A gift story for two friends from The Carnivorous depths! This was fun to write, I hope you both like it!

(Sorry for the horribly punny title ;P)

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Among the misty mountains of the north, two brave adventures had set out in search of treasure promised to be hidden in a deep cave. Knouvael, a lovely eastern dragon with a light red tint of color, around the size of a horse barring the length of the dragon’s tail. With Knouvael, is Montezuma a bipedal bird with beautiful red feathers making up the core of his body, the crest atop dawned with a colorful variation of blues and golds. Both had their ideas about what they want to spend their treasure on, though they’re not fully aware of how much treasure there truly is, only that it was supposedly enough to set one up for life!

“I think we’re close?” Monte says with some suspicion, holding a map outwards from him and turning it a little.

“I don’t see the mountain we’re looking for though.” Knouvael mentions, and then floats up into the air for a couple of minutes to look around. Once he lands, he gives Monte a small shake of his head. “Still nothing.”

“Bah! Stupid merchant probably sold us a faulty map.. this thing isn’t worth it’s wait in nuts.” Monte huffs and tosses the map over his shoulder, to which it floats perfectly down into a puddle of muddy rain water.

“Or.. you was holding it upside down?” Knouvael sighs and plucks the now soaking map up from the puddle and looks it over slowly while reared onto his haunches. “Or whomever made this map is just really bad with directions..” soon after, Knouvael also lets the map go.

A sudden strike of lightning just above the pair causes them to jump a bit! The thunderous rumble to follow signaled the start of a pretty rough storm coming in. Across the way, to the mountain opposite from them, the pair spies a cave just mid-way up the mountain side. It began to sprinkle soon, and neither really wants to get that wet right now.

Knouvael begins to float across the valley towards cave, but Monte caws out to him! “Hey! Wait! Can’t you take me with you on your back? Despite my glorious feathers, flying’s kinda hard without proper wings ya know.”

A tad exasperated, Knouvael floats on back to land in front of Monte with a scowl. “Fine, but hurry up alright? Actually.. no, you take too long.” Suddenly Knouvael reaches out and wraps his forepaws around Monte and tucks the macaw close and begins to float into the air!

“W-wait I’ll be fa- ah.. whatever, never mind.” The bird pouts, arms crossed as the pair sails smoothly across the valley towards the cave. Another lightning strike causes Knouvael to pick up the pace a little bit more.

Once the pair of red tinted individuals reach the cave, Knouvael unceremoniously lets Monte go to plop him down onto the stone floor of the cave. Landing shortly after and turning around to watch an absolute downpour of rain proceed to crash down behind them.
Monte sitting on his rear and grumbling at being dropped onto the stone, points deeper in the cave. “Hey Knou? You see that?”

Very faintly within the cave, at what seems to be a bend is a light. Suspiciously and curiously the pair look at each other and begin to venture deeper into the lair. Once they turn the corner, a delightful sight would emerge before their very eyes. A large cavern with lit lanterns, and near the back of the largest chamber was a biiiig pile of gold and gems; locked behind a cage made of interesting looking metal that shimmers from the fire-light. There seemed to be several more branching tunnels and chambers too, of varying use and filled with different purpose. One off to the left is filled with exotic plants and herbs, one to the right had a steamy hot-spring in it that was pretty massive. But screw all of that, TREASURE!

Cautiously the pair approach the back of the central camber towards the treasure, with lit lanterns and the like.. it has to mean someone was here at least a bit recently, right? This is seemingly a pretty well designed home for something or someone.
Knouvael frowns a little and looks behind him, “Maybe we should go back. Do we really want to be thieves? I mean.. taking buried or hidden treasure is one thing, but this is obviously still someone’s.”

Monte looks at Knouvael for a long few moments, before taking in a slow breath, and then an even slower exhale. “HELL YES we’re going to steal this? Do you know how many acers of berries and nuts I could get with this?” Monte begins walking towards the treasure, and reaches out to touch one of the shiny metal bars protecting the treasure. As soon as the bird’s hand touches the metal, a loud CLANK occurs behind them.

Looking back, the pair would see that another set of strong looking metal bars fell down.. right at the entrance, blocking their escape.

“Great.. look what you did bird-brain.” Knouvael sighs and begins walking towards the exit to inspect it, “Unless there is another exit, we’ll end up needing to plea with the owner of this place when they get home.”

Monte squawks out at Knouvael, “How was I suppose to know it was booby trapped!? I’d rather eat my own foot that plead for whomever owns this dusty place to let us go. Come on, lets look for another way out.”

Unbeknownst to them, the owner of this cave system was still home.. on the upper level of the chamber system, up in his study Rakant would be laying below a massive crystal skyline, reading a book by firelight. The sound of his trap going off earns an irritated sigh from the large obsidian dragon, at his full height he was roughly six meters tall, and more than twice that in length. The black dragon closes his book and begins to walk down the long spiral to the bottom floor where the intruders are located.

The pair hears the sound of thumping movement above, and with a panic they rush off to hide in the closest chamber which has all of those plants and herbs in it. In a corner, beneath a particularly thick potted tree bearing some sort of unique aroma, the eastern dragon and avian hid.

“This is all your fault.” Knou mumbles aside to Monte.

“Coming here was your idea!” Monte proclaims with an annoyed chirp.

“Shuuussh.. we’re hiding you dolt.” Knouvael comments, peeking out from behind some leaves to watch the entrance to the green room they’re inside of.

To the likely horror of the pair hiding, Rakant would soon come into view, his massive frame blocking the light from the central chamber. The dragon’s nostrils flare, taking in the new scents that had been left behind. “Do not make me hunt you down.” Rakant’s voice growled out, low enough to vibrate the very stone beneath him. “It’ll be much more pleasant for both of you.” Rakant slowly begins to turn his head to peer into the green room, where the two different scents had scurried off to.

“I.. think we should cooperate.” Knouvael remarks, looking over at Monte.

“Are you insane? Seriously? Why not just put a cherry on your head with some chocolate on the side?” Monte quips and starts looking around the green room some more. Off at the corner, Monte notices an array of vials with some sort of chemical in them. It’s worth a shot when the chance arrives!
Movement to his right distracts the avian however, as Knouvael begins to crawl out of hiding. “H-hey! Don’t go out there… ah hell.” Monte sighs and slips out as well, crawling out of sight however as Knouvael reveals himself to Rakant.

As Knouvael walks into view before Rakant, the larger dragons eyes narrow at the sight of another dragon in his lair, attempting to take his treasure no less. “Here to steal, thief?” Rakant remarks, an ill-patient foreclaw tapping massive talons against the stone floor beneath him.

“Yes.. but..” Knou swallows once, and looks up towards Rakant’s face, “We didn’t know this was someone’s home! It was suppose to be buried treasure left behind from some bandit leader.” The eastern dragon explains, quickly glancing behind him into the green room once more.

“Where is your friend?” Rakant asks, looking from Knouvael into the green chamber, expecting another dragon. Instead, he’s surprised to see something hurling out of the chamber towards his face!

“Knou! Run!” Monte calls out, running up with a bunch of those vials and throwing them at Rakant’s face. Each one cracks and shatters against the dragon’s hard scales and horns. Then as soon as he’s all out of them, the bird tries to run past Rakant and is given a twap to the chest from the dragon’s large tail, sending Monte onto his back right next to Knouvael.

Groaning, Monte looks up at Rakant with a frown, “Why isn’t your face bubbling or melting off, or something!”

Rakant’s long and thick tongue slowly slides out against his muzzle, swiping the ‘chemical' clean from his scales. “What a waste of coconut oil.” Rakant sighs, and reaches forward suddenly and pins the pair beneath his claws; staring down at them with a fairly disappointed expression. “It was somewhat in my mind that I’d let you go but now.. I’m fairly certain that’s a mistake.” Suddenly Rakant lifts Knouvael from the ground by the eastern’s hind legs and tail, pinched ‘delicately’ between two large digits. Rakant is now dangling the other dragon upside down just before his snout with a small puff of heated air escaping his nostrils.

“Hngh! Let me go, I promise that I was wanting to leave as soon as it turns out this was someone else’s! This is all the bird’s fault!” Knou proclaims, angrily peering at Monte while upside down.

Before Monte could contest however, Rakant speaks once more in a sharp and decisive voice, “It matters little in truth, you’ve both seen my lair and I’d rather not have regular visitors coming into my lair.” Without a moment’s thought, Rakant raises Knouvael higher up, just above his snout.. and began to slowly part his mighty jaws beneath the noodle dragon. Long strings of saliva stretch between the dragon’s pallet, tongue, and teeth.. with a perfect view straight down into his gullet from Knou’s position.

“W-wait! I’ll bring you more treasure instead? How abou-mmfffph!” The eastern dragon’s voice is cut off as he’s dropped down into Rakant’s maw, all but his hind legs and tail sticking out of the larger male’s drooling mouth.

Rakant seals his mouth firmly around Knou’s belly, and begins to press his tongue against Knou’s belly to squeeze the lovely tasting noodle dragon against his pallet and tongue. The tasting only lasts a few moments before the obsidian dragon’s cheeks hollow inward, compacting around Knou in a tight suction.. and suddenly, Knou’s snout is sucked forward into the hungry dragon’s throat! With one strong swallow, Rakant gulps Knou’s lower half into his maw and pulls the eastern’s shoulders into the awaiting gullet. All that’s left outside now is a wriggling long tail. Rakant looks down towards Monte and grins briefly, before sealing his lips one more time and sucking the Eastern dragon’s tail into his maw like a true noodle, followed by a swift and mighty swallow. GLRK, GLUP, SLLLLLRK. The eastern dragon’s body becomes fully enveloped by Rakant’s esophagus, the somewhat noticeable bulge in his armored throat slooowly moving down towards his chest. All the while Monte is forced to watch his friend be devoured whole.

“You.. ate him!” Monte squeaks out at the massive dragon holding him down against the floor with a single claw. The macaw pushes and squirms against that large taloned paw on top of him, “Spit him out! Or I’ll peck your eyes out!”

Rakant opens his maw in a satisfied sigh, feeling Knouvael slide right into his chest and soon filling his belly nicely. “Mmmf.. it’s been too long since I’ve ate another dragon. Quite filling, really.” Rakant clenches his stomach once, squeezing the muscles of his abdomen to compact the slick belly walls around Knouvael, rubbing slime and fleshy folds against the other dragon’s soft body. This also causes air to escape his stomach, and with a resounding belch, Rakant clears his throat shortly after in satisfaction. “Now.. lets finish this up so I can continue reading my book.” Rakant raises Monte up from the ground similarly to how his friend was done. The bird’s beak didn’t even have time to open in protest this time before Monte was quite literally tossed into Rakant’s maw. Massive teeth SNAP closed around Monte, sealing him within the mighty beast’s maw.

Down below, Knouvael squirms and presses against stomach walls that retaliate by kneading and churning in return, meanwhile above Rakant takes his time in twisting his tongue about, squishing Monte against his fleshy cheeks to suck all of the flavor off of the macaw. Rakant begins to walk back up the spiral to his study, tail slowly swaying behind himself against the smooth floor, about mid-way up the spiral, Rakant tosses his head back suddenly and swallows once, surprisingly nothing went into his throat. Rakant laughs, feeling the bird holding tightly onto his tusks.

“I won’t go down so easily you oversized- MMMF!” Monte cried out, suddenly having his face full of tongue as Rakant bent the muscle backwards to push it against the avian. Slowly Monte looses his grip, and releases the dragon’s rear teeth.
GULURP.

Monte would be squeezed down by rippling muscles of Rakant’s throat, having a much easier time going down than Knouvael did. Peristalsis easily carries the avian into Rakant’s chest, and is soon pushed through a tight ring into the same hammock sized chamber that Knouvael resides within.

Rakant slowly licks his scaled lips, and struts his way back up to his study to lay down once again, and once he does the stomach walls compact a little more around Monte and Knouvael. The churning stomach was unrelenting, kneading and pressing the pair together, mushing slime and saliva into their feathers and fur. The heat was strong, the scent not that terrific, and it noisily slrrking and squelching, combined with the ever constant sound of the large dragon’s heart and lungs… it was pretty hard to concentrate no doubt.

“I hate you.” Knouvael remarks towards Monte, pushing against a particularly tight wall squeezing in on him.

“Maybe the real treasure is our friendship?” Monte huffs, and tries to hide somewhere amongst Knou’s coiled up body; to no avail.

Rakant releases one more rumbling belch of air, and flips his book open to resume reading. “Enjoy your stay, thieves.” Rakant states teasingly, maw curling into a devious smirk. Perhaps he’ll let them out.. or they’ll become lovely shine on his smooth and beautiful obsidian scales. In either case, they’ll be churned and squeezed by strong stomach walls for a good while longer.