The Witch's Demand - Part Two
#2 of The Witch's Demand
Mordannis groaned and opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar human, a male with armor and a spear, standing in front of him. He was back in his cell and the wall between his and Kanelle's had reappeared, but aside from the magical collar and a chain linking it to a loop sticking out of the floor he was completely unbound. He groaned again and tried to stand, but he was so sore... Every muscle in his body ached, even some he didn't know he had, and he was so thirsty...
He tried to remember what had happened before he'd fallen asleep. They had been chained so he was forced to mount her, and had been trying their best not to mate... Then they'd failed, he could remember that clearly enough. But what had happened next? He thought he could remember a second round, then possibly a third, but after that things got hazy and he had no memory of Helena returning and letting them stop. How had it ended? Had he just been too tired to remember her separating them? Had he passed out still inside her after mating so many times? He tried to concentrate on the memories, even letting the unwanted sensations filter through him to see if they would help him recall the events, but he just couldn't remember.
"Drink," the human said, and he looked down to see a bowl of water before him. He eagerly drained the bowl, though it wasn't enough, but as soon as he raised his head to ask for more it refilled itself--magic, no doubt. He emptied the bowl four more times, then noticed a platter of unidentifiable meat next to the bowl and worked his way through that as well. It had been cooked, and though it was drier than something freshly killed it was properly warm and tasted excellent.
An idea formed in his mind as he ate. Surely Kanelle was waking up in the same situation: exhausted, sore, and badly parched, and because of that he had good reason to believe she might be injured, especially considering that he had no memory of how they had finally been separated. I wonder if I could act as a concerned and over-protective mate, he thought, insist to see her and make sure she's well, and it would allow us to spend time together without being so strictly tied... Maybe we would be able to figure out a way to escape. There's no way the witch understands the dragon language, so she wouldn't be able to stop us from discussing ideas unless she gagged us again, and she wouldn't do that, would she? Especially if Kanelle really is in poor condition.
Mordannis snapped his head up from his meal and stared at the human. "I must see my mate," he said.
"Mistress is tending to her now. She will let you be with her again once she thinks you are both ready for that sort of activity."
"I don't want to mate with her again, I want to see her!" he roared. "I must protect her, I must be sure she is well, now!"
The guard gave him an odd look, then said, "I will relay your desire to her, and tell you what she says." He left.
Mordannis waited a moment, then stood slowly and carefully and stretched out all his limbs--especially his wings, which he hadn't been able to move in far too long. And to be able to open his jaws all the way... But he couldn't extend his neck like he wanted to, not on such a short leash, and despite several powerful attempts to break the chain, the loop holding it or even the collar itself, he couldn't get any more room to move.
The aches of his body subsiding for now, he turned his mind to the part he was trying to play. He could remember how his parents had acted back when he was just a hatchling; the way father had insisted on doing all of the hunting, how he had always stayed so close whenever there was even the slightest danger to mother or the hatchlings, the way he'd looked at her... He tried to mimic the expression, then heard movement against his door and sat back down again.
Helena walked in, accompanied by the human who had been watching him before. "Are you all right?" she asked.
Mordannis swallowed the roar he'd been about to deliver; concern wasn't what he'd been expecting from her at all, and she actually seemed sincere. It took him a moment to recover, then he said, "tired, and sore. How is my mate? I must see her." He tugged at his collar for emphasis.
"Awake, and taking water; she was worse off than you after... yesterday. I came to help as soon as your collar informed me that you had passed out, but she had lost consciousness as well before I arrived to separate you. It could have been worse, but in the end I think you two were just dehydrated, and exhausted from your exertions. Some rest, plenty to eat and drink and you'll both be fine."
"I must see her," he insisted.
"Of course. It will make this next bit easier for me anyway... But if you're going to be in the same room then I must gag you both first; can't have you two conspiring against me."
"But she won't be able to eat or drink gagged, and I must see her! I have to make sure she is well, I have to watch over her."
Helena was silent for a moment, then said, "very well." She made the wall between the two cells disappear, and Mordannis looked over to see Kanelle drinking from a bowl like the one in front of him. "My mate!" he said, and moved towards her as far as the leash would let him, then whined and tugged against it, trying to reach her even though she hadn't seemed to hear him.
"I would like both of you to listen to me," the witch said, moving to stand between them and looking at the floor. "I must apologize for what I forced you to do yesterday. Even if I was prepared to be cruel in order to get you two to do what I wanted, I never intended to put either of your lives in danger, and I am deeply sorry for acting as I did." She sighed. "I will not put you in that scenario again."
Neither dragon said anything. There were many things Mordannis wanted to say, but he decided that if he did voice his angry thoughts it would only encourage her to be cruel again.
"Kanelle, your mate has been very concerned about you since the moment he woke up," she changed the subject. "Even if you two came together under circumstances you don't approve of, surely you are proud to have captured the attention of one so devoted."
Kanelle picked her head up, startled, and stared at him with wide eyes, then bared her teeth and snarled; he whined and laid himself down flat on the ground, looking back at her as if begging for approval. A long moment passed, then he winked the eye that was out of Helena's line of sight, hoping Kanelle would take the hint.
She waited a few more seconds, then finally said, "he has every reason to be concerned for me after what happened, and you should not have separated us. All dragons are possessive of their mates, and if you had tried to keep us apart for long it could have ended very badly."
Helena sighed again. "You are right, and I certainly owe it to you both to allow you to spend your time here with each other. I will think about the best way to keep you secured, but together, and once I have that figured out I will return and set things up the way I want." She paused, then added, "you may have some privacy until then." She motioned to the other human, and both of them left.
"What do you think you're doing?" Kanelle demanded in dragonspeak as soon as the door had closed. "Do you actually think you have the right to call me your mate after yesterday's... yesterday's rape? We are not mates, and if you call me that again I will find a way to make you pay for it!"
He stayed flat against the floor; if Helena was watching them somehow, she would be less suspicious if his body language was consistent. "I don't mean it! I'm doing my best to act like an overprotective mate, and apparently it's working pretty well because now we're free to talk to each other without being overheard. We aren't being held as securely anymore, and that's sure to give us some potential opportunities to escape."
"How? Do you think you can simply pull that chain out of the ground? Escaping is just not possible, and believe me, I've fought more than enough to know."
"We have to at least try. Already she's become so much less strict after-- after what happened yesterday; if we keep acting compliant, who knows how much freedom she'll give us, and that will only make escaping easier."
"No!" Kanelle roared. "We are not mating again!"
"We have no choice!" he stood up and roared right back at her. "I don't know about you, but I didn't believe a word of her supposed change of heart and if we try to refuse she'll just force us together again. Don't try to tell me you'd prefer that torture to mating willingly, and less, and getting chances to escape."
"But we can't escape."
He growled. "If that's what you really think then you shouldn't be resisting her. Why bother putting in the effort if in the end you're just going to submit, tortured or not? It's not like she'd eventually let you go without getting what she wants."
"And would you just give her an egg without even complaining about it? We cannot escape, and it doesn't matter if we try or not."
"Why are you so sure? All that's keeping us in here now is these leashes. If we could break them..."
"Again, how? You are not stronger than metal, and besides, even if we broke the chains we still wouldn't be able to get out the door. It must be locked and reinforced, otherwise she wouldn't have bothered to put it there at all, and there are probably lots of magical traps in the hallways outside, set in case we did manage to escape. Helena is smart and methodical, and is sure to have a number of things keeping us here that she hasn't told us about."
"The door could fall against fire..."
"Which we can't use without getting our collars off, and I've already tried that. Every time I get my claws under it, it stings me, and I can't put any effort into it when I'm in so much pain."
"Traps aren't an incredible problem either; they can't be completely invisible, and any magic that affects the body can be fought, you know that."
"But her traps could involve enchanted objects, which we cannot remove the magic from without knowing how to use counter-spells. For all we know there could be a net that stings you hanging from the ceiling in the hallway, that will fall and trap you there if the door is broken open while locked. And what would you do then, aside from pass out at the pain?"
"I would wait and bear the pain while you pulled the net off of me. You've tried to escape on your own, but you haven't tried to escape working together. There are a lot of things we can try. Maybe if we both rammed the door at full speed, maybe if I tried to remove your collar..."
"And how would we try these things? We don't have enough room on these leashes to reach each other, much less go after the doors, and she would notice and put a stop to it if we tried."
He grinned and sat back on his haunches. "Who knows what could happen when we're in the throes of mating, and if one of us has mounted the other I doubt she'd care if we got a little rough..."
"We're not mating again," Kanelle repeated. But she couldn't help but be aroused by the thought, and she was glad she wasn't male--the unwanted feeling wouldn't show.
Mordannis wasn't so lucky, but he didn't seem to be trying to hide his growing erection; if anything he was actually showing it off to her, and he even started purring after a moment.
"Purr back at me and say something that sounds peaceful, or happy," he said, raising his tail suggestively and flicking it back and forth. "Make it seem to her that I've convinced you to be willing."
"But I never--"
"I'll convince you that mating willingly is the correct choice some other time. Just purr at me, and we can argue more later."
It took a lot of effort, but eventually she managed to purr back at him. "Shall we rest, then, my mate?"
He smiled and sprawled out on the stone. "I like the sound of that."
"I have been generous enough to give you a day off to rest," Helena said, "and I have allowed you to spend your time together, with minimal restraint. Now I must insist that you two start mating again."
Kanelle growled at the suggestion. She and Mordannis were still only leashed, but now they were both tied to a central loop placed between them, and the leashes were longer, giving them more room to move around in their combined cell.
"Now, Kanelle, what happened to yesterday? I thought Mordannis said during dinner that the two of you would be more willing to oblige me."
"I thought the same thing," Mordannis said. "I suppose she changed her mind overnight. Just give me a little time to convince her, then we'll get down to business."
"Of course." She spoke a word and pounded her staff against the floor, and their leashes unlocked automatically, leaving them only in their collars. "You may arrange matters however you choose, and I will return when my enchantments tell me you have finished," she said, and left.
"So, what now? We try to escape?" Kanelle said, sounding skeptical.
He purred and nuzzled at her neck. "Not yet. First I have to convince you to mate, then couple with you, and then we can start testing ideas."
She took a couple of steps backwards. "I don't want you mounting me again!"
"And why not? It's an enjoyable experience, or at least it is when you have control over it, and you know as well as I do that the chances of us having conceived on the first try, whether we wanted to or not, are very slim. We will not be risking giving her what she wants by coming together while we test some ideas."
"But she's sure to be watching, and if she's watching, then she'll be on hand to stop us if something actually works." She pawed at the floor. "And once she sees us trying to escape, especially after lying to her, she'll never even begin to trust us again."
"Why would she watch, or at least stay after seeing us come together? I'm sure she has better things to do than to watch every second of interaction between two prisoners she most likely thinks have no chance of escape."
"And if none of our ideas work?"
"Then we'll finish mating, and tell her we need to rest until we come up with some more things to try."
Kanelle looked away. "So you want us to pretend to do something neither of us want in order to be able to try to do things we have no idea will work and could easily lead to stricter confinement, multiple times, with each attempt increasing the risk of giving her what she wants."
"Don't be ridiculous. There is no way we'd possibly be able to conceive without trying for at least a few months, and more likely years; you must know how hard it is for our kind. And even if by some terrible chance we did succeed so quickly, more than likely the damage was already done two days ago. There is no possible harm in mating, or at least pretending to, especially when it could give us opportunities to escape."
"Pretending to--" She smiled a little. "We could only pretend to mate, and to climax, if none of our ideas worked; then there would be no harm at all."
"Didn't you hear what she said when she left, though? She said she would come back when her magic tells her we're finished. So if we never climax, then she won't come back until enough time has passed for her to be suspicious, and like you said: if she has reason to believe we're trying to deceive her, then she'll probably just chain us more securely again."
"Enough, I see your point," she said, then nuzzled at his chest until she managed to produce a purr. "I would like for you to take me."
He returned the nuzzle and ticked her belly with his tailtip, letting his arousal build. "We will pretend to mate while we test ideas, and put effort into the deed if our ideas fail. Is there anything in particular you'd like to try first?"
She also tickled his belly, giving a little extra attention to the swelling around his slit. "Mating, for a start."
Mordannis hesitated; it took a lot of effort to think clearly while she teased him. "What do you mean? If we're really trying to mate, it will only distract us, and that will make our escape attempts more difficult."
She growled a little. "But if we're going to try to deceive her then I want to make sure we do it right. She's sure to not believe our change of heart, just as we don't believe hers, so that means if we want to try to escape then we have to start by doing only what she wants us to do, to make her think we can be trusted."
"Such a smart mate I have," he purred, and nuzzled at her chin. He leaned into her touch until his penis began to emerge, then started to pant eagerly and nuzzled her again, harder this time.
Kanelle continued to tickle him and watched his arousal build until he seemed ready for her, then pressed firmly against his shoulder to get him to roll onto his back. He smiled up at her and spread his four paws out wide, presenting himself and giving an inviting shake of his hindquarters, the tip of his erection bobbing up and down. But it was hard for her to accept that invitation; it felt strange, and somehow wrong, to willingly mount a dragon she didn't think she had any real feelings for... Especially when she didn't know if she would ever be able to enjoy his presence at all, considering all the bad memories already attached to him in her mind.
He picked his head up off the floor when she hesitated. "Is something wrong?"
"No," she tossed her head, forcing the doubt to the back of her mind. It was a meaningless display meant to deceive their captor and nothing more; she certainly did not mean for their mating to express any sort of love for him, and she was sure he understood that, as well. So she stepped forward, then reached down to nuzzle under his chin, clutched his foreclaws in her own, and mounted him.
But despite what she had said it still didn't seem right, and though she began to slowly raise and lower herself in steady rhythm she felt detached, distant. She left off nuzzling him, looking away with a sigh and riding him almost mechanically, doing her best to ignore the sensation and hoping it wouldn't bring out memories of the other time she'd felt it.
Mordannis could tell she was uncomfortable and encouraged her to thrust with moans of pleasure and little shivers of his hindquarters whenever he was fully inside her, hoping the increased sensation would help her relax. She didn't notice at first and remained steady, then he squeezed her paw and purred up at her, and after a moment she looked down at him, saw the reassuring smile on his face, and couldn't help but lean harder onto him and begin to accept the experience.
Progress was slow, but Kanelle relaxed more and more as they built up speed. She was able to lose herself in the act, to push aside the discomfort and fear in her mind and just enjoy the feeling of his large, firm cock sliding back and forth within her, rubbing against places that loved so much to be rubbed and making her purr when she realized she truly wanted the sensation this time. Beneath her, Mordannis' movements began to grow erratic, and he grunted with effort as he pushed back harder against her each time she lowered herself towards him. Then all of a sudden he seemed to touch inside her in an entirely different manner, and she nearly collapsed at the intense pleasure, grasping his paws tightly in her own, spreading her wings over the two of them and letting her hindquarters go slack, falling weakly onto him while he thrust still harder against her weight. Kanelle gasped, growled, then roared her ecstasy until it echoed off every wall in their cell, scrambling back to her feet and humping him as fast as she possibly could until the feeling faded and she collapsed again, panting, tongue hanging out the side of her mouth.
He still bucked beneath her, but only for a few more moments, and just as she recovered enough to notice what he was doing he went rigid, grunted, and released himself, groaning and enjoying his own climax for the all-too-brief moments it lasted. Then he went limp beneath her, gasping for air and seemingly oblivious to all around him.
She purred a little and moved only enough to lie down against his side instead of on top of him. "If I had known mating willingly felt this good, I don't think I would have fought the idea so much."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did," he said, and nuzzled her forehead. "Hopefully it will be the last time we experience it here."
She felt so satisfied by their mating that, for the first time, she actually believed escape was possible.
Helena returned soon after to find the two dragons drowsing, curled up together, and put their leashes back on before gently nudging them awake. "How is my mated pair feeling?"
"Tired," Mordannis mumbled. "Go 'way."
"Wondering why you resisted such an incredible experience for so long?" she laughed. "But I'm glad we can understand each other now, and I hope you both will continue to try for eggs. I'm sure we'd all prefer for you to be released sooner rather than later." The witch hesitated, opened her mouth, then shook her head and closed it again, and finally said, "thank you for doing this for me." She left.
Kanelle cracked one eyelid. "Sounds like it worked."
"Mmm?" He stretched, then curled up again and said, "oh, yes, of course, she believes we actually want to mate for her now. I suppose tomorrow we'll try to break out of here."
"Don't forget to think of a few ideas," she said, getting up and pacing the circle her leash allowed her to travel before lying down against his side again. "Because every moment we're still here is another moment she might choose to force us to do something with her magic."
"We need to be prepared, so we know what to do if we can really escape from this cell. What types of magic should we expect to see?"
"A lot of traps," Kanelle said. "Objects that trigger nonlethal traps if touched, that will either be big and hard to get by without touching or small and hard to notice. We'll have move one at a time, with a little distance between us just in case we do trip something, so one of us will be able to free the other."
"And guards... There are sure to be humans with weapons, who guard the castle. How are you at fighting humans?"
"Good, and better if I have fire. What I'm most worried about is if we run into Helena herself before we can get into the sky; who knows what magic she would try to use against us. Did she use any when she captured you?"
Mordannis tilted his head to one side. "She jabbed me in the throat with her staff and cast a spell that wouldn't let me breathe, so I wasn't able to struggle while she chained me. It was very strong... I couldn't concentrate enough to fight the magic because I couldn't get enough air, but I think she can only use that spell if she can touch her staff to your throat. What about you?"
"She drugged all the water in the pond by my cave, and tied me up after the drug knocked me out. I don't know how much magic was involved, aside from the floating platform we traveled on... Hmm. It seems like pretty much every spell she's used was planned beforehand; maybe since any escape would be unexpected she wouldn't have time to prepare and would be weaker because of it. If we got out quickly and into the sky, she wouldn't be able to catch up."
"But she wouldn't just give up, and if we escaped she'd either track us down or find other dragons to torture. We have to put a stop to this entirely."
"You mean to kill her?"
"Or get this dragon-breeding idea out of her head, if we can."
She pawed at the floor. "You remember how insistent she was when we first got here, and how many different arguments she used; I don't think she can be convinced. If you want to stop her, killing her is the only way."
"Well, she certainly deserves it," he snorted. "And living in this region will be a lot safer without her around."
"But killing her will be much more difficult than just escaping, and is more likely to end with you chained up in your cell again. I'd prefer to just get away from the castle as quickly as possible."
"How about this, then: if we don't see her, we fly, but if she gets in our way then I'm going to take her down."
"Fair enough." She dipped her head to drink from the bowl they now shared. "Now we just need her to let us out, so we can pretend to mate and put some of our ideas in action."
"You say that like it won't be easy." He pressed his belly against the floor a couple of times, then curled his tail around to tickle the scales of his own underbelly until his penis poked its head out of his slit, growing with each beat of his heart. He purred for a moment, nuzzled her, then stood, turned and kicked on the cell door a couple of times with a hind paw.
Helena was there within one minute. "Want to mate again, I presume?" Then she glanced at his hindquarters, saw his erection and had her question answered for her, and she took off their leashes, moved the water bowl to the corner and left again without another word.
"Shall we?" he grinned.
Kanelle's eyes widened a bit. "Not bad. But what are we going to try first?" she said, standing and nuzzling at his neck.
"Let's go for the door, or one of the walls if you think that would work better."
"Wood isn't as strong as rock."
"Wood reinforced with metal?"
She nibbled the tip of one of his horns. "We can try both, then. What's our cover?"
"Play-fighting." He took a few steps back, then crouched, wiggled his hindquarters, and pounced at her, knocking her onto her side and getting quickly on top of her. She growled in understanding, kicked at him and threw him off; he jumped away at the same time to add more force to the leap, and was flung heavily against the door. The whole room--and the rest of the castle, most likely--shook and there was an incredible thud as he struck the stout wood, then crumpled to the ground.
The door was undamaged, and after a moment Mordannis got back up, stumbling a little and dazed after the impact. She went over to make sure he was all right and had him hold still so she could look him over, as an excuse to stand quietly and wait to see if Helena would return, and when a few minutes passed with no sign of her they began to nuzzle each other again.
"That didn't work. Are you sure you didn't break anything?"
He growled and pawed the ground. "I'll be fine, but if you want to test the strength of the walls you can do that yourself."
She coughed out a laugh at that. "Then I guess we'll test our collars next. What did you want to try?"
He nuzzled her throat and sniffed at her collar. "The clasp is here on the underside, and it's locked, but if I can wedge something in there the right way I think I can get it to open up."
She nudged him away so she could surreptitiously examine his. "What would you try? Claws, or teeth?"
"Teeth would work better, and would have a better cover. I saw my parents mate more than a few times before I was old enough to leave the cave, and my father liked to put his fangs around mother's neck once he'd mounted her. I could do the same, and if you were on your back I could accidentally bite the clasp on your collar instead."
"Ugh, your parents let you watch them mate?"
He laughed. "Why, how did your parents teach you how it works?"
"By telling me not to even think about it until I thought I'd met someone I could spend the rest of my life with. Anyway, let's try." She moved her tail to tease him with it, then lashed it away instead; it would break his concentration, she decided, and the more aroused the two of them were the harder it would be for them to break off if it actually worked. She paced a circle around him, then laid down on her back facing the rear of the cell, hind legs spread and tail laid out straight, a line guiding him towards her.
"Don't thrust, and I won't encourage you," she said as he stood over her. "We need to concentrate on escaping."
"I know," he said, and after watching to make sure they were lined up properly he pushed his way into her vent as quickly as was possible, to minimize sensation--but letting out a moan as he did, in case they were somehow being watched or listened to. Once he was fully inside he laid down on top of her and put his fangs up against her throat, then went to work slowly, for he couldn't see exactly what he was doing. She laid perfectly still beneath him, only her eyes moving, and would have been proud to say she didn't clench against his cock even once while he worked, even though it pushed and scraped wonderfully against her insides every time he moved. He felt his way to the clasp on the collar with his tongue, then got his teeth around it and worked them back and forth, feeling for a joint that the point of a tooth would catch in, where he'd be able to squeeze it apart.
He found it and bit down hard; nothing happened at first, and the pressure hurt his jaws, but then there was a cracking noise and the collar came open. "There!" he said, and pulled out immediately; Helena was sure to have put a spell on their collars to alert her if they were forcibly removed and there was no point in acting any longer. "Now do mine."
"No time," she growled, and after a moment sprang to her feet and loosed her fire at the door. It struck, burst outwards, then flared and went out with the door not even singed.
He groaned. "...no! What are we supposed to do now, if we can't bring the door down?"
"We'll take the wall instead. Here's a trick my mother taught me..." She went to the bowl and took as much water into her mouth as she could, then spat it back out onto the wall just next to the door and followed that with another jet of fire. There was a hiss of steam, then an incredible cracking noise, and chunks of stone fell from where water and fire had struck, leaving cracks all up and down the wall.
She repeated the procedure twice more, the cracks growing and spreading each time, then she said, "ram that spot," and he lowered his shoulder and charged. Two bounds across the cell was hardly enough room to get much speed going, but still he slammed into the wall as hard as could, bending neck and wing away to ram the center of the cracks with the point of his shoulder. They collided, and the stress-damaged rock proved weaker, shuddering and crumbling away at his charge.
The two of them kicked at the hole until it was wide enough to pass through, and after poking his head out to see the hallway somehow empty Mordannis leapt through the hole and out of the cell.
A weighted net of corded metal dropped on him, and he cried out in pain as it began to sting him. Kanelle pulled it off--quickly, for it stung her as well--and then led him down the corridor, keeping an eye out for guards, or for Helena.
They reached a long set of stairs going upward and followed them into another hall, this one carpeted and blocked by a line of humans, armed with spears, nets, and bows. "Surrender!" one of them shouted, but Kanelle just roared and sent a fireball into their midst, scattering the lucky and killing those unfortunate enough to be in the center. It took only a few strides to get to the other end of the hall, where it turned right, and Kanelle started to step around the corner, but he pulled her back and stuck his head around instead.
The next hallway, carpeted down the very middle and decorated with statues and artwork lining the walls, was very wide and led directly to a huge set of double doors that opened to a clear blue sky outside. Mordannis growled happily and leapt around the corner, only for hidden compartments in the walls and ceiling to snap open, casting ropes and chains onto him from all sides, tangling themselves around his body and limbs and bringing him down in a heap. He roared and struggled to break free, but they only tightened themselves around him, and soon he was completely immobile.
"Why don't you try to help him?" said Helena, who had appeared in the doorway leading outside to freedom. "I have an ingenious trap waiting for you and I'd love to see it put to use."
Kanelle roared and spat fire at the witch, but she blocked it with a wave of her staff.
"Such poor manners. To think for a moment I had believed you two had actually become cooperative... You almost had me fooled. I knew I should have insisted on keeping both of you gagged, and that is a mistake I will not make again." Helena began to walk towards her. "Surrender, and maybe I will consider not locking you up together like I did when you refused to cooperate. Or just activate that trap; I'd love to see it work, for I spent a lot of time on it."
She launched another fireball and leapt around the corner while the witch was distracted, and by the time Helena had blocked the flames Kanelle had landed right in front of her. The dragoness knocked the staff out of her hands with one paw, sending it clattering away, then slammed her to the ground with the other and roared in her face.
Helena managed to raise one hand, and out of the corner of her eye Kanelle saw her staff begin to slide back over towards her; she caught it in her free paw and held it tight, out of the witch's reach. "Let him go," she snarled, "and maybe I won't kill you for what you did to us."
"That's hardly an incentive."
"It's all you deserve after putting us through such torture."
Helena squirmed beneath her paw and she pressed down harder, drawing a couple of ominous cracks from the little human's chest. "I need my staff to disable the magic."
"If you try anything I will kill you," she growled.
"Ah, but are you so sure the spells would disappear at my death? Or would they remain despite my passing, trap you next to him when you tried to cut him loose and leave both of you there to struggle helplessly until you starved to death?"
Kanelle put the staff in her hand, and she immediately thrust the head of the staff up towards the dragoness' neck. But Kanelle was ready for it, and dodged the strike, then pinned her arm down with one claw and put another at her throat. "I am out of patience!" she roared. "Would I like you to set him free? Yes, because he brought me some pleasure, and if not for him I would still be chained in your dungeon. But even if you forced us together he is not my mate, and it would not trouble me very much if I had to kill you, and leave him here to die. Your decision, witch."
A long silence, then Helena mumbled a few words and Kanelle heard Mordannis' restraints fall away--she didn't dare look anywhere but down at the witch beneath her claws. "And the collar," he said, followed by a clank as that detached itself, as well, then she pried the staff out of Helena's hands and tossed it away.
"You forced him to violate me," Kanelle snarled, "and in doing so you violated him, as well. Give us a reason not to kill you for it."
"I... I never meant for anyone to be hurt," she finally said. "I only wanted one egg, and knowing your kind can have clutches and clutches of them over a span of hundreds of years I did not think one egg was so hard to give. Admittedly, I should have listened more when you two refused my request so strongly, but--"
Mordannis saw her staff begin to slide along the ground towards her again and struck down with a claw, slashing her throat open to the spine and spilling her blood onto the dark red carpet beneath her; she shuddered, and died. "Lying even with her last breath," he growled. "Let's go."
The two of them leapt skyward and left Helena's castle forever.
They flew to Mordannis' cave, which was closer, to rest and recover from their escape. His shoulder felt odd where he had rammed the wall and his right foreleg didn't want to move, and both of them had taken a few arrows through the wings in their flight over the outer walls of the castle. But those injuries would heal with time.
They did not talk at all, the first day there. But the next morning Mordannis awoke to find Kanelle crying silently, sitting up near the cave entrance. He walked over to her and touched his nose to the base of her neck; he didn't have to ask what was wrong, and whispered, "I'm here, if you need me."
She turned away and growled, "you cannot comfort me." But then she must have realized how that sounded, and added, "it isn't your fault that she forced you on me, but it still means your scales cannot comfort mine." So he left her alone, until she stopped crying and flew away to hunt.
They reunited at the cave late that afternoon, both fresh from finding prey on the slopes of the surrounding mountains, and ended up sharing their kills on the floor of his cave. Despite her words earlier, Kanelle did not shy away when their jowls touched while they fed, and didn't seem to mind sprawling out next to him to rest off the meal.
"What are we going to do now?" he asked after lying with her for a while.
"Go our separate ways."
Mordannis paused, stung by her short answer. "But we have mated... We should remain together, as a pair, and raise clutches together. That is what mates do."
"No. If we had met of our own free will, maybe it could be possible, but after what that witch put us through... I still feel vulnerable and afraid whenever I see you, and I don't want to live with that for the rest of my life. I know we've mated, and even mated once without her forcing us together, but there were never true feelings between us; you must understand that."
He looked away. "I suppose you meant it when you threatened to leave me to die, then."
"Never!" she said, eyes going wide. "I could never have done that to you after how you helped me, I just had to threaten her properly... If I had been forced to kill her, I would have found a way to set you free."
"I'm glad to hear it. But we've been through a lot together, now, things that other dragons would not understand. Another dragon would not want to tolerate a dragoness who goes tense and fearful whenever the prospect of mating is brought up, or who can never seem to be happy because of something that happened in her past. You would have difficulty finding another dragon who would love you."
"But how could you, after what that witch did to us?" she looked up at him, tears beading in her eyes. "It was evil that brought us together, and if you have any attraction to me because of that it is for my body, not myself. We cannot be together."
"And what if she was right? What if there are no other dragons left?"
"I will return to you if I ever feel that is the case, but that will not be for at least a decade. I just-- I can't spend any more time with you, not when it reminds me so strongly of what happened. Not now."
He didn't offer his support again. "Even if it's hard, you have to stay with me until we can be sure we did not conceive."
"No. I know my way to my home from here, and it is not more than two days' flight. I will go there, for now, and return if I feel eggs growing."
She said this softly, but with a lot of force behind the words, and he could not argue. "I hope you will have some luck in your search for other dragons, then. And even if I don't want to remember what we were forced to do to each other, I'll never forget that you saved me from her."
Kanelle stood slowly and stretched, then nuzzled him once on the snout. "And I will never forget how you encouraged me to do all I could to escape. Goodbye, Mordannis."
He lowered his head. "Goodbye, Kanelle."
The green dragoness turned and flew away from him as quickly as she could.