Chasing memories of a game that may not exist

Hi all,

I’ve been going through the IFDB looking for a game that I remember playing years ago. I have very fond memories of this game.

However, while going through the list of games tagged “dragon”, and not finding it among the high-rated games, it occured to me that my memory might be playing a trick on me. This game might have been a Fantasy short story (which I read a lot in between longer works, don’t remember in detail later, but that do stay alive in my subconscious). Speaking of subconscious, it might even have been a dream altogether.

Here’s what I “remember”: It’s a fantasy game set in a community that lives on the side of a big hill. This hill is actually a huge sleeping dragon. One of the jobs in this community is that of “scale-digger” where one looks for exposed dragonscales to trade them in town.
Our protagonist is a youngish boy when he is forced by bullies to retreat into a cave, i.e. the dragon’s mouth. He gets trapped and lives inside the dragon’s gut for some time. At the end he gets out as a grown man.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? Is it an IF-game? Has anyone read this story in a fantasy-collection or magazine?

If it’s just my imagination and someone wants to run with it and write such a game, go ahead. I’m too busy with my own writing to call dibs.

Thanks.

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Could it be a story from the Dragon Griaule anthology by Lucius Shepard?

“… I was enchanted by the imaginative world created atop and around the huge dragon’s body, but I was even more fascinated by the world of “The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter” for in this story we get to explore inside the dragon. The girl referred to in the title is Catherine, a shallow flighty girl who escapes murderous pursuers by climbing into Griaule’s mouth.”

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That’s it! Thank you so very much! (Apparently the youngish boy is actually a girl.)

I started out convinced I got these memories from an IF-game, but the more I remembered, the more I doubted. The story just seems to play out over too long a time period.

And now: Off to the library!..

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