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FORGOTTEN GODS

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Part 3: Death, and that which is more terrible

She looked up at him, liquid hazel meeting sharp yellow through the mist of their shared tears, and mouthed words he could not hear. "No... please, Osc, no..."

Suddenly, Oscar felt a cold slickness land on his feathered back , sticking to it like the strongest of glues. He closed his eyes and kissed her one last time on the forehead. "B... be brave."

And then he was flying.

Flying.

It had been the collective dream of every bird alive ever since the Catalyst: to take to the sky like their non-evolved cousins. Hardly a coincidence, was the general consensus, that both heavier-than-air flight and the rudimentary beginnings of space travel had been pioneered by forlornly yearning avians. Oscar had felt the ache himself - though he always banished it, concentrating on what he could actually hope to achieve. The longing to be free in the hazy blue skies above... and for one perfect, lunatic moment of exhilaration, as he rose with blurring speed, he'd thought madly that, somehow, it had all happened. Whether by the hand of the Catalyst itself, the kindnesses of Lord Theo - you heard stories, after all, of the Founder working miracles even centuries after his death - or by whatever else had deigned to help him, it seemed that he was rising high, high above, escaping the ruins of a dead civilization, fleeing this impossible monster -

- and abandoning Jess.

"NO!"

The illusion fell away like a facade, and as the falcon screamed, starting to fall again - Volscian had flicked him up, nearly forty feet into the air - he somehow saw Jess scrambling away from the dragon's massive, black form, her eyes locked with his despite all the speed and the distance, filled with pain and misery.

Oscar felt his heart wrench with sadness for those eyes. He stared straight down, still flailing, and the maw of Volscian's vast tail opened beneath him, imitating the obscene "lily pad" it had masqueraded as, luring them in: close enough to ensnare. The falcon howled out loud, and fell - as if in slow motion - into it's slimy, strangely cool embrace.

The depth, and his velocity, was so great that he simply plummeted right into the dark tunnel of the dragon's "throat". Volscian didn't have to make a single movement. Oscar felt his entire body be encased, with a faint schlup sound, in cold, wet, rippling flesh, and the tongue was on him instantly, as if he'd fallen into a hellish snake pit. His feathers were drenched, his nares filled with a strange, reptilian musk. Oscar gasped with claustrophobic fear, trying to turn over - he was upside down, but in this sudden new world of wet, blind terror it did not matter, for gravity was a lost ideal - and scrabbled desperately at the outside world, feeling lethally powerful muscles clench and twist around him as the monster's unnatural maw sealed shut. For a brief second, one of his hands stuck out from inside, clawing blindly at the air of the outside world. The falcon snarled frantically, trying to climb up the slick walls, grasping around for any leverage he could possibly find on the other side of that dark, hateful flesh. His muscles screamed at him, legs scrabbling and eyes watering, but Oscar kept hauling himself upwards, his beak clenched so hard it made his head tremble. He pushed against a swell of soft, cold flesh, and shoved hard upwards, and -

With a colossal force, something hooked around his ankle and yanked, hard, downwards. The avian let out a surprised, pitiful squawk as his hand slipped inside, the mouth of Volscian's tail clamping shut instantly, locking him inside. He howled a raw keening cry, blind with panicked rage, clawing furiously at the cold slickness that was wound around his ankle, which had just denied him his only hope.

That vile tongue, glowing a hideous hue of neon green that sent everything into a sickly half-light, as strong as steel and as flexible as a snake. It had coiled around his calves, now, tugging gently on him - because that was all it needed, what with gravity and the horrible wet smoothness of the walls of Volscian's throat, to pull him deeper. The avian screamed again, trying to yank it free. Already, that creased, furled opening had squeezed fully shut above him - and it was further above by now. Oscar couldn't reach the outside world if he tried, and he was still sliding deeper, slowly, inch by tortuous, tantalising inch...

But the dragon god was hungry, it seemed. With a sensation somewhat akin to the last bit of toothpaste being squeezed from the tube, the falcon's world convulsed and rippled violently around him - crushing and pushing him downwards a full two feet into the monstrous beast's gullet. Oscar choked, his lungs compressed by the sheer pressure of it, whimpering as the pulsing emerald of the monster's tongue began to dim before his eyes... and then the pressure was released, and he managed to gasp a great, ragged breath. He felt claustrophobic and sick with terror, but the lethally powerful muscles of Volscian's gullet had relaxed... for now.

Swearing fluently and bitterly to himself, the avian fumbled for his inner jacket pocket, trying his best to ignore the gruesome slickness that drenched him all over as the muscles tensed for another devastating gulp. Where was it? One thing he'd always remembered from his experiences, which had saved his life so many times and maybe could, would, should, might just do so again: always have another weapon ready. A switchblade might be small, but this flesh was soft. And he could not give up. Not while Jess was -

Oscar Shaw froze in the cold embrace of the predator's throat, his eyes widened with horror. "Jess..."

And, with all his horrors suddenly realised in one second, the cruel predator added another. The falcon felt his skin begin to prickle.

Adrenaline-gorged minds work fast. He gasped aloud, clutching himself as the tingling became more and more apparent. For a few seconds, it was am almost pleasant, pins-and-needles sensation. Then it began to itch, and itch. And itch.

The falcon uttered a weak, ululating caw of fear and alarm. "No... oh please.. no..." He felt bile rise in his throat, choking back the acrid taste of horror. Could he say the word? Could he even think it?

Digestion.

There. He could.

Galvanised into a fresh spurt of desperation, Oscar tried to ignore the steadily growing discomfort - oddly, his hands seemed to be marginally resistant to the increasingly uncomfortable prickling, perhaps due to the tough, scaly skin that covered them - and scrabbled for his pocket again, breathing deeply and slowly. He knew that his body wanted to start hyperventilating, but that would be useless. Stay calm, and ignore the increasing itching...almost burning sensation beneath his feathers, and just find that little sheath of plastic. Never give up. Not while she's in danger. The tongue lashed around his knees, and he yelled in pain and frustration, trying to kick free. "Nngh... Where the bloody hell is i-"

And Volscian gulped again, even harder and more powerful. The world exploded into crushing emerald shadows.

The falcon groaned with pain, feeling the squeezing, almost sadistically slow ripple of the dragon's hideous throat as he was dragged down - how far this time? He couldn't tell, simply trying feebly to claw at the slick sides, panting and weeping simultaneously. The pain was constant now, pooling in his sodden clothes and chafing at his tender flesh. He felt a feeble whimper escape his throat, trying to summon his strength as gravity aided the monster, pulling him down a few extra inches. "C-come on, Osc..." The avian bit his tongue hard, clamping his claws over the strong leather of his jacket as he scrabbled blindly at it. That infernal appendage claimed his thighs, lapping over his slick feathers with an obscene sense of glee, the pain by now a steady burn over every inch, but Oscar shoved at the tongue, finding that opening in his jacket at last and yanking, frantically, at the strong leather.

It tore apart in his grip, with all the strength of a piece of cardboard. Halfway digested already.

The switchblade fell out with a clink, and the avian grasped at it desperately, a wild caw of triumph parting his beak as -

That tongue flicked up, jarring his elbow hard and sending a bolt of pain all the way up to his ravaged shoulder, and he yelled in pain, dropping the knife instantly. The falcon howled with pure grief, snatching desperately at it, feeling a single trimmed talon graze the hilt just lightly... and then It vanished instantly, fallen into the depths, the metal and plastic already starting to erode beneath the beast's terrible acids. "N-NO! G-GOD DAMN IT, NO!"

Oscar screamed at last, all his efforts to keep the pain from taking him forgotten in his terrified rage. The greedy acids were only beginning their work, but already it was like a flame, hissing over his entire body... and then the dragon's tail convulsed again, squeezing him further in with a vile, squelching gulp, the muscular flesh grinding against his raw feathers. How deep was he now? Oscar gasped at the pain, trying to hold back another scream and thrashed desperately at the slick walls, trying to scrub the clinging, burning fluids from his arms... and then the falcon froze, feeling it as his feathers began to flake off.

"Y... you bastard!" he mumbled incredulously, almost too stunned to notice the pain for a few wild seconds. "My... my feathers! You utter-" His attempt to use some more virulent profanities was cut short as he broke off again, staring in amazed horror as a dark stain began to spread through the ruffled plumage, which was now beginning to fall out in clumps. It was black in the unnatural glow of Volscian's emerald tongue. It would have been scarlet otherwise.

Oscar's momentary relief from the pain was forgotten, and he started to scream again.

Madness. Logic was lost at last, the pain only building with every second as he roared, squirming until his slowly-digesting muscles shrieked at hi. He felt the plea for death dance on his ragged tongue, thick with despaired hope. But he wouldn't. He couldn't die.

He had a job to do...

And then, suddenly, unbidden, the scream had words. Was it a plea? A cry for help? A desperate longing for even the tiniest of comforts: that she would not suffer this fate like he had? He did not, could not know. All he knew was that he was howling like a lunatic, dying in agony in the gullet of a ancient creature, and - no please she must have escaped please by the catalyst just give me this you bastard god - and that his charge was in danger. And he could not save himself. Let alone her.

"JESS! OH G-GOD, PLEASE... JESS!"

But somehow, he knew that Jess would not be able to hear him.

***

The true horror? It seemed like there were too many, really. Jess' head felt overcrowded and chaotic with them all. But at that moment, when her beloved protector looked her in the eyes one last time, falling straight into that cruel, cavernous maw, it all seemed to combine into one terrible, discordant harmony.

That was the true horror, then. All of it, all together. That everything the mouse thought she had known, who she thought would be there for her forever, was being torn apart.

She stared, paralysed and open-mouthed, as the vile "mouth" of the great dragon's tail clamped smoothly shut and enveloped Oscar entirely, twisting shut like a furled tulip bud with barely the slightest of bulges to show that the falcon had disappeared utterly into it. For a moment, his hand was sticking out, grasping desperately at thin air, a few slight ripples and horrific squelching sounds all that betrayed his struggles. The grey-scaled fingers flexed madly at the insubstantial sky, looking almost like some horrible, macabre wave. Goodbye, have to go now. Hope I'll see you again.

"NO!" Suddenly, the sight washed her frozen shock away entirely, and Jess felt herself running, pelting towards the terrible beast who stood, imperious and erect, upon the lower tiers of his own ruined temple, bringing the vast tail closer to his six eyes for inspection. The dark violet gleamed with cruel, proud delight. She didn't know what she could possibly do - Volscian's tail was held far above her head. She didn't know how she could possibly hope to harm the beast. All she could see was that hand, wriggling and twisting now as Oscar struggled for his life inside the dragon god's throat. She had to, had to do anything she could. Help him...

"Osc! Oh god, please no, Oscar!"

Volscian swung his head round to watch her, and a devilish smirk twisted across his lean muzzle. There was a wet plop sound, and the hand vanished. The falcon was gone.

Her words tailed off into a whisper, dry as the desert.

"N... No..."

The dragon cocked his head as he turned back to the bulging tail, upraised to the heavens, and one by one, his hideous eyes closed. A thrumming, rumbling sound, as deep and harsh as stone grating on stone, began to reverberate out from deep inside his chest.

For a moment, Jess just stood there, staring at him. The sound was incomprehensible. What... what was...

The answer was as simple as it was devastating. Volscian was purring.

The brutal sound continued as the great dragon took one last look at the faintly squirming distension in his tail, and snapped his head round to look at her. Save for the terrible, snarling purrs of enjoyment at Oscar's struggles, he was utterly still and silent. His eyes were dark and cold.

"Please." she whispered, gazing back into the terrible orbs of violet. "Oh god... please... j-just let him go... l-look, I have money. We can give you anything, anything you want... just - just let h-him go...p-please..."

Her voice cracked, and broke. Volscian did not speak, but a disdainful smirk twisted his cruel muzzle, revealing the emerald luminescence and vicious fangs nestling within his mouth. The tail swung lazily behind him, apparently entirely unhindered by the thrashing avian trapped inside it.

She felt a wave of terrified nausea engulf her, paralysed and helpless. Oscar told you to run. He told you, as soon as you have the chance, leave him, save yourself, go... just go, Jessie girl...

But not like this. Please, god, not like this. The rodent hugged herself - oh god, she missed Oscar's smooth feathers already, warm and soft, the avian musk an universal scent of safety, even despite her wary, fearful-prey instincts... no, no, no, this can't be, can't be happening... - and broke her paralysis at last. She began to stumble towards the huge reptile, whimpering with terror. Volscian still made no sound, watching her with his dark violet eyes slitted, and gleaming cruelly.

She took another step, nearly tripped over a swamp vine, and felt herself almost begin to cry.... and that snapped it. Jess started to get angry.

"Y-you monster..." she whispered, feeling the old anger flare in her, that mix of tenacity, righteousness and sheer bloody-mindedness which had ensured she made her mark on the world. "You're... you're evil. I hope... I hope you b-burn in hell, you vile, h-hideous bastard of a creature.. just.... J-JUST LET HIM GO!"

It was a wail, a desperate, begging plea of animal terror. She gritted her teeth against the fear and despair, her tail twitching and trying to hug around her ankles, and tried to swallow her pride as the beast swallowed again, that low growl peaking for a second as the poor avian was dragged a little deeper... and then trailing off into nothing as it looked her, it's eyes winking off and on with casual curiosity. Jess whimpered.

"Please, L-Lord Volscian... oh god, please... Take me. Take me... Not him, not Oscar, please, he doesn't deserve this...n-no, no, no...."

And still the dragon god was a silent as the grave.

...Silent, that was, except for a lazy, vicious gulp which brought that barely-visible ripple of dark skin closer and deeper. A mere few feet now from vanishing utterly into the dragon's body forever.

"NO!" Jess screamed out loud, slumping to her knees. "No, you can't... just let him go, please... I-" She gritted her teeth, all her defiance and fury forgotten. "-I...I'm begging you. Please...It's not too late..."

Isn't it? whispered the shadows of her own mind, hiding from themselves. Surely he's dead by now, trapped inside that vile throat... surely he's gone... but he's still wriggling - there he is, that little bulge of dark sinuous flesh... He's still alive in there, sliding down and down in the wet crushing darkness... Which is worse, Jessie girl? Which is crueller to him? To you?

"SHUT UP!" she howled, clawing at the slick, puddled floor, while the predator stood statuesque, imperious and proud, watching her contemptuously without a word in his alien tongue. "Oh hell... h-hell n... please... no, no, no..." Jess whimpered, snarling with hopeless fury. "J-Just answer me... you monster, JUST... ANSWER ME! YOU-"

The rodent broke off at last, feeling a strange, glacial numbness enfold her as she realised. "Oh..." The dragon god closed his eyes lazily, that grotesque little tickling reaching the base of his tail with a tight squelching sound, like a boot pulled from thick mud, and a single orb of violet cracked open and eyed her, eyeridges flaring with cruel amusement. "Y-you... you can't..." A feeble convulsion of air crawled from her open muzzle, neither a sob nor a chuckle. "O-of course... You've got your mouth full, haven't you, you...beast!"

Volscian cocked his head, his eyes opening one by one. He nodded slowly. And with a final decadent gurgle, the struggling form of Oscar Shaw - because he was still alive, blind and deafened in the beast's gullet but alive - disappeared into his tight, lithe abdomen. The tail arched as a low, grating snarl of pure ecstatic delight broke Volscian's silence at last. The falcon, who had been Jess' closest friend for almost a decade of patient beloved service, who had taught her to ride a bicycle and play chess, who had stuck with her through every challenge of adolescence and family that she had been forced to endure... was utterly, totally his. The dragon god smiled a jagged, fanged grin, his tail flexing a little, and growled again. His pleasure thrummed in the air, so deep it made the swamp waters ripple slightly with pure malevolent enjoyment.

And somehow, it was these tiniest epiphanies of horror which broke the spell. Jess choked back a sob, and finally, she ran.

Tears streaming everywhere, stumbling and gasping for breath to sob with, the mouse clambered desperately straight up the stepped platforms of the high church, trying to reach the top, to jump over and flee for her life. It was like some hideous metaphor - the ungodly being cast out of the temple... except this god was a cruel lie, a beast... and he was going to kill her. Jess gasped in terror, blind to everything but the next step, fully aware that she was utterly clueless of what Volscian had done since she turned her back, or how close he was. She could only hope against all hope that Oscars' sacrifice would not be in vain. That she could flee and maybe against everything perhaps survive. That the falcon's contract could be fulfilled.

She almost retched with horror at that thought, but kept running, weeping freely now. "N... no, no, no..."

WHAM.

The steps of Volscian nearly cracked the stone in half. He was a blur of oil-dark flesh and lines of neon emerald, bounding over her to block her only escape route. Jess could see the terrible, predatory grace and poise of his movements, the way that every muscle rippled with perfect precision as he moved with an impossible speed, mere feet from her and towering over the terrified mouse. He was a hunter in his element. And she was naught but prey.

The mouse looked up at him, the tears beginning to flow in a steady stream which matted her grey fur, and felt the stuttering sobs break though her again. "N... no... please... no, just... d-don't..."

How have you sunk so low, Jess? Pleading and crying? Begging this monster to spare you?

"Please... oh god, please, no..."

Volscian stared down at her, his six-eyed gaze unwavering and imperious. His throat was clear now, and he spoke again in that terrible alien tongue, the vile tail peeking over his shoulder as it moved to create words. "And you think I would listen to your pleas? They amuse me, nothing more."

She whimpered, hugging herself. "I... I don't... a-amuse you? Y-you... you monster! I hope you ch-choke on him, you murderer!"

"Who? The bird?" A contemptuous sneer twisted his reptilian muzzle, the bat-wing crests ruffling slightly, as if amused. "He's not dead yet. My digestive processes begin as soon as my tail twists shut... but I can diffuse fresh oxygen right into my throat and stomach. Oscar is still squirming. I can hear him." He closed a few of his many eyes, his head cocked as if listening. "He's screaming your name again. A true fighter. He wriggles with every ounce of his strength."

The dragon 's lips glistened as that gleaming tongue moistened them, and his victim bit her knuckles to stop her gorge from rising. He smirked. "It is not enough, of course."

"Alive..." Jess whimpered. "Alive... oh my god... no, Oscar, please..." She clenched her fists, gasping with horrified sobs. "You... you monster! He didn't deserve that! He didn't!"

"Oh, please." snapped Volscian testily, his great tail whickering sharply as his tongue flashed bright green behind those horrible parodies of lips. "He didn't deserve it? As if I chose him because I believe he did? The ancients were just like you... trying to explain my hunting as "the crusades which purged the unworthy", "divine justice" and so on. Pathetic. They were prey and nothing more. And you - both of you - are likewise."

"P-prey..." the mouse whispered, her hazel eyes wide. "You killed them. You killed them as they prayed to y-"

She froze. The dragon god raised a sleek eyeridge, his crests tensing as he watched, curious for the moment. Jessica Gaunt's eyes narrowed, and suddenly her voice didn't shake any more.

"You monster." she hissed. "You... monster. That was why, wasn't it? It's always been an unsolved mystery why no survivors where found here. The Last Day was devastating, all right... but some should have survived! They might have rioted and rebelled, but that never made sense either - they were a city of devout followers. They were famous for their courts of divine justice, their fanatical laws... everything that made their civilisation. They would have just worked together and prayed to their god...and they should have survived!" She was breathing hard now, furious and... somehow a little triumphant in her dawning horror. "And that's right, isn't it! They prayed - oh, hell, more than that! I bet they held a service right here in the high temple, for the survivors, to implore the mercy of Lord Volscian!" She took in a great breath, staring hatefully right at the dragon's face. "And then... you hunted them."

Volscian remained quite still for a moment, and the mouse glared up at him, her tears held back by her rage. And then his face was split apart in a slow, cruel grin that spread from crest to crest, glowing from within by the light of his luminescent tongue. "Very clever, prey. I am impressed." He continued beaming, taking a step towards her, his voice silky and cold as death. "Maybe I was destabilised by that dread cataclysm, or maybe I was just too lustful... but it was as unto an orgy of terror. Almost a year passed before the last of them passed into my gullet - a long, glorious year, of gorging and ecstasy. At first, many of them just assumed I was purging them of the traitorous - they who had brought about that devastating quake... but before long, they started to realise. Many tried to flee - pathetic. These swamps are my domain, and not one left alive." He shivered, the violet eyes closing languidly at the fond memory. "Alas, few passed through here again. I've learned to savour you little creatures for the rarities you are..."

The mouse felt sick. "You... you evil..."

"We talk too much, and I am growing weary." The strange language conveyed the sneering contempt in the dragon's voice, and Jess realised that her anger had fled, leaving only roaring, blinding terror and despair. "But I have fed, and I do not desire more meat right now."

She felt a wave of sickeningly traitorous hope overwhelm her. "You... you mean you'll - "

Quick as a serpent striking, Volscian leapt for her. The rodent screamed, falling back and raising an arm to protect herself, but a streak of green lashed out and struck it - no, no, I'm going to follow Oscar, I made him fail, he's died in vain - but as the dragon god landed in a thunderous crack of pale marble, Jess found the arm she had flung out in the cold, slick embrace of Volscian's glowing, emerald tongue. Not his tail's tongue, but his mouth. The dark violet orbs glared pitilessly at her from inches away as with a sudden, darting snap of taut, dark musculature, the beast's great maw snapped shut around her arm, the tongue drawing inside to hold her there as he raised his head above the ground, forcing her to grab on for fear of falling. She could feel two ivory fangs jutting up either side of her, holding her between them neatly and tidily.

"No." Volscian's voice was almost amused in it's scornful condescension. "Of course I will not let you go, prey." His tail spoke, hanging mere feet over her head like some fleshy, organic sword of Damocles. "Instead, I will swallow you with this maw. It leads to my crop, you see - inert. Capable of tasting you, of enjoying your squirms... but not of digesting you. And there I shall trap you until I am hungry again."

"N-No!" Jess squirmed frantically, gritting her teeth against the pain of her shoulder. "I-I won't... I won't let you!" The dragon's lips curled around her in a patronising smirk. She spat weakly at him, trying to pull her arm free of the wet, cold-blooded embrace, but that hateful tentacle of a tongue had the strength of a steel manacle. Volscian's tail dipped close to her, his voice a cold, curt whisper.

"The choice of your fate was lost to you the moment you entered these swamps." he said brutally, jerking his sinuous neck forward, and the dragon god engulfed her head and shoulders entirely within his maw.

Inside was like a scene from some hellish nightmare. A thin line of light between the beast's closed lips was all that Jess could see of the outside world, the glow serrated and blocked in places by the dragon's vicious fangs. She whimpered in terror, staring with a horrified sense of fascination at the slimy, bright green appendage which was wrapped tight and firm around her forearm, the grey fur slicked and matted by Volscian's saliva, illuminating this world into terrible relief. The flesh of Volscian's maw was the same neon shade of emerald as his tongue - although it didn't glow - and was a similarly slick, smooth texture to the rest of his massive body. The roof of his mouth was strangely ribbed and gaunt, with little indentations for his razor-maw of teeth to fit snugly... like the bars of a cage, which trapped inside any who dared enter.

She didn't have the choice of daring to enter. The dragon tossed his head high in a clearly well-practised movement, jerking his neck with a monstrous inrush of breath... and Jess screamed at last as she was sent sailing through the air, landing with a soft thwhap on the sticky softness of Volscian's tongue - she had passed over the vicious teeth without being cut open, her thighs resting between two sharp ivory pillars, having escaped by mere inches a savage outpouring of scarlet... for now.

The mouse howled out loud, her paws frantically pedalling at nothing as the great dragon lazily tipped his head back, and gravity did the rest, sliding her slowly down the slick, dripping bed of his tongue towards that hideous dark archway of a throat, which was pulsing hard now, lustful and hungry for her entrance. Only her petite legs and thin, writhing tail stuck out of the monster's horrendous maw now.

"Nn... no..." she gasped, trying to grab onto one of the great fangs, which were as long as her forearm, sharp as a knife and even more deadly. "I won't... I won't let you..." Not now he's died for me, her mind whispered_,_ the murmur doleful and despaired. "Please... oh god, no..." Jess gritted her teeth, feeling a spark of her all-but-extinguished defiance flare in her chest, and twisted desperately in the grip of the vile mouth, pulling at the great teeth as she tried to turn round -

Volscian flicked his head up again, and she lurched forwards, again passing over the savage fangs... but this time he was either being careless or simply uncaring, and the mouse screamed, feeling her skin part as she was raked over the jagged maw. Now only her ankles remained outside, his long, hairless tail curling itself around her as she slumped into the slick, glowing tongue. "N... no... please, oh g-god..." Her left leg felt like it was on fire, the blood already soaking into her sodden fur.

Gasping now with the sheer effort of trying not to start sobbing, Jess wriggled forward, trying to pull herself out of the reach of the teeth. That wet, dark throat was inches from her muzzle now, her whiskers tickling the flesh... the rodent whimpered, wondering madly to herself, even as a sudden slurp of the monster's tongue brought her inside his mouth fully, sealing her within: how far down would she be able to see? How long would it take to swallow her, alive, wriggling and crying...

"SHUT UP!" she snarled, trying to pull herself away from the fleshy archway. That hideous tongue was rippling and flexing under her, seeming to test her weight... but somehow, Jess felt sure that it wasn't tasting her. Merely sensing her - the texture of her soft fur, the soft curves of her small body, the hummingbird beat of her terrified heart. She grimaced in sorrow and rage, grabbing it and raking a neatly trimmed claw down it... and the muscular green flesh was not so much as grazed. A sound erupted through the dragon's cavernous mouth: a low-pitched, soft, shivering sound. He was laughing, cruel and patronising as his prey tickled him with her struggles. The mouse whimpered, feeling the world swing slightly from side to side, that tongue pushing and guiding her as the tears started to flow once more - although by now, she was drenched from head to foot with slick, vile saliva. She spat a curse which Oscar had inadvertently taught her aged eleven, much to his own embarrassment - no, no don't think of him, don't let the pain, the despair and loss distract you... - and tried to kick out at Volscian's teeth, slipping over in the gathering pools of saliva with a disgusted yelp. "You utter-"

-and the dragon took a long, lazy swallow, jerking his head back with a soft snarl of derisive pleasure. Jess gaped in shock as suddenly, the hideous archway of Volscian's gullet rushing towards her... and with a horrible, tight, squelching sound, she fell hard, right into his throat.

How far down would she be able to see? The mouse had got her answer. Not an inch, as it turned out. With that luminescent tongue far behind her in the dragon's maw, and the muscular flesh sealing tightly - hideously, painfully tightly - around her chest, crushing her small breasts until she squeaked with the horrible discomfort, the way ahead was utterly pitch black. Jess whimpered to herself, her arms actually pulling down into the throat as she tried to hug herself with fear. Maybe it was better that she couldn't see this. Maybe the darkness was all she could hope for now -

"No!" She hadn't lost yet. She couldn't. The rodent kicked her legs wildly, hearing the pathetic thump as they struck the tough, ribbed flesh that roofed Volscian's hideous maw, and tried to push back, scrabbling on the smooth, slick flesh of the dragon's greedy throat. She'd make him choke for what he had done, even if she couldn't escape. Jess grunted with pain and exertion, feeling herself slip a few precious inches back into the dragon's maw, almost sobbing now. Her muscles screamed with the effort.

Volscian swallowed again. Any thoughts of struggling were forgotten.

Some small part of her managed to think, as she felt herself be crushed almost utterly beyond endurance, her lungs squeezed until she couldn't even whimper, every inch of her on fire beneath the unbelievable power of the dragon's lethal throat muscles. The blackness exploded into terrific violet lights, flames which were the colour of the beast's ancient, pitiless eyes dancing before Jess' own as she felt her muzzle creak open in a silent, hopeless scream.

The muscles relaxed momentarily, and Jess gasped in a terrified, exhausted breath, feeling her lungs catch fire as the bruised ribs protested. She tried to hold it in, knowing that breathing out would hurt just as much... but she couldn't help it. Jess began to cry. Every inch of her was now utterly encased in cold, slimy flesh - a fleshy coffin for her helpless, doomed form - and she could sense the pulsing of the throat as, like the sudden calm before the tsunami hits, Volscian's cruel gullet relaxed... and then he swallowed again.

This time, Jess managed a few feeble sobs, even as she was being crushed: weak, keening and mournful sounds, they would never escape to the outside world. The terrible pressure dragged her inexorably down, down, down the seemingly endless tunnel of tight, squeezing flesh. She kicked out feebly, already starting to feel light-headed and weak from the pain, her ribs aching and burning with every cry of helpless anguish. "N... nnnn... no... please, oh god, please..."

Come on... hissed a voice in her head, grim and cold, and she flinched, gasping for air as the muscles relaxed, holding her somewhere in the dragon's long throat as the rumbling, grating sound of the Volscian's predatory purrs - that was all she was now, a plaything, a meal, simple, helpless prey. Fight, Jess, fight him, you can, you _ can _ do this...

"I... I can't..." she whispered, tears trickling down the dark tunnel of Volscian's vile throat. "P... please... I-I can't... I'm not - " Her words were violently cut short as the great monster swallowed again, pulling her ever deeper in an explosion of swimming purple lights and pressure so intense that she felt certain her ribs had cracked from it. She panted through her weeping, kicking feebly at the slick flesh - though she could barely move an inch, cocooned in the dripping wetness of the beast's throat. "I-I can't... Please... I'm not strong enough..."

I haven't got him, she whispered in her own head, as if she was trying to hide secrets from herself. I haven't got Osc any more... oh, god, Osc, I'm so sorry... and Dad as well. You said this would end terribly... you said there was nothing for me in these old ruins and books... oh Dad, I'm so sorry. Why did I do this? Why, God help us, just... wh-why?

But no answer came. Another savage gulp took her further into his cruel throat, ripping the breath from her lungs before she could hope to scream, dragging her further and further down in a haze of misery and panic. Surely she was close now. Surely the torment would end...

"And there I shall trap you until I am hungry again." The mouse's memory seemed to take a masochistic sort of glee in the dire retelling of that reptilian, alien voice. Until I am hungry again...

"NO!" she howled, thrashing desperately, wriggling with all her might to get free - somehow, because only the Catalyst itself could hope to imagine how on Actura she could possibly escape this horrific prison of flesh - before another swallow consumed her deeper. "NO, NO, NO! YOU MONSTER! YOU UTTER, TOTAL MONSTER!"

Jess didn't know how much longer the swallows lasted, only that she spent every last one of them weeping, crying and struggling until her muscles burned from it. She couldn't care. What was time when your life, and your loved ones, were already forfeit to you?

***

Patience.

Even now, as he rejoiced in the heady, predatory rush of triumph, he knew that was the key. It would have been so easy to give in to his hungers, and swallow down the little rodent in a few seconds, a mere three or four slick, jerking gulps pulling her all the way down into his hungry crop. A quick, instant relief for his ravenous desires.

But this way was better. Volscian growled with pleasure as the little flutter-form of his prey slid down another few inches, the muscles of his throat crushing her without restraint... but slowly. Inch by delectable inch, savouring her squirms and wriggles deep inside him. He traced a claw lightly across the tiny bulge that was all the outside world could see of Jessica Gaunt, feeling her thrash around desperately - whether she could sense him caressing her, or whether she'd simply encountered another squeezing, rippling band of peristaltic muscle, he neither knew nor cared - and closed his eyes in cruel delight, his pits sensing and exulting in the warmth of the hot-blooded creature deep within his cold, wet innards . But still not deep in enough.

The Dragon God surveyed the ruins of his dead temple one last time, nodding his imperious, silent approval, and dived gracefully into the cold waters. He left barely a ripple.

Ah... it was so much better here. Cool. Clean. Peaceful and silent. Volscian let is dark form sink down into the depths until the light had mostly fled as well, letting him brood in the gloom. He knew his anatomy would compensate and adjust the pressure within his insides, and his prey would not even realise how deep they were.

"They"? The dragon smirked, beginning to coil slowly through the water, weightless and elegant - this was his element, his true domain - and glanced down at his taut, lithe abdomen. His swallows came naturally now, a regular pattern of clenching and relaxing muscles that squeezed the mouse ever closer to the gnawing emptiness of his crop, hungry to taste her warmth. Oh yes... they. The wriggling in his true stomach had faded quite a while ago, but there was still that faint pulsing of a heartbeat, and a minute vibration of the sound he could recognise as sobbing. Occasionally, whatever was left of Oscar Shaw would attempt to claw at the kneading, rippling walls of the dragon's stomach, the thrumming peaking as he screamed in agonised rage.

Beyond a pleasantly tingling flutter in his belly, Volscian barely noticed it. He smirked - although he was keeping his mouth and throat sealed tight: no need to drown little Jessica before he'd finished his hunt with her - and twisted lazily through a forgotten archway, idly musing on what the small rodent had managed to figure out. To his mild, disdainful surprise, he'd actually been rather impressed by her depth of perception. And her fury at the revelation had been a true delight... perhaps that was why she was struggling so much now? He closed his eyes again, shivering at the tickling in his long throat. Exquisite.

But not for much longer. Volscian's patience could only prolong the pleasure for so long, and now she was getting close to his spindled, barred ribcage, another squelching, rippling swallow dragging her down in the crushing, tight embrace of lethal, iron-hard muscles. He traced a webbed claw over the small squirming bulge that was his prey, tucked neatly into the hollow at the base of his throat, and shivered a little, letting her rest there for a few seconds... but ah, he was hungry. The dragon god hissed softly with patronising amusement, savouring the last moments of Jessica's long, cruel journey... and coolly, luxuriously, he swallowed for the last time. The gulping, squelching sound of wet flesh parting from flesh rang softly through the still waters.

Perhaps she'd guessed that she was close, perhaps it was simple blind terror, but the mouse seemed to struggle harder than ever for those last few feet, no longer attempting to escape, but simply kicking and clawing at the strong flesh of his gullet, trying anything she could to hurt him. Of course, the only result was a delightful spike in the fluttering within him, that slid into his ribcage, down through his abdomen in an instinctive, brutal rippling gulp, squeezing past his internal organs - a light, gentle caress to his massive, slow-beating heart that summoned another purr of delight - and slowly, inch by glorious inch, the young rodent entered his crop. And the dragon god tasted her at last.

The tongue of his mouth had no tastebuds, unlike his tail's, and was merely an appendage to propel his prey down his gullet. Volscian's crop, on the other hand, was entirely sensitive, every inch of the slick, slightly rough flesh able to taste its contents even better than the tongue of his true maw. Every movement sent waves of sensation thrumming through him. And her taste...

Volscian's grating purr of pleasure deepened and lengthened. Until the surface of the water, far, far above, dappled by the sun - now at its zenith - actually rippled from it. He knew he'd make the right choice to keep this one for later. The bird was a delight, but she... she was special. He listened to her screaming, the struggles spreading her exquisite, soft, feminine scent all over his crop, and dived away, a cruel smirk contorting his draconic muzzle. Other than to note the pleasurable wriggling and rush of sweet tastes deep inside his abdomen, he ignored them both. Oscar was nearly gone, and he doubted it would be too long before he desired that Jess would follow him. Not when she felt so soft and delicate, wriggling against his slick throat...

Volscian shivered slightly, and swam on. Not long. Not now, but soon.

Patience.

***

The world was screaming. And Oscar was its voice.

Every second had built the pain further and further. Every moment had increased the agony, until he could not even think through it. Most of his feathers were gone by now: either they'd fallen out, along with the skin behind them, or they'd simply melted on his flesh, ruined and destroyed - and burning him. He felt himself howl again, tearing at his flesh in a mad, useless attempt to scrub the blazing acids from it and splattering his talons with scarlet - but the sound came faint and distant, as if he was hearing it through deep water. He was dying, he was numbly certain of it now. He was dying. And the excruciation would follow him through every last heartbeat.

He was grimly certain now that he had reached the beast's stomach: the world was no longer a green-fleshed tube but a chamber, large enough to accommodate his curled up, writhing form easily. The crushing, swallowing motions had stopped, replaced instead by a continual, churning massage which rubbed him raw, in time with the far-distant beats of Volscian's massive, powerful heart.

Everything was burning, so much so that when he opened his eyes, trying desperately to shield them from the acids - no, please, not that, God, not my eyes -he half-expected to see flames dancing over him, consuming him in raw agony. But there was merely darkness - and thank the Catalyst for it. He didn't want to know what he looked like, didn't want to even imagine it. The gaunt, avian feet of his left leg were little more than thin muscle over bone now... and through the inferno, he could feel the ghastly smoothness of his skeleton actually poking through the flesh, grinding against the fleshy walls as Volscian broke it apart - and it wasn't the only place. Pain was everything.

He screamed again as it peaked once more, the brutal muscles of Volscian's belly squeezing and rubbing him all over, grinding their terrible juices straight into his raw, bleeding flesh. By now a pool was beginning to build up around his knees, laid as he was, curled up and writhing in the acidic hell, a pool of blood, liquefied feathers, flesh, and acids that seared him until his throat was raw from the screams. Oscar knew how to deal with pain, how to shut it out and ignore it... but nothing on this scale. Nothing could be as cruel; as totally excruciating as this.

And then, through a broken, half-sobbed gargle of a scream, he heard the one thing that could be.

Faint. Muffled by the tight squelches and gurgles of hisown body being rendered away into nothing more than nutrients. But the whimpered, crying sob, worming its helpless way through a few inches of the dragon's flesh, rang out far above his own roaring agony, above his fear and his despair, above everything.

"N... no..."

Oscar felt his last, tiniest hope die inside him at that word.

"JESS!" he howled, flinging his ruined body towards the sound with every ounce of his fading strength. The elastic sac stretched around him, grating against his dissolving muscles until bright white lights and jagged slashes of mad lightning exploded through his vision, but the horror and grief sent a knife through the pain. He clutched frantically at it, his claws digging into the flesh as he lunged, and caught the mouse in a desperate embrace, through several inches of stomach wall, that let loose all the sobs he'd been suppressing. Oscar slumped against Jess' thin, light frame, his hands trying desperately to get himself closer to her, to somehow dig through the tough flesh and feel her soft fur again... and at last, he wept openly and without restraint.

"W-Why didn't you run?" he snarled feebly, feeling her try to push back at him and embrace him as well, as his entire body screamed. "Why d-didn't you just-"

"Oscar..." she was crying as well, and the falcon felt his mind seize up with horror - she's in another stomach, she's suffering this, no, please, not Jess, I can't fail like that, PLEASE - but then the rodent went on, " Oscar, I'm sorry, I'm s-so sorry. We... we shouldn't have come. I'm so, so, so sorry."

The avian gasped for a shuddering breath, trying to fight down the scream as another chunk of muscle simply fell off his calf - he couldn't even move it now, oh Christ it hurts, it hurts so much - and moaned weakly. "N... no. Jess... I'm sorry. I said I'd-ngh.... I-I'd p-protect you. I swore I would."

His ruined ears ached to hear her reply that pointless and beautiful joke, that reminder of an innocent time. I don't need protecting... but never again. The mouse only whimpered, making the wall of flesh that separated them bulge and ripple as she tried to bury her head against where his chestfeathers had once been. The pressure grated on his bloody cadaver like a knife. Oscar felt himself keening, the pain starting to sap his strength, but he choked down the next scream: she couldn't suffer his pain. He couldn't let his beloved innocent know what was truly happening to him. T he falcon only groaned, and pressed himself further forward towards his charge in frantic desperation, being ripped apart in the sheer, total agony... and in his grief. For even if Jess was safe from this monster's acids for now, he knew she would suffer them before long. Please, no, not her. Please.

"P...please..."

He'd spoken aloud and immediately he knew that Jess had heard what was in his voice. The weight of her stiffened against him, provoking another choked sob from his beak as the movement tortured him again, and even the pulsing churning of the dragon's terrible stomach did not drown out her furious gasp of horror.

"Oh god... y-you're hurt, aren't you? Oscar, you can't... that... that beast said you were-"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" he roared, feeling the scream burning his throat as it tried to find a way out... Oscar thrashed around desperately, being eviscerated alive, and sensed his arms jerking wildly: a chaotic dance of agony as he tried to shove the crushing walls away, to strip his dissolving frame of the searing acids. "I D-DON'T MATTER! I DON'T-AAAARGHH!"

The words fell in splinters from the avian's beak as he howled again, and again, the pain splitting his skull in half: the vile fluids had suddenly found his shoulder. The scar that single bullet had left was neat and tidy, a mere nub of feathered flesh ... but it had been eroded at last by the murderous, greedy acids of Volscian's belly. Oscar Shaw felt the wave of searing, howling fluids flood into it, eating away at the vulnerable tendon and muscle inside with white-hot ferocity. He forget about the mouse who was sobbing with fear and sorrow, inches from him, he forget his reason, his logic; he forget everything he'd known. He was, for that moment, a creature of pure pain. His mind span madly, drunk on agony.

Will you... necessary to protect... prepared to give your life... good of the people... sacrifices...

He howled, his lungs burning with exhaustion. The falcon slumped, the pool of gastric juices rising to his stomach... his feet must have been gone by now. And the worst horror was that he was glad: they would never have walked again, never trod the sweet earth of the outside world. They were just another few nerves to burn out with agony. Useless. Better off destroyed. He whimpered, clutching at her. "Ahh...ngh... J-Jess, listen to me."

"I-I can't!" she moaned, leaning back against him and shaking all over, making the clammy, fleshy walls quiver slightly. "Look, O-Oscar, I'm sorry, I can't... I won't leave you..."

"No!" the falcon snarled, feeling the ruby sweat of blood that covered him thicken and start to drip, as if washing him clean of flesh. He bit back yet another scream of hopeless agony. "I'm not... that's not... I'm not s-saying that. Jess, listen to me, okay? P-Please..."

Jess burrowed against his chest, but he didn't scream: he'd pay the pain a thousand times over for these last few seconds of contact, even through thick, muscled flesh. He felt her nod vigorously, huddled against him, and clenched his beak, wondering if the tears flowing down his face meant that his eyes hadn't been blinded yet. He spoke, and his voice was steady at last, a soft, terrible numbness beginning to flow through the pain, blocking off everything else... except for the sorrow.

"Listen... Jess... I just want you to know that I'm proud of you. You were more than I deserved. Jessie girl..."

She gasped, clutching frantically at him through the stomach walls, and even muffled by the vile dragon's flesh Oscar could sense her panic. Strangely, though, he could feel no pain. He felt a raw, feeble chuckle break his ruined beak as the terrible acids started to break him apart in force. Was this it, then? He'd spent much of his life prepared for, and even expecting, his death... but not like this. Nothing like this. And never with her as well. Never like this.

Please...

"NO!" Jess screamed, reaching for him in desperation - the falcon could feel her thrashing around in whatever hellish fore-belly that bastard monster had swallowed her into. "D-Don't... Oscar, PLEASE! You... you can't..."

The avian felt the cold nothingness reach his chest, and closed his eyes, falling against her through the slick, searing walls. He ignored her wild struggles, her cries and shuddered, gasping sobs. Oscar's voice sounded weak and distant.

"Jess... Jessie girl. I'm sorry. I... I love y-"

And then...

We were beautiful, weren't we?

... he slipped away.

***

"NO!"

Jess screamed.

Somehow, in some terrible, horrific fashion, she felt certain that she could actually sense the dread moment. The falcon's laboured breathing - she had heard his attempts not to scream thrumming furiously in every syllable he'd spoken, even when muffled by the thick, vile flesh - suddenly broke off in a soft, hideous sigh. His form, which had been shuddering against her through Volscian's stomach walls, seemed to slacken, slumping against her, unresponsive and suddenly impossibly, titanically heavy. A dead weight.

But worst was the horrific moment of terrifying, truthful self-awareness. Jess could suddenly see herself from outside: a young mouse, huddled and curled up inside the pitch-black crop of the vast impossible dragon god of an ancient civilization, flattening herself against one rough, slick curve of the fleshy walls as she sobbed out loud, clutching at whatever was on the other side. She saw all her roiling grief and sorrow, her dawning horror as the realisation enfolded her. And she felt herself think, her voice clear and brutally unshaking inside her own head, This is it. This is the moment Oscar dies.

"NO! NO, NO, NO, GOD, NO!"

And the falcon, always ready to comfort her, guardian of not just her body but her soul... said nothing.

Jess howled at the top of her lungs, a cry that was reflected back in her soft, wet prison at earsplitting volume. She went mad, wriggling like a trapped snake, clawing, punching and kicking at the pulsing, rippling flesh that engulfed her, screaming again and again until her throat was raw. There were no words: she could not speak, she could not think. She could only gasp for breath, hugging herself tight and weeping, weeping as she felt everything that she was try to reach out to everything that he was. Memories poured through her, infusing her every cell: the tall, quiet avian meeting her for the first time, their first cautious days of nervous politeness, the instinctive fear he'd known she'd felt every time she saw that hooked, curved beak... and then the day she'd first argued with Daddy - even then, he hardly saw her, preferring to keep away in his bloody "business" - and how Oscar had discovered her, sniffling and mumbling curses, on the mansion stairs, and without a word simply picked her up and held her close to him, snuggled into the warmth of his steel-grey feathers... and then the slow steady warming between them, the gentle warrior who had become her greatest and sometimes her only friend...

And all gone.

"Nnn.... nn..."

She couldn't even speak, a raw, keening sob overtaking the word from her throat. Jess felt the memories settle slowly in her head, ringing through every second in cacophonous horror. She slumped back against the wall where her bodyguard had spent his last moments in helpless sorrow- and recoiled in shock as a faint thump sounded through the flesh from Volscian's stomach, biting back the tide of foul, acrid vomit as she realised what must have caused it.

"Osc... Oscar... no... p-please..."

And again, nothing. The silence was the cruellest sound the mouse had ever heard. She gasped for breath, closing her eyes against the blackness of the monster's crop as a few faint gurgles from the adjacent stomach seemed to indicate Volscian's cruel pleasure at the "offering". Her own voice was weak, and she knew it was almost entirely broken. "P.... please..." A plea for... what? For mercy from who? From the monstrous creature which held her deep inside, only registering her hateful clawing and bewildered sobs as another pleasant squirm? For some small shred of hope from the uncaring world which had thrust her into this paradox, which had taken everything she'd thought she'd known?

For forgiveness, from poor Oscar Shaw, who had died trying to protect her from this misery? Who had given his life for her?

"Nnnn... p-please, no..."

The crop of the mighty dragon god Volscian felt at once cavernously large and claustrophobically small. It was a slick, fleshy chamber, curved smoothly around it's trembling occupant. The thing was large enough to accommodate her kneeling, or even standing and bent almost double. The walls were oddly rough, almost like sandpaper, and were it not for Jess' soft fur, the coarse surface might have been quite uncomfortable. She knew what the texture was, of course. She'd guessed it from the moment she'd pressed herself against it and felt it's wet, uncaring touch against her sodden form.

Taste buds. The dragon could taste her dripping fur, her terrified scent, her every movement... and every tear she cried. He could taste the scarlet trickling from the ragged gash in her calf, where his cruel fangs had torn her flesh. He could taste all her grief, all her misery and despair.

She trembled, curling up and trying to shut the darkness out as great, heartwrenching sobs shook through her whole body, he chest aching with the sheer force of misery. The world blazed softly in the dark with pure sorrow. Volscian's saliva pooled around her, matting and slicking her fur with the strange, half-reptilian musk, the flesh that greedily enfolded her pulsing in time with the slow, far-distant beats of the dragon's huge, powerful heart.

And Jess simply lay there, hugging her thin tail close to her, and let the pain flow through her. The darkness held her in it's cruel, uncaring embrace, leeching into her as she wept. The stream of tears and aching, shuddering sobs seemed endless: a bottomless pouring of misery. The slow rippling of the great dragon's muscular, rough clammy flesh chafed her as she cried, as if in some sort of sadistic parody of - of his gentle soothing... NO!

No...

Time was marked only by the powerful, distant beats of Volscian's vast heart, beating as slowly and inexorably as Jess' low, feeble sobs. The darkness curled its tail around her, images swimming through it as the endless seconds trudged slowly past...

Her father. Sir Gaunt had been a rare and always distant figure in his daughter's life, and when he was there it felt as if he was only there to restrain and reprimand. Once a brilliant young medical scientist, he had built up his vast corporation from nothing. Gaunt lived up to his name - tall and spindly, he walked with a cane and a permanent expression of wearied defiance. The grim-muzzled mouse seemed to have little time for his daughter, and mostly Jess was just ignored, left alone - of course, under the watchful eye of -

NO! He... no... Sir Gaunt was a ruthless businessman, but an impatient and brusque father, and his relationship with the stubborn, individualistic mouse had always been terse. The arguments were the most of what Jess remembered of him: a vicious, furious duel of words and ideas, with no quarter given at any instance.

The most of what she remembered of him... Oh, father... Daddy... please, help me...

And then Gaunt's glowering muzzle turned sleek, and tawny, and still.

It was her mother's face. Daddy kept only one photo of Camilla Anogan , behind his desk where he'd thought no-one would dare look. Jess had never met her mother - the affair had been over in weeks, was what little Sir Lawrence had told her, and since she left him, he had never seen her again... except to deposit the infant Jess with him. Camilla had been a beautiful, strong-looking mouse, her height equalling even the lanky Lawrence Gaunt in their photograph. He was laughing - a carefree laugh that Jess had never experienced him doing in her young life - and the tawny mouse was smiling at him, a beautiful, alluring smile. Jess had pored over that photograph for hours on end, with Osc - NO! - ...with h- her bodyguard retaining the tact to leave her undisturbed. She could remember it perfectly, every last detail...

...and now it mocked her. That fantasy of finding Camilla one day? Of meeting your mystery mother, Jess? Never. Everything dies today.

And then the lean, elegant muzzle of Camilla turned from the man who had sired her child, and looked at Jess, morphing as it did so... into...

"No..." Jess mewled with fear, trying to shift away, but her muscles had locked up over the hours, and all that happened was a squeak of pain as the rodent's entire body twinged. She swallowed down another sob, feeling her throat ache - how many tears had she cried in this endless anguish? - and tried to reach out towards the silent, sad face of Oscar Shaw.

Oscar. The one true friend. The one who had always been there for her. She remembered their first meeting, how he had been led in by Sir Gaunt himself - looking very unhappy about the entire affair, of course - and how she had blinked, looking up from her book... and cowered away immediately. That beak... those talons... those sharp eyes, keen and bright... a thousand years of prey screaming at her.

She now knew that even feral falcons did not actually prey on their rodent counterparts... but her instincts did not. She had cringed back, and Daddy had turned to the bird and muttered something - no doubt some testy compl. Oscar had ignored him, looking calmly down at the wide-eyed mouse before him. In a swift, elegant movement, he had squatted down to her level... and simply smiled at her.

It wasn't condescending, or faked, or patronising. And somehow... hiding behind her copy of A Young Guide to the Early Authority...Jess had smiled back.

Oscar looked at her, his plumage wavering and fraying in the blackness of the dragon's crop, and Jess felt her eyes beseeching him for just another smile. Another kind word. Please.

"Please... Oscar, I-I'm so sorry..."

The falcon said nothing. His face remained as expressionless as before. His feathers seemed to sway and ruffle sadly. The mouse took a shuddering breath, and Oscar seemed to lean towards her slightly. Jess ignored her cramped muscles through gritted teeth, reaching out slowly as she tried to stroke his feathers one last time, to feel his warm, gentle caress as he soothed her...

And the falcon screamed. Jess jerked her hand back, slipping over in the horrid slime of Volscian's crop... but Oscar howled again, his feathers beginning to fall out, his skin reddening, fast, faster than could be possible. And blood began to pour forth, the avian writhing in agony as he staggered towards her in the darkness, already the sinewy scarlet of his musculature beginning to show. Jess howled, scrambling away and trying to shield her eyes from the sight, but the image was there no matter where she looked, blinding her in the dark. Now the white of bone was showing through, and their screams rose together, unheard in the dragon's fleshy crop. And tears were running from Oscar's eyes, even as his skull started to show through...

Jess screamed until her teeth somehow managed to ache from it, thrashing around as she tried to claw herself away. "NO! OSCAR, I'M S-SORRY... NOOOOO!"

But he could not reply. The avian only roared in agony once more, falling right onto her as his gashes spread across his dissolving, digesting form -

• and he vanished. Torn apart in a burst of flame which was the dark colour of the terrible beast's eyes, and gone at last, mid-scream. Silence filled the chamber, cold and pitiless.

But Jess... did not stop screaming.

She felt herself crawling, curling into a ball as she nestled herself against the rippling, grinding walls of Volscian's crop. She felt her eyes streaming, wide until they ached from the strain, but not one photon of light could breach the monster's skin. She felt her howls, and shuddered, half-sobbed squeaks of anguish chafe her throat... and nothing breached the despair. This was agony eternal, despair beyond her imagining.

But Volscian wasn't finished with her yet.

***

Patience...

No.

Volscian smiled his jagged grin, emerald light rippling and refracting through the cold waters. No. Patience had served him well, but that was what it existed for: to allow him to enjoy and savour his hunts, to torment his playthings. To take the maximum pleasure from their devouring.

And now... he could feel the last remnants of the bird siphoned off, soon to fuel his great body. Nothing would go to waste - the dragon's lethal metabolism would see to that. But now the delightful wriggling in his crop was dying, the pleasant hum of her sobs starting fade slowly. Before long her body... and her mind... would be too weak to struggle properly. Such a concept did not please the dragon god.

He twisted through an archway which might have once been dedicated to his eternal majesty... once... and turned upwards, towards the dimming, rippling light. Volscian felt muscles ripple sleekly as he beat his vast tail once, twice, three times and broke the water's surface in an eruption of spray, tossing his head with disapproval as he felt the glorious weightlessness of the depths leave his body. The dragon god stretched his twin crests, feeling the water cascading down them as his eyes smoothly readjusted to see in the open air, spying cautiously around to check for movement... but there was nothing. Ever-patient, he blinked the violet orbs once, and took a breath through his pits as well, sensing the vibrations and heat of his surroundings. The sun was on the brink of setting, balanced elegantly on a sloping rooftop in the far distance, a searing pillar of flame in his warmth-sense. A few minute insects and birds flapped languidly through the air, but there was nothing which could hope to help little Jess.

Ah yes... Jess. The dragon god smirked, feeling the wonderful warm pulsing in his crop: a living heartbeat, a hot-blooded creature within his cold innards. He brushed a webbed claw over the sensitive spot in his chest where, behind nearly three feet of flesh, the small mouse had been cocooned inside him, and purred softly, feeling the water ripple around him at the vibrations. He could still taste her sweet, gentle scent, such a delectable aroma... but . Volscian padded out of the water onto the smooth marble walkway - watching the cracked, half-submerged stone glisten in the sun. The place felt familiar...

Of course. He felt his crests flick lazily as he realised. This was where his prey had first seen the temple-city - even from his far deep and far distant vantage point, he had sensed the excitable moment. This was where the two had first beheld all those mysteries the rodent seemed to crave so much. What a glorious irony. The dragon snarled gently with amusement, and prepared to feast. The hunt had finished many hours ago... but now he would reap the spoils.

Volscian licked his muzzle, the iridescent tongue darting out from between his fangs, and worked his jaw open. He could swallow a creature of the mouse's diminutive stature with ease... but bringing them back out required more effort. The dragon arched his long, sinuous spine, feeling muscles ripple through his long body... and his tail's glowing tongue plunged into his open maw.

The sensation was not entirely unpleasant, and he swallowed a few times to help the muscular appendage worm its way deeper, enjoying the slick twisting within his tight throat. Volscian's flower-like maw twisted and sealed itself around his muzzle, as if he was attempting to devour himself... and within him, the glowing tongue wriggled its way deeper. The dragon god gulped firmly at it, pulling it down the last few feet... to where his prize lay.

He felt Jess try to wriggle away, squeaking desperately as the luminescence hit her fragile eyes like an incandescent bolt of emerald lightning. Pathetic. There was nowhere to hide.

Volscian growled softly, forcing another foot of his tongue down his own throat in the most intimate, most narcissistic kiss ever conceived. He was starting to hurt now... but the ache was like the pain of muscles wearied from darting arrow-swift across the many leagues of his territory in pursuit of some unfortunate prey. A good, enjoyable pain. A pain which promised reward.

And yes, there was indeed reward. He had caught her. He had caught his prey...

The dragon god grinned cruelly around his engorging tongue - though the mask-like tailmaw clasped across his muzzle hid it from outside view - and tightened his grip, feeling the flutter-pulse of Jess' heartbeat quicken deep, deep inside him as she squeaked in pain. Glorious.

He started to drag her slowly towards the valve leading into his crop, enjoying her exhausted, bewildered wriggling, and began to feel his tail starting to salivate already, the slick fluid dripping and mingling in his own mouth. Time to finish this pleasure. But he would savour every second. He would enjoy his prey to the fullest extent.

Patience.

***

Light.

Brilliant, blinding light. She keened desperately, trying to escape it, burrowing into the cold, rippling flesh, where all was blackness and despair.

But something had latched onto her ankle, and Jess squeaked in confusion as she was dragged slowly backwards, the dark of the dragon god's belly transmuted into that terrible, searing emerald again as she looked round, feverishly trying to escape. The light made her unadjusted eyes water and sting horribly... but still, she could see the luminescent tendril of thick, muscular flesh wrapped around her leg, pulsing gently as it tasted her. What... what was this...

Her mind started to sputter raggedly, and memories hit her at last. The mouse squeaked feebly, remembering at last. That impossible tongue, moving in an ancient speech... tasting him... pulling him deeper into that tight, squelching throat which ran down the beast's tail. Him... Osca-NO!

It was the dragon god's tongue. And she was caught.

Jess howled, trying to claw her way free of the snakelike appendage, and the sticky surface latched greedily onto her paws, adhesive and hungry. Slowly, almost seeming to savour the cruelty of it, Volscian's tongue tightened around her, crushing the rodent's leg more and more... torturing her into a slumped, weeping submission.

And then there was motion. The thing had protruded from a creased, almost laughably tight valve of flesh above her... and now it was starting to retract, pulling her back with it. Jess whimpered dully, her mind still slow, damaged. What ... what was this?

Another flash of memories, these one's harder, sharper, crueller. Those merciless eyes, violet-dark and glimmering, watching her from mere inches away as the beast's tail spoke languidly, trapping her nearly inside his maw. "...And there I shall trap you until I am hungry again."

Understanding dawned, with all the blinding pain of that first sudden flash of green in her gloomy prison. Until I am hungry again.

"NO!" She bit her tongue in her frenzy, new reserves of energy flooding her limbs. "L... let me...g-"

And the vile tentacle clenched again, bruising flesh and muscle until she screamed through gritted teeth, and then it started to pull up, dragging Jess' feet into the slick tube of the dragon god's gullet. The flesh was just as tight as before, rippling bands of strong muscle aiding his tongue as the whimpering rodent's legs were greedily consumed. Out she was going.

"Nnnn... nn..." the creature which was Jessica Gaunt groaned feebly, trying to lock her arms against the walls of Volscian's crop. He had swallowed his own tongue... oh, god... The mouse shuddered, feeling her bruised stomach clench with disgust and horror. No doubt the sensation was just more pleasure for him.

And why shouldn't it be? hissed that cold, cruel voice in the back of the mouse's mind. He's taken everything else. He's won this battle. And you've lost.

"Nnnn... nno... I don't want-"

And another firm yank brought her ribcage into the clammy embrace of that throat, crushing all the air from her lungs. Jess could barely moan in pain, her grip slackening on the slimy, rough walls of the dragon's crop...

It was all he needed. With a loud, lewd squelch of wet flesh, she was pulled up fully into the dragon's throat.

Stars burst in front of her eyes again, flashes of all colours, like bizarre neon sword strokes, painting the blackness. The world shook with every gulp, and always that cursed tongue was dragging her further up, stretching the beast's throat as she went. Jess felt her shoulders trying to shake as she sobbed, but her bruised ribcage could not hope to expand. And still she was squeezed upwards, endless rippling muscles pulling and squelching around her, drenching her already-sodden form in more saliva. Where was she? She had no clue: the world outside did not exist. All that there was consisted of this crushingly tight, muscled tube, rippling slowly and savouringly around her as she was dragged up, and up...

...and out.

Suddenly, the rodent's ankle was free of the iron grip of the throat. She hissed in a bewildered sort of triumph, trying desperately to kick out at her colossal tormentor, to free herself in any way possible... but the tail-tongue of the dragon barely seemed to twitch as it restrained her easily, pulling her flailing legs, hips and writhing tail into the mysterious open space at last. The mouse swallowed feebly, on the verge of passing out from the steel bands clamping around her ribcage, and tried to push at it, feeling the sticky surface of Volscian's lustful tongue only tighten its grip in response. All was hopeless.

There was a vile slurping noise, and Jess' legs were yanked up and forwards, making her groan with pain as her stomach and cramped diaphragm was finally set free. She tried to suck in a feeble breath, her thoughts oddly numb. Her calves were resting on a bed of huge jagged spikes, digging uncomfortably into her flesh and prickling her to the point where they must have nearly drawn blood. The rodent moaned blindly, trying to pull them back - ow... just stop the pain, please, just stop it... but instead, with a last, triumphant squelch, her torso and head was free at last.

Jess gasped for breath, clutched her crushed chest as the tears began to flow once more, her eyes stiff and aching from her hours of weeping - but still, they somehow managed to summon a few more. She slumped on the wet, slick tongue of the dragon's mouth, blinking as the light of it seared her eyes again, trying weakly to free her leg from that tongue, which was tugging firmly, trying to yank her out, towards...

The mouse felt a sob catch, burning her throat as she stared into the dark tunnel, lit only by that voracious tongue. The walls of the throat of Volscian's tail were dripping with hunger.

He must have sealed the mouth of his tail around his muzzle, she realised, letting her pass from one to the other with no hope of escape. Jess shuddered, feeling sick. How far down would that hungry gullet lead? Would she find... at the end of it... hard, white, stripped of flesh and feathers...

The mouse screamed, trying to claw her way back, raking her claws across the dragon's slick mouth in her terror. Emotions had returned fully now: fear, despair... grief. Jess pulled at her leg until violet stars burst in front of her eyes again, trying feverishly to drag it away from the cruel appendage, wriggling with all her might... she couldn't, COULDN'T let this happen...

But it will.

And it did. With a soft, almost gentle, grating purr of satisfaction, the dragon god flipped his head down, spitting his thrashing little morsel out of his mouth. And straight into his tail.

It was softer there, the flesh stretching around her as it started to tighten, keeping her from wriggling too much. Jess screamed again - "NO! OH G-GOD, NO!" - clasping desperately at an ivory tooth as she tried to heave her small frame away from the terrible throat. She was sobbing with fear now. Helpless. Prey.

But she couldn't give up. She couldn't.

(Not when he died for me.)

The rodent felt her round ears flattening against her skull, her entire being concentrated into holding on to that tooth. Her muscles groaned and then screamed, the rippling semi-swallows and hateful snake-like tongue pulling harder and harder... down into the dooming depths...

And with a squelch, Volscian lifted his tail away from his muzzle, breaking Jess' grip in an instant. He hadn't even noticed her desperation.

For a cruel, cruel moment, she saw the outside world at last, half knelt inside the opening of the dragon's tail and half-blinded by the light, after so long within that prison of slick flesh. It was evening, sunset. She must have been in that clammy, pitch-black hell for over six hours. The sun was halfway below the horizon, glimmering over the city which had worshipped Volscian, and then died at his cruel hungers, and the sky had been turned a deep, wonderful shade of blue-purple, stippled lightly with distant clouds. Just above, the twin Dusk Stars, Cheli and Vespera, twinkled softly in the sky, the first to light up in the darkness. All around was the chirping of crickets and the whining hum of the mosquitoes, the sound of the dripping swamps settling in for another night which had remained unchanged for centuries.

The world was such a wonderful, beautiful place... and only now did she realise the great truth of it. The mouse felt the tears coming, but blinked them back, refusing to lose a second as she drank in her last glimpse of it all.

Jess tried to scramble forwards, reaching out in a wild attempt to grasp at the gentle, cool air outside... to touch the world one final time. And the dragon god's head rose into her vision, his six eyes glaring imperiously at her as he closed his jaw, working his fanged muzzle around a bit, as if relieving the stiffness after holding it open for so long. For a heart-stopping second, they stared at each other: trapper and trapped. The monster and the victim. Jess felt her face trying to form an expression of hatred, of furious rage... of some kind of defiance of the hideous beast. But all she could do was gaze hopelessly into those dark orbs of glimmering violet, her eyes wide and her mouth opening for a desperate, beseeching plea which could not find breath.

The dragon's lips curled in sheer contempt. And with a twist of oil-dark muscles, Volscian closed his maw around her and sealed her cruel fate.

"NO!" Jess howled in futile rage, thrashing and sobbing in equal measure as the flesh surrounding her clenched, tightening around her small frame. But her squirms were futile. The lily-pad plant her poor bodyguard had spotted was a Venus fly trap, and finally, it had snapped shut over her.

Now that it was back in it's lair, that tongue was moving, exploring the full taste of her as it wrapped over her legs, starting to slide up her hips and making her shudder with defeat and disgust. "G...get... get off..." But there was nothing she could do to stop the lascivious affections. The mouse groaned, feeling the clammy flesh seem to mould itself around her form, beginning to grind slowly against her. She tried desperately to push the walls of the beast's throat away, to free herself... and then they convulsed, crushing her as strongly as that terrible throat had. Jess attempted to scream, but all she could summon as Volscian swallowed her deeper was a feeble keening: hopeless, helpless and already doomed. She slumped against the hellish throat, gasping, those lights starting to flash in front of her eyes again, bright and strange in the darkness.

Was this what... what _ he'd _ felt? Was this what her beloved protector had suffered? She remembered the bulge in that dark tail now, squirming faintly as it slowly slid down with the thick, muscular flesh masking any sounds... or screams. Utterly indistinct: the only thing to indicate that the monster's prey was alive at all had been the rippling of the dragon's jet-black, green-lined skin. Was that was she was now? Just another morsel, to be sent down the voracious throat?

Another memory hissed through her trembling mind. The dragon examining his rippling, slurping tail, speaking to her at last, with the falcon vanished into his hungry maw. My digestive processes begin as soon as my tail twists shut...

Jess felt her mouth open in a silent, soundless scream of horror. Oh. NO...

And she could feel it already. Her skin, already sodden with the slick juices of Volscian's innards, was prickling.

"Nnn.. nn..." The mouse gritted her teeth, trying to kick out at the clenching, pulsing tongue which was lit her way down, pulling her slowly down by her hips. It seemed to gleam brighter where it made contact with her bare fur beneath her shirt... tasting her. No doubt it would be acid proof...

And Volscian swallowed again, crushing her until she could barely utter a squeak of anguish. It was so tight... so cold and wet... and she was hurting... so much... help me...

Jess gasped again, groaning as the brutal throat muscles released her at last. Already now, the irritation was starting to hurt. She whimpered, scratching desperately at an itch on her thigh - scratching until it hurt. She had to drag her paw away to stop it from simply tearing through the skin...

Another swallow, and now the grinding muscles were chafing her. The onslaught was so brutally, horrifically sudden. The mouse howled with misery, trying to claw back up as Volscian's tongue caressed her savagely - how deep, how much further before I'm finished? How much must we suffer?

Volscian. She slumped, gasping and moaning, remembering all the textbooks she had read in the week before they'd left. Such a strange god for this civilization to adopt... such a fascinating case study to create. It would be the pride of her coursework - not that that mattered. All she wanted to do was explore... find answers...

"Y-you found answers, didn't you?" Jess mumbled bitterly, her muzzle pressed awkwardly against the fleshy walls of the dragon's greedy throat. The glassiness was beginning to return to the world. She knew now, in a quiet, almost amusing sort of way, that she was going mad. "Hee... hah hah... haaa...aa..." the sound quavered, breaking into a sob of total hopelessness as muscles convulsed and forced her down deeper, squeezing the air from her lungs as her flesh became rawer and rawer. The mouse collapsed, not even able to sob properly. Her skin was starting to burn now. She was doomed.

Oscar would still struggle.

"No! P-please... d-don't say it..."

His name? snarled the cold voice in her dying mind. Does it hurt, then?

"OF COURSE IT HURTS!" snarled Jess, but before she could utter another word, a greedy, lascivious gulp squelched the tight, hard flesh around her until her bones creaked, slurping her up like so much whimpering spaghetti. She panted with pain... and her tail began to bleed.

Mice have no fur around the long, thin flesh of their tails. The acids had simply got right to work. And somehow, Jess felt it above the other twinges. That wet trickle, running down over her searing flesh. as sudden the agony peaked, a cleaver slamming into her abused spine - it hurt. It burned.

She screamed for real now. Long and lusty, writhing until her exhausted muscles howled from within as well as without, wriggling desperately as over her body, the dark stain began to spread. And then another swallow choked her movements, holding her still for a moment as with a lewd squelch of flesh on dripping flesh, she slipped down (up? Forwards? The Catalyst only knew which way the cruel beast had inverted his greedy tail to now), weeping all the while. The monster was moving now - she could sense a slow swaying of the tail which held her: side to side, a vast, amphibious contented cat with it's rodent prey safely inside it..

Agony. Jess' struggles were getting more erratic by the second. No logic, no attempt to escape now, just blind, instinctive writhing as she slipped down, further and further. The acids were chewing away at her flesh, her soft fur almost all gone. What wretched creature would you look like now, Jess? Pink, naked, raw and bloody... What happened to that gentleness of features, that delicacy of form which you'd always called, "my body being too damn misogynistic"? What happened to your sweet beauty?

You're dying.

"NO!"

Jess screamed again as Volscian's vile tongue wrapped around her tender stomach, crushing the exhausted muscles and chafing the flesh and overwhelming her with agony. Spots and sprays of dark, dark blood stained its luminescent flesh, melting into the thick slime. The horrible emerald seemed to glow brighter at the point of absorption - strengthened by her pain.

And yes, that's what will happen, Jess. You'll become just a bit more protein, another lump of unrecognisable meat in the dragon's belly. Your body will be part of Volscian's. And one day... another helpless, foolhardy explorer... those merciless eyes of darkness, those cruel white fangs, that rapacious tongue... it will be _ you. _ Trapped forever... unless you escape.

"Shut up..." she wailed, feeling a faint pulsing begin to throb through the walls - was she drawing close to the end of this hellish journey? The end... "I can't... I can't... I can't fight him.... help me..."

Who was this helpless mouse asking, she wondered? The voices in her disintegrating mind? The madness, shepherding her from this world of agony into.... into...

Into his arms again... he'll be waiting, won't he...

NO! She couldn't think that. He wouldn't want it, Jess. The swallows had slowed, leaving her squirming and wriggling somewhere many, many feet down this terrible throat of the dragon god. Was she about to enter his abdomen, not even a bulge in that lean flesh anymore? Was this the last the world sees of you? With so much to do...

Jess slumped, her muscles burning from exhaustion as ell as digestion. The mouse felt a rib crack at last - weakened by thrashing and the terrible squeezing gulps, and they were just the first of many, oh yes: your entire skeleton, for starters. There was a final squelching, slurping swallow, and she felt herself vanish into the slow-beating clockwork of Volscian's greedy innards. The rodent lay, collapsed, blood- and tear-stained as smaller, smoother gulps guided her along a few feet of rippling, clammy muscle... and she just screamed.

Oscar was with her again, and Jess knew now that she was truly mad at last. The falcon was above the agony which clasped her body, his face calm... but scared. Not for him - life had given him little to fear save the prospect of death, and now what was that to him? - but for her. For the two of them.

Jess reached up to him in the darkness, feeling her body _ squeezed _ into a new space, the hellish throat having done its job admirably. Is... is this the stomach? Is this the end, she asked weakly, though her lips did not, could not move.

The falcon looked at her, his stance calm, neutral... and broken with despair. He floated above her ravaged, weeping body... flickering as her vision dimmed slowly. Not yet. Soon. But not yet.

Jess was still living. She would still suffer -

-and she screamed again, the momentary respite only increasing the return of the agony, the searing pain that ran through broken mind, bleeding soul and tortured body alike. The sac was a little bigger than Volscian's crop had been, the walls utterly shrouded in darkness now that that sadistic snake of a tongue had left her.

Jess felt her flesh starting to come apart. She felt her blood ragged now, and through the howling frenzy of excruciation beyond her wildest nightmares... she thanked the Catalyst weakly for denying her the light so she could not see the true extent of her injuries. There was no hope of escape now - she wouldn't survive even if she was cut out.

Had there ever been any hope? You're doomed. You're dead, my dear Jess.

Her mind spasmed again... and suddenly Oscar was there, the pain seeming far off. Again, he did not speak... but now, his fists were clenched, as if in pain. Jess tried to whisper to him: what are you doing, help me, please....but the falcon only looked at her mutely, sadness in his very gaze.

She whimpered, trying to reach out...

And the pain came back with a hideous, grinding squelch as she was squeezed, whol patches of flesh rubbing of her. The mouse howled again, writhing and thrashing until a bone snapped in her arm, slicing her to pieces: the white gleam instantly exposed, so eroded was her body. Pain filled the world. Pain filled her. She was pain.

Now she was ready.

And the mouse felt herself squeak feebly, a pathetic attempt at a word - "Oh...scuh..." - and then she broke. It all fell away. She rose out of the guilt, the agony, the despair, out of her life. She was free of the pain at last.

At last...

And the darkness fell in upon her like a ravening wolf.

***

Over.

The dragon god hissed softly, a webbed claw caressing the silent ripple that hung beneath him. She slopped weakly within him, just meat for his hunger now. Not that she had ever been anything different.

Volscian felt another rumbling, grating purr shake through him as he swayed his form, feeling the glorious weight of the energy within him: the devoured part of his body now. Feeding the strong.

He slinked back towards the water, unheeding of the final, shuddering twitches of Jessica Gaunt within his belly, already breaking apart... and paused, glancing at the sky. Those two had been a delight indeed. Terror added such warmth to their flavour - already pleasant enough - and the broken hearts of so close a couple was no end of amusing.

The dragon shook his crests, enjoying the last rays of the sun as night fell at last. He would hunt again... eventually. And maybe another foolhardy couple would pass this -

Pain.

Volscian froze, hissing a high keening cry, as his skull clawed itself apart. The agony was methodical, focused, furious, smashing through him as he blurred in the twilight, trying to find his attacker with a wild, feral cry of fury-

No! _ LEAVE HIM! _

Peace.

The dragon blinked slowly, his six eyes wincing as he tested his skull. He was pure again... a creature of intent and purpose, a hunter. He stood, arched on the avenue of his temple - where so many doomed souls had entered - eyeing the world around him for the danger, the challenger to his dominance. But there was none. It had fled.

He sighed languidly, disinterest surrounding the incident already. A predator did not listen to the humming of wasps, no matter if they stung.His lines of neon emerald pulsed slightly as he padded towards the cold embrace of his home once more. Volscian was a beast of the water, a king carnivore among mere morsels. He ruled these swamps.

He slipped without a ripple into the water, revelling in the cool onrush of murky silence. Here he was truly a god. These poor trespassers had been his from the moment they set foot in here. The only thing saving them those cruel last seconds of life had been his patience...

...and his immortal hunger.

Goldeneye, 2012-08-31