The Virgin Sacrifice (Closed for Emstar303)

He should have chosen a more inaccessible cave, or maybe he shouldn’t have taken those sheep. It was hard to know what would have avoided the knights’ ire. One of them had found his cave yesterday. He had hidden, but the knight could tell that he lived here, and today he came back with two friends.

They had their swords drawn, and they split up to search the network of passages that criss-crossed his cave just inside the lower entrance. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know the cave as well as he did. He had to shrink down to get through the narrow tunnel that circled around behind the first knight. The man had a torch in his left hand and a sword in his right. His simple mail knight’s armor and studded leather helmet wouldn’t protect him.

He had never fought anyone before, but he was strong and fast, with a hunter’s instincts. His bare feet got him within striking distance of the unaware knight. He took advantage, simultaneously wrapping his left hand around the man’s neck and his right around the wrist of his sword arm. He slammed the man into the rough rock wall, bashing his head until he stopped struggling. He was barely able to hide himself before the torchlight of the other two reached their fallen friend.

Similarly dispatching the other two knights, and burning all three bodies, took a little bit of time, but time was one thing he had plenty of. Or, at least, he thought he did. Hopefully, he wouldn't eventually need to leave his cave. He liked it here. It had been a lot of work to move all his things here.

He had inherited a vast fortune after his parents had disappeared, but it’s not like he could use it to buy anything. So, the softest thing he owned was a huge pile of gold coins and gems. It was two handfuls smaller than it had been when he brought it here more than a week ago, not that anyone other than him would be able to tell. Still, he felt a pang of longing for those coins he had given up as he lay down on the pile and lazily played with the coins. He'd pay for the next sheep, too, despite missing his treasure. Hopefully that would make the knights lose interest.

The young maiden, born to a simple man in a simple town on the outskirts of the human kingdom, had always led a hardworking, but peaceful, quiet life, until one day, a dragon was spotted in the skies. The dragon ate sheep and cattle from her father's pasture while they were out selling their goods in the kingdom. When the dragon had attacked her father's farm, he left a hefty sum behind in return for the sheep, a small trove of dragon treasure. You know, the usual stuff, mentioned in all the story books: rubies and emeralds, gold and silver. It was likely enough coins to get both Lily and her father out of the outskirts and into the city, but her father, being a good citizen, turned the money over to the king and he was only concerned about his missing sheep. He enjoyed their simple life and did not want it to change, but, he would come to regret that decision for the rest of his life,

The king's first batch of brave and gallant knights failed, and instad of sending more, the king decided a better plan was to offer the dragon a sacrifice. The best way to appease the dragon was to offer up a young virgin, so he decided to send Lily up the mountain to the dragon's lair. He'd convinced himself that perhaps the dragon would leave an even greater treasure behind in return for a human, and the kingdom’s troubles would be solved. Although the king's library held many tomes about fantastic creatures and magic, the king hadn't read this knowledge first hand, not because he couldn't read, but because he was a lazy man. No, it was his head sorceress who read the ancient texts and turned him onto the idea of offering a virgin to the dragon in exchange for the safety of his kingdom. She said it was a silent but mutual, ancient understanding between a dragon and a human. So the king believed her and that was that. What's one milk maid's life really worth, anyway?

Lily was scarcely a woman yet. A late bloomer, she had recently gained her modest curves and soft, perky breasts. Long, dark brown hair that she often kept braided matched the swirls of dark chocolate in her hazel eyes. She was single and not betrothed to anyone. It was not as if her family had any sway or power; she figured she'd marry for love, but here she was on her 18th birthday, waking up to the sounds of guards at her door and the king's henchmen bursting in. Her father did all he could to reason with them, even saying to take him instead, but the guards just laughed. "Dragons aren't interested in human men, especially ones as dumpy and old as yourself. No, we're giving him your little plain Jane that no one will miss. You should be honored to make this sacrifice for your kingdom.”

Her father tried to reason with them the best he could, but when words didn't work, he braced himself for battle. But he was not a warrior; he was a farmer, and he was old and frail. The guardsman pushed him aside like it was nothing. The maiden screamed in horror as her father fell, smashing his head on the hearth. The last thing Lily saw as the guards pulled her kicking and screaming out of her home was blood pouring from her father's forehead.

The guards hauled her up the nearby mountain where the dragon lived. It was a perilous journey to the top, and many had fallen in an attempt to scale the mountain. The guards would have loved to send her up the mountain on her own, but they knew she would probably just end up dying to the elements rather than at the claws of the dragon, and that was unacceptable.

The maiden screamed and cried all the way up the mountain. She kicked and cursed more like a sailor than a lady. Some of the guards laughed, but what was even worse were the ones who looked at her with such pity yet still did nothing to intervene in her fate.

Terrified and freezing, the young maiden was finally thrust into the entrance of the cave after a several hour journey up the mountain. She was shivering and freezing. While it was only the beginning of Fall, up this high on the mountain the snow had begun to accumulate, and all the guards had given her to keep warm was an extra cloak. She was nearly on the verge of frostbite when the guards finally left her alone in the cave. They sealed the door behind her with a heavy boulder and began their descent back down the mountain. She shivered at the entrance and sobbed, but tried to stay quiet, even as she banged on the entrance to escape.

"No! Let me out, let me out!" she cried. She tried to keep her voice down because she didn't want to alert the dragon to her presence. She knew it was useless to call out to the guards, but their looks of pity gave her hope and she thought perhaps one would act on that pity and save her. But as the minutes passed and she heard the scuffle of armor and boots receding, she realized that was not the case. This left the maiden in a small heap at the entrance to the cave, sobbing, shivering, in the pitch blackness of the dragon's lair.

She didn't know what to do. She was so scared. She didn't know the first thing about dragons, other than what she'd read in the stories, but she knew they were fearsome and had no mercy, and would surely strike her down. She was frightened by the idea that the dragon would try to defile her before he ate her - that part hadn't been in her stories - but the guards spoke as if it was a sure thing; why else would the king send a virgin up the mountain? She was terrified; terrified a huge dragon cock was going to tear her open before eating her alive.

Fen looked down at the vibrant green field below him, and picked out the one he wanted. It was large and healthy, covered in spotless white wool. He hadn’t eaten in several days, but the mutton he had then had been delicious. He planned to prepare this one the same way.

The livestock in this area provided a far more substantial and renewable source of food than the rams and ewes of the isolated mountain valley where he had grown up. After his parents died when he could barely fly, he had largely stayed in the secluded paradise where they’d hidden him. It had worked well when he had been smaller. Now, though, he would eat the valley bare if he stayed there. He was already the size of a small house, and would likely grow slightly more before he was finished. Such mass required quite a bit of food, even if he only ate every few days.

It saddened him to leave his valley behind. It was the only home he’d ever known, and his only memories of his parents had been within its borders. He barely remembered his father as it was. He started out being the one to go hunting over the mountains. One day while he was gone, Fen and his mother both felt a tearing in their hearts. Dragons always know when they have lost a love, whether it is parent, child, or lover. From that day on, his mother had to leave Fen alone to hunt. For thirty years she came back from her hunts. Then, one day Fen felt that tearing again. He knew his mother was gone.

That was the first time he had felt the hoard’s magic. Dragon hoards have an almost sentient energy that can be felt by the dragon they’re bound to. That’s part of why no one should ever steal from a dragon. As Fen lay upon the hoard that had belonged to his parents, its magic recognized him as its new master, and bound itself to him. For the next decade, it strengthened him, making sure he grew stronger as he grew larger. It had taken him days to move all of it to his new cave.

He had grown strong, indeed, with numerous long, sharp royal purple horns sticking out of the thick, dark blue scales that covered the backs of his body, arms, legs, and tail. His underside was covered in pale green scales that were softer and more vulnerable. From his snout to the base of his tail, he was about thirty feet long, which was the same distance spanned by his powerful, blue wings. His tail added another twenty feet to his length.

Having spotted his quarry, Fen tilted his wings, feeling the currents of air shift around him as he descended. The poor creature never saw him coming. He opened his hands, dropping his handful of gold coins and gems at the same time he sunk his claws into flesh and wool, mercifully snapping the beast’s neck with the impact. He strained his wings, lifting himself and his passenger back into the crisp, cool air.

A few minutes later, he folded his wings and landed inside his cave’s large upper entrance, his royal purple claws clacking against the stone. He dropped the sheep on the rocky floor and licked his scales clean of the minimal blood, both the hard, thick dark blue scales on the backs of his hands and the soft, pale green scales on his palms.

He breathed on the sheep, burning away the wool and searing the flesh. After that, the mutton disappeared in quick, ugly bites. His meal finished, he burned the inedible remains and licked his lips clean with his long, strong tongue. He crawled over to his hoard, laying down satisfied on his pile of gold. Soon, his vertically-pupilled, bright golden eyes closed in sleep.

Lily realized she must have fallen asleep because when she awoke, the cavern was illuminated in dim light from the morning sun, streaming through the small cracks around the rock that blocked the cave's entrance. She was very disappointed to discover this whole excursion hadn't just been a horrible dream. She took a deep breath, clasped her hands together, said a prayer for her father, then decided she had to find a way out of this. She couldn't just sit around waiting for death! She had to move. Perhaps the cave had multiple entrances and she could find another way out. The thought lit her heart with hope and Lily stumbled to her feet. She began to venture deeper into the cavern, a distant glistening drawing her eye. As she got closer, she saw it was a single gem laying on the floor. The sight of it unnerved her. Was the dragon close? Had he dropped some of his treasure? She picked it up and began rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger for comfort.

Lily had to keep moving, but she got scared the further in she went. The light was rapidly decreasing behind her the further she descended into the cavern, and when she turned a corner, all the light was gone. Lily whimpered and wrapped her arms around herself, shivering in the cool cave. Finally, when she'd convinced herself her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she continued onward into the inky blackness of the cave, taking careful steps and holding her arms out in front of her to guide her path. Perhaps the gem would catch a distant light - some pathway to escape.

Fen’s head snapped up, golden eyes wide open. Someone had picked up a piece of his hoard, and they were in his cave. It was an emerald: half a carat, square cut, deep green color, good but not great clarity. Had more knights come? Last time, they had ignored his treasure. Surely they weren’t smart enough to use one piece as bait to set a trap for him.

He sniffed the air. Something else had changed. Behind the full, fresh breeze coming in from the upper entrance, he sensed that the air flow from the cave’s lower entrance was almost completely cut off. He chuckled as quietly as a fifty-foot long dragon can: a deep rumbling sound like the echoes of a tree falling in the forest. The thief was trapped. He couldn’t tell how, but the lower entrance was blocked. He could smell their fear.

That would explain why the thief was coming towards him. He could feel his emerald coming closer. It must be just on the other side of the rock wall of the great chamber where he curled up on his coins. He pitied the poor soul. They probably couldn’t see a thing. This large chamber was brightly lit by the ample daylight pouring in through the cave’s huge upper entrance, but he knew from experience that the cave walls curved just so to block that light until you were practically inside the great chamber.

Fen decided that he would wait for them to come to him. It was their only way out. If they could have cleared the lower entrance, then surely they would have. He smiled from atop his huge pile of treasure, with bookshelves filled with rare books, chests filled with extravagant articles of clothing, and rare and enchanted armors and weapons leaning against the wall behind him.

Lily breathed heavily as she made her way through the dark cave. She was trying to take control of her fears, but it was hard not to imagine what lurked in the darkness. A dragon was bad enough, but she also feared stumbling over jagged rocks or falling down a pit, so she moved very slowly and carefully. She was not adventurous nor an experienced traveler. The furthest she'd traveled was the kingdom that was a few miles from her father's farm, so she was extra precatious.

She tried not to lose hope, but as the hours or minutes passed, she wasn't entirely sure anymore, it was hard to be optimistic. She hadn't seen a pinprick of light yet, no sign of a second opening. It was honestly extremely unsettling. She just had to hold out hope that she'd find a way out of here.

Unbidden, silent tears began to fall as she tried to push down mourning for her father and her own fears she held for herself. Underneath her anguish and fear were some underpinnings of angry at her unjust fate. But she knew being blinded by rage would only cause her to stumble, so she tried to remain calm and take her time.

She rubbed the jewel between her fingers as she rounded another corner, both hands plastered against the wall. She had met many dead ends and it was hard to keep track of them. She had been turned around quite a few times, but she had to keep moving.

By the time she reached the dragon's lair, it was too late to try and run. The dragon's golden eyes flashed to hers immediately. Lily yelped in fright but was otherwise silent, struck by the majestic beauty of the creature and his luxurious treatures surrounding him. His colors were eye-catching and shined a little from the sunlight that had crept into the chamber. His purple horns were thicker than her forearms. She had never seen a more terrifyingly breathtaking sight. The dragon before her was magnificent. She hadn't expected a dragon to be so beautiful. She was expecting them to be fearsome and ugly, but he was truly majestic.

She was paralyzed. She tried to say something but the words got caught in her throat. The emerald slipped through her fingers and clattered onto the floor. There was an opening at the top of the cavern, but there was no way she'd be able to get up there. When she finally regained her ability to speak, she fell to her knees and clasped her hands together as if in prayer.

"Please don't eat me!" she cried. "I swear I don't taste good, I swear!" She couldn't bring herself to look into the dragon's golden eyes as she awaited her fate.

Fen thought he was prepared for the thief to come around the corner into his great chamber, but he was wrong. He had scented her growing fear and knew exactly where she was, but he was not ready to see a young maiden walk through his cave. Her fear had a sour, unpleasant taste that he hadn’t noticed until she was in sight, and this tang was intensified when she saw him.

She froze, and dropped his emerald. That buzz in the back of his head disappeared. He felt better now. The young woman dropped to her knees on the hard stone floor and cried out, begging not to be eaten. Fen blinked in surprise. Why did she expect him to eat her? Did some dragons eat humans? Perhaps that would explain some of their animosity toward his race. He never intended to eat humans, himself, and he knew his parents didn’t. His mother taught him never to eat humans, elves, dwarves, or anything else with a mind.

The woman before was unlike any human he had ever seen. To be fair, she was only the fourth human he had encountered up-close, but she was still unique. She was much smaller than the knights, and he knew by the small, yet prominent, bumps on her chest that she was female. She had no sword in her hand, no readiness in her stance. Despite the overpoweringly sour scent of her fear, he was certain there was no bitter scent of malice in her. She must not have come to kill him, or even steal from him. That wouldn’t make sense. Why would a small woman, smelling only of fear, come to a dragon’s cave?

He opened his massive, toothy jaw, and his voice came out as a low, smoldering rumble. “Why are you here?”

The woman didn’t move. She didn’t look up. She didn’t answer. Her fear was pulsating in his nostrils. He wrinkled his snout in distaste. He wanted her to stop being so afraid so that her scent would stop tasting so bad. Couldn’t she tell by now that he wasn’t going to eat her?

With a start, he remembered that humans couldn’t scent in quite the way dragons could. He was going to need to put a little more effort into communicating with her. He settled his large, frightening body heavily onto his hoard. He tried to soften the look of his eyes, but he had never consciously done that before. He hoped it worked.

He also tried to soften his voice, and this time it came out crackling and warm. “I don’t eat humans.”

The dragon's voice was loud, booming, and echoed throughout the circular chamber. She swallowed hard and tried to speak but still couldn't find her voice. She did, however, manage to look at him. There was a lot to take in. Although he himself was probably the size of 2 to 3 men, it was his glossy wins and scaled tail that made him so large and imposing. Lily's eyes were drawn to his teeth; sharp, pointed, teeth that could puncture her squishy human flesh. It was hard to believe he didn't intend to eat her when she was staring into the beast's giant mouth, so it took her a moment to respond.

"Oh. A dragon who doesn't eat humans. P-please forgive me for assuming otherwise," she laughed nervously. She wondered if he also didn't rape virgin sacrifices, but she didn't feel comfortable asking such a question, nor did she want to put the idea in his head.

"I was forced into these caverns," she explained. "The king from the human kingdom nearby sent me here. I'm intended as a gift for you."

A gift? Despite her frail body and prey-like fear, this human was a thing with a mind, and a thing with a mind can’t be a gift, right? Who was this ‘king’? Did he hoard people the way Fen hoarded gold? Fen knew he was completely unfamiliar with human culture, but the idea seemed wrong to him, somehow.

He could still smell the human’s fear, but when she had laughed, there had been a pop of sweetness that had balanced her scent. Fen hoped she would laugh again. It was also pleasant to his ears. It had been a long time since he had heard laughter. It had been a long time since he had had a conversation, as well.

Even if he wanted to accept this “gift,” this king clearly didn’t know how to give gifts, at least not to a dragon. His magic would be tainted by him just taking something left in his cave, especially something with a mind. Even more especially, if she had been stolen by this “king.”

“Were you his to give?” Fen rumbled

Lily shook her head furiously when the dragon asked her if she belonged to the king. "No!" she said immediately, her voice raising in anger at the king. She quickly continued on, hoping the dragon didn't take the rage in her voice to be directed at him. "I was not his to give. I do live in his kingdom, well, just outside of it, but my father and I are farmers. I've never even met the king. I wonder if he thought by sending me, you'd give him riches in return like you did when you took our sheep."

Lily rose to her feet carefully and met his gaze. Looking into the dragon's golden eyes, it was hard not to think he would devour her at any moment, despite him saying he didn't eat humans. Soon his eyes proved too much to look into while waiting for his response, so she moved her gaze around her surroundings. The dragon had a whole kingdom's worth of treasures in this one cave! Piles upon piles of gold and gems, and not only wealth in coins, but expensive things as well. Weapons with golden handles and shining armor embedded with jewels. Chests contained rich, colorful fabrics she'd always dreamed of wearing. And there was a whole library! It was truly a sight to behold.

So, the maiden had been stolen, and this ‘king’ was a thief. Worse than a thief, because he stole a thing with a mind. For some reason, it satisfied him to know that the knights he had been forced to kill earlier had been sent by such an evil man. Part of him had been worried that they had come out of some misplaced fear. Fen would not hesitate to kill to protect himself, but he didn’t like the idea of having to do it due to a misunderstanding.

The king must also not be very bright. Or, maybe he was just unfamiliar with dragons. To be fair, Fen didn’t know how many dragons were left in the world. He did know that he bore no responsibility for her abduction. He had simply been paying for his meals. To do otherwise would have been irresponsible. If this happened again, though, now that he knew of its connection to him, he would feel some responsibility. He would need to think about what action he should take to prevent another such “gift.”

When the young maiden started looking around at his hoard, he realized he should have responded earlier. It had been so long since he spoke with anyone, he had forgotten to vocalize his thoughts. He hoped she wasn’t planning to take anything. He was starting to enjoy her company, but he had an innate obligation to protect his hoard. He wasn’t sure how to interpret her earlier handling of his emerald, either. Perhaps he should just ask. That was what one did in a conversation, wasn’t it?

He moved his head so that it was back in her line of sight. “Why did you take my emerald?”

Lily stumbled over her words in her haste to answer the dragon's question. "I'm so sorry. I don't know why I took your emerald. I found it at the other entrance. It gave me comfort and helped me focus as I went through the cave. I was hoping maybe it would catch a ray of light or something and help guide my path, but really I think it was just comforting to play with between my fingers..." she trailed off, worrying this would not be a good enough explanation.

"I - I hope I haven't lessened it's worth in any way by touching it. Maybe I can get you a new emerald one day...well, probably not. I don't have any money. I'm sorry." she said, starting to shiver as a gust of wind from the cave's ceiling's opening suddenly billowed into the chamber.

Though her grey woolen dress was thick, it had accumulated quite a lot of snow from the journey that had since melted into water that seeped into the dress. Now that she was no longer moving, the cold was really starting to get to her. Lily wrapped her arms around herself, tugged the blue cloak tighter around her small, skinny frame as she bravely stared into the dragon's beautiful golden eyes.

Fen was relieved that the maiden had not intended to steal from him. He found himself wanting to think well of her, despite meeting her moments ago. Perhaps his loneliness had been harder on him than he’d thought. She truly did seem like a kind and unassuming person, as well. He was touched that she was worried she’d ruined his emerald. It was ridiculous, of course, but he appreciated the concern for his property.

A chattering of teeth snapped him out of his reverie. The woman was shivering. Fen never felt cold, himself, but he was aware that humans were more vulnerable to things like this. He looked around the large chamber. He had nothing that he could use to burn to warm her up. The only flammable things he had would burn too hot and too fast. He wanted to go get some firewood. The space just inside the upper entrance would be a good space for a fire. The slope of the ceiling would keep smoke from collecting in the cave.

“You are cold.” He wanted her to know why he was leaving. “I will return.” He was caught off guard by the strength of his hope that she would be here when he did. He hopped down off his pile, putting the coins and gems between him and the woman. His claws echoed against the stone floor as he crawled toward the slope leading up to his cave’s upper entrance. The opening itself was a simple hole in the sheer cliff wall, so he had to start flying before he actually made it outside.

Just before taking off, he turned back toward the poor, shivering woman, her wet clothes clinging to her body, making her femininity even more obvious. He almost forgot what he was going to say as a strange new thought crossed his mind. He felt himself just wanting to keep looking at her, predator’s eyes following her curves. There were a lot of new thoughts and feelings for him today, but this one was his favorite. “Don’t worry about the emerald. It is undamaged. Just please don’t take anything.”

Lily shrank back against the wall as the dragon moved off of its treasure, stating that she was cold and he would return soon. For such a large creature, he moved gracefully. Some of the coins trickled further down the pile, but other than that his treasure hoard remained undisturbed. She knew he took great pride in it, especially since he'd been so concerned over one little jewel.

As the dragon crawled towards the upper entrance, she saw the muscles near his shiny, blue wings twitch as if about to take flight. The breath caught in her throat in anticipation, excited to see him spread his wings and fly. But where was he going? To get something to keep her warm? The thought seemed absurd - a monstrous dragon caring about her well being. He hadn't eaten her yet, so she supposed it was possible, but she was confused by his motivations and wary of his intentions. Dragons were villains in the tales, but he had not made a move to harm her yet. Lily prayed he would remain this gentle.

When asked not to take anything, Lily nodded earnestly. "I won't," she promised. Her heart beat fast as she stared into the dragon's eyes. He was looking at her strangely, differently than before, as her shivering grew worse and her sopping wet woolen dress clung to her slender frame and modest curves. If she wasn't mistaken, the dragon was looking her up and down like some of the men in the Kingdom did the few times her father did not accompany her to sell their goods. It made her feel strange - scared and excited all at once. She pulled her cloak even tighter around herself, trying to hide her feminine form from his golden gaze.

After the dragon was gone Lily breathed a sigh of relief. The dragon taking flight had been just as magnificent as she'd imagined it would be, something incredibly elegant about it.

Lily stood very still for several long moments, as if expecting him to suddenly return, but as she heard the flapping of his wings dissipate into the night, she calmed down some and sat down on the cave floor, breathing deeply to steady her nerves. She contemplated fleeing but didn't want to risk stumbling through the darkness of the winding caverns again. Besides, perhaps this was the only other entrance. She couldn't go wandering about only to return here later and possibly raise the wrath of the dragon that she'd run away. So she sat on the cave floor and carefully took down her fraying braid. She shivered when her long, dark brown tangled locks hit her back. She wondered if the dragon's treasure contained a brush, but she knew better than to look, even though she longed to drape herself in those warm, rich fabrics peeking out of the chest.

Lily laid down on the cool, hard floor, using her cloak as a pillow. She draped her long, damp hair behind her, hoping it would dry faster like this. She hoped the dragon wouldn't be gone too long, and would return soon with a source of heat.

Fen was thankful that there was a substantial clump of trees on the mountainside, just a short flight away. With his strength and claws, chopping down the trunks and stripping the branches was the work of but a few moments. Soon he was flying through the air with six long tree trunks in his arms. They were actually heavy enough that his wings were straining against the pull of the earth below.

From the outside, the upper entrance to his cave was difficult to find. It blended in with the mountainside. Fen had no trouble with it. Even before he saw the opening, he could feel his hoard call to him. He circled around, and swooped in through the wide, short tunnel to the large chamber below. He landed his heavy claws to the stone floor with a slow beat of his mighty wings, and dropped the logs on the ground next to the gentle slope.

The woman was lying on her back on the cave floor. Her long, dark hair was spread out on the ground behind her. Her shivering was worse now. He should get that fire started, but he hesitated a moment, his golden eyes strangely drawn to two tiny points on top of her chest bumps that he hadn’t noticed before.

Shaking his head, he broke one of the trunks into pieces and arranged several of them in a small pile. A brief exhale was enough to start them burning. In seconds, there was a perfect campfire going on the floor of the dragon’s cave.
Fen enjoyed this small task. He hadn’t done anything for someone else since he lost his mother. He enjoyed it. He suspected that he especially enjoyed doing it for this young woman.

He looked over at her. “I don’t know what humans need. Is there something more that would keep you from freezing?”

The longer Lily lay on the floor, the colder she became. She'd hoped her hair would dry out, but instead, the tips of it hardened into little icicles. Her nipples were harder than they'd ever been, and she feared they would freeze over and fall off. She even had to massage them briefly to assure herself they were in tact. She stayed awake, waiting for the dragon's return. Luckily, she didn't have to wait long.

She heard the flapping of his wings first and sat up, eager to see what he'd brought back with him. The dragon swooped in through the chamber's opening with ease, and landed with a gust of wind on the floor in front of her. Silently, he set the logs ablaze with a single exhale. It was intimidating, to say the least, but the fire he'd built was for her and it was warm and inviting.

Lily stood to her feet and placed her hair between her back, cracking the tiny icicles in the process. She walked over to the fire with haste, holding out her arms and letting the heat radiate onto her skin. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed, smiling at the dragon.

When he asked if she wanted anything more, Lily jumped at the opportunity. "Yes, actually!" she said, hopeful. "May I p-please change into one of the dresses in your treasure and use some of them as blankets? I-I promise I'll give them back after my clothes dry off," She requested, teeth chattering. She figured it was a big ask, given how protective he'd been of his jewels. Dragons were fiercely protective of the treasure hoard.

It made Fen happy to see the maiden liven up a bit. He was glad the fire had been helpful, and he was even enjoying the extra warmth himself, a bit. As soon as she mentioned a dress, he realized that it should have been obvious that she would need to change out of her wet clothes. He didn’t want to loan her one, though. He wanted to give her a dress. He was sure she would want to leave soon, and he wanted her to have something to remind her of him, and maybe come back to visit. He thought it would be nice to have a friend.

He wasn’t going to be able to dig through the clothing in his hoard in his natural form, so he shrunk. His body lowered to the floor. His scales shrunk, and some of them hid under the others. His wings moved up his back, smaller than they had been. Some of his purple horns disappeared into his body. The process was neither silent nor entirely smooth, but the end result was as desired.

Fen now stood about six feet tall, not including four short, royal purple horns that stuck out the back of his more human-like head. He still had a jaw full of razor-sharp teeth, but they were in a flatter, more manageable snout ringed by thin, but flexible lips. He had no visible ears, and his nose was just two slit-shaped nostrils above his upper lip.

His arms and legs were shaped just like a humans, with lean but noticeable muscles rippling under dark blue scales that looked much softer than any part of him had looked before. His hands had four fingers and an opposable thumb, each tipped with a modest purple claw. His feet were more reptilian, with four long toes tipped with a purple claw.

His shoulders each sported one horn that stuck up and out. His wings were much smaller than they’d been before, but they looked huge on his smaller form, sticking out at least five feet on each side as he stretched and sighed. He folded them up on his back, making them look much more reasonable. His torso was covered in pale green scales, tiny, intricate, smooth as glass and soft as velvet, stretched over four pairs of visible abdominal muscles.

Between his legs dangled his cock, currently a flaccid six inches, its smooth, royal purple flesh and triangular head not yet visible inside its sheathe of pale green scales. Behind that sheathe dangled two pale green balls covered in the same pale green scales.

He rocked his powerful neck from side to side, cracking the joints. Changing shape always took a few moments to get used to. Then, he turned his back to the young maiden, revealing more muscles, including his plump, taut, scaly blue assas he bent over to rummage through his chest of inherited clothing. He counted seven, but he only pulled out five. The black one and the gray one stayed in the chest. Something inside him wanted her to choose one of the others, because they were colors of him.

He turned back toward the woman. Draped over his right arm was a plush velvety dress, the color of the scales on his back. In his right hand was another velvet dress, this a much darker shade of the color of the scales on his front. Draped over his left arm was a dress the color of his horns. And his cock, he thought with a tiny embarrassed smirk that he hoped went unnoticed. In his left hand, he held an intricately embroidered dress that matched his eyes. He draped the last dress, a simple gown the color of his fire, over the chest to display it.

“I want to give you a dress, as a gift, if you will accept it. Your choice. There may be more in the chest if none of these are to your liking.”

Lily watched in awe as the dragon transformed before her eyes. It was not entirely graceful, but in the end he became a more humanoid form. Except for the wings of course, and the scales, and the horns... Lily swallowed hard. His wings were just a foot or two shorter than his body. He still had scales, but now the legs, torso and head of a human man. He also had a human cock, mostly, she figured. She'd never actually seen a human cock before, so seeing a dragon's was possibly even more shocking. She turned completely red and averted her eyes from him, shyly. He however, was unabashed in his smaller, more humanoid shaped form, as if wasn't standing nude in front of her.

He didn't act like being naked like this in front of her was something odd at all. She supposed he had always been naked, since he was a dragon. He couldn't just manifest clothing out of nothing, right? It made sense, but was still a shock, especially for someone who'd never seen a man naked before. Lily wondered if he understood the purpose of clothing or just liked collecting it.

She watched his muscles ripple under his scaly, but soft, looking skin as he pulled some dresses from a chest.

“I want to give you a dress, as a gift, if you will accept it," he said. "Your choice. There may be more in the chest if none of these are to your liking.”

She was nearly speechless at his offer to gift her one of the dresses, far more suited for a princess than a farm girl such as herself. "You really mean it? Thank you. Please, allow me to think a moment." she said, hazel eyes, more green than brown tonight, shined with happiness. Her cheeks and neck were rosy still, as she did her best to avoid staring openly at his fascinating second form. She'd only briefly glanced at his cock before quickly looking away, but just knowing it was resting there, dangling delicately against his round, scaly balls, made her just as nervous as if she was looking right at it.

So Lily focused on the dresses. It felt strange to even be looking at such expensive fabrics, to pick one out that she liked best. Back home, she had a meager 2 or 3 work dresses she'd switch between, and one formal dress for the small celebrations the village outside the kingdom would have at harvest time, but even that formal dress, that her father had saved much money to purchase for her mother that had been given to her once her moth died in childbirth, had nothing on the beautiful dresses the dragon was offering her, except for its sentimental value, of course.

She realized she'd been contemplating for possibly a solid minute or two now at the dresses and finally came to a decision. "The velvety purple one, please. The one the same color as your back," she requested.

As he passed her the garment, she realized this was the closest she'd been to him. Although he was smaller, he was still so strange and unlike anything she'd ever seen before, so it was still a little scary.

She stood back from him, marveling at the soft, rich fabric filling her hands. It was so soft against her skin. "Um - thank, thank you... Do you mind turning around while I change into your gift?" she requested modestly. She hoped he would grant her some privacy even though he clearly had no knowledge of the concept himself, standing there fully nude.

He handed the woman the dark blue, almost purple gown. He had never been this close to a human that he wasn’t in the process of killing. He didn’t like having that thought. He didn’t want anyone, much less himself, killing her. He realized at that moment that if anyone threatened her, he would fight for her. And not for any particular sense of right or wrong, but for her.

He was still getting used to conversations, and he was lost in his thoughts enough that he almost missed her request. She wanted him to turn around while she changed. Was that so that he wouldn’t see her naked? Did humans clothe themselves around each other? He knew they clothed themselves sometimes. He was familiar with the concept of clothing being worn on a body, after all. He’d read about it in his books. But, all the time? That sounded exhausting.
Was she bothered by his nakedness? He hoped not. He would turn, of course, but he found he wasn’t as indifferent to the idea as he’d assumed he’d be. He wanted to see her without her dress. Did humans look like dragons, down there? He expected a lot of pink, and he had a general idea of the shape, but other than that he didn’t really know what to expect.

Now he was the one frozen, and a fire wouldn’t help. He could tell his pause went on uncomfortably long, not out of any real hesitation on his part: he just had a lot of thoughts running through his mind. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. “Oh...Oh! Yes, well, humans do the...and the...right.”

He turned his face away from her, and used the time to arrange the dresses back in the treasure chest. They didn’t need as much arranging as they got, but he didn’t know how much time she needed.

He heard her throat clear, and he turned back to her. The dress fit her perfectly, he assumed. He could just see the curve of her hips and the swell of her chest bumps under the velvety fabric. The most profound change, though, was her scent. She had been beautiful before, even sourly afraid. Then, she had barely smelled of anything as her body temperature dropped. Now, there was a sweetness to her scent, and a fresh, bright overtone that he couldn’t describe. He hoped it meant that she was happy. It certainly made him happy.

From his books, he knew a compliment was expected of him here. He felt it so strongly that if he were a human, used to speaking, it would have tumbled forth unbidden from between his lips. “You look beautiful.”

Lily's heart beat fast as she awaited his response - was he going to deny her? Force her to change in front of him? The seconds seemed to drag on. She forced herself to keep her eyes focused on his own as she waited. At last, he opened his mouth to speak and the words that came out sounded just as nervous as her own had. She didn't understand what he was trying to say; she was just grateful when he finally turned around, giving his back to her as he began to put back the other dresses.

"Thank you," she said softly.

Lily waited for a few moments before undressing, wanting to be sure he wasn't going to turn around. She faced him as she did so, also wanting to be sure she'd spot him if he did turn around. But the dragon man was respectful and patient, even as she took her time figuring out how to put herself within all the layers of hernew fancy dress. She grinned at the knowledge it was hers. As she changed, she didn't notice her shadow on the wall brought to life by the fire was already giving him a tease of her petite but curvy feminine form, should he look up.

Lily pulled the elegant bluish-purple dress over her head and sighed happily as it engulfed her in soft, velvet fabric. She hummed happily. "Okay," she said. She cleared her throat. "You can turn around now."

She couldn't help but beam at him in her new dress. She felt so comfortable and warm and like a princess. It was a silly thing, she new, but she was happy, however foolish the emotion may be.

"You look beautiful," the dragon said suddenly, making her blush.

A small giggle burst past her lips and she gave a playful twirl. "Thank you!"

She sat down beside the fire, across from where the dragon was. She was feeling warmer and more comfortable already, the heat from the fire soothing her tired bones and warming her cold skin. She looked to her company across the fire. "What is your name? I'm Lily."

She took a little look around his chambers again then, admiring all the beautiful treasure. A dragon didn't need all these frivolous human things, surely. "How did you get all this treasure?" she inquired. Her tone was not acquisitional, just curious.

It was a simple thing, but it made Fen so happy. She sat down. She didn’t even look at the exit. She wanted to talk with him, to stay with him at least a little while. She even asked him his name.

“Fen Mindok Vahdin, my lady,” he said with an exaggerated bow, gently fluttering his wings.

He paused, and sat down on the edge of his pile of riches. If not for his hoard’s magic, he would have slid and coins would have rolled around the floor, but the pile stayed in place, holding up the young dragon.

“Lily...It’s very nice to meet you, Lily.”

Fen almost didn’t answer when she asked him where he had gotten his treasure. He didn’t want to feel sad. He had a friend, for the first time in his life, and he wanted to just enjoy it. He answered because he didn’t want to keep any secrets from this radiant creature in front of him.

“I inherited it. All of it. From my parents. They went out hunting one day, and never came back.”

He didn’t mention that the memory of his heart tearing at their loss almost drove him to tears, even today. He didn’t mention that the fact he had never obeyed his draconic instinct to add to his hoard made him feel like he wasn’t living up to their memory. He didn’t mention that giving up the tiny fraction of it that he had dropped to pay for his mutton had made him feel like he lost a small piece of them all over again. He just bowed his head slightly.

He realized that he didn't feel that loss when he gave Lily the dress. He didn't know why; he just didn’t. She must have noticed his sadness. “Let’s talk about something happier,” she said.

She truly did look beautiful, and the kindness she had shown him by just sitting and talking with him was worth more than the dress, anyway. The king’s gift to the dragon had turned out to be priceless.

Fen Mindok Vahdin would give no reward to this king, however. After all, he was sure that whatever the king had expected to happen between the maiden and the dragon, it wasn’t this; this simple, kind conversation. Maybe he thought he would eat her. That had seemed to be Lily’s fear.

He really needed to stop thinking to himself so much. This was supposed to be a conversation. “What did this king think I would do with a human as a gift?”

"Nice to meet you too, Fen Mindok Vahdin," she repeated his full name carefully, but definitely stumbling over a few of the syllables.

It was astounding to watch him move - to see his magnificant wings flutter as he bowed to greet her. A dragon with manners! She almost laughed but refrained - she didn't want him to think she was making fun of him. On the contrary, she found his behavior very endearing.

Fen settled on his pile of treasure then, but somehow none of the coins went tumbling down. He was being held up by magic, maybe from the treasure, or maybe just from him, she wasn't sure. When she asked him about the origin of his treasure, the look in his eyes told her immediately she'd broached a sensitive topic. She listened solemly as he explained to her that his parents were dead. So it didn't sound like he'd murdered anyone for these treasures - maybe his parents had, but Lily wasn't going to question him further on the topic. Losing ones parents was a hole in your soul you could never get back. She'd felt it with her mom, though she hadn't ever met her, but always feeling a guilt deep down that if not for her, her mother would still be alive. Now her dead was dead as well, and she could hardly stand it knowing she'd been forced to leave him bleeding out by the fireplace.

She pushed those sorrowful thoughts aside and forced herself to smile at Fen. "Let's talk about something happier," she declared. She didn't like seeing him sad and regretted asking the question.

Unfortunately, the topic Fen brought up next was not a happy one for her. The young maiden blushed at his question, unsure how to answer. She thought about lying to him - it would be difficult, to say the least, to admit the king had sent her here to be raped and killed, but he had been honest with her in her question, so she decided to tell him the truth. Maybe it was foolish, but she felt she could trust him not to harm her.

Lily took a deep breath and averted her hazel eyes away from his yellow gaze as she explained, "He thought... well I think he thought..." she blushed profusely and said quickly, "you might appreciate a virgin... you know... to... have sex with me..." She hoped he would understand, but considering he seemed unabashed by his own nudity, she wasn't sure if was even familiar with things like sex and purity. She blushed, imaging herself explaining such things to a dragon.

He saw her face fall, reddened, at his question. It should have been obvious to him before he asked. She had been so afraid that he would eat her; that must be what the king had expected he would do. The poor woman must have been carted up this mountain thinking she was being taken to her doom. The fear must have been overwhelming.

He saw her take a deep breath and admired her strength, that she would say the words that hurt her to even think. She may have stumbled over the words, but she kept going. It wasn’t until she got it out that he realized it hadn’t been fear, exactly. Now that he thought about it, her scent hadn’t had that tang of fear. It was spicy, with a slight, rich bitterness that intrigued him.

He was familiar with the word “virgin.” It meant that she had never had sex before. What “sex” was, exactly, was less than clear to him. His books tended to skip over the actual mechanics of it. He knew it was something people did, in private, and they usually took off their clothes on the way into the bedroom. Could a dragon even do that?

How had he not realized it before? There was often some connection between sex and children in his books, and his parents had a child. So, surely dragons can have sex, too. But, can they have sex with a human? If sex happened without clothes, maybe that was why he found himself so intrigued by the idea of seeing Lily without her clothes.

Fen’s train of thought finally arrived at the horrifying implications of what Lily had said. The king had stolen her as a “gift” for the dragon. She had not been willing. And, the king had expected him to have sex with her, whether she wanted it or not. The fact that this king thought Fen would do that revolted him. That settled it; Fen would not allow this to stand. The dragon was going to see the king.

He stood up, and took a step toward Lily, rage clouding his face. “I am not a thief. I will not steal you. I will not steal your body, even for a time. It is your own.”

As she reacted to his outburst, he realized his error and sat back down, elbows on his knees. “I do not eat humans, and I do not steal sex from them.” Despite his anger, he tried to force his face into a smile. “Even if I did these things to humans, I would not do them to a friend.”

He swallowed, recovering his emotions somewhat. “I’m sorry if I’ve frightened you. I just want you to know that I will never have sex with you unless you want it.”

He hadn’t meant to phrase it that way, implying so clearly that if she did want it, he would have sex with her. That probably could have been left less clear. It’s not like the pretty girl would want to fuck a dragon, after all. It had just slipped out.

As with most of their conversations thus far, Fen took a bit of time to respond to her. She could practically see the thoughts tumbling around his head as he realized what she'd said. When it all finally clicked in his head, he suddenly shot up and moved toward her, rage alit in his yellow eyes. Lily shrunk into herself and leaned back, frightened by his sudden change in demeanor, but his words quickly calmed her.

He was angry, but not at her. He was angry on her behalf. As he spoke with such passion in his voice, she couldn't help but smile. This was the most she'd heard him speak at once, a small monologue of sorts. It reminded her a bit of a knight professing his duties and virtues in one of the storybooks, except he was not a knight, but a fearsome dragon, right? But looking at him now, Lily found she was not afraid as he sat back down across from her, resting his elbows on his knees not unlike a human would.

His next words warmed her heart. He was implying that she was his friend. Lily smiled warmly at him. Things were certainly working out far better than she'd expected. She was still alive and uneaten, for one, and the dragon also seemed very kind. In his more humanoid but scaley form, she thought he was around her age, but it was hard to tell.

When asked if he'd frightened her, Lily smiled kindly. "You frightened me a little, but I can tell your rage is not directed to me. I am furious with the King as well, probably even more than you."

She blushed at his next statement, which pretty much implied he would be willing to have sex with her if she wanted him too. She felt guilty for the tingling sensation his admission left between her thighs. Thinking about having sex with a dragon, even in his more humanoid form, was unnatural! Lily wasn't even exactly sure how a coupling between them would work, but she was kind by nature and did not want to hurt the dragon's feelings, so she didn't reject him outright.

"Thank you. I'll... keep that in mind," she blushed profusely and averted her gaze, careful to avert it to the side and not down where his cock was.

“Ewww!!!”

“Why would I want to have sex with a dragon?”

“That’s gross!”
“What made you think I would want to have sex with you?”

“Thank you for thinking of me that way, but I think of us more as friends who don’t have sex with each other.”

Those were all things that Lily didn’t say, and Fen took a small, secret hope in that. He was also glad he hadn’t frightened her. She was his only friend in the world, and he wanted at least one person to not be afraid of him.

He saw her turn her face away and he himself looked up at the large upper cave opening. She was going to leave eventually. Of course she was. That thought made Fen sad. But, he hoped she would return.

When he was younger, reading his books for the first time, he tried to imagine what it would be like to have someone to speak with like the characters on the page. He yearned to share his thoughts and stories, and have someone else share theirs. The reality, at least so far with Lily, was better. She was more complicated and less predictable than the people he had imagined, and it had been a long time since anything unpredictable had happened in his life.

“When you leave, will you come back to visit?”

He held his breath as he waited for her reply.