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The first thing he noticed was the wetness, then there were the sounds: loud, intermittent splashes accompanied by the slow rhythmic sloshing of liquid and the occasional squelches and gurgles. Max’s eyes shot open, only to see the dimly-illuminated, pink, fleshy walls of the stomach above him. All the recent events hit him at once and he immediately bolted up and started to scream.
“Hey! Don’t be afraid, it’s okay! It’s okay!” came a familiar voice. Max turned to his side as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder, only to come face to face with- “L-Lily? What…?” he took a moment to try and remember exactly what had happened, but his head felt foggy. “It- it ate us!” Max said in a panicked tone. “Mm-hm,” Lily replied with a smile.
A loud squelch from nearby caught his attention. Swinging his head anxiously to the other side, he looked just in time to see a large, puckering hole nearby, squeeze out some unrecognizable hunk of meat, which fell out of sight and landed with a splash somewhere close below.
“How long have we been in here?! How long do we have before-” “No, no, no don’t worry, you’ll be okay, I asked her to let you stay here with me,” Lily interrupted. “You… ‘asked her’?” Max asked, confused. He looked over her cheerful face, not a trace of fear. Does she mean the dragon? Has she lost her mind?!
Max looked over his surroundings. Everything was red and slimy, like the inside of Rust’s mouth, and every surface seemed to rise and fall, emphasizing the fact that their environment was very much alive. The only light seemed to come from some strange orb that hovered in the air nearby. He ran his hands along the length of his body, he didn’t feel like he was dissolving into nothing, in fact he didn’t feel any pain at all. Maybe we’re already dead…
“Mallow’s my friend,” Lily said, picking up on his skepticism. “Mallow…” Max echoed. That’s the same name she was calling last time too, she must mean the dragon. “But, it ate us!” he insisted. “Well, she didn’t eat us, eat us. Look.” Lily stood up and walked a step or two towards the lip of their pouch. Max stood, shakily, and followed. As he went to peer over the edge, the hole above them opened up again, releasing another chunk of- well, he didn’t want to know- and letting it fall into the dragon’s hungry stomach, sending up a tiny spray as it disappeared into the churning liquid below.
“See? That’s where Mallow’s food goes. We’re totally safe as long as we’re up here,” Lily explained. Max stood there and gawked for a moment. Try as he might, he could hardly make out any sign of the “food” that had just fallen in; everything just looked like a goopy, mostly liquid mess. That's meat down there, he thought with a twinge of horror, melting away into its belly… At that moment, a particularly large undulation rolled precisely under Max’s feet, throwing him lightly off balance. It was nothing that could have actually sent him over the high wall, but it definitely made his heart skip a beat.
“Mallow!” Lily scolded, “You promised you’d keep him safe while he rested!” “Well, now he’s awake,” the dragoness replied, her words vibrating the flesh around them. She didn’t sound particularly threatening, but she also didn’t exactly sound pleased. “Be nice and let me introduce you!” Lily insisted. “Alright, go ahead.” Lily turned away from the stomach wall she had been talking to and back towards Max. “Max, this is Mallow,” she said, putting a hand to the slimy flesh, “She’s still mad at you for letting that other dragon try and eat me, but she’s actually really nice!”
Max just stood there, mouth now hanging open, completely stunned in disbelief at what he was hearing. Maybe I am dead, he thought. “Well? Are you going to say anything?” came the booming voice around them, in a somewhat annoyed tone. “Oh- uh- I’m Max… and… I’m really sorry about what happened with Rust…”
“‘Rust’, huh? So that’s his name… Did you call him that because of his scales?” Lily asked. “Uh, yeah,” Max replied, trying to calm himself down. As crazy as it sounded, the girl did seem to be telling the truth. “I gave Mallow her name after the color of her scales too,” she explained. “So… we’re really inside that dragon’s… stomach? But, how are we still alive?” Max asked. “Because Lily saved your skin,” Mallow interjected. Max looked to the girl with a mixture of gratitude and confusion.
“Mallow can stretch her insides,” Lily explained, “So she can go around being a dragon while I get to live here in her cozy belly.” “Wait, you live in here?!” Max asked, astonished, “Why would you ever want to do that?!” “Because Mallow takes care of me, and I get to watch while she eats,” she replied cheerfully. Max stared at the girl with a mixture of fear and unease, which she apparently mistook for interest. “See, every time she swallows something I get to watch it slip out through there,” she pointed at the sphincter, which now seemed to be remaining closed as the dragon concluded her meal. “Then it falls down into her belly and gets all gurgle-y.” I would never want to be anywhere near where Rust’s food ends up, was all Max could think.
“Lucky for you Lily managed to catch you, otherwise you would have ended up in there too,” Mallow chimed in. Her tone suggested she wasn’t exactly ecstatic about that outcome. “You did what?!” Max asked. “Oh, don’t worry about that, I’m sure Mallow would have caught you herself if she saw what you did for me.” Mallow made no comment.
There was a short lull in the conversation, filled with the sloshing of the dragoness’ stomach, before Lily asked a question of her own. “So, how do things work with you and Rust?” she asked in an admittedly less enthusiastic tone. “We, uh, well we sort of have a deal,” Max replied. Lily looked at him inquisitively. Max sighed, “I guess I have some explaining to do.”
…
“So… you really trick people into being eaten?” Lily asked. Max nodded. Throughout his explanation he had found it increasingly difficult to look at her directly, but from what he could see of her face she looked a bit disturbed and a little scared. But then she seemed to stop and think things over and something in her expression shifted.
“You know, Mallow used to eat people too sometimes,” she said in a melancholy tone, “She doesn’t do it anymore, ‘cause she knows I don’t like it, but I know she likes it. She’s always trying to eat anyone who tries to hurt me, because she cares about me… And I bet you’re feeding people to Rust because he likes it, and you care about him too…”
Max was speechless. After everything he just told her, that was her response? Not only was it completely lacking any of the disapproval he had been expecting, but more than that… He had never really stopped and thought about how he felt towards Rust. I mean, he was always so busy being scared of him or worried about finding his next meal, he hadn’t really noticed how fond he was getting of the dragon’s company. Is she right? Did I really become friends… with a dragon? Sitting where they were now, safely in one’s belly, he couldn’t deny it was possible.
“I… I can’t believe you’re being so nice to me after I almost got you eaten…” Max said. “Well, you did also save me from that guy in town yesterday, plus I almost got you eaten too, so I guess we’re even,” Lily replied. “Really? You mean- Wait, did you say yesterday?” Max asked. Lily nodded. “I was asleep for a whole day!?” he exclaimed.
What must Rust be thinking? Max wondered. He must be really hungry by now, I really need to- Max looked over at Lily again, a twinkle of concern now showing on her face. He thought back for a moment over how guilty he had felt the first time they had met, the pit in his stomach he had felt when he thought Mallow had eaten her, and the utter terror he had experienced when he had been eaten himself. Then he thought about Rust again.
I can’t keep doing this… he thought. The struggle, the betrayal, the death, it just didn’t feel right anymore. He couldn’t believe how similar his position was with Lily, but how different their relationships were. For a moment he almost considered asking to stay with Mallow and just running away from it all, but he decided that Mallow probably wouldn’t stand for it, and to be honest, he doubted he could ever feel safe living in a dragon’s belly after the things he’d seen. But more than that… he didn’t like the idea of leaving Rust behind.
Lily could clearly see that Max was deep in thought, but Mallow only heard silence. “He must be waiting for you,” the dragoness said. “Now that you’re awake, I should let you out so you can find him.” Strangely enough, Max didn’t pick up any snarkiness in her words that time; something in his story must have spoken to her. “Right…” Max agreed, somewhat absentmindedly.
Contemplative as he was, the sudden closing walls of Mallow’s stomach brought him quickly out of his thoughts. The walls squished in around him, squeezing him somewhat awkwardly against Lily as the dragon began slowly pushing them upward. For the next few moments, the two of them were enveloped together within the ever-present slickness of Mallow’s throat. With no room to move and hardly any air to breathe, Max was forced to hold his breath and wait for it to end, trying his best not to panic.
Finally, he felt himself dumped out onto the unpleasantly familiar surface of the dragon’s tongue. The whole world seemed to tumble and shift in the darkness as Mallow moved her head, and then suddenly he was blinded by light and found himself landing in the grass with an *umpf*.
Max brought a hand across his face, trying to wipe the slime away and did his best to stand up. He looked around to find Lily, apparently having landed straight on her feet, looking up at Mallow affectionately. She didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the fact that she was covered head to toe in dragon-guck.
“Sorry about that, Lily. You know it’s hard for me to keep things separate when I’m doing that.” Mallow offered. “I’ve been with you long enough to get used to being a little squished,” she giggled back. So the dragoness looked over to Max, for the first time with an expression that didn’t give the impression she wanted to rip out his insides.
“The town is back that way, not very far,” Mallow said, motioning with her snout. A few smokestacks could just be made out over the nearby trees. “Thanks, I should be able to find my way from here,” Max replied. “So, you’re going back to Rust?…” Lily asked hesitantly. “Yeah…” he answered. “But, you don’t have any food for him… what are you gonna do?” “I’m… I’m not sure,” Max replied.
Lily frowned, worried for her new friend. “Well… I hope I get to see you again sometime… without either of us getting eaten, maybe,” she offered. She gave him one last little smile, before turning back towards Mallow. The dragoness obligingly parted her jaws again, taking the girl inside and gently swallowing her down in a single gulp. Max watched as the little bump traveled down the beast’s neck, until it disappeared into her massive chest, hiding Lily away from the world once again.
“Listen here, boy,” Mallow ordered in a relatively quiet tone. Max’s head shot up to look at her, his instinctive fear still keeping him on edge. “That deal you made with that dragon, it took guts,” she said, in what sounded like a genuine compliment. “But if you want to stay out of mine, you'll keep him away from my little snack,” she finished. The dragoness turned away, and for a moment Max thought he could just make out the hint of a wry smile, but then her face disappeared from view and she began to walk.
Max set his gaze back in the direction of the town and took a deep breath. What am I about to do? He asked himself. And then he began to walk as well.