by Celeste Raye
And that was enough.
Tredorphen
Traveling to Dobromia took less than two cycles. Returning home always felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Like safety was just a mere moment away.
I was always excited to return until it actually happened. My father, D’Karr Boradrith, made sure to send me out on every mission. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was disappointed in me and trying to make me into a warrior, or if it was because I was the one he trusted to help us.
Either way, it often felt like more of a punishment than an honor.
I told Marina to gather her crew before we left. Luckily the majority, the scientists, were largely female. A stray male could be found here and there, sent as part of their security team, but I was glad not to have to instruct her to keep them away.
The Weredragons felt uneasy around them. A primal instinct would overtake my senses, especially around Marina, and it was all I could do not to toss the males aside and leave them to the burning ground below.
I instructed the girls to wait in the spaceship until I had the opportunity to speak to my father. He knew of my fascination with the Earth from previous conversations. Revealing my plan to him was one of the first times I had seen him look proud.
The majority of the shifters took on their human form to greet the scientists, as not to scare them.
I could see the plume of pride beaming from my father as he watched me introduce them. I could see an entirely different expression cross his face as he finally examined the women. Desire.
The way the Weredragons looked at the females left me feeling uneasy, in a way. I was sure what they were feeling was not unlike my own impulses, but it made me wonder if the girls would truly be safe here.
“I hope my son has been treating you well,” my father said as he extended a hand to Marina, who I had introduced as their leader.
“Very well,” she gave a single nod, unsure whether she should bow to him or look him in the eyes.
While golden scales still crept down his arms and the sides of his face, my father was very, very human looking when he was not shifted. There were no oversized hands and no visible cuffs from where his wings would sprout forth.
He was a tall man, 6’4”, and had long brown hair that swept down his back with a thick beard to match.
“He was responsible for getting our crew safely through Ceylara,” she said thankfully, looking over at me.
“A dangerous planet indeed, especially for humans who…” My father paused and scratched his beard as though something had just occurred to him. “I assume have little by way of weaponry. No claws. No might.”
“We have weapons,” came Athena’s sure tone. She was stubborn, that girl.
My father looked her over with a calculated raise of his brow and then gave an accepting nod. “Even so,” he began slowly. “Let Tredorphen be your guide for your duration on Dobromia. He’s good for getting around the terrain, if nothing else.”
The sentence, while seeming innocent enough, was laced with discomfort. My father wasn’t fond of the jobs I did on his assigned missions. Though, I would have argued, if he didn’t send me on impossible missions, I would wage I’d see better results.
“Thank you,” Marina said and offered me a sly grin from the corner of her mouth. “I will take you up on that offer, sir. Err… Your Majesty.”
We created some bases for the humans to set up in. Abandoned stone homes for them to do their research in. It only took a matter of hours, given the support we received from the rest of the shifters.
It had been cycles since we’d arrived and I had yet to talk to Marina one on one. It was making me crazy. I would watch her from afar, but the opportunities to get close to her seemed few and far between. This was of large annoyance to Khrelan.
“Are we trying to get them to take us to the Earth?” he demanded in a hushed whisper as we watched the scientists flood our rocky terrain below. “Or are we actually helping them do research? Because right now, it feels like the latter.”
“Relax,” I waved him off confidently. “It takes time. Now, I told you that the best you can be doing is getting close to one of them. Build trust; make one fall in love with you, impossible as it seems,” I joked.
“I’m trying,” the navy dragon said through gritted teeth.
Khrelan was a handsome shifter. Or, at least that was what the females kept saying. He had skin dark as night and shimmering blue scales: a large set of carefully curved wings, and big eyes.
“There’s no reason why this should be hard for you,” I laughed. “Haven’t you been trying with Athena? Get her trust, and you gain the trust of her sister.”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s impossible. I don’t understand shifter females. Humans are about a million times worse.”
I narrowed my eyes at him in disbelief, crossed my arms, and tilted my head to the side. “Is that so?”
“That is so,” he enunciated. “Anything I say she just says the opposite! She’ll find something negative to say about anything!”
“It’s true,” Aurlauc piped up, flying over to us laughing. “She’s tough. Even for you, Tredorphen!”
I met my friend’s eyes with competition lacing my gaze and with a grin I said, “Show me!”
The three of us flew over to the sisters, who were gathering a liquid sample from the yellow ground trees near the base. They clung to the soil and twisted along the land, like a snake buried deep in the ground. Every fourth moon, they would flower and secrete a sticky substance that they found absolutely fascinating.
Marina offered me a friendly smile as I approached and my eyes traced her thick curves with lust, almost forgetting that we were not alone.
Her sister, Athena, looked up at us with a dismissive scowl and twirled on her foot. Marina smiled even wider at her sister’s rejection and began to giggle. We all watched the younger girl as though she were the entertainment for the evening and Aurlauc began to nudge Khrelan to speak.
“Hello, Athena,” the navy shifter said awkwardly: the discomfort ringing through in his voice like a bundle of nerves.
“Hi,” she said tersely, not turning around to meet the man’s eyes.
“Beautiful day,” he said with a breath, looking at me with a stare that said: ‘just wait.'
“A little cold, actually,” she bristled.
He extended his hands to me as though saying he’d given up but I nodded for him to continue.
“I…” Khrelan hesitated unsurely. “I was wondering if you wouldn’t enjoy some company today. I know there are many creatures in this area that might give you a hard time.”
“You don’t say?” Athena turned; her hair bouncing as she eyed the shifter up and down and then gave a rude laugh. “Why, I think I’ve spotted one just now.”
“I tried your, um, alcohol for the first time last night,” Aurlauc fumbled, interrupting the navy dragon’s poor attempts. My friend walked up beside the blonde and smiled at her. “Your crew tells me I got very drunk.”
She turned to him, the first sign of giving in, and raised a curious brow. I almost thought she would make conversation with him as a small smile crept up the side of her mouth in the same seductive way it did her sisters. But then she said, “Why are you talking to me?”
“Athena!” Marina laughed into her hands. “Manners: I believe you have some!”
“No,” Athena said forcefully, as though she had no intentions of backing down from her hostile stance. “This is getting weird. You’re all huddled around me. What? Do I have something on my butt?”
“What?” Aurlauc flushed profusely and looked at me helplessly. “No! Not at all. Yours is… um, very clean.”
I slapped my hand against my forehead and sighed. Maybe this task was too large for them after all.
“Not that…” the black shifter continued to fumble. “What I mean to say is, yours is very nice!”
Athena’s brows shot up her forehead, leaving creases of surprise in th
eir wake. “Are you sure you’re not drunk right now?” she asked, though not without the hint of a smile still lingering there.
There was a long moment of silence between the five of us before Khrelan, without a word, took to the sky. From frustration or sheer embarrassment, I wasn’t sure.
I set a thick hand on Aurlauc’s shoulder and began to laugh. “Wow,” I breathed. “You are truly bad at this.” I then looked to Marina and extended a free hand to her. “But I am not. I would like to escort you around the land today and show you some places you’ll likely want to explore before we take you back to Ceylara.”
She looked to her sister for permission and Athena gladly waved her off.
“Go, be free!” Athena said easily. “And take these guys with you.”
We smiled as we left, but I didn’t take the men with me. This was to be a private tour, after all.
“Sorry about that,” Marina said as we began walking along the brown terrain, carefully stepping over the ground trees as we passed.
“I’m not,” I laughed. “They deserve it. They don’t know how to speak to a lady.”
“Speaking of ladies,” she said quickly. “I noticed that there’s not a lot of female Weredragons. In fact, I’ve only seen one since we arrived, and that was days ago now.
“My mother,” I said plainly.
“Right, Sillevia, was it?”
I nodded.
“So… I think the first order of business between you and me is learning how it is that you mate,” she said, her voice hitting a high note at the end of her sentence.
“Well,” I laughed, “it’s a little soon. I thought we would at least have some proper time together before we got to the mating portion, but I did promise you a complete Weredragon tour. And,” I tugged at my clothes and slowly began removing my shirt, “a promise is a promise!”
“No, no!” she said quickly, laughing as her face lit up in orange hues. “I meant, you! As in, how do Weredragons mate? Not you and I.”
I lowered my shirt and offered her a playful wink. Her almond eyes went large, and then nervous laughter seemed to trickle out.
“And, you were joking,” she said, pointing in my direction.
“I would never presume,” I said slowly, a smile fading from my lips. “But sure, let’s start there. I will take you to the mating cave, and we’ll consider this the first stop on our royal tour.”
“Ah, yes, that’s right!” she said, charmed. “You are a prince, after all.”
“I am to be called D’nebu’a. That is my title,” I explained, hoping to make it easier for her to understand. “It’s a bit of a journey,” I said unsurely. “If you would be willing to let me carry you, it would go a lot quicker. But, that’s up to you.”
“As in…” she paused. “You will fly me there? With your wings?”
“I see no other way,” I laughed. “Unless you fancy a long, long walk.”
She stopped in the midst of the field and gave me a careful look over, and then she nodded. “Alright then. I’m game.”
I smiled and scooped her into my arms. She reached out and grabbed my wing without a second thought and then leaned into my ear and whispered, “Are they sturdy?”
“Marina, I promise you, in all my years, I’ve only ever dropped somebody once.”
“Oh, yeah, that fills me with great comfort,” she snorted and gripped on tight as I took to the sky.
The feeling of having her close was almost unbearable. It was my first time really touching one of the humans, besides helping one across a precipice or the accidental brush of arms. I could feel her soft skin and round curves against me, and it filled me with unbridled lust. I swallowed over and over, trying not to let my nerves show as I flew west into the Mountains of Arkun.
Dobromia was made up of four continents: a smaller planet to be sure. Larger than Ceylara, but not immensely expansive. Westfall, Graynar, which was where my father’s Kingdom was set up, Doe’evv, and the Mountains of Arkun.
When we landed, I could see Marina felt spun around. She took an uneasy step and then turned to me, laughing. “Well that was–”
“Different?” I interrupted.
“I was going to say nice, actually,” she smiled warmly before looking at the landscape around us.
Dobromia was not how I had heard Earth to be. We didn’t populate in towns above the land. The most we did above the land was feast, when there was actually food to feast on.
Much of our dwelling was done in caves or underground. We had towns and kingdoms set up in interconnecting caves below the topside. They connected through a complex series of tunnels. We had homes, light, and rivers down below. It was home. But we hadn’t shown them that, yet.
Those who didn’t like life under my father’s rule or those who loved being topside took residency in the caves scattered around the planet.
But today, I would be showing her where the breeding happens.
We approached a large cave made of aqua blue rock, a hollow inside revealing all our secrets. I brought her into the cave and suddenly felt a tingle of nerves well up in me. It only just occurred to me that this wasn’t just a game. That I would be forced to actually share something with this girl.
She pressed her hand against the unique stone spire and looked over at me.
“I’m expecting some sort of brothel or something,” she laughed, placing her hand over her heart. “I seriously feel nervous right now.”
I smiled but didn’t quite know what she was talking about. “What’s a brothel?” I asked.
She blinked. “Never mind.”
Marina
I stepped deep into the cave and Tredorphen followed closely behind, setting his hand on the small of my back, fingers splayed out firmly. I entered with a deep breath and began to laugh at the sheer beauty of it.
Aquamarine eggs hung from the ceiling and floors like stalactites and stalagmites. They were gripped to the rocky surface of the cave by black vines. The eggs were about my size, and seemed to glow and hum with life.
I shot a glance to the attractive, muscular Weredragon standing close behind me and blinked with curiosity. “This is it?” I asked genuinely.
“Don’t sound so impressed!” he laughed and led me deeper into the cave. “This is it.”
“So…” My mind reeled. There was such a sense of peace coming from the cave I almost couldn’t focus. “You don’t… mate?”
He raised a brow and a coy smile formed on his perfectly pointed lips. The stubble around them creasing with the movement. “Of course we do,” he laughed. “So, when couples want to breed, they…” he began to twirl his fingers around and give me the eyes as to dismiss him having to finish the sentence.
Which was a shame, I’d thought, since I wasn’t really sure exactly how human they were in comparison. Was their mating process the same?
“You know,” he finally enunciated and continued, “then the female will come here and find a spot.” He then grabbed my hand and took me deeper into the literal love nest.
We traced the ground with our feet until we found a free spot that wasn’t overloaded with the moist, round eggs, and he buried his tail deep into the ground as though it were a tornado. It twirled and tunneled until the rose sheen was planted firmly in the ground.
“The egg is transferred to the cave, and within a few months, a pod becomes visible.”
“Wow,” I smiled, staring down at his tail and feeling a strange pull to him. “What is the gestation period?” I asked.
“That would be… 262 cycles on Dobromia.”
“Fascinating,” I said as I crouched before the pod and grazed my fingers against it: droplets of moisture swelling through the top of the egg and spilling down the sides. The faint blue glow was intoxicating.
Then I looked up at him and watched as he crouched next to me and stared at the pod.
“But, where are all the females?” I asked.
“Most of these are my mothers,” he said with a wisp of emotion overco
ming his voice. “But that’s another story.”
“No,” I said firmly. “You told me I was allowed to ask whatever I wanted. You asked for my help coming here. So, I want to know.”
“We are running out of resources,” he said stubbornly. “Happy?”
I winced. “Not really, no.”
“We had a great fire across the land that took out Doe’evv. There are two suns that circle Dobromia. I’ve been alive long enough to know that our planet moves in cycles. A sun comes and circles us, then burns out and, after three years of darkness, a new one emerges to give us light.”
I leaned into him, absolutely captivated.
“But this time the sun never burned out. Now we have two. It is so hot that nearly all of our food is gone. Just, gone. Needless to say, we haven’t been surviving well.”
I stared at him sincerely for a moment and gave a small nod. “That’s why you were looking for food on Ceylara.”
“Our females are dying off,” he continued. If he weren’t so proud, I might have been able to hear the sincerity or the desperation in his tone. Instead, he was completely even-keeled.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“There is my mother and Khrelan’s mother and about a handful of others. And this,” he said, pointing to the breathtaking collection of eggs that crowded around the cave innards like a swarm. “And who knows if there will even be enough resources to sustain them. Some will end up being killed.”
“Not to eat?” I asked with more disgust than I’d meant to.
“No.” He laughed and shook his head; rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “But for territory, certainly.”
I wrung my hands and stood from the eggs, suddenly overcome with sadness for their terrible plight. “Can’t you just… grow more food?”
“It doesn’t happen overnight. Especially not here. We have dry land,” Tredorphen shrugged and stood from the eggs, walking toward the exit. “Now we move forward.”
I nodded and followed him slowly. It seemed he had decided we were done talking about their plight.
