Not to Plan
A surprise den inspection from a local elder comes while Kaelin is visiting Ruyak and his grokai, and the hastily conceived plan to hide her goes awry.
(This little vore story is not canon as far as I'm concerned, it's just something indulgent I wanted to try. Will make a tiny bit more sense if you're caught up with TMatB)
Word count: 2848
Content Warnings: accidental vore, safe vore, regurgitation, slight flirtiness, language
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Taren and Gori came barreling in, hackles up and eyes glazed with panic.
“Ferak is here,” Gori hissed.
Ruyak went rigid. Kaelin glanced back and forth between him and the two other Kanai in alarm.
“He’s here to inspect the den,” Taren whispered. “Litmuk is distracting him, but we have to hurry.”
Gori crouched down, ears pinned. “If he finds her, we’re all-”
“Hush,” Taren snapped.
In the ensuing quiet, Ferak’s bored, monotone voice drifted in from outside, too muffled to make out the words.
Kaelin jumped up. “I’ll hide.”
“No,” Taren hissed, “Ferak’s too thorough. He hates kreezins.”
“We need to sneak out,” Ruyak said. “We could use a basket or something-”
Taren shook his head. “Too suspicious. Just hide her in your mouth.”
Kaelin and Ruyak both choked out surprised refusals, but then Ferak’s irritated grumbling echoed into the den from closer to the entrance. Litmuk’s too-loud laugh was strained; he wouldn’t be able to hold Ferak’s attention for much longer.
“It might work...” Kaelin murmured.
Ruyak’s heart flipped in his chest. “What if Ferak tries to talk to me?”
“Just scowl at him like you always do,” Taren suggested. “Luckily that won’t be unusual for you.”
“We need to hurry,” Kaelin said. “Just do it.”
Ruyak reached down and scooped her up, then held her securely before his face. He’d been tempted to do this in play before, but always stopped himself, certain Kaelin would find it too terrifying. “You’re sure?”
“I’ve been in your mouth before. I’m not afraid.”
Ruyak could smell the lie in that, but whether that tinge of fear scent was due to the overall situation or what was about to happen was impossible to tell. As he looked her over, she held his gaze with level confidence, but her eyes were wide, her hands gripping the fur on his thumb with desperate fervor.
Ferak’s voice was growing louder. There was no time for double checking, no time to make certain Kaelin really was okay with this. There was only enough time for one quick, reassuring look, and then Ruyak opened his mouth and lifted her to his lips.
Ruyak would have preferred to give Kaelin a moment to climb in on her own, but Taren and Gori were leering with shameless curiosity, so Ruyak shoved her in as gently as he could and shut his lips behind her.
It was a lot of thing to have in his mouth at once. The bulkiness of her dry clothes felt unnatural, and the way they filled his mouth was deeply unpleasant. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for the cloth to become saturated as his tongue adjusted her into a more comfortable position. Poor Kaelin, it was going to be an ordeal washing her clothes out. Ruyak let her have as much room as he could manage, and tried not to think about the taste of her skin.
Taren was cocking a doubtful eyebrow. “It’s way too obvious.”
Ruyak’s heart did more nervous flips. He took a steadying breath, then very carefully brought his teeth together with an audible click. Kaelin flinched, but managed to maintain her composure.
“That’s better, but…”
“You’re red as a pineberry,” Gori remarked. “Look grumpier.”
Being grumpy while Kaelin was curled up in his mouth was impossible. She was so small and real, he could feel her every minute twitch and breath and beat of her heart. Ruyak did his best to scowl, but he didn’t want to be angry. What he wanted to do was close his eyes, lay down on the floor, and melt into a puddle.
“God’s eyes, you're a mess," Gori hissed.
“Come on. More flat-eared, less flustered- oh shit, it’ll have to do...”
All at once, Ferak was sauntering in like a pompous bull wisent. “Ugh, Litmuk would talk my ears off if I let him.” He glanced suspiciously around. “What are you delinquents up to in here, anyway?”
“Just cleaning up a bit, sir,” Gori mumbled.
“Uh huh, sure,” Ferak snarked.
Ruyak got to his feet, preparing to make a hasty exit, but at that moment Litmuk bumbled in and blocked the way out. Ferak was looking around with a distasteful sneer, and suddenly being angry was becoming a lot easier for Ruyak.
“It’s shameful what they let you boys get away with,” Ferak spat. “But I’m not like the other elders, no. I don’t let you all snivel your way out of discipline.”
Litmuk glanced around at the den with a dubious expression, wondering where Kaelin was, and missed Gori’s attempt to silently communicate the need for him to get out of the way. Ruyak kept his eyes on Ferak as the old Kanai slowly ambled around the den.
“What should I expect from you this time, ey? A sack full of dream spores? A pot of jakat?”
Litmuk finally shuffled all the way into the den, but Ferak had walked up to Ruyak and was looking him over shrewdly. Ruyak’s hackles prickled, but most of his attention was focused on not drooling.
“You’re up to something, kreetzua,” Ferak accused. “I just know it.”
Ruyak growled. It was low and quiet, and a little bit gargled, but still enough to stiffen Kaelin’s arms and legs and send her heart racing.
Ferak snarled and jerked forward. “Don’t you rumble at me, boy, or I’ll have your ears for trophies. Both of them!”
Kaelin was trembling.
Ruyak felt his face crumple. He couldn’t help it. He wanted nothing more than to whisper to her, you’re safe, I promise, you’re so very safe, but of course he couldn’t, especially not with this old windbag in his face.
“Bah, you’re so sensitive,” Ferak grumbled with a wrinkled nose, leaning back in disgust. “You’d think at your age you could take discipline with a little more spine.”
All Ruyak could do was stare at him, knowing his face was contorting into a sorrowful mess.
“Eugh, pathetic.” Ferak shook his head and turned away. “Now, let me see how you all are keeping the place…”
As Ferak began to inspect the galley, Litmuk sidled over to Ruyak, an amused smirk on his face. “You look so heartbroken,” he taunted under his breath. “Did Ferak call you a mean name?”
Ruyak glared at him sidelong, curling his lip, and Litmuk chuckled. The exit was calling for Ruyak, but Ferak kept shooting him suspicious glances every time he so much as shifted his weight. Ruyak kept himself still, waiting.
Waiting… and thinking.
Kaelin wasn’t trembling anymore. In fact, she felt… relaxed? That couldn’t be right, she had to be terrified. But her breaths were even, her heartbeat steady, her body placid. She’d uncurled from the frightened ball she’d been in at first, and actually seemed quite comfortable, laying on her stomach with her arms tucked under her chest.
Ruyak could feel her hands, her elbows, her knees, the regular movements of her ribs and abdomen as she breathed, her shifting weight. The sensations were fascinating, almost hypnotic. At once, Ruyak was overwhelmed by the gravity of the thing: holding her on his tongue like a morsel. She fit perfectly, now that he had stopped trying to awkwardly hold his mouth open for her.
Oh, and now he felt a purr coming on, and more drool. Time to be done with this before anything stupid could happen.
While Ferak was occupied poking through their food stores, Ruyak slowly got to his feet. He was just about to sidle past Litmuk and make a casual break for the exit, when Litmuk decided to take one more opportunity to clown, and abruptly shoved Ruyak in the shoulder.
It should have been an easy thing to recover from, had Ruyak been more focused, or if he’d seen it coming. But between the stress and the annoyance and the copious amounts of drool he was trying to contain, something went very wrong.
And Kaelin tried to stop it, she tried her very best. Which only resulted in Ruyak nearly choking to death right then and there.
He gulped hard, instinct overwhelming all else. He’d swallowed bigger things, it shouldn’t have been so difficult, but everything was in the wrong place, and conflicting impulses were at war. Kaelin had splayed her arms and legs to the sides, clogging up every corner of Ruyak’s throat. He made a loud gagging sound and almost coughed, which would have launched a sopping wet human across the room to die splattered on the floor, but Ruyak diverted the impulse into futilely trying to swallow again. This time, Kaelin seemed to realize her struggles were only making things worse. With another loud, desperate gulp and a muffled whimper, she was gone.
The whole ordeal had all occurred in barely a few seconds, but it was all disturbingly loud, and accompanied by Ruyak jerking straight up like he’d been stabbed. Everyone had understandably turned to stare.
“The fuck’s wrong with you?” Litmuk mumbled.
Ruyak was reeling, frozen with shock. Taren and Gori’s eyes were enormous, and they exchanged a horrified look as Ferak glanced up from his inspection of a large jar.
“You alright, boy?” Ferak asked, cocking an eyebrow. “You look peaky.”
“F-fine! Just fine, uh…” Ruyak hadn’t ever been farther from fine in his entire life. The ground might as well have just opened up under him. He was in freefall, heart thumping like it was about to explode out of his chest. He wished it were that easy. “I need to, um. Go. Now. Right now.”
“Well, god’s claws!” Ferak wrinkled his nose. “Don’t let me stop you!”
Oh, panic comes so easily. So natural, and so hard to fight.
Kaelin had felt it trying to rise up when Ruyak clicked his jaws together around her, but she’d beat it back. She’d felt it again when he growled, the sound rattling the marrow in her bones, but she’d settled herself then, as well. This was her Ruyak, after all. Her walking fortress. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
She even overcame the panic one more time, when the world lurched and suddenly she was being crushed backwards into the abyss. She fought for purchase against the implacable pressure, terror springing into her heart as her worst nightmares became dark, slimy reality. But as she braced herself, she felt Ruyak’s own panic, felt the spasm of desperation in his forceful motions. She couldn’t stay where she was, lodged in his throat like an oversized bit of gristle. So, somehow, fighting every instinct for survival, Kaelin straightened her legs and let go.
For a moment she hoped, still clinging onto years of carefully built confidence, that he would be able to spit her back up again and recover, but no. A thousand pounds of pressure constricted against her body from all sides, and she slipped down.
Down, down into the unknown.
There was nothing to do, now. Nothing to brace against. No way to fight it. Every surface was a perfectly slick, airless heaviness, ushering her along with languid squeezing motions that passed down her body in waves. The pressure was immense.
After what felt like an eternity, the unbearable pressure waned slightly, squeezing her into a larger space, a slippery expanse of churning flesh in an utterly dark, sweltering world. It was no reprieve; the heaviness of the immense body around her was still weighing her down like a great, crushing blanket. Kaelin was immediately lost in the place, sinking helplessly down into the depths.
So of course the panic rose again.
Kaelin gasped for what little air she had, scrambled for any foothold she could find, and fought with every ounce of energy she could muster. She only slipped deeper with every movement she made.
Exhaustion crept up like rising water, but Kaelin couldn’t stop fighting. To what end? She didn't know. Her arms and legs trembled with the effort. It felt like swimming, like drowning.
Her eyes were burning, her throat closing, and not just from the caustic, smothering atmosphere.
She was just about to fall to pieces when Ruyak’s voice rumbled through her:
“Kaelin? Can you hear me?”
She stilled. Of course she could hear him. Though muffled, as though her head were underwater, Ruyak’s voice was reverberating everywhere. But would he be able to hear her? Loud as she could manage, Kaelin called back, “Y-yes?”
She felt and heard him heave a sigh. “I’m so sorry, aega. Just hold on.”
Hearing him speak… helped, somehow? His assurance was a reminder that she wasn’t alone in this stifling darkness, and she hadn’t yet succumbed. It was a reminder of what had stilled the panic before she’d been swallowed whole: That she was his Kaelin, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
“Okay…” she shouted, and hoped he couldn’t hear in her voice the despair threatening to overtake her.
She hadn’t the strength left to hold herself up anymore, so she lay there curled up in the sweltering dark, smushed between heavy walls of flesh, and listened to the groanings and creakings and rumblings all around. The rushing sound of Ruyak’s breaths (quicker than usual) and the deep thumping of his heart (much quicker than usual) weren’t unfamiliar. It was sort of like being held against his chest, the way he sometimes did when he was sleeping, just louder, and slimier.
Judging by his racing heart, Ruyak was almost as distressed about the whole situation as Kaelin was.
The longer Kaelin was there, the less air remained, and the heavier everything felt; the walls pushing her down, the slime rising up, the weakness in her own limbs, the heat and loudness and closeness of it all threatening to crush her into nothing. She was growing tired, so tired, and time began to feel stretched in her mind, like a dream going on after waking, or creeping up before sleep. It didn’t matter if her eyes were open or closed, the world was black either way, so perhaps she could close them for a bit, and just rest…
“Kaelin? Are you still alright?”
She stirred, roused by Ruyak’s voice, but she couldn’t find the breath to reply. He said something else, something that sounded rather frantic, but everything was just so heavy, so distant…
There was a huge lurch, and at once Kaelin was being crushed from all sides again. The pressure eased, then returned full force, then eased again. Kaelin was shaken back into consciousness, gasping for breath between the lurches.
There was one more great squeezing motion that seemed to last an eternity, and suddenly Kaelin was falling through cold air and blinding sunlight to land with a wet splat. She coughed and sputtered, greedily sucking in lungfuls of fresh air, and blinked open her eyes.
Ruyak’s worried face was filling her vision. “God’s eyes, I’m so sorry.”
Kaelin just blinked at him, overwhelmed.
“I had to get away from the den, I ran as fast as I could. Are you hurt at all?”
Kaelin shook her head and wiped slime off her face, then flicked it away. With a quick glance around, she realized she was lying in Ruyak’s hand. They were somewhere off in the woods, a creek babbling nearby. Ruyak must have run all the way down into the valley. “A-are we safe?”
“We’re too far for anyone to see, and I don’t think Ferak will follow me. I think he thought I was about to shit myself.”
Kaelin snorted, lifting her arm to inspect her soaked sleeves and flick more slaver off her hand. “Then I suppose that all worked out pretty well, all things considered.”
“What? No, that was not the plan!”
“I know,” Kaelin offered him a tired smile. “But you have to admit, it did work.”
“But it must have been…” Ruyak trailed off and shook his head, grimacing.
“Oh, it wasn’t so bad.” Kaelin shrugged.
Ruyak barked a disbelieving laugh. “It wasn’t so bad?!”
“Well it wasn’t great, but I survived, didn’t I?”
Ruyak rolled his eyes. “Right.”
“But really. I think maybe if I’d had some warning, and if it weren’t for the clothes-” Kaelin cut herself off, flushing and fidgeting. “Uh. Not that I- just forget I said that.”
Ruyak had gone still, eyebrows shooting up into the sky as he stared at her.
“I-I mean-” Kaelin stammered desperately. “Since it’s you, I think it’s… I mean, if I’d been expecting you to-”
Ruyak was still just silently staring.
Kaelin grew so flustered she was practically vibrating in his hands. “I just mean it was sort of exciting! And strange, a-and frightening. But…” She hesitated, wringing her hands.
Ruyak still hadn’t said a word, but a smirk was creeping onto his face as he continued to stare.
Kaelin huffed and crossed her arms. “Forget it. Please forget it. I must have lost my mind in there.”
“Uh huh…” Ruyak laughed. “I’d kiss you, but I think we need to wash you off, first.”
“Yes please!” Kaelin groaned and covered her face in her hands. A cold bath in the creek couldn’t come soon enough.
