"Keep up Larry!" the lanky huntsman exclaimed to his friend. "We haven't' even gotten to the difficult terrain yet!"

"It's not like I'm as graceful as your delicate, flowerlike legs, Milt." The other, much more burly huntsman, retorted. "You look like you'd blow away in a sudden gust of wind. Didn't your mama ever tell you to eat 'yer steaks and 'poetatas?"

"Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, muscle-for-brains. Those two other guards vanished somewhere around here. Looks for some signs of em' wont ya?" Milt kept talking as he turned around to continue on. "Or would you rather someone just get lazy when they came to rescue your ass, and leave you stranded to starve in a filthy swamp?"

The two men were traversing the flooded under bog on the eastern edge of "The Fennlands", a thick swamp-like jungle area north of their home city of Berkley. This place was notoriously dangerous on a good day and claimed many a fools life, but something more strange had been happening lately. There had been more disappearances than usual, and on somewhat regular intervals now. These two "modestly intelligent" lackeys were sent to investigate, easily swayed with a monetary reward. There was faint rustling off in the distance.

"Did you hear that?" Milt stated. He was the keener of the two, and could have sworn he heard rustling leaves and snapping branches. Wait no... snapping trees? That must have been the wind; no ordinary wild creature could snap entire trees. Perhaps it was an old oak finally tumbling down deep in the jungle swamp far off in the distance. He eyes the nearby tree line warily.

Larry was not impressed, and was pretty upset with the situation. His boots were soaked completely through; they had been wandering through the wild with no solid ground for what seemed like an hour or more now. He was fed up, and had no time nor desire to play 'guess what Milt's imagination thought of today'.

"We're resting here." He stated rather flatly to Milt, and plopped down on an adequately dry log not far from the outskirts of the damp jungle treeline.

"We should keep going," his friend cautioned, not particularly liking the situation either, but not willing to stop. Larry's resolve was absolute, and he began to take off his boots and pour the water that collected in them out. Once satisfied, he figured now of all times would be the best time to relieve himself as well and began to undue the light armor around his thick waist.

"God, Larry." Milt shook his head, turning away. He wasn't the prettiest man to watch do much of anything, especially that. But a loud 'SMACK' and Larry's muffled cries caused him to whip back around. SPLASH! Suddenly water and mist blocked Milts view, even the dying sun was whited out in the confusion, and it was hard to make anything out until it began to settle. Something big had to have stirred up this much water this quickly. No... something huge! And now Larry was gone! Only his boots and armor remained, now flung from their log.

"Larry...? LARRY!" Milt exclaimed, and drew his spear. "Larry! Say something!"

But there was no response. Instead Milt heard something he couldn't quite put a finger on. It sounded like a loud gurgling-no, sucking noise. Was there a sinkhole in this swamp draining the water? Then suddenly a thundering-GLUURK, and although it was much deeper than any he had heard before, that sound was unmistakable.

It was swallowing.

Then as the artificial fog began to settle Milts heart started to race. Adrenaline began to coarse through his body. He looked up just in time to see the struggling bulges of his partner disappear down a long, serpentine throat, vanishing into the chest of some... monster!

It was huge! Easily twenty, no thirty feet high just to its shoulders! Milt immediately swore, recognizing it as a dragon. Though, the creature didn't seem to have any wings, instead two massive fin-sails where they would normally be on its back. The reptile's body was stark green with black, evenly spaced stripes traveling down the length of its colossal form.

The creature lifted a massive, webbed forepaw to rub its neck in satisfaction. It was obviously water based to some degree, and probably hid underneath the surface of these swamps to hunt. It's long, snake-like tail curled gracefully around the nearby tree line; it perhaps made up 50% of the serpent's body length alone. And length it had very much of: Milt could only hazard a guess how this creature managed to grow past one hundred feet, or more! He had no doubts this was the reason people were going missing.

He was swiftly reminded that his companion was now one of those victims as the dragon lowered his massive head down towards him. The reptiles deep orange eyes stared directly into his own, and Milt could immediately sense a frightening amount of intelligence from the creature even before it began to speak: "Why... you aren't running." It was more of a statement than a question, the dragon rumbled to him amusedly, but Milt immediately brought his spear to the ready.

The dragon smirked; his brow seemed to permanently force itself into a sly grin, his massive bulbous snout leaning in to snort the human's scent with a powerful waft. The human put on a brave act, but his scent told the dragon otherwise.

"You... Larry... You ATE him!" Milt choked, gripping his spear tightly.

"Yes, and he was delicious. Still struggling, actually..." The dragon said with unexpected humor, keeping his grin. His voice was deep like rolling thunder, more felt than heard. A red-orange tongue spilled out of his parting jaws, glistening extra bright against the dimming sunlight as it tauntingly lapped around his scaled lips. He paid special attention to the human's horrified look as he did this. "Not quite fond of armor though..." the reptile stated, looking over the human a little disapprovingly. He was dressed in light mail.

"Die, you vile serpent!!" Milt screamed, lunging forward at the dragon in a feverous rage. Fighting in the knee deep swamp water was impossible though, and the dragon simply brushed him aside with a slow tail swipe, impossible to dodge. It knocked the spear several feet away and Milt's body clean underwater. Before he could recover, a massive webbed paw slammed violently down into the swamp, yanking the human out from the murky depths.

The human was stunned, sore, and the sudden defeat began to let fear sink in. The dragon parted its massive jaws in a sneer, showing off glistening red flesh and a row of pearly white teeth. He didn't quite like the rebellious human's attitude, and began to squeeze the human with his webbed forepaw.

Hard.

Milt's body immediately began to cave into the sheer pressure, breath swiftly taken away and bones popping uncomfortably. He'd let out a desperate, whimpering whine, sounding more like a dying animal now than the fierce hunter he claimed to be just moments ago.

But the serpent seemed to approve of this, relenting on his vice-like embrace suddenly. "Much better." He chuckled deeply, the water around him rustling from the vibrations. "Now, lose the metal shell." He made a brief gesture towards Milts armored clothing.

"Who are you?" the human choked, coughing. "Why are you doing this?" He'd reluctantly obey the dragon's request, realizing armor would only slow his escape in this situation, and began to take off the protective mail around his body.

"In the last minute or so you are alive... you may call me, Mire." The dragon would pause, letting out a fetid warm breath across Milts entire form. "And I'm hungry."

Milt blinked, a little taken aback by the dragon's straightforward response. But the questions allowed him to stall just long enough. After stripping off the last of his greaves he took one and in a violent whip of the arm, tossed it straight into the eye of his captor, diving off towards the waters far below, now completely unburdened.

The dragon reeled back and roared in frustration and the sudden pain, but he was not fooled. Before Milt even splashed into the murky waters below, he was struck hard by a slimy, sticky mass that immediately ensnared him. It was the dragon's tongue! After shooting out and slapping into the human with the consistency similar to a large chameleon, it molding around him like thick putty and whipped straight back. The sticky appendage yanked Milt's entire form straight back into the hot, drooling jaws of the dragon.

There was no ceremony. In a powerful heave, the dragon's thick neck threw back his massive reptilian skull. The serpent's fleshy throat widened--ready to catch the dazed and tumbling human. And with one massive-GLUCK, the thick neck muscles claimed their prize, constricting around the struggling meal.

Milts form only made a slight indent down the reptile's neck as it traveled down into the creature's torso, the very faint muffled screams of the dragon's meal fading away inside. Soon the human companions would be reunited one final time, but only for a short while.

As he turned to make his way back into the thick of the swamp, Mire licked his lips and rumbled. The dragon was a little upset he didn't pause to savor the human longer. But it that was no matter. There would soon be more coming for him.


And that was his plan.

___


Short story where there are guys and then they are eated by durgen. Apparently the max character limit is way bigger than I thought so I can post pics with stories as intended, YAY!

I wanted to do more Mire stuff, so I did.