In a land of sorcery and dragons there lived--well--a dragon. Like most of his kind he was greedy, selfish, and possessed an explosive temper. The dragon's name: Red. His parents weren't creative. They thought the Common word for the rosy color sounded [i]so cool![/i] Much better than [i]Kon'Flagoron-Damatrix[/i], anyway. What a stupid word for "red." Nowadays, he preferred to be called "Cherry." The "ch" sound reminded Cherry of the sound of his fiery breath. Thus, a name to invoke fear. But never mind all that! That isn't the story you've come to be told. This story is about something specific. This is the tale of how Cherry got eaten by a kobold. ---- One sleepy morning in the merry month of May, before the morning dew even had a chance to settle on the tip of the grasses and petals of the flowers, the forest below was awakened by the roar of an outraged dragon. Overlooking the formerly quiet wood was a mountain. Within it: Cherry's lair. The dragon was currently steaming, staring daggers at a muddy-scaled kobold. "Repeat what you said again. Slowly. Chew your words this time. Or you might find me chewing on your bones." "Yes, your majesty!" The kobold squeaked. Knees knocking, he took a hard swallow before speaking. "Well--two big folk--adventurers! Very quiet. Sneak here and annnnd," the kobold trailed off, "...stole [i]little[/i], little gold...." Flickers of embers slipped through Cherry's fangs as he grimaced and growled. "And you [i]let[/i] them through?" "No!" A hard stare from the dragon. "...Yes." the kobold admitted. "But they big, very scary--" "And I'm not?" "You are! But--" [i]"Idiot!" [/i]Cherry boomed in a such a great voice that the kobold thought the mountain would crumble under its might. "I'd eat you [i]right now[/i] if I didn't fear your stupidity was contagious." Twin jets of fire shot out from the great lizard's nostrils as he seethed. "E-e-eat?" The kobold stammered. "Did I stutter? Do you know how you got this position? Ever wonder what happened to my [i]last[/i] retainer?" Cherry took a claw and traced a line from the top of his throat down to his collarbone. "I promise: happen never again! Swear on scales! Swear on name! Scraggletooth, don't forget--" "None of that matters to me," Cherry growled, "you are nothing. I won't remember your name. I won't remember you. Get out of here before I grind you into something even less." The kobold needed no encouragement. The moment Cherry spat those words out, Scraggletooth was already high-tailing it out of there. Scampering and scrambling to flee, he was nearly-tripping on the scattered gold coins that bespeckled the cave floor. Only when the pit-pat of his feet subsided to nothing did the dragon sigh and put a claw to his brow. "They're useless..." he muttered. "...Utterly useless." Cherry idly outstretched his front-right limb and began to clean the mess of gold on the floor, sweeping it into piles. "They've got one job: keep adventurers out! They can't even do that! What the hell are they good for, anyway? Groveling? Dying? Bah!" He looked in the direction the kobold fled in and spat down the corridor. His spit sizzled on contact with the stonework. Cherry spent the better part of an hour to himself, his treasures keeping him company. As the new hour rolled over, an idea he had unknowingly been incubating has finally hatched. With an earth-shaking roar, he summoned for a servant. Promptly, a stick-thin kobold scurried in. By happenstance, it was Scraggletooth: the same as before! [i]"You,"[/i] Cherry thought but didn't dare to say. He couldn't let the kobold know he did remember him. The critter tripped in his rush and tumbled across the floor, landing prone before the dragon. "What needs, your majes--" "Tell your ilk that they are to cease whatever it is they're doing. Three-day vacation. Do not bother me for anything. Effective immediately." [i]"Three days?"[/i] "Three days. You've...earned it." Cherry thought he'd incinerate from telling such a great lie. "Now leave. Don't bother me anymore." Scraggletooth[i] [/i]had the glint of budding tears in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something-or-another but swallowed his words with a quivering throat. He transitioned into a salute. He then ran off, yet not before turning his head and mouthing [i]"thank you!" [/i]to the great red lizard. Cherry mouthed [i]"shove off." [/i] With that done and over with, a toothy grin began to sidle up Cherry's face. For three days, the kobolds were out of his (non-existent) hair. Not a single iguana was going to come him pleading for pity in their irritating high-pitched squeal. Best of all, they can't mess anything up! They aren't doing anything! Cherry chuckled a deep rumble. Come to think of it, this was as much of a vacation for him as it was the kobolds.... As he had hoped, Cherry was left undisturbed. The dragon slept soundly on the first night--until midnight struck. A noise, nearly imperceptible, found its way to Cherry's ears: something hitting the stone. And with it, the sound of bits of gravel being crushed. [i]A footstep![/i] Cherry's eyes shot open. An animal? [i]No![/i] Cherry thought. What beast could have mustered the courage to enter his lair? A kobold? It better not be. An intruder, it must be! They must've gotten past the traps! And the kobolds--they're asleep! Curses and dragonrot! Of all the times! Or perhaps they were at the entrance before the traps! Yes! That's why he hadn't heard any go off! Cherry's groggy mind raced to draft a plan. [i]Yes--no, maybe? Wait--that's it![/i] Cherry exclaimed in his mind space. He would fly out of chamber [i]right now![/i] He'll intercept them in the main tunnel! They won't even see it coming... With a great flap of his wings, Cherry shot from his chamber as a dragon possessed. The shockwave from his abrupt flight sent the towers of gold behind him toppling and clattering down. No sooner had he left the room did his newest, and greatest, trap trigger. He forgot to speak the disarming word. Only days before had it been installed. It was the brainchild of some clever kobold--sorely above his capabilities yes, but nothing a capable koboldic scaleclaw shaman couldn't cook up. This trap was the last line of defense before the Big Red himself and it needed to be good. And [i]ohhh,[/i] it was a doozy. Loose coins rung like bells as misfortune befell him. Cherry soared through the air without wings. Hurtling down the long tunnel path, turning just the right way to match the curve of the twisting hallway. Then he hit the wall, hard. It didn't even crack. He was now 10,000th the weight. When he peeled off the wall and plummeted to the ground he was no longer a dragon. He was but a common... [i]Mouse?[/i] Cherry tried to shriek but found he could only squeak. [i]No, no, no! [/i]This was a nightmare Cherry could've never dreamed of. He looked to his claws--gone. Now they are pink, fleshy, and 100% without a doubt a mouse's and not a ferocious oh-so-handsome dragon's. A sharp pain prompted Cherry to put a scaleless paw over his aching ribs. [i]By the thirteen devils that hurt! [/i]Cherry thought to himself. The former dragon hadn't felt pain in so, so long.... The pain was harrowing but something far worse haunted him. The reason he picked this trap--the horrible, horrible reason: it was worse than humiliating. It was deadly. He couldn't speak, he couldn't fight! No one would know who he was! And those adventurers--his hoard! Cherry's once-fiery heart turned to ice. It was a thought too horrible to bear! He had to get back to his hoard and pray the spell wore off! To his horror, he heard an oh-so-familiar voice... "Noise! A crash! Jingling? What be?" Echoing from the stonework walls was the broken speech of none other than Scraggletooth. Cherry's mind flitted through dozens of thoughts like a spinning slot machine: [i]what is he doing up? Why is he here? He can't see me like this![/i] His thoughts finally settled on the three-liner of [i]run![/i] Cherry ran blindly, his night-sight taken from along with his draconic eyes. Sprinting through darkness, fear in his heart--his whiskers guided him by brushing lightly along the wall. The only sounds he could hear now was the pit-a-pat of his own feet and the footfalls of the kobold somewhere nearby. Somehow they seemed to grow only louder. It wasn't until he saw the warm glow of torchlight did Cherry realize he had been running the wrong way! Cherry tried to stop but his feet found themselves in a panicky twist and he tripped and bounced along the stone. When his vision cleared it was filled with the massive form of Scraggletooth. He let out a terrified squeak. Until now, he had known nothing besides the mountains that were larger than him. Cherry's little body trembled when he realized he wasn't just a mouse, but a [i]small[/i] mouse. A large rat likely could've gobbled him up whole! "Mouse!" Scraggletooth said. "Master hate mice! Must get rid!" [i]No! No![/i] Cherry cried in a tongue none could know as he was whisked up by the tail. Dangling between the slitted eyes of his captor, he continued to squeak and squeal. "Sorry! No mice here. Why you not know? All your friends come, they die. No return. Why you come?" Scraggletooth tilted his head inquisitively as Cherry struggled to reach the kobold's claws at his tail tip. [i]Release me![/i] Cherry half demanded, half pleaded. [i]I'm your master! [/i] "Why you no listen?" Scraggletooth questioned. The kobold squinted a bit as he inspected the wriggling mouse, holding his torch closer. Cherry squeaked and squirmed ever harder. The kobold harrumphed. "You only talk. You no listen: you are chatty-stupid mouse." [i]I'm Cherry! Let me go![/i] Scraggletooth shook the former dragon like one would ring a tiny bell. "Quiet! No squeak. You need learn listen! Scraggletooth listen, Scraggletooth good! Master love Scraggletooth ‘cause Scraggletooth listen!" [i]I don't love you! But I'll do anything if you let me--[/i] Cherry's plea was cut short when an ominous growl grumbled from the kobold's belly. Its sound bounced from wall to wall, echoing ceaselessly through Cherry's mind. "You too stupid to be mouse." The kobold sighed. "Maybe smart enough for food?" The kobold didn't wait for Cherry's answer as he opened his mouth skyward and wide, suspending Cherry above with an ever-loosening grip. [i]No, no, no, no, no! Please![/i] [i]Scraggletooth![/i] Cherry beseeched the kobold as he was a living pendulum, swinging over a fang-lined pit. During the moments before Scraggletooth let go, Cherry took in every detail maw. The ridges of his palette glistened in torchlight as spaghetti-thin strands of saliva stretched from tooth-to-tooth. As the kobold's yap yawned wider, the strands snapped and Scraggle's warm, exhaled breath carried their splattered remains to Cherry--soaking his coat ever-slightly. The kobold's tapered tongue lay flat, in waiting for the mouse-meal to come. Barely visible in the torchlight was the endless tunnel of the kobold's throat. The tunnel swallowed once, sending away excess saliva, before resetting and waiting patiently for its next victim. And the next thing Cherry knew, he was in freefall. Plummeting towards a pit that for all intents and purposes was a black hole. The closest many kobolds have to a hoard is their belly. And like a true dragon, a kobold loathes to part with their hoard. Once something goes in, it doesn't come out. Past the lips and over the gums, Cherry landed with a splat on Scraggletooth's tongue. Without even stopping to taste, Scraggletooth pushed Cherry towards his hungry throat. Cherry didn't even have time to stop himself before he was shoved past the point of no return. Merciless muscle seized Cherry and dragged him into warm darkness. Everything was wet--tight. Cherry's newfound coat was drenched in slobber. A foul acrid odor stung the mouse's nostrils. Every second he was squeezed so tight he thought he'd liquefy. He remained in one piece, only deeper--farther from freedom. Cherry had never been more afraid. Outside, Scraggletooth rumbled an affirmation of pleasure. [i]Mouse good![/i] He thought. [i]Scraggletooth should do this more. Yes, definitely![/i] Cherry felt his muzzle press on a tight ring of [i]something.[/i] The former dragon whimpered when he realized what it was: the entrance to Scraggletooth's stomach. Moments later, he breached and was pushed in with an unceremonious [i]plop![/i] Cherry flailed in a mushy, quaggy pool. What was up? What was down? Cherry didn't know. But he couldn't let himself drown here! In a kobold's belly! His pride would [i]never[/i] let him perish in such a humiliating circumstance! Through determination and a healthy dose of luck, Cherry found himself above the foul tide. He took in a breath of fresh air. The marshy swamp trembled as the world of flesh around him shook. Scraggletooth was walking; back to his den, Cherry supposed. With every resounding footstep, something in Cherry broke a little bit more. Stuck in a smelly gross prison within his own servant--someone that he, on a bad day, could have considered food! At this point, Cherry was dissociating. It seemed so surreal, he almost believed it was a dream. It wasn't until Scraggletooth made it back to his den, settled himself, and slept without even acknowledging Cherry did the cursed dragon break. The kobold forgot about him! He didn't even bother to remember him. He was...nothing anymore. Cherry wept stinging tears as he realized the delicious irony. As the night continued on, Cherry found the curse's cruelty was not yet complete. Some of his draconic aspects were left untouched. Namely, his resistance to the elements. The scrawny lizard's stomach acids couldn't harm him as he laid stewing with remnants of the kobold's meals. [i]Scraggletooth![/i] Cherry cried out to the sleeping lizard. [i]Wake up, please![/i] The kobold only snored in response. The sweltering crockpot chamber jiggled and wobbled and the slurry Cherry was basking in rippled and drubbed Cherry with waves of gluck. Recovering from the stomach's assault, Cherry sobbed. [i]I'm sorry, I really am! I shouldn't have called you an idiot. Please, Scraggletooth! Gods! Anyone! Get me out of here and I'll never eat a kobold again. I'll treat them as princes! I'll do anything, go through anything, to not end up as kobold chow![/i] For a moment, all was silent. Cherry's ears drooped in crushing disappointment. Just as he was about to resign himself to be foodstuffs, a curious gurgling noise came from below. It was a gurgling, draining noise as if someone pulled out the stopper in a bathtub. Cherry felt the broth he was in lower and drain away. At first, Cherry was confused but then the reality of what was happening hit him like a brick wall. [i]No![/i] He protested. [i]Not that way! I didn't mean it like that! There's got to be another--[/i] Cherry's internal panickings were silenced when the suction of an underwater(?) whirlpool swept him under the surface. A current snatched him away and sent him into a claustrophobic narrow tube. Twenty seconds Cherry lay submerged deep in the inner workings of the kobold. His heart thumped wildly, like a panicked man rapping on a door. Again he thought he was about to die before he was thrust into a pocket of air. He swallowed it greedily. His need for air sated, he thanked every god he knew in a single breath. Wherever he was now, it was tight. His little mouse legs were crammed against his gruel-soaked body. Small tickling finger-like things lined the walls and brushed against Cherry's fur. A liquid of sorts shared the tunnel with Cherry but it did not reach high enough for him to worry that it would drown him. The mouse tried to move but found the passage to be too snug to allow anything but squirming. With an exasperated sigh, Cherry relaxed and let himself be passed along at his devourer's pace. His fear of death abated a new menace threatened Cherry: boredom. Hours passed in darkness. The only sensations he could feel as he was passed along were the ceaseless tickling of the intestine's villi and watery liquid below him. The once-frightening sounds of kobold's body gurgling and burbling and his organs groaning simply became mundane. The internal symphony was becoming flat. Another hour passed and the sounds became almost tranquil. Even when Scraggletooth turned over in his sleep, sending everything cascading and flipping topsy-turvy, it was... almost relaxing. That was if it didn't smell like kobold insides. Late into the night when even the moon should be sleeping, Cherry heard Scraggletooth's ever-familiar voice. Groggy, most certainly sleep talking, he mumbled, "Thank you, Cherry. Love... you." [i]Did the kobold just call me by name?[/i] Cherry thought to himself. He didn't even use a title. No "greatness" or "your majesty." Just... "Cherry." He should be mad but... he wasn't. And he couldn't say why. Was he just too tired to care? Or was his intimate trip through the kobold doing something funky to his mind? Either way, it didn't matter. For the first time since he was a dragon, Cherry felt a little warm inside. Suddenly felt his progress halt as his snout was pressed against a muscled wall. A ring it seemed to be--a sphincter--and leaking through it was a malodorous stench. It was obvious what lay ahead and Cherry has spent the better part of the night trying to forget about it. One callous push and Cherry was forced through. He was deposited in a larger chamber--one large enough that Cherry could stretch his long-numbed limbs. Moments after he was freed, a backlog of liquid spilled out from behind him like the contents of a knocked over soda can. At this stage in the journey, Cherry didn't even care. He had much worse things on his mind. One: the stench. It was bad. It smelled like kobold butt. Two: the embarrassment. He was going to come out of a kobold's butt. Three: he was going to have the share his space with the contents of a kobold's butt. Back when he was a wyrmling, before he grew too big and he was chased from his parent's lair, he remembered the stories his mother would tell. Of how his dragon ancestors watched from the stars--or whatever. Cherry frowned. [i]Hope they're enjoying what they're seeing now.[/i] The passage around the rodent constricted and shoved Cherry deeper further. He sighed. Onwards, he supposed. It's not like he could go back to the kobold's gut anyway. With each push from the intestine's peristalsis, Cherry was sent closer to freedom. The foul stench and the... troubling noises ahead at the very least abated some of Cherry's boredom. Although he still experienced a healthy mix of tedium and trepidation. The odor that poisoned the air was only growing stronger. Presumably because Cherry was growing closer to its source. Cherry didn't want to think about that. So, he tried to think about something else. But he really couldn't. Time passed. But to Cherry, minutes felt like hours and hours felt unending. It started out as just bits of grime but Cherry soon found himself surrounded by stinking sludge. He expected it. It was inevitable. But he so dearly wished he didn't have to suffer through it. It was an evil mud whose fetid touch sullied the soul. As more and more scat accumulated around Cherry, he prayed to the gods that he wouldn't be consumed for the second time today. Cherry's nightmare very really came close to realization. He was surrounded by unmentionables, nearly encased. His sad little mouse face was spared the humiliation. As the organ around squeezed him along, the formerly red dragon was the closest he'd ever been to green. At the tail-end of his journey, Cherry was forced around a corner and nearly shoved into a log of scat. Cherry protested vehemently as his nose momentarily grazed whatever it was Scraggletooth had for dinner before him. After that, nothing. Cherry was forced to wait. It seemed Scraggletooth was sleeping in on his first day of vacation. Cherry wriggled about, trying to clear himself a bit of space. When the organ squashed down in response to his squirming, Cherry decided it would be best to just be still. --- Scraggletooth yawned before opening his eyes for the first time in the new day. He had curled up in a makeshift bed comprised of soft pine needles and grasses. He made it himself, of course. It was not an impressive piece of work but it got the job done--many a kobold's motto. The sun's touch could never reach this far into the mountain's caverns but Scraggletooth had a gut feeling it was noon. To think: he had an entire day in which he could do [i]nothing![/i] He didn't even know how to start! Maybe he'd take a stroll through the tunnels--a casual one, not a patrol or anything. Perhaps he could go down to the mountain's wood! He hadn't seen his goblin friend in a who-knows-how-long... The kobold felt a familiar pressure in his backside. Nature's call. He sighed before deliberating for a moment. "Hmm... want to go to wood." Scraggletooth muttered. "Can hold little longer." [i]No![/i] Cherry squeaked as loud as he could. [i]Don't you dare! Let me out! I'm so close....[/i] "Hear squeaking?" Scraggletooth said to himself as he looked around for the source. "Hope no more mice," Scraggletooth scratched his chin. "Though am hungry.... Mouse good...." As he stood there reminiscing on Cherry's flavor, Scraggletooth felt something wriggle inside him. "Eep!" The kobold shrieked as he hopped up on one foot and practically cradled himself in fright. "What was that?" Inside, the kobold's alarm caused a great disturbance. His rectum tensed and mashed his former meals, prompting Cherry to squeal at his tiny lungs' absolute limit. Slowly things began to relax and Cherry heard Scraggletooth's yipping voice once again. "Chatty-stupid mouse, that you?" He said in a tiny voice. A fire was struck in Cherry's heart. Scraggletooth knew he was here! The sweltering and fetid nastiness of the kobold's bowels could do nothing to dissuade the former dragon to wriggle his damndest and squeak his loudest. When his struggles resumed, his squeaks were matched with the kobold's own. "How you alive?" The kobold peeped. "I eat you! You be poop now!" [i]Well,[/i] Cherry thought, [i]he isn't exactly wrong.[/i] If kobolds could blush, Scraggletooth would be beet-red. Feeling very small with his tail between his legs, the lizard addressed the critter in his bottom. "Hold-wait, mouse. I find safe space. To... uh..." The kobold's guts made an ill-boding gurgle. Scraggletooth quickly squeaked in embarrassment. "Sorry! Be fast! No worry!" He sputtered before he rushed away to find a suitable place to do business. Cherry didn't even care he was bouncing around in a kobold's colon, hemmed in by kobold crap. He was going to be free. He simply couldn't care to care. Even though the kobold's rectum tightened and compressed in his bouncing run--the last of his space torn from him by the unaware lizard's cruel body. He grimaced and groaned but ultimately Cherry's mind was in the future. And the future smelled good. Eventually the movement stopped. Scraggletooth had reached his destination. For a moment, everything relaxed. Cherry heard the kobold take a deep breath. Then a wave of peristalsis rippled across the bowel walls as things became tight once more. Cherry felt himself being forced forward. He nearly cried when he witnessed a flash of stinging white light. And before he knew it he was falling, plummeting to earth in a stinking encasement. He landed as one would expect: dirty, graceless, and forever happy to see the sun's shine again. Cherry looked up to see the kobold's tail overshadow him; above him the lizard's tailhole loomed. Bless the stars above, Scraggletooth was looking back and ceased his activity the moment the mouse emerged. "Happy welcomes back," Scraggletooth said with a meek smile. He gingerly picked his master from his stool and held him at eye level. The tiny lizard's smile wavered when he took a whiff of the mouse but he kept it going all the same. Cherry shuddered remembering what happened last time he was held this close to the kobold's face. Kobolds wouldn't eat something that came from their butt, right? Right? Scraggletooth's expression soured when he saw Cherry tremble. Gingerly, he took two claw tips and shoot Cherry's paw in the facsimile of a clawshake. "I promise: happen never again. Swear on scales, swear on name! Scraggletooth, don't forget!"