Phira gave a sigh. The little Eevee had been wandering the forest for a fair while now. At first, it was simply to enjoy walking through a serene natural landscape on a bright, warm, sunny day. Then it was to try to find the path after she’d strayed from it. And now she was wandering around to find her way out or, failing that, at least find some shelter before the dark clouds now rolling in had a chance to start raining on her.

In the distance, she saw a glint of some sort. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but as she approached, she found something she would never have thought to expect. It was a cave, but not just any cave, as the interior seemed to be lined with an inflatable lining. As a result, the interior of the cave looked more like the interior of a bouncy castle than any cave she’d seen before. It looked like a very good shelter, but in truth she wasn’t particularly concerned with that anymore right now. She was too overcome by her curiosity to care about shelter, but either way the result was the same. She slowly approached the squeak-lined cave.

She hesitated a bit at the threshold to the cave. After all, she didn’t know at all what to expect in there. Probably fun, mind. After all, bouncy castles were fun! But what if there was something dangerous in there? Still, she couldn’t bring herself not to enter. Her curiosity and the possibility of a fun time were simply too enticing. And so, she entered the soft cave, looking around at the interior.

It was very odd, indeed. She would have expected things to be very dark further in, but it seemed that the interior of the cave produced its own faint light somehow. The lining of the cave was a mixture of various pretty pastel colors, which she quite liked. The cave was mostly featureless, at least the part she could see from the entrance, but it wasn’t entirely straight. In order to see what was beyond that first curve, she’d have to venture further in.

She was taking it slow, not wanting to miss any clues as to what the story behind this mysterious cave might be, examining every bit of it quite thoroughly as she went along. It was tempting at one point to slide down a downward slope as if it were a slide. That looked like it could be fun, but for now she was looking for clues. Then, after a bit, she saw a glint in the distance. Taking another look, it seemed to be something purple, but she didn’t get a good look at it before whatever it was dashed around a corner and out of sight.

“Wait!” Phira called out, before bounding forward, giving chase. She didn’t mean to scare it away, whatever it was. She just wanted to know what was going on, was all!

The first few bounds, her paws landed on the now-familiar soft, squeaky interior of the cave. But then, having not been looking where she was going, she was surprised to feel her paws land not on the squeaky lining of the cave, but instead something very soft and squishy, somewhat liquidy but quite viscous. Eyes wide with surprise, she looked down, discovering that what she’d landed in was something tan-colored. It indeed looked quite thick. Whatever this goop was, it had bunched up a fair bit around where her paws had landed in it, rather than redistributing itself more evenly like she would expect from a more water-like substance. Her paws were quite covered in it, in fact, which made her hope that it wasn’t something nasty.

She tried lifting up a forepaw to get a closer look at the strange substance on it, but to her surprise, when she did so she quickly felt resistance as the goop stretched, pulling at her paw, trying to pull it right back down into the sticky goo. Seeing this, she tried pulling harder with her paw, watching the goo stretch further between the puddle she’d landed in and her paw. But even straining to pull as hard as she could, the strange substance was simply too strong. It was showing no signs of snapping or letting go and she couldn’t stretch it any further than two inches. Finally, the pull overcame her strength, snapping her paw right back down into the sticky goop below.

Her fur stood on end as she realized the meaning of this. She’d gotten careless while exploring a mysterious cave and now, the cute little Eevee was quite helplessly trapped. She tried again, this time trying to lift up with a hindpaw, even pulling forward with her trapped forepaws for leverage to help her lift her hindpaw, but soon her paw was pulled right back down, landing back into the sticky goop. This sticky stuff, whatever it was, was simply too strong for the little Eevee.

She looked around, hoping to find something that might help her, but she found no such thing. She did, though, discover that what she’d stepped in was not a puddle. Instead, it was a rectangular trap, most of it covered in this strange substance, but the edges of it being raised up. She recognized it as a rat glue trap, the sort only intended for the animals, not for use on Pokémon. Except, this one was a lot larger, apparently meant to trap intruders.

Another thing she saw, though, was something purple. It looked to be the same thing she saw earlier. And whatever it was, it was headed right toward her. And as it drew closer, she could see that it was... a Rattata? But it didn’t look to be just any Rattata. For one thing, it was at least twice as large in each dimension as a normal Rattata. Its belly was also a fair bit rounder, as opposed to the somewhat thin and agile build of a normal Rattata.

But most strangely of all, this Rattata was shiny. Not shiny as in being differently-colored from most, but literally shiny. It was also somewhat transparent and, looking at that nozzle on its belly, it seemed to be a pooltoy. A relatively large pooltoy at that, and one that was coming right for the helpless little Eevee. Had the Rattata set up this trap? What did it have in store for her?

“Well hello, there~! I must say, I didn’t expect you to find this place on your own. But I guess I should have known. Someone as playful as you would be naturally drawn to such a fun place as this,” said the Rattata in a very familiar voice indeed.

“Joat!” she called out, before reflexively trying to give him a pounce-cuddle, but of course she was held stuck in place by the glue sticking to her cute little paws.

Joat walked over and reached out with a squeaky forepaw, petting his cute little captive Eevee. “I had a feeling you’d like this place. Admittedly, it’s not quite fully ready yet, which is why I hadn’t told you about it yet. But hey, I had this sticky trap here and I figured I’d do a little improvisation with it.”

“I love it!” Phira tugged happily with her trapped paws. Now that she knew it was Joat who’d set up this trap, she could allow herself to enjoy the feeling of being so helplessly stuck.

Joat circled around her, stopping right behind her. “Of course, simply having you stuck there the whole time may get a bit dull after a while, especially if I’m off finishing the bouncy cave. But I have a solution I think you’ll enjoy...” Then, he opened his mouth wide before dramatically closing it around the end of Phira’s bushy tail. It wasn’t nearly hard enough to hurt her, of course. She knew that wasn’t his intention. In fact, she had an idea she knew what his intentions actually were. And if her tail weren’t being held in place, she would have wagged it quite eagerly.

Just as Phira predicted, Joat began gulping down her tail. While doing so, he rested his forepaws on the sticky trap, though it was clear to see he wasn’t being affected by it. In fact, he soon lifted those same forepaws to grab Phira’s hindpaws, quite effortlessly pulling them free as if the glue weren’t there at all. Then, he placed her hindpaws in his mouth before continuing to gulp her down.

She gave a gleeful squeaking noise, wiggling her hindpaws down further to assist Joat’s efforts. Soon, Joat’s mouth was up to her waist and she could feel the inside of Joat’s belly with her hindpaws.

Joat stood up on his hind legs, quite easily pulling Phira’s forepaws up from the glue trap as well. Now, gravity was aiding Joat in gulping down the cute little Eevee. Phira placed her forepaws inside Joat’s maw, soon feeling them emerge into Joat’s belly as well. And before long, she saw Joat’s squeaky maw closing around her head. Then, with one final gulp, Phira was fully inside Joat’s big, squeaky belly.

Phira stood up inside Joat’s belly, which was just big enough for her to comfortably do so, her back gently pressing against Joat’s. She wagged her tail as she began rubbing the inside of Joat’s belly with her paws, but soon her paws came to a stop involuntarily as she felt something squishy forming under them.

She looked down, seeing a familiar sight. This time, it wasn’t an entire puddle of glue. However, there was glue at her paws, sticking them in place. She tried lifting up a forepaw, but was greeted with the familiar sight and feeling of the glue stretching under her paw, then snapping it right back down into place, nice and stuck.

She would have wagged her tail at this development, but she found that she couldn’t. The same sort of glue that was holding her paws in place was now sticking her tail in place as well. In fact, she was starting to feel the glue forming along her back, then the top of her head. She tried pulling down from the top of Joat’s belly, but just as she suspected, the glue merely stretched a bit before pulling her right back into place. Joat had made sure that she was as stuck as she could be.

“Now...” Joat said, rubbing his belly squeakily, “Care to join me and take a look at my work so far on the new bouncy cave?” Of course, he already knew the answer. And indeed, she’d be able to watch every step of the way as he worked on it, happily and comfortably stuck within her owner’s belly.