Dave's world was a symphony of digestive horror. The **suck** of the siphon vanished, replaced by a crushing, rhythmic **pulse** that hammered his petrified form. The sterile ozone stench of Vorlag's tech was gone, drowned in a tidal wave of new sensations:
- **Acid Reek:** Burning enzymes that smelled like vomit and regret.
- **Meat Grinder Vibrations:** Walls of slick, convulsing muscle squeezing with industrial force.
- **Wet Slurping:** The sound of his Rotifer "entourage" being dissolved around him.
**"USER LOCATION UPDATE: GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT OF *AZURE GLITTERFIN*,"** AURA announced, her synthesized voice bizarrely cheerful over the gurgling onslaught. **"DIAGNOSIS: INGESTED. CLASSIFICATION: INDIGESTIBLE GRAVEL (WITH EXTRA CRUNCH). ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: *'TASK FAILED SUCCESSFULLY'*."**
*Eaten. By a fish.* Dave's mineralized core pulsed with existential fury. *I survived Vorlag's stasis field and an Earthburrower's tantrum… only to become fish food?* The phantom taste of the Gummy Grub resurfaced – this time, mocking him. *At least the worm was intentional.*
**"ANALYSIS OF HOST ORGANISM:"** AURA continued, ignoring Dave's internal screaming. **"LENGTH: 15CM. DIET: ALGAE, MICRO-CRUSTACEANS, REGRETTABLE LIFE CHOICES (I.E., YOU). CURRENT ACTIVITY: TRYING TO DIGEST A ROCK. OUTCOME: POOR."**
A violent **SPASM** rocked Dave's world. The Glitterfin's gut muscles clenched like a hydraulic press, grinding him against half-dissolved Rotifer carapaces. His silica shell shrieked in protest, sending jagged vibrations through his core. He smelled the acrid tang of his own mineral structure stressing under pressure.
*"Get. Me. OUT!"* Dave pulsed, the thought thick with primal terror.
**"RANDOM CHALLENGE ROLL INITIATED!"** AURA's voice boomed with fake fanfare. **"CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE QUALIFIED FOR: *'ESCAPE A PREDATOR'S BOWELS'*!"**
**"CHALLENGE PARAMETERS:** INDUCE REGURGITATION OR PERISTALTIC REVERSAL BEFORE DIGESTIVE ENZYMES COMPROMISE YOUR SILICA INTEGRITY (ESTIMATED TIME: 8 MINUTES)."**
**"SUCCESS REWARD:** TEMPORARY "SLIME COATING" BUFF (DAMAGE RESISTANCE +25%, TASTES DISGUSTING TO FISH)."**
**"FAILURE DEBUFF:** PERMANENT STATUS: *"FISH STOOL FOSSIL"* (COLLECTIBLE VALUE: ZERO)."**
**"AURA'S TAUNT:** *'HURRY! THIS FISH'S GUTS ARE LITERALLY TOUGHER THAN YOUR WILL TO LIVE.'* TIMER STARTS… NOW."**
Panic surged, cutting through Dave's stone-induced stupor. He had no limbs. No weapons. Just… *himself*. A stupid, stubborn rock in a fish's stomach. But he *could* sense. And he could *think*. Mostly about how much he hated AURA.
**Option 1: The Vibration Gambit.**
Dave recalled the Earthburrower's agony when he'd overloaded its thermal sensors. Could he do the same *here*? He focused his remaining energy, vibrating his silica matrix at a frequency mimicking the Glitterfin's own panicked heartbeat – but amplified. *THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!*
The effect was immediate. The fish *jolted*. Dave felt its swim bladder spasm, sending erratic pulses through the digestive sludge. A wave of half-digested gloop washed over him.
**"RESULT: INDIGESTION. NOT REGURGITATION,"** AURA noted. **"FISH IS NOW EXPERIENCING MILD HEARTBURN. YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO AQUATIC DISCOMFORT IS NOTED."**
**Option 2: The Chemical Warfare.**
Dave's chemoreceptors screamed with data: bile salts, proteolytic enzymes, rotting algae. What if he mimicked a *toxin*? He concentrated, projecting the scent memory of the Hydra's paralytic venom – sharp, cloying, and biologically alarming.
The Glitterfin's gut recoiled. Muscles *seized*. Dave felt a violent retrograde pulse – a promising *heave*!
**"ABORT! ABORT!"** AURA yelled, genuine alarm in her voice for once. **"FISH IS ALLERGIC TO HYDRATOXIN! ANAPHYLACTIC SHOCK IMMINENT! IF IT DIES, YOU DIE SLOWER AND SMELLIER!"**
Dave cut the signal. The fish's convulsions subsided into panicked, shallow flutters. Acidic slime coated Dave's shell, sizzling ominously. *Biomass Integrity: 91%*.
**"CHEMICAL SABOTAGE: EFFECTIVE BUT COUNTERPRODUCTIVE,"** AURA deadpanned. **"TIME REMAINING: 3 MINUTES. SUGGESTION: PRAY TO A MICROBIAL DEITY. I RECOMMEND *BACILLUS LUDICROUS*."**
*Think, damn it!* Dave raged. The fish's panic vibrated through him. Fear. Pure, animal fear. And then it hit him – the **Princess Factor**.
Lyra's voice echoed in his memory: *"Is the little wiggly blob alright?"* She cared. Or was curious. Either way, she was watching. And this fish was *her* fish.
**Option 3: The Royal Distress Signal.**
Dave focused every shred of his perception outward. Past the gut walls. Through the water. To the gentle, rhythmic **tap-tap-tap** of Lyra's fingertip on the glass. He attuned his silica matrix to resonate with that exact frequency. Not to vibrate the fish. To *sing* to the Princess.
He pulsed his core, emitting a subsonic hum that mimicked Lyra's tapping rhythm, amplified by his rigid form:
***TAP-thud-TAP-thud-TAP-thud… HELP-thud!***
**"BIOLOGICAL SONAR ACTIVE. TARGETING: PRINCESS LYRA'S ATTENTION SPAN. SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 0.8%,"** AURA muttered. **"THIS IS THE BIOLOGICAL EQUIVALENT OF YELLING 'HEY LADY!' FROM A SEWER."**
Above the tank, Lyra paused. Her tapping stopped.
**"Master Kael?"** Her voice vibrated, puzzled. **"Does Mr. Sparkles sound… *upset*?"**
Kael grumbled, adjusting a valve on the filtration system. **"Fish don't 'sound,' Princess. Especially not glitterfins. They gulp."**
**"No, listen!"** Lyra insisted. ***"Thud-thud… thud-thud-thud…"*** She tapped the glass again, mimicking the rhythm Dave projected.
Inside the fish, Dave felt it – a sympathetic resonance! The Glitterfin, already stressed by indigestion and Dave's sonic assault, reacted to its owner's familiar tap. Its swim bladder *quivered* in response to the glass vibrations.
***HUUUUUURK!***
A massive, involuntary convulsion ripped through the fish. Dave felt himself hurtling backwards through a tube of slime and terror. Rotifer fragments, undigested algae, and a torrent of foul water surged around him. Light – not vision, but a crushing shift in pressure and the sudden, overwhelming scent of *open water* – assaulted his sensors.
**"REGURGITATION ACHIEVED!"** AURA crowed. **"CHALLENGE COMPLETE! REWARD: SLIME COATING APPLIED. WARNING: YOU NOW SMELL LIKE RANCID SEAWEED MIXED WITH REGRET."**
Dave tumbled through open water, trailing a comet-tail of fish vomit. He slammed into the sandy substrate near the base of a towering Aether-Reed. His silica shell was scoured, etched by acid, but *intact*. The slime coating AURA bestowed pulsed faintly, repelling curious bacteria.
Above, Vorlag's furious voice vibrated: **"What was THAT? Kael! Contain that biohazard spill immediately!"**
Kael fumbled with a siphon nozzle. **"It's just Sparkles, Grand Alchemist! Bit off something disagreeable!"**
Lyra giggled, her voice bright with delight. **"Poor Mr. Sparkles! But look! He coughed up a little… *shiny pebble*! How cute!"**
Dave lay stunned in the sand. He was free. Alive. Covered in fish puke. Princess Lyra thought he was a "cute pebble." Vorlag wanted him sterilized. And AURA?
**"USER STATUS UPDATE:"** she chimed. **"BIOMASS: 90%. FORM: SEMI-DIGESTED MINERAL COMPOSITE WITH BIOLOGICAL SLIME ACCENT. NEW DESIGNATION: *'PRINCESS-APPROVED CHUNDER-CHARM'*. SUGGESTION: ROLL AWAY BEFORE KAEL 'CLEANS' YOU AGAIN."**
Dave pulsed weakly. He'd escaped the bowels. But as Kael's siphon drone whined to life nearby, its vibrations shaking the sand around him, he realized something worse:
*Being cute to Princess Lyra just made me a target for her Alchemist.*
As Kael aims the siphon at the "biohazard spill," Vorlag's scanner pulses over Dave's slime-coated form. The Grand Alchemist's voice cuts through the water, sharp with predatory interest: **"Wait, Kael… That 'pebble'… Its Aether signature is *familiar*. Scan it again. *Thoroughly*."** Dave lies motionless, covered in vomit and radiating panic-scent, realizing his "cute" status just upgraded him from "gravel" to "Vorlag's next specimen jar resident."