Content
The day had started out normal enough. Young Lily stood in her pocket at the top of Mallow’s stomach, overlooking the dragon’s latest meal as it digested. Even days after obtaining her special light, allowing her to finally see what lay shrouded in the familiar gurgling darkness, Lily still looked on in wonder as she watched the dragon’s gut at work. Just another normal day… at least for them.
In addition to the steady undulation of the stomach walls, all of its contents- Lily included- sloshed back and forth as Mallow walked. The dragon was idly running her tongue along her teeth, trying to dislodge a mild but stubborn discomfort left behind by her last kill.
Lily had been closely monitoring the levels of the digestive soup below her, perking up every time the stomach’s exit opened to drain some away. It was always accompanied by a satisfying slurp; one of the many sounds of the dragon’s body that she now finally had an explanation for.
“Ha! Got it!” Mallow announced, followed by an emphatic gulp. Lily turned her gaze upward toward the throat and a moment later saw something start to peak through the opening along with a waterfall of saliva. The little girl laughed when she realized what it was. A long tangle of fur, slowly slipping through the passage as the dragon continued to swallow in an attempt to get it down.
“That’s what you’ve been fussing over this whole time?” Lily asked teasingly, “Why didn’t you just ask me to help you with it?”
“I didn’t want to disturb you,” Mallow replied between swallows, “I know you enjoy my having a full belly as much as I do.”
Lily couldn’t really argue there, but at the moment she was more concentrated on the length of fur that still hung from the end of the dragon’s throat. Mallow was clearly trying everything she could to send it the rest of the way down, but the end of the wet tangle was sticking stubbornly to the opening. It swung lazily back and forth as the dragon continued walking on her way.
“Well it seems like you need my help now,” Lily said. The girl heard her friend sigh in frustration and took that as a yes. She leaned over the lip of her enclosure and reached out one hand. The fold of flesh supporting her stretched slightly but held tight. She grasped for the end of the tousle a few times as it swung in her direction, nearly grabbing it each time. She leaned over a bit more and this time she felt it brush her fingers.
“Almost got it…” she said, standing on one foot and stretching as far as she could. But the slick stomach flesh proved too slippery for her to keep her balance.
In that sickening moment, Lily felt her feet leave the ground, her whole body tipping over the edge toward the deadly pool below. The lip of her pouch reflectively tensed up in an attempt to catch her, but the little girl was already too far forward.
The normal sloshing and gurgling noises of the stomach were shattered by a scream as she fell toward the churning stew, until it was suddenly silenced by a loud splash.
Within seconds, Lily could feel the powerful acids start their work. Her face, arms and legs started to sting and then burn. She scrambled in panic, trying to find the surface and suppressing the urge to scream in an attempt to keep the deadly liquid from her mouth. With every moment the pain on her skin intensified, drawing salty tears to add to the mix.
Suddenly, she felt herself squished from all sides. She lost all sense of direction as she was shoved around and constricted by the walls of the dragon’s stomach. Completely overwhelmed, she felt her senses start to slip away, and the darkness of her tightly shut eyes gave way to the black of unconsciousness.
Moment’s earlier, Mallow’s eyes had gone wide as she felt Lily’s tiny body leave the safety of her pouch. Utter terror gripped the dragon as she realized what had happened. She felt the child splash into her digestive juices, more than ready to melt the skin off her bones in a matter of seconds. Her mind raced; she had to do something- fast. Her first instinct was to try and fish Lily out with her stomach walls, but she quickly realized that the acid covering her skin would still be more than enough to cause plenty of damage. Desperation set in as she realized that no matter how quickly she got Lily out of her chyme, it would already be too late.
But then Mallow had a new idea, it was crazy, but it was the only thing she could think of. It was either this, or Lily would become the latest victim- the newest meal- for the stomach she admired so much. The dragon squeezed her gut tight, forcing most of its contents into her intestines. She put her digestive system on overdrive, forcing her other organs into immediate action. New liquids entered her upper intestines, quickly neutralizing the acidic mixture.
The entire ordeal lasted less than ten seconds, but Mallow still cursed herself for acting so slowly. Focusing intently, she rippled the walls of her intestine, searching for Lily’s form amongst the soup of recently digested food. She found the familiar form and quickly pushed away the surrounding liquid, giving the girl space to breathe. The sudden and forceful movement of her stomach contents made her uncomfortable to put it lightly, but she ignored that as best she could.
“Lily!?” Mallow called frantically. She focused all her attention on that tiny section of her gut, feeling for any hint of movement. She brought her head around and pressed an ear against her side, listening for even the faintest hopeful sign. But she found nothing but motionless silence. Mallow called her name again, and again there was no response.
If it weren’t for the girl’s familiar shape, the dragon might not have even been able to tell her apart from the rest of her gut’s contents… the rest of her food. After all, there she lay, a motionless hunk of meat in the belly of a dragon… just more food. No. She refused to let Lily sink to the level of simple food.
“Lily!!” she called out again, squeezing her body lightly. “Lily, please! Wake up!”
…
“…Mallow?” came a faint voice. Giant tears started to form in the dragon’s eyes.
“Lily,” she breathed.
“What happened…? It- it hurts,” Lily asked. Mallow could feel the child start to shift around, she constricted her gut just slightly, giving her an affectionate squeeze.
“It’s okay Lily, you’re safe now, everything will be okay.” There was a moment of silence as Mallow tried and failed to calm her nerves, grateful and relieved that her friend was alive.
“I… I fell,” Lily said slowly, starting to remember. She felt around her lightless enclosure, feeling the unmistakable warmth of the dragon’s insides, but didn’t recognize any of the familiar folds of the stomach.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“I’m so sorry, Lily. You fell in with the rest of my food- this was the only thing I could think of to get rid of the acid… I pushed you deeper.”
“Deeper…” Lily echoed weakly, processing what had happened.
“I thought I-” Mallow choked on her words, “I thought I digested you.” There was a moment of heavy silence as the dragon threatened to break down in tears.
“It’s okay,” Lily said, “You saved me.” The dragon felt the little girl place a hand lightly on the intestinal wall. Mallow gave her friend another affectionate squeeze, the rest of her gut’s contents groaning under the pressure.
“How am I supposed to get back out now?” Lily asked. Mallow considered the question for the first time. There was NO WAY she was sending her back through her stomach. Even if that quick thinking had neutralized most of the acid in her system, she wasn’t about to take any chances or risk any more harm. But then that only left one option.
“You’ll have to come out my… other end,” Mallow replied.
“Ewww!” Lily exclaimed, “I don’t want to be your doodie!” The dragon couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at her innocent response, despite the circumstances.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you clean.”
Mallow laid down, doing her best to calm herself and relax some of the muscles in her gut she had been clenching. She allowed her digestive system to relax, only keeping pressure on either end of Lily’s chamber to keep the surrounding contents out. Lily heard the dragon’s insides groan, gurgle and squelch as they released.
“Okay Lily, just hang on, I’ll have you out in no time,” Mallow said, “You’ll be alright.”
“It’s okay Mallow, I trust you,” Lily replied. The dragon hesitated for a moment, unable to ignore the question of whether she deserved that trust anymore.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. And then she set to work.
Slowly at first and very gently, Mallow began to push the contents of her intestines onwards. She nudged Lily forward, keeping her distinctly separate from her food as the girl snaked through her belly. Lily herself was mostly quiet, slipping in and out of sleep as she too finally started to relax. But she would shift and turn as she was pushed, reassuring Mallow that she was alive. The dragon started to put some attention on the amount of air available, periodically swallowing some and pumping it through her guts to reach her passenger. It was a somewhat uncomfortable process, but she kept at it diligently.
About an hour passed without a sound. And from the outside everything appeared normal: just a dragon resting in the woods. Around this time Lily started to perk up a bit.
“Mallow… it’s so soft…” she said with a yawn. She was nearing the end of the small intestine, but had just started to wake up enough to notice the strange texture of the walls. The tiny villi that covered every inch of her surroundings formed a soft, almost carpet-like surface- except that it was also wet and vividly warm. Loud, deep gurgles echoed periodically as she grew closer to her destination.
Before much longer, the soft villi gave way to the distinct folds of the dragon’s large intestine. Mallow could feel things getting more solid as her colon absorbed any remaining water it could find. She tried her best to leave enough moisture for Lily to breathe comfortably, but she wasn’t at all used to managing her bowels like this. Finally, she felt her contents start to pile up at the end of the line, joining and compacting as they were pressed up against her rear exit.
“Mallow? What’s going on?” Lily asked. She had gotten used to her constant movement through the dragon’s guts and was somewhat surprised when she suddenly stopped.
“You’ve made it to the end,” Mallow replied.
“Oh… so, you need to go?” Lily asked.
“That’s right.”
The dragoness stood up, stretched for a moment, and then arched her back and squatted. Paying close attention to Lily’s position and what muscles she was using, she started to push. There was a good deal of excrement between the girl and her exit; bit by bit Mallow released some feces, made some room, and then moved Lily up. As she got closer, Lily could start to hear the plopping sounds as the other occupants of Mallow’s gut were pushed out onto the forest floor. True to her word, the dragon had kept the area ahead of her remarkably clean, leaving behind only a few pebbles and some pungent lubricant.
Lily felt Mallow take a pause from her otherwise regular rhythm.
“Alright, you’re next,” the dragon said. She thought for a moment, not feeling great about the idea of pushing Lily out like normal “doodie”. “Do you think you can crawl out?” the dragoness asked.
“I think so,” Lily replied.
So Mallow found a clear spot and lowered her rear all the way to the ground, spreading her anus open as wide as she could. To Lily, the sudden light was blinding after spending hours in the darkness of the dragon’s guts. Squinting, she crawled weakly towards the light, feeling the welcoming touch of fresh air. Mallow felt and followed the girl’s progress closely until she was fully outside, then allowed herself to relax and withdraw.
The dragon quickly turned around to look at her charge with a clearly worried expression. Her expression only got worse when she saw. Lily sat upright on the grass, there were numerous red blotches on her extremities where she had been partially digested. Her already worn clothes now had many little holes eaten into them courtesy of the stomach acids, and she had the overall scent of dragon-droppings. All this from just a few seconds in the dragoness’ stomach.
“Look what I did to you…” Mallow said.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Lily pleaded, “I shouldn’t have leaned out like that…” She thought back to when the two of them had first met. “You told me it was dangerous in there, that your belly was made to kill, I should have been more careful.”
There was a moment of quiet as the girl examined herself, stretching out her worn clothing to look it over with a disapproving expression. She glanced around; green grass, tall, beautiful trees. Not as common a sight for her as it might be for others. It was nice, but at the same time… She turned and looked back at Mallow, her eyes tracing a path from the scaly legs, pausing for a long moment at that massive belly, and then following all the way up a lengthy neck to her dragon friend’s face.
“Mallow, do you think… Do you think I could still go back inside later…? Back into your belly?” Lily asked. Mallow was surprised, she had almost expected the girl to never want anything to do with her insides ever again- but then she smiled, that wouldn’t be much like Lily, would it?
“Sure,” she answered. “But first, let’s get you cleaned up.”