by Lucas, Naomi
I’ve never seen anything like it. Was it doing the same to the campfire?
The boulder drops, and I’m barely aware of it. Drazak falls to his knees in a huff as it crashes down, grinding the stones beneath, building momentum as it falls. I put my arm under his arm, helping him stand.
Sunlight is bathing us.
We’re free.
We’re free because of Drazak.
There would be no way I could have moved that boulder by myself, and I realize those scratches could have been mine… In another life.
There is silence as the boulder and other tumbling rocks come to a stop. Silence as we stare into the light. It’s painful.
Drazak pulls me into him and presses his face to the top of my head. I hear something move behind me, and Drazak stiffens. I look up just as the naga slithers by, sneaking past us and out of the cave. He disappears into the bright light beyond.
16
Drazak’s New World
Milaye takes my hand, and we leave the cave together. It is not an easy thing to do. The sunlight burns my eyes—hers too, I have noticed—and we are forced to go slow.
Adjusting takes a long time. And strangely, my eyes shift before hers. We pause and she sits on a rock next to me, continuously rubbing her eyes and blinking tears. I watch her curiously.
She is different in the light. All the colors I have not seen in ages return fast and swift, blazing my head with stimuli. I see them for the first time again on Milaye’s clothes, her skin, her hair. The jungle goes ignored as I feast on the sight of my mate. Have I ever seen hair so black? Skin so golden and sun-kissed? And her clothes… They are adorned with shells and feathers, details I failed to notice before, each a splash of Venys I have long forgotten.
She is radiant.
She grumbles and peeks at me through her fingers. I smell fresh tears.
“It hurts,” she whines.
‘Humans don’t belong in the dark.’ Her words come back to me. I brush my fingers through a strand of her hair. “It will get better. I can always lick them?” I tease.
“Ugh.” She turns away and rubs at her eyes again. “No thank you. Just be on the lookout since, apparently, you can see perfectly,” she says with a little annoyance I don’t miss.
I peer down at her hair in my hand. Has her hair always been this long? Has it always been this soft? I played with it for hours when she slept, but that now seems like an eternity ago.
There are other things I discover as well. Things I do not care for…
My human’s skin is marred and dirty. There are bruises and scratches all over her. Even though I have mouthed her much recently, I have failed to cover her everywhere. I will have to remedy that soon. Also, there is a tired, shrunken appearance to her that does not look right. Like she is sickly, wasting away… perhaps starving.
I am hungry, and if I am hungry, she must be famished.
I cannot have this. Seeing her like this—not realizing how bad it was before—I am angry. Angry at myself that I wanted to keep her locked away in my den, a place where she would have surely gotten worse. My hand fists at my side. I need to fix this.
Now.
I take in my surroundings. Trees rise up all around us, large and blindingly green. Vines hang like unfallen tears, and above, I find that I do not see the sky, not entirely. Whatever sunlight that reaches us comes through a maze of branches. Flowers are sprouting from trunks, and colorful critters flying throughout. I do not recognize anything. Even the trees…
Everything has changed since I last flew through these lands.
Or perhaps it is the perspective.
Noises bombard my ears, coming from every direction. Smells too. It is almost too much, and I shake my head, trying to rid my senses of the clutter. But when I stop, this new world remains.
I sense animals watching us. I sense their fear—they know what I am, what I was. Venys remembers those that rule the land and skies, even if they have not ruled in many years.
Milaye grumbles with annoyance, unaware of my thoughts.
She knows this new world, she is a huntress, my huntress. She will teach me new knowledge to replace what I have lost. But first, she needs to eat, to bathe, to heal.
I stand and scoop her into my arms.
“What are you doing?”
I venture into the jungle. “Making this right.”
She falls silent as she settles against me. My huntress, it is my turn to lead.
The idea of her leading now and again is growing on me. Though I will always be her alpha. The alpha. If humans do not have them, they will now. It is all I know.
We walk for a time, I keep holding her in my embrace, using my tails to clear a path for us. After a time, her eyes open, widening to more than mere slivers.
“You can let me down,” she murmurs. “Do you know where we’re going?”
I shake my head and continue on.
Because I hear water, and I head for that. Through giant leaves, a brook appears. Pink flowers are floating over it. I stop at the edge and dip my tails into it, swiping the flowers aside.
Crystal clear, shallow water opens up to us. Besides some frogs and small fish, nothing hides beneath the flowers. I set my female down and step into the water to make certain that no creatures are lurking, clearing the rest of the flowers out as I do. “It is safe,” I say, turning to my mate.
She is already crouching at the edge gulping water from her cupped hands.
I cock my head. Humans are strange. They do not have long tongues to bring water to their mouths—or snouts to take in swallows.
She looks at me over her hands. Rivulets of water slice down her skin and through her fingers. My shaft rises, fills with fresh seed, and starts to ache.
I need her. Now.
I stride to her and stand poised. Her gaze falls on my prick. Her throat bobs.
“I need you. We have left the cave like you asked. Now I will claim you for my payment.”
Milaye’s dark eyes widen, still glistening from her tears adjusting to the light. I tense, liking the way she looks a little too much, liking that her neck strains to meet my gaze so high above hers. I cup her nape. It is warm under my palm.
A human’s palm. Not something I ever had as a beast.
I can smell myself all over her. My seed still marks her legs. I see its trails on her calves.
“Now, female,” I whisper.
“Milaye,” she whispers back, correcting me.
Her obstinance makes me want her more. “Now.” I pull her toward me and bring her into the water. She gasps, the sound music to my ears.
“Cold!” She tenses in my hold.
“I will make you warm,” I promise her as I lower myself into the water as well. The brook is not that deep, and sitting on our shins, the water only reaches our waists. Gripping her shirt covering, I untie the strings holding it on her.
Milaye catches it and tosses it on the bank. “Yes,” she agrees a little breathlessly. Her nipples are hard and pointed, and for the first time, I see the way the colors contrast against her breasts. There is such vibrancy to this world.
I have noticed her staring at me too, now that her sight has returned. Her eyes trailed my face a hundred times. They trailed my chest and shoulders even more. She is seeing me under sunlight for the first time, as I have her.
I enjoyed her marveling at my new form.
I feel strong in this body. Strength attracts females. I must be appealing as a male of her kind. At least I hope so. It would make it easier to keep her—and it would deter any other males from stealing her away… Whether those males existed or not… What matters is that I am strong and she is mine. Taking her hips into my hands, I want to prove my point.
I pull her onto my lap.
She is sweet and submissive in my grasp, allowing me to move her where I want her. The submissive female I need. But then she twists, shifting our orientation, and I enjoy how she pays me for allowing her to take control.
Her l
egs straddle me as I think this. What an interesting position. My shaft falls on her belly between us. She shifts closer, trapping it between our bodies. The view of it against her lithe stomach proves my strength. Pleasure blazes.
It is hard to believe the pleasure I receive from mating her. It is beyond… beyond anything I have experienced. Dragons do not have the means to experience such pleasure. Mating is done only for the sake of younglings. I pity what I was now. I pity it greatly.
Squeezing Milaye’s cushiony hips in my hands, I enjoy being a human even more. I glance down at my steely cock. Milaye’s hand slips between us. My tip rises above the water, and her palm comes down to greet it, cupping it firmly in her grip. I grit my teeth with a groan.
Divine torture. She squeezes my prick’s head and slides her hand down my length. My whole body stiffens, ready to ejaculate everything I have to give. Yet I hold myself back. My seed belongs in her, not on her chest. Though the image of the alternative tightens my sacks.
“You kill me,” I rasp. Her tight hand slides up, back down.
“Dragon, when you need me, I need you.” Her voice is dusky and sweet to my ears. She rises on her knees, still holding my shaft. My grip on her strengthens.
“You are not allowed to leave—” But her body positions over my root and lowers.
“I’m not leaving,” she says, sliding down onto me.
I throw my head back, bellowing in ecstasy. I was not expecting her to mount me. I am thrilled, my shaft pulses and widens. Her deep sheath grasps me like it is starving for me, for my seed. She whimpers, and at the sound, my nails bite into her dripping flesh. She tries to rise, but I hold her seated.
Her brow furrows, teeth pressing into her lower lip.
She settles back down, taking me in lovingly.
Her sheath quivers and clenches. With each little movement, my seed threatens to erupt. Desperate for distraction, I caress the ends of my tails up and down her back. I do not want this bliss to end.
“I will always be inside you,” I groan, telling her like it is.
I jerk my hips side to side, urging her to widen so my cock may expand with seed.
She twitches and drops her head on my chest. Her eyes squeeze shut. But she takes it. I jerk again, and she cries out.
“So big. Too big!”
“Not for you, sweet human.” But I give her time to relax.
When she does, the moment her rigid body loosens, I move. Thrusting my hips up, I hold her on to me. She drops her head back and moans, her soft mounds bouncing slightly. The sight drives me wild.
Pummeling we rut, our tempo increasing, our need building. Neither of us is watching for predators, and the thought of the risk makes my adrenaline race. I almost want something to attack us, almost want to drown in bloodlust just as my mating heat takes over. I can taste it, blood, meat, and rutting all at once.
And with the illusion, my primal dragonhood seizes me.
I slam into her. She holds onto me tight. The higher I thrust up, the more I need her sheath to squeeze me. Crazed, I stand, lifting her with me, rocking back and forth violently. I sense her nearing that moment when she will strangle me, just like I need her too. I hear it in her heightening moans.
Then she does, tightening and constricting my shaft. Darkness rushes through me. My jewel cools, and my thrusting stops. Her body dances on me as I hold her on my prick. Seed shoots out, and I roar.
When I am certain I have scared every animal within a mile of us, I drop back into the water, taking Milaye with me.
She rests against me, shaking.
Pride surges through me because I know, I know that she has finally, completely taken my seed in a way that bears fruit. I feel my body’s darkness swirling inside her.
I run my hands up her back and tangle them into her hair. “You are pregnant.”
She holds onto me tighter. “Thank you for telling me,” she whispers. She pulls back to look at me. “You have given me the greatest gift.”
I lean down and place my lips on hers. “And you have given me the same.”
I am in no rush to leave, and the light gets brighter in the sky as time passes. She shows me how pleased and excited she is to be carrying my young. I preen at her affection. Her glowing warmth seeps into me, putting my dark crystal to work.
We make the most of the stream and bathe ourselves. I enjoy the newest pleasure of exploring every inch of my female as she lets me take the lead. By the end, there is no place on her body that I have not touched, or have not licked. And I lick thoroughly, especially between her legs. My tongue tastes her at her pure source, where her delicious arousal comes from, and I drink her down. My mate’s human nectar is now my favorite flavor.
But I also lick all of her scratches, all of her bruises. Though the bruises are harder to heal, I manage to close her scrapes. When I am done, Milaye is draped half on the bank, half in the water, spread out and watching me with a relaxed softness, an ease that I did not know she possessed. It is a look I like on her.
“Beautiful,” I say, climbing on top of her.
She smiles up at me and grasps my larger set of horns. Her legs come around my hips, and I slide back inside her.
By early evening, Milaye is dressing, and there is nothing I can do to stop her. Besides the excursion to find food—where I caught a cockatrice wandering the bank with my hands, snapping its neck to my human’s shock—we have rutted and enjoyed each other for most of the day. There was only the small hurdle of how to treat the cockatrice’s corpse. Milaye demanded it be cooked by fire, and I insisted we eat it raw.
In the end, my human won.
But she is dressing now, and I would rather have her bare. Always bare for me and my pleasure. I reach for her. She slips away. “I am not done with you, female.”
Though I know she is pregnant, my cock still remains full with fresh seed to spend inside her.
“We can’t waste any more time. Night will fall soon, and we need to head home. If we’re anywhere by the first cave entrance, then we reach my tribe before full dark.” She doesn’t mention Haime, but I know it is on her mind.
“I am your tribe now, Milaye,” I tell her. I need her to know that. “A femdragon does not remain with her nest, when she is grown, she leaves.” I sigh, closing my eyes a moment to consider. “But I know that is not what human females do.” I do not want her to go back to her tribe, I do not want her to find out whether Haime is okay or not, because if she is not… it would sadden my female, and I do not think I can bear to see her so. But I also know that I will never be able to keep her from going home. Our home, now. I shake my head, open my eyes, and catch her gaze. “We shall make our way there.”
The hardness in her face softens. “You will like it there, Drazak. My tribemates are good, strong people.” She rips a leaf from the large plant behind her. I follow her out of the water. I take the large leaf she hands me and I wrap it around my middle. The other wrap remains in the cave where I left it. I do not think we will be returning for it.
“All water leads to the Mermaid Sea,” she says. “If we follow the creak, it’ll lead us to the shore, and from the shore, we follow it home.”
Home. Despite my attempts to the contrary, the destination bothers me. I will not like where she lives because she lives near others, despite what she says. I am a lone creature for these past many years, and all I want is Milaye with me, no one or nothing else. I did not choose this piece of me, but a long-dead poison dragon did. I have been alone for so long… even before I fell, life as a healthy dragon is still lonely. And it is all I know. All I thought I would ever know.
She senses this from me but does not know how to respond. Would I if I were her?
Part of me wants to grab my mate and steal her away. Take her somewhere far from here. But that will cause much strife between us, and the more I am in her presence, the more I understand I will never control her. I could try to run away with her, but she would never let me get far. My beautiful human needs no one to s
urvive. Even now, she picks out a hefty stick from the low-hanging branches to use as a walker—and a weapon.
I nod when she faces me. I find my own branch.
She is smart to arm herself.
Milaye nods back. She starts to follow the creak. I rumble, moving ahead of her. “I will go first.”
She shakes her head and smiles.
Her smile gives me hope. Hope that this new world will accept me into it. If only I can accept it first.
17
Not as Planned
Something is off about Drazak. His crystal stopped creating smoke. My eyes stray to his back and trace the rigidity of his muscles as we make our way out of the jungle. There’s a tightness that wasn’t there before…or perhaps I just never noticed the strain while in the cave.
My lips part to ask, but then promptly shut. I know what’s wrong. My chest constricts with it, my belly twists.
‘A femdragon does not remain with her nest, when she is grown, she leaves.’
I focus on my surroundings instead. My enhanced senses are still odd and colors blast my eyes while sounds from a myriad of creatures sing in my ears. There is no darkness anywhere around us but for a few mild shadows. Night is still a ways off. I love it. I love being in the light again. Little bites from insects itch my skin, and I don’t mind, and more scents than I can name bloom the air. I don’t know why, but it all seems so new to me. It shouldn’t be new; I have been in this jungle all my life.
My gaze drops to Drazak’s tense back again. I can’t imagine what this is all like for him.
What being human is like for him.
How many days were we in the cave? How long ago was it that he could barely move? We escaped the cave near morning. I gathered that from the length of the day so far, but beyond that… the unchanging chilly darkness of the cave obscures time. We could have been there from anywhere to three to five days.
I think.
I don’t know how long I was unconscious, nor how long I slept. How long ago was it that Drazak couldn’t even move? Could barely speak? He’s only been human for days.