# One Big Family 26: Packed

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

“Are you ready, Toby?”

The little boy nodded, looking up at his sister. He smiled at her, but not one of his biggest smiles. He was happy to be going with her, but he hadn’t quite gotten back to his old self since… Well, he did his best to brush the thought away. Besides, spending time in Lorn’s belly always helped cheer him up anyway- though of course the same held true for all his family members.

“Remember, it’s gonna be really tight this time cause I just ate a lot. And you’re gonna be in there a while. You’re sure you’ll be okay?”

“Uh-huh,” he confirmed, nodding again.

He glanced down to the belly he was about to be filling, covered in a layer of scales, then back up to his younger sister’s face. ‘Younger’ here meaning from his parents’ more recent clutch of eggs, which also meant she wasn’t quite as big- or roomy- as their older batch of siblings. Even on an empty stomach, it was a somewhat cozy fit for little Toby, but he could already tell from the outside that this time it would be far more than ‘cozy’.

Lorn smiled back down at her little human brother; a big, warm, happy smile that for once actually outdid his. He felt a touch of extra warmth himself, seeing how happy she was to have him coming along. Then she opened her mouth, and things quickly got much, much warmer.

Already very familiar with the form of his little body, her jaws descended around him, pointed teeth passing him by as her tongue came into full view. The long, wet muscle pressed against him, curling up from underneath and lifting him gently from the floor, pressing him into the roof of her maw as she began to tuck him deeper, nudging him toward her throat.

With the soft light that radiated off him, Toby watched her tastebuds slip past, and within only a moment, a distinct slope was coming into view: the curved, characteristic arcs of pink which marked the entrance to his sibling’s inner world. Staring down the opening of her gullet, he felt the muscles flex and swell around him.

*gulp*

The walls of her throat were tight, pressing his arms against his sides, and his head in toward his collar. Packed in only as far as his waist, he felt his sister’s tongue relax for a moment below his legs. A last little hint of breeze- or maybe it was breath- wafted over his saliva-soaked feet as she parted her jaws just a bit, before bracing her gullet again for the second and final swallow.

*gulp*

Up rose the swell of Lorn’s tongue, pressing him tightly once more. And then down went Toby.

He listened to the crackling in his ears as they slid steadily past the flowing flesh of his siblings throat, feeling his body bend gradually to follow the arc of her neck as he traveled down its length. Her heartbeat grew louder and louder, as her body carefully carried him deeper, down into her chest, until he finally reached his destination.

*squelch*

Toby was used to the feeling of passing into his dragon family’s stomachs; the tight, stern pressure of the throat, giving way to a looser, more gentle embrace. But this time was a bit different. He felt himself squeezed through the familiar ring of muscle, but where he normally met with the openness of her inner reaches, he now met something else.

He didn’t have time to see what it was, with the dragoness’ body dutifully working him deeper. In fact he even closed his eyes at the expected yet unfamiliar collision. He felt the form of another creature: fur, and muscle and bone; and he felt the swell of Lorn’s belly around him, as it gurgled and groaned and almost even maybe struggled to accept the large helping of meat which was now being packed inside. The pressure, while noticeably less than the tight throat, now rose and rose once more as the last bits of Toby’s legs and feet were gradually forced into the cramped confines of the stomach walls.

Standing still within the caves they called home, Lorn paid particular attention to the sensations inside her, feeling her little brother press deeply into her recent meal. Discomfort rising, she almost began to regret eating so much, even though she knew she was going to need it. She felt him begin to wiggle around, no doubt trying to find the most comfortable position, and she found herself bracing against the instinctive urge to clench her gut and compact and restrain the motion within.

Taking a few deep breaths, she allowed herself to get used to the new weight and pressure, and waited until she felt the wiggles stop.

“You okay in there, Toby?” she asked.

“Uh-huh. Wow, it’s FULL in here!” The words seemed extra muffled, despite how loud it sounded like he was trying to be.

Inside, Toby had managed to find the smallest little gap between the stomach and its meal, and wriggle his way into it. His body was mostly underneath the bulk of swallowed beast, with his chest partially wrapping around the side of the stomach, allowing his head to poke up on top. There was nearly no open air within the extra-taught belly, just barely enough for him to stick his eyes, nose and mouth, letting him call out his response.

“It feels like it,” Lorn agreed, encouraged by the new enthusiasm in his voice.

Very carefully, she flexed her gut gently a few times. She needed to test how her belly would handle the extra pressure, and more importantly how Toby would handle it. Far better to do it now than when they were in the air.

Loud, insistent groans and gurgles filled the boy’s ears as the stomach shifted around him. Gases and liquids squeezed through narrow gaps, but his body hardly moved, not having anywhere to go.

*burp*

“Hehehe.”

Lorn smirked at the little giggling reaction.

“You still okay?” she asked.

“Uh-huh. But if you do that again I don’t think I’ll have enough room to talk,” he called back.

She nodded to herself. Luckily, they knew breathing somehow wasn’t any problem for him, and she knew he could always just squirm in response if she asked him a question, but she decided she would swallow more air for him every once in a while to make sure he could still talk if he wanted to. For now, she considered the task ahead, noting the tiny shifts from her precious occupant in the back of her mind.

Toby flexed his arm, then his leg, feeling the powerful pressure against them. It wasn’t his first time being packed this tight into a belly, but it wasn’t something he did very often. It wasn’t the most comfortable- for him or his family- but it was fun and interesting in its own way.

And this time, it was also important. After all, she hadn’t just swallowed him down to cheer him up. He was there to help her with long flying.

The little boy felt the pressures shifting again as his sister began to move; walking slowly at first, but then reaching her usual pace. They were already close to the mouth of their cave, so he knew she wouldn’t have very far to walk. It was definitely tight, but he decided he would be fine. When she did stop after a few seconds, he decided to answer her question before she asked.

“I’m ready!” he called.

“Okay,” came her simple reply.

Gurgles and groans accompanied another flexing of her muscles, and then Toby felt the familiar lurch of takeoff, followed by the rhythmic bobbing of steady flight. He settled into the feeling, knowing that it would be with him for quite a while.

Long flight. It was something all his younger siblings had to practice, even his older ones sometimes. The way it had been explained to Toby, dragons sometimes have to stay in the air for a long time to hunt for food, or to travel to meet other dragons, or to look for new places to live. So it’s important for them to practice.

That’s what his sister Lorn was doing right now: practicing. She was going to fly around in the sky for hours and hours without ever touching the ground. She’d eaten a nice, big meal to keep herself full, so she wouldn’t get hungry while she was up there.

*gurgle* *squelch*

And because her body would need it. Toby could hear her working herself: muscles squeezing, wings whooshing, lungs rushing, heart thumping. His sister was hard at work all around him, and her body would need all that food to keep going.

And then, of course, there was Toby. He wasn’t part of the food, obviously. Even though he was sharing a stomach with it. No, he was there for another reason, two reasons actually. First was company. Even something as fun and cool as flying could get kinda boring and maybe even lonely after too long, so with him inside she’d have someone to talk to whenever she wanted. And the second reason was weight. He was an extra lump in her belly that she had to carry with her wings, one that wouldn’t go away once she started digesting. That gave her extra practice. If she could do long flying while carrying him, then it would be easy when she had to do it just by herself.

Also, there was sort of a third reason too…

*squelch* *squilch* *splort*

Toby didn’t get to see dragon bellies this full very often. Not from the inside, at least. It was easier for his family to move him around and ‘watch’ over him when there wasn’t too much food in the way, so he usually had to wait a while after meals. That made this a special chance! …Not that he could really see much at the moment, face packed tight into his little corner of the stomach, but he could feel it, and hear it. And that was something.

He tried shifting in itty-bitty ways between the tight walls of muscle, attempting to get a feel for the meal that would be helping keep his sister company. But the big, hungry walls proved a bit too tough, holding him firmly in the place they’d put him. Still, he kept trying, hoping to at least figure out which end of the swallowed creature was which. He’d made several attempts before his sister’s voice reached him.

“You okay in there?” she asked. The wind carried away her words on the outside, but he heard them just fine from the inside.

“Uh-huh,” he answered. He pouted and his light dimmed. He didn’t want to distract her, and her belly was just too full to move around. He let his limbs go limp and let out a long sigh of whatever air he had. He would just have to be okay with feeling her stomach work, and waiting until it made a little room for him. His smile rebounded just a bit. He could do that; that didn’t sound so bad.

*glurg* *blorp*

He let himself settle into his special, fleshy, digestive embrace and set his senses to his surroundings, letting the time pass. Though he couldn’t explore, he could take in the pressure that Lorn’s taut belly imposed on him, and feel all the little quivers as her insides moved against him.

*squich*

…That didn’t occupy his attention for very long, though… Time was hard to tell, deep in the belly of a dragon, but after what was probably some minutes, Toby found his thoughts leaving the moment and drifting to, well, what he hadn’t really been able to stop thinking about.

Ambur.

He didn’t really think about her anymore. He’d sort of run out of thoughts. He’d accepted the truth of things. He’d already thought about all the things he wouldn’t be able to say, the things he’d never know, the fun he’d never have. Those thoughts were old and tired now. He’d accepted that he’d never meet her, never write to her again. And he knew that was a good thing. It was good because it kept everyone safe.

But it still felt sad. And the sad held onto him, even when he was done thinking.

*squelch* *blurb*

There was a slight shift as Lorn’s belly managed to squeeze just a bit more empty space out from her meal, moving his arm just enough for him to notice. It still felt pretty solid against his skin; fur and muscle and bone, balled up tight and pressing against him with every one of his sister’s breaths. He wondered, idly, how long it would last, before he could feel it start going soft.

The thought lingered in him, settling in alongside his sadness without much else to stir his mind. The wingbeats and heartbeats continued steadily in his ears. He felt the frown on his face. His eyes unfocused a bit in the dim light.

*blurble* *squelch*

He felt a bit of fluid flow past the edge of one of his hands. He blinked, looking in that direction with his eyes, but he knew he couldn’t turn his head that far, let alone see around his sister’s meal. He just wiggled his fingers a bit, pressing in and out of the stomach walls and furry mass, feeling his sibling’s digestive juices swish around his digits in the tiny space.

Toby did that for a little while until he stopped. Losing interest, he let his hand go still again, and felt the warm pressure form up around his fingers again, lightly pinning them. Before long, his attention had drifted away from his limb completely, once more retreating, not quite intentionally, into the quiet apathy within him.

*blorp* *glug* *splish*

That sound had come more from the middle of the stomach, he happened to notice. Toby hadn’t really been paying that much attention, but with his body wrapped around half the stomach walls, and his ears so used to picking out belly noises, it was hard not to pick up on the difference. He hadn’t felt any of the walls shift with that one, and the noise had been muffled in a particular way…

Lorn’s stomach goop, Toby thought.

Most of the time, when he was inside his family, he found the stuff pooling up at the bottom. Sometimes a lot, sometimes only a little. It depended on how much they’d eaten and how hungry they were. But it was always there sloshing at the bottom, with some air at the top where he could see and talk.

His sister’s belly was so full now, though, there wasn’t really any room for it to slosh. In fact he wasn’t even quite sure he could tell where it was and where it wasn’t. The stomach walls always felt goopy, and the walls were almost all he could feel. He wasn’t really sure how much of the stuff there was, or how high it rose.

But he knew it was rising. That’s what that sound had been. Her stomach juices, rising up around him and around her food, creeping inside all the little nooks and crannies where her walls couldn’t touch, squishing and gurgling past all the fur and little bits of air in the way, as her belly pushed them deeper.

*glurg* *plip*

There was another one. Another one of the weird, inside-y muffled noises. These were new to him, something he couldn’t remember hearing before. Or at least he hadn’t noticed them until now. He listened intently for a few moments.

*gurgle* *slorp*

No, that’s a normal noise.

*squilp*

No…

Another few minutes passed by before he finally started to lose interest again. He started to think that maybe all the little spots had been filled already. Lorn’s belly was awfully tight after all, there probably wasn’t a lot of room for her belly goop to find, even tiny little bits. His gaze gradually became more and more distant.

*slorsh* *pop*

Toby quickly snapped back to alertness. A pop!? So Lorn’s meal wasn’t all full of belly juice after all. He recalled the sound and briefly imagined the little bits of air working their way out through the fur he could feel, only to get caught in the slime of the stomach walls, slowly building into a little bubble, ready to burst just by his ear in his little pocket of space.

He listened intently again, a bit more patient now. There were the rhythmic sounds of his sister’s working body, the familiar gurgles of her guts and outer belly, spurred on by all her movement, but every few minutes, there also came another unusual noise. Unusual only to Toby, who was so well acquainted with his family’s internal soundscape that he alone could pick them out.

He still couldn’t quite feel it, but he could hear it now. Lorn’s belly, slowly but surely filling with her acids, bubbling and burbling, up, down and around into every last space as they rose to take her meal. The process absorbed his attention for a time, tickling his interest, until he felt something new tickle his chin.

Tucked in rather close to his chest, he felt a little something touch the edge of his jaw. Not fur like he’d been feeling, or his own body, something else…

*twip* *slurp*

It didn’t take him long to realize. His sister’s belly puddle had finally started to reach his little pocket of air, splashing against his chin with every few flaps as it continued to reach for his face.

“Wow, your belly’s getting hungry. I don’t think I’ll be able to talk soon.” He almost didn’t want to break up the sounds with words, but he knew she’d get worried if she tried to talk to him and couldn’t get an answer. He felt her flex her stomach around him, checking up on her sibling and in-flight meal; her acids hopped up to touch him again, harmlessly of course, patting against his cheek.

“Okay,” she replied. “Just wiggle around if you need anything.” She could get him out within a few seconds if she had to, but she was sure things would be fine. She mostly just wanted to make sure he knew not to squirm around for some other reason and raise a false alarm.

“Uh-huh.” He gave a single little test-squirm to show he understood.

Lorn noted the tiny shift from her special passenger and returned her attention to her flying.

It wasn’t too much longer before he felt the rising tide start tickling below one eye. He closed it when it started to splash too close. It didn’t hurt, but it felt weird; his view going in and out of the puddle, back and forth. A few moments later and he found he needed to close the other eye too, just as one of his ears finally dipped fully under the surface and stayed there.

To his submerged side, the soundscape sounded almost completely different, and without any vision to occupy his attention, he let the rumbling symphony of his sister’s belly consume him…

*guuuurgle* *groan*…

Toby wasn’t sure if he had dosed off. The last thing he could remember was the rhythmic flapping and the steady churning, and the next thing he was aware of was simply more of the same. One thing had changed, though; the thing which had caught his attention.

He’d shifted a little bit, in his tight little nook against the stomach wall, and the big mass he’d been constantly pressing against didn’t press quite as hard.

It was still there, still plenty solid and hard, but just a little more yielding. The fur, now long soaked in his sibling’s acids, felt a little… squishier now against his touch.

*sluuuursh* *glorp*

A long, rolling wave of pressure gradually ran the length of the tightly-packed pouch, a very familiar feature of his family’s digestion that he leaned into like a loving hug. He felt the muscles of Lorn’s belly work against him as the fleshy walls ebbed and flowed.

It was nice, seeing her belly work, being fully immersed in it like he was. It was all he could feel, all he could hear, the dull sounds of the outside world heavily muffled by the digestive juices around his ears. It was steady; calm and firm; ever-present. Carrying out its secret, hidden job of transforming all the hard, raw stuff it was given into easy, flowing stew that could just melt away into his sister’s body.

It took all those heavy, complicated things and worked them down until they were simple and light. None of the messy bits of the outside world which came inside ever lasted too long, not that Toby had ever seen. It just… dissolved it all away.

He felt, for a moment, the weight on him. Not the bulk of his sister’s digesting meal, but the weight in his mind. The hard, messy, complicated sadness.

*squelch* *glurp*

The stomach moved, then settled again. Moved and settled. Over and over. Time slipped past with every rolling contraction of muscle. It was slow and methodical, with long, deliberate lulls to let the acids soak through and do their work, but with every new churn and squelch, Toby thought he could feel all the weight and pressure melt away just a little bit more.

Very gradually, he felt every one of his sister’s breaths get just that little bit lighter, the walls a tad softer against his touch without so much stretch in them. He actually didn’t even notice the surface of her stomach’s pool lapping against the tip of his ear, not until it dipped down low again for the first time, enough that he could hear for a second the full, un-muffled splashing of the busy stomach.

He shifted a bit in the tightness, and found more motion and freedom than he expected. It suddenly struck him that there was less in there with him than there had been at the start. Not much less, but some.

Around his arms, his legs, his fingers, he could feel a little more goop and a little less hardness. Thick, but fluid, no longer solid, at least at the tiny spaces around the edges of Lorn’s meal.

*shlorp* *blurb*

Another of her belly’s regular shifts, and he thought he could feel a tiny bit of… pull. A tiny little current in the stew. Lorn just flapped on and on, not even noticing. But Toby noticed, and he knew. Feeling now that small difference in what was left of her food, he knew he was feeling it happen right there in that moment. His sister’s body, feeding, absorbing, taking from her meal to give her wings the power they needed to keep going, her heart to keep thumping, her lungs to keep breathing.

He’d never been able to really see what this thing was that she’d eaten, but he knew it was disappearing now, dissolving into the big, strong dragon who held him, flowing right into her muscles little by little with every wingbeat.

The moments became longer. Toby’s head fully emerged from the sea of chyme. Though he had room to see again, the surface was thick, dark and murky. Shapes occasionally broke through, only to quickly disappear back into the churning depths. Against his body, the contours of his belly mate grew ever fainter. Surfaces which had once been hard, vanished into fluid at his touch, while others still held on stubbornly or merely shifted out of his way.

He slipped lower and lower, almost matching pace with the tide of stomach juices, until he finally settled into his usual spot at the very bottom depths of his sister’s belly. The weight of her meal still pressed over him, but it no longer shunted him off against the walls. It was lighter than he was now; not so solid and tightly packed, but starting to spread evenly as digestion slowly worked to pull it apart.

Every bit, piece by piece, slowly faded out into the sloshing stew around him, and then quietly trickled out with little chugs and gurgles to be absorbed by his hungry sister.

Toby could move his limbs again, reach out and touch the walls wherever he wished again. But he didn’t. He kept himself still. He could still feel the vague, distorted outline of what had once been that huge meal. It was all around him, spread thinly into the places where his body didn’t press. But it was so delicate now. He knew, if he made any large moves, it would be gone; lost completely into the pool of Lorn’s stomach. He thought back to one of the many times he’d entered his kin’s bellies, the indistinct goop that commonly greeted him. He could never tell what it used to be, not really, not the way he could now. His body still remembered what the little bits of almost-liquid used to feel like, the last traces of a form now gone.

*slooorsh*

Lorn shifted, banking in her flight. The contents of her stomach rolled, just a tad. And then it was gone. Toby moved an arm, a leg. He could feel nothing but free, consistent chyme. Though there was still plenty around him to feed his sister’s hungry muscles, the food she had eaten was gone. The dragoness had claimed her meal, fully.

Toby moved his hands a bit now, feeling gently at the stomach floor, at the walls, at the juices that flowed around him. He’d spent so long, so many hours, pressed up against this solid something, that it almost felt strange now to have the chamber to himself. He spread his limbs slowly and felt the absence. He looked up and around at the glistening, pink curves and marveled anew. He smiled. He’d seen this before, he knew, but he still felt the specialness of it. Like the quiet walls had just reminded him of a feeling he’d misplaced.

*THUMP*

There was a jarring sound, and an impact that washed through Lorn’s body and the body she carried. A strong silence filled Toby’s ears, taking the place of the constant rush of wind and the pounding of dragon wings. His sister’s breath still flowed evenly nearby, but it was growing softer now. Her heartbeat slowed.

They’d finally landed.

“Wow, that was a lot of flying,” she thought aloud, her voice a bit tired.

*guuurgle* went her belly, seemingly agreeing with her. Toby nodded silently, he could personally confirm her belly had been doing a lot of work for all that flying. The sound and shift drew some extra attention to her gut. She squeezed lightly and asked, “How you doing in there, Toby?”

“I’m okay,” he answered. Though he was sort of tired, his words carried his usual, cheery tone. He did feel okay. “Are we back in the cave?” he asked, wondering a bit what some of his other siblings had been up to all this time.

“No, we’re down on the ground.”

“Oh.” He was a little surprised and a little curious.

“You want to come out and look around? I bet you need to stretch or something after being in there so long.”

Toby paused before he answered and looked around at the pink stomach walls encircling him. He gave them a little rub and they returned a quiet gurgle.

“Yeah, okay,” he replied with an unseen smile.

“Okay… here it goes…” she warned, and then he finally noticed it. Something in her voice sounded a little… weird. He was about to ask her about it, when she added one last thing. “I should probably tell you now, we kinda have a surprise for you.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but the stomach walls closed around him, and out into the world he went.

Originally Published: 10-Nov-2025