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Story/Callum are

Lexal/Sark/Hiro

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Following the map to the first checkpoint in their quest, the intrepid duo are greeted with the calcified remains of a long dead sea beast. Within lies the first trial, but also the first treasure. Uncertainly, they venture in, entirely underprepared for just how much the trial will test their skills and waistlines.
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Part II
The skeleton of the leviathan was a formidable thing; composed of calcified remains and cracked bone, it had the appearance of a massive lobster crossed with an octopus. Tethers of tentacles gripped the mainland while a segmented tail marched into the sea, terminating in a yawning cave where the water funneled in and swirled out with each wave.

As the ship came level with the opening, Sark offered a spyglass to Lexal, who peered down the spine of the creature. The cave was layered with ridges of bone, a central column leading the way in with ribs bisecting it every fifty meters.

Offering the spyglass to Callum, the sturdy shark looked to Sark, “Callum and I can take a rowboat in. We think the fewer, the better on this thing. You mind minding the ship?” The large shark shook his head as Callum squinted at the petrified monolith.

“Can’t really tell where it leads, but at least the water’s calm.” The drake slipped the spyglass inward and handed it to Sark’s first mate, a tubby alligator by the name of Hiro. The friendly gator possessed all of the humor Sark couldn’t afford to indulge in as leader of the ship. Callum warmed up to him instantly. “If we are naught to return, sing of our deeds?” he requested of the gator.

Hiro smiled wide and snapped a salute that sent his pot belly wobbling under his purple vest. “Aye aye, Sir Baker.” As soon as the gator had heard of Callum’s background, he’d become full of baking quips. Lexal thought it was hilarious. “I’ll belt out a bawdy sea shanty next time I come around to yer establishment to indulge myself,” the gator jostled one side of his soft-green gut.

Callum rolled his eyes, but refrained from retorting. Sark jostled his first mate aside and led the pair over to the side of the ship. A rope ladder led down to a small, snub-nosed rowboat. It could seat six comfortably, but was also light enough to be operated by a two-man team. Fortunately Lexal and Callum were in decent shape. As the captain of the ship bid them good fortune from above, Lexal plopped into the boat and manned the oars happily.

“This is gonna be awesome!” He reached out and poked Callum’s dangling form from where it hovered inches above the boat. “Don’t fall in now! We don’t need one of Hiro’s shanties starting with a drowning baker.”

Callum plopped into the boat, making it rock tremulously. “All I know is that if I go in, you’re coming with me, fish breath.”

Lexal chuckled and began to row, his fingerless gloves squeaking against the smooth oars. Slowly and surely they bobbed towards the spine of the leviathan and their first checkpoint.

The water lapped at the sides of the cave, their rhythm only disturbed by the gentle swills of the oars as the explorers rowed forward. Lexal felt his heart beating gently under his clothes, matching the slow oscillations of each stroke. Ribs flanked the cavern in uniform rows, forming an almost rectangular passage for them. It seemed to point the way, deeper into the black of the monstrous skeleton.

Despite traveling a fair distance into the cave, Callum found he could still see with relative ease. Light seeped through cracks in the rock, where eons of wear ate away at the calcified beast. He narrowed his eyes until they were slits of sapphire. “We’re close,” he informed Lexal. Up ahead, a rocky outcrop sat amid the waves, smooth and littered with chunks of coral and shells.

The shark nodded and rowed harder. Before long, they bumped against the rock line, causing Callum to curse as he almost keeled into the water a second time. Lexal steadied him and vaulted athletically onto shore to tie in their boat. The drake grumbled with envy, but Lexal was too preoccupied to notice. Light danced along a giant cavern that must have been the leviathan’s chest cavity. The place was utterly massive, supported by columns of bone and perfectly preserved. At the other end stood a small, stone pedestal and atop it, something gleaming.

Lexal spied the object first. With a happy ‘ooh’ he began to walk forward, but another curse from Callum stopped him. The drake had tripped over a shell and nearly stumbled back into the ocean. “Careful,” the shark called out, “I figured shedding some of that weight would’ve made you more spritely.”

“It has!” Callum snapped back, “I feel so spritely my foot might just end up your butt.”

Together they headed toward the pedestal, the laughter and banter filling up the daunting cavern and melting away some of the darkness. In no time they reached the pedestal. Sitting atop it was a gleaming piece of metal roughly the size of a mango. Callum eyed the pedestal for traps, looking uncertainly to Lexal. “Think it’s weighted?”

Lexal skimmed a finger around the outer rim of the dais, feeling along the rough stone. “I think…” he poked his tongue out in concentration, fingering a protruding button of shell, “It’s actually a…” he pressed the button and soft click released the piece, letting it tilt forward. “Clasp,” the shark grinned to Callum, who nodded impressed.

The wiry dragon fingered his gryphon talisman as Lexal gently eased the piece of metal from its perch. It had jagged edges around one part while the rest was smooth, looking like a crooked portion of a bronze pie. The shark turned it over in his paws, feeling crystalline gears shimmer as he brushed them. “Guess there’s more to it,” Lexal murmured.

“Yep, and we’ll find it at our next checkpoint.” Callum was beginning to feel uneasy. The click of the button seemed to echo through the cavern, but the drake realized it wasn’t fading, but growing louder. “I think we should go.” Lexal seemed not to hear him, the shark was fixated on the piece. He could just make out a single letter. A large S at the end of two crystal points. The clicking grew louder. Up along the sides of the cavern Callum could just see small, black holes puncturing the walls. “We need to go Lexal,” he tugged at the shark’s tail. Small rods slipped through the holes and something small fired out of the one nearest to them. It pierced Callum’s rump, a small, feathered dart blossoming along the lower swoop of his thigh. Crying out, the drake yanked Lexal to his feet, “We need to go now!”

As if to spur the shark on, another dart zipped into Lexal’s side, just below his arm. “Aieeee! Goddamm...lesss go!” He and Callum began to run for their boat. The clicking grew in volume, as if the walls were coated in crickets. Airy whistles followed pops and hisses as the darts zipped toward the two explorers.

Callum cried out, feeling each sting like a bee as they pierced his scales. The dragon groaned as throbs of fire lanced his thighs, pushing them outwards with pudge and filling his shirt with a mass of belly. His ribs stitched and his sides softened. There was a drum pounding on the inside of his gut, pounding it out into a balloon of lard-filled scales. Roots of coral reached out at his ankles, trying to trip the top heavy dragon as he waddled on. A pair plump thighs brushed one another, wobbling haphazardly as another slurry of darts pricked the dragon’s blubbery hide. Callum gritted his teeth in pain, feeling pricks mix with throbs and everything jiggling loosely in thick rolls of flab. The drake panted heavily, his butt bouncing and dipping with each pace, but it was Lexal who ended up truly struggling.

Callum watched as the shark lagged, almost pummeling head first into the calcified ribs of the sea monster. The shark’s pillowy sides rolled and quaked against his hoodie, erasing any definition of his muscular torso and making the pouch along the front of it skin tight. Callum slowed to help the struggling shark toward the boat, more darts piercing his hide and making Lexal groan extensively as his form ballooned with blubber.

Callum sighed as he felt his short-lived slimness be swallowed up by a pendulous paunch the size of a beach ball and rolls of silver fat bulging against his vest and belt. Lexal stumbled next to him, collapsing into the boat and nearly tipping it as it dipped far deeper than it had before. His pale white tummy bulged like a sack of flour against his hoodie, while a tail thickened with flab waved wildly to retain his balance.

Callum quickly gathered up the oars and began rowing them back out of the cave, retreating out of range from the fattening darts. His strokes became laborious as his arms rippled and rolled across his sides, but he felt some measure of comfort in his padded backside. Once they were out of firing range, the corpulent drake eyed his friend in concern.

Lexal laid sprawled out in the front of the rowboat, his head resting on the tip of the wooden craft while his chubby legs were crossed over the foremost bench. The piece of bronze rested on his supple middle, a personal pillow-sized cushion that wobbled as they bounced over the waves.

Panting heavily, Callum felt his stomach roll with the viscosity of jello as he rowed. His pants creaked softly over ham-thick thighs and the talismans along his belt bounced with each breath. “You alright, bud?” he inquired, nudging Lexal’s supple tail with his own.

The shark sat up slowly, yelping as a dart lodged in his arm rippled gently. “I think so..” he managed hesitantly. His focus seemed split between the quantity of bulk filling his lap and the treasure piece.
The crystal S shone brightly in the sun, flashing Callum full in the face for a moment. “Mind telling rather than showing?” the drake winced, scrunching up his eyes.

“Looks like a compass,” Lexal murmured, “Just a little piece of it.” He motioned to the gears, “We have to...hit another checkpoint to get another.” The shark faltered, eyeing his belly again and poking a gloved digit into his tightened hoodie. “You don’t suppose we’d have to put on more weight, do you?”

“We might,” Callum replied, turning for a moment to gauge their distance from the ship. His gut wobbled gently, a familiar sensation. He knew it was entirely foreign to Lexal, causing a pang of empathy to roll through the drake’s supple bulk. Smiling comfortingly, Callum reached down and pulled a couple darts from Lexal’s softened form. The shark sighed as the barbs were dislodged. “We’ll tackle them as we go along, but if it’s any consolation, you carry the weight well.”

Lexal winced as he pulled a couple more darts free and assessed the damage along his waistline. “Let’s...let’s just focus on the treasure.” He eyed the compass again, tracing his claws over its intricate surface admiringly, “I suppose it’d be a shame not to at least see where the map leads us.”

Callum rubbed his globe-sized gut and dislodged a particularly stubborn barb in the process. “Let’s just rendezvous with Sark for now, take the next checkpoint when it comes.” He cracked a grin after a moment, hoping to tease the shark gently, “You’ll fit in with Hiro and I at least.”

The shark turned red and folded his arms tight, grumbling. “You hush. I just don’t have years of experience with extra pudge.”

Callum smirked and shrugged. He continued rowing and before long, their ship slowly fell under the shadow of the “Flying Flounder” and into the view of the crew.