Happy new year everyone (unless you follow the chinese calender... or any other calender I don't know about)

A time that beckons in a clean slate, a chance to make good on the mistakes of the past... *looks at the news* nevermind...

What is new and fresh however, is a new story for you all! I hope you like it... it didn't go exactly to plan, but... offers a few, cameos of some... events for the year to come, and includes one of my favourite little... observations. Hope you'll find the twist as funny as I do

If you want to see my work earlier, check out some of my non-writing projects in production, or just give a dragon a snack, why not check out my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=9679574

TDoDK; The prisoner of Diet

It was an injustice, that he was here. So Vergil thought to himself as he stared at the solid door to and from his prison cell. He knew in his heart he’d done nothing wrong… not that they’d agree, hence the bars and concrete. He was hungry, painfully hungry. But that would change soon.
A light rattle at the door preceded the sole slot in it opening. Though nothing slipped through but a voice “thought I’d spare myself the trouble of carrying lunch all the way over” the voice noted, a jovial hint “rest of the prisoners are having a grand old time, luscious pie, thick gravy, tender meat… nothing you’d want”
“if you hope to tempt me, you’re wasting your breath. You know what I eat. And I’ll eat nothing you give me, till I get it”
“uh, huh…” the slot thudded shut, the sound of the leaving footsteps… he was alone again. Perfect.
The move to solitary confinement had been a boon. The privacy slightly outweighed the questionable company, but better, it had offered an opportunity to frustrate his jailors. All thanks to a strange door that had shown up in the wall a few days into his relocation. It would be back today… there was a pattern to it. He had no idea what strange technology was behind it… but that didn’t matter.
All that mattered was the escape it offered, if brief.
He rose from the corner of his room, content he’d be left alone for the night. They were nothing if not predictable… even their… random events had a pattern. They thought he was stupid, but when all he had was watching and listening to their comings and goings. It was hard not to notice.
When the door was absent it seemed to completely remove its presence to all detection… but he’d never been willing to risk it. He dragged his bed away from the wall where it would appear, and waited, impatiently.
The door, as ever seemed to appear in the space of one blink… stare as he did, he never saw it appear… it only, was suddenly there. The odd, old style door… with a little dragon on it. He shot the cell door a look, before advancing and eagerly thrusting himself into the world beyond the strange door. He was starving.

“I wouldn’t normally do this… you know” Vergil observed as he held the… small person between two fingers, considering them… one part of his dinner. For all intents and purposes, it looked… human, was human, just like him, if small. With a sigh, he brought the smaller figure to his lips, pressing the small person close and sucking to draw them in with the pressure. A moving shape on his tongue.
Slowly his view went to his companions… strange animal folk from another world. Eating from the same, array of the small as he was… “if they weren’t destined to survive… and wanting it so intently, I’d never consider eating animals like this” he swallowed, and felt the, flicker of movement sinking down…
The, surprisingly attractive vixen offered a wry smile, she was new… she shifted on her chair, a little, human hand poking from furred chest before with a bouncing roll of her back, it disappeared again. Her delicate digits lifted what looked like… something between a mouse and a man… which she slid past canine teeth, leaving the tail to flick outside her lips. “Heard about you a little…” she mumbled past her food
“I’m not surprised” he added, considering the tables around them. It was, a strange middle ground, this edge. Behind was a plinth, a familiar, pair of dragons sharing some hapless couple… the closer seating was for those who wanted to… end up involved in the matters of the huge carnivores that visited, but the outer edge, which faced the empty centre of the room, those tables were more for, those who observed, or talked. That said… the table he sat at was where he always sat, and for a different reason. The winged, small people who named themselves wisps, carried from the tables by the entry doors, those small patrons who desired deeply to be eaten, and brought them here. It was why he sat here, and presumably, the vixen too.
“You come right here like clockwork” the vixen observed, eyed considering those smaller folk gathered as she licked along her chops, contemplating
“I do” he added, plucking another… disturbingly humanoid figure and putting it in his mouth without looking, swallowing sharply “Haven’t seen you here before… I’m Vergil”
“Wiskie” the vixen greeted him with a slight smile “I’m, getting used to this place” she adjusted her posture, glancing down to herself with a wry smile “and whetting my appetite for my main course…”
“I see… you quite enjoy the, act of eating these people then?” Vergil noted lightly, picking another up between his fingers
The vixen cocked her head at him “you don’t? You sure pack them away”
“I have little choice…” Vergil observed “I can do this… or starve. I make a point of not eating animals, or making food of them in any form”
The vixen parted her jaws a touch, tapping the longer teeth near the front “canines, I eat meat” she smirked a bit “pretty sure you have a set of them too”
Vergil shrugged “my diet is a choice, and one not accepted in my own world. In fact, I’m imprisoned for it. I refuse the food they offer, when it is in violation of what I choose to eat, and so I maintain my hunger strike” he considered the small human in his hand “here, I bend my rules. They know what they want, they wish it, and, they don’t die. Good enough for me”
“Can’t say I understand that” Wiskie shrugged, tossing, what looked like some sort of bird into her mouth, clicking teeth shut “I eat, pretty much all meat, but I’d eat anything if I was starving. It’s just food”
“So… you’re vegan?” the human in his grip piped up, the voice small, but he looked down
“So I’m told, we don’t have a word for it in my world” he smiled a bit “I understand I am not alone, in the… vastness of realities, many choose it for their health”
“Oh… that’s strange” his next meal added “I mean, a lot of people do that on my world, but their diet choice actually shortens their life more than any other diet they could choose”
His smile fell, and he slipped the human into his mouth, swallowing with a grunt “anyway, it’s not about health, it’s my choice, I only eat plants… they deserve the role of food, animals matter more”
Wiskie lifted a small fox with a grin “ooh… taboo…” she looked to Vergil briefly “eh, don’t get that. Unless you’re a plant… and not a carnivorous one, everything kills something to eat it. Plants, animals. That’s the way of life” She tossed the smaller fox into her mouth, suckling lightly
“Plants aren’t really alive, though” he lifted a new mouthful… his stomach felt full… and queasy with movement, but he had to gorge… he wouldn’t eat till he got back here
The vixen chuckled, swallowing “oh come on, they breathe, move, defend themselves, breed, fight and grow. In my world, we let the forests consume what they please, the branch we perch on, so to speak, and not to be cut out from under us. They live”
“I don’t care for this conversation anymore” Vergil noted, pushing another into his mouth, and reluctantly swallowing
The vixen rose with a shrug “whatever, I have my own little… treat to play with” she wiggled herself a bit, as the hand tried to breach the furry sea of her cleavage
Soon she was gone, and Vergil was last pleasantly alone… he liked alone. At least then he was with agreeable company. Still, as he slowly worked through the clamouring batch of little people, many of whom were, peering down the table at his, slim stomach, he couldn’t help his senses wandering. The quiet observer… There was a loud conversation going on two tables down. Their disagreement was amusing enough to watch
“I, can do magic, how can you call it unrealistic” a feminine, something was leaning back in a chair… he had no idea what she was, some sort of deer maybe…? Opposite her was the refreshingly normal shape of a human. These, animal folk were a little unnerving.
“Only children believe in magic” the human observed poncily
“In your world” the animal woman added wearily “I’m sure in a world without magic, claiming magic exists, there, is unrealistic. But I’m from a different world, remember? Magic is as real as anything there. It can be examined, tested, it has rules, and physical form. I can’t use it here, because the magic of my reality is in the air, the environment, a… latent energy we can channel, it doesn’t exist in here... but you go talk to that… huge multi-tailed fox creature, she can do magic because it comes from within… that’s the reality of her world. You’re so bogged down in the reality of your own world… it’s sad”
Vergil slipped another, moving body onto his tongue… seemed the animal woman was probably right… he was losing interest. His focus turned, onto the dragon in question… the Dari dragon. He’d been shocked when he first saw dragons eating people… they were rare and elusive in his home world… and herbivores. Well… omnivores, but only because they sometimes, made mistakes. It seemed that was the exception, not the rule… It was a pity, he’d liked dragons.
The, relatively new waiter approached his table. A friendly enough chap…
“Hello there... drink for you?”
“Why not” Vergil responded smoothly, gripping the table a bit as the floor shook… the Dari dragon wandering closer too. In some ways it was amusing… watching the vast reptile… tutoring such a small assistant
“I’m doing fine, Dari” the waiter spoke the words with a dreary familiarity “you don’t need to check on me”
“Just making sure you don’t get eaten” Dari objected
“Uh, huh… over here by the tiny buffet, overshadowed by the dragons who only eat couples…”
Dari huffed, looking off “well… you’re becoming familiar with the den, certainly”
“Mostly…” the waiter turned from Vergil’s table “Oh, on that note, Dari… do you want me to go get drink orders from that room over there… I’ve never been in”
“which, room…” Dari looked around
“The… uh… Nusfwuh... room?”
“Oh… no” Dari smiled lightly “Private party, better leave them be… you, won’t come back out”
“Noted” the human added wearily “another source of instant death…”
A shadow passed over Vergil’s table, a brief flash of scaly belly before the dragoness of the pair on the plinth landed just past him, padding closer to Dari’Karra.
“Oh, Dari, a word…”
“I’m listening…” the dragon spoke warily.
Out of the corner of his eye, Vergil noticed, a collective movement of dragons, and… other large creatures, towards the other, larger… more dangerous room of the den. A large… very large wolf was padding closer to them. He found himself looking at it… he hadn’t paid much attention to the vast, feral creature
The dragoness leaned in close “I was talking with dinner, and was reminded of a human tradition that was simply must enact again here… tonight even”
“What are you doing…?” Dari asked warily, before the dragoness pressed closer, and the approaching wolf gripped a dragon forelimb in teeth
“Ladies night…”
“No… not again” Dari whined, as the dragoness gripped his other forelimb, the two huge females dragging the kicking dragon for the doors to the… anything goes section
“Help…” the dragon whined plaintively, the den coming to something of a halt to watch, a steady stream of vast females swaying through the door, the remainder helping to tug Dari along
“No, no… I have a den to run!”
The door slammed shut, a muffled roar from the other side. The main room felt a lot, emptier.
“Your drink might take a little longer” the waiter added after a long moment
“Poor Dari” Vergil chuckled
“Poor, my ass…” the waiter grunted “lucky dragon…”
Vergil was left alone again… well, alone with his food. He needed a small break to let them digest though… then he could eat more. He felt queasy… all those people in his stomach, being reduced to a slurry… not their role, but… every day he survived in that cell, emboldened his cause beyond those walls… he could be a symbol, he could inspire revolution… and all he had to do, was stomach a few living meals… who wanted their fate and would always come back…
A new figure sat opposite him, a… dragoness, near as he could tell, but humanoid… and wingless. Like the long, starry dragoness who had woven out of the room after Dari…
The figure nodded to him with a light smile, twin tendrils on her jaw lowering, wrapping up two humans “don’t mind if I sit here?” she asked, before one, then the other meal were slipped past her scaly lips… the tendrils weaving in, and then out, minus their burden. She swallowed
“As you like”
She licked her lips with a faint sigh “it will be nice to talk with someone…”
“I’m not much of a talker” he noted
“I know” she gave him a strange smile “not that you have many people to talk to back home…”
“Do I know you?” he asked, popping another eager person on his tongue, swallowing quickly… not fast enough to avoid feeling this one trying to, thrust… revolting
“No, and you’ll only meet me this once” she observed, considering those on the table, her dextrous tendrils wrapping two more “I do like this place… such freedom”
“If we’ve never met, why do you talk like you know me” he probed “I don’t have that much of a reputation, do I?”
“No, she smiled to him “not here… anyway. You’re very well known back home, now aren’t you…”
He sat up a bit more “look… what are you on about?”
She frowned briefly “oh… sorry, I get carried away, especially here. I see time”
“You see time…” he repeated slowly
“Yes” she answered casually “you’ll never completely believe me, but that’s fine, I’m used to it”
“You’re some kind of fortune teller…?”
“not exactly” her tail swished behind her, the dragoness leaning her jaw on a forepaw “if I tell you your current future… it will lead to a different future, at least slightly. I see time, I know what will be for you… and will be, if I say… well, anything, or do anything to interfere”
“Uh, huh…” Vergil noted suspiciously “and why are you talking to me then, with your… wild and amazing talents?”
“I have my reasons” her tongue flicked, forked like a snake “this place is interesting, because I can see futures of a thousand worlds, not just one… it’s a lot more amusing to learn new futures, than to look over the same, again and again…”
“Well you’re right on one thing… I doubt I’ll ever really believe you”
“See” she hissed a low chuckle “suffice it to say, with my amazing talents, I find your company safe right now”
“Safe, hmm?” he slipped another human into his mouth, suckling, to make it slicker before swallowing. He was getting quite full.
“safe…” she smirked, lifting a small, mousy creature to her muzzle “take this one… if I lick him just right as I eat him… then next time I meet him, his future will lead him to oblivion in me… but if I do this…” she flicked the creature up, jaws parting below. The furry thing dropped down, a smooth swallow. She licked her chops “I’ll eat him again… but he won’t feel compelled to stay in my flesh. Choices, changes…”
Vergil shrugged. This den brought out all sorts of crazy types… but then, he was in a den of predation, eat and be eaten. His stomach was full of people who came here wanting to be swallowed alive and digested, again and again. This, slightly mad… two-legged snake-dragon wasn’t the strangest one…
Instead of answering, he just forced another warm mouthful down his throat, and watched the dragoness as she slowly and delicately gorged… If not for need, he wouldn’t come here.
“Do you think the doors appear to people for a reason?” the dragoness mused aloud, catching his attention back a little
“shouldn’t you know, fortune-teller?”
She chuckled “I see futures, not your mind, much as I can surmise by your actions”
“No, not really” he answered “I hear a lot saying, it seems to appear to those who have the, desires for the place… but I’m pretty far from that”
The dragoness nodded lightly “I suppose… That said, it could have chosen you because it needed you, not you needing it. You certainly eat up a lot of those… eager things”
“I don’t buy it” he answered simply “I’m not sure what sort of world you’re from… but mine is quite advanced, we’re beyond, superstition…”
“So advanced people are locked up for… food choice, right?” she smirked
“For speaking the truth as much as anything, to those who don’t want to hear it”
“mmm, if you say so” she smiled lightly “well, it was nice meeting you…”
Vergil grunted, she spoke like he was leaving… though, he did feel full… he had been thinking of leaving when he got out of the conversation “whatever”
He got up, staggering away from the settled dragoness, back for his door out… much as he hated the cell, hated his jailors… at least it was a world he understood…

Near as he could tell, mere moments passed in the world between his entry, and exit. Long enough for the door to swing shut, before opening to let him out. The only change, a significantly fuller stomach. Fortunate it appeared in the evening when he’d have a long, lonely night to let his body do its work. He was looking forward to another bamboozled look from those who caged him, as he continued to survive without their food.
He put his bed back where it had been and stretched out to sleep, mind swimming with the near impossible creatures he had seen… walking vixens, dragons who claimed to see the future, tiny suicidal people desperate to be eaten… Gently he rested his hand to his warm stomach, drumming his fingers. If not for the blissful satiation of his appetite, he’d think the whole place a fevered dream brought on by his hunger strike…

He woke to an all too familiar metallic rattle at his door, the locks disengaging one by one. It gave him time to sit up on his bed and collect himself for the unwelcome visit. Much as he hoped one day they’d be coming to release him, he was quite sure by this point, he’d only see freedom when revolution came.
Then his jailors entered… green tinged, cords of wrapped vines making a ghoulishly human shape. They looked more like someone who had had their skin flayed and their muscles exposed. The humanoid shaped Planic moving into his confines. He recognised one of them, much as they looked the same. Larger than the others, wearing only enough garments to hide their least human features. Shorts to hide the bareness below, and dark glasses to keep their… inhuman… well, eyes didn’t even suit. He’d seen their true form, what so many fools liked to forget… they were just a stick… a stick of bark, with vines that wrapped up into this… mimicry.
“Morning Vergil” the older Planic spoke, the voice wasn’t human either… it came out grating and weak… he wondered who had taught it to speak.
The larger Planic gestured to the younger one, who brought a bowl towards him “One of your… less depraved admirers so thoughtfully made you a nice meal… beans, stewed vegetables, nicely grilled potatoes, a delectable spattering of spices… but of course… you won’t eat it, now will you”
Vergil eyed the approaching bowl, the spicy smell was tasty… he swiped it from the Planic’s hands, letting the bowl shatter to the side of his cell “I eat you weeds, and don’t forget it” he snarled
The Planic nodded “oh, I remember… we’ll be sure to tell the deluded soul who made that, just what you thought of it…”
The older of the two beckoned the younger out, leaving Vergil scowling in his cage. The sooner people realised these… things were just plants the better they’d be, soon… he was sure soon his story would inspire the masses to cut these monsters into mulch…

“It’s sad” the younger Planic mused, shifting in the hallway, the carefully arranged vines slackening in the absence of humans, letting him stretch the flexible cords
“What is?” the older glanced down, overlooking the decorum… a young Planic took time to, get used to a shape
“She seemed so glad when we took it for him… but so suspicious. She won’t believe we gave it to him and he turned it down…”
“You’ll see a lot of fanatics in this work” the older rested a vine-formed hand to the shoulder of his companion “We do what we can to fit in, but there was a reason first contact went so roughly back in the day… just don’t let your guard down around that one…”
“He’s harmless in there…” the younger asserted, uncertainly
“I’d never call someone who butchers children harmless…” the older grunted “mad to the core… worst still, somehow he’s still alive, despite turning down every scrap of food”
The younger Planic fidgeted “it’s creepy, right? You know what he claims… what those, follower types say”
The older Planic sighed, looking to the, young guard “let me give you a little life advice… rule out the foolish and impossible, and what remains is the answer. There is no divine force setting him on this demented crusade… and even if his bizarre case even has the scientific community wondering if… somehow his depraved diet is good for human life… the likely story is somehow, he’s sneaking food. He can’t keep squatting and shoving fertiliser out one end if nothing is going in the other”
“That makes sense” the younger noted with a touch of relief
“Don’t you fret” the older observed as he moved off “it took some convincing… but I’ve a little, all or nothing plan based on that piece of logic…”
“Sir?” the younger guard queried as he followed
“That cult of a following he has is a mix of those who thinks he’s some… chosen saint we’re abusing; a gaggle of general crazies, and people like that one we saw earlier… who choose denial over what sort of person he really is” the older added “that’s why we’re going to show him to them. We have a nice new cage for him… full reinforced glass, on full display. He can talk to his crazies… wave to them, and better yet… they can watch his every move”
“Is that wise, sir?”
“We’ll see” the older Planic chuckled “he thinks we’re stupid… but when it’s your job to watch them all day, you notice when they act up the moment moving him out of solitary comes into conversation. He likes that cell… I’ve gone over it but can’t find where he’s hiding food, or how his followers are sneaking it in. We’ll give his crazies what they want… they’ll be able to scrutinise how we treat him and watch his hunger strike in person… and they’ll see if he eats a single bite… between you and me, I think the tide will turn when he starts to actually starve. He either chooses to lose face in front of his devoted lunatics… or he shows them in gruesome detail how unchosen he is”
“And… if neither of those happen sir”
The older guard glanced back “then my boy, we’re screwed and likely to be the victims of a particularly savage civil war between the prejudiced, and those with common sense…”
“All or nothing sir” the young Planic agreed
“Fret not” the older spoke with a dark grin, adjusting his glasses “take a magician away from his stage, put him in a coat not his own, and you’ll find his magic talent goes up in smoke…”