On what should be a relatively simple job for the experienced assassin, Zegar finds herself facing the fate many of her past targets have met their end at...



This is another fan fiction piece featuring Zegar, a wolf anthro assassin created by  generationslayer, and used with permission, of course. I was never truly satisfied with the original work, Taste of Treachery, and I really wanted to make a piece that not only did the character justice, but hopefully corrected some of the mistakes made in that piece. Comparing Taste of Treachery to this piece, I can really see the depth of the rut I was in at the time.

I feel so much prouder with this piece, not only in terms of story, but hopefully doing Zegar justice. As always, comments are greatly appreciated, and if you can find the time to read this, I humbly ask that you take a little time to tell me what you think. I would love to hear what you have to think, whatever that may be.

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Story © J.R.Sinke
Zegar and world of Laven © generationslayer


In contrast to her several days of travel, as Zegar walked the streets of Herlis, she was able to enjoy clear skies and beautiful weather. The storm had been a rough one, and despite her preparations, she still felt like she was soaked to the bone. Even the town had not fully recovered, with water in the streets looking almost like miniature ponds and an overall dampness that still permeated the place, in spite of the sun’s best efforts.

But this was nowhere near the worst hardship the assassin had faced in her career, and though she was mildly annoyed at the circumstances, it otherwise didn’t get to her, her mind primarily on the reason she was here. She had taken a contract with a local resistance fighter to remove a particular beast wizard, one the man had dubbed in the brief, “the executioner”. Given the focus, Zegar knew that while being an executioner was unlikely man’s only function, it was what spurred the hit, being used as both function and title by the resistance member. However, she would have preferred an actual name.

As she stopped at a street corner to get her bearing, a small group of humans trudged past her in wet and tattered rags, herded almost gleefully by a band of goblins. Given how no one else gave the shackled humans a second look, neither did she, and she suspected it would not be the last such group she’d see before she finished her scouting. It was something she was curious about however, as often humans were herded out of occupied towns and into concentration camps, away from everyone else. It seemed the beastling army had some sort of motivation to keeping them around, though it had apparently led to a strong resistance movement.

That, in turn, led to the executioner, and her contract. According to the report, the crocodile beast wizard was the center of a fear campaign, scaring the human population into obedience, again implying a need for the beastlings to keep humans in the town for some purpose. The resistance fighter claimed that more often than not, people were chosen at random to be executed as punishment for being a part of the resistance, just to make the executions frequent enough to always keep them fresh in mind.

It was around that point in her reading that she had begun to suspect that the hit was not orchestrated by the actual resistance movement, but rather an individual within it. While his tone had been professional enough, she had taken contracts both military and personal, and knew how the mindset of the writer influenced the way it was worded. It was the emphasis and urgency, without ever stating any sort of timetable should delay occur, that gave the man away. There was no need given for the haste he had desired, besides a few more lives being potentially lost, and such would not warrant the urgency of the request. There was also no strategic reason given for his elimination, as was usually given in a military or political hit. She knew that the man wanted revenge, and wanted it fast, and she speculated that someone he cared for had been chosen for execution having done no wrong. But as money did not seem too large an issue for him, and it wasn’t against her standards, it was a job she was willing to take.

As she began making her way around a veritable pond in the middle of a street intersection that a duck could likely float on, she noticed the gathering of a crowd down the street to her left. There were only so many things that could gather a crowd like that, and no matter what it was about, it was something she wanted to know. Even before she properly arrived, she could see standing on an elevated platform above the rabble a terrified human male bound with rope and gagged, flanked by guards, telling her exactly what must be going on. Said platform also turned out to be a gallows, which helped explain why the execution was taking place here; it already served the purpose, though the ropes seemed to have long since been removed.

Just as described in the packet she’d been given, there was a notable human assemblage to, surrounded by soldiers of all types, not to mention bound in chains. Zegar could catch the scent of them when the breeze picked up, and she knew that the crowd kept their distance as much from the smell as from the soldiers and their largely unanimous distaste for humans in general. The fact that they seemed to still be in reasonable physical shape gave testament to the fact that the beastlings were likely using them for some sort of manual labor, though apparently that labor didn’t include outside work. She did note with interest however how the group was bound in chains, like the groups she’d passed on the way, while the prisoner was only in ropes.

That was but a moments gaze before turning her attention back to the gallows. Beside the prisoner was the unmistakable form of her target. Granted, he looked neither as sinister nor demonic as the description implied. The gator was actually quite obese, and he may have even looked comical if he smiled. But even she had to admit that with his size and the way he stood, he actually did manage to evoke an imposing sight, and his gaze as he called for silence was enough on its own to quiet nearly the entire crowd almost instantly, the rest soon hushing so as not to draw attention to themselves. Zegar had seen the like before; the signs of a man who not only had power, but knew well how to use it, and did so frequently.

There were six guards on the gallows, one on each corner and one on either side of the prisoner, who stamped the butt of their halberds on the boards at their feet as the gator made his call. Zegar paid little heed to them, other than to note their level of training from their posture and unison of action. She had no intention of making a move yet, and so they were not factors that needed to be considered. Instead she listened intently to the gator, hoping to glean a few things from him to aid in her task.

“Despite our generosity,” he began without preamble in a deep voice, though Zegar caught a sneer of insincerity underlying the words, “attempts have been made to undermine the prosperity of this town and to take the live of the innocent. This will not be tolerated!”

The roar from the crowd sounded like a beast of legend whose treasure had been stolen, and the prisoner struggled against the restraints and the guards as though he expected them to jump the stage to tear him limb from limb. Indeed, a few made half hearted attempts to do just that, though they were easily held back by the guards. It looked almost routine, and Zegar began to wonder just how many times this had happened, if it really was as frequent as the brief claimed, a detail she had doubted at the time.

“This one here,” the gator continued in darker tones, slowly bringing his arm up to point, as though the referenced individual could possibly be mistaken, “is one of the so called resistance fighters. The group of humans who wish to suppress all non-humans, to control the animals they see roaming the land.” Now the crowd was in such an uproar that he could not continue, but to Zegar’s eyes, he seemed content to let the anger be vented. These were the flames he was intentionally trying to fan. It didn’t take much of her brainpower to figure out that the resistance was likely being used as a scapegoat for any ills that befell the city, among other things, and that the populace firmly believed it.

“The resistance, nothing but a band of murderers and thieves who claim their actions are just because they fight for human freedom. Unprovoked, they have slaughtered those like us, fearing us because we are different from them. Killing indiscriminately and then spreading lies in an attempt to justify their actions. Those are the acts of monsters! And what is the punishment for such monstrous acts?”

“Death!” the crowd roared in almost eerie unison, affirming that not only was this spectacle something normal, but also indeed rather frequent for such a perfect response. Worse, Zegar swore she heard a level of eager anticipation in their voices.

The gator spoke no more, but wore a wide grin as he motioned for the prisoner to be brought to him, a task the two guards took to nearly before being beckoned. The man’s struggles were hindered by his own trembling, and Zegar was unsure if she had ever seen that level of terror on the face of any being. The guards then lifted him into the air above their shoulders, not even bothering to first remove restraints or gag, setting the man’s feet into the gators waiting mouth.

Despite herself, Zegar found it just a little impressive that the gator hardly even needed the aid of devouring magic to fit the man into his mouth, though the moving bulge of squirming legs visible along his throat was most certainly aided by the magic. What she began to take note of was how long he was taking, as he wasn’t making much of an effort to swallow. It was clear that he was deliberately going as slow as he possibly could, his gulps barely causing the prisoner to move downward, even with all the struggling, so that the guards still had to hold him to keep him from bending backwards and making swallowing more difficult. That combined with the fact that he did not tilt his head back to make a straighter passage or let gravity assist made for a terribly slow process. Even as his mouth finally widened to better accommodate the man’s hip, Zegar could see the upward curve at the corners of his mouth.

The realization that the gator was savoring and enjoying every moment almost made Zegar sick to her stomach. While she killed for money, she had her standards, and there was always a good reason for taking a life beyond the money. The children she cared for constantly reminded her of that. And though she too possessed and used devouring magic, it was but one of many methods for her, though one that made making people disappear much easier. It was not something she derived pleasure from, and even as she kept her emotions tightly under her control, she began to suspect that the fear generated in the human populace from the random executions were perhaps really just a fringe benefit to the gator’s self indulgence.

It took an effort to keep watching, lest those near her wonder why she wasn’t enjoying the show and expose her to scrutiny. The effort was almost straining as the process dragged on for what she was sure was minutes, where she could have been done in thirty seconds, maybe a little more. The prisoner progressed bare inches at a time, the gator apparently taking the effort to purposefully resist gravity as his head was finally tilted all the way back. With a rising fury the wolf assassin realized the gator only changed his position so as to give the crowd a better view, the prisoner turned to face the crowd. Zegar decidedly looked at the gator’s mouth instead.

It was no wonder anymore why her contractor wanted the gator dead, and she spared a moment’s thought to be thankful that the man had not had the gag removed. To have to listen to that for the duration of this already infuriating spectacle may have been more than she could have dealt with and keep a level head. After far too long, she finally saw the jaws snap shut around the man’s head, and with a final powerful gulp, the gator forced the prisoner’s head down his throat to be completely within the stomach. Given the gator’s already large size, the addition of a full sized male was but a bit of expansion of the gut, the size noted but the fat too thick for anything else to show.

But to Zegar’s disgust, the crowd did not begin to disperse. Instead, they stayed a while longer as the gator showed off his belly, and the squirming form within. There was little enough to see to Zegar’s eyes, but the belly still jiggled and jostled from the struggles of the captive within. It wasn’t long before the squirming intensified, and she guessed that the ropes had been frayed and finally snapped from the stomach acids. It was even worse that this was a part of the show, only compounded by the increasing look of contentment on the gator’s face. If she weren’t already being paid to kill him, she’d be sorely tempted to convince someone, anyone, to pay her for it.

Finally, with his bulging gut still jiggling, the gator began to make his way towards the steps in the back, followed closely by all of the guards. The guards were too close and too stiff for the act to simply be protocol, and Zegar guessed that someone had already once made an attempt on him in his seemingly vulnerable state. While his bloated condition didn’t truly hamper him too greatly given the nature of devouring magic, it did still slow him down, and his contentment may well make him less observant.

But in this state, Zegar knew he would be at his most guarded, for the sole reason that the resistance would think him in a vulnerable state. She’d need to wait for him to digest the meal some for the guard to lessen. As unfortunate as it may be, the prisoner was now well beyond saving. But waiting suited her just fine, as she still needed some time to plan. The contract had specified that he was to see his death coming, and though that normally made things trickier, she was going to honor that contract. She had a few days before she suspected the guards would loosen up, and that would be plenty of time to gather all the information she needed. For the moment, however, her plan was simply to find a place to stay for those few days and get dried off.

Those next few days actually proved to be quite enlightening for Zegar, getting both a feel for her target and the pulse of the town. Those who hadn’t already possessed anti-human sentiments before occupation had soon been converted by propaganda and likely various lies and stunts. Said humans were kept around for manual labor, largely in menial tasks that didn’t leave much room for sabotage, such as trash collecting, lamp lighting, and waste disposal; the jobs few others wanted to do, but needed to be done. It wasn’t something that she’d seen often, but it seemed as though the beastling army was experimenting with a different approach to human treatment. And apparently, how they responded to control by fear.

Her target, who’s name she learned to be Dardanos, had apparently turned that control by fear into an art form. Indeed, from knowing where to look, she knew what resistance there was wasn’t much, and seemed to be utterly demoralized and a bit paranoid. Then again, that seemed to be the mood of the entire human populace of the city from what she could gather. Zegar doubted the resistance had truly tried anything in quite some time, but Dardanos did not wish to let go of his most effective, and favored, method of instilling fear.

The executions were essentially scheduled shows, much like how people gathered to watch other be hanged, or beheaded via guillotine, with that sense of morbid curiosity that seemed ever present in the minds of sentient beings. There was, perhaps, just some fascination within the living to see death, something that even she contemplated every now and then, given her path through life. But, though the thought caught her attention once again, she did not think on it long, for she had a job to do.

Said job resided in a local keep that was situated near the center of town. According to the elder gentleman she’d chatted up who seemed to know the history of the place, the town essentially grew up around the keep when, during a time of war, those under the noble’s watch came to the keep seeking shelter. Having no place else to go, and the noble being a fair and generous man, he did all he could to aid them, even doing some labor himself so that there was one more body at work to complete the shelters. When the war passed however, nobody sought to leave. The community had become too tightly knit, and so it soon officially became a town, with the keep serving as both the noble’s residence and the town hall.

It still served a similar purpose, with most important officials residing there, including Dardanos, which of course meant that the place would be well guarded. But as Zegar did her rounds, she was surprised to find how lax the guard seemed to be, at least along the exterior. If anything, the exterior guards looked to be there more for protocol and show than anything else, and seemed to barely meet protocol standards. That would insinuate that the remaining guards were inside. While not what she expected, it was nothing she couldn’t handle. This was nowhere near the hardest building she’d snuck into.

If anything, she was almost tempted to believe that the guards no longer took their jobs seriously when she felt the time was right to make her move, as she hardly saw a tight muscle in the bunch. Almost, but even if the guards weren’t doing their jobs, she would be vigilant in hers. After all, there was a reason the phrase “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” is known as being words of wisdom. If the guards actually were overconfident, then this was easy money, and if it was some sort of trap, she wouldn’t be caught off guard. After all, given the nature of her contract, there was that possibility that she and the resistance may well make a move at the same time, if there were still those not under the shadow of fear.

The patrols followed a regular pattern, making it easy to time her jump over the fence. As “efficient” as such practices seemed to be, such patterns were far too easily exploitable, and she wondered briefly why those who sought to protect still stuck by such practices, despite the many times the flaws had been exploited. But such thoughts were idle little things in the back of her mind as she began to scale her chosen wall. Though it would be at least a minute or more before another guard passed by the area, there was ever the risk in such an environment of a random set of eyes outside the keep grounds seeing a dark shape moving up the wall and cause a ruckus.

Zegar wasn’t able to ascend as quickly as she would have liked, as it seemed the noble who had ordered the keep built spared no expense in creating it, and there were few handholds in the masonry. Still, with reliable muscle power and a touch of magic, along with the inevitable and barely noticeable corrosions left by the passage of time, she was soon to the window she had been aiming for on the third floor. Taking out the little hand mirror she kept in a pouch at her side, she slowly and carefully angled it to see into the room.

As she had hoped, nobody was there. According to the old gentleman, the room had belonged to the original noble’s wife, both of whom were now deceased from age, and had been left unutilized since, for reasons unknown. However, she wasn’t one to take chances. Zegar made sure to utilize every angle she could before entering herself, after assuring herself that the room was indeed vacant.

Now able to see the room in its entirety, it was little wonder why the room was left alone. Even in the dark the embroidery and lavish carvings seemed tacky. To say the least, such décor was certainly of a unique taste, to put it respectfully. Not to mention the unreasonable size of everything would make it all but impossible to get anything out without first utilizing an axe, and even with her focus she had to stop a moment to ponder how in the blazes it all got in the room in the first place, and who would possibly need such oversized furniture.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she moved to the only object in the room with any relevance to her job; the door. A quick test revealed it to be locked, which wasn’t surprising. Besides allowing certain servants access so that it at least maintained a certain level of cleanliness, it was likely locked to keep others from using it as a hideaway. Any little used space seemed to often attract those who wished to be discreet in their doings, especially among servants.

It didn’t stay locked for long, though it was several long moments of listening before she moved anything else in regards to the door. It was perhaps mildly ironic that such an action was actually one of the most dangerous aspects of her job, that despite listening, someone would come within her earshot and sight just as she opened the door, potentially ruining the entire operation. It had happened before, and while the job had still ended in success, it hadn’t exactly been in the fashion she had wanted.

But there were no surprises this time around, and it was simply a matter of silently crossing the halls on the way to Dardanos’ bedchamber. That information had been a mild stroke of luck, one she hardly had to work for. Getting guards drunk to loosen their lips was a tried and true method to glean information, both useful and otherwise, but the man had pent up frustrations that seemed to only take a buzz of his favorite drink to get out of him. Dardanos was apparently quite demanding when he was bloated after an execution, and though she knew well he could move on his own, according to the guard, the gator stayed in bed for a week and had everyone from servants to soldiers fetch things for him, to be placed just inside the room. Otherwise, he was not to be disturbed.

Of course, the guard hadn’t actually specified where the bedchamber was, but given all the errands he had been told to run, and the angry descriptions of said trips, she had a fairly solid idea, and one landmark from his ranting was all she needed.

By the time she got to the door that she presumed to be the bedchamber, she already had her dagger in hand. Her instincts told her that something was amiss. Surely Dardanos wasn’t so full of himself to have no guards within the halls of the keep, especially with how few were outside. As far as she could tell, the place was all but deserted, not even servants doing cleaning to be avoided. She had not heard the sounds of anything living beyond one loudly snoring sleeper.

The door was locked, but like the last, that didn’t stay true for long. Zegar opened the door slowly and carefully. Through the crack, she could see a dresser, which affirmed it to be someone’s bedchamber at least. Angling her vision, she soon saw the large and ornately framed bed, and a large still form under the sheets. Unable to see who it was, or if was actually a person, she knew she would have to enter the room proper to find out. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more of the room that she could see from the angles she could get.

Flipping the dagger around in her hand to a throwing hold, Zegar slipped into the room, facing away from the bed and towards the section of the room she hadn’t been able to see from the hall. There stood a raccoon beast wizard, already leveling his arms toward her. In the same instant she sent the dagger flying she was blinded by a sudden flash. She felt like an icy winter wind gusted into her naked body, cutting to the bone. Gasping at the sudden physical and mental shock to her system, she fell to her hands and knees, her elbows nearly buckling from the impact. She gasped for breath, feeling drained in every sense of the word, like she had used all her mana to aid in running across the entire continent, not stopping until her legs gave out.

Before she could draw a third breath and gather her strength, her head was slammed into the floor by a heavy blow. Her muzzle hit at an angle, causing her head to jerk and slam her ear to the floor as well. She tasted blood, realizing that part of her pain came from inadvertently biting her own tongue. That was the most complex thought she could form, the dual blows to her head sending it swimming.

“I was wondering when you would show,” Dardanos said behind her with an air of casual confidence. Zegar stifled a cry of pain as he put the heel of a boot into her back, just above her tail. “I was expecting a human, but it matters not. Taika’s spell worked just as well. Perhaps more so, in this case.”

As he grabbed her by the neck, Zegar desperately tried to clear her mind and get her body to cooperate. She could barely scratch at his hands, much less pry them loose. He dragged her like little more than a rag doll to the dresser, proceeding to slam her head into it with ease. But oddly, though the blow caused her vision to blur, a clear thought managed came to her. He could have killed her already if he’d wanted to, but he was dragging it out. That meant she had time.

Thinking of a plan was made no easier by the knee he put in her gut after twisting her around in his grip, but she was still able to focus on inventorying her condition as her jarred brain was given a reprieve. Whatever the beast wizard had done had thoroughly drained her physically and magically. But it had not drained her completely. She could still feel a slight reserve on mana in her, though it was hardly enough to do anything. It was all she had however, and she knew she’d likely need it to get out of this predicament. How she would do that was something she hadn’t quite figured out, and the nearly rib breaking punches were not conducive to such thoughts.

“How ironic,” he continued as though he was having a casual conversation over a meal, backhanding her across her muzzle, “that a human would hire a beast wizard to kill a beast wizard. And even more so that you’ll be joining him soon enough.” Zegar stiffened mildly at that, and by the gator’s chuckle, he’d felt it, and ceased his beating to tighten the grip around her neck to near choking. “Oh yes, he wasn’t nearly as clever as he thought. Not very resilient to torture either, which was rather disappointing. He did make a more filling meal than I usually take though. In fact I think I’m still working off the last of him”. To emphasize his point, he laid her head against his belly, before placing his other hand on the back of her head and pushing.

He pressed her face into his fat almost rhythmically several time, practically smothering her, as though he were trying to push her straight into his fleshy mass. When he didn’t release the pressure, instead beginning to lean forward, Zegar didn’t have the strength to resist, and braced herself as best she could as he proceeded to land on top of her. Even so, the wind was knocked out of her from the sheer force of his girth. As she struggled to draw in a breath, she felt her boots being pressed against something soft, and her legs just above her boots become wet.

Now she was on a very real time limit, as it seemed he was done toying with her, and she still wasn’t sure of what to do. In a matter of minutes, if she didn’t think of something, she’d be nothing but a struggling bulge. Much as he had done at the gallows, Dardanos took his sweet time, like a connoisseur savoring the taste of a fine dish. She knew from personal experience that taste wasn’t exactly the highlight of devouring, if anything a few of the targets she had eaten in her career had tasted absolutely horrible.

It took some time before he even properly swallowed her feet, his tongue strong enough to dampen her weak attempts to kick, and that first swallow seemed the first sign of an inevitable fate, as the powerful muscles of his throat tightened around her feet and ankles. Much to her own amazement, she found a part of her mind almost fascinated by the progress, like there was a part of her buried deep that secretly wondered what it felt like to be the one being devoured. She found the sensations disturbingly fascinating, but at the same time, that part of her wanted it to be an experience she would remember, even if there was a strange desire to know what it felt like to be within a stomach.

As he reached her knees and she instinctively put her hands to his snout in what she knew was a futile attempt to slow her progress, those disturbingly morbid thoughts vanished as a plan finally dawned on her, like the morning rays clearing the dew and fog left over from a chill night. It was risky, but it was the only idea she had, and what it lacked in refinement it made up for in simplicity. Waiting for the opportune moment however was almost agonizing, and she shivered with apprehension as he rolled his tongue over every inch of her legs. But she only had one shot at this, and though patience was not something she was lacking in, Dardanos was beginning to test it as he pulled her in slowly up to her thighs.

Zegar nearly lost it as he practically massaged her rear with the tip of his tongue, stopping his swallowing completely for a few moments. She could see it in his eyes that he contemplated pulling her pants down, even though from the waist down she was already in his mouth, her feet nearly to his gullet. Instead, he shifted his tongue back to prod between her legs, rolling his tongue to almost make a more rounded shape. That he could even have such perverted thoughts at a time like this was simply beyond her comprehension. Though she didn’t use it often, anger did prove a fine focusing instrument at times, allowing her to picture in great detail what she was about to do, and his actions were fanning those flames like little else had before.

Finally, when his snout crossed the point of her bellybutton, the moment had come. Removing her hands from his snout, she lifted them up, balled them together into a combined fist, and brought them down with all the physical force she could muster, carefully amplifying the force of the blow with what little reserves of mana she had left. The blow struck Dardanos solidly between the eyes, and a bit to Zegar’s surprise, struck quite audibly. Those eyes lost focus as his entire body suddenly went limp.

Shaking her smarting hands that felt like she’d broken a finger or two, she wondered what added more force to the blow; her magic, her anger, or pure adrenaline. Whatever the answer, her plan worked out even more effectively than she’d anticipated.

It took almost as long to pull herself out as it had for him to pull her in that far. Even without his effort in contracting muscles, his throat was still a tightly confined passage, and it was a lot of weight on her legs. It took a lot of careful wiggling to make sure her boots stayed on her feet as she removed them. While she could have used her magic once more to help, she had something else in mind for what little she still had left, though she began to wonder if she even had enough for it.

Dardanos was still breathing, which was mixed news for her. He was also out cold, and looked like he would remain that way for some time. As he was no longer a threat to her at the moment, she made a quick scan of the room. The look revealed that the beast wizard responsible for her weakened condition was not in as healthy a state as Dardanos. Her knife was protruding from the raccoon’s chest, buried to the hilt. She retrieved it, though it took a bit of wiggling to loosen the thing, having managed to jar itself between two ribs, and returned to her actual target.

Unfortunately, now that her life was no longer in immediate jeopardy, she was able to think on the fact that she was not likely to get the second half of her payment, as Dardanos had little reason to lie about the fate of the resistance fighter. It also explained how they had been prepared for a professional assassination attempt. But with the lack of guards to lull her into overconfidence, there was no one to come to the official’s aid, and it would make getting out all the easier. She’d figure something out for the money she was owed. Before she sent him along his way though, she cleaned her blade on his shirt, as well as doing her best to wipe the saliva off of her on the still dry portions of his clothes, something she unfortunately could not completely manage. She didn’t need to dirty anything else unnecessarily, and she was going to destroy the clothes anyway.

Zegar did not often find herself dealing in what some would call karmic justice, but in this case, she found it quite fitting. Unlike the arrogant gator however, she decided to start with his head, kneeling down in front of her target and lifting his long snout to her mouth. The tip of his snout fit into her mouth easily enough, but as her magic began to widen it to accommodate the rest, she felt something different. There was just a mild bit of discomfort involved in the stretching, something she had never experienced before. She knew she was at the ends of her mana, but was sure that if she were incapable of proceeding, she’d know.

Zegar hadn’t had to deal with someone with this long a head before, and soon found it easiest to mimic the method he had been using, getting on her own belly to give him a straight shot to her stomach. It also meant she didn’t have to lift his head, which made things easier on her arms. She thought she must be mimicking a snake quite well at this point, though rather than actually pulling him into her, she was more pulling herself over him, given his girth and her depleted strength. Still, once most of his snout was in her throat, she found the strength of those muscles and those of her arms enough for the job, even if each pull was mildly uncomfortable, straining both arms and throat.

She swallowed as quickly as she could, though not as quickly as she would like, engulfing the entirety of his head in moments. She wanted him completely inside her before he woke up, and she wasn’t going to take the chance of taking her time to make it easier on her. If he woke up while still mostly outside of her, he may very well be able to pull himself out, and then she’d be done for. Starting with the head meant getting to the shoulders faster, and disabling his arms would make things easier if he indeed woke up while she was still in progress.

Unfortunately, Zegar found herself having to slow down as she reached his shoulders, her jaws beginning to ache as they stretched across his wide frame. It was rare for her jaws to need to stretch as far as they now needed to, for Dardanos was one of the largest individuals she had ever attempted to devour. For a dreaded moment, she feared they wouldn’t make it, but with a heavy gulp and a tug of her arms, she was over the threshold. Her jaws were still quite sore, and she needed to stifle a gag reflex, but she was determined to see this to the end, even if the hardest part lay before her. Some dark portion of her mind began hoping he’d wake up soon, just so he could experience the fate he had condemned so many to.

As the entirety of his head began to move down her throat and she began work on his torso, she began to have difficulty breathing. She was stretching her limits and straining both body and magic in what she was doing, her jaws, cheeks, and neck now notably wider than her own torso. Dardanos was nearly twice the mass of the average person from both his dense muscles and obesity. A real nagging fear that she’d kill herself entered her mind, which she ruthlessly beat back. This was the hardest part of the whole thing, and it would be all downhill afterwards, once she got passed his middle. She focused on that thought as she kept working her way forward.

Fighting past the discomfort, she put all of her thoughts into swallowing, telling herself that she had done this many times before, and she was capable of doing it one more time. She ignored the pain of her lower jaw as each gulp had to force his massive body off the ground that fraction of an inch to enter her mouth, his girth pressing it hard onto the unyielding floor. Slowly but surely, she was making progress over him, until she got far enough that his head finally fully entered her stomach. Her jaws were stretched to what she was sure must be their limit around his frame, encompassing the widest part of him. But the next gulp came just a little easier as her jaws were finally able to begin to retract.

His tail gave her a firm anchor point to pull herself forward as she gulped for all she was worth, encouraged at the newfound relative ease of the task. As his belly crossed the threshold of mouth to throat, Zegar actually did find herself beginning to choke. Fighting the panic, she forced herself to control her need for breath and put everything her body could give into shoving him in, telling herself that airflow was only a few moments away. As her lungs began to burn, his body found the path of least resistance at the end of her throat and he was pushed into her stomach, expanding her stomach so quickly it nearly gave her whiplash as the rest of her body rose away from the floor. Whereas a moment ago she’d looked like her head and neck were almost that of an overindulgent anaconda attached to a furry humanoid body rather than a wolf, her distended belly now looked like she’d swallowed a boulder meant for a catapult.

Zegar was left gasping for breath around the legs and tail still sticking out of her mouth. Not only did her lungs physically need the deprived air, but the deep breaths were also the only thing her body could do to calm her body after the overwhelming sensations following the explosive expansion of her stomach. She had never experienced quite a rush before, her stomach having expanded exponentially in a moment, and she couldn’t think of anything to compare it to. A body entering her stomach was normally an even progression, given the shape of most people, but once his bulbous form found the more yielding walls of her stomach, all of his girth just popped in virtually at once. Though she wasn’t quite finished, what was important was now firmly inside of her, and she allowed herself a few moments to catch her breath before continuing.

It still took an effort, but after the ordeal to get this far the rest felt like the easiest thing she had ever done. With every swallow the rest of him continuing to fill her stomach further at a more normal progression, a little bit at a time. Slowly her jaws and throat back returned to their natural places and proportions, much to Zegar’s relief. Before long all that was left was the end of his tail, which she was able to watch slowly disappear gulp by gulp, until final on more swallow sent it down with its owner. A burp followed moments after that final gulp, one she was not completely able to contain, but if no one had been close enough to respond to his beating and gloating, no one would hear the stifled belch. With that out of the way, Zegar was once again able to breathe normally.

It still felt like she’d lightly pulled several muscles, and now her stomach felt like the beginning hints of nausea, even though the gator wasn’t even struggling yet. But he stayed down, and though she had over doubled in size and mass, she was still able to stand up, if not with the ease she usually did.

While her job was all but done, there was still the matter of the dead body that she was most certainly not going to fit in her stomach, the lack of the second half of her payment, and the best way to lay low. The payment was the first issue her mind latched onto, as after all the crap she’d just gone through, she was getting her money. Stealing it was a brief idea, but that would be like a whole new job she wouldn’t really get paid for just to make up for this one, likely not ending up being worth the risk needed to be taken.

Whatever her feelings were, she realized she had to set them aside, as she couldn’t simply stand there all night to figure it out. She was fortuitous as it was that Dardanos had apparently sent the guards away to lure her in, so no one was close enough to have heard the scuffle or her belch. But with him missing and a dead beast wizard in the room, the entire town was going to be on high alert come morning, and the first person to see her would surely put the pieces together in an instant.

Unless…unless the suspected assassination attempt was soon believed to be a ruse. Guards sent away, a well practiced beast wizard dead, and an official disappeared without a trace. He was a crafty bugger, and if he spent as much time in his room alone as she suspected after an execution, her plan may very well work, and she’d be able to lay low with relative ease.

It took a little searching to find the materials she needed. It would have been faster, had Dardanos’ bulge not frequently gotten in her way nearly as effectively as though he were trying to be a nuisance. It seemed with her mana so low, some of the benefits of her devouring magic were greatly dampened, and she suspected she was only using the bare minimum needed for it to simply function, making her largely have to deal with his girth as though it were already entirely her own. But she found tucked away in one of the nightstands some parchment, and inkwell, and a quill.

Despite how infrequently she used it, one never knew when a good forgery would prove invaluable. However, it wasn’t as easy when she couldn’t write as she normally did. She sat at the edge of the bed, her belly nearly resting on the ground and pressing lightly against the nightstand as she twisted at her shoulders to lean over the nightstand. By the candlelight, she neatly wrote the missive, of suspicions that Dardanos was not truly executing resistance members, but facilitating their operations. It was suspected that the executions were a ruse, and by being thought dead, the resistance members were able to operate more freely and without fear.

Zegar took a moment to pat her stomach and thank Alistair for name dropping, as it would make the forgery seem that much more authentic. Continuing in small writing, she left instructions to record all findings below, to be returned in the same manner that it was retrieved. She left the missive unsigned, blotted and dried the ink, then carefully folded it.

She had to lay her belly on the floor to examine the dead Taika. As she suspected, there were more than a few obscure pockets in the raccoon’s dress jacket, and she deposited her missive into one of them. Surely someone would find it when he was relieved of them, but just in case she ruffled his clothes to simulate a tussle, leaving his jacket open with the corner of the missive sticking out ever so slightly. Just to be safe, she made sure the holes in his clothes were all at least near the wound.

Satisfied with her deception, even if it was far from perfect, it was time to make good her escape, sleep off her meal, and figure out how she was going to get paid. The halls were as deserted the second time around as they were the first, and with a little time and effort, she locked the gaudy room’s door behind her.

Now came the tricky part. Her original plan hadn’t involved her devouring the target, and now she not only had to get through a window, but somehow get down as well, and then over a fence. A normal climbing technique was out of the question, as her arms could barely extend pass the mass of her stomach. Jumping, which would normally have been viable if she had mana, was also no longer an option. Using the various drapes and sheets for rope was momentarily tempting, but she doubted anything like that would be able to stand her newly gained weight, not to mention it would potentially give lie to her deception, as Alistair would not have used such a method to slip out undetected himself. Even if the “devoured” resistance fighter accompanied him, he would likely be carried out safely in Dardanos’ stomach, rather than risk being seen outside.

Finally, there was really only one real option to go with; climbing down with her back to the wall. It was dangerous, given the strain it would put on her already weak muscles, but the risk of getting caught taking another route was greater. Besides, she’d traversed wall like that a time or two before, just not quite under the same circumstances.

The first challenge was simply getting her girth through the window. That took a little pressing and squeezing, none of which was all the comfortable. It wasn’t as though Dardanos’ body could really compress much further of its own accord, and she couldn’t suck in her gut or speed along digestion. She was already pretty sure it was going to take longer than normal to finish him off, and not just because of her depleted mana. His sheer size and tough hide would slow things down as well.

Zegar was sure she took off a thin layer of skin along the edges of her stomach as she finally got though, along with the possibility that she may have slightly grooved the sides of the window. As she checked to make sure she hadn’t left any blood, she had to dust off a little fur from the very slight grooves she had indeed left. Now she had to find her handholds again. It took several long moments as she carefully began to descend, having to search blindly for every secure hold and test to see if she could even support herself on them. It was even worse when she no longer had the windowsill to hold onto, and had to rely entirely upon what she found on the wall. A few grooves proved to be shallower than she was comfortable with putting her heels in, and she was not able to take the same route down as she had up. Indeed, she likely traveled twice that distance in searching for areas to support her.

About halfway down, she had to freeze in a less the comfortable position as she heard a patrol guard approach. She could hardly see below her as she carefully listened for signs of being discovered. Her muscles began to quite loudly protest the less than humane treatment she was giving them, but she dared not use any of her magic to augment her strength, lest she exhaust herself completely and plummet. Gravity was proving to be quite a formidable opponent, one she could only fend off as best she could.

The steps never ceased, and the moment she heard him round a corner tower, she continued her descent in earnest. Zegar was forced to sacrifice an element of stealth for speed, as if she didn’t reach solid ground quickly, she would loose her grip, and she did not want to contemplate how much noise that would make, if she even survived the fall.

A little scratched masonry and some loosened mortar later, she was back on solid ground, taking long breaths and giving her muscles what rest she could, even lying on her stomach to give her legs a break. She at least knew how much time she had before another patrol come by, and she’d need the rest to climb over the fence.

Taking as much time as she dared, she hoped it was enough before starting her climb. Here, at least, she could get a firm grip, though after a few less than successful tries she was forced to use the same method of backwards climbing she’d used on the wall, wrapping arms and legs around the poles to get a more secure grip. She shimmied up the bars, pushing with her legs and pulling with her arms, before pressing her weight against the bars, getting her legs under her again, and repeating the process. It was agonizingly slow, and as she reached the top she knew that she was pressing it for time. There was but one more obstacle and she would be in the clear.

The tops of the fence bars were of course pointed. Getting up as high on the fence as she could, she arched back to get her stomach as high in the air as possible. She let it drop and pushed off again, gaining momentum. With another swing she wrenched on the pars with her arms to throw her weight over the fence. She couldn’t stop her momentum at that point, smacking heavily into the bars and only managing to slow her descent by gripping as hard as she could, praying she wouldn’t completely dislocate both shoulders and wrists in the process.

But as she landed with a heavy thud, her legs unable to provide support and causing her rump and gut to connect almost full speed with the ground, nothing seemed to come out of place or break, except perhaps a bit of pride. Not taking the time to inventory potential injuries further, she sprinted across the street and into the nearest ally. The rest of the trip was simple in comparison, and Zegar soon found herself safely in the room she had paid for at the inn, unlocking a back door to avoid late night eyes.

As much as she didn’t want to let go of any money she had, she knew she had to extend her stay if she was to work off Dardanos without anyone noticing. Fortunately, everyone was asleep for the night, and the one on duty to handle the potential late night arrivals wasn’t precisely attentive, and perhaps actually asleep, so she was able to leave two missives at the counter. One explained the extension of her stay with payment wrapped inside, and the other was to be sent by courier to a friend of hers, whom would know to pass it along to the kids. After all, she was easily going to be delayed for a week, or quite possibly two.

Dardanos came too shortly after she returned to her room, though from the weak efforts, he was either still in a daze or he was already desperately low on air. It did nothing to deter her from flopping down on the bed however, especially as she felt that she just might fall asleep despite his squirming. If there was any magic he knew that could save him, he was either too weak or too dazed to use it, for he simply pushed at her inner walls, not even truly punching or kicking. It was like he were simply squirming rather than struggling. She was already beginning to drift off however, as the motions were nothing compared to all the pain that came before, and she was asleep before his vain struggles subsided and Dardanos moved no more.

It was a nearly two weeks before she felt she was safe enough to walk outside without drawing attention, with only the barest hint of her meal remaining on her. And after all that time to think, she still wasn’t sure how she was going to get the money. Which, she now finally had to admit, she simply wasn’t going to get. It was unfortunate, but that was why she always got half up front.

Before leaving she decided to see if any rumors had been going around. Zegar was actually impressed that the executioner’s disappearance was not yet public knowledge, and the only bit of relevant information that was being passed around was that there were no executions scheduled in the near future. Even with that information now being a few days old, it was quite hot gossip, with all sorts of speculation and conjectures floating around. She allowed herself a cocky little smile that her impromptu ruse appeared to be working, and quite well at that.

Her journey home was uneventful, which fortunately included the weather. The kids came out to greet her as she approached, and she knelt down to hug them both tightly as they practically leapt upon her. She almost shuddered to think how truly close she had come to leaving them on their own, but it was not a thought she dwelled on long, for it was in the past. She’d take some time off to make sure she was fully recuperated, and maybe do something special with the kids in that time. It had been a while since they’d really done something for themselves, and even though she only got half her pay, she still had enough to splurge just a little. She’d just let them think it was an apology for being gone so long.

As she went into town as usual, to get some supplies and check any messages, she found herself taking her time, to really enjoy the sights around her. She greeted the store owners cheerfully, picking out some extra things for the kids, as well as a few things for herself. She retrieved up her messages on the way back home as usual. There was only one, and she wondered about her friend’s odd smile as she was assured the job would be worth her while, even so soon after the last.

Zegar pondered both the statement and the smile all the way back through the woods, only her occupied hands preventing her from opening it as she walked. Unable to contain her curiosity, Zegar asked the kids to put the supplies away as she went to her study to take a look at the missive.

Upon opening it, she was quite surprised to see the emblem of the beastling army quite prominently displayed in the upper right hand corner. Though she was tempted to simply destroy the thing and be done with it, her better judgment told her that her friend would not have passed it along if she had not thought Zegar would be interested. So she read on, and couldn’t help but smile, a smile that just continued to broaden as she read. When her lips could curl up no further, it expanded into a toothy grin, then a snickering laugh. An official of the beastling army wanted a traitor hunted down and killed, one Dardanos Farthon.

Zegar had thought she would never do anything for the beastling army again. However, this was one exception she was willing to make.