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Dawnchaser paused outside the thin cloth door as she heard the raspy tune from inside. She backed up a stride and waited respectfully. She knew the inhabitant only spoke when it was important, ever since a childhood disease had stunted growth and damaged vocal cords to make speech uncomfortable. To interrupt would be a serious rudeness, and though she knew the inhabitant of the simple shelter was kind and would forgive her, it was still an offense she wished to avoid. The dragon inside had earned great respect from all the clan, and none of them would ever dream of showing Listener any disrespect.

Even if he was just a male.

Listener had come to the clan long ago as just a child. His home clan had been devastated by an illness, and the tiny pawful of survivors had scattered. He had been barely able to speak and couldn't hunt for himself; the clan had been close to sending him back out to the wilderness to die when a clan mother declared she would share her food with him. Her own offspring grew strong, but as Listener grew he only showed more weakness - he gained more raw strength than most of the females, as males always did, but only barely; compared to the other males he was thin, scrawny and light. It took significant effort for him to stay with hunting flights until much later in his life, and he barely managed to contribute food or any meaningful labor. When he grew to be of age, all the females scorned him - none felt he was worth the fight to claim, and many whispered that he would just be an embarrassment to any harem he became part of. The males teased him as was their way, but with no female to belong to he had little defense against their barbs, and as time went on and he continued unclaimed he began to drift away. He spent more and more time away from the clan, exploring the countryside around for more than just food and water. Nobody really cared to ask what he was doing, especially when there were more important matters to be concerned with than the adventures of one scrawny male.

When he came one day and began telling anyone he could find that there was a danger coming, and plead for them to leave for a new home, the clan only laughed at him. They teased him all the more, and told him that even though he was a weakling the rest of the clan was strong enough to protect him from any danger. They all thought he had become crazed by his isolation and dismissed his warning as nothing more than a desperate attempt at attention. None listened. Dawnchaser herself could still remember shoving him aside with her wing when he begged her to listen.

She also remembered growing deathly ill after catching and feasting on a tarbuk. The beasts were the clan's primary source of food... and a sickness spread like a fire through the flocks of the flying animals. There was no way to tell the sick from the healthy until the tarbuk died from the illness, and any in the clan who fed on a sick tarbuk became sick themselves. It would take four or five meals of fat, healthy tarbuks before a sick dragon recovered from eating even part of one ill tarbuk. Dawnchaser had been immobile for days, vomiting and barely able to sing more than groans and sobs of pain as her stomach was wracked by constant discomfort.

She could also remember Listener caring for her through the sickness.

When the male had been turned away and ignored, he had returned to his own efforts. He began storing up other foods - tasteless fruits that often went ignored, odd berries that were flown past without a second thought, a sweet honey from a strange insect, a curious beetle that could actually be quite tasteful if eaten along with a bit of the gray grass that grew in rocky areas - and brought them to the clan. He showed those who were still healthy how to find more of the safe food - when the berries were old enough to be safe to eat, where the beetles liked to gather, how to harvest the fruit from the prickly trees that fiercely protected them - and when that work was completed he helped care for those still sick. He never once said he had warned them, or returned their insults in kind; he had simply shown up with jars of clean water and began aiding the ill.

Other clans perished when the plague spread through the tarbuks, but thanks to him, their clan survived. The sick returned to health, and Listener repeated his warning - they were surviving for now, but the forest could not sustain them for much longer, especially with the tarbuk dying out. He begged them again to leave and follow him... and this time, the clan listened. The females spurred their harems into motion, and after three days of packing and organizing, the clan took wing to begin a long journey south, to a new home Listener claimed that Planet had prepared for them.

It was several weeks of travel, with many rests and precarious interactions with strange clans nervous at their arrival in their lands, but Listener finally brought them to a beautiful valley overlooked by a gorgeous waterfall. Dawnchaser could still remember the exultation she felt as she and the rest of the clan looked down to see the massive flocks of plump, well-fed tarbuks squawking to each other and drinking from the river that stretched away from the waterfall.

Listener told them that this was the new home Planet had set aside for them. He had helped the next few days as the clan settled in, assisting with locating caves for storage and building some basic homes... and then he had faded from attention, setting out for the nearby forests to listen to Planet once more.

Even with his miraculous aid, Listener was still considered a poor addition to a harem, so the clan left him be once more. And as the years passed, Listener continued to aid the clan in little ways - sharing his discoveries of food or treasures, warning of coming frosts or the angry funnels of wind, lending his diminutive strength in clearing land or repairing damage from disasters. He earned his name for his constant trips to the wilderness to learn Planet's wisdom, and a certain amount of pride grew in the clan from his presence. The clan had no champion or direct leader, but as the clan settled in and grew it became more and more common for the women to seek advice from him, eventually even outright deferring clan matters to his care. And while nobody was sure exactly when it happened, at some point the clan began to see him as their leader... even if he was just a male.

The great irony of Listener's situation was that he would now be considered the jewel of any dragon's harem... ...but any female in the clan that moved to claim him would be immediately set upon by every other female. He belonged to the clan, and to himself, in a way no other male would ever. But Dawnchaser couldn't help but imagine that the solitude and lack of... company must be hard on the male.

The raspy sound ended, and the cloth shifted as Listener emerged from his shelter. He wore the strange cloth the clan had grown used to - Dawnchaser suspected he wore the garment to hide any obvious signs of his masculinity in order to make it easier on the dragons who came to ask for his wisdom. The inherent humiliation at going to a _male_for aid would still upset any female, and by concealing his form Listener often felt more like an elderly female than a young male of twenty some years.

The male smiled and dipped his head in a sign of respect to Dawnchaser, before speaking in his scratchy voice. "Greetings, Dawnchaser. Thank you for waiting - I had disturbing dreams last night, and was asking Planet for understanding."

Dawnchaser tilted her head in sudden worry. "Is the clan in danger? Can I help?"

Listener shook his head and waved a shrouded paw dismissively. "I don't think so. Not any time soon, at least. And thank you, but it is of a personal nature."

"Ah." Dawnchaser grinned, remembering back to her earlier thoughts. Given how long Listener had gone unclaimed, she suspected the poor male must have had several dreams of a _personal_nature. Her own harem of males grew restless after only a few days without her attention, if she ever managed to fight off her own desires for that long; she couldn't begin to imagine what Listener's dreams must be like after years of going without.

She started to reply that she could help greatly with his personal issues, and never mind what the rest of the clan would do to her after, but Listener cut her off. "But I've kept you waiting long enough already - how can I help the clan today?"

Dawnchaser turned away from Listener's shelter to gaze out towards the hills in the distance. "Another clan challenge. Our neighbors beyond the hill have become part of a clan from somewhere beyond their borders, and that clan's champion seeks to challenge us for hunting rights in our land. She refused to negotiate or accept any trade offers; we each offered to fight her, as is custom, but she claims insult at fighting any but our own leader, especially after coming so far to challenge her." Dawnchaser dipped her wings in remorse and glanced back at Listener. "We tried everything we could to send her away, but she refuses to leave until her challenge is answered."

Listener's expression changed to one of sudden worry, an expression Dawnchaser couldn't quite understand. She knew the male hated challenge fights - he was much weaker and smaller than normal males, which she suspected bothered him - but he was actually quite good at them. His body had never grown as bulky as other males, leaving him quite agile and fast in the air due to his powerful wings and comparatively light body, and his raw strength was still greater than that of most females. It was a strain for him, but such fights had only involved him four or five times in the last few years, and had always ended in his favor. The worry on his face didn't make sense, and Dawnchaser stepped closer from concern. "If you are ill, another can act as our champion..."

Listener shook his head. "No, no; I will meet her challenge. This is the role Planet has chosen for me; I cannot hide from the duties. Does she..." Listener trailed off, but Dawnchaser grinned, knowing his question.

"We don't think so. Our neighbors knew you were our 'leader', but she does not seem to know much of our clan. She is probably expecting a female."

Listener nodded, then turned back to his shelter, pushing the cloth aside. "Hmm." To Dawnchaser's surprise, he began to remove the clothing covering him. Dawnchaser blinked in surprise, actually starting to feel uncomfortable as more of the male was revealed. Clothing was extremely unusual for a dragon to wear, and she was well acquainted with the sight of naked males, but somehow Listener's bare scales made her feel uncomfortable, after being so used to seeing him covered. He finished disrobing in silence and stored the garments inside his shelter, pausing only long enough to retrieve a small stone jar, and then turned away and stretched out his wings. "Please tell her I will meet her challenge in the forests to our east, when the sun kisses the hills." Listener grew silent for a moment as Dawnchaser nodded, but she sensed he still had more to say. He finally spoke again, though this time his voice seemed even raspier. "Could you also ask Softwing to visit our friends in the hill, to try and learn more of this champion? And... ask the others if they could prepare for a new leader. Just in case."

Dawnchaser's amber eyes bulged in surprise. A new leader? But... "Listener? This is just a hunting dispute; even if you lose the fight she will not take leadership of our clan!"

Listener nodded slowly. "I know. I do not expect to lose... but even still, I believe Planet may soon be bringing my time as leader of the clan to an end. Best if the others are prepared." The male stretched out his wings once more, surprising Dawnchaser with sight of his naked sides... and with a sudden surge he beat them downwards and sprang into the afternoon air.

Stormscry circled over the forest with a rising sense of feral glee. She could feel her heart begin to race, and could smell her own excitement thick in the air around her. She had gone too long without a good fight. She had fought a few times to help her clan conquer the hill clan, but those dragons had been barely stronger than the whelps of her clan. The invasion of that clan had been a long time in coming - there had been a growing pattern of territory disputes and grievances between them, and they would do much better under her strength than they had been doing on their own. The hill clan had been halfway to starving, anyways; now they had the protection and provision of Stormscry - and the rest of her clan too, of course - so they would have no choice but to prosper.

At least, that was how it should have worked. Instead she had learned that there were far more bellies in the hill clan than she had expected, and the lands of the other clans she had conquered were proving to be insufficient to the task of feeding their clan. Stormscry herself hadn't taken any males from the hill clan - none of them were worth her time - but others from her clan had, so it was too late to declare them unworthy and abandon the conquered clan back to their own problems.

But where Planet provided problems, Planet provided solutions - and rewards.

The whispers of the hill clan had eventually reached her ears, of the idyllic lands belonging to a distant waterfall clan under the leadership of a wise dragon. Stormscry had waited only long enough to receive confirmation of the rumors and directions, and had set off to find the clan. Her stated goal was to find a new source of food for her people, but she secretly desired to fight the clan's leader. Stormscry was a great fighter, more skilled than any female, and possessing more sheer strength than even some males... so the sound of such a prosperous clan with such a respected leader made her imagination dance with the possibilities, especially when she finally arrived and saw the beauty of the land. Such a female must be powerful to hold such an amazing land, and would have to be a challenge even for her.

Her vision of the leader's power grew and grew as she flew over the land. Flocks of tasty looking tarbuks were everywhere, enough to feed all of her clans for lifetimes. The river's water was pure and clean, with occasional glimpses of golden fishes darting against the currents. And the males were obviously healthy and fit - there may even be one in the clan worth claiming for her own harem. Yes, the leader of this land must be a tremendous challenge; even if Stormscry was defeated, it would be an experience and an honor just to fight such a dragon...

She had grown frustrated as she had met the native dragons. If a strange dragon had landed in her clan and demanded to challenge her, she would have leapt into battle, and would have stripped the harem from any female who thought to shield her from the fight. But these dragons... they offered every excuse they could to deter her. They offered to trade food so her people would not have to make the long journey to hunt; they offered to fight her themselves; they even outright told her to go back to her own home unsatisfied. It had taken most of the day before one of the dragons finally relented and flew off. Stormscry would have followed and challenged their leader right in her own home, but the rest of the clan watched her with wary amber eyes, giving her the strangest feeling that they would attack her if she followed. The other dragon hadn't been gone long, and returned with the news that their leader would take up the challenge in the evening, at the forests in the distance. Stormscry angrily refused the offer of food and drink and took off immediately towards the forest, eager to meet the dragon who led this strange but wealthy clan.

Stormscry had wheeled and spun through the air over the forest, burning off the restless energy building in her as the hours passed and randomly crying out her song of challenge. Her thoughts spun in excitement... until finally, her cry was answered.

She stopped to hover in the air, a little bewildered. The answering cry had come from beneath her - from somewhere under the thick trees, near the ground. But... she hadn't seen any other fliers approach, and it was much too far to walk from the settlement. Had she been flying over the leader's house this whole time? There was no clear view of the ground through the trees, so it was possible a cave or building was hidden under her... but who would want to live in a home without a path to the sky?

There was a rustling sound, followed by flapping wings, and then a dragon burst up from the foliage. Stormscry felt a surge of anticipation as her challenger rose into the air. "I am Stormscry, leader and Champion of my clan! I have come to challenge you for the right to hun..." Stormscry's shouts trailed off suddenly as she finally got a good look at her opponent. "What trickery is this?!"

The male ascended to her height and began a gentle spiral, responding in a soft, raspy tone. "I am Listener. I am responsible for and lead the clan of this land. I have come to answer your challenge."

"You... this is an outrage! Where is the real leader; why does she mock me by sending you? Why have I waited so long; I demand an answer!" Rage began building inside Stormscry, and she began to rise as she beat her wings harder and harder. She scanned the area around her, as if the real leader was going to jump out at any moment - maybe that was it; this was a trick to distract her for a sneak attack... shameful, but clever...

The male simply looped in the air and shrugged his wings. "I am the real leader. And I do apologize for the delay; I got here before you and took a nap, but I am ready to fight now."

Stormscry hissed in anger, her musical voice turning harsh and shrill. "I did not come all this way to waste my time in a fight with a male! And not even a proper one - what is something like you doing in a land of plenty like this?"

Listener gave another shrug of his wings and looked back at her calmly. "Leading, and listening. I was told you were given ample options to resolve this without a fight... but if you did not come to fight after all, I will permit you to withdraw now and negotiate with others in the clan."

Stormscry's eyes blazed in anger. "Permit me? You?!" The female's lyrical voice changed to a roar of rage, a crashing sound that had earned her the name. She flung herself towards the male, claws gleaming as she reached to slash at him for daring to speak to her in such a way. What madness was in this land, that the females permitted a male to have delusions of controlling anything a female did?

She closed the distance rapidly while her opponent simply hovered in place. His apparent unconcern stoked her anger, and she reached her paw back to deliver a blow that would scar his chest as a permanent reminder...

The male simply flapped his wings once as she closed, and her claws slashed at nothing but air. What?! How had... no, she couldn't have missed, and no male could move far enough away that quickly; even with their stronger wings, their heavy bulk made such speed impossible...

Her head suddenly rang as the end of the male's tail slammed into it, jarring her thoughts into disarray. She continued forward on instinct, her wings beating without her conscious decision as she tried to make sense of everything.

Her daze was broken by a body slamming into hers. She was flung out of her path by the impact and had to fight to get her sudden fall under control. She grit her teeth and glared at her surroundings, searching for the impudent male who dared pretend to be her equal...

She spotted him, hovering closer to the trees below them and staring up at her impassively. His expression... no. No, it was what was missing from his expression. No fear. No worry. No thrill of battle. No concern. For all his expression revealed, this fight with her was as much worth his attention as the nap he claimed to just have taken.

Her wings were starting to burn, but she snarled and flung herself down towards him once again. She moved cautiously this time, setting a slower pace and preparing to catch him if he dodged again... but this time, instead of waiting for her, the scrawny male turned and dived beneath the treetops.

Stormscry hissed. A hunt, then. Excellent. She pulled her wings in a little and dove through the leaves and branches herself.

The trees here were very tall - she could see the ground below them, but it would take minutes of flight to reach it. They were taller than the ones at her home, and different than any she had seen... but she didn't care about trees. Or the ground. Or the six-legged creature that scurried away and lept to another tree when she crashed through the branches. She only cared about her opponent. Where had he gotten to? It was darker here, and her eyes needed a second to adjust...

There! She spotted the male hovering again, waiting for her with that same lack of concern. She leaned forward and beat her wings, ignoring the weariness in them. She had been flying for so long before this; it was starting to wear on her. No matter - if she could just get her claws on that male one time this would be over.

The male hovered as she approached... then actually began to fly towards her! Foolish - the advantage was never to a male in close. They were too slow; a female could simply rear up and dart to the side, and then...

Stormscry let out a song of surprise as she hit something hard. The neatly planned dodge she had imagined had not ended the way it should have; she had backwinged and brought her body upwards, and then had thrown her body to the left... but there hadn't been open air there; she had instead crashed into a solid object - a tree. Pieces of bark had been dislodged by her impact, and she felt a strange dizziness as she watched the fragments fall slowly to the ground below.

She growled, angry at her own stupidity, and tried to launch back into the air... but her left wing wasn't moving. In fact, her entire left side seemed to be stuck; she couldn't seem to pull it away from the tree. What was this?

The dragon squirmed and stretched her right paws out to try and push back on the tree from that side, trying to get enough leverage to pull away... but after realizing that wouldn't work, she discovered that she had gotten those limbs stuck, too. Her tail and right wing were all she could move, and she growled in anger at the predicament. She tried to thrash against the tree, squirming with all her might and slamming her tail and wing back against it... but other than sending more shards of bark flying downwards, she only managed to get those limbs stuck on the tree, too.

She growled in frustration and tilted her neck to try and find out what had happened to her body. She was pinned to the side of the tree, with all six limbs sprawled out beside her and her tail awkwardly stuck beneath her...

The sound of slowly flapping wings caught her attention. She jerked her head in that direction and saw the male coming to rest on a branch nearby her. She hissed at him, but he only stretched out and yawned nonchalantly.

Stormscry's anger redoubled, but her struggles were still useless. "What did you do to me?!"

The male blinked slowly. "Me? I did nothing; I just met your challenge, as you asked. You seem to have gotten yourself stuck, though."

The female demonstrated how she got her name once more, letting out a roar loud enough to rival the summer storms. "Release me! Free me from this... this... whatever trap you have laid; I will rip your wings from your back for this!"

The male just tilted his head and looked back with a curious expression. "How are you going to do that while you're stuck over there? And why would I possibly help you if that is your plan?" The male kept an impassive gaze on her through the resulting snarls and curses, before lifting his paw and dragging a claw along the branch a short distance in front of him. "The trees here are very interesting. Most of them are fairly normal trees - some make interesting fruits, or make armored seeds that fall to the ground and need to be eaten by some kind of rodent before they grow, or make leaves with a rather interesting flavor. But _this_tree isn't like that. Planet taught this tree to hide its fruits inside itself, in the form of a sap that runs the full length of the tree." The male lifted his paw to show the sticky substance that had gathered on his claw, making sure Stormscry saw it before he brought the claw to his mouth to lick clean. "If you're careful, you can find a few branches and collect some of the sap safely... but in most places the sap flows so thickly that breaking the bark will just get you stuck to the tree. As you seem to have discovered."

Stormscry glared back at the male, her fury growing with each word he spoke. He dared to talk to her, like some whelp in need of a lesson?

"I don't completely know yet why Planet taught the tree to do this. I think it is to help a certain insect that I often find living in its branches. They make a delicious substance, a honey; the groffels seem to go crazy for it."

Stormscry felt a chill at the name Listener spoke. Every dragon knew about groffels. Dreadful creatures; land bound but larger and faster than a dragon. They were one of the few animals that actually hunted dragons; naughty whelps were told a groffel would come for them, while legends told of great Champions fighting off a wave of groffels intent on devouring a clan of dragons.

"If a groffel were to try climbing this tree to get at the honey, it would end up breaking the bark and getting stuck. It could break free after a while, but getting at the hive... well, it would starve to death before it got halfway up the tree. The tree protects the insects. And I think the insects help the tree grow, too, though I don't quite understand how yet. But Planet provides." The male continued talking, but Stormscry had tuned him out and was instead trying to struggle free again.

"Sometimes the insects end up getting stuck in the sap... but once again, Planet provides. In addition to the honey, they also secrete a substance that causes the sap to dissolve. If they get caught, the sap melts away from them in a matter of seconds." Listener stretched upwards towards another branch and picked up a stone jar that was resting there.

Stormscry focused immediately on the jar. "Is that it? Give me that!"

The male brought the jar down to his branch and shook his head. "So you can get free and tear my wings off? Hmm... tempting, but our fight has left me tired. I think I'll rest for a little first, and enjoy the lovely view." The male glanced from the jar to the pinned female... and then let his gaze drop a little lower, in between her legs.

Stormscry gasped in shocked outrage. He dared!... She began to feel uncomfortably exposed and tried to pull at her limbs again, hoping to get even one free to block her adversary's view of her nethers.

The male's rasping voice made a strange chortling sound, and after a moment Stormscry realized it was his laughter. He shook his head, then stretched out on the branch and yawned before closing his eyes. "Don't worry. I'll let you go once it's night."

Fury burned inside Stormscry, and she yanked again at the sap stuck to her... but it was useless. Her blood burned beneath her scales as she settled in, resigning herself to waiting, and refusing to think about the fact that a male had bested her in battle.

Listener feigned sleep for roughly an hour, until the last rays of the sun vanished from the sky. He yawned and stretched out his wings, then blinked in surprise at the female still pinned against the tree. "Oh. Right, I almost forgot."

The female glared back molten death at the male, but he ignored her and reached for the stone jar... then looked down at the ground beneath them. "I think I mentioned this dissolves the sap of this tree... but I did mention that even a drop of it attracts groffels from miles around, right? They really love that honey, and they know this substance means there's some around. And given how active they are at night... well... if I were suddenly coated in this stuff, the first thing I would want to do is get to a river and wash it off. I certainly wouldn't waste time chasing somebody through a dark, unfamiliar forest, while any number of groffels might be hunting after me." The male took the cap off the jar and wrinkled his nose at the smell. "But that's just me. You might feel differently, and not mind smelling like this."

The male took the jar and walked closer to the trunk of the tree before dipping his paw into the jar. Stormscry could smell the pungent odor as he grew closer and glared at his paw. To her outrage, he reached over to her and touched_her side. The female growled under her breath. How _dare he touch her without her permission... if she were free, she would...

She huffed as she remembered that she wasn't free, not yet. She would bear this male's insolence for a little longer.

He continued rubbing along her length, smearing the stinky substance all down her right side. Stormscry suffered the indignity as he moved over her legs, then down her tail. She could not believe a male was touching her like that... and she also couldn't believe that a part of her was actually enjoying it. She stifled that part of her and tugged her legs closed as soon as they were free, then forced herself to wait while the male _continued_to brush his claws over her scales.

Finally she was free enough to squirm, tug, and _yank_herself free of the sap. Listener danced just out of her reach as she did, hovering a few feet away in the darkness. Stormscry glared at him, amber eyes gleaming with anger in the darkness... but a distant roar distracted her. The shout of a groffel on the hunt. She growled at the male... then reluctantly turned and flew upwards, beginning the flight back to the hill clan.

Softwing drank from the cool stone bowl. The water at the hill clan tavern always had a strange dusty taste to it, but it was still refreshing after the flight from her own clan. She had been there for a few hours now and had learned much about the new clan that had conquered the hill clan, though she had yet to ask any real questions about their champion.

A male lugged a heavy stone cask into the room and sat it down on a table, then heaved to twist the heavy lid off of it. He dipped a few bowls in the cask, filling them with water, and sat them on the table beside the cask. He paused for a moment to look over the other tables to see if anyone in the tavern needed another drink, but finding none he trudged back to the storage room he had come from.

Softwing sat her bowl down and glanced after him, noticing a few other eyes in the room fixating on the sway of his tail too. He was actually fairly handsome - the tavern proprietor had probably earned a few scars in battle to get and keep him as part of her harem.

The dragon reclining on the bench across from her grinned. "Pretty, but not worth your time. If you're looking for fun for the night, Waveskimmer is known to share a male or two from her harem, for the right price, but ask for one of her 'silvers'. Those are the ones that can keep you entertained all night long, even if they don't catch the eye quite the same."

Softwing considered the idea for a moment... but no. She was here for the clan, after all; it wouldn't be right to indulge when there was work. Besides, her own males would be eager to welcome her back upon her return; she could wait one night. "Thanks, but not tonight."

Her companion shrugged her wing and took another sip of her water. "Suit yourself. There's not much else to pass the time with lately, though." The other dragon looked Softwing over again. "You're from that clan by the waterfall, aren't you? The one with the st... with the male for a leader?

Softwing tried to ignore what she assumed had been the start of some kind of slur, and gave a half shake of her head. "We don't really have what you'd consider a leader. We more or less take care of ourselves."

The other dragon shook her head. "But when there's problems, or when there's decisions to make; it's a male that tells you what to do?"

Softwing sighed. "In only the most general sense, yes."

She snickered. "I don't know how you can stand that. Stormscry will probably starve half of us to death, but at least she's... I mean, how can you stomach taking orders from a male? How do you stop yourself from just tackling and claiming him on the spot the second he gets uppity, and get a real woman to be a leader instead? And... males are lazy and selfish; how has he not ruined everything for you by now?"

Softwing pushed the cup aside. "It's not like that. Listener leads the way you'd expect a male to, not by trying to be a female. He hasn't given a command once, not in the entire time I've known him. He asks, and usually we grant his requests. Not always, but usually. The only selfish request I can ever remember him making was that we trade with your clan for the clothing he wears. Aside from that, the things he asks of us always work to benefit the clan. He doesn't lead us on hunts, or into fights; but he stores and prepares the food when we return, and shows the other males how best to tend to wounds from our fights. When there are disputes that we can't resolve, yes, we go to him for advice, but he doesn't deliver judgement or punishments; he just shares what he has learned from listening to Planet, and lets the clan as a whole decide." She shrugged her wings. "We don't have a leader. We have a guide, sent by Planet, who gives us all what we need to each be our own leaders."

The other dragon just looked as if Softwing had grown a third wing. "Hrmph. I'd still take a female any day. Males are only good for hard labor, and hard labor; you're going to wake up one day and find one of his 'requests' has driven your clan to ruin. Stuff him in a kitchen and use him to get pregnant, then have him take care of your whelps while you handle the important stuff; males belong in a harem, not running things."

Softwing chuckled at that. "Most of them, certainly. But like I said, Listener isn't like the other males. Nobody in the clan would challenge or dominate him, not after all he's done for us."

The other dragon scoffed. "Well, if you won't, Stormscry will. Our own leader was no match for her; she'll have no trouble knocking an uppity male back into his place. And we'll be grateful for the hunting rights in your land after she does; our own supplies are still stretched thin."

Softwing grinned a little and picked her bowl up again. "We'll see." She took a sip from it, preparing her thoughts to try and ask for details about the conquering clan's leader. "Just why did Stormscry's clan invade yours, anyways, if they don't have enough food for all of you?"

The other dragon waved a paw dismissively. "Oh, you know how it goes. Their clan was running into shortages of food in their own hunting grounds, so they began feuding with their neighbors. Challenges for territory or treasures led to fights of dominance, and Stormscry's clan absorbed another. They probably had enough food after that, but they had gotten the taste of victory and the rewards it brought, so they squabbled with another clan and conquered it, then another, and another. They took males and treasures from the clans, and Stormscry didn't realize she had accrued too many dragons and not enough meat for them all until it was too late. It happens with young champions... she'll eventually run into a clan she can't conquer, or learn from her mistakes, and release us back to our own clans when she realizes there's no other option." The other dragon paused to sip from her bowl. "Not that it'll happen any time soon. I don't think any clan near us boasts a leader that can stand up to Stormscry."

A sudden crash from outside interrupted Softwing's response, and an angry dragon hopped through the door. "Tavern keep! A bath, now!"

Softwing's companion winced and looked away, but Softwing couldn't help but watch the new arrival out of the corner of her eye. She seemed to be coated in a slimy substance, and a few of the scales on her back were missing. And the smell...

Softwing turned back to her drink to hide her grin. She knew that smell. "Way to go, Listener." She whispered the comment, but she could tell from the shift in her companion's wings and the shocked stare directed at Softwing that she had heard it.

The new arrival paced back and forth impatiently, then huffed in frustration and crossed to the cask on the table. She grabbed it, heaving, and upended it, spilling all the water over herself.and onto the floor. The action managed to get most of the slime off her, but a bit still clung to her wings and tail. She growled in frustration again and glared around the tavern, mumbling to herself. "I am going to tear him apart!..."

Softwing shook her head and took another sip of her drink. Sometimes it took a second go before they learned.

Stormscry glared at the one dragon in the tavern who was still moving, thinking what she could do to make the foolish dragon realize that even taking a drink when Stormscry was this furious was a mistake... but before she could decide she caught a flicker of motion from one of the other doorways. A male had peeked through it to see what all the commotion was about. Stormscry growled and stalked towards him, leaping forward and tackling him to the ground.

The male hissed indignantly and lashed out with his claws, but Stormscry nimbly ducked his swipe and circled him. She jabbed at him, then ducked under another swipe. The female grinned and surged forwards, slamming into the male and knocking him onto his back. He hissed up at her, tail thrashing, but she simply leaped over it to land with her muzzle right between his legs.

Her maw closed around the male's sheath, and her amber eyes glared back at his in warning. The male went still, then relaxed, letting his limbs fall to his sides. Stormscry hissed and opened her mouth, releasing him and instead giving him a lick along his length. "Now here's a good male. Even if you're fat, you know your place - on your back, legs spread, waiting for a female to decide how to use him." Her eyes gleamed and she licked along his length once more, her long tongue gliding over the flesh even as she drank in the pleasure starting to show in the male's eyes. His length grew with the motions of her tongue, quickly reaching its full size and then throbbing in excitement. The male hissed and laid his head back, shivering slightly. Stormscry pulled back a little to take in the sight. "That's it... now, time to give in to me... give my mouth the prize it deserves..." She hissed and leaned forwards again, this time enveloping the male's cock in her mouth. Her tongue worked around his member, and the male arched his back, wings spreading helplessly to the sides. Stormscry's tail swished in triumph as she felt the male tense beneath her, helpless against her tongue. He groaned, then her victory was sealed; she hissed happily as the first hot splash of his submission entered her maw.

She waited while the male spent himself, then pulled her mouth away as the male collapsed. She grabbed his head and forced his gaze towards her, and with a feral grin she swallowed, enjoying the flickers of dismay in his eyes while he watched her condemn his pilfered essence to her belly. Thin lines of seed trailed between her teeth and down the sides of her muzzle, a pair of trophies to her victory. She finally released the male and looked around the room again, daring anyone to meet her eyes, and while she knew everyone had watched her they all seemed much more interested in their own tables now. She grinned. Good - none dared challenge her, as it should be. The fight with Listener was just a fluke, and she would soon correct that mistake and have him just as helpless and docile as the male now lying spent on the floor.

Stormscry rose back to her feet and started to leave, but another dragon emerged from a side room. Stormscry had to think to remember the name - Waveskimmer, the dragon who ran this tavern. She approached Stormscry, but stopped a proper distance away and glanced between the champion and the male. Her wings and tail were held in a wary posture, but not a directly challenging one. "Are you taking my male?"

Stormscry almost broke out into laughter. Even with his cum staining the scales of her maw the idea was just absurd. She tilted her head back towards the male. "Him? In my harem? Please. Be serious."

The other dragon relaxed a little and started to offer her a drink, but Stormscry was done. She strode through the doorway, leaving the tavern behind.