//------------------------------// // Stranded Deep...er (Guest) // Story: Tales from Tinies. // by MrAquino //------------------------------// Lightning strikes and thunder rolls woke William from his sleep. The sixteen year old, black haired boy looked around to a startling discovery; he's suddenly alone on the plane. "What the?" He got up and started running towards the cockpit, looking left and right for any other passengers. Last thing he knew, was with his family, who he was with when the plane took off. "Where is everyone!?" He yelled out loud to himself, hoping that he at least attracts some attention. He made it into the cockpit, only to find that, like everyone else, the pilot and co-pilot are gone. "Oh No! No, this is bad! This is very bad!" He paced back and forth, trying to think of what to do next. He's in a storm, who knows where, in a plane which he obviously can't fly. He headed back to his seat, not knowing what to do. On his way back, however, is when his luck took a nose dive, literally. The plane rocked as lightning struck and fried one of the engines. "AHHH!" He screamed, pulling himself into a seat. He felt the plane plummet, further and further, until it crashed into the water. Water began to flood the plane, starting in the front. Quickly, he collected the emergency supplies and swam outside to the surface, where a life raft has been deployed by the planes emergency systems. He got in as quickly as possible and took some supplies. Somehow he fell asleep during all the madness. He woke up when the sun hit his eyes. "Ugh, where am I?" He sat up in the raft and looked around. All he can see in any direction is water. "Oh no! I'm stranded at sea!" The raft continued to float as he sat there, no ores to row with, no land in sight, and a box with only some few supplies to last on. "Things just keep getting worse for me, don't they?" He said aloud to no one in particular. A few hours passed without any noteworthy occurrences, not much had happened except that his raft continued to follow the ocean's current. Still, nothing around him but deep blue ocean, not even a shark or gull to keep him company. He continued this routine, watching and hoping to see at least some land or something to break the monotony, but alas, the only thing that broke it was when he had lunch. After that, the monotony continued. By midafternoon, he was so bored, so tired of looking around for land that he decided to do something about it. He went to the edge of the raft and looked down into the ocean to see if there's any fish that he can watch, or just something to take his mind off of what's going on around him. For a while all he could see is the vast water. Then something caught his eye: the movement was small at first, but slowly, it grew larger, and was coming closer to the surface. About twenty feet away, a massive fish leapt out of the water and then fell back in. "That's too big to be a fish! There's no way!" More start to jump, which worried him "There's only one reason fish would be doing this in the ocean, there's something bigger that's hungry..." He gulped nervously. Sure enough, another fish jumped out of the water, but this time, something came out with it. The head of a monstrously large beast splashed out of the water, catching the huge fish, and then proceeded to devour its catch. The creature then retreated underwater, only to burst out again and again, catching and devouring more fish. William fearfully watched as the creature continued it's carnage, the waters becoming littered with a few of the scales of its victims. After a while the fish stopped jumping and the creature relaxes on the surface, its vast body, becoming a massive island in a sense. William gulped nervously again; the creature hasn't noticed him yet, but without an ore, getting out of the area unnoticed by a beast, one that dwarfs most skyscrapers back home, is going to be practically impossible. He heared it rumble in content, as it treats the ocean's surface as a nearly solid surface. With most of its body is above water, he can make the whole creature out clearly: Its massive head reminds him of depictions of mythical sea serpents and other such monsters, it has two muscular fins that seem to act as forearms, and strangely end in hooves. On its head, it has a large dorsal fin, and a set of horse like ears. He saw the creature as more a Hippocampus than anything else, though it's nothing like the one he saw saw in the Percy Jackson movie, what with the obvious difference being of course its diet. The creature's skin is a bluish-green, perfectly built for hunting in the sea, especially around seaweed. The creature's eyes suddenly opened and start scanning the water. Oh no, can it tell I'm staring!? Oh no, oh no, oh no! Then its eyes meet with his, and immediately, he gulped in fear. The creature reached out towards him with one of its finned forelegs, which passed over the raft completely and sank below the surface, only to glide by in the opposite direction underwater, causing the current to pull him towards it. "AHH! OH NO! NO! PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!!!" The current pulled him closer and closer, then the creature lowers its massive head, just until its mouth passes under the water. It became all too clear to William just what the creature was going to do. "Good bye cruel world!" The creature's maw opened wide, the bottom jaw below the water, while the top jaw hung above, the water at level with the creatures massive throat. The current pulled the raft towards the vast entrance to the abyss that is the creatures stomach at a high speed, and soon, William found himself watching as the massive, muscular tunnel passes around him. The current stoped when it reached the stomach, and he found himself trapped in the massive fleshy cave. It reeked of the fish it ate earlier, the walls glowed with bio-luminescence, illuminating the otherwise dark cavern with a soft glow. "So this is it, you're going to die here, in the reeking belly of a sea monster. Why me?! What did I do wrong?" He laid down in the raft and curled up into a ball, laying on his side so that his view is blocked by the raft's interior. However, there was still far to many reminders of where he is: The creature's heartbeat, breathing, and, of course, the gurgling of the massive stomach as it continued to process its meal. An oddly feminine sigh surrounded around him, and he sat up. "I never expected to see a human this far out." The now clearly female sea monster giggled. "What luck! He tasted as good as the ponies made them out to be! I can't wait to have another." "I- IT TALKS!?" He yelled in surprise, not really even realizing he said it out loud. "Oh, hello in there." He heared as the creature responded with a giggle. "Sorry about that, I was just kind of surprised to see one of you all the way out here; you're not even close to Equestria. I've never heard of a human being this far out." She paused for a moment. "Oh, sorry, um, anyway, um, Hello, I'm Minuet Dawn. Nice to meet you." William saw the 'walls' turning, probably the creature rubbing it's belly. "Um, hi, I'm William." Nice to meet me, how? She ate me, I'm going to die in here. He sighed. "I guess at least I won't die alone." "Die!? Why would you die!?" Minuet's voice rang around him with worry. "Oh no, are you sick!? You aren't hurt, are you!?" "No! I'm in your stomach! Shouldn't that be enough of an answer?!" Shouldn't she know this? I mean, considering all the fish she ate, she's gotta at least realize that they aren't coming back out the same for a reason. "But you humans don't digest; I've even seen it before. A pony showed me when I was at Manehatten, a while ago; the little guy was in there for the whole day and nothing happened to him! You can test for yourself, put your hand in the water." She sounds so sure of herself, it doesn't make sense, stomach acid isn't selective, it just eats. William, unsure if she was telling the truth or not, quickly poked the water with his left finger. Nothing happened. He poked it several times. Still nothing. He then placed his hand into the large pool of water and digestive juices. Nothing but warmth. Huh, with how fast its working on those fish, I should at least have felt something. "Well, did you do it? Are you okay?" "It's so strange, there's nothing, it's as if it's just water." "See, told you! Well, welcome to your new home human, I'm sorry about the smell, but you know, I have to eat. Don't worry, I'll find you things that you can eat too!" "Uh... that's okay. I'm not very hungry. Did you... happen to find a weird device in the water?" "The thing that crashed from the sky?" "Yeah! That. Is it alright if you find some stuff around there and eat only the good looking stuff? I'm probably going to need that stuff." "No problem!" William felt the place move as Minuet swam away. Tidal waves of supplies he missed splashed down into the stomach, and the place, luckily, about the size of a pond, allowed him to swim and take it back to the raft. He couldn't help it, but the place was actually nice, and Minuet herself had a beautiful singing voice, even if she did mostly hum. He soon fell asleep. In the morning, he found himself on the beach with his raft & supplies next to him. He turned only to see the tail of Minuet splashing back into the water. He was glad to be on land, but felt that he was going to miss Minuet, even if she did just ate him for his taste.