Chapter 3: A Night In a Dragon
Goren’s heart was racing so much that his chest hurt; he willed her to not swallow him, willed himself to move, but his adrenaline was so intense that all he could do was quiver. And then, no matter what he wanted, that big tongue moved beneath him, and he slid into the tight throat beneath his feet. Horror swept over him.
Her throat contracted wetly over him, squeezing over his legs and up his waist; squishing sounds filled his ears as it smooshed down over his head. It squeezed and pulled down along his body, trapping his legs and then his arms; the now intense warmth blanketed every part of him, pressing into every painfully frozen inch.
Her body became his world, the noise of the wet muscles flexing, her pounding heart—it was all that he could hear. The only thing he could smell was the earthy-sweet smell she had. He was completely blinded, and his sense of touch could only feel her body wrapped tightly around him. There was a wet compression of muscles, and he felt himself pushed against one side; he was stuck for just a moment before he was pressed in an unceremonious heap into another damp, fleshy space.
It didn’t squeeze him quite so intensely, and even though the air was thick to breathe, it was not difficult to breathe. He felt her walking, the space he was in soft enough to settle deeper into it in a way that was alarming. I cannot believe she actually swallowed me; I can’t believe this is happening to me. His heart was racing so hard that he absolutely felt like he was going to faint.
He braced for it to just keep getting worse and worse somehow; she’d eaten him, there was no way he could live through that. Right?
Kashira was dozing off to sleep by the time she felt him start to move and wiggle. When he called out to her, it was a bit muffled, but her ears were good. “I cannot believe you ate me,” he managed to complain. “Do you hear me? Let me out!”
She smiled as she felt him squirming within her and feeling along the space with his chilly little fingers. “You are cold, and you seemed calm enough; you currently seem fine.”
A long pause, then, “Let me out!”
His tone was so demanding, despite how clearly frightened he was. It was rather cute. “No,” she said, grinning a little more as she settled her chin on her paws.
He really squirmed and began trying to kick at her over that. “I’m not your dinner! You can’t keep me here!”
“You are not dinner, but yes, I can,” she said loudly, deliberately.
“That doesn’t even make sense!” He was expending a lot of energy and strength trying to feel out his environment and attempting to make things uncomfortable.
She tightened her internal muscles, wrapping the demanding little jayune from all sides as she squeezed down on him. “Yes, it does. Now, be a good boy and settle down for me.”
“I cannot really understand you clearly.” His voice was faint enough that she almost didn’t understand him either. His big back paws paddled and slipped against her as he tried to wiggle and kick. His horns pressed into her a little in a way that was almost ticklish.
She gave him a firmer squeeze. “You are staying until morning,” she said louder, more slowly, trying to be certain he understood. She kept that firm pressure up all around him until he stopped kicking and fighting. Then, she relaxed.
“I cannot stay in a belly until morning,” he complained.
I see the problem, she thought as she heard the need for reassurance that everything was actually safe, even though he’d been there quite a while before he had found the energy to be active or complain. Funnily enough, it was because things were already safe and painless for him.
She decided to tease him so that the reassurance later would feel a bit more genuine. “Then you should not have been such a cute and tasty frozen treat.”
She enjoyed the silence and the way he pushed back against her with his limbs as if he wanted to reject the comment. She clenched her muscles again, folding his limbs to his body and compressing him until she felt him start to squirm. Then, she relaxed.
“I do not want to be here!” he tried a different tactic.
“Well, sweetie, you do not get to decide at this moment. I caught you; I get to decide.”
Another extended silence greeted her. She grinned as she waited and gave him another squeeze after more than fifteen or so heartbeats had passed. He came to immediate life, squirming and bunny-kicking at her with those strong back legs of his. “I don’t want you deciding I am food!”
She grinned as she relaxed. “Well, perhaps if the sweet snack has a name, I will not be able to fully treat him like food,” she suggested.
His heart was not racing as badly as it was before. In the long time of nothing bad happening, he had started to calm himself. This space confused him; it was wet, but not that wet. There certainly were no acrid smells or extra fluids around him. It generally didn’t react to him, except when she squeezed him. The most alarming aspect of it was only that it was so intensely soft he kept feeling like he was sinking more than he liked into it. The dragon’s breathing whooshed somewhere near him, and her big heart pounded above him. When he started to try to talk to her and feel his surroundings, he had started to feel somewhere near the emotion of calm. However, his heartbeat climbed again as she started teasing and squeezing him.
She was difficult to hear; the sound seemed to come from within her rather than outside of her, but he could just understand her when she spoke clearly enough and guess at the rest. He would hear the last question. “You will let me out if I tell you my name?” he clarified.
She answered him by squeezing him again, that pressure pressed to every limb, and pushed them to his body, folding him up into a bit of a ball as the soft flesh gripped all around him. He was at that stage of warming up that his body ached with the heat that crept back into his frozen fingers, ears, and toes like fire. His core was relieved to have warmth wrapped around him. This made it more intense to be pressed; it was both soothing and a little painful. He squirmed; it was almost restrictive enough to take the air out of his lungs.
She relaxed again. There was silence. You are going to just force me onto your terms, he thought with a tight feeling in his chest. “I am Goren. Now let me out.”
“In the morning.”
“There’s no way I can spend a whole night in a belly,” he pushed on her with his feet. “You said you wouldn’t treat me like food!”
“You are not food. You have been at no risk of being food all night.”
“But you swallowed me!” He started to feel something close to annoyed alongside his fear.
“I know,” she said, giving him a squeezing clench, “but you are not in a proper belly. More like a hoard gullet, or I’m pretty certain that is what I have heard it called. I am hoarding you until morning. It is too cold for little, possibly frostbitten, jayune bunbuns to be loose in the castle.”
He huffed when she relaxed her grip on him after that explanation. He focused on his own breathing. He reminded himself that he could breathe; the air was thick and a bit sweet. While his toes were on fire, it was because they were warming up. The environment was only damp. “You are hoarding me,” he repeated back uncertainly.
“All in one cute little unharmed piece, Goren. Try to relax. After that panic and rebellion you have been exhibiting wears off, I suspect you are going to find you are exhausted. In fact, you might be so exhausted that when morning comes, I will invite you to be done being hoarded, and you will tell me no because you are too tired.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he said flatly. “You better let me out in the morning as promised.”
She chuckled and squeezed him, “If you say so, grumpy bunbun. I will evict you then, whether you are ready or not.”
That compression over him almost felt good as he was held from every angle. He squirmed against that notion; he wasn’t planning to be her next meal, and she wasn’t going to talk him into liking this. Color washed to his cheeks as he pressed her back. “I’ll be ready,” he said flatly.
She would chuckle. “Well, welcome to Hotel Kashira; check out in a few hours, so get some rest.” He heard her make a big yawn.
Despite himself, he yawned also. He wanted to ask her more questions so he could try to make her keep talking to him. He wanted to figure out if she was just telling him a series of lies to make him give up fighting for his life.
But she was right. He was really tired. He lay forward, the flesh around him giving a little, brushing him from nearly every angle, and he closed his eyes.
Kashira waited for a short time, and slowly, she felt the bunny becoming relaxed. There we go, properly calm and asleep. She yawned and closed her eyes. It is a little nice feeling him there, a little presence that I am holding all safe within myself.
She didn’t take too long to fall asleep herself after that. Unlike most nights, it didn’t come with dreams. She slept deeply; the only ambiance was the little feelings of the bunny shifting in his sleep and the crying wind of a slowly dying blizzard.
She felt she needed to just keep him, even if he didn’t understand at first.