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His Weight in Bronze

Chapter One

An RP by Shalion & Yjay

[Shalion]: The man bowed low on his hands and knees as he offered up the village's taxes for that year. Ylssa sniffed delicately at the sacks of grain, the bushels of turnips, oats and odiferous onions and garlic, and most importantly the three young cows and fourteen goats tied up at their posts in the small clearing that counted as a square for the tiny commune. Ylssa's imposing figure cast a shadow over the man who led the day to day affairs of the community as well as the goods which were her due. It pleased the great bronze dragon that he and the rest of the humans understood who was in charge. In Ylssa's peripheral vision, she noticed more than one human clasping onto wooden beads and muttering prayers, a draconic, if round, image carved onto simple pendants. The sound of the prayers could have made her purr in contentment. She shifted her weight slightly, causing those close to her jutting right flank to back away quickly, as well they might. There was less and less space for Ylssa between the buildings these days, given her wide frame; she took up the entirety of the dirt lane such that it would not have been possible to pass a two wheeled cart to the side of her bulk, even if she had deigned to scoot to one side, which she certainly would not have. It was the place of her subjects to move aside for her after all.

"You've done a good job this year, Jacob." said the dragoness to the human mayor. She spoke airly, her voice slightly raspy for the thickness of her neck and its many hanging folds. "Four more goats than last year and an extra cow..." she sniffed the tribute again, "Four-hundred pounds of wheat and barley?"

"Four-hundred and fifty, My Liege." said the man, still bowing and looking at the ground between the dragon's forefeet. "And forty pounds of potatoes, from the new field."

Ylssa carefully lifted her thick head up, rippling the hanging folds of scaly flesh hanging from under it. Her hips and knees were already complaining and prompting her to put an early end to the inspection. But she had to ask, "...And the black pepper?"

"T-two pounds, Protector Ylssa. F-from my own stash." said Jacob, who trembled slightly even though it had been nearly a decade since Ylssa had eaten anyone for insubordination. He gestured to indicate it was packed up amongst the other sacks.

Two pounds was rather light, but then the traders had been late this year due to unusual frosts and the villagers had more than made up for it by expanding the flocks. "It'll have to do..." she said, and flicked the tip of her thickened tail. Somewhere a dog began to bark and a child ran into the street behind the dragoness after it. The dragon turned an eye towards them, though it was getting rather difficult to peer around her own flanks lately, and saw an anxious mother pull child and animal back into the cottage whence they had come. Ylssa released a soft chortle. Humans needed discipline, but they could not be handled too harshly. They were not as craven as goblins and had a surprising spirit to them that could rear its ugly head at unexpected times. "Have this lot carted up to the shrine, Jacob. I'll be along up there later."

"My Liege." said Jacob who rose from the ground now. "And where will you be, might I ask?"

"Protector's business." rumbled Ylssa who very carefully began to turn herself around. It would not do to accidentally demolish one of the light wooden structures and thus distract the villagers from more important work, like increasing her wealth. Over four hundred eyes watched her make her way slowly back up the trail leading out of the village, waddling under her severe weight, no one followed save the four man team who lead the animals and cart up the trail and easily passed her lumbering self. So it was that no one saw where it was exactly that she veered off the trail and down a rocky slope.

Ylssa was puffing heavily by the time she got to the place. The enormous she-dragon was not sure she had ever weighed so much in her life as she settled her haunches down onto the cool, smooth stone of the cliff outcropping, her gigantic sagging belly hitting the ground almost as soon as she bent her knees under her. Creamy grey skin showed between the scales all across the dragoness' torso as well as her massively thickened tail, but there was not much that Ylssa could do about that at this point. Thankfully, there were no invading armies right now who might like to place a few arrows into that soft, vulnerable skin. Ylssa sighed and stared out across the rugged wilderness, the sun low in the western sky. She still liked to come to this place, her retreat from the pressure and duties of being "Protector" of over five hundred human souls. How she longed to dive from the sheer drop ahead of her, but thinking about that just made Ylssa think about the many extra of tons she was carrying around her middle and the fact that if she did step off this cliff she would like as not plummet like a stone. The dragoness wondered if she could even break her fall with her wings at this point, let alone glide a short way. "Heh, glide." she chuffed her thick jowls, "And then hike back up the mountain?" Her knees and back ached at the mere thought of climbing so much. Ylssa took a moment to stretch her wings however, the base of both joints were caked in thick dragon-flesh. She stretched the membranes taut between thick and sagging wing-arms, grunting softly. It'd been a while. And she left them open behind her catching the soft breeze. Ylssa closed her eyes, pretending and remembering the feel of the wind uplifting her. When she opened them again at length, she was surprised by what she saw, a white dragon on the horizon. Her eyesight at least had not been dulled by years of indulgent living, and if she were not mistaken, it seemed that a drake was floating softly in her general direction...

[Yjay]: Hollow wing beats and the sound of the wind rushing past his ears were all that he could hear as he flew over the densely packed forest, thick treetops passing rapidly below. From the ground, a passerby could have easily mistaken the pale colored drake for a trick being played on their eyes or a simple cloud being blown steadily along by the wind. Remaining undetected was certainly a plus, but the dragon was starting to care less and less with each passing day whether he lived or died. For the past weeks, there had been no home for him to go back to, making him a rogue male trying desperately to find another territory to inhabit. The memory of the day one of his many brothers stormed his cave still lay fresh in his mind, how he'd wanted nothing more than to be able to live alone, happy and undisturbed. His own fruitless effort stopped him, to defend what was his. The dragon would like to believe he was the true victor of that battle, but the fresh scar stretching across his flank leaking blood slowly onto the earthy ground below was a painful reminder of how the day had truly ended.

Various times he'd tried to see if he could seek the help or aid of another dragon, entering their territories only to be taken as an intruder, numerous cuts and scrapes being added to his battered form before he could get away, and if he was lucky, the white dragon would simply be turned away, forced to travel further into unknown territory in hopes of eventually finding someone to give him shelter until he was well enough to be on his own. Physical scars were not all that were affecting this dragon. Upon closer inspection, one would notice that there was not a single extra ounce of meat on his bones, nor was the usual muscle which was commonly found on others of his species. All of his scales clung tightly to his skeleton, every last one of his features dulled and his bones jutting out at every possible point. The atrophied drake knew if he didn't find someone to accept him, or some territory to claim, he may not wake up alive the next morning.

At the edge of his sightline, the battered drake saw the shape of a bronze dragon resting upon a rocky perch on a jutting mountain. However much he knew that this encounter may end with him limping away once more, or worse, he knew a this was a chance he had to take. Using all of the strength in which he could muster, the desperate drake flapped his wings and flew weakly in the direction of the rocky outcropping where the other dragon lay.

[Shalion]: Ylssa watched the drake, she could tell the gender by the subtle design of the wings, slowly approach, listing dangerously in the air as the minutes passed and the shape grew. Many thoughts passed through the mind of the dragoness as she watched him flounder and recover midair. Her first instinct was protective, in her current state, Ylssa would be hard pressed to defend herself from practically any other dragon, let alone unwanted male attention. She should probably have hidden herself from view beneath the trees behind her, but she was getting rather sluggish, the sheer weight of her body making considerations of movement less spontaneous than perhaps they ought to have been. So the impulse to hide had come late and Ylssa was aware that he would have probably seen her already, but by then, she had already noticed the drake's poor flying as well as the thin outline of his figure, which grew more and more wasted as his image grew larger. A drake on the verge of collapsing mid-air? The bronze raise a thick claw to her fat cheek, scales rubbing against the fat of her neck all the way down her forearm. Ylssa thought she could probably take that if he offered any challenge. So she remained sitting, her wide rump seated implacably on the stone now growing warm under the heat of her enormous body.

Ylssa saw that the white scaled drake was more than half starved well before he landed ungracefully on the stone perch in front of her. The bones of his ribs were achingly stark against his dull hide and his scales shook loose in his skin, as if they might fall out like the hairs of a mangy animal. His wound, a terrible red line on his flank, was badly healed though it did not look recent. Ylssa cocked her head at him, not sure how much longer this drake would last whether or not he chose to fight her. His physique though, or lack thereof, interested her most of all. If he survived, he might be of use to her...

"Do you have a name, stranger?" she said, hailing the rogue male. Ylssa shifted her weight against the stone and lifted her head a bit higher. She might be wider than she was tall, but she did not intend to submit to this battered wretch of a male, or to any other male for that matter.

[Yjay]: The sickly drake had to spend a moment to catch his breath, the effort of flying having almost exhausted him to the point of passing out. Between breaths, he looked up and saw how... voluminous, the female whose territory he'd landed in was. Her limbs seemed as thick as the tree trunks of the oaks of the forest, and at a glance she seemed wider than she was tall. He was somewhat surprised at this, but was nonetheless glad that the female had asked for his name first, instead sending him away or ending his pitiful existence on the spot.

"M-my name... " he said, barely having enough energy to speak, his energy almost completely exhausted. "My n-name is Xiorsayrae... I c-come from the North, a-and all I s-seek is shelter..." he finally got out, almost blacking out from the effort of using the air in his lungs for speaking. The dragon wobbled unsteadily on his legs, constantly threatening to fall over like a sapling in a storm. It took all of his effort to stay standing, despite the constant agony of his withered muscles and the bleeding scar dripping blood from his side. He didn't dare move from where he'd landed, knowing very well that he was now at the mercy of the massive dragon which sat before him.

[Shalion]: Ylssa recognized before the drake had finished speaking that there was no possibility of a fight. In fact, it seemed like this was a life and death situation for him; goodness only knew how he had managed to get into the air last given the shape he was in, or how long he had spent aloft, but it seemed clear that the only way this drake was getting back into the air was to leap from the cliff behind him. The dragoness frowned and then began the tiresome motions required to get her more than ample figure back up on all fours. Dragons might be mostly solitary creatures, but one did not simply leave dragons to die right in front of them... well, females did not... usually. Well, at any rate, killing a drake who refused to take a hint by her own claws was far different than watching one die of starvation and neglect.

"Come on then." she said quietly, noticing how much effort it took the skeletal dragon merely to speak. He was shaking where he stood. She waddled near to him and then turned, offering the drake her extremely round flank which descended so low to the ground, it was hard to see where it ended, the diamond shaped scales of her hide all had copious amounts of creamy grey skin between, rather like a patched quilt. She moved her thick tail also towards him, so that it curled practically under his right foreleg; the skin creased alarmingly along the inside of the thickened tail. "You can ride on my back, Xiorsay...rae..." the name was hard on her tongue, too long spent among humans and isolated from other dragons she supposed. "Mind if I call you Xyo?"

[Yjay]: "T-that's fine..." Xyo said, keeping his words to a bare minimum. His mind was still trying to comprehend what she'd said, but what he did know was he might finally have a chance at survival. A small part of his mind, not ruled by his hunger or pain, wanted him to question the implications of what could possibly happen if he did go with her. Xyo quickly pushed that thought aside, not wanting to push his luck further than he already had, knowing he had no other choice.

As the dragon's mind finally comprehended all of what she'd said, Xyo was partially shocked for a second, and began to wonder more about where this kindness was coming from. I shouldn't question it... It's been awhile since I've had anyone be this kind an open to me... Maybe this is my chance... Regardless, the white drake said, "I'll t-take up that o-offer for a r-ride...", before his legs gave out under him, slumping near-lifelessly against the soft flank of the massive dragoness.

[Shalion]: Ylssa just looked down at Xyo for a long moment; he felt cold against her warm and expansive flank, and she was not sure if that was due to him being an ice drake or more alarmingly, his lack of flesh anywhere on his body. She might have left him. A dragon this weak would not survive long with or without help and in a dragonish sense of the world, it was better to leave the weak and sickly to die quickly and in private. No dragon would willingly bear the shame of dying of illness or wasting in the presence of another. The least she could do was give him privacy for his last moments...

At least, if she had been half of her current weight, that's how her thinking might have gone. But in the slack heap of bones and loose scales, she saw a potential use for the waylander. So she said, "Come on, Xyo, come on!" she urged the bony drake at first with prods from her tail - it was hard to get it to bend around that far - but when she saw the extent of his frailty, she gently lowered herself onto the ground, and to her chagrin, the height of her back did not drop appreciably, though her flanks squished out further to the sides, almost bowling over the weakened drake in fact. In the end, Ylssa practically had to lift the helpless Xyo onto her very broad back herself. She opened her left wing and gently cupped the dragon's body with her thick phalanges while her tail provided leverage from below. "Ergh!" she grunted as she tossed her wide hips trying to get his body higher up on the swell of her back where he clung feebly like an overgrown hatchling. Once he was centered, Xyo could practically have rolled around over her great swelling curves, though. He felt like he weighed nothing.

"Watch the claws!" she growled as she rose. Inadvertently, the white dragon's claws had nipped the plentiful exposed skin between Ylssa's spread scales.

[Yjay]: As he felt his body being handled as easily as a toy, part of Xyo still expected that the dragoness would end his life in one of those motions, as a simple flick of the claw would have put an end to the weakened dragon in his current state. But soon he felt himself leveling out, no longer leaning against the dragoness' side, and no longer against the colder rocks of which the large perch was made. The surface he was on was strangely... Soft, as he felt himself sink in a few inches deep before finally coming to halt, instinctively grabbing hold to the malleable surface. Xyo heard the other dragon speak, but the exact words which were spoken eluded him. Both the drake's mind and eyesight were starting to become more hazy with each passing moment. Is this the end? he thought to himself, feeling as helpless as a mere hatching, before passing out entirely.

[Shalion]: Xyo was slack on Ylssa's back as she waddled back up to the pathway between the village and her "shrine" as she usually referred to her domicile. Along the way back the uphill path, the morbidly obese dragoness began to huff and breathe heavily, but less for the weight of the drake on her back than the much more tangible weight of her own body. Somewhere along the way, one of Xyo's wings fell down across her flank and began to drag along the ground. There was nothing that could be done about it, though as an annoyance, it made Ylssa consider tossing the unconscious drake off of her back more than once, especially when she paused to catch her breath.

Her tongue was hot in her mouth and the veins in the membranes of her wings a livid red as she shook them out to cool herself as she managed the last few steps up to the largish cave set in the side of another sheer rocky face. Though honestly, to call it a cave at this point would have been an insult to Ylssa.

The opening had, in fact, been worked extensively by the village people and the outer structure had more in common with a Roman-style villa than anything natural. White stone, in sharp contrast to the grey slate of the mountain made up the partial walls on either side of a wide entrance into a darkened interior, flanked by columns holding up a red tiled roof more lavish than most found in the village below. To the side of the entrance was a wide penned area which held Ylssa's substantial herds, the outer fence running along the path up towards the shrine and down towards the face of the cliff on the opposite side. Altogether, it was too small for a real pasture, but then Ylssa did not do much actual herding herself, treating this paddock and the internal stables inside the cave more as a personal larder, keeping the meat fresh on the hoof, as it were. She took pleasure in seeing her new additions already acclimating to their new environment, as she waddled up the last few steps, the path now tiered in dragon-sized stair steps.

Inside, the renovations continued, the stonework lavish on the interior of the cave, all of it giving Ylssa's abode a lavish, almost religious grandeur that was entirely by design. She had done a lot of it herself with her bare claws, back when she had not weighed nearly as much as she did now. The walls were rife with reliefs of glorious dragons, in flight and in conquest; Mostly fictional conquests, but the villagers did not need to know that. Towards the back, there was a large pool with running water, at least it had been large at one time, Ylssa could barely squeeze her vast self into it anymore. The water ran constantly and spilled over into a sluiceway where she could clean her claws and muzzle after eating as well as do her necessaries if she did not feel up to hauling her heavy self out of the cave on a particular day. There were a couple of other smaller chambers, but these mostly served as storage. The one other major feature was a grand dias set in the center of the main living area, covered with the furs of many animals. This at least, Ylssa had built with the future in mind as it's large surface did more than enough to accommodate even her current bulk. Practically wheezing from the hike back home, the dragoness pushed herself up the last step onto the dias and let herself down. Reaching up with her wing, she pulled the limp form of Xyo down her flank as she collapsed down onto her opposite side with a loud thump that shook loose some stone flakes from the ceiling. Ylssa had meant for the drake to slide down to nestle against her tummy, but her paunch was so extensive that the drake sort of stopped partially with his head and shoulders on the ground and his hips and torso still propped up on the lower swell of her paunch, below her ribs. Sighing, she pushed his body the rest of the way down so that his back resting against the wall of her tummy, near where her paws were due to how low it sagged now. Then she began to pant open mouthed to recover from all the recent exertion, wondering if the drake would regain consciousness or not.

[Yjay]: Xyo opened his eyes weakly, his vision still too blurry to be able to make out his surroundings. Around him he saw... A cave? He closed his eyes again, trying to make his vision focus enough to make his surroundings. Had he never left his home? The drake tried to roll over to stand, only to realize he was propped against a yielding surface, where Xyo could swear he felt himself beginning to sink in. Opening his eyes once more, he looked wearily around at what he had once through was a cave, although upon closer inspection, it appeared to be more of a proper abode. On the walls, he saw treasures of sorts, but he didn't spend time lingering on that, as the dragon's blue eyes were drawn to the form of the massive bronze dragon. Finally remembering the details of the previous day, the drake weakly tried to stand although his muscles did not yield the strength to do even that simple action. Xyo went limp once more against the soft surface, his breathing already starting to become more ragged from the effort. Seeing as there was nothing more he could do, the pale dragon just asked the first question in his mind once he'd gathered his breath. "W-who are y-you?" Xyo asked, still lying feebly against the dragoness' stomach.

[Shalion]: It felt surprisingly nice to have the drake lying against her lower swell of tummy fat, his head near her left forepaw as she rested on her elbows, her hips turned sideways to let the belly flow out to the side where the drake shared the small amount of space left on the dias she was not already occupying. He was getting warmer already by sharing her excess of body heat. "You can call me Ylssa." said the dragoness easily. It had taken the drake long enough to recover consciousness that she had had time to catch her breath. Now that she was no longer forced to listen to her beleaguered heart thunder inside her bloated neck, she found the strength to get once more to her four thick feet. With the removal of her belly propping him up, the drake flopped over onto his side.

Ylssa waddled over to her larder and sat down near the great stone oven. It's fire had gone out since that morning's breakfast, but she doubted the drake would mind a cold meal. Sitting, the dragoness reared up to make use of her forelimbs. Using the stubby digits of her paw, she grabbed one of the few large wooden bowls from beside the oven and reached in to scrape the bottom of a big iron cauldron that had been sitting there since that morning. There were still a few dregs of breakfast left in there, congealed near the bottom. Ylssa had been meaning to throw it to the pigs earlier, but had apparently forgotten, much to the outlander's benefit it seemed. Cold porridge with honey and strips of seasoned beef seemed like a poor fare to offer a guest, but Ylssa doubted that Xyo could stomach one of the dried goat haunches hanging up in the pantry. The dragness put the half full bowl in her mouth and waddled back towards the dais where she placed it gently next to the drake's head. "Here eat this... slowly." she said, wondering if the drake would tear into the food, or if he would require further mothering.

[Yjay]: Xyo weakly lifted his head up from the pedestal to turn and look at the food mere inches from his head, simply staring at it for a few moments before asking "I-is this for m-me?", his voice still raspy sounding as it had been earlier. Xyo's hollow stomach released a low growl, showing just how hungry he was.

[Shalion]: As much as Ylssa desired now not to see this drake die on her watch, this was getting to be a bit much for her. "Of course it is, you fool drake!" she said rather coldly. She set her wide hips down and let her thick tail course out behind her; it was much too thick now to wrap around her feet as she had once let it. She lifted a freed forepaw and gestured, "Why else would I have put it there?"

[Yjay]: Deciding not to ask any more questions for the time being, Xyo rolled over enough so he could use both of his paws to grab the bowl of cold porridge, which the drake began to drink down slowly. As soon as the cool liquid collided with his mouth, he quietly elicited a delightful purr, with the sweet taste being new to his uncultured tongue. Having lived in an uncivilized tundra for most of his years, the ice dragon had rarely ever had any taste of civilized foods. For the first meal he'd had in weeks, it was certainly a treat for Xyo. The drake steadily swallowed down the bowl of porridge, before placing the empty bowl back down on the furs of the pedestal, a few flecks of the food still littering the drake's muzzle. "T-thanks... Ylssa?" the dragon said, finally starting to come to his senses. Having his stomach finally full for the first time in ages, Xyo was feeling better than he felt since he had left his original territory in search of a new home.

[Shalion]: The dragoness rolled her eyes. "Don't mention it." she said. She was slouching over her big belly as she said this and followed by twisting her hips, allowing her gut to flow out to the side and for her to straighten up slightly. She eyed his emaciated figure from his bony hips to the way his wings were held like a disheveled cape, or crumpled leaves at his sides. Sniffing the air about him, Xyo lacked most of a male's usually pungent odor, the scent having been scraped down to a shadow of its former self. After he had finished eating, she asked, "Do you need more?"

[Yjay]: The male just shook his head. "N-no thanks, I'm already feeling full...", he said, as he patted his stomach, which had already filled up enough to push out against his frail form. Recollecting himself further, Xyo looked over more carefully the features of the dragon who'd practically saved his life. He could tell that she was a bronze fire dragon, which surprised him once more. Naturally, ice was weak to fire, meaning that Ylssa could have ended his life with more ease than he'd originally thought. Yet here he still lay, alive, breathing, and well fed for the first time in months. Looking more at the sitting dragoness' form, it was apparent that she was extremely overweight. Her thighs and tail seemed more like overstuffed sausages than limbs, but the most pronounced feature was her massive midsection. Splayed out on the ground, it was a wonder she could still walk carrying around all of that extra flab. All of the scales of her large middle were spread, revealing the softer and more tender cream colored flesh underneath. Yet Xyo didn't think that the dragoness being this large was unnatural, in fact, it simply proved to him that she was a powerful and proficient huntress.

[Shalion]: Xyo pulled back his wing to reveal the pooched out stomach of his rail-thin frame and Ylssa was slightly surprised. With her appetite, she readily devoured more than four times what she had just given him just for breakfast, but on the other hand, perhaps she should not be so surprised, given the difference in their physiques. And she noticed that just as she was studying him, he was studying her. That felt more natural, two dragons sizing each other up. The tension actually made Ylssa relax slightly, what made her more uncomfortable was caring for a full grown adult dragon, and a male besides.

As the drake gathered himself up into a more dignified posture, she asked, "Mind telling me how you happened to come falling down into my territory, Xyo?" But even as she finished saying this, the dragon's great belly let out an audible groaning grumble from under the many layers of dense fat. She was usually making dinner by now, but then this drake was a distraction she could not exactly ignore, even to sate her expansive appetite.

[Yjay]: Xyo was a little tense for a moment, unsure as to whether he should tell his story or not. But knowing this was the dragoness who'd saved him, he decided to tell his tale. "I was e-exiled out of my old territory in the North by one of my stronger brothers... " the white drake said, voice shaking as he remembered the chilling day, the throbbing pain of the gash on his side still a painful reminder of what had happened. He declined to mention that one of his "stronger brothers" meant all of them, as Xyo knew he was the smallest and weakest drake in the family.

"I was left with no other choice but to try to fly South to attempt to find new territory, or shelter at the bare minimum. " Xyo stated, trying to remember all of the details. "I had m-many unsuccessful attempts at trying to find somewhere to go, weeks turning into months without food or shelter, until I f-found your territory..." the drake said , visibly nervous about how the larger dragon would react.

[Shalion]: The overweight dragoness did not react overly much to Xyo's tale. She was not very sympathetic to the drake's plight. After all, flying from territory to territory was just something that rogue males did until they either managed to claim a territory of their own or... Ylssa had not thought about it overly much. Died, she supposed after a lapse in thought. Things were different for females who did not move around nearly as much compared to males and whose territorial boundaries were much more fluid and overlapped with other females. Males, naturally, did all they could to both attract females to cohabitate within their territory and also make their borders both as large as possible and as impervious to other males as possible. Ylssa's territory, though had functionally shrunk to a fraction of the normal female's area since she had lost her ability to fly, not that it really mattered. It was not as though she went out to hunt for her own meals anyways... In fact, her tiny territory helped her better fly under the radar of nearby other dragons, both male and female.

"Well, it's too bad you've had a rough time of it." said Ylssa who managed the tiniest inflection of sympathy in her voice, for politeness sake if nothing else. Putting her yearning hunger aside for the moment, she pushed herself back onto her feet, her joints popping loudly as she did so and waddled forward, putting her forelimbs up on the dias close to Xyo's prone form, her chest fat welled mightily at the fur covered lip of the stone platform. Reaching out she touched the scales around the white dragon's wound with a thick paw. "That's some wound you have here..." she did wince as she looked at it, still oozing thick blood down Xyo's flank and she did not have to fake her reaction.

[Yjay]: Seeing Ylssa's reaction to his wound, he turned his neck to get a better look. "A-ah right... That w-was a parting gift from one of my b-brothers...", he stated before wincing from the pain caused by the contact to the area near the wounded in Xyo's side. "I-it's been l-like that ever since I l-left..." he stated, whilst in obvious physical discomfort.

[Shalion]: Ylssa took her paw away from Xyo's flank after she saw his discomfort, though she did not exactly pull it away extra quickly either. "Hmmm..." she rumbled for a long moment, leaning her cushiony chest on the dias. It was not as though dragons had much skill for tending to wounds besides licking them occasionally, though their dragon blood provided an enhanced healing factor that normally did the trick for most surface injuries... at least when they were healthy, which Xyo clearly was not. She could have some of the villagers come up to sow up the wound properly, but then, she was not sure how Xyo would react to humans... Of course, after he regained his senses, he would surely eventually realize that not all of the surroundings inside the cave were dragon-made. Perhaps it was best to save that revelation for later. Besides, Ylssa expected Xyo to regain his constitution fairly quickly. In fact, that was the reason why she had not tossed him back over the side of the cliff in the first place...

"I've seen worse." Ylssa lied. Well, she had seen worse wounds on dragons before, she just had not seen them on a dragon who had then lived afterwards. "Give it another day or so and it should stop bleeding. Probably shouldn't fly for a few days though." Ylssa reached up to stroke the generous undersides of her neck, it was nice leaning on the dias like this and taking some of the weight off of her paws. She was quite close to the injured drake as well.

[Yjay]: Xyo looked unsure for a moment, as the oozing wound in his side hadn't closed at all within the two months he'd been traveling. But he trusted this dragoness, as she was the one who'd saved his life after all. "A-alright..." the weak dragon stated unsteadily. Before Xyo could linger on his uncertainties, another important question popped into his head. "What will I d-do during the time I'm healing, and what will I do a-after I'm healed as well? " Xyo asked, once more unsure as to what the answer may be. Right now, Ylssa held his future in her paws, whether he was happy with it or not.

[Shalion]: At this, Ylssa's eyes sparkled and she looked at Xyo with a teasing feminine expression, "Oh, I'm sure I'll think of a use for you, little drake."

After that, she slid off of the dias and back onto four paws, she returned back towards the larder. "But you'll be of no use to me dead, Xyo, so you best relax while you can." she called back to him as the rotund dragon waddled now into a side room that served as a pantry. Too hungry to wait for a stew, she took down one of the preserved goat hanches, and as an afterthought, grabbed a second. With a well practiced mouth, she carried the two hunks of dried, salted meat back to the dias in her fangs; given her stature, the haunches were smaller than turkey legs would have been for a regular human, but not very much smaller either.

With her body, Ylssa asserted herself, leaving Xyo to either make room for her to occupy most of the fur covered dias, or else rest under the soft, but heavy mass of her enormous belly. Once the haunches were out of her mouth, she said, "Hope you don't mind me having a light dinner..."

[Yjay]: Xyo still sat there, stunned and unblinking as the dragoness went to collect her meal. The confused drake was still attempting to process what Ylssa had said, but before he could further his thoughts, the dragoness returned, holding in her mouth what were some of the largest chunks of meat Xyo seen, even a small piece of one of the meaty haunches would be sufficient to sate him for a day. "N-no, I d-don't mind..." he stated, before finally getting off of his back with a grunt and scooting over to one of the further corners of the pedestal.

[Shalion]: Ylssa continue to eye the strange drake silently for a time as she ripped large chunks of meat from first one and then other haunch. Normally, the dragoness liked to stretch the meat and supplement her diet with vegetables, roots, wheat and barley by rendering everything down into big, but palatable stews. However, those did take hours to make and her hunger needed sating this evening. After she had taken the edge off, she eyed the drake, amused slightly that he had retreated to the far end of the miniscule space left on the dias, all but hanging off in fact.

Swallowing, she said finally, "Aren't you cold over there? I haven't known a drake to shy away from a dragoness before." She teased him with her eyes and waved a very blubbery foreleg at him, gesturing towards her vast belly and sagging chest. Ylssa almost surprised herself with her attitude, however, even as she said this. Then again, Xyo was the least threatening drake she had ever encountered. She certainly did not stop eating to wait for his response however, and the act of ripping meat away from bone, and subsequently gnawing on said bone afterwards, resulted in many small ripples traversing over Ylssa's soft body, especially the round surface of her very large belly.

[Yjay]: Xyo responded sheepishly as he watched Ylssa eat. "I'm a-an ice dragon, so I don't mind the cold." he responded simply, as the other dragon was distracted watching the large female dragon eat. Xyo still wasn't comfortable enough to go closer, but he didn't want to be too far away, either. Having lived in a massively desolate and sparse area where food was scarce made it all the more interesting for Xyo to watch Ylssa eat. It was also something about the prospect of someone being such a proficient hunter that they can get as large as she had while still surviving. This show of respect was evident in the eyes of the smaller dragon as he watched the female's quivering form.

[Shalion]: Ylssa considered the prospect of simply reaching forward to pull the white drake close to her like a stuffed toy, but thought that the effort of reaching over her own heavy self would have been too great. So she let him be. Ylssa stripped nearly all of the meat off of the big goat haunches, they had been well marbled before slaughter after all, but did not bother crunching down the bones; those could be sent into tomorrow's stew after all. With a massive sigh, instead she lowered her head down onto her paws and continued to watch the strange drake for a time. However the fat laden female dragon could not keep her eyes open for very long, even as it seemed that the pain of Xyo's wound was keeping him from sleeping. Food and the weight of her turgid body made Ylssa fall pretty rapidly into a deep sleep from which she snored with excessive loudness, the sound interspersed by the noise of her great tummy chewing on her last minute dinner as well as the tribute lunch she had had earlier in the village...

[Yjay]: Seeing as the bronze dragoness had finally fallen asleep. Xyo contemplated grabbing some of Ylssa's possessions and leaving without a trace, but she'd shown him a kindness, no matter how strange, than he'd seen elsewhere. "I s-suppose I'll stay... " the drake mused aloud to himself. "This could eventually be my new home..." he thought, before deciding to curl up on the soft furs to try to sleep, despite the constant pain from the wound in his side. But with his stomach full and his mind more restful than it had been in months, the ice dragon calmly drifted off into a dreamless slumber.