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Fire roared. Steam vents hissed. The rumble of dangerous lava could be heard all around. None of this deterred Kator, The Unflinching, as he strode in through the whipping and whirling ash, clutching his sword in hand. The blade gleamed through the dark, its holy power shining through the oppressive environment. The muscular, tanned human was barely wearing anything to shield himself from the elements - his chest and legs were entirely bare, he only had on boots and what looked like a loincloth of some sort, as well as a belt over his shoulder. But a rugged figure like him seemed like he could endure just about anything, and clearly the sight was meant to impress - bulging muscles in his chest, arms, and legs gave off a stunning impression of power that none could possibly object to.

As he stepped forward, he roared out with an imperiously powerful voice. “Zaxtabar! I have you now! Release Princess Katea at once, or meet your end!”

A deep, growly voice rumbled in dark laughter, as the fell wind of the volcanic chamber picked up. The figure of a dragon, almost black except for the barest tinge of red in his scales, stood in front of a cage with a human woman trapped inside. The princess Katea seemed also ill-dressed for the environment, barely covered by a tattered dress that revealed as much skin as possible without becoming overtly lewd, to the point where it seemed like perverted scientists had calculated the exact amount of fabric to the square inch could be used before the line was hit. She was still more covered than Zaxtabar, who wore precisely nothing - although he looked entirely at home in it, like his body was built precisely for elements like these, those scales looked like they could deflect cannonballs and those muscles looked like they could move mountains, being even more sensationally stacked than Kator was. And that was without taking into account the crimson horns and claws and fangs that he was sporting. He stood defiantly over Kator, arms folded, wings spread wide, as imposing as a dragon ought to have been. “So, fool, you dared set foot in my lair after all! You’ll make a fine char-broiled meal for me to celebrate my victory!”

“You’ll never have victory, fiend!” fired back Kator brashly. “My hallowed sword has the power to cut your evil down! I’ll not let you force her to be your bride!”

“And who are you to call ME evil?” replied Zaxtabar sharply. “Have you not considered what the king may have done to me? To those like me? Foolish human, if you were hunted like I was, would you not desire your own vengeance? I lash back at those arrogant nobles who stole our land and forced us back…now, it is their turn to suffer, to feel the pain of loss that they deserve!”

“CUUUUUUT!”

A loud groan arose from Kator, who slumped forward at the shrill shout. “God dammit…”

“What. Was. That. ATROCITY!” From off to the side stomped a grizzled rabbit in his early 60s, decked out in a mismatched vest and shirt combo with rolled-up pants, a look he often described as ‘emblematic of a creative’ while others just used the much simpler ‘grubby’. His ire was directed to the dragon, whose expression was one of rank frustration. “Ferez! I TOLD you already to stick to the script! This isn’t some half-baked audition, you’re making a MOVIE here! And you’re making hash of my creative vision!”

Ferez Kilthoret growled a bit at that. He would have REALLY liked to have said what he was thinking right now, which would have charged the director’s vision of being akin to a cave salamander. But that would mean another patented Ambrey McHinton twenty-minute tirade, and he really wasn’t in the mood for that, either. “I’m trying to inject some personality into the character!”

“You need to learn your place, dammit! I’ve given you all the personality you’ll ever need for this one, and it’s right there in the script you’re supposed to stick to! Have you forgotten you’re playing a ROLE here?! It’s not YOU, it’s the character you’re given! And I expect you to follow through PROPERLY!”

That was asking a bit too much as far as Ferez was concerned. “You can’t seriously think this is good characterization! My character is just…evil for the sake of evil! He has no motivation! He just randomly kidnaps a princess, wanting to marry her, like there’s any priest in the world who’d actually preside over that, for no reason other than to be evil and do evil things! It’s the most generic possible villain I’ve ever seen!”

“That’s because you have no VISION!” Ambrey puffed very self-importantly. “You haven’t the slightest idea how to take a masterwork and make it RADIANT like I do! If you had a quarter of the talent I have in one finger you’d see exactly the subtle nuance and depth of this character that I’m TRYING to make shine through! And if you’d play the damn role like you were supposed to, maybe you’d catch a glimpse of that vision!”

“That’s what you keep saying when I tell you I don’t see anything but ‘generic damsel in distress’ in this role,” remarked the woman from the cage, as she opened it and stepped out. “When am I going to actually have a scene that portrays me as something else?”

Ambrey turned his eyes on her. “Don’t you start on me, Elle! It’s not my fault you can’t understand the genius I possess! Ugh, to have to put up with such MUNDANES as you three, listening to your constant whining because you simply aren’t a fraction of the visionary I am! If it’s not you, it’s Ferez whining because he can’t get properly into being a villain, and if it’s not him it’s Donovan whining at me about playing a dim-witted meathead, as if he was somehow ABOVE such a thing. It drives me up the wall, having to put up with you!”

That was about the one thing the three saw eye-to-eye with the rabbit on - being in the same room as Ambrey McHinton was proving to be a source of endless frustration. What they thought could be a big break for all of them was instead turning into a nightmare breakdown that they desperately wanted out of - if only they weren’t bound by contracts that would get them in serious hot water if they tried. And the famed director was turning out to be the engine behind that breakdown, the warnings about him hadn’t even scratched the surface of what they had experienced thus far.

It had all seemed like a good idea at first. Ferez Kilthoret, Elle Chestrus, and Donovan Mius, three unknowns who’d never had anything but bit roles before, looking to get their big break as most did. And it seemed like a golden opportunity - Ambrey McHinton, a producer/director renowned for his big sensations a few decades ago, looking for three up-and-comers to star in a visionary new fantasy epic, one guaranteed to thrust them into the limelight and grant them renown for the ages. Normally they had to compete with strong established names for roles, but McHinton wanted no-names, wanted fresh faces for a fresh new perspective, and they had jumped at the chance. Sure, there were rumors that McHinton could be tough to work with, but how bad could it really be?

Bad. SO bad. As bad, in fact, as the dreck they were being pushed to perform.

McHinton was SO much worse than anyone had let on. Being demanding wasn’t exactly unheard of in the industry, but he was certainly among the more demanding directors out there, refusing to tolerate a hint of dissent. The belittling was definitely more out of line, though, insults directed their way were a constant, even when they hadn’t directly done anything to earn his ire. He demanded reshoots over trivialities, such as ‘being a half-step flat in your scream’ or ‘pronouncing that word slightly strange’ or ‘I didn’t like the way you blinked there’. Questioning his acumen would have him fly completely off the handle, you weren’t escaping his wrath for a good twenty minutes listening to him harp on his accolades and legacies. All of which were well in the past - his breakout hits around thirty years ago had given him an enormous head, but the reality was that he hadn’t met that level of success with anything he’d done since those two - and in the last decade, he’d had some rather significant flops to his name. But past success bought a lot in the industry, and somehow he got away with it.

Don, Elle, and Ferez were not going to be so lucky. This was supposed to be the way to get eyes on them, but at this point, they were convinced that anyone who laid eyes on them would be mentally crossing them off of any potential roles, convinced that they couldn’t act to save their lives. And that was as much McHinton as it was the atrocity of a script they were given. The ‘visionary new fantasy epic’ was the most mindlessly generic drivel any of them had ever read, it read like a bad children’s story. The plot was simplistic beyond simplistic, generic bad dragon captures generic distressed princess, who is rescued by generic muscular himbo with a magic sword, with a bunch of action scenes, people talking about random things, and a couple half-hearted attempts at lore that sounded like they were cribbed from various sources. Each one of them hated their characters with a passion, but they had signed contracts and McHinton had promised ample blacklisting if they backed out.

At this point, they were wondering if it even mattered - if anyone saw them in this trash heap, they’d probably be blacklisted anyway.

Donovan finally spoke up, sounding rather weary as he did. “This is the thirty-eighth take today. I’m not doing a thirty-ninth.”

Ambrey’s glower turned on the human. “Pathetic! Back in my day, you’d do as many takes as it took to get it right, no matter what!”

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t true, and it doesn’t matter. I don’t have the energy for more of this. Just because YOU decided you were going off for a month doesn’t mean I can somehow have limitless energy on the day before you leave.” It seemed astonishing that Ambrey would actually leave before the movie was done, but he made it perfectly clear that he HAD that privilege and he was going to use it. Most of the movie was shot by this point…it was mostly the finale of the action that hadn’t yet been shot to his satisfaction. The assistant director was going to make sure things got finished up, and then it would be the final phases before things were released...relief from Ambrey almost made the whole thing worth it, except he’d been running them ragged in the days leading up to it.

“Humph! Fine! But I’ll be leaving VERY detailed notes and Dennis will be making SURE you adhere to them! Go, get out of my sight!” Ambrey stomped off, and that was a warp for shooting for the day, mercifully.

Elle was the first one to speak up when he was out of earshot. “What do you want to bet his notes tell us to dumb things down even further?”

“I don’t give a shit what his notes say at this point,” groaned Ferez. “I’m not even sure I want to show up tomorrow.”

“Not like any of us have a choice,” sighed Donovan. “Last fucking time I ever sign a contract without reading EVERY word…”

“Don’t feel too bad, I DID read every word of it and still got snookered. Withholding 95% of our pay until we complete shooting…I can’t believe he managed to sneak that in there. Wish I could afford a lawyer so I could actually challenge that, but that’s hard to do without, you know, getting paid.”

“Scumbag got us good,” Elle agreed. “What I’d like is some way to get him back…without it costing us everything, anyway.”

“I think that goes for a lot of us…” Donovan shook his head. “Ugh, I need to sit down.”

———

The actor’s lounge wasn’t a very well-kept place - Ambrey McHinton didn’t really give them much time to do much with it in the first place. So it was somewhat dingy and messy, with papers and periodicals strewn about on the table and a few stray food wrappers here and there. Some of which were freshly opened, as the three ate and lamented their sorry state of affairs.

“I know it sucks, but did you HAVE to try to improvise again?” grumbled Donovan to Ferez after swallowing a bite of sandwich. “You had to know it wouldn’t end well.”

“He already didn’t like the last three times we actually got to my lines, I figured I had nothing to lose,” replied Ferez as he slurped down some instant noodles. “Nothing we do satisfies him. He already hates all the footage we got for the rest of the movie, says we aren’t getting into the soul of things well enough.”

“That would require there to BE soul in this trash,” muttered Elle after taking a bite out of a carrot. “Can you believe he’s pissed off that we don’t have the ending shot yet? As if it was OUR idea to only shoot the movie in linear sequence. Like, who the hell even does that?”

“Apparently a ‘visionary’ who can’t see six inches in front of him,” Donovan huffed. “It feels like we’re the only ones who were even trying to make this…well, nothing was making this GOOD, but not a disaster. And he’s stopped us every step of the way.”

“God, yes. It’s been such a pain. Trying to make Princess Katea not be such a useless lump is like stinging him in the ass. Like, I’m not even trying to make it seem like she can win against Zaxtabar, just at least, you know, TRY to act like I don’t exist to look pretty and be an object for the hero, and then he yells at me for not being feeble enough.”

“I can’t believe that fucker actually said you should be CRYING more,” growled Ferez.

“I know, right? What the hell kind of direction is that? If you’re trying to make her look like the most useless person in the world, that’s what you get!”

“Not that ‘Kator’ is that much better,” Donovan added with a shake of his head. “I mean, god, talk about bland and dull. I’m supposed to act like an idiot every step of the way…falling into obvious traps that anyone with even a few brain cells could figure out. There’s seriously a ‘don’t press the button’ trap that I have to be too stupid to even think about. But even that’s not enough, he yells at me for just trying to follow the conversations of the bit characters! Like even trying to listen to what they’re saying is supposed to be too hard for this guy, and he’s supposed to be a hero?”

“‘Because you’re the brawn, you don’t need brains,’” Elle huffed, mocking Ambrey’s tone of speech in as exaggerated an effort as possible. “And then hearing how he thought you were a ‘method actor’ for that role…fuckin’ hell, if that’s the way he acts, small wonder he was looking for fresh blood, probably no one who’s worked for him wants to ever do so again.”

“Pretty sure I heard ‘big dumb reptile’ come from his mouth, too, and I doubt it was directed at anyone else,” snarled Ferez. “Maybe I’d sound less like a big dumb reptile if you’d let me, I dunno, DO something with this character so that he wasn’t a big dumb reptile! Like, I’m sorry, I know you guys hate that the takes get stopped because I try to give this character any identity at all, but I can’t stand it, I try to say these lines and it’s just…who the fuck sounds like that?! It was like this script was written by someone who didn’t understand what actually made a villain, they just wanted a bad guy to be evil and do evil things. I don’t MIND playing a villain if it’s an interesting one, but this is worse than bad fanfiction!”

“It’s not like plenty of them don’t already get stopped because of the most ludicrous things anyway,” signed Elle. “At least if someone cobbled together your takes they might get one character in this entire movie that has a shred of depth to them. But it was really fun when he told you off for being ‘too angry.’”

“I was totally imagining biting his stupid fuzzy head off.”

“You think any jury in the world would convict you?” asked Donovan.

“Yes, if they saw Nights In Jurenda. How the hell did that twit ever make something like that?”

“I heard people saying that back then he actually DID have some interesting ideas,” shrugged Elle. “Maybe his mind’s just gone by this point. Or maybe his ego ate it.”

“Equal likelihood of that.” That remark came from a young female bobcat who’d just entered the actor’s lounge. Susie Mardera, another name lost in the flood of folks looking to hit their big time in the cinema, though as far as this movie was concerned she was only a bit role, a waitress in a tavern that Kator visited who had a few lines, none of which were particularly important or useful. Otherwise she had played some background crowd filler, most likely lost to the noise, and considering what the product was she seemed not to have a problem with that. “I’ve heard a few things about him…the old guard adore him for Nights in Jurenda and How We Stand, but the younger you get the more likely you find someone who’s never seen anything but the schlock he’s put out more recently. Some people say he’s desperate to recapture that glory before he gets to the point where he needs to pack it in…but the fact that he’s been suckered into some truly awful ideas tells me he can’t really hack it anymore.”

“Wish if the mind went the body had to go, too…” Ferez gave off a long-suffering sigh. “I can’t believe I got roped into playing an old dragon stereotype…scaly folk are gonna eviscerate me when this comes out for even humoring this garbage.”

Elle groaned in commiseration with that. “Yeah, they don’t like the portrayals they get as it is, this isn’t going to help them. Heck, I can’t believe the writer thought that was okay in the first place…you’d think people would be more conscious of that stuff in this day and age.”

“Given the quality of THIS dreck, I’m not sure how conscious they are in general,” snorted Donovan. “Wish I knew where to find this ‘Gill Shiverlance’ hack. I’d give him more than a piece of my mind, tell him exactly what I think of this trash.”

“Well…” Susie spoke up, in a slightly knowing voice. “You could…but I think that might get you into even hotter water.”

“You know him?” Elle asked curiously.

“Technically no. But I know who he is. And once I tell you, you’re not gonna like it.”

“How bad can it be?” scoffed Ferez. “We already know it’s a fake name - can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to be tied to THIS of all things. If you told me it was Ambrey himself, I’d just have to say it made sense. Can’t get any worse than that, can it?”

“Now that you’ve said it, it’s going to,” warned Elle. “But I want to know how Susie knows, Ambrey hasn’t said a word about him.”

Susie rubbed her head a bit. “It was an accident, I definitely wasn’t expecting it. I stuck around after the shooting a few nights ago because I was expecting a call, and I happened to wander near the set...and Ambrey was talking with someone, and it sounded like they were talking about the scene. I admit, I kind of wanted to hear how bad the ideas were, so I crept over to try to eavesdrop a bit…and it was what I thought it was, Ambrey chatting with someone, talking about stage direction and the action plan and all that. But it wasn’t with the other staff…I didn’t know who it was until I heard him say the name: Jason.”

All three of them did a double take. “You CAN’T mean Jason McHinton?” gasped Elle.

“Yep. I had no idea Ambrey’s bratty son was even in the studio.”

“Oh, I can’t say I’m surprised, daddy’s spoiled little bitch gets WAY more than he deserves,” spat Ferez. No one was surprised to hear that invective, and it wasn’t exactly uncommon sentiment - they’d heard Ambrey yelling about Jason more than a little bit while they were dealing with this shoot. Of course, in Ambrey’s eyes, Jason could do no wrong, and was being constantly treated unfairly at his private academy, for reasons which ranged from jealousy to personal attacks, mostly directed at Ambrey himself. But they could all guess the reality from the context of that ranting - and the reality seemed to be that Jason was incredibly spoiled by his father, shielded from the consequences of his actions, more often the aggressor than the victim, and a notable delinquent at his cushy school, able to get into trouble more than they usually were willing to acknowledge. At least, that last part was presumed from just how OFTEN Ambrey was screaming at someone over the phone about him.

“So now he gets to hang around the studio getting tutorials on how to be a shitty director?” asked Donovan with a smirk. “Much as I hate how privileged he is without deserving it, at least he’s being set up to fail. Also, isn’t he like sixteen?”

“Fifteen,” corrected Elle. “Sixteen in two months, because Ambrey’s got that date scrawled all over on the calendar like the world’s gonna end.”

“Same difference, pretty much. Idiot teen, I’m surprised he even cares about this stuff. But you heard them talking about Gill Shiverlance?”

Susie hesitated. “Not…precisely. See…I heard them talking about how the scene was supposed to go, but…it wasn’t Ambrey giving Jason a tutorial. It was Ambrey asking Jason how it should look. And…saying that he was going to bring ‘his vision’ to life.”

Ferez had just taken a swallow of water and suddenly spat it all over the table, hacking madly as he tried to get control over himself. “Y-you’re SHITTING ME!”

“‘Fraid not. Ambrey McHinton’s alleged ‘masterpiece script’ was penned by his son under a fake name. Probably because they wouldn’t be okay with using a minor as a writing credit.”

“Hang on, hang on just a second,” sputtered Donovan. “Didn’t he actually FAIL a creative writing course? Or, well, they had him ‘change courses’ but that’s practically a fail. Ambrey even shouted about how they called his work dismally shallow and simplistic! Devoid of creativity or understanding of character or plot! Generic, reliant on tired tropes…” He trailed off a bit, frowning. “…Actually, considering what the script’s like, that actually is starting to make too much damn sense.”

“The worst part, though?” sighed Susie. “That’s the entire reason why Ambrey’s making this movie. Because he wants Jason to be able to crow that he has a screenwriting credit, even under a fake name, just to stick it to everyone who said he couldn’t write. I heard them yammering about that at the end, for way longer than they really needed to…both of them have a real stick up their asses about this whole thing. The idea that Jason could ever be bad at something just…neither of them can handle it. It’s almost kinda deranged.”

“So you’re telling me we’re about to ruin our careers on a dungheap of a movie that exists because an egomaniac director got wounded feelings over his son’s shitty writing, and instead of trying to, iunno, teach him to try to write or learn even a little bit, decided to USE that shitty writing to make a movie to stick it to other stuck-up rich teens who maybe have a LITTLE taste,” concluded Elle darkly.

Susie shrugged. “Yep, pretty much.”

Silence for a moment, as that all sank in fully. Ferez’s hands were shaking; he’d clearly come out on the wrong end of his dare towards the universe. Finding out that they were essentially being used to settle a personal grudge in one of the most mind-numbingly stupid ways imaginable was SO much worse than anything he had been expecting…that was it, that was the last straw for him. “Fuck this. Fuck this so hard. We need to sink this.”

“Sink it? You don’t mean sabotage?” asked Elle.

“Of course I fucking mean sabotage! It should never have gotten to this point in the first place! We signed on wanting to be part of something meaningful, not daddy’s little brat’s pacifier project! He’s chewing up no-names because he knows no one’ll give a shit about HIM, because they still think he shits gold for some inane reason, and giving that little jizz-squirt of his something to brag about that he shouldn’t have! NOT FUCKING HAPPENING. We need to destroy this, make sure it NEVER sees the light of day.”

“It’s not like I don’t get that, Ferez,” mumbled Donovan. “I don’t want to be part of that any more than you do. But our careers are going to be canned AND we’re not going to get paid what we’re owed. Can’t we just…screw things up by not shooting the last scene like they wanted and making him have to swallow something better than his kid’s trashy writing?”

“No, we can’t. Because he’ll fucking take credit for it. They’ll lie through their teeth and say that was EXACTLY how they envisioned it. I don’t want to waste good creativity on garbage people.”

“And I don’t want to be mooching off of friends for the next however long while trying to find a job that will pay for rent,” countered Elle. “Even if we get blacklisted, getting our owed pay will be enough of a chunk to set us up so we can move on. But if we don’t get that, Ambrey still gets the satisfaction of ruining us, and you know he’ll consider it worth it - he can find other desperate patsies to hock that schlock to.”

Ferez growled in frustration - he needed them on board to make any chance of sabotage really possible, or there was a chance they’d go around his back to finish things, pluck another similar-looking dragon off the street who could take direction and finish it while he wasn’t watching. But it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand where they were coming from…being a dragon gave one slightly better options for dealing with hard times, it would barely be a challenge for him to prostitute himself if it came to it, dragons were highly sought-after for that sort of thing. “There’s got to be a way to fulfill our contracts and still nuke this bitch. We get paid at the completion of shooting, right? He won’t even be able to review the footage before the money’s in our accounts, he’s not getting back until a few days after the wrap date. And you know he NEVER extends those, he’s shouted it often enough.”

“You want to complete the shooting with something he can’t use?” asked Susie curiously. “Doubt you’ll be able to manage that. They’ll dub over it if they have to, so trying to screw up your lines badly enough won’t be enough. Pretty much anything you try to act out that isn’t in direction, they’ll figure out how to use SOMEthing. Ambrey may be a washed-up hack but he’s a stubborn washed-up hack, and he doesn’t care how bad it looks, because his son wrote it so it’s diamond-encrusted platinum in his eyes.”

“Hm, good point…” Ferez had to think again, he refused to believe there wasn’t an answer, he just needed to find it. “We just need to figure this out…I’m sure we can get the crew on board, they don’t like him any more than us and when they hear about this they’ll be even more pissed. But it won’t matter if we can’t get something that puts the kibosh on this ever being released…”

“If you think of it, I’m all ears,” said Elle. “Last thing I want is to have to go through all this to be a laughingstock that people only remember because I’m 90% naked through half the movie.”

“That really was a fucking teenager who wrote that,” scoffed Donovan. “I’m surprised he resisted the urge to throw in a bare-ass shot of me during that toilet fight scene. It’s got all the other juvenile humor in there.”

“I’ll bet that was ‘too gay’. I don’t get why anyone still gets hung up on that nonsense, it’s not like being gay is something weird and exotic these days.”

“It’s a problem at private academies,” chimed in Susie. “They’re a huge emphasis on having families, because apparently ‘family will probably be your only friends.’ Gee, maybe if they didn’t have miserable snobbish attitudes they’d be able to find friends outside of family. Also that’s how stuff like knocking up your cousin happens.”

“…That’s it.” Ferez felt a grin coming to his face for the first time in too long. “Hey, Elle, what’s the rating on this movie supposed to be?”

“Eh? General audiences, I think. Not ‘child friendly’, so I don’t think a few swear words are gonna kill things.”

“No. But I think we can bump that rating up anyway…all the way up to X.”

Donovan did another double-take. “You’re not serious? You want to turn this into a fucking PORN shoot?”

“Damn straight. Think about it! Susie’s right that they’ll dub over things if we try to do anything they can otherwise work with. But they can’t fucking dub out hardcore sexual imagery. There’s no way he could salvage that, he’d HAVE to reshoot, and you know Ambrey, there’s NO WAY he would reshoot one scene with different actors. He’d either have to redo the whole movie or scuttle it. But so long as WE get it done before he gets back, we’ll have our pay and can split, and then it’s not our problem anymore.”

“That’s insane!” protested Elle.

“Actually…” Donovan and Elle looked over at Susie in disbelief; the bobcat was grinning just as widely as Ferez. “I think he’s onto something. You guys getting down and dirty out there, there’s zero chance Ambrey would try to work around that - he already gets stuffy over ‘smut’, no way he’d ever put out something pornographic. He’d be pissed at you, but if your careers are in peril either way, might as well get one over on him, right?”

“That…that’s still a pretty big ask,” Donovan gulped, his eyes looking over at Ferez. ‘Pretty’ big might have been an understatement, nothing was outwardly visible on the dragon but he knew more than well enough that they were far from slouches in the size department. Definitely more than well enough, if his browser history was any indication…

Elle looked similarly nervous, with a similar rationale - and she was not exactly markedly less knowledgable on the matter than Donovan, not that either of them knew it. “I don’t think I want to get known for something like that…it might give people the wrong idea.”

“I doubt anyone will even think anything of it,” Ferez assured them; he could already tell the opening was there, a dragon always knew the interest when they saw it. “Ambrey probably destroys the footage anyway, so it won’t be circulating. Even on the off chance that it doesn’t, you can come up with any number of stories - the truth, claim it was a prank, say you didn’t know they were recording, or push it off on Ambrey himself. But I think it won’t even matter - he’ll be so apoplectic he’ll probably burn it all down and salt the earth.”

It wasn’t the most emphatic reassurance ever to Elle, but finally she nodded. “To hell with it. If I’m fucked either way, better literally by a dragon than figuratively by a nutcase director.”

“Nnnh…maybe I don’t have to be a part of this,” Donovan muttered hesitantly.

“Oh, I think you should be, we need to make sure we’re THOROUGH, after all,” rumbled Ferez suggestively. “Besides, I think we need to show Ambrey how a fight between a human and a dragon would REALLY go…”

Donovan winced. The prospect of losing his anal virginity in front of an entire recording crew, to a most-likely oversized dragon, with the potential of the footage leaking out and being known to everyone and their brother…it was nerve-wracking and terrifying. The problem was it was also kind of hot, especially with the promised scenario. “…All right. I’m in…well, maybe I’m not the right person to say that…”

Ferez grinned wider than ever. “You’re not gonna regret this. Let’s rest up, because soon, we’re finally gonna have some FUN with this.”

———

A couple days later, the stage was set. Ambrey was off on his trip, some overseas something-or-other than no one except him cared about on the set. It was a ridiculous decision for a director to make during the waning days of a shoot, but Ambrey had proven a ridiculous director. And that was going to come back to bite him this time.

Ferez had rarely felt so good walking onto the set nude. He had been virtually the entire shoot - Ambrey’s ‘vision’, or his son’s, apparently didn’t involve their big, evil dragon wearing pants - and normally that was the way he liked to be, particularly around his own place. Dragons were one of the few who could usually get away with it in public, a tiny hint of magic enough to glamour themselves into decency, but most at least wore something…Ferez was no exception, though he perhaps was a bit more likely to try to get away with it if he could. So initially, the idea that clothing was unnecessary for him seemed like a perk…yet, Ambrey had even managed to sour THAT, making thinly-veiled assertions that Ferez’s state was a reflection of primitiveness, uncouthness, lowbrowness, or what have you. That seemed to be a slightly running theme - Donovan’s character was extremely light on clothing as well, and guided to be more neanderthal in behavior, and Elle’s diminishing wardrobe over the shoot was professed to be a symbol of her character’s degradation at the hands of the dragon. Ambrey’s judgmental attitude had made them all feel a bit degraded for just playing the roles they were meant to play, but Ferez perhaps most of all, because it was closer to how he actually liked to be.

But the idiot rabbit wasn’t here today. And today, they were going to take things a step further. Ambrey thought being less dressed meant cruder and closer to corrupted? They were going to take that to its logical conclusion.

He approached a raccoon who was looking over something on a clipboard. “Hey, Dennis. Everything ready to go?”

“You bet.” Dennis looked up at Ferez and grinned. “Pretty much everyone’s on board, or decided to be ‘conveniently absent.’ But there’s plenty of folks who’re digging the idea of throwing Ambrey into complete disarray, and especially the way you proposed. Gonna be a good time for everyone…though I think you guys are gonna enjoy it most.”

“No question about that,” replied the dragon with just a hint of smugness. “Though I think just being out from under his choking presence has to be keeping spirits high already.”

“Yeah, about time we had a day where we didn’t get yelled at for stupid shit.” Dennis looked over as Elle and Donovan come forward, in their final scene outfits. “And the other stars of the show…you guys look like you’re eager to get going, too.”

“Mmmmaybe a little,” confessed Elle, reddening a bit. “I’m still a bit nervous about this getting out, though.”

“I honestly don’t see any way it could actually HURT your career. Lots of bigger stars have plenty of seedy things hiding in the shadows, it’s pretty much just shrugged at these days unless it’s something really depraved. Acting out a forced scene like this? Probably won’t get a second thought.”

“Still hard to believe we’re doing this,” said Donovan. “Never thought I’d be walking on a set to try to make sure I DIDN’T get seen. But I guess you never know what you get in this industry. We’re not gonna have any sudden interruptions, are we?”

“Everything’s locked down, nothing’s gonna get in the way,” Dennis affirmed. “Right, places everyone! Let’s make some magic.”

———

Fire roared. Steam vents hissed. The rumble of dangerous lava could be heard all around. Princess Katea rattled the bars of her cage as much as she could, trying to be heard over the cacophony. “Zaxtabar! Let me out of here, right now!”

The dark-scaled dragon approached, a smug leer on his face. “Is that what you really want, princess? To have nothing between you and the ‘big, bad dragon’ who’s taken you hostage?”

“I’m not afraid of you! Kator will be here, and he’ll put an end to you and take me home!”

“Is that so?” Zaxtabar leaned in towards the cage, grinning with sharp fangs at the human. “What if I told you, my dear, that you were already home?”

Katea recoiled a bit. “Wh-what? What are you talking about? You stole me from my home!”

“Hm, perhaps one could look at it that way…” Zaxtabar reached out, and yanked the lock on the cage, breaking it right off. “But I have a slightly different perspective…that I’ve brought you where you belong, and you WILL want to remain here with me.”

“What?! There’s no way I would want to stay with a brutish creature like you! You must be mad!”

“That’s what some have called me. But you, my dear, will call me much nicer things once I’m done with you.” The cage door opened, and Zaxtabar lunged in, pulling Katea out before she could avoid him. She yelped and stumbled towards him, trying to pull away from that tight grip. “Why so anxious, princess? Isn’t this what you asked for?”

“U-unhand me, you beast!”

“I have a better idea…let’s unrobe YOU, instead.” Zaxtabar’s free hand shot out, and before Katea knew what was happening, that ragged top only just covering her breasts was torn away like it was merely paper. She yelped, and reached up with her free arm to try to cover herself, but the dragon was quick, snatching her other wrist, pulling it back behind her, and binding them together with the fabric he’d torn away. Katea’s struggles were futile, the dragon was simply far too powerful, dreadfully strong even without using his powerful magic… “Heh, now THIS is more like it. It’s been too long since I had such a sexy toy to play with. This is a FAR better way of passing the time than simply standing around waiting for that fool.”

“Wh-what…what are you doing? Hng, let go of me!” Katea sounded much less bold than she had behind the bars of the cage - what an irony that that release was actually a punishment. “Why are you doing this?!”

“Why? Because, my dear, I intend to ensure that my kind is restored.” Zaxtabar leaned in over her shoulder, growling lecherously as Katea’s eyes widened. “Our numbers have suffered at the hands of you humans for far too long. But I have unlocked the secret to our return…using humans to restore our numbers strengthens us against your kind. Not only bringing our numbers back, but making them harder for you to slay…heh, dragonkind will soon see its revival, and you will be one of its bearers.”

“N-no! You can’t!”

“I’d like to see you stop me.” Zaxtabar took hold of the last thing barely covering Katea, those ragged bottoms that covered only just enough to not be lewd. With a sharp tug, that scant protection was undone, and her loins were on full display, with no chance of anything salvaging her decency. But that wasn’t all, as Zaxtabar leaned down, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep sniff, then let out a rumbled laugh. “Or perhaps you don’t want to…you’re wet, my dear.”

Katea’s face flared crimson. That wasn’t just a lewd taunt, it was reality, she could feel the moistness in her nethers, betraying something that she never should have allowed betrayed. She shouldn’t have been aroused, not by a dragon, not by a creature trying to claim her and ruin her…a gasp escaped her as a clawed finger entered her, pushing inside and making her squirm and spasm. Rough, yet delectable in an almost bestial way, it teased her dangerously, poking at her insides with just enough pressure to make her flinch.

And the ever more gleeful voice of the dragon rumbling in her ear was making her shudder just as much. “Heh heh…I wondered why you didn’t fight me more, my dear. Now I know. Perhaps my scent was already affecting you…and here I thought I’d have to work harder to make you sink into being mine. Let’s see if my tongue can finish the job.”

Katea yelped again as she was lifted high up, over the dragon’s head. She was caught between trying to struggle free from that grip and staying still lest she take a tumble onto the rocky ground…and that indecision gave Zaxtabar the opening he needed, to lance his tongue into HER opening. The human screamed as that tongue plunged in, feeling that heat and thickness delve deep into her, rubbing her insides, leaving a light burning sensation that sent tingles up her spine. The ostentatious display of supremacy and masculine ability was heating her up further against her will…no man had ever come close to trying to take her like this, her father the king would never have allowed such a thing, not until she was betrothed to a prince was she to know carnal satisfaction. And her inexperience was working against her, as the raw, unhinged pleasure of that beast was breaking her, sending thundering waves of bliss through her with just his tongue. It had always been said that dragons sought maidens to corrupt them…was this the corruption at work?

Maybe it was, but she was surrendering to it. The cries of shock were rapidly waning into wails of ecstasy, her squirming was starting to evolve into pushing and clenching on that magic tongue, any sign of resistance was rapidly degrading away. Her body was heating up, demanding more, seeking that ultimate release, and she was getting ever closer as Zaxtabar’s tongue pushed deeper, lapping over her, tasting her juices as they flowed more and more freely. She shook with need as her body was wound up tighter, tighter…

And then that tongue pulled out, and Katea’s cry turned pleading as that magic touch left her hanging. “N-no…please…I, I need…”

“You need more, my dear?” Zaxtabar pulled her back down, against her body once more, and she let out a soft eep as something hard lay between her legs. The dragon’s cock, a dark-red beast with a pointed head, soft short spikes down the body, and she could feel the bulge of a knot against her flesh even if she couldn’t see it. “I can give you more. I can give you pleasure like you’ve never imagined…all you need to do is give yourself to me. Allow my flesh to enter you and make you mine. You will know REAL fulfillment then…what say you?”

“I…I…” Katea wavered, she knew she shouldn’t, knew that it would ruin her, she’d never be accepted back to the kingdom after surrendering to such a beast…but the need in her loins, the desire in her mind, the sensations that she craved…maybe this was the corruption of dragons, that they made humans desire them rather than revile them. But she had been utterly unprepared to fight this, and the temptation proved too much. “I…I give myself to you, Zaxtabar…sh-show me the way a dragon conquers a woman!”

She could almost FEEL the radiant excitement burgeoning in the dragon as he drew his cock back, lining the tip up at her folds. Only two words spoken. “Welcome home.” And then, Katea screamed in ecstasy as Zaxtabar’s cock plunged inside her, filling her like nothing ever had before. She came instantly, her body already at the precipice, held there by the dragon’s magic, and then shoved over with a force she never could have fought. In that instant, it was over, she had fallen completely under his spell, whether literal or figurative, she could no longer imagine opposing Zaxtabar, only worshiping him.

Zaxtabar could feel the change in her, and his growls got a bit more imposing as he started to pound into her, working his cock in and out of that tight, tight pussy, listening to the squelch of his pre and her cum as they melded together with every rock of his hips. Fluids drooled down his cock whenever he pulled back, splashing about when he pumped in, staining the rock with the evidence of their mutual pleasure. “Your cunt is divine, princess…give me an egg, and perhaps I shall elevate that to queen.”

Katea’s response was incoherent, her voice offering only wavering cries of delight as she was ravaged by Zaxtabar. It wasn’t even the hardest the dragon could go, she could certainly feel that power being held in check, but for her it felt like an impossibly wild ride, fearsome and savage and overwhelming. The dragon’s magic, however, was ensuring that there wasn’t even a hint of pain, only raw, unfiltered pleasure pouring into her with the force and volume of a surging waterfall, impossible for her to keep up with. Higher she was lifted, and she leaned back into Zaxtabar, throwing her head back into him as he slammed up into her, displaying her concession to him to the world around, ensuring that all knew that Princess Katea was now his. And more and more, that was exactly what she wanted, all fear of the dragon evaporating gradually as desire and devotion rushed in to fill that void.

Zaxtabar rut harder, faster, slamming that knot against her lips, his growls getting sharper and breaths getting hotter. Holding back anything was a challenge when it felt this good! So he threw himself into it, slamming in with abandon, making her scream louder. “Yessss…take it all, my princess! Bare yourself to me, open your body to my power and virility! Show yourself worthy of bearing my young! The matron of our vengeance, of our reclamation of this world!”

“Yes! Zaxtabar! Take me! Give me your young!” Katea’s words almost echoed in the steamy cavern, before being swallowed up by her loudest scream, joined by the dragon’s fearsome roar as he slammed his knot into her, spearing his cock in to the deepest depths. The first thick pulse of seed almost felt searing, gushing deep into her and marking her as Zaxtabar’s for good. There was a slight pulse in Katea’s midsection with each shot, displaying the immensely powerful masculine energy of the dragon beyond any question. And all the while, Katea was writhing in absolute rapture, jerking and twisting as orgasmic bliss rocked her to the very core of her being, completely swallowed up by the rush to the point where she couldn’t even think, only just exist in that haze of delight. And as it slowly ebbed away, so did her consciousness, leaving her limp and insensible as the last of the dragon’s seed filled her, prepared to make good on Zaxtabar’s promise to give her a dragon egg to carry.

The dragon murred a bit as he stroked over his unconscious lover. “Rest well, my dear…for there will be many more like this, and you will revel in each and every one of them.” He looked over towards the entrance of the cavern. “And now, to wait for the interloper…”

———

The searing heat beat at Kator as he forced himself to step into the dragon’s lair. His hand clung tightly to his sword, ready to thrust it into Zaxtabar’s ribs at any moment…he could barely see in the smoky, ashen air, his eyes watering from the heat and the dust. A place so forsaken by the gods, of course it would be the perfect home for a godless creature like Zaxtabar…it was no place for a delicate person like Katea, for sure, and he would have to bring her out and back home before something terrible happened to her.

Through the poor visibility, he could still make out the dark form of Zaxtabar standing imperiously in front of the cage. “Zaxtabar! I have you now! Release Princess Katea at once, or meet your end!”

Zaxtabar’s fangs almost seemed to gleam through the darkness as the dragon grinned smugly at the human warrior. “Oh, I don’t think I’ll be doing that, oaf. Princess Katea and I have reached an accord.”

“An…accord? What is this nonsense?”

“Oh, it is far from nonsense. The dear princess has agreed to become my consort, my queen, and the mother of my young.” Zaxtabar motioned towards the cage, and Kator’s jaw dropped as he saw the state Katea was in - naked, leaking pearly seed from her pussy, and looking blissfully exhausted. “Your interference is no longer necessary or welcome…well, it has never been the latter.”

“What?! No! I-impossible! She would…she would never have…you must have forced yourself on her!” Kator was having trouble processing all this - it seemed inconceivable that such a thing could have happened, and he still saw this as a rescue mission in progress.

“She was begging for me. She wanted me even before she started begging…but she was most certainly loudly begging.” Zaxtabar spread his wings and stepped forward. “You, however…I would certainly have no qualms about forcing YOU to submit to me. An oaf who swings swords at the behest of mindless kings with no vision beyond their own noses…I can put you to better use than that.”

“I’ll never serve you, monster!” fired back Kator boldly, pointing his sword at Zaxtabar. “I’ll take your head off and take the princess back to where she belongs!”

“Where she belongs is with me…but if you think you can take her back, then come at me, and learn your place!”

“Hraah!” Kator charged at Zaxtabar, sword gleaming in the darkness as he raised it high to cleave down on the dragon. It was a wild swing that Zaxtabar quickly stepped back to avoid, and then back once more for the quick follow-up from below to the side - but then he lunged in, an open-handed slam sending Kator back, nearly making him fall. Quickly regaining his balance, he surged forth again, trying to eye Zaxtabar’s movements and mislead the dragon into giving him an opening-

He thought he had it at first, as Zaxtabar moved towards him, allowing him to sidestep and lunge - only to find that Zaxtabar had fooled him, and countered his countermove with a blast of smoke into his face. Kator cried out as he was blinded, his focus completely thrown off, and Zaxtabar took advantage, striking his hand and knocking the sword out of it. Before Kator could recover, the dragon had planted his foot on the sword and knocked it back towards the cage, separating the hero from his blade and putting himself right in between. Kator stepped back, rubbing his eyes and looking up at the dragon in a mixture of terror and defiance. “N-no…how…”

“You thought it would be that easy to tangle with a dragon, fool?” Zaxtabar rose up, making himself look as large as possible over the human. “You have power but far too little sense. But now we are on even ground. No loathsome weapons, just real power. You want your chance at victory, human? You can earn it…by challenging me properly. Bare yourself as I am, and try to overpower me…succeed, and you can have your precious sword back and another chance at me. But fail, and I will claim you as I claimed her.”

Kator didn’t exactly look eager to surrender to those terms…but Zaxtabar held all the cards, there were no distractions he could count on. Ruefully he stepped out of his boots and cast aside his loincloth, standing nude in front of the dragon. “I…I will do whatever I have to do to defeat you, Zaxtabar!”

“So you say…but you’ll find losing to me to be a far better outcome.” The dragon rushed forth, and Kator matched his grab with his own, trying to put on a show of his strength. But Zaxtabar was doing the same, and was forcing him backwards…the dragon was bigger, more muscular, success couldn’t possibly come from just a pure match of strength. He had to find ways to overcome the foe’s strength…but technique was not one of Kator’s strengths.

And Zaxtabar knew this. When Kator desperately tried to break away to the side, he moved with the human, bearing down to take Kator to the ground, landing on top of him. Kator tried to push him off and partly succeeded, but Zaxtabar was on him quickly again, pinning him down with his superior weight. Kator continued to try to push, with his arms as well as his legs, his body grinding against the dragon’s as Zaxtabar refused to give him any quarter. Sweat was starting to pour down both of them as the heat became even more oppressive, causing them to gleam a bit from the wetness, and the deep grunts and growls were already making this look like much more than a bout of wrestling.

It got even more overt when Kator felt the dragon’s cock starting to slide out and rub against his own. “Gyah! What, what is, what is this perversion?!”

“You say, as if you aren’t hard yourself,” rumbled back Zaxtabar, stroking his dick against the human’s erection demonstratively. “You’re just like her - confronted with a truly superior male, you know exactly what you desire, no matter how much you may initially deny it. And you will be calling for me to finish in you just as eagerly.”

“N-never!” Kator tried to throw Zaxtabar off of him again, and roll over in the gap underneath to try to slip out from under him - but Zaxtabar didn’t give him the chance, slamming down once more on top of him, now chest on the human’s back and hands slamming down on Kator’s, leaving the human entirely exposed for that cock. “Wah! What?!”

“Getting into position for me? How courteous of you.” The tip of the dragon’s cock poked at Kator’s ass, and his squirming was all too ineffective to get him away. “You must have been waiting for this chance…now you’ll get everything I can give you!”

Zaxtabar thrust, and Kator bellowed out as he was pierced, his ass forced to spread for the dragon’s cock. A place that no male had ever been allowed to touch, and now the dark dragon was defiling it! He tried to squeeze down to force that cock out, but all that seemed to do was make the stretch feel harder…and there was an unwelcome buzz picking up through the ache and the discomfort, something too much like…no! There was nothing likable about this, he had to stop this dragon’s perverted machinations before it was too late!

But he wasn’t getting very far with that…from Zaxtabar’s perspective, it felt a whole lot more like an invitation. The human was clenching tight, squirming and squeezing and stimulating his cock like a needy whore. “Oh, my, you ARE enjoying this…then you’ll like this even more!” He pulled back a bit and thrust deeper, making quite sure to hit the human’s prostate with both the thickness of his cock and a cheeky little spike of magic to poke at it further. There was no mistaking the sound that Kator made there, a heady moan and a squirt of pre from his dick heralding the potent response to that. “Rrrr, just like that…surrender your farcical resistance, embrace what you desire!”

“Ah! F-fuck…g-gods…” Kator was clawing at the ground now, as that cock drove in deeper, pounding him with a fervor he’d never once imagined. The buzz of pleasure was piercing through ever harder, denying him the torment that he had expected - the ache was diminishing faster than he expected, overridden by bliss as that stretch started to feel good. He was starting to clench down on it more invitingly, not entirely voluntarily but it seemed that his body was betraying him…his stiff shaft was giving the most obvious sign of this, throbbing treacherously as the dragon broke his resolve. Any motions to try to escape had been abandoned now, he was stuck with trying to endure the imposing pleasure that was making him shiver and moan.

Zaxtabar growled lecherously as he started to slam in properly now, his knot smacking against Kator’s backside. “That’s right…give in to me, Kator! You will be mine!” He could feel wetness splattering with every thrust, his ample precum soaking that ass and softening it up for his bulging knot. And Kator was loosening himself up as well, he could feel the human almost trying to relax for that intrusion, whether he knew it or not. “Rrrr, confess your desires, tell me what you know you want!”

Kator had tried to hold out…but it was too much. The raw strength of the dragon, a primal power that spoke to him on a visceral level…that fierce pleasure coursing through him with every thrust, getting him worked up to the very limit in a way that he never had been in his life…the surges of magic making his body buzz brightly, showing him a world of lustful desires he’d never dared accept…the resolve that had carried him so far wilted and crumbled, freeing up the truth to escape his mouth. “Yes! Take me for yours, Zaxtabar, fill me with the power of a dragon’s seed and show me my true place!”

Zaxtabar felt a rush hearing those words, and let that carry to his legs. Suddenly he rose up a bit, and threw his weight into it, driving into Kator with wild abandon. That knot slammed hard against the human’s hole, trying to force it to yield, and little by little he could feel the give, exciting him ever further as he neared the pinnacle of pleasure, the victorious conquest that would mean more than just a climax. Kator wasn’t fighting it remotely now, already having submitted to the dragon’s might, and he was ready to receive everything that Zaxtabar had to offer…

Finally, one last slam, and Kator’s ass gave, that knot popping in with a loud slurp. Kator’s eyes rolled back in his head as he bellowed out once again, his cock shooting off as he was knotted, pleasure drilling through him as that stretch took on unimaginable new heights…and then came Zaxtabar’s conquering roar as he unleashed his seed inside Kator, straining the human with his magic mark and flooding him with that heated virility as he completed his conquest. Two sweat-stained bodies writhing and grinding as they expelled their lusts fervently, the human’s submission splattering into a sticky mess on the rock below while the dragon’s pumped into him, round after round of seed filling him to the point where he thought he might truly swell up from the sheer size of that load…if there was any sign of it, it was merely a minute bump in his core, but the feel of it was far more monstrous.

It took a while for either of them to come down from the high of pleasure. Kator was left a panting, shaky mess, tied to Zaxtabar and no longer showing any antagonism towards the dragon. Zaxtabar looked less overcome, growling as he continued to spurt whatever he could summon up into the human. “You are mine, Kator the Unflinching. You will stand as our guardian, protecting us from those who would try to follow in your footsteps. Serve me well, and you will be rewarded…”

In between pants, Kator could only come up with a few uneven words. “Y-yes…master…”

“…aaand, CUT!” The clack of the board brought things back to reality. Though in some ways, reality had never left - such as the fact that Ferez’s knot was very really lodged inside Don’s ass, and Elle was very really leaking his load from her snatch. And if there had been any reservations about it before the acts, they’re sure as hell weren’t now.

Dennis walked up, wiping his brow and sporting a hard-on that was bulging his pants a bit. “Hoo BOY, that was even spicier than I thought it’d be! You all really took that and RAN with it!”

“Huuh…I don’t think I’ll be running ANYWHERE for a bit,” moaned Donovan from under that hefty pile of scaly muscle. “Jesus, it feels SO much bigger than it looks…”

“And you loved every inch of it, didn’t you?” murred Ferez.

“Mmph, I’d be lying if I tried to deny it…dragons sure know how to fuck, don’t they?”

“Heh, literally making magic whenever we do. Isn’t that right, Elle?”

“You have NO idea how hard it was to try to remain passive while watching you two go at it,” sighed Elle, rubbing herself a bit as she sat up. “Best view in the house right here…though I hope the cameras came close to that.”

“I’m not sure it’d matter much, but you’re a trooper for sticking with it,” agreed Dennis. “I’d love to say that takes care of business, but I’m not sure we’ll get away with that…Ambrey’s expecting at least another week of shooting, I don’t think he’d buy that we’re done after one take.”

“Heh…well, who says we have to only have one take?” Ferez snickered a bit as he fingered Don’s half-hard shaft. “Ambrey wants us to wear ourselves out shooting this last scene? I think I’m game to give him ALL the effort I can muster up for something like this…as long as my co-stars are game, anyway.”

“I think we’ve earned ourselves a good bit of fun after all this,” Elle agreed eagerly. “And he wants us to get it very right, so we’ll have to tweak the scene a bit to make sure we give him a lot of OPTIONS to choose from.”

“I guess we don’t need to be in any hurry,” rounded off Donovan through some weighty breaths. “But we’re gonna have to order in food, I don’t think I’ll be in any shape to go off looking for it after this kind of fun.”

“I’m sure we can arrange something for that,” stated Ferez with a wide grin. “Let’s get cleaned up and ready for the next shoot…and how we’re gonna make it even better.”

———

And so they did. The next few days were devoted to several different takes, all of which resulted in plenty of delightfully obscene material, different enough from each other to ensure that they wouldn’t be recognized immediately as the same thing. Ferez, Donovan, and Elle had a good bit of time throwing out ideas for how to do the next scenes, but there were a few surprises thrown in as well.

Once scene was a much more hardcore rape, with Zaxtabar using his power and magic to force the two humans to break to him and become his devoted thralls. Another had Katea suddenly proclaim her desire and need for Zaxtabar, and the dragon eagerly claiming her completely willingly - and Kator eventually surrendering to the same desires, once he saw Katea had done the same. One take Elle had particularly enjoyed was Katea suddenly playing seductress and Zaxtabar being more reluctant at first, naturally getting into it once he got to go all the way, and then ordering him to conquer Kator once he arrived. Still another had Kator arriving more quickly, then betraying Katea by offering the sword to the dragon to smash and then watching while Zaxtabar claimed her, and then taking his own prize in the form of the dragon’s seed and blessing. Ferez had particularly liked the one where he’d been able to put the two under a powerful hypnosis spell - which was a very real act, and one that didn’t wear off for several hours, allowing him to have some extra fun with them before they got back to shooting. In a couple of highly indulgent takes, Susie got to join in, her waitress playing a treacherous role against Kator to sabotage him and deliver everything to Zaxtabar, and get her own rut in return - and, in what Ferez considered the best of the best even if it was wildly off-script, one take where the two enthralled ladies convinced Kator to let Zaxtabar turn him and bear a dragon egg of his own, which Donovan later spectacularly failed to convince anyone he didn’t enjoy the hell out of it.

All in all, the several days of raw fun were beyond cathartic for everyone involved - even those not getting to partake directly in the scenes were finding ways to get relief, by themselves or with other crew members as they could. And while they decided it would be prudent to shut it down after five days and around nearly two dozen takes, it was still widely regarded as the best part of the shoot for everyone involved. Just as welcome were the deposits that came a week later, the hold released on their pay after the ‘last footage’ had been wrapped up - well before Ambrey had a chance to get in there and muck things up. For Ferez, Donovan, and Elle, it was relief mingled with tension, as they expected that they’d have a shitstorm come their way once Ambrey found out what happened - they were ready to cop to it, ready to stand in defense and not surrender one penny of what they earned, but they expected that they’d at least have to weather the confrontation.

Except, they didn’t. In fact, they didn’t hear one word from Ambrey in the coming days…and as the days passed into weeks and the prospect of that confrontation became more remote, they were able to go on their way, presuming that Ambrey had just been so angry that he never wanted to see or hear of them again. And that was perfectly fine by them…

It wasn’t until several months later that there was anything more to learn. Ferez walked in the door, letting out a sigh as he stretched his limbs and tossed a bag aside. “Well, I did as well as I could. Now we wait and see if they liked it.”

“No inklings one way or the other?” asked Donovan curiously from the couch.

“Hard to say. I put on my best ‘dragon blacksmith’ air, and I at least looked the part well enough compared to the others. But it’s competition, and I can’t say whether what I did stood out enough to separate myself. Hard to get a read on these folks sometimes.”

“For what it’s worth, I think you’d make a fantastic blacksmith,” remarked Elle with a knowing lilt to her voice. “Though there are certain parts of you more adept at ‘hammering’ than your arms, too.”

Ferez let out an amused snort. “If only THAT would get me roles. In something that can be seen by all audiences, anyway. Not that I mind the adult stuff, but it’s a bit too ‘niche’ to make for a big break.”

“True. Just have to keep trying…at least we’re in better shape than we were. Getting a place together was definitely the right idea, any one of us gets something good and we’re all in good shape.”

“And I’m sure easy access to a hunky dragon didn’t factor into that at all,” cracked Donovan.

“You tell me, you get railed by him at least as often as I do,” replied Elle with a smirk.

“I…uh…don’t keep count, you know…”

“Neither do I, you’re both equally fantastic cocksleeves,” cackled Ferez. “But yeah, that was a superb idea. It’s not really that much more expensive living in a three-seater than a single, and I’m kinda liking having other people around more than being on my own. Especially two others which I formed such a strong bond with.”

“A fire-forged partnership, for sure,” agreed Donovan. “May we never be tested THAT hard again, though.”

“Hah, that might be tough, actually. Get this, I actually heard something about Ambrey McHinton today.”

“Really?” Elle was all ears as she leaned in. “I haven’t heard anyone say that name in months outside of us. Did they say anything about the movie, or our…creative license?”

“Not anything about us that I’m aware of. But, from what I overheard, Ambrey apparently hung it up. Got so out of whack over ‘his last shoot’ that he decided he couldn’t deal with ‘new actors’ anymore. That might be why we haven’t heard anything.”

“Dang, we actually hit that hard?” queried Donovan. “On the one hand, I kinda feel a little bad because that wasn’t what we were trying to do…but then again, with how bad he was spiraling out of control, it’s probably for the best.”

“I’d feel worse if he hadn’t tormented US for months for something that would’ve trashed us if it had come out,” remarked Elle fairly unsympathetically. “He’ll always have Nights in Jurenda and How We Stand, but he would’ve cut us down before we got anywhere close to that.”

“Yeah, I’m mostly just thinking, glad we gave him a reason,” agreed Ferez. “Not something I’m gonna be putting on any resumés, but there’s enough sketchy directors out there as it is, one fewer certainly won’t hurt anything. He’ll have his millions of dollars to salve that wound. If the worst we got out of him is a lesson in watching our contracts, then we came out well.”

“Can’t argue with that,” conceded Donovan. “And I’d say we got better out of it as well.”

“Hah, for sure. And I’ll make sure we all get to reap ‘the benefits’ again tonight.”