The End of a Winding Road
The Beginning of a Snaking Path
 
 
by Galis Slipscale
 
 
Therasmere lifted his orange-scaled head slowly, with a pained groan as he emerged from aching darkness. Something had disturbed his rest, a slick, wet sound, damp and sloppy and sucking. He didn't remember that.
 
 
Actually he didn't remember much at all, past the battle. Fire in the skies, which you tend to get with lots of dragons fighting. It hadn't been the fire, but one of the siege weapons that had knocked him out of the sky. Hit him right in the chest too. Thera wondered how that was going… most dragons could take a hit or two after all, even from something like that. He wasn’t the largest out there, but he still had some heft to him, and while his orange scales tended to be poor camouflage, they’d pulled through for him before. A little peek wouldn’t hurt.
 
 
He wished, more quickly, that he hadn't looked. "Whelp... that looks like half of my lung," he managed to wheeze out, in some grim satisfaction at being able to do that much. Quickly, he coughed, and a sharp taste filled his mouth.
 
 
It hurt less than it should, though it still hurt a lot. Thera had no basis for comparison; he'd never been dying, before, after all. Why even bother waking up?
 
 
That sound got his attention, and he followed it up with a wet cough of surprise when he found himself staring snout to snout with an enormous grey-black serpent snout. Freakily eyeless... at first glance, but that huge, huge body was studded with glowing red eyes... just not in the proper spots! Thera was a decent sized dragon, but this was some other kind of big entirely! From those tremendous jaws, a pair of blue-scaled hindelegs and a tail kicked and twitched weakly, before a swallow cleared them, sucking them down into the long, long, long body of the dark giant-snake.
 
 
Thera blinked. Not just at the squirmy bulge, but because he was seeing double. Faint, but apparent, was a smokey after-image of the same serpent, hovering just above it, mimicking its motions perfectly... save that it was trim and slender, and lacked the whining bulge in its lengthy gut!
 
 
"Sssisster. Thisss one, too," it hissed right in his face. There was a gurgle when it opened its mouth, the sound of a very, very active gut. "Sss... ooh. Not bad, sssstill wiggly..." Thera took a moment to realize it was not talking to him, and only partially about him!
 
 
"Why do I even bother, Ssolah? Jusst hurry up, I am hungry, and bored." Thera couldn't see the source of that voice from where he lay.
 
 
"Very well, let me finisssh off thisss one first..." The monsterous snake gaped its maw in front of Thera, but didn't close it on him, just reseating its jaw it seemed. "Oooh. Ooh. Sssuch a sssinful drake, ss...." it hissed, squirming with an expression that made the mortally wounded dragon very uncomfortable. There was growling... then a visible ripple of huge muscles with a squelching sound.... then pushing and shoving, then another big tense ripple, this time with a popping sound. "Oooh. I hate to, sss, russsh, ssweety. But ssisster is bored," the serpent sighed, bunching her coils briefly, then tightening on that struggling gut with an audible, sick crunch. The pushing and jostling twitched a few times, then sat still, to gurgle.
 
 
Quickly too, as the bulge began to trim even as Thera watched. He felt paralyzed, but that could just be that he had so little strength left! But something else... that belly glowed a reddish hue. A few tiny streaks of blue to it, though those evaporated as a foggy form of a red-smoke dragon seemed to float up just slightly.
 
 
"What is... what is that?" Thera found his bloodsoaked tongue enough to ask.
 
 
"A moment, I'll be with you sssoon enough..." the red-eyed serpent hissed, attention seeming diverted. Thera watched as the cloudy dragon started to drift away... and then the smokey-snake lunged, fangs bared!
 
 
It was a bizarre, short battle; the snake had been lying in wait, the smokedragon disoriented and confused. Fangs sank into its throat and it made a silent, painful looking cry, while coils wrapped it and squeezed viciously. Bits of the red smoke drifted away, but the thing was mostly whole as the ghost-serpent devoured it quickly. She grew fat and round quickly, with a struggling haze visible inside the dark smoke of her form. The belly-scene repeated again, bulging, then crushing the smoke to nothing.
 
 
Thera was very, very, very afraid, when the red-eyed serpent turned to him at last, inspecting his wound. "A fighter, yesss... sstubborn dragons, never know when you're beat. I am afraid thisss is the end, though I am obligated to assk, what brought you here? A sssilly disspute over which clan gets to ssquander the meager wealth of these farmerss? Ssuch a wasste, but then, you did choossse thiss."
 
 
"W..wait..." he coughed. "No, please... just let me die on my own... not like that..." He was terrified, but his heart was beating slow, not fast. Thera had little time left. "I... I didn't come for the fight. I'm not blue or red... cough... even if orange looks a bit red. One of the farmers was my friend, he so... cough, sold me cattle. I heard about the fight and wanted to get him and his family out first. I got caught by a... cough, patrol on my way back."
 
 
"Ssss, likely sstory. We are reapers of your kind, drake. You do not know it, but thessse lands belong to an elder god of ssserpents. Forgotten, perhapss, but not without her power still? Great bloodsshed summons us. It is my duty to dissspatch the ssouls of the wicked. Sshe has no usse for them, sso I make them part of me, burn out their mindsss in my spirit jussst like my belly burns out their bodiesss. Do not worry, any living kin you have are sssafe. We may only consssume the dead and dying. Now, sss, I have at least three more of your kind to finish off today, and my sissster is weary, sso, let us get to your final meal, yess?"
 
 
That tongue flicked out, forked tip sampling the blood off his chest. It burned where it touched, reigniting the pain of the wounds, and Thera whimpered. Just like he'd heard her gut whimpering a moment ago...
 
 
"BLEH!" the snake hissed, which startled Thera... which made him cough blood on her huge jaws. "Bleh! Sss? Sss...? Sss.... A likely ssstory, perhaps? Ssissster? Sserah?"
 
 
"What is it, Ssolah? Hurrrry up. I want to go back to sssleep. There are no dragonss for me here, and the goddesss took my lassst playmate five hundred yearss ago. You had plenty of time to enjoy glutting yoursself, so sstop grinding that wet sslit of yours on the ground and finissh your work."
 
 
"Sss, you might want to taste thisss one's heartblood. I find it a bit... not to my liking."
 
 
"What'sss the matter? Too much gluttony on this one? I thought you liked creamy. Or wrath? I thought you liked spicy?" Another enormous head shadowed over him, creeping up from behind. This one was pale, white scaled with a glowing blue to the eyes studding its body.
 
 
A paler tongue flicked out to touch him. "Sss? Rather... ssweet!"
 
 
"Alasss, the one flavor I cannot abide," the dark sserpent chuckled. "All yoursss, sisster."
 
 
"We sshall ssee. Sssometimes they are neither here nor there. Ss, funnily, most regular creatures are in the middle. It ssseems dragons are just so often your flavors, and hardly ever neutral, sissster!"
 
 
"W...what happens if I... cough... am in the middle?" Thera panted for hard-to-earn air. This startled the white snake!
 
 
"He still breathess! Well, relax. I shall end that sshortly. But to be fair, sss, if you are in the middle, I'll get quite... ssick to the sstomach. Vomit up sscales and sssoup and bone. Isssn't pretty."
 
 
"A...and my ghost?" he squeaked faintly, as those big jaws parted in front of him.
 
 
"Free to go, I think... not my problem, then!" she hissed. He backed up a little, but she didn't even have to coil him; his limbs gave out in the strain of actually trying to move in his condition, and a wet, cool maw cupped his face. And swallowed.
 
 
And swallowed.
 
 
And swallowed.
 
 
Things got wet, then they got dark. Thera started to yowl as his gaping chest wound got pulled between her lips, but the ample, flooding drool of the serpent proved... soothing. Certainly he found himself crying out less than he had seen the throat of the black-red serpent crying out! But all the same, with what strength he had left, he fought his fate. Death was one thing, but what he had just seen was another!
 
 
And like the other dragon, it was over for him quickly. The serpent was ravenous; her jaws walking, her pale throat bulging, her coils swelling as he slid into them. The flesh gaped just enough to let him slide, then clamped down, pinning his wings and forepaws and passing him into a thicker part of the snake, where that lethal kneading began. A little slower than the black-red had done, but soon just as strong, and thick slimy juices sizzled on him, scouring off orange scales while he tried to keep his head above the digestive liquids.
 
 
“Sss…. ooh. Thisss one doesss warm my belly, and below… a good ssign. He might fit after all…” the white serpent could be heard crooning. “It’s been sssoo long ssince my belly had a meal in it, drake. I do hope you are a matching flavor, sss.. relax, it’sss your time now, and my guts will make a fitting tomb, if you are worthy of adding your bulk to my lovely coilss, that is…”
 
 
She shivered around him, evidently enjoying this a bit too much, but she wasn’t kidding! Thera choked on something other than blood for a change, coughing strangely soothing-feeling fluids that softened his flesh. Soon his body could not resist the squeezing any more… vaguely, he felt the loss of his limbs, just before a powerful squeeze and a lusty shiver of the serpent made his chest feel so, so, so tight… then a brief instant of ‘relief’ that only made his fading mind realize he had just been pulped. Then...
 
 
Well, he expected darkness. And there was briefly, like blinking. He was flying! Well, floating. It was like tumbling weightlessly. He seemed whole again, though he could see right through his paws. The ruined fields stretched out before him; the hale and healthy had crawled off, leaving only those beyond saving. That seemed an affront to Thera, they should at least take their dead, and not leave them for...
 
 
The snakes. Oh scales the snakes! He remembered the way the blacksmoke snake had torn into that reddish dragon ghost and… he had to get out of here! How would he… rrrk!
 
 
Solid as the clearly visible red-black snake below, picking her way through the battlefield, a big, thick coil of white mist with blue studs of light squeeeezed around him. No fangs, maybe he could get free still if… glrk! He didn’t feel the need to breath like this, yet the next coil wrapping his neck gave him the weirdest feeling that he should!
 
 
“Sss, going sso ssoon? I want you to watch…” the ghost of the whitesnake hissed, rolling him over. Her physical body was just below, plump and fat in the middle, visible squeezes rippling over a dragon shape that he recognized as his own.
 
 
“N… noo, let me go…” he huffed. He didn’t recognize it much longer, as in mere moments the gurgling and groaning (much to the snake’s apparent pleasure) softened his physical form, broke it down, melted him away. Big, plush, fat coils squirmed as they gurgled away at him, going from broad to simply thick far too quickly.
 
 
“And I didn’t burp up ssso much as a ssingle sscale. Guess that makess you mine, dragon,” she giggled. Coils tightened around him, sliding close. She was cool like a soothing aloe, and though there was a blue glow, he distinctly remembered being able to -feel- the heat off that blackred snake as it burned away the reddish-mist ‘dragon’ in its smokey gut.
 
 
He started to squirm again. Red mist… well, a little anyway. He seemed to be mostly blue, flecked with streaks of red here and there. “Tssk… been a little naughty in our day? Greedy thoughts? Selfish hoarding? Well, only a little. Let’sss burn those out now…” she hissed. Something hot was pressed against his belly. Thera yelped… this must be it, her belly ready to consume him - again - and burn his very soul away.
 
 
Hot, and slick. Thera glanced down. For a hazy misty form… those were some remarkably solid-feeling, slick-feeling hemipenes. She’d sounded… -felt- female (he should know, he’d been inside her!). What was this… what was doing trailing that coil lower, under his tail to YEEP!
 
 
Thera bucked hard against tight, restraining coils as ‘she’ casually penetrated him. For a ghost, it felt terribly real… strangely textured but slick, hard shaft easing into his tailvent. Like he was being taken as a solid creature... briefly. Then she pushed, and hilted. And he felt the difference when pleasure hit him so hard he convulsed in those tight, rippling coils, and coughed up a puff of reddish smoke from his blue-glowing mistjaws. “Nnnnnfrrrrrghhlee!” he tried to ask what the stars that was!
 
 
Apparently she anticipated the ‘question’, flicking her tongue on his cheek. “Sssh. Purification takes a little while when you don’t want to tear the soul in the process. Relax. I’ve got you now….” Then her coils squeezed again, thrust into him again, and he almost passed out - can a ghost even fall unconscious?! “You’ll now when I’m done, I can’t cum into ssspirits with any sssinful taint left in them…” the ghost of the whiteserpent hiss-giggled.
 
 
She took him smooth, a little faster, using her coils to bounce him on that fat hemipene of hers. He lost track of time -very- rapidly. And thoughts. It was the best, worst thing ever, each time she hilted a shockwave of bliss made him cough up more faintly reddish mist. A little less each time. He had the worst, hardest erection of his life (well, death, now). But he couldn’t come. Each thrust was the best thing he’d ever felt, that hemipene achingly thick yet touching him quite literally to his bare soul. It couldn’t get any better-worse.
 
 
Of course, it did. Eventually, she came in him… pretty much right after he had no more reddish smoke to pant and cough up. That just made her convulse, and his body distorted from the strength of the squeeze on his ghost, and then warmth shot into him.
 
 
Thera’s eyes rolled back into his head. Apparently no, ghosts cannot pass out. He wished he could. He wasn’t meant to feel like that. Her sweet, hissing cry overhead and the strong, smooth embrace of her coils were the only things left to him; the battlefield, and the black-red serpent picking through for soon-to-be-not-survivors, might as well be in another lifetime now.
 
 
“Ooooh, sss. It’s been hundredss of yearss since I got to properly purify a dragon sssoul. There’ss, sss, a limit, after all. I can’t cum in even the lightly tainted, and I can’t even hold down those who are rank with it. Thankfully, I can scrub a light bit niiice and clean.”
 
 
“Gg...gaah… nnff…” Thera gurgled in her coils.
 
 
“My! And you’re not even in my belly…. ooh yes. I wouldn’t want to forget -that-. Cute, fresh souls like you can’t copulate except with someone like me making it happen...” Her coils slithered, and even the slick pop of that fat hemipene free of his tailvent didn’t make the pleasuredrowning feeling of her cum in his form go away. Her tongue tasted him, and that pair of spirit-shafts sank back into her slit as if they’d never been there. The way that damp slit felt grinding against his erection, suddenly, felt like it’d been plain female all along.
 
 
For a moment, Thera felt that this was… dangerous, in a strange way. But he was dead, what else did he have to lose? With an eager squeal, he bucked his hips, but had to wait until the slow press of her coils dipped his shaft in, then slide him to the hilt while she tightly constricted about him.
 
 
He didn’t need any thrust. The drake started to hiss and howl, only to get muffled by a huge fork-tongued ‘kiss’. He came so hard, he came so much. Each ripple of her coils over him only got more.
 
 
“Sss…. good drake. Cum that pretty ssoul into Ssserah…”
 
 
He felt… indistinct. Sticky, stuck to her coils. He squirmed, but his paws wouldn’t come off, and his loins wouldn’t stop. Thera squeaked, then got smothered by her tongue again. This felt… too good, too strange! Like he was going numb from the sensation.
 
 
Her body was slipping against his, he was… soaking into it. His wings started to flap, making plenty of noise… to him anyway. He remembered the red-mist dragon now, how it’d appeared silent to him when he was still living.
 
 
But he couldn’t fight her, or her pleasure. Thera moaned as he submitted to the pale serpentess. The dragon slowly was pulled through, directly into her misty belly.
 
 
It didn’t burn or crush. It just bulged around him. Stroked and squeezed.He couldn’t move at all; his spirit was completely hers now. And it showed; hers was lovingly fattened, a big dragon-bulge of blue in the midst of all that expansive fat white coiling.
 
 
“Finished yet, Solah?” the pale serpentess hissed back on the physical world.
 
 
“You were zoned out for a whiiile there. I take it he wasss good?”
 
 
“Oh yess. I just hope our goddesss letss me enjoy him properly. I’ve only jussst begun to sshow him what his new missstress can do. It’sss been sso long since I had a dragon of my own, I hope I am not russty...”
 
 
“You’ll remember sssoon enough. I’m done burping up ssscales for now. I prefer my… one night stand kisssses anyway, but glad you had fun. It’ll be a while before sssomething like this happenss again, sso don’t use him up too fasst!”
 
 
“No promissses!”