Cliff was at it again. It was another bright beautiful day and he, alongside many other colorful yoshies, populated Yoshi’s Island’s beautiful beachfront. Some played in the water, others enjoyed the sunlight against their scales, and more still flew kites. It was a loud, playful environment, and Cliff was among them. His big orange snout was buried in a small book, eyes glued to the paper, boots stomping through sand. Perhaps it was his intense focus on this magical theory text, but moments before the incursion happened, Cliff’s senses detected something awry. He blinked and looked up from his book and tried to find what his senses were alerting him to.

Magical portals were tricky things. At first, Cliff didn’t see a thing, but a moment later, not 10 feet away, reality spherically tore open before him, and next he knew he was staring at a lush green field. Just as his curiosity led him near the sudden appearance of something quite magical, other yoshies keeping their distance, a purple-gold blur swept on out and sped towards Cliff! He yelped and tried dodging, but it was too fast, and the yoshi tumbled backwards as something hard-headed bounced against his paunch. That bore the brunt and softened the intruder’s crash, the other figure tumbling head-over tail and ending up sprawled across the sand.

Cliff rose to his feet and leaned forward, nostrils flaring as he scented a thing he couldn’t believe he was seeing: A dragon! Not a full-grown one, just a small thing, mostly purple, with yellow horns and scales to match on his underbelly. His wings folded up when he rubbed his head and sat up right in the sand, eyes blinking open. When the dragon’s vision settled, they went wide, and he took a big whiff of the sea breeze. “Ah, Spyro finally makes it to the beach,” he declared, rising to all fours and stretching his wings wide. Cliff didn’t make a sound, just sniffing curiously at the pint-sized dragon, who stood maybe half as tall as the yoshi did.

Spyro took note of the big orange dino leering at him, cocking his head. “Hey, friend! Nice day out!” Of course, the dragon had no idea what he was looking at, but the soft round creatures didn’t look harmful, did they? He looked about and saw he’d caught the attention of several of the locals, all taking interest in his sudden arrival. He snapped out of it when he heard felt fitful buzzing beneath one his of hindclaws. Spyro yelped and lifted, then a dragonfly shook excess sand off his body and rose to his eye-level. “Oh, sorry Sparx! Bit of a rough landing, eh? And look! We got friends here!”

Sparx hovered and rotated to see all the yoshies inspecting the new beach-goers. He was the first to note more than one licking their lips, and the bug spiraled around Spyro’s head to get his attention. “Knock it off Sparx, I’m trying to say hi to my new friend here!” Cliff, who took a hesitant step further, also appeared to be drooling. There was a consensus among the citizens of Yoshi’s Island: This new arrival looked delicious. Though because he wasn’t quite so obvious about his hunger, it took Sparx dragging Spyro’s head by the horn to face the more overtly-hungry creatures.

“Oh,” he realized, striking a less-friendly pose, head lowered, smoke trilling from his nostrils. “So they just wanna make a meal out of us, eh Sparx? There’s what… a dozen of ‘em? We can take ‘em!” A violent buzzing came in response. “Come on, buddy, don’t be afraid!” More buzzing. “Oh alright, fine, back to the portal. We’ll come with reinforcements, then have our beach day, OK?” Spyro felt a breeze whip by his horn and heard an odd splatting sound. “I said OK, Sparx?”

There was no more buzzing. Spyro turned to face his buggy friend only to find Sparx completely engulfed in a thick frog-like tongue! Spyro stood dumbfounded as the tongue furled back into its owner’s mouth, a little green yoshi, knee-high to the others, chomping down around the bulk of the dragonfly. A couple wings and backside protruded from the mouth, which buzzed and flickered meagerly, before they were gobbled up, the yoshi audibly gulping Sparx down whole! “Sparx!” The yoshi answered in lieu of the eaten dragonfly, letting out a small burp and smacking its lips. “You…!” Spyro continued his mono-word exclamations, peering around and feeling dread as every yoshi inched closer. “Stay back!” he yelled, punctuating his demand with a shock of orange flame. The yoshies, Cliff included, flinched, and when the smoke cleared Spyro was fleeing back for the portal.

“Don’t worry Sparx I’ll grab the whole family and we’ll get you out of there!” Spyro's claws dug into the sand, kicking it up in his wake as he made for the flickering portal. In the churning innards of the little yoshi’s stomach, Sparx struggled in place as goopy fluids grounded him for good. He let out a fitful sputtering cry before his wings fell limp, the dragonfly going unconscious.

And when he passed out, so too did the portal.

Spyro’s mid-air dive, instead of rolling across fresh grass, sent him splashing into the waters. He sputtered and coughed, swallowing a chunk of the salt of the sea, shaking all over when he pulled himself up. He turned and fanned his wings out, teeth bared as the hungry yoshies approached. Spyro belted out a more powerful flame, forcing a yoshi to douse a tail flame in the sea, and backed up further. No good, he realized, knowing he had one possible escape: If he could dodge those infernal tongues he could take to the sky and escape the flightless creatures. His dragon wings beat down and he pulled from the water, turning and fleeing away from the island as fast as his little wings could carry. One or two yoshies tried to snag the flying meal out of the sky, but hit nothing but air. The yoshies, to Spyro’s relief, didn’t seem too invested in the hunt, and went back to their beach activities once the free food was gone.

At least, that’s what he assumed. Cliff had gotten a good scent off that tasty-smelling dragon, and wasn’t going to give up that easily. He’d recently been perfecting a magic spell that would omit the need for blue koopa shells, and set to work casting it. He tossed his book aside and flicked his hands about in specific patterns, concentrating on the spell. The amateur yoshi mage couldn’t do much, but this particular brand of magic wasn’t anything special for yoshies: It hooked into his species’ biology, and simply worked to manifest something that usually required external factors to bring about: Wings! There was a sudden puff of cloud that engulfed Cliff, which dispersed when he flapped his new large white feathery wings a couple times. Cliff’s heart soared at the successful spellcast, and he took off to catch his dragon meal.

Spyro panted as he flew for his life, not looking behind him at the start. He wiped his brow when he was surely too high and far away to be caught, and started forming a plan to rescue his devoured dragonfly pal. He even smiled confidently, bravado returning, looking behind to the island to get a good grasp of the place. He did a double take when something big, orange, and hungry was at sky level, flying right for him! “Cripes, they have wings?!” Spyro cursed and pushed himself, feeling the strain around his shoulders. He himself wasn’t to adept at flying long distances at the speed he flew, and it showed. Spyro had to convert to a combination of flying and gliding to maintain his speed, which he knew he had to maintain, lest he get caught in the sticky grip of a yoshi tongue.

Cliff picked up on his prey’s plan quick enough, and used his own wings to rise in altitude. He couldn’t match the speed of the dragon entirely, but he could gain on height and use gravity to his advantage. Cliff managed his way higher, Spyro not noticing the yoshi until a chubby yoshi shadow blotted out sunlight. The dragon head turned up to witness the eclipsing dino suddenly diving straight for him! Spyro’s eyes widened at the sight and tried pushing harder, but he was out of it. Panting heavily, Spyro folded his wings up and went straight into a dead drop of a dive. Cliff was already in a dive of his own and had a head start, closing in fast on the desperate dragon. Spyro pushed his legs out a head of him, intending on taking this chase underwater to try and flee the hungry yoshi through the water… but he never got there.

About 30 feet above the surface, something wet and slimy smacked against the tip of his flickering tail. “What the… No!” he cried, Spyro straining his tail every which way but unable to dislodge from the very thing that doomed Sparx before him. Cliff went horizontal and let gravity leave Spyro dangling as the tongue began to pull him up. Spyro clawed at the air and beat his wings rapidly, but the pull of the muscle was too strong. He kept it up until the hardened tip of his tail slipped between slick lips and closed around it, and he found himself hanging limply in Cliff’s grasp. “Let me go!” he demanded, as Cliff turned back to the island, “and give me back my buddy Sparx!”

Cliff was silent a moment while flying, almost humming as he sampled the bit of Spyro he had in his jaws. “Mmf… No can do!” he mumbled around the tail. “Some other yoshi munched on your friend. Just a lil’ snack. Sure he was tasty.” He peered down, thick-lenses making his eyes larger than they were. A hungry stare met Spyro’s much more enraged one.

“Not a request, buddy! I’m not lettin’ Sparx stay eaten and you’re definitely not making eating me! I’m–” Spyro's display of courage ended when he and Cliff flew straight into the latter’s home. The little home of Cliff’s had a wide opening towards the beach, and the yoshi soared right through. He landed comfortably on his boots, while opening his mouth to let Spyro go. The dragon’s words were lost when he tumbled and rolled across the floor, banging his head against a wall and getting his horns stuck. “Son of a…” he grunted and thrashed his head, trying to dislodge himself.

“Oh a bug that size wouldn’t last long in a yoshi stomach I assure you,” Cliff answered, dismissing his wings with a wave of his hand. He then rubbed his hands together and slurped around his lips, tail swaying behind him to his gait as he approached the stuck dragon. “Now be a good tasty dragon and hold still.”

“Fat chance, tubby!” Spyro roared. He kicked his back claws out, his back to the floor, to keep Cliff at bay. He was well-aware of the tongue but had an answer for that as well,  firing out flame after flame. Cliff had to back up, while hoping the fierce purple thing didn’t burn his place down. He was stuck good in the wall so it was the best he could do, becoming a fiery ball of violence to keep the hungry predator away. Cliff stumbled backwards but waited patiently. He remembered the dragon had worn himself ragged trying to fly away earlier, and he could wait for something this tasty to burn himself out.

Indeed, after several minutes of thrashing about, the flames started to get weaker. The kicks found themselves barely leaving the ground. Even Spyro’s tail, contributing little to the offense before, was now completely limp. Spyro hung there halfway up the wall, panting and growing more wide-eyed as Cliff dared to get closer. His dragon flames spat a mere few inches in front of him, giving Cliff leave to get as close as desired. The chubby yoshi even straddled Spyro, he was so close, one leg on either side of the struggling dragon and belly nearly touching. Spyro clawed at the blubbery yoshi, but the blows were so weak Cliff didn’t even flinch. He tried biting or spurting more flame, but his jaws couldn’t reach and what little fire he produced barely left his maw now.

Cliff licked his lips and adjusted his glasses. He leaned down until his snout budged up against the completely exhausted Spyro’s, and beamed brightly. “Looks like you could use some help getting off my wall. Don’t worry: Cliff’s got you covered.” The hungry yoshi belly growled threateningly, Spyro glancing down to the sagging stomach then back up to Cliff, whose jaws opened wide before him. A long thick strand of slobber drizzled down over Spyro, making him sputter a pithy denial and shudder in disgust. His wide eyes caught every detail of the wide yoshi mouth, pink innards flexing, that damned tongue sliding out, gullet beyond pulsating hungrily. Cliff gingerly wrapped his tongue around the back of Spyro’s neck, looping once before continuing down and around his forelegs and middle. Even his wings were caught in the coil, leaving Spyro completely defenseless, with his muzzle pointed straight inward!

“N-no thanks, I can get myself free eventually Mr. Dinosaur… Ugh!” Spyro yelped when his head was suddenly twisted and pulled forward, neck straining from the yoshi tongue, horns losing their grip in the wall, his last hope for survival.

Then came a very powerful tug from the tongue, and the walls splintered as the horns were wrent free. Spyro cried out in surprise when his chin splatted into Cliff’s open maw. The greedy yoshi tongue squeezed tightly, fully gripping its prey in a well-practiced motion. Spyro’s eyes fluttered half closed as he struggled out a fitful protest. “N-no… No!” Spyro’s free hindlegs and tail flickered against Cliff’s floor when slobbering jaws gently closed around his head and neck. Cliff heard the final audible plea from Spyro as he lifted his head with the tasty meal secured. “D-don’t eat meeee!”

GLUK!

The small dragon made just a little bump in the large yoshi’s neck, swimming down into the squelching sticky confines of the esophagus as his body began gathering in the salivating maw. Cliff closed his eyes in merriment when he tossed his head, pulled his tongue in, and claimed more of Spyro. The dragon whined in the throat when several more swallowed devoured shoulders, wings, legs, chest, half the dragon downed in the blink of an eye. Cliff was having no trouble at all with a comparatively small dragon, and wished for a brief moment he was large enough to eat even a fully-grown one. But this small purple delight would have to do for now! Not that he minded, gumming around the squirming Spyro’s middle and drooling more at the tantalizing flavors Spyro’s scents promised on the beach. Spyro felt himself sloshed about the maw as the tongue unraveled, dino lips doing the job of holding him in place as he was tossed and tasted about. “Hrrmmmph!”

Cliff gulped again, this one heavier than the last, pulling in the last of Spyro’s middle completely and leaving his fores pinned down the throat. With a bulging neck Cliff slithered his thick tongue out and began to enjoy the dangling remains of his dragon lunch: A pair of thick purple thighs with a decent-sized tail sandwiched in between. Spyro yelled aloud and cringed as his rear end was so thoroughly enjoyed, sampled, and tasted, hot slobber draining down to his hinds. Said legs weakly bent at the knee, kicking up and down, while a flagging scaly tail swished in panic. The yoshi’s murrs of pleasure made Spyro shudder, but he was drawn to a state of terror when the undulations of the throat pushed him through the sphincter of the stomach and introduced him to a whole new world of discomfort. All of Cliff’s actions were swept from conscious thought when Spyro’s snout poked down into slimy stomach fluids, and the loud threatening groans around him made the dragon cry out in terror. All bravery tended to melt away when one was introduced to a stomach that would soon digest them alive. “Hllllp!” His kicks grew more frantic, tail-thrashes more random, all while Cliff happily gobbled the dragon up.

Spyro let out another dry when first one, than the other, hindleg got stuck in the jaws. “Stupid… tongue!” Spyro cursed from the belly of the yoshi, Cliff neutralizing the last real weapon Spyro had. With the tongue lapping those claws up under the trapped dragon’s body, nothing but Spyro’s quivering thighs and swishing tail protruded from scaly lips. Cliff squished down and around what was easily his favorite part of his lunch today, each mouth-watering bite squeezing more of Spyro inward. Spyro himself cried out one last time when the last of his butt was devoured inward and left to the mercy of the yoshi. His own little tail batted down against Cliff’s chin, up against the bulbous snout, then nothing as it was slurped up spaghetti-noodle style. Cliff’s cheeks puffed out considerably to make room for the entirety of Spyro’s rump, and the tongue spent a solid minute smearing all over the entirety of that rear. Then the thick tongue tip smacked up under the base of Spyro’s tail, and thrust backwards.

Then at last, with thickened cheeks and slobber draining from the corners of his mouth, Cliff ate Spyro alive with a thick, noisy GLOURK! Spyro’s terror climaxed as he was swallowed whole, the yoshi’s lunch swiftly sinking down the throat and ballooning out Cliff’s chubby stomach. It smacked the floor as the entirety of the dragon plopped in properly, Cliff uttering out a satisfied burp and smacking his lips in delight. “Ahh… foreign food’s always a delight. Can’t say I’ve had dragon before either!”

“Nnnffh! Sprrx! Mmmf, hlp me!” shouted the muffled replies of the devoured Spyro. The dragon was bunched up tightly in the not-at-all friendly yoshi stomach. Cliff sighed that yoshi sigh of satiation, running a hand over his bloated belly and loving feeling so full. “Afraid you ruined my diet for today, but no way was I going to turn you down. Plus, got some magic practice out of the whole deal!” Spyro was less than pleased about this declaration, more violent cries bubbling out alongside warming-up belly churns. Cliff thump-thump’d his stomach, then realized something. “Oh, right! Left my book outside. Well, might as well finish my walk!”

Spyro’s world was nothing but darkness and dizziness for the short time longer he remained conscious. The walls of the gut were incessantly pushing in on him from all sides, seemingly getting tighter without loosening in any regard. Powerful yoshi stomach acids rubbed against his scales and were already stinging despite what a tough hide dragons were usually renowned for. Not that he was aware, but Sparx was already long gone, the little beach-going yoshi having enjoyed his sudden snack of dragonfly (yoshies were seldom picky). Spyro did manage to survive quite a bit longer than his bug friend, though, those scales providing some means of stalling the inevitable. Spyro whined with fluids all over his body, from the tip of his horns down to his hips and then to his tailtip. Cliff’s belly swayed and sloshed back and forth with every step he took, and Spyro was doused with a fresh coat of fluids as a result. The muffled cries for help were ignored by everyone on the beach (not that anyone but Cliff could hear them, really – stomach gurgles were quick to overpower them). Cliff had obtained his book with a casual flick of the tongue and, after dusting sand off, he resumed his walk. The lounging yoshies on the beach got to enjoy the sight of a full yoshi for the rest of that afternoon. One or two probably stared a little longer than what would be considered delight, either at the engorged stomach, or the fat rump and tail that followed it, Cliff swaying said tail to his gait and because he was so pleased with his lunch!

*	*	*

Dear Diary,
We had a visitor today! Was just out on my walk and wouldn’t you know it, a magic portal appeared, out of nowhere! My magic’s definitely getting better cuz I detected it seconds before it showed… but that’s not the point of this entry. I got to eat a real dragon today! He wasn’t a big dragon of course, heck I was twice his size, and he didn’t go down without a fight. But once he exhausted himself, it was child’s play to coil him up and gobble him down!

It’s hard to describe his flavors. The horns and edge of his tail didn’t have much, but the dragon definitely had some meat on him! He was rather chewy and feisty but all that only built up the overall taste and I want to have more… Just about every other part of him was positively scrumptious, and I really wanna try and reproduce that magic portal he came through (it fizzled out not long after his… magic pet I guess? was eaten up by another yoshi; was that bug the conduit?), and I’m not sure how much residue remains. The important thing though is I got to eat a whole live dragon!

I’ll start to work on the magic portal reversal stuff after this tasty dragon is worked out of my system (he finally stopped making noise just before I sat down to write this, and I ate him at lunchtime). Definitely want to sleep all this heft off. Although… I did catch a cute yoshi’s eye who was totally checking me out. Maybe I should spend more time outdoors after having myself such a filling meal, hehehe!