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Chapter description: When the humans require additional convincing that the two newly settled dragons follow the recently forged agreement, Sarathra's eagerness to prove herself up to the challenge reveals an additional clue about her mysterious past, one that makes Surodar uneasy.

All the characters featured in this story are original characters that I have specifically created for the purpose of the story.

***A (Fe)male dragon's woes chapter 4: Black Dragon***

Surodar didn’t remember sleeping or ruminating over his tangled situation; only that, at some point in the night, his mate’s gentle fangs enclosed around his throat and added enough pressure to rouse him to attention.

“Grrah!” He growled in protest, lashing out with his forepaws to grab hold of her intrusive neck, claws tightening against her scales for a brief moment before they fled back into their sheaths. In his groggy state, all he could muster was an apologetical whine, which Sarathra responded to with an equally frail and timid sound.

“The last thing I want is to disturb you while you’re so quiet and peaceful, but we’re no longer alone.”

Surodar nuzzled her reassuringly after she let go of him, but the female turned from him, soft wrinkles marring the surface of her obsidian colored snout. She was his mate, his beloved, whose only guilt was that she ate human property and chose a false dragon for a mate. She deserved better than a coward who inadvertently manipulated her, all so that he could avoid the inevitable confrontation for just a day longer, until he was prepared.

“The same human from before approaches. The one that took you from me,” she said, as if she intimately understood all those thoughts that he never wished her to be privy to.

Surodar’s jaws tensed in effort to remain closed and avoid sinking ever deeper into this pit of mistrust, but fortunately, she said no more on this matter, preferring to lick the soreness from Surodar’s scales. After she atoned for the less than pleasant way in which she woke him, Sarathra’s head slumped back over his forelegs, her graceful form curling around him protectively, an outstretched wing draping over him like a blanket.

He didn’t take me. I chose to go, Surodar intended to clarify this misunderstanding, but the words faltered in his throat. After a few seconds spent in Sarathra’s loving embrace, they were washed away by his satisfied thrum of resting in the embrace of his dragoness, suddenly unimportant. Six nights had he been enclosed in this most fulfilling of sanctuaries, and yet, it still felt as mystifying as it did during their first day together. Every day they mated, and every night they fell in love all over again, her devotion to him preventing Surodar from whispering the slightest droplet of truth to her. Why would he risk damaging something so perfect? How could he even picture a life beyond this?

Surodar’s gut twisted at the mere notion of this, but Naya…Naya had to consider what happened next. She had to improve, adapt, and overcome her complicated situation, lest everything she cared about turned against her.

Sarathra’s hind paws clenched tighter around his as if sensing his unrest, her longer toes capable of a surprisingly fulfilling grip. Her snout traveled up his throat until she found his jaw, placing a slow, long lick across its length.

“Remain where you are. Let him come to us, like the servant he is. It’s why we rest where he has initially found us, after all, so that we can be disturbed whenever he pleases.”

Surodar brought a wing around Sarathra’s head to both cover and silence her, an initiative that the dragoness met with a joyful purr at being secluded from such dull affairs. She had it right; he did deceive her into abandoning her favorite sleeping spot by the river, convincing her to return to the fringes of the forest where other humans could inform the sergeant of their location.

And all because he had never found a way to sneak out of her clutch and resolve matters with Garen himself.

“Didn’t know you dragons sleep like cats, all bundled up into each other. Quite the endearing sight.”

Surodar intended to greet the human, but Sarathra wove her way past his wing to glare at him. “We intend to keep sleeping, so be quick about it.”

She took macabre interest in his outfit, all leather and wool and cotton through which her fangs and claws could pierce without much trouble. When she spotted no sword resting at his side, her head lowered on top of Surodar’s forepaws to prevent him from getting up, hind toes curling tighter around his soft, padded ones to get her point across.

That she truly intended to sleep throughout this conversation which she only entertained for the sake of her mate.

As if to test her mettle, Garen stepped in front of her head, close enough that her breath rolled over his breeches and stirred the fur of his cufflinks.

“What if I’m here because of her, in part? Should I speak to you, or to her?”

One of Sarathra’s eyes cracked open, surprising the sergeant. “Then that is the part you start with.”

“I…was hoping otherwise, but I’m not about to disrespect the wishes of a sleepy dragon who so carefully studied me,” Garen said while scratching at the stubble of his chin, his other hand clenching and relaxing in frustration. “There is this bandit encampment that I—or more accurately put, the person I represent—expects you to make quick work of. We don’t have your paw print, and there are those in privileged positions—including the person I represent—that demanded proof of your newly forged alliance with our town.”

Sarathra scoffed, her eyes closing in disinterest. “You have enough proof. You’re not the only settlement of humans I’ve lived together with, so I know which of you to kill and which to stay away from. Otherwise, I’d either be gone or dead, along with my mate and all the wyverns and their riders you’d set upon us.”

An ominous shiver crept through Surodar, brought about by his mate’s nonchalance in dealing with such perilous matters. Garen fretted as well, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, looking any other way but at Sarathra to hide his discontentment from her. as if she could somehow spot it through her shuttered eyelids.

“That is true. No doubt about it. However…”

“Everything you say before ‘however’ doesn’t count,” Surodar cut in, surprising all three of them in the process. Garen quirked an eyebrow at the familiarity of a line he often employed with Naya, while Sarathra perked her head in interest at the sudden turn of events. She did not expect Surodar, a human sympathizer and advocate, to speak against their emissary, let alone demean him.

“Get to the point, so that we either go do your bidding or return to sleep,” Surodar continued despite the nerves roiling in his gut. “But know that the person you represent has given me his word on the matter of my paw print. If he changed his mind about the benefits that my mate should enjoy, then the three of us will fly into town to settle the necessary formalities right now.”

The sergeant chuckled uneasily, a wry smile forming on his meaty lips. “What would I hold onto?”

“Whatever you can,” Surodar said, rubbing his snout against Sarathra’s, her purr strangely empowering. Unlike her, Surodar did not enjoy watching Garen squirm on another’s behalf. In the civilized society, everybody answered to someone, and Naya had done her share of distasteful tasks to keep her lands, preserve her homestead, maintain her lifestyle, and care for those in her charge.

“I am not the one that needs to be convinced, for I’ve seen the aftermath of your capabilities firsthand,” he finally said, covering the short distance between himself and Sarathra so that he could caress the top of her snout. “After an enlightening first encounter, my admiration for you has increased a great deal, Sarathra. You are not the kind of dragon I expected, for you are the rare sort whose words match your deeds. No evidence gathered by me and my men involve the burning and mauling of innocents, but the less…enlightened ones among my people care little about facts. They prefer to see you as a dragon, any dragon, rather than Sarathra, and that poses issues.”

The dragoness shook herself free of Garen’s hands to cock her head. “There is only one of me.”

“Yes, there is…” The sergeant’s great sigh stirred Surodar’s sympathy, for Naya understood firsthand how it felt to be branded as a troublemaker on the account of one’s species or abilities, like in her case.

“But many of my people don’t know your name. They haven’t seen the color of your eyes, nor heard your subtle purr or touched your exquisite scales. You are just a black dragon to them, built from hearsay and embellished by a less than peaceful history between our kinds. The same children who wished to touch your mate are now being scolded for their curiosity, and the paw print that he gave us will only keep the mayor placated for so long.”

“What do you want me to do?” Surodar sought to pounce on the opportunity of solving this matter himself, but Garen looked to the side in shame, and Sarathra hissed in protest at having choice stripped from her.

“Not you, me,” she said, collecting her limbs underneath her to trudge forward, her wing falling over Surodar to blot him out from this discussion. “It is I who he distrusts. I whose achievements are being overlooked, and I who shall remedy this misunderstanding sprouted from our new pact.”

“I don’t distrust you!” Garen snapped, his gruff voice sending icy tendrils down Surodar’s spine. His hind paws now free, he tried to wriggle his way out from under Sarathra’s wing, but she wove her body and maneuvered her wing so skillfully he had no choice but to stay put, lest he embarrassed himself in front of both mate and former friend.

“I…respect you, more than my words can express at the moment,” he continued, surprised that Sarathra didn’t incinerate him on the spot for raising his tone with her. “And I wish for nothing more than to have this respect extend to the others who doubt your prowess. Burn those bandits in their tents. Maul the stragglers. Do whatever you feel like doing to those outlaws, and my superiors will have no need of your paw print when your mark will be a sight so gruesome not even they dare see.”

“Do they hold prisoners? Should I bother with the cowards? If they are camped inside a forest or near one of your fields, is wild fire a risk that might bother you?”

Surodar’s breath stilled while listening to Sarathra’s morbid questions, her even, nonchalant voice unnerving, almost intimidating. How often had she done this? Enough for human lives to become currency in her eyes? Repugnant as outlaws might be, some of them committed crimes as petty as employing the wrong words or tone with their lords, their entire world turn upside down by an almost insignificant folly.

Not my concern. It doesn’t involve me. I don’t know them, and they don’t know me. We don’t exist to one another, Surodar repeated the same mantra that had served Naya well during her commissions from people far less honorable than Garen. If he intended to have that group executed, he must’ve already familiarized himself with the crime of every person in that party, a solace that Surodar clung onto with every fiber of his being.

“They’re not the sort to take prisoners, this lot. They’re hold up in an abandoned pig farm lodged between two hills east of here. You should easily spot the ruined watchtowers perched atop each hill, and if you notice the flicker of a flame, know that it isn’t one of ours. I advise that you burn the big lodge first. It’s where most of them ought to be. The rest is like hunting deer, I suppose.”

“Deer are quicker and wilier, preferring the safety of the forest. You humans are slow, arrogant, and too confident while holding a bow or crossbow, as if your tiny sticks can ever hope to pierce my scales.”

Sarathra folded her wings, then pushed herself up and walked away from Surodar to deny him the chance of lessening her resolve through licks and nuzzles. “I spring human traps for my pleasure, so if you don’t succeed in getting rid of me, know that I’ll return to get my new territory rid of all of you.”

Without even chancing Surodar a look, Sarathra broke into a dash to gain momentum and launched herself into the air, circling the grounded dragon and human once before changing her course according to Garen’s instructions.

***End of chapter 4***

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