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_ …The dragon shows itself to its victims in order to argument their fear, which makes the human brain release cortisol, from which the beast obtains its nutrition. The damn thing literally feeds off the fear of its prey!..._

From the paper published by yourself,

three months following the initial incident…

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The day was coming to its end over Catawba Mountain in Virginia. The warm spring air had actively been cooling, and the sun had been reduced to a fiery orange ball a few degrees above the horizon. You looked out over the mountain range, taking in deep breaths of the crisp air in through your nostrils and out of your mouth. For a moment the 30 something pounds strapped to your back felt weightless. Though, then again, after having been hiking for nearly two months now, you'd gotten used to it.

The sun became partially eclipsed by the trees on some mountain probably a dozen miles away, you still had roughly a mile and a half to tonight's destination, Dragon's Tooth Trail it was called. The trail was called this because of a large quartzite rock formation in the shape of an upwards facing tooth. You supposed it was a 'dragon' tooth because of its size, 35 feet tall. You turned, continuing though the dense vegetation.

The trail to your knowledge consisted of two main parts: One along the Appalachian Trail; the trail you were trekking now, and the separate entrance and exits points to solely Dragon's Tooth Trail. Both led to the same landmark, the dragon tooth. Interesting thing however, the parking lot to the non-AT section of the trail had been closed off as of two days ago due to safety concerns. That wasn't really the interesting part though, the safety concern was because of actual dragon sightings. Before you started your hike in Georgia, you had heard a story about the first dragon sighting in Colorado. You thought this to be just another prank and thought nothing else of it. But supposedly after conversing with fellow hikers you met along the way, dragon sightings had been spreading like wildfire in the US and across parts of the world, most commonly in the mountainous regions. The Appalachian Trail was no exception, a few weeks ago the first sighting was reported in New Hampshire that spread along the trail by word of mouth. Just yesterday an experienced hiker by the trail name, Long Legs, told you that there was another sighting about 125 miles south at the Tennessee-Virginia state line.

You had already hiked that portion a week and a half ago and nothing came of it. How so many people became engrossed in such an obvious hoax blew your mind.

It was these 'sightings' that caused some of the local parks to close temporarily while they investigated the legitimacy of the situation. Those already on the trail, such as yourself, were simply told to proceed with caution. This was great for you as it meant less people to sift through at the landmarks. Keeping this in mind, you were expecting the 'dragon tooth' to be completely deserted at this time of day. You figured you'd spend a few minutes there checking out the scenery, maybe even scale the rock formation if you were up to it. Depending on how long everything would take, with the sun fading and all, you considered pitching your tent there too.

While walking along the trail, you made it a point to take in the ample foliage around you. A moderately thick canopy of oaks surrounded you on both sides of the trail, though there were still plenty of maples thrown in here and there. Many smaller plants lined the edges of the trails where hikers hadn't yet trampled them down. There were also bushes that made good use of the sunlight that peeked through breaks in the canopy overhead; though, with the sun almost below the horizon, though, not like it mattered at this time of day. For the time being, the wildlife was quiet. The daytime fauna had begun hunkering down while the nocturnals were beginning to stir. You found yourself at a unique point of minimal activity due to the time of day.

You continued on.

As you rounded a bend roughly a quarter mile from your destination, you caught your first glimpse of the dragon tooth. Even against the dark blue of the sky, the jarring structure of the rock was unlike those of the trees, and thus was relatively easy to spot. It's odd shape most resembled a great spire of sorts, a dragon tooth, even.

You let out a small chuckle, amused at how the rock formation truly did resemble a large upwards facing tooth. You chose to look away for the time being, not wanting to spoil viewing the rock formation from up close. Keeping your eyes low, you finished the trek a short three minutes later. The amount of vegetation in your immediate surroundings lessened as the ground clearly looked travelled upon. You set down your gear, relieved as the weight fell from your shoulders and onto the uncaring dirt.

Now close to the spire, you stared in mild amazement at how it leapt from the Earth and into the air. In the dying sunlight you saw metal rungs lodged into the stone, hinting the rock formation could be climbed. You grabbed a headlamp from your bag and placed it over your forehead. With a click it powered on.

Quickly you climbed its height. It wasn't difficult, rather it was made easy by the obvious hand and footholds, as well as the headlamp. If anything, it was like climbing an oddly shaped staircase, not true rock climbing. Upon reaching the top you spent the last few minutes looking out over the valley and mountains. You took in the last of the sunlight as the mountains ahead of you cast their shadows on the underside of the cloud layer. As the last of the light slipped past the horizon, you heard rustling by the base of the rock.

The hairs on your neck stood slightly as you scanned for the source of the noise. When you could not immediately find it, you climbed back down from the rock. As you rounded the rock base, you heard the rustling coming from just around the next corner where your bag was laying. You hesitated as you readied to face whatever was rummaging through your bag. You peered from the rock, as light hit the bag a squirrel leapt from your bag with an open wrapper between its teeth.

Your heartrate calmed as you laughed, amused at yourself for becoming paranoid by the likes of a squirrel.

Did you actually believe it could have been a dragon?

You had accidentally left your bag open when grabbing the headlamp, so the squirrel likely stuck into it in search of food. You did feel bad though as the empty candy wrapper would not feed the squirrel that evening. You also felt bad that you would be leaving a piece of trash lying about in the forest.

It is what it is, let's just set up camp and get to bed. You thought to yourself.

You about pulled your sleeping bag from the top strap of your main bag, but you noticed a sign signaling no fire could be built at this point. So, you moved on.

You walked maybe another five minutes before finding a suitable spot for a temporary campsite that did not give any hints that a fire was prohibited. It looked to be a rather comfortable location too, it was somewhat open but immediately transitioned into more dense foliage surrounding it. You dropped your gear and unfurled your sleeping bag. You undressed down to your base layers besides a shirt as you prepped a small fire. Hopefully the fire would keep the bugs at bay, while also keeping you warm, even though it wasn't supposed to be terribly cold that night. You grabbed some nearby leaves and small sticks to make a makeshift kindling. Using a Firestarter, you quickly let sparks fly. After a few seconds a small orange flame grew from its base. You placed some larger sticks and nearby broken-down dead logs to get the fire to a decent size. It crackled without care into the night.

Before you got in your sleeping bag thought, you ventured out to gather some extra pieces of wood just incase the fire died down early. With the help of the orange glow from the fire, you turned off your headlamp and stuffed it into a pocket. You ventured about ten paces away from your small basecamp into the thick vegetation.

That's when you saw them… Two green eyes nestled between the faintly lit trees. They possessed a subtle yellow glint from the flickering of the campfire at your back.

Your hair stood on ends as you froze, terrified. Surely not…?

Yet, there they were, unwavering and unmoving. They were locked in on you, laser focused. The eyes blinked, not at the same time, one quarter of a second after the other. You inhaled a shaky and lifted a foot to take a step back towards your campsite. As your foot left the earth, the same eyes disappeared, masked by the darkness of night. Your breath caught as you scanned the trees nearby, looking to regain sight of the creature. There was no movement except a few rustling leaves in the tree canopy from the slow-moving wind. The warm breeze suddenly felt dreadfully cold. You resorted to sound.

Silence, save for a few crackles and pops from the fire, and the sound of a leaf crunching under your footfall. A few more seconds passed until you finally exhaled your held breath in an unsteady respiration. Your chest tightened as your lungs struggled to draw in another breath.

The trees in front of you flickered unlike the flickering of the campfire, you turned hastily. As you turned you caught a glimpse of the black mass with green eyes positioned directly above the fire. From what you could see, it was clearly massive, so much so the fire couldn't illuminate all of its form. You blinked, and as you did the mass crashed against the fire. As the wood splintered, a dramatic expulsion of sparks erupted from the glowing embers from within the heart of the extinguished fire. As the sparks dissipated, so did your line of sight on the creature.

Nothing but the black of night. You couldn't even see the trees that had once been 10 feet from where you currently stood. You could feel your heartbeat pounding away in your ears. A deep guttural groan found its way to your ears, followed by a ground shaking (what you presumed to be) footfall. On cue, before another thought entered your mind, you dug into the Velcro pocket of your cargo shorts where you placed your headlamp. The sound of Velcro ripping seemed ear-shatteringly loud as your fingers fumbled about until they found the headlamp band. You ripped the band from your pocket and quickly brought your other hand to the button to turn on the lamp. It clicked on as you heard another footfall, this one heavier and louder, or perhaps… closer. The light shone against your palm, casting your skin orange for a second. You swung your arm in such a way that the light would shine into the forest in the direction of the smothered remains of your fire.

As the light dove into the forest, you had but a fraction of a second to process that a black scaled dragon with green eyes was mere feet away and charging at you with a full head of steam.

Time seemed to slow as its head slammed into your torso, sending you airborne. While in temporary freefall, your arms flailed, casting the light cone of the headband on the surrounding trees. You cried out in a silent scream as the wind whipped past your ears. During your descent back to the Earth, you performed a half-flip, landing on your stomach. Before you had a chance to catch your bearings, an immense weight was brought down on your back, pinning you to the ground. You gasped in the breath that was partially lost from the initial clash with the beast, and from when you crashed into the dirt. To make it worse, the weight on your back didn't make it any easier to recover the lost breath. You coughed as the dust settled.

You looked back, hoping to catch a glimpse of the dragon. With the headlamp still in hand, you could see the body of the beast led into the forest. Your line of sight was enough to see up to its neck, but not up to its head. Being unable able to see the dragon's head was less than ideal for someone in your current situation. You thrashed against the weight and used the pained breath you had sucked in to cry out. As you thrashed under the mass, you felt three distinct points dig into your back, stilling you from lashing out any further. As for your yelling, a sharp hiss emitted from the dragon's throat, enough to make you shut up and cause your ears to ring from tinnitus.

You whimpered when you first saw its gargantuan head, or rather, the silhouette of it. The lamp was in your left hand, and the beast was hovering over your right shoulder, you could not make out its details save the emerald-green eyes you had already familiarized yourself with. The head snaked away and the talons on your back lifted just enough so its paw could roll you over onto your back. The window where you weren't pinned to the ground lasted far too short as the same paw pressed into your abs. With your arm unpinned, you shone the light on the creature that towered over you.

Monstrous was the only word adept enough to describe the harrowing figure above you.

It possessed a black body that melted into the surrounding darkness. Its body looked roughly forty feet long (12 meters) from head to tail. It's webbed tail, which made up half of the forty feet, swayed idly behind its digitigrade-style legs. Its slimmed feet grew into thick thighs that looked to be the size of your own torso. The legs connected to its hips and underbelly. Based on how the beast loomed over you, its underbelly and chest took up most of your field of vision. The scales of its underside looked finer and were not black, but rather an ashen grey. The scales grew thicker at its bulging chest. Perhaps they more resembled scutes. Whatever they were, they lead to the broad shoulders that connected to its winged forearms. As light shone on them, you could see the intricate crisscrossing of veins and arteries withing the thin leathery membranes. You turned your attention to the s-shaped neck that led to its oversized head. Its neck and lower jaw too had ashen colored scales, whereas its upper jaw possessed the same midnight coloration as before. It had a few black protrusions along its jaws, nose, and along the top of its head in the form of small horns. The only color on its whole body were its green eyes that had again locked onto you, this time narrowed. You shuttered under its claws.

Its jaws parted slightly, and you got your first glimpse of its sharp teeth. They were small based on the proportions of its head, though it possessed very prominent fangs along its upper and lower jaws. A purple-tipped tongue snaked out past those fangs, your eyes widened as more of its length leaked from its muzzle, it transitioned into a pink hue. The beast licked its lips before the tongue retreated into its mouth, making its intentions with you very known. Its maw parted more as it slowly made its way closer to you. Its tongue and pink mouth resembled that of a serpent of some kind. As it got closer again you became restless, understandably so. Though again, its talons pressed into your chest, stilling all movements. You closed your eyes, hoping to not see when its great maw would inevitably rip into your flesh. Though after a few seconds, you were unimpeded. You parted your eyes slightly.

Its great head stopped just mere inches from you, through your mostly closed eyes, you saw its nostrils flaring as it gathered your scent. You remained still as you felt the dragon's exhalations over your neck and head. The breath was warm, yet your skin crawled from chills. It quietly bellowed as it gathered in more of your scent, now breathing in the air around your cheek, the hot air flowed from your face before it washed though your hair. Its tongue drooped down to taste your skin, you whimpered as the slimy and spongy texture glided from your chest, against your clavicle, up your neck, and across your cheek, just barely grazing your ear before backing away. It made a noise, satisfied sounding. The chills you possessed faded to partial numbness as adrenaline really began to course through your veins. Its head remained relatively motionless as it continued to study you.

What was it waiting for? You had to act now, to get away in some form or fashion.

Before it could make another move, you swiped your arm with the headlamp upwards. You saw its reptilian eyes dart to the side as the metal reinforced casing crashed against its head. The light clicked off from the blow and the weight released from your chest. You heard a startled snarl escape the beast as you stood ready to run. Unfortunately for you, as you readied to stand, a forced swiped at your ankles, tripping you back into the dirt. You were only able to lift your head before your surroundings changed.

You couldn't see with the headlamp no longer powered, but you could feel it. The air around your head suddenly grew hot as you heard teeth clack right by your ears. A slimy appendage danced over the back of your neck and two small points softly dug into the skin on both ends of your throat. You felt thick lips press over your shoulders and clavicle, there was no doubt your head was within the beast's jaws. You brought your arms up, attempting to push your head from its grasp. Like a prisoner behind bars, your neck fit perfectly between its fangs, but your skull didn't. Unless it wanted you to, you weren't escaping. At this point, you were hoping for a clean decapitation, though you had a feeling your torment was far from over.

A swift movement under your back supported your lift into the air. You heard and felt the beast inhale as it took in more of your body. Now its tongue rubbed against your back as its teeth poked into your chest, not forcefully enough to pierce the skin, however. Its lips wrapped over your lower back and abdomen, forming an imperfect seal. Your feet kicked the dirt as you transitioned from facing the ground, to facing the sky, not like you could see it though. Desperately you used your free hand to throw punches against its muzzle. After a few swings and missed, you connected hitting the sides of one if its horns. A jolt of pain shot though your soon to be bruised fingers just beyond the knuckles. Another harsh lurch and keen movement from the tongue helped guide your head to the entrance of its throat. Its tongue slid along your back, easily finding the waistband of your shorts. It then slid under the waistband of your shorts as it cupped your rear during the attempt the dragon made in pressing you into the roof of its mouth. Crying out was futile, whatever yells you made were either absorbed by the anechoic flesh or silenced by the impedance of saliva finding its way into your mouth. The only noise you could pick up were the sticky sounds of flesh sliding and squelching over your ears.

From when its fangs first clacked against one another up until now, you had only been within its mouth for a few seconds; yet you already felt drenched in its saliva. Your hair was matted against your scalp and your bottom layers felt heavy from drool. By now you realized the beast wasn't planning on chewing, much to your temporary relief. This relief lasted but a mere second as that meant it was going to consume you whole, and by extension, eat you alive. Pinned between the creature's tongue and the soft yet firm complexity that was the roof of its mouth made short work of your struggling form. Whatever you resisted simply did not budge. Whatever pain or discomfort your struggles were causing the dragon, it clearly wasn't enough for it to care. There you were, enveloped in the reptile's flesh, utterly panicked about what was coming next, because you already knew what would soon follow.

The dragon bobbed its head upwards and downwards, keenly maneuvering your body to consume you more easily. Slow and deliberate movements from its lurching tongue allowed it to squeeze your body still and into a headfirst dive deeper into its body. You felt the sharp tug at your head before you could process any sound. When the sound did come, your face had already slipped into the tight tube that was the dragon's esophagus. The slick flesh of its throat crawled up your neck and over your shoulders, all the while the tongue that had slid under your shorts easily removed them from your frame. The tongue continued to caress your skin as it slid over your calves nearly to your ankles. You felt the creatures' lips press down hard over your ankles before swallowing again. Your heavily worn hiking shoes effortlessly pop off of your feet as your socks became the next target of assault from the tongue.

How did it know to do that? Had it done this before?

Finally, your feet escaped the Virginia air and fell into the creature's maw. A few more swallows and accompanying stomach drops ensured that you were entirely suspended within the creature's gullet.

As you descended, you quickly came to long for the somewhat spacious confines of the creature's maw compared to its throat. The esophageal muscles expanded to fit the shape of your body, no more and no less. This left your arms to be forced against your sides and legs to be stretched out. You felt the small headlamp indent itself into your skin rather uncomfortably. You were surprised that you had not let go of it. As the flesh rippled over your body in the form of peristalsis, your skin was kneaded with fold after fold of unyielding muscle and torrential amounts of slime. Because of this, you had no breathing room, literally. As you opened your mouth the sticky folds forced themselves past your lips. You tried to move around in such a way to free your face from the relentless flesh, but it was of no use. The constricting walls matched your every movement before forcing you back into your outstretched figure each and every time. You had become limited to upwards and downwards lurches, though, this too seemed to only bring even more discomfort and exhaustion to yourself.

As you dove deeper, the flesh on your skin grew hotter, warming it to the point you wanted to recoil. Even if you wanted to, it wasn't like you'd move enough to separate its flesh from your own. With your lungs beginning to ache and your situation worsening, you felt the need to panic. You realized you may suffocate before reaching the beast's stomach. Because of this realization, you forced yourself to calm down, hoping to focus on staying both still… and awake. You tried your best not to focus on what was happening to you, but rather what was happening around you.

With an actively clearing mind you heard the creature's heartbeat grow from a soft thumping, to booming echoes, and back down to faint reverberations through the throat muscles. As the sickly meat continued to crawl down your back and legs, you wondered how much longer you could hold out. Like a star being swallowed by a black hole, you were ready to convince yourself that you would forever fall endlessly deeper into the wyvern's body. Then again, if a black hole had a singularity, a dragon surely had a stomach.

As the thought escaped you, your descent stalled abruptly. A rough ring of flesh pressed against the top of your head. Your body nearly folded as the peristalsis continued its efforts in trying to send you deeper. Then, all in an instance, your head pierced the tight passageway and entered the confines of its stomach. As the ring wrapped around your neck up to your shoulders you drew in a breath of the stale air. You didn't care how foul the air quality may be, it did the trick in extinguishing the fire building in your lungs.

The potent air did have a rather illustrious stench of a cross between methane and ammonia. It was enough for you to crinkle your nose and wince in discomfort. The tight ring of flesh crawled up the rest of your body as your head ran into a wall of flesh that seemed unfazed by the sudden increase in weight. The stomach happily expanded to accompany more of your frame whilst your legs now began to enter the organic chamber. The influence of gravity helped assist in securing the rest of your body as your feet slipped into the stomach with the rest of you. You felt the tight flesh seal shut once more.

The first thing you did once you fully entered the organic prison was control your breathing. No good would come if you were thrashing around violently without a goal in mind. You relaxed best you could as the stomach contorted you into a ball. You determined the first thing to do was to remove the slime that coated your eyes. With a swipe of your hands, you cleared enough saliva to open your eyes without feeling too much discomfort. The darkness was absolute, your eyes had no visual cues to adjust to, leaving you in a state of awkward blinking. You remembered the headlamp still remarkably held in your hand. It took some effort to push away the cascading stomach walls, but you quickly found the 'on' button with your free hand. You pressed in, turning on the headlamp.

You had to shut your eyes at first from the luminal blast, but once your eyes did adjust, you fell into an immediate depression. Surrounding you on all sides was this glossy bag of flesh. It was predominantly grey but held both purple and pink undertones from the meshing of blood vessels that lined the walls. Every inch of the chamber looked the same, you had a difficult time determining how you were positioned, whether it be up or down. All you knew was that you were in a fetal position. Typically, gravity was strong enough to tell you if you were upside down or right-side up, but the powerful stomach walls hindered your ability to tell.

You resorted to a spit test. Shining the light onto yourself, you watched closely as a bubble of spit formed by your lips. You held it a second, waiting to see if gravity would take it. When it did not, you spat outwards. It flew upwards relative to you for a moment before falling back against your cheek.

You were upside down.

You swiped the saliva from your cheek before cautiously pressing a hand into the spongy flesh that surrounded you. Like pressing into a memory foam mattress, the folds yielded to your soft touch a moment before pushing back as you removed your hand, taking the same shape as you fully broke the contact. You shuttered, unable to comprehend that you were in the stomach of a dragon.

You had to escape, somehow.

You decided that you should get into an upright position, where you figured you could be in more control of the situation. You dug your hands under your back, hoping to push yourself upright. You were able to push the flesh away for a brief moment before the same flesh pushed back, your soaked hands stood no chance of retaining their grip against the slick folds. You kicked with your legs, hoping to launch yourself from your downward facing stature. Again, the elastic flesh stretched to accommodate the force, then provided enough to kick back. You nearly had your knee driven into your own face. You took a breath, slightly winded from your efforts. You resorted to small movements such as wriggling along your back, hoping to snake your way to a more comfortable position. Surprisingly this worked. Slowly but surely your head and back rode along the stomach walls until your knees came to eye height.

The marathon of movement left you sweating, further coating yourself in sticky substances such as the saliva on the stomach walls and the fluids that pooled against your back. You looked up to see unsurprisingly see more folds of flesh. You dug your hand between them, looking for the sphincter that ensured your entry to the stomach from moments ago. After a moment of digging through the wet flesh and trying not to cringe at the uncanny sounds that followed your efforts, you found the tight ring of muscle. You dug your hand into the seal, it took much more effort than you expected it would, but you were able to slip your arm into the muscle up until your wrist. By then the muscle fought back and expelled your hand back into the stomach with great force. You would not be getting out that way, not without any outside assistance, which you knew wasn't coming.

You felt yourself steadily rise and fall as the beast took its strides. You let your guard down at the admittedly soothing rocking. Though just moments later, a creaking groan reverberated through the chamber. You flared your elbows, taking on the best defensive stance one could when bound by a stomach. The walls around you closed in, tighter than had had previously been. They began to knead at your body, wet squelching sounds echoed around you as flesh rolled over flesh. As was now a common occurrence, it took great effort to resist the beast's interior. Your arms became pained with exhaustion up until they gave out on you. Luckily, the aggressive torment enacted upon you subsided as your fatigue grew. The action seemed to have a goal in tiring you out, which it had easily succeeded.

While you felt physically you could fight for longer, mentally you needed a break. You were scared, no, terrified for your life! Constantly in a state of perpetual anxiety and fear. Anxious that your oxygen supply would run out and that you would suffocate, and fearful that the various fluids dripping against your skin would soon begin to burn and that you'd be digested alive.

So you waited.

Every now and then you would grab a handful of flesh, only for it to slip out of your grip. You figured by now you had been in the gut of the wyvern for an hour now as your hands were visibly pruned. You didn't even realize you had slipped down onto your back again, legs curled out above you, and feet pressing into the fleshy ceiling. For as long as you could you had fought off the need to sleep, fearing it would be your last. Though by now, the amount of stress you had gone through far exceeded what you thought possible, and your mind began to beg for recuperation.

You fell asleep shortly thereafter…

… A lurch woke you up. Your eyes opened to darkness as you tried to remember where you were. Dread quickly fell over you as you remembered exactly where you were. Though, you didn't understand why it was dark. You fumbled about a moment before finding your headlamp, you pressed into its frame.

Click.

Nothing… You pressed again.

Click.

Again, you remained in darkness. Your heartrate spiked, suddenly feeling the effect of claustrophobia. The mild claustrophobia you felt before was easily dwarfed by your current state of affairs. You brought your pruned hands to your face, you couldn't even see them as they tickled your eyelashes. You reached into the warmth that surrounded you, not even able to see when your hand may find something to touch.

The flesh was a lot closer and tighter than you remembered. Slimy, sticky, and wet. You were still within its stomach no doubt.

With your sight gone, your hearing became amplified. You leaned against the stomach walls, listening to the wyvern's great heartbeat. It thumped endlessly at some other far-off part of the creature. You were certain that when listening closely, you could make out the steady respirations of the beast. Back within the certainly active stomach you heard various groans and moans. It was like the walls themselves were living; behaving as if they were laughing at your struggles.

At least your situation hadn't changed significantly, were still in the stomach… and from what you could tell, you had not yet been broken down.

This only mildly eased your rising fear as you felt your body physically aching. You slithered against the folds like you did earlier, trying to seat yourself in a more comfortable position. The action was physically taxing.

Why did you feel so fatigued?

The stomach continued to press around you, softly poking and prodding against your back and legs like it had for the past few hours. You had grown so accustomed to the chamber that you could predict where the stomach you push in on you next. The folds seemed to follow a mostly predictable undulating wave that would start at one end of the chamber, ending at the other, only to begin again.

Why were you still alive?

You held onto a small sliver of hope, maybe you would survive this ordeal. Though, your fear of a premature death kept such feelings of optimism at bay. You only allowed yourself to humor such thoughts, not believe in them…

… You sputtered and coughed as fluids suddenly pooled into your mouth. You had dozed off. The gunk's neutral taste caked your dehydrated mouth as you re-caught your breath. By now you were only taking slow and deliberate breaths, anything else left you gasping for air. You grabbed at a fold, hoping to steady yourself. Yet, as you attempted to close your fingers, they barely twitch. You felt uneasy, your brain was no longer able to think straight, and your body felt like its energy supply had been drained. By now you had completely lost track of time. You figured you had now spent more time in darkness than light, though with your constant meandering between the conscious and unconscious state, you couldn't be sure just how long.

With how terribly your body disobeyed your mind, and the relentless efforts the wyvern brought down on you, you came to realize that you weren't getting out. You wanted to cry, you were nearing your end and you knew it, but the tears would not come. You were done, ready to be spared from your torture. You didn't care how it may come, whether it be through suffocation or digestion. With how long you held out, suffocation seemed unlikely, perhaps the beast would finally digest your battered body. The idea didn't even alarm you, matter of fact, you welcomed the thought.

You no longer were afraid. You were just tired… and ready to go home.

Without the strength to muster movement of any kind, you sat idly in thought. You could imagine the headline, Missing Persons: Catawba Mountain. With how many hikers disappeared throughout history, maybe they spend 24 hours at most searching for your body. Of course, they'd find no remains. You thought of all your decisions that led you to your demise, how desperately you wished to hike the Appalachian Trail. Both to see the world and prove something to yourself.

You wanted to prove that you could handle the stresses of a grueling trek. That when you finished the hike, hoping to be stronger mentally and physically at its end. You secretly yearned for the sense of pride it would bring you.

You thought of your family and friends, along with hikers you met along the way. You focused on the good memories, choosing to ignore the bad. It was a far from perfect life, but it was one you were happy you lived.

You smiled.

Deep within the belly of the beast you had exhausted your supply of cortisol and adrenaline, now a much more potent hormone filled your bloodstream… serotonin. You just hoped the wave of relief would last long enough to get you through your seemingly approaching demise.

A few moments following your epiphany, the chamber groaned sharply and the walls around you shook violently. You felt the weight of a new fluid falling through your legs and over your chest. The fluid was heavy and thick, like liquid rubber. It smelled so foul of ammonia that you felt your nose hairs being singed off. It quickly pooled where your back laid.

You were certain that the true digestive process was now beginning.

Despite not entirely resisting the fluid, the natural desire to breathe was overpowering. As the fluid reached your ears you pushed yourself up to take a breath. Though your fatigue presented itself once more. As you exerted yourself, you felt extreme tingling shoot through your body and your mind fall into a state like that of extreme intoxication. Before your body collapsed back into the viscous fluid, you had already passed out…

… When you woke again it was to blinding sunlight. You coughed violently spitting up this putrid tasting fluid. It was black and sticky, and it stained your hand where you spat. A voice called out.

“Are you alright?"

You looked over with your eyes, you lacked the strength to turn your head.

Another hiker was looming over you, you spotted a canteen at his side. You cringed as pure air passed though your windpipe, “W-water." The man made a confused expression before frantically digging by his waistline.

“Uh, y-yeah. Sure... Here!" You heard him say as he brought the flask to your lips. Despite the painful swallow, the water was nothing but restoring. He offered a hand to lift you up, “What happened to you?"

You didn't answer, you simply lifted a sore arm. You couldn't grip his palm, but he still tried to sit you upright. Though in doing so, your body spasmed from moving so quickly after not moving at all for what felt like days now. Again, you collapsed down, falling asleep…

…You heard the unmistakable noise of a helicopter rotor spinning at max speed. You opened your eyes just long enough to see a fire and rescue helicopter suspended above you. You were laid out flat and a tether connected you to the 'copter. You were being airlifted, no doubt, likely to the nearest hospital. You shut your eyes…

…When you opened them again, you were in a white room laying in a bed. Various tubes were embedded into your skin and monitors kept tabs on your vitals at your sides. You did feel more rested and aware at least. A nurse in the corner of the room turned as she heard your movement. You found the strength to ask, “Where am I?" She frowned before leaving the room.

What was that about?

Two well-dressed people entered the room. One man, one woman. The male wore more business casual attire, while the woman wore a buttoned vest-jacket, clearly professionally made. You asked your question again, hoping for a response.

The male spoke, “You're at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia."

That was not Catawba last time you checked.

The woman chimed in, “We'd like you to tell us about your experience in Catawba."

You hesitated, unsure you wanted to recount the harrowing events.

The man spoke again, “If your feeling hesitant, trust us when we say we believe in the legitimacy of whatever your story may be."

By the way they spoke and the glare in their eyes told you all you needed to know. They knew dragons existed, they knew something happened with you and one, and this wasn't their first time talking to victims such as yourself. You told them everything, surprised at your ability to recount the events in such detail. The male listened closely as the female took notes. By the time you finished, you felt ready to collapse again right then and there. The female stood, nodding to you as she left the room. The male remained seated as he asked a few final questions which kept you awake.

“I personally can't imagine what you went through, these creatures and your situation are not to be taken lightly. I'm going to offer you a brief stint at my company, I want you to write about your encounter. You aren't the first, and your story paired with the research of others will help us to better understand what you went through. We're wanting to cover the cost of your recovery, while also offering you payment while working for us."

You didn't need much time to think it over. You went through hell and back and lived. Now you were going to get your chance to tell the story, people needed to know…

… You regained full strength after about a week and met with others who had similarly experienced what you had. A few months later you, along with the company, published your findings. Two sides developed because of it, those who wished to kill the creatures, and those who willingly sought out the creatures to study them. You even heard of a small company sending out volunteers to be eaten by the being while wearing various instruments to collect data. You were relatively neutral on the whole thing. Killing them seemed a bit harsh, but submitting yourself to one? You would never wish what you went through upon anyone, to do so willingly was absurd.

Eventually you returned to the AT, you had a hike to finish. As much as you hated it, your encounter was just a part of your life, your stubbornness in completing your goals would not be thrown by the wayside because of some dragon. Sure, you took your precautions this time around, always setting up and sleeping in a tent regardless of the time of day or weather. But you figured a repeat occurrence would not be a thing. The thing fed off fear, it had already taken yours, so you had no more left to give. For it to seek you out again seemed foolish.

Then again, you had been given a trail name following the events; one that you smiled at on the surface, but secretly behind turned backs had you writhing in discomfort from recounted memories…

…Dragonfood.