#:reader

Your mother and father were supposedly killed in a lab accident that did kill almost everyone in the building, it made them too small, they died from lack of air. But your mother and father had been at the edge of the blast zone, only by random chance had neither of them changed out of their protective gear yet, as you understood it, the two had been making out in a supply closet.

But that is beside the point, the point is that they survived and never stopped trying to return themselves to full size. But then they had you. They hadn’t meant to, you were a complication they couldn’t afford. You happened anyways.

Your parents had since then had the twins, who were 5 to your just-barely-18. Your parents had done their best not to force this situation upon anyone else, but the twins had happened anyways, you had happened anyways. But they had a lead. They believed they could fix the effects, for the entire family, not just them, which had been the main worry when you had grown like you were meant to be this height.

They just needed to break into a lab to get some chemicals to complete the serum that should fix everything.

You were left alone, in charge of the twins, but at your height of 5.4 inches how were you meant to defend the 2.5 inch gremlins?

Easy, you stayed in the house, you stayed in the house and didn’t leave until your parents came back. You had enough food to last two weeks before breaking into the winter stores that were kept in a separate storage place.

It had been 3 months and you were about to run out of food, and you could only guess that your parents were dead, you were your siblings last hope.

You packed, left careful instructions, and went to the wild berry bushes that might have some unripe fruit on them. That would last the twins long enough that hopefully you could sneak into the garden in the suburbs, only a few dozen yards away.

You began your journey, there wasn’t much fruit on the bushes, and none of it was even remotely ripe, but it was good enough. You braved the two-day journey to the gardens, returning with almost ripe tomatoes, and that was about it. You knew the dangers of breaking into a house, pets and pests being the main ones, but at this rate, you would have to.

When you returned home the house had a huge hole in the roof, like something had ripped through it- those were claw marks! You were filled with the fear that a bird had found your siblings while you had been away, leaving the 5 year olds defenseless.

You rushed inside- you were met with the strangest sight, a dragon. It was tiny, nearly five times your size, but tiny. It’s scales shifted colors rapidly to the blend in, before settling on a rather sickening clear. You could see its heart beating, all of its internal organs, its bones.

None of this made sense, dragons weren’t real.

But overall, over the confusion you felt relief, because there was no blood, the frozen forms of your little siblings were tense, pushed up against each other under the bed.

The dragon hadn’t hurt them.

You readied your spear, unsure if it could even pierce the dragon’s scales, but you wouldn’t let it eat your siblings without a fight.

With a quick movement you dropped your bag of food to the ground and settled into a fighting stance you had perfected against various bugs and mice and even a few larger mammals, like squirrels, lizards, and once, with your mom and dad’s help, you took down a smaller rabbit.

The dragon appeared unfazed by you charging at it, it shifted colors as your spear made contact with scales and shattered.

Oh.

You were done for.

Maybe if it was distracted with you your siblings might get over their shock long enough to run?

You charged again, pulling out a knife this time, it didn’t shatter, but did little more than leave a scratch on the scales, no blood, no skin.

This time when you threw yourself at it, it caught you, it knocked the knife out of your hands, growling low in its throat and you could only hope it didn’t breathe fire.

It pinned you to the ground with its claws, the twins were still frozen in shock.

It opened its mouth and you hoped your death wouldn’t be too bloody, that it wouldn’t hurt that much, that it would satisfy the dragon and it would leave the twins alone.

Only when the dragon engulfed your head, its teeth didn’t even cut you, it seemed to be shoving you down its throat without chewing you- you hadn’t actually seen sharp teeth, you’d just assumed- you shuddered.

Apparently dragons swallowed their prey whole like a snake.

The dragon had gone clear again, so you could see outside, you grimaced as you were pushed further into the warm body of the dragon, you considered fighting, but at the moment, you didn’t know if the dragon had retractible fangs of some sort, and you’d need your legs intact to damage its internal organs enough to kill it.

So you didn’t fight.

You squinted in an attempt to avoid getting saliva in your eyes as you found yourself shoved into the dragon’s ribcage, past its beating heart, and then your face hit what must be the start of the foggy, not-quite-see-through, stomach.

The dragon swallowed around you, shoving more of you down into the creature, at this point you were running out of air, you needed to be in the thing’s stomach to get enough leverage to kick and burst the organ, so you pushed yourself forward until the foggy wall gave way and your head was shoved through into the not-quite-see-through stomach.

The process was at once far too fast and unbearably slow. As the rest of you was forced into the dragon’s stomach it stretched to accommodate you with worrying ease. If the stomach of this stretchy you might not be able to rupture it.

Once your legs were inside you started kicking, but as you’d feared the stomach stretched easily to contain you. You watched in horror as the dragon paced forward, despite your struggles, and grabbed both of your siblings, shoving them one at a time down its throat.

You started fighting wildly, but it didn’t do any good, you were soon joined by both of the twins, who had started sobbing hysterically.

The dragon’s belly was bloated with the full size of its meal, it seemed admire itself for a moment before taking off.

You clung to your siblings knowing that this was the end.

……………………………………………………

The dragon had seen the tiny humans and had known instantly that it needed them for its hoard. It was aware that humans needed to eat- unlike dragons, who drew power from their hoards, and unlike shiny and rare things that didn’t need energy at all.

But these humans were so small! They had to be unique! It had never seen humans this small before!

The dragon had put the little family into its storage pouch and would release them in its cave where they couldn’t escape while it made accommodations for them to join its hoard.

All the other dragons would be so jealous!

………..