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Things had been moving along quite nicely. It had been a long time since we had visited the human world and I was starting to miss terrorizing the little vermin. Taking over our own world had taken priority over our fun though. Besides, Tzakiel had some other grand plan that he was near completing. I was the only other dragon that knew what he had planned and I was quite excited about it. Things were about to change for the better as far as I was concerned. I knew just about every black dragon out there would agree with me too. The golds might not like it, but they no longer had any say in the matter.

Taking over our world was not quite the same thing as taking over the humans' world. Dragons had never really had a bunch of different governments making up all sorts of different rules. Instead, we just had a few rules that everyone sort of agreed to follow. At any given point in time there never tended to be more than 20 official rules that dragons followed, but those rules were always strictly enforced. Taking over our world pretty much meant that we could subtract a couple of rules from the rule book, nothing more. The rules we had taken away were pretty significant though, such as the rule requiring that humans be left alone. Besides that, the lives of most dragons went on like normal and no one would have suspected that Tzakiel and I had taken over.

That was about to change. Tzakiel's new plan was definitely going to cause some noticeable changes for everyone. Things probably were not going to be that pleasant for some, but I was certain at least we black dragons would like the changes and the reds just might as well. As I was thinking about things to come Tzakiel finally spoke up, "I'm ready for you now Reban. Just do as I told you to and everything should work out just fine."

There really was not much for me to do. All I was needed for was to act as a giant battery for Tzakiel's device. Like all of Tzakiel's devices, it was a thing of beauty. It was a perfect blend of magic and science. I could not even begin to imagine what it looked like to all of the regular dragons. Tzakiel's device had been built to our scale, which was far larger than any other dragon. Ever since we had been forced to cut a trip to Earth short on one occasion we had found ourselves far larger than the rest of our kind. Our power had increased accordingly. We had used that power to conquer our world and now we were using it to complete Tzakiel's plan. Everyone was in for a big surprise.

******

It had been a while since the last dragon attack, but the planet was still living in fear of the next one. Everyone had come to realize that the portals which had been responsible for the disappearances of so many people where under the control of those malevolent creatures. Those dragons had let us know they controlled the portals in the worst way possible. They would show up from time to time and completely level a city. It was a miracle no city had been as hard hit as Chicago. It was still hard to believe that not a single person had survived that rampage. The other cities that the dragon had hit did not fair that well either. When the dragons appeared it was a guarantee that only a handful of people were going to survive.

No one really knew why the dragons seemed to hate us so much. There were a lot of theories though. Actually, they were more like crazy conspiracy theories. Some were even saying that the dragons were some sort of government experiment gone wrong, but I personally did not think that anyone on Earth was capable of creating those monsters even if they wanted to. All anyone really knew was that the dragons were drawn to large population centers. That meant that a significant number of city dwellers were trying to find elsewhere to live. There were not many places for them to go to since there were only but so many places to live outside of the city and only a small fraction of them knew how to survive without all of the services provided within a large city.

The economy was not exactly in the best of condition at the moment either. Having a few cities that are extremely important to the world economy get wiped off the face of the Earth in such a short time can have an absolutely disastrous effect on a wide range of things. Then there was the money being spent on coming up with a defense against the dragons. So far nothing had worked against them and all anyone could really do was reopen and update their old Cold War shelters. From what I had seen of the dragons various rampages I doubted that those shelters would really do anyone that much good. One of those monsters seemed to be able to detect people, no matter where they were. Anyone found in a shelter by that dragon would not be able to get out of it before the dragon managed to get to them.

I was kind of happy that I lived in a small town now. Neither of the dragons seemed to be interested in messing with anything except cities and their surrounding communities. I hoped that things stayed that way because the thought one of those things coming within 50 miles of my home terrified me. It would not even take those dragons an hour to destroy my home and I doubted that anyone, including me, would be able to escape from either of those dragons before we wound up crushed, incinerated, or eaten alive.

As I was walking home, thinking about the dragons, a violent tremor shook the ground. After a few seconds it died down to a barely noticeable steady rumble. I thought it was odd that the rumble had not gone away by the time that I made it home. Unusual activity like that did not mean anything good with dragons randomly showing up. The first thing I did when I walked inside my home was turn on the news to see what was going on. It was a good thing that the television was still working, but what I saw was not comforting. There was some reporter on the screen frantically talking about the amazing thing going on behind him.

"As everyone can see," said the reporter, "there is some sort of huge glowing portal moving east along the horizon. It is impossible to tell just where the portal ends, but we are getting reports from the other side of the planet saying that they are seeing the same portal we are seeing. If that is so this portal is actually sucking the entire Earth into it." The reporter kept on talking while the portal continued to move closer to him. He eventually jumped into a news van and started to drive away, but that portal was still getting closer to him. He really started to panic as the portal seemed to pick up speed and he was hysterical by the time it overtook him and the transmission cut off.

It was then that I noticed a faint shimmer in the window. That portal was moving toward my home at a startling rate of speed. I noticed a few cars flying by my house. They must have been watching the news and were already trying to get away from the portal. It looked like my neighbors were getting ready to do the same thing. People were leaving their houses and carrying little to nothing with them. The approach of the huge glowing portal made me think it was a good idea to do the same. I did not bother to bring anything with me as I hopped into my car to start getting away from that portal as fast as I could. What I was really worried about was whether or not that portal really was sucking the entire planet into it.

In the end, I had no clue whether or not the entire planet was pulled through the portal. It caught up to me well before I could see that happen. I thought about what I was doing and stopped my car just before the portal could overtake me. There was no way of telling where the portal would take me and I did not want to end up running into a wall on the other side. I had to pull over to keep other cars from running into me, but it seemed like the sensible thing to do, or so I hoped. Then the portal passed by me and everything around me changed.

I had been driving along on a concrete road, but I appeared to have somehow entered a huge jungle with towering grass like plants. The road was still there. It was just a crumpled ruin with the huge plants growing out of it. I started to hear loud crashes as the cars that had been driving full speed to get away from the portal ran into the plants. Other cars with pretty good drivers were still speeding through the jungle and I decided to follow them at a much slower speed. The things that I saw were simply amazing. It looked like everything from back on Earth was pulled through the portal and had somehow merged with another planet. The problem was that the huge things on this world had devastated the things on my world. If I did not have an off road vehicle I did not know what I would do.

The scenery did not really change for another half an hour. That was when I finally found something that was not completely destroyed. It was a long white concrete structure that reminded me of a sidewalk meant for things far larger than I. Then I remembered a few of the pictures that had been taken of the dragons and it was easy to tell that the sidewalk was meant for things of their size. I was fairly certain that I did not want to be out in the open when a dragon did come walking by. Others did not seem to make the same connection that I did and did not care about driving out onto the sidewalk.

Then I felt something. It was a rhythmic thumping that felt sort of like what the survivors of the dragon attacks had described. At that point I was especially happy that I had decided not to venture out onto the sidewalk. That was mostly because I was able to get my first sight of a dragon. It was not a black one though. The one I was seeing had golden scales that shimmered in the sunlight. Unlike the black ones, the one I was looking at did not look evil. The dragon had a sort of noble look to it, but I was not eager to go out and say hi to it. As noble as it looked, the dragon still had a lethal elegance to it. The lethal part was the part I was really worried about.

One of the cars that had driven out onto the sidewalk soon became acquainted with the lethal part of that dragon. I don't even think the dragon noticed stepping on that car as he walked by. Actually, I thought that might be a somewhat good thing. That one black dragon that came to the Earth so much seemed to be able to sense where people were and he took a lot of pleasure in tormenting whoever he came across. If that gold dragon did not notice anyone here then he might not have know that we were there or he just was not that hostile towards humans. I did not know which one I hoped was the correct answer.

After a while I realized that I had a decision to make. Wherever I was, I was stuck and needed to find somewhere to go. Chances were that everything had been devastated when the world had been pulled through that portal. I doubted that I was going to be able to easily find something to eat with the state that things were in. That dragon had to be headed to somewhere that might have food in abundance. It would be a big risk following that creature, but it was not like I had anywhere else to go. The sidewalk extended in each direction for as far as I could see and I did not want to just keep wandering around in the tree sized grass.

I could have headed in the opposite direction, but there was really no guarantee that there were no dragons in that direction either. Besides, following the gold dragon seemed like a much better idea than taking the chance of running into a dragon like one of those black ones. Who knows, the gold dragon could have been friendly for all that I knew. I thought I might be at least a little safe if I were to drive on the very edge of the sidewalk. Hopefully, no dragon would come walking along on that section of the sidewalk.

It was much faster driving on something nice and flat. I was also able to get a pretty good view of the world that I was in now that I was not stuck in the grass. Things looked pretty similar to the things back in my world. Everything was noticeably larger of course. I could see that I was driving toward a house and that made me a little bit happier. Unless that dragon lived with friends or family I might only have to deal with that one dragon. It also came as a great relief that there were no stairs leading up to the front door or I would have really had some trouble getting inside the dragon's house if I wanted to. There was something else about the dragon's home that I could not quite understand. It seemed somehow more advanced than the homes back on Earth. There was nothing really special about it on the outside. It was just that looking at it made me think that my own home looked old fashioned by comparison.

After spending a few moments lingering around outside the dragon's house I decided to try and get inside. The problem was that it did not look like I was going to be able to squeeze under the front door. I started to wonder how insects were able to get into my own house. If they could figure out how to get into a house then surely I could as well. I did not want to drive around the house looking for openings, though, so I just decided to wait for the dragon to open the door for me instead. Fortunately, that did not take as long as I thought it would. I ended up only having to wait about an hour for the dragon to come back out and I was able to drive inside real quick without him noticing.

Once inside the dragon's house I could tell that some of the appliances within the house did look considerably more advanced than anything I had seen back on Earth. Besides that, everything looked perfectly normal. I spent a little time driving around the ground floor of the house. It was a good thing that I was in a car. I was less than an inch tall compared to the creatures on this world and it would have taken me much longer to explore the house without the aid of a vehicle. Things were going to get tough for me once I ran out of fuel.

After a while I realized that I should have been looking for good hiding places while I was exploring. Even if that dragon did not prove to be hostile he was still huge and more than capable of killing me by complete accident. Until I could judge how that dragon really behaved I needed to find a place where I could keep from getting underfoot. Fortunately, there were quite a few good hiding places available to me. Unfortunately, there were not many of them in the kitchen. I did not want to get caught in there when the dragon came back, so I chose to hide under a couch in what I assumed was the living room.

To save my fuel I turned off the car and just waited for the dragon to return. I just wanted to spend a little time observing the dragon once he came back home. There might be a good chance to swipe some food from the dragon at some point. At least I hoped that there would be or I was going to have to go searching for food somewhere in that grass jungle. I eventually grew bored of waiting for the dragon and just fell asleep.

It was a rhythmic thumping that eventually started to wake me up. Then the sight of one of those huge golden feet crashing down just outside of my hiding place startled me completely awake. I went to look and see where the dragon was going while on foot. There was no need to waste gas while I was still in a nice hiding place. The dragon did not appear to sense that I was there. He was going about his business as if he had yet to notice that the Earth had merged with his own world. Once again, I had to notice that he was a kind of noble looking dragon. All he was doing was fixing a little meal for himself, but he still managed to look so good doing it. There was just so much grace and efficiency to his movements that I felt like I could watch him all day. He was nothing like the black dragons. People tended to want to get away from them once they saw those monsters.

I noticed that the dragon did not seem interested in eating in the kitchen either. He was coming right into the living room and I ducked a little further into my hiding place. I still did not want to be noticed even if the dragon did not look that bad. Looks can be deceiving after all. The dragon sat down on the couch I was hiding under. All I could see of the dragon at that point were his scaly feet and I heard the noise of what was the dragons' equivalent of a television coming on. When I could see that the dragon was not making any moves that indicated he knew I was there I worked up the courage to get a little closer to him. It took even longer for me to decide to emerge from my hiding place to get an even better look at him.

I thought I was taking a big risk and that I should probably stay undercover, but I wanted a closer look at the dragon. It was not like I had the chance to get that close to a giant reptile everyday. Getting close enough to his foot to actually touch it was not that hard. I decided to touch it just to see if he could feel it and after briefly touching one of his tough scales I was pleased to see that the dragon did not react in the least bit. I ventured even further away from my hiding place and did not stop until I could see the whole dragon. He was enjoying his meal while my stomach was reminding me that I had yet to eat anything that day.

I found myself staring at more than just the dragon at that point. Whatever he was eating sure smelled good. To the outside observer I realized that I must look like some tiny pet waiting for his oversized master to throw him a few scraps. I did not really think that I would get the chance to eat anything that day. Truth be told, I would be lucky if the dragon did not step on me while I was exposed like I was. Then something happened that I thought would not happen. The dragon started to set his plate of food down on the floor and I had to get out of the way of the giant white saucer before it crushed me. Then the dragon stretched out on the couch and, to me, it looked like he was about to take a nap.

A few seconds later I heard what I hoped was the deep breathing of a sleeping dragon and scrambled on top of the plate to see if there was anything edible up there. What I saw was a plate that was still half full of food. It was slightly disturbing that all of it was made of meat. Since I was also made of meat being trapped in a house with a giant carnivore seemed like a bad mix. At least the meat was cooked and none of it looked like people. Those black dragons sure seemed to enjoy people alive and kicking when they ate us. The meats seemed unfamiliar to me, but they smelled good enough, so I decided to give them a little try.

It was too bad that the dragon had not really been asleep. I found that out when one huge hand picked the plate back up, nearly crushing me with a thumb. The plate rocked back and forth a bit as it was lifted and I slipped in some sort of sauce that had been covering one of the meats. I ended up floundering in the stuff and my body was completely covered in the brown substance. The sauce acted as a good disguise, but I did not quite like the idea of looking like a part of the dragon's meal.

When the dragon resumed eating his meal I did not know whether to scream for the dragon to stop or just remain still. After I tried to scream I found that I was really too scared to make much noise and that pretty much settled that issue. I was going to have to sit there and hope that the dragon did not eat me. That proved to be a forlorn hope. I was scooped up along with a piece of meat and found myself moving toward the dragon's open mouth. Glistening white teeth were only marred by the occasional scrap of meat. A slick looking forked pink tongue was slightly arched in the direction of the food coming toward it and I still could not scream.

I was deposited into the warm humid domain of the dragon's maw. Never in my life had I wished so badly that I was just dreaming. Then the dragon started chewing and I had to focus on avoiding fangs that looked like they could easily tear a car apart. The only thing that seemed to be working in my favor was that the dragon's saliva was adhesive enough that it made it easier for me to stick to the beast's fleshy tongue. Riding the dragon's undulating tongue was a stomach turning experience, but I soon missed that experience once the dragon finally swallowed.

Powerful muscles pushed me down the slick tunnel that was the dragon's throat. Any attempts I made at struggling were easily thwarted and I was pushed down toward my doom. It was not until I finally plummeted into the dragon's belly and into a pool of digestive acids that I finally screamed. That was when I heard something, something that sounded like it was a gentle voice coming from within in my head. Is there a tiny person in my belly?

I knew that had to be the dragon speaking to me and I tried to respond to him despite the pain that was raking my body. "Yes, I'm stuck in here," I managed to say.

Why didn't you say anything before I ate you little one?

"I-I was too scared to say anything. You dragons have not been too kind to humans and I figured you would just torment me if you knew I was there," I said.

You dragons? You must be a human. So that's what those two were up to. The dragon sounded more like he was talking to himself at that point. I hoped that he would not forget about me while he was thinking. Human, only black dragons like tormenting humans like that, no, the reds aren't exactly friendly either, but the blacks are the ones humans really have to worry about.

That announcement came as a relief to me and I said, "Can you throw me up then? You're digesting me as we speak and I can't even begin to describe how much this hurts."

There was a brief pause before the dragon spoke with me again. Throw up, for a human? I may not wish you harm little one, but I don't think you are worth that much effort on my part. And this really is your fault. If you had said something you would not be where you are now. Plus, you're lucky that I am a gold dragon. It is only us, reds, and blacks that can communicate like this with those inside of us. Any other dragon would not even now that you were within him. I am willing to restore your body to you once you make your way through my digestive system, but that's it.

So I was dealing with a friendly dragon, just not a very friendly dragon. Apparently even the friendly dragons did not think much of humanity. I had a bad feeling about how well humans were going to do in this new world. As I was digested I wanted to beg the dragon to let me out, but I did not want to annoy him. He said he was going to restore my body to me and that was the only way I figured I was going to come out of this alive. Annoying him seemed like a good way of getting him to change his mind about doing even that much for me.

I also noticed that the dragon had said restore me instead of resurrect me. It took a few minutes for me to figure out what that meant while the dragon left me to digest in peace. As my skin started to melt away and my flesh soon followed I found that I was still alive. How that was possible I did not know. I also did not know how it was possible for me to still feel pain with my nerve endings gone. The whole process was excruciatingly painful and I would have asked for the dragon to just let me die if I could have still spoken. Unfortunately, talking required parts of my body that the dragon had already melted down into the goop that surrounded me. The dragon had an extremely powerful digestive system too. Even many of my bones were completely or partially digested. Then it was time to move out of the belly and into the rest of the dragon's digestive system.

It was a long winding journey through the dragon's intestines. A good deal of the thick liquid that surrounded me was slowly drained away. I guessed that those liquids were going to be used as nutrients for the dragon's body. It really did not matter much to me as the jumbled mess that was left of me tumbled through the dragon's intestinal track. It went on for what felt like days for me. Then things started to get a little more solid and I was sort of happy that I could not see what I was embedded in at that point. It took a while before what I was stuck in started to move and there was eventually a falling sensation. I plopped down in some new liquid and floated around for a little while before the dragon finally went into action.

I could feel myself coming back together, my flesh being restored to me. And then I was horrified to find what I was embedded in. Now don't get me wrong, I was happy to be alive, but being stuck waist deep on a piece of dragon feces floating around in a toilet was not the place I would have chosen to get restored in. I suppose that I should have felt lucky that the place did not really stink or I really would have been sick. As I was busy trying to work my way to freedom a pair of cold metallic objects clamped around my body and pulled me free. Then I was dropped onto what looked like a washcloth.

"There you are," said the dragon with his own voice and not in my head. "You're perfectly fine, if in need of a little bath." I was about to thank the dragon for getting me out when he moved to give me the little bath he talked about. That basically consisted of holding me under a running faucet and rubbing me down with soap and the washcloth I was on. The dragon was a little rough, but I thought he was as gentle as he could possibly be considering the size difference between us.

After that we had some time to talk. I explained what I had seen happen and the gold dragon confirmed that merging the Earth with his own world is exactly something that the black dragons would do. When I asked why all the other dragons let them do that he explained that was because a couple of black dragons now ruled their world. I had a bad feeling about which dragons those were and I was suddenly really happy that this dragon was the one I had stumbled across even though he had ended up digesting me. It turns out that he was pretty friendly too. He ended up taking care of me for a while, feeding me and letting me live with him. But, we, or at least I, discovered that there was one big problem with having two people living together when one of them is so much smaller than the other.

One day while I was sitting on the couch next to the dragon's head he fell asleep. I did not think much of that since he did not tend to move much in his sleep. What I had forgotten was that sometimes his tongue would dart out to lick his pebbly lips. On that day I was sitting a little too close to his mouth when his tongue darted out. I was easily picked up by the sticky pink muscle and carried right into his mouth. That time I did scream for help, but it did me no good since the dragon was asleep. When I was carried into his mouth I did not have to worry about getting chewed up, but that was only because he instantly swallowed.

It was a familiar trip down the dragon's throat. No one really forgets getting eaten. I was the only piece of meat in the dragon's stomach when I arrived and even though I was tiny I was more than large enough to get a reaction. Acids started flooding into the dragon's belly to digest me once more. I pounded against the walls of flesh that surrounded me, trying to get the dragon to wake up. It was him that ate me this time even though I tried to get him to stop. I thought that he might be willing to spit me up because of it. There was no way for me to find out whether that was true or not since I could not get the dragon to wake up. What I did find out was that the dragon had been a little merciful to me the first time he digested me. Everything was far more painful than it had been. The dragon had been easing my pain the first time through and I had not even realized it. At least things were a little shorter this time. Without the dragon keeping me alive I was dead before I left the belly. The only thing that was left of me was a couple little indigestible bits of matter for the dragon to flush out of his life. He was not capable of resurrecting me after I was already dead and he had to be awake to keep me alive. It was no big lose for him though. There were plenty of other humans around if he desired to have one as a companion.

******

"Was it a success Tzakiel?"

"Of course it was my friend," Tzakiel responded to me. "The human's world has merged with ours and they are exactly the size they should be. It will be interesting to see how they handle surviving in their new condition on this world."

"I'm sure that it will, but when do we get to have some fun of our own?" I asked.

Tzakiel smiled and said, "Give them a little while Reban. They should be running around like terrified little bugs at the sight of the other dragons. I want them to think that things can't get any worse for them. And then we make an appearance."

I chortled a little at that. "I am looking forward to having some fun with the little pests again."

******

I had no idea where I was. After that portal passed by me my entire home town found itself missing the ground beneath it. Everything had just started tumbling down a cliff side and only a few people had managed to grab onto something solid before tumbling to the ground. A few other people were knocked off the cliff by falling debris, but I had managed to hang on. After that disastrous little event I tried climbing down the cliff. I noticed a few others climbing down with me while others were climbing up. If I was not already afraid of heights I might just have followed them.

When I reached the bottom there was a lot of debris left from the town. There was also a lot of sand on the ground. I was really starting to wonder where that portal had taken me, but it looked like it was some kind beach, and a really huge one at that. If it was not for the salty smell in the air I would have thought that I was in a desert. I started wandering around the remains of my town, looking for whatever supplies that I could find. There was not much. Pretty much everything had been destroyed in the fall, but there were a few things that were worth carrying with me. The hardest part about all of that was ignoring the bodies of the people that had not been close enough to the cliff wall to grab onto it.

I thought that it might be a good idea to stick around in the town and wait for help. A few other people thought the same thing. That did not turn out to be such a good idea. All of those bodies attracted scavengers and they were some huge scavengers. They were the first definite proof that I was no longer on Earth. There were no 40-foot long reptiles that happened to look like dragons on Earth. There may have been a couple of dragons that liked to show up every once and a while, but they were even larger and they were bipedal as well. The dragons swarming us definitely walked on all fours and they made up for in numbers what they lacked in size.

I started running off the moment those winged beasts showed up. It was a good thing that they preferred that their prey already be dead or I would have been gobbled down by one of the greedy reptiles on at least three occasions as they landed within easy striking distance of me. A few other people were not as lucky as I was. Apparently, running into a dragon was enough to get it to eat you. As many of them as there were, I was lucky not to run into one of the scaly monsters. It was a good thing that I had found a backpack to carry all my stuff in as I fled the town or I would have been in some real trouble as I started to make my way across the vast beach.

Before long the town was out of sight and the only landmark that I could see was the cliff behind me. It took a little longer before I could see any waves in the distance and it took even longer before I saw any other living thing besides the two other people that had fled in the same direction that I had. I can't say that I was pleased with what I saw. There were these two gigantic dragons walking by and they were of the same bipedal variety that had wiped out a few cities back on Earth. The two dragons I was looking at were green and silver with rounder, less sharply designed bodily features. They were also lacking wings and instead had webbing between there fingers and toes. The two dragons I was looking at looked more at home in the water than in the air to me.

It looked like the dragons were about to lay some towels down on the beach. I was happy that they were uninterested in me, but I was very displeased with the fact that they were walking in my direction. For the second time that day I found myself trying to dodge scaly walls. Even though I only had to dodge two dragons it was a lot more difficult since those two dragons were large enough to step on the ones I had to dodge earlier. Each step the took was also kicking up little sandstorms around their feet and when one of them took one step near me I was left temporarily blinded and coughing up sand.

By the time I could see again two of the people I had been traveling with had disappeared and one of the dragons, the green one, had already laid down its towel. The dragon was moving to sit down while talking to its companion. That was slowing the other one down and it had yet to lay its towel down. I hoped that we were going to have enough time to get away from the dragons while they were busy talking, but that was not to be. The green dragon placed its hand in the sand with me and my last companion trapped right between its fingers. As its hand sunk into the soft sand we found ourselves falling down the newly created valley toward the dragon's hand.

It was impossible for us to escape the sand trap. The only thing we could hope for was to not be buried alive in the sand. In the end, it was the dragon that helped us out in the worst possible way. It made a sudden upward movement with its hand that ended up flicking us through the air and onto its companion's towel. That was one of the most painful experiences of my life. It was a miracle that I did not have anything worse than a twisted ankle. The other person traveling with me was much worse off than I was. Both his legs were bent at unnatural angles and I was pretty certain that it was more than just his legs that were injured.

Then a shadow appeared over both of us. The silver dragon was sitting down with us still on its tower. Neither I nor my companion could move very fast with our injuries. My companion was the first to go. A sickening crunch was all I heard as I continued to try and get away on my bad ankle. I was a little slow, but when the dragon's weight came down on me I was somehow still alive. There was something griping onto the sides of my body and it took me a second to realize that I was actually stuck in the dragon's tailhole. Somehow I had wound up with my legs up its tailhole and my upper body free. I tried to pull myself free, but I was stuck tight.

Over time, as the dragon occasionally shifted its position, I found myself being sucked inch by inch into the dragon's rear. No matter how hard I struggled I could not pull myself out of the dragon. When the dragon stood up again I thought I was going to be squeezed to death by the muscles in its rear. Even though I was so high up in the air I really did not have that good a view. The dragon's body was blocking out most of my view and I was still busy struggling to get free. Now that the dragon was walking I was really fighting a losing battle. Each step the dragon took seemed to suck me in even more. As my arms were sucked into the dragon I lost the ability to struggle. I enjoyed the last few moments of fresh air and sunlight I was likely to get, and then I was sucked completely into my final resting place.

The tailhole sealed shut behind me. Prying apart the tough leathery skin was beyond my capabilities. I was also being bounced around inside the dragon's rear as it moved around, at least that was happening when I had the space to bounce around. For some reason the dragon's muscles would occasional contract around me. Those muscles were as hard as steel to me and it felt like I was going to be crushed every time those muscles tightened up around me. Then there came an especially big contraction. I could not move my limbs even an inch. My bones started to snap and my insides felt like they wanted to come out. Suddenly, without warning, my body gave out on me and I burst like a grape. The mess that remained of me would be expelled with the other waste from the dragon at a later time.

******

"Are you sure this is going to work out Tzakiel?" I asked. "I can sense that the humans are dieing off rather quickly."

Tzakiel just snorted in response and said, "Don't worry about them. They just need to learn how to survive on our world. Plus, they have lived a long time on their world without anything to hunt them down. There are a lot of humans that are unfit for survival that need to be killed off. Once all that is done, their numbers will increase again. That's how it is with all vermin after all."

"Sure it is. I just hope that enough of them survive for us to have our fun with. We didn't go through with all this trouble so that all the other dragons could enjoy having humans on this world," I said.

******

To think, I had thought that just two dragons were bad. Now I was staring at a whole street full of them just walking by. Dozens of them were walking by every minute. It was like me and my friends had been transported into a city of them. I wondered if the rest of the town was somewhere on this world too. We had been out in the woods when that portal passed over us. Just about everything had been transported with us. It was a good thing we had been in an open area in the woods since all the trees were not rooted into the concrete ground they were now located on. Pretty much all of the ones that had been transported through the portal had fallen over upon getting here. If we had been in one of the denser parts of the woods we would have probably been crushed by one of the large trees.

Trees were not the only things we had to worry about. We were stuck in some sort of giant alley with no cover. The first dragon that happened to walk down the alley would be able to easily see us. If those black dragons that had been attacking those cities were any indication about how dragons behaved then we were in a whole lot of trouble. Then, as if summoned by my thoughts, three red dragons came walking around the corner. Two of them looked similar to the dragons that had attacked all those cities, just less evil but more aggressive looking. The third dragon was considerably taller than the other two, but he had a noticeably slimmer body. He looked kind of like a mix between a western and eastern dragon.

Then, just as I expected, the dragons noticed me and my friends standing around on the ground. The tall one said, "Hey, are those real life humans?"

I and my friends did not hesitate to start running. One of the dragons shouted, "Hey, catch them before they get away!" As you can imagine, it was a short chase. Even if we were the same size I had a feeling that the dragons were faster than we were. With the size difference between us I might as well have stood still and let the dragons catch me. It might have been less painful if I had done things that way. Imagine a giant dragon trying to pick you up while running and try to imagine just how gentle he can possibly be. One of my friends did not survive the experience.

After all of us were captured the dragons gave us a closer inspection. "Are you sure they're humans and not just colorful bugs?" asked one of the dragons.

Another dragon responded, "Of course they're humans. Tzakiel and Reban must have summoned them here. That's what they've been up to all this time."

Then the tall dragon threw a couple of my friends into his mouth, swallowed, and said, "They don't taste like bugs. Besides, they look just like the ones in the pictures. They are definitely humans."

One dragon asked, "What do you think we should do with them?"

"We could eat them," said the tall dragon that had eaten my friends, "They don't taste that great though. The blacks enjoy the taste of humans more. Maybe we could sell the humans to one of them."

"I think I have a better idea. Let's mix them in with some of the food for one of the browns."

"That is a good idea. Too bad we won't get to see the results, but it's still a fun idea."

My friends had been trying to get the dragons to pay attention to them, but they were uninterested in what we had to say. They just walked off with us and did not pay the least bit of attention to us. We might as well have been objects, not people, to them. At one point I think that we did annoy them because they waved a hand over us and we found ourselves unable to speak. It looked like they were able to use magic as well. I would later find out that the dragons we had been captured by were adolescents that happened to work at their equivalent of a restaurant. Each different color of dragon had a different food of choice and I found out that the brown dragons were insectivores, much to my disgust. When you do not like insects much and then you find yourself being hidden in a big pile of them that are the same size you are it can be a very nerve wracking experience. Then, when that pile of bugs you are in feels like it is moving and you realize that you have been sold as a meal it is much more nerve wracking.

I was just happy that all of the bugs were already dead or I would have really freaked out. The feeling of something digging around in the pile I was in did make me freak out though. As I tried to scream I found that the spell the red dragons had placed on me was still in effect. The weight on me form the bugs was still too great for me to escape and I had to silently sit there for whoever was eating the bugs to get to me. That did not take as long as I thought it would. It had felt like there was a large amount of weight on me and even a dragon would have taken a while to eat it all unless the dragon just swallowed its meal. Then I thought of the fact that there really were not many reptiles, if any, that chewed their meals back on Earth. There was a good chance I was dealing with a dragon that swallowed its food.

Eventually, I was grabbed up and the pile of insects I was in loosened up enough for me to see the outside world. And the outside world was not very pleasant since it mostly consisted of a big fat slimy tongue ringed by razor sharp teeth that lead down a dark tunnel that I did no want to go down. Unfortunately, I did not have much choice in the matter as I was deposited onto the broad tongue of what I knew to be a dragon. A couple of my friends were also resting on the dragons tongue, but it was too slick for us to get to each other. One movement of the tongue sent everything sliding down the dragon's throat in one big gulp. I imagined we would have looked like a nice sized little bugle descending the dragon's throat.

Considering that I expected to land in digestive acids when I entered the dragon's belly I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in a chamber that was slightly illuminated. The chamber was totally lacking in anything that could digest me. For that I was grateful, but I was still stuck inside of a dragon and I had to find a way out. There were two tunnels leading out of the chamber I was in and the bugs were being moved down both of them. I eventually felt myself being gently ushered in the direction of one of them. The rest of my friends seemed to be moving in the same direction. That made me think that it was the tunnel that led to the place where things were really digested within the dragon. I started trying to move in the direction of the other tunnel as did all of my friends except for one.

He called out to us, "Don't go down that one."

"Why not?" I asked as I moved closer to the other tunnel. I finally realized that I could talk and I was more than a little angry that the spell waited to wear off until the ability to talk could do me no good. The red dragons probably planned for it to work that way.

"This dragon has two stomachs used to digest its food. The red dragon that captured me told me so. He said that one stomach is for the hard to digest food and the other for the easy to digest food," my friend exclaimed. "If you go down the tunnel with the hard to digest food you will be digested almost instantly. But, if you go down the tunnel with the easy to digest food you will be digested very, very slowly."

I looked around me and saw that all the hard shelled bugs were going down the same tunnel that my friend was while I was going down the tunnel with the softer looking ones. Without even realizing it I had volunteered for the slow and excruciating death. I tired to change my path once more, but I found that the gentle pull on my body was much stronger than it had been before. After I was pulled into the tunnel itself I started moving much faster. I moved quickly through the tunnel and soon found myself in a new chamber. This chamber did have digestive acids in it.

My friend had been right. The acids in the stomach I found myself in were pretty weak. They were still strong enough to start dissolving my body. It was really painful at first. It seemed like the process was taking hours as I floated around in the mass of digesting bugs. The noxious fumes started to get to me and I felt like I was going to fall asleep in the stuff. After a while I did fall asleep and started to sink into the acids. Breathing in a lung full of acid was enough to wake me right back up. I tried to cough up the stuff when I made my way back to the surface, but it still felt like my insides were burning. It was only a matter of time before I could no longer stay afloat.

One by one I heard the pained moans of my friends go silent. I could not tell if that was because they were dead or because they no longer had the energy to make any noise. It would not be long before I reached that point. At one point I just let sleep take me. I was tired of the pain and just wanted it to stop. That seemed like the best decision to make at the time. I would never wake up again. The dragon digested me just like all the other bugs in its stomach.

******

It was getting close to our time to have some fun with the humans. In just a little while we would be gathering our own humans. The word was finally starting to get out among the other dragons about what we had done. Those annoying golds were warning everybody about what had happened while the blacks were pretty much rejoicing. The reds were a little happy about what was happening as well. They liked picking on things smaller than them. We were going to give the humans just a little more time though. I was having fun observing some of the situations that the humans were finding themselves in. The numbers of them that were getting stepped on were slightly more than expected, but the numbers that were getting eaten astounded me. It was like they were practically throwing themselves into everyone's bellies. Tzakiel was right about them. They really did need to learn how to survive and they needed to learn awfully fast.

******

I had no idea that portal would lead to a place like this. It was doubtful that anyone would have thought about the dragons pulling the entire Earth through to their world instead of just coming to ours. I had been going camping and was just at the entrance to the park. It was the tourist season and things had been backed up for a while and they did not get any better when that portal appeared. People were running into each other trying to get away from the thing. That panic ended up paralyzing traffic and it was easier to get out and run rather than stay in my car. Running had not really done anyone any good. The portal still passed over us and we all wound up on this nightmare world.

Most things from the Earth had been devastated by the transition to the dragon's world. I wondered how bad things were in the cities. They were large enough that the dragons would have had to notice them. That was nothing like what it was for the group I made it to this world with. We were in what looked like a giant version of a small town to me. There were enough dragons around not paying attention to the ground that at least half the people I had made it here with had been crushed already. I was trying my best not to be one of those people, but it was hard going.

At the moment, I was running away from a rather large winged green dragon carrying a load of groceries. It was not unusual for this world. She was the third dragon I had run away from that day. This one looked like she might just step on me though. I was getting tired and my exhaustion was making it hard to think. There were numerous points that I missed where I could have found cover. My tired mind just kept missing them until it was too late. There were a couple of people that had already been crushed underfoot by the dragon that was too busy to notice us. It was fortunate for me that she walked right over me. The second she did walk past me she set her groceries down right in front of me and I ran right into them. And I do mean into them. There was a hole in one of the bags and I did not have enough time to stop before running into it.

The dragon must have just set them down to adjust her grip because she picked them back up shortly after. I was left stuck in a plastic bag with a bunch of vegetables. It was fairly difficult for me to keep from getting crushed by the massive plants or from suffocating against the plastic bag, but I managed to make it back to the dragon's home. Once there I carefully made my way out of the bag. I did not want the dragon to see that an unwelcome pest had ridden all the way to her house. It was good for me that she was too busy with her groceries to notice me. I still had the problem of having to dodge the occasional item that the dragon took out of her bags and set on the counter that I was on.

Most of the stuff she had brought went away in various cabinets and one of the most advanced looking refrigerators that I had ever seen. A few things stayed on the counter with me. It looked like all the ingredients needed to make a salad. I was proven right as the dragon started to prepare herself a little meal. To me it had looked like the dragon was a vegetarian and I was about to work up the courage to contact her when she turned on some music. It turned out that she was the type that liked things deafeningly loud. I doubted that she could even hear herself as I held my hands against my ears in an attempt to keep the painfully loud noise out of my head.

While I was busy being blasted with sound the dragon just continued to prepare her meal. I attempted to find a place where I could shield myself from at least some of the noise. The dragon should have been what I was keeping my eyes on at all times. I had not noticed that I had wandered a little too close to where she was preparing her food. She accidentally scooped me up and along with a few other ingredients for her salad and dropped me in it. I tried to get her attention, but she only dropped more things on me. It was a good thing that so many of the ingredients in the salad where light. That made it easier for me to crawl to the top of the salad. I managed to do that just in time to be drenched with salad dressing and carried off into a different room.

The music was still playing as loud as ever when the dragon entered the new room. I wish she had been paying attention to the only piece of salad topping that was moving around instead of lying back on a couch and absentmindedly eating her meal. Her fork nearly speared me on numerous occasions. It was surprising that I was able to dodge the fork for as long as I had. I was just lucky that when the fork did come down on me I was stuck between two prongs on the fork rather than getting speared through the middle by one of them. That probably would not help me for long as I was lifted towards the dragon's slender muzzle. It parted revealing a mouth that did not look like it belonged a plant eater. A slender pointed tongue was licking a few bits of partially chewed salad off of needle sharp teeth.

I soon found myself being pushed into that slimy maw. The dragon's tongue wrapped around the fork and pulled me off of it. After that the dragon started slowly chewing on her food. I was pushed between her vicious looking fangs on numerous occasions, but her slow chewing motions gave me enough time to get out of harms way before I could get chewed up into tiny little pieces. But, there was nothing I could do as the dragon tipped her head back. I started sliding backwards toward a dark tunnel that I did not want to get anywhere near. The problem was that there was nothing to grab onto since the dragon's tongue was as slick as oil. There was a brief pause just before the dragon swallowed. I was sent plummeting down a fleshy tunnel that was more than wide enough for me to fit down.

The slide down the dragon's throat did not stop until I reached her belly. I was surprised that I could still hear the music playing outside the dragon even through the tons of flesh that separated me from the outside world. The sound was muffled, though, and I could finally hear other things like the beating of the dragon's heart and the contents of her stomach sloshing around whenever she moved slightly. Of course, I was sloshed around too. It was not exactly any fun having acid splashed all over me. What was even less fun was how much breathable air there was in the dragon's belly. There was more than enough for me to stay awake and conscious for a good deal of my stay in her belly. And what a long stay it was. She really was an herbivore and her digestive system was not meant to digest meat. I am not saying that I was not digested, it was just really slow. After a while, all that was left of me were a few bleached bones and a dragon with mild case of indigestion.

******

"I think it's about time for us to make our appearance now," said Tzakiel.

"Good, I was starting to get a little bored just watching others have some fun," I responded. "Is there a nice sized group of them around? At our size it's going to take quite a few of them for us to have any fun."

"Don't worry; I made sure that plenty of them would end up near us. Unlike most of the other humans, I made sure that these only came here with what they were wearing," explained Tzakiel. "I also made sure that they showed up near our property. A few other dragons have whittled down their numbers a little bit, but the vast majority of them are still alive and in one nice big group."

"Yeah, I can sense them now that you mentioned they're there. Alright then, let's go get our new playmates."

******

To say we were a panicky mob at this point would have been an understatement. We had been taken from our homes and teleported to this world of giant dragons. All of our things were gone and we were nothing more than toys to do with as the residents of this world pleased. No leader had been able to organize our group. That was mostly because there were too many people to organize and we all appeared to have come from different countries all over the Earth. Most of us could not even understand one another. Everything was a mess. The only thing that was really keeping everybody together was that everyone had noticed that the dragons appeared to be avoiding a structure that made even them look tiny by comparison. We did not know what was in the building, but it was protecting us from the other dragons at the moment and for that we were grateful. And then the residents of that building finally emerged.

It was not hard to recognize the two dragons that emerged from that building. They had been all over the news for quite some time. The big difference now was that they seemed to have done a lot of growing. Everyone knew what the two black dragons were like. The one with the emerald belly and the one with the blood red belly and flaming red mane inspired nightmares among the populace of Earth when they had just been the size of the other dragons that we had seen on this planet. For some reason these two now appeared to be as large compared to the other dragons as they were to us. It was a terrifying sight and I could see some people fainting in fear and others were obviously struggling to control their bladders.

I hopped that we were beneath the notice of those great and terrible beings. The way they were looking straight down at the ground made me think that they could see us perfectly fine. It was kind of expected that the one with the red hair could see us, but the one with the green belly had not shown the ability to detect us so well before. His size was not the only thing that had changed about him. I noticed that a few people were already trying to flee in terror from the two monsters, but my own legs refused to move. My legs were paralyzed as fear coursed through my body.

Running really would not have done me any good anyways. Either of the dragons had hands that were larger than a city block. Cutting off our escape routes was mere child's play for them. Humans, stop attempting to flee and pay attention to your new masters. The voice was coming from within my head, but the dragon with the red belly's mouth was moving along with the words. It was more like he was letting us now which one of them was speaking. They probably had to communicate with us like that. At their size their voices were probably so deep that we would not be able to understand them.

Most people did as they were told, but a few continued trying to flee. They did not last long. Instead of blocking escape routes, the dragons were crushing people that disobeyed. After that everyone stopped what they were doing and paid attention to the dragons. That's better. The one with the green belly was addressing us now. I am Tzakiel and this is Reban. We are the ones responsible for merging your world with our own. We've made sure to put your pitiful race in its place on our world. Now you are nothing more than vermin scurrying around the feet of your superiors, as it should be. And as the superiors of your superiors, that makes us your new gods. You all have the fortune of personally serving your gods. It's a great privilege that we are giving you and you should all remember that if you displease your gods you can be easily replaced by the other vermin we have brought to our world.

The red dragon, Reban, snapped his fingers and a couple of large carrying cases appeared. Then he started speaking. We'll be taking you to your new home vermin. Enjoy the ride that your gods are so generously giving you. I thought we were all supposed to walk into the carrying cases, but the dragons thought that getting such a large amount of people into them would take too long. Reban and Tzakiel both motioned at the crowd and we started floating into the cases fairly rapidly. It might have been a fun experience if the dragons had been gentle with us. We were constantly bumping into each other and when the dragons set us back down they pretty much dropped us right on top of each other. Then the ride that we were being given proved to be none to gentle. I could swear that they were swinging the cases more than they needed to as they walked.

The walk was a short one, but a few people near me were still badly injured. Since the case was made out of metal a hard fall onto the surface could easily injure somebody. I received my fair share of bruises from the walk and when the doors to the cases opened once more I was glad to get out. The dragons did not give us much time to recover from our trip. After lifting up the cases and briefly breathing a burst of black fire into the cases, probably taking care of people trying to hide, they started addressing us once more.

The cases disappeared as Reban began to speak to us. Little humans, bow down before your gods and show us proper respect. We all rushed to do what we were told. I thought that I heard the dragons laughing at us in the back of my mind. Everyone was too scared to make a noise for fear of offending the dragons. The only thing I could hear was the dragons walking around us. Small tremors were constantly shaking the floor as the dragons paced around us. Then there was a new noise. It was a horrible noise. The sound of bones splintering and bodies making wet popping noises is unmistakable. I could not tell which dragon had just taken a step into the crowd, but one of them definitely had.

I started sweating with fear as I continued bowing down. Everyone had their faces to the floor and I did not think it was a good idea to look up at what was going on. Not only did I not want to see any messy remains, the dragons had not given us permission to look up yet. I felt a small gust of air above me as what must have been a foot passed over me. Then I heard the now familiar voice of Tzakiel make an angry statement. Did I give you permission to stop bowing vermin? The statement was followed up with an earth shattering thud. I could barely hear the people getting crushed over the dragon's stomp. And it was not the only one either. The dragons were stomping on anyone that had happened to look up as well as everyone else that surrounded them. I could only hope that no one around me had looked up or would look up. By the time the stomping did end I was still alive I could not even begin to describe how relieved I was.

You may stand vermin. We will leave you alone for a while. Do clean up the mess that those fools have made while we are gone. Everyone was able to get their first real look at the devastation that had been caused as the dragons walked off. Reban decided to add to it too. He casually brought the tip of his tail down on the crowd and walked off as if he did not even notice what he had done. I do not even think that I had it in me to be angry at the dragon at that point. At that moment I was just thankful that he had not decided to kill me.

It took a while for anyone to start talking while we cleaned up the remains of those that had been crushed like ants. There was some talk of escaping or somehow getting revenge on the dragons. None of that talk was coming from me. We were dealing with creatures powerful enough to merge worlds together. They had scales bigger than we were. To us those dragons might as well really be gods and I was going to try and think of them as such. They were not gods to be disobeyed and I planned to do everything that I could to try and please my new gods.

When Tzakiel and Reban did return everyone stopped talking. Both dragons were wearing malicious smiles on their faces and I wondered what they wanted. It was Tzakiel that told us the answer to what I was wondering. Vermin, your gods are hungry and we desire that you sacrifice yourselves to our needs. But, we can be kind gods. All of your thoughts have been open to us and we are aware that some of you have not spoken well of us. It is only them that you need to sacrifice to us. I could see the faces of those that had been talking ill of our gods contort into expressions of horror. Everyone around those people quickly collapsed around them and restrained them.

I wondered how we were supposed to sacrifice those people to the dragons when Tzakiel lowered something to the floor. It took me a while to recognize that the figure was a human. The man I saw was dressed up in a funny outfit that made him look like some sort of dark priest in one of those barbarian movies. This is my personal plaything. That was Tzakiel talking. He will show you how we are to do this. Listen to him as you would to me.

The man that was acting as Tzakiel's representative appeared to be able to communicate with everyone present. I wondered if he knew that many languages before coming here or if it was the dragon's doing. It did not really matter though. He was making sure that we would be able to please our gods and that was all that really counted. As he was organizing us our gods managed to make a couple of huge platforms appear while they laid down on a pile of pillows that left their heads just below the tops of the platforms. We were supposed to climb up those platforms and throw the human sacrifices into the mouths of the dragons. Those dragons were testing us, seeing if we would really follow any order that they gave us.

As we started walking up the platforms those that were to be sacrificed pleaded with us to let them go. That never happened. Everyone remembered what happened earlier. If someone disobeyed our gods not only would they be killed but so would everyone around them. It was a long exhausting climb to the top of the platforms and I was one of the last ones on Tzakiel's platform. I was surprised to find myself walking alongside Tzakiel's plaything as I walked up the steps of the platform. Every now and then I would look at him and his outfit. I thought he had not noticed, but I was wrong.

"I've been here for much longer than you have. The clothes I came here wearing have long since worn away. Well, that's not quite right. I angered the Greatness one day and he crushed me underfoot, as I deserved," said Tzakiel's plaything. I assumed the Greatness was Tzakiel. "My clothes were completely destroyed after that. But, the Greatness found that he missed having me around one day and decided to resurrect me."

"He can do that?" I asked.

"Of course he can. He's a god after all," said the plaything. "The Greatness has resurrected me many times. That was the only time he killed me out of anger, but he has killed me many times. Once he crushed me because he was bored and I happened to be there to crush under his thumb for his amusement. When he gets the taste for human flesh and no other humans are around I am privileged to satisfy his taste buds."

"Why does he keep bringing you back?"

"Because he wants to," said the plaything. "I make myself useful to him and he keeps me alive. He could probably find somebody to replace me, but I think that I have become his favorite bug for some reason. For such an honor I have done everything I can to help the Greatness in all his needs. I've even informed him on what alterations he could make to his digestive system to make it as torturous as possible to his human meals."

That last remark made me a little uncomfortable. But, I was happy that it was someone else being sacrificed to Tzakiel. It took a few hours to make my way up the platform. The platform was just so tall and there had to be a few million people in our group. Getting all those people up the platforms with struggling sacrifices took time. It was when I was walking past Tzakiel's open maw that things started to become really uncomfortable. I could see people plummeting down his mouth and to their deaths. There screams were horrible and they never stopped since there was a constant supply of new voices.

I was tired when I reached the top of the platform. Even though I had three other people to help me with the person I was to sacrifice it had not been easy to get the sacrifice to the top of the platform. Just as we were about to push the sacrifice off the platform Tzakiel closed his mouth. I wondered if he was about to spare his final sacrifice. Then Tzakiel let out a mighty belch. His rancid breath washed over the platform, making everyone gag. My eyes were watering up, but I could still see the interior of the dragon's mouth. Long yellow teeth ringed a mouth that had very little pink within it. Most of Tzakiel's mouth was black as death except for his ugly fat grayish tongue. There was a body that had fallen onto his tongue that was being slowly pulled down to Tzakiel's throat by one of the thick strings of saliva that decorated his mouth. After getting a longer look of Tzakiel's mouth than I wanted to get I helped push the sacrifice into his maw.

I noticed that Tzakiel's plaything did not move as we headed towards the stairs that led down the platform. Tzakiel had closed his mouth and was sitting up, or at least I thought he was. What he was really doing was repositioning himself. Before I had a chance to reach the steps Tzakiel's tongue flicked out of his mouth and he dragged it across the top of the platform. I was so surprised by what was happening that I could not react. All I could do was stand there looking like a fool and feeling betrayed as I was licked right off the platform. As I was wondering what was going on Tzakiel started speaking to me. In your thoughts you said that you would do anything to please your new gods. This is what pleases me.

I knew that Tzakiel was talking specifically to me. It sort of frightened me to be specifically talked to by him. But, what really frightened me was my slide toward the back of Tzakiel's throat. That slide was briefly halted so that he could lick us roughly against the boney ridges on the roof of his mouth. I actually managed to get stuck up there, but Tzakiel licked me off before I even had the chance to work up the hope that he would forget about me up there and save me from an acid bath. The next thing I knew I was getting gulped down by my hungry god.

His throat should have been more than wide enough for us to easily slide down it. That is not what happened. The muscles in his throat pulverized us all on the way down. It was like his body was designed to harm us. One brief look over at Tzakiel's plaything reminded me that his body probably was designed to harm us. I was surprised to see that the plaything seemed to be enjoying himself. Something told me that he had gone insane after being killed multiple times. Things did not let up by the time we reached Tzakiel's belly. The acids hurt, but I was not quite dissolving. I hoped that was a good thing but the plaything ruined that hope by saying, "This is the first stomach. We all have four more stomachs to look forward to. You should all be pleased that the Greatness has chosen you to nourish his body."

I was not feeling very pleased at the moment. What I was feeling was a need to try and escape. There did not look like there was a way though. Why do you want a way out vermin? I'll be using you as nutrients for my body. You will be used to make a small piece of a nice new scale for my body. Surely, one of my scales, even a small piece of one, is better than any human. I could have crushed you underfoot and your entire body would have gone to waste. Now you get to contribute to something far greater than yourself. I would expect at least a little gratitude from you.

In a second I realized that things could be much worse for me. If the dragon were to get angry with me he could resurrect me and kill me as many times as he wanted. There were probably other things that he could do to. He was a god after all. Maybe Tzakiel was right. I should be grateful that a part of me would soon be a part of a god. It was not like worrying about it would change my fate anyways. I was stuck in a dragon's belly and there was only one way out for me and I probably would not be alive by that point.

We kept moving on. The acids in each belly grew progressively stronger. My body was broken down, but my perceptions remained. Even with my eyes gone I could still see. Even though I had lost my nose in the fourth stomach I could still smell everything. Tzakiel continued talking with me on the way through his stomachs. It was amazing how easily he could talk me into thinking that what was happening to me was a good thing. I was dieing a horrible death and I was starting to feel happy that my pain and discomfort was amusing my god.

The trip through the intestines was rather interesting. Tzakiel informed all of us that this was the place that he had changed the most for us. He said that he had sacrificed his own more efficient digestive system just for us humans. And by sacrifice for us, he meant to say that he made it more torturous and humiliating for us. The smell was horrible and we ran into the most powerful digestive acids there. Even most of our skeletons were digested there. It was amazing how much bones could hurt when they dissolved. Then, as things started to come together in big lumps, I could swear that the dragon had only left the worst smelling parts behind for this stage of the process. There was something else that was left to. Tzakiel's plaything still had his body left too. It looked like Tzakiel still liked him enough to keep him and a couple of other people around. They were to be humiliated though. Each of them was well embedded into a piece of dragon feces.

I was not one of the people that Tzakiel wanted to keep around. When the time came to rid himself of his waste he rid himself of me. Those that were still left alive had to try and escape their smelly prisons on their own. Tzakiel was not willing to help them until they had done that. There was something a little funny about the situation to me. Somehow a car, a nice new car, had managed to find its way into the place where Tzakiel released his waste. I really don't know what it is about new cars and attracting fecal matter, but it was like some great bird had come by and decided to let loose on the vehicle. It did not survive. Shortly after that happened I lost consciousness, leaving only part of a nice shiny new scale behind as evidence that I had ever existed.

******

"It's nice to have hordes of tasty worshipers," I said.

"You've got that right Reban," said Tzakiel.

I said, "This is even more fun than I expected it to be. We'll probably have to improve the speed at which our worshippers breed. At our size it probably would not take us long to go through a few billion humans."

"Too true, but we can worry about that later. For now let's just enjoy the good we have done this day," said Tzakiel.

"Are you sure we have the time? The humans are dieing at an alarming rate. We may have to do something to help them survive or they may all die out sometime soon."

Tzakiel smiled and said, "They'll find a way to survive. Vermin always do."