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Beams of sunlight filtered between the leaves of palm trees above, reflecting suddenly and harshly against some glass below. That single flask lit up as it was held up at just the right moment by a most curious denizen; a blue dragon, aquatic with glistening scales still wet from the waves so nearby, seeming the least likely to hold such an object when in particular he could barely hold the slick object.

"Augh, no!" he had leaned over a makeshift bench fashioned out of fallen logs, meticulously dangling some odd objects over the tiny brew, or at least had been until that flash reflected from the sun above put a wrench in some plan.

Being a quadruped by birthright, the finned dragon known as Grahckheuhl harbored an intense desire in creating potions and magnificent droughts. Through the combination of various ingredients, animals, alien mechanisms, and a vast quantity of alcohol, he desired to improve his skills and cement himself as one of the greatest potion-makers of all time.

Except he was currently known as being nothing more than a fantastic amateur at best.

And that title proved itself as warranted, for as he leaned so close that he'd be blinded by the off chance of reflected sunlight, he not only dumped more of the ingredient than he wanted into his current concoction, but mixed it with other brews nearby held up with a less-than-stable foundation of pushed together pebbles, or at least what a fifty-foot long dragon might consider to be a pebble.

He stood in disbelief for a brief moment, watching the once swirling orange liquid mix with other potions nearby to slowly change and become a putrid sort of purple-ish black. Emanating thoughts outwards to no one in particular, with telepathic chirps, he spoke out of annoyance, "curse it all, this was meant to be the one." With nothing more to do, sighing and shaking his head, he'd roll the tree trunk over to try and salvage all he could, draining it into the vial it was meant to be kept within.

Yet a certain smell tickled Grahckheuhl's nose, and with intrigue he fluttered the fins along the jawline with glee, accompanied with a jingling chime of jewelry pierced upon the right fins. "Hmmm," flicking a broad-tipped tongue out over the front of his snout, he guided more of that scent towards his nostrils, "but this may still work."

Normally a sane individual may take into consideration and properly consider the fact that one had just mixed together and created a completely new substance, possibly never before seen anywhere on the planet, and originally coming from an untested concoction. "Smells decent enough. This may still work, indeed, to solve some of those bad breath complaints I've been given," but ultimately Grahckheuhl sang preemptive praise to himself. He wasn't one to present himself as being a sane individual.

Nearly the instant he brought merely a drip of the oozing sludge past his lips he immediately regretted the decision, "of all the curses to bring upon myself. Oh, oh no," shivering with clenched eyes, the dragon found the flavor to be upon the highest degree of unfavorable sensations, right up there with the taste of salmon. Whimpering briefly to himself, "this is a bigger mistake than eating those surfer's with plexiglass surfboards," Grahckheuhl loved to experiment, indeed, but more often than not found something of disagreeable nature. The brew tasted not nearly as tantalizing as it had smelt.

All he could do was hope to swallow and hope his sense of taste found at the back of the throat couldn't pick up the atrocity as well; spitting would just result in it staying in his mouth for longer, and prolonging the misery. "Never again. I will never befoul my tongue with such a substance, even if it makes my breath smell of lilac," with a firm and resolute tone, he'd make sure his brain would never try testing this brew for anything else.

It took several long and grueling minutes for the flavor to finally subside, at least a bit, but the smell never left his nose. Lingering about like a begrudging phantom he had to be constantly reminded of that flavor even after it left the mouth. In the mean time he began cleaning the atrocious mess he created in the nearby vicinity. Bottles tossed about, liquid dripping into the palm bark, and ingredients lost to the wind, it took even longer to bring it all together in an orderly fashion.

Grahckheuhl felt warmer than normal. He didn't begin to notice it until he finally collected and cleaned everything, but it made itself all the more present as time went on. Growing exponentially, he craned his neck back to look over himself. It wasn't uncommon for him to dabble in potions that altered his body in some form or another, but the current potion hadn't been intended to impart such an effect.

"Now this is strange," he thought whilst creating a deep yet airy tone in his throat, immediately forgetting everything he had been doing, "normally I feel warm in the stomach after drinking something," even if he knew himself as an amateur, he at least knew enough to know the workings for any of his potions. The formula had always been the same up until this point. Duds created no warmth at all, but those that will do something create heat. But that always, as an unbroken rule, began in the belly.

Perhaps, he thought, that it was just a trick of the mind. It was a warm day overall, and the day had shifted enough that the back half of his body had been sitting in the direct rays of the sun. "Ah, just a trick of the mind," he'd muse while thrusting his tail off to the side and out of the way. Just then a loud crackling of bones erupted from that long appendage, to which he jumped forward out of surprise.

In that instant the heat spread from the entirety of his tail, from base to tip, and its intensity doubled in a single heartbeat. There wasn't any actual pain to be felt, it being a very rare occurrence for unpleasant sensations to be felt when undergoing any change in form. At least he may claim for himself in any case. But at the same time it was equally rare to feel anything of actual pleasure, but when when the tail-tip wiggled idly as he pondered, there was a strange blissful factor.

It enticed him to thrust the tail off to the side similar to before, and this time a pleasant tingling rolled its way up the entire way, resulting in a happy gasp, "Ah! Well now, maybe this will have a redeeming-- oh," he stopped, eyes widening. The tail appeared longer.

Grahckheuhl's vision had been something left to be desired, being nothing in the way of good to say the least, and he often doubted looking himself in a mirror or reflection for fear of not gaining an accurate look at himself. Yet very clearly, he could see, his tail appeared longer than before. Not by just a few inches, but rather several feet.

Even though he felt alarmed he couldn't help but move the tail once more; the compelling pleasure being too great. A great crack bellowed forth once more, rippling up the entire tailbone with a surprising vibration, and he could watch before his very eyes as the appendage he once knew to be a specific length again lurched forward to gain extra size.

Sighing out in relaxation, the aquatic dragon began to slowly walk along, swinging his tail slowly left and right with exaggerated strokes. Logic seemed to leave his mind, it lost in the moment. Something compelled him to go against his nature of staying near the beach, and instead worked his way up into a tropical forest. Nearby he heard the soft trickling of a river, flowing as lazily as he walked, "ah, now that sounds like a pleasant resting place," and he meandered off in that direction.

He felt wretchedly tired. Walking had always been a more tiring form of movement for something that was attuned to swimming most of the time, but this felt something entirely different. The sun now high in the sky, it was indeed his normal time to doze, but once again he felt compelled to nearly collapse on the spot.

Meanwhile the tingling in his tail grew ever stronger. He could feel bones and cartilage changing position as it grew longer still, but he didn't have the energy to question it. He didn't even feel the need to question it, despite him being generally very diligent in cataloging any and all results of his potion-making.

"Nothing a little nap won't help," he'd declare to himself, yawning wide enough that his tongue would curl out from the mouth, announcing to the world around him that it would be best not to disturb him. Stepping foot into the river, he nearly immediately lost consciousness, drifting off into sleep with jawfins spread wide and clearly showcasing joy. The tail itself never fully submerged, leaving itself along the river bank.

Grahckheuhl's emerald eyes sprung open. He had been sleeping for the better part of the day, as the color in the air above blazed with reds and yellows. A clawing sensation dug into his lungs; they were empty. They had been empty for quite a long time, for he never filtered the oxygen in his body nor stored extra air in the fore-stomach, which he required to stay below the waves for longer than a couple hours at best.

With a powerful lunge, sending a spray of water in every direction, he launched onto the river edge. Against all acts of instinct, he didn't take in a single breath, and rather breathed out. It was as though all his instincts had been re-written as he slept.

"How could I have done that to myself," he'd ponder, finally bringing himself to breathe normally, "is this what people mean when they get drunk off my potions?" Shaking his head a little, he'd stare off to the side while attempting to regulate the breathing system his body should normally do without extra through. Though something curious caught his eye after a minute of thinking; the eyes only rolling in the direction of his tail after his brain began to parse a particularly fulfilling sensation.

Grahckheuhl's tail had grown spectacularly, of that there is no doubt, but proportionally speaking mostly in the way of length. Truly it looked more that it just stretched itself out, though it retained some dignity in the way if circumference in any case. He didn't care to see just how much it grew, somewhere between twice to three times the length of his actual body perhaps, but instead he looked at several thick lumps now present in the tail. The silhouette of people made plainly present.

Beyond that he could just barely see the people inside. The scales and skin beneath stretched enough, at least towards the end of the tail where it remained thinner, for him to make out details hidden inside. Though, strangely enough, they seemed covered in some black substance. Bringing the appendage closer to nose at it with curiosity prompted wiggling from the, shockingly, still-living individual. A sensation of bliss blew over the dragon's senses, though it felt entirely unnatural. Amazing, but foreign.

The tail itself slowly undulated, but just barely visible from the outside; muscles lazily contracted on the inside, pulling the hapless fellows further within. It could have been confused for a snake due to the bulges and way the muscles rippled along in smooth strokes all the way up the appendage. Placing a paw on the upper third of the tail, he could feel a soft beating eerily similar to that of a heart. It marched to the beat of the heart in his own chest.

All of it left the him more baffled than anything else. Sitting up on his haunches, he looked at it with head tilted sideways, "well this is certainly, hmm, different. Though I can't say I mind this aspect," he'd pause for a moment in mid-thought, taking a deep breath through his lungs, "I can't say I enjoy forgetting to breath," and staring forward for a brief second, he instantly realized just how ridiculous that would have sounded if he had spoken it to someone else.

An involuntary twitch of the tail caused him to look back down. Once more his eyes went wide at a brand new discovery. The tip was no longer a tip, as far as he could tell. He could barely believe his eyes, but it appeared that his tail opened up to create some sort of entrance. All he could do was stare for a straight minute. "What?"

Instead of the tapered end of which Grahckheuhl expected, both sets of fins from top and bottom coming to meet at one point, there instead bloomed what looked like a gorgeous blossom The tail itself split apart into what looked to be five tendrils, folding back and curling to form a flower's sepal Those fins in question split apart in the same fashion, twisting along, and creating a beautiful if not wholly alien display with broad petals.

On the outside the scales remained blue, fins their normal aqua tint, and on the interior there retained the coloration of Grahckheuhl's normal purple flesh. Poking out from the center, a long and thin purple tendril waved from side to side, as though influenced by a strong breeze. All of the inside appeared wet, covered in some saliva-like liquid. At a casual glance it had many missing pieces of anatomy to be called a true flower, but to the ignorant mind it would seem possibly quite normal.

Peering in a bit closer, the dragon got a better appreciation of its size; the flower shape being nearly as large as his own head. He could feel air cycling in and out of it, and if he didn't know better, felt very much similar to that of breath traveling through lungs. "Interesting, I suppose. Though what benefit does this do," he wondered, completely unimpressed with the structure in and of itself. "It is pretty though."

It dawned on him once again that he had not been breathing properly, though this time he wished he hadn't. Upon taking a sniff through his nostrils, he caught a whiff of the scent of the tail-flower, and he recoiled from the sudden jolt. Immediately it gave him flash-backs to the flavor of the potion itself. Wailing and holding his forepaws over his snout, he howled and kicked up a mighty fuss. "Ugh! Ah, no, what a wretched stench. No, this won't do at all, I can't have this lingering about. The sooner this wears off," he trailed off, the scent dying off and being replaced with that of something else.

There was another person rustling in the bushes barely more than ten feet away, caught easily by way of Grahckheuhl's nose. Covered from head to toe in hiking gear, the young individual ducked down upon realizing he had been seen. Though he didn't make much of a great effort after that, as his face still visible through the parted foliage.

Grahckheuhl just rolled his eyes. He never understood why people tried to hide after they had been so obviously spotted. Though he did gaze back down at his tail. It dawned on him that his companions may be the ones ensnared inside of the long blue appendage. There were obvious signs of backpacking gear to their silhouettes after all.

Before anything else could be said, the curious onlooking stepped forth and out of the brush. He didn't seem particularly heroic or brave, what with a hunched over stance while shaking at the knees, but regardless he came out. Standing still, and upright, he finally managed to stammer an introduction, "excuse me, dragon? I didn't know there would be a dragon here. Please, forgive me, I did not mean to step onto your turf."

"Turf? Oh, you mean a territory? Terribly sorry if I've misled you, but I do not own land. If you want me to leave, you just need to ask," Grahckheuhl stood up on all fours while speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, sending the information directly from the mind.

The human simply waved his hands back and forth, taking a step back, "no, it's nothing like that! I-I just didn't want you to attack or something," he sighed a little, perhaps relieved that there was no ill will, "but, that smell. Can't you smell it? Doesn't it just smell great?"

Grahckheuhl stared with more blank of an expression than normal. "Smell? No, oh no, I don't want to smell anything at all right now. There's a wretched stench lingering around, can't _you_smell that?" belying his appearances he asked with genuine concern, thinking that perhaps the human's senses were worryingly weak.

"I can smell something alright, and it smells amazing. I think it's that flower, there," he pointed down towards the tail-flower. "My dumb friends went out to go find it earlier and left me behind to watch the camp. Hah, but it's right there," he'd look at the dragon with a wide smile, evidently all fear melting away, "if you don't mind then, I'm just going to bring it back to camp."

The human muttered something more about his friends being dumb as he walked towards the tail without any regards to his safety. Did he simply not see how further up the appendage there were very obvious-shaped people trapped inside? The smell seemed to bewitch him, wresting control from his mind and shoving it into what could be described as a drunken stupor, luring him ever closer.

Grahckheuhl meanwhile simply observed. He didn't innately care about this particular fellow, as they didn't seem very interesting or useful for engaging conversation, but had nothing against them or their motives. But as the human approached, his tail stretched upwards, as though sensing the heat of the other body. It stared back at the human just as much as they stared at it. When until, suddenly, the human stuck his nose a little too close.

He felt a very distinct tingling sensation travel up his spine the moment it hit; the human's breath pushed at the tongue-like stigma of the tail-flower. Like a trap being sprung the tendrils of the tail snapped forward, clamping around the human's head with a wet slurp.

A brief struggle ensued, though it was one which clearly favored the tail. The human pushed at the tail with his hands, however that simply sped the process of being devoured, as the fingers slipped inside with another wet slurp; the tendrils spreading just enough to let the hands descend down to their elbows, using the falling weight of the human to its advantage. His fate became thoroughly sealed if it hadn't already been before.

The tail-maw, as it were, reopened just enough to allow the tendrils to tug at the human's body with a slow and creeping motion. It moved in a particular formation so that at least three of the tendrils held onto the ever-squirming individual, creating a cacophony of wet squishing noises. This came with it the drool, if it could be called that, but as Grahckheuhl peered over with burning curiosity, he saw something that even distressed him a little.

Thick black gunk ensnared the prey, and no matter how much he stretched or yearned for freedom, it clung to him with belligerence. At times it looked as though it may snap due to being worn so thin, but each time that occurred it simply snapped the struggling body right back into place. Each time further secured his resting place inside of the tail, and it seemed to make the tendrils job all that much simpler.

Once more than half of the body had been engulfed Grahckheuhl gave a low hiss of approval, uncharacteristic to how he normally regarded food. Yet when he placed a paw upon the squirming lump he couldn't help but feel a great deal of satisfaction at the catch, even if it wasn't anything all that large and ultimately fulfilling. Still there was something to be said about being able to catch something that required near to no work, and that certain tingling sensation that occurred from before could be felt in constant waves; there was no better conditioning tool than the combination of food and bliss.

So he simply allowed the tail to go about its autonomous functions, which swallowed down the catch with its slow and methodical peristalsis. The human never for a single moment stopped with struggling, even when he was nothing more than a pair of legs kicking at the air. All that seemed to result in was creating a lewd series of slurps, and if Grahckheuhl didn't know any better, the very distinct noise of gulps normally heard at the back of the throat during a swallow followed thereafter.

Once the human's boots disappeared from view, tucked away nice and snug into the tail-maw, the flower began to bloom once more; the trap resetting, early awaiting its next victim scarcely seconds after it had just finished devouring its most recent. Disregarding the thick lump, and the translucent nature of the spreading scales, it looked completely innocent as though nothing even happened.

Further up his appendage, Grahckheuhl observed once more at the position of the other entrapped individuals, only to find that they had all been lumped together nearly two thirds of the way up. At this point the circumference of the tail looked similar to how it should be proportionally speaking, albeit with the obvious thicker section to where food seemed to be stored for digestive purposes.

Even still he could feel movement taking place on the inside, which led him to believe that air must be cycling into the stomach-like chamber similar to the two main stomachs within his torso. "I wonder," thrumming to himself in wonderment, he brought his face close to the tail tip once more. Again he felt a soft gush of air, not just going out, but also being brought back in with extremely slow currents.

He brought the appendage up to the side of his head. Ignoring the traveling lump still putting up quite a fuss from the inside, which created a whole slew of sounds that he tried his best to ignore, he listened once more with intent. However faint it might be, he could hear some semblance of wind being funneled through tight canals, indicating that the tail could indeed breathe. It seemed to him it possessed a pair of lungs, somehow, though where he could not discern; the location had to be very near the base of the tail.

What surprised him all the more is that he could hear a faint thumping. It was most certainly the noise of a heart, but not the one he was used to in his chest. This heartbeat, even if it was to the rhythm of his normal, came from a smaller version found somewhere in that tail. The tail had become, through the potion, an entirely different form of appendage.

Pulling back his head, he now heard the very satisfactory churning and gurgling of the meal in his tail shifting about. In that time the most recent catch had joined the others in what he assumed to be the stomach, but that shifted some of the already digested bits further along into the tail with a clear and audible indicator. A belch, if it could be called that, expelled itself with a thick burst of air from the tail-maw instead in the form of a quiet squeak.

"So I've grown myself an addition to my digestive tract. Oh," he swayed slightly in delight with thoughts flooding into his mind, "maybe this means I won't have to pause my research to eat. Ah, better yet I could just eat with my mouth and tail at the same time, so I can just go longer without needing nourishment," the glutton of a beast broadcast itself with jubilance.

Flicking the tail about in the manner of a snake, he'd stare at it with adoration. He created this; a mouth which disguised itself as a blooming flower could be used to eat without conscious recognition. It allowed him to go back to his shoddy excuse of an alchemist's table. He never strayed too far from a river source or shallow beach water, as a new instinct of ensuring he could keep the tail-flower bobbing upon a liquid surface took root. So long as he possessed that form of a tail, serpentine and in excess of seventy feet, he stayed well and full.