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The little thief snuck through the halls of the abandoned castle, all they had to do was get to the main hall, steal some gold, and then get out of there, that was it.
… and not get caught.
They had been forewarned about the big dragon that lived in the abandoned castle, and how he was protective of his hoard. But the little thief wasn’t worried, they’d been doing this for years, they didn’t get caught then they wouldn’t get caught this time.
They turned a corner and found the entrance to the main hall, there were gold coins spilling out from the door, the thief smiled and silently ran over. Before picking any of them up they heard a sound coming from the main hall, peeking in, they saw him.
Lounging in the hoard of coins, jewels, crowns, and jewellery, was a large, fat red and gold dragon. Luckily, he was fast asleep, snoring loudly, and moving a little subconsciously.
The little thief moved back from the doorway and pulled out a bag and started putting the coins into it as gently and quietly as they could, didn’t need to wake up the dragon.
They got a good chunk of change in their bag when again they looked back into the main hall, at the dragon. They lingered their gaze on his gut, probably full of all the previous knights and thieves that had come in and either gotten caught or were foolish enough to try and defeat the dragon. Must be quite a few of them, his gut was huge and moved up and down gently as the dragon breathed.
They had been staring for a bit now and didn’t notice where they were stepping, they stepped on a chalice that was laying on its side and as it rolled out from their foot they fell hard into the pile of coins, themselves gasping loudly, and the coin pile making a loud CLANG as they hit it face first.
The little thief got up quickly, far too quickly and far too loudly. They looked back at the dragon…
only to lock eyes with him.
The little thief turned to run but the dragon moved too fast for them, and they were suddenly plucked up by their tail. Dangling from their tail in the dragons claws they were brought into the main hall, and were face to face with the big dragon, his fiery eyes burning holes into theirs. The dragon resumed his position in his pile, falling back with a CLANK, he looked the little thief over, still holding them by their tail.
The little thief squirmed and cowered a little as they were looked over, they wanted to think of other possibilities for their fate but judging by the dragon’s fat gut right under them, there wasn’t much left to the imagination for them.
The little thief supposed they’d just have to hope he wasn’t hungry at this moment.
ggGGRGRGROOOOORROORRWWLLlll…
hm! Well shit!
The little thief’s face warmed at that sound, embarrassed at that was what they were going to be reduced to, a grumble in his gut and nothing more.
Their eyes were suddenly taken from his gut to his face as they heard him chuckle deeply.
“Aren’t you adorable? You can’t take your eyes off me.”
Goodness, he could talk to? They weren’t warned about that.
The little thief squeaked and covered their burning face with their hands, now extra embarrassed, how long had they been staring?
The dragon chuckled again, and he adjusted them in his claws to be grasped gently by their whole body, their arms free to move, however.
“no need to be shy,” the little thief peeked through their fingers. “I’m not going to do anything to you yet.”
Yet was the keyword there, he could fully decide to just pop them in his mouth and have it be done with. They settled on uncovering their face and placing their tiny hands on his large claw that wrapped around them and looked up at him, his eyes seemed less dangerous now.
“now,” He began, “I’d like your name.” the little thief swallowed nervously.
“Rat, sir.”
“Sir? How quaint.” He laughed and placed his thumb on top of their head, squishing them a little bit. “should have known it would have been little vermin crawling around in my hoard.” He smirked, showing off his sharp teeth, and whatever remark Rat had was thrown out the window when they saw them.
“Secondly,” Rat pulled themselves from staring at his fangs when he spoke again. “I’d like to know what you were crawling around in here for.” He licked his lips. “just the treasure, or were you thinking about taking me on? You’re quite small for a warrior, you know.”
Rat huffed and frown at that last comment, they were a great warrior! But nevertheless, answered his question.
“just the treasure sir, was hoping to get in and out. That didn’t really work out, as you can see.”
“No, no it didn’t did it?” he teased, he brought them closer to his face. “Now, a final thing,” he purred in his throat, though to Rat it sounded more like a growl. “Give me a good reason to, and I’ll let you go, otherwise,” he paused to lick their face, making Rat splutter. “it’s down the hatch with you~”
Rat wiped their face and racked their mind for a good reason, mostly coming up blank.
“W-well you see sir, I-I’m, I’m uh,” think of something Rat. “I’m too small! I won’t even be filling!” they nodded in agreement with themselves. “I’m too small to even be worth eating, s-so you might as well let me go and you can get back to napping, hoarding or, or. Or WHATEVER you do all day!”
And they had given him a reason! And now they just had to wait for judgement.
The dragon hummed and seemed to think it over, and then loudly sighed.
“Alright, that is a good reason,” he said, Rat sighed in relief. “but not good enough.” Rat quickly switched back to panicking.
The dragon slapped them into his mouth, and Rat scrambled for purchase in the slick new environment. He closed his mouth so they couldn’t crawl out, and proceeded to toss them around in his mouth, tasting them and soaking them up for the journey.
Inside Rat was disoriented and all wet, yelping every time that tongue of his moved them around quickly, at least he was careful with those fangs of his.
The dragon tilted his head back but didn’t swallow, as a final tease he opened his mouth, giving Rat a look at the room’s ceiling. Rat reached for the outside, a little hope they were being let go after all!
... only to be swallowed down in one go.
Rat whimpered as they were squeezed further into the dragon, and they soon found themselves in a large pocket, up to their waist in bright goo; it was emptier in here than they thought it would‘ve been. Rat felt the dragon pat at them through his gut and then rest his hand on top of them, they squirmed against it angrily.
The dragon chuckled, which felt weird as it vibrated all around Rat’s small body.
“No need to be so upset little vermin, you’ll be fine.”
Rat punched the wall.
“fine? FINE?! YOU ATE ME!” They kicked this time. “That doesn’t end FINE!”
The little assault they were doing in him wasn’t hurting, they were too small to hurt him even from in there, so he wasn’t bothered by it. He simply pressed a bit hard onto them to stop them, and while they squirmed a bit, they did stop trying to hurt him.
“You’ll be fine,” He repeated. “You’ll go, but you’ll come back unharmed, perfectly fine.”
Come back? What did he mean by that? Rat figured they’d just let it happen, if he wasn’t lying and they’d be fine, then they supposed it wouldn’t be too bad.
“will it hurt?” they asked shyly, they didn’t want it to. The Dragon stopped pressing in on them and began rubbing his thumb over them gently.
“No, it’ll just feel like falling asleep, I promise.”
Speaking of sleep, the dragon yawned, stretching a little before settling back, keeping his hand on top of Rat. Rat themselves curled up, not exactly sleepy but willing to rest now.
Maybe once they were back, if they came back, maybe they’d sneak back into the castle and pay him another visit. He wasn’t all that bad for a dragon that ate people.
…And maybe try and get those coins again, they kinda needed them.