Only God
Chapter 38 - 35: The Esophagus of the Whale

Chapter 38: Chapter 35: The Esophagus of the Whale

Swallowed by a whale, even the calmest person would panic.

Yarlessto watched as their canoe’s starry reflection on the water’s surface descended into the dark, sticky blackness. He lunged forward, firmly grasping his father amid the tumbling turmoil, followed by a dizzying whirl.

He didn’t know what the whale that had swallowed them was doing, only that the canoe was tossing and turning inside it, like an insomniac restless on a pile of straw.

Yarlessto felt dizzy, sliding down the whale’s massive esophagus. For a moment, fear crept from his legs to his brain; his eyes widened, ready to fall backward.

At that moment, Al held the canoe with one hand and firmly embraced Yarlessto with the other, refusing to let go. He closed his eyes, trying hard not to pass out.

The whale’s enormous esophagus contracted and wriggled, sending the swallowed seawater and flying fish to its stomach. The canoe and the father and son slid down the whale’s gullet, quickly plunging toward its lower end.

Al’s face showed horror as he quickly realized that they would inevitably be swallowed into the creature’s stomach if this continued.

The Prophet, anxious, squeezed the canoe with his legs, took up an oar, and fiercely jammed it against the esophagus’s wall, attempting to wedge the canoe in place.

If at this moment one looked from outside, they would see the Unicorn whale shaking its head up and down. It seemed to realize it had swallowed something unusual and began to open its mouth, sucking in seawater, trying hard to flush down the contents in its esophagus.

However, deep inside the Unicorn whale’s massive gullet, Al and Yarlessto were unaware of why the esophagus was violently shaking again. Subsequently, they saw torrents of seawater rushing toward them, spreading fear throughout their bodies.

In the darkness, Yarlessto’s hand found another oar, and he quickly, like his father, jammed it into the flesh of the esophagus. Just as it lodged in place, the seawater surged over like a flood.

Many fish, carried by the seawater, battered against father and son lodged inside the esophagus. They clenched their teeth, closed their mouths and noses, and struggled to hold on as the wave passed; then they opened their eyes, gasping for air.

"God bless me, God bless me..."

Both father and son muttered simultaneously, as in such desperation, prayer was their only weapon.

The whale’s esophagus contracted and expanded, trying to swallow the foreign objects inside it into its stomach and expel them after digestion. Of course, Al and Yarlessto wouldn’t let the whale succeed; this was a matter of life and death.

The Unicorn whale continued to rock its head from side to side on the sea’s surface, while Al and Yarlessto desperately held on, their physical strength rapidly depleting, and their minds growing dizzy.

Just then, Yarlessto looked back and, using a Logosian’s excellent night vision, saw a branching junction in the whale’s dim esophagus, where big gushes of seawater passed, then suddenly shot upward.

"Father! That doesn’t lead to the stomach!"

Yarlessto pointed to the junction, shouting loudly as if grasping at a lifeline.

Al, firmly holding the oar, looked in that direction. He too witnessed the water gushing from there but didn’t know where it led.

"If that doesn’t go to the stomach, then where does it lead?"

Al called out loudly,

"Wait for the next time it opens its mouth to feed, then we’ll swim out!"

Listening, Yarlessto didn’t think his father’s plan was any less risky than his own,

"By the next feeding, we will have slid into its stomach!"

"But we have no other choice!"

Al said. Then, he felt the esophagus move again, and the canoe slowly went downward.

The father and son fought for their lives to block the whale’s esophagus, and soon, another round of seawater rushed in vigorously.

Al and Yarlessto endured the wash, the force hitting them like a sledgehammer.

The wave was bigger than the previous one, and the canoe inevitably slid downward.

Yarlessto shouted loudly,

"Father, if we don’t make it across now, it’ll be too late!"

Saying this, Yarlessto acted decisively without waiting for Al’s agreement and loosened the paddle that was stuck in the gullet.

"Damn!"

Al cried out in anger, realizing there was no way he could stop the canoe’s descent alone; he had no choice but to release his grip on the paddle.

The canoe then began to slide downward with extreme speed like a stone slingshot from a Hunter’s hand.

Al and Yarlessto held onto the canoe tightly, bowing their heads to fight against its dive.

Soon, they reached the fork where the waters converged, and Yarlessto lifted his head, looking up to where the water had been gushing.

There was a barely perceivable glint of light.

Yarlessto’s eyes widened as his suspicion was confirmed, and success seemed within reach.

Sensing a gust of air from behind, Yarlessto quickly lifted his head and shouted to his father,

"Hold on tight!"

Without needing to be told, the Prophet naturally held onto the canoe as the seawater began to churn violently.

In almost the blink of an eye, the tremendous current surged upwards like floodwaters breaching a dam, rushing toward the whale’s blowhole.

The canoe was lifted by the sea, and the father and son clung to it as they flew toward the exit.

Hope was right before their eyes, and under the mighty thrust, the canoe was propelled unstoppably toward the whale’s blowhole. Yarlessto screamed loudly, ready to leap up and cheer once they were ejected.

Contrary to their wishes, as the seawater pushed them from behind and the canoe advanced swiftly, they were horrified to realize the channel of the exit was getting smaller and narrower.

Then, the pushing force of the water decreased, and the father-son’s canoe got stuck at the front end of the channel, with hope seemingly close yet unreachable.

"No!"

Yarlessto yelled, and then the water surged from behind them. It rushed through the gaps between the canoe and the channel, and after that wave had fully expelled, the canoe inevitably fell downward, plummeting.

Crash!

The canoe landed heavily back into the gullet’s seawater, splashing dramatically.

Al and Yarlessto were thrown about, and the younger Yarlessto was the first to open his eyes and regain consciousness. Glancing down at the canoe, he said urgently,

"We must ditch the canoe to get through there."

But he would not have another chance to test his theory.

Outside the gullet, a distant, sharp noise came through, like a sonar wave originating from the depths of the sea.

The Unicorn whale dipped its head slightly, inserting its sharp horn into the water, which emitted a faint glow, receiving the urgent call from its kin.

That call was extremely urgent.

Quickly, it stopped trying to swallow the seawater and instead closed its blowhole, enduring discomfort as it dropped its head and dived into the deeper waters.