# One Big Family 1: Lucky

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

Toby sat pressed into a tight ball, surrounded by rock on almost all sides. Wedged into his little crevasse, a small crack in the cave wall, all he could see was the faint flickering of a flame as it danced along the stone floor outside the opening. The young boy sat still and quiet, listening.

… … … *thud*

Toby’s eyes widened as he heard the heavy footstep against the ground, accented lightly by the clack of claws on stone. He held his breath and tried to stay as still as possible. The large, pounding footsteps approached.

Faintly, Toby began to notice a dim glow, softly illuminating the surrounding rock.

No, no, not now! Quit it! he thought frantically. But noticing it only seemed to make it worse. The light quickly grew brighter, radiating off his skin and building to the point where it began to rival the flickering firelight.

Suddenly there was a rather emphatic stomp, and a large, scaly face appeared at the opening to his crevasse, peering inside with one equally large eye.

“Ha! Found you!” came an excited announcement. The face quickly disappeared.

Having been discovered, Toby considered crawling out of his hiding spot himself, but a second later the brown-scaled head reappeared, only this time its snout was facing directly at the entrance. It blocked out the light from the fire, but as it parted its long jaws Toby’s own light clearly illuminated the red, glistening interior of the creature’s maw.

Without a second of warning, Toby saw the thick, slimy tongue slide out past the jagged teeth. It slithered into the crevasse after him, following along the wall until it reached his adolescent form. Once it bumped into his legs, it proceeded to give him a single, body-covering lick, leaving behind a layer of drool. But that was just a sample of what was coming.

The flexible muscle then continued along the wall, pressing itself into the narrow space between the rock and his left arm. He felt the slimy organ worm its way past him, reach the back of the tiny space behind him, and then curve back around and squeeze its way out past his right side. Warmth and wetness surrounded him on all sides as the tongue’s tip came back into view, cutting him off from the cold, yet stable stone.

Before he could do anything, he felt it start to push. Like a dog lapping up water, the tongue curved over him, drawing him forward, reeling the young boy into the waiting depths of the gleaming, crimson maw. Toby watched the intimidating teeth pass him by as he was pulled inside. Strands of saliva and little pools of drool dotted his new surroundings and glistened in his light, even as the large jaws closed behind him, sealing him inside.

The tongue was gentle, yet firm. It twisted and deformed around him, laying him down onto his back and sliding his body along its slick surface, soaking in his taste while leading him ever closer to his destination. He watched the waiting gullet approach until it filled his entire view. He felt his feet press into the firm folds at the entrance of the beast’s throat. He glanced down at the pink flesh, dotted with little bubbles of foaming drool, twitching slightly as it acknowledged his presence.

Then suddenly everything shot open. The folds of pink before him parted into a slimy tunnel, the tongue behind him swelled, pushing him forward, and his ears were filled with the unmistakable sound of a large swallow. He slid, forward and down, and quickly became enveloped in waves of warm, undulating muscle. The throat carried him along at a steady pace with the constant crackle and spatter of slime as the walls ebbed and flowed around him. Held tightly in his little bulge, Toby had just barely enough space to watch those pink, glistening walls slip past him as he was carried deeper and deeper inside.

He felt the tunnel curve, shifting him onto his back. He heard a deep, rumbling gurgle from somewhere nearby, and then felt his feet slide out into a more open space, followed quickly by his rear, until finally:

*splat*!

Toby slipped out of the throat’s grasp and fell a foot or so into a pool of thick, goopy chyme. The sloppy, greenish soup rose up to his shoulders as he sank to the bottom. Small chunks of partially digested meat from the beast’s last meal floated around him, which judging by the amount of gunk he just landed in must have been pretty big. The pink walls contracted around his legs, shifting the mixture around and squeezing him lightly, welcoming him to his new home.

Toby settled in and looked around idly as the heavy thud of footsteps vibrated through the surrounding flesh and the stomach sloshed lightly back and forth. He had a good few inches of space around his head, and the chamber was long enough that he only needed to bend his knees a little bit. He let his back press into the squishy flesh of the stomach wall, cradling him as his head bobbed just above the churning chyme.

“I win!” called the beast that had swallowed him. A few seconds and a handful of steps later he heard a number of other voices reply in disappointed tones.

“What? Already?”

“Dang it.”

“How did you find him so fast?”

The walking stopped.

“I guess I’m just the better hunter,” came the words vibrating in Toby’s ears. The boy rolled his eyes.

“He saw me glowing again,” Toby called out.

“Ha, I knew he just got lucky!”

“Yeah!”

“Come on, Toby, did you have to tell them that?”

“Don’t make him feel bad for being honest,” one of the external voices said scoldingly in his defense. “Now cough him up, I wanna play another round.”

“Can’t I at least enjoy my prize for a little while?” the voice around him asked.

“Don’t be greedy, Clak,” replied another voice.

“He did find me first. Shouldn’t he at least get a couple minutes?” Toby supported. He heard a few annoyed grumbles over the gurgling of the victor’s belly.

“I guess fair is fair,” one of the other voices eventually replied.

“If you say so, Toby,” came another.

“Just don’t let him run off with you, you’re going in my belly next.”

A few other indistinct words followed, sounding vaguely like a competitive argument, but the sound of more thudding footsteps blocked them out and they quickly faded into the distance.

“You know, that little hole was actually a pretty good hiding place,” came Clak’s voice from all around him. “They’re right, I probably wouldn’t have found you if you didn’t start glowing.”

“I know, it was such a good spot! I can’t believe I blew it. I just got so excited when you started getting close that I lost focus.”

“Well it worked out fine for me,” came the playful reply.

“You won’t tell anyone else about that spot, will you?” Toby asked.

“Nope, it’ll be our little secret.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course. I mean, if I told the others about it then they might find you there next time before I do.”

“But promise you’ll let them try to find me first! I really want to see if I can hide from them,” Toby insisted.

“Alright, I promise,” the omnipresent voice replied, sounding just a bit reluctant.

*gurgle* *groan*

“You still have lots of stuff in here,” Toby commented as he watched another firm contraction roll down the stomach’s length, stirring up the contents. “You must feel pretty stuffed with me in here too.”

“A little. I had two boars for lunch, how much is left?”

Toby ran his hand through some of the hot chyme.

“Still a lot, but it doesn’t look like boars much anymore. They’re mostly just goop now.”

“Wow, it happens that fast?”

“Yup.”

“You must feel pretty lucky, huh?”

“Kinda, I guess.”

“’Kinda’? Any other human that gets eaten by a dragon would be turning into more of that ‘goop’ right now, but you can just sit in there all day long and you don’t have to worry about a thing. You never have to worry about getting eaten.”

“Why would I worry about getting eaten when I have you guys around?” Toby asked.

“…I guess you have a point. Nothing’s going to be stupid enough to try and eat you when you’re with us. But that just makes you even more lucky if you ask me.”

“It makes you guys pretty lucky too,” Toby replied.

“How’s that?”

“Well, dad said if it wasn’t for me being able to stay alive in here you guys would never have adopted me. So you wouldn’t have me as a brother.”

“And what’s so lucky about that?” came a playfully sarcastic reply.

“Hey! How about all the times I got bones and fur out of your teeth? And the times when you were little and couldn’t wait for dad to get back from hunting, so I let you swallow me to keep you from feeling hungry? And-”

“Whoa, I was just joking,” Clak interrupted. “And besides, those aren’t the reasons we’re lucky.”

“…Why, then?” Toby asked.

“Because you’re a great little brother, and you make, like, everyone really happy.”

Toby smiled and his light grew even brighter.

*gurgle*

“…And because you taste pretty good.”

Toby laughed.

Originally Published: 26-Jan-2020