Fox Meets Dragon Roaming the woods at a nightly ... - deviantART

Fox Meets Dragon
Roaming the woods at a nightly hour, the fox. His curiosity had finally bested his
fear, and he stumbled out into the darkened enclave of tall trees and strange sounds he'd
never dared cross before. His first foot stepped through the gateway which was marked
by abyss, being instantly consumed by blackness. The rest of his body slid through the
shadow and completely entered the portal connecting the world of light with the world
of none. What he noticed was how useless his eyesight had become, though normally
keen. This domain prohibited the smallest speck of light from trespassing and feeling
around his environment with his hands while he walked was the only way to keep
himself from running into tree stumps, stickery bushes, and other unidentified objects.
The silence all except for his feet fumbling around on the ground kept him alert, but
shaky. Quivering. What was a few minutes felt like an hour. He thought about turning
back, but his sense of direction was skewed; discombobulated. His movements, clumsy.
Tip-toeing over an ancient sequoia's roots. Hugging the trunk as he rotated around it
ninety degrees, only to realize moments later he changed direction, even more confused.
He stopped in place to think. Silence again. All except for his feet fumbling. Except his
feet weren't moving now. It hit him. There's something awake, and it's aware of his
presence.
More rustles reverberated, an eery echo in the darkened meadow. They came from
behind him. No wait. His right ear caught the sound more. A chill ran down Alv's spine.
His ears perked up, alert and careful to any sudden movements. Any more disturbances
in the forest floor. But none came.
It's all my imagination, Alv thought.
I'm the only living existence.
He lifted a foot and began to take a step, pausing the foot in midair. Any sound?
No. The foot was let down gently. Taking more steps was the key. Slow, but progressing
his building of pace. He again tip-toed forward. Through whatever of wherever. The tiptoe
became a slow walk. The absence of many obstacles assisted in his pace's change.
He felt more free. There was the impression of more space as he maneuvered. He
stretched his arms out completely, reaching out toward his left and right. Reeling them
both back in by his side, lifting his palms up to his eyes as if he could see them. No
catch. Nothing was around him anymore. He had waded into an open sea of the woods.
Would he drown in darkness? No sound, except for the grass rustling. But wait. He
checked his feet again. They weren't moving. His mind wasn't tricking him. The
movements grew, still faint, but becoming more powerful. His heart thumped harder
with each rustle. His ears perked once more. He heard his own exhale. His own inhale.

His own exhale. An exhale as he inhaled. But it wasn't his own. A beat skipped. He
suddenly spun around.
“Who's there?”
Alv's voice bounced back at him, like a pulse. Like his own pulse; dull, quiet, yet
so present. This time, the exhales weren't hidden. They were loud. Uncaring of being
noticed. Rumbling. Hungry. The imagination clawed at him from the inside. His feet
burst into a run. Aimless in abyss. Only direction, safety. But the breathing followed. It
grew heavy and hard, as if pleasured by the sheer fear of the fox, reeking from his pores.
Like a stimulation, each drip of his sweat. The second set of feet rustled behind him.
Homing in. The fox's breaths turned to frantic gasps, like a straight-jacketed lunatic's in
a panic attack. Swerve, duck, weave. A drop to all fours. An explosion; the adrenaline.
Zig, zag, turn twist! Feigned steps in opposite directions. Build back speed. To no avail.
He could feel the creature's presence. Its steaming hot, stinking breath pounded his
backside. With each of the beast's exhales, he could feel his fur being singed away. It
burned. His heart sped faster. His paws galloped. They now out-paced the tempo of the
torso's beat. Alv let loose one last burst of energy in a sprint, for all he had left. Sweat
drenched and parched, and tired he was. In mid-gallop his limbs collapsed, and he fell as
the grass embraced him. His panting. He was. Trying to. Catch. Breath.
For forever, he lay there. The sounds of the predator no longer stirred. He sighed
in relief as the sweat began to cool. The cooling was a pleasant sensation. At first.
Minutes like hours ran by which redeemed the loneliness; the stabbing silence of the
woods struck at him. The cooling effect became cold on his fur, and he shivered in his
coat of wet and salty sweat. His teeth began to chatter as he clasped each shoulder discus
with the opposite arm.
So.. cold.
His respiration was frosty. Of course, he couldn't see the cold clouds of carbon
dioxide escape his muzzle in the color-ridden enclave. Alv thought he was experiencing
an after-effect of dehydration. But icicles formed under the high-held branches, and their
dew drops crystallized. The Northern Wind swept over the fox, and his bones shook.
Curled up in a ball with his arms now wrapped around his knees. Folded legs. His pulse
slowed, but his blood boiled in exhaustion. But no matter. Let the pulse slow. Become
slower. Let the eyes be blanketed by the lids, snug. Let Slumber have company..
* * *
FWOOSH!

Panic. He woke up, confused. Newly bright-blazing violet flames streaked across
the treetops, and stung his opening eyes which had become accustomed to the pitchblack
environment. Squinting hardly lessened their radiance. The warmth of the flames
ate away at the Winter winds; the shine of the flames consumed the blackness and
devoured it until they had fully engorged themselves. They surrounded him, a blanket of
plasma, close to blinding him in their great, gleaming purple. His head flicked in all
directions. Where had this fire sparked?
A hard thud hit the ground behind him. He sprang up. Twisted three-sixty, and
gaped with his jaw dropped wide. Unmistakably, the predator now towered above him,
breathing its same foul breath; that blast of heat it exhaled which singed his fox fur. That
dreadful dragon's breath which choked him in his gasp for air. Alv froze.
Then he scrambled.
He darted full-speed forth toward the nearby sequoias. The dragon landed in front
of him. Alv tried to slow down, skidded off balance, and landed on his back. Thump.
THUMP; one of the dragon's front feet in response. A claw scooped up the helpless Alv,
who watched the purple belly of the beast fall below him as he was leveled to the
dragon's maw. Opened. Drenched with sticky, hot saliva, dripping to the ground and
sizzling in the grass on impact. Alv looked back up into the dragon's eyes with a large,
nervous gulp. Its tounge flew out and coiled around Alv's gut, then the dragon loosened
its claw-grip as the tounge took a firm hold and pulled him in. The fox screamed. He
clawed and kicked at the tongue and the walls of the mouth. The dragon laughed. Its
laughter boomed, sending a shockwave through Alv, and it dazed him. He shook himself
back into consciousness, only to hear the maw snap shut. Pure darkness was reborn.
Now, the slimy tongue loosened a little, giving him slack and allowing his chest to
expand, so his breathing momentarily hastened to take in any remaining oxygen. Those
breaths soon turned chaotic and helpless in the air-deprived atmosphere of the dragon
maw. Then the tongue tilted backwards. His body started sliding downwards. He clawed
for something to hold on to on the tongue while his palms simply saturated themselves
in the slippery salivation, and he the giant set of dragon teeth became more distant
overhead. He felt himself fall further into the throat; then, with a noisy gulp, a gush of
saliva splashed down upon him and pushed him completely down the esophagus.
He landed with a wet plop into the bottom of the stomach, stretching the dragon's
belly a bit, giving him a good bulge. Nasty gurgling noises reverberated throughout the
creature's insides. They quaked, and Alv's body trembled to the low, heavy rumbling of a
high-decibel bass which was the gut acknowledging its fullness and the activation of its
stomach acids. Horrified, the fox watched the corrosive juices rise underneath his feet. A
satisfied sigh from outside was heard, muffled by the walls of the stomach. Alv yipped.
The acids touched his toes then leveled to his legs as his shrieks of agony escaped him.

He tackled the walls with all his might. A second time. A third. Brace. Strike. Again, the
dragon laughed, amused by the fox's desperate wriggling around inside of him. When
the creature within him settled down a bit, his belly rumbled and he let loose a loud, wet,
satiated belch.
Alv groaned at the dragon's triumph. Bathed in digestive enzymes and acids was
his fur, sticky and stinking of rotten peach cobbler. Disgusted by the purrs of the victor,
he slammed into the side of the stomach once more with every bit of energy he had left,
only to receive the sounds of delight from above. He panted, tired and powerless, finally
slipping from a stand against the stomach wall to a sit, with his back against it in forfeit.
The juices steadily rose above his head. The fox folded his arms around eachother and
made one last pout.
“Hmph!”
To which bubbles rose to the surface. Having been completely pleased with his
meal, the dragon grinned, shut his eyes, and belched out a heavy-bass burp, stirring the
woods outside.
* * *
At some point, Alv had apparently fallen asleep after his defeat. He woke up. Still
alive. The digestive juices were below even his chest now in sitting position. They
weren't quite so corrosive anymore. He assumed the drake had prepared him for a slow
death by lack of oxygen. It angered him.
“Hey! Finish the job already, will ya? I've suffered enough, being stuck here in this
stinking gut of yours. The least you could do is make it quick. My precious fur is ruined.
It's humiliating.”
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the dragon.”
“Ha-ha-ha. Not funny.”
“I had this gut-feeling you would say that..”
“Alright, alright. Let me out. Please.”
“No problem.”
What sounded like gurgling gave unease to the gut. Alv lost his balance and
landed head-first on the cushioned bottom of the dragon's belly as it quivered. He lay

there staring at the entrance to the esophagus as it suddenly opened and the acid fluids
shivered, building up potential energy before shooting upward geiser-style and
launching Alv high towards the ceiling. He rocketed through the esophagus,
accompanied by a gagging sound, landing on a soft, plush tongue. Soft plush tongue?
There was no more threat in the thought of laying on the slimy little serpent in pink. For
the first time since stepping afoot into the forest, Alv felt relaxed. Until he was blasted
out of the maw with a big, bubble-releasing belch, hitting the greenery covered in
stomach liquids, on his stinky fur.
“You have no idea how many times I've landed on my back today. And I smell awful.”
“Well, there's a river nearby. You can go wash off.”
“I'd rather not pollute it.”
He wasn't sure whether to laugh at his own joke, but the dragon's own laughter reassured
him, so he chuckled with him.
“So, hey. My name's Sini. What's yours?”
“It's Alv. Alv the Fox.”
Feeling a tad more friendly, Alv and Sini shook paw, and claw. So he's not as
menacing as I thought, thought Alv. He wasn't that huge of a dragon; a little more than
twice his size and about thirteen feet tall from head-to-claw. A question haunted him; he
had to ask it. It didn't seem normal for a predator to regurgitate its prey.
“Why did you eat me if you spit me back up anyway?”
“You looked a little cold laying there on the ground. Plus, it was entertaining.. for me.
Consider it a greeting.”
Observing the surrounding woodlands charred by Sini's purple flames, Alv
remarked: “You tried to burn me alive, with the rest of the damned forest!”
“Hah. Nah. You've got it all wrong. I was trying to help you see. Keep you warm.”
“And why were you chasing me?”
“I WAS going to give you a formal greeting. After you got all scared, I thought it'd be
more fun to just play along with it and eat you..”

“Fair enough. Sini, since you insist on saying you wanted the help me, can you help me
now? Y'know, getting out of this forest?”
“Yeah! Hop on my back.”
Because #1: The two had built a mutual trust, and #2: Alv had never ridden on the
back of anything before, was his lack of hesitation to scurry to Sini's side and climb
aboard. Immediately after was the realization that he was afraid of heights, and already
felt nauseous by gazing upon the woodland floor from the back of the dragon. However,
Sini directed him back to his seat with the edge of his right wing when he tried slipping
off at second whim, grinning slightly.
“You'll be fine. Just hold on to me tightly.”
Right then, Sini tilted his head back at Alv and showed his smile, his right eye
looking back at Alv. Alv stared back, his mouth gaped a little. Maybe there's nothing to
worry about after all.
He smiled back.
Sini's head cocked forward again.
“Alright. Let's go!”
His black-and-violet wings spread wide, expanding to their fullest. They flapped,
and took to flight, lifting the two into the air. From the fox's view, the shadowy forest
was soon out of sight, as its darkness drew further below and the sun shined brightly
above.