The Dragon's Bounty

Story by Jeeves on SoFurry

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A dragon's presence haunts a small mountainside village, and no amount of knights and heroes seem able to quell its fire. So what, if anything, can one unarmed man possibly do to claim the dragon's bounty?


This commission was written for pokemonmaniac3595. It contains M/M sex between consenting adults, and TG/TF content!

The Dragon's Bounty

Five hundred gold pieces.

That was all Evan could think about as he approached the cave. Not the scorch marks upon the rocks all around him, nor the strewn bones present across this rather barren rocky outcrop.

Five hundred.

Not five. Not fifteen. Not fifty.

Five. Hundred.

Evan had been poor all his life. His family had lived for generations in the same thatched hut just a few miles from here, and while they had never truly known starvation or homelessness, life had never been comfortable. It had never been easy.

Then the dragon had come. Setting up a roost on this clifftop and beginning to hoard. To seek out the rich and the powerful across the kingdom and relieve them of their gold and jewels. It had left Evan's village alone, a few missing sheep and cattle aside, but their proximity to the dragon's lair meant that others had not given them the same free pass. Envoys had come from across the kingdom to view the dragon's hideout, to plot and scheme as to how they were going to rid themselves of the beast before it grew any larger or more powerful. Knights had passed through on their way to slay the dragon... none to return. And then, more recently, the bounty hunters.

The dragon had not harmed their village, but those mercenaries and money grabbing scoundrels... they'd done irreparable damage. Trashing the local tavern. Raiding the stores for supplies in the dead of night. Taking women and... and doing unspeakable things to them, all in the name of the King whose bounty they were pursuing.

That was why Evan was here. To take that bounty for himself. To free his village not from the dragon, but from the bounty hunters who were here to slay it. If he did their job for them, if he rid the kingdom of this winged, gold-hungry menace, they would have no reason to remain. No reason to continue to punish his village simply for being conveniently located for their raping and pillaging needs.

Standing before the cave's mouth, blunt shortsword in one hand, crude metal plate shield in the other, Evan drew in a deep breath. From within the cave he heard a distant, organic rumbling, and felt a blast of hot air flow through him; ruffling his coarse, hand-stitched tunic and trousers.

Realistically, Evan knew he was probably about to die. If armoured, professionally trained knights had failed, why the hell should he succeed? But he had to try. He couldn't live with himself knowing that next time a fresh band of mercenaries rolled into the village, it could be his mother or sister who would find themselves falling into their clutches.

"Mother, Father..."

Glancing over his shoulder, Evan closed his eyes in a silent prayer.

"Watch over my village. Keep my people strong and my family safe in this time of strife."

For one final moment he looked backwards, towards his old life and the normal, human world he'd spent the last twenty four years of his life learning to live in. Then he turned his head, and with a grim expression fixed upon his face, strode forward into the cave.

Once within the cavern, rocky walls on all sides, Evan did not slow his pace. There was little sense in being sneaky. Little point in trying to surprise the dragon. It knew he was coming. It had probably been able to smell him since he arrived upon the plateau, never mind since actively entering the cave. To Evan's mind, anyone who thought they were smarter or stronger than a dragon was almost certainly a dead man. It would only be by recognising his position as the underdog, treating every second of their encounter like it could be his last, that Evan had any chance of succeeding.

By the time Evan found himself deep enough into the cave that the light from outside was beginning to fade, a new source of illumination was beginning to shine from within. A deep red glow that flickered upon the greyish black walls. The closer Evan came to where he suspected the dragon would be dwelling, the brighter and more volatile the flickering became; a sizeable fire obviously burning up ahead. Sure enough as the cave opened up into a large, rocky chamber deep within the cliffside, Evan found his path blocked by a patch of ground that had been reduced to molten slag. Flames sprang up from the bubbling, hissing liquid rock at least ten feet high, and in an almost perfect line just in front of the fire, there lay no fewer than eight armoured corpses; skeletal remains charred within the contorted, partially melted remains of the knights' defences.

"Damn..."

This was why the dragon had so easily defeated all its opponents. Because they couldn't even get close to it. Could likely only stand and watch as they challenged the dragon to combat, and felt it subsequently burn them to a crisp.

Evan clenched his fists around his weapons. It couldn't be over already. He couldn't just give up.

"D-Dragon!"

The colour drained from the man's face as he heard himself crying out in frustration. Calling out, challenging the winged beast just as tradition said one was supposed to.

"I have no armour. N-no banner to hoist before me. I don't even have a desire to fight you. You have done my family no harm, nor drawn either gold or blood from any of those I love. But... but I fear I must face you nonetheless, and ask that you face me. So I might meet glorious victory, or heroic death."

His voice echoed out through the cave, before fading into the steady, continual bubbling crackle of the fire. There was no response, not at first anyway. No sign of life or movement of any kind from beyond the flames. Evan began to wonder if perhaps he had gotten it wrong. If the dragon was not in fact roosting during the day as he'd heard, and that the flames before him might be there not to keep the dragon safe from intruders, but rather to keep the dragon's hoard safe while it was out hunting or gathering yet more treasure.

"There is no such thing as a heroic death."

Evan whirled around on the spot, the soft, hissing yet immensely loud voice seeming to come from all around him.

"No mortal meets death as a hero. Those knights you see before you, they believed themselves to be heroes. But at the end, they wept, and they screamed, and they begged as they burned."

The voice wasn't coming from anywhere around him. Evan realised that as it continued to speak to him. It was coming from within. Inside his head.

All of a sudden, the fire before the mortal man ceased to burn. The ground hissed and steamed, rapidly solidifying, as from within the cavern beyond Evan saw a dark figure stirring. Rising up onto four powerful scaled limbs, stretching out its long neck, red eyes glowing in the gloom, and advancing towards him.

The dragon approached Evan, and Evan approached the dragon. They walked towards one another slowly but steadily, both with their weapons at the ready, but neither eager to use them.

They stopped face to face, the dragon's head roughly three times larger than that of the pale skinned human. Its maw didn't move, but still Evan heard it speaking within his mind once more.

"You are the first to make it this far, little man. Do you feel proud? Brave?"

Evan shook his head, swallowing thickly.

"I feel... s-scared."

The dragon growled. Evan felt his knees threatening to buckle.

"Smart. It is good to be afraid. To have your heart pounding, your body priming every survival instinct. Do you know what a survival instinct is, little man?"

The human nodded, his stomach tying itself in knots as he found himself not locked in combat, but rather in conversation with this supposedly savage, monstrous beast.

"Yes. It's like... like fight or flight. The instinct to either run, or to stand your ground and hope that your opponent doesn't do the same."

Another growl escaped the dragon, and the corners of its maw curled upward, almost as if it was smiling at Evan.

"Correct. Though there are other survival instincts beyond those. The desire for self preservation, for instance. Did you know that some creatures, when they fear death, are compelled to breed?"

Evan's eyes widened. He said nothing, and the dragon continued.

"If death is a possibility, some animals are seized by the urge to propagate their species. To ensure that even if they die, their material essence will live on. A natural legacy."

Gazing up and down the length of Evan's body, the dragon took a step closer to the human. It pressed its face up against the blade of Evan's sword, allowing the flat edge of the cold metal to rub up against its scales.

"I have been afraid, little man. Afraid of the men coming for me with blades sharper than yours. With the desire to murder, and to destroy all that I am. I have been afraid for a very long time... just as I have been alone for a very long time."

In an instant, with a single twitch of its head, the dragon took the blade of Evan's sword into its maw and big down upon the steel. It shattered like ice, and dragged the human male out of the almost hypnotic reverie which the dragon's telepathy seemed to have induced. Evan span around, eyes wide and heart still thundering with terror. He had tried to face the dragon, truly he had, and he had failed. Now all that mattered was escaping with his life intact.

A clawed arm reached out from beneath the dragon's long, lithe torso, and grabbed Evan by the leg. He tumbled to the rocky ground, crying out in pain as his palms were grazed against the rough rock. Closing his eyes, Evan tensed up; waiting for the searing agony of fire that was surely about to bathe him from head to toe. He felt his whole body trembling, every fibre of his being alive with the very survival instincts that the dragon had spoken of. The urge to run. The desperate need to try and escape, to fight if that was what it took. Even the latter instinct of which the dragon had told him. Deep down, he could feel it. Mixed in with the boiling, racing flow of his blood, the need to fuck. To breed.

No fire consumed Evan. No dragon breath charred his flesh from his bones. Instead he felt the dragon lifting him off the ground with that one clawed limb, and carrying him back into the cavern. To its hoard. To its nest.

Evan grunted in pain as he was tossed down upon a mountainous stack of golden coins. Far more than the five hundred he had been promised if he slew the beast which dwelt in this cave. He didn't have time to even attempt escape, only to fling his arms up over his face defensively as he saw the dragon's clawed forelimb lashing out rapidly towards him once more. He could feel the claws tearing through his clothes, and any second was certain that his flesh would follow; torn apart with equal ease.

But no. Once again Evan was wrong, and though he could feel his clothes being torn apart by the dragon's diamond-tough, blade sharp claws, his body remained utterly unharmed.

"O-oh..."

The man's eyes widened. A sudden thought crossing his mind that simultaneously filled him with terror and anticipation.

"Oh n-no. God..."

He glanced down, beneath the clawed, outstretched arm of the dragon now tenderly peeling away the tattered remains of his britches and undergarments, to the underside of the winged lizard's body. Sure enough, just as Evan had feared, he saw it. Swollen and erect, a vast shaft of deep red, ridged flesh. An erection the best part of a foot in length, and thicker than any Evan had ever seen before.

Once more, the dragon's voice suddenly erupted within his mind.

"Oh yes. Don't fight it, little man. Embrace the fear... let your instinct guide you. Survive. Breed. Let my children have a chance, even if I am to be hunted to the ends of this earth."

With his body now bare, only the smallest shreds of tattered fabric remaining upon his torso and legs, Evan let his shield drop from his hand as he rolled over and tried frantically to scramble away from the dragon. He groaned in anguish as the mountain of coins upon which he was propped began to shift and tumble beneath him, effectively rendering him perfectly still as he scrambled up the collapsing mountain. Just seconds later, the human male felt a great weight settle over him. He saw two strong clawed forelegs settle either side of his head, and watched as the dragon's long neck snaked its way down and around to meet his gaze, eye to eye.

The dragon stared at Evan with savage anticipation, its tongue flicking in and out, saliva dripping to the ground.

"You will be a good mother. You are not cruel, but are willing to do what is necessary."

Evan was so confused. A mother?! He was male. He was a man. Every part of him was all man. He knew that for certain, because to his embarrassment and horror, he could feel himself growing hard. His cock rapidly rising from flaccid to full arousal thanks to a combination of the adrenaline coursing through him, the dragon's heat and weight surrounding his bare body, and of course the feeling of that vast member.. its tip already grazing at the smooth, pale flesh of his buttocks.

"You can feel it already, can't you? You know what's coming. You're smart. For a human, at least. But soon... soon you'll be far more than human. Soon you will be my mate. My queen."

The dragon's hips jerked forward, and Evan cried out in helpless, overwhelmed excitement as he felt a thick spurt of pre-cum drooling down between the cheeks of his ass. He didn't know if he could feel it before, but now that the dragon had mentioned it, there was certainly a strange tingling, throbbing sensation deep within Evan's stomach. A feeling that something was different. That he was different, one which grew more and more powerful with each passing second.

"I... I... a-ah! Oh god, p-please... ahhh!"

Evan didn't know what he had been planning on saying, what he thought was worth trying to communicate to the dragon whose only intention right now seemed to be breeding with him, but before he could even attempt more than a single word the human felt his dragon lover begin to act on those urges. He felt the vast cock of the reptilian monster pressing up against him, still oozing pre as it wiggled and strained against the tight pucker of his rear end. He felt more of that slick, hot fluid gushing out over his bare flesh, and with every squirming stroke from the dragon became ever more certain about what was happening to him.

As his hands clutched and scrabbled helplessly at the golden coins littered all around him, Evan could see his flesh changing. With the fire extinguished the cave was dark, only the glow of the dragon's eyes illuminating the scene, but that was more than enough to identify the patternation and texture appearing on Evan's skin. It was becoming rougher. Stronger. It was drying out and flaking almost like scales. Scales that darkened from a pale flesh tone to a faded green, while the male's fingernails began to grow and stretch into sharp, black claws.

A desperate, howling roar of confusion, of excitement an of pleasure escaped Evan as he felt more of himself beginning to change. His mouth extending and twisting into a lizard-like maw, his eyes rolling back into their sockets with pleasure as he felt a tail bursting out from above his buttocks. He felt himself growing, his muscle mass increasing. His whole body becoming bigger, stronger. Big and strong enough not only to support the dragon's weight, its clawed forearms wrapping around the length of his hardening scaled torso, but also to take what the dragon was feverishly offering to him.

"Y-yes!"

Evan grunted in delight as he felt the dragon buck his hips sharply, and at long last the tip of the beast's cock made it through the outermost layer of the former human's defences. It began to sink into him with a series of sharp, urgent thrusts. Each one drawing a cry not just from Evan's maw, but from the dragon delivering those pounding strokes too. He wanted to fight it, wanted to resist the pleasure and the changes sweeping through him, but with each moment and each new wave of glorious sensation to pass through him, Evan had to force himself to want it. Or rather, to force himself not to want the changes to continue, to accelerate as they now appeared to be.

No longer human, but not a dragon either; still bearing two legs and arms, no wings, but the head and the scaled body and clawed limbs of the monster fucking him, Evan felt himself starting to push back against the dragon's ever more frantic thrusts. He urged the dragon to go deeper, to mate him and breed him harder with every stroke and every desperate snarl to escape his own scaled, toothy maw.

"You want this?"

No matter what Evan's rational, human mind might have said, there was only one answer his body could have possibly given at that point in time.

"You need this?"

The former human roared his assent, snarling and wailing in pleasure as the dragon's forelimbs grabbed at his sides, the winged lizard rolling over and sprawling hungrily out upon the carpet of gold and jewels which comprised his hoard. Evan found himself seated now, upright upon the dragon's lap; actively bouncing, riding the still larger, stronger beast. He threw back his head and cried out desperately, reaching down with one free, clawed hand to grasp at his cock. To rub himself. To pleasure himself. To grant himself the same release which the dragon no doubt sought.

He reached down, and growled in confusion. He grasped at himself again, and snarled with desperate longing. For some unfathomable reason, the former human couldn't find his cock. He could feel his body aching with pleasure and desire, begging to be touched. But as he looked down between his legs, to the former human's horror, he saw not a single sign of either his cock or balls.

From beneath him, the dragon growled and laughed. A sound not echoing in Evan's mind any longer, but actually escaping from the vast dragon's maw.

"My queen... you have much to learn about yourself."

Clutching at Evan's flanks with both powerful forelimbs, the dragon lifted his lover's body up; clean off his dripping, straining cock. Evan roared in desperate desire, but soon fell into stunned silence as his mate began to lower him down once again.

Evan felt something pressing against himself. Against a part of himself that felt unfamiliar, but strangely pleasant.

He...

She..

She felt the dragon's cock probing at the outer reaches of her slit, its scaled exterior swollen with arousal, exposing the soft, warm and wet flesh within.

All at once, two conflicting messages erupted through the brand new female's brain. One from her former self. Human and male, begging her not to proceed. To stop this now. To fight. To run. To do anything but allow this to happen to them. And the other message from her new self, her new mind. Female, half human half dragon, and desperate to join her mate in procreation. To be bred, and filled with the essence of her lover's children.

In truth, of course, there was only ever going to be one winner. With the dragon's cock already rubbing at the lips of her pussy, its pre-cum already glistening upon the smooth scales of her crotch, there was nothing that Evan could do to resist her own body's needs. Even if the dragon hadn't been holding her tightly astride him, ready to drive her down onto his cock, she would have begged him and fought him for that right with every last ounce of her willpower.

" Yes!"

The female shrieked as she was bred. Taken. As she was filled by her mate and her pussy was finally given the chance to experience what it had been waiting for since the moment it came into creation. Her already burning depths clamped down fiercely around the dragon's shaft, hungrily squeezing and milking it, while her legs urgently drove her body up and down the length of her mate. She knew she didn't have long. She could sense both his and her imminent release, and wanted to make the very most of every second they had together. Not only for her own personal satisfaction, but to re-enforce the primal bond which they were forging together.

It felt almost painfully brief, the time which Evan was given with her mate in full awareness, fully conscious knowledge of what was happening between them. She didn't feel like she'd had nearly enough time to enjoy the act, the furious force of her lover's passion, before once more she began to lose control. Before the sheer ecstasy of the dragon's sizeable shaft inside her became so intense that her mind began to drift, and the residual traces of her former self began to emerge once more.

"Yes, m-my maker! Yes.... breed me. C-claim me. Make me..."

"Oh god. N-no... I think... I think he's about to..."

"Do it! Please, fill me. Give me your seed, y-your children."

"I... I can't! Can't have children, I... I'm a man. I'm human, n-not a... not..."

"A dragon! Your dragon. Oh please, d-do it now. Do it! Yes... yes!"

The dragoness threw back her head with a primal screech of rapture, feeling not only her body let loose with its savagely intense orgasm, but sensing the final remnants of her former self being mentally tossed aside; not destroyed entirely, but in no position to spoil her fun while she was having it. With her lover's carnal cries echoing around the cavern alongside her own, and the feeling of his hot seed flooding her innermost workings, the female lost herself in pleasure. She let the act and all that it meant, all that it could possibly mean consume her.

In the wake of her climax, the dragoness' memory was hazy. Flashes of herself being lifted off the dragon's cock, a veritable flood of excess cum pouring out between them. Her lying upon the base of his tail, shivering in lingering bliss as she licked and kissed his powerful arousal, cleaning it and rendering her own maw a sticky mess in the process. His tongue cleaning her in return, sending hisses and gasps of pleasure echoing through the cavern once more. Then, finally, the two of them stepping outside together. Into the daylight. Their noses bumping, deep growls escaping their maws, and the female dragon letting loose a roar of anguish as her lover took flight. Never to return to the plateau and its new wealth of abandoned treasure ever again.

Falling to her knees, the dragoness groaned in sorrow. In mourning for her maker, her mate, knowing that she would likely never see him again. She could still smell him. Still taste him. His essence was all over her, but never again would she know the feeling of his touch. The pleasure of his presence all around and within her.

And yet... she couldn't remain too sad, not for long anyway. For while she was alone right now, the dragoness knew that would not be the case for long.

She had his parting gift. Tucked away in her belly, a clutch of eggs to lay that would develop, and hatch into a new generation of fully formed, winged dragons. Ready to eat, to grow, and one day to set off on their own. To find a secluded spot and to gather a hoard with which to attract a mate. A suitable human with a heart that was pure, to transform and breed with. Continuing the unique life cycle that made dragons so rare, and so deadly to almost all who met with them. All but those who were truly good, and kind, and probably did not deserve to have their whole world changed around them.

But of course, change was not always bad.

The dragoness was not who she had once been, but that human male still remained within her; a part of who she was and who she would continue to be. Evan was still confused and very much scared by what had happened to him. He didn't fully understand it, and no matter what innate knowledge his new self seemed to possess, she didn't appear ready to share it all with him quite yet. However, for all his fear and concern over his new body, his new gender, his possible pregnancy... Evan dared not wish to turn back the clock and change things.

The dragon was gone. The attacks on the rich would stop, which means the interest of the rich would also draw to a rather swift close. In turn, that would mean the departure of the mercenaries and bounty hunters from his former village, and the safety of his family.

Evan was scared. Evan was completely unprepared for this new life which he... which she had been forced into. But he was grateful, too. And he was glad. He might not have quite achieved the reward he had expected, or succeeded quite in the manner that he hoped. In the end though, his most important goal had been achieved.

In the end, no matter what lay ahead, it had been worth it.

By Jeeves