The snake opened its wide sharp knife laden mouth, the orifice big enough to consume my-self entirely, I entered with a certain risk, a kid in the background yelled “Basilisk”,

“Ah shut up, I want this journey”.

The snake’s body lay open for me to inspect, the scales absent inside, a hollow rib and an elongated gut, put up lights at the top and it’s no different than the tunnel I drive through everyday for work. Could smell the reek of venom and a dead rat, somewhere deeper I could encounter its death, not mine, I plan to live longer.

The body seemed to coil inwards, dead snakes writhe for a while, no problem; I could just shrink further and go on, as I said I wanted this journey.

The mucus on the walls signaled directions further into the belly to the bag of gold, yes there was gold and other treasures at the end, you could say the dragon had eaten the treasure it was supposed to guard, only the dragon here is a snake.

Ten steps further I found some gold coins strewn on the floor, I kept on walking, and walking and walking…

-Tanmay