Chapter 38 - 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.