Nibblenibblenibble. 

The quiet munching of a mouse, tucked away in some secluded field. The crunch of flesh between my jaws and that juicy dribble down my lips. It was an apple of course, fresh, young, still sweet and ripe even after that bruise from where it fell off my tree. I tried to be quiet, but how does one manage to soundlessly bite into an apple? I was left with simply enjoying for while I could. 

That tigress …

Holly, humanoid, bright blue hair and soft amber eyes. She called herself a huntress above all else, but ended up getting snagged by a mouse. Somehow this behemoth of white fur and black stripes was my waifu, and actually engaged in a loving relationship. 

She bats a five fingered hand at my apple to send it rolling away in a smooth, lazy motion. 

“MOST OF THE TIME!” I chirped at her, using a high pitched language to hide my true indignation. Whiskers feeling where the apple drifts away, ears swiveled to follow the soft grind of fruit over grass. My hind legs coil, a deft leap, and within moments I had thrown myself onto the top of that delectable food.

In the common tongue I shouted out, my voice rippling in the thunderous cannonfire most humans would call a speaking voice. 

“You will not escape me!” 

Holly watches it and me roll toward her leg, coming to rest against the exposed thigh. She offers an amused chuckle, that throaty rumbling base that makes my whiskers shiver and sends a ripple of fear down my spine. Her voice is like someone took fireworks and fired them off a few feet away from me, timed to morse code. It sends my ears folding back and gives me a slight pain in my nostrils. Her tongue sounds of wet slosh and dripping blood when it moves, I could see the way her throat expands and contracts to control the air flow. Flashes of teeth.

But I understood the words. 

“This is ridiculously adorable.” 

I glanced up, eyes wide, my head touching her skin and whiskers stretching out to feel the warmth of her body. That overwhelming presence, the way her fur and her color, her muscle and her everything dominated my awareness. I couldn’t let her know this of course, she was a huntress. I had to constantly assert my dominance.

Crunchnibblecrunchmunchnibble. I tore into the apple again, gripping with my teeth and viciously tearing away the skin to gnaw down on delectable pulp. 

“Mousevictory!” I thundered back. 

“Don’t you usually inhale your food?” 

“Yes.” I answered, gulping between words. “But apples aren’t evil, so it won’t work.” 

“What if I told you that was actually a demi-lich in the form of an apple?” 

No …

No she wouldn’t. Did she? 

Impossible. 

Those were among my favorite … 

But … 

With only a moment’s hesitation I plant my lips against the bright red skin, activating a rapid flurry of spells designed to transform and contain the very essence of this apple, binding it’s physical body and drawing it inside me. I could taste the bacteria alive on its surface, each engaging in their own tiny little wars. I could feel it’s waning life, a body starved of the tree’s resources, desperately hoping just to get those seeds a little farther away while the fruit dies and rots around it. 

I frowned. “D-don’t tease me like thaaaaat.” Of course it wasn’t a lich. And so I added in squeaks as an annoyed huff. “Damn lying cats.” Knowing full well she couldn’t grasp the subtle nuances of a squeaked curse. 

Holly laughs, throwing her head back and bombarding me with that girlish thunder. The sound of her voice washing over the clearing and making my bones rattle. 

“It’s just got some strong magic resistance.” She offers in casual deadpan. But then adds, to my dismay. “Keep trying.” 

Suddenly I could feel it. The flickering of a command gripping my mind. I grumble up, but was helpless to do anything but obey. My jaws open wide, a ferocious chomp down on the already broken segment. The awkward scluuuurp noises as once more I try to draw it’s very essence into myself with all the raw strength and power of a mouse. 

For the most part I just ended up lapping applejuice. 

“I guess you’re just not strong enough to defeat this lich.” Holly nods to herself, but then plucks the entire thing off the ground in a single, fluid motion, tossing the fruit and me far into the air. 

The ground falls away. Vertigo, movement, the sensation of air flowing past my whiskers and billowing my ears. My jaws still gripped tight, I held on even as the apple twisted, turned, then dropped down. For a moment I saw the glimpse of her eyes closed and the toothy maw open wide, her petite little face aimed all too perfectly to accept this fruit. 

"nomph! I'mgps stornpmpest!" I manage to mumble out through clenched teeth as I became a mouse shaped streamer for the flying treat. Holly holds her jaws open in a wide yawn, that rumbling noise any rodent dreads to hear from a feline booms forth. 

“Ahhh” 

And just like that my treat and myself vanish cleanly past her razor sharp fangs and wicked lips without even touching the sides. A wet splat as we plummet into her throat, the apple lodging neatly down her gullet and the jaws snapping shut above me with an audible clack.

Face down in her throat, my belly pressed flush with her tongue and my tail limp against her teeth. I stared wide-eyed in that rush of adrenaline fueled excitement, feeling that rush of moist air flow over my fur and stifle every smell. The breath of a tiger was so much worse than the eye of a tiger, especially when it was all that entered your lungs. My head was already most of the way down her throat in just that one motion and it was a struggle to release my fangs and pull my head back. 

Front paws still gripping the apple fiercely, I shout up into the echo laden chamber of my waifu’s maw.

“N-nuuuu! I have orders to keep eating this!” and then I would have said more. I planned on saying more and propose some counter-argument against her stealing my apple. But she had a far more difficult to refute counter-argument that few mice could oppose.

Gluck. 

Gulp.

Gone. 

My world became wet darkness.