Content
His family, particularly the elders, had always warned him. When he was little, he could remember them doing it a lot. ‘Be careful not to get stepped on’, ‘be careful not to get burned’, ‘be careful not to fall from the cliffs’. But more than anything else, they had always been the most worried when he was swallowed up.
Toby could understand why. They loved him, and it was scary for them to see him treated like a meal. Claws and teeth and bellies were dangerous things. Meals didn’t survive them. But Toby could. He had been visiting his family’s bellies for longer than he could remember, and he knew he was safe there.
The big problem was that no one else could see that but him. Toby thought that might be what scared his family the most. Tucked away inside a belly, no one at all could see him, they couldn’t tell if he was okay, they couldn’t protect him. And none of them had ever been in a belly before, they didn’t know what it was like, they only saw their food when it went in and when it eventually came out.
His parents said it was a big responsibility. Whoever ate him had to be careful. They had to take extra good care of him, and pay lots of extra attention to him, because they were the only one who could. And Toby had to be extra careful too, because he was the only one who could see what was happening inside. A dragon would feel nothing unusual if their belly suddenly started digesting their little human sibling in place of a meal. Toby had to raise the alarm if anything bad started happening.
Over the years, Toby had made it his mission to learn about his family’s bellies; to find out what was dangerous and what was safe, so no one would have to worry anymore. He’d spent hours at a time- and even a full day- within the squishy walls, and in all that time he’d never come to any serious harm.
And his brothers and sisters and cousins had all done their part. They’d each learned in detail what it felt like to have him inside; learned exactly how to move him around, up and down their throat and around with their tongue without ever hurting him. They invented elaborate signals he could make from their insides, signals for every possible problem, and they always did everything they could to keep him comfortable.
But then there was sleeping.
Naturally, there was no place nearly as warm or comfortable for him to sleep as inside a family member’s belly. But his parents and the other elders had been extra worried the first time he’d asked to try it. With everyone sleeping, no one would be watching out for little Toby, not even the dragon he was inside of, not even himself. And there was no telling what a sleeping dragon’s belly would do to him.
But Toby had been brave, and his siblings had jumped up to help. The first time, he’d stayed up all night long while the dragon around him slept, and two other siblings took turns keeping watch, always making sure he was okay and telling stories to keep him awake. He tried that three different times in three different bellies before his parents finally allowed him to try it asleep. And it took many more nights before they finally let him sleep inside without a guardian on the outside.
There had always been one rule, though. Something they’d insisted on. Something they hadn’t even considered allowing:
Toby was only allowed to spend the night in the bellies of his younger kin, not inside his mother or father, or his aunts or uncles, not even inside his older brothers or sisters.
He could never really understand why, but no matter what they just wouldn’t change their minds. In the end he trusted their wisdom, just like they were trusting his judgment. He would be satisfied with his occasional naps in those larger guts, and he was happy to spend his nights in the much cozier, snug embrace of his younger siblings, keeping them nice and full while they slept.
But in the end, a rule that isn’t well understood is a rule that can be easily forgotten.
…
*gurgle*
*slurp*
*gurgle*
*glorp*!
Toby woke up. Something felt wrong, something around his thighs. His light rose to a dim glow as he opened his eyes. He recognized the familiar enclosure of a stomach, Torh’s stomach he remembered vaguely. It was about a third full of thoroughly digested chyme, sloshing around him with the near-constant motion of the walls.
*slurp*
*glorp*
Toby felt the strange feeling against his thighs again, only this time it was higher, almost to his waist. It was an unusual tightness, a firm grip. Half asleep, the boy looked back towards his feet. His tired eyes widened in surprise. He couldn’t see his feet, or most of his legs, instead he saw the far stomach wall- much closer than usual- with its opening wrapped around his lower body.
*gurgle*
He felt a trickle of stomach goop squeeze past his legs, leaving the stomach behind on a journey further into the dragon’s gut. And he felt himself slipping a bit further too.
“Torh! Torh!!” he started calling. His voice was tired too, but he made it loud anyway. “Torh!!”
*glorp*
“TORH!!”
He felt a sudden, violet jerk as the dragon around him jolted awake. The stomach contracted around him, but it was a contraction he recognized. His big brother was trying to feel him.
“Toby!?”
“Torh! Get me out!” the boy cried.
“Okay Toby! Don’t worry.”
He felt the stomach contract again, but it was different this time. It rolled, tightly, from back to front, pushing its contents toward the exit of Torh’s throat.
*splash* *splash* *gurgle* *groan*
Toby felt himself slip free a little bit, but not a lot. The rolling contraction came two more times, and then he felt the pressure on his legs release. The fourth time, the stomach walls carried him forward and squeezed him tight into his big brother’s throat. He felt it carry him up and up and up, and then finally he felt the subtly different, but nearly just as smooth texture of the dragon’s tongue against his skin.
He slipped out onto the ground as Torh lowered his head and stuck out his tongue.
“Are you okay?” the dragon asked with concern. “Did something happen?”
“Your belly,” Toby muttered, a bit shaken, “it was pulling me.”
“Pulling you?” Torh asked, feeling worried and even a bit guilty.
“Pulling me more inside,” the little human explained.
Now the golden dragon looked very worried.
“Torh? Toby?” came a sweet, but tired voice.
They both looked over. Their mother’s head was up off the ground, looking at them over the curled-up forms of her other sleeping children. Beside her, their father’s head was also hovering vigilantly.
Torh, moving as quietly as a hulking dragon could, gently grabbed Toby with his tongue, bringing him back into his maw, and then slowly stood up and walked toward their parents, stepping around his kin. He let his little brother back out onto the ground when he reached them.
“What happened?” their father asked.
There was a pause as neither of them knew quite what to say, but the air started growing thick rather quickly, their father expected an answer and he would not care to repeat himself. Torh spoke first.
“I don’t know,” he said anxiously, “I tried to let him out, but he- I- it just wouldn’t-”
“His belly tried to pull me deeper,” Toby interrupted. He had been startled, mostly because he had been sleeping when it started, but he was calming down now. “All his food was leaving. His belly was all done melting it, so it was pushing it out. But it started pushing me out too. It woke me up, so I got scared.”
“Torh, you were both sleeping with him inside of you?” came their father’s scolding, rhetorical question. The young dragon drooped and shrank in shame.
“But I’m okay now,” Toby said, trying to show he wasn’t hurt or upset. But both his parents remained very serious.
“Oh, Toby, I’m so glad you’re safe,” his mother said. She stuck out her tongue and licked him, then wrapped him in it completely and gave him an affectionate squeeze.
“You both should have known better,” their father said sternly, and coming from a dragon his size the words were heavy and almost scary, even though they knew he wouldn’t hurt them. “Toby is not safe unattended in a belly your size. He is not to sleep inside his elder siblings.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep with him in there, I should have paid more attention,” Torh replied.
“It’s okay, Torh,” Toby said. He clearly didn’t think this was that big a deal.
“Toby, you have to be more careful,” his mother replied firmly.
“…Yes, mom,” he replied, his eyes falling sadly to the floor.
There was a long pause, filled only with the sounds of snoring dragons, before their mother spoke again.
“Toby, why don’t you sleep with me the rest of the night.”
“Okay,” he replied meekly, quiet even compared to his normal human voice.
Though the circumstances dampened his joy, he did usually like sleeping with his mother. It wasn’t quite the same as getting to sleep in a belly, but she was so big and warm and strong that it felt special in its own way.
The large dragoness smiled even as her tongue slipped out again from her muzzle to wrap itself around him and lift him from the ground. When his feet again felt something firm, and the flexing mass of soft pink released him, he found himself nestled in the crook of one of her legs, resting up against her broad underbelly. As her head retreated, he glanced back toward his big brother, settling back down uneasily in his place.
“You and father aren’t mad, are you?” Toby asked timidly. “Torh didn’t do it on purpose.”
“It’s okay, dear. You just gave us a little scare, that’s all.”
“…Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she repeated with motherly compassion. “As long as my little Toby stays close to me tonight, I’ll be fine.”
What a thought it was to the little boy, that just by being nearby he could fight off the fears of this big, strong dragon. He cuddled up against her scales, and she spread her great wing over them. And as he closed his eyes and began to drift back into sleep, he could just make out the deep, not-so-distant rumble of his mother’s belly beside him.