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"It's good to finally be here," Vallen said, relaxing and sitting down on his haunches. "You wouldn't believe all of the things we've been through just trying to make this journey..."

"You're late, we noticed that much," Dulna's voice was harsh, but she walked around the bonfire and sat down next to him after a moment, purring softly and sniffing at his neck. "Why have you brought the entire clan, instead of only those who can mate?"

Vallen sighed. "I should probably just start at the beginning. Carnoc, come forward, please."

Carnoc stood and made his way to Vallen's side, head held up high. He heard a few scattered whispers from the other side of the fire and couldn't help but refold his wings more loosely and pull his lips back a bit to reveal more of his fangs. He stood there for a moment, then sat next to Vallen.

"We always thought Carnoc was a little on the large side... Then he was old enough to breathe fire, only, as you can imagine, he didn't. His father, Nesleh, was teaching him to breathe fire--we hadn't realized it yet--when he lit Vidac's bolt and almost blew his father's leg off. Yes, Dulna, he's a warrior."

More whispering from the other side of the fire, and Carnoc gave the dragonesses a friendly snarl.

Vallen growled for quiet. "He still has trouble with his temper, but he's been able to protect us well enough to get us this far. Anyway, times were peaceful back at our caves. Rolest grew old and passed eldership to Alon just before his death, and Alon held that position until a couple of weeks before we planned to come here. Then... he developed the rupture sickness."

Dulna groaned and looked at the ground. "That's terrible."

"He passed eldership to me just before his death. But then he and Carnoc had a fight... a bad one. Eventually Carnoc got so angry that he fled from the cave, and--"

"I was found by some humans," Carnoc finished. "They shot me and tied me down before releasing me later that night, but I couldn't find them to stop them from telling other humans about us."

There were gasps from the other side of the fire, and Vallen had to growl for silence again before continuing. "Things stayed quiet for another week. We made our preparations to leave, hoping to disappear from the area before something could happen... But then the humans came. They ambushed us while we were asleep and captured us all. Some greedy human took us away and sold us to other humans, but fortunately the man whose land we live on was able to find help and free most of us before we could be locked away. Still, though, he and his friends had to travel across the country to free three of us from zoos the humans had trapped us in. That was when we met Sean and Dave, the two humans who followed us here." He switched to English. "Sean, Dave, could you come over to the fire, please?"

The two humans got out of the jet and walked over to where the dragons waited for them. "The tall one is Dave, and the other one is Sean. They helped to free us, but human laws have forced them to run away from their homes because they helped us. Because of what they did for us, we allowed them to come with us when we began our journey here. We hoped they would be safe here." Vallen looked over at Dulna. "Will they?"

She looked the two humans over, then reached her head over to sniff at them. "As long as they stay out of our way," she said after a moment.

"Good. Sean, would you mind changing form? I'd like them to understand that, as well." Sean walked away into the darkness, then Vallen continued. "We were surprised when Sean told us about what he could do, for he is what humans call a mutant, if you know what that means."

Dulna tilted her head. "Yes, I do."

"Good. Sean's ability is that he can turn into a dragon, and not just any dragon. His other form is that of a blood warrior."

She gasped. "Impossible!"

"That's what I said when I found out. Sean, you about done?"

Sean walked back into the firelight, having shifted in the darkness. "Yeah. So, why did you want me to change? Also," he held his snout in the air and flicked his tail, "what's that smell?"

Some of the males laughed. "That'd be them," Ureth gestured with his nose, pointing towards the dragonesses on the other side of the fire.

"Oh," Sean said, lowering his head and looking away.

"Just to show them," Vallen said, then looked back at Dulna. "See?"

She stared at Sean for a moment, openmouthed, then got to her feet and walked a circle around him, examining him and sniffing at his neck, chest and flank. He did his best to remain still while she inspected him, and relaxed visibly when she returned to Vallen's side.

"How is this possible?" she asked.

He shuffled his wings. "We don't know. The problem is, Sean's an outright coward and is absolutely no use in a fight. He understands human politics and holds a government position, however, and as I understand he's started a movement in some important place of government to get the humans to leave us alone."

"I see. How many of your dragons will be mating this cycle?"

Vallen looked over his shoulder and counted. "Seventeen."

She thought for a moment. "What about Sean; will he be participating in this cycle? There are seventeen of-age males to our nineteen, and this mutant would help to balance that. Will he be paired, as well?"

"I hadn't thought about that." He glanced over at Sean, who was sitting on his belly and looked more than a little nervous, judging by the way his tail twitched back and forth. "I don't know, but I'll ask him before we choose the pairs. Now, I think that's about everything..."

"Why have you brought your fledglings and your oldest dragons?"

"Because the humans have found our home caves, we decided it was no longer safe for them to stay there. We had to bring them with us or risk their capture."

"All right." She paused and took a deep breath, then glanced at the other dragonesses sitting behind her. "Are you ready to pair them, or do you need some rest first?"

"Sleep," Vallen yawned, "and food, too. We found an unguarded farm and took what we needed from it a few nights ago, but it's been long hours of hard flying since then and we could all use a meal. Besides, I'm sure none of you want tired mates." Many of the dragons laughed at that, and started talking quietly to each other; neither elder tried to quiet them this time.

"We will hunt for you while you rest, then," Dulna said, "and after that you and I will pair them. Take your clan to the south end and rest there, and we will wake you when we have prey for you." She stood and walked away, brushing her tail along Vallen's side before she leapt up towards the entrance, spread her wings and flew outside.

Carnoc watched as all the dragonesses followed their elder up and out through the hole in the mountainside, lit by the mix of firelight and predawn light building outside. He gaped after them for a moment, then took a deep breath--

That was a mistake. The scent of dragoness was even stronger now, and he wasn't ready for such a concentrated blast of their smell. His jaws parted, his pulse quickened, and it took all of the self-control he had to keep from flying after them.

Nesleh chuckled and gently pushed Carnoc's half-raised wings back against his sides. "I know what that look means. Come on, let's get some rest, and you can do that as much as you want--or can--as soon as Vallen and Dulna have paired you."

He paused, still staring up at the cave entrance, then tossed his head and followed the rest of his clan over to the south end of the cave to rest.

---

Dave walked around the cave, notepad in hand, but all the males were asleep, and even if any of the females were back from hunting yet, none of them spoke English and he didn't speak dragontongue. Now that the sun was up, the cave was relatively well-lit--at least well enough for him to be able to see if he was about to walk into anything--but his plans to take more notes on the dragons' culture, habits and physiology clearly wasn't going to happen right now.

He finally gave up and walked back over to Sean. "You mind changing form?" he asked.

He cracked an eye from where he lay on top of his sleeping bag. "Why?"

"I wasn't able to very completely examine dragon physiology when I caught Carnoc all the way back then. So would you mind if I got a pretty close look at your body, muscle and bone structure, and all that?"

Sean rolled over. "I'm sort of trying to sleep..."

"Sleep in your other form, then."

"Can't."

"Why not?"

"Smell."

He paused. "Wait, what? What smell?"

"There's a weird smell around this cave... I can only notice it when I'm a dragon. Ureth said it was the females. The smell makes me... excited, in a way I'd rather not be with things that are not Elaine."

"Pheromones," Dave said, jotting a couple of notes down on his pad. "Interesting. What are the smell's effects?"

"What?"

"What does smelling the pheromones do to you, specifically?"

"Um... I don't really remember. There were a lot of other things going on when I was in my other form."

"Well, could you change and find out?"

Sean glared at him. "Remember the part where I was trying to sleep?"

"You could try actually helping me do my research. It's all I can do right now to keep my mind off of..."

He crammed his head between his pillow and the bottom of the sleeping bag. "Just go look at one of the other dragons."

"They would probably snap at me as soon as I got close. You're the only one I can work with right now."

"Just wait until later, okay? Besides, all the females are gone right now, so the smell's probably not even here."

"So you can sleep in your other form, like I originally asked you to."

"Fine..." He reached for his backpack, pulled out his blackout cube, then disappeared inside it. Dave took several steps back, and a minute later there was a dragon sitting in front of him.

Sean stood up and sniffed the air. "Damn it, that smell is still in here."

"Probably because the females spend so much time in the cave, and airflow in and out isn't ideal. So, what are the pheromones it doing to you?"

"What do you think they're supposed to be doing?" he snarled.

He started writing. "Making you more aggressive, getting adrenaline flowing, increasing heart and breathing rates, and," he glanced back at Sean's hindquarters, "making you sexually aroused."

Sean immediately sat down on his belly. "Because I didn't notice any of that on my own, thank you." He snarled again. "Are you done yet?"

He glanced up as the first female returned to the cave, a mountain goat dangling from her claws. "Well, I was hoping to examine all that other stuff I mentioned earlier..."

"Too bad," Sean growled, activating his blackout cube again and pushing Dave out of its field with one massive forepaw. "Though now that you've gotten me nice and awake, I suppose I may as well get up."

"If you're awake, can't I just..."

"Not with any of them around," his voice started to change as he shifted his voice box.

"Why, do the females make you uncomfortable or something?"

"How many different ways do I have to say yes?" Sean, now human and fully clothed, deactivated the blackout cube and started to roll up his sleeping bag.

Dave rolled his eyes and started to walk over towards the male dragons. "Whatever. Maybe some of them will be awake now, and I can just talk to them."

Carnoc woke up to the smell of fresh blood pooling in front of his nose. He didn't even open his eyes, he just parted his jaws and darted his head forward, tearing a huge piece of meat from the carcass and swallowing it nearly whole.

"Slow down," a voice said, laughing. "You don't want to choke on it."

Carnoc opened his eyes and looked up to see a dragoness sitting in front of him, smiling. He swallowed again, then muttered, "thanks," before taking another, smaller bite. He could get used to having someone bring him his meals, really, especially if that someone was as beautiful as this dragoness sitting in front of him. He looked her over; her form was much more slender than a male's, and whenever she moved her hindquarters or her long tail his eyes were drawn to the motion. Her face was thin and angular in a way that struck him as very attractive, blue eyes glittering at him; she flicked her tail and inclined her head, purring, when she noticed his eyes on her.

"My name's Vical," she said, "and you're Carnoc. The warrior."

He tilted his head.

"Dulna could barely manage to hunt properly, so much of our clan was pestering her about who would be chosen to mate with you," Vical laughed. "Of course, you'll most likely be paired with one of us who's within one generation of you, but that didn't stop some of the older ones from trying to request you anyway."

"Really?"

She laughed again and brushed her tail against his shoulder. "Of course! Could you imagine, being given the honor of mating with a dragon so fearsome, so renowned, so handsome as you," she touched him again with her tail. "And just thinking about the sort of hatchling you could sire..."

Carnoc picked his head up from his meal. "When Dulna and Vallen choose the pairs, do you know if they try to produce warriors, or do they just try to keep us from mating with someone too closely related to us?"

"I'd have to ask Dulna; I'm not sure. Either way, enjoy the prey, and hopefully tonight I'll be seeing you in a more... intimate setting," Vical purred, then stood up and walked away, tail held high and flicking excitedly back and forth.

He watched her go, then glanced around at the other dragons. Most were still asleep, or at least were still curled up, while a couple of the older dragons were also eating. He finished his goat, then cleaned off his face and claws, stood up and stretched, looking over towards the other side of the cave. Sean had parked his jet in the shadow of the cave entrance, and the few dragonesses who had returned were clustered together near the north end of the cave.

He looked up and saw another dragoness fly inside: Dulna. She landed in front of Vallen, gave him his meal, then walked over to the far corner of the cave and sat there, watching them. He could see marks covering the wall behind her, starting near the cave's high ceiling and coming almost halfway down to the floor, but he couldn't tell what they were supposed to be from this distance. He yawned, then shook his head and sprawled out on the cave floor; if what his father had told him about these mating cycles was any indication, he'd need all the rest he could get.

Vallen ate quickly and licked his claws clean even faster. He stood and started to walk over to where Dulna was waiting for him, then paused, turned and walked over to Sean's jet, where the human's legs were barely visible sticking out from beneath its side, just in front of the rear wheels. "Sean?"

A loud clank sounded from beneath the jet, and Sean swore. "Just a minute," he said after a moment, and Vallen heard a series of metallic clicks before Sean slid into view.

"What were you doing under there?"

"Checking the turbines for wear," he said, wiping his hands on a rag. "What do you need?"

Vallen hesitated. "I'm not sure exactly how to say this... There are more female than male dragons available for mating this cycle, so Dulna and I were wondering if you would be willing to take one of the remaining dragonesses as a mate."

He shook his head. "No. No way."

"Are you sure? It would be a service to our clans to potentially start a new bloodline, especially one that would benefit so much from your other form's... capabilities."

"Vallen, a couple of months ago I thought I would be engaged by now, and even though that's been delayed I still plan to propose to Elaine as soon as I have the opportunity to. I'm not going to betray her like that."

"Betray..." He snorted. "How would it be a betrayal? I'm not asking you to lose interest in your human love, or to start loving someone else; we do not love our mates as you humans do. All you would have to do is mate with the dragoness Dulna and I paired you with, nothing more. ...though suppose I should warn you, that alone can be pretty demanding."

"It interferes with my beliefs, that's why. I've followed this particular one for my whole life, and I'm not going to stop following it now."

"All right, all right. I was just asking. But if you're not going to, then I suggest you stay out of your dragon form until the mating period is over... otherwise one of the lone dragonesses might come after you."

"How long will that be?"

"Three days, and it should start in an hour or so."

Sean shrugged and started to work his way back under the jet. "All right. Have fun."

He laughed. "I'm too old for that, I'm afraid, but I hope the others do," he said, and walked away.

Vallen and Dulna spent close to an hour deliberating over their potential pairings, often consulting whatever the marks on the wall were and sometimes having to fly to get high enough to see them. Carnoc lapsed into a doze, while Dave asked a few of the dragons questions for his research and Sean continued to work on his jet. Then, finally, the two elders returned to the center of the cave, and as they neared the center--where the remains of the morning's bonfire still lay--all the dragons eligible to mate rose and made their way towards them.

They arranged themselves into two lines, facing each other, with their elders in between them. Once they were all in their places, Vallen and Dulna roared together and everyone fell silent.

"It is time," Vallen said. "Your mates have been selected, and now all that remains is for you to be paired with your mates and go away with them to the other caves of the region, where you will have three days to do what you may with each other. Now..." He glanced at Dulna. "We may as well start with the pairing everyone's waiting to know. Carnoc, step forward."

Carnoc stepped between the two lines and walked over to Vallen, having to put conscious effort into keeping his tail still.

Then Dulna spoke. "Melora, step forward."

Several of the dragonesses sagged where they stood--Vical in particular looked on the verge of tears--while one raised her head and crowed excitedly, then stepped out of line and nearly leapt to her place in front of Dulna. Dulna put a forepaw on Melora's shoulder, and Vallen put one of his on Carnoc's. Carnoc looked over at his mate-to-be and smiled at her; she grinned back and purred a little at him. She was more widely built than Vical, but only a little, and her neck wasn't as long. But her wings... He couldn't stop staring at them, even folded as they were. They were so long that they laid across her entire back, extending almost past her hindquarters; her wingspan looked even wider than his own.

Vallen spoke, drawing his attention back to the ceremony. "You, Carnoc, and you, Melora, are mates for this, our fortieth mating cycle. You may go now, and enjoy your time together."

Melora purred again and touched her nose to his. "Follow me," she whispered, then spun around and leapt into the air, flying from the cave as quickly as she could. Carnoc hesitated, staring, then darted after her.

It was all he could do just to keep her in sight as she wove through the mountains. He saw several openings that looked like they led into good-sized caves, but she bypassed them all. Where was she going, or what was she waiting for? "Slow down!" he roared.

She just laughed. "What's the matter? Don't you want me enough to try harder?"

He roared his frustration. "I'm flying as fast as I can!"

"Don't worry, we're almost there," she said, banking to pass another mountain. Now spread, her wings were even more spectacular, giving her speed and control in the air Carnoc couldn't hope to match.

She finally stopped and began to circle after another minute of flying. "Here we are," she said.

He looked around, then finally sighted a tiny opening far below them. "Are you sure that's large enough?"

"It's perfect," she said, then spiraled down into it. Carnoc followed her and was surprised to see that, after a narrow, nearly vertical entrance, the cave opened up into a circular chamber.

Melora stalled in midair, then settled to the ground. "Here we are," she said. "What do you think?"

He barely had space to land with her already there. "It's a little small..."

"Well," she crouched in front of him and raised her tail, "we don't need that much room, do we?"

Carnoc tried to think of something to say, but the combination of her scent, the sight of her presenting herself to him and his own desire overrode his mind too quickly. He reared up and mounted her, and they mated.