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Description
It had been two days since the chocolate castle incident. Or rather, the incident where I turned an abandoned city and a castle into giant pieces of chocolate (very good chocolate I might add), to satiate the appetite of Clere. Perhaps 'satiate' is the wrong word. 'Made worse' or 'invited disaster' would be more appropriate perhaps. As her size increased, so did her appetite. I don't know what was going on in that giant skull of hers by that point. We had chatted in the days before, being a dragon hadn't made her less talkative per se, but once she started growing large enough that she had to be careful not to step on buildings, she wasn't saying much anymore. And whenever she did speak, it was usually something about food, her wanting the food, or her wanting us to arrange said food for her. Usually these things in combination, and rarely in the form of a question. One doesn't really argue with a dragon the size of a small city so we were perfectly willing to oblige; the problem was that doing so was becoming impossible. Where does one find enough steak or cake to make a dragon stop being hungry? And even if we succeeded, the problem only got worse; the next meal would have to be even harder. The situation had made us desperate, and we were getting the impression Clere's mood was deteriorating (she couldn't go long without food before becoming grumpy), making us even more desperate.
From atop Clere's head, Jonas and I discussed the situation using sign language and facial expressions. It was ironic that we were able to hide from Clere's sight so close to her, but I doubt she would have paid much attention to us had she been able to see us. We quickly agreed that the only solution was sending Clere to a place where she couldn't harm anyone, but where that would be and how we would get her there was going to be an issue. We had worked out a plan, but in retrospect, perhaps not a very good plan.

***

The next village we were unable to steer Clere clear of turned out to have a problem perfectly suited to us. Clere had instructed us to bring back food, she was waiting for us, impatiently, half a mile from the village. The mayor of course didn't know we were sent with an ultimatum, and once he told us of his problem, we figured we didn't need to tell him.
The mayor was an older man, quite obese, and there was no small amount of spit and grease on his expensive clothes and seven chins. "Oh gods, please, you must help us. Creatures from the deep are eating our cattle. And also some villagers I suppose. But most importantly cattle." It was as though every word that came out of his mouth was accompanied by its own spit escort. Or maybe that was grease? He sounded panicked, though the four strong men carrying his portable throne (mobile throne?) didn't seem worried.
The mayor explained that the creatures came out at night and snatched away anything that came too close to the shore. They resembled large snakes with a suction cup and a glowing orb for a head, each was at least a hundred feet long, at least the part that protruded from the water.
We returned to inform Clere. We didn't even need to mention that we were getting paid a decent amount of gold for this job, which worked out for us, really. As soon as she had entered the water we bought every magic crystal and item we could, using up our savings in the process, as well as the advance on our reward. This was our chance.

***

Clere hunted for the creatures the entire afternoon, but only at dusk did they show themselves. A single creature; a mass of tentacles connected to a large eyeless sphere was really what it was. Each 150 foot long tentacle was tipped with a sucking mouth and a glowing orb, the sphere itself was also 150 feet across. The tentacles reached for the giant dragon, heedless of the fact that the dragon was much larger; likely the creature had no brain to speak of. Clere drifted motionless until the tentacled thing drew close enough, then she reached down and snapped at it...
Half an hour later, Clere returned to the surface, slightly larger than before, and not much less hungry. She found the others of her 'party' waiting for her, standing around a peculiar glowing orange ring some ten feet across. The ring was slowly expanding, revealing more of the yellow landscape behind it. It expanded each time someone held a magic item against it. Each time, the magic item immediately turned to ash.

***

Jonas struggled to keep the devouring portal stable while I fed it magic items. We were desperate and were throwing everything at it we had, there probably wasn't going to be a second chance. The portal exerted a pull on us, but its primary target was Clere. We had to get the portal big enough to fit her through before she got back. It would then take her to an elemental plane where she couldn't hurt anyone. That was the idea, anyway. Izumi pointed up and behind me, but it wasn't necessary; the ground shaking told me all I needed to know. Clere was back, and the portal wasn't done yet.

Description
It had been two days since the chocolate castle incident. Or rather, the incident where I turned an abandoned city and a castle into giant pieces of chocolate (very good chocolate I might add), to satiate the appetite of Clere. Perhaps 'satiate' is the wrong word. 'Made worse' or 'invited disaster' would be more appropriate perhaps. As her size increased, so did her appetite. I don't know what was going on in that giant skull of hers by that point. We had chatted in the days before, being a dragon hadn't made her less talkative per se, but once she started growing large enough that she had to be careful not to step on buildings, she wasn't saying much anymore. And whenever she did speak, it was usually something about food, her wanting the food, or her wanting us to arrange said food for her. Usually these things in combination, and rarely in the form of a question. One doesn't really argue with a dragon the size of a small city so we were perfectly willing to oblige; the problem was that doing so was becoming impossible. Where does one find enough steak or cake to make a dragon stop being hungry? And even if we succeeded, the problem only got worse; the next meal would have to be even harder. The situation had made us desperate, and we were getting the impression Clere's mood was deteriorating (she couldn't go long without food before becoming grumpy), making us even more desperate.
From atop Clere's head, Jonas and I discussed the situation using sign language and facial expressions. It was ironic that we were able to hide from Clere's sight so close to her, but I doubt she would have paid much attention to us had she been able to see us. We quickly agreed that the only solution was sending Clere to a place where she couldn't harm anyone, but where that would be and how we would get her there was going to be an issue. We had worked out a plan, but in retrospect, perhaps not a very good plan.

***

The next village we were unable to steer Clere clear of turned out to have a problem perfectly suited to us. Clere had instructed us to bring back food, she was waiting for us, impatiently, half a mile from the village. The mayor of course didn't know we were sent with an ultimatum, and once he told us of his problem, we figured we didn't need to tell him.
The mayor was an older man, quite obese, and there was no small amount of spit and grease on his expensive clothes and seven chins. "Oh gods, please, you must help us. Creatures from the deep are eating our cattle. And also some villagers I suppose. But most importantly cattle." It was as though every word that came out of his mouth was accompanied by its own spit escort. Or maybe that was grease? He sounded panicked, though the four strong men carrying his portable throne (mobile throne?) didn't seem worried.
The mayor explained that the creatures came out at night and snatched away anything that came too close to the shore. They resembled large snakes with a suction cup and a glowing orb for a head, each was at least a hundred feet long, at least the part that protruded from the water.
We returned to inform Clere. We didn't even need to mention that we were getting paid a decent amount of gold for this job, which worked out for us, really. As soon as she had entered the water we bought every magic crystal and item we could, using up our savings in the process, as well as the advance on our reward. This was our chance.

***

Clere hunted for the creatures the entire afternoon, but only at dusk did they show themselves. A single creature; a mass of tentacles connected to a large eyeless sphere was really what it was. Each 150 foot long tentacle was tipped with a sucking mouth and a glowing orb, the sphere itself was also 150 feet across. The tentacles reached for the giant dragon, heedless of the fact that the dragon was much larger; likely the creature had no brain to speak of. Clere drifted motionless until the tentacled thing drew close enough, then she reached down and snapped at it...
Half an hour later, Clere returned to the surface, slightly larger than before, and not much less hungry. She found the others of her 'party' waiting for her, standing around a peculiar glowing orange ring some ten feet across. The ring was slowly expanding, revealing more of the yellow landscape behind it. It expanded each time someone held a magic item against it. Each time, the magic item immediately turned to ash.

***

Jonas struggled to keep the devouring portal stable while I fed it magic items. We were desperate and were throwing everything at it we had, there probably wasn't going to be a second chance. The portal exerted a pull on us, but its primary target was Clere. We had to get the portal big enough to fit her through before she got back. It would then take her to an elemental plane where she couldn't hurt anyone. That was the idea, anyway. Izumi pointed up and behind me, but it wasn't necessary; the ground shaking told me all I needed to know. Clere was back, and the portal wasn't done yet.