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Hello again, Readers. Welcome, at long last, to the 4th Installment of the Dragon In The Dungeon. This has been my most challenging installment so far to write, and it's also turned out to be the longest. As such, I have divided it into 10 Chapters as it has become a fantasy novel unto itself. I know many of you are really going to enjoy that aspect of it.

If you're new to this tale you're best off starting with the original installment, which now has over 150 Favs since mid April! Of course, if you'd rather start here, that's fine too. This is written as the 4th installment, but as it's a tale told of the past, it can also serve as the beginning of the story.

As some of you saw in my journals, I had once considered writing the tale of Valyrym's past as its own, seperate series. However, I was afraid people would miss it, and so I decided to fold it into the central narrative of DitD. As a result, it requires a few installments of its own.

Because this is Valyrym telling his own tale to Alia, I felt a change was needed to reflect that. As well as to reflect the intentions and tone I'd originally planned for Valyrym's prequel series. As such, the installments of Valyrym's Tale are presented in First Person, just as Valyrym tells it to Alia. Or rather, as he tells it to Val Junior and allows Alia to listen in.

You'll even notice a few snarky asides here and there that Valyrym makes to Alia and Val Junior. Normally I'd not shift tenses that way but I simply couldn't resist the urge to let Val be Val, and have him replying to things he hears from Alia or imagines from Val Junior. I suppose that might not be "textbook correct", but I quite like it myself.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Without further ado, I present to you, my readers, The Dragon In The Dungeon: Silver Rain and Crimson Blood.

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Chapter One

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It was my road. They thought I was protecting them, at the time. But really, I was only protecting my road. As far as I was concerned, that road had nearly always been mine. It cut roughly through the center of my personal lands, and while it may have existed since before I hatched, I nonetheless claimed it as my own. As such, everything that passed along that road also belonged to me and was subject to my whims. That also meant that when the time came, the road was mine to defend, and defend it I did.

Why had I claimed the road? A fair enough question, Alia. Though if your persist on interrupting my tale too often, I shall never finish it. If you must know I claimed it because I was "all balls and claws." That is what dragons call it when a male is passing through the gangly, awkward stages of dragon adolescence. It is a time we find ourselves filled with hormones as well as the desire to do little more than fight, mate, and conquer things and rarely in that order. Though I'd been raised among a small clan of dragons, I felt the need as many young dragons do to hold my own lands. At such a time, claiming an entire road seemed an excellent way to stroke my own ego, as well as make a name for myself and add to my admittedly meager collection of possessions.

Oh, very funny Val Junior. If I weren't in this damn prison my collection would be quite impressive by now. Just wait until you're all balls and claws, and you shall feel the same desires. No, no, don't you dare think of conquering my tub. Now, if the two of you would kindly stifle yourselves, I can continue on with my tale.

If I should look back on my life to trace the events that eventually lead to my imprisonment many years later, it all began with the day I defended my road against one of my own kind. Though I had claimed the road during my late adolescence, I was well beyond puberty's clutches by the time I found the other dragon extorting travelers on my road. My body had grown strong and hard, my wings vast and powerful, and at least in my own mind, my balls and sheath plump and full. Such things were often on the minds of young dragons.

It was a lovely spring day. For several weeks curtains of silvery rain had washed across the vast, wild lands the humans called Aran'alia. The rains that fell across Aran'alia were a wondrous thing, always tinted silver as if painted by shimmering spirits. Now that the clouds had cleared I expected travelers upon my road. As the hard-packed earth thoroughfare would be muddy, travel would be slow. That would make them easy pickings for me. No, Alia, I wasn't going to rob them. I'd long since given up simply robbing them. After all it wasn't profitable enough if they didn't come back. Instead, I simply charged them a toll which I based upon how much of value they seemed to have.

I soared quite high as I flew towards my road. I had always loved to fly, but what dragon did not? Flying was a gift the gods gave to dragons, and I cherished it every time I took to my wings. The air itself was like a lover to me, caressing my wings in ways no human could ever truly understand. There was simply something indescribably joyful about the feel of wind rushing against my outstretched wings, holding me aloft as the sun beat down upon my back.

Though the sun had finally come out, the air still smelt of rain, fresh and cool. The air was heavy, humid enough that with each wing beat I could practically feel it parting around me. It was a cool morning, especially far from the earth, but the sun shone brightly and the warmth it bathed my scales in quickly took the chill off. It was a lovely day to fly, and an even better day to extract a toll from frightened humans. I was in an excellent mood all morning long.

Until I actually reached my road and discovered someone trying to wrest control of it from my claws. A line of a half dozen wagons and carriages had come to a halt while a blue-scaled dragon stood before them, obstructing the road. To one side of this section of road sprawled a vast green meadow, still wet and flecked with silver with recent rain. On the other side spread a forest far too thick to drive a carriage through. Men were quickly pulling bags and crates from out of the wagons and setting them in a tidy pile nearby at the side of the road. That dragon was robbing them. Anger flared inside me and caused my spines to rise. How dare they! That was my road, and those were my victims. I was supposed to be robbing that road.

That simply could not stand. No one robbed people on my road but me.

Hmm? Toll? Oh, right. Alia, keep it up and I shall have Val Junior bite you.

I folded my wings up against my body and began to dive. Faster and faster I dove, accelerating towards the ground. As I neared it I began to slowly open my wings again, an inch at a time, catching more and more air to slow myself. Finally, when I had slowed significantly enough to avoid injuring my wings I flared them to their full extent. I swooped low just over the ground, hurtling towards the other dragon. I dropped down to all fours in full gallop, and by the time my blue-scaled kin noticed I was there, I was already streaking across the green field. The dragon rose and turned to meet me, but had little time for any other sort of defense.

The blue dragon was a female, and just before I crashed full-sprint into her, I realized that I knew her. That knowledge registered just as our two large bodies collided with a loud thud. The force of the impact jarred my body painfully and must have been twice as bad for her. She gave an explosive cough as I knocked her completely off all four feet and sent her crashing into the woods. My momentum carried me with her and we rolled through the underbrush, shattered a few small trees.

Struggling together and propelled by the momentum of my dive we toppled quite a ways through the forest. Saplings were snapped in half beneath our weight, brush and bushes were crushed beneath us. Ferns were flattened out against the mossy ground and coating of brown leaves. A thorn bush tore at my wings as I rolled across it. Even as momentum ebbed away, we continued to roll and tumble through the forest, locked in combat. We might well have continued on that way had we not finally abutted up against a tree larger around than either of us.

Pressed against the tree we thrashed and fought, our wings beating in anger, tails lashing. Vines that coated the immense tree were caught up in the struggle. Ripped from their coiled bindings they toppled down upon us. In her fury, no sooner had the female gotten a breath than she spat fire. The flames narrowly missed my face, igniting some of the boughs and vines overhead. She lashed out me with her claws, opening several long bloodied lines on either side of my chest and shoulders.

I snarled in pain, and sliced her right back, across her cheek. Three deep wounds quickly send blood running down the blue scales of her face and neck. She took another deep breath and I pressed my paws against her muzzle, shoving her face down against the wet leaves and moss that carpeted the forest floor. She snarled another burst of angry fire along the ground, setting an unfortunate bush alight. As she continued to fight, I tried to pin her down. She struggled mightily. A few times she struck out with a hind paw to try and kick me in the balls, but I had already tucked my tail between my back legs to protect myself from such an assault. Growing up with a younger sister willing to do anything to best her older brother now and then taught me a few things about defending my vulnerable areas.

Finally, I saw a good opening, and dropped my jaws down to sink my teeth into her throat. I did not bite too deeply, just enough to taste and smell her blood. I pressed my body against hers to hold her down, and make sure she wouldn't get any clear shots at my underbelly or genitals while I kept her pinned. Once she realized I held her life in my jaws, she ceased her struggles. Panting heavily, she lay still beneath me for a few minutes. I could feel her pulse beating against my teeth, and when she gulped, it moved my muzzle a little.

The fight, brief as it had been, was over. I was victorious.

No need to rub it in.

"You lose," I hissed, releasing her throat from my jaws. Well, maybe I could rub it in a little. "Again."

The female lifted her head from the forest floor. "You're an ass, Valyrym!"

Stop laughing, Alia.

I snorted at the female dragon, all my spines still flared in anger and the excitement of battle. "Do not be a sour-faced hatchling." I rose up only a little, not ready to let her up just yet. Then I gestured back towards the road, beyond the trail of broken brush and crushed ferns we'd created. "That is my road. If anyone is to extort coin and valuables from them, it is me."

"I didn't see your name on it," she hissed right back.

"It_does_ have my name on it," I assured her. At least, it was supposed to. I'd forcibly commissioned some humans to put up signs to prepare travelers to pay my toll. Then again as I couldn't read their language those signs could have contained any sort of disparaging remark. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

"The same thing you are," she growled. She lifted a paw to her face, and then pulled it back. Blood coated her pale blue paw pads, and she grimaced. "You have given my scars on my face."

"So bare them proudly," I said, sneering at her. "Isn't that what you said when we were younglings?"

"Yes," she said, then snapped her jaws. Females did not have as many facial spines and crests as males did, but she flared what she had as she grinned smugly. "I seem to recall I gave you quite a thrashing, too."

"And I seem to recall that was the last time you managed to best me, Kylaryn." Sitting up, I poked her in the nose for emphasis. "And you only managed that because you kicked me in the balls."

Kylaryn rolled her eyes. Where mine were gold, hers were silver. "Like you had any balls to kick." She let her eyes roam along my underbelly a moment, smirking. "Seems little has changed."

"I'll show you how much change there's been," I growled at her, narrowing my golden eyes.

The female squirmed a little under me. "If it turns out anything like the last time you showed me, you'll be finished far before I am."

"I seem to recall you begging me for more," I said, twisting my voice into a higher octave. "More! More Valyrym, more!"

"That's because you'd finished almost as soon as you'd entered me! I was hoping you could give me a little more but you were already falling asleep." She flicked her tail tip against the forest floor. "Now get your balls off of me."

I shall not continue until you stop your giggling, Alia. ...That's better.

I glared at Kylaryn a moment longer, and then slowly rose to my feet, wary of any attempt on her behalf to lash out and get me in my two most tender parts. It wouldn't be the first time I'd bested her fairly in combat and she'd petulantly gotten me in the testicles as she stalked off to sulk. This time she didn't try though, and soon I was back on my feet alongside her, with my hind end safely pointing away.

Kylaryn smoothly rolled over onto her own feet, and flared her wings as she shook herself. Dead leaves, shredded moss, and broken sticks all tumbled from her form. She hissed at me and as usual, stalked off to go sulk somewhere. Just to spite me, and further frighten the humans she'd been robbing, she walked back towards the road, following the trail of ruined forest we'd created in our short skirmish.

Much as I had enjoyed besting her in battle, I almost enjoyed watching her walk off even more. Though I'd never say so to her face, she was a beautiful female. For the most part her body was a delightful shade of nearly sky blue, darkening to indigo along her back and over her wings, fading to the shade of a robin's egg along her underbelly. Her own horns were gray, rather than black, and not as heavily ridged as mine. Her snout was a little shorter, a little more rounded. Her body was sleeker and much more curvy than that of any male, her haunches and plump tail base swayed to and fro quite provocatively as she walked away from me. The sight made my sheath tingle, and she knew it. She glanced back once, smirked at me, and hoisted her tail just enough to give me a peek at the slightly swollen, pinkish folds hidden between her hind legs. Naughty thing always did like to fight.

I shook my head, and glanced away. I couldn't well extort my toll from the humans if I was jutting from my sheath after all.

Speaking of humans, I noticed that many of them had gathered at the end of the road. They must have been watching Kylaryn and I fight. As soon as she neared the road they all scrambled out of the way. She hissed and snapped her jaws at them. That made me growl, and I quickly trotted up behind her, to grasp the tip of her tail. Her own tail did not end in a cluster of spines like mine, that was more often a male attribute. But she did gave the cutest little yelp of surprise when I snatched it up in my paw and yanked.

"Apologize to my humans!" Yes, just as I considered it my road, I considered them my humans.

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"In_their_ tongue," I instructed her. I wasn't going to let her sneak out of it by apologizing in a language they wouldn't understand.

Kylaryn gave a dangerous growl. For a moment, she seemed ready to whirl around and attack me. I was ready for it if she did. I'd be happy to give her another set of new scars right in front of all the humans if that was what she wanted. Finally, she relented, and switched over to the common tongue used by the humans in the area.

"I am sorry I tried to rob you," she said, her voice soft as she could manage.

A murmur of surprise and approval ran through the assembled crowd. That was good. The more impressed they were with my performance, the more I'd be able to get them to give me. I released her tail, and Kylaryn stalked off into the meadow. I expected her to fly away, but instead she simply went a few hundred paces beyond the road, and flopped down onto her belly to glare at me for a while. Now and then she checked her cheek to see if it was still bleeding. I on the other paw, made a point to act as if I hadn't even noticed my own bloodied wounds. Truth was they stung like hell and I wanted to crawl off somewhere and lick them, but I'd not do so in front of Kylaryn.

While the humans were busy casting wary glances at Kylaryn, I slowly moved to the spot she had previously occupied. I stood just in front of the lead wagon, and slowly the large group of men and woman assembled into a sort of impromptu crowd. At least, I hoped it was a crowd as it could have just as easily been a mob. No one was yet holding torches and pitchforks but the day was young. If they all decided at once to attack me I'd probably just take to my wings and fly off. I rarely extorted a toll from more than two wagonloads of people at a time. After all, the more humans there were the more the odds began to shift to their favor. Kylaryn was obviously new at this.

"Greetings," I said to the humans, speaking their tongue. Much to my surprise, a cheer went up among the gathered crowd. The sound surprised me, and made me pin my ears back. I took a step back from them, unsure of its meaning. I could not tell if it was a sound of joyous exultation or some sound of aggression exhorting them all to attack en masse.

"Three cheers for the dragon!" Cried out one man, who seemed to be their leader. Much to my surprise, they did just that. Now I was quite confused. Why on earth were they cheering the creature who'd come to collect a toll? Ah, perhaps they didn't know about the toll. Well, I should have to educate them.

"I have come to-"

"Save us!" Cried another man, bringing yet another round of cheers from the crowd. "The dragon came to save us!"

What? Save them? The hell I did. Damn it, now they were getting entirely the wrong idea. I glanced at Kylaryn, she was smirking at me. As if she had anything to gloat over. Well, I'd show her. "Yes! I have come to save you!" I gestured towards Kylaryn. "From the wicked blue dragon of the west!" Kylaryn's smirk faded in an instant. Mine quickly took its place. "I've given her a sound thrashing, and made her promise never to do it again."

The humans cheered for a while after that. I shifted in place a little, glancing over at the things Kylaryn had been trying to steal from them. Looked like crates stacked with food and goods. Silly whelp, didn't she even know how to steal the good stuff? Yes, Alia, as a matter of fact I did consider myself an expect at extorting valuable things from humans. After all fool dragon could hunt themselves food, why hadn't she asked for treasure? Then again, perhaps these people didn't really have any treasure. I looked them over, and saw the dark hair that marked them all as native Aran'alians. They must have been returning from a trip to some other realm. Still, they might have brought treasure with them.

"Did you all see him?" One voice cried out above the others. I tilted my head, listening. If they were going to exult my deeds, I supposed the least I could do was listen in. Dragons certainly enjoyed having their egos stroked, along with other things. "He swept in like the dread sky itself and knocked that blue bitch right on her scaly ass!"

Laughter and cheers mingled among the humans, and the one who'd first called for cheers gestured to me. "He looks like the dread sky, too, black as a storm cloud at night."

Ooh, I liked that description. In my youth, I was coated in ebon nearly from head to tail with nary a hint of the shades of gray that would mark me in my advanced age. The black tone was broken only in a few rare places by dark blue like hints of the sky peeking out from between bleak, black clouds. My eyes still shone golden like the sun, and were perhaps the only part of me that did not eventually fade with age.

"What was that you said I looked like?" I asked, wanting them to repeat that lovely description. I knew their language but I did not truly know their customs, or their sayings. "Something about the sky?"

The lead human came a little closer to me now that he was sure I meant him no harm. He wasn't exactly right but I was starting to think acting like their savior might be more profitable than simply robbing...I mean extorting tolls. He was an older man, wearing a simple green vest over a white undershirt, and rather baggy cotton trousers. He seemed well built, and despite his age not a hint of gray had touched his raven hair. His skin was lightly bronzed by the sun. He looked a bit rugged, beneath his shaggy black hair his face was weathered and worn like the craggy peak of some ancient mountain. Nonetheless, wisdom and respect shone in his eyes, and so did a sneaky sort of intelligence. I suddenly had the sneaking suspicion that he knew what I'd really come here for. It did not seem to bother him, though, as he seemed to think the idea that I'd saved them would work out better for both of us.

He was a wise old bastard, I'll give him that.

"I said you look like the dread sky," he said, standing just in front of me. "Seems a fitting name for you, don't you think? Unless you'd rather we all use your real name?"

I snarled a little, my snout twisting up into a scowl. I was not about to give him that. I'd not even given the sign-makers that, just told them to call me the Black Dragon. Yes, Alia, I'm aware that means my name wasn't actually on the road, but it's the principle of the thing. Either way, I did not tell the old man what I was called. "Certainly not. Humans do not get to know my real name."

"No, I thought not," the man muttered. "I know of you, Dragon. Quite a few travelers and visitors to the our village had mentioned a black dragon, forcing them to pay a toll."

"So you know about that," I said, chuckling a little.

"Aye." He gestured back towards the others who were starting to return the goods Kylaryn was going to steal back to their wagons. "So do many of them. Doesn't mean we don't appreciate a good deed."

"It was not my intention-"

The human cut me off, holding his calloused hand up. "But it could have been. Sometimes, Dragon, it pays to say less rather than more."

"So you're going to pay me for saving you?" I grinned a little, my spined tail swishing in the air.

"The thought occurred to me," the man replied, folding his arms. "Though that was not what I meant. Nonetheless, a good deed should not go unrewarded. That female planned to take all we had, despite the fact she couldn't even carry it all away in one trip. She'd have left us with nothing to return to our village with, and we'd have spent our village's coin in vain as a result. You prevented that. I think that deserves a reward...provided, of course...you don't also plan to take from us beyond the scope of that reward."

I looked the man over. Clever bastard, he was. Still, I'd never been rewarded before. And it was rather...nice...to have such a large group of humans respect me for reasons other than fear. I don't think I'd ever had humans like me before. I rustled my black wings a little against my back in thought, then scratched at my neck with one of my wing spines. I licked my nose, and finally snorted.

"Very well, Human. I shall accept your reward and allow you to use my road without further impediment."

A smile spread across the man's face. He looked almost genuinely surprised I had accepted. "Excellent. Then we have a deal."

"Deal? I do not recall making any such deal."

The man simply laughed. 'You've already made it, Dragon. You protect us, you get a reward. You've made the deal and concluded it without even knowing."

I growled under my breath, pawing at the road. My claws cut long ruts in the muddy earth. He made it sound as though he expected me to protect them any time they used my road from this point forward. I wasn't sure if the man had somehow just talked me into accepting something against my will or if he'd simply spun me in circles with his words. Sometimes my usage of the common tongue was not as assured as I would have liked it to be.

The man walked back to his people. He called out, and when he had their attention, he gave them an order. "This dragon has saved us today! He is no enemy of our people. Let it be known that this road is under his protection! All who travel it are under his protection now!"

Why, that sneaky little bastard. He had twisted my words into a long term deal I hadn't intended to make. I'd half a mind to set him on fire then and there. I thought about it for a moment, but I wanted my reward, damn it. That did not stop me from glaring down at him as the people cheered for me, thinking I'd protect anyone on this road. Hah! If they wanted protection they were going to have to pay! Actually...that gave me an idea. I could still extract my tolls from everyone who passed, and simply tell them I'd protect them on their way. I didn't actually have to do it, of course. And even if I did, all I should have to do is slay a few bandits here and there. Sounded like fun, actually.

Let them think I was protecting them, then. All I really cared about was my road, and the profits it brought me. Speaking of which, I walked up behind the man, and nudged him in the back with my snout. I did it a little harder than I should have as he stumbled forward and nearly fell onto his hands and knees before another of his people caught him.

"Oh," I murmured, trying to act innocent. "Sorry about that. Now that you've wrapped me up in your little game, I should think I deserve a far more satisfying reward than whatever it is you already had planned."

When the man caught his balance, he pursed his lips. He rubbed his back a little where I'd butted him with my snout. "That seems fair. Very well." He turned to his people, held his hands up for silence, and when it was granted to him, he called out. "Prepare a reward! Prepare a reward for..." He gestured to me with one hand, smirking. "The Dread Sky!"

The man was a showman, it seemed. I had no idea what they were going to give me, but, I decided to play into their little game a bit more. I raised my own voice so that it would be heard above all the cheers and chatter. "The Dread Sky is hungry after liberating you from the wicked blue bitch! I shan't demand all your food as she did, but a meal's worth would be delightful. Something very satisfying, if you have it. Also, perhaps something valuable and beautiful, if you have it." I spotted a group of women standing near an oaken chest with an especially elaborate carving of galloping horses upon it. I gestured towards the chest. "Dragons do love valuable, beautiful things after all."

The man glanced back at me in an odd way as his people began to talk it over. I licked my muzzle. I don't know what his problem was. I should be able to dictate the terms of my own reward, after all. The women whispered amongst themselves, and part of me hoped I'd not just asked for some treasured heirloom. Another part of me hoped that was exactly what was in that chest because surely such a thing would be quite valuable indeed.

A quick glance told me Kylaryn was still glaring at me from across the meadow. I half wondered if she was just planning to wait and rob these people as soon as I'd left. Much as the idea amused me, I could not let her do that. After all I doubt they'd reward me next time if I simply abandoned them to Kylaryn's whims right after this so-called deal had been struck.

Still, perhaps the old man was onto something. There were at least half a dozen villages within a day's flight from here, and many more beyond that. I was willing to bet that some of them would appreciate being under a dragon's protection as well. Why simply charge a toll on a road when I could charge entire villages a tribute in return for keeping them safe? Or at least, I'd tell them I'd keep them safe. I had little intention of playing guardsmen on a daily basis. Perhaps they could simply point me towards the nearest bandit infestation now and then and I could go and burn it down for them. Yes, that seemed fair.

I told the humans that I was going to go and tell the blue bitch that she'd better not come back, and that I would take my reward when I returned. I also told them if I did not return swiftly enough they were welcome to leave my prizes by the side of the road and continue their journey. After all there were only so many prattling human voices I could stand in one day.

No, Val Junior, if Alia asks you should tell her that I find her voice prattling and obnoxious as well. Why? Because I shouldn't like her to know I actually enjoy the sound of her voice. I should think it would go to her head.

I strode across the meadow, following the trail of trampled grasses and wildflowers that Kylaryn had left behind. Like all the lands of my home, the meadow was vast and beautiful. The grasses held a nearly emerald shade, and here and there a few lingering silvery droplets leftover from the rain and dew sparkled upon them like scintillating crystal. Wildflowers of red and blue, yellow and purple speckled the entire expanse of the meadow with blossoms large and small, round and conical.

In the center of all that beauty was a very angry looking dragoness. She glared at me as I approached her, and lashed her tail against a patch of wildflowers, sending colorful blooms spinning through the air. As I came to a stop in front of her she bared her fangs, hissing like a furious snake.

"Don't sulk," I said to her, cocking my head a little. "And stop taking your frustrations out on the flowers."

"I hate the damn flowers," she snapped. Then she snatched up a pawful of grass, flower, and earth, and hurled it at my muzzle. I closed my eyes as the dirt and vegetation pelted me, then shook my head. She snarled, curling her tail, and added, "And I hate you!"

"Liar," I smirked. I was a smug bastard sometimes. "Stop acting like a spoiled hatchling getting her toys taken away. If you keep it up, I shall have to give you a spanking."

Kylaryn glared at me a moment longer, before the anger boiling in her silvery eyes slowly melted away to something else I couldn't quite define. It seemed almost like sadness, but she was not a creature I had ever associated with being able to feel that particular emotion. "Why must you always best me?"

I pulled my head back a little, my neck curling into an S. "Because I'm better than you."

That only made her growl. She dragged her claws through the grass, carving little earthen ruts beneath all the green. I hadn't meant it insultingly. I was simply answering her question as truthfully as I could. If she did not want an honest answer she should not have asked an honest question.

"Go away," she finally muttered, laying her head down on the grass.

"No," I said. "These are my lands. If anyone is to leave, it is you, Kylaryn."

She murmured something completely incomprehensible. She was a hard dragon to read sometimes. Then again, she was female, and that made her doubly hard to read. I was hardly some inexperienced youngling at the time. I'd already mounted more than a few females, including Kylaryn herself on several occasions. But being physically coupled with a female was a far different than trying to understand her whims, and emotions. The fact that we were still young dragons made it even more difficult.

"Why are you here, anyway?" I finally asked her.

"Why are you?" She shot back at me.

That hardly made sense. "Why do you think? Because I wished to claim my own lands, and hold my own territory in the world."

Kylaryn simply lifted her paw, gesturing in the air as if to say I'd answered my own question. After a moment, I realized I had. It was not unusual for young dragons to wish to claim their own lands. Really, it was not unusual for any dragon to wish to claim his own lands. Even as a hatchling, I had attempted to claim my sisters chambers as my own for a time until my mother and father intervened.

"I thought you were happy living nearer the clan?" I asked, flaring my black wings out a little. She didn't reply right away, and I glanced back to see how the humans were coming along with my prize. Ooh, several crates and a wooden chest. This little reward was starting to look like a nice haul.

"The clan is gone," Kylaryn finally said softly. She turned her gaze towards the horizon.

My head jerked back around, my golden eyes wide. My heart froze a beat. "What? What do you mean, gone?"

"I mean it no longer exists."

"But...what happened?" For a moment, I struggled to wrap my mind around that.

"Humanity," she muttered. "It was no longer safe. Their cities grow larger, their roads grow longer, and their blades grow sharper." She took a deep breath, and let it out in a long, slow sigh. "They sent an army to eradicate our clan."

"What about my family?" I blurted out.

Aran'alia was a vast place, though not all of it was as far flung as the lands which I claimed. In my youth I had lived with others of my kind, in a simple clan that dwelled in and around a mountain. Yet even when I was young, I remembered the human towns growing by the year, our isolation shrinking in turn. I had left that place years ago to press deeper into the rugged lands to find a place of my own, but my mother, my father, and my sister had all remained behind.

"They're fine," Kylayrn said flatly, unable to meet my gaze. "They flew north."

"And...your family?" My heart hurt when she did not reply. She flicked her tail against the grass, sniffed once, and lay her head down in the grass. I swallowed, trying to dislodge the lump that had formed in my throat. I took a step towards her, but she jerked her head off the ground, hissing at me. "I don't want your pity!"

"Alright, alright," I said, stepping back again. Pain shone like silver lanterns in her eyes, and now I wished I'd treated her better today. I still didn't know why she'd come here, to my lands. Probably just passing through. Or perhaps I was simply the only dragon left she really knew. "You can stay in my realm a while, if you want Kylaryn."

"I said I didn't want your pity," she snapped, and rose to her feet, unsheathing her claws in anger.

"Then what did you come here for?" I kept my own claws sheathed, just so she'd know I wasn't going to fight with her now.

"I wanted to see-" She quickly cut herself off, and did what she could to cover her slip up. "To see you to tell you about the clan."

Before I could really respond, she turned swiftly and smacked me right in the nose with her tail. I yelped in pain, grabbing my snout a moment. Damn it, I always forgot about her tail. Nice trick, though, turning around that way. I should have to steal it. I rubbed my throbbing nose and watched her start walking off. She held no extra saunter this time, now she simply looked defeated. "I do not wish to speak any longer. Go enjoy your reward, Valyrym."

I knew well enough when a dragon did not wish to speak, there was little anyone could do to change their mind. Still, I found myself feeling unexpectedly sorry for her. I wondered if both her parents were gone, or just one? What about her brother? Still, at least I knew my own family was alright. That gave me some admittedly selfish relief. Still, how many dragons had we lost? Had the clan nearly been wiped out, or had it simply dispersed when it was no longer safe to stay together? Or had they all flown north, with my family? From the way Kylaryn said it was gone, it sounded as though whatever remained of it had broken apart.

Still, worried as I was about the rest of my clan, my thoughts lingered with Kylaryn and her family. I wondered if she had simply sought me out, hoping I could provide some comfort. Admittedly, it would have been an odd thing for her to hope for. We were hardly the closest of friends. Our relationship was a hard one to describe. It careening wildly back and forth from bitter rivalry to deep friendship and back again in no predictable way. Even when our bond was strongest we had always competed with one another ever since we were hatchlings, and I'd nearly always won. It seemed each defeat made Kylaryn want to best me even more, and yet save for an occasional instance here and there I almost always bested her yet again.

Yet, even when our rivalry was bitterest an undercurrent of friendship ran beneath it. And when our friendship did blossom again it even ran very, very deep. When she was younger she'd shattered her wing after crashing during a storm. For a time we weren't sure she would ever fly again, and I did what I could to cheer her up. She was so depressed for a time I was actually worried for her. Looking back, I realized she'd never had many close friends, her competitiveness sometimes came across as abrasive. So I stayed close to her while she healed.

For a time, we grew very close. Not only had we mated on more than one occasion throughout our lives, but in fact the very first time either of us had ever explored the opposite sex had been with each other. Perhaps in a way, that had only fueled our rivalry rather than our friendship. Still, the memory made me smile. For a moment, I thought about going after her, offering a softer word, but I knew her well enough to know that now was not the time.

The sound of clanking wheels and whinnying horses drew me from my thoughts and memories. For a moment, I thought they meant to try and race away from me while I was distracted with Kylaryn. However, I saw that the crates and chest remained, as did a single woman along with the chestnut toned mare she had tied up nearby. She wore a cream colored dress, and had her dark hair tied behind her head. Her skin was a bit paler than some, her features looked soft and round, her nose a bit small, her eyes brown and flecked with green. I wondered why she'd remained behind, and assumed she was there to explain my reward to me.

I padded back towards her, the damp, soft grass tickling my paw pads a little bit. She stood her ground atop the road, and as the winds shifted and blew her scent to me, I thought she smelled a little nervous. Then again, I could hardly blame a woman for being nervous when alone in the presence of a dragon. After all, there _were_stories about the things we did with maidens.

"Hello, Woman," I said, trying to sound as friendly as possible. So long as she was only here to give me my reward, no sense in frightening her till she pissed herself.

"Hello, Dragon," she replied, smiling a little.

I rustled my wings, then tucked them as tightly to my body as I could, lowering my head on my long neck. Both signs of non-aggression among dragons, though I rather doubt she knew that. "I take it you are to explain to me my reward?"

She nodded a little, clasping her hands in front of herself. "That is part of it, yes."

"Part of it?" I lifted my head, spreading my spiny frills out a little behind my ears. "What is the other part of it?"

"I'm to tend you," she said, smiling a little. She glanced back at her horse when the mare pranced nervously.

"Tend me?" I tilted my head, my long tail coiling a little in confusion. "I do not understand."

"Your wounds," the woman said, gesturing at my injuries. The bleeding had stopped and while they hurt they were not serious. Her face reddened a little. "And...your...well...your desires."

"Desires?" Embarrassing as it may be to admit, I was thoroughly confused.

"Yes, Dragon," she said, giggling. "The desires centered between your hind legs."

"Oh, those desires," I replied, waving a paw as if I hadn't caught on right away. I hadn't. "Wait, what?!"

"Is...that not what you asked for?" The woman took a step back as if afraid she'd insulted me. "You asked for a more satisfying reward, didn't you? Something valuable and beautiful, and you gestured towards the women..."

Oh. Oh, I see. It seems they'd heard the stories about dragons and maidens as well and completely misinterpreted my intentions. I was sure there must have been some truth in those tales somewhere, though I myself had never demanded a maiden in my life. For a moment I thought about just sending her away. But I supposed I could let her at least see to my wounds. And, the more I considered it, the more enticing her offer sounded.

Though, there was at least one problem I could think of. "I'd hardly fit, Woman."

The woman's face went redder than the fruit in the basket they'd left behind. "I was...well...I'd thought...I'd just, you know..." She held up a hand, and then made a slow, nervous stroking motion. Sheepishly, she giggled and soon I found myself laughing as well. The growling sound of my laughter must have surprised her, because she took a step back before she realized it was a sound of mirth, not aggression. "Would...that work...for a dragon?"

"Yes, Woman," I said, grinning, considering her offer. "That would certainly work. What is in the crates, and chest? And how do you plan to tend my wounds?"

As if just to get off the subject a moment, she moved over towards the crates, gesturing to each one in turn. "This one is full of apples." She held up a hand before I could remark on how wholly unspectacular apples were. "Before you say anything, try one. I promise you've never had apples quite like these!" She smiled a moment, then crouched down and plucked one of the red skinned fruits from the basket, holding it out to me. It had tiny golden spots upon the crimson rind. "That is, if you've ever had apples at all."

Apples. Some damn reward. I unsheathed a single claw and speared the apple from her hand quickly enough to make her yelp. She stared with wide eyes at the apple as I delicately curled my tongue round it like an oversized horse and pulled it into my muzzle. I was about tell her the rest of the crates had better be filled with gold and the best damn meat I'd ever tasted in my life if they thought they could get away with rewarding me with apples. Though the moment I actually bit into it I found myself wishing they'd left me nothing _but_apples.

I had eaten a few apples before, both the red and green skinned varieties, usually after stealing them from some human's wagon. I'd never really held much of an opinion about them before but this was spectacular. As I crunched it up inside my muzzle it filled my mouth with the most delectable sweetness. This was unlike any apple I had ever tasted in my entire life, and at the moment all I wanted to do was eat another. So I did. I speared a second from the crate and stuck it into my muzzle, trying to chew it up a little bit more slowly. I could not help moaning to myself as I swallowed it.

"See?" The woman couldn't help laughing at the pleased noises I made while I ate the fruit. "They're amazing, aren't they. They come from Lavia, they have orchard after orchard of apples like this there. It's the only place this variety grows, as far as I know. They say they're extra sweet because they're only watered by run-off from the silver rains. But then again, so are all of our fruits and vegetables, but I don't think the soil here would support apple trees quite so well."

"You talk a lot," I said, simply pointing out what seemed like fact.

"Oh," the woman gulped, glancing down before she laughed nervously. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for." I flicked my tail tip. "Lavia. That is...a large human city, to the southeast, is it not?"

"That's correct," she said, smiling. "One of the larger cities of Aran'alia, really. Not to far from the border with Vurnel. Or, at least it used to be. They say Vurnel's a province of Illandra, now."

"What does that mean?" I asked, tilting my head, spearing a third apple.

"It...well..." She tried to think of the best way to explain such a thing to a dragon. Then again, as a woman who had likely spent most of her life in the wildest, freest sections of Aran'alia she might have had little relative experience to draw upon on. "It means that Vurnel used to rule itself, and now Illandra, another country, rules it instead."

"Ah," I grunted. "So humans do not just take the lands of dragons, they take each other's land, as well."

She folded her arms. "I'll have you know, I'm a human, and I have taken no one's land, human or dragon."

"Not yet, anyway," I chuckled, waving my unsheathed talons towards the crates. "What else have you brought me, Woman?"

"My name is Lenira," she said, smiling. Occasionally, her name still haunts my dreams. "You may use it if you wish."

"My name is not for you to know," I replied. "So you may not use it if you wish."

The woman blinked, unsure if I was making a joke or being completely serious. The truth lay somewhere in between, as I had not yet sharpened my weapons of wit as thoroughly as I would in the later years of my life. I gestured once more to the crates, and tried to give her a little smile so she'd not be to put off. After a moment, I decided I may as well explain.

"Dragons do not give their names to humans unless we have come to trust you, or to call you our friend." I licked my nose a moment, and understanding seemed to dawn on her. She smiled again, and I added, "As you can imagine, that does not happen often."

"I should imagine not," Lenira replied, grinning as she moved aside the apple crate to show me a second crate. This one was filled with cured and dried meats of various types, the delightful aromas had my mouth watering even more than the apples had. She plucked a piece of cured venison and offered it up to me. "Perhaps if more dragons decided to protect people rather than attack them, you'd make more friends."

I took the meat and popped it into my snout. "Perhaps," was the only reply I bothered to give her. The meat was nice, it had a spiced and salted kick I was unfamiliar with.

"I'm afraid we didn't have much fresh meat to give you," she said, watching me eat. "It spoils on a journey, but if you ever come by the village I'll be sure you get some sausages and things I'd imagine you've never had before."

"Are you inviting me to your village?" I asked, smirking a little. I should have seen her fascination from the very beginning. But I was a foolish youth, and such simple things often eluded me.

"So long as you'll promise not to burn anything down," she replied, laughing.

"Will your people not attack me?" I licked my nose. The meat was good, but left me feeling a little thirsty.

Lenira shrugged. "I rather doubt it. I'm sure the tales of your heroic rescue will spread through the village before evening falls." She pointed off towards the blue lump that was the curled form of Kylaryn in the distance. "They might attack that one, though."

"I don't think she'll be bothering you again," I said, pinning my ears back a little. "Has a dragon ever been to your village?"

"Been to?" She shook her head. "Not as a visitor. We've had a few sheep and cows and things stolen, but we've never had a dragon actually attack us or anything. Far as I know, there's only been a few dragon attacks among all the villages in the last few generations."

That made me chuckle, my wings shaking. "That's because we're not idiots. There are quite a few dragons living in this area, though so long as you do not antagonize us, and you keep us placated when we demand at tribute or simply wish our ego stroked, we see no reason to attack you. At least, I see no reason to attack you."

"Did you not used to rob everyone who came along this road?"

I waved my paw along the vast line of hard-packed earth stretching in both directions. "This road belongs to me. Therefore I did not rob, I merely claimed what was mine. Besides...I was told that is simply called a toll." She laughed, though I hadn't realized my statement was funny. I shook my horned head. "And I have not harmed or killed anyone who has not tried to do the same to me first."

"There you have it." She smiled again. "You see? You'd be fine."

"What are you babbling about?"

"My village, I mean," she said, giggling. "You'd be fine if you visited us. We'd have no reason to attack you, either. So long as you came in on foot, I think, made it clear you weren't about to light our village on fire. You'd probably make all the children quite happy."

That made my lips curl in a sneer across my muzzle. The last thing I wanted was chattering human children running around me, climbing upon my tail, hitting me with sticks and playing at dragon-slayer. With my luck, an inadvertently swipe of my tail would decapitate one of the little brats and then the whole damn village would be up in arms as if it was my fault.

No, Alia, it would not be my fault.

"I think I shall limit my...visit...to your front gate or central plaza." I waved my paw a little bit. "Whatever it is you have. I think I should like to negotiate a deal. More tribute, directly from your village, for protection. Does this sound agreeable?"

"I'm hardly the person to ask, but, depending on how much tribute you wanted, I think our elders might be interested in an arrangement like that. We do have a few problems now and then with roving groups of bandits, as do all the villages." She tilted her head a little bit, grinning. "Would you really protect us, or would you just take our gifts and leave?"

"I've no idea what you're talking about," I muttered, walking past her towards the wooden chest.

I suspected the other crate just held more food, but the chest I thought might have something more valuable. I tried to open it, but it was locked, and I did not wish to break it open and potentially damage whatever was inside. When I glanced back at the woman, I caught her peeking beneath my tail. Trying to act as though I'd not noticed, I lifted my tail a little bit to better expose the two hanging ebony eggs beneath it. She definitely looked. So, she was curious? Perhaps she had volunteered for this...reward.

"What's in here?" I asked, tapping the chest with a claw.

"Ah!" She smiled, produced a key from a pocket hidden away in her dress, and crouched down to unlock the large oaken box. When she popped it open, I saw to my surprise it was actually filled with a variety of coins of all types, as well as ornate silver drinking vessels and candelabras. "What do you think?"

"I think this really is treasure," I murmured.

I stuck my nose into the crate, sniffing. I was trying to detect the scents of poisons or toxins, as I would not be the first dragon killed or captured by such a trap. Granted, if it was an airborne toxin I'd just exposed myself to it. Thankfully dragons had very powerful immune systems and could usually fight off even the strongest poisons with time. Though that did us little good if we were curled up retching on the ground while someone drove a spear into our bellies.

"Where did you get all this?"

"Some of it we traded for," the girl smiled, shrugging. "We've plenty of minerals and ores and other things that don't often exist outside our area. They're very valuable to the right people." She gestured towards the rolling green hills studded with grey stone in the distance and the jagged, snow-capped mountains beyond. Then a wicked looking grin spread over her lips. "Other things we stole."

"Stole?" That honestly surprised me, and my tail nearly tied itself in a knot.

"Yes, stole," she said, giggling to herself. "Not that any of those idiot merchants and wealthy slobs will ever be the wiser. They always try to rip us off, thinking that because we live so far out from anything else we must be fools. As you can see, we're not."

"So I see," I murmured. I rather liked these villagers all of a sudden. Such was my first experience with the truer, wilder nature of native Aran'alians. For lack of a better explanation, they had a less civilized mindset than many of the humans who dwelled in more heavily populated areas. They were closer to dragons in that regard, and I could not help but like them for it. "No wonder your people were so quick to offer even a dragon a reward and then get the hell out of here."

She only smiled at that, and then glanced towards her horse. "I can get my medical supplies from my packs, if you wish."

I'd almost forgotten about my wounds. I curled my neck a little to examine them. "They are not bad. They'll give me a few new scars of victory."

"Nonetheless, they should at least be washed out properly. Even dragons get infections, do they not?" Then she blinked, unsure. "Or, perhaps you don't. You're the first I've ever seen up close."

"Yes, I thought as much," I smirked at her. "I saw you peeking at my balls." Her face went red as the apples she'd offered me. Quickly, she glanced away, and I could not help myself. "If you're gentle, I'll let you handle them."

Somehow, she managed to find an entirely new shade of red I did not even know existed. But then she laughed a little as well, and began to walk towards her horse. "After your wounds, Dragon."

"Very well," I said, watching her a moment. She was a strange girl. Much more open, I suppose, than the average human. That too was a trait of certain wild-land born Aran'alians. I called out after her. "You are right, by the way. Even a dragon's wounds do occasionally get infected. We're only flesh and blood. We're not magic, after all."

"No more so than anyone else, hmm?" She called back to me as she dug through the saddlebags hanging from her horse.

"Not that I'm aware of."

Once Lenira had gathered her supplies she returned to me cradling everything against her chest. For a few moments she simply stared at my body, tilting her head back and forth, examining the wounds that Kylaryn's claws had made. "You dragons certainly have sharp claws, don't you. I should like to wash these out. Do you know if that stream we passed over a few miles back cuts anywhere near the road here?"

I lifted a paw and pointed towards the forest. "Not too far that way, actually."

Lenira started that way, though when she reached the edge of the forest she glanced back at me. "Do you think you could...well, it's awfully thick through here."

"We'll go this way," I said, flicking my tail against the grass. If she expected me to give her a ride she was sorely mistaken. I'd sooner serve as trailblazer than mount.

I walked the edge of the road until I'd come to the place where I first crashed with Kylaryn into the forest. The area there was already clear for a ways thanks to our tumble through the underbrush. When we reached the immense tree that had stopped our progress, I glanced about. The scent of boiled sap and charred leaves filled my nostrils, but I was glad to see that none of the flames had spread very far. I walked around the tree, and between my claws and my tail I was able to clear a decent path through the ferns and underbrush for the woman in the dress.

It did not take long to reach the stream. It was not especially deep, but the water was clear and burbled over several stones smoothed by the ceaseless flow. Here and there green reeds and aquatic plants swayed back and forth as the current gently caressed them. Down the bank there was a bend with a nice sandy shoreline, and I soon settled back onto my haunches on the sun-warmed sands. Before long Lenira had joined me, and was once again peering at my wounds.

"This shouldn't take long." She set her things down in front of her, and soon selected a cloth which she soaked in the stream. "This might sting a little. So please don't bite me if it does, alright?"

"I shall not bite you," I replied, unsure if she was joking or serious. It was a realistic enough concern, after all, but at the moment I had little interest in divesting her of her limbs.

Lenira began to gently scrub my injuries with the wet cloth. I hissed in pain. The woman did her best to be gentle, and I did my best not to lash out and strike her down. When she'd cleaned the dried blood away, I looked down to inspect my wounds. Kylaryn's claws had left several neatly ordered rows of cuts across my shoulders where the scales were not as thick as the more heavily armored plates of my chest. Assuming Lenira was done, I started to rise, but she put a hand against my scales to try and ease me back down.

"I don't think you'll want me bandaging you up, since I'd have to really wrap-"

"No." I snorted, cutting her off. "I do not."

"But at least let me clean them properly." She picked up a small silver flask, and began to pour clear liquid from it onto another cloth.

"Is that not what you just did?"

"No. This is actually going to hurt a lot more, but as long as you don't get your wounds all dirty again, this is what's going to ensure they don't get infected."

I growled at her, baring my fangs. Whatever that stuff was, it smelled horrid. "You shall not be putting that foul liquid anywhere near me!"

"Are you sure? You've no idea what that wicked blue bitch might have had on her claws when she cut you up." She peered up at me. "It will only hurt for a little while, and when I'm done I'll..." She gulped, her eyes sliding down my underbelly towards my sheath and testicles. "...See about tending your other needs."

I heaved a sigh. The last thing I wanted was to appear weak or afraid of a little pain in front of a human. "Oh, very well. Get it over with then."

As it turned out, it was actually a lot of pain. Having my wounds cleaned with harsh spirits hurt more than the wounds themselves did. She scrubbed at each set of claw marks, and each time it made them burn as though she'd poured lamp oil directly into the wounds, and then lit them aflame. The only thing missing was the smell of burning dragon flesh. Each time she cleaned a new wound I snarled and hissed, stomped a paw and lashed my tail against the sand. When she was finally done I was nearly in tears, and it was only a great deal of resolve that kept me from shedding them.

I sat panting for a few moments as she gathered her things back up, waiting for the worst of the lingering pain to fade. "That was far worse than you made it out to be."

"If I'd told you how bad it really was, you'd never have let me do it," she said, almost sounding like a mother chiding a hatchling. "Now then..." Her eyes drifted lower again, and once more she gulped. The sound seemed both nervous and excited at the same time.

For a moment, an awkward silence settled over the two of us. Lenira had never even seen a dragon up close until this day, and while I'd seen plenty of humans up close I'd certainly never let them touch me in any sort of intimate way. She knelt before me, shifting a little as her nervousness grew. She reached towards my sheath, then pulled her hand back, and giggled to herself.

"Are you a virgin?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"Of course not," she laughed, shaking her head. "Not for quite a few years. Why?" She gave me a sly smile. "Are you?"

"Hardly." I snorted and flared my spines a little. "But I have never had my mating organs touched by a human before."

"If you don't want me to, I'll just be on my way." Lenira smiled. "We just thought that was what you wanted."

"It wasn't." I cocked my head, and licked my nose. "But now that the opportunity is here I find it quite intriguing. And you have been peeking, so I must assume you do as well."

"I doubt many women can honestly say they've played with a dragon's balls," Lenira admitted, laughing. "At least not without having been abducted or sold into slavery or something."

That made me laugh a little bit as well. I pushed myself to my feet, and slowly turned around, careful not to knock her over with my tail. I tucked my tail to the side, spread my hind legs, and situated myself so that my testicles were hanging just in front of her face. Looking back under myself, I could see her face just beyond my balls. It was turning red again, but she was also staring at the set I'd presented her with. When she spotted me peeking under myself at her, she burst out laughing.

"So even dragons have a sense of fun."

Actually it had just seemed the most sensible way to see her at the moment. But I liked her idea better. "Mm. Well, what do you think of the balls of a dragon, now that you've seen them?"

"They're quite impressive actually." She licked her lips, giggling. "They look a bit like really big, black eggs. May I...touch them?"

"I rather thought that was the idea." I chuckled to myself, then added, "Gently though."

"They're as tender as those of a man, I take it?"

"I've no idea how tender a man's balls are, but mine are quite so."

"I'll be gentle, then," Lenira assured me.

I'm sure you can imagine the rest, Val Junior. You've witnessed Alia and I, after all. Oh? I should go on, for Alia's sake? Very well, I shall cover your ears then. Oh? You want to hear all the dirty details yourself? Naughty little cotton-stuffed runt. Very well then, I shall continue. I suspect Alia shall enjoy this part, anyway.

Lenira reached forward and delicately cupped my balls in her hand. They didn't exactly fit in her grasp, but she hefted them a little anyway. Soon, she added her other hand and cradled one dragon testicle against each palm. Gently, she seemed to weigh them, and then began to explore them a little. Carefully rolling one of them around in her hand, feeling the size and shape of it as the plump gland bulged against its ebony sac.

"Errrrhhh," I moaned in unabashed pleasure. Her fingers were so deft, her touch so gentle and warm. It actually felt very nice. My sheath was already tingling and thickening up as the human woman played with my balls.

"Does that feel good?" She asked, starting to roll the other ball around between her fingers.

"Very good," I admitted, kneading at the sand a little with my front paws. "Your hands are very agile, aren't they."

"Are they?" Lenira laughed. "I'd never really thought about it, but I suppose compared to a dragon's paws they'd have to be. Have you...had your balls played with, before? By dragons, I mean?"

"Now and then," I replied, closing my eyes to better enjoy the warm pleasures radiating from my two most valuable gems. By now I could already feel the cool air around the tip of my unsheathing maleness. "Not as often as I'd like. Some female dragons seem to think the idea of playing with a male's balls simply means taking far to tight a grip and enjoying the sounds of a whimpering dragon."

That made Lenira laugh, though I wasn't sure why. I hadn't meant it as a joke. I suppose at the time my body may be fully developed but my sense of humor was still in its formative years.

"Well don't worry, Dread Sky," Lenira said, smiling. "I won't grip them too tightly. And not just because if I squeezed one hard enough to make it hurt, all you'd have to do to stop me is kick my head off."

Now it was my turn to laugh as I suddenly got the clear mental image of myself lashing out with a hind paw, my claws severing her neck, and her head rolling off into the river where it bobbled along downstream. "Then we have a deal. No ball squeezing, and no hind paw inflicted decapitation."

Lenira giggled, and began carefully kneading my left testicle. I tucked my head under myself again, resting my ridged horns against the sand, and in an upside down fashion I watched her play with that ball. It was a strangely erotic sight, a human woman's hands caressing something so delight, so sensitive, so private. I could see my own testicle sliding around inside its protective black sac, deft female fingers rolling across it. Each little caress sent another wave of pleasure rolling through my testicles, and I was quickly sliding free from my sheath.

"You're...quite good at that," I murmured.

"Thank you," Lenira giggled, a bit shyly. "Is that red part what I think it is?"

"As long as you think it is my penis, then yes, it is." I chuckled to myself. "Would you like to touch that as well?"

"I wasn't planning to neglect it." Lenira giggled again. "Though I am having fun playing with your balls."

"Are you?" I was a little surprised by that, but I certainly would not complain. "Perhaps I shall have to save your wagons from other dragons more often, then."

"Dirty beast," Lenira said, though I could tell she didn't mean it. She gently tugged my balls backwards to press them out against the sack a little, outlining the fat oval shapes held within. "They're quite plump aren't they."

"Mmm, yes, they are," I said, always happy to stroke my own ego. "What position do you think would be easiest for you to masturbate me in?"

Lenira blinked, and then burst out laughing. The red tint had only just begun to drain from her face when suddenly it was back, and brighter than ever. "My, dragon, but you're a blunt creature."

I lifted my head from beneath my chest, and instead peered back at her over my wings. "Is that not the correct word in your language?"

Lenira just kept laughing. She shook her head, her bound raven tresses swaying behind her back. "That's not it, Dragon."

"In that case, what is your word for stimulating a male with your paws until he releases his seed?"

For reasons I couldn't comprehend, that only made her laugh even harder. I huffed a little bit, and pawed at the sand. She was laughing at me. A bit of humiliation tinted the inside of my black ears a purplish hue. "I am sorry if my comprehension of your language is not suitably impressive! I daresay you could not speak mine so well!"

Lenira finally managed to calm herself, and she stroked the back of my ebony scrotum with a hand as if to try and soothe me with gentle pleasure. Embarrassed as I may have been to admit it, it worked quite well. "That's not why I'm laughing, Dread Sky, but I'm sorry if I offended you. It's just that I'm not used to hearing things put so...well, bluntly."

"What would you call it, then?"

"I'm not sure...Perhaps something as simple as...well...to give you pleasure?" She peered up at my head, rubbing the back of one of his hind legs.

"So it embarrasses you more to hear it spoken of in blunt terms than it does to actually touch me that way?" That was a very confusing idea to a dragon.

"When you put it like that, it does sound silly, doesn't it." She smiled a little. "Especially when I'm already doing this." She began to roll my balls around in her hands again, and soon I was trembling happily. Before I could stop myself, I began to purr for her. She made an odd face, she must have wondered what that strange, slightly rumbling noise was. "And to answer your question, perhaps if you settle onto your haunches again so that it...your...you know..."

"My erection?" I asked, just to be sure. It was starting to get to be a little bit of fun embarrassing the woman.

"Yes, Dragon," she said, smiling and shaking her head. "So that your...erection...is presented and easily accessible."

"Very well," I said, licking muzzle. "Release my balls, and I'll turn back around." She let me go, and I moved to face her again, then eased back onto my haunches. My scaly rump settled against the stream bank, and my tail curled around just a bit with my balls resting on the warm sands. "How is this?"

Lenira looked me over, giggling to herself. "Quite well, I should think. Even if you look a bit like an oversized hound in that position."

"Well, I am waiting for a treat." Ah! Now that was clever. Or so I thought at the time. Don't roll your eyes at me, you cotton stuffed runt. At least it made her grin. She reached towards my half unsheathed member, but I stopped her, grinning right back. "Perhaps you should take your dress off first."

"My...dress?" She seemed unsure, and bit her lip.

"Yes. You're getting to see my most private parts, now I wish to see yours as well." As if to sweeten the deal, I added... "You wouldn't want my seed to get all over it, would you?"

She scrunched up her face at that, and then rose to her feet. "Very well, Dragon."

"Are you wearing anything beneath it?" I asked when she started to pull the hem of her skirt up.

"No, I am not."

"Good." That made me purr. I'd never seen a human woman naked before. Or any human, for that matter. Though the females held far more appeal to me than the males.

At first Lenira pulled her dress up slowly, as she seemed intent on pulling the whole thing off over her head. Inch by inch she revealed the skin of her legs to me, then paused as she neared her upper thighs. Finally, she took a deep breath and stripped the whole cream-colored affair up and off of her body. Naked, she strode towards the nearest tree to carefully hang her dress over a low bough so it wouldn't get covered in any more sand than it already was.

I took in the sight of her body as she moved. She was a little softer looking, a little plumper, and a little curvier than I had imagined when she had the dress on. I found the sight rather titillating in an exotic way. I could see how some dragons would find it enjoyable to take maidens for their own pleasures, she certainly had an oddly attractive body. I still preferred the slinky, curvy shape of a female dragon's haunches, but this human form definitely had its perks.

My eyes were drawn to her breasts a moment as she settled back upon her knees, now clad in nothing but sunshine. They were strange looking things, mounds of extra flesh from the look of it, though I did know their use in feeding young. The pinkish nipples that covered them stood out just a little. My eyes next sunk down between her thighs, staring at the soft looking black hair that covered the area all around the lips of her sex.

A smile spread across my muzzle. "It looks as though your sex is as shy as you are! Do all humans hide it with hair?"

Lenira began to laugh. Perhaps she was just grateful to have laughter help her overcome her shyness about her body, or maybe it was just the way I'd phrased that question. She spread her legs a little more as I peered down. She tugged at a tuft of hair and giggled a bit more. "I wouldn't say that we hide it, it's not as if we grow it there on purpose. But yes, all humans get hair in that area when they reach maturity."

"How very odd," I muttered. "Though it is rather...exotic looking."

"Thank you, I think..." She swallowed, and peered up at my leering gaze. "Do dragons bodies not change when they reach puberty?"

I flexed my wings in a shrug. "Our sheaths and balls get bigger and our balls hang further from our bodies."

"That's...not quite what I meant," Lenira said with a giggle, then she smirked, gesturing with her hand. "I see you're still growing now that I'm unclothed."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I am fully grown."

She pointed towards my genitals. "That isn't."

"It is too...Oh, you mean..." I realized she meant her nakedness was further arousing me, and in fact it was. And I was suddenly quite ready to have this naked woman touch that particular part of me. I growled at her, not caring if she knew it was a playful growl or not. "Touch it. Touch it for me."

Lenira reached forward, and gently wrapped her hand around the smooth middle section of my shaft best she could. It took little more than her touch to bring me to complete arousal. My erection was likely unlike any she had seen before, given how different it was from a humans. It jutted from my retracted sheath like a scarlet tower, holding a faint arch so that the pointed tip of it was angled slightly back towards my belly scales. Ridges encircled the thickest part of its base, and just behind its tapered tip it had a minor flare I'd once heard likened to the end of a spear.

"It looks a bit like a spear," Lenira said, giggling shyly. Ah, so that was where I'd first heard that. "It's quite odd looking, really, but in an impressive way."

"So long as it's impressive," I murmured, already enthralled by the feeling of her gripping me in such a way.

Soon she circled both hands around the central part of my cock, and gently began to stroke me. I crooned in pleasure immediately. Admittedly it had been some time since I'd been pleasured by another, and human or not, I was already enjoying this. Lenira leaned forward a bit to get a closer look at what she held. It still seemed a bit foreign in my mind to allow a human to touch me this way but I certainly wasn't regretting it.

"What are these bumps?" Lenira asked, sliding one hand all the way down to my base to feel my ridges. I trembled as she touched them, and grinning, she teased one by running a single finger back and forth across it.

"We call those our ridges," I said, tongue nearly hanging from my mouth. "They are quite sensitive."

"Oh!" She grinned deviously up at me. "Should I stroke at those, then?"

Without waiting for any further instruction, she started running her hands up and down against my ridges in short little strokes. That made my hips buck, and I groaned quite loudly as I thrust myself through her hands. She responded by increasing the speed and power of her strokes, squeezing all around my ridges and grinding them with her hand. My tool pulsed lightly, a few dribbles of clearish pre-seed ran down my length followed by a dribble that was a good deal more white. When Lenira spotted them she grabbed my pointed tip with one hand, and began to stroke it just as swiftly as her other hand worked my ridges. Unlike the base of my cock she could fit my entire tip and spear flare into her hand, and she quickly worked all that lubricating fluid into my flesh.

Having only the two most sensitive parts of my mating tool stimulated so directly quickly sent my pleasure soaring. I cried out a few times, my balls tightening up in excitement beneath her hands. I had honestly never been stimulated quite like that before. It wasn't that I'd never been stroked off by a female dragon before, but they would just stroke my whole organ in their paw up and down, back and forth. Lenira's smaller hands enabled her to stroke and pleasure two different sections of it at the same time, which brought me a strange yet very intense type of pleasure.

"Do dragons pleasure each other?" She asked, changing her movements a little. Now she began try and stroke my entire mating tool, from my ridged base to my pointed tip and back again. She used both hands, letting the moisture I'd spilled help her touch to glide along my sensitive flesh. "For fun, I mean. Or do you just mate for reproduction?"

"Both," I murmured, closing my eyes and leaning against a front paw, half hunched over her. "I have spent my seed in female's paws, and muzzles before. And I have mounted them, but I have not yet fathered any young."

"Aww, well I'm sure you'll hit that bullseye eventually." Lenira let her hand glide from my ridges to my balls where she began to caress them, squeezing and stroking at my tip with her other hand. "After all these certainly seem healthy enough."

The way she misconstrued my words caused my grimace of pleasure to twist into one of amusement. "My seed is plenty potent! But you misunderstand. I have not attempted to sire any eggs, yet. Our females generally only conceive at certain times, though they can become aroused and mate for pleasure at any point."

"Oh, you mean the way bitches and mares come into heat at certain times."

I opened my eyes to glare down at her. "I would prefer more pleasuring, and fewer derogatory comparisons. But, something like that, yes." I decided to keep my eyes open now. I was rather enjoying the sight of a naked human woman so vigorously pleasuring me with her hands. I had another idea, too. "I should like it if you tongue it a while."

Lenira seemed unsure about that, but slowly leaned forward. I felt myself somehow growing even more excited, even harder as her face neared my shaft. "Go on then," I purred to her. "Lick it for me."

Lenira tugged my length gently away from my body so that the pointed tip was facing her directly. She stared down at the little slit that tipped it, both her hands encircling it further down beyond the gentle flare. She slipped her tongue out, and gave my tapered tip a slow lick. The feeling of such blissfully velvet heat against the very end of my member made me shudder and whine in delight. Lenira giggled a little at my reaction, and gave it more a more forceful lick, this time dragging her tongue all across my flare.

"Oooh, Gods, yes," I moaned for her. "That's nice!"

She seemed to be getting a little more confident. Or, perhaps she had just decided to stop actively thinking about what she was doing. She began to lap at my tapered tip and flare as though it were some frozen winter treat, rolling her tongue over and around it again and again. With one hand, she began to pump my ridges in time with her stroking, and she sent her hand other hand to find my balls again. Growing bolder still, she parted her lips around my tip, and began to suckle it like a child at her mother's teat.

Lenira dared not try and take too much of me in her mouth, so she made sure to truly maximize the pleasure of the flesh she had enveloped. She sucked ever so lewdly upon my tip and my spear-flare, and began to bob her head just a little, gliding her tongue back and forth against me. Now and then she paused to swirl her tongue a few times around my tapered point. All the while she gently but constantly stroked my ridges, rolling her fingers against them and once in a while sending her hand further up my length. Then she'd stroke the smooth sections of my cock a little while before descending to my ridges. And the whole time she never ceased massaging my heavy draconic balls.

At this point in my life, several minutes of such constantly flowing pleasure was all I could take. To my credit, I had lasted a bit longer than I had the last time Kylaryn took me into her muzzle. Granted, those times we played mating games together, she considered it a small victory to set me off inside her snout with embarrassing quickness. Much as I enjoyed the idea of shooting my seed into a human woman's mouth, I was a little afraid I'd either drown the girl, or startle her so badly she might bite down with dragon-maiming force. Such an act would not end well for either of us.

"I'm going to release!" I managed to hiss at her, my front paws clenching up into blissful fists against the sand.

What do you mean I didn't warn you the same way, Alia? I don't recall any of that. Quiet your nonsense while I continue.

Lenira swiftly pulled her head back from the line of fire, and frantically began to beat me off. I can honestly say I had never been stroked quite so swiftly and violently as the girl did at that moment. The last time a female dragon had pleasured me with her paw she'd simply stroked me at the same pace the entire time, even as I rather wildly thrust into her grasp through my own peak. Lenira though, seemed intent on stroking my flared tip and ridges with all the speed she could muster.

The girl had quickly figured out where a male dragon was most sensitive, and she seemed quite determined to make my reward as memorable as possible. Who was I to stand in her way? Pleasure built and built and finally cascaded through me in an unstoppable way. I worked my hips upwards from the ground, my tightened black balls swaying beneath her hands. As my pleasure erupted in torrents of white cream, I threw my head back and roared my ecstasy. My tail jerked and flagged against the sand, my muzzle scrunched in a grimace of delight. Yes, Alia, all the spiny frills even flared out around my head.

The force of a dragon's ejaculation seemed to surprise her, she gave a little gasp when my pulses tugged her hands back and forth. In the back of my pleasure-addled mind, I thought, ah, now you see why I warned you. Some of my seed shot almost straight up, eventually aching back to splatter on the sands. Other bursts seemed aimed directly at the woman who'd brought them on, coating her in white globs and streaks that ran down her skin, one of them dripped directly from her breast. For once, none of it got on me, as she seemed to try and keep my spurting member aimed away from my own body, perhaps to keep my wounds clean.

Lenira stroked and stroked me until I could scarcely breath. Finally, when there was little more than white dribbles running from my pointed tip to streak her fingers in sticky lines, she let me go. I fought the urge to flop down onto the sands as I didn't want to dirty my recently cleansed injuries and have Lenira scrub them all over again. So I hunched forward, resting against my front paws as Lenira crawled out of my way.

Lenira was quiet for a moment, and then began to laugh as she looked herself over. She crawled towards the stream to get washed over, and I found that even totally spent, I rather enjoyed the sight of a naked human female on her hands and knees. I could see the lips of her sex much more clearly in that position. I stared at them till she had crawled into the stream and begun washing herself.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked when I caught my breath.

"The whole situation, it's almost ludicrous," she said, splashing water over her breasts. "I just thought to myself that when I awoke this morning to continue our journey home, the last thing I had ever in my life imagined doing today would be stroking off some horny dragon and letting him spray his seed all over my breasts!"

That made me chuckle as well. "Not exactly something I expected to happen when I awoke this morning, either. However, I feel I should point out that you were the one aiming my release. Also, I did not request a girl to pleasure me, that was simply a misunderstanding." I rolled my shoulders a little and flexed my wings as my tool retreated back into my sheath. "However, that was so thoroughly enjoyable, I may have to request a girl again in the future."

Lenira laughed at that, but I wasn't joking. I smiled at her anyway. "Do you think you will be available again?"

She glanced over at me, a little smile spread over her lips. "We'll see, dragon. I suppose I do have a hell of a story to tell the girls back in the village next time we all gather in the tavern."

"Is that often the sort of thing human females talk about? I was under the impression you were shy about sex." I gestured to her with a paw.

"Not as shy around each other," she said before dunking herself under the water. She came back up dripping wet, and then smiled a little at me. "Especially if I've had a few drinks. And as you pointed out, I was more embarrassed to say it than I was to do it. The girls from our village are hardly some stuck-up city types who don't want to admit sex even happens let alone that we women enjoy it so much. Granted, I don't think anyone from our village has ever done anything like that with a dragon, but it isn't as if they didn't know what I was going to do for you when I stayed behind."

"So they voted you to do it, so they wouldn't have to?"

The woman laughed, shaking her head as she came back from the water. "If you must know, Dragon, we discussed the possibility, and I volunteered."

"How very bold of you," I said, my grin nearly splitting my muzzle.

"That's one way to put it," she said, standing in the sun to try and dry off a little. "Another is that I was one of the least likely to lash out and strike you at some point, and get myself killed. That and the fact that as one of our villages healers, I do have a way with my hands. And I felt if someone was to risk themselves by...pleasuring you...as it were, it may as well be me." She put her hands on her hips. "You're not going to eat me now, are you?"

"Not this time," I said, grinning. I might not have had all my sarcasm yet but I certainly had it. "Is your mate going to be jealous? I should not like to think you're going to be struck when you return home, or that he's going to come after me with something sharp and pointy."

"I haven't a husband, dragon," she chuckled a little. "Another reason it seemed prudent of me to volunteer, as many of the other women in our group did."

"Ah," I said, grinning. "Then I shall not worry about calling on your services again. I trust you can find your way back to your horse?"

"As there's really only one way to go, I think I can manage that." She watched a moment, then walked over and reached towards my nose. She hesitated, but I held still and let her stroke my pebbly scales. Only for a moment, and when I pulled back, she smiled. "Thank you for helping us, Dragon. I hope you got that blue-scaled bitch twice as badly as she got you."

"I usually do," I muttered, and decided to leave her with that to think about.

I turned from her, and bound down the sandy beach. After a few paces I leapt off my powerful hind legs, and flared my wings to their full extent. They just barely fit between the tree line on either side of the stream, but I had just enough room to beat them against the air, and swiftly ascend above the forest. A few more wing beats and the stream was just a narrow blue ribbon cut through the green sprawl beneath me. I dipped a wing, and lazily turned back towards the road.

Beyond the road at the edge of the forest lay the broad emerald expanse of the meadow. Even from high above I could see pockets of red and orange wildflowers dotting it, with occasional swaths of blue as well. What I could not see was another dragon. There was no sign of my rival's blue form. It seemed as though she'd already left. It was probably for the best. She was clearly in no mood to talk. Aside from wanting to question her about the dissolution of our clan, and comfort her over the fate of her own family, I was probably better off not speaking to her anyway.

I turned in a languid circle in the sky, over the meadow, and eventually back towards the road. I was going to try and gather up all the crates and that chest and take them back with me in one go. I wasn't totally sure how feasible that was. At least, not until I realized that Kylaryn had already done it. The crates were gone, and so was the chest with the treasure. While I was off getting my pleasure along the stream, Kylaryn was stealing all my hard earned loot.

That. Bitch.

I spotted something lingering in the road, and swiftly descended to see what it was. I landed on the earthen thoroughfare and trotted towards where the physical portion of my reward had once lain. There, placed quite deliberately in the center of the road, was a single apple. I walked to it cautiously as if expecting it to explode and shower me with apple bits. Carefully, I plucked the apple up, and realized she had scratched draconic sigils into it with a claw.

It read simply "I win."

Cursing Kylaryn again in my mind, I popped the apple into my mouth and returned to the skies. So, she thought she could win by stealing my reward? Well, I'd show her. Laugh all you want, Alia, but I had plans to earn myself far bigger rewards. It was time to visit some villages and strike some deals.

---

Chapter Two

---

Over the next few weeks, I made trips all across the large swath of land I held. My territory was roughly divided in half by my road. Near that road, my realm was filled with green meadows, lush forests and rolling emerald hills. Further out my lands grew far more wild, and far more beautiful. The hills grew rugged and were increasingly studded with jagged grey stones like the many spikes atop the back of some great monster. The rivers that were tranquil and wide around the road narrowed into rushing torrents nearer the mountainous source of their flow. And in the rugged mountains that jutted at the edges of my terrain like serrated teeth biting at the sky, the waters cascaded and crashed over shelves of stone.

Spread amongst the region I considered mine were a half dozen human villages. Likely they would have argued the extent of my ownership should it have ever been put to a debate. As far as I was concerned, this are belonged to me and I simply allowed them to borrow territory. After all, dragons had lived in these wild realms long before the humans ever arrived and named it Aran'alia. We ourselves had no special name for it; it was simply our home.

Though I knew what humans called the land itself, I did not know what they called their villages. The names of their settlements were of little concern to me. In my mind I simply referred to them by their location or local landmarks. There was the Village By The River, the Village Of High Rocks, and so on. The village which Lenira hailed from I called the Village of the Sigil Stones.

It was nestled in some of the more untamed hills where the gentle, rolling green slopes grew steeper and steeper and increasingly dotted with spires of gray rock. A long, undulating ridge of granite capped the tallest of the green hills like the spine of some dead behemoth. Over the years the inhabitants of the village had carved countless sigils and runes into the rugged, ashen façade. Thanks to the rain clouds that built frequently over the higher hills, the village and its namesake ridge were often draped in wispy swirls of silvery mist and gentle drizzle even when the heavier rain itself was restricted to the higher elevations.

I made the Village of the Sigil Stones my first stop. After all, I had already saved some of those people, and as far as they knew I'd done it on purpose. I waited a few days, long enough for rumors of my bravery and kindness to become widespread and exaggerated, and then I made my grand entrance. By which I mean, I circled the village a few times in the morning, roared out a greeting, and then landed just beyond the gateway in the wooden wall that ringed their town to await their representatives.

I had little interest in actually going too far inside the town, but I did get a good look at it from the sky. The houses and other buildings were all of simple but sturdy wooden construction. Many of them held sloped roofs and deep, slanted gutters in order to catch and direct the water from many rains so frequent to Aran'alia. The entire town was roughly oval shaped, and enclosed in a ring of logs lashed together and supported by buttresses here and there. The ends of each log were carved into a sharp looking point. I supposed it was to help keep out wild beasts and bandits as it would obviously do them little good against a dragon. Yet I could not help but think it looked as though it kept the people trapped inside rather than the other way around.

The elders of the village eventually came to me, flanked by what they must have assumed was adequate protection. A few dozen men wearing simple leather armor, some of which was studded with metal spikes. A few men even had shirts of chain mail covering their bodies, though I knew from experience that even interlocking metal rings would do little to protect a man from an adult dragon's teeth and claws. My own natural scales and plates would offer me far better protection from the swords they all held, though I also knew that arrows fired from a powerful enough bow often found a way to punch through my armor.

You would hate arrows too, Val Junior, if you ever had to spend an evening dragging them out of your body with your teeth.

Luckily for everyone, I had not come to cause trouble. Just to make sure they knew that, I sprawled out upon my side as I awaited them. In my mind I could not think of a less aggressive posture than one of lazy comfort. I imagined I looked the picture of languidness stretched across the muddy , two track trail that lead over the grassy hills and eventually to their front gate. I sat up a bit when they opened the gate, but remained as nonchalant as I could throughout the preceding.

My offer was simple. I would do everything in my power to protect their village from whatever they needed it protected from. Generally speaking that would be bandits, I imagined, or wild beasts now and then. Should their village flood I could even carry them to higher ground. Essentially, any sort of protection services a dragon might be able to offer. In return, they would give me tribute. What manner of tribute was up to them. They were welcome to give me anything from food to treasure to coin to any manner of services a dragon would appreciate. I also told that that if times came in which they had little to offer, I would accept the company of a woman or two instead. After all, I had thoroughly enjoyed what Lenira had done for me. And while I generally had no problem with my solitude, I would not mind having someone around for companionship for a few days here and there.

To a young dragon such as myself, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable offer. Oh, hush Alia. You'd have thought the same in my place. After all, any dragon could take it upon himself to demand tribute from the local human villages, and in fact many dragons did. But as I saw it, only a truly clever dragon would ever offer something in return, or make himself an ally to all the local populace rather than an enemy. Why merely demand they praise my greatness when I could give them a legitimate reason to do so?

Hmm? Yes, Alia, I did have greatness. You're making it increasingly difficult to convince myself I'm only telling this tale to Val Junior.

Though it took longer for them to come to an agreement amongst themselves than I'd expected, they did eventually agree to my arrangement. The man who'd spoken to me when I rescued their caravan was among the group of elders, and I suspected that he argued in my favor until the others agreed. I told them my tributes would be expected at most on a monthly basis, and that I'd likely claim them far less often. As I didn't expect to have much work to do for them I thought I was getting the better end of the deal.

When our dealings were concluded, Lenira made her way through the crowd. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she seemed happy to see me and had in fact remembered her offer. She brought with her a platter of steaming sausages that she'd only just finished cooking for me while I'd been talking with the village elders. Though I was still unsure why anyone would ruin perfectly good meat and entrails by heating them until they lost their softness, I had to admit, the things Lenira gave me were delicious. One was sweet, another strangely herbal, another tasted like mutton and mint. As I ate them, Lenira snuck her hand out to pet my nose. I glared at her but did not ask her to stop.

In the distance, a group of children watched me from the gateway, though their parents would not let them any closer. When I'd finished eating, I thanked Lenira, told her perhaps I would allow her to be my first companion, and then snapped my jaws at the children. Some of them yelped and ran, others giggled and watched with wide eyes. I turned away from Lenira, careful not to knock her over with my tail, and leapt to the skies.

One by one, I made similar deals with all the other villages in my lands. None of them were especially large by human standards. The smallest was perhaps fifty occupants, while the largest had hundreds, though I did not think they had yet reached one thousand. All in all though there were probably a few thousand humans total if I were to combine the population of all the villages. Some of them were quicker to accept my deal than others. I knew of at least one village who had actually suffered a dragon attack in the past, they were the hardest to convince. In the end I had to promise them I would protect them from other dragons as well. It helped that traders from the Village of the Sigil Stones were able to explain how I'd already done as much when I chased Kylaryn away from their caravans.

One villages actually required my assistance immediately in order to seal my deal. They'd recently been raided by a small but brutal party of bandits, and requested that I rid them of this problem to prove my intentions. As the bandits had killed several villages including a young boy trying to defend his home, I had no trouble with this.

As they had killed, so would they be killed. Blood for blood.

It was an age old philosophy held by dragons across the realm. Though we had no true cities of our own, we were not without a culture, not without our own beliefs and theories and philosophies. When I had been part of a clan, comprised of perhaps a few dozen dragons of various ages, stories were told of times we really had held our own cities. Some of the dragons even believed the tales, though I thought they were a lot of balls myself. If we once lived in cities why did we not still hold them? It was through the occasional dragon clan such as mine that what culture we did have was passed from one generation to another. We had our own language, both verbal and written. We even had a few written works copied and passed from one generation to another along with tales of our histories, our heroes, our myths and more.

The philosophy of blood for blood was one of our oldest tenements, though many dragons had long since given it up. I could not blame them. After all it had probably helped give rise to fear and hatred of my kind among humans. Though the people of Aran'alia did not consider dragons an explicitly evil race, the same could not be said for every part of the world. In fact it seemed the larger a civilization grew, the more likely they were to try and drive out or slaughter all the dragons they could. They were not without their reasons, and blood for blood was certainly one of them. Shed a dragon's blood, and he shall shed yours. Slay a dragon, and his brethren shall avenge him. Steal a dragon's land and build a house upon it, and he shall burn it down. The principal of blood for blood was simple, and to a dragon, it was just. Take from them what they take from you.

The bandits had taken lives in their pursuit of greed, and not just of men in combat. The moment they took the life of that child, they sealed their own fate. The villages would have eventually banded together for revenge on their own, but so long as a dragon was willing to risk his hide in return for tributes and rewards, why should they put their own lives on the line?

Not that I did much that truly risked my admittedly precious hide. I discovered the bandit's hideout easily enough. It was not a difficult thing to do considering I had the sky itself at my disposal. Their den was little more than three old ramshackle cabins nestled deep in an isolated glade. I simply glided upon the thermal currents for a few days in the area they'd last been spotted. Eventually, I glimpsed some of the bandits returning to their lair. Once I'd located them, I waited until the middle of the night, landed nearby, and slunk towards the glade.

The old cabins were located in such a way as to form the three points of a triangle. A few benches cut from old tree stumps were scattered around the central area between the houses. In the very middle of the clearing they had a cooking fire, though by the time I'd actually descended they had doused it and headed back to their cabins to sleep. I thought about simply lighting all the cabins on fire, but given that I wanted to seal my arrangement with the villages, I decided to see if they had any loot remaining.

There was only one sentry, and between the ebony scales that helped me blend into the night itself and the grass that muffled the sound of my paw pads, he never knew I was there. At least, not until the moment I pounced upon him. He managed a short scream before I slammed my paw down against his head, and crushed his meager helmet into his skull. I left the body where it lay and charged into the camp.

Short as it was, his scream had still drawn attention. I saw lamps flicker to life inside one of the buildings, and a silhouette passed in front of a window. I heard someone yell something about a dragon, and then my sharp ears picked up the squeak of someone trying to open a door as stealthily as possible. Not stealthily enough. I saw moonlight glint on an arrowhead as one of the men began to notch it in his bow. For a moment I thought about turning to present the heavy sections of my natural armor to deflect the arrow.

Then I thought better of it, and simply charged the man with a furious roar. He screamed, stumbled back and loosed the arrow in a panic. It flew well over the top of me. A second later and I lowered my horned head to ram the door. With a tremendous CRACK it exploded in a shower of wooden fragments and splinters, doing little to slow the momentum of my charge before my head slammed into the midsection of the bandit just behind it. He gave a hideous, bloodied cough as his ribs shattered just like the door. The impact launched him off his feet and tossed him into the far wall. He slumped to the ground in a twitching heap, blood running from his nose and mouth.

To my side, someone screamed an incoherent battle cry. They charged towards me with a long spear held in both hands. I wasn't sure what he thought he was going to accomplish, his spear may have been long but my tail was longer. I pulled my head back from the doorway, and whirled myself around on all four paws. My spiked tail whistled through the air and collided with the side of his head, splattering his skull like a scarlet melon. The impact was enough to send him pin wheeling sideways. What was left of his shattered skull and brains spilled across the ground in a gruesome line.

The rest of the bandits I dispatched just as easily, and just as messily. None of them had the time to put any sort of heavy armor on, if they even possessed it. And from their seemingly inexperienced tactics I rather doubted they had ever done much heavy fighting with well trained men, let alone an angry dragon. One of them did manage to hit me with an arrow. Yet as I'd managed to turn myself when I saw him drawing it, the projective clanged painfully but harmlessly off the thickest scales along my side. Before he could even notch a second I'd hurled him back through the wall of one of the cabins.

Before long there were a half dozen dead men scattered around the glade. As peeked into the doorway of one of the old buildings, looking for loot, I discovered a seventh bandit cowering in a corner. He held a dented old shield in front of himself in a feeble effort to ward me off. The man peeked out from behind the iron buckler, his smeared with dirt and streaked with fresh tear marks.

"Please," he whimpered, too pitiful for me to even laugh at. "Don't kill me! I'll do anything!"

I thought about engulfing him in flames, but decided that was too cruel a fate for a man already cowering in fear, and from the smell of it, piss. I ended up laughing at him after all. Finally I gestured at him with a front paw, claws unsheathed. "Do exactly as I say, or I will light you on fire and let your screams honor the youth you and your friends murdered."

"I...I didn't kill him!"

I didn't know if the man was lying or telling the truth, and I didn't really care. He was still party to it, and I was tempted to slay him. Or hand him over to the villagers and let them do the deed. While I considered my options I decided to make use of him in the meantime. "I want you to get all the loot you've stolen from villages and travelers and everything else of value you've got." I gestured towards a nearby chest. "Stick it all in there."

The man looked back and forth between me and the chest a few times, till I snapped my jaws as loudly as I could. He yelped, dropped the shield, and began to frantically scramble to follow my directions. As he filled the chest with stolen goods, I considered another possible use. Surely there were other bands of brigands in the area, perhaps it would be easier for me if they heard that this area was now under my protection. Either that or they'd come to try and slay me in my home.

When he was finished loading the chest I had him drag it out into the clearing. I looked him over as he stood, trembling, and smirked down at him. "Now. Strip naked."

"Wh-what?!" He took a step back, gasping.

"Now, human! Strip to your balls, or I'm going to eat you." I growled at him, flaring up my spines. "Though I shall have to roast that layer of filth and stench off, first."

He wasn't wearing much but a dirty looking tunic and some stained, patched breeches. With the threat of being devoured hanging over his head he quickly divested himself of his clothing and stood before me, nude. The sight amused me, he was a rather slender, dirty looking thing. To a dragon who had never seen a human male naked, his penis and testicles looked rather like a pale, plump worm climbing its way through a bird's nest, complete with two rather unimpressive eggs. He quickly covered himself with his hands, and I began to laugh.

"Yes, if I were so ill-equipped to pleasure a female, I should cover my mating organs as well." I lifted my paw, and pointed in the general direction of the road, though it was quite a few miles from here. "Now run."

"What?"

"You seem quite fond of saying that." I clicked my teeth, and gave a low snarl. "I want you to run, human, all the way to the road. Should you happen across any of your filthy, murdering, thieving kin, you will tell them this area is now protected by dragons." Well, only one dragon, but they did not need to know that. "You are only alive in order to pass that message on, so make sure you do it well. Should you happen across anyone kind enough to give you clothing, consider yourself lucky. However, you had best keep moving. If I see you anywhere in my lands again, I will kill you." I lowered my head till my muzzle was nearly pressed against his nose. "Now go. Your stench sickens me."

The man did not hesitate. As soon as he turned around, I swatted him hard across his bare rump with a paw. He screamed in pain and surprise, grabbing at his backside with one hand as he took off running. A reddened outline of my paw was already forming. Good. I didn't want his run to be too comfortable after all. As far as I was concerned I was being exceedingly merciful to him. I watched him sprint away from me as fast as his skinny bandit legs would carry him, and then I turned towards the buildings.

Three deep breaths and three heavy exhalations of flame later, and there was little left of the bandit camp but a roaring pyre. Flames danced in the skies and whirling embers soared towards the heavens as though they sought to join the blanket of stars far above the earth. I'd always enjoyed watching the results of my flame, so I stayed until the buildings had mostly burned themselves out. When the show was nearly over, I left the bodies to rot where they fell, grasped the chest in my front paws, and leapt to the skies.

I gave most of the treasure back to the town that had suffered under the bandits, and kept a small portion for myself. With the bandits dead and their kinsfolk avenged, it was not long before the last village accepted my deal, as well. Word spread quickly amongst the other towns that I had made good upon my deal, and destroyed an infestation of banditry. After that, word of my "name" spread just as quickly. It was not long before a new set of signs had been erected along my road, and this time without my instruction.

The next time I saw Lenira, I took her to a secluded hillside, and let her pleasure me again. When we were finished, and laying together, I asked her what the new signs said. With a brilliant smile, she told me they read "Bandits Beware! The Dread Sky Has Risen." The Dread Sky has risen. I quite liked the sound of that.

---

Chapter Three

---

Time passed. Weeks slipped into months and the months melted into years. I rarely counted them. The deals I had made with the villages all stood firm, and the villages seemed larger each time I visited them. To my surprise, Lenira and I became friends. Even beyond the pleasures she brought me in reward for my protection, I enjoyed her company, and she was the only human I could say that for. It seemed each time I shared time with her I enjoyed myself even more.

Yet as life went on our visits grew less and less frequent. As the years had passed she had become her village's chief healer. As such, the larger her village grew the more people who needed her attention. I did not wish her village to suffer from her absence so at times I did not request her presence for quite some time. Then again, the span of a year might seem a short time to a dragon and an age to a human. I was surprised to find myself missing her when I did not have her around. I had grown used to my solitude, and to find myself longing for my friend, let alone my human friend, was an unfamiliar and unpleasant experience. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I had a long life, and in that time she could make plenty of visits to see me.

As the other villages also grew larger often they sent their own tributes. Sometimes they even sent their own girls. At least in the physical sense, enjoyed their ministrations just as much as I enjoyed Lenira's. Especially when they sent two girls at once. Two in particular had the most amazing way of bringing me to my satisfaction with four hands upon my member, or one stroking me and the other caressing my balls. Hmm...I wonder if Kaylen is curious about dragons? Alright, alright, Alia, stop hitting me.

To my confusion, I found that while I enjoyed the touch of other women just as much, I found their company and conversation quite lacking. In fact once I was satisfied, I often found myself longing for Lenira's presence so that we may lay together and talk. Now and then I simply went to the village, called for her, and if she was not in an emergency, snatched her away for a time. I tried not to do so too often, though, as I did not wish to sully what I imagined was an increasingly glowing reputation. Instead I tried to request her in advance, at least once or twice a year. I found that each time I knew I was going to see Lenira again I found myself looking forward to the visit even more than last.

Over the next few years Kylaryn sporadically made her presence known to me. I was not sure where she had gone to live, but every so often I had to chase her away again. In one instance, I found her extorting tolls from my road once more. A few months later I had to drive her from the Village Of High Rocks. Another time, she brazenly landed in the middle of the Village By The River, and demanded all the tributes she could carry, as well as several human males.

Only then did I begin to realize Kylaryn was trying to spite me. Or, so I thought at the time. Admittedly I was never good at understanding the workings of the female mind, and not once did it occur to me that she was never gone before I got there. I simply assumed I was that good at protecting my villages. Yes, Alia, it's clear in hindsight she sought my attention. But I was not so wise as a prideful youth. My ego wouldn't let me consider the fact she could be letting me catch her in the act.

Then again, Kylaryn never stuck around to talk, or even to give me a chance to try and fight with her again. If there was one thing she'd always been able to best me at, it was flight. And no sooner did I close in on her than she had taken to the skies and was winging way from me. She always escaped in a different direction so as to prevent me from knowing where she had actually made her home and to this day I do not know where she kept herself hidden. While there was plenty of land beyond my personal realm, much of it was already taken by dragons even more territorial than myself.

I myself lived in a cavern that had been occupied by one dragon or another for many generations. The cavern was in an area where green hills studded with gray stones were just transition to more rugged, rockier slopes, which in turn began to grow into more towering, rougher peaks. My cavern itself was near the base of one of those peaks, and a trail lead to it across the lower hillsides and rocky slopes. It was not at all impossible for humans to reach, though I was not especially worried about being attacked.

True dragon-slayers were few and far between in this part of Aran'alia. True, they had plenty of prey, but that in itself was one of the reasons they did not bother us. Though we were often solitary we would be quick to band together to destroy any potential threat to our kind. And as the Aran'alians did not really consider us evil so much as greedy or arrogant, they were not exactly the sort to hire anyone to kill us, let alone to try it themselves. At least not without provocation. And I was certainly not about to provoke them into wanting to slay me in my slumber.

On several occasions I returned home to find that Kylaryn had been to my home while I was gone. I'd brought her there myself before, during one of the times we found ourselves quite close. But it had been many years, and I was a little surprised she still knew where I lived. To my consternation, I found myself enjoying her pleasant feminine scent as it lingered in my home. I'd always liked the way her scent tickled my nostrils, though I'd never tell her as much. She smelled like deep forests after springs rains, fields of flowers and sweet spices.

One day I returned home and found that she'd been rolling about in my bed. Even back than, my bed was comprised of an assortment of animal hides and furs, as well as silken garments, bedspreads and soft pillows, whatever I might have picked up over the years either in tribute or stolen from merchant caravans here and there. That day Kylaryn's scent coated my bed as heavily as a blanket of wet snow. Her fragrance was thicker and more powerful than usual, the damn female must have been in her heat cycle. She'd rolled herself all around in my bed things just to spite me.

I could not help growing aroused at the scent and without Lenira or any of the other girls who visited me now and then I was forced to attend my own urges. Several times. Yes, Alia, I'm quite acquainted with the process. That is not the point. It took days to get her scent from my sleeping things, and I was sure that wicked, blue-scaled female knew it. I did not see her again for some time after that, however, and for a while I wondered if she had given up her attempts to harass me.

Kylaryn was not the only other dragon I had to protect the villages from. In my visits to the humans, I began to get reports of another dragon stealing livestock. Mostly sheep, and goats, and always at night. I had to catch the little bastard before his theft reflected too badly on me and my protection scheme. It took a little while and a lot of lost sleep, but I was eventually able to catch him in the act. I spent many long nights circling in the skies as high as I could fly, hoping to spot him before he spotted me.

As it turned out it was only a young male with dark green scales. I wasn't sure if he was too inexperienced to hunt food that wasn't penned up in wooden fences or if he was just too lazy. He was not a dragon I was familiar with, either. He was not from my dissolved clan nor had I ever seen him in my travels throughout Aran'alia. Not that he would have been the first dragon to come here seeking a land further from humans, and the realm held a rugged beauty even my kind could not deny.

I did not really wish to take the life of another dragon, let alone one only just making the awkward journey through draconic adolescence. I much preferred to let him live and yet he did not make that an easy desire to stand by. I dove at him and tackled him from the sky as he swooped towards one of the willow-bough pens in which sheep were kept at night. The sheep bleated in agitation as I dragged the other dragon to the ground and began to try and pin him down.

Rather than cower as some dragons might do when suddenly yanked from the sky by their larger, older brethren, the young green fought as though his life was on the line. Looking back, he probably thought it was. He thrashed and twisted beneath me like a snake being sliced in half. His tail thumped against the ground and lashed at my haunches, his wings beat the grass beneath us. I was not in too much danger myself, as his claws and teeth were mostly directly at my more heavily armored areas where they did little more than scratch me, drawing only a faint amount of blood. He'd clearly not yet learned where a dragon's scales where thinnest and most vulnerable.

Still, the little runt wouldn't stop his wild thrashing. He tried to snap his teeth at my throat a few times. And the claws on his hind paws did open a few gashes across my own hind legs and tail here and there. Feeling blood run down my scales, I decided enough was enough. If he was going to persist in fighting me, I was going to do something I felt confident would take all the fight right out of a young male dragon. I twisted around and pressed my spined tail against his face to pin his head down, and dropped my haunches onto his chest. Then I grasped the ankle of one of his back paws, and pried his hind legs apart. With his pale green sheath and balls exposed, he must have realized my intentions, because he yelled "Not my-!"

Which was as far as he got before I punched the younger dragon in the testicles as hard as I could. He squealed like a little female hatchling getting her tail bitten off, and his body jerked spastically in pain. I got up off of him, and he instantly curled up to cradle his fiercely aching orbs in his paws. Moaning pitifully, the young dragon rolled back and forth in the grass for a while, flattening it all down beneath him. His muzzle scrunched up, his pale eyes crossed, and he rubbed his hind legs together. His expression was funny enough I found myself laughing at him as I stepped back out of range, and settled upon my haunches to watch him squirm a while.

"First time being hit in the balls?" I asked him, smirking.

The young dragon moaned again, nodding a little before curling up tightly and covering his face with a forest green wing. "Errruuuuuhhhhh," was all he could say.

"Well, it serves you right," I said, sweeping my tail spines against the ground, uprooting some grass. "As it seems you haven't heard, these people are under my protection. You steal from them, you steal from me. You steal from me..." I paused, and a smirk spread over my muzzle. "Well, normally I'd kill you. But as you're just a youngling, you just get a punch in the balls. Consider yourself lucky."

The young green groaned a little while longer, and rolled over to his other side. Then he rolled back again. He took a few deep breaths, his own tail curling in pain, a few black spines just starting to tip it. "I don't feel very lucky right now," he finally managed to say, his voice somehow both hoarser and higher pitched than usual.

That made me laugh, and I decided I rather liked this uppity youngling. "No, I should imagine not. I know how that feels, Runt. But believe it or not, Youngling, the ache will fade eventually. Though you're likely to have sore eggs for a few days. Not that you've any use for them aside from your own paw, anyway."

"If my balls weren't in so much pain right now, I'd flash them to you," the young green muttered. Flashing the balls with a quick hoist of the tail or a shake of the hind leg was often used by male dragons as a very rude, insulting gesture.

"By all means," I said, grinning. "I should like an excuse to smack them again."

That only made him whimper and curl up more tightly. After a time, I walked over and grasped him by one of his horns, hoisting his head up a little. I glared down at him, and saw both defiance and fear in his eyes. An interesting mixture, and appropriate for a young male dragon faced with his better. I lowered my head so sniff at him a moment, his scent was as foreign to me as his appearance. He smelled a bit more like hot sands and stone than I was used to from the dragons in our area. Probably another displaced traveler thanks to the encroachment of man. I nipped the tip of his left ear, just enough to make him bleed a little. He yelped in pain, and dropped his head.

"Consider that a mark of my favor." I gestured with the vestigial claw at the end of one of my wings towards a nearby hill marked with several large spires of stone. "When you've done playing with your balls, meet me over there if you wish to discuss the terms to remain in my lands. If you should rather take to your wings and turn your back on this place, so be it. But consider this is my only offer, should you leave without consulting me and return again years from now, I shall consider you as my enemy, and I shall do far more than bruise your balls and your ego."

With that I left him behind, and made my way to the hill. Though I rather expected him to fly away and try his luck elsewhere, to his credit he eventually limped after me. I pushed myself up onto my haunches just between two peaks of stone that rose higher than my head, and flared my wings a little bit. The young green dragon settled down upon just in front of me, curling his tail around himself as if attempting to ward off another strike at his privates.

We talked for some time. His name was Korvarak. He'd ventured here from quite a distance away after the lands in which he grew up with his family were no longer safe. His mother and father went one way, and Korvarak went another, hoping to find his own lands. Rumors spawned from visits with other dragons not so territorial as to immediately chase him off had pointed him towards Aran'alia as a land hospitable to our kind.

I was willing to give him a chance, though perhaps not in the manner which he expected. I had come to like cutting deals, they seemed to work out quite well for me. And so I cut a deal with young Korvarak. I would allow him to stay, and find a home for himself somewhere within the boundaries of my lands. In turn he would help me protect my lands from anyone who would do its people harm. Under no circumstances was he to ask for tributes the way I did. However if the villages gave them to him freely he was welcome to accept. Moreover, I made it clear that if heard he had robbed or harmed anyone I was going to hold him down in the center of the village he'd offended and let the humans squeeze his testicles. That certainly got his attention, and he swore up and down and in every other direction that he'd not do anything of the sort.

I also made him apologize. The next morning I took him to every village he'd stolen from, and made him offer a deep apology for every animal he'd ever stolen. It served not only to humble him and assert my authority even further, but to also let the humans see he was not going to be trouble. I did not want them to get the wrong idea and decide someone had to go stick a spear in the poor young runt's belly.

Korvarak made good on his word. I allowed him to carve out a small section of land for himself where he had plenty of game to hunt and a few caves in which to make his home. The arrangement had soon paid off as it was not long before Korvarak himself managed to foil a bandit raid on a small caravan traveling my road. I had him given a small reward, and I also arranged for a few women to give the little bastard is first sexual experience with something besides his own paw. As they later told me he was quite shocked to be offered something like that by women, yet nonetheless quite eager. I also heard he spent his seed not long after becoming fully unsheathed. I supposed everyone had to start somewhere.

Oh, very funny Alia. I do not spend that swiftly. ...I told you, I was rubbing against the furs. Ahem. Moving right along.

I soon decided to keep Lenira mostly to myself. Strangely, I did not feel jealous if I thought about her stroking Korvarak to release yet I did begin to feel envious when I heard that she had spent time in conversation with him. It was a strange feeling to be sure. For most dragons, mating pleasure was simply something to be shared amongst those you cared for. If you loved someone that made it extra special to you, but it was not above friends to share pleasure if they found each other desirable. I knew many humans did not share this view, but the people of Aran'alia seemed far more open to such things then humans from less wild lands.

Which is why it so surprised me that I felt somewhat jealous of her...friendship. I wanted that for myself. I did not have many friends, but such a thing was not uncommon for a dragon. Unless we lived in a clan, dragons did not often have a lot of friends. Usually only a few close ones, or a mate that we treasured greatly. Some dragons had no friends at all.

Still, it seemed a strange thing for me to befriend a human, and stranger still for me to feel envious of the rare time she spent with Korvarak. I had come to sincerely enjoy the times I spent with her when we simply lounged about and talked even more than I did the times in which she made me roar my delight. As the years continued to pass, I came to miss the simple pleasures of conversing with her when another village sent me girls. True enough they brought pleasure just as well, especially when there were two of them. And yet when I lay satisfied and panting, they would often chat more amongst themselves than with me. I told myself I should be glad, I did not want to hear the prattling of human wenches anyway.

And yet I did. In fact as Lenira came to visit me less and less I wished to hear her voice more and more. I knew she had many issues to tend in her village. In addition to being their chief healer, she began to train several apprentices to take her place when the time came. To me it seemed a silly worry to have. After all she was still a young woman was she not? Though I supposed that should something strike her down it would befit the village to have other healers capable of taking her place.

As the years passed I cherished each increasingly rare visit even more. I knew Lenira cherished them, too. She smiled me at each time she saw me as though I was the light that shone upon her very world. It was a strange thing for me, to have a human as such a close friend. And yet I found myself appreciating that smile more every time she shared it with me. I could not recall ever having made someone happy before, and somehow, that warmed me as well. She clung to me and when she had to return to her town she always seemed to grow a little misty eyed.

As a result, whenever it was possible I let her spend entire days at a time with me. Not for the pleasures of her hands, but for the enjoyment of her friendship. I simply liked being around her, as she was really the only one I could call my friend. Kylaryn hadn't returned for years, and she'd always been as much rival as anything else. Korvarak was enjoyable enough company from time to time, but he was as much ambitious subordinate as he was friend. The other humans treated me kindly enough but Lenira was something else entirely. Each time she visited me, I simply felt happy.

To me, those visits passed in a blink, the years passed in a breath, and I had no way to know what I was slowly wasting.

Not till there came a time in which my friend Lenira looked a little different each rare visit she made. I did not understand it, at first. Her black hair became increasingly streaked with gray each time I saw her. Layers of gentle lines and wrinkles were added to her face. She seemed a little more winded each time she arrived after walking the steep, rocky trail that lead to my home. It was odd to see her looking a little differently each time, and for the life of me I could not place it.

It came to me one night in the vestiges of some strange, unsettling dream. I awoke to find her curled asleep next to me, her black hair now completely gray. She was aging. No, she had aged. I simply had not realized it until now. The Village of the Sigil Stones was growing each passing season. Korvarak was growing into a strong young dragon. And I myself was growing into my prime. But Lenira? Lenira was simply growing old.

And so it was that I learned the difference in the lifetime of a dragon, and a human. In the time it took us to hatch, to reach maturity, to find a home of our own, take a mate, and raise our own eggs any single human would be long gone. The thought troubled me in a strange way. I...had not realized how attached I had grown to Lenira until it came to me that I was going to lose her to the ravages of time, and far sooner than I had ever considered it.

The thought of losing Lenira hurt me deeply. I could not help but feel as though my home would be empty without her. I was confused. I had never felt as though it was empty simply because I was alone. Being alone had never bothered me before. I had never minded solitude at all. If I wished to have more company I would have stayed with my clan in the lower regions of Aran'alia. Wouldn't I? Perhaps Lenira had changed something in me. Brought out some side of myself I'd never realized was there before.

Whatever the case may be, losing her was going to be painful. Lenira was the first human I told how to find my home, ages ago when she was still an adventuresome young woman. Back then wandering through the increasingly rugged hills as they rose towards the towering mountains and spires of stone beyond was still an enticing prospect to her. Now it must have seemed an increasingly daunting task. I told Lenira that she no longer had to make the trip to visit me if it was too hard on her. I could always visit her near her village and we could just chat now and then. She liked the idea but assured me she could still make the trip.

I knew well enough she relished visiting me and seeing me in my own home. It must have been so different from the world in which she lived. My home was a cavern begun by nature and the flows of underground water, and finished by dragons with skills in carving and ages that far exceeded my own. Spacious and comfortable, it remained a pleasant temperature year round without too much dampness in the air.

By the time Lenira had grown old, my bed had changed from a simple pile of animal furs and stolen pillows to a massive sprawl made up of dozens upon dozens of blankets, pillows, sheets, various mattresses, stuffed toys and other soft things donated to me by the six ever-growing villages who relied upon me for protection. My collection of treasures both stolen and freely given stretched in all directions with no discernible order or organization. I even had stolen bookshelves along one wall of my cavern. Upon them I kept a variety of trinkets and personal treasures such as the skull of the first deer I ever killed myself, and a few clusters of scales taken from females I had shared pleasure with in the past. That was also where I kept what few books in my people's tongue I possessed, parting gifts from my parents and my clan when I first left to find my own home. To that collection I added a lock of Lenira's now-gray hair and a blue ribbon which she often tied it with.

Much as I suddenly wished they would stop, the years mercilessly rolled on. In another breath, Lenira could no longer make the journey to visit me. Lenira had come by carriage her last few visits, and I had carried her the rest of the way upon my back, but only after swearing her to secrecy. I had come to know she found me enthralling, and she always had. I could not help but consider that I had wasted that sense of wonder.

The last few times she visited me, I took her to the skies. I had never done so before, and had never truly realized what it might mean to her until the years had left her almost to frail to enjoy it. I wish, looking back, I had done so for her from the very beginning. She had always been a wonderful friend to me yet as an egotistical young dragon I was terribly ill-prepared to realize it and return that friendship until it was nearly too late.

One day the pale blue and white carriage I expected to bring Lenira arrived. When the door opened and a young girl stepped out instead, my heart sank a little. It was not a surprise, but I could not help feeling saddened. This girl was even younger than Lenira when I'd first met her. I had glimpsed the girl a few times in the city as she was one of Lenira's latest apprentices. Like most native Aran'alians her hair was black, though her's was not as straight as some. Her features seemed a little more finely honed rather than rounded, with higher cheek bones and sharply set blue eyes. Perhaps she had a little foreign blood in her background somewhere. There were plenty of traders and merchants who took lovers among the Aran'alians after all. Some even settled down in the villages within the realm of the silver rain, looking for a simpler life.

The girl wore a long dress, colored in swirls of white and blue. The hem of it rustled and swayed around her black shoes as she walked towards me, traversing the rocky trail as sure footed as the mountain sheep I sometimes preyed upon. I settled upon a wide swath of flat ground, and curled my tail about my paws as I watched her approach me. There was something in her eyes I had not seen from many humans before, though I could not place it yet. Despite my trepidation about her arrival, whatever that flash in her azure eyes was I found it fascinating.

"Is she gone?" I asked softly.

"Not yet," the girl replied, a coldness in her voice I had not expected.

"But she is..."

"Old," the girl cut me off. "And weary. If you wish to demand anything else of her, you shall have to come and see her in her home to do so."

I growled a little bit, flicking my spined tail tip. "Very well. And who are you, then?"

"I am her replacement," the girl said, her voice like a blade. "Move your tail that I might see what I have to work with."

I was not sure I liked this girl. There was something enthralling in her eyes, but she seemed angry, spiteful. As far as I was concerned, she had no reason to be. But I did as she asked, slowly moving my tail out of the way so that she could have a better look at my thick ebony sheath and plump black testicles hanging beneath it. No sooner had I moved my tail out of the way then the girl surged forward and kicked me in the testicles as hard as she possibly could. Her aim was true and her kick took me completely by surprise, placed just so to ensure she impacted both tender eggs.

Embarrassed as I may have been to admit it, I think I squealed just the way Korvarak did when I punched him in his own balls. My eyes bugged out of my skull, my spines all flared in alarm even as my ears pinned back, and I crumpled forward onto my belly. The girl deftly moved aside as I flopped to the earth. I curled a little, reaching back with a forepaw to clutch my aching balls. With a loud, rather high pitched groan, I began to squirm a little. Alia would no doubt laugh at the way my muzzle contorted into a fang-bearing grimace of pain, and I found myself rubbing my hind legs together around my paws, my tail lashing at the stony ground.

"NNRRRRHHHH!" I cried out. "My stones! You...bitch!"

"I hope they hurt!" The girl snarled at me, and kicked a few rocks towards my face, wisely staying well out of range of my jaws and tail. "In fact I hope I broke them! You deserve it, you filthy beast!"

I...deserved it? What was she talking about? I protected her damn village! "What are you...babbling about?" I glared at the horrid little wench, but any danger that might have existed in my gaze was nullified by the fact I was curled upon the ground, clutching my own testicles in my paws. "I protected you! Why would I deserve that?"

"For making poor Lenira trek up here, year after year! No matter how old she got, how weary her body became, no matter how hard the journey got for her you still forced her to make the trip just to cater to your disgusting lusts." She shook her finger at me, anger flashing nearly violet in her blue eyes. "Protect us, hah! You make it sound as if you did so out of the goodness of your heart! Well, I can see your heart, dragon, and there's no goodness in it! You've nothing in there but greed, and lust. You only declare your so-called protection of our villages so that you can steal our food, claim our wealth, and force our women to pleasure you. And that, Dragon." She kicked another rock at me. "Disgusts me."

"Then why are you here?" I snapped at her, my mind still struggling to take in what she'd said. Even as the first part of her statement sunk in, I began to feel sick, and not just because I'd gotten kicked in the balls. She had it wrong...didn't she? "Lenira...enjoyed coming up here..."

"Did she, Dragon?" The girl scoffed at me, tossing her hair. Then she gave a long sigh, and walked a few steps away. A short ways off, the carriage was already pulling away, leaving her behind with me. "Maybe she did, Dragon. She never spoke badly of you, if that's what your ego is worried about. But do you know what it was like for her, in the village? It wasn't as if people didn't know she was the only one who volunteered. Other girls might do what they had too, when you demanded it, but Lenira? She volunteered. She had the best of intentions, Dragon, and do you know what that got her? An empty life! No husband, no children, no one to love her, and aside from her students, very few close friends. She's an excellent healer, but not so good at mending her own soul, or her relationships."

"Why would no man..."

"Are you that damn daft?" The girl walked right up to me, my teeth be damned, and slapped me on the nose. I yelped, recoiling, so startled by her boldness and her accusations that I didn't even consider biting her hand off. "Why would any man want to marry a woman who's called by name several times a year to go and pleasure some disgusting monster? Let alone a woman who volunteers herself to do just that?"

"That's...not how it was..."

"Oh?" The girl tilted her head. "Well that's how it's perceived. And that's why, at the end of her life, Lenira still lives alone. We visit her, her other apprentices and I, and so do a few other townspeople." Her voice softened, and she lifted a hand to run it back over her hair. "It's your fault, dragon. ...Maybe you didn't do it on purpose. But I'm damn sure going to make you understand what you've done. You can't just...go around demanding things and doing whatever the hell you want without consequences."

"Why_are_ you here?" I lifted my head, glaring down at her. My chest felt tight and pained.

"To tell you what you've done to Lenira. That woman took me in when I had no one, and you've ruined her life." She took a deep breath, and pressed her face into her hands a moment. She trembled a little, fighting back tears I did not yet understand. When she moved her hands she glared at me. "And because no one else is willing to stand up to you. Well, I am! You think you should be treated like some scaly king, and everyone else is just willing to go along with it. But I'm not. If that gets me killed, so be it. Just know that if you kill me for kicking you where you so richly deserve, that will violate your precious deal." She paused, glancing at my paws as if hoping for another shot at my testicles. "I volunteered, Dragon, so no one else from my village will ever have to do this again as long as I live. I'm the only girl you're going to get from my village from now on, and if I have my way, that'll go for all the villages. And I don't think you're going to like me very much."

She smirked at me, and folded her arms beneath her breasts. I realized then what it was in her eyes that I couldn't place. Defiance. It was something I saw so rarely in the eyes of others, let alone humans, I almost didn't recognize it. Lenira had been bold, but she'd never once defied me in any way. Neither had her village. For all their openness, they could be as meek as mice when faced with a demanding dragon. This girl, though, there was something strikingly different about her.

"I'm going to get up now," I muttered. "Don't kick me again, alright?"

"I will make no such promise." She chuckled a little. "But if you get tired of it, you can always send me home. You'll get no one else though, I shall not let you."

"This is quite the game you're playing," I said, pushing myself to my paws. I carefully kept my hind end out of reach. "Come along, then."

"It's nothing compared to the game you played with Lenira's heart, Monster."

That made me angry. I liked Lenira. I was getting tired of this girl misconstruing everything and accusing me of cruelty I had not committed. I whirled around on her, and snarled. I bared my fangs, flared my spines and advanced upon her till my breath washed across her face. Fear flickered in her eyes, but her defiance did not fade. Nor did she back away from me even when I snapped my jaws inches from her nose. She did not back down, not one step.

"I played no such game!" I waved my paw in the air, claws whistling near her ear, and still she did not back down. "We are friends, she and I!"

"Friends," the girl spat the word out like bitter fruit. "Is that what you call it? I suppose it seemed that way to you. I doubt you have any concept of anything more."

I pulled my head back a little. "What are you talking about?"

The girl stared at me a long time before she finally spoke again. "Lenira lovesyou, dragon. It's in every word she speaks of you, in the way she smiles when she says that some day, maybe she'll know your name." The girl's voice broke, and trembled. She snatched my ear, and despite her shaking voice her fingers were like iron. She clutched my ear, steadying her emotions. When she again found her voice, it was a cold knife twisted into my heart. "She _loves_you, Dragon, and for all her life you've treated her like a toy to be picked up and played with whenever the whim takes you. She longs for you to ask her to stay with you, and time and again you cast her aside when your desires have faded. Back to empty life, and her empty house, to wait for you for another year. That is Lenira's life, dragon. That is what you've given her."

She released my ear, and began to walk up the trail towards my cave without me. I heard her breath trembling, she was trying not to cry. She cared deeply for Lenira; the woman who had taken her in when she had no where else to turn. To her, I was just the beast who used her adoptive mother as a plaything. I had never seen it that way, but now with the truth spat at me like venom, I could see it no other way. I'd never even told Lenira my real name, and now her life was nearly faded. The years had flashed by in moments for me, and for her they dragged on with a longing for a life with a lover she could never truly have. The words and the realization they brought were a blade in my chest, icy and agonizing. Such was the way I came to meet Lenira's favored apprentice.

Such was the way I met Amaleen.

---

Chapter Four

---

Amaleen's words the day we met pierced me deeper than any spear ever could have. I had no desire for pleasure from her, and little desire even to eat. I offered her some of the human food I kept around for Lenira's visits, and while she picked at it I flopped down upon my bed-things. I felt as though the world itself had suddenly settled it's weight upon my wings. Amaleen wandered my home a little, examining some of my possessions, and paging through an old human book I'd picked up somewhere. I let her do as she wished and lingered the night in near silence. Several times she seemed ready to say something else to me, but each time the words died on her lips. She had done what she'd come for, and she had nothing left to say.

I slept only fitfully through the night. Lenira enjoyed sleeping next to me when she stayed a few days. Amaleen however took a pillow and a few blankets and curled up, alone, as far from me as possible. She did not sleep any better than I did that night, and when I glanced over at her between spells of slumber I often found her glaring at me with a strange mixture of smoldering anger and cold sorrow. I could not meet her gaze, and eventually hid my head beneath a wing.

It was one of the first times I could remember being ashamed of myself, and of my own actions. Yes, I know Alia. Shame is not an emotion that comes easily to a dragon. As I had finally learned, we were gifted with longer lives than humans could hope for. And while our lifespan and the general strength of our armored bodies was a gift, it was balanced with a curse. That is, our greater lifespan is matched by a equally massive ego.

As a species, it is difficult for us to admit when we are wrong. So rarely do dragons see our actions as anything but justified, that feelings of shame can be nearly foreign to us. For many more solitary dragons than I, I imagined the only true feelings of shame they might feel as when they lost a battle they felt they should have won. Even before I began to protect my road's travelers, I never once felt ashamed for stealing from them. I never felt shame over forcing the lesser beings to pay me a toll simply to continue on their way. I was bigger and stronger than them. I was a dragon. It was my right to force them to pay me some sort of tribute.

Lesser beings. I had never actively thought of them that way, and yet in the back of my mind, that was what humans seemed to me at the time. Smaller, weaker, and far more fragile, was it not only natural that the strong prey upon the weak? That was how predators fed themselves, after all. In my own way, in the way of a foolish, prideful dragon, I considered myself merciful because I did not simply take from them. I also protected them.

But friendship with Lenira had begun to change me somehow. It started a fundamental shift in the way I viewed the world, and my place in it. I had never really considered the repercussions of my actions, never considered how painful things might be for humans because of me. After all, I simply assumed where I not actively protecting them, they might simply decide to band together to try and take my life, as it seemed humans often did.

But Lenira...against all odds, Lenira had come to love me. To love a creature she could not truly be with, despite the scorn it brought her. Though Amaleen had not said as much, I realized that must be why the men in town had scorned her. Not because she did what a dragon asked her to, but because she came to love that dragon. Perhaps she had even subconsciously come to push any man away when he got to close to her, hoping against hope that I might some day take her away and let her live out her life with me. I wondered how many times that thought might have occurred to her over her lifetime, while it had never once occurred to me.

It seemed so...unfair. Lenira was a good person. I had considered her my friend for some time before Amaleen arrived to take her place, but I'd never known how that had come to change something in me. Not until I realized that the loneliness in Lenira's life was my fault. I had spent decades protecting her village in return for tributes of wealth and food and pleasure, and yet I had done nothing but neglect the only human in the whole of the realm who actually cared for me.

By the time the sun rose to chase away the shroud of gray mist that clung to the rolling green hills and silvery-grey stones beneath my cavern, I was ready to take Amaleen home. I walked outside and waited for her to join me before I snatched her up in my paws and leapt into the air with such speed as to make her scream till I thought my eardrums were going to burst. I considered that temporary but intense bout of terror to be my revenge for her well-placed kick.

I took her back to the Village of the Sigil Stones, and had her fetch Lenira. It mattered not to me if Amaleen thought I was simply trying to impress her, or to make amends. All that mattered to me then was that Lenira had little time left, and I wanted her to be as happy in that short time as possible. She had made my life better every time she'd visited me. While there was not enough life left in her for me to truly return the blessing I was determined to do what I could.

Even since the last time I'd seen her, she had gotten increasingly frail. She came to me in a simple blue dress that swirled around her skinny frame, and when I told her I'd come to take her flying her smile grew brighter than the sun. Amaleen and another of her students helped her onto my back. Her weight upon my back seemed lighter than ever, I could feel her bones pressed to my scales. Her arms felt like little more than fragile sticks when she wrapped them around my neck and hugged herself to me, but I was happy to have her there. Happy to brighten to her life a little while I still had the chance.

Amaleen snatched my ear to whisper into it. Telling me that I had better be careful with Lenira, and that if I hurt her even by accident, the next time she saw me she would make her kick the day before seem like a lover's caress. With Lenira upon my back I kept my retort to myself. But I remembered a trick that Kylaryn had used to smack me in the snout on more than one occasion. So I simply turned away from Amaleen, swinging my tail against her forcefully enough to knock her over. I glanced back at her and apologized as if it were an accident simply for Lenira's sake.

Yes, Alia, I believe that was the first time I tried that move.

I flew with the woman who had grown to love me long before she'd ever grown old for much of the morning. I flew slow and gently so that I would not stress her body, and let her simply enjoy the feeling of flight. Flying was always one of a dragon's favorite things, and perhaps our greatest gift of all. I wished I had shared it with Lenira more often and earlier in her life, but regret would not change the way I'd conducted myself in the past. After our flight, I took her to the top of a grassy hilltop we used to enjoy lounging on together. I settled down on the sun-warmed grass, and let her ease herself from my body so she could do the same.

For the rest of the afternoon, she lay against me with her silvery-gray hair spread like a fan of frizzled cloud against my black scales. We talked and spoke of simple things. We reminisced about the day we met, and oddly enough, apples. Strange to think that apples, of all things, were among our first memories. In a way, they had kindled our friendship. She'd been so eager back than just to have me taste one of those special, golden-spotted fruits. She'd been so young, too. Not as young as Amaleen was, but close. It was very odd and rather difficult for me to see her so old now. Her life had nearly escaped her, and I had merely ventured from the end of my adolescence to the midst of my early adulthood. I had several human lifetimes left in me, if not more, and before then I had never truly appreciated the shorter span of their own years.

As way basked in the sun's warmth together, a gentle silence fell over us. I let it linger a while, and when I worked up the nerve, I told her that my name was Valyrym. Then I told her I would be honored if she called me by my real name for the rest of our days together. That made her smile even more brightly than she had that morning, and as she hugged my head to her body, I told her I was sorry. Sorry for any pain I had ever caused her, sorry for the loneliness I'd inflicted on her, and sorry that I had not recognized her affections earlier.

"Valyrym, my love," she said, both using my name and expressing her own affection for the first time. "Every moment I spent with you made it all worth while. And if you've come to know all that, you should also know I forgive you completely."

That was the first time I'd ever been brought to tears in front of a human.

For the next few months, I spent nearly every day visiting Lenira. I caught Amaleen's glares now and then, but as the months passed even those had softened a little. I think Amaleen had come to realize I was not simply doing this for sympathy, nor was I doing it for myself. I was doing this for Lenira. In all honesty, I do not know if I loved her the way she loved me. But I cared for her deeply in my own way, and the knowledge that I had left her so lonely for so long was a wound deep inside me that would not easily heal.

One cool day, we lay upon our favorite hilltop when the rains swept in. As I have mentioned before the rains in Aran'alia were like no other. You would have loved to see it, Alia. It fell in waves and sheets of silver and held a mystical beauty no other rain could match. Lenira once told me that the rains in that part of the world were tinted by ancient, wild magic that still lingered somewhere high up in the mountains where the rainstorms first built. They also say that the rains spread that magic to the earth and the stones and the grass and the creatures that fed upon it and the beasts that fed upon them.

It was all rumor and superstition as far as I was concerned. Yet the rain itself was always silver. Though she wore an indigo-dyed shawl to keep herself warm in the cool air, I did not wish Lenira to be further chilled by the rain. So I wrapped her in my wings, and kept her warm and dry. She traced a few of the silver streaks running down the outside of my wings with a single bony finger. Before the rains had passed, she told me that she loved me. It was the first time she'd said as much with those exact words, and it was the first and only time I ever returned those words to her. To this very day I remain unsure if I truly meant them. When I see her in my dreams, I think perhaps I did. More importantly, I did not want her to fade from this world without the knowledge that someone else had loved her in return.

She passed away a few weeks later. I may have been unsure about the deep truth of my words, but I was so glad she got to hear them before she was gone.

I attended Lenira's funeral. I watched them slowly place her in the ground, and cover her with earth. It was my first experience with human death rites. They were different than the rites I knew of among dragons. In my youth, when one of my clan's members died, their body was laid upon a simple pyre, and they were burned. Everyone gathered and feasted upon as much food as could be hunted. Those who knew the deceased best told happy tales, and if there were tears to be shed, they were shed in private. The pyre gathering itself was a celebration of the life that had been lived.

Lenira's funeral was something different, and not everyone attended. Those who did cried almost the entire time. Her apprentices were all there, dressed in dark clothing. They all shed many tears. There were a few others crying as well. I was somewhat heartened to see she had at least a few good friends beyond her apprentices. Quite a few people appreciated what she'd done for the village and stopped by, though I wished more had attended the entire funeral. When they had finished putting her in the ground, they erected a heavy stone and set it at the head of her grave. I had never realized it before, but one of the hills so studded with slabs of rock was in fact a graveyard.

Several people left tokens of remembrance upon her grave. I had brought nothing to leave her. I quickly took to my wings, speeding my way down into the village beneath the rock-marked hills. Before long I returned with the only thing I could think that held special meaning just between Lenira and I.

I placed a single apple upon her grave, bright red with golden spots.

After leaving my meager but heartfelt token, I watched as they carved ancient sigils into the stone. When they were done, I asked Amaleen if I could carve some of my own. After a moment of uncertainty she allowed me to do so. Careful not to step paw on freshly turned earth, I slowly carved my own symbols into her headstone. I thought she would have been proud to bare the only headstone in the entire cemetery with draconic sigils carved upon it.

When I was done, I stepped back to sullenly survey my work. The sigils were clear, and should any other dragon ever happen across it, they would know just what I said. Somewhat to my surprise, Amaleen remained nearby while I had worked upon my very first stone carving. I settled onto my haunches, blinking away tears, and stared at the stone for a while.

"What does it say?" Amaleen finally asked me, with no trace of the usual bitter resentment in her voice.

For a moment, I thought about ignoring her. She had never liked me, though I knew she had her reasons. I also thought about lying to her, as translating the sigils would reveal something important to myself I did not think she deserved to know. After a few moments of heavy thought, I changed my mind. She did deserve to know. If not for Amaleen, if not her for resentment and her defiance I would have never known the truth about Lenira.

I looked down at Amaleen, my mind made up. "It says, My Name Is Valyrym. You Were Always My Friend."

It seemed such a simple thing to say in her tongue. In my language it was...far more meaningful. To leave your name carved forever into stone in so public a place where so many humans could see it was symbolically very powerful to me, to my kind. As was speaking it aloud to Amaleen at such a time. And to name a human your friend, forever? To a species who often valued so few friendships and lived so long, the meaning was even deeper. Yet that meaning may well have been wasted upon humans with little understanding of or care for dragons.

Amaleen, though, seemed to understand. She reached out to me, and put her hand upon the plated scales of my chest. "So you have a heart in there somewhere, after all."

I only looked away, licking my nose. She rubbed my chest a little, sighing to herself. She moved her hand, and for the first time, she touched my face. She slowly pulled my muzzle back until I met her gaze. I did not look away this time. I owed her that much. For a moment, she stroked my nose, and my cheek.

"They're as soft as she said," Amaleen said, laughing gently. A hint of a smile came to her lips for only a moment. "Valyrym, is it?"

"It is."

"You did right by her in the end, Valyrym." Her blue eyes dug deeply into my gold ones, and I saw a little less resentment burning in them. "I cannot forgive as easily as she. But you should know you made her very happy in her last months."

I grit my sharp teeth, my throat tightening. I pulled my head back from her touch, and took a few steps away, spreading my wings. "I do not wish you to visit me again, Amaleen." I waved my paw towards the village. "In fact, I wish no more girls, nor any more tribute of any kind."

Amaleen took a little breath, thinking I was abandoning our deal.

I quickly held my paw up to silence her. "Our deal remains. I will protect your village, your road, and every other village across my lands." I turned my head to peer down at the village below the cemetery hill. It had grown so large since I'd first gone there to make my deal. People mingled in the streets, a bustling market had sprung up in the central plaza. Blacksmiths tended fires day and night, taverns drew plenty of visitors among villages and far-flung travelers alike. "I will do what I can to keep you safe, but I neither require nor wish for any further tributes. I shall not trouble you or your people for such things again."

Amaleen did not reply. She narrowed her eyes a little bit, uncertainty flickering inside them. I knew she was trying to size me up mentally, to reason out what game I was playing. There was no game. I meant what I said. With Lenira's death I had decided I had brought the people enough trouble. I would still protect them because Lenira and her village had come to mean something to me, but I would demand nothing further of them.

"I wish you well, Amaleen. May you find more happiness than Lenira did."

With that, I leapt into the air, and howled the sorrow of my mourning to the skies. The skies, as always, did not care.

---

Chapter Five

---

I spent the next few years in near solitude, just as I had done after I first claimed my land and before I made my deals. The sorrow I felt after losing Lenira was greater than I had expected it to be, and I had little desire to attempt to replace her friendship with pale imitations. My life was simple, and for the most part peaceful. I did as I had promised and continued to protect all the villages within my realm, and never once asked for another tribute from them.

From time to time they brought things to me anyway. Usually it was after word got out that I'd killed a group of bandits robbing travelers along the highway, or chased away a rogue dragon or some other manner of beast. I'd find baskets and crates of goods left along the rocky tail that lead through the higher, rougher hills towards my home. I always accepted them, to do otherwise seemed as though it would be insulting. They were usually brought by carriage and the rare time I actually saw them being delivered I did not recognize the humans who left them for me. I saw no sign of Amaleen, yet the specific contents of the occasional gifts left for me suggested she had some hand in it.

Once in a while Korvarak and I visited each other. In the span of Lenira's life the green dragon had journeyed from one side of adolescence to the other and was now a rather handsome young adult. With my blessing he had carved out his own niche amongst my lands, and I had even let him take full charge over a new village that had sprung up close to his home. He had taken to my ways, and promised to protect that new village in return for their respect and occasional tokens of gratitude.

Yet he soon felt it was time for him to seek more from his life. Much as I had at his age he'd indulged in dalliances with females whenever he had the chance, but felt the urge to seek something more complete. Occasionally I flew beyond my realms to visit with other dragons and attempt to glean bits of information and news about our kin. During one such trip I learned that the much older male who held a large swath of mountainous land had finally passed on. I suggested to Korvarak he go and claim that land for himself before someone else did.

The young green scaled male thought that an excellent idea. I promised him I would not take back the land I'd once given to him, and told him he was always welcome in my holdings, and welcome to return to his old home. We chatted for quite a while, and he thanked me for giving him a chance when he was little more than a hungry whelp. It seemed a strange thing to thank me for after all this time. I wondered sometimes what had first driven him to my lands and how much hardship he'd endured before to be so quick to accept my offer. But, it did not seem right to try and pry such secrets from him.

As he prepared to depart to go and claim his new territory, something seemed to startle him. He gasped, and gestured frantically with his paw. I turned around to see what it was he was staring so agape at. No sooner had I turned around, careful not to crack him over the skull with my tail, then he slammed his fist between my hind legs as hard as he could, catching me directly in both testicles. I gave a tremendous cry and crumpled to the ground in a writhing heap of scaly pain.

...Yes, Alia, laugh it up. What? Val Junior says I deserved it? Yes, well, he's probably right.

Korvarak certainly laughed it up as well as he leapt into the air. Meanwhile I rolled around, clutching my eggs in my paws, moaning. I glanced up at him through wet, crossed-eyes, and he called down to me. "Believe it or not, Valyrym, the ache will fade eventually!" Ah, yes. I'd almost forgotten I'd done and said the same to him the first time we met. Apparently he hadn't forgotten as easily as I had. Still, I managed a half smile through my grimace of pain. Little bastard finally got me back. I certainly couldn't hold it against him. I'd just have to be sure and return the favor again the next time I saw him.

No, Alia. Just because it's happened before doesn't mean I give you permission to do so to me the next time I mouth off. Oh? I should think Val Junior is getting tired of being used as projectile, so perhaps you should take that up with him.

The seasons flew on, and Autumn returned. With it came low, gray clouds that built ceaselessly against the craggy mountains. Waves of mercurial rain rolled across the lands beneath them. I enjoyed the rains, myself. I did not mind swimming and bathing in lakes, but I had always preferred to let the rains wash my body. For some reason, it always felt so much more cleansing to me. In the fall the rain was cool but not so much as to chill me deep beneath my scales. Perhaps it stemmed from my youth. As a hatchling my favorite times to go out and play with my friends and my sister Narymiryn was always when the silver rains were heaviest. Then again, what child of any species does not enjoy playing in the rain and splashing in the mud?

Perhaps it was fitting I glimpsed Kylaryn for the first time in years in the midst of a silver-tinted deluge. She was one of the other dragons I'd always gone out into the rain to play with as a hatchling. I remember in the early days of our rivalries, we would always go and find the muddiest puddle we could and wrestle and fight in it, then return home to our respective families covered in slop from snout to tail. It was not a muddy puddle I saw her in that first day she returned, but rather on the wing, in the middle of the rains. For a moment she looked so much as she did in our youth, her blue scales shining and wet, her tail swaying and darting in front of me as she tried to outrace me. Even back then she was faster.

I followed her through the rain, darting and cutting back and forth to keep up with her. She glanced back at me a few times, and to my surprise she did not pull away. She could out fly me any day if she wanted to, but that day I managed to stay in reach of her. As I chased her in an increasingly playful manner, I wondered where she had been. How long had it been since I'd really spoken to her? Almost a human's lifetime. I did not know how old Lenira was when I'd first met her nor how old she was when she finally faded from the earth, but however many years that had been, I had scarcely seen Kylaryn.

Come to think of it, the day I met Lenira was the last time I'd spoken more than a few words to her or done more than yell at her from the skies as I chased her away from my villages. The day I'd met Lenira was the day Kylaryn had come to see me, I had later realized. She wanted to tell me about the clan, and the fate that had befallen it. I had probably pushed her away without realizing it. I knew well enough from the way I'd handled things with Lenira that male dragons were hardly the best at reading the signs females gave us. With a sinking heart, I could not help but consider the possibility she had come to push our rivalry into greater friendship, and I had simply shoved her aside to go and enjoy my reward.

Where had she been since then? Why had she returned now?

"Kylaryn!" I called out to her.

Kylaryn glanced back at me, and began to beat her wings harder. The blue dragon started to pull away. She was doing it again. I flew harder to match her, and reached out to try and grasp her tail. It slipped through my fingers like sand, but the gesture must have meant something to her, because she slowed her acceleration for a moment and looked back at me again.

"Don't pull away from me!" I called out, not entirely sure what I meant. "You've returned for a reason, haven't you? You know I can't catch you if you don't want to be caught, you're too fast for me!"

I caught a smile flitting across her muzzle, and it occurred to me that while we both knew she was faster on the ground and in the air, I don't think I'd ever actually admitted she could best me at something before. It gave her enough pause for me to pound my wings against the air and propel myself forward again to grasp her tail tip. I squeezed it in my paw, and she shifted her wings to start descending through the rain. The water left her scales slippery and her tail soon slid from my grasp once more.

Kylaryn swooped down towards a hill covered with plenty of soft grass and spiked with a few tall, jagged gray stones. Ancient sigils marked the stones where they'd been carved deeply ages ago. The grass was lush and soft even when heavy and slick with rain. Kylaryn came in for a landing near the top of the hill where it was relatively flat. She touched down on her hind paws first, then her front feet, but as she trotted to a stop her paws slipped on all the wet grass. Her feet slid out from under her and she flopped onto her belly where she skidded a little ways before coming to a stop. I couldn't help laughing as I landed behind her, a little more carefully.

"It's not funny," Kylaryn snapped, pushing herself up. A bit of mud marked her belly from where she'd torn up some wet grass, but the rains quickly rinsed the stains away.

"You would have laughed if it was me belly-flopping a landing," I said, grinning as I came to a stop. I stood a little ways away from her, unsure of her intentions.

"Only if you landed on your balls," she muttered. Then a small smirk crossed her cute little slightly-short muzzle. "Again."

"One time I did that," I said, chuckling.

"Twice that I recall."

"Once by accident," I corrected her, then snorted. "The other time was because you thought it would be funny to knock my hind legs out from under me in opposite directions when I tried to land."

"As I said." Her smirk grew a little wider. "I'd have laughed if you landed on your balls."

I laughed with her, and took a few steps towards her. She took just as many steps away from me, backing up. She flared her wings a bit as if ready to spring into the sky if I got too close. I stopped, watching her, and then I gave a little sigh, shaking my horned head. Was she going to return to her little games again already? All these years later and I thought perhaps she'd returned to do something more than laugh at me while I fell behind her in the skies.

I took another step towards her, and she took one more away, spreading her wings a little further. "Don't," I said, simply.

"Don't what?" She asked, cocking her head.

"Don't flee me as though I'm your enemy," I snapped at her, at little more angrily than I'd intended.

Kylaryn glanced down at her paws, sighing to herself, her own shorter spiky crests laying flat against her head and neck. She slowly pulled her wings back against her body. "You were never my enemy, Valyrym."

"Than what was I?" I waved my paw at her, hissing in frustration. "I thought we were friends, as children. Even when we fought, even our rivalry, I never thought of it as malicious. But you...you always had to try and best me, at everything! And...well, some of it was my fault too. I had to show you that you couldn't, and..." I growled under my breath. "I...I just never meant for it to turn bitter, that's all. I never meant for us to be enemies."

"We weren't," Kylaryn said, still staring at her paws. "You were my friend, Valyrym. You were always my friend."

Her words struck me. For a moment I almost wondered if she'd seen that gravestone, yet I was sure she had not. Her words were genuine, and one of the few times I'd ever heard her say something so meaningful to me. Silver droplets ran down her softly blue scaled face like mercury tears, dripping from her snout. If there were real tears mingling with them I'd never be able to spot them. I stepped towards her, and she stepped away again.

"Don't_do_ that," I growled at her.

"Now is not a good time," she murmured.

"What the hell does that mean?" I flared a wing out, and shifted it forward to cover my head a bit to shield my eyes from the rain. "Why are you here, if you don't want me near you?"

"I_do_ want you near me," she admitted, softly. "But I am...receptive right now."

"Receptive?" I asked, though I realized what she meant as soon as I said it. Receptive to a male's seed. She was near or in her heat cycle, and I simply couldn't smell it on her because the rain was smothering her scent. If I got any closer, though, it would be unmistakable. "So you don't want an egg from me?"

"You never wanted to give me one," she said, lifting her head a little. "I would not wish to burden my only...well, you."

Was she going to say I was her only friend? For a moment I felt sorry for her, but then it occurred to me...how many friends did I have? Lenira was long gone, and I had not seen Korvarak since he went to claim his own territory. It had been even longer since I'd seen my parents, or my sister. I sometimes wondered about them, missed them as I sometimes missed Lenira.

Feeling alone was a strange thing for me to think about. Until Lenira I'd never much cared if I had friends. I'd always enjoyed my simple life of hunting and sleeping and extorting tolls in treasures that held little real value to me, and coin I'd never spend. Now, though, sometimes I missed having something...more. There were times at night I woke, found my home empty, and felt lonely. I denied those times to myself whenever possible.

"Nothing you do would be a burden, Kylaryn." I stepped towards her, and this time she did not step away. A few more steps, and I had reached her. I gently nuzzled the side of her neck, and closed my eyes. She murmured ever so faintly, and as I pulled my head back I gently licked her ear. "Why are you really here, Kylaryn?"

She pulled her head back a little, and I saw an empty hole in her eyes that strangely mirrored what I imagined she saw in mine. "I am weary, Valyrym. I miss the clan, I miss you, I miss..." She trailed off a little. I was not sure if she was going to say her family, or if in her long time elsewhere she had perhaps taken a mate, only to lose him, as well. She took a breath, and pressed her muzzle to my cheek. "I am weary of being alone, Valyrym. You were always my friend. If you do not wish me in your lands, I will leave, but I wanted to tell you that."

"I wish you to stay," I said, reaching out to stroke her neck with a paw.

A smile came to her muzzle for only a moment, like a flickering ghost. "I would like that." She spread her wings again as if preparing to return to the skies, perhaps worried about the scent of her heat. "I should leave you, for now..."

I stretched my neck forward, and pressed my muzzle to her throat. My nostrils flared as I inhaled deeply. Her scent was as I remembered it, rich forests and sweet spice. The scent, and the thought of thrusting myself deeply into her already had me stirring in my sheath. I licked at her throat gently, teasingly, and she whimpered softly. She lifted a paw to push my muzzle away, so I licked at her fingers, instead.

"The last time you smelled like this, you rolled about in my bedding."

The memory made her laugh. "I'd forgotten that. I had...hoped you might seek me out."

"You should have stayed, then." I slid my tongue across a single finger's pad.

"I was...uncertain." She dropped her paw from my muzzle.

"So was I." I licked her throat again, and began to purr to her, inching forward.

She murmured a little bit, her long blue tail waving behind her. Some of the fire I remembered living in her eyes all those years ago began to creep back in, and I could hear it in her voice. "I bet you were hard for a week."

Oh? Starting to like her, are you Alia? Why am I not surprised. Val Junior, when the time comes, you should find yourself a sweet girl instead of a sarcastic tease. Yes, unlike Kylaryn, and unlike Alia. Alright, Alia, don't slap me there. ...And if you'd stop interrupting me, my story would not take so long.

"I think I was hard for two weeks, actually," I admitted to Kylaryn, licking her chin. My tool was quite thick in my sheath now, and pushing itself free.

"Aww, poor male," Kylaryn said with a laugh. She leaned her head down to nibble at one of my ears. I shivered in pleasure. "All your human girls couldn't satisfy you, hmm?"

That cut a little too closely to the bone. Though Kylaryn had no way to know it. "They did their best. No sooner had they satisfied one urge then I'd end up out of my sheath again."

"Dirty male," Kylaryn sneered playfully, licking all around one of my horns.

"Your fault," I replied.

"Proud of it, too," Kylaryn said, her voice growing throatier, her scent stronger as arousal took hold of her just as it had me. She pulled her head back, and then walked alongside me. Kylaryn brushed her body slowly against mine, teasing me with the feel of her scales and wings against my own. She ducked her head, and I could feel the softness of her nose brushing the scales of my lower belly. "Your red friend has missed me, I see."

Kylaryn pushed her cute little snout further under my belly, and began to lap at my most sensitive parts. It had been ages since I'd felt a female's attentions there. Kylaryn had always been good with her tongue, ever since the first time we'd experimented with each other's bodies. Gods, had the first release of my seed ever startled her though.

Yes, Alia, I know you can relate. Now, what did I tell you about interruptions? You know poor Val Junior is just aching to hear all the sordid details.

With her snout beneath my belly, the dragoness swirled her tongue around my tapered tip, coaxing me further from my sheath. She lifted a front paw and took my balls into her grasp, lazily rolling them around against her pads while licking my shaft. I groaned in pleasure as she worked her tongue down my length, and over my newly emerging ridges.

Her paw moved as she began to lap at my balls and stir them with her tongue. Her short horns bumped and brushed my belly, nudged my erection. She murmured playfully to me, and soon sucked my eggs into her snout. I gasped in delight as they were surrounded with wet heat. Her velvet tongue washed over them, circling them a few times. By now I was very erect, my tapered tip lightly brushing my belly scales now and then at the peek of my arousal.

I turned myself a little, curling my own neck towards her hind quarters. I nipped at the base of her tail. Kylaryn tucked it to the side, and spread her hind legs a little for me to present her sex. It was a beautiful thing, pink, glistening and nestled between her pale blue hind legs. The lightly pink lips that surrounded it were plump and swollen, nearly purple-hued with arousal. I pressed my snout to her folds, inhaling her heat-sweetened scent. She moaned, and pressed her hind end back against my nose, her scaled thighs brushing my muzzle as I began to lap at her.

Over and over I licked her sex, my tongue a never ending velvet caress, a hot bath of pleasure for her. At the time, I knew far less about the subtleties of pleasuring a female than I would later in life. I knew the basics, though, and Kylaryn did not see fit to complain. I found the nub of her clit, and swirled my tongue around it time and again, relishing the sounds of her moans. She let my balls hang free once more, alternatively lapping at my stones and my cock, though she did not take me into her muzzle. She wanted me to spend my seed elsewhere.

I let my tongue roam deeper inside her, tasting her sweetness. I rolled it around in her a while, then returned to lapping at her folds, dipping my tongue inside her and sliding it across her clit again. She pulled her head away from me, and took a step forward. I followed her, licking at her sex again, and she took another step. I moved after her once more, my erection bobbling beneath me.

Turning her head back to watch me, she dropped her chest down to the wet grass, and hoisted her hind end even higher into the air. She waved it a little, then tucked her tail to the side, offering her swollen sex as clearly as she could. The waves of silver rain washed across her body, made her look slick. Her scales shone like polished sapphires. She remained that way, looking strong and beautiful, silently coaxing me to do what all dragons eventually felt the urge to accomplish.

I moved up behind her, pressing my chest to her haunches. With growing urgency, I began to climb atop her back. I was far from a virgin, but I had never mated a female while she was truly receptive before. Always for pleasure, never for true love or for reproduction. Now that I was mounting a female in the throes of her cycle, I found myself more overwhelmed by instincts and urges than usual. It was all I could do to prevent myself from simply thrusting wildly at her hind end like some overeager youngling before I'd even positioned myself.

Given the way she was quickly pressing her blue scaled body against my black one, instincts must have been just as powerful for her. Our bodies were made slick by the rain, but between our scales, claws, and teeth we had no trouble keep holding of each other. I grasped her tightly, just along the front of her hind legs, where they met her body, pressing my back to her own. She lowered her wings to keep them out of the way, and I felt the tip of my mating tool sliding against the scales of her inner thigh. She whined in need, working herself back against me, and soon I felt soft, wet heat against my most sensitive flesh.

I completed our union, and thrust myself as deeply inside her as I could. She cried out, and so did I. I rolled my hips a little more, burying myself up to my balls in her wondrous heat. It had been ages since I'd truly mated. I had almost forgotten just how slick and hot and tight it was to mount a female. Her sex squeezed me like a velvet press, clutching at me and kissing me with bliss on all sides at once. For a moment, I simply held myself inside her, relishing the feeling of overwhelming warmth.

Then, instincts grabbed me by the balls. I began to thrust, and for long moments all I wanted to do was release my seed. Like the wild beasts we so closely resembled, we rutted in the rain in the most primal way possible. I lowered my head and bit down on the back of her neck, drawing blood. She gasped and submissively lowered her head towards the ground, leaving my teeth in her sky blue neck.

I worked my hips, pumping wildly into her again and again. My shaft was a crimson spear, driven inside her blue body only to return to the outside world once more. I plunged into her over and over, my raised ridges dragging her outer lips back and forth a little, and grinding against her clit. She thrust back against me, matching each push I made with one of her own. My balls smacked rhythmically against her, the sound heard even over the rushing hiss of the steady rain.

The sounds of our pleasure rose and rose. Each thrust I made sent another wave of increasingly intense bliss through her body, and added to the steadily growing pleasure I felt. My early thrusts elicited cute little grunts from her, but as our mating continued those noises grew into sharper cries of delight. My own sounds of pleasure were far more feral yet muffled by the scales of her neck. With my teeth, I held her possessively while doing my deed, my part to continue our race.

For long minutes we continued. I rammed myself into her over and over, she was so hot, so slick and tight around me. Each time I pulled myself back partway, it felt as though her deep walls were tugging at me, trying to keep me inside her. And when I thrust back in, the feeling of my pointed tip parting her and gliding deep inside all over again was pure, indescribable delight. Now and then I released her neck just so I could moan my pleasure for a few thrusts and lick the small bloodied marks I'd made. Her body's hot, never-ending embrace around my most sensitive of all flesh was even more intensely blissful than I could ever remember it.

As I ploughed her, she pawed at the earth, beat her wings at her sides now and then. Little spurts of pre-seed ensured I was filling her with liquid heat of my own even before my release. Not that we needed any extra slickness to our union as she herself was dripping with arousal. I dug my claws in more tightly against her hind legs, let my ebony belly scales slide against her back. Her tail found my own, twining lengths of sinuous blue and black. My hind claws tore ruts in the grass where I pressed them deeper for purchase.

Soon as my thrusts grew even harder I was lifting her rump a little at the end of every push I made. Had we been mating slowly, or with deep but gentle passion I would have held out for quite some time. Or, so I'd like to think. Instead we were like animals, and driving myself into her so swiftly in this position ensured my pleasure and stimulation were at the maximum right from the very beginning.

I began to feel my bliss building steadily. I wanted to hold out, I wanted to take my time, but instincts demanded I fill her with seed. I tensed up, felt my balls tightening as I neared my release. I gave up the foolish idea of trying to fight off my impending release, and instead, embraced it. I rammed myself into her a few final times, and threw back my head with an earth shaking roar as I came. Buried in her as deeply as I could, my balls tightened as my cock pulsed. Waves of overwhelming ecstasy exploded through my body. Releasing my seed inside a female dragon for the first time in years was almost too intense to bear. My hips twitched and rocked, my wings beat the air in separate directions, and my unsheathed claws drew blood from her hind legs.

Kylraryn cried out with me, working herself back against my shaft. Inundated with sensation I found myself driving my tool in and out of her a few more times, frantically pumping as she came with me. Her heat cycle spurred her body towards orgasm as well when my heat filled her, encouraging her to milk me for as much as she could. Thick, full bursts of rich dragon seed erupted deep inside her, filling her with liquid life. As seed exploded within her sex, seeking her womb, her velvet walls contracted around me, caressing and squeezing me as if desperate for more.

I gave her all I had to give, till some of my seed had leaked out and dribbled down her scaly thighs. Finally I collapsed against her back, groaning and panting. Her hind legs wobbled, and slowly gave out. As her hind end slumped down towards the grass, I slumped down with her, laying against her back and still awkwardly buried inside her. As I sought to catch my breath, I began to lick at the back of her neck. She moaned, and purred, and twisted her head around. I pushed mine forward to meet her, and as my seed took hold deep within her womb, we pressed our muzzles together.

Dragons did not kiss often, even during mating. It was not entirely a foreign act to us, but it was one shared more often among those who wished to spend their lives together than those who simply enjoyed each other's company and bodies. Still, at the moment it seemed a fitting end to our pleasure. Our muzzles parted, and gently pressed together, tongues exploring one another. I stroked her neck, and gently sucked at her tongue a little before I finally pulled my head back. I nuzzled at her scales with my nose.

When I began to soften, I slowly eased myself from her confines and climbed off her back. She glanced back at me, smirking. "About time. You're heavy, you know."

"It's my balls," I said, grinning. I eased myself down onto my side next to her. "They weigh a ton."

"Not any more they don't," Kylaryn said giggling.

Yes, Alia, you're right. It was probably my ego that weighed so much.

I laughed with Kylaryn, and soon she cuddled up against my body. She lay against me, purring softly to herself. I licked her nose a few times, and when she lay her head down against my front paws, I smiled down at her. Part of me had missed her. I lay my head down near hers as we let the rain wash the stains of mating from our bodies. I felt satisfied in a strange new way. I had mated plenty of times in the past, including quite a few times with Kylaryn in our inexperienced youth. Yet this time, it was different.

This time I created life.

I had no way of knowing how long we would be together after this. I had trouble imagining us as life long mates, we were simply to often opposed. And yet, the thought of spending years of my life raising a hatchling with her was not at all unappealing. It was a common enough arrangement among many dragons. Between our egos, our pride, and our sometimes solitary natures there were many dragons who never took a life-mate. That did not mean that they did not care about anyone else, or that they did not love any children they might have had. We were just...different, from humans. Some of us more so than others. Outside of our scattered clans, many dragons did not stay with a mate longer than they needed to in order to raise their young. Some dragons did not stay together even that long.

It wasn't that I did not want a mate I would love my entire life. My parents had that, as did many of the dragons in my old clan. I just wasn't sure Kylaryn would be it. Yet she was going to be the mother of my child and I had no regrets whatsoever about that. She was a fine female, strong, clever and ever so fast. I was sure she would make an excellent mother to a hatchling. I was less sure about my ability to be a suitable father, but one step at a time I supposed.

For the time being, though, none of those things mattered. Kylaryn would have an egg growing inside her now, and she would need my support. Even if we parted ways when our child was grown or take turns caring for our youngling, we would be together a few years at the least. I found I rather liked that idea. For a time, it would fill the hole I was still grappling with years after Lenira had passed.

"I missed you," I said softly, licking Kylaryn's cheek.

She smiled and pressed her pebbly blue scaled snout against mine. "I missed you too, Valyrym. But you're still an ass."

I laughed, and curled myself around her, and the new life we'd made together. For the first time since Lenira passed, I felt truly happy.

---

Chapter Six

---

I invited Kylaryn to stay with me. Perhaps that seems obvious, but to some more territorial and solitary dragons, not even impregnation was enough to cause them to live with each other. And given our history together and the likelihood that at some point we were going to fight and drive each other crazy, I also showed her how to reach Korvarak's old home. I had promised him that it would be there for him if he ever wished to use it, but the situation had changed. He had taken most of his own possessions already, but left behind a few furs and bits of bedding. I told Kylaryn that should I drive her absolutely mad, or should she simply need a few days or months to herself she was welcome to stay there, instead. I assured her it would not hurt my feelings any.

Kylaryn thought that an excellent idea. Kylaryn, like myself, had no false expectations that having a hatchling together would suddenly make us the best of friends forever, or patch up all the spats and rivalries we'd had in the past. I was glad to hear it, because should things sour again between us, I did not want her to leave thinking it was her fault somehow. And, should we end up fighting or competing so intensely we made each other furious, I wanted her to have somewhere to go and cool down so that we might later be friends again.

It was a strange relationship, and probably seems all the stranger to a human. Yet it was the way things had always been for us. We are, after all, dragons, and cannot be expected to maintain relationships and friendships in exactly the same way as other creatures. To be honest, sometimes I'm even confused by my own species. But for the time being, we were quite happy together.

Korvarak's home was a good deal smaller than my own, but had the benefit of being quite near several other caverns which could easily serve as separate chambers. Kylaryn tidied Korvarak's place up a little bit, assembling the scattered remains of his bedding. When she was done she pressed me against it and mated me again. Wicked thing, she wanted our scents to be mingling there should Korvarak return. Though I felt a little guilty over such a prank, I certainly did not resist her advances.

I made it clear to Kylaryn that if she was going to stay with me, in my lands, she would have to do as I did. That is, she would have to help me protect the humans. With Korvarak tending his own lands now it would be nice to have someone else to help me keep watch over my road, and patrol the skies above the villages in my realm. I also wanted to ensure that all the humans knew she was now their friend, rather than their enemy. It had been many years since she'd raided any of the villages, but I did not want to take any chances.

One by one I took Kylaryn to each of the villages, and when they gathered to hear what the dragons had to say, I made her apologize for any harm she had caused. I also made her swear to them that she would protect them rather than steal from them from now on. I also let it be known in each village that she carried my egg, just to help ensure a little extra respect.

Kylaryn did not share my appreciation and concern for the humans. I could not blame her. After all, it was humans who took her parents from her when they attacked our clan. I had learned some of the details from her, but had not pressed her too hard. Apparently they had sent quite a force of armored men, with banners of blue and gray. I imagined they thought themselves a heroic army, marching on the nest of evil beasts. Fools.

Yes, Alia, you know those colors well.

They had slain quite a few dragons. Kylaryn thought they'd taken a few alive, and I shudder to think what fate might have befallen them. My family was lucky enough to have fled as a unit. Dragons do not like to flee, and will usually only do so in the face of overwhelming odds, or when it becomes clear we cannot win. Pride demands we stay and fight any other time, but self-preservation is a powerful thing, even for a dragon. Kylaryn's mother and father were both slain, and from what I could piece together they had died to ensure Kylaryn and her brother escaped alive. They'd been separated and Kylaryn was still unsure of her sibling's fate.

I felt lucky in a way that I had never seen a dragon slain by a human. It must have been a terrible thing to witness. Dragons were not easy creatures to kill, and though even a single human could slay a dragon with a bit of luck or a lot of skill, it was rarely a quick death outside of perhaps an arrow directly through the eye and into the brain. But most of the time, to a slay a dragon a human had to inflict enough damage on vital organs to bring the beast down, or wound him so grievously he slowly bled out. With all our armor those were not easy things to do, and a dragon's death at the hands of humans was usually a slow, agonizing thing. Kylaryn had witnessed her parents fate, I was certain. She hadn't said as much to me, and I never expected her to. But when she occasionally spoke of the attacks, I could see agonized ghosts flickering behind her silvery eyes.

When we visited the villages, Kylaryn was always tense around the humans. Even when they tried to treat her with kindness, she was hesitant to accept it, and had little to say to them. She thought me a fool for wanting to protect them. She told me that if I was not careful, one day I would be the one they came to slay. I did what I could to tell her that these humans were different. I even told her about Lenira. In Kylaryn's view, that merely made Lenira the exception to the rule, though she did not chide me when I placed apples upon her grave at the end of our visit.

Despite her hesitancy, Kylaryn upheld her end of the bargain. She helped me protect the villages and the road that wound through the wild vale between the rolling hills and the rugged mountains. I think she enjoyed herself when she got to slay humans. She was not the sort to ever let a bandit escape, even if he pled for his life. It made me wonder if Kylaryn only lived because her own parents had once pleaded for their daughter's life.

As the months passed, our child began to show inside Kylaryn. Female dragons carried the eggs until they were developed enough to be laid and survive outside the womb. While I had heard stories about dragons laying entire clutches of eggs like true lizards, to the best of my knowledge that did not occur. At least among my breed it did not. Perhaps there were other types of dragons somewhere in the world who did lay multiple eggs per mating. I was hardly an expert on my own species, after all. But I did know that among my kind it was usually just a single egg. Once in a while a female might lay two and three was quite rare, but not entirely unheard of. Both Kylaryn and myself had a sibling, I was the elder brother, and Kylaryn the younger sister.

When they egg arrived, we kept it nestled inside the warmest furs and blankets of my cavern. Laying it was not a pleasant process for Kylaryn though it was no where near as painful or arduous as giving birth was for a human. I imagine she was thankful for that. The egg did not need to be kept heated or anything, but it did need to stay relatively warm. Like humans, dragons were warm-blooded creatures and as long as the egg was kept safe and warm, the life growing within it would be fine.

For a time, our egg was the centerpiece of our bed. We kept all the blankets and things piled against it, and slept with our bodies curled around it. The egg itself was a creamy gray color, blotched with darker black, blue and gray flecks as if our own colorations had been incorporated into the development of its shell. Once in a while we saw the egg move and twitch, as though the child growing within it was eager to escape his confines and greet the world.

As we awaited the inevitable day our child would hatch, I finally decided to clean up my home again. Kylaryn was nearly as messy as I was, tossing her own trophies and belongings around everywhere. Yet she was the one insisting I tidy things up before our child was around to stumble over whatever I'd left laying about. I suggested, falsely, that the mess was her fault because it had been perfectly clean before she'd moved in and strewn her possessions about. She suggested, not so falsely, that she would squeeze my testicles for a while if I kept it up. I had the cavern clean by the end of the day.

Yes, I thought you like that Alia. What? No, I certainly do not think you should use that tactic to get me to wash my bedding.

The day came when our egg began to shake and rock violently, and we knew it was time. If I believed in things such as fate and poetic nature, I might have been intrigued that it was pouring down outside the day our child hatched. Yet it did not strike me that way. Rather it was simply a fact that in the time it took a dragon's egg to develop to develop and be ready to hatch, the seasons would always roll on in a symmetrical number. An egg conceived in the rainy autumn would eventually hatch in another rainy autumn.

Kylaryn and I placed the egg down on a soft blanket, away from the rest of the pile, and let out child work to free himself. Sections of gray shell bulged and cracked as the egg rocked back and forth. With sudden, violent force, a single tiny front paw thrust through the shell, flexing in the air as if grasping at invisible handholds. The paw was glistening and wet, the tiny scales dark blue across the fingers and fading to black towards his wrist. Amniotic fluid dribbled down the egg from the ruptured area. The egg rocked a little more, bulging again here and there, more cracks spreading across its surface like myriad cobwebs.

I reached towards the egg, ready to peel the shell away myself, but Kylaryn caught my paw. She shook her head at me. "Not yet. Let him do it himself. You'll know if he needs help."

I pulled my paw back. Even among dragons, there was no use arguing with a mother. She was right and I knew it, I was just eager to see him. I had to assume she was right about his gender as by that point I had no reason to doubt her. Somehow it seemed mothers just knew these things.

"Come on, Little One," I said to the egg as if I thought he could actually understand me already. "Come and greet the world."

It must have worked, because the egg toppled over onto its side. The end of it suddenly distended violently till it popped open, and a tiny dragon's head exploded through the end of the shell, scattering fragments and sticky liquid here and there. Hatchling dragons did not have egg teeth at the end of their snouts the way some lizards did. Instead, a hatchling dragon used his horns to help break through the shell. Though a hatchling's horns were little more than hardened nubs, they certainly did the trick.

My heart leapt when I saw his head emerge. That moment is etched forever in my memory now as the single most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The day my son came into the world, and drew his first breath. It was a nearly chocked gasp, spurred by sheer instinct. His little head was black, like mine, with a hint of blue at the tip of his blunt little hatchling muzzle. As he took his first breath of the world's air, he struggled mightily to try and convince his other limbs to join the first paw he'd shoved through the shell.

His limbs were obviously listening, because the rest of them exploded so violently that the rest of the shell cracked into several large pieces. He shook himself and the shell fell away, leaving a tiny, wet, black and blue dragon sprawled in the midst of its gooey, gray rubble. The rest of the amniotic fluid and what was left of the yolk sac that had nourished him throughout his development soaked the blanket. The little dragon's legs were still stretched out as though he hadn't realized he'd succeeded in breaking his shell.

Then all at once he tried to rise. Much as prey creatures can walk right after they're born, and true reptiles the same from the moment they hatch, so too can dragons. Or, at least they can attempt it. Operating on instincts, the hatchling pushed himself to his feet. He stood upon his paws a moment, wobbling. His wings shifted and moved independent of the rest of him with one hanging awkwardly at his side and the other folding itself against him.

He craned his tiny little triangular head back and peered up at Kylaryn and I.

"Hello, Little One," I said to him, barely able to speak through the swelling lump in my long throat.

"BLAAAAAPP!" He yelled back at me before promptly flopping onto his belly amongst the shattered egg shell. He turned his head to peer back at his own legs as if startled by the fact they'd decided to fold up beneath him. No sooner was he looking back at himself then he began to pee all over the blanket we'd set him on. His tiny eyes went wide as if he couldn't believe what he was doing any more than we could.

I went to pick him up and Kylaryn swatted my paws, laughing. "Oh, let him finish," she said, her own voice hoarse with joyful pride, and laughter. "Better he soaks the blanket than you. It's already got egg fluid all over it."

It was hardly an unusual thing for a freshly hatched dragon to do. After all a hatchling's organs finish developing just before he hatches. They'd had a little time to begin filtering all the liquid that he ingested and breathed while inside the egg. Nonetheless, it struck me as funny at the time. Quite an entrance to the world when your first act was to blurt out nonsense and pee everywhere.

What do you mean that sounds like me in the morning? Oh, mount yourself, Alia.

As I laughed at the antics of my freshly hatched son, the rumbling noise drew his attention away from his own body and up to the much larger black dragon towering above him. Kylaryn lowered herself while the hatchling stared at me. She began to lick the little one's head, cleaning his face and neck to wash away the amniotic fluid already drying upon his scales. He twisted and mewled and was soon leaning into his mother's tongue, a tiny hatchling purr burbling up his throat. While my own purr sounded like stones tumbling around inside a barrel, a hatchling's purr was closer to the sound humans would be familiar with. Still rumbling bit in a much higher pitch, and in more steady succession.

Given that he was now wet with more than just the fluid of his egg, we took him out into the silver rain to clean him. I ever so gently took him by the back of his neck in my jaws, and he hung there like a wide-eyed kitten as I carried him towards the exit of my cavern, his wings hanging limply along his body. I set him down just outside the cave, in a patch of wet grass where the rains would wash over him.

As soon as the raindrops hit him he yelped in alarm, flopped onto his side, and began to thrash about. Kylaryn and I both burst out laughing. He looked as though he didn't know if he was supposed to love or hate the feeling of rain pelting his fresh young scales, and so he simply had a indecision induced seizure. He wriggled and rolled about, kicking his hind paws and waving his front paws. He flared one wing, and kept the other tight, then switched their positions. Finally, he tried to stand up. It took a few attempts, and when he was finally steady on his feet all he did was walk in a circle before flopping over. Back on the ground he rolled back and forth, getting nice and soaked across every part of his body.

"Nice of him to wash himself for us," Kylaryn said, giggling to herself.

I smiled at her, and pressed my head against her neck. She purred a little, stroking my front leg. "He's beautiful, Kylaryn."

"He's gorgeous," she said in agreement.

And he was. He'd definitely taken more of my black coloration than he had his mother's blue, though the blue highlights he did have were striking, slightly similar to my own but larger in coverage. Each of his paws was at least partly blue, and none them were evenly colored with others. His left front paw was entirely blue all the way up past his wrist, while his right front paw had only blue fingers. His hind paws where the same way, one of them was blue across only his toes and half the rest of his paw, while the other had blue coloration that stretched partway up his hind leg. It looked as though he had blue gloves on two paws, and mismatched blue socks on the other two. His tail tip was also blue, as was the end of his nose, and he had blue speckles across his body, and larger blue splotches over his wings.

For a time, we just watched him play in the rain. It seemed a good way for him to get his footing. If he could learn to walk on the slippery grass, surely he'd have good balance throughout his life. After a little while, he stumbled over to us, butting himself up against both of us in turn, chirping and mewling. He was clean enough by now, and we did not want him to catch a chill in the rain, so we carried him back inside. This time Kylaryn took him in her jaws and brought him back to the bed of furs and blankets.

While Kylaryn worked to dry him off, I took the blanket he'd hatched upon and set it outside so the rains would wash it for me. I brought a small bowl outside as well, and let the rain fill it so he'd have water to drink. I set the bowl near the bed of furs, and then went to get him some food. Hatchlings did not require special food the way young mammals needed milk. If he was coordinated enough he could even hunt for himself, though that was a ways off. We had the remains of a fresh kill that morning I'd brought back for Kylaryn to eat while she watched over the egg. I tore strips of meat from the caress of the deer and brought them over to set them near the water bowl.

Though Kylaryn was still trying to dry him off, the scents of relatively fresh, bloodied venison proved too much for a hatchling's short attention span. Instincts took over once more, and sniffing around, he waddled over towards the food and water, and began to seek out the source of the scents that made his belly rumble. He wasn't yet sure how to eat, which was quite amusing in its own way. He tried to gulp down an entire strip of venison that was nearly as long as his leg, and couldn't quite figure out how to do it. Afraid he might choke, I had to take it away from him. He mewled and yapped and yowled while I cut it up, until he realized there were three more strips laying on the ground. Quickly he began to try and eat one of those. Kylaryn finally picked him up and held the squirming dragon until I'd finished dicing up all the meat with my claws into tiny hatchling sized portions.

From there he was able to gobble up the meat on his own, one little tidbit at a time. He was a messy eater, smacking his jaws and getting as much of the meat and blood on his muzzle as inside his body, but what else was to be expected. When he had eaten it all, Kylaryn and I both licked his snout clean, and showed him to the water.

No, Alia, I do not need someone to lick my snout clean for me after I eat.

It took my son a bit more work to learn to drink than it took him to learn to eat. For his first attempt he tried to simply shove his whole muzzle into the bowl of water. But the cool wetness startled him so badly he yelped, yanked his head back and lashed out at the bowl with a paw as if it had bitten him. He toppled the bowl over, spilled the water on the floor, and then happily splashed around in it, chirping and giggling to himself.

I fetched fresh water, and tried to show him how to drink it. After a few attempts to emulate me, he finally found a balance between pressing his snout to the water's surface and letting his tongue do most of the work. When his thirst was quenched, we led him back towards the bed of soft things, and soon he had flopped down atop it for a nap. Kylaryn and I curled around him, soon dozing off as well.

Though I knew Kylaryn and I might never truly love each other, the same was not true of my son. I knew from the moment I first saw him that I loved him with all I had to offer. At that moment I loved my son more than anything else in this world.

---

Chapter Seven

---

We named him Valaranyx. It was in part a combination of my name and Kylaryn's. Val was a common enough surname among male dragons. My father was called Valskyr. As he had given me his own surname, it only felt proper to pass it onwards to my son. Ironically, Val could be roughly translated to mean "sky". Though, "yrym" on its own certainly did not mean dread. Or anything at all, as far as I knew. It was not uncommon to name a male dragon after the sky, and bits and pieces of names were often passed down and combined to create new names. Val, from my name, Laran, which sounded much like Laryn, from Kylaryn's name, and the yx? ...Well, we both simply liked the sound of it.

It only took Valaranyx a day or two to get his paws under himself well enough to make as much trouble as possible. No sooner had he begun walk without wobbling than he'd also begun to run, jump, and climb. It would be a long time before he could fly but given the way he managed to clamber up onto anything and everything he could he may as well have been using his wings.

I had quite a few things stacked up along the walls of my home from book shelves to crates that once bore tributes and now served as storage, a battered old suit of armor, and even an empty, and rather dilapidated carriage. Why I'd kept it I could scarcely recall. I think I'd found its occupants slain, and after slaying those responsible, I decided to keep the carriage as a trophy. It made a good play area for Valar. Aside from the fact that when he was inside it and didn't want to come out it was hard for us to go in and get him.

Yes, Alia, come to think of it I suppose I have someone worked to make my current sleeping chamber resemble my old one. Had to do something with it, after all.

I tried to keep Valaranyx from climbing too high atop anything, afraid he'd jump or fall off and hurt himself. I spread things out to try and make them harder for him to climb upon. Yet he always seemed to find a way atop a book case or climbed all the way up to the top of the carriage. Luckily, even at a young age he seemed to have inherited his mothers agility. Unluckily he'd also inherited her speed and made quite the game of dashing around our home whether we liked it or not. Inevitably that ended with something being knocked down, and Valaranyx playing with the debris of whatever he'd just spilled or broken.

Gradually we expanded his boundaries. We began to take him outside the cavern more often, and let him climb upon and play among the many rocks and boulders that marked the rugged hillside below my cavern. The trail that lead to my home always seemed to be of particular interest to him, and sometimes he simply followed it as far as we'd let him with his nose to the ground. Being so young and having seen so little of the world, each new scent must have been an amazing experience. I imagined the lingering scents of the many humans who had once brought me tribute here were particularly fascinating to him.

Soon we began to take him flying. Valaranyx loved to fly with us. I clearly remembered the first time my own parents took me flying with them, it was one of the highpoints of my childhood. For years I'd seen them flying and dancing in the sky with each other, but I'd never been able to see the world from above until the day they first took turns clutching me to their chests and leaping into the sky. Looking back, I realized that meant I was much older then Valaranyx when my parents first flew with me. Perhaps they thought it safer that way. But Valaranyx was my son, and I would fly with him whenever I wished.

We first took him flying when he was a few months old. We wanted him to taste fresh meat, and so we took him hunting. That is, we took him to a soft, grassy hill and let him romp around while one of us went to catch a deer. He squealed in delight for the entire flight to the hill. At least, I hope it was delight. I'm pretty sure it wasn't terror because from that point on he always seemed to want to fly with us. When we brought him the still bleeding deer that day, he ravenously devoured it. Which is to say, he gnashed his teeth against the bloodied meat in the least threatening display of voracious hatchling hunger I could imagine, before promptly sprawling out over the warm venison carcass for a nap.

Yes, Alia, he was very adorable.

Though it would be a little while yet before Valaranyx grasped the concept of speech, and a little while longer until his muzzle, tongue and throat had developed enough to let him speak clearly, I made a point to talk to him in multiple languages. I talked most often in draconic, of course, but I also spoke to him frequently in the common human tongue used throughout my lands, and now and then in a second human language I also knew. Kylaryn did not appreciate me speaking to him in the language of her family's murderers, but she did not ask me to stop, either.

Even Kylaryn had to admit, it was wise for him to be able to speak with humans.

I had learned the languages the same way. My parents knew multiple languages, and throughout the years I spent growing from an energetic hatchling to an adolescent preoccupied with trying to get under female tail, they spoke to me in every language they knew until I could speak them all as easily as I spoke draconic. My family were not the only dragons in the clan to do such a thing, though they were in the minority. It was the belief of my parents that given how badly the humans had come to outnumber us, it was only prudent we learn to speak their tongue. If I was ever forced to bargain with humans for my life they wanted to succeed.

Thankfully, things had not turned out that way, though I had certainly put my knowledge of human languages to good use. Now, I wanted to ensure my own son would be able to do the same. Not that I expected him to stay in this part of the realm and make deals of his own with the same villages I had. But should he ever wish or need to converse with humans, I wanted him ready.

To that end, and because I was so proud of him, I took him around to show him off to all the human villages. After all, they'd all known that Kylaryn and I had a child on the way, but I'd scarcely returned since I made her apologize. I decided to save the Village of the Sigil Stones for last, as it always held a special place in my heart, and I was going to take Valaranyx to Lenira's grave. After that I doubted I'd want to visit any other village.

Villages. As I visited the places I once considered myself ruler of, I realized that was hardly a fitting descriptor any more. The six primary villages had grown and grown in the time I'd kept myself away from them. I suppose it was only to be expected. In the time it took me to meet Lenira and eventually lose her, several generations of new humans had been born, and the villages expanded year by year, decade by decade. Since then I had paid little attention to the changes that had taken place, even when I brought Kylaryn there. Now though, as I took my son around to show him off, it was impossible to miss how they'd all grown.

The smallest three of the original six villages were now sizable towns in their own rights, and the larger three were now bustling cities, at least to my estimation. And there were at least three or four other smaller villages that had only sprung up in the last few decades or so. I visited the three smaller cities first, and was rather surprised to find such an enthusiastic reaction to my son. Apparently none of the humans had ever actually seen a baby dragon before.

I even heard some foolish rumor floating around that we all sprang from holes in the ground spawned by ancient magic. What nonsense. I wasn't sure who'd said it, but I called out, and asked them if that was true then why did male dragons have balls? And for that matter, what good did it do us to have genders at all if we were simply spawned by some kind of wicked spirit? Someone rather meekly responded that, perhaps we could still "do it" just for fun.

He was right about that at least. But we also reproduced that way, just like any of other creature of the world. The main difference being that as we lived longer than they did, our life cycles took longer to complete. I told him all that, when I'd figured out which man in the crowd was making such foolish claims. I also told him, here was my son as proof, now shut the hell up.

Valaranyx was terrified by the gathering crowd at first, and I thought I'd made a horrible mistake bringing him to a human town. If anything, though, his temporary fear seemed to endear him to the crowd. The first few brave souls who ventured closer to me at my invitation cooed to him as they might an injured puppy. I allowed them to touch him so long as they were gentle, though I made no promises he would not bite them. For a few minutes, Valaranyx trembled against me, whimpering and pawing at my chest, and I held him near to my body. I whispered to him, told him he was safe, and that the humans wouldn't hurt him. Soon enough, between my encouragement, and the human's coos and gentle touch he began to relax.

Only a short time later and Valaranyx twisted in my grasp, pawing at the ground below. I didn't want to put him down at first, but he turned his head towards me and began to yowl his frustration. "BRRRAAAAAAAHH!"

The message was clear. Father, you're an idiot! Can't you see when I stretch my paws towards the earth it means I wish to be put down? I want to go and greet all these people, I'm clearly their favorite thing in the whole world!

At least, I hoped that was the message because I soon set him down. I was ready to snatch him back up though, if the meaning of his angry trumpeting cry turned out to be something more along the lines of,Father, put me down! I want to bite people!

Thankfully, with his newfound courage also came a newfound desire to be sociable. I had taken him to the central plaza of the village and people had gathered around us. Once I set him down he ran all around the place, running up to anyone he could to sniff at their boots and pants, and let them pet him if he wished. Now and then he chirped and trumpeted or stumbled and flopped onto his belly. Sometimes he rolled around on his back as if he had a great itch he couldn't quite scratch. In general, he simply won the people over just by acting like the hatchling he was.

After that, he was eager to run around among the people at each village I took him to. He seemed to like humans, but then again I could not think of much a hatchling wouldn't like. Like the children of any other race, dragon hatchlings were as playful and fearless as could be until they were given reason to fear something. I knew in my heart I would have to tell him someday that not all humans were safe, but I simply couldn't bring myself to do it yet. I wish I had.

Seeing how happy he was just to bound around and playfully attack people or to let them stroke his neck and his back as they offered him treats made me which Kylaryn had come with me. She did not like the idea of me introducing him to the villages, though she wasn't going to disagree with anything that might make him safer in the long run. Beyond the protection of Kylaryn and I, there was nothing I could think of to make him safer than to ensure all the local humans considered him a friend. I had made myself their friend by bartered alliance. But Valaranyx? I wanted them to decide to protect_him._

I did not blame Kylaryn for staying behind while I went to each of the villages. Given how uncomfortable she was around large groups of humans, it was possible her protective instincts might kick in. If she thought any of the humans were going to pose a threat to her son, she'd probably lash out first and never even consider asking questions. It might have been a dangerous situation to put her in, and an unfair one at that.

By the time I visited the last of the cities in my realm, I was increasingly impressed with their size. I had never been to any truly massive city, but the Village of the Sigil Stones was certainly now the largest that I had ever seen up close. It had grown and developed like a living thing, gradually expanding across the surrounding hills and over the rivers that flowed through the area. Bridges now spanned the valleys and gulches around it, homes and streets marked a number of large hills that had once been little more than grass and stone. Now the city itself rose and fell on those same slopes. The wall that once surrounded the village with sharp pointed logs was now a much more impressive thing, built with sections of large, flat stones all stacked together, complete with retractable iron gateways.

Portcullis? Is that what you call it? Thank you, Alia.

The central plaza I used to visit to issue my decrees or accept my tributes was now greatly increased in size, and housed a sprawling market with all manner of stalls and carts selling just about everything I could think of. Even flying above the village-turned-city I could smell roasting meats and baking pastries. I circled around the market a few times until the humans there all cleared a place for me, and then delicately as I could, I landed. I didn't want to upend anyone's cart after all.

Soon after I'd landed, people began to gather around me. I heard a few screams, and a few calls to arms from people who must have been visiting, or new to the village. Thankfully, no one actually drew arms against me, and I could hear scattered laughter among the quickly growing crowd. I hoped that they were laughing at whoever thought I was here to attack them.

I certainly noticed a lot more guards than I ever had before, and they had better armor now, as well. Some of them wore heavy duty chain mail, others covered themselves in plates of steel not unlike the plates that protected my own chest. Many of them had long spears and leaned against them. For a moment, my heart pounded more heavily. I half expected the guards to start hurling those spears at me. It was a foolish worry, though, and I knew it. The guards seemed as eager to see why I'd returned again as everyone else.

"Damn it, Dragon," someone called out behind me. "You can't just come barging in here and disrupting our market. In case your eyes have totally failed you, you might notice we've hardly the space for your fat scaly ass here anymore. If you must land inside the city, can't you find a more open space to accommodate yourself?"

I knew that voice. Though the city had grown in size many times over, and had clearly upgraded its own defenses, I imagined there were still not many people living here who would have the balls to speak to me so brazenly. So defiantly. And I meant "have the balls" in a relative sense, as the owner of that voice certainly did not have a pair of testicles.

Though, she'd once planted her boot in mine. "Hello, Amaleen," I said with a little chuckle. I carefully turned around on three paws to try and find her in the crowd, clutching my increasingly sleepy son to my chest.

"Hello, Valyrym," she replied, a little of the venom leaving her voice. She spoke my name aloud as if hoping to irk me by letting everyone around hear it. "What have you come for this time, hmm? Come to demand a share of our wealth? Come to lay claim to our mineral rights?"

Her words stung me, possibly deeper than she meant them to. I hadn't demanded a single thing from them since Lenira died. "No," I said softly. "You know I don't want anything from you anymore."

"No, I suppose you don't." Her voice grow softer again. She came forward from the crowd, wearing a simple green dress with lacy ruffles just around her ankles. She wore soft sandals on her feet, and her dark hair was longer than before, cascading over her shoulders. For a moment, she seemed to regret what she said, as though she were taking other frustrations out upon me because of what I'd done in the past. Perhaps their village was having the sort of trouble a dragon's might was not so useful for. Lines of worry creased her face, and her blue eyes darkened for a moment. Then she caught sight of movement as Valar tried to wriggle free of my grasp. The dark clouds across her eyes vanished in an instant. "Valyrym! Is that...what...who...I think it is?"

I found myself smiling to see that even Amaleen could not resist the charms of a grumpy hatchling. Valaranyx pawed at the ground, and I set him down on his feet. He looked around, and I took hold of his tail to make sure he wouldn't bound off without permission. He gave a frustrated mewling noise, and turned around to swat at my paw like an angry cat. I held his tail in my grasp just firmly enough to prevent him from getting away.

"Amaleen," I said, trying to make the introduction at least moderately formal. It seemed more appropriate for her than anyone else. "This is my son, Valaranyx." Settled on my haunches, I gestured towards the woman with my free paw. "Valaranyx, this is Amaleen." Not that my son understood a word I was saying yet, but I felt a strange urge to properly introduce her anyway. "She's...an apprentice healer."

"I'm_the_ healer now, actually," Amaleen said, glancing up at me. "Chief healer, and I've apprentices of my own, in fact."

"Oh..." I trailed off, looking her over. She did not look that much older than she had when Lenira passed. She still seemed a young woman, at least to a dragon's eyes. She must have truly excelled in her studies under Lenira. Her ascension to the position was worthy of praise, wasn't it? "Then...congratulations?"

My words seemed to surprise Amaleen, and she actually laughed a little. She had a beautiful laugh when she wasn't spitting venom at me like a furious serpent. "Thank you, Valyrym. And...congratulations on your son. He's an adorable little thing."

Her voice drew Valaranyx's attention, and he stared at Amaleen. I lowered my paw so that Valar could see it, and pointed at her, repeating her name. "Amaleen. That's Amaleen."

"Argleblarp!" Valaranyx gave his best attempt.

Amaleen started to laugh even harder, and soon the crowd had joined her. This was the biggest crowd I'd yet shown him to, and thanks to the market, it also contained the most distractions so I was a little hesitant to let him run free. Amaleen approached Valaranyx, asking my permission to touch him. I granted it and she crouched down on her knees. Amaleen gently stroked his head, and scratched under his chin. Before long she had the little one purring up a storm for her, and butting his head against her hands.

"Is he purring?" she asked, incredulous.

"Yes," I replied, slowly releasing my hold on his tail. As Valaranyx moved forward he stretched his neck to try and lick Amaleen's face like an overeager puppy. "Dragon hatchlings purr when they're happy."

Amaleen shot me an unusually playful smirk. "So do the adults, according to Lenira."

My muzzle flushed dark with embarrassment, and I pinned my ears back to hide the scarlet hue taking to the inside of them as well. "Maybe a time or two..."

"Every time she stroked your face or your neck, according to what I recall," Lenira said, grinning to herself as she pet my son in just such a way. "Must be why he's enjoying this so much."

"Yes, well," I rose to all four paws, shifting uncomfortably. "I rather hoped she might keep that knowledge to herself." I cleared my throat with a growl, and then gestured at my son. "Anyway, I thought you might all like to see him."

"I'm glad you brought him, actually," Amaleen said. "Is it alright if I pick him up?"

"Errrhm..." I murmured in thought a little. No one had actually tried that yet. "I'm not sure."

"I promise I'll be ever so gentle." Amaleen stroked his head.

"Tell that to my balls," I muttered before I could stop myself.

Amaleen burst out laughing. That surprised me, but not unpleasantly so. "Aw, they can't still be sore, can they? That was ten years ago, Dragon."

Ten years. Already? It seemed like months ago that I first met Amaleen, and discovered how Lenira felt about me. Ten years. I wondered how old that made Amaleen. I doubted she was even thirty yet. Barely hinting at adolescence for a dragon yet well into adulthood for a human. When I'd first met Amaleen, she was younger relatively speaking than Lenira was when I'd first met her.

"No," I finally answered. "They're alright."

"I can tell," Amaleen said, patting Valaranyx's head. "I obviously didn't do them any lasting damage."

I chuckled to myself, and shook my head. A few more people were following Amaleen's lead now to come and see the little hatchling. "You know, I'd honestly almost forgotten about that little greeting you gave me with your boot."

"Oh? Had you?" Amaleen stood up as Valar waddled over to sniff at someone else, and then pounce upon their bootlaces. "If you want, you can turn around and lift your tail a bit." She smirked at me, folding her arms. "I'd be happy to give you a refresher course."

"Not in front of all these people," I said, laughing even more. I pinned my ears back at the thought, a light twinge of pain felt in my testicles in memory. "I'd never live it down."

"Oh, so you'd rather I kick you in the balls outside the village?" Amaleen smiled at me. A smile, from her of all people. How strange. "I can do that."

...Starting to like her too, are you Alia? Can't say I'm surprised.

I found myself smiling at Amaleen at in return, though I wasn't really sure why. "You know, Amaleen, you're starting to act dangerously close to playful. Even pleasant!"

Amaleen shrugged, and tried to scowl. "I don't know why. Must be because of your son."

"I'm sure if he were old enough to understand the implications, he'd be happy to take the credit."

Amaleen came forward then, and rubbed my nose. It was only for a moment, but the gesture was there. Then she turned around and walked back towards my son. "I think he's changing you, Valyrym."

"I haven't changed Amaleen," I said, softly. "I wasn't always as good to her as I should have been, but it wasn't all the way you thought it was, either."

Amaleen tensed. For a moment I thought she might lash out at me again. Then her shoulders simply sagged a little.

"I'm...I'm sorry," I offered, trying to recall if I'd ever said those words to her before. Part of me felt as though they should be spoken. "I didn't mean to...well, for any of it. And I didn't mean to ruin the moment just now, either."

Amaleen glanced back at me, her eyes strangely unreadable. I couldn't tell if she was angry or happy or some strange mixture of both. "It's alright, Valyrym. You are...what you are. And right now, you're a father proud of his son. That's good enough for me, today."

"Thank you," I said, unexpectedly warmed by her sentient.

"So," Amaleen said, changing the subject. "Is it alright if I pick him up? If you don't want me to hold him, I completely understand."

"It's not that," I said, padding behind her. Valaranyx was starting to approach random people in the crowd, and I didn't want him getting out of sight. "You can pick him up if you want." Though Amaleen and I were hardly friends, I knew I could trust her with my son. She might like hurting me, but she'd never hurt a hatchling. "But I don't know if he's going to let you, or if he's going to bite you."

"He won't bite me," Amaleen said, quite sure of herself.

As if just to prove herself right, Amaleen crouched down and scooped Valaranyx up into her arms. The little dragon gave a squawk of alarm and thrashed at the air with all four paws for a moment, completely unused to being picked up by anyone but his parents. Somewhat to my surprise, and a little to my disappointment, he didn't sink his sharp little hatchling teeth into Amaleen's arm. In fact in a matter of moments he was purring up a storm and cuddling into her warmth while she held him against her breast.

Amaleen stuck her tongue out at me. "See? He loves me."

"Don't press your luck," I muttered.

I began to follow after her as Amaleen took him around the crowd, showing him off to the gathered masses and reminding them to be gentle with their touch if they wished to pet him. I was surprised by the way she handled him so carefully, and the way she made sure everyone else did the same. She treated him as lovingly and delicately as Kylaryn and I did. She cooed to him as well, whispered into his ears and made him giggle and chirp in reply. It reminded me of the way Lenira would have treated him, if she'd lived long enough to see my son.

"I can see why you're the chief healer, now," I said softly to Amaleen.

Amaleen glanced over her shoulder at me, but did not reply. She shifted Valaranyx in her grasp, supporting his haunches with a forearm so that he could lay against her chest and rest his head on her shoulder. For a little while he stared at me across Amaleen's shoulder, smiling and content as could be. Before long, his golden eyes began to close. He'd taken after me that way, though silver flecks marked his irises here and there. Crowd noise or not, Valaranyx was falling asleep.

"Just like a human child," Amaleen said, trying to stifle a giggle. "Falls asleep anytime, anywhere."

"He's had a long day," I said, licking my nose. "I should get him home, but I'd like to visit her grave, first."

Amaleen knew who I meant. I always stopped there when I came to town. "You can go and see her now, if you want. I'll give your son back to you. Or if you'd rather be alone, I'll bring your him up in a little while, or you can come back and get him. It's up to you."

I hesitated. I'd never let Valar out of my sight before, unless he was with Kylaryn. But if I could trust anyone else with him, I could trust Amaleen. I knew Kylaryn would never in her life leave Valaranyx with a human. She'd be furious if she knew I'd done the same. Yet, I was not Kylaryn, and unlike her, I had trusted a human before. Sometimes I simply had to be willing to trust someone other than myself.

"Alright," I said, reaching out to gently stroke the slumbering hatching's neck and wings. "I'll go and see her then, and you can bring him up after me, if I haven't come back shortly."

Amaleen nodded, and I turned away from her. I gestured towards the crowd, needing a little room to take off. Once, being surrounded by so many humans would have made me nervous. But over my life I'd made enough visits to this town, and been surrounded by enough onlookers I'd gotten used to it now. A larger crowd made little difference to me at this point. I peered around the market for a moment, searching for something.

"Apples are over there, Valyrym," Amaleen said, using Valar's tail to gesture.

She knew me surprisingly well for a woman who hated me. Then again, I supposed I was awfully predictable. I had not come to this town without visiting Lenira's grave since she was first put there. I walked to the carts in question, and the little old lady selling fruit walked around it to meet me. She carried a whole basket full of apples with bright red rinds and shining golden spots.

"Here you are, Dread Sky," she said, smiling.

Dread Sky. I hadn't been called that in ages. The name still made me smile a little, as did her kindness with the apples. "I only need one," I said, chuckling. "Do you all still call me the Dread Sky?"

"Nonsense," she said, sounding like a stern yet kindly old grand-elder. I suppose she probably was. "You've a child now. Surely you'd like him to enjoy these apples as much as you have over the years? Much as I'm sure Lenira appreciates the thought when you visit her, I think she'd appreciate your son enjoying the fruit even more."

"I suppose you're right," I chuckled a little bit.

"Of course I am," the woman said with a pleasant smile. "And yes, we do still call you The Dread Sky. Just look at you, black as a thunderstorm at night. We might be able to patrol our own roads now but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate what you've done for us! It's still a fitting name." She smiled, offering up the basket to me so I could take the handle in my jaws. "Go on then."

Patrol their own roads? As in plural? Just how many did they have now? I'd always imagined only the one road I'd long ago claimed. But given how large the villages were growing, all those little trails that lead to them must have become roads in their own right. No wonder they had armored patrols of their own these days.

I supposed it was for the best. I wouldn't always be here to protect them. Though I had made a promise and had no intention of breaking it, not even a dragon would live forever. The only way I'd stop patrolling the skies myself would be if they asked me to. Still, part of me was glad they had their own soldiers to defend themselves these days. I had a son now, and hardly had the time to spend my days on the lookout for bandits and brigands the way I used to.

I took the handle of the basket in my jaws, and turned away from her, very careful not to upend the apple cart or the woman tending it. Though in the process I hoisted my tail to ensure it went over her head, inadvertently flashing her my testicles. She must have thought I'd done it on purpose, because she started to laugh as she walked back behind her cart.

"No thank you," she said, still laughing. "I've enough inventory without adding dragon apples to my stock."

Dragon apples? When I realized what she meant I started laughing. At least she wasn't a prudish old woman. Apparently apples was a common term for them among Aran'alias, or at least for a dragon's testicles given their relative size. I glanced back at her, smirking around the basket in my jaws. She waved and I grinned a little more, hoping Amaleen hadn't gone around telling everyone how she'd felled me those ten years ago.

Then I took a few steps forward and leapt into the sky. I fanned my wings. The air swirled about the plaza, rustling banners, mussing up everyone's hair, and nearly topping over a few unprepared people buffeted by the gusts. I beat my wings a few more times, ascending in a tight spiral, and soon I was winging my way towards the familiar cemetery hill.

It was one area the town had not touched, as were the hills in which they'd carved so many sigils into the stony outcroppings and ridges. The cemetery had expanded quite a bit since Lenira was first buried, and now quite a few more stones marked the surrounding hills as well. I settled as daintily as a dragon could, trying not to step on anyone else's grave.

Not that I believed it mattered. To a dragon, the dead were simply dead, and gone. Though some of us believed in spirits and souls and others believed there was some kind of life after death, we were not the sort to think that mortal remains held any special significance. It was one of the reasons we burned our dead. To let the ashes be born into the air, to drift and spread throughout the world and nourish the land that had nourished us. There was no one in this graveyard who would care if I stepped on their grave, but I avoided doing so out of respect for the people who remained alive.

I settled down alongside Lenira's grave, staring at her headstone. The once mounded earth had long since settled down and been reclaimed by the lush grasses that covered the rest of the hill, leaving just the familiar stone to mark her final resting place. Visiting Lenira's grave was not as sad an occasion as it had once been. The last decade had served to ease much of the pain inside me, and Valaranyx had filled much of the strange emptiness I'd felt with joy. Still, I could not help but wish I'd treated her better.

As I sat at her stone, I found myself speaking aloud to her. I told her about Kylaryn, and about Valaranyx and how proud I was of him. I even told her he was down in the village right now, being carried about by Amaleen and shown off on my behalf. Amaleen. I did not hate her. Strange. I told Lenira she should be proud of Amaleen, she was a good woman, a kind soul, and she had become the chief healer.

Only when I'd trailed off did I realize I was speaking in draconic. If Lenira still existed in some spiritual form and was actually listening she wouldn't have understood a word I just said. Then again, perhaps if she could somehow hear me, she'd also been gifted with the insight to understand anything I said to her regardless of language. Wouldn't that be nice. Then I sighed, and told myself it didn't matter because she was simply gone. I wondered briefly why humans must live lives so much shorter than us.

I peered around, and in the distance, on another hill, I saw a man carving into stone. He knelt at the base of a rather tall boulder that marked one of the other hills that was being transformed into a graveyard. From a distance I could not tell what he was carving, but he was working very patiently with a hammer and chisel. Interesting tools you humans make for yourselves.

Whatever he was carving, I was impressed with his patience. Every few strokes of the hammer against his chisel, he paused to inspect his work. Sometimes he only paused a few moments, other times he lingered for long minutes, planning out his next move. Once in a while he even touched the stone, running his fingers against it as if he could feel the pulse and thoughts of the earth itself. I did not know why he was carving, though I felt it must be something more important to him than simply a proclamation that the hill was now a new cemetery. Maybe it helped him with his grief, helped calm him. Perhaps it was his way of mourning, to carve his feelings into the stone where they'd be preserved for all time.

I rather liked that idea. Though at the time I thought I'd never have the patience for such a thing.

I found myself watching the man from a distance until Amaleen made her way up the hillside trail. She still carried my son, but he was no longer asleep. Rather he was wide awake and ready to get down. He wriggled and squirmed, and Amaleen did what she could to keep hold of him, but it was a battle she simply could not win. Soon Valaranyx got the wise idea to wriggle about until his belly was pressed to her chest. Then he braced his hind legs against her body, and pushed against her as swiftly and forcefully as he could, jumping out of her arms. As he leapt he bumped her arm and it caused him to do little back flip before he somehow landed on his feet.

He stood still a moment, his golden, silver flecked eyes wide with disbelief at his own achievement. "Breeeeeehhhh!" He half-chirped, half trumpeted as if to tell us what a great little acrobat he was. Amaleen burst out laughing, and bent over to try and catch him again. He backed away, lashing out with a paw to swat at her soft shoes as if to hold her at bay.

"Valaranyx," I called out to him, and he quickly whirled around at the sound of my familiar voice. "Come here, you naughty whelp."

Valaranyx did just that, and I quickly realized it was a bad idea to call him across a cemetery. Dashing towards me as swiftly as he could, he managed to run directly across every single grave in his path. I started to tell him to go around but realized that wasn't going to do any good. I ended up laughing, and just as he reached me, he skidded to a stop. A strange expression came over his muzzle, a sort of puzzled-hatchling look as though he couldn't quite figure out the source of the odd sensation he felt.

Then he began to pee all over the grass. I laughed even harder at the look of relief on his face, and when I glanced at Amaleen, she started laughing too. She was doing her best to look horrified, but really, even she couldn't blame a hatchling for doing what he had to do, when he had to do it. At least he wasn't standing directly on anyone's grave while he emptied his bladder.

When he was finished he trotted over to me, and reared up to put his front paws on Lenira's head stone. "Argleblarp!"

"No," I said, trying to keep my voice as serious and even as I could. I gestured towards Amaleen who had come to stand nearby. "That's Argleblarp. This was Lenira."

"Lurrgleburgum?" Valaranyx tilted his head back, peering up at me, his tiny ears perked.

"Close enough," I said, stroking his head.

He purred and licked at my paw. I fetched one of the apples from the basket nearby, and sliced it up with my claws, then handed him a piece. He tried to take it with both from paws, and flopped onto his belly in the process with his rump in the air. Then he took it in his jaws, and gobbled it up, purring.

"Murrglevum!" He rose back up, pawing at me in an attempt to ask for more apple.

I handed him another piece, then gave the rest of the slices to Amaleen. When he'd finished the next piece, he sniffed out the scent and turned round to try and take them right out of Amaleen's hands. She gave him one, and did her best to tell him what it was.

"Apple," she said. "This is an apple."

"Argleblarp!"

"No, I'm, Argleblarp remember?" She laughed, shaking her head, her black hair swaying. "Apple. This is apple."

"Argleblarp!" Valar shouted at her, stomping a front paw like the grumpy little hatchling he was.

"Fine, fine," Amaleen said, handing him another piece. "Everything is argleblarp."

Smiling, Amaleen slowly fed my son the rest of the apple slices. He chomped them up one by one, juices running down his blue-tinged chin. When it was gone, Amaleen showed her hands as if to tell him she didn't have any more apple. He pawed at her hands a few times, and then began sniffing around. Soon, he'd picked up the scent of more apples, and trotted over to the basket. He stuck his head inside, sunk his teeth into a single apple, and then slowly backed away to pull it from the basket. Then he held it down with a paw while he took bites out of it, lashing his tail happily.

"Smart little thing," Amaleen mused to herself, glancing up at me. "How's his mother?"

It was a question that surprised me. Amaleen didn't seem like the sort to care about dragons, aside from the occasional adorable hatchling. Perhaps it was just me she disliked. Then again, Kylaryn hadn't exactly been anything but a menace to their communities until I'd convinced her offer her own protection alongside mine. Still, Amaleen was a healer by trade, and she must have had a big heart beneath all the coldness she felt towards me.

"Cranky," I admitted, flicking my tail tip against a patch of grass away from any graves. "She is not happy that I have brought Valaranyx to see the humans."

"I wondered why she hadn't come with you."

"She is not fond of humans." For a moment, I considered just how much I really should be telling Amaleen. Then I decided I may as well simply be blunt with her. "Humans took Kylaryn's parents from her, and she fears they will take Valaranyx and myself, as well."

Amaleen settled down onto her rump, adjusted her green dress, and then leaned back onto her hands. "I'm sorry. I can't blame her for being fearful for her mate and son."

"I'm not her mate," I said, realizing the moment I said it I should have just kept my mouth shut.

"But isn't she Valaranyx's mother? Don't you two live together?"

"Yes, and yes," I muttered, wishing some things were easier to explain to humans. "But we're not mates. Well, we are, but we're not life-mates. Just regular-mates. For the moment. Probably not for life, because, we're not life-mates."

Amaleen gave me a blank look as I rambled and repeated myself. "Have you been drinking?"

I lifted a paw and rubbed my head between my eyes and horns. "No. It is...not a situation that translates easily to human relationships."

"So basically," Amaleen said, tilting her head. A smirk played across her lips a moment. "You love your son, and you and his mother love the sex, but you don't really love each other."

Maybe humans were more clever than I'd given them credit for. I rustled my wide black wings, feeling awkward. "That is not how I would put it, but something along those lines, yes."

"How very dragonly of you both." The way she said it made it sound like an insult, another little needle shoved under my scales as if to remind me she thought I'd had a similar relationship with Lenira.

"And if you had a night of passion with a man you found attractive, but did not love, then became with child, would you not love your child anyway? Would you not wish to have the father around to help raise him even if you did not truly love the male?"

Amaleen considered that a moment, and gave a little sigh. "I suppose you have point. Still, though...do dragons ever truly love anyone?"

"Yes," I said more venomously than I intended. "We do. My parents were quite happy together. Just because things have not worked out that way for the only dragon you have become familiar with does not give you cause to judge us all to be unfeeling monsters."

Amaleen wanted to say more, I could see thoughts flickering in her eyes. Though whether she was considering an apology or another accusation I could not tell. Her mouth opened a few times, but each time it closed again without a sound. She looked the way fish did when I caught them with my claws and dragged them from the water for my dinner.

Before she had a chance to put words to her thoughts, I changed the subject entirely. "What is he doing over there?"

When I gestured towards the man carving the distant stone, she turned towards him and watched a moment. "Carving Sigils."

That much seemed obvious, but I did not so. Instead, I simply enquired further. "What sigils is he carving? Why is he carving them?"

"Probably this one," Amaleen said. "Let me see your paw."

I hesitantly held it out for her. She carefully turned it over so that my gray paw pad was facing the sky. She dug her fingers through the grass, uprooting a bit of it so that she could get her fingers muddy. Then she used the mud to trace lines across my pad. A curved arch, and a sharp series of lines beneath it. A simple but striking design. When Valaranyx waddled over to see what we were doing, she playfully snatched him up and traced the same design in mud along his side. He squirmed and giggled as though she were tickling him.

"This is what he's carving?" I peered at the design a moment. "What does it mean?"

"It's a very old symbol among the people of the Silver Rain," Amaleen explained. I think that was the first time I heard her refer to her people that way, though I may heard the phrase here and there beforehand. "It doesn't really have a single meaning. Rather it generally indicates a feeling of peace, or love. People carve it onto things they give a loved one, or carve it into the beams above the doors of their homes and businesses in an attempt to bring peace to their lives. It's often used in places like this..." She waved at the cemetery hill surrounding us, and I was able to guess the rest from there.

"To bring peace to lost loved ones," I murmured, staring at the design. "I should like to put that on Lenira's stone, then." I rose to all fours, turning towards the stone. "It should not take me too long, but...I wish it to be right." I was hesitant to ask her of all people for help, but I had no one else to turn to. "Would you...help me get it right?"

Amaleen watched me for long moments before she rose to her feet, and dusted herself off. She walked up alongside me, patted me on the shoulder, and then crouched down near Lenira's stone. She gave me no reply, but she did not need to. Instead, she gathered more mud, and very carefully traced out the same sigil along the top of the tombstone. A curved line that ran across the top of the stone, with several sharply angled lines beneath it. When she was done, she moved out of my way.

Carefully, I traced the lines with my claws. I had to be very slow, and patient. They were unfamiliar symbols and if I did not carve them just right I would throw off the meaning entirely. Now and then Amaleen actually took my paw between her hands to steady it, or correct me before I could make an error when the mud flaked off. With her assistance, and a lot of patience, I was able to carve the sigil into the stone.

When I was finished, I slowly stepped back to admire my work. It looked good atop her stone, especially as I knew the meaning. I looked over the rest of it, as well, glad to see the words I'd carved in my own language a decade or so ago were still there. There was room yet on the stone for more, perhaps if I learned more of the sigils of Lenira's people I would carve those some day, as well.

"You know, until I saw you carve those words," Amaleen said, rising back to her feet. "The part about your name, and being her friend, I mean. I hadn't even realized dragons had their own language."

"How did you think we spoke to each other, then?" I asked, an amused smile spreading over my muzzle.

Amaleen shrugged. "I suppose in some way I realized you probably had a spoken language, unless you all just spoke ours. But I didn't realize you had a written language."

"Ah," I said, smiling a little more. I had an opportunity to get back at her for some of the things she'd said to me over the years about Lenira. But, I bit back the words as soon as I thought of them. Causing her pain or making her regret anything wouldn't change a single thing. So, I toned my words down. "I see Lenira didn't tell you I used to read to her, then. In my language, I mean. I have books written in it in my home. Lenira liked to see the way our words looked, and hear how they sounded when read aloud."

"No," Amaleen said, a wistful smile spreading over her lips for a moment. "She hadn't told me that. I...rather regret missing those books now, when I stayed the night in your home. I think I flicked through a human book or two, but scarcely paid attention. Truth be told, I was angrier than I should have been." She wrung her hands together, and peered down at her intertwined fingers for a moment. "I...I probably..."

"Shush, Amaleen," I said, snapping my jaws for emphasis. "What is done is done, and neither of us wants to listen to the other's attempts to make things better."

Amaleen smiled again, a strange smile of bitter regret mixed with complete agreement. "You're right. I suppose it's not so bad being so blunt all the time, eh dragon?"

"No, it's not."

"I might like to see one of those books some day," Amaleen said, glancing down at Valaranyx as he prowled around her feet as if plotting out his point of attack. "If you'd ever be willing to share them again."

"I would consider it," I said, and moved towards her and my son. "We should be going. I'll be lucky enough as it is to avoid having my testicles squeezed by Kylaryn all night for keeping Valar among humans all day."

Amaleen burst out laughing, but I was only half joking. "Alright. Oh!" She turned and began to jog back towards the village, her green dress swishing around her. "Meet me in the plaza, first! I have something I want to give you for Valaranyx."

She got his name right, at least. Valaranyx began to run after her down the trail, back towards the village, and I had to move swiftly to scoop him up in my paws. He yowled in frustration, pawing at the air as if trying to reach out to Amaleen. I pulled him close to my face, and licked him a few times, then smiled at the little hatchling.

"No, my love," I said to him. "You have to come with me. We'll go meet her in the village, but you can't just go running off everywhere."

In reply, Valaranyx smacked me soundly on the nose with his paw. "BLARGH!"

"Ow," I said, laughing and pulling my head back. "Don't be a brat."

Yes, Alia, you're right. Between Valaranyx and Val Junior, my younglings do have a history of hitting me when I least expect it. At least Valaranyx only ever hit me in the nose.

I cradled my son to my chest, took the apple basket by its handle in my jaw, and took to my wings. I headed down towards the village, and alighted once more in the central plaza. I did not have to wait too long before Amaleen found her way there as well, and in the meantime I let a few brave humans come forward to see Valaranyx. He was getting cranky now and probably needed a nap. So I warned them they might want to hold off on petting him.

When Amaleen returned, she came bearing something in her arms. It looked like an average blanket, only fuzzier. She looked a little misty eyed, clutched it to her breast a moment. She chased the crowd back a little, which surprised me. I wasn't sure if they were just being polite, or if she actually had more authority now among the townsfolk. Perhaps her "promotion" was a little more important that she'd let on.

"This is..." she began, then trailed off. "Lenira said you...well, I saw them myself, but..."

"Take a breath, Amaleen," I advised her.

Amaleen took a slow, deep breath, calming herself. "Lenira told me once that you collected blankets and things. She was good at knitting, you see, and...well, she wanted to make you one herself. She..." She licked her lips, glancing down at the blanket bundled up in her hands. "She never quite finished it."

"I...I see..." I swallowed hard, licking my nose.

"Blurblebuuurb," Valaranyx said, as though trying to diffuse the emotions building within Amaleen and me.

"When you showed up last time, with your..." She stopped herself before she called Kylaryn my mate. "With Valaranyx's mother, I thought...well...Lenira would have wanted your child to have it, if she was still around. It was going to be for you, but...I know she'd have loved to wrap your son up in it. So...I'm not as good as her, but..."

"You...finished it for her?" I asked, incredulous. It seemed every time I met Amaleen she found a new way to surprise me.

"...Yes." Amaleen slowly stepped back from me, opening up the quilted blanket that Lenira and Amaleen had knit for me together. As she unfolded it, the image emblazoned across its surface slowly came into view. The blanket was blue, and spread across that blue was a majestic looking black dragon in flight. Across the top, were the words "May the Dread Sky ever rise". It was me.

It was beautiful, and I could not find words to describe the joy I felt seeing it. Amaleen watched my expression a moment, and whatever she saw in my eyes made her smile. A rare smile of actual happiness in my presence. She was...glad...that I liked it so much. I didn't think my opinion would mean so much to her. Perhaps she was happy to see that she'd been right the day we buried Lenira. I really did have a heart beating somewhere beneath my black scales.

She did not say anything else. She simply came forward with the blanket, and I held Valaranyx out to her. She took him, wrapped him up in the quilt, and passed him back to me. Then she simply turned away, and made her way back into the crowd. As I watched her press her way through the throng, I realized I had nothing left to say, either. I spread my wings, and returned to the skies with my son wrapped in the blanket woven by the woman who once loved me, and the woman who once hated me.

I winged my way back to my home, eager to show Kylaryn the gift from the humans. Eager to show her they were not all so bad, after all. Though I didn't know it at the time, it would be years before I saw Amaleen again. Yet in the meantime, she had done something that touched me deep within my buried heart.

---

Chapter Eight

---

I had little reason to return to the humans for a while after that. I continued to protect them, flying the skies of my realm above my road, and the many other roads they had built in the last few decades. But they had their own patrols now, and I felt confident in letting them take the lead in protecting their lands from bands of brigands and any other troubles.

I also felt more at peace with the way I had left things in the village where Amaleen lived. When Lenira died, I thought perhaps Amaleen's hatred had infected the entire village. It was a paranoid thing to worry about, but dragons could be paranoid creatures more often than we liked to admit. Whatever the case, when I showed them my son I seemed forgiven. And when Amaleen brought me that blanket for Valaranyx, I knew that while she might herself not have forgiven me, she no longer hated me. For some reason, that made me happy. I decided perhaps it was best to leave it at that. I would not trouble her or her village with my presence unless I had to.

As the Village Of The Sigil Stones had long since outgrown village-status, I took to simply calling it Sigil Stones. After all, humanity's carved influence upon all the sounding stones grew alongside the growth of the city itself. Though I did not want to bother Sigil Stones, I did wish to uphold my end of the old deal. So rather then land within the town itself, now and then I stopped to chat with the armored guards on patrol. If they needed my help in rooting out any bandits or anything else, I was glad to offer it. I also wanted them to realize that I was their friend, and that they need not fear when they saw me soaring overhead. They asked for my assistance in only a few occasions but I was always happy to give it.

I did intervene once when I saw they had captured a young dragon with scales toned bronze and brown like the earth. They claimed he'd been attacking farms and stealing livestock, and he probably had. Still, the youngling did not speak much of their language and seemed positively terrified. I imagined that without being able to speak with him the guards were operating under the assumption that he had killed people, and would do so again. They were debating how best to handle it but some of them seemed to think taking his head off while they had the chance was the best option. I persuaded them to spare his life and let him go, and in return he promised to leave the realm forever. Though these lands might not be suitable for him, I sent him towards the more isolated areas where Korvarak now lived. Perhaps he would give the young one a chance as I'd once given him.

The years passed, and Valaranyx slowly grew. The high points of his young life still shine in my memory like beautiful beacons. The first time he ever saw snow, I knew he'd always love the colder weather. He ran and played in the curtains of falling white. He leapt through the air trying to pounce upon snowflakes only to find they'd vanished under his paws. When the snows grew deep, he hurled himself into a drift, and vanished completely. Soon his tail stuck out the top of the drift as he dug through the snows, and when he came out he was coated in white.

I was ever so proud of him the first time he hunted his own meal. It was earlier than I expected. One day we were out playing, and decided to nap together in the sun-warmed grass. It was warm and calm and relaxing, and as he dozed off I curled round him and did the same. When I awoke he was gone and for a moment I almost panicked. But I saw him sprawled out nearby helping himself to a rabbit he'd slain. It had come bounding along close enough to wake him, and he chased it down. I knew then that he would make a fine hunter and a strong dragon.

Kylaryn and I traded off hunting duties so that the other could watch him. Another of my favorite memories occured one day when I'd been out hunting. I came home to find Kylaryn flying in low, swift circles with Valar in her arms just outside our home. It was a simple task for her, but it must have been immensely thrilling for Valaranyx. He squealed in joyous delight as the world whizzed by beneath him in blurry spirals. He flared out his own wings as if they too could carry him, though they were not yet big enough.

Valaranyx came to love the blanket that Amaleen gave him. It was his favorite thing. Kylaryn was a little put out that he came to love it even more than some of the things she brought for him, but who can blame a hatchling for what things take fancy in his mind? I think she was actually more put out that he liked something made by a human rather than a dragon. He always slept on the blanket, and sometimes rolled himself up in at play.

What's that, Val Junior? You want your own blanket, as well? I'm sure Alia can find you something appropriate.

Kylaryn and I took Valaranyx to sleep under the stars some nights. He greatly enjoyed sleeping outside, away from our home. Usually he'd wear himself out chasing fireflies and moths and bats and anything else that came out after dark and attracted his attention. Sometimes he'd curl up with us to sleep, other times he'd flop down wherever he was when he suddenly felt tired. We draped his blanket over him to keep him warm at first. Later we found if we spread it upon the ground he would seek it out and sleep there, and that was an easier way to keep him close at night.

I cherished those nights, when the three of us all slept curled against each other. Kylaryn and I were not always happy together, and we had long since come to accept that. But we were both happy with Valaranyx, and that more than outweighed any spats the two of us might have. Once in a while Kylaryn went to sleep in Korvarak's old home. Sometimes she took Valar, and sometimes he stayed with me. Usually we traded off as we both wanted to stay with him.

Sometimes, when Kylaryn and I were feeling especially affectionate with each other, she would get delightfully naughty with me. In our younger days, when we played around, she used to find it amusing to try and suck me off as swiftly as she could. Now, with Valaranyx here, sometimes she'd do that while he was out at play. Once we had to use our wings to hide what was happening when he came back in unexpectedly. Other times, she found it fun to try and suckle me more slowly while Valaranyx was fast asleep somewhere. Though hatchlings were usually sound sleepers, I still kept myself as quite as possible. Kylaryn seemed to find it highly entertaining to make a male dragon struggle to keep his sounds of pleasure silent as she pumped her muzzle around him. When I seeded her snout it was all I could do not to snarl, let alone roar.

Yes, Alia, I suppose we could try that game ourselves, but given how deep in this damn dungeon we are, what's the point of remaining silent?

I tried to return the favor, as it were, but Kylaryn was far better at the game than I was. Even when I worked her with my tongue to the peak of her pleasure, she had no trouble keeping my mouth shut. Though I must admit she looked adorable writhing so frantically against the ground, totally silent save for the sound of her scales brushing the floor. I liked the way her hind legs clenched around my muzzle when she came, too. It seemed the quieter she was when she climaxed, the more desperately she squirmed in pleasure.

What do you mean, faking it? Oh, shut up Alia. ...It was not Val Junior's idea to say that, don't you try and shift the blame.

Once Valar was old enough to play outside on his own for longer periods of time, Kylarn and I would press against each other while we had the chance. As we knew he might come back any moment, and did not want to have to make up some sort of "we-were-just-wrestling" excuse, our mating sessions were often quite short, but quite forceful and passionate. Sometimes we mated belly to belly, laid upon our sides, as we felt it might be easier to act as though we were just cuddling should Valar trot back into the cavern. Though we tried to keep our pace quick and forceful, that often seemed to make our climaxes even more powerful. On more than one occasional Kylaryn dragged her claws down my body seed filled her and she came, leaving bloodied lines through my black scales.

Sometimes that was all it took for us to end a fight. A good rough mating usually quelled the angry fire in our bellies, whatever our argument may have been about. Usually, it was about the role of humans in our realm. Though there were still times it was not so easy to quench our fiery anger. We did not want to fight in front of Valar, so usually Kylaryn would simply wing her way over to her other home, and sleep there a few days. When she returned or I went to fetch her, we had both cooled down and had an unspoken agreement to leave whatever subject started our spat alone for a while. Often another swift mating helped us release whatever lingering tension there was.

We mated a lot in those days. More so than I'd mated in any single period of my life, including my youth in the clan. Living with a female who shared your urges certainly had its advantages. It was as if we both knew that even for dragons, nothing lasted forever. Some day Valaranyx would be grown, and without him around we would likely share each other's company even less. We felt we may as well mate as often as possible while we had the chance.

We were careful not to mate again while she was in cycle, though, as one child was already more than we could handle. In times when she felt her heat approaching, she'd go stay on her own until it passed. Once I went to fetch her, only to find it had not yet left her system. I sent Valar out to play in the surrounding hills, and while he was at play, we did what we could to quell the urges it caused. We thought about pleasuring each other with tongues but decided I might be far too inclined to mount her again. So instead, we sat across the cavern from each other, and watched each other masturbate like curious youths. She spilled her juices across her fingers and I shot my seed over my belly scales and the floor. Then we parted again before her scent could work its magic once more.

As Valaranyx's body slowly grew, so too did his mind. Another of my favorite memories was the first time I heard him speak. I had to admit, I was a little jealous, because the first word he ever spoke aloud was the draconic term for "mother." And rather than learn "father" as his second word, instead he began to say "Food". Then he learned the words for "play", "blanket", "water", and "up" for when he wanted us to hold him. Finally, he learned the term "father", around the same time he learned the word for "urinate". Or rather, the youngling term for it which more closely equated to "pee-pee".

No, I will not teach the draconic term for that, Val Junior. Nor you, Alia, as I'd never hear the end of it.

I secretly suspected Kylaryn was working to teach him as many other words that weren't father as she could before I finally began to work at getting him to say it.

Once he'd learned father, the rest of our language seemed to come fairly easily to him. He began to speak simple sentences and could soon tell us when he was hungry, or thirsty, when he had to relieve himself and when he wanted to play, or to be taken into the skies. He also asked us, quite innocently, why Kylaryn and I wrestled so hard when we played. I took that to mean we probably weren't being as sneaky as we thought. Now I understand why my parents sent my sister and I out to play for "at least an hour" when we were younglings.

I was able to get back at Kylaryn for teaching him every word but father in my own way. As I'd already been speaking to him in several languages, it wasn't long before he began to speak to me in the human tongue as well. I even got him to call Kylaryn "Mama" which irritated her to no end. To the point where she punched me in the eggs, and while I was writhing around and Valaranyx was laughing his muzzle off, Kylaryn told him that humans called those "balls".

Of course it backfired on her, as after that he went around saying balls, balls, balls for a while. It also drew his attention to the fact that while I had balls, and Valaranyx had balls, Kylaryn did not. He asked why, and I left at just that moment to go and do some hunting in order to leave her to explain that particular facet of nature to our young son. As far as I was concerned, it was her fault he'd asked so soon so she could tell him why. Then again, male and female anatomy was a natural thing to a dragon, and it wasn't as though we hid our bodies from each other.

As Valaranyx grew and required a little less constant attention, Kylaryn began to feel an urge to seek out former members of our clan. She wanted to know if her brother was still alive, and if so, where was he living now? She began to take trips away from our realm for a week or two at a time. Sometimes she'd come back disheartened, unable to find any dragons we knew from our youth. Other times she came back excited, having met one or heard a rumor about where some of us had ended up.

One day, after she was gone over a month, she came back beaming, and told me she'd found my sister. Beyond that simple joyful news, it seemed my sister knew where my parents lived. It was quite a revelation as I hadn't had any contact with them in a long time. Truth be told, I didn't really think I'd get to see any of them again. I wantedthem to meet Valaranxy, but I wasn't sure he could make the journey just yet. My sister lived about two weeks flight away from here, far from any land humans called home. According to her, my parents were quite a bit further yet than that. I could not blame them for wanting to live so far from the people who had destroyed their old home and killed our kin.

Kylaryn, in a thoughtful gesture that made me wish she'd show that side of herself more often, not only told my sister how to reach my home but invited her to come and visit my son. That made me very happy as I'd come to miss my family quite a bit. My sister and I got into a lot of trouble growing up, and I wanted Valaranyx to know his aunt. Even better, my sister could then tell my parents how to find my home, and they could come and visit as well. They were not yet so old as to be unable to make such a long flight, though I imagined that might not be to far off.

I was also glad to hear they were still together. In a strange way, it made me long for such a thing. I doubted after Valaranyx was living on his own and had fathered his own children that Kylaryn and I would stay together. Though, I hoped now and then we'd still meet and enjoy each other's company.

Within a few weeks my sister Narymiryn had arrived. Much as I'd been given part of my fathers surname Val, she'd been given part of our mother's surname, Nary. Narymiryn and Kylaryn also shared a common suffix to the names of female dragons, "ryn". Narymiryn was a little bit younger than I was but not so much so that we hadn't been able to play together for much of our childhood. And by play together, of course I meant cause trouble and get into whatever manner of mischief was possible.

Yes, Alia, I suppose you're right. We just wouldn't have been true siblings if we hadn't gotten into trouble together as often as possible.

Nary shared much of my black coloration. She was also blessed with some golden stripes across all four of her limbs, as well as her tail. Our father had been ebony scaled just as I was, and our mother green and gold. Neither of us had taken any green from our mother, though Nary's golden stripes were certainly striking enough. She was not quite as large as I was and her eyes were not as dark a gold. Her snout was a bit shorter, as were her horns, but such was common among females. Still, anyone who knew dragons would see it clearly that we were siblings.

When she arrived outside our home I went out to greet her. She stood upon the rocky trail, beaming at me. Her black and gold striped tail lashed in glee, and I found myself grinning so widely I was afraid my jaw was about to detach from the rest of my head. I padded over to her, and we quickly extended our heads to sniff at each other's face and neck. Taking in scents both old and new was a customary dragon greeting among friends and family members after time apart. Then we licked each other's cheeks and necks a few times before pulling our heads back.

"You got old, Valyrym!" Narymiryn laughed and flared her wings.

Oh, very funny Alia. I was not near as old then as I am now, thank you very much.

"Hardly old, sister," I chuckled under my breath, still looking her over. "You look lovely. Must be fighting the males off fang and claw."

"I have my moments," she murmured, ducking her head a little.

"Well, don't let them put any eggs in you if you're not ready," I advised her.

What do you mean, Alia? Ah, yes, perhaps to humans our conversation would have seemed quite blunt and crude. Yet it was only normal to dragons. Besides, as her elder brother it was my duty to look out for her. Why not tell it like I saw it?

"So says the one who's got a hatchling of his own," Nary giggled, nipping at my snout. "I always thought you might put eggs in Kylaryn. In fact I'm surprised you didn't do it sooner."

I snorted, drawing my head back out of range, and taking a step back. I flared up my wings as if trying to make myself look bigger to fend off some perceived foe. In this case, the beast of my sisters smug foresight. "Did you then. And what ever gave you that idea?"

"The fact you two were always trying to outdo each other." She waved her paw at me. "If you weren't inseparable and laughing at each other's little jokes, you were fighting, and when you weren't fighting you were slinking off in the woods together." She smirked at me. "I might not have had my first heat cycle yet but I still knew what you two were doing."

"You always were a dirty minded little hatchling." I laughed and shook my head. "Speaking of which, aside from simply teasing you, I'm curious if you have any males you fancy for more than a quick romp."

"There have been a few," she said, shrugging her wings.

"Oh, a few already? Should give you the talk about why it's not wise to raise your tail for everything with a penis."

"Brother," she snapped at me, giggling. "I certainly do not do that!"

From behind me, Kylaryn called out. "Do you want me to punch him in the balls for you?"

Laugh it up, Alia, I'm sure you would have done the same. Females always seem to band together after all.

My sister gave me an evil grin. "Not yet, but if he keeps insulting my honor one of us is going to have to."

I smiled and licked her nose. "I'm only looking out for you, Sister. In honesty, I'd like to see you take your own lands with a male you truly appreciate."

She smiled and nuzzled me. "Perhaps one day, Valyr. Now, where's this lovely son of yours Kylaryn told me about?"

"Napping," I replied. "But come along inside as I'm sure he's going to be up soon. Might as well get a look at him before he starts climbing all over you."

"Energetic little hatchling, is he?" Narymiryn asked, following Kylaryn and I into my home.

"That's putting it mildly. He wears his mother and I out." I glanced back at my sister, flicking her nose with my tail tip. "I think Kylaryn stayed so long with you just to get a break."

Nary snapped at my tail, grinning. "Watch those spines, brother. I think you males sometimes forget you've got those things on the end of there."

"It's not my fault male dragons are built bigger and stronger and thus more suitable for battle than females."

"More suitable to carry their egos about perhaps."

Inside, Valaranyx was curled up in a little black and blue scaled ball atop his favorite blanket. My sister cooed and ooohed and aahed and made all the other noises female dragons often do at the sight of an adorable little slumbering hatchling. Nary also asked about the blanket on which he slept, so I explained it to her as best I could. She thought it a sweet gift from the humans and while quite wary of them in general, my sister was always a bit more open minded than Kylaryn. She was glad to see I'd befriended at least a few of them. Perhaps an alliance like mine would convince some of them we were more than monsters to be slaughtered. If one dragon burning down a town could make the humans think we were all evil, perhaps one dragon protecting a town could have the opposite effect.

I certainly hoped it was a view Valar would one day share.

As my mate and sister cooed over him, Valarnyx slowly woke up. He blinked his golden, silver flecked eyes a few times, and soon they focused upon Narymiryn. His eyes went very wide, and he jerked his little wedged shaped head up from the furs to stare at her. He'd never seen another dragon besides his parents, and it seemed quite a shock to him. Nary lowered her head towards him, and all at once Valar leapt to his paws and pounced on her snout.

The three of us burst out laughing while my son valiantly wrestled with my sister's muzzle. He snarled, he scratched at her scales with his teeth and claws, and then tried to bite at her horns. Nary laughed and let him play for a little while. Then she gently but quickly hoisted her snout in order to flip the little hatchling off of her face, and onto the furs. He landed on his back, and rolled to his paws again, then just stood there looking stunned. His muzzle hung open a bit, and he stared up at the black and golden female with eyes wide as could be.

"Awww, you're such an adorable little warrior!" Nary giggled and settled onto her haunches, scooping my son up in her paws. She hugged him against the scales of her chest, her plates were not as pronounced there as mine. Valaranyx gave a startled squeal and wriggled against her grasp, trying to free himself, but as she began to lick at his head, he was soon melting beneath the attention. He began to purr happily, cuddling up against her. "And a softy, too!" She glanced at me, grinning. "You've a lovely son, Valyrym."

"Thank you," I said, smiling in complete agreement.

Across from me, Kylaryn piped up, smirking at me. "It's my doing, actually. He just pumped a bit of seed in me, but I'm the one who actually made such a beautiful little hatchling."

Narymiryn grinned at the blue female, flaring her little spines. "Oh, I completely believe it! But we both know males and their egos want to take credit for everything."

I narrowed my eyes at my sister, then shot my mate a wicked grin. I cleared my throat, glancing at my son. "Hey, Valar. Tell Aunt Nary what your mother taught you. You know, what you have and she doesn't."

Valar giggled, his tail swaying against Nary's forelegs as he cheerfully announced, "I have balls!"

Nary blinked, and burst out laughing while Kylaryn glared at me. "Yes, I should hope that you do!"

I beamed. "And that was Kylaryn's contribution to his upbringing."

Nary, of course, took my sister's side. I was hoping she'd choose to stick with blood over gender, but I suppose such was often the way of females. Then again, what sister didn't enjoy teasing her brother when she had the chance? She shook her black-scaled head. "Well he has to learn sometime. Seems wise to teach him earlier. Females do know best, dear brother. Don't you agree, Kylaryn?"

Yes Alia, I'm well aware you agree with that sentiment.

Now I had both females smirking at me, azure and ebony muzzles split with playful smugness, gold and silver eyes gleaming in mischief. I shifted on my haunches a little bit, curling my tail. "I'm starting to feel outnumbered here."

"Aww, you have Valar here. It's two males, and two females, that's an even match."

"Not when one of the males is barely old enough to string coherent sentences together," I muttered, hanging my head as if dismayed. "Much less defend the honor and wisdom of my gender."

"What honor and wisdom?" Kylaryn asked me.

Narymiryn had to get her shot in, too. "Males have wisdom?" She shifted Valaranyx to one foreleg, holding him against her chest, then gestured at my sheath with her free paw. "Far as I can tell, you male's so-called wisdom only extends to where you put that thing!"

"And some males don't even know that!" Kylaryn said before they both burst out laughing.

Valaranyx giggled with them though he had no idea what they were laughing about. I reached for him and my sister handed him over. As I cradled him against the dark plates of my chest, I glared at the other two. "Really, you should be ashamed! Belittling poor Valar like that when he can't defend himself yet..."

"Hardly our son we were belittling," Kylaryn said, smirking.

Nary couldn't help herself. She gestured towards my sheath again, then gave Kylaryn a sympathetic look. "I hope it isn't it too "belittled" though."

Kylaryn grinned as my jaw dropped open. Okay, now my sister was hitting between the hind legs. "It suffices," Kylaryn said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Hey!" I laughed, shaking my head. "You two are really bad on a poor dragon's ego."

Valaranyx squirmed a bit and I set him back down. He quickly ran around behind my sister, and pounced upon her tail. He wrestled with it as though valiantly fighting against a tremendous golden-striped serpent. Narymiryn undulated her tail a few times, and soon the little hatchling grappled with it nearer her body. Narys stood, lifting her tail, and with a yelp of surprise Valar found himself hanging onto it by his front paws, his hind feet kicking in the air just above the ground.

"No fair!" Valar squealed. "Yer bigger than me!"

Laughing, Narymiryn lowered her tail so he could get his footing again. "Then you shouldn't pick a fight with me," she said, giggling. "Unless you want me to fight back!" She turned around to face him, and playfully swatted at him with a paw. He yelped and giggled and swatted back at her, and soon the two of them were having a very one sided wrestling match. It wasn't long before Narys rolled over and let him climb on her belly, grinning. "Alright, alright, you win! I submit!"

"I'm winner, I'm winner," Valar chirped in the human tongue, trotting a victory circle against my sister's chest.

"Yes, yes," I replied, grinning. "You've successfully conquered your aunt Narymiryn. But in the human tongue, you should say, I'm _the_winner," I advised him.

"No!" Valaranyx scowled at me and snapped his little jaws when he missed the point. "I'm winner!"

"Yes, yes, my lovely one." I said, grinning. "Now let your aunt up. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting hungry."

Valar hopped off of Narymiryn and ran towards the exit. When he reached it he ran in a few circles, chirping and flapping his little black and blue wings. "Hunting, hunting! Hunting, hunting! Go hunting now!"

"He's an excitable little thing, isn't he," Nary said, rolling to her feet. "I see your teaching him the human tongue, as well."

Kylaryn hissed in distaste. "That is Valyrym's doing. I can't stand making their chattering, yapping noises myself."

"It is a rather obnoxious sounding tongue, isn't it," Narymiryn said as she peered around my home. "Still, it's wise he knows it. You never know when it might - Is that a carriage?!"

I laughed when she abruptly switched topics. "As a matter of fact that is a carriage. Stole that from some idiot years ago."

"Did you then!" Nary beamed, her spiky crests flared in appreciation of my deed.

"He did not," Kylaryn corrected me. "He found all the humans murdered by other humans and decided to keep the carriage for some reason. He scavenged the damn thing."

I hissed at my mate, lashing my tail. "Spoilsport."

Kylaryn ignored me as she and my sister walked over to the old carriage. The wood that paneled it had been painted blue once, but much of the paint was flaking off. Long scratch marks covered it just about everywhere that Valaranyx could reach. One of the wheels was missing, and the seats inside were all torn up, also thanks to Valar sharpening his claws and shredding things just for fun.

"Still," Kylaryn mused as she sniffed at it. "The little one loves it. He likes to go inside because it's harder for us to get him back out, so we try to keep it closed or blocked off when we don't want him playing in there."

"Hunting, hunting!" Valar called out to us. When we didn't reply quickly enough, he took a deep breath, and shouted at the top of his lungs. "HUNTING!"

I pinned my ears back, shooting him a look. "Don't yell in the cavern, Son. Voices carry too much in here."

"Huuuuunnntiiiiinng," Valar whined, slapping his front paws against the stone floor. "I'm hungry!"

"So am I, Little One." I looked back at the two females. "Do you two want me to take Valar hunting? I know you're probably tired from flying out here, Narymiryn."

Narymiryn smiled. "I don't mind going hunting too. Someone has to watch the little one while you're in the skies if you're taking him with. I'll go with you if you like."

Kylaryn walked after me, swatting me hard upon the haunches. "Move your butt, sexy dragon. We'll all go."

I gave a mock yelp, grinning back at her. "Keep it up, and I'll be hunting a different kind of prey tonight."

Kylaryn laughed, and nipped me on the neck. "You'd be lucky."

I glanced back at Narymiryn. "Come on, Nary. I'll show you where we usually take him when we go hunting. We can take turns catching prey and watching out for the little runt."

"I'm not a runt!" Valar chirped at me in the sort of chirping, yet outraged tone only a hatchling could manage. Then he attacked my front leg, gnawing at it and growling playfully.

"I was talking about your mother," I said, grinning at Kylaryn. Before she had a chance to retort, I scooped up the youngling nearly attached to my foreleg, and took to the skies.

We spent the rest of the day hunting, and enjoying each other's company. The three of us took turns hunting our own prey, and we kept Valar atop a tall hill overlooking a meadow where several herds of elk often roamed. He loved to watch us swoop down from the skies and pick off the weaker members of the herd. He asked us why we didn't take the biggest, fattest one. As usual we explained that it was better to allow those prey to live because the healthier a herd remained, the more meat it would provide in the long run.

Valaranyx hit it off well with Narymiryn. I could already tell she would make an excellent mother to a hatching or two of her own some day. They wrestled and played and she found he had an affinity for silly jokes. Then again, which youngling did not? Narymiryn was also good enough to offer to keep Valaranyx entertained long enough for Kylaryn and I to fly off together and land in a thick wood. It had been a while since we'd had a chance for anything other than a quick and nearly silent mating session, so we took our time and made each other roar. Apparently our orgasmic mating roars were great enough for Valar to hear, because when we finally returned he asked us where we went, what we did, and why we'd roared so loudly.

I told him we'd gotten into a big wrestling match and the roars had been Kylaryn's admission of defeat, and my claim of victory. Kylaryn glowered at me but had no real way to dispute that with Valar looking at us so intently. Valaranyx spend the rest of the evening trying practice his victory roars.

Narymiryn planned to stay with us for at least a month. I greatly enjoyed having her around, though at times I did feel a bit outnumbered having two adult female dragons to deal with. Kylaryn felt just the opposite. She told Nary it was lovely not being the only dragon around without a pair of balls. They did enjoy ganging up on me as well, but I didn't mind it too much. After all if I had a brother, and not a sister, I was sure that we would have playfully sniped at Kylaryn the whole time.

The two of them did exchange some embarrassing stories about me, but that was alright. I had plenty of embarrassing stories to tell each of them about the other to make up for it. Kylaryn seemed especially amused by the tale Nary told of the first time she'd ever beaten her older brother in a rough wrestling match. Which, coincidentally, was also the first time I'd ever gotten kicked in the balls as a young dragon.

Yes, Alia. I realize it wasn't really a coincidence.

Still, it wasn't anything that didn't happen to most of the other young dragons at some point. After a male had to learn how to use his tail to protect his most valuable possessions in a fight one way or another.

I got back at her by telling Kylaryn about the time when Nary was just a hatchling, and I'd convinced to eat a whole paw full of reeking mud. All I had to do was swear up and down that it was good for growing strong fire-glands. In return for spinning that tale, Nary told Kylaryn about the time she jumped on me one morning when I was fast asleep, wanting to startle the living hell out of me. She'd certainly done just that. I jumped to my paws, squealing in alarm. When she gasped and then burst out laughing, I realized to my horror I'd woken with quite the morning erection and that it was prominently displayed beneath my belly right in front of her.

"It's_red!_" She had shrieked as I dropped myself back down to cover up, before Nary dashed away, laughing her head off.

I wasn't going to let Nary get away with telling the most embarrassing story, so I informed Kylaryn I had one even better. It was from the time shortly after Nary had reached maturity. She threatened to punch me in the eggs if I told it, but I told it anyway. It was a simple enough tale. Nary had reached the time in her life when young dragons are overwhelmed by new mating urges, and quite often vent their own growing frustrations upon their paws. It wasn't uncommon for young dragons to masturbate, and that included the females.

What was uncommon, however, was for a female dragon to incorrectly think she was home alone and to moan her self-wrought pleasures so loudly that her entire family could hear her. We all knew what she was doing, and did our best not to laugh. We were dragons, after all, even my parents knew it was normal enough. They didn't feel the need to embarrass the curious young one. I, on the other hand, felt just such a need. I waited till she was finished, laying in her furs and panting, then I poked my head into her chambers. Then I quite loudly proclaimed that next time she was going to play with her slit, she should shove her face in her furs so the rest of the family can hear themselves think. I don't think I'd ever seen a dragon's face and ears go quite so scarlet in all the rest of my life. Given that her face was scaled in ebony like mine, that was quite a feat.

During her stay, I decided to introduce Narymiryn to Korvarak. I asked her permission first, I didn't want her to get the wrong idea. But last I'd heard, Korvarak was still without a mate as well, and I wondered if he might be interested in Nary. Not that I was trying to push her to having a child of her own, but it might be nice to have more family closer to my own home. Perhaps if she and my green scaled friend hit it off, we could slowly start our own little clan here. More importantly, Nary had always had a thing for green dragons, and I knew Korvarak would treat her well.

I also thought it would be a good time for Kor to see Valar again. I'd visited Korvarak once since Valar had hatched in order to let him know my son had been born. Korvarak did come to visit us for a few days, but that was back before Valar had learned to speak. Valar seemed to like the idea of going to see another dragon, and vaguely recalled Korvarak. Even if his description of "green and runty" hardly inspired any confidence in my sister. I assured her it was just because I was the only other male dragon Valar knew, and any male dragon smaller than myself probably seemed runty to him. I also made sure to mention yet again that he was quite green.

This was the first time Valar was old enough to go on such a trip. Korvarak lived a few days flight away now, and Valar couldn't wait to leave. He loved sleeping out under the stars. I'd picked up the human word for it somewhere. Ever since I told Valar how to say it, he'd trot around the cavern chirping, "Camping, Camping!" when he wanted to spend the night outdoors. A three day journey with each night spent somewhere new seemed like quite an adventure to the little one. I made sure to take Valar's favorite blanket with us, as he never wanted to go "camping" without it.

I stopped off at Sigil Stones to pick up a gift for Korvarak's home, and to give Narymiryn a chance to see I wasn't lying when I said the humans here allowed us in their towns. The thought crossed my mind to ask around for Amaleen, but I decided not to trouble her. Besides, I knew the longer we remained in the town the more uncomfortable Kylaryn would get. I also made a quick stopover in another smaller village, the one that Korvarak used to visit most often. I asked them if they had any gifts to give their former green protector, and soon was rewarded with a basket of goodies I found myself a bit envious of. Smoked sausages and fish, cakes and pastries, candied fruit and little hand made trinkets and toys were all crammed into the basket. Korvarak must have really impressed them.

The journey to see Korvarak was a pleasant enough one, though Valaranyx did what he could to try our patience. It was hardly his fault, an energetic little hatchling could only take being carried for so long before he wanted to do something else. We took turns holding him throughout the journey to prevent our front legs from cramping up too badly. He wanted to ride upon our backs, but we didn't allow it. I knew he wouldn't be able to sit still and was afraid he'd slip and fall off. So he had to enjoy the view from within our arms. We tried to land early enough each night to give him plenty of time to run around and play and wear himself out before we all curled up for sleep.

The closer to Korvarak's land we flew the rougher the landscape got. The rolling green hills, gentle valleys and stone-studded slopes slowly gave way to towering gray peaks and steep gulches with white waters roaring down beneath them. Between the jagged granite sentinels always watching the land were wide, emerald meadows dotted here and there with deep azure lakes. Herds of elk and deer grazed, scattering towards thick pine forests as our shadows passed across them. Mountain goats picked their way across the weathered façade of tall cliffs on trails scarcely wider than their hooves. It was a beautiful land, but harsh, perfect for a dragon to call home.

In the distance a saw a flash of brown and bronze. A smaller dragon on the wing vanished around a mountain before I could get a good look at him. Judging by his colors though, I thought him likely to be the same young thing I'd sent out here a few years back to try and find himself a home away from humans. Good. I was glad to see Korvarak had allowed him to stay just as I'd once allowed Korvarak to stay on my own lands. I wondered if Korvarak had any other dragons staying within close proximity to him. There were plenty of our kin within the vast expanse of wild lands called Aran'alia. Yet as many of them were weeks of flight away I hardly knew them well. At least now that I knew where my sister lived I would get to see her more often.

I was a bit surprised to see human villages here and there. I did not think that they used to be here, but perhaps I simply had not realized how far their presence stretched. They were not near as big as Sigil Stones, closer in size to the smaller villages that had existed when I'd first taken a swath of land for myself. One of them was laid out in the center of a lovely meadow. Another village was built upon a small tract of land along the side of a mountain, and yet another seemed to have homes carved into the cliff-side itself. Admittedly it was an impressive achievement. Though we flew right over several of the villages, I did not see anyone running for cover or drawing their swords and bows. That was a good sign as it probably meant Korvarak had deals with those villages just as I had.

We talked about Korvarak as we neared his home. He'd taken the cavern once used by an old red dragon, and the especially jagged spire of stone it was carved into loomed ahead of us. Kylaryn suggested perhaps we'd embarrass him if we caught him masturbating deep inside his cavern. I laughed and shook my head, and told her to stop talking like that before the hatchling began asking too many questions. Spirits, the things that popped into her head sometimes.

As it turned out, Korvarak was just napping in the sun when we arrived. He was sprawled out in a small but lush meadow down below his mountain home. He looked fit and healthy, and had grown even since the last time I saw him. At this rate he was going to be bigger than I was before long. It would not be a terrible surprise, I knew well enough I was not the largest male dragon around. If Korvarak was well bred he could certainly grow even larger than I had.

We circled him a few times as he was fast asleep. Narymiryn got a good look at him from above, and chided me for not telling her he was such a handsome male. She said she rather wished we'd caught him masturbating after all. I replied that he'd been quite hideous the last time I saw him but I'd hoped his green scales would win her over. I also told her I was sure he'd be willing to arrange a private demonstration of his mating tool for her if she asked nicely.

Eventually we landed, and when Korvarak roused he was pleasantly surprised to see us. He was amazed by how big Valaranyx had gotten and while my young one savaged Korvarak's paws, legs and tail, the green male soon found his attention drawn by my sister. I introduced them and it was already apparent they were going to get along splendidly. They were very quickly teasing and insulting each other at every opportunity, which believe it or not, can often be a sign of affection among young dragons.

Yes Alia. It's also a sign of affection among old dragons, you old bag.

Korvarak was happy to get his gifts, and shared some of the treats with us while he gave us a tour of his home. The things the humans made for him where delicious, and even Kylaryn had to admit as much. His cavern was much larger than ours, with multiple chambers and even a bubbling spring in one area. I was a bit envious of that, and I rather wished I'd taken this place for myself and given my home to him. Still, I'd have missed my villages, though I was scarcely willing to acknowledge it. Korvarak had also developed quite a collection of his own though it wasn't quite as large as mine. Granted, it also wasn't as poorly organized.

The green scaled dragon flew us around his valley and his mountains, and took us by some of his villages as well. They all knew him well there. Though we did not spend much time in any of the villages the people did gather around and they seemed as excited to see Valar as he was to see them. Korvarak had his own arrangement with these people, one that surpassed even mine in terms of its ingenuity.

Simply offering protection was not quite enough to satisfy these villages for several reasons. The people here were already excellent hunters and knew how to keep their lands safe from wild animals. There were also few bandits to worry about, though they were not entirely unheard of. While these villagers considered this place their home, they were also willing to acknowledge that dragons had lived here just as long as humans, and probably even longer. So while they had been surprised to see Korvarak suddenly land and ask to speak with their village elders, they hadn't been hesitant to negotiate with him.

As their need for protection was less than that of the villages in the lower lands, Korvarak had eventually offered to help them more directly. He offered his services in heavy labor, anything from hauling immense logs for constructing homes, to plowing fields to moving boulders and stone, or helping to carve out homes in the cliff side. In return the people had become quite fond of him. I had to admit, I was rather proud of the little runt. Though I was glad I was not the one humiliating myself by doing some human's dirty work.

"I bet you just look adorable in some mule's plow harness," I said to him with a smirk after he explained his deals to us.

"And I bet you feel ever-so-tough scaring off hapless bandits who couldn't fight their way through tall grass," he shot right back at me, grinning. "Besides, I'd hardly fit in a mule harness. They custom fit and created one for me, actually."

"Must have been humiliating," I said, flicking my tail tip against the grass. We sat in a nice green meadow just beyond the village walls. We were feasting upon a meal the village had put together for us. We ate roasted fish and fowl, and pastries stuffed with vegetables. "Being measured for a harness like some common beast."

"Quite the contrary," he said through a mouthful of food. "The one measuring me was a woman. And she measured me in every way."

"Every way?" Narymiryn asked, her eyes widening.

"Oh yes," Korvarak gave her a wicked smile. "And she "measured me" until I finished."

"My," Nary said, giggling. "I should think that was quite a sight."

"Oh, it was," Korvarak purred to her. "Perhaps if like, I shall arrange a demonstration of my measuring stick."

"I think I might prefer a demonstration of your plowing technique."

The two of them glanced down at Valaranyx who was staring intently at them as if trying to discern just what meaning their words really held. "What's plowing?"

"It is when you dig up all the earth in a wide area," Korvarak said, smirking at Nary before gesturing with his paw towards field filled with human crops. "So that the humans can plant things."

"Why?" Valar tilted his head.

"So that the humans can grow food to eat. And to make tasty treats like this for us."

"Why?"

Korvarak just laughed and patted Valar's head, smart enough not to play that game for too long.

"Do the humans often help measure your plow?" Nary asked him again, grinning. She flexed her wings a bit, sitting on her haunches like the rest of us.

Yes, Alia, I realize she was mixing her analogies and euphemisms up but I rather doubt that was of much concern at the time.

"Once in a while," Korvarak admitted. "I hope that doesn't bother you."

Narymiryn shrugged her wings, giggling. "Not at all. It's no concern of mine what pleasures a male takes or from whom. So long as he's room for others to ride his plow."

"my dear, my plow is more than big enough for plenty of females."

"Are you sure you're not speaking of your ego?" Kylaryn interjected, nudging me with a paw. "Valyrym seems to think he's the biggest plow in the land but I think he may have just spent too many years with human girls."

I snapped my jaws at her, grinning. "Hush, female. I have yet to hear you complain about it!"

Kylaryn shrugged her own wings as nonchalantly as she could. "Any old average sized plow still tills the earth well enough, I suppose." With a truly wicked grin, she glanced back and forth between Korvarak and myself a few times. "Perhaps some time when Valar's out playing, we shall have to get them both heavily excited and have them compare their..." Her smirk widened. "Plows."

"What?!" Korvarak nearly chocked on his own tongue, staring at me as if I was the one who'd just suggested such a thing.

"Don't look at me," I said, waving a paw. "I can never tell what's going on in Kylaryn's mind."

Kylaryn clearly savored his embarrassment. She nipped at my neck. "Perhaps Valyrym would even be so good at to press his plow against Korvarak's and let me watch."

That time I was the one who nearly choked. I jerked my head back from her. "Balls, female! The things you come up with!"

Valar giggled, bouncing on his paws. "Balls, balls, balls!" He ducked his head to peer under his belly and giggle even more. "I have balls!"

"You certainly do," Narymiryn said, joining in his giggling. "So does Korvarak." She smirked at him, making a show of glancing at his green eggs as he sat upon his haunches. "They don't harness those up, do they?"

Korvarak scrunched his snout. "No! And thank the Gods they dont! Though...I'd let you harness them, if you wanted..."

"Oh?" Nary lifted her eye ridges a little, grinning. "Into that, are you?"

Korvarak gulped, finding it harder and harder to keep coming up with euphemisms that would go over Valar's head. "Haven't really been...hitched to the plow...that way...but...the idea is...intriguing."

"Mmm, it certainly is," Nary said, leaning in to lick his neck. Korvarak murmured a little bit, his spines flaring. "I hope being touched by all those human girls and made to plow fields with it hasn't desensitized it too badly..."

"Oh, the human girls certainly don't...wait, I don't use IT to plow the fields!"

Which was of course the joke. Everyone laughed as Korvarak flushed scarlet, lending his green scales a slightly purple hue around his nostrils, and inside his ears. Narymiryn continued to lick Korvarak's neck, stroking his tail with her own. As the rest of us finished laughing, Valar started giggling all over again. I wasn't sure what he was laughing about now until he lifted his paw and pointed over at Korvarak.

"Your thing is showing, your thing is showing!"

Kovarak blinked, looked down at himself, and gave a decidedly un-draconic squeak when he realized Nary's attentions had coaxed out a few inches of red flesh from his green sheath. He dropped onto his belly to cover himself up, flushing so dark that the inside of his frilled green ears had nearly gone purple. Valar giggled and giggled, holding his muzzle in his front paws and lazily shaking his head back and forth.

"Yes, yes," Korvarak muttered, his embarrassment complete. "It's all very funny now. Just wait till you're my age and some little whelp is giggling about your erection."

"What's a re-rection?" Valar scrunched his muzzle.

"Nicely done, Korvarak," I muttered. "And never you mind what that is, Valar. That's something adults talk about."

Valar proved a little too smart for his own good. "Is that when your thing comes out?"

Narymiryn giggled, unable to help herself. "Yes, Valar, that's exactly what it is. But it's not nice for younglings to talk about. Only adults get to talk about that."

Valar scrunched his muzzle. "Don't wanna anyway!"

"If you don't mind, dear sister," I said to Nary, hissing just a little. "There are some things he doesn't need to know just yet. Now..." I gestured with a paw towards the still-embarrassed green dragon. "Would you two like us to head back to Korva's home, and leave you two alone for a while?"

The two dragons gazed at each other. Nary giggled and looked away, and Korva gave us a sheepish grin, still laying on his belly. They both murmured but neither of them said anything the least bit comprehensible. Nary was starting to flush inside her ears a little bit too. As far as I was concerned, that settled it.

"Come on, Kylaryn." I hoisted up Valar into a front leg, cradling him against my body. "Let's give Nary some time to inspect Korvarak's plow. Hopefully she doesn't find it rusted or with too many defects."

"Hey!" Korvarak growled, lifting his head. "My plow is in excellent condition!"

"Must be all the greasing you do with your own paws," I snapped back at him, and leapt into the air before he could offer any more retorts.

Kylaryn and I took Valaranyx back to Korvarak's home and let him run around the place till he'd tired himself out. We also let him dig through Korvarak's things. The place was messy enough already and Korvarak didn't seem to mind the idea of an energetic hatchling roaming around without him. Valaranyx didn't get himself into to much trouble, though he did temporarily get stuck inside a rather ornate suit of armor Korvarak laid out along a wall. Valar also went for a swim in the warm waters of the small spring held within one of the chambers of Korva's home. Kylaryn and I had been teaching him to swim and he'd come to quite enjoy it.

By the time Korvarak and Narymiryn finally returned, Valar was not only already asleep, but Kylaryn and I had helped ourselves to a highly enjoyable shared bath in the warm waters of the spring. At first I wasn't sure she wanted to risk getting caught if Valar woke up, but it wasn't long after we'd been bathing that she asked me if I was going to plow her field or not. Sometimes I swore that female was hornier than I was.

No, Alia. I certainly did not complain.

When my sister and her new friend returned at last, it wasn't long before we were all curled up to sleep. Kylaryn and I snuggled with Valar, and Korvarak lay nearby with Nary cuddled up against him. When Korvarak was asleep, and just as I was dozing off, I heard Kylaryn whispering to the other female.

"Well?" Kylaryn asked.

"Well what?" Nary whispered back, playing innocent.

"Did you just...inspect it till he was satisfied? Or did he...plow the fields, too?"

Nary giggled, and ignored me as I curled up a wing over my head. I didn't really want to listen to my sister's mating escapades. She whispered back to my mate anyway. "Both! I played till he was satisfied cause I enjoying the resulting show. Then later I let him try out his plow upon my field."

"And?"

"And...it's actually a very nice plow."

By now I was half-sure they were just trying to tease me. "Will you two shut up!"

They both giggled softly, but when Korvarak spoke up they quickly went silent, realizing he'd been listening in the whole time. "I'm glad you enjoyed it!"

Just what they needed. More fuel to the fire of a male dragon's ego. Still, as a male dragon myself, I couldn't help but feel proud of my friend. So long as he was already awake, I glanced over to him, smirking. "Nicely done, Korvarak."

"Thank you, Valyrym."

"Will you two shut up!" Narymiryn hissed, sounding even grumpier than when I said it.

Valar seemed to be the only one who was actually asleep. He snored to himself, and I was glad he wasn't awake for this conversation. Korvarak grinned at me a moment, lifting his head just a little. "What about you, Valyr? Did you plow Kylaryn's field, too?"

"I certainly did," I smirked back at him.

Kor looked at Kylaryn, repeating her earlier question. "And?"

Kylaryn snuggled up at me, and for once made no attempt to knock my ego down a notch. Perhaps she felt just slightly competitive over my performance as a mate compared to Korvarak's. "He was quite satisfying, today...intensely so."

Korvarak grinned. "Nicely done."

Laughing, I laid my head down next to Kylaryn's to get some sleep. "Thank you."

---

Chapter Nine

---

We spent a week with Korvarak. Valar really enjoyed himself. Every day he got to see and explore new places and eat new things. Nary and Kor really enjoyed themselves as well, though their enjoyment was of a slightly different sort. I was glad to see that aside from the simple, primal joys of mating and sharing pleasure, their friendship also grew. It was not uncommon for dragons to share pleasure with others they were friends with, especially if they did not have a mate at the time. Considering that Kylaryn and I were somewhat tenuous as far as how closely mated we really were, I wouldn't have minded too much if she had a little fun with Korvarak, too. Though, I might have wanted to watch.

Yes, Alia, I know, I know, that's very dragonly of me to say. Wait, did you pick that up from Amaleen? ...Remind me not to tell you any parts of my story you can use against me in the future.

It wasn't as though Kylaryn didn't feel the same way about me having fun with other dragons. After Kylaryn kept teasing me about getting me to compare my maleness to Korvarak's. I got the distinct impression she would have enjoyed watching me play with Kor's arousal, too. I could not say I was especially interested in other males, though in my experience most dragons did not find the idea especially repulsive or anything.

The way dragons generally saw it, a dragon enjoyed what a dragon enjoyed. To most dragons it was simply no concern of theirs if someone liked the opposite gender, the same gender, or both genders. That didn't mean I was going to go out of my way to compare the weapon in my sheath to that of Korvarak. Embarrassed as he was, I got the odd feeling that Korvarak was a little more open to the idea than I was. Then again, it was just as likely he was trying to impress Narymiryn.

Narymiryn and Korvarak quickly became fast friends though, and by the time we were ready to head back to my home, they had promised to visit each other again. Korvarak had offered to visit her next, if she could give him good instructions on how to reach her lair. I told him to feel free to put an egg inside her and convince her to come and live with him. It said it just as much to rattle my sister as I did to try and get her to live closer to me.

Korvarak and I pledged not to hit each other in the balls before we parted this time. As the score between us in that regard was still even, it seemed as good a place as any to leave it be. Of course Nary questioned me on that, and I had to explain a bit of history there. That in turn got Nary to say she wanted to see us hit each other there, and at that point I picked up my son and took to the skies.

Valar began referring to Nary as Aunt Narymiryn, and Kor as Uncle Korvarak. When I told him Korvarak wasn't quite his uncle yet my sister gave me a dirty look and snapped her teeth. Though the seed was planted as she'd certainly come to like Korvarak herself. Valar spent a few days asking where Uncle Korvarak was. He didn't seem to like our explanation that he lived too far away and come and visit every day.

Valaranyx also didn't like it when it was time for Narymiryn to go home, and rather tearfully made her promise to come back soon. She in turn made me promise to bring Valar to see her sometime, when he was old enough for a long trip. I found myself a bit choked up when I said goodbye to my sister. Though dragons do sometimes tend to live solitary lives, our emotions run quite deep, and quite strong. I'd almost forgotten just how much I cared for her in the many years we'd been apart. Yet my love for my younger sister was raw and powerful now that I had to say goodbye to her again. I hugged her tightly with front legs and wings alike, and she returned the gesture. She circled us in the skies and waved and then slowly disappeared across the horizon.

Seeing how happy I was to be with my sister again had only strengthened the desire to find her own brother that had been slowly growing inside Kylaryn. She was glad to have found my own family. We still hoped to see my parents again soon. Kylaryn had also found a few other former clan mates, but still hadn't located her brother. I knew she needed closure, though. One way or another, she had to find him. From what she heard from the other dragons she came across, she had hope that he was still alive, and had taken up residence as far from humanity as he could. Given the fate of their parents, I could not blame him.

I still did not know all the details of the attack on my former clan, and perhaps I never would. I knew it was a very painful subject for Kylaryn. I also knew that she'd been prepared to tell me all about it that day I defended my road from her. She felt quite slighted by me that day, and had mistakenly assumed I didn't really care about her family, or my old clan. Now, she knew that was not the case but...she did not really seem to wish to discuss it. She'd done an admirable job of putting that pain behind her, and she probably preferred to leave it there rather than let it hurt her again in the retelling of the tale.

In the same way, I had not asked my sister for details. My younger sister had fled with my parents when the clan was attacked, and as a result her own tale might not be so harrowing. Then again, I imagine that she too had seen dragons die at the hands of humans that day. I wanted her stay with me to be a pleasant one, and so I had not questioned her about the fate of our clan. Besides, it would do me little good to hear a horror story that occurred before I'd even met Lenira, let alone fathered my son.

Kylaryn began to take longer trips away. She always checked with me first, as I would have to watch Valar all by myself for a while. I did not mind, I knew she was pulled heavily by some unseen urge to try and learn of her brother's fate. Valar was harder to convince. Any time she told him she'd be gone for a while, he started tearing up. She tried to make a game of it for him. She told him that he had to be strong while she was away so that Valar could look out for his father.

Very true, Val Junior. He probably did a better job looking for me than I did for myself.

The first few days any time she was gone were always the hardest on Valaranyx. But after a little while he got mostly back to normal. There were after all plenty of young dragons who did not have both their parents there to raise them. There were even a few young dragons who due to various circumstances had to raise themselves in the wilds. Still, after seeing how happy he'd been with Nary and Korvarak around him, I did feel a little badly for the lovely whelp. After all Nary and I had grown up with an entire clan, we had friends to play with beyond our families. Valar only had Kylaryn and I, and sometimes he only had one of us.

I wondered to myself if he might like to play with humans, but it seemed a nearly foreign idea and I pushed it aside.

When Kylaryn was away, I took Valaranyx camping often. The little whelp loved it. At night, he'd sprawl upon his blanket and I'd curl around him. If he wasn't ready to sleep I would tell him stories, most of which I made up off the top of my head. Luckily he was too young to worry about things like plot holes or inconsistent character descriptions in tales I'd hardly had a chance to complete for him, much less finalize and polish up to tell him again. Other times I'd show him the stars far above us and teach him the shapes they made. He liked the Tail Chasing Hatchling, because it reminded him of himself.

At first we only camped near my cavern. As Valar grew a little more and Kylaryn was sometimes gone for longer periods of time, we would venture further from my home to camp out for a night or two. I tried to take Valar to places he hadn't been yet as he loved to see new things. I took him to a rocky stream and tried to teach him to fish but he wasn't very good at it. To catch fish, a dragon had to wait very patiently in or near the water, and then swift as could be lash out to spear a passing fish with his claws. Valar lacked the patience to wait but he had just as much fun trying to chase down the silvery fish that darted through the waters.

Sometimes I took him to my road to show him the signs proclaimed my protection over these lands. I explained what they meant, though I myself couldn't read a word they said. A few times when we ventured near the cities, we met humans. If they were travelers from a local village or patrols of armored guards from nearby, I knew they were safe and let Valar run to meet them. He was always happy to speak to them in their own tongue, I think it made him proud to be able to do so. Sometimes they were clearly foreign though, and I had to tell Valar not to go near them. After all people traveling from other realms might not realize the dragons here were...well, I'd not call myself friendly, but I was not immediately hostile.

When we journeyed further from my home, off in the general direction of my old clan, I saw more people than usual on the roads. Hazy smoke rose in the distance, and I decided not to get too close. It looked as though there were unfamiliar towns or large encampments expanding well beyond the edges of my land, and that was something best investigated without a vulnerable youngling wriggling in my paws. Not that it really mattered to me where humans were building new towns. Though, the idea of some large encampment there did make me a little uneasy. It had been a large force of men that drove away my old clan, after all. Now and then I saw rather official looking groups of foreigners traveling my road. They never went very deep into my lands, at least not that I could tell.

One day while I was out camping I got a better look at them. A small group of them had left my road to wander up a side trail. Though I was not familiar with the workings of humans, from what I could tell the group seemed centered around some sort of scout, or perhaps an official messenger on horseback. He was surrounded by about a half dozen armored men there to protect them, also astride horses. Small blue and gray banners with some kind of stone keep emblazoned upon them waved from poles hooked into the saddle and barding of the messenger's horse. Something about the colors made me wary. They seemed to be the same colors Kylaryn once described to me as those of the army who slaughtered members of our clan.

I circled them a few times, watching. When they spotted my shadow, one man yelled out an order and the whole group of them scattered. They seemed to be trying to turn themselves from one clustered target into many. I had no intentions of attacking them, especially not with Valar in my arms. I saw some of the armored men draw crossbows from their backs, and decided that was enough of that. They clearly had no idea I was not their enemy, and I did not wish to give them a chance to make me just that.

We returned to our campground, and I gathered up Valar's blanket and the few little toys he'd brought. Over the years he'd claimed some of my possessions as toys, and on a few occasions the humans had left me baskets filled with other gifts for him. There were little wooden dragons and toy soldiers and even a stuffed dragon that Valar affectionate called Squigg for reasons I'll never understand.

You see, Val Junior? It could have been worse. You could have been named Squigg.

As Valar saw me packing things up he sniffled and whined and complained and begged to stay for one more night. I reasoned we were likely far enough from the humans that we would be safe. Besides, we were high atop a series of rocky ledges that they would have trouble scaling anyway. What I had not reasoned for was the fact that Valar could get_down_ those ledges.

He must have used his wings. Though he was not old enough to fly, and his wings were not developed enough to truly carry his weight, he had recently discovered that if he leapt off a high enough place with his wings fully outstretched he could glide a little ways. I did not think him bold enough to try and leap off a high rocky ledge in the middle of the night, but I must have greatly underestimated the courage of hatchlings. Perhaps even more so than the children of other species, young dragons often believed themselves invincible.

They are not.

Valar's scream came to me first as some terrible, twisted figment of my dream. I thought it a nightmare for several seconds before the horrible, piercing sound of it woke me. Thinking instead it was _his_nightmare, I instinctively began to tug the little one against my body to comfort him. He usually slept between my foreleg and my body, but when I went to pull him closer, there was nothing there. It was then I realized Valaranyx was not with me, and the scream I heard was all too real.

It was an atrocious sound. A sound not only of a hatchling's terror, but of a hatchling's pain. Wherever Valaranyx was, someone was hurting him.

I should...I should very much like a drink of that rum now please, Alia. Thank you. Give me just a moment, if you will.

I shot to my feet and leapt off the ledge. His squeal was loud, sharp. He was not far away. A single beat of my wings carried me over the rocks and down to the small clearing in the forest below. I hit the ground in full sprint, racing through the trees. Though my heart was thudding so swiftly I feared it might give out, there was no panic in me. There was only anger and fear along with the unquenchable desire to protect my son and destroy whoever harmed him. My blood pounded in my veins, I could hear it pulsing in my head in a steady, rushing throb.

I knew it was the humans I had seen earlier before I even glimpsed them or smelled their scents. They'd probably tracked us, and Valar must have woken and spied them moving through the forest. The night was clear, and the moon full, and his eyes were sharp. Valar probably wanted to go and greet them. It was my fault, in a way. I had not done a good enough job telling him that some humans were very dangerous to dragons. His scream ended for a moment, and still panic did not hit me. I had no time to panic, and no room in my thoughts to allow the possibility of the worst to set in.

When his scream returned, closer to me than before, it spurred me on even faster. The first glimpse I had of him broke my heart. His little black and blue body was soaked with blood, shining crimson in the moonlight. He'd dragged himself behind a tree, desperate to hide from those who had hurt him. At least two crossbow bolts jutted from his body, one near his hip, the other in his ribs, beneath his wing joint. I wanted to hold him, to comfort him, to tell him he would be alright, but in my heart I did not know if that was true. And I could not take time to help him until I had protected him.

Protect him. It was one of my only jobs as his father, and I had already failed.

More rum, please.

Valar reached for me weakly as he saw me coming. A little blood dribbled from his mouth. Oh, Gods. How badly had they hurt him? Please let him live. Please. Let him live. The thoughts repeated over and over in my brain as I reached him, and forced myself to continue beyond him. I shouted for him to stay where he was, that I would come for him in a moment. Just stay there. Just hold on. But in my head, all I could think was please, please, please let him live.

I did not know who I was speaking to. I had never been an especially religious creature. I did not deny the existence of higher powers in whatever form they may take. Yet I had never completely believed in them, either. Now, though, with my son bleeding out behind me, I called to them in my head over and over.

Please, Gods, let him live.

As I passed beyond the tree Valar had hidden behind, I saw the first human. And then I saw the second, and third, and then I saw their blood. I ran right through the first of them. I lowered my head and rammed it into his chest at full sprint. He wore hardened steel plates across his body but they crumpled beneath the impact of my horns and thick skull, powered on by the full momentum of a charging dragon. His armor collapsed into his chest, shattering his sternum against his heart and his heart against his spine even as the impact lifted him completely off his feet and hurled him through the air. The force of the collision made him cough blood on me.

The second man only had time to raise his crossbow before I'd reached him as well and torn his face from his head and his head from his body. Blood gushed, bright and shining in the moonlight filtering through the trees but all I could think about was the scarlet wetness covering my son's scales. The third man thought to duck behind a tree, perhaps in an attempt to step out and attack me from behind after I passed. He did not get that chance, either, as no sooner was I passing by than I lashed out with my tail. The spines of it punctured his armor with a loud metallic thunk. That noise covered up the squishier sounds made as my tail spines perforated his belly and his bowels in several places. He gasped, falling to his knees, his guts attempting to leave his body through several holes in his armor.

I knew there were more. I heard a noise, and pain burst to life in the back of my right front leg. A crossbow bolt suddenly jutted from the backside of my limb, where the scales were thin. Had it hit the front of my leg, my scutes likely would have deflected it. The human who fired it was either lucky or knew where to aim. Yet, as filled with fury and adrenaline as I was, the pain was but a minor inconvenience. Turning, I saw the man reloading his crossbow. I sucked in a swift breath, and roared my fury as I bathed him deeply in my dragon's fire. He screamed for only a second before the heat of the flames seared his throat beyond function.

Disregarding what extra damage it might do to me, I lifted my front leg, curled my head back on my long neck and took the end of the bolt in my teeth. I pulled my head back smoothly as I could and dragged the projectile out of my flesh. I spat the thing out, blood poured down my leg and over my paw. I had no time to deal with my own wound beyond that. Behind me I could still hear Valar howling in pain, though his voice had gotten softer. I heard men shouting at each other to retreat, that they weren't equipped to handle an adult dragon. That was good enough for me. Much as I wished for revenge on them all, my only concern now was saving my son. I turned and ran back towards my Valaranyx.

Valar was huddled behind the tree, shaking and sobbing. Blood was still running from around the bolts that punctured him. From the looks of things, he'd tried to pull one of them out with his teeth as I had. But he had been unable to do so, and had only made the wound worse. I called his name, and his head lolled a bit, his eyes glazed over in pain and shock.

"Gods," I moaned, tears filling my golden eyes. "Valar...Oh, Valaranyx...I...I don't know...how to help you..."

One thing was certain. If I did nothing at all he was going to die.

Yet I wasn't sure if I could safely pull those bolts out. Mine had only been lodged in my front leg, his were deeper. And when he squirmed a moment as a wave of agony washed through him, I spotted another bolt, buried deep in his side, below his rib cage. Gods, that could have been in his belly, or his liver, or his kidney. I knew our anatomy in general terms but not the exact location of every organ. I knew that if the bolts were removed, and the bleeding stopped and his wounds tended he might yet live. Dragons were very sturdy creatures. We lived long lives, we rarely took to diseases we could not fight off, and our injuries healed swiftly and strongly. Yet these were very serious injuries that I myself would not be able to adequately care for.

But I had to do something.

An idea came to me, and though it seemed half-insane, I had no other choice. "I'm sorry, Valar, I'm so sorry. This is going to hurt, but I have to get you to someone who can help you." I scooped him up in my front paws, and when he squealed in fresh agony, I burst into tears of my own. Oh, Gods. Why did this have to happen to him? He didn't deserve this. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I told him over and over.

I leapt into the skies off my hind legs, beat my wings a few times, and soon dropped onto the ledge we'd been camping on. He was trembling in my grasp, he felt a little cool. I knew a bit about tending injured dragons from my clan days. Though a dragon could recover from almost any wound that wasn't fatal within the first day or so, serious enough wounds or loss of blood would put even a dragon into a state of shock. As a youngling myself, I was taught when that happened the dragon should be kept warm. Valar already felt cold, so I decided to wrap him in his blanket.

Valar wailed in pain and fear as I worked to get the blanket around him, doing what I could to avoid jarring the bolts any further. "I know, my love, I know," I sobbed to him. "I know it hurts, but you have to be strong. We're going to go get you some help. They'll help you, I promise. Just hold onto me, little one."

Strangely, I felt guilty for ruining his favorite blanket with the bloodstains that quickly began to soak it. Considering what else I had to worry about, it was a strange concern to find myself burdened with. In the back of my mind, it occurred to me in an oddly detached way that I was probably going into shock, too. It was a shame that Lenira and Amaleen hadn't knitted an even bigger blanket for me to wrap myself in.

Once he was cradled in his favorite blanket, I was about to return to the sky when I spotted Squigg. In that same oddly detached way, I feared my son might be lonely without his favorite stuffed toy. I took Squigg in my jaws, and leapt back to the skies. I tried to keep my ascension as smooth as I could, and swiftly leveled off. Then I beat my wings against the air as though furious with the sky itself. I flew faster and faster, till my wings ached and my lungs burned and I could scarcely get enough air to power my body. At some point I passed Squigg from my jaws to a paw, clutching him and my son alike. As I flew, Valar's screams died down, and his sobs grew weaker and weaker, till he was just whining pitifully against me. The blanket felt wet, and cold against my paws as I held him.

"Please live," I said to myself. "Please live. Please live!"

Over and over I spoke it.

I made for Sigil Stones. I was screaming her name even before I'd set foot in the central plaza. I knew she could help him. She had to! If anyone could help him, it was her.

Yes, Alia.

"Amaleen!" I called out as I descended in a sharp spiral. "AMALEEEEEEN!"

Armored guards ran towards me as I landed and I very nearly attacked them. For a moment, one armored human was the same as the others. In his half conscious state, Valar caught a glimpse of more men in armor, and he howled in terror, shaking his head softly. I told him as I told myself it was alright, these men were our friends. These men would help us. Valar only moaned pitifully.

"Amaleen!" I shouted at the guards before they'd even reached me. "Bring me Amaleen!"

They skidded to a stop, each of them with a shield buckled over one arm, and a long halberd clenched in their other hand. They seemed uncertain about following my orders, and in the darkness they probably couldn't tell that I was clutching a bloodstained blanket with my son slowly dying inside. One of them opened his mouth to question me, and I roared at him. I roared louder than I could ever remember roaring in my life. So loud that goods rattled in crates, windows vibrated in their moorings, and one of the men dropped his equipment to clap his hands over his ears, helmet and all.

"Bring me AMALEEEN!" I screamed at the men, advancing on three paws.

"What in all the hells are you DOING, Dragon?!" Amaleen's voice hit me like a knife thrown through the darkness. "I heard you well enough when you were screaming my name from the skies! You didn't have land and let out that god-awful roar and wake half the city!" I turned and saw her storming towards me from a nearby street. Even barefoot and dressed in a blue nightgown she looked ready to fight it out with a dragon. "You'd better have a damn good..."

Her voice trailed off when she saw just what blanket I was clutching to myself, and just how bloodstained it was. "Valyrym...Is...is that..."

"Please help him..." I said, my voice shaking violently. I flopped down on my haunches, my vision narrowing. Gods, I was going to pass out if I wasn't careful. I eased Valaranyx away from my body and held him out, bloodied blanket and all, to Amaleen. To the only person I could think of who might be able to save him. "Please, Amaleen. Please, Gods. Please help him!"

"Alright, Valyrym, alright," she said swiftly, opening the blanket to look him over. Her face contorted as if she was in pain, too. "Gods above. Who did...never mind. Give him here."

I hesitated. "Can't you help him here?" I didn't want her to carry him off somewhere. If these were to be his last moments on earth, I wanted to be there with him.

Amaleen looked up at me, her voice soft as the blanket in which my son was wrapped. "No, Val. I can't." She had never called me Val before. "I have to take him to my home, where all my tools and herbs and things are. I have to get these bolts out of him and I have to stop his bleeding and I have to do it right now, Val. Please, let me take him. Let me help him, Val."

I did not want to give him up, but I knew any further hesitation may cost Valaranyx his life. I offered him to her, and as gently as she could, she took him in her arms and lifted him away from the blanket. He was big enough now to be a heavy burden for a woman to carry, especially as he writhed in pain. But she bore him with ease and with no complaint, and quickly turned away from me to rush back towards her home. Fresh blood dribbled from Valaranyx and left a trail of red droplets behind Amaleen. She called out to the guards who had gone silent. As they began to follow her Amaleen ordered them to go and fetch her apprentices as fast as possible and instruct them all to bring their entire litany of healing supplies.

The guards split up and sprinted off through the town. I watched them a moment, and followed Amaleen as she hurried down the side street she'd come from. I carried Valar's blanket in my jaws. I tasted his blood. It tasted like guilt. This was my fault. I knew we should not have camped one more night, and I let him change my mind because I did not like to see him upset. Now, because of that, I might never see him again.

When we reached Amaleen's home, she shifted Valaranyx carefully to free a hand to push the door open. Then she glanced back at me. "You have to wait here, Val."

Amaleen walked inside. I set Valar's blanket down on the ground along with Squigg, then I pushed my head through the door. The place smelled of Amaleen and of all manner of herbs. From the entryway I had a glimpse of a room filled with soft looking couches and padded chairs, a room filled with shelves of books, and a kitchen with long strings of drying herbs strung out above wooden counters. She took Valaranyx to a large wooden table nearby. Gingerly as she could, she lay him down, and he moaned softly in pain. She went to the strings of herbs and began swiftly snatching things down. Then she returned to the table, and pressed a handful of dried herbs against my son's muzzle. He struggled weakly for a moment, and then began to relax.

"What are you doing?!" I cried out, reaching through the doorway with a paw as to stop her.

"Valyrym," she turned around, her voice sharp, authoritative. "I'm very sorry, but you have to wait outside." She held the herbs up. "These are...well, they're a special sort of toxin. They..."

"Toxin?" I gasped, and looked at the door frame and wall around it, judging how much effort I'd have to put into tearing my way into her home to rescue my son.

"Valyrym!" she snapped, drawing my attention. "I am going to help your son but you cannot be distracting me right now. Toxin was a bad choice of words, but when they're inhaled for a few moments they cause a person to lose consciousness. Thankfully the same effect seems to occur on dragons. Your son is in agony, Valyrym, and I would rather he sleep now. Surely you agree."

I knew in my heart Amaleen was right. Just as I knew she'd never hurt Valaranyx. But the adrenaline was gone from my system now, and I was starting to panic. "Of course," I murmured. "Help him...please..." I didn't know what else to say.

Amaleen pressed the herbs to Valaranyx's snout again when he stirred. She cooed to him as he slowly went still once more, gently stroking his neck with her hand. "Shush, Little One. It's alright. Just breathe it in, it's only going to help you sleep for a while. It's alright."

When Valaranyx had gone still save for his labored breathing, Amaleen walked back towards me, still holding the herbs. My head was still inside her home. She held her hand out towards me. "Breathe these in, dragon."

"I don't want to sleep," I murmured. My stomach was twisting and churning so hard it hurt. My heart hurt, too, and not just from pounding so ceaselessly.

"You won't." Amaleen glanced at her hand. "This is enough to put a young dragon, or a child to sleep easily. Maybe even an adult human if they breathed it long enough. But it's only going to help an adult dragon relax a little."

"I don't want to," I said, shaking my head, my neck abutting both sides of her door frame.

"Valyrym, you're in a panic. You need to relax." She held the herbs out towards me. "I need you to relax. And I need you to wait outside. I can't have you distracting me, and you're not going to want to watch those bolts come out. Please, Valyrym."

I heard shouts and footfalls down the street as her apprentices began to arrive, now lead by a whole contingent of guards. No doubt my roar had awoken much of the town, and rumors were probably already spreading. I glanced down at the approaching humans, and then with a sigh pressed my muzzle to Amaleen's hand. I inhaled deeply through my nose. The scent was bitter and pungent, and a few inhalations left my head swimming. I could feel my heart slowly easing its frantic pace. My vision swam a little, and I stumbled back away from the door, flopping onto my haunches.

"There," Amaleen said, smiling at me from the doorway. "You feel better?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. My vision blurred a bit. "I feel...odd."

"Less panicked? A little more relaxed?"

"A little," I admitted, shaking my head. "My head is spinning."

"That will clear in a moment, Dragon." She waved to her apprentices as she saw them coming. "Hurry, you fools. If we don't tend this child immediately, he won't make the morning."

For some reason, that put me more at ease. She'd called my son a child. Not a dragon, not a hatchling, but a child. That was how I thought of him, of course, but that was not how many humans thought of dragons. I was glad to see Amaleen thought of him that way, though. It told me she would care for him as intently as she would care for any human child.

Amaleen smiled at me from the doorway after everyone she needed was inside. "I will do everything I can for him, Valyrym, and I will come to you as soon as I can."

Then she closed the door, and left me sitting in the middle of a human city, with my son's life in the hands of the woman who once hated me.

---

Chapter Ten

---

I remained just outside Amaleen's home all night. The guards were kind enough to cordon off the area so that curious humans did not get too close to me. As the night wore on, the guards sent many of them home. At some point, I fetched the bloodstained blanket from just outside Amaleen's door, then returned to my place in the middle of the street. I held it in my paws, pressed my muzzle to it and whimpered into the bloodstained quilt. Now and then my tears wet it further, though for the most part I found I did not cry much. I was simply too scared to sob.

Valaranyx's blood coated my paws. It already had before I took his blanket in them, and it coated them further when I began to compulsively knead it. I worked the blanket back and forth between my fingers, wringing it in my grasp, whining and whimpering. I did not know what I would do without Valaranyx. He had become my world. Each minute seemed like hours and each hour seemed like years spent waiting in quiet, terrified uncertainty.

I saw lights and movement beyond the windows of Amaleen's home as they walked from one room to another and back again, carrying lanterns with them to light their way through darkened chambers. I wanted to open the door and look inside. I wanted to stare through the windows. I wanted to ask how he was. But Amaleen was right. I'd only be a distraction right now, and the less distractions she had the better her chances of saving my son.

At one point, one of her apprentices came outside. He was a young man, and hatchling blood now stained the dark blue nightclothes he'd still be wearing when he came running from his house. He did not know me, and I did not know him, but he came over and told me it was going to be alright. He appreciated his words but I could tell his mood was still tense. He had little time to comfort me.

He held a wooden bowl in one hand, with some kind of stone rattling around inside it. In his other hand he held some kind of hammer with a wide, flat end. He walked around the side of the house to one of several large, iron bound barrels Amaleen had around her house. I had not taken the time to really notice the details of her home before, or any of the others. But they all had gently sloped roofs, and a variety of gutters and channels and pipes designed to funnel the frequently falling silver rains away from their home. Some of the gutters and pipes lead to barrels where the rain was collected.

The man set his hammer down, then pulled the stone from the bowl. It looked like some sort of rough, faintly blue gem. He dipped the wooden bowl into one of the rain barrels, and then set it aside. There was a large table nearby, along the side of Amaleen's home made from slabs of gray and white stone. He set the coarse hewn gem down atop the stone table, pulled a cloth from his pocket and lay it out over the gem. Then he hefted the hammer, and brought it down sharply against the stone, shattering it into several pieces. Then he hit each piece a few more times, breaking them into smaller and smaller bits. With a flourish he removed the cloth, and wispy swirls of silver floated away into the air like tiny twisting, glittering clouds of quicksilver. He held the bowl at the side of the table, and scooped the dust from the shattered jewel into the silvery rain water. He peered into the bowl, stirred it with a finger, and then retreated back to Amaleen's home.

Amaleen met him at the door, and looked into the bowl herself. She nodded, and another of her apprentices came forward. The second apprentice was a young woman, and when she held her fist out over the bowl, a little blood dribbled from it and into the water. After a moment Amaleen took the bowl, and ushered her apprentices back inside.

Amaleen stared at me from the doorway, then gave me a little smile as she stirred the mixture in the bowl with a wooden spoon. "It's going well so far, Valyrym."

"...Thank you," I murmured, kneading the ruined blanket again.

Amaleen nodded and quickly went back inside. I wanted to ask her what they were doing with the blood and rainwater and stone dust but I knew she didn't have time to answer a worried dragon's questions. And aside from my own curiosity, as long as it helped my son I didn't care what the hell she was doing. She could drain me of _my_blood if it would help him live.

I had no way to keep track of the time that passed. They seemed very busy inside. Their silhouettes moved past the windows now and then. At one point, I could see them carefully carrying Valaranyx to another part of the house. Then they all stood around him again, and it looked as though they were wrapping him in something. Perhaps they were bandaging him, that meant they were almost done, didn't it? Unless he'd already died. Then they might be wrapping him in a funeral shroud.

I wished Amaleen would bring me more of those herbs.

In time, the clear, star-speckled darkness of night was gently painted in the distance by dawn's brush. Purple, bruised hues stretched across the horizon. I stared off into the distance for a little while, as if waiting for the sun to rise. I barely noticed when the door opened and a very weary looking Amaleen began to approach me.

"Val?" She said softly.

I quickly turned my head towards her, searching her face for some kind of answer. Amaleen looked...well, I couldn't tell how she looked. Both concerned and relieved at the same time, and that could have meant any number of things. I licked my nose, and lowered my head a little, forcing myself to ask a very painful, and very direct question. I had spent all night waiting, and now I had to know the fate of my son.

"Is he still alive?" Soft as my voice was, I was almost surprised she could hear me.

"Yes, Val," Amaleen replied, walking up place her hand on my muzzle. "He's still alive. I think he's going to pull through."

"Oh, thank the Gods," I said in a rush, my heart pounding so hard in jubilation and relief I could hear my blood thudding inside my skull. "He's going to be alright, then?"

"He's..." Amaleen trailed off, and then gave me a smile that was entirely too forced. "He's going to live."

"What's wrong?" My heart went from racing in joy to frozen in fear in an instant.

"He...well, I'm hardly an expert on dragon anatomy, but...He's very badly injured. It's possible he might...well..."

"Just tell me, Amaleen," I said, my voice flat, and fearful.

Amaleen nodded. "He might not fly, Val. If he does, it will be harder for him than it should be. One of the bolts, the one near his wing, it seems to have severed a tendon there, that appears to be used for the motion of his wings. It's just...well, I don't know, Val, he might be able to fly just fine when he's healed. I just...I wanted you to know. There's more, too."

I hadn't heard anything she said after 'he might not fly.' My stomach lurched, and my ears rang. He might never fly? My son might never fly? All because I'd been careless. This was my fault. My poor son. There were few things in a dragon's life they cherished more than the gift of flight. Without our wings, without our flight, we were only half a dragon. Perhaps it was egotistical of us, but to be land bound like any other common creature was among the most terrible, cursed fates a dragon could imagine. And now that may be the only future my son ever had. Robbed of his chance to soar the skies before he'd even once ascended upon his own wings.

I suddenly rose to my feet, and turned away from Amaleen. I stumbled my way to the side of the road. The road that Amaleen's house was on ran alongside a small stream, and I barely reached the water's edge before I was retching up my guts. I heaved and heaved until my belly was empty and my throat was sore, and then I retched again. When I finally stopped, I stared at the edge of the water, panting heavily. I did not even want to look at my own reflection right now. I spotted my paws, stained crimson. I cried out in grief, and lashed out the water, scrubbing myself. I wanted to clean his blood from my paws, but it would always be there. I was not the one who'd injured him, but I had failed to protect him. If my son could never fly, that blood was on my paws as much as those who'd attacked him.

"It's going to be alright, Val," Amaleen said, putting her hand on my neck.

"No," I said, shaking my head, my throat clenching tightly, my eyes burning. "It isn't! You...you don't understand..."

"It is, Val," Amaleen said, strength rising in her voice. "It _is_going to be alright. Because whatever happens, you're going to be there for him. You will help him through whatever hardship he endures. Whatever burden he bears, you will be there to help him bear it."

Her words stirred something deep in me, just as your words did many years later, Alia.

An old saying among my clan came to mind. "...If he cannot fly, I will fly for him..."

"Yes," Amaleen said, stroking my neck, her voice a little rough. "You will."

Without realizing it, Amaleen had reminded me of an old dragon oath of love, loyalty, and devotion. It had been passed down through my clan, much like the principal of blood for blood. The oath was nearly gone, now, and its origins shrouded in mysteries long lost to my people. It was said it might once have been part of some old draconic scripture, from a time when our clans were far more numerous and our cultures far more advanced. It was often said as an oath of loyalty to the clan leaders, or exchanged among life mates as a sign of devotion.

I lowered my head, and closed my eyes. I spoke the words from memory, altered just slightly to befit my son. "If he cannot see, I will be his eyes. If he cannot fight, I will be his claws. If he cannot fly, I will fly for him. If his days are ever dark, I will rise with the sun and shine my light upon him. Whatever his burden, I shall bear it for him."

"Rise with the sun..." Amaleen murmured to herself, smiling a little. "I like that."

"That was always one of my favorite parts," I admitted, glancing up at her, blinking away tears.

"I does seem a very dragon thing to say. To rise, just as the sun does, and spread your wings as though they'd shine light upon someone you cared for." She stroked my neck a few times, watching me. "Is that...a dragon's poem?"

"Poem?" I was scarcely familiar with the word. "It is...an oath to a loved one." That seemed the easiest way to explain it. "That you will always care for them, and no matter their hardship, you will help them through it with a smile upon your muzzle. Because you love them."

Amaleen was silent for a while, her eyes gleaming. She finally sighed, and turned her eyes up to me. "I think she saw you at your all, Valyrym. From the very beginning."

I knew who she meant. But I wasn't sure exactly what she meant. "At my all?"

A brief smile flashed across Amaleen's lips. "It's a saying we have. It means, to know someone completely."

I glanced back towards her house, and gave a heavy sigh. I started to turn towards her home, and Amaleen reached out to gently cup my cheek, holding me in place a moment. "There's so much about you I don't know, Valyrym. Lenira always had a way of seeing deeper into someone than I ever could. When I saw you and Valaranyx the first time, I thought you'd changed. But...maybe you were right. Maybe this..." She sighed a little, trying to find the right words. "...This part of you was always there. Somehow, Lenira saw past all the arrogance and egotism and selfishness you wrapped yourself in, and she saw deeper. She saw you at your all. She saw..." She pressed her hand to my plated chest. "This. She saw your heart, Val, and she saw the poetry in it."

Amaleen turned away from me then and walked back towards her house, leaving me stunned in her wake. No one had ever said anything quite like that to me before. Not Kylaryn, not even Lenira. I watched Amaleen almost in disbelief, my jaw hanging open a little as she went back to her house. Poetry? In my heart? I scarcely believed such a thing.

After a few silent moments, Amaleen looked back at me. "Come here. He's still asleep, but you can look in on him for a moment."

I rose to my feet, and swiftly crossed the road. I was in such a hurry to see my son I nearly knocked Amaleen out of the way as I shoved my head through the open door. They'd moved him to one of the soft looking couches in her living room, and he was sprawled out open his side. His tail hung off the edge, and his little wedge shaped head lay upon a pillow. Bandages wrapped his body. They encompassed one of his haunches almost completely, as well as being rolled all the way around his lower abdomen. More bandages wrapped around his chest to support those that were wrapped all around one of his wing joints, gently compressing the membranes at the base of it. All in all he looked more white than black. At least his breathing seemed easier now, and while he slept he wasn't in any pain.

I tried to hold back the tears I felt brimming at the sight of my son so helpless. "How long will he be asleep?"

"Hopefully for the next few hours, at least." Amaleen wiped her face with her hands, and gave a heavy sigh. "I'll be honest, Val. I wasn't sure he was going to make it for a while."

I pulled my head back, and sat heavily upon the street. My spiny frills all drooped in sadness. "Thank you, Amaleen." I glanced away, feeling strangely ashamed of myself. Even though I had protected these people, I still suddenly felt as though I didn't deserve Amaleen's help. "I can never, ever thank you enough, or ever repay you for..."

"Hush, Dragon," Amaleen said sharply. "I'm a healer. Dragon or not, I could never turn someone away when they needed my help most. You yourself could have come here injured, right after Lenira passed, and I'd still have helped you. I did not become a healer to pick and choice who to ply my trade upon." She ran her hands back through her hair, then gave me a little smile. "Though, I'd have complained a lot more about having to help you than your son."

I managed a small, bitter laugh. "I am...sorry...for the way I treated Lenira. And everyone else."

"I know." Amaleen smiled a little bit, wiping her hands off on her bloodstained nightclothes. She peered through the door, watching Valaranyx breath for a moment before she closed the entryway, and stood outside with me. "Even if he does fly, Val, and it's important that you keep up hope he will, he's still very badly injured in other ways."

Again that horrible possibility rankled me. The thought made me shiver, and my scales clicked a little, my spiny crests flaring. I forced myself to concentrate on the more immediate concerns. "What other ways?"

"He took another bolt here, in his hind leg..." Amaleen pressed her fingers to a spot on my upper haunch. "Luckily it did not severe a major artery, though it looked as though it came close. But it's right in the meat of his upper thigh, near his hip. He's going to have to be very careful walking for a while, as it heals. He'll have quite a limp for a time but hopefully he'll get over that ." As I sighed in sorrowful sympathy for my poor son, she pressed her hand against my underbelly. "The third one hit him here. That's where the worst of his bleeding came from. As I said, I'm not that familiar with dragon anatomy, but I think it nicked his stomach and his liver."

The thought made me cringe and groan in pain myself. "Were you able to...to...fix that?" I honestly wasn't that sure on how to heal internal injuries.

Amaleen pursed her lips, twining and untwining her fingers together a few times. "The best I could, anyway. I've sewn him up, and we were able to get the bleeding stopped. If that bolt had struck him much further one way or the other, he...probably wouldn't have made it back to the village."

I murmured my pained frustration. I licked my muzzle a few times, and gestured towards the rain barrel. "A man came and got water, and broke a stone. You put blood in it. What was that?"

"A special mixture, a poultice of sorts." Amaleen walked to the barrel in question, and cupped some water in her hands to drink. "I've been making some trips to much deeper, older parts of Aran'alia where they say magic is still alive. I've learned things even Lenira didn't know. I won't bore you with all the details but between the silver rain water, a few special stones from higher up in the mountains, and the blood of some of this land's older bloodlines, there are things that can be done that could not otherwise be accomplished. Especially when they're applied to a creature like you." She chuckled a little bit. "Or so I was told."

"So you were experimenting?" I wasn't sure I liked the idea of her trying out strange, half-cocked remedies when my son's life was on the line.

"I've used them on people, Val, and they help a great deal." She leaned up against the wall of her home. "I'm not sure we would have gotten his bleeding stopped without it." She peered through a window, watching Valaranyx sleep, and then sighed. "He's still very badly hurt, Val. He needs to stay here."

"In your home?"

"For now. I have to make sure he doesn't open up any of his wounds again, and I have to monitor his progress as he heals. I know he's a rambunctious youth but I'm going to have to keep his activities curtailed as long as possible." She glanced up at me, her blue eyes searching mine. "He's going to have to stay in the village for a long time."

"Then I will stay as well." I had absolutely no hesitation in that. I was not going to leave my son. I did not know how Kylaryn would take to that, but she would have to deal it with one way or another.

Amaleen had no hesitation either. "Alright." She peeled away from the wall, and started down the street. "Let's take a walk, Valyrym."

"I want to stay with Valaranyx." I pressed my snout against the window, my breath fogging up the leaded panes.

"He's not going anywhere." Amaleen gently pressed her hand against my nose to push me away from the window. "You need to get your mind off the worst of it, even if just for a little while. And when you're able, you need to get some sleep."

"Alright, alright," I relented. I moved past her and began to walk down the street towards the cordon that the guards had set up.

"There's blood all over your leg," Amaleen suddenly said.

"It's...Valaranyx's."

"No, it's yours." Amaleen sounded irritated. Now that dawn was breaking across the city, casting it in shades of gold, Amaleen was better able to see the dark red blood against my ebony scales. "I can see it oozing. You didn't even tell me you were injured."

"I forgot, to be honest." I lifted my front leg, peering at the crossbow wound. It looked puckered and red among my black scales. Through all my fear I'd scarcely even felt it there. Now, though, it began to throb quite intensely, and I growled in pain. I looked back where I'd come, and saw a few faint, bloodied paw prints here and there. It had probably been oozing blood all night. "It's only a little thing. I've been hit with worse."

"You should let me tend it."

I took a deep breath, and sighed. "Later, Amaleen. Walk with me, first."

"Very well, Valyrym."

After I had a moment to let the idea of taking a walk settle into my brain, I rather liked it. I didn't want to think about Valaranyx or my injury or his future or the way I'd treated Lenira or anything else. I just wanted to walk. As we neared the groups of people, they parted around me and I kept walking past them without a word. Amaleen remained behind to give them an update, and then asked them to leave me alone for a while. She sent some of the guards to ensure no one bothered Valaranyx. When she was finished she caught up to me, and put a hand upon my shoulder. It was a comforting gesture, and I was glad to have it.

For a time, we simply walked. I tried to keep my mind empty, but my thoughts drifted in now and then, like waves of a black sea gradually lapping higher and higher against the shore. I paid little attention to my surroundings, mostly ignoring the many domed and slope-roofed buildings all around me. I watched my paws more often than I watched where I was going, and now and then Amaleen had to gently guide me onto a new trajectory before I walked right into a wall or a cart. Early as it was, there were not yet many people out. Though I'd probably woken the entire city with my roar, most of them had long since gone back to sleep. Most of them had no idea there'd been a dragon hatchling fighting for his life in the middle of their city, or a woman who once hated a dragon working so hard to save the life of his son.

As we walked, Amaleen rubbed my shoulder, stroked my neck, touched my wings. For a time, her comfort helped keep me from thinking about everything. But as the sun rose, those dark waves lapped ever harder at my mind. I paused to see where I was. I realized we were nearly at the edge of town, in what looked like a fairly secluded district. The wooden buildings were few and far between, painted in bright colors beneath their slanted roofs. Some of the water collection pipes had been designed to resemble the tentacles of some whimsically styled sea monster. For some reason, the place made me smile a little. The large apple tree towards a far corner made me smile even more.

I walked over towards it. As I approached it I realized that each bright red fruit hanging from the boughs had little golden flecks on it. "Those are Lenira's apples," I murmured to myself.

Amaleen giggled a little. It was a pleasant sound. "I don't think that's what they're called, but, yes, that's the kind of apple we get from further east. They usually don't grow well here, but for whatever reason that one's really done well. It was just a sapling when I was a little girl. Used to be way outside of the town. No one knows who planted it. It's kind of in the way, really, but no one wanted to cut it down so we built around it."

The tree gave me a measure of strange comfort, and so I curled up beneath it in the cool morning shade. I did not want to be bothered. As I lay there, and the world began to wake around me, I could only think of my son, and how I had let him down. I had to do better. If he could not fly...it would eat at him. I had to do better by him!

"I will not let it eat away at his heart," I said to myself, almost forgetting Amaleen was there until she settled down next to my head. "I will carry him on my back his entire life if I must. I will not let this darken his life. I refuse." As I spoke, I could feel my throat tightening again. I had held back most of my tears all night and much of the morning, but I was not sure I could hold them back any further. I clenched my paw into a fist.

"How did you put it before?" Amaleen gently took my paw between her hands, and uncurled my fingers. Then she began to rub the back of my paw. "About the sun?"

A ghost of a smile flicked across my muzzle. "If his days are ever dark, I will rise with the sun and shine my light upon him."

"That's beautiful, Valyrym."

"It is...how I feel." I lifted my head a little to gaze at her, my golden eyes wet with pain I could not hide. "Whatever burden he has, I will gladly bear it for him for the rest of my days."

"That's all that could ever be asked of a father, Valyrym."

Those were the words that did me in. I already felt like I had failed him, now all I could do was try and make things right again. But in that moment, when Amaleen spoke those words, all my emotions came rushing out as they never had before in my life. Though it humiliated me to do so, let alone in front of a human, in that moment all the anguish I'd been holding back boiled over and I broke down into sobs. Loud, wailing sounds of sorrow like the mourning keen I had once howled for Lenira. Tears ran from my eyes in hot streaks down my scales. I put my paws over my head as I cried, as if I could somehow hide the humiliating display from Amaleen. I felt she, of all people, would somehow judge me for sobbing in such a way. Perhaps she thought I deserved this.

Yet, as always until that point, I underestimated her.

There was no judgment when she eased my paws away from my face. There was no smugness when she scooped her hands under my snout, and eased my head up. There was nothing in her touch but comfort when she set my muzzle upon her lap, and hugged me to her body. There was nothing in her but kindness when she let me cry against her.

When I first met Amaleen, I had seen her at her all. All the defiance and anger and spite she was capable of when she thought me a monster. At the same time I had glimpsed all her loyalty and love and her protective nature when she spoke of Lenira. Such was the way I came to know Amaleen. At her all from the very beginning, even if I was too foolish to realize it.

But until then, Amaleen had not truly come to know me. Not till saw me retching and terrified not for myself, but for my son. Not till she held me as I cried for him. Only then did she begin to understand what Lenira had once seen inside me. Only when she had glimpsed what she called the poetry in my heart had Amaleen seen my all.

At last, such was the way Amaleen came to know me.