# One Big Family 20: First Swim

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

Toby stood on a little stony ledge, with an expression somewhere between a tiny smile and a tiny frown. He was excited… but also nervous, and at the moment, the nerves had a bit of an upper hand. Below him, not very far down at all, was water. Now, he wasn’t afraid of water, but this was a lot of water, and he couldn’t look down deep enough to see where it ended.

He’d never been swimming before, you see. The lakes up on the mountain were all far too cold for him, and none of his experiences inside the bellies of his family really qualified either. But now that he was allowed to go outside, down into the valley, he finally had a chance to go swimming for real.

And of course, plenty of his family members had come out with him; his big sisters, a couple brothers, a cousin or three, and even an aunt and an uncle were there. This did go a long way in comforting him, but having seen his much larger siblings swimming freely and diving completely out of sight below the surface only confirmed just how deep the water was, and Aunt Thess’ little instructional talk on how humans were supposed to swim wasn’t giving him quite enough confidence to balance that.

While a few of the younger dragons played, the older ones all watched him, wearing supportive or sympathetic expressions. This was supposed to be a fun outing, and they were all sure he’d have fun once he got into it. And that included Toby, he was sure he’d have fun too, if he could just bring himself to jump.

He looked down at the waves his kin made as they swam, much bigger than any belly-waves he’d ever seen. He took a breath. He wasn’t scared. He was brave! Brave Toby, explorer of bellies! This lake was… just sort of a really big belly, right? He felt a spike of self-manufactured confidence and grabbed hold. Before he could think twice, he sprinted, closed his eyes and jumped.

*SPLASH*

COLD! Oh it was much colder than he’d been expecting. But unlike the streams up on the mountain, the initial shock very quickly faded out. It wasn’t nearly as warm as the chyme he usually found himself in, but it wasn’t bad either. He slowly extended his limbs as he adjusted to the temperature.

He swished his glowing arms around lightly, getting a feel for how they moved through the liquid. There was extra resistance there, sure, but it was actually far less than what he was used to. The same went for the feeling of being submerged. His head went under all the time when his kin had particularly small or full bellies, so it was a fairly familiar sensation.

While he’d never properly been swimming, he did have a vague sense of how his body moved ‘underwater’, and after a few seconds of trial and error, swinging his arms and legs, he found he could roughly sort of spin himself around.

What did aunt Thess say about human swimming? I’m supposed to go… flat, right? Point my belly down like they do. Which way is-?

For the first time, Toby looked around. Where… where was the surface? Finding ‘up’, he saw the glittering refractions dancing through the waves, far, far above his head.

…

“Um… how long until he’s supposed to come back up?” asked one of Toby’s siblings, staring at the fading ripples the little human had left after his jump.

Averi, one of his older sisters, looked uncertainly from her place in the water toward their aunt Thess, reclining comfortably on the shore. The older dragoness gave an urging nod.

A moment later, Averi had disappeared below the surface, wings and legs working in tandem to propel her quickly into the shadowed depths. Even without knowing where to look, it wouldn’t have taken her much work to find the familiar glow in the relative darkness. A few kicks and she was already close enough to see clearly.

Toby pushed off the lakebed with his legs like he was trying to jump, flailed his arms and legs around for a few seconds in a rather uncoordinated manner, and slowly sank back to the ground in defeat, pouting in frustration. He brightened up when he saw Averi though, quite literally, with his glow illuminating even more of the sandy floor. She smiled at him, happy that he seemed okay. The pressure and lack of air didn’t seem to do much more to him down there than it did in their bellies.

He pointed up at the surface with frustration and once again made an attempt to ‘swim’ toward it, demonstrating his difficulty. Averi gave an understanding nod; he’d need some help getting back up. She pushed in closer as he sank helplessly back toward the lakebed, and flung her jaws open before him. A few large bubbles of air escaped them, and a rush of water came to fill the space. The current dragged Toby between the jagged, white gates even as they reached out for him, and the momentum tossed him lightly against the familiar pink tastebuds as those gates sealed.

The little boy couldn’t help feeling instantly more relaxed as he glanced around the welcoming maw of his big sister. It looked almost the same, despite now being completely filled with water, though it felt a bit different since he was half-floating instead of fully resting on her tongue. That is until she started to move.

He felt the surge as she kicked off the lakebed, inertia pressing him firmly down into the soft muscle, and he heard the rush of water whizzing by her scales. Within a small few seconds, he heard crashing waves, and he knew they had reached the surface again.

Light poured into his sister’s mouth as she opened her jaws to the air, and the clear water within turned white as it rushed out over her teeth in a temporary waterfall, but Averi angled her tongue to keep her brother in place until it had all drained away.

“Thanks, Averi,” Toby called, hugging the extra-damp muscle as best he could.

She smiled, right until she caught a nasty look from her uncle Rynn. She knew he didn’t like anyone keeping Toby in their mouth- and especially not in their belly- but where else was she supposed to put him? If she tried to let him out onto her back or something he’d just slip right off her scales.

“Bring him over here, dear,” Aunt Thess called kindly from her mate’s side.

Averi swam up to the little ridge where the pair was lying, raised her neck and carefully let Toby slip from her tongue back onto dry land. He made the transition with practiced ease, dripping with lake water and probably a bit of his sister’s drool.

“Are you alright?” his aunt asked calmly.

He nodded certainly, but didn’t seem happy about it. His expression was rather disappointed. This told her about all that she needed to know.

“Here,” she said warmly. She shifted a bit, moving in closer to the water and turning her body, letting her tail out over the ledge where its tip hit the lake below with a little splash. “See if you can slide down,” she instructed.

Toby nodded again, brightening up slightly at the sign of a plan. Swimming might be new to him, but sliding down dragon tails was not. He climbed onto the scaly limb and then scooted down smoothly, feet first, until he felt his toes touch the cool water again. Looking back, he could see the tip of her tail was just below the surface. The large, broad, angular endpiece bobbed steadily in the waves, often peeking back into the air.

“Try holding onto me while you’re figuring it out,” offered Aunt Thess’ voice. Looking back up, Toby could see her head poking over the ledge to watch. His smile widened.

“Okay,” the little boy chirped.

He set to work, laying down on the tip of his aunt’s tail and slowly sliding his legs deeper into the water. They sank. He pulled them back up, trying to stay flat like he’d been told. They sank again. A minute or two of struggle later, and after a bit of awkward, frustrated flailing, he accidentally discovered how kicking his legs in a certain way could sort of keep them near the surface.

So he pushed in a little deeper, and a little deeper; and he kicked and kicked, making his little splashes. Before long he could keep his whole lower body and most of his chest from sinking, but it was getting hard. Somewhat instinctively he ended up putting one arm into the water and ‘kicked’ with that too, which seemed to help a great deal.

“I- I’m doing it!”

“Great job, Toby.” His aunt’s warm smile grew a touch wider as she watched over him.

He wiggled a bit in the water, turning, and started to swim sideways along the length of the dragoness’ tail tip, keeping one hand sliding atop it for support. A few encouraging cheers came from his family, with several members drawing in to see the moment.

“Ivy, why don’t you come a bit closer,” Aunt Thess called to one of them.

One of Toby’s smaller, green-scaled cousins, who’d been fairly close already, stopped craning her neck to see and instead swam the rest of the way over as requested.

“That’s fine,” their aunt directed as the ripples from their movements in the water began to overlap. The younger dragoness paused in place. “Toby, why don’t you see if you can make it over to her?”

The young boy eyed the distance between them. It would have been nothing on land, but on the lake?

“Hmm…” he considered aloud. “Okay!”

With a bit of determination, he started kicking again. Gaining momentum, he paddled with one arm, and then let go of his aunt and started paddling with his other as well. The strokes were a bit noisy and splashy, but he kept moving forward, and he kept above the surface.

“Come on, almost here,” Ivy called, curving her neck out toward him to give him a destination he could grab.

With a final burst of splashing kicks, Toby threw one arm over the green scales, panting lightly.

“I did it!” he called with pride. Another round of cheers came, and his cousin arched her neck further so she could reach him with her snout and give him a congratulatory lick.

“Think you can do it by yourself?” she asked excitedly.

“Uh, yeah, I think so!” He started kicking and splashing again and raised his arm a bit uncertainly from his scaly support before digging it into the waves. Away he went, paddling off into the lake, slowly but surely.

“Yay Toby!” Ivy called, quickly swimming happy circles around him.

“W-whoa- *cough* Uh- Try not to splash me.”

“Oops! Sorry!” She widened her circles and slowed down a bit to keep her wake to a minimum.

Even with the disturbance, little Toby quickly regained his rhythm and kept on swimming. A few more of his smaller, more excitable siblings swam closer, even diving underneath him a few times, but keeping their ripples light.

“Yeah! I’m doing it!” His glow began gleaming brighter and brighter, visible even in the broad daylight as it sparkled through the little waves. “I’m doing-!”

*SPLASH*

Very quickly, Toby watched his bright blue world grow much darker, as a shadow reached out from behind to envelope him. The sun blinked out from his view, leaving only his own light to reveal the tones of the pale, fleshy walls closing in from all sides, with a wide maw sealing shut in front of his eyes.

For a split second, the boy was surprised, then annoyed for half a moment- Who was interrupting his first swim like this? -But then as the outside world disappeared, he finally became afraid. He didn’t recognize this mouth. The colors were all off, the shape wasn’t at all long and curvy like his family’s, it was closing in much too tight, there were no big pointy teeth at the front- and there wasn’t even a tongue!

He wasn’t getting grabbed by one of his relatives. He was getting grabbed by… by some kind of lake monster!

*SHGULP*

Shocked exclamations rang out over the water’s surface.

“Toby!?”

“Toby!”

“What was that!?”

“A fish! A fish!”

“A big fish! It grabbed Toby!”

“It swallowed him!”

Several loud splashes followed as dragon after dragon dived below the waves.

Ivy had been closest, and managed to catch up quickly after sounding the alarm, with a couple of her siblings just behind. She could see the fish, stubby and bloated, slowed down by the large bulge in its middle. She tried to snap at it a few times, and almost got it once, but had to stop herself when she realized what she’d be biting into. This wasn’t just any fish she was after, it was a Toby-stuffed fish, she couldn’t just chomp through it like normal. The young dragoness kept up her pursuit but became increasingly worried. No teeth, no claws, how were they supposed to catch this thing? The rest of her clutch seemed to be in the same position, relentlessly chasing behind her without much else they could do.

*SPLASH*!

Something fast and heavy crashed through the water’s surface. A rush of bubbles and a swirling current tossed Ivy and her siblings off course and sent them tumbling through the water. When the chaos subsided, the fish was nowhere to be seen, but following the fading, frothy trail led directly to a large, scaly mass, now rising back toward the surface.

Toby had felt a sudden jerk, and then an even tighter squeeze. The space he’d been crammed into was already quite noticeably smaller than any dragon belly he’d visited, and he winced when the walls pressed down even harder. He could hear nothing but squelches and sloshes as water squished around in the crevices between his tightly packed limbs, accompanied by the dull rush of motion from somewhere outside.

And not only was it tight, but it was cold. The oppressive walls offered none of the welcoming warmth that his family’s bellies did. Instead, the same chilly lake temperature pressed in all around him, as the pale walls trapped him away from any and all familiar comforts. Fear began closing in with a tightness to rival what he was feeling physically.

*SPLASH*

“I got him! I got him!”

Toby heard the voice, heavily muffled, but quite close by. It was his big sister Kyla! Quieter, equally muffled splashing followed, with a rhythm that seemed to match the way he felt his body rocking. And there was a second rhythm too, slower and heavier, a sound that he could barely recognize as breath rushing in and out of a dragon’s lungs.

“I think so.”

“…”

“I swallowed him. He was inside a fish.”

“…”

“What else was I supposed to do!? I couldn’t just bite him in half!”

“…”

“Yeah, I can feel him moving- or I guess the fish is.”

Beyond the sounds of frantic splashing, Toby could make out the vague contours of other worried voices, his siblings’, his uncle’s, but the only one he could hear well enough to understand was Kyla. Still, that was enough for him to start figuring things out. Had she really swallowed the lake monster with him inside? The thought gave him a bolt of hope.

“I don’t know! I don’t know! Toby? Hey, are you alright in there?”

The boy opened his mouth to speak, but quickly realized that it was full of water. Luckily, he didn’t really need to breathe, but he also couldn’t talk. He tried making a few sounds, but nothing understandable came out, and soon what little air was left in his lungs had been spent.

“Shhh! Quiet! I can’t hear! Toby? Toby, are you okay?”

He started wriggling harder in protest and thought he could feel liquid lapping against him. He knew from experience that meant there was some air somewhere in there, he just had to…

“…Toby?” She could feel the disturbance in her belly, her intact catch flopping around frantically. But that didn’t reveal anything about the state of the boy inside. “Toby? …Come on, say something!”

“…K- *cough*- Kyla!” It was the tiniest pocket of air that had gotten trapped in there with all his flailing, but it was just enough.

“Toby!” She called back. The dragoness might have sounded more relieved if not for the tone of her brother’s muffled voice.

“Kyla, I- *splash*- I’m scared!” he called.

“Shhh, it’s okay. It’s okay,” she soothed. “I’ve got you.” She squeezed her belly gently tighter, almost on reflex, trying to give him a comforting belly-hug, the kind he always seemed to like. “I’ve got you…”

*guuuurgle*

Toby couldn’t feel the gesture through the frantically flopping fish he was encased in, but he did hear the familiar rumble of his big sister’s belly. He… he really was inside her. He tried to focus on that, tried to imagine the familiar belly surrounding this strange, cramped one.

“Are you hurt? Did it hurt you?” she asked.

“I… I don’t think so. I think it swallowed me in one gulp like you did.” He heard what he thought was her breathing a sigh of relief.

“He says he’s not hurt,” she passed on. Her little brother’s voice was so muffled, wrapped up in multiple layers of flesh and liquids, that when he talked normally she almost couldn’t make it out. She had to arch her neck and press her ear right up to her scales.

Toby had an even harder time hearing, only sometimes able to catch the vague sounds of voices as his kin began talking amongst themselves. He tried to listen, but all he could hear for sure were the overlapping sloshes of multiple stomachs as the fish that had eaten him flopped futilely within his big sister’s belly.

“…Kyla?”

“Yes, Toby?”

He calmed down a bit more just knowing she was still listening, keeping him company. In fact she wasn’t talking with the rest of them at all, she was only keeping quiet with an ear to her gut, her attention fixed on the special occupant within. Seconds continued to pass.

“…What are they saying?” The little boy asked eventually.

“They’re talking about how we can get you out of there,” she replied, soft and calming. “Do you think you can get out of that fish yourself?”

“…Hrm…” he whined doubtfully. “Uh-uh, it’s too tight.”

“That’s what we thought…” She recalled the split-second look she’d gotten of that fish before gulping it down. It had been seriously bloated with him inside, more belly than fish. “We want to cut you out, but we’re worried about hurting you.”

Growing up with his dragon family, he knew firsthand exactly how strong their claws and teeth were. He’d watched them tear and shred through meal after meal. There was a good reason everyone was always so careful to keep him away from those when they played. Maybe they could get him out if they tried really carefully, but… He felt how tight the lake monster’s stomach was wrapped around him, there was almost no room. Where could they chomp without chomping him?

Sharing in his family’s uncertainty, he waited quietly. His fear slowly faded as the panic and chaos of the moment passed. He tried listening to the voices, but he still couldn’t hear them well enough. What he could hear, though, was the steady whoosh of air, in and out, as his big sister’s breathing slowed; the familiar gurgles and groans, muffled but still audible through the thinly-stretched skin of his captor; and if he focused, even the steady, pulsing beat of her heart.

And as the minutes went by, he began to feel something too. It was getting warmer. He could only just feel it, but it was there, the heat of his big sister’s belly, reaching in like her voice to tell him that he was okay.

“…What if I just stayed in here?” Toby asked meekly.

“Huh? What was that?” Kyla asked, not sure if she’d heard correctly.

“What if I just stayed in here?” he repeated. “Your belly’s gonna melt the lake monster, right?”

“I- I mean, I guess it will but… But that’ll take hours, won’t it?” It was more of an actual question than one might think. She just ate the food and then forgot about it; it was Toby who was actually the expert on what happened after it was inside.

“Mm-hmm,” he admitted. “…But that’s okay.” It was very tight, but he at least felt some comfort in knowing he was in his big sister’s belly, even if he could only hear it. He didn’t want to go through getting squeezed back up her throat still squished inside the lake monster, then maybe getting accidentally chomped. He could imagine how nervous any of his siblings or cousins would be trying to get him out, not to mention how sad they’d be if they accidentally hurt him. This way just seemed… nicer.

“Are you sure? You think you’d be alright?”

He heard another voice asking a question he couldn’t make out.

“He says he just wants to wait until I digest the fish,” she answered, not sounding entirely confident.

A slightly angrier voice that sounded like Uncle Rynn interjected, followed by several others, including one that sounded like it might be Aunt Thess.

“…”

“Yeah, he says he thinks he’ll be okay.”

“…”

“Of course I would.”

“…”

“I don’t know, it was his idea.”

“…”

“Definitely. The whole time.”

“…” More indistinct conversation followed as Kyla went silent, and he heard a few more unhappy grumbles from his uncle. But eventually, his big sister spoke again.

“Okay, Toby, looks like it’ll be you and me for a while. But you have to keep talking to me so I know you’re alright. You’ve never been inside a fish before.”

“Oka-” *splash*

“…Toby?” She’d felt the spasm in her gut that seemed to have cut him off.

“I- *splish* I’m okay,” he replied after a moment. “There’s not a lot of room to talk. It’s too splashy when it moves around.”

“Oh,” she said sympathetically. Poor Toby… “I guess we shouldn’t fly back up to the cave, then.”

“No…” Normally he didn’t mind at all, but he didn’t feel like getting tossed around right now and having to wriggle to find talking space again. He just wanted to stay still, and safe, and listen to his sis’ belly.

“That’s fine, we can stay right here by the lake until you’re ready.”

“Thanks, Kyla.” His light started to glow just a bit brighter, not that even he could see it much with the pale pink muscle stretched over his face. “…You can try to lay down, though,” he offered, worried she’d get uncomfortable otherwise.

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

He felt her move as she carefully bent her legs and lowered her belly to the ground. She maneuvered as slowly and gently as a large dragoness could, keeping her limbs in close to support her weight and keep most of the pressure off her occupant.

Still, Toby felt the space around him tighten just a touch. The lake monster seemed to feel it quite a bit more. Terrified by the shrinking space, it tried to flop around again, but this time it didn’t have enough space to move either. The little boy within felt the tremors, but the liquid surrounding him hardly moved, keeping his little bubble of air secure.

“You still okay in there?” came Kyla’s concerned voice.

“Uh-huh,” he replied.

“…Sorry your first time swimming got you eaten by a fish…”

“Yeah… Thanks for saving me, though…”

“Well, Ivy helped a lot too.”

“Is she still there?” Toby asked, catching the hint from the way her name had been said.

“Uh-huh. You know, she was following that fish the whole time. I saw her green scales in the water and that’s how I knew where to dive.”

“Can you thank her for me too?”

“Hehe, yes, I can thank her for you.”

“…”

“She says she’s proud of you cause you learned to swim a lot faster than she did.”

“…”

“Sky’s here too. She wants to know if you liked swimming?”

“Oh, well, I…”

And so the minutes began to pass. In fact the first hour or so passed relatively quickly, with relative after relative coming by to check on him and chat, all dutifully relayed by his guardian sibling. They asked how he was doing, how he’d liked the lake, and if fish bellies looked the same as dragon bellies. Honestly, he couldn’t see much of the fish’s insides, and he wasn’t sure exactly what the differences would be if the walls weren’t stretched so tight.

After an hour or two, his mom and dad had returned to the cave, and flew down soon after hearing the news. They spoke with voices so booming that he could actually hear them, though Kyla still had to listen for his replies. By about that point, the visits began to slow down, though he did get an interesting one from his younger brother, who said a few of their siblings and cousins had teamed up to try to hunt all the big fish out of the entire lake.

Meanwhile, the monster who’d swallowed him up had long since stopped moving, and the temperature had gradually risen and risen to the point where it didn’t feel too different from one of his little cousin’s bellies. Without any movements from the monster, the only movements he did feel were from Kyla’s insides, as they gently poked and squeezed at her latest meal. He liked to imagine it was her stomach saying “Hi, I know you’re in there, and I’m gonna get you out.”

As the unseen sun crept further through the sky, his kin’s visits grew few and far between, and he convinced his big sister that he didn’t need to talk constantly. At this point he’d been in there for hours, and it didn’t seem to be doing anything more to him than any other stomach he’d visited, aside from giving him a few cramps. She’d ask him occasionally how he was doing, and he’d give a report as to how her digestion was progressing. At this point he could hear the sloshing around him, coming from her stomach juices, some of which he could feel starting to leak in and reach him somehow. It was a subtle change, but one he could notice.

Most of the digestion was a series of subtle changes. Very slowly he’d gone from what had clearly been a tight, cold, foreign belly, to what at times almost felt like just being curled up tight below the surface in one of his family’s much more familiar bellies. It was starting to get harder and harder to tell the difference between what was lake monster, and what was dragon belly slop, as his sister’s digestive fluids flooded in around him, carrying bits and pieces of stubborn leftovers from previous meals, and maybe even detached bits and pieces of her current one.

With each persistent little squeeze of her surrounding walls, Toby thought he could feel his confines growing just a bit looser. And there were some bony bits in the way, but he was almost sure he could feel the familiar softness of Kyla’s stomach underneath him.

*squeeelch* *BLORP*

Kyla noted the sound and slight disturbance in her gut.

“Toby?”

“…”

“Toby?”

“Kyla!” he cheered happily. He’d missed her first call when her chyme had suddenly flooded his little bubble completely, blocking up his ears as well as his talking space. But then he’d wriggled a little, and just like that all the pressure around him just melted away.

He stretched as far as he could- which was nearly all the way- and pressed his body deep into the soft, welcoming squishiness of his big sister’s belly.

*squelch*!

She always did have the softest stomach.

“You’re out!” she exclaimed, feeling the familiar imprint of her little brother against her stomach lining. She gave him a little squeeze, the walls pressing in affectionately and gurgling around their little indigestible occupant.

“Yup!” His glow grew brighter as he grinned, illuminating little chunks of fish still bobbing in the choppy, excited waves of chyme.

“Great! Everyone will be so happy.” She rose to her feet for the first time in hours, and he felt the sudden jerk as well as the decrease in pressure as her belly expanded. He stretched just that little bit further. “How about I fly us back up to the cave so we can tell everyone, and I can let you out to really stretch?” she offered, feeling the pressure he was placing on her insides.

“Sure,” he agreed happily.

The dragoness’ wings were more than ready for some exercise, and she wasted no time leaping up off the ground and climbing high up above the lake. Meanwhile, Toby just laid there within her, smiling at the familiar sights and sensations. Most other creatures, particularly ones Toby’s size, probably wouldn’t associate the belly of a dragon with freedom, but as he looked over the glistening walls with renewed appreciation, he saw the living wonder that had released him from his fishy prison.

At his big sister’s quick pace, they made it back up to the cave in no time, touching down with a thud that sloshed her belly to and fro. She tensed her stomach to settle its contents, to nudge Toby into position, and also just to feel his familiar form again after hours of absence.

“You ready to come out?” she asked.

“Uh-huh,” he replied.

“Alright, here we go.”

He felt the slick walls tense again, accompanied by a few rumbling gurgles. And just before they began to close in fully and ferry him up and away, he whispered:

“Bye-bye Kyla’s belly. Thanks for saving me.”

Originally Published: 21-Jan-2024