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This season Gem had chosen the sea. She had claimed it as her own.
This season the sea had eaten Grian alive, had drawn him in. Had claimed him as its own.
Gem sat next to Grian on the bamboo raft, both of their fishing lines far out in the water.
Grian fished up a book. Gem turned with an excited gasp as Grian opened it and squinted at the water-logged title page.
“Bane of arthropods II.” Grian said, taking several deep breaths, clearly struggling to contain himself, “Gem, I think I’m going to have a word with the ocean.”
“You do that.” Gem replied, reeling in another fish and throwing her line back out.
Grian jumped into the water and sank quickly.
Maybe 2 minutes later he burst back up to the surface and climbed onto the raft again.
“Bad news,” he muttered, “Ocean doesn’t care.”
Gem barked out an incredulous laugh, shaking her head, “Maybe we should sacrifice something, diamonds? Etho? Scar?”
Grian plonked his head into his hands, “The ocean hates me specifically.”
Gem shrugged.
It was that exact moment that something rocked the raft they were sitting on.
Something… or someone.
“Heya.” Pearl said as her face peeked out of the water.
“Pearl!” Grian gasped.
Pearl looked different than she had at the beginning of the season. Of course, they all did, as they settled into the roles and stories they would be portraying. But Gem hadn’t seen Pearl since the first day when she’d been running around wearing a salmon head.
The salmon head was gone, but it seemed to have sunk into her lore for this season.
Grian had entered the season a parrot hybrid as he usually did, only for his wings to shift to that of a kingfisher’s. Gem had started this season with small doe antlers and soft ears, the soft ears had sharpened and the antlers had twisted until they appeared like bits of coral with sharpened points.
Pearl had started off the season with her usual moth wings, which had faded away within the first few minutes, suggesting that she’d be having a more dramatic transformation this season, she’d been a human wearing a salmon head the last Gem had seen her.
It had only been a salmon head.
Pearl was much bigger than she’d been before, somewhere between 14 and 16 feet, Gem couldn’t really guess what with most of her body being under the water. Her teeth were just faintly sharper than normal, her ears ended in small webbed ridges. Scales were scattered across her skin, warm oranges and reds along with pale pinks and that shade that could only be described as ‘salmon’.
“Pearl you’re so pretty!” Gem gushed.
Pearl laughed and did a little twirl for them, revealing that despite the scales and webbing, she didn’t have a tail.
“Is the sea stealing everyone?!” Grian asked with false outrage, humor coloring his tone.
Pearl giggled, “Pretty much. Also, I forgot to bring any food.”
“Don’t you live like right over there?” Gem asked with a raised eyebrow, motioning towards the smaller cherry blossom mountain in the distance.
“Well you’re in luck! We have so much fish so long as you don’t mind it raw!” Grian announced, pulling two stacks out of his inventory and throwing them into the water in front of Pearl.
Pearl snorted, “Raw fish isn’t an issue. But also…” she gave Grian a look that Gem deemed to be the most suspicious thing Pearl had ever done, which was saying something.
“...I prefer land based meat.”
And then she pounced.
Grian squawked as he was shoved into Pearl’s mouth, he shouted various meaningless threats such as ‘I’ll get you!’ and ‘sister privileges REVOKED!’.
Gem shook her head, “Seems like the sea is finally swallowing Grian whole, drowning him in the depths.” she said dramatically.
Pearl choked on a laugh as she tried to swallow Grian.
Grian took the time to shoot Gem the middle finger before the top half of his body was entirely encased in Pearl’s throat. Pearl slowly turned so that she was floating on her back. Gem watched with curious eyes as the lump Grian made in Pearl’s throat traveled lower and lower before settling as a bump in her stomach.
Gem watched as the bump moved, Grian was clearly kicking and flailing his wings, but from the outside you could hardly tell.
Pearl sighed happily, closing her eyes and floating in the water.
“Hey Pearl?” Gem asked.
“Yeah?”
“You got room for one more?”
Pearl opened one eye to glance at Gem lazily, “Who do you want me to eat?”
“Me?” Gem asked with a faint embarrassed blush.
Pearl grinned, “Can you retract the antlers?”
“Yeah, I do it whenever I have to wear a helmet.” Gem confirmed.
“Then do that and I’ll swallow you. Bet you’ll go down nice and easy compared to the absolute fuss Grian put up.”
Gem looked pointedly at Pearl’s full stomach, “I think he’s still putting up a fuss.”
“I mean yeah but it feels nice now that he’s in my stomach, it’s just so annoying to get something down that’s moving so much.”
Gem shrugged, retracting her antlers.
Pearl moved a hand over to her, Gem stepped on carefully.
“Hey, you’re not digesting us, right?” Gem asked as she sat down in the palm of Pearl’s hand.
“Nah. Just havin’ some fun.” Pearl promised.
Gem nodded.
Pearl shifted her hand until it was above her open mouth, she tilted it, dropping Gem in. Gem stayed as still as she could as Pearl licked at her for a moment, slicking her up, before swallowing gently.
Gem could hear Grian faintly as she was tugged down Pearl’s throat.
“I swear to the VOID Pearl! If you are swallowing Gem right now I am going to find a way to KILL you! There’s not enough space in here!” he shouted.
Gem felt the vibrations of Pearl holding back a laugh as she kept swallowing.
It didn’t take long before Gem was sliding into Pearl’s stomach. Gem and Grian ended up squished together as the two of them tried to squirm into a more comfortable position.
Pearl hummed happily, resting a hand on her full belly as she floated in the water.
Eventually Grian settled in and Gem got comfortable.
“The sea totally owes me now.” Grian declared while he and Gem were snuggled up together, “I’ve been turned into a snack by a mermaid. Next time I go fishing I should— no —I will get a mending book.”
Gem snorted, “The only thing we’ve learned here is that clearly the sea wants to eat you alive and it’s not giving either of us a mending book on purpose . Maybe it’s because Pearl was hungry.”
“Pearl’s already got the moon! She doesn’t need the sea as well!”
Gem smiled, “It’s really comfy in here you know.”
Grian grumbled something under his breath, “It is.” he admitted.
Pearl smiled faintly, rubbing small circles into her swollen belly with her thumb, all three of them curled up together, floating in the water.