Demon of the Deep Wood

by Argonaut44

09: Without A Trace

Author's Note:

~ This chapter goes along with the canon version of the story, Version A, in which the worms have escaped Gorgo's cave with Merigold, Clair, Cat, Cassandra, and Zo'Lara.

Thanks for reading!!

It’s too hot.

Merigold felt the sweat drip down her face. She had only just drifted back awake, and had completely lost her sense of time. She felt the jerky movements of the worm, and the rocks and twigs and leaves that it slithered over. They were far from the cave by now, far from Gorgo. She would have been relieved, if not for the fact that she had traded one beast’s stomach for another as her final resting place. She was still trapped in Gorgo’s silken cocoon, which remained mostly intact.

Aciniform, Merigold thought, recalling the name of this rare strand of webbing, This might buy me a few more hours when the acid kicks in.

She had seen what had happened, through that blurry white veil. She had watched as Val and her companions unwittingly tracked in a rabid pack of giant worms, one of which had claimed Merigold for an easy meal.

Giant worms can’t digest while they’re on the move, Merigold recalled having read. As long as they were moving, she wouldn’t need to worry. Let’s hope this thing’s home is miles away.

She suddenly felt the ground give out from below the worm, and she sank deeper into the air, but did not fall all the way. She was suspended across a chasm that the worm had managed to reach across, followed by the other four worms that were carrying Merigold’s friends.

At least Gorgo could be reasoned with, Merigold thought. This was a different kind of humiliation. Beaten by a brainless invertebrate. If only Val could see this.

---

What’s taking them so long? Amalza thought to herself.

Amalza and Shara had been waiting in the clearing for over two hours, still expecting their companions to finally turn up and apologize for having taken so long.

Amalza dug her spear into the dirt, attempting to sketch a rudimentary drawing of herself. I wish the Academy had art classes, she thought. The only classes she had ever taken were those that had to do with combat and warfare. It was Shara who shone a light on other concentrations, on science and art and magic. Amalza could never make sense of how Shara seemed to know everything about everything, and never bragged about it either, not like that sorceress with the fat ass, Raquelle, or the arrogant Captain Val.

“We can’t just sit here forever,” Amalza sighed, “We should’ve turned around already. The sun’s already setting.”

She heard Shara sigh under her breath. Amalza almost had to laugh. Of course Shara would disagree. They couldn’t agree on anything.

“Val told us to wait here to rest until the next group showed up. So we will,” Shara said, for the twentieth time. Amalza had spent two entire hours trying to convince Shara to give in, but Shara was steadfast in following orders.

Amalza rolled her eyes and finished her picture in the dirt. She was lying over a rock, bored out of her mind and exhausted from the wait. She would much rather be active and on her hooves.

“They’re either the slowest ponies in the entire world,” Amalza said, “Or they’re in trouble. Somepony should’ve shown up by now.”

“We went on the same trail they all did, and nothing happened to us,” Shara pointed out, “They went off course for some reason. Our job was just to clear the road ahead, and that’s what we did. The princess is well-guarded, I wouldn’t worry.”

“Maybe we’re the ones who are lost,” Amalza laughed, “Are you sure you know how to read that map?”

“You’re one to talk,” Shara smirked, “I can’t say I’ve ever met a literate barbarian.”

Amalza growled and rose to her hooves. Shara and Amalza had met each other on their first day at the Academy, both foreigners who were not entirely sure how to fit in. Amalza came from the Croux Tribe south near the Nightmare Cliffs, while Shara came from some ancient kingdom from across the sea, Zanjan.

“It’s a straight road with no forks,” Amalza said, “This is the clearing, this is the checkpoint, and they were supposed to be here two hours ago. We cleared the road, everything was fine. Why would they go off course?”

“My guess is they had to turn back, and didn’t have time to tell us. They might have forgotten something, or maybe one of them might have gotten hurt,” Shara suggested, “Maybe they decided to make camp somewhere better than here, and thought we’d be alright on our own. I did tell Val we could camp ahead if she wanted, before we left.”

“Maybe, if, you think….It’d be safer to go and check and know for sure,” Amalza insisted.

“What are you so afraid of?” Shara asked, concerned, “The forest is full of love and life today, and here you are, paranoid and itching for battle.”

“Maybe it’s nice in this neck of the woods,” Amalza said, before glancing back down the way they had come from, “But I felt uneasy the whole way here. I know you did too.”

Shara’s eyes fell to the ground. She sighed, and finally relented.

Yes! Amalza grinned, triumphant.

“OK. We’ll go back. But if we get in trouble with Val, I’m blaming you,” Shara said.

Amalza guffawed and raised up her spear.

“She never scared me anyways.”

---

The duo set back out on the Narrow Road, the same way they had come from, passing by familiar sticks and rocks from earlier. The late afternoon sun colored the woods gold, and there were only three hours or so left before sundown.

They passed over a patch of overgrown foliage further down the trail, overridden with dirt and toppled logs.

“They probably did get lost,” Amalza said, “I’m starting to forget the way back myself.”

Shara never liked Amalza’s jokes. At least, she pretended not to. Amalza couldn’t count how many times those jokes had put an end to Shara’s weekly crying fits. Shara worked herself too hard, Amalza thought. Her parents put some ugly notion in her head that she had to be the best at everything. The Croux didn’t believe in such nonsense, Amalza had once said. Everypony has their own purpose, which is theirs and theirs alone to decide. The more time Shara spent at the Academy, the more confidence she found, but still, she was fighting an endless battle to beat the untenable expectations she had set for herself.

“We went straight through, remember? Follow me,” Shara said, trotting over the log towards the large patch of dirt. Past a few trees, they found a large crevice in the trail filled with runny brown mud, and a large log that formed a bridge over top of it.

“We’ve got to cross, like last time,” Shara said.

Shara crawled across the log, while Amalza blushed, stuck with an uncomfortable close view of her best friend’s bubble butt.

They climbed over the log to the other side of the crevice, and continued further into the forest, unaware of what perils awaited them.

“If they’re lost, it’s gonna take days to find them,” Amalza said, “I’m starting to….Whoa, Shara, look!”

Amalza came to a sudden stop, pointing her hoof at as many as five giant worms slithering across the dirt, crawling towards the thicker part of the brush away from the road.

“Worms?” Shara said, mildly disgusted.

“I hate worms,” Amalza mumbled, “...Wait, look! There are ponies in there! That might be them! Oh gods, they ate them! We have to do something!”

Shara was hesitant.

“I wonder. These worms would have smelled us from a mile away,” Shara said, ”Why have they not attacked?”

Amalza scoffed while picking up her spear. “Who cares? You know I hate these things, let’s take care of this, quickly if you don’t mind.”

Shara sighed at her best friend’s brazenness and began charging her horn, preparing to blast each slug to pieces.

Then she froze, when she felt something dripping from the trees above onto her forehead and breasts. It was a strange, slimy green liquid, sliding down from her forehead onto her snout.

Grimacing, she reached for the slime, and retrieved a string of sticky green goop.

Her eyes widened in horror and realization, and she slowly raised her head upwards to see the gaping maw of a giant worm, hovering right over her head, hanging from the trees, drooling its thick green mucus down on top of her.

Its drool fell all over her shoulders and face, as she gulped in fear. Before she could react, the worm dropped itself from the tree, falling right on top of Shara’s head, who gave an ear-splitting shriek.

Amalza turned, unaware of what was happening, her mouth gaping in shock at the sight of a giant worm attached to her friend’s head. “Shara!” The worm was already down to her snout, leaving her mouth free to scream.

Shara flailed her forelegs about, screaming bloody murder, as the worm descended further on top of her, its slimy pink flesh wrapped around her entire face. Her screams were reduced to muffled cries of terror.

“Shara, hold on! I’ll-” Amalza attempted, but before she could run over to save her friend, Amalza felt a strong, suction-like force pull down on her left hind leg. She stumbled, and glanced down, realizing there was a worm with her hind hoof stuck in its mouth. The worm sucked down her calf, as she tried to stay standing using her spear for support.

Shara’s worm had looped itself around the branches of a tree, adding extra support as it began raising her into the air.

The worm with its mouth around Amalza’s leg continued making progress, ascending up almost to her knee, before it aggressively swung down, knocking Amalza off her hooves, slamming towards the ground. Amalza grunted in pain, hitting the ground hard. She dropped her spear as well, groaning as the pressure around her leg increased.

Shara, with the worm down to her neck, glanced upwards through the tunnel of the worm’s body, as it pulsated and throbbed. She used her forelegs to grab and tear at the beast, trying to force it up off her head. The worm wouldn't budge though, and began shaking Shara back and forth. All Shara could see now was the slimy pink walls of the worm’s body, covered in sores and unnatural growths. It was gooey, and soon enough her mane was drenched with slippery mucus. The worm continued drooling all over her body, making her slippery and slick, enough to make her practically slide up into his throat.

Amalza searched for her spear on the ground, but couldn’t find it, all the while the worm continued slurping down her leg.

“Fuck! Get off! Shara, hold on!” Amalza yelled.

Amalza, fuming with rage and unarmed, raised her free hind leg and kicked at the worm, hard, distracting it for a moment. She turned around again to look for her spear, and found it, lying on the ground behind her. Speedily, she rolled over onto her stomach and kicked herself towards it with an outstretched hoof. She was desperately stretching her foreleg as far as it would go in an effort to grab it, yet the spear was just barely out of reach. Refusing to give up, especially while the worm had temporarily stopped moving up her leg, she gave another effort, clawing at the floor, trying to push herself closer.

She was just one centimeter away, and she knew she could grab it, until she was suddenly yanked backwards away from it.

“No!”

The worm had managed to pull her other leg into its mouth as well, and again began working its way up her body. The worm dragged her away from the spear as she squirmed angrily. It was now at her knees on both legs, and was throwing her around like a rag doll.

“Let go of me! Get off!”

As the worm dragged her along the ground, her leather skirt rode up, exposing her posterior, soon to be devoured by the ravenous worm.

The worm flipped Amalza over onto her back again, and struggled to stretch its jaw around her massive hind thighs. She sat upright and tried using her forelegs to pry it off of her, but the worm was undeterred. He was going to make a meal out of her, whether she liked it or not. The worm finally made it up to Amalza’s hind thighs and threw her back down on the ground, Amalza grunting in a high pitched voice.

Amalza grabbed at the worm with both forehooves, slipping them underneath its tight folds to try and get a better grip. The worm’s flesh was so slippery, however, that she accidentally let her hooves slip right inside, as the worm stretched itself around her hips. She groaned in frustration, again sitting upright.

She glanced over at Shara, to see she wasn’t having much luck either. Shara was being held midair by the worm, who had progressed overtop her chest and elbows, her forelegs and hindlegs jittering back and forth. Her screams for help were muffled by the worm’s tight flesh, though the sound was so disheartening, Amalza began to feel hopeless too. Her anger had gotten her in an even worse situation, and there wasn’t much more she could do but squirm and wrestle with the worm.

“Somepony help!” she screamed, but nopony was around to hear.

Amalza gave a surprised scream as the worm threw her back down on the ground, succeeding in passing her hips. Amalza’s hooves were now stuck deep in the worm, Amalza herself wiggling back and forth, her whole body from the waist down stuck in the worm’s mouth. The worm slurped down on her skin until it was up to her chest, Amalza breaking down and resorting to sob-filled screams as her only means of protest, her forelegs almost completely engulfed in the worm’s mouth. She screamed and rocked herself back and forth as the worm closed in around her neck.

Amalza could feel the tight, lathered skin surrounding her body compress her form, pinning her forelegs to her side and preventing her from moving at all. The worm gulped down her neck, as Amalza shut her eyes and cried, terrified. The worm’s body was hot and uncomfortably tight, and her whole body was covered in its juices. The mucus got between her legs and inside her clothes, as she continued bucking back and forth. The worm climbed its way past her ears and up past her head, as Amalza gazed upwards and produced one final, desperate scream, before the worm’s mouth raised itself above her head and shut, trapping Amalza inside forever.

A few meters away, Shara’s worm had reached her belly button, as she kicked her legs in every which way, her protests all in vain. She writhed as the worm convulsed around her, each time gaining a few more centimeters on her body.

The worm that had consumed Amalza, the same worm that had eaten a cocooned Merigold almost twenty minutes ago, slithered its way up towards the dangling Shara, whose scarlet cloth robe-dress blew wildly in the wind. The worm felt around her inner thighs, wrapping its way around her legs.

Amalza’s body was plunged deeper into the worm’s stomach, as she sniffled and groaned in the tight vacuum she had gotten herself stuck in. Until, she felt something strange, at the bottom of her hooves. It felt like a pony’s hind legs, but covered in some strange sticky substance. She realized she wasn’t the only victim to be eaten by this worm, and could confirm without a doubt when the stomach had pushed her right alongside the other pony’s body. Despite the darkness, the occasional sliver of light let in by the worm’s opening mouth revealed the pony was covered in some kind of white silk, wrapped from head to toe, immobile.

“Hey! Can you hear me?” Amalza yelled, not sure if her fellow victim was alive or dead.

“Mmmmph?” was the response, and it was a relief.

Merigold’s cocooned hooves were right in Amalza’s face, but she couldn’t complain, as Amalza’s dirt-covered hooves were also in Merigold’s face. Amalza had no idea who the other mare was until she felt the leather of Merigold’s catsuit beneath the layer of silk.

“Captain?”

“Mmph,” Merigold replied, dryly.

Merigold could not make out whose voice was speaking to her, though she assumed it had to be either Shara or Amalza, and, telling by the voice, she was guessing Amalza. The two wiggled against each other as the wall of the stomach contracted again around them. Amalza groaned in frustration, but Merigold had already gone through that, and now just laid there, immobile, sweaty, and exhausted.

Shara, meanwhile, was squirming restlessly as the worm stretched over her wide hips, her legs kicking in every direction, disoriented and scared. The worm yanked upwards at her body, preventing her from sliding down out its mouth. The worm spasmed again, reaching to her knees as she continued kicking futilely. Even as Shara cried and screamed, kicked and fought, the worm showed no mercy, engulfing her all the way down to her ankles. It spat up more and more of its mucus, lathering up her body. The warmth of the flesh was disgusting, and the smell was even worse. Shara cried as she was forced to accept the fact that she was going to be food in another creature’s stomach.

I have to fight, I have to save Amalza!

In the back of her head, she knew she was kidding herself. She couldn't even save herself.

The worm raised her body up horizontally, before slurping up the remaining portion of her wiggling hooves, slamming its mouth closed around her body, now fully consumed. Shara squirmed inside, the flesh unbearably tight.

The worm crawled upwards along the tree, its meal still fighting inside, trying to use her nails to scrape the inside of its stomach. The worm spat out some mucus as a result of indigestion, the girl fighting as hard as she could as she was pushed deep into the worm’s innards, where escape was most improbable. Giant worms had an affinity for magic users after all, and the worm was more than content to have been able to snag a sorceress, especially after missing out on the banquet in Gorgo’s cave the other worms got to partake in.

The worms regrouped, their stomachs full, and began slithering back to their lair to begin digesting their new prey.

Comments

[Flutternight]

Excellent. Heavily prefer the canon way things went.