Content
“Hold on, Toby, we can’t go too far from the clearing,” Lorn called after her little human brother.
“Aw, but why not? Is it dangerous?”
“No- Well, I don’t think so, but… Just trust me this time, okay?”
Toby gave his sis a funny look with a raised eyebrow and a cocked head. He was having fun, but she had been acting really weird ever since they’d landed. She kept smiling like she was playing some kind of secret game. But there was no hiding games from Toby!
“…Is there more for this surprise than just a cool new place to explore?” the little boy asked suspiciously.
They’d been wandering around the wilderness for a while now, but never very far from where they’d first landed. Just looking at the trees and the rocks, the little animals that scampered away and the bugs that skittered around. It was fun, but…
“More?” she asked, glancing away for a moment. “I don’t know what you mean. I just wanted to take you outside for a while and show you someplace new,” she explained again, repeating what she’d already told him, “to thank you for helping me practice long flying.”
“Why’d you pick a place so far away? Did I already see all the cool places at home?”
“Far away?”
“Uh-huh, we’re so far away I can’t even find the mountain in the sky anymore. I thought for practice you were just gonna fly around the mountain a bunch.”
“Yes, well, I did at first for a while, but then-”
*gasp*”
“W-what!?”
“Oh no, Lorn… You didn’t get lost, did you?” He looked concerned for a moment, thinking that maybe she was actually hiding something bad instead of something fun, but she just took a deep breath and chuckled in response.
“No, we’re not lost,” she insisted. She almost sounded a little mad about the idea that she could even get them lost.
“But then where are we?” Toby asked determinedly. His sister sighed.
“…Okay, Toby, listen. I brought you here to-” Lorn’s head twitched; she’d heard something. Curving her neck, she looked over and up, towards the sky. Toby followed along, and he saw-
“Clak!?” He blinked, but that was definitely his big brother, sailing in for a landing in the clearing they’d been exploring.
The little boy quickly ran over to the opening in the trees, questions ready on his tongue. Why had Clak followed them on Lorn’s long flight practice? Why did they come to this spot so far away from home? Was he the part of the surprise she was keeping secret? Was there some fun game they had planned?
Toby didn’t have a chance to ask any of those questions, though, because from the moment his older brother started backflapping to land, the dragon had also started calling out:
“I got her! I got her!”
“‘Got her’?” Toby echoed. That didn’t help answer any of his questions! “Got who!?”
“Ambur!” his big brother answered as he touched down.
The little boy’s little feet pattered to a stop as he heard the name, a look of utter surprise filling his face.
“You did!?” Lorn rushed over eagerly, easily catching up to her short-legged little brother in only a few steps.
“Yeah! It wasn’t even that hard! I flew into the town and found her scent, then I just followed it and there she was!” He had a huge grin on his face, and he was breathing heavy from excitement and exertion. “I grabbed her and just took off before any of them could do anything.”
“Really!?” marveled the younger dragoness. “Wow, Clak! So? Where is she!? I wanna see her! Does she look like Toby?”
“Well, um, she was kinda moving a lot in my claws. And I didn’t want to drop her or hold her too hard, so… I kinda had to swallow her.”
“WHAT!?” Toby’s shrill screech cut through the conversation, somehow louder than both of his much larger siblings. He had barely been able to grasp how this had all happened or where they even were, but that last part immediately took all his attention. “YOU ATE AMBUR!?”
“Don’t worry!” Clak urged. “It’s only been a little while- not even a little while- I’ll just-”
“Let me inside RIGHT NOW!” the little boy all but demanded.
“B-but shouldn’t I just-”
“Now! Now! Swallow me now! Right now Clak! I mean it! Hurry I-”
*NOMF*
The brown dragon quickly wrapped his maw around the little human, who was still throwing a tantrum on his tongue, even as he tilted his head back to swallow.
Toby finally stopped yelling when gravity started to shift, and he took a few shaky breaths before the slimy walls pressed in tight, and sent him down his brother’s gullet with a hasty:
*gulp*
Thoughts rushed through the young boy’s head as he descended the dragon’s long throat. Was he really about to see Ambur!? Actually see her!? He was really meeting her for real!? What would she say!? Was she okay? Would she be sad, or mad, o-or hurt? Would he just see another blob of belly-meat with nothing else left!? Why did Clak have to SWALLOW her!? Why couldn’t his throat HURRY UP and-
Toby heard a squelch as his head pushed through the opening of his sibling’s stomach. He turned his eyes up the moment they were free. The light cast by his body, bright with panic and apprehension, shone into the dark, fleshy chamber, revealing what had been stewing there in the tight, wet depths. And what the little boy saw, was a face.
*splash* *slursh* *sploosh*!
Toby’s head plunged down into the goopy liquids of his brother’s belly, as the dragon’s throat quickly shoved him the rest of the way inside. He pressed into something; something firm and alive and moving, but it wasn’t Clak’s stomach walls. He felt arms and legs- ones that felt just like his! But they weren’t! There was scrambled, panicked splashing as he was packed inside, forced up against the existing occupant, until his legs finally came free and he could right himself, pulling away from the unfamiliar sensations of this very familiar place. He brought his head above the surface and immediately heard the sound, so very out of place, of quick, shallow, completely un-muffled breaths, completely separate from his own.
He turned to look.
Toby went totally still at the sight of her. Her round, soft, human face. Long hair falling over her ears and shoulders, dipping into the pool of chyme that rose up to their chests. Her little chin rested just above her little knees, wrapped in her little arms- not giant or scaly but human, just like his. And her eyes. They looked at him now; she looked at him. And they were…
Scared. She looked really, really scared.
She took a sharp, shallow breath, pressing herself as hard as she could into a tiny pocket of space against Clak’s stomach wall; trapped inside the big, hungry dragon. She trembled, rippling the still-settling fluids. And around her eyes, with the slathering of saliva and spattering of gastric juices, he could see her tears.
“…Ambur?” His voice was little and soft as the mice that sometimes found their way into his family’s caves.
Her eyes widened a little. Recognition. Confusion. Then still more fear. Her lips turned down harder, and she glanced away as she tried to force words from her throat.
“…It… ate us…”
The words passed deeply into him. He could only remember hearing another human voice a small few times, and still her voice seemed even more special. He’d tried to imagine it before, but it was nothing like the real thing.
“…It ate us…” she repeated, almost sobbing. “It ate us and now we’re just going to be food. I’m just going to be food! I’m just-”
“No no no! It’s okay!” Toby interrupted. His voice was loud in the tight space, and the meek, frightened girl quickly went silent. She stared at him, eyes fixed in fear. “I…” He tried to think. Think back to his early times. “I know it’s kinda scary now. But I promise you’ll be okay. Clak is really nice. He won’t hurt you.”
The little boy reached out and placed a hand affectionately against the stomach wall. The light from his arm and fingers danced over the rippling, murky fluids they were sitting in. She seemed to fully notice it for the first time. It drew her eyes, and for a tiny moment wonder pushed past her fear.
“Who- …Who are you?” the little girl asked.
“I’m Toby,” the glowing boy replied, introducing himself with a literal beaming smile. Her face twisted in surprise, then harder in recognition.
“T-Toby?” she muttered.
He nodded eagerly, his excitement starting to get the better of him now. But it quickly caught against the fear still welling up from her eyes.
“I don’t think Clak’s belly is a very good place for other humans. Do you wanna go back outside?”
Her expression shifted to a frightened disbelief, and she stared at him silently for a moment. But then she nodded her head a few times, so quickly it almost looked more like shaking.
“Okay,” he told her with an assuring smile. “But, um, maybe try to breathe a little first, I think? It’s pretty squishy on the way up. Oh, and don’t be scared, okay? I promise you won’t get hurt. You just have to let him move you around. But he’s really good at it.”
She kept staring at him, still obviously not quite believing or even fully understanding what he was saying.
“…Okay?” Toby asked. She looked into his eyes for another moment, but then she did her best to take a big, deep breath, nose wrinkling at the smell, and she squeaked out a reply.
“Okay.”
Toby smiled again, and in the most casual of voices, he relayed the news to his big brother, a bit louder so he could hear:
“Clak, we’re ready to come out now. But be soft, okay?”
“Alright, Toby,” came the rumbling voice all around them, “here we go.”
“Eeep-” *squelch*
Even at his gentlest, a dragon was still a dragon, and his digestive tract was still far better suited for food than transportation. The stomach walls surged in rather firmly, pressing the two young humans together in a slimy grip before the entrance of Clak’s belly opened above and they began to slip through.
The dragon had many, many years of experience in ferrying his little brother to and from his gurgly depths, to the point where it was practically second nature to him now. Which only made it feel all the stranger, now that the bulge in his neck was twice as thick, and insisted on squirming and wriggling despite his best efforts. Guilt mounting, he did his best to guide the pair of little humans smoothly and quickly from his stomach, focusing intently until he felt them begin to peek over the back of his throat. In a practiced motion, he-
“Woa-”
Clak immediately lowered his head close to the ground and curled his tongue, as a wild mass of limbs tumbled uncontrolled across his tastebuds. Their exit from his maw was neither smooth nor controlled; far from the way he’d come to expect from his little brother. The pair slid forth in a glob of goopy saliva, rolled over each other off the tip of the dragon’s tongue and then landed in the dirt with a wet splat.
The great, scaly maw receded. And with Lorn standing right next to her brother, both looked down over the little humanlings with a quiet mix of worry and curiosity.
“Heh, hehehe.” Toby giggled at himself as he rose from the ground. It had been a long time since he’d come out that tumble-y, and it had actually been kinda fun. He waited a moment for the dizziness to go away before managing to find the other saliva-soaked form laying next to him.
She was facing away from him, just starting to move but already breathing hard.
“Are you okay, Ambur?” Toby asked, noticeable concern entering his cheerful voice.
“Y-yeah- *cough* I-I think I’m okay.”
She half sat-up and started to roll over. Wiping a hand from forehead to chin, she watched long strands of thick goop stretch from her fingers, with hardly any actually getting off of her face. He saw her expression twist. She… didn’t look happy. He hoped she wasn’t too mad.
“…I…” the girl started to say. “…I… heh, hehheh.” A weak, giddy laugh vibrated her chest, a disbelieving grin spreading on her face. “I can’t believe I’m outside again… I thought…” A shadow shifted around her, and a fresh bit of fear interrupted her relief as she quickly looked up and noticed the two large dragon muzzles pointed in her direction.
Toby frowned. It felt bad seeing someone so scared of his family. But maybe she just needed to meet them properly?
“That’s my sister Lorn,” he said, pointing. She saw his hand and finger from the edge of her vision, but didn’t look away from the looming predators. “She carried me all the way here so she could surprise me about meeting you.” His hand shifted. “And that’s my brother Clak. We just came from his belly. But he’s not supposed to swallow you up if you say it’s not okay, that’s Mom and Dad’s rule.” His voice took on a bit of a chiding tone. “So say you’re sorry to Ambur.”
“Sorry,” muttered the big brown dragon. “I did try to explain while we were flying but you just kept squirming around so I kinda had to-”
“Clak,” scolded the tiny human boy under the dragon’s nose.
“I know,” he nodded. “Sorry, Ambur.”
The girl blinked noticeably several times. She’d just heard a dragon say her name. She’d just heard a dragon apologize to her! A dragon that had just eaten her up and spat her back out! And this boy, who… She finally turned to look at him, only now collected enough to start asking questions.
“Toby. Are you really the boy from the letters- Eeeeep!”
Almost no sooner had she taken a good look at him, than she’d very quickly tossed her head in the other direction, wet hair splatting against her shoulders.
“What!? What is it!” the boy asked frantically, looking over himself and then glancing behind, trying to find what had scared her this time.
“You- You’re- You’re naked!”
“…What?” Toby thought for a second before giving her a funny look. He knew that word, but he wasn’t really sure what it meant the way she was using it.
“Naked!” she repeated quite clearly. “You’re not wearing any clothes!”
“Clothes?” He did know about those; his auntie Thess had taught him. “Of course not!” he replied with cheerful ignorance. “If I wore clothes in a dragon’s belly, they would all melt!” The explanation seemed perfectly adequate to him, but she didn’t seem too happy with it.
“What!?” she yelled, still looking away. There were just so many things about that answer that didn’t make sense! Toby quickly realized that of course she wouldn’t understand; he’d had tons of time to learn about stomachs but she’d only been inside one. So he tried to explain:
“See, all the goopy stuff inside gets into everything and it starts to get all soft and fall a-”
“Stop stop stop!” Ambur covered her ears for a moment; the imagery was still very clear in her head and she didn’t need a reminder. This boy clearly wasn’t getting it, so she decided to handle things herself.
It had been cold that morning, so she’d been sent out with a jacket, one that she was still wearing. She quickly pulled at the sleeves, feeling the wet layers of clothing slide against each other and then over her skin as she peeled it off.
“Here!” she yelled, half-glancing back just enough to aim and throw the thing in Toby’s direction. It hit his chest with a dull splat. “Cover yourself with that.” She heard the silent pause at her instruction and realized she needed to be more specific. “Just wrap it around your waist.”
“Oh, okay… Like this?” he asked after a moment. She turned around reluctantly to take a look, then sighed with relief.
“Yes, much better.” With the immediate problems of digestion and decency taken care of, she gave herself a moment to catch her breath, but she’d only just managed to sit up properly when one of the big scaly heads drifted closer and took an audible sniff of the little boy and his new apparel.
Toby saw the look on her face. But more importantly, his siblings did as well, and they both had plenty of experience reading little human expressions.
“Please…” Lorn said, with surprising softness for such a large voice. The dragoness paused after just that one word to gauge the little girl’s reaction. “Don’t be scared. I know it doesn’t help that my brother swallowed you-” she shot him a pointed glance- “but do you think you could forgive us? We didn’t mean to hurt you or even scare you. We really were just trying to do something nice for Toby.”
“Oh…” She looked up at the enormous, scaly face and blinked a few more times. That had been so… polite. Not at all the kind of thing she’d expect from a big, scary dragon. She suddenly felt reminded of her manners. “Well, I- I suppose I could. Forgive you, that is.”
The dragoness smiled down appreciatively. Ambur smiled back with lingering unease, but also a budding sense of wonder.
“…I’ve never seen a dragon before,” she murmured.
“Never!?” Toby exclaimed, grabbing her attention. She looked his direction, and even in the sunlight, noticed how the excited light he was giving off played unusually against his shadows.
“I’ve, also never seen a glowing boy before,” she admitted, shaking her head. “Is that, some kind of magic?”
“Idon’tknowmaybe but you’ve never seen a dragon!?” he repeated, trampling over her question with his surprise.
“N-No. Dragons don’t come to human towns anymore.” Her reply made it sound like it should have been common knowledge. “I thought they stopped a long time ago.”
“Makes sense,” Clak commented quietly. “I think our family is the only one around here and I know we’re not supposed to…”
“But-! But-!” Toby stammered as he tried to process the idea. Dragons were all he’d known his entire life! He couldn’t imagine never even having seen one. “Okay, well don’t worry, I know all about dragons, so I can tell you everything,” the little boy assured, then added as an afterthought, “Oh, and Clak and Lorn are dragons, so they can say things too.”
“Clak. Lorn.” Her eyes moved from one to the other as she remembered Toby pointing out who was who. The difference in size certainly helped tell them apart. Then she remembered another thing the strange boy had said, and something he had written. “You wrote about them in one of your letters, your brother and sister, but… But they’re dragons!” she realized with a start.
“Uh-huh,” Toby replied like it was obvious, “all my brothers and sisters are- plus my cousins, oh, and mom and dad of course.”
“Your whole family… is dragons?” she asked, not quite believing the obvious answer.
“Yeah!…” Toby started his reply with enthusiasm, but his smile faltered by the end. He saw the confusion in her face, the lingering fear. He watched her glance at his siblings again. In all his letters, he’d wished he could tell her the truth. But Aunt Thess had always made him keep the secret, she’d always told him Ambur wouldn’t understand, that Ambur couldn’t understand. …What if Aunt Thess was right? What if-
The girl met his eyes again. He stared at her strangely familiar face again as she looked into his…
“Well?” she finally asked. “Tell me everything!”
Toby saw her expression shift; a tiny, still disbelieving, but wonder-filled little smile. He went right back to beaming and leapt right up off the ground and onto his feet, scattering leftover bits of dragon drool in the dirt.
“Okay!”