Inside & Out Ch 6: The Pink Valleys Of Her Mouth, The White Space!

(A few Minutes earlier)  (Kael) The ground beneath my feet was slick, warm, and pulsing with life—like walking across a living planet covere

(A few Minutes earlier) 

(Kael)

The ground beneath my feet was slick, warm, and pulsing with life—like walking across a living planet covered in soft, slimy hills.

Pink.

Everything was pink.

I adjusted the straps of the container on my back, my boots sinking slightly into the uneven surface of the goddess's tongue. The taste buds—massive, fleshy mounds that dotted the landscape—stretched far into the distance, disappearing into the hazy cavern of her mouth. Even though I'd worked food collection duty before, the sheer scale of it always hit me.

It wasn't every day you got to work inside the mouth of a literal goddess.

"Alright," I muttered, reaching up to adjust my earmuffs. The last thing I needed was to lose my hearing for a week just because she decided to talk. We Blues were built tough—her voice wouldn't kill us or anything—but without protection, it could leave our ears ringing for days. Some unlucky workers had even passed out from the sheer force of it before.

Already, the others were spreading out, some disappearing under her tongue, others climbing the valleys and ridges of her taste buds. A few were heading toward the teeth, which is where I was going.

Time for work.

I jogged toward the gleaming white walls of her molars, reaching the edge of the tongue where small steel cables were anchored into her teeth. Hooking my own harness onto one, I leaped, swinging across the gap and landing lightly on the smooth, pink gums.

The gaps between her teeth were just big enough to stand in, and I carefully wedged myself between them, reaching into the narrow crevices to pluck out the small crumbs that were wedged there. They were microscopic to her, but to us? They were life.

I worked quickly, scraping off the bits and stuffing them into my container. As I worked, I couldn't help but notice the sudden commotion on the tongue below.

"What's going on?" I called out, glancing toward the bustling figures below.

Normally, there were maybe ten Reds stationed in the mouth during food collection duty. Today?

There were at least thirty.

And they weren't just standing around, either. They were escorting someone.

No—two someones.

I squinted.

"...Is that a Yellow?"

The bright golden robes were unmistakable. Two figures, one a young boy, the other a girl around my age, were walking across the goddess's tongue, surrounded by a wall of Crimson-armored guards.

"What in the world is royalty doing here?"

"Oh, they just came to see your pretty face at work."

I turned sharply, almost dropping my container as a voice came from behind me.

Standing there, arms crossed, wearing full Crimson armor, was Veyna.

I let out a groan, pulling off my earmuffs. "How the hell do you always sneak up on me like that?"

Veyna smirked. "Do you even have to ask? I've always been the faster one."

She had me there.

Reds were built different from Blues. We had endurance, sure, but they had strength, speed, and reflexes that we just couldn't match. I could run for days without stopping. She could probably kill me in two seconds if she wanted.

Good thing she didn't want to.

I hooked my harness back onto the steel cable and swung over to her side, landing easily next to her. "So, how's the exciting life of a royal babysitter treating you?"

Veyna sighed, rolling her eyes. "Boring as hell. No one ever dares to mess with a Yellow, so what do they even need us for?"

I shrugged, shoving another food scrap into my pack. "They are important. Even though...not a single one of them has ever awakened."

Veyna's expression darkened. She stepped closer, lowering her voice. "Be careful what you say, Kael. Speaking against a Yellow is treason."

I tensed, glancing back at the two royals in the distance. The boy was young—maybe a few years younger than me. The girl, though, was my age, her golden robes swaying as she walked. Neither of them looked particularly special.

And yet, they were the ones chosen to be royalty.

I clenched my fists, shaking my head. "Whatever. What are they even doing here?"

Veyna shrugged. "I don't know. I don't ask what goes through a Yellow's mind. I just follow orders."

Before I could respond, the ground beneath us lurched.

Veyna crashed into me as the entire cavern shook.

I barely managed to brace myself as I hit the slick surface of the gums, Veyna landing on top of me.

"What the hell?!" she shouted.

I barely heard her. My eyes were locked on the massive opening at the front of the cavern—the goddess's lips, the gateway to the outside world.

A rush of wind blasted through the cavern, howling through the air with enough force to send anyone who wasn't anchored flying.

Then—

BOOM.

A thunderous sound ripped through the space.

The voice of a being so powerful, so colossal, that it made the very ground tremble.

The Goddess was speaking.

And she sounded agitated.

The force of it sent another wave of vibrations through my body, and then—

Something changed.

A feeling crept up my chest. A tightness, a pressure, a weight that hadn't been there before.

I gasped, clutching my chest as a strange fear gripped me—a fear that wasn't mine.

"Kael?" Veyna's voice was barely audible over the rushing wind. "Are you okay?"

I tried to respond, but the words wouldn't come out.

Everything around me—the tongue, the Reds, the Yellows, the cavernous walls of the mouth—

—began to fade.

The rumbling vanished.

The wind disappeared.

The sound of the Goddess's voice cut out.

And then—

Nothing.

Pure white.

An endless, featureless plane stretched in every direction.

I blinked, my breath still ragged.

Slowly, I pushed myself up from the ground—except there was no ground. Just more white.

My heart pounded in my ears.

I turned in a slow circle.

"Where...am I?"