A Milky Delight
Rastaban's white scales cut through the morning canvas, the sun just peaking over the horizon and turning the sky purple and orange. His webby fringe shuttered and fluttered as the wind ripped past it and his ears. Pink eyes scanned the ground bellow as rises of smoke rose up from the man village, made of buildings he was only 'just' larger than. He narrowed his gaze as he did lazy circles above the village, void of human interactivity for now, they all slept, but the fields were abundant in cattle.
Fatty, milky treats stirred as he zipped over them. His claws tingled with the urge to pluck them from the ground, but he could not, at least not yet. He began to fly towards the lonely mountain in the far, far horizon. There, he could pension his case. As fast as Rastaban flew it seemed to take an eternity for him to arrive at the isolated mountain, tall and peering down on the open plains beneath it, like a giant towers over dwarves. But he was a meek little thing compared to the beast that lurked within, so the comparison wasn't uncanny. He flew over a few more settlements as he approached the mountain, some bustling with activity, some with very little or none at all; the latter of which sat closest to the home of Rastaban's land lord.
He flew up to the loft, the wall before the giant doors to the mountain and bagged his tail and claws hard against the great construct, for he dared not enter without permission.
"Who disturbs my slumber?" Boomed the great dragon within. Rastaban swallowed; the voice made him quiver in fear for it conveyed the sheer strength and size of his land lord, a beast well within the ability to make a meal of him quite easily if he should want to.
"'Tis I, Rastaban my liege. I wish to discuss a matter of population control with you." The white dragon shouted. There was a great deal of grumbling on the other side from the titan's end, but after long there was a great whooshing sound as the land lord sighed.
"Enter." He commanded, and so Rastaban did as quickly as he could; it would be most unwise to keep his land lord waiting. The little dragon picked his way around the heaps and mounds of golden treasure that was the beast's horde, fearing that unsettling it would cause it to become disorganized and he didn't wish to make his Master reanalyze the pile. A dragon knew not the worth of his horde, but knew the weight and girth of it and the mounds had obviously been set in a meticulous matter, although quite scattered. So, that in mind, Rastaban plodded along on the visible patches of stone along the floor. "What is it now Rastaban?" Called the titan from the shadows of his horde. The white dragon gulped.
"Sire, it is a matter of population control, as I stated moments ago. Man has made its mark on my land and I-"
"Your land?"
"Err, that is our-"
"Our?"
"Your land sir. They've made a mark on the portion where I have been permitted to live on your territory."
"So? There's villages hither and yond that teem with the blighters and not one of them is a challenge to me. What makes these so special, little drake?" Rastaban gulped yet again, he'd not considered the fact that no man, elf or dwarf stood any sort of shot against his land lord.
"They are a threat to me, your greatness. And I seek permission to cull their numbers." The great form of his Master shifted in the darkness of the room; Rastaban imagined that he was shifting his legs around to tap a claw against his muzzle in thought. However this was far from the truth as suddenly a vice tightened around the white dragon's middle and he was hoisted aloft by the tail of his Master, whom he was quickly brought before. The great head loomed bellow him, fiery eyes watching him, and their beams of light running over his tiny form. Rastaban began to feel fear all the more now that the impressive maw lay beneath him; closed yes but still as much of a threat as it would be had it been open.
"So what do you intend to do? Eat a few of them? Light a few houses on fire I suppose?" Said the titan as he shook his colossal head. "Such a little trouble maker isn't the kind of dragon I want under my residency." The great maw opened and Rastaban was pummeled by the rancid breath of the dragon and was greeted by massive, sword like teeth surrounding a wide, saliva coated tongue. The drool within clung to the roof and bottom of the maw, huge splotches of it falling in splashes from the pointed teeth, and the back of the great maw ranged from pink to black towards the gaping black hole that lead down to the titan's gullet. The little dragon's heart felt as though it were about to explode from his chest at the sight of this.
He was suddenly dropped into the awaiting maw before he had time to think, and was snapped from the air quickly, encasing him in a slimy, dark chasm of dragon's breath. He began to panic and thrash about but the thickness of the saliva clung to him and held him down as the gargantuan tongue coiled around him, tasting his fear and relishing it.
"How well do you squirm, dragon?" Asked the land lord as his tongue pushed Rastaban to the roof of his mouth, squishing him. Rastaban whimpered out a cry.
"Spare me great one!"
"Spare you? Oh but you taste so good!" The maw began to rock back and forth, rolling Rastaban from one side of the mouth to the other with relative ease and the teasing tongue rolling up in a coil around him, squeezing him in a fleshy prison. Rastaban just shut his eyes and waited for the torture to end, but it continued on and on, the titan finding great pleasure in treating the little drake as though he were nothing more than a tasty morsel of meat. And it did come at last when the titan spat him out onto a pile of gold coins; which he tumbled down in a clumsy fall, coated thickly with slobber. The great dragon chuckled. "Tell me why I should've bothered sparing a trouble maker like you from taking the plunge down to my gut?" He asked.
"I'm not a trouble maker, Sire." Rastaban said, wiping his saliva drenched face off. "I will not eat them, I will not burn them. I want to take twenty cows, my next twenty that is, in advance to slow their growth. And when twenty weeks has passed I'll take another twenty. And I shall continue to do so until I've driven them away...err, barring your permission of course Sir." Rastaban lowered himself to the floor.
The titan shifted, propping his head up on his paw and tapping idly at the ground with his other free one, a bemused expression on his face.
"Twenty? Hmm, that's a steep thing to bargain for. What would I get in return? Nothing of course, other than some folks far across the way mad at the world and would love it so much to track down whoever was responsible and kill him. And then what? I'd have to leave my home unguarded to come claim your horde. Oh no, no, no that simply won't do little one."
"But they'll kill me anyway if they continue to grow for another three years my Lord, I cannot hope to bring you rent if they kill me anyway." Rastaban pleaded, licking the ground by his land lord's feet, unworthy to even do that. The beast looked up in thought, eyes shut tightly. "Please Sir, I beg you for this opportunity to better my chances at survival. I'll...I'll bring you double, now, triple my rent if you but allow me to do this."
"Hmm...triple you say? Very well, you may partake in this little feast of yours, but you must devour the lot of them within a day of taking them. I'll find out if you don't. Let your mind stay at rest little drake and never you mind how, but I will know. And if you fail to do so, I'll sate my appetite by finishing you off." With that the titan leaned forward and licked Rastaban from nose to tail tip, coating him in a new layer of saliva that the white dragon had just finished shaking off. But the white dragon was so grateful for his land lord's mercy that he didn't care; at least not at the moment.
Later that evening, as Rastaban awaited the fall of night, he looked over his wall of rocks he'd spent the rest of the day constructing. Tall enough that nothing without wings could escape, but short enough so that someone like him could hop over it, or if need be, simply knock it over. He was simply giddy with excitement, though his very empty stomach would protest otherwise. But he'd done that intentionally, he knew he'd need an empty gut if he was to devour twenty cows in one sitting. He rehearsed it in his mind over and over; fly to the village, take two of the fattest cows he could find, bring them back here, trap them behind the wall, and then repeat until twenty of the fattest, juiciest and milk filled bovines were at his disposal.
The only nagging doubt at his mind was the thought that the land lord would eat him if he could get them all in one day; not that he doubted he could do it, he just pondered at how full he was going to become and how futile of an attempt he'd be able to make should he come to his door step. He shuddered once and then removed the thought from his mind. Stepping out from his cave he saw the last glimmers of the sun vanish on the horizon.
"Time to get to work." He muttered before taking off, the wind from his wings kicking up a flurry of dust and sand and withered bones. If there was one thing that could be at fault in this assault it would be his scales, brilliant though they were. They were such a shimmering shade of white that they seemed to reflect the light of the moon off of them. But for now things were too cloudy for the moon to poke through, and so he moved forward, driven by purpose and flying as silent as a graveyard mouse.
He came to the village again and did a lazy circle around it, drifting in and out of smoke columns from the village chimneys, the smell of ash filling his nostrils. He saw guards and shepherds walking up and down rows and roads within the town as it slipped into the twilight hours before sleep. Rastaban spotted two steers to the far edge of the cleared area, standing by a withered tree looking plump and fat as a blood fed tick. Rastaban licked his lips and dove of the duo and scooped them both off the ground with his back claws.
They bayed and bayed, screaming out their fear and confusion as to what was happening as they were carried away. Rastaban chuckled and pounded his wings harder, climbing higher in the sky. Soon he arrived back at his cave and gently deposited the frightened cows in the stone pen. They began running into the walls and each other as they tried to find a way out, scared beyond belief. A smile cracked Rastaban's face as he watched them cower beneath him. But time was of the essence and he had to get more cows.
The others took some time to retrieve, either due to increased patrols around the grazing fields or in the streets, most with their heads to the sky and thereby forcing him to be more and more patient with his approach. But he managed, slowly, to acquire his haul of twenty cows. The final two in hand and the sun's first light streaking across the forest, Rastaban was drooling massive globs of saliva as he flew towards home. He tried to keep his lips clean but his voracious belly kept sending up more and more cause for salivating. When he landed home he could wait no longer and grabbed hold of one of the cows in his hind claws with his maw and tossed his head to the ceiling. He made short but powerful surges forward with his head, gulping the bovine down with strong swallows, his neck bulging with lumps as the fatty creature slid down his gullet and into his belly.
He gave a weak belch after that, his blind hunger sedated for the moment. He grabbed the other cow and hopped across the rock barrier to be with the other steers; who all fled to a far corner when he entered. Rastaban chuckled and propped himself up against a wall, reclining in a comfortable position for dining. He upturned the cow in paw and nuzzled against its udder, then began to lick and slurp at its teats.
Soon creamy milk flowed from the creature's organic milk sack and into Rastaban's awaiting maw. He relished it. That sweet, sweet taste of dairy milk was so alluring, so satisfying that he sniffled a little when the stream became a trickle and then nothing. But that's what he had the other cows for. He made quick work of the cow and sent it down his gullet to his awaiting, although quite bulged, stomach. Using his tail as a lasso he pulled another cow to his side and proceeded to down its supply of milk as well, forgetting this time to savor it and instead sucked it up in one gulp, much to the bovine's displeasure.
But was one cow to a dragon? Or five? Or twelve? Or even eighteen? He drank from their udders until the creamy liquid poured through his teeth and trickled down his face scales and down over his belly in a sticky, slobbish mess. And his belly, oh did it ever sag. Resting on the ground all its own, writhing from the trapped and digesting cows within, one if his paws sank into the acquired fat he'd gotten from devouring so many cows, fattening not just his middle, but his legs, his tail, and his cheeks; truthfully his wings had long since gone useless from his acquired mass. But in his milk-drunk, wet belching state he didn't care for how messily he dined, all that mattered was that he had two more cows in his paws. His last two for some good deal of time.
Rastaban whimpered, knowing that these two were the end to the waves of euphoria that had set his mind tingling, and his gut thickening. But as daylight peeked inside his home he sighed and began to drink long, slow and well drawn out gulps from the bloated udders these last two carried until, with much regret, they too ran dry and were now nothing more than fatty sacks of meat. He happily devoured them of course, but couldn't repair the knowledge that his binge on cow's milk had at last come to an end.
He rolled over on his side, belching again as milk oozed between his teeth, and gave his massive and immobile gut a caress, feeling his prey breakdown and build up the already impressive layer of fat on his middle that his claws easily sunk into. His tongue hung from his jaws as he stared at a far wall, listening to the gurgling noises from his belly. He looked up to the top of the rock wall and saw a lone crane staring down upon him and felt compelled, for whatever reason, to eat it as well. But the bird left before he could move towards it.
"Bah." He said. "I'm full enough anyway." Then proceeded to ball up into a tight, milk covered mess of scales and fell asleep, lulled by the gurgles and churning of his belly.