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"Wheeeee!"

A thousand feet below, the herd of deer bolted.

"Damn it, woman!" Keth's wings flared and his tail swung to one side, steering him out of what had been a simple dive and into a quick, steep turn; the human's weight pressed in between his shoulders, and she would have surely been thrown from the saddle if her legs weren't strapped into place. The deer fled towards the nearest cover, a stand of trees back in the direction he'd come from, and he flapped hard in pursuit--if they reached the trees, he wouldn't be able to follow, and he'd have to find something else to hunt! The edge of the field was coming up so quickly though, and he snarled his frustration--they were going to get away!--before a stroke of good luck made up for the bad: a doe tripped over the legs of another and fell into the long grass, its limbs thrashing as it hurried desperately to right itself. The blue-and-gray dragon landed with a thump, his massive forepaws boxing in his prey, and then his jaws descended, seizing the deer by the base of her neck and giving it a sudden, jerking twist to one side. It screamed, its neck broke, and then it went still.

For a few long moments the dragon just stood there over his kill, breathing heavily and plowing the earth with his claws, before he swung his head around and snapped his teeth shut barely a paw's width in front of the face of the woman who rode on his back. "Must you do that every time I stoop? They heard you, and they nearly got away!"

Infuriatingly, she only giggled and stroked the soft scales between his nostrils. "Oh come now... Surely I shouldn't have to tell a dragon how exhilarating it feels when you dive like that! The feeling of speed, and weightlessness, the way the wind rushes around you and blows through your hair--" The woman ran her fingers over one ear, tucking in a strand of blonde hair that had escaped her ponytail, and giggled again. "Well, maybe you can't relate to that last one."

He snorted, and bumped her on the shoulder with his snout. "I know plenty well, Lanna! But there's a time and a place to roar about it, and that is not when I'm descending on what I hope to make my dinner. One of these days you're going to make me miss, and I will not be a happy dragon when it happens."

Instead of looking mollified, her expression went stern. "You'll just have to consider it another aspect of your sentence, then."

Keth lashed his tail and snapped his teeth again, but Lanna didn't flinch, and after a moment he subsided, settling down onto his belly and grumbling his irritation, his wings furled loosely against his back. "I'm going to eat. Feel free to stretch your legs." Turning back to the carcass of the doe, he expertly skinned it with his sharp foreclaws and dug in hungrily, starting with the meaty flanks and working his way along through the thinner, stringier areas. Not as fat or juicy as taking livestock, but he could hardly steal some farmer's cattle with a human sitting right there on his back!

Not that he'd done so very often. The taste was better, yes, and it made for a larger meal, but there wasn't much thrill in hunting something that could be found so easily, and had a fence keeping it from running from him! And stealing from some poor farmer with nothing sharper than a pitchfork to hand just couldn't hope to equal the challenge of pursuing prey that was faster, more agile, and had so much farther to roam... To take such an easy out was hardly the dragon's way, and regardless, doing so more than once every few months would bring hunters after him! Not that hunters scared him--few things scared a dragon--but that wasn't had brought humans after him, and it hadn't been hunters, either. Instead he'd been attacking caravans, stealing all the treasure he could get his claws on, building up a hoard in hope of impressing the dragoness who'd lived a few mountains over from his own, and after a few very profitable months whatever human kingdom owned the road through his valley had heard the reports of his thievery. Ambushed, drugged, and chained, they had dragged him back to their capital and tried him for his crimes. He'd been stealing, not killing, so that had saved him from execution... but he was guilty of stealing, of course, so they'd taken away all the treasure he'd stolen and sentenced him to a few years in prison.

So much for impressing that dragoness.

Their dungeons were much too small for a dragon, so they'd overhauled an old stable to serve as his cell. Very quickly, however, they'd discovered that they had overlooked something important: keeping a dragon fed was very expensive. So new arrangements had been made, and now he was let out to find his own food each day--after giving oaths that he wouldn't flee the kingdom, with his gaoler riding along on his back to keep an eye on him, and with the treasure he hadn't stolen as collateral. The humans had initially confiscated all of his hoard, but he'd managed to convince them that some of it was family heirlooms and not something he'd stolen (although certainly an ancestor had stolen it many years ago); now those treasures waited down in their vault, to be returned to him on his release, and if he flew away before then he wouldn't be able to get them back. Of course, this arrangement couldn't compare to freedom, but at least he got out of that stable, and got out of the chains they secured him with, and most importantly still got to fly every day!

Keth finished feeding and spent a few minutes idly gnawing on a leg bone, then turned his attention to his scales; he couldn't groom properly while chained up, so now would be his only chance to get the blood and grime off his snout and his claws, or give the rest of his hide any attention. He glanced back at Lanna for just a moment to check on her, but she hadn't gone far, merely unstrapped her legs from the saddle at the base of his neck and stretched herself out on the broad warm scales of his back. "Comfy?" he asked, then began to lick one of his forelegs and wipe it across his snout to get it clean.

"Mmmm, you have no idea..." He felt her twist on his back and then go still again. "You're always so warm!"

He huffed. "Well that's too bad, because if you lie there much longer I'm going to tip you off."

"Really?" she said, and even he could hear the annoyance in her voice at so brusquely disturbing her; then she looked up and saw what he was doing, and realized he wasn't rolling just to dislodge her. "Oh you and your grooming..." One of her little fists pounded against his back, where his scales were so thick he barely felt it, but after a moment she sat up and climbed down into the grass. "I swear you are the biggest cat imaginable."

"It's this, or you let me fly far enough to find a big enough lake to swim in. And even that wouldn't be a good idea during winter." He rolled onto his side once she was out of the way and began to lick clean the wide, tough scales of his chest, though he had to work around the bands of leather that strapped the saddle to his back.

"Oooh, swimming! Wouldn't that be a treat. Maybe one day, if you're on your best behavior for a while, I'll look at a few maps to see where we might find a good lake for you."

He stopped, and looked up at her for a few seconds, trying to decide whether she was serious, but human facial expressions and body language were still mostly a mystery to him: the posture was all different, and they didn't have the tails or wings that usually gave a dragon's moods away. "I'd like that," he said eventually, and went back to his tongue bath.

"Well then it's a deal! So long as you behave..."

"It's not like I could do much to misbehave anyway," he groused, extending a wing and beginning to sniff his way along the membrane, seeking out any little clinging bits of dirt and licking them away.

Lanna walked around, exploring the field a little; they'd been in the air for over an hour, and she needed to stretch her legs a little before the flight back to the castle. "That's the idea! It wouldn't be very practical to keep an entire regiment on guard day and night just in case you tried something."

He paused to growl before rolling over to work on his other wing. "I gave my word."

"Yes, but it's only been a few months! You dragons live a long time... Maybe you're being patient. Perhaps after a year or two, we'll be willing to forego the restraints."

Keth looked up at the sky, one wing still raised. "Your Queen seemed perfectly willing to accept my word about these hunts. If I wanted to, I could fly away right now, and there's not a thing you could do to stop me." She stopped pacing and went very still, watching him; he stared levelly back for a few long moments, then snorted and stretched out a hind leg for cleaning. "But I swore, and that keeps me here. A promise or few should be enough to do away with the chains, too."

"That may be true," she said after some thought. "But if you're not restrained, then your prison might seem more like a home than a cell. It's my job to make sure you're healthy, not to make sure you're happy. You're not supposed to be happy in prison, that's what makes it a punishment!"

The dragon's head and tail drooped. Still being able to fly and hunt sometimes distracted him from why he was there, having to put up with human company, and he let out a long slow sigh. "Right," he mumbled, half to himself, and finished his grooming in silence.

Lanna resumed her walk, and when at last he finished, got to his feet and shook himself vigorously, scales rustling, she returned to his side. "Ready to fly back?" He dipped his head, and crouched down low so she could reach the side of the saddle, the straps for her legs doubling as handholds to help her climb up onto his back. The human clambered up with practiced ease, and once she was buckled in she gave him a pat on the neck. "All right, Keth, let's go."

"Hold on," he warned, then spread his wings, crouched, and surged forward across the field. The thundering gallop jarred her a little, his massive paws thudding against the earth, but then one, two, three massive beats of his wings on either side of her lifted them up and into the air. The first few strokes bounced and shook her, but the farther above the trees he carried her the steadier the air became, and soon he had settled into a smooth, easy flight. The dragon tipped a wing and turned, using the motion to glance back at his passenger: she still seemed secure, and hadn't yelled any complaints at him, so he straightened out again, soaring away towards the city that was now his home.

He had flown far on his hunt today. Closer to human-inhabited country, wild prey was far more scarce, so he could only take prey nearer the city every so often and thus saved that for days of poor weather, or in case he somehow grew sick or even injured. Out here it was nearly wilderness, with only the occasional isolated farm or scarcely used road to break up the woods and grasslands. But his wings carried him far more quickly than humans could travel, so the transition from the wilds to cultivated lands seemed to happen as fast as a wing-beat: one moment there was nothing beneath him but the treetops, and the next there were cultivated fields, roads, and even scattered towns. The farther he went, the more densely packed the land seemed to become, dirt roads turning to cobbled, wooden houses with their thatched roofs becoming mostly stone dwellings, and the sounds of the birds and the wind through the trees quickly replaced by the sounds of men: shouting voices, rumbling mills and rattling carts... even the scent of the land changed, where humans lived. All of them together seemed almost an attack on his senses, a warning that his kind no longer belonged here and he should seek somewhere else to fly--but that feeling wasn't nearly as strong now as it had been upon his arrest, as he grew used to living among them.

Not that he ever expected to like it.

Keth always smelled the city before he saw it. Its scent was filthy to him, seeming to combine every worst stench humans could possibly create into an overpowering miasma that hung over half the city; almost entirely from the poor quarter, or so Lanna told him, where there was no proper drainage and vastly more people crammed into less, far more poorly planned space. Thankfully it was almost always downwind from the castle, so only when he flew over it did he have to smell it, and it was a relief when he did at last, taking a deep breath of the cleaner air. He had already come over the city walls, and now the keep loomed before him, all dark gray stone and tall round spires, stretching up into the sky as if the humans who'd built it wished they had wings like his own--even if the prospect of flying seemed to frighten even most of his guard, and only a few could ride him without growing queasy. And Lanna was the only one of them who didn't mind if he did loops and rolls through the air!

When his sentence had first begun, the humans had burst into frantic activity whenever he came into view overhead, preparing to defend themselves against potential attack from the sky, hurrying to the walls with spears and pikes and manning a set of javelin-throwers that could launch bolts up even higher than the top of the tallest tower, horns blowing and bells ringing alarm. Now, though, they had finally grown used to seeing him return, and there was no response at all, only the regular guard looking up long enough to ensure the wings drawing near bore his familiar blue-and-gray striping. That was fine by him; not only did the sight of dragon-killing weapons make him bare his teeth and growl at the thought, but if they recognized him, then he could be more certain that they wouldn't fire on him by mistake.

Lanna still insisted on pushing on one side of his neck or the other when he flew, as far up as she could reach, as if he needed direction to know where to go; he was just thankful he'd managed to talk her out of having a bridle and reins made for him, reminding her he needed the use of his jaws when he hunted. Her hand pushed on the right side of his neck, probably about as hard as she could but of course not enough to actually bend his neck without him wanting to! And he wheeled to that side, his wings flaring out as he began to descend. The old stable was there, with a field of short grass on one side and a stone courtyard on the other, and he headed for the grass--it was softer and made for an easier landing--while six humans emerged from the enlarged, double stable doors, carrying with them the hated, familiar chains and leather he'd have to endure until it came time for tomorrow's hunt.

They stayed back long enough to give him room to land, the blasts of wind from his wings flattening the grass and sending dust blowing up against the stable, the outer wall, and the castle proper as he brought himself in to land, his claws digging into the earth when he set down.

"Lanna, welcome back! He behaved himself I hope?" The captain of the guard, a man named Nolan, called up to her the moment his wings were folded. It seemed like every human talked to him except this one, who even after 6 months of guarding his cell still refused to address him directly, instead only speaking to the men and the couple of women under his command. Keth growled, but even if he tried to respond himself Nolan would ignore him, so for now at least he'd given up trying to speak to the man directly--at least until he found the belittling habit so infuriating that he snapped again, anyway.

"Yes, of course he did, or I probably wouldn't be here!" She slid down from his back, and he stood patiently as she and two of the other guards took off his heavy saddle. He rolled his shoulders and stretched catlike and groaned, relieved to get the thing off, and after yawning wide he settled onto his haunches, his head lowered, waiting for them to bring his shackles forward. That only Nolan bothered to carry a spear out to meet him land was another small relief: not that he expected them to use them on him when he had every intention to behave, but it was still nice not to be greeted by half a dozen sharp points leveled at him every time he returned to the castle.

Familiarity and good behavior had won him more lenient, friendly treatment from all but Nolan, so they gave him time to stretch himself to his satisfaction before approaching to restrain him. He huffed irritably--familiarity did not make him any happier about letting them do this to him--but at least he was used to it enough by now to be resigned to it, and when one of them held open a large leather sack he willingly thrust his forepaw inside. The interior was padded, with the space around his claws lined with chainmail to keep them from piercing or cutting the leather, and they had one for each of his four paws, the leather extending up past each wrist and ankle and buckling over the limbs to hold them in place. Over those went stout steel shackles, forepaws and hindpaws linked by short, thick chains so his paws couldn't spread farther than the width of his hips and shoulders, with a longer chain linking one set to the other, short enough to keep him from fully straightening his body and forcing him to stay a little hunched over. Another chain led to a broad steel collar, and he crouched down low so they could snap it into place around the base of his neck; this chain was shorter than he'd like as well, and kept him from straightening his forelegs without extending all four paws forward.

A steel bar fitted along a series of leather straps had been made for his tail, forcing most of it to be held straight so he couldn't swing it quickly or accurately enough to use as a weapon, and bands of leather nearly the width of a paw kept his wings pinned against his back. Only one piece remained, his least favorite of all, and Lanna held it waiting for him: a muzzle, a wire cage that fit over his jaws to keep him from biting, loose enough to allow him to speak or to drink from a trough, but tight enough that he wouldn't be able to breathe fire without burning himself, with straps to secure it over his head. He glared at her, and bared his teeth, and almost even quietly said, 'do I have to?' But in the end he submitted, and lowered his head, letting her fit the hated contraption over his snout.

His guards relaxed once they had him restrained to their satisfaction, their big job of the day complete, and he let out a sigh as they backed away. Even growing used to it didn't make it feel any less humbling to so meekly allow them to lock up all his means of defending himself, and he gave his chains a brief tug: they made everything difficult, even just walking, and standing up straight or stretching or reaching out for anything in any direction was impossible. His head drooped a little further; to submit to another's will was a big deal for a dragon, and having to surrender himself to mere humans every single day wore on him, grating on his spirit and his pride and his sense of self... But he'd been captured, he'd sworn to stay, and there were still years of this treatment to go! The thought of it was so daunting, looming over him, and he shook himself all over, his chains rattling, and tried to clear his head.

The guards had begun to move towards the stable, gesturing for him to follow, and he obeyed wordlessly. One of them pointed towards the side of the stable, saying to the others, "it's such a nice day today, we've set up a table outside for dinner. Trevor and Carson went off to the kitchens not long before you two got back, Lanna, so they should be here with food soon."

"Mmmm, that sounds wonderful! Flying always seems to take more out of me than I expect. You wouldn't think it'd be tiring when he's the one doing all the work, and yet..." She stayed close to Keth's forepaws, and he hobbled along beside her.

"It's not like you're sitting in a chair," he said, and snorted as he adjusted to the feeling of speaking through the muzzle, every word seeming to make his snout press against the wires. "You have to hold on, and you have to keep yourself in place every time I change direction."

"Yes, but it still surprises me when I get down off your back and it feels like I've walked clear across the city. Maybe it has to do with the wind, or the air up there in the sky..."

He gave a little rumble of amusement and pushed her gently on the back with his snout. She could be stern sometimes, but something about her presence always seemed to make him feel a little better. "Maybe flying is just more than your little human bodies can handle. You don't have wings, after all."

"Oh you arrogant little--" She stopped herself, managed briefly to correct herself to "big--" and then just giggled, leaning briefly against her fellow guard for support. "I hope you told them to bring something to drink back with them!" she added to the man. "Having to deal with the way he talks back to you can sure be a chore."

Keth grumbled and pushed her again, not quite hard enough to knock her off balance, and the humans stopped in the doorway as he shuffled past them into the stable. "You think you need a drink... All you did is go flying, and you like that! I'm the one coping with a long prison sentence."

"I've seen how much it takes to get you drunk, Keth, and it might be a few decades before the kingdom can afford for us to give you that much ale again. Although you are a surprisingly friendly drunk."

"You're just mad he lost you a bet," said the other guard, Garrett, who helped her close the barred double doors once Keth was inside and locked them shut. "Apparently last year was a good year for wine, and the price has gone down so far this spring, but I don't know if it's fallen enough to make a difference." The humans walked away around the side of the building, out of his hearing and vision, and he went deeper inside.

They had removed all the interior walls from the stable when they converted it to his prison cell, so the interior was bare aside from a few columns to hold up the roof, a pile of straw to sleep on, and a trough to drink from. It wasn't as large inside as his cave had been, but since the chains kept him from moving around very easily he barely noticed; he was able to turn around without bumping into anything, and that--along with the decent airflow and a roof that didn't leak--was all that really mattered. The stable's three exterior doors remained, all of them converted from the original wood to barred steel, the spaces between the bars left open so his guards could keep an eye on him from outside. He went to the door that opened onto the courtyard and set himself down carefully on his side next to it, which was about as comfortable as he could manage to lie down in his bonds, in time to hear Lanna continue the conversation.

"...might depend on the strength of the wine, though. And I've never heard of a dragon eating fruit, so who knows about the taste--"

"One of the caravans I raided was a wine merchant, actually," Keth said, his tone almost wistful. "Ended up with twenty barrels of the stuff. Some of the barrels tasted better than others, but..." He licked his lips as best he could. "It was good..." When he heard Lanna's first stifled giggle, he only reluctantly added, "I probably emptied too many of them at once, though, and was awfully miserable the next day..."

"Oh, Gods, a dragon with a hangover?" Garrett shook his head. "How about we never give him any more alcohol. You know, just to be safe."

His other guards were already lingering around the table, and all of them but Nolan got a good laugh at that, while Keth did his best to look scandalized and offended. "I learned to be a little more careful!" he huffed once their laughter at his expense had died down. "That was the first time I'd ever had one of your human drinks. Remember, I didn't get-- hung over? Is that what you call it? I wasn't sick the next morning after the ale."

A low rattle sounded through the courtyard: the other guards had returned, wheeling a small cart along with the humans' dinner. It got their attention at once, and it seemed they liked what they saw.

"Mmmm, that looks good!"

"A roast? What a treat!"

"Where did you get that, Trevor? Right off the Queen's table?"

Trevor was a thickset man, with a bald head and a bright red beard, and he stopped the cart carefully next to the table before answering. "Some visiting lord they expected to arrive today didn't make it here yet, so they didn't need to send a nice dinner to his rooms! I managed to snag it before anyone else could, so here we are."

"Well great work! Let's get it onto the table and dig in." Even Nolan sounded excited by the meal, and despite having eaten so recently Keth felt his appetite wake once again when the scent of the seasoned, cooked beef reached his nostrils and he saw the humans put the dish on the table, juicy and glistening! Mugs were topped off with a brown foaming liquid and distributed, some form of beer certainly, then the humans all sat down around the table and began to eat and gossip.

Keth remained settled by the door, watching and listening and imagining how good the meat must taste, as the humans ate and the sun went down. Boredom and loneliness had been rare moods for the dragon when he still had his freedom, as there was always sky to fly in, territory to guard, treasure to admire, prey to hunt, and other dragons to see only a short flight from his cave. Here, though, only the daily hunt occupied his time, and the enforced boredom of being chained up and locked in the stable the rest of the day, surrounded by a species he still struggled to understand, turned his loneliness from an unusual occurrence to a regularity. He couldn't imagine how he would cope if he was all alone in some underground cell instead of up on the surface with the sun and the sky and the wind right there, able to see nature and converse with his guards if he chose... Heaving a long sigh, he tried to push the thought of even worse isolation from his mind.

Lanna and Giselle, the other woman on the guard, were still working on their meals, and while some of the men were now cutting off second helpings from the roast, others just sat back with their cups of beer and talked. Garrett seemed to have taken a particular interest in Lanna; he kept leaning in close to her, and putting his hand on her shoulder, or near her own whenever she put down her knife. Trying to pick out his words over all the other voices of the table--his guard was a round dozen, though usually half or less were on duty per day--he realized the man was speaking of him.

"...look up at him and wonder how someone could be up so high and not go limp with fright. It would be such a long way to fall..."

Lanna shook her head, seeming amused--as best he could tell, anyway. "There's no danger of that! A horse is more likely to throw you than he is, and the straps hold you on."

He gestured upward with his mug. "You're just up so high, though! If I ever look down everything just starts spinning..."

"Just wait--let him fly a loop while you're riding! That will make the world spin." She laughed.

"Gods above, you actually let him do that?" He took a drink from his cup, and put his hand on her shoulder again. "You're a very brave woman."

She rotated her shoulder briefly, but he didn't take his hand away. "You should try it next time you take him out! It can be so thrilling."

Garrett's pale face reddened, and some of the other conversation quieted. "No thank you. The only things I want to make the world spin are booze, and women." Then he paused, and lines of skin stood out across his forehead as he raised one eyebrow.

She just eyed him for a few long moments, then reached for her mug. "I am not nearly drunk enough for this."

The whole table burst into laughter, and the color on his face deepened. "Besides," she added over the noise, "I have to watch Keth tonight."

"And you should be doing that sober," Nolan interjected.

"Yes sir. Hence why I'm not drunk enough for Garrett's flirting to work!" She finished off her mug and set it down, and they all laughed again, even Garrett.

"It was worth a shot! I forgot you'd be on duty. Maybe Giselle will be more willing to listen." He grinned at the other woman; she kicked him under the table.

"You didn't even buy me dinner! You've got to put in some effort."

Humans and their mating rituals seemed so needlessly complicated. Keth almost felt sorry for the man for being denied like that twice--not that he'd expected admitting a fear of heights would demonstrate to the females that he'd be a worthy mate. He nearly spoke up to give advice along those lines, and lifted his head, but changed his mind and stopped himself: with humans, who knew? Maybe for some reason women liked to know a man could have fears and vulnerability!

The meal broke up shortly after. Lanna kept one of the chairs, putting it near the door where Keth lay, while the rest cleaned up the remaining food, dishes and furniture and took them away, giving their goodnights to Lanna--and some of them to Keth as well. He tilted his head in response, arching his neck and yawning as best he could within the muzzle, and made a few mostly futile attempts to stretch as they walked away before settling back down.

Night had fallen now, and without the other guards the courtyard grew empty and quiet. The new stable was across the grounds, so what had been a staging area for men and horses was now little used, the area mostly quiet during the day and nearly abandoned at night, with only him and his guard between that side of the castle and the wall that ringed it.

Eventually Lanna spoke. "Keth, could you do me a favor?"

Chains clinked softly as he lifted his head, cocking it to one side. Usually he was just given orders, not asked to do something. "What's that?"

"Next time it's Garrett's turn to take you hunting, do a couple rolls or loops with him."

That made the dragon grin, his teeth bared behind the cage around his snout. He loved aerobatics, even if his guards didn't! "As long as you tell him you told me to! He usually brings the whip with him."

"Of course!" She laughed. "Ahh, I wish I could be there to see his reaction. It's too bad we went with the one-man saddle instead of the two-seater."

He bobbed his head. "Then I will, with pleasure." Then he paused, and rubbed one of his mitts against the hard-packed dirt beneath him. "Should I warn him first?"

"No, don't tell him what you're doing! But make sure to remember how much he screams so you can tell me about it." The woman laughed again, a high trilling sound that rang pleasantly in his ear.

"All right. I wasn't sure if you wanted me to frighten him, or to teach him to overcome that fear for you so he could be a more suitable partner."

"What?" Lanna paused, and gave him an odd look that he doubted he wouldn't have been able to interpret even if he was an expert on humans. "Me and Garrett? Oh Gods no! He's handsome, I'll give him that, and he can make good conversation sometimes, but I couldn't imagine..."

His head tilted in confusion. "Does something more than looks matter to humans matter when you're looking for someone to share pleasure with? Or do humans only mate to make hatchlings?"

"No, only some people believe in doing that, and I'm not one of them. But I definitely look for more than just looks, and besides, it'd be awkward to sleep with him, then see him every day while on guard duty."

Keth didn't even bother trying to ask her what that was supposed to mean. His side itched just behind his shoulder, and he took a little while to awkwardly struggle to curl his fettered hind paws forward enough to rub the spot with one of his mitts until the itch went away. "Humans are so strange. How do you cope with such urges, then?"

The woman's face flushed hot, something even he was able to recognize as a sign of embarrassment, but she answered anyway after pausing a few moments to collect herself. "We're usually expected to ignore them. Women especially... People tend to look down on a woman if she gets a reputation for sleeping with men she's not married to very often, or if she finds any other means to please herself."

He shook his head, a gesture he'd picked up from humans. "If you say so... So you don't think he was worth the possibility of gaining such a reputation, then?"

"No, that doesn't concern me. I take it dragons are much more open about such things, then?" she added quickly, apparently eager to turn the subject away from her own habits, and he didn't mind teaching her more about his own kind.

"Of course! It feels good, so there's no reason to make it as... complicated as it seems to be for you humans. If I ever wanted a dragoness, I could just go look for one. Back when I could go anywhere I wanted without permission, anyway," he muttered resentfully, and yanked on his chains.

"Mmmm. Although I suppose dragons would have to be that way... It's not like you could pleasure yourself with all those sharp claws!" She laughed again.

Keth snorted and rapped his muzzle against the bars. "We can pleasure ourselves just fine. It's just a lot more enjoyable to share the experience with another." Then he hissed, and squirmed, and tossed his head; talking of such stimulation made him think about it, want it, and that would have his body reacting shortly!

The human noticed his wriggling, though, when the rattling chains gave it away, and she giggled at him. "Poor thing. Working you up, am I? Although you probably don't mind, since it'd give you an excuse to show off how open about it you dragons are, hee hee..."

He growled and snapped his teeth behind the muzzle. "I wouldn't mind if these damned chains didn't keep me from tending to myself!"

Lanna's giggling grew louder, and she doubled over in her chair. "Ha! Really? That's..." She trailed off into another giggling fit while he glared at her. "We didn't intend for your restraints to stop that! You really can't do it?"

"Yes!" He snapped his teeth again, and twisted to demonstrate, curling up as far as he can and reaching down with his forelegs: thanks to the short chain linking his wrists to his collar, his paws couldn't reach his slit, which somewhat swollen from his thoughts of pleasure, and even if he was hard he wouldn't quite be able to do it--he'd tried in the past, he knew that for sure. His tail wasn't an option thanks to the binding that held it straight, and the muzzle kept him from even using his maw! "See? And it's not like I'll be impressing any dragonesses locked up in here..."

"Oh you poor poor dragon... It must be so frustrating!"

Her tittering continued, and for once he really wished he could bite her, for being so amused by his situation! Especially when he felt his slit part and his shaft began to emerge into the air, slowly stiffening as it came, and he squirmed again, his hips rocking. "Rrrnh... Stop that!"

For a little while she kept on going, occasionally looking up at his indignant glare and the steadily growing arousal between his hind legs and dissolving into fresh laughter, but finally she wiped her eyes and sat up, quivering occasionally as she tried to stifle the giggles. "Oh I'm sorry! You're right, perhaps I shouldn't find your... misfortune... so funny." She paused, and then said with a note of near disbelief in her voice, "and you really haven't been able to do anything? Not since we arrested you?"

"Yes!" he said, nearly to the point of roaring at her when she seemed to make a point of rubbing in the fact that he hadn't been able to do anything for so many months, and grit his teeth in frustration. Driven by arousal instead of just wanting to demonstrate how tight the chains were, he curled up again, but straining to the edge of his flexibility only allowed his mitts to brush lightly, briefly at the very tip of his flesh. "Rrrrrgh..." He glared at her, and kicked against the cuffs when he saw her looking on the verge of even more laughter. "See? Now stop it!"

To her credit, she managed to keep from laughing again. But she also stood up, and there was a look in her eye that made him feel oddly worried... She was staring right at his unattended cock, he realized after a moment, as he twisted a little more and strove both to figure out how to touch himself and to ignore it long enough for his erection to die back down. The human watched him quietly, the silence stretching on, until at last he panted, "if you're going to stare, you could at least offer to help out!"

Lanna blushed. "Remember what I said earlier? You're not supposed to be enjoying it in there."

"Oh come on!" He yanked hard on the chains, snapping them taut, twisting this way and that but still unable to reach despite all his struggling, and after a little while collapsed on his side, groaning his frustration. "Just give me some help here..." That worrisome look lit up her face again as she watched him squirm, but still she made no move to come into the stable, and he thumped his tail on the floor. "Please..."

Finally she tore her gaze away from him, looking around the empty courtyard, and his heart leapt when she reached for the latch on the door! "Well since you asked so nicely... Maybe I can help you out after all. But only because you looked so cute wriggling around like that trying to touch yourself." She giggled again, and now he was the one blushing, though his scales didn't show it. "Move into the corner over there, away from the doors, so we can have a little privacy."

Keth wriggled all over. Finally! The other worries of his imprisonment generally kept such urges pushed to the back of his mind, but whenever he grew aroused he felt so pent-up, and this was going to feel incredible, he was sure! The difference in their sizes might pose some difficulty, but they could figure something out... "Nnnh. Thank you..." He struggled to his feet and hobbled into the corner furthest from the doors.

The female locked the doors again and followed along behind him, continuing to admire his shaft as he went. "Mmmm, you're quite the big dragon, aren't you?" When he stopped she reached up and gave him a slow stroke, and he moaned. He was so sensitive... "Hmmmm..." She eyed him critically, trying to figure out how best to go about what he was hoping for, then said, "roll onto your back, big boy," her voice growing softer and more husky, seductive.

He did as she asked, having to keep himself curled up a little in order to keep his hind paws out of the way but managing to wiggle himself into a comfortable enough position, and watched her expectantly. His arousal seemed stronger than it had in months, now that he could expect it to be fulfilled at last, after her hand had given him more stimulation in that one stroke than he'd felt for so long...

"That's a good dragon..." She hesitated for a few moments, glancing at the doors, but there was nobody around to see or hear, not this time of night, and it would be hours before anyone would come to take the next shift from her! So at last she disrobed, removing her leather armor first, then the shirt and pants beneath that, and then even smaller, thinner underclothes he'd never realized she wore, that covered only her breasts and where her legs met her body. He'd never been intimate with a human before, he'd never even seen a female naked before; the former didn't bother him, considering how pent up he was, but the latter made him take in the sight as best he could to familiarize himself with her--and see if he might find himself attracted to her, unlikely as it might be. Her skin was pale and smooth where her clothes usually hid it, broken by patches of short hair beneath her arms and between her legs.

She saw his eyes on her, and twirled in a slow circle for his benefit, her arms held out. "What do you think?"

The human was just so different. She had no scales, no wings, no long dextrous tail, her face short and flat and lacking horns. He knew human males found the mounds of flesh on her breast very attractive... But all of it was so foreign to him! He took a good long look... This creature would be giving him the pleasure he longed for, he reminded himself, even if her form was unfamiliar, especially when it came to stimulating him. His shaft throbbed, and his tail twitched, if not from the sight of her, than at least the thought of what she'd do for him... He huffed softly and humped the air, and at last he said, "I think this is going to be fun..."

"Good... So do I." She stepped forward and climbed up onto him, straddling his belly, her skin pressing warm against his scales as she did; he did his best to keep still despite his building desire, both to keep from making her slip off and to keep from hitting her with the chain linking his fore and hind paws. Once she was atop him she got herself settled in right up against his slit, and reached out, one soft little hand stroking gently up and down the side of his cock.

"Nnnh..." He rolled his hips, his hind claws clenching within their mitts from the gentle pleasure of her touch.

"Gods, you're big," she said, and of course she thought as much when she got such an up-close look at a shaft as big around as her thigh and as long as her torso! This time she caressed with both hands, one slipping down either side of his cock as she traced the shape of it, from the tapered tip, over the flared head, then down the long smooth length of it to where it emerged from between the soft fine scales of his slit. Once there her hands slid upward again as she explored him, and he trembled from the sensations, unfamiliar but definitely pleasurable, especially when she rubbed near his tip! His hips jerked upward from the touch to somewhere so sensitive, hard enough to bounce her, but she didn't complain. Instead she just murmured, "and so eager... You liking this?" And then she stroked the spot just beneath the head of his cock with both hands.

"Nngh! Oh-- oh yes!" He gasped, and trembled beneath her, continuing to thrust upward towards her touch. Who could have ever guessed those fragile little human hands could feel so good!

"Perfect." Lanna moved her hands farther down and spent a little while massaging the middle of his shaft, wrapping both hands around it and pressing inward as she did! He grit his teeth and moaned, occasionally pulling his hind paws gently against the chains keeping them from spreading apart or extending farther down his body but mainly just lying there beneath her, panting and groaning and rocking his hips against the woman's touch. "You must be so pent up... So long with no way of getting any release! This must be such a relief."

Then instead of her hands, she wrapped her arms around his cock and hugged it against her chest, nearly enveloping him in her warmth! "Mmmmm! Yes... More," he managed between his heavy pants for breath, and his tail thumped against the floor when she slid herself up his length, then back down again, all her body pressed against the underside of his shaft. He was so sensitive he could feel every little detail, the pert nubs of her nipples, the harder and softer areas of her ribs and stomach and hips, even the bristly feeling of the hair between her legs, and he arched his back and thrust hard, nearly throwing her off!

She yelped, but at least hugging his cock so tightly helped her stay atop him. "Careful!" she laughed. "Wouldn't want to make me lose my hold on you, when you need my help for all of this..." Again she slid herself over his flesh, then went back to working with her hands, now rubbing more firmly and rapidly than she had when she'd begun, and focusing on the more sensitive parts of him she'd discovered. It wasn't quite as fast as he wished she would go, but it still definitely felt too good for him to complain! So he writhed, he moaned, he tugged on the chains and trembled in pleasure as she pleasured him, wishing he had asked for this sort of help ages ago if only he'd known it would feel so satisfying... A particularly firm stroke brought a drop of fluid beading to the tip, along with a louder moan of lust.

"More... Nnnnh, more!" His hind paws kicked downward, setting all his chains rattling, and he gave a few more rough thrusts before settling back, his sides heaving for breath.

"Wouldn't want to get you off too quickly... It has been a while after all," she chuckled, but her hands did speed up just a little bit. It was more than enough to set him back to just groaning in pleasure, wriggling on the floor, hips rocking up and down, his cock throbbing against her as she caressed him, having to work quite a bit to give such a large creature all the attention he needed but giving it her best shot!

And it was working, it was really working, he gasped and twitched, his thrusting growing more and more rapid the longer it went on... She was getting him so close, he could feel that much-needed release building up so powerfully in his loins! "Nnnh-- Yes... Lanna... I'm going to--!"

As soon as he said it, she stopped. "No... No, you're not."

"Hey! Lanna!" Keth shuddered all over and immediately began to struggle, twisting and fighting the chains, but his forepaws still couldn't reach! He was so close, he'd been just a moment from climax, how could she have stopped!? "Keep going! I'm almost there--!" He thrust hard for a few moments, and whined at her in dismay, such an undragonlike sound but he needed it so badly!

She shook her head. "Nope. You've been a bad dragon, remember?" She leaned past his aching shaft and the pre drooling from its tip to look into his eyes. "That's why you're here. So I'm not going to get you off!"

"No-- Please! Just let me cum!" He arched his back again, then tried to curl himself up, but once again his paws couldn't reach, the chains holding them even farther from his cock with him lying on his back and having to fight his own weight to curl up.

The woman shook her head. "Bad dragons don't get to cum."

"Rrrrrrgh!" He bellowed in frustration, this torment so much worse than if she hadn't 'helped' in the first place! "You bitch! Just let-- me-- cum!"

A heavy impact between his slit and his tailhole made him wince, but it only drew a growl from him, the pain not very strong at all. She glared. "You're lucky your balls are hidden under your scales, or I'd make you limp for a week for that!" Again she punched him, and frowned when it didn't promptly cripple him the way it would have a human male.

He snarled, teeth bared behind the cage that kept him from biting her, and twisted onto his side, curling up as far as he can and reaching in vain for his throbbing, needy cock, howling again in denial when he couldn't reach... He was so close, his whole body trembled from how worked up he was, and he couldn't do anything about it! "If you weren't... going to let me... you shouldn't have come in here at all! You bitch!"

"I'm warning you!" She shot back. "Call me that again, and I'll tell the Queen we need to commission a chastity belt for you to keep you in line!"

Keth gave her the loudest roar the muzzle would let him make, fighting the chains as hard as he could, reaching until he felt the cuffs bite painfully into his scales, reaching, reaching... The very end of a mitt brushed against the very tip of his cock, but that light fleeting touch only reinforced that there was no way he'd be able to get himself enough pleasure to make it to orgasm on his own. He was so desperate... but finally he had to give up, and collapsed on his side, exhausted, looking back at his shaft in longing but unable to touch himself, his loins already beginning to ache horribly from the denied release. He'd never fought his chains this hard before, and that he could put in so much effort and still be so securely trapped sent such a deep feeling of helplessness through him that he shuddered all over. "Lanna... please...?"

She'd already begun to put her clothes back on, and the woman didn't stop when he pleaded, only shook her head as she pulled her pants on. "No. I'm not going to help."

He whined louder, quivering all over, and curled up again; this time he tried to use his snout, but his cock couldn't fit in through the muzzle and his tongue couldn't reach far enough out. "Rrrnnh... then why? You could have just left me alone... Why did you say you would help?" His lust was beginning to fade, but his shaft remained almost painfully hard for a little while longer, which only made the fading, unreleased climax feel like even more of a torment.

"So you wouldn't ask me again." Lanna tugged her shirt back on, and buckled on her armor. "Yes, I'm nice to you most of the time. I'm willing to chat when I'm on duty. But I'm not your friend, and I'm certainly not going to be your lover. I'm your prison guard, you're in prison, and if you wanted to live in your cave, not be tied up, or have sex, you shouldn't have raided all those caravans. All of this is your punishment, dragon. Do you understand?"

Half of him wanted to attack her for tricking him so cruelly; the other half wanted to cry from how much it hurt to be left so pent up and unsatisfied after being taken all the way to the edge of release. "Just go away. Leave me alone!" he said, half a sob and half a snarl, and he fought his bondage a little longer before giving up, his whole body going limp, whimpering quietly to himself as his cock slowly retreated into his slit.

Lanna left his cell without another word, locking the door and leaving him inside. He knew she was still there, though, she'd be sitting in the chair outside the door until her shift ended, and he wanted to roar at her, to tell her how cruel she had been, to tell her he would never trust her or enjoy flying with her or speak a word to her ever again! But he felt so exhausted from struggling so much and so defeated by his restraints that he simply couldn't bring himself to raise his voice or confront her or even stand. Worse, she'd been the human he'd gotten along the best with, and any trust in her was now shattered beyond repair... Now he'd be even more alone than before, and none of the other guards gave him nearly as much leeway as she had before tonight, so he knew none of them would be willing to give him some time to masturbate if he tried to while out hunting! He was trapped, he was bound by oaths and chains, he was alone and helpless and even pent up by the humans...

And unless he broke his oaths, it would be four more long years until he regained his freedom.

What had seemed unthinkable as recently as a few hours ago sounded far more reasonable now. The honor of keeping his word was a factor, but not as great a concern as he made the humans think it was; the ancestral treasures his parents had passed down to him were a much stronger force to ensure his obedience, the heirlooms buried deep in the vaults beneath the castle, where he likely couldn't get them even if he killed everyone who lived there and tore the whole building down. That treasure meant a good deal to him, and up until now he'd considered behaving and letting the humans keep him captivity to be a worthwhile sacrifice to ensure he got them back!

But now? Not only was he a prisoner, not only was he isolated from the rest of his kind, chained and muzzled, forced to live among humans and do whatever they told him... Now one of them had lied to him and deceived him and deliberately tormented him! It was just too much to ask of his pride and his patience to stay here-- No, he stopped himself, nearly growling. It was true that the tease and denial had been cruel, and agonizing, and extremely frustrating. But did he really view those family heirlooms as less important than an orgasm? --well, more than four years of potential orgasms. And a proper cave to live in, and freedom from the chains and cuffs and muzzle, freedom to range wherever he chose for as long as he chose, to be among his own kind for all that time instead of among humans! When thinking of all the time and all the benefits, it was a much more difficult decision to weigh...

Keth kept turning back and forth, longing to see his treasure again, then longing for freedom instead of years more cooped up in here, leaning one way and then the other and unable to choose... But either way, he reminded himself, he couldn't regain his freedom when he was chained up this tight! And that horrible ache beneath his tail might have been tipping the scale in that direction... He growled to himself again, louder. He'd sleep on it, and in the morning... Maybe he'd have the patience to stay, and wait four more years to be free, and get his treasure back... and get to cum.

Or maybe not.