by Calista Skye
Kyandros is very quiet behind me, and I stiffen. I probably shouldn’t make fun of him. He might get angry. But I was never a morning person, and I haven’t eaten much lately. My blood sugar must be at rock bottom.
He doesn’t attack me, just stands there with his back to me and stares out from the clearing. He’s tall enough to be able to see over the top of the snow.
So I get busy with the raptor skin. It has several layers that can be separated with a sharp blade and a little bit of care. The outer layer is greasy and smelly and tough, but the second one is dry and supple and extremely durable when made into clothing. It doesn’t keep you too warm, but it keeps you decent. In the village we have never needed to make clothing that will actually keep you warm, because it’s more of a challenge to stay cool. And if we did, we’d just use the furs from not-sheep. They’re much less dangerous to hunt for.
Kyandros suddenly walks right up the wall of snow and disappears.
Either he’s going to get firewood, or he’s leaving. Or he has some other plan too alien to understand. Anyway, if he can walk up the snow edge that easily, then I probably can, too. It didn’t look as if he sank far into it.
My spirits rise a little. I’ll make some kind of a coat and some primitive boots from the raptor skin, and hopefully it will keep me warm while I search for Bune. If the snow is this deep everywhere, then I don’t think the dinos will attack me. They must be weirded out by the sudden winter.
The not-dactyls might be a problem, though. Anything on the ground will be very easy to spot from the air, especially a not-too-slender Earth girl wearing a raptor skin.. But when were those horrors not a problem?
I skin the dino, grateful that the pelt comes off pretty easily and that Kyandros’ rough treatment of it hasn’t ruined too much of it. I see fresh claw marks on it, especially around the neck area, so that’s probably how he killed it. With his bare hands.
It’s actually pretty scary. Dragons are clearly not dangerous only when they’re flying around spewing fire. They pack a serious punch when in human form, too.
There’s a lot of meat on this raptor. It’s not something anyone at the village enjoys eating, because it’s tough and has a sour note to it. But cavemen have sometimes eaten it in emergency situations, and it doesn’t make them sick. If for some reason I can’t hunt down something more suitable, then I might have no choice.
When I’m done skinning the dino, I take a break and eat the rest of the food in Aurora’s backpack. It won’t keep forever, and hopefully I’ll be able to find Bune today. The morning is still young.
And insanely cold. It really gets into my bones, and my fingers tremble when I get back to work, separating the second and useable layer from the outer layer and the sheer fat beneath.
I get up to do some jumping jacks, something I never thought I’d do voluntarily after I was done with highschool PE forever. But here we are.
“Trying to fly?” Kyandros’ voice is smooth and mocking behind me. He walks down the sloping bank of snow carrying a whole tree.
“Maybe.” I shrug and sit back down. “You never know what might happen. The Ancestors can be weird.”
He dumps the tree in the middle of the circle melted by the other fire. “Here is your firewood.”
“Thank you. Now all that remains is to set fire to it. Could you— no, never mind, I’ll do it,” I say quickly when I see the look in his eyes. I guess he doesn’t like being reminded of his human state and that he can’t spew fire right now.
I use the flint and the steel rod to make a spark, then follow the rest of the procedure that all the girls in the village have mastered to perfection. I could even make fire from sticks now, if necessary.
I glance over at the dragon. “What is it like to fly?”
“To fly? It is the feeling of being alive. Of being superior. Of owning all you see under you. Of conquest, of imbuing terror, of being able to take anything you spot and make it part of your hoard if it has value to you. To kill anyone who tries to keep that object apart from you.” His voice is passionate, dreamy.
I put some dry grass around the embers and blow on it until the flames come. “It’s all about the hoard?”
“Everything is about the hoard. No lesser being could ever understand.”
“But you haven’t built a hoard yet?” The leaves of the tree have already begun to go brown, and I place the smouldering ball of grass among them. They immediately catch fire, and I back away from the tree.
“I have an immense hoard, as it happens. One of the greatest. But not here. The Inferiors lured us to their planet, and some of the others built large hoards there. Some of us were too late and were then tricked to come to this accursed rock. I left my hoard in my lair very, very far away. It is still there. But I can’t feel it. It’s so far away it doesn’t even call to me. I can’t hear it, I can’t sense it. It gives me no strength. I long for it, but I also know I must build a hoard here.”
I start cutting suitable pieces from the raptor skin. “Then what?”
“Then I will leave.”
“Leaving your hoard here?”
“Oh, it won’t be a major hoard. Just enough for the Change and to sustain me on my voyage back through the void to my real hoard. That has gold. Precious metals. Gemstones, finely cut. Weapons. Objects made by entire civilizations, manufactured in their millions, but with a perfection that can only be attained after thousands of years of hard work by millions and millions of individuals. Then I come and destroy it, taking the fruits of their labor through untold generations, and leaving no civilization behind to ever make more. Lesser beings can never understand the bliss of flying calmly away from a burning planet, lifeless and dry, while its valuables are in my blood-dripping claws, destined for my hoard.”
I’m stunned to silence for a while. I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised. But he might be more evil than I thought.
Finally, I clear my voice. “Is that when you will kill all the Bigs?”
Kyandros stretches lazily. “Do they produce anything? Do they have anything I would want? It would be a waste of time to kill them all. I’m sure I will take the lives of some of them, just for the pleasure. Such as it is.”
“But you will kill… us? My tribe?”
He scoffs. “If all that your people can make is iron knives, steel wires, and garments like that, then that might be a waste of time, too. There is gold in your village, Mia.”
I’m not sure if it’s even a question, but it sends cold fingers down my back. “There is?”
“There must be. All peoples see the value of gold. Every planet must have gold in its mountains.”
The raptor’s skin is cool and soft in my hands. It might not keep me all that warm at all when it’s finished. “What is gold? Is it a Small?”
I can feel him frowning behind my back. “It is not a creature. It’s the most wonderful substance. A metal. Yellow.”
“Like copper?”
There’s a dangerous pause. “Your language does contain the word ‘gold’. It can’t be unknown to you, Mia. I sense deceit.”
My face goes icy. How long can I keep acting ignorant? We have a little bit of gold in the village, but it has all been buried and hidden, along with all the things that were manufactured on Earth. But at least one tribe on Xren had gold fever recently, having mined it for years and keeping it all in chests. It is said that they have also hid all of it. We really don’t want any dragon to get any gold for its hoard. It would be like turbocharging them.
“I might have heard the word,” I state as calmly as I can. “But it has no meaning to me.”
“Gold has meaning to everyone.” His voice is suddenly right by my ear, soft and intense.
I gasp and drop my knife.
There are his eyes, yellow and lethal, very close. His body is tense, and I have the feeling he’s about to pounce on me.
I’m frozen like a deer in the most dangerous headlights you ever saw. I’ve never felt as exposed or as totally at so
meone else’s mercy. His spicy scent fills my nose.
Kyandros’ eyes wander down my body, pausing at my chest. “But don’t worry. Even if you don’t have gold yourself, I’m sure you have other ways to contribute to your betters.”
His alien manhood stands tall between us.
I don’t know what it is about him. I should be offended or scared out of my mind. And sure, I do feel both those things. But his gaze on my body is so intense it’s like a physical touch. His sheer animalistic magnetism makes little tingles come to life all over me, shooting down to my girly parts.
He reaches a hand out towards my face, long silvery claws on each finger.
He’s going to scratch me, but I’m still frozen, submitting completely, not turning away.
The claws stop a fraction of an inch away from my cheeks.
“So soft and round,” the dragon whispers.
The hand trembles and the eyes penetrate me like hot spears.
The hand falls, and I whimper.
But there’s no pain.
He stands up. “Think more about the gold, Mia. I need it.” He lets his gaze wander up and down me one more time, and then he strides up the snow bank and disappears into the sunshine.
I let my breath out. My heartbeat hammers in my ears as I reach up to stroke my face. But it comes back without any blood. He didn’t actually touch me.
Shit, he’s intense.
Crazy.
Lethal.
And yet, as soon as he’s gone from sight, I miss him.
What the hell is wrong with me?
10
- Kyandros -
What is wrong with me?
Why do I hesitate? Why not have my fun with her now? What am I waiting for?
I walk fast in the snow. It reaches me to right below the knees, and it’s tough going. But I don’t notice it much.
Mia. Just a lesser being. Worthless, like all of them. Apart from what they might be able to make. The objects that I can take when complete.
Yes, I am weak. But I was fully able to handle that other creature, much larger than me. It gave me exactly the pleasure I expected. Certainly, having my bloody way with Mia would be the same. There is no reason to wait!
Toying with her is less pleasant than it should be. Because I feel in my depths that I won’t actually claw her. And then, what’s the point? The pleasure lies in threatening to harm, then withdrawing the threat and then causing harm anyway, because I can.
I stop and close my eyes. I imagine my hand right by her face, and then the claws piercing her and the blood running down her face. Her scream, the anguish on her face.
The fantasy should make me ecstatic.
It does not, and I know that the reality also wouldn’t.
I open my eyes again.
The forest is not recognizable. There’s snow as deep as I am tall, and many trees lie broken and half buried. The sun is very bright in the sky, but the air is extremely cold and feels like burning on my ears and toes.
I keep walking, no goal or objective in my mind, just an unsettled feeling of something being wrong.
I wish… I grit my teeth. I wish to be back there with her, just watching her work.
Is it because she caught me? Because she showed herself as almost my equal? Do I now… respect her?
The idea makes me dizzy in all its horror. No, surely not. Surely, that’s not it. Respect a lesser being? Absurd.
Is it that she’s making something? Is that what fascinates me? I have never observed a lesser being manufacturing a garment. I have never had any interest in those things. I can sense the value of an object when I see it and hold it, and then I decide to take it or not bother.
What would she do if I lifted her dress off her and gazed upon her naked form?
A hard surge goes through my crotch. Certainly that would—
I suppress a sigh. There’s a presence nearby, and I know who it is. I would normally have tried to avoid this encounter, but I am far too preoccupied with thoughts of Mia. Damn her!
“A little excited, Kyandros?”
I manage a confident smirk. “Of course, Galindilan. The thought of mating with the Duchess is always on my mind.”
The older dragon comes out from behind a tree, wearing the purple cloak he insists on carrying with him everywhere. “Oh, you think it will be you? I must tell you that nobody agrees with you. The Duchess least of all.”
“That’s not what I heard. Surely, you don’t expect her to want you to father her hatchling?” I lazily give my still hard rod a stroke with my hand, just to remind him of my youthful potency.
Galindilan stomps closer through the snow, sinewy limbs struggling with the unusual movements. “She has been very attentive to me lately. Which is only reasonable. There’s no doubt that I will be the one she picks after I procure a hoard for her.”
I raise my eyebrows, a dragon-like gesture that seems to work even in human form. “Oh, you know of a hoard here on this planet?”
“Perhaps not yet. But I will. My experience tells me there is sufficient material here. There are tribes that make fine things. I will find them and bring them to her. She will mate with me and we will fly off, back through the void, to a planet where our offspring will hatch. Leaving the rest of you on this pitiful world, to wither and die without issue, forgotten, hoardless. It shall be wondrous.”
I laugh with amusement I don’t feel. “You’re an old sack of dead scales, Galindilan. We all know it will be me she picks. I am the largest of us. My hoard on Grig is the richest in existence, apart from the King’s. Neither you or little Hunderet or the pitiful Revetax have a chance. Soon, I will bring the Duchess gold.”
The other dragon’s eyes narrow. “Gold? Here?”
“Of course. Why, did you think the Duchess would be satisfied with rusty steel from a tribal fire? Or pots gouged from rocks? Oh my, but you are a funny old rag.”
Galindilan’s eyes flash. “Let’s see how funny you think it is when I plunge my own rod into the Duchess and force my seed inside her.”
I smile. “That image is too absurd to conjure up. And too repulsive. She would bite your head off before she’d allow you near her.”
“We’ll just see,” he says, clearly unsettled. “There are many of us on this planet now. Nearly all males, we think. The Duchess may be the only chance any of us ever gets of flying away from here. This is not a rich place like the Inferiors led us to believe. Finding a hoard for yourself large enough to both Change into dragon form and then sustain you back through the Void might be impossible. But the Duchess requires less. She will bear the hoard inside her after she invites me to mount her.”
“Or me, rather,” I counter easily. “Don’t worry. After I leave with the Duchess, I’ll take good care of your hoard on Bredert. Your lair is well known to all. But you are not there to guard it, I notice.”
He gives me an angry stare. “You have no idea where my lair is. But we all know yours.”
I squint into the sun. “Yes, everyone knows the size of my hoard. The Duchess most of all. She knows which one of us is the only worthy mate for her.”
Galindilan snorts. “Indeed, she does. Well, I’ll return to her now. I will tell her that you are alone in the snow and that you promise her gold. She has wondered if you abandoned her. I will tell her that you have. And that you have sustained obvious injuries. Nobody else has on this planet. Are you sure you are all right, Kyandros?”
I chuckle, but it lacks conviction. He speaks right into my own concern. “Don’t worry about me, old rag. Worry about your future, stuck on this planet.”
“Oh, my future isn’t here. It is with the Duchess and my hoard. We have found some villages and spied on them. You will find it hard to extract a hoard from them. They also consist only of males. They have a strange look to them. There are no women on this planet, it seems. Goodbye for now, hatchling. I will make sure to mention to the Duchess that you did not inquire about her welfare in these cold conditions. Though even if
I don’t suppose it interests you, I will tell you that she has found quite adequate shelter. A lair, if you will. No thanks to you, I might add.”
He stomps away, back in among the trees.
I scrape some ice off the scales on my chest as I watch his skinny form vanish among the trees. He is a foul one. But he is right about the Duchess being quite probably the only chance I have to leave this planet. The mix of my seed and her egg will be a powerful hoard, enough to take us to wherever we want. And then the egg will hatch, and I will have a son, dark and evil.
All I need now is gold to convince her that I am the one for her.
I peer back in the direction of the cave where I left Mia. She could know more about gold than she is saying.
I must get her to say it.
11
- Mia -
It’s taking longer than I thought to make the coat. Back at the village there are needles and sinews to use as threads, but here I have to fashion all that from the bones and the body of the dead raptor. It’s frozen stiff, too, so I have to dig into its icy meat with the knife and thaw out slivers of it by placing them close to the fire.
At least I’m heating up okay now, myself. But I wonder what I’ll do later. Burning entire trees is effective for making heat, but hard to portion out. All the heat is released in about an hour while the tree burns, making the whole clearing too hot. And then it burns out and it gets too cold. Well, I have no axe and no sword and only a small knife. Kyandros has even less.
At least he will soon have a loincloth. If he returns. In a way it seems a shame to force him to hide his most manly feature, but on the other hand it does distract me a lot.
What would it be like? My first time being with a dragon with a thing as alien as that? Penetrating me, filling me, taking me?
I squeeze my thighs together, and the tingling gets stronger.
He’s so freaking male! And so careless in a strangely caring way. He hasn’t killed me yet, for one thing. He hasn’t harmed me at all. He saved me from certain death in the cold, and he must have just about crawled on his belly to get to me out there in the snow that first night. Then he built a huge fire, and I still have no idea how he was able to bring those gigantic trees here while still tied up.