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“Mallow? Are you okay?” Lily asked. She had been noticing something strange within the rolling walls of the dragon’s stomach during the last hour or so. Every so often, especially when some of its contents passed further into her gut, she felt the pale pink flesh jerk and tense up. It didn’t really trouble the girl at first, but this last time she thought she heard the dragoness grunt as well.
“I should have known you’d notice, the way you watch my belly,” Mallow replied, “It’s just… a bit of discomfort further on.” Being the massive dragoness she was, she felt a bit awkward complaining to a little girl about some bellyache- especially when that little girl was inside her belly.
“Hmm, I’ve never seen you get an upset tummy before,” Lily said with an even mixture of concern and fascination. She peeked down at the stew below her with more intent focus, trying to see if anything else seemed out of the ordinary.
A few minutes later, the stomach “glorped” loudly and everything around the girl shook violently. Mallow growled lightly in protest. That was not ‘a bit’ of discomfort.
“Mallow!?” Lily called.
It was a moment before she replied, “It… it feels like there’s something stuck,” she answered more honestly. There was another pause as Lily felt things shift lightly beneath her, followed by another small tremor. “It hurts too much to stretch it,” the dragoness added.
Lily pouted worriedly. How could anything get caught in there? She wondered, recalling how wide the tunnels were. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked.
“I’m sure my belly will be able to-” Everything shook again, cutting off Mallow’s words. The girl put a comforting hand to the wall of the dragon’s gut.
Just then she had a thought, “Maybe I could go down there and see what’s wrong?” she asked innocently.
Mallow considered the idea; they both knew she wasn’t suggesting going in through the stomach- not after they’d both seen firsthand what it could do to her. The dragoness felt around her intestinal tract, noting its contents.
“Are you sure about that? It won’t be as… clean a trip as last time, not if you’re going through backwards.”
Lily frowned at the thought, but didn’t hesitate for long. “I’m sure. If I can do anything to help you feel better… I mean, you’ve already helped me so much.”
“Alright then,” Mallow said, “I guess you should bring that light of yours, so you can see what’s making all this trouble when you get there.”
Lily nodded to herself. She turned around and faced the orb, still floating where she had anchored it, giving off its soft glow, shedding light onto the otherwise unseen interior of the stomach. She wrapped her hands around it and squeezed gently. Slowly the light began to dim, surrendering the dragon’s belly back to the darkness. It almost seemed strange to Lily to have everything dark again after finally being able to see what lay beyond, but even in the dark it still felt like home.
“I’m ready,” the girl called. She felt the walls of her pocket squeeze up against her, closing around her bare feet and pushing her upwards. Into the throat she was pushed, clutching the orb to her chest and holding her breath against the wet tightness as she was carried along.
Before long, she saw the shining light of day, framed by the red insides of Mallow’s maw and the silhouettes of her pointed teeth. She turned herself around on the dragon’s tongue, putting her feet out in front of her, and then carefully slid herself forward as the dragoness tilted her head downward. Lily slid off Mallow’s tongue and onto the ground, the giant jaws withdrawing from around her.
The dragoness looked down at the girl, her expression questioning if the child was truly certain about going through with this. Lily just smiled assuredly.
“I’ll try to keep you as clean as I can,” Mallow warned. Lily’s face looked indecisive for a moment, but not because she was considering backing out.
“Maybe…” the girl’s face went a bit red, “Maybe I should go in without my clothes?” she suggested. After all, she had just gotten her new dress. She had been swallowed a few times since then, but the mucus she was accustomed to was mostly clear, so the dress still shone white even if it was usually soaked. She doubted that it would stay that way after a trip through the dragon’s bowels, and they didn’t have any way to clean it besides plain water- which she knew from experience wouldn’t be enough to get rid of the smell…
Mallow, not being one to wear clothes, never really understood the girl’s attachment to them in the first place. “Whatever you’d like,” she replied, “I don’t mind either way.” She nuzzled Lily comfortingly with her snout and the girl laughed with a bit of relief. So Mallow turned herself around, her giant limbs thudding against the ground as she maneuvered; and Lily quietly slid off her clothing, leaving it behind in the grass.
The dragoness aimed her rear at the child and crouched down low to the land. She arched her tail to the side to reveal her rear exit. Lily hadn’t really gotten a good look at it when she had crawled out the last time, and though she was still a bit embarrassed, her fascination with Mallow’s body got the better of her and she noticed an odd detail.
“Um… Mallow, where are your… girl parts?” The dragoness had told her she was female, but Lily didn’t see any opening other than the one pointing straight at her.
“My what?” Mallow asked. “You know, your, um, “private” place … Your “special” spot… Where you pee pee from.”
The dragoness looked back at her with confusion, “It’s right here,” she said, flexing the exposed opening to indicate it.
“But… but I only see your poopy hole,” Lily insisted awkwardly, “Not the other one.”
“Other one? …Do you have more than one?” Mallow asked. The tables had genuinely turned and now it seemed that Mallow was the more interested one, not seeming at all sheepish about it. Lily saw the dragon bring her head around closer, seemingly very curious. In Mallow’s defense, Lily had never shown any reserve in exploring the dragoness’ body, who was technically always naked, so she hadn’t given Mallow any reason to act otherwise.
Feeling even more embarrassed after realizing that, Lily nodded quietly. She slowly turned around, bent over and parted her legs slightly, and the dragoness stretched her neck out fully to get a closer look. Sure enough, two “holes”, though one did look a bit different than the other.
“That must be a human thing,” she commented, starting to withdraw, “dragons only have the one.”
Lily turned back around, still blushing bright red, but trying to calm herself. Her attention was caught by a sudden twitch of the dragoness’ body; a nearly-concealed pang of pain from within.
Right, I still need to help her, the girl reminded herself. “Okay Mallow, I’m ready,” she said in a sterner tone.
She saw the entrance before her fidget slightly, before stretching open into a gaping hole, just about as tall as she was. Lily could briefly and dimly make out a few passages beyond the initial orifice, but Mallow quickly sealed off all but one to avoid any further confusion.
Lily walked up to the opening and peered inside. A strong smell came out to meet her. She was used to the general odor of the dragon’s insides, so it wasn’t overwhelming, but this smell was different- fouler and thicker.
For Mallow, she thought.
She put a hand to the rim of the entrance, which shuttered lightly at the unfamiliar touch, then she lifted a foot as high as she could and managed to take a step inside. She walked forward a pace or two; the flesh was different than that of the stomach, smoother and more taut. Once she was fully inside, she watched the light around her recede as the dragoness relaxed her cloaca, sealing the girl inside.
Lily held the orb she had been carrying, pressed it against the slick hair covering her forehead and gave it a gentle squeeze. It started to glow and float of its own power, placing itself a few inches above her head and illuminating the path before her.
The passage narrowed a bit as it joined the dragon’s bowels, but it seemed clear for the time being. The girl hunched over and started to walk. Mallow shifted around for a moment, settling into a more comfortable position, but then stayed relatively still.
It’s so different from the stomach, Lily thought to herself. Sure, she could still feel the dragon’s pulse, and it was still warm and wet, but she missed the constant swaying as Mallow’s meals slowly churned around her. The lower intestine was decidedly still as the dragoness suppressed the normal peristalsis which would have only set Lily back.
It wasn’t long before she caught sight of something up ahead blocking her path, at first she could only just see a bit of brown, but after climbing past a few folds she came face to face with the blockage. A large, solid stool stood in her way, pressed tight on all sides by the bowel walls. Lily suppressed her urge to gag at the smell.
“Mallow?” she called out. The flesh in front of her started to undulate in response, feeling around the mass of waste. After a moment, the walls before her squeezed inwards, doing their best to compact the turd and make some room. When they relaxed, Lily saw the folds at the bottom left and right edges of the tube push upward, forcing the stool to the top of the chamber and leaving just a bit of space underneath, dotted with thick strands of viscous mucus that still clung to the brown bulk.
Lily looked at the tiny passage reluctantly. Considering that the blockage had previously filled the dragon’s whole tunnel, she was lucky that she didn’t have to resort to squeezing by it, but this wasn’t her favorite alternative. Steeling herself, she got down on her hands and knees and started to crawl. She slid her bare body across the intestinal floor, trying to keep as low as possible to avoid contact with the waste above her head. Her belly, legs and chest became quickly covered in slimy lubricant as she pressed onward. Not only did she have to worry about getting dirty, but the stool she was crawling beneath was so large it could possibly crush her if it slipped- and things were very slippery.
Luckily, after another moment she saw the end of the crawl space. The little girl hurriedly scrambled out and got back on her feet, standing up as straight as she could. She heard a slimy squelch and looked back to see the walls relax, letting the feces fall to the floor. Then the folds contracted firmly once again, pushing the stool further onwards towards the exit- something that Mallow had evidently been waiting to do until the child had passed.
To her relief, Lily was still feces-free. And despite the smell she didn’t quite mind the slime that the trip had left her covered in. So she pressed on, making her way around bends and over slopes. Like Mallow had warned, that one turd hadn’t been the only obstacle on her voyage. She constantly had to watch out for stone- and even bolder-sized chunks of waste, and she even had to crawl underneath a few more logs.
The further she went, the less solid the waste became, until it was almost indistinguishable from the slime that coated the walls. Lily did her best to ignore the growing amount of brown on her feet as she trudged through the gunk. Even further and the contents started to become completely liquid. Mallow did her best to give Lily some high ground to crawl on so she didn’t have to wade through the river of chyme, which otherwise would have easily been up to her waist.
Finally, Lily reached the tight ring of muscle that marked the exit of the dragon’s small intestine. It opened as she approached, granting her passage through what was normally a one-way path. She noticed the difference between the two organs immediately. On the downside, the tube was small enough that she could hardly stand at all, but the air smelled less like poo and more like Mallow’s stomach. The walls were also a slightly different color and… soft?
She put a hand against the flesh, she did vaguely remember something about that from her last trip, but it still seemed strange. Sure, almost everything in the dragon’s body was squishy and malleable, but this felt soft, like some sort of wet fabric. What she was feeling were the tiny villi that covered the length of the small intestine, sucking harmlessly on her hands and feet as they failed to absorb the decidedly undigested meat that passed by.
Things were a bit less unpleasant for Lily now that she was out of the bowels. The contents of Mallow’s guts at this stage were something that she was more comfortable with, and she was already covered in mucus from head to toe so she didn’t make much of an effort to avoid contact.
That said she was starting to get tired from the constant exertion, and she was starting to worry if she would be able to make it the rest of the way. Mallow must have picked up on this, because she started sending words of encouragement.
“You’re almost there, Lily, just a little bit further,” the dragoness called.
A few minutes later and Lily could start to hear something familiar, it was faint and muffled at first, but eventually she recognized it: the sound of the dragon’s stomach, churning away. That gave her even more encouragement, maybe she really could make it after all. Giving it the last bit of her energy, she pressed on.
Moments later, she noticed something strange in the stream of recently digested soup… it was unusually red. The girl rounded another bend and finally she laid eyes on the end of her journey: the tightly sealed sphincter that separated the dragon’s intestines from the deadly acid of her stomach.
But that’s not all she saw.
Lily waded up further, and as she took a closer look at the fleshy wall, she put a hand to her mouth in disbelief. Wedged into the soft folds was a knife, dripping lazily with blood as it leaked from the wound and into the chyme. And it wasn’t just any knife; she recognized it.
“It feels like you’re nearly on top of it. Do you see anything?” Mallow asked.
“Mallow… I’m so sorry…” Lily said.
“What is it?” the dragoness asked worriedly.
“It’s… it’s the knife. The one he used to cut me,” the girl answered.
She was of course referring to the dragon hunter’s son who she had unwittingly bumped into in town; the boy she had told Mallow to digest… She had dropped his knife into the dragon’s belly to melt away, but somehow it had made it through.
“Damn hunters,” Mallow cursed. She had heard of them making ‘special weapons’, but she hadn’t really believed they were capable of crafting something that could withstand her belly. As she thought angrily to herself, she realized that the girl inside her had gone silent and still, in fact she could almost feel the guilt radiating off the poor child.
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault,” Mallow said, absolving, “Just help me get it out.”
“Right,” Lily replied.
She waded over to the dagger. In all her time with the dragon, she had never once seen Mallow injured. The sight unsettled her, but she kept her focus. Lily placed both hands on the weapon’s worn handle, closed her eyes, and pulled.
Mallow roared as everything around Lily spasmed. She fell back into the slop, which rose high enough to cover her shoulders. The dragoness had just managed to keep her stomach valve closed. Lily watched as the walls around her slowly receded, and then started to undulate a bit more freely as Mallow tentatively tested the area. She felt the dragoness release her breath.
“Ahh, that feels much better… thank you” she said. Lily looked down at the knife in her hand, then back at the walls rolling happily around her.
“I’m glad I could help,” she replied.
“Alright, now let’s get you out of there,” Mallow said. The walls around Lily started closing in on her rather enthusiastically, pushing her along with the rest of the chyme she found herself laying in. At this point she was just happy that she didn’t have to walk or crawl anymore. She let herself relax as Mallow’s guts carried her along, massaging her with their rhythmic motion.
Before long she found herself passing back through the opening into the dragon’s bowels, but she was already so thoroughly plastered in Mallow’s previous meals that she didn’t care- not to mention her sense of smell had failed her a while ago.
…
“You’re getting close,” Mallow said. Lily shook herself a bit. Hadn’t she just started? Had she fallen asleep? She found her limbs were somewhat difficult to move, and found that the liquid she had been progressing with had since become solid. She realized to her surprise that she was now loosely encased in a relatively small log of the dragon’s waste. She wiggled around a bit to break up the excrement and free herself, but for whatever reason- call it a newfound familiarity- she wasn’t quite as offended by the stuff anymore.
Finally, she felt things come to a stop, and she knew what that meant. She was moved up, a couple feet at a time, in a series of distinct contractions as she was pushed closer to Mallow’s exit. Within another few moments, she found herself up against the ring of the dragon’s cloaca, which flexed open to reveal the light of the outside world once again.
Lily slowly crawled out onto the grass, the sounds of running water meeting her ears. Apparently, Mallow had traveled to a nearby river while the girl had been snaking her way along- a good thing too, because Lily did not look (or smell) pretty. She took a moment to appreciate the fresh air and glanced over at the dagger still clutched firmly in her hand, now thoroughly caked with feces. She tiredly tossed it into the pile of dragon dung to her side that had come out before her.
That’s where it belongs, she thought.
Mallow turned around to look at Lily. Her scaly face clearly showed she was a bit ashamed at having to put Lily through all that. But despite everything, the girl still smiled up at the dragoness, and Mallow couldn’t help but smile back.
“I guess I should be a little more careful with what I eat,” she said, “Not everything will be as good to my belly as you, my little snack.”