Chapter Text
Hyunjin POV
Thrump..Thrump..
Wings beating in the wind and the sun shining down across my white, iridescent, shiny scales. A strong drift flows around and down to my underbelly and past my long tail as I keep a steady glide in the sky. The thought of a huge creature satiating my hunger makes my stomach growl and my body tremble. It sounds like my stomach has its own mind of a dragon, basically roaring to life.
I’m starving.
Mmmmmmmmmm
What am I craving?
Some cows? Maybe something bigger, like gryphons? Ugh, but they will put up a fight.
“God damn it, Hyunjin! Make a decision! We don’t have all day, and we want to get some action! Your stomach growling is going to terrify all the villages within a 50-mile radius!”
Screams Changbin from the back of my dragon form. The loudest of all the riders who no doubt has no issues with hearing.
“Be careful when you land! We don’t want to crush any people or small innocent creatures,” yells Felix. I’m not surprised he would say something like that; he’s too kind for this world. One of my brothers whom I would die for. I would die for all of them. However, that would be an impossible feat considering I’m 500 years old and the biggest gargantuan Dragon in the world.
You really think, after knowing me for 7 years, that I would want to purposefully crush anyone?
“You know what I mean, Hyunjin.”
I focus on a single spot near the cliffs and waterfall, where I spot a potential food source. With my 145 ft wingspan, I glide further to the potential destination.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean.
Meanwhile, everyone else is either sleeping, cloud-watching, or chatting while I find some food for us to hunt. With my sight, I find a good food source for all of the Stray riders to share. Then, I spot another that has potential for me to feast on.
Okay, everyone! Hold on tight, I’m about to dive! Be quiet and careful, we have a deer on the right between the waterfall and the bent tree. I’ll take care of my own meal, just make sure to stay out of sight of anything dangerous. I don’t need anyone getting hurt during this hunt.
As I approach the land with increasing speed, I do a swift curl up, where I gently and quickly land on all four legs. The wind rushes past my head and slams into the guys just as I settle down on the ground. I gave ourselves a distance to the food source so we do not startle them.
“Hyunjin, do you want us to fall off your back? Why do you have to do a steep dive to land?” Said Seungmin.
You’re still on my back, aren’t you?
Tch.
Seungmin always had a difficult time climbing up and down the side of my body. Always slipping and falling from a difficult flight, and with me always catching him. The scales on my body are slippery, so I don’t blame him for the issues he’s having.
Everyone is quiet as they unbuckle themselves from my huge saddle. It’s necessary considering there have been too many mishaps where most of them can’t hold on when I steer us clear from any danger. Especially Seungmin, knowing that he always has a difficult time with the rides.
One time, Chan, who is the oldest out of all the Stray riders, got too shocked from another dragon suddenly chasing after us that he fell, and I had to reach out my claws to quickly catch him before he splat into the land. We’ve done everything to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Hell, no matter how many times they all get scared and freaked out, it still won’t beat the experience of flying on a gargantuan dragon. No matter how many times they’ve fallen, they always knew that I would catch them.
I watch them go ahead first to make sure they get close enough to the deer to kill before I go ahead and devour my target on sight.
Should I eat it raw or crispy? Both are great options, but I think I should eat it raw, considering it will taste too charred to my liking.
Sue me, despite being a dragon, I’m a picky eater.
I see them set up traps in case the deer runs away as a backup plan.
Smart.
Then, slowly, they corner the creature. Things were surprisingly going well so far. Let’s hope they don’t make any mistakes this time! Usually, they catch their food successfully. However, sometimes they make a clumsy mistake and lose their food source.
Lee know (the best archer in the riders group and possibly the country) readies his arrow. Then, a loud cracking sound disturbs the peace. It startles the deer. It runs towards one of the traps; however, a damn bunny gets in the way. It got wrapped up in the rope and was thrown in the air.
At least they caught a bunny, haha
The deer escaped up the trail to the hill. All of them are enjoying their time walking up, as they know the deer will have nowhere to go. It’s a big land where the cliffs are, but there are no trees in sight except for a cave and a few bushes. I can hear them all playing bets and games on taunting and teasing the deer. They are nearly up the cliff, so I begin to start my hunt.
They’ll be fine; they have a dragon whistle in case anything goes wrong. Usually, when the whistle blows, my senses heighten, and from top to bottom, I feel a shiver. It’s like electricity hits me at my core whenever the sound vibrates in the air.
Continuing my hunt, I stalk my prey from behind. It’s a huge black bear. It’s looking around like it senses danger, not knowing that my gigantic head is above its body. My long neck guides my head to where I think the bear will lead. I don’t make a breath nor a rumble. I continue my gaze and see that it walks to the stream to catch its food.
Okay, I’ll let it catch its food before I swoop in. The more energy the bear gets, the more energy I’ll get. It’s a win-win solution.
I slowly move my body forward without making the ground tremble, being very gentle as I don’t want the bear to startle and run. I mean, I’ll still eat it, but it’s not as fulfilling if the food chain below doesn’t get its food as well. The bear arrives at the water stream. Then, I wait for the bear to get at least 3-4 pieces of salmon. Finally, I stretch my neck out all the way so my body doesn’t shake any of the trees around as I get closer. My head hovers above the body of the bear, not knowing it’s about to get eaten. Then, as the bear turns around and is about to catch a fish mid-flight, I swoop my head down and open my jaw just halfway. As I take in some water and fish from the stream, the bear gets caught in my teeth. With one of my sharp teeth penetrating its skin, the blood spreads around my tongue. Quickly, I throw its body in the air. Then, I open my mouth wider and more towards the sky to catch the bear falling directly into my jaws. The body of the bear feels nice once it lands on my tongue. With the water and fish flying in, the bear complements the overall texture very well. I savor the taste one minute longer, then, with a long breath out, I crunch on some of the fish.
Then, breathe in and tip my entire head back to swallow and savor the feeling of the bear, fish, and water gliding down my throat. I can control the muscles in my throat to torture the prey to my liking. With my neck being extremely long, the ride down to the stomach takes quite a while, so sometimes I like to play around to give the prey a few more fun trips before the end of the road, or in this case, my throat to the stomach. I tighten and loosen my throat a few times to feel the bear struggle with the little space and grab onto anything when it loosens. It tickles my throat slightly, so I gave a little rumble to ease the itchiness. I can feel the bear nearing its end as I go and drink some more water from the stream, as I’m thirsty.
Then, the bear nears the end of my esophagus, pausing a second before it slowly enters through the cardia into my stomach. I can hear my stomach take in the bear as it squelches and pulses around its form. The bear will be dissolved in minutes, with the strength of my stomach acid bubbling around the bear, and my stomach on the outside appearing to have descended just a tiny bit from the weight of it. The fish I ate barely made a dent in my stomach. The only people who would know I’ve eaten would be the boys, since they are the only ones who I allow to get close to my dragon form. They would see the tiny bump and would rub my stomach to fulfill their curiosity about how fast I can digest numerous creatures in a matter of seconds or minutes. It feels nice when they pet my stomach; it makes me feel sleepy.
As I finish drinking some water, I look up to the guys to see if they caught the deer yet.
Yep! I see some of them watching me from the cliff, probably watching me devour the bear that was before me. While Lee Know and Seungmin drag the body of the deer past the waterfall, the other guys are goofing around and looking like they are high-fiving as if they won a thousand dollars! Then, as they all go about their ways, my senses pick up! I catch an interesting scent emanating from the cave they are about to cross. Then, I hear something growling from within. I need to alert them!
From the scent and the sound of the growl, I fear it could be a dangerous creature. No way would I let it harm the Stray riders, not on my watch. I quickly let them know through our telepathic channel.
I sense danger in the cave. Be careful!
Suddenly, they all freeze. They all look at me, then hear a roar that startles the hell out of them. One of them blows my whistle, even though I can see everything from where I’m standing. My whole dragon form quivers and shivers, my senses opening up more every second to take in every molecule of power. With my knowledge, the creature sounds like a …
Manticore!
The biggest Manticore I’ve seen in my whole 500 years of living. Holy shit!
It’s got a really long scorpion tail, and its body ranges a good size of 3/4 of my mouth.
Guys! Stay clear of its scorpion tail! I’ll take care of the Manticore, just stay out of its path!
I hear Chan yelling at everyone from a distance.
“Move! If it comes toward you, just lead it to Hyunjin!”
I see them all moving as I barely take 2 steps and blow fire at the cave. Then fire around the whole area, so it can focus on me. Then, a sudden thought comes to mind…
Mmmmm, not a bad idea, the bear wasn’t filling enough, but this monster will do more than that!
I come up with a plan that doesn't put the riders at risk of getting hurt.
Hey! I’m leading it to the cliff, stay away from the cliff!
You got it! They all say in unison.
I blow a little fire at the manticore, and it reels. Then, I quickly use my claw to tear through one of its wings so it can’t fly. The Manticore, enduring the pain, tries to swipe at me with its scorpion tail, nearly missing my scales. It tries to balance itself as I quickly duck to the ground at the bottom of the cliff and roll myself onto my back. The whole ground was rumbling like an earthquake from my movements.
I’m way too big to do this, but let's see if it works, haha
I swing around my tail to hit the edge of the cliff where the manticore stands.
Hyunjin!? What are you doing? Why is the ground shaking?! I hear them all scream frantically as they try to stick to stable ground.
Then, with the force of my tail, I crash it into the manticore, making it plummet through a hole into the thin ground where it stands. Everything begins to fall. I definitely don’t want to get hit with the rocks that fall along with the manticore, so my tail strikes each debris to keep it from hitting my head. Then I ready my mouth to have the creature land exactly where I want it to land, and I open it as wide as I can to fit the manticore. There’s a reason why I went after its wings: it was to keep it from flying away from me and going after the Stray Riders. So when the manticore falls and tries to fly, it only plummets further down towards my jaws and my sharp teeth, glinting in the sunlight. I see the creature not ready to give up the fight despite knowing where it’s going to land. It roars in defiance. All of my focus is on making sure I’m ready to take down a big creature by salivating my mouth as much as I can and opening my throat even more to accept the falling being. I take a big deep breath in and out, then feel it enter my jaw in seconds. I kind of hear screaming in the background, but ignore it, knowing what’s about to come in seconds.
The guys probably just think that I wouldn’t be able to swallow this big guy.
It’s an automatic reflex. As a gargantuan dragon, as soon as I get a little taste of any creature, whether mythological or not, on the tip of my tongue, I can’t help but savor and swallow. When it comes to devouring enemies, I ravage like no tomorrow. However, I don’t ever hurt humans unless they are asking for it. They would be absolutely stupid to mess with a dragon like me. Hell, anyone would be stupid to pick a fight with the Stray riders. I picked them for their purpose in life during The Choosing. I can read each and every one of their minds just as they can read mine. We’re undefeated!
Despite that, I seem to have possibly maybe just killed my own riders. They say a dragon's stomach can digest anything from a griffon to a Wyrm in a matter of 15-30 minutes. However, we also have control over whether we want to digest or temporarily store valuables such as treasure in our stomachs.
I could make my second stomach digest the manticore and make my first stomach function as a treasure vault, but it’ll take 10 minutes for the functions to change. I just hope they’ll be fine lasting in the first stomach as I deplete all the acid into the second stomach to digest the manticore. I’ll have to do it as soon as possible and communicate with them on the channel. I can let them out once I know they are safe.
…But I’m also kind of freaking out! This has never happened before; how could this have happened? I couldn’t help myself! What the hell is wrong with me! I mean, I’m not like any other dragon at all; in fact, I’m the only one who can achieve the impossible.
You see, I may be a dragon, but I can also transform into a human. I’m a hybrid of sorts. I socialize and breathe with the humans. My only family consists of a couple of humans with amazing physical and mental capabilities. They are my riders, my best friends, and my soulmates. We are all one. Literally. They might become one with me at any moment, and it terrifies me if I don’t focus all my strength on my inner and outer power to not devour their energy. So when they all unwillingly (to somewhat willingly) fell into my large and dangerous maw, the last thing I wanted was for them to be trapped. The Manticore will put them in danger! At close range, it’s impossible to avoid getting harmed. With the manticore having the body of a huge black lion, a nasty and intimidating lion/human head, and the biggest scorpion tail I’ve seen yet. There is no way I would want them to get poisoned, let alone injured! Even if it strikes me a couple of times, the poison can’t damage me that badly? It would take a week for it to affect my body, I mean, if it struck me once or twice.
So I did the natural habit of what a white, Iridescent, gargantuan dragon would do.
I tipped my large head back a little and threw my scaly chin up.
I swallowed…
But that wasn’t enough force or muscle strength for the damn creature to go down my throat.
Fuck..
I can feel it writhing.
The manticore's tail was flicking and scratching around my throat. Its body and the spikes on its back irritate everything that touches the skin of my throat. It gives me a slight tickle and burn, so I have to rumble to get the weird sensation to stop. I can feel it startling the members as they hang on my teeth and under my tongue to keep from falling in. I salivate my glands once more, then breathe through my nose. I can feel the manticore slipping inch by inch into the back of my throat, desperately trying to claw itself out by scratching my tongue with its claws and using its wings to bother the roof of my mouth. I feel a couple of baby scratches occurring where the manticore is intending to hurt. I feel one particular scratch deep enough on the side of my throat that I grunt in pain.
Fuck, that hurts!
Then, I give a little groan, like a rumble, as I try to roll back onto my stomach, then push up to sit on my two hind legs. Currently, I’m not sparing any detail in my atmosphere; I’m focusing all my might on swallowing this stubborn thing.
From the outside, Lee Know, Han, and Jeongin watch the lump in Hyunjin’s throat bob and thrash.
I tip back my head and try everything to space the time and distance between the members and the creature so they don’t go near it. However, as the only person I know who would do anything this kind, I feel a light body stay on the side of my mouth near my teeth, climbing down further to the back of my throat and throwing something small but effective onto the claws of the manticore.
Felix.
How the hell did he get a rock!?
I feel it changing its direction towards Felix. Its body is trying to twist left and right, but it won't help. Despite the pain of its body moving around in my only airway, my throat is like quicksand; the more you move, the faster you fall.
I tip my head back and swallow once more. It’s nearly blocking my airway, so it takes everything in me to focus on my breathing and force it down. I feel only the head and the neck just barely peeping out of my throat, the human head now resorting to biting just where a human's tonsils would be, except I don’t have any. It tries to bite my slippery skin, but it doesn’t seem to work out as I can feel it not puncturing the very muscle that’s trying to squeeze it down my airway. It’s wiggling even more now that its head is almost down my throat, the wings now completely encased in the tight pipe. As I tip my head back more and give it one more final shove, I feel Felix getting closer, trying to help my predicament. He is at the entrance of my throat, and I don’t know how the hell he is holding on. But it seems like he has an idea to help me out.
I’m going to swallow one more time, hang in there!
I swallow once more with the help of Felix, throwing something else at the beast's head, to get the force of gravity and muscle to get it down. I lubricate my gullet more than I’ve ever had before to ready the descent of the creature. I had to tilt my head back further to make it go by quicker, as my breathing is currently being blocked by the giant creature. Yet, it won’t help the situation of the members trying to stay away from my throat, like I said, I couldn’t help it, I need oxygen!
It completely disappears into my throat; however, I feel more light bodies enter my body. I hear screaming, yelling, but I am definitely feeling every little thing they are doing inside my throat, and it’s not helping the situation.
“HYUNJIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!” They all scream.