by Hana Starr
Reacting quickly, Nelly caught him but he was too heavy and they were both pulled to their knees. Then, something happened. Her fear faded, and she was left with only determination. “I see a storage area,” she said firmly, having been here enough times to recognize what they looked like. “We’ll hide in there. Barricade the door. Wait this out and see if I can find something to help you.”
“I don’t need help,” he insisted, but his voice was strained. He didn’t protest again when she placed her shoulder under his chest and lifted up.
I’m not really doing anything. He’s walking and bracing himself so I’m not actually carrying any of his weight.
He was so absurd and gentlemanly that even during this, she could have laughed.
“I know what you’re doing,” she said softly, teasingly, as she took him into the storage room. Letting him lean against the wall for a moment, she shut the door and then started to pile up as much random junk as she could against it since all the tables and other furniture were bolted down.
“Oh, look,” Rornak said casually, glancing over his shoulder. “We’re in the room with the batteries. Better grab one for later.”
Nelly couldn’t help the laugh that time, and just kept piling things against the door until she was satisfied. It might not prevent anyone from breaking in but the subsequent avalanche would be a very good distraction.
With that done, she turned to Rornak. He had his hands pressed to the wounds over his chest and shoulder, and white droplets were seeping up from between his fingers. Gently, Nelly held his hands and pulled them away.
“Gunshot wounds,” she murmured to herself, before speaking to him. “It looks like you really were lucky. The bullets passed clean through you.”
“Meaning?” he replied through gritted teeth.
Straightening up to take stock of the situation, Nelly located a pile of drawing cloth and then brought it over. Pressing one against his chest, she brought his hand up to it and said firmly, “Press,” and then began to tend to his shoulder in the same manner. “It means there’s nothing stuck inside you and you should be able to heal up completely.”
He sighed, and then looked down. “I see. So much pain and yet I think it will fade quicker than your words.” He was looking at her cuts and scrapes again. “I apologize for how long it took us to come. I had to find myself.”
“It’s okay,” she said very quietly. “I’m just glad they didn’t kill you. They got Takla, though. And what about Horule?”
“Yes, Takla’s mate was devastated. He is now on my council however, and this was the result of his encouragement.” There was a pause, and she looked up into his eyes while pressing firmly on his shoulder. After a moment, he began to speak and tell her of Horule.
“I see,” she said finally.
There was nothing else she could say that would put this to right, and so she didn’t even try.
“But, what are we going to do now?” she asked after a bit. “After we retreat, I mean?”
“You will continue to build us that ship,” Rory said firmly. “We expand our hideout and adapt it so that we may begin to breed and thrive again. And we will no longer sneak. Each expedition shall be an attack.”
She wasn’t quite sure that she agreed with the philosophy but she knew that was probably going to have to be how it was.
“Unless…well. We are here with the batteries. I would not blame you if you merely wished to leave now.”
“No,” she said firmly, surprising herself. “I’m not leaving. I’m never leaving.”
“What?”
Nelly blushed and looked down, securing a thick pad of cloth against his bullet wound so that the pressure would stop the bleeding without her having to shove him around. “It’s…hard to explain. And now really isn’t the time.”
“I understand. Nelly? Kiss me again?” His eyelids flickered twice, almost playfully somehow. “I am not sure I will survive without it.”
She smiled, feeling warm all over, and snuggled against his unharmed stomach as their lips met again. It was better this time now that they weren’t both shaking and filled with adrenaline; in fact, judging by the look on his face they were both drained and felt capable of sleeping for a very long time.
Against all their better judgment, that was what they did. His body curled around hers on the tabletop, and he murmured into her ear, “I will watch the door.”
But, he started snoring like before she did. The sound was comforting, and she fell asleep to it.
An enormous crash woke them. Nelly shrieked with alarm as hands flung her off the tabletop, and she went sprawling to the floor. Rornak leapt forward as a dragon, tail lashing with the bandages splitting apart around his broad frame.
Lifting up her head, she saw him threatening a lone invader, who had their hands up.
“Rory!” she called, grabbing the table to pull herself up. “He’s surrendering.”
The dragon –her dragon- put his wings down and slithered away, coming up behind her to drape himself protectively around her as she approached.
When the humans were only two feet apart, Rornak began to hiss and spit with nervousness. Nelly lay her hand on his neck, feeling how surprisingly smooth it was –like pebbles on a riverbed- and began to stroke her way up to the base of his skull. His spine relaxed, and she felt the angry motion of his tail still.
We don’t speak the same language. What does this guy want?
Very slowly, the invader put his hands down at his side. Then, he pointed at himself, and then up at the ceiling.
“I think he says he’s leaving,” she said to Rory.
I still don’t understand how or why they got my design or why they’re here, and I guess I never will. I guess I do understand why they would be so interested in me. They wanted to know how the hell I got here and how I was surviving!
The invader put his hands all the way down again, signaling the next part would be a separate thought. Then, he pointed to himself once more, at the floor, and then crossed his arms in a gigantic “NO” gesture.
“And they’re never coming back.”
Even the most basic of human body language could vary from culture to culture but Nelly thought that a nod was still a nod in Germany, and so that was what she did.
The helmeted head of the invader bobbed as well. Then, he turned his back and left it exposed as he walked away.
Nelly had both hands on Rornak for that part, preventing him from taking the chance to strike. She had seen something on that particular invader’s suit which he undoubtedly did not understand. Truthfully it didn’t make any sense to her either but there was a pattern and symbols at his collarbone that the others did not have, which meant their leader himself had come to speak with them.
If that wasn’t a show of peace, she didn’t know what was.
When he was gone, they waited and just looked at each other. In time, she thought she heard a distant roar. Rornak tensed, but she shook her head at him. “It’s not an Akait. That was their spaceship taking off. They left.”
Chapter Thirteen
Everything happened quickly after that. Rornak and Nelly left the hiding place to go speak with the others, to find them gathered together in the center of the city. Most of them were wearing their humanoid form and staring up at a distant, blinking dot that was the receding spaceship.
None were completely unscathed, and they all looked incredibly haggard. Nelly knew that Rornak felt the same way, but she witnessed something then that she’d never seen during their time in the cavern: every single member of the Akait faced Rornak as he approached, and their eyes were bright and shining with purpose. Their numbers were noticeably depleted and the struggle to come back from these losses would be immense, but apparently a battle had been exactly the thing that was needed to bring them all together.
Rory spread his arms, the muscles on his back rippling attractively. “My people,” he said softly. “My people, we have won. It cost us dearly but we have vanquished ou
r oppressors. This shall come to be a day we remember for eternity. Let it be a day of mourning. Gather our dead and perform our rites, as it has always been and always will be. Take notice of what has been done and keep it in your mind, for soon we will begin restorations.”
The Akait dispersed, wandering away in small groups to climb up ruined towers and head back into the depths of the city to fetch those who had been lost. Nelly didn’t think that was something to intrude upon, and Rory wouldn’t let go of her hand anyway.
The dead were placed within a catacomb far beneath the city, the way to which was lit with little blue-burning candles. Nelly just stayed quiet and observed as the friends of the dead bore the bodies to their resting shelves, and Rornak spoke an ancient rite in the language she had only just begun to learn before all this happened.
Then, it was done and she followed the herd of dragons to an eating area. There, at least, she could make herself useful and helped to pass out enough food for a feast. However there was no air of celebration to it, not this night.
During the meal she lost track of Rornak but she felt obligated to help clean up afterwards, too. However, an Akait man with a blue tinge to his skin gently stopped her. “Thank you,” he said, “but you have done enough for us. Do you wish to be with Rornak now?”
Nelly backed up a little and recognized him with a twinge of sorrow. This was the male that Takla often fawned over. “Pollung. Yes, I…I do. Do you know where he went?”
“I imagine he will have gone to his private chambers for thought. Simply head upwards through this same part of city. He will be at the apex.”
It wasn’t very easy to follow instructions, not when the city was built for aliens, but she climbed as best she could. Her arms were sore very quickly and she had to keep stopping for breaks, but she figured it would get easier as the days went on.
Sure enough, it was just as Pollung had said. The city rose in a dense spire, and there was only one room at the very top. It had to doorway, so she stood just outside and called in. “Rory?”
His voice came to her. “Please, come in here to be with me, Nelly.”
She should have been paying attention to the surroundings but her eyes were only for him as he reclined on a pile of furs that obviously served as a bed, his head leaning back against a raised section. His eyes were closed, and so she came over to him and then leaned down to touch her lips to his.
His hands rose up, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. “Are you sure you will stay?” he whispered. “I would not blame you if…”
She didn’t want to hear anymore talk about that, so she slid her tongue into his mouth. His lips caught against her warm wetness, and then he grabbed her shoulders to pull him down atop her.
“Wait! You’ll get hurt!” she protested, but he ignored her and just kept kissing her. Her pussy was starting to tingle just from that alone, and she knew that she wouldn’t last long through this.
But, that was okay. She knew that there would be many more times now.
Their lips brushed together, and their mouths moved as one, giving and taking as generously and freely as two people who have known each other for years. She was straddling his hard body completely naked, and so she felt it when his thick member began to rise and press against her thigh.
A little breathless, she reached down and grabbed it.
Rornak winced, and he dug his nails lightly into her shoulder. “Not so tight,” he admonished her gently, so sweetly that she wasn’t even embarrassed. “You are not trying to strangle the life from an enemy!”
Giggling a little, feeling impossibly girlish for a woman of her age, Nelly lightened her grip until she was just barely holding him in her hand. She had never felt a man’s dick before, and it was soft and yet hard, twitching as though it had a mind of its own.
Of course she knew where it went, but the thought of it actually fitting inside her was nearly mind-boggling. How would it fit? When she played with herself, her pussy always seemed so tight…
Rornak stroked her body with his hands, exploring her generous curves with a gentle touch. It sent shocks straight to her pussy, and she felt her juices begin to well up on her dewy lips and start to drip on his stomach. He made a little purring sound and slid his finger through her juices, and then spread them on her lips and kissed her again.
Her free hand tightened in his hair and pulled slightly. The taste of him mingling with her own sweetness was beyond intoxicating. It was almost maddening how good it was, and magnified by how good she knew it was going to get.
As he stroked her, she stroked him. Now that she had the grip right, the motion came almost naturally to her. From the base of his shaft near his balls, all the way to his swollen and flushed tip, she caressed him with a touch that opened and closed, tightened and loosened as he went.
His ass wriggled beneath her, pressing up from the furs, and when she looked into his eyes he might as well have been in heaven. His mouth was open, emitting soundless gasps, and his eyelids were dancing with pleasure.
The tingles inside her loins grew to a level that she didn’t have words for, an intensity that was no longer just a tingle in and of itself, and she had to let go of him so that she could press her pussy against a hard ridge of ab beneath her. Leaning forward, his hands on her ass helping, Nelly began to rock back and forth in a way that crushed her clit against his skin with almost eye-rolling pleasure. Her pussy was making delightful sounds against his body and her muscles were tensing up, shaking her.
“Rory,” she gasped, and leaned forward over him again.
As she did, her dragon looked up into her eyes. “Nelly,” he purred, and slid his hands from her ass to her hips. Then, he lifted her up so she wasn’t pressing on him anymore.
“Play nice!”
She was about to protest more when he moved her down and then began to slowly lower her down upon his shaft. Her body squirmed with excitement in his strong hands, but then a bit of fear overcame her and she braced her hands on his chest to keep herself held up. His tip was between her swollen lips as he stopped. His eyes were questioning, but not hurt.
“I…I’ve never done this before.”
Understanding flashed in his gaze. “I see. Then, we shall save this for another time, perhaps.”
That was upsetting. “No! I don’t want to stop, I just meant…”
And then she was on her back, sinking up into warm furs until her face was almost covered. Rornak straddled her prone body with his weight braced on a hand and knee to either side of her. “I know,” he said gently. “We shall do it this way, then. I apologize if I might seem clumsy. I have only ever mated as a dragon before.”
Of course that’s how they do it. Why am I not surprised?
Smiling up into his gentle, loving eyes, Nelly nodded. “Okay. We’ll be clumsy together.”
A grin curved on his lips, and he slid himself delicately between her legs again. She gasped with surprise as his tip penetrated her, but there was no pain. Inch by slow inch, he slid into her and then backed out again to let her get a feel for the rhythm he made.
After a certain point, it did begin to hurt. He was stretching her in ways that she wasn’t used to. It was sharp and unpleasant, but couldn’t compete with the way the press of his body on hers made her feel, or the fact that the base of his shaft hit her clit in almost exactly the perfect way. Not quite, though.
Nelly wriggled her hips to try and get him to adjust to a better angle, and he went very still. She felt his hips buck, pressing her down against the furs and spearing her on his hard dick.
“Rory!” she cried out, and dragged her nails down his back. She was filled with need, like flames pouring through her blood. Was this how they felt all the time, so full of fire, so alive?
Then all thoughts were erased from her brain as Rornak thrust inside her again. She cried out once more, grabbing for him again, and then settled her hands on her hips.
They moved together like that, rocking and thrusting away and togeth
er again It was as if the tide and the shore were drawn together, crashing as one and sending up a spray of her pussy juices every time. It splattered her thighs, burning hot, and she whimpered from how good it felt.
Rornak moaned above her. His member was hitting her pussy walls, driving her crazy…
“I can’t,” he gasped, pulling out of her to thrust in again. This time, he also tweaked her clit with his fingertips as he shoved himself inside her.
The fire inside them both spilled over. Nelly could feel his pleasure the same as she felt hers, like their bodies were joined in more ways than just the physical. She shook and quaked beneath him while a burning river of his seed poured inside her.
Then, just as she was watching her breath, he started to slide down her body. His mouth trailed wet kisses over her skin, heading straight for her pussy.
