IV- Old mates and other conundrums

With great power comes great responsibilities and with dragon powers comes… sex? Krissie had taken a liking to her new body and for the past few days, didn’t fail to make me notice that, mostly by showing her flexibility and newfound perversions. I didn’t really mind about all of this, I was pervy enough for the both of us alone, but she was beginning to reach me and most likely would surpass me sooner rather than later and that left me with a sense of worry and excitement. Apart from that, we had gotten used to think of ourselves as a couple and found some unexpected fun times out of it, most obviously in the bedroom but we didn’t miss on the beauty of sleeping and waking up with someone by our side and with someone to share meals not just as friends or roommates.

Krissie’s changes stopped rather soon, leaving her with sparse pinks scales in small patches of her body, a rather flexible structure, better eyesight, a lot of strength and some minor quirks along the way. A side note was that her scales were not as weak as they looked, capable of at least stopping small blades. We didn’t actually try and see how far she could go on that point and discovered it by accident when she almost cut her hand with a sharp knife. Almost as in: she dropped a knife and instead of slicing her hand, it bounced off a scale and fell on the floor. That was pretty much it, anything else would be discovered as time passed, though I hoped that she’d become more like me to keep me company.

She found a lot of joy in not having a job and living off the land, eating the food I grew with magic at the bottom of the tree and the fruits that grew on top of it since it was summer, not to mention the meat I brought home. Magic was such a cheat in this case but coupled with some basic scientific knowledge I picked up back on earth it was even better or downright ludicrous and mad.

“How is this even possible?” She picked up one of the surveillance disks that I had put on the table for a round of ‘software upgrade’ and one of the new shoes that I made, namely the ‘antigrav sneakers’.

“The shoes or the disk?”

“Well, both?”

“Ok, this is not that hard: the disk uses a rune system that zeroes the weight by cancelling the gravitational pull and small wind runes to propel it forward. They also have some cameras that absorb light, record it and sent it to me when I want to. The shoes are… mostly the same, except that the propulsion and the nullifying runes are much stronger.” She looked at me with a blank stare and then scoffed.

“That is not how, you basically just told me what you have put in and nothing on the actual mechanism… how do you cancel the gravitational pull? How does gravity even work?”

“Oh, that… do you want to hear it now? It’s quite a long explanation…”

“Oh, fine, later then. Maybe you can write a book of or something?”

“Sounds interesting. You’ve gotten another great idea.”

“Of course I have. When do I not have a good idea?”

“That time you wanted to see if you could fit both cocks in your mouth at the same time? That one?” She blushed and pouted, turning her back at me. I chuckled and patted her ass.

“T-that was not and idea, it was experimentation. And one day I’ll be able to make it.”

“Sure thing my love, I believe in you.” I felt her scoff behind me and her hand slap my head between my horns. I pretended to be hurt and fight to hold back some tears. She scoffed again but smiled a moment later.

“Why does that sound so insincere?” I shrugged and smiled. “Hey, is this normal?”

“What is?” I turned around and saw that there was one of the relay crystals glowing red. Oh, an intruder? “Seems like we have a visitor in range of the tree.”

“A visitor? Weren’t there, like, ten different confusion spells that prevented people from coming in?”

“Thirteen spells to be correct, but yeah… this shouldn’t happen.” I grabbed the crystal and looked through the drone that was currently signalling the arrival of the intruder: a man with very tattered clothing was cowering in fear in front of the drone, down on his knees and covering his head with his hands. A sad sight indeed. “I’ll go and fetch him.”

“Be safe.” Krissie leaned in for a quick kiss and then I left the house.

The man was not too far from the spider den and he must have come from there, judging by the webs on his clothes. I smelled some urine on him as well as the dirt of several days or even weeks. How long has this man been lost?

As soon as he saw me he fell on his ass and scuttled back until he found a tree that stopped his retreat. I could only sigh and pull him up in the air with a spell to prevent another pitiful attempt at escaping and zipped his mouth with another.

“I’ll let you talk if you promise me not to scream or plead for your life. I’m in no mood for that kind of stuff.” He nodded a few times and I removed the spell. “How did you get here?”

“I… I-I got lost several times.”

“You got lost? You’re supposed to get lost! The spells I made are designed to make your sense of direction and get back…”

“I have a horrible sense of direction and used to get lost often.” I stared at this man, trying to figure out if he was a magician or a knight or something on that line but all I saw was a dirty and smelly man with little to no intact clothing left on him.

“So… you are so bad at directions that you got lost and accidentally found the correct way?” He nodded again, weakly this time. Jesus, he was worse than a certain swordsman I knew! How can one get lost so hard that they find the right way? How?? “Jeez… listen, I’ll take you to my home and patch you up and then send you your own merry way, got that?”

“N-no! I was searching for someone! A… friend of mine got lost around here weeks ago and we haven’t heard of her since! Let me search for her!”

“A friend?”

“Yes! She’s called Krissie. Have you met her?”

“Krissie?” Oh, was this guy one of the villagers? He was genuinely worried at least, definitely not a threat for anyone other than himself. I mean, who was so stupid to get here and search for someone alone? “She’s with me at the moment, I found her a while back.”

“You did?” The happiness of this good piece of news was eclipsed by his fear of what I had done to her. “Is she… fine?”

“She’s very much alive and kicking if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ll take you to her.”

“Oh, thank you so much!”

With another quick spell and a wave of my hands I returned to the tree house with my new guest. Once arrived, he fell on the floor and suppressed his vomit, hands clutching his mouth. God, I hoped that he wouldn’t actually puke. He smelled bad already.

After managing to not dirty the carpet, he finally saw what was surrounding him and his eyes opened and sparkled with curiosity and a little bit of fear in the new environment. From the kitchen I heard the sounds of a knife cutting something. The sound stopped soon and was changed with the one of her footsteps approaching.

“Hey, what’s that smell?” Krissie said as she came in the living room carrying a tray of sweets. “It’s like pee…. Colin!?!” When she saw the man, called Colin apparently, she dropped the tray and I just about managed to not let it hit the ground.

“Krissie??”

“Colin what are you doing here?” She seemed, scared almost, of this man. What was going on? “What are you doing here? You disappeared more than two months ago! We have been searching for you all over the place! The chief thought you died!”

“I didn’t die! I was here!”

“Ehm, I don’t mean to interrupt you two but what exactly is your relationship?” I looked at her and waited for a response but she didn’t say anything. “Krissie?”

“She’s my wife!”

“What??” This was the husband she ran from? “You’re him?”

“You know about me?”

“Well, kind of…”

“Then you know she ran away from me because she didn’t want to live with me right?” I nodded and he scoffed, staring at her. Krissie looked the other way, clutching her hands on her shirt. “I was worried that something happened to you.”

“Nothing happened to me so you can go back to the village and tell the others I am fine.” She was almost crying and spoke with a soft voice unlike her usual. Oh, god, what should I do?

“How the hell am I supposed to go back without you? Why can’t you come back?” He finally noticed her scales and how different she looked now. He began to get worried and touched her face with in of his hands, feeling the smooth scales and her new reality. “Are you sick? What is this stuff on your face? Is it: scales?”

“I’m not sick, Colin. I am happy here and I have no intention of returning with you.”

“Happy? W-what?” It took some time for Colin to understand what she meant and in the meantime, Krissie had come and hid behind me, peeking at him from the gap of my arms. “You? And this… thing?”

“His name is Aidan and I love him!”

“Love… so, you can love a creature that looks like an ugly experiment and not me? Your rightful husband?”

“I never accepted this marriage and just because there is a certificate that proves it, you can’t just make me love you!” I could see the moment in which his heart shattered and fell into pieces. “I’m sorry Colin, but that is the truth.” The poor man sat shakily on the couch, head drooping and sighing.

“You never even gave me a chance, you know? You just looked at me like I was some kind of monster. I didn’t want this marriage either! I was in love with another… woman” The pause between the last words was highly suspicious. “I had plans too! It was our parents that decided for us! The least you could do was ask me what I thought.”

“I-I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t! You just turtled up and closed yourself to me! We could have come to an arrangement or something, get a divorce after a couple of months, fake a kidnapping, run away… anything but let me alone in that godforsaken spit of land waiting for someone to come and tell me you died, after I chased you all the way there!”

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s all you can say? Just… sorry?”

“What should I say then?”

“I don’t know…” he sighed again and slumped on the couch even more.

“Cut her some slack, man… she’s having a hard time too.” I tried to make things a little better but my attempt fell flat on its face. If anything, I made things worse so I left the room and let the two work things out by themselves. I came back an hour later and saw that both were crying, or had cried a lot, but the sorrow and sadness had at least disappeared. I sat beside Krissie and gave her a hug and a kiss, stroking her head. “You ok, sweetie?”

“I think so.” Colin looked at her in an entirely different way now, whether it was good or not I didn’t know, but I hoped that it wouldn’t make things harder for her. “Thank you for understanding, Colin, this means a lot to me.”

“I guessed as much.” He sighed yet again. “As long as one of us is happy I can go back and live my life as a widower.”

“Are you planning to tell the others that I died?”

“What else can I do? I can’t tell them about… him? Her?”

“He’s a… both actually.” Colin furrowed his brows and looked at me with a confused expression. I didn’t blame him for not understanding immediately. Krissie picked up on my thoughts and began explaining. “That’s pretty much the whole deal.”

“Oh… oh, ehm, ok, it’s… ehm, good for you?”

“It makes for some fun times but for the rest you can’t even tell. Well, humans can’t, dragons can apparently.”

“I could see that. Anyways, thank you. I thought you were just some kind of monster of mutation, but if you are truly the Envoy, then I have nothing but respect for you.” Oh, wow, another person with some brain mass in their head. How incredible. These two had more grey matter than the king himself. “So, what now?”

“If you want, I’ll feed you and give you new clothes, then I’ll take you back to the village.”

“You’d do that?”

“Of course, what kind of host would I be if I didn’t? Especially to my mate’s husband.” Colin chucked and shook his head.

“Damn, that’s so weird to hear… mate…”

“Yeah, I know. It takes time to get used to it.” Krissie patted his back as I took a bundle of silk and began taking measurements for his new clothes. I’d just copy his old ones as I could not be bothered to make a new design. “Let me get you something to eat in the meantime.”

“Thank you, Krissie.”

Not long after I was done with the clothing and instructed the water boiling system to get to work and prepare a good bath. Colin, for once in his life, received some loving treatment from his wife. Was she his wife or ex-wife? How did divorce work here anyways? I had to figure that out soon else I’d be cuckolding him forever and ever. The poor lad didn’t need that as well.

About two hours later he was done: fed, clean, sparkling, perfumed and with new and very nice clothes that complemented his green eyes and brown hair. I was kind of proud of my work. He thanked me profusely after receiving all of this.

“Do you want me to take you back to the village?”

“If you could it’d be great. I have been walking around the mountain for days now and the people over there must be thinking that I died as well.”

“You two better hurry then.”

“You’re… not coming? I thought you would.” Krissie shook her head, her heartbeat quickening at the mere idea of going to the village. “I can see why though.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Colin, I want to see them and tell them that I am ok, but I can’t stand the thought of what they’ll say once they see me. I am not strong like Aidan.”

“I will tell you this once and only once but when I came out of the temple and both races stared insulting me, I was about to run away and cry. I did that, but not on front of them. Strong is not a word I’d use for myself.” I gave her a wry smile and she did the same, fidgeting her fingers and shifting her weight from one leg to the other. “If you want to stay it’s fine. I’ll be back shortly.”

“No, I’ll… I’ll come too. I can’t keep hiding forever, can I?” She tried her best to keep on a strong smile but her eyes betrayed her. Still, her expression and desire didn’t waver in the least once she made a decision and so we took her with us.

Since I hadn’t been to the village before, I couldn’t teleport there. That would have shortened our trip by a lot but the future trips, if there would be any at all, would be much faster once I arrive there.

I grabbed the two in my arms and jumped off the tree, wings opening with the pop that came with the increased weight and strain on my muscles. Nothing I couldn’t handle though. The one problem was Colin screaming and tightening his grip on my waist but I was otherwise fine. The man seemed to have a fear of heights and kept his eyes shut for the whole flight. Krissie, on the other hand, had received the baptism of flight before and enjoyed the view that was passing below us. She had been scared at first but she quickly overcame her fear since I was there with her. She also had a couple of little tricks I hid in her clothing that would have made her fall much safer as I wasn’t going to take any chances.

The flight lasted for about two hours at most: we left a little bit earlier than lunch and now the sun was high and at the centre of the sky. The village came into view not long after we passed a small mountain river, the one where I met Krissie, though the place in question was further upstream. The smoke coming from the wooden houses rose up in the air and gave me the precise landing point as well as a marker for future reference. There were a few people in the village at the moment but the number didn’t go past fifty odd, as both of them had told me before, which was why I was extremely surprised to see that there over a hundred were clustered in the one small square they had, or the village equivalent of it. Every eye that was not blind could see me land and then put carefully the two bags of meat I had under my arms. Many drew weapons, both proper and rudimentary, but all had wary expressions on their faces.

Soon they recognised Colin and a few even managed to figure out Krissie’s identity even though she was hiding behind me like a child.

“Colin? Where the hell have you been? We were worried you died searching for Krissie!” A very old woman with a brown gown made her way to the front of the crowd and yelled at him. Colin looked away in embarrassment. “What would we have done had you died like her? We can’t lose anyone else anymore!”

“But I found her!”

“You did? And where is she now?” The woman, clearly not convinced, put her hand on her waist and looked at him with the most stern gaze I ever saw on a living being. Damn, this was one tough cookie, must be her age. Colin pointed at her hiding and she meekly put her head in a way so that the woman could see her. “Krissie?”

“Hello Mrs Fyr.”

“Oh, Krissie you’re alive!” The woman marched forward with big strides and shoved me out of her way, hugging Krissie tightly. I saw a tear fall on her cheek and slide on the gown before she wiped it off with a grease stained rag. “I thought you were dead.”

“I assure you I am not.” Mrs Fyr looked at her face and noticed the scales. It wasn’t hard to add two and two for her and she immediately turned over to me and slapped my face. I could have avoided it but I let her do that, else who knows what this bitter old woman might have done. If anything, she was the one getting hurt.

“What have you done to her, you… creature?”

“Nothing I didn’t want, Mrs Fyr, it was my choice and no one else’s. He even tried to stop me from doing it.”

“Then why did you do it? Oh, dear… look at you…”

“Because I love him with all my heart, Mrs Fyr.” The woman had some problems in connecting love, happiness and, well, me. “Trust me when I say that I am happy.”

“I don’t think you are in your right mind, Krissie. I have no idea what this thing has done to your mind but I’ll make things go back to normal.” She caressed her cheeks and Krissie pushed her away with strength that should not have belonged to a woman at all.

“I don’t want things to go back to normal, I don’t want to get back to a marriage that I never consented and I sure as hell I won’t abandon him just because he’s not human!”

“Krissie… calm down.”

“I am not calming down! I am not! I have a will too! Why can’t nobody accept that?” She was crying profusely now and the sight made my heart ache. I closed in and hugged her, petting her head to comfort her. Gradually her tears stopped and she returned to breathing normally. Mrs Fyr seemed a bit confused and kept moving her gaze from us to Colin who was standing by the side.

“Colin? Aren’t you going to say anything at all?”

“What can I do? I can’t make her change her mind and I can’t force her to go back to a man she was forced with. I know that this is… unconventional but if she’s happy, what’s wrong with that?” Finally, the voice of reason. Good job, Colin.

“But this is wrong! How can a human be with something… like that?”

“I was human too, you know? Not that long ago too.” I spoke and confused the crowd even more, causing murmurs and worried expressions.

“He’s the Divine Envoy, Mrs Fyr.”

“Him? The one that betrayed us and stole the power of the gods for himself?”

“Is that what they told you? Let me tell you that it’s all bullshit: I have become this way to save you and I’d like for someone to be grateful for once.”

“Wy should we believe you over the king’s decree?”

“Because there haven’t been any dragon attacks lately, right? No death, no fire and no fear of ambushes.” Colin spoke with a firm voice, siding with me. “We all have experienced the same past few weeks and unless something happened when I was lost, nothing came this way, not even a single dragon.” His words seemed to reach the crowd and he continued. “We all have heard the message from god months ago: it said that an envoy would come and save this world, stopping the war and the deaths. So what if we didn’t win? We are alive and the dragons are not attacking here anymore! Something must have happened and that something was caused by him, sacrificing himself for both races. Had he sided with us, all dragons would have died, had he sided with the dragons, we would have died. Instead, he didn’t choose and allowed both of us to live. Is there something wrong with that?” His voice now echoed in a silent village, no one speaking, no one protesting and not eve moving. “At least have the gratitude not to insult the one that saved us.”

“But what if the dragons come back again? It could be next week, tomorrow or in a hundred years, but they’ll come back for sure!”

“Then he’ll be here for us! Defending peace and life.” Krissie stood and stepped forward. “And if he dies… his children will take his legacy.” She looked at me straight in the eyes when she said that and I felt a chill run through my spine, a good one. “And I will bear them, regardless of what you think of us!” She returned to my side, yanked my dumbfounded muzzle to her face and kissed me in front of all these people. Damn, that was hot! “Does anyone have anything to say to me?” No one even coughed or blinked, probably too shocked to even think of saying something to her. Damn, she was scary like this. “Good. Let’s go back, Aidan.”

She took my hand and her look didn’t accept anything less than unconditional acceptance. I gave Colin one last ‘thank you’ and teleported back home. As soon as we were in the living room, Krissie latched herself onto me and the smell of her arousal assaulted my nose. But there was something different to it this time, something hidden deeper and primal to it. The way that she caressed me had little to nothing to do with her usual self, completely different than a loving mate and more like a beast in heat.

Oh, damn, she was in heat. The way that she reacted back there must have triggered something in her, maybe. Her hands let me very little time to think as they quite literally plunged inside my slit and tried to yank my members out.

“Krissie? What the hell?”

“Come on, Aidan, breed me and make me so pregnant I won’t be able to walk anymore!”

“Krissie, calm down for one moment!” She reluctantly let go of me and sat on the couch, dribbles of fluids coating the inside of her thighs. Holy shit, she was really horny.

“What’s wrong Aidan?”

“I think you’re in heat and that is making you act rashly.” At the mention of heat she smiled widely and jumped on her feet, giggling. “That is not something humans do.”

“Then why care? Hurry up and put some babies in me!”

“Krissie, you know I love you, but I don’t think we are ready for babies yet.” She scoffed and sat back on the couch.

“Listen: I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. We have lived together for more than two months, I think we are more than ready.” On earth certain couples were never ready for something like this and I sure as hells wasn’t as well. I had just passed my twenty three years. How was I supposed to have kids already? My own parents had me after four years of marriage without counting the previous years of their relationship. Two months was nothing for me. I had barely began to know her for real!

“Well, I don’t.”

“Why?” I froze for a moment and thought: I didn’t know why, there was just something that blocked me, stopping me from making that huge step.

“I-I don’t know, I guess I am scared.”

“Of what? That they’ll look weird? That they might not live?” Yeah, among the other things. These two seemed to be the worst ones.

“That I might die and leave you alone with them, I don’t fucking know, ok? I am not ready for this!” She hugged me and caressed my wings joints, a rather sensitive spot that she learned soon I loved feeling touched.

“One more reason to not leave me alone then.” She sighed. “Aidan, we are not a normal couple, we’ll never be. People will hate us for nothing more than our looks but they’ll come around one day. You have done so much for me until now and I haven’t paid you back yet. I can’t help you fight, nor I can use magic, the least I can do, is make you happy and that includes filling me with babies.” She purred softly and that made my heart throb. “What’s so bad about that? Just do it for me then… show me how much you love me…”

“But…” She put her fingers on my muzzle, preventing me from saying another excuse to not take her then and there.

“No buts… you have a duty as a male to further your line, as a mate to make me happy and as my lover to become one with me. You have nothing to worry about.” I wish I didn’t but she did have a point in all of her hormone-crazed sex lust.

“I guess we can try and see where life leads us then…”

“There’s my love.”

Without waiting for anything else, she jumped on top of me, knocking both of us on the floor. At this point I let go of any restriction I had and slid inside her. The heat made her feel even tighter than usual and much more sensitive to my thrusts. Not even a minute in, I felt a splash of fluids on the base of my cocks. She smiled devilishly and got up before grabbing both of them and sitting down. Feeling both cocks slide in at the same time brought a new height of pleasure to the both of us, nothing like we felt before. Her vent kept stretching and stretching, allowing all of me to slowly make its way in with every consecutive thrust.

I could do nothing but lay back in a daze as I felt her go up and down on me, tits swaying hypnotically in front of my eyes. I leaned in and bit one of them, caressing the other with one free set of hands. She moaned and tightened up in another orgasm. Soon, I felt something mount up within me, different from the feeling of an impending climax, but pleasurable nonetheless.

A jolt ran thought the base of my cocks and between motions I saw two sizeable bulges make their way up my urethra. Krissie noticed them too as they stretched her even further than before. Instead of slowing down, she increased her pace and let the bulges move further up with each contraction of my muscles. Once they reached her womb she slammed herself down with all her strength and my tips penetrated her cervix, letting a hefty blob of pre spurt in, which was immediately followed by the feeling of something incredibly large leave the tight confines of my passage and into the wider and much more comfortable one of her womb.

The eggs rolled inside as I kept pushing and pumping more pre inside, the smooth but elastic surfaces touching my cocks every once in a while and shooting static bursts of pleasure on my whole body. After that, the feeling of another egg rising up in one of my cocks assaulted me. This one had some hurry and made its way up with the other two in a few quick contractions.

As the third, and hopefully last, egg fell in the warm and wet confines, I came inside her and roared unlike I had ever done before. She came with me as well, joining in a weaker but adorable roar, small puff of smoke coming off her nostrils. Something at the base of my cocks swelled for the first time ever and inflated. I could have marvelled at the idea of having a double knot, but she clamped down on me so hard that it triggered another orgasm. The usual dribble of cum from the side of her vent when I unloaded inside her disappeared as the seal grew tighter and more effective. The unusual quantity of seed filled her up way past her capacity but instead of making her feel pain as her belly swelled to inhuman proportions, she began to change even more, scales spreading a little more on her legs, muscle growing her previously lithe frame and a tail sprouting out of her back so fast I barely registered it at first and noticed only when I felt a foreign weight rest on my legs.

The feeling of her new changes caused another climax in her and she got even tighter, coaxing another twin load out of me. After god know how long, our orgasms finally tapered off. I was absolutely wrecked and she was in no better shape, panting and sweating, clutching my arms and pulling me even closer to her.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.” She patted her belly. “Eggs huh? How weird. But that would make sense, given that you need to breed dragons as well.”

“I have no intention of having anyone beside you.”

“Oh, don’t be such a let-down: I’d like seeing you build a harem one day. I’d be the queen and the others would be my little servants. Maybe we could even have some pretty hunks in there.” She giggled at the idea.

“You’d watch me get taken by men?”

“Well, you do have a vagina down there and you said it yourself that you feel so empty without anything inside…” Her face lit up with an evil grin. “How about we find ourselves a nice dragon and let him take you? I’d like to watch and I bet it would be so hot… Mmmh, if I weren’t so tired and full of you I might even propose another few rounds.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“I definitely am, after these last hours…” At least she was honest with herself. “Why not? I bet you’d look lovely with a belly full of eggs, though not as me…”

“Sure thing honey…”

“Don’t be so fast to shrug it off! What if you get your own heat? What then?”

“Then… I don’t know, I guess we will find out later. I don’t even think I can get in heat.”

“What if you do though?”

“Then it will be your job to find me a man that will take me and then you’ll watch me get fucked silly and all that stuff.” I said that with a joking tone but the look in her eyes told me that she was already beginning to make plans for that eventuality. “I was joking…”

“Well, I am not. We need to be prepared for that. Hey, how long do you think this will keep going?” She tugged at my knot and it made me shiver. “It feels damn good but it’s kind of inconvenient.”

“If dogs are any similar… about half an hour…”

“Well… what do we do in the meantime? I’m tired and sure as hell we can’t walk to the bedroom!” I waved a hand and teleported us gently over the bed, putting a layer of air below to make the fall even gentler. “Ok, this is a good idea too.”

“Of course it is.”

“My little mage is tired?”

“Of course I am! My back hurts like hell and my wings are getting cramped.”

“Stop whining! Who’s the one that has a metre worth of dragon dick inside as well as a few litres of cum? Who’s the one that is sore all over?”

“You are my love, you are.”

She kept bickering with me for a while until she finally dozed off and fell asleep. I enjoyed the rare silence in the house, hearing her breathing softly. She was so cute when she slept.

So… kids huh? I finally made the step and it felt damn good too. But… what now? What would they eat? What would they look like? What was going to happen now? My mind was wracked by a number of worries and that made me all the more incapable of sleeping.

With a wave of my hands I used a spell I had not yet tried, went into a sort of astral body and located Johanna, to see how she was doing: I found her sleeping as well, curled up in her large pillow. It had been a while but she hadn’t changed a little, save for a small scar on her shoulder, one last remnant on the battle. In a fit of nostalgy, I teleported a note on her pillow, hoping that she’d find it before someone else. I invited her over here to talk.

Now that I had settled in, I wanted to know what happened to her side and what was going on in the world of dragons. A quick look in Aerym told me that things were going… well to say the least: dragons had flocked there and the concentration of beings had soared to incredible proportions. Those without a cave slept outside or under rocks, not that for a dragon matter really that much of they had something soft beneath them or not. Well, they did like soft stuff as much as shiny stuff but that was beside the point.

I looked around in astral form for a while until I felt something pull at me. The world spun wildly and next thing I knew, I was looking at Evan.

You must have feeling quite reckless if you went here with your soul just to check in on her. I admire your guts.

And I admire the fact that you have been so kind to let me do that…

Oh, I am not Kirion nor Atarax, I have some tact and feelings too, you know? He smiled in the cave. Anyone that came in and saw an old dragon lord smile for no reason must have felt confused. So, what brings you here? Other than her of course, I’m curious.

Nothing.

Really? Then, could I trouble you with a small request? I saw a weird glint in his eyes and immediately surrounded myself with as many protective spells as I could. That could have been a trap for all I knew. My, my, how eager to show off your skill. Worry not, Aidan, I have no ill intentions towards you or your lover. Ehm, which one? Was Johanna still in love with me? Evan must have felt something because he chuckled. Oh, my, you have been busy it seems.

Does she still love me? After I left?

She begged me to let her search for you for the past months, so I’d say yes.

But…

I know what Kirion has done to you: he insulted and mocked you in a very rude manner after all you had done for us. I know you think this is some sick joke but from what she told me, it was fate. You had one that you loved back in your world that had the same personality and the same name, right?

Yes, I was pretty surprised when I learned that she was the same as her… that made things easier for us and much more enjoyable.

Had Kirion know about it, he wouldn’t have drugged you two. It was a stupid decision and very much useless too. He sighed and kicked up a small storm of dust in his cave. _ I felt sorry for you two and waited for you to come back to us but you didn’t._

I was angry at everything and everyone… I gave up so much and I got back was poison and hatred.

I understand that you had some hard times. Your new mate must have helped you a lot for you to gather enough courage to get here.

Yeah, she did. Will Johanna still accept my apologies?

Why wouldn’t she? She’s head over talons for you, worse than a female in heat too… She’ll beg you to forgive her if anything.

Guessed as much. What was your request by the way?

Oh, could you get me an appointment with king Pembroke? I would like to establish a peace treaty and a commercial pact. I was shocked. I know it must sound weird, but your stupid and reckless plan, worked, more or less: both races were so angry at you and so disappointed in having lost the chance that they just… gave up and came back home. Your little speech about a pointless war with no cause was also pretty good. Good job on that.

It… it worked?

Well, it just made everyone mad at you long enough for both sides to come to an understanding that fighting had lost any meaning. They needed something so incredibly weird and impossible to wake up and you provided just that.

It seems that I can live my life in peace then…

Not at all, my little friend: the hard part has yet to begin. You chose a non-violent path and now you must help us make it, push us forward. You come from a world so different from us that you’ll surely have some good insight. I cannot wait for you to show us what can we do once we work as a team and not as enemies. The enthusiasm that this several century old dragon had was astounding and let me quite speechless. He smiled and chuckled, tapping his tail on the stone floor.

Fine, I’ll help. I can’t let you guys work out something like that by yourselves, can I? Damn, I’m barely twenty four years old and I already have to be the middle men to fix a millennia old war…

Age is not a concern for great men. You might as well been an old man, and that wouldn’t have changed anything. Better be young and malleable than old and rusty like me.

You seem more like a tough branch, still flexible enough to be used.

Weird, I always thought of myself as stale bread… his joke made him laugh and made the cave vibrate as per his usual. Now, you’d better go back and sleep.

I said goodbye and left the astral body, returning to my home. Krissie was obviously still sleeping and I was still very much lodged inside her for the foreseeable future. Don’t get me wrong, it felt great, but it’d get boring real fast and I rally needed to go to the toilet.

Morning came quick for Johanna that day, having spent most of the night in absolutely amazing dreams, most of which involving a certain former human. She had gone through her heat without partnering up for the first time in her life. For her it had been a recurrent period of fun and lust, but the arrival of Aidan had thrown everything down the proverbial drain and she refused to lay with any of her old mates. She had a clutch some twenty years ago with a rather handsome black dragon and she saw him raise them by himself in his cave as she was too busy fighting and risking her life for the race to stay home and tend to hatchlings. It pained her to see her young grow with the fear of not having a mother but she had vowed to not rest until one side had won. Now that the war had seemingly ended, that vow had been shattered but she couldn’t go to them, they were grown up now and although she saw them every now and then around Aerym, they were just relatives. She wanted to start a new family but after falling in love with Aidan, she couldn’t find one male that lived up to the way he made her feel.

She groaned and yawned as she woke up, smacking her lips in a groggy attempt at refreshing her mouth but only managed to get something stuck on her tongue. She spat the piece of paper or silk and stared at it. She gave it an inquisitive sniff and found out that it carried the smell of a certain person. Her brain was kicked into overdrive in the next second and she used her paws to get it and smoothed it on the floor.

_ _

Come find me in the tallest tree of the Gild Forest in the south. I’ll be waiting for you there as long as you want me to wait. I realize that I hurt you by not coming back but I assure you I had my reasons. I hope that you’ll forgive me and let me explain.

Aidan.

She didn’t even eat her breakfast and dashed out of the cave entrance, beating her wings so hard they started to hurt after a mere hour of flight. Her heart raced like nothing before and her mind was full of things to say and do.

Back in the central pillar of Aerym, Evan smiled as he saw her fly away with the haste of a hatchling during feeding time.

The boy had come a long way, he thought and he hoped that such a peculiar character would lead the whole world to a long lasting era of peace.