The son of dragons

There are few things worse than working in retail or in any position that is closely related to dealing with customers, well, I'm being a tad extreme in this case but some may understand why I am telling this: there are some people that are good and nice and understanding and others that… aren't as nice. For example: the man in front of me who has ordered a cappuccino barely five minutes ago at the peak of the morning rush, is currently complaining that we are too slow and that because he had to wait so much, we have to let him have his coffee for free.

As current manager of this shift, I have tried to get him to reason for more than a second or two but he wasn't having it at all. The crowd of the shop wasn't pleased with his behaviour but I knew that some people around were probably blaming me for not accommodating the man's request in some way and thus delaying their own orders. Now, I do not like to endorse this kind of behaviour in any way but there are times in which I know when to give up and allow a lost case to get one point in.

“All right, sir. I am not able to give you the coffee for free because that would reflect poorly on my performance, but I am authorized to give you a… twenty percent discount." The man, who at some point had been outright screaming at me for not being a good employee and licking his feet, the last part wasn't explicitly said but he had thought of it I am more than sure, smirked. Not smiled, smirked, as if he had won over me or something. Shall I tell him that I could refuse to serve him and call some corporate rule from the dusty ol' rule book?

“You better or I am going to take this to your manager."

“Sir, I am the current manager on shift." The smirk wavered and he slammed his fist on the counter, making the cup holding the sugar packets wobble. “Will you accept the discount sir?"

“I will." God, how much more cocky can you be? “Make it quick, I am still in a hurry and you can be sure that I will complain anyways to some superior." Yeah, ok, you go and do that.

The other employees looked at me with the 'you got the bad customer' look, which is the one filled with pity and not a little amount of relief for not having had to deal with him in my place. If there is a god of retail and customer oriented jobs, he is a sadist like nothing else in the world. I punched in the pesky twenty percent discount like the good corporate slave I was and subtracted a whole dollar and fifteen cents from his bill. Yes, he was complaining so much to get a whopping almost six dollars large coffee for free. I mean, it is a little overpriced for the area and it's not the best, but goddamnit, it's six dollars, not fifty!

The cue moved somewhat more smoothly after this incident that I wish was rarer, but that instead happened in various different flavours of 'kill me' over the course of every single day of work in this place I call 'my job'. Customers ordered whatever they wanted, they got what they wanted, there were other mistakes of course and each one made me shiver in fear of getting another screamer in my face but no such thing happened, well, there was this one mother that did start to complain about her child's chocolate not being sweet enough but the kid had to go pee so badly she forgot to do that. It wasn't much better because the brat did pee all over the toilet and didn't aim but it was definitely more manageable than a yelling mother with child in tow. God forbid we get another Karen up in here… And of course her name was Karen because why the fuck not? Anyways, aside from the occasional nutjob and more than occasional asshole, the job isn't bad, it has some decent perks, dental and I get to eat the leftover muffins when I get the night shift and close the shop. It's the best perk honestly, better than a fifteen percent discount on the boring espresso that I can make myself in my apartment…

“Hey Mike, could I ask you to serve this one? I am tied up with making a Daedalus here." Vince, the other guy currently with me, nudged my side with his elbow and took my attention from the customer I was giving the extra packets of sugar to. Daedalus isn't a type of fancy coffee or drink, it's a code some guy back before I was manager here came up with: it stands for a drink so messed up that it makes you lose your mind, like a labyrinth. It's not the most obvious thing but it's a nice code. “Please."

“Fine." He thanked me from deep down in his soul and moved to the side and I heard him ask to the girl to repeat the long list of things she wanted in her coffee, which by the end would probably become more a disgusting Type B diabetes inducing sludge than anything else. “Hello and welcome, what can I get you?" The man in front of me smiled gently and gave one last look at the list that was hanging on top of my head.

“I'll just go for some regular old espresso. Small."

“Sure thing. Any sugar or milk?" He shook his head and pulled out a ten dollar bill before I could even tell him the price or extend my hand. “That will be three dollars sir." I got the bill and gave back the change and the receipt. “Name?" He seemed puzzled. “To pick up the coffee when it's done."

“Oh, yeah, right. I forgot. Basil Franco." Weird name, but fine, I got a K8lynn once, because her parents decided that they wanted the 'creative' spelling instead of the 'proper' one and thus gave her a billion childhood traumas. Hopefully she got it changed… wait… Basil Franco? Where did I hear that name again?

“Wait… did you go to Pinewood General High in Eldinore? Class 1-B?" I looked up and Basil seemed to be quite taken aback by my question. The more I looked at him the more I found little marks I knew that a Basil that I knew had: a small scar on his left ear that he got when another kid had ran into him while holding a pair of scissors in hand, a mole on his cheek, thick eyebrows. He did grow a bear and a big one at that, but below it I found a grown version of the kid I had spent years in class with. “I'm Michael Riddle, we spent… several years in class together." I pointed at the tag on my chest and a few seconds later he snapped his fingers as he remembered who I was probably. For a moment, while he was thinking, I thanked the gods for not putting any other customer behind him and thus allowing us a quiet reunion.

“Yes, Riddle! I remember now! You were the kid that got lost and locked himself up in a bathroom at the hotel on the school trip at the Yellowstone park right?" I cringed inside a little, ok, more than a little, a lot.

“I wish that you didn't remember me just because of that but yes, that would be me." He smiled again and scratched his head.

“Sorry but that was by far the most memorable thing that happened that year and there is no way I'd forget about it. if I remember correctly… you tried to make everyone forget about the toilet incident by performing at the school's talent fair."

“Oh god please… don't mention that…" It had been the second greatest fiasco of my childhood, the toilet thing being the first of course: I tried to make the dove trick, the one where you pull out something from a hat, classical magician stuff which I fucked up. To be honest, I didn't mess it up that badly but the damn thing pooped on my face as I grabbed it and it landed on my face in front of a hundred other kids so… yeah, not the best thing to do if you wanted to make everyone forget about a past incident without making a new one. “Is that how I will be remembered for the rest of my life?"

“Come on, it was funny." Not for me. “Alright, I won't bring up any more bad memories from now on."

“Thanks." He moved to the pick up counter and waited for me to get his order done which took less than two minutes tops. “So, do you live here?"

“No, I come from out of town, I'm actually here for a new job at that law firm on Johnson and Creek in the downtown area. They are hiring after the last guy quit the job." The name and the location struck a specific cord inside my heart and my mood worsened significantly, far more than any Karen or screamer that could come my way.

“So that's what they told you…" I sighed and Basil didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that I had some beef with that particular firm. “I used to work for them." His eyebrows shot up. “I did, for four years to boot, right after graduation from law school, until last year." As there was no one coming in from the door I could afford a good break and chat for a little. “I was an intern there for a little more than a year and then I got a better position as assistant and then I was up to another promotion."

“Then why did you quit?"

“I didn't. Why would I? They fired me because I found out that the boss was having an affair with another man from the office, but he was married to a lady from a rich family, so when I happened to… let my tongue slip, I was fired for trying to blackmail him without any evidence." It had been a rough, rough week: first I got fired and then, because the wife was rich as fuck, she got some connections and got me kicked out of my apartment to boot. Had to move around this area to be able to afford a place while I searched for a new job. “I eventually called in a favour and got a position here a while ago."

“Damn, sounds bad. You're making me question whether I should still apply for the position which I guess was yours before."

“Oh, you definitely should try and apply: the place is very good, you just need to be… let's say careful around the people with power. Try to keep your nose out of their business or if you do stumble upon some dirt, keep it to yourself and find a good moment to bring it up, for example, when they are trying to fire you for some… other reason." Basil frowned but as we were essentially in the same profession, or we had been before I got laid off, we both were well aware of just how bad the world of law making and all the related crap was. “Don't be like me and waste some of that leverage."

“Still, I don't like it. I will keep that in mind."

“You do that."

Aside from my sad life story, we chatted for a while and then some more as I worked. He had the appointment in two hours and there was plenty of time to walk over to the firm as it wasn't that far from here, plus, we were having fun remembering the old school we went to. It was nice, finding someone that I shared my past with in a city so far from my old home and town. Good memories, bad memories, the usual stuff. Eventually my shift came to an end and I was able not only to get out but also to accompany Basil to the firm, though I was planning not to step too close from the cursed place, in case the boss saw me or saw us together and got some bad ideas which could make his life worse or cost him a possible job. He seemed competent to me and he could probably get around the tricks and secrets of the place just fine, better than me for sure. We walked calmly, side by side and took our time. As we stopped at a red light and waited for the green to lit up, a small mob of students cluttered around us and pushed the button to call for the switch several times, so much that I thought it would break from how strongly the teen was pushing it.

The pavement was suddenly far more crowded and noisy than it had been moments before but I still noticed the hand that sneaked inside my coat and tried to grab my wallet. I live in a big city, almost six million people, so I was prepared to fend off any pickpocket or thief, but the students, oblivious to the little rat as much as to how annoying they were, didn't notice it at all. It was thanks to this that he got to snatch the damn thing from my hands and pushed a couple of guys out of the way. They complained but otherwise didn't do shit to stop him as he ran across the street and reached the other side.

“Move! Thief! Get my wallet back!" I pushed them apart again and rushed after the thief as fast as I could and yelled to the other people on the street to catch him for me. I yelled and yelled, running as fast as I could to get to him.

“Mike! It's still red…………" Yes, I didn't notice the red light was still on, nor did the truck that didn't slow down at the intersection. Bad luck.

*thump*

They say that when you're about to die, your life flashes in front of your eyes and you can see it like a movie, see what you did, day by day, year after year just before everything shuts down and your brain goes puff. Well, in that moment between life and death, I wasn't sure that what I was seeing was my life: it was a kaleidoscope of vibrant colours in shades I didn't even know existed, popping up left and right, up and down, if directions even mattered in a place where I couldn't even feel my body or anything other than a weird warmth spreading through me. With my luck, it was blood flowing outside my body and I was really and truly about to die and for some reason, I didn't fear death. I didn't panic, I didn't scream but mostly because I didn't have a mouth to speak with and I didn't wish to have a few moments more.

It had been a long time since I had seen my family, my parents died long ago, just after I had graduated and went into college from methane poisoning after mom forgot to close a gas valve and I had no brothers or sisters to talk to. Other relatives didn't care enough about me to call for reasons other than telling me how sorry they were for their deaths or to wish me a merry Christmas and whatnot. I wasn't depressed but I wasn't happy, I wasn't in debt nor was I rich. My girlfriend had dumped be before I got fired and left for another man with a bigger set of abs and an honestly smaller dick but bigger pay check. Didn't hear from her since. Didn't care that much. In other words: my life was pretty damn average and I had nothing to strive for, not because I was boring but because I had lost track of what I wanted from it sometime in my twenties. I had nothing to my name, only an apartment, a car, a lot of pizza boxes on the counter in my kitchen and I didn't wish to get more. Dying was sad and I didn't want to die, but now that I had no other choice but to die, well, might as well give in, right? Wow, I guess I was depressed and didn't even notice. Go figure…

I saw the lights coalesce into one big ball that dared me to reach for it, mocking me in my inability to move and get to whatever the hell was beyond it. The world went dark for a moment that lasted an eternity and a half, only to be flooded by shining motes all over again and then disappear altogether as I felt a force pull me sideways.

*thump*

I felt like I was flying in the air one moment, floating into the nothingness in the next and now… now I was on the verge of puking my guts out and breathing heavily, hurting all over as if I had been beaten with a bat for hours. Every bone, every nerve, every muscle and even my teeth hurt like hell and being dead again didn't sound so bad. At least it would save me the excruciating pain I was in at the moment. Was I in a hospital? I didn't die? Or was this Hell? Because the pain surely didn't feel like I was in any sort of heaven. I tried to roll over but I failed and it only made the pain get worse by a good degree, adding a burning sensation to the general 'all of your bones are broken' feel of my body. I did get hit by a bus but fucking hell, what kind of doctor doesn't give any kind of morphine to a patient? Oh god everything hurts so bad…

“You're not dead... huh…" Wait… what? I tried opening my eyes but the mere act of forcing my eyelids open was so terrifyingly excruciating that I gave up. There was someone with me? And what kind of person says 'you're not dead'?? “You're pretty strong and I commend you for that, lost soul, strong enough to survive such a violent experience with such a frail body." I turned my head where the sound came from, where the voice might come from but of course I wasn't able to: moving my head was, again, too painful to be bearable in the state I was. I focuses on the words, trying to place them, give them a face but they sounded… alien, wrong, far too deep, far too rumbling. “Can you speak?" I didn't even try to speak, saving myself a good deal of pain for sure. “Hmm… well, I guess if you cannot speak right now, I can wait for a little while, but I hope you'll regain all of your faculties soon enough."

The voice seemed to come from a spot farther and farther away from me as if whoever was speaking was heading off somewhere else and leaving me here alone, in pain. I did try to speak, to call for that person to come even if it meant it hurt me in the process, to come and give me something to soothe the pain, just a little, but… nothing. I didn't know where I was and I was alone, left to wonder just what the fuck was going on and what had happened to me. I didn't die, that was for sure, unless I was in Hell and I was getting punished for some sin I had committed long ago. Did stealing that candy bar when I was five really condemn me to utter damnation or was it the one day I cheated on my exams in college? Either way, whoever had spoken to me wasn't going to help in any way.

Time didn't seem to pass in this condition, just like in that… void I had been in, no amount I breathing or begging or trying to focus on something else, nothing made it easier and I had no idea of how long I had been laying on a floor like that. Not even a bed, a fucking floor like some kind of animal, like I wasn't worthy of something between me and the cold stone or whatever I was laying on. On the day it stops hurting when I breathe I will kill whoever left me like this. For a while, if while has any meaning, I was lost in anger, I wanted to make that person pay more than anything else in my life, more than my desire to have my boss get caught by his wife while he boned the other interns and put on national tv as a cheating-ass-sonuvabitch. Then, all of a sudden, I felt something lift my head, something that propped me up just a little and gave me something to drink: it was sweet and dense, very dense, enough for me to have to suckle it out from whatever that person had put in my mouth. It tasted like peaches and I hated peaches before, now, well, now not so much if I have to be honest.

I felt that hand caress my head softly as I drank more and the pain soothed bit by bit and I cried in relief. There were voices around me but I couldn't understand what they said or even how many there were around me, the only thing that mattered was the sweetness and that hand that never stopped, almost like it was petting me. As the pain subsided, I could think better and I felt that the air wasn't fire burning on me, nor was the ground hard spikes digging into my sides: I heard the heavy steps of someone going back and forth, the breathing of whoever was next to me and the sounds of something else swishing on the ground. I wish I could have understood where I was but the sweetness stopped flowing and I was left alone again, though this time I fell asleep rather than into the sea of pain again. There were other rounds of feeding from then, time and time again I drank that sweet sludge and I found myself eagerly awaiting it to the point that I felt my entire body sing whenever I smelled the scent come towards me. I could barely see now, almost to the point where I could make up some shapes here and there but the smells and the sounds… those were so clear in my mind that I couldn't not pay attention to them. Thanks to that I found out that there were only two other people with me: a man and a woman, who bickered constantly about something I couldn't quite pick up. The woman smelled of the same sweet scent but had a more… vanilla and chocolate-y tone, the man was all smoke and had this weird cinder taste to him that I hated at first but that seemed to grow on me the more he brought the woman and her sludge.

At one point I felt like I was being dragged somewhere, not lifted up, dragged, by something hard and spiky, sliding across the floor like a sack of potatoes and tossed on what could only be a pillow so soft that I couldn't believe existed. Maybe it was the fact that I had laid on the cold ground for god knows how long, or maybe it had been the fact that the pillow or blanket or whatever, had that faint vanilla scent to it, but I couldn't be happier. I still couldn't see well, but at some point I was able to hear their voices with enough clarity to be able to make up some kind of conversation, and it didn't help me shed some light on anything, or rather, it didn't do it as much as I would have wanted to.

“Why did you leave him on the floor?" The woman had a slightly less raspy tone to her voice, but it was still far less… human than what I would expect from her, still, it was far better than the man who apparently was the one that didn't bother giving me a bed. “You know how fragile he is!"

“He's not fragile Cynder, what makes you think that?" There was a scoff and the two shuffled around.

“Have you seen how he feeds? He's like a child! And you let him sleep on the floor like some kind of animal? Where are your manners?"

“Well you shouldn't feed him so often then!" I'm sorry what? “He's strong enough to go a couple of days without that concoction of yours, it'll make him weak."

“Oh you….! You didn't even give him painkillers! What kind of idiot are you?"

“I am no idiot you old hag! I know what I am doing: he needs to build up strength before he wakes up or everything will be in vain. Give him some of my concoctions if anything, they will work better and faster."

“What if he suffers so much that he will not wake up? Damn…"

There was a commotion as if they fought or something, tussling, cursing and I guess… biting? The woman screamed far louder and far more often than the man but he was keeping the high ground by whatever he used against her, threats, violence and the fight went on and on for an eternity until I fell asleep again. I woke up to the sludge sliding down my throat again but this time it was far less sweet and satisfying, almost as if the man had won and forced her to change it to suit his whims and… as much as I was thankful for her gentleness and her food, I felt so much more different with this new sludge, better in a… different way. I could my muscles move and not merely rest uselessly on the pillow, moving me just enough for me to fall off of it and hit my head on the floor. I waited for the pain to come but it didn't, it didn't hurt at first and not later and, much to my surprise, I was able to lift myself back up, only my head but that was still progress. As soon as I did it, I heard the voice of the man and felt the smirk in the air as he made fun of the woman and claimed that he had always been right all along, that her sludge had made me weak. There was another fight as she didn't agree in the least.

More time passed and more modified sludge was fed to me until the point where nothing hurt anymore and I could finally open my eyes and look around me but what I found kind of made want not to be able to see anything anymore: no walls, no lights to speak of other than a small crack through which some rays peeked, no floor other than bare stone and rocks and no signs of anything that looked like a home. Nothing adorned the room other than the rocks that made up the place itself or the moss that grew around the corners and on the ceiling. A small hint of panic and fear took hold of me as I looked around for something that could tell me what was going on and where I was, every instinct I had telling me to run and get out of this place, fight whatever was going to come through the opening that was the door. Everything failed when I tried to walk and tried to escape: I put one foot in front of the other and broke into a run, but that didn't happen and I fell on the floor, stumbling several times like an idiot on the rock and hitting the wall opposite me with a loud thud.

“What the…" nothing hurt too badly but the confusion made it so much worse because as soon as I tried standing up and see what I could do, I felt my legs slid on the ground, tangled up in something and I fell once more, my jaw hitting the floor hard and sending my head swimming from the impact. I could only grunt and lift myself up with one arm as I massaged my chin where it hurt only… it didn't feel right: as I touched my jaw, I felt no beard, no scraggy hair after not shaving for what must have been a long time, no, I felt something hard, smooth, something that made weird sounds as I scratched it with my nails. Under my chin I counted one, three… three small fleshy things that sprouted from small gaps in whatever covered it. I tried pulling on one but the pain made me grunt again and bend down, trying to hold my voice in and not scream. After the pain waned enough for me to try and get up again, my eyes stumbled upon my arms or… what had become of them: no skin to speak whatsoever, no pink and no hands at all to boot. Black glossy scales that seemed to glitter in the tiny amount of light that was in the cave-like room, hard, running from my shoulder up to what could only be my hand, only that… it had deadly-looking claws instead of normal and boring human nails, just as black as the scales if not even more. What had become of my fingers felt alien, weird, looked thicker and scary. My eyes moved from my arm to my shoulder and my chest and the rest of my body, the black scales always present, some bigger, some smaller, some of a lighter shade that turned almost ashen grey and mixed with the darker ones. My breath became even more frantic, more laboured and laden with fear as I looked at myself: I was entirely covered in black scales, from my shoulder down to… a tail, a tail that moved on its own, attached to my ass, alive and eerie, tangled between my legs like a long rope. My long, lanky legs, they too were different, far more than my arms on fact: my thigs looked bigger, thicker, attached to my hips in a configuration that I knew wouldn't allow walking upright, at the end of which were four digits capped with even deadlier looking claws, so sharp I saw sparks when they touched the rock. I felt my heart sink even more when I touched my face and didn't feel a face under my palms, hell, I didn't feel like I had palms at all, just some… weird pads, and no nose, no lips no…

I screamed and tried to get on my feet, failing once more. I hit myself again and again, trying to wake myself up from this messed up dream but no matter how hard, no matter the pain, I was still awake, still here, laying on a cave floor, looking like some monster, limbs flailing uselessly around me as I tried to run from myself. In my panic I failed to notice that something had approached me and a moment later I felt that something press against my body, pinning me down with a crushing weight and taking my breath out of my lungs. I couldn't even breathe properly and it only made me more afraid of being crushed to death right then and there, so I hit whatever was on top of me as hard as I could but I did little to nothing to aid myself, I was still pinned down and my body was screaming and begging for air.

“Alastair!" A voice, booming, angry, powerful, preceded an impossibly loud impact that rocked my body from side to side and a crashing sound as whatever was resting on top of me was sent flying away and hit the walls opposite the entrance. I took that so desperately sough breath and my lungs were filled with air and my nose with a scent of vanilla and chocolate that only made me breathe deeper and harder. “What in the seven hells were you thinking?" I heard the voice of the woman boom from above me and that very same hand I had felt and longed for so much touch me again, taking the back on my head into it and caressing it, pressing it against something hard and green. The smell of vanilla overpowered everything else, so strong, so sweet, it calmed me down the more I took it in, breath by breath I felt my heart slow down, my fear, the panic, the anxiety and all the doubts melted away in a vanilla scented heaven. “You dumb old fool, try and consider him for once in a while!" Her voice echoed in the room again, stronger this time and her hand held me closer to her, to the point that my face, or what was left of it, was mashed against a hard wall of… green scales?

“He was flailing about like a dying fish Cynder, it was pathetic so I stopped him." As the man spoke, I felt a deep rumble echo around me, strong and coming straight from the woman I was being held by, deep inside her chest. There was little doubt as to how much pissed she was, however, I was more concerned by a different thing, namely: she wasn't human and neither was the man. I had spent so long wondering what they looked like, where they were from, but… it was all pointless: both were… well, dragons, there was little doubt about that.

“So you sat on him??"

Alastair, the first time I heard her say the name by the way, was a deep red monster, covered from head to talon in scales full of nicks and dents, to the point that not even a small part of him was void of damage, even his horns were chipped and broken here and there, only his claws looked somewhat fine and sharp. Cynder was more of a moss green, gentle on the eyes, not completely smooth herself as she too had quite a lot of damage but nowhere near the degree that the other had. Both were the same size and both were bigger than me, that much I could understand: the hand that held me close to her chest was almost as big as my head and her chest was a wall to me. I felt small and afraid and, contrary to my life as a man that prided himself to be courageous in front of danger, though I rarely faced anything of the sort, I felt every instinct I had tell me to curl up in a ball and hope for the best and… that I did. I didn't want to, I hated the fact that I did it and I hated whatever happened to me far more than anything, but I still felt somewhat more relaxed when I felt my head slide under my arms and curled up so that nothing could hurt me. The bickering stopped and I heard nothing but pleasing silence for a long while.

“Look, the poor thing's scared half to death!"

“And is it my fault?" There was a loud hiss that made me flinch and curl up even more, then a grunt and the sound of shuffling that made the earth tremble and shake. I was about to cry, because I was afraid, because I wanted to wake up from this messed up nightmare, because I wanted my body back and a hundred more reasons and then I felt the world go dark around me and the smell of vanilla surround my senses in all directions.

“Yes it is you dolt." I heard Cynder snort and then pull me closer to her once more, close enough for me to hear her heartbeat thump in my ears. “Calm down, it's all right."

“No it's not." I don't even know why I spoke or how I was able to find the courage, maybe it was just that I felt, you know, safe, in her embrace. There are people that make you feel good just by being around them, people that have this air, a charm so peculiar, somehow I felt like that in this moment, I felt safe.

“I know, I know, you're scared, confused and you don't know us… poor thing…" It seemed that I had a real issue with the passage of time because I didn't know how much I spent curled up like that, surrounded by vanilla and warmth and somehow, I don't know why, but it felt nice. It had been so long since I felt anyone this close to me, just physically, because, well, I didn't have the time or will to find myself a girl and I was too busy with my job and bills but this was relaxing. “Are you feeling better?"

“A little."

“Do you want to know what's going on?" At those words I couldn't help but raise my head and look at her: in front of me, smiling softly, I assume, but still baring a set of teeth that would put a shark to shame, was a long muzzle in which was engraved a pair of gentle eyes that looked down on me. Compared to Alistair, she was far less intimidating, if you didn't take into account the size and the deadly teeth and claws she had. “I assume that would be a yes." I nodded slowly. “Then I must ask you to follow me, if you can walk."

“I… I can try." I rolled to the side, more than a little clumsily and put all of my limbs on the ground and noticed in that moment that my arms were longer than I remembered, long enough to allow me to walk… on all fours, like an animal. But that was the least of my concerns, well, definitely not as important as to what had happened to me but definitely on the list of stuff I wanted to know. I put some strength into my arms and legs and pushed myself up, slowly, shaking a bit and tried to walk, stumbling like an idiot on her but she didn't even seem fazed by it and she just helped me get up while Alistair waited at the entrance of the cave, grumbling not so softly. “Thanks."

“You're welcome."

“Follow us and do try not to walk slowly." He scoffed and Cynder presumably shot him a glare because he didn't add anything else whereas I would have expected him to say something after hearing so many of their conversation over time. “Come on."

Right where the room opened up there was a tunnel that forked on the left and right, very large but not enough to make both dragons walk side by side but sufficient for me to stay to Cynder's left and use her as support to move. I arrived barely to her shoulder and I wasn't even half her size, which made me look so small, far more than before. Alastair was in front and I did my damned best to keep up with their much longer legs but walking was… tricky, and why that was, well, it wasn't a wonder: I had no idea how to walk on all fours, much less how to deal with a tail that kept getting in the way so much that it made me want to bite it off altogether and the fact that Alistair never stopped complaining about me being slow or useless didn't help. I stumbled forth like an idiot, feeling useless and weak despite now having the same appearance as a creature that myth regarded as the peak of strength. The constant nagging made me angry and with that anger I steeled myself, my steps stronger and more steady with each stride even if just to make him shut up and stop berating at me. As I walked and got better at doing so, no longer wobbling like a fool and almost as well as them, I looked up and smiled with pride and a bit of cockiness for being able to make him shut up and saw that he was smirking even more than I was, to the point that I could count his every tooth and fang perfectly. It dawned on me a moment later: he had been playing with me! All of that nagging and those insults and complaints… they were all to make me angry on purpose! The realization snuffed out the feeling of pride for achieving such a basic feat and that made him laugh loudly and immediately ignore me for a very interesting piece of violet moss that was growing on the walls. Cynder chuckled and didn't help me in making me feel better and merely supported me from the side as I more than often still ended up hitting something or stumbled because my tail decided to yank itself between my legs once more. Annoying didn't even begin to describe it by now.

Around me the cave widened so much at one point that the two could move side by side and kept me in the middle, Alastair silently supporting me with his right flank whenever I needed it. I heard him and her complain to each other so much and argue so often that I couldn't help but be shocked to see him do something genuinely good event though he didn't even admit it. Judging by Cynder's silent smile, it was something that happened often. I couldn't help but think of them as an old couple that bickered far more often than they should have, which they did and I hadn't been conscious for half of the time, but that silently loved the other and didn't let those fights ruin a relationship so long it had transcended love.

“Here we are." Cynder broke the silence and pointed at me with her snout and then at the cave that opened in front of us, a cave I didn't see as I had been a tad more concentrated on keeping my… paws or whatever they were, one in front of the other while walking.

I looked up and saw a massive opening, so big and so vast it made the two dragons look small and pathetic at the centre of which was a whirlpool that sloshed loudly within the equally enormous basin in which it rested. The water was of a deep blue, so deep it was bordering on violet or black even, white foam at the edges to encase the whirlpool perfectly. I felt my jaw drop at the sight of such a marvellous thing and almost missed the dragons' not so soft chuckles.

“What is this?"

“This dear is what we have come to call The Well of Worlds but it may have had a different name long ago, before we were even born and settled here." Alastair spoke while circling the whirlpool and looking into its depths with a rapt expression. “Sometimes it coughs up something, objects that do not belong to this world, plants, living beings that try to kill us, metals and stuff that we do not know anything about or that we do know, from the past, the present and the future." He stopped looking at the Well and looked at me. “You came from it."

“I-I did?"

“We found you on the edge months ago: you were dying, hurt, blood in your lungs, multiple bones shattered with such strength we had no way to deal with." I felt Cynder's paw rest on my back, soothing the worry that had began to mount once more. “You were so close to death we had no choice but to save you in the best and only way we could: we made you like us."

“So… I'm a dragon because… of you two?" Their look of surprise was the same as my own if not bigger and more evident but lasted for mere seconds and then faded.

“You are aware of what we are? Well… that's interesting. I would love to ask you a lot of things but your doubts are more important right now but yes, we changed you to save your life." Cynder craned her long neck and looked at me in the eyes. “You must understand that we were faced with the choice of letting you die or making you one of us…"

“No it's… it's fine… I can understand… if it was the only way." I remembered how I was fine with dying then and there but I was saved, by dragons. I didn't have much to my name on earth, I didn't have anyone to go back to nor I wanted to return to a life in which I had no aspirations other than finding a new job with better pay and hope to get a girlfriend. “Thanks, really."

“Aren't you mad?" Alastair showed a clearly unnatural concern as Cyder looked rather surprised once again. “You were human, now you are not but you're… not mad? Are you really fine with this?"

“The old coot is right: we know humans and they do not… take well to being changed into something they are not."

“Well, I am not like most humans of this world after all…" I gave them a wry smile, lift up the mood a little. “Hell, I'm not even human anymore so why would I care what they think?" I will admit it right now: it hurt to know I wasn't one anymore, that I wasn't on my planet anymore, that I had been transformed into something else to have my life saved but it would hurt far less to be dead. “I am alive and that's all that matters." As I said, it hurt but I had the chance of living again and living a far more different life than my old one, plus… I would be lying if I said I never even thought once of what I would do if I were to be reborn with my memories intact. My apparent calmness and lack of anger seemed to shock them quite a lot: I wasn't calm, at all. Everything I knew was gone, disappeared into another world, I was alone in a place I had no clue about with two creatures that I did not think could exist, and yet… it all felt so liberating. I was free of so many shackles: no more rent, no more job, no more traffic and smog and people honking at three am… A clean slate for me to write on.

“Well, well, well…" Alistair smiled. “Humans on your side of the Well must be quite used to this kind of thing for you to have such a calm reaction."

“Oh, not at all, we're the only species capable of sentience in our world, there are no other capable of even speaking, much less transformation or any such magic." I smiled and saw their surprise mount to ever growing levels that I did find quite amusing and interesting.

“Then we have so much more than I thought to talk about." Cynder flashed me a joyous smile, toothy and wide as Alastair still pondered on my words and what they meant. “Welcome to Isteria by the way."

After the show and tell, it was time for the real explanations to begin and now there was a lot of explanation to be done. First came the presentation: Cynder and Alistair were a couple, that much I could have guessed, who had taken residence in this cave complex and stumbled upon the Well by chance and decided to guard it from others who might harbour bad intentions and misuse the unlimited power that it had. It had been more than five centuries since they had arrived and dozens of dangerous individuals had come to take control but the reason why they guarded the place had been the reason why they had obtained a power unlike any other in the world and defeated them all, rising to incredible prominence in this world, the same power saved me. Kings and lords of all species sought their help and knowledge all the time, be it for doing good or evil. Alistair was better at spells that regarded strength and power, the earth, metals, while Cynder, despite her name, was more apt at manipulating nature and life itself. Both had worked to make the body I had no from the ground and the air itself and put my soul inside of it so that I may live and it was essentially a copy of their own, bringing elements of both their bodies and talents together which was the reason they… decided to take me as their adopted son. Hundreds of years without any eggs to bear had made them give up hope but my arrival and the efforts they put into literally making me translated into a love unlike anything they had for the other.

From that day on, the both of them decided to give it their all to teach me how to live as a dragon, all the little perks and quirks of having such an uncanny body and powers, all the things I needed to know if one day I wanted to leave and make a place for myself out there. I wasn't planning to, not now at least, I had too much to understand and learn, so much that I felt overwhelmed most of the time. Dragon behaviour was so wildly different from a human's to the point that I had to stare at them go about their daily lives with far more attention than what I would normally reserve to anyone I knew, even more than my own parents, well, my other ones. Being not human anymore didn't mean I had to forget or give up on anything I had done or said up until this point, it was a foundation on which to build a different bridge to walk on, as Alistair loved to say. At night we'd all sleep in the same cave, my small body in between theirs, sharing the heat and the support they offered. When we woke up early in the morning I'd join in on whatever meal they had available, which was mainly meat from creatures I had never seen in my life or plants and rocks as well, because unlike them but sharing the same origin, my body had been crafted by the magic of the Well and as such anything could sustain me. That was how they could live so long and without destroying entire ecosystems with their hunger. Eating metals had proved to be far less hard than digging into a half dead Morgol, which was a bear that had a deer's horns and a wolf's sense of smell and pack behaviour. The blood, the flesh ripped apart by teeth and claw… I almost threw up that day. The second most important thing I learned about being a dragon was that time had an entirely different concept and passed so much more slowly than for other species, even more than the elves but for another reason: there wasn't the drive to make plans or do anything in the short term. A little while for Alistair meant several weeks at the very least and 'it's going to take a long time' probably meant years or decades. The days melted into each other so perfectly and easily that I lost count of when one came and left the other behind, sometimes going so fast that they became meaningless. Dinner could be at dawn or in the middle of the afternoon because, well, we didn't have a menu and eating a rock counted as a meal if we wanted to and sometimes that was what happened. A lesson would be so difficult and taxing that by the end of it, I was made aware I spent three days staring at plants and most of the time I was left shocked and collapsed on the floor from the mental strain rather than physical stress. Other times nothing worth mentioning happened for weeks and I was growing attached to this slow life, so much better than going day by day in a shop where every second counted, every minute behind schedule was a minute lost and to be regained with even more work. I got used to this little quirk but when I was told that it had been one year since I had arrived didn't help in the least in softening the impact it had on my mind. One year and I barely noticed it.

There were studies of magic and metal craft too, with Alistair as teacher: hours and days spent on learning the quirks of exotic materials and the land itself, how to mould iron and bloodstones together, how to weave a blanket made of metal or strengthen my scale by eating precious rocks and gems. He was a good dragon, rough, irritable, yes, sometimes stubborn as the same stone he ate or threw at me, certainly far more harsh than I felt he needed to be, but his methods worked just fine, most of the time. There were days when I came back from training with broken bones or scales, bruises in places where they couldn't even appear and Cynder would treat them and teach me how to heal myself at the same time. Her lessons were of a more… soft nature, more focused on understanding how to bend nature, rather than break it to fit my needs. She had a garden where she grew thousands of plants that gave her that vanilla smell, a smell that I learned was the overlapping of well over a hundred more subtle ones and that I was supposed to learn. Her tests were based on cunning and specific details, with the final one me being able to tell each of the plants that gave her that smell apart one by one. She'd have me stay close to her and make me sniff every corner of her body, every scale, nook and cranny and that was the trick: I'd lose myself in her scent, the sweetness of it, the depths, the charm it had and before I would realize most times, I'd lick her, taste her scales, feel the remnants of those plants on her. I'd roam on her body with my nose, finding the more… hidden scents a few times I wandered a little too close to her privates, the slit between her legs, the even sweeter scent of her sex and she'd laugh at how rapt I was. Dealing with such scents was by far the weirdest part of being dragon: there were so many different varieties that told a lot about their mood, their thoughts and their needs. I found that out the hard way.

One day, just before dinner, I was allowed to roam the expansive network of caves and have some time just by myself so… I let my nose lead the way. It was the best method to get to new places, feel new things since I didn't know the paths as well as them and I could only follow the scents from animals or the old tracks of the two dragons on the very rock. It was fun and relaxing, a moment in which I could shut my brain off and let new instincts take over and guide my actions to a degree a human wouldn't even dream of.

On that particular day, I was surprised by a scent unlike any other I had found up until then, a somewhat older one that carried a little spice, very strong and fantastically fragrant, enough to distract me from the other ones I was following. It led me through forks in the path, through twisted trees that grew underground, over and under stone bridges that had Alistair's claw marks all over and across a small chasm to boot, but I had to have more, find the source if anything. When I got to the origin point, every single muscle in my body gave up as it flopped down on the large patch of violet moss that carried the scent, rolling in it, rubbing my snout wherever it was strong and growing more hot by the second. I didn't want to, but my instincts had long since taken over my mind, controlling my actions in my place: they told me that I needed, that I had to bear this scent in my mind, that it was the right thing to do and so I did, taking in enough of it that I began to grow aroused. It was so strong, so much undoubtedly male and potent that I had no choice but to commit it to memory or leave my own over it and of course, I chose the latter. I didn't know much about my maleness, as when I relieved myself I merely had to raise my legs and piss like a dog, but now I had the chance to see what had happened down there.

From the slit that I knew housed my genitals, I stared in rapt attention as two large cocks spread the flushed and plump lips that hid them and the curiosity of having not one but two took over the more basic needs. I pressed my snout in between them, right where they jutted from the soft flesh that surrounded them all day long, feeling the strong musk that was my own and letting it burned itself inside my nostrils in a pleasant way, so much that I found myself sniffing hard, nose glued to one cock and tongue lolling out. The first lick was something out of the world: the saltiness of my flesh, the taste of the slitfluids, the warmth they gave off on my tongue and the insane amounts of pre spurting on my snout… they all felt so… right. Each lick, each taste and tease was so much more than the mere action, a heaven of pleasure in and of itself, a new world to explore. I didn't even know when but I found myself with my mouth wrapped around one of them, sucking on it with ecstasy and bliss, drinking shot after shot of viscous pre as they gushed from my tip and coated my tongue in thick layers of virility.

My tail flailed madly, pinned under my weight as I rested on my back, legs spread wide so lewdly I loved the sheer naughtiness of it all, despite me being as naked as always. I went from one cock to the other, alternating my attention and licks, one inside my maw and the other pressing and thrumming hotly to either side of my muzzle, spraying ropes of pre over it or on my neck and belly. Long minutes went by like that, minutes full of grunts, moans, the wet smacks of my lips on those rigid cocks of which I had no way to measure the length but that I knew to be as long as my forearms. At one point, I couldn't bear the feeling of having one hemipene out and so, straining open my jaw, I took both in at the same time, forcing myself to swallow inch after inch of hard flesh down my gullet, letting them hit the back of my throat and shoot pre inside my stomach. My mouth became a feast of sweat and heavy musk and my nose swam into a sea of scents so dense I couldn't resist anymore and I came, taking a lifelong dream to completion. Thick, dense jets of hot seed made me cough and fight to keep my cocks inside my mouth, but, much to my pride, there was just too much and I couldn't even begin to hope to drink it all down. Splatters already turned my belly into a white and musky mess, but once I took both cocks out, the ground itself began to smell like me as I jumped on my limbs and marked the moss and the very stone. Shot after shot of seed turned the small clearing into my own, white splotches and puddles a clear testament to my virility in an act so tremendously inhuman and draconic that I felt glad to have become what I was now. As I turned around to get back to where I spent most of the time, I looked back with pride and basked in the afterglow of my climax, raising my leg to further mark the area as mine like any dog would. It wasn't something that I had wanted to learn from Alistair but he forced me to learn anyways and I spent several days looking at the old fart mark old spots in the cave with his scent where they had began to lose their scent. It was embarrassing as hell but, since it was a crucial part of a dragon's life, especially a male's, I was forced to watch and mimic him more than I wanted and, well, I got used to walking around naked and acting like him, might as well go the full length.

“Michael, why do you smell like a dragon just mated with your muzzle?" I had sincerely hoped not to be asked that question, but despite my attempts at cleaning my body with what little magic I had learned, the scent was just too strong or maybe the nose of a several century old botanist was just too good. She sniffed every inch of my body, going so far as to shoving her far large muzzle between my legs and licking the last dribbles of seed that coated the inner walls of my slit. I would have been ashamed had I not been made aware of the lack of private space in a society that values scents so much, but that didn't stop my body from being overly pleased and grind my rump over her muzzle like an idiot. “What happened?"

“Well…" Being aware of it didn't mean I was not embarrassed to admit what I had done like a teenager caught red handed. “I was masturbating."

“What's that?" I was taken aback by her lack of knowledge since I had assumed that a dragon would necessarily be aware of such practice, with them being heralds of lust and depravity in the human culture.

“Ehm… it's… when you pleasure yourself till you spill your seed…" Her eyes gleamed with the same look she had whenever I told her something she didn't know, like when I explained what little I knew about DNA and modern human technology and culture. “It's a self-pleasing practice that can lower stress and blood pressure and well, it feels good."

“So, it's like mating… by yourself?" I nodded and she fell deep in thought for a few moments which gave me the time to brace myself for the incoming barrage of questions. “How do you do it?"

“I mean… if I had my hands, I'd wrap them on my… member and then rub, tease or do anything I liked to get myself to a release but with these claws I… resorted to my tongue. For women it's a little harder, it involves a lot more… preparation and work, hitting the right spots and sometimes the usage of tools and whatnot."

“So, I could do it myself?"

“Sure, it's all good and fine."

“Could you do it to me? Show me how so that I can learn?" I felt my heart drop a little at her words but I managed to find some semblance of control inside me even as the large dragoness turned her back towards me and lifted her tail, baring her slit. I was made aware of what 'raising tail' meant, not that it was hard to understand, but seeing it and being so close to her that I could smell her sex and the faint hint of growing arousal, well, it might prove to be too much. Despite having come already, I was feeling like my cocks were spilling from my slit, poking just a little from that housing pouch and dripping with need but I held on.

“I… not now, it's not ehm, proper for me to show you. Normally a child doesn't go telling their parents how to pleasure themselves." Cynder gloated and smiled whenever I admitted in front of her that I considered them my parents and that I loved them, despite so many centuries of age between us, but I did, I did think of them as parents. They behaved just like my mom and my dad, they taught me what I needed to know, they fed me and kept me warm, in a draconic and scaly way but they were my parents, my dragon parents. Sounds weird but it's actually very nice. “I am sure you can find out the basics by yourself, I now have to go and visit Alistair for my lessons."

“Alright, have fun."

Having fun and being around the grumpy old dragon was a little hard to put in the same sentence as it never happened but I appreciated the feeling, even though I brought him up just to escape a reverse 'bird and bees' type of spiel with a dragoness. Alistair didn't miss on the smell of spunk either and I explained the same thing to him as well while he hammered me with a shower of sharp rocks and lumps of metal all around me because that's what he wanted to do. He told me he had done the same thing when he was younger and discovered for the first time ever a female in heat but got chased away by his older and stronger brothers. That didn't stop him from asking me the most inappropriate of questions as he shot boulders the size of me from afar though…

One particular thing that was definitely starting to grow on me was the fact that both of them, yes even Alistair, spoiled me rotten: I asked that I'd be allowed to be treated as an adult or at least not a baby or a hatchling, but… I was less than a tenth their age, much less, so, by definition I was a baby just recently born, a clever one but a baby nonetheless and that prompted them to act accordingly. Cynder never lifted her eyes from me, helping me do the most basic things whenever I had the slightest hint of trouble, she cleaned me up with magic or with very, very extensive tongue baths that left me smelling like the herbs she chewed on daily. Alistair was less gentle but whenever I asked for something like a metal I wanted to test a spell on, he rushed and got it to me before I could even raise my head and then he'd watch over me to make sure I'd be fine. More than parents I felt like they were my grandparents but the closeness we had been developing slowly over time wasn't one that they could have.

The more we slept together curled up in a cave, the more I learned their scents, discerning the deepest layers of their make-up and the little habits they had, like preferring a scratch on the chin rather than the shoulder or vice versa. More often than not I found myself wandering in my sleep with my nose, burying it into crevices that carried the spicy musk that Alistair had or sniffing Cynder much more fragrant body. They laughed whenever I apologized and those were the moments in which I did feel like a baby because they always told me that it was supposed to be that way: a young hatchling was a curious little beast and wouldn't stop for anything whenever they found something that smelled nice. On the day that I stopped caring, or so I thought, I woke up with my nose tightly pressed onto Alistair's slit and taking deep breaths of his sex. I would have found it far more embarrassing than all the bad experiences in my entire life had it not been so damn good: not unlike mine but carrying a much more strong and deep scent, his slit reeked of musk and ash, dozens of times more potent than my own and sometimes leaked slitfluids whenever he felt my breath over his soft scales. I knew he watched me but I honestly didn't care much for it and hearing him shiver and hold back a moan here and there when my tongue lapped at his flesh, well, I cannot hide that I liked it: his taste was something else, spicy and salty, mixed with the warmth only he could have and the strong aftertaste of leather and metals. I would lose myself in his virile taste that I knew only a dragon his age could have, decades and centuries of life and, let's be honest, sex. Sometimes on the flesh lining his slit I could taste something sweet and that smelled of herbs, hidden deep under dozens of layers of musk and sweat. Living in a society where scents and tastes were essential to life was far more complicated and far more interesting than what I would have imagined because if I loved how the two of them smelled, they didn't hide the fact that they loved how I smelled as well. Much in the same way that I'd sniff them, Cynder never tried to hide the fact that she liked taking in my scent whenever we were close and always make a point of cleaning me up thoroughly for that matter. Alistair wasn't as interested but he did like my interest for him quite a bit.

“Come on Michael! Avoid the rocks like a male!"

“I am fucking trying you old bastard!" I realized that I was being disrespectful but when he berates at me for not avoiding several tonnes of boulder flying at me at high speeds, it's hard to be nice, I'm sure it doesn't take a genius to understand it. I looked around and from the ceiling I could already see the spikes that signalled the formation of giant stalactites that were about to be shot at me. Thanks to months of training in such a way gave me the right instincts and I dodged to the right and then to the right once more as one after the other rushed to hit me but sank into the ground instead and were shot back at a different angle. “Stop throwing them so fast!" I yelled at him from the other side of the cave littered with rock chunks and pieces of the ceiling and the floor as I dodged yet another spike that came from behind me and almost made me get hit by a high speed boulder that landed on the wall to my left.

“Ok." I would have been happy to hear that sound a while ago, now, it only meant he was going to go harder on me: the rocks did slow down but they increased in number and among them were hidden large blocks of raw metals so hard the ground shook several times harder under my paws at the impact. “Hope you will learn that asking for a slack means I double down on the difficulty." Just as he said that, all the pieces littering the cave rose up in the air at the same time and began to speed up towards me. Hundreds of chunks of all sizes and shapes covered pretty much every inch of the cave in front of me and threatened to pummel me into the ground.

“What the… Alistair? Do you want to kill the kid?" Cynder stomped inside and angrily made her way to her mate and hit him with her tail square in the jaw with a loud smack that I knew could shatter the very boulders that were about to hit me but that now fell with thumps and thuds on the ground, further ruining the floor. “He's not yet at the level to harden his scales to survive that kind of impact!"

“How can we know if we don't try? He might be able to…" Alistair was always adamant in his methods and she was just ass stubborn in refusing to allow him to 'torture me' like that and I cannot say I didn't appreciate it. She rushed over to me and licked my snout, cleaning some dust that had settled there and proceeded to examine every scale I had to make sure I was fine. “Are you ok dear?"

“I'm fine…"

“See? He's fine so can we get back to…?" Cynder snarled and the other dragon had to back off. “He has his botany lesson today so I'd appreciate if your old scaly ass didn't interrupt us." Alistair snarled but sat down on his haunches anyway and looked at some very interesting rock at his feet while we turned around and headed for the garden. “He hasn't been too harsh on you, has he?"

“Not any more than usual." The look of apprehension in her eyes never failed to make me feel warm and cared for, though it got a little too passionate sometimes and they'd fight over who got to teach me what. “I could try and see if I can resist him though."

“Oh no you don't! He doesn't know how to control himself, you may get hurt."

“Yes but you're here and I am sure you can heal any would I have." Cynder had a special pride for that skill of hers and she had the same reaction to praise as the time when I called her 'mom' instead of 'Cynder'. True to her inner girl, she smiled and giggled, her steps a little bit more springy and energetic. “What test do I have to go through today?"

“It's taste and smell." Her tone became even more happy than before while I was left a little bit conflicted by that piece of news because 'taste and smell' was what you might imagine: me going around the garden and shoving leaves and smelling whatever she gave me so that I could identify the item. She claimed that it was the best way to commit to memory every single plant that there was in the garden, better than merely looking at their appearance because some of them had 'learned' how to look like harmless or dangerous plants, a form of vegetable mimetic behaviour on par of the animal one. “I prepared a special course today."

“Is it more Floxinia? Please tell me it's not." That flower smelled worse than a dirty public bathroom on a summer day. Of course the dragoness hadn't bothered to tell me that before I shoved my snout inside it and took a breath. She laughed at my attempts to clear my nose from the stench for hours and only then she helped me get it out. Still haven't forgiven her for it.

“Well dear, if I told you what kind of test would it be?" Cynder laughed and opened the passage that led to the garden with a spell and the rock wall slid open to reveal a copy of heaven on earth: plants of all types and sizes littered every single corner of a cave that rivalled the Well in size, spanning hundreds of feet in every direction. Luminous moss kept the room lit up constantly although it had that violent tinge and small animals that came in from cracks in the ground flew here and there, feeding from the giant flowers or laid the eggs in tube shaped plants only to be eaten alive by said plants. “Since it's been five years since you arrived here, I decided to have you go through a different test today, hence the 'special' part. I trust you'll do just fine."

“Yeah sur… wait… five years?" I stopped moving right in the middle of the path and stared at her from behind. Had it been really that long? Wasn't it just a little while ago that they told me one year had passed? “Are you lying to me?"

“Why would I? you just lost track of time dear. It's normal since you never step out of the cave and you're so diligent in your studies."

“But… six years already… it's… a lot, for me." I looked at her and then at my paws, wondering if it was even true once more: six years I had spent with them, day in and out, learning everything they presented me as if I was back in school, sleeping when I was too tired, eating when hungry, repeating the process over and over. Maybe.. just maybe it was true. Cynder rubbed her snout on mine and smiled.

“It's alright, nothing to worry about. We too lose track of time often: did I tell you about that time a king came to visit us?"

“I think so." She nudged my side and urged me to move again so I did, following her closely through the forest inside the mountain.

“There was this young man that knocked on our doors, all bloody and running from something that had killed his family, lanky as a pole and terrified. We healed him, gave him herbs to cure his friends and even taught him something because we knew he was good in his heart and wouldn't abuse his power. He left all of a sudden one day and didn't come back for some time and when he did, boy was he old: I remember clearly that he had arrived with barely a stubble beginning to grow on his beard, young and energetic, he returned to us in his last days on this world, hoisted up by his sons and daughters, all princes of a kingdom he founded with our magic as the foundation." She sighed and made me look at a blood red tree that rested alone at the eastern edge of the cave, one that only had twenty leaves on top and a crooked trunk that twisted and hummed softly. “That tree was born of his corpse when he died and now it bears a fruit whenever a new heir is born form his lineage. It was also the thing that saved his legacy when a revolt struck the kingdom and the heir was supposed to be dead. We showed them that the girl was alive and well thanks to her ancestor's remains and she came to thank us some fifty years ago. Now she's probably dead or too old to move but we found some presents on the entrance of the cave the other decade so maybe she's still kicking ass somewhere." Cynder told me a story that was so deeply rooted in time that I couldn't even begin to grasp the scale: she spoke of decades and half centuries as if they were close and meaningless but each fraction was in most cases multiple times my own lifespan. “Look Michael, I know it's weird to be able to go for years busy doing something and realize that a long time has passed, that's why dragons mate for life or stick in enclaves made of relatives and close friends: it's so that we may actually have a life and memories, rather than spending it lazing around."

“I understand it's just… I didn't even notice."

“You'll learn how to keep track of time. A good way is to count the rings from the base of your horn all the way to the top: they form around wintertime and move up, pushed by the one that comes after." I felt her paw touch them softly. “You are a special case sine you have only six, but look at mine, I have so many I can't even count them anymore." I looked up and noticed that each ring was so closely packed that it was hard to make up each individual year but there were hundreds upon hundreds. “But enough with the past, now you have a test and if you pass, we'll have a special celebratory dinner to mark the first part of your training!"

“The first part??"

“Yes of course, I made you commit to memory over five thousand plants and relative uses, but I never did make you use them, did I? If you know them, then we can start on the basics of concoction and potion making and…" She snorted loudly. “If you survive with more than half of your bones intact Alistair's rock shower, he'll teach you his forging spells and take you mining in the depths of the caves where he finds minerals." I was at a loss once more because, well, six years for the very basics was way too much but the prospect of getting to the next level was far too enticing not to be exciting.

“Fine. Let's do this."

Fuelled by what were now years of training rather than an undetermined amount of time, I recollected every last one of the thousands of plants I had memorized and closed my eyes and felt my sense of smell spike. Cynder told me there was a special track I was supposed to follow and identify both the origin and the cause of it, meaning there was going to be a chase. I searched slowly at first but then I found it: it was faint but the incredible sweetness of it was impossible to miss now that I knew where to search. It burned through my nostrils like wildfire and to make things hard, she had me go search and taste several dozen other plants with that sweet stench still strong. It was hard but enjoyable and I felt my drive go higher and higher with every praise and correct answer. The trail of scent became stronger with time, downright intoxicating and dominating every sense I had, to the point that finding what caused it was the goal of every cell in my body. I sniffed the ground and tasted it, chewing rocks and plants to get to it and then, when it had gotten so overpowering that I couldn't bear it anymore, I felt my snout bump into something soft and wet. As I opened my eyes I saw a wall of green scales blocking my view and a tight but swollen slit right in front, dripping a clear fluid. Cynder giggled when I opened my mouth and tasted it and my tongue exploded in a symphony of pleasure and hissed: the trail that I had so fervently followed wasn't made by a plant, it had been her arousal all along. I felt ashamed but when she pushed against me and her slit parted around my snout, her soft and fragrant flesh spread and envelop me in a world made of sweet, sweet vanilla and leather, I couldn't get angry. My body sang in happiness at the first taste of her sex, her juices and the heat of her folds, feeling my cocks slip out with ease, lubed up by all the pre I didn't know I had been leaking into my slit. I licked and tasted her for what felt like an eternity and then pulled back, her fluids coating the entirety of my snout, looking at her as she shifted on her back.

“Tricked me into shoving my tongue in your vent… Why?" She cooed happily, pressing her vent to my snout with a weak jab of her hips, the lips of her sex spreading around me, surrounding my snout in a wet and sweet heaven.

“You see… I asked you several times to show me how to masturbate and you refused so much. I did try and by the gods it felt amazing but, I think, no, I am sure, that my little boy knows how to do it even better."

“I'm not a boy! I am an adult." That statement merely cemented my position as 'child' in her eyes. My fault.

“A human adult dear, not a dragon, unless you want me to change my mind and I think you know how to do that." Her smirk was so painful and provoking I almost hated it but the taste of her lust lingering on my tongue was still far too strong and far too arousing to refuse. She had caught and trapped me in her net, might as well have fun. I flashed her a smile and raised one leg so that she could look at my cocks and, by her look, she seemed quite pleased but the gasp full of lust and need when she saw me open my mouth and take the tip of one cock in it made me so much more proud. I felt her fluids mix with the taste of my flesh, salty and sweet, musky and fragrant. “Such a naughty boy." I would have complained about that a second time had my mouth not been so overly full of cock, but it was only for a minute, a show to get her even more riled up. I suckled and teased myself over and over until both of my lengths were throbbing and spurting pre on the grass like a faucet left open. “Come on, show me what a human can do."

“Gladly." I licked my lips and then returned to face her slit once more: after my little stunt she was even more aroused and the lips of her sex were swollen and puffed, reddish rather than a pale green and the scent was even stronger, making me feel like I could come just from a lick. I didn't.

She gasped and moaned when my tongue lapped her inner walls in a way she couldn't do herself and that Alistair had never done in centuries of mated life. I dragged it over the softest spots, where she was most sensitive and where her scent and taste was stronger still, circling over a secret nub that made her shiver hard whenever I touched or licked it. She cried in a pleasure she had never felt and begged for more and almost felt bad for her mate, almost but the way she hissed and arched her back on the ground when I added a lone claw to tease her folds while I licked her, that made me only want to make her squeal harder. Her fluids were copious and thick, laden with such a heavy pheromone cocktail that I could barely believe I hadn't come yet, her taste so dense on my tongue it was hard to even think straight and restrain myself from mounting her. Cynder cried for more and more I gave her, shoving my entire muzzle inside her slit, spreading her folds apart far less than what I imagined Alistair's cocks would but hitting spots inside her walls that she didn't know she had. Her vent clamped down on me several times, shaking, quivering with building pleasure and coating me in layers of thickening lust that clung to my scales all the way down my neck. I heard he yell not to stop and go even harder but just as she asked that, she stopped moving for one single moment and then she howled and clamped down on me so hard it hurt for real, her juices splattering on my chest and scales with such intensity I was showered with them.

My own climax wasn't any less monumental as the both of us had built it over god knows how long and I felt rope after rope of seed splattering on her thighs and adding my lust to hers, wave after wave of thick seed. Both cocks spasmed and throbbed at the same time, pulsating with every shot that ran through them, each pump of my testes lasting seconds on end, thoroughly eclipsing her fluids. I felt my hips twitch and hump the air every now and then only to graze he scales with a lucky thrust and all of my instincts told me to push forward and spear myself inside her. I hesitated for a moment and felt her tail shove me towards her in an accidental spasm of pleasure: both of my shafts entered her slit with ease, her folds so wet and engorged that she had no trouble welcoming them. I hissed and felt my orgasm rekindle with twice the strength, pumping even more seed now directly inside her very vent. She cried loudly once more and then I felt her walls clamp again and again and again as she attempted to milk me for everything I had, the muscles lining her sex so strong I was held in place and left helpless, every inch of my cocks massaged so thoroughly I felt like I could faint in instants. No girl I had fucked up until that point could even begin to compare to this dragoness: the warmth, the slickness of her sex, the contractions that pulled my seed deeper and deeper inside of her, the way her scent told me just how much she loved this and the way she looked at me…

We didn't move for long minutes save for a twitching muscle and the constant onslaught of my seed within her vent and the contractions of her walls. I breathed deeply and waited to regain even a slither of strength but it had been just too much and I was left panting on her belly, still connected to her, slit to slit, out fluids pooling around each other. Cynder craned her neck and licked my snout, tasting herself until an idea flashed in my mind and I grabbed her snout and kissed her, shoving my tongue and all of her lust inside her very mouth. That little trick made her vent contract one last time before she stopped and focused herself on my tongue, chasing it around, trying to win the battle and losing every time. Kissing was hard without flexible lips but I made do with just my tongue, connecting our mouths with long strands of saliva that dripped in a frothy mess on her chest.

“Gods Michael… what was that?"

“A kiss, a… very human thing." She put a paw on her mouth and giggled. “Did you like it?" I regretted asking her because she squeezed my cocks several times, drawing out the last spurts that I could give her. “I'll take that as a yes."

“Oh, I never came this hard in my life! It was amazing! And you were all 'no I don't want to do it' and blah blah blah… was it so hard?" I shook my head. “Never think that you can escape from me, no matter how long you think has passed, I will remember and trap you when you least expect, so the next time I ask you to do this, you do it." I rolled my eyes and slumped over her chest. “Did you like the show Alistair?"

“Very much so dear." My head snapped to the left and there I saw the red dragon watching over us from the side, smiling. Despite any wish I had not to, my eyes wandered down and down until I saw his arousal and my jaw fell: he was easily twice my size, both of his lengths far thicker and red, lined with a dozen thick ridges that went all the way down to a base so girthy it was as big as my thigh. He stood on his feet and those two humongous cocks swung up and down, spraying ropes of precum all over the place, reaching dozens of feet in front of him and coating his belly scales as he walked towards us. “You did a real number on this old hag, runt. I never saw her squeal this loudly even when she was in heat." I was faced with his snout moments later and he pushed me out of the way easily, making me stumble on the nosy floor several times. I looked up when I stopped rolling and saw him lick the gaping vent of his mate, making her shiver, still sensitive from the afterglow and lapping up all of her lust and my own seed. “Nice job."

“Wh-wh-what's going on? Why is he here?"

“Why? I asked him to of course. You were so busy burying your cute snout I between my legs you didn't even notice he entered the cave." I blushed in shame and attempted to cover myself with my paws but obviously failed to do so. “No need to be ashamed. It was your prize for completing the basic course." Somehow I doubted that. “And it was also your first mating."

“My what?"

“You told us that humans have a talk when their young reach a certain age, explain them how the world works and how eggs are made, but we are more for… a hands-on approach." Alistair smiled and sat down, his cocks still standing proud between his legs and spurting pre all over the place. “I was aware that as an adult human you knew about it but since you're a dragon, a young hatchling, it was our duty to teach you how to mate, even though on certain aspects you certainly know so much more than us."

“Did you learn something from him?" The dragoness looked at him and he smiled.

“His tongue was shoved so deep in you I couldn't see much but I understood how to. Next time I will try that myself." He licked his lips and then looked at me with a proud expression, a weird thing for such an old creature. Old dogs do learn new tricks after all.

“Now what? You want me to do something for you too?" I chuckled because somehow I found it funny but the eerie silence that came after was something that told me I shouldn't have made that bad, bad, bad joke. I looked at the two of them and saw that in their eyes there was little more than the pure shock that comes when someone tells you something absolutely unbelievable. “You didn't… I mean if you want me to." The air of lust and sexual bliss on their faces quickly melted away as I said that.

“W-w-w-wait…" I saw Alistair blush and stagger back a few steps, nervous, stuttering and looking at Cynder for support but she was just as, if not even more, shocked and just sat there, her vent still oozing my seed and with her jaw wide open. “We… we're m-males! We can't d-do that!"

“Sure we can." I got up and smiled: it was payback time… “Human are… horny little bastards. Living a short life doesn't mean that we couldn't experiment or invent all sorts of things to do and enjoy." The great Alistair, the dragon who guarded the Well, was nervous like a boy staring at his first girlfriend naked, shivering and more than a little antsy. Cynder kept going from staring at me to him over and over, her mouth still open. “Male and male, female and female, it's normal and probably as old as our very civilization and… thousands of years made us come up with a number of fun positions to make sex even more enjoyable." I moved faster than the great red dragon could register in his blabbering nervous mess and kissed that old fool just like his mate but minutes before and felt him whine and shiver. Cynder was fuelled by the power of the afterglow of the best orgasm of her life, but him, he was just a poor, inexperienced male, compared to little old me and he didn't even put up resistance to that kiss. My tongue, smaller, weaker, dominated him with ease and the more I kissed him, connected closely, the more he moaned and whined. “Someone likes it I see." His cocks were spurting pre far more than before, almost at the level of hosing my chest in sticky deluge and for some reason I couldn't wait to see him come. I had never been dominant nor that much bi, but the fun I imagined I'd have seeing a dragon try to weasel his way out of a kiss or whatever I had in store did make me a little more proud and eager than I should have been. “You enjoyed this too Cynder?"

“Y-yes." Her voice was but a squeak, though we heard it just fine.

“Dear! Y-you betr… come and help me!"

“Oh? Does the great Alistair not know how to escape a baby like me?" He did try but his legs were frozen in place and he couldn't move at all, only able to shiver as I ran a claw up the underside of one cock. “You'll like it, I promise." He stuttered and tried to say something but I didn't care and placed myself right in front of his cocks and then buried my snout in the crevice between them and took a whiff: my entire body shook in pleasure, his musk was so strong, so powerful, even more spicy and mind-numbing. “God… you smell so good." I huffed his musk like a drug and felt my legs wobble and almost give in as my tongue lapped the slitfluids that pooled in that crevice, dense, slimy, laden with so much lust and pre that I swallowed everything my tongue caught and made a little show out of it. Alistair was but a shivering mess as no male, hell, maybe not even Cynder, had ever licked him like that, much less enjoyed it as much as I did. I pulled out from that musky and sweaty heaven and looked at the dragon on top of me, rubbing my snout on his cocks, tasting his hard flesh with long and tantalizing licks. “Did you like it?"

“N-n-n… yes." He stuttered for long seconds and then gave up and admitted, if he didn't, I just had to tease him a little more until he gave up, not that the way his scent screamed of arousal or even his cocks, spewing pre in large, dense globs of liquid lust, allowed him to hide his desires. And god, the blush on his face! Priceless. “But it's wrong!"

“It may be, but why?" He opened his mouth several times to try and find a reason but, be it his arousal, the nervousness of having a male kiss him and lick his cocks, or it may have been my paw, stroking him as he did his best to focus on anything but the soft pads sliding on his engorged flesh, he didn't find any reason worth mentioning. “Alistair, I have something you will love, but I need some cooperation ok, big guy?" I saw a faint nod and then I flopped on my back, legs spread wide.

“Wha-what are you doing?"

“Come here, stand on top of me please." Shaking a little, Alistair moved as I instructed. “A little bit forward, left, left, down…" I made him put himself right on top of me, his shafts towering over my smaller body but perfectly lined up with his own. “Now, lower yourself slowly." He hesitated but a few strokes with my tail did the job just fine and his legs buckled, making his belly press on my own and his cocks touch mine. We hissed at the contact, all of them so hot, so sensitive and needy for anything that would make us come. His hips twitched in an attempt to buck forward but he stopped himself time and time again. “Now, grind." It was probably his instincts that made him do it, but he gave in and thrusted forward far too hard and ground me into the dirt as his cocks slid against mine, ridges on smooth flesh, slick with his copious pre.

“What is this…. Why doest it feel… so good?"

“Frotting and… it's because it just does. Now, easy and do it again." Easy for such a giant wasn't something doable, that much I learned, but this time it didn't matter: the friction of our cocks sliding next to each other over and over, his hips bucking with wild abandon, nearing a true mating, all the pre he produced splattering in between us, coating our scales and mostly me in thick layers of clear fluids. “Fassssster…" I hissed and closed my legs, trapping our members together and squeezed. Alistair howled and picked up the pace, his hips pumping back and forth faster and faster until he was but a blur of red scales and goop that wobbled over me. I opened my mouth several times to try and lick him but he was just too fast and too wild so I resorted to lick whatever was near. “Harder!" Our lust was far too much and he began to lose control, grinding down until we began to slide on the wet mossy ground, leaving a trail of broken plants and revolted dirt. I felt the air knocked out of my lungs so often every breath was precious and every moment to brace for his thrust a godsend but fuck did it feel good. Cynder was looking from the sides, her head buried between her legs, tongue lapping at her own arousal and moaning. “Now come."

Alistair howled, hissed and trashed around for long moments until he froze and then bent over, mouth agape and then came with me: his climax was nothing short of epic, a flood of white, dense, musky and salty spunk, ropes so thick and long each one took seconds to end before another one was shot out of those rods. My own orgasm was lost in his own, pitiful and weak. My mouth was full of his seed and I swallowed waves of them, feeling it bulge me out so much I couldn't bear anymore and I slumped on the ground, letting him literally shower me in hundreds upon hundreds of gallons of virile batter, turning my black scales into a white goopy mess that warmed me up. He bucked still, sending his seed high in the air with every thrust, hitting the ceiling, the walls, the plants and painting the land in pearly white. I don't know how long he lasted but at the end, I was dripping with his lust, covered from head to tail tip and suckling from his shafts the last drops of spunk. Cynder was next to me, her maw open wide and swallowing, copying me but managing to take all of his cock inside her, her throat bulging out with every bob, his ridges so swollen they could be seen stretching her scales even further when a stray pump send large dollops of seed inside her stomach.

“So… did you like it?"

“Just… let me take a breath… god, never came this hard… ever." It was almost a replay of Cynder's own epic climax, though so much more delightfully messy and warm. “Just what… is this what humans do?"

“Not all and not all the time, surely not with this much… power and intensity but, yeah, the principle is the same." I felt both of them move around me and sandwich me between them, Alistair's cocks still so painfully hard and throbbing but clearly spent. “Wait… Cynder…"

“What?"

“I came inside you!"

“Oh, right, don't worry dear, I'm not in heat and plus… you're not able to sow any eggs inside me: you're too young to have any true essence in your seed." She licked my snout and murred, swallowing a thick wad of spunk. “But it's nothing to be sad about, you'll soon come of age and then we might even try."

“Or we could find you a girl to breed. There were hundreds back in my day that wanted a piece of me, they still do but by now they are far too small, you on the other hand… you got my size but you'll be able to enjoy a few centuries of warm vents that are going to be so willing to accept your seed you'll never see the end of the tails lifting up for you." Alistair chuckled and tried to kiss Cynder but failed horribly as he had still no real idea of how to do it, still, they liked it. “And if any female hears of how good you are with your tongue, or any male, I'm sure you will become a sensation in the entire world. Never felt anything like that in my life."

“Yeah, he made me feel like when I had my first heat and mother showed me how to be mounted in front of my nest mates." Cynder giggled for a few moments. “We should do this again."

“Or maybe you'd like to try something else?" I saw their heads snap towards me with that same shocked expression. “What? You thought this was the extent of the human libido? This was but the appetizer, next I'm thinking… paw-jobs…"