FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Story and all characters (c) 2006-2007 Yancarlo Ramsey. Please do not redistribute without written permission.

This is a work of adult fiction. If you get caught reading it, don't blame me.

• 3 -

I awoke slowly, with unfamiliar light falling upon my body. Opening one eye, I saw sunlight shining through the tough, semi-translucent membrane of my wingsail. The rock floor near me was lit as well. Shifting carefully, I folded my wing back, clearing my view.

The early morning sun, still low in a gold-tinted sky, shone almost directly into the mouth of the cave. I hadn't realized last night that the entrance faced east. Waking to sunlight upon my scales was lovely, and I wondered if the previous occupant had chosen this cave because of that feature. I lifted my head from atop my tail, looking out at the trees and dew-covered grass. The light sparkled slightly from the dew, making it look like someone had strewn diamond powder around the exit, and I smiled.

Then I heard a noise, coming from inside the cave, and turned my head to the left to look. It was Adrian, stirring on his sleeping mat. His blankets had become twisted and wrapped around him, and now he simply pushed them aside rather than attempting to untangle them. I immediately saw the ugly bruises on his ribs, and the angry red welts on his back, the burns on his belly... These were the marks left over from when the [church] had questioned him, I knew. But to see them for the first time, and so unexpectedly, made me shudder and look away, returning my eyes to the view outside.

Perhaps my talons had scrabbled against the stone. I'm not certain exactly what alerted him, but he turned toward me quickly, his eyes widening for a moment. Then he relaxed and smiled. "Good morning, Dorani."

"Yes, it is," I replied, still looking out at the scene before me. "A beautiful morning indeed."

He yawned, and as he gathered his clothing and stood, I glanced over at him again, and was quite startled to note that his reproductive organ appeared to be unsheathed. I was so startled that I just stared, even as he pulled on the cloth coverings, the [clothes] in their language, that he always wore. I'd thought he was unaware of my staring, and I was glad of that. I would have been quite a bit more embarrassed had I known otherwise.

He turned to look at me again, still smiling. "I'd offer you breakfast, but I'm afraid I'd have nothing to match your appetite..."

I glanced away. "I do appreciate the thought, but I'm not hungry yet, in any case. I ate well yesterday."

"Ah, that's right. You eat, what was it, a few times a week?" He started moving across the cave to a small area with signs of having been used as a firepit. Stirring the ashes with a thick stick, the end of which was well charred, he stacked a few pieces of wood and began making a new fire.

I watched him work. "Generally, yes. It depends on how active I've been."

"Of course." He continued preparing the fire.

"... Would you like me to help with that?"

He looked up toward me with what I believed to be a confused expression. "[Beg pardon?] Er, that is--"

"To light your fire. I can do it quickly."

"Ah!" He reached up and scratched at his hair. "I, ah... I suppose. Should I stand back?" He gave me what seemed to be a slightly nervous grin.

"No need." Getting to my feet, I stretched for a moment, and then took a few steps toward him. Lowering my head until my nose was only inches from the logs, I cleared the air from my mouth, squeezed a tiny amount of fire juice from the gland below my tongue, and carefully let it drip onto the wood. Then I moved back slightly, took a small breath, and blew gently on the soon-to-be fire. As my hot breath met the droplets of fire juice, they began to sizzle, and suddenly burst into flame, far more quickly than any kindling could have done the job.

He watched curiously, and then smiled as the fire came to life. "Amazing! So it is true that dragons 'breathe fire'..."

I rolled my eyes - one expression we certainly seemed to have in common - and settled to the ground, after backing up a pace so I wouldn't crowd him. "Not as such, no. My breath contains a chemical which acts as a catalyst, igniting the secretions from a gland in my mouth. When sprayed into a rapid exhalation, the fluid becomes a mist of droplets which ignite midair, and stick to whatever they come into contact with. It would be more accurate to say we spit fire than breathe it."

Of course, humans would have had no way of knowing how our flame production worked, but I was quite amused by the misconception. Apparently he was able to detect this, because he laughed quietly. "Well, I'm not familiar with some of those words, but I think I get the idea. Amazing..." He shook his head while looking at the fire for a moment, and then stood and moved to one side to gather some items I recognized as cooking implements.

I rested my head on my forefeet. Even from that position, his head was barely above my eye level, making it easy to watch him. "And I am still amazed that you understand as much of my language as you do, Adrian."

He placed some small items in a pan and came back to the fire, holding it out over the flame and stirring with a flat implement that most humans would have recognized as a spatula. I did recognize the scent of meat, and that of the eggs of a bird the humans tended to keep on their farms. "I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you, Dorani. I would like to learn more of it, though." The contents of the pan began to sizzle and pop.

"I will help you learn," I replied simply.

He grinned at me, showing off his puny little teeth. "Thank you. I would like that very much."

I just watched as he continued to cook his meal.

And this was when I discovered that he actually had noticed me looking at him a few minutes ago. As the food cooked, he finally looked up toward me and said, "I would help you learn as well, if there is anything else you wish to know... That includes how my magic works, as well as what I look like without [clothes]..."

I was embarrassed, not because I'd seen him nude - dragons don't tend to wear anything, after all, and I was completely lacking in adornment. It was because of a misconception on my part. Dragons, you see, do not have externally exposed genitalia. Even the males keep their organs completely hidden inside their bodies, until just before the act of mating begins. I'd had no idea that human males were different.

Still looking away, out the entrance to the cave, I coughed and replied, "I do not care to know why you were in that state. As long as it has nothing to do with me."

He looked at me blankly. "That state...? Of course, it had nothing to do with you. I have always slept nude, unless there's some important reason not to... I'm surprised, Dorani. Why would that bother you?"

I sighed and turned my head to face him again. "Adrian... It is true that I have never seen a human without [clothes] before. But it was not your nudity that bothered me."

"Then what was it?" He removed the pan from over the fire, glancing down long enough to pry the food loose from the bottom.

"... Your reproductive organ was visible."

"Well, yes, it does tend to be, when I'm not wearing anything... What's wrong?"

I didn't know what to say for a moment. Finally I asked, "That is why you cover yourself? But your [clothing] does not look like it would prevent that... It seems far too loose."

He waved the spatula around in something between a shrug and some form of expressive gesture. "Well, if it was tight, it would be even easier to see... There are males who like to show it off by wearing tight [pants], but most people find that kind of behavior distasteful."

"... I don't understand. Why would tight [pants] or lack of [pants] make a male's organ extend further, while loose [pants] have the opposite effect...?"

He tilted his head a little, looking at me in as much confusion as I felt. "The [pants] have no effect on it at all... It's like wrapping something in a tight cloth rather than a loose cloth. With the tight cloth, you can see the shape of the object, while with the loose cloth, it wrinkles around it and hides what's inside..." He demonstrated by setting down the pan and putting his fist inside his shirt, using his other hand to pull the cloth tight around it and then let it loosen up.

I was stunned. "You are always in a state of readiness?!"

Still confused, he reached up and scratched at his hair. "Of course not. It's a lot bigger, and less flexible, when... [aroused]... when ready to mate."

At that point I was just confused again. But then I began to realize something. "Do you mean that your organ is always visible, whether or not it is... [aroused]?"

"Of course. It's not like it disappears, or any--" He broke off, then slapped himself on the forehead. "Why didn't I think of that... Dragon males don't have visible, external organs unless in the process of mating, do they?"

"No, they do not. If human males do... Then I think I understand the source of my confusion."

"Yes... we do." He smiles. "It can be embarrassing at times, especially when in the presence of a beautiful female..."

It was my turn to give him a blank look. Seeing this, he continued.

"Well, when a human male thinks about how beautiful a human female looks, his body begins to... get ready. Just in case a chance to mate does occur."

"That is... very strange. It only takes the sight of a female to be ready to mate? How does a male ever get anything done?"

"Well, that's not quite right... And it can be distracting, at times. But it's the thought that counts, literally. - Er, wait, that doesn't translate right... The thought is what's important. Imagining a female works almost as well as seeing one standing before you. Remaining calm is a matter of being careful what you think about. And the same applies to being ready. If a male is distracted - for instance, if a [farmer] can't keep his mind off of the [drought] that's killing his [crops] - he's not as likely to be able to mate successfully. That's something I've had to help people with on many occasions."

I considered this for a few seconds, and then smiled, as much as my scaly lips are capable of doing so. "I think I understand now. For humans, with their short lives, every possible chance to mate and create offspring must be taken. Their bodies are designed to become ready quickly so that no opportunity is missed. For dragons, finding the best mate is what's most important. A male and female who are courting each other will become ready at the same time, if and when the courtship progresses to the stage where they are each certain that the other will be a good mate."

He had begun eating his breakfast while I spoke. I later learned that the meat was ham and the creatures which produced the eggs were chickens. He swallowed a piece and replied, "Interesting. Do dragons pick a certain mate for life, or do they mate with different individuals at different times?"

"It varies. Some find that they prefer to remain with a certain individual for a century or more, sometimes even until one of them dies. Others have been known to never mate with the same individual more than once, moving on to find another once the latest hatchlings are big enough to survive on their own. But most are somewhere in between those extremes."

"Fascinating," he replied, through a mouthful of eggs.

I tilted my head and look at him curiously. "How do you manage to speak clearly enough to be understood while there is food in your mouth?"

He laughed, and almost choked on that food, ending up coughing several times.

"Adrian? Adrian, are you hurt? What happened?" I almost rose from my place to approach him, but... what could I have done? I didn't know a thing about healing injured humans.

He shook his head, grinning at me despite the fact that he was still coughing. Finally he replied, "No, no, I'm alright, just got a little piece of food in the wrong place. [Laughing] in the middle of trying to swallow can do that, sometimes. If I'm not coughing, just grabbing at my throat or pounding on my chest, that's when you should be worried, because humans can... [choke to death]... Die from not getting any fresh air into their, uh... [lungs]..." He patted his chest to illustrate, and I supplied the correct word. "Lungs... yes, thank you."

I bobbed my head slightly and settled to the ground again, still feeling surprised by how much I'd been worried just then. How could I have come to care for this strange, tiny, ugly creature so much that I would worry about its health? And in such a short period of time? I had only met Adrian five days ago, and yet, he had been practically the only thing I could think about during the two days between our first meeting and yesterday's... It was worrying. And yet, at the same time, it was exciting. Talking to a human, getting to know one... This was something new! Something no dragon in common memory had done! I wondered where this path would take me.

Now, when I look back on those days, I realize there was no way I could possibly have guessed what would actually transpire.