[redacted]: Prey Slums. These are neighborhoods nobody would really want to live in. All the houses were worn down and didn't fully function. However, these places were built for those that didn't have much of a choice in the matter, the ones that would settle for just about anywhere just so they would be able to keep what excuse of a life they had. These places were built for prey. That's where the name came from. Now, this wasn't meant to shelter the prey. In fact, it's supposed to trick the prey into gathering in one place so the Predators can find them easier. It does this job pretty well.

One particular predator decided to take advantage of such a slum. He had just wandered inside, trying to decide on a home to invade. This creature was a tall and muscular Crocodile. The reptile was shirtless. It was a hot day and plus he was just in the habit of dressing this way for showing off. Not that he planned to flex his muscles in front of his prey. That would just be silly. The aquatic reptile also held a sort of potato sack like bag, though one would note it's a bit smaller than the average sized bag of such. Perhaps it serves a different purpose. The Croc continued searching around. Chances are, most of the prey already know he's here and he'll just have to pick a place at random at some point.

Izzy Shadetail: Izzy wasn't sure how many other preys lived in the particular building he happened to call home; it's not typical for preys to ponder such things. Indeed, it's not typical for preys to ponder much at all aside from finding enough food and trying to remain hidden from any potential hungry eyes. Of course, this particular squirrel differed from your typical prey in a few ways but not enough to make that particular thought cross his mind. The numbers changed constantly anyway - one day there are such and such many of a certain species, but that could change within the hour let alone overnight. It was almost like war - you don't want to get too close to someone because there always existed that threat that any moment now, they could be taken away from you. It is also worth noting that the hive-mind mentality that predator species had long since outgrown still applied and was very relevant to the lives of modern prey. Rodents especially still organized by the rule of numbers and herd mentality, while predatory species had become more social and open. By that end, preys typically stuck to socializing with members of their own species and tended to avoid much interaction outside of their own group. Since there were no other squirrels that Izzy knew of very near to where he lived and scavenged for food, he was left pretty much alone despite the fact that he was surrounded by other individuals in the same plight as he.

The little rodent was typical of his species and temperament - characteristically shy and timid, squeaking and scurrying about in a archetypal squirrelly way. The fuzzy little guy spent the majority of his time hiding away in his meager little home, hiding from what hunted him both real and imaginary and today was no exception. Being in such a dwelling, however, usually forced prey to take a 'hide in plain sight' approach as the little spaces that preys called home were (one would imagine purposely) designed in such a way to make that the case. It was like a room made out of corners with no escape; no matter how the predator got in or what species they were or attributes they had, the prey was child's play to capture once you were between them and the exit. With the odds against them in such a way (not that any of the preys noticed or anything), a nice way to balance things back in your favor would be to have some kind of even rudimentary warning system in place if a predator were spotted entering the building. Again, though, prey species acted more like their feral ancestry when it came to such matters and it was a case of every prey for themselves. As such, the little squirrelly was completely unaware that danger was so very close, too busy being paranoid about nonexistent threats to worry about real ones.

[redacted]: The reptile entered a building and walked around in the halls. He tried to be stealthy, but that wasn't exactly his strong suit. Indeed, his footsteps were loud and it was likely every creature close by could hear it. Not a good start to this hunt, but he pressed on none the less. The reptile was hungry and really wanted to have a live creature squirming inside him. Just the idea sounded utterly amazing. Besides, there were a lot of prey and only so many good hiding spots, right? He'd find one eventually, and then it would be his. His stomach growled in response to this thought.

As the large creature looked around, he couldn't help but smirk at how small the doors were. He'd have to duck just to enter a room. Still, he had to choose one eventually. The cold-blooded reptile eventually chose a room to investigate. Next was how to make the entrance. Sure, the obvious answer is to turn the knob and walk in. Still, sometimes striking fear into the prey's heart works better, or so he heard. After some consideration, the croc decided to kick the door open, and did so with a loud "BAM!"

Izzy Shadetail: Living in a building inhabited by scurrying little rodent types leads to a fairly constant underscore of sounds that one becomes very familiar with over time. The story about how 'building a better mousetrap' is unnecessary as even the most rudimentary of design would trap a mouse quite easily given their need to know every inch of their environment and to closely inspect every foreign and unknown object placed in it rings true with other species as well. Every novel sound and smell and sight must be inspected or at least understood - usually hiding is the first thing any prey did at the first sight of something being off so there was little 'inspecting' going on but the concept is the same. The footfalls of a scurrying little prey critter are very recognizable and certainly contain few similarities to the confident strides of a much larger (and heavier) predator creature and would instantly be noticed as foreign. Again, though, only so much could be focused on at one time and being a prey in such an environment can be a rather taxing thing.

Imagine the surprise, then, when instead of slightly heavier footfalls being the worrying sound, it came instead in the form of what surely must have been imagined as an exceedingly loud explosion mere meters away from where the rodent was hiding. At first merely shielding his body out of instinct from the noise itself (along with the one or two bits of flimsy wood flying from the door-frame's general direction), the squirrel let out a sharp 'squeak!' of surprise as his tail poofed slightly in shock. He scrambled back a foot or two, his eyes widening to nearly the size of grapefruits as he stared at the sight that greeted him in the void where a door once was. Such a sight was quite something to behold for the little guy, the very image of a predator being mere feet in front him, the awe and shock giving way to the most vulnerable feelings. The little squirrelly could hardly imagine what it would be like being in the presence of such a creature and next thing you know, BAM! there he is right in front of you. Completely stunned (a shortcoming of prey species the world over), the rodent simply looked up with his wide little eyes from his quite lowly position on the floor. His mouth open, his little buck teeth visible as he stared in awe.

[redacted]: As soon as the squeak was made, if not sooner, the reptile knew exactly where the squirrel was. Of course, if he hadn't noticed sooner, it was only because he hadn't gathered his surroundings yet. After all, the rodent was right there. Had the mammal simply run out of places to hide? Had the croc somehow managed to sneak up on him? Well, whatever it was, it was irrelevant. The buck toothed treat was there and his for the taking, and take he did. With a smirk that showed his not so buck teeth on his long maw, the crocodile grabbed his prey and drew him close for a restraining hug. The squirrel may very well have struggled, but the reptile was strong and had hard scales, so any attempt to escape would probably be futile. The rodent could hear his predator's stomach growl from just behind him. "Yum yum, looks like I got a treat." The croc stated with a lick of his lips, followed by a lick of the top of the rodent's head. "Well, you're a little small, but you more than make up for it in taste. We'll just have to see how well you struggle." He took the earlier mentioned bag that was stuffed in his pockets, forcing him to only hold the puff ball with one hand, not that that made any difference. "But that'll have to wait a minute. Don't go getting your hopes up. By the end of the day you're gonna be a nice squirmy lump under my scales, but, well, I don't want to spoil the surprise, so let's just say I'm waiting for the right moment." Suddenly, from the reptiles other pocket, there was a loud beep. It only lasted for a second, but it was there. The croc recognized it as the alarm he set on his cell phone earlier. Who knows what Izzy imagined it was. The reptile replied with a laugh. "Just in time too. Well, I'm in a bit of a rush, so we'll have to cut the formalities." With that, Izzy was stuffed into the bag, leaving only his head free. A knot was then tied around the opening. It was tight enough that in wouldn't untie, but loose enough not to choke the rodent. The crocodile didn't want his dinner to die before being devoured after all. The walls of the bag restrained the movement of Izzy's limbs, forcing him to move like a worm.

Izzy Shadetail: The sight of any predatory creature was enough to make the fuzz on the little squirrel's tail poof with fright in an evolutionary and subconscious signal of fear, but the sight that greeted the little fuzzball generated enough fright to fuel dozens upon dozens of fluffy little squirrel tails. There's something about the difference between reptiles and mammals that adds that dash of desperation to a prey's system. It's kind of an unspoken thing - the fact that they're a predator is obviously frightening but it's the biological differences that caters more to a subconscious form of fearful emotion. It's like the difference between scary and creepy - one is more obvious, the other subconscious and vague and harder to quantify but definitely felt. The little guy felt small and weak as it was, but...in the presence of this predatory creature, he practically felt all but invisible (he wasn't near that lucky). His heart beating so fast he could hear it pulsing in his ears more than he could feel it, his nervous system finally found its way back online enough to begin shivering in fear, still looking up at the predator in that characteristically wide-eyed little rodent prey kind of way. Little squeaky noises found their way out of his lungs unintentionally as he began to approach the squirrelly, the little guy wanting to scoot back in a meager attempt at self defense but managing little more than than a slightly higher degree of shivering as the pred grew closer. He let out a slightly louder 'eep!' as he was scooped up by the croc's strong arms and pulled close to his scaly body.

His shivers of fear might have been mistaken for pitiful squirms for freedom but the squirrel's shock prohibited any real attempts at freedom, save for the occasional wiggle or two in the grip of the reptile. Unfortunately for Izzy, he was able to pick up somewhere in the mess of neurons currently firing off in his fuzzy little head the sound, and worst still feeling, of the predator's stomach growling hungrily. The terrifying noise coupled with the feeling of the vibration caused by the little tummy rumble sent shock-waves through his preyish frame. Just as the little squirrelly noises were about to recommence, however, the auditory trump card was unmistakable - the sound of the predator's voice. To a prey, every predator has an almost clichéd scariness to their voices, by the simple fact that pred voices are so much deeper than prey's. By default, they are more intimidating to fuzzies like this one. Finally, the little whimpers came as the squirrel felt the croc's tongue glide over the top of his head, causing him to wiggle a little in his grip in fearful desperation. By now, some of his prey faculties were coming back and his survival instinct (if one could call it that) was finally starting to spark a little, the actions of the predator going unnoticed for a few moments as the squirrelly struggled weakly in the croc's grasp making tiny chittery noises of desperation the entire time.

Of course, it was worthless and the verbal confirmation of this fact only sent the squirrelly into a more intense fit of squirms and little chitters, hopelessly wiggling against the grip of the pred. Suddenly, though, a noise made his squirms slow in confusion. In the rather proletarian world of prey critters, a mechanical beep (a sound so ubiquitous in the technologically connected world) was something of serious consideration. It's such a foreign and obviously manufactured sound and as a creature only used to natural noises, it was very striking. His wiggles slowed to a complete stop as he looked around, nervously, almost as if the beep could have been a noise made by some other creature he had never even seen before and perhaps both he and the creature holding him were both in danger! Of course, that's not the case but it at least helped further restrain the little guy, making stuffing him into the bag (child's play even on the worst of days) completely effortless, the little rodent knocked out of his stupor as he was forced into the bag, his resuming struggles for escape now even less effective as he wiggled like a worm in the tight confines, squeaking and making those characteristically squirrelly sound effects the whole time. There was no multitasking in a situation like this for a rodent - just squirm and everything else will fall into place!

[redacted]: The reptile chuckled as he carried his soon to be meal out of the room. He snuggled the rodent closer to himself. "You know, you mammals always have this warmth to ya. I wonder if I'll be able to feel it when you're in my gut. That would be great, waking up with a warmth in my belly, always feeling that bit of heat inside me." He seemed to ponder on it for a moment before speaking again. "Of course, my gut's gonna be working on you good when you're first stuffed in there. I skipped lunch today just to make it extra special. I hope it works. Be ready for quite a message." The Crocodile laughs before giving Izzy another lick to the head. It wasn't long before he left the building altogether, taking his meal with him. "Gotta remember where this place is. If I'm quick enough, maybe I can get all your stuff later. You got a lotta books." The reptile continued to walk further away from Izzy's home and closer to unknown lands. The rodent was in for a life of fear

Isaac Shadetail: The bag jostled a bit as the croc made his way out of the room Izzy had grown to call 'home'. As the only place the weak little fuzzy could ever really feel 'safe' in, or at least the closest thing to safe he could be allowed or allow himself, it was a terrible thing to be taken away from. Meager as it was, it was all he had and he would never see it again. The squirrel continued his little struggle as he was taken further and further away against his will, his panicked and desperate state of mind (not to mention the squirming itself) drowning out the sensation of the constrictive bag he was in bouncing around a bit while slung over the pred's shoulder. Of course, the predator's words only made the little rodent's eyes shut tighter, another quiet whine clinging to his desperate little squeaks as he tried his hardest to get away. Again, that eerie difference between his class of animal and the predator's was something that just sent a chill down his spine! It of course only made the idea of literally being inside of one that much more horrible, although that fact being more horrible than it already was is an astonishing concept in and of itself. It terrified the little squeaky - the idea of actually being inside of this frightening 'other' kind of predator...*shiver*...being in his belly, at the mercy of his insides...

The squirrelly felt a gasp (in lieu of a more traditional squirrelly noise) leave his system as the predator not only supported Izzy's fears of what being inside of this being's very body would be like (even more terrifying than he had already imagined, it seemed!), but revealing that he had actually taken steps to enhance such a reaction from his stomach! That thought just really almost sent Izzy's ears ringing in fear - the idea of the scary croc going out of his way to ensure that the nightmarish experience of being devoured by such a creature was enhanced to be even more-so... It was like all of the terrible urban legends about predators...weren't! They were in fact all true, and preds really were the sadistic creatures preys tossed and turned in their beds at night thinking about. And all of this was fittingly capped off by another lick across the scared little guy's fuzz, finally breaking through something deep in the little rodent and inspiring his throat to actually produce noise as they got even further and further away from 'home'.

"...p-please...p-please l-let me g-go..."

The small utterance was cut off by a squeak from his meek little squirrelly frame.

[redacted]: The Crocodile laughed. "Let you go? I'm just can't do that. You see-" The reptile held the rodent against his belly, letting him hear every noise it made as it begged for the squirrel. "This here friend of mine wants to get to know you, and it'd be rather sad if I let it down, wouldn't you think?" The reptile rubbed over Izzy, pressing him further against his belly, moments at a time. Along with hearing his soon to be prison anticipating his arrival, Izzy could also feel the cold, rough scales against his skin, once again informing him of that difference in species. The reptile decided to keep his prey held against his gut as the heat was easier to feel, the guy seemed to squirm more, and other reasons that would take a while to list. To boil it down, it just felt better. The croc kept walking for about an hour, enjoying the squirms and pleas of the creature he held against his gut, imagining how much better it would be when he held him in his gut. They were far out of the prey slum by now. It was late, so the streets weren't very populated, but what population there was were all preds. Some turned to view the sight of the croc holding the small rodent. Most that did responded with a chuckle, or at least a smirk, as they were aware what sort of scene would develop for the both of them. Some of the preds had moving guts, a result of having another creature trapped inside. This would soon be Izzy's fate.

Eventually, the aquatic creature walked over to a house. As he approached the door, he gave it a loud knock. What answered the door was sure to frighten the poor little rodent. A tall Pelican opened the door. Like the croc, he was shirtless, and had an athletic body, though not as heavy set as the reptile Izzy's been getting to know. What would truly set something off in the rodent's mind, however, was a squirming bulge in the bird's beak. Not only was there clearly an unfortunate prey in that bill, but you could clearly enough make out the hands, feet, face, or whatever body parts might be stretching out. The bird smirked at the sight of the croc and squirrel and a short conversation was held.

Pelican: "It's about time you showed up. We were starting to think about doing this without you."

Croc: *Laughs* "I just had a little trouble finding someone I wanted settled in my gut is all. Why you already stuffing your face anyways? What did you even get?"

Pelican: *With a teasing defensive tone.* "What, a fellow pred can't enjoy his unique features? Don't worry, I'll show him off before I swallow."

The croc was let into the house, and the rodent was freed from the bag, though the reptile still held onto him. The place had all sorts of objects Izzy had probably never seen before in his life. There's probably too many of such things to even list. One object that probably would be familiar, however, was a sofa. This wasn't quite an average sofa, however. Nothing about it was all too special, but it was a little long, and turned a time or two in which it almost had both ends meeting. What might be a little more special in Izzy's eyes was that this sofa had more preds sitting on it, each holding a captive prey, each shirtless so they can better enjoy the bulges they would soon have.

The total preds in the building was five, which also matched the number of preys. Each prey was in the grasp of a pred. Two of the preds were the crocodile and the pelican. Also among these powerful creatures was a shark, a Great White to be exact. He had a build similar to the croc. Nice muscle tone and a heavy set body. He was handling his treat much like the croc had been handling his. The poor critter was held in the cold blooded lap and licked over now and again. The shark even sucked the prey's head in and sucked on it for a moment from time to time.

The other two preds were a frog and a chameleon. They both had muscle on their bodies, like the rest of the preds here. However, their general builds were kind of slender compared to the others. The frog had more arm and leg muscle compared to the chameleon, but neither were anything to laugh at, especially when compared to the feeble Izzy. Instead of handling their food by hand, these two had their tongues wrapped around the torsos of their prey. The let the legs and arms free to give the critters hope as the scurried around, hoping to somehow break free. They gave slack now and them to give them the thought the were actually making it before reeling them back in a little to crush the dreams. They also had enough of their tongues' ends free to lick over the body of their treats. Surely, this was not a fun sight for the little rodent.

Izzy Shadetail: The squirrel was shocked to hear his own voice speak the stuttering words he had chosen; it felt so strange and alien and foreign, like it didn't belong. It was an uneasy feeling, like knowing something has changed but not knowing exactly how or why. His own voice didn't fit in this situation and he wasn't even sure it actually was his own when he'd heard it. Of course, any thought process the little rodent had was quickly quashed at the very least by the deeper rumble of the predator's voice. The little squeaky could feel the vibrations of the deeper reptilian voice via his scales in a way that his squeaky little voice couldn't replicate. Izzy eep'd out the loudest little squeak yet as the predator moved him further down along his own body from his strong grip down to the reptile's stomach. A whimper forced its way subconsciously to his lips as he was held against the pred's belly, the gurgles and grumbles it made not only more audible and harder to ignore but easier to feel resonate through his smaller frame. The squirrel wiggled as hard as he could now, squirming against the scaly belly he was pressed against, the sensation of it happening to him only trumped by the knowledge of what exactly it meant - the little squirrel's entire body would eventually be /inside/ of it. His whole being would be sealed up within of this scary predator, mere inches away from exactly where he was being held at the moment. He squirmed as much as he could, still confined by the walls of the bag (soon enough, he'd be confined inside of a completely different 'bag')

"...p-please...d-don't e-eat me! I d-don't wanna b-be c-crocodile food!"

The word 'crocodile' seemed like the hardest to get out, as if uttering it would break some kind of rule. The gradual changing of the environment around them took a while to register as he was taken further and further away from where he felt safe and comfortable. His squirming only intensified as he continued to be held against the reptile's stomach - he'd thought that the predator had just done it to taunt him a little and would resume carrying him the way he had before. Still scary, but anything was better than being held against his belly of all things, being forced to hear it growl for his very body! This hadn't happened, though, and the squirrelly could only wiggle in protest which he did in earnest as he began to notice exactly where he was. Something was noticeably different; he was somewhere he'd never been before (and had hoped to never be in his life) and it was made all too obvious with the appearance of creatures similar at least in part to the one currently holding him captive. Of course, only one similarity mattered and it was obvious what it was from not only their appearances but their reactions. At times, the rodent almost feel thankful that he was "safe" with the predator currently holding him as the other predatory creatures cast their glances at the croc and his catch. It was a silly notion and would fade the moment the passing predator had vanished, but he still felt twinges of it as the other predators strolled by. The sight of preds with obviously stuffed bellies enjoying his plight, a foreshadowing of what would end up happening to him within hours at the most, would set him off on more little squeaking sprees as he struggled desperately for escape.

By the time the croc had arrived at his destination, a quiet whimpering was coming from the overwhelmed little critter. It had been some time since he had been caught and his fate still hung just as heavy as it had then. The rodent looked around nervously as the croc stopped and gave a hard knock on the door, the status quo of movement had been disturbed and it worried the little prey. Things were changing - what was going to happen next? The sight that greeted the rodent within the door-frame set his eyes widening and his little mouth open slightly in a prey-like stare. Izzy had never seen a pelican before, though he had heard about them (much like the crocodile holding him) and just like the shock of being captured by a creature you'd never seen before, the first time seeing this other new species was in its scariest form - with a poor little prey suffering inside of him. Of course, not...that way...yet...but still quite a sight for the little rodent as he stared, half terrified and half transfixed, at the squirming bulge in the pelican's beak. He could only imagine what the little prey inside was going through...suddenly, he felt lucky to at least be on the outside...for the moment... His prey mind ultimately turned to panic, wiggling against the predator's scales.

The panic only deepened as the rodent was carried into the house - being inside of a predator's home.../any/ predator's home...was something directly out of prey campfire stories. Just being within a structure like that with a predator somewhere inside of it as well was terrifying (preys preferred the openness of the outdoors) but...he had no idea what awaited him. His head whipping around nervously just as before in his new environment, he took in mostly overviews not specifics. The interior of a pred's house was abound with things that little preys like Izzy couldn't even imagine let alone understand completely and it all just added to the swimming and unorganized structure of thoughts running through the rodent's mind as he looked about. Quickly, though, his mind settled on something it decided he should understand a bit better and in his shock, he barely even moved as the predator released him from the confines of the bag. Predators...so many predators...too many predators...the feeling was overwhelming, his prey brain unable to cope. This was...simply far too many predators in one place...in the same place as him...too close...too much...

All of them were creatures the squirrelly didn't see that often or simply had never seen in person at all (like the croc and pelican). The sight of the shark playing with his catch just like him had caused all sorts of squirrelly emotions in reaction. First off, the sight of the shark was of course terrifying and all other standard prey emotions, especially since he looked just as intimidating and scary as the crocodile that had caught him. More-so than that, the expression on the poor little mouse's face and his scurrying little reaction to everything the shark was doing to him mirrored everything about his own current situation. To see a fellow rodent much like himself getting the same treatment just made the situation sink in that much more; this was even worse than Izzy had initially thought, even though that seemed like an impossibility. 'That poor mouse', he could help but feel...immediately followed by 'Poor mouse, how about poor squirrel!!'. Frogs and chameleons, he had seen at a distance but never this close and he was hoping to keep it on that list of 'never actually done this before', but unfortunately... The sight of how the two predators handled their prey using only their tongues...this freaked out his fuzzy little brain even more than the reptile's scales and otherness had! It was such a bizarre amalgam of fear and fascination. It was so terrifying...but it also was something the squirrelly had never witnessed before. It was a strange mix of emotions for sure, but it made his little squirmings pick back up again in the reptile's grip. Even the preys were jarring for the little guy - the frog seemed to have some kind of small bird. He wasn't sure exactly what kind, but needless to say it was a tiny songbird-like species very much put to shame by the terrifying pelican Izzy had gotten a good look at moments before. The squirrelly had never met a feathered creature in his life either, so it was even more strangeness piled on top. The chameleon's prey (a rat) was more familiar although unique in its own way. Rats, of course, are predators too (at least to a critter like Izzy) and to see one at all, let alone in the grasp of an even /more/ powerful predator was shrill on the rodent's nerves. It added that feeling of "even you?!", showing how grossly outnumberd and out-powered all of the little preys were, either collectively or individually. All of the preys were equally helpless against the collection of predators that had captured them, even the ones naturally stronger than the squirrel (the rat was a "pred", the bird could fly). Izzy had no idea what was going to happen (well...he had /some/ idea!) but he couldn't even process the future in such a way - his prey mind wouldn't allow it.

[redacted]: The reptile couldn't help but somehow grin even wider as he felt the poor rodent squirm against his tummy and beg for his life. The pred didn't even give a verbal response, or any obvious response for that matter. He just let his mind drift at the idea of having that squirrel moving around inside him as he never went hungry again. The Croc didn't mind all the preds walking past. To him it was pretty common. The only difference from the usual as that he was sort of the center of attention right now. Having a prey in your grasp makes you a little more noticeable. The scaled creature didn't mind this. In fact, he kind of enjoyed it. He got to show off his dominance for a while, something every pred wished for. What made it even better was that the little rodent squirmed even more every time a fellow pred passed by.

When the Croc entered his friend's house, he examined the living room and smiled. The others seemed to manage getting a meal in time. Heck, the frog managed to catch something that could fly and the chameleon snatched a rat, which was usually bigger than most prey. Not only that, but with them being pred wannabes, they sometimes gobble someone else up before being gobbled up themselves. That lucky cross eyed lizard.

The larger reptile sat down and played with Izzy for a while longer, gently running a claw on his skin, licking him, all that jazz. The other preds had their fun just the same as they had before the Croc entered. Eventually, the Pelican came in, beak still bulging and moving around. He took a seat and then he reached into his bill to pull out the poor morsel that's been trapped for a while. He was covered in drool. Well, all the prey kinda were at this point, but this one looked like he came out of a swimming pool of saliva, which isn't far from the truth. Another conversation was made.

Pelican: "There, you all got to see my catch. Happy?"

Shark *Teasing voice*: "About time. I thought you were hiding a cat on us or something."

Pelican: "One more of those remarks and I swear you're sleeping in my beak tonight."

Shark *Still teasing*: "Yeah right! Like you got the room in there for me."

Pelican: "Wanna find out?"

Croc: "Oh! Come on already! I'm starved! Can't we eat already? We're all here and we all got our prey."

Pelican: "Yeah yeah, Let's eat and enjoy the tummy squirms."

The other four sparked up at the Pelican's last statement. Finally, it was time for dinner, the last dinner they'd ever need, and the one that would last forever. It just so happened that the Crocodile put Izzy's feet in first. This "allowed" him to watch himself sink further into that huge maw. He also was quite capable of viewing the others' fates, especially since so far, he was being eaten at the slowest pace. The mouse was quickly shoved into the shark's mouth and his tail was slurped up like a noodle. Talk about a feeding frenzy. For now, he allowed the weakling to move in his mouth and rub against his tongue, while also occasionally making bulges in his cheeks. The Pelican gave his prey a similar fate, though not exactly the same. The Pelican's meal was slowly lowered, feet first, back into the bill, where he would squirm and struggle like he had once before while also being tasted and enjoyed. The other two preds were a tad more creative. The Frog reeled in the bird slowly. Soon, his lower half was in the amphibious mouth, leaving the wings to flap and the head to do whatever it wanted to do. Of course, the bird still wasn't getting away. The long appendix still looped around his feet while the rest of what was in the mouth was being suckled. The Chameleon, on the other hand, stuck the rat's head in first, letting the creating sit in his lap for the time being. At the same time, he patted the rat's belly, checking if another had been tucked away, and maybe playing with that poor creature as well.

Izzy Shadetail: The squirrel's day couldn't have gone any worse and whenever he thought he had reached some kind of plateau of emotionally distress, it just went one more step further. More than the sight, the /feeling/ of all of these preds close-by was driving the squirrelly crazy. Preys can sense when a predator is near, in addition to being able to sense prey panic (as they use it to gauge their own, panic being the only prey reaction to most things) and currently, both were so overpowering that the rodent didn't know what to do, his own reaction also fueling the others' as their panic mixed together to equal an even stronger emotion in a vicious cycle. At the moment, all the squirrelly could get out was a collection of pitiful little squeaky whimpering sounds in the company of such a group. Thoughts barely formed completely in the first place but when they did, any assemblance of ideas of /real/ escape were fleeting at best; how on Earth could a little critter like Izzy escape from the collective might of all of the predators, hungry and ready to feast? Individually, their strength and capability to catch scurrying little critters like himself was more than the squirrelly could escape from, but...so many of them...all fully engaged in 'predator mode'...and all so hungry and eager to fill their stomachs...it was almost scarier to try and escape than to remain right where he was. There was no telling what they could do to him if he were to disobey their wishes to that level. They were all so strong and terrifying and scary and intimidating and he was just a little squirrel...

As his predator sat down with his catch, the rodent could only continue his ineffective campaign of squirming and struggling, desperate little squeaks and other squirrelly noises coming from his feeble little frame as he was handled by the Crocodile. The feelings sunk in - this croc was intent on staying, and in the back of his mind in a place too covered in fear to access completely, Izzy knew exactly what they intended to do with all of the little prey critters in the room. The little fuzzy just wiggled against the reptile's foreign scales as he tried vaguely to escape, abstractedly grasping for the smallest notion of freedom from the future that faced him. A lifetime of being inside of this predator's belly, included in the sum of its parts, to provide the superior creature enjoyment, fullness, and pleasure completely at the expense of everything the squirrel had to offer other than just something weaker and classified by nature as 'prey' simply available to take up space inside of another creature. And not only that, but with the extra bonus of his last moments outside a predator consisting of being teased and played with, being physically held up against the predator's belly to provide some enjoyment for the pred paralleling the mental torment it gave the prey, all capped off with the grand finale of being swallowed alive - not only was his fate to be crocodile food, but /that/ would serve as his last memories of the outside world and the ending to his story as a squirrel as opposed to food/belly-filler.

As the Croc played with the squirrelly a little bit more while waiting for the main event to begin (following suit with the other predators in the room), the squeaky little prey could just squirm and resist weakly, little bits of begging finding their way between the squeaks and chitters and other characteristically squirrelly sounds.

"...*eep*!...n-no, p-please...*squeak*!...l-let me g-go...I d-don't...*eep*...w-wanna get e-eaten..."

Of course, this struggling got him nowhere but it was still impossible for him to stop; preys are very much built on simple instincts that are often wrong and struggling when in this kind of situation is definitely a big part of that. Again, everything reduced to short-term; the rodent did everything he could (which of course wasn't much) to escape what was happening to him at the moment while paying no mind to the bigger picture of how he would possibly escape the larger situation (in a room full of hungry preds, in an entire /city/ filled with predators for miles to go until you got back into the prey slum from which he had come). The little prey just reacted; shivering and shrieking with squeaks as the crocodile ran a claw across his fuzzy body, whimpering piteously when he was licked by that terrifying reptilian tongue that would be getting to know him so much better very shortly. Izzy knew that it really just made it more enjoyable for the predator...he didn't know how he knew it because his brain refused to even acknowledge it as 'known'. It was too horrifying. The sound of everything happening all at once was as terrible as the feeling; the squeaks and eeps and typical prey-ish noises of panic and little begs for freedom and mercy all mixed together in the squirrel's ears. Not only could he sense all of the prey suffering, he could actually hear it and see it too!

By the time the pelican had come back into the room, the squirrelly had been worked up into a very panicky little rodent, squirming and squeaking quite a bit in the Croc's lap, just wanting to be away from all of this and to hide. The actions and noises of everything around him blended together into an environment of prey fear. The Pelican's words cut through his blinding fog of perturbation and the squirrel whipped his head around to see what was happening. The sight that greeted him was once again that one little step that made everything just a little bit worse and so much more terrifying. Everything seemed summarized in what he laid his eyes on upon focusing on it; the sight of a poor little chipmunk (even worse than the mouse being a fellow prey rodent - chipmunks are technically squirrels too!) completely covered in drool in the Pelican's grip. First of all, just the unveiling of the poor little critter: the fact that this was the first time he had been seen by anyone there (including Izzy)...though he had been there the whole time, suffering and struggling and terrified, right inside that pelican's beak...the body that the Pelican now held out on display had been up until this point and for who know how long hidden away from sight and this was the first glimpse at what species the little critter was, let alone what he looked like! Secondly, the look on the little prey's face - an utterly horrified and panicking expression of so many different emotions; he was in far worse shape than any of the other preys for obvious reasons. The poor guy had been trapped inside of the Pelican's beak for who knows how long now...at any moment, the gulp could have come that would send him down to his fate of a more permanent version of what was happening to him right now. Again, the squirrel couldn't help but feel the smallest bit of thankfulness in the very back of his brain that he had been caught by the Croc and not the cruel Pelican. Though there was very little long-term difference - they were both being teased and played with and subjugated and treated like just food and entertainment and vehicles for pleasure and would both end up in the exact same place, but...the idea of his last moments outside of being food and belly-stuffing consisting of being trapped in the Pelican's bill for that long...*shiver*... he couldn't even imagine it.

More-so than anything else of course, what truly hit the squirrelly's heart and mind about the brief predator exchange of words was a simple two word phrase: "let's eat". The reactions of the preds all around him only pushed the realness of it in further: it was time...it was here. Izzy's eyes widened even more (if that's possible!) as the predator did not seem intent on wasting time and quickly flipped Izzy around a little bit so that his legs and feet were now closer to his mouth. The movement and being squirrel-handled caused him to panic a little and squeak while trying to grab onto the Croc's scales to stop himself from moving. Instantly, this effort was abandoned (not that it would have worked anyway) as the squirrel felt the Crocodile's maw glom down onto his feet. The sensation of the Croc's lips sealing around his ankles while the entirety of his squirrelly feet feeling like they were tightly wrapped in something akin to a warm and wet plastic bag that in actuality was the interior of the predator's maw. The prey looked up to see direct confirmation to this feeling as he failed to see his own feet, the grinning maw of the Crocodile instead where they should be, his very body perfectly poised to disappear forever into this predator's body. It was starting...this was it...he was going to be eaten...food... The rodent entered a type of panic reserved for very corned animals at the end of their rope as the process of his being devoured finally began, the most monumental act in the squirrel's life and one that would never be reversed. The squirrelly began trying desperately to pull his feet out of the Crocodile's maw, his alarm mixed with conflicting disbelief that this was actually happening. He tried his hardest to pull himself away from the Croc's strong grip, his vocal chords finally beginning to function properly as the end drew near more-so and faster than ever.

"...n-no! No, p-please M-Mister C-Crocodile...p-please, d-don't eat me...p-please, I'm b-begging you, d-don't swallow m-me! P-please!"

By proxy of how he was situated against the Croc's body, he realized that what he was wiggling against was still the predator's stomach and horror flowed through him like an ocean wave at the abstract realization that soon, he would be on the other side of what he was currently up against.

"...p-please...n-not your b-belly...a-anything but th-that, p-p-pleeease!"

In his panic, as his body struggled and squirmed as hard as it could, he couldn't help but witness the fate of the other prey's in the room as well. The poor mouse barely had a second to react before he was shoved completely into the Shark's maw in one motion, nothing but his tail left on the outside which was quickly slurped up to join the mousy in the pred's mouth. The prey inside squirmed and struggled for his freedom, but all it resulted in was a more enjoyable experience for the predator, the struggles of the prey making it that much easier to taste and enjoy the flavor of the mouse's little body. The Pelican's prey, again, seemed to have it worst of all as the chippy was lowered agonizingly slowly back into the prison he had become so familiar with as of late, forced to realize and soak in the knowledge of what was about to happen - that he was going right back into that bill, only this time... The expression on the his face was made even more desperate-looking by the squeaky begging the little guy's lungs managed to chitter out desperately as he begged and pleaded not to be put back into the Pelican's beak and to not be devoured which continued non-stop until being cut off by a wet noise as the prey was deposited right back into his nightmare, a familiar predatory grin forming around the squirming and struggling bulge in the firmly closed beak. The Frog's prey was subject to similarly torturous circumstances, being slowly reeled in towards his fate, given all the time the world to realize and mull over what was happening/going to happen to him. Like Izzy and the Pelican's prey, he was also cruelly being devoured feet first, not only able to watch themselves slowly disappear forever from the outside world but also able to watch as their fellow preys were given much the same treatment. What happened to them would eventually happen to all of them, and being able to see it while it was happening to you made it so much more powerful. The Chameleon's prey was given the opposite - instead of slowly being slurped up from behind, he was simply plunged directly into his fate as food in one motion, much like the mouse had.

Of course, the only thing worse than being the rat (or indeed, any one of them) at the moment would have to be being the poor little critter the rodent wannabe pred had snatched up himself some time before he himself was captured by a stronger creature higher on the food chain. Being inside of two bellies at once...the pressure of being within two living creatures...that was something Izzy had to count his blessings for not being a part of. Again, though, while the fate of the other preys around him generated more panic as begging and squeaks of fear and noises of prey being devoured and slurped into maws filled the room, the squirrelly could only try and change his own fate which was proving just as ineffective as it had always been, the weak little rodent no match for the Crocodile's strength. Izzy's feet wouldn't budge from the Croc's mouth and it could only be ascertained that the rest of the squirrel's body would be just as easy to follow suit until there was nothing left of the rodent but a squirming bulge underneath the predator's scales that had frightened Izzy so much while on the outside.

[redacted]: The Croc's grin would have widened if it could, and that's saying something considering his large maw. He loved how the little squirrely pleaded even though it was impossible for him to not realize by now that his fate was sealed. The reptile decided to add to Izzy's misery by placing a hand on him and rubbing him against the scales of his gut. That warm blooded body heat against those cold blooded scales was simply pure delight. slowly, the reptilian lips claimed more of the rodent for tasting, and eventually, swallowing.

In the mean time, the other preds worked on their meals. The shark was the first to finish his victim. He hadn't done anything too special, though it was frightening all the same. The fish simply took a few moments to taste and play with his little mouse before he was pushed to the throat. Then, with a loud "GULP!", the rodent was sucked in. Movement could be seen in the shark's neck for just a moment before it went still. The motion was then relocated to the gut, where the mouse was to spent his life. Like in the pelican's beak, the creature in the shark's gut was hard to determine, or at least it would be if it wasn't revealed to everyone earlier, but one could still make out it's face, hands, legs, and other such body parts. The mousey prison was tight and unforgiving as it pushed the rodent around without signs of stopping and stole nutrition for the predator to use. The shark simply laid back, groaned in pleasure, and rubbed the mouse as said mouse fed and pleasured the cold blooded creature against his will.

The frog was next to finish eating. He had been slowly sucking his meal in, much like the reptile who's lips were around Izzy. The amphibian was enjoying the taste of his feathered dinner and doing so from every angel with his flexible tongue. In the mean time, the small avian was slowly being sucked down the slick, amphibious gullet. Finally, the bird's beak was inside the frog's mouth and it slowly closed. The predator took just a few moments more to get the last of the taste before giving one final swallow. The swallow was long, and kind of loud, though not nearly as loud as the shark's. However, it ended the same, with a bulge moving around in the predatory gut. It was a little easier to tell there was a bird in there due to the shape of uncommon body parts such as the beak. Still, all the same, he was now nothing but dinner and entertainment. Along with a belly pat and belly rub here and there, the frog licked his lips and even the outside of his stomach, half out of predatory instinct. The belly skin didn't taste any different than how he figured it tasted before the bird was inserted, but it gave him a primal satisfaction none the less.

The chameleon, for quite q while, made no progress on eating the rat. He wasn't having a hard time. The reptile simply found it fun to play with the mystery squirmer inside of the rat. His taste buds were satisfied with the rodent's face for a while. Eventually, the color changer decided it was time to actually eat. Still, even then he took his sweet time with it. During the feasting, the reptile rubbed his hand on the rat's gut as long as he could reach it, reminding the large rodent that he had once cast the same fate he's about to suffer. Eventually, the rodent's belly was inside the chameleon's mouth and rubbed by tongue rather than the hand. Even after the gut entered the throat, the reptile rubbed it through his neck. He didn't even give a final swallow. The rat more so slid into the stomach opposed to being sucked in. When the larger rodent finally was in his resting place, the chameleon sunk into his seat, changing colors without any intent and with a smile that rivaled even that of the crocodile's. The rat was at least 1.5 times the size of any of the other prey in the room and came with an extra to boost. Not only were the bulges of the rat and his meal visible, but in the right light, one could easily mistake the sight for one creature sitting in another's lap. The chameleon was so overcome in the sensation of rat and company squirms that all he could do at that moment was lay a hand on his gut.

Finally, before Izzy would truly meet his end, he would get one more witness of the cruel pelican. The bird was once again toying with his food. In addition to licking his meal and pressing him against his beak, the predator would also occasionally tilt his head back to allow the chipmunk to slid to his throat, only to tilt forward at the last second and allow his meal to crawl back to the front of the beak. It's one thing that Izzy likely knew that was the idea, but he even got to see the chipmunk's movements to a degree via stretchy beak. He could see the movement back and forth and the squirming in the large bill, and it all took place under a smug smirk. Finally, the pelican tilted back his head and refused to put it upright, finally letting gravity pull the prey to that hole he's been doing his best to keep away from for so long. As the chipmunk's foot slipped into the throat, suction started taking in the rest of him. After a few moments, the rodent was being pulled through the fleshy tunnel and soon entered an equally fleshy room. This was finally it. The chipmunk was eaten. He bulged under the pelican's feathers just as well as he did in the beak.

By the time the pelican had finished his meal, all of Izzy that remained out of his predator's mouth was his head. The aquatic reptile really could have finished the fuzz-ball a while ago, but he noticed how the squeaky was watching the others decent and decided to let him meal enjoy the view. Now that the show was over though, it was time to end this. The croc sucked in the squirrelly head and let the rodent lay inside the large and now closed maw, right on his tongue. It didn't even take a full second until that tongue went right into action, licking all over Izzy and moving him about in that maw. This torture lasted at least five minutes and probably felt like hours to the little rodent. Finally, having somehow been turned around, Izzy was shoved head first into the predator's throat. Slowly but surely, more of him was traveling into the tight passage that would only lead to his end. The crocodile's hand felt over the bulge Izzy made in his neck as he was pulled deeper. He eventually entered a larger, though not much larger, room. It was the stomach that had been waiting his arrival for so long. Once more, Izzy wasn't given so much as a quarter before the terror continued. The fleshy walls instantly pressed around the rodent and moved about, tenderizing and feeding off him at the same time. It was rather brutal as a result of the extra hunger Izzy was warned about. Of course, this was all topped off by the predator teasing his meal from the outside, rubbing him and occasionally pushing a part of him further in. Not that it took long to bulge back out, but it was a fun activity to the reptile.

There it was, five eternally full preds, enjoying their new state. This scene played for quite a few minutes. The chameleon was the first to break it. He started by standing up, hard to see at the moment aside from the pants he wore. "This guy's just too much for me. I'm going to bed. Hopefully my gut will be easier to control in the morning." The reptile left the room with the others chuckling and teasing him. Do not misunderstand. The chameleon loved the sensations the rat was giving him. He was practically in heaven even. However, it's all his mind could focus on at the time and he had a life to live. As he stated, his hope was to have a clearer mind when he awoke. Still, for the travel, he saw no harm playing with his meal and he did just that. As the reptile entered his room, he removed what clothes he had. He just felt more free sleeping in his birthday suite, or hatch-day suite, whichever you want to call it. This also gave his tail more freedom, which he quickly used to his advantage by wrapping it around his belly. This let him better hold and better feel the rat inside. Finally, he got in bed, and with a flick of his tongue, hit the light switch and turned off the light. It took a while, but he eventually drifted into slumber.

The croc and frog left not long after the chameleon, though both in different directions. The frog traveled to a room with a hot tub. After proper preparations, the amphibian slowly dipped himself in the boiling water. Being a frog, he loved water, and he loved heat. The warmth of the bird inside him was cozy, but this was much better. He also figured it would provoke more exciting actions from little chirpy in his gut. Even if it didn't though, the amphibian was more than pleased with how his day went and saw this to be a fitting end.

The croc's actions were a little more of a habit and any pleasure that may result was coincidental, though still appreciated. The reptile entered one of the bathrooms in the house. He removed his clothing and stepped in the bathtub. It was shower time, a healthy habit he formed just before bed. The reptile turned the faucets to a fairly warm temperature and let the water fall on his scaly body. Soon after, he took hold of a scrub brush and applied soap before scrubbing it on his scales. Yes, at one point, the brush rubbed against the rodent inside. Even while cleaning himself, the reptile was still enjoying his new belly filler.

The shark and pelican remained in the room and continued to rub their guts while enjoying chit chat about how their food was in their bodies. Eventually, they reached somewhere interesting.

Shark: "So wait, you're telling me you ain't feeding off that chipmunk?"

Pelican: "Not just yet. A bird's digestive track is a bit different than most."

Shark: *chuckles* "Really? This oughta be fun."

Pelican: *Smirks* "I got two stomachs under these feathers. The first one, where my lump currently is, gets him ready by tenderizing him. When it thinks he's ready, he'll be sent to my second stomach for me to feed off of. When I'm not hungry anymore, I'll pump him back up to my first stomach to keep him tender for later."

Shark: *Laughs* "So you're saying you get to decide how he suffers!?"

Pelican: "Well, it's automatic at first, but after some practice, yes, I can send him back and forth as I please. Speaking of, I think he's just about to-"

The pelican interrupted his own statement with pleasured grunts and groans as the chipmunk was starting to be pumped through another tunnel. Even the bulge inside made a noticeable change in location. It was a short trip, but one that wouldn't be forgotten. The pelican's hunger was satisfied. In addition he felt another pleasure from his body's works. It wasn't necessarily better or worse than before. It was just different in a sense. Whatever it was, the bird decided it would be fun to mix it up with the chipmunk now and then. For now, he patted his gut and smiled, earning a small chuckle from his fishy companion.

Izzy Shadetail: The squirrel was replete with characteristically rodent-like squeaks and noises that chattered out in panic as his mind reeled in everything that was happening. Whenever something intense and frightening is happening, one always wants it to stop at least for a moment so you can catch your breath and do your best to take in and process what's going on around you and to you. Such was the case for the little squirrelly - to prey, being eaten was everything. It was what you thought about until the day it happened and if it didn't happen, your days were filled with thoughts and feelings and reactions to it just the same. It's one of those things that can only happen once and equally cannot be undone. Once it's begun happening, that's it. Getting caught is always a shock even if it's expected and seen coming in advance and that in and of itself serves as the starting point. You're left with, at the same time, the biggest change to your life and no time to comprehend it. The fact that it's horrible an terrifying and the worst thing ever for exactly your type of creature also features heavily.

He'd been caught! He was being eaten! And there was nothing he could do...it was just gonna happen. Though the deeper parts of his mind couldn't accept this and continued to try and find some way out, he knew it. This was a completely unavoidable fate, save for some miracle. There was no escaping - he was going to be eaten, he was going to be reptile food, he was going inside of a predator's belly regardless of anything else. As it had started, it was already done. And not only the end of this day, but indeed every single day for the rest of his life. This was the turning point and it was all over now. No more running, no more hiding, no more avoiding - it was over.

Again, it was the squirrel's hyper survival mode imbedded so deep in his brain it was in a perpetual state of subconscious that had initiated the desperate plea from the little squeaky. It was all sort of routine - the prey begs, that's just the next step in the process. The whole situation played itself out countless times per day the world over and was what modern predator (and prey) civilization was born from. Of course the pleas wouldn't work, that was just a given, but a prey mind couldn't stop itself from doing it even in the face of it being completely futile. The rodent's almost feral reaction of panic hit (or was at least incredibly close to) its climax as a strong crocodile hand once again came down on top of him, forcing him against the growling and foreshadowing scales of the belly Izzy was right up against to begin with! Very desperate chattery noises, forming full words a bit beyond what the squirrelly was capable of at the moment, stormed from the little guy as he squirmed and wiggled frantically as he was rubbed up against the most terrifying thing in the world to him, his predator's stomach.

"*eeep*! ...n-no!"

The fuzzy little critter rubbed himself against the Croc's scales almost more-so than the Crocodile as the sensation of being pressed up against the pred's gut felt a little too much like being inside of it, especially with his body already on its way into his mouth. Everything was consuming - it was all just a blur of being prey, being food, being eaten. The sensation of enveloping warmth slowly making its way over more and more of his body coupled with being forcibly massaged into the very organ that will soon contain you made everything flow together and it was all one big mass of 'becoming food'. As the rodent's inevitable fate drew closer and closer to finally being realized, he could have supposedly drawn some amount of consultation (or, realistically, more fear) in the fact that he was most certainly not alone. All around him was the act of prey being devoured by much stronger predator bodies; he was merely a single example of the terrible fear and prey suffering that was occurring in the room at that moment. The poor mouse that had been claimed by the shark was barely granted enough time to even understand what was happening, left to only become aware of it in retrospect after it's already far past time to do anything about it.

The little rodent that had been wolfed into the large aquatic predator's maw had been given mere moments to express his fear via counterproductive squirming against the shark's teasing tongue before the predator did what his species was known for the world over and a loud gulp was accompanied by a mouse-sized lump traveling down the terrifying fish's throat. The pred's neck bulged only briefly with the prey's struggling form before it settled into his belly, the entrance quickly closing up tight behind him and sealing his fate from that day forward. More-so than even the predator's meals beginning, this event set the tone of the entire experience. The first of all the whimpering little creatures was finally inside the stomach of its predator and there's was nothing more to be said. The mouse would now simply provide sustenance and fullness and pleasure, all completely unwillingly. The rodent was now food.

A few moments later, as Izzy was still struggling vaguely to free himself from literally everything all at the same time, a second member of 'team prey' made his transition from sentient critter to simple nourishment and stuffing to keep a superior creature's gut full and satisfied. Though Izzy was too busy freaking out to really comprehend it and was too busy being smooshed and rubbed against his predator's scaly tummy, it could be ascertained if paying close enough attention. The entire room was filled with the sounds of predators devouring their prey and an errant gulp here and there was commonplace, there was a certain deepness to a gulp that finished a prey off and sent it completely down the throat and into the belly. It sounded different and it was definitely what reverberated through the air as the frog gave its final swallow, successfully putting its meal in its proper place and ensuring it would never be mistaken for anything other than food ever again. The score was now Preds: 2 and Prey: 0 and the odds were not looking good.

Izzy could only continue his pitiful defense against what was being done to him, his resistance still relegated to squirming and struggling weakly in the Croc's grasp (of his hands as well as his lips/mouth). It was very obvious what parts of him were inside of the pred and what parts were outside and the former kept growing while the latter shrank as the reptile's lips slowly claimed more and more of him. The feeling of the Croc's lips would only progress to the feeling of his tongue and the sensation would merely fuel the rodent's fire of panic. Of course, the more and more of him that disappeared into the reptile's maw meant more and more of him was held tighter than the pred's hands alone ever could and the feeling of less and less of his body left untouched by the pred's digestive system continued, unaffected and unmoved by his desire for it to stop. Slowly, more and more of the squirrel was transfered from being pressed against the belly on the outside to getting to know it a whole lot more intimately from the inside and all he could do was chatter and squeak and whimper and squirm as his own ingestion carried on without his consent.

As the squirrel was still in the process of his worst nightmare coming true, the story was quite the same for the preys remaining outside of another creature's body. That was quickly changing, however, as after much time spent drawing it out and taking longer than required to finish his meal, a third meal settled into his final resting place. Well...technically, it would be considered the third /and/ fourth as it was actually two meals in one. As with most of the predators present, the chameleon had taken his time to devour his prey agonizingly slowly. Though Izzy probably wouldn't have been caught dead anywhere near a rat during his lifetime (when he was a squirrel, and not mere food as he was about to become and spend the remainder of his life being), one couldn't help but feel for the fellow rodent as his much larger frame was forced into its tight containment. A rat's naturally larger body size combined with having a whole separate other creature being counted in the sum of all of your parts made the reptile's stomach (which would have been a tight fit even for a smaller prey like Izzy) almost unbearable for the devoured creature. Again, though, even the rat's condition was a far-cry to the circumstances facing the critter the rat had gobbled up before falling victim to the same system himself! The poor creature was so hidden, every spec of sentience demolished beyond recognition. So much would have to be undone before it would ever see the light of day for even one more moment ever again...no one would even know what species it was. If becoming food rendered your sentience obsolete, that poor creature's circumstances were a different category altogether. Regardless, however, it all ended in the way it was surely destined to end - a very, very full and satisfied reptile with a belly that just shouted "PREDATOR" from every angle.

The pitiless crocodile made nothing but progress on his intentions of ending the day with Izzy inside of him. Those terrible reptilian lips continued to claim more and more of the squirrel's body as its own, delivering every bit of the squirrel to the Croc's tongue to officially begin its journey into the predator's body. The little squirrel was being slurped up effortlessly, as if the rodent posed absolutely no difficulty in consuming which was not a pleasant thought considering his hysteric attempts at escape. Not only was he food, he was easy food. Some other kind of creature could have at least put up a decent struggle on its way down, but the fuzzy little rodent was a text-book case of predator dominance and strength versus prey weakness and numbers/luck-based survival. Not even the syllables of ineffective pleas could form, the state of Izzy's brain was such that only squeaks and chitters and other such squirrelly noises could make it out. Not that it made a difference either way, of course, but still. The reptile's lips crept their way like incoming flood waters nearer and nearer to his head as he was forced to watch himself slowly be devoured, in between close-ups of the very stomach he would soon be filling, and the occasional glance around the room to either a fellow prey in the middle of actively being devoured or a satisfied, smiling, and content predator with a very obvious bulge in their belly as a sign of what was to come.

There were only two preys lefts even partway outside of a stomach and that seemed to be changing fast as Izzy was quick to notice seeing as how the Crocodile was remorselessly eating him slowly enough to ensure he witnessed his fellow preys all get enveloped in predator flesh one by one. Each one served as a tick, counting down to his own consumption. He had seen all of them get swallowed, the final product of everything their lives had been up until then, all of them reduced to a mere vague shape underneath the belly flesh of the predator who had caught them. Finally only himself and one other creature remained outside (...if it could be considered outside, since he was actually in his beak). Izzy had caught glimpses of the sadistic Pelican toying with his prey as the others were all reduced to nothing more than a swelled predator stomach, the bird drawing out the process as long as possible to torment his catch just as the Crocodile seemed to enjoy doing. It served as the backdrop to every single post-gulp frightened glance - 1 fewer prey, Pelican still grinning smugly as he tortured his meal, determined to make it last as long as possible. Finally though, with no other preys left beside Izzy himself, he tilted his head back one final time to trap the poor critter in his unavoidable future. The stretchiness of the Pelican's beak making it plainly visible, the poor little chippy was thrown to the very back of the bird's throat one final time before the predator did what perhaps pelicans (and predators in general) do best and the struggling lump made its way down the warm-blooded vertebrate's throat, sliding down easily (and visibly) until it finally came to rest deep inside the Pelican's body. The bulge settled in the his midsection, desperate struggling still visible underneath his feathers. After all this time of being played with like a mere toy, the chipmunk was finally inside his predator's stomach and was never going to come out. This was the end of his story, as far as the outside world was concerned. The expression of complete smug satisfaction and contentment and pleasure at having successfully exercised his predator superiority was the final icing on the subjugation cake as the final chapter of the chipmunk's life (outside of being a squirmy lump inside of a Pelican's belly) closed.

There wasn't much time for freaking out at that sight or concept, or idea that there was only one remaining prey to be swallowed up and finished (that one prey being himself, of course) as by the time the chipmunk had settled quite comfortably (for the Pelican, that is) in the predatory avian's stomach, the Croc's lips had finally crawled their way up to the squirrel's neck leaving only his head out in fresh air. Unable to even squirm anymore with almost every single part of his body sealed up in the reptile's maw, Izzy could only make panicked little squeaky whiney noises as he tried desperately to struggle in vain. Izzy's freedom was quickly coming to its end.

"...*whimper*...n-n-no...p-pleeasee...p-please don't...pleeee-"

The very squeaky and barely audible plea was cut short mid-word as the squirrel was slurped completely into the predator's maw. Izzy state of being inside of a pred's body had officially begun as he lay on the Croc's tongue in the closed maw. Izzy's entire world had been enveloped in pitch black as the sounds of the outside world stopped for good once the lips had sealed closed. Just as Izzy's mind exploded with panic, the squishy tongue he was lying on top of (and being forced against by the roof of the Croc's mouth) erupted into a furry of motion, rubbing against his body in every way possible, moving and swishing him all over in the maw. Frightened squeaks erupted from the little squirrel, though far too quiet and muffled to really be heard outside of the Croc's maw as Izzy tried to ward off the terrifying tongue intent on tasting every inch of him. Its effectiveness can be successfully compared to all of his escape efforts thus far though, that is...not. For what seemed like forever, the horrible reptilian tongue tossed him about in the darkness, tasting and savoring him in such a way that he could tell that was exactly what it was doing. You could feel the Croc's enjoyment through it somehow and it felt like it was never going to end. Finally, though, it did in what would definitely be considered a back-handed blessing - the torture was finally stopped by the predator giving a powerful swallow, one that began to pull the squirrel down the predator's throat! The rodent managed to let out one more "..n-no!" as he was pulled into the throat and the flesh collapsed all around him as the Croc swallowed him, the muscles pulling him deeper and deeper down into the pred's body. Again, this felt like it lasted forever but the tight squeezing of the throat walls was soon replaced with the sensation of sinking down into a fleshy, living chamber. It very quickly dawned on Izzy - he was finally in the Crocodile's belly. This was it...he had been eaten...gobbled up...he was food now... The Croc had gotten exactly what he wanted and said he was going to get all along - he had officially eaten the little squirrel and it was all over. Again, the rodent only had time to let out a shriek of a squeak at the dawning of where he was before the walls making up his biological prison he was now to serve a life sentence in collapsed all around him, clinging to him even tighter than the throat had and beginning to move and churn and ungulate in every single direction all at once, treating Izzy to quite the commotion of movement. The predator certainly hadn't been lying earlier - it was an intense belly "massage" and one Izzy wanted no part in.

What Izzy wanted was irrelevant, however, as he was now just pred food. Finally, he had taken his place inside of a predator just as billions of other of his kind had before him and would after him. Izzy had finally taken his place in nature. Indeed, all of the preys had as the room was now populated with simply a group of 5 preds, each sporting a bulging belly. The number of creatures in the room had changed to 5 preds and 5 prey to just 5 full preds. Such an image could be framed as a perfect summary of species relations - their catches all reduced to victual, mere resources of pleasure and fullness. Finally, dinner was complete and there wasn't a single prey left.

In the Croc's belly, Izzy was once again reduced to simple prey-like noises as he was treated to the intense working-over the stomach was currently giving him. It was almost impossible for him to truly process. Even as the stomach walls squeezed and churned him, it was as if his brain was in denial. All sounds were gone and now replaced with the noises of the predator's interior, the satisfied grumbles the stomach made now that it had some fresh meat to work over, the heartbeat...everything screamed "you are now food". Resisting was impossible because the walls of the stomach were what he was contained in - there was absolutely no escaping it. The world seemed to stop completely as Izzy's view turned to what it would remain for the rest of his life - the inside of his predator's tummy. Outside, the world continued on as it had with just one fewer squirrel. The situation was completely different from the perspective of his predator, a far-cry from the horrible circumstances squirrelly now found himself in. Time would cease to hold any meaning, as it already had - when all you know is the interior of a stomach, it could be moments or weeks or years from when you'd been eaten and you'd never know. So, as the predators enjoyed their safely tucked away meals and continued to socialize before wrapping up their little gathering, the scene would remain quite the same for Izzy. As the squirrel was squished in every direction, he tried his best to vaguely push away from the rippling belly walls, squirming and struggling as hard as he could simply because it was the only thing he could do.

Unable to really register any interaction from the outside world, Izzy simply continued in his struggling and squirming as the Croc's belly lay claim to him and used him to feed a larger and more superior creature. Eventually, after who even knows how much time, a soft back-and-forth motion rippled across the belly walls as they squirrel-handled him, sparking something in the rodent's brain as he lay deep underneath the predator's scales.

"...l-let me o-out! ...p-please! ...g-get me o-out of here!!"

The tiny words required quite a lot of strength, especially considering they had to force their way past scales and flesh to even be heard by the only one who could possibly hear them in the first place. He accented the pitiful plea with a good bout of vigorous squirming as he thrashed and wiggled around inside his new home.

Izzy Shadetail (again): For the poor mouse, everything was just a quickly moving muscle motion of slick, tasting flesh. Not only was he wolfed into the predator's maw in the flick of a rodent-tail, but the flurry of motion only got worse from thereon out! He was completely wrapped up in ever moving, ever shifting, ever sliding flesh that moved him around almost as much as it moved around him. It was just a (literally) slippery slope that only led down and that was exactly where he was headed. Experienced only through feel in the total darkness, the squishy surroundings folded over and under him in such a way that he couldn't even tell where up or down was, let alone where he was inside the shark. At least, until...

With a 'plop', the rodent settled into a noticeably different section of predator flesh which he knew all too well could only be one thing. The wave of dread and finality that flowed through his soul was as cold as the surrounding and all-encompassing flesh was uninvitingly warm. All he could do was to continue his instinctive movements, a plethora of squirming and movement erupting from the shark's midsection as the outside world was officially off limits for the poor little critter. Now, he was shark food.

The bird, on the other hand, was treated to a much slower and more drawn out demise than the mouse had been given. At least the mouse had been devoured at a speed that left little up to question or chance - drawing it out as long as possible just meant all manner of hopes could be raised and then turned to false hope at the flick of a tongue. A much more emotionally effective way to devour someone if your goal is to get some pleasurable belly squirms after all is said and done! The avian prey was flapping and flailing so hard, there might as well have been feathers flying in every direction as he fought against the sticky tongue cemented to his limb, slowly but surely slurping him deeper and deeper into his fate as food. The world disappeared slowly for the poor bird as he was drawn further in, those amphibian lips coming ever closer by the moment to completely sealing around. Eventually, with the feathered critter making all kinds of chirpy little noises of panic and desperation, the avian was securely tucked inside of the frog's mouth. The encompassing lips closed slowly, causing darkness to take the place of everything the bird once knew to be 'life' to be replaced by what could only be described by any prey critter in their right mind as 'misery'. As the view of the outside world disappeared with the undeniable subtext being that it would never return, the bird gave a final desperate chirp before being completely sealed up inside of the frog's mouth.

The bird was allowed to linger just a bit longer inside of the horrible, tasting chamber of prey suffering (second, of course, only to a predator's stomach) as the frog enjoyed his flavor for just a little bit longer. While these moments were the most horrible yet to the poor prey, perhaps he should have wished them to last a slight bit longer as their conclusion was the final swallow. All too soon (of course, it only felt like that after what seemed like hours of suffering inside) a final swallow from the amphibious predator sealed the bird's fate once and for all as the little chirpy was sent right down the frog's throat and slid snugly into his belly. Again, all of these steps (sort of like denial, anger, bargaining...) of 'prey realizing they have been eaten' were repeated. This was so common an experience, so hard-wired into prey biology, that predator hunting textbooks mentioned and even named the effect. Squirming and thrashing out of blind panic seemed to always follow the final swallow and slide down into the pred's abdomen, and this case was no exception. The frog had much to enjoy as the feathered little guy squirmed as best as he could in his dismal surroundings.

The organic containment rippled in a strange way as the predator ran his hands over his swollen belly in a wordless way to express his satisfaction and happiness. Over time, this only give way to the even stranger sensation of the water-loving amphibian's relaxing dip causing a sudden but intense increase in pressure as the water from the outside collapsed the interior of his stomach even more. The panicked squirms now carrying a labored and sloshy kind of movement, it certainly ensured that there would be no shortage of gustatory satisfaction for the very being who had caused the prey such enormous suffering.

The rat's experience was completely different than any of the other creatures on the menu that day, being that he himself was stuffed with a critter lower on the food-chain than him. The experience of being swallowed whole couldn't have caused a more complicated emotion in the predatory rodent. The standards were all there; of course there was fear, of course there was sadness, and desperation, and panic, and the sense that it was unfair and shouldn't be happening to you...but brief flashes of different feelings would zip into the rat's brain as he was slowly devoured. Of course, the chameleon devouring him was simply interested in a meal (the fact that he was a /stuffed/ meal was even better), and was not inflicting some kind of universe mandated karma on the rodent filled with much more than just the standard cheese affair. The thought occurred to him, however, as he was held in the state of 'being eaten' far longer than necessary - this was exactly what /he/ had put some other poor critter through and here he was getting it done right back to him. The flow of karma and revenge would stop at the chameleon, however - no one would be "punishing" the reptile for devouring the rat but it still couldn't shake itself from the rat's head in between struggles and muffled pleas for release. The creature within the rodent's belly, panicking at not knowing what the source of all the strange movements and such were being caused by, had begun to squirm inside the rat's stomach which only exacerbated the situation (especially not to mention the amount of attention the reptile was paying to his full belly).

The larger rodent was a bit more of a mouthful than the other preys already or in the process of being devoured and the act of getting the prey within the body of the larger and higher-on-the-foodchain reptile was slightly more laborious, though of course completely in the realm of what the pred could handle. It was simply more involved and gave the reptile quite the surplus of satisfaction at tucking away such a large and filling meal. It was just a seemingly endless marathon of being squeeeezed tightly by everything around him as the predator worked more and more of his body into his own. It all happened so slowly, both by the nature of his size as a meal and the reptile's own choosing. Eventually, though, all of the work paid off as the rat slowly slid into the chameleon's belly, seemingly just the right size to fit quite snug indeed inside the hungry organ he would be getting to know quite well. Almost unbearably tight and constricting, the rat could barely wiggle within the chameleon's stomach. Of course he did (again, it was just what ended up naturally happening), squirming and wiggling like crazy, giving the predator wave after wave of movement going through the entirety of his stomach. Every single bit of chameleon stomach got messaged almost as much as the chameleon stomach massaged the rat in return.

Of course, the prey that was probably the worst off in this whole situation was the unfortunate critter who had already spent quite a long time inside of a belly themselves. Nobody even knew what it was, and seemed quite uninterested in finding out. The unbelievable pressure of being inside of two stomachs at once, inside of two very bodies at the same time (contributing pleasure to both of them), was all that poor creature would ever know. Worse than any other prey in the room, whether currently in a belly or on their way to being so, this lowly creature had it worst of all. It had gone through every motion and emotion of getting caught and eaten, spent who knows how long imprisoned inside of his rodent predator and now, when things felt like they absolutely could not get any worse, his predator got eaten himself, subjecting him to a fate even worse than just getting eaten alone. No one would ever know they was even in there.

Though being hunted (and usually) chased down by a hungry predator should tire one out, the adrenalin rush and fear-filled panic that accompanies being devoured provides a rush of desperate energy that takes a long while to deplete. Thus, the two figures contained within the single reptile continued their blind and goalless squirming. The fact that they were simply providing their predator with more pleasure did not even occur to them, just as it didn't occur to them that their squirming would never actually result in their freedom. The future would hold only more of the same, with just a slight increase in jostling and then squeezing pressure as the chameleon eventually righted himself and made his way to his bedroom, getting a bit more comfortable in the process. The chamber that housed the rat got just a wee bit more snug as the lizard lied down to sleep off his large meal, his body turning off his lucidity to give way to slumber, completely apathetic to the amount of energy currently being expended in his midsection.

For the poor chipmunk who'd had the bad luck to find himself in the unrelenting grasp of the pelican, the view would be much the same (the only difference being the torment that preceded it). Constantly struggling wildly for freedom as a byproduct of being at the receiving end of the pelican's taunting abuse, the struggle only increased as the bird finally decided to end the purposely drawn out process of devouring his prey. The poor guy was treated to much of what he had already come to experience over the afternoon, only with the added benefit of knowing that the chances of it ending were now officially 0%. The bird had made sure to squeeze absolutely every single drop of enjoyment out of his toy/food as he possibly could have, all at the little prey's expense, and had happily finished it off with finally swallowing him down for a climax of making his prey's short term and long term nightmare come alive at the exact same time. And now, it was all over.

Once the preds had finished with their meals and some of them had gone their separate ways for the day, everything was exactly the same for all of the poor critters trapped inside of them. It was all the same darkness and squeezing and churning and constant movement and knowledge that nothing but pure pleasure and satisfaction and joy were being experienced because you were going through it. Everything would be the same from now on, absolutely everything - nothing would ever be anything other than 'inside of a belly' for the captured and devoured prey creatures. Well...maybe not 'nothing'. After an unmeasurable and undefinable span of time spent in their dark prisons (they'd never know the concept of time again, not even tick marks to show the days), one of them noticed something changing around him. It was impossible to know exactly what was happening, but the little chipmunk now officially classified as 'pelican food' was being subjected to something very strange. The interior of the waterbird predator had been as merciless as the exterior had, the pelican's belly instantly claiming the little rodent as its own and seizing upon his body, so as to put it to use for the predator's own satisfaction and delight.

Suddenly, something indescribable was going on all around the little chippy. It felt like he was being eaten...inside of the pelican's stomach! He could feel himself being pumped and squeezed through some sort of biological process of the pelican's innards. Both in fear of what was happening as well as simply an animalistic reaction to the unknown stimulus, the rodent began squirming and thrashing inside as hard as possible, trying to push the walls of the bird's insides away from him. Finally, after a few moments of being chipmunk-handled by his surroundings, the prey came to rest in a decidedly different chamber than the one he had started in. Instantly, these new surroundings seized upon his body even /more/ vigorously than the previous chamber had. Squeaking and squealing in that way that only a rodent can, the little chipmunk squirmed and kicked and struggled like mad as the walls of this new chamber worked him over even rougher than the previous had. During especially hectic churns, one might even be able to make out a quiet "No!" or "Let me out, please!" mixed within the aimless squeaks.