Forest Keep 16
#18 of Forest Keep
(edited 12/10/08 for font correction and version update)
Mella had called an impromptu meeting of the other dragonesses who had so recently spurned Carlina and invited them to the lair she shared with Iridol. This greatly puzzled them and they decided to show up simply out of curiosity, as it was unusual to allow others into your own lair. They responded to her summons and began to fill the cavern gradually; chatting quietly to one another on private mental channels as they waited to see what was going on.
Mella grinned to herself as she savored the memories she planned to share with them. This would shock them initially, but would hopefully remove some of the prejudice towards Carlina and her daughter who would soon be bringing her mate for the ceremony.
"What are you up to Meliandria?" queried Zelafin, an older red dragoness with a well known bad temper and who as Tekala's mate held an important position amidst the covey of females present. Mella thought carefully before responding. If she could convince Zela things would be a lot easier.
"A couple of things Zela" Mella replied carefully, "One, I want to talk about poor Carlina and the effect your ignorance is having on her and two.. " she kept on, not waiting as she saw Zela's nostrils flare. "I've come into possession of some information that needs to be shared for the benefit of all dragonesses everywhere".
Zela's eyes narrowed and she calmed down slowly, her gaze not leaving Mellas' as her curiosity was aroused along with her concern for dragonkind.
Opening herself to a general mental channel Mella called for the others to pay attention and addressed the waiting group.
"Ladies" she began "I believe you have made a grave mistake in cutting Carlina off from your groups and gatherings" There was the start of an angry response and she help up a paw to silence them "Not only is her daughter's choice not her fault, but she is distraught beyond measure and suffering far beyond what you intended. She truly believes that she is alone now and that I am the only one who she can call her friend".
There were many sidelong and covert glances between the dragonesses and the rumble of disagreement died away slowly. No one had wanted to ostracize Carlina completely but it seemed to have happened anyway.
Mella could pick up fleeting thoughts and randomized guilt over the decision to shut Carlina out, but as usual, the dominant personalities of the males had seemed to be the cause.
Mella chuckled to herself and continued. "As for Cidiliana, she is deliriously happy with her choice of mate and even if he is human he is still entitled to respect under dragon law"
There was a general mental susurration of amusement with undertones of disbelief. "And believe it or not he has taught her things that will bring a new element of enjoyment and respect to our own relationships with our mates".
She grinned broadly at them and gave a little warning, "We dragons have always been open about mating, but let me tell you... compared to the humans we have a lot to learn".
Suddenly opening her stored memory she flooded the disbelieving dragonesses and was gratified to see that as well as the shocked look of the older generation, several younger dragonesses had slitted their eyes and were licking their snouts.
She took them through the entire conversation she had had with her mate and the subsequent licking, mating, kissing and positions following her threats to deny him if he didn't perform.
Zelafin was flushing even redder than her usual hue as she absorbed the scenes unfolding. "A-and the human taught her all this?" she asked with a shy smile. Mella nodded
"I think you should all go and apologize to Carlina and Cill." Her grin grew wider. "And then go home and persuade your mates to try it for themselves..." she let this thought tail off as they did indeed consider it.
She went out to bring in a dozen freshly roasted sheep as a party snack, which all eagerly shared as the talk turned to lighter subjects.
Mella was most satisfied and giggled to herself as she thought of the look that might be on Tekala's muzzle tonight.
Joe sat in the rushes and sweated quietly. He had not counted on this and now he had learnt the dreadful secret the lad had been hiding. He thought over the last days and tried to make sense of events and how he was going to deal with this without getting eaten or locked up for telling anyone.
James slowly rubbed Cill's belly and stroked up to her breasts. "James?" she murmured to him softly. "Yes Love?" he replied fondly and leaned up to kiss her snout gently.
"Do... do you think we could have hatchlings?" asked Cill. There... it was out she thought to herself, already feeling ambiguous about any answer he might respond with.
James thought about this seriously "I don't know dear, Marre seemed to think we wouldn't, but I don't think he really knew" He kept up the stroking and watched her gaze "would you like us to have a hatchling?" he asked quietly.
Cill cocked her head to one side as she watched him caress her "We know we belong together and perhaps that is for a purpose. I hope we can have a hatchling one day and raise it with love and understanding, but I do not know what a hybrid of human and dragon will look like or even if it will be a hybrid."
James nodded and stroked a fingertip over one of her breasts slowly and smiled up at her "I don't know if I would be a good father to a hatchling. I haven't exactly been a model son for my father". He frowned a little at the thought of his father's reaction to the knowledge he had fallen in love with a dragoness and not one of the simpering girls his father seemed to favor as a possible wife for him.
"If we are able to" he murmured to her "I want to have young with you, my lovely dragoness". Cill felt a warm glow at his words and she could feel he was sincere through the link even though she could feel he felt a little trepidation also. But she also was nervous at the thought of having a hatchling to raise.
"There is also the question of my family too," he said with a sigh "I don't know how I'm going to introduce you to them especially as you would have to come to London with me". He teasingly slid his hands up around her chin and stroked gently.
"My father would have a fit if he knew I'd given up completely on the women he had in mind for me to fall for a beautiful, sexy and smart dragoness", he emphasized his words with a kiss on the tip of her snout. Cill growled softly and groped his rump through his breeches.
Nokala and Marre had decided to have a drink. It wasn't often this happened but the news of the possible calamity they had unleashed had made them break Marre's cellar open and quaff a couple of the potent ale casks each.
The two dragons lay on their couches and were loudly singing an ancient battle anthem together when Carlina arrived, flanked by Mella. The two females looked at one another and then back at the pair shaking their heads in disgust.
"I don't suppose your going to tell me what brought this on?" Carlina asked frostily as she stared into the bleary, dilated pupils of her mate.
Nokala tried to focus on her but failed miserably "Wha...?" He slurred, raising a paw in greeting and trying to stroke her, his paw flailing in midair as he misjudged the distance.
"Jus' havin' a li'l drink with Marre to ce'brate" Nokala managed to get out before a mammoth belch that rattled the glassware on the table and brought a howl of laughter from Marre. Carlina looked away from him as the alcoholic breath washed over her.
"Celebrate what?" She asked with a frown before she realized she was not going to get too coherent an answer. Nokala answered before his beer-fuddled brain had a chance to edit the comment.
"Cill coul' be gravid'", he guffawed and pounded the couch with a fist, "damn hu'man migh' be abl' to gi' her eggs".
Carlina blinked and clenched her paws as she thought of the horrible sight of her daughter sitting on a monkey's egg.
"How do you know this, you overgrown offspring of a deviant skink!?" she took Nokala's head in her paws and pulled his snout round to meet hers.
Nokala waved a paw vaguely in the direction of the table and shivered as his brain finally caught up with his mouth.
"Not sure though... uhn" he grunted as Carlina dropped his head onto the couch and walked over to the table to pick up the scroll. It was still open at the final paragraph and she read it with mounting horror.
She stalked back to the couches and waved the scroll in Marre's snout. The older dragon flinching back nervously at her approach.
"Did you know about this you old lecher?" she demanded, talons flexing inches from his muzzle.
"Hell no" murmured Marre "jus' foun' it out", Carlina held out the scroll for Mella to read and watched her reaction as well.
Mella lowered the scroll and shook her head "This is trouble... If some of the more aggressive males find out that human could make Cill gravid they won't rest until he's been killed, not to mention what some of the females will do to either of them if they found out"
Carlina sucked on a talon nervously and thought about what to do. Trying to drive the human off would only make Cill worse and... God's forbid! What if he had already quickened her egg?
It would be months before she showed eggsign and longer until she would lay it. No other dragon would dare lay a claw on a female showing eggsign. It was an instinctive prohibition and they would forfeit all their rights under the law. No matter who the father was, the law was the law.
Hateful though she thought the human was, she had to admit the best way to protect Cill would be to let the clanship ceremony go ahead without delay before this little tidbit of news found its way out. After all, the human would be dead within fifty or so years.
"So we become a laughing stock for a few centuries," she muttered to herself, "the clan has outlasted other embarrassments before though".
Walking over to the couch, she grabbed Nokala by the tail and pulled him off slowly. "This is all your fault, you perverted offspring of a deviant mating," she hissed at him. "If you had let me kill that human earlier we wouldn't have this problem now"
Nokala grunted as his chin hit the floor of the cave and he weakly batted at her as she dragged him to the portal by his tail.
Mella hid a smile and waved as the couple ported back to their lair. She turned to Marre who was almost half-asleep on his own couch now his drinking partner was gone. Reaching down she picked up the scroll and re-rolled it, tapping it lightly with her talons as she though of what to do with it.
Joe slowly crawled backwards out of the long grass, shivering as a breeze passed over him. He knew what he should do. He should ride back as fast as he could to the keep and organize a hunting party to track and kill the beast.
But... things did not look or feel right. A dragon should not roll on its back to have its belly rubbed or kiss a man as a woman did. He paused in his movements and wondered as the breeze continued to ruffle his hair.
James lay atop Cill and contentedly caressed her sides. He suddenly saw her nostrils flare and her eyes flashed into tight slits as she stiffened beneath him.
"What's wrong love?" he asked as she sniffed again, feeling a rumble in her chest.
"Another Human" growled Cill as he slowly slid off her. "In the rushes over there"
"Can you see him?" James murmured as he moved up to her head. He could feel her anger growing as her territory and safety were threatened.
"No... But he stinks of fear and terror" She replied suddenly vanishing from his view and flapping swiftly up into the air to locate the interloper.
Joe was unaware of the danger as he tiger-crawled on his belly away from the lake, torn between his duty to protect the keep and the desire to learn more about what he could see going on between the couple.
Cill snarled to herself as she saw the human wriggling out towards his horse and dove down, her talons snatching his jerkin and pulling him up into the air roughly.
Joe screamed as he felt himself snatched up and lifted into the air by something he could not see. He reached frantically for the dagger in his belt but before he could draw it, he was dropped twenty feet into the lake with a loud splash.
Cill landed on the other side and looked at James "Do you know him?" she growled softly.
James nodded and rushed to her side "That's Joe. He was with me when Nokala helped with the bandits. I didn't think he'd stoop to following me though"
Joe splashed wildly in the lake, as with so many people born inland he was unable to swim and was rapidly growing desperate.
James sighed, "He is a friend and wont harm you love. Though I wish he would have waited until I had told him about you" Cill nodded to him and after giving him a lick flapped up over the lake again to hook the unfortunate Joe from the muddy depths before he drowned.
Cill unceremoniously talon-flicked the waterlogged master-at-arms onto the riverbank where he lay gasping like a landed fish and slowly struggled to regain his feet.
"So Joe" grinned James "You've gotten so bored with Jane you decided to had to come and have a look at my mate?"
Reaching down he helped Joe to his feet as Cill landed quietly behind the sodden man.
"Y-ya mate?" Joe stammered, wiping duckweed off his face and head "B-but...She's soddin' enormous!" He paled at a threatening rumble behind him.
"Never make fun of a woman's size Joe" James patted Joe on the cheek and led him to a dry area where he could sit down and recover.
"Can you speak to him Cill?" asked James silently to the still invisible dragoness.
"No, his mind is shut with fear and he wouldn't hear me" she replied. She could feel the barriers of Joe's mind as it sought to protect itself from what it had previously considered impossibility.
James sighed and turned Joe to face him "Ok Joe. Why did you follow me?" he asked quietly while seating himself on the ground opposite the man.
Joe took a shuddering breath and tried to compose himself "Well Lad. Ya dragon gave me such a scare with those bandits the other day. It made me ashamed I hate to admit"
James grinned, "That wasn't her. That was her father".
Joe paled again "but Sir Nokal... is a man". His voice trailed off as James's grin did not fade.
"Only sometimes", he admitted to the trembling man "the rest of the time he is about sixty feet nose to tail and as incredibly powerful as I told you"
Joe was not sure how many more shocks he could take as he slowly looked round "Where did it go?" he queried.
"She" snapped James "Cill is a dragoness and quite an annoyed one right now I might add. She didn't like us being spied on and frankly, neither do I"
Joe swallowed "Sorry" he whispered while a swirl of mist appeared behind him as Cill cancelled her spell..
"Turn around and apologize to the Lady for spying on her Joe" James said while trying hard not to grin at the older man's discomfort.
Joe slowly turned and looked at the ground and the clawed hind paws then up and at the silvery scaled belly... and further up until he was looking up the snout of an angry looking dragoness. He gulped again and tried to bow in apology.
"I am sorry for disturbing you... Miss... I was worried about James and thought he was in trouble"
Cill puffed a little smoke over Joe but she was mollified a little, as he obviously had manners. She tried to speak to him again but found the barriers were still there so she turned and spoke to James instead
"He still can't hear me so tell him I accept his apology but I want to know what he is going to do now!"
Joe watched as the dragonesses head turned towards James and something seemed to pass between them. James nodded and looked at Joe "Cill accepts your apology but we both want to know what you are going to do now that you know about us."
Joe flushed and wondered himself. "Will she eat me if I don't say the right things?" he quavered, his eyes flicking to the curl of smoke coming from her nostrils
James sighed, "She wouldn't eat you Joe. You're way too stringy" he took the man's arm and turned him round to face him.
"You know that no-one will believe you anyway", he stated flatly "and if you did run off and talk to Lord Duncan about us he would listen to you. Then he would send for me and I would deny it stating I had played a practical joke on you while you were tied up" Joe nodded as he realized this was exactly what would happen.
"Then you would be ridiculed and watched and treated with scorn." James wished he did not have to be so nasty to the first man to befriend him at the keep but Cill's safety was paramount now. "But if you keep your mouth shut and keep our little secret. There won't be any problems... will there?"
Joe felt himself nod as he listened, the lad was right but there was one thing he had to know "B-but, you said she was your mate...does that mean you and she...er..", he flushed and stammered to a stop.
James grinned widely "So that's why you followed me... you figured out she was a dragon and just had to see for yourself how we did it?"
James reached up to Cill and pulling her snout down gave her a deeply passionate tongue slithering kiss that made Joe blush to his boots.
"But... it's unnatural!" he managed to say finally as the two parted with a slurp and a grin.
James tapped his foot on the ground impatiently "Once you get over your fear of them Joe, you'll find out they are closer to us than you think. Cill can't speak to you as your mind is blocking her out otherwise you would be able to talk to her as I can"
Joe froze as Cill leaned down and gave him a gentle lick on the nose then stroked his shoulder slowly with a talon. He took a deep shuddering breath and reached out to touch her arm, running his hand over the smooth shiny scales.
James chuckled "Hey, get your own dragoness... This ones mine" he teased as he picked up Cill's amusement.
Joe smiled and slowly forced himself to relax and look up into her eyes.
Cill felt the fear slowly diminish and the barriers fade. "Hello Joe" she murmured to the startled man.
"H-hello", he said back to her...unable to believe this was happening. The voice in his head was not that of a ravening beast but had a warm, melodic female tone to it. While it was not exactly friendly right now, it was not hostile either.
Joe lowered himself to the ground slowly "Alright" he sighed, "lets talk about this properly"
Lord Duncan strode down to the cells under the keep. They were kept fairly filthy on purpose as the general idea was to break the men put in them so they would confess or repent their crimes. He flicked open the viewing window to the cell containing the rogues Joe had brought in and looked them over.
The men were dirty and sat in the corners of the grubby cell. One cradled his knees to his ribs and rocked back and forth in quiet insanity while the others fixed beady eyes on the little window.
"Come ta gloat at us lordship?" whined the larger one. "Ye set your pet sorcerer on us an' he damn near' kilt us all". Duncan remained quiet but looked at the reaction from the others who both pawed at their faces at the mention of the sorcerer.
Duncan shook his head, these men were obviously cunning and desperate and willing to say anything to gain their freedom and the certainty of the gallows that awaited them.
"Joe is not a sorcerer" he said quietly "you were simply outclassed by a better arms man"
The prisoner snorted messily onto the cell floor and wiped his nose on his ragged sleeve "He jus' waved his hand an' threw poor Fred there int'a tree then I tried ta get an arrer inta him an' he point'd his hand at un an' I flew up int'a th' air like a sparrer..'
Duncan looked doubtful at the statements "Joe would cut off his mustache before having anything to do with the dark arts"
The prisoner hawked and spat at the door "Him? Nah he were tied like a coney, t'was the beardless young 'un wot did the deeds that put us 'ere"
Lord Duncan slowly closed the window and walked away with a frown creasing his brow.