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Two hooded figures paused by the mouth of an alley. The make of their cloaks showed they were well-off and probably shouldn't be in this disreputable part of town. Particularly not at midnight. The trash on the sides of the road, and the smell, should have driven them away. "Slumming," a local would say. High-class types gone to the grimy parts of the city to drink or do worse things.

A forked tongue flickered in the shadows of one hood. The figure twisted bonelessly to glance at the other. This one showed white whiskers in the shadows of its hood. The whiskered figure sniffed, and nodded almost imperceptibly.

This was the reason for the pause at the entry of the alley. The whiskered figure turned to the boneless one and spoke just a hair louder than was needed.

"Fetch a carriage, dear," purred a distinctly feminine voice. "I can't last to the inn. I'll be in the alley when it gets here."

The second hooded figure nodded. There was no mistaking the movements. There was a snake under this hood. By the whiskers and voice, some sort of high-town cat under the other.

The hooded snake slithered away to find a carriage and whisker-hood turned into the alley. A dozen steps into the shadows it passed a lurking figure. In the deepest shadows by the trash bins waited a creature of Ill intent. The knife in his hand was curved and sharp.

The thug waited until the hooded cat hiked up her robes before he struck. No better time to ambush someone when they were relieving themselves. With a quick and silent step he sidled up behind her and drove the knife into her back.

But under the hood two cup-shaped ears swivelled around to point at the thug before he even moved. When the knife went through the cloth, there was no flesh beneath it to cut. Before he could realize his mistake a powerful kick slammed into his ribs and sent him flying.

He bounced, flipping tail over ears and was back on his feet. A black leopard with a scar across one eye that ended in a notched ear. In the shadows of the alley he just saw stripes, a stocky muscular figure and the flick of an opposing feline tail.

The leopard's loincloth was loose, for he had plans for his victim's body once he killed her. Snarling, he tore it away lest it trip him up, naked save for tough cloth wrapped around his wrists he leapt forward.

If he knew who he faced or why she'd come the alley he would run. Perhaps he'd reach a crowd or well-lit street and avoid the plans she had for him. But he didn't run. Master Tigress met his leap with a shockingly quick kick to has midsection, another that brushed the dagger from his hand, and then a rush that slammed him against the wall.

He was completely outmatched. The slender leopard snarled as powerful hands pinned him to the wall and with a sudden flash of ivory his head was in the tigress's mouth.

The leopard's eyes went wide in moist darkness as the tigress's fangs locked behind his ears. She opened her maw astonishingly wide to engulf him and for a moment he froze. Before he recovered enough to fight back her jaws lurched forward. The started cat felt her tongue bunch up beneath his chin and push. Slick gullet flesh slipped by on all sides, pushing back his whiskers and flattening his ears as his entire head slid into Master Tigress's throat.

Wet to the shoulders with saliva slicking him down for easy swallowing, the leopard realized something horrible was happening and began to fight. His arms were pinned by Tigress's iron grip and as he kicked she fended off his strikes with skillful movements of her knees.

The leopard's claws came out as he struggled, but Tigress forced her jaws over his shoulders despite his desperate attempt to wriggle free. Pinned against the wall there was nowhere to run as with a snakelike side-to-side movement her jaws slipped down over his upper arms. Tigress swallowed and powerful throat muscles gripped the leopard's face, rolling over his face and pulling him along.

Bones creaked and popped as the tigress's ribs expanded to accommodate her meal and the terrified leopard felt a muscular valve expand over his muzzle. Ahead was a hot, sloshing place he very much didn't want to go. Tigress swallowed again and his face was in her stomach. He didn't want to go in there. His opinion was not solicited.

Tigress swallowed a third time and there was nothing but a set of kicking legs and a lashing, fluffed-out tail left of her prey. Her meal was almost her own size and already her midsection swelled as the leopard was forced to curl up inside her. She had, of course, worn stretchy clothes for he hunt.

Wheels rattled on pavement as a muscular ox pulled a two-person carriage up to the mouth of the alley. The ox wore the colors of the laborer's guild and had blinders on, for it was none of his business what went on to either side of his path. Here in the grimy parts of the city he would rather not know what went on outside his field of view.

Sitting in the carriage was the robed serpent, who peered out of the window. "Wait here, driver. My friend is just relieving herself. She'll be with us in a moment."

The ox nodded, minding his own business. Master Viper leaned out, peering into the shadows. In the darkness of the alley she caught one glimpse of pink pawpads in ebon fur. One glimpse was all she got. Tigress had bolted down the struggling leopard in short order once she had swallowed him to the waist and his hindpaws vanished into her gullet as her fanged jaws closed.

She bent to retrieve her cloak, wrapping it around herself, and as she stood she tensed and swallowed one last time. A frizzed-out black tail slid into the corner of her jaws, fur flattening as it disappeared.

What appeared to be a heavily pregnant woman emerged from the alley and the ox flicked an ear disinterestedly. Pregnant women have small bladders, he considered, and with that he dismissed the thought. None of his business. His night work as a carriage driver was less worrisome if he didn't trouble himself as to why people needed to be picked up out of alleys in the middle of the night.

Viper pushed the carriage door open with her tail and Tigress climbed in, heavily burdened by the great bulge under her robe. The door clicked shut and she settled into the seat with a sigh, her strong hands now free to restrain the struggles in her gut. The unhappy leopard wanted very much to be anywhere but her stomach but her strong and well-trained hands felt the shape of him under her fur and squeezed just so to pin his curled-up form in place.

"Docks, please," Master Viper hissed, and the ox, who already could barely have told you what his passengers looked like, set off with a clop of his hooves.

"You keep eating like that, you'll get as fat as a certain panda," Viper murmured, and Master Tigress grinned.

"This from the one still thick after eating a near relative bigger than she was," she whispered back.

"It was him, right? I saw his paws. The magistrate's son."

"It was," Tigress purred. She muffled a burp. "Not any more." There came a point when prey, even if still alive, was not a person any more. Just a meal.

Corruption was an awful thing. The eldest son of a powerful man might get away with murder again and again, as long as he preyed on the poor and downtrodden. The city guards, even if summoned to a ratty part of town like this, would merely glance at the still-warm and recently violated body of his victim and shrug.

Only if he met with some misadventure in his night-time jaunts would the string of murders end. And then the one who stopped him would have to face the magistrate...if anyone knew what had happened.

"You were quick," Viper whispered, and with her tail felt the squirming bulge in her friend's middle. "Faster than I could manage something that close to my own size."

"I had hands to help," Tigress purred, "And a good teacher." After all, who better to learn the Gape Of The Serpent from than a snake?

The struggle beneath her robes was weaker now. Soon it was cease altogether. Pinned by Master Tigress's strong hands so he could barely move inside her, the leopard must know there would be no escape. The stomach juices trickling in would consume him, and in the end no one would ever know what happened to the magistrate's son.

There would be no identifying marks on the slimy wad of black fur Tigress would eventually hack up and the part of him that left her body the other way would be even less recognizable. The nondescript cloth wrapped around his wrists, whichever way it departed her body, would be no more help in identifying him than the fur. Had it been, Tigress would have torn it away before swallowing him. The only evidence of his night-time fate was a loincloth lost in the garbage of an alley.

They approached the docks. Viper hissed at the driver and he stopped at a small sampan, of the sort with a small shelter at the back. The heavily pregnant woman made her laborious way there while the robed snake paid the driver. Master Viper's scales wore a temporary coat of paint and her robes, whose pattern might be used to identify her, were counterfeits purchased at the market by a beggar she hired for the task.

Even if a serious investigation was made, the odds of the leopard's slimy digestive fate being discovered were very small. He had simply gone out into the city one night to rape and murder, as he had many other nights. This time he never returned. His nightly adventure had led him to a short tour of Master Tigress's intestinal tract.

Viper took the tiller and steered them away from the pier. They had a little shoreside cabin miles down the river where Tigress could lay up until the bulge in her middle was gone. Even for the Furious Five, discretion was sometimes required.

"When you ate the assassin," Master Tigress purred, "The snake one last month. He was as closely related to you as this leopard is to me. Did you feel guilty about eating a relative?"

Master Viper looked back over what would be a shoulder if she had one. "No. Do you?"

Away from the shore on the night-dark river, Tigress no longer need be quiet. She squeezed her belly between her hands until the air was forced out in a remarkably long, guttural belch. The leopard in her middle kicked one last time and was still. There was nothing now but the slow and growing gurgle of her guts.

"A little," she purred. She learned back among the cushions in the shelter, and pulled her hood down over her eyes. "It'll pass."