Content
It started when I heard Ash’s belly rumbling. I was sleeping on it cause it makes a soft pillow, but it was so loud it woke me up. It was making lots of funny sounds.
*gurgle*!
*glorp*!
*grruuuuug*
*pop*!
Ash must be a super heavy sleeper, cause he stayed asleep through the whole thing. It was too loud for me, though, so I just sat there and listened for a while.
*grrrrrrplop*
*squish*
*gop*
I turned around to watch too, but I couldn’t really see anything. Even though it was making all that noise, nothing looked like it was moving. It was all in his guts somewhere.
I tried poking it, but I don’t think that helped. Sometimes I think it made it even louder. Ash didn’t seem to mind, though. He just kept sleeping.
Well, maybe if I can’t see what’s making all that noise, I can feel it, I thought. So I pushed my hands on Ash’s belly. It was really squishy- and warm- that’s why it makes such a good pillow- but all the squish was getting in the way of the grumbly bits. I tried to feel around for a while. I found some bones, but mostly just more squish- and all the squish felt the same. None of it felt like it was moving around, not like the grumblies. I was gonna stop, but Ash started making funny noises in his sleep. I think he liked how it felt, so I kept going a little.
My fingers started to get sweaty after a while, and I couldn’t find any of the grumblies, so I stopped and looked at birds for a bit. But his belly still kept grumbling.
What’s making all that noise?! I kept thinking.
That’s when I got my idea. Ash was laying with his neck all straight, see, so I thought maybe if I opened his mouth I’d be able to see into his belly and find the grumblies.
Turns out that’s really hard, because Ash’s head is super heavy when he’s asleep. Plus there’s no good grabby spots: his scales are too slippy, his horns are too far away, his nose is too gross, and pulling his ears would just be mean.
But I’m smart, so I got another idea: I pushed the top of his head so it rolled over on its side. I really thought that was gonna wake him up, but he was really sleepy.
Getting his mouth open was a lot easier after that; I just had to get my fingers inside and pull some. His tongue fell out onto the grass, though, which I thought was kinda icky, so I tried to put it back. But it just kept sliding out cause it’s super slimy and wet. It was squishy too, kinda like his belly, except his belly wasn’t wet- well, not on the outside.
So anyway, now Ash’s mouth was open, so I went down on the ground to try and see inside. He started breathing on me and it kinda smelled, but I’m used to it. Mostly it was just hard because his breath was hot and it made my eyes water.
I squished up my eyes and tried to look as far as I could, but his tongue was in the way. It moved a tiny bit when he breathed, but just a tiny bit. But I wasn’t gonna give up. I could still hear the grumbles in his belly all the way from his mouth, and I really wanted to see what they looked like.
So, I tried getting closer. I had to push his mouth open a little more so his teeth weren’t in the way. I know he’s a big strong dragon with big pointy teeth, so I was extra careful. I crawled in a little more to try and peek over his tongue, but it was just too big. It pretty much blocked his whole throat, so I couldn’t see anything.
I was starting to get a little annoyed. My hands were all slimy, my face was itchy from dragon-breath, and I think I was still kinda tired. I really just wanted to see what the grumblies looked like and then maybe tell them to be quiet so I could go back to sleep. So I decided I had to move his tongue out of the way.
That’s when things started to get really slobbery. First I tried to pull his tongue out of the way, but it was way too slippery. I tried pushing it around, but no matter where I pushed it the back bit was still in the way.
Plus, Ash would not keep his tongue still. Mostly he kept folding it around my hands when I tried to push, but after I tried a couple times, I think his tongue got curious, cause it started poking me back. It even rolled on top of me once.
So now I was all covered in dragon-drool, but I still couldn’t see anything yet. Trying to move his tongue nicely was way too hard, so I had to go to plan B.
So here’s what I did: I put my arm all the way in and squished my hand into the little gap in the back. Everything was super wet, so it squished right in. I tried pushing and his tongue started to move out of the way, but not enough. So I took my other hand and stuck it in there too.
That’s when things kinda went wrong.
When I pushed with both arms, something bad happened. I was only trying to look in his throat, but I think Ash’s mouth got confused and thought I was some kinda food, cause it thought I wanted to go down his throat.
There was a big *slurp* and a *squish* and everything got tight and dark. His tongue squished all over me, like a million dragon kisses at once. I think it was trying to go back to where it was supposed to be, but I was in the way, so it had to push me away first. But Ash had closed his mouth, so the only ‘away’ left was into his throat. So that’s where I went.
*gulp*
The getting swallowed part was kinda scary. Everything was really tight, I couldn’t move my arms or legs, and everything was wet and squishy. I closed my eyes, cause all the slimy stuff was getting on my face and I couldn’t wipe it away. It took a while too, cause dragons have long necks. For a second I even thought I was gonna get stuck, but Ash’s throat is big and strong. It pushed me all the way through his neck, right into his belly.
It was not nice in there. It’s really hot and full of nasty goop. I always thought Ash must have a really big stomach cause of how much food he eats, but it didn’t feel really big. I was all scrunched up like a ball. I tried to move around, but his belly was holding me too tight, and all the hot goop was going *slosh* *slosh* *squish*.
Then there was a big *GROURP* and everything squeezed in on me, like I was getting hugged way too tight. That really scared me, cause it made it really hard to breathe. Ash’s belly let go after a second though, and it made a loud *guuuuurg* sound.
So I found the grumblies, but now I was getting all smushed in Ash’s tummy!
My feet got squeezed next, and it made all the goop go higher. It made this noisy *squelch*, and a *glunk* when it let go. But the goop got all over my face and it started to hurt my eyes.
That’s when I started to get really scared. I started yelling and moving all around. I pushed and wiggled really hard. I was trying to find the way out, but I just couldn’t. Breathing was hard too, cause there was so much goop everywhere and the air was really hot.
I felt so much better when I heard Ash wake up. He heard me yelling and I felt him jump like someone had just pulled a scale off his butt. He must have felt me inside his belly, cause he made his worried noise and poked me with his nose.
“Let me out!” I told him.
I heard him grunt, then his belly started making all kinds of noises- I don’t even know what to call them. Everything got even tighter, but I tried really hard not to be scared, cause I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Even though it was hard to breathe, I was happy when I felt Ash push me away from the goop. I heard him making this weird coughing noise, and every time he made the noise I squished forward a little.
And then *thud*, there I was, back on the ground.
Ash was really worried and confused. He looked at me from all around, pushed his snout everywhere and licked me all over. He kept making his worried sound over and over.
“It’s okay,” I kept telling him. “I just wanted to see what was making your belly so grumbly and I accidentally fell in while you were sleeping,” I explained. “Everything looked fine in there to me. I think your food was just being mean and your belly was yelling at it to be nice.”
I had to explain it to him a couple times before he started to calm down. Eventually he took this big breath like *phew* and let his wings droop down all relaxed. After that he took me over to a stream so I could wash off all his drool and tummy goop. He was really strict too- he wouldn’t let me out until I washed everything three times.
Then, for some reason, he was really insistent on me coming back home. He practically pushed me back into my house and up to my mom.
“Kacy!” she said when she saw me. “You’re soaking wet! What happened?”
“Well…” I said, thinking back. “It started when I heard Ash’s belly rumbling…”