Racing the tide

For what may well have been the first time in decades, light shone on the inside of the seaside cave. Its source, a necklace with a powerful glowstick, was worn by a rather portly anthro dinosaur, Littlefoot. All he wore other than that was basic underwear, since even though it wasn't as if he'd come across anyone else in this cave, he didn't want a chance of scraping something important.
The dino had gone quite deep into the cave, which surprisingly had very little water in it despite its entrance generally being some distance underwater. Something about the tide would drain the cave's water almost entirely when it was low, and since he'd entered at its lowest point, he had plenty of time to explore before it would flood again. If he'd calculated right, at least.
Carefully marking his route with rocks at branching paths, Littlefoot explored deeper and deeper. He'd occasionally stop to check out interesting colorations on the rock around him, or look into the odd small pool of water, and ended up losing track of time. While inspecting some seaweed that was limp on the cave floor, way back on the surface the tide was coming in, pouring into the cave. Before it got down to where the dinosaur was, he finally reached what could possibly be the cave's deepest point, a large pile of rocks blocking him from progressing farther. At least for the moment, as he started moving them aside to see if anything might be past them.
After a couple minutes of digging with nothing yet to show for it, he stopped as he heard what sounded like... Rushing water? Surely the cave shouldn't have been flooding yet? But the sound got louder and louder, and sure enough, water rushed into the chamber he was in! With a yelp of surprise, Littlefoot scrambled to get out, running back the way he came. Not only could he not swim, he was very far from the exit, and the flow of water was only going to get stronger.
The water rushing past his ankles made it a little harder for him to keep his balance, and he stumbled a few times. Looking back, he could see the water building up behind him, and actually catching up with him! But, not looking where he was going, he tripped, ending up with his head under the flow of water. The impact of falling on his fat belly forced him to burble some air, and he instinctively sucked in, just barely managing to swallow before the seawater would've hit his lungs. Coughing more bubbles, Littlefoot tried to get back up, only able to get his head above the water before something stopped him. His underwear had gotten caught on a stalagmite!
With his nostrils quickly becoming submerged again, he puffed his cheeks and struggled to stand anyway, uncaring of damaging what little clothing he had. Just a moment later, he lurched forward as his underwear tore, freeing him. Finally, he got up, but the wasted time had allowed the flood to reach him. With the water at his neck, the dino gasped heavily before he went entirely underwater. Even now, he could swim-run at a decent speed, his dense and thick body firmly anchoring itself to the bottom.
He was losing ground faster than before, especially since he needed to climb over several piles of large rocks the rushing water had dragged in, inadvertantly further damaging his underwear on some of them. Said piles at least had a silver lining, in that he could catch a breath at the top of the bigger ones, but that was getting to be less possible with each one. At first he could gasp a couple times, then only once, and eventually he could only get a minimal amount of air accompanied by a gulp of water. Too soon, he couldn't get any air like this at all any more!
Going off what may well have been his last breath of air until he escaped, Littlefoot swim-ran onward. Getting to an intersection, he quickly looked around for his marker, but couldn't find it. The water had pushed the rocks around, and he didn't remember which path led to the surface! He picked one at random and hoped for the best. Running along for a little while, he actually managed to start catching up with the water's surface... And then he hit a dead end. A bubbled angry yell rang out below the water before the dino covered his mouth. This at least wasn't a total loss; the water level was going up fairly slowly in here, and he could get above it and breathe.
Not wasting any time, he repeatedly gasped before going back underwater. He certainly wouldn't be able to get outside before the cave was entirely flooded, but he could at least get there before drowning. Hopefully, anyway, since he was still quite deep in. Going back to the intersection, Littlefoot took a moment to mark both the path he'd come from and the one he remembered led deeper, and went in the third of the four.
With things having calmed down a bit, the dinosaur noticed just how tattered his underwear had become. It was ruined at this point, and he decided to just tear it the rest of the way off, fully exposing his balls and semi-hard cock. While he wasn't quite sure why he was getting aroused, he didn't really mind.
Thankfully, this time he'd picked the right direction, this section of the cave looking a bit more familiar. Something shining on the ceiling caught his attention; an air pocket! Littlefoot jumped for it, but it was still out of reach, his gut jiggling as he simply landed again. Trying again with more effort, he grunted and bubbled as he got a bit higher than before. He frantically tried to swim, since he did know how, but that still didn't do it.
Accepting that he couldn't get at the air, he just continued on, not wanting to waste more oxygen on such a pointless endeavor. With that one, anyway; he found more air pockets along the way and tried to get at each one, though with the same result every time. Eventually, there was one that was especially promising, happening to be directly above another rock pile. Eagerly climbing to the top, Littlefoot once again jumped at the air pocket, still not reaching it but getting a lot closer than before. He was so close, when he jumped he could actually get his hands out of the water!
Stubbornly refusing to give up when air was so close, he kept at this for almost a minute, his big belly wobbling around enough to actually give him a bit of difficulty keeping his balance on the rock pile. As the dino tried even harder to get at the air pocket, jumping up started to knock some of the rocks around, and he eventually landed on an unstable one, slipping and falling down the rocks to land on his back, burbling from the impact. With that, he finally acknowledged that he still couldn't get air, and got up to continue walking.
About 8 minutes had passed since his last breath, and Littlefoot's strong lungs were straining. It would be clear to see that his cheeks were slowly getting bigger, currently inflated to the size of soccer balls, subtly jiggling with each heave of his chest. While he paid no attention to it, his cock was fully erect at this point as well.
Another intersection, only two other paths this time. Again, his marker was gone, so he just picked one. There were more air pockets above him, still out of his reach, and he just rolled his eyes as he continued. Unfortunately, like before, this was a dead end, but it did have a tiny bit of air that was actually within reach, which Littlefoot sucked down. After a trip back to the intersection, having wasted 3 minutes, he whined and covered his mouth before running off back down another path, cheeks now as big as his head. It took a few seconds to realize this was the way back down into the deeper parts of the cave, then he doubled back and finally went the right way.
With a purple blush on his face and his mouth still covered, the dino continued his long trek back to the surface. There was only one intersection left, thankfully, though it would be some time before he got to it. Another minute passed, and another... Eventually, he'd held his breath for 15 minutes in total, and his cheeks showed it, being nearly a foot and a half in width because of the burning in his lungs.
The wide-eyed and suffocating dino ran on, soon coming to a patch of seaweed that had previously just been laying on the ground before the flood. While his dizzy mind wasn't really sure how plants were growing in the cave, that didn't matter right now, and he just rushed through. Well, he tried, but he didn't get far before some seaweed got wrapped around his leg. He tried to shake it off, getting the other one tangled as well, and soon even his arms and cock were bound by the seaweed!
Littlefoot couldn't cover his mouth any more, and a thin trail of bubbles trickled from his lips. For another minute, he struggled in his natural bindings, until he started approaching a climax. The seaweed around his dick would inadvertantly squeeze it (in an admittedly rather nice way) as he shook about, and he wasn't sure if he could keep his air in during an orgasm, so he had to take short breaks from fighting against the seaweed to let his arousal die down a bit before continuing.
A couple more minutes of intermittent struggling, and the dino's lungs were reaching their breaking point. His cheeks were blue and shifting between 1 foot and 3 in width as he tried to rebreathe, his eyes tightly shut from the fierce burning that had taken hold in his chest. Being so close to running out of breath was getting him more aroused on its own, so with one last-ditch effort he thrashed about, the seaweed squeezing his dick bringing him over the edge.
Bubbles exploded from Littlefoot's mouth as he came, cheeks rapidly deflating and cock heavily throbbing in repeated cumshots. His eyes went wide and he gurgled painfully, closing his mouth and puffing his cheeks again with the water that had poured inside. Already having passed his limit, this lasted only moments before his mouth opened wide again, water rushing down his throat. While it spasmed to try to block the water off, about a quarter-lungful still got through, and that was move than enough.
Loud coughing and hacking rang out as the dino forced out the water from his aquatic gasp, before he sucked in again, only to cough that out as well. The process just repeated, and he thrashed the hardest yet, finally being enough to tear him free of the seaweed. With his arms loose again, he grabbed his neck and doubled over, legs shaking before giving out and dropping him to his knees as he choked.
Orgasm only now coming to an end, Littlefoot forced himself to stand again and stumbled forward, soon managing to start running again. He still had time; surely a long breath hold meant a long drown? Rushing through the cave once again, still in a coughing fit, he arrived at the last intersection, frantically looking between the three options as he gargled out the very last of his bubbles. The leftmost one looked good, so he tried that first. The choking was, thankfully, coming to an end, the dinosaur's water breathing shifting to rapid panting with an occasional hiccup.
His luck just kept getting worse; once again, his first guess was wrong, but like last time there was a little air here. Shoving his nostrils into it, water sprayed from them as he exhaled to make room, then he took in what air he could reach. Despite his lungs still being mostly flooded, he now held his breath again and covered his mouth to avoid losing the air, for what little it mattered. Cheeks a foot wide again and the blue blush spreading across his face, Littlefoot doubled back, a bubble or two slipping away with each hiccup.
Now with 2 full minutes of drowning behind him, he stood in the intersection chamber again. As he started into the next passage, he couldn't hold back his instincts any more and coughed heavily through his uncovered nostrils, losing all the air he'd gotten and shuddering as he resumed breathing seawater. While he was still panting, it was slower, and the hiccups were a little more common.
In his blurring vision, he didn't notice a fairly large rock and tripped on it, falling on his front. It was a surprisingly soft landing, and the dino quickly realized why: His already plump belly had gotten even bigger as he drowned, quite a few of his watery gasps having been turned to gulps without him noticing. With another wheezing breath, he struggled to his feet to carry on. Too exhausted to run any more, Littlefoot did a sort of awkward jog, only feeling that he needed to hold his neck with a single hand now.
Another dead end. He'd be frustrated if he weren't so tired, his breaths having further slowed to a calm rate, as if he weren't underwater. Once more, he trudged back the way he came, going even slower than before. By the time he got back to the chamber he was having such a hard time getting past, he'd been drowning for 5 minutes!
Starting to feel drowsy, Littlefoot looked down at his belly again. It was hanging out nearly 2 more feet than normal, and he smooshed it around with a weak, gurgling giggle. Focusing back on the task at hand, he blearily looked around at his options. His dulling mind had forgotten which paths he'd already tried, and he decided to take the leftmost one again. Partway along it, he held a breath of water, cheeks going to the size of his head again. His face was entirely blue, now, and the same tint was just beginning to spread through the rest of him. The dino didn't notice, his lidded eyes staring ahead and having trouble keeping their focus.
Returning to the same dead end, he released his held breath and audibly complained, struggling to form any words. "...ccommme on...allrr-hic-dyy..." Going back again, he randomly decided what tunnel to go down, settling on... The one he'd just left. He did at least recognize it before too long, leaving it and picking another, which finally happened to be the only one left.
Barely able to keep walking, Littlefoot somehow kept going even after 9 minutes of breathing water. It was a miracle that he could even stand, much less get anywhere, especially with all the weight of the water in his gut, which had doubled in size since he'd last checked it. There was actually natural light up ahead, though the drowned dino didn't remember what that meant.
Finally, with one mistimed step, he tripped onto his enormous belly, still moving his legs as if he were walking. Being so drowned had made him delirious, and he was confused at the situation; his legs were moving, so why wasn't he getting anywhere? His eyelids fluttered as he faded in and out of consciousness, each taking longer to recover from...
The dino shot back to awareness as the last of his adrenaline shot through him! Loudly gurgling, he gasped and gasped as he struggled to right himself, soon managing it and running for the exit. Already he could feel himself weakening again, but the surface was so close...
... But, it wasn't. While Littlefoot was finally out of the cave, he was still underwater, the surface about a foot above his head. Frantic, he tried over and over to jump to it, but his huge belly kept him from getting even that far. He kept trying as his strength rapidly faded, getting less height with each hop until, when he'd returned to a drowned stupor, his "jumps" didn't even leave the ground any more.
Now entirely out of energy, he collapsed to his knees, leaning forward against his belly, blue all over. Barely even able to breathe the water any more, it occurred to him that he'd gotten incredibly horny again. Littlefoot tried to reach for his cock to jack off, and while he believed he did it, he actually didn't even move at all. Again, he drifted in and out of consciousness, and without an adrenaline surge to awaken him, one of these tiny drowned naps would be one he wouldn't wake up from. With one last subtle groan as he believed himself to be cumming, he twitched a little, then went still, finally reaching the end of both his 11 minute drowning, and his life.