Kyle wasn't in the best of moods. His job was kicking his ass now that the holidays were over, constant badgering from his family about his upcoming move down south. Every day he got one or two calls from either his mother or sisters telling him how dumb it was to move without a job waiting for him. He had tried to tell them that he didn't care, he just needed a change from his normal life. He already had housing set up where he would be moving to. A good friend had offered him the spare room in his apartment for a few months until he got on his feet. Despite that he was constantly defending his life choice. On top of that one of his co-workers, a large bear with more fat on his body than a whale, had practically ambushed him wanting him to take care of some things around his house while he left for vacation for a week.

Kyle hardly even knew the guy! Sure he had seen him around the office, but they had never chatted much. Kyle worked at a major shipping company, their trucks carried everything from construction equipment to mass amounts of produce and on occasion mail for the postal service. Bruce, the bear, was one of the truck drivers who fell under Kyle's crew of drivers. Other than a friendly "Good morning" when they met in the halls or break room or telling him where and what he'd be shipping on his next route, the small fox had no interaction with the beast of a male.

But for some reason, two days before the guy had cornered him and told him that he wanted Kyle to swing by his place to bring in the mail, water the plants and feed his pets. He had thrust a house key into the fox's paw and left without another word. Needless to say Kyle was stunned. Who would be crazy enough to give a practical stranger the key to their place? At first the fox had thought that the bear had just been messing with him and was fully set on ignoring the odd request. That was until that afternoon when he got a phone call from Bruce.

In short, the bear had asked why Kyle hadn't been to his place yet to do as he asked. Confused as to how the massive bear could possibly know he hadn't been there the fox tried to make up an excuse about being busy. Bruce paid it no mind and growled in his deep voice; "I don't fucking care how busy ya are! I gave ya a job and you're lettin me down! My babies need tending to and you're the one that's gotta do it!"

The bear had a few more choice words for the fox, which he couldn't believe the large male had actually said to his supervisor. But Kyle wasn't able to get another word in. The call ended with the bear growling a threat that if he came back and found his plants dead and his pets starving he would personally file charges of animal cruelty against the fox and have him fired. Not to mention the physical harm he had threatened him with.

All that lead to Kyle now standing on the front porch of a decently sized house about an hour outside the city. Nothing but green fields stretched out for a mile in any direction. Apparently Bruce liked his privacy[. A]nother reason it was odd he asked Kyle to invade his home. Sighing to himself, the fox pulled out the key the bear had given him and unlocked the door. The moment the door opened a blast of super heated air hit him full in the face. His breath was sucked from his lungs and he gasped and coughed trying to regain his breath.

Apparently the bear did not like the cold one bit. The fox's tongue instant fell from his mouth and he began to pant heavily as he entered the humid home.

The moment the door was shut behind him the heat rose another couple degrees. Quickly pulling off his winter jacket and even his sweater under that. Kyle was now standing in a small living room in only heavy winter pants and a quickly soaking tank top. His orange and white fur standing up making him look a bit fluffier than normal.

"Holy fuck!" He whined moving through the house. "It‘s so damn hot in here."

Kyle was about to venture further into the house when he spied a note pad sitting on a small table just beside the front door. There was a small bowl full of loose change sitting next to it. So Kyle assumed Bruce used the table and bowl to hold his keys and what nots so he could grab them before heading out. The note pad had Kyle's name written in big bold letters on the first page. So The fox figured Bruce had also left this for him.

Picking up the pad Kyle flipped the page and began to read. It took some time since the bear's hand writing was kind of sloppy;

“Kyle, like I said, I need ya to take care of some things around my place while I'm away. Here's a list of shit ya need ta do before I get back. Follow them to the letter or they'll be trouble. Also don't try and swipe any of my shit, I've got security cameras all over the place that I watch all the time from my phone.“

Kyle looked around and began to notice small little black boxes set into the corners of the ceiling. Each one had a tiny red light and a lens that pointed in different directions. "No wonder he wasn't worried about letting me in." Kyle said out loud to himself.

“The major thing ya need ta do is feed James, but it takes a while for him to eat so make sure to do that last!“

"What, what?" Kyle stumbled over the words a few times making sure he had read them right. Why would he have to feed this thing last? Just cause it took him so long to eat? Kyle wondered what sort of pet the bear had. For some reason he couldn't picture the massive brute as having a parrot or gold fish.

The fox continued to read over the list of instructions having to pause and double read a few lines just to be sure that he read it right. By the time he was done he was very confused, not once did it mention what kind of creature James was or what food it was to be fed. All the paper said was that James was down in the basement and his food would be down there too. Kyle had never really owned a pet before but he couldn't picture what type of animal needed to be kept in the basement, or for that fact how it could stand living in this crazy heat.

Several spots on the paper had gotten damp from Kyle's sweat as it dripped from his tongue and off the end of his nose. His fur was no longer standing up but now laying flat against his body showing off every curved and bump of his thin yet athletic form. He didn't have a crazy amount of muscle like the gym rats did, but he had a smooth stomach and well defined pectorals and biceps from running, swimming and a little weight lifting.

A small post script was written at the bottom of the page which made Kyle do a double take.

“P.s. I don't like cloth[e]s to be worn in the house. It upsets James so make sure to strip down before moving through my place. Ya can leave your boxers or whatever on if ya want ta be a little bitch about it though...“

Kyle was stunned by that. Above everything else that request didn't make any [sense] at all. First off why would clothing upset Bruce's pet, and secondly why would he have to strip down now if he wasn't going into the basement until later on? "Maybe Bruce is one of them crazy perverts who get off on weird shit?" Kyle said to himself. "Maybe he wants me to strip so he can watch it on his cameras and get off to me..."

Kyle felt an odd flattery if that was the case. He couldn't remember the last time someone had hit on him. Even if the fat, slobbish bear wasn't even close to his type. Shrugging a shoulder Kyle figured that stripping down would at least give him a little relief from the sweltering heat. If Bruce got off on the sight then oh well.

Sitting the note pad down for a moment, Kyle undid the buckles and buttons on his snow pants and pushed them down to his ankles. He stumbled a bit as he had forgotten to remove his snow boots but soon they where off and so was his pants. Not wanting to just leave them laying around, he folded them up neatly and placed them next to the table by the front door. He did the same with his boots and then his tank top, which was now soaking wet. He left it un-folded hoping that it might dry off a bit before he had to put it back on.

Standing now only in his boxers, the fox felt a small wash of cool air over his bare fur and it brought a smile to his face. The place was still hot as hell but at least it was bearable now. Deciding to leave his boxers on the fox grabbed the note book and went deeper into the house. Over the course of the next hour or so Kyle watered the plants, of which there where almost two dozen. They where spread out in the kitchen, living room, upstairs bed rooms and even a few in the bathrooms. The fox had no idea the massive bruin was such a plant lover.

Once that was done, he grabbed the snow covered news papers from the front door. Getting a big blast of frigged winter air all over his almost naked body in the process. He placed them in the kitchen sink so the wouldn't get anything wet as the snow quickly melted. After that he gathered the pile of mail that had been shoved through the male slot at the back door. Arranging it into a neat little pile on the kitchen table so the bear could easily find it. All the while Kyle stole small glances at the glaring red dot of the security cameras spread all over the house. They always seemed to be watching him and once or twice he thought he saw one of them turn and follow him as if they where being remotely controlled.

"He did say he can watch from his phone," Kyle thought. "Maybe he can control them also?"

Trying to not let the thought of being watched bother him too much he made sure to follow the list of instructions exactly as they had been written. By the time the sun started to sink in the winter sky Kyle had finished everything on the list with the one exception of feeding the mysterious James. "He's down in the basement." Kyle mumbled to himself moving over to the basement door.

He had wanted to go down there the whole time but held back since he the instructions told him not to even go near the basement door until it was time to feed James. As his white furred hand grabbed the small metal door knob, Kyle felt an odd shiver run through him. His tail twitched and he had an odd [sense] of foreboding wash over him. His instincts where telling him that he shouldn't go down there. That he should turn tail and run. Gulping he gave his head a little shake and sucked in a breath. "Don't be a little bitch Kyle, if you don't do this then he'll make my life a living hell and I'll never get out of this damn town. Can't move if I get fired."

Steeling himself and ignoring the feeling of doom, the fox turned the door knob and began to descend the small stair case down into the humid basement. The basement was dark yet had an odd chill to the air even though it was just as hot as the rest of the house. Kyle paused for a moment thinking that he heard something moving around in the dark but didn't hear anything else.

Reaching out his hand, Kyle began groping along the wall looking for the light switch. He had to move almost half way into the room when he finally felt the small plastic switch. Flicking it a soft hum began to fill the air. Instead of the normal lighting most basements have, several heating bulbs slowly glowed to life throughout the basement. The fox looked at the odd fixtures with curiosity. He had seen lights like these before as a kid. One of his uncles had a small snake that he kept in a cage, it had to have a light just like them to keep itself warm otherwise it would just curl up and not move for hours on end. In the back of Kyle's mind he began to piece a few of the odd things from the house together. But his waking mind continued to ignore it even though it sent his flight or fight instinct into over drive.

As the lights slowly began to get brighter Kyle moved further into the basement. It wasn't until he was almost in the middle of the room that he noticed that the floor no longer felt like a basement floor, or any type of home flooring that he had ever felt. Crunching his toes he looked down and was shocked to find that a heavy layer of tan sand was covering the whole basement floor from the middle to the far wall. Medium sized rocks laid about here and there along with a large kid sized wading pool full of water.

Kyle's whole body shook; he recognized what the basement had been turned into. It was a massive cage for a snake, or at least some other kind of reptile. Gulping heavily the fox began to look around careful not to make any sudden moves. He couldn't see any animal down there. Then again he didn't know what sort of animal he was suppose to be looking for. "Maybe it‘s burred under the sand?" He thought. "Or maybe it can blend into the surrounding? Or maybe..." He stopped moving and slowly raised his eyes to the ceiling. "Maybe it can stick to the ceiling?"

He carefully scanned the whole roof of the basement but couldn’t spot anything out of the norm. Or what he assumed was the norm. Lowering his eyes once more he tried to calm his breathing. "Alright Kyle, just calm down. Just find whatever it is this thing eats and set it out. Then carefully walk out of here and never set foot inside this fucking place again."

Carefully Kyle began to inch forward further into the basement over the warm sand. The heat lamps above him where now blazing brightly at full power making him sweat even more than before. Smacking his lips and wishing he had some water to drink, the fox began looking around trying to find some kind of cabinet or compartment that might hold food or pet supplies. He couldn't find anything. Along the far back wall was dozens of desert type plants that covered anything beyond from sight. He thought that maybe the food was hidden back there. Carefully he began to push his way past the prickly plants. They tugged at his exposed fur and ripped small holes in his boxers. Several times he had to stop and fiddle with a stubborn thorn that snagged the rim of his boxers and threatened to pull them off completely.

While he was fumbling with the plant that was holding his underpants in a death grip, he heard a faint hissing sound from near by. He froze, his heart pounding in his chest. The hissing came again. He thought he could hear slithering and shifting but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He softly tried to pry his boxers free of the thorn but it wasn't letting go. Finally out of fear the fox carefully stepped out of his boxers. Now naked he began to back up out of the small forest of prickly thorns and painful spikes. The moment he was free of the foliage he let out a small sigh of relief and closed his eyes for a moment.

When he opened them back up his heart froze. Staring back at him from within the brown/green wall of plant life, was a [pair] of beady yellow diamond slit eyes. They seemed to glow faintly even in the bright light of the heating lamps above. Gasping at how close the eyes where Kyle jumped back and let out a frightened cry. The heel of his foot stepped on an uneven section of the sandy ground and he felt himself begin to fall backwards.

The world seemed to switch into slow motion. As Kyle fell, he watched as from within the plant life the head of a massive snack emerge[d]. Its head was easily as big as the fox's torso. The length of body right below it was narrow but still impossibly thick. The sound of shifting sand drew his attention bellow him to the thing he had tripped over. It took a moment for him to realize that it was the body of the great serpent. Thicker around than his whole body, the trunk of the creature undulated and shifted emerging from within the tan sand. The scales where a light brown with small spiky horns poking out along its spine.

Vaguely Kyle realized that both his guesses had been right, the creature both was buried in the sand and could blend into the area around it. With his body still seeming to fall in slow motion Kyle turned his head back to look at the massive snake's head. The gleaming eyes where locked onto him and a long thick tongue poked constantly out from between its lips tasting the air. With a low rumbling hiss, the head reared back and then lunged forward. The fox could only watch in helpless horror as the head darted at him like a bullet. The jaws parting showing a deep purple and red cavern of pulsing moist flesh along with rows of sharp pointed teeth. Two massive fangs unfolding along the upper jaw until the pointed down with a slight curve. They looked wickedly sharp and Kyle thought he spotted a small gleaming drop of fluid at the tip of both fangs.
The large head came closer and closer, Kyle kn[ew owing] there was nothing he could do. His eyes grew wide as the snake‘s head and open jaw reached him. The thing‘s head curved up and over him until its upper jaw was now at the back side of his right shoulder and its lower jaw was at the front. He felt the sharp fangs press into his fur and flesh. The meat of his shoulder spreading easily around the fangs as if they where hot knives going into butter. The pain registered a moment later as both upper and lower jaws snapped shut hard on his shoulder. The pain seemed to speed the world back up and in fact even skipped ahead a few moments cause the next thing Kyle realized was that he was wrapped tightly from shoulder to toe in a thick, heavy and undulating body of warm scales.

Every time he tried to move, the body would wrap around him tighter making his body ache and his lungs struggle to breathe. Before long he felt more than a few of his bones crack and threaten to break completely. Finally he stopped moving, not by any actual choice but because his body was slowly beginning to feel numb. He couldn't even move a finger. He could feel a warmth spreading through his body from the point in his shoulder where the snake had bit him. He whimpered as his mind slowly registered what it must of been.

"Poison!" He gasped his speech slurred and his tongue feeling thick and numb. He remembered seeing drops of liquid on the fangs and realized that the snacks fangs must be pumping some sort of paralyzing poison into his body. Kyle's heart began to pound quickly as he began to fear that any minute his lungs would stop working and he would suffocate. But as the minutes dragged on he found that he could still breath relatively easily.

A slurping sound sounded out right next to his ear and from the cover of his eye the fox was able to see the snake finally lifting its massive head up letting its large fangs slip out from inside his shoulder. He mentally winced in pain as the fangs slipped from the meat of his shoulder. The glowing yellow eyes looked down at him with an odd sort of intelligence as if the thing knew that the fox wasn't able to move but was still able to feel and see everything.

Kyle watched, horrified, as the snake's large head moved to just behind his head. He could only see a vague glimpse of the head and what it was doing. Then a shadow fell over his face. The snake opened its massive mouth wide. Two faint pops sounded out as the jaw dislocated allowing the mouth to open even wider. Kyle had a strange feeling that the snake was only doing that to intimidate him, after all, the thing was plenty big enough to swallow him whole without dislocating its jaw.

Kyle watched, unable to move, as the snake's mouth descended on his head. He felt the back of his head press against the wet and sticky flesh of its lower jaw while the upper one began to press down on him. He feared at first that the thing‘s massive fangs would stab him in the chest but was relieved to see them fold back along its upper jaw. As his face was smashed against the roof of the snakes mouth the realization hit him that it would of been better had the things fangs stabbed and killed him. Cause now, he was face to face with the approaching black slime filled tunnel of the thing‘s throat and digestive system.

The fox tried to yell, tried to wiggle and fight but it was no good. The snake‘s venom was still keeping his body from responding. Not even his tail wagged. His ears where filled with the squishing and wet sounds of pre digestion. The large cavern of a mouth slowly began to crawl its way down his body until he felt the top of his head press against the opening of the massive thing‘s throat.

The fleshy opening yawned widely in anticipation for its meal. Strings of slobber spider-webbed their way all over the opening. As his head and face was forced into the opening he could feel them sticking to his fur making his sweat soaked body even more slick with their juices. The snake's head continued to slowly move down along Kyle's body soon taking in his shoulders and chest as well. With his mouth unable to open the fox was forced to breath through his nose, which was very hard due to all the gunk trying to push its way inside along with the rancid smell of old digested meat.

It was as the smell grew worse that Kyle realized the true horror of it all. Not only was he on a one way trip into a massive snakes stomach unable to even fight back. But Bruce, the massive slob of a bear that worked under him had sent him to his doom. Even if he didn't know for sure[,] he [had] was pretty confident that the bear had planned on him to come down into the basement and get attacked by this beast. There was no other explanation for it. The bear had literally served the fox to his pet snake on a silver platter.

A small whimper left his throat as Kyle felt his shoulders begin to enter the pulsing wet throat forcing him further and further along into the hefty body. The air was heavy and stale. Kyle hoped that he would pass out before too long. Since he could still feel everything, he didn't want to reach the snake's stomach while still awake. He didn't need to know what being slowly digested alive felt like.

Over the course of the next thirty minutes, James, the snake, slowly and happily consumed his weekly meal. By the time the fox's feet and tail vanished down into the snakes gullet, darkness had fallen and everything was quite. The snake hissed happily as it slowly slithered itself through the sand burying itself once more getting ready to begin digesting its meal.

Kyle had thought he had died. His mind had gotten foggy and soon had drifted off. But as the snake shifted its body the movement had jarred him enough to wake him up. As he opened his eyes only to see more of the same darkness Kyle let out a pain filled moan. His body was slowly being squeezed through the tight tunnel being bent this way and that as the snake‘s body stretched out for a while before coiling up into a tight bundle forcing Kyle's body to follow along its length. Finally after several minutes of this, the fox felt himself come to a stop. The section of the snake's insides didn't feel any different than the rest had, but Kyle knew exactly where he was.
"Oh god!" He gasped in his mind. "I'm in its stomach!"

The fear of what was to come made him instinctively kick out even though he had long ago given up hope of moving again. To his amazement, his feet had actually moved! With this new development Kyle thought he had a small chance of getting out. If he could upset the snake‘s stomach enough maybe it would throw him back up. With a burst of energy the fox began to kick and wiggle as much as the tight space would allow him. He even tried pushing out with his hands at the fleshy walls. To his dismay it did no good. The flesh and muscles were far too strong and all he achieved was using up the last bit of his energy. He doubted he even made a bulge in the snakes mid section.

A soft gurgling sound began to fill the space around him. The flesh walls started to pulse quickly. Kyle had a small flair of hope that his plan had actually worked. But it didn't take long for him to realize that wasn't the case. Even though the walls where moving around him, he wasn't moving at all. He began to feel an odd tingling sensation that started at his toes and was quickly moving up along his body. Rubbing his hand over his thigh to try and scratch at the sensation there he felt a large clump of his fur pull away from his skin.

"Oh god no." He gasped pulling another clump of fur away. The newly exposed skin began to burn now as he felt on new odd textured goo covering his body. He knew what was happening and it chilled him to his core.

He was starting to be digested! He tried to wiggle and fight again, but he had used up every bit of his energy the last time. There was nothing he could do. The new layer of digestive goo coated his body stripping it of any fur he had. Even his sheath was bare of fur leaving just red tender flesh. The pulsing flesh stopped for a short time although to Kyle it felt like hours. Then they started up again. Another thicker coating of slime began to be spread over his bare body from the pulsing muscles around him.

The new slime burned with a greater intensity than the last one had and he wanted to howl in pain. How was he still alive? He wondered. The air was so stale that it had to be only carbon now. He should of suffocated a long time ago. Little did Kyle know that the type of snake that James was, often would suck down small amounts of air in order to keep its prey alive for as long as possible.

Kyle felt the burning on his body grow more and more intense as time passed. He had no idea how long he spent inside the snake‘s body. Constantly the muscles would start to pulse and ungulate around him coating him in layer after layer of digestive juices that, while very very painful, never did more than cause a few gashes along his body. With all the screaming and yelling he did Kyle felt the digestive goo push its way down into his mouth and throat wickedly burning his vocal cords to raw useless nerves. He couldn't even whimper anymore without feeling extreme pain and tasting blood.

He felt like he was in his own living hell as he continued to slowly be digested by the massive snake. After a long long while he felt himself begin to get light headed. A faint smile pulled at his red bloody raw lips. The top layer of his flesh had melted slowly away showing the bloody muscles and now dead nerves under it. He could feel his heart starting to slow. "Finally." He thought. His lidless eyes twitched slightly as he breathed out one last time and stopped moving all together.

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Five days after Kyle had entered Bruce's house the bear finally came back from his vacation. The massive bear was a sight to see. Standing well over six feet and weighing over three hundred and fifty pounds. The beast of a bear stomped into his home and instantly stripped off all his clothing. Leaving his four times XL pants by the front door along with his size fifteen boots and button down shirt. He paid no attention to the folded winter clothing or boots by the side table.

Stomping through the house, Bruce hummed an off beat tone to himself. Opening the fridge he pulled out a cold beer. Using the thick claw on his thumb he popped the top off and guzzled down half the cold bitter drink. Letting out a loud belch he patted his massive gut and smiled happy to see that the fox had indeed done as he had told him.
Smiling to himself Bruce chuckled at the thought. He had pegged the little fox for a weak little thing the first time he had seen him. It had taken everything in his power to put up with the twerp for as long as he had. Bruce had nothing against foxes, as long as they weren't little pathetic bitches and Kyle, sadly, was exactly that. Bruce had seen just how un-manly the fox had been. Spending way to much time in the bathroom at work fixing his cloths or how careful he was while eating in the break room making sure not a single thing on his table was out of place.

Bruce hated males like that. So he had planned out his little "favor,” making sure that no one had seen or heard him ask the fox to visit his house. He already lived well away from anyone else so no one would see his car still parked outside. The cameras in his home didn't even record to anyplace other than his phone or personal computer both of which where well protected from anyone who would try and break in. The cameras even saved digital copies to a personal storage system just in case the hard drive of his computer crapped out.

Chugging the rest of his beer the bear grabbed another taking a much smaller drink before heading to the basement. The door was closed, he had made sure it was heavy enough to close on its own just in case. Opening it he stomped down the stairs and saw the brightly lit basement. The air was hot and humid just like his pet liked it. Stepping into the sand area Bruce looked around a bit before spotting the small traces of a coil pattern in the tan sand. Smiling he walked over to it and slumped down onto on[e] knee.

"Rise and shine, James." He said happily running his massive paw over the sand. A moment later the large head of the snake slithered out flicking its tongue out at the bear. "There's my big boy, did ya miss daddy?" The snake hissed some more and began to slither out from its coiled position. Bruce watched the body of his pet uncurl from the sand and was happy to see he looked a bit bigger than when he had left. "Enjoy your meal I see buddy!"

His smile grew wider as he placed his large paw on the snake‘s body, feeling the scales and muscles pulse and shifted under his touch. "Figured ya would like fox, better than them damn bunnies I've been bringing home from the bar huh?" An almost agreeing hiss sounded out from the snake as it brushed up against the bears massive thigh and began to climb its way up to his shoulders. Rubbing his thick finger against the underside of the snakes jaw, Bruce chuckled.

"It's been almost a week since I've had a decent meal as well, how about I go out for a bit and grab us both a nice meal?" Bruce stood up and carefully lowered James back to the ground. "I've been in the mood for some horse lately. Saw a few nice ones down south who would of filled me up good. Damn stubborn bastards wouldn't take the bate though." He shrugged. "Oh well, folks round down there are smarter than the dumb fucks around here."

He began to move back to the stairs and started to climb back up. He needed to get rid of the fox's clothing and car before anything else. Grabbing his cell out of his pants pocket Bruce placed a call to his brother who owned an auto garage that doubled as a chop shop. He'd be happy to get a new car without having to steal it. Once that was done, Bruce headed up to take a shower already thinking of what bar to go to in order to pick up his dinner.