Lost Tourists
The air outside the London pub was cool and damp with fog, the last breaths of winter still stretching into the spring months. This made the tiger-striped tabby that stumbled out of the door all the more glad that he had worn a coat. This he pulled tighter about himself and zipped up, while he looked up and down the dark and deserted street. It was nearly midnight, and the American tourist hadn't the slightest clue as to how he was going to find his way back to his apartment.
"Oh, come on Leon..." he grumbled as he looked up and down the sidewalk. "Which way did you come from?"
After a moment's hesitation, Leon decided that he'd might of come from the left side of the building; yes, he'd almost certainly come this way. He walked at an eager pace, just as eager to be back in the warmth of a bed, as foreign and unfamiliar as it was. The claws on his bare feet clicked on the pavers of the sidewalk as he padded along, overly loud during the night.
A few minutes of walking brought him several streets away, and no closer to anything he recognized. Sighing a little at his predicament, the tabby stopped and looked around himself again. It was getting quieter now, Leon having distanced himself from the busy sounds of central London. He was in a residential neighborhood now; the tightly packed flats the city was known for were all around. Few of these had any lights on, and fewer still had more than one or two. He supposed that he could stop at one of these and ask for directions, and after a few more minutes of walking, he decided he would do just that.
He went up to one of the flats with the most lights on, up the stoop, and knocked on the door. He waited a few moments, and just when he was about to knock again, the door opened, leaving him standing there rather stupidly, and looking up and up and up at the person who had come to the door. He stared; slack jawed, at the eleven feet of black and blue scales. The dragon stood there, looking back at him expectantly until Leon realized he was gaping and shut his mouth.
"Oh, um..." he began as the dragon continued looking at him expectantly, "I was, uh... wondering if I could maybe get some... directions?" He finished, feeling rather foolish, and added as an afterthought, "I'm... a little lost."
After a moment something seemed to cross the dragon's mind; his expression changed into a smile, and he said, "Oh, of course." He stepped backwards and waved a hand into the short hallway behind him. "Come inside, and I'll see what I can do."
Leon looked a little uncertain for a moment, but did as he was asked and stepped into the dragon's home. The door closed shut behind him and the dragon walked away into another room, calling back to the feline, "You're welcome to the den, so take a seat where you want."
Leon went in the opposite direction of the dragon, into another room that was obviously a den; a few comfortable looking chairs and a couch, around a coffee table. The only thing that made it any different from any other den was the size of everything; all the furniture and other items were scaled up to the size of their owner, leaving the cat feeling as though he were a child again. But it was easy enough to hop up on the couch and sit on the edge, even if he was still a little dizzy from his drinking. Not a moment later, the dragon came into the room and looked at the feline with a predatory gleam in his eye, long enough to make Leon a little uncomfortable.
But after a moment his impromptu host continued walking and plopped down on the couch beside him. "Coffee?" he asked, and Leon realized he was holding a cup.
"Oh, um, thank you," Leon said as he took the cup and held it in both paws to let the heat of the liquid inside warm them. He wasn't exactly fond of coffee, but he thought it was only polite to accept.
"Since you're lost," the dragon continued as he sat back on the couch, "I'm guessing that you're a tourist. And judging by your accent, you aren't from the U.K."
"Yeah... I got here a few days ago. I guess I shouldn't have wondered too far away from my apartment," Leon said with a small smile.
"No, you shouldn't have. Who knows what sort of predators you might have run into?" This reminder made Leon gulp nervously, but before he could say anything the dragon continued, "But anyway, you can call me Danza. And what should I call you, my little feline friend?"
"Oh... you can just call me Leon." He fidgeted with the cup for a moment as the dragon continued to watch him, and--to Leon at least--with that same predatory gleam hidden behind his smile. After a minute or two of sitting he finally took a sip from his cup, and for whatever reason began to feel drowsy. He looked up at Danza and blinked a few times, but the dragon simply grinned at him.
"Here, let me take that from you," the large reptile said, easily lifting the cup from Leon, just a couple of seconds before the cat fell back on the couch, sound asleep.
* * *
Such easy prey this little American feline was turning out to be! But Danza had to admit to himself, he did have a bit of an advantage over the obviously intoxicated cat. Sitting the cup of drugged coffee to the side, Danza lifted the little cat from the couch and hefted him over his shoulder, potato sack style. It was easy enough, with the cat unconscious as he was, to carry him up the stairs to his bedroom and dump him catch on the bed.
"They make it so easy sometimes," Danza said to himself while he undressed the feline; clothes would only get in the way after all, and if he didn't get rid of them now, well... he would have to later. He started with the shirt, then pants and finally his underpants, tossing them all in a bin in the corner full of clothes that could have never fit the dragon. Now that the cat was nude he could continue; he sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the cat, lifting him up from under his arms and holding him in front of himself. Danza licked his lips once, a little drool building up in his mouth in anticipation of another nice, live meal, and opened his maw wide.
Moving the cat closer, he passed the furry head between his teeth, feeling his ears brush against the roof of his mouth, his tongue lifting from the bottom of his maw and licking at his chin, tasting. Drool dripped from the ribbed roof of his mouth and from his teeth, dripping down into the fur of the cat, making his ears twitch and eyes squint a little. Running his tongue over the face of the cat once, Danza lifted him further, inching the cat further inwards. Eventually the snout slid ever so easily into the back of his throat, the muscle pulsing once, twice around it. Eventually Danza swallowed, moving the cat forward again as he did, inching the head into his throat.
Now he could work a little more steadily, throat pulsating and pulling around his latest meal while he fed the cat into his maw, inch by inch. The neck went down after the head, his shoulders following soon after, hardly giving the large dragon any trouble. All the while his tongue worked over the body of the feline, slicking him up for the journey downwards, as well as getting a few interesting flavors, not least of which being the taste of what was likely spilled beer.
With his hands on the cat's hips now, Danza started swallowing a little faster, his stomach starting to rumble with the anticipation of oncoming food. The chest now resting firmly in his throat and the stomach mostly inside of his maw, Danza moved his paws down to the cats thighs, gripping them while the tail in front of his nose began to flick a few times, the cat starting to wake back up from all the movement around him.
* * *
There was a steady thump thump thump pounding in Leon's ears as he slowly came to. The second thing he noticed what that he was upside down, and couldn't move the upper half of his body. For a moment he thought the dragon had tied him up and left him stashed away in some sort of dark room; but then he realized what the thumping sound was. He kicked his legs outside of the dragon's maw, toes curling and tail flailing around while he struggled to get free. None of this helped though, and the dragon simply gripped his legs tighter and further down to keep him from moving too much.
Leon could feel himself sinking down and down effortlessly, his waist passing through the maw of the dragon and then down into the throat to join the rest of his body. His struggles became weaker as he went lower, the confined area not only making it hard to move, but hard to breath. Eventually he stopped moving altogether, except for the flicking of his tail outside the dragon's lips.
It seemed to Leon that his slowed movement signaled to the dragon to start swallowing faster. The throat pulsed around his body much more quickly his legs began to rapidly vanish into the maw of his captor. His knees reached and passed the lips, then his calves... His head soon met a resistance in the throat, a tight ring of flesh that slowly gave way to his head and allowed it to pass into the dragon's stomach. The air inside was hot and humid, and stunk of the digested remains of whatever he had eaten last.
Leon kicked his legs a few times in the throat while his feat slowly sank down past the dragon's teeth. He felt the tongue curl behind his paws and the warmth of the maw surround them as it closed. He almost would have enjoyed the trip downwards, the warm embrace enclosed all around him... and honestly, he had fantasized about this sort of thing before. But not now, not while it was really happening and was going to be digested.
He squirmed as he could feel the dragon gulping and swallowing all around him, feeding his body down into the gut. His shoulders soon followed his head, then his chest, stomach, legs... Eventually he was sitting in the bottom of the stomach while his feet and tail slipped inside with the rest of his body. He struggled inside, pushing out against the contracting walls with all four paws, but only succeeded in making small bulges in the stomach of the dragon, and use up what little air that he had. Before long, he heard a loud belch from the outside, and felt all of the air in the stomach rush out, letting the stomach compress closer around him.
* * *
Danza belched loudly after he felt the cat sink into his stomach fully, laying his paw across his distended belly to better feel the movements inside. He lied down on his bed and relaxed, rubbing at his stomach as it began to work over his meal. After a little while the movements inside slowed, and then stopped altogether. He burped again and let his eyes closed, listening distantly to his stomach gurgle and churn around the feline inside. "Ah... thanks for the meal, Leon."