his tunic and grabbed her.

She could… pleasure him maybe? Yes! Sirin thought, discarding all her dignity in a desperate move to save her own life. If I move up and down I could maybe distract him for long enough to figure out a way to-

No. No it didn’t work. Before Sirin even finished thinking that idea the fingers of the Demon were already picking her up by the waist. Apparently, he was way more hungry than he was horny. To Sirin’s horrible bad luck.

When the Demon opened his mouth again he was visibly blushing, or at least that’s what Sirin thought she saw. Next thing she knew, she was touching the wet, warm tongue inside him. Staring down past his uvula into the seemingly endless void beyond his throat.

Sirin wanted to cry. She had been so close.

So very close.

So she didn’t fight it. She fell to her knees and started crying in a sad, pathetic final display of resignation. This was it, this was the unceremonious end of her life. All she ever did, all she ever was amounted to nothing more than a Demon’s snack.

At least… the little spectacle of her escape was memorable right? At least she would live on in the accursed Demon’s memory…

He tasted her for a few seconds and then swallowed her. He didn’t think of her ever again.

—

This had been so far the worst day in Lirel’s life. She was just a country girl visiting Watertree. Just fucking visiting for the gods’ sake. And she had walked into the site of a world-ending catastrophe. The Demon had appeared out of nowhere, eagerly and hungrily devouring all who he encountered in his trail of destruction. All Lirel did was wait hidden in a basement in some house she encountered. She had been there for what seemed like hours.

Lirel’s survival strategy was actually very sound. Waiting and waiting. All she had to do was stay put until she heard no booming sounds and no screaming people and then she would know that it was over and that she could just peek her little head out of the barrel in that cellar and head straight home, beyond the city’s gates. Lirel waited and waited, then. And soon the booming sounds of the Demon’s every movement ceased. She heard no loud steps, no deafening gulping and most importantly: no screams. Which meant simply that there was either no more people left to eat, or that he was gone for good.

Lirel prayed it was the first thing.

But one thing was on her mind as she crawled her way out of the barrel she was hiding in. Among those booming, deafening noises the Demon made there was one that was particular in its thunder-like mess. It was as if a giant lightning bolt had struck the ground and leveled the surrounding area in a fiery explosion. Lirel thought, or prayed rather, that the sound was due to the Demon opening a portal and leaving, or in the best of cases, that the gods had intervened in the city’s favor and smitten this foul thing for good.

At first it seemed like the second thing had happened. As Lirel got out of the basement she found what used to be the great city of Watertree in ruins. As if an earthquake had struck the place. All around her were what used to be houses, shops and inns. It was a most depressing sight. It was one those few things in Lirel’s life that got her to question her own mortality and the fragility of human life when you compared it to the forces beyond our control.

Also, there was something unexpected in the ruins… something terrible for Lirel.

At her right there was a long, extended leg. A rather giant long and extended leg. Lirel followed it to her back, to its source. It was of course none other than the Demon, who was idly resting with his legs opened atop some ruins that used to be a barrack.

The Demon was half asleep, but a spark of attention flashed through his eyes as he saw Lirel crawl out of the basement she was hiding in. His eyes were now firmly locked on her.

There were no words to Lirel’s horror. To be in his presence was the worst possible thing that could have happened.

She tried to run away, but the Demon’s body was all around her. His legs to both sides and his torso and head to her back, so all she could do was run forwards. To the space between his open legs, to the only place where she could see freedom. Yet there was very little she could actually do. The Demon overpowered her very being. All he needed to do was stretch himself forward, extend an arm, and Lirel was firmly within his grasp. The tiny panicked woman’s frightened screams didn’t even got out of his closed fist.

Yet when she was brought forward to his eye level there was a slight boredom in his eyes. As if he had had his fill of fun and food feasting on the population of Watertree and there was simply no longer anything else to do. As if tormenting the little people wasn’t even a bit funny anymore. As if his belly was full.

Sadly this got Lirel’s hopes way up, for she didn't know even the slightest thing about her giant captor’s biology. There was no way for Lirel to know that it was physically not possible to fill his eldritch stomach.

And then, as if he had the best of ideas, the giant Demon set her free on the floor. There was almost no malice in his eyes. as if he genuinely just wanted to see what the little woman would do.

Lirel was terrified. Terrified that whatever she would do would be the wrong alternative and she would be crushed or eaten by the disappointed giant. Slowly she began to back down, not taking her eyes out of the giant’s almost sweet smiling mouth. And once she had taken exactly five steps, she began to run away screaming.

The Demon made a strange sigh, for it was a mix of amusement and bored tiredness. As if he really, really wanted to play with his little prey but didn’t have the energy left in him after all that rampage. The Demon rested his head on one of his hands as if deep in thought and waited for the little woman to get as far away from him as she could.

Lirel wept tears of joy. This was the luckiest day in her life. The Demon had let her go! He was just bored and filled! Lirel almost thanked the people devoured before for having indirectly saved her life.

But then the Demon started moving.

He hadn’t let her go.

No, the Demon was just giving her a head start.

Lirel saw the giant legs moving but didn’t dare to look back on what the Demon was doing. Her mind was solely focused on her way forward. She had shut down everything else as a distraction. She only needed to run away and then she could have her life. Running away, that was all there was to it. She could escape this awful situation…

And then a giant maw closed itself around her and she was in darkness.

The demon had gone to a crawling position on all fours and just catched her with his mouth.

He was a born predator. Either he was very experienced with toying with his food or that was just his very nature. But either way, it took him next to no effort to catch Lirel as if he were a cat.

The demon even let Lirel squirm around the ground as if she had a chance. All part of the game, which the poor woman didn’t know she was playing.

Lirel didn’t have time to process the humiliation of being chased and catched like a mouse. She was too busy panickingly punching the Demon’s tongue in a fruitless attempt at mounting resistance. There was no way she could overpower him but she needed to try everything, her life depended on it.

But the Demon’s tongue was resistant and Lirel’s strongest punches didn’t even got it to flinch or back down. It relentlessly continued his assault around Lirel as if she was nothing but prey, a tasty little snack the demon to savor.

Which, sadly for her, she was.

The Demon seemed to want to be thorough, his tongue, inhumanly dexterous that it was, began lifting Lirel’s dress and taking out her boots. He wanted to taste her, not her clothes. And he seemed to finally have time to personally toy with his prey instead of just mindlessly devouring it. Lirel cursed the fact.

The Demon spat out her clothes like one eating fish spats the spine out after eating the whole meat. Lirel was left defenseless and naked inside the Demon’s maw. Still resisting him with fruitless punches and kicks.

And yet whenever Lirel got her hopes up that she was actually inflicting some kind of damage, the Demon would effortlessly shuffle her naked body around his mouth like a piece of hard candy and take a long lick at her. He would put her in between his tongue and the inside of his cheek, against his teeth, under his palette. Lirel tried everything but it seemed that this was it. Her life was going to end inside this Demon’s body. There was nothing she could do.

Lirel was nothing but a morsel. A little toy for the Demon to play with. Maybe a more appropriate metaphor would be a piece of candy, made so that one licks every ounce of flavor out before either swallowing it, crushing it with one’s teeth or spitting it out entirely. The sole thought made Lirel grow depressed and weak. Her punches became more and more, her kicks too didn’t have the energy they had at the beginning of her struggle. She was starting to involuntarily giving up as the realization that every attempt at resisting was fruitless.

And so she became almost limp, and stopped with her useless resistance. But this had a completely unexpected effect.

The Demon’s tongue also grew limp and stopped fighting against her. It settled immobile in its natural idle position in his mouth.

Was this it? Had he somehow grown tired after all the fighting? Had her punches and kicked and all that struggle finally worn him down?

Lirel got up, standing barefooted on his tongue, an air of triumph around her, she almost permitted herself to smile. Perhaps there was a way out of this whole mess after all. There was a light out of the tunnel.

And in fact a literal light out of the tunnel appeared, as the demon opened his maw, letting sunlight enter in. Lirel was blinded for a moment, her eyes already adapted to the insides of his mouth. And then she felt his tongue pushing her out.

The Demon stuck his tongue out of his mouth, and let Lirel’s naked body drop down like a piece of meat trapped in his drool.

Lirel fell on his chest, in the small cleavage area that his tunic left open, and leaving a trail of saliva between her and his mouth. In fact this was the first time she acknowledged the hot liquid accumulating on top of her. She was covered completely in a film of the Demon’s fluids. To her, it was a disgusting experience, horrid in every way.. But to the Demon it seemed like a really funny little thing. In his face Lirel saw a newfound bright amusement, the boredom from before gone completely.

She didn’t know what to do. Running away was useless. He was laying down in some ruins and she would need to sprint down his body to reach the ground and nothing guaranteed her he wouldn’t just simply grab her again and shove her inside his mouth.

Maybe she could serve the Demon… maybe she was chosen in some way. Maybe the demon just wanted a human pet to toy with? It wasn’t so far-fetched. People kept ducks and rabbits as pets too…

Or a slave maybe? That wasn’t beyond the pale. It was said that demons kept human slaves all the time… although she didn’t imagine it would be like this.

No, that was madness. Demons don’t keep pets. They don’t keep cute little slaves either. He’s just toying with you. She thought. He’s just going to give you another chance so that you can attempt to escape so that he can catch you and eat you.

But hells, she had to do something.

She sprinted away from his face and down his body, heading for the floor. She ran as fast as she could. As fast as her tired legs allowed her. The demon simply sighed. As if what she was doing was the boring choice for him. It didn’t matter now.

Lirel had difficulty running. Her body, covered in the Demon’s hot, steamy saliva, was heavier than she had anticipated, and each step took the utmost effort to make. This wasn’t going smoothly. Every step exhausted her further and further and then…

She tripped.

On what Lirel didn’t know, maybe her legs just gave up at that moment, but either way Lirel was rolling through the Demons body until she was just in the middle of her chest. She hadn’t gotten any far running. She had barely made three or four pathetic little steps.

And then she realized the worst had come to happen. The Demon’s chest was sweaty and salty, as Lirel sadly knew because she was stuck with her mouth down into his flesh. But for some reason, the strange combination of fluids, from his sweat and saliva, made it so that she couldn’t move a muscle.

Her arms and legs were stuck in the demon’s skin, she herself wanted to scream for help but with her mouth down in his body it was impossible. She felt his chest moving up and down as he laughed softly at her misery.

She cursed, cursed, and cursed again in her mind.

The Giant, having had his laugh, did what was expected and simply picked her up again and extended an open, almost inviting tongue.

Lirel didn’t bother to scream anymore, she just wanted this whole ordeal to be over with.

But the demon took his sweet time with her broken self. Licking her every inch of her naked body as to extract every ounce of flavor in her. By this point Lirel almost welcomed it.

In fact she was starting to think that the insides of his mouth weren’t a bad place after all. Here she was safe. Safe from a rough and cruel exterior world. Maybe it was alright to be here.

In the end she laid down on his tongue, and for some reason she was quite relaxed while doing so. Fighting it was useless, as it was proven. So to hell with fighting. Being food wasn’t so bad after all.

One has to recognize when she’s outmatched. She thought. Perhaps the demon was just the human’s natural predator, maybe this was just her due place on the food chain.

Maybe Lirel was just exhausted or maybe the whole impossibility of the situation had made her a bit insane. Whatever it was, she didn’t even grunt when she felt the Demon’s throat opening, his tongue angle inclining towards it and the saliva rushing towards that endless abyss.

When she was finally swallowed, the thing that most bothered her was that his esophagus was a little uncomfortable, and that it didn’t seem to end anywhere.

The last the world ever knew of Lirel was the Demon’s satisfied sigh.

He thought of what an entertaining spectacle this little ones were for him.

As he stretched his arms, legs and wings content with his feast, he started wondering where would he shift now.

And so, the demon-fairy that was to be forever known as the Ruin of Watertree vanished without a trace in a beam of the sick greenish light that had brought him into this world.

#g/t writing #g/t story #g/t community #giant/tiny #size difference #g/t art #g/t related

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