Chapter Text
Red. The first thing I see is a dim, fleshy red. I feel dizzy, and it is difficult to focus my eyes. After a few moments, perhaps minutes, I slowly regain my vision. I feel disoriented, and my entire body hurts. As I look toward the ceiling, I realise that I must be lying on the ground.
Resting on my back, I try to breathe. The air is strange. It is not exactly stale, but has a slightly sour odour to it... and it is warm in here. Very comfortably so.
A strand of my blonde hair lies across my face, so I try to blow it away. I do not know where I am, or how I got here, so I try to look around, only seeing more red in every direction.
It is bright in here, yet there's not even a single torch in sight. The walls just appear to glow on their own, in certain spots more brightly than the rest... These must be the sources of the light. My head clears and my eyes focus once again, and I can finally make out details.
"...What is this place?"
I hear a strange, snake-like slithering sound coming from beyond my field of vision. I crane my head backwards, but cannot move my back upward much to do so. Soon I realise why that is: my arms are trapped in something.
As I look left and right, beyond my shoulders, my arms are bound in some kind of wet, red substance. No matter how much I try to move them, my movements are somewhat restricted. Was I captured? I can feel my fingers inside the mass, but more than a wiggle proves impossible, much less pulling them out.
(So much for my wand, I guess.)
My first thought is to shout for help.
"Hello? Is anyone here? Can anyone... hear me? Help me?"
Nothing. Only the strange slithering noise can be heard in this... what I assume to be a cave. It is humid in here, warm, and everything is a uniform middle-dark red with occasional lighter spots.
My heart starts racing as I start to panic. Struggling more violently proves futile. Even if it weren't for my hunger and tiredness – no, exhaustion – trying to free myself would likely be a waste of effort. So I try to calm myself a little.
I then look downward. My body hurts, but that is mostly from overexertion, not because I am wounded. That is good. My shoulders are free, though my arms are stuck in something... and I am naked.
(Why?)
With my... petite breasts in the open, I can feel my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. I look past them and see that I am indeed entirely bereft of clothes... and that my legs are also stuck in this strange mass. At first I assumed it to be a sludge of some kind, but it appears decidedly more... fleshy.
(Just what is this place?)
I try to move my legs. They were forcibly spread apart before being sealed up to around the mid-thighs in this strange organic mass. That implies... Heavens! I cannot help but blush and feel ashamed about my current predicament.
"HELLO? IS ANYONE HERE?" I try again, louder this time. Alas, once more my only answer is the near-silence of this place. Fear starts to grip my heart, uncertainty making itself known. What will happen to me? I do not know at all.
I try to wiggle my body free, even risking injury, but it proves futile. The restraints are so strong that I can barely move at all. I look to the side to figure out what I am even laying on. A strange moss-like red carpet lays below me. It is soft and as warm as the surrounding air, perhaps warmer still. A small comfort in a world with a great lack thereof.
I try to calm down once more. Collect my thoughts. Try to be calm.
"RELEASE ME! WHOEVER YOU ARE! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?"
I wish being calm and collected was a strength of mine. Alas it is not.
~~~~~
Some time passes. It might have been minutes, or an hour... By this point I had calmed down and started silently sobbing to myself.
(Will anyone find me here? Would anyone even care to?)
The lack of anything happening after I tried to thrash around to no avail was more crushing than if a villain had decided to attack me.
*Sshhhshssshsshhhh*
Once again I hear that strange slithering sound, only louder this time. Whatever its source, it was gone for a while, only now to return. Looking around, left and right, to the ceiling, and finally downward... There, I spot it. It. A snake-like creature resting on my body. It is a much lighter red in colour than the surroundings, with a more or less uniform texture to its hide. It is oddly soft against my bare skin and appears to be coated in some thick, watery liquid. The strangest thing about it is its head, which looks vaguely like a thin mushroom with a small opening at the top.
"H-Hello? Are you-?" I speak up, but stop. Who would expect such a creature to understand - or properly answer - the speech of a civilised elven maiden?
I must save my strength... Still, what to make of this visitor? Examining it further, I see that the creature is very long and perhaps slightly thinner than my forearms. I cannot see its end, but I now understand I am actually on some kind of raised slab a little bigger than a bed, rather than the bare floor.
The creature had been resting its head below my navel, but now it is slithering upwards. Closer to my face. Its movements feel ticklish on my skin.
(What does it want?) I wonder.
As it reaches my breasts, its head rises up and rubs against my left nipple.
(Hey!?)
"Wh-What are you doing!? Stop that! That's not... that's not for you!"
It hesitates for a moment. The opening is looking, for lack of a better word for it has no eyes, in my direction.
(Mayhap it can understand me?)
"Can you... can you understand my language...?"
For a few moments, it seems to ponder the question. Then it nods, once. Well, I appear to have been in the wrong; this creature is not just capable of intelligence but highly so. There may be hope for me yet!
"Oh, that is... unexpected. N-Not that I thought you are st- no. I am sorry." I try to calm my excitement and attempt not to make it angry by insinuating I assumed it to be mindless. "I was not aware there were intelligent beings, like you, in here. Can you... you can understand me truly?"
Another nod.
"Can you also speak back?"
A shake. What a shame... It can comprehend what I am saying, but alas cannot speak itself. Still, that is a lot better than I had expected.
"Well then... I know this may be selfish, but... I am trapped in this... this flesh? Can you help me out? I am rather hungry and tired, and I-"
The creature shakes its head, and rather vigorously so. My heart falls. Either it cannot help me... or it is part of this whole villainous affair, and thus it could perhaps help me... but it won't.
"I... see. Well, even so, mayhap you could help me in some other way still? I am Princess Gwenlyn, third in line to the throne of-"
At that moment I realise... This creature is not an elf. It is neither a beastkin, nor even a damnable vampire. It probably has no concept of my kingdom, or the empire, and certainly no concept of having to do what I command. So even if I were to plead with it, it might well just be curious, but otherwise ignore me.
I want to scream, but feel completely exhausted. My heart despairs. My eyelids are heavy. I fall unconscious from it all... and dream. I dream of how this day went... how I ended up in this predicament.