A Cherry Blossom - The Feather

Chapter 5

I couldn't breathe at first as the throat pushed me into the esophagus. Going down the tube seemed like it took forever apart from the peristalsis muscle contractions pulling me down. After what seemed like a lifetime of constant squeezing on my body, I finally fell into a pool of fluid. But once I splashed in, my skin started to burn like hell. I screamed from the sudden outbreak of pain, and my shoulder didn't help the fact that I was being digested alive.

My skin started to turn red, and I knew that soon my flesh would start to fall off the bones. And to make matters worse, I was being thrown around inside, and the stomach acid now was covering every inch of my body with each wave. I coughed from getting some in my mouth, and my eyes were now watering.

I knew I wasn't going to make it now, because it was dark, my flesh was burning off my bones, and now the smell was unbearable. A huge wave of acid came over my body again, and I knew that I was going to faint then. My eyes were already closing from losing consciousness.

I fell into the fluid, and everything went still.

I was sure that I was going to die right there, but all of a sudden I fell out of the stomach. I was drenched in acid, but I could finally breathe again when I realized that I was back outside. I coughed forcefully, feeling my throat burn from swallowing a good amount of acid. My mouth didn't feel much better.

"Sakura?!" I heard Navi's familiar voice, and tried to open my eyes. The acid burned them, but I managed to find the familiar surroundings of the jungle.

"Navi?" I whispered, my throat still burning.
"You're alive! Oh my god, don't ever do that again!" I heard the small buzz of her wings as she hovered next to my face. I also felt Mia purring and licking my face in comfort.

"What happened? How did I get out?" Just those two phrases gave me another round of coughs.

"I killed it."

I gasped in horror, my whole body going stiff. I didn't dare to start breathing again until I was positive of what I just heard.

"And cut the stomach open to let you out." I knew it. After hearing the voice again, my head moved up slowly.

"W-Who are you?" I grunted. It wasn't Link like I was hoping, but another boy who had very light skin and the brownest hair I've ever seen. His eyes were a deep brown as well, and his face was cute enough to look like he could be someone that girls would really want to know. His outfit added to that by being a gray shirt and black pants with the biggest black combat boots. He also wore a cape and goggles around his neck, making him look like a person who is into studying field work.

He gave me a look when I asked this, but then lost it. "Let's get you cleaned up first. It must be painful to have that stomach acid all over you." He walked forward to help me up, and lifted me by my hand and waist. All of a sudden, I felt very uncomfortable for how close he was to me. "There's a small spring near here," he continued. "The water will wash it off right away."

He led me slowly to the spring that was literally right around the corner past a couple of trees and carefully let me step into the clear blue water. I flinched in pain, but kept going for the results I would get after dunking into the cold liquid. Pretty soon the pain was just a slight burn when I was swimming around, and I sighed in comfort when I floated on my back and smiled. My eyes then opened when I heard the brown-haired boy sit down on a rock next to the pond. I moved my body to step out of the spring to really know who he was.

"Feel better?" he asked. I nodded. "Good. I was glad I made it in time." I then tried to put my dislocated arm back in place, and had to have the boy help me for how painful it was. But after a couple of attempts, we managed to place it back to where it was supposed to be. I swung my arm in a circle to have the pain fade away.