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Synopsis: Kassy is a young freighter dragon just starting her cargo-flying career. She's still trying to get the hang of working life, but all of a sudden she's getting involved in a communal rut/breeding program/giant dragon orgy planned by her ranch, which will involve lots and lots of sex, repeatedly, with multiple partners. It's actually pretty stressful to think about.

This story is self-contained and can be read alone. Written for Nanowrimo 2018. (53,819 words)

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey

Jennifer pointed towards one corner of the barn. "Here, here! Put it over here." The rancher gestured with her hands, miming the position she wanted. "Right up against the wall."

Kassy obediently followed the rancher over, carefully using her tail to pull a large portioning panel which was on wheels. The dragoness moved the panel into place so that Jennifer could reach down and lock the brakes, immobilizing the panel to turn it into a temporary wall.

"So...what's all this for?" Kassy asked, as they went back to the storeroom to take yet another panel. She was a freighter dragon who normally flew cargo routes for the ranch. Today however, after Kassy had finished her morning mail delivery flight, Jennifer had enlisted her help with moving furniture. One by one they were bringing in and installing partitioning panels, slowly turning the large single-area barn into a series of smaller rooms. A half-dozen ranch hands were also helping to bring out the panels and lock them into place. But some of the wheels had gotten stuck, so the humans needed a dragon to help pull over the heavy partitioning panels. "Why are you putting up these panels?" Kassy asked.

"You haven't heard? Oh, this one's stuck too. Everyone! Three, two, one, hargh...!" Jennifer grunted as she and three other humans dragged another wheeled panel out of storage, before letting Kassy takeover the pulling. "Did you miss the morning brief? All the freighters were talking about it."

Kassy clicking her tongue and let out a soft rumble, the dragon equivalent to the human gesture of a headshake. "Tsk-rrr. I was out on parcel delivery, flying with Maxwell."

"Ah, you two were flying the NJ predawn mail express, right? Yeah that's what I remember from the roster. So I guess you missed the big announcement--we're going to be having a communal rut at the end of this month. Isn't that exciting?" Jennifer nodded cheerfully as if Kassy was supposed to understand what this meant, but this term made no sense to the young dragon.

"A...communal what?"

"A communal rut, yes. Dad says that the ranch used to do them every year or so, but they stopped after artificial insemination became the main thing. This was like...twenty, thirty years ago? Before my time." Pausing her explanation, Jennifer gestured to the next position for Kassy to push the partitioning panel, and then the other ranch hands locked it into place. "It's a more natural way to do things and it's actually very effective, but it can really mess up flight operations--except now that doesn't matter since our whole ranch was acquired by Caedry Aerospace Group, and they've got the capital and flexibility to think long-term."

Jennifer waved her hands in the air. "Plus, dad got promoted to Associate Director, Eastern Seaboard, Operations Group. Ain't that a fancy title? He still runs the whole ranch, but now y'all work for Caedry Aero. Long live corporate America, cause we're now part of big business! Hmm, what was I talking about?"

"The communal rut," Kassy prompted.

"Yes, that. Caedry Aero has this big ten-year strategic plan with more and more flights to everywhere, but to fulfil that, we'll need more dragons. And so we need more eggs, hence the communal rut. So here's how that works. Almost all species of dragons are social creatures, but your species in particular..."

Jennifer leaned over towards Kassy and patted her head. Size wise the human was dwarfed in comparison to the freighter dragon, who was large enough to carry four humans in flight. "Grey-backed nettled gliders are communal, which means you live in groups. In the wild, you guys reproduce by having these communal ruts--where all the females go into heat and all the males go into rut at once, and then you all pair up and screw each other. Then once everyone has finished their mating round, you all meet back up again and find a new partner. It's basically a giant orgy, and usually by the end the majority of the fertile dragonesses are knocked up. Then all the eggs get laid together and raised as a group. A community."

Kassy felt her ears pricking up. She'd reached maturity just a year ago, but she hadn't ever gone into heat yet. "Are we're...we're doing that?"

"Yep, at the end of the month. Short notice, but we'll make it work. We'll freeze flight operations for half a day and have our essential routes codeshared by Caedry AeroHub JFK, up over in New York. Which will give all you freighters a whole afternoon to get busy."

"Busy? You mean...mating?" Kassy asked. Her tail swished from side to side, though she wasn't sure if this was from nervousness or excitement.

"Indeed I do." Jennifer looked over the rest of the partitioning panels still in the store room. "I think those were the last of the stuck panels. Leon, you guys can handle the rest? Lock in all the panels, just follow the floor plan. Get it done by lunchtime, and make sure things are neat."

"Yes ma'am!" replied one of the other ranchers, nodding and raising a hand to tap the brim of his hat. "You heard the lady, no lunch till we're done! And make sure those panels are placed straight, or I'll make sure your teeth are crooked to match. Let's get it done!"

Leaving the other ranchers to their work, Jennifer left the barn and beckoned for Kassy to follow her. "Come on, we'll need to get you prepared for the communal rut."

"Me? I'm part of the communal rut?" Kassy still wasn't sure how to feel about this idea. She had never mated with other dragon, so this was all new to her. She had heard older dragons talk about mating as if it was this crucial thing which seemed very important, but she hadn't ever gotten a chance to see what the big deal was.

"Yeah, every dragon's going to be part of the rut. Except for the fledglings and hatchlings, of course." Reaching into her pocket, Jennifer took out a small notebook and wrote something down. "I'll just prep you...get you ready for the communal rut. Maxwell too, since he missed the prep session after the morning brief. We were scheduling them out, and you guys were actually supposed to be briefed and prepped during yesterday's evening shift, but hmm... Anyway, do you know where Maxwell is?"

Kassy nodded--a gesture which meant the same thing between both humans and dragons. "I think I might have an idea." Besides her, Maxwell was the next youngest freighter dragon. Since they were both relatively inexperienced with flight routes, they were usually assigned to simpler or shorter journeys, and often they flew together. Fortunately, Maxwell was a nice drake--Kassy liked flying with him, and he was fun to talk with. "What do you mean by prep?" she asked.

Jennifer waved her hand dismissively. "Go find Maxwell, then you two come find me in Barn One. I'll explain to you the prep process, then get you both ready. Shoo, shoo--off you go! I'll see you in Barn One."

Kassy thought about pressing for more information, but Jennifer was already walking off. The young dragon scampered away and went to go find her fellow freighter.

Tree, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey

Just as Kassy had expected, Maxwell was in a tree. It was a natural instinct of dragons that they liked to perch up in high places and look down on things, but most freighters satisfied this desire by sitting on the roofs of the barns where they lived. Maxwell was slightly different in that he enjoyed climbing in trees and perching himself on branches--one day he would probably grow big enough that the trees near the ranch would be too small to support his weight, but for now the trees could put up with his behaviour.

Looking upwards, Kassy stared up the tree where Maxwell was perching on a large branch. Leaves and other branches obscured her view, so all she could see was his grey-scaled tail curled around the branch. She let out a barking cry to try and get his attention, not quite a full roar. "Rah!" Rearing up on her hindlimbs, Kassy used her forepaws to shove the tree trunk and shake the whole tree.

A pinecone bounced off her head, as if the tree was protesting this violent treatment. "Ow." Kassy used a paw to rub the top of her head. "Max! Hey!"

"What?! Huh?" Maxwell stuck his head over the side of the branch and peered down at her. "Kassy? What's up?"

"Uh..." For a moment Kassy wasn't sure how much to explain. "Jennifer wants to see us both in Barn One right now."

"Why? We just finished the predawn express--don't tell me she wants us to fly another route so soon!" Maxwell leapt out of the tree and smoothly dropped down to ground, flaring out his wings to control his descent.

Kassy flicked her wings as Maxwell landed beside her. "It's nothing like that. It's about... uh... something else. Come on, let's go." The two freighter dragons turned and started walking towards Barn One--which wasn't really a barn, but just the main complex of the ranch.

"Something else?" Maxwell asked as they walked together.

"Yeah, something else. According to Jennifer, Caedry Aerospace thinks we'll need more dragons to fly routes in a few years, so we have to make lots of eggs. That's what Jennifer wants us for--it's about...mating," Kassy explained.

"Mating!? Wait, what?" Maxwell exclaimed, coming to a shocked halt. "You mean...uh..." He looked over Kassy's body from head to tail, as if seeing her in a new way for the first time.

"No, not like that! We're not going to... I mean...? You and me...?? Maybe? But it's not like that. Not that I wouldn't, it's just...not right now. There's this thing call a communal what--no, I mean a communal rut. I don't know what it is, so don't ask me!" Kassy sputtered, feeling suddenly self-conscious. Abruptly she felt like she was making a fool of herself in front of Maxwell, a drake who she'd been flying mail routes with for the past few months. She knew him, he knew her, and yet now things felt awkward. "Jennifer can explain this better than me!"

"Alright, Jennifer can explain it," Maxwell replied. The two young freighters resumed walking towards the barn.

Barn One, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey

In the main area of Barn One, a trio of freighters were preparing for takeoff. Human labourers were helping load and unload cargo from the dragons, quickly attaching pouches to their flight harnesses. Once the humans gave the ready signal, the dragons got their feet and strolled out the wide open doors of the barn. Outside there was a short dirt runway, and the loud flapping of wings sounded take-off as the freighters headed out on their cargo route.

Looking around, Maxwell and Kassy found Jennifer standing off to the side where it was quieter, away from the main loading area. The rancher was pressing a small, flat device up against her head--a mobile phone. "Yeah. Yeah, I understand. No, listen, that's all backwards. Tell them to send some guy down here and then we'll talk. I won't discuss..." Waving her hand towards the two freighters, Jennifer gestured for them to wait.

Another dragon was sitting beside Jennifer, but he was different. Whereas every other dragon on the ranch was a grey-backed nettled glider, this dragon had scales of light blue colour, and he was far smaller and proportioned differently. His name was Apollo, and he was a racing dragon--Jennifer's personal transport.

All the freighters considered Apollo to be different--he was a dragon like them, but at the same time he wasn't a dragon like them. Apollo didn't fly cargo routes (unless you counted Jennifer as cargo) and he lived inside the human residences with his owner, instead of in the barns and hangars where the freighter dragons resided. Even his mannerisms were strange--Apollo was a different breed of dragon, but Kassy had encountered all sorts of other dragons on her flights, and they almost always shared a common understanding of gestures and interactions. But Apollo didn't act like a dragon--he acted like a human occupying a dragon's body, probably as a by-product of his upbringing.

Nevertheless, it was mostly only the older or formerly feral freighters who refused to have anything to do with Apollo. Kassy sometimes enjoyed chatting with the racing dragon. She found him quirky yet extremely intelligent, and even a bit cute given the fact he was so small--barely larger than a human, and dwarfed by the two freighters.

"Hello!" Apollo said to them. He raised a forepaw and waved, but this wasn't even the correct way for a dragon to greet another dragon. You were supposed to bow your head, or rock your wings from side to side, not just wave your paw at someone--you would have to be sitting back on your hindlegs for this gesture to even be physically possible. But they were on a human ranch, so perhaps human mannerisms weren't entirely inappropriate, and Apollo meant no harm.

"Hello Apollo!" Maxwell replied cheerfully. He looked mildly amused, although Kassy suspected that Apollo couldn't even read draconic body language well enough to realize that.

The two freighters sat down beside the much smaller racing dragon. They only had to wait for one minute before Jennifer finished her phone call. "Sorry to keep you two waiting. What did I need you two for?" The rancher took out her note pad and flipped through a few pages to jot her memory. "Oh, right. You guys need to be prepped for the communal rut."

"The communal what?" Maxwell asked.

"That's exactly what I said," Kassy murmured.

"Come, come, my lovelies. Let's go to the sick bay. I'll explain there." Jennifer led the way, with Maxwell and Kassy following after her. Apollo also sprung to his feet and trailed after them, weaving between the two larger freighters so he could trot beside his owner.

"So as I was saying," Jennifer continued, "we've got a target of doubling our number of active daily flights within ten years, and then doubling that number again within fifteen. Right now we've got fifty-one dragons, of which forty-two are active on flight ops. Of the non-actives, it's seven cute little juveniles too young to fly cargo, and two dragons old enough to be retired from active flight. Good old Destar and Xavier! Destar still insists on flying every now and then, but we always just give him the short routes. What a champ.

"Anyway, we need to have way more dragons to meet our flight targets. We'll be buying greybacks from a few other ranches around the country, and we're also trying to recruit more ferals to come integrate back into society and fly cargo, but most importantly we need eggs."

Even while still walking, Jennifer gestured towards the two freighter dragons following her. "The great thing about dragons is that you guys come built-in with the equipment to make more dragons! Self-replicating assets, if you will. One drake, one dragoness, some humping, and the magic happens. Although upfront we'll actually be seeing a drop in flight numbers since we're pulling dragons out from flight ops--some of the older dragons will be helping to take care of the hatchlings. I'll have to procure incubators for the eggs, and hire some more caretakers to handle all the hatchlings when the time comes. We'll be hearing lots of chirping in about a year's time! Hmm...so much to plan!"

Kassy wasn't quite sure if she was following everything Jennifer was saying. A quick glance towards Maxwell confirmed that he too looked slightly confused. Just like most humans, Jennifer loved talking. However, Jennifer was an especially smart sort of human who seemed to have many things inside her head, which meant that when she talked it was sometimes hard to follow exactly what she was saying. Fortunately if you listened long enough, then you'd figure out what she was talking about, or Jennifer would eventually summarize her own rambling.

"But right now our primary concern is the communal rut in two weeks' time. You guys know what sex is, right? Sexual intercourse--rutting, breeding, mating, screwing, fucking, mounting, making sweet, sweet, beautiful love, whatever?" Jennifer asked.

Kassy and Maxwell glanced towards each other, both wondering how much the other knew. "Uh...a drake gets his penis all stiff and then he puts it inside the dragoness and the egg grows inside her?" Kassy answered. That was what she'd learned from the older freighters.

"Precisely! What a romantic description. About two decades ago we did breeding the natural way with one dragon humping another dragon, but then science came to the rescue and now we use breeding mounts and artificial insemination to make the process more efficient." Jennifer reached towards Maxwell and patted his head. "That's something _he's_personally experienced."

"You? You've made an egg before?" Kassy asked, turning to stare at Maxwell with a wide-eyed expression. She had never mated with anyone before, let alone produced an egg, but Maxwell was older than her by just a few months and he'd already done it?

The male greyback looked slightly awkward as he tried to meet her gaze. "I didn't make an egg! I just...helped Jennifer test out the equipment."

"Yes he did, and it was great. Both the machine and the drake were very productive." Jennifer grinned and gave Maxwell a thumbs up. "Those new automated breeding mounts work just as well as they claim--we're going to requisition two more and leave them on automatic collection, so you drakes can just come in at the end of the day and blow your load into the machines whenever you feel like it. That should improve the yields, and morale too."

Even while Jennifer kept talking, Kassy found herself imaging what Maxwell would look like as he was using a breeding mount. She had curiously watched some of the other drakes using the old mounts, and now she imagined it was Maxwell who was the one mounting up and sticking his penis into the mount, aggressively humping away until he let out a roar of pleasure as he successfully completed his mating. That mental image made her feel...strange.

Now Jennifer turned her attention towards Kassy instead. "Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about the dragonesses. They make machines to automate the insemination process too, so we've already ordered one--it's like this rack where you can lean back, and there's this thing on an actuating piston that sticks into you and goes in and out. Maybe I'll let you test it out when it arrives." Jennifer gestured with two fingers and a closed fist.

"But you haven't actually explained what this communal rut actually is," Maxwell protested.

"Alright, here's how it works--we'll halt most flight ops for about half a day and gather all the freighters from all the different routes, along with a whole bunch of greybacks from other ranches. Then y'all will pair up and take turns to screw each other senseless. It's basically a giant dragon orgy."

"You mean...uh...everyone has to mate with everyone?" Maxwell asked. Kassy saw him glance towards her, and she just knew what he was thinking. She was thinking it too.

"Not everyone with everyone. We're still working out the exact details, but it isn't just having all the dragonesses lining up and raising their tails, so that all the drakes can take turns going down the line. That would be ridiculously inefficient. Hah." Jennifer chuckled. "We're following what you guys naturally do in the wild. It's more like...rounds. Before each round, every dragon, male or female, takes their turn calling their proposed partner. Their partner can choose to accept or deny their proposal. If they accept, you guys are considered a pair and you go to one of the rooms and do your stuff together. But if they reject, then your chance to pick someone is wasted for that round and you have to hope someone else calls you."

Once again, Kassy and Maxwell exchanged looks. They flew many flight routes together and were good friends, but this was different from that. This was...mating and making eggs. Kassy wasn't sure she could even imagine the situation properly.

Jennifer continued her explanation, even while the freighters were busy trying to take in everything she'd just told them. "That sort of round-based, accept-reject, mate choice system is actually a really good strategy for forming proper pair relationships. I've read a few research papers! In this case it's just making sure that you all get along and treat each other well, but it's really very interesting. The system forces you to be realistic with your chances--each dragon is encouraged to call a partner who is approximately as attractive as they are, instead of strictly attempting to woo the most attractive target. Because if you aim too high, you'll be shot down and you're call is wasted for that round. At the same time, seeing who calls you will give you a perspective of how others view you in terms of attractiveness. Fascinating stuff."

By this time they'd reached the sick bay--one particular room inside the building which was filled with medical supplies and reserved for dragons who were injured or sick. Right now they were no sick dragons resting on the large cushioned floor mats, but a human was sitting on a chair by the side. Kassy recognized the human as a veterinarian who specialized in dragons--he lived in the nearby town and attended to the ranches in this part of the state. Occasionally he visited to perform health check-ups on the dragons in the ranch, or to attend to injuries or illnesses.

As they all entered the sick bay, Jennifer nodded to the veterinarian. "Hey, Quincy. I've got two more greybacks to be prepped for the rut. This is Kassy, and this is Maxwell. You remember them?"

"Ah, excellent!" Quincy was wearing a long white coat, and he fiddled with the pair of spectacles covering his eyes. Much to Kassy's amusement, his head had no hair and looked shiny. Human ages were always hard to discern, but Kassy believed that Quincy was a moderately old human--not barely into adulthood like Jennifer, but also not quite as old as Jay (Jennifer's father, who was the head rancher). "I remember you two both! I signed off on your fit-for-flight certification just...a few months ago, I believe. Good. It's good to have young stock added to the breeding pool."

Quincy stood up and approached the two freighter dragons, while Jennifer took his chair and sat down. Apollo the racing dragon had been following them all this time, and he sat down next to his owner and affectionately curled his tail around her leg.

"Let's just get started then. It's a simple procedure--perfectly safe, and won't hurt at all. We'll start with Kassy. Max, could you excuse us for a while? Just wait outside, this won't take too long." Quincy turned and gestured at Jennifer and Apollo. "You too, Jenny. I'm going to have to ask you to wait outside."

"You're enforcing reg fifteen dot fifteen?" Jennifer asked.

"It's a strict privacy thing. This counts as a health checkup, so you're not allowed to be involved."

Jennifer shrugged her shoulders and stood up. "You know we treat our dragons well--we would never try to cover up injuries or push a wounded dragon into service."

"Laws are laws, and they exist for a reason."

"True. I guess you can take it from here." Jennifer stood up and headed out of the room, only pausing to give a thumbs-up to Kassy. Apollo dutifully trotted after his owner, and once Maxwell also left, Kassy found herself all alone with the veterinarian.

"How come you have to ask all the others to leave?" Kassy asked.

Quincy was pulling a pair of white latex gloves over his hands. "Well, Kassy, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you need to answer me as truthfully as you can. Having Max or Jennifer in the room might make you embarrassed or unwilling to be fully honest."

"But I fly routes with Maxwell all the time, and Jennifer's a nice human."

"Even so, their priorities are not necessarily the same as ours. As a doctor it is my duty to ensure your wellbeing, but ranchers sometimes ignore the health of their dragons in favour of business interests. Not that I'm saying anything bad about Jennifer in particular, who as far as I can tell, takes good care of you. It's just that by law, ranchers or owners cannot be present when their dragons are getting medical check-ups, so that if you are feeling unwell you can report that to me without feeling stressed or pressured. That's regulation fifteen subsection fifteen of the Animals and Dragons Act, though it was actually just copied from the Employment Rights Act."

"Oh, so it's the law." Kassy nodded, though she wasn't sure she quite understood. It was a confusing, nonsensical idea--what sort of rancher wouldn't want their dragons to be healthy? Surely a healthy dragon would be able to fly faster and carry more cargo.

Regardless, the veterinarian gestured for her to sit down on one of the floor mats. "Let's begin. How are you feeling, Kassy? Any troubles or pains with your body anywhere?"

"I'm fine."

"If you have even the slightest thing that is bugging you, please just say so. It's much easier for everyone involved if we get any health issues flagged out earlier. All good? Alright. Now specifically talking about this communal rut--has Jennifer explained to you what's going to happen?"

Kassy nodded again. "She said that it's...like in the wild, where we all just group up and take turns mating with each other, so we can make eggs."

"That's correct. But is there any reason you might not want to participate? Any reason at all? There are dragons who just don't want to have eggs, or who are uncomfortable with sexual contact. I need to emphasize here that Jennifer and the other ranchers cannot obligate or force you to participate in this sort of activity. You can opt out if you want."

The tip of Kassy's tail swished from side to side. Not having had any experience with such matters, she wasn't quite sure about what the communal rut would actually be like. "I think...it should be fine? I hope."

"You can always change your mind later on, at any point at all." The human picked up a clipboard and began filling up a form. "I just need some information from you, and then we'll get into the pre-rut procedure. Kassy, have you been sick recently? Or taken any sort of medication for any reason?"

"No and no."

"Your medical chart here indicates no allergies. Is that correct?"

"I think so. No allergies." These were easy questions, and Kassy had no problem answering them.

Quincy ticked something on his clipboard. "Are you sexually active?"

The dragoness nervously tapped her paws on the ground. Now this question wasn't so easy. "Uh... I'm not sure...? I've...I've tried using my paws or my tail to... umm... to touch myself... and it felt really nice. But I haven't done that with anyone else."

"No worries. That's perfectly normal, especially for a dragoness who's so recently entered adulthood." Quincy twirled his pen in his fingers, then he resumed writing on his clipboard. "When was the last time you entered oestrus? Or you might call it 'heat'."

"I'm not sure. Never?"

"You've never gone into heat before? So this'll be your first time. Ok, now let's just have a look here. Stand up please." Kassy stood up, and Quincy went over towards her flanks. He pulled on a surgical mask as he walked. "Alright, I need you to move your tail aside and bend your forelegs. Try and spread your hindlegs apart...yes, thank you."

This crouching, rear-raised position made Kassy feel exposed. She felt the human touching her underbelly, his gloved hands brushing against her sensitive genital slit--Quincy gently poked and prodded at her, and then she felt him rubbing something against her flesh. "Is this...is this how I'm supposed to stand when a drake is mating with me?" she asked, feeling awkward yet curious.

"Exactly, although there are other possible configurations if you are feeling adventurous. Alright, that's enough for the moment."

Kassy sat back down again. "What was that for?"

"STD testing. I just need a few swabs to send off to the labs." Quincy showed her what he was holding--a pair of cotton swabs, which he placed inside two small bottles and screwed on the lids. "That's sexually transmitted diseases. Sexual intercourse involves repeated physical contact and bodily fluid exchange, which is why all you greybacks are being tested before we'll let you participate in the communal rut."

"There are...diseases you get from sex?" Kassy asked. That idea somewhat dampened the appeal of the act. She really was learning a lot today!

"Unfortunately, yes. We can treat most STDs, but prevention is better than cure. All it takes is one dragon carrying a latent infection, and we can get an outbreak across the whole ranch, or even multiple ranches." Quincy sealed away Kassy's swab samples in a zipper bag and used a marker to write her name on the label. Leaving the samples on the table, the veterinarian used a pair of scissors to cut open a sterile plastic bag, from which he removed a curious object. "Next we're going to put the restrictor in place."

"What's that?" Kassy asked.

"It's a female genital slit restrictor." Quincy held up the medical device so that the dragoness could see it--it was rounded cylinder perhaps about the girth of her tail, made from a mesh. The restrictor was a hollow shell, and it looked slightly flexible. "We're going to put it inside your genital slit," he explained.

Kassy couldn't help but cross her legs and lower her tail instinctively. "You're putting that inside me? Why?"

Quincy took a squeeze tube and began smearing gel all around the restrictor. "Restrictors are basically like...a mix of a chastity belt and a tampon, if you know what those things are. A restrictor fits inside your genital slit and completely prevents sexual contact, although it is designed to allow other normal bodily function. Some other ranches require that their dragons wear them all the time, but that's rare cause...ah... if you've got horny dragons who aren't allowed to get themselves off, they're just going to fly away and work for someone else. Or even go feral."

"But why do I have to have that thing?"

"It's only temporary. Don't worry, it won't hurt at all. You'll barely even notice it's there unless a drake tries to mate with you, and then he'll have a problem, which is exactly the idea. For the next two weeks until the communal rut, you're not allowed to have sexual contact with any other dragon just to make sure you don't pick up any STDs between now and then, because that would defeat the point of all the testing we're doing now. Any questions before I put in the restrictor?"

Kassy kept staring at the restrictor--it wasn't actually very large, but still... "Why do you have to use that? I understand what you mean about diseases and all that, but...I'm pretty sure I won't be mating with anyone until the communal rut."

Quincy shook his head. "It's not that we don't trust you, it's just that we have to be absolutely sure. Disease control is a serious issue; so if you don't want to have the restrictor put in, then we can't let you take part in the communal rut. Are you alright with it?"

"If...If I have to," Kassy said.

"Good girl. Then just stand up and bend over again, and I'll put it in."

Kassy once again raised her tail and spread her hindlegs, giving the veterinarian access to her underbelly. She couldn't see what he was doing, but she felt it. This time she felt more than just his gloved fingers lightly touching her--Quincy gently but firmly spread her genital slit open and pushed in the restrictor. The device was coated in a cool, slick liquid which helped lubricate it, and it was all over in less than half a minute. "Is that it?" Kassy asked.

Quincy patted her tail base. "Yes, just like that. That wasn't so bad, was it? You can stand normally now. Try lying down and walking around--make sure the restrictor doesn't feel uncomfortable at all."

Kassy experimentally tried sitting, then lying down on all fours, and even trotting around. She could feel the medical device inside her, but it wasn't too noticeable even though she knew it had to be there. "Can I still fly my routes? Will it fall out?"

"No, it'll stay up there until we pull it out. It's not going to just drop out in mid-air or something." Quincy chuckled and waved a finger at her. "But I have to tell you, restrictors are designed so they can only be used once! We've had dragons who tried to remove their restrictors, get some action on the side, and then put the restrictor back in and pretend they hadn't done a thing. It doesn't work like that. We'll know if you try to cheat, and we'll bar you from the communal rut. It's about keeping everyone healthy, so don't be that dragon who acts selfishly but tries to lie about it."

"I wouldn't worry about that. No one's interested in me anyway," Kassy muttered.

"You might be surprised. We're almost done now--one last thing." Quincy tapped a spot on Kassy's wing, right on the base of her wing muscles. He used an alcohol swab and wiped down her scales, cleaning the area with the liquid which felt cold. The veterinarian went back to the table and picked up a hypodermic syringe, which he filled with clear liquid from a medicine bottle. This syringe was about the size of three of his fingers put together--large for a human, but not so for a dragon. "This is the last part. It's a dose of hormones which will stimulate your body's oestrus cycle and make you go into heat just as the communal rut starts in two weeks, ensuring that you're fertile and ready to make an egg. Normally greybacks synchronize their oestrus cycles based on environmental cues and smelling each other's pheromones, but with freighters flying everywhere to deliver cargo, you guys don't spend enough time all sticking together for that to work."

Quincy placed the needle right up against her scales, right at the area between the scales where her skin was just barely exposed. "Just be strong for a moment. Just a tiny sting, like an ant bite." And then he smoothly poked the needle into Kassy's skin, piercing the scales.

"Ouch," Kassy murmured. It hurt, but not too much--though it just felt wrong to see the needle embedded in her wing.

"You're a tough dragoness... Almost done, just a bit more...and done." Quincy removed the hypodermic needle and placed a plaster over the injection point. "That's all, Kassy. We're done. In about... one and half to two weeks you'll start to go into heat. You can still go about your flight routes and business as usual, but just don't mess around the restrictor. If it starts to hurt, tell Jennifer or another rancher, and they'll call me over to check on things."

"Ok, understood."

"Any questions?"

"I...think not."

"That's all then. I'll see you in two weeks for the communal rut. You can go now." Quincy gave her a smile, and he bowed his head.

"Ok." Kassy bowed her head in return. She stood up and turned to go, but then a question came to mind. "Wait, so you mean...you did this to every dragon on the ranch, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. Well, not every dragon on the ranch--we aren't bothering with the juveniles, and of course Apollo doesn't hormones or a restrictor put in, although I swabbed him for STD testing anyway cause the lab's charging us a group rate for the tests."

"But...you did it for all the greybacks? Gave everyone injections and restrictors?"

"Correct. We have to use different hormones for the males and females, and the dosage also has to be adjusted for age and weight, but the end result is all the females will go into heat and the males will go into rut," Quincy explained.

"Rut?" Kassy asked.

"Basically the same thing as heat. Drakes are fertile all the time, unlike dragonesses, but when they are in rut their reproductive system goes into overdrive."

"So...so..." Kassy used her tail and pointed towards her underbelly. "You're going to put one of these things into Maxwell?"

"Yes, but not exactly." Quincy reached over the table and opened up a different cardboard box. "Females and males use different types of restrictors, for obvious reasons." He held up a transparent plastic bag which contained a different medical device--it was about the size of both his palms placed together, and looked like a flat, oval-shaped piece of hole-filled material or mesh. It appeared to be made of metal, but the thinness meant it was slightly flexible. "The design is much more straightforward for a dragoness--the female slit restrictor just physically obstructs any attempts at vaginal penetration. But for a male, the penile compartment isn't just a hole which can be simply plugged. Instead the male slit restrictor is more like a plate which redirects the penis and keeps it trapped within the genital slit. Of course, the design can't be one-size-fits-all because some drakes are bigger than others, and medically it's not safe to completely prevent erection, because that causes long-term problems with blood flow. So it has to allow partial erection, but at the same time keep the penis contained entirely within the genital slit and prevent any stimulation."

Kassy shuffled her wings on her back. "That's interesting." She was imaging Maxwell getting that device pushed into his slit to block his erection. Had she ever seen Maxwell's penis? She'd seen the genitals of some of the older dragons, but never Maxwell, despite the several months they spent flying similar routes. It was weird thinking of her colleague in such a manner. "Ok. Thanks for the information and all the other stuff."

Quincy pulled off his gloves and swapped them for a fresh pair. "You are welcome."

In front of the post office, Newark, New Jersey; Two weeks before the communal rut

Maxwell curled his head downwards and nosed at his underbelly. "This restrictor feels odd. It's not as uncomfortable as it was yesterday, but it's still odd."

"Stop messing with it, then," Kassy replied. It was the day after Quincy the veterinarian had given them injections and put in their restrictors. Business was as usual in the ranch, with all the dragons performing their routes as normal.

The early morning air was crisp and fresh, and Maxwell and Kassy were just about to begin the predawn New Jersey mail express. It was a high-intensity route which involved many takeoffs and landings, interspersed by short-distance flying from point to point. Right now the two freighters were sitting outside a post office in the state capital, waiting for the first mailbags of the day.

Maxwell poked at his genital slit a few times, then he straightened up and sat back down. "At least it doesn't itch. If it itched, that would be the worst."

"Yup," Kassy agreed.

Yesterday after the two freighters had had their restrictors put in place, they'd gone to a quiet area in the ranch and spent some time curiously examining each other. Kassy had curled her tail around and tried sticking it into her slit, only to find that her restrictor was preventing her from penetrating more than just a half inch or so. Maxwell had trying rubbing the side of his genital slit to induce an erection, only for his penis to be limited by his restrictor, which prevented it from growing to full size or slipping out of his slit.

In the end, they'd both concluded that yes, the restrictors would probably work to block sexual activity. It was all strictly out of a friendly curiosity, of course. Kassy admitted she liked Maxwell as a friend, but she wasn't really interested in mating with him--she wasn't sure she was interested in mating with anyone at all, and Maxwell had said something similar.

So now they were waiting for mail.

Right on cue, the post office door swung open and out came a half-dozen humans carrying large carrier pouches filled with letters or parcels. "Good morning. Right on schedule," said one of the postmen.

Without any further fuss, the humans split into two groups and started attaching the pouches onto the flight harnesses the freighters were wearing. Each individual pouch wasn't too heavy, but combined Kassy could feel them weighing her down as the humans used straps and belts to affix the numerous pouches to her sides. "Good to go," declared one of the humans working on Kassy's mail pouches. The humans working on Maxwell's pouches were done just a half minute later, and with that their job was done.

The rest would be up to the dragons--Maxwell and Kassy would fly separate routes, working in a circle to deliver mail between post offices in cities, towns, and villages. On the way they would drop off mail pouches at each post office, and pick up new ones to deliver elsewhere. It was barely a few hours after midnight, but the mail had to go out early so it would be ready by the time people woke up.

Kassy flipped her wings open and checked the wind direction. Bouncing on her paws, she checked to make sure that the mail pouches had been distributed evenly--a weight offset would make flying very difficult. Satisfied that she could fly, she leaned back on her hindlegs and prepared to take flight. "See you later," she said to Maxwell, and then she leapt into the air and began her route.

Maxwell's response was just barely audible over the sound of her wingbeats. "See you!" he replied, before leaping into the air and flying off in the other direction.

Hangar, Juniper Ranch, Atlanta; Eight days before the communal rut

Kassy gulped down her dinner, barely even caring about the flavour of the chicken porridge. Dragons were carnivores and they required meat in their diet, but cost savings meant that that ranches prioritized nutrition over flavour. The porridge was cheap, it filled her belly, and didn't actually taste that plain, as long as you ate it before it got cold.

Kassy was inside a barn, and about a dozen other freighters were lazing around the cookhouse. Some of the other dragons were eating their own dinner, while some others were already done. Kassy was far from home--this barn actually belonged to a different ranch from a different state entirely, but this wasn't an uncommon occurrence, since freighters often made trips which required many hours of flying.

In the morning, Kassy had left her home ranch to fly her usual New Jersey mail express route with Maxwell. But after they'd finished, Jennifer had routed Kassy southwards to Georgia to deliver some cargo, while Maxwell had been sent northwards to New York. Throughout the course of the day, Kassy had been picking up and delivering cargo to and from ranches, depots, and warehouses. Every time she landed, humans would be waiting to load and unload her cargo and give new instructions issued by the planners either back at her home ranch, or by other ranches in Caedry Aerospace Group.

Today Kassy had carried medical supplies, strawberries, gyroscopes, and all sorts of other cargo. Most of the time she didn't even know what she was carrying--it just came packed in a standard-sized cargo pouch. Each cargo pouch was a modular design which meant it could be carried by a dragon of any species, albeit in different quantities dependant on their flight capabilities. Every pouch had barcode label which was scanned by the humans as they loaded or unloaded it from her flight harness. The sheer amount of different routes and types of cargo was mindboggling, and Kassy wondered how people had managed all these logistics before computers, or even before telephones.

With her dinner finished, Kassy trotted out of the dinner area and into the freighter hangar dormitory, which was filled with dozens of bed mats placed in rows. About a quarter of the mats were already occupied by dragons in a semi-random pattern--some were clustered around the room doors or windows, some were grouped up under the ceiling fans where it was cooler, and others were grouped up based on species or home ranch.

On some of the larger mats there were multiple dragons sleeping together, all snuggled up in a pile. One particular mat had a massive dragon (a blue longwing, Kassy guessed) who was barely visible under the six white-backed nettled gliders piled on top of him.

Such sights were common, even back in Kassy's home ranch. Not seeing anyone she recognized, she picked a spot at random and flopped down onto a bed mat. It was barely four-o'clock in the afternoon, but she'd been up since very early in the morning to fly the predawn mail express. Normally she would only be able to sleep till about midnight, whereupon a human handler wake her up so she could fly back to her home ranch, just in time for her next flight--the predawn mail express once again. But since today was Saturday and there would be no mail to deliver on Sunday, it would be the one day a week where Kassy had no flight responsibilities at all. She could wake up whenever she pleased, and fly leisurely back towards her home ranch at her convenience.

Kassy yawned widely and stretched. She was about to close her eyes when one of the white-backed nettled gliders came trotting over towards her. The drake bobbed his head in a bow. "Hey, hey! Greyback, excuse me, hey. You're from Quarter Coastal, right? That ranch up in New Jersey? I heard you guys got bought up by Caedry."

Kassy nodded. Her flight harness was marked with the insignia of Quarter Coastal Ranch, although now a Caedry Aerospace Group logo had been added beside it. "Yes, and yes."

"Cool. I'm from Dallas FastFlight Airdrome, also under Caedry." The whiteback gestured towards his side, pointing at the insignia on the side of his flight harness, which also had a Caedry Aerospace Group logo. "My name's Lincoln."

"I'm Kassy."

"Pleased to meet you, Kassy." Lincoln's voice had the rumbly resonance common to all dragons, but he also spoke with a slight drawl. Kassy vaguely recalled having seen him before. Perhaps their paths had already crossed sometime in the past few months since she'd begun flying freight.

"Ah, if it's not too bold of me to ask--is it true you guys are holding a communal rut?" Lincoln asked.

With just over a week left to go, the communal rut was a very common topic of discussion back at Kassy's home ranch, but it surprised her that even dragons from other ranches had heard about it. "You know about that? Yes, it's true. It'll be Sunday next week."

"Really? So all of your people are just going to be mating with each other? Wow." Lincoln used a paw to nervously fiddle with his horns, using a claw to scratch at the tip. "Uh...if it's not too bold of me to ask again--I don't suppose you'll be letting dragons from other ranches join in?"

Kassy's eyes had been half-closed, but now they snapped wide open. After a pause, she sat up straight and stared at Lincoln, looking at him properly. White-backed nettled gliders were a closely related species to grey-backed nettled gliders such as herself--the most obvious difference being the colour of their backs, which led to the different species names. Kassy had light grey scales over most of her body, but her back and upper wing surfaces were coloured a dark slate grey. In comparison, Lincoln also had light grey scales over his body, but his wings and back were coloured a pale white. He was roughly about the same size as her, which meant he was smaller than usual for his breed--white-backed nettled gliders were usually about twenty percent larger than grey-backed nettled gliders.

"Err...I don't think the ranchers would allow it. The communal rut is supposed to be about making eggs, so us mating with dragons from other ranches wouldn't work unless they were also greybacks. The bosses at Caedry Aero decided that they our ranch needs to scale up operations, so that's why they decided to have the communal rut to get more eggs," Kassy explained.

"Oh. That's fair. Although, if you think about it, greybacks like you and whitebacks like me _can_actually hybridize and produce eggs if we mate, so technically, it could work." Lincoln pointed out. Kassy hadn't been aware of that fact, but it seemed reasonable--their two species were actually very closely related.

"That's not really for me to decide. It would be up to the ranchers to say if you could join in--uh, I mean, if dragons from other ranches could join in the communal rut."

"Of course, of course. I was just...just asking. Since my ranch is also under Caedry Aero, maybe we'll get a communal rut too, if they decide we need to scale up our operations too. Maybe."

"Maybe," Kassy agreed.

"Alright, good luck with that...the communal rut. Thanks for the information. It's been...interesting talking with you." Lincoln's tail tip swished from side to side, and Kassy wondered why he was acting so nervous. "Your name was...uh...Kassy, right?"

The greyback nodded her head. "Yep."

"Cool. I'm...I'm Lincoln, but I think I already said that earlier, so now I'm repeating myself." Lincoln glanced over his shoulder, looking towards where the five other whitebacks were all lying together.

Kassy looked as well, and she saw that the other dragons appeared to be watching them talk, even including the blue longwing they were all using as a warm cushion. All of a sudden, she got the suspicion that Lincoln had mustered the courage to talk with her because someone had dared him. Which was...possibly flattering?

Lincoln awkwardly shuffled his wings on his back. "So this is definitely too bold of me to ask, but you wouldn't possibly be interested in mating outside of the communal rut? You're...kind of pretty. Oh no, why did I say kind of? I mean, uh, you're pretty. You're very pretty. Way more pretty than me! I'm pretty ugly, and also pretty dumb given that I can't even give compliments properly. In fact, I don't know why I even asked you..."

Now that was flattering. Kassy wasn't sure how to respond--she'd never had anyone tell her she was pretty, and she'd definitely never had anyone ask to mate with her. Lincoln was awkward but there was a certain charm about him. He looked young--a freighter who was just starting his career, just like she was--and his wing muscles were strong from all the flying. His scales were well-groomed and he seemed physically attractive, though Kassy wasn't sure she was a very good judge.

"I should just...let you rest and stop bothering you--" Lincoln had been saying, before Kassy interrupted him.

"Lincoln, you seem like a nice drake. To be honest, I've never mated with anyone before and I'm probably going to be terrible at it."

Lincoln blinked. "Really? Cause, if we're being honest you and me, it's the same for me. I've only started flying real flight routes four months ago, but everything has been so _busy_since then, and I haven't ever gotten the chance to mate with someone. Everyone seems to act like it's so important, and some of the others drakes from my ranch tease me about it, but I just don't know...how to walk up to a pretty dragoness and seduce her. I can barely even manage the first part."

Kassy was feeling increasingly amused by Lincoln. "You seem to be talking with me just fine."

"That's great! Because I feel like a bumbling fool. I'd probably be really terrible at mating too. I mean, uh, that's not to say that it would be an awful experience, I hope. I meant that maybe we could try and be terrible at mating together...?"

All things considered, Kassy found herself interested in his proposal--Lincoln was handsome and fit, with a disarmingly innocent charm he seemed entirely unaware of. She was about to say yes, but then she remember that she wasn't allowed to accept, so all of her analysis didn't matter. "Oh wait, no. I just remembered--I'm not allowed to mate with other dragons before the communal rut. It's a rule they have because they're worried about disease. So we can't mate. Sorry."

"Oh...okay." Lincoln stared at his paws. He looked like his hopes and dreams had been crushed.

Kassy realized that it sounded like she was making a terrible fake excuse to reject him because she disliked him, when that really wasn't the case at all. "Sorry! It's not that I don't want to mate with you! Really, I would if I could, but it's the rules. The ranchers had us tested last week because the lab results take two weeks, so to be safe we're not allowed to mate with anyone till the communal rut. There's this rule about disease control before the rut."

Lincoln perked up. "Really? You're not just saying that, right? If you don't want to mate with me, I would be alright if you said no. I didn't really expect this to work anyway."

Kassy clicked her tongue and rumbled softly. "Tsk-rrr. I'm not just making it up--I think I would actually be fine with mating with you, but I can't. You can ask any of the other dragons from Quarter Coastal--if we want to be part of the communal rut, we need to go two weeks without mating." Rolling onto her side, she raised her hindleg up and exposed her underbelly. "They even had the vet put this sort of thing inside my slit so that I can't mate. It's like this... medical plug thing which blocks me from mating."

Lincoln appeared rather conflicted--he clearly wanted to take a closer look at her underbelly, but he also didn't want to look overly curious in exploring her genital slit since Kassy had just told him they wouldn't be mating. "They put something in you?"

"They did! The vet called it a restrictor. It doesn't hurt. I don't even feel it most of the time, but supposedly it would mean you--uh, I mean, a drake can't stick his...cock into me. They have a different one for the drakes which stops their cock from coming out." Kassy reached her forepaws down and spread her slit slightly. "Can you see it? The restrictor is like this...white coloured mesh thing shaped like a tube. If I take it out then I can't put it back in, so the ranchers will know I mated with someone."

Lincoln peered at her genital slit, getting close but not too close. He glanced at his own underbelly. "Wow. They must be really serious about avoiding disease."

Lowering her leg back down, Kassy rolled onto her belly again. "So you see, even though I wouldn't actually object to mating with you, I can't. Sorry."

"No problem. It's not your fault. Just my bad luck, I suppose."

"My bad luck too. Maybe if we happen to meet again in the future, we could actually try mating. Do you normally stopover here?" Kassy asked.

"I fly the 431 route on alternating days." Lincoln paused and rubbed his horns again. "Sorry, I guess you don't know what that route is. I usually stopover here at Juniper Ranch on alternating evenings, depending on how much cargo needs to be carried. But it's fine--I'm sure sooner or later I'll figure things out. With schedules changing all the time, who knows if we'll ever see each other again."

"You never know." Kassy smiled--such a gesture was more common among humans, but dragons had expressive snouts too. "Maybe I'll see you next Monday evening, after the communal rut is done and I've got that restrictor removed. Maybe. Or maybe not."

Lincoln nodded. "Maybe indeed. It's been nice talking with you Kassy. Good luck with the communal rut, and with all your flying." Bowing his head politely, he walked back over to where the other dragons from his ranch were resting.

Left alone with her thoughts, Kassy yawned and closed her eyes. It was a pleasant thought that a handsome drake found her pretty enough to be worth talking to, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

"Rela-tis-stani drnn-nmm!Quarter Coastal rrm-stani, nita," muttered one of the other whitebacks, winking at Lincoln as the young freighter returned. He was speaking in the language of dragons--a verbal form of communication which was better suited to their vocal chords as it relied more on rumbling and humming, which were easier sounds for dragons to make. In English this remark approximately translated to, "Hot stuff, aren't you? That Quarter Coastal dragoness likes you, yes?"

"Don't even need to ask that, it was so obvious," replied another whiteback, also speaking in the dragon language. "But Lincoln, why do you come to sleep with us instead of with her? Did you chicken out? Scared to get your scaleless tail wet?"

Lincoln snorted. "I didn't chicken out. I talked with her and she seems nice. She's from Quarter Coastal, yes, and she confirmed that they're having a communal rut next week."

"Oohh!" A collective groan of envy came from all the five other whitebacks, and the blue longwing they were resting on chuckled in amusement.

"Hoho, you are all a bunch of horny little dragons with sex on the brain," muttered the blue longwing.

"Shut your snout, pillow!" One whiteback raised her paw and slapped down hard on the longwing's scaly back, but with their size difference this was more like a gentle massage than a painful assault. "So the rumours are true!" she exclaimed, switching back to draconic language. "I told you that I heard from Matisa that Quarter Coastal Ranch was organizing a communal rut."

"Matisa loves gossip. Half the things she says are exaggerated."

"But not this thing! Damn, I wish I flew for Quarter Coastal. Lincoln, did you ask if we could join in? I heard that they asked other ranches from around the country to send their dragons. Maybe next Sunday we should try and schedule our flights to be east coast..."

Lincoln clicked his tongue. "She told me that only greybacks were allowed, not whitebacks."

"Such a shame! A little mixing of blood is good for the hatchlings. And you were already halfway there to planting your seed in that female, weren't you, Lincoln?"

"I was not! We were just having friendly conversation."

"Friendly conversation? She raised her hindleg and invited you to take a look at her underbelly. What more of an invitation do you want? You should have jumped on her and taken her."

"It's not like that at all. I couldn't have," Lincoln replied, but he already knew that he wasn't going to convince his fellow freighters. "Move over, you guys are hogging all the soft spots." He leapt up onto the blue longwing's back and tried to find space to sleep.

In his dreams he was flying cargo routes again, except this time he had only one flight partner instead of five, and her back was covered in scales of dark grey instead of white.

Rest room, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Two and a half days before the communal rut

Ranchers would wake up sleeping dragons to make sure they flew their routes on time, but Kassy had a natural talent for waking up by herself. Waking up in the morning, she glanced at the wall clock mounted at the side of the resting room--the time was 4:30 AM. It was slightly early for the predawn New Jersey Mail Express, but better to be early than late. Getting to her feet, the young dragoness jumped off her bed mat and silently padded to the doorway.

Quietly walking down the corridor, she stopped to drink her fill from a water trough, and then she slipped out of the barn entirely and headed to the main compound.

Barn One of Quarter Coastal Ranch was already busy, with a half-dozen humans loading cargo pouches onto a pair of dragons preparing for flight. Flight operations carried on even through the night, albeit at a slightly reduced pace compared to during the day. Kassy nodded her head politely to the pair of greybacks, and they nodded their heads back at her.

One particular human was standing by the side, watching the other ranchers work--Jennifer. Jennifer wasn't directly in charge of running Quarter Coastal Ranch, but she was the person who always seemed to be involved in everything going on. It wasn't unusual at all to see her awake and about at this time. Jennifer's racing dragon/personal transport/pet, Apollo, was sitting beside her--also another common sight, since he loyally followed her around everywhere.

Jennifer raised a hand and beckoned Kassy over. "Morning, Kassy. Want a chicken nugget?"

Kassy nodded and opened her mouth eagerly, and Jennifer tossed the snack into her waiting jaws. The nugget was cold and slightly oily, but still tasty. "Mm. Thanks. Where'd you get that from?" asked the greyback.

Jennifer showed her an almost-empty disposable food container which smelled of chicken nuggets. "Leftover from one of the other flights which was delivering food." She tossed the last nugget to Apollo, who snapped it up and purred in pleasure. Aside from the oily smell coming from Jennifer's food container, there was a strange, musky but pleasant scent in the air. Kassy didn't put too much thought into it.

"So how are you today? Ready to fly?" Jennifer asked.

"I'm always ready to fly," Kassy replied.

"Atta girl. Shall we get you geared up? I can help you put on your flight harness."

"Ok." Kassy nodded, and she followed after Jennifer as the rancher led the way towards the lockers where flight harnesses were stored. Every though greybacks were a relative small breed of freighter dragon, they were still large enough that they needed a human to help them with the numerous straps and buckles which kept their flight harnesses tightly secured.

Cargo pouches were modular and came in standard sizes, but each freighter's flight harnesses was custom sized to precisely fit their body for efficiency and comfort. Having a cargo pouch detach from the flight harness was more than just inconvenient--a sudden change in aerodynamic profile and weight distribution could dangerously throw off a dragon's flying, possibly even risking a crash if it occurred during takeoff or landing. To reduce this risk, flight harness were carefully designed and constantly maintained.

Because putting on or removing a flight harness could take at least ten minutes, freighter dragons usually only removed their harnesses while resting at their home ranch. If they were just making a stopover in a depot or in a different ranch, they usually slept wearing all their gear. The mild discomfort of a harness was easier to ignore compared to going through all the trouble of removing then later reequipping it.

However, there were also other dragons who disliked harnesses and wore them as little as possible. Feral dragons who had grown up in the wild (and later decided to work for a ranch) were especially prone to disliking harnesses, but Kassy had been hatched and raised in Quarter Coastal. She was a civilized dragon.

The flight harness storage room was just off the main loading area. Jennifer pulled out Kassy's flight harness, which had been cleaned and checked overnight, and she laid it over a cushioned floor mat. Placed flat on the ground, the flight harness resembled a complicated grid of belts and straps. "There we go."

Kassy had done this countless times before--she knew what to do without being told. Stepping over her harness, she placed her four paws in the loops where they needed to go. On her right side, Jennifer started pulling up Kassy's flight harness, then attaching buckles and tightening straps, following a precise set of steps.

To Kassy's surprise, Apollo trotted over to her left side and also began working on her flight harness. At first she'd thought he was just being playful and pretending to imitate Jennifer's motions, but soon she realized that Apollo actually seemed to know what he was doing. As a rainbow swiftwing (a breed of dragon highly prized as both racers or companions) his paws were more dextrous than a freighter's, and though he wasn't anywhere near as fast as a human, he was making clear progress with helping Kassy don her harness.

It would have been unsurprising if a fellow freighter had known the complex process to equip a cargo flight harness, but Apollo's own equivalent of a flight harness was a simple saddle which he used to carry Jennifer--many times simpler to wear. "Where'd you learn how to do that?" Kassy asked him, watching curiously as the much smaller dragon grabbed a strap in his jaws and pulled it up over her shoulder. He had to rear up on his hindlegs to reach.

"Observation." Apollo used his paws to snap a buckle shut, and then he let the strap drop from his jaws. "It's pretty straightforward once you've seen it a few times. Step into the shoulder loop, then pull the loop up and over your shoulder before locking the quick-release buckle."

"Adjust the tightening strap until snug, then repeat for all four legs," Jennifer continued, doing exactly that.

"Toss over the neck strap and secure it..." Apollo grabbed the neck strap in his jaws and flicked his head to throw the strap over Kassy's neck, where Jennifer caught it and slid the metal buckle into its corresponding catch. This motion wrapped Kassy's flight harness around her upper half, making sure it would stay in place around her forelegs.

"...and then, do the same with the torso strap," Apollo continued. However, when tried to toss the torso strap over Kassy's back, his throw left the strap just resting on top of her back--even though certain species of dragons had semi-dextrous paws, they lacked the wrist strength or muscle coordination needed to perform a proper throw. "That didn't work. Do you mind if I...?" Apollo tapped Kassy's side.

"Go ahead," she told him, and the swiftwing leapt up onto her back. Apollo was only a third of her size, so his added weight didn't strain her at all. He picked up the strap and pulled it all the way over Kassy's back until Jennifer could grab it, then he jumped off her back.

"Alright, there we go. Next is, uh, tail strap?" Apollo asked.

"Tail strap, then chest strap, then the over-wing bands," Kassy confirmed. Over the next few minutes, Jennifer and Apollo proceeded to secure buckles and tighten straps, making sure that Kassy's flight harness was properly secured and comfortably fitted.

Kassy remained dutifully still as they adjusted her harness, but then she realized she could smell that strange scent from earlier--it was a musky, curiously enticing odour. The dragoness inhaled deeply, trying to figure out what it was. "Do you smell that?"

"Hmm, smell what?" Jennifer sniffed the air and shook her head. "I don't smell anything."

"There's this...smell in the air," Kassy insisted. "It's kind of nice, but I'm not sure what it is."

Jennifer shook her head again. "I really don't smell anything. Are you talking about the chicken nuggets?"

"I know what chicken nuggets smell like! It's not that. There's this...other smell. It was stronger outside in the loading bay, but I can smell it in here too. I don't know what it is."

"I really don't smell anything," Jennifer repeated, which Kassy found strange because there was definitely a scent in the air.

"I can smell it, and I know what it is," Apollo said, suddenly interjecting into the conversation. "It's the smell of heat. I recognize it from when I mated with Rafale a few months ago and we tried to make an egg--now the smell is a little bit different, but it's definitely that."

"Oh, of course!" Jennifer snapped her fingers as recognition dawned. "Dragon sex pheromones! Makes sense. Fazion was just in here putting on her harness, and she was in heat. All our freighters should be going into heat or rut since we're just two days away from the communal rut. Humans mostly can't smell dragon pheromones since we're not evolved for it, but I'm a bit surprised that a swiftwing would be able to pick up on greyback scents. Uh, almost done...check trim."

Pulling one final strap, Jennifer patted Kassy on the shoulder, indicating that her flight harness equipping was almost complete. Kassy rolled her shoulders and rocked from paw to paw, checking the weight distribution. "Trim's good. Nice and balanced."

"Excellent." Jennifer raised her hand towards Apollo. "Nice work, team! Give me a high five." Apollo reached his paw up and high-fived her, much to Kassy's amusement. "Now as I was saying--two more days until the communal rut! Are you feeling excited?" asked Jennifer. The rancher leaned in towards Kassy and sniffed. "So, Kassy, have _you_gone into heat yet? Quincy said that the injections he gave you ought to trigger your heat one or two days before the rut, assuming he got the dosage correct. I can't smell your scent, so I wouldn't actually know."

"I don't know either. I don't feel any different from usual," Kassy replied.

"Yes, the answer is definitely yes! I can smell it on you," Apollo said.

"Now that is_interesting," Jennifer said, "If I remember my biology classes correctly, all nettled gliders (including the greybacks) are communal breeders. You guys use sex pheromones to signal when you're fertile--the smell of a male in rut makes females go into heat, and the smell of a female in heat makes males go into rut. It's like a chain reaction that eventually syncs up all the reproductive cycles." Jennifer looked thoughtful. She tapped Apollo's nose with her finger. "The interesting part is that _you can smell it. What's up with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be able to smell it?" Apollo asked.

"Because you're a rainbow swiftwing, not a greyback. You shouldn't be affected by the pheromones of a different species of dragon."

"I'm not affected. It's just...I can smell it, but it doesn't affect me." Apollo leaned towards Kassy and took a deep breath, then he sat back on his haunches and pointed towards his underbelly. "When I smelled Rafale in heat I got hard right away, but smelling Kassy in heat almost doesn't affect me."

"Almost doesn't?" Kassy asked.

Apollo tapped his genital slit with a paw. "Yeah, almost. It feels a bit tingly down there, but it's definitely not as strong a reaction as if I'd been with a swiftwing who was in heat."

"Good to know," Kassy said. "But does this mean that any other greyback who smells me will be able to tell that I'm in heat?"

Jennifer nodded. "Yep. All the greybacks from our ranch (except the juveniles) will probably be in heat or rut themselves, so they'll know what you're going through. Just remember--two days until the communal rut! No hanky-panky allowed with other dragons."

Kassy nodded. She didn't know what hanky-panky was, but she could guess.

Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Two days before the communal rut

Starting out her cargo flights for the day, Kassy found herself paired up with Maxwell again. Maxwell flew with her on about two-thirds of all their flights, because they were both relatively inexperienced freighters who were still learning all the different destinations.

As the ranchers loaded cargo pouches on each of their flight harnesses, Kassy eyed her fellow freighter and wondered if he would notice that she was in heat. Kassy felt comfortable enough around Maxwell that she wouldn't have been too embarrassed if she'd smelt that he was in rut, and she presumed that he was comfortable enough around her that he would do the same. But Maxwell didn't make any comment, and Kassy didn't deliberate draw attention to herself.

How strange--if Apollo had been able to pick up on her scent, then surely a greyback would be able to do so. Perhaps Maxwell was more oblivious than she'd imagined, or perhaps Apollo had been mistaken when he'd claimed to smell Kassy's heat pheromones. After all, she didn't really feel any different from usual. Kassy shrugged her wings and thought no more of it.

They flew the predawn mail express as usual, and only after they'd finished their flight did Maxwell finally say something. The two freighters were taking a brief break before they started their next flight--both of them were sitting in a depot, waiting for a different ranch's dragons to arrive and hand over cargo.

"There's something different about you," Maxwell said all of a sudden.

Kassy had been lying down with her head on her paws, but now she sat up. Beyond just a change in her smell, there was actually one other physical change which would indicate a dragoness was in heat--and Maxwell might have just spotted it. "Is there?"

"I think so. You look different, but I'm not sure how." Maxwell stared at her, looking slightly confused. "You are more... more noticeable?"

"What? Are you calling me fat?" Kassy demanded.

"I don't know. Maybe? You do look a bit...uh... Or maybe I'm just imagining things." Maxwell lay down again and closed his eyes. "I've been feeling really sleepy for the past few days. Hungry too. Not sure why."

Kassy had her suspicions, but she didn't mention them. Truth be told, Maxwell had probably been right--while she was in heat, her body was putting on weight in preparation for making an egg and she did feel slightly heavier than usual. Males going into rut also put on weight, but this was more in muscle than fat. It was all temporary anyway, which was fortunate since all this extra mass made flying more tiring.

Resting room, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Half a day before the communal rut

Despite all the excitement about the communal rut, Kassy had never actually thought about how it would personally and physically affect her. She could easily ignore the slit restrictor which the veterinarian had put into her, and she'd mostly forgotten about the injection she'd received.

That is, until her heat finally arrived. And not just in that subtle, hardly noticeable way where drakes looked at her funny. In the past, Kassy had heard the older females talk about their heat, describing it as gentle warmth like the touch of afternoon sun on one's scales, or as an impassioned, energized time when it felt like you had the strength to do anything.

It was all nonsense. Kassy's heat felt like her brain had switched on her arousal and forgotten to shut it off. She was always horny, all the time. It wasn't subtle and it hadn't come on slowly--the last evening before the communal rut she'd gone to sleep feeling totally normal, and the next morning she'd woken up feeling absurdly needy.

Ignoring the fact that there were dozens of freighters sleeping in the barn so close to her, Kassy had wrapped her wings around herself and used her paws to rub herself to a rapid, shuddering climax. Her orgasm had felt insanely good, but it hadn't been enough. Even with her mind still blanked out by bliss, Kassy had kept going until she'd reached a second climax, and then she finally calmed down enough to think about what she was doing. Even though she'd wrapped her wings around her body, it had probably been very obvious what she was doing if any other dragon had happened to be paying attention to her. Fortunately it was still dark out, and it seemed like everyone else was still sleeping.

Kassy yawned and stretched all her muscles. But then as she finally started to pay attention to everything around her, she realized that she wasn't the only one in heat--the resting room had a distinct, thick odour in the air which made her feel aroused again just breathing it in. From the next bed mat over, she could hear the repeated sounds of someone either scratching an itch, or rubbing a certain part of their body over and over again. Kassy stayed quiet and listened to the sounds until they suddenly stopped, replaced a soft, satisfied moan. Was that how she'd sounded like just a few minutes ago?

Best not to overthink it. Kassy rolled to her feet and went to go prepare for her flight. Today she would be flying to predawn mail express as normal, but all the afternoon flights were cancelled for the communal rut. Quarter Coastal Ranch was about to become an interesting place for a freighter.

Just an hour later as she was preparing for takeoff, Kassy was feeling that burning, desperate desire again. Her scales felt like they were tingling, and suddenly she had the urge to rub her body against Maxwell, who was standing beside her and also preparing to fly.

"Weather report is supposed to be clear for the next few hours. Leon said that this is the 'calm before the storm', which I guess is a literal thing..." Maxwell said.

Kassy was only half listening to Maxwell as he talked about weather. The other half of her attention was spent thinking about how good it would feel to have him or any other drake mount her and stick his warm, rigid, malehood into her, fulfilling a desperate need which kept jumping to the forefront of her mind.

So this was what being in heat really felt like--just being aroused all the time. Now Kassy was beginning to understand why the ranchers insisted on using slit restrictors to ensure they didn't mate until the communal rut. Feeling as horny as she was now, it was far more tempting to raise her tail and present her hindquarters towards a drake. Kassy had always wondered what mating would be like, but she'd never been truly tempted to find out...until now.

Was Maxwell feeling the same way but just hiding it better? After all, he was supposed to be in rut. All the adult drakes in Quarter Coastal ought to be going into rut, and Kassy had heard some of the other drakes grumbling to each other about not being able to relieve their pent up desires. Thinking about drakes, Kassy found herself thinking back to Lincoln, the white-backed nettled glider she'd met the other day. He had called her pretty, and even thinking about that simple compliment made Kassy feel all tingly again. Come to think of it, what was Lincoln doing now? Probably just flying routes... Or maybe he was masturbating. Hmm, hopefully that adorably handsome drake was thinking about her while he pawed himself off. Wait, what?

"...be grounded when the hurricane rolls in," Maxwell had been saying, and Kassy finally snapped out of her fantasizing.

"Hurricane? Did you say hurricane?" Kassy asked, her eyes focusing again. The human ranchers were still loading on their mail pouches, so they weren't yet cleared for takeoff.

Maxwell rumbled in affirmative. "Rrr. Hurricane Idalia, they're calling it. Leon said that according to the latest science, the hurricane won't hit us directly. It'll make landfall somewhere in Georgia or South Carolina in the next few days. Don't worry about it--Jennifer says that they've got a plan."

"I'm not worried. I'm more worried about what's going to happen this afternoon," Kassy replied.

Now that the topic had been breached, Maxwell didn't seem embarrassed about it. "You mean the communal rut? It will be fine. Dragons used to do them in the wild all the time, and now we've got all the ranchers here to make sure everything goes as planned."

"But...what is the plan? What will mating be like? I just don't know, and I want to find out. I'm in heat and it's strange." Kassy stared down at her paws as she mustered her courage, then she stepped closer to Maxwell and sniffed him. He smelled different--there was something about his scent which was alluring, almost powerful, and it seemed to be originating from his underbelly. "You're in rut, aren't you? Does it...feel the same way for you?"

Maxwell nodded slowly. "It started yesterday just after lunch. It's so hard to concentrate on flying because I can't stop thinking about dragonesses. My cock keeps straining against the restrictor, and I've never wanted to touch myself so bad. Every time I see a dragoness I just want to...mate with her."

"Even me?"

"Even you," Maxwell admitted, but he didn't do anything. He didn't sniff her, or lick her neck, or do anything other than spread open his wings and test the air--how disappointingly professional of him. "Anyway, the weather should be clear for today. I'll do the north route and you can do south, unless you want it the other way?"

Kassy resisted the urge to rub her paws against her slit. "Yeah, I'll take south. See you later."

The two freighters opened their wings and leapt into the early morning skies.

As it turned out, Kassy had such a busy morning that she didn't have much time to think about her sexual desires. Even after she'd finished the mail express, she only got fifteen minutes to rest before she was assigned another cargo flight. Somehow, Quarter Coastal was even more busy than usual.

"These packages need to be sent to Caedry AeroHub JFK! All the way up in New York--you know where it is? Good. We're rushing to clear the routes before our ops halt this afternoon," explained Andy the rancher as he and another human hurriedly strapped cargo pouches onto Kassy's harness. "Sorry bout this, Kassy, but try to fly fast! Afternoon y'all can take it easy; have some fun and relaxation."

"Fun and relaxation? That's one way to phrase it," Kassy muttered, but she raised her wings and ran forward, picking up speed before leaping into the air.

Maxwell swooped past just as Kassy was climbing away from Quarter Coastal Ranch--he'd only just returned from his half of the mail express flight. "Flying off already?" he yelled. "Where you headed?"

"New York!" Kassy glanced around and squinted at Maxwell. The rising sun was in her eyes, but she saw him rock his wings from left to right in acknowledgement.

Busy, busy, busy. Kassy flew to so many places that she started to lose track of the previous one as soon as she got a new destination. It was a steady, fulfilling task--she would land at depot, a dragon ranch, or even at one of the Caedry AeroHubs. Human cargo handlers would be ready to scan each pouch on her harness and remove some or all of them, before quickly giving her new pouches and a new destination. Then Kassy was off again, flying quickly to a new location. Most of the time she was escorted by other freighters also making the trip in a cargo convoy, but none of them were from Quarter Coastal and most of them weren't even greybacks.

Occasionally some of the freighters seemed to notice Kassy's smell, but none of them commented on it--the only chance they got to chat was while in flight, and the rushing airflow meant that the smell of her heat wasn't noticeable until they landed. In fact, Kassy almost forgot about her heat as she laboured through the morning.

But then when noon came, Kassy landed at a ranch in Pennsylvania--the humans came and took off all her cargo pouches, but she wasn't given any more pouches. A burly man with a huge beard came up to her--given that he carried a handheld scanner, he was this ranch's operations planner. The operations planner scanned Kassy's identification tag, which was right next to the Quarter Coastal emblem and the Caedry Aerospace Logo on her flight harness's chest area. "Good morning--no, excuse me--good afternoon, ma'am. According to your tag, you are...Kassy."

"Good afternoon," Kassy replied. "Wait, did you call me ma'am?"

"Indeed I did. Always good to be polite to a lady bigger than I am," replied the ops planner.

"Hehe." Kassy found this mildly amusing. "No new cargo?"

The ops planner shook his head. "Not for you. You've been assigned a thirty minute break, and then the system says that you're to make a repositioning flight to Quarter Coastal in New Jersey. You know where that is?" He tapped a few buttons on the scanner he was holding, and the machine printed out a thin paper band with the text, "QTCS NJ".

"I know where that is. That's home." Kassy raised her paw so that the planner could attach the paper band around her wrist, removing the previous band which had indicated the destination of her previous flight. As unsophisticated as such as system was, it helped to cut down on the number of dragons who got lost because they absentmindedly forgot where they were supposed to be flying to.

"Alright then. Thirty minutes rest, then fly home. Good day, Kassy," said the man. He stroked his beard and went to the next dragon who had landed after Kassy, scanning their tag so he could give the freighter their new orders.

"Home..." Kassy murmured. What was the use of taking a break now, when she could rest back at her home ranch? Spreading her wings again, she leapt into the sky and headed for home.

Landing area, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; One hour before the communal rut

The whole ranch was busy and buzzing with excitement. Kassy had never seen so many dragons in Quarter Coastal--this was the first time she was seeing the ranch's full complement of freighters all together, since on a normal day there would always be someone out on a cargo flight at any given time.

Furthermore, there were other dragons she didn't recognize--grey-backed nettled gliders who had been invited from other ranches around the country, sometimes accompanied by a rancher or two from their own home ranch.

There was a lot of noise and confusion, very unlike the normal precision with which the ranch ran flight operations. Humans ranchers were running around, helping to remove flight harnesses from the landed dragons. Kassy spotted Jennifer using a megaphone to shout out instructions, trying to organize some of the chaos and direct arriving dragons. It was loud, it was messy, and there were so many dragons around that the excitement was contagious.

Kassy tried to see if she could spot Maxwell, but he wasn't anywhere in sight. She looked around, and then she headed towards Barn Two where the freighters usually ate their food. The inside of the barn was packed, with the meal area filled to capacity by dragons all looking for something to eat. Kassy lacked the bulk (or the determination) to shove her way through the crowd, but one of the human ranchers (named Leon) saw her and helped bring out a bucket filled with food.

"Thanks!" Kassy said, but Leon just patted Kassy's nose and went to get food for other dragons. The meal was also significantly better than expected--Kassy had been expecting porridge, the standard fare for freighters, but instead it was spaghetti with a thick flavourful sauce. Today, the ranch was pulling out all the stops. They hadn't even skimped on the meat--there were actual chunks of beef, not just the usual minced meat. For a freighter dragon, this was gourmet.

Sitting down in the shade outside the barn, Kassy ate her lunch and watched other dragons come and go.

"Hi Kassy, need help with your harness?" someone suddenly asked her.

Kassy turned to find...not a human, but Apollo. Because of all the freighter dragons everywhere, the racing dragon looked smaller than usual just by comparison. "Hi Apollo. Some help would be great, yeah."

Apollo began pulling the release catches on Kassy's harness, loosening the gear so she could remove it. Flight harnesses weren't impossible to take off by yourself, but this was much easier if you had someone else to help you. Normally this required a human, but in this case a little racing dragon would suffice. "So all this is really exciting, isn't it?" Apollo asked.

"Yeah. I've never seen so many greybacks together at once," Kassy agreed.

"Me neither. I think the total number should be about eighty dragons involved? Forty from our ranch, and forty visiting from other ranches. Jennifer said that there are dragons invited from ranches all over the country--some even flew from the west coast just to be here. It sort of reminds me of the tristate racing championship a few months ago."

Kassy had heard about Apollo's recent adventure. He'd participated in a regional dragon race and come out on top. "The championship that you won you mean."

Apollo grinned modestly. "I was just lucky that day."

"I think we were _all_lucky that day. You winning the championship was what made Ian Caedry take interest in Quarter Coastal in the first place, and now look where we are. I only just started flying cargo so I can't make a good comparison, but the older freighters say things used to be stale and routine. But then Caedry acquired us, and now it feels like the whole ranch is changing. We're taking all sorts of different routes, and arranging things like communal ruts... It's all so different just because you won that one race."

"That wasn't really me. Ian was looking to acquire greyback ranches anyway, and the whole industry is changing because of his company." Apollo tugged one last strap, and Kassy's flight harness slid to the ground around her paws. "There we go! I'm going to get some spaghetti. You want some?"

Kassy nudged her own food bucket. "I already ate, but thanks." And even if she had been hungry, she wasn't sure if Apollo was big enough to carry two buckets of food at once. As a rainbow swiftwing, he was almost human-sized; tiny compared to grey-backed nettled gliders.

Apollo squeezed his way into the barn, which was still crowded with dragons trying to get food. Kassy continued sitting outside the building, waiting around and watching things. She saw most of the dragons from Quarter Coastal, but strangely she saw no sign of Maxwell. Suddenly Kassy spotted a dragon with a white back, and her heart leapt for an instant--but it was only a grey-backed nettled glider who was wearing a flight harness which covered her back to protect it from the sun. Kassy settled back down, feeling silly. Why had she been so excited at the idea of a whiteback being here? The communal rut was for greybacks, so Lincoln wouldn't have been allowed to participate anyway. And why was she so infatuated with that one drake just because he'd called her pretty? Although Lincoln was rather good looking himself...

Kassy snorted and dismissed the thought. It was just her heat talking again, telling her to seek out compatible and attractive mates. Speaking of heat, the air smelled surprisingly neutral given that they were so many dragons around and all of them were either in heat or rut. Perhaps it was the breeze keeping the air fresh.

By now most of the other dragons were free of the flight harnesses--a rancher came by and took Kassy's harness to put it in storage.

When Apollo returned about a minute later, he was carrying a bucket filled with spaghetti in his jaws. This wasn't the only thing he'd brought with him--the drake was now sporting a very noticeable erection, jutting down from his underbelly and bobbing as he walked.

Kassy couldn't help but stare. "I thought you said that you weren't affected by greyback pheromones?"

Apollo put down his food bucket so he could talk. "I said that I almost wasn't affected by how you greybacks smelled, but the scent of heat is really, really strong in there." The swiftwing looked mildly amused and tapped his own erection, then he sat back and started tucking into his food.

Kassy was still staring. Given that Apollo was smaller than a freighter dragon, it was no surprise that his malehood was proportionally smaller, although he still looked rather...virile. "Are you...are you also in rut?"

Looking up from his bucket of food, Apollo shook his head. "Swiftwing males don't go into rut. Females of my species have heat, yes, but the males stay at a constant fertility rate all year round."

"Oh. Ok." Kassy tried to stop staring at Apollo's unashamed erection, which was gradually softening and retracting back into his underbelly. "Do you...wish that you were taking part in the communal rut later?"

"Not really. It'll be interesting to watch you guys and see things, but I don't think I'd fit in," Apollo replied. He slurped down a spaghetti noodle, splattering his snout with sauce in the process.

Soon thereafter, another human appeared--Quincy the veterinarian. He was followed by two other ranchers; one was carrying a big trash bag, the other was carrying a clipboard and pen. "Excuse me, excuse me! Why, good afternoon, Apollo!" Despite the afternoon warmth, Quincy was dressed exactly as Kassy had last seen him--wearing a white lab coat, with latex gloves and a surgical mask. The vet waved at Apollo and then turned to her. "Uhhh... you are... Kassy! Good afternoon! Have we done you yet?"

"Done me what?" Kassy asked.

"Why, remove your restrictor, of course. You can't have a communal rut if all the dragons can't breed with each other." Quincy gestured for the dragoness to stand up. "If you could spread your legs again..."

Kassy stood up and turned around. She raised her tail and presented her underbelly to the vet. "Hmm, well that's not something I get to see every day," she heard Apollo say.

"Let me reach in here and..." With a wet shlop, Quincy reached in his gloved hand and neatly pulled the restrictor out in a quick motion. "There we go. Restrictor is intact, all is well." With his other hand he rubbed something wet and soft all around her slit--Kassy saw it was a giant, disposable, wet wipe. "Just need to give you a quick clean. Did you have any troubles since we last met?"

"Troubles?" Kassy considered telling Quincy about how he'd been right about the restrictor--without the device, she might have been much more tempted to mate with Lincoln last week--but that seemed too personal to tell the vet. "No, not really."

"Excellent. Just mark that down, please..." Quincy tossed the restrictor and the wet wipe into the trash bag that one of his assistants was holding, and the other assistant made a mark on his clipboard. "Have fun now, Kassy! Tah-tah. Oh, we've got a lot more dragons to go." And then the vet was gone, followed by the two ranchers assisting him.

Kassy's insides felt...emptier without the restrictor filling her up. She also noticed that Apollo's erection was back at full mast. "You enjoyed the show?"

"Your slit was right at my head level. It's only biology," Apollo replied, which was an intriguing reply. Biologically speaking, rainbow swiftwings and grey-backed nettled gliders were completely different species of dragon. "I'd bet you I'm the least aroused dragon around here, though. Just look at all that," Apollo added, using his tail to point around.

Kassy watched as Quincy went around the area, taking restrictors out of the genital slits of all the greybacks. This included all the dragons from Quarter Coastal, but even the dragons from other ranches were also using restrictors--apparently they'd all been required to take STD tests and then remain celibate for a couple of weeks.

As Quincy removed the slit restrictor from some drakes, even the touch of his gloved hand seemed enough to coax their phalluses out of their slits; it was almost as if they were revelling in the chance to push free, now that restrictor was no confining them. Some drakes seemed amused by their own enthusiasm, while some others took this one step further and reached paws, tails, or even their own maws to start stimulating their reproductive organ--clear expressions of relief on their faces as they finally got to feel sexual pleasure after two weeks of being restrained. And yet...none of the drakes took their pleasure to its completion--after all this time spent pent up, waiting just a bit longer of relief seemed tolerable if it that relief involve a communal rut.

"Well...they seem like they're looking forward to the rut," Kassy muttered. "I'm feeling more nervous than excited. All the other freighters have been talking about today as this huge event they are looking forward to, but I don't know if I'm ready."

With one final slurp, Apollo finished his spaghetti. "I know what you mean. I was just like that before my first race."

Kassy turned to stare at the smaller dragon sitting beside her. "You were?"

"Yes. There were all these other racers who were more experienced than me. It was the first time I'd seen so many people--dragons and humans both--and they were all going to be watching me as I flew. I really didn't expect to finish the race anything but last place. Jennifer said she'd be proud of me no matter what, but I was still feeling so nervous. Walking to the starting platform, my tail wouldn't stop twitching--I think some of the other racers noticed."

"But it turned out great in the end. You won the race," Kassy finished.

"That was luck. But my point was that everything usually works out in the end. Just pretend not to be nervous and you'll be fine." Apollo nodded his head and gave her an encouraging smile. "Although admittedly, flying a race circuit is very different from mating. I'm not quite sure which I enjoy more."

Kassy chuckled, and the two dragons fell back into a comfortable silence. Although Kassy was still nervous about the communal rut, Apollo had helped calm her down--he was more approachable than a freighter simply because he wasn't a freighter and wouldn't be participating in the communal rut. If she'd been talking to Maxwell, Evian, Atrix, or any of the other freighters, Kassy would have felt nervous because no matter how good of a friend they were, whatever she said would affect their thinking during the rut.

She didn't want someone to just choose her as their rut partner out of pity. But then again, Kassy still had no idea about what she would do for the rut. Yet before she had any time to consider strategy, a loud siren noise made heads turn.

"Wee--woo--wee!"

Jennifer waved her hands in the air, trying to get everyone's attention as heads turned. She clicked her megaphone, switching it from siren mode to speech. "Hello, hello! Welcome all to Quarter Coastal! The time is now 1:45, and we're going to begin the communal rut soon! This is the last call if you want to eat something before the cookhouse closes! Just head on over to that barn over there! Next, if anyone still needs their restrictor removed, raise your wing and make some noise so that Quincy, our local vet, can come to help you. Don't take it out yourself or we'll consider that cheating. Otherwise, if you're all good and ready, just head on over to Barn Nineteen over there! Thanks!"

Kassy slowly got to her feet, trying not to look nervous. "Ok, no problem. It's just a communal rut--just natural behaviour. I can do this."

"Good luck in there! Break a leg. Or I guess, make an egg." Apollo flicked his wings into a strange position--unfurled, but straight upwards. After a moment, Kassy realized it was a salute.

"Thanks, I'll...try." Kassy followed the other greybacks who were heading towards Barn Nineteen. No more delaying--the communal rut was happening, and she was a part of it.

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Fifteen minutes before the communal rut

Barn Nineteen was one of the newest and largest buildings in Quarter Coastal, and now all of its internal space had been partitioned. In the centre of the barn there was one large area where a few dozen dragons were already standing or standing in a circle, with even more dragons streaming in through the doorway.

The moment Kassy entered the barn, the smell hit her. Every single dragoness in the room was in heat, and every single drake was in rut. The air was thick with an inescapable odour of arousal and lust, and it kicked Kassy's own libido into high gear. For a few seconds she instinctively tried to breathe through her mouth and avoid the pheromones, but she quickly realized the pointlessness of such resistance. Everyone was aroused, and she would be no different.

Some of the other dragons entering the barn just behind her seemed to revel in this odour, taking deep breaths and letting out moans of pleasure at the scent. Kassy tried taking a normal breath, and the pheromones made her scales tingle all over. Her heart was pumping hard and her genital slit felt swollen and desperate for touch, but she forced herself to walk calmly over and take up position in the circle of dragons.

Places were marked out on the floor, roughly indicating where each dragon would sit, but not giving names or any direction other than a number. Kassy picked a position at random and sat where there were few other dragons nearby. Eighty greybacks--that was what Apollo had said, and now that number seemed absurdly high.

As the minutes passed, more and more dragons entered the barn. Kassy looked around--she recognized many of the dragons as being from Quarter Coastal, but there were just as many strangers. And to think that over the next few hours, she'd be mating with some of these people!

Perhaps it was her heat, catalysed by the scent of all the other dragons around her, but Kassy definitely felt aroused. She glanced around, judging all the dragons one by one. The female to male ratio seemed approximately even, so everyone would find a partner.

Although every freighter dragon here was a grey-backed nettled glider, there was variation even within the species. Some dragons were smaller or larger; tails, and necks varied in length; wingspan varied; some had horns (though most didn't); amongst all the other possible differences between individuals.

So much variety to choose from! So many males, and she wanted to mate with them all. Her body was _aching_for touch, but Kassy knew it was just her hormones talking. What did she really want in a mate? She started judging the drakes and trying to rank them on attractiveness.

There was Onyx, a big, heavy drake who was one of the older freighters in Quarter Coastal--Kassy had never possibly considered him as a potential mate. He was old enough to be her sire, but Kassy noticed several other females already eyeing him. As a mate, Onyx wouldn't be bad--he was certainly experienced, and his seed had already proven potent. But still...he was too old.

No, she didn't want someone too old. It wasn't that older drakes had unpleasant bodies, but there were just...too different. Onyx was lounging around comfortably, seeming completely at ease whereas Kassy was feeling terribly nervous. Perhaps he and some of the more elder freighters, male and female, were used to the idea of a communal rut--they were old enough that they might have once taken part in a communal rut from decades ago, before the ranch switched to other forms of insemination.

Moving on, Kassy glanced around the circle to try and see if anyone stood out. A trio of younger drakes were curling their necks and flaring their wings, cockily showing themselves off. They were also, of course, erect. Kassy grinned--it almost looked like they were posturing to each other instead of displaying to try and impress females. They were outsider dragons, not from Quarter Coastal--that simultaneously made them more unpredictable and more alluring. Would she have mated with them if one of them chose her as their partner? Perhaps...

As she kept looking, Kassy saw one particular drake who was eyeing her (or at least looking in her general direction)--Atrix. Atrix was a drake from Quarter Coastal, and he was just a few years more senior than her. Did she want him as her mate? Kassy still had no idea. Atrix was good-looking, but his personality didn't quite mesh with hers whenever they chatted. But then again, she wasn't looking for a long-term partner--today was just about finding the most attractive person (within reason) and having lots and lots of sex, repeatedly. The eggs would be taken care of by the ranchers, and the hatchlings would be raised communally.

By now it seemed that most of the dragons had entered the barn and the circle was filling up. A tall, slender drake sat down to Kassy's left. Kassy tried to get a good look at him, but the drake just rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes, as if this whole thing was beneath him. Or perhaps he was sitting in such a position to avoid drawing attention to his erection. At this point the smell in the air was clearly affecting every dragon--all of the drakes were at least partially erect, and that was yet another thing Kassy stared at and compared.

Over in the Caedry AeroHubs, Kassy had seen this many freighters together at once, but she'd never seen so many erections at once. Just like their owners, some erections were longer, some were shorter; some were curved to one side, some were straight; and some were even dripping pre-ejaculate, lubricating themselves in preparation for action. In a few minutes, one of those erections would be inside her... Kassy felt a shiver run down her back at the thought--she was so aroused, it was difficult to think straight.

Then a dragoness came at sat down to her right side, and Kassy gave her a moment of attention as well. She had never really considered mating with another female, but she could still judge. Whereas she looked at males to consider them as mates, she looked at females and compared them to herself, wondering if she was more or less attractive. Some of the females had crooked tails, or messy tarnished scales, and there was even one female who clearly had some sort of back injury--how had she even flown all the way here? Kassy self-consciously sat up straight and tried to improve her posture.

In comparison to everyone, Kassy hoped that she was at least average in attractiveness. It was just nerve-racking to think about what was about to happen. Who would call her? What would she say? Or if it came to her turn to call someone, who would she call?

But before Kassy could analyse any further, she heard the squeal of a megaphone. Jennifer walked into the barn and gestured for the other ranchers to partially close the doors. "Ahem! Hello! Hope y'all are ready to begin! Listen up please!"

Vela, one of the oldest Quarter Coastal dragonesses, came up and stood beside Jennifer. She was one of the most experienced freighters, and she had an aura of confident wisdom which Kassy admired. Opening her jaws, Vela let out a barking, commanding roar in support of Jennifer. "Rrah!!"

The excited chatter among the dragons quietened down to murmurs, and Kassy saw the drake sitting beside her open his eyes and sit up.

"Thank you! Hi! I'm Jennifer, and I'm the event coordinator for today's communal rut, at least for the human side of it. This is Vela, and she'll be handling the dragon side of things. We're both from Quarter Coastal, if you're curious," Jennifer continued, using the megaphone to amplify her voice. "Everyone knows why we're here today, but we have some house rules! If you break the rules we can kick you out immediately, and you might even be blacklisted from future events--consider that your only warning. For the exact rules, I'll let Vela take it from here."

Vela stepped forward, and her presence commanded attention in a way which Jennifer's had not. Her voice was loud and powerful, resonating with a dragon's accent. "Young or old, friend or foe, today we are all gathered here from numerous tribes, ranches, to honour our ancestors and share our strength. Our purpose here is simple--to be productive. When this day is done, no drake shall have his seed unspent, and every dragoness shall have the promise of eggs."

Vela growled something in the dragon language which sounded like, "Renigah," and many of the other dragons gave shouts of assent.

"What does that even mean?" Kassy wondered aloud.

The drake sitting beside Kassy snorted dismissively, as if he found her question silly. "It's an old rallying cry. Used by the ferals, mostly. Uncivilized brutes."

"But what does it mean?"

"Renigah means freedom, or free skies, or fly free. It means doing whatever you want."

"There will be four rounds of mating," Vela continued. "For each round every dragon shall have one choice, and as is tradition we follow the rule of none above all. Observe the number on the floor in front of you."

Kassy looked down. The position she was standing on was marked with a large number 34 in white paint. To her left was 33, and to her right was 35.

"Numbers shall be called in random order, and when your number is called you will be given the chance to choose. You will have ten seconds to declare your choice of preferred mate, choosing from those who are still in the circle. Your declaration can be either acceptance or rejection by your proposed mate, so choose wisely. If accepted, you and your mate shall depart the circle to one of the areas sectioned out." Vela raised a paw and pointed towards the other half of the barn, where there were several corridors leading to partitioned rooms.

"But if your choice rejects you, then their decision is final. There will be no begging or trying to change your choice. Accept your failure and wait for someone else to choose you. There will be no fighting--if there is rough play, as elder of this rut I have the right to declare you expelled. Same if your partner is injured. And be cautious, for I am kind. This is not my first communal rut, and I have dismissed many excuses before! Show respect, which means no violence! Not even a mating bite."

A handful of dragons grumbled at this rule--interestingly, it sounded like there were more females than males objecting--but Vela continued without showing even the slightest hesitation. "Rule two is that you cannot mate with the same dragon in multiple rounds. Rule three is that if a drake releases his seed, it should be in a place where it is fertile. Though we will not enforce this rule with punishment, you are strongly advised to remember this was a communal rut for the purpose of productivity first, and pleasure second. If you want this to happen again, help us make those eggs."

One of the younger drakes on the other side of the room let out a whistle and thumped his tail against the ground. "I love you, Vela! You're so alpha! I want to put some eggs into you!"

Vela didn't reply to that comment, but Kassy thought that she saw the elder dragoness grin ever so slightly. "Rule four is that the ranchers may choose to block your choice of preferred mate. This is to ensure the hatchlings will be healthy--certain pairings might be disallowed."

"Means you won't be mating with your siblings," muttered the skinny drake sitting beside Kassy.

"Are there any further questions to be raised? No?" Vela asked. She paused dramatically for a moment, but everyone went silent. "Then gaze upon those gathered, and prepare your choice."

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Round one of the communal rut

Oh no, the communal rut was actually happening.

Kassy still had no idea who she wanted to mate with. Her body just wanted to mate with someone--anyone, really--but that was her heat talking. Her mind was trying to analyse things, but failing. There were drakes all around her; some were handsome, some were pretty, some were just different, but how was she to decide? Kassy didn't know what she wanted.

Over the next couple of minutes, humans went around the circle and took down the names of every dragon. Leon, a Quarter Coastal rancher, recognized Kassy as he came by, and he marked down her name and number on his clipboard. "Kassy, thirty-five...alright."

Kassy nodded politely to the human, but most of her attention was still on the other greybacks. Really, this decision shouldn't be so difficult! Surely it was just a question of who she found most physically attractive, except that realistically if she went for the most attractive drake, she'd probably get shot down and rejected. Not that she even knew who was the most attractive. All the other dragons were also looking around, and some were already pointing at each other to gauge potential interest.

She'd better hurry up and decide! Kassy tried to use a process of elimination--one by one she quickly tried to compare each drake to see if she had a favourite...but it was difficult. Forty-seven had a nice slender tail, but fifty-nine had better looking wings. And besides, she didn't actually know either of them. Perhaps it would be better if she went with a drake from Quarter Coastal? Someone she already knew and trusted? Atrix? But he annoyed her sometimes, and did she want _him_as the first drake she'd ever mate with? Onyx? He seemed wise and caring, but he was so old...

Come to think of it, where was Maxwell? Kassy tried to look around for her usual mail express partner, but he was nowhere to be seen. Would she have mated with Maxwell, given the chance? But then Kassy was out of time, and her decision still hadn't been made.

Vela let out a loud growl which was almost a roar, except that it sounded melodic. "Grah! Let the rut begin!" The staring and the pointing stopped, and the dragons turned to listen. Jennifer was standing beside Vela and staring at her mobile phone--the human said something, which the dragoness then repeated much louder. "By random chance, the first round's first choice has been granted to seventy-two, Temsik of Southern Regional."

A middle-aged drake stood up on all fours, and all the other dragons turned to see who he would choose. "My choice is... Mika, of Southern Regional! For her scales are beautiful beyond compare, and her eyes shine like emeralds. I declare my adoration for her."

Thirty-three (the slender drake sitting beside Kassy) snorted dismissively. "What a load of hot air," he muttered. "All that flattery, but I bet that drake's never even seen an emerald."

However, the target of said flattery seemed quite pleased. The dragoness gracefully slid to her feet and strolled over towards her proposer. "Accepted, with great pleasure." She nuzzled his neck, and her tail curled around his legs, then also his erect length. Were they really going to mate right here? Without even going to the partitioned rooms where they might have some modicum of privacy? Kassy found herself voyeuristically intrigued...

"Next up!" thundered Vela, and Kassy snapped her attention back to the middle of the circle. "Seventeen! Evelyn of Quarter Coastal."

There were a few moments of quiet where everyone looked around, then suddenly a dragoness hopped to her feet. "Oh, right! That's me. Sorry, I was daydreaming."

Kassy grinned. Being from the same ranch, she knew Evelyn as a dreamy sort of person. A less charitable descriptor was easily distracted.

"My turn to choose? Nice. Uh...let me think..." Evelyn glanced around the room--just like Kassy, she clearly hadn't made her decision yet. "Just give me a moment, I'm spoiled for choice here. Really, you guys all look so hot!"

"You have ten seconds," Vela said.

"Ten seconds!? What!! Can I get a time extension?" Evelyn looked around the room with frantic (and overly dramatic) haste, eliciting chuckles from some of the other dragons. Sitting back on her haunches, Evelyn pointed a paw right at one of the drakes who was smiling at her. "How about...him? Uh, I don't know your name--the good looking drake sitting at sixty-four."

"Yes! Yes please." The good looking drake sitting at sixty-four jumped to his feet and pranced over, with his neck curled and his tail raised elegantly. "I would _gladly_be your mate for this round. Don't worry, I'll tell you my name...so you can scream it later." He winked at Evelyn, eliciting both chuckles and groans from some of the other dragons.

"In pleasure, I hope, not pain," Evelyn retorted. She was grinning, apparently quite pleased with her choice.

"Yeah, I hope so too," replied sixty-four. And then the two of them were gone, led away by a human rancher towards one of the partitioned rooms taking up the other side of the barn.

"Next!" Vela announced. "We need to speed things up, so keep it short and sweet. Next choice will be thirty-f..."

For a moment Kassy felt her breath catch in her throat. She wasn't ready to choose!

"...five!" Vela continued, and the dragoness next to Kassy stood up.

Kassy nervously clenched and unclenched her paws as the communal rut continued. One by one dragons were selected to declare their choices, and most of the time they were accepted. Out of the first ten who chose their proposed mates, only one was rejected--when her turn was called, a dragoness instantly pointed her paw towards a drake sitting across the room, only for him to shake his head. For a moment he paused and seemed uncertain, then he shook his head again definitively. The dragoness lowered her paw, not looking surprised or even disappointed. Neither of them even said anything, but Vela instantly spoke up.

"So be it. Next up will be fifty, Felicita of Caedry AeroHub LAX!" And so on.

With every pair who left the room, Kassy tensed up in nervous anticipation of having her number called. She still had no idea who she would select as her mate. For a few seconds she might settle on one particular drake, only to change her mind and go back to being uncertain. But then on the thirteenth choice, when around fifty dragons still in the circle, she ran out of time.

"Next choice is number one, Windsplitter, of Phoenix Fastflight Airdrome," Vela declared, and a large drake stood up. He must have deliberately chosen to sit at the number one spot, not that the numbers meant anything. But to be fair, he was number one in size. He was big--probably the biggest dragon in the room. His legs and wings were powerfully muscled, and by his sheer bulk he commanded attention. He wasn't as old as Vela, Onyx, or some of the other dragons--instead he seemed to be in prime condition, strong and fit. Even his name meant something--Windsplitter wasn't the sort of name a ranch-hatched dragon would have--it was a feral dragon name. This drake had been hatched in the wild, only to decide to come back to civilization.

Quite a few of the dragonesses sat up straight and tried to show themselves off, but not Kassy. She was an inexperienced and rather scrawny young freighter, so she was certain a drake like Windsplitter would never be interested in her.

Which made it all the more shocking when Windsplitter let out a pleased growl and pointed right at her. "Rrr, that female."

Kassy's internal monologue made a sound which was best described as, "!!!??!", and the dragoness froze up as all eyes turned to her. She'd gotten used to being ignored, but now all the attention made her tail twitch from side to side. Her first thought was that Windsplitter must be pointing to someone beside her, but thirty-five had already gone off to mate, and thirty-three was a male.

"Thirty-four! Windsplitter has made his choice." Vela didn't even need Jennifer to consult her clipboard. She recognized Kassy. "Kassy of Quarter Coastal. What is your response?"

Kassy's jaw dropped open in shock. She stared at Windsplitter, taking in the sight of the burly drake. "I...me? Are you sure? Ok...?" she replied, mostly on instinct. Slowly, very hesitantly, she got to her feet and walked forward.

At first she tried to walk into the circle, then she changed her mind and switched course so she was walking towards the partitioned rooms. Windsplitter was walking as well, but his steps were broad and heavy compared to hers. Inside the circle Vela was continuing to call other numbers, but Kassy wasn't paying attention anymore.

Apollo the racing dragon was sitting by the side of the barn, watching all the proceedings. He nodded towards Kassy as she walked. "Good luck!"

Kassy nodded back, but she was still too stunned to make a verbal response.

Just in front of the partitioned rooms, Windsplitter stopped and looked her over from up close. "Kassy," he murmured, trying out her name like it was a pleasant treat to be enjoyed. His voice was thick with natural draconic accent, making his words sound rumbly and echoing. It almost sounded like he was saying, "Kazzy" instead of "Kassy".

A human rancher walked over and directed them towards one of the empty rooms, and Windsplitter sauntered in. Kassy followed behind him, and the human closed the door for them. "You guys have forty-five minutes with each other, then we'll declare this round over and start the next." And then the door closed and the two dragons were alone.

Inside the room, Windsplitter looked Kassy over again. His gaze swept over every part of her body, taking in her wings, her head, her neck, her chest, her paws, her tail, and everywhere. Kassy instinctively wanted to wrap her wings around herself to deflect this ocular probing, but she stopped herself and pretended she'd just been adjusting her wings. "Hmm, you are quality," Windsplitter rumbled in his deep, resonant voice.

Kassy also took in the sight of her soon to be mate. Windsplitter was...simply magnificent. There was no avoiding the obvious facts--his body seemed to radiate masculinity and strength, but with graceful appeal. Every move he made was controlled and precise. From nose to tail his scales were in good condition, but not pristine like a dragon who had never known the elements--in some spots the scale plates were thickened and cloudy, toughened by many long flights through rain and hail. His claws were sharp and long, and his eyes had a clear intelligence.

And of course, he had a huge cock. Windsplitter's penis was halfway out of his genital slit, but even as Kassy watched it slowly pushed even further out of its protective compartment. That sight made her feel a tingle in her own genital slit, and her attention did not go unnoticed.

"Impressed?" Windsplitter asked. Standing up, he flared his wings and slowly turned around so that Kassy could see him from all angles. "My sire and dame hail from the mountain ranges of The Grand Canyon State, where the air is warm and dry. A place where dragons roam free."

"Arizona," Kassy murmured. Her nervousness was still present, but increasingly it was being supressed by arousal. She was still staring at Windsplitter, captivated by all of...him.

"Yes, that is the human name for my home." Windsplitter swung open his wings--there was just barely enough space for him to completely show off his wingspan. "I grew up among the mountains, where the thin air strains the lungs and the wings. When I grew older, I lived instead in the forest, where there is much prey to be hunted. And when I grew bored, I left the wilderness and joined the humans, where my strength would be better used... and also appreciated."

Kassy couldn't stop staring. She was certainly appreciating Windsplitter's looks. "You...you were feral."

"Dalara rnn mnna renigah," rumbled Windsplitter, smoothly switching to the draconic language and back. "I was feral. I still am, sometimes. There are advantages to living...as nature intended. To living free."

Kassy couldn't speak even a single word of draconic--she was a ranch-hatched dragon all the way through. Windsplitter furled up his wings and leaned in close to her, and it took all of her will to remain still as he gently sniffed at her neck.

"The humans, these ranches, they have their place," he said to her, his voice a gentle whisper. "But flying cargo routes does not make your blood pump. It does not thrill you and make you glad to be alive. Not like I will. Tell me, Kassy. Tell me what you think."

"I think..." Kassy felt a shudder run down her back, completely involuntarily. "I think you are huge! Were your parents this big? Even the other ferals I met aren't as big as you."

Windsplitter let out a rumbling, amused purr. "Rrrr, think not about others. Think about what I_can do for _you..." His tongue brushed against Kassy's neck, and she shuddered again.

Her body felt so hot, so desperate for touch. Instincts which she had only recently discovered were trying to seize control, telling her to bend her forelegs, raise her tail, and present her underbelly to this magnificent drake. Her body wanted to mate. Somehow, Kassy resisted and kept her intellect in control. "And what...what is that? That you can do for me?" she asked, her voice almost a squeak.

Windsplitter rumbled again, and a grin crossed his muzzle. "Playful, aren't you? You knew what was to happen when you came to this rut. You knew what was to happen when I chose you, when you accepted, and when you came into this room." The drake gently licked her, cleaning her scales with his tongue. He was at least forty percent larger than her, yet he moved with careful grace. "You smell wonderful. I have mated with many dragonesses and sired twelve eggs and ten hatchlings, and you shall be the dragoness who carries my thirteenth egg. Together, we will create life."

Kassy closed her eyes as lustful, commanding sensations rushed across her body. She wanted Windsplitter. She wanted to feel him on his back, pinning her down and filling her up with his fertile seed. It was the most natural of instincts. Her mouth, however, was still acting on autopilot. "Thirteenth? That's not a lucky number... Are you sure about this?"

Windsplitter's attention had slowly moved down her body, and now his snout was coming ever closer to Kassy's tail. Meanwhile, the position of his hindlegs meant that his cock was clearly visible to the dragoness. "Your body wants this. I can smell your heat. Is this your first breeding? Perhaps even your first heat? I think it is. Your body is screaming out to be bred."

Windsplitter's tongue gently slid over Kassy's rump. He licked the top of her tail base, and then he snaked his head under her belly. Kassy found her tail curling upwards without her even thinking about it. She wanted this. She needed this...

"Oh!" Kassy jumped at the sudden contact and her tail snapped straight, pushing Windsplitter's head away from her genital slit.

The feral drake didn't look annoyed. In fact, he only seemed more amused. "Sensitive? Don't worry; I'll take my time with you. Do not be afraid of your instincts. Your natural instinct will save you in a fight; it will save you when your wings stall, or when you enter a storm. Instincts keep you alive...and they tell you to breed. I know exactly what you are feeling--that need to reproduce. I will help you quench that urge, and it will feel better than anything else."

He towered over her, his body so huge and muscular compared to hers. Windsplitter was right--her instincts were telling her to breed. Yet, a thousand emotions were running through Kassy's mind--joy, fear, arousal, excitement, anticipation, surprise, confusion... Her paws and tail were trembling from the intensity of the moment. But out of the sensations and emotions she was feeling, arousal was supreme.

And that was just too much for her. "What?!" Kassy exclaimed, her eyes snapping wide open as if waking from a dream. "No, nononono." She hurriedly backpedalled until her tail bumped up against the partitioned wall. On the other side of the temporary wall, she could hear the noises of other dragons mating--repeated sounds of flesh slapping against flesh, with sensual moans mixed in every now and then. Was that going to be her? With Windsplitter? This massive, magnificent, formally-feral drake who was gorgeous and therefore absolutely unlike her?

Windsplitter tilted his head, but he still looked calm. He was such a strange mix--passionate, yet in absolute control of himself. Formally a feral, yet just as eloquent as any domesticated dragon. Slowly he walked towards her, as if approaching a skittish prey creature which might get spooked at any moment. "It will not hurt. I will go as slow or as fast as you want, and I will not release myself until you are fully satisfied. Listen to your instincts...what do they say? What do you want?"

Kassy's emotions were rapidly starting to shuffle back into recognizable positions. There was no denying that she wanted to mate with Windsplitter, but somehow...she wasn't sure if she actually wanted this, or if it was just her heat talking. And so she wouldn't. "No, no thank you. It's not you, it's me. I think I'll just... Yeah. I'm not really one hundred percent sure... about this whole mating thing. Maybe I shouldn't. Sorry."

Listening to the contradictory instinct that was telling her to ignore her instincts, Kassy turned and pushed her way out of the door.

Kassy stepped out of the partitioned room and took a few steps forward, and then she stopped. Inside the main area of the barn, there were less than twenty dragons still in the circle. Everyone else had already paired off and had gone to the partitioned rooms to begin mating.

The first person to notice Kassy was Apollo the racing dragon, who looked surprised at her sudden appearance. Vela was the second to notice. The elder dragoness turned her head to frown at her, and slowly every other dragon in the circle also turned to stare.

"You're done already? That was fast," Vela commented. "We haven't even finished the mate declarations."

"I..uh..." Kassy had no idea how to explain why she'd walked out without mating. It had just been instinct, and now she was feeling silly.

"Arrana-mrmr renigah Kazzy, phfreree-lirarenr..." Windsplitter said, walking up beside her. He gave her an amused glance, and then he strolled forward towards the circle. He continued to speak in draconic language, but Kassy had no idea what he was saying about her--perhaps he was mocking her naivety, teasing her for getting cold feet, or even bemoaning her change of heart.

Vela tilted her head, and she replied in the language of dragons--rumbles, clicks, hums, and echoing sounds which a human would never be able to smoothly produce. "Drona tss sai_s_ia lietrr Wshhsasin..."

The two dragons exchanged conversation, then finally Vela beckoned for Windsplitter to step back into the circle. Vela also turned towards Kassy and gestured with her paw--as if to ask, "are you coming?"

Kassy shook her head. "I'll just...sit this one out." She walked over to sit beside Apollo, who was (along with most of the remaining greybacks and quite a few of the human ranchers) watching her with a look of confusion.

"So be it," Vela said. "Windsplitter's choice has been rejected, although this took slightly longer than usual. He will rejoin the circle, but his turn to call a choice will come after everyone else has called."

"The choice is sacred, and I respect Kassy's choice to reject my choice," Windsplitter said.

At this announcement, several of the other greybacks openly stared at Kassy with a shocked look of, "If he wasn't good enough for you, who would be?"

Vela snorted, and then she resumed calling out numbers for the remaining dragons. Out of the dragons still in the circle, roughly half of them (including quite a few males) chose Windsplitter when it came to their turn to choose. He shook his head to all of their offers, until finally everyone else had paired off and he was alone.

"Decided to hold on to your seed for the next round?" Vela asked him.

The burly drake shook his head. "Not at all. Now that all others have gotten the chance to make their choice, it is my turn to choose."

"There's no one left to choose," Vela pointed out. Still in the main area of the barn were a half-dozen human ranchers, Kassy, and Apollo. Not much of a choice for Windsplitter.

"Not true. I choose you, elder." Windsplitter sat back on his haunches opened his wings, showing off his wingspan again.

"Elder? Why, you little ruffian, you're hardly more than a decade younger than me. But I accept," Vela replied, a grin coming to her snout.

And then the two dragons left and headed towards one of the last partitioned rooms still available.

Jennifer, the human rancher, walked up towards Kassy. "Kassy, are you alright?"

The dragoness nodded her head instantly. "Yes! Why?"

Gesturing between Kassy and the partitioned rooms, Jennifer raised an eyebrow. "Was Windsplitter rough with you? Did he hurt you?"

"No, he hardly even touched me." Kassy lay down on all fours, resting her head on her paws. "I just... I don't know what happened in there. I...wanted to mate with him--I'm quite sure I wanted it--but I just couldn't."

Jennifer crouched down so she could look Kassy in the eye. "Couldn't? You mean you physically couldn't? Do you want me to call Quincy to take a look at you?"

"What? No..."

"Are you sure? He's just outside, attending to a trio of dragons who are arriving late."

"No," Kassy insisted. "It's not like that. I could have mated with him, but I couldn't. He was just too...he was so... I don't know! When he came close I just... got scared and ran. It's like my body wanted him, but my mind was confused."

"There's no need to be ashamed for what you feel." Jennifer reached out a hand towards Kassy, and when the dragoness didn't object, she slowly patted her on the head. "Kassy, are you a lesbian?"

Kassy snorted aloud at that. "Ha. What? Me? No. No, not like that. It's not that I don't like drakes. Just that maybe I don't like that one drake. Not that he's a bad person. I mean, I...he's just...not at all like me? He's so big and experienced, and everything. All these other dragonesses would have loved to mate with him, but for me I felt...I don't know."

"So then what did you want?" Apollo asked, speaking up for the first time.

"I wish I knew," Kassy replied.

Leaning back from her crouch, Jennifer sat down on the floor next to Kassy. "That's the point of a communal rut--to find out who you want, when presented with a wide choice of mates. Well, that's partially the point. To explain the full point would involve me talking for quite a while about genetic competition and diversity, evolutionary selection, and something called assortative mating--people (both humans and dragons) like other people who are similar to themselves. But don't you worry about that. Just relax, and remember that you don't have to do anything you don't want."

Kassy took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. "Huuh. Alright."

"So do you want to take part in the following rounds? Or would you prefer to stop?"

"I have to keep going, right? Since I'm in heat."

"Actually, Quincy has drugs which can take you out of heat if you want. You don't actually have to mate."

Kassy shook her head, and pushed herself back to a sitting position. "No, I'll join the next rounds. I won't back out. I just need to figure out who my type of drake is."

"Alright then, if you're sure." Jennifer stood up, and she went to go speak with another rancher.

"So... What is your sort of drake?" Apollo asked, now that the two dragons were alone.

Kassy shrugged her shoulders. "It's not Windsplitter, that's for sure. I think it's someone more like me? If I'm going to be carrying eggs, I want them to be eggs from someone I like. What about you, Apollo? What's your type?"

"Hmm, interesting question. I like dragonesses with great wings. Rafale--the dragoness I first mated with--has some fantastic wings. Oh, she won so many races..." Apollo suddenly paused, then he grinned and pointed a paw towards the barn's doorway. "You were just saying you like a freighter who was like you? Well, look who finally turned up."

Kassy turned to look and saw that Maxwell, her usual flight partner on the mail express, had just entered the barn's doorway.

Maxwell trotted into Barn Nineteen, followed by another drake and a dragoness. They were all Quarter Coastal dragons. "You're late!" Kassy told them, though she mostly had eyes for Maxwell.

"Not our fault! New York's a mess of a state, and we had a flight diversion. Business before pleasure," replied the other dragoness. "Aww, we missed the first round? What a shame. I was looking forwards to taking my pick of all the handsome drakes."

"Guess you'll have to settle for sex with ugly old me," muttered the drake standing beside her.

"Guess so," replied the dragoness, then the two of them started kissing and rubbing their snouts on each other's neck. "Mmm, yes... I need you to sex me urgently."

"Get a room, you two," Apollo said, and Jennifer came back and directed the pair towards one of the partitioned rooms.

Maxwell, meanwhile, trotted over to sit beside Apollo and Kassy. "What did I miss?" he asked.

"Not much. Everyone went off and picked a mate, and now they're at the other part of the barn mating," Kassy replied.

"Uh huh." Maxwell stared at her. "So why are you out here?"

"It's a long story. There was a huge drake who was really hot and he wanted to be my mate, but it turns out that I'm quite intimidated by people who are far, far more attractive than me. I just decided to sit out the round." Kassy paused as she tried to think about how to phrase the important question. "It's a good thing that you're here now. Cause...do you mind if I choose you next round? Is that ok?"

Maxwell blinked, looking surprised. "Me? You? As mates? Sure! That is totally ok with me." He seemed happy to help.

"Ok good. Not that I decided to skip the round just cause of you--I mean, you're a nice drake, but I don't love you with all my heart or anything like that," Kassy said. "I just...like and trust you enough to mate with you, since we usually fly our routes together."

"Right. This is all just strictly professional, since this communal rut is supposed to be for making eggs. I like you too, but just as a friend who I'm willing to mate with." Maxwell nodded. "You're a dragoness in heat, I'm a drake in rut, and we're going to solve this problem together."

"Exactly! We're going to mate with each other, because it's part of the job," Kassy insisted. Sneakily (or not so sneakily) she glanced towards Maxwell's underbelly. He didn't quite have an erection yet, although the tip of his penis was barely poking out of his genital slit. With all the other dragons in the other side of the barn, and the doors opened, the smell of arousal had faded somewhat. She would need to work on that. Leaning in closer, Kassy let her chin rest on Maxwell's shoulder. "So you just flew over from New York? That was what Evian said just now."

Maxwell nodded. "The flight routes are all in a tangle, what with the planners scrambling to speed up deliveries before the hurricane rolls in tomorrow."

Kassy rumbled softly. "Hmmrr, it's a shame that hurricane wasn't just a bit earlier--if the storm had been coming in today, all these greybacks would be stuck here, the rut could go on for days. Then again, there really isn't enough space for all of them, so the ranchers would probably have just called off the whole thing."

"After all the effort of getting everyone to wear restrictors for two weeks, what a shame that would be," Maxwell agreed.

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Round two of the communal rut

Over the next forty-five minutes, Kassy and Maxwell sat around and chatted about life, the weather, and everything else. Apollo occasionally joined in the conversation, but mostly the racing dragon kept himself entertained by flying in tight circles within the barn--with his small size, he displayed speed and agile manoeuvrability which the freighter dragons couldn't possibly match. There wouldn't even be enough space for a greyback to fly inside the restricted confines of the barn.

At the end of the allotted time, Jennifer used her megaphone and began playing a siren sound. "Wee-woo-wee-woo-wee!"

Clicking on the megaphone, she began directing her amplified voice towards the other side of the barn, where the temporary partitions would barely block the sound. "Alright. Everyone, come out! You've had your fun! Finish up if you haven't already done so, and then come back out here!"

A few dragons pushed open the doors and trotted out. Most of them had looks of pleased satisfaction, and Kassy saw that a few even had some...fluids visibly dirtying their underbellies. Vela was one of the first dragons back in the circle--her scales were slightly flushed as she sat back in the middle. Windsplitter looked pleased with himself as he sat down at the side of the circle.

Jennifer continued using her megaphone. "Come on, we're on a schedule here! Hurry up, people!"

"That is not how you do it," Vela told her. Taking a deep breath, the elder dragoness roared. "Skrahh! Round two is beginning! Any dragon who is not sitting down in the circle within the next thirty seconds will be forfeiting their choice of next mate!"

That got the freighters to hurry up.

Kassy and Maxwell both stood up and took positions in the circle next to each other--this time Kassy was number twenty-three, while Maxwell was twenty-four. "Are you ready?" Kassy asked her flight partner.

"Maybe? I'm not sure. I really, really want to mate with you, but at the same time I'm worried that I'll do something wrong," Maxwell replied, which was a great answer because it was exactly what Kassy was feeling.

Despite her threats, Vela waited a full minute for all the greybacks to leave the partitioned rooms and come re-enter the mating circle. Some dragons began chatting with their neighbours and exchanging stories about their previous partners, while others were already eyeing who they would choose to mate with next. Meanwhile, Jennifer and the human ranchers went around quickly, taking down all their new seating positions and offering sips from a water bucket or a bite of jerky.

Kassy took a draught of the water even though she hadn't expended any fluids in the last round. This round though, this round would be different. Maxwell was nervously holding his tail in his paws, much to her amusement.

Once everyone was refreshed, Vela wasted little time. "Round one has finished! We have three more rounds, and a lot more egg-making to do. To remind you of the rules--you cannot call the same partner again. The ranchers will check this. Rounds two begins now!"

Vela glanced to Jennifer, who read another number from her mobile phone. "Uh, fourty-three..." Jennifer said.

"First choice goes to forty-three! Visegrad of Northwind Ranch," Vela announced.

And then things continued much the same as the previous round. Now that she'd already been through it once, (except for the mating, of course), Kassy found things less intimidating. It was still nerve wracking waiting to know if it was her turn to call her choice of mate, but now things were manageable because she'd already made her decision beforehand.

After just five dragons had made their choice, Vela called Kassy's number. "Twenty-three! Kassy of Quarter Coastal."

As her name was called, Kassy stood up on all fours. She could hear quiet murmuring from some of the other dragons--those who had seen her abruptly run out of the mating room and reject Windsplitter were eagerly sharing the story to those who had not heard it already, and she could see that many dragons were curious to see who she might pick now. A few drakes waved their wings to show off, looking hopeful. Windsplitter even winked at her from across the circle where he was sitting, but he didn't bother showing off his wings--they both realized there would be no point.

"I choose, uh, Maxwell, of Quarter Toastal. I mean Quarter Coastal," Kassy declared. Her voice sounded wavering and unconfident. Oh well.

Windsplitter turned to look at Maxwell, and he raised an eye ridge--a very human-like gesture for a dragon, especially a feral who had grown up without the influence of humans. He didn't say anything aloud, but he gave Kassy an amused look as if to say, "Really? You reject me for him? He must be something fantastic."

"Maxwell, your response?" Vela asked.

Maxwell had gotten to his feet at Kassy's call, but he hadn't said anything yet. "Yes. I, uh, respond with yes."

Flicking a wing, Vela waved the two young dragons away. "Have fun then. Next up! Ten! Onyx of Quarter Coastal!"

"Come on then," Kassy muttered, half to Maxwell and half to herself. The two freighters left the circle and headed towards the partitioned rooms, where a rancher assigned them a room and recorded down their names.

And then once again, Kassy found herself all alone in a room with a drake who she was expected to mate with.

It was so much better with Maxwell. Kassy wasn't sure what this said about how her mind worked, but somehow she was far less intimidated being up close with him.

"Alright. How...do we do this?" Maxwell asked.

"Uh..." Kassy pointed a paw towards Maxwell's belly, where his erection was now standing proud. Out in the main area of the barn, being surrounded by other dragons who all smelt strongly of arousal had cleared had its effect. "That is supposed to go inside me."

"Yes, that much I am aware of." Maxwell looked around the room--it was just a simple construction with temporary partitioning panels on all four sides. Other than a single lightbulb mounted in the ceiling, there were no furnishings to speak of. "I guess we just...just mate then."

"That's what we're here to do, right?" Kassy turned around so she was facing away from Maxwell, and then she crouched down her forelegs and swept her tail aside, revealing her genital slit. "This is what I'm supposed to do, right? Like this?"

"I think so? I've never actually mated, only used the artificial mounts." Glancing over her shoulder, Kassy watched as Maxwell cautiously approached her. The drake reared up on his hindlegs so that his hips were aligned to be the appropriate height. "So I'll just line this up, and that's...that's how this goes. Let me try...uh..."

Maxwell placed his paws on Kassy's hips, but he seemed reluctant to put any of his bodyweight on her. "You can rest your chest on my back, if that makes things easier," she suggested. With him this close, she could smell Maxwell--as a drake in rut, his scent was enticing and attractive.

"Ok. Just let me know if I'm doing something wrong." Maxwell adjusted himself so that his upper body was over Kassy's back. It actually felt strangely comforting to have his weight pressing on her. And then, finally, she felt his phallus brush up against her slit...and then miss.

"Lower than that. No, not there! No. No... Yes, there. That's it." Kassy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. No turning back now...her body was certainly screaming for them to take things faster, but she wasn't in a rush.

Slowly, steadily, Maxwell pushed his hips forward, and his penis slid into her. When his underbelly bumped up against her tail base and he was fully penetrated, he paused for a moment. "Huh. Feels like the artificial breeding mount, but a thousand times better." He adjusted his position, using his forepaws to gently hold onto her wings.

"That's good. Actually, that does feel very good." Kassy tried moving her hips forward, then back, and slowly the two dragons being rocking against each other. Maxwell's penis slipped in and out, and in and out, and just like that they were mating.

The penetrating motions felt quite different from when Kassy used her paws to touch herself, but in a good way. In and out, in and out--just those simple repeated motions were all it took to send arcs of pleasure buzzing through her body. There was something primal about what they were doing, but it felt very right.

"I didn't think... mating would feel this good," Maxwell murmured, his voice coming in distracted gasps as he worked himself forward and back.

Kassy couldn't agree more. She curled her head back and nuzzled at Maxwell's neck. For a moment she wanted to touch her snout against his in a kiss, but that felt _too_intimate. How strange that she felt embarrassed to kiss a drake even while she was mating with him, but Maxwell was just doing this because the ranch needed eggs. It wasn't as if they loved each other. But then again, Kassy had no idea what falling in love with someone would feel like. If all that was required was physical pleasure, then they were certainly having a lot of that.

"Oh..." Kassy groaned softly as her pleasure threatened to become overwhelming. This was what her body demanded, what her heat necessitated--a drake mating with her, preparing to fill her fertile egg chambers with his seed.

On his part, Maxwell seemed equally lost in lust. His eyes were clenched shut, and his paws were clutching Kassy's wings and hips to hold her close. Earlier their coupling had started slow and hesitant, but now things had sped up and he was thrusting in a desperate frenzy. His penis was hitting all sorts of sensitive spots inside her, with wet slick friction making their motions easy.

What a mess! Kassy lowered her head to stare between her forelegs, and she could see bodily fluid dripping from the point where their genital slits touched--where Maxwell's phallus bridged the gap between their bodies. Was that her natural lubrication, or was that his pre-ejaculate? Either way, the scent of raw arousal was filling the air, and squishy, slippery sounds came with each thrust.

"So this is what mating is like," Kassy murmured. "I think I like it."

Maxwell chuckled softly, then he groaned again. "Haha...ohh, I like it too. That feels so good! I can't help it--I think I'm going to cum really soon."

"Cum? You mean...you're going to...cum inside me?" Kassy asked. She wasn't ignorant of the biological process, having heard from more experienced females about what would actually go when a drake mated with her. But now the thought of Maxwell shooting his essence inside her was deeply arousing in a way she hadn't considered before.

"Yeah, that's how we make an egg. My knot swells up inside you, and then this white fluid shoots out of my penis and that makes an egg inside you."

"Your knot?" Kassy had forgotten about that particular bit of drake anatomy, but now she realized that with every deep thrust there was a slight resistance every time Maxwell hilted himself. Soon his knot would swell fully, at then there would be no more moving--they'd be stuck together as his body did what it was supposed to do. "What does it feel like?"

Maxwell shook his head. "What does that actually feel like? When I was using the artificial mounts, it felt like the best thing ever, but this feels so much better than that."

"I mean, can you control it? Maybe...try to do it slowly, because I've never felt anything like that before."

"No, I can't control it. When it happens, it happens. It's like a sneeze--either you stop it before it happens, or it just happens. And it's...happening right now... Oh God, Kassy...!" The male greyback let out a choked gasp of pleasure, and Kassy felt him shove his penis all the way inside her, as deep as possible.

There was no turning back now--they were about to bring their first mating to its conclusion. Kassy felt a sudden tightness at the entrance to her vagina as Maxwell's knot started to inflate. It felt so warm, and soft yet firm. And the unique sensation sent a shiver down her spine.

"Grnnahhh!" Maxwell jerked and shuddered, and Kassy felt warm spurts of liquid explode inside her most intimate regions. Every slightest motion of her knot rubbed her insides in an exquisitely pleasurable way. This lasted for ten seconds, and then twenty, and then Maxwell groaned and slumped down again her back, his limbs going limp.

Kassy held their combined weight for a moment, then she let her limbs fold and they both collapsed to the ground. Lying down on the floor next to each other, with Maxwell still half on top of her, they didn't say anything for a while. The sheer intensity of the moment had stunned both of the young freighters into a quiet, comfortable silence.

But then after about a minute or so, Kassy saw Maxwell snap his eyes open. "I think I really like mating," he confessed.

"Yeah, it feels good," Kassy agreed. Without her flight harness (and her pocket watch) there was no way to tell the time, but each round of the communal rut was supposed to last for around forty-five minutes. How long had they spent mating? Kassy also noted that Maxwell's penis still felt fully erect inside her, even though his knot had now deflated back to normal size.

"Shall we go again?" Kassy asked.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, please. Same as before?" Maxwell replied. He pushed back to his feet, and stretched his back.

Kassy opened up her wings to stretch them, then she bent down again and took up a mating position. "Alright then. Whenever you're ready, let's make that egg."

And then they mated again.

This time, Kassy felt like she was even more sensitive than before--her scales were flushed with blood, and her genital slit was tingling with pleasure. When Maxwell playfully put his jaws around his neck, pretending to do a mating bite (although he only nibbled her scales), that set her off--Kassy let out a squeak and slammed her hips backwards as an orgasm rushed through her body, wiping away her conscious thoughts for a long moment of pleasure.

Standing over her, Maxwell was still for a moment, then he kept spearing into Kassy even as echoes of pleasure were still blasting through her body. This made Kassy gasp and tremble at the near overstimulation. Within less than a minute, far faster than she'd even thought possible, a fresh burst of pleasure exploded through her body. Pleasure overwhelming--her tail curled up and she grit her teeth.

"This was...totally worth wearing that restrictor for two weeks," Maxwell muttered. He didn't last much longer either--soon after, Kassy felt the drake's knot swelling up within her once more and he once again fired his seed into her.

But this time, they didn't stop. Maxwell went still for about half a minute as he seeded her, then he just kept going and started thrusting again the moment his orgasm ended. Kassy growled in pleasure and worked her hips back against his thrusts, stimulating them both. On and on, they kept mating.

"Skrahh!" By the time they heard Vela's roar declaring the end of this second round, the two young freighters were well spent.

Kassy was slumped down on the ground with hindlegs still half straightened, and her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Maxwell was partially crouching and partially lying over her, still making half-hearted thrusts of his mostly erect length. A wet puddle of sticky liquid was pooling below their groins--backwash from their repeated sexual efforts.

Maxwell finally pulled out and sat back on his haunches, apparently giving up on his efforts to finish one last time. "That was extremely pleasant." He leaned down and sniffed at Kassy's rear. "I don't think I've ever cum so much in my life."

"I'm glad to hear that I'm more attractive than an artificial breeding mount. Might also be the fact that you're in rut and I'm in heat." Kassy pushed herself back to her feet and stretched herself all over. Semen and other assorted bodily fluids dripped from her underbelly as she stood up. "Thanks for helping me out with this. We did good! Hopefully that should be enough to make an egg."

"Hopefully. And if not, you'll have two other drakes in the next two rounds who will help you with that," Maxwell said.

"Oh, right. We still have two more rounds to go." Kassy took a deep breath. After her extreme nervousness with Windsplitter, it had been much more relaxing and fun to mate with Maxwell. Kassy actually wanted to call him for the next few rounds just because she felt comfortable with him, except that she recalled Vela mentioning that would against the rules of the communal rut. Besides, she didn't want to burden her friend by selfishly claiming him for every round--perhaps he was actually eyeing some other dragoness who he wanted to mate with.

"Hurry up or miss your choice!" Vela shouted from outside. The next round was about to begin.

Kassy turned and headed out of the room, with Maxwell following close behind.

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Round three of the communal rut

"Next choice goes to seventy-two, Vermados of GBNG Dragon Ranch."

"I choose that dragoness over there. Forty-five, I think."

"Forty-five! Kjolnar of Central Eastern. Your response?"

And so on. Vela yawned, looking slightly bored as she presided over the mate choices and the communal rut continued.

However, unlike the elder dragon, Kassy wasn't bored at all. She was back to frantically glancing around the room, trying to decide who she would call as her mate for the third round. Right now she'd narrowed her choice down to either Atrix, a fellow freighter from Quarter Coastal who was sitting right beside her, or twenty-four, a drake who wasn't from Quarter Coastal but who had a nice smile and kept looking over in her direction. Twenty-four looked more handsome, but Kassy knew Atrix and she _somewhat_trusted him.

Tapping her paws on the number marking in front of her (sixty-two), Kassy tried to make a decision. Did she want Atrix or that mystery drake at twenty-four? Which was better--a colleague she kind of liked, or a stranger who seemed enticing?

"Next choice goes to twenty-four! Immortalis of Caedry AeroHub North!" Vela called, and Kassy realized that the decision wasn't going to be hers.

Kassy sat up straight as the drake she'd been eyeing stood up. Immortalis was about the same size as her and looked fairly young--his wings were oversized for his body, and they protruded slightly off his back as if they were just too big for him to furl up fully. Kassy thought he was kind of cute. Although not quite as cute as Lincoln, that whiteback who she'd met the other day. Wait, why was she even still dreaming about Lincoln?

Kassy watched as Immortalis glanced around the room, briefly taking in all the dragons still in the choosing circle--clearly she wasn't the only dragon who hadn't made her decision yet. The round had only just started, so the majority of the dragons were still here. As Immortalis quickly looked around, Kassy saw his gaze linger over her noticably longer compared to the others. Was he considering choosing her? She would definitely accept.

Curling her neck, Kassy tried to look dignified. She contemplated opening her wings to show off her wingspan, which would openly broadcast that she wanted this drake to court her, but she hadn't ever practiced this sort of motion and it would probably just look awkward instead of seductive.

Immortalis used the full ten seconds he was allowed, and then his gaze snapped back to Kassy. He pointed his paw at her. "I choose sixty-three."

Sixty-three was her, wasn't it? Or was she recalling her number from a previous round? Kassy dropped her gaze to check her number marking. She was...sixty-two. Damn it.

Sixty-three was Atrix! Kassy glanced at the drake sitting beside her in surprise. A drake calling another drake as mate was technically allowed, though she hadn't thought that Atrix was gay. From her past experience around the ranch and on routes, he certainly appeared to like making playful passes at dragonesses.

Atrix stared back at Immortalis, looking over the drake. Then to Kassy's surprise, he nodded. "Good choice! I accept," Atrix said. Perhaps, Kassy realized, she wasn't a very good judge at who was and wasn't gay. The two drakes paired off and left the circle.

And in one fell swoop, Kassy was forced to start searching for a mate to choose again. She glanced to Maxwell, who was sitting a few places away from her--if not for the rules against it, she would just have called him. It was the lazy choice, but she wasn't feeling particularly adventurous. As far as Kassy was concerned, mating with anyone at all was already an adventure.

"Next up! Fifty-one, Windsplitter of Phoenix FastFlight. Make your choice of mate!" Vela announced, and Kassy waited to see who Windsplitter would call. If he somehow called her, she still wasn't going to accept this time. Would the rules even allow him to choose her? Vela had said that dragons couldn't mate with the same partner for different rounds, but technically Kassy hadn't mated with Windsplitter.

Windsplitter swept his gaze across the gathered dragons, and several females waved their wings at him. Windsplitter acknowledged them with a grateful nod, but he didn't call anyone...until his gaze reached Kassy. The large, formally-feral drake stared at her for a good few seconds, and Kassy shook her head firmly. "No," she mouthed. Windsplitter broke into a grin, apparently amused by the dragoness who'd rejected him in the first round.

"Your choice?" Vela demanded.

"My choice shall be..." Windsplitter licked his lips and once again looked around the room. He dragged out the dramatic pause for a good few seconds before finally giving his answer. "I choose Kassy..."

Kassy shot an annoyed glare to Windsplitter, only for the drake to grin once more. "...'s mate from last round. I chose Kassy's mate from last round. Maxwell! I wish for you to show me that what is so quality about you, that Kassy accepted you even after she rejected me."

Laughter broke out amongst the other dragons--there weren't many who had the natural charisma to attempt such a joke (assuming it had been a joke), but Windsplitter was completely at ease. Maxwell appeared taken aback. He stared at Windsplitter as if he wasn't sure if this was a joke or a serious proposal. "Me?"

Windsplitter pointed a paw right at Maxwell. "You." Turning around, Windsplitter shook his hips and waved his tail. "I look forward to learning from you, if you are willing." More laughter broke out at that comment. Windsplitter was grinning, but he actually seemed half earnest, as if he genuinely wouldn't have objected if Maxwell had said yes.

"Uh...that's..."

Kassy turned to stare at Maxwell. After spending many of her flights with him, she liked to think she at least knew him reasonably well, but sexual orientation wasn't something they'd discussed. It wasn't the sort of thing which came up in casual conversation.

"I am going to have to say no," Maxwell decided, "I'm not interested in mating with another male, sorry." He frowned at Windsplitter, as if still unsure if the proposal had been genuine or a playful joke. Other dragons might have been worried about wasting their chance to choose their preferred mate, but Windsplitter was top pick--he'd get people trying to choose him anyway. In fact, the easy confidence with which he had playfully suggested Maxwell only made him more alluring.

Standing by the side of the barn, some of the human ranchers chuckled too. Vela rolled her eyes, but she didn't reprimand Windsplitter. "So be it! No means no. You certainly have a talent for picking dragons who turn you down. Next choice goes to sixty-two. Kassy of Quarter Coastal!"

"What?! Me?" Kassy shouldn't have been unprepared, but she was. She didn't know who to call. "Uh...I'm not allowed to choose Maxwell again, am I?"

"He was your choice in the last round? No, you cannot," Vela replied.

"Ahem, that isn't an arbitrary rule we're enforcing. Not being allowed to mate with the same partner in a row is one of the rules even in natural communal ruts," Jennifer explained. "It's related to something called the Coolidge effect, where novel stimulus like a new partner overrides the refractory period. Anyway, just choose someone else, or if you can't decide, you can skip your turn and wait for someone to call you."

Kassy shook her head. She didn't want to throw away her choice, but at time she had no idea who she wanted to mate with. Glancing around, she looked over all the dragons. A couple of drakes presented to her, waving their wings, but Kassy couldn't break the feeling of indecision. The only drake she was fully comfortable with was Maxwell, but she couldn't choose him again. And out of all the others, her two second-choices (Atrix or Immortalis) had just left to go mate with each other. How to choose, how to choose? "I choose...uh...my choice is..."

Closing her eyes, Kassy waved her paw around in all directions, trusting her subconscious to assist her. She picked a direction at random, and opened her eyes to see that her chosen mate was...the wall. Her paw was pointing at an empty space, where the dragon present had already paired off. If this was a message from her subconscious mind, then the message was, "I don't know either".

"Who are you choosing, Kassy? Your ten seconds to decide is long over," Vela prompted. "Make your choice or have it skipped."

Kassy had never felt such incredible indecision. For a moment she even consider just calling Windsplitter again, but in the end she decided not to call him but to instead do what he'd done--play the whole thing off as a joke. "Screw it, I don't know..." she muttered. Raising her paw again, Kassy pointed to the one drake who stood out from all the others--the one drake who was actually, truly different. "I choose Apollo, of Quarter Coastal!"

Vela, Maxwell, and the other freighters from Quarter Coastal all looked surprised at her decision, as did Jennifer and the other human ranchers who were from the ranch. On the other hand, the dragons from other ranches didn't initially realize the significance of her choice--they assumed Apollo was just another freighter, but he wasn't.

Apollo had been lying down at the side of the barn, but now his ears perked up on hearing his name called. The rainbow swiftwing sat up and tilted his head, looking surprised. "What was that?"

For the first time, Vela looked uncertain--this was apparently the one situation which she had never encountered in previous ruts, ranch-organized or wild. "Is that...allowed?" she asked, turning first to Jennifer, then to Apollo, then finally back to Kassy.

Jennifer folded her arms. "I...don't see why not?"

"He's not one of us! He's a racer, not a freighter," Vela said. "Any such coupling would not be productive."

"That's true. But then we don't restrict drakes from mating with drakes or dragonesses with 'nesses, even though that can't give us eggs either. So if he accepts, then I'll allow it." Jennifer shrugged and nodded towards Apollo. "Apollo! You want to mate with Kassy?"

By now, all of the freighters had realized who Apollo was--and why Kassy calling him had been so unexpected. Excited murmuring and amused whispering resulted. Everyone turned to the rainbow swiftwing, waiting to see what his take on the situation was. "Ah, ok?" Apollo replied. "I didn't expect to be part of all this, but I don't mind. Kassy, I accept your proposal."

Kassy stood up and left the circle. Part of her was regretting this already--it had been such a silly act to call Apollo, instead of just skipping her turn and waiting to see who might call her--but she was also rather relieved. Apollo was her friend and she trusted him, and this all meant that at least she wouldn't have to worry about choosing any more.

With the two of them standing next to each other, the ridiculousness of this whole affair became even more apparent. Even though they were both adult dragons of their own species, Apollo was only about a half of Kassy's length, height, and size in almost every measurement.

Standing just in front of the partitioned rooms, Apollo spoke quietly to Kassy. "What's your plan with this? Was that a serious proposal, or was this...supposed to be a joke? I'm not offended or anything, but I really wasn't expecting you to call me."

"Don't ask me what my plan was. I have no plan," Kassy replied. "I don't know why I called you. It just happened, so let's see how it goes." She glanced back towards the choosing circle. Vela had already moved on to the previous number--it was too late for regrets, and even if Kassy had any regrets, she didn't want to reject Apollo after she'd called him. In the end he was still her friend, and them being different species of dragon had never been an issue before--Kassy prided herself on not being like some of the older, more insular freighters who disliked dragons from other species. She was an open-minded, friendly-to-all sort of dragon.

And now she'd given herself the chance to prove it.

After the door was shut, it was just the two of them alone in the mating room. Apollo looked around--given that he hadn't been a part of the previous rounds, this was his first time seeing what the mating rooms looked like. "Are we actually going to mate?" he asked.

Kassy wasn't sure what to say. The obvious answer was yes, they were going to mate because she hadn't just been calling him as some sort of joke, as if he wasn't an adult drake capable of being part of a sexual encounter. But then again, the obvious answer was also no, they weren't going to mate because they were different species and it would be silly.

In the end, the deciding factor came down to nothing more than her own arousal. Despite already having mated with Maxwell for almost an hour, Kassy still didn't feel sated--after stepping out into the main area, the smell of so many different dragons had gotten her excited again. Now she was up close and personal with Apollo; though he didn't smell quite as good as a drake of her own species, there was still a distinctively male scent about him. "Honestly? I'm totally okay with it if you are!"

"Let's do it, then." Apollo gestured to Kassy, who was twice as larger than him. "But...how exactly do we make this work?"

Kassy took up a mating position, but then she realized why this wouldn't work. In a normal position with her hindlegs straightened, her genital slit was raised up about as high as Apollo's head. "Oh, I didn't think about that part."

Apollo reared up on his hindlegs, but his penis still didn't come anywhere near Kassy's slit. She tried crouching her hindlegs to lower herself down, but she really had to drop low for Apollo to get within reach. In the end, Kassy was sprawled out flat on the ground belly-down, but this position still didn't work because the angle of her hips meant her tail got in the way of Apollo's attempts at penetration.

"So! Not quite working, but I'm sure we can figure something out," Apollo muttered. "What if I...try this?" The racing drake rolled onto his back and slid under Kassy so they were belly to belly. This position brought up yet another set of difficulties--the first issue being that even though their genitals were technically lined up, Apollo's smaller size meant Kassy had to crouch extra low to get his penis brushing up against her slit. Thought this position might actually have allowed intercourse, it made Kassy worried she might crush the smaller drake accidentally.

"I don't think that's working either. Maybe we try the inverse?" she suggested.

"Ok!" Apollo replied cheerfully. "I've only ever mated with other dragons of my species, so size hasn't been an issue before. This is quite interesting!"

"Not a very useful thing to know, though," Kassy replied. She stepped away from Apollo and lay down belly-up.

"Knowing how to have fun is always useful." Apollo trotted over and stared at Kassy, making her feel self-conscious as she lay on her back. "Uh... How do I even climb over you? I don't want to scratch up your scales with my claws. Maybe I could...or we could try...? Gah! There has to be an easier way to do this." Apollo suddenly turned around and pushed his way out of the door, leaving Kassy all alone.

The female greyback rolled back to her feet. Had Apollo changed his mind? She hadn't thought of him as the type of person who would give up so easily.

And he wasn't. Apollo returned about a half minute later. Balanced on his wings and back, he was carrying a folded up platform ladder. "Here we go! This'll do the trick."

Kassy laughed, but she helped Apollo to pull open the platform ladder and set it up. "Good idea...?" Sure enough, the platform came up to just the right height--it was normally used by ranchers for them to stand on while they loaded cargo onto the backs or sides of freighter dragons. Something about this whole situation made Kassy laugh again. "Hahaha, yes."

Apollo laughed along with her. "Hah! It's not silly if it works! Come on, then." He hopped up onto the platform ladder and waved for Kassy to once again take up a mating position. With her forelegs bent and back arced, this time the ladder meant that Apollo was at the perfect height to...load her up with his cargo. "Finally!" he exclaimed. But then instead of going straight for penetration, he leaned in and begun using his tongue to lick at Kassy's genital slit.

"That is...that's nice," Kassy said. Apollo's smaller paws were more deft and dextrous as he started stimulating her, and unlike Maxwell this certainly didn't seem like his first time.

"Rafale taught be a thing or two about what dragonesses like," Apollo explained, referring to another rainbow swiftwing he'd met previously. "Although for you, everything just seems bigger." He used his paws to spread her folds apart and placed a few light licks directly on her clitoris, making Kassy squirm. "Look at the size of it all. So much to lick..."

"Sensitive!"

"Sorry--went a bit too fast there."

"It's ok. That actually felt really good, just a bit too intense all at once." Kassy glanced backwards, wondering if she ought to be trying to reciprocate. She could try curling her tail downwards to wrap its tip around Apollo's erection, but she wasn't sure if she had the dexterity to do this properly.

Before she could even try, the drake used his paw and stuck two of his digits into her slit. The sudden penetration made Kassy yearn for more, and apparently Apollo felt the exact same way. He pulled his paw back and sniffed at it. "Oh, that's warm. I really want to stick my cock into that."

Kassy hiked her tail even further to the side. "Then why don't you?"

"Because foreplay is polite and part of the fun," Apollo replied. "Though it might have been a bit redundant since you're in heat, but it helps to get me worked up too. Anyway, let's go to the screwing." Rearing up on his hindlegs, Apollo moved forwards on the platform ladder so that his groin was pressed up against Kassy's. A quick alignment later and he slid in.

Despite Apollo's diminutive size compared to her, Kassy still felt distinctly filled. His phallus was smaller than Maxwell's for sure, but this wasn't a problem at all. Even as the swiftwing slowly began to thrust, Kassy could feel each careful motion as he slid in and out of her. A wet trickle of liquid began dribbling down her thighs--bodily fluids produced by one or both of them, or possibly even some of Maxwell's ejaculate now being displaced out.

Such a weird thought--just a short while ago she'd mated with Maxwell and had him shoot his seed into her several times, and now she was doing the exact same thing with Apollo, who wasn't even a greyback. That definitely wouldn't work to make an egg, but it still felt so good.

Really, Apollo was doing all the work while Kassy just remained still and encouraged him with the occasional moan. He leaned forward and placed one of his hindpaws on her hip, letting him thrust even deeper at the expense of not being able to pull out very far.

Clutching her torso for balance, Apollo then tried taking things even further by bringing the other hindleg forward. It was a weird position which looked rather tiring, but suddenly he was balanced on Kassy's lower back and tail, with his body twisted so he could keep humping her.

"Looks like we...don't need that ladder after all," Apollo muttered. His wings fluttered as he adjusted his balance. "I think this is how dragons are supposed to mate in the air."

"Is it?" Kassy didn't dare to move, out of the fear that Apollo would topple off her and injure himself. That worry was partially terrifying, but also got her heart pumping even faster. Apollo's claws were pricking into her scales, but her mind was clouded by lust which overrode the discomfort. She tried tightening up the vaginal muscles inside her genital slit, which made Apollo grunt.

The rainbow swiftwing went stock still, with his hips pressed up against her haunches and his hindpaws clutched onto her. "Did you just...? Stop, stop, stop! I'm going to...ah..." And then just like that, he came.

Kassy felt Apollo's knot swell up--he was again smaller than Maxwell, but she distinctly felt the pressure as his body followed a reflex which locked them together. This physical connection almost certainly would have provided zero assistance in the event he fell off her back, but it did what it was supposed to--ensure that the drake released his seed when he was buried deepest into her, with his penis lined right up to fire into her slit. "Oo! Oh..." Apollo moaned, and Kassy could feel him shuddering as his muscles twitched.

Perhaps it was empathy for her friend and partner, perhaps it was a quirk of anatomy, or perhaps it was just blind luck, but at that moment Kassy felt her own orgasm hit. Her limbs all went rigid as the pleasure in her underbelly slowly climbed into ecstatic heights which made logical thinking totally impossible. "Whoa! Oh wow..."

For a few long seconds they both stayed frozen up, linked in the most intimate of ways as they shared cardinal pleasure.

When that moment of absolute bliss had finally ended for them both, Apollo slowly lowered his hindpaws and stepped back onto the platform ladder. His penis slipped out of her with a wet sound, bringing along a splatter of slick liquid. "I know I can't possibly put an egg into you, but just the thought that you were in heat...that made things extra intense."

"You and me both." Kassy lay down on all fours, turning her neck round to stare at the racer. "You and me both."

Kassy mated with Apollo again once more, but this was a slower, easier activity than the frantic determination with which she'd mated with Maxwell. The first round (with Maxwell) they'd both been pent up from weeks of abstinence, and their combined inexperience and nervousness over the communal rut had made things desperate and impassioned.

In comparison, Apollo was content to just take things slow and relax. He openly admitted that since his own species didn't go into rut, he wasn't sure if he could match her endurance and he didn't even try. Instead he offered to use his tongue and paws again, but Kassy was happy to just cuddle after they'd gone a second time. Sometime over the past hour or two, her heat had tempered down from an urgent frustration to just a mild buzz which made her more aroused than usual.

Bending her head down, Kassy sniffed at her own genital slit. The recognizable scent of semen clung to her now, which was entirely expected given that two drakes had just spent themselves in her. Now that her burning arousal had partially subsided, Kassy started to wonder about the future.

Even within her slit right now, thousands (or was that millions?) of sperm were swimming around trying to locate her oviduct, where her egg cells were waiting to be fertilized. That was such_a weird mental image, but things only got weirder from there. Once it was fertilized, the egg would be surrounded by yolk and proteins, then encapsulated in some sort of hard shell. At which point it would somehow have to make its way _out of her body--the same way the sperm had gotten in, the completed egg would squeeze its way out... What a strange mental image.

Kassy blinked and tried not to think about it. That was a problem for future her--the only thing she needed to worry about right now was the communal rut, and who she'd be picking for the fourth and final round. But when she mentioned this to Apollo, he had an alternate solution for her.

"You're worried? Why worry about that? Everyone single round has ended with all you freighters paired up nicely. No one has been left without a partner, and I'm sure someone like you will have no trouble with getting a mate."

"Someone like me?" Kassy asked.

"Someone as attractive as you, I mean." Apollo didn't even sound like he was trying to flatter or flirt with her. Instead, he said these things in a matter of fact tone. "The only reason people haven't been calling you is that you've just had the luck to choose early. Didn't you notice the drakes who wave their wings and show off when it comes to your turn to choose? I'd bet lots of them would love the chance to be alone in this room with you."

Hearing her friend offer such compliments made Kassy feel somewhat reassured. "But...that doesn't help me choose. How do I know if the person I choose is the right person? What if I make the wrong choice?"

"The wrong choice? Do you think there is a right choice? Who would that be?" Apollo countered.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "But for today I'm just...focused on not getting it wrong. Earlier when I was with Windsplitter in the first round, I just felt that he was wrong. He wasn't the drake I wanted to mate with."

"He wasn't the_drake you wanted to mate with? More like he wasn't _a drake you wanted to mate with," Apollo corrected. "But Maxwell was? I was? We were drakes you were alright with?"

"Yes? Yes..." Kassy stared at the smaller dragon sitting beside her, snuggled up against her side. Apollo didn't sound annoyed even as he picked apart her words and extracted meaning she hadn't even realized she was adding. He really was much smarter than most of the other freighters gave him credit for.

"So your choices in rounds two and three--Maxwell, then me--we were the right choices?" Apollo asked.

"I guess so, because things seem to be working out."

"But you need to define your standards for success--what do you want to get from your communal rut today? Jennifer and the ranchers know what they want--they want you to make eggs, so they can have more dragons to fly cargo in the future. The other freighters--I assume most of them are here for the excitement, the novelty, and of course the physical pleasure of all this sex. I was just here to observe and see how things were going on, until you called me and I became a part of the sex too. Thanks for that, by the way."

"But for you?" Apollo continued. "Is your priority for today getting an egg put inside you? I assume not, because otherwise calling me would not have been the right choice. What were you looking for? Pleasure? Comfort? Or something more idealistic--love?"

"No. Not love. Love would be nice, but I don't think I'll find it today." It had been fun mating with Maxwell then Apollo, but Kassy didn't think she loved them. They were both her friends and it had been a pleasure to mate with them, but love seemed to imply something deeper--a more intimate connection. The connection she'd felt today had been mostly physical; just a natural itch caused by her heat, now mostly sated. But emotionally...? No, she really like them as friends, but she didn't love Maxwell or Apollo.

Kassy started thinking back to Lincoln, the white-backed nettled glider she'd met last week. If she had her choice of anyone in the wold to mate with, she'd have picked him...and that was actually rather silly now that she considered it. A cute smile, a few warm words exchanged in conversation, and she gotten all infatuated with that drake. He wasn't even the same species as her!

"Apollo, do you...do you think love at first sight is a thing?" Kassy asked.

Apollo shrugged noncommittally. "I'm not an expert on these things."

"But you have an opinion?"

"Yes, though I admit I might be wrong. The way I see it--neither rainbow swiftwings nor grey-backed nettled gliders take mates for life. In fact, your species is communal--taking lots of different partners is expected, I imagine. So when you see someone and instinctively feel like you love them, that's just physical attraction."

"The mind automatically saying, 'oh look, there's someone I'd like to fuck,'" Kassy summarized.

"Heh, yes." Apollo chuckled at her choice of language. "Dragons don't marry. It's humans who marry, and even then they often choose to cancel their marriages after some time. I feel like...love is...I don't know what it is. I know what mating feels like, but that alone is not love."

For about a minute, both dragons were quiet. Then Apollo spoke again. "I've heard Jennifer talk about her boyfriend and about their plans for the future. She talks about eventually wanting to have a family, children who'll go to school, living together in a house and things like that. Do dragons ever talk about that? I've never heard a dragon talk about loving someone else or wanting a family."

"Then maybe love doesn't exist. Maybe you're right about it being a human thing, not a dragon thing," Kassy speculated. Out of all the other forty or so Quarter Coastal dragons, only a minority were in something which might be considered a relationship. Mostly this was just a preferred sexual partner; exclusivity or raising a hatchling together was almost unheard of. Eggs and hatchlings were raised communally--everyone treated everyone equally, and they were all one big family.

Silence fell again, and this time neither of the two dragons broke it. In quiet companionship they sat next to each other and contemplated their own thoughts. Finally they heard Vela roar from outside, declaring this round of the communal rut over. Kassy didn't feel like her body's sexual desires had been totally quenched, but her mind had certainly been hard at work.

"Thanks for the talk, Apollo. This was some deep stuff we talked about. And also all the..." Kassy gestured to the platform ladder, making them both grin. "All the other help. That was...some deep stuff too."

"No problem. Good luck with your next round."

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Round four of the communal rut

Round four was to be the final official round, Vela announced to all the assembled greybacks--all eighty of them. After this was done, there would be no more gathering into a big circle to choose mates. Unofficially, of course, there were bound to be dragons who found themselves still wanting even more sex--those who wanted to keep going could keep going, but officially this was the last round.

Kassy was firmly decided that she wasn't going to keep going. It wasn't that her body was feeling sore or tired, but she'd started today never having had sex before, and now she'd had more than enough to satisfy. She'd go through with the last round, but that would be that.

Once again all the greyback freighters assembled in a large circle in the main area of Barn Nineteen. Once again they took up positions, with the human ranchers taking down their numbers and offering refreshments. Finally, Vela sat in the middle and declared the round's start.

Just as before, dragons started calling out names or numbers of their proposed partners--everyone looked just a bit more tired than before, and a bit more satisfied. But instead of being worried about her choice, Kassy opted to relax and take things as they came.

It was to her surprise when someone actually called her name--Immortalis, the drake she'd being eying in the previous round. "I choose her--number sixty-seven," he said, pointing a paw right at her.

Kassy glanced down at her number marking just to check; she was sitting at position sixty-seven. No mistake this time.

"Kassy of Quarter Coastal. Your response?" Vela prompted. After several hours of overseeing and directing the communal rut, her voice still sounded booming and powerful.

"Me?" For a moment Kassy started to deliberate and analyse--was Immortalis really who she wanted to mate with?--but then she shrugged and went with her gut. "Sure."

Standing up, Kassy headed towards the partitioned rooms, where Immortalis was also headed. One of the ranchers recorded down their names on a list, and then they were assigned a room.

The two dragons entered their room.

Immortalis was a younger drake then Kassy had realized. He was older than her by two, or three, but certainly no more than five years--not a novice anymore, but still relatively inexperienced. He had a short pair of horns on his head pointing straight backwards, and his whole body was slender and thin.

Kassy found him reasonably attractive, but something was just off. Whereas some of the other drakes had been ogling her and taking in all the details of her body, Immortalis' gaze swept over her body just once. He didn't act shy or awkward, but he almost seemed disinterested.

"Good evening to you," he started by saying. Then instead of a friendly smile or a confident smirk, he bowed his head low. It was polite, but a bit too formal for an occasion where you were supposed to be screwing each other in just a few moments. "So your name was Kassy, I believe?"

Kassy bowed her head in return, not wanting to be rude. "Yes, that's my name. And you're Immortalis?"

"Correct." Immortalis sat down and curled his tail forward, holding the tip in his paws. "So we're going to...to mate. You and me...touching each other and...all that." The drake swallowed, looking uneasy.

Kassy nodded. "You did choose me, so that is how this works."

"I chose you. Right, I chose you. Pardon me, but I feel that...I should inform you of my intentions. Explain my thought processes in an honest manner, hopefully without giving offense. Before we begin anything, it would be somewhat deceptive of me if I did not explain to you why I chose you."

Kassy said nothing, and after a moment Immortalis continued.

"If you noticed, my choices in the previous three rounds followed a certain pattern. Not that I would be so presumptuous as to assume you would be paying attention to me, and in fact I believe you might have left the circle before I was given the chance to choose. But what I mean is...in the previous rounds, I did not choose...dragonesses."

Was he saying what she thought he was? "Last round you chose Atrix," Kassy recalled.

Immortalis nodded. "It does cause such nervousness, this choosing. With every choice comes the chance of being rejected, or even mocked. But I digress! To be frank, of all my previous pairings (in this communal rut and before), I have always been attracted to others who shared my gender. That is a part of who I am, my identity, but these things lie on a spectrum of sexual attraction. Some people only want males, some people only want females, and others want both, or anything in between all that."

"So you're gay?" Kassy prompted.

"I thought so. I _think_so. Seeing other drakes makes me interested in a way that seeing dragonesses never has. Even the smell of male arousal attracts me more than female fertility, so I'm fairly certain that I am...not like most other drakes in this regard. Yet this communal rut presented a unique opportunity--a chance to actually find out if there is even any part of my mind which is attracted to the feminine form."

"Bit of a strange motivation," Kassy replied, and Immortalis shrugged in response.

"One of my other friends told me that you don't know how gay you are until you've sucked a drake's cock, and also you don't know how not gay you are until you've held a dragoness in heat and shot your seed into her. Not that I wish to objectify people--it's just a joke he was making. Yet just for variety, I suppose, for this final round I decided to try and call the most attractive, beautiful dragoness in the rut, and see if mating with her was enjoyable."

It was flattering to hear Immortalis call her the most attractive dragoness, although Kassy wondered if his opinion was accurate since he'd openly admitted to preferring drakes. "So let me see if I understand. What you're saying is that you're gay, but you decided to mate with a dragoness just to be sure about that?"

Immortalis cocked his head to the side. "Uh...yes. Precisely correct. Now I must ask that you do not judge me too harshly! If you wish to reject me now and choose another mate, I understand completely. I hope not to have caused offense."

"No need. I'm alright with this if you are," Kassy decided. Today really was a day for trying new things, it seemed. "You don't judge me, I don't judge you, and we'll just mate and see if you like it. Shall we begin?" Bending down, she once again took up a position which was becoming increasingly familiar--a mating pose, with forelegs bent and hips raised, tail swept out of the way to reveal her underbelly and genital slit.

"So quickly? Well, perhaps there is no use in delaying the inevitable." Immortalis stood up and trotted towards Kassy. He placed a forepaw on her hip and sniffed at her genital slit. "This is very much not what I am used to, but that was the point, I suppose. May I?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Slowly Immortalis leaned forward and extended his tongue towards Kassy's underbelly. He moved cautiously and carefully, as if he was licking an electric fence instead of another dragon. He took one lick, then another, before shaking his head. "I don't think I like that taste, honestly. I can taste the seed which other drakes have planted here, which I do enjoy, but your arousal is noticeable and distinct. Sort of ruins the taste. No offence to you! I know I said no judgement... Sorry."

Kassy laughed aloud. "Haha, it's alright to say what you think. I won't bite."

"Very well! Let's just get down to it proper. Uh...give me a moment..." Immortalis took a few sniffs of her underbelly, then he used his paw to stroke at his half-erection. Kassy curled her tail around to see if she could help him, but her contact didn't seem to help much. It took about a minute of coaxing, but finally he was hard enough to attempt penetration.

He did this just like how he'd liked her--carefully and slowly, as if unsure what to expect. Finally Immortalis was fully hilted inside her, and he placed his paws on her hips. "This is better than I expected," he muttered. But as he began to rock his hips, Kassy could feel that he wasn't as hard as Maxwell or even Apollo had been. The touch of his paws was always light and gentle, and never more so than was strictly necessary for balance. "Very much different from my usual fare," Immortalis commented after about half a minute of mating.

"How so?" Kassy asked, glancing back over her shoulder.

"You're...wetter, but more snug all over. Normally when I top, I need to use lube to ensure things happen smoothly, if you get my meaning. There are some drakes who are naturally productive enough that their pre-cum can suffice as lubrication, but that is rare. You though? You're really wet down there. And soft, but in this...grippy way."

"Thanks, I guess?"

"The physical sensations are not objectionable, though I am increasingly feeling reassured in my sexual identity. Again, no offence to you, but I think I would enjoy this much more if you were a drake."

Kassy almost laughed again. She was finding this whole scenario quite hilarious. "So tell me--what's it like mating with a drake? For you as a drake, I mean. Obviously I know what it feels like for a dragoness to mate with a drake."

Even as he was still thrusting, Immortalis looked thoughtful. "There is the usual repertoire, which I believe should be similar no matter what the pairing is. Using your paws, your mouth, or even your tail--one partner to another, giving and receiving pleasure."

"Mm hm, yeah. But what about when you...stick it in each other?" Kassy asked, grinning at her partner for the round.

Immortalis grinned back, but in a friendly manner. There was no lust in his gaze, and no passion in his movements. He was an interesting conversation partner, although (for her at least) he wasn't a very good sexual partner. "You mean full-on sex? It depends on the drake. Some prefer it in the tailhole, where if you hit the right spot you can stimulate the internal testicles and coax out their stored fluids. I've met lots of drakes who like that, but not me personally."

"So you're a gay drake who doesn't like taking cocks up the ass?" This time Kassy wasn't able to keep from laughing. "Ahahah...sorry, but hahaha..."

Immortalis made a feel rougher thrusts, shoving his hips against Kassy's rear. "Hey now! That is a stereotype! I prefer putting getting penetrated in the genital slit, actually."

"Wait, so you stick another drake's cock...into your slit?"

"Precisely correct. A drake's genital slit is like a compartment where his cock normally resides while flaccid. But if he is erect, then his cock is no longer taking up that space and someone else can try sticking their cock in. You can't go very deep though--usually penetration goes no deeper than an inch or two. That's when you use your paws or tail to rub the rest, but it's...really intimate to feel drake putting his length in that part of you."

"Oh, tell me about it." Kassy clenched down on her vaginal muscles just to remind Immortalis that he was mating with her.

"I've even tried doing it double--putting my cock in a drake's slit while he put his cock in my slit. Took a bit of acrobatics to get that working, but we made quite the mess when we came. Speaking of which...I don't think I'm actually going to be able to finish. Sorry, but I think I'm very certain about only liking drakes." Immortalis made a few more thrusts, but his penis had gone all soft and it just flopped out.

At this point, Kassy wasn't even disappointed. Funny how things had turned out--on reflection, what she had wanted from this communal rut was just a new experience with some fun, and she'd certainly gotten that. "That's alright."

Despite her reassurances, Immortalis looked embarrassed. "I shouldn't have... On reflection, this was a bad idea. I apologize for leaving you unsatisfied."

"No, it's alright." Standing upright, Kassy stretched then curled herself up and sat down on all fours. "I've...honestly had more than enough orgasms for today. We can just...sit down and talk, if you don't mind."

"Talking is good. Some people just want sex all the time. As if we're animals who only have the objective of breeding and passing on the genes. Not that sex is bad, but sometimes I just want something more intimate." Immortalis walked over to one side of the room--unlike the previous room Kassy had been in, this room was near the side wall of the barn, and it had a window blocked out by metal blinds. Using the tip of his tail, Immortalis pushed the lever which opened all the blinds. Outside it was a clear, windy afternoon. The fields and rolling hills outside Quarter Coastal Ranch were picturesque and calm, and the warm breeze was a refreshing breath of fresh air.

Kassy walked over to the window and sat down beside Immortalis. After some hesitation, she leaned against his side. Even if they weren't sexually attracted to each other, they could still enjoy the intimacy of friendly companionship.

"So, let's talk. Would you like easy banter and small talk, or a deep existential discussion?" Immortalis asked.

Kassy wasn't sure. She had only just met Immortalis this afternoon, but did that mean their conversation could only be superficial? Surely a deep conversation did not require a long friendship. "Do you...do you think love is a thing?"

"That's an easy question," Immortalis replied. "Obviously, yes. If you don't love at least _one_thing, life is pointless. Some people love sex, others love food, some others love the thrill of flying, or the excitement of seeing new faraway places, or even sense of fulfilment which comes from a job well done."

"True, but not what I was talking about." Kassy stared out the window, watching leaves blow by as the wind briefly picked up. "I meant romantic love. Not just lust, not just friendship, but love. Do you think that maybe...somewhere out there is your soulmate?"

"A harder question, that, but yes absolutely." Now it was Immortalis' turn to sigh. "Huh. People are so different. Different personalities, different preferences, different cultures, different lifestyles. But some people just click together. There is no one soulmate or one true love, but out of all the thousands, millions, hundreds of millions of dragons, there will be subset who have that compatibility to become, as you said, soulmates."

Kassy turned to look at the drake "How do you know that?" she asked.

Immortalis had a weary, distant look in his eyes which suddenly made him look much older. "I know because I met one of my soulmates, about a year ago. He was....he thought me so much that I... The time we spent together, I truly value like no other. He made my life worth living..." The male greyback's voice trailed off, fraught with sudden emotion.

"But he didn't reciprocate you love?" Kassy asked.

"Oh, he did, and that made it all the worse in the end. Or better. That was all before Caedry acquired our ranch, before I was transferred to Caedry AeroHub North. So recent, and yet already so long ago." Immortalis shook his head. "I know dragons who love no one but themselves, and that's alright. I know dragons who pursue intimacy and sex, seeking no deeper commitment at all, and that's also alright. There are even others who have a simple, workable arrangement to fulfil each other's need to breed. I'm not sure whether I pity them or I envy them. But if you ask me what I think of love--yes, absolutely. I knew it once, and I hope to find it again someday."

"That is...very deep," Kassy replied. It was just like with Apollo--now she was talking with Immortalis about all these deep, complex concepts like love, romance, and soulmates. Meanwhile in the other rooms, where the other dragons spending their time engrossed in such conversation? Or were they just screwing each other senseless?

From the main area of the barn, Vela gave a roar--but this was just a declaration of the time, not a call for reassembly. The communal rut was over, and things were done.

"Thank you for...indulging my curiosity," Immortalis said.

Kassy nodded her head, and she got to her feet. "Thank you for the conversation."

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Freestyle Round

The communal rut was officially over. There would be no more assembling in the choosing circle to call out mates, but apparently that didn't mean the sex was done yet. When Kassy stepped out of the room, she came across a scene of erotic excess.

A good number of the other freighters clearly hadn't been satisfied yet by the four rounds of the communal rut. The mating was continuing, but all pretence of privacy or decorum had been dropped. All around the large barn area, dragons were openly mating with each, and for many the idea of one-on-one intercourse had apparently been dismissed as quaint.

Kassy saw two drakes mounting a dragoness at once, contorting themselves into weird positions so they could alternate strokes. One of the males was lying on his back, the female was crouching over his body, and then the other male was humping from behind. Honestly, Kassy wondered how both the males had fit in--taking one drake at a time had been just right, but two seemed like it would be painfully stretching in a sensitive place. Nevertheless, all three dragons were enthusiastically humping and appeared to be enjoying themselves.

It seemed like the majority of the greybacks had left the private rooms and were now actively engaged in some sort of sexual activity. No more pairing off nicely and heading off, now the freighters were just blatantly approaching each other and mating in front of everyone else.

Immortalis followed Kassy out of the room, and he grinned at the sight. "Ah yes! The freestyle round. If you'll excuse me, I feel like eating some cock..." And then Immortalis trotted off into the fray, and within seconds he'd found a partner who gladly begun thrusting into willing maw.

This was exactly what Kassy had first imagined a communal rut would be like--a huge sex party where many dragons just mated with each other, switching partners (and orifices) freely with barely any hesitation. She glanced around, wondering what she was supposed to do. Without Vela's commanding presence and all the established rules of the ranchers, the activities seemed less controlled. She was free to walk up to anyone and start mating with them, but instead Kassy went and sat by the side of the barn.

Jennifer was standing by the wall, accompanied by several of the other humans. "Kassy? You're not joining in?" Jennifer asked.

"You're not joining in either," Kassy replied, sounding just a bit too defensive. "Sorry. It's just that I think I've had enough mating for today."

Jennifer chuckled. "Hah. If you've had enough, looks like you're the exception. Just look at all that! Holy crap, I forgot how horny dragons get when they go into heat or rut."

"Remember how you were worried that the greybacks from other ranches wouldn't get along with ours?" replied a rancher named Leon. "Well..."

"We'd better get a lot of eggs after all this," Jennifer agreed.

It really was quite a sight to behold. The variety, enthusiasm, and shameless of the whole event was like nothing Kassy had ever seen before.

Two females were licking at each other's slits, arranged in a 69 position where both their heads were near their partner's underbellies. Then there was a male was aggressively thrusting into another male dragon's rump, but the receiving male was at the same time licking and stimulating a female with his tongue, while that female's muzzle was being used by a third drake--a daisy chain of sexual pleasure. Suddenly the male being penetrated raised his head and let out a roar of pleasure; without even being touched, his knot swelled up big and his erect length started to twitch and spew out his load onto the floor below him. Apparently the penetrative stimulation in his rear had coaxed his internal testicles into releasing their pent-up fluids--the other male thrusting into him kept going, even as his partner shuddered.

And in yet another spot, there was a younger male lying flat on his back, being teased by two dragonesses using their tongues--one of them was older and was crouched over the drake, apparently teaching the younger dragoness on the proper technique, while simultaneously having the drake try to eat her out. After a few moments spent staring, Kassy was shocked to realize that the male dragon was Maxwell.

Yet another different drake walked up to Kassy, with his penis jutting out from his underbelly. Jennifer averted her eyes, though some of the other humans didn't bother. "Hi Kassy. You joining this round?" Atrix asked. He was one of the males she had previously thought she would be alright with mating with, but now she just clicked her tongue and rumbled.

"Tsk-rrr. Nope. I'm done for today."

"Shame. Let me know if you change your mind!" Atrix grinned and went off to ask a different dragoness (Evelyn), who evidently was more willing than Kassy. As Kassy watched, the two dragons just got into a mating position and began mounting each other. No foreplay, no discussion--just a quick question and a quicker answer.

On consideration, Kassy suspected that her communal rut adventure today hadn't been quite as adventurous compared to what everyone else had evidently been up to. Watching all the other dragons romp around, she felt that same conflicting desires again--her arousal told her to go get involved, but her mind was reluctant.

Kassy's tail nervously swished from side to side. She didn't want to be mounted by two drakes at once, or to try sticking her tail into a dragoness, or to perform any of the wide range of sexual acts currently being conducted. Despite being surrounded by her fellow dragons, all of a sudden she felt lonely. She didn't want to mate with someone who would just leave to go mate with someone else afterwards, or who would just return back to business as usual once this whole day was over.

She wanted someone who would snuggle up with her and not let go, someone who actually cared about her and who she could talk with, and who wouldn't just go around happily mating with every other dragon because they could--Kassy didn't want to mate, she wanted a mate.

This was, unfortunately, not a common mindset amongst grey-backed nettled gliders. A stable monogamous relationship was uncommon amongst a communal species, and Kassy wondered if she ought to try and change her mind.

Windsplitter (the huge drake who she'd rejected in round one) was standing by the other side of the room, his penis still buried all the way inside a female as he fired his seed into her, his paws clutching her hips as he came. Amongst all the dragons assembled for the communal rut, he still stood out.

Kassy took a deep breath, inhaling the thick scent of raw arousal and heated pheromones from all around her. She felt a shudder run down her back--since Windsplitter had just finished with his current partner, she could go over and try and mate with him. That might end all this nonsense running through her mind--perhaps she ought to just give in and enjoy all this sexuality, without worrying above love, companionship, or any consequences.

After all, dragons didn't marry. Greybacks didn't even take long-term mates. Perhaps it would be best if she learned to act like all the others, mating as part of a community instead of hoping for a close, intimate, exclusive partnership.

But...no.

Even if it was the wrong mindset, Kassy didn't want to change. Letting out a sigh, she headed out of the barn and went to get some fresh air.

Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Late evening after the communal rut

It took another hour, but finally the communal rut came to an end. No grand finale or dramatic finish, just all the dragons eventually having or their lusts sated. Greybacks lounged everywhere--some inside the barn, some outside lying in the grass, and some perched on the roof.

Kassy had spent the last hour sitting in the shade and staring as the clouds went by. As freighters slowly left the barn one by one, she nodded to those she recognized and to the humans as well.

Jennifer was running around, coordinating with the other ranchers to arrange matters for the greybacks visiting from around the country. The visiting dragonesses would remain for up to a week until they'd laid their eggs, whereas the drakes would return to their home ranches earlier. Some drakes would stay in Quarter Coastal overnight and leave in the morning, while others would leave for home straightaway, and still others would depart to the nearby Caedry AeroHub JFK, to rest there or be rerouted from the much larger airport.

The communal rut had been chaotic and somewhat disorganized, but Quarter Coastal could run their flight operations with high efficiency. Within a further hour, the first flights were already departing.

A dozen or so drakes were kitted back up in their flight harnesses, preparing to depart. Their human rancher escorts were strapping themselves in, affixing themselves to the sides or backs of their dragons. Kassy raised a wing and bid farewell to Immortalis, who smiled at her politely and bowed his head. Along with other dragons from his home ranch, Immortalis would be departing for Caedry AeroHub JFK, where they would stopover before heading back to AeroHub North.

Windsplitter was with a different group of freighters who were also preparing to depart. They wore no flight harnesses and carried no humans along with them, but they were still heading back to a ranch. Windsplitter's gaze met Kassy's briefly, but he didn't smile, frown, or give any gesture of recognition to her other than a playful wink. And that was fine.

Quarter Coastal was busy with activity again, but Kassy trotted away and went to one particular tree, where a familiar dragon was sitting up in the branches. This time instead of shouting upwards, Kassy climbed up the branches until she was sitting beside Maxwell on an adjacent branch. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Maxwell opened his eyes, gave her a nod, and closed them again. "Tired and drained. A bit sore too. And you?"

"Yeah, me too." Kassy lay down on the thick tree branch, letting her paws dangle over the sides. "How did you find the communal rut? Was it fun?"

"It was both better and worse than I expected. It was fun, but also stressful."

"Who did you mate with for the third and fourth rounds?" Kassy asked.

"Round three was with a dragoness from Phoenix Fastflight named Madrigal, and round four was with Hazel."

"Hazel? She's the one who usually flies the London transatlantic, right?"

"Yep. It was...fun. She was the flight leader on my first transatlantic flight ever, last month. Anyway, what about you? Did you have fun? I saw you went with Apollo, and uh...that skinny drake from AeroHub North."

Kassy nodded, then she realized that Maxwell had his eyes closed and would see the gesture. "His name was Immortalis. I guess...the whole rut was fun? Very different from what I expected, but fun. Overall, I'm glad it happened, but I see why they only have communal ruts every few months."

"Yep," Maxwell agreed.

"Today was a really long day. Heck, this whole week has been a really long week. I'm looking forward to just...everything going back to normal. No more slit restrictors, no more being in heat, no more worrying about mating. Just back to normal, flying routes and carrying cargo."

Maxwell chuckled. "I couldn't agree more. Haha, though things will be on a bit of a delay going back to normal."

"Why's that?"

"Hurricane Idalia, remember? That hurricane's going to roll in in one or two days. Flights will be all weird. It'll be a good time to avoid Georgia, South Carolina, maybe even Florida."

The hurricane, right. It was hard to forget about a category three storm barrelling towards the coast, but Kassy had been otherwise occupied. What a shame that tomorrow's flight routes southwards were probably going be cancelled as the hurricane approached. After all, Lincoln had mentioned he would be back in Georgia on Monday evening, and Kassy wouldn't mind seeing that whiteback drake again...

Kassy yawned, suddenly feeling very tired. It wasn't that late in the evening and the sun hadn't set yet, but the day's activities had left her exhausted. "I'll talk with Jennifer...see what routes are available tomorrow..."

Juniper Ranch, Atlanta; Monday evening, one day after the communal rut

Grey clouds filled the sky even as Kassy came in for landing. Rain started to drizzle down even as she touched down, and the dragoness hurried scrambled into the shelter of the loading dock.

Unlike Kassy's home ranch, Juniper Ranch didn't have any dragons of its own. Years back, the ranch had been unprofitable and on the verge of shutting down before both the buildings, equipment, human ranchers, and dragon freighters had been bought over by Caedry Aerospace Group. Following this acquisition, Juniper Ranch's flight operations had eventually been consolidated to other much larger facilities owned by Caedry.

Despite this switchover, Juniper Ranch remained busy as ever, though now it served more as cargo storage with minor stopover facilities for freighters, and not as an independent ranch operation. Kassy wondered if this was the fate that would eventually befall Quarter Coastal--now that they were a part of Caedry, would their ranchers and freighters slowly be moved away, leaving the ranch as merely as transit point and not a home? Or might it go the other way--would Quarter Coastal begin to grow exponentially, utilizing the vast resources available to Caedry Aerospace Group until Quarter Coastal was so big it would be rechristened as Caedry AeroHub QTC?

It was hard for Kassy to say. She was just a freighter, and a young inexperienced one at that. However, for now, she focused on the job at hand--delivering the cargo she carried in her flight harness.

The operations manager of Juniper Ranch came up to Kassy and checked her ID tag with a handheld scanner, before quickly directing her to one section of the adjacent warehouse for unloading. "Good evening...Kassy. Did you get caught in the rain? No? Good. This isn't even the hurricane yet, this is just a precursor storm. If you please, head on over to bay fourteen and have the boys there unload your pouches."

As instructed, Kassy trotted over to the warehouse and her assigned bay, where a rancher driving a small forklift moved around her and lifted off the bulk pouches attached to the side of her flight harness, before moving them into storage. Kassy kept her tail off the ground and her paws directly below her within the demarked areas--the forklift was smaller than her, but such vehicles were usually heavier than they looked, and having someone run over your tail hurt. It was the sort of lesson freighters only had to be taught once.

When all her cargo pouches had been removed, Kassy left the loading bay and returned back to the operations manager, who was directing a blue longwing who had just landed. "...bay ten, if you please! Thanks."

The operations manager turned to Kassy. "Hmm, Yes? You need something? Oh, you're done unloading. Good. Let me just check your schedule... It looks like you've reached your flight quota for today! Your next flight is scheduled for tomorrow morning at six-thirty AM--cargo and destination TBD. So for now, you can head on over to the dormitory or the cookhouse, if you please. Do you know where they are?"

Kassy nodded. "I've been here before."

The human gave her a thumbs up, then he reached down to her paw and used a pair of scissors to snip off the flight tag which read, "JNPR GA", her last destination which was therefore her current location. "Off you go then. Get some rest."

Kassy ate her dinner in the ranch's cookhouse (porridge), then she went to the hangar dormitory to rest. Juniper Ranch's hangar was split into two separate rooms filled with bed mats and resting dragons. During the night both rooms were used for sleeping, but during the day only one was used for sleeping (by dragons who flew during the night), whereas the other room was used as a lounge area. Kassy went to the first room and looked around. There was plenty of space here, but instead Kassy headed to the second room, where she finally found who she was looking for.

About two dozen dragons were in the hangar's lounge room, chatting, eating food, or just watching the television mounted on the wall--all of them were freighters, and numerous different species were present. Sitting at the side of the room was one particular dragon--a male who was about the same size as her. He had grey-scales all over his body, except for his back where they lightened to a pale white colour. Other than the two of them, there weren't any other nettled gliders around, white-backed or grey-backed.

Lincoln was watching the television, but he noticed Kassy right away when she walked in. The greyback, and the whiteback--both of them just stared at each other from across the room, not moving or saying anything.

All of a sudden, Kassy didn't know what to do. She had no plan--this morning she'd asked Jennifer about her flight routes and requested that her night-time stopover be at Juniper Ranch. She hadn't told Jennifer why she was making this request, because saying it aloud would make it sound silly.

But now she was here and so was Lincoln, and neither of them knew what to do. After the moment had dragged on long enough to become slightly awkward for everyone involved, Kassy decided that she ought to walk over and strike up a conversation.

"Hi there, Lincoln," Kassy started by saying.

Even the mention of his name seemed to make the drake happy. "Oh, you remember my name? Uh...hi, Kassy! I wasn't sure if I'd see you here. Good to see you!" Lincoln sat up straight and grinned. His tail curled around his paws.

"Good to see you too." Kassy sat down on the cushioned bed mat beside Lincoln's, but if things went as planned they wouldn't need two bed mats tonight. "Are the rest of your friends not here?" she asked, referring to the other whitebacks Lincoln had been with last week.

"No, flight 431 for today only needed one dragon, so I volunteered," Lincoln replied.

"Volunteered? Why? You like the scenery around here?" Kassy curled her tail around herself and let the tip wrap around her own paws. Much to her amusement, Lincoln's gaze followed her waving tail tip. "How are things?"

"Normal. The routine is...routine, I suppose. Just flying cargo and making deliveries every day. Oh, there was one interesting thing which happened--I was caught in a hailstorm the other day! I got pelted with these big balls of hail, and I had to make an emergency landing to shelter under a tree." Turning his head, Lincoln pointed to a spot on his neck. "One whacked me right there! Made me go all dizzy for a few seconds, and I nearly crashed. Nearly died! So cool. Can you see the bruise?"

"That looks painful. Can I touch it?" Kassy reached out her paw, and after Lincoln nodded, she lightly tapped the damaged scale. "What were you doing flying in a hailstorm?"

She could feel Lincoln's throat vibrate as he spoke. "I didn't release it was a hailstorm, or I would have diverted around the whole storm system. Lesson learned--don't fly into dark clouds."

"You would think you'd learned that on day one," Kassy said.

"Apparently not. So what about you? How was...how was your week?"

Kassy's paw was still touching Lincoln's neck, but she didn't move. "Same old, same old. My flights were routine. Sunday though--that was a unique experience."

Lincoln blinked, watching her closely with his dark brown eyes. "The Quarter Coastal communal rut? How was... how was that? What was it like?"

Kassy finally dropped her paw. Standing up, she walked over to Lincoln's bed mat and sat beside the whiteback. Lincoln moved slightly aside to give her space. "Stressful."

"Stressful? You mean it was painful?"

"No, not painful. The physical act of mating was rather fun, especially cause I was I heat. Still am, actually."

"You...you are? You don't smell like... I've always heard that dragonesses in heat are all stinky on account of the hormones, but you smell nice. Uh, normal! I mean, you smell normal." Lincoln really looked wide-eyed now, and Kassy thought that was adorable.

"I smell normal? Maybe you're just not close enough to tell the difference."

Lincoln used a paw to fiddle with his horns. "I, uh, maybe...? Do you... Is that an invitation? I'm not very experiencing with all this sort of...flirting."

Kassy nodded. "And now you understand why I found the communal rut so stressful. Remember last week when you mentioned how nervous you were, having to walk up with to a dragoness and seduce her? It's just like that, except that you're in front of eighty other dragons who will judge you if you get rejected."

"Actually I believe I said, 'a beautiful dragoness', or something to that effect," Lincoln replied. "Because you are. Beautiful, I mean. But I understand what you mean about the stress! Right now I'm sitting next to a beautiful dragoness, and I feel like I should be acting suave and charming, but instead I don't know if I'm saying the right things. Am I?"

"I guess we'll find out soon, won't we?" Kassy replied, which (in her humble opinion) was a pretty charming thing to say. Hopefully. "Overall the communal rut was...an experience. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it. There's just so much pressure to perform, and you don't get much time with each person after you pick them. I just wish we could have more time to take it slow."

"Slow? How long is mating supposed to be?" Lincoln asked, looking genuinely curious. "Do you just...mount each other and keep going for so long? Nonstop?"

"I don't know. I'm not an expert on sex. I guess it doesn't feel so long because you get engrossed in it? Sort of like how you can fly for hours, and you feel your wings beating and it's tiring but satisfying. But the last round...the freestyle round--that was just crazy. It was like a massive, nonstop orgy, with drakes and dragonesses just mating in every possible position and pairing. "

"Sounds kinky," Lincoln replied.

"I'm not really into being kinky. I'm a boring sort of dragon." Kassy unfurled her wings and flicked them in a shrug. Then instead of furling them back up, she casually reached over and let her right wing rest against Lincoln's back, pulling the whiteback closer to her. "You know, I never even kissed anyone."

"Really? Never in the whole communal rut?" Lincoln asked.

"Nope. Not in the communal rut, not ever before." Kassy paused for a moment, waiting for something to happen. After about ten seconds, she prompted Lincoln. "Um, this is the part where you need to say, 'would you like me to help you change that?', and then we kiss."

Lincoln's tail twitched from side to side. "Oh! Right, I was trying to think up some witty banter, but you are much better at this than me. Is it too late if I say it now? Wait; let's try this again from the top. Could you say your part again, please?"

Kassy had to hold back her laughter. Even talking with Lincoln was a delight. "Hehe, I was saying, uh... what was I saying? I said: I've never kissed anyone before."

Lincoln was also clearly trying not to break into laughter. "Is that so? Well, me neither! Shall we chance that? Wait no, I said it wrong. I mean, shall we change that? P.S. please say yes."

Kassy burst into uncontrolled giggles. "Hehehaha... Shut up, shut up!" After a moment, she composed herself and looked at Lincoln again. The drake was so close to her--her wing was still around his back, and one of his paws was touching hers. "Seriously now. Lincoln, close your eyes."

"Why?" he asked automatically. Lincoln watched her with his wide, dark brown eyes, then after a moment he got the hint. He closed his eyes, and then Kassy leaned in and touched her snout against his in a kiss.

Kissing was really a great thing to do. Kassy wasn't sure if she was doing it properly, but the fun thing about Lincoln was that he was equally inexperienced and wouldn't know even if she was terrible. It was sort of like mashing her snout against his snout, then trying to lick each other's tongue, while avoiding having your teeth bumping into each other. Or something like that, but it was definitely very intimate and disgusting and fun.

The two young freighters kept up their kissing for as long as they wanted, totally ignoring the other dragons in the room who were still chatting, watching TV, or doing other boring things which weren't as fun as kissing. But finally Kassy pulled back. She felt an urge in her underbelly which needed to be sated, and Lincoln would be the drake to do it.

Sure enough he was obviously just as roused up as she was--his erection was now clearly visible protruding out of his genital slit. His penis was just like what she'd seen before--a length of scaleless flesh in a smooth, rigid form which vaguely reminded her of some misshapen spear. Running down the bottom side were a series of slight ridges, and near the base there was a bulge which was still uninflated for now.

Kassy almost wanted to mate with him right here, but there were at least two dozen other dragons in the room here. It wasn't that she was embarrassed, but just that she wanted this to be...something more intimate, and the exact opposite of the communal rut. Something lovingly shared between him and her, not openly displayed to all the others. She didn't want to show off and she didn't want others to judge--she just wanted to mate with this handsome drake with his charming smile.

"Are we...going to...?" Lincoln asked, and Kassy answered by reaching a paw to gently fondle his growing erection, coaxing it out even further from his genital slit.

"Yeah, but not here." Letting go of her prize, Kassy hopped off the bed mad and raised her tail, and Lincoln followed after her like he was hypnotized. They went to the other hangar room, where the lights were already dimmed and all of the other dragons inside were fast asleep. It wasn't very private, but Kassy didn't mind.

The two dragons picked a far corner in the L-shaped room, where there were no other dragons, and then they got down to it. Kassy shoved Lincoln back onto their chosen bed mat, and then she climbed over his supine body and lined up their genital slits. There were no words to be said. Just quiet anticipation as they both waited for what had to happen next.

Lincoln let out a soft groan as Kassy slowly lowered herself down, sliding his erect length into her waiting depths. Each ridge of his phallus rubbed against her sensitive spots, helping to spread the natural lubrication being produced by both their slits. In the darkened room, they both fought to stay quiet as pleasure flowed through their bodies. It was all warm, wet, snugness--where it was hard to tell where one person ended and the other began.

With desperate, lustful aggression, the two young freighters screwed each other's brains out. The motions were simultaneously gentle and intimate, but also passionate and urgent. Kassy let her head rest beside Lincoln's, and she could feel his breath coming in rapid pants. Her wings brushed against his, and every scale felt like it was tingling as she rubbed against his body.

"Kassy, you're just... I... wow..." Lincoln shuddered all over, and he couldn't even seem to get his words straight. Kassy rolled her hips, refusing to relent even as she felt Lincoln's paws running over her chest and her wings. Logic and rational thought were discarded as instinct and desire took command. They were racing each other now, competing to see who would slip off that cliff of pleasure and into an orgasm. Kassy won--but it was close enough that they could call it a tie.

Lincoln abruptly went all stiff, bucking his hips upwards to shove his erect length deep inside her. "Oh...!" Kassy heard him make a noise like a choked, shocked gasp, and then she felt his knot bloat up and start to swell inside her, locking them together.

"I can feel you... It's getting big..." This sudden pressure kicked off her own orgasm, and Kassy grabbed Lincoln and pulled him close as waves of bliss rolled over her body.

On his part, Lincoln was lost in pleasure as well. Kassy could feel the drake shudder and jerk under her as his penis twitched to a rhythmic beat, firing warm, sticky jets of semen deep inside her. For that brief moment there was nothing either of them could do but hold the other close as their minds were shut down by the deep satisfaction of a mating taken to its natural conclusion.

They didn't stop there, of course. Once Lincoln's ejaculation had ended and his knot had deflated, Kassy began to ride him again. She didn't count how many times they both came, but eventually they swapped places so that Lincoln could take his turn on top. Then when finally he too was too tired to continue, Kassy rolled over and positioned herself over him again.

When the night was truly late, only then did they finally stop. Both freighters slumped down next to each other, still with wings, legs and tails all tangled up together. Lincoln was sore and totally spent, and Kassy felt a rush of warm semen drip out of her when she slowly pushed herself off him. It was messy and the bed mats were probably filthy now, but neither dragon could muster the energy to care.

Basking in the total satisfaction of the afterglow, they kissed again. Not a desperate, frantic activity like how they'd started the night's activities, but just a gentle peck on each other's snout. And then they feel asleep together, still cuddled up to each other.

Hangar, Juniper Ranch, Atlanta; Tuesday morning, one and a half days after the communal rut

Hours before she needed to wake, Kassy was roused by all the room lights coming on.

"Ohh!"

"What the heck?"

"Mgrahh!"

Loud complaining grumbles emanated from the dozens of sleeping dragons at the sudden brightness. Kassy had been sleeping with Lincoln's wing over her back, and now the drake groaned and tucked his head under his wing to shield his eyes from the light.

Kassy raised her head and looked around, wide awake in an instant. This was a new situation-- freighters could be coming and going from the sleeping room after flying at all hours, so standard practice in all dragon ranches was for this room to be kept in a near constant state of darkness. But now the lights were all switched on, in clear violation of this usual practice. "What's going on?" Kassy asked, to no one in particular.

Lincoln took his head from under his wing and blinked sleepily at her. "Why's it so bright? Have I died and gone to heaven? Cause you're really pretty, like an angel..." And then he put his head back under his wing and went back to sleep.

Kassy pulled herself out of Lincoln's embrace and stood up. Just then, a human rancher came running in, shaking a hand bell which generated a loud ringing noise. "Attention! Attention! Sorry to wake y'all up, but there's an urgent announcement! Due to the rapidly approaching Hurricane Idalia, the local airspace will be closed within the next few hours! I say again, the weather's getting real bad! Unless you want to be stuck here until the hurricane blows over, y'all need to relocate out of the way of the storm! Check with your home ranch's ops teams for flight destinations!"

The rancher just kept repeating his message and ringing his bell, until finally it had started to sink into the sleepy dragons. Freighters slowly began getting to their feet and heading out of the room. Kassy nudged Lincoln's side to wake him up.

"Nrr... Let me sleep..." grumbled the whiteback.

Kassy nudged Lincoln's side to wake him up, a bit more insistently this time. "This sounds important. Wake up."

"No! I'm not waking up till dawn... tis a matter of principle."

"You're already awake. You might as well get up and see what's going on," Kassy retorted.

"I'm not compromise on my virtues."

"Sleeping is a virtue?"

"Damn right it is." Lincoln responded by resolutely covering his head with his wing. "Those who deny sleep to others deserve it not for themselves..."

"That doesn't make any sense." Kassy nudged Lincoln's side again but he didn't budge, so she decided to cheat. Using her paws, she started tickling his sides, then his belly.

Lincoln jerked awake and squealed, trashing from side to side. "Mmrrr?! Haha, hey! Kassy, noOOoo... Not under my wings! I'm sensitive there! Pleeease!"

"Oh, but that's not the only place you're sensitive, is it?" Kassy moved her rubbing, tickling paws just a bit lower on Lincoln's belly, and if he hadn't been awake before, he absolutely was now. "Does the drake like it when I do this? Oh, he does? What about...this?" She got just close enough to his genital slit to be teasing, and then she stopped.

"Yeah...? Yeah...! Aww..." Lincoln gave her his most wide-eyed, adorably pitiful look. "You are just the worst, you know that?"

Kassy chuckled and patted him on the head. "Hehe, don't worry, there's more where that came from later. Come on now; let's go see what's happening." She hopped off the bed mat and headed out of the dormitory, and into the main flight operations area.

The clock on the wall said it was four AM--the worst time to be awake. Despite being hundreds of miles apart, Juniper Ranch and Quarter Coastal Ranch were both on the East Coast and so were in the same time zone. Yet despite these facts, Jennifer sounded cheery and fully awake as she spoke to Kassy over the telephone. Did she never sleep?

"Yeah, I'm seeing the weather alert on the planning system here too! Says right here, 'OPS HOLD FOR FLIGHT ROUTES blah blah blah'. Must be a quite the nightmare for the planners over at AeroHub MEM."

Kassy leaned her head closer to the speaker phone mounted in the wall. This part of the ranch was for dragons who needed to communicate with their home ranches, using special phones with loudspeakers and extra-large buttons. "Do I need to fly home? Now?"

"Let me just read the ops brief. Hmm, dee, dum... Ok, Juniper Ranch isn't in an evacuation zone, but the forecast for that area is for severe weather disruption for at least a day. You need to leave that ranch and fly out of the way of the hurricane, or you'll be trapped there until the storm blows over. But I do see here that your next flight was supposed to be at dawn. When did you go to sleep? Have you had enough rest for tonight? I don't want you flying if you're still tired. Safety first."

Kassy glanced towards Lincoln, who was speaking into the adjacent telephone just a few feet to her right. Lincoln was talking to his own ranch's flight operations team, but a transparent plastic privacy screen between them meant that she couldn't hear what he was saying. Neither of them had gotten much rest tonight--there had been plenty of recreation (via procreation), but not much resting until very late at night. "Uh... I'm still feeling a bit sleepy," Kassy told Jennifer.

"I can't say how tired you are feeling, so this is your call to make," was the rancher's response. "I'm sure you don't want to be trapped at Juniper for a few days--that would be so boring, I bet--but this is an extraordinary situation what with that hurricane. Do you want to fly home or stay at Juniper for a while? Your decision."

"Can I just... Do you mind if I get back to you in a minute?"

"Sure. Standing by."

Kassy leaned around the privacy screen and stretched out her wing to nudge Lincoln. "What are they saying to you?"

Lincoln covered his phone's microphone with his paw. "My ops manager is asking me to fly back to Dallas so I don't get trapped here by Hurricane Idalia."

Kassy shook her head. "Tell them that you're still feeling very tired from your last flight and that you'd rather stay here a bit longer."

Lincoln glanced back at the telephone. "Uh, but they were quite insistent I fly home."

"Were they now?" Leaning in close, Kassy gently licked the side of Lincoln's snout. "Fine then. Run off it you want! But I'm staying here... I'm just saying," she whispered to him.

"I...I... Right! Understood." Lincoln took his paw off the microphone. "Hey, uh, John? Listen, I was just thinking--this storm sounds pretty bad, and I think it's already starting to rain outside. So maybe it would be best if I don't risk it. Yeah, I know. But I'm not exactly having a good week with storms, alright? Just...yeah. Yeah, exactly!"

Kassy couldn't hear what Lincoln's ranchers were saying, but it didn't matter. After all, if he wanted to stay here, they couldn't force him to leave. Turning back to her own phone, Kassy told Jennifer that she would be staying at Juniper until the weather cleared.

"That's fine. Have a good rest, Kassy, we'll get you home in a few days. Try not to get too bored! Bye!" Jennifer replied, and then the line went dead.

Kassy tapped the button which would hang up the call. "Oh, I don't think boredom will be an issue."

Hangar, Juniper Ranch, Atlanta; Tuesday late morning, two days after the communal rut

The vast majority of the freighter dragons had flown off, and Juniper Ranch was all quiet. Only a handful of dragons remained, which was totally acceptable as far as Kassy was concerned.

The pitter-patter of rainfall and the howling of the wind formed a constant backdrop of noise, but there was something strangely calming about that continuous sound. Kassy and Lincoln snuggled together for warmth, holding each other close as they enjoyed a sleepy morning. They had returned to the dormitory and gone back to sleep, and finally someone had shut off the lights.

When they finally woke up, they found themselves all alone in the hangar's sleeping room. Out of the half-dozen dragons who hadn't flown off early in the morning, all the others appeared to have gone to the cookhouse for food, or the recreational room for some entertainment.

This was just fine because it let the two young freighters have their own shared entertainment--more sex, of course. It started out as nothing more than some snuggling--Kassy hugged Lincoln against her body, chest to chest and belly to belly. Then after a few minutes Lincoln started making small rubbing motions, ever so gently sliding his body against hers. It didn't take much longer until evidence of his arousal became obvious, and Lincoln went still as his penis slowly pushed its way out of his genital slit, only to slide directly into Kassy's slit.

Neither of them was moving at all, but Kassy was surprised by just how erotic the moment felt. She could feel Lincoln's erection growing with every beat of his heart, slowly pushing into her. Finally he stopped moving and they both kept still. He was all the way in her, and there was so much physical contact everywhere. Kassy could feel every beat of Lincoln's heart, and every slightest motion as he breathed in and out. They just kept snuggling against each other, not even moving, but this lack of movement just seemed to make everything more sensitive and sensual.

Long minutes ticked by, with both dragons just still and calm. Even as she tried to stay relaxed, Kassy found it increasingly difficult to remain motionless. Her muscles felt like they wanted to tense up, and finally she couldn't help but tremble against Lincoln as she felt the drake's warmth against her in the most intimate of places. His penis was throbbing inside her--was that from his heartbeat, or was he deliberately working his muscles?

It must have been a lingering aftereffect of her heat which hadn't quite faded away yet, for Kassy suddenly felt that slow, sensual pleasure burst up into an orgasm. For a moment she stayed relaxed, and then she lost control of her muscles as white-hot pleasure spilled over her body. Kassy grabbed her partner and held him close, even as other muscles started clenching and twitching from the sheer intensity of her ecstasy. "Ah...hah...nice..."

Lincoln made a rumbly, pleased noise, and Kassy felt him gently lick the side of her snout. "Rrr...that was hot!" Then just as her climax had started to wane, the drake started to move. Lincoln grabbed her and begun rolling his hips, rapidly thrusting as if to make up for lost time. Compared to the calmness of earlier, this sudden stimulation felt all the more intense, and Kassy almost felt overwhelmed as she let Lincoln have his way with her.

Despite how much sex they'd already had the previous night, the build-up and teasing meant that the drake lasted for no more than half a minute before he groaned in pleasure as his climax hit. "I'm gonna cum. Ah! God! Ahhhrrrggh..." His body went tense and all stiff, and though there was no way to see it, Kassy knew that that he was shooting his seed into her again. She'd lost track of how many times it had been.

During the communal rut, Maxwell had ejaculated in her four times, Apollo twice, and Immortalis hadn't at all. But Lincoln had done so more than all the others combined, and then some more--biologically, Kassy wondered if she'd all but drained his semen already, and now his body was just frantically making more as they kept mating.

And they kept mating, because it was fun and delightfully satisfying to scratch such a primal itch--the need to breed.

They stopped for breakfast, then went back to the empty dormitory room and mated again. After a quick break they were back to mating, trying out any and all the possible positions that came to mind. Mating with Kassy on top, mating with Lincoln on top, with one of them facing forwards, facing backwards, lying side by side facing each other, lying side by side both facing one direction, everything.

They eventually got caught, of course. Lincoln was lying on his back with Kassy riding him; but right as this particular bout of intercourse was nearing its conclusion, they heard the dormitory door swing open, then closed again on its springs. Kassy didn't stop--the room was L-shaped and they were around the corner not immediately visible from the doorway, and the room will still quite dark. It was probably another freighter just here to find a bed and nap.

"Yeah, the room's all empty. Looks all the freighters have flown off," said a human voice.

Still mounted on top of Lincoln, Kassy froze up at the sound. She tried to hop off Lincoln's supine body, only to find that this motion was impossible because his knot had just tied them together. This would only last for the duration of his orgasm--a fraction of a minute--but it was the worst possible time. "Uh oh. Hey can you, ah, try not to cum?" Kassy suggested.

"What? Why?" Lincoln asked, and then he came immediately. His knot swelled to maximum size, and Kassy felt his phallus throbbing inside her. "Oh, fuuuudge, that feels so good. I'm cumming. Ah, ah, ah..."

Abruptly the room became _not_dark when someone pulled aside the blackout curtains covering the windows. But with the rain still pouring down outside, the room didn't truly brighten until someone hit the light switch.

A ranch hand carrying a pair of water-filled pails strolled round the corner and stared at the two freighter dragons, resting belly to belly and still tied at the groin. "Well, well. Looks like not every freighter flew off! Are you two doing what I think you're doing?"

Kassy mumbled out a noncommittal noise. "Uhh..."

Lincoln still had his eyes clenched shut. He made a noise which was far more pleasured. "Ohh..."

The rancher grinned and put down his pails. "Sorry to interrupt your fun, but we gotta clean this room. Hygiene laws and all that." Walking back around the corner, the human shouted to the other ranchers who had apparently also entered the room. "Hey, Bob, you're doing the laundry, right? Hahaha, you're in for some fun when you come to replace that bed mat. We got a pair of little dragons here getting busy!"

"You're a funny guy, you know that Dale?" someone yelled in response. There were the sound of boots, then two more humans came round the corner carrying mops. "Well, I'll be. You were right--there are actually a pair of young dragons getting busy."

"We're being _watched_by a bunch of pervy humans," Kassy grumbled under her breath. "Are you done cumming yet?" She tried to lift her hips, making Lincoln grunt in discomfort as she pulled on his knot.

"No... No, it's a process..." Lincoln shook his head from side to side, eyes still closed. "Don't tug; just give me a few seconds to finish... Oh, that feels so gooood."

Kassy glared at the three humans, who looked amused. "It's been a few seconds."

"Alright... I'm done..."

Kassy lifted herself off Lincoln. His knot slit out of her with a pop, making a dribble of bodily fluid splatter down onto his crotch. The humans chuckled at the sight, but Kassy resolutely ignored them as she walked out of the room. Lincoln trailed behind her, giving polite nods to the ranchers as he passed. "Good day, excuse me, good day."

The ranchers dipped their mops in the buckets and began washing the floor. "You two have a good day too."

Warehouse, Juniper Ranch, Atlanta; Tuesday afternoon, two days after the communal rut

Kassy and Lincoln went to the freight warehouse and mated with each other behind a cargo pallet. They then tried mating on top of a different cargo pallet which was just appropriately placed at waist level, allowing Kassy to lie back with Lincoln thrusting right into her while standing on his hinds. There was something decisively naughty about mating in this place, which was normally filled with human and dragons handling the cargo.

After stopping for lunch, they took a break from the nonstop copulation and just chilled around in the lounge room. There were four other dragons who (for whatever reason) hadn't left Juniper Ranch, so they all sat around and watched the television. Despite the torrential downpour outside, the ranch still could get a wired signal through hardened telecommunication lines which were normally used for communicating with other ranches to coordinate flights.

But other than watching television and sleeping, there wasn't much else for dragons to do--except for mating of course, which Kassy and Lincoln did more of later in the evening. All the while through, rain poured down outside as the hurricane pounded the whole coast. At the end of the day, the rain was finally starting to abate and the winds lessened. Juniper Ranch's operations manager promptly announced that forecasts indicated the ranch could restart flights starting tomorrow morning.

As day gave way to night, the rainfall had lightened to nothing more than a gentle (if constant) patter against the roof. Kassy and Lincoln were snuggled up against each other, enjoying a brief interlude in their mating. "We'll have to fly tomorrow," Kassy said. She rested her head on Lincoln's back, taking in the sight of all his white scales were her scales would have been dark grey.

"End of the honeymoon. I'll fly west, you'll fly north, and we'll just fly apart," Lincoln replied. "What do you think they'd do to me if I just decided to follow you back and switched my home ranch to Quarter Coastal?"

Kassy wasn't sure if Lincoln was being serious. "You can't just fly to a ranch and decide that you live there now. Although since both our ranches are under Caedry, you could try to request a transfer. We had a couple of feral dragons recruited about three months ago, and if you came here as well, there's definitely space for you in our flight routes. Just the other day, Jennifer said our ranch is already planning on scaling up operations."

Lincoln grabbed Kassy's tail and used his claws to trace out the outline of her scales. "Haha, _scaling_up operations?" His joke got a laugh out of Kassy, and Lincoln grinned. "But seriously, I know how things work. I've been thinking about switching ranches, transferring out of Dallas Fastflight. I put in my transfer request last week to be moved over to AeroHub JFK. John--my ops manager--said they'll probably approve it."

"AeroHub JFK? That's over in New York."

Lincoln nodded. "I've always wanted to fly transatlantic, set foot on another continent and see what the Old World is like. But AeroHub JFK is also close to Quarter Coastal."

"So we'll see each other again?" Kassy asked, holding her breath and not daring to hope.

"Sure! I'd love that." Lincoln leaned in and kissed her, and Kassy felt a shudder run down her back. "I would love that, Kassy, because I think I love you."

Medical Tent, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Four days after the communal rut

"It always amazes me how quick the process is, compared to us humans," Jennifer commented. "If someone knocked me up, I would have to be pregnant for...gosh, nine months! But then a drake just mounts a dragoness, and then wham-bam an egg pops out after a few days."

"Pregnancy and gravidity are not directly comparable. An egg is nothing more than a big lump of protein and yolk surrounded by a calcium carbonate shell. Once you add in the long incubation period for eggs, it's more of an even comparison of prenatal development between dragon hatchlings and human babies." Dr Quincy adjusted his facial mask. The veterinarian had been working almost nonstop for the past few days, and Kassy was to be his next patient.

"I didn't think about this part," Kassy admitted. Just a few days ago she'd been having so much fun with Lincoln. But then in just the span of a few short days, her body had gone through a series of dramatic changes. The mild plumpness induced by her heat had rapidly reversed itself, with her body losing all the fat she'd put on and then some more. Her limbs, neck, and tail were now lanky and thin, and the outline of her ribcage was visible under her scales. Jennifer said it wasn't actually too noticeable of a change, but Kassy still felt like she was much skinnier and underweight.

Simultaneously her underbelly had begun to feel atrociously swollen and bloated, and it quickly became visibly clear this wasn't just her imagination. Eggs--her body was making eggs. After she'd put on all that weight during the initial parts of her heat, all that fat was now being broken down and converted into stored nutrients and calories which would eventually fuel the growth of a single-celled zygote into a miniature dragon ready to hatch from the shell. But creating that egg wasn't a comfortable process.

Most of the other Quarter Coastal dragonesses had started to feel their heat ending soon after the communal rut, replaced by the eye-laying fever, but Kassy had been the exception. She'd still felt well enough to continue her cargo routes the day after, and she'd gone to meet up with Lincoln. After that, Kassy had flown home from Juniper Ranch back to Quarter Coastal, but then just half a day later she'd finally gotten the fever. Her limbs felt like they were aching and sore, and her scales suddenly felt cold even though the ranchers assured her it wasn't a cold day. All she wanted to do was lie down somewhere dark, quiet, and warm--a good place to nest.

This was all just natural instinct, Jennifer had explained, and it was a very good sign! While Kassy had been feeling cranky and broody, she wasn't the only dragoness--almost all of the females who'd taken part in the communal rut had already begun to show the same symptoms, and the older more experienced dragonesses were even used to them already.

With incredible industriousness, the ranchers had quickly converted Barn Nineteen from a communal rut area into a nesting site. The numerous partitioned rooms used for mating had been disassembled, and the whole building had been vigorously cleaned. Dozens of incubators had been rolled into the barn and set up in neat rows. Each incubator looked rather like a mini fridge--a grey metal box with a swing door, hooked up to an electrical outlet. However, each incubator also had a small glass window to see inside it, and a digital panel indicated the temperature, humidity, and even light level within.

All this information Jennifer had happily told to Kassy. Normally the ranch only needed one or two incubators for when their dragonesses occasionally laid eggs, but now almost every dragoness was going to be laying eggs. Flight operations would remain at a reduced level until the end of the week, as half of Quarter Coastal's freighters were now too heavily laden with eggs to fly safely.

In the wild, being unable to fly was a very serious handicap, which was why dragonesses created eggs so quickly and them laid them. After the eggs had been laid, a communal group of wild greybacks would keep all their eggs together and have a few individuals (male and female) take care of the eggs while the others hunted as normal, and this was largely similar to what Quarter Coastal was doing now.

As the gravid dragonesses laid their eggs, each egg would be kept in an incubator. Then after some rest, the dragonesses could return to their cargo flights as usual. It would take about ten months for the young dragons within the eggs to grow to full (miniature) size, when they would hatch out of their eggs.

But for now, Kassy was far more worried about how she was going to get her eggs out of herself. A medical tent had been set up just beside Barn Nineteen, and Dr Quincy the veterinarian was attending to dragonesses as they each laid out their eggs. Most of the Quarter Coastal dragonesses were resting somewhere inside Barn Nineteen--it was an instinct to check out the nesting site, and they also peered into the incubators where the eggs which had already been laid were placed.

This was all just natural behaviour--they were a communal species of dragon, even if they were domesticated. The greybacks encouraged each other as over the course of a few days they went into labour. The females who had already laid eggs still stayed to support those who had not yet done so, and males also dropped by when they weren't flying busy their cargo routes.

Kassy was now inside the medical tent, resting on a padded metal egg-laying frame which kept her in a crouching position with her hindlegs spread. It was the correct posture for how she would need to lay her eggs, but the dragoness couldn't help but think that this was the exact posture also used for defecation. Which was oddly appropriate.

There were six humans in the medical tent. Dr Quincy and a trio of his staff were providing medical assistance, and two ranchers (Jennifer and Leon) were also present to help record down information about the eggs. But other than Kassy, there was only one other dragon in the tent--Vela, the oldest female greyback, was sitting by the side and looking calm. Her expression was almost bored, and Kassy found something reassuring about that--if the elder matron found laying a routine and uninteresting activity, then surely it couldn't be that bad.

Dr Quincy was standing behind Kassy near her genital slit, with one of the nurses holding her tail out of the way as the veterinarian ran an ultrasound scanner over her swollen belly. The ultrasound cart was facing away, and Kassy couldn't see the screen. "Is everything normal?" asked the dragoness.

"Everything's looking normal," Quincy told her.

"How many eggs are there?" Kassy asked, but Quincy didn't reply to that question.

Kassy had been feeling occasional muscle contractions deep inside her abdomen over the past few hours, but now these contractions were getting much more frequent and become so intense as to verge on pain. Other females had talked about this happening to them, and explained to Kassy what she ought to expect, but now it was her turn. "Is this... is this going to hurt?" Her voice sounded more scared than she'd realized.

"You will feel a very intense pressure as your muscles start to contract in rhythmic waves. The first egg will be the slowest. Following eggs should proceed faster once you've gotten used to it," Dr Quincy explained.

Vela also had an answer. "Yes, it'll hurt, especially for your first time. You won't be able to think straight while it's happening. Scream if you need to."

Kassy groaned as another muscle contraction wracked through her underbelly. "Grraaaahhh..." It felt like sharp, crushing pressure was going to tear her apart from the inside, but she couldn't control it. Her paws gripped the metal laying frame tightly as pain cut through her, then she slumped down as the contraction passed. "Do...don't you have drugs for this?"

"Sedatives won't be effective. Your bloodstream is already being flooded to saturation with natural hormones and painkillers," Quincy told her.

"Well it doesn't feel--aargghhhh...!" Kassy didn't want to groan, but the sound just escaped her throat involuntarily. The painful pressure held for a few terrible seconds, before fading away and leaving her gasping for breath. "How about... you... just... knock me out and wake me up when it's over?"

"Sorry, but it's not advisable to use general anaesthesia unless you faint."

"Well what use is it then? Oh, no, no, no--grrraaaHHHghh!" Kassy shrieked as a wave of pressure hit. The contractions were coming stronger and faster now, leaving hardly any time for her to recover. "I'm...gonna die..."

"Take deep breaths," Vela suggested. "Focus on that instead of how much it hurts." Which was easy for her to say since she was one of the few dragonesses who wasn't gravid.

Kassy tried to take a deep breath, which just let her scream all the louder.

The pain and discomfort blended together until Kassy lost all track of time or space. When she finally surfaced back to full consciousness, she found herself slumped limply against the egg-laying frame, her paws not even gripping the cushioned metal. Slowly she opened her eyes, blinking at the sudden brightness even within the shaded enclosure of the medical tent. Her whole body felt so unbelievably tired that even raising her head was a challenge.

"Kassy? How are you feeling, girl?" asked one of the nurses.

"Did I die?" Kassy asked. Her voice sounded raw and hoarse.

Underneath her surgical facemask, the nurse smiled. "No, quite the opposite in fact."

Approaching from the side, Jennifer was carrying something in a large plastic box. Nestled in bundles of towels, still wet with blood and other bodily fluids, was a pale-white ovoid about a foot and a half in length. It was an egg.

Kassy blinked, slowly comprehending what she was looking at. It was an egg. An egg. Her egg. "Huh." She gently nosed at the egg and sniffed it.

"You made that!" Moving very carefully, Jennifer put down the egg down beside Kassy--within close distance, but slightly offset so the dragoness wouldn't land on the egg even if she somehow slipped out of the laying frame. Kassy appreciated the sentiment. Right now her head was still buzzing, and her whole body felt tingly and weak.

There were more. Jennifer brought over two more boxes, each containing an egg. A total of three eggs, and seeing them all together made memories click back into place. Kassy remembered now--just a few minutes ago she'd gone squeezed out the eggs one by one, feeling each egg torturously stretch open her genital slit as it passed out of her. Even now, the muscles of her underbelly didn't feel like they were responding--it would probably take hours, days, or maybe longer for everything there to return to normal.

"Three eggs. Well done," Jennifer told her.

But...no, something wasn't right. As she slowly began to recall her own memories, Kassy felt something was wrong. Even through her long moments of pain and suffering, she'd held on to one coherent thought repeated over and over--the count. "No, that's not right. That's not right! Three? There were four!"

"Kassy," Jennifer began to say, but the dragoness wasn't quite thinking straight.

"I counted! There were four, not three!" Kassy insisted. She stared at the eggs, repeatedly counting them in case somehow she'd miscounted. But the number remained unchanged--one, two, three, and that was it.

"Calm down, Kassy," Quincy tried to say, but Kassy wasn't listening to him either.

"Where did it go? I remembered four! Four eggs, not three? What? Where is it? Where?"

Only when Vela spoke up did Kassy stop her panicked babbling, as the sound of the older dragoness's voice calmed her. "You recalled correct. You laid four eggs, but only three are whole. The missing egg was severely cracked."

"It's not unusual for eggs to be damaged, especially for a dragoness on her first lay," Quincy explained. "Out of the four eggs, the damaged egg was laid out second. The shell was cracked, all the way into the inner membranes."

Kassy felt like her breath had been sucked out of her. She wanted to reply, but even breathing took so much effort. "What? No... it was... That can't be right. Where's the egg? Did you just throw it in the trash?! Ha!" A hysterical sound which was half laugh, half sob slipped out along with this last line, but no one else laughed.

Even with his face obscured by the surgical mask, Dr Quincy looked solemn. "We still have the egg."

"I...can I see it?"

Quincy turned to look at Jennifer, who turned to look at Vela, who nodded. "Show her the egg. It is her right," said the elder dragoness.

"Alright, if it brings you closure." Quincy walked over to the side of the room and picked up a fourth plastic box, also filled with wadded up towels. As he brought it over, Kassy got a good look at the egg within.

Quincy's medical diagnosis appeared correct--as he put the cracked egg next to the other three, Kassy saw a large fracture running across the whole shell, with wet viscous liquid visible within. "Can you fix that?" Kassy asked, but she knew the answer even before Quincy spoke.

"Eggshell patching is only for minor cracks where the membrane is intact. With a large crack like this where the membrane has been ruptured, the egg will almost certainly rot." The veterinarian pointed a gloved finger towards the crack. "Even if we tried antibiotics and a patch, I'd give this egg at best a 5% chance of producing a hatchling. And even in that case, there would be a very high chance of it being crippled or defective. Better to destroy an egg than have to put down a hatchling."

Kassy just stared at the egg. "Oh." Her panicked terror was fading away as logic reasserted itself. Slowly, gradually, she was getting her emotions back in check. "Well, that sucks."

Vela clicked her tongue. "Tsk. Do not be saddened. As Quin-cey said, not all eggs are destined to become hatchlings."

"But was it my fault? Did I push too hard and crack the shell?"

"Your shell glands may have deposited the shell unevenly, which made one portion too thin to survive the laying. It's not your fault, these things just happen. Don't blame yourself," Quincy said.

Kassy spent some more time staring at the cracked egg. Perversely, she wondered what it would be like if someone took that egg and used it to make an omelette. "But you are going to throw it away, I suppose."

"It'll be treated as medical waste and disposed of accordingly," Quincy told her. "Unless you desire otherwise?"

"Traditionally, some females would eat their cracked eggs to regain some of the nutrients," Vela added.

Once again, Kassy had the mental image of an omelette. "No, just no."

Jennifer reached out a hand and gently stroked Kassy's cheek. "Do you want a burial for this damaged egg? I could arrange that, if it's what you want."

Kassy leaned her head into the rancher's hand. "No, I just want the normal process. Nothing special."

"Alright then." Quincy took the cracked egg in its box and put it by the side, leaving just the three intact eggs. Of the three eggs, all had differing sizes. The largest was a foot and a half long, and just over a foot in width. Kassy had seen bigger eggs laid but some of the other dragonesses, but given that egg size was normally proportional to the female's body weight, this egg was _exceptionally_large for her. And it had felt it as she was laying it out--this was the first egg she'd laid, and the others had been comparatively easy and fast.

Of the two other intact eggs, there was an egg which was normal sized--about a foot and a quarter long, it was similar in size to the cracked egg except that its shell was fully intact. There were some minor spots and bumps, but Quincy said that these were just normal, superficial imperfections.

The final egg was tiny. It was less than a foot long, and its internal volume was at most only a quarter of the largest egg. Quincy gestured between the three eggs, comparing the broad range of sizes on display. "You can see how your oviducts weren't quite able to split the albumen and yolk evenly, hence the size discrepancy. But not to worry--that's totally normal. A clutch showing a wide spread of sizes is a very common occurrence for first-time mothers. Some dragonesses outgrow it, but others continue to produce different sized eggs in every future clutch," Quincy said.

"Future clutch? I don't ever want to do this again. I think I'll just swear off sex." Kassy closed her eyes and let her head rest against the frame. Right now all she wanted was to curl into a ball and rest, preferably while huddling her eggs close.

"Nah, don't be like that. Wait till you've had a good meal and several days of rest--you'll be feeling like yourself all over again," Jennifer said. She patted Kassy on the head. "Now let's get these eggs into the incubators, and we'll let you lie down and rest."

Barn Nineteen/The Nest, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Six days after the communal rut

It had taken a few days, but Kassy was finally starting to feel like her normal self. She'd been eating voraciously and her strength was returning. Her genital slit still felt sore and achy like a muscle which had been pulled too far, but Dr Quincy had assured her this was all a normal part of recovery. Jennifer said that Kassy would be able to return to flying cargo routes by about tomorrow, and if she felt up to it, she could technically resume other activities (sexual activities) in about a week's time. Kassy was no longer certain about remaining celibate for the rest of her life, but she was in absolutely no rush to lay any more eggs.

Now she was back in Barn Nineteen, looking over the numerous rows of incubators--there were so many eggs!

Vela was sitting by the side of the barn. As she was too old to be flying cargo routes very often, the elder dragoness had been given the job of nest guardian--watching over all the eggs to keep the brood warm and protected from predators. Of course, this job wasn't necessary for domesticated dragons in a modern ranch where incubators kept the eggs at precisely the right environmental conditions, but it just felt better to know that a dragon was looking over their eggs, not just humans or advanced machines.

"Which eggs are mine?" Kassy asked.

"All the eggs," Vela replied. "All the eggs are yours, and all the eggs are mine, and all the eggs are everyone's. We are all a communal family together. And when the hatchlings emerge, we shall all raise them together without bias or favouritism."

This was all a very nice sentiment, but it wasn't what Kassy had been asking. "Ok, but which eggs are mine?" she repeated. In terms of family structure, she had no problem with the idea of her hatchlings being raised as part of Quarter Coastal's freighter community. But for now she was just curious about which incubator her eggs had gone to. After laying them, she'd spent quite a lot of time staring at the eggs before she'd let the ranchers take them away. Theoretically Kassy believed that she could identify her eggs just by their specific size and by minor imperfections in shape and shell, but that would involve slowly peering into the window of every incubator. There were almost a hundred incubators.

"If you really want to know, I have the information here," Jennifer said. The rancher was sitting at a desk by the side of the room, where all sorts of fancy scientific equipment had been set up. There was the ultrasound cart previously used by Dr Quincy, a microscope, a weird box covered in loose black cloth, and all sorts of other things Kassy couldn't recognize.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Vela asked. "The ranchers must know for their health records, but you do not need to know this information. Once you know which eggs are yours, you cannot forget, and this may cause your pain."

Kassy didn't understand. She nodded her head insistently. "I want to know where my eggs are."

Vela let out a soft rumble. "So be it."

Opening up her laptop computer, Jennifer scrolled through a document filled with rows of small text. "Your eggs are in... boxes 82, 83, and 84."

Kassy trotted over to the appropriate row and located the appropriately numbered incubator boxes. Putting one eye up against the glass window, she looked into incubator 82. The inside was all dark and it was hard to even see the egg until Jennifer came over and pressed a button, switching on an internal light. And there it was--the largest of the three eggs she'd laid, sitting nicely inside the incubator.

Jennifer pulled the handle of the incubator, and the door came open with a click. The air inside was noticeably warmer than outside, a fact Kassy discovered when she stuck her nose in to sniff at her egg. She'd seen other dragonesses (and drakes) check eggs by sniffing at them gently, although she had no idea what a healthy egg was even supposed to smell like. Jennifer let her check the other two eggs as well, but they all seemed the same. Vela watched from the side, seeming faintly amused by the younger greyback's curiosity.

"We should be able to tell if the eggs are fertile within one week. Latest by two weeks--if there isn't any sign of development then, we can safely assume that the egg is unfertilized," Jennifer explained.

"You'll throw away the unfertilized eggs?"

"Yeah, but don't worry. We'll make very sure the egg isn't developing--we've got ways to check."

"What ways?" Kassy asked.

"I'm glad you asked. Here, I can show you." Jennifer closed the door and tapped the display panel on the side of the incubator (number 84, the one holding Kassy's smallest egg). She navigated through a series of menus, before selecting one particular option. Suddenly the inside of the incubator flashed with light, and there was a series of mechanical clicking sounds.

Kassy's first thought was that something had happened to the egg; but when she peered into the glass window, she saw that it was sitting calmly inside the incubator. "What was that? What just happened?"

"Candling. It's pretty cool!" Jennifer beckoned for Kassy to follow her over to the side of the room, where her laptop computer was placed. She did something on her computer, and then she stepped aside to let Kassy see the screen, where several images of an egg were now displayed.

"Is that...?" Kassy glanced from the screen to incubator 84 sitting across the room. "That's the egg!"

"Exactly! This is the egg here--top view, left side view, right side view. Oh, I love technology! See here..." Jennifer tapped a key and the images changed from simple shots of the shell exterior, into a different set of images where the egg seemed to glow from within. "Now this is the interior view! How the candling function works is by shining a light which is bright enough so that we can see through the shell, then several built-in cameras take the picture and the pictures are sent to my computer here."

Kassy stared at the screen. The egg looked like a glowing red oval. "Wow."

"Pretty cool, huh? You can't really see anything right now, but within a few days we should be able to see the embryo forming. The veins will look like a spider web on the inside of the shell. Small eggs are easier to candle, of course, since there's less material in the way of the light. We can even see the heartbeat once the embryos are developing, though eventually the eggs will become opaque and harder to candle. At that point, there only way to see inside is using an ultrasound scanner, but we won't bother with that for most eggs." Jennifer pointed to _another_separate machine which stood apart from all the incubators.

"You really have this all thought out, don't you?" Kassy asked.

Jennifer patted the greyback on the head. "We sure do. It used to be we'd have to take every egg out of the incubator, turn off the room lights, and shine a bright flashlight to try and candle it. But now I can just do this..." The rancher typed in something to her keyboard and clicked the mouse button.

In rapid succession across the whole room, every single incubator flashed with light and let out a series of clicks. There were more than a hundred incubator machines arranged in neat rows, and rows of images began appearing on Jennifer's laptop screen to match.

"I just press one button here, and we can get information about every single egg! Then we save the images for all the different eggs, so we can compare their growth progress every week. The future is now!" Jennifer declared.

Kassy didn't have to fake an impressed look. "Wow. Wow, that's really amazing."

"I know, right? I can just press one button, and we can instantly see what's going on inside every single egg. I can tell you the precise temperature and humidity inside each incubator, and they make sure that the eggs are automatically rotated just like how a dragoness would nest her eggs."

Jennifer pointed her thumb towards one of the incubators. "Of course, you do not want to know how much one of these machines costs. I saw the payment order, and the final cost came up to a lot of digits. A lot. This is cutting edge medical tech right here. One year ago we might just have been able to afford one of them, or maybe two, but buying enough incubators for a hundred and twenty eggs would have bankrupted us. But for Caedry Aerospace Group? Not even a drop in the bucket."

Vela let out an amused chuckle. She was an old dragoness--older than Jennifer, and maybe even older than Jennifer's father, the head rancher. "Much more high tech than how we used to do it, but not as fun as building a nest and sitting on the eggs."

Kassy walked back to the incubators, and stared at her eggs. She had no desire to build a nest or sit over her eggs, but seeing them still created a strange feeling of nervous pride in her chest. "I hope it turns out well."

Jennifer gave her a warm smile. "Ten months development, then the eggs should start to hatch."

AeroHub JFK, New York; Two weeks after the communal rut

"So, are you settled into your new home?" Kassy asked the drake she was snuggled up against.

Lincoln playfully licked her on the neck. "Not quite. This place is huge, and I don't believe that you can truly call someplace your home if you haven't explored every part of it. Rrrr..." His words were cut off by a pleased growl when Kassy reached a paw down to touch his underbelly.

"Oh, I'd like to explore every part of you," she muttered, before breaking out into giggles again. "Hehehe."

"Much as I'd love that, I ain't a machine. You gotta give me a few minutes to recover before we go for round two," Lincoln murmured. The two freighters were basking in the shared post-coital afterglow, lying up against each other and cuddling in a secluded but cosy area of AeroHub JFK. This garden area was supposed to be for human passengers coming to the airport, and dragons weren't technically allowed to be here, but this part of the passenger terminal was closed for renovation.

Kassy held Lincoln close, feeling his comfortable warmth and weight against her scales. They had been meeting up every few days, sneaking time with each other in between their busy cargo flights. The sex was nice, but Kassy found their conversations before and after equally pleasant--the two young dragons would talk about life, weather, and everything else.

"But anyway, it's nice that your based so close by now," Kassy continued. "You should come visit Quarter Coastal!"

"I'd like that. I'll talk with my new manager--see if I can schedule an overnight at your ranch and see what it's like there," Lincoln agreed.

"Just let me know when. I can show you around the place."

Lincoln licked the side of her snout. "Sounds good. You can show me your eggs too." Kassy stiffened up at this remark, and Lincoln noticed her sudden discomfort. "Uh... Did I say something wrong?"

"No, it's just..." Kassy paused for a moment to think. She'd told Lincoln all about her experience laying her eggs, and there was an unspoken but obvious implication that he had probably sired at least one of them, given how much mating they'd done the other day. "This morning, Jennifer told me that one of my eggs is unfertilized. It's been one week, and there still isn't any trace of anything."

"Oh. I'm...sorry." Lincoln was quiet for an appropriately sombre period of time. "After you went through all the trouble laying it, I wish that all the eggs could have made it."

Kassy was glad that he understood her. Jennifer had assured her that unfertilized eggs were very common and up to one third of all eggs could turn out to be unfertilized, but it was still a disappointment. It was the medium-sized egg which was unfertilized--they would give it another week just in case there was any chance it might be fertilized, but after that there would be no point keeping it any further. The egg would be disposed of, and the incubator would be switched off and left empty.

"It's alright. It's just one egg, and the other two are showing good signs of development. Two out of three. Or maybe two out of four, if you count that cracked egg." Kassy let out her breath in a huff, then she shook her head and grinned. "You know what? Let's not be sad about these things. We've got three more hours before I have to go for my next flight, and I don't want to dwell on sad thoughts."

Lincoln grinned back at her. "Yeah, be happy! And besides, you can always just make another egg to replace that unfertilized one. Rrrr... I'd love to put a few more eggs inside you..." The drake playfully nibbling on her neck in a mating bite, simultaneously making a few humping motions with his hips. Then he stopped and frowned. "Sorry, was that vastly inappropriate?"

Kassy burst out into laughter. "Hahaha, you are terrible! I won't be back in heat for at least a few months, but in the meantime..." She pulled Lincoln into a kiss.

Barn Seventeen/The Nursery, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Eleven months after the communal rut

Chirping squeals filled the air, along with the pattering sound of tiny claws against tiled floor. Maxwell halted mid-stride as a pair of hatchlings sprinted across just in front of him, one chasing the other excitedly. "I feel like I'm going to accidentally step on one of them," he muttered. The hatchlings looked like tiny versions of adult dragons--they had grey scales covering their body, with darker greys on their backs.

Kassy was just behind Maxwell. "Where we ever so small?" she asked.

Vela was sitting by the side of the nursery, watching over the dozens of hatchlings as they played, fought, and ran around. A couple of hatchlings were sitting on the elder dragoness' shoulders, just above her wings, and they were excitedly having a competition to see who was the loudest. "Eep! Eeep! Eepp!"

Vela had to raise her voice to be heard over the cacophony. "Indeed you were, and not even that long ago. I remember the time when you were both just young hatchlings, not even able to speak or fly!"

Barn Nineteen was the nest where all the eggs where kept incubated. But once they had hatched, the hatchlings would be taken over to Barn Seventeen--the newly designated nursery, where they would live until they were big enough to move into the accommodations currently used by adult freighters. Over the past month, the barn had gone from a mostly empty storage area to being filled with unparalleled noise and energy.

Kassy watched as two hatchlings played tug of war with each other's tails, both trying to drag the other off their feet. Their game was interrupted when a third, larger hatchling came barrelling through and knocked them both down. The two immediately ganged up on the larger hatchling as a playful tussle ensued.

The sight of all the energetic young dragons made Kassy feel_old_. Not old in the same way Vela was old and elderly, but it still made her feel more mature than she'd previously realized. This week she had just passed her first anniversary of flying cargo routes, meaning that she'd been carrying freight around the country for one full year. She was still relatively inexperienced and had much more to learn, but by now she'd definitely gotten the basics.

Yet, it seemed like only a few months ago she'd been a nervous fledgling anxiously waiting for her own turn to earn a flight harness to begin flying cargo. So recently she'd been a child, but now she was old enough to make her own children.

Suddenly a hatchling scrambled up her tail, sprinted across her back, and plonked himself down on Kassy's shoulder. "Oh, hello," said the dragoness, bending her neck to look at the hatchling.

"Oh, lolo," replied the hatchling. The hatchlings were far too young to talk, but some of the larger ones were able to babble and repeat what they heard. The hatchling on Kassy's shoulder ineffectually tried to bite at her neck, but he couldn't even open his tiny jaws wide enough.

"Yaaaahh!" Screaming out a challenge, a second hatchling scrambled up Kassy's back and leapt towards the first hatchling, grabbing his tail in her jaws like a swing rope. The two hatchlings tumbled off onto the floor and immediately sprinted off in a chase.

Faced with such adorable, youthful exuberance, Kassy couldn't help but smile. Besides her, Maxwell, and Vela, there were three other greybacks sitting around the room and either watching or playing with the hatchlings. Six human ranchers were here as well, helping to care for the young dragons.

But after a few moments, Kassy's smile faded and she turned to leave. Right as she was nearing the exit, she felt something grab her tail. Glancing over her shoulder, Kassy saw that a small little hatchling had grabbed her tail in her jaws and was trying to pull on it. Physically this did nothing to stop her from leaving, but emotionally it was almost too adorable to resist.

Turning around, Kassy used a paw and flicked the hatchling's own tail, which was excitedly twitching from side to side. "Eeek!" squeaked the hatchling, dropping Kassy's tail in surprise as she realized how vulnerable she was to counterattack. The hatchling reared up on her hindlegs and flared open her wings. "Raaah!" she declared, trying to look big and fearsome.

"Rah to you too," Kassy replied. She unfurled her left wing and gently swung it downwards, creating a small gust of air which buffeted the hatchling.

"Eek!" Unable to close her wings in time, the hatchling was blown onto her back. She hurriedly rolled onto her belly, and then she charged forward to head-butt Kassy's side. After this had zero effect, the hatchling suddenly got distracted by another hatchling walking nearby and decided to try head-butting him instead.

Left alone again, Kassy supressed a sigh. She hopped up over the large plastic gate which served to prevent hatchlings from wandering out of the room, then she pushed open the barn doors and left.

It was evening time, just before sunset. Leaving the nursery, Kassy headed towards Barn Nineteen--the nest.

Of the hundred and twenty-four eggs which had been laid following the communal rut (that number including dragonesses both from Quarter Coastal and their visitors), ninety eggs had been fertilized and started development into hatchlings.

However, over the course of ten months, thirty-three of the fertilized eggs had become what were called quitters--due to bacterial infection, genetic defects, or for whatever unknown reason, these eggs stopped development and simply failed to progress any further. Unfortunately, Kassy's largest egg had been one of these quitters--after eight long months of slow development, the hatchling inside had simply died.

This had been about three months ago. One day, Kassy had gone to the nest to check up on her eggs (as was a habit of many of Quarter Coastal's dragons), but abruptly she'd found incubator 82 empty. Panicked by this disappearance, Kassy had run off the find Jennifer, but the rancher had explained to her the disappointing news. Her egg was currently in the ultrasound scanner (which could double as an incubator) and they were scanning it over a few hours because there seemed to be troubles within.

Instead of resting before her next flight, Kassy had spent every minute staring at the computer screen as the machine probed her egg with high-frequency sound, scanning for any trace of life. The result was a clear negative. Sometime over the course of the last few hours, the embryo inside the egg had died. They couldn't save it--its tiny heart had stopped beating, and there was nothing to be done.

Kassy had spent the next few weeks feeling unhappy and depressed. She knew of the common saying, "don't count your eggs before they hatch", but still it was such a disappointment. What made it worse was that many of the other dragons didn't seem to understand her misery--though the other freighters were excited and curious as all the eggs developed, they only seemed to care about them as a community. Kassy wouldn't have said the loss of this egg was a tragedy, but most of the other freighters weren't even saddened at all--it was just an unfortunate event, like flying into bad weather or having someone step on your tail.

Lincoln was the only one who seemed to understand her disappointment--but he was based in New York, while Kassy was based in New Jersey. At most they would see each other a few times a week, but those moments were the times where Kassy felt her day light up. The rest of her days alone felt lonely by comparison.

Faced with the loss of the egg, Kassy understood now why Vela had warned against learning which eggs were hers. If she hadn't known, she would have lived blissfully ignorant of the fact that three of her four eggs had already failed. Eleven months on, she could have been looking at all these happy, healthy young hatchlings, imagining that some of them were her progeny.

But now she knew. She had only one egg left--placed in incubator 84 was her smallest egg, the one which should have had the lowest chance of even hatching. Kassy had watched the egg obsessively, coming into Barn Nineteen every day and asking the rancher-on-duty to show her the latest candling images. Almost all of the other dragon eggs had already hatched, but Kassy's last egg was one of the remaining half dozen which had yet to hatch.

But with each passing day, she got more worried. A young dragon couldn't just sit inside an egg indefinitely, waiting for whenever it felt like hatching. Once it finished development, it would hatch--unless its strength had run out, or there was some defect or deformity preventing it from breaking the shell, in which case it would die.

Kassy been one of the last few females to lay her eggs, and small eggs also took longer to develop. Those were the reasons the egg hadn't hatched yet, she told herself. The egg wasn't a quitter, and it wasn't going to die. It just...needed a little more patience, and perhaps a little more hope. Unless... But Kassy didn't even dare to think about the alternative. Just a year ago she'd been happily living without any eggs, but now she seen the miracle of life, only to have it cruelly snatched away by fate.

When Kassy entered Barn Nineteen, she headed right for incubator 84. As she walked past the rows of incubators, most of the machines had gone dark. A familiar green indicator light would once have indicated that the eggs within each incubator were being kept at the correct environmental conditions, but now these lights had shut off one by one as the eggs within hatched and the hatchlings were moved over to the nursery. Across the whole barn, there were only a scattered handful of incubators still switched on, indicating that they held eggs.

But when Kassy reached the aisle where incubator 84 was placed, the machines were all dark. She started to run, then sprint down the aisle, watching the numbers go by. 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, 85...

Incubator 84 was dark. Kassy stumbled to a stop beside the machine--she stared at the label, wondering if she'd somehow misread and was in the wrong aisle, but there was no mistake. Bending her head, she peered into the incubator and found it empty. With her cheek against the glass, she could feel the faint warmth from the machine--it had been active just a short while ago, but now it had been shut down.

Suddenly it felt like her brief sprint had left her short of breath, and it was difficult to breathe calmly. Kassy shook her head, not believing what she was seeing. It was just like what had happened with incubator 83 and 82--coming into the barn, going up to the box, only to find that the egg within was gone.

Lost.

Kassy tried to steady herself, then she straightened up and kept walking down the aisle. It wasn't over--it couldn't be over. Reaching the end of the aisle, she saw a human female sitting at the desk near all the scientific equipment. Jennifer was staring at her laptop screen, and the ultrasound scanner box was active with an egg inside.

Slowly, warily, Kassy walked over. But before she could think about how the phrase the question she was dreading, Jennifer heard her footsteps and turned around. "Oh, it's you. I was just about to come get you."

Just as Kassy expected, her egg was inside the scanner. But the ultrasound scanner wasn't running, it was just using its normal cameras. For a moment Kassy wasn't sure what she was supposed to be looking at, until Jennifer tapped her fingernail against one specific point on the screen.

Right on the egg's surface, there was a tiny circular mark where the shell had been cracked open from within. It was hatching.

"Oh!" Kassy let out her held breath in a shocked gasp; she hadn't even realized she'd been holding her breath. "Oh, oh, oh, oh! That means... the egg is hatching?"

"Sure looks like it! I was starting to worry that the egg had gone dead, so I brought it over to be scanned. But in the middle of the scan,that happened." Jennifer broke out into a grin, and she raised her hand up. "Better late than never! Come on, Kassy! Give me a high five."

It was a ridiculous gesture, but Kassy eagerly sat back on her haunches and tapped her forepaw against Jennifer's raised hand.

Hatching wasn't a quick process, of course. Going from that initial puncture to fully broken out of the shell could take hours, but Kassy wanted to watch all of it. Unlike the normal incubators, the ultrasound scanner box had no windows. So the dragoness meticulously watched the laptop screen, looking at the live feed provided by the cameras inside the box. She could do nothing to help the young dragon as it made its grand entrance into the living world--nothing except for watching carefully and hoping.

Jennifer brought over a portable mattress and unfolded it, so that Kassy could lie down comfortably as she waited. "Thank you," Kassy said, and Jennifer smiled warmly in response.

"I've watched so many eggs hatch--this should be number fifty, if I remember correctly--but it's still exciting waiting to see a hatchling break free. Nerve-wracking too, waiting to know if it'll make it out and be healthy." The rancher left the barn again, and when she returned she was carrying a book and a sleeping bag. She laid out the sleeping bag next to Kassy's mattress, then she sat down and read her book, keeping the greyback company while they both waited for the egg to hatch.

One hour later, there had only been minor progress. The hole in the eggshell was slightly larger than before, but only barely. Jennifer had put down her book and fallen asleep, snuggled up in her sleeping bag. Kassy felt a warm sense of comradeship with the rancher--even though they were different species entirely, Jennifer still cared enough to keep her company. She could have gone off back to the homestead and slept comfortably in her own bed, but instead Jennifer stayed here.

Carefully, Kassy unfurled her wing and let it rest over Jennifer's sleeping bag to act as extra insulation. The inside of the few remaining egg incubators (and the scanner) was still warm and humid, but the barn itself was cold.

Kassy turned her attention back to the computer screen, but the image was unchanging. The first time she dozed off, Kassy snapped back awake after a few minutes. But she hadn't missed anything, and as the hour grew late, deep sleep become more and more impossible to avoid. Much as she tried to fight it, sleep eventually took her.

Barn Nineteen/The Nest, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Day one

When Kassy next woke up, it was from Jennifer gently tapping the side of her neck. "Hmmrr? I'm awake. Is it time to fly already?" she murmured, still half asleep.

Jennifer checked her wristwatch. "It's seven o'clock. If you were flying the dawn express, you'd actually be late, but I already asked Leon to reschedule your flights today to later."

Sleep inertia was still holding Kassy down--it felt like half her brain was still busy dozing. "What? Why? You should've woken me up earlier..." Glancing around, she started to realize she wasn't in the usual freighter dormitory. Where was she? Why was she here? "Wait..."

"Oh, I just thought you might want to see this." Jennifer pointed towards the table, where her laptop computer was showing a picture of something.

Kassy stared blankly at the image, then comprehension dawned and her brain crashed into full wakefulness. The greyback leapt to her feet, instantly recalling the events of the past night. "Oh, is that...? Did it really? Oh! Yes!"

Manipulating the mouse, Jennifer magnified the image. Except that it wasn't an image, it was a live feed from inside the ultrasound scanner--the egg was gone, replaced by scattered shell fragments, and lying in the middle of the box was a tiny dragon hatchling.

The hatchling had scales of grey all over, coated in slimy residue from its time spent inside the egg. Its wings were messily flopped over its back, with a large piece of eggshell and membrane still clinging to its shoulders like a cape.

"Is it...? It's alive, right?" Kassy murmured, moving so close to the screen that her nose bumped the plastic.

"Sure is. Just hatched a few minutes ago. We'll let that little guy (or gal) rest for a while and dry off, then we'll bring him (or her) over to the nursery. You're a mother now, Kassy!" Jennifer raised her hand again, and this time Kassy high-fived without prompting. "I'll go get Quincy."

The rancher left the barn, leaving Kassy all alone. The dragoness kept looking at the screen, watching as the hatchling's tiny chest rapidly moved up and down with each breath of air. Instinctively she wanted to cuddle and nuzzle the young dragon to keep it warm, but the ultrasound scanner box's internal conditions were already sufficiently warm and humid. Was the little hatchling feeling trapped and confined in that enclosed box? But then again, it had just spent eleven months cooped up inside an egg, so the much larger area of a scanner/incubator box ought not be an issue.

When Jennifer returned, Dr Quincy was following behind her. Despite it being just after sunrise, the veterinarian was already wearing his lab coat. "Which egg did you say it was?" he had been saying.

"84," Jennifer replied.

"Oh, the extra small one. That's a pleasant surprise. Given lack of noticeable progress in the last few weeks, I was beginning to suspect development failure." Quincy nodded hello to Kassy, who nodded her head in return. "Good morning. Was this your egg?"

"It was."

"In that case, my congratulations to you." Quincy adjusted his spectacles and peered at the screen. "I see you put the egg in the scanner... Ah, it's a tiny one! I've seen rats bigger than that little hatchling. When was the hatch?"

"Maybe fifteen minutes ago? The initial pip was last night," Jennifer said. "Kassy and I were in the barn watching the egg since last night. Other than the first crack, it hardly did anything at all for the whole night. Then I step out for just half an hour to use the bathroom, and the hatchling picks that very moment to unzip the rest of the egg and break out." The rancher nodded to Kassy. "We've got the video saved, so you can replay it later if you want."

Quincy pulled on a pair of lab gloves. "Watch the video later. For now we've got business to attend to. It used to be we would leave hatchlings in the incubator for about an hour to let them dry off and warm up fully, but modern thinking it that there's no reason to wait. Scale on scale contact helps reduce hatchling stress levels. Kassy! Come sit over here, if you please. Normally Vela or one of the other caretakers does this, but they're busy right now." Quincy went and dragged over the mattress Kassy had been sleeping on through the night, and then he gestured for the dragoness to lie down again.

"What happens now?" Kassy asked.

"Fairly simple." Without further ado, Quincy pulled open the door of the scanner box. Kassy got her first glimpse of her child--the hatchling's neck looked thin and weak, but it managed to raise its head to stare bewilderedly as light suddenly streamed in.

"Eip?" it squeaked.

"Hello." Quincy reached in and unceremoniously picked up the hatchling. One gloved hand went under the hatchling's chest and another under the abdomen, supporting the little dragon's weight. With how small it was, using a single hand would probably have been enough.

Quincy picked up the hatchling, turned around quickly, and put it down right between Kassy's forepaws. "Eek!" The hatchling glanced around, looking surprised by the sudden change in environment. Given that it wasn't even an hour old, it was seeing the whole world for the first time.

Kassy stared at the miniature dragon sitting right in front of her. It was a skinny, scrawny thing--its small egg had lacked the nutrients for it to grow very big, but there were no obvious defects. Unlike some of the other hatchlings, this one had been hatched with a full coat of scales, but most of the scales were sticking out at weird angles instead of being smoothed down into neat rows. Coupled with the mucus and egg membrane remnants still partially covering it, this gave the hatchling a dishevelled, scruffy look.

The hatchling straightened up its legs one by one, getting into a standing position before stumbling forward and instantly tripping up. "Look at you go," Jennifer murmured.

The hatchling plopped down on Kassy's paw, and the dragoness let the tiny, messy, filthy creature snuggle up against her chest. "Wow. This is the best day of my life! I made this! It's so dirty and ugly and adorable!" Kassy nuzzle the hatchling gently, and the little dragon bumped its tiny snout against hers.

"Careful now, Kassy. With words like that, you'll make me regret my decision not to have kids," Dr Quincy said, smiling warmly. "Plus, greybacks are communal. Parental love is... more of a human concept. Most greybacks don't care about which eggs or hatchlings are specifically theirs."

"Maybe I don't want to be like most greybacks," Kassy retorted.

"Go ahead--no one's saying you can't love a hatchling. Now if don't mind, let's get this one checked up." Crouching down, Quincy took a measure tape and started reading out the hatchling's dimensions--total length, wingspan, neck and tail lengths, and so on.

Jennifer recorded down all the information into her laptop. "Got it. What's the gender?"

Picking up the hatchling again, Quincy peered at its underbelly. The hatchling flapped its wings ineffectually, but otherwise made no complaint at this treatment. "Uh, difficult to say. Just based on the position of the genital slit, I'd guess male."

"Got it. Guess he'll be a male until he proves otherwise." Jennifer tapped a few more keys on her laptop.

Quincy looked over the whole hatchling, using a towel to wipe him clean and carefully picking away the shell fragments still stuck to his scales. "I'm not seeing any obvious defects. Except... Hmm... That's interesting." The veterinarian had just folded the hatchling's wings shut, and now he turned the little dragon around so that Jennifer could see his back.

"Oh... That is interesting_._" Jennifer frowned, but Kassy wasn't in a position to see what the humans were talking about.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with his wings?" Kassy asked.

"No, not the wings..." Quincy used a towel to wipe down the hatchling again, then he put him down and let Kassy see the hatchling's back. Whereas the hatchling's scales were shades of grey over most of his body, his back was banded with lines of white cut with dark grey. The colour pattern even extended over the top surface of his wings. "Could be a birthmark which fades with age," Quincy suggested.

Jennifer peered curiously at the hatchling. "That is quite a unique pattern--I wonder where that came from? Let me check the records from the communal rut. It says here that Kassy you mated with Maxwell and Immortalis?"

Kassy stared at the little hatchling, who was now chewing on the tip of his own tail. "Well yes, but--"

"Only two drakes? Weren't there four rounds?" Quincy said, interrupting before Kassy could finish.

"Kassy skipped round one, and round three was with Apollo, who didn't count since he's a rainbow swiftwing," Jennifer explained. "Let me try and pull up their medical files and check the ancestry. Maxwell and Immortalis..."

Kassy was pretty sure Immortalis didn't count since he hadn't even ejaculated inside her. And seeing the hatchling now, Maxwell probably wasn't the sire either.

The hatchling bit down on his own tail, then squeaked in surprise when this apparently caused pain. "Eeek!" He switched to trying to gnaw on Kassy's paw.

Jennifer tapped a finger on the hatchling's nose. "You're a weird little guy, aren't you? Is that a birthmark or is that a permanent scale pattern? I wonder where those genes came from--Max, Immortalis, or even you, Kassy."

"Now that you mention it," said Quincy, "his snout is a little bit long for a greyback. Just seeing the white racing stripes on that little guy, I bet at least one of his parents has a little bit of whiteback DNA in their ancestry. Crossbreeding is fairly common between the two species, after all."

"Hmm, according to the gene tests we did before the communal rut, Immortalis' great, great, great, great, grandfather was a whiteback. Which means that this little guy is 1.56% whiteback," Jennifer concluded, reading off her laptop screen.

Quincy seemed surprised. "That distant? It'd have guessed a grandparent or great grandparent. In fact, if I didn't know otherwise, I think this hatchling almost looks more like a white-backed nettled glider than a grey-backed nettled glider."

"Uh, about that?" Kassy said, raising her voice slightly. "I think I know where that whiteback DNA came from."

The two humans both turned to stare at Kassy, while the hatchling nibbled on her paw. Kassy shuffled her wings, thinking how she would explain her tryst with Lincoln. "How do I phrase this? This hatchling isn't 1.56% whiteback--he's 50% whiteback..."

Barn Seventeen/The Nursery, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Day seven

"Oh, they love me! I love them too! This is so great! Hehehe!" Lincoln giggled--not a guffaw or a hearty laugh--he straight up giggled, laughing with gleeful joy as about ten different hatchlings all tried to play King of the Hill on his back, shoving each other as they excitedly scrambled to be the first to climb his neck and perch up on his head.

Kassy didn't bother to hide her grin. Over the past few months, she hadn't really been trying to keep Lincoln a secret, but she had never openly discussed her relationship with the whiteback to the other freighters of Quarter Coastal. But then ever since her egg had hatched last week, word had quickly spread around the ranch that one of the new greyback hatchlings wasn't purely a _greyback_hatchling.

Most of the other freighters seemed completely alright with this, including the other hatchlings--even now they were playing and scampering around, uncaring that one of their number looked just slightly different from all the others. But that was hardly surprising--the hatchlings came in all different sizes, with a wide variety of traits on display. Some hatchlings were bigger, others were smaller; some hatchlings already had perfect coats of scales, while others still had patchy gaps where scales hadn't yet grown to cover their skin; some were fat, some were thin, some had short tails, or oversized wings, or any of a myriad of different physical traits which made each hatchling unique in their own way. Having a back with stripes of white instead of purely dark grey wasn't even that extreme a trait.

Kassy and Lincoln's offspring was half greyback and half whiteback--a_stripeback_, as Jennifer had quickly nicknamed him. Young hatchlings didn't get proper names until they were at least a year old, about the time they started to use their wings (and their mouths, which made them an absolute nuisance to handle). Until then they just got nicknames, and so the little hybrid hatchling been nicknamed Stripeback.

On her part, Jennifer and the other ranchers didn't seem to care that Kassy's only successful egg had apparently been sired a drake who hadn't been part of the communal rut. As long as the hybrid hatchling was healthy and would eventually be able to fly cargo routes, he was good enough for them.

But curiously enough, it was some of the grown freighters who seemed to be wary of this unusualness. For example, Vela apparently harboured a secret disdain for dragons of other species--particularly white-backed nettled gliders, who she referred to as "somewhat inferior" to their own species. Nevertheless, the elder dragon had quickly come to accept and love Stripeback, telling Kassy that it was obvious that Kassy's genes were dominant over Lincoln's, and that clearly Stripeback wasn't going to be inheriting any of his father's "distastefulness".

Much as Kassy admired Vela's wisdom, this was one aspect in which she trusted her own judgement more.

But when Kassy had suggested having Lincoln visit Quarter Coastal so he could see their child, Vela's expression was as if someone had stepped on her tail. Of course, Vela was just one amongst the several older dragons who had been appointed caretakers of the hatchlings, and there didn't appear to be any consensus as to whether whitebacks were just a harmless palette-swapped version of greybacks, or if they were a different type of dragon who were similar but obviously inferior.

Kassy didn't care. She'd invited her mate to Quarter Coastal Ranch anyway, and now the whiteback drake was happily playing with all the hatchlings.

Vela watched the playful scene with mild disapproval. "Hmf. Well, the hatchlings seem to trust him, so maybe he isn't so bad. But you've still got to be careful with these sorts of people, Kassy. They aren't like us. Don't get too close to him."

"Uh huh..." Kassy made a noncommittal noise, but she wasn't very concerned with what the other freighters thought about her choice of mate. Most of them thought she was silly for the fact that she even had a mate--after all, both greybacks and whitebacks were communal species of dragon. Taking an exclusive mate was a rare event. As some of the other freighters had phrased it--why limit yourself to only one partner? Why not love everyone in the community?

But Kassy wanted only one dragon as her mate, and Lincoln had gladly stepped into that role. If that made them weird, she did not care in the slightest.

"Oh no! I'm pinned! Hahaha, whatever shall I do?" Lincoln was now laying on his back, pretending to fight as a dozen or so hatchlings cooperatively attempted to pin down his whole body--a draconic version of a Gulliver tie down. Just when it seemed like they'd pinned down all his limbs, Lincoln pulled a forepaw free and snatched up the hatchling who'd been trying to hold down his paw. "Oh ho, not so fast!"

"Aak!" squeaked the hatchling. She twisted and fought as Lincoln tickled her belly. "EEeee!" Then suddenly Lincoln tossed her up into the air vertically, and the hatchling threw her wings open instinctively. "Yahh!" She couldn't fly, of course, but Lincoln caught her gently as she fell.

Stripeback jumped into Lincoln's paws and waved his wings, as if to say, "Me next!" Lincoln gladly obliged, tossing the hatchling upwards and catching him.

Eleven months on, the communal rut had clearly been a success. Quarter Coastal now had more than fifty hatchlings, and when they were old and big enough, these young dragons would begin flight training in preparation for their career as freighters. Jennifer and the other human ranchers were already talking about organizing a new communal rut, set to take place approximately one year after the first communal rut.

This time there would be even more dragons coming from all over the country and it would be an even bigger event than before, but Kassy wasn't interested in joining. The last communal rut had been a unique experience which she was in no hurry to repeat. She had eyes for only one person.

Kassy knew what she wanted, and she'd get it. Stepping forward, she joined Lincoln in playing with the hatchlings.

END