Declaration of Love to a Dragon

Part 4 - Defending Your Most Precious

If Derios had at one time wondered whether it was really love that he felt for the dragon, his own actions had now made it clear to him that he was willing to die for her.

For most of his years, he had just watched his life happen. When his parents had died, he had accepted the farm. When the war had come, he had hoped it would not reach him. And when his farm had been taken away, when they had trained him to be a soldier, he had accepted his lot.

But for this dragon, he would raise his fist, he wouldn't budge an inch, he would stand up and fight for her.

He looked at her beautiful black body, catching the warm noon sun an arm's length away, and smiled. It didn't matter that she was a dragon and what did he care if she couldn't speak? He understood her. He didn't need to look for anything specific that his love hinged on. It was there, strong and clear, and he no longer wondered if she loved him back. She did! To hell with all those concerns!

After their fight, Derios could hardly walk anymore, but at least the splints around the dragon's tail and wings were holding well and she had gone hunting a few times already, each time sharing her meal with him. When she let him roast the catch on a fire, he loved to play little games with her. He would bite into the same piece she had picked and try to take it from her mouth, then, while they pulled the meat in two, they would be eye to eye. Sometimes she even used her tongue to get more of the meat for herself.

On several occasions, he had reached his hand under her hind legs, just teasing her once in a while to remind her that he was still interested in her like that. She hadn't reciprocated his little advances yet, but he felt it would only be a matter of time until he would suddenly find a paw or, better yet, that smooth black tongue touching him indecently. He would enjoy that.

Their games also served to hide the wounds they still carried in their minds. Unlike her - probably - he knew the human side of what had happened to them. It was the evil that happened everywhere, every day. Powerful men thirsting for more power. Ordinary men following orders in return for sustenance. And everyone just doing what from their own point of view made sense.

He had killed a lot of men in exchange for her life. But even if in his rage it had been his truest belief, one could not point his finger at the world and declare "you are evil." A single look into her eyes had saved him from that abyss. But neither could he step through the lines of soldiers attacking him and judge "you joined to defend your home," or "you have no morals".

What he could do was draw the line right in front of him: if they tried to take his life or that of his love, he would throw every fiber of his being against them and have no regrets.

Derios had picked his side.

Charge

It was early in the morning when, a few days later, they came. The dragon suddenly rose in alarm and Derios immediately saw by her posture that something was not right. As they both walked out of the cleft, shouts could be heard in the distance. Soon, he spotted a pair of King Hadric's soldiers following the dragon tracks that were all over the ground in the vicinity. Then another pair approached, further away.

Derios tried to pull the dragon back into the cleft, but there was anger in her eyes. Hatred even. Hatred that he understood to its deepest depths. She had been burned and so had he. The soldiers pointed at the dragon. She prepared to run.

"Whatever happens, I'm with you," Derios said and did likewise, steeling his mind against the throbbing pain in his legs. For her, he would walk. Run. And fight. No matter the pain.

Then they were off. She overtook him easily, reaching the soldiers before they could even turn around to flee. The first one's neck was crushed in a single bite, the second screamed as her paw slapped him into a tree. Just as she bit into the poor soul's head, Derios ran past her toward the second pair, but moments later she was ahead of him again, pouncing them. They had no chance, one didn't even seem to survive her landing, the other punched her muzzle vainly as she bit into his shoulder and shredded his flesh with her paws.

She ran even further until Derios lost sight of her, but then he heard men screaming in the distance. He could only think at that moment that he must have been insane when he had picked a fight with her a few days ago.

She came running back towards him with blood reflecting the sunlight on her paws and muzzle, a sight not as disturbing to Derios as it would have been to another human. Behind her, the noise of horses and boots in great numbers could be heard. Not just from behind her! They were on both sides of the valley!

The dragon retreated into the cleft and Derios hobbled after her, not unlike he had done such a long time ago, back then thinking him to be her prey. No words were required, their different minds understood the situation as one.

Out there, in the forest, they were again, coming to take everything away, coming to take all that was precious in his live. They were here to do the most terrible thing that could happen to him.

Maybe he should have left the cleft with the dragon as soon as they both had come to their senses again. But now was not the time for regrets. There were only two sides in this battle and his would be the one the dragon stood on.

The enemy rode in on horses. First came soldiers carrying tower shields and spears, looking at the multitude of dragon tracks and animal remains on the ground. Arms were raised and fingers pointed towards the cleft. After that, archers arrived. To the bellowing shouts of their commander, they all dismounted, sent their horses away and gathered in formation.

Derios considered attacking the formation before it had been fully formed, the absurdity of a single man throwing himself against an entire army lost on him. The cleft's entrance, however, would separate them into groups of no more than two, or maybe three at once. Unless the dragon decided to attack for herself, it would be a more defendable position.

Men with swords marched up on the sides of the formation, protecting the army's flanks, then four dangerous-looking men in full plate mail rode in to join the battle formation, each appearing to carry a different weapon on his back. One had a huge metal shield.

And a familiar face arrived, too. The black-robed priest, or whatever the man's profession might be, arrived on a horse, then dismounted and took cover behind the spearmen's shields, where he began to move his hands around and mumble something. Then he crawled along the spearmen and, one after another, laid his hand on their heads. He was blessing them.

When his blessings were finished, he said something and after a moment, two of the spearmen held their shields in front of him while he walked a few paces out of the front of the formation, where he unfolded a scroll and began to shout aloud:

"To the nameless fugitive who fled his righteous punishment!

You are hereby branded King-Slayer, for your murder of Prince Phineas Hadric, son of Ulteas Hadric, the king.

You are branded a murderer for killing Sir Geoffrey, Sir Cassius and Sir Henry, loyal knights of his majesty; for killing Lord Cresson and Lord Basaglia; and for killing or causing the killing of 47 of his majesty's soldiers.

You are hereby branded a criminal for stealing his majesty's weapons, the coach and horses of Alem the butcher, for letting said horses come to harm and for setting fire to the house of Ryall, peasant.

Finally, you are branded a user of black magic for changing your shape into that of a bird as confirmed by 10 fair-minded citizens; for commanding a dragon and causing said dragon to attack his majesty's soldiers; for communing with demons to gain unnatural strength as attested by Sir Borin, Sir Clifton and Sir Carac, knights of his majesty; for causing 2 miscarriages; for bringing illness to 4 further citizens; for causing madness in good-natured animals, killing 2."

Derios dryly remarked, not loud enough to be heard: "And for your sore throat after shouting all that blather."

So Phineas was dead. Derios wouldn't have wished it any other way, but, likely, the whole of the Hadric Empire was now out to get them.

"As I did once before, I beseech you to stop your madness. Cast off whatever lord in hell you have sworn allegiance to, for no good can come of it. Think of your immortal soul!" the robed man continued his shouting without the scroll.

He still wasn't finished: "Kill the dragon and hold its head above you when you come out as proof. You have my word that you will be granted absolution and a humane death."

That did it. "I will tear your head off!" Derios screamed back with unbridled anger.

Kill her... he'd rather kill himself!

"Come up here and I'll break your legs and arms and stick knives in your neck before I cut you down, pig!" Derios screamed again when the robed man retreated.

Attack

When a shadow suddenly covered the entrance, Derios barely reacted to avoid the three-pronged lance thrusted at him.

So that was the "humane death."

The rage smoldered in his mind. In one powerful motion Derios ripped his sword, scabbard and all, over his back and slammed it into the attacker's helmet. He caught the second thrust of the weapon, kicked his enemy into the wall and drove the trident past the mercenary's metal shield and into the plate mail to the hilt.

"Spears! Attack!" came the commander's voice from outside, then: "Dragon Hunters! Ready Positions!"

Dragon hunters. Derios looked at his love. She was just a few steps behind him. And whether or not she knew that she was the most important thing that existed in the world, she was what drove him on, numbed all his pain and made him invincible. He would not let them get to her. This was where he would stop them all.

He pulled the scabbard off his sword and readied himself. The flaming determination drove tears into his eyes. Spear-carriers streamed into the cleft from both sides. And with finality, Derios stepped forward.

Their stabs missed him as he smashed their shields and pierced their faces. He saw their every motion. He caught all of their spears and his sword took their arms.

Not one step further! Ringing steel and agonized screams carried his declaration of war out of the cave.

They ran into him with shields and he kicked them back, they thrusted at him in unison and he drove his steel into their brains. He was not a master of the sword, not even a fully trained soldier, but there was no price higher and no pain greater than if he would fail.

His air of invincibility was broken when a spear got to his chest, but he did not fall, not even falter. "He's hurt," shouted the ones waiting for their chance, "Spare my live," the ones that had their chance.

And when they had to step over one too many weeping bodies on their way in, their morale finally broke and they streamed out of the cleft like ants from a fire. Making his anger known with a final, dreadful scream, Derios fell to his knees, coughed up blood and sagged against the rocky wall.

"Spears! Retreat! Guard flanks!" the commander tried to salvage the situation and prevent the men from fleeing outright.

Now the dragon stepped into the pathway. Derios looked up to her and, between his coughs, said with a smile: "They won't get you. Not ever."

But the dragon's anger was awoken. And it was terrible. She took aim and rushed out of the cleft.

"Fire! Archers, Fire!" came the command as she jumped into the sunlight, then pounced the lines of panicked archers.

"Archers out! Skirmishers in! Dragon hunters, in! Double Time!" the commander's voice nearly fell over itself.

Her paws ravaged the archers' bodies who ran in all directions, each having a different interpretation of where "out" was. Like their scariest nightmares she came down upon them, throwing them into the air, tearing their bowels out of their bodies and crushing their heads between her teeth. Soon the earth was covered in blood and one would only have had to add some fires and the smell of sulfur to convince any man that this was hell.

The three remaining mercenaries, "dragon hunters" they had been called, came running from the cleft to the place of slaughter, each on his own braver than the swordsmen who had her almost enclosed, but tried to top each other in achieving the slowest running pace a man could go at without looking like he was refusing the order.

"Archers! Tree cover! Get ready!" the commander tried once again to keep the remains of another wing from disappearing into the woods.

When the first swordsman raised his sword and cut her flank, she jumped away, turned around and dug her teeth into the man's chest in return.

More of the swordsmen massed around, keeping their distance where her head could reach them, but striking her back and sides where it couldn't. That tactic seemed to work and they grew bolder, one almost succeeded in driving his sword into her belly. She made another jump towards the cleft, right over the lines of swordsmen, then whirled around and slapped them from their legs, their swords clattering across the ground.

Unbeknownst to her, when she had jumped the lines, she had presented her back to the dragon hunters. The men were obviously worth their money, as they reacted in an instant.

One swung his clawed flail into her tail, right where Derios' splint had been affixed.

Another was running at her with his two-hander while the third had raised his huge executioner's axe to chop her neck as soon as the attack on her tail would make her spin around.

Which it did.

The axe-wielder's muscles bulged as he laid his whole strength into the blow and accelerated the deadly steel.

Then, with a flash of light, a sword travelled up behind him and in one smooth motion cut through his hand, through the axe's steel handle, into his plate mail, through his shoulder, through his chest and only came to a halt deep in his belly.

She spotted Derios, coming at her with top speed, blood spraying from his chest, his bruised legs driving hard into the ground, the spear in his other hand aimed at her neck. Her paw twitched to raise, then set down again.

And with one mad jump, he went across her neck. He held the spear with outstretched arms in front of him. His desperate eyes followed the tip of the weapon as it passed the incoming tip of the two-hander at even greater speed. Then the ends of the weapons passed the hands of their opponents as the two-hander followed its path towards the dragon's neck.

And as willed in all terrible intensity, the spear tip pushed clean through the plate mail just before Derios' body crashed into the dragon hunter, breaking the path of the sword before it reached her.

The dragon meanwhile finished her response to the strike on her tail, quickly ending the flail-carrier's scream as her teeth came together with his neck between them.

Derios struggled to get back on his feet and remained on all fours over the impaled dragon hunter, who vainly tried to punch him.

She helped him out, removing the dragon hunter's head as she had done with her other victim.

The swordsmen were still petrified. "Attack! Swords! Attack!" the commander's voice made itself heard again from somewhere in the forest, spurring them on to do their terrible deed.

Derios used her head as a crutch to get up, then reached for the dragon hunter's two-hander. The swordsmen closed in again. Cuts in her back and flanks told him all he needed to know and, pulling the large sword across the ground behind him, he dragged his body between her and the swordsmen.

Then he felt her mouth close around his shoulder, the fangs reaching almost to the wound on the other side of his chest. He kept his eyes on the approaching swordsmen, tried to raise the heavy two-hander to strike. The muscles in his sword-arm felt like they had ruptured.

But her grip tightened and he was dragged backwards. All the way to the cleft she pulled him and just when the commander ordered the remaining archers to fire at will, Derios breathed the cool cave air and felt the sun no longer warming his skin. A few arrows struck the rocks, none hit the loving pair. The dragon sat down, releasing her slightly painful hold on Derios, who fell flat on his back. Their heads were right next to each other.

"My love," he said, coughing weakly, "I will not let them get you."

Jaden

Jaden stepped out from behind the tree. It was not becoming of a troop commander to hide in fear, especially not the king's field marshal, but when the dragon had taken its first jump, he had immediately become aware that he was within the beast's striking range. And taking cover was preferable to getting himself killed and letting the entire army fall into disorder.

He still wasn't quite sure what he had just observed. The dragon hunters had the dragon, a sure kill, but then this man, this possessed man, had done the impossible. His terrible scream still echoed in his mind, like a tortured soul forced to live through a nightmare.

Is that what demonic power looked like? But why then had he let himself get so badly wounded that he was unable to stand? Why had he so desperately dragged himself in front of the dragon?

The dragon was another riddle. If its master was on his last breath, why had it saved him instead of seeking freedom or doing its own bidding? Was it still under his control?

The whole story of the possessed man freeing the dragon from the castle did not make much sense either. Dragons were rare, but could he not seek out another to do whatever he had been commanded by hell to do in this world?

Pointless thoughts that would lead nowhere.

"Everyone, fall in," Jaden commanded his soldiers. Time to see what was left.

A dozen archers, about the same number of spearmen and a slightly greater number of his swordsmen, unless he ordered the wounded to fight.

"Archers, aim for the cave," he instructed the men in a calmer voice, now that there seemed to be a break in the fighting. He immediately followed with: "Skirmishers out", not willing to repeat his mistake of leaving the archers without protection.

Decision time.

He had lost nearly half of his troops and his only excuse was that he was fighting hellspawn. If he came back like this, it would cost him his rank and probably more. Besides, he almost had those devil dealers and he had been warned that letting them roam the world would only lead to greater evil befalling the empire.

Bringing in reinforcements would take at least two days, time in which the possessed man and his dragon could lick their wounds. Keeping them from leaving the cave would be quite impossible anyway.

His troops were demoralized, only the limited success of the swordsmen had given them back some will to fight. The effectiveness of the spearmen against the dragon was still an unknown, too, that part of the battle had taken place entirely within the cave.

"One of the spearmen who battled in the cave, to me!" he shouted.

Two men turned around, one marched to him.

"What's your name?" Jaden asked.

"Jacob"

"You battled the dragon in the cave?"

"No sir, just the man. The dragon was behind him, big and terrible, but it didn't fight. I wounded the man."

"You wounded him?"

"Well yes, erm, I mean I helped, the man was brutal, I told Thomas to duck and then the one in front..."

"I see."

"Really, the spear hit him clean in the chest and that man just kept on fighting!"

"Did you see anything strange? Black candles, blood painted on the ground or such?" Jaden asked. He just had to know.

"Maybe. I don't know. It was too dark."

Great, apparently not one spearman had reached the dragon. But Jaden had seen that swiftness was much more important than heavy shields.

"How deep is the cave? Are there any other exits?" Jaden followed up, a plan forming in his mind.

"As I said, sir, it was dark. I didn't see any."

"Thank you, return to your formation."

"Uh... understood. Sir."

Jaden brooded for a moment, then marched down to his men, to instruct them without being heard in the cave.

"You've all seen that the man can barely stand anymore. The dragon is injured, but still fights. I may have to rely on my brave swordsmen once more. But perhaps we can bring this to a quick close."

"How so?" Damien asked. As captain of the swordsmen it was his right to know.

"You'll see in a moment. Collect all the spears, the ones from the injured, too, if they still carry them. Then stick them into the earth in front of the archers," Jaden instructed before looking at the archers: "if at any time you see the dragon emerge, fire your arrows and retreat! The same goes for everyone else, if it hits us unprepared, retreat!"

He waited for the men to carry out his instructions and even helped dig in some of the spears himself. The cave remained quiet.

"I need half of the swordsmen to take position left and right of the cave," Jaden instructed.

Then he looked to the now unarmed spearmen who were still hardening the earth around the spears with their boots. "The spearmen will collect wood and green leaves," Jaden explained, then added in conspiratory voice: "Build us a little fire. Directly in the entrance of the cave, and make sure it smokes a lot. After that, carry the wounded to safety. You've fought well today."

Some of the men grinned. Morale had been restored.

Jaden made sure his plan was understood and looked at the swordsmen: "I suppose I don't need to say it, but as soon as anything comes out of the cave, hit it hard. If it's the dragon and it jumps the archers again, all of the swordsmen are to follow up and strike it down."

He inspected the rock face. The cave, it was more like a cleft in the mountainside, continued to far above their heads and he didn't know how deep it ran, so they would need a lot of smoke. Still, assaulting the cave directly was suicidal, the swordsmen had only had a chance against the dragon because some of them had been able to attack it from behind.

While the fire burned, Jaden sat watch behind the archers. Long minutes passed and much of the smoke traveled out the top of the breach. It didn't seem to do much good, but then one of the swordsmen imitated a cough and pointed to the cave.

A few more minutes had passed when Jaden noticed movement in the entrance. "Ready!" he shouted.

The swordsmen stood to attention.

Then, coughing like a man and not a dragon, something came out. The swordsmen struck the approaching shadow with all their might.

Clang!

Metal on metal.

Something moved still.

Suddenly, a stream of fire engulfed the swordsmen and quickly travelled over the archers. Jaden saw some of them loosen their arrows before he himself turned and ran, feeling the heated air washing over his back.

They had lost! Three divisions of soldiers had not managed to stand up to one dragon and one man! He could only hope the dragon wouldn't hunt down the escaping men!

Victory

When the inferno above him stopped, Derios pushed at the mercenary's deeply dented metal shield he was buried under. He worked it further down across his legs and, with wheezing breath, counted the seconds. No more swords struck it.

He coughed again as he sat up and shoved the shield through the smoking fire, spreading the embers across the ground so the flames would die. Then he crawled out of the cleft. The spear wound in his chest burned with every breath and the smoke forced him to cough even more than before. He desperately needed air!

The dragon followed him, and then, as he laid down in front of the cleft, tried to lick his chest where the spear had pierced him.

With the tension fading, Derios realized what she had done. He knew she loved him, but her attempt to rescue him was standing, undeniable proof of it. "You saved me!" he had to cough again, "You really love me!" he cried. He knew only one, but a dragon would never fight for another. It was completely out of character. He reached his arms around her neck and started hugging her.

For the moment, they had won. But his body was close to breaking after the past two weeks and all he managed to do for the rest of the day was to count his wounds and sit against the rock, trying not to stop breathing.

He still sat there when it got dark. And so he remained until the morning while the dragon slept under the stars next to him, guarding him. There was no wolf or bear he had to fear that night.

The night gave him time to think. He had slain prince Phineas, the first son of king Hadric. The perfect deed for anyone with a death wish. And now Hadric's troops knew where to find them. They needed to get away as soon as possible.

Derios flexed his arm. He could raise it, but lowering it again was quite painful. The pain had begun when he had struck the axe-wielding mercenary. It was his sword arm and after the muscle had somehow made it through all his madness unharmed, at that moment, it had ruptured. But it was far from the biggest problem he had.

Hadric. He had heard the name in the past, but nearly all he knew were things he had learned during the ten days of training after his conscription: the Hadric Empire stretched far into the north and its King was supposed to be a usurper who had once been a rich merchant. King Hadric was a man who would know all the tricks and hold all the strings in his hand.

What they had done to her was monstrous. He could not let them get to her. He wouldn't permit it. He would fight them, and if it destroyed him. Never again.

But there wasn't much left he had to give. If it came to another battle, it would be his last. They had to flee, far beyond the reach of the Hadric Empire, if they wanted to live in peace. Was there a place in the world for them?

Derios looked to the heavens. Beyond the mountains in his back, the sun had probably already risen, for the sky was brightening up. He had made it through the night. His breathing was still painful, but at least he didn't cough up blood anymore.

With some effort, he got on his hands and knees, then crawled over the tail of the sleeping dragon, the remains of the fire and the dead bodies in the cleft's entrance. His herbs tasted like the smoke of the fire when he first put them into his mouth.

Before long, the dragon awoke, too. Her first action of the day was to seek him out and nuzzle his latest wound. Even this little gesture made him happy. There was no word in any language that adequately described love.

He began searching the dead for money. It was not an honorable thing to do, but he needed hard liquor to clean his chest wound, and then he would have to replace his clothes and tools. If he somehow managed to obtain all that, they could disappear into the wilderness together, never to be discovered again.

Few of the soldiers had any money at all, but the mercenary - dragon hunter - with the trident had a full twenty shillings in his pocket. Derios crawled to where the battle had taken place and noticed lines of spears dug into the ground with their tips pointing at the cleft. A dirty trap. The other three mercenaries were not far away, two were missing their heads and one was almost cut in two, Derios' sword still lodged in the cut. But each had an equal amount of money in his pockets and Derios took it. More than eighty shillings in total, a small fortune.

"Will you run with me?" he asked the dragon.

It was not really a question and it didn't matter that she couldn't understand. He knew that she would happily give up her home again. All they both needed was each other.

Now how does one turn a dragon into a horse?

Thoughts

Jaden stood on the mountain path, waiting for any escapees that might still find their way out. It would look bad upon them if they returned to the castle alone, so he had sent what was left of his troops ahead, together with the injured, and decided to wait until sundown himself.

Over and over, he replayed in his head what he had seen that day.

Faith. Duty. Money. There were many ways men could be motivated to put their lives on the line and even to fight to their deaths. And there was no reason to expect any less resolve from a man who was doing the bidding of the devil.

But those desperate eyes. Those insane actions. There was only one thing in the world that would make a man drag his half-dead body in front of another like that and try to fight still...

And the thought alone was utterly absurd.

Riding

The dragon trotted along the mountainside with impressive speed. And unlike all the horses Derios had ever tried to ride, she did her best to keep him on instead of throwing him off. The leather hold of the mercenary's two-hander felt cold against his bare back.

How they would change direction was a bridge he would cross when it presented itself. For now, they were going the right way.

Far ahead, an elk stood in their path and was chewing on the deep green grass that only grew in clearings and around forests. When the elk noticed the dragon, the animal jumped on all four legs into the air and nearly rolled over as it escaped into the forest.

Derios laid stretched out on her back and had his arms around her neck. It felt like standing behind one's beloved and holding her tight, only that there was so much of her, under him. And that she was actually carrying him. Her movements were as smooth as if she was swimming and from his head to his toes, he could feel her muscles work in an almost sensual way.

Her scales had the smell of fresh earth in addition to the smell that was simply dragon. He had first noticed it when he had pushed her cage all that time ago. Back then it had made him feel uncomfortable, now it made him feel safe and content. It smelled like love. And he loved her so very much that it hurt.

A higher terrace came up ahead. The ground wasn't exactly flat this close to the mountains, but that one looked like they should better go around it. Except that the dragon picked up speed instead. Derios tightened his arms around her neck.

Then she jumped. It was a surprisingly fluid motion, first her upper body rose, then her powerful haunches accelerated them up, next she landed on the terrace without any noticeable impact and continued trotting along.

Past the terrace they came across a small herd of does, some of whom vainly tried to run up the mountainside with panicked jumps before throwing a last, agonized look at the dragon and fleeing in the other direction. Hunting had to be easy for dragons.

Derios felt invincible. Each step let him feel her strength and he was sure she could outrun even a horse. All the animals acknowledged her might by running away. And nothing less than this incredible creature had fallen in love with him. He tightened his arms around her neck, pressing himself even closer to her.

And bit by bit, the despair he had carried with him began to fall off, like pieces of bread, cast away to form a trail in that old fairy tale. It was already becoming difficult for Derios not to grow a smile on his face. This was how a child learning to ride a horse had to feel like. And he had the best horse of them all.

After a good hour of running, she took a break.

Derios climbed down to inspect the splint on her tail. He had used so many branches and bindings to make sure it withstood her hunting trips that he probably should be more worried about its weight than its durability.

The mercenary's flail had not broken the branches and the pointed end of the tail was moving freely. She raised her head in surprise when he lightly bit into it, so the splint wasn't too tight, either.

The cuts she had received from the swords didn't look so bad either, maybe like a human having an accident with a kitchen knife. Repeated ten times in a row and on his back. If she still felt them, she didn't show it.

It was a pleasant, almost euphoric experience to doze with the dragon in the sun again. The sunlight warmed her black scales and her beautiful head looked so peaceful when she had closed her eyes. She made the grass jiggle each time she breathed out and created the most comforting sound he knew: the breath of a calm, unworried dragon passing through its nostrils.

After a long rest, she got up again, let him climb on, and resumed their journey.

For all the time they had known each other, he hadn't been this tightly pressed against her for so long. Her wings remained folded on both sides, giving him the feeling of being protected from all directions and dispelling his fear of falling down.

The valley stretched on and on and it was good. He needed this. Her body, her closeness, her trust. It gave him back his strength and made him forget his worries.

Only after a long time of riding, the mountains on the left ended and a badly maintained trail began under them. Then a crossroads came.

"Stop!" Derios shouted as the dragon sped past the road signs.

He grabbed her horns and turned her head. She looked at him from one eye, then straightened her head again, all without losing her direction.

Derios let go of her head. Running with her was just too good and the dragon seemed to enjoy it, too. They literally ran away from all of their trouble. Together, they crashed through small colonies of trees and shrubs and conquered untouched forest meadows.

The wind made Derios' hair flutter over his back. He noticed that he hadn't cut it or his beard for a long time now. What a silly thing to think of. But having time for silly things was good. All he had focused on for the past weeks was their desperate struggle. But he had saved her. And it was all worth it.

He now also desperately needed to pee. Way to break a thoughtful moment.

When another crossroads approached up ahead, he cupped his hands over the dragon's eyes. She tried to worm her head free and when his hands didn't let go, she slowly veered off course and then stopped. Derios looked around. No human was in sight. He uncovered her eyes, then crawled backwards and over her tail until he stood on the ground.

On weak legs, he got to the side of the road, the dragon following so close that she could probably at any time pick him up in her teeth again.

"Wait over there, will ya?" he pushed her head back. She followed.

"I'm just doing what I did behind that rock every day and what you did near that big tree", he complained. She still followed.

Then he decided that they were long past that and just did his business while she breathed onto his shoulder. She had remained this close ever since yesterday.

The road signs on the crossroads read "Endless Valley" in the direction they came from, "Caerwen" to the left and "Fort Dreas", "Innsborough", "Aldgard" to the right.

Getting away from forts and from Seliro at large seemed like a sensible choice, so he put his hands against the dragon's shoulders and pushed her around until she faced the direction he wanted to go. It was not the most dignified way of turning, but maybe they could work something out later.

When he tried to climb onto her back, she once again lowered her shoulders to let him on. And as soon as he had taken his place, she picked up speed again. She knew he wanted to run away and she would flee together with him as far as he or she wanted to go. Of that he had no doubts.

Derios felt elated. He raised his hands into the air. It was pure freedom! They could outrun anyone and anything. Nothing could reach them! And once her wings would heal, not even mountains would stop them anymore.

Soon, long fields of golden corn rushed past on both sides of the road. With the summer approaching, it would nearly be ready to harvest. Derios remembered his own farm. It had been just weeks before the harvest when he had been forced to become a soldier. It was exactly one year now since he had met the love of his life.

She partially unfolded her wings and when Derios already feared she might attempt to fly with her broken wings, she just kept them that way. The dragon was either enjoying herself or it was an attempt at cooling her body.

After a while, she rain straight into one of the corn fields, digging at path through the crops towards an island of trees where she laid herself down, still pumping her lungs. Her breathing lifted and lowered Derios upon her. He dismounted. Interesting. Dragons apparently have less endurance than a horse.

He didn't mind another peaceful rest while listening to her breath. They should have done this long ago! Derios stretched out in front of her and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the dragon was sitting next to him, observing the road. She had guarded his sleep. He climbed on and again they rushed through the rustling crops like only a dragon could. Then their journey continued on the road.

Far in the distance, a farmer walked with a bag over his shoulder.

A running dragon sounded nothing like a horse, Derios suddenly noticed. And compared to a horse, she ran rather silently. Looking over her flanks, he could see how her clawed paws grabbed the ground, rather than pounding it like the hooves of a horse.

When they were less than the length of two fields away from the farmer, he looked behind him for a moment.

Then he turned around and put a hand above his eyes to blank out the sun.

And then he let the bag fall and ran into the corn fields in terror.

Derios laughed until the pain from his chest wound overcame his amusement. The farmer would probably have an interesting story to tell when he got home, especially if he had noticed that the dragon had a rider.

For a while, the countryside just rolled on, then the pair went past an outlier farm, and soon another, while green meadows and islands of trees with sleeping cows under them replaced the golden corn fields.

Up ahead, a trailer was traveling in the same direction as them, carrying a family and multiple baskets of what had to be red apples.

As the dragon came up behind them, the woman on the cargo area started shrieking and when the man driving the trailer turned around, she wildly gesticulated in the dragon's direction. The youths they had with them coiled against the woman's sides and dug their heads into her clothes while the man shook the reigns of his horses with all his might, once in a while throwing his head around to look over his shoulder.

Derios felt a bit guilty. He knew that a dragon running towards a man was a sight that was hard to forget. All its claws, horns and fangs and its piercing eyes pointed towards the unfortunate victim. Derios didn't want the trailer to overturn due to the panicked driver, so he lifted his upper body and winked his arms to show the family that there was no danger.

The dragon meanwhile seemed to get in the spirit of competition and sped up, quickly closing in on the trailer. From this close, he could see that the woman on the trailer was furiously praying with both hands above the heads of the youths.

Then they sped past the trailer. But it hadn't been competition that had driven her - she eyed the driver and bent her head back to snap him up. Derios grabbed her horns and pushed her away as hard as he could. The trailer's horses jumped to the side when she reached an angle where their blinders let them see her.

She just ran on. Derios looked behind him. The trailer had driven onto the meadow and one of the baskets lay on the road, but it didn't look like the family had come to harm. Another man, another story to tell - another story without a bad ending.

The trailer soon disappeared into the distance and the road joined a river. Further ahead, Derios could spot a fork that led into a village and half way to the village, they encountered a group of fishermen sitting with their backs to the road. When the men noticed the dragon, they jumped, one after another, into the water and wildly paddled their arms to reach the other side.

Derios used his tried and true method of stopping the dragon by cupping his hands over her eyes. This time she knew what he wanted and he could remove his hands again while she coasted to a halt. In front of the village, a trailer full of cut grass was promptly abandoned and its cows escaped together with their load.

The village looked peaceful and harmless. It was as a good a place as any to look for supplies. She wouldn't let him go alone, Derios knew, but neither could he nor did he want to go alone.

He dismounted and got in front of her. It was obvious that the dragon was letting him decide their course of action at this moment. She trusted him. After giving her a thank you kiss whose meaning she by now likely understood, Derios put her head on his shoulder and reached his good arm around it like a man carrying a wooden beam. Then they walked towards the village while he tried his best to hide how weak he was on his legs.

Screams and slamming doors were heard as they marched the village's main road to what looked like a marketplace. A marketplace would make things easier. But it was not only the dragon that became nervous when the pair was surrounded by human-constructed walls and the smell of sweat and dung again. Derios found himself no longer at ease near so many humans.

A few houses ahead, at the entrance to the marketplace, two guards with halberds stood in front of an alley, not running away but not braving themselves to attack either. They wore red tunics - apparently not Hadric's men.

Derios shouted in a menacing voice, a skill he had mastered unwillingly during their ordeal: "If you do not attack us, we will not attack you!"

The dragon pulled her head free and Derios caught it again. She loudly hissed at the guards. Was she supporting him or was she wary of the guards?

"She doesn't like armed men! Keep this distance and remain in plain view!" Derios shouted before the situation escalated. And the guards followed his orders.

Both guards retreated backwards into the marketplace and Derios followed with the dragon. More shrieks came from the remaining people and merchants ran or hid behind their tables. Cries of children could be heard.

"Here's the deal! We need supplies! And we'll pay for them! Then we'll leave and not come back!" he shouted into the marketplace.

Silence.

"Wha... what do you need?" shouted an unsure voice from behind one of the tables.

"A hunting knife." Derios reached for the mercenary's bag of coins bound to his hips. He had eighty shillings! "The best one you have!" he added.

"Uh... I sell cheese," the man replied. Indeed, the table he was hiding behind carried wheels of cheese.

"You've got more guts than the rest of them. Fetch what I need and I'll make it worth your while!" Derios shouted back, trying to hold back a cough.

"Y... yes" came the reply and the cheese seller slowly rose from behind his table.

Castle

The guard stopped his patrol around the wall as a group of soldiers was let into the castle. Most of them were on foot and the few horses in their ranks carried wounded comrades. Them, and bishop Sylvius, who had arranged his black robe tidily over his horse's back.

As if kicked, the door into the bailey flew open.

"What is the meaning of this? Where is my field marshal?" the king's voice could be heard.

"I fear that I am an envoy of bad news today, my lord", came the reply from Sylvius as he dismounted.

"Speak," commanded the king.

"Field marshal Jaden has tracked down the possessed individual. Jaden is quite a capable man, if I may say so. But, and I regret to inform you, the fighting did not go well," the guard watched Sylvius report while behind the bishop, the wounded were carried off one after another.

"Did you, or did you not, kill this murderer?" the king pressed.

"Alas, we did not. And by the horrible things I've witnessed, we cannot risk doubting anymore that the empire is in peril. I fear that by now this... devil's servant must have crossed into Braede and plot..."

"Enough! Wherever he is hiding, he will soon be found. Leave now, I will inform you of my decision tomorrow," the king's voice interrupted Sylvius, then steps could be heard receding from the door.

The guard watched the bishop reach for the door and step inside. His voice could be heard pleading: "But Sire! There are ways to extinguish this evil wherever it hides. If only you gave me the support I need, and I'm sure it would be held to your soul's benefit, my..." and with that, bishop Sylvius had closed the door from the inside.

Scratching his head, the guard resumed his patrol duty.

Village

"The last thing will be a pair of saddle bags," Derios said, then added: "for... large horses" with a smirk.

Rather than holding the dragon at bay, which was how he wanted to be seen, he was actually resting against her head and hoped his shivering arm wouldn't be noticed.

"Yes sir," the cheese seller said and disappeared into another alley. The prices he had quoted for the items he had fetched so far were outlandish, but Derios didn't care. His bag of coins was still well filled.

The cheese seller returned with a pair of large saddle bags like they were used by horse couriers, with straps for affixing bedrolls, water bags and light weapons. "These are two shillings, sir. There are no larger available in the entire village," the man said while holding them up.

"I think you've given yourself quite the cut already, but here are five shillings," Derios said and threw the coins in front of the man before instructing him: "Put everything in those saddle bags. Take your time and wrap the bottles in the clothes so they don't break. Then leave the bags in the middle of the marketplace."

Even the guards had started talking to each other and the situation seemed to be under control. The cheese seller had settled down, too, and was no longer stammering. Except for a map, he had managed to collect everything Derios wanted.

"I... can put it on if you wish," the cheese seller stated boldly after he had finished packing the saddle bags.

"You'd die," Derios stated without much emotion. He knew it was the truth. The man's braveness was very surprising.

"Is it not tame? The dragon?" came the reply.

"She is not," Derios replied.

And imagining for a moment some daft nobles hearing of this incident and hurting other dragons to try and tame them, or maybe just because he was in the mood, he decided to put the man's assumptions straight.

He shouted so the few people left in the marketplace could hear him: "There is no tame dragon in this world. It cannot be done. Let me show you what our relationship is!"

With that, he took a step to the side, turned her head and kissed her deeply. And she kissed him back, pushing her tongue between his lips and closing her eyes halfway. People looked on in disbelief. It was the kind of offense that got a man either burned or drowned with all the animals he kept. And an animal was clearly what she was to them.

Derios took the dragon's head on his shoulder again and walked her to the saddle bags. It was getting hard to hide the weakness in his legs after standing for so long and he wasn't sure if he could keep it up until they had left the village. His arm quivered again when he lifted the bags by their leather straps and slung them over her neck. She looked wary, but naturally she trusted him, as he had expected her to.

Then he led her in a tight turn and when, after a few steps down the village's main road, she offered her shoulder, he climbed on, trusting her as she had him.

She walked out of the village without incident, past the drenched fishermen which seemed to have swum all the way to the village and were now lying on the shore, pressed against the ground and probably hoping not to be seen. When she had reached the fork in the road, she turned right, continuing their route.

"That went well. We only cost them their apples, their fish and their grass," Derios said smugly while he wrapped his arms around the dearest neck.

Derios had liked that village. A town actually, by law, as it did have a marketplace. The many people however, had made him feel uneasy.

"Thank you for not eating them. It would have troubled me," he said to the trotting dragon.

Soon, a forest began on the right side of the road and when a little while later, they reached a minor road that lead into the forest, she decided to take it. Derios wondered for a short time if she just liked forests or if she had a goal, but in the end it didn't matter. She had as much right to choose where to go as he did, so long as they just got far away from Hadric's men.

Joyride

The road she had chosen gave the appearance that someone had drawn a straight line through the entire forest and then started felling trees along it.

It stretched on forever and only the puddles that covered the ground in irregular intervals convinced him that they were not caught in some magical trap that led them across the same stretch of road over and over again.

But it was not boredom that plagued him when the road continued as monotonously as it had since the beginning. After spending the entire day pressed against the dragon's undulating body, his mind was quickly finding other outlets to avoid boredom. His engorged member pressed into her back as he rubbed his loins against her. He didn't mind her noticing it. He wanted her to notice it. After all, they had that kind of relationship.

If lust was already a very enjoyable feeling, love enriched it even more. Bringing satisfaction to the dragon was just as pleasant as getting it himself, he mused while his mind worked out one kinky idea after the next. All the things a man could do with a dragon so long as the dragon was only willing!

And still, the road carried on. Endless like the Endless Valley. Maybe this was the Endless Road.

When she started to get heavy-footed and he felt that she would soon seek another break, Derios teased her: "Done already? Even I can run longer."

Then he carefully turned around, remarking: "I think you need some motivation."

He could see her wing membranes flutter slightly in the wind as he turned, but his gaze soon rested upon her rump, which moved with every powerful step of her hind legs. And the tail beyond it which she held outstretched. It swayed only lightly at this speed, or maybe she tried to keep it motionless because the fracture was still hurting.

Derios slowly worked his way along her back until his head rested on the beginning of her tail. The fast-moving ground below was a bit dizzying from this angle, but the rippling muscles on her hind legs had an entirely different, enjoyable quality from this perspective, too.

His hand traveled under her tail, then towards her sex. He had to hold it against her underside to still his hand relative to the movement of her hips. And then he parted the dragon's folds and began stroking their insides with one finger, just a few times before he stopped.

She raised her tail a bit, then it dropped again.

He did it again, reaching a bit deeper.

And she got slower and approached the side of the road. Derios immediately removed his hand, but she came to a halt, probably thinking he was proposing a quick roll in the woods.

But when Derios neither dismounted nor continued his caress, she started trotting again. And he resumed his fondling.

As she got slower again, so too, did he remove his hands again.

She got faster, and he resumed. "That's it, that's the game," he called over his shoulders.

And soon he could stroke his fingers between the dragon's folds while she continued trotting down the forest road. Derios knew she was quick to be aroused - probably the poor females of her species didn't have their needs fulfilled very often. Except for this one. He would make sure of that.

Derios knew exactly where his fingers needed to go, he knew all of her sensitive spots, but first he wanted to have a bit of fun. He alternated between circling his target and idly massaging her folds while he watched her gait become erratic, causing an irregular step here and there.

He looked over his shoulder. The forest road still dragged on with no end and no travelers in sight. And the dragon was definitely getting wet on her own accord now. He pushed his hand deep into her folds and felt for her vent. When he found it, he softly stroked the delicate muscle a few times.

And as it often did when he touched that area for the first time, her tail twitched. There were few secrets this dragon still kept from him. At first, she wouldn't like it, but when she would reach the point where she humped into his hand, it would arouse her greatly.

With care, he sought out that other delicious entrance in the other end of her sex and pushed two of his fingers inside, where he began drawing his fingers back and forth. After just a few strokes, her gait became jumpy as she pushed her legs further behind her. Then she slowed down.

Derios slid his hand out of her. "Keep running," he said with glee.

If dragons could talk, he mused as she sped up again and he resumed his duties. It was easy to use the up and down of her legs to time the strokes of his fingers, so he did just that.

Beyond his body, he could hear her heavy breathing. "Of course, if you're tired, just slow down" he teased. A quick look confirmed that the road was still as empty as it had been since they had reached it.

Now the dragon was making quicker, smaller steps. Derios tried to synchronize his strokes with her steps again. And though he could not see his actions, he could smell the fruits of his labor whenever the clouds of draconic arousal washed over his nose. He wondered if he could get the dragon off without stopping. Her running concealed the twitching of her sex a bit, but if he gave her control over his fingers through her pace like he did just now, it might work.

He pushed a little deeper and stroked her depths with both of his fingers alternatingly. She slowed down to enjoy the sensation, but quickly noticed her mistake and jumped into pace again. Derios had to laugh and rewarded her with a few stronger strokes.

It didn't take long for the dragon's running pace the get even more erratic as she repeatedly thrusted her back up between steps.

"Oh, have we reached that point," Derios said over his shoulder. Nobody on the road still. Then he added his other hand, wetting his fingers before tickling her vent. And soon the dragon got completely out of step, dashing all over the road and making bouncy whips as she rode his hands.

Then, despite her unsure steps, she suddenly picked up speed very sharply and dashed her feet furiously across the ground while Derios tried to follow her speed to the best of his ability.

And then, locking her hind legs in place for a double hop that hit him under the chin, she came. The dragon ran on in crazed steps, switching between dancing on her left and right hind leg as she savored the sweet feeling Derios had brought her.

When she began to settle down again, he slowed his stroking equally and eased her off before slipping his hands out. She was heavily breathing and still running with a gait much more jumpy than before.

Derios turned around again and crawled towards her neck, careful not to hit her wings with his new two-hander. Empty road. Still. "You're not angry, are you?" he asked, but she kept trotting along, so he just wrapped his arms around her neck and relaxed. "We humans have weird ideas sometimes, better get used to it," he said with amusement.

And still bumping discomfortingly into her back was his own raging hard-on. If his body wasn't so broken, he would have dragged the dragon into the forest and gone at her until she would squeal for mercy. And then he would have licked her squealing muzzle to silence.

Rest

Eventually, the forest road ended on another, bigger road that ran elevated around a deeper valley of mixed trees, granting a view far into the distance.

"Let's rest there," Derios said.

He walked into the valley as far as his legs allowed him to, knowing that the dragon would follow. "Let's treat the wound before it gets too dark to see. I'm not happy about any of these wounds but if this thing goes bad," he patted his chest under the spear wound, "I'm a goner."

When they had found a comfortable sleeping place away from the road, he took the saddle bags off her and rummaged for the liquor bottles, then remembered that he had instructed the cheese seller to wrap them in his new clothes.

"Let's see what we have. This one smells like rum. And this might be brandy. And this one... I don't know. Might be wine." Derios narrated for her. He reopened the brandy, cupped his hand under the spear wound and poured it on. It stung not as much as he feared, probably because the wound was already a day old.

Then he took a sip for himself. And another.

"Want some?"

He held the bottle out to her and she curiously eyed it. Then he brought it to his lips again - not without taking another sip, of course - to show her that it was drinkable. To make it easier for her, he poured a bit on his open hand and held it out. She darted her tongue against it, then shirked away.

"Too strong?" he asked, drank from his hand and looked for the bottle that probably contained wine, but before he put the brandy away for good, he took another sip.

Then he opened the wine. With the brandy still fresh on his tongue, it tasted weak and fruity. He poured some onto his hand and held it out to her. Once more, her tongue darted against the fluid, but she didn't seem to like it either. After a moment her head came closer again. He offered his hand anew and she tested it again and stopped again.

"Wait there, I have an idea," Derios said and unfastened his new bucket from the saddle bags, then poured some wine in it and mixed it with water from his water bag.

"How's that?" he said. She tested the diluted wine and began lapping at it. Derios gulped down a few mouthfuls from the bottle, enjoying how his wounds already caused a little less discomfort. When he had his fill, he poured more of the wine into her bucket, forgetting to also add water.

Before long, the dragon was sipping the wine raw and bent her wing arms into weird angles to keep her balance.

"Looks like this is pretty strong wine!" Derios remarked when he noticed her, then put the bottle to his lips.

When he lowered it again, the dragon's head came into view behind it, looking at him in all closeness. For a moment, she was a bit scary, especially when she came even closer and bumped against his nose, but then she corrected her aim, pressed her muzzle onto his mouth and pushed her tongue through his wine-wetted lips. Her tongue tasted of wine, too.

He slung his arm around her face and leant into the kiss, hungrily lapping at her tongue like she did with his.

His other hand began working his loins to ease the burning desire his wounds had prevented him from taking care of.

Then, suddenly and with a dull noise, the dragon's body lost balance and fell over, sending a jolt through her still kissing head. Derios tightened the embrace to prevent her from leaving him. How often would he get to kiss a drunken dragon?

When he finally removed his lips from her muzzle, he had to draw the dragon tongue out of his mouth like a strand of hot cheese.

"Careful, if you drink too much of that, it leaves you with nooo control," he warned her while at the same time pouring more of the wine into her bucket.

"Baaad things might happen if a dragon lost control." He explained while crawling towards her, then stumbled and fell against her chest. There he began massaging her wing muscles and licked the underside of her neck while he felt her throat work down the wine she was once more lapping up from the bucket.

"You know how we'd do it with the girls in Kilgard?" he asked, then swirled the rest of the wine in the bottle before taking a gulp.

"First we'd ask them out. And then we'd hide a bottle of this in the straw," he explained while pouring the rest of the wine into her bucket.

"And when we'd sit there, trading the bottle, our hands would slooowly go to places," he told the dragon while his hand did just that. She was busily lapping the wine from the bucket, but raised one of her hind legs for Derios' hand.

"Juuust like that," he said while gliding along the inside of her raised hind leg and then beginning to use his hand on her in the way a youth would when exploring those forbidden womanly places for the first time.

"But they weren't beautiful dragons like you," Derios continued before he brought the wine bottle to his mouth and noticed that it was already empty. The bottle had a rather long neck, and it was rounded, almost like...

Derios got over to her hind legs and held the wine bottle's neck against her folds. Then he pushed it in, up to the point where its girth became too wide. Too bad it was empty, or he could have licked the wine out of her afterwards.

The dragon meanwhile tipped the bucket over, wasting the remaining wine, as she rolled onto her back. Then she tried to push her upside-down head into the fallen bucket.

Between her hind legs, Derios had started to pump the bottle in and out, twisting it and gyrating it however the mood took him. When he wasn't sure if he was doing it right, he added a finger to test if the bottle's neck was driving to the right places and kept it there because it looked cute how the dragon's finely scaled folds enveloped both the bottle and his finger.

His wine bottle did its job well, his finger could clearly feel her pulsing around the glassy intruder.

"That's it! My dear dragon will get all her needs fulfilled." Derios said and sped up.

When the dragon got annoyed with the fleeing bucket, which seemed unwilling to let her muzzle enter it, she smashed it away with her head, then angrily breathed a short and poorly controlled burst of flame over it.

"Don't set the forest aflame!" Derios complained and used his free fingers to press her folds tighter against the bottle as he worked it in and out of her. With that, her rump began bucking into the bottle and after he had invested just a little bit more effort, he made the dragon climax around it and his finger.

Feeling her twitching inner muscles, he released his grip on the bottle and stopped it from falling with only two fingers. Then he watched as her orgasm made the bottle rock up and down lightly when she clenched around it.

"We should become carnies. Derios and his fire-breathing dragon, who can make bottles dance in her snatch!" he stated.

He quickly removed the bottle, relieved himself of his pants and entered her with no further concern.

Her insides were still rippling around his shaft and he wasted no time letting his own urges dictate his movements. For some reason, his right arm didn't want to hold him up properly, there was something about that muscle that he didn't want to remember.

It had come to the notice of the dragon as well, as she now grabbed his shoulders with her paws and steadied him so that he could do his task properly.

Derios enjoyed himself to his fullest, remembering more important things, like how draconic mating strokes went: quickly in, wait, slowly out. Those he imitated while he watched the dragon's head squirm about in pleasure.

He could have used any technique at this point, for after spending much of the day on her trotting body, just watching her hind legs carry the two of them along that forest road would have probably gotten him off in the end.

And while those desirable hind legs were rocked furiously in his weird imitation of dragon mating thrusts, she raised her wings around her lover to create a small world just for her and him.

Then her head bent around and watched his work intently until he noticed her and raised his own head. She closed in and, breathing heavily through her nostrils into his face, began another kiss.

Up until their final moments of arousal, they kept kissing and when their closed mouths couldn't deliver the air fast enough anymore, they opened them against each other and panted through their open mouths.

Derios slowed down just a bit as he felt the dragon's release, then used her pulsing sex to drive himself onwards. After a stretch of fevered thrusts, human-styled ones now, he released all his pent up desire in her, humping until he could feel no more strands of seed shooting into her.

Then he said with a silly smile: "I bet you're the only dragon who carries a human's seed around in her all the time," and with that he sagged into her paws and began snoring whilst still embedded in her sex.

The dragon seemed like she couldn't care less, released her paws from his shoulders and laid her head back.

As he fell onto her belly, he opened his eyes once more, noticed the scales in front of him and stated the obvious: "You're a dragon and I love you." Then he snored on.

For a moment, the dragon looked like she considered turning over, but then she closed her eyes and tried to sleep on her back.

Doubts

Jaden stood in the yard for a long time. The king was waiting for his report.

Soon after he had been promoted to his post, Jaden had been tasked with masterminding most of the Seliro campaign. He had planned the movements of the troops at large, but he had also commanded men himself. More than once he had ordered husbands dragged from their crying wives, to be sent to far-away places as slaves.

The trick was to block it all from one's mind. To see them as mere enemies that would not hesitate to do the same, given the chance. After a few nights of sleep, their faces would be forgotten. One just had not let it get to him.

But it had gotten to him.

And all in the form of a weird man, full of wounds and barely able to stand, picking up a sword and dragging himself in front of a dragon... to defend it.

If Jaden went into the castle, he would be severely punished. The king's son was unavenged and he had misjudged the dragon's ability to breathe fire after it had initially refrained from doing so. Jaden would be lucky if he kept his rank.

But what if he didn't? What if he did not enter the castle and did not report to the king?

Fin.

Now you know the story of how a man and a dragon came to love each other so deeply and completely that no poems of love could do them justice.

How an indifferent peasant discovered that there were things in his world that meant so much to him that he would fight to his last breath to protect them.

And how a dragon, a feared solitary creature, had come to care for another more than for herself, defending and guarding a man and relishing his touch.