Maws: The Consuming (dragon story) (Patreon)

Another Saturday had come at last. With 1pm almost here, it was finally time for Susie to play another game with her friends. She shook with excitement as she put on her favorite pair of purple sweat-pants and her top. The pink dragoness had the usual spread all set up in the living room, and waited with an excited tapping of her toes at the front door.

The first one to arrive sent a flutter through Susie’s heart: It was Jason, the yellow-scaled member of her social circle… and also her boyfriend. Once she opened the doors, Susie all but jumped into Jason’s arms as he pulled her in to nuzzle her forehead.

“Hi, hun!” Susie said giddily as she wrapped her arms about the drake’s shoulders. “Did you have any trouble coming over?”

“None at all…” Jason smirked. “Well, except for getting our little passenger ready to come along for the ride.”

“Aww…” Susie frowned as she settled back down on the ground. “Is he still stick?”

“Well, you can ask him yourself if you’d like…” Jason declared. The yellow drake pulled the front of his shirt open… and revealed a little human riding around in the inside pocket. Susie sighed in relief as the familiar face of Max looked up at her blush.

“Uhh… H-Hi, Susie.” He said with a wave to her. “I’m all better now.”

“Oh, thank Tiamat!” Susie quickly fished the little human out of the pocket and brought him right up to her cheeks. “I’ve been worried sick for days!”

“Hey, I told you I’d get our little human back to normal soon.” Jason smirked as he planted another kiss on Susie’s forehead. The dragoness blushed and turned to nuzzle her boyfriend, while clutching Max safely against her chest.

“Hey, I hope guys weren’t planning on barricading the doorway all afternoon.” Called another familiar voice. “We’ve got a new game to try today, you know!”

Susie looked down the walkway and spotted her other three friends approaching the door: Malcolm, Aria and Torie. Each of them carried around a little human. The red drake had his human Todd riding atop his shoulder. Malcolm’s girlfriend Aria gently held Mina in her hands. And Torie… well, Torie liked to carry Veronica around atop her snout. The little lady held onto the nostrils for safety.

“Heya, guys.” Susie smiled. “I hope you guys are excited to try out the new game today!”

“I’m sure that whatever it is, it’ll be fun.” Aria said.

“Yeah…” Todd said as he crossed his arms. “And will probably end with us humans being eaten.”

“That’s the idea.” Malcolm gave a wink. “But I’m sure you and the others will at least get some enjoyment out of it, too.”

Susie tucked Max into her cleavage as she walked with a sway in her hips. She approached the door and held it open so everyone could make their way inside. As they strode in, she put a finger down on Max’s head to ruffle his hair.

“I hope you guys are all excited for the new game this week.” Susie’s tail wagged as she made her way into the living room. “It was all the rage during the last month. And I just finally managed to start trying it out with my game table!”

“What’s it called?” Malcolm asked as he sat down on the couch.

“It’s called Maws: The Consuming, and it’s a really sweet card game.” Susie’s eyes practically sparkled as she plopped Max down on the table. “Gather the humies down on the table, and I’ll get it fired up.”

“Maws: The Consuming, eh?” Torie snickered. “I’ve got a feeling that I know what the theme is.”

As the other dragons placed their humans down on the table. Susie settled down in her spot before her special game table. She picked up the control console and prepared to fire up the holographic world-builder. But she wasn’t going to run any Campe’s Caverns programs this time. Instead, she pulled out a little SD card and inserted it into the memory ready. And after that, she pulled out a set of 78 blank playing cards; each card had a little metal chip in the corner. Ten more cards were on the side; they were made of metal instead of plywood. Susie placed these cards down on the center of the table in a 5 by 2 grid.

“What’s all this about?” Max asked as he looked around at the cards. “Are we supposed to stand on those or something?”

“Yes, actually.” Susie giggled. “Just be careful, sweetie.”

“Well, alright…”

Max, Todd, Mina and Veronica all made to stand on some of the blank cards on one of the rows. They all awkwardly looked at the one card with nobody standing on it… and then the entire row of blank cards across from them.

“Uh…” Toria scratched her head in confusion. “Do we need more humans for this?”

“I guess more humans adds to the fun… but these four will do for now.” Susie declared. “So, who wants to be the first to play against me?”

“I’ll give it a go, I guess…” Aria said as she walked over and sat down on the other side of the table. “But how does this game even start?”

“Just a sec…” Susie smirked as she pressed a few buttons. “I need to get the immersion going...”

The table vibrated as the hexagonal grids on the wood began to glow. Just like last time, holographic lines began to rise up to surround the humans and cards. After twisting and bending around, a series of trees began to form over the humans’ heads. Grass covered the table, and the ambient sounds of a forest began to fill the air, thanks to the surround-sound speakers in Susie’s living room.

“Are those new?” Aria asked as she looked around.

“I helped her get them installed last week.” Jason snickered as he leaned over to nuzzle Susie’s cheek. “Only the best for my girlfriend’s gaming experience!”

“Oh, you…” Susie’s tongue lolled out, much to the amusement of the others. The dragoness scooted her boyfriend away, and she cleared her throat and got into a proper posture.

“The game starts with both players drawing five cards form the top of their own decks…” Susie said as she did just that. “And at the start of each turn, they draw one card. You go first, by the way.”

Aria picked up the top five cards on her deck, followed by a sixth a moment later. The  green dragoness curiously reached out to grasp them as she looked them over with a raised eye ridge.

“They’re just… regular playing cards.” She shrugged. “With animals on them.”

“You should have a field mouse card right?” Susie asked. “Try placing it down on your side of the board.”

Aria picked out the field mouse card and placed it down. Right away, the artwork on the card glowed a bright white, while the rest of the card became transparent. The artwork appeared to flow forward onto one of her five metal cards. And from there… the artwork shifted and swirled before everyone’s eyes. In a burst of light and smoke, there was now a large field mouse sitting on the card across from Todd. The humans were amazed, while the dragons hummed in approval.

“Aww, it’s so cute!” Aria declared. “And it looks so lifelike, too! I could just eat it up!”

She reached out to grasp the field mouse… only for her talons to phase through it. The dragoness pouted in disappointment, while her friends chuckled at the sight.

“Sorry, Aria; players can’t physically interact with the holograms.” Susie snickered.

“Fine.” The green dragoness crossed her arms. “So, what can I do, then with this mouse on the field?”

“Well… you do you see the two numbers in the bottom left and right corners?” Susie asked.

“You mean the one and one?” Aria asked as she looked over the card again. “Are these my Attack and Defense?”

“Yeah, you’re getting it.” Susie nodded. “Now, do you see the number on the TOP corners?”

“Hmm…” Aria grimaced. “There’s a one at the left, and a zero at the right… but I don’t know what those mean.”

“The top-left one is the field mouse’s HP.” Susie said. “And the zero... means it doesn’t need any prey to summon it.”

Aria’s eye lit up. “Prey?”

Max and the other humans looked nervously amongst themselves. Susie could only giggle: she had a feeling that a few of them already got a good idea where things were going.

“If you’d like, you can summon another card right-away.” Susie continued. “It’s still your turn.”

“Hmm…” Aria narrowed her eyes at her other cards. “All of these other cards have either a one or a two in the top-right.”

“Do you happen to have any… cats?” Susie grinned.

“Just a housecat…” Aria looked it over, and then down at her field mouse. “How does this work?”

“Here, let me demonstrate in my own turn.” Susie said as she drew a card. She turned it around, revealing it to be another field mouse card. “Check this out…”

Susie placed her card down right behind Todd. Right away the artwork glowed and began to flow onto Todd’s card. He gasped and covered his eyes as his body was engulfed in light…

And when the light faded, Todd was now dressed in a miniature mouse costume. Everyone gasped in surprise, while Todd looked himself over nervously.

“Wow!” Torie declared with blinking eyes. “The hologram gave him a costume?”

“And that’s only the beginning.” Susie snickered as she held up a large card. “Watch what happens when I offer the mouse card up as prey for my own cat…”

Susie moved the field mouse card away and replaced it with a housecat card. The cat’s artwork glowed and moved over to surround Todd. A tongue formed beneath Todd’s feet… followed by the rest of a cat maw. There was even a brief Meow as two big jaws closed over Todd’s head.

“Whoa, hey!” Todd shouted as he swatted at jaws that weren’t there.

There was another flash of light as the cat jaws swirled over Todd. When the light cleared… Todd was now dressed in a fancy cat suit. He brought his furry hands up to his false cat whiskers as he tried to process what just happened.

“Man, that’s some quality animation!” Malcolm declared with a laugh. “I’ll bet it’s a lot less stickier than a REAL maw, eh Todd?”

“Very much so…” Todd sighed as he crossed his arms.

“Okay!” Susie clasped his hands together. “I now have a housecat on the field. It’s got 2 attack, 2 defense, and 3 HP.” She glanced at Aria’s field mouse, and then snickered. “I’ll end my turn for now, since you’re still learning to play.”

“Alright, then…” Aria said as she drew a card. She looked down at her housecat card and shrugged. “Might as well see what it looks like without a human participating…”

Aria played her card, and watched as the animation took form. Sure enough, another pair of cat jaws formed around Aria’s field mouse… which gave a realistic squeak as it flailed around. After a CHOMP and a GULP, there was another light show… and soon, there was a realistic housecat sitting where the mouse once was… albeit a lot smaller than the humans expected.

“It’s almost as small as the mouse was.” Veronica said. “And that doesn’t look like some kinda same-size thing.”

“Sorry; the space is a bit limited to take sizes into account.” Susie said with a slight blush. “You’ll all just have to pretend the cat is a LOT bigger than the mouse, okay?”

The humans shrugged, while the other dragons simply chuckled.

“I can provide a more REALISTIC nomming, if you’d like…” Aria declared with an exaggerated lick of her chops.

“Not now, Aria.” Veronica shook her head. “We want to see more of this game… or at least, I do.”

“Yeah…” Susie chuckled. “We haven’t even talked about what it takes to win. Aria, you can declare an attack to end your turn. Give it a try.”

“Alrighty…” Aria made a motion with her talons to pretend to stroke the back of her cat. “Go for it, Mr. Whiskers. Attack!”

The housecat gave an angry hiss at Todd, who balked and put his hands up. “Whoa, wait a minute…”

With all the angry body language of a real cat, the hologram and raked its claws through Todd’s body… or rather, they phased through him harmlessly. But despite the lack of danger, the board around Todd still flashed red a few times.

“Your housecat’s attack was 2… and my own housecat’s HP was 3.” Susie said. “3 minus two damage… and that leaves my housecat with 1 HP left.”

“Ah, I get it.” Malcolm said on the sidelines. “It’s a more basic version of how we calculate damage in Campe’s Caverns.”

“Does that end my turn, then?” Aria asked.

“Yep. Now it’s my turn again…” Susie drew a card and added it into the deck. “Now… let me just get some more mice out on the field.”

Susie played two field mouse cards on Mina and Veronica’s spaces. Soon, the pair were given their own mouse costumes, much to the delight of the dragonesses.

“Aww…” Torie’s cheeks flushed. “They look so cute in those little getups!”

Mina and Veronica blushed, while Susie snickered again.

“I’ve only just BEGUN my strategy.” She declared.

“Hey, how come you could play two cards at once?” Aria asked.

“Because you’re allowed to play as many cards as you can… assuming you have the sacrifices available to keep them going.” The pink dragoness wagged her tail. “For example: I can give up my two field mice as prey… to summon the tier-two card: Wolf!”

As Susie moved the cards around, two big wolf maws began to form around Mina and Veronica. They flinched on instinct, even as the jaws harmlessly melted around them. After another light show, Mina found herself back in her normal outfit, while Veronica found herself in a rather fetching wolfess costume.

“Looking good, Veronica.” Todd said with a thumbs-up, much to her embarrassment.

“How, this bad wolfess has got three attack AND defense.” Susie declared. “That should be just enough to get around poor Mr. Housecat!” Susie pointed at the housecat. “I declare an attack!”

With a shrug, Veronica faced the enemy housecat and made a swiping motion with the talons on her fingers. The housecat hissed in response as red lights flashed. An HP counter appeared above the cat’s head, which ticked down from three to zero. The housecat rolled over and gave a miserable mewl of pain, before exploding into a burst of light.

“Geez…” Aria grimaced. “That was a bit too realistic, don’t you think?”

“Sorry.” Susie frowned. “That’s just how they programmed the housecat’s script to behave when it’s defeated by a human game-piece that uses a regular attack.”

“Uh-huh…” Aria raised an eye ridge again. “And… can the humans do any other attacks?”

“They can… if they feel like doing a little RP.” Susie nodded. “But for now; you’re left without any monsters… while I still have my housecat ready to attack.”

“Guess I’m up…” Todd shrugged as he got into an intimidatingstance. He motioned with his claws, and made a few hissing motions, much to the amusement of Malcolm.

“You’re doing great, bud.” The red dragon snickered.

After his series of swipes at thin air, the area around Todd flashed red again. That’s when two neon boxes appeared over Susie’s and Aria’s heads. Both boxes had the number 10, though Aria’s ticked down to eight.”

“What’s this?” Aria asked; she instinctively reached up to touch it, though her talons phased through it.

“That’s your total life meter.” Susie said. “It’s the total amount of damage you can take. If it reaches 0, you lose.”

“Uh-huh…” Aria grimaced. “I guess I better whip up a winning strategy if I want to avoid losing.”

“There is a way for you to regain some lost health, though.” Susie said with a snicker. “But you can only do it once per turn, and it’s very limited.”

“Limited, huh?” Aria scratched her chin. “What do I do?”

“Well first…” Susie giggled. “Play another animal card that take out the remaining 1 HP of my housecat.”

“Alright…” Aria drew a card, shuffled her hand… and then grinned. She played two field mice, and then immediately sacrificed them. “How about… a panther?”

Sure enough, a black panther emerged on a card right in front of Todd. Todd gulped as the panther snarled at him, much to Aria’s amusement.

“Okay…” She pointed at Todd. “My black panther attacks the housecat!”

Todd once again flinched as the holographic panther made several slashes at him. Once again, he was fine, but the 1 on his HP finally ticked down to zero… and then negative one, and then negative TWO. He grimaced upon seeing that… and the way Susie snickered, even as her life points dropped from 10 to 9.

“Now’s when I reveal one other rule…” The pink dragoness declared. “When a dragon player’s card deals more damage to their opponent’s card than their current HP… then it counts as an Overkill. And… when a player gets an overkill on a human game-piece…” Susie’s eyes sparkled. “They get to nom the human!”

Todd grimaced, while the other humans exchanged glances. Meanwhile, Aria snickered as she licked her lips.

“Well… I’m always open to an excuse to gobble up Todd…” She snickered as she lowered her head down toward the human and blew warm air in his direction. “Come right on up, sweetheart.”

“Welp…” Todd shrugged and stepped forward. “I guess THIS was bound to happen…”

The dragoness parted her jaws and stuck her tongue out. Todd carefully climbed his way up onto her slimy tongue, and she soon shut her jaws behind him. She made a show of tasting the human, before tilting her head back and gulping him down.

“Ahhh…” Aria rubbed her belly. “That really hit the spot. Awesome game you’ve got here, Susie.”

“Oh, but the fun’s just beginning…” Susie’s eyes twinkled as she drew a card. “And the game’s only just begun.”