Chapter 2 - into the flabattoir

"My God, he was huge... and that belly!"
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I sat by the campfire, stunned and numb at what had been asked of me. I was to go into the lair of the most famously dangerous dragon in all the land, all to see if it ate enough to grow any bigger so that these knights and townsfolk could kill it. It was ludicrous, barbaric, and cruel, but what choice did I have? I would be hung and drawn if I didn't complete this task, and on the bright side, maybe I could do my bit to save the creature.

"Is your mind still in turmoil, sir?"

I started, looking around for the source of the voice and realising that Ricardo had been sitting across the fire from me the whole time.

"Oh, Ricardo," I sighed. "To be honest, yes." Ricardo laughed.
"Don't worry, sir, if the dragon is as big as we estimate it to be then it should be a lot less dangerous to you."
It was my turn to laugh.
"That's not really comforting, Ricardo, as dragons are still five times as strong and fast as us. But thank you for your concern. I just don't know why there is a need to kill the creature." I looked him in the face, the haze of the fire distorting his dark, chiselled features. "Don't you think there's a way to resolve this conflict without killing the creature?"

Ricardo looked me in the eyes, taken over by a sudden seriousness.
"That dragon burned my village to the ground and murdered my people," he said solemnly, his voice low and deadly, "for sport. What was just a blink of an eye or a swish of its tail for the creature, has been torturing me my whole life. I often wonder how different my life might be if he hadn't taken my mother, my father, my little sister from me. This, I cannot forgive. If the dragon has any sense of morality, this will be a merciful killing."

I stared at Ricardo for a solid two minutes. Ricardo broke the silence with a hearty laugh. "Come! Let us not start to worry before it is time. Let us feast!" He patted his flat stomach. "I want to be the size of that dragon by the end of the night. And we must drink! You will need all the Dutch courage you can muster."

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I awoke the next day with bleary eyes, a swollen stomach and a pounding headache, all of which all but disappeared as I remembered the task I was to perform.
The commander, frustrated that I would go into the cave encased head to toe in armour, insisted that I at least wear a layer of chain mail. I shivered as the cold metal touched my skin. The commander turned to me.

"Now, we don't want you going in blind, so we have here a painting of the dragon, the only one to exist," he said, handing me a scroll, which I unfurled.
The creature in the picture was long and sleek, its ribs just about visible through the soft skin of its underbelly. I noticed that the creature in the picture had no tail.
"Why doesn't it have a tail?" I asked. The commander and Ricardo stared at me.
"Have YOU ever tried drawing a live dragon? This chap didn't even live to tell the tale! Or draw the tail, in this case. The tail is probably what finished him off, funnily enough. In any case, it's time to go!"

All of the men cheered for me as I trotted off on my horse, probably dead happy that they weren't in my place. There I went. Maybe if I played my cards right, I could keep all my limbs.

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I reached the cave after an hour, leaving my horse at the entrance as it would venture no further. Shaking, I entered, walking slowly through the dead air. It got darker as I went on, and muggier. The smell of rotten meat reminded me of an abbatoir. Hopefully not too many carcasses were human.

As I ventured closer, I heard a distant crunch. As I ventured closer still, I heard the tearing of flesh. Trembling with fright, I stepped on a bone, which splintered quietly.
The feeding noises stopped, and I was left in dead silence again. I heard a sound akin to sandpaper on rock; was that a sniff?
A huge voice, deeper than anything I'd ever heard, boomed around the room.

"Welcome, human."

I almost dropped my lunch. "H-hello," I said in almost a whisper, but the creature still heard me.

"Hello to you."

There was a ground-shaking thud, followed by another, and another; footsteps! I braced myself for the worst, as a figure in the shadows drew nearer and nearer. As the figure of the dragon became clearer, I remembered my goal and fumbled with the drawing to unfurl it. But, as the dragon stepped into the light and my eyes took in the whole of the creature, I realised that the difference between the figure in the drawing and the figure heading towards me was so great that a point of comparison was not needed.

The dragon was exactly as I had studied; its scaly skin glittered ruby red, its horns and teeth alike long and sharp, its tail barbed and eyes piercing blue and narrow.

What I hadn't been expecting was how big the creature would be. Not big compared to me, as a dragon's size is indisputable. But its girth; the beast was head to toe the fattest creature I had ever seen.

Its catlike, majestic prowl had been reduced to a slow waddle, swaying side to side under its new heft. Its forelegs and hind legs had thickened into tree trunks, and its tail, similarly thick, swayed lazily from side to side behind it. Speaking of behinds, the usually tight muscles of the dragon's posterior had grown into huge, fleshy globes which engulfed its tail and melted into thick thighs like balls of soft dough.
A dragon's torso is thin, its chest broad and proud with its belly curving elegantly inwards to meet its hind legs. Not this dragon's; its chest had developed a thick layer of flab, coating any definition there may have been, and joined seamlessly with the creature's flabby neck, leading up to its face; once long and pointed, it's edges now softened by chubby cheeks, its glistening eyes set just above them like the sun over a particularly round hill.

All of this paled in comparison to the creature's gut; instead of curving inwards, it swelled outwards almost twice as much, a sack of sand swinging underneath it and I had to stare at it for a while just to confirm that it wasn't something attached to the dragon. Its belly was so huge that the fat had spilled onto the creature's sides, expanding its waist almost twofold and making the creature twice as wide, the flab bunching into thick doughy rolls as it stepped towards me.
He was huge... and my God, that belly! How could it even move under all that weight? I realised that it had only taken a few months to gain so much and wondered in awe how much it had to have eaten, or if it ever stopped. The creature jiggled all over, as if someone had pumped it full of lard as it lay sleeping.

The dragon lowered its generous ass to the floor with a soft thud, its fore legs following quickly as if they couldn't hold this much weight for long, lowering the creature into a lying position. Its copious belly fat spread in every direction as it hit the floor.

With the creature comfortably settled, it rumbled again; "What may I do for you, human?"

Not knowing what to do, I dropped to my knees and showered the creature with praise.
"Oh mighty dragon, I am humbled by your presence as you are the most magnificent creature in the land. Why, your trim physique reflects the enormity of your power."

The dragon stared at me with its piercing blue eyes.
"If you're here for treasure," it rumbled, "you will not find any." It absent-mindedly scratched its belly with a claw and I couldn't help but stare at the hypnotic waves it caused through its swollen body.
"I seek not treasure, merely to gaze upon the legendary dragon of the Stolen Mountain, seven hundred and counting..."

"HA!" Its body rippled. "That old fool left years ago. I settled here only recently, and am glad I stayed. The food is rich and plentiful."

I felt dread building in my stomach. This wasn't the right dragon. "Um... If you eat well it does not show, you are as sleek as ever my liege."

The creature stared at me, raising a scaly brow. Its fore legs grappled with the floor, and I stared until I realised that it was trying to lift itself off the ground. Slowly but surely its body raised, a bead of sweat running down the creature's chubby cheeks as it pushed itself up to its full height, leaning back on its hind legs. This image would usually be fearsome, but the creature in front of me was grunting with exertion, coated with a sheen of glistening sweat and its thighs and ass spread out as it rested on its hind legs. Its monstrous belly jutted out in front of it, rippling and swaying with every movement. This creature was about as scary as I was to it.

"I am curious, why do you flatter my physique so?" the dragon asked. "Flattery does not tempt us, as we know of our natural beauty and grace."

I was confused. "Um... I was just saying that, no matter what... Girth you possess, you are graceful and sleek as ever."

It was the dragon's turn to be confused.
"Girth?" its eyes narrowed. Explain."

My head was about to explode. "I'm sorry, but have you looked at yourself lately?"

The dragon was smug. "As we reject the sway of shiny trinkets, my kind reject vanity. We look not at ourselves, but to the skies, as it would be with your kind if you changed your values."
Was this true? Dragons did not look at themselves? Even so, it had to be aware of its size. Hell, maybe it didn't even care.

"So, you care not if you have gotten fat?"
The dragon stared at me, and chuckled.
"Fat? No, no. No." It's eyes grew uncertain, slowly wandering downwards. "No. No." It was pleading this time. Its blue eyes connected with the curve of its belly and widened. "Wh-what? Nooo..." it was moaning now, clutching its belly, its face contorted with dread. It opened its gigantic mouth and roared. "NOOO!!"