by Logan Jacobs
Ahwara let out a yelp of pain as she pulled back, and Ardwen slugged her in the face. The orange-haired Morpho’s body went limp as her wings beat softer and softer. Then she fell down onto the ground with a harsh thud.
“Ahwara!” I growled as I pulled myself back up to my feet, but I had to grit my teeth to keep from screaming out in pain. Any time I tried to put weight on my injured leg, jolts of agony spread up my side and threatened to put me back on the ground.
But right now, I couldn’t let that happen.
My women needed me. My son needed me. My people needed me.
I needed to kill this bastard before he caused any more harm.
It was time to pull a Samwise Gamgee.
I gritted my teeth through the excruciating pain as I half-limped, half-ran over to where the fallen Morpho woman laid.
“Like I said, Draco Rex.” Ardwen clicked his tongue as he fluttered down to the ground. “These women are meant for mating, not for fighting.”
“We’ll see how you feel about that when all of your men are dead,” I taunted, but Ardwen wasn’t having it.
“Please,” the green-haired Morpho scoffed as he scooped up his weapon. “Look at you. You can barely walk.”
“I don’t need to walk to kick your ass,” I reminded him as I lunged forward with my sword.
This time, Ardwen was more than ready. He held up his fan-blade vertically and watched with glee as my blade pierced the leathery connectors. Then, in a single motion, the Morpho man snapped the fan-blade shut around my weapon, gave it a yank, and threw my sword back about fifty feet across the room.
“You were saying?” He raised an eyebrow before he took a swing at me.
I jumped out of the way of the attack, reached down for my dagger, and--
Grabbed air.
Fuck. I gave my dagger to Zerandrie earlier.
It looked like I had to do this the old-fashioned way…
Just think, Ben… You might be unarmed, but the military taught you to use your whole body as a weapon. Also, I had one slight advantage over Ardwen.
The Morpho man’s weapon was short ranged. That meant if he wanted to go in for a deadly blow, he needed to get in really close.
And once he did that, it was game over for the bastard.
So, I dodged three more swipes of Ardwen’s fan-blade before I made my move. The next time he raised his blade, I threw my body up close to his, used my weight to knock him slightly off-balance, and then reached up and grabbed his wrist to keep his weapon from coming down. Finally, while he was slightly incapacitated, I began to Muay Thai my knees into the side of his body as hard as I could.
The first three blows were fairly tame, but on the fourth strike I distinctly heard the sound of snapping ribs.
Ardwen roared with pain as he pulled himself free of my grip and punched me in the face. He tried to attack me as I stumbled backward, but once again I was ready.
I dodged the attack, threw my fist into his jaw, and sent a few of his teeth clattering onto the floor.
As he stumbled a few feet backward, the head of one of his teammates rolled past our position, and it looked like it hadn’t been severed cleanly at all. In fact, the poor fucker’s head appeared to have been torn off his body violently…
“We got him!” Lezan cried out in an excited tone as she came into view on my left.
“Little acorn hoarder thought he could just keep dodging us forever,” Nadir added with a savage, sharp-toothed grin. “But he couldn’t dodge these prickly chompers.”
“Go help the others,” I commanded the Coonag women before I turned back to Ardwen. “You see that? Now, I only count seven of you. One-by-one, you’re all going down.”
Ardwen’s brow furrowed, and then he rose up into the sky a few feet on his injured wings and rocketed toward me like a gimped Superman.
I held my ground as I waited for the perfect moment to counter. If I tried to run, he’d just catch me. Plus, I would have my back turned, so it would be way too easy for the Morpho to pick me off. So, I had to time this just right…
At the last second before impact, I twirled around to the right, threw out my hand, and grabbed onto one of Ardwen’s wings. Then I John Cena’d the fucker’s own momentum against himself as I spun his body and released him toward the nearest wall.
Ardwen tried to stop himself, but it was in vain, and he let out a gurgled scream as he slammed face-first into the wall and sent even more cracks spreading across it.
“Ha!” I heard Sela declare. “Anyone for some skewered Morpho?”
I briefly glanced over to see the dragonkin warrior had driven her spear through the skull of her attacker.
“Five,” I taunted Ardwen as he slowly and groggily pulled himself back to his feet. “You’re going to run out of men here pretty soon.”
Then a wet shlock came from behind me.
“Four!” Nadir cackled.
Ardwen’s face was covered with bruises as he stood up, and blood oozed from his mouth with every single breath he took.
“You think you’re so fucking clever, don’t you?” he sneered. “Let’s see how funny you are when your vocal chords are hanging out through your throat!”
Ardwen ran at me at full speed, and I quickly surveyed my surroundings for a weapon I could use.
My sword was all the way on the other side of the chamber, and Zerandrie still had my pink-stone dagger, but there was one weapon that was close.
A fan-blade from one of the fallen Morpho men.
I’d never used one before, but I supposed now was just as good a time as any, so I dashed over to the weapon, picked it up, and held it at the ready.
It was way heavier than I’d expected, probably a result of the iron it was made from. Still, something about the fan-blade felt… natural to me.
Ardwen threw his blade toward my head, so I swiftly sidestepped the attack, but a flash of pain erupted in my leg from the evasive maneuver, and my vision went white for a split second.
I regained my sight just in time to see Ardwen’s fist slam into my face. Pain erupted in my nose as I stumbled backward, but I wasn’t going down yet.
I took a wild swing with the fan-blade and heard the Morpho fucker cry out in pain as it sliced his upper thigh. Then, while he was still disoriented, I brought up the weapon once again and slashed him across the chest.
Even more blood erupted out from his wound, and the green-haired bastard seemed like he was about done.
He weakly tried to attack once more, but I easily knocked it away with my own weapon. Still, Ardwen looked woozy and defeated, though he retained his spunk.
That didn’t last long.
Before he could make another move, I brought the blade up to his neck and slashed it across his tanned skin.
Blood erupted from Ardwen’s throat as he was cut like a butchered pig, and he instantly dropped his weapon and reached up to his throat as he gurgled for breath. Then he fell down onto his knees and watched helplessly as the blood drained from his body.
Behind me, I heard a gasp of pain, followed by a thud.
“Three!” Candara exclaimed.
“Hear that?” I growled as I approached Ardwen. “You lose, motherfucker.”
Ardwen looked up at me with terror in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something snarky, but all that escaped were increasingly lifeless gurgles. Then the color drained from his face, and his eyes rolled back into his head. Finally, Ardwen’s body collapsed onto the ground as his wings slowly draped down over himself.
He was dead.
“Two!” I smirked as I turned back to the rest of the team.
The three airborne Morpho women still fought against their flying attacker, but Jemma and the Coonag women had joined the fray now, with the Niralope woman trying in vain to get a clear shot at her opponent. At the same time, Lezan and Nadir were hissing as they jumped up and used their battle axes like clubs.
On the other side of the room, Sela, Mira, and Arrick were still fighting
off their second Morpho, but that didn’t last long.
As I turned to face them, Mira used the hilt of her spear to sweep the Morpho’s legs out from underneath him, and waiting behind him, of course, was Arrick’s short blade. My son’s weapon stabbed through the Morpho from behind, and the fucker went limp.
“One!” Arrick proclaimed with a proud grin.
So, I turned back to our final enemy, got myself into position, and then held the fan-blade like a frisbee. It was just like tracking a clay pigeon. All I had to do was aim a few feet in front of its trajectory, so the projectile would be getting there at the exact same time as the target.
I took a deep breath before I pulled back and released the blade.
It spun through the air as it approached its intended target, and there was a wet shluck as it landed straight into the side of the fucker’s neck.
Blood erupted from the Morpho’s jugular as he plummeted to the ground, slammed against the floor, and then dragged his gory heap of a body a few more feet. By the time he had come to a stop, he was already dead.
“Fucker of Mothers.” Mira whistled. “We did it.”
I walked over to my fallen sword, picked it up off the ground, and sheathed it as I looked around proudly.
“We sure as fuck did,” I proclaimed. “We--”
Then my heart fell into my stomach when I realized Ahwara was still on the ground. I ran over to the pink-winged woman, crouched down, and lifted her upper body into my arms.
“B-Ben?” she coughed. “What’s going on?”
“We won, Ahwara.” I smiled at the injured Morpho woman. “All of the men are dead.”
The woman’s soft orange eyes flitted open, though I didn’t think she quite understood everything I was saying.
“That’s--That’s good,” she chuckled and winced. “Now, I think I need to take just a little nap…”
Ahwara went limp in my arms once more, and I feared the worst, but all of my fears were quelled when the woman began to snore.
“Uhhhhh.” I looked around frantically. “Should we just leave her laying here? Does she need medical attention? Or--”
“She needs what she said,” Holara laughed and flicked a stand of violet hair out of her eyes. “Let her nap for a little bit, and then she’ll be good as new.”
So, I laid Ahwara back onto the ground softly, and then I got up to assess the situation.
“Now that those bastards are gone,” I began, “what’s the best way to go about waking up this queen of yours?”
“Simple,” Elzara spoke up. “All we have to do is create a door of awakening. That way, the sun will shine in and alert her it is time to wake up.”
“Simple enough.” I nodded. “Nadir? Lezan? I think we’re gonna need your axes.”
“No, you won’t,” Jemma spoke up with a devilish smile. “I have a much better idea. Tirian?”
What is it, Jemma? the little dragon’s voice asked.
“The coast is clear,” the Niralope woman explained to her bondmate. “We’re in the dome on the far-right side, and we need you two to be the wrecking crew.”
What does that mean? Tirian questioned innocently.
“It means we want you two to come down here and destroy this wall,” I chuckled.
Well, why didn’t you just say so? the dragon’s voice teased. We’ll be right down.
Not ten minutes later, we all heard a loud thud against the outside of the wall. Cracks began to splinter up the entirety of the dome, so we huddled up in the opposite corner to avoid any accidents, and finally, Malkey’s copper, elongated snout burst through the wall like the fucking Kool-Aid man.
Hello, friends! the water dragon exclaimed with a happy chuff.
Tirian was right behind Malkey, though his approach was much less subtle. Without warning, the silver dragon’s body crashed through the wall and sent chunks of the stucco-like material in every direction. Then, once all was said and done, both dragons sat patiently on the outside of the building.
“Good job!” Jemma applauded the beasts. “Remind me to give you some treats when we get back home.”
“Look!” Zerandrie gasped as she pointed at the cocoon. “It’s already working.”
Beams of sunlight were now shining in from outside and engulfing the cocoon in their warm embrace, and as the light hit the outside of Queen Dalwen’s cocoon, it began to shrink and change colors from a light brown to a shriveled-up, dark amber.
We all watched in awe as the cocoon started to shrink, and it grew tighter and tighter around Dalwen’s body until it was practically a second skin. Finally, the cocoon grew too tight, and it began to tear like an overstretched piece of leather.
Then there was a strange, natural hiss as the protective layer finally snapped, and Queen Dalwen was revealed in all of her glory.
Chapter Fourteen
As bits of the cocoon unfurled around her, the pristine, beautiful Morpho queen came to light. She only stood about five and a half feet tall, with a slender hourglass figure, and her soft purple eyes looked around dreamily as she stepped over her opened cocoon and sashayed toward us. Her beautiful face had pursed lips and a brow that looked like it was glued into a permanent furrow, so I immediately thought she was angry about being awakened. Bright orange wings fluttered behind her as she walked, and they were dotted with black blobs like a monarch butterfly. Though she was completely naked, her long, neon yellow hair draped down around her body and covered most of her nudity.
Most of it.
I could still see the edges of her curvy ass as it flounced from side to side with each movement she made. Pale nipples also poked out from behind her sunflower locks, and her pussy lips were on full display.
“Woah.” I heard Arrick gulp.
Oh, shit. He may have been a male, but he was still just a boy. He didn’t need to see anything like this for a few more years at least.
I looked back over my shoulder at Jemma, and she must have read my mind. The Niralope woman stepped over to the Dragon Prince, placed her hand onto his shoulder, and turned him away.
“Come, Arrick,” she prompted. “Let’s take the dragons and go for a walk.”
“Awww, come on…” Arrick grumbled as Jemma led him out through the hole in the wall.
Malkey and Tirian were already waiting, and they turned to follow their bondmates out into the forest.
Meanwhile, Dalwen was still trying to figure out what was going on.
“Who… Who are you?” the yellow-haired woman asked as she looked around at all of us. “Where are our mates? Did they get lost again?”
“They’re dead, my queen.” Ahwara frowned as she stepped forward and took Dalwen’s hands in her own. “They were slain by another tribe.”
“A tribe that artificially incubated your cocoon,” Holara added, “and planned on using you as a living baby-making machine.”
Dalwen’s eyes widened, and she let out an audible gasp as she looked around at the corpses on the floor.
“I’m assuming that is them?” she asked and trembled.
“It is.” Ahwara nodded. “They may have gotten away with their nefarious scheme, too, if it wasn’t for our new ally, Ben, and all of his friends.”
The queen’s head tilted curiously as she looked over at me and surveyed the rest of our motley crew. Then her lips curved up into a delicate smile.
“If that’s true, then I owe you a great deal of gratitude, Ben,” the yellow-haired Morpho admitted. “I am Dalwen, queen of this tribe. But I’m sure my loyal subjects already told you that.”
“They did,” I chuckled. “You must be a great queen, because they couldn’t stop talking about you, and they went out and risked life and limb to make sure you would reawaken.”
“And for that, I am grateful.” Dalwen turned to her friends and bowed. “I am grateful for all of you.”
“Ben’s a king, you know,” Zerandrie spoke up softly, but she didn’t raise her eyes from the ground.
Suddenly, the Morpho queen
’s whole demeanor changed, and her purple eyes turned a shade lighter as they glimmered with a twinge of hope.
“A king?” she purred.
“He’s the Draco Rex,” Mira put forward. “He is the king of my people, as well as the liberator of several islands.”
“He saved us from our oppressors,” Nadir added. “He may not be one of us, but the Coonag would follow him to the ends of the earth. He’s our king, too.”
“Really?” Dalwen asked, and I could tell her curiosity was piqued. “Tell me more about this ‘Draco Rex.’”
So, for the next thirty minutes or so, we all took turns filling in Dalwen on everything that had gone down while she was in her hibernation. I told her my story, including how I got to this strange new world and how I’d saved the dragonkin, Niralope, and Coonag people from certain destruction, and we explained the Isle of the Dragons and about the storm that blew us off course. Of course, we also filled her in on the deal the Morphos had made with us, where they would be bonded with the dragons in return for an alliance and the freedom of their queen.
All the while, Dalwen looked perplexed.
“It sounds like you were busy while I was asleep.” She shook her yellow locks. “Ahwara, I cannot thank you enough for leading your peers through these harsh times. Nobody could ask for a better second in command.”
“Thank you, my queen.” Ahwara bowed, though I could sense the tension with the other Morphos.
Even though I didn’t know much about Dalwen, I did know Elzara claimed Ahwara would be a better leader for their people, and just judging by the expressions of the rest of the Morpho women’s faces, they agreed. Still, there wasn’t a bit of harshness or hatred in their faces… It was more like one of those rare cases where you had two potential girlfriends, both of whom were incredible women, but even though they were both amazing, one of them was better than the other.
Who the fuck was I kidding? That never happened.
At least, it never happened until I became Draco Rex. Now, it was an everyday occurrence.
And I didn’t have to pick between them. I got to have all of them.
