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Liam couldn't stop staring at the stick, his eyes watering until he remembered to blink. Shorter than all the rest. He wanted to compare it again, just to make sure, but three times already was twice more than necessary."But I'm supposed to be the sound guy," he said. "How can I be the sound guy if I..." He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought.The other two shuffled their feet and avoided looking at him. "You knew the deal," Jason was the one who broke the silence. "It has to be one of us.""But I'm supposed to be the sound guy.""Matt knows how to do it," Jason said. Matt, Liam noticed, was still staring at his feet, the tiger kicking his toe against the floor. "Besides, we all have a job to do. If it had been him you would have had to handle video and sound both. If it was me you'd have to- look, it doesn't matter. We agreed."The wolf looked back over his shoulder, and what he saw there made him shudder. His tail drooped, and almost tucked. "I don't know if I can... If I can do it."Matt raised his head up and scowled at him. "You had your chance to back out before we got here. If you don't it's going to go real bad for all of us." He thumbed towards what Liam had been contemplating. "We made a deal, not just between us but with him, too. If you pussy out it might happen anyway, only without the deal that's going to keep you alive."Now they all looked, and Liam gulped."I trust you've chosen the felicitous explorer?" The voice was serenely thunderous, so deep it shook the granite walls of the cavern. They all jumped, and looked embarrassed.Matt at least had the decency, Liam thought, to be the one addressing the monstrous beast. "Yeah. It's him." He pointed at Liam."It makes little difference to me, so long as the decision is made."In repose lounged the subject of Liam's discomfiture. Forty feet from nose to tail, the great red dragon was over ten feet high while laying down and closer to

twenty when standing - a terrifying position Liam had only seen once, when they first visited the beast's cave. Every time since he'd been nearly exactly as he was now: front half upright with forelegs crossed in front of him, hind end resting on its side, tail curled around and wings folded against it's - his - back.Red scales plated the titanic form, large and looking as rigid as manhole covers around the top, softer and pliable skin on his chest and belly. Ridges resembling spikes formed over the sinuous spine, rounder at the neck and sharper along the tail. His head was as large as a small car, bony jaws mercifully closed with the occasional flick of a thick, forked tongue over fleshy lips. Those lips only parted when he talked, and the mouth opened to reveal saliva-wet teeth, each looking as big around as Liam's arm and nearly as long.Reptiles had always creeped Liam out, giant ones doubly so. It was something about that utterly expressionless face betraying no hint of emotion, only the ridges throwing shadow over golden and slitted eyes conveying anything at all, shifting and arching when he looked each of them in turn. When they rested on Liam he felt his knees turn to jelly. He tried a smile, reassuring himself more than the beast, and when that didn't work he tried to look coolly professional instead. He suspected he wasn't fooling anyone, least of all the dragon.It had all been Jason's idea, Liam thought sourly. When the leopard had suggested it the other two had thought him crazy, joking, or both. Matt had been the more skeptical one from concept to planning, and had only come around when Morganis - as the dragon called himself - had acquiesced to their proposal. Liam only realized after that he'd simply not believe it would ever happen so had never taken it seriously. He was taking it seriously now, though.--

 Amateur filmmaking was not a lucrative business, especially for three aspiring dropouts from a mediocre film school. Talent wasn't the problem, and tech costs had dropped well far enough for even the poorest wannabe filmmakers could afford it, so long as they rented. Production was not the problem either.The problem was ideas, Jason had said. Everything they'd considered he'd shot down as having been done before. Majestic documentaries, check. Low-budget action or sci fi, check. Drama, oh you better believe check. Romance remained the domain of women, both in the making of and viewership, and they hadn't even bothered to discuss it.When Jason said he had an idea, a really uncommon one, they'd been excited. When Jason told them the idea they stared at him, dumbfounded."A dragon?" Matt asked. "Are you out of your fucking mind? You want one of us to get swallowed by a fucking dragon?""Hear me out," Jason replied hastily. "Just hear me out. No one's ever tried it before, not the way I'm thinking."It was a sunny day downtown and the park at the center of town was bustling. They'd convened at the fountain near their former school, where their former classmates met and swapped ideas and had for decades. Good for creative juice-flowing, they all claimed, even if so much film had been shot at that location there it was unlikely a single exceptional idea could be wrung out of it anymore. But they were there to talk, not shoot."That's because it'a stupid idea," Liam said. "Why would anyone even watch it if we made it?""Because it's new," Jason said. "It's different. Look, I know it sounds crazy, but think of the publicity! We could completely fuck it up-""Not completely," Matt said."Right, okay, not completely. But the video quality could be shit and the sound could be a train wreck, and all it would do is add to the atmosphere! Don't you guys remember that Blair Witch Project? That thing was a mess and it made - what, like a hundred million?""A hundred and fifty," Liam admitted. "Domestic. Another hundred mil worldwide.""On a budget of like, nothing!" Jason said, pointing at Liam to emphasize his point. "We could fund this thing on credit cards and everyone would be talking about it. Everyone. Instant hit.""Blair Witch was fake, Jason," Matt said. "What you're talking about would be real. Really real."Jason threw up his paws. "Fine, then it's like one of those Discovery channel action documentaries! We'll get that one guy to do the narration, edit it to build up plenty of of tension, maybe throw a few scripted lines in and some shaky cam. It'd be like Deadliest Catch, only with less crabs!""I'd be happier with crabs," Liam said mournfully. "Small, harmless crabs."Matt sighed, the tiger knuckling his eyes. "Jason, of all your crazy ideas, this one is definitely the craziest. Where would we even find a dragon?""I've got that part covered," the leopard insisted. "I know a guy, who knows a guy, who swears he can get us a, like, an audience with one. If he goes for it, the rest is easy.""Easy for you to say," Liam grumbled. "You won't be the one going spelunking the inside of a dragon.""I didn't say that," Jason said. "We'll throw our names in a hate, or draw straws, if it even comes to that. Shortest one is the... Talent, and the other two handle the production.""And I suppose you're offering to negotiate the deal, too?""Sure," Jason said, and Liam could tell he was faking the bravado he was trying to show. "I mean, so long as you two come along. But I can do all the talking, sure.""And if he doesn't go for it?" Matt asked. "He- it's a he, right?"Jason nodded."Yeah, he might just decide to skip the movie part and just get down to it, right then."But Jason was already shaking his head. "I'm telling you, my guy says he's totally chill. Not feral, doesn't hunt anything sentient, practically just a regular dude like you and me.""Except he lives in a cave, is fucking huge, and could kill all of us without hardly thinking about it," Matt said, while it was Liam's turn to nod."Right, but he won't. Look, it's like riding a bicycle in the city, one wrong move from a car and you're toast. And Liam, you ride like every day! You really think my guy would even know him if he had a taste for people like us? I wouldn't even have a guy to talk to.""Jason, jesus." Liam sat down on the low wall at the edge of the fountain, sprawled his feet out in front of him "Why would he even agree to it?"The leopard shrugged. "You're right, maybe he won't. But everyone wants their fifteen minutes, right? Even a dragon prolly does. It can't hurt to ask.""Oh yes it can," Matt snorted. "It can hurt a lot."Jason sighed. "Have either of you got a better idea?""Just because we don't doesn't mean yours is anything but fucked up," Matt said. But Liam was gnawing on a thumbclaw."Maybe we should," he said, still doubtfully. "I mean, if Jason's right this could be the ticket out of waiting tables for shitty tips and eating ramen every night."Matt snorted. "Or it could be a ticket to being a steaming pile of shit on the floor of some cave. I like ramen better than that.""Let's just ask, okay?" Jason said. "You've got to have the balls for that. Nobody made it big playing it safe, and if I'm right, and the dude... Thing... Goes for it, we'd have it made. Maybe forever. We'd have enough money to do whatever we wanted, fuck the big studios.""Fuck. I swear to god, Jason, if you get us killed I'll never forgive you," Liam grumbled.Jason grinned. He knew he had Liam, and that Matt would go along if both of them did. "I'll set up a meeting."--"I'm afraid you'll need to explain it to me again," Morganis intoned. It took every ounce of Liam's courage not to bolt when faced with that golden-eyed and implacable gaze. "It detail.""We want to you to star in a film we're making," Jason said, speaking loudly although Liam was sure the dragon had excellent hearing. "It wouldn't take more than maybe five or six hours, from setup to teardown. One day of principal, tops.""So you said," Morganis said, voice like boulders rumbling down a mountain. He looked like a mountain from where they stood. "The rest of it is what I'm unclear on.""Two of us will handle the production." The leopard pointed between to Liam and Matt. "The other will work with you in front of the camera for

the main event. We'll start out with exterior shots, of the cave, of you, standard stuff. You'd hardly have to do a thing for that part, most of it we could do without you, even. For the rest of it, you'll... That is, one of us will strap on some lights, a camera, a microphone - small ones, I promise - and... Well... The dragon looked at them with unblinking and smouldering eyes."One of us will... Go in.""Swallowed, you mean. By me.""Exactly! However you want, we leave that part up to you-""How very kind of you," Morganis's rumbled interruption shut Jason up for a moment. For once.."Right," Jason said. "Right. We'll use a wireless setup so there won't be any cables to get in the way or anything. We'd need you to... Do your thing for maybe, say, ten, fifteen minutes? No more than that." Liam had shuddered then, he remembered. I should hope not. "Then you would, you'd have to, well..." he trailed off again."Regurgitate him," Morganis said, without a hint of emotion."You can do that, right?" Matt piped up, then looked like he wished he hadn't when those slitted eyes regarded him."I can," Morganis said. "Easily.""We'd shoot maybe another half hour, an interview with both of you. And that'd be it.""You have yet to explain to me why I'd acquiesce to such an arrangement.""We couldn't offer you money," Jason said, sounding hesitant. "Like I said, we're kind of... On a budget, you know? But you'd get top billing. Top billing, you know, like your name would-""I understand what that means, furred one.""...Oh, okay. So, yeah," Jason finished, lamely. "That's basically it."There was nothing for long moments, the dragon simply scrutinizing them. Liam started to think this was a bad idea, just like Matt said."Very well," Morganis said, well after the time Liam had felt his heart starting to pound in his chest. For a moment he seriously considered making a break for it, in case the dragon was thinking of doing something besides starring in a low-budget documentary. "I will participate.""That's... It?" Jason said."We will talk, I will feed, then regurgitate my meal. We will talk some more, and that will be all." His - its lips quirked. You were perhaps expecting more ceremony?""Well, no," Jason said after a heartbeat. "I mean, thanks. Thank you! You have no idea what this would mean for us, seriously. We'll need a model release form, I don't know how you'd sign it, but yeah, we could start in as little as a few weeks..."--And that had been that. They'd spent three weeks preparing for the shoot, securing the hardware they'd need and maxing out their credit cards in the process, just like Jason had predicted. Wireless audio was cheap, but video - especially hi-def - wasn't. They'd had to call around to get it all and even then had to call in a few favors to be able to afford it. They'd been circumspect about the exact nature of the film, and Lian had hoped the mandatory insurance would cover any... Damages.Now here they were, Liam holding a too-short stick and feeling like he was going to be sick.They'd procrastinated the selection part as long as they could. All the exterior and b-roll footage was already shot and had been since over an hour ago. They'd all dawdled on preparing the hardware for the big scene, fiddling over this and that, until the inevitable moment of truth had arrived, and they'd pulled out the short sticks, and Liam had picked the wrong one."Fuck it," Liam said, refusing to look back at the dragon again. "Let's just get this over with before I change my mind." Matt slapped him on the shoulder wordlessly, squeezed it, and let go. That was nice of him, Liam thought.There was no excitement, none of the breathless anticipation that usually accompanied the minutes before a shoot. Sure, they were probably all nervous about getting it right - they only had one take to do this in, after all - but the atmosphere was somber rather than anticipatory. None of them

spoke any more than was necessary and they all cast furtive glances back at the dragon, who watched the goings-on with apparent disinterest. He'd barely even moved when they'd set up the exterior lights earlier in the day.The equipment took too long to strap on, and was too heavy for Liam's taste. It wasn't the first time he'd dressed in wearable gear but they had to be sure all of it was extra-secure, looping gaffer's tape around his middle to hold the two cameras - one on his back and one on his chest - and the microphone to his belly. Flat-panel LED lights were placed on his head, body and legs, aimed away from the cameras and secured in place with more tape. By the end of it it was hard to move without snapping the straps and he had to breathe shallowly. But that might just be fear.Throughout it all the dragon simply watched, unmoving. Liam had hazarded a few more glances at him and didn't know whether he was relieved or more frightened by the dragon's composure. "Speed," Matt said, the tiger poking at the recorder slung over his shoulder and hanging from his waist and refusing to meet Liam's pleading gaze."Rolling," Jason said. He sat in front of a bank of monitors, one for each camera Liam wore and another for a wide-angle shot carefully placed to keep the equipment (that Liam wasn't wearing) out of the shot. Lighting - and a lot of it - did a poor job illuminating more than the dragon's front half, the back fading into gloom at the back of the cave without so much as casting shadows on walls too far way to see. Taped-over and dimmed red LEDs blinked on the cameras Liam wore. Besides the equipment he had on only a pair of swim shorts - a touch Jason had insisted upon. Like he was going for a quick dip in a pool.In less than half an hour this'll all be over, Liam thought, and willed himself to walk towards the hulking reptile. It didn't work, and he had to try twice more before his feet would obey. Even then every step was trudging, bare feet scuffing on the hard-packed dirt that covered the bottom of the cave. A jutting rock bit into the soft arch of his foot and he picked it up quickly with a hop, nearly stumbling under the weight of the cameras and batteries.The equipment, the wolf had decided, were his insurance policy. Acid, hard plastic, copper wiring and glass were unlikely to suit the dragon's digestive tract and would hopefully provide some incentive for Morganis to uphold his end of the 'bargain'. Not that they had any reason to believe the dragon

wouldn't of course, Liam reasoned. If they pulled this off successfully they'd all be rich and famous, or at least famous. If they didn't, well... Nobody liked a snuff film. Least of all Liam. Even Morganis must want this to work out, otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to it.Right?Too soon he was standing less than an arm's length from the dragon's forelegs, the lighting he wore throwing a small pool of bright over the dragon's front. He looked up at the underside of the scaled chin while the terrible snout lowered, ponderously slowly. For the first time that Liam had seen Morganis was showing some emotion, but the faint smile inspired no confidence in the wolf at all. He wished it wasn't doing that.The 'gory' details Liam knew well, because they'd gone over it dozens of times. It would start out with Morganis engulfing the wolf in his mouth, giving them the longest shot of the inside of a maw easily large enough for Liam to fit. That scene could continue theoretically indefinitely so long as the dragon was careful, and opened his mouth every once in awhile.Then, on a cue from Jason, he would, that is, Morganis would... Swallow. Likely more than once. And then the clock would start, because even though the dragon assured him he could gulp air along with him to prevent him from suffocating, other factors would come into play. Factors like acid, and stomach walls, and natural digestion that was outside the dragon's control. After extensive discussion (that at times sounded to Liam worrying close to a negotiation) they'd estimated he'd have fifteen minutes at most before permanent damage would occur, so they'd stop the shot at ten. Just to be safe.Sometime before then Liam would be regurgitated, with few ill effects and none long-term, so long as they washed him off as soon as possible. Towels, buckets of chemically treated cleaner and brushes would clean him of digestive juices within minutes. They'd have their shot, there would be some time for an interview with both of them after, and that would be that. At least, that was the plan."Okay," Liam said, not feeling okay at all. "I'm ready.""I doubt that very much," Morganis said. This close to the gigantic maw the wolf could feel the heated air, smell something fetid and acidic on the dragon's breath, and had a terrifyingly close-up view of the dragon's mouth. Morganis licked his lips, and opened his jaws a few feet.It was wetter than he would have thought, he could see now. From a distance it looked at most moist but up close he could see ropes of drool stringing the inside of the tooth-lined maw and slathered over a dark red tongue as wide as Liam was. The lips were indeed as soft as they looked from a distance but much larger and fuller now, stretching, flexing when he spoke. "Once I'm in there-" he looked back over his shoulder at the other two. Jason looked annoyed he was talking at all. "Will you be able to hear me?""Possibly.""But... What if something goes wrong? What if I need you to let me out?" He was glad he didn't have to worry about lines, since all the audio for this part would be handled by voice-over. That was the plan, anyway. He didn't intend on saying anything Jason could use later to make him look stupid."I won't." The dragon's smile was still there, and he spoke partially open-mouthed, quick to widen again with each roaring syllable.. Did it widen? Liam couldn't tell."What if there's an equipment problem? I don't know how well it'll stay on me in there. Maybe we should-""Furred one," Morganis rumbled, and Liam took a half-step back and pinned back his ears. The wolf wished the dragon would call him by his name, but he didn't refer to any of them as anything other than 'furred one'. "What happens to you next is an inevitability. We can continue with you as a willing participant, or... Less willing. The choice is yours, but I grow impatient.""I'm serious," Liam said, stalling. "What if-"Liam never got to finish his sentence. Faster than he could have imagined the jaws snapped down, the corpulent tongue wrapped around him, and he was jerked fast enough up into the sloppy wet heat of the dragon's mouth for his limbs to fling outwards. Morganis had, it seemed, tired of waiting.Liam might have screamed, he wasn't sure. He hoped he hadn't, he didn't want that on tape. He had a split-second view of the black and pillowy-looking interior of a mouth as large as a full-sized camping tent before it closed around him, tongue yanking him up until his scrabbling feet cleared the floor and lips clamped over his knees, leaving his legs from calves-down free to

kick and flail in midair. He felt the elastic stretch of those lips purse, a suction that popped his ears around him, and with a quick slurp he was drawn the rest of the way into inky blackness.Only... It wasn't black. The skin was, but the light from the LEDs illuminated the rolls of flesh that enveloped him in a soggy cavern, the interior of which was roughly the size of a large camping tent. Liam hadn't noticed the color at first because of how tightly he was held between tongue and palate, but once fully inside the teeth parted slightly, the tongue relaxed, and Liam could get a view of his surroundings.The red tongue and ivory teeth contrasted sharply with the onyx flesh that lined the inside of the dragon's maw. The lights he wore, that seemed too pitifully weak to illuminate Morganis's outside, were glaring-bright in the cramped confines, so much so he had to squint when he was looking at the teeth. For long moments he simply sat on the cushion of muscle, looking around with his own jaw hanging open at the sight. It was so... Organic, so much moreso than the beast's scaled exterior. It was hard to believe something that looked so much like plated steel on the outside was so strangely soft on the inside. Everything in there was moving, all the time, even though the dragon seemed to be largely letting Liam familiarize himself with what would be his accommodations for the next ten minutes. Or more.It wasn't until he tried to take a breath that he realized he'd been holding it, and when he did he gagged on recycled dragon breath. That fetid smell from earlier was overpoweringly strong in here, bubbling up from a place behind him he didn't dare look. His fur, already slick on the outer, coarser hair, was rapidly soaking through with slobber that as much clung to his fur as it did soak into it, viscous and slimy, much less liquid-feeling than he'd been expecting. It was hot in there already, too, and getting hotter the longer those lips stayed sealed shut.You're here to do a job, Liam, he told himself, and planted a paw on the tongue beneath him. it sank into spongy tissue and slipped away; he had to catch himself to keep from sliding back, bending his knees and bracing his heels to try and find some purchase. With that precarious grip stabilizing himself he turned his entire body just like they'd discussed, to make sure the cameras got the full scene - if he'd just moved his head the view for the audience would have been stationary. Everything was lit up, it wasn't like a flashlight in a cellar like he was expecting, more like a... Well, a cave.Slowly the tongue beneath him stiffened and lifted up, flesh that had been waterbed-soft firming up to roll to the left. Liam found himself slipped to the other, quick as anything slipping against the teeth on the right, caught in a hollow between tongue and hard, sharp spikes he didn't dare try to grab on to. It was like being in one of those kid's bouncy castles if it was full of lube and being pushed around from the outside, no way to control himself and just holding on (or not) for the ride. The prehensile tongue curled, found him, wormed its way around his legs and pulled him to the other side. This time he ended up dunked into a collected pond of drool, splashing in headfirst and having to twist himself around violently to get his head above 'water'.There was, in fact, a worrying increase in the amount of ropey slaver he was sloshing around in. He was afraid what it might mean until it occurred to him that of course the dragon was going to drool - he was, after all, a predator with a mouthful of meat - and that the only alternative to splashing around in it was if the dragon swallowed it down, something Liam should be relieved he wasn't. It may have been disgusting - and it absolutely was, gloopy and bubbling like a pot of stew around him - but it was better than the alternative."Okay, so... I'm in here now," he said, his words muffled so much he raised his voice. "It's... Really wet. I hope you guys are getting this, Matt. It stinks, uh, sorry about that Morganis if you can hear me, but it does, like roadkill or something that's been out in the sun after it rained. Maybe that's me, my fur, I don't know. Oof, glug." The last part was when the tongue rolled around him again, curled around his waist, and seemed to intentionally force him into the pocket of flesh between gums and the tongue's underside where more saliva had collected, this time mercifully butt-first. "Sorry, it's just hard to move around in here."The wolf felt like he should be saying something more clever but it just wasn't coming. For the next unknown number of minutes he either explored of his own accord the cloying environment or was forced around in it, tossed around like a rubber duck in a bathtub, sometimes against teeth, sometimes against gums, and sometimes - each time his heart stopping for a moment - lifted up against the dragon's palate, although thankfully always the harder front part. One time he was pinned there, so firmly but so effortlessly on Morganis's part that Liam had a hard time breathing even when he tried to squirt himself free.Once, and only once, the jaws around him

parted, lips pulled back from bared teeth to let in a wash of shocking cold and fresh air and, presumably, a view for Jason and Matt of him - even if the bright glare of lights made it impossible for he himself to see them in return. He even wondered for a moment if there had been some sort of problem and the dragon was letting him out early... But no, too soon the lips pulled together again, the jaws inexorably closed around him, and he was back in his sweltering cavern. No such luck."I guess I'm, well... I got a lot of footage," Liam said as the tongue slipped back underneath him. His heart was pounding again, it felt like in his throat, and he was starting to feel dizzy. He wondered if he was going to be sick. This part was frightening enough, although it had gone on long enough that he was almost getting used to it, even soaked through from head to toe in slimy spittle and battered about between teeth and tongue. What he knew would come next was even more terrifying because he knew, as claustrophobic as his environment right now was, that it would be infinitely worse. "I don't know if you guys can hear me, but if we're going to do this, we... I... Okay."The tongue beneath him lifted... No, wait, the whole mouth around him was lifting, the tongue barely moving at all. The collected lake of drool around him began to drain backwards, towards the place he now turned to regard, sliding one leg over the tongue and then the other, straddling it like a cowboy straddles a bull and contemplating the next 'scene'.It wasn't quite as bad as he'd been afraid, and at the same time far worse. Back there was... Nothing. Soft black flesh lined a tunnel stretching past where the lights could reach, or maybe it was just the walls narrowed and the sopping wet, meaty flesh made it look like it was a pit. But either way he was watching over the dusky red rise of the dragon's tongue into an opening he was already beginning to slip towards, inch by inch, even as he tried to get his paws underneath him. "I'm not so sure about this," he started, and felt his ass slip, then slip again. "Guys, really, I'm not sure about this now, we could just do this part, just make the movie from what we've got already... Guys... Guys!"It felt like everything gave way at once, but really it was just his paws and feet slipped at the same time. One moment the dragon's rising lower jaw was tipping back and he could feel it, the increasing angle, the shifting 'floor' beneath him, and the next... Gravity took over and he was sliding, plunging, his feet kicking to find a narrowing tube

clench around them but letting him through slickly nonetheless. Darkness reached out to him, clutched at his body, and everything went dark - literally.--"Oh my god," Jason breathed.Morganis's head was tilted at maybe forty-five degrees, maybe not even that much - they could still see his eyes, watching them from the bottoms of golden irises, but just barely. From the outside they'd been able to see the 'pouch' that Liam made in the soft flesh between the bones that delineated the dragon's jaws, squirming and shifting, occasionally bulging out one cheek or the other while the tongue rolled around. The footage they had was hard to decipher, they couldn't even tell if Liam was upside-down, facing back or facing forward. Everything was flashes of black, red and white.And the sounds... They both wore headphones, and they could both hear it in grotesque detail. It was like recording the sounds of someone squishing their fingers through peeled grapes and spaghetti in a haunted house, squelching and burping and gurgling punctuated only by Liam's grunts or attempts at narration (they'd have to edit that out, the audio quality was terrible) and the occasional rumble from somewhere deep inside the dragon, so loud it made the microphone clip."Guys... Guys!"That part they could hear, a moment before it was cut off. The indistinct bulge of the wolf slid back, further back than at any time so far, and moved to the dragon's scaled neck.. And down.They could see him swallowing. Jason hadn't expected that, and was glad he'd insisted on an exterior camera. It wasn't just that the lump-of-Liam moved downwards, Morganis was swallowing him, ripple after ripple hastening that lump's travel. Or maybe he was swallowing to slow Liam's progress? The dragon's neck looked more than big enough for Liam to ride down like a kid on a slide at a waterpark, but still it took almost a minute for the lump to disappear into the dragon's chest. With one final gulp - snout parted, tongue slapping at his lips - Morganis lowered his head and closed his mouth."Dude, the timer!"Matt's urgent whisper jolted Jason's attention back to the fact that they were making a movie. The displays showed nothing but coal-black flesh, from both cameras, but Jason suspected it

wouldn't be for long. He punched start on the cheap plastic kitchen timer taped to the side of the monitor, and with a beep it began counting down from 10:00."It, uh... Mister Morganis," Jason found himself slipping almost naturally into the director's role. "Sir, it's T-minus ten minutes.""Indeed," Morganis rumbled.--Liam felt like he was suffocating already, despite having taken a deep, sputtering breath before his head sank into the beast's throat along with the rest of his body. The rippling constriction had traveled up his legs, around his hips, clamped around his chest, paused... Then yanked him down, arms outstretched over his head to grasp at nothing but slick tongue before his head went under. Here we go.The trip was anything but smooth - or fast. He'd thought maybe he'd be in the throat for a few seconds at most, but already it felt like it'd been a minute and still peristaltic squeezes were propelling him downwards (at least he thought it was downwards, at this point gravity had ceased to have any meaning for him) towards whatever awaited him. Holding his breath was a challenge with how tight it was, every crushing gulp seeming as if it was trying to collapse his chest and lungs. He screwed his eyes shut and set his jaw, biting back the urge to exhale - or scream - as rippling muscles pulled him deeper into the dragon's body. He'd thought the mouth claustrophobic, but this was infinitely worse - any motion of his body was at the beast's muscles' whims. He couldn't move.Down and down, the temperature around him rising until he felt as if he would pass out from heat stroke. The sounds of the dragon's body grew deafening around him; now the thunderous beat of it's heart pounded in his skull, breathing (how could it breathe around him!?) like the bellows of a furnace, and still that ever-present squelching, wet and alive, as a pocket of saliva along with him provided a mucousy sheath more slippery than anything he'd ever felt. He felt one of the tape loops give way with a snap and hoped he still had all the equipment attached - the batteries were definitely still there, because they were biting into his belly and waist.It started with a relaxing of the muscles around Liam's feet, the constriction lessening until he could actually kick them. The sensation of looseness traveled up his body more quickly than the compression of entering the dragon's throat, until gravity took over

and a final squeeze propelled into him into a comparatively roomy space. He had barely a moment to register it before he splashed into a far larger pool than the one in Morganis's mouth. It wasn't as slick, but...He gagged again, the instant he tried to take a breath. "Acidic" didn't even begin to cover it; his throat burned from the very first breath and his eyes began to water, forcing him to squeeze them shut against the splash. Whatever he'd been anticipating, the reality of the dragon's belly - and he was, undoubtedly, in it's belly - was far more bizarre.Unlike the relatively firm softness - that is, with some weight to it - of the dragon's mouth, Morganis's gut was a pliable, sagging sac that rolled and surged around him. His lower half already sat in what he knew was chyme, digestive enzymes that undoubtedly were already going to work on him - even if he couldn't feel it yet. The level of it rose and fell with seemingly random involuntary motions of wrinkled flesh around him, motions that made it much harder to see his surroundings than before. It would sometimes get up to his neck, submerging the (thankfully waterproof) cameras before receding when a fold would give way. There was simply nothing for him to grab onto even when he tried, pushing in any direction simply wrapped slimy flesh around his limb, sometimes grabbing at it and making him jerk hastily back for fear of being dragged into some new pocket, maybe a smaller one than the one he was in. Morganis might have kept his word to swallow air with him but still Liam had to breathe in short, choking gasps, muzzle tilted up towards where he presume the dragon's throat was to try and get his nose as far away from the gurgling juices as possible. He just barely had the presence of mind to try and writhe around to get the camera on his chest free of one of the rippling folds so it could at least catch a view of something, even if it was probably just pink slime. The stench in here was horrific, putrid and choking. How long had it been? How much longer would it be?--"Two minute, Mister Morganis," Jason said.The view on the monitors was disappointingly confused, with very little to see except occasional flashes of what looked like pinkish skin. The audio, though, was far more usable, still aqueous (and frankly disgusting) but louder and sharper now, at least when whatever fluid was in there wasn't covering the mic and muffling it. Liam was still grunting, and they could hear the occasional cough or gasp.

Jason shot a look at Matt, who gave him a worried one back. Neither of them smiled, even if things were going according to plan so far."Jes... Hot, can't...All right, I g...ho..Fuck, sting.. Everyth...think...." In between the words was just muffled sounds and the occasional slosh of liquid and the scrape of physical contact with the microphone."One minute," Jason said.--Liam was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his head above 'water'. No matter how much twisted and squirmed the level of liquid he competed for space with in the dragon's gut never fell below his chest now, and the acid gas that passed for air that made up the rest of the stomach's contents (besides himself) made his throat increasingly raw. He coughed, and grimaced, as he felt a blistering spasm in his throat, as if he had heartburn that wouldn't go away no matter how much he tried to gulp breath.His skin had begun to tingle now, too, beginning at the softer skin of his pawpaws and... Other, more sensitive parts. Reflexively he tried to reach down to protect himself but found both arms trapped, one out to the side and other over his head, so tightly he couldn't pull them in. His feet couldn't kick anymore either, caught in a sack looser than the dragon's throat the molded around him whatever his position.Panic was starting to set in. Even if the ten minutes hadn't elapsed it felt as if irreversible damage was beginning to develop, and his fur felt... glutinous. Where his ankles rubbed together he wasn't even sure he had fur anymore. His crotch burned, from underneath his tail to his scrotum, and he squirmed his hips to try and get away from the sharp and growing pain. One of the batteries, or maybe the camera, came loose from him and slithered away."Guys... Jason, help me, please," He gasped, hoping to god they could hear him. "Tell him to let me out... I think it's burning me... Please, tell him, now, I don't care how long it's been, you have to let me out."--"And... Time." Jason looked up from the glow of his monitors at Morganis, who hadn't so much as moved since lowering his head after... After devouring Liam.The dragon said nothing."Time!" Jason said louder. The timer was beeping, so he punched the stop button. Still the dragon didn't react."Mister Morganis? Did you hear me? The ten minutes are up.""I did, furred one," Morganis said, serenely calm. "Dragons have exceptional hearing."From the microphone they could hear Liam trying to say something, something incoherent but distinctly panicked. Jason thought he heard 'please' somewhere in there.Matt and Jason exchanged another, uneasy look. "So it's time to... Throw him back up." 0:00 was blinking on the timer's display."For example, " Morganis said. "I hear your friend right now, as I believe you can as well. He sounds quite distressed, does he not?""Yeah," Jason said, feeling his stomach begin to knot. "He does. Could you please throw him up now? We need to get him out of there and cleaned off.""Bleating, as if he were a sheep." The dragon licked his lips again, slowly this time."He's not a sheep," Matt said urgently. "He's Liam. Morganis, please." It had been over a minute since the timer had run out. Jason stood up."Sit down, creature," Morganis rumbled, and although his voice sounded exactly the same as before it made Jason's blood run cold. "You have a task to perform and I expect you to fulfill it. We are making a movie, after all."Jason did, looking at the monitor, at Matt, at the dragon. Liam was screaming now, or it sounded like it anyway, and the wet sloshing sounds got very loud. Like he was flailing around in there. It was hard to tell from the video, which looked as random - and as visceral - as it had all along.The dragon's throaty belch echoed off the walls, and Jason felt the blood drain from his face.--When the stomach heaved around him, for a brief, joyously relieving moment Liam was sure his time was up. He even braced his

feet, expecting to feel pressure on them thrusting him upwards, back into that slick throat and out into glorious air and light.Instead, the level of chyme he was broiling in rose, and rose some more, until it consumed Liam's straining nose-tip. He didn't even have time to gather scalding breath, in the midst of a scream that became a sputter, became a gurgle. He squeezed his eyes shut against the blackness and still felt the viscid fluid seeping beneath his eyelids, burning his eyeballs, filling his nose and mouth and spilling down his throat.With all his might he fought, thrashing in the water balloon-like sac of the dragon's churning gut. He didn't care about the movie anymore, didn't care about Jason, didn't care about anything but escaping the devastating pain and terror that enveloped him.It's been ten minutes it has to have been ten minutes oh jesus please let me out I can't breatheHe was dying. He could feel it, creeping up on him agonizingly slowly. His lungs burned, from acid, from trying to draw breath. His skin felt loose, his fur nonexistent, his soft tissues no longer burning while the thicker skin began to melt away too. Worst of all was that he was digesting from the inside out as well; skin of his mouth, tongue and throat beginning to slough off and eyeballs burning like there were hot needles spearing them. The thick chime seeped into every orifice, old and new, dissolving away his interior organs.When he yawned his muzzle wide to scream, instead glutinous liquid rushed into his lungs. He had a brief, terrifying moment of agony before the walls closed in around him violently, and the last thing Liam heard was the sickening crunch of his own bones splintering under the strain before eternal darkness consumed him.--They couldn't hear Liam anymore.One monitor went black, the other showing the same incoherent scene as before. Over the headphones came nothing but churning, gurgling liquid."Oh god, Liam," Matt said. "Oh god oh god." He looked at Jason, as if for an answer that the leopard did not have."If either one of you stop recording you will be joining your friend immediately," Morganis said, his mighty form rolling slowly

with the sound of crushing pebbles and shifting scales. "These documentaries of yours... Do they ever end poorly for the subjects of them? Accidents must occur sometimes, do they not?""Oh god," Matt whispered, a hitch in his voice, and sounded as if he might sob."Although my co-star's demise was not, I must confess, an accident. Surely you didn't think me so merciful as to let a willing meal go to waste." The dragon's lips quirked in something like mirth. From somewhere deep inside the mountain of scales something gurgled, much louder and sodden over the microphone. "Although soon enough he will be, I suppose."Jason sat there frozen, staring unseeing at the one remaining internal monitor. For a brief moment he saw something, something so horrifying he had choked and nearly vomited. It was flesh, fur burned away, sores dotting skin coated in yellow slime. Then it, too, went black. The only one left was the feed from the outside, seeing the same thing the tiger and leopard did."You were supposed to..." Spare him, he wanted to say. "Throw him back up.""I fear I mislead you on that particular subject," Morganis said, smacking his lips once. "And do not presume to tell me what I was, or am, 'supposed' to do, furred one. What a dragon chooses to do is his business. Now then, I believe we have an interview to perform?"The microphone Liam had been wearing cut off with a crackle of static. Whatever was going on inside the dragon was no longer being recorded."What... Why..." was all Jason could manage, staring back at the dragon in horror. "But we had a deal...""We did. Your arrogance is only surpassed by your stupidity, furred one," Morganis intoned. "For such pitifully weak creatures as yourselves I find it perhaps a bit surprising you didn't predict this outcome. We're still, as you say, rolling, yes?"Matt sounded like he was sobbing now, somewhere in the darkness, but Jason couldn't look away from the terrifying beast."I'll take your silence as affirmation. You needn't look so concerned now, furred one. Your friend is digesting peacefully now. I can't say I look forward to the effort it will take to break down your equipment as well, but sacrifices

must be made. I trust you have insurance enough to cover it. Now then, do you have any questions for me? This is an interview.""Why did you do that," Matt whispered before Jason could utter a word."Because it amused me. Just as it amuses me that you took care to document your friend's demise in such detail. And lest you think me too callous, I suggest you consider that my amusement is what is keeping both of you from spending the last pitiful moments of your life bathed in the remains of my meal. At the moment."Neither of the other two spoke."Anything else? No? How disappointing, I thought you a serious auteur. In any case, here is what's going to happen next. This brief interview is over. You are going to finish with whatever tasks you must perform to complete our work here today. If you don't mind, please extinguish these infernal lights first, as I find them most unpleasant. Once you're done you will leave my home in an orderly and calm fashion, as befits your function as dispassionate reporters of nature's cruel indifference.""You can't possibly expect-" Jason started."What I expect is to hear news of the finished production within a few weeks' time. If you decide, as you might say, to 'sit' on this footage, I will make a concerted effort to find each of you, and I assure you your ending will be far more horrific than your friend's. I also expect to receive, as you promised, top billing. My late co-star will have to make do with a more... Reduced role, I'm afraid, and I strongly suspect you will not want to document his brief and ignominious encore."Another gurgle emanated from the dragon's gut, this time only audible from the outside."And that, furred ones, is a wrap. Now as for these damnable lights..."