by Maia Starr
“It would be my pleasure,” she said as she looked directly at Phoenix. It was then that I noticed that Phoenix’s jaw was practically on the floor as he looked at her. I guess his anger had suddenly left him.
“Come with me,” she said as she turned toward the door. Luka and Phoenix followed, but I stopped in front of the king.
“King Hydros, I still have many questions,” I said.
“That is understandable. You will get your chance to ask me in time. For now, see the village. See what the Draqua are about. There are humans about the village, and you can see for yourself if they are happy. Go,” he said to me. I sighed and followed everyone else out of the grand palace and down the spiral staircases that led to the beaches.
Once we were on the sand, I was surprised by what I saw. What I had seen from high up in the trees was only part of it. Now that we were on the beach and in the thick of the bustling activity I could see just how many that I thought were Draqua females were actually human females. They were dressed the same as the Draqua females, so it was easy to see why I had mixed it up.
“This is the beach. This is where we swim and fish and have fun,” Antaris said. It was then that I noticed a large mound moving in the water. I stopped and stared at it. Then with a burst of water, a Draqua surfaced and flew straight in the air. It was beautiful. I was jealous of what they could do. They could fly and swim fast and who knows what else. Then I realized something. “Oh, I get it!” I said out loud as they turned to look at me. I smiled a big smile proud of myself as I said, “Draqua means aqua like water and Draq like draco or dragon, so it’s water dragon.”
“Very good,” Antaris said.
“Antaris!” I heard a female voice call out. We all stood in shock as a beautiful human female bounced her way over to Antaris. She was probably thirty-eight years old or so, and she looked very happy as she held up a large shell. “Look what I found. Your father is going to love this.”
“Mother,” Antaris said. “These are humans newly arrived to Kelon.”
“Oh! Welcome! You are going to love it here. Isn’t it beautiful? Nothing on Earth can compare, right?” then she stopped and looked at Phoenix and said, “A male? That’s a first.”
“Yes, the king has asked me to show them around. I will return home for dinner,” she said as she gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and then turned to us. “Come; I will show you the center.”
Luka, Phoenix, and I all looked at each other in shock. I think we had all thought the same thing. We were thinking the human females were locked up in chains and forced to be here against their will, but that was not the case at all. As we walked with Antaris, we passed more and more human females all engaged in the daily activities. None of them showed any signs of being ill or oppressed.
“This is the center. This is where we gather for celebrations and announcements and such,” Antaris said.
“When is the next celebration?” Phoenix asked, flirting with the young Draqua female.
“A month from now. We give thanks to the planet of Kelon for providing for us every month. We are very fortunate to live in such a place and celebrating it reminds us just how grateful we should be,” she said.
“I can’t wait to see it,” Phoenix said with a grin.
“A month from now?” Luka said looking at him, but he was too much in a romantic stupor to realize that he had just said he was going to stay here for a month when we had just asked the king to take us back to Earth.
“Now I will show you the communal eating areas. You can go there any time of day and be fed. No one goes hungry here. Then I will return you to your huts,” Antaris said.
“Lead the way,” Phoenix said.
Luka looked at me and giggled at Phoenix’s sudden change.
In the communal eating areas, we had a lot of fun. There were massive outdoor kitchens, and we learned to take part in the work. I helped cut fruit. It was red and reminded me of mangos. Luka helped the women by beating a sort of flour that they created out of a ground seaweed of sorts. The scientist in me wanted to know how it was all done. I wanted to see the entire process. I wanted to see where the seaweed was harvested and how they got it into flour form. I wanted to know where this fruit was picked. Did it come from a tree, or the ground? I picked up a slice and smelled it then I ate it. It burst with flavor in my mouth. I looked over at a hybrid child that laughed at my reaction to the tartness of the fruit. I laughed too. I saw Phoenix learning to clean and cut open fish as he worked with Antaris. I could tell that he really did like her.
When we were done in the kitchens, we joined for a communal meal. It was much more satisfying to take part in making the meal because now I appreciated it more knowing all the work that went into it.
When we were done with the meal, Antaris took us somewhere I had never seen before.
“Are you sure that we are allowed to go in here?” Luka asked.
“Yes, it is fine, I assure you,” Antaris laughed.
I was concerned too. We were following Antaris away from the beach and away from the village, deep into the jungle. She was following a very narrow path.
“What is in here?” I asked.
“Everything,” she said. “This is where most of the food grows,” she said.
As soon as she said it, I perked up. I looked around and noticed all the wild fruits and vegetables that I had seen in the kitchen.
“Sometimes, if you want to help, we come in here and pick the food but you must do it and right and not overdo it. We need to leave some to grow and feed the jungle animals and keep it all alive. It is a system. You will learn. It takes training,” she said. Then she spent the next hour pointing things out to us and showing us various trails. I knew that I would not be ready to wonder off alone into this jungle any time soon. I needed to study the trail layout first.
After we walked down a very long path, I heard the rushing of water. We emerged from the trail into a clearing. “This is the emerald pool,” she said as she pointed at the stunning scenery in front of us.
There was a pool of water the color of emerald jade. The waterfall coming down the side of the cliff into the pool was small and shallow, which made it perfect for swimming.
“This is incredible!” Luka said.
“I just want to jump right in,” Phoenix said.
“Yes, please go ahead. We use this for swimming too but most Draqua prefer the ocean. This water soaks into the rocks under the ground and travels in an underground river toward the village. It is where our drinking water comes from,” Antaris said.
“Fascinating,” I said as I realized they had their own aquifer.
“Woo!” Phoenix said as he jumped into the pool. Luka giggled and then followed him in. Antaris jumped in, and I followed. The water was refreshing as it hit my skin. It did feel good to swim in some cold water after the long space journey that we had endured. We played and frolicked for quite some time.
A couple of hours later, we were all back at our huts. I looked out the window expecting Dekario to pop in at any moment. The sun was setting, and I remembered he said he would try to be back by nightfall. I wondered where he had gone. I decided to take this opportunity of being without him to run the hot water in the tub and take a long bath. I had gotten a little dirty on the path through the jungle back to the huts and I wanted to clean up.
Plunging myself deep in the water felt great. All of my muscles relaxed, and I realized that I had really needed this. I had done a lot of work in the kitchen and then sightseeing with Antaris. It was more than my muscles had done in a long time.
Boom, the loud thud startled me. I felt my hut shake a little. I grabbed a cloth and pushed it into the water over my naked body.
“Dekario…” I whispered.
The door burst open. Commander Triq stood there. My entire body quivered, and my face turned white.
“Reena, I see you have been waiting for me. You don’t need to wait anymore.”
“Get out!” I shouted at him.
“You don’t mean that. Don’t worry; once I am inside you, it will feel so good you will forget you played hard to get. Look at you lying there wet. How can I not?” he said as he came toward me.
“No! Phoenix! Luka!” I shouted at the top of my lungs over and over.
“They are in the communal area, eating. They are not up here,” he said as he came toward me.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to get out of the tub. I thought it would be harder for him to get a hold of me in the bath. I screamed, “Get away from me, you pig!”
But it didn’t work. He hovered over me as I trembled in the tub screaming. His smile was menacing. He plunged his hand into the water and caressed my leg. I jerked it away from him. “Get away from me!”
BAM! The front door burst open as though a large gust of wind had hit it.
“Get the fuck away from her!” a booming voice shouted.
Wham! Commander Triq was thrown across the room by an invisible force. He hit the wall hard. I looked at the door to see Dekario standing there. His wings were spread wide behind him, and he was staring down Commander Triq with eyes that seemed to be glowing a light brown. I didn’t know what was happening, but I was glad that he was there. I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I was more than happy to see him at that moment. I felt safe.
“What do you think you are doing?!” Dekario shouted.
Commander Triq stood up from the ground and growled at Dekario. I knew he was about to shift. I didn’t think the hut would be able to hold him if he did. I remembered how large the black dragon was.
“Don’t do it,” Dekario said as his head jerked up, and as he did, Commander Triq was raised off the floor. He was floating in the air. I couldn’t believe it. It was then that I realized that Dekario was doing this.
“I’ll pull you out that window and drop you down to the ground before you can shift. Now get out!” Dekario said as he walked in a circle inside the hut, never turning his back to Commander Triq. Commander Triq floated in the air inside Dekario’s force field toward the door. He was finally set down on the platform just outside the door. Then… bam. The door shut and locked.
I was in the tub with my mouth wide open. I could not believe that this had just happened. I truly was in an alien world with these strange alien dragon men that had all kinds of mystical powers. It was a lot to wrap my head around. Yet one thing kept interrupting my science logic, and that was that I was completely turned on by Dekario’s rescue. He was so damn attractive to me at that moment. I never thought I would enjoy being the damsel in distress, but now that I was rescued, it was a heady feeling. It filled me with desire, lust, and passion for this dragon being.
“Did he hurt you? I will kill him,” he said as he moved over to me and knelt down beside me.
It was then that I could no longer hold back my feelings and the floodgates opened. I cried. I put my face in my hands, embarrassed that I was not being strong, but I couldn’t help it.
“He didn’t physically hurt me. But he scared me. I really thought he was going to… I mean he wanted to…”
“Shh… it’s going to be all right now. He’s gone,” Dekario said as he put his arms behind my wet back and pulled me against his chest. The moment he did it, I felt a sense of safety. I relaxed against him and cried as he moved his hand up and down my back. The thin piece of cloth was still stuck to my body, but I knew that it didn’t cover anything. I was naked against him, and it was a confusing mix of emotions. I felt turned on beyond anything but also still in fear of the encounter with Commander Triq. It was a lot to deal with after dealing with drifting in space aimlessly, then crashing, then losing my crewmates in such a brutal way, and then learning about these alien beings. It had all built up inside of me to this moment of release, and I needed to release.
“He will never hurt you again. I promise you that,” he whispered to me as he pressed his lips against the top of my head in a gentle way.
“Promise?” I whispered back.
“Yes. I promise on my honor as a Draqua,” he said. “You are shaking. Come on; let’s get you out of there,” he said as he let me go and stood up. He moved to the cabinet shelves on the wall and grabbed a bright yellow cloth. He handed it to me as I clung onto the wet cloth trying to cover my body.
“Turn around,” I said as I grabbed the cloth from his hand. He grinned and then turned around. I stood up, and the sound of the movement of water was joined by the sound of Dekario letting out a small moan and a sigh.
“This is torture, Reena,” he said playfully.
“Then you will just have to be tortured,” I said as I stepped out of the tub and wrapped the cloth around me. “Okay, you can turn around,” I said.
He turned and looked at me up and down. I knew the wet cloth sticking to me wasn’t much of a cover up and I was dripping wet.
“That really isn’t much difference, thankfully,” he said with a grin.
“Dekario!” I said as I crossed my arm over my breasts. He cleared his throat and said, “Right, I will leave you now, or I won’t be able to not kiss you,” he said, moving toward the door.
His leaving left me in panic. “Wait!”
“What, Reena?” he said as he turned to me.
“Don’t go. I don’t want to be alone. What if he comes back? I can’t possibly sleep.” I said stepping to him.
“You don’t want me to go?” he said arching an eyebrow.
“No, I don’t. I want you to stay here. Please…” I said as I moved an inch from him. I couldn’t’ stop myself. I had no control whatsoever over my body. It was on autopilot all of a sudden. He groaned. I pressed my palms against his chest and ran my fingers lightly over his scale pattern.
“If you touch me like that…”
“You’ll kiss me?” I asked as I turned my mouth up to his.
“Yes,” he said with a thick sound to his voice. He leaned down from his tall height and pressed his lips to mine.
“Mmm…” I whimpered into his mouth. Dekario’s mouth opened and I opened mine in response. His tongue slipped onto mine softly and gently, and I welcomed it. I was on fire. My whole body was full of this energy that I was receiving from him. It was joy. It was passion. It was lust. I was following my instincts, my womanly instincts to be with this dragon and experience it to the fullest possible extent.
I got up on my tiptoes and put my arms around Dekario’s neck, brushing against his long black hair. As I did so, the cloth fell from my body. I pressed my naked, damp body against his and he groaned. He pulled my mouth from his and pulled my arms from his neck. I was shocked by this. Was he going to reject me? He stepped back away from me.
I gasped. He couldn’t leave now. I wanted him. I was too far gone in lust to stop now.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“I just want to look at you,” Dekario said.
“Oh,” I said, as I stood there vulnerable and naked. He stared at my feet, and I wrinkled my toes up, feeling very exposed. Dekario’s eyes moved up my calves, over my knees, and to my thighs. His gaze lingered between my thighs, and my breathing grew heavier. Then his eyes moved up over my belly to my breasts. Dekario bit his bottom lip as he stared at my ample breasts. I liked this sign of approval from him. It was only turning me on more. Then Dekario’s eyes locked with mine and he said, “Come here.”
I moved to him. Then he held his hand up and said, “Wait. Wait there while I shift back.”
“No!” I blurted out.
“You want me to stay like this, in dragon form?” he arched an eyebrow at me.
“Yes, I do. Is that okay?” I asked as I moved to him and ran my hands over his toned abs.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.
“You won’t. We will be careful,” I whispered. Then I couldn’t help myself anymore. I pressed my lips against Dekario’s toned stomach. He moaned as I did so. Dekario put his hand on top of my head, running his fingers through my hair. I placed soft kisses over his long
torso. There was a little bit of dark curls going from his belly button down into his waistband. I licked over it up and down. “Fuck…” he whispered.
Then I moved up his body and placed my arms around his neck again and reached up for him to kiss me. Dekario put his hands on my bottom and picked me up. I wrapped my legs around him, and he carried me to the bed. He laid me down on it very softly. He kissed my breasts and I moaned and wiggled on top of the mattress. His mouth pursed over my nipple as he sucked on it, pulling it into his mouth. I thought I would explode in orgasmic pleasure right then and there. Then his tongue flicked at it. Then he moved over to the other breast and did the same thing while his large hand wrapped around the side of my body. His hand was hot, and my skin where his hand met my side was tingling.