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Part 8

I believe I made a mistake in the previous chapter, but then again I was rushing to get it done. It wasn't Nargalath that gave the speech, it was Murdon; Nargalath was our trainer at the mountain base. Anyway, here's the continuation.

"Oooooh Flora...you're so soft..."

"You can go harder, Gale."

I pumped my hips faster and Flora giggled as my maleness slid back and forth between her wing-arm and her side; after reading her part of the previous chapter I asked her what the one dragon had done, and being her usual aroused self she wanted me to try it. Her scales felt so good against my penis! "Oooohh..."

"Heheh, it's fun watching your balls sway like this." She was obviously enjoying herself, watching me masturbate with her wing-arm. I didn't want to leave her out of the fun though; I smelled a pool of pussy juice growing under her. She gasped and moaned as my tail penetrated her soft folds, but then I saw a strange, naughty grin on her face like she was plotting something.

"AH! HEY!" I yelled in surprise as her tail suddenly found my tailhole and pushed in.

"It feels good after a while, Gale; c'mon, I can orgasm whenever you fuck my ass, it's gotta feel good for you too."

I had to admit; as I pumped my hips it did feel good as her tail moved inside me, but it was still very awkward even amid the pleasure. After a while though, I didn't care; both of us were moaning loudly fifteen minutes later, my cock pounding her sex, her tail up my ass and mine in hers. I could feel my release welling up quickly but I wasn't willing to end this so soon. "Oooohhh..."

"Fuck me harder!" she pleaded, grabbing my head. I leaned down and clamped my mouth against hers in a fierce kiss as I started really shoving myself into her. "Gale...how far..ooooooh...how far...can you cum?"

"No clue..." I grunted; I wanted to fill her, but she didn't give me the chance; she playfully shoved me off and whipped around, still panting heavily as she grabbed my penis with both paws and began jacking me off. I just sat back on my haunches and watched her play with my erection, feeling her bring me closer and closer to my climax until all at once everything went bright and the only things I felt were intense pleasure and Flora's paws on my shaft. When I could finally see again, Flora was lapping at my member, and straight ahead of me I saw a long white trail of cum...holy crap, what a distance! It must have been fifteen feet at most! Flora moaned and I glanced back down to see her having tail-sex with herself while her tongue ran over my balls. She gasped as I moved away from her, pulled her tail out of her puss, and replaced it with my tongue. "Now to see how far you can cum," I said with a grin. Flora could only reply with a pleasured moan as she bucked her hips off the floor while while I serviced her, nibbling and suckling on her clitoris and then diving back into her vagina to savor her juices. I again pushed my tail into her tailhole and tail-fucked her butt, making her start screaming with clenched eyes and twitching wings as she drew swiftly nearer to her orgasm.

"OH...OOOOH....AAAAAAAH!!!!!!" she screamed, barely giving me enough time to dodge her onslaught. Her first wave splashed against my side as I moved out of the way, pulling my tail out of her and pushing it deep into her puss to further stimulate her. She whimpered and shrieked as her body spasmed, leaving me in awe as her juices cleared her tail and landed on the floor. Eventually she came back down from her climax and went limp on the floor, purring. I climbed on top of her and she purred even louder, softly nuzzling me when I brought my face to hers. She cleaned us off along with the floor and fell asleep under me with a content smile. My penis grew stiff again so I slid it into her pussy, and for a good half an hour while she dozed I softly kneaded her scales, feeling her relax under my paws...eventually I just hugged her tight, never wanting to let her go as I stroked her neck. I could feel Aznor watching us; he felt confused and lost...and a bit sad, which I found surprising.

The next day found them in the library again; Gale was researching human behaviors while Flora looked up curses related to the one ailing her father. Around midday Gale headed to the private room they had booked (pun intended) to find Flora surrounded by books, humming a bit and her tail slowly swaying as she perused a small book.

"This is a good book," she said when she heard him close the door. Gale walked up behind her, his nose catching an all-too-familiar scent that made him smirk.

"What's it about?" he asked as he stood over her.

"It's a fantasy story based on our land's history...even accounts various historical dealings with humans. They're interesting creatures," she replied. She purred with a happy grin as he lifted her tail up and mounted her, his huge erection sliding neatly into her soft depths. "Apparently they helped construct a lot of our ancient temples, it was their technological skill that helped us advance." She purred louder as he started slowly, rythmically thrusting his hips.

"Yeah it seems humans gave us a lot that our current lifestyle is based on."

She grinned and turned back to her book, still purring as he slowly mated her. She softly rubbed him with her wings as he gently fucked her, going a few pages further into the book before speaking again. "How long until we leave?"

"It's hard to say. Minimum, tomorrow, at most, a week."

He kissed her neck and they both sighed happily as his penis started pulsing inside her, shooting his semen deep inside her womb, some of it leaking back out of her and pooling on the floor only to be joined by more as he pulled out of her. He lay down on her back and she purred cutely, nuzzling backwards against his neck. She murred and a soft moan escaped her mouth as he softly rubbed her front with his paws while his wings massaged her sides. "Mmmm...Gale?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you pamper me like this?"

He chuckled and licked her neck. "Do I need a reason?"

She nuzzled him again. "Nah..." She continued reading, purring contently as he massaged her neck and shoulders. Amid this, though, Gale was worried. Aznor kept feeling something powerful nearby hunting him, and Flora's father too was sensing something. They had to get out of here by tomorrow, Gale knew that much. It was hard for him to stay worried though as Flora craned her lithe neck around and kissed him with a happy murr.

The sun rose the next day to find them already leaving the city. A messenger had alerted them that Gormath had escaped his detention cell and was hunting them with a burning vengeance. Gale had the sniping vambrace and the evil-warding armor, while Flora had the chestplate of elemental resistance. Flora would engage Gormath and Gale would use his vambrace to injure or kill him. However, even after several days of flight, there was no sign of him. As afternoon of our fourth day from he cit grew warmer we alighted by a river to rest and relax. I watched quietly as Flora took a drink from the river...she was so beautiful...I crept up behind her and she snorted humorously as I mounted her and quickly thrust my penis deep inside her perfect pussy. "Oh that feels so gooood..." she moaned. She shot me a sly glance over her shoulder. "Buuuut...I want something a little different...shall we say, slightly higher?"

I gave her a proud smirk and pulled out of her, shifting my hips quickly to tickle her vagina before aiming a bit higher and slowly pushing into her tailhole, hooking my tail under myself and pushing it into her velvet slit. She purred loudly as I hilted myself into her butt, splaying her legs a bit to give me better access. I licked her neck and nibbled on her spine, making her shiver. "I hope you don't mind the bluntness," I hissed teasingly.

She wrapped her tail tightly around mine. "Actually Gale, I like it. I didn't mind you mounting me in the library did I?"

"Without your permission."

"Oh stop it. I love having sex with you, you know that already." She tightened herself around me. "Fill me already!"

I grinned evilly and thrust my tail a few times in her vagina. "Hmmm...someone's impatient..."

"Gale, knock it off! I wanna feel that penis of yours filling me with semen!"

That made me laugh. "Wow, that was blunt." She moaned as I started slowly gyrating my hips. "I wasn't asking you to beg."

"It got you harder though," she said with another sly grin. "Your penis got a bit bigger."

"Just for you," I retorted, getting her to purr. She started moaning and cooing cutely as I made love to her tailhole, pushing my tail deep inside her. She gasped as my tail rubbed the walls of her womb.

"Oh damn...it hurts...but it feels so goood..." she moaned, bucking against me. "Oh Gaaaaaale..."

It didn't take long for her to climax, and her relentless tightening around my penis just threw me overboard; we both collapsed on the ground and purred to each other as my penis pulsated inside her, filling her with thick ropes of warm cum. I pulled out of her and she cleaned us both off with her usual shell of water, and I got a surprised yelp from her as I grabbed her and rolled onto my back so she was on top of me. She murred with a pleased grin as I slid my erection back into her pussy as she rolled so she could face me. After a long, blissful kiss we took a nap in the warm sunlight.

As night fell I lay on my back and watched as the hazy sky cleared up, seeing Narcnos as a dark red disk against the dark blue sky. It reminded me of that night with Flora...

"Thinking of me, huh?"

"Wha?" I looked around and saw Flora standing by me with a grin on her pretty face. "Yeah...just thinking back." I paid no attention to the throbbing erection standing out of my sheath. Flora stepped over me with a giggle and slowly impaled herself on my penis, her sweet folds parting and enveloping my dragonhood in her heavenly tight warmth. She quickly started humping me and moaning with need.

"Oh Gale..."

"You like having my penis in you, don't you?" I asked teasingly, lightly raking my claws along her arms as she planted her paws on my chest for leverage.

"Your penis is so wonderful...oooooh..." she groaned as she slid my entire erection into herself and felt it push past her cervix into her womb. Now that she was on top of me I could see her better; it was weird yet very arousing to see a long bulge along her belly sliding up and down. She gasped as I rubbed that bulge; I could feel the pressure on my penis as I pressed my paw against it. I still couldn't believe that my dick was twice the size of a normal penis, but it didn't matter to us, Flora had no problem with my size.

"Sometime soon we'll have to abstain for a few weeks and I'll have to drink plenty of water," I said as I felt my testicles tighten a bit.

"Why's that?"

"To see if I can fill your womb completely with semen," I replied with a sly grin.

"I dunno if I can go for more than a week without your penis inside me," she moaned. "Oooooh yes..." We both gave a small roar of pleasure, Flora grinning happily as I came inside her. She lay down on me and purred; I couldn't resist hugging her close and petting her. As we lay there, enoying our afterglow amid the peaceful night sounds, Flora sighed and traced the scales on my arm with her claws. "Gale...do we have sex too much?"

"Nah. Why?"

"I dunno, it...just seems like we're only after each other for sex."

I ran my paw along her cheek and she held it there as she closed her eyes. "We're sex freaks, Flora. That's all I can really say. We satisfy each other's urges."

She purred again, folding her wings around us. "I'm surprised I'm not pregnant yet," she giggled. "But Gale...my cycle should be coming around soon..."

I placed my paw on her belly and she shrieked in surprise as I shared a vision of her insides; just like with her bruised bone, her body seemed to become colored glass. Straining myself I looked into her ovaries. They were preparing for her heat cycle, but oddly enough she didn't have any ova ready. "Heh...seems you're still not ready for carrying."

"What is this?" she asked, not knowing much about internal anatomy.

"I'll just put it simple and say you're in no danger of pregnancy anytime soon. We can fuck all we want when you're in heat." I had to let go of that vision power, it was giving me a headache from the strain of seeing the microscopic.

"You've only done that once before; it's kinda freaky."

"I don't use it often, it's pretty draining."

She snuggled against me for warmth, then slowly sat back up as she ran her paws up behind my neck, pulling my mouth against hers while purring. We lay there, cuddling for quite a while until Flora eventually drifted off to sleep. It was nearing midnight; I could feel Aznor and Flora's father leaving me. Aznor was awful quiet now...last time he had spoken to me was just before we left the city, telling me the nearest human village was at least two weeks away. We were now six days out, having flown at maximum speed the first tree days because of our avoidance of Gormath. The jewel he'd had was still secure...I hoped. He couldn't pose much of a threat to me without it, but he was still dangerous with his new demonic powers. What would drive him to consort to the supernaural to take me on? He was dooming himself...for being OCD and needing facts and truth, he sure was stupid for falling into evil means of obtaining the Lords of Negative Emotions. Either he was willing to condemn himself, or he refused to accept that he was not truly in control of his new "assistance"...meh, whatever. I ran my paw through Flora's finscales, admiring how soft she was as she slept on me.

The next ten or so days were grueling...a heavy storm has come from the west, our current direction, bringing first a sharp windstorm that not only made us have to walk for fear of being blown away, but also brought a bad dust cloud on us that stng our scales and ultimately made us seek shelter so we could actually breathe and clean our swelling eyes. Flora's water ability was invaluable, able to strip the irritants right off our eyes with very minimal discomfort. Aaaand I think you can guess what we did with that spare time...Flora enoyed her "snack" quite a bit ;). (Aha, an "emoticon"...well, whatever, I'm losing focus.)

After the dust storm we thought we were clear; Flora only felt rain approaching. What ended up coming through was farmore dangerous: hail and freezing rain. In the middle of summer. Go figure. I was able to shield us for a few hours, but beyond that I was spent and we again had to seek shelter. This time, though, we were too battered from the hail to make out, so we just quietly cuddled and kissed and slept until this phase of the storm passed. It was nasty outside...not too long after we settled in for the night, a huge thunderstorm came up and kept us up for half the night as sharp, ear-paining peals of thunder rolled over us amid the sharp howling of the wind and rain. Eventually the noise calmed down enough that we could talk, and we quetly discussed a potential family until we fell asleep. Flora really wanted to have children...but we both knew I couldn't give her any until this whole thing was sorted out. The next day broght another dangerous thunderstorm and again we had to hide. Good thing about all this rain, it was most likely keping Gormath at bay.

Finally we were clear, and the first thing we did was fly at full speed, using the storm's progression as a possible barrier against Gormath's vengeance. We were now two weeks away from the city, and sure enough, in the distance we saw pastures and cattle. The village couldn't be too far away, but now we had to walk. If we could see the fields, the farmers could surely see us, so we'd have to find a way through without behind seen.

Welllll...easier said than done. There was very little cover for us, and just as I'd read, a band of hunters had been able to sneak up behind us without us knowing at all until an arrow bounced off Flora's horn. I should've known better, but I'd never seen arrows before and we both panicked because we didn't know what we were up against. The hunters herded us into the strangel empty streets of the village. Before I could act on my feeling that the streets shouldn't be this quiet, Flora whipped around as windows and doors flew open around us and a whole mass of strange, pinkish-skinned bipedal creatures in multicolor clothing rushed out bearing spears, pitchforks, swords, daggers, clubs, scythes, you name it. No one threw anything at us, but they pressed in dangerously close. In front of me, they parted; I was about to rush through the gap but through the opening came what I assumed to be the village elder and his advisors, all bearing dragon-slaying polearms.

"Looks like we got ourselves some intruders," he said, pointing his spear at us.

"Oh...shit..." I hissed, Flora backing up against me, away from the deadly weapons pointed at us.

I crouched, ready to spring into action, but just as someone shouted for the attack, everyone stopped as a voice screamed "NOOO!!" To our surprise, a teenage human dressed in purple and gray jumped into view, positioning himself between us and the village elder. "Sir, you cannot do this! It's not right!"

"Dragons are the cause of our misery, they are vicious creatures!" the old man replied, and Flora looked over her shoulder at him and growled loudly. "See?"

"You're a vicious old fart!" the boy yelled, and the old man yelled.

"What did you just say, boy?!"

"Exactly what you said about them, and I got the same response from you that you got from them. They don't like being labelled any more than you do, it's pretty damn obvious!" We all looked at him in surprise, and the elder fumbled his words, enraged but seeing the boy's point. At length he smirked, though obviously still angry.

"Okay then, boy, they're yours. You want them to be safe, it's up to you. Stand down!" he barked, and the guards and villagers stepped away, many of them reluctantly, hoping the elder would change his mind. "But, seeing how our laws do not permit dragons to remain in the village--"

"They also state that declared pets, if proven loyal to their masters in five days, are inhabitants of the village regardless of type. I have five days, you cannot deny that. You've declared them my pets, now I have five days to prove them to you."

As confused as I was, I couldn't help laughing to myself at how this teenage human was making the elder go beet-red in the face. "Fine! Five days, boy, no more than that or you and your pets are out of the village!"

"Fine with me, if you people think you can strike down scared animals because of stereotypes, I'd gladly shake this town's dust from my feet."

Everyone glared at him and a few shouted foreign-worded insults, but eventually Flora and I were left alone with him. He shook his head, brushed his long brownish-blond hair from in front of his face, and looked up at me. I was a...oh what's that horse... a Clydsdale to him (is that right?); my back came up past his shoulders, and with my long neck I was more than half his height over him (I think about 8 or 9 feet). Flora edged around my side to get a better look at our protector. Under his loose purple shirt and knee-length gray pants, he was actually kind of handsome, although that sounds a bit odd coming from me. He wasn't bad-looking, let's just say that. He had bright-green eyes behind his glasses, which were slipping halfway down his nose as he studied us. His hair stuck out a bit from his head, and from behind I'd seen that he had...oh damn, what's the word...pomy-tail? Oh wait, ponytail, that's right...anyway, he had a strap of blue leather tying some of his hair back into a ponytail. He also had a band of blue fabric running around his head under his hairline.

"Let's get you two to my home and out of the street before anyone gets ideas," he said, and Flora and I looked at each other and followed him, having no choice now. The archers positioned in the towers could shoot us down if we tried to fly away, and we were walled in now...this boy was our only chance of survival here now that we were on the local S-list. His home was actually a small cave in the side of the mountain, and luckily for us it was big enough for the three of us to move around in without much discomfort. "Well, this is it, make yourselves at home...not like you or I have much a choice now..." Flora and I sat uncertainly in the back by his bed as he started a fire in the fireplace carved into the cave wall, from which the smoke followed a deep-carved groove in the ceiling out into the evening air. The boy finally sighed and turned to us. "Sorry about this whole thing...guess I really fucked myself over this time..." He gave us an odd glance. "Do you two even understand what I'm saying?"

"Why else would we have stopped when you came out?" Flora asked, and he looked at her in surprise.

"Dragons do talk! So the old bastard wasn't lying..."

"Well duh, we can talk!"

"Flora, settle down," I whispered, feeling her anger rising again. "Well, I hate to say it but looks like we're bound to you...uhhh..."

"Corin."

"Corin...'protector' in the old Osanese language..." He looked at me oddly and Flora sighed.

"So...'Master' Corin...what're we doing?"

Corin sighed, sitting at a crudely-crafted table and burying his face in his hands, his glasses shoved up over his forehead. "I honestly have no frickin' clue now. I need to prove you to the village, but I don't know how and they sure as hell won't tell me."

"Why not?"

He smirked and his hands fell to the table, and he laughed once. "I'm a troublemaker, but with good reason. There's a lot of injustice in this village...ever since I found my way here all I've seen is violence and just plain wrong stuff. I can understand their hate towards dragons, though, this village was burned by rampaging wyrms three years before I appeared here."

"Appeared?" I asked, noting the intonation.

"Don't ask. I wake up one day, not knowing who the hell I am or where I am, at the gates of this village with nothing but a sword and a necklace." He reached into his shirt and took out a large, glittering stone on a dainty silver chain. He turned it over in his hands, dropping it through his fingers and suspending it by the chain. "I know this belonged to my mother, but how I got it I have no idea."

Flora looked off to the doorway suddenly, and stood up with a low growl. "I hear someone..." I could hear very faint footsteps in the grass outside the cavern, and I smelled...a female. It was definitely human though, but a very feminine scent.

"Probably Lara..." He tucked the necklace into his shirt and stood up, heading towards the cavern entrance. Something didn't seem right... "Hey, what the-?" he asked in surprise as I stopped him with my tail.

"I smell poison," I whispered, and he stopped.

"Whoever it is, they've stopped," Flora whispered. Corin quietly rushed to the back of the cave, picking up a long, flattened straight object that looked like it was wrapped in leather. He pulled on one end, and a sword quietly came out with a faint metallic ring, its quillons jumping into a perpendicular position from their lock on the blade. It was about three and a half feet long, a rather large weapon for Corin's relatively thin frame, but he tiptoed past me to the cave entrance, hanging by the wall. Someone jumped into view and lashed at him, but with a yell he blocked the stab and quickly disarmed his attacker, kneeing her in the side as the force of her attack being blocked threw her off balance. She screamed and fell, and Corin roughly stepped on her arm and snatched the knife from her hand.

"I oughta hold my word and kill you, bitch," he said through clenched teeth. "I told you, any more attacks and I will defend myself."

"What's going on out here?" called an older male voice. "Corin...what the hell is going on?"

"She was coming to kill me...again." There was a brief pause; from where Flora and I were we could only hear. "Luckily the dragons sensed she was approaching."

"It's definitely her knife..." We heard the girl crying as she was forced up off the ground. "Don't cry like that, no one cares anymore. You've drawn the last straw." After the footsteps faded away Corin reappeared, wiping off his sword.

"Damn bitch...that's her last time out in the open."

"Who was that?" Flora asked.

"The elder's granddaughter. She's never liked me, and in the past two years she's tried about fifteen times to kill me. It finally caught on just a few months ago. Even though the townspeople hate me, assassination is a grievous crime and she was caught in the act."

"Someone else is coming," Flora said, creeping towards the doorway. "They're not sneaking up though."

"It's a girl," I said, listening and smelling the air along with Flora. I heard someone crying softly, and a teenage girl, maybe a year younger than our "master", appeared in the entrance.

"Lara!" Corin rushed to her and she fell against him, crying bitterly. "Shhhh...shhh...Lara...it's fine, you're okay...where did he hit you?"

"He d-didn't..." She sniffled and looked up at him. "My parents...they want you banished and the elder's listening to them..." She caught sight of us and started, clinging to Corin. "D-dragons! Corin..."

"Don't worry, they won't hurt you," Corin said, gently guiding her into the cave. Now that she was in the light, I can honestly say even though I'm a dragon, she was hot. Yes, I said hot. She was outright gorgeous, even though her face was stained with tears and she had some nasty bruises on her skin. She wore a now-tattered green skirt and a brown shirt under a thin-fabric stained white half-shin robe with short sleeves. Her hair was a pretty reddish-brown color and turned from straight by her head to curly towards the end. I couldn't see the color of her eyes but I caught a faint glint of purple-blue as she cringed against Corin. "Lara..." He stopped, and then looked at us. "I'm sorry, I'm a complete idiot. I didn't get your names before."

"Gale."

"Flora."

Lara looked surprised. "They speak our language?!"

"Common Tongue was created by dragons," I said. Flora looked at me oddly.

"It was?"

"Yeah, and it was passed on to other species almost a thousand years ago...I'm thoroughly surprised there hasn't been much change in the language with the separation." I saw the scared look on Lara's face and looked down. "Sorry..." She timidly held out her hand to me and Flora and I looked at her oddly.

"Animals usually smell the hand," Corin said.

"What's the need?" Flora asked, "we can smell you both from thirty feet away at least; that's how we knew you were coming."

Even though she was scared of us, she couldn't take her eyes off us. Eventually Corin cleared his throat. "Well...I guess I should get some dinner or something cooked up..."

Flora and I looked at each other uncertainly. "Ummm...is there any chance we might get to go hunting?"

"Hunting?" Lara asked nervously.

"We usually hunt deer or rabbits, or wild karse if they're available."

"Well, you two are in luck. Nearby I have about five deer, already skinned. Unfortunately...I don't know how I can feed you two, honestly, deer are hard to come by here."

"We're omnivores, we can live on berries and such."

"Oh, well, in that case, there's a berry infestation in the local gardens, you can try there tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Flora asked, her stomach growling.

Corin sat Lara on his bed. "Yeah...it'll have to wait. Last thing any of us needs is you two being labelled thieves and probably getting pincushioned by our archers."

He left to get a deer, and Lara eyed us nervously. Flora noticed and I saw her face go soft. "Lara? You okay?"

She shook her head and wiped her face with her robe. "Not really...too much has been going on all at once..."

"Like what?" Flora turned herself a bit to face Lara.

Lara looked at the floor and wiped her eyes. "It's mostly Corin...but now this, him defending dragons, and my parents...my parents trying to get him kicked out..."

"Why?"

"Corin was found outside the village five years ago...he had no idea where or who he was, so we took him in---my parents did, for a year or so. He's been causing trouble here since he came here...it's mostly all the stupid rules and all the mean stuff people can get away with..."

"What happened to you?" I asked, noticing her bruises again. "Why'd he ask if someone beat you again?"

She sniffled and hid behind her hair as she looked at the floor. "My dad...ever since Corin came he and mom have been so totally different...two years after Corin arrived he busted my dad's affair with another villager and he...he beats me in his frustration..." She started crying again. "He gets drunk and hits me...and no one cares except Corin..."

"Awwww..." Flora said, sympathetically upset, and Lara looked up when she felt Flora's tail push her hair back.

"You don't have any other family to go to?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"No...they all hate me because I like Corin...dad beats on me not only for venting but he thinks it's hurting Corin as well..."

Corin came back to the cave dragging a whole deer. "History lesson, huh?" he grunted, dragging the makeshift wooden sled the carcass was set on. "Lara, does your dad know you're out here?"

"I told him I was up on the gorge, he doesn't care anymore if I say I'm up there...he doesn't want me around."

Corin moved the deer over by the fire and sat on the bed and hugged her, and she leaned against him. "Shhh...you're fine here, Lara...I'm here..." He looked up at us and smirked. "And I got two dragons too...looks like you have three bodyguards."

"But I can't stay here..."

"You're 18 in five days, right? After that you're free to do whatever the hell you want." He patted her gently, running his hand through her hair, and she buried her face against him. Flora and I, to tell the truth, were bored. Sure, we felt sorry for these two, but we honestly had no idea how to react or what to say and could only sit there. Corin glanced up at us. "Oh, that's right, dinner. How much do dragons eat?"

"We can live on a small amount of meat for a night or so...maybe a third of a deer," I said.

His teeth clenched. "Eek, that's a lot...heh, this is gonna be harder than I thought."

Gale's mind raced quickly. "Well...I don't know if this would work but...what if Flora stays here with one of you and the other goes with me hunting? Flora's my mate and I'd be an idiot to run away from her...is Lara any good at hunting?"

"I think I see where you're going with this..." Corin said with a half-grin. "Lara's awesome with a bow."

"Not really, I'm sub-average," she said with a self-conscious grin.

"Sub-average isn't knocking down three deer in a row at maximum shot distance without missing."

"Corin could stay here with Flora, since he's in charge of us, and I could take Lara hunting. I can smell deer from a good distance so I might be able to help catch more than what you normally get."

"Before we plan this any further, let's eat so we're alive to go hunting," Flora said, and they all laughed and Corin served up the deer. The servings for the dragons were relatively small, but it kept them stable through the night. In the morning, under supervision from the farmers, Corin led Gale and Flora through the gardens to do something about the "berry infestation". The berries were a bit sour, but they had more than enough to consume. They headed back to the cave to find Lara suited up to hunt---she was in a close-fitting two-piece suit with a short shoulder-cape and a short waist-cape speckled with camouflage patterns, and her hair was tied back with a strap of cloth the same color blue as Corin's hairtie. The shoulder-cape hung from her shoulders, with a large U-cut behind the neck through which her quiver stuck out. She had thick-soled earth-brown shoes on her feet and shinguards to protect her legs from underbrush.

"Corin, I'm gonna need your bow...dad broke mine last night."

"It's at least 10 croms heavier than yours, you okay with that?" he asked, retrieving his bow from behind his bed.

"Lemme see." She took the bow and pulled on it a few times, posing in different shooting positions and gauging the strength. "Hmmm...well, it's not all that worse than mine, it'll just be harder gauging the distance and shooting angles with the extra power."

Corin strapped his sword to his back and Flora walked over to him. "You two be safe, okay? I've already gotten reluctant clearance from the guards."

Lara uncertainly climbed onto Gale's back and after some adjustment to lessen the likelihood of her falling off, Gale walked out and took to the sky. Lara shrieked and grabbed his neck.

"Hey whoa, let me straighten out the course..." He flew more laterally and slowly and Lara hesitantly sat up on his back. "Would it be easier if you laid down between my wings? That's how I carry smaller dragons."

"I'm not a quadruped, I need my arms to shoot."

"How do you humans ride creatures?"

"The same way I'm sitting on you but not right on the neck...and usually we have some kind of harness."

"Corin tried that this morning, saddles don't fit us." I was slowly circling and the archers below were getting antsy. "I don't feel like being a pincushion...where are we going?"

"North, there's a small flat area in the mountains where deer live. Very forested." I turned north and flew while Lara tried to find a way to comfortably sit on my shoulders. I had suggested she sit behind my wings but she was afraid my wingskins might get in the way of her arrows. Finally, after some uncomfortable moving around, I grabbed her shins and gently pulled her against my shoulders so she had pretty much no chance of slipping over one way or the other. "Uhhh...okay, not the most comfortable but it works."

"I smell deer already. How do you and Corin get deer to your homes?"

"Drag them, usually; no one will lend us their hunting sleds. Aha...I think I see it..." I heard the bow creak and she quickly held her breath and I refrained from jumping in surprise as I heard a loud twang-zip. I looked down and saw something run and fall over. "Yes! Killshot."

"Do we leave it there and get it later?"

"Well, let's land. I'll hide it and we can come back for it when we get the chance." Gale flew lower, careful not to jostle Lara with his wings as he braked, and she jumped off his shoulders as he came down to land. She had obviously been doing this for a while; Gale couldn't belive how quickly she hid the deer in the underbrush and loose dirt and scree of the mountainside, and how natural she made it look. "How many deer can you carry at once?" she asked as she hurried back to him.

"Well, two, one in each arm," he replied as she climbed up onto his shoulders. "I could carry one in my mouth but the distance is too far even for my powerful jaws."

"Powerful jaws?"

He leapt into the air and she grabbed his neck again until he levelled out. "Ice dragons are the only dragons that kill by biting the head or neck of their prey. May not look it but my mouth is strong enough to bend steel just by biting. And I've done it too; had to save Flora from a prison."

"That's...uhh...that's comforting..."

"Hey, I'm not gonna kill you or hurt you...or I'll try not to. So long as you keep those arrows out of my hide."

She laughed and they fell silent, scanning with their eyes (and in Gale's case, his nose) until they found a small herd of deer. Lara grunted to herself. "I wonder..."

"What?"

"I might be able to...but then it'd be a waste of arrows...Gale, can you hover in the air?"

"Uh, sure..." He braked with his wings and flapped them hard, rising and falling with the wing-beats.

"Agh! Too much motion...nevermind, flight is way more level."

"What're you planning?"

"Multishot."

"What?" But his question was answered when the bow creaked, she again held her breath quickly, and the string sang loudly. Gale looked down sharply as they passed over the herd of deer, and four fell to the ground as the others darted away. "Wow!"

"No shit!" she said excitedly. "Holy crap, perfect! I can't believe that actually worked! C'mon, land already I wanna see my accuracy!"

Gale laughed and descended, and Lara jumped off his back a good twenty feet above the ground and rolled on impact, rushing over to the fallen deer. Gale came up behind her and heard her mumble to herself. "Hmm...two to the spine, one lung shot and one through the heart through the back...I can't believe this!"

"That's some pretty damn good accuracy!"

She wheeled around. "One heart-shot out of four deer killed! You call that accuracy? I missed three out of four!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "What I call accuracy is having killed all four targets with one shot while in flight with a bow you're not used to and not having much experience with that kind of shot."

She looked down and laughed self-consciously. "Yeah, you're right...so that's five deer now, gotta hide these four."

"Well how about I carry two back, come back, grab the last two, and we keep hunting?"

"Corin's gonna skin us if we bring back too many!" she laughed. "That's extra work we hafta do for skinning and preparation! At most he was expecting three."

"Okay, we'll carry these back," I said, hunkering lower, and she slung herself up onto my neck and I picked up two deer. Within twenty minutes all five deer (counting the first one) were at Corin's cave, and he just gaped at us as I landed with the last one.

"Wow..." he said, running his hand over the carcass. "That was fast! Five deer in two hours?"

I walked over to Flora and she grinned and nuzzled my face. I glanced at Lara and smirked, turning to Corin. "You should ask her about the last four kills."

Lara blushed when Corin looked at her. "I tried a multishot on a herd of deer...four arrows."

"No way!"

I laughed. "Yeah, she downed them and then started complaining about how she only got one heart-shot out of four deer."

Corin rolled his eyes with a humored sigh. "That's Lara all right..."

One of the guards came back to find them cleaning the deer. I was stationed outside the cave, and held still as he warily held his weapon defensively and edged around me. More came up but they kept their distance, eyeing me suspiciously, but I didn't respond. Inside, I could hear them talking. "Corin, are your beasts done for the day?"

"We're not beasts," Flora growled, but Corin spoke up.

"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't address them so harshly. What're you here for captain?"

"You need to tell us when the dragons are done hunting."

"Oops...sorry, kinda forgot with all this work."

"By the way...how many deer is this? Lara wasn't gone very long at all."

"Five today," Lara replied.

"Five?!" There was some silence and the guard cleared his throat. "Corin...I have a question..."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Would you or Lara....mind helping the village these next few days?"

"How so?" Lara asked warily.

"I'm not supposed to let anyone know, but there's an impending famine. It's not supposed to hit for a few more weeks."

"What's that got to do with us?"

"Five deer in two hours shows some good hunting skills."

"You can thank Gale for that," Lara said. "He found them."

"Who's Gale?"

"The dragon outside."

"You've named them?"

Flora growled. "We have names of our own!"

I looked into the cave. "Flora, settle down a bit, we know you're frustrated." The guard glanced at me nervously but I sat back outside. I'll summarize what happened by saying the agreement was settled, and the next day Lara and I were off to gather deer while Flora and Corin helped harvest. We had a big day ahead of us, and Lara was very thankful that there was an overabundance of deer on the mountainside. After downing our fifth deer and carrying it to the meeting spot where the deer would be carted back to town, I couldn't help but notice that Lara was very preoccupied. "Lara? Something wrong?"

She sighed, staring at the ground and brushing her hair behind her ear. "I dunno..."

"Something's on your mind."

She sighed, not moving. "Gale...if I tell you, will you promise not to repeat it?"

"I'll try but you do know I'm under Corin's jurisdiction."

"I know...it's just...I've been thinking about him a lot lately. I'm also at the age where girls are expected to marry in these lands...but Corin...where'd he come from? What was he like before we met? I really like him and all, but...I'm really afraid. What if he was a murderer and his memory comes back? If he does remember who he really is, what's gonna happen?"

"Lara, no one can answer those questions for certain. I've seen how he protects you, though, and when you're gone he often seems to think about you. If his memory does return, I'm pretty sure he'll still be okay."

"How so?"

"Only Corin knows this, but...I have the same problem with Flora, but I know what's wrong with me. Have you ever happened to hear of Aznor, the Lord of Anger?"

"Yeah, Dad was researching the Chaos Lords a few years back."

"Aznor is bonded to me."

She looked at me in shock and I just looked at the ground. "Y-you're possessed?!"

"Yes, and I've been suppressing his influence to keep Flora safe. I love her beyond anything else. That's how I know that Corin will be fine, memory or not; if he really does love you, he'll do his best to keep you safe." She eyed me nervously and I chuckled. "I'm not gonna bite or anything, Lara. He hasn't touched me for weeks now."

"Well...okay I guess..." We continued with our hunt, and it seems the delay had done us some good; in the time it had taken us to have that chat, several more deer appeared in a spot we'd just visited, and we had pretty damn good pickings from that herd before they were gone from bow-range. We needed to leave some to repopulate, but by the time we were done we were pretty much hunting idols.

Corin was pretty excited when it came time to go before the elders with us. It was also Lara's 18th birthday, but her parents had officially kicked her out of the house that morning and she'd gone straight to Corin's cave. Corin had a surprise for her, but he said it'd have to wait until after the summons to the elders. We walked into the town square and I glanced around nervously---something wasn't right with the way people were looking at us. Corin stood before the old men gathered in the center, and they laughed.

"He shows up to his doom's step on time at least."

"Sir?" Corin asked, confused.

"Corin, you are hereby banished from the village."

...We froze. Corin cleared his throat in shock. "Sir, I believe these dragons have proven themselves loyal to me in these five days."

"No, all we've seen is you using their traits in your favor."

"What about the berry infestation?"

"Dragons need to eat, nothing special about that."

"The deer? That whole day we spent saving this village's ass from starvation?" He got a few rude comments but ignored them.

"Simple manipulation of a dragon's desire and ability to hunt."

"And lemme guess, saving the daycare from the wolves was just them going after enemy creatures in their territory?"

"Exactly."

"We did that because it was the right thing to do!" Flora yelled in anger. "Your children were in danger!"

"Our decision is finalized. Corin, you are to be out of the village by midday or you'll be executed along with your 'pets'."

Corin's mouth moved wordlessly. "Ex-executed?! What the fuck have I done for that?!"

"Our decision is final!" the oldest man snarled. "Now go!"

"Get him!" cried one of the villagers, and there was a loud yell as everyone surrounded Corin. "Don't let him leave!" Lara screamed as they started hitting him. I grabbed her and looked her in the eyes.

"Flora will take you back to the cave, get Corin's stuff and meet us at the gates! GO!" Flora grabbed Lara by the shoulders and with a powerful shove of her wings they were airborne. The blast of air had caught the villagers' attention.

"They're escaping! Grab the dragon!" one of them shouted, but they didn't dare come near me as they saw my mouth glowing. Thinking quickly I noticed one in the back about to lunge a spear at me, and in its parabolic flight I froze it. The blast was blinding and sent a thick cloud of ice powder everywhere, and I ran in, grabbed Corin, and flew off before they could recover. I heard their angry yells behind us, but without horses they had no chance of catching me. However, not all the villagers were gathered there; the smarter ones had gathered near the gates and were armed with arrows.

"Arrows versus ice isn't a smart match!" I called, but they shot at me anyway as I approached. To their surprise a sphere of ice surrounded me and the arrows couldn't get through it. Flora and Lara weren't there yet, but I had a feeling they were also under attack. I'd told them to meet at the gates, so Corin and I had no choice but to try to secure the gates. That didn't take long, but my side hurt like hell when I let my shield down without realizing an arrow was headed at me from behind. Damn good thing the shooter was only using a shortbow and was hiding in the alley...By the time we'd scared them off, the rest of the village was headed for the gates, but so were Lara and Flora and together we hightailed it outta there. Lara had gotten cornered at the cave, but Flora had zapped her attackers to let Lara get Corin's sword and equipment.

"Pity we had to leave the deer behind," Flora sighed when the village was out of eyesight, and we all laughed.

Night brought us not only deer, but a pheasant for Corin and Lara, and we had a literal feast, albeit a bit bland from lack of seasonings but still, we slept full. It was growing colder outside so Corin and Lara lay between me and Flora under our wings. With the extra body heat from the humans it was actually very cozy, even though both Corin and Lara were rather bony and their joints dug into us as they turned in their sleep. Lara didn't notice because she was too fast asleep, but I had to move her because her elbow was spearing my crotch. Flora laughed to herself at that. As the others all slept, my mind was racing. We now had humans with us; that ight help us get through these territories more easily, but at the same time they might slow us down...and that delay in the village might have allowed Gormath to catch up or may have even given him news of our exact location. On top of that, we needed to find that crystal to free Flora's father, and ultimately kill Orcharis with Aznor's help (or just destroy Aznor and the others all at once). I looked up at the clear sky, seeing a few strands of the daily haze float by as they dissolved. What were we in for now?