Clasping her hands over her chest, Ryla settles in at Misha's side to watch Xarces' attempts to revive the fallen harpy, tiny little sniffles off-and-on  breaking the silence she otherwise exhudes. She felt so completely helpless, so utterly useless. She might be able to sneak information out of a guarded building, she might be able to loosen someone's lips with a little smooth talking, but when it REALLY mattered, when her friend's life was on the line, she could do nothing. Nothing but sit and watch and hope beyond hope that somehow, there was still some life hidden away inside the harpy's body, and that Xarces would manage to find it.<br/><br/>"Wake up, Misha..." Ryla pleads softly, tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to go streaking down her face any second. She'd wanted so badly, with her very heart and soul, for whatever magical was surely inside of her, whatever her kitsune heritage had given her, whatever by rights should be hers to come flooding out at that moment, knitting back together the broken body of her friend. Instead, the only thing she felt welling up inside of her was despair and tears. She wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing. She was just laying...<br/><br/>"Misha..." Ryla whispers again, as if simply saying her name enough would somehow revive the harpy, would somehow breathe new life into her. It doesn't, though, and before long Ryla's vision begins to blur, the tears she'd fought back up until that point finally starting to trickle down her cheeks "S-she's...not getting better, Xarces..." She says brokenly, tiny sobs wracking her body. The only friend she'd actually made, the only one who'd been around her for more than a few days, was dying - or dead - right before her eyes, and there was nothing she could do.<br/><br/>Worse...she could see what a mixture of her and Odette's tummy had done to Xarces. He was in horrible shape, and she could TELL he was in pain...yet, instead of healing himself up, he was helping Misha, or at least making the attempt at it. She'd been digesting him, and now he was trying to save Misha. She'd honestly considered completely digesting him, slipping away somewhere nice and warm and settling in for a long night of enjoyment, until he and Odette were both reduced to mere food for her body. Now...he was still trying to help her. He'd rubbed her tummy on the inside, tried to please her, and...<br/><br/>A little ball of guilt wells up in her heart. Misha was gone. Xarces was hurt. She couldn't do anything to help either of them. Finally, the tiny trickle of tears streaming down her cheeks turns into a full-on flood as she finally breaks down, crying softly to herself as her friend faded away right before her eyes "Mishaaaaaaaaaaa. Noooo...." Bending forwards, Ryla pressed her face against the harpy's swollen tummy, sobbing pathetically as hope fully gave way to despair. Even Xarces' assurance of 'Just a little more' doesn't seem to bolster the poor kitsune, her ears flattening completely against the top of her head, and her long, beautiful tails drooping onto the ground in anguish.<br/><br/>Rocking back and forth against Misha's side, Ryla almost completely misses the first, shuddering breath the harpy takes. The raspy sound makes her ears perk, though, and the second shallow breath draws her tear-filled eyed up to the harpy's chest. It was rising and falling. Barely, but it was something. She was ALIVE, and that in and of itself was an improvement. She dared not hope too hard, lest even that somehow steal the breath from the harpy's lungs, but by the tenth time, she's convinced - she was ALIVE. She didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, so she does a mixture of both, leaning in and ever-so-gently nuzzling herself against the harpy's cheek "Mis-Misha...! Y-you're...g-g-gonna be okay. I won't let anyone h-h-hurt you. I promise." Tears still streaking down her face, Ryla gives a short, soft laugh, briefly nestling herself in the crook of Misha's neck, listening to the rise and fall of her chest, her gentle, shallow breaths.<br/><br/>Alive. She was hurt, but alive.<br/><br/>Tears still flowing freely down her face - but now, tears of joy - she turns her attention to Xarces, a smile upon her face "Y-you did it. Mmph." Lifting a arm, she brushes away a few tears from her eyes, sniffling softly "You s-s-saved her. T-thank you! Thank yoooou!" Practically THROWING herself at him despite the less-than-healthy status of his well-churned body, Ryla slings her arms around his neck and pulls him into a crushing hug, heedless of the saliva and digestive acids (and other...well, 'things' from his 'greeting' with Delicia in her tummy), she begins to pepper little kisses upon his neck and cheek and lips. He'd saved Misha. It was not a perfect fix, but she was alive. That is what mattered "I'm so sorry I tried to digest you, it just felt so good and I loved it so much and you kept squirming and i couldn't resist and then I saw Misha fall and I didn't know what to do and--" In one continual sentence, the kitsune girl half-sobs, half-laughs her apology, inbetween peppering him with more tiny little kisses than he'd likely ever received "T-the others are inside, I think. I'm staying w-w-with Misha. I don't want anything to happen to her."<br/><br/>She dared not risk actually moving the harpy yet, not until she knew for sure that Misha would be okay, but Ryla does drape her tails across the harpy's entire body, offering up a blanket of softness and warmth that would at least provide some minor amount of comfort. The harpy loved her tails after all - it was only fitting she woke up in a bed of them "Thank you so much, Xarces. I'll pay you back, I promise. I don't know how, but I will. M-misha is my friend. Thank you, thank you, thank yoooooou!" Burying her face against his chest, the little kitsune girl wipes her cheeks against him, ridding herself of the little tear-streaks that marred her soft, lightly-tanned skin "Mmff...she'll be okay, won't she? I d-don't know what to do. Her wing is wrong, and...mmpph..."<br/><br/><br/>Unfortunately for her, Odette seems to have been completely forgotten. Ryla could obviously still FEEL her inside of her tummy, but whatever promises she'd made, whatever offers of freedom she'd worked up, clearly took a back-seat to seeing that her friend was okay and taken care of. While the kitsune seems to have forgotten about the delicious woman, though...her stomach had NOT forgotten...<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Odette Digestion...</span><br/><div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;"><div style="text-transform: uppercase; border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; display: block;"><span onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') {  this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = ''; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;hide&lt;/a&gt;'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;show&lt;/a&gt;'; }"><b>Spoiler: </b><a href="#" onclick="return false;">show</a></span></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;">((I forgot to roll damage last round. <img alt="&gt;.&gt;" src="./images/smilies/shifty.gif" title="Shifty eyes"/> So, total digestion damage for the two rounds is 17 damage! 10 acid, 7 crushing!))<br/><br/>Without Xarces as a buffer against the digestive acids and softly-grinding stomach surrounding her body, Odette gets to experience the inside of Ryla's belly to the fullest. Even without Xarces squeezed up against her body and taking up space, she finds that the kitsune's tummy is still unforgivingly tight, the silky-soft, slimy walls conforming tightly to her body. Even when she pushes outwards with her hands and feet, she feels the elastic walls instantly snap back into place against her skin the moment she is forced to let her body rest. <br/><br/>The gentle kneading of Ryla's stomach was every bit of a deep-tissue massage, one that rippled continually across her body, working against her shoulders and neck and chest and rear, exactly as it had been doing from the moment she'd slid down her throat some time ago. It was not powerful by any means, nor was there any real threat of the kitsune's weak belly suddenly squeezing in on her and crushing her, but with every single grind of those slick, enzyme coated walls, Odette feels her body weakening, her ability to resist worn away by the gentle-but-constant onslaught of the kitsune's digestive system. <br/><br/>Worse than the kneading of those walls, though, was the stomach acid. Though well diluted with mostly-digested human (A testament to just how 'in trouble' Odette actually was - it seemed as though another human girl had taken the trip just four or five hours before her, and had not managed to escape either...), the acids still worked at her skin, eagerly removing the beneficial effects that Xarces' healing magic had rendered. More and more, Odette feels her skin reddening under the acidic assault, the light tingling sensation that had been permeating her body turning into an actual burn as the kitsune's stomach acids slowly but surely eat away at her meal...one that, forgotten as she was, would very possibly only be exiting in one way....<br/><br/>...And that was <span style="font-style: italic">down</span>.<br/><br/>((I think Odette's escape is still...um...27 if she's higher than 2/3 HP, 31 if she's at 2/3 or lower, and 35 if she's at 1/3! She also gets a -2 to escape things due to 'Tight tummy' feat! ))</div></div></div>