Cliff was lost in the depths of an underground cave.

It had started off safe enough. In one of the big orange yoshi’s many treks through Yoshi’s Island, he’d spotted a very curious opening along the lush hills behind a flowing waterfall. What a great exploration opportunity! It was likely that no-one had discovered this cave prior, and a quick peek inside revealed a long, winding passageway. If the tall yoshi stood on his tiptoes his head spikes would poke the ceiling. The eager Cliff, well-fed and having a day to kill, beamed and tottered right in without a care. It wouldn’t take long to explore such a cave, he thought. After all, it was above ground, and the hillside wasn’t that big!

Then came the hole. It wasn’t that threatening, as far as holes go, only sinking about 30 feet deep. But to someone who barely had enough light to see (save for the collections of crystal formations illuminating the way), it was all it took to make one’s heart leap. Cliff discovered that he could not, in fact, walk on air, and the arms-windmilling yoshi yelped and teetered and tumbled right over the edge. He scored some bumps along his skittering path down, landing flat on his back, belly taking a second to settle after such a tumultuous trip. Everything was a blur, Cliff moaning and sitting up, blinking, trying to focus his eyes. With a start he realized his glasses had fallen off! Cliff rolled onto his knees and anxiously scampered about, feeling around for them… Aha! He sighed in relief and settled the glasses atop his big snout, after blowing excess dust off, once more able to see past his nose.

That, of course, didn’t solve this current predicament. Deep underground with no obvious exits. “Hello?” Cliff called back up the hole, hearing his voice reverb to the top. If by some miracle someone else had been in the cave, a little tandem tongue-tying action would be all it would take for a yoshi to help him out. He knew in the back of his head it was a futile wish, though: The waterfall both blocked people from seeing the entrance or hearing anything from inside. “Well phooey.” Cliff stood and dusted himself  off while glancing around. Like above, the cave was dimly lit with the usual crystalline fixations embedded within the walls, but the passages were smaller than before. Cliff lamented having to watch himself to avoid sudden bumps on the noggin. “Guess this is why I ventured in: A brand new cave to explore. I’ll find another exit or way back up, no doubt!” With this optimism in tow, Cliff chose an arbitrary direction and headed that direction.

“This isn’t so bad,” Cliff said after a quarter hour of tromping along, body lowered to squeeze through a narrow passage. “Got lots of twists and turns but no choices to make. It’s just one very loooooong cave. Least I can’t get more lost!” The yoshi chuckled, making mental notes and considering doing a small tale-telling to his yoshi tribe. The smooth walls added credence to a budding thought that it was artificial, and Cliff pondered what creature could be so adept. “A mole maybe? Don’t see ‘em on the surface much. Maybe I’ll find a lost underground village!” Among other things, Cliff considered that a good place to refuel: He wasn’t starving or anything, but a wise explorer knew to always plan ahead for adequate sustenance, and while a yoshi could eat just about anything, rocks weren’t on the menu.

An hour drifted by, and Cliff plopped to the floor, tail sticking out past his belly on the ground, legs askew. “Okay, break time,” the big yoshi resolved, wiping his brow and fiddling with his glasses. He leaned back against the cool, smooth edges of the cavern walls and wondered about one last detail about his future report. “What do we call you? This sure seems a bit maze-like. But it’s not very mysterious, given lack of choices. That name’s taken anyway.” The chubby yoshi leaned forward, elbow on his soft belly, chin on his hand, fingers tap-tapping away in thought. “Long and winding, curving… coiling… Oh!” Cliff smiled, lifting his head and bumping it. “Ow… Slithering Caverns! That’ll be great! Nice and long, would be great to bring little ones down here on a field trip.” Cautiously this time, Cliff gently laid his head back and rested, proud of his naming genius. “Slithering Caverns,” he smirked, arms crossed and resting on his tummy. “Juuuust gotta find a way out besides that waterfall and it’ll be great.”

“Why bother looking? You know the way out already.”

The sudden gravely voice made Cliff flinch, skull once more meeting rock. “Oww! Who said that?” Cliff got to his feet, rubbing his head, one eye closed from the impact. He looked about but saw nothing, no-one.

“The only way in or out is through the waterfall. By my design.”

“Oh.” Cliff didn’t seem bothered by his question getting dodged. “Oh, you must’ve made this cave then! Do you know the way back? Uh… Mister Mole?” he hazarded.

“Wrong on both counts,” the voice replied. On a careful listen, Cliff realized the voice indeed had a feminine twinge to it. The roughness of it threw him off. He strained to hear for a sound of whoever was near, but couldn’t pick up anything. “I do know the way out. That doesn’t matter to you anymore.”

Cliff glanced back and forth, puzzled. The echoes made the voice seem like it was coming from both directions. “Oh, well, I can stay a little while if you prefer! I’m in no rush, really. It’s a very impressive cave!” Every word was honest, though Cliff, not wanting to be rude, kept a burning question to himself. If you’re not a mole, what are you?

“I’d prefer you’d stay, as a matter of fact. For you see…” The voice died off. Cliff remained silent, taking a few cautious steps forward, head lowered and tail out and swaying to keep balance. The low-hanging ceilings really were becoming a bother. He leaned forward further and was about to call out when something brushed the tip of his tail! “...I’m hungry,” the voice, just behind him, finished. Cliff jerked his head around to see that the whole width of the cave behind him was occupied by a large, grinning serpent! The reptilian eyes, glowing a dim yellow not unlike crystals, stared. Hexagonal patterns flew down and around her body, colored in browns and grays. A pair of long, glistening fangs dangled from either side of a too-wide mouth, which was smiling smugly at the shocked yoshi. “So you see, you don’t have to worry about finding an exit. Or anything, ever again.”

“Y-y-yaaaah!!!” Cliff screamed and broke into an unsteady run. Having to stay low it was laborious but he figured he had a good head start on such a fearsome, deadly creature, one that needed to go back into a story book where she belonged! The cave serpent laughed a gravelly, ominous laugh, her eyes watching the plump yoshi futilely waddle away, with his scrumptious rear end practically teasing her. With a whiff of effort she took off, her worn scales gliding against the smoothness around her, propelling her forward. “No no no no no!” Cliff desperately kept on the move, despite hearing that heavy body making its way closer and closer. It’s no good! he admitted with a spike of fear. She’s getting closer and she’ll just snag my tail and pull me back and slowly devour me a bit until I’m nothing but a stupid snake’s supper and then–

“Wahhh!” For the second time that day Cliff tried walking on air and ending up falling down a new hole. I guess the cave does branch off, a thought in the back of his mind registered as he slid chin-first down a new, alternate path, his rough hide resisting most of the damage. The slippery slide continued until the fat yoshi popped out into a wide, tall clearing, flailing arms and legs and yelling until he plopped and rolled to a stop. His head spun but his glasses remained affixed this time, so when he came to his senses he could immediately take in his surroundings. He gasped: Cliff was in a towering dome of a cave, with holes much like the one he came from decorating the entire upper walls surrounding him.

And through the same hole he slid out from, poked out a familiar head. “Welcome to my humble abode.” Cliff got to his feet and desperately looked around but the only exits were up along the walls, far out of reach. He could only watch, quaking in his boots, as the big snake just kept pouring out of that hole. Her upper body thumped heavily to the ground upon making contact, and instantly went slithering right up to the trapped yoshi. He had to crane his neck by the time her tail – the last foot or so pure crystal – spilled from the walls and settled to the ground with a crack. Her body was bundled up in front of him, leaving Cliff between a rocky wall and a large hungry snake body! Her tongue flickered out in the air and her fangs gleamed in the dim crystal glow. “So happy you could make it.” The fat yoshi’s lip quivered when the big head sunk down to be level with his, Cliff subconsciously pressing his back and tail to the wall. He clenched his eyes shut and gritted his teeth that long, thick tongue flickered out and lapped over his wide belly. “Mmm… now I won’t have to leave the cave for another month.”

“W-w-wait!” Cliff cried desperately. “You don’t gotta eat me! I just found the place on accident and I never meant to drop in or anything, and I really would just like a way out… please?” The cavern fell silent for just a moment, before it rumbled as the snake broke out into a fit of deep, yet girlish, giggles.

“Oh, sure, that is what you think it would take to escape me? By convincing me you came here by accident and therefore aren’t subject to my appetite?” She smirked, then yawned her jaws wide and snapped them shut an inch from Cliff’s snout, the yoshi whimpering. “I don’t care how or why you happened here, no more than you care how or why a fresh watermelon ended up on your dinner plate.” Cliff couldn’t help but stare into those yellow eyes, looking for any signs of sympathy or care. Alas, all he saw was his own, frightened reflection, and the hunger that was burning from them. She roped part of her body under his tail, the yoshi not daring move. “Now, why don’t you be a good tasty watermelon...” the serpent continued, slithering away and dragging a shocked Cliff with her with a not-gentle push. His boots scraped the floor until she and he were dead center of that dome, the yoshi’s body quivering with fright. His arms fell to his sides as he gawked disbelievingly up at the rising, now-drooling, maw.

“...And be plump, juicy, filling meal.”

Those words rocked Cliff to his core, so much so that he didn’t feel the serpent body behind him part, leaving him naked and alone in the middle of that cave. He was just designated as nothing more than a single meal, to be eaten, then digested into nothing. “N-no… No!” He threw his arms in front of his face as the snake’s jaws parted open wide and noisily. A hiss emanated as the glistening mouth came into view, tongue sliding in and out in anticipation. His pleas ignored, Cliff started making deliberate gestures, attempting to cast a spell to try and forestall the incipient supper in some way, stun the serpent maybe! But he was only mid-spell cast when the large hungry snake snapped her head down, mouth gaping, droll fluttering behind in her wake. Cliff only managed half a high-pitched wail when those big snake jaws snapped half of him up for dinner in the blink of an eye. “MMMMMFFF!!!” The serpent lifted her head up from the ground, her crystal tail flicking up and down in delight. Her jaws pinched down around the round orange yoshi, Cliff kicking his legs when airborne and flicking his thick spotted tail every direction. The snake purred around what was turning out to be exactly what she wished for! The chubby yoshi indeed was plump; he was juicy (with how much she was able to squish her mostly-toothless maw up and down on his middle); and given how wide she had to stretch her jaws to eat him, would definitely be filling!

Cliff hollered for his life in the depths of the crushing serpent mouth. The tongue was actively running back and forth under his chest, but overall wasn’t doing much tasting. The serpent was hungry, and would have plenty of time to savor once she’d devoured him. “Please no please don’t do this don’t eat me no stooop!!!” Cliff squealed, even when the pressure around his squished, bisected belly felt the pressure release. The jaws were opening, Cliff glancing behind to see cave light once more, through long strands of oozing snake slobber. Those deadly fangs barely grazed the spots on his tail only, but they threatened to pierce him should he wriggle too far either direction. The serpent smiled around her big meal, closing her eyes when she tossed her head up and back, sending a kicking yoshi’s wobbling stomach into her mouth proper. His legs lodged to the bottom of her jaws, trying to keep them from closing, only to slip forward on snake drool and slap inward when she clamped down around him once more! The yoshi let out a hiccuping sob when his legs bent awkwardly and his boots were shoved to either side of his sprawling squashed stomach. Only his wide tail felt cave air, hips and rear surrounded by slickened scaly lips and barely visible. The wrinkles formed from the fat of his belly and the underside of his tail flattened and contracted each time he raised his tail up, exposing the full white butt, and slapped it back down, repeatedly. “Let me oooout! Don’t eat meeee!” Cliff cried, focused entirely on the black gullet in front of him.

The serpent was rather pleased with her catch, and wanted to swallow him down as soon as she could. She pursed her lips around the jiggling yoshi rear, locking them around the base of his tail. The ensuing SCHLLLLRP was conjoined with a muffled shriek, that continued long after the last of that orange spotted tail noodled its way in. Cliff was all bunched in on himself, legs and arms to his sides, tail mostly trapped up against his back, chin on a tongue and belly sprawled across the mouth. The snake, with a mouthful of delicious yoshi, licked her lips, showing no signs of Cliff in her muzzle.

Then, like so many meals before him, the serpent swallowed Cliff the Yoshi whole and alive.

GLURLK! GLURK. GLRK. GLK.

The powerful gulp reverberated off the domed walls as the serpent casually watched his descent. A pear-shaped bulge in the neck showing Cliff’s generous curves, scales noisily stretched to accommodate. The squealing yoshi could not be heard, thanks to those innards being far too thick, though the squelching sounds of peristalsis were quite audible to him! Much like the cave, Cliff was stuck, only this time, the walls were much tighter, squishing harshly to his fat, devoured form. Coated in slobber and worse from head to toe, he continued crying out in terror as he sank deeper, still vertical, while the serpent slowly licked her lips and only now took the time to truly savor her catch. Cliff bloated out wherever he was in her body a great deal, still gradually sinking through, until his bulges bumped to the floor, as the yoshi was compacted into a binding stomach, glistening saliva replaced with itching, sizzling stomach fluids. “S-someone… H-h-help meeee!” Cliff cried to himself as he was locked tight into the snake’s belly.

The serpent sighed, jaws wide open, tongue lolled out, eyes rolled. “Oh, you were the best thing to happen to me in a long time, my succulent yoshi.” Another sigh followed before the snake gradually retracted her tongue and began coiling amongst herself, looping over and over until she was a swirl of cave serpent on the floor. Her crystal tail rested against one cheek, while Cliff (who could feel the pressure) pressed to the other. “Just look at you, squirming in there, thinking you still have a chance. But I can tell you this absolute fact, watermelon: No-one escapes me.”

Cliff realized the serpent was telling the truth. That once eaten (much like his own meals), that was it. He could already feel the belly walls beginning to secrete their fluids all around him, and there was nothing to be done about it. The best he could manage was fidget his snout and shift his hips, but all that accomplished was his glasses tumbling down the side of his face. And when the teasing serpent pushed her snout to his thick, prone bulges again, he heard the lenses shatter and crumple. Her muffled voice through the stomach lining and scales added to Cliff’s feelings of dread. “The only question is how long you’ll keep that precious fight up. I am not moving, until you stop.” Another rasping, girlish giggle sounded out, and Cliff choked out another terrified whimper. “The record, I believe, is six weeks. Six! You’re a big boy. Let’s see how long you last.” The plump, squeezed-too-tightly yoshi babbled out a string of pleas, begging, tear-filled tales of why he should be let free, and more. Little did he know that she could hear none of this, and had long-ago settled down to sleep for a day or two, a belly full of yoshi and dreams full of delight.

The first three days passed without much fanfare. Cliff had long-since run out of steam and was limply ushered along the stinging stomach, not even noticing he was flat to the ground, or gradually curving around the large snake’s rocky-colored scales. Every so often he’d twitch or renew his struggles, weak as they were, in a pathetic attempt to escape digestion, but it was fruitless. The chubby yoshi, trapped in the pitch-black confines, didn’t even care his arms and legs had gone numb from being trapped between him and the innards. Ditto for his tail, where all but the base and his still-exposed butt were squashed tightly to the top, against his saddle. His glasses did not stick to him, though, and were lost somewhere in the upper quadrant of the big snake belly, leaving Cliff even without those to keep him grim company. Those glasses were the first true victim, dissolved completely, melted into nothing. And the sounds of digestion that accompanied haunted Cliff from then onward, knowing that would be him eventually.

About once a day or so, when he thought he felt the giant serpent press against wherever his bulges were, he’d fidget again and cry out for mercy. But no reply was ever returned, Cliff trapped in the softly-gurgling stomach all by himself to contemplate his eventual death in the bowels of a hungry cave serpent.

“Mmmmrrr…” The serpent raised her head off the ground, and yawned wildly, subconsciously scraping another tick against the dirt with the tip of her crystal tail. She stole a casual glance at it, and smiled a fangy grin. “15 days and still at it, hm?” she murmured, though at this point, wound halfway through the coiled snake and bulging out prolifically, couldn’t hear her. “Wherever you came from, you certainly… I was about to say ‘well-trained’, but more likely it was just ‘well-fed.’ Clearly, that is all keeping you alive at this point. Perhaps the one I ate who lasted as long as she did, came from where you originated. Oh well…” With another exaggerated yawn, the serpent settled her head back down, one eye open and watching Cliff’s still-occasionally struggling bulge squelch an inch further down her form.

4 weeks since Cliff was eaten alive. He was motionless, unable to even close his eyes. His body was still stuck in the same position as it was before, and consciousness was slipping fast. The churning contents of the stomach proliferated every inch on his body and more. A digit or numb tailtip occasionally twitched of their own accord, but that was it. His bulges were slowly starting to shrink, when they entered the latter third of the serpent’s coiled body, and only four days later, when the walls crushed in from all sides and a veritable flood of stomach acids stickily washed over him completely, did Cliff completely lose consciousness and never regain it.

35 ticks in, the serpent raised her tail to scratch another. She kept the tail tip poised, watching, feeling, waiting… but none came. “Shame,” She hissed with a giggle. “You were well on your way to claiming the record, yoshi.” She lifted her head and floated it along her body until it was over near the end of her coiled spiral, still many feet from the crystal tail. She leaned down and rested her chin on where that pear-shape bulge, audibly digesting, rested. To no surprise of the experienced snake, she felt no resistance as she flattened that bulge down into a soft, round, congealed mass of whatever remained of Cliff the Yoshi. SQLRCH. She nuzzled it and then let it stew and churn away, returning once more to rest and letting out a satisfied little hiss.

The serpent wouldn’t have to make a 36th tick.

Over the course of four more weeks, Cliff’s body was completely digested. The round mass of yoshi mush softened and shrank, nourishing the large cave serpent’s form. Lumps from surviving bones eventually gathered near the end of the tail, softened as they were, leaving a small roundness near the hard crystal edge. The large snake would awaken days later still, and eventually slither her way through her tunnels to the surface, to dispose what was left of Cliff.

And, unless another fat delicious yoshi decided to trip into her cave uninvited, go and purge more of the yoshi population above. They were by far the best surface-dwelling meals to devour for the lovely large cave serpent.