Fidget sighed in relief when she spotted land at last. “Finally!” the exhausted Nimbat breathed, adjusting her bat-like wings and gliding down from hard-fought altitude on high. The small furry critter had been searching for something other than the broad ocean waters for hours now and was running on fumes. If she could snag a bite to eat and a day or three’s rest she’d be all settled up once more. As it was, her wing joints ached and her whole body was hanging on their precious efforts, limbs and tail dangling limply. She coasted down right for the edge of the island she’d come across, figuring that’d be as safe a place to land as any. She saw some bright colorful creatures milling about in some kind of village not too far off, and made to avoid it. She didn’t want to startle anyone, and landing amid a crowd of strangers wasn’t her idea of keeping a low profile. Instead, she found a solitary house-like structure near said beach, off on its own.

Fidget figured she could convince one of these creatures to help her out. An island that big with so many healthy-looking beings was bound to have something she could eat. “Heck I might just vacation here for a spell if they’ll have me,” she mused, flaring her wings and kicking up sand as she landed flat on her white-furred belly, limbs and tail flat to the hot, comforting beach. “Ahhh… Sweet dry land at last.” She gently splayed her wings out to let them soak up that pain-numbing heat, resting a cheek to it and mumbling pleasantly. It was almost enough to make her fall asleep, and she probably would have, if not for the heavy thump-thump-thumps of something – someone – big and heavy heading towards her!

“Oh!” Fidget picked herself up, dusted and shook herself free of loose sand, and reluctantly took wing once more. She never liked looking up in conversations (and a Nimbat almost always did), preferring to stare eye-to-eye. Not that the big bipedal boots-wearing bozo approaching her felt intimidating. Quite the opposite, with how round, chubby, and soft every edge of it looked! Even the spikes poking out his neck seemed harmless. The big glasses on its eyes certainly weren’t doing any favors for him either. Fidget relaxed some. I chose right! This guy’s friendly-looking enough and clearly has enough to eat. He’ll have food to spare and I can just relax and recuperate. When the plump creature caught up to her and she was hovering about the height of his bulbous snout, she offered a courteous smile and a little wave. “Hey there.”

“Hi!” came the jovial reply, the other waving back, then sniffing the air. “Whoa, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like you before!” He adjusted his glasses and squinted. Fidget smirked.

“I wouldn’t think so! I’m from pretty far away you know. My name’s Fidget. I’m a Nimbat and I’ve been flying forever and do you think you could–”

Fidget didn’t even seen the tongue. In an instant the big creature’s mouth dropped open and a wide sticky red whip-like thing fired off from within! It coiled thrice around her hovering body. Fidget had been several feet away just in case of any tomfoolery but had no idea the tongues these things had! The tongue bound tightly against her knees, thighs, belly and chest, and she had but an instant to start frantically flapping her wings before he snatched her right out the sky! “Hey!” she squawked before plunging into the widened mouth. The apparently-hungry creature crunched down right on Fidget’s hips, trapping all her limbs and most of her wings inside the hot sticky cavern. The edges of her wings twitched erratically just outside scaly lips, protruding Nimbat butt wriggling and noodle-like tail flailing about. “Ouch!” the pain from the soft, but strong, jaws squishing down on her rump coursed through her, as the tongue coils pulled up off her, leaving her drenched in slobber. “Hey you big bully, let me out! Do you hear me! I can really mess you up!!”

But the creature didn’t open up. He didn’t even seem to be paying attention to her. He murmured and pressed the tip of his tongue and more over Fidget’s face and guided it up and down her body, ignoring her tail whipping harmlessly at his snout in chin. Another soft chew from the jaws and her protruding wing tips bent awkwardly, suddenly slipping inward. Fidget let out a cry, hoping whoever this was didn’t just cripple her, and didn’t even notice her flinching hindpaws and toes be squeezed in next, out of sight. Fidget was left mostly devoured now, nothing but a spotted butt and swishing tail protruding.

Fidget screamed, much worse off than potential wing fractures now! Her eyes stared back at the flexing throat, it seeming way too eager to pull her in. This wasn’t some prank or odd cultural greeting: This creature was trying to eat her alive! “L-Let me out!” In response, the chubby creature did the opposite, pursing lips around his prey and crunching down and around her protruding butt. The rear end and tail quickly vanished form sight when the big chubby creature loudly schlrrp’d the rest of her up! Fidget was a bunched-up ball of Nimbat settled atop the creature’s tongue, and she demanded again to be set free.

No such luck! The creature happily murred and sloshed her from one of his big cheeks to the other, Fidget turned upside down and squished from one wet slimy wall to the other, legs arms and tail tangled. “Hey! Ugh. Stop! Erf! Why you… Augh!” The sloshing and slurping and tasting continued for just a bit longer. “N-no wonder you’re so fat! You just eat up everything you see! You… Y-you…” Fidget stammered over her words when the bulbous tongue tip cupped up under her legs and splatted up against her rear end, just under her tail. “NO!” Fidget yelled, flapping her wings like mad in the tight confines, making the creature’s cheeks flutter and bounce from the outside. The Nimbat was ushered to the back of the maw, right towards the pulsating, pitch-black gullet beyond. “Don’t eat me I’m sorry I called you names stop wait!!!”

GLURMP!

Fidget was effortlessly swallowed whole, squelched into that black pit and ushered downward. She formed a soft round bulge in his neck, which quickly vanished into his vast white belly. Fidget shrieked at the top of her lungs, limbs and wings tucked to her tightly-packed body. The terrified Nimbat plunged right down into the awaiting stomach, landing in viscous gobs of stomach fluids. “H-h-he ate me alive!” Fidget began pounding the walls, shooting useless energy spheres about, and flapping her pained wings with all her might. She only managed to frighten herself further with those spheres, as they only served to light up the innards and reveal she was waist-deep in starting-to-activate stomach acids.

Fidget splashed and kicked and flapped and punched and headbutted and did all she could to try and get the not-so-hungry-anymore creature to release her. But he didn’t even feel the pathetic squirms of the comparatively smaller orange thing, as he proceeded with his planned walk along the beach, humming to himself. Fidget began to breathe quick, static breaths, heart pounding in her ears as she tried reaching for wherever she thought she dropped from. It all felt the same to her: Soft malleable stomach lining, which secreted more of the itchy stomach fluids she was wading in. GLRRRRRG… “Th-th-that can’t be good,” Fidget whimpered, redoubling her efforts. After the end of a solid 20 minutes of struggling, the stomach all around her rumbled, and the walls compressed all around her. She did something! This was it! Fidget was chest-deep in stomach fluids that started to sting now, the Nimbat holding her wings and arms aloft to keep them from submerging. She couldn’t feel her feet, with her legs and butt stinging from the start of digestion. The belly walls tightened more, and her face suddenly was squished from both ends, ears and wings pinned to her skull. Then from above, she heard a loud, albeit muffled, consequence of her actions.

“URRP! Ooh, you really were a tasty… Nimbat? I’ll have to find more of you some time.”

“N-n-no! Please! Please let me out! D-don’t digest me!” Fidget strained her pinned ears for a response, before realizing that she could hear him, but not the other way around. CHRRRRRGLE… GLRT GLOP! Acids rose more and lapped at Fidgets chin, some droplets stinging her face. “Help meeee!” The feisty Nimbat did all she could to resist, but there wasn’t anything she could do, when the crushing belly walls suddenly thrust from all sides once more… as well as from above. “Nooo–glllblrlph!!!” bubbles rose from where Fidget was forced under, her last words naught but a stream of air and utterly unintelligible. Her paws, still out of the fluids, grabbed through the empty air before they too sank. Finally, the bent tips of her wings were overtaken, leaving the entire struggling, desperate Nimbat to struggle beneath the churning fluids. The acids stung and Fidget cried out a sea of bubbles one last time, fluids flowing inward, before she blacked out.

*	*	*

Dear Diary,
I discovered a brand new species today! An odd-lookin’ bat-like thing was there in the sand and rose up to me when I got close. She looked soft and cuddly and adorable and looked so cute you could just eat her up… So I did! (Sorry, I know I’ve used that joke before.) She did seem lost based on what little she got to say but smelt so good I couldn’t pass up the free meal! I forget her name but know what she called herself: A Nimbat! The next time I leave the island I’ll have to find more of them. Didn’t put up much of a fight after I ate her or anything. Only felt a little fidget now and then, and… Right, that’s her name! Fidget!

Ah, you were a lovely meal, Fidget. Don’t think you’ll add a sliver to me but you were as tasty as you looked!