Content
*THUD* “OOF!”
Toby turned his head inquisitively toward the echoey sound. He was supposed to be helping check the cave fires, but a distraction like this was more than enough to capture his interest. He could come back to his chore later. Making a mental note of which cave he was up to, he walked off in the direction of the sound.
After a few dozen quiet steps- tilting his head all around like he’d seen his siblings do when they were trying to hear something- he thought he caught the sound of claws scraping against stone. It was coming from a nearby cavern. Abundantly curious, and maybe slightly concerned, he poked his little head around the rocky opening.
He immediately spotted and recognized his cousin Sky. Though she was smaller than a lot of their other kin, her beautiful scales- a rich blue like the heavens for which she was named- stood out distinctly from the dull earthy colors of the chamber.
The young dragoness was standing on top of a high outcropping in the wall, which she’d apparently climbed. Toby watched as she spread her wings, crouched low and then leapt forward into the air. She flapped hard, twice, and for a moment she was free of the earth, but then one wing dipped, the other flung upwards and she fell sideways against the hard floor like a rock.
*THUD* “Ow!”
“Sky!” Toby called out, running into the cave.
“Huh!?” The dragoness lifted her head, a bit wearily, and looked in his direction. “Oh- hey Toby.” She tried to sound lighthearted, but the little boy could see she was sad and maybe even a little embarrassed.
“Are you okay?” he asked, standing in front of her head, but craning her neck all around to check for anything that looked like it hurt.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, but she didn’t sound fine. He finished his little visual inspection as she stood up, shaking dust and flecks of rock from her scales.
“Why’d you jump like that?” he asked with concern.
“…I was trying to fly,” she admitted.
“Oh… all by yourself?”
Toby remembered when his younger batch of siblings had learned to fly. All their big brothers and sisters had been huddled around, eagerly shouting out advice and cheering them on. And their mother and father had been watching attentively, giving key bits of instruction, catching them if they started to fall.
Sky seemed to get a sense of this from his eyes.
“Everyone else from my clutch can fly already… I’m the only one who can’t get it right.”
“So why don’t you ask for help?” he asked innocently. She glanced away from him.
“I just don’t want to look like a clumsy hatchling in front of them.” She looked back at the rocky ledge she’d jumped from, and her mood changed a bit, as if she were imagining some majestic scene. “But I really want to learn. I want to finally leave the caves, fly over the clouds, explore the forests, join the hunt.” She sighed.
“…Well… maybe… I… could help you?” Toby offered hopefully.
“How?” she asked. Not dismissively, but definitely not optimistic either.
“I helped when my family learned to fly.” He turned and scampered toward the far end of the lengthy cave. “They had me stand far away like this,” he explained, starting to get excited at his own idea. “‘Just look at your brother,’ my parents said, ‘just fly towards him.’ And I remember the other things they said too, about how to move your wings and what to do with your tail.”
“You really think you could teach me?” she asked, starting to get a little hope herself.
“Uh-huh,” he nodded happily. “And don’t worry, I would never think you’re a hatchling, cause you’re way bigger than that!” Toby encouraged.
Sky snorted, which turned into a chuckle.
“Okay, Toby. I’ll give it a try,” she agreed.
He watched her turn and walk back over to the uneven wall before climbing it again in a series of leaps. With each jump he saw her wings extend slightly, as if instinctively bracing to catch her. She was quite agile even without their use. When she reached the top ledge, Toby took a moment to think hard about what he could remember.
“Can you fly without moving your wings yet?” he asked.
“Gliding? Kinda…” she replied uncertainly.
“Try doing that one first, but stay looking at me.”
“Okay…” She locked her eyes on her little human cousin and took a deep breath, then she spread her wings and leapt off the cliff. Airborne for just a moment, she braced herself for the fall, but she kept looking at Toby’s wide-eyed face, and after a second moment she realized with astonishment that it was working. Her eyes started to light up, but unfortunately two moments was all she got.
A sudden stab of panic interrupted her rising joy as she felt a wingtip dip. She tried to fix it, but it just knocked her further off course, and before she knew it she was rolling sideways and then-
*THUD*
“Sky!” Toby called out again in alarm.
She groaned, annoyed and tired of hitting the ground, but she got back up as she heard the boy’s tiny feet start pattering toward her.
“It’s alright, I’m fine. Stay over there, I want to try that again.”
“Okay…” he replied. He was a bit reluctant, cause he didn’t like seeing her getting hurt, but he remembered his father saying how it took ‘perseverance’, which he learned meant that you had to keep going, even if it hurt.
As Sky climbed the wall again, Toby thought back on some of the other instructions his parents had given. He could remember how his siblings looked when they were flying, and he could kinda see where his cousin was going wrong, but he couldn’t quite explain it. Maybe…
“Hey, I’m gonna put my arms out like this,” Toby said as she reached the top again. The boy stuck his arms out straight to both sides. “Pretend like they’re your wings, and just follow what I do, okay?”
“Whatever you say, Toby.”
“Okay,” he called back, focus clear in his voice as he settled into position.
Sky spread her wings once again, and made another leap into the air. She kept her eyes on Toby, just like before, but just like before after only a moment or two she felt one wing start to dip. Her initial instinct was to flap hard and push the ground away, but she saw Toby quickly raise one of his arms. She mirrored him, raising not the wing that had dipped, but the opposite one. She sank sharply for a split second, but the move put her back on course, and before she knew it, she was following the little boy’s lead and leveling her wings again, returning to a stable glide.
“Toby!” she yelled joyously, “I- OOF!” Her excitement was interrupted by the ground, which she hadn’t realized had gotten quite so close. But the weight of this impact was far more surprise than pain compared to her earlier attempts.
“You were doing it!” he exclaimed.
“I know!” she replied, jumping up with enthusiasm. “Let’s try again!”
She ran back to the wall, a bit further away this time, and scrambled up quickly.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yeah!” Toby replied, but then he added one more thing. “My mom said if you start to lose balance you can fix it by kinda ‘throwing your tail’. Does that make sense?” It didn’t mean anything to him, not having a tail and all, but it had sounded important at the time, so maybe it would help.
“I think so…” she answered ponderingly.
Seeing Toby settle into position again, she unfolded her wings and made another attempt, now slightly more confident. This time, when she felt herself just starting to dip, she snapped her tail sharply to one side. It had been a bit too sharply, she realized a moment later, as she started dipping even more steeply in the other direction, but she caught herself with her wings the way Toby was showing her and straightened out.
And then Toby flung his arms down hard in unison. Sky glanced down and realized the ground was nearly with her. She flapped hard. And she rose. Her face lighting up like a starry sky, she quickly looked back at her little cousin. He flapped his arms steadily, and she did the same with her wings, keeping herself just barely off the ground, but off the ground nonetheless.
“Toby!! I’m doing it! I- Wait, how do I stop? How do I land?! Toby!! Ahhhh!!”
They had been so caught up in getting her to fly, neither one of them had considered that part. So with no other plan and no time to think she just kept going forward, straight toward Toby, screaming in panic through gaping jaws.
There was a clatter of bodies- skin and scales- against the stone floor. But there was also another sound, not as loud, but audible to Sky, and definitely audible to Toby. Like a wet smack. Of course the sounds were the last things on their minds. It was the physical sensations that dominated.
Sky’s panic multiplied as she felt her cousin’s large form suddenly fill her throat. The initial impact had shoved his head, shoulders and most of his arms clean into her gullet. And after the initial round of flailing as they tried to right themselves, he’d slipped in even further, passed his belly.
Toby’s world had gone from stony grey to vibrant red in the blink of an eye, and it would have gone sharply to black if not for the glow coming off his skin, illuminating the walls of flesh packed tightly in front of his face. He felt his cousin gag. He was still a large meal for her at her size, especially unexpected like this. His shoulders pressed bulges in the sides of her neck, his torso put uncomfortable pressure on her windpipe.
He felt her try to cough him up, but she was disoriented and unfocused, and the hasty jerks of her esophagus only made him slip inside further. Finally, she gave up.
*GULP*!
Toby felt the muscles of her throat tense up around him and then force him downward, a much more comfortable, natural movement for them. He relaxed and let it happen, making it easier for her. He felt his legs slide steadily over her tongue as her body worked to pack him inside and clear her gullet and her airway.
And packed he became. As the young dragoness’ throat squeezed him into her belly- with some effort- his surroundings did not become roomy as was the case with his older siblings, they only became slightly less cramped. His face pressing up against the back of her stomach, he let her body mold him into a little ball, as her guts groaned and gurgled in reluctant acceptance.
And then everything grew quiet and still.
“…Hahahahaha!!”
Both of them broke out in laughter together, with a combination of pride and humility and surprise.
“You did it!” Toby called.
“I know!” her voice vibrated around him.
“How did it feel?!”
“Awesome! Thanks’ Toby, you’re the best!”
He felt her stomach walls clench around him in what he knew to be an affectionate hug.
“Sorry for swallowing you like that, though,” she added.
“It’s fine, I guess we shoulda thought about the landing with no mom or dad around to catch you.”
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she asked, thinking back on the impact.
“No, I’m fine. Your belly is a little tighter than my brothers’ and sisters’, but it’s kinda nice. Cozy.” He wriggled happily against the squishy walls.
“Well don’t get too comfy in there,” she said, a clear excitement returning to her voice. “I gotta try that again.”