uh huh. vore.

Chrys waited a few deliberate seconds before deigning to look at Gene. He was as put-together as one could expect of someone who'd just run through a large dungeon. His lightweight leather armor was intact, but Chrys spied a bandage or two beneath it.

"You continue to surprise me, making it here alive," Chrys commented. She still suspected there was some trick to it, but if Gene was wounded, that meant he wasn't entirely able to avoid monster encounters. He had some experience in dungeoneering, then.

Gene struck a dramatic pose, wrist to his forehead, chin tilted away from Chrys. "You still have such little faith in my word? What manner of gentleman would I be if I didn't keep my promises?" He swung his heavy backpack around and sat it on the ground before him. "I've delivered your sweets, as I said I would."

Chrys's eyes fixed on the backpack. "Let's see it then."

"I could not decide on a single confectionery, so I brought a wide variety. Baked goods, preserved fruit, candy crystals...I do hope you'll find something to your liking." With a flourish, Gene unlatched his pack and poured out the contents.

None of the offerings were, on their own, particularly extravagant. Yet Chrysanthemum--who had not left this kingdom, or even this cavern, in centuries--could tell that this was an inconceivable collection. Some were delicacies from the opposite side of the world, while others were peculiar offerings made only by a handful of delicatessens. The tags and wrappers were annotated in a dozen different languages. Chrys looked over it all with suspicion.

"How...did you find all of this?" Chrys asked. Curiosity got the better of her, and she started shifting through the pile of sweets, looking in vain for something she recognized.

"Any human good, that's my guarantee," Gene winked. It was no accident. Chrysanthemum wasn't impressed with wealth, but she seemed to have a taste for the new and unexpected.

Chrys snorted at Gene's non-answer. "Well, I suppose something here will be adequate," she said with forced nonchalance. She looked back to Gene, although the untouched candy pile continued to glimmer on the edge of her vision.

"Grand!" Gene clapped his hands together. "Then, seeing as I'm sure you're eager to be left alone, I'll-"

"No." Chrysanthemum let her claw fall to the ground. A soft tap for her, but a groundshaking thud for Gene. "You will not command me like a witless hound. I decide when our transaction is through."

Gene regained his composure after nearly being shaken off his feet. He straightened his collar and set his jaw. "Of course, Chrys. My apologies for being so presumptive." And then, in a particularly uncharacteristic move, Gene fell silent, waiting on Chrys's word.

Gene made idle chatter look so easy, and yet Chrys now struggled to get a full sentence out. She cringed at the thought of being the slightest bit apprehensive around such an inconsequential creature. It would've been so much simpler to just eat him, and yet...

"Tell me. About how you acquired all this."

Gene laughed once in surprise. "You...fancy a chat?"

"If you make me repeat myself, I will not be so gentle the second time," Chrys warned, claws curling meter-wide troughs in the dense cavern soil.

"Then I shan't do so," Gene said, composing himself and clearing his throat. "I will happily brag of my mercantile conquests, if it pleases you."

As Gene unwound some questionably-truthful stories--stealing rides on the undersides of carriages, winning a fist-sized ruby in a single round of poker--Chrysanthemum picked away at her candy. One at a time, they fell into her gaping maw, each offering savored fully, no matter how small each was compared to her monstrous hunger.

When Gene had tied his meanderings into something resembling a conclusion, the candy was gone, as was Chrys's appetite. She hadn't intended to eat every single sweet, but the allure of each new flavor had been too strong, and Gene's tale too enthralling to notice how much she'd been eating.

The two of them came to the same realization simultaneously, albeit with opposing reactions. Gene sat up a little straighter, as though this were the highest form of praise, while Chrysanthemum curled defensively around her growling belly. She rested her head on her crossed forelegs and sighed.

"That was...a pleasant diversion," she admitted vaguely.

Gene grinned. "So you enjoyed the confections?"

That was merely half of it, but Chrys nodded her head drowsily. "Listen for yourself," she offered. With a crafty smile, she hooked a claw behind Gene's back and pulled him close to her stomach. Gene's hot-blooded body was warm against her scaly underside, and she felt two slender hands press into her flesh.

"I see," Gene barely kept from stammering. He hadn't yet overcome the instinctive fear of being this close to a dragon, particularly the talon that kept him pinned in place, but there was a sense of wonder, too. Listening to Chrys's active gut from the outside was wholly different being inside it. Faintly warm and shifting beneath his fingers, burbling noisily in the otherwise silent cave. The two creatures held their breath in unintentional unison.

Chrys rubbed Gene's back absentmindedly, careful to exert only the smallest amount of pressure. It wasn't the same as feeling him from the inside, but nice in its own way. His shallow breaths were inaudible compared to her own, but she could feel the quickening rise and fall of his chest.

"Timid little morsel," Chrysanthemum chided. Gene's entire body vibrated when she spoke, and his breathing only quickened. "Are you still so frightened of me?"

Gene was too tired to think of a witty answer. He had traversed the dungeon alone, spoke for what felt like hours, and it was finally catching up to him here, pressed against his gentle doom. He wasn't even sure what he muttered in response, and Chrys wasn't able to hear him anyway.

Chrys plucked Gene from the ground and held him to her snout. He dangled from between her claws, limbs slack, exhaustion written plainly on his face. Chrys said, "It's time you got some well-earned rest."

Gene barely flinched as Chrys's outstretched tongue lathered him in saliva. The cold dungeon air cut through his dampened clothes, and he shivered. Feeling a twinge of compassion, Chrys opened her jaws and placed Gene inside, where it was warm.

Gene was pressed helplessly against the roof of Chrys's mouth as she swiped her tongue side to side, until his small body was thoroughly warmed, if not a bit longer. By then, his clothes were saturated with dragon saliva, and Chrys could taste the fainter notes of Gene's flavor. Aside from the expected sweat and grime, there was the tang of fresh wounds, and traces of the monsters which had likely inflicted them. She allowed herself one moment to wonder how many attempts it'd taken Gene to make it here, all just to become her dinner. Said dinner was thoroughly moistened now, and in one smooth motion, Chrys tilted her head back and let gravity pull Gene into her gullet.

Strangely enough, Gene's shakiness had ceased when Chrys's jaws closed around him. It was, indeed, nice and warm inside her mouth, and the pressure applied by her tongue loosened his aching muscles. His breathing deepened, and his eyes fluttered shut. He was content simply to be savored. All he had to be now was food, and even Chrys would admit he was doing a great job of that.

Upon reopening his eyes, Gene noticed no change, but the stickiness of the flesh around him suggested he'd arrived in the stomach. Tempting as it was to fall straight asleep, he still had a job to do. It was slow work digging for treasure amidst a stomachful of sugary sludge, but he managed to fill his satchel. Chrys's gut was still busy with the candy, and the liquid beneath him hardly stung at all. The sound of her body working around him pressed down like a heavy woolen blanket. He would have his turn to be churned away, but for the time being, he could rest easy in the dragon's stomach.

"I forgot to ask," Gene called out, "what shall I bring you next time?"

Chrys, who had curled to place her head close to her underbelly, heard him clearly over the rumblings of digestion. The mere promise of a 'next time' seemed adequate enough for her, but that answer wouldn't do at all. The last thing she needed was her little thief getting even more cocky.

"Another story," she answered. "And perhaps a few more of those chocolates."

Gene let himself sink into her welcoming stomach folds. It might've been his imagination, but he could swear the walls were pressed tenderly around him, almost an embrace.