# Crossing Paths 3: Consequences

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

It was another beautiful day out in the woodlands. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and in a scenic clearing an unlikely pairing of two unlikely pairs were once again enjoying each other’s company. While Mallow napped in the sun, Lily was busy doing one of her favorite things: watching a dragon eat.

“You got Rust food from town? You know he can hunt for himself just fine, right?” Max asked.

“Yeah, I know. I just thought I’d be nice.” Lily reached into a weathered shoulder bag and pulled out a thick slab of raw meat, dangling it in front of Rust’s face.

The dragon grew a very interested expression as he sniffed the offering, like a critic appraising a fine meal. Some dragons might have been insulted by the idea of being fed, especially by some tiny human, but Rust was never above easy food, and somehow the idea of being waited on by a human while all he had to do was stand around and eat seemed quite fitting to him. So without so much as another glance at the girl doing the offering, he quickly snapped the meat up in his jaws.

One look at Lily’s face told Max everything he needed to know about her “reasons” for this apparently selfless gesture. She watched with a nearly wonderstruck gaze as Rust quickly snatched the slab out of her hand with a brief flash of his maw and proceeded to demolish it with a few curt chomps of his toothy muzzle. A second later and her ears were treated to a wet * glurk* as the dragon swallowed. Max watched the girl eagerly follow the tiny bulge down the dragon’s neck, seeming almost as satisfied as Rust when it disappeared and came to rest inside his belly.

Almost immediately, Lily reached into her bag again and brought out another equally thick slab of meat. Rust’s expression brightened, realizing that there was still more to come. He snagged this one just as quickly, devouring it with another short series of chomps and a carnal gulp. Once again, Lily tracked the mawful’s progress down the dragon’s neck, this time reaching out her hand slightly to trace its path- though still keeping her distance and not actually touching him.

As soon as that little bump disappeared into Rust’s chest, she quickly pulled out yet another offering. This time Rust looked at her first, eyeing the girl with a pleased, maybe even thankful expression. Suddenly he was starting to like her a lot more. He snapped up the morsel yet again in much the same way, the relatively small servings barely scratching the surface of his gluttonous appetite. She produced another.

“Geeze, how many did you get?” Max asked.

“All of ‘em,” Lily replied inattentively as Rust plucked another slab of meat from her little fingers. Max watched this go on for a few seconds, observing Rust get more and more comfortable and satisfied with Lily and her free food, until eventually the dragon gulped down a piece and the girl didn’t pull out another. He eyed her questioningly.

“Sorry, that’s all of them,” she said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

Rust snorted dismissively in reply, but still maintained a satisfied smirk. He mashed his jaws idly a few times and ran his tongue across his teeth and along his chops, relishing in the remnant flavors of his unexpected meal. Max couldn’t help but notice Lily, chewing her lip, with her hand partially outstretched, fingers twitching as she watched the red muscle dart in and out of the dragon’s jaws. She was clearly holding herself back. Max sighed.

“*sigh* You want to touch his tongue, don’t you?” he asked. Lily glanced at him with a startled gaze, apparently not realizing that she was being so obvious.

“Yes…” she admitted.

Hearing this, Rust stopped and looked back at her with a puzzled expression.

“Do you think I could?...” she asked the dragon.

“Mallow wouldn’t be happy if she caught you trying that,” Max pointed out.

“Yeah, but she’s sleeping now,” Lily countered.

Rust stared into her eyes for a moment, trying to fathom why the little human could possibly want to do something like that, but in the end he decided that it was a simple enough request; she had brought him all that yummy food after all, and it’s not like he would be in any danger. The dragon nodded, and then casually opened his freshly emptied maw.

“You’re not gonna bite my hand off… are you?” Lily asked hesitantly.

Rust shook his head lightly, inadvertently waving his mouth in front of them at the same time, almost as if he was teasing her with it.

“If you do anything to her, Mallow will gut you,” Max warned.

The dragon shot him a clear look of “I’m well aware of that”.

Lily glanced at Max. He shrugged admissibly in response. He had learned well by now her strange desires when it came to dragons and their insides, and if she really wanted to stick her hand in a dragon’s mouth, who was he to stop her? For a moment he considered the irony of how the four of them had met because Rust had almost eaten her; something she probably would have been fine with if she had been confident that she would make it out in one piece.

Lily looked back at Rust. The dragon met her gaze, waiting expectantly. Slowly, the girl reached out her hand and slid it between the rows of pointed teeth, then she gently laid it down on the wet, squishy surface below. The dragon’s tongue wriggled beneath her fingers as she made contact; the rough texture brushing against her skin, lubricated by the copious amounts of saliva brought on by his recent meal. She looked down at her hand as it squished lightly into the pink muscle; tiny, frothy bubbles forming around the edges.

A look of wonder, curiosity and satisfaction glowed on the girl’s face, innocent enough to dispel almost all the tension in the air.

…That is- for the three seconds it was visible.

A massive, purple-scaled muzzle suddenly crashed down, enveloping Lily in the blink of an eye, knocking Rust a few feet back and sending Max reeling to the ground in surprise. The next thing they were aware of was Mallow raising her jaws off the ground, a look of pure fury on her face. She swallowed noticeably, no doubt sending Lily down to the safety of her stomach pouch.

“Mallow?! That- that wasn’t what it looked like,” Max tried to explain.

“You…” she growled ferociously, “I knew you would try this again one day. And to think I was actually starting to trust you.”

“No, really! I wasn’t trying to hurt her! I swear!” Max pleaded, even as he began to scramble backwards away from the snarling dragoness. Her eyes narrowed as her fury mounted.

“I’ll make sure that you never get the chance to hurt her again!”

“Ahhh!!”

Rust watched with horror as Mallow suddenly lunged at Max, snapping him up in her enormous jaws just like she had with Lily. For a few seconds, he could still hear his muffled, panicked cries coming from inside, before the dragoness gave another emphatic swallow. He watched another bulge begin to descend her lengthy neck, and by the look on her face, she wasn’t sending him anywhere safe.

Mallow shifted her gaze to Rust. The dragon instinctively scrambled to his feet and took a few frantic steps back. The much larger dragoness advanced, slowly, with death in her eyes.

“And as for you.” She took another step toward him. “You’ve had this coming for a long time.”

Rust’s heart was pounding. What could he do? Run? She would catch him before he even had a chance to turn away. Try to explain that it was actually Lily’s idea to stick her hand in his mouth? Somehow he doubted that she would believe it. The dragoness took another step closer.

Rust watched with widening eyes as the bulge containing Max disappeared into Mallow’s chest, cleaving the boy from the world as if he had never existed. A second later, a slight twinge entered into the dragoness’ expression, almost as if she were distracted by something; like a pestering insect disturbing her from her impending vengeance. Was it Max? Was he somehow fighting back!?

Mallow wiggled her muzzle slightly in discomfort and blinked a couple times. Then suddenly her maw opened wide and she released an abrupt burst of fetid gas. As the belch erupted from her throat, something else flew out with it. The familiar blur whizzed through her jaws and between her teeth before she could close them, and ended up shooting directly into Rust’s face.

The dragon, suddenly blinded, threw his head around and raked a paw across his snout, desperate to regain his sight in the face of impending death. A moment later he managed to get the wet, limp article off his face. He spared it a glance as it fell to the ground, but once he recognized it, he found he couldn’t look away.

It was Max’s shirt.

Rust stared at it for a long moment, only looking away when Mallow took another thunderous step toward him, closing the remaining distance and casting her shadow over his red-orange scales.

“Time for you to get what you deserve,” she growled, glaring down at him. She drew back her head, eyes widening with rage. Rust’s eyes grew wide as well, his heart nearly stopping as he stared up at his looming demise.

Rust saw Mallow begin her strike, jaws parting as they approached him, and the mighty dragon Rust closed his eyes.

“Ha!! Gotcha!!” came a familiar human voice.

Rust opened his eyes and looked up. Mallow’s maw loomed a few feet above him, suspended in place, and poking out from under her tongue was none other than Lily.

All he could do was stare as she wriggled her way out of her slimy confines and hopped back onto the ground. The potent mortal fear still swirled in his mind, clouding his reasoning.

“That was for trying to eat me when we first met!” she exclaimed, a very smug expression on her young face. “Now you know how I felt.” Rust gawked at her blankly, dumbfounded, until he heard a grunt from the jaws still looming overhead.

Rust looked up to see Max, struggling a bit to work his way out from the heavy tongue above him. When he did after a moment, he fell to the ground rather gracelessly, landing on his side. He sat up and groaned, rubbing his bare, saliva-soaked shoulder. Lily walked over to him, giggling, and offered him a hand.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Then he turned to look at Rust. “Sorry about all this,” he said, “I promise it was all their idea. She wanted to get even.” He gestured at Lily.

“Max! Don’t lie! You helped with the plan too!” Lily insisted.

Max looked like he was about to argue, but he never got the chance, because at that moment Rust rushed at him, tackling the boy back to the ground and pinning his bare chest beneath the dragon’s claws. Lily gasped in surprise. Had they gone a bit too far? Was Rust angry at Max for helping trick him?

Rust parted his jaws… and licked Max straight across the face. Then he did it again, and again, excitedly licking the boy all across his head and chest.

“See, I told you he likes you!” Lily announced. “I bet he was really scared when Mallow burped up your shirt.”

“Alright, alright! Come on, stop! Don’t I have enough dragon drool on me?” Max pleaded between giggles as the tongue tickled his skin.

Rust kept going. He didn’t even care that the others could see; he was just happy that his friend was still alive.

Originally Published: 4-Aug-2019