FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

_At over 23 000 words, this is my longest story so far, and most of it is truly "story". Actual smut doesn't happen until about the final fourth, so be warned. _

I always appreciate any feedback I might get! Thank you!

***

I crawled onto the shore, lungs burning from the coughed-up sea water. My hands were trembling, and my muscles were on fire as I clawed my way forward, leaving a trail of misery in the sand.

That stupid… incompetent… unforgivable, petty, demented, prideful CUNT!

I could not think straight. All the lives. All this time. Everything we'd done and suffered, and for what? So that one dickhead can fuck it all up!?

I rolled over and propped myself up on my hands, watching the last remains of the wreckage sinking under the relentless waves.

I told him we shouldn't take shortcuts.

No, he's the captain!

I told him there's a reason no one sails through these waters!

No, he's the captain!!

I told him if he hit the reefs, I would blow his head off while we sank, then beat his bloody ghost until the ocean devoured our souls!

No, he's the fucking captain!!!

I got up to my knees, mustering the last remains of my strength, my throat sore from blood and salt.

“I hope you are happy now on the bottom of the sea, you FUCKING IMBECILE!!!"

I collapsed on the wet ground a soggy, battered mess of a man. I have no idea how long I laid there. Could have been hours, could have been days for all I knew. When I finally got up, the drifting pieces of the ship had vanished, the sea having finally taken them into its embrace. There were scarcely any remains on the shore. No tracks, no marks in the sand. Not a foot had stepped in this place beside my own.

It was a miracle I had made it onto the shore at all. As soon as I remembered to, I voiced a quick thanks to the gods for it. The sea had been my enemy, pulling me back into the open waters with every kick, every stroke of my hands. But I made it. I was the only one… but I made it.

And now I was stranded on The Southern Reaches of the continent.

I began to rethink whether I was the lucky one… or the sailors who had found their peace in the arms of the sea.

I turned away from the ocean and eyed the bushy plains beyond the beach. There was no civilization in the Southern Reaches. No human cities, no dwarven tunnels, no orcish strongholds. Only creatures that could tear me apart with a single bite of their teeth.

It was untamed wilderness.

I scavanged the shore for any useful flotsam I could find. I was on the eastern coast. My best chance was to cross down to the southwest, where a canal separated the two great landmasses. Ships were bound to sail through there. I would signal one to save me from this place.

It was a long trip. I would need to survive months out in the wild.

There wasn't much at the beach. Only pity and sorrow over the lost lives and a good ship. Standing where the sand gave way to tall grass, I spared a last look at the sea and voiced a quick prayer for my fallen comrades.

Then for myself.

Showing my back to the ocean, a sailor had embarked inland, with only the shoes on my feet, the clothes on my back and my frayed dignity to my name, as well as an unbreakable will to go on.

***

Within a week, my dignity was torn apart like the tatters of my clothes and my will was bound to follow. I had walked miles and miles across the plains and forests, following the jagged foothills as my guide.

I couldn't sleep without a shelter, the sounds of the creatures scattering in the dark made me jumpy and paranoid.

I had eaten nothing but berries for days. I had no weapons to hunt and didn't know how to make one. Even if I did, I wasn't a hunter. I was a sailor. I tied knots and worked the deck, not hunted and skinned meat. I found all kinds of fruits, but I didn't recognize most of them and knew I could easily poison myself instead of nourishing myself. So I had foregone eating at all.

I had barely drunk anything the whole day. I found a stream but had no way to carry water along and staying achieved nothing. So, I went.

The sun had just touched the mountaintops when I spotted something that made my heart jump. A smoke trail. It was rising from the foothills of, where soil gave way to rock.

I was beside myself. Smoke meant fire. It wasn't a forest fire, that much was clear. It was a singular, narrow strip of smoke among rocks. A campfire. Campfire meant people.

Someone else had made it out.

I almost ran with excitement at the prospect of seeing another face. Another crewmember. But as I neared the campsite, worry replaced my joy.

What if it's not crew? I thought. What if it's someone else? Natives. Some primitive tribe living in the Reaches?

I was too hopeful, and too desperate, to stop. I closed the distance between me and the foothills with speed I had thought myself incapable of.

And found no one.

The smoke came from beneath a rocky overhang in the mountainside. There were remains of a small deer at the lazily built fireside – just a pile of burning sticks and bones – the meat cooked and half eaten, the skin thrown by the entrance.

A group wouldn't leave the place unattended. That meant a lone traveler.

My hope began to rise again.

I squatted by the deer remains, wandering how on earth did they manage to kill it. The bastard probably had a weapon. If only I had had such luck… Surely, whoever it was wouldn't mind if I ate some, would they?

I picked up a meaty rib and bit into it with more gusto than ever before. It felt like the best meal of my life. The meat was still hot and I ate so quickly my stomach ached and I had to take a breather.

As I looked around the shelter, I debated the wisdom of awaiting the traveler's return. It could be one of the crew. Most likely. But it could also not. I decided to wrap some of the meat in a few big leaves and stick it in my pockets. Then I'd wait outside and watch who came back.

I was packing the second strip of meat when I noticed something on the stone wall. A scratch mark. Long, widely spaced lines ran through the rock on one side of the cave. Way, way too deep lines. Turning around, panicking, I now noticed a footprint in the shallow dirt around the fire. Big… clawed footprint.

Terror ran over me as I realized my mistake.

Fuck.

I quickly tried to tear of the piece of meat I held and get away as soon as possible, when a loud, scratchy noise came from the rockface.

FUCK!

As I dropped everything and ran for the exit, a shadow fell over the mountain shelter. And there it was. A big, black silhouette stood under the overhang, its wings blocking out the sunlight.

I swallowed as the dragon took a step closer, slowly, as if advancing on a prey it didn't want to corner.

I was in awe and horror as I gazed at a creature of myth.

It was small. That is, smaller than the city-razing beasts from legends and folktales. Its head was the size of my torso. Its long, downward-facing legs and slender, aerodynamic body were different from the fat, lizard-like depictions from paintings and heraldry. Unlike the mismatch of curved ram horns or antlers that I would have expected, the two black horns growing from the back of its head were sleek and smooth like a raven's beaks, and a row of flexible spines ran along its back from neck to tail. Its claws were long and sharp like talons and its obsidian scales danced with the reflected light from the fire.

Even on all fours, it was looking down on me, its burning, red eyes scanning me, running over my weak, malnourished form peeking from the torn, disintegrating clothes like it was judging my worth as a meal.

Its gaze wandered to the half-eaten deer, then back to me. I swallowed emptily.

The dragon then opened its mouth and spoke, a deep, rumbling growl that could hardly be recognized as words.

“Aknaglurr'aveg kal'rogg'mzr vhrt'en."

Great, I thought. Draconic. I don't speak draconic!

“Uhm… hello," I stammered, sheepishly. “I didn't know it was your… I didn't mean to intrude. You don't happen to speak common, do you?"

The dragon watched, unperturbed, then hurled more words in its snarling tongue.

“Great. So you don't understand me. Because I sure can't understand you." I stepped away to the right, trying to keep my distance from the advancing beast. “Listen, I know you don't know what I'm saying, but… this was all just a misunderstanding. I really don't see the point in killing me, you know."

I was pinned against the wall now, the dragon's wing standing between me and daylight. Its face came up to mine, staring down my eyes, its nostrils breathing in my foul odor.

Then, as I was making peace with my fate, the dragon withdrew its wing.

It took a moment for me to register what was happening. The dragon stood, unmoving, between me and the deer, muttering more growl-like words.

“Khavr'teh grunr!"

I still couldn't understand, but I got the message. I slowly crept towards the exit, not letting my eyes off the beast, until I felt soft dirt beneath my feet. Scared to my bones, I wanted to run, but something stopped me. Afraid the dragon might give chase, I pulled the stolen strip of meat from my pocket and, covered in a leaf, I laid it on the ground.

“Thank you," I muttered, for nothing in particular. Not killing me, most likely.

Backing away, as soon as the black figure vanished from my view, I turned on my heels and made haste away from the foothills, tripping over my feet and every rock on the way. I stopped at the forest line and shot a glance at the overhang. The beast did not pursue. Not wanting to chance it, I disappeared among the sparse trees, putting as much distance between me and the mountains as possible before the night fell.

***

Why did I do that?

Why the FUCK did I do that?

I spun the twig between my palms until my skin bruised while I mentally flogged myself. The night fell. I was cold, I was hungry, and I was furious at how fucking stupid I had been for giving the meat back!

What did I hope to achieve? Prove my honesty? Earn its gratitude? It was already LETTING ME GO!

Smoke began to rise from the dry grass and lichen I have been using as kindling and I redoubled my efforts. The two pieces of wood were heating up as my rapid movements produced friction. In a minute, a light appeared as some of the kindling caught fire. I blew onto it until the flame grew satisfactorily, then quickly threw any dry sticks I could find on the smoldering pile.

It wasn't a big fire.

The nights were warmer than on the sea, but I had exhausted myself in the past few days and I began to feel sick. I would need to find a way to warm myself or I would sneeze myself to death before hunger could take me.

Nothing was looking good for me.

I huddled myself close to the flame, determined to fall asleep before it burned out. It would not last the night, I knew, but if it held out while I was awake, I would be grateful.

It did not.

The howling of the wind and rustling of leaves were making the hair on the back of my neck stand as I watched the last remnants of the little light flicker and die before dreams found me. I did not have the will and energy to try and save it. I laid on the ground and drifted off watching the last sparks rise into the darkness.

***

I awoke feeling warm and rested and instantly knew something was wrong.

I was not shivering. That was the first sign. I had been travelling for over a week now, spent my nights sleeping on the cold ground with only grass to soften it, twitching at every noise made by the forest. I had never felt well rested. I sat up to take a look around and quickly discovered I had been right. Something was wrong.

The fire was burning.

And not the tiny, flickering flame I had made last night. In its place was a full-blown campfire, with piled branches fueling the blaze and rocks to prevent it from spreading. I pondered whether I could have made that last night and was so out of it I could not recall.

Then I noticed the dead hare beside it. It had been gutted and partially skinned; the meat cold but still fresh.

I suppressed the chill running down my spine.

Whoever did this, knew how to hunt and process meat, and had a reliable method of making fire. And they could move silently enough not to wake me.

My mind was racing, looking for an explanation that made sense. Could it have…

No! Not, that's bullshit!

I squashed down my worries and inspected the rabbit. If someone was around who didn't want me to die here, then I better take advantage of it. In about an hour, I had cooked and eaten most of the meat there was, just in time to see the fire going out. I packed the rest in leaves, doused the flame with dirt and set out again.

The whole time, I kept turning my head, scanning for anyone that could be following me. I even caught myself glancing at the sky a few times. No one. I was completely alone out there.

Well, except for all the animals shuffling around. Birds were chirping from every tree, a few squirrels jumped between branches, and I even saw a stag amidst the tall grass further up on a hill. If I wasn't fighting for my life out there, the place would actually be rather beautiful.

Until I ran across something that made me stop dead in my tracks. A footprint. A bare, human looking foot had stamped its shape in a patch of mud recently. Only, this print was about twice as big as a human foot should.

Orc. Obvious on a first glance. Couldn't have been anything else.

I swallowed emptily and cautiously stepped past the mud, continuing along the forest line. I had no clue what kinds of indigenous tribes inhabited the Southern Reaches, but orcs were never a good sign. Nerves on edge, I began imagining what I would do if I found myself actually fighting for my life.

***

A few days later, the situation repeated.

I awoke to find that my fire hadn't gone out yet. Unlikely, but plausible. I had gotten better at making campfires in the last days. Then, as I gathered myself to douse it, I had noticed the dead fish lying by.

This was the second time I had discovered an unexplained hunk of meat by my camp. Except that wasn't all there was this time. Lying by was also a length of rope and… a knife.

This was no coincidence. Someone was following me, helping me. But who? Could it be natives? Maybe they weren't bad at all and just wanted to help a starving soul. But then why not show themselves? Were they also afraid of me?

I had a hard time imagining an orc scared of a hungry little human. But then again… the other option seemed even less likely.

I picked up the knife and inspected the blade. It was a fishing knife, the kind sailors used to gut their catches. The same kind some of my own crew had carried. The blade was a little rusty and the edge a little dull in places, but it would do! I proceeded to cook and savor the familiar meal. It was a freshwater fish, a kind I did not recognize, but it was enough to stir up nostalgia.

That evening, I tried setting a trap. Not for my Samaritan, of course, the last thing I wanted was to scare away the help I was receiving. I used the rope to tie a slipknot and covered it with leaves, then put some foraged berries in the middle. Hopefully they weren't poisonous and whatever animal would come across their scent would come to eat them, then get its leg caught in the noose.

I tied the other end to the trunk of a small tree then walked back to my selected campsite. I couldn't hang out too close to the trap or my scent would scare away the animals. I could only hope that it wouldn't linger too strongly.

Night fell before I was done and so I grew increasingly paranoid on my way back. I could hear something move in the shadows. It was there and I knew it, but every time I turned around all I saw were trees. My heart was going to jump out of my chest.

I emerged from the forest onto the clearing where I had gathered my firewood and then I finally saw it! An orc was squatting by the pile, inspecting the arrangement of twigs. He lifted his head as I came to a halt and looked right at me. There was a bone chilling mirth in his yellow eyes as he stood up, his barrel of a chest in level with my head, and walked my way, the sticks snapping loudly beneath his bare foot. And from the shadows around him, more orcs appeared.

I swallowed and slowly backed away. These weren't the “civilized" orcs of the north, with their curved swords and strange honor codes. They were wielding stone-tipped spears and brutish clubs, clad in adornments of string and bone, their green faces painted red and white with blood and soot. Fur pelts and skirts of straw covered their loins. No armor, no proper clothing. These were tribal warriors scouting the edges of their territory. Or worse, hunters on a prowl, looking for their next meal.

Which, in this case, would be me.

I turned around and ran the way I came, hoping to lose them amid the vegetation. They did not give chase, and it became clear why, as I hadn't made it five steps before I ran into more orcs, their broad silhouettes stepping out of the darkness.

I was surrounded.

There was nowhere left to go, nothing I could do but watch as one of the orcs stepped forth towards me, casually lifting his club, ready to deal the fatal blow. This is how I would die. To an effortless, whimsical strike. I felt the ground underneath me giving way. Even If I remembered the knife on me, I would be lucky to land a scratch before getting my head caved in.

I breathed in, feeling the scissors closing around the thread of my fate… when a shadow darkened the stars overhead. The orcs saw it first. They looked up at the sky and screamed warcries as lunging mass of darkness fell upon them. The silhouette shifted and bodies were flung away. A terrifying roar filled the night. Weapons swung and bounced off scales. Claws flashed, blood sprayed. The orc towering before me charged their assailant and was swatted away by a tail, landing far off in the trees. His body convulsed, fueled by bottomless rage, but failed to rise.

Within minutes, the pack scattered, retreating into the woods and vanishing in the sea of shadows. They left nothing and no one behind. I watched as even the most grievously injured rose from the pools of their blood, hobbling away supported by their spears. I glanced around the spot my attacker had been flung to. Not a sign of him remained.

Back north, I would never have guessed to see orcs fleeing for their lives. Their honor would not allow it and their honor, as everyone knew, was something rooted deep in their nature. But there were things even orcs feared. And now, I had, – again – found myself alone with one such creature.

The dragon stood in the middle of the clearing, unmoving, a low growl escaping it as it breathed heavy, rumbling breaths. It shifted its gaze to me as I clumsily tried to regain my footing and quieted down, its eyes standing out in the darkness like a pair of embers.

I was still shaken up from everything that had gone down. I had narrowly escaped death, no thanks to my bravery, and I was now face to face with a dragon. I wanted to run, to find a hole to hide in and wither away. I wanted to be back on the sea.

But as terrified as I was, I couldn't move. There was nowhere for me to go and knowing there were orcs out there was not encouraging my wanderer's spirit.

I faced my savior as it silently stared me down.

“…why?" I asked, knowing I wouldn't get an answer. The dragon breathed out an irritated sound and turned away from me. It laid down on the ground in the middle of the clearing where I planned to make my camp and licked the specks of blood from its claws.

I was left to awkwardly stand, watching the unmoving beast occupying my campsite. “Are… are you just going to stay here?"

I wasn't sure what possessed me to question a dragon and I had regretted it all once it turned its gaze back to me. We couldn't understand each other, but it was safe to assume it could distinguish my tone. Luckily, I couldn't see any malice in its eyes, only mild curiosity.

I tried gesturing towards it with my outstretched palms and that somehow seem to get the point across. The dragon said something in its unfamiliar tongue, pointing with its head towards the forest. Faced with my blank stare, it repeated the words very slowly, pointing a claw in the same direction, then to the ground. I got the meaning this time.

They – back.

Of course, the orcs were bound to return. They would never suffer defeat without thirsting for retribution. Even beside that, I was their target now. Whether prey or intruder, as soon as the dragon was gone, they would be on my ass again, and this time they would finish the job.

The dragon was staying to protect me.

I knew not what to say. What would my words even mean to it? I intruded on its territory and stole its food… and for some reason it decided to help me!

“Was this you?" I asked, showing it the knife. The dragon looked at it but said nothing, laying its head back down. “I guess it was, wasn't it? Who else?" I mumbled more to myself than the beast. “Were you following me?"

No response again. The dragon curled its long tail around itself, covering its head under one of its wings. I reckoned that was the end of the conversation.

I laid down on the ground as well, clutching the knife close. I knew it wouldn't be of any help if the orcs returned, but it made me feel safer. I was too tired to try and start a fire and wanted nothing more than to give in to dreams. I listened to the quiet sounds of the dragon's slow breathing, hoping sleep would help calm the storm brewing in my mind.

***

When I woke up, the dragon was gone. I half considered whether it had all been just a terrible dream, but there were still signs of battle all around me. Sleep had not helped at all. I felt like it all hit me just now, my heart pounding like a drum as the events recounted in my head.

I could not stay a minute longer in that place, I wanted to get away as far as possible. At the very least I had remembered to check my trap before I left. I didn't want to go back to the forest, but alas. After a minute I had found it and cursed! The trap had been sprung, but the noose was torn clean off. One of the orcs must have stumbled into it.

“Fuck!"

I yelled for a good while, letting out all the bottled emotions before untying the remaining rope and winding it over my shoulder. I set out again, following the mountains southeast, this time trying to stay as close to the foothills as possible. I did not feel safe in the shade of the trees anymore. The hunger started to get to me again and I had barely found any water all day. I made it my priority to find a means to store water as soon as possible.

Come midday, I had managed to find a growing patch of gourds. I rejoiced! This could take care of my food and water problem. I picked one and cut off the top. The inside didn't taste very well, but I was yet to hear of a poisonous gourd, so I scooped up all of it until completely hollowed out. I ate until I could stomach no more, then chose a decently sized shell that could still fit in my pocket that I could use to store water. I didn't have the means to carry any more than one gourd with me on the journey, but I also felt like I never wanted to see one again, so I marked down the day as a win and moved on.

I had decided to make camp early today and found a nice spot in the foothills amid some tall rocks. I had already gathered some firewood as I travelled, so I didn't have to creep through the forest in the dark, ever afraid that the band of orcs might be tracking me. I decided to fight my paranoia and started working on the fire.

I heard it before I saw it. When the first stars began to show, my hands were all bruised from spinning the twig and I wasn't any closer to starting a fire. It wasn't good firewood, but I hadn't found anything dryer. Then a sound, deep and rhythmical, like the beating of massive wings washed over the foothills and dragged my attention skyward. The dragon's black figure descended upon my campsite and landed… in its claws a body of a small deer. Fresh kill.

I could do naught but blink. The dragon had – again – showed up at my camp, bringing food to offer. It didn't seem in any hurry to leave though. It laid the deer on the stone ground, already skinned, and began to divide it into pieces with nothing but its claws. The titanic muscles of its forelimbs bulged through the armor-like scales as it disassembled its meal, the black, glossy skin shifting like the ocean surface. It was a minute or two before I caught myself staring and shook my eyes away from the dragon's biceps.

I tried to keep calm and continued on my fire, pretending we didn't see each other. Then the wyrm made a sound to draw my attention and pushed a chunk of meat my way. I shuffled over and picked it up. It was more than enough for one man, even a starving one like me. It would likely make for a breakfast as well.

“Uhm… thank you!" I said to the dragon. Gods, putting the act into words truly showed how ridiculous the situation I had found myself in was. The beast didn't seem to share my sentiment. Its red eyes appraised me inquisitively, as if trying to assess whether its gift was enough.

I laid the meat back on the ground and looked around for my stick. Noticing what I was doing, the dragon appeared to have a different idea. It stood up and leaned over my to-be campfire, its mouth opening wide like a hungry sea serpent, showing the neat row of white, razor-sharp teeth as it inhaled. A burst of flame erupted from its gullet, short but bright enough to blind me in the gloomy dusk. I blinked the flash away until my vision cleared. The dragon licked its thin lips and returned to its portion of the deer, my bundle of wood now engulfed in fire, throwing sparks into the darkening sky.

I looked at the pitiful stick left in my hand. “That does it," I commented and thew it into the flames. I picked up the long, straight branch I was planning to sharpen into a makeshift spear and pulled out my knife. Once the tip was nice and pointy, I used it to skewer the meat and hold it above the fire. It could still serve as a spear afterwards.

Fifteen minutes later, the meat was still not cooked all the way through. I cut it up into smaller pieces already, but it took its time, and my spear was starting to look a bit charred. The dragon, at least, seemed to have finished gutting the animal and picked it up again. Instead of tearing into it as it was, it lifted it above its head by one leg and inhaled deeply, spewing a cone of flame directly over it. I shielded my eyes until the fire stopped. Apparently satisfied, the dragon now finally tore a piece of meat off and chewed on it.

The smell of cooked flesh (which did not come from my own skewer) washed over me and my mouth filled with saliva. My belly made a rumbling sound making the dragon stop mid bite and shoot a bewildered glance my way, an oversized piece of deer filling its mouth. We awkwardly faced each other, then I looked apologetically at my skewer. The creature appeared unsure for a moment, then proceeded to tear off a piece from its own portion with its claws and laid it in front of me. It waited, watching me until I picked it up and responded.

“Thanks," I said and took a bite. It was rather charred, almost burned, but still good. I ate the piece while my skewer cooked, and the dragon returned to munching on its own dinner. I almost didn't notice I was getting the edges burned while I was busy licking my fingers and proceeded to hastily take the meat off the stick.

Once we finished eating, we threw the bones into the fire. All but one femur that the dragon seemed to enjoy cleaning off. I watched it until the moon was up high, studying the way its limbs moved, the way its scales overlapped and connected all together. They got smaller towards its neck and chest, fading into a paler grey than the rest of its black body.

The more I observed it, the less threatening the dragon appeared. Not any less dangerous. I had no illusions about its capacity for violence, especially after the previous night. But, watching it now, it put me less in mind of a rampaging monster and more of a… person. Even munching on a bone like a dog, the dragon seemed more graceful somehow. It held the bone in its forelimb, the five clawed fingers somewhat reminiscent of a human hand.

No. Not a beast at all…

“What is your name?" I asked once we began to doze off. The dragon glanced at me but didn't show a sign of understanding. “Edmund," I said, pointing to my chest. “Edmund. You?" I pointed towards it.

It stared at me for a minute before answering quietly: “Eisherath."

“Eisherath," I repeated, savoring the syllables like an unfamiliar meal.

“Mind if I call you Eishe?"

No answer.

“Well, thank you, Eishe. For everything."

My sentiment seemed to fall on deaf ears. Indifferent, Eisherath closed their eyes and embraced sleep.

***

Surprised, I awoke to find Eishe still lying beside the burned-out fireplace. Unsurprisingly, they didn't say much, even in response to my “good morning".

The meat had indeed lasted me till dawn, so I ate the remains and drank the last drops of water from the gourd. It wasn't dried yet and the water tasted after it, but right then, it was the best water I'd ever had.

“Hey, do you know where to find water?" I asked, pointing in the empty gourd. When that didn't work, I mimicked the motion of drinking, which seemed to get the point across. With a yawn that offered me a front row view of their razor-sharp teeth, Eisherath got to their feet and with a mighty leap took to the skies. The force of their wings blew the ashes from the campfire all around and over me. I coughed and brushed it off as well as I could. When I looked up, after a while I found the dragon's silhouette flying in circles some half an hour west.

I collected my few possessions and set forth as signaled, using my “spear" as a walking stick. It took a bit longer than I had hoped and it was a slight detour from my course, but eventually I emerged on a clearing with a small lake hidden away in the middle of the grove. Indeed, I never would have found it had I stuck to my original route.

Eishe dove from the sky like an arrow and glided over the water, landing right in the middle of the lake. I watched as the dragon disappeared beneath the surface, then reemerged in an explosion of splashes, gracefully gliding through the water like a mythical sea creature.

I looked down at my grime encrusted skin and filthy clothes. I had long since stopped noticing my odor, but that hardly meant I had grown comfortable with my current state.

“Well, I would have been satisfied with something to drink, buuut…"

I wiggled out of my clothing and cautiously walked into the water. It was cold but refreshing. I haven't felt that awake ever since the shipwreck washed me up on the shore. I found myself enjoying floating freely in the lake, no dirtied clothing sticking to my skin, no worn-down shoes constraining my feet. If it wasn't for the creeping feeling of exposedness, I would even say I was having fun. At least the dragon seemed busy for the moment.

I scrubbed off all the accumulated filth from myself, then fetched my clothes from the rocky lakeside. My trousers and undergarments had seen better days, but after some thorough laundering and wringing, they were clean and perfectly wearable considering the circumstances. My shirt, on the other hand, was done for. It was torn in so many places, it resembled sails after canon fire more than clothing. Still, I washed the garment thoroughly then let it dry on a big stone. If nothing else, I could always salvage it for fabric.

I relaxed in the lake, waiting for my clothes to dry, when a wave rolled over me as Eisherath clambered on the shore. The dragon walked right by me, its large figure looming above, and, after shaking off the excess water, they laid down on the pebbly ground.

Correction: she laid down on the ground.

I turned away and tried to shake that image out of my head. All of a sudden, I became irrationally aware of my own nakedness. I sat awkwardly in the lake, waiting for the sun to dry my clothes while the dragon stretched herself across the shore, drying off her scales. I knew I shouldn't be worrying about my nudity. Eishe didn't seem to care about her own… exposure either. Plus, it's not like it was any different than if she had been male! But to my stupid human head, filled since childhood with rules of modesty and proper behavior in front of women, this felt all kinds of weird.

Once my clothes seemed sufficiently dry, I crawled out of the lake and went to get dressed. To my displeasure, Eishe, who until then had seemed asleep, raised her head and glanced my way, watching what I was doing with curiosity. I stood facing away from her and used the fabric of my shirt as a towel. There was no way I was waiting for the sun to dry me.

“Why don't dragons wear clothes anyway?" I said as I fastened my belt on. “You're smart, you could make some if you wanted to." The feeling of clean clothes after such a long time made me feel all correct again. Eishe seemed confused but intrigued at my apparent joy from putting on some woven pieces of linen. It was then that I realized she must not have seen many humans before. If any at all.

“I suppose if I had armor for skin and fire in my chest I wouldn't much worry about clothes either."

I sat down by her and stared at the lake. I kept my shoes off for now, enjoying the feeling of the round pebbles beneath my feet. “Do dragons even get cold?" I looked at her, meeting her fiery eyes. It's not like she could answer me anyway. If only I could get through this stupid language barrier…

An idea sparked in my head. I walked over to the forest edge where the pebbles gave way to dirt and picked up a pointy stick. Eishe craned her neck to watch and when she realized I was drawing, got up and sat beside me. In a few seconds, I had before me a map of the Southern Reaches as I knew it from memory.

“We," I said, pointing to the two of us, “are here." I drew a wide circle at the eastern side of the continent, right west of the mountain range I had been following, which separated me from the shore.

I was hoping Eishe might have a good picture of the continent from her aerial travels. And I was correct! She had caught on quicker than I expected, for she smudged my circle and mountains, drawing a more accurate version with her claw. She finished by marking our precise location with a dot.

“Shit," I muttered. It was way off the course I had plotted. Northwest of my circle. It seemed my inaccurate memory of the Reaches gad led me astray from my goal. I needed to go south-south-west. I drew an X at the southernmost point of the continent, right at the canal separating the two landmasses.

“I need to go there!" I said and drew a line from our current location, along the mountain range, all the way to the canal. “There are ships. With humans." I said as I sketched a sailboat in the dirt signifying ocean. I then drew a stick figure of a human. “Human," I repeated, pointing to myself.

Eishe looked at my sketch with a face I could not quite discern. I had found it surprisingly easy to read her emotions despite her limited mouth movement. Most of it was in her eyes. And now, they were signaling something was wrong. It was the look of someone with bad news, who didn't know quite how to say them.

She traced her claw along the dirt, copying the figure I had drawn. Hers was larger though and it stood by the X at the canal. Then, she added two pointy tusks at the figure's mouth.

An orc.

My heart sank as Eishe scratched a jumble of lines between the two landmasses. The orcs had blocked the canal.

That was it then. My one way out of this place. If the orcs had managed to block in the canal, then they were ambushing ships. Primitive as they might be, they were more than capable of pulling off this kind of scheme. No ship would be there to get me…

I fell back to the dirt and stared at the sky. I couldn't help but laugh.

If the ship hadn't crashed, we might have met that exact fate, ambushed and ransacked by a bunch of orc pillagers. In a way, that incompetent idiot had saved my life. What a fucking joke!

“What now?" I asked.

Eishe looked unsure. She kept looking at me and off into nowhere for a while. Then, she raised her claw and put a new X on the map, high in the mountains.

I stared at this new development with quiet incomprehension. “Why?" I asked. “What's in there?" I spread my arms, begging for an answer.

She seemed to understand and drew half a circle above my image of a human. Shelter, I deciphered.

What did that mean? An old structure? A cave? I weighed my options and decided I did not care. It wasn't far. Only a little east from our dot on the map. But it was in the mountains, a hard terrain to travel. It would be a tough journey. But what options did I have?

Eishe then hovered over her sketch of an orc and crossed it out with her claw. No orcs there.

It was decided.

“Alright," I nodded. “We go there." And I drew a line to my new goal.

***

On our way to the mountains, I began gathering provisions on the go. I had tied my former shirt to my spear stick like a sack and filled it with whatever fruits or vegetables I came across. Eishe helped me identify which of them were edible. Or at least, whatever the orcs ate. And when orcs stopped to add a plant to their diet, you know it was the good stuff!

“What about this?" I asked, producing something resembling a large orange raspberry. Eishe examined it closely, sniffed it, then nodded “yes". I had managed to explain what nodding “yes" and “no" meant, which made communication a whole lot easier. I picked off some berries from the small bush and threw them in the sack. I didn't bother picking the shrub clean, they likely wouldn't last through the journey anyway, assuming they didn't get squished between the other stuff.

“And what about this?" I produced a small, red berry. This one, though, I recognized. They called it raven's eyes, and it was often used to make poisons. It could easily kill a grown man. Eishe scowled at the fruit and shook a strong “no".

“Are you sure? Looks good to me!" I said and jokingly maneuvered it towards my mouth. Eishe smacked it out of my hand so hard, she almost broke all my fingers.

“Ow! Okay, it was just a joke!" I laughed.

She did not look amused.

I felt a bit guilty for messing with her. Sure, part of it was harmless fun… but I also wanted to test if I could truly trust her. Both her judgement and in general. But she really did get worried…

“Alright, I'm sorry. Look, it was stupid."

Even if she couldn't understand a word I was saying, she at least got my placating tone and apologetic face. She rolled her eyes and continued walking, smacking me with her tail as she passed me.

The nights were getting colder. Not only each passing day, but with rising altitude as well. We had cleared the lush forest long ago and were now travelling vast fields of short grass and shriveled bushes, pierced in placed by rising rock walls. Eishe lit a fire every night, but wood was growing scarce, and it rarely lasted until morning. With no trees to shield us, the winds were strong, their howls kept me up at night as they blew cold air over me and killed our fire. We took shelter wherever we could find it, but most of the time Eishe simply lay in the direction of the winds, shielding the fire, and myself, from them with her body.

At least we were out of the orc territory.

Despite all our efforts, I found it hard to sleep and, as a result, I was becoming more and more tired, my pace getting slower each day. My back hurt from the cold, my eyes hurt from exhaustion and every day I would wake up closer to Eishe then when I fell asleep.

One morning when I awoke, I found myself practically snuggled up against her tail. Eisherath was eying me with confusion and possibly discomfort, but still refused to move until I got up and freed her from my confinement. Like when a kitten falls asleep on you and you don't wish to rouse it. I resorted to pretending it never happened, not that it made a difference.

When I relieved myself and gathered my few possessions, I found Eishe sitting on a high rock, staring at the grayed-out sky. I didn't like the look on her face. The clouds had been hounding us for several days by now, blocking out sunlight and magnifying the cold, but rain never came. They were building up to a storm.

We were still days away from our destination, but the weather would wait no longer. We needed to find shelter now.

Eishe flew above the fields and rocky peaks, scanning for a place to hide, but every time she descended back, her eyes were more and more frustrated. I was filling my gourd in a small stream when she landed next to me, heavy breathed and no less grumpy. The ridges along her back stood to attention like the feathers of a particularly grumpy cockatiel. She looked torn between collapsing to the ground and smashing a rock.

“Hey, don't overdo it!" I said and handed her the gourd. She looked at it quizzically, but then took it in her forelimb and poured the contents into her lipless maw. Her fingers brushed my hand as she did it. I didn't know why it lingered on my mind so. Her scales felt sharp and rigid against my skin, but also… smooth. And there was a sense of great heat coming from her as I touched her paw (…hand? What do you call it when it has a thumb?). I took back the gourd from her and slowly filled it up from the dripping stream again.

Thunder sounded overhead. A black wall of rain was fast approaching from the valley below.

Great. Perfect.

We hurried to the closest rock face that had the slightest bit of overhang, hoping it would help at least a little. And by we, I mean me. Eishe was there in a minute and finally fell from exhaustion, while I desperately tried to outrun the deluge.

By the time I reached her, the storm had caught up to me in all its strength. Heavy raindrops the size of grapes hammered into me, threatening to push me to my knees, the rocky soil was slippery with mud. The rock wall was not helping with the rain one bit. The wind blew from the opposite side, sending rainwater straight into my face. I leaned my back against it and slumped down to the ground. I didn't have a cloak, and my shirt now carried my food supplies, so I put my face to my knees and covered my head with my arms. I was cold and shivering. The torrential rain whipped and battered me from all sides but my back. At least we were uphill, so the water drained right off.

Dusk was fast approaching. Every night, the air got colder and colder and I was losing sleep as it was. If I was already freezing now, I had a hard time imagining enduring the night.

Eishe laid to the side, curled up in a circle. Her fiery-red eyes glowed from bellow her wing like two embers, watching my sad little existence with what I imagined must have been pity. For pitiful I truly felt. A pitiful human hiking through the mountains, trying to keep up with a bloody dragon. What a burden I must have been. Why would she even help me? Was I truly so pathetic that a dragon would feel sorry for me?

I was a complete failure! I was a terrible survivor, a shit hunter and a shit sailor! Not a month ago I knew my place in the world and now, I had it all torn away from me. I lost my crew, my shelter and my living. And without them, what did I have left? All my life I had poured my whole being into pursuing a craft and now that I lost it, I was lost too.

A sailor without a ship. A human without kin.

A man without a home.

A sound tore me from my brooding. Not the sound of thunder, but something closer, something right within reach. I blinked away the rainwater along with my gathering tears and saw.

Next to me, Eishe had lifted her wing, holding it like a roof over a dry patch of ground. I stared, dumbfounded. When I realized what she was suggesting, I hesitated. Despite our mutual trust, this level of openness from her took me by surprise. I wasn't entirely sure if I was alright with it myself, but in the end, the prospect of enduring a night in the shivering cold and the unbearable pummeling of the rain made the decision for me.

I rose to my feet and hobbled over to crouch under her wing. The liberating sense of being freed from under the weather's heel was like a load dropping from my back. Like I could breathe again. I wasn't sure what to do, so I sat down with my back to the dragon's midriff. I could feel the heat radiating from her body. Like sitting next to a furnace.

I glanced over to find Eishe looking at me with curious expectation. Right. She had spent the whole day scouting from the skies. She must have been way more tired than me. I was already amazed she hadn't collapsed yet when she offered to substitute for a tent and still, I was keeping her awake.

My clothes were all drenched. I opted to just get rid of my boots, for I didn't feel like undressing any more right then. I held them to my chest along with my provisions pouch and laid down along the dragon's body. My skin brushed against her scales again. They were far warmer than any living thing I knew, outright hot to the touch, their warmth washing over me like warm water in a bathhouse.

I met Eishe's eyes, still looking at me with strange interest. “Thank you," I said to her and she seemed to understand the words. I had said them to her enough. Eishe blinked once in acknowledgement.

She then curled up again, winding her tail around her body and hiding her head under her lowered wing. I found my face inched away from hers. I tried to compress myself so I wouldn't be pressing against her body but that was impossible. I settled into a comfortable position and tried to rest. The sounds of raindrops bouncing off the scaly membrane of Eishe's wing now a lullaby to my tired mind. And like that, looking at the face of a sleeping dragon, I gave in to dreams.

***

Waking up was rather confusing. I opened my eyes and for a moment couldn't tell what I was seeing, until a glance at my surroundings reminded me of yesterday's events. All around me were scales. Pitch black in most places, but with a few exceptions. There was light shining through Eishe's wing, highlighting the texture of the membrane, making it glow in a gray, almost pinkish hue.

A watched that mesmerizing display for a long while, not wanting to disturb Eishe's sleep with my wiggling. Then, she opened her eyes and watched my astonished face in turn.

Of course. Bold of me to assume I would have woken up before her. That would have been a first. She must have been waiting for me to wake up, not wanting to disturb me.

“Uh, good morning," I muttered awkwardly. She blinked in answer. It has become our morning ritual at this point. As she gradually recognized patterns in my words, I began recognizing those in her body language. It wasn't exactly a reliable way of communicating (yet) but we got by.

We stared at each other, unsure of what to do now. I was suddenly very aware of her warm scales pressing against my bare body and for some reason, I could feel my face starting to flush.

“Do you want to…" I gestured above at her wing until she got the message and rose up, releasing me from my confinement. I was welcomed by a blinding ray of sunlight shining down on the fields. The day was already in full motion, meaning I had slept in quite a while. The sun was high, illuminating the rock face like a giant mirror, the still wet grass resembling a field of diamonds.

Eishe stood on her hindlegs and shook herself dry, her flailing wings and tail spraying a shower of water high into the air. I envied her ability to weather a storm and not get cold. I was still shaken from the drastic change in temperature without Eishe's body heat, the chill air sending goosebumps down my naked back. My throat was hurting from the days of travelling the mountains and I was coughing constantly. I'd been sure my condition would worsen due to the rain. But, having spent the night in warmth again, I felt better.

We didn't really feel in a hurry. The previous day had left us both tired, like physically so mentally, and we didn't have time to stock up on provisions. We took a detour so that this time we could make a proper camp. On the way, I cut down some bushes for wood and refilled my water while Eishe hunted a dinner. She came back with a mountain goat, and so, both of us hungry, we made camp early.

Sitting by a fire again, I found myself feeling rather good. The turmoil of the previous day didn't seem as such a big deal in hindsight. I had all the necessities met. I had food, I had water, I had warmth, and soon enough I was bound to have shelter.

And I wasn't alone.

I watched Eishe hungrily sucking the marrow from the goat's bones. She ate almost the whole thing and still didn't have enough. Despite trying to pretend otherwise, she was tired from the constant flying back and forth. Whatever lifestyle dragons lived, it didn't include taking care of a homeless human. She was making sacrifices on my behalf from the start. Keeping close, sharing food. She would have eaten even less if I hadn't given her half of my portion, insisting one leg was enough. I was still hungry, but at least I had my bag of fruits.

Eishe eyed them as I threw berries in the air, catching them in my mouth. Sometimes.

“You want some? Or are you afraid I'll get poisoned?"

She didn't respond and I didn't stop throwing. I missed catching a blackberry (again) and it bounced off my chin and rolled towards her. She carefully picked it up in manner of impaling it on her claw and, with a suspicious glare, put it in her mouth. Immediately, she made a sour face and tried spitting it out, but by then, the berry was but a purple stain on her tongue. She kept sticking it out, vainly trying to get rid of the taste.

I laughed until my sides hurt while she grumbled something in her enigmatic language. “Wait, wait. Here!" I took pity and handed her my gourd. She took it from me with less skepticism this time and drank several deep gulps. Even as she handed it back, she was still baring her teeth at nothing in particular.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn't expect you'd like it."

I had thrown a few more berries, when I noticed Eishe watching me again. She wasn't scowling this time. Nor was she tracking the berries flying through the air. It was the same curious look I had caught her with before. Multiple times.

“What?" I asked. I wiped my hand across my face, where the berries impacted. It came back clean. I looked down at myself then behind but found nothing out of the ordinary.

“Why do you always do that? It's kind of making me nervous."

Eishe looked as though she wanted to say something. Then again, so did I. There was a lot I'd like to say, to know, but alas. Truth be told, I was surprised how much we had managed to tell, even through our silence. If this predicament was good for something, it made me appreciate all the things people didn't say aloud.

Maybe words weren't such important things after all.

Suddenly, something snatched Eishe's attention. Her head snapped up, nostrils flaring. I looked around the rocky peaks, searching for the source of her disturbance. I was hoping maybe another mountain goat had made it our way, or perhaps a hare. But animals tended to avoid Eishe wherever she went. Dragons didn't hunt by scent, they hunted from the skies. I had learned by observation that Eishe's main advantage was her eyesight. Whatever animal she would smell, would have smelled her first and bolted… unless the wind was in our favor.

“Forget it. It's probably nothi…"

A spear pierced the ground at my feet.

Both me an Eishe jumped up and turned to where the weapon came from. Orcs poured out from behind the rocks, one after another charging down on us, spears and clubs raised, faces covered with fresh warpaint.

Fuck!

I looked up to see another spear flying right at my face. I stood, petrified while Eishe jumped between me and the projectile, her though scales deflecting the throw.

There weren't meant to be any orcs in the mountains.

The attackers swarmed us from above with singular intent. They didn't waste any time, surrounding Eishe from all sides as obsidian spears collided with obsidian scales.

I recognized this group. Their weapons, their clothing, their markings of ash and blood.

They had followed us. All this way!

Eishe met their charge head on, fighting claws and tail against barrages of strikes. It was an onslaught, a black whirl of flailing limbs, bodies sent flying in all directions, painting green skin red. But the orcs didn't let up. With every blow they suffered, they charged more ferociously. They were feeling optimistic. And I soon realized why.

Normally, Eishe wouldn't have bothered. She could have just flown away, leaving the angry mob to pout in her dust. But not today. This time, she couldn't leave. She wouldn't leave me here to die, and the orcs knew it.

Finally, perhaps after a very long time, they had a chance against her.

I had given them that chance.

Still shaking from head to toe, I swallowed my fear and stood. I aimed to grab the orc's thrown spear but the thing was overly large and unwieldy for a human.

So, I picked up my wooden one.

Staggering forward, I raised my weapon and shouted: “Hey! You green fucks!"

No reaction. They didn't even look at me.

Granted, they were currently fighting a dragon. Fair enough.

“What do I have to do for you savages to notice me?!" I accompanied my yelling by chucking a rock in their general direction. In hindsight, getting the enemy's attention while they were distracted was not the smartest call, I know, but at that moment, I was angry and afraid and the thought of simply rushing an unaware adversary had never before crossed my mind.

My attempts were, unfortunately, successful.

A beast of an orc had turned to deal with the commotion and marched my way. His irate snarl gave way to a bone chilling grin when he spotted me, striding leisurely towards the prospect of fresh blood. Of easy kill. Which, I had to admit, I was.

Not feeling so confident anymore, I slowly backed up towards the rock wall behind me, warmth draining from my limbs. The orc raised his bludgeon and I ducked, barely escaping having my head knocked off my shoulders. I gathered all my courage, gritted my teeth and jabbed my stick forward. Without even stepping aside, the orc caught it with his free hand, the tip inches away from his solar plexus and yet, try as I might I could not make it connect. It might as well have been stuck against a rock.

Next thing I know, there was a kick to my chest and I was sent flying. I braced myself for the impact, sharp pain searing where my arm scraped across the stone ground. I pushed myself to my knees, my forearm a bloody mess. I heard footsteps approaching me but could not stand up, my breath stuck somewhere in my throat. I choked until air filled my lungs again and rolled over on the ground. I looked up to face my executioner as he towered over me, his face amused. Content.

Sufficiently entertained.

He met my eyes and grinned, whatever he saw in them unfreezing him from his battle-drunk trance. He began to raise his weapon again when a black shadow fell upon him. In a blink of an eye, the orc was gone from my sight. One moment he stood within arm's reach, the next he convulsed on the ground five meters away, Eishe's jaws around his nape. There was a crack and he lay still, his body falling limp.

Eishe turned, tossing the corpse at the remaining orcs with her teeth, her eyes alight with fury. She rose to her hindlegs and let out an ear-shattering roar before lunging at the warband again, teeth tearing, claws rending.

I saw it as if in slow motion. Slashing through the horde moving from target to target, Eishe picked her next mark and poised herself for the attack. As she raised her arm to strike, an orc saw an opportunity and charged in. He pointed his spear at the side of her chest, the spot exposed as she swung, and stabbed, weighing in with all his might.

And the tip dug in.

It didn't feel possible. I gazed in disbelief at the surreal sight of the spear sticking out of the softer scales where Eishe's limb met her body. After all this time, after watching her weather one calamity after another, after witnessing strikes glance off and weather itself flow around her like a rock, I came to see her as a force of nature. Something unstoppable. As certain of her perpetuity as the sunrise at the end of the night.

I didn't think she could be hurt.

Blood surged from the wound as Eishe's head was thrown back in a howl of pain. It was a bone-chilling sound. One that shouldn't exist, that shouldn't have ever been heard by anyone alive. The orc that held the spear heard it and grinned. Smirked in glee at the suffering he caused.

I had never before thought to kill. Never pictured myself taking somebody's life. It was an act so far removed from my being I found it hard to even conceive. In that moment, I looked at the orc and saw him dead. Watched him die a million different ways, each more painful than the other. Saw his head on a spike, his body torn apart and left to rot in the deepest pit on earth.

I retrieved my spear and charged at him. I didn't think. Didn't hesitate. I ran straight past the gore and thrown bodies, past the enemies still standing and straight towards my target. That one orc! He heard me as I approached screaming and turned to meet my eyes.

Whatever he saw in them, it made him freeze.

He didn't have the time to react before I buried my spear in his pectoral. He let out a grunt of pain as blood coated his chest, leaving his weapon stuck in Eishe who's wail still rang in my ears. But try as I might, I couldn't push the spear in deep enough. The orc's muscles were like iron. I had managed to pierce the thick skin, but I hadn't done any real damage. And pain only made an orc more angry.

He grabbed my spear and snapped it with one hand like the twig it was, leaving the tip in. Next thing I knew, his good hand was wrapped around my throat, lifting me in the air by the neck while he clutched the wound with the other one. His grip was squeezing the life out of me. There was ire in his eyes like I had never seen. I knew he could snap my neck like the stick at any moment.

He held me closer to his face as he watched the spark slowly leave my eyes. With every heartbeat I felt my head swelling, the pressure building up like it was going to explode. I felt his breath on my face, his mouth fuming in fury.

But he wasn't the only one whose anger fueled him. Holding on to my consciousness, I pulled my knife out of my pocket and stuck it in the orc's neck. Blood erupted like a geyser, spraying my face and my body in a shower of red. I could feel something hit me from behind but was unable to do anything, the world a hazy swirl of rough shapes and colors. When my breath returned and I realized I was lying on the ground, I looked up to see the orc standing drunkenly above me, hand on his neck trying desperately to stop the stream of blood. Then he fell to the ground motionless.

The remaining orcs quieted momentarily, stunned by their comrade's sudden expiry. Gradually, heads turned, eyes wandering to the fallen barbarian then to me. Shouts were hurled and weapons pointed in my direction.

The brief pause in the onslaught had left Eishe enough space to get back on her feet. She pulled the spear free from her equivalent of an armpit and dashed between me and the remains of the horde. She loomed over me like a shield, eyes alight with potent fury. A low rumbling sound echoed from her chest. It wasn't a growl. It was something deeper, something that stopped the advancing band in its tracks. Eishe rose to her hindlegs, towering over the orcs as they towered over me… and that was when I realized she had been inhaling.

She opened her maw and a cone of fire lit up the dusk, brighter than anything that had ever burned. It was like looking into the sun. A wave of heat washed over me like the tide, making me hide my face in my hands as my eyes watered. It felt like the mere vicinity to the conflagration melted skin.

After a few eternal seconds, it was over. The blazing cone had vanished as quick as it came, leaving the clearing in gloomy darkness.

And silence.

I warily glanced up as my eyes adjusted to the sudden lack of light. My breath came short. I had steeled myself, expecting piles of half-burned corpses splayed across the clearing. Flesh melted into a sludge. Or perhaps just charred skeletons.

There was nothing. Even the wet grass had been burned clean off the blackened ground. I spotted a few obsidian shards from weapons or adornments here and there, coupled with pieces of something that could have been bone. But that was all. Besides that, there was no sign of their assailants left.

Eishe absorbed the sight then sharply turned away. There was something pained in her eyes I couldn't place. Not remorse exactly. More so… guilt. Shame.

Disgust.

She shut her eyes, then fixed her attention on something else instead: me. As I tried to sit up, my entire spine shouting its disapproval, Eishe hovered her head before me, assessing my wellbeing perhaps.

“I'm…," I rasped and regretted it, my throat feeling filled with glass. Apparently, that alarmed her, for she reached out a gentle claw to my face, lifting it up and turning me around.

“I said," I managed one coughing fit later, “that I'm fine."

I began to rise as she scanned me over when she noticed something on my right. I traced her gaze down to my arm dripping rivulets of blood. I lifted it inquisitively, testing its function. Aside from slight stinging it didn't hurt.

Eishe leaned closer and, to my bewilderment, opened her mouth and traced her long pink tongue over the length of my forearm. Clean of blood, it now revealed a long thin line where my arm had collided with a sharp rock. Curiously, the stinging seemed to fade.

“See? It's just a scratch." She was giving the gash “the eye" as drops of blood continued to slowly coagulate along its path. I dusted myself off and stretched my limbs to demonstrate (and test) my motoric abilities.

Properly reassured, Eishe let out a sigh and stood. She tried to walk and yowled in pain as she put her weight on her left forelimb. She lowered herself to the ground, clutching the wound with her right arm. It was gushing blood something gnarly.

The sight had snapped me back to reality. Eishe had been hurt. Real hurt. I still struggled to comprehend the fact, but she had been stabbed and she was bleeding and couldn't walk right and… she had the audacity to worry about my stupid arm?!

This wasn't right. The sight of her massive form slumped down on the ground in pain was just not correct. The works of some cosmic mistake! I would not have that in my universe! In MY universe she was invincible! A force to be reckoned with! Nothing bad happened to her. Bad things happened to ME! To failed sailors and shitty captains, to frail little humans unfortunate enough to get in harm's way. And to any filthy barbarian that dared lay a hand on her! Not to her! Not because of me…

This was my mess to fix. She had been sacrificing for me long enough until it finally got her hurt. Just once, I would be helping her!

I rushed to grab my belongings which consisted of a former shirt emptied of its fruity contents and a length of rope. I doused the shirt with the contents of my water gourd and tried to wash any dirt off of it before bundling it up in a tight knot. I ran back to Eishe and knelt down by the gaping wound. She observed me with palpable skepticism, but after a few breaths she reluctantly withdrew her hand and let me approach. Her palm was glazed a deep red.

Carefully I applied the fabric to the wound and pressed down on it. Eishe winced so hard she almost knocked me over, a choked rumbling emanating from her chest. I held the cloth firm and produced the rope. First, I threw one end over Eishe's other shoulder then pulled the other end under the wounded forelimb, tying the ends together so that they held the cloth pressed in place. It was an improvised solution but it quelled the bleeding somewhat.

Eishe still seemed in distress. No surprise there, but somehow the situation didn't feel any less dire. She was hyperventilating and blinking her eyes rapidly. I shuffled over to kneel before her face.

“Hey," I said unceremoniously. “I'm here. The wound is patched, it will be alright." I wasn't sure why I was saying this. It's not like she could understand my words. But she understood my tone of voice anyway. That's right! It didn't matter what I was saying exactly as much as the fact that I kept talking.

“You know, I had never seen anything like what you did today. Sure, it's not like I had met a dragon before, but… what you did it was… awesome… and terrifying, admittedly," I chuckled. “You are awesome and terrifying, and I'm… I'm glad you're on my side you know? I'm glad you're here with me. I can't imagine where I would be without your help.

“And all you get in return is this!" I threw a hand at the wound. Water was gathering in my eyes from somewhere. “It's not fair. All I ever brought you was trouble! You keep taking my problems onto yourself and it's taking its toll. And if you were… if you were to leave me here alone… I would never forgive myself."

I doubted my tone was very comforting at this point. I aimed to calm her and now I was struggling to compose myself.

Eishe raised her head and observed me. Her eyes had taken on that inquisitive look again. They focused on my face, totally still like a predator watching its prey. They were wide and close and filled with that something I still couldn't place. Curiosity? Pity? Bewilderment? But there was something else too. Something… new.

I almost jumped when Eishe's jaws opened offering me a close look at her sharp teeth as she traced her tongue across my cheek. It was incredibly warm and left a cold trace of saliva on my face.

Confused, I had reached my hand to my cheek and felt around. It didn't feel unusual in any way. Besides the strange warmth radiating from it. Still, it came back red.

I glanced down at my bloodied chest and sighed.

“That's all right, it's not mine. See?" I wiped the blood off my other cheek with my hand. “It's not mine."

Eishe laid her head on the ground defeatedly, her breathing growing ever heavier. She looked bad. Was the wound that much worse than I had thought? Had I misjudged the situation? What did I know about dragon anatomy anyway?!

Her forelimb was starting to twitch lightly. It looked ghastly. I was at a loss. Heavy breathing, I understood. That could always be chalked up to pain. But Eishe's strange physiology aside, I struggled to comprehend what could have caused stinging eyes and shaking limbs…

A scary thought came over me.

Tearing my sight from Eishe's limp form, I walked over to the campfire and pulled the spear – the one that had almost sniped me – out of the ground. The only weapon to remain. I inspected its obsidian tip then touched a finger to it. Something sticky coated it. I sniffed the weird substance but smelled only wet dirt so I carefully touched the finger to my tongue…

I spit the acrid taste out of my mouth until I had no saliva remaining. Raven's eyes! I fumed. The fucking bastards had poisoned their weapons!

It all made sense! Bloody hell! That's how she knew! She learned what fruits were safe and not because she had watched which ones the orcs used for food... And which ones they used to kill.

I was thinking hard. There was an antidote, a natural remedy! Raven's eyes were used to distill heavy grade poisons. You needed a distilled antidote against a distilled poison. But I doubted the orcs bothered to distill anything, just rubbed the stuff on their spears. A few herbs would do the trick, I knew. My ma had taught me. If I ate raven's eyes on accident, she told me to get…

I counted in my head. Some of the stuff I already had on me. I was only missing silverroot. And I was sure as shit I had seen silverroot on my way up here. It grew in rocky hills after all.

I rushed out of the camp, leaving Eishe's struggling form and the fading light of the campfire behind and entered the approaching night.

***

The bloody herb was hard to find in the dark. The night grew deep quickly. In my rush I had failed to consider bringing fire with me so I could actually see anything. The moon was nigh full and shining bright in the sky so at least there was that. Without its silver glow I might have very well plummeted down a ravine somewhere.

I was growing desperate when I finally caught a glimpse of the herb's white leaves gleaming slightly in the night. I dug as much of the wiry roots out of the ground as I could and made a run back to the camp. Only… I struggled to remember which way the camp was. It was up, that much I knew. So, I went up.

I was beginning to recognize some landmarks when my breaths started to grow heavy. The eventful day must have tired me out. I used to have better endurance than this! A few minutes further into the climb, my stomach rebelled. I stopped by a familiar rock (or was it? I thought it had been rounder) and keeled over, hands on my knees. I retched until I had successfully lost the little food I might have eaten today. Or was it the day before? It was deep in the night.

With my head hung down I could feel something drip down my cheek. I wiped it off, finding it warm and viscous, then traced its origin to the back of my head, wincing as my fingers touched the spot. The warm blood on my hand appeared black in the moonlit night. I had a bleeding head wound! It had dripped all across my back. I must have hit my head on something. When? Doesn't matter. My vision spun as I straightened back up. I almost lost my footing and tumbled down the hill. I needed to sit down…

No! I needed to get back. Get the damned root to… someone. To do… something.

Root. Antidote. Poison…

…Dragon?

My memories refused to behave. All I knew was I needed to keep going. Keep… Going…

It all came rushing back when the fading campfire came into view… as well as the black silhouette sprawled on the ground. I sprinted to Eishe's side and laid out my things. First, I checked her breathing. Her chest was still rising and falling rhythmically but the movement was shallow and infrequent. I washed the silverroot and put it in my mouth, chewing up the hard thin herb into a paste. While I did this, I squashed several kinds of berries from my stock then pulled aside the rope holding the improvised bandage in place.

The cloth was red thorough and through but it seemed the bleeding had been quelled somewhat. I tried to wash the blood out of it and wring it dry before applying the medicinal mixture of berries and chewed roots onto it. Carefully I put the cloth back in place, securing it with the rope again. Eishe hadn't reacted at all. She didn't move, made no sound. That wasn't a good sign. I wished that she would at least twitch, but she simply lay there, completely still. The sight made my heart sink.

I couldn't sleep. My body wanted to drop and my head had started to hurt like hell some time ago, but despite it I held out, sitting with Eishe at the dying campfire. It was dawn before I knew it. I reapplied the gauze once more before I ran out of herbs. Eishe stirred a few times but she still didn't wake. Didn't open her eyes anyway, though I thought I heard her say something in draconic. I couldn't tell for sure, the language consisting largely of indistinguishable growling.

I ran out of water too. I didn't have the energy to go look for a refill and I wouldn't have left Eishe alone anyway. I simply laid there, slumped against her body, feeling her chest rise and fall weakly. At least it was consistent now.

The fire had long since burned out. I was getting cold, even through her body heat. I was shivering and nauseous, and despite what I kept telling myself, I doubted it was from the cold alone. My head was going to explode. I was unnerved to learn I was leaving bloody spots on Eishe's scales but I was too relieved that they weren't hers to truly care.

Time was escaping me. Every time I blinked my eyes, the sun climbed further into the sky. I needed to rest, but I knew I couldn't. I couldn't leave her alone. I needed to be awake in case she got worse. But after hours went by, I was starting to face the fact that I was getting worse. No matter, I could endure it. I would not black out. I would not… sleep. I…

I…

…

***

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was a ceiling. The second was a prominent dull pain in my everywhere.

Groaning, I tried to push myself sitting up. As I struggled, the third thing I noticed was a strange softness beneath my hands. I was lying on some kind of pelt. I had no clue what it had belonged to, something big and white and fluffy. There was a stack of cloth where my head had been. A red spot colored it in the middle, but there were no other stains anywhere on the pelt. I examined it. The blood hadn't soaked through, which was a good sign.

It was a strange scrap of fabric; it almost reminded me of sailcloth.

I touched a tentative hand to the back of my head and winced. No blood covered my hand however. The wound must have stopped bleeding. The wound… That's right! I was dropped to the ground like a ragdoll after an orc almost choked me to death.

An orc.

Oh no!

I sprung to my feet with a speed disproportionate to my injuries. Eishe was hurt! I needed to find her, make sure she was alright! But I had no clue where I was. Someone had moved me indoors. More than that, had taken care of my injuries and… had washed me apparently.

Fourth thing I noticed: I was naked. I took in the sight of my battered body, covered in cuts and bruises I didn't know about, all thoroughly cleaned. My clothes (that is pants and boots) were, to my relief, lying beside the pelt, also appearing like they had been tossed in water recently. I wandered if whoever took care of me had simply washed me while clothed then undressed me later. And where was I? Was this the shelter Eishe meant? Some kind of remote human settlement? At least it was a house of some kind.

No, wrong, I thought after taking a closer look. The darkness had made it hard to make out but I was not in fact inside a structure at all. It was a cave.

The floor, if you could call it that, was smooth and swept clean of any debris, covered in patches by more pelts. There were… things piled near the walls. It looked like junk, but nevertheless an intentionally gathered and carefully tossed junk. This was a cave that someone lived in.

I could hear the sound of running water further down the corridor. First, I got myself dressed and then followed it to find sunlight. The cave exited into a mountainside too steep for me to climb down in this state. I could not imagine someone carrying me up here. There was a stream coming from a crack in the ceiling that pooled in a sort of pond near the mouth of the cave. It looked artificial, as if someone had dammed the stream's natural course to let it accumulate.

I cupped my hands to take a sip from the inflowing stream and immediately retracted them. The water was scalding! Must have been a thermal spring or something. I tested the pooled water instead. It was still warm on the inflow side, but on the far side it was cold enough to drink.

I splashed my face while I was at it to wake myself up properly when a sound of beating wings drowned out the stream. Eishe appeared in the entrance, her black silhouette carving out a piece of the day. The rope and cloth were gone, only a thin fleshy gash remained. She spotted me and dropped the goat she'd been carrying, her ember eyes focused on mine.

I had never been happier to see someone in my entire life. I wanted to break into a run but she was faster, dashing towards me so quickly she almost knocked me to the ground. She looked me over, her head maneuvering around me in a manner a human's never could.

“Urtha'ekh vha," she said and pressed her muzzle into my chest.

“I'm glad to see you too," I breathed. I caught myself subconsciously putting my arms around her head, hugging it to my body. I didn't care why I had done it, it felt right. I bowed and touched my forehead against hers as I did it.

Minutes went by before we eventually separated and Eishe remembered the game laying at the entrance. A bit awkwardly she shuffled back and picked up the goat, carrying it to a corner on the other side of the cavern's antechamber which, judging by the bloodstains served for processing food.

“So," I said as I started connecting the dots, “this is where you live." I took a look around again. It was, well, a cave. That's not unexpected for a dragon. But still, something about the whole arrangement felt a bit more… sophisticated than I would have thought. Homely.

“This is the shelter you had in mind? Your home?" I didn't exactly ask expecting an answer, I was just musing aloud. Nevertheless, Eishe could recognize an inquisitive tone. She paused to watch me slowly strolling through the cavern tunnel, absorbing my surroundings. I wasn't sure what I expected coming here with her but this certainly wasn't it. I was thinking, hoping really, it would turn out to be a settlement. Maybe not human, but some other friendly race. Dwarf perhaps. Or gnome. They both liked digging tunnels through mountains.

Instead, I found myself in a dragon's lair.

I walked over to the entrance and gazed at the scenery. One thing I had to hand her: it was a beautiful sight. I could see the mountains spreading out in front of me, sloping down to the forest line that traced their foothills. Recalling travelling alone through the canopy, turning after every sound, too anxious to close my eyes at night… I wondered how far I have come.

I leaned over the edge of the slope leading up to the cavern. No wonder this place was free of orcs. It was practically impregnable. Any would be attacker (mad enough to invade a dragon's lair) would need to climb an almost vertical rockface at the end of which they would meet a giant angry lizard. All Eishe needed to do was stand in the entrance and rain down fire on anyone who dared approach. She really knew how to pick a property. In more ways than one.

There was a narrow path across the stones hugging the slope that I could walk down across. Or up, provided there was no one to stop me. But where would I go? What would I do out there? I couldn't survive on my own, that was proven to me more than enough times already. I was stuck.

“What now?" I asked. “Do I wait here until the orcs leave the canal? How long will that take?"

Eishe's eyes reflected my sorrow, her gaze somber and serene. As if wanting to change the topic, she walked over and inspected my head. The wound had opened again, small drops of blood coalescing on the scab. She ventured deeper into the cave and pulled out some piece of fabric from the pile, tearing off a strip with her teeth and handing it to me. I washed the wound at the pool with the old cloth I had been laying on, then bandaged it with the clean strip, while Eishe prepared the meat. The fabric was the same, unsurprisingly. Looking at it though, it appeared rather familiar.

I inspected the piles of meticulously dumped junk again and with proper context I began to see a pattern. Fishing nets. Bundles of rope. A monocular. A cannon rammer, a linstock, a sextant, a pen, several knives, an ink bottle complete with ink… Sailcloth.

They were pieces of a ship!

Correction: several ships! I picked out parts of several different types of cannons, ropes used on different vessels, a barrel lid with Ironspire insignia. Whatever could be recovered from shipwrecks, I realized. A particular attention seemed to be given to valuables: sailor's personal belongings, pendants, earrings, a compass (that would have come in handy).

Coins. Anything that glittered.

“It's a horde!" I exclaimed. Eishe didn't seem perturbed by my realization.

Scanning through the piles I picked up a book placed in a particular spot of reverence. There was nothing extraordinary about it, a basic leather-bound volume, which had obviously been soaked in water, likely as the ship sank, but somehow still held together. I opened it. It appeared to be a diary. The ink had been smeared but the text remained mostly readable. That is, if I could read dwarfish.

I placed the book back in its place. There had been multiple like it: plain, unadorned bundles of pages. I had to reassess my conclusions. They weren't valuables at all. They were items of sentimental value.

I presumed Eishe didn't know what any of this stuff was used for, or their worth. She simply collected it out of curiosity. Or perhaps she valued it precisely because she didn't know what it was. Pieces of an unknown world washed up at the edge of hers. Stories of people from far away, intriguing in their alien nature.

A loud hiss sounded from the antechamber followed by a flash of light as Eishe lit a small fire from a pile of gathered sticks. As usual, she designated a portion of the meat for me then proceeded to roast the rest directly with her breath. Curiously, I also found a handful of nuts and berries lying by the fire.

“You got that for me?" I gestured at the fruit and me alternately. After processing, Eishe nodded her head a bit coyly.

“You know," I said as I roasted my portion of the meal, “I never thanked you. For uh… getting me here I mean. It was you who carried me here, right? I suppose it must have." I focused on the food so I didn't have to meet her eyes. “So, uh… thank you. Again."

It felt awkward repeating it so often. For once I was glad we couldn't understand each other's tongue. I could only hope she wouldn't notice my reddened face.

Once the meal was eaten, we stayed sitting by the fire, watching the flames dance in silence. Outside, darkness was quickly falling on the land. I must have been out for the better part of the day. It occurred to me then that I wasn't sure it was even the same day as when I blacked out.

“Why do I feel like I'm a part of your hoard now?" I asked jokingly.

Half-jokingly.

“Clearly, you're not used to having guests. Uhm, no offense! But I don't imagine you bring a lot of living creatures here with you. Just food," I gestured around us, my voice slowly dying in my throat, the sentence pouring out ponderously like thick molasses, “…and treasures."

A realization hit me. One I felt terrible for not accounting for earlier.

“How long have you been alone?" I asked, suddenly seeing the cavern and its inhabitant in a new light. There was no sign of another dragon in this cave. Noone to talk to. To keep her company. Maybe there were none in The Reaches. Unlikely – someone must have raised her, taught her their language – but plausible. Or maybe she just didn't get along with the others. Dragons weren't terribly sociable from what I knew, but at the first glance this wasn't a home of someone who was content with her isolation; filled to the brim with artifacts and curios of people from beyond the sea. And the only other people I knew of were the orcs.

I pictured in my mind a lonely dragon scouting the orcish settlements with the same curiosity she held towards the foreign folk. She would be observing them, studying their ways with quiet fascination. Maybe one day she even approached them…

Only to be met with the tip of a spear.

That is why she reacted with hostility when I first intruded onto her camp that one day. And that is why she had followed me after I offered her peace.

It was a first.

“Am I the first non-dragon you have ever talked to?"

Silence. I met her eyes this time, facing the piercing, all-consuming gaze of the twin fires inside. I had gotten used to that look by then. Intense. Analytic. Enthralling.

“Kveh'er tehn," she said quietly, her voice warm and vulnerable. After careful consideration she followed it up with something more, a sound that made my heart skip a beat. “Taankh oou."

I blinked in astonishment at those words. They were my words spoken back to me.

Eishe gestured with a claw at the wound on the side of her chest, ugly but faded, healing fast and steady. “Kveh'er tehn."

I had no words. I wasn't sure what amazed me more, her gratefulness or that she had voiced it. She could have held a grudge for getting her hurt in the first place. Instead, she felt thankful.

It had dawned on me then what I had done. I have not only managed to gain the trust of a dragon, furthermore, I have earned her gratitude. All this time, Eishe had been treating me like an equal. Like someone worthy of respect. That is more that I could say about most humans I'd met.

And between all that, I had come to care about her too.

I smiled. Eishe saw this, her eyes adopting a warm air. Her look had set. That mysterious gaze she held now felt different, decisive. The dragon shifted her weight on the other forelimb and leaned closer to me. With her face so close to mine she opened her maw, her tongue snaking out and licking upwards across my face.

I touched my cheek in confusion, trying to discern the dragon's motives. Until, suddenly, a whole bunch of realizations had hit me at once.

Oh...

Oh!

“Uhm… Eishe?" I wheezed as the dragon moved closer. She rested her paw on my leg, pressing her muzzle casually against my cheek. She let out an odd, relaxed sigh as her hot scales touched my skin, her breath making all my hair stand. “I… look, I like you too, but I think this is moving a bit fast… and… in a direction I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with. I mean, we'd only known each other for... two weeks or so! And you're… we're not…"

I struggled against her persistent advances, trying to wedge a hand between her face and my chest. “Gods, woman, don't you care we're different species!?"

Slowly, seeming to have finally taken the hint Eishe ceased her nuzzling. She retracted away not meeting my gaze, eyes focused somewhere into the waning fire.

I released a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding and brushed myself off. Emotions warred within me. My heart was still hammering from the sudden “excitement" but as my breathing eased and my head gradually cleared, I was starting to feel torn.

On one hand: what was she thinking!? I wasn't a dragon. I barely qualified as a human at the moment! There was no way whatever she was trying to do would have worked. Not with me! I certainly couldn't… meet her expectations! Be what she needed.

On the other hand, I felt guilty for having to let her down like this. I mean, for having to let her down! It's not like I had been unnecessarily cruel! It's not like I didn't like her either, I just had to! Right? Because… I just had to. It was a simple rejection, that's what it was! Just a kind “no". It wasn't my fault she had such a poor choice of mates! I did nothing wrong.

Then why did I feel terrible?

I leaned back against the ground, wiping sweat from my brows. Somehow, rationalizing what happened didn't seem to calm the whirlwind in my head.

Woman.

For some reason I felt surprised to hear that word come out of my mouth. Eishe was a woman. She was a dragon, sure, but still female. I mean, what do you call a female dragon?

I had lived in a city and served aboard ships with countless other races. Ever since I was born, I was coming into contact with members of other species, from neighbors to shop keeps, to friends to shipmates. It's not as though I called female dwarves something different. Or female orcs, or trolls or kobolds! I had never pointed fingers or shouted curses whenever I saw a pair of differing shapes or blood temperatures trot down a street with their hands entwined. Truthfully, I wasn't one to shake off advances from other races either.

So why did I struggle with the concept of seeing Eishe in such a light? Was it that she was just too different? That she didn't walk upright? Trolls didn't! That she had a wrong number of limbs? Lamias did! That she lacked… other feminine traits? Kobold did too!

How different was too different? Did it all just amount to something too much? Did it truly all come down to something so shallow?

I scowled inwardly as I lay there on the ground. I had done a lot of strange things in my time, entirely without a fuss. So why did I have a problem with the one woman I had come to care about?

I sighed and heaved myself up from the ground, shuffling closer to the somber dragon.

“Hey," I said somewhat ashamedly. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to react so… It was all just a bit… sudden, you know?" Eishe regarded me with a warmth one reserved for rocks. “Look, maybe we could just… give it some time to crystalize? Let the air clear?"

She stood to all fours, avoiding my gaze like a gorgon and walked towards the darkness deeper within the cavern. I sprung to my feet and rushed to intercept her, cursing under my breath. I reached out a hand as I blocked her path and she leaned back to avoid my touch. Her head – now sprouting vertically from her torso instead of horizontally – looked down at me with poorly concealed hurt.

“Alright, alright! I apologize. It's not like I don't care about you. I do, Eishe! Maybe a little too much. And I… I have no idea what to do about it!" I laughed mirthlessly. “I know, right? Truth is I could barely handle my emotions around human women. I don't know the first thing about dragons, I just know I like you and I don't want to mess it up. So, if this was ever to go wrong I… don't know what I would do."

Finally giving voice to my thoughts, a weight began to lift from my shoulders. No matter the words I said however Eishe didn't react. Of course, they were falling on deaf ears! It wasn't really her I was telling them to.

Fuck it! This wasn't a time for words.

With my heart pounding, I reached my hand out and (with her face being too high up) placed it gently on Eishe's neck. That at last got a reaction out of her. The hardness in her eyes dissolved, giving way to warm bewilderment. I traced my hand down her shoulder and to her chest, feeling her smooth scales beneath my fingers changing in texture, growing smaller and smoother the further down I went.

She watched me entranced as I relished in the sensation. I never paid attention to the intricacies with which her scales were structured. It was like a mosaic of polished onyx. Dark as midnight, the dancing flames reflecting in them like shimmering stars. And so incredibly hot to the touch.

I leaned in and pressed my forehead against her chest, bathing in the heat of her body. For the first time I began noticing her scent. It was… exotic. Like smoke and petrichor. I could feel her heartbeat through her scales, so loud and powerful in comparison to mine. And it seemed to be getting faster.

Eishe retreated back from me and brought herself down again, her face hovering before my own. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Her nostrils flared as she took in my aroma and I suddenly found myself grateful that I was bathed. Slowly, I watched her mouth open, her sharp teeth on full display and coming closer. I did not flinch. Did not pull away. I shut my eyes and let her tongue caress my face again, travelling upwards across my cheek and to my forehead. The warm sensation of the appendage leaving a trail of wetness on my skin contrasted with the chill feeling once exposed to the cool air.

When she opened her eyes again, there was something else gazing back at me from within them. Something predatory. I moved to place my hand on her cheek, but I never got the chance. Without warning, Eishe pounced at me, charging forth like a mad hare, and pinned me to the ground.

My back protested as it hit the fuzzy pelt underneath. Reflexively, I squirmed, trying to wiggle my way from underneath the looming dragon, but a single clawed hand held me down. She pressed her weight lightly down on my chest, her claws digging deep into my skin, but not quite breaking it. Leaning closer, she planted another one of her “kisses" up my neck, starting at my collar and rising towards my ear. I didn't try to move away, but somehow, knowing that I could not had I wanted to, made me feel things I never had before.

The next one went across my chest. Her wet tongue caressing my smooth skin was starting to feel more and more natural to me. I shuddered to think what that said of me.

I also couldn't help but notice she was moving further down each time. Next thing I knew, I felt her muzzle prodding around my waist, my muscles instinctively clenching when she wandered towards my inner thighs. She seemed to know exactly what she was looking for too. I tried to raise myself when her exploring reached my crotch, but I was almost nonchalantly held down, seemingly without expending any effort. I wandered whether she even noticed the diminutive human struggling under her grasp.

With her other forelimb, she hooked a claw under the hem of my trousers – too close to my junk for comfort – and pulled them down in one smooth motion. Remembering the state that I had woken up in, a thought popped up in my head that this was not the first time she had done this.

And this was also apparent in that she did not seem surprised in what she saw. At first, I felt uncomfortable being exposed like this. It was much like being a youth again, nervous and inexperienced in the company of a woman, venturing for the first time into unknown waters. Which these certainly were.

I would be lying if I said Eishe's attention hadn't had an effect on me, but I was still more scared than excited. She sought to rectify this. Her jaws parted again to let her tongue roam my body some more. This time it headed directly for my manhood. The wet muscle touched down on my jewels, sending shivers up my spine as it continued to rise along the underside of my shaft.

It was surreal. I wasn't sure how to feel anymore. The rational part of me – the boring, cautious voice in each and every one of us that makes us say thing like “on second thought" and turn sharply at unexpected noises – whispered its warnings to me, pointing out things like “teeth!" and “claws!" or “huge fire-breathing lizard!" in a tone of utmost urgency.

But some other, deeper part of me rebelled. A part that made me board a ship as a wee lad to sail off into the sunset and sung in extasy as I gazed from the crow's nest at the never-ending horizon – a part that felt less like every man to ever live and more like me – screamed in desire.

Right here was a woman who had saved my life more than once before, a woman I felt strongly for; and one that, inexplicably, felt the same towards me. What was I doing even thinking about getting cold feet?

Once my body caught up to my spirit's newly discovered vigor, my ego quickly deflated. Even at full mast, my manhood appeared pitifully small next to the dragon's enormous body. Eishe however, didn't seem let down. She regarded the member with a wild curiosity, almost sensually feeling its hardness against her muzzle and sending a few more caressing licks up its length to make sure that it was performing at full capacity.

Apparently satisfied with her work, Eishe finally backed off and stood back on her feet. I hadn't even noticed when she'd withdrawn her forelimb from my chest. Judging by the faded indentations left by her claws, it was a while back.

She circled me as I stood up, finding a spot at the outstretched pelt. My gaze wandered to her hindlegs. She kept her wings raised slightly, offering me a good view of her draconic hips swaying from side to side as she walked past me. I swallowed emptily, but not drily. They were each thicker than my entire body and almost level with my head. I could just about wrap my arms around one of her legs in its widest point and I wouldn't even need to duck.

Looking behind as if reveling in my ogling, Eishe stood on the pelt facing the cave wall. Then, with a kind of primeval grace, she lowered her front to the ground, resting her head and chest against the fuzzy fur followed by her outspread wings. Finally, while presenting her behind dramatically, she lifted her tail and moved it aside, leaving her sex on full display for me.

I have caught a glimpse of it before, but looking at it now felt different. Dirty. Exciting. I wasn't sure what exactly I expected, but the hair-thin vertical opening between a pair of black, plump, scaly, lips looked much more human-like than I would have thought. Above it, right where her tail met her body, sat a tight triangular hole, which only reinforced the impression.

I would have assumed a dragon's, uh, anatomy to be a lot more… lizard like?

Then again. Dragons were often described as giant winged lizards, but beside the scales they didn't have much in common, did they? They had whole extra limbs. They were ancient, intelligent and – if Eishe's burning touch was of any indication – warm blooded. There really was no point trying to liken a dragon to a reptile. They were elemental creatures, older than time. It was like comparing a minnow to a whale.

Right now, though, lying face down on the soft pelt, inviting me into her most secret reaches, Eishe didn't appear like a primordial force. She looked almost innocent. Vulnerable. The knowledge that she was willing to open herself to me this way made my body react in unexpected ways.

There was a slight logistical problem, however. Her sex was at my neck height.

Meanwhile, Eishe was waiting patiently for me to take action, seemingly oblivious to the issue. I was not about to leave her hanging.

My heartbeat quickened with every step as I approached her behind. Standing right next to her, she appeared even larger, her hindquarters wide enough for me to barely reach around them. Her opening, though smaller in comparison to her body than I would have expected, was much larger than any woman I had ever met. It was almost intimidating.

My hand moved almost by itself. I could feel the heat radiating from her body as my palm hovered over her sex. Carefully, I brought my hand to her burning scales. A shudder spread through Eishe's body like ripples on water. My mere touch seemed to be driving her mad as I glided my fingers over the fine scales along her opening, droplets of moisture tracing the thin, vertical line.

Getting a firmer grip, I dug my fingers in and pulled the lips of her sex open, revealing the glistening pink folds underneath. Eishe dug her claws into the fluffy pelt as I coyly explored her tunnel. It wasn't structured exactly like a human's, but it appeared familiar enough. The strange, winding creases of her depths offered promises of heavenly pleasures, ones I was finding increasingly hard to resist. Somewhere below, there was a big, round nub hiding amidst the fleshy folds. Leaning down for a better look, the oversized slit appeared to pull me in, like I could burry my entire face in its embrace.

In fact, that is precisely what I did.

I plunged my face against her, feeling the hot lips envelop my cheeks. I was instantly overwhelmed by her aroma, strong and strangely arousing, enough to overload my senses. The slick, warm lips felt like multiple tongue-kisses suddenly assaulted my face.

Eishe's reaction was similarly strong. I felt her whole body shake through my face alone as it made contact, my every breath eliciting further teasing shudders of pleasure.

I quite enjoyed that reaction. I searched around with my mouth until my lips came across their mark. As soon as they braved the layered folds and touched the hard nub hidden amidst, Eishe stilled. She stood completely motionless as I reached my togue out and licked.

Eishe rocked so hard, she unstuck herself momentarily from my face before slamming back against me hard enough to nearly knock me off my feet! I put my hands on her rump to steady myself, grabbing handful of her massive cheeks, before continuing my exploration. I put her nub between my lips again, gently sucking on it as my tongue drew circles over it. The force of her shudders hadn't waned. I held on with my hands, squeezing the surprisingly supple flesh under her rigid scales.

With my whole face against her sex, I needed to come out for breath every now and then, breaking the buildup of her pleasure. After a few times, I changed my approach. I withdrew my hand from her butt and sneaked a few fingers inside her slit. To my satisfaction she seemed to be responding just as well to my exploration of her depths, the walls of her tunnel clamping down on my digits with incredible muscle control.

It didn't take too long for her shudders to transform into something more intense. They were growing less frequent, but sharper, stronger. Something powerful – primal – was building up somewhere deep inside her core. I could hear her breath turn into a low growl-like panting. My face and arm were completely drenched in her fluids as I pushed through to the end.

I hadn't stopped to consider whether her kind could reach climax but now I was determined to gift her one. I brought my other hand to her slit and used them both to spread it open. I inserted three fingers in on each side and pulled the swollen lips apart, revealing her hidden nub to plain sight. I dug my face in with renewed vigor. No longer needing to come out for breath, I used my tongue to caress and tease it while slowly slipping my fingers deeper into the constricting hole.

Eishe's shaking was now a constant, low quivering. I was doing something. And well. Testing her response I adjusted my methods, gradually turning my teasing tongue licks into an oral onslaught. I was now moving so intensely, I struggled to keep it up. Her muscles clenched so hard I could barely hold the slippery walls open anymore. I was truly getting tired, so as a last resort I tried an extreme measure. I sucked her swollen clit deeper in my mouth and gently bit down on it.

That might have been a mistake.

Eishe let out a rumbling growl and stood. I was flung back by the force with which she rose, then pinned to the ground as her rump descended on me. My face was forcibly buried in her folds again. Pushing with my hands against her buttocks, I was unable to lift her even slightly off me. I looked “up" to see Eishe's tail swishing furiously across the cave floor as she writhed in overwhelming pleasure of her climax.

Not wanting to ruin it I returned my tongue to work and was rewarded with her slit clamping down on my face, cutting off my air supply. A roar reverberated through the cavern hall and sharp orange light briefly light it up, followed by the smell of smoke.

I never stopped my efforts until I was sure she came down from her high. Once it was over, Eishe didn't so much lift herself off me as she fell down to the ground, her hindquarters rising slightly as her chest hit the fuzzy pelt.

I dragged myself from under her and sat up, breathing almost as heavily as her. She laid down with her eyes closed, mouth open and tongue hanging out as she recuperated from the experience. It didn't take her as long as I expected, for she turned her eyes to me within a minute, filled with the look of pure desire.

I walked over to her front and knelt on the pelt. I placed my hand on her cheek and she leaned in for another kiss, tracing her tongue from my chest all the way to my forehead. But she had more in mind. Her face followed down my body, her muzzle reaching between my thighs. Her maw opened again as her tongue played around with my still raging erection. It soon became clear that she was hardly satisfied. I wasn't sure whether that was exciting… or scary.

I tried shuffling back a bit, but she was relentless, quickly placing her clawed hand on my thigh without stopping her exploration. Her grip was gentle but firm. While I sat still, I could barely feel her touch, except as a spot of incredible warmth. But if I tried to move, I found that I could not pull away. She didn't seem to even notice my struggle, nor to exhibit any effort at all to hold me down. Just held me in place the way one would hold down a map in a wind. I might have been scared; had I not been so preoccupied with being aroused.

Her licking was having a powerful effect on me. She might have had peaked already, but I was still pent-up and her continued oral attention was starting to drive me wild. Each brush of her textured tongue against my throbbing shaft pulled me further down the depths of lust. Perhaps she thought to repay the favor? Though her demeanor suggested she was simply enjoying herself, I had no clue how dragons approached mating. What I experienced so far indicated some sort of submission and domination, although the roles seemed to be switching rather often. Perhaps as one partner took charge the other dragon simply… complied?

Whatever the case, Eishe quickly bored of tending to my manhood and stepped her game up. She nuzzled my chest in a frantic manner until I was pinned to the ground again, relishing in brushing her face against my soft skin. I reached out with my hand and she grabbed it in her maw. She didn't bite, but simply closed her jaws around my forearm, gently holding on with her sharp teeth. I felt her hot sex leak fluids over my shin as she straddled my legs. Her body was describing an upside-down U as she tried to squeeze all of herself as close to me as possible, grinding her hips against my legs while she held me down by my arms, one in her mouth, the other pinned by her claws.

She was insatiable. While she enjoyed tying with me, it was becoming apparent it wasn't enough. Her lust was getting the better of her.

She let go of me and simply stared in my eyes as her heavy breaths conjured goosebumps wherever they touched me. I found myself getting lost in that look. Her eyes circles of red fire around two black, vertical slits.

Breaking eye contact, she rose, letting me sit up again. Eishe circled around on the pelt, deliberately bumping me with her powerful hips, her tail dragging across my chest all the way to its tip. She glanced back at me, her body facing the other way. Learning her lesson from before, she lowered herself to the ground and laid down sideways, her legs facing right, her tail left. Her head peeked over her enormous rump, waiting expectantly for me to make a move.

She was giving the lead back to me.

I didn't take much convincing. It took but a heartbeat for me to find myself within reach of her enchanting curves. Even laying sideways, her hip reached up to my waist. I caressed the warm, onyx scales, feeling them soften the further down my hand moved.

I could not hold back any longer. I knelt down on my knees, my genitals now in level with hers. Steadying myself against her bulk with one hand, I used the other to guide my member as I edged closer to her sex. Shivers ran up my spine when I felt my tip touch her opening. Her incredible heat almost burned.

I gritted my teeth and plunged in. My eyes rolled back as my member pushed open her lips and slipped into her velvety tunnel. It was indescribable! The slippery walls of her depths were lined with soft bumps and textured ridges unlike anything I've ever felt. My concerns about our “size difference" quickly dissipated, as I got a thorough taste of Eishe's exceptional muscle control. I felt her tunnel squeezing my shaft with every rugged breath she took. She groaned as I had entered her, her face pressed against the soft fluff of the pelt, claws digging into the fur as if trying to shred it.

I braced myself against her massive thigh and slowly began to thrust. The movements proved more intense than I ever would've imagined. With every stroke her muscles tightened, relaxing as I pushed in and clenching as I pulled out, creating a vacuum suction around my shaft. I couldn't quite tell whether this was an instinctual reflex or a focused effort. What I could tell was that it was the best thing I've ever felt.

But it wasn't only me who was losing his mind. Somehow, Eishe appeared to be equally overwhelmed. I could feel shivers rippling through her thighs after each thrust, her powerful muscles shaking under her textured scales from the raw, unrestrained stimulus. I caressed the smooth, armored skin stretching out in front of me. Slowly, I let my hand wander across her leg, all the way from the crevice where her tail joined her body, the exuberant curvature of her butt and the long declining line of her thigh to where her knee bent, her muscular shin extending beside me and out of sight. I felt the spasms forming underneath the surface, her muscles reacting approvingly to my efforts.

The scales around her opening were growing glossy with her wetness. My thrusting was made all the smoother for this. With all resistance vanishing, I could feel every heavenly fold within Eishe's tunnel with outstanding clarity.

There was a certain sensation which floated above the rest, a hard nodule pressing itself against my shaft from the right, protruding from within the layered folds. Eishe's unfamiliar anatomy was once again showing its boons. The peculiar inward-facing placement of her clit was causing it to brush over my member on every stroke. Suddenly, her intense reactions were making sense. I could only imagine the pleasure she was feeling! I decided to at least partly attribute this precise fit to our particular difference in size.

I still couldn't believe what I was doing. What we were doing! My rational mind said the being before me was a predator, an unparalleled force of destruction. That she could disembowel me with the slightest flick of a claw, or crush me with a careless swing of her tail.

And yet… she chose to show me another side of herself. A vulnerable, aching, passionate side. She might have been big and frightening and strong enough to wipe an army, but, underneath all those scales and wings and claws, she was also a woman. A kind, heartfelt and lonely woman. And I would never let her down.

I decided I have had enough of my “rational" mind.

Without any meddling logic to ruin the moment, I gave all my attention to Eishe. My movements, previously slow and careful due to the overwhelming sensations, were growing more forceful and unrestrained. I wanted to feel fully one with her.

I leaned over her behind and reached out a hand towards hers. It was hopeless. I could scarcely reach to her ribcage and her hands were currently firmly planted in the pelt along with her head.

That would not do.

I had theorized about the alternating submissive/dominant nature of dragon mating dynamics and decided this would be a good time to put that theory to a test. Withdrawing from Eishe and sitting on my haunches, I slipped my hands under her leg and heaved. This elicited a curious reaction from her. I had nowhere near enough strength to even move her an inch, but after lifting her head to glance inquisitively at my attempts, Eishe complied and rolled over on her back. First, she tucked her left wing underneath herself, so that it would be on the correct side as she lay chest up, forelimbs hanging limp in the air.

I was right, it was a power play. After her initial aggressive advances, Eishe was letting me take control. She had given herself completely over to me.

That thought was making it incredibly difficult to not jump her bones like a rabid tiger. Then again…

She was watching me intently, as if unsure what would come next. I walked over to her hindquarters and knelt astride her tail. Her sex was spread in front of me in a perfect view, fluids slowly dripping over the triangular hole beneath. I almost took her again unceremoniously, but then I changed my mind.

I leaned to one of her thighs spread aloft in a V shape and planted a soft kiss on its inner side. No sooner had my lips touched the tiny, soft scales than I snapped and turned it into a playful bite. It wasn't gentle. I felt the soft flesh pressed between my teeth, mapped the texture of the scales with my tongue.

There wasn't a slightest mark left on her onyx armor after I was done. I imagined to Eishe this felt like delicate teasing. I repeated the action further along her thigh, Eishe's burning eyes watching me as I descended lower and lower with each bite. The heat of her body radiated stronger against my face until it felt like kissing a mug of warm tea.

My bites also seem to rise in effectiveness. I was halfway down her thigh when a soft growl escaped her as my teeth touched her scales. It was repeating with increasing intensity every time, until I reached the very bottom.

Pulling away, I gazed at the subtle mound of her slit. Teasing was over, I couldn't hold back any longer. I shuffled closer and aligned myself with her opening while I rested my palm against her abdomen, feeling it quiver in anticipation. Then I thrust forward, embedding myself within her again. We both groaned in unison, Eishe's head falling back into the fur pelt. I couldn't believe I made her feel this way. That I was capable of causing such a reaction. But I felt proud.

Slowly, I had resumed my thrusting, making sure to hit all the right spots under all the right angles. By the way Eishe's feet scraped the stone ground behind me, I was doing a decent job. Her tail was flailing around sporadically, sometimes knocking me off balance when its base shifted under me.

Taking advantage of this position, I slowly lowered myself, lying flat against Eishe's belly. With our bodies pressed together, I could feel her abdominal muscles spasm with each stroke, shaking my whole torso. My neck just about reached up to her ribcage. I let my hand wander across her convex chest, the massive muscles of her wings flexing beneath my fingers as they occasionally slapped the ground.

But that still wasn't quite it.

Throughout our coupling, Eishe lay splayed over the pelt, eyes shut, head fallen to the side, teeth bared through her labored breaths. She was so obviously lost in her own bliss, she remained completely oblivious to the world. And altogether passive in our rutting. Or perhaps that's just all she knew.

Her arms remained somewhat awkwardly hanging in the air, wrists fallen limply, fists clutched so tight I was surprised she wasn't bleeding. It was clear she felt the need to dig her claws into something, but the membranes of her wings were in the way of the pelt.

I reached out and grasped her hand in mine. Eishe's head peeked out from behind her chest in surprise, her eyes alive with uncertainty. I must have seemed ridiculous to her. If she squeezed her fingers as she did before, she would crush my bones. Yet I held firm. I let my tiny fingers intertwine with hers, the tips of her talons digging into the back of my hand. Her breathing seemed to slowly stabilize. Despite my thrusts maintaining their tempo, Eishe calmed, her eyes fixated on mine the way a predator would eye a cornered prey.

This was it. I squeezed her fingers as I pounded away, feeling drawn into her fiery gaze. My perception of the world was gradually shrinking into those two, isolated points, all I remained aware of being the heat of her scales, touch of her hand and our bodies joined at the hips.

I aimed to push myself up and reach out to her face, but Eishe surprised me. Instead of going with the flow, she placed her free hand on my shoulder and pushed me back down, keeping me pressed close against her body. I was taken aback by her sudden initiative. She made me further uncertain when she wrenched her fingers from mine and placed her other hand on my back, holding me tight with both arms. Her breathing, I noticed, was growing ragged and audibly growly. She was getting close.

I refused to let this end yet. Bracing myself against her chest, I pushed up and, remarkably, felt her relax her clutches.

Then it clicked.

It wasn't just domination and submission; it was a dialogue. She expressed her desires through force. When Eishe wanted something, she simply did it, and if I did something she didn't like, she would resist. And she expected the same from me.

Eishe's face was an anxious grimace, desperate for her ultimate release. Propped up on one elbow, I reached out and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes, nuzzling my palm. Her furnace breath travelled the length of my arm, the heat almost painful against my sweat-covered skin.

As my hand wandered close to her open mouth, she reached for it, gently closing her maw around my thumb. Her teeth were squeezing it like a pup holding onto a stick. Maybe I should have been afraid then. One slight flex of her jaw, a careless application of strength, would result in a bloody mess. But I was not.

It seemed comforting to her, holding on to me tooth and claw. Can't say I couldn't relate.

It was becoming obvious that this fleeting moment would soon come to its conclusion. No matter how much I wished to prolong it, my own strength was waning, my movements growing irregular and tense. We were both nearing the precipice.

Her talons dug into my back, wet trickles of warmth flowing down my spine. Her shivering was more intense by the second. I redoubled my efforts, determined to make it the most intense for her as I could. Her growls were heralding my success as my rhythm increased. I would give to her a climax like no other.

I knew it wouldn't take much now. For either of us. Eishe let go of my hand and clenched her teeth with full force, resting her forehead against mine. Her hot breath made my chest burn. I caressed her jaw as I pulled back for a final powerful thrust.

Eishe roared right in my ear as I sent her plummeting off the edge. Her wings lifted themselves off the ground, closing above us in a dome of protective scales. Just then, Eishe's maw latched onto my clavicle, her teeth sinking into my skin! It should have scared me. I knew she could kill that way. I watched her do it. Instead, it pulled me off the edge along with her.

I groaned as I felt pleasure spill over me. It built itself up like a dammed river somewhere within my core, then it burst open flooding my entire body with electric sensations. Then it flooded hers.

Eishe's claws dragged across my back as my pent-up excitement spilled into her depths. My head fell against hers, still biting down on my shoulder. Her scaled cheeks warmed my own as I exhaled into her earhole, letting more and more of me flow into her.

When it was all done, she let go of my shoulder and withdrew her head. I collapsed onto her body, my chest against her belly, when her tongue came snaking up my cheek. I opened my eyes at last to see hers, two faint crimson sparks glowing through darkness. The flickering flames cast a glow through the membrane of her wing, creating a shifting lightshow over our sprawled forms.

I smiled at her. She answered by licking the blood off my shoulder. It was likely I would carry a few new scars out of this experience. I was entirely comfortable with that. It would be a pleasant memory.

It took a long time till we finally disconnected. We were both tired. Never letting go off me, Eishe folded one wing and rolled over to her side, clutching me close to her chest as she laid me down onto the soft fur. She curled her body around mine just like that one night during the storm. Only this time I wasn't awkwardly trying to avoid her touch.

I laid there under the cover of her wing, my chest against hers and her hand across my back, until dreams finally took us both.

***

The morning was no less disorienting than the others. The quiet confusion over my surroundings, the urgent realization that I wasn't on a ship followed by the dull recollection of the previous days' events.

Only this time, it didn't feel bad.

Or that dull.

I woke up surrounded by gleaming black scales above and beside me, sinking into the soft white fur below. I was warm. I was comfortable. And I was not alone. Eishe's scarlet eye greeted me as I regained consciousness. No words were exchanged. There was no need.

I held onto her face as she stood up from our nest, withdrawing the shelter of her wing. She answered by licking my neck up to my face. I remained lying for a while more after she left, still drained from the last few days' exertion.

When I finally got up, the cave was quiet. The wounds didn't ache anymore, neither from the battle, nor the… other ones. I couldn't recall where my clothes had ended up, but I decided to worry about that later.

I approached the cave entrance and looked out across the sunny scenery. The day was in full progress already. I must have slept through a good part of it. Another thing I didn't care about. There were no sounds at all, except the howling of the wind and gurgling of the water.

The water.

Deciding I could use a bath, I approached the inflow side of the basin, where the hot water gathered and dipped my foot in. I walked past another stack of curios on Eishe's horde. Noticing a bundle of scripts, I grabbed a few before soaking myself in the artificial pond. The hot water did wonders, releasing tensions in places I didn't know I had, while I flipped the mostly unreadable pages. Some were completely indecipherable, others in languages I couldn't recognize. One was actually in common and well preserved, but proved to be an extremely mundane list of chores.

I almost gave up, when I picked up the next script. A bound volume that had partially resisted having its ink smudged. Someone went through a lot of trouble to save it when their ship went down. It was thick and consisted of what seemed to be strings of random words accompanied by indecipherable scribbles. It took me a while to realize what I was truly holding.

It was a dictionary.

Flipping through the intact pages, I noticed the manuscript was divided into sections. Words of countless different languages and their translations to common were the bulk of the volume, but every now and then, sketches of odd carvings and foreign runes filled the worn pages. This wasn't an official publication; it was someone's research.

As intrigued as I was, I almost dropped the volume in the pond when I came across a word I recognized.

“Kveh'er – Thanks, to express gratitude."

I've heard that word before. And, inexplicably, I had figured out its meaning too.

There was a section on draconic!

I was beside myself! When my fingers unfroze, I excitedly flipped through the pages, scanning their contents. This was precisely what I needed! And she had no idea what she had in there!

Regrettably, most of the writing turned out to be beyond recognition, and the section in general wasn't terribly extensive, but it was something. If I had some time to study this, I could get a basic grip on the language. I could finally ask Eishe all I wanted to know.

I could ask her to let me know if there were any ships sailing by! To keep an eye out on the canal! I could go home!

Home…

…

And where was home?

My excitement waned for a moment. My home was on a ship. A ship that no longer was. All I had left to go to was another ship. With another crew. A new place. New people. Was that really so much better a prospect than here?

Contemplating the pages in front of me, I struggled to find what words to look up. All this time I wished we could understand each other and now I had nothing to say. Nothing to ask.

Something else occurred to me. Flipping through the alphabetically ordered draconic, I searched for the pages with E. It wasn't too hard to find what I was looking for.

“Eishen – Silence. Adj: Eishe – Silent, quiet"

I flipped the pages some more.

“Rath – fire, flame"

Silent fire…? Quiet flame? Quiet fire?

A loud noise torn me from my musings. Eisherath materialized at the cave entrance, carrying another fresh game, ready for processing. She seemed to forget it when she saw me, dropping it in the corner and hopping over to the pond. She gave the water a moment's consideration, before gracefully slipping in, making it pour over the edge of the dam that kept it full.

I maneuvered the book away from the thrashing waves, trying my best to keep the pages dry. My attempts were almost thwarted when Eishe's muzzle resurfaced inches in front of me, spraying water in my face with her nostrils.

“Hi," I said. I wandered how you said “hi" in draconic…

Eishe greeted me with another “kiss" across my chest and neck. I supposed that worked.

“Do I take it I should get used to this treatment?"

She didn't answer, aside from nuzzling her head against my chest, her scales gleaming all the more when covered in tiny droplets. The book was growing heavy in my hands as I held it high above the water. Suddenly, there was again a thousand words I wanted to say to her. If only something would let me say what I felt…

I looked at Eishe's closed eyes as she laid against my body, peaceful and tranquil.

Silent.

I tossed the book aside towards the others. Words could wait.

I let my hands wrap around her neck, pulling her closer to me. Her hand came resting on my thigh, her touch warm even in the thermal waters. Then, I did something that surprised even myself. I leaned down and kissed her forehead. She reacted with a pleased purr.

In that moment, I finally stopped worrying about what would come and focused on what was then. The future was for future me to worry about. Maybe I would leave one day. Maybe I would not. With every minute there, every second with her, it all seemed less important.