Snektember Day 2 (Patreon)

To speed this one along I picked up a long-unfinished sketch I did to  touch up, but it still took hours to do all the shading and make the  humans in the snake's throat not look too bad! The idea behind this piece was being a sort of follow-up to a chapter  from an old children's book. This one chapter really caught my interest -   this giant snake devoured the protagonists before burrowing  underground,  following which was a delightful segment detailing their  trip down the snake's throat and into its belly. While very short it inspired my writing for years to come and remained a  fond memory in my mind,  even as I forgot the remainder of the book's  story.  The protagonists of course escape the snake's stomach,  but in a  wonderful aversion to the usual outcomes here  they do it without  harming it, the snake spitting them out on the surface then burrowed  back underground irritated. So, my idea here was some hours after the snake had spit them up and  returned below ground. Two individuals had approached the area to  investigate the commotion.  The snake detects them approaching and  bursts up from underground and swallows them along with a large mouthful  of the dirt they were standing on,  then burrows back underground with  its new meal  -  and this time the snake would be keeping it.  No  escaping the stomach this time,  its prey will digest like food is meant  to! Here's the fun bits from the chapter! ...The snake writhed and moved the muscles in its throat to swallow... ...He could feel the muscles of the great  snake working to move them deeper into its belly, massaging them into  its stomach. Thick mucus coating the snake's mouth and throat made it  impossible to resist and they moved steadily downward... ...The muscles surged and rolled, squeezing  them deeper into the snake. Each squeeze left them with less and less of  the hot air to breathe. ....Eventually the snake leveled out and  began to slow down. At what felt like somewhere near the center of the  earth it finally stopped completely. There it wriggled the two down  farther into its belly to begin digestion. ...The beast's hot belly smelled of sweat, dirt, and decaying flesh. “He's resting, he'll lie here until we're digested.” ...the walls of the snake's belly held him so tightly he couldn't even wiggle his toes.