The last thing Eostre recalled was going to sleep after a long day of hunting. As a feral dragon of Alabast, he was proud to have a great hoard to sleep upon. What he saw now, however, was a far cry from his cave. He opened his eyes to find a sea of grey in front of him. Eostre eventually came to realize that this was the interior of a building- large boxes the lesser species built. Where was he? Eostre slowly got up from a sleeping position.
Eostre then noticed that he could get up… But he couldn’t walk. He could bend his limbs, but his legs refused to budge. He felt a tight, cold material around them, preventing him from going anywhere. This stuff ran up his 4 legs and stopped there. Before he could swivel his head to see what was going wrong, he heard a voice.
“Awake, I see.” the voice said. Eostre turned his head towards the noise, revealing a person to his side. This person was a dragon, much like Eostre; however, this one walked on two legs; his scaled the grey of the walls, instead of Eostre’s deep blue. This person was also in a long, white shirt- A lab coat.
Was this the person who has Eostre like this? What is this?
“What is going on? What are you doing, lesser creature?” Eostre bellowed. How could a being, so much smaller than him, do this?
The man smiled. “My name is David Michael, and I’m your test coordinator. You are property of Enduring Enterprises.”
The once strong, once proud Eostre was bound and captured.
“I am property of no one but myself! I will not tolerate this!” Eostre balked.
“I’m afraid that isn’t the case. You’re scheduled to be involved in a species capacity test.”
“What? You cannot do this!” He growled.
“Well, try and stop me.” This little man seems very confident, Eostre thought. Just wait until the fire comes, and-
Eostre attempted to breathe out his dragon’s flame, but nothing came out. He was only able to wheeze a tad.
“What have you done to me?”
“I took the initiative and cut out your ignition glands.” the one named David chuckled.
“I will not stand for this! You can’t-”
“But you’re our property. Of course I can.” David said. “Anyways, I have a question for you.”
“I will not-”
“Are you hungry?”
“What?”
“It’s better if you are. Trust me.”
At this point, Eostre stopped talking. He heard a whooshing sound, and he turned his head behind him to see the noise. In came another man (a husky dog, by the looks of it) carrying a cart. But this was no ordinary cart. It was a rack of sorts, upon which hung a series of shiny, black blobs, each the size of a human.
David spoke. “Ah, Lewis, there you are with the feed!” He turns to Eostre. “Your food is here.”
Eostre looked in mystification. Whatever material those blobs were, he certainly could not have eaten them. However, his wonder faded when the one apparently called Lewis began fiddling with one of them. Eostre watched in silent horror as the black material melted before his eyes, revealing an unconscious wolf-man. He then slowly came to realize, as Lewis carted the body towards David and him, that he was supposed to eat this.
He would not.
Esotre has eaten people before. An errant knight here, a hoard thief there. But the meat of lesser creatures was nothing compared to that of game. Eostre had never eaten someone who didn’t fight back. And this wolf here was being carted closer to Eostre’s head.
Lewis threw the body, to the best of his ability, at Eostre’s bound foreclaws. Eostre looked at it, and looked back up at the dragon in a lab coat. “No.” he said.
“Now, now, I really thought that this would be easy for a dragon like you.” David said.
“It would be.”
“Well, why won't you prove it? I bet you you can’t actually eat all the food we’re providing. I think you’re bluffing.”
“A… Challenge, is this?” Eostre balked. First, David binds him up, and now he doubts his power?
“Look, we can do this the way that proves your might… Or we can do it the way that makes you a coward.” David smiled, as he always seemed to do.
Eostre was conflicted. He would not be weak, but eating is exactly what his captors wanted him to do… He couldn’t give in!
“No.” Eostre said.
“Very well. Quite sad that our capture was so weak of stomach...” David said. Still outside of biting range, he turned and walked away towards the door.
As Eostre watched David leave, he felt a pang of hunger in his stomach. Who knows how long since he had eaten? He needed to eat… And his pride was on the line. He had to do it.
“Wait! I… Accept your challenge.” Eostre said, his head low even as he spoke with confidence.
Dave turned around and smiled. “Good. Let’s begin.”
Eostre had no choice but to take the body in eating range. He grabbed the feet of the wolf with his teeth, dragged the being closer, and pulled the body into his mouth. The wolf, being naked and not moving, proved an easy meal for Eostre. He dragged in the body in with his long tongue, covered his meal in saliva, and gulped it down quickly. He didn’t want to linger on this defenseless creature. He felt slightly uncomfortable as he felt the bulge travelled down into his stomach, not making much of an indent.
Usually, Eostre loved the feeling of swallowing a large meal. But with the likes of David watching him? The feeling of forcing someone down one’s throat simply was not as good. Once done with his meal, Eostre looked at David.
“One… Was not enough.” Eostre said. It was true that he was hungry… But Eostre immediately regretted being so forward about his hunger. It was what David seemed to want from him. And he couldn’t give in…
“Well, don’t worry. If you want to prove yourself… We’ve got tons left.” David said, grinning. Lewis, without command, took another body from the rack, melting another layer of black rubber, and deposited it at Eostre’s feet.
If Eostre could have moved his legs, the two researches would be eaten. But Eostre had to settle for the body on the floor. He took this one, much like the last, feeling as it joined the first body in his gullet.
“I won’t lose. Give me another.” Eostre’s will to resist began to waiver at this point. He could easily eat all these, could he not? What was there to worry? He was going to show these lesser creatures.
The next few prey went quickly. Eostre sucked down the bodies as fast as Lewis could drop them, tasting their fur and then swallowing them down in a few powerful gulps. After 6, Eostre could feel them expanding his stomach. He looked behind himself for a moment, seeing the slight bulge they were making in his blue hide.
Suddenly, he heard a scream. It was inside of him. The prey must be waking up, Eostre thought. He then felt a weak pushing against his side: Struggling. Would the rest of them wake up too? The pulsating feeling he felt against his side felt odd to him.
After a minute, he tore his head away from his stomach and saw David looking on in disinterest. “Yeah, that happens. Let’s keep going.” he says.
Eostre looked down at the floor to see a pile of 3 bodies, all not moving. Ignoring the struggling going on inside his now-tight stomach, he picked up another body and pulled it into his mouth. This time, he felt like savoring it. He savored the taste of the fur as he slathered it with saliva inside his maw. He gulped it down slowly, tilting his head upwards. He felt the bulge go down his neck slowly as he swallowed.
Before he knew it, he ate 3 more bodies, and had another one sticking halfway out of his mouth. It was all becoming a blur of eating. A voice in the back of Eostre’s head told him that this was a trap, that he shouldn’t be doing this. But he soldiered on. He could feel the skin around his stomach grow taut; he could feel those scutes of his lower belly parting from each other. But he still gulped and gulped.
He had to show them. He had to.
It was becoming apparent that he was slowing down. Eostre simply had to take more times between swallows. The struggling was getting worse as more people woke up from their slumber to find themselves in a bath of acids. Looking behind him again, Eostre could see his stomach, now a hard ball poking out at his sides.
By the 12th body, Eostre felt a sudden chilly sensation on the lower part of his bulging belly. His stomach had hit the cold laboratory floor. This only put more pressure on his stomach as it expanded out to the sides. The people in there were so packed, they hardly had room to struggle anymore. A low scraping noise could be heard as his scutes dragged onto the floor.
At this point, Eostre lost all hope. He could feel that pressure, and he was only a bit more than halfway done- He couldn’t do it. Eostre’s blood ran cold when he realized this. He never had a chance at passing this test.
He looked at the body Lewis had placed. He didn’t want to eat it. He felt like he couldn’t; his will gone. He was suddenly very afraid.
“I… Can’t.” Eostre said slowly.
“But you have to! Come on, eat up.” David said.
“I said… I cannot.”
Dave smiled and walked closer to the full dragon. Was David risking his life? Just as Eostre wondered what David was doing, he saw Lewis pick up the body near him. Before he could look back at David, he was at Eostre’s snout.
“Eat up.” David said, suddenly grabbing Eostre’s top and bottom jaw. The dragon flapped his wings in protest, but the man was smart- he stayed in front of him. David grappled with the now-struggling dragon, prying apart Eostre’s jaws. Eostre was too weak to fight back for long; when he leaned down onto his stomach by accident, Eostre felt a sudden spike of pain across his belly scales. WIncing, he immediately went limp, allowing David what he wanted. He couldn’t fight back.
The once strong, once proud Eostre was not fighting back.
His eyes went wide as Lewis brought the body he was carrying directly into his mouth. With Lewis not exactly being a guiding hand, Eostre had to react in order to not choke. He gagged as Lewis shoved the body into his throat, but was forced to swallow. Just like the others, Eostre felt the bulge go down his throat, but the feeling suddenly because unpleasant. He began to notice the feeling of pressure in his stomach as a new victim was added to it.
And with that, Eostre was unable to fight as another body came into contact with his mouth. Here was these lesser creatures, just standing in front of him; he was bound in such a way that he couldn’t touch them! He felt as helpless as ever as another body came into his forcibly-open jaws. He was coerced to swallow the next meal down; he was gulping as slowly as possible, but Lewis kept pushing the body harder into the back of his throat when Eostre did so.
He had swallowed down another body, grudgingly. He felt like no more could possible fit inside his burgeoning stomach; he could feel them putting more pressure on his stuck legs, unable to spread to accommodate his stomach. It was constantly jiggling with the packed prey, more getting added to it constantly.
And there was another body, forced into his maw. Eostre was slack at this point; he couldn’t do anything but let David hold his mouth open and Lewis shove the body into his throat. He failed to swallow; this didn’t stop the pushing from the husky. Eventually, Eostre simply had to give in and unblock his airway, swallowing as slowly as possible. His stomach began to hurt as the skin beneath his scales began to spread thinner and thinner. Before he could finish swallowing the first body, Lewis had a second one at hand. Eostre felt the two bodies grind against each other as he attempted in vain to swallow it. Eventually, he managed to get the bulges down inside him, joining his increasing mass.
And then David let go. The man got up and surveyed Eostre’s body. Eostre knew this may be his last time to talk.
“Please… Don’t do this...” was that he said.
The once strong, once proud Eostre was pleading for his life.
“Sorry, bud. You gotta finish.” Was all David said before indicating to Lewis that he should get out another body. He then went back to prying open Eostre’s jaws.
Too weak to fight back, Eostre let David manipulate him. What else could he do? As he had another person placed into his maw, he wondered if he would die here. The pain coming from his taut stomach indicated that this may be the case. Would it burst?
He was unable to look behind him, but he knew that his stomach was reaching its maximum. The prey inside must be paste from the pressure alone, but that didn’t stop the stomach from spilling out from his sides. His legs wanted so badly to spread apart to relieve some of the pressure, but he couldn’t. The floor would not give, only adding more force against his stomach. And another one was swallowed.
And then David began to talk to him. “Just two more. Can you do that?”
Eostre didn’t think he could. But only two more? Two more and he could survive?
The next body went down agonizingly slowly. He just wanted to get this over with. He just wanted all 20 people digesting inside him. But the pain of stretching his stomach was almost too much. Eostre struggled as he gulped.
And, finally, the last one. “Okay, you’re almost good.”
Eostre took the last one in his mouth and had it pushed down to the back of his throat. Eostre began to swallow-
But stopped.
Eostre was strong, he was proud; he could do something. Eostre failed to swallow, even as the force applied to the body increased, Lewis heaved and pushed.
Suddenly, Eostre tried to get down the body as fast as he could. With a sudden motion, Eostre lunged his head forward the inch he had. Lewis stumbled, not prepared to deal with the lack of resistance, and fell right into Eostre’s mouth.
Eostre closed his jaws. David, also unprepared, allowed this. Eostre wrapped his tongue around Lewis, and began to quickly swallow. Lewis started yelling incoherently, but then was quickly silenced as Eostre sent him in a slow path down his esophagus.
David’s eyes went wide. He immediately lost his grip on the dragon and stepped to Eostre’s front.
“Lewis! No!”
And then David lunged directly towards Eostre’s head. But it was too late. Eostre grabbed the lesser dragon with his mouth and pulled him in as well.
“Oh no, not again...” Was all Eostre could hear Dave say as he sent him to his tight stomach.
Eostre had defeated them. He collapsed onto his stomach, which flared with a bout of intense pain and creaking noises at the compression. Eostre didn’t care. He had won. He was proud.
He looked behind himself once more. He could see the telltale light-blue stretch marks across his maximally-tight stomach. He could have easily burst at this point, stomach’s contents spilling over the floor. He was strong.
For a moment, that feeling- the feeling of impossible pressure on the verge of release- felt good to Eostre. He didn’t think of what would happen to him. All the thought of was how David and Lewis were stuffed in his belly, digesting. He thought of them crushed up against his stomach walls, and smiled.
He was proud. He was strong.