by Eric Vall
Deya snorted a shower of sparks from her snout that made my brows shoot straight up at the sight, but then the dragon suddenly turned full circle, and Aurora and I stumbled back as the poison-tipped tail flicked by. Then Deya was stomping against the ground and dipping her head low in front of us, and I furrowed my brow when the dragon kept doing this several times with its tail flicking back and forth.
“Is this some sort of dragon language?” I hollered above the noise of her thudding and snarls, but I narrowed my eyes as something about the look in her violet eyes struck me as familiar. Then I propped my hands on my hips while I considered the way the dragon was moving. “Wait a minute. Are you … flirting with me?”
“She is!” Aurora exclaimed as she pointed to the dragon’s scaly haunches. “Look, she’s wiggling her butt at you!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I sighed, but Aurora laughed with giddy approval. “Don’t do that … I’m not remotely into dragons, Deya, this is just not necessary.”
Now, Deya snorted deep blue flames from her blackened snout, and she abruptly stopped wiggling.
“Hey, now,” I chuckled, “I’m very impressed, okay? You’re an awesome dragon, and the spikes on your chin are super off-putting. I just happen to prefer your real ass over this one. That’s all.”
“Well, I think you’re a very sassy dragon,” Aurora assured her. “You wiggle any way you want, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s cute!”
I rolled my eyes as the dragon shifted to stand closer to Aurora, and the fact the two were literally siding with each other over ass wagging left me with no words on the matter. Especially since one of them had her poisonous tail twitching threateningly behind her.
“That’s cool,” I said with a shrug. “I’ll wait here while you wiggle, and the baby dragons can slowly die of starvation in their cold little nests. Unless the other dragons eat them as appetizers. That seems more likely.”
The sad little screech the dragon let out at my words matched Aurora’s look of horror perfectly, but I still couldn’t help chuckling at the pair of them.
“What?” I snorted. “I’m here, aren’t I? Ready when you are. Let’s get this done.”
“Okay, but don’t talk about the baby dragons like that,” Aurora mumbled as she sent me a sad pout, and the dragon screeched pitifully in support.
“Just get on the dragon,” I sighed.
Which was something I never thought I’d say, but it felt really good.
“Do you think they’re being eaten?” the half-elf asked anxiously, and the look in her eyes made my heart clench.
“No,” I lied. “I was just joking. The baby dragons are probably cuddling or something. Trying to stay warm, play fighting, that kind of thing. They’re patiently waiting for us to save their parents.”
Aurora nodded even though her brows stayed crinkled with concern, and I came over to pull her into my arms, but I was really just getting a grip on her waist in the process. When the half-elf moved to hug me, I promptly hoisted her up to shimmy her onto the dragon’s back instead, and she yelped as she clung in a splayed position to the jet black scales.
Then Aurora’s grin stretched from ear to ear as she worked to straighten up, and she stared down at the thick knot of muscles under her palms.
“I’m sitting on a dragon!” Aurora announced in disbelief, and I braced my boot on the crook of a wing to climb up behind her.
Then I wedged the half-elf’s ass between my legs, and the warmth of the scales seeped through my clothes in a way I definitely didn’t mind as my hands slid to Aurora’s thighs.
“Hell, yeah, you are,” I said with a grin. “You ready to fly on one?”
Whatever Aurora said sounded like a whole lot of giggles to me, and I patted Deya’s scales to let her know we were ready.
Then the dragon crouched as her muscles swelled underneath us, and the moment I realized how much power was under me, my adrenaline shot up, and I finally questioned what the hell I was thinking when I agreed to fly on a dragon.
There was no way to keep us restrained, a dragon was nothing like an airliner, Deya had never tried to carry anyone before, and I even hated roller coasters when I was a kid.
Before I could bail on the idea, though, Deya lurched upward, and her wings beat so hard, dirt and leaves billowed around us as Aurora and I pitched forward and squinted through the fray.
My guts felt like they were about to plummet straight through me as my heart pounded wildly in my chest, but the fact that my healing rune was steadily growing louder was what made me more terrified than anything.
Unfortunately, Deya was already gaining altitude now as she rose above the tops of the trees, and as soon as she had some clearance ahead of her, I felt the muscles in her shoulders roll as she gave a sturdy pump of her wings to propel us straight over Falmount Rift.
“Hooooly fuck!” I bellowed, and I grabbed Aurora so tight, she wheezed in protest.
Chapter 18
“Mason, you’re gonna miss it!” Aurora yelled above the noise of the wind rushing over us, and she let out an ecstatic laugh for good measure.
I didn’t open my eyes, though, because I honestly didn’t want to see how high up we were. Every flap of Deya’s enormous wings caused us to rise and then plummet a few degrees where we sat, and the jarring sensation was enough to convince me I was about to drop straight to the ground at any second. So, the exact height of that drop was not something I needed to be aware of at the moment. All that mattered was I needed to keep a firm hold on Aurora and do my best not to puke all over her.
“Mason, look!” Aurora insisted.
“Fuck that!” I hollered back. “I’ll look when we’ve landed.”
“But your fleet of snatchers look so awesome from up here!”
This did manage to bring me around from my crippling fear, and I pried one eye open.
The treetops were a golden blur while we flew over the foothills at an alarming rate, and my breaths came fast and shallow as I tentatively opened the other eye and forced myself to look down. I could see Temin’s castle rising up from the edge of Serin while the sun burned amber at our backs, and not far behind the bounds of the capital, my three automatons were barreling through the woods at top speed.
The light of their gems cast an ominous glow across the forest floor, and they looked like a giant, metal force to be reckoned with while they maneuvered around trees and boulders with tight precision.
I couldn’t help chuckling with pride despite my shaky nerves, and as I scanned the rest of my surroundings, I realized the ride was actually pretty smooth. Deya flew as gracefully as she ran, like it was second nature to her, and even though her sinewy body rolled with every beat of her wings, she kept us steady without tipping side to side at all.
From up here, I could see the mountains of Orebane rising up for miles and miles to the north while all of Illaria stretched toward the southern horizon, and the setting sun cast a golden hue across everything in sight. The chill of the wind at this altitude bit at by hands and face, but the warmth radiating from the dragon’s scales heated me straight through as I kept a firm hold on Aurora’s waist, and my breaths gradually evened out as the sheer awesomeness of the situation overrode my fear for my life.
“We’re on a fucking dragon!” I shouted as a slightly hysterical laugh escaped me, and Aurora sent me a fearless grin over her shoulder.
Then the half-elf threw her head back and let out a whooping scream of sheer joy, and Deya joined in with a thunderous roar that vibrated through every inch of me until my teeth were chattering.
I was beginning to understand the two women’s obsession with dragons now, and as I turned to get a look at the way the beast moved under me, I couldn’t deny they were just as incredible as they were terrifyingly huge. The jet-black scales rippled with the orange light of the sun as I looked back, and every taut muscle rolled perfectly to counter the motion of the wings.
Then Deya jolted under me, though, and I locked my a
rms around Aurora’s waist as I turned my attention toward the horned head of the dragon. Deya had her gaze set on something to the south of us as her lungs swelled beneath our legs, and I was about to ask her what was up when she pinned her wings back and dove straight at the ground.
Aurora and I screamed for our lives as we tried to keep our hold on the spines in front of us, and the sudden drop made my heart nearly stop as my guts were left somewhere up in the atmosphere. I tried hollering for Deya to cut the shit, but the wind blasting past us drowned out my words while the trees of the jungle grew larger with every second, and I pinned Aurora’s head down just before we tore through the canopy.
Then a pained screech rent the air as Deya unfurled her wings to bring us to a sudden stop, and a split second later, we crashed to the ground.
Aurora and I looked up to see Deya’s massive head whipping back and forth as she tore into a full-grown sphynx, and blood began to splatter all over the trees, ferns, and us.
I grabbed the half-elf and dragged her with me as I leapt to the ground, and we ran into the ferns just as the sphynx’s snarls abruptly stopped with a juicy wrenching of flesh.
“What the hell?” I managed as we crouched in the ferns and watched the dragon, and the ferocity it put into chomping the carcass into bits made my bile churn. “Did Deya break the connection?”
“I don’t think so,” Aurora murmured as she stared in awe. “She told me about this.”
“You knew she was gonna hurl us at the ground?” I growled, but the half-elf shook her head as she kept her eyes glued on the dragon.
“No, she told me about her instincts when she’s transmuting,” Aurora explained. “Deya said she connects with the dragon’s instincts even though she’s herself, and they override her sometimes. That’s how she ended up hunting her first griffin. She can’t help it. Isn’t it incredible to watch her, though? She’s so … brutal.”
I gaped in horror as I watched blood ooze from Deya’s teeth while she buried her snout inside the sphynx’s shredded body to gnaw on its innards, and when I heard the crunch of bones, I gagged and turned my back. The sounds were just as gruesome as the sight, though, and while Aurora continued to stare beside me, I did my best to think of anything but the fact that my beautiful elf was currently munching her way through a six hundred pound, still warm and raw, body.
I counted ferns, dug my boots against the moist soil, and even wished we were near a grove of Raxis just so I could battle some carnivorous flowers to distract me, but it didn’t do much good. The gooey gnashing of teeth was impossible to ignore.
Finally, after what felt like ages but was probably only minutes, I heard Deya’s bloody tongue sliding across her teeth, and Aurora let out the breath she’d been holding.
“Gods, she’s incredible,” the half-elf muttered. “I think I love her even more now, don’t you?”
I raised my brows rather than respond, and then I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Nothing but bloody soil remained of the sphynx, and the soot-black snout of my elven girlfriend was dripping with residual guts and blood when she looked toward the ferns.
Then Aurora burst from the cover of the thick fronds with an admiring grin on her face, but it took me a little more effort to get my legs working enough to join the two.
I did manage a nod of greeting when Deya looked my way, though, and I cleared my throat as I struggled to think of something I could possibly say after that.
“You uh … you good?” I tried, and Deya nodded as she snorted a bit of sinew from her nose.
“You’re so amazing,” Aurora fawned. “I can’t believe the way you just snatched that sphynx out of the air. And look at this clearing! You got blood everywhere, you’re a maniac! Gods, I love you so much.”
A gurgle of what I guessed was pride echoed through the dragon’s belly while she came closer so Aurora could pet her head, but I casually shifted out of range as I eyed a chunk of bloody fur stuck between her fangs.
“So … we should probably get going,” I decided, and I swiftly mounted the dragon’s back before she could ask for any more pets.
Aurora was giggling happily when she climbed up to perch herself between my legs, and I was so out of it after dropping thousands of feet to watch a dragon maul a sphynx, that I just held on and stared straight ahead as Deya took flight again.
The sky was turning red now as the sun dipped low over the western horizon, but there was still enough light to see by when we neared Mors Pass. Deya circled slowly as she dropped at a way less petrifying speed to bring us down to the foothills, and Aurora and I scanned the nests below to get a head count.
Even at a glance, I could tell there were several dragons missing since our last trip here.
Then Deya touched down in the nest belonging to the black dragon, and she kept her wings unfolded to help shield us from the view of the others. It wasn’t quite time for the dragons to begin hunting, so I knew this couldn’t account for the empty nests, and Aurora whimpered when she saw four baby dragons shivering together close by.
“Mason,” she managed in a tight voice, “they’re cold … ”
“They’ll be okay,” I assured her, but something began to stir in my chest as I watched their little scaly bodies tremble. They really did look helpless, and I didn’t know if it was my newfound appreciation for dragons, or my paternal side flaring up, but I couldn’t deny that I did want to save the baby dragons.
All of the baby dragons.
Seven of the barren nests either had eggs or babies nestled in them, and Deya shifted anxiously beneath us as she looked up and down the pass.
“Are there more missing than before?” I asked, and she nodded her scaly head.
Aurora let out another whimper while she processed this, but then she gasped and clutched my leg.
“Mason, he’s eating them!” she shrieked, and every dragon near us snarled at the sound.
Our attention was glued on a nest further down the pass, though, where an orange dragon with horns jutting out of his face all over had a little blue dragon in its teeth. His mate watched from a nearby nest without concern, too, and something in me snapped when I saw four sphynx carcasses strewn around her that hadn’t been touched.
Deya let out a vicious roar as she turned toward the horned dragon, but I already had my Terra powers sparked, and I broke the rock beneath him apart to send him crashing into the canyon below. Then I raised the rubble up as my vision tunneled, and I hurled the entire onslaught at him without remorse.
“That’s right, you fiery fuck!” I growled as the giant orange dragon flailed and tried to right himself. “Bet you wish you’d peeled someone else’s flesh instead of lurking around being a dick! Why don’t you get off your scaly ass and do some real dragon shit?”
I paused my attack as the horned dragon finally got back to his feet, and then I sent another slew of boulders at his skull while the dragon snarled in confusion and backed his way down the pass.
Then Aurora turned. “Are you telling the dragon off?”
“Damn right I am, they’re babies!” I scoffed, and I sent another boulder flying as a final fuck you. “He’s acting like it’s a bushel of apples or something. I tell you what, when I find whoever owns that nest, I’m pointing them right toward that asshole. Deya can get a scale from one of the parents, come back, and teach him a lesson or two about picking off babies like grapes, the little--”
I snapped my jaw shut as I realized both Deya and Aurora were staring back at me, and then I gruffly cleared my throat as I turned my attention strictly away from the nests.
“Anyway,” I muttered. “We’re going to the fortress now, right?”
Next thing I knew, Aurora was flipped around and straddling me, and I fumbled to keep a grip on the dragon as her tongue began doing things that made my spine twitch uncontrollably in response.
Within seconds, the half-elf was nearly as hot as the scales under us as she grinded her hips against mine and knotted her fingers in my hair, and I cou
ld have sworn the sound Deya made was the dragon equivalent of a chuckle.
Then Deya lurched upward to take flight, though, and I would have tipped right off her back if Aurora didn’t have such a vice grip on me at the time. She only kissed me more determinedly as the wind began to course over us, and I tried to decide if I valued my life enough to make her stop for safety’s sake. Then she locked her legs around my waist and began moaning for more, and I let her do what she wanted because how often does a guy get to have a worship-level make out session with a woman while riding a dragon?
Worst case scenario, we fall off and Deya would have to pull another epic dive to save us. Hopefully.
So, I fondled Aurora’s ass to rile her up a bit while her lips began to burn against mine, and every time Deya flapped her enormous wings, the rolling of her muscles forced the half-elf firmly against my groin. I was beginning to wonder if having sex on a flying dragon was physically possible when I realized we were beginning a steady dive once more, so I focused on enjoying my final moments in the bliss of Aurora’s enthusiastic hold instead.
Even the jolt of our landing didn’t distract her from my lips, but when I opened my eyes and glanced sideways, my arousal was doused like I’d just had a bucket of ice dumped over me.
Aurora pulled away in confusion when she realized I was incapable of moving any part of my body, and she followed the direction of my gaze.
“Mason … ” the half-elf managed, but her voice was barely above a whisper.
I nodded. “I see it.”
I should have been more prepared, given I’d studied the schematics of the Master’s fortress already, but I hadn’t fully absorbed how extensive it was until this moment. Now, I was slowly losing feeling in my limbs while I took it all in, and none of us moved for several minutes as we looked out at a fortress that had to be four times as big as Temin’s castle.
Twilight had gathered by now, so the clouds of smoke looming over the spires and towers glowed an eerie red with the last light of day, and the grounds were already cast in deep blue shadows. I could see the outlines of possessed ogres below as they either lumbered around or tore into each other, and from the peak we were perched on, I could hear their deranged snarls as the Master’s rune pushed them to their most barbaric limits.