Plague Doctor: Chapter 1
#1 of Plague doctor
Hello Everyone, I had started this story back in 2020 and didn't really want to continue it while a real life plague was going on out side my door. This story had become a comfort, to me in the madness that is currently my life. It is a dark love story, the characters are constantly pushed to the limits of madness. They are not kind, this is not a sweet love story my other novel is the sweet love story. Let me know if yall like it, I have more chapters lined up already :)
Chapter 1
The plague started in the lungs. It was the first tell-tale sign that you were going to die. A cough was nothing, a minor inconvenience for most folks, especially the poorer folk living on nothing. Next it spread to the eyes making them red with popped blood vessels ,and the tears that stained cheeks red with cried blood. There was not much to be done but to climb the hill to the hospital. It was a blood disease that killed you in the end, the blood refusing to coagulate. Seeping from every orifice till one was just a bloody puddle at the end. Your organs, unable to take the strain of the disease.
The hospital was the last stop to the afterlife, the last hope of a dying creature to be healed, even if it was a miracle chance. One that was determined by the fearsome beings; the plague doctors. Their beak-like masks concealing their identities, it was that way on purpose to keep people from knowing about their identities in the surrounding town. So at least not to be beaten by surviving relatives of the dead. They were not immune to the ravages of the plague, but the burning herbs in the end of the beak kept their breath clean and perfumed away from the scent of death and decay. God like in their visage, residing in their own sort of temple that was the hospital. Many of the villagers prayed secretly to the doctors themselves and not the gods. What good were gods in a time of death and decay. There were the doctors holy in their own right, but few could be cured, so they walked out from that hospital with a permanent cough or a limp from a weak limb that would never heal. Or a permanent eye discoloration, those survivors; those miracles were shunned. Plague touched the village would say till the person left or exited the world on their own accord.
These doctors, these creatures of black masks and gloved hands wove their own magic into the poultice pressed against the weeping blood. Cutting themselves to bend the blood of their own body to fight the plague. Their magic, a form of blood ritual mixed with alchemy; once condemned by the church and the crown but now prized for their minimal results in curing the plague. They were the last hope to help dragon kind. Some were hacks mind you, Enryous was not one of them.
He was a good doctor, one of the best in the country, not that the crown cared about the doctors fighting the plague on the front lines. Their meager salaries proof enough of that. His magic had a chance to actually heal people, it being strong enough to combat the symptoms. It didn't matter most times, the other doctor in the hospital A plague touched male by the name of Solomon. He was kind, kinder than Enryous, but weaker being ravaged by the plague in his younger years.
Between the two doctors; there was little they could do to help the large town they serviced. A drop in the bucket so to speak. There was simply not enough magic to go around. That's where the herb runners came in. When the magic failed, when the doctor's blood was not enough they would resort to herbs. And pray to a god that would listen that those herbs would be enough to help the pain of the dying patient.
Enryous hated the herb runners; he thought to himself as he moved through the darkened halls of the hospital. His hands ;clothed in a black leather gloves; reaching up to obsessively check his mask's placement. It was perfect as it always was, the herbs gently perfuming his scent as he moved through the deceased to the main door.
The females were waiting for him as he opened it. His almost nine foot figure clad in black woolen pants, a black waistcoat hugging the white shirt to his chest. His beak-like mask curving down into a sinister point. There was no inkling to what he actually looked like underneath the doctor's clothing that he religiously kept neat. He cut an intimidating figure. Most of the females straightened themselves in his presence; half of them shying away from him, the others brazenly sticking their chests up as if to show off their meager assets to him. As if that would garner them his favor. To him they were the parasites of the plague, providing meager service to profit off of the dying. But even Enryous in all of his darkness could admit they were useful creatures.
The black slender dragoness who had deemed herself the leader of the herb runners stepped forward. Her name was Adomini. She was intimidating in her own right for a female not that that mattered to him. Her severe gold eyes meeting the lenses of his mask; her blonde hair hanging just past her ears in a jagged cut. Her clothes were marginally better then the others, she held her slender hand tipped with ragged black claws out to him.
"The list."
Her voice showed just how much she disliked him; the feeling was mutual. Enryous handed her a yellowed piece of paper, his clipped handwriting neatly written in a list. Adomini looked over it for a moment before turning to her girls.
"Which one of you can read again? None of you will remember any of this if I tell it to you ."
A hand shot up in the back of the group, the females parted for the owner of it to step forward. Enryous was impatient as she moved forward, puffing a bit of flame to the cooling herbs in his mask making the end of it steam. It was always amusing to watch the females shy away from him when he did that.
She was new, he thought as she came before him. The dragoness was considerably smaller than him, her scales a bright golden color that caught the sun shimmering iridescent like the back of a beetle. Her red hair a messy halo around her shoulders as she took the list from Adomini, her muzzle twisting as her eyes skimmed over the herbs. When she looked up at him there was fire in those blue eyes; a fire that he hadn't witnessed in someone for a long time. He hated it , he hated her. He hated that his focus moved only to her, to study her face and then her throat where a blue silk bandana sat. To her slender hands which held the list in pinched claws, his eyes dipping to her wrists where brass bracelets hung heavy. Skirting up to the white shirt pulled tight around her heavy breasts by a deep blue corset. How her furred tail swished behind her as a sign of impatience. The doctor realized she had asked him a question.
"What?"
She sighed as if he was taking up her precious time; as if dragons were not dying in the brick building behind them.
"There is not enough of these herbs growing in the forest for what you are asking. The plants are depleted already, I will wipe them out if I collect the herbs in quantities that you're asking for."
It was reasonable; logically in his mind he knew it was reasonable. He hated it.
"Just get them."
"No."
He had turned to the hospital when the word cracked against his back. Turning, his tail whipping back and forth as the heat in his mask increased. Black smoke billowing from the vent holes, he was burning the herbs too fast; he found himself not caring.
"What did you say?"
She tilted her head up to look at him, her eyes filled with that blue defiant fire. HE could feel himself puff up, as if he was ready to fight; and then there was the pulse of heat through him, the feel of cock shift behind his seam that made him stop.
"I told you no. "
He sighed the acrid scent of burning herbs almost too much in his nose.
"Why?"
He growled the word, fighting for his body to behave as he felt another shift.
"I told you why."
The iron set of her jaw telling him all he needed to know.
"Fine, just get it done."
A sickly sweet smile came over her face as she curtseyed in front of him, her olive green skirt fanning out pulled by hand. His list is still clutched within it.
He hadn't felt desire in a long time, but as she turned and walked off it wasn't a loving desire that was running through him. It was hateful, a deep nasty sort of lust that took root in him. Snarling he retreated into the hospital; the other herb runners staring after him abject fear painted over their faces.
The gold dragoness entered the forest, her basket clutched in her hand. His neat list at the bottom of it where a bit of dirt still lingered from her run in the early morning. God he was insufferable she thought to herself as she pulled the herbs from the ground. Making sure to leave enough for the next person. A strange bird called its shrill call over her head, making her freeze. The tip of her tail flicking; the only part of her that displayed sudden nervousness.
There were a lot of stories about these woods that bumped up against the hospital. She had been told them as a child before her parents left her; gone with the plague like so many others. The call of the bird flickered off and she continued her task. Her mind flicked back to those stories. The stories of ancient beings walking through these woods and all the woods across the known world, spreading the plague with their very touch. How if you would hear the rattle of their bones or the heat of their breath on their neck you were already doomed.
Most folk that one would take to blaming these entities for the dark plague that had descended upon dragon folk. The gold dragoness didn't know if they were to blame, but she could admit to the feeling of eyes on the back of her neck as she finished her picking. A wordless prayer offered up to the forest and to the land for what she took; the land had given so much already that she worried about the repercussions if dragonkind took too much.
Eyes burned into her back as she moved back down the well worn path back to the hospital. The monolith of a brick building, the windows dirty the black shutters hanging with ivy in some places. The chimneys belched smoke at the consent fireplaces, warming the patients, also the incinerator that burned deep within the bowels of the place. Because no dragon would want to be buried among the damned earth.
It was a building of death, the scent of the place just as bad as the look; the female didn't notice or didn't want to acknowledge the scent of it as she rapped her knuckles upon that massive iron studded wood door. That door often being the last thing people saw when they retired in their bloody haze to this place.
The doctor must have been waiting inside for her as he emerged, letting her view the insides of the hospital for a moment but only the small atrium beyond the outer doors; it was there as a layer of protection between the sick and the healthy. The doctors had said that the herb runners were welcome in the atrium. But even then the herb runners did not want to test the sturdiness of the inner doors to keep the plague from tearing at their skirts.
"Well?"
She handed her basket to him. He poked through the herbs with a gloved finger, noticing with a snort of smoke that she had piled up all of the herbs on his piece of parchment. Insolent chit he thought, parchment was expensive.
"What's your name?"
He seemed to surprise her, her eyes widening for a moment before narrowing again in suspicion. Names were not often exchanged between herb runner and doctor.
"Anna."
Enryous snorted, a simple name for such an insolent creature.
"Well Anna;"
He snarled her name like it disgusted him, even if it did the exact opposite. That opposing feeling disgusted him.
"You will not be getting paid, your attitude is deplorable ."
She snarled, a wild feral snarl that he didn't want to admit made heat shoot right through him.
"I am the best, and all of those silly prattling females out there will admit that I am the best."
She waved a claw to the forest where the other herb runners retreated to after catching sight of him emerging once again from the hospital . There was no hesitation to defend herself, even if she was alone with him.
He growled looking down at the full basket of herbs; some of the them she had brought he had thought they had pulled the plants a while ago. And yet here they were sitting in the woven basket in his gloved hand.
"I will admit you are good."
She smiled a vicious smile at her triumph, her red hair pushed back behind her shoulder as an afterthought. Revealing her neck all wrapped up in a pretty silk bow. His eyes could only linger there for a moment, at her slow pulse in her neck under those scales. The realization that she didn't fear him made him vicious. Wanting in a deep dark part of him to break her to make her beg for him to do so. For her to fear him to make her beg for all the nasty things that came to his mind when he looked upon her.
Tearing his eyes from her throat to focus back on her preening face. It was a good thing that the mask covered his face so thoroughly if not to hide his blatant lust for the female before him.
"Well? I want my gold."
He snarled at her, yanking his purse at his hip to pull out more than he owed her.
"I will pay you on one condition that you work for me and only me. My associate has his own girls to do his work for him, but I want you."
She pulled her lips back from her sharp teeth; realizing that he had backed her into a corner did not sit right with her . The gold in his hand would sit nice in her purse though.
"Fine."
She reached up untying the silk bandana from her throat; holding it out to him as a token. Enryous refused to look at her throat again, to linger on how his hands would feel around it. He took the bandana from her; his hand lingering.
With a growl he grabbed both of her wrists dragging her till she was pressed against the door behind him. Her hands stretched out above only made her snarl; but Anna knew better than to kick out at the terrifyingly large doctor. He didn't press himself against her, holding his body farther out only to lean down till the tip of his beak-like mask was right at the edge of her muzzle. The slight hint of bright gold flashed behind the lenses of his mask, black smoke billowing from the vent holes at the end of it.
"There will be no more attitude from you after this."
He growled at her, a thrumming of power from him jolting into her hands, that must be the power of a doctor; magic users first caregivers second; she thought with disdain.
"No."
He growled and she could hear his teeth clicking inside the mask. Somewhere in her mind she knew she was playing with fire. That this wasn't a good idea. But HEr own fire began churning in her breast, it was not often that she wanted to spout fire but this was one of those moments .
"Fuck you; you mulish female."
HE growled deep and menacingly ; she had enough at that point. Her muzzle bucking up to hit the end of his mask, knocking it askew not enough for her to catch sight of her tormentor's face but enough for him to bellow in rage and let her go.
Anna ran as he roared after her retreating into the forest. He hadn't followed her. Only then did she take a deep breath of relief.
Fucking bitch, Enryous thought as he fixed his mask. Her bandana still clutched in his fist. He honestly didn't know if he wanted to kill her or fuck her in that moment. He straightened his mask and yanked the large doors open, shoving the bandana into his pocket but not letting go of it. Solomon waved at him to come over to him, the large drake wanted nothing to do with the fellow doctor at that moment. Motioning that he needed a minute and retreated down the corridor to his small room.
It was sparse and undecorated. His alchemy kit sat in one corner which he threw Anna's basket of herbs next to, the limp plants spilling out onto the counter and down onto the wooden floor. He didn't give a fuck as he tore the mask off his face sucking in moderatly fresh air. There always was a musty smell in his room but the male rarely noticed it anymore.
Enryous brought the bandana from his pocket to press it against the end of his muzzle. The scent of her clung to the fabric saturating his nose making him groan. She smelled like lavender and sweet musk. He felt himself harden in his pants. Sitting down on the edge of his lumpy bed he tore at his pants till his cock sprung free. A large blue member with ridges up the sides and a fat knot at the base. Gripping himself roughly; the feel of his leather gloves against himself making his eyes roll close.
The picture of Anna on her knees; her muzzle swollen and stretched as she took his cock down her throat. Huffing he imagined grabbing her horns and forcing her to gag on him as her saliva dripped down her chin. Fuck she was beautiful; he allowed himself that thought in that moment as he pictured how he would try to press his knot into her mouth.
His gloved hand squeezing his knot roughly making a growl slip from him as he huffed greedily at the scent of her. In his mind's eye he saw her his knot sunk deep into her mouth; he would reach around to squeeze her throat and she would gag around him unable to pull her head back as his other hand gripped her bone white horn. His fantasy self emptied his balls down her throat as she gagged around the steady stream of his thick cum. That mental picture pushing him over the edge; practically shoving the bandana into his mouth to muffle the roar that erupted from him. His strands of cum; painting his clothed chest in thick gooy ropes; the scent of musk filling the room around him; the only scent that reached him was her lavender.
The deep disgust with himself came a moment later when his orgasmic high wore off. He had made an absolute mess of himself, throwing the bandana to the side to sit up, tearing the clothes from his back to drop them into a pile. Fucking stupid male he thought to himself. He was better than this lusting after a female. The magic, the work was more important and any female could ever be. He pulled fresh clothes across his blush gray scales. Revealed claws making quick work of all the buttons. Discarding all the clothes into a basket he looked around his room, nodding to himself before picking up his mask.
A deep sigh came from him as he plucked out the burned herbs and replaced them from the spilled ones on the floor. He would pick them up later; he would need to when he bled himself to make the potions.
With a snort he returned to the hospital. His momentary lapse of lust pushed to the back of his mind. Declaring to himself as he picked up a patient's hand to check their pulse; that lust would never happen again.