Chapter 8: The Chase

Thistle hadn’t felt this good since... ever. She was huge, and felt huge. She felt the strength in every twitch of her body. Her physique hadn’t changed really, just her form, yet her strength felt like it increased 10 fold even without the boost in height.

No longer was she the meek druid, forced to heal minor wounds while her party members did most of the work. No more would she turn into a crocodile to ferry the party across a river one by one without much more than a “thanks”.

She was a draconic being now. The best one there’d be in her mind. A queen of dragons.

People fled from her now. They scurried.

“Bugs!”, she shouted. “That’s what you all look like. You cowardly villagers, hiding in the belly of a titaness to try and avoid the world. Just like bugs under a stone. Well, like insects, I’m gonna squish you flat. Haha!”

Thistle had no qualms crushing houses as she marched after her former party members. She sought out the structures to feel them flatten beneath her steps. Her right foot fell on a potion shop, where an alchemist plied their trade. He thought to hide under his store counter, and ended up popping beneath the big toe of Thistle’s right foot.

Another step took out a cozy little restaurant, where the villagers would get tea and sweetbread. Her heel broke the roof then the bodies of everyone within.

Of course, her feet were big enough to encroach into the streets as well. She marched right along those plank roads and flattened mob after mob beneath her tread. People exploded in mists of red. She ended dozens of lives by the time she felt a power within her. It brewed in her chest like before.

She intuitively knew what it was: what she was capable of.

“I can feel it.”, she said. “One of the best marks of a dragon.”

Her voice carried to the party as they ran. They were too focused to turn back, and Thistle too arrogant to not pause for a demonstration.

She looked at the dense mobs of people trailing the party members. Dozens more buildings were around the citizens of Glainberg as they scrambled over one another, tripping over each other and wood-planks warped by humidity and from the otherwise-harmless stomach fluids within the titaness Veezla’s tail gut.

Thistle arched her head back. She brought the power bubbling in her chest up through her gullet. She could feel it, and was gonna unleashed it.

With her mouth pointed square at that dense pack of people, she breathed out like a dragon would. A torrent greenish smoke roared out her maw.

Though not fire, her dragon’s breath was burning all the same. The green gas filtered through the crowds and started melting their flesh right off. It ate at the wood and stone of buildings too, turning it to pulp and rock-slush. It seemed that in her new form, Thistle was a dragon-woman that breathed acid.

The crowd flailed helplessly as their muscles dissolved off their bones, which soon fell and melted as well. People pooled to puddles under such powerful acids. The only thing that seemed safe was the stomach floor of the tail gut itself, which was naturally resistant to acid as any giant stomach should be.

Entire crowds of people, dozens of buildings, all just melted under that onslaught of dragon breath.

Thistle finally finished, though the cloud still lingered. Bold, she stepped right through it, unharmed.

“Haha, I’m unstoppable!”, she shouted. “Better than any dragon, any druid, any human!”

--==--==--==--

“Fuck fuck fuck.”, said Barns. “Did you see that?”

“Yeah I did.”, said Arafiel.

“Those poor people.”, said Laddleplug.

The streets converged further along the city, which meant the party did as well. They had met up just after Thistle finished testing out her new deadly breath power. Her quaking, stomach vibrating steps picked up again shortly after. The three looked behind and frowned to each other after.

“What do we do? I’m not sure we’ll make it to the beginning of the tail in time. Even with speed magic on our side, she’s just too big!”, said Laddleplug.

“My house.”, said Barns between pants. “It’s not far off. I got another treasure in it. A carpet, can fly. A genie gave it to me once.”

“A genie?”, said Arafiel.

“Long story. Point is it’s big enough for four, we’re three, one of us a gnome. It’ll get us out of the stomach easy and fast.”

“Can’t you just fly us out of here yourself Laddleplug? Isn’t there a spell for that?”, said Arafiel.

“It’s not one I remember I’m afraid. I think his idea’s better.”, said Laddleplug

“Alright, let’s go then.”, said Arafiel.

The three of them moved through the panicked streets of the stomach-stored city. Thistle kept stomping behind them, but Barns knew the right buildings to swerve through to get to his home the fastest way possible.

A macabre thought, though one the party did acknowledge, was that the hundreds of people between them and Thistle served as convenient distractions. The draconic-druidess enjoyed stomping out the biggest clumps of people she saw, and wasn’t above moving a bit inefficiently if it meant crumbling an extra house or mob underfoot.

Barns’s place was a modest single story wood-made home which wasn’t out of the ordinary aside from being a bit messy. There was a stew-pot in one corner with a cot in the other. Otherwise, a bunch of chests, sacks, and two wardrobes filled the space.

“Doesn’t seem very organized.”, said Arafiel.

“I have a system.”, said Barns. “Let me get that magic carpet.”

Barns opened one of the chests, then another. He moved to one of the wardrobes and couldn’t find the carpet there either.

“Now where’d I put it.”

The foot steps kept increasing. The party was getting concerned. Barns managed to open the second wardrobe after some tugging, and a large tasseled rug with purple and red patterns fell out atop him. He scrambled out from underneath its covering.

“Found it!”, he said.

It was at the moment the quakes seemed louder than ever. The entire floor of his house shifted as the stomach flesh beneath warbled. It was pretty clear Thistle was right outside the house. When she leaned down to rip off the roof, it became abundantly clear.

“There you all are, wait, where’s Laddleplug?”, said Thistle. Unknown to her, the gnome was hiding. Arafiel, in a rare moment of consideration for others, had stuffed the stunned Laddleplug into a chest in the corner of the room just in time for the roof to rip off.

“He’s already gone.”, said Arafiel as she pulled out her daggers. “He’s off to wake Veezla, who will figure out a way to get you out of here. You’re nothing to a titaness, Thistle!”

“Yeah!”, said Barns. He had an arrow notched in his bow and let it lose at Thistle. It shattered harmlessly against the scales on her neck. She laughed as she got back to a looming standing height.

“Ha, you idiots.”

She lifted her foot and stomped down hard enough to knock the two off their feet. Once that was done, she quickly bent back over to scoop them up: one in each hand.

Standing back up yet again,

“Just a step of mine is enough to tumble you. Go ahead, wake Veezla up. I’ll be fast enough to catch up to the gnome and get out of here, even if I spend a bit of time toying with you.”

She laughed as the drow and human man fidgeted in her tight grip. She turned to Barns in her left hand and smiled wide and toothy. A roaring sound started forming in her chest.

“Look at you, already trying to replace me in the party. Fine, the party’s over anyways. I don’t need you.”, she said, turning to Arafiel at the end. “I’m gonna make you wish Laddleplug didn’t mess up that anti-acid spell though.”

Thistle’s throat lurched as Arafiel grunted. The drow braced herself for the acid breath she knew was coming. Yet, a moment before the dragon-traited woman’s jaw flung open, she turned to her left hand and blasted Barns instead.

“No-ARGGHHH!”, screamed Barns as he took the brunt of the acidic attack. The green gaseous roar of draconic breath melted him down past the bones right before Arafiel’s very eyes. She screamed out herself.

“No!”

But Thistle just kept blowing till Barn’s was nothing but dust, dissolved as much as he could be pretty much. She unclenched her fist and the two watched--one with delight, the other with horror--as just a scant few blackened bones fell hundreds of feet to the stomach floor below.

“You monster! You fucking, stupid vile- How could you betray us after all we’ve been through?!?”, said Arafiel. She tried with all her might to pry her arms free from her sides, but Thistle’s fingers were too strong, each thick as a tree.

The former human laughed right in the drow’s face.

“Look at little miss righteous all the sudden. You’ve spent your entire life being a thief, and now you care about these things. But, you’re right, I guess I am at least a bit of a monster now. That is what we humanoids called dragons, right? Well, if I’m a bit of a dragon I should act like one and eat some people. I think I’ll start with you, my bossy runt of an ex-companion.”

Thistle opened her maw and Arafiel recoiled as that hot breath hit her. The salivating mouth was pretty human save for an ominous green glow on the interior flesh. There were plenty of sharp teeth too. A moist tongue snaked out to lap at Arafiel’s head as it stuck out of the hand-hold.

“You, what are you doing?”, said Arafiel. “This is disgusting.”

“Oh is it?”, said Thistle. “I seem to remember you swallowing a fairy whole not too long ago.”

“That was different.”

“I think you’ll be surprised how similarly painful it could be getting digested alive. Then again, I wonder if my acids hurt more, since I’m apparently part dragon now?”

Thistle grinned.

“I guess you’ll find out. But first lets get that gear of yours off. I wouldn’t want any daggers trying to poke me on the inside.”

Thistle unfurled her hand and quickly pinned Arafiel with her thumb. Her other hand sliced open the drow’s leather garbs with a sharp black finger-nail. The dragon-woman’s green eyes widened as the leather and cloth fell to the side, leaving the drow’s ash-dark body completely bare.

Thistle licked her lips and pinched the drow up by her silver-hair. She moved her prey close and gave that naked body a long lick.

“Urgh.”, said Arafiel as she shuddered. Warm spittle cloyed at her form.

Thistle smiled wide and went for another lick, stopping her tongue by Arafiel’s chest. The drow tried to shove the muscle away, but it was too strong and slippery.

“You, w-what are you doing?”

“Mmm.”, murmured Thistle. “I’ve always admired your body some, Araffy. Elves have all the luck: beautiful, dexterous, immortal. We humans have to get lucky for the first, second, and work hard for the latter two.”

She took another lick of Arafiel’s body.

“You’ll be the first person I eat. You should be honored. The Queen of Dragon’s first mortal meal. Being digested will be like becoming a part of me too. A high honor indeed.”

“You’re fucking depraved.”

“You’re food.”

Thistle opened wide and plopped Arafiel onto her mouth. The drow wasn’t gonna go down without a fight. She kicked at the tongue and pushed at whatever slick flesh she could. Pointless. The tongue itself was thicker and longer than the drow, and it had no problem pushing her around like a rag doll.

Arafiel put up a fight, but she did go down. Tight suction sent her down the slimy throat towards her doom. The throat flesh was lit an eerie green as it hugged her in a slimy hold.

It was a far tighter fit than going into Veezla’s gut, but with a squelching glitch she plopped down in Thistle’s gut. Here, that green light remained to illuminate the churning innards of the so-called Queen of Dragons.

The acrid air stung Arafiel’s eyes. It was hard to get herself oriented in the churning organ. When she finally slumped against a slimy stomach wall, a loud booming pat knocked her pack. On the outside, Thistle drummed her fingers against her stomach.

“I can feel you in there, just a little bit. I hope you’re a good squirmer.”

“Fuck you!”, shouted Arafiel. But she couldn't tell from Thistle’s laughter whether her former party member heard her or not.

The acidic fluids splashed around with the churns, coating her. She feel her skin burn. It was something fierce, yet all too slow. Sh tried to resist screaming, flailing; she tried to resist giving Thistle the satisfaction. It just hurt so bad, though, that she gave in quick. Her naked body, dark skin blistering, pounded at the stomach wall with all her might.

She got more laughter in return.

The organ was too strong. Even with her daggers, she wouldn’t have been able to make a single cut let alone carve her way out.

Arafiel was food.

--==--==--==--

Thistle moved her tongue about her mouth.

“Not bad.”, she said. “I can see why dragons are known to do this sort of thing.”

She pattered her fingers against her taut naked tummy while Arafiel screamed and squirmed within.

“Aright Laddleplug!”, she roared. “Show yourself!”

Some time passed with no sounds other than the churning tail gut, Thistle’s breathing, and the panicked screaming below.

“I said show yourself coward! I’ll find you eventually-”

A tremendous roar rung out, alongside a noise loud enough to shock even Thistle. In front of the dragon-woman, above the buildings between her and the exit sphincter, a flash of lights and magical explosions rung out. It was all sorts of colors, beautiful really, if not for how short and fierce it was.

“Ha!”, she shouted. “You missed!”

“I didn’t miss!”, said Laddleplug. He magically amplified his voice from somewhere in the city. Thistle turned her head to try and see him among the throng of people, but he was too short to spot.

An immense quake rocked the city of Glainberg. The entire living chamber the city was in started to churn. Buildings and people tumbled. Even Thistle lost her footing. She fell belly-first over a smattering of buildings and people: crushing it all.

A great sound rumbled through the walls of the tail gut. One that could be felt in Thistle’s bones.

*“Yaaaaaaaawn”*

Veezla was waking up.