The world from the Doorstep
 
 
  The sun sat heavily in the top of the sky, unhindered by clouds or fog, soaking the forest canopy below in light and heat. Aurnaek floated lazily some hundred feet in the air, the sun playing off his copper scales as he coasted about, watching the rolling hills unfurl themselves below him like a green carpet off to the horizon. Gliding as he was with his wings at full stretch, and with the sun at his back, Aurnaek knew his scales appeared as if ablaze, a dancing fire streaking across the sky. Normally, such a thought would have brought him unending pleasure, but today he found himself instead lamenting his lack of anything better to do. Not a single soul had visited him at his abode atop the Snowrim mountain range in nearly a month. Not a single party of adventurers, looking for his sage advice, or hoping to trade rare gems and other baubles for the use of his magics, no herbalists, come to ask about the cure to a particularly rare or nasty strain of infection, no noblemen with a difficult treaty or obscure law they wished him to review. Nothing.
 
 
  Aurnaek knew that the life of a dragon was inherently a distant one, far removed from the rest of the world, and he appreciated the quiet that came from his home’s remote location. Only… Aurnaek was chagrin to admit it, but he had grown to enjoy the constant interruptions to his peace. The nodding heads as he offered his advice, the admiration as he called forth his magic. The dragon had known the silence between these meetings, sometimes stretching as long as a week before being broken by the arrival of the next group, eager to meet the dragon of the mountain. This, though. A long several weeks of nothing. So it was he found himself winging about the fringes of his territory sluggishly, idly watching the landscape crawl by and wishing for something to break the monotony. He sighed, and was about to bank around back the way he came, when something in the forest below caught his eye. Or rather, something not in the forest. Sitting atop a rolling hill some distance from him, a small clearing with a lake at its center broke the uniformity. Aurnaek tilted down, gliding in toward the anomaly.
 
 
  Circling lower, he saw the clearing was disappointing; very normal as clearings go, save the small pond just slightly off toward the back of the clearing. The small body of water was perfectly circular, and… Aurnaek squinted, trying to see past the dazzling noon sun reflected by the liquid. Was that a figure sitting in the center of the pool? Curiosity piqued now, Aurnaek pulled his wings about him, descending yet closer to the clearing. A sound registered at the edge of his consciousness, so quiet as to be inaudible. Something melodic, in the higher registers of his hearing. The sound deepened, widening as he floated downward. Singing. Someone, or something; an unfamiliar tune in a foreign tongue - lilting and exotic. Now only a hundred meters from the clearing, Aurnaek could make out in more detail the apparition in the water. A human, with fair skin and light hair, waist deep in the spring. The person had their back to him, and, not wanting to interrupt the music, he attempted to light quietly at the edge of the clearing. Despite his best efforts, being nearly twenty meters long meant that his landing wasn’t quite as inconspicuous as he had intended. The music cut off with a yelp and the the singer spun around to face him. Aurnaek realized at once both that the fair creature was female and that she had neglected to wear any clothing. He opened his mouth to say something as the human vanished below the surface of the water with a bloop.
 
 
“Wait!” He called, somewhat belatedly. “Should have known that would happen.” He shook his head. Aurnaek plodded over to the water’s edge but, strangely, found no trace of the girl who had been there only moments before. “I… I know I appear frightening; I can assure you that I am no such brute, though! Please come back, I simply wanted to meet you.” Aurnaek suddenly realized he was talking at the calm surface of an empty pond and let himself fall heavily to the side. “Talking at the water like it can understand me. Quite the fool. All I wanted to know was the face behind that beautiful song.”
 
 
A head popped up from the water, just barely clear of the surface. “Beautiful song? You thought my singing was good?”
 
 
“Certainly better than anything I’ve heard recently. Though,” he added, “it’s not like I listen to enough to consider myself discerning.” The head tilted, hair rippling in the afternoon light.
 
 
“So does that mean it was good?” She frowned. “Why did you have to make it so complicated?”
 
 
“I simply…” Aurnaek realized entering that conversation would be a losing battle. “Yes. It was good.” He rested his head on his forearms. “Why are you out here, all alone, anyway?”
 
 
“All alone is right.” The girl crossed her arms, a pouting expression fixing itself on her face. “Out here, too. Middle of nowhere.”
 
 
“Ah, I see. And for the purpose of explaining why you are here…” Aurnaek prompted after a brief pause.
 
 
“I live here! Isn’t it obvious? This is my home.”
 
 
“Surely you could find a more suitable home and relocate there.”
 
 
“You mean move?” The girl looked at Aurnaek as if he’d slapped her. “What is wrong with you?”
 
 
“I - what? Why is the concept of moving so terrible to you?”
 
 
“Because I’ll DIE!” She waved her arms at him. “And then the spring will dry up, the grass and trees will wither, and this place will become a graveyard. Not necessarily in that order. I can’t live without a home!”
 
 
“You are a spring nymph.” Realization spread across Aurnaek’s face slowly.
 
 
“You’re dense.” The girl blushed. “I’m sorry. That was rude. I’m Vyialle, by the way.”
 
 
“Aurnaek.” He slowly worked over the fact that he’d been insulted.
 
 
“What?”
 
 
“My name. Aurnaek. Sometimes Aurnaek the wise, the all knowing, et cetera ad nauseum.” Aurnaek raised his head slightly to shake it. “Dense, today, it seems.” Vyialle turned a slightly darker shade of red.
 
 
“I said I was sorry for that! Besides, isn’t it obvious? Why else would I hang around this lame place?”
 
 
“You really cannot leave?” Aurnaek tapped a claw against the grass.
 
 
“I could, I guess, if I found somewhere new to seep into. But even if I could, so what? Then I’d just be stuck there instead. There’s no point!” Vyialle threw her hands up in frustration.
 
 
“Seep into…” An idea came to Aurnaek. He wondered briefly what weakened corner of his mind it sprung from, starved of interaction with another living creature making him even consider such things.
 
 
“Yes, seep - “ Vyialle stopped, staring at his snout. “What are you thinking?” Aurnaek didn’t respond immediately. “C’mon! Aurnaek! You’re obviously thinking something! I wanna know!”
 
 
Aurnaek knew he shouldn’t do what he was about to, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care.
 
 
“I am thinking…” He murmured. “That I can help you.” He stood up, arching his back like a cat, scales glistening in the sunlight.
 
 
“Yeah, well I’m thinking that I don’t understand. Mind explaining?” Vyialle tried to hide it, but a hopeful spark sat burning behind her eyes. Aurnaek walked up to the water’s edge and leaned in close to Vyialle.
 
 
“Why not allow me to be your home?”
 
 
Several deafening seconds of silence followed, unbroken by the birds chirping away through the forest. Aurnaek kept a calm demeanor and remained stationary, but in the back of his mind he wondered about the offer he had just made.
 
 
“Yes!” Aurnaek was startled out of his thoughts. “Yes.” Vyialle repeated, looking slightly chagrin about her outburst. “I want that. I want to see the world, and - ” She gave Aurnaek a long look. “I can tell that you’re good. Kind. You’d be a good home.” Aurnaek couldn’t blush, but if he could he was fairly certain he would. He didn’t often receive such honest compliments. He leaned down and took a sip from the spring. The water was cool and clear, more pure than he had expected. Swallowing, he felt the chill of the water spread down his throat, diffusing as it fought his body’s natural warmth before being lost in his stomach. He took a second mouthful, pausing for a moment to swish it around his mouth, finally gulping it down, the cold spreading through his body. Another huge slork brought a third mouthful into him, and without delay he moved onto his fourth.
 
 
“That feels… Tingly.” Vyialle giggled as Aurnaek took another swallow. “Here.” She said, a mischievous grin briefly crossing her face. “Let me help you.” The water suddenly surged around Aurnaek, rushing up and into his gullet. Aurnaek’s eyes widened and he almost choked, sucking down gallon after gallon of the liquid. Then a slight smile curled the edges of his wide maw. So eager. The copper scales covering his body skated against one another slightly as the neck underneath bulged outward, huge undulations racking him as the gushing water filled his belly. His stomach swelled in turn, accepting the chilling torrential rush in ernest, already burbling quietly to process the huge influx of liquid straining his inner flesh past its comfortable limit. Aurnaek’s tough leather underbelly stretched, the scales covering his stomach barely overlapping as his body sagged against the gentle grass of the clearing, crushing it down under the swelling weight of the liquid meal inside of him. Vyialle disappeared completely under the surface of the water as the liquid waned, sinking lower and lower steadily, until the bed of the small pool sat, soggy and sad, barren of any meaningful liquid. Aurnaek fell heavily onto his side, sighing as his stomach, hugely engorged to the point of nearly doubling his size, landed on the grass next to him. It bounced and wobbled for a moment before coming to a rest.
 
 
“Perhaps… I should have thought about the consequences more thoroughly… There is no way I can fly home like this.” Aurnaek yawned, the soft burbling of his stomach the only noise accompanying him. “I will deal with that… later, though. I find myself quite tired.” He rested his head on the grass, his breathing slowly steadying. The sun slowly scrawled across the sky as Aurnaek slept. His bloated stomach grumbled as it shrank, his innards absorbing everything over the course of several hours. He sighed in his sleep as the scales over his stomach found themselves relaxing, slowly sliding back to their normal positions; his body finally finishing its work and leaving him resting quietly on his side next to a now empty, drying hole in the ground. Aurnaek sighed in his sleep, not quite waking as with a final bloop his body concluded assimilating the water.
 
 
  It was late evening when Aurnaek finally came to, the blood red sun barely peeking above the horizon, casting the entire clearing in deep shadow. He yawned, his terrifying maw stretching nearly to its limit, pink flesh of his throat darkly visible behind rows of razor sharp teeth. With a snap he shut it, rolling smoothly to his feet and looking around. He glanced at the drying hole in front of him uncomprehending for a second, the events from several hours ago lost behind a haze of post-sleep fog. With a start he looked down at his stomach, scales smooth and tight under his lithe form. A shadow crossed his snout, an unwelcome memory from his youth nearly surfacing before being brushed away by an unfamiliar sloshing sound. He stared in mild disbelief as fingers of water wormed their way out from under his scales, pooling on his back and coalescing into the now familiar top half of Vyialle, her lower body smoothly transforming into an aquatic trunk firmly anchored under Aurnaek’s scales.
 
 
“Hi!” She chirped. Aurnaek opened his mouth, and then closed it when nothing came out. “This is so exciting! I can’t wait to see where we go!” She lay on her stomach, hands propping up her head. “What’s wrong? You’re giving me a weird look.” Aurnaek realized he’d been staring.
 
 
“Nothing. I suppose I did not expect this, is all.”
 
 
“What did you expect, then?” Aurnaek found himself smiling at the question.
 
 
“I could not say. Off to Snowrim, then.” He unfurled his wings, taking a bounding leap into the sky and taking flight. Vyialle emitted an excited screech as they ascended, her tinkling laughter just barely audible above the beat of Aurnaek’s wings.