Declaration of Love to a Dragon

Part 1 - A Life Regained

I woke up in almost complete darkness, roused from my dreams by the freezing cold that had already interrupted my sleep several times throughout the night. Each time I had somehow managed to fall asleep again, but now I yearned to get some warmth back into my body. As carefully as I could, I extracted myself from under her wing and walked over to the cave's exit.

The sun had not yet risen and the only indication of its coming arrival was a lighter shade of blue across the horizon. Yet I could still discern the shapes of trees and bushes in the surrounding forest via the layer of white they had been covered in; snow had fallen during the night.

My eyes wandered to my feet, which were close to aching from the cold ground, barely protected by the thin pigskin shoes I wore. There was no denying that the rest of my clothing was equally ill-suited for the winter: simple linen pants and a broken leather armor chestpiece over a shirt. I grabbed what little firewood was leaning against the wall and made my way back to the fireplace. With some effort, I found my bow drill on the dark ground and began to patiently work it.

"This wouldn't take half as long if you were awake," I quietly said to myself, looking over her dark form, barely visible against the unlit walls of the cave. Her black scales gave her a menacing look during the day and completely hid her during the night. She wasn't one for cuddling - I don't think any dragon would be - but she had tolerated my usage of her wing as a blanket against the cold this night.

Making fire with the drill had always been a lot of effort and this time was no different. My arms were already stinging when I finally smelled smoke and not much later, could see a tiny spot of glowing red past the drill. I quickly laid a handful of dry grass around it and started blowing, expectantly watching as ember turned into flame and, with the help of some kindling, flame into a warming fire. The crackling life-giver couldn't grow fast enough as I leaned into its heat with a sigh of relief.

With shadows dancing around the cave in the uneven light of the fire, my gaze came to rest upon her sleeping form once more. I could now make out her head, a long muzzle with rows of sharp teeth peeking out of its sides. Her eyes were closed and her breath was slow and deep. Dragons, I had learned, were capable of remaining motionless like this for hours, so I never knew if she was only snoozing or if she was truly asleep. I had also learned that, should she be sleeping, surprising her was a very dangerous thing to do, so I remained silent and enjoyed the warmth.

A strange story had brought me into this situation. It all began a few months ago, when a small kingdom known as Seliro was attacked by its greedy neighbor, the Hadric Empire...

Conscription

That day, the city guards invaded the house of a peasant by the name of Derios, who was working a farm on the outskirts of Kilgard, the kingdom's castle city. The closeness of the farm to the city had meant that Derios could always rely on customers to sell his wares to and it offered a certain protection from vagabonds and robbers as well. It provided no protection against what was happening to him that day, however. The city guards explained to him that he was given the honor of defending his country for his king and, as he soon found out, this honor was a forced one. His farm went into stewardship, doubtlessly to be worked by some serfs for little or no money.

He was escorted to the castle's yard, where he spotted many other men from nearby villages. As far as he could tell, just about anyone with some youth or muscle left in them had been rounded up and goaded into the yard - peasants, stone cutters, lumberjacks, the lot. No blacksmiths, of course - those were needed to forge weapons. In overall, it was not a good sign: for months people had been hoping for an agreement between the warring parties, but it seemed that their own king was as stubborn as their neighbor's was greedy. Entire provinces had been lost and the battle lines, people told, were now less than a day's ride away from the castle.

The mumbling amongst the men came to a stop when finally the head knight himself entered the yard and walked up to the grandstand. After a long opener that praised their king and reminded them of their duty, he explained that they were to form a so-called "special division" with the goal of forcing the approaching enemy to turn inward, allowing Seliro to reclaim and fortify the villages all the way back to Fulhorn Keep, a stronghold whose fall had heralded the demise of the kingdom after holding the enemy at bay for weeks. It sounded grand. And unlikely.

Their training went from early morning until late evening with no test of character, no questions about anything ever asked. On their first day, they were given wooden swords and had to fence amongst each other. It all turned into a wild, chaotic skirmish with people just hitting each other and barely a man able to deflect a blow. Then the entire guard's regiment of the castle was added to the fray and given orders to teach the assembled mob how to handle a sword. The guards weren't happy and they let it show. Many a man ended up bloodied.

Derios was in luck, however; the guard teaching him had often bought his vegetables or sometimes even a chicken, so apart from many bruises, he also gained some knowledge. Swords were much more delicate than one thought, he learned. A good swordsman had to keep his sword in motion when blocking and it would still be damaged if he used it to deflect a direct blow. Parrying was much more difficult than striking, so the best way to win a fight was to either attack first or to evade and follow up with an attack before one's opponent had finished his own.

The second day saw them being issued leather armor. It was every bit as heavy as Derios expected and together with his sore arms, it drained him of any enthusiasm he had left for being taught how to sword-fight. Come noon, many of the men had just let themselves fall to the ground, exhausted and frustrated.

Seemingly, the head knight had expected this and ordered everyone still able and willing to stand to form a group. Said group then watched as, instead of receiving harsh words, the ones on the ground had their armor and swords taken away from them. They were not released, however. Instead, two guards carried dozens of bows hanging from a pole into the yard. Derios was unsure whether he had picked the better lot by remaining with the group still on their feet.

So it continued, day in, day out. The men assigned to be archers had to practice their bows, first on stationary targets, later on targets that were dragged along some posts with a rope. Derios and the other swordsmen had one half of the regiment of guards to train them in the morning, and the other half in the evening. Food was plenty, but rest was restricted to the nights they spent trying to sleep on their blisters and swellings.

Ten days later, in place of the guards, four horse-drawn carriages entered the yard and the head knight once again took his place on the grandstand while more knights climbed down from three of the carriages. When the men had lined up in front of the head knight, he signaled the knights near the fourth carriage and they swiftly pulled the tarp from it. Derios' mind took a few moments to realize just what had been revealed.

The carriage consisted of a steel cage holding a black dragon. The monstrous beast was resting on the floor with its eyes closed, its body easily twice, maybe even thrice as big as a horse and covered in fine black scales. Men left and right of Derios gave sounds of surprise and the atmosphere grew tense as the same urge grew in every man: Run! Run away, as fast as you can. That was what any living being had to be feeling at the sight of a dragon.

Derios looked at it with wary curiosity. The dragon's wings hid most of its body, but what he could make out expressed without so much as the hint of a doubt that this was a beast of prey, in the same way a cow's fat body gave away that it was not a man-eater and a wolf's piercing eyes made clear that it did not graze but hunt. Only that the dragon's effect was much, much stronger. It was overpowering. A single glance convinced him that there was no way to run from it and no way to defend from it.

When the initial shock had ebbed away, Derios realized that the head knight was just making another speech. "And so, from this day on," he shouted proudly, "you all are the soldiers of our king. In a few moments, you will board these carriages and we will make our way to the enemy lines. Not to attack them, but to slip through them." He underlined his words by sweeping his hand from left to right. "We will deliver this dragon directly to castle Razan, where we will clip its wings and let it loose on the city. All of you have been selected because your fathers and grandfathers were proud Selirans," he appealed to them, then continued: "I will tell you right now that at the end of our journey, King Hadric's head will be taken. We know the location of castle Razan's secret exit." He visibly gazed into the lines of men, then decided to add: "Yes, we will drive the King out of his castle and the moment he tries to escape, he will fall by our swords!"

Journey

Derios had no idea at this time what foolish act of revenge they were ordered to carry out. Everyone felt proud and brave when they boarded the carriages, ten of the newly trained soldiers and two knights in heavy armor each. The dragon cage was covered with its tarp again and took the second place in the convoy. There were a lot of horses, four on every carriage with an additional two loosely bound at the sides. Despite the head knight's testimony of trust, nobody was allowed to speak to people outside their carriage and, as they were told, disobedience would be punished by immediate death.

The convoy traveled till late in the night, stopping only two times to cycle tired draft horses with the ones fixed to the sides of their carriages or with new ones taken from local villages. The journey was rough, but it was nevertheless the first time since their training began that the men could rest their tired bodies for longer than a night.

When they stopped, a night camp was quickly set up in a forest and since they were still on their own land, they were allowed a number of smaller fires to roast some meat and potatoes. Derios was one of the soldiers who had to fill up his group's buckets with water from a nearby stream and as he returned from his duty, he saw two of the knights feeding the dragon by throwing an entire backpack's worth of raw flesh into the cage. The dragon didn't react at first, until it suddenly revealed a pair of evil, yellow eyes. In no time at all it was upright and sniffed the meat. The knights kept a very respectful distance to the cage when they pulled the tarp back down and the sounds that could be heard thereafter made everyone stop eating and turn their heads.

Derios seated himself next to a fire while around him, chatter slowly started to resume. The dragon often became a topic of conversation: supposedly, it had lived in a forest not far from Aldgard, the leather tanners' town in the south from which most of the drapery and leatherworks in the kingdom came. Just spotting it in the sky was said to bring a man bad luck.

How they planned to get into enemy territory unspotted was another topic frequently brought up. The word was that they were close to the battle lines and that they might cross over into land conquered by Kind Hadric the very next day already. Their convoy was not exactly inconspicuous, heavy carriages, riding knights and all. Seliran villagers were probably thinking them to be reinforcements, but that wouldn't do them any good when they drove around behind enemy lines, journeying away from the front instead of towards it.

The more the men realized their situation, the more nervous they became. Derios' fingers were trembling, too, and sleep didn't come easy to him that night. It didn't help that some of the soldiers just remained sitting around the fires, staring into the night or chatting with each other. More than once he imagined hearing swords clashing together, but each time silence returned, so he assumed that he either imagined it or that the men still awake were just being careless with their weapons.

In the first light of morning, the convoy resumed its journey. This time, they seemed to evade any villages as well as streets which were by now crowded with refugees. At noon, the first camps of their fellow soldiers could be seen. Those in armor looked just like Derios' group, except that most of them had a limb wrapped in bandages. Derios didn't understand much about waging war, but he assumed that these were camps behind the actual battle lines, set up to distribute food and to treat the lightly wounded.

The convoy continued traveling across the now eerily quiet landscape until they entered a large forest in which the head knight commanded them to stop. He ordered everyone off the carriages and to move the empty vehicles at least 200 steps away from the road. This task was a simple one for the three empty carriages, which the horses could effortlessly pull over the forest floor.

But for all the ease of the empty carriages, the dragon cage gave them trouble in equal measure and then some. Several men were required to assist in pushing, just to get the wheels moving. Again, Derios found himself amongst the men picked and, due to others hogging the corners of the carriage, he had no choice but to stand squarely behind it. He tried to push with outstretched arms and angled his hands so that his fingers were below the frame.

Being so close to the dragon, he became aware of a smell he could only describe as wrong - neither pleasant nor bad; just wrong. He imagined how the dragon might reach its paws through the cage and slice his hands while he was pushing. Or how the carriage might suddenly pick up speed down a slope, shatter and free the dragon.

Luckily, no such accidents occurred and they managed to line up the dragon's carriage with the other three. His job being done, Derios quickly took a few steps away and verified that his hands were still attached. Others had already begun to even out the tracks left by the wheels, kicking and pushing dirt into the grooves and covering the bare ground with twigs and leaves until it looked like untouched forest floor again. The knights voiced concerns about the white tarp on the dragon's cage, so it was decided to drench it in dirt until it wasn't quite as visible anymore.

This gave Derios another chance to look at the dragon. It was very muscular; or maybe it was just that the regular pattern of scales pronounced the contours of its body. Its head was crowned by two black horns, which, unlike those of any other animal Derios knew, extended from the back of its head in a completely straight line. The yellow eyes were open this time and staring into the world unmoving. Derios quickly shifted his own eyes to its paws out of fear of making eye contact with the dragon.

Paws, if one could call them that, looking like a mockery of human hands but ending in long, terrifying claws that could probably rend the flesh from a horse. All the time, the dragon was unnaturally motionless. It was clearly alive, as its belly kept rising and falling with its breath, but any other captured animal would either be angrily pacing its bounds or at least warily watch its captors. The dragon just waited.

Derios observations were interrupted when the head knight ordered everyone around to explain the situation. "Today, the forest you are standing in still belongs to the kingdom," he began. "Tonight, our troops will be retreating to the new fortifications you have seen this morning, handing this swath of land to King Hadric," he explained, making the word "King" sound like an insult, continuing: "We will remain here, silently, until our enemy, too, has passed by. From past experience, that will happen as soon as they see our troops retreat."

The head knight's features darkened as he spoke the next words: "Should anyone of you be discovered, you are to declare yourselves as deserters. You will be captured, but you have my word that once we won this war, I myself will guarantee that your name is cleared when you make your way home."

Derios doubted that very much. More likely, they would either be killed on the spot or sent to be interrogated - if the enemy even had any need for information at this stage of the war.

The head knight finished: "Once we are behind the enemy, we will post scouts near the forest's edge and wait for the best moment to make our push."

"Make our push" - Derios weighted those words, imagining the few of them driving all the way to castle Razan, probably a week's journey away, whilst trying to hide from reinforcements and supply wagons, stealing what they needed or claiming to be merchants. Was that even possible? Regrettably, the head knight didn't explain that part of the plan and so, with a shared meal of bread and butter, the waiting began.

Surprise

Hours passed by without so much as a noise in the forest. Even the horses, nervous as they were around the dragon, seemed to be quiet for once. It was an unpleasant situation, nobody could tell how long it would take, not even whether any enemy troops were to pass through the forest at all. When dusk began to fall, Derios ate his last slice of bread and tried to get some sleep.

It was late at night when he raised his head again. Just a few meters in front of him, he could see the dragon's yellow eyes glow threateningly. It looked directly at him. Where was the cage? Then he heard its footsteps. No light was needed for him to be aware of the deadly mass of claw and muscle approaching him with no uncertain intent. Derios tried to scream.

Then he awoke. His heart was pounding. Darkness. No eyes. Footsteps! But not from a dragon; it was from a great many feet making their way towards them. Leaves rustled and twigs cracked. The enemy was marching through the forest. Why were they not using the road?

No, they were using the road, too. In the pale moonlight he could make out what he believed to be archers. Not daring to move single muscle, he tried to look at the ones marching through the woods from the corner of his eyes, but to no avail. He had to turn his head. Frightened that his movement might give him away, he did so very slowly. Spears, Swords, Shields. They were better equipped than Derios' group and they walked directly towards them. Derios felt his panic rising. Were the others awake? Should he warn them? When the first man was found, would he claim to be a deserter as instructed? Would the rest of the men keep just let it happen? Would the enemy then turn away? Would they believe in two deserters, three, four...?

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice ordered the soldiers to halt. They stopped. Next, they were ordered to march to the other side of the road. Derios could hear them walk alongside their hiding place, then away from it. A horse nickered. Derios felt his panic rise and then ebb away again when none of the enemy soldiers reacted. Maybe they had horses, too.

There was some hushed chatter as the men walked through the rows of archers on the road. Then they turned and walked in parallel to the archers again. After a while, it was over and the forest became silent once more. Nothing else happened that night, but Derios remained tense until the morning came.

As if by an unknown agreement, everybody had kept on the ground after waking up. Only the head knight carefully marched towards the road, signaling any soldier who expectantly looked at him to remain put with his hand. He turned around when he reached the road and took a deep breath.

Nobody was prepared for what he did then. "They are here," he bellowed up and down the road, "Advance!" Then he looked straight at the soldiers: "You are surrounded! You are outnumbered! You have no chance! Give up or you will be slaughtered right here and now!" It took a moment for the truth to sink in. Someone shouted back: "Bastard!" another: "Traitor!" but even the bold ones looked visibly frightened when heavy steps could be heard closing in from all directions.

"Put your weapons to the ground!" the head knight shouted again. Some soldiers obeyed, then more, until only a few stubborn ones were left with their weapons in hand. Derios looked at his own sword, still in its scabbard, then noticed that he had just watched the others open-mouthed without taking any action himself. Thoughts raced in his head. Should he drop his sword? Should he just run away?

His decision was made for him when a high-pitched voice resounded through the forest: "Archers! Fire!" it commanded. Bowstrings could be heard snapping and moments later, a hail of arrows came down upon Derios' group. He didn't know what to do. He had no shield. Should he look up and try to move his head out of the way? What if an arrow hit his face? He made himself as small as possible, folded his hands above his head and clenched his teeth. Some men started screaming, others were coughing. Thuds of arrows could be heard all around.

"Swords! Attack!" the high-pitched voice followed up and with it, the first lines of sword-bearing soldiers became visible amidst the trees, closing in at a light jog. Derios reached for his sword and tried to stand up. His entire body shook as he looked around him. Many of his fellow soldiers rolled on the ground or tugged on arrows protruding from their bodies. The fall of heavy boots was everywhere, the enemy's faces hard and battle-tested. A few arrows flew out from Derios' group, but he didn't see any of them hit their mark.

The head knight still stood on the road. Enemies just passed him by. Marching the same road were also two groups of spearmen that seemed to not be part of the ongoing attack. Derios turned and retreated towards the core of what remained of his group. He guessed that half of the men were either dead or incapacitated. Or maybe they were just too scared to move. He noticed that it was too late for him to feign his own dead. Was that even wise? And could he still trust the knights? They were facing the enemies, swords in hand and about the only men in his group still moving with a purpose, so Derios decided to walk towards the knights instead.

When the enemy soldiers were close enough, they started running and just in the last moment, the knights, Derios and a few of his fellow soldiers managed to form a circle. Anyone still standing alone was quickly picked off and their circle was the only thing protecting them from the same fate.

One of the enemies ran straight for Derios, who barely managed to move his sword to deflect the first blow. Don't parry, attack, he remembered. The man hadn't expected to be parried and Derios managed to hew his sword deep into his neck.

Before the next soldier had fully taken the place of the one he felled, Derios lashed out, hitting the man's arm with force. The armor stopped the sword, but Derios got another chance when the man foolishly lifted his arm to look for a wound. Derios thrusted his sword into his belly, sending him stumbling backwards and drawing blood.

When Derios looked to his sides, he saw that the others had not been so lucky and he quickly took a step backwards to remain in the shrinking circle of his group.

Derios tried to move like they were taught just days ago, slashing left, then right, blocking, evading and striking. A third attacker was hit by Derios' sword, smashing the poor soul's hand to bloody bits. But all around, the situation was hopeless. Time and again Derios watched men in his own ranks fall without their swords ever being raised to meet the enemy. Even most of the knights, who were no doubt the reason their circle remained standing at all, were now lying on the ground clenching their hands against their wounds.

He knew there were just a handful of men left before he would be stabbed in the back. To his right, the dragon roared, a sound not unlike a squealing pig, but several octaves lower. The cage holding it shook violently, scaring away the enemy soldiers in the area around the tarp-covered carriage.

That moment Derios made his decision. Swinging his sword in anger and despair at any unprepared enemy, he launched himself into their lines and towards the dragon. His sword crashed into the helmet of the first soldier, he kicked another to the ground and nearly stumbled, but launched himself forward again in sheer panic, believing that any moment a sword would be buried in his back. He ran for the only opening he could see, his fist breaking the nose of the last enemy in his way.

At top speed, he ran for the dragon cage, dodging anyone who tried to score a quick hit on him. With force he jumped onto the carriage, clawed at the tarp like a madman and no sooner had he spotted one of the cage's retaining pins than he was already pulling on it as hard as he could. The dragon was wide awake, its muzzle just inches away. Derios didn't care.

It all happened in an instant. The enemies caught up with Derios, the retaining pin flung free and the dragon jumped against the cage with incredible ferocity. An entire side of the cage was knocked open, like a broken door left hanging on a single hinge. Derios froze in terror, enemies tried to turn around, falling on top of each other and the dragon stepped out of the cage.

Derios stared into its yellow eyes. Like in his nightmare. There was no cage, no escape. But this was real. Inches from Derios' face, the dragon's mouth opened and spat fire - right over his shoulder and into the rounds of retreating enemies. It sounded like pouring water onto a fire and smelled like overheated oil. Men behind him screamed in agony and howled like dogs while Derios stared wide-eyed, waiting for the killing strike or bite.

The dragon poured its fire in a wide angle until its head no longer pointed at Derios. Panicked, he tried to step backwards, but his knees were wobbly and terrible pain emanated from his side. His step turned into a fall, sending him backwards onto the ground with one leg outstretched and the other under his bottom. A poleaxe wheezed over his head that moment, missing him by a hair's breadth. He looked at the attacker. It was the head knight himself, passing by him. In his hand, a heavy executioner's axe.

Derios' sword - it was on the ground next to him. He reached for it. In the corner of his eye, the axe was lifted. Derios clenched the sword white-knuckled. Pain. He brought it to bear. More pain. The axe was fully raised. Derios drove the sword forward with all his might, aiming right under the traitor's armor.

The man buckled over, the sword driven straight through his armor and embedded up to the hilt. But the axe had already picked up speed. Its point grazed the dragon's head, but its blade missed. The head knight had aimed for the dragon. Now the beast's head jolted around, directly facing Derios.

In shivering fear Derios tried to stand up but another explosion of pain shot from his side through his whole body. He fell backwards to the ground. His hand touched his side. It was slippery. Intense pain flared up again. He realized that at some point, a sword must have hit home. The wound was bad. It was over. Grinning painfully, he welcomed the approaching loss of consciousness.

Ordeal

For a moment, the world was peaceful. Derios knew not how long he had been out, but the first thing he became aware of were the waves of pain coming from his side. He opened his eyes; and screamed right away. The dragon had lowered its muzzle and was chewing on his innards.

No, not chewing. It had been licking. Licking his wound. When the dragon heard Derios scream, it brought its head up and glared at him. He caught a glimpse of the huge fangs and slightly disordered smaller teeth in its muzzle. Its tongue had been thin, black and long. For a moment, the dragon just stared, and Derios stared back.

Derios was on the verge of losing consciousness again but he willed himself awake, turned over across his good side and tried to crawl away. The dragon simply stepped forward, closed its front paws around his shoulders and jumped, ripping him into the air. Derios almost fainted from the pain and tried to brace himself for the landing. But there was no landing. The dragon had jumped into flight.

Trees flew past left and right and somehow the dragon managed to ascend above the forest. Its scaly paws held tight to his shoulders and upper arms and Derios could feel each of its wing strokes, pulling his body harder than even a jumping horse.

Below him, soldiers were running through the forest, some looking up, then making for the trees in fear. Without warning, a volley of arrows rose from a clearing. Most of the archers had underestimated the dragon's speed, but some of the arrows pierced the dragon's wings and one embedded itself in its chest right in front of Derios. The dragon roared its anger back at the attackers, but stayed its course.

As they flew on, Derios could make out villages his group of soldiers had passed just a day ago. Every now and then, his thoughts were interrupted by splatters of blood hitting him, oozing from the arrow in the dragon's chest and mixing with Derios' own blood dripping from the wound in his side.

Whether from the loss of blood or by his now certain fate, Derios felt tranquil. No more looming war, uncertainty and treachery - the dragon would eat him undisturbed in a quiet place. Maybe someone finding his bones would one day think them to be those of a brave dragon slayer. But he had committed real bravery, too. He alone had felled the treacherous head knight and sent the enemies running. And now he got to see the world from the sky, like no man ever had before. He smiled.

Still the dragon flew on. They retraced part of the journey the carriages had taken, but at some point the dragon must have diverted from their path as Derios no longer recognized the villages that were passing below him. When the dragon finally proceeded to land, Derios was unceremoniously dropped in the grass next to a cave before the dragon itself set down upon its strong hind legs. He had hoped that he would be unconscious for what followed now, but he had no such luck. The dragon turned around. As if its prey still had the power to run...

Derios felt no anger at the dragon, a strange thankfulness maybe even. His life was over in any case. Let the dragon have its meal. "Let me take this armor off for you, no need to hurt your teeth", he whispered weakly as he began removing his leather armor and the metal bracers covering his arms. The dragon simply watched. When Derios had removed his armor, he lowered his head, exposing his neck. That would be a quick death. He would try and keep his arms by his sides when the dragon went for it.

Moments passed in which the dragon just sat in front of him. When the dragon tried to get a hold on the arrow in its chest, Derios decided on a final act of kindness. With tears quelling from his eyes that he could not clearly assign to his emotions or his pain, he smiled and whispered again: "If you can patience yourself for so long... I will pull that arrow out of you..." Then, raising his hand with spread fingers, he crawled towards the dragon. Closer he came to the muzzle that still made him shiver. Then he went under it. Trembling, he reached between the dragon's front paws, grabbed the arrow and let himself fall, ripping it out by his own weight. The dragon jerked.

Finally the dragon began to move, but instead of delivering the killing blow, it simply stepped over him and walked into the cave. Weirdly amused by the dragon's reliance on its prey's willingness to carry itself to its demise, he hobbled after it, imitating a laugh. "Fine, then within the cave. Just do it already," he croaked.

Inside the cave, a broken egg sat in a depression, surrounded by a pile of rocks. The egg's contents had long dried, but its size left no doubt as to what species it belonged to. "Is that yours? So you're a lady dragon" -- those were Derios' last words before he finally collapsed to the ground.

Present

It's been three months since then, since I had last been called Derios. The person known as Derios was dead, another nameless soldier, lost on an unknown battlefield.

I still don't know when it was that she decided not to kill me, nor why. Did she carry me here as a meal or because it must have looked as if I saved her? Was she maybe still deliberating about my fate in those long moments before I pulled the arrow from her chest?

The following weeks are not very clear to me. I remember being awake from time to time, sometimes during the day and sometimes during the night. I survived by lying on my back and having raw, dragon-chewed meat placed in my mouth. Sometimes it even tasted good. My wound ran from my leg over my hip up towards my belly. Despite the dirt and dragon saliva, it had not become infected.

Back when I had just started walking again, I had planned my departure numerous times. But I didn't know where I was and with the regalia on my leather armor, I would have been immediately executed if King Hadric's campaign had been successful, which I had no doubt it was. So I remained.

Living with a dragon was and is a strange experience. Nothing, absolutely nothing, dares to even come into the vicinity of this cave. Yet I am able to find peaceful sleep next to the most fearsome creature known to man. At times I thought she might reconsider her stance, but she never did.

She is every bit as aggressive and dangerous as lore makes dragons out to be, but with her no longer out to take my life and with my fear gradually declining, I noticed other qualities in her as well.

The first time I decided to aid her in hunting, it became clear that this dragon was all but a dumb animal. She immediately knew my intent and guided me to the center of a meadow, where I watched as she drove animals out of the forest and towards me. Admittedly, I didn't catch a single one and when some boar came charging out of the woods, I jumped away, then rolled up in pain as the wound in my side reminded me of its presence.

On another day, she came into the cave carrying an entire branch of berries that she must have seen me eating. She never ate anything but meat. Those berries were for me.

Her raw and unadulterated nature made her judge me solely by my actions. Maybe it was only because we had no words that could be used to tell lies, be misunderstood or make unfulfilled promises, but I had begun to trust her. At times, she could also be angry, sleepy or bored.

Those were my first peaceful memories with her. I put another piece of wood onto the fire and returned my eyes to her sleeping form. Yes, in a way, I admired her. But that wasn't all...

At some point, I had begun watching her with different eyes. The swiftness with which she moved her body. How her legs grabbed the ground as she walked. The way her tail swung behind her. The teeth peeking out from the side of her muzzle. And her eyes, which I could now look into with calmness. In her own way, she was very beautiful.

And that was how I began to cross a bridge I had been deeply scared about. I wasn't sure if the experiences I suffered through had made me go crazy, or if it was the loneliness, but a few weeks later, when I had just watched her clean herself, I could no longer resist my urge to get closer to her and sat down beside her head.

She didn't retreat when I placed my hands on her jawbones and guided her head towards mine. I felt euphoric at being granted to move this daunting, beautiful head of hers. She didn't refuse me when I lined up our faces, mouth to muzzle, and looked deep into her eyes. At that moment she was the most desirable thing in the world to me.

And then, I had slowly pushed my lips onto her muzzle. Oh yes, I remember that feeling. It was so great my eyes went teary. I had smelled her breath as it flowed across my face, foul and sweet at the same time. I could have stopped there, but I didn't. No, I moved my tongue along her muzzle, feeling her scales. Then I had pushed it into her muzzle and traced her sharp teeth down to her cold gums.

All the time, she had kept motionless and just let it happen, her eyes never leaving my own. For me, it was a moment in paradise. A feeling I cannot describe, but one which I want to feel for a thousand times more. I do not know what it was for her, but she accepted it and I think that maybe she understood the emotion behind my kiss. It was not the last kiss I had given her, but this memory will never leave my mind.

By now, the cave had finally warmed up and the first rays of the morning sun were shining through the entrance. She had awoken and those lovely yellow orbs were looking at me and my fire. Having just remembered our first kiss, I walked up to her and kissed her once more. It felt as wonderful as ever. Her tongue darted against mine as I explored her muzzle, something she had begun to do recently. There I was again, giving a good morning kiss to a dragon and there was nothing in the world that would convince me that I shouldn't.

Love

I put all my courage together now. This time I would do it. When I broke the kiss, I knelt down and softly spoke to her: "Somehow, I came to really like you," I began, but then realized how I was not using the words I really meant. I tried again: "the truth is... I think... I love you," pausing once, then continuing: "...that I would give my life for you... as if it didn't already belong to you." I shook my head. How could it be so difficult? "Perhaps I'm out of my mind, but I love you and I desire you." It was out. "Yet I don't know how I could make you understand", I closed.

It probably was not the best declaration of love a man had ever made, but it made me feel relieved.

She couldn't understand my words, but I think we both knew that this moment was special. I crawled along her body, running my hands over her flanks, over her wings and then over her belly, until I came to sit next to her hind legs. Her tail had always covered her privates whenever I watched her, so I didn't know what to expect as I placed my fingers on the underside of her tail and slowly journeyed towards her body, giving her ample time to complain if what I did disturbed her.

"You know where my hand will go, don't you?" I checked back with her. Her head had followed me and her eyes were a bit wider than before, if I wasn't just imagining it.

As my hand traveled from her tail to between her hind legs, her scales became softer and split in the middle. I could feel them being arranged like little stones around a fire. And then I found what I was looking for: soft flesh that could be entered, a damp crevice with no scales. I wet my fingers before running them across the delicate flesh, then carefully began to explore inside while watching her for any sign of discomfort or anger.

When I touched a powerful muscle that contracted and made her flinch as I made contact, I knew what I had found and I kept my fingers where they were even when it unsettled her a bit. This was her backside, her vent.

I wondered whether I had probed the wrong place, but I knew that those animals covered in scales or feathers were different from humans and from those animals that were covered in fur. Having the opportunity, I teased her, tracing small circles across the contracting muscle. She glared at me and I smiled back mischievously, flicking across this delicate place a few times more. My actions weren't without effect on myself either, as I felt my own pants become tighter by the minute.

Not wanting to annoy her, I resumed my exploration, following the soft flesh to the front of the crevice. There was another place where I felt I could push deeper. A male dragon would likely enter a female one from behind, so I believed this to be my destination.

I carefully pushed just two of my fingers into the funnel and then began to pump it slowly. At first she only tensed up, but when I kept going, I could feel her insides twitch and clench around me. This told me all I needed to know and for a while, I just continued the movement, watching her eyes and listening to her breath, which started to quicken bit by bit. Then I gradually increased the pace until her hind legs began to twitch and push in response to my action.

Suddenly, she shifted her weight to her legs and started to get up. I quickly extracted my hand from her. But when I was already thinking that I had gone too far, she lifted her tail high in the air and elegantly, almost seductively, walked towards the fireplace. Each step shook her haunches and a strange smell followed her. I could see the muscles on her hind legs working and a clearly visible slit between them that twisted left and right with each sensual step she made.

This had to be what an invitation by a female dragon looked like! She accepted my advance. She truly would let me touch her in that way.

I followed after her, now carrying a tent in my pants that had probably never been so pronounced in my life. My mind scolded me for feeling like this by looking at a dragon, but my eyes wandered across her rump with lust.

In giddy expectation, I circled around her and when I stood before her head, I released my stiff member from its confines for her to see. The tension alone was stimulating and sensitizing at this point. I was sure she knew exactly what I was presenting to her. At first, she sniffed, then she carefully darted her tongue against it. It was like letting yourself be touched by a girl for the first time - exciting, incredible.

But I wasn't sure if I should dare to press it into her muzzle. My kisses had never required her to open her teeth as my tongue barely reached that far. Not wanting to let my concerns dim my arousal, I decided to leave this forbidden act for another time and returned to her backside, tracing my hand along her flank as I did so.

When I reached her hind legs, her tail raised higher in response, rekindling my lust with this display of willingness. No longer unsure of her reaction, I sat down right behind her haunches and looked her over. She was just beautiful; in the light of the fire, I saw the slit between her hind legs, framed by smaller scales like cobbles around a tree on a city road. Past it, her body smoothly continued into her tail, which she had raised high into the air by standing on outstretched hind legs to grant me this view. I couldn't place the smell she was giving off, but with its meaning clear, I decided that I liked it.

Without further hesitation, I placed my hand on her sex, letting her feel that I was about to continue what I had been doing before. She felt firmer and moister when I slid my fingers back into the entrance and sought out the place they had occupied before. Only my thumb remained outside, a depth not too far for certain other parts of my body to reach.

I began pumping my fingers forth and back again, keeping a smooth and steady rhythm to let her get used to the feeling and to ride its peaks. It felt incredibly hot and satisfying when she resumed her contractions around my fingers, grabbing me in regular, sweet pulses.

Whenever I took stock of the situation, my arousal flared up. Here I was, sitting behind the raised rump of a female dragon who had accepted my advances as a male and with my hand deeply embedded in her sex, where it was slowly but surely driving her toward that wonderful feeling I hoped even a dragon would not be denied.

And as her arousal grew further, she began to gyrate her rump against me, signaling that she wanted me to increase my stimulation. I pushed deeper and quicker, soon rewarded by her rump leaning into my pumping hand with renewed strength.

Then I added my other hand, wetting my fingers in her fluids before journeying to her vent, stroking it slowly and deliberately. That put her out of her gyrations for a moment, but as I persisted and gave her time to adjust to the unusual feeling, she accepted the perverted play I was imposing on her. Her arousal grew visibly after that and her hind legs turned into tense bundles of muscle while her front legs dug into the earth.

Watching this, I increased my pace until I was close to the speed I would have used on myself if I was in a quiet place alone with only my hand for company. Her breath came in hard thrusts now and her tail twitched as if another dragon was humping her back.

My other hand was still tickling her vent and I dared not change my technique now that it felt like she was so close, so I just watched my hands work her sex, their movements inside made obvious by the undulations of the scales around them. She twitched even faster now, pulling me inward each time she contracted. And then she went over the edge, releasing a forceful breath through her partly opened mouth and squeezing my hand in quick strokes, as if milking them for the seed she would be receiving at this moment. I continued until it was over and then slowly brought her down from her peak when she started to relax.

I had just masturbated a dragon to orgasm and it was probably the hottest, most arousing thing I had ever done. Every response from her body satisfied and excited me in equal measure and her open acceptance of this act pushed my arousal to barely containable levels.

Unwilling to resist my urges any longer, I grabbed her flanks with both hands, trying to roll her over. She didn't understand at first and responded by lowering her right leg whilst raising her left, twisting her rump and then doing a sideways step when she almost lost her balance. When I continued to push, she turned her head and looked at me. Seeing the way I attempted to manipulate her backside, she seemed to get the idea, tucked her wings tight to her body and, a little less gracious than her usual movements, rolled onto her back.

I boldly sat down on her tail, amazed with how far she was letting me take this. Her soft underside and her swollen entrance were in front of me, completely exposed and in a position I could - and would! - easily take advantage of. I boldly placed my fingers around her folds, pulling them apart. It looked like nothing I had ever seen, flesh perfectly smooth and pale extended to where my hands could no longer hold it apart. Just moments ago, my fingers had had their way with her in this place.

The smell of arousal was still strong. With all my restraints now fading, I brought my tongue down upon her. She tasted like she smelled, intense and incomparable to anything else. The path my fingers had taken before pulsed before me, unreachable for my tongue but not too far for my maleness to reach and enter.

Resting my erection on her sex, I slowly stroked it across her folds, getting used to the idea of doing with her what clearly aroused me but what my instincts had still trouble to process. I looked through her legs, towards her head. It rested, upside down, against the ground, not even watching me as I laid hand on her most sensitive spots.

When I had lubricated myself sufficiently, I placed my hands on her lower belly and pushed forward, enjoying the novel feeling as my heated member slid into her slightly colder sex. This was it, I was united in body with a dragon, about to have sex with it for real. And I knew this was not just some perverted kink. I loved her. I loved her character, her eyes and each and every scale in front of me.

My first careful pushes were like doing it for the first time in my life all over again. Her hind legs were raised into the air left and right of my hips and rocked forth and back as I began to establish a rhythm we would both like. Where my hands lay, the scales were wide, almost like the underside of a snake, only bigger. With care, I humped her a bit stronger, still getting used to the feeling of doing it with a dragon.

It was hard to fully embed myself in her from this angle, so I lowered myself onto my elbows, permitting me to pump into her deeper, reaching even further than my fingers had travelled before. In front of me, her paws were slightly bent upon themselves. Those long, scary claws had turned into just another facet of her exotic beauty in my mind.

I felt her insides begin to contract against the still careful rhythm my maleness had established inside her. Just like before, she seemed willing and capable to get off from a human performing this act with her. Her head remained out of my reach, but I could see it tense against the ground, its underside flat and triangular, looking vulnerable and also adorable. In time, I would explore every inch of this beautiful dragon's body, from her horns, to her belly down to her tail.

In my mind, I imagined the pale flesh in her slit with my maleness embedded in it, receiving me as I pushed into her with her tail lying flat on the ground. It was a bit harder to get into the mood this time as my urges were clearly confused as to whether they should embrace this unnatural act or refuse it. But what could not be solved by lust alone could clearly be solved by perseverance, so I drove on. I didn't want to fantasize about some human girl I had seen, I wanted to think of nothing but the black dragon in front of me when I took her.

And slowly, my arousal took hold, intensifying our union bit by bit until my strokes were controlled by pure instinct and I was no longer holding back anything. Her contractions matched my pace, confirming that she was feeling the same pleasure as I. Each thrust of my hips rocked her body and I could hear her ragged breath.

Whether a male dragon could have done a better job I did not know. But I knew at this moment that there was nothing more satisfying, more right or more fulfilling in this world than being with this dragon. Every time my I buried myself in her depths, I was rewarded by her clenching around me, trying to pull me deeper. My only wish was to remain at this moment for as long as I could.

I kept us both firmly on the road to bliss, only changing my angle or making a few quick, hard pushes to start another wave of pleasure when the urge arrived. Minutes passed in enjoyable bliss, dragon and man enjoying each other without reservation.

Then, feeling my need and hers, I began hitting her harder and faster until her hips shook with each impact and her hind legs drew invisible circles in the air. Her breathing came hard and fast and the muscles on her hind legs turned stiff as rocks as I settled on a pace that would bring us both to our release.

Even her wings tensed up as she gave in to my quick thrusts. Her head bent further backwards against the ground and she released a sweet hissing sound I had never heard before as she convulsed all around me, her sex milking me for my seed. I was close, too, and continued, ravaging her with urgent, forceful thrusts all through her release until I, too, reached my peak.

Thinking that this was what she needed, I grabbed her forcefully as I came, roaring like an animal whilst violently pushing myself into her and spending my seed where it would belong had I been a dragon and not a human. Spurt after spurt entered her insides, which still contracted around my shaft from her prolonged peak. With iron grip I held on to her and watched her muzzle for a reaction as I completed my final strokes. She just relaxed, her whole being exposed and accepting me.

I knew that I had her complete approval to what we just did. I had her absolute trust in every imaginable way. All barriers between us had now been torn down.

Could I sire an egg in her? I remembered what my father once replied to a very stupid question by a young boy: "Like only breeds with like." We were clearly not "like", but I knew I would fight for her, even if another dragon tried to claim her. Whatever my future might hold, from this point on I would remain with her.

The dragon I once feared was now closer to me than anyone else in this world and she had accepted me as her mate, completing me in a way I couldn't yet understand.

She was all I desired in my life.