He sat on his rock, atop his hill, looking up rather bleakly at the beautiful blue sky, with its puffy white whisps drifting past through the sunlight. The wind blew by with its mild chill, ruffling the many trees keeping him company.

“Jake?”

Jake took his eyes off the blue and cast them down the winding trail up which he’d trekked. He couldn’t see anyone yet, but he knew in another moment his solitude would be coming to an end. Just as well, he supposed; it’s not like he was particularly enjoying himself either way. He took one more look at the sky while he was still alone with his thoughts, as he heard the approaching steps grow louder.

“I thought I’d find you up here.”

“Hey, Adam,” he greeted halfheartedly, then motioned invitingly for his friend to sit next to him in much the same manner.

Adam took him up, plodding himself down against the stone with a quiet sigh. He let a moment of silence pass before speaking again.

“Thinking about him, huh?”

“Yeah,” Jake admitted. They both knew the story at this point. Adam had found Jake alone on this hill plenty of times since he and Verd had said their goodbyes.

“How long has it been, now?” Adam asked.

“Five years…” came the dreary reply, “…and a handful of days.”

“…Is this really how it goes for them? To just go off and-” he gestured vaguely with his hands “- for all this time?”

“It’s a dragon thing,” Jake replied.

Adam accepted the answer and settled back into silence for the moment. He’d tried having Jake give the long version before, but he hadn’t understood it much better; something about ‘coming of age’ and ‘rites of passage’. Jake seemed to understand it just fine, though. Honestly, Adam was still surprised now and then at how friendly, kind and- well- human Jake could be after spending so much time living out there with them. Adam certainly hadn’t expected that of the odd stranger who’d moved into town five years and a handful of days ago.

A flock of dark blue birds took flight from the trees a bit further down the hillside, filling the air for a time with the fluttering of their many wings. Jake began to smile distantly as he watched them go.

“What?” Adam asked, encouragingly.

“Verd loved chasing those things.”

“Yeah?”

“Uh-huh, they were his favorites.”

“You think he has some wherever he is now?”

“Maybe,” Jake replied, making a faint effort to recall what he knew of that species’ habitat.

Their conversation drifted off into silence again, but this time it was broken by Jake.

“Do you hear that?” He glanced down the hill.

“Hear what?”

They both listened for a moment, with Adam trying to follow Jake’s line of sight pointed keenly into the trees. Eventually, Adam did hear it: some rhythmic rustling, something moving through the brush. He pondered the sound curiously, feeling only mildly alarmed when he realized it was coming toward them. He expected to see a deer, or maybe a small herd of them, come into view any moment now. It wasn’t until he realized how far away the source of the noise actually was that he started to really get nervous. If it was that far away and still that loud…

They continued to listen and stare as the indisputable footfalls grew louder and closer, but Adam tore his eyes off the greenery when he noticed his friend silently rising to his feet.

“Jake?”

But Jake made no reply, he only continued to stare, his eyes widening.

“Jake?” Adam repeated. He had fair skill at dealing with wildlife, and Jake was practically in a class of his own, but Adam wasn’t the kind of person who enjoyed putting those skills to the test.

“…Verd!?”

The advancing sounds suddenly grew much more aggressive; faster and louder. Adam snapped his gaze back to the trees. At first he still couldn’t make out anything from the shifting greenery, and for a short moment he began to wonder if his friend was maybe losing his mind, but then suddenly a green-scaled snout burst from the leaves.

“Verd!”

Jake was running forward before the dragon was even fully visible, with the dragon in question doing much the same. They seemed so excited that neither one put proper attention into stopping when they neared each other, so Jake ended up bouncing off the broad, green-scaled chest as they both dug their feet into the ground. But he landed on his butt with a laugh, one which only grew louder as that lengthy muzzle quickly reached down and proceeded to sniff him relentlessly, poking and prodding and nudging everywhere it could reach.

“Okay! Okay-okay-okay! Stop!” Jake giggled.

The dragon reluctantly obeyed, giving the human just enough time to stand back up before shoving his eager, affectionate nose back into his chest. Jake put a hand to the green snout, reveling in the familiar touch.

“I can’t believe it! You’re finally back! And look how big you got!” Jake chattered. Verd had only been up to his chest when they last saw each other, now his back rose to just about eye-level, with spines reaching even higher, and a neck that could stretch far higher still.

Jake found himself lifted a fair distance off the ground as the excited dragon pitched his head up with his snout still buried in the familiar human’s belly, staring happily into his old friend’s face.

“Woah!” Jake exclaimed through a wide grin, before the green scales set him back down to Earth again.

His own curiosity taking hold, Jake began walking around to Verd’s side, looking him over in ecstatic wonder, with the dragon’s head always following just behind, still nudging and tapping at his back- right up until Adam made a noise. Jake noticed Verd’s head pull back, and looked to see he had finally noticed the other human on the hill.

“Oh! Verd, this is Adam!” he introduced happily, walking over with an outstretched hand. He took hold of his human friend and ushered him a bit closer even as the dragon approached to close the distance. “He’s a good friend from the village. He really helped me out all this time.”

Verd gave Adam much the same treatment as he had Jake, though maybe not quite as enthusiastically, sticking his big nose all around from head to toe, taking in great swaths of the new human’s scent.

Adam was… polite. He couldn’t say he had the same affinity- or tolerance- or courage- when it came to dragons as Jake did, but he stood his ground, and even started giggling himself as the insistent snout tickled its way up and down his length.

“That’s a pretty friendly ‘hello’ if I’ve ever seen one,” Jake laughed, stepping to Verd’s side and placing a hand on his beefy, scale-clad shoulder.

The touch seemed to return Jake to the dragon’s attention, and Verd quickly arched his neck around to attend to the human at his side. This time, not only did he continue to sniff at Jake, but he began licking him as well, the bright scales of his muzzle parting to reveal the far deeper green of his tongue as it slipped past to streak its way across the human’s appreciative, giggling form.

Adam smiled, even if mildly unnerved. Yes, this was all a bit much and a bit sudden for him, but they both seemed so happy. He was just happy he wasn’t the one being slathered in dragon drool, though he had an unpleasant suspicion that that might not last. But if it couldn’t be helped, a few licks and a little drool wouldn’t kill him.

“Alright!” Jake laughed. “Alright-alright-al-”

Adam noticed the giggling stop. From were he was, Jake’s upper body was largely eclipsed by the curve of Verd’s neck and the bulk of the dragon’s head. He couldn’t quite make out what was happening until Verd swung his head back around, that’s when Adam saw how the dragon was carrying Jake along for the ride, clamped between his big green jaws.

Adam immediately felt a surge of alarm, but before it could even begin to sink in, Verd had already turned his muzzle skyward and filled the little hilltop clearing with the sound of his squeezing gullet.

*gulp* *gulp*

Terror shot through Adam now as he watched his friend quickly slip down into the dragon’s throat, pressing out a bulge in the scales.

*gulp* *gulp* *gulp*

Before he could do anything, almost before he could even process what was happening, Jake was gone. He watched his companion’s feet pass from view between the ivory daggers of Verd’s teeth, and saw the hefty lump in the green-scaled gullet taper off and begin it’s long, slinking descent.

*gck* *blech*!

A single boot came shooting out from the dragon’s jaws, nearly encased in a huge glob of slimy drool, landing with a splat in the dirt.

And then the dragon turned toward Adam.

“Ahhhhh!!” Adam screamed and turned to run, but before he’d even turned around, he could see the green beast moving toward him, still with that same, eager excitement in his draconic eyes. Adam took his first step, and then his second, as a shadow fell over him. And then there was a flash of glittering white, and he suddenly ran face-first into the fleshy, dripping palette of the dragon’s upper jaw.

He felt something warm and squishy and sopping wet come up from behind him, pressing him into a firm hold and picking him up off the ground. And then suddenly his world flipped, head over heels. He looked straight up- which was now actually down- and in the shafts of sunlight streaming in between his legs and the rows of teeth, he caught a detailed, close-up view of the glistening, deep-green gullet of the large dragon.

Just before it opened wide and swallowed him whole.

*gulp* *gulp* *gulp*

Adam struggled to voice muffled cries of protest as the slick flesh enveloped his head, chest and waist in quick succession. Taken completely by surprise and with no time to think, he was reduced to mindless struggles and rising tides of fear and adrenaline as he was packed into the tight throat by waves of powerful muscle and steamy slime.

*gulp* *gulp* *gulp*

Before he even knew it, he felt the pressure of the dragon’s maw against his feet, and the hot dampness seeping into his shoes and he realized with a start that he’d been swallowed, fully and completely. The sensation of the slick walls sliding against his skin was the only indication of where he was in the tight darkness, as he was squeezed along the very same path he’d just watched Jake take, right down the green dragon’s greedy throat.

*splequch*!

Adam felt his head pushed through an opening, free for just a moment from the pressure of the green predator’s innards, before he felt his face come right up against something firm and boney.

“Ugh! Errrrrm.”

He was forced to slip and fold as the rest of his body was excreted from the dragon’s throat, into what could only be Verd’s belly. Slick, slimy walls, not unlike those just past, surrounded him from most sides, but it was immediately clear that some of the wet masses pressing in against him were not dragon guts.

“Adam? Is that you?” came Jake’s voice. Adam thought he felt his friend shift against him, but it was hard to tell, packed into that dangling chamber where everything was shifting.

“Jake!? Are you okay!? It- he- he ate us! Verd ate us!? I thought he was your friend! Jake what are-”

“Adam! Adam! Calm down!”

“‘Calm down’!? WE HAVE BEEN EATEN BY A DRAGON!!”

“Relax! It’s okay, Adam!” Jake insisted, giggling, much to Adam’s disbelief.

“What about this is okay!? How are you laughing!?”

“This is just Verd showing he likes us.”

“‘Likes us’!? Couldn’t he have just said so!? Or given us- I don’t know- a hug or something!?”

“It’s a dragon thing,” Jake replied. “And, well, this is sort of like a hug.”

“‘A dragon thing’? Since when do dragons go around eating each other!?”

“Okay, so it’s more like a dragon-and-human thing.”

“Okay, okay. So, to be clear, we’re not about to die?”

“No! No! Verd’ll let us out in a minute. Heh, I bet he looks like a jiggling blimp with us inside. He definitely wasn’t big enough to fit two humans in here last time I saw him, plus a bird.”

“There’s a bird in here too!?”

“Don’t worry,” Jake replied, giggling again. “It’s on my side.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying this. When we get out of here, maybe you can tell Verd that normal humans don’t like being eaten alive.”

“Actually, I hear some people find it rather enjoyable.”

“Jake!”

“Alright, alright. You hear that Verd? No more swallowing Adam.”

The dragon around them gave a rumble in acknowledgement, sounding more happy than anything else, and the fleshy walls pressed in a bit tighter, firming up the cheery embrace.

*guuuuurgle*

Jake giggled again.

“It’s great to see you again too,” he replied.