Content
“Ooooh, that one looks pretty!” Lily said. She stood in front of a merchant’s stall in a small town, marveling over the dresses he had for sale. For an average person, this might seem ordinary enough, but for Lily this was a very special opportunity.
Normally, she spent her days wandering the wilds with her friend Mallow; a large dragoness who at this moment was watching over her from high above the clouds- ready to stage a convenient dragon attack if she got into any trouble.
Another oddity of the day was that Lily was clean. Since the girl spent most of her time secluded in Mallow’s stomach, there was rarely a moment when she wasn’t slimy or smelly. But due to a recent incident, she had felt the need to wash herself and spend some time in the outside world. Said incident had also left a few holes in her current attire, which is why she had come to town in the first place. Though Mallow had questioned why Lily even bothered using clothes, since she spent so much time inside the dragon getting them covered in mucus, the girl had insisted- a bit flustered- that she wear them and that she needed to get new ones.
So now Lily stood at the vendor’s stall, pointing excitedly at the prettiest dress she could see. Sure, the shopkeeper thought she was a little young to be shopping by herself, but he wasn’t about to complain with what she was offering in trade. He handed her the dress and she handed him a large handful of purple dragon scales. Dragon scales were normally very rare but, of course, Lily had a special source, which made them the perfect items for trading.
The man thanked her enthusiastically and pointed her towards a changing booth where she could try on her new apparel. She stepped inside and closed the door. It was a small wooden structure with just a few holes in the top to let in the light.
Now that she was in private, she started to remove her old clothes. What once had been a white cloak was now thoroughly stained yellow and brown, she held the tattered old garment in her hands, a last reminder of her old life, and looked at the many large holes that now covered it- some of them just shy of some inappropriate places.
She put it on the ground with a sigh and then looked down over her own exposed body. Her pale white skin was still strewn with faded red blotches, a reminder of her brush with digestion just a few days ago. Her chest and belly, along with what she could see of her back, seemed to have gotten off easy thanks to the limited protection of her clothes, while her legs and arms showed the worst damage. She ran a hand along her front and down one leg, feeling where the smooth skin gave way to rough, burnt patches. Then she put a hand to her face, feeling the disfiguration on her cheek. Things had definitely started to heal, but she wondered if she would ever be completely clear again.
Trying to cheer herself up, she looked to her new dress. It was white like her old one had been- which probably wasn’t the best idea, since it wouldn’t be staying that way for long- but it looked so beautiful that she hadn’t been able to resist. She donned it quickly, slipping it over her strangely un-slimy skin, and smiled a bit as she watched it twirl around her legs.
Satisfied, she opened the door and walked out with her old clothes in hand. She thanked the shopkeeper again and then turned to head back toward the woods, only to find someone standing in her way. It was a boy, about her age, with a rough appearance but kind eyes. He looked over her face with a small smile, and there was a short silence before he seemed to find his words.
“You look nice,” he said. Lily blushed, more than a bit surprised- especially considering her blemishes.
He looks kind of cute too… she thought, but “Thank you,” was all she said. There was another moment of silence before he spoke again.
“I… I was wondering, where did you find all those dragon scales?” She thought about his question for a moment, his voice sounded innocent enough.
“Mallow says I’m not supposed to tell,” she answered. The boy frowned.
“Oh… alright then,” he said. He started to turn away, but then looked back. “Nice to meet you,” he added, then he ran off back into town. She watched him go for a moment until she came back to her senses, then she started off again toward the woods. She met back up with Mallow a few minutes later, smiling from ear to ear.
“Do you like it, then?” the dragon asked.
Lily giggled affirmatively and nodded, spinning around to show off her new dress. Mallow smiled, this was the happiest she’d seen her since the incident.
“Good, now let’s get going. I don’t like being so close to towns.” The dragon brought her tail in front of the girl for her to climb on.
“Mallow… I think I’m ready to go back inside,” Lily said. The dragon looked a bit surprised.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
Lily smiled and nodded.
“Alright then” Mallow said, she smiled back and positioned her head above the girl. She parted her jaws a bit and drew her maw back, preparing to snap her up. But just as the dragon snapped at her, a voice called out from nearby.
“Look out!”
Lily looked just in time to see someone crash into her from the side, knocking her out of the way. She caught just enough of a glimpse to recognize the figure as the boy from town, before he disappeared between Mallow’s jaws.
Mallow had been preoccupied in thought, a bit worried about Lily’s return to her innards, and hadn’t registered anything more than a blur of motion and the boy’s voice. Lily had been pushed into the blind spot under her snout, so to the dragon’s eyes it seemed she had disappeared just as expected. Even so, Mallow felt at the form in her mouth curiously before swallowing it down. That doesn’t taste like Lily, she thought. But it was roughly the same size and maybe her new clothes were obscuring her taste? At least that’s what she assumed until she heard Lily groan from the dirt beneath her.
“Lily?” she asked confused, looking down at the girl, “But then who did I just-”
“That was the boy I met in town, he must have followed me!” Lily replied, surprised. She looked up and saw the tiny bulge traveling down the dragon’s throat, but Mallow didn’t seem to be paying it any mind now that she realized it wasn’t her. “Mallow! Keep him safe!” Lily yelled.
“Oh! Right, of course.” The dragon seemed to concentrate for a moment as the bulge disappeared into her chest.
“Let me inside too! He must be really scared!” the girl insisted, remembering what it was like the first time she had been eaten.
“Alright, alright,” Mallow said, turning to face her. The dragon quickly snapped her up as well, recognizing the familiar flavor.
But just as she withdrew to swallow, she felt something knock hard into her snout, just missing her eye. She quickly looked in the direction from where the projectile had come as the arrow fell to the ground. She saw a man emerge from behind a tree, notching a new arrow to his bow.
“Release them immediately!” the man yelled, taking aim. Mallow’s eyes narrowed. She carefully swallowed Lily down- she would be safest inside- then let out a growl.
Inside, Lily hadn’t even noticed the man’s yell, she was too focused on finally going back into Mallow’s belly again. In fact she was so eager that she’d forgotten she preferred to go feet first and hadn’t bothered to orient herself. So as she listened to the familiar sound of the dragon swallowing, she felt her world turn upside down as she was sent over the edge of her throat.
But then she heard something she had never heard before, Mallow started to growl. The flesh around her vibrated loudly with the threatening sound; something was wrong. She started worrying about what might be going on, but the tight, constricting throat left her little room to speak and she doubted her voice would be noticed over Mallow’s rumble.
After a moment, she was deposited into the dragon’s stomach and landed in her familiar little pouch, safely separated from the deadly acids below. Only this time, she landed on top of the boy.
“Ow!” he cried out.
Lily struggled to get up as she felt him wriggling underneath her, but the slimy walls made things difficult. They finally managed to separate and get a look at each other, thanks to the floating orb of light that still clung faithfully to the stomach wall.
“Are you crazy!? What were you doing walking up to a dragon like that!?” the boy yelled.
Before Lily could answer, the muffled sound of a man yelling drifted through the flesh of the dragon’s belly and then Mallow lunged, causing Lily to fall on top of her new roommate again.
“That’s my dad!” the boy cried hopefully, “He’s a dragon hunter! He’ll save us!”
“A dragon hunter?” Lily asked worriedly. She noticed the lip of her pouch rise so high that there was almost no gap leading to the rest of the stomach, a sign that Mallow thought she would be moving around quite a bit and couldn’t spend time worrying about whether her occupants might accidentally fall in (again). She thought back to what the boy had asked her earlier, about the dragon scales. Did he follow her with his dad to find where she got them? Had they come to hunt Mallow?!
“Please, you have to tell him to stop! Tell him not to hurt Mallow!” Lily pleaded.
The boy pushed her off. “You must be mad! If he doesn’t get us out of here we’ll become this beast’s next meal!” he yelled.
He hasn’t spent a lot of time in a belly before, she thought, If Mallow was going to digest us we’d be gone already. “You’re wrong,” she said, “Mallow won’t-”
Lily was interrupted by a scream from outside; it sounded like things weren’t going too well for the hunter.
“Dad!” the boy yelled, pounding the stomach wall. He seemed to think for a moment. “I have to get out of here! I have to help him!” He did his best to stand again and then put a hand to his waist. Lily’s eyes went wide as she watched him draw a short blade from his belt- something she had failed to notice until now.
“No!” she cried as the boy pulled back, preparing to plunge the dagger through the soft flesh of the stomach wall. Lily threw herself haphazardly at him, grabbing his wrists with her hands and knocking them both over. “Let go of me you loon!” He yelled trying to wrestle away, but Lily held on tight, keeping the knife away from the vulnerable flesh.
They struggled for a moment in the slimy enclosure, slipping and rolling over the slick folds of muscle, until Lily heard a familiar sound: the sound of Mallow swallowing. Mallow doesn’t know that’s his dad. He’s just trying to protect his son. I have to tell her before- Lily’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden pain in her arm. She cried out and clasped her hand to the spot, letting go of the boy. She had gotten distracted by the swallow and loosened her grip a bit, allowing him to struggle a bit harder, and he had accidentally cut her with the knife.
He got up off the girl, who was now crying on the wet floor. He stood there for a moment, now seeming a bit unsure of his actions. He noticed the walls around them relax slightly, allowing for a better view of the stomach to his left.
Just in time to see Mallow’s throat open and watch his father fall out.
The boy watched with a blank expression as he saw his father, disarmed and defeated, slide out from the opening at the roof of the stomach. The man fell like a dead weight, and splashed into the indifferent pit of death below. The boy clambered up frantically and stuck his head over the lip of the pouch, just in time to see the stomach walls contract violently, churning its new contents thoroughly in one decisive motion. He searched frantically, but whatever was left of his father was nowhere to be seen in the sloshing stew.
Now that Mallow was no longer preoccupied, she focused her attention back on Lily and her guest. The first thing she noticed was Lily on her side in the center of her pouch- at this point she could recognize that form just about anywhere. She felt the boy standing next to her, and thought that she must have simply fallen over in all the commotion, but then she noticed that Lily wasn’t getting up. She brought her ear to the side of her belly to listen.
The boy turned away from the digestive pit with tears in his eyes and a violent expression. He set his gaze on Lily and started to shout, “Why did you get in my way!? I could have saved him!” Lily started to sob harder and curled herself into a ball. He squeezed the knife in his hands, “This is all your fault!”
Suddenly, the walls of the pocket crashed in around him, pinning his legs together and his arms to his side.
“Lily?! Are you okay?” Mallow’s voice called from around them. She had heard the girl crying and the boy’s threatening tone and had decided she wasn’t taking any chances. Lily took a moment to catch her breath, and then spoke in a shaky voice.
“I’m hurt,” she said, “He cut me.” The stomach walls squeezed harder, forcing him to drop the knife, which landed with a splat.
“You did what!?” Mallow roared, the boy cried out, then started to pant as the walls started to relax.
“I was trying to save my father!” he managed before either of them could speak again.
“You came here to hunt Mallow!” Lily yelled back between sobs, growing angry.
“I tried to save your life!” he retorted.
“You were going to kill her!!” she screamed.
“Damn right we were! But it has you under its damn spell! And now because of you we’re both going to end up its dinner! Just like my dad!!”
Lily was silent for a moment as she looked up at the boy, struggling against the slimy walls of the dragon’s belly, hate and violence in his eyes. It was his fault they had followed her, his fault he had gotten swallowed, his fault she couldn’t warn Mallow not to kill. …And it was his hand that had cut her and threatened her friend.
“No…” she said quietly, “Just you.” She sat herself upright and wiped her eyes with one hand. “Mallow, he’s all yours,” she said as loud as her cracking voice could manage.
Mallow didn’t need any more encouragement. The slimy walls shifted and squirmed, pulling the boy inward before her very eyes. She watched as he squeezed backward into the undulating flesh and then downward toward the steaming pool below. She heard a muffled cry, followed by a faint splash. The stomach grumbled loudly, and then all was eerily quiet.
Lily listened to the familiar sloshing of the dragon’s gut, now its sole living occupant. It had just taken two more lives, just like it had almost taken hers; turned them into fuel for the dragon’s body. The walls around her drew in closer, cradling her tightly. Mallow’s body, she thought. Mallow; her friend; her guardian.
“Are you alright?” she asked, rocking Lily slowly back and forth with the rippling of her walls.
However deadly and powerful her stomach might be, it was still Mallow’s stomach. The stomach that cradled her tenderly even while destroying everything else; the stomach the dragoness had just used to defend her friend; the stomach Lily had just commanded in defense of them both. Accidents aside, it was on her side, doing everything possible to keep her safe. Lily reached out and placed a hand on the warm flesh around her, it embraced her from all sides, and somehow, she had never felt safer.
“Yeah, I think I’ll be okay,” she answered.
Another wave rolled beneath her, and she felt something brush against her leg. She looked down. It was the knife the boy had dropped, the red liquid on the blade nearly washed clean by the mucus that coated the pale pink walls. She reached over and picked it up, shakily getting to her feet.
Lily looked out over the churning pool of her friend’s belly; it squelched and sloshed in response. She held the knife out over the lip of her pouch, gripping it lightly by the blade with her fingers, and then she let it fall.
The hilt of the knife hit the acid with a barely audible plop, and the liquid sizzled for a moment where the weapon had disappeared below the surface. And then it was gone, never to harm anyone ever again. Mallow’s stomach had protected her once more.