The Wailing Woods
(Part Two)
Chapter 9
Anyone foolish enough to be walking in the wailing woods that night would have heard grunts, and deep, rich belches echoing trough the still forest. For the young dragon that made its home by the lake had gorged himself today on a meal of richest meats. He had captured the very spirits of his victims, letting nothing escape his gluttony. It was far, far more food than he need to sustain himself, he had eaten for the shear pleasure of it after the first three.
Earlier that day he had been in a fight with the other half of this large adventuring group. The battle had turned against him after he devoured, one of their henchmen, and he had been lucky to escape with his life. But now the last of his wounds were being healed by the cleric. Fate once more favored him.
Each time the dragon destroyed one of the spirits within him, a flood of energy flowed to his every limb. After the second, he felt his vast serpentine body become lewdly aroused as a side effect of the huge surplus of vitality in these essences. Each additional life spirit he devoured after this added to his bodily awakening until the bull dragon's feelings became obscenely and massively apparent to anyone watching.
Cadmis stayed close to the dragon, knowing there might be wolves in the forest, watching and waiting to pounce. He tried to ignore the obsceneness of the dragon, it was not easily overlooked. He felt a helpless anger at the dragon's pleasure, for he knew it was at the cost of his companions' lives.
The cleric was not yet defeated though, he had a secret the dragon knew nothing of. Reaching into his pocket, Cadmis removed a small talisman. This had been given to him by his holy order to use in times of extremity; it was not easy to use, nor were the benefits certain. When the dragon's back was turned, he crushed the glass talisman, feeling the shards of glass cut his skin. He felt dizzy but with concentration he controlled the magic.
The Wailing Woods held many unusually powerful creatures. Among them was a tribe of huge boars. The king among them was a beast of such size and strength that both wolf and dragon could not face him. With the aid of the charm Cadmis felt the presence of this animal not far off, and he summoned it as his avenging ally.
He was pleased to soon hear a thrashing not far off. The dragon was too lost in gluttonous revere to take note. However, when the animal emerged, Cadmis saw with dismay that he had missed the mark, for the boar was a female, one of the king boar's mates. She was still an impressive creature, but nothing a dragon couldn't handle.
Before the dragon turned his head Cadmis grabbed a red potion from the hidden pile of Genowin's belongings and held it to the befriended boar's mouth. Helic heard a challenging squeal from behind him. Turning his neck he saw the boar and Cadmis. Even as he watched the sow began to grow unnaturally, and she looked mad.
Seeing that this must be the cleric's work, Helic snarled angrily and prepared to slaughter the pig. But just then he captured the fourth spirit of his victims. The wave of vitality that swept over him was overwhelming. He felt himself burn with a desire that must be met. With a greedy strength he reached forwarded and grabbed the enormous sow about the middle and lifted her off the ground. With a grunt of effort he controlled her squirming body. He lifted her head skywards and brought her down, placing her haunches firmly between his legs.
As he eased his lustily swollen body into the squealing sow he couldn't help but grunt in satisfaction. She was capable of accommodating the dragon, the massive boar who she was accustomed to service proved no small task himself, and the additional size increase made her roomy enough even for the huge bull dragon. Her squeals of terror soon turned nearly to screams as the dragon lifted her up and down over and over again. He soon found relief. The pig began to return to her normal size, but Helic was not finished with her
He shoved the fat squealing animal into his mouth and began to chew with gusto. Cadmis heard bones crunching. The dragon's tail swished happily back and forth, the large spade at the tip clinked on the rocks. The squealing stopped and dark blood overflowed the dragon's full mouth and ran down his barbed chin in rivulets.
Although only just satisfied, the consumption of more life force had already refueled his sapped energy, and his eyes burned with a terrible sharpness.
When the Dragon finished, he said to Cadmis, spewing him with some excess gore, " My thanks, that was a fine addition to my feast, and now I will add you as well"
Cadmis began to plead, "But I healed you and served you, do you count that for nothing?" The dragon nodded thoughtfully, as if remembering.
"Well, I suppose I'll give you the choice of how you wish to be eaten... "
Cadmis was nearing hysterics. "But that's not a reward at all..."
The dragons sighed in annoyance, "Very well, although I think you will soon find my way much less pleasant, well, for you that is."
Cadmis felt the strong grip of the dragon rap about his lower waist. He was lifted into the air. Before him he saw the wide open mouth of the dragon, lined with teeth, torn bits of boar flesh, and stinking terribly. Bloody strands of drool meshed on the inner wet surfaces of the mouth.
Cadmis tried to kick free, but only lost his balance and pitched headlong into the eager jaws. The dragon closed his mouth around the flailing body. From between his lips a human hand thrust forth. The hand clutched frenziedly at the air, seeking anything to hold on to. It was the last pitiful attempt of the cleric to avoid his fate. The dragon reached up and casually pushed the hand back in, then wiped the drool form the corner of his mouth.
He disposed of the lad with an opulent gulp, sending him down still kicking. Then the dragon reclined and sighed. Each inhale of breath was now an effort, as it pulled on the heavy glut of his stomach. He remained like that for some time, just letting his sides rise and fall.
Before long, the wolves showed up, their pack leader stepped forward to face the dragon.
The dragon saw how thin the canines were beneath their shaggy pelts. Ribs were visible even in the gloom of the forest and winter coats of fur. Low growls of hate emanated from their throats as they observed the engorged stomach of their carnivorous rival. The dragon lay lazily on his side, idly picking his teeth with Xen's short sword.
"Are you looking for someone?" He shifted, and rolled back a little, displaying the bulge of his conquest more optimally, and idly traced the full curve with a claw. The wolves knew that he had put into his belly more meat then would feed the pack for a season. The pack leader, a freighting creature in his own right, said in a thick growl, "We will kill you now, those humans were ours." More wolfs were arriving every minute.
The dragon got to his feet "I will not fight you now -BURP- and I can't help it if your food -BERMPH- asks to be eaten." With that, the dragon turned his back on the wolfs and walked away, The wolfs eyes enviously followed the sleek pale curve which swayed weightily under the dragon, visible even from behind. As their enemy diapered into the dark recess of his cave, his long, fat tail trailed after him.
When the wolves had a full assembly, their leader ordered an attack. The charge was stopped abruptly by a large bolder rolled into the tunnel. Discouraged, the wolves left, for there were five other humans left on the woods, and they would prove easer pray. But they vowed to return the following night.
Safe in the darkness of his cave, the dragon coiled himself snugly about his full middle, rapping himself protectively in his leathery wings. Warm and content, he began to fall asleep.
Cadmis, on the contrary, fought to for his life in the hot, dark, fluid confines of the draconic belly. The acid was shear torture and he felt his skin annihilated one nerve at a time, blinded and defeated, he held on to one last hope. The great pounding reverberations of the dragon's heart were slowing, the violent churning of this, his muscular cell was becoming more rhythmic. "The dragon is falling asleep" he thought through the intolerable pain, "If I can hold out..." But no amount of bravery could sustain him against the acid. Soon he would parish. With a huge effort he clung to a few more minutes. When at last he succumbed, his spirit, in the form a mouse, left the body and cautiously snuck past the slumbering spirit serpent coiled about he heart of the dragon. The mouse spirit was timid and frightened, but it did an odd thing. It crept right past the serpent, but then turned around and came back.
With little pink paws it stroked the nose of the fat serpent and woke it. Then, boldly, it pushed its nose between the cruel lips and thrust itself into the willing mouth. It waited, twitching, to follow its companions. The serpent observed the thin little tail that protruded from his mouth. He let the mouse sprit linger on the point of eternal destruction, gloating on the fear and turmoil of the little thing. The sacrifice was pleasing and strangely to be treasured. At last the mouse seemed to come to its senses and struggle. With a fat gulp the serpent took the final sprit.
In reptilian sleep, the dragon twitched in a dream about a little mouse, it was a good fantasy, and in truth more than a vision; when it came to a conclusion his brutish body was filled with and excess of life, and shot forth a warm jet of pleasure.
Chapter ten
Time passes....
The dragon slept through the night and most of the next day. At last his meal was fully digested; he yawned and rose to his feet. Rolling the bolder aside he immerged into the clearing. His large golden eyes narrowed, adjusting to the light. He was suspired to see the entire wolf pack assembled there, he was even more surprised to see the five other adventures alive and well under the pines.
He knew this meant trouble. One of the five approached, a little man, a halfling perhaps, neatly dressed in a colorful tunic. He boldly addressed the dragon, comically huge in comparison. "Dragon, we are here to demand the release of the captives you took yesterday, agree to our terms or face the consequences!" The dragon felt like laughing at such an absurd request. But he knew that these were the same group that had attacked and defeated him yesterday, and now they had the entire wolf pack backing them up. It was clever of the wolfs to ally with them, at least until he was dead...
The dragon asked in a scornful tone, "You mean they didn't tell you that...Do you not know that the wolfs are using you to do away with me, as soon as that's done, you are dog food! Your friends are not here, I advise you the leave this forest while you still can."
"Bluffing will get you nowhere dragon, Our ranger has tracked them here, a little farther and back. I don't' know what happened, but all trails end here at your cave, I know they are here, I can feel it. You have one last chance to release my friends, what say you!"
The dragons hissed, "Very well, because you insist so, I will release them, just give me a moment please." The dragon turned his back on those assembled to go into his cave. But he paused there. The keen eyes of the wolf king standing off to the side saw an expression of intense concentration come over the dragons face.
For a few seconds all was puzzled silence. Then the dragon's tail arched up, and he lowered his haunches into a wide squat. With a mighty grunt the deed was done. A ground-shaking fart was accompanied simultaneously with a filthy avalanche of dark, wet dung. The black cascade consisted of smooth lumps, the size and shape of full-grown watermelons.
They fell heavily to the ground, some wetly braking open to reveal hair and yellow bones, as well as darkened strips of cloth. Quickly shifting his weight, the dragon completed the mound with another colossal, wet release, bringing the heap up nearly level with his crouched bottom. Then he stepped away and looked back over his shoulder; steam rose from the hot pile in the chill air, and an ungodly stench with it. "There, I think that's all of them." He said with a sigh of relief.
But the Halfling was nowhere to be seen, someone pointed to the bottom of the dung pile where a small hand protruded from between two of the heavy wet watermelons. The wolves attacked then, in a mass. The dragon turned and reared up on his hind legs, he spread his vast wings in intimidation and roared a battle cry. His arms swung down, claws extended, and the torn bodies of wolves flew through the air, one landed with a wet thump on the side of the dung pile.
As the crucial part of the battle raged, the humans stood stunned, having so abruptly and so rudely (and at close range) been informed of the horrible fate of most their number. The companions they had shared so many good memories with were now the unwanted waste of an animal. They had been converted into filth, the dragon's body had taken what it wanted, destroying their noble bodies to get it, and left this as testimony the their defeat. The sickening stench, of the dragon's digestion was made worse by knowing it was their friends they inhaled, they could see the bones.
Nauseated and demoralized they did not enter the battle until it was to late. The wolves retreated into the forest.
That night the wolf king gathered the last four humans together. "You have failed us, now we are too weekend to fight the drake, winter is coming, there is need of food." A grim silence followed, the wolf king took the ranger for himself and sent the other three to the rest of the pack.
He devoured the man in minutes, tacking in huge bloody mouthfuls of flesh and bone. He finished and lay down on the cave floor, resting his big bloody muzzle where he could see the cubs. They were playing with one of the ranger bones. His stomach was full and round for the first time in months. He stifled a big belch. He watched the cubs play, and thought how, because of his failure, it was up to their generation to do away with the dragon. He must teach them of the cunning of the lizard, and his use of deception to get what he wished. If they were prepared, perhaps they could win the forest back.
Out side, the forest was empty, the treetops groaned and creaked like old men in indigence at the first winter wind and snowfall. Ice formed on the lake, hiding whatever magic powers rested there, and the clearing by the shore was covered in snow. But in that clearing, the huge dung heap still held the warmth of the dragon, and melted the snow that landed there. The steaming pile of filth was in sharp contrast to the pure white snow all about it. The dragon slept soundly in his cave.
The End
End Notes For the Whole Story-
A few extra tidbits for people who liked the story.
Facts- In reading this it is easy to detach one's mind from the physicality of the story and be less impressed by the dragon's ability than if you actually saw him, here is an orderly list of just how much the dragon ate that day.
The henchman (175 lbs)
The doe (60 lbs)
The first boar (95 lbs)
Genowin (110 lbs)
Morre (205 lbs)
Lowahnin (325 lbs! )
Sir X (180 lbs)
Bell (220 lbs)
The second boar (250lbs)
Cadmis (170 lbs)
TOATAL CONSUMPTION = 1790 lbs !!
That is a LOT of meat!
Imagine trying to lift a big refrigerator. That's heavy. Now imagine filling the refrigerator frozen turkeys or tanks of water, or some other fairly heavy objects. Now just suppose you were really strong and could actually lift it all; that is at the least the kind of weight we are talking about here. Now imagine loading a sack of meat of similar weight inside an animal. Just think of the kinds of muscles it would take to control and restrain it. The space it would take up, the task of actually digesting it. Can you get a picture of the power a dragon has in its physical build? I hope you find that as impressive as I do.
Here is where all that meat went
400 lbs of the more fluid portion of the meal were turned into 44 gallons of hot urine, and 20 gallons into that another ,vital, bodily fluid. This latter he delivered to an eager young lady dragon a few weeks later
A full 460 lbs became fat and nutritive matter, the dragon became slightly plump, but it would have taken a steady supply of such food for such a large beats to become truly rotund.
155 lbs became additional muscle tissue, which the dragon put to good use.
Because the dragon had taken on so much food at once, his digestion of it was not as thorough as it might otherwise have been, and this is the reason for the astounding 775 lbs of dung resulting from the feast and unloaded next day. He certainly must have been relieved to be rid of that load.
Notes on the end notes:
The first time I posted this story, I added these above end notes. They are rather amusing, so I thought I might as well include them this time as well. However, due to changes in the story (additions of characters and so forth) they are no linger accurate
(Part Two)
Chapter 9
Anyone foolish enough to be walking in the wailing woods that night would have heard grunts, and deep, rich belches echoing trough the still forest. For the young dragon that made its home by the lake had gorged himself today on a meal of richest meats. He had captured the very spirits of his victims, letting nothing escape his gluttony. It was far, far more food than he need to sustain himself, he had eaten for the shear pleasure of it after the first three.
Earlier that day he had been in a fight with the other half of this large adventuring group. The battle had turned against him after he devoured, one of their henchmen, and he had been lucky to escape with his life. But now the last of his wounds were being healed by the cleric. Fate once more favored him.
Each time the dragon destroyed one of the spirits within him, a flood of energy flowed to his every limb. After the second, he felt his vast serpentine body become lewdly aroused as a side effect of the huge surplus of vitality in these essences. Each additional life spirit he devoured after this added to his bodily awakening until the bull dragon's feelings became obscenely and massively apparent to anyone watching.
Cadmis stayed close to the dragon, knowing there might be wolves in the forest, watching and waiting to pounce. He tried to ignore the obsceneness of the dragon, it was not easily overlooked. He felt a helpless anger at the dragon's pleasure, for he knew it was at the cost of his companions' lives.
The cleric was not yet defeated though, he had a secret the dragon knew nothing of. Reaching into his pocket, Cadmis removed a small talisman. This had been given to him by his holy order to use in times of extremity; it was not easy to use, nor were the benefits certain. When the dragon's back was turned, he crushed the glass talisman, feeling the shards of glass cut his skin. He felt dizzy but with concentration he controlled the magic.
The Wailing Woods held many unusually powerful creatures. Among them was a tribe of huge boars. The king among them was a beast of such size and strength that both wolf and dragon could not face him. With the aid of the charm Cadmis felt the presence of this animal not far off, and he summoned it as his avenging ally.
He was pleased to soon hear a thrashing not far off. The dragon was too lost in gluttonous revere to take note. However, when the animal emerged, Cadmis saw with dismay that he had missed the mark, for the boar was a female, one of the king boar's mates. She was still an impressive creature, but nothing a dragon couldn't handle.
Before the dragon turned his head Cadmis grabbed a red potion from the hidden pile of Genowin's belongings and held it to the befriended boar's mouth. Helic heard a challenging squeal from behind him. Turning his neck he saw the boar and Cadmis. Even as he watched the sow began to grow unnaturally, and she looked mad.
Seeing that this must be the cleric's work, Helic snarled angrily and prepared to slaughter the pig. But just then he captured the fourth spirit of his victims. The wave of vitality that swept over him was overwhelming. He felt himself burn with a desire that must be met. With a greedy strength he reached forwarded and grabbed the enormous sow about the middle and lifted her off the ground. With a grunt of effort he controlled her squirming body. He lifted her head skywards and brought her down, placing her haunches firmly between his legs.
As he eased his lustily swollen body into the squealing sow he couldn't help but grunt in satisfaction. She was capable of accommodating the dragon, the massive boar who she was accustomed to service proved no small task himself, and the additional size increase made her roomy enough even for the huge bull dragon. Her squeals of terror soon turned nearly to screams as the dragon lifted her up and down over and over again. He soon found relief. The pig began to return to her normal size, but Helic was not finished with her
He shoved the fat squealing animal into his mouth and began to chew with gusto. Cadmis heard bones crunching. The dragon's tail swished happily back and forth, the large spade at the tip clinked on the rocks. The squealing stopped and dark blood overflowed the dragon's full mouth and ran down his barbed chin in rivulets.
Although only just satisfied, the consumption of more life force had already refueled his sapped energy, and his eyes burned with a terrible sharpness.
When the Dragon finished, he said to Cadmis, spewing him with some excess gore, " My thanks, that was a fine addition to my feast, and now I will add you as well"
Cadmis began to plead, "But I healed you and served you, do you count that for nothing?" The dragon nodded thoughtfully, as if remembering.
"Well, I suppose I'll give you the choice of how you wish to be eaten... "
Cadmis was nearing hysterics. "But that's not a reward at all..."
The dragons sighed in annoyance, "Very well, although I think you will soon find my way much less pleasant, well, for you that is."
Cadmis felt the strong grip of the dragon rap about his lower waist. He was lifted into the air. Before him he saw the wide open mouth of the dragon, lined with teeth, torn bits of boar flesh, and stinking terribly. Bloody strands of drool meshed on the inner wet surfaces of the mouth.
Cadmis tried to kick free, but only lost his balance and pitched headlong into the eager jaws. The dragon closed his mouth around the flailing body. From between his lips a human hand thrust forth. The hand clutched frenziedly at the air, seeking anything to hold on to. It was the last pitiful attempt of the cleric to avoid his fate. The dragon reached up and casually pushed the hand back in, then wiped the drool form the corner of his mouth.
He disposed of the lad with an opulent gulp, sending him down still kicking. Then the dragon reclined and sighed. Each inhale of breath was now an effort, as it pulled on the heavy glut of his stomach. He remained like that for some time, just letting his sides rise and fall.
Before long, the wolves showed up, their pack leader stepped forward to face the dragon.
The dragon saw how thin the canines were beneath their shaggy pelts. Ribs were visible even in the gloom of the forest and winter coats of fur. Low growls of hate emanated from their throats as they observed the engorged stomach of their carnivorous rival. The dragon lay lazily on his side, idly picking his teeth with Xen's short sword.
"Are you looking for someone?" He shifted, and rolled back a little, displaying the bulge of his conquest more optimally, and idly traced the full curve with a claw. The wolves knew that he had put into his belly more meat then would feed the pack for a season. The pack leader, a freighting creature in his own right, said in a thick growl, "We will kill you now, those humans were ours." More wolfs were arriving every minute.
The dragon got to his feet "I will not fight you now -BURP- and I can't help it if your food -BERMPH- asks to be eaten." With that, the dragon turned his back on the wolfs and walked away, The wolfs eyes enviously followed the sleek pale curve which swayed weightily under the dragon, visible even from behind. As their enemy diapered into the dark recess of his cave, his long, fat tail trailed after him.
When the wolves had a full assembly, their leader ordered an attack. The charge was stopped abruptly by a large bolder rolled into the tunnel. Discouraged, the wolves left, for there were five other humans left on the woods, and they would prove easer pray. But they vowed to return the following night.
Safe in the darkness of his cave, the dragon coiled himself snugly about his full middle, rapping himself protectively in his leathery wings. Warm and content, he began to fall asleep.
Cadmis, on the contrary, fought to for his life in the hot, dark, fluid confines of the draconic belly. The acid was shear torture and he felt his skin annihilated one nerve at a time, blinded and defeated, he held on to one last hope. The great pounding reverberations of the dragon's heart were slowing, the violent churning of this, his muscular cell was becoming more rhythmic. "The dragon is falling asleep" he thought through the intolerable pain, "If I can hold out..." But no amount of bravery could sustain him against the acid. Soon he would parish. With a huge effort he clung to a few more minutes. When at last he succumbed, his spirit, in the form a mouse, left the body and cautiously snuck past the slumbering spirit serpent coiled about he heart of the dragon. The mouse spirit was timid and frightened, but it did an odd thing. It crept right past the serpent, but then turned around and came back.
With little pink paws it stroked the nose of the fat serpent and woke it. Then, boldly, it pushed its nose between the cruel lips and thrust itself into the willing mouth. It waited, twitching, to follow its companions. The serpent observed the thin little tail that protruded from his mouth. He let the mouse sprit linger on the point of eternal destruction, gloating on the fear and turmoil of the little thing. The sacrifice was pleasing and strangely to be treasured. At last the mouse seemed to come to its senses and struggle. With a fat gulp the serpent took the final sprit.
In reptilian sleep, the dragon twitched in a dream about a little mouse, it was a good fantasy, and in truth more than a vision; when it came to a conclusion his brutish body was filled with and excess of life, and shot forth a warm jet of pleasure.
Chapter ten
Time passes....
The dragon slept through the night and most of the next day. At last his meal was fully digested; he yawned and rose to his feet. Rolling the bolder aside he immerged into the clearing. His large golden eyes narrowed, adjusting to the light. He was suspired to see the entire wolf pack assembled there, he was even more surprised to see the five other adventures alive and well under the pines.
He knew this meant trouble. One of the five approached, a little man, a halfling perhaps, neatly dressed in a colorful tunic. He boldly addressed the dragon, comically huge in comparison. "Dragon, we are here to demand the release of the captives you took yesterday, agree to our terms or face the consequences!" The dragon felt like laughing at such an absurd request. But he knew that these were the same group that had attacked and defeated him yesterday, and now they had the entire wolf pack backing them up. It was clever of the wolfs to ally with them, at least until he was dead...
The dragon asked in a scornful tone, "You mean they didn't tell you that...Do you not know that the wolfs are using you to do away with me, as soon as that's done, you are dog food! Your friends are not here, I advise you the leave this forest while you still can."
"Bluffing will get you nowhere dragon, Our ranger has tracked them here, a little farther and back. I don't' know what happened, but all trails end here at your cave, I know they are here, I can feel it. You have one last chance to release my friends, what say you!"
The dragons hissed, "Very well, because you insist so, I will release them, just give me a moment please." The dragon turned his back on those assembled to go into his cave. But he paused there. The keen eyes of the wolf king standing off to the side saw an expression of intense concentration come over the dragons face.
For a few seconds all was puzzled silence. Then the dragon's tail arched up, and he lowered his haunches into a wide squat. With a mighty grunt the deed was done. A ground-shaking fart was accompanied simultaneously with a filthy avalanche of dark, wet dung. The black cascade consisted of smooth lumps, the size and shape of full-grown watermelons.
They fell heavily to the ground, some wetly braking open to reveal hair and yellow bones, as well as darkened strips of cloth. Quickly shifting his weight, the dragon completed the mound with another colossal, wet release, bringing the heap up nearly level with his crouched bottom. Then he stepped away and looked back over his shoulder; steam rose from the hot pile in the chill air, and an ungodly stench with it. "There, I think that's all of them." He said with a sigh of relief.
But the Halfling was nowhere to be seen, someone pointed to the bottom of the dung pile where a small hand protruded from between two of the heavy wet watermelons. The wolves attacked then, in a mass. The dragon turned and reared up on his hind legs, he spread his vast wings in intimidation and roared a battle cry. His arms swung down, claws extended, and the torn bodies of wolves flew through the air, one landed with a wet thump on the side of the dung pile.
As the crucial part of the battle raged, the humans stood stunned, having so abruptly and so rudely (and at close range) been informed of the horrible fate of most their number. The companions they had shared so many good memories with were now the unwanted waste of an animal. They had been converted into filth, the dragon's body had taken what it wanted, destroying their noble bodies to get it, and left this as testimony the their defeat. The sickening stench, of the dragon's digestion was made worse by knowing it was their friends they inhaled, they could see the bones.
Nauseated and demoralized they did not enter the battle until it was to late. The wolves retreated into the forest.
That night the wolf king gathered the last four humans together. "You have failed us, now we are too weekend to fight the drake, winter is coming, there is need of food." A grim silence followed, the wolf king took the ranger for himself and sent the other three to the rest of the pack.
He devoured the man in minutes, tacking in huge bloody mouthfuls of flesh and bone. He finished and lay down on the cave floor, resting his big bloody muzzle where he could see the cubs. They were playing with one of the ranger bones. His stomach was full and round for the first time in months. He stifled a big belch. He watched the cubs play, and thought how, because of his failure, it was up to their generation to do away with the dragon. He must teach them of the cunning of the lizard, and his use of deception to get what he wished. If they were prepared, perhaps they could win the forest back.
Out side, the forest was empty, the treetops groaned and creaked like old men in indigence at the first winter wind and snowfall. Ice formed on the lake, hiding whatever magic powers rested there, and the clearing by the shore was covered in snow. But in that clearing, the huge dung heap still held the warmth of the dragon, and melted the snow that landed there. The steaming pile of filth was in sharp contrast to the pure white snow all about it. The dragon slept soundly in his cave.
The End
End Notes For the Whole Story-
A few extra tidbits for people who liked the story.
Facts- In reading this it is easy to detach one's mind from the physicality of the story and be less impressed by the dragon's ability than if you actually saw him, here is an orderly list of just how much the dragon ate that day.
The henchman (175 lbs)
The doe (60 lbs)
The first boar (95 lbs)
Genowin (110 lbs)
Morre (205 lbs)
Lowahnin (325 lbs! )
Sir X (180 lbs)
Bell (220 lbs)
The second boar (250lbs)
Cadmis (170 lbs)
TOATAL CONSUMPTION = 1790 lbs !!
That is a LOT of meat!
Imagine trying to lift a big refrigerator. That's heavy. Now imagine filling the refrigerator frozen turkeys or tanks of water, or some other fairly heavy objects. Now just suppose you were really strong and could actually lift it all; that is at the least the kind of weight we are talking about here. Now imagine loading a sack of meat of similar weight inside an animal. Just think of the kinds of muscles it would take to control and restrain it. The space it would take up, the task of actually digesting it. Can you get a picture of the power a dragon has in its physical build? I hope you find that as impressive as I do.
Here is where all that meat went
400 lbs of the more fluid portion of the meal were turned into 44 gallons of hot urine, and 20 gallons into that another ,vital, bodily fluid. This latter he delivered to an eager young lady dragon a few weeks later
A full 460 lbs became fat and nutritive matter, the dragon became slightly plump, but it would have taken a steady supply of such food for such a large beats to become truly rotund.
155 lbs became additional muscle tissue, which the dragon put to good use.
Because the dragon had taken on so much food at once, his digestion of it was not as thorough as it might otherwise have been, and this is the reason for the astounding 775 lbs of dung resulting from the feast and unloaded next day. He certainly must have been relieved to be rid of that load.
Notes on the end notes:
The first time I posted this story, I added these above end notes. They are rather amusing, so I thought I might as well include them this time as well. However, due to changes in the story (additions of characters and so forth) they are no linger accurate
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Posted by Sirrush 16 years ago Report
Great Story, and glad to see it posted again, as it disapppered after a time on Big Gulp.
I hope you post your other stories here too, and set up a gallery. Have you written anything new?
Posted by Solomon 16 years ago Report
Hum, wonder what happened to it, oh well, its more accessible here.
I am working on a some new ones, including three short stories with aquatic themes, so I hope you like alligators, pirates, mermaids, and sharks. Prepare to get wet!
Oh, and thanks for commenting, I’m glad you liked the story.
Posted by Sirrush 15 years ago Report
Of course I like alligators. I have a pet one, six feet long only twenty feet from where I am typing this!
Posted by Eidolon 15 years ago Report
Thanks to your recent link to it on the forum, I came and read this. ...Good thing, too. :9 There're a lot of things to like about it. There's a lot of characters and viewpoints to manage here, but you did them justice.
The story was a little slow starting off; it's kind of hard to wrap one's head around so many characters at once, introduced in rapid-fire fashion as they were, but once it got to the character of the dragon... well, I was reading happily from there on out. x3 Nicely done!
Posted by Solomon 15 years ago Report
Glad you liked it, and sorry about all the characters, I wanted to give a big meal more personality.
Your name seems familiar, have you read this story before, perhaps the older version?
If you are willing, I'd love to hear your thoughts on some of the characters, any that stand out in your mind.
Posted by Eidolon 15 years ago Report
...Aha! x3
Yeah, it was something I remembered reading, but not seeing a comment from me on it I concluded I'd probably ... not said anything, and decided to rectify that!
I didn't think that it was a bad thing to have a lot of characters, or to try to develop them, but introducing them in laundry-list style is a little overwhelming, especially when some of their descriptions are as jarring as 'paladin/monk/sorcerer', though I'll admit that did a nice job of communicating the setting you were taking inspiration from, at least. x3
The dragon and Cadmis linger most readily in the mind, but that's probably just because they got the most screen-time; the dragon's personality and behavior were pretty convincing, too, though Cadmis's flavor of passive-aggressive resistance came off as a little strange sometimes. On the other hand, I'm not saying the other characters were unmemorable or uninteresting; at the points in the story where they were featured, I was pretty delighted to read about most all of them, especially given what was happening to them. :9
...I'm probably rambling a bit. My head's not totally on straight right now, but I didn't want to delay and forget about such a reasonable request for feedback.
Posted by Kinne 15 years ago Report
solomon draken on second life?
Posted by Solomon 15 years ago Report
If I interpret your questions correctly, well no, I'm not that solomon.