DISCLAIMER: I didn't write this story. That being said, this is the only story EVER (thus far) that fits both of these credentials:

A. I didn't write it.
B. It's in my gallery.

This story was written by  siafa as a gift. He's a talented writer, and an animator. Watch that mufucka, yee?

Title pays homage to the prequel story, Best Belcher Ever.

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Kinick: Will-bending Trickster. Master of Forms. Spawn of Aetra. Ethereal Entity.

Kinick had no body of his own. While most would consider this a hindrance to existence, Kinick managed just fine by borrowing bodies that belonged to other creatures. He switched between hosts at will and whispered orders to them that most found hard to disobey.

Not many knew of Kinick, but he preferred it this way. Instead of stories of grandeur attributed directly to Kinick himself, he left in his wake rumors of haunted caves inhabited by soul-stealing bats, myths of an ursine demigod that could trick prey into offering themselves as sacrifice, and tales of an ever-hungry fox that could swallow beings twice its size. Unbeknown to the storytellers who propagated these half-truths, these were all ordinary animals under Kinick's power. He loved playing the predator, and being able to claim any form meant that he could do so in myriad ways.

His current game was to track down a herd of elk using a bear as a host. Kinick had deprived the bear of meals for the past couple days, and now he planned on rewarding it by capturing every elk in this group and letting the bear eat them whole. Of course, such a feat would be impossible under normal circumstances, but Kinick had a way of tipping (or rather, toppling) odds in the favor of predators. As payment, he took from his hosts the feeling of internally squirming prey transitioning to blissful fullness. Kinick never tired of such sensations. Feeling the bear's hunger, Kinick longed dearly for them, and suggested to the bear's limbs that they hurry towards the target. The bear's limbs complied.

Muddy tracks on the forest floor foretold that the elk were nearby. Kinick told the bear to determine the path; its sensitive nose scanned for clues. The air revealed that the elk were not far off to the north, but also that there was something else to the west. Something sickly sweet, like the juicy carcass of a freshly caught rabbit with a garnish of corruption, or a bush of berries infected by tumorous growths. It was maddening. The bear salivated. No, said Kinick to the bear. Focus on the elk. Keep their scent. The bear obeyed for approximately 2 more seconds before the tormenting scent became too much. The mammal was blind to all else, turning westward and pursuing the stench intensely. Kinick shouted insults at the bear, willing it to go back, but its mind was already gone; potent neurotoxins flowed through its lungs, making it crave one thing and one thing only, the source of the scent. Kinick, realizing his impotency, was now curious. Who was this hijacking third party? What business did they have taking Kinick's subject out from under him?

With its solitary desire fogging its mind, the bear barely needed its eyes anymore, but Kinick used them to observe the surrounding area. He saw other animals; deer, rabbits, crows, a fox, the group of elk he was tracking, all apparently under the same spell, all rushing mindlessly to the same mysterious destination. Not even earthworms were immune to the poison. Something cataclysmic was occurring. Kinick jumped hosts, swapping the bear's body for the fox (Kinick's preferred form), and barked an order. It was useless, like giving a command to radio static. No other animal would be different. For the moment, Kinick was trapped in the tidal wave of fauna. He waited spitefully in the fox's body until the hijacker came into view.

Sini: Enormous Glutton. Black-and-purple Mindmelter. Best Belcher Ever. Poison Aspect Dragon.

He was stationed in the middle of a clearing. He lazed on his side, his scales secreting vaporized neurotoxin, his mouth wide open. His prey marched dutifully inside, stretching his jaw as needed to accommodate the overwhelming flow of overeager belly-stuffers. Cheeks, throat, and (most of all) stomach ballooned outward with zombified Animalia.

Deeply intrigued, and noting an opportunity to escape the unending prey wave, Kinick left his useless fox and rammed into Sini's head. In that instant, Kinick felt what Sini felt, which is to say, euphoria: the sensation of willing prey forcing him larger; the joy of digesting prey at supernatural rates; the gentle vibrations as stomach juices bubbled, slowly inflating his paunch; the prey's energy being sapped and absorbed by the walls of his stomach chamber. The bear Kinick had once inhabited was now forcing the dragon's mouth wider as it pushed its way toward acidic oblivion. The throat strained to accommodate the bear's wide girth, but both the bear and Sini's hide were persistent, and the lump in Sini's neck moved downward. Reaching its final destination, the bear found room among the mass of dissolving carcasses to bathe itself in digestive juices. Its senses cut off completely by the neurotoxin, the bear felt no pain as the violet acid boiled his flesh and transformed it into impossible quantities of hazy purple gas. The dragon's stomach swelled further as the bear digested. Looking for an exit from the cramped, pillowy chamber, the gas tried forcing itself up and outwards though Sini's maw, but it was met halfway by a wall of incoming prey packed so tightly that all that managed to escape was a small plume accompanied by a muffled mmmmuuuuuuuurrrppp sound that lasted a few seconds. All this Kinick felt; it was bliss paired with dull pain; it was wonderful. Kinick told Sini's forelimbs to rub his taut stomach, and they did.

Sini, previously dazed in a fog of elation, snapped to attention as he realized he wasn't alone in his body. In his mind, he had heard a voiceless whisper that his arms obeyed without asking Sini for permission. Even now as he tried and failed to direct his arms, it was clear they had claimed allegiance to some other entity. The feeling of being reduced to a puppet inspired a rapid upwelling of panic coupled with rage. "Get out, parasite!" Sini didn't know at whom or what he was shouting, and no sound came from his corporeal body as he shouted, but still he shouted. "Get out, GET OUT!!" Tapping into soul-bound mana, Sini flooded his mind with psychic energy. From Kinick's perspective, the world succumbed to an electric purple haze; all sensations became prickly and muted. Kinick, sensing the power of his host, and realizing he was losing control, was forced to jump ship before his entire existence was enclosed by magenta-tinged static. Making one last use of Sini's sharp eyes, he found a hypnotized raccoon to inhabit near the edge of the clearing.

All at once, Sini's body again began to obey Sini. Mid-swallow, the dragon thrashed about, as if surfacing for air after being held underwater (as much as one can thrash about with a belly swollen (and swelling still) with a large enough collection of meat to fill a forest; namely, limbs and neck and tail flailed, but paunch hardly budged). Slitted eyes scanned the surroundings, attempting to sense the nature of the intruder. All they found was woodland wildlife surrounding the dragon, as expected; they pooled up at Sini's side, jumping and climbing in attempt to enter his maw, as the dragon's head was raised out of reach. Sini finished swallowing what was left in his throat before shouting to the hidden entity. "I know you're here, coward!" He didn't, but it was worth the show in case he was right. "Show yourself and I will attempt to be merciful! Keep hiding and know true pain!"

If it were possible for Kinick to show himself, he might have considered it. Instead, he ignored dragon's ultimatum, and pondered his current predicament. It was odd--spawn of Aetra were feared and powerful entities, and Kinick was no exception--he wasn't used to feeling this impotent. His choice of hosts fell to two unfavorable options: a hostile, powerful dragon, or his feeble, mindless prey. Kinick wasn't keen on returning to the dragon (he hadn't ever encountered a host with psychic defense, but he now knew the price of overtaking one) but the outcome of choosing wildlife blindly marching to their doom seemed just as bleak. Kinick didn't know what would happen to him if his host's body died before he could transfer to another living being, but it couldn't be pleasant, and he wasn't eager to find out. This made escape seem like the best option. He began continually switching hosts, chaining from one beast to the next in an attempt to put some distance between himself and the dragon. Perhaps, Kinick reasoned, if he explored outward far enough, he would find some inhabitable being that was immune to the poison. But the crowds were waning, and chain links were thinning. A solitary deer carried him back towards the dragon as his supply of oncoming hosts dwindled.

Sini scanned his surroundings and his mind once more, and finding no intruders, huffed in frustration. The knowledge that he would not be able to exact revenge on whatever being interrupted his meal filled him with disappointment. He was about to mutter something like "not worth my time anyway," but before he could complete the thought, a squirrel managed to climb up his scales and enter his mouth. The draconic tongue savored the small but delicious morsel and enticed Sini to continue feeding; but simultaneously his stomach shivered and quaked, imploring him to relieve some pent up gaseous waste. Sini indulged his stomach first.

BWAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUURP! HHHHOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUURRRRRRRRP!

Two enormous bubbles forced their way up Sini's throat one after another. The clearing and all beings in it trembled at the mighty eructations, and even trees at the clearing's edges shed leaves and needles in deference and fear. The smell of rotting meat permeated the atmosphere, which gained a slightly violet hue. The squirrel, who was moments away from meeting its end in Sini's acidic stomach chambers, felt its fate suddenly change as it was carried out of the dragon by the gale-force winds. It traced a parabolic path upwards and out of the clearing, then downwards towards a spot thousands of feet away from its origin.

Sini patted his stomach, voluntarily this time, as leftover whisps of poison drifted lazily upwards from his mouth and nostrils. Some small amount of pressure was defused, and his midsection had shrunken slightly, but more stomach tremors told Sini there was more (yes, much more) to come. But this was satisfactory for the moment; Sini teased his aching stomach, and once again indulged his tongue, by resuming his meal. He lowered his open mouth, allowing the surplus woodland creatures waiting impatiently around the dragon to fill the stomach-space the bubbles had left.

From within the deer, Kinick observed all of this in awe. He had been sorely tempted to meld with the dragon as it released its legendary belches, pricks of curiosity edging him on, but reason held out--he couldn't risk alerting the dragon to his presence again. As the reptile resumed gorging himself, Kinick realized his predicament hadn't changed; worse, Kinick wasn't able to see any living being who wasn't crowded around the dragon, shoving its way past other creatures to force itself inside. This batch was the dragon's dessert, and once he had finished, the purple predator would be the only inhabitable host within a mile radius. Hmmm, time for a new plan... thought Kinick, refusing to let fear get the better of him. He swapped his current body for a fox lurking about the edge of the crowd, and prepared his next move. This dragon hasn't bested me yet, he thought. I still have options. Indeed, it takes more than mind control to earn the title Master of Forms.

Sini had just slipped back into his dazed, blissful state of mind when he saw something surprising enough to snap him out again: a fox the size of a horse stood at the edge of his vision, frantically trying to work its way past the other fauna and into Sini's mouth. At first, Sini had thought he caught some magical being (a forest demon, perhaps?) with his neurotoxin, but the fox displayed no extraordinary markings nor gave off any detectable supernatural aura. As far as the dragon could tell, it was just an ordinary fox that happened to outgrow its species. Is happening to outgrow, Sini corrected himself, as the fox's form enlarged before his eyes. Its mind was still very much under Sini's control; the fox didn't give any indication that it had noticed its newfound size, still solely focused on finding a way around the other animals towards the dragon. It continued to expand, wobbling off-balance as its mass increased faster than its muscles could anticipate. By now, it was thrice the size of any other creature Sini had ingested within the past day.

"What the fuck?" Sini muttered elegantly through a mouthful of squirming elk and rabbit.

These animals may have been oblivious to Kinick's suggestions, but the Trickster was still free to use his powers to transform their bodies. His gambit relied on the dragon being completely immobile, limbs and all, and the easiest way to ensure that was to feed him an overburdening quantity of prey. Seeing this dragon's greed, Kinick had no doubt that he would try to swallow prey as large as himself, even as he appeared completely stuffed. With luck, his greed would be Kinick's mode of concealment, and ultimately, escape.

As the last of the unenlarged prey disappeared behind Sini's jaws, the dragon stared at and contemplated the last undigested being remaining, the gargantuan fox. When it had stopped growing, it had reached a standing height that exceeded Sini's, and it even outmatched the height of the dragon's comically inflated midsection. Without other prey to obstruct its path, the fox attempted to force itself down Sini's throat. But at its current size, it could only manage to shove its muzzle (approximately the size of the bear ingested earlier) into Sini's mouth before the dragon's entryway was at capacity. It yipped and growled as it tried to push itself further.

Sini's mind raced through possible explanations, discarding each one as implausible. His best conclusion was that some other being (perhaps on an alternate plane?) was watching the dragon stuff himself, and enlarged the fox as a challenge to the dragon and his appetite. Perhaps it mocked, "You think you're the apex predator? You think you can swallow anything that catches your eye? Try eating this!" Sini smiled. If his mouth were not stuffed full, he would have announced "challenge accepted!" to whoever could hear. Swallowing beings of this size wasn't new to the dragon--he just needed to make a little room in his stomach first.

The fox's muscles tensed rapidly as it felt a wall of steamy air slam into its nose. Sini's jaws formed an airtight seal around the canine's snout, and draconic stomach gas, under intense pressure, forced its way into the fox's nasal cavities and into its lungs. A muffled rumbling, bubbling noise, like a subterranean waterfall, signaled the transfer of gaseous poison from one being to the other. The fox involuntarily took the largest breath it had ever taken, sourced straight from its obsession. Kinick was intensely aware of a burning sensation along the fox's throat and chest as the fox inhaled, though the fox itself, mindless as it was, was not. Sini increased the pressure further, and the fox, lungs filled beyond normal operating capacity, was pushed backwards, breaking the seal. It was like opening a bottle of champaign the size of a 3-story building.

BRRRRAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUOOOUUUUUURRRRP!!

Sini's aspect was Poison, but with his gift of hyperactive digestion, this easily doubled as Storm. The dragon's throat swelled as boundless volumes of air rushed out into the open. Despite its best efforts to enter the dragon's maw, the multi-ton vulpine behemoth was held at bay by the power of the tempest Sini unleashed. Fox fur was slicked back as the humid, reeking clouds raced past Kinick's host, snapping branches and dislodging thousands of leaves from trees in the background. The fox's ears rang as the thunderous rumbling echoed beyond the clearing. Sun and clear sky waned as plum fog engulfed the clearing like a flash flood. Undigestable skeletal fragments of all shapes and sizes flung from the dragon's jaws and pelted the fox like a barrage of hailstones. For tens of seconds, Sini showed off the power of his stomach to the fox and any observing entities, hypothetical or otherwise.

Kinick couldn't resist experiencing this expulsion for himself. For 3 intense, enlightening seconds (all he allowed himself), he felt what it was like to hold the title of Best Belcher Ever. The power was undeniably enticing; it felt as if Kinick-as-dragon were roaring a deafening roar, announcing his strength to the edges of the forest and beyond. The feeling of unnatural quantities of air exiting his inflated midsection was euphoric. Fear of being discovered cut his joy short as he returned to his fox host and waited for the chaotic storm to subside.

It did, eventually. Sini tried to follow his release with a giant sigh, but was interrupted as the snout of the infatuated fox once again filled his mouth. Though his stomach still yearned to empty itself of more gas (yes, much more), Sini felt now not quite as stretched. But he had one last step before he was fully prepared to take on the burdensome vulpine. Surrounded by violet toxic smoke, inside and out, Sini was quite literally in his element. His scales and gastric walls were empowered by the atmosphere, and began absorbing it, trading it for magical fuel. Sini's eyes shone brighter as power entered his system from all sides. But the buff was brief; the surge of mana was immediately spent on enlarging himself.

Kinick-as-fox was surprised and cautiously relieved to see that the dragon had a growth spell of his own--it confirmed that the dragon would succeed in consuming the fox as intended. The earth supporting the noxious reptile's expanse groaned and shook as it adjusted to newfound weight. Draconic limbs and wings and tail and head pushed outwards, but abdomen remained stationary, as the gas inside was being used up as fuel. Kinick braced himself as best he could as the fox forced its skull into the dragon's enlarged jaws. It was still a tight fit, but it would do. The dragon seemed to agree, or else he had run out of mana--the ground ceased rumbling, signaling the end of the growth spurt. Fox ears folded back as Kinick's host plunged further, helped along by a coating of slick saliva. If he were able, Kinick would have shuddered as the fox breathed in more of the dragon's overwhelming fumes and breath. This next part wouldn't be fun, but it was necessary. Just a little longer...

Sini could have enlarged further, but he decided against it. Sure, he could have traded in more of his stomach gas and expanded far enough to make the fox a mere morsel by comparison, but where was the fun in that? He wanted the extra-planar being that had so generously provided him with such a bountiful feast to have a good show. Besides, Sini wanted to save his belly's contents for a record-shattering belch. Sini's digestive concoctions made extreme quantities of poisonous miasma from any living being, but some creatures were more susceptible to this transformation than others. It just so happened that Kinick had chosen a favorable form from Sini's perspective; vulpines, for whatever reason, were much more effervescent than other prey of similar size. Thus, ingesting a fox of this monstrous size made Sini inwardly giddy as he anticipated how large his coming belches would be. Surely a new world record was coming. The dragon, maw stuffed with a struggling fox, rolled from his side to his back to allow his abdomen to swell more efficiently. The fox stumbled at first, but quickly adjusted as it brought its front paws to join its head inside Sini's maw, which was now unhinged like a serpent's.

Kinick couldn't stand much more; the fox's lungs were empty, save for whatever scorching breath the dragon granted. All the same, the fox endured, writhing and worming through gullet and into stomach, heedless to its own needs. The dragon slurped at the vulpine torso noisily, helping it along. By now its head had entered the stomach chamber; pools of digestive juices singed hide and fur, giving off a retched odor. Almost there... thought Kinick through his agony. Hind legs kicked wildly before entering the tight passageway as front legs dragged the fox further inwards. Another few slurps from the dragon, and the remainder of the behemoth fox, tail and all, was engulfed by draconic jaws. A loud GULP later, and the last of the bulge slid down the dragon's throat, releasing frantic splashing sounds as the fox met its final resting place. The postponed sigh finally washed out over the clearing. On cue, Kinick ejected out of his doomed host.

The squirming meal pinned Sini under his own wobbling belly, which had doubled in size with its new inhabitant; only his head was uncovered by the domed blob. Scales which were once interlaced to form the dragon's tough exterior were now stretched apart, exposing a rubbery underhide that held massive prey with relative ease. Sini lied idly for several seconds, enjoying the fox's movements as it washed itself in digestive juices. Already it was being converted to toxic gas, inflating Sini further, but even with his enhanced digestion, it would take a while before the belch was ready. In the meantime, a series of URRRRKs, GRrrrrrrUUUUHGHGs, and RRRRROOOOOOUUUCKs worked their way up Sini's throat and into the open. At lengths of several seconds and at volumes loud enough to cast an echo, these burps might have seemed impressive to some, but not Sini; they were so insignificant compared to what he had planned that he made no effort to save them. The fox, as large as it was, would provide more than enough belch fuel once it was fully digested.

Speaking of which, Sini thought, I never thanked my benefactor for this meal. And by this, Sini meant that he had not gloated in the face (?) of the conjectured extra-planar being that enlarged his fox-dessert. "Challenge completed!" Sini cried. Or, rather, would have cried if his mouth had obeyed him. Instead, it remained closed, indifferent to Sini's commands. Panic arose. Anger spiked. Static flared.

"OUT, PARASITE!!"

Kinick ticked off a shopping list of curses and expletives. It was going so well! he thought. The dragon was immobile, and wouldn't even attempt to move! He probably would have fallen asleep soon, letting me hide long enough for another being to approach! But it wasn't to be; the Trickster's gambit failed. Purple noise overtook his senses once more, stabbing at his consciousness with ten thousand needles. Kinick escaped the agony and reunited with the fox. He immediately regretted doing so. The fox breathlessly spasmed, but its movements became weaker as its body dissolved into wisps of putrid smoke. The pain was jarring, but what choice did Kinick have? Hiding in the dragon's mind wasn't viable; he hadn't gone 30 seconds without being detected, and now the dragon was on alert. On the other hand, Kinick decidedly did not enjoy being boiled alive. He tried jumping back to the dragon, but was immediately met by a wall of white noise; the dragon brushed him away as one shoos a fly. Back to the fox. Panic overtook Kinick. On impulse, he actuated the last of his mana reserves, draining them to activate one of his more powerful abilities: rejuvenation.

The dragon focused on searching for and evicting mental intruders. Again he shouted some (mostly empty) threats at the parasite, though Sini himself was the only being that heard them. After a few moments of no abnormal activity, Sini's abdomen caught his attention. It was still alive with activity; small bulges were visible from the outside as the fox continued its uncontrollable frolicking. It was digesting, Sini knew--clouds of toxins welled up within him without interruption--but the fox itself seemed immune to the more damaging effects of being eaten alive. Again, the dragon was left what-the-fucking. Maybe it was some kind of magical being after all. A powerful one, at that.

Strength surged through the fox's muscles as scars healed and flesh regenerated, fending off the constant burning the acid caused. But it helped nothing. Digestion continued, and there was no means of escape. All the spell had done was buy Kinick a bit of time. He cursed his shortsightedness. With mana in reserve, he could have come up with an alternate plan of escape. But now, he was powerless, trapped in a fox he couldn't control, which was itself trapped in a dragon he also couldn't control. It was over--the dragon had beaten him. Kinick unplugged himself from the fox's senses; though he still resided in the mind of the fox, he no longer saw through its eyes, no longer heard through its ears, and no longer felt its pain, much like the fox's own consciousness.

Kinick sat alone in his black void, brainstorming. There was one final option, though choosing it felt akin to reloading a save point and losing weeks of progress. Succumbing to disappointment, he sent a signal out through the ether; an SOS. His message propagated through an unseen dimension like ripples in a pond. His target, Aetra, Kinick's progenitor, heard him; within moments Kinick received a series of pond waves in response. The two carried on in Morse-like transmission for some time. Terms were discussed, and a deal was made. Thousands of invisible hooks came to Kinick from beyond the edges of his void, and in the blink of an eye, Kinick was pulled out of the fox and into an alternate plane: the domain of Aetra, a sort of nondescript limbo. He was safe from digestion here. But the aid of Aetra is quite costly--Kinick now had debts to pay off, and it would be a long while before he could return to the material plane once again. The Trickster was content with waiting, though. It gave him plenty of time to plot his revenge on the dragon.

Thus, the fox was left to fend for itself in Sini's stomach. Even so, Kinick's rejuvenation spell was still in effect, and would continue to heal the fox for quite some time. This postponed the vulpine's demise and prolonged the dragon's digestion. Sini waited patiently, now letting off a near constant stream of rude burps as more and more toxic gas accumulated within his paunch, but the fox refused to be still. "Persistent, aren't ya?" Sini cooed to the contents of his writhing guts. "I suuUURRRRRPPPpose you'd like to be awake to see me break my recOOOUUURRRRRRd?" He thought back to his previous belches, and how bloated he had been before expelling them; certainly, with a belly large enough to house a blimp, he had advantage now, even with the fox still not fully digested. No point in waiting any longer. "Then I will not disappoint," he reassured. His mouth opened wide...

HHHHOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUGHGHGHGHUUUUUURRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKK!!!

Finally finding the escape it craved for so long, virulent smog rushed recklessly between backward-fanged jaws and coated the forest air with a fresh paint of violet. The earth cringed as it weathered Sini's onslaught. Forest inhabitants lucky enough to be outside the range of Sini's neurotoxin burst were now subject to a pervasive smell of rotten meat accompanied by a burning sensation in their lungs. They fled as they were able, but flora were not so fortunate. Tree branches creaked and snapped at the force, and grass wilted at the pollution. Before long, the trees nearest to Sini had gone completely bald; leaves flew away from the dragon en masse, dotting the violet-tinted sky with frantic specks of brown and gray. Sini's tornadic winds even managed to crack the trunks of a few trees, adding to the cacophony and destruction.

As it lasted, the belch took on a darker, meatier tone, which was accompanied by waves of bone fragments that fountained into the air. The dragon's midsection gradually diminished in size, enclosing its vulpine inhabitant in a cozier embrace. Eventually, Sini became slightly unburdened and was granted enough room to move his forelimbs, though full movement was still restricted. After a full minute, the draconian eructation ended with a raspy, grating noise that reverberated off distant surfaces for several following moments.

Sini licked the spittle off his chops blissfully. He had already claimed the title of Best Belcher Ever long before today, but if there was any doubt of his dominance in that arena, he had erased it. His latest burp had surpassed even his largest expulsions; a new personal (and therefore world) record. But Sini wasn't satisfied with this. In his competitive nature, he refused to accept that he had reached the top and was unable to ascend further. (Sini was currently unaware that his title was awarded only to of creatures of this universe; other realms housed planet- and star-devourers whose smallest belches were ferocious enough to distort spacetime. This was moot to Sini, however, as dimension-hopping was out of the question.)

After contemplating a bit, it hit him: if any being could compete with Sini's belches, it was Sini himself. He imagined that long after this fox was digested, a future Sini might manage to ingest an even larger and more powerful being, and upstage the dragon's present expulsions. In Sini's mind, he saw his future self mocking him, belching out insults behind a stomach taut beyond reason. "Try as you might, haAUUUUUURUURRRRtchling, you'll never maAAAAAAUUUUCCCtch my power. The faAAAAAAAARRRRAAAbric of destiny ensuUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRPPPRRes it!" Future Sini then disappeared behind a blueberry-colored cloud as he released a unfathomably large burp that, even in the dragon's head, seemed to shake the cosmos.

This image lit a flame of envy. What if it was true? What if Sini's best belch ever was destined to come later? What was his future self but yet another challenger to present Sini's throne? "You think you can outbERRRRUUUUUGGHGHlch me?!" Sini questioned aloud, as if he was face-to-face with his latter self. "If the fabric of destiny has chosen you over me, then I'll RRROOOOOOOOHHHHHHRRRip it to pieces!"

Sini prepared himself. The fox still writhed within his gut, completely unharmed. It could provide yet more gas (yes, much, much more), and it was time to find out precisely how much. The dragon's forelimbs massaged his stomach (as much as they could reach, anyway) as he willed his digestion to secrete its remaining reserves of acid, immediately drenching the fox and accelerating the boiling of its flesh tenfold. From outside the dragon, the air filled with wild hissing, bubbling, and whooshing noises, as violent as a rushing river colliding with a magma flow. Literal tons of gas welled up inside the dragon, once again expanding black-and-purple scales outward to contain the new wave of pressure. The clearing was claimed by dragon mass. Sini cried out in pain, his latex hide nearing its limits. Completely immobile under his ballooning paunch (all but his comparably tiny head), Sini struggled to hold back. His struggle didn't last long; digestion continued, but Sini couldn't wait until it finished to begin venting.

UrrrrrrRRRRRRRRK! It started in fits. BWARRRRRRRAAAAKKK! A few short-lived eructations that signaled the coming eruption. HOOOOOOOROOORRRRRRUUUUUUUCKKK! Like an engine that stuttered before roaring to life. BROOWWWWOOOOOOUUUUUUUURRRRRRRPP!! And then it came.

BLLAAAAAWWWWWWWWWUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHGHGHGHHHUUUUUUUUURRRRRRKKKKKKRRAAAAAAAAAWWWW--And so on.

Sini channeled the power of a volcano, and sent billowing, scorching, sun-blocking smog high into the atmosphere. The vibrations from the expulsion measured 5.6 on the Richter scale. Putrid, rotting haze mixed with dust devils and rushed in every direction away from Sini. The clearing expanded further as trees splintered and toppled, bowing away from the epicenter. Green foliage wilted brown before uprooting and racing off. Cracked pieces of bones were forcefully ejected from Sini's stomach and rained down over the dying forest like ash. Slowly but surely, the dragon's putrid pyroclastic flow consumed the forest.

On and on the belch continued. Seconds turned to minutes as Sini tried and failed to void his stomach of its gaseous contents. Just as fast as the dragon expelled poisonous smog, it was replaced with the toxic waste of digesting foxmeat; and just as fast as the foxmeat within him was digested, it was replaced anew by Kinick's lingering magic. The result was an unrelenting cycle of rapid digestion and poison production that let Sini continue belching without having to reduce his stomach-bloat. In fact, if anything, his abdomen pushed outwards even further with excess gas. Of course, Sini still didn't know about Kinick and his magic (and at this point, he probably never would); all he knew was that this was an absurdly gassy meal, even for a fox, and even for its size. Not that he was complaining.

Sini felt immensely pleased with himself. He was announcing to the entire continent that the title of Best Belcher Ever is not so easily won, and even if its inhabitants already knew, he was running victory laps around them. His only disappointment was that there was no one to observe him firsthand (at least on this plane), though this was tempered by the knowledge that he had devoured all candidates within a mile radius. He mentally hurled insults forward in time towards his future selves. Behold my reign! None of you whelps could hope to surpass a fraction of my current power! None of you can lay claim to my rightful title, Best Belcher Ever! And as he thought this, the torrent of exhaust ejecting from his jaws grew to its full potential, sounding outward ominously for miles, wreaking devastation on anything and everything nearby. In his mind's eye, future Sinis observed sheepishly, tails tucked between their hind legs.

Aside from the thrill of showing off, there was the pleasure of the release itself; there was something viscerally satisfying about releasing such heavy volumes of gas, even if it did nothing to reduce abdominal bloat. It was utterly blissful, even more so than feeding. Despite the immense stretch his stomach and throat and jaws were experiencing, Sini lost himself in ecstasy.

Minutes blurred and stretched on beyond meaning, and still the burp did not let up in the slightest. The dragon gradually lost his sense of time as he fueled the ever-expanding mushroom cloud of purple toxin. He was vaguely aware that, after some time, the fox began to calm its spasms before they dropped off altogether. Some time later, his expansive stomach finally began to retreat, digestion slowing. Perhaps minutes later, bones that put an Argentinosaurus fossil to shame started to spill out of his mouth, and despite stretching his gullet further as they exited, Sini barely registered them. Having lost its source of fuel, his belch gradually tapered off in power, but Sini drifted off into a pleasure-induced coma long before it finally ended.

---

Sini awoke with a HOOORRRUUUUUURRRP; an involuntary release of a residual pocket of gas. Many more would come in the following days.

He took stock of himself. His abdomen had shrunk and the rest of himself had grown. The ratio of these two effects wasn't quite clear, though Sini pegged them at approximately 2:1. In any case, his body's proportions felt much more reasonable now. His belly was still quite bloated compared to its default state, but it no longer inhibited the dragon's movement. He rocked side-to-side and then, for the first time since his meal began, righted himself on his limbs. Let's see the damage, he thought.

He explored the surrounding area and smiled. The effect of the dragon's belches was cataclysmic. The atmosphere was drenched in a violet fog, thick enough to conceal the sky overhead, and even the time of day. Bare earth surrounded the dragon's resting spot; plantlife and soil had been stripped away, leaving only hardened clay that had been polished clean by buffeting detritus. Some searching revealed a colossal vulpine skull that sat alone in the desert, halfway embedded in the ground as if it had been there for ages. The rest of the fox's skeleton was nowhere to be seen, likely lost forever. Further on, at a distance it took Sini a few minutes to traverse, lied clearer signs that there had once been a forest on this spot, but they told a grim story. Soot-black branches and gnarled trunks twisted in pained shapes littered the barren, scarred landscape. All life had either been burned away by the miasma, or had fled.

This was Sini's domain now; a miles-wide blight unfit for any being lacking the Poison aspect. The dragon took in a deep breath of his stomach-fog and roared triumphantly. No being could possibly hope to compete with such a massive belch.

Then a thought struck. A memory. Sini had claimed the title of Best Belcher Ever from all future Sinis, and as future Sini became present Sini, he felt the loss of his title. The insults he had hurled at his future self now hit their mark. His smirk faded. Pride polymorphed into jealousy; self became competitor.

Sini continued surveying his plagued territory, but now with an air of bitterness. Seconds ago, it was a source of immense pride, but now it only served as a reminder that he might never manage to burp so heavily ever again. It taunted him. "What an arrogant windbag," said Sini of his former self. "Ripping the fabric of destiny to pieces? Seriously? Who the hell does he think he is?" He wandered, muttering to himself. "I'll show that bastard who's REALLY the Best Belcher Ever."

And with that, Sini set off in search of prey that would make him gassier than ever before.