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His name was Hsist, a good lizardy name, which stood to reason because Hsist was a lizard man. He was young and on the small side, only about five feet tall. Between inexperience and being seen as weak, he hadn't been accepted into any gangs. The river has full of lizards, as the saying went, but most of them were content to fish and trade with the shore dwellers.

The real money was to be made in the pirate gangs, the boldest of which swarmed up onto passing river traders and overpowered the crews. That was the job Hsist wanted, so we went from one gang to another until he finally found one that would have him.

"You want in," said Sinna, a lizard man with green-blue scales and muscular arms, "This is what you need to do."

They were bobbing in the water, concealed by overhanging brush a quarter mile from a little river village's pier. Docked there was a fat shallow-draft merchant ship, their target.

"A group of us will come up on shore to trade," Sinna said. "You'll be with us as an apprentice. We really will be there to trade, but your job is to sneak onto that ship and see what cargo they are carrying. If it's something good enough to justify an attack we'll hit them a few miles downriver. You don't have to fight anyone, just look confused if you get caught or jump over the side if you have to."

Hsist nodded. He had a dagger and knew how to use a spear, but a trader wouldn't carry large weapons when in town. For clothes he had only a loincloth, as his scales provided all the protection from weather that he needed.

Half an hour later he emerged dripping from the water and waited as the larger and older lizard men made peaceable gestures to the town guards. Even a village this small had a wall and a guard tower, as they were miles from the nearest substantial settlement and in relatively uncivilized territory. In the event of a major attack help would come from Verbobonc or nearby towns but in the short term each village had to defend itself.

Soon they were let into the trading area outside the town walls, which Hsist was told is called a 'caravansary'. He wasn't very familiar with shore races yet but he could see by their clothing that a dozen crewmen from the ship were among the traders. He saw a very small one who still seemed to be an adult, and as this was the least threatening one he kept an eye on him.

The small crewman was Mister Samhill, a halfling whose speciality was knots. For his size he was very strong and though only half the height of most of the crew he could climb like a spider. He spent most of his time up in the rigging and his presence on board the Silver Stag was much appreciated.

Hsist was the smallest one in his group too but hadn't earned that sort of respect and it was easy to resent the halfling. He decided to follow this small shore dweller, because if things did go wrong and he had to knife someone at least he'd have an easy target. As the two groups of traders haggled Hsist slipped out of sight and when the halfling headed for the ship he followed.

In the safely of the town's dock no one seemed to be on the lookout on board the ship and Hsist waited for the guard in the town's watchtower to look the other way before sneaking up the gangplank after the halfling.

Well, here he was with a plank deck underfoot and no idea what to do next. Hsist found a narrow space between a bunch of roped-down barrels and some crates similarly tied down with a net and settled down to watch. He was supposed to look for anything valuable to steal and he puzzled out the shore-dweller writing on the barrels to read either "Water" or in a few cases "Wine, Dyvers, Red." That on the crates read "Dried fish". Neither sounded promising as loot.

If there was anything valuable on the ship it must be below decks. There was a hatch on the deck but it was out in the open where he'd be spotted. Maybe in the elevated portions of the ship, fore and aft?

There was a murmur of conversation. Hsist peeked around the corner of the crates and saw the halfling talking to a tall, muscular deck hand with serpent tattoos on his bare arms. The halfling whacked one barrel after another with a belaying pin until he got to one that sounded hollow, at which point the conversation continued as Hsist ducked back out of sight.

They were worryingly close and he crept away until he was up against the wall of the ship's forecastle. Then a set of footsteps broke away from the conversation and came right toward the pile of crates he was hiding behind.

Panicked, Hsist looked at the railing a few paces away, with the cool safe river just past it. He'd be seen if he jumped into the river. The only other possible hiding place was an open porthole in the wall he was pressed against.

Maybe he'd learn more about the ship's cargo in there, and earn his way into the pirate gang. Just as the footsteps were about to bring the little halfling close enough to see him Hsist leapt headfirst into the porthole.

A moment later Mister Samhill came around the corner, hopped up on a crate and stuffed a frantically twitching lizard tail out of sight through the porthole. Whistling casually, he turned another corner and headed for the forecastle entry door.

Hsist sprang through the porthole with all his strength, too worried about being spotted to consider what he might find on the far side. If he had given it any thought he'd have said the worst case was he ended up in an occupied room and would have to leave the way he came, and hastily too.

His worst case did not include leaping headfirst right into someone's mouth, but that is exactly what happened. Arms outstretched above his head to make himself as narrow as possible he leapt through the porthole, only to be greeted by the scrape of sharp fangs and the sudden slick wetness of a gullet stretched wide to receive him.

Such was the force of his leap that Hsist almost managed to get himself swallowed whole in one long slide. There was a wet thump as his narrow shoulders hit the back of the waiting maw but the creature's throat expanded easily to let him in. Whatever it was didn't even need to swallow. Slippery flesh slid by on all sides of him, gliding over his scales and coating him with a thick layer of gullet slide to lubricate him for his trip down a throat.

The only thing that kept Hsist from disappearing entirely into the waiting maw was the turn he had to make from the open porthole into the smooth downward slope of hungry throat. As his legs followed his body into the maw his thick scaly tail struck the side of the porthole and he lurched to a stop.

Unfortunately by this time his head, shoulders and arms were what could only be a stomach from the stink of bile. His body and even his hips were caught in the fleshy grip of the gullet and fanged jaws snapped shut around his knees. His scales had protected him from the creature's teeth but that just meant that when it got around to finishing its meal he'd digest to death rather than bleeding out from bite marks.

Hsist's eyes went wide in the slimy dark as he realized the situation he'd gotten himself into. What was supposed to be a scouting expedition onto the ship was going to end with him exploring some creature's digestive tract unless he got himself out of this. Instinctive he tried to hook his tail over the lip of the porthole and maybe pull himself back out that way. Then a hand grabbed his tailtip, unhooked it, and shoved it through the porthole into the maw!

It wasn't even the creature's hand, he would have felt it reach past his legs. Not just the unknown predator but someone else was conspiring against him!

Hsist squirmed, but there was nothing to grip, nothing to use as leverage. All around him was smooth wet stomach and gullet lined with a thick layer of slippery mucus, harmless wet slime in the throat and emphatically not harmless stomach juices down below. The jaws that held his knees lurched, taking him in to the ankles, and Hsist let out a despairing cry as the predator swallowed.

The throat gripped down in an undulating ripple, squeezing him further into the stomach. Between the powerful swallowing muscles and his own weight it was all over very quickly. Hsist slid heavily down the thing's throat, his scaly tail wriggling like a worm as it followed his feet into the maw and gullet.

Terrified, Hsist came to a stop, but only because he was forced to curl up into a ball. There was no way to proceed further. Well, not as a lizard man anyway. The thick coating of belly slime he'd picked up as he arrived stung his nostrils, eyes and vent. His scales protected the rest of him for now but unless he got out quickly things would soon get worse. Scales, he knew, were all but indigestible for most creatures, but the rest of him was not. He had no desire for only his scales to remain a recognizable part of him.

Hsist snarled and felt for his dagger, only to find it and his loincloth gone. They must have caught either on the edge of the porthole or the creature's fangs and been stripped off as he hurtled into its maw. He was possessed of sharp teeth, but with stomach pressing in from all sides it was impossible to open his mouth and bite. Even if he could, it would be like trying to bite the inside of a balloon. The belly was stretched tight around him with no convenient folds to get his teeth into.

That left his claws. With his knees pressed against his chest he had some leverage and Hsist scraped at the inside of the gut with his footclaws. He couldn't move his arms much but he tried to use his hand claws, too. All that happened was he left tracks in the thick layer of belly slime coating the walls. If he caused the creature any discomfort at all it showed no sign.

In fact, it was the opposite. Strong hands gripped the thing's swollen belly from the outside, and over the creature's rhythim bulge he heard a purr of contentment. Whatever had eaten him wasn't put off at all by his struggle. It enjoyed it.

"This isn't fair, Hsist thought. I was just looking around." But the pitiless stomach pressed in from all sides and he began to feel the sting as the caustic slime worked its way between his scales. Once a few of them broke loose under the assault an accelerating process would start that would end with what used to be a lizardman making its way through the predator's bowels.

As Hsist cursed his short sad life he felt another, smaller set of hands join the large ones on the creature's belly. They felt their way along the bulge and pushed. The larger hands pulled in against the lumpy bulge as well and he shifted inside the slick confines of the belly. His scaly muzzle was forced upward and to his joy his nose was pushed through a fleshy valve and back into the throat. Both sets of hands continued to push and the predator heaved, throwing him up.

But not all the way. He'd slid down the throat all at once, only escaping a single long slide to his doom by pure chance. This was a more measured effort in reverse but suddenly light smote his eyes as his face appeared out of a set of toothy jaws.

When the slitted pupils of his eyes shrank down enough for him to see, Hsist found his face in the jaws of what must be a Khardaki lion-woman. Her fangs were locked around his face, keeping him from wriggling any further out of her maw, and he was looking down at belly fur that was swollen and lumpy with most of a swallowed lizard man. That lizard man was him and he felt her tongue pressing up under his chin. All she had to do was swallow again and he'd be back experiencing the doubtful mercies of her stomach. Off to one side her tufted tail flicked, relaxed. She had her meal and was sitting on the edge of a bed, relaxed, knowing there was no way out for him but down her throat.

Even now he felt her stomach acids gradually burning into the gaps between his scales. If she kept him here he would die in searing agony, able to breathe but with no escape from the stomach juices dissolving his lower body.

"Well now," said the halfling he'd followed onto the ship. Hsist hadn't even noticed him, being focused on his own situation. The little halfling was less than half the height of the lion woman and had his hands sunk into her tan belly fur. Now Hsist knew who had helped her throw him back up in such a controlled fashion and probably who stuffed his tail into the porthole.

"So let's talk," said the halfling. "Tell us who sent you and why. It'll be worth your while."

"She'll spit me up?" Hsist tensed, hoping to squirm out of the jaws and to safety, only to feel the lioness tense too. The jaws clamped down tight, the tongue pushed, and he let out a terrified squeak as he felt himself sliding once more down her throat. The sensation passed and he was still in her mouth but the message had been sent. If he did anything threatening she would swallow and that would be it.

"Oh no," said the halfling cheerfully. "You jumped into her stomach and there you stay until she's done with you. But you do have a choice. Tell us what we want to know and she'll burp up the air once she swallows. You'll end peacefully. Or you could not talk, and end the other way."

"But, but," Hsist gasped. "I was just looking around! They just said-"

"Tell me more," said the halfling, who was regarding the lioness's swollen middle with an unhealthy interest. As though drawn by a magnet his little hands reached out once more to rub the bulge Hsist made.

The lioness made a full-throated impatient noise and the halfling looked up. "Sorry cap'n," he said meekly. "So what's it going to be, lizard?"

"I don't want to die," Hsist squeaked. The halfling just shrugged.

"You jumped into her mouth," he said. "That is where you are going to stay. Do you want it to end quickly, with one burp, or do you want to feel it happen?"

The lioness's stomach acids were getting more painful by the moment as they ate into the soft tissue around his scales. What felt like a red-hot tongue was eating its way into his vent. Once a few scales let go the pain would really start.

Hsist remembered the taste of fish, both cooked ones and the ones he swallowed whole. He could swallow a fish the size of a man's arm and a big lizard man might even be able to swallow the halfling in front of him. If he were free, that is exactly what he would try to do.

But the halfling wasn't the one who would die in a stomach today and Hsist knew he'd never taste fish again. He talked.

He didn't know much, but he told them everything. The name of the gang he tried to join, the other pirate gangs he knew about, even all he knew about the local merfolk. They and the lizards competed in the river both for fish and for ships to raid.

"Thank you," the halfling said, and the lioness made an appreciative noise. Not appreciative enough to let him go, though. Hsist took a last look around what must be the lioness's cabin. The bed she sat on was huge, far too big for even her, but he had no time to wonder about that. She tilted her head back and suddenly he was looking at her fangs from the inside. Carefully she pressed her tongue up under his chin, making sure he could not bite it, and then she swallowed.

Hsist slipped helplessly down her throat and found himself curled up once more in the dank confines of her gut. His face and neck were intact, but everywhere else was a growing pain as her stomach acids worked on her meal.

She was as good as her word. Strong hands, large and small, pushed in, and from inside the lioness Hsist heard her let out a long belch. The voids between his limbs, once full of air, collapsed into squelching wetness as the waiting acids filled all the available space. Every inch of him was coated now. Very soon now the pain would be unendurable.

Hsist didn't want to die. But now he didn't want to live. Before the pain got any worse he exhaled all the air in his lungs and turned his snout away from the bubble so he wouldn't be tempted to suck it back in. The squeeze and slosh of the stomach surrounded him and he felt the halfling's small hands eagerly rubbing the bulge he made.

"He has an obsession with bellies," were Hsist's last thoughts. "Sooner or later he'll be in one."

*****

"The captain is very pleased," Mister Samhill said a little while later. He was back in the caravansary talking to the chief of the lizard man delegation. "She is willing to pay three extra silver per barrel for your fish."

"Ten silver," said Sinna, and the haggling began. He had, of course, lied to Hsist. The young lizard was desperate to join a gang and Sinna, who knew of the lion-woman captain's appetites, was happy to oblige. As the most junior gang member, Hsist got the worst job. He just hadn't know how bad the job would be.

Sometimes you send an emissary with a bribe. Sometimes the emissary is the bribe.

Mister Gunn, the tall, pitch-black first mate, sat back with his ale and watched Mister Samhill negotiate. It wasn't the first trade delegation to make a special offer to their captain in order to get a better deal. It wouldn't be the last.

Sometimes it was a lizard man, young and junior, who was volunteered for this honor. Sometimes a merfolk slipped on board and like the lizards was convinced by one means or another to enter the captain's cabin. Less often a human or humanoid sneak thief or stowaway crept on board.

Mister Gunn had served with Captain Varr for only a year now. The previous first mate, from what he'd heard, had made the captain very angry. That first mate, a hestan with spotted fur, had gone into the captain's cabin. Like the lizards and merfolk and others, he had not come back out.

He had never seen what happened to them in there, but it wasn't hard to work out. Someone goes in, and the next day the captain has put on some weight. By all rights not nearly enough weight, if she was indeed eating them, but sudden love handles don't come from nowhere. He knew she had a toilet in her room. Maybe she ate parts of them and threw the rest down the pipes. Mister Gunn didn't want to know.

Mister Samhill knew. He'd served the captain longer than anyone on board. He even had access to the captain's cabin and was usually the one to convince her meals to enter.

Captain Varr was a good captain. Mister Gunn had never made a pass at her, though she was sleek and strong and tawny-furred, with small athletic breasts. She'd be more than a handful in bed but he left exploring that idea to less cautious sorts.

He was certain she was fucking the big feral wolverine that shared the ship with them and now lived at Greyhawk. She had other lovers, too, but they didn't know as much about her as he knew.

He knew enough that when he was in her cabin, the door stayed open or he made sure others knew where he was. Because when your captain is a six and a half foot tall lion woman who you are sure is eating people, a few precautions are just good thinking.