5 Slippery Slope

Chapter Five Slippery Slope None of the explorers liked to talk about what happened next. Taking a bath in planet-eater spit feels about as good as taking a bath in frog spit. Or crocodile spit. Or hippo spit. Spit baths are no fun, is the point. Which is what made Foggy's behavior so strange. "Um, what is your robot doing, exactly?" said Elias. A white light beamed up from Foggy's chest and pointed at the roof of Saphrite's mouth. It moved around in a circle, like a searchlight. "He's looking for a way out, I think," said Finn. "No, he isn't," said Abigail. "He's doing the backstroke."

It was true. Foggy was floating on his back in the pool of alien saliva. With a kick and a flutter of his arms, he skimmed from one side of Saphrite's mouth to another. "It's really fun, isn't it?" asked Foggy. "Ugh, I'm so jealous," said Vale. "Now Foggy is going to be known as the first explorer to ever backstroke in alien spit." "What is it with you?" said Finn. "Why are you so obsessed with—Oh no. Oh no, no, no."

Before Finn could finish his thought, he felt something pull at his foot. They all did. Because as Finn spoke, Saphrite decided it was time to swallow them. Being swallowed by a giant alien was like standing in line for the biggest water slide at the biggest water park in the universe. And then someone pushes you down the slide. And then instead of water on the slide, it's a whole lot of mucus. All you can do is hold your breath and try not to scream. When they landed in Saphrite's stomach, the explorers looked like they had been dragged through yellow mud. Foggy wiped the muck from the light in his chest and turned it up brighter. The explorers all glanced at each other. Their eyes peeked out of the muck. And they silently agreed they would never speak of this again.

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"So, Vale," said Finn. "You know I love you. But maybe someone else should take the lead?" "What do you mean?" said Vale. "We're alive because of me. Your sergeant-at-arms has kept you safe this entire time." "If we ignore the fact that you're the one who awakened Saphrite in the first place," said Foggy. "Exactly!" said Vale triumphantly. "Foggy gets it." "Okay, so we need a plan," said Finn. "We went from being on the most boring planet ever to being inside the biggest alien ever. How are we going to get out?" "I hate to be the one to say it," said Foggy. "Please, excuse me. This is not appropriate. But most life-forms... you truly have only two ways out. As far as I know." "What do you mean?" said Vale. "Well, there's the way we came in," said Foggy. "Yeah?" said Vale. "And then," said Foggy. "Oh, don't make me say it." "It's okay, Foggy," said Finn. "We're inside Saphrite, but we're also inside a planet. So there

has to be more than a couple ways out of here." "That's right," said Elias. "We need a status report. Foggy, what part of Saphrite are we in?" Foggy cast his light around the space. It looked like a giant cavern. "I can tell you," said a voice behind them. It was the beetle. "Whoa, what are you doing here?" asked Elias. "Well, truth be told, Saphrite swallowed some friends of mine a couple days ago," said the beetle. "And I want to get them back. Saphrite had no right to do that. So I thought, maybe I can help you jamokes, and you can help me. You know, lend a hand. Loan a foot. Sign over a tooth or two. You know."