Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The bitter winds of a week-long blizzard whip Theo's face as he brushes ice away from his lashes. His eyes are the only part of his body exposed to the cold air of Srivena, the province in which his current contract was issued. His thick clothing was purchased here. His previous garb was suited for the warm sands of Trien, and would have marked him as an outsider. Theo tugs at the woolen wrap covering his nose. It falls down every twenty-two paces of his horse, unless he has to jump over something, in which case it's less.

Theo had hated Trien while he was there. Sandstorms seemed the worst kind of offense to his skin, but he had not been in a blizzard before this trip. He rubs absently at the scar the Hydra left him across his cheekbone. It had taken him so long to get to town to see a proper healer that it had gone and healed awkwardly on its own. It's nothing compared to the other dozens of scars that mar his body. It just happens to be the most recent, and the one he isn't yet used to.

His horse gives a worried whinny. It's nervous about the territory they're approaching, as is he. A better rider might comfort the animal and speak in hushed tones. Theo has never been able to conjure up such words or tones, so he sharply urges the black draft horse on through the storm. He'd wanted to wait it out. After five days, when it showed no sign of stopping, he had run out of money to pay for lodgings. He had plenty more squirreled away in other places, but he ran through everything he had taken with him on this trip. If he was going to sleep alongside the road, he might as well make progress on tracking his current target. In a storm like this, waiting it out in a shrine or abandoned outbuilding wouldn't make much of a difference compared to a cave or some such shelter he might encounter.

This contract intrigued him. Few things in life were capable of catching his interest, but this contract had caught his eye in the bounty collector's ledger. Twelve others had attempted the mission and thrown in the towel. None of them had died, so it was strange not only that seasoned bounty hunters had given up such a lucrative contract, but that their target appeared to be a pacifist. A dragon pacifist... that was a rarity he had to see for himself. He wanted to question such a dragon, pick apart its brain, before he killed it of course. Its body was as valuable as the hoard it was guarding. Each scale of a bronze dragon, in the right market, would sell for enough to feed a person for a year if they lived modestly. Of course, he only got a cut of that- that was the trade that had to be made for the convenience of not having to butcher and transport the thing himself. All he had to do was kill it and send word by way of a simple message stone, and he would receive his payment. It was enough to retire on, but he wouldn't. Immortality made a person too restless.

The cold is starting to get to him, though. It isn't enough to make him abandon his mission and head for the nearest town, though. Any sane person would, at this point. He knows without seeing them that his lips and fingers are blue. He lost feeling in his toes hours ago and had to adjust his feet in the stirrups so he wouldn't lose his footing. But he's endured worse. As the homunculus and protégé of the most feared Lich in his realm, there are few torments in life that would be novel to him.

His horse startles again. It probably would have been beneficial to him to have cared enough to remember the thing's name. That way he might have been able to have even a modicum of influence over it. As it was, the horse had no interest in continuing down the path that Theo had set for it. It stands at the edge of a forest, rooted to the ground in fear. All the trees there are dead, bearing the scars of a blight in the distant past. He nudges the horse once, then more firmly a second time. The horse shakes its enormous head and protests, taking several steps back. Theo unhooks his gear from the horse and lets it drop to the ground. He doesn't trust the thing not to run off with his stuff.

"Come on. It's just a bunch of trees," he scolds. He flicks the reins. The horse, apparently, has had enough. It rears and tosses him to the ground, turning and running before he can even register what's happened.

"Stupid fucking horse," Theo mutters, wincing in pain. He sits slowly, feeling around to see if he's been gifted with anything worse than bruises. Luckily, the thick snow cushioned his fall from the enormous animal.

It could be worse. His master had a cruelty that only the undead can muster up, but he had the good sense to build Theo a resilient body. All of the tests from those early years at least gave Theo explicit knowledge of what his body could and could not tolerate. Add in the advanced healing factor, and he was the perfect lab rat for a Lich's experiments- and by extension, a perfect killer. He felt no remorse when he took on his master as his first contract as a bounty hunter. Killing came easily to him, but he took the greatest pleasure in ending the pseudo-lives of the undead.

He dusts the snow off of himself and takes inventory of his gear. He's never had any faith in horses, although he could say the same about any other creature. Theo never packs more than he can carry on his own. It only takes a few minutes to adjust his scant bags and hoist them onto his aching back.

Theo begins the trek through the blighted forest that he knows will lead him to the cave where the dragon lurks. It doesn't bother him that there's no record of this dragon ever killing anyone. Theo doesn't hold any delusions of having a moral compass. It doesn't matter what crimes his targets may or may not have committed. His entire existence is a crime against nature. Business is business. This dragon will go down like all of his other targets. He has an impeccable track record, and he doesn't plan on this odd contract being the one to tarnish it.

Within minutes, the snow has soaked through his boots and pants. He's so cold he's far beyond shivering. His body moves only because that's what it has been doing for the last half hour. If he were to stop, he's sure his limbs would lock up then and there and never move again.

The eerie atmosphere of the forest isn't lost on him. There were a number of contracts for this area for more frightening creatures than a bronze dragon. But they didn't pay as much, and the dragon bounty was on a timetable. If he couldn't complete it in two weeks, he would be presumed dead or to have abandoned the contract and it would be assigned to the next hunter.

The atmosphere of the place feels oppressive. It feels twisted and unnatural, but then, so is he. He is neither mortal nor weak, so it doesn't matter to him what might be watching him beyond his limited field of view. Besides, anything sane is curled up in a warm burrow.

When the series of hills and low mountains containing the cave system he's looking for come into view, he should feel relief. Instead he just feels cold down to his bones. He keeps walking. That's all he has the presence of mind to think of- putting one step after the other. The intel on this target is good, at least, since so many came back to tell about it. Its lair is deep within the cave system, set back away from the harsh elements. At least there's a good chance he can rest inside the cave system's entrance and regain his strength without being noticed.

The ominous atmosphere of the forest feels less oppressive at the base of the mountains. Attuned to such things from birth, if one could call it that when he was made in a lab, he feels the imposing presence of the dragon. He feels its will, daring any interloper to oppose it by threatening its stash. He doesn't know if it's just because he is also an immortal creature, or due to the dragon blood running through his veins that is the source of his power, but Theo has always had a unique connection with dragons. He can sense their presence keenly.

They often take interest in him, despite the fact that he is there to kill them and collect another day's pay. He almost wishes they wouldn't. It's easier to get the job done when they go down fighting rather than pleading for their lives. It's not that it tickles his conscience, or anything. He's pretty sure he doesn't have one. His master didn't seem like the kind of person to give him something as inconvenient as morals. The only purpose they would serve would be to make him hesitate on his missions- something Theo couldn't afford to do. He was immune to dying from old age, not from having his head bitten off by a dragon in a moment of hesitation.

Theo steps into the mouth of the large cave that he knows to be the main entrance to the dragon's lair. The ground is well trodden with obvious footprints in the light layer of mud just inside the cave's entrance. He makes it exactly thirty-six paces inside the cave before he collapses. He's shivering so hard he's convulsing. The cold has sunk so deep into his muscles that he's lost all control over them. He needs to get a handle on himself before the dragon catches wind of his scent and takes advantage of his moment of weakness.

Theo removes his gloves and tucks them into his pockets. His fingernails are as blue as the dead. Murmuring a few words in the ancient tongue of ancestors connected to him by blood and nothing more, Theo conjures a handful of fire. It's a pitiful amount that does nothing more than warm his hands and wrists. It sputters out quickly. He tries to get it going again, but his tongue is too stiff to form the words, his mind too sluggish to concentrate on the spell.

It's no use. He needs to get up and keep moving. The cave will be chilly, but it won't be sub-freezing temperatures. It will be dry. He hauls himself up onto protesting legs and staggers forward. The gear he brought is mostly for making camp. It won't do him any good if it's torched in a fight. He deposits everything that isn't useful in battle in a heap on a dry rock, grateful to be rid of the weight.

With every step deeper into the cave, he feels strength return to him. It isn't much, but it will have to be enough for this fight. He needs to just end this, send in the message that he's completed his contract, guard the lair until a team comes to secure it, and have someone bring him a mount to ride back to the nearest town- preferably something that doesn't spook as easily as a horse.

A deep rumble from the heart of the cave network alerts him that the dragon is awake. It goes on, varying in tone. It appears to be humming to itself. He skimmed over what was known of this dragon's hoard before taking on the contract. If his bags and every inch of the forest weren't going to be searched thoroughly, he would take some of it for himself. Dragons collected all sorts of things, but this one had inherited a sprawling library of tomes that mortal men would wage wars for in a heartbeat. He'd been specifically instructed to draw the fighting away from the hoard, if possible, so as not to damage it. Every burned book would be docked from his pay.

When he catches the metallic, smokey scent of dragon, he knows he's close enough. His limbs are still frozen enough that a mortal would have likely keeled over and died of hypothermia at this point. It would take more than that to kill him. It's just something he has to bear. He thinks of a warm inn, a simple sandwich dipped in soup, and taking a vacation somewhere without snow when this is all over. It's enough to spur him on. He cups his hands around his mouth and applies an amplifying spell to his next words. They're not creative, but they haven't failed him yet.

"Hey, you ugly lizard! Come on out and die to my hand like the rest of your kind! I'm here for your head and your hoard!"

Normally, an enraged roar is what answers that challenge. An insult to a dragon's pride, a threat to their collection, and the knowledge that their lair is being invaded by nothing less than a mass murderer of dragons, usually spurs them into action. The humming stops. There's a sound of footsteps not rushing, but not tarrying either. The dragon walks with purpose, but it is not enraged. It is no matter. He will get this dragon to put up a fight. Theo adopts a defensive posture, readying a shield spell. There’s little information available on what this dragon’s offensive abilities are, and he wants to be ready for anything. Bronze dragons can have a wide range of abilities.

The dragon comes into view in the central tunnel of a series of branching ones up ahead. Its head is held high. It nearly brushes against the roof of the cave. The dragon is twice the size of the horse he rode to get here. Not the largest one he’s ever seen, by far, but it’s enough to make him settle deeper into his stance. It lumbers forward almost lazily. Theo is taken by surprise when a great, booming laugh ricochets down the tunnels. The dragon shakes its gleaming head as it walks calmly into the open cavern where Theo is standing.

“In the four-and-a-half millennium that I have been alive, hunters have thrown every conceivable taunt at me to goad me into fighting.” Its voice reached Theo as though it were spoken aloud, but the dragon’s mouth did not move when it spoke. It laughs again and steps into the light that pours into the cave from an opening in the roof. Its scales shimmer and reveal a perfect, unmarked surface. “Never in all my years has a hunter called me ugly.” There was no trace of offense in its voice. The creature sounded genuinely amused.

Theo is thrown off guard. The dragons he has encountered have been battle-scarred, vicious, and too crazed with bloodlust to make intelligent conversation. This one unsettles him. He knows it’s just a technique to get him to let his guard down though. He won’t make that mistake.

“I use the same taunt every time. I’ve never met a dragon that wasn’t hideous,” he says plainly.

The dragon chuckles again and advances. He’s well within the range of a breath attack, but he has enough reaction time to throw a shield spell up if he needs to. The dragon gives an exaggerated spin that shows off the way its bronze scales shimmer silver, gold, brass, and even green in the light. It twists and turns as easily as a leaf on the breeze despite its enormous size. It finishes with a dramatic flourish of its tail and settles down fifty feet in front of Theo, resting its massive head on crossed paws.

“Then I’m honored to be the exception,” it purrs.

“You’re arrogant, even for a dragon.”

The dragon gives an assenting hum and looks Theo up and down. It’s sizing him up, but at least it’s not looking at him like he’s an appetizer. “So, how many have you killed?”

Theo crosses his arms. “Dragons, or everything?”

It shrugs, scales rippling over powerful muscle.

“You’ll be the eighth, as far as dragons,” he says, voice unwavering. “My 149th contract overall.”

The dragon gives an impressed hum that doesn’t feel sarcastic. “You must be quite powerful, then. I’m assuming you aren’t human?”

Theo frowns, remembering the circumstances he’s in. “That’s none of your business, considering you’re going to die soon.”

“Oh? Then it doesn’t matter if you tell me. Pray tell, when am I going to die? It seems you’re content with making conversation so far.”

He arcs a bolt of lightning from his other hand, letting it fizzle out a few inches from the dragon’s nose. The dragon doesn’t even flinch. Slowly, as though it’s bored of the same song and dance, it rises to its clawed paws again. Theo expects it to say something like “let’s get this over with.” The great beast’s eyes do look sad, but he realizes with disgust that the dragon is looking at him with pity. It feels like its amber eyes are boring right through him.

“Your lips are blue, little hunter,” it says quietly. Theo quickly pulls up the woolen wrap that won’t stay secure. It’s true that he’s still frozen, but battle will warm him up. He forms a spear of golden energy in his left hand and summons a shield in his right.

The dragon sighs a long-suffering sigh and advances. Theo hurls the spear into the dragon, who doesn’t bother to dodge. A blink of its eyes is the only indication it gives that the spear caused any injury, before casually pulling out the bolt to let it fizzle out on the ground. It gives a shake of its mighty body, and the burnt hole near its shoulder begins to heal. Theo gasps, and the dragon gives a cunning smile.

“That’s why you’ve never lost- you have healing abilities.”

The dragon shakes its head. “You are wrong. Everyone who has given up this contract did so because they were no longer interested in completing it.”

“Then you hypnotized them,” he suggests, readying a more powerful spell.

“I would not stoop to such an underhanded tactic. That ability is not meant for combat,” it says, showing the first hint of aggression in its voice as it pounces. Theo has the choice between launching a spell or dodging. He chooses to be pinned in order to rend the underside of the dragon with a spell that manifests as ghostly claws. The dragon growls before pinning his wrists. A single clawed digit is all it takes. It mercifully avoids resting even the weight of its whole paw on him.

While most Sorcerers need both their hands and their voice to cast, he is no ordinary Sorcerer. He had the privilege of being mixed up in an alchemy lab. Anything extraneous was left out in favor of creating a more efficient machine. Theo summons up a dark, noxious fire from deep within his chest and covers the dragon in a thick cloud of it. That attack would have been enough to paralyze a younger dragon, and instantly kill any lesser creature. His target is hardly fazed. A few coughs are the only reaction he gets out of it.

“Although it has never been necessary, I would gladly give my life to protect my treasures. Before that, even, I would burn them down and bury this entire cave system in rubble,” it growled. Its breath was hot on Theo’s face. “There are books contained within this library that would wreak unimaginable havoc should they fall into the hands of one of the more short-sighted species. I know that’s why hunters are being sent after me. They will all fail.”

Its breathing is more labored now, and Theo knows the poison is starting to have at least a small amount of effect despite its healing factor. He brews up another cloud in his chest, but the dragon interrupts him with a torrent of fire. He quickly hardens himself with a full-body shield. The heat still makes it through like he’s just opened a wood stove, but it doesn’t burn him. The sudden change in temperature is unpleasant due to how cold his own body still is. His clothes are soaked all the way through.

The dragon sighs, breath warm on his face. It tugs at Theo’s face covering with a gentle bite and nudges his face. “You are cold as a corpse. How are you not dead?”

Theo just frowns and clenches his jaw to silence his chattering teeth. This is an embarrassing situation to be in. Worse, still, is when the dragon settles over him, applying the smallest fraction of its weight as it readjusts its limbs. It’s warm as a fireplace. Theo feels life returning to his abused body and wonders why the dragon is doing this. As soon as his teeth have stopped chattering, he lets out a shout that crystallizes and buries dozens of needles in the dragon’s face.

“I’m not going to cast you out into the cold, but I won’t allow you to kill me or continue to attack me. I’m growing bored of this. Let up, or I’m putting an end to your tiresome games. You haven’t shown me anything interesting yet,” it says, rising without warning. It deliberately turns its back on Theo and begins walking back toward the tunnel it emerged from.

The dragon has revealed a number of its powers to Theo, healing being the most interesting. But the most relevant one is that its primary element is that of fire. It’s funny, considering its hoard is incredibly flammable. Energy attacks are Theo’s weakest, followed by fire, but poisons and ice are his strong suit. His poisons are too slow acting to counteract the dragon’s healing ability, but frost might just be enough. It’s risky, seeing as Theo is already damn cold. Lowering the temperature of the room could be a fatal mistake. It’s a risk he’s willing to take.

He focuses on the cold in his body and the damp air of the cave. He inhales and draws the cold to himself. His teeth chatter and his skin turns a blueish-grey as he forms a solid wall of piercing ice needles three feet thick, fifty feet across and as many feet tall. It will be enough. It has to be. He’s put all his remaining magic into this attack. This dragon is a damn fool for turning its back, and its arrogance will be its downfall.

Theo launches his attack. It’s enough to kill a warm-type dragon three times over. He’s filled the entire room. There’s nowhere to dodge.

Quick as a whip, the bronze dragon turns halfway. Its amber eyes are burning like a wildfire. With a sharp cut of its tail, it shatters a number of ice spikes. The rest are melted before impact by a rush of flames that Theo has never heard of, let alone seen a dragon able to produce. It stands in a cloud of thick steam, presumably unharmed. Theo, on the other hand, is spent. The spell took too much out of him. He looks down at his limbs, dismayed. They are covered in ice. The dragon approaches him. Theo wonders if this will be how he dies.

“Are you done now, little hunter?” the dragon asks quietly. It bends its glittering head and nudges his ice-encrusted coat with a warm snout. Theo expects an insult, or condescending remark of some kind. All dragons love to gloat. Instead, the dragon nips his prone form gently and lifts him into the air.

He tries to demand that the dragon put him down, to ask what the hell it thinks it’s doing, but he is unable to unclench his jaw enough to speak. The dragon deftly spins him around so that it’s holding him by the back of his coat like an animal might hold its unruly young. Despite its formidable claws, it makes quick, gentle work of his soaked clothing, discarding his many layers until he is wearing only his damp grey thermal pants. Theo is now incensed as well as frozen. He tries to squirm away, but his body is too rigid to manage much movement.

“If you insist on being self-destructive with ice magic when you are already on the brink of death, I’ll take away your option to use it. I’ll not have you die by my claws or your own hands.” The dragon deposits him on the ground up against the cold, damp stone wall. It’s pinning him gently with a paw the size of a turkey splayed across his chest. “Please do not resist. This is the easiest way to warm you up and keep you out of trouble.”

Theo’s heart was pounding in his chest. What the hell was it talking about? The dragon presses its warm snout to his cheek and licks his jaw. Its tongue is hot, and immediately thaws the skin there. Theo exhales sharply. Even if it were not for the cold, he would have still been frozen solid at being handled in such a way by nothing less than a dragon. And this is no yearling. This is the most ancient dragon he’s ever heard of. He doesn’t even know if it follows what he knows about others of its kind.

“You’ll be safe and warm,” it reassures him, nuzzling his neck and shoulders. “I’ll release you when you’ve thawed and are less inclined towards violence.” In a motion so swift Theo has no time to react, the dragon gives him one last slurp along his jaw before opening its mouth wide and engulfing him. Theo yelps as a curved paw pushes him headfirst down the dragon’s gullet. Its tongue moves underneath his bare chest, guiding him down. In only three swallows, Theo tumbles down into the dragon’s cavernous stomach.

He begins to thaw immediately, and panic overtakes him just as soon. He presses his hands against the dragon’s insides, beginning to hyperventilate. In response, the dragon hums low and steady. A stone, or small oval-shaped organ of some kind lays just in front of Theo’s splayed out legs. It glows with a warm golden light as the dragon hums. Warmth radiates out from it, and Theo realizes this is what is responsible for the dragon’s ability to breathe fire. It could immolate him in seconds if it so desired. Theo presses his numb hands to its ridged surface. Its warmth is powerful, but not burning.

“Better, little hunter?” the dragon asks. Theo feels it move with painstaking slowness so as not to jostle him. He thought he would be drowning in a pool of acid. Instead, it’s just moist and warm. Its stomach is roomy enough to not be claustrophobic, but enclosed enough to feel oddly safe. Theo nods, although he knows the dragon cannot see him.

It settles on the floor. The position of the stomach readjusts like it’s on a pendulum so that the stone-like thing is still parallel to the floor. Theo cautiously lowers himself, wrapping himself around the comforting glow.

The last thing Theo hears is a murmured command of “sleep,” before everything goes dark.

Chapter Text

Theo awakens somewhere dark and moist. He shoots upright, only to bump his head on a low, fleshy ceiling. He thrashes blindly in the dark, trying to figure out where he is. Suddenly, his prison moves. There is a quiet rumble, and an object in front of Theo begins to glow with warm light.

“You did not sleep for long,” a powerful voice says. It sounds like it’s coming from all around him but also inside his own head. Theo is breathing quickly. There somehow isn’t a shortage of oxygen in this confined space, but his panic is making him feel like he can’t get enough air in.

“You’re not in any danger. If I let you out, though, I’m depositing you at the exit to my cave and barring any path of return. I will not let you back in if your intent is still to finish your contract.”

Theo stills, remembering his surroundings. The dragon had swallowed him. He was curled up in its stomach, and had apparently slept there. His contract is the furthest thing from his mind. Right now, he just wants out so he can think clearly again. In his best state, he might have been able to kill the dragon. But out here in this desolate province, weakened by this storm without end, he didn’t stand a chance.

“Let me out,” he commands with as much fury as he can muster in such a compromising position.

The dragon chuckles. The sound makes its whole stomach vibrate. “You are rather cheeky for a human.”

Theo opens his mouth to correct the dragon but stops himself. He shouldn’t be making conversation with his targets, plans to abandon the contract notwithstanding. He tries to formulate some kind of plan, but his head is spinning. Quick breathing has turned to hyperventilating. Despite its earlier promise to not let him out within the confines of its lair again, the dragon quickly regurgitates him. Powerful muscles propel his mostly bare body out onto the cave floor.

The sudden difference in temperature and humidity is enough to stave off the nausea his panic had brewed up. The dragon is looking at him with concern, head tilted. It gives him a tentative nudge on his soaked, bare chest.

"I do not want to risk the library, but you sounded ill." The dragon continues to nudge him all over with its large muzzle. He mutters that he's fine, he just didn't want to be kept prisoner in an overgrown lizard's stomach.

The dragon, despite its imposing build, manages to look bashful. The scales near its cheeks shimmer like a vein of rose quartz. "Although you were too stubborn to acknowledge it, you were near to death from hypothermia when I swallowed you. This was the most agreeable way to thaw you, in my opinion- the next option being to hold you by your coat over a bonfire. Having to decide quickly, that seemed the least comfortable option." It clears its throat.

"Speaking of your coat," the dragon gestures to his clothes, which had been neatly laid out over a flat stone. A small fire burns near them. "I lit the fire with a torch that was already burning so I would not immolate you by lighting it myself. Your clothing is dry and warm now."

Theo cocks his head. "Why are you doing all of this? I was sent here to kill you and turn your tomes over to the College."

"Mm, is that who is issuing the contracts now? I'll have to have a chat with Bronwyn one of these days." The dragon shrugs and settles down next to the fire, lazily tucking its chin into its tail. Theo hesitantly sits cross-legged across from it. His contract is growing less tempting with every passing minute. It isn't as though he's short on gold. He has few expenses. He mostly took contracts on in order to stave off boredom. For the time being, talking to the dragon was proving to be more interesting than killing it.

It hums and exhales a small puff of fire. "Every human I have encountered while at my lair over the past few decades has been a bounty hunter sent to kill me. If I did not try to talk to some of them, my existence would get terribly lonely. Dragons are actually social creatures, although you would never know it from how we have lived for the last ten thousand years. I am fortunate enough to have the ability to transfigure myself and blend in among the humanoid civilizations when I want someone to talk to. Most of the others have gone mad with isolation thinking they are the last of their kind. If I didn't put my hoard at risk every time I left my lair, I would spend my time seeking out the others."

Theo doesn't know what to make of that. It was a lot to unpack. He doesn't concern himself with the lives of others, least of all his targets. If anything, the dragon had just revealed several weaknesses to him- the primary one being that there were times it left its lair unguarded. That could be once in a century, though. It wasn't a good enough lead to dwell on. He decides to get right to the point.

"What happens now?"

One side of its mouth peels back in what might be a smirk. "Are you asking in a grander philosophical sense, or about when I am planning to throw you out? I only have an answer to the second question."

Theo crosses his arms. If this dragon has a moral code, Theo will hold it to it. "You mentioned leaving me outside your cave. That's a death sentence in this storm, unless you can find me a horse."

The dragon makes a "hmph" sound and pokes at one of the smoldering logs. "I've never been terribly fond of horses. In that case, I'll ferry you back to the nearest town."

"-meaning..."

The dragon grins and stands up, shaking itself until its scales puffed up like a bird would do with its feathers to appear bigger. "You would ride on my back, of course. Unless you're scared, little hunter?"

The challenge to his pride was so great that the conversation could not possibly have any other outcome than the current situation, which featured Theo clinging to the dragon's horns for dear life as it soared through the frigid air over the blighted forest. The horns are long, twisted, and sturdy enough to be the perfect handles. The dragon's back has a divet that is almost perfectly saddle-shaped. It told him that it was a genetic remnant from when humans and dragons had a more symbiotic relationship, and dragon riders were a common sight in Srivena. Although Theo is nestled snugly with no real danger of falling off as long as he holds on, he is still rightly terrified.

The dragon glances back at him where he lies, muscles taut, gripping its horns so hard his nails are drawing blood from where they meet his palms on the other side. Flakes of snow land on its head and melt instantly.

"You haven't spoken in some time. It must be because you are so enthralled by bareback flight. You are clearly a natural," it muses. Theo fights the urge to bite it. At four-hundred feet in the air, he is at its mercy.

The dragon frowns, and Theo can feel another tease coming on. "Perhaps you are chilled? If that's the case, you do not have to ride on m-"

Theo cuts the dragon off quickly. "Nope! Up here is fine. It's ju~st fine. No need to swallow me again. Town can't be more than ten minutes away."

The dragon's deepening frown feels more genuine. It turns its full attention back to its flight path. If Theo could relax for once in his life, this would be fun. At least with a radiator the size of a young elephant underneath him, the cold isn't so biting.

"Then it will be time for me to land soon. I cannot risk being seen in this form, or the townsfolk will know I have abandoned my post. I will walk with you in a less conspicuous form to ensure you do not do something foolish and get yourself frozen again."

"I don't need you to escort me."

"Would you like me to anyway?" The dragon asks with no hint of offense at Theo's sharp tone.

He pauses. It's an odd question to ask. It surely isn't something he would ever think to ask himself. Of course he didn't need to be accompanied back for protection or anything. His easily bruised pride wouldn't allow it. But did he want company- just for the sake of it? He was his master’s only apprentice. He never had anything that could amount to a “sibling.” The few times he left the tower in those first years of his existence to buy ingredients in the nearby towns, people would take his coin, shove the parcels into his hands, and close the exchange without a word uttered. The fear surrounding his master extended to him, for good reason. People had never been chatty around him for fear that he would turn on them over nothing. A dragon that was older than the magic that made him didn’t have any such concerns, though. Not being feared was... refreshing. He’d never considered there would be a situation where that wouldn't be the case.

“Alright,” is all he says. At least the dragon is chatty enough to fill the silence. He’s not used to making small talk, or important talk, for that matter. There have been times where his voice became hoarse and gravelly from days of unuse. When he’d finally emerged from the tower a week after killing his master, people had thought him mute.

Although he can't see the dragon’s face, he feels its response. The heat being emitted from its body increases until he can scarcely feel the chill of the blizzard at all. It beats its wings dramatically and leaps higher into the air. Theo yelps, although the jump is nothing compared to what comes next. The dragon lets out a burst of fire that blows warm gusts back into his face like air from a bellows before dipping its head.

“Wait, wait, wait! What are you doing you crazy lizard?” He shrieks.

The dragon pays him no mind as it dives straight down. Theo has to scoot higher and wrap himself even tighter around the dragon’s horns. Just when he thinks his grip is going to give out and surely, this is how he dies, the dragon levels out. It spreads its wings and coasts, shaking its great head. It looks back at him with a mischievous gleam. They’re not far from the ground now, and he really wishes the damn thing would focus on landing.

“What the fuck was that for?” he croaks as the dragon beats its wings, coasting easily to the ground. He doesn’t even wait for it to come to a full stop before he tumbles off, falling over his gear.

It comes forward to nudge at his chest in concern. He bats it away. “Hey, fuck off! Quit it!” He says, even as his irritated tone morphs into giggles. It’s nudging lightly at his sides now. “Seriously,” he wheezes, rolling away to crouch at a safe distance. He pushes sleet-soaked black bangs off his forehead with a gloved hand. “Why did you do that?”

The dragon dips its head and smiles lightly. “Of all the humans whose missions sent them to my lair, I never saw any of them again. I thought... if I did something memorable... I might make enough of an impression for one to come back.”

Theo is taken aback. “You... you dove through the sky... thinking it would get me to come back someday?”

The dragon shrugs. “Was it memorable?”

His fingers are numb and his heart is pounding. “Of course it was fuckin’ memorable!” He snaps. He pauses. His heart isn’t actually pounding with terror. He mostly just feels a rush of adrenaline. It was almost... fun? “I could be persuaded to do that again,” he mutters sheepishly.

The dragon beams and sits back on its haunches. “I am glad to hear it.” It looks at the sky and back at Theo. “We should get moving. Do you care what form I assume?”

“Huh?”

“If you have no preference, I’ll change into something inconspicuous.”

With that, swirls of golden light spin around the dragon, obscuring it until all Theo can see are the lights. They’re soft, and he can feel their warm energy even from a distance. He’s never seen anything like it. When the light fades, a very ordinary person is standing where the dragon once was. He wasn’t expecting the dragon to transform into a woman, but then, with the way magic works, this form probably doesn’t have any bearing on the dragon’s actual anatomy or identity.

“Is this close enough to the current fashion?” The dragon-woman asks, voice much more human-like but still in a low, husky register. She twirls for good measure, letting her grey fur cloak ripple behind her.

Theo nods, speechless. Seeing a creature that is thousands of years old, and more powerful than anything he’s ever encountered, in the shape of someone who looks so plain is a marvel of magic. Her hair is a faded, muddy brown and pulled back half into braids and half loose. The only characteristic reminiscent of the dragon form is her amber eyes, although they no longer glow.

“As a thank you for not causing me too much trouble today outside of a refreshing fight, please allow me to pay for your lodging while you’re in town.”

This is all too strange. His target- former target- he reminds himself- is transfigured into a human shape and walking him into town. Is she going to walk in with him to abandon the contract? Actually... that might be funny. He suggests the idea to her, and there’s a mischievous glint in her eyes that is so very dragon-like.

As they walk into town, she begins to ramble on excitedly about such and such plants along the road. Theo doesn’t know most of them, and doubts he’ll ever encounter them again, as he plans to leave this province for good as soon as this storm clears. But listening to her babble about something she finds so fascinating quiets his mind, and he finds himself listening with an unusually attentive ear. He wishes he had a mentor who rambled on about plants and not a master who tested new and dangerous compounds on his skin because he had an advanced healing factor. He watches the dragon rub her thumbs over the petals of a pale flower and thinks he could learn a lot from someone like this if only his bones would let him stay in one place for more than a month. But he can’t, so he won’t. As long as his blood feels like it has some kind of disease that makes standing still feel like he’s being poisoned, he keeps moving. He doesn’t connect. He doesn’t settle down. He doesn’t stand still.

That’s always been enough.

As he’s checked into a nicer inn than he’s ever allowed himself the luxury of staying at- at the dragon’s insistence- he wonders if he will ever let himself choose another path. He wonders if his tongue will ever stop betraying him, if his legs will ever stop leading him astray, and if his mind will ever allow his heart to enjoy what’s in front of him instead of chasing after things that will slowly kill him. As the dragon tells him a goodbye that seems too heavy on her tongue for someone who’s still very much a stranger, he wonders why he didn’t ask for her name.

Chapter Text

Sea Town, Theo decides as soon as he’s stepped foot inside its boundaries, is vastly more agreeable to him than Srivena. It's warmer, for one thing. It also isn't mostly uncharted wasteland. It’s both a town and a province. Sea Town huddles against the ocean in a cliff-bordered bay in the shape of a crescent moon. To the south are sprawling plains that are constantly goading Sea Town to engage in some skirmish or other. To the west and north is the southernmost part of a vast and powerful empire of mages. Sea Town isn’t small. Theo could spend a hundred years exploring it and not see every corner. But it’s small for a province, which means there’s a lot of things jam-packed into the space it’s got.

It didn’t take Theo long to find out where to get contracts- which ones were new and lucrative, which ones had been attempted a number of times and were looking to be impossible. His last contract, the first one he had ever failed, was still gnawing at his brain. Now that he thought about it, it was also the only thing he could think of that he had ever failed that hadn’t had any consequences. Maybe he would let himself try some of the vaguer contracts with the knowledge that he could just... walk away, if he wanted to. The first contract he found in Sea Town wasn’t even being officially offered when he heard about it.

“Bounty hunter, mm?” The fishmonger said, gutting a rockfish casually as he spoke. His hands were the size of orcish clubs but moved with precision Theo had to apply consciously to his actions. The local accent of Sea Town combined with an injury to the man’s jaw, and the way he was puffing laboriously as he went about his work, made each word come out as either a hum or a puff of air.

“We get a lot of those. Most efficient way to keep the routes open. You know, sea monsters, and such,” he grumbled, chucking a bit of bone over his shoulder into a festering pile. “I’ve got a contract for ya- isn’t in any book yet, but I’ll give ya first crack at it!” He grins, more void than teeth. “I’ll go in with the other harbor folk to make it a proper bounty. First things first- can ya swim?”

Theo nods.

“I’m not talkin’ about can ya float or can ye doggie paddle around,” he drawls, imitating doggie paddling with his enormous hands. The fishmonger leans in close, and it takes all of Theo’s energy to focus on not breathing in the toxic fumes emanating from the man. He dips his head to ask conspiratorially, “can ya outswim a mermaid?”

“The contract is to kill a mermaid? The ones I encountered in Lir were-”

The fishmonger guffaws and, thankfully, leans back. Theo sucks in a grateful lungful of air. “I’m not talkin’ about those pretty wenches that sunbathe on the rocks down the coast. Nah, the things we got here in Sea Town have teeth like an eel, and tongues as long as whips.” The way he says ‘whips’ enunciates an extra ‘h’ that isn’t there. He licks his lips and wipes the blood off the counter with a rag that is only marginally less soiled than the surface he is attempting to wipe. “These lassies aren’t here to play. They’re territorial things. They’ve been breedin’ like crazy lately, and there’s a siren in every damn cove around here. My favorite fishin’ spot is inaccessible, as of three months ago. The things are bad for business.”

“You want me to kill it?”

The fishmonger makes a noncommittal gesture. “Don’t care what ya do with it. I just want it to leave me well enough alone when I’m tryin’ ta work. There’s no deadline. Take all the time ya need, as no one else is likely to try to tangle with the things.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Just give me the location and I’ll head down there.”

Getting to the cave in question proves to be no easy task. After learning how much of a pain in the ass it’s going to be, Theo finds the closest inn to the spot and turns in for the night. The closest inn turns out to be very close. It’s situated in an enormous cave, built halfway into the rock and half floating over the large tide pool that gives the inn its name. The Tides is not cozy, by any stretch, but air that smells of fish is better than air that burns his skin with cold.

Theo doesn’t know a damn thing about mermaids, but his failed contract has him curious about doing things a different way. He pulls a frayed blanket tighter around his shoulders and tries to shut out the cold. He tries not to think about being warm and safe inside a dragon, and fails. After an hour of tossing and turning and shivering, Theo abandons his principles, puts on a pair of threadbare socks, and falls asleep to the sound of gently rocking waves.

He is awoken in the small hours of the night by singing. It’s distant, but at the same time sounds like it’s right in his ears. The voice is high and lilting. It sounds female, but not human. The language isn’t anything he’s ever heard before. It’s mesmerizing and captures every ounce of his attention, but stops just short of being hypnotic. Theo slips out from under the musty blanket and tries to rub the goosebumps away. His room is nearly pitch black. He can just barely see his breath in the air. He whispers a quiet warming spell and slips into his traveling clothes.

Theo creeps out of the inn and down the dock. He doesn’t really need to be sneaking around, it’s just a habit. He doesn’t think he could make noise when he walked if he tried. Being stealthy was part of his training. More foundational than that, it was how a person survived when they were always at risk of getting in trouble for breaking rules that changed on a dime. The dock sways gently under his feet. Curious fish bob their heads above the water, checking to see if he has any snacks for them. He passes them by and reaches the end of the dock. He steps up onto the rocky ledge the fishmonger told him about and walks along it, taking great care not to slip. If there’s sirens in these waters, he doesn’t want to think about what else could be hiding in the deeps.

He reaches the end of the platform and ducks into an opening in the wall. It takes him through a winding series of passageways carved by water. He tries not to think of the man’s warning not to come here during a tsunami or other tide event as he ducks under a particularly low point in the tunnel.

After around ten minutes, he pops out the other side. It’s a pain in the ass to get to, but it is a hell of a fishing spot. He can see why the fisherman is so eager to get it back. The cave is alight with an enchanting glow from mushrooms on the walls, glowing seagrass, and even little worms tucked in amongst the flora. The room is surrounded by wide rocky ledges. In the center is a circular pool with water that is clear but not well-lit enough to see very far down, except in the spots near the glowing grasses. He can just barely make out an area on the right side where the tide comes in and out through a narrow underwater passage. Lurking there, with its body pressed to the tunnel floor, is the siren.

It sits there, body rocking gently in the tides, watching him as he takes in the room. He pretends not to notice it, and only looks out of the corner of his right eye. He wonders what it will do if it thinks he isn’t aware of it. Theo casually approaches the water and stops at what he thinks would be just out of arm’s reach, even for a creature with long arms. The creature stays still, mostly obscured by the grasses it’s nestled in. He takes two more steps forward and crouches down.

The thing moves so quickly that he barely has time to leap back. It lunges and swipes, narrowly missing his ankles.

“Holy shit, you’re fast!”

The siren hisses, jaw opening wide like a snake to reveal a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Its glassy white and grey eyes look as furious as fish eyes can.

“I’ll be up front with you, Lady Fish,” he says, not sure if the siren can understand a word he’s saying. “I was sent here to deal with you so you won’t get in the way of people fishing anymore. I don’t think you want that, so I’m going to see if I can’t find a way to make everyone happy. Normally I just... kill my targets, so- this is an experiment for me,” he rambles.

The siren, to its credit, appears to be listening. It slithers so that the top half of its body is out of the water and rests its pale head on crossed arms. There are long, thin fins on the elbows, and patches of glowing teal scales on its wrists.

“Can you understand me?” he asks, crouching down a foot away. He has a dagger on his ankle if he really needs it.

The siren nods. Every movement makes its scales shimmer in the glowing light of the cave. With its mouth closed, he can see it has a head shaped a bit like a raindrop. Its cheeks are pulled back and it has long, recessed temples.

“Oh! Okay, uh, that makes this easier. Can you speak?”

It nods again. A tail comes up in the water, the tip of which is at least six feet from the head. It's a dusky blue-grey like a starless night sky. It swishes its tail back and forth. He wonders if it's restless because it can't eat him.

“Can you speak the same language as me?”

The siren shakes its head. It makes some complicated gestures with its hands and tongue that he can't understand.

"Well... hmm. We'll figure this out."

Theo tries to run through all the reasons why the siren might be interfering with fishing. Maybe it eats the fish, or is upset about overfishing, and is mad. It could simply be guarding its territory. Or maybe it just wants to eat someone. Theo continues his odd game of yes and no questions only, or things that can be answered with a gesture. He doesn't learn much. But, the siren is receptive to his efforts to talk, and it hasn't left yet. They speak for a while longer before he decides to call it a day.

He does a few errands as well as the bare minimum required to take care of himself. His mind is feeling too scrambled to want to do the things he knows he should. As he finds himself utterly lost in the winding switchback alleys of Sea Town, he wishes for the first time in his life that there was a single place in this world that was familiar to him. He wishes there was any one place that he had ever stayed at more than a week. Theo wonders what he would feel if he walked into a bar or an inn somewhere and the people there knew his name. It was an alien feeling, and he couldn't untangle it enough to understand where it was coming from. He knew this had all started with the dragon. Why, exactly, that encounter had made him want to slow down, he wasn't sure.

"Are you looking for someplace in particular?"

He turns to see a woman standing in the doorway of a narrow, two-story shop. She's wearing a blue apron with many pockets over a green dress. There's threads, paper scraps, and linen tape spilling out of every pocket, draped over her arms, and slung around her neck.

"Just wandering, really."

"By trade, or are you lost?"

Theo laughs and she invites him inside. It appears to be a bookstore, but there are also a number of tables around where the shopkeeper has a number of repair or bookbinding projects going. "Yes," he replies.

The woman sits cross-legged atop a worn wooden chair and picks up a block of what looks like beeswax, judging by the golden color. She unravels a length of plain white thread and begins to wax it. Her easy demeanor entices Theo to keep talking, which isn't his usual habit.

"I came to Sea Town looking for contracts. I was asked to get some of the sirens to leave the local fishermen alone. Frankly, I'm used to killing beasts, not working with them. I'm trying to do things differently this time but... I'm out of my element."

The shopkeeper smiles and glances at him briefly before returning her attention to waxing the white thread. "The fishermen here have such trouble with them because they are all going about it the wrong way. They want all the fish they can catch without giving anything in return. It would be like going into someone's garden and harvesting their crops and being upset about being chased away with a broom. The fishermen are not the only ones with livelihoods."

"I'm not here to get philosophical about who is more entitled to use of the grotto."

She shrugs. "Then you will probably not ever finish that contract without violence. I've spoken to the sirens before. They are not all that difficult to get along with, if you are willing to take a leap of faith." There is a mischievous glint in her eyes now that Theo isn't sure if he likes.

"A... leap of faith? Wait, how can you speak to them? The one I met with said it could speak but not to me."

The shopkeeper runs her fingers along the board resting on her lap she is using for a work station. Her head is tilted down to a spot on the floor past Theo, but her eyes are looking distantly at a memory.

"When it comes to Sirens, language is an exchange. With each individual siren, you have to gift them your language. They have to discover its workings, how the sounds are made, how does your mouth move and what are your vocal cords like... how do you draw in air."

"You're not making any sense."

"I'm being cryptic because I don't want to spoil the surprise. You seem like a smart man. Try to figure out what I mean. Then you can ask the siren what they need from whoever is using their site. In the meantime, they're probably quite annoyed with humans in general. Try to win them over earnestly first. Make friends with them."

"For a contract? That seems like a great deal more work than how I usually go about things."

She shrugs. "It is not the easy route."

He fiddles with his sleeves. "I'm not... socializing isn't exactly something I do well."

She chuckles and begins winding the waxed thread around a spool. "Luckily for you, sirens are solitary. You two can figure it out together. I have a simple solution, and I promise I am not just recommending this to you in order to fatten my wallet."

The shopkeeper rises and sets down the spool. She waves him over to a massive chest tucked in between two bookshelves. She removes mounds of cotton cloth from the top and deposits it onto a nearby table. Inside the chest are stacks of sturdy hardback books.

"These books have all been expertly bound for increased durability in order to resist the push and pull of the tides. On top of that, I have personally enchanted all of them to be permanently waterproof. The ink will glow when submerged so the text can be read even at the bottom of the ocean. I guarantee you most if not all the sirens in Sea Town's coves can read. I have put several dozen books into circulation among them. They pass them around eagerly, and all it takes is one siren to know how to read in our language, and they have to merely touch the hands of another for the knowledge to pass on."

"Wait... they can learn written words through touching hands... so spoken words would be-?!"

She smiles innocently and cuts off his train of thought by shoving a stack of books into his hands. "Bring your siren a book. When they finish it, bring them another. Get them to associate your comings and goings with something pleasant. Ideally, the fisherman you're working for should get in the habit of doing this too when he returns to the spot."

Theo is too stunned by the clattering noise of the gears in his head frantically spinning trying to work out if she really meant what he thought she did about exchanging language. The rest of her words go in one ear and out the other as he pays for four large books and a tote bag, which is as much as he feels like carrying back to the inn.

"If you don't mind which titles you get, you can always have the inn mail a request to me with payment and I can send some titles to your room." She hands him her business card, and tells him her name is Colette. He tells her his own name and pockets the card. "In case you get lost again," she replies sweetly. Something about her warm expression makes his heart skip a beat.

"I'll try to get lost more often," is all his brain manages to produce as he stumbles out the door.

He walks back to the inn in a daze, trying to figure out how he's going to kiss a mermaid without getting eaten.

Chapter Text

Theo sits his satchel down a few feet from the water’s edge on a dry spot of land. The siren swims up immediately, teeth bared and licking its lips. Theo still isn’t sure what gender or sex it is, not that it really matters. Humans have their own concepts, but at least ninety percent of creatures known to the world fell outside of easily assigned human reproductive categories. Most species certainly didn’t sit comfortably in a binary existence. The siren has delicate yet sharp features like shards of glass arranged into a skeletal structure. Its body is lithe, with a torso barely resembling a human’s. It was much too long, too thin and shallow. Theo could clearly see the shape of its rib cage- could count that it had more than a human.

The siren slithers up so that its tail is the only part of its body still submerged. It props its body up on two powerful, long arms that end in webbed, six-fingered hands. The siren’s eyes aren’t very expressive, but the slow, deliberate drag of its tongue over sharp teeth gives a loud and clear message. He’s an appetizer if he gets too close to the water.

“Brought you something.” Theo unlatches the clasp on his satchel and removes the first book he finds. It’s something about a witch who gets turned into a cat trying to break the spell or something like that.

He stays just out of reach and gives the book a gentle toss. The siren snatches it up and is gone in a flash.

"Ungrateful fish..." He mutters. He waits for a bit until it becomes clear that the siren isn't coming back until it's done with the book.

Theo could go back to the inn, or wander around town some more. But keeping busy is what he's done his whole life. First it was doing menial tasks for his master. Then it was training, perfecting necromantic spells and potions, honing his body, advancing the craft. After he'd drunk up the life of the man that used to run his life, he'd wasted no time in busying himself with contracts. It was easier that way. If he was busy, he couldn't think. He couldn't be alone with himself- his feelings, his thoughts. If he went to sleep exhausted, there were no nightmares. If his mind was on the hunt, there were no intrusive thoughts. He bought his sanity with carriage fares and walking boots.

He didn’t even have a house of his own to go back to if he wanted. He had storage units and safe deposit boxes at banks where he kept things that were valuable or out of season clothes. When he needed an alchemy lab he rented one. When he needed a bed, he rented one. He was starting to feel like his life was for rent. The thought wasn’t sitting comfortably with him, but he wasn’t sure yet how he would remedy that. Where would he put down roots if he finally chose to? There was no province that was more home to him than any other. The Lich’s tower on the windswept plains of Lir overlooking the coast was no more a home to him than any other pile of rock. He had cleaned it out of anything valuable or useful. It was just a tower of stone- suspicious stains on the walls and floors the only thing to suggest that he had ever been there.

He thought of the dragon, of all the dragons he’d ever fought. They were creatures that would defend their hoards to their last breath. To have something important enough to fight for... what would that be like?

The sound of something moving in the water jerks him forcefully out of his own head. He scoots back quickly, just in case he’s misjudged the siren’s reach. It slithers onto the rocky beach and plops the book down at his feet. It makes a chittering sound from the back of its throat, mouth open slightly, nodding vigorously.

“I take it that means you liked it?”

It reaches out and taps the edge of his satchel. At least it isn’t baring its teeth at him anymore.

“I need to ask you some questions first.”

The siren huffs and turns its head to the side. Its tail swishes back and forth like an irritated cat and the fins on its arms and back flare up.

“Not in the mood for talking? You can reread that one then. These things cost money.” Theo gets up to leave, and there’s a loud trill from the siren. He looks back. It’s lowered itself to the ground, head cocked and tail moving slower now.

“Just one question, then?”

It nods.

“Alright. It would be easier to get details if I could understand your answers, but I’ll shoot anyway. If something changes, can the fisherman get back to fishing here at some point? If I can figure out a compromise between you two. Is there any point in trying to make this work?”

The siren pauses before nodding slowly, just once. It crosses its arms under its head and rests there, letting out a long puff of air. The siren is elegant, in a way. Its glittering scales catch the glowing light of the cave and reflect it like prisms. The way it can shoot through the water as fast as an arrow and hardly make a sound is humbling. This is a creature built to be the apex predator of its environment, and he’s out of his element in so many ways.

“Here’s the next book, then. I’ll come back later to switch it out for another.”

The siren gives a chirp that Theo interprets as grateful and darts off with its newest treasure. He tries not to think about what he has to do if he’s going to make any headway with the mermaid. It can understand his language- it learned it somewhere. But until he performs that exchange, it won’t be able to replicate the sounds of it.

How is he supposed to do that let alone get up the nerve to? Theo would rather fight a swarm of vampire bats with his hands tied behind his back than submit to the embarrassment of trying to figure out how to kiss something with teeth like a steel trap. He’s never kissed anything in his life. He’s hardly even thought about it. What reason did he have to? He was created to serve and to kill. People got together for resources, for love, or to make little creatures. He had enough money to retire three times over. He wasn’t even sure if he had been created with a heart capable of love, and he couldn’t imagine his master giving him anatomy capable of producing offspring. He’d never bothered to confirm or deny those last two, and wasn’t sure he would want to know the answers anyway.

Theo and the siren continue their routine for several weeks. He runs through all the books in his satchel in two days. When it becomes clear that the siren is as ravenous for reading material as it is for human flesh, he arranges to have some of his funds sent over from the nearest branch of his bank so that he can buy more titles. At Colette’s recommendation, he gives the already read titles to the mermaid so it can take them to others in the area. This causes quite a commotion, and now Theo gets the occasional visit outside the tides from other fishpeople in the area. The innkeeper wasn’t happy about it, but agreed not to take any action so long as the merfolk were content to just pick up their books without any violence.

He’s become a sort of land-to-sea librarian, it seems. He still sees the original siren more than he encounters the rest of its kin. They’ve become familiar, at least. It doesn’t hiss or make any show of wanting to eat him anymore. But sometimes he still catches the siren licking its lips and looking at him in a way that reminds him if he should ever slip and fall into the water, it would all be over. His magic is all cold and poison and illusion- useless in a powerful tide that dispersed such things so easily. He was small compared to the mass of the ocean, and the siren knew he didn’t dare come closer.

Theo thought they had reached an impasse. He was too chicken to seal the deal and give it his language. Nothing much new was happening. But one day, the mermaid made a motion with its hand that looked like it was miming writing. Theo came back with a pencil and a pad of paper, and it began furiously scribbling out book titles. Its handwriting left something to be desired. Pencils weren’t meant to be held by webbed, six-fingered hands. But it was able to communicate what kinds of books it wanted, or requests from the others.

One particularly gloomy day, it wrote just a single word and looked up at him.

“Lyria?”

The siren nodded and pointed to itself.

“Your name?”

It nodded again, and Theo could swear it smiled.

“It’s nice. Rolls off the tongue.” He leans back on his hands and closes his eyes. The air smells different today, the way it does before a storm. He feels safe inside the cave, though. No lightning or swells will reach him here. He’d been on a ship in a storm before, and wasn’t keen on repeating the experience.

The docks were quiet that morning, but the beaches had been swarming with people. The tides were out further than usual and had left a banquet of shells and other goodies for people to pilfer. Theo’s ears perked up at a strange sound he wasn’t expecting to hear inside the cave. It was almost like water draining. He opened his eyes and saw the siren with its head cocked, listening as well. It looked down in surprise at the fact that its hips were now out of the water. It chirped in alarm and slid back into the water, only to find that it had receded further.

The siren’s already enormous eyes widened. They exchanged a look, and Theo knew at once what was happening.

“Tsunami.”

He took a deep breath and tried to quickly run through what he thought might happen so he could figure out the best course of action. The tide would pull out, and then the ocean would swell up and crash over Sea Town. He had no way of knowing how big it would be. But he was so close to the ocean he was in a tide pool, so it wasn’t like he could outrun it. The passageway he used to come here was narrow and twisting. If he was still inside it when the water reached him, that would be the end of him for sure.

Theo knew next to nothing of water magics, or air, or warmth. A breathe underwater spell would be first year material for someone who studied at a wizard’s college. But he hadn’t learned utility spells. He’d learned combat spells. Even his spell of warming only worked to stave off the mildest of chills. His shielding spells wouldn’t stand a chance against the might of the ocean.

There was only one question left then. What would claim his life first- the tsunami, or the siren?

He’d made a connection to it, sure. It was probably grateful for the entertainment and his offer to help. But it was still a predator, of a species known to eat human-shaped things, no less.

“This is it, then.” He swallows hard. There’s a lump of self-pity in his throat. He isn’t so much afraid to die as he is regretful that his life had been so meaningless. An immortal creature who couldn’t die of old age, or most things for that matter, dying after existing for only a decade or so since his creation. An unnatural thing taken out by an act of nature- how fitting.

The siren would be fine. They knew all sorts of secret places to wait out things like this. It was a small comfort, but he is glad that it would make it through this. After the initial shock of realizing they were about to be in the thick of a natural disaster had passed, the siren didn't look worried at all. Its powerful body easily maneuvers in the strong pull of the ocean. It tucks itself into a corner away from the riptide of the tunnel leading to the open ocean and waits, watches. It looks more like a predator than it ever has. Looks like he won’t have to figure out a way to finish his contract after all.

As the tide rushes back in, he thinks of his most recent regrets. He regrets not getting the dragon’s name, and not telling it his own. The water is nearing its original level. It is murky and churning and he can no longer see the siren. Would it be more terrifying to see his end or to have his eyes closed? He pulls out a smooth stone from his satchel. He’d bought it two days ago at the insistence of a grimy old woman on the docks insisting he would need it. She claimed it would allow him to see in saltwater without it stinging his eyes. Charged a damn fortune for a rock. He wasn’t sure why he’d bought it. He had the emotional range of a teaspoon, but perhaps he was capable of pity after all. People needed to pay their bills in some way. Some were bounty hunters, and others were con artists. The con artists were probably less damaging to society than people like him anyway.

The water is up to the rocky bank. He hears more trickling through the tunnel behind him.

Theo rubs the smooth divet in the middle of the stone and laughs quietly to himself. It’s not going to work. Even if it did, what would it matter? It won’t save him.

“Well, Lyria, it was nice knowing you. I wonder what it will be like to be eaten?”

Theo stands and drops the stone. There’s no point in trying to hold onto his things. The sea will take them and shred them, like the siren will do to him.

He backs up to the driest spot on the bank. He’s on a dry island about two feet across. The siren will make a move any second now. It’s impossible to hear its quiet movements over the roar of the ocean all around. He expected a hand to shoot out and snake around his legs, to drop to the ground and break something before being dragged under kicking and screaming. He is standing in the water now. Why hasn’t it gone after him?

It’s drawing it out. It wants to see him afraid, to taste his fear, probably. Too much time has passed, and his body has kicked in where his brain has shut down. His heart is pounding and urging him to run. The water is up to his shins now. There is nowhere to run. Theo fights against his instincts and does something absurd.

He sits down. The water is swirling around him, covering his lap now, and he feels his body lift off the slippery stone with the force of the water.

And then he feels a rush of water towards him that heralds the siren’s approach. It lunges as the water reaches his torso, knocking him backwards. He has just enough time and sense to take one last breath and hold it before he’s submerged. The water cushions him as he is pressed into the stone beach. The siren’s powerful tail beats against the onslaught of water, keeping them in place and pressing them both down into the rock. It’s the only thing keeping him from being tossed around the cove like a ragdoll and being shredded by the sharp rocks.

A webbed hand dances across eyelids he didn’t realize were closed. He opens his eyes and finds that although the water is murky, he can open his eyes without the sting of saltwater assaulting them. The water is angry and churning, but punctuated with the soft blue glow of glowing cave creatures knocked loose by the waves. They swirl around him like hundreds of stars.

Lyria is inches away from him, staring intently. Its features look less harsh than they did above water, softened as they are by the glow and the waves. Two strong hands grab his arms and hold them near his head. The current is becoming stronger now as more water rushes into the cave. He wishes the mermaid would just get it over with and tear his throat out or eat his heart or whatever it is it’s going to do.

The siren’s lips part and it looks at him like it’s wrestling with some conflict in its mind. Its eyes are wild and hungry, but it’s not moving besides its tail beating away the current. Theo’s lungs burn. If he could get free then he could swim to the top where there’s still air. He tries to wriggle free, but the siren just grips his wrists tighter. The blunt pain of its fingers digging into his flesh distracts him from the burn in his lungs. The siren closes the distance between their faces, pressing its torso against his. Theo focuses on the pain in his wrists and nothing else, hoping in vain that it will distract him from the sensation of being torn apart by dozens of hungry teeth.

He's not prepared for the siren’s long tongue to snake its way into his mouth. Their lips clash, and the shock of it forces his lungs to empty.

Stealing my last breath, huh? Greedy thing... he thinks, returning the kiss. It's awkward and crazed and desperate. The current sweeps underneath him and lifts them both into the swirling darkness. The siren’s tongue is cold and salty. He doesn’t dare break away and risk his mouth and lungs filling with water. The siren releases his wrists and instead wraps its arms around Theo, keeping him from being swept away. He feels dizzy and elated and terrified and dazed all at once as Lyria’s curious tongue maps out his mouth. Just as he starts to see stars and thinks this must be the end, he can breathe again.

He had been so distracted by the siren claiming his first kiss as well as the promise of imminent death that he hadn’t realized they had broken the surface of the water. The high ceiling of the cave was only ten or so feet away from the water’s surface, but there was still an air pocket left. The water was still churning, but it was slower than it had been. The cave was no longer filling up as rapidly.

Theo gasps and sucks in breath after breath of the salty air. The siren keeps him steady by wrapping its tail around him, although they’re high up enough in the cave that there isn’t anywhere to float away to. He’s dimly aware through the hazy bliss surrounding what he thought would be his first and last kiss that the siren can speak now. It’s looking at him with what can only be described as a smirk.

“Was that agreeable to you, land-walker?” It’s voice is wet, raspy, and thick, with each word slipping from its tongue languidly. There’s mischief in its hazy eyes as it looks him up and down.

Theo can only nod dumbly.

“You don’t look surprised by my sudden ability to speak. You must have learned from someone that this is how we exchange languages. The bookkeeper, perhaps? Did you think I would eat you if you tried?” It accentuates the last sentence with a slow lick of its thin lips.

“Maybe,” he says, surprised at how the word jumps out in such a compressed tone.

The siren shakes its head. “You are too cute to eat.”

Theo blinks once, twice. Cute...? He’s an abomination made in a lab for the purpose of killing people. This creature thinks he’s... cute? This species must have different standards for attractiveness that he can’t wrap his head around. Through his brain’s short circuiting, he doesn’t register that the siren has grabbed onto his wrists again with its tight grip.

“Come with me. I know a place where we can escape the storm. We will stay there until it passes. You will run out of oxygen if you stay here. Two-legs, how long can you hold your breath?”

He’s caught off-guard by yet another nickname until he remembers his habit of never introducing himself.

“No idea, bu-”

“We are about to find out.” The siren unwinds its tail- Theo’s signal to take a deep breath. Lyria plunges underwater, wrapping their powerful arms around his body as they’re propelled through the water. Where the tide normally comes in is a branching passage tucked just out of sight from human eyes. They barrel through it and wind deeper into the cliffside. Theo’s lungs feel like they’re about to burst. His head prickles and spots dance in his eyes. Just as his vision starts to go black, he is pushed out of the water.

Lyria pushes him up onto a rocky surface that is soft with waterlogged moss. He lies there, trying to get his bearings and rub some feeling back into his head.

“Eighty-four seconds... not bad for a human, or whatever it is you are.” Lyria slithers up the bank and props their head on their folded arms. Theo feels something wet flick his arm and yelps, batting it away. Lyria makes a sound like a cicada. “Just making sure you are still alive.”

“There’s other ways to do that besides licking people,” he grumbled, although he felt like he was complaining as a gut reaction.

“But I like licking you. You are fun to pester,” Lyria insists. They sidle up against Theo, headbutting him like a housecat. “When the flood waters recede, a passage will open up just there,” Lyria said, gesturing at a space not far from them under the water. “You can use it to get back to town. Until then, you are trapped in here with me.”

Lyria sees his nervous expression and laughs again, a clicking sound that makes his spine tingle. “I will not bother you too much. Don’t have that look. You are tired anyway, yes?”

Theo sits up. This contract definitely went... differently than he expected it would. Who was stopping him from derailing it more?

“Not too tired that I couldn’t go for more of what you were doing to me in the water,” Theo says with every ounce of confidence and swagger he can summon up, which is a moderate amount.

“Oh?” Lyria says with a trill, sliding their scaly body over him. Theo can feel just how heavy the siren is now- all muscle. “Then you are interested in more than finishing your contract? I wondered as much.”

Lyria leans in close and drags their tongue over his lips, following the movement with a feather-light bite of their teeth on the same spot. Theo shivers. He had wondered if he’d even been created with a body capable of feeling turned on, but turns out he isn’t as defective as he’d thought.

The siren seems to understand that this is all new to him and sets an enthusiastic but restrained pace. Cold webbed hands and warm fleshy ones map out unfamiliar surfaces. Sirens use their tongues for much more than learning languages, it turns out. They stay there, Theo on his back and Lyria perched over him, never staying still for more than a second or two. Their exchange of touches and tastes distracts him from the echoes of fear the tsunami brought as well as the chill of the cave. When Theo is out of breath, lips swollen and body marked with the lightest suggestions of bites, Lyria wraps around him and they fall asleep to the sound of the waves.

When Theo awakens, the doorway is visible and Lyria is gone. The previous day... night? It feels like a dream. The hazy, panicked bliss of it all already begins to assign the memory to a fantasy, a myth. Even the teeth marks on his skin are fading. It’s like everything else in his life- impermanent. But it was good. For once, Theo feels at ease.

He bends down to pick up a note. It is lying next to his satchel, which is thoroughly soaked. The siren has torn one of the blank end pages out of one of the waterproof books and written on it in what might be charcoal.

“Do not worry about the contract. Consider it done. Myself and the other sirens will assist with the cleanup, if the land-walkers will help us as well. If the fisherman will agree to stop overfishing my cove and take baths more often, I will leave him alone until more appetizing prey comes along.

Chapter Text

Theo whispers a muffling spell as he presses up against the thick tree shielding him from view of the road. The beat of horse hooves slows down, accompanied by voices speaking in a language he does not recognize. He hears one of them say what might be his name. It’s hard to tell by their accent. It’s the second time in as many weeks that he’s had a hunch about someone following him that turned out to be right.

In the six months since he’d left Sea Town, he’d taken on a few of his more typical type of contracts. His latest encounters had opened his eyes to more experiences in life, but he was still a bounty hunter by trade. A call had gone out for the boss of some organization, and Theo had taken him out without a second thought. It wasn’t the first time he’d taken on what was maybe too big of a fish for one person, but it was the first time anyone had ever caught up to him. He’d tried to lay low, but the groups dogging him were relentless.

He swears under his breath at the sound of one of the trackers- some kind of canine-folk- sniffed the air. There is no breeze and he hadn’t had a chance to clean up in anything other than a shallow creek for longer than he cared to admit. An alarmed bark rings out, calling the rest to action. Theo leaps from behind the tree and throws up a smoke shield. The thug with the vibrant colored hood- their healer?- disperses the screen almost as soon as it goes up. There is a hiss, and suddenly there’s venomous snakes following him along with the hunters.

Theo alternates between dodging, running, and trying to counter their mage’s spells, hardly left with enough breath to cast any of his own. It’s at least an hour later when he’s finally put enough distance between himself and his pursuers that he’s able to rest. He collapses on his back in the middle of a stream, letting the cool water wash the heat and sweat away. That was too close. He’d already used most of his magic for the day laying down traps, wards, and deterrents that should have kept the hunters off his trail. He hadn’t been expecting to need any of his strength to fend them off. How had they seen through his misdirections? Who the hell had he pissed off?

He thinks about where he could go to lie low. He has a bounty of his own in the nearest town to the north after being falsely accused of necromancy, and has been doing his best to avoid the area. The west and south roads lead into a kingdom currently waging a fierce war against an undead scourge. The only place nearby that he’s familiar with is Srivena, which is several weeks away if he walks. Despite how his thoughts occasionally wander to the dragon, he’d been determined to never set foot in that damn frozen wasteland again. He and the cold don’t agree with each other. Besides, there’s things worse than him in that country that he’d rather not tangle with. Where would he even hide, anyway? There’s only two inns that he knows of in the area. If his pursuers think there’s even a chance he would go to Srivena, they would check both of those. He knows the obvious choice. He knows who would harbor him, if he asked. But there’s too much holding him back. His feet move in the direction of the frozen province anyway.

The weather, at least, is in his favor. There hasn’t been fresh snow for a while. The forest leading to the mountains has an actual path this time. He’s exhausted when he arrives in the dragon’s den this time, but not at death’s doorstep. The dragon is nowhere to be found, even when he calls. Theo wanders the seemingly endless passageways of the cave system. He doesn’t find the library. It must be hidden well. He does, however, find dozens of rooms and alcoves suited for every purpose. Some rooms are large, with nesting material or other large objects suited for a dragon. Other rooms like kitchens or pantries seem more suited for the dragon in its human form.

After a few hours of wandering, exhaustion shoves any remaining obligation to politeness out of his mind. He finds the nearest room with a human-sized bed and collapses on it. He’s too tired to even bother to pull a blanket out from the box at the foot of the bed. He kicks off his boots, drops his bags, and falls asleep.

His dreams are different here where he knows that no danger can reach him. Theo dreams of flying low over the mountains on wings of his own, of exploring far-off lands. There is no memory of the Lich’s tower here. There is just instinct and freedom. He awakens once to curl up more tightly in the blanket that is draped over him before sleeping through the rest of the night.

When he does awaken for good, he is confused for only a moment before the sense of calm that pervades the cave settles over him. Theo runs his hands over the soft blanket covering his legs. He doesn’t remember waking up in the night to get one. The dragon must be home, then.

He gets up, makes an attempt to straighten up the space around the bed, and puts his boots back on. The layer of grime coating him is downright offensive, but he hadn’t spotted an area with anything resembling a bath yet, and he’d rather face another tsunami than try to wash up in the sub-freezing temperatures outside.

With still no sign of the dragon other than the blanket, Theo resumes his wanderings. He snags a loaf of slightly stale bread from the nearest pantry and gnaws on it while he trails through the wide tunnels. Distantly, he hears singing. It’s been seven months since he was last here. It’s obvious, however, that this is not the same voice that bid him goodbye in the doorway of the Snowdrop Inn. This voice is low, but rich rather than husky. It’s also unmistakably male. Somehow, he knows it’s still the dragon.

Theo wanders in the direction of the voice, making several wrong turns on the way there. The dragon is singing in a language he doesn’t hear often. It’s a language used in the South, in the warm lands known for citrus, vineyards, and villages of brightly colored buildings nestled into seaside cliffs. He knows enough words to make out that the dragon is singing a repetitive, infinite sort of song with silly, made-up verses that tradesfolk and housewives often sing to themselves to make the work go by faster.

Without really thinking about it, Theo takes advantage of the dragon’s pause in between verses and adds in a verse of his own, in what little of the language he knows. He runs through two, as well as all of the words he knows how to string together, when he comes to a stop in a towering archway.

Stacks of books that are hundreds of shelves high stretch as far as the eye can see. There’s miles upon miles of books, ladders, staircases, and reading nooks. The dragon stands not far from the archway, leaning on a broom with an expression that looks pleasantly surprised. The dragon’s human form is male this time with long toffee-colored hair tied back loosely.

“Looks like you’ve made yourself at home, hunter,” the dragon muses. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I need to lay low for a while. Just a few days, maybe.” Theo bites down on his tongue before he chokes on the foot in his mouth. Why did he say that? That made it sound like he was just using the dragon. Damn his habit of always getting straight to the point. “If that’s alright, I mean- if I could stay here,” he stammers, suddenly feeling claustrophobic in his own skin.

The dragon hums and walks closer, looking him over. He has a few new scars, maybe, but he can’t imagine he looks much different than he did last he saw the dragon. He never aged much past his first few years- just got more banged up. When the dragon doesn’t say anything, Theo takes the chance to try to make up for his thick tongue.

“I also wanted to see you again.”

The dragon’s honey-colored eyes widen. “Oh?”

"You left quite an impression."

The dragon's lips curl back in a playful, wicked grin, revealing too-pointed canines. "So what you're saying is if I want you to overstay your welcome, I should take you flying again and perhaps do a barrel roll thi-mmMM!"

His words are cut off by Theo's hand over his mouth. Theo can feel the man's smile widening under his palm. "NO! No, we are not doing th-HEY!" He shrieks, pulling his hand away indignantly to inspect the dragon saliva now coating it. "Did you just-?!"

"It was right there," he says with a shrug as Theo wipes his hand on the dragon's sage and clay-colored robes. His expression softens and he takes Theo's other hand. "Are you being pursued?"

He turns in an attempt to hide the suggestion of a blush that flows over his face. "The life finally caught up with me. Bit off more than I can chew. I figured if there was anywhere they wouldn't think to look for a dragon killer it would be..."

"-living with a dragon," he finishes, eyes glittering like precious gems.

"Yeah." The way the dragon phrases that doesn't make his heart flutter. "In that case I should finally ask for your name."

His head tilts. "Which one? The one that translates to sheep-stealer or the one that means oh-shit-big-lizard?"

Theo laughs and walks toward the nearest bookshelf. He runs his hand along the wood. There isn't an inch of dust, and it's freshly oiled as well. "You know what I mean. What do you call yourself? Or what do other dragons call you?"

"Those also have different answers." He steps up to walk alongside Theo. "Dragons collect names like a second hoard. There is a name that was given to me by a close friend several centuries ago that I am quite fond of. Reyn is just fine."

"Reyn," Theo says, feeling how the name rolled off his tongue. I like that, he almost adds, catching himself just in time. He doesn’t have any business getting familiar with Reyn, not when he’s only here to wait out the danger. When the roads are about to snow over again, he could make his escape to a more distant country, banking on his pursuers not being insane enough to follow him through Srivena in its cold season (which was most of the year).

"Should I call you something besides little hunter?" Reyn asks cheekily, adjusting a misplaced book. It's a tome so old the title has rubbed off completely.

"Theo."

Reyn hums and repeats his name quietly. They continue walking through the endless labyrinth of shelves. "Does the fearsome and well-accomplished bounty hunter Theo have a last name or any titles I should be aware of?"

"Not yet," he mumbles, his pride a bit more wounded than it has any right to be.

The dragon picks up a title, checks it over, and scans the stacks. “Hmm, this one would be better categorized here,” he murmurs. In a gust of wind, Reyn transforms back to his dragon form. There is a thick wall of wood between every bookcase that Theo now notices bears claw marks. The dragon gingerly picks up the book in its mouth before scaling the wall and perching on a wooden ledge. He transforms into a human again and puts the book away. He transforms again and clambers back down.

Reyn sees Theo staring in confusion. “More work than you thought it would be? It’s why I hardly ever leave my cave. There’s always too much to be done.”

“I could help with some of it,” he blurts out. He’s expecting the bronze dragon to protest somehow. There’s no reason for him to trust a dragon hunter with his most prized possessions.

The dragon gives him a curious look over his shoulder, brushing dust off of it. “You could? Don’t feel obligated. I have more food in my pantry than I could ever eat before it goes bad. You’re not imposing, as long as you keep the mischief to a reasonable level.” Theo tries not to let his mind wander to what kinds of mischief he might get up to here if he overstays his welcome. “It’s not the easiest work. This place is built for someone with wings, but I suppose there’s plenty to do at the ground level...”

Theo doesn’t retract his offer. There’s a warmth in his chest that he’s never felt before, and he’s not keen on letting go of it any time soon. The two of them walk the halls as Reyn tries to impart every trinket of knowledge he has regarding his collection and its keeping onto Theo. It reminds him of how his master used to dump entire textbookfuls of information into his brain. That was one of the few enjoyable constants in his grim life. It took all his concentration to commit the information to memory, not leaving any room for intrusive thoughts.

He learns that Reyn is actually the third keeper of this collection, and it predates all but a few current civilizations. Although Reyn has desperately wished to have the opportunity to go check in with some of the other dragons in the land, he hasn’t had the time or the security to leave his treasure- not with so many who would wish to take it for themselves. Theo can feel the weight of isolation and responsibility lift from the dragon as he instructs him on the workings of the library, knowing that he may one day be able to leave for more than a brief outing.

As they talk, Theo is floored by the fact that the dragon is talking to him like they’re equals. They’re both nearly ageless, but the dragon has existed on a far longer timescale than he. By immortal standards, Theo could barely be classified as an infant. He came into existence as a teenager, and it hasn’t been all that many years since then. He had come here the first time arrogant, ready to slay something far out of his league in more ways than one, only to be politely escorted back to town. He had originally written the dragon’s congeniality off as loneliness. But as the dragon inquired into what magical domains he showed interest in, asked after his favorite plants and places to travel, or let him flip through books so delicate they looked like they were made of fairy wings, he couldn’t kid himself that the dragon was showing genuine respect and interest in him.

His time at Reyn’s lair was predictable and routine enough that it brought him a profound sense of peace like nothing else had. There were no surprises, no dangers, no unreasonable expectations. Each day he rises from the same bed and follows the call of the dragon’s early morning songs to see which room breakfast is being prepared in. Every few days, the dragon takes on a different form just for fun. They’re all different and captivating. There are many kitchens, many pantries, and an even greater number of interesting places to eat (his favorite being a ledge outside the cave overlooking the snow-covered forest). Sometimes he wakes early enough to help the dragon cook (by getting in the way, mostly), sometimes not. They talk about what parts of the library needs care. The dragon never outright asks him to do anything. They’ll mourn a damaged spine on a book and talk in excited tones about a lesser-known method of book repair, and the two will spend the day tackling it together.

After the first week, the dragon feels comfortable enough to leave Theo alone at the lair. The first time is just for a few hours- long enough to get supplies from town. A few days later, the dragon leaves again for the afternoon to spend time with a human friend in town and help clear the roads of snow (a thankless task, judging by the arrow wounds Reyn returns with).

Theo doesn’t know much about first aid. He has an advanced healing factor as well as an aptitude for poisons, not medicines. But he offers to help anyway. He feels like he should. The sudden isolation in the endless, silent cave also chipped away at his brain more than he expected it would.

The two of them walk to a stone bench in a massive, domed room that serves as the dragon’s most elaborate bathhouse. Natural holes in the ceiling serve as skylights, making the bathhouse much brighter than the rest of the cave system. The main pool is large enough for a dragon to swim laps in comfortably. It’s lined with beautiful white and blue tiles inlaid with real gold- one of the few displays of mineral wealth Theo has observed in Reyn’s domain. It looks much like a human bathhouse, except bigger. There’s the dragon-sized pool, which is much deeper than he would prefer to swim in, as well as a human-sized one and a jacuzzi. The pools are heated in a very simple manner- Reyn occasionally transforms into a dragon and carts entire, dead trees back to the lair to store in the fuel room. When Reyn wants a bath fit for their dragon form, Reyn simply chucks an entire tree into the furnace that fuels the boiler room and hops in the water.

Reyn’s human form this time is a toned man with multicolored hair that reminds Theo of tigerseye. He sits with pained stiffness on the bench, clutching his side.

Theo pulls the bag of first aid supplies out of the alcove by the door. “I thought you healed quickly from injuries like that?”

“Not these ones,” Reyn says through gritted teeth. “They coated the arrows with something. It’ll pass, but it’s not pleasant for the time being.”

It feels like there’s a vice clamp around his heart. Theo runs through his memories and tries to confirm if this is the first time he’s ever felt genuine concern for someone. His own face mirrors the pinched expression of the dragon’s as he quietly prepares some medicines to the dragon’s specifications. He isn’t sure what to say. There wasn’t exactly an abundance of people offering him comfort throughout his life. So he works quietly, focusing instead on patching the dragon up as quickly as possible.

He cleans the two wounds on the dragon’s side and applies bandages coating with a pain-relieving mixture that will hopefully also negate whatever the arrows might have leached into the wounds.

Theo grinds his teeth, wishing he could do more, could know what the hell to say, other than ask a simple, “Is there anything else I can do?”

“Walk me to my room,” Reyn requests, allowing Theo to prop him over his shoulder. He’s thankful the dragon isn’t dead weight, because this form isn’t small by any means.

It’s slow, tiring progress, but Reyn is relieved when they finally reach the nearest bedroom. There’s human-sized beds as well as large dragon nests of fur pelts and cushions. Reyn stumbles to the nearest cushion pile and flops onto it. Some color has returned to his face, and his breathing seems to have evened out.

“Feeling better?”

“Much, thanks to you.”

“I’ll let you get some rest then?” Theo says, more of a statement than a question. He already has one foot in the doorway when he hears a quiet but clear “Stay.”

He does his best to ignore how his heart skips a beat at hearing a word that’s never been directed at him before, dims the lights, and crosses the room to lay on the mound of soft furs next to the dragon. The nest smells lightly of books, pine, and something distinctly dragon.

As Theo drifts off to sleep, he could swear he hears someone purring.

Chapter Text

“So it’s a term for a being created of an amalgamation of other creatures? The components can vary, but there’s a consistent process and purpose?” Reyn asks, sipping from a mug of peppermint tea. She’s wearing an oversized sweater he bought for her on a trip back from Pine Grove that gives the dragon a surprising air of cuteness.

Theo nods, sipping his own citrus tea. Mint was never his thing. “Yeah, Homunculi are usually created to be servants. They may end up being more, but most don’t. I was at least lucky in that I got a better magical education than most get in one of the colleges around here.”

“Do you know what sorts of creatures went into your design?” Reyn asks, tilting her head. It’s amusing to see little gestures and habits so consistent across all the dragon’s many forms.

Theo holds his mug in one hand, not ready to give up the warmth, while the other traces out the alchemical symbols representing each part of his genes on the wooden table between them. “Human, of course,” he says, drawing a simple sigil consisting of a line with a square to the left of it. It represented a man holding a book and was supposed to be reflective of humanity’s contributions to the knowledge pool of the world. “Sixty to seventy percent or so, I think.”

Reyn sips her tea, eyes roaming over the features of his face. Her casual scrutiny of him isn’t disarming anymore. “And where do the ears pointing out through those crow feathers on your head come from?” He’s also learned what’s a teasing jab and what’s a dragon’s idea of a compliment. He knows that the dragon happens to love corvids, so the comparison of his overgrown hair to crow feathers is a high compliment.

Theo draws a sigil that looks vaguely like a treehouse next to one that resembles a magical light mote. “A hint of elf and a hint of fairy.” He adds some of the apple sugar to his tea he had the innkeeper at Pine Grove order in when he’d found out Reyn had never tasted sugar before. “That’s also where a lot of the magical aptitude comes from. Anything else is too watered-down to add up to anything much,” he says with a dismissive wave.

Reyn scoffs. “I refuse to believe that elf and fairy make up the other thirty or forty percent. You have eyes that shine like a mountain’s heart. No elf has eyes like that.”

His cheeks invent a new shade of red. He returns his gaze to the table, tracing a design that looks like a creature curled up in a spiral. “Well, I mean, all sorcerers have dragon ancestry, so my innate magic came from dragon’s blood, I guess, although it was mixed in artificially. My master always just said it was a drop.”

Reyn shook her head. “Now that you mention it, I know what to look for... I think there’s more than a drop in there.”

“Really?”

“Mm. I’ve met a few dragonborn in my time, and they all just have an air about them that feels different. It’s hard to describe. Do you know what kind you were created from?”

“He never bothered to share. I’m not sure if he even bothered to check.”

Reyn finished the last sip of her tea and set to clearing the table with him. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a black dragon. That breath weapon you used on me can’t be wielded by a normal human, you know that?”

“That’s news to me, actually.”

The two of them make easy work of the dishes that accompanied their breakfast of scones and a salad of mountain roots and greens. Standing side-by-side, it escapes his attention, but when the dragon switches to a different task, Theo notices she won’t stop glancing at him.

“Do I have scone on my face or something?” He asks, pawing at his cheeks.

She smiles and shakes her head. For the first time, Theo thinks he sees the dragon blush.

“What is it?” He asks, more nervously this time.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I was just thinking, wondering what you got from your dragon side, is all.”

The statement seems to have an implication that goes over Theo’s head. There’s something different in the way the dragon moves about the lair, though, after his explanation of his creation. He had expected her to be revolted, but instead she was just a mixture of fascinated and pitying. The way the dragon navigates the space between them is different now, too. Sometimes the dragon, in whatever form they’re taking at the time, puts a little extra space between them like they’re afraid of getting too close. Other times Theo has mere millimeters of personal space to his name in the blink of an eye. And then the moment’s over.

To be perfectly honest, the dragon is starting to drive him a bit insane. They’re dodging something, but he can’t tease out a direct answer as to what’s actually on their mind. The dragon isn't being rude, or anything... the complete opposite, actually. Theo doesn't know what to make of the combination of downright affectionate behavior and also never lingering too long around him.

The odd arrangement of dancing around some unspoken thing drives him up the wall to the point that, after the third day of it, he lets the dragon know that he’s going out for a walk around the mountain.

The cold air is refreshing as he steps out of the cave. The cave isn't warm, but his face (and other parts of him, if he's being honest) has felt like it's on fire whenever the dragon brushes past him to grab a jar of flour, or their fingers brush when he's handed a book. It's like what he felt while kissing the siren amplified by a hundred. It's too bad he doesn't have the nerve to do anything about it.

What is he going to do about his situation anyway? Theo ducks under a limb and uses a sturdy tree trunk to swing around a part of the mountain path where the road has fallen in, relishing the thrill of open space under his feet. The terror of heights has dulled for him after being exposed to it for the last three weeks. Has it really been that long? He’s stayed longer than he needed to in order to shake off his pursuers. Winter has set in, and he’s more than missed his window to get out of Srivena before the snows start in earnest. He could ask the dragon to drop him at the nearest hospitable place, but even if he felt alright asking that, he doesn’t want to leave.

He knows what this feeling (feelings? feelings) are that he has for the dragon. He just doesn’t want to admit it even to himself. To do so would be to acknowledge a number of painful truths. First of all, if he’s physically capable of feeling lust, attraction, or even the bigger L Word, then he has no excuse for how much of a heartless monster he’s always been. His nature maybe inclined him towards being a bitter, violent little gremlin, but he wasn’t restrained to this life. He had choices. The second bitter pill to swallow is that although his master was an abomination against life itself and a child abuser at the very least... he at least made Theo with the capacity for human emotions. He has no warm and fuzzy feelings for the strung together corpse that raised and trained him. At least, that was what he thought. But sometimes things like this come up that complicate things and he doesn’t know how to feel.

His master said he had been designed to be the perfect killing machine with no love or morals to get in the way. He’d said that. Had he made a mistake in Theo’s design? Had he never really removed those things from his code to begin with? Why?

He wishes it could be simple- that there could be nothing good about the man. That he’d taught Theo nothing, that he hadn’t trained him in every imaginable skill so that he could take care of himself no matter where he went. He wishes it had been all bad and he didn’t have to be torn up about killing the old geezer.

Theo wishes a lot of things were black and white- particularly whatever the hell was going on between him and the dragon. He feels a fondness for Reyn. He likes waking up in the mornings to the smell of someone not just making breakfast, but making things he’s accidentally revealed aloud that he likes and committed that information to memory. He likes when they go on walks and study plants, and he likes when Reyn tells him about their collection, and he just-

-he likes all of it and he doesn’t want to lose it but he knows he’s going to because he’s never been able to slow down long enough to hold onto anything good in the ten years he’s existed. There’s no evidence that anything more than skin-deep has changed in him, and he’d rather just leave now than get attached only to find out he can’t contribute anything worthwhile because relationships are a two-way street and fuck why is he crying out here on the summit.

Theo removes his gloves and wipes at an impressive display of the functionality of his tear ducts. He likes the dragon. He’s also feeling profoundly horny about the dragon, but that’s easier to deal with. That’s something he can sort out by putting distance between them- if he can ever manage to do that.

The trouble of it all is that he knows what he wants for once in his life and he’s too afraid to take the opportunity. What’s the alternative? To go back to contracts? Sure, he gets to see new places all the time. That’s not something to write off. The travel is amazing when the weather is cooperative. But is this really what he wants to do for the next fifty, hundred, thousand or more years he’s alive?

It would be more reassuring if he knew what to expect from crushing on and lusting after a dragon. Were dragons some super formal mate for life thing? Did dragons even like humanoid creatures that way? Was this all some horrible misunderstanding and he was just reading into things, and he was due to die of embarrassment any day now?

Just as he feels like his mind is about to explode from the pressure of all the thoughts vying for attention at once, he feels a thick, warm cloak being placed over his shoulders.

“Huh?”

Reyn sits down next to him, close enough that her shoulder brushes up against the cloak. She’s dressed much more lightly than he is, but he knows she’s regulating her temperature with the stone in her chest.

“You have a habit of forgetting to bring a cloak with you.”

“Oh.”

The silence sits a while before Reyn adds, “I came to bring that, and to see if you wanted any company yet or if you’d like to be alone. It’s been a few hours.”

He can see why she worried. It must be twenty or more below freezing, and here he is dressed like it’s a blustery spring day. It’s miraculous he hasn’t frozen solid, but that’s a mystery for another day.

Does he want company? Yes, always, desperately so in a way that would be profoundly embarrassing if a single other soul knew about it. Does he want to talk? Not particularly. Be talked to? That might be nice. Wait... how long has it been since the dragon said something and he really should have responded with something by now and why does he get stupid every time the dragon is around?

“Company would be nice,” he blurts out a little too quickly.

Reyn nods and settles a little deeper into the snow, sending out radiating warmth that melts it and evaporates the water into steam in seconds. She sits, looking out over the landscape, thinking about whatever it is that dragons think about. Her calm demeanor immediately puts his restless heart and racing mind at ease. Not enough at ease to make any kind of move, but peaceful enough to just exist without wanting to reach inside his skull and give his brain a good shake.

She doesn’t ask what’s wrong, despite the too-obvious red-rimmed eyes and hair more fucked up than usual from running his fingers through it in a nervous habit. She just sits, and somehow that’s more healing than anything that’s ever been said to him. She feels so solid, so constant. He’s still a very, very new immortal, and very much does not have his shit figured out. Reyn has had four-and-a-half-thousand years to get her shit arranged in a nice basket. He has time. He doesn’t have to have his heart in order today, or tomorrow. He can... he can lean into whatever this is without having to be a whole put-together person.

He’ll start with that literally, he decides, as he leans into Reyn’s shoulder. “Is it okay if I stay?”

She doesn’t seem surprised by his question. Her gaze doesn’t waver from the distant edge of the forest. “Yes.”

The pounding in his head quiets, but doesn’t leave him.

Reyn turns slightly toward him, long white hair brushing against the pointed tip of his ear. “It’s also okay if you leave- now, in a week, in a year. You’re made of four creatures that were meant for wandering. Your very bones call you to new lands, to sample everything this life has to offer. It is what dragons were meant to do too, before our circumstances pushed us to live this way. It is a beautiful curse. I hope there comes a day when you are able to make peace with where your feet take you.”

There isn’t any dragon Theo knows of that can read minds, but it’s the only explanation he can think of as to how Reyn knew exactly the right words to say. Her words have the effect of pulling the last metaphorical piece of glass out of his heart that stopped him from throwing himself into everything he wanted in life with his whole soul and damn he hoped she really did feel something too or this was going to be very weird-

Theo turns to Reyn and kisses her like he means it.

Because he does. He means it more than anything he’s ever meant in his damn life. Despite the weather, she’s warm as a furnace. Reyn only pauses for about half a second in surprise before locking her hands behind his head and pulling him in closer.

Her hair smells like the woods she often walks through and all the spices they’ve been cooking together with. Theo can’t stop a smile from creeping to his face through the feverish embrace of their lips, and in a moment the dragon is returning it too.

The dragon hooks her legs around the back of his kneeling ones, sending them flying to the ground with Reyn on her back. They roll just far enough to find a patch of fresh, unmelted snow, before they both pull up for air. Reyn laughs- a melodic, sweet sound- her snow-white hair splayed out in the snow. Theo echoes her. He can’t help it. He feels so weightless.

“Looks like all my second-guessing was unnecessary,” Reyn mused.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Theo responds with one last breathy laugh. Reyn makes a ‘come here’ gesture and he flops down over her, burying his half-frozen nose in her soft grey scarf. She wraps her arms around his back. “Is this why you’ve been acting different around me the last few days?”

Reyn looks to the side, looking slightly embarrassed. “Yes, I have started growing rather fond of you. And, ah- I admit when you revealed you were part dragon, my mind started wandering...”

“Wandering? What do you mean?”

The dragon looks up at him with eyes the color of the first flowers to pop up through the snow in his home province. “Well, I started wondering, ah...” she’s blushing furiously now. “My mind was wandering to how much of you was dragon, exactly.

It takes Theo’s brain time to process what exactly the dragon means by that.

“Oh!” he exclaims, blushing in turn as he suddenly feels warmer than the weather should allow. “Uh... I’m not really sure. I never uh, I was never- yeah, I’m not sure.”

The dragon licks her lips. His heart pounds under her intense gaze.

“Would you like to find out together?”

“Oh hell yeah.”

Reyn steals a kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck before rising to her feet and scooping him up. She stumbles, her thin form unable to lift him. She starts to shift forms before Theo interrupts.

“This might sound silly, but can you change to your dragon form and carry me on your back?”

“Of course,” she says with a chuckle, setting him down.

She steps back to ensure enough room for her larger form. The image ripples, and then Theo is standing in front of the dragon’s true form. It’s been a while since he’s seen it, as most of the tasks around the lair, save for taking care of books up high, require being human-sized.

The dragon stoops down and he climbs on with enthusiasm. “So, uh- what pronouns do you use as a dragon? Like... what gender are you, or sex I guess?”

“Hmm, that’s kind of a moot point,” the dragon answers. “Some dragons identify with a particular gender, but I change my form so often that I don’t feel a strong connection to anything. Dragon anatomy is somewhat complicated and differs between the various populations or colors of dragons.”

“I thought they would all be the same? I hear about dragons of different colors mating all the time. I mean, I hear that it isn’t rare, not that I’m constantly listening to gossip about the mating habits of dragons,” Theo says, pressing his palm to his forehead. “Why am I like this?”

“You are clearly so enthralled by my impressive dragon form as well as my creative human forms that your attraction has brought your thought processes to a halt.”

Theo gives the dragon a flick on the back of their neck even though he knows they probably can’t feel it through the thick scales. He wonders which room they’re heading to.

“To better answer your question though, the variations between the different colors are mostly for flavor, you could say. Dragons have two basic sexual organs covering three different functions. Some dragons have both organs and can perform all three functions, while some can only do one.

“White dragons actually require one of each type in order to produce an egg! Ooh, fun fact,” Reyn says in a voice that sounds like it's going to convey more of an alarming fact than a fun fact, “dragons are actually sexually compatible with a number of other species! Dragonborn are highly desirable offspring for those in positions of power, so dragons have evolved alongside humanoids and other compatible creatures for millennia in order to be able to mate with as wide a variety of creatures as possible!”

If Theo’s brain was short-circuiting before, it’s just come full stop. Every ounce of meaning of what the dragon has just said is lost on him.

“I can feel your confusion through the silence. I will just demonstrate instead. It’s easier to commit information to memory through doing.”

“Yeah, that works.”

The dragon comes to a stop in the doorway to the bathhouse. It’s one of his favorite rooms in the cave system. The air is warm and humid, and it smells of the bath salts and oils the dragon is fond of using. Reyn plods over to the jacuzzi and turns it on.

“Oh,” Theo says under his breath. This is happening. This is actually happening. He’s equal measures thrilled and nervous as he leans down to test the water temperature with his finger.

“Did you picture this when I first came here to kill you?” Theo asks.

“Did you?” Reyn responds, circling the pool.

“Seven months ago I couldn’t have seen myself doing anything other than plowing through contracts.”

Reyn nods and dips a paw in the jacuzzi, spinning the water around with a clawed digit. “Today you can be the one getting plowed, if you like.”

Theo’s mouth makes a tremendous amount of sounds that don’t amount to any actual words.

“Or do you prefer to be the one doing the plowing?” Reyn suggests.

Theo is many things. He is a bounty hunter, a sorcerer, an alchemist, and a traveler. Although he excels in many areas, sexual expertise is not among his skill sets. This is plainly apparent in the way all four of his limbs freeze up at Reyn’s words like he’s been hit with a petrification spell.

“Would you like an extra set of hands to help you with those clothes? Human hands, that is.”

He nods and crosses to the dragon’s side of the pool as the shimmer of a transformation washes over them.

“I noticed you get more flustered around me in my male forms, particularly the larger ones.” The dragon is now reminiscent of a fighter, or a knight perhaps. He has an almost regal bearing, with medium-length chestnut-colored hair, simple vestments that remove with thick ties, and a golden sash around his waist that matches his eyes. “Are you a fan of this one?”

“Very much so,” Theo says as clearly as the molasses feeling of his tongue allows him.

Reyn steps up to Theo and brushes his hair behind his ears. “If I get too, ah... enthusiastic, you may ask me to slow down or stop at any time.”

Theo puts his hands around Reyn’s waist and kisses him along his jaw and neck. “I don’t think I’ll be taking you up on that offer, but thank you.” His hands curiously roam the velvety fabrics clothing the dragon, feeling how it settles over his muscular form. He knows the dragon could pick any form they wish, so his current body isn’t impressive so much as it is a bit intimidating and imposing. Reyn’s warm hands slip under his shirt, eliciting a shiver from the still chilled Theo. The experience of being touched on his back brings Theo crashing back down to the familiar pit of self-loathing he spent so much of his time in.

“I felt you stiffen just now. What is it?” Reyn asks, pulling back and stilling his roaming hands.

“It’s uh... my face is pretty good lookin’ other than the one scar there,” he says with mock confidence to mask the cracks in his voice, gesturing to his cheekbone. “But under my clothes is a different story. The whole prettyboy thing doesn’t extend past the face.”

Reyn rubs his thumbs in circles on Theo’s sides. “You cannot help if life has not been kind to you. Having scars does not make you any less attractive to me.”

“Alright. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Theo says, reaching with shaky hands to undo the bone clasps on the thin jacket he’s wearing. The cloak was shed somewhere along the way. He doesn’t even remember when.

“May I?” Reyn asks, taking over with much steadier fingers.

“You’re not nearly as shaky as me. I take it you’ve done this before?”

The dragon hums contentedly as he deftly undoes Theo’s jacket, discarding it near the wall. “I have had the honor and pleasure of knowing many wonderful mates in my time. Dragons tend to have a fondness for mortal creatures, so our hearts end up a patchwork of people we have known in distant times. Fighters are my type, actually, so scars come with the territory.”

That reassures him, at least. It makes the dragon’s assurances that he won’t find Theo repulsive feel more grounded. Theo removes his shirt, the last layer, and then he’s bare from the waist up. He’s toned, at least, from all the fighting. He’ll give himself that- small but fit. Beyond that, his body is a network of scars more complicated than the crisscrossing back alleys in the big merchant towns.

Reyn moves his hands around to Theo’s front, tracing all over him, following the curve of a muscle or the straight line of a scar before moving to another.

Reyn lightly taps a curved, short scar on his right arm. “What’s this one from?”

“Spider queen in the Bleak Forest. One of her claws.”

“This one?” Reyn asks of a scar near one of his ribs, tracing it so slowly it sends chills down Theo’s spine and goosebumps up his arms.

“Dagger, from a ninja in a little shithole town in Lir.”

Reyn’s hands wander lower and draw down two matching scars running around his hips. It tickles and warms him up in just the right way. “These?”

“Fight with a bug-person that didn’t go my way.”

Reyn crouches down, undoing Theo’s belt as Theo runs his hands through soft brown hair. He lowers Theo’s garments just enough to expose more of his hips along with a mostly healed track of claw marks running from his hips to his ass on the right side. To his shock and pleasure, Reyn traces this one with a tongue that seems just slightly too long for a human.

“This one?” he asks, words no more than a breath of hot air on Theo’s wet skin.

“Owlbear,” Theo whispers. He traces Reyn’s jaw and his tongue travels to the inside of Theo’s wrist.

He exhales and presses a lingering kiss to the same spot before working his pants down a little more. Theo’s breath catches in his throat as the dragon’s fingers and tongue seek out more points on his hips, on his thighs, on his ass: snake bite, flogging from the town guard, a belt mark- all are licked and caressed by the dragon. Even though he’s not even really nude yet, Theo is absurdly, ridiculously turned on to the point that his legs are shaking. The dragon’s tongue is agile and insistent, as are his fingers.

When the dragon undresses him the rest of the way, he feels no more desire to stop him. The dragon clearly likes what he sees. Theo doesn’t always believe people’s words, but that tongue is enthusiastic enough about everything it’s encountered so far.

“I understand you may be self-conscious of how you appear visually, but if it’s any comfort to you, it all tastes equally divine,” the dragon says through a crooked smile, sitting back on his heels and licking his lips.

“I- I don’t even know how to respond to that. I want to compliment you back, but I’m not even very good at everyday compliments...”

Reyn shakes his head. “That’s okay. You don’t need to force it. Just say what’s on your mind. It doesn’t have to be eloquent.”

Theo licks his lips. “I like your tongue, then. It’s, you’re uh... you’re really good with it. I’m still discovering what I like, but I definitely like that.”

“Good,” the dragon responds with an earnest smile. “I’m glad to hear this is helping you discover yourself. You’re okay to keep going?”

“You’re going to have to be the one doing most of the leading. I have no idea what I’m doing, so...”

“Feel free to experiment. Just explore yourself. Explore me. Whatever feels good,” Reyn says, rising to his feet. He leans in and takes Theo’s face in his hands, exploring his mouth like he owns the place. “Does this feel good?”

Theo nods, unwilling to come up for air long enough to respond. Theo’s hands wander as Reyn’s tongue does, languidly, comfortably, like he has all the time in the world. His hands feel right at home under Reyn’s shirt on his warm, muscular chest. This form is only intimidating if Theo imagines, well... taking it. The dragon’s male forms are actually reassuring to him. He’s confident enough in his own abilities, but he knows the dragon is capable of looking out for him as well in this form or his true one. He feels looked after and safe in Reyn’s capable hands (and mouth).

Reyn moves his hands all over Theo’s bare torso, exploring the rise of his collarbones, the curves of his ribs, the dip of his hips. When Reyn moves to drop Theo’s pants the rest of the way, Theo announces his enthusiasm with a bite to Reyn’s lower lip and a whine.

“Other than a one-paragraph description I saw in a physiology textbook, I don’t know what the hell comes after this,” Theo breathes, “but I know I need you to give me more because I feel like I’m going to combust if you don’t dial this up.”

The dragon answers by pulling away from Theo, much to his disappointment, before dropping down again to crouch on the balls of his feet.

“What are you doing down th-hey-h-woah,” Theo moans, swaying on his feet. Reyn’s large hands are gripping his ass like he’s worried it’s going to make an escape. The strong fingers digging into the muscle there brings blood to the area and makes him more aware of his ass than he can say he’s ever been. His tongue is up to something much more mischievous. He draws it along his right thigh, starting at his knee and coming to rest near the top of his thigh, before moving to the left side and repeating the movement.

Theo doesn’t realize his eyes have been closed until he feels a lack of sensation, as even Reyn’s hands are removed from his ass. He opens them and looks at the dragon in concern. Reyn is gazing between his legs with an expression of nothing less than awe. It’s the look a biologist might have upon seeing a critically endangered frog, he thinks. Reyn manages to pick his jaw up off the floor long enough to murmur, “you have a most incredible mixture of anatomy.”

“Uh, thanks??” Theo questions.

“I mean that most genuinely,” Reyn says, still speaking quietly, bringing a cautious finger up to trace the area. “You have the anatomy of a human male, although it’s tucked in amongst the anatomy of a... I almost don’t want to say it! It’s too amazing to be said aloud,” Reyn murmurs.

“What? What is it?”

Reyn traces the base of his dick with one twirling finger while his other hand reaches behind his balls to the place just before his ass that he’s never paid much attention to. “This space here, this entrance,” Reyn says, probing it with a finger. Theo shivers involuntarily as the dragon repeats the movement, teasing the moist but tight space. “It’s like no human anatomy I’ve ever seen. It’s placed in an area where there should be smooth skin. It’s, well, puckered is the best word I can think of to describe the texture,” Reyn says with a giggle that doesn’t feel insulting.

When Reyn pops a finger inside unannounced, Theo doesn’t have forewarning to bite back a moan. “It’s clearly a pleasure organ.” He removes the finger just as fast, causing the organ to close with a ‘pop!’ He holds his finger between both of them to inspect it. It’s coated in clear, viscous fluid.

They look at each other in shock for a few seconds. “So... what the hell is it?” Theo asks. “I couldn’t find mention of it in any book, so in all honesty I’ve never touched it.”

“That’s because you were looking in the wrong books,” Reyn says with a smile. “If that’s what I think it is, that’s a vent.”

“A... vent?” Theo asks, palming the area.

“It’s an entrance connecting to a tunnel that leads to the oviduct- where eggs are formed. That,” Reyn says, pointing in between Theo’s legs, “is the dragon part.”

Chapter Text

Theo pulls his hand away, inspecting the wetness before freezing and waving his hands in front of his face. “Wait, wait, wait... eggs? Like... eggs?! Dragon eggs?”

Reyn chuckles and strokes the inside of Theo’s thighs. “Yes, dragon eggs. Although, since dragons are compatible with so many species, you could fill that space up with whatever kind of eggs you wanted.”

“Holy shit,” Theo breathes, feeling a wave of lust like he’s never experienced before overcome him. It feels like he’s just drunk a pitcher of boiling water. Still, is it too good to be true?

“But how do you know that’s really what it is? What if I just got part of the anatomy? What if it’s like, you know, a dead end?”

“I can check?” Reyn offers.

“...check?” Theo squeaks.

Reyn nods. “I’ll show you my hybrid form. It lets me keep my human dexterity while giving my tongue a bit of a boost. I think you’ll like it.”

With that, Reyn grips his thighs as his fingers lengthen ever so slightly, still not anything close to claws. A light dusting of scales now coat his knuckles and the backs of his hands. Two horns that are half the length of his regular ones sprout from his head. Spines rip through his shirt, and through his pants bursts a powerful bronze tail. It’s even smoother than it is in his dragon form, and Theo notices much more easily in its thinner, smaller version that the tail is definitely prehensile. The tip, he notes as the heat in his middle builds, is tapered nicely.

“Hey, that uh... that- your tail,” he says, clearing his throat.

“My tail?” Reyn asks, glancing over his shoulder as his hands find their way back to Theo’s waist. He brings it around so that it hovers in the air in the space between Reyn’s arms, draping over the right one.

“You said to just say whatever comes to mind and it won’t be weird?” Theo confirms, laying a hand on the tail.

Reyn gives him a quick peck on the lips. “Anything at all.”

Theo runs a hand along the tail, stroking it with a firm touch, as Reyn makes a stifled noise. They both end up speaking at once- Theo’s words rushed for the embarrassment of saying them aloud, and Reyn’s from an apparent sudden spike in arousal.

“Can you fuck me with your tail too-”

“-I feel like you should know that my tail is very sensitive and technically an erogenous zone-”

“...Oh,” they both say after a brief pause.

Theo pulls his hands back before laying them down again. “Is this okay?” he asks, right as Reyn says “You can keep going.”

They both laugh, and Reyn replies, “Yes, I think that would be fun. For someone who’s never done this before, that was certainly creative.” Theo runs his hands in long, short, shallow, and deep strokes over Reyn’s tail, varying them as Reyn makes different noises to get an idea of what the dragon likes. His face is very expressive. Theo likes that he doesn’t have to guess if the dragon is into what he’s doing. Reyn is an open book, and that’s hot.

“Oh, right- why I changed into my hybrid form before you distracted me with your surprisingly skillful hands,” Reyn says, slipping his tail out from between his arms so that it wraps behind Theo. “Hmm, it might not actually be thick enough to use as a cushion how I would like.” Reyn shifts so that his tail is about as long as Theo’s leg and back again, with the tip being as thick as his wrist, and the base being as wide as his hips. The dragon’s final hybrid form is at least a foot taller than him, and much bulkier.

Reyn undresses in seconds with a few pulls to key ties here and there. Theo tries not to faint at the size of the dick... dick? dicklike appendage that might be going into him at some point that evening. He notes that the dragon does not have balls, but rather a faint swell of the skin above his dick just below his navel. Without any testicles, he can clearly see that Reyn, even in a male hybrid form, has a vent as well.

Much to Theo’s delight, Reyn lifts him up and carries him to the edge of the jacuzzi. The sides of the pool vary, and Reyn comes to a stop at a reclined seat carved into the rock. It’s situated so that water from the jets flows into it, keeping the water there nice and hot. The chair is only covered by a small amount of water, so when the dragon sits down on it in his hybrid form, his lap is still above water.

Reyn is seated so that his legs are spread apart slightly, knees at an angle above his hips and stomach, with his feet resting on a ledge that juts out from the chair indent. His hips and stomach dip down, with his torso reclined but angled up to mirror his thighs so that he’s sitting in a V shape. Reyn gently lowers Theo onto himself so that Theo’s hips are resting near Reyn’s collarbone and his head and torso are between Reyn’s thighs. Reyn situates his tail so that the thick, sturdy base is between his legs, propping Theo up, and the rest of it gently snakes around Theo’s chest once before wrapping around Reyn’s own leg. Theo isn’t immobilized, but he’s just trapped enough so that if he starts squirming he won’t buck off straight into the water.

Reyn reaches to his right and opens a box that’s nestled into an alcove in the ground. He pulls out a squat jar and dumps pine needles, salts, dried orange peels, and flower petals, and some kind of spice into the bathwater. The smells immediately begin to feel the room. The smell makes Theo relax, and he sinks into Reyn’s soft stomach more.

“This is an interesting position,” Theo remarks. “What ah... what are you going to do with me with my hips all the way up by your f- oh, oh you’re still going with the tongue aren’t you,” he asks, nervous and horny eyes meeting Reyn’s determined and lustful ones, suddenly terribly, frighteningly aware that this man is going to fuck him senseless until he’s begging for Reyn to be done. He doesn’t know how he knows, considering this is the first time anyone’s ever looked at him like this, but he just does. Reyn is going to fuck his brains out until he’s a puddle of cum and embarrassment and has to be scraped up off the floor.

Reyn gives his answer loud and clear with a drawn out lick of the inside of Theo’s thighs, stopping just short of his vent. When he squirms in response and closes his legs, complaining that it tickles, Reyn readjusts Theo to allow his arms to reach and massages his thighs.

“Oh, I’ve barely started. I can’t have you closing up on me already. I’m not even inside. Come on, spread your legs for me,” he croons, slipping his hands between Theo’s still tightly closed legs. Theo melts at the dragon’s sweet demand and relaxes his legs. He makes sure to open them only slightly, as he’s determined to make the dragon work to loosen him up if only to see what he would do to accomplish that.

With a gentle but unyielding touch, Reyn works his hands closer to Theo’s vent, still not quite touching it, and spreads his legs a little further while Theo purposely resists. Reyn seems to get his game and puts on a pouty face. He nuzzles Theo’s thigh with his cheek and rubs his thumbs in deep stroking and circling movements all along the skin around Theo’s vent and on his thighs.

“That’s it, keep going. You wanted me to check if your vent really goes all the way through to an oviduct right?”

Theo nods, biting his lip and gripping Reyn’s skin to steady himself.

“Then I need to be able to go in very deep. Dragon eggs are quite large at their full size, so they grow deep inside you. My tongue will reach, but I need you to let me in.”

Theo moans, and he can feel his vent absolutely dripping from the arousal. He brings his hands around- one to stroke his dick and the other to lift his balls and hold them out of the way of Reyn’s tongue.

Reyn shifts Theo again so that his hips are slightly closer. “That’s it, touch yourself for me. I want you to be pleasured from every angle. Just don’t finish yourself off. You’re done when I say you’re done,” the dragon says, accentuating the order with a buck of his hips and a light growl. Theo freezes and swallows nervously with a whispered “Holy fuck,” before hesitantly resuming his movements. “Alright, I’m all yours.”

“That you are,” Reyn says, his rumbling voice resonating throughout Theo’s whole body. He applies his thumb to the soaked space between Theo’s thighs and rubs it in firm circles around the wet but still tight hole there. He opens his mouth and bares his canines, letting his tongue loll out in a display that has Theo moaning like a whore as it continues to fall out of his mouth, coming and coming until it’s nearly as long and as thick as Theo’s forearm.

“That’s going inside me?” He asks, pumping his dick with more purpose, already knowing the answer to his question. The dragon’s tongue shoots out quick as a whip and wraps around the offending hand, stopping it completely. Theo nearly screams from the shock of how dexterous the thing is.

Reyn releases him, a warning look in his eyes. “What did I say about getting ahead of yourself?”

Theo quickly folds his hands in his lap. His face goes red as a beet. Would the dragon punish him if he kept it up? He decides he might try his luck at some point, but he’s not going to push it for the time being- not for his first time, when he really does need the dragon to go slow.

“That’s better.” Reyn resumes the movements of his thumb, rubbing it in circles over Theo’s entrance. His other hand runs up and down his thigh with firm strokes, sometimes reaching around to grab and massage his ass, warming up the muscles in those places and encouraging him to keep his legs open wide. He switches back and forth a few times until Theo starts to squirm. He’s been thoroughly warmed up for a while now and the dragon hasn’t so much as put the tip of a finger in since the first test poke while they were still on land.

“Reyn, please,” he begs, wiggling his hips for emphasis. Reyn feigns ignorance as to the nature of his plea. “Please, come on, I need you to fuck me, I can’t take any more of this teasing.” Theo didn’t picture himself as the kind of person who could beg even if someone put a knife to his head, but this is too much. He’s completely at the dragon’s mercy, and Reyn is going about this as if he has all the time in the world.

When Reyn makes no move to switch up his routine of gentle teasing, Theo decides to see if he can set the dragon off by pleasuring himself again. The effect is immediate and shocking, as Reyn’s tongue plunges inside his vent.

“Fuck!” he yells, moving his hands to grip the dragon’s hips for dear life. Reyn isn’t actually that far into him, and the tip of his tongue is very thin, but it’s the speed with which he opened him that has Theo seeing stars. Reyn’s tongue is sturdy, more like a boneless finger than a human tongue. He fucks Theo’s vent in and out with his tongue, going deeper each time. Theo lists off the names of every god he knows, and then the demigods and anyone else he thinks will listen to his pleas.

When Reyn feels Theo is good and ready, which is really not very long after he started tonguefucking him, he begins to snake that wet appendage deeper into Theo than he would have ever thought possible. It fills him up in a way that has him arching his hips, hoping desperately for more of the feeling. Walls that he didn’t even know were they were being stretched mercilessly. It doesn’t hurt, but the sensation is so sudden and new that he feels absolutely dizzy with it. In a fit of overstimulation, he involuntarily clenches down around the dragon’s tongue, causing both of them to moan louder.

And then the dragon’s tongue hits the end of the tunnel. Theo thinks surely this is it. He’s just enough dragon to have the privilege of a second hole to fuck, but that’s the end of it. As he’s about to say something, he feels the dragon’s long tongue press more insistently at what feels like a dead end. Nothing happens, but Reyn pushes again and again, fucking the wall like it’s the entrance to his vent.

“Reyn, I don’t think it’s- that’s- oh fuck, oh fuck,” he moans, pressing his head back into Reyn’s tail. His eyes nearly roll back into his skull from the intensity of the feeling. Reyn is so far inside him that Theo feels his tongue above his navel.

Reyn presses more insistently, and Theo feels the wall start to surrender to the dragon’s tongue. It feels incredibly strong and resistant to being opened, but open it does. Theo is panting furiously now, clawing at the dragon’s skin so hard he leaves marks, as Reyn’s tongue fucks open what neither of them can doubt anymore is the entrance to the place where eggs would grow inside of him. As Reyn’s tongue finally breaches that closed off place, Theo cums like a small explosion is powering his release.

He’s so completely blitzed out that he is hardly aware of the dragon’s tongue leaving him until he keens at the sudden emptiness. Theo’s hands paw desperately against the dragon wherever he can reach. His arms shake with the effort just to hold them upright from the earth-shaking orgasm he just had. He didn’t even know that space was inside of him until that night, and now he is desperate to keep it filled.

“More, please, give me more,” he moans, his voice coming out broken and needy. Even as he tries to raise himself up to make his case to the dragon, he flops back down bonelessly.

Reyn sits up and draws the dripping, trembling Theo in close to his chest, wrapping his tail around him protectively. “Soon, but not right now. I think I may have already overstimulated you. You can barely move your limbs, little hunter,” he says, reverting to his original nickname for Theo. Reyn strokes his hair, soaked with steam and sweat, and peppers his forehead with kisses. “You did so well my sweet hunter. Yes, you are part dragon. You are so beautiful. We will have much fun together if you so wish it, but for now I will let you rest.”

Theo tries to protest, but his words are muffled by Reyn’s mouth as he swoops in for a kiss. He settles Theo so that he’s seated on his lap and they’re chest to chest. Theo rests with his head on Reyn’s shoulder, feeling his heartbeat next to his own. His breathing becomes more even as the dragon pets his head. As much as he wants their encounter to never end, Theo’s exhaustion pulls him down into sleep before long.

Next he awakens, he is clean, dry, and dressed in a proper bed. Reyn is in the form of a petite human female, all curves and softness, draped over his chest like he’s the comfiest pillow in the world. Her form is completely human, save for the tail that wraps protectively around his leg even in her sleep.

Chapter Text

After being fucked senseless by a 4,500-year-old bronze dragon, Theo has a new perspective on life. Slowly but surely, his demeanor begins to change. He still has the same trauma, the same caustic and biting way of speaking at times, the same history, but there’s a spring in his step. He knows he could leave and come back. There would be a warm bed and a warm body waiting for him no matter how long he was gone, because dragons exist on a different time scale than humans. He could wander for a decade and come back to Reyn like he had only left yesterday.

He could let the dragon fuck his brains out night after night and leave it at that. He could let himself fall for the dragon mind, body, and soul. There’s a lot of things he could have. And the dragon has given him the time and space to figure that out, even if he changes his mind a hundred times along the way. That’s something that not a lot of creatures out there are willing to give. Dragons, apparently, neither mate for life nor are they usually monogamous. There are so few of them that it is of more benefit to seek out multiple suitable mates over the course of a lifetime rather than creating offspring with only one mate.

It’s something that crossed his mind more than a few times even before he had sex with Reyn the night before.

When Theo first wakes, though, sex is the last thing on his mind. His muscles are as sore as the first time he ever learned how to post on a trotting horse. He tries to sit up and makes it halfway. Reyn shifts next to him and sits up, squinting with tired eyes. She looks sad at the loss of her radiator and sits up. She moves behind him, cozying up so her soft tummy is up against his lower back. In this form, her cheek rests on his right bicep as she curls around him like an octopus.

Her tail comes up to give him a pat on the head and a stroke on the cheek. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I need new legs and a new dragon pussy, or whatever you called this last night.”

She peppers his shoulders and back with kisses and wraps her tail protectively around his middle. “Ah, rest today, then. Take it easy. We can have breakfast and then go take a bath, if you like.”

“That sounds nice. Last night was amazing,” Theo says, wrapping his arms around her tail. “You’re like a wizard with your tongue- seriously.”

“Thank you,” Reyn says, nuzzling his shoulder and giving it a playful lick. “As much as I would like to fuck you all night long, you don’t quite have the stamina for it. That’s okay. We will just make it a habit until you do.”

Theo blushes, and despite his exhaustion and profound aches, his dick is wide awake. Reyn can’t see it, but her tail is almost about to brush up against it. He readjusts in what he hopes is a sneaky way, knowing if he caves and gives into her flirting, his muscles will hate him for days. He’ll go deal with this quickly in the bathroom and they can spend the day together doing something besides each other.

They chat and flirt a while longer, Theo takes care of himself quickly and privately, and then it’s back to business as usual (without the profound sexual tension). Well, it’s not unresolved tension, but he still gets profoundly horny several times throughout the day thinking about Reyn’s tail, or their dragondickthing, or long tongue, or strong fingers, or the fact that they somehow have both that and a vent and an ass and wow that’s a lot of possibilities for things to fuck and be fucked by and it makes Theo weak at the knees with horniness.

He also can’t stop thinking about the dragon’s mention of eggs.

Any time he sees an even vaguely spherical object, it makes him sweat like a whore in church. He still doesn’t know all the details of how an egg even gets formed, let alone how it comes out afterward. Could he get knocked up with an unfertilized egg just to have the pleasure of laying it without any responsibility? How did dragon kids work? The idea of an egg inside of him was insanely hot, but he wasn’t sure about all the rest of it. After a day of gnawing on the idea, he decided to just ask before it drove him completely insane.

He had intended to ask while they were both not horny and in a sound state of mind to discuss dragon reproduction without attempting reproduction from having the topic brought up because he was still unsteady on his feet even by midday.

If there was anything he had learned over his bizarre life, it was that the best laid plans often fell to shit.

Reyn was doing their best to not tease him, but even an ancient dragon couldn’t fight a certain level of pent up horniness (especially one who hadn’t gotten off the previous night- at least not during sex). One innuendo whispered in passing in a dim corridor of the library was the final fucking straw for Theo. Sore limbs be damned, they were doing this right here.

Theo growls low and shoves the dragon into the wall, relishing the shocked look in Reyn’s eyes. His eyes look apprehensive, but the telling swish, swish of his hybrid form tail told Theo that he would ravage Theo right here and now up against this wall if he allowed him to. Theo closes the distance between them in a flash, claiming a needy, aggressive kiss. The hunter in him is coming out in a new and unexpected way, and he’s not sure if he wants to be the predator, or be forced into being the prey tonight. Making the dragon work for it before he fucks Theo into next week sounds like the start of a great plan, though.

Theo’s hands roam Reyn’s body like he’s never known it before, because he hasn’t. The dragon chooses a new form every time Theo sees him, because he likes new things and he knows Theo likes it like this too. He memorizes every inch he can, knowing it will be gone tomorrow, tonight, in an hour, even. Reyn tries to move his hands to Theo, but Theo stops him, roughly pinning his hands to the wall while his mouth greedily claims and marks the dragon’s neck, jaw, and any other places he can reach without being able to lift up the dragon’s shirt.

“Who said you could be in charge?” Reyn growls in a voice more threatening than Theo has ever heard him use before. Theo likes it, likes the feeling of being in just a little bit of danger.

“Me,” Theo growls right back, releasing Reyn just long enough to remove his shirt and toss it to the floor. Reyn tries to free himself from where he’s backed up into the wall, but Theo presses him back with one hand to his now bare chest and another to his crotch where his dick-ovipositor-thing is now erect and straining against his too-tight pants.

Theo moves his left hand to work at Reyn’s right nipple while his mouth takes care of the other. With his right hand he undoes Reyn’s pants and drops them with a speed that surprises him given how horniness tends to make him stupid.

Reyn leans down and gives him a sharp warning nip to the neck, which he responds to with a nip to Reyn’s budding nipple. Theo strokes Reyn through his underwear, knowing the friction is quite literally driving him up the wall. He continues teasing Reyn’s nipples and palming his erection through his underwear until Reyn’s tail comes up between them, pushing him back.

When their eyes meet, Reyn’s are wide and hungry and oh so much darker than they were the night before.

"I may be a switch, but I don't bottom for just anyone. If you keep this up, you're going to bring out a side of me you won't like.” His voice is hoarse and low, his breathing heavy, and Theo gets the sense that Reyn isn’t fucking around.

Neither is he. He likes this dynamic, and he’s determined to keep it going. “I’m not fucking scared of you,” he says, braving Reyn’s mouth full of sharp teeth as he removes Reyn’s underwear with his right hand. Reyn kicks the offending clothing away before giving Theo a bite on the lips, and quite literally shoving his tongue back into his own mouth.

“You’re going to lose this game.” Reyn bites him again, this time on the neck, before undoing Theo’s belt.

“Maybe I want to lose,” Theo says, shoving his right hand between Reyn’s legs. They’re closed tight, and he can just barely get the tips of his fingers in between them. “Eventually,” he corrects, “after I get you to come unraveled just a bit.”

Reyn growls into his neck, bucking into his hand even as he keeps his legs firmly shut. He knows Theo is ignoring his dick in favor of his vent, or maybe even his ass, and he’s not having it. “In your dreams.” He undoes Theo’s pants with the help of his cheating tail, and his shirt is removed not long after. But in order to use his tail, Reyn has to shift slightly, giving Theo just the right window of opportunity to cup his hand and slip a finger inside.

Reyn literally hisses at him, tail coming back around to swish back and forth. The movement causes his finger to slip out, and Reyn manages to shove him off. He really is a dom through and through, it seems. Theo really wants to see him cave just a bit, even if it’s just for his fingers.

“Aw, what was that you were saying to me last night? Come on, open up for me?” he croons with half-mocking sweetness, running his hands up and down Reyn’s thighs. Reyn stills and he slips his hand back under, popping one, two, and then surprisingly three fingers in Reyn’s willing vent. He only manages to pump them a few times before he realizes the calm was a ruse.

Reyn pushes his fingers out. Before Theo can even process what’s going on, the dragon’s tail is hoisting him up.

“If you want to top me, you’ll have to do better than that,” Reyn says with a huff, some of his calm returning now that he’s the one calling his own shots again.

Theo just responds with a “hmph!” and crosses his arms like the brat he is as he’s unceremoniously carried to the bedroom.

“Don’t be so pouty,” Reyn chastizes. “You’re still going to get fucked tonight. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Fine, but I’m not making it easy for you either,” he grumbles.

“Oh?” Reyn laughs, plopping him onto one of the few proper beds that could accommodate a hybrid or dragon form. “We’ll see how well you can resist me, then.”

Now that the dragon is on his knees and leaning over him rather than Theo laying on top of him in a jacuzzi, Theo realizes just how much of the dragon there is. There’s so much. Before he has any time to reflect on that further, the dragon is between his legs and spreading them wide with strong hands. Theo closes his legs and flips onto his stomach, determined to act like a little shit for the sole purpose of drawing out the encounter so he’ll last longer than last time before his body gives out. That, and, well... he likes it when Reyn gets just a little bit scary.

Instead of trying to pry his thighs open with his hands again, Reyn simply slips his long tongue into the tight space and licks at his hidden entrance.

“Fuck,” Theo moans, trying to shove the dragon off with his feet. Reyn grips his thighs with a strength that feels like it’s coming from dragon limbs and not human ones and flips him so that he’s on his back again.

“You made this bed, now lie in it, hunter.”

“Make me,” he says through gritted teeth. “You have a helluva tongue but if you’re going to fuck me, really fuck me. Fill me up until I can’t move.”

His words have the intended effect of going right to Reyn’s dick, which twitches with anticipation. While Theo is busy guarding his privates with his hands, Reyn goes for the one orifice he left unguarded, not thinking the dragon would stoop so low. Reyn climbs on top of him, pinning Theo’s hands between them, before shoving his tongue into Theo’s mouth. At first, Theo thinks he’s just going to kiss him with tongue.

And then he feels Reyn’s hybrid form shift and realizes oh... oh no- he’s going to throatfuck me with his tongue. His eyes well up with involuntary tears as he tries to fight his gag reflex. Reyn isn’t backing off, but he feels the dragon’s hands softly massaging him, and he calms down enough to breathe through his nose around the tongue that’s violating his throat in a way that is embarrassingly pleasurable. The dragon only goes in and out a few times, each thrust drawing out a muffled cry for mercy.

When Reyn pulls out not long after, Theo sputters and wipes his mouth with his newly freed hands. Reyn retracts his tongue and crosses his arms, sitting on top of Theo’s chest. “You talk too much.”

“Noted,” Theo rasps. He’s fine, mostly just shocked.

“You wanted me to fuck you, and I’m not letting you off easy this time. I’ll show you what sex with a dragon is really like.”

Theo bucks up so that his erection rubs against Reyn’s, eliciting a warning rumble. “My throat might disagree at the moment, but this side of you is really fucking hot.”

Reyn reaches behind him and tucks a finger inside Theo’s vent. “Still talking,” he muses, seemingly in awe. “I’ll have to fix that.” Reyn fucks him with one finger before slipping a second one in while his other hand strokes Theo’s length with agonizingly slow movements. Theo alternates between using his hands to pleasure his own nipples and Reyn’s, seeing that Reyn will at least allow him that much freedom. When Reyn easily inserts a third finger and then a fourth, Theo knows that fingers and a long tongue aren’t going to cut it.

“I can take it. Come on, I know you want to.” He strokes the dragon’s cock, which is as thick as an eggplant and longer than a prize-winning zucchini, wondering how it’s ever going to fit inside of him.

“How far do you want to go tonight?” Reyn says, a moment of clarity coming through the lust-soaked haze.

He swallows, thinking before he speaks for a rare moment in his life before blurting out, “What would happen if you put an egg in me?”

“An egg?” Reyn asks, stopping all movement, hand coming to a rest with all five of his fingers inside him up to the last knuckle.

“Yeah, an egg,” Theo confirms, not breaking eye contact. He rubs the area above Reyn’s dick for emphasis, causing the other man to moan and straighten up. Theo feels his body tense up on his lap and knows it wouldn’t take much to convince Reyn to give him what he wants. “I want you not to hold back. Fuck me like a dragon would fuck me. I can take it. I want you to fill me up.”

“Do you know what you’re asking?”

“No. Honestly, I don’t know anything about how this works. But I know that dragons are endangered, and I really care for you, and I know that helping your species is important to you, and dragon babies are one way to do that, and I really really want you to fuck an egg into me but... I don’t know what comes after. I don’t know anything about raising kids, certainly not dragon kids.”

“Ah, well- that’s actually not as much of a concern as you would think,” Reyn explains. “A dragon pregnancy is very slow, even slower than a human pregnancy. It can take anywhere from three months to a year and a half, depending on how long the host is able to carry the egg until it becomes too big to handle.”

Reyn rubs his hands over Theo’s stomach. He pictures what it would be like to feel the weight of an egg there, to see the swell of it under his skin. He places his hands on his stomach and Reyn places his hands over Theo’s, rubbing his stomach in comforting circles.

“Even a dragon egg carried to the maximum term might still take one to three years to hatch. A smaller one could take up to five. Dragons are slow in all things, even hatching. If you want to produce dragon offspring, you need not worry about a heavy burden of raising them. If I had a mate,” Reyn says, eyes taking on a faraway, hopeful look, “I would make the effort to start bringing the dragons together. It would be like it was in ages past, where a whole enclave would help to raise offspring. Dozens of dragons, all helping in childrearing.”

“What if... what if I went back to wandering, after? If I decided I didn’t want to stay in one place? How long does it even take dragons to grow up anyway?”

“Almost a hundred years. No one expects a dragon to stay at the nest for that long, and that is why the enclave helps if one or both of the parents feels the call of adventure in their bones. It is natural. You have a dragon’s instincts. The more I learn about you, the more I understand that you are more dragon than anything else. If this is something you want, I will give it to you.”

“This isn’t too fast? Humans- don’t they court each other for a year or years before having kids?”

Reyn, still holding Theo’s hand, raises it and presses it over his heart. “Dragons are different. Our pacing is our own and only our own. Our hearts and bodies, although they are slow in most things, are also subject to powerful instincts and the need to act on them immediately. If your heart and body are craving this, that instinct will only grow stronger and more irresistible so long as you are around me.”

“Then... I do want it. Tonight.”

Reyn nods and smiles, some of his deviousness coming back to him. “I will warn you that your human form might object to this process. I’m... not even sure I can do this in a hybrid form, but we’ll find out, I suppose. Even the great bounty hunter Theo can’t take a dragon,” he says with a coy smirk that shows he knows Theo is damn well going to try sometime in the future.

At Reyn’s gestured instruction, Theo scoots over so that Reyn can place a series of pillows underneath him that will bend his body at just the right angles. He lays back down over them, stomach pressed into one, laying with his right cheek smooshed into a pillow and his ass and vent angled so that they’re presenting to Reyn’s eager dick.

“How does the egg bit work? Do you load me up with dragon goo and it fertilizes and becomes an egg inside me, or something?” Theo asks as Reyn lines up his cock with Theo’s slick, loose entrance.

He laughs as the tip of his dick slips easily inside. “Ah, I guess I missed an important detail. No, Theo, I will be laying a soft egg inside you and then filling you with slick that will feed the egg in its growth and keep it cushioned. It will continue to grow inside of you.”

Theo tenses up and raises his head. “Wait! How big is the fuckin egg? It’s going through your dick?”

“Mm. It’s going to be about two, two-and-a-half inches across. Around the size of a fist- my fist, not yours, that is.”

“And that has to get through your dick?”

Reyn rocks in and out of Theo to emphasize how little that fact bothers him. “It has been a very long time, so it may be a bit of a struggle when the time does come for that, but yes, it will fit through my ovipositor as it has before.”

A second realization hits Theo, the thought muffled and muddied by the already two-inch-wide ovipositor fucking him wide open. “Oh... and that egg is going in that little tiny-ass hole you licked way inside of me? It barely opened half an inch! And I thought that was going to kill me!”

Reyn rests some of his body weight over Theo, reaching his arms around his abdomen. “You will be just fine. Many a human has taken a dragon before, and some have even carried dragon eggs. You have the proper anatomy for such an undertaking. Your body knows what to do, even if your mind doesn’t. Even now, it is being stretched wider than it ever has before, and is doing so eagerly.”

Theo tunes into the feeling of fullness, and he is definitely being stretched wide open. He reaches around to his stomach and finds with a mixture of horror and delight that the dragon is so huge that he can feel the outline of the dragon’s ovipositor through his stomach. He’s so full he never wants the feeling to go away. But even as the dragon is fucking him open wider and driving his cock in deeper, Theo wants more.

“Can you shift your form more?” Theo asks.

“Hm?”

“More... more dragon. I can take more,” he says, voice muffled by the soft pillow.

The dragon swears in a language he’s never heard before and begins fucking him like he’s on a mission now. Theo buries his face deeper into the pillow and mumbles curses from all the different provinces he’s visited. Oblivion overtaking his mind, he is dimly aware of the dragon’s ovipositor thickening even as it is being pulled out. Reyn pauses with about two inches left in Theo that’s the same thickness his dick was near the base when he almost bottomed out earlier, and then rocks his hips into Theo roughly until he re-enters Theo in one swift, merciless movement.

The movement is stopped by something that feels almost like balls hitting the outside of Theo’s vent with great force, although he knows that can’t be right. Reyn doesn’t have balls.

“What the fuck?” Theo turns back to look at the dragon in response to the offensive assault on his vent.

He can’t see what’s going on. He doesn’t like that. Reyn rocks back into him again, seemingly not hearing Theo’s mumbled question. Theo tosses the pillows to the side and spins with Reyn’s dick still in him so that he’s laying on his back. Reyn tries again to rock into him, stopped by-

“-Reyn I said what the everlasting fuck is that?” he asks of the enormous swell three-quarters of the way down the dragon’s length. It’s slightly darker in color than the rest of his dick, and is not well-graduated compared to the tip of his length.

“Knot,” Reyn manages to get out before becoming lost in his futile attempts to pound Theo, which are being firmly blocked by said knot.

Theo reaches down and strokes it, which only seems to make Reyn go more insane. “What the hell is it for?”

“It forms when the egg is close. It stops your body from trying to push it back out once it’s in.”

“Oh that’s comforting,” Theo responds with sarcasm that masks a healthy dose of terror. That knot is fucking huge. It’s the size of a grapefruit, and an egg the size of an apple is going to be pushing its way through there? How fucking wide is he going to have to stretch for this? He reminds himself that six, nine, even twelve months from now, he’s going to be straining to push out something much bigger, and it’s a take it (literally) or leave it kind of situation right now. He’s at the point of no return. Once that thing is in him, it’s probably not coming out until Reyn is damn good and ready.

He strokes Reyn’s knot and the rest of his shaft some more while slipping a few fingers inside himself between his own skin and Reyn’s dick in a pitiful attempt to ready his vent to take the knot. He gets the feeling he’s going to be taking it whether or not he’s ready, if Reyn’s frantic pumping is anything to go by.

“Fuck,” Reyn chokes out. “I forgot how intense this feeling is.”

“Can you already feel it coming?” Theo asks, looking Reyn’s body over for any sign of the egg.

He nods and palms at the skin just above his ovipositor. Now that Theo’s looking at it, he can tell the swell is more pronounced than it normally is. That must mean the egg is starting to come forward. That knot is going to hurt like hell to take, but so is Reyn having to hold back a whole fucking egg if he can’t fit that knot.

Theo spreads his legs wider and gestures for Reyn to come closer. Reyn obliges, pressing his body weight over him, never slowing in the rapid pace he’s set. With each thrust, Theo can feel his vent give just a little bit more. Reyn is breathing rapidly, hands digging into Theo’s sides. Theo is comfortably stretched around Reyn’s dick, but the knot is just too much of a size difference with not enough graduation for Reyn to make any progress.

Reyn whimpers, and Theo can’t stand it. Sighing and knowing he’s going to regret this in seconds, he wraps his legs around Reyn and hooks his ankles, locking him in place so he can’t pull out, only push in. There’s no space between the knot and Theo, and Reyn has nowhere to go but deeper. Reyn whines again into Theo’s skin, pumping once, twice, three times before realizing he’s still not getting anywhere.

There’s a pause and Theo has already prepared himself for what comes next. Well, as much as he can prepare himself for something twice the size of what’s already in him being pushed forward mercilessly. Reyn opts for just pushing and pushing, gripping Theo for leverage and pulling him closer. The knot is entering him and there’s fuckall he can do about it now. It’s big. It’s so, so unimaginably big and it’s like nothing he’s ever felt before. Just the start of the swell already makes him see stars with the burning pain of the forceful stretching, but it keeps going. Reyn presses deeper and deeper, setting a blinding pace now that he’s making headway. Theo bites down on Reyn’s shoulder hard enough to draw blood even as the swell of just half of the knot brings him to orgasm so that he’s blowing his load all over Reyn’s stomach.

The clench of his muscles from the orgasm only makes the full feeling even more intense and awful in how all-encompassing it is. He feels like he’s dying it’s so fucking powerful. Even while he’s still shaking from his orgasm and cum is still dribbling from his dick that he can barely reach from how closely Reyn is pressed to him, there is still so much more to take. When he gets to the widest point of the knot, the fullness of the stretch makes him feel like he’s being ripped in two. The feeling of being stuffed tight with something as big as both of his hands clasped together makes him so dizzy he blacks out for a few seconds before coming to, only to discover that his traitorous dick is growing hard again.

In a second, the whole knot is inside him. Theo thrashes and tries in vain to push it out, but his ruined body doesn’t have the strength to overpower the dragon.

“It’s so big, it’s too much,” he mumbles, licking blood off his lips. “It’s so much, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

The dragon doesn’t have the mental presence to respond, but if his dick could speak, the next punishing pump that bottoms out against his oviduct would be saying “Careful what you wish for.”

Theo arches his back and screams loud enough to wake dead gods, already nearing a second orgasm despite the still-lingering aftershocks of the first one. It hurts, but it hurts so fucking good. Somehow, even though he feels like surely he’s going to split in two any second now, he can feel that his greedy body wants more. His vent wants to be filled even more, and his oviduct is actually aching with the sudden focus on how empty it is by comparison to his vent.

Despite his ruined mental state, he manages to drop a few kisses over the dragon’s shoulders and licks up the droplets of blood he drew there.

“You’re doing so well,” Reyn murmurs into his ear, sounding completely out of it himself. “You took that whole knot. You can take the rest. You’re being so good for me.” Theo knows it’s taking all of his concentration to fight through his own discomfort to make Theo feel better.

Reyn has gone still, seemingly to give Theo a break, but Theo can feel the tremors racking Reyn’s body. “Keep going. I’m ready.”

Reyn gives a few gentle, hesitant pumps, punctuated by whines. Theo isn’t sure why he does what he does next. But as Reyn rocks into him for two, five, maybe ten minutes, with no progress made by the egg, instinct guides his hand up to the swell on Reyn’s abdomen. Reyn gives him just enough room to massage the area. Theo thinks it’s probably not doing anything at all, but then Reyn exhales sharply and Theo feels something move underneath his hand.

“That’s it,” he says, trying his hand at what the dragon had been doing before. He massages the area more deeply, with slow, firm strokes of his fingers and palm. “I’m ready. Put an egg in me.”

"Fuck, these are so much easier to lay in my dragon form but that's not going to be doing you any favors," Reyn says through gritted teeth. He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, setting an easy, steady rhythm of shallow thrusts into Theo. There's still a good amount of his ovipositor out in the open air, and Theo knows that means that the knot is still going to go so much deeper.

The egg drops and Theo can't feel the swell anymore. Reyn makes a strangled noise, and Theo looks up in awe at the bulge at the base of Reyn's ovipositor. It's one thing to hear Reyn describe the size of the egg. It's another to see it. Theo is already starting to close up around Reyn's dick now that the knot is resting comfortably inside his vent. He's wishing it wouldn't, because the stretch is going to hurt that much more a second time.

The progress of the egg is so slow it's painful to watch. Theo reaches up and strokes Reyn, pushing the egg down the shaft.

"It's not too late to back out. I can just lay it outside of you," Reyn offers, face pinched.

Theo shakes his head and continues to pull the egg towards him. He feels a rush of something behind the egg, pushing it down, and knows the egg is only going to be the first thing he's filled with.

"I want to carry your egg. I want this."

Reyn leans in and gives Theo a slow, hazy kiss. The change in position is the last bit of encouragement the egg needed to slip the rest of the way down. Theo can feel the ebb and flow of nothing short of a tidal wave sloshing behind the egg. It’s pressing against him, and really it’s about the same size as the knot, and with a much better taper as well. Theo pulls Reyn in as tightly as he can. The egg pushes into him so quickly he can hardly register the feeling. There’s a brief stretch before it’s pushed along by everything following it with a satisfying pop.

The dragon is absolutely blitzed out, looking a mess clinging to Theo like a barnacle. Both of them are shaking now with the effort of doing an act meant for much larger bodies in a hybrid form and a human form.

While the entrance of the egg was easy enough, it’s another thing entirely to accommodate it with the knot already inside of him. The cavity just inside his vent swells to almost double the size. Theo thrashes and swears, fighting to work his hand between him and Reyn. He frantically massages the area above his dick, trying to reassure his abused muscles that he’s not actually dying. Massaging helps physically and mentally. His muscles feel better, and wow is it hot how much he’s bulging from the knot and the egg inside of him. His abdomen juts out several more inches than it usually does, and it’s so concentrated in that one place, he can actually feel where the egg is inside the knot.

He wraps his other hand around Reyn, who is flush against him now. Theo strokes his head while his other hand massages his own body, easing the egg deeper inside of him. Reyn is no longer thrusting, just slowly inching further into Theo, keeping pace with the egg, taking care to stretch out Theo’s walls with the thinner part of himself before the egg and knot make it there. Before long, Reyn has bottomed out again, and Theo is left wondering how the hell the egg is going to make it inside.

To Theo’s surprise, the entrance to his oviduct begins to give at the slightest pressure from Reyn. The dragon was right. Even though he’s a mixture of creatures, the dragon part of him knows what’s going on and is doing its best to make this whole thing work in an otherwise human body.

Theo kisses Reyn’s neck. Reyn hums in response and nuzzles him. Theo is already close to a second orgasm, and is pretty sure it’s going to happen when the egg reaches its resting place. He can only imagine what Reyn’s will be like if the damn egg ever makes it out. Theo can actually feel Reyn’s lower body start to swell as it forms more of whatever he’s pushing out into Theo. He knows if he’s serious about this, about growing a fucking dragon egg inside of him, he needs to heed the dragon’s instructions that what follows the egg aids in its growth- and take all of it.

The egg presses against Theo’s oviduct. Just that small of a touch already overloads his fucked out senses and mind. He rocks his hips, desperately trying to get the egg to hurry up and enter him. His oviduct eases up, opening slightly, but it’s agonizingly slow. Reyn seems to feel the same urgency. His thrusts resume, much shallower this time, as he’s already using most of his length. The sound of their two slick bodies colliding punctuates the last push needed for the egg to start making its way inside, and that’s it for Theo. He’s amazed his orgasm doesn’t break the bed, or himself, or both of them. He feels like he’s being vaporized, like he’s dying, like heaven is a place on earth and it’s in his blood and his nerves. His second load joins with the mess of the first one they never bothered to clean up, and now he’s absolutely soaked with it.

The egg slips inside, and there’s a brief moment where his walls begin to rest and close up around the relatively small tip of Reyn’s ovipositor. Then the flood comes, and they’re pushed wide again with how much Reyn swells. The egg settles for only a moment before being shot further back by the torrent of liquid filling Theo. It’s moving so quickly he can’t even get a sense for its temperature or thickness- if it’s a thin fluid or more of a goo.

He fills up to a comfortable amount and runs his hands over his growing belly, moaning in pleasure. He knows soon it will become too much, and he will feel overfull, so he enjoys this ‘just right’ stage while it lasts. His abdomen and stomach are much smoother now, the bulge of the egg lost in the pint or so of slick inside him. His body is rounded out smoothly, looking like he’s gone too far at an all-you-can-eat buffet. His stomach is wobbling too from the force of all the liquid filling it, displacing what’s already there. His skin is still soft there with plenty of give.

They’re both making obscene amounts of lewd noises, and Theo can hardly tell where one moan ends and another begins. He can feel the swell in Reyn’s body decrease as he empties himself into Theo. He swells a few more inches. He feels a great weight begin to distribute itself in him, spreading out into all available spaces in what is a surprisingly large womb.

And then he’s full. There’s no more space for any of the slick to go. The flow stops, and Theo thinks Reyn might just go absolutely feral if this isn’t remedied immediately. Some of it feels like it’s even beginning to leak out of his oviduct, and that won’t do. Theo can feel the knot just outside of his oviduct. He glances past his swollen belly and sees that Reyn has just enough length left (did he get longer? He did, didn’t he?) to make this work.

Theo grabs Reyn’s ass and pushes him all the way in one swift motion so that the knot pops inside Theo’s oviduct. It has an immediate effect, and prevents all leakage or any backflow, which he hopes wasn’t happening, that’s a terrifying thought. With nowhere else to go, and the speed of its movement stronger than the resistance Theo’s walls are willing to put up, he begins to swell rapidly.

The stretching is uncomfortable, but it’s not painful. He’s already so fucked out of his mind and body that his senses feel dulled. He can tell by the flatness of Reyn’s abdomen that there isn’t much left now. Theo focuses on taking deep breaths and massaging his stomach to help distribute everything Reyn is giving him.

Reyn’s earth-shaking orgasm goes on for several minutes as he continues to dump a seemingly endless amount of his spill into the deepest parts of Theo. It continues until Theo looks like he swallowed a medium-sized melon. At last, there doesn’t seem to be any left. Theo has stopped growing, and his stomach has stilled.

Reyn breathes a sigh of relief and collapses his full body weight onto Theo, causing a bizarre sensation as his oviduct is compressed. Theo lowers his legs so he’s flat and wraps both arms around Reyn.

Neither of them can speak from exhaustion. It’s as close to anyone as he’s ever felt in his life. Reyn just put his child inside of him- their child. He’s pregnant, holy shit, he thinks, marveling at how his insides are already starting to settle to accommodate everything they’ve been given. All he can manage for the time being is to nuzzle Reyn on the neck and give him grateful licks.

“We actually did it,” Reyn says, laughing in disbelief. He raises his head as much as his exhausted body will allow and kisses Theo. “That worked- and neither of us were in dragon forms. That was amazing.”

“Now I know what people mean when they say they were fucked within an inch of their life. How am I going to be able to move after this?” Theo asks, pushing Reyn back a bit to get a better look at himself. He already looks like a human in the start of their third trimester- and he’s going to get bigger for maybe a year?

Reyn blushes and rubs the back of his head sheepishly. He quickly lowers his hand when he finds that he needs the strength of all four of his limbs to hold him up. “Oh, ah... as for all the slick I filled you with- that’ll go down. The egg will use up a lot of it to fuel its growth, and your body will use a lot of it to- to, ah, recover from what I just did to you.” Reyn’s last words are muffled by Theo’s stomach, which Reyn is speaking into to avoid making eye contact with Theo and hide his blush. “Your womb will shrink back down from its rather, ah, inflated state and go down to the size of, hmm what’s about that size- a hedgehog?”

“A what?” Theo wheezes.

“I don’t know, I couldn’t think of things about that size,” Reyn mumbles, shoving his face further into Theo’s belly. Theo laughs so hard it hurts, and then he’s just shaking trying not to laugh and jostle everything he’s filled with even further. It crosses his mind that they should probably get that knot out of him before he relaxes and closes up completely.

He reaches between them and gives Reyn a series of pokes on his ovipositor. “Okay, out. You’re being evicted. I need a bath- or a power-washing, maybe.”

“Hrrf.”

“Get out before you get stuck in there!” Theo says more insistently. His dragon... mate, he guesses now, just lays there like a sack of potatoes, utterly spent.

Theo tickles his sides and the dragon just about hits the ceiling. “Okay, okay! You’re so warm though. You make a nice pillow.”

Theo rolls his eyes. “Just help me get cleaned up and then we can lay back down.”

“Actually... if we do this right, we might be able to avoid completely wrecking the bedroom on the way to the bathhouse,” the dragon murmurs.

He shifts position carefully, sitting back as he pulls Theo onto his lap. With his current state, he has to turn somewhat to the side in order to press against Reyn, but it works. The dragon carefully lifts Theo with his arms and tail and slides off the edge of the bed, still inside him the whole time. Reyn has him lifted just enough so that he’s not getting rammed on the way to the bath. To the dragon’s credit, being stuffed with a dragon knot while being carried in the arms of his lover is actually quite a comfortable way to travel.

Other than a meager trickle running down his thigh, they manage to avoid making a mess. He’s happy about that, as he quite likes the blankets and furs they have. He’s not sure how difficult it is to clean up dragon slick, but he’d rather put off finding out.

“Almost there,” Reyn murmurs, nuzzling the top of Theo’s head. Despite, or perhaps because of being fucked nearly into another dimension, Theo has never felt more taken care of. He knows he’s safe in the arms of his dragon, and even safer than ever with an egg inside of him. Reyn wouldn’t let anything happen to him. They have all the money they could ever need, a lair big enough to hold ten enclaves of dragons, and they have each other.

It’s a relationship still so new and full of unknowns, but he likes where it’s going. Every day has been a new adventure, something new to learn, new things about himself to discover. Reyn makes him feel like his life, his heart, his body, are worth something. It’s only been a few weeks. But he’s never felt so much bliss in his life.

Reyn was onto something about him being more dragon than anything else. Theo wants to test just how true that is. He gets the feeling it doesn’t stop with this. Theo finally feels the glimmer of a purpose beyond simply existing to kill. He will live to see dragons have a place in the world again.

Chapter Text

A flick of water hits Reyn in the face. Theo cuts off the dragon’s complaining before it starts. “No, no, you just put a hedgehog-sized egg in me. I think I’m allowed to flick you with some bath water,” he says, splashing his mate again.

Reyn responds by blowing a raspberry in the air and ruffling Theo’s overgrown locks. Reyn’s fake pouty look is cute on him. The knot was starting to go down in size, so they hadn’t bothered dislodging the thing yet. Theo knew they probably should at some point, but for the time being it was cozy. Despite the human side of his brain ringing frantic, unheeded alarm bells to remove the foreign thing with haste, the dragon side of him instinctively knew to leave it in until the egg settled.

So he laid on Reyn’s chest, floating lazily in the water, enjoying the mild warmth of the bath that contrasted with the heat of his lover inside of him. The water had immediately felt amazing not only on his sex-sore muscles, but on his slightly alarmed and offended belly, heavier and tighter than it had ever been in his life. It would only get larger for the next however-many-months, but at least it would be so slow that he would hardly notice it compared to the merciless stuffing he’d experienced that evening.

It was strange how much of his mind had come out of dormancy, for lack of a better way to describe it. His human rationale would have balked at the idea of mating with a creature he’d known for a few weeks, let alone enthusiastically agreeing to have its child. But as they’d progressed in the act, he felt himself giving into the instincts of something much different. Besides, they had ages to figure everything out before this thing was even laid. The hatching of it would be years down the line.

Reyn runs a finger down Theo’s cheek. “So, you really want to help me build an enclave?” His eyes glitter in a kaleidoscope of colors reflected off of the bathroom tiles and water.

“I’m not sure what would be more troublesome- rounding up a bunch of dragons and starting a new society of them, or trying to raise however many eggs I have the urge for you to fill me with between just the two of us,” Theo says with a coy smirk.

“You know, maybe you might want to stay here and guard the library while I handle the diplomacy efforts,” Reyn says, brows furrowing. “I was willing to look past your profession, as I once went down a similar path myself, but other dragons might not be so forgiving.”

“I maybe failed to consider that in the heat of the moment...” Theo says, paling despite the heat of the bath.

So far, he was only a few hours along into one egg, that realistically he might not even be able to bear with his humanoid stature. His contribution to dragonkind was a drop in the bucket compared to killing seven of them. Many of them were hundreds or thousands of years old. It was only now, after spending weeks in Reyn’s library, that he realized just how much collective knowledge he had been personally responsible for erasing.

“I uh... I’m not used to trying to be a decent person. I even went back to bounty hunting after I left here the first time. I didn’t even need money, I just had nothing better to do with my time. You said you went down a similar path?” Theo asks, suddenly curious.

Reyn nods, face solemn.

“How do you make amends for things like that?”

“Slowly, and without expectations,” Reyn says.

He smooths Theo’s hair over his ears with one hand and rubs his stomach with the other. His bump has already halved in size as his body absorbed most of what Reyn gave him. As it had gone down, he’d felt refreshed immediately. Dragon magic- who’d have thought?

“I feel like I need more of a step by step guide.”

Reyn shifts in the bath so that his legs are locked behind Theo and pulls him in tight. “In time. Atonement is not a quick achievement. It is a lifelong journey. I started mine several centuries ago, and still do not consider it finished. Someday I will tell you what I’ve done, but not tonight. Tonight is about new life.” He nuzzles Theo and rumbles into his neck.

Theo nods as much as his restrained position allows. “Alright. I’ll trust your guidance.”

They are both quiet for a time. Theo has more questions, but he knows there is only so much he can do about his past while he’s laying here in the tub speared by a dragon dick.

Reyn strokes his head and hums into him, soothing his worries. He wonders if dragon voices have healing abilities, because every time Reyn hums, it feels like his body is refreshed along with his mind. Theo feels the last of the knot deflate. He doesn’t like the empty feeling it leaves him with, but he also needs to get up and do something. They had been going at it for so long, he feels like he needs to sleep for a week and eat an entire pantry worth of food at the same time.

He feels Reyn pull out of him with delicate slowness. Theo whimpers at the hollow feeling left by Reyn’s retreat. Reyn peppers the side of his face with kisses and holds him close. When Reyn is all the way out, Theo sticks to him like glue as he rises from the tub, arms wrapped around his drowsy mate. He’s hardly aware of Reyn drying them off, humming as he does so, or of being lowered onto their bed and draped in warm furs.

“Goodnight, my wonderful mate,” Reyn murmurs into Theo’s neck. He’s too sleepy to respond. He wonders if something about the humming lulled him to sleep. He just presses closer to Reyn and takes his hand, bringing it to his lips. Theo presses a kiss to it and places it over his heart as sleep takes him.

* * *

Theo awakens with a start. He flies upright, one hand to his startled heart and the other two his abdomen. Sleep still grips him like a vine trap. He doesn’t remember anything. All he knows is there is something inside him. He whimpers and spreads his hips, palming himself frantically trying to figure out where exactly this thing is situated inside of him.

A soft snore from behind him shocks him to his senses. He glances over his shoulder to see a half-orc woman with blue-grey skin, sand-colored hair, and a long white scar running from her shoulder to her forearm. Although it looks nothing like the other forms he’s seen, he knows it’s the dragon. He wonders if there’s a current connecting all the different looks the dragon takes on.

The dragon- Reyn had gotten Theo pregnant last night, or day, or whatever time it was. It was hard to know without being able to see the sun most of the time. Theo was pregnant. The weight he felt was an egg. There isn’t even a swell now. It’s nestled deep within him, the only sign of its existence a persistent feeling, as though he had eaten a heavy meal.

He breathes a shaky sigh of relief. He lets his hand rest over his stomach, trying to focus on the egg. Can he connect with it somehow? He doesn’t feel anything yet, but maybe when he’s further along. Theo leans back slowly so as not to wake Reyn. The egg is settled enough that it doesn’t seem to shift much at all when he lays back. That’s good if he’s going to have to deal with this for around a year. He supposes dragon eggs probably have to be pretty sturdy to put up with flying and whatever else dragons do all day.

Theo drapes himself over Reyn’s bare, muscular chest, nestling his head between the two largest, orciest breasts he’s ever seen in his life, and falls back asleep.

* * *

Theo takes a sip of his chocolate-infused coffee, savoring the taste. It’s exotic, and he’s never had the chance to try it before. But Reyn was able to buy some from a caravan coming through, and he can’t get enough of it. The mug warms him through his fingerless gloves, no-longer fraying at the edges thanks to his mate’s careful hemming of them. He points to a spot on the map that isn’t filled in. It’s a few hundred miles from them.

“What’s here?”

Reyn leans back in their chair. They’ve taken on another androgynous form today. This one doesn’t have the signature almond eyes or sandy hair that the dragon’s forms often have. Today’s form looks like a young wood elf. Their skin is a warm brown like the mushrooms Reyn likes to cook with, and their eyes are like mist over a graveyard. Short hair that ripples between glittering gold and silver depending on which way he looks at it frames their head in an undercut.

“It’s a place no one goes. There is a dragon there, or there was as of twenty years ago. That was the last time I went there. It’s the domain of a black dragon, for sure. All death and emptiness. Black dragons are a lot of things- lots of them guard graveyards or nurture fungi and keep nature in balance,” Reyn says with a wave of their hand that indicates there’s a lot of warring trains of thought going on in their mind. “But a place that desolate... that means a dragon in distress.”

“Did you see them?”

Reyn shakes his head. He takes a bite of the bread they made together that morning. Theo thinks Reyn added a bit too many raisins, but Reyn insisted that Theo needed to start eating a more balanced diet now that he had an egg on the way.

“The health of the land is a good indicator of the state its dragon steward is in. I was exhausted from a long flight at the time- in no shape for a fight if one came looking for me. This dragon was, is, surely twisted from the isolation that suffocates us all. It affects black dragons especially. They tend to be prone to insanity, as I can’t think of a kinder term for it at the moment.”

“Not someone I’d want as a babysitter,” Theo murmurs thoughtfully, scanning the rest of the map.

“A most astute observation,” Reyn says through a mouthful of crumbs. “I’d still like to reach out to all the dragons someday, but not while it’s just me and my pregnant humanoid mate.”

Reyn’s words jog Theo’s memory of his thoughts several weeks before when he had awoken suddenly to the feeling of the egg.

“I was wondering something,” he says, focusing on a lush section of the map not far from them. There’s one of Reyn’s marks that indicate a possible dragon in the area, this one a suspected brown dragon.

“Mm?”

He makes a note on his list where he’s ranking his ideas of which places to check out first. The foremost criteria is dragons who are the most likely to hear him out before burning him to ash. A brown dragon seems promising.

“I was wondering if there’s any pattern to the forms you take on? You seem to favor certain looks, like the... the eye and hair colors, are usually pretty similar. But do they mean anything? Are they just looks that you like, or...” Theo trails off, seeing that there is a very strange look on Reyn’s face. They swallow hard and brush the last crumbs off on their green cloth napkin, folding their hands in their lap.

“What is it?”

Reyn meets Theo’s eyes. Their expression is heavy. He’s about to tell the dragon nevermind, that it’s not a big deal, but Reyn answers plainly.

“As I am not dragonborn, but a full dragon, I do not have a humanoid or hybrid form of my own. Everything is borrowed. The human, elf, orc, or other forms you see- they are all borrowed.”

Theo nods. He’s missing something. “So, they’re people you saw? You copied their look, or something?”

Reyn sighs. “In a way, yes. Although I didn’t so much copy it as take it. I took more than their imagery though.”

Theo anxiously swirls the last few inches of coffee remaining in his mug before taking a small sip. There’s a chill in the map room despite its warmth.

“Took...?”

“The forms you see are all people I’ve killed.”

Theo blinks once, twice. He sits the cup down. “Say what?”

“It’s a dark magic. There are several ways to take on the image of a non-dragon. Mating with them is one way. But so is killing them, if you know the magic that underlies the process. I wasn’t a bounty hunter, but I did kill for payment. I was the right-hand man of a ruthless king- his personal mercenary. There was a time when I saw non-dragon creatures as beneath me, as creatures who weren’t worth sparing if I gained something from cutting off their short lives. I was also... envious,” Reyn says, looking at the map with unfocused eyes.

They absently trace the border of the map. “Although I thought very little of creatures such as humans, I admired their forms. I wanted them. I wanted hands that could hold a paintbrush, feet that could run barefoot across a beach. I wanted the best of what every race had to offer. So I started to kill those whose forms I admired the most. I did this for many years before I learned enough of other cultures to know that a short life is not a meaningless one. Although it still feels wrong, in some ways, I use the forms I’ve acquired because it would seem a terrible waste not to after all it took to acquire them.”

“You killed people over envy?”

Reyn runs their fingers up and down the side of the cup. “It’s a terrible poison, isn’t it?”

He thinks over his own life. Yes, there had been more than a handful of people whose hearts he had struck through when there had been no coin pouch sent his way afterward. What had he wanted from them? Most of the time it was just someone who looked at him wrong, but even then... he envied people who could walk the streets without a crowd parting around them in fear and disgust. He envied people who could just exist without their history hanging over them like an evil omen. Yes, he had certainly killed for nothing more than envy before.

“I can see in your face that you’ve felt the same. Done the same?”

Theo nods. “Yeah... yeah I’ve been there. So... your forms... they’re all people, huh... that’s heavy. Um, I’m sorry if asking brought up-”

“-it’s alright. Well, it’s not alright, but I mean- I’ve been working to make things right. As I said... several hundred years of it. It’s been a long process of self-discovery. I guess you could say before I began a treasure trove of books, my hoard was stolen visages.”

“That’s grim. I uh... I’m not sure what to say to any of that. I’ll try not to think of that during sex!” Theo says with a nervous laugh. Reyn echoes it. It’s the kind of conversation that’s hard to carry on from.

Reyn dropped such a bomb... Theo would have never guessed that the dragon had such a past. It certainly explained why Reyn didn’t hold Theo’s past against him. Reyn didn’t strike him as a hypocrite. Maybe Reyn saw how they were at the beginning of their journey. Reyn had the look of someone who wanted to be the guide they wished they had, now that Theo knew what to look for. There was a patience in everything they did.

In retrospect, everything made more sense. Reyn wasn’t willing to look the other way just to get a quick fuck out of him without caring what they were putting their dick in. Reyn accepted him as he was, but would also show him a different way if Theo allowed that for himself.

“A person can really come back from the things they’ve done? I always just... dug myself a deeper hole because I figured I couldn’t get out of it once I started digging. Where was there to go but down?” Theo asks.

His coffee has gone cold. He sips the last of it anyway. It’s still good, even chilled. The taste isn’t as great, and it settles weirdly in his mouth, but something as simple as the cup of coffee he’s holding is a marker that his life is going in a different direction.

“You won’t find out how your journey will go unless you start it. And you already have,” Reyn says with a small smile, shifting in their seat to poke his stomach with their moccasin. “Bringing dragons together again and creating a place where we can be safe- if you can achieve that, you will be doing us a great service.”

Theo tickles Reyn’s foot through the thin slipper until Reyn leaves him be. Although a few weeks have passed, he hasn’t gotten any bigger or really felt any indication that something was going on other than the weight. Even that- he had grown so accustomed to the weight that he didn’t notice it until it was brought to his attention again.

“Think we should try to make contact with this one here? The one you think might be a brown dragon?” He asks, changing the subject. There’s more he wants to know about his mate, but not all at once.

He scoots forward so that his socked feet are in Reyn’s lap. Reyn gives him the briefest tickle before massaging his feet with deep squeezes to his arches.

“Last I saw it at least, the land was more vibrant than it should have been without magical influence. It isn’t necessarily a dragon keeping it that green. But there are caves and other large places where a dragon could hole up. It’s worth checking out. If this is something you want to do... there’s been something on my mind as well. A bit of a logistics thing. Some of these locations are hundreds of miles away. How are you going to get there?”

“I was hoping you had an idea? I’m really sick of horses,” he says, thinking of the last ride he took a few months before winter set in where his horse bucked him straight into the mud.

Reyn tidies up the map table a bit and rises. “I do. It might be a lot of trouble for nothing. We have all the time in the world to figure it out, though.”

Theo follows Reyn through a few passages until they’re in an area of the library he’s never seen before. There is a purple glow from magical orbs that light the area. The tomes here are older, thicker- half of them don’t even look like the pages are made of paper.

“This area holds books that I’ve found on dragons- notably, what they can do. Much of this information is not widely known. Due to the scattering of our species that has occurred recently, newer generations of dragons know very little about themselves. There are very few dragons alive under the age of even twenty-thousand years that know even one piece of information from this room. Most of it is out of my reach as well, as it is in the older form of draconic. I have yet to find a lexicon that can reliably translate it into its modern form. Take this book, for example.”

A large, thin book is placed into Theo’s hands. The faded binding is a purpley-grey with flecks of what might have once been green. He looks up at Reyn for confirmation before opening it. Nothing in it means anything to him. Even the drawings are beyond his comprehension. It doesn’t even look like the old books his master used to have around.

“This one, among other things, contains rituals that make flight more efficient. There isn’t one spell that covers everything, and most of them are quite a pain to complete. One that I did perform that I found quite useful for how simple the idea was a ritual that removes vertigo in flight. It’s what lets me do barrel rolls.”

“Huh, so- little spells and rituals to upgrade yourself?” Theo surmises, handing the book back to Reyn.

Reyn places the book back in its slot and begins searching for another one. “Not just that. These books also contain information on how to tap into strengths that a dragon may already have but not know of. Where is the one on transformation...” Reyn mutters, running their finger along the spines.

“Transformation?” Theo asks, taking a seat on a stool next to a drafting table.

Reyn pulls out a book so large they stumble under the weight. “Found it!” They dust off the cover, blowing on it as well for good measure. This room must not be often utilized, as it is a great deal dustier than the rest of the library. Reyn places the book on the drafting table and grins, putting their hands on their hips.

“About three-hundred years ago, there was a bronze dragon who endeavored to collect everything he could find about the process of transformation into this book. Although most of it is on the various ways that dragons can take on the imagery of humans, chapters thirty-six through forty-nine might be of use to you.”

Theo flipped through the book, noting that each passage, page number, and even footnote was carefully transcribed by hand in both modern draconic and the common tongue. “This is hand-written! Is this the only copy?”

“A few copies were made with magic, but if they were still in their original locations all this time, they have long since been stolen or destroyed. This may be the only one left. This book may be the only thing in existence that holds the knowledge on-”

“dragonborns and dragon transformation?!” Theo exclaims. He looks rapidly between Reyn and the book. “I can do that?”

Reyn makes a ‘maybe’ gesture and leans against the table. “It is easiest for those who are at least half-dragon, but not impossible for those with less dragon blood. You have the anatomy already, so I think there is a good chance you could learn it.”

“So, what do I have to do? Is it a ritual or something?”

Reyn laughs.

“Okay, you’re laughing at my expense- stop it. What do you know that I don’t? Do I have to read all... hang on, I can math,” he mutters, trying to hide a smile. He counts out the chapters on his fingers. “-fifteen chapters?”

The dragon sets some writing implements and papers, presumably for note-taking, down next to the book. “Well, yes, the fifteen chapters. There isn’t a ritual. It’s mostly meditation.” Reyn smiles out of the corner of their mouth.

Theo’s face falls. “Meditation?” he asks. The word drops off his tongue like a bite of distasteful food.

He and Reyn might not know each other all that well yet, but anyone who’s known Theo for more than five minutes could take a guess that meditation might not be his strong suit. His mind took after his wandering feet, he supposed.

Theo folds his arms behind his head and closes his eyes. “Well, that settles it, then. Looks like I’ll never learn transformation. Got any other cool tricks that’ll increase my speed without having to sacrifice my sanity?” he asks, blowing his bangs out of his face. Reyn finally tackled him by surprise and gave him a haircut a few days back, but he’d insisted on keeping some bangs.

His resigned complaint earns him an eye roll and a light punch to the shoulder. “It’s not that bad. Not all meditation is about having an empty mind. Give it a week. If you don’t get anywhere, we can call it a bust.”

Theo drums his fingers on the desk and grins, all devious teeth.

“What? That’s your scheming face. I don’t like your scheming face.”

He shrugs. “Let’s bet on it. If I do end up mastering it in a week, I’ll scrub every inch of the bath house until you can count your scales in your reflection.”

Reyn matches Theo’s conniving expression and tilts their head. “That’s a tempting proposal. That seems like it would be more work than mastering a transformation meditation, but to each their own. Alright. If you’re right, and you can’t get it down, I’ll let you top me.”

Theo’s brain short circuits. Before he can clarify if he heard what he thought he did, Reyn leans in close and speaks in a low, ominous tone.

“But if I think you’ve given up on purpose, then you’re in for a world of punishment.” The whispered words in his ear go straight to his dick. Reyn chuckles and gives it a quick teasing stroke with their index finger through Theo’s pants. He stutters something about how he understands- ‘game on’, and all that.

They leave the library with the transformation tome as well as a few beginner books on meditation. After the dragon’s bet, he knows it’ll just be that much harder to focus on actually getting it right.

Chapter Text

“If I have to sit still for one more second, I am going to die,” Theo complains through gritted teeth, one eye cracked open. He’s sitting in the butterfly pose on the floor, doing exactly what Reyn had described his meditation wouldn’t entail. He’s pretty sure Reyn is making him suffer on purpose.

They’re in a large grey and white hall with a glass roof that he’s never been in before. The floor is cold and hard, like he’d been most of the afternoon. For the last three days, the dragon has been pushing this meditation thing so much that Theo hasn’t had the time to rub one out in the bathroom, let alone go for a romp. It’s affecting his concentration to an insane degree. Admitting so would be embarrassing, though. He tries to focus on not thinking about being horny.

“How about you try the same mental exercises I gave you while we go on a walk? There’s snow on the ground, but it’s not too cold today- was even a break in the clouds, earlier.”

Reyn hasn’t even finished with his suggestion when Theo jumps to his feet. “I’ll go put something warmer on!”

Theo races to add layers, grabbing fabrics from the closet he had chosen in the room where he’d originally woken up when he first arrived. As he couldn’t be persuaded to wear anything other than black, it wasn’t much effort to throw together a cohesive outfit. When he comes trotting out the main tunnel of the cave, he finds the dragon waiting at the entrance already.

“Okay, you have got to teach me how you don’t freeze to death dressed like that,” Theo says, gesturing to his mate’s bare torso.

Reyn just smirks and bounces his pecs up and down with his hands. “Like this form? This is one of my favorites. He was a mate of mine when I lived in Trien for a while. Dragonborn- three-quarters. He was quite the hunk,” Reyn says with a blush, running a rust-toned hand through auburn hair.

“Yeah, that’s an understatement. You could crush someone to death between your boobs.”

Theo steps up to Reyn, poking his nipples experimentally. “They’re not even perky in the cold!” He cups one in each hand. “Your boobs are like the size of my ass, dude,” Theo mutters in awe. “Seriously, you’re going out in nothing but- what are those, harem pants? Cargo pants? Some unholy combination of the two?”

Reyn rolls his eyes. “It’s called fashion, little hunter. And this magic,” he says, tapping his ample pecs, “is a self-warming ability that all dragons can tap into. It’s more difficult for black dragons and white dragons, though. I can control the surface temperature of individual body parts as well.”

With that, Theo feels Reyn’s chest heat up under his hands. “Ah! Hey, fuck you!” He shakes the heat away from his hands and places them on the cave wall to cool off.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. You haven’t won your bet, yet,” Reyn muses.

Theo blushes from his head to his dick. “Oh, yeah, that-” he stammers, following the half-naked Reyn outside. He wonders if Reyn has been trying to distract him on purpose- does he secretly want him to lose? Or is he just trying to make it harder for Theo to concentrate?

They're both silenced by a strong gust of frigid wind that nearly knocks Theo over. "I thought you said the weather was nice?" Theo says, eyes clenched and teeth chattering.

Reyn gives him an apologetic look over his shoulder. "There wasn't wind this morning. Well... this is actually good for one of the exercises I had in mind. We haven't had you tune in yet to see if you have a core."

"A core?" Theo asks, grabbing a handful of snow. Reyn nods. Theo packs the snow into a tight ball. "Oh! That's the thing that was in your stomach, right?"

"Yes. It's what ultimately controls a dragon's temperature, but also powers their breath abilities. I was immediately suspicious of that poison attack you hit me with. Not just any creature can pull that off."

Theo tosses the snowball back and forth between his hands. “So, all dragon types can use breath abilities?” Reyn nods, eyes closing predictably as they often do when Reyn is affirming something. Theo takes the opportunity to nail him right in the tit with a snowball. Reyn startles and brushes the snow off himself, giving Theo a withering look.

“I’m getting you back for that as soon as you’re not paying attention. Yes, they can all use something. Some abilities can only be utilized by specific colors of dragons.”

“Poison?” Theo asks, kicking a rock down the mountain path. It startles a creature far below that’s out of his field of view.

Reyn gives him a smack on the ass. He hardly feels it through all his layers, which is unfortunate. “Stop scaring the wildlife, brat.” He smacks the other side for good measure and ruffles Theo’s hair so it’s as stickuppy as possible. “A poison breath weapon is a black dragon through and through.”

He stops dead in his tracks. Reyn looks back at him, confusion blooming on his face at the sight of Theo’s frozen expression. “What?”

Theo shakes his head and makes rapid gestures with his hands. It’s his way of expelling nervous energy. “I thought- I thought black dragons were death and rot and corruption? The dragon part of me... I thought that might be the good part.”

Reyn’s lip wobbles. He steps up to Theo and places a warm thumb under his chin. He deliberately looks down and to the side. He doesn’t want to meet that warm gaze, not now.

“Little hunter- hey, look at me,” Reyn says with a soft but commanding tone. “Look at me,” he repeats until Theo finally does so. “Yes, black dragons control and watch over many things that most creatures prefer not to think about. There are evil dragons, or those who are just insane and corrupted, just as there are evil or crazed green, yellow, and white dragons. Their domain does not make them monsters.”

His words should make Theo feel better. But it feels like there’s a bunch of little knives twisting inside him. Leave it to his master to make sure to mix something into him that would ensure death and destruction were written into his very genes. There would never be any leaving it behind. It would always follow him like a stain he couldn’t rub out.

Reyn traces his jaw with his thumb. His other hand snakes under his cloak and middle layers to rest on his pants at his hip. It is large and heavy and steady. Its touch is as strong as Reyn is, and Theo feels greatly unworthy of him at this moment.

“It is not all as you may have heard in whispered tales meant to keep folks from wandering too far. Black dragons are keepers of the dead- cemeteries, crypts, mausoleums. They know the names and histories of those buried in unmarked graves that would have been otherwise forgotten. They guard against tomb robbers. Through their ability to speak with the dead, they can give loved ones closure.”

Reyn traces Theo’s face before resting their foreheads together and lowering his voice. “They are part of the cycle of life. Without them, the work of brown dragons would have no meaning. They lord over decay and rot, so that which is dead can become something new. Although it might not seem like it, their work is transformation. It’s mystery, and stillness, and honoring the dead. They are shepherds, and keepers, and historians, and guides. It is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Theo blinks and leans back, wiping at his eyes. “Really?”

Brushing a dusting of snowflakes off Theo’s shoulder, Reyn nods. He takes his hand and rubs circles onto the back of it. “I know it to be true. Black dragons may be hard to find in the current era, but it was not always so. One of these nights, I will tell you some of the stories I have of them. I think you’ll enjoy them. I’ve neglected your teaching when it comes to history.”

They start walking down the mountain again, nearing the bottom. Theo’s cool hand warms instantly in Reyn’s. “There’s so much to learn. Maybe- maybe the black dragon we were looking at on the map isn’t corrupted? Maybe they just don’t know their role? What if they’re a young one?”

Reyn hums thoughtfully. “It’s certainly a possibility. I hadn’t considered it. We won’t write that location off yet.” Reyn leans over and gives Theo a kiss on the temple. “If it is true that you are part black dragon, then that is fortunate. There are not enough around these parts. It’s why the forest here is in such a strange state of stillness. Drought stricken trees, weak and scraggly- they need a bit of a push to topple over so that new saplings can rise up in their place.”

While Reyn is rambling, Theo sees him stoop down to pick something up. He doesn’t think anything of it until he feels an enormous handful of snow drop underneath his shirt collar. Theo shrieks and tries to smack Reyn, who dodges nimbly.

“Oh, you asshole!” Theo lunges for Reyn again, hurling a huge wad of snow that lands harmlessly near his feet. They tumble around until Theo misses a tackle and bumps into a tree. He’s unharmed with all the padding, but the sudden movement causes the tree to dump snow all over him. He shakes it off, but the damage is done. He’s soaked and freezing.

Reyn steps in front of him, looking concerned. Theo bats Reyn away half-heartedly. “You win, you win,” he mutters through chattering teeth. He shivers violently, trying in vain to dislodge all the snow filling his clothes. “Paws off,” he grumbles as Reyn grabs his jacket.

“You’re soaked. Come here.”

Theo’s mind feels foggy. He can’t stop shivering long enough to think. Reyn’s hands feel as warm as a hot cup of tea where they brush against his neck as Reyn peels off his soaking wet coat. Reyn swears under his breath upon realizing that Theo’s second layer is wet as well. When a scorching hot hand slides its way under Theo’s undershirt he jumps. Reyn presses his hand there, adjusting the temperature to a more tolerable level. It’s right over his bump. His other hand removes all the clothing on the top half of his body as deftly as if he were using both.

“If you have an aptitude for learning in the heat of the moment, you might actually be able to activate your core if you have one,” Reyn says, wrapping his other hand around Theo’s lower back as he peppers burning hot kisses over his frozen skin. “It would be right around here,” he says, kissing near Theo’s stomach. “All you need to activate it is to focus with intent.”

Theo shivers and wraps his arms around himself. “W-what if I don’t get it?”

Reyn nuzzles him and warms the whole left side of his torso with a warm breath. “I will not let you freeze. But you will be much more evenly warmed if you are able to activate it.”

Theo focuses as best he can through the chill in his blood. It’s hard to focus on much of anything between that and the dragon exploring his body. Because of the heat already in his pants, he almost doesn’t notice there’s a different warmth in a distinct area of his gut. It definitely feels like a small object. He lets out a delighted laugh as Reyn pulls back in surprise.

“Looks like you do have one! Look at that,” he says, smiling in wonder. “I knew you could do it.”

Theo rubs the back of his head nervously, his other hand migrating to his bump. “So uh... what now? That I’m half-dressed in the snow while I’m supposed to be meditating.”

Reyn narrows his eyes. “When did I ever imply that half-freezing meant you were off the hook for training?”

There’s a mischievous glint in his eyes, and Theo immediately knows that his mate is up to something. That thought is immediately confirmed by a long tongue snaking from his waistband to his navel. “Oh, ha-fuck, Reyn, you can’t be serious. What are you up to now?” It’s a difficult exercise trying to concentrate on keeping his new ability activated and also on Reyn’s attention.

A devious smile accompanies a lick that trails from one of his hips to the other that has Theo moaning like a whore. “I have a new idea for your lessons that I think you’ll like much more- or maybe you won’t? How about I tease you, and only give you what you want if I see some progress on your transformation?”

“Oh, you’re evi-mm!” Theo’s words morph into a shocked moan as Reyn runs two fingers between the legs of his pants from back to front. “Fuck, fuck, okay I’ll try, I’ll try,” he breathes. He runs through the mantras, the mental imagery, every banal exercise Reyn gave him. Now that there’s some urgency, he can feel that something is actually sticking. Nothing feels different, but then he blinks and opens his eyes. His vision feels sharper. It’s like there are more colors, too.

Reyn nods approvingly. “Your eyes look different.” He plants a kiss on Theo’s bump, hands around his waist.

“Yeah, I think I’ve got the sight down.”

“Good,” Reyn says, running his hands down the insides of Theo’s pants. They’re no longer wet due to his warming efforts with his core, but he would really rather they not be on anymore. “Try another part. Whatever comes first, just focus on that.”

Theo continues trying to tune into the dragon parts of him, all while Reyn is running his hands up and down his legs and sucking at his waist. Desperation for more satisfying touch leads to a feeling of too-sharp teeth in his mouth that he licks experimentally, followed by more subtle changes that come gradually.

“Okay, I think I’m making enough progress, come on, Reyn-” he pleads.

The dragon obliges and removes the rest of Theo’s clothing. The contrast of frigid air over the surface of his skin and steady warmth from underneath makes his senses feel heightened. Every touch is more electrifying than usual. Or maybe it’s the dragon senses? Theo wouldn’t be surprised if Reyn could make him cum just from touching him like this. He must have been getting lost in the attention instead of his transformation attempts, because the next thing he feels is a bite on the inside of his thigh.

“Ah! Hey, I’m making an attempt!”

Reyn trails more bites and hickeys up his quivering legs, ignoring Theo’s half-assed efforts. “Reyn, come on, you’re not making this easy on me.”

His lover looks up, and there’s a surprisingly serious look in his eyes. “And if you needed to transform in order to defend yourself and our child? If you needed your wings? If I only made sure you learned it under the most pristine, distraction-free conditions, I would be doing you a disservice. Keep trying, my heart,” he says, dragging his sinful tongue up Theo’s thigh over the bite marks and bruises, giving his vent only the most cursory of flicks with its tip. Theo whines and presses into the tree behind him. His attempt to escape the dragon’s torment is blocked by something behind him.

“What the-?” he asks as a mysterious new appendage swishes back and forth behind him. “Is that a tail?” he exclaims, spinning around as Reyn makes room. “It’s a tail!” He’s giddy enough that he would be embarrassed if it was anyone other than Reyn around. He swings it back and forth a few more times before bringing it in front of him so he can get a better look at it.

“Oh,” he murmurs, eyes widening. The scales are the deepest black he’s ever seen. There’s a shiny coating over them that reflects the whole rainbow when he tilts his tail from side to side. It’s all pastel, iridescent pinks and teals and purples over a dark base that makes him feel like he’s sinking if he stares at it for too long.

His mate is staring at it in amazement too. He runs a curious hand over the top of it, causing Theo to shiver from his head to his toes. He had no idea that was how that felt when he touched Reyn the other day! In a way, it’s even more sensitive than his dick. It’s almost ticklish?

“I guess you were right,” Theo breathes, following the path of Reyn’s hands with his own. “This is so cool- woah! Haha... that was a ticklish spot.”

“You’ve been doing so well,” Reyn says, drawing his tongue along Theo’s tail so skillfully he literally shrieks. “I think you’ve more than earned some release.”

Theo breathes a sigh of relief. “Oh fucking finally, thank you, I thought you were going to keep this up until I keeled over.” His sass warrants a nibble on the tail. Theo tries to bat Reyn away but is immediately pacified by two fingers dragging across his soaking wet vent. “Oh, please, Reyn- come on- I need more than fingers- ah! ” His complaints are unnecessary, apparently. His mate summons his own tail, allowing it to slip through a slit at the back of his loose-fitting pants. Wrapping his tail around Theo, he hoists him in the air at the same time that he plunges not two but three fingers inside of him.

Theo cries out in ecstasy as his body weight presses the most sensitive areas of his vent into Reyn’s fingers. The dragon flips their positions so that he’s resting languidly against the tree, legs spread apart for balance, and Theo is hovering in the air- held up by Reyn’s tail and his legs hooked around Reyn’s muscular hips.

“Holy shit- what are you going to do to me while I’m up here?” he asks, eyes practically glowing with lust and excitement.

There’s an innocent “playing dumb” look on his mate’s face that looks so out of place considering he has three fingers up to the last knuckle in his (drussy? He still hasn’t found a word he likes for that yet). “Me? Oh, I’m not going to fuck you,” he purrs into Theo’s neck, giving the skin there a teasing nip. “You are.”

“Come again?”

“Oh, you will definitely be coming again and again,” Reyn responds coyly, scissoring his fingers and stretching Theo’s vent open. “I want to watch you fuck yourself with your own tail.”

“How do you even think of these things-”

Reyn inserts a fourth finger and begins stretching him in earnest, cutting off all ability to form coherent sentences. The stretch is intense- just shy of being painful. When he looks down, he’s leaking a waterfall of slick.

“Is- is it normal for there to be so much?”

His mate nods and takes hold of Theo’s tail with his unoccupied hand. Theo is so aroused he feels like he’s on fire. He can feel his heart pounding like it’s trying to escape from his chest. “Pregnancy will cause you to create a lot more. Growing an egg can create some discomfort. Sex is... one of the most enjoyable ways of relieving said discomfort, so the dragon’s body will make sure it’s as receptive to sex as possible for the duration of the pregnancy. It also tends to make the dragon extra horny,” he says with a wink.

Theo rolls his eyes. “That explains why I’ve been wanting to rip my clothes off around you recently. Could’ve used that information earlier...” he mutters.

“Well, now we’re doing something about it. Better late than never.” Reyn gives his belly a kiss. He removes the hand that’s in Theo’s very willing and ready vent. He’s not sure if it’s the dry spell, the teasing, or being pregnant, but the sudden feeling of being empty nearly brings him to tears.

He whines and bucks his hips into the empty air as Reyn drags copious amounts of slick over the first foot or so of Theo’s tail. This form could barely be considered a hybrid form, so his tail is much smaller than Reyn’s usually is- about two fingers wide at the tip and as wide as his wrist where the lube stops. Reyn tucks Theo’s tail so that it’s snaking around his right leg and positions the tip against his entrance.

“Ha- shit, wow, I had no idea tails were so sensitive. I don’t even know how I’ll be able to fuck myself with this.” Reyn rubs his thumbs in deep circles over the tip of Theo’s tail, making him writhe in the air. “That feels so good. What do I owe you for all this attention?”

Reyn presses his forehead to Theo’s bump. “You’re already giving me an egg. I’m the one who should be pampering you after letting me knock you up. For today, I’m content with just a show.”

Theo’s eyes nearly roll back into his head. “You say the hottest shit.”

He gives his dripping vent a tentative poke with his tail and finds no resistance. The sensations are so overwhelming he can hardly take it, and yet his hormones are making him crave more. Reyn’s mouth finds its way to his nipples, drawing moans with each skillful lick and press of his tongue as Theo cautiously enters his vent. “Oh, oh fuck that feels good.” He gives his tail a few slow, shallow thrusts, trying to warm himself up as well as get the hang of moving a new appendage. It feels natural though, like it’s always been there. It’s just like switching to using his left hand- a little clunky at first. There was almost no need to lube up his tail. His body is producing absurd amounts of slick that pours down his tail so freely he blushes at the sight.

It’s not long until he’s bottomed out against his oviduct. He dare not penetrate it while pregnant, but Gods if bumping against it isn’t one of the most electrifying sensations he’s ever felt. His tail at the entrance to his vent is maybe only two or three inches across, though, and his body is begging for more. It’s like no matter how much he’s stuffed with, he’ll keep lusting for something bigger until he’s fighting for his fucking life to fit it.

“Reyn,” he groans, head lolling forward. His hair is plastered to his face and his whole body is shaking like a leaf. He thinks he might’ve had an orgasm in his vent, but he honestly would have no way of checking with how much liquid there is. His mate looks up. Theo can hardly see straight with how fucked out he is. “I need more,” he moans, thrusting his too-thin tail in vain.

He’s positively aching with the need to be filled up, and just the few seconds it takes for Reyn to come around behind him and fully disrobe is torture. He’s glad Reyn had the foresight to toss their clothes a significant distance away, or they would surely be ruined by everything he’s leaking. When Theo feels a warm, dry tail brush against his leg, he quickly draws out his own to make room. His movements are stopped by Reyn’s firm grip on his tail, pushing it back in. The squeeze has him swearing in a dozen different languages as stars flash across his vision from a second orgasm in his vent, although his cock is still hard.

“Leave yours in,” Reyn whispers into his ear. He gives his ear and neck a few nibbles, pressing his chest into Theo’s back as his tail tucks under Theo’s legs. Reyn runs his own tail along Theo’s slick one, soaking up the moisture and eliciting moans from both of them as Reyn grinds into his ass. He feels Reyn slip a hand in between them, working at himself while moving the tip of his tail between Theo’s legs to align with his own.

“Do you want me to make my tail warm?” Reyn asks.

Theo nods fervently, spreading his legs to make room for both tails to enter him. When the hot tip of the second tail presses against his vent, he nearly faints from how heavenly the temperature is. It’s just shy of being too hot. He whimpers and whines in pleasure as Reyn’s tail prods at his vent, looking for a way in. His vent appears to think that the second appendage isn’t going to fit. Reyn thrusts a few more times, but the tip of his tail is just too thick.

“Can I be rough with you?”

“Yes, please.”

Reyn drives the tip of his tail into Theo’s vent and leaves it for a few seconds before pulling out. “Was that okay?”

“Yeah, yeah just keep it just the tip for a bit until you can work your way in,” he says, breathing heavily. The dragon continues to work at his entrance, bringing a hand around Theo’s front to help spread his vent open to take the second tail. He whimpers and bites his lip as Reyn’s tail stretches him out. He’s bulging even more between an egg and two tails, and that sight alone nearly sends him over the edge. Reyn is only an inch or so in, and it’s already so much.

“You’re amazing,” Reyn murmurs, running his hand down Theo’s thigh. “You’re taking me so well. Do you want more?”

He nods his head, unable to respond. He widens his stance further so Reyn can push further in. Breathing deeply, he finally wraps a hand around to deal with his aching cock as Reyn fucks him open even wider. “Fuck, fuck, hah- I feel so full,” he whines. He reaches his other hand in between his legs and glances down, having to do a double take. Between both their tails, his vent is stretched at least five inches wide. He moans and slumps forward so that Reyn has to hold him upright with one hand. His muscles feel absolutely spent, and yet his traitorous body still wants more.

“I think I’m getting close,” Reyn says.

“Wait- wait don’t spill it, I want it-”

Reyn laughs into his neck. “So greedy. It must be the fact that you’re carrying that your body is so willing to stretch like this.” His mate readjusts them so that Theo is bent over downward dog style, hands bracing himself on the wet ground. Reyn gives no warning when he adds his cock to the mix, just how Theo likes it. He cries out at the welcome but intense intrusion, and it’s only a few thrusts before they’re both experiencing the most intense orgasms of their lives. Reyn’s seed isn’t nearly as much as it was when there was an egg coming along with it, but Theo’s belly still bulges slightly from it. When everything finally withdraws from Theo at once, slick and cum pour from his gaping hole onto the already soaked ground.

When they’ve both managed to catch their breath, Reyn elbows him with a smile and says, “Bet you didn’t even notice you’d managed a perfect hybrid form.”

Chapter Text

Theo bolts upright in a cold sweat. It's his third dream in as many weeks that's felt real enough to be unnerving.

"Was it the same one?" Reyn asks, laying a comforting hand on his back. Theo nods, unable to summon words just yet. His mate scoots up behind him and snakes her arms around, clasping them over his belly. He's five weeks pregnant, and hardly any larger than he was when the egg was first implanted. It's going to be a very long pregnancy.

Reyn rests her head on his shoulder and kisses him on his bare skin. "Maybe it is more than a dream, then. Perhaps we should put your journey to visit the brown dragon on hold in favor of investigating this mystery."

His tongue is still frozen. Reyn knows the drill by now. Wherever he goes in his dream, it takes him a while to come back from it. She rubs comforting circles over his abdomen that bring him back into his body. It's the same every time-

"I'm wandering in a dark hall, maybe a cave. There's no light. I've gone so deep that I don't know which way is the exit anymore. I don't remember my own name, or maybe I never had one. There's no one around. It's endless, endless. I feel my mind slipping. There's no way out. I feel as trapped within myself as I am in the halls."

"Did you see yourself in this dream?"

Theo shakes his head. "It never occurs to me to look down and there's nothing reflective I could see myself in."

Reyn rearranges their mountain of pillows so that she's propped up on them. There's a sound of rustling clothes, and then he's being pulled back into her bare chest. He reclines so he's laying on her at an angle, staring at the ceiling. She cards her fingers through his hair. "Dragons can develop connections with dragons they've never met before. I don't want to put an idea in your head, but it's more common with dragons of the same color. It’s possible someone is unconsciously reaching out to you through their dreams."

"The black dragon," Theo says, already slipping back into sleep, lulled by Reyn's calming hands.

* * *

When he awakens, it feels like the dream won't leave him. His body feels strange, like he's half there and half somewhere else. He knows, then, that he has to seek out the source of his dreams. There’s something he’s meant to do, someone he’s meant to find. He expects Reyn to be more concerned about the journey, but then again, neither of them are human. It’s not a typical relationship, and he reminds himself of what Reyn said about dragons and their wanderlust.

Reyn’s strong, calloused hands wrap fruits and dried meats for the road in a large piece of burlap. His form today is another of his past mates- a human farmer from a kingdom that no longer exists. It brings up a question that Theo has been hesitant to ask, but the insistent ache between his legs has made it necessary.

“What if I’m gone for a long time? We don’t know how long it’ll take me to get there.”

Reyn leans over the kitchen island, crossing his arms. “You’re gone however long you’re gone. Between your existing magic and your new abilities, I know you can take care of yourself. I’ll be here when you return. This journey is important. I think it’s part of your atonement as well as contributing to your self-discovery.”

Theo nods, distracted and antsy. He hasn’t even left yet and he’s already missing Reyn’s touches. He knows he’ll miss his mate specifically, but this egg is driving him insane with how horny he is. He’s not complaining! The sex has been incredible, but he just doesn’t know if his own hands and tail are going to cut it out on the road.

“You know how, uh, me being pregnant uh... draws you to me? Ya know, encourages both of us to drop our pants at any given moment? Is that just a mate thing or am I going to be drawing attention on the road?”

Reyn chuckles. “You would draw attention even without your body broadcasting at all times that you’re available, little hunter. More likely than not, you’ll have an encounter or two on your trip. As long as you ultimately come back to me, that is what matters.”

“So... if I get outrageously horny out there...”

“Just trust your gut. Don’t deny your body’s needs on my behalf. You will be fine. I think a change of scenery will do you good. A wanderer was not meant to spend all his days inside a mountain,” he says, ruffling Theo’s hair. “You should head out while it’s still early- make it to that clearing I told you of before nightfall if you can. Be careful, my heart.”

“I will.”

Theo kisses Reyn long and deep, finally having to pull away before he demanded to be fucked right there on top of the kitchen island and delayed his trip again. He shoulders his pack and walks with Reyn to the cave’s exit. Their last conversation about the journey is brief. They’ve already hashed out every possible detail since he woke up before the sun. Even before he had decided to go, they’d brought up the idea when he had first felt a calling.

Reyn gives him one last smack on the ass and kiss on the temple before reaching between his legs and giving him a teasing stroke. “Now go find some creatures to roll around with. You better have some interesting stories to tell me when you get back.” Reyn leans in close and drags a finger up Theo’s instantly hard dick. “You can tell me all about them while I fuck you senseless to welcome you home.”

“Horny fuckin’ dragon,” he mutters, turning his head to catch Reyn in a sloppy kiss, giving his dick a squeeze and slapping him on the ass so they’re even. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

One last proper kiss on the lips, and he’s on the road. The fresh air and sunshine has an immediate effect on him. His legs feel at peace crunching over fallen leaves and dead twigs. He thinks of how the last time he traveled further than the edge of the treeline was when he was escaping from bounty hunters. How long ago even was that? Two-and-a-half months, at least. He assumes he’s shaken them, but he’ll be careful just in case.

The wind on his face feels incredible compared to the still air of the caves, interrupted only by the occasional draft. As cozy as the lair is, he feels most at home under open skies. He picks up the pace to a brisk walk. It feels good to just walk without stopping. At least he’s not out of shape for the journey- absurd amounts of fucking have kept his thighs and calves in working order.

After a few hours, he slows his pace and takes time to admire the scenery. He isn’t paying a great deal of attention to his pace. Reyn had suggested that he make camp for the night at a clearing he’d marked on Theo’s map, but it wasn’t imperative. There were some extra supplies there as well as a lean-to of sorts, if the snow hadn’t buried it. It would allow him to just pass out for the night without much more preparation than a fire and dinner. When he finally does check the sky, it’s only late morning.

With his stomach and other organs demanding his attention, Theo crouches down and melts the snow away from a tree using his newfound power. He sets down a folded fur roll and tosses his gear next to him on a layer of dead leaves. The fresh loaf of bread and cheese packed carefully with a little jar of some kind of jam warms Theo’s heart. Reyn wasn’t worried about the journey, but they did pack with great care. It’s... different... being taken care of. He thought he would get pissy if he felt like he was being babied. But Reyn’s care is different than he thought it would be. Reyn is never smothering. Being free to say no and to come and go as he chooses is a powerful cure for his mangled heart. He’s feeling less and less like a walking disaster every day, but his past still nips at his heels sometimes.

Especially at such times when he feels like he’s being watched.

“Hello?” he calls out. He’s not sure why. He hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary. In fact, he hadn’t heard much at all that indicated life in the forest other than himself. Reyn had insisted on filling his pack with as many rations as they could, citing that there wasn’t much that could be hunted or foraged in the forest even in Spring. Something would have to be a little bit crazy to be out here in the middle of winter.

Still... it’s odd. There’s no insects or birds, nothing. He’s even tried flipping over rocks to see if this forest’s inhabitants were hiding somewhere warmer- no such luck.

So why does he feel like there’s eyes on him? The thought didn’t come from anything any of his senses picked up. It’s just a feeling, a sense of being stared at. There’s no response to his greeting, of course. Chalking it up to One of Those Things, he resumes his meal. It’s so quiet he’s surprised his ears aren’t ringing from the silence. No wind, no insects buzzing, no birds. All there is is the occasional sound of snow falling from a heavy branch.

Full of breakfast, or lunch- whatever meal this is, Theo has no desire to get moving any time soon. His journey doesn’t have any time constraint that he’s aware of. He might as well enjoy the solitude and the scenery. The forest is peaceful in some ways. He feels like he has more privacy than in any four-walled room. The land is inhospitable enough that there’s a higher likelihood of finding a chest of gold down the road than there is of him seeing another living soul.

And he’s thankful for it, because the heat in his gut is begging to be addressed again. Well, post-meal-coma is as good a time as any to indulge in some solo time. He hasn’t explored his body much on his own since moving in with Reyn, instead indulging in sex now that it’s available. But he’s curious to just explore his new hybrid form. It’s not like there’s anything else to do besides walk and eat.

Theo sheds his layers, draping them over his pack. With his core activated, the frigid air feels amazing on his hot skin. He focuses on his hybrid form. This time, the transformation comes to him much quicker. He’s not going for a full transformation. He mostly just wants the tail. Without Reyn there to tease him and warm him up, Theo gets right to it. He doesn’t care that it hurts a bit, he just wants something inside of him. He’s immediately able to fit the tip of his tail. He wriggles it around before kneeling down so he can get a better angle.

Using his fingers, he runs them along the outside of his vent and grinds against his tail. At first, it feels like he shouldn’t break the silence. It’s so quiet that his first moan startles him. He quickly increases the volume and lets his lewd noises fill the forest. No need to have inhibitions when there’s no one around. Theo pumps his tail in and out of his vent roughly, working himself to a hurried orgasm.

It might’ve been his imagination, but he could have sworn there was movement in the bushes as his orgasm carried him off to sleep.

Theo awakens naked and satisfied. Nothing is amiss, showing just how empty the forest is. He cleans himself off as best he can with some handfuls of half-melted snow before redressing. He travels for another hour, noting the sun’s lower position in the sky. He checks his map. Based on Reyn’s notes, it should take him as many hours to reach the camp as there are hours of daylight left. That doesn’t leave any time to start a fire or get the camp in working order if it’s seen better days. He picks up the pace and sets off down the path.

A twig snapping behind him nearly makes him jump out of his skin. He whirls around and readies a bolt of energy, expecting to find a deer, or some other kind of lunch. The forest is just as empty as ever. He spins around slowly, looking up and down. Was it a snake or some other hard to spot creature? Theo’s bummed to miss out on something fresh. He keeps his senses sharp, waiting for any other signs of life, but finds none.

The next hour passes without anything out of the ordinary occurring. It’s just quiet. A minor paranoia begins to settle over him. It’s nonsensical how much it starts to seep into his bones. His pace quickens. He keeps his hands ready to summon a shield or other defensive spell. Nothing comes. It’s just the sound of his own footsteps.

When golden hour arrives, the shafts of sunlight through the dormant, sparse forest are breathtaking. Gold on white is a color scheme he hadn’t thought to appreciate before today. The west looks like a blood orange or some other tropical fruit flayed open, its juices seeping across the sky. Behind him is a brilliant violet like Reyn’s soft pillows that melts into a black as captivating as the one on his own scales. He stops and just admires the sky, letting it wash over him. The warm rays bring a feeling of peace and life. Everything feels right.

He blinks, and the moment is soon fading out. Nervously, he pulls out his map and checks the location of the clearing against his current spot. He’s not far, but he may not get there until after the sun has set all the way. It’s worth it to try, though, as there aren’t any branches or stones he can get to underneath all the snow to even set up a fire pit let alone a shelter.

Something has been off for the last ten minutes or so. Up until now, Theo hasn’t been able to put his finger on what it is. It’s only when he decides to test his half-formed theory by coming to a sudden stop that all the hairs on his body stand on end. After he stops, there’s three more footsteps before that sound, too, stops abruptly. He walks for another minute before trying it again. Just as the first time, there’s a second set of footsteps that stumbles before going quiet.

Each time he tries the exercise, the footsteps are closer. No matter where he looks, there is no one around. The footsteps aren’t heavy, but they’re clear enough that they could be humanoid. Theo quickens his pace. There aren’t a great deal of things in this life that make him feel fear anymore, but the unknown is one of them. He doesn’t like the idea of a threat he can’t see. This time he doesn’t bother calling out to whatever is following him. It feels like if he did so, it would shatter his veil of safety and invite it to close the distance.

By the time the last of the sun’s rays are fading, leaving the forest in muted greys, Theo is jogging. With his increased speed, the creature following him can no longer hide the sound of its footsteps underneath Theo’s own. Its footsteps are uneven as though it’s staggering or even dragging itself. He doesn’t like what that suggests.

Up ahead sits snow-covered shapes that match Reyn’s description of the camp. Whatever is following Theo is right behind him. As soon as he reaches the fire pit, he overlaps his hands and sends a funnel of wind shooting down the path where he emerged. The footsteps stop abruptly, and there’s the sound of something slipping and possibly being lifted off the ground. He keeps the spell up until he’s satisfied that he’ll have enough time to start a fire. Fire wards off a number of things. He’ll feel safer as soon as it’s going.

The whole time he’s fumbling to light it, Theo glances up every three seconds exactly and checks his surroundings. Whatever was behind him must be struggling to catch up with how far away he blasted it. That, or it’s given up chase for easier prey. He swallows nervously, trying not to think about how he’s probably the only prey in the entire forest. He much prefers when Reyn is playing predator for the evening.

Theo drags entire fallen trees into the fire, ignoring the rocks that serve as its boundary in favor of building a proper bonfire. Once, he looks up, and stumbles backward so hard he nearly topples the shelter he had just finished repairing. A lean-to would be fine if it wasn’t December and his psyche didn’t feel the need for at least three walls. Through the flames, about twenty feet away, he sees a pair of hollow, hungry eyes watching him. The creature is standing there, still as a statue. He doesn’t think he would have noticed it unless he happened to be looking at that exact spot. He wonders how long it’s been standing there.

Chapter Text

Theo sulks in his shelter, trying to rub away the goosebumps on his skin. Whatever was on the other side of the fire disappeared as soon as he made eye contact with it. He hasn’t heard a sound since. What unnerves him is that the fire is roaring so loudly that the thing could have snuck right up to him and he wouldn’t hear a thing. He doesn’t dare fall asleep. He doesn’t even blink with both eyes at once, convinced a moment of rest is all it will take to see his guts spilling on the floor.

There’s something menacing about whatever is following him. It’s just this pervasive feeling of being hunted, observed. He feels like he’s being sized up. He doesn’t want to destroy his shelter with spells that might not even harm the thing. Not knowing what it is, there isn’t much he can do. He thinks of how his gut kept telling him that he was the only living thing in the forest. That observation didn’t feel wrong. Whether this is something dead or something that was never alive, it’s not natural. That much he knows for sure. This is something twisted and strange that has no business being in these woods. Maybe it’s the reason they’re empty?

No matter how much he strains his senses, he can’t find any evidence that the creature has come any closer. There’s nothing but his own breathing and the crackle of the fire. He took care to pile snow outside his shelter where the open wall is that faces the bonfire. Once inside, he smoothed out his own footsteps. If the creature could crunch sticks, it would leave indents in the snow. As long as he kept his eyes open, he would have warning.

So Theo waits. He sits and listens to the pounding of his heart. He’s backed up to the farthest wall of his shelter, the sturdiest one, composed of fallen trees layered over with branches and leaves. There’s not one single pinprick of an opening in the walls. As long as he’s pressed back against it, he can just keep his eyes trained on the opening, occasionally flicking around in his periphery to make sure there isn’t something clinging to the ceiling. That thought sends a violent shiver up his back. Not knowing what he’s dealing with has made his imagination run wild. He almost wishes the thing would just get it over with, whatever it is it’s planning to do with him.

The dread is so overwhelming that Theo doesn’t realize he’s been grinding his teeth until he feels pain shooting down one of his nerves. He stops and scratches nervously at his pack instead. His eyes widen and he feels his blood turn to ice. As quickly as possible, he stops his nervous scratching. There’s two more scratches that follow on the front left of his shelter.

“Enough of the games!” He calls out. It’s the first time he’s used his voice since morning, and it comes out hoarse. “Show yourself!” he demands, filling the command with magical energy that should compel any creature that’s not any more powerful than himself.

There’s three footsteps, slow and deliberate. The thing is following his directive, but leisurely, as though it’s doing so by its own choice. The footprints are in the shape of bare human feet. The being spins on the last step so that it’s facing him. A light crunching of snow suggests that it might be stooping or crouching. He still can’t see a thing. Theo fights to keep his breathing even. His hands are itching to fire off a spell, but he doesn’t know what he would even need right now.

“What do you want from me?” he asks, voice steady but quieter.

There is no response. A shallow line appears in the snow starting on the left side of the shelter and continuing until it reaches the right. There’s a flick of snow, and the line is broken. It’s taunting him, he realizes in dawning horror.

“What the hell are you?” he hisses.

The rough, unnatural voice that answers will haunt Theo for years.

“Hungry.”

Snow is kicked up as it lunges for him. Theo shoves it and feels teeth sink through his clothes before a piece of his right sleeve is torn off. There’s a guttural sound that he can only compare to a zombie he saw at a traveling circus once, although this is not nearly as funny. Theo kicks with all his might and feels his foot connect with something. It continues through as though he’s just kicked a cloud, but there’s resistance.

The creature moans again and tackles him, tearing at his clothing. His blocks do little good, as they just go right through the creature. At least, he thought they didn’t. Every time he connects with the thing, he can see more of it. It’s like a shadow, a watercolor floating in front of him. It’s vaguely shaped like a person. As more of the shape is revealed, he can tell its image is only an approximation of something human.

“You’re not gonna fuckin’ eat me!” Theo snarls, kneeing the shape in the gut. It winces and then begins to tear into the offending leg with jagged claws. Theo swears and manages to scramble away after the first two swipes. They’re shallow, but they sting like a rug burn.

It snarls right back at him, and he sees a mouth full of too many teeth. Although this is not the time for humor, Theo finds himself thinking something absurd. Maybe it’s because he’s about to die, and the terror of it all is making him a bit loopy. But the thought crosses his mind that he can’t just fuck his way out of this situation.

Or can he?

He keeps that insane thought in his brain as he and the shape roll around. He collects more scratches, more tears in his clothes. The creature never says anything other than to repeat the one word. As its form takes a clearer shape, he can see that even for a ghostly thing, it’s thin and sunken. He has no idea what to do, as his one attempt at another wind spell nearly sets the forest alight with the bonfire behind it. But as he weathers the shape’s attacks, he’s able to finally grab hold of the thing. It shrieks as he grips its wrist hard. It thrashes and adds some marks to his pretty face, but it can’t get free.

“Gotcha,” he says with a smirk. “Should’ve been faster.” Using all his strength at once, he flips the shape onto its back, holding it down by both wrists. “What do you want? Hungry isn’t gonna do it. And you don’t get to eat me.”

It just writhes as he leans over it. They’re face to face, and Theo’s elbow on its chest is the only thing keeping it from leaning forward and taking a piece of his face off.

A drop of blood from a cut on his cheek falls onto the creature’s mouth and it licks it greedily.

“Blood, huh? Will you leave me alone if I give you that? That shit grows back. I can spare some. Here,” he says dragging the palm of his hand over the shape’s jagged nails. He brings its right hand and left above its head so he can hold the creature down with his hips and secure both its wrists with his left hand. It’s fast and wily, but it doesn’t have enough substance to overpower him now that it has somewhat of a form that Theo can grip.

He sinks as much of his weight as he can into the creature through his hips to stop it from bucking out from underneath him, although it’s hard when his center of gravity is so far forward. He brings his left hand above the shape’s mouth and squeezes so that a line of blood drips down. It takes every drop Theo gives it, and only becomes increasingly agitated.

“Not enough, huh?” He asks as the trickle from his hand is already beginning to slow. “Well, I’m not going to let you sink your teeth into me like some vamp. I don’t want to get nerve damage if your aim is shit.”

Theo racks his brain for some kind of spell that might help in this situation. With a shiver, he recalls one his master taught him. He remembers asking the old man what the hell he would ever use a spell like that for. His response was that blood could be used to control or pacify a number of unsavory creatures, as well as being an ingredient in a number of rituals. Theo had never had the guts to ask where exactly the blood came from. If it was just something that was created from nothing or if he was pulling it from somewhere else. Some things were better left unquestioned.

Before he can start up the spell, the enraged spirit is out from under him. It’s snapping its bloodstained teeth right in front of his face, and he can see a streak of it through its transparent throat. Right as the creature lunges for his neck, Theo stops its path with his palm, bringing the other one to grip the back of its head.

“Summon blood... never thought I’d need this spell. Drink up, greedy thing,” he whispers.

Blood pools in his palm as the creature freezes in confusion. It pauses for only the briefest of moments before ravenously drinking up everything Theo offers it. He knows his master would scold him for not binding the creature to him as some kind of servant, but he really just wants it to be sated so it will leave him alone. He knows what it’s like to feel empty. Starved, but not enough to die, not to mention the much less sinister empty feelings his pregnancy hormones have brought on.

He keeps the blood going at a steady stream. Most mages were against using blood in magic. They found it foul. He’s desensitized enough that he really doesn’t care. That, and he doesn’t find it foul at all. It was gory, sure, but it was also live-giving. Necromancers often had a twisted relationship with it, but they also understood it in unique ways.

The shape has stopped struggling as much, and is mostly still between his two hands. “Better? Good thing I knew that spell. You’re okay. You’re not gonna be empty anymore.” It’s so quiet he can hardly hear it over the roar of the fire. Unmistakably though, the shape whimpers into his hand. “See? Didn’t have to eat me after all.”

Tonight, it seems, is a night where Theo is destined to eat his words. The shape has long since had to move back to make room between them for everything it’s swallowing, and yet the moment Theo cuts off the flow of blood, it’s snarling again. Red runs down its lips and neck, and even sprays with its growls. It’s ravenous for more even as it’s already bloated from twenty minutes of Theo feeding it. Its distended stomach looks grotesque against its scrawny form. Even with its more corporeal state, Theo can see straight through its stomach to the liter or so of blood sloshing around inside.

“More,” it groans, even as it winces and hunches over, wrapping its thin arms around its bulging stomach.

Well, his life is on the line. If ever there was a time for modesty, it’s not now. If his next plan just doesn’t do it for the creature, he senses it won’t hesitate to make that clear. He takes advantage of its pause and sheds his coat, leaving his shredded black thermal shirt on. There’s only enough time to shift his pants down a few inches before the air is a whirlwind of claws and teeth again. Theo is knocked flat on his back with one outstretched leg just barely sticking out into the open air. The shape’s eyes are deep wells of emptiness and rage. He’s not sure why he’s looking at them at all when the shape’s gnashing fangs are half an inch from his face.

“I’m not out of ideas yet. Let me try something?” He asks, keeping the shape at a distance with one raised knee.

The shape pauses. This isn’t Reyn. They don’t know each other’s movements beat for beat, where a pause in the fighting is an invitation. It doesn’t matter if it’s a ghost or what. Theo’s not going to rut into it like an animal. He taps the inside of its thigh once, then again higher.

“I can fill you up here?”

The shape freezes and then relaxes, as if Theo put words to a need it couldn’t communicate. It rolls off of him and he switches places. He sees its translucent form settle into the space where he was just laying, shifting around, closing its eyes as though enjoying the warmth his form left.

“I don’t think you can speak to me, so you need to guide me along in other ways. Grab me and move me around if that’s what works,” Theo instructs. The shape nods, and he smiles at the hint of cautious enthusiasm in its face. Finally, something other than ravenous hunger.

Due to how transparent it is, it’s hard for Theo to tell what he’s working with. Other than the occasional bump with his knee when he was trying to buck the shape off, the space between his legs is one he hasn’t touched enough to make it clear to see. He’s going in blind. For all he knows, there could be teeth down there. That’s... actually kind of a sexy thought, now that he thinks about it. Theo situates himself so that he’s kneeling between the shape’s legs. It spreads itself wider. Its form flickers and shimmers.

Theo’s eaten Reyn out a few times, and he hopes he’s experienced enough to not get his tongue bitten off for going down on a ghost and leaving it unsatisfied. He leans forward and places a hand on the shape’s thigh. It layers its own hand over his, moving them in long, deep strokes up its thighs. Once he finds the right pressure to not go right through it, the shape removes its hand and nods, satisfied. It rubs its stomach again and whimpers.

“Too full or are you somehow still hungry after all that?”

It bares its fangs at him.

“Alright, I have something for that. Let that settle for a bit first and I’ll work you from down here.” At his words, the shape bucks its hips and it grabs him by the hair, pulling him close. “Well, looks like we don’t need words,” he murmurs in between its legs, smiling into what very clearly is a beautiful, ghostly cunt.

He breathes over its surface, using his core to warm his breath. The shape shudders and moans, spreading its legs wider. Theo readjusts so he’s laying on his stomach. He presses a kiss to the top of the slit, and then a second, deeper one. His thumbs rub firm circles in the shadow’s thighs, alternating between massaging and just holding. He drags the flat of his tongue upwards, pressing in between the folds as he slowly makes his way up them. The shape moans loudly and squirms.

“I know you want me to fill you, but I want to make sure you can take what I’m going to give you. Bear with me.”

The creature is too deep into bliss to pay his words any mind. He repeats the same motion a few times before focusing on the shape’s clit. He gives it a teasing flick with his tongue before encircling it with a long, drawn out lick, and finally sucking on it. Every sound the shape makes, he eagerly drinks up. As much as it seems to be enjoying his attention, though, it’s once again becoming frustrated by the hunger it’s cursed with. He can tell by the way its no longer digging its claws into the fur throws, but roaming its middle again. Looks like he needs to give it attention in more than one zone, if it’s down for that.

“Can I move over you like this?” He asks, bracing himself on his knees and calves over the shape with his left hand planted and right hand between its legs. It grinds into his hand slow and hard in response. A low growl accompanies the movement, signaling to him to get to work.

“I have an idea for how to use that spell that I think you might like. Good thing I’m not squeamish.” Using his necromantic spells during sex was just one of many ways to stick it to the old geezer, unconventional as his petty revenge may be. He lowers himself over the shape slowly to test how much of his body weight it can take. Looks like most of it before he starts to slip through. Theo isn’t keen on dropping into a pool of blood, so he compromises with some strained muscles.

He lays flat over the shadow and gives each of its nipples a quick kiss, flick, and a suck before moving near its face. “I’m a dragonborn. Is uh... is a long tongue of any interest to you?” he asks, dragging two fingers up the creature’s cunt. The shape’s eyes go wide and it nods slowly, lips parted. “Alright, uh, here’s to hoping this doesn’t cause me to gag. I think I can do this.”

Theo takes a deep breath and focuses deeply on his face: the sensations there, how he knows it looks. He draws his magic there into his tongue. Meanwhile, he moves his thumb in a circle over the creature’s clit. It doesn’t seem to be producing any natural lubricant of its own. Spit works in a pinch, but not all that well. Knowing this is just one of many possible sins in his ledger, and it pales in comparison to his other ones, Theo sighs quietly and casts summon blood again on his index finger. He lets it well up slowly. He supposes he could ask the shape if it gives a shit about him using blood as lube, but it seems like a stupid question at this point given its obscenely swollen red-tinted belly.

He massages the blood-lubed finger up and down across the shape’s entrance, spreading the blood around evenly. He slips his finger inside and lets the blood slowly fill the shape. It moans and squirms in pleasure. Theo smiles and steals the sounds with his lips. The shape tastes only of blood. Its lips are full and puffy with a cute little cupids’ bow. He sucks and bites at its lips until he’s sure they would bruise if the thing was human. His finger works at a ghostly g-spot, soon joined by his middle finger.

The shape moans and claws at his skin impatiently. Its long nails draw lines of blood where they rake through his shirt. Theo licks at the creature’s lips, gently prying them apart. He whispers the words for the spell again and lets just a small amount drop into the creature’s mouth so it’s not shocked. He feels its tongue sweep up the drops. It looks at him in pleasant surprise, lips parted and eager for more of whatever Theo wants to give it.

Between his efforts and the ample lubrication, Theo has no issue slipping a third finger inside the creature’s full pussy. The ghost likes it rough, it seems, because he’s able to pull the most intense noises out of it when he digs his fingers into its g-spot with digging motions bordering on violent. He alternates between that and scissoring his fingers, stretching out the entrance to fit at least his human dick. He’s not sure if he can manage transformation magic there. Really, he can’t think of a better night to try. It really can’t hurt the situation he’s in.

Theo continues kissing the monster with tongue as it swallows more blood. He’s not giving it a proper tongue-fucking, as it’s also trying to focus on eating, but it seems happy with his lengthening tongue inching closer to its throat. He stops just before the place where his own gag reflex would have thrown in the towel. Theo lets the blood flow steadily from the tip of his tongue. The creature is letting out little whimpers- from fullness or emptiness or somehow both existing at the same time, he doesn’t know. Maybe it doesn’t know either.

Shifting to put more weight on his legs, Theo uses his left hand to massage the shape’s stomach. He rubs in the same methodical, deep circles that Reyn comforts him with when the egg gives him cramps at night sometimes. It also helps when he eats yet another weird mushroom he found at the back of the cave and ate without asking. He figures it works for a blood-bloated stomach too. The whimpers and moans mix with happy little whines, so Theo keeps it up.

When he feels like the spirit is nice and loosened up around his fingers, he pauses to remove his pants and what’s left of his ruined underclothes. He was only going to bring one set and just wash and mend it as needed. Again, Reyn has an absurd amount of foresight. He’ll have to thank his dragon when he gets back for packing a few extra sets despite his bitching and moaning about the added weight.

Theo looks the spirit up and down. How’s the best way to do this? Its size is actually getting to the point of being an obstacle to the position he had been in up until this point. He continues to massage the spirit’s thighs while he thinks.

“Can I go behind you? Laying on my side?” he asks, propping himself up on his right elbow, left hand running up and down the shape’s thigh. It nods drowsily. It no longer looks ravenous and crazed, but content. The shape’s movements are sluggish from all the weight it’s unaccustomed to.

Theo rearranges the fur throws so he’s laying on as little blood as possible, although it’s a futile effort with how things are progressing. He settles down and wraps himself around the shape, placing his left leg in between theirs and aligning their hips. The shape grinds against his dick, rubbing its legs over his. Theo lets it grind for a bit and get comfortable with him while he scoots so that his mouth is near the shape’s neck. He gently turns its head so they’re slightly more aligned and the shape is laying at a 3/4 angle.

“I’m not letting you walk away disappointed and hollow tonight. Well, my goal is for you to not be able to walk at all after this if I’ve done my job right,” he says with a laugh and a kiss into the shape’s neck. A chill of surprise runs up the shape’s back as it squirms against him in delight. With its arms tucked in close to it, Theo is happy to see that it’s touching itself now that there’s less urgency to the act.

Theo snakes his tongue over the shadow’s neck, drawing out a long, low moan as the shape touches its nipples. His dragon tongue is more than long enough to reach around to the shape’s eager mouth. He can’t kiss it from this angle, but it’s still the sexiest way to feed the thing. Theo resumes filling its stomach, albeit at a slower pace, while he bumps his dick teasingly against its cunt.

The shape’s pose is loose and relaxed now. Bliss and comfort have melted away the hunger and rage that it brought with its dreadful arrival. Theo’s enjoying himself, for sure. But there’s something in addition to lust. He’s too deep in sex to think about it now, but he recalls what Reyn said about how black dragons are keepers of dark things and wonders if that’s relevant. He does feel strangely protective of this odd, dangerous creature. Despite the fact that it was trying to kill him not long ago, Theo enters it gently, taking care to slide over its g-spot at just the right angle. Depraved sloshing sounds accompany the movements of his hips as blood spews from the shape’s stuffed pussy.

“Is this okay or do you want more?” Theo asks, sucking his bloodstained tongue back into his mouth long enough to speak. He gets the feeling he’s going to be tasting copper for days.

The shadow holds up two fingers close together. “Alright, I’ll transform just a little. Too big and it would probably bump your stomach too much, huh?” It nods as it reaches down to finger its clit, now panting heavily. He’s glad it appears to be close, because he doesn’t think he can last much longer.

Theo transforms his dick so that it’s just slightly larger, noting with delight it also feels like it has a faint suggestion of ridges on it. He wonders what those will look and feel like in a full dragon form if he can achieve one. This is already more progress than he’s made before with these parts of his body, so things are looking promising. So much violence went into his creation and his molding. It’s satisfying to use the dark parts of himself for gentler things.

As the shape looks like it’s nearing orgasm, it’s also slowing down in how much it’s drinking. Looks like Theo finally found its limit. He wraps an arm around its bloated middle and holds the shape in a warm embrace as he fills both ends of it nearly to bursting, his orgasm boosted by a little bit of extra dragon cum. The shape cries out too, and then something unexpected happens. It starts to shimmer, to glow. It looks like every atom of its being is separating into a supernova of its own. He withdraws his tongue and stares at the shape in awe. It’s looking back at him now with an expression of bliss, lust, and gratitude. Theo is speechless as the spirit vaporizes before his eyes. Every fragment of it is annihilated in a beautiful kaleidoscope dominated by red until even the blood and his spill are burnt up in the explosion.

It makes no sound, produces no heat. The only palpable effect is that the rest of the spilled blood in the room is drawn up into the starburst of colors until it, too, is gone. He sits up and looks around the empty shelter in wonder. At first, it looks like the mess of blankets is the only sign of what had passed there.

Resting in the indentation left by the shape’s stomach is a black crystal like he’s never seen before. He picks it up, reverence guiding his hands. If there’s a magical energy to it, he can’t tell just from holding it. Theo gets the sense that the creature didn’t solidify into this. It’s dead, as it should be- dispersed into billions of tiny pieces so that it can rejoin the cycle of life. Whatever’s in his hands is some token of appreciation it left behind- its purpose yet to be discovered.

Theo sits cross-legged, just holding the crystal in his palms. He’s nothing short of putrescent, and his wounds need attention, but he feels refreshed. Whatever the hell that encounter was- it felt good. He feels like he’s inching toward some kind of purpose in his life. He flops back onto the blankets that are miraculously clean other than sweat and some debris tracked in from outside. Theo sets the crystal over his heart and folds his hands over it, staring at the roof of the shelter. He wonders how Reyn will react when he recounts this.

That thought quickly turns to warm, soft fantasies of his regular lover. Theo drifts off to sleep, dreaming of warm arms and sweet kisses.

Chapter Text

Theo takes a running jump and leaps off the rocky ledge into the hot spring. The little pool is situated in a frozen stream. With his own section of it freshly thawed and boiled from an underground steam vent, Theo is in heaven.

He sighs happily and leans back on the edge of the pool. Warmth and life returns to his body quickly. Any fears he might have had about hot water too much for a dragon egg to handle are immediately assuaged. His lower body feels relief that’s nothing short of euphoric, and he could swear he feels the egg respond to the sudden change in temperature.

He runs a hand over his abdomen. The new life within him is still relatively quiet. The growth and activities of the egg are relaxed, unhurried. But every so often he feels a few seconds of connection to the young dragon hybrid inside, particularly in moments like this where it detects new stimuli.

The events of the previous night roll around in his head as he lounges. The encounter was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. By all human morals and standards, the act he engaged in was obscene. But he's neither human in his genes nor his upbringing. He doesn't feel any disgust. There’s definitely pride, accompanied by peace, satisfaction, and curiosity.

Being stalked by a spirit was distracting enough that he'd temporarily forgotten his original mission- to investigate the strange presence connecting with him in his sleep. Now that the adrenaline is gone, his head feels like a fog has settled over it. The feelings that come in his dreams are with him in waking hours now. The sun is so bright that it’s blinding. The wind is a stranger to him.

As Theo dries off, dresses, and sets out on the road again, there's a new feeling- paranoia. Its approach is slow. He feels it circling his mind, licking its lips, waiting for an opening. It scratches at him- digs its claws in.

Theo gets the distinct sense that the feeling is not his own. It's an echo. When a twig snaps in the forest and dread settles over him, there's a delay as though the stimulus is received by someone else and their feeling comes back to him.

The woods become an oppressive labyrinth. Theo feels lost despite the sun and wind guiding his way. Each tree, looking too similar to the last, feels like a cruel trick. It makes no sense, because Theo knows how to navigate the woods. But he feels a deep, instinctual craving to burrow somewhere and hide from the sun. The egg feels content, so he doesn’t think it’s coming from that. No, this must be the black dragon, if his gut is right.

It takes another week to reach the area marked on Reyn’s map. All the while, he bides his time by practicing his transformation and observing the woods. His hybrid form gets better and better. He finds that he feels comfortable in it. The egg has more room and settles down as a nice weight in his belly. A great deal of his time traveling is spent in as complete of a dragon form as he can manage.

As Theo nears the black dragon’s domain, the land changes. Reyn’s lair and the black dragon’s lair are more than close enough to be considered completely overlapping by dragon standards. But Reyn has never seen this dragon leave, and so has never had an altercation about territory. Reyn has tried to fill in around their own part of the forest as far as the duties of a black dragon. They burn down dead trees, build compost piles out of rot, and try to encourage the land to die and regrow. But it’s not their domain.

The black dragon, for whatever reason, isn’t following its calling and tending to its land. Theo sees evidence of this plainly as he treks through the forest. The ground is littered with dead, fallen trees without enough beetles or mushrooms to decompose them. There’s enough dead material to be a fire hazard. He continuously has to cut through the overgrown brush to get anywhere. It makes for slow, tedious travel.

The closer he gets to the squat, serpentine mountain range before him, the worse he feels. His mind often runs away from him. He spirals until he forgets who he is, what his purpose is. The attacks of paranoia become bad enough that they cause him to collapse at the base of a tree more than once. He dives under a bush and curls up into a ball, shaking as he loses control over his body and mind for minutes or hours at a time.

Is this all worth it? Is it going to be this hard to bring dragons back with him? Theo supposes it’s only fair that he suffer a little in his efforts, given everything he’s done to dragonkind. Still, it becomes more difficult to convince himself to press on. The egg inside him is often the only thing that feels grounding. Its weight and warmth remind him of his mate, his home, his future.

He keeps one hand over his abdomen as he approaches the entrance to what must be the black dragon’s cave system. Theo inspects the area, taking his time before entering. He examines everything in an attempt to learn about the history of this lair. There’s rotting beams, supply carts, logs and journals, shattered crystals, bones- mostly humanoid, tools, and other debris littered about.

He uses his shoe to clear some snow, revealing rail cart tracks. There’s scorch marks of varying colors on the wall of a rectangular, unnatural cave, as well as recessed alcoves with candles and altars. If he had to guess, this place had been a mining operation, a home or study for someone magical or a camp with creatures that might have had a shaman with them, and something else. He creeps into the cave. The temperature drops quickly as he leaves the sunlight behind. There’s something else. This place has been something else... but what?

Theo only makes it a few feet into the cave system before the darkness begins to bother him. He’s part black dragon, and most of his ancestry gives him pretty solid darkvision. But the complete lack of light up ahead is beginning to disturb him to his core. He can see outlines in greyscale that dance and warp as he squints. With shaking fingers, he grabs a candlestick from an alcove and lights it with a tiny spark of flame.

The light helps more with his mood than with his sight. The air feels stale- dead, even. Every breath brings him closer to a panic attack. Theo does his best to fight it off. As oppressive and hostile as the twisting, cut tunnels of rock feel, they have a borrowed familiarity to them. It’s like he’s seeing his own face in a reflective pool. As he progresses, several things become apparent.

The first is that he is descending in elevation. It’s faint, gradual. At first he convinced himself that the pathways were completely flat. But they must be inclined by only a degree or so, because he gets the distinct feeling that he’s getting further from the surface world with every step.

Second, the cave system isn’t as silent as he thought it was. He hears water dripping, which is a mundane enough sound. Or at least it would be, if the dragon connected to his head didn’t feel like the ever-present drip drip of a leak somewhere hadn’t driven them to madness over the years. His feet quietly scuff on the rough rock underfoot. Occasionally a stone or pebble comes loose somewhere in the cave system with a quiet thud. There’s the occasional shifting of something that he can’t quite identify. It’s a rough, grating sound that doesn’t match up with his footsteps. It’s quiet and far away.

Third, is that his target has mixed feelings about Theo’s approach. Part of the dragon wants to be found and make a connection with someone, anyone. But the conscious, actionable part of their brain wants nothing to do with Theo. He begins to feel a clear warning to turn back. Every shadow becomes a silent sentinel, every distant echo a siren of alarm.

Lastly, this place is a mausoleum. He recognizes the altars now. Some of them contain statues venerating long dead gods, or ones that are forbidden to worship in many places. Bones, dried blood, and dessicated plant material lie at the feet of various idols. Some of them are depicted guarding the dead with shields. Others lounge proudly on thrones of skulls, wielding fierce weapons. A few idols depict more primal gods with animalistic traits crouched on all fours and consuming the dead. Despite his ancestry, Theo feels the hair on his arms stand up every time he passes by statues of the corpse-eating god.

Theo feels one last loud spike of warning in his brain to turn back. He ignores it and pushes open a heavy, stubborn door. It opens with a loud creak. As the door comes to a rest in the open position, Theo hears several more creaks. He tilts his head, listening. That rough, grating sound from before is much louder now. He realizes he opened the door to the central portion of the crypt- the entrance to the dragon’s true lair, hidden deep underground.

Something creaks again. He hears a snap followed by a rattle. He moves the candle aside to let his darkvision adjust. He feels his blood run cold as he sees several shapes slide out of recessed shelves in the wall. They shake themselves awake with a great deal of rattling and regard him with cold suspicion. When he sees one of them, decorated with a tarnished, thorny crown and an ornate chestplate reach for a greatsword, he realizes what he’s stumbled upon-

-draugr.

Chapter Text

“Ah, fuck.”

Draugr, just his luck. He doesn’t know much about them, but he knows enough to understand that he’s going to get his shit rocked if he tries to fight them. They’re immune to poison, cold, death magic, and just about every other magical domain he’s proficient in. Seeing as he’s built like a quarterstaff, melee attacks are off the table as well. The best he can do is try to beat them back and buy himself time to escape.

Theo raises his hands in a defensive stance. As he readies a spell, it feels like his brain is on fire, screaming at him. There’s a surprising feeling of guilt as if he’s attacking a pet or familiar. These aren’t just random, roaming monsters. These are guardians of this crypt. Broken coffins, trails of dropped coins, and discarded items of no value scattered around tell him that this place has been robbed at least once. The draugr are protecting not just the dead and their treasures, but the dragon as well.

To attack them would be a clear sign of aggression and ill will. No matter what they do, he needs to avoid returning the friendly welcome. He can already feel that he’s crossed a line. He doesn’t need to dance on it.

One of the restless dead takes a slow, heavy swing at him. He stumbles and dodges, bumping into another in the process. He hears and smells a hiss of breath behind him as jagged nails grab at his arms. Theo lets out an undignified shriek as he shoves them off, feeling unusually defenseless. He sustains a number of scratches and blows as he attempts to cross the room. The door on the other side is just as unyielding as the first one. He sends the draugr back with a rush of wind, buying himself a few seconds and some space to open the door.

Theo finds himself racing through the labyrinth of the crypt without a plan. He hears more draugr waking up all around. They’re slow, but he knows they’ll hunt him down relentlessly. No matter how far he runs, he can still hear them tracking him. Bones and steel scrape across the rough floor. Each sound is accompanied by the angry hiss of a desiccated corpse. Soon, his worst fears are realized.

The serpentine, endlessly branching paths lead him down a long tunnel. It’s a dead end, leading to an ornate door. Theo runs as fast as he can to buy himself some time to think of an escape plan. He enters the room and slams the door shut behind him. Theo tries not to think about all the nights at the tower when he ran up the stairs and hid in the observatory. He’d barricade the door and shut himself in there for the rest of the night. Enough years have passed that he’s long since forgotten the reason he often did that.

Theo leans against the door, breathing heavily and trying to figure out why he feels like he’s been blinded. When he looks around in confusion, he sees that the room is lit with dozens of candles. They’re all in different stages of melting, suggesting that the room is in constant use. Several candles have hardly any wax running down the sides at all. Someone has been here recently.

His breath catches in his throat. The room is some kind of sanctuary or altar. The three gods he’s been seeing the most imagery of throughout the cave system are depicted against the three solid walls of the small room. Three enormous, free-standing sculptures stand backed up to each wall other than the one with the door. The sculptures are constructed of black granite, with the one that’s standing upright being several feet taller than Theo is. He steps up to it and stands straight, holding his hand near his hair. Well, considering the rock mound it’s standing on, the god is maybe only a foot taller. He spins around and checks briefly for any sign of danger before investigating further. It feels like he has a little time.

The god to his left has the form of a human. Then again, so does he, so that’s not saying much about the actual lineage of the man. He’s standing with an aura of honor, pride, and compassion, but also ferocity, as he shields the restful dead from some unknown threat. As Theo squints, he thinks he might see something else in the man’s expression. Longing? Loss? The sculptor put a lot of nuance into the piece. The dead behind the god are peaceful as if in a deep sleep. The man is depicted with a flowing cloak and armor that might have once been decorated with gold paint. It’s faded as if it’s incredibly old. There are locks, keys, rice, and salt at his feet. Theo recognizes by the offerings that this is a god of protection, mercy, and purifying power. He protects those who died naturally and prevents them from turning into vengeful spirits.

To his right is the god sitting lazily and proudly on his throne. He looks youthful, around Theo’s age. He might be demonic or fae. Theo can’t quite tell. He might be able to come up with a better conclusion if he weren’t so distracted by the god’s gorgeous bod. The man has ears that come to a delicate point, clawed hands, and a toned body. He’s been sculpted with one leg up, foot resting on the edge of his throne of bones. His right arm drapes lazily over his knee. He appraises the viewer with a haughty, disinterested expression. Everything about his pose conveys that this man could kill someone with the power in his pinky finger, but would be content with fucking their brains out until they submitted instead. In the god’s left hand is a wine glass held loosely, slightly tilted. The glass has residual liquid inside. When Theo sniffs it, he notes that it’s alcohol, placed there as an offering. This god is portrayed as very handsome, and is in fact nude- and rather well-endowed. Theo looks around. He’s not sure why. It’s not like anyone is watching him. He gives the god’s manhood a curious poke like he expects the man to get up out of his chair and punish him for the act. To his great disappointment, no such thing occurs.

In front of Theo is the last statue. The god is crouched on all fours. It is unnaturally thin, with bones jutting out at disturbing angles and seemingly located in odd places. It looks like the sculptor made the deliberate decision to portray the god as having an unidentifiable, unfamiliar form. It evokes a sense of something that rose up out of a pile of corpses and constructed itself with what parts were available. The god is nude, and clearly male, but there is nothing inherently attractive about its body, only an air of wrongness. This god has one purpose and one purpose only- to rid the world of foul things. It has long teeth and a drooping tongue. Carcasses of corpses are carved out of the black granite. The creature is both standing on the bodies and depicted as consuming them. The statue smells foul. Stains in the mouth and under it suggest that sacrifices of blood and rotten meat have been offered to it.

He wonders of all the death gods that have served the world throughout history, and even of the ones depicted along the hallways of the cave... why these three? His master taught him about all the death gods at some point. That much, he remembers. But their names and lore escape him. He knows that worship of either the one in front of him or to his right is forbidden. He can’t recall which.

The one to the left has been dead for ages. Civilizations have risen and fallen since that god’s passing. And yet, the chipping paint on it would suggest that the statue was made within the last few hundred or thousand years. Why is someone paying worship to a dead god? He doesn’t even recall this paladin god playing a major role in any histories. He was a minor god, filling a role that several gods often filled at once, overseen by a greater god of protection. Who would still be whispering his name after all these years? And why?

Theo hears the draugr closing in. The door is sturdy enough, but it won’t hold forever. He doesn’t feel hopeless, though. There’s something in the air that makes this room feel alive- like there’s a discovery to be made. Through his connection to the dragon, he gets a glimmer of what he’s supposed to do here.

Following his instincts, Theo closes his eyes. He slowly turns in circles until he loses his sense of orientation. He has no idea if he’s facing the protective god, the ravenous god, or the lusty god. With shaking legs, Theo drops to his knees. It’s not a position he normally associates with meditation or prayer. He takes a deep breath. He lets it out, focusing on the aura of the statue in front of him and the faint but true connection it holds to whichever god it represents. The feeling is dim but present. Theo imagines himself reaching out to that god, binding himself to them.

With a gust of wind that threatens to blow out the candles in the room, Theo senses something. He shivers, feeling both the cold chill of death and a warmth of approval and connection in his core. Someone has noticed him. They like what they see.

Theo makes a quiet but earnest prayer to the god. The crypt gradually settles into silence as the draugr return to their resting places, waiting for the next intruder. He’s not sure whether they’re obeying some power that came from him, heightened by the god who chose him, or if it was a divine act.

It feels like it would be wrong, somehow, to open his eyes and see which god noticed him. Gods like these are often secret, forbidden to worship in most places. Black dragons are often the only ones who dare other than demons, evil fae, hags, or undead. Theo turns around several times once more before standing and opening his eyes. He is facing the door. Far away through the winding halls, he hears something large tearing through the crypt. The black dragon has found him.

Chapter Text

The dragon is still far away by the sounds of it. Theo throws open the door and tries to put space between himself and the sanctuary. He doesn’t know where he’s going, but he feels like it would be deeply wrong to bring a fight to that room. Theo follows the passageways, always choosing the widest, most well-traveled ones in an attempt to find a large, central sort of space where he can utilize his abilities without causing a collapse.

There’s a constant battle being waged in his mind. He has an instinct to protect his egg against a hostile dragon, and he’s also feeling the other dragon’s emotions. Both of those sources are telling him to dig his heels in and fight- something he’s been trying not to resort to. These powerful instincts are making his mind feel clouded. With every passing minute, he loses a little more control. Theo refocuses and reminds himself that he doesn’t need to fight to the death. If he can wear the other dragon down, maybe it’ll be in the mood for a truce and discussion. He just needs to make it exhausted, and then they can-

He comes skidding to a stop in a large hall at the same time as a glittering mass of shadows and fury. The dragon roars, sending purple fumes across the room. Theo is trespassing, and this dragon wants him to burn for it.

Well... he’s allowed to have hope?

Theo rolls to the side in order to avoid the poison attack, ducking behind a tall column of white and pink marble. He’s in an enormous subterranean chamber that looks unrelated to the rest of the crypt. This place looks regal, refined, despite the cracks in the floor. They’re about to add a lot more. The black dragon snarls, quite literally foaming at the mouth. Every muscle in its body is coiled like a tightly wound spring. The dragon’s scales are so dark that he can hardly see it in the pitch black room with nothing but his night vision and the faint light of their attacks to guide his focus.

“I’m not here to steal from your crypt!” He calls out in a poor attempt to placate the incensed dragon.

It hisses and arches its back like a cat. Its tail swipes across the floor and comes down with such a powerful thwack! that it breaks several tiles at once. He can feel the dragon’s primal urge to defend its territory echoing into his own brain. In addition to that, there’s also that all-encompassing paranoia that’s been haunting him. As his connection to the creature deepens, he gets hints here and there as to the source of fear. It seems like its connection to one of the death gods has given it something to dread. That knowledge, combined with total isolation and fear of grave robbers, has given the dragon more than a touch of madness.

Theo isn’t given any time to think of a better response. The dragon shrieks and uses its tail to send pieces of rubble on a collision course with his face. A few pieces hit the parts of him that aren’t behind cover. The dragon moves, and he’s forced to get back on his feet.

“I don’t want to fight you!”

The dragon doesn’t respond with words in his mind like Reyn did during their first encounter. Rather, Theo sees imagery. It’s blurry and awkward, like it isn’t used to having to put its thoughts into a form that another being can understand. He gets the impression the black dragon’s response is “Well I do!”. It lunges for him and swats with angular paws ending in sharp, lethal claws. Theo takes the hit in order to slide underneath the dragon. He sends it flying with a wind attack that ends with the dragon flat on its back like a bug. Taking advantage of its brief incapacitation, he attempts to communicate with it through mental images.

He shows the dragon a rough sketch of his life- his creation, his training and abuse, murdering the lich that created him, becoming a bounty hunter... a dragon killer. He wants to be honest about what he is and was. There’s no time to show the dragon the rest of the story, as a haunting shriek rips from its throat. The dragon pounces on him and roars, coating Theo with a poison attack that has him seeing static. He rolls to the side, staggers, and hurls. He has strong resistance to poison, but it still leaves him feeling like he just ate rotten seafood.

The dragon uses his moment of weakness and body checks him so hard he flies into the wall. The stone shatters as he makes impact with a sickening crack. He slides to the ground, body screaming in pain as his healing factor tries to catch up with the damage, drawing on his strength to knit broken bones back together. The egg is jostled from the sudden movement. He feels it roll and slide, feels the young egg’s panic. His instincts tell him the egg is unharmed, just startled and nauseated. Its feeling of fear is the strongest emotion he’s detected from the egg so far. Theo hears its cry for help. The fact that terror is the first clear thing he’s felt from his child sends him into a blind rage.

Theo has no control over the transformation that takes him. A snarling sound that he didn’t even know he could produce comes out of him as his teeth lengthen, filling a scaly muzzle. His skin is covered in ice cold scales that shimmer like the night sky. A powerful tail slams angrily against the floor, swishing back and forth of its own will as he stares down his enemy. The other dragon freezes. It backs up, making a confused, submissive whine as it sends him questioning images. The dragon clearly had no idea that Theo was one of his kind. It’s never seen a dragon look like anything other than a dragon. It’s still mad about being faced with an interloper, but it’s acting much less aggressive. It sees Theo as dominant.

Theo is in no mood to explain. This isn’t a hybrid form he’s taken on. It’s a full dragon form- the most perfect one he’s ever achieved. His human instincts are getting dimmer and dimmer as all reason tells him to fight and get this other dragon to submit to him completely. He charges at the black dragon, who quickly recovers from its shock with a surprised snarl. They snap at each other, exchange blows, bites, and breath attacks as they circle and wear each other down. All he can think is that he can’t let anything happen to this egg. This is his child, his atonement, the future of dragonkind. This is the part of Reyn that will always be with him. This is his proof that he’s not a monster.

And this dragon is threatening it. The black dragon, realistically, has no idea that Theo is carrying an egg. His clothes cover the light rounding of his stomach well enough in his human form. As a dragon, the tiny egg can’t be seen at all. But Theo takes the dragon’s aggression personally nonetheless.

Theo loses all sense as they tumble around in a blur of glittering scales and lashing tails. Teeth snap as loud as explosives. His blood burns from where poison-soaked teeth sank into his flesh, past even a layer of protective scales. It takes every ounce of his self-control to even consider de-escalating this fight that has snowballed far past the point he intended it to reach. Theo growls and shoves the dragon off, panting. His thoughts are a jumbled blur. He manages to send over scattered images. They’re out of order, but they paint a picture. Blizzard. Frozen, dying. Fighting. Safety in a warm cave. Flashes of his journey, ending with images of him and Reyn, of him discovering his ancestry, his purpose, his atonement.

There’s no reason this dragon shouldn’t hate him. He’s a mass murderer of dragons for nothing more than a paycheck. But he’s willing to devote his life to bringing dragons back from the brink. If the black dragon killed Theo now, it would only harm dragons more- by killing two of them. Black dragons are endangered enough as it is. That’s the impression he tries to give, anyway.

It appears to be too little too late. He feels the dragon’s acceptance of his story as factually true- that sure, he’s worthy of living and continuing on his quest. But he’s trespassing, and this dragon wants to tear him apart for that. There isn’t an ounce of trust in its bones for anything in the world. To this dragon, Theo is just another threat to its routine, isolated existence.

Their fight drags on. Neither of them manage to land any brutal blows, intentionally or otherwise. Wounds and bruises accumulate, wearing them down slowly over time. Whereas Theo becomes calmer and more clear-headed as he gets more tired, the other dragon only becomes more frantic. It’s like it’s terrified that this will be a fight to the death. He can feel its frustration mounting that it hasn’t gotten Theo to back off. It doesn’t want to talk. It doesn’t want to hear about everything it’s missed in the outside world, or be persuaded to leave its comfort zone.

There’s a moment of hesitation, and then Theo is flying across the room. The dragon put a few good gashes in his shoulder with its hit. Theo staggers to his paws, seeing stars.

“That’s enough!” He tries to use vocal magic like he did with the dark shape back in the woods. This only serves to offend the dragon that Theo tried and failed to hypnotize it. It advances on him again and Theo snaps his teeth in warning. When the dragon doesn’t heed him, Theo spreads his wings and leaps. They tumble across the rooms in a mess of limbs, ending with the other dragon on all fours and Theo trying to pin it down.

The dragon flails and he instinctively bites down on the dragon’s neck. He doesn’t break the skin, but he knows from Reyn’s mischievous bedroom habits that clamping down on a dragon’s neck will make them go as still as a possum in the road. The dragon goes mostly still and paws at the ground in frustration. Theo growls low and forces the black dragon to sink lower to the ground.

This time, he speaks to the dragon through their link. “I said enough.”

There’s a brief moment of stillness before the dragon starts writhing underneath him, more desperate than before to escape. Theo has to loosen his grip, lest he draw blood from the creature and injure something vital. He feels a flood of imagery and emotions bombard him with such intensity that he nearly empties his stomach again. He can’t make heads or tails of half of it. A dead god, resurrected. A blight of darkness and one of light, Srivena caught in the middle of it all. He doesn’t understand what he’s seeing.

All he comes away with is the understanding that this dragon hasn’t spoken to another living creature in decades, and it fears something coming that Theo can’t begin to understand. It’s young, and has never known another dragon before. It remembers little about itself, has no identity- only sees itself as pieces and reflections of other things it interacts with. It doesn’t remember what it looks like.

Theo tries to respond with images of his own. Warm tea, made by loving hands. Walks in the forest at sunrise. Birds, cloud-watching, books. Happiness, safety, companions, mates.

An interesting feeling comes across their link after he sends a few snapshots of him and Reyn. Theo focuses on those images, sending some of flirting, lazing together by the fire, and other mildly spicy suggestions.

At first he can't quite place the dragon’s response, but then it reminds him of a very specific scene. He's reminded of when he and Reyn play fought (rather aggressively) to get one to submit the night they mated. This dragon isn't going to back down just because it’s exhausted. Theo needs to lean into his instincts and communicate in a way that’s going to get this dragon to listen. He focuses more on the feeling, making sure he’s not misinterpreting it. No, it definitely feels like when him and Reyn are doing that weird thing of fighting to see who gets to top. It’s always Reyn who does, but Theo would be bummed if he didn’t get to fight. It’s... it feels therapeutic to roll around and bite and snarl and get everything out of his system, and then follow that up with the closeness of another person. Is this a craving the dragon has but doesn’t understand? Can’t hurt to test it, right?

The dragon snarls again. He nips at its shoulder, but lets it scoot away. It whirls around, baring its teeth. It stands still, though, waiting for him to make a move. The mood of their fight is changing noticeably. Theo can feel the dragon’s frustration at his invasion of its lair changing, mounting into a physical need to spar and burn off nervous energy. He detects an all-too familiar sensation- of being so touch-starved it’s turned to touch-aversion because the concept of touch and affection is foreign enough to be frightening.

Theo gallops toward the dragon and tackles it, rolling around as they wrestle each other. He tries to convey through their link that he knows. He knows what it feels like to be your only company... to be alone for so long you forget how to talk. Then, you get to the point where you just don’t want to. You wouldn’t trust what anyone else had to say anyways.

The black dragon growls and bites his shoulder, sinking its teeth into him. It huffs and gnaws at him, but doesn’t actually do damage. Well, that’s progress. Theo nudges it with his muzzle and pushes the other dragon off, rolling away. They go at it for another hour. They move until they’re exhausted and then some. The other dragon growls and hisses and spits like a cat, but Theo feels gratitude flow over their link. This is the most stimulation it’s had in decades. Theo has demonstrated that he can use magic and deal powerful blows, but chooses not to. He’s proven that he isn’t a real threat. He’s engaging in this purely as stress relief at this point. Their energies are still far from playful, but there’s unspoken rules now about how far either of them are going to go in this little dance they’re engaged in.

He also feels an innate rivalry. Even though neither of them have fought another black dragon before in their memory, he has an oddly clear understanding of the social conventions surrounding a meeting of two creatures like themselves. There’s a sort of rivalry at first sight- an immediate, strong desire to determine the pecking order before any conversation can take place.

There’s also a strong overlap here between rivalry and profound sexual tension. Reyn is a bit of an anomaly where dragons are concerned, Theo is starting to understand. They’re refined and calm, and they’ve become that way through careful cultivation of their personality. It seems like the average dragon fights until they’re too exhausted to do anything but curl up and mate with the loser of the fight. Well, Reyn did swallow him to get him to give up. That probably does count, now that he thinks about it.

As they both crouch, facing each other, trying to catch their breath, Theo tosses his head and speaks through mental words in that way that creates the illusion of having heard the sound. “Come back with me. Leave this place behind. We can seal it up to protect it so you won’t have to guard it. There’s more to the world than this crypt.”

The dragon shakes his head.

“Why not?!”

It pauses, then taps its paw twice on the ground: two reasons. Theo sits, frustrated in more than one way, and waits.

He feels like he’s talking to his past self. A younger Theo stands at the exit to the tower. The doorway feels like a gate to another world, even though he’s just looking out at a fallow field. He feels weighed down by the blood on his clothes. The screams captured over the years by the stonework (his and others’) call him back to the tower, tell him that nowhere is safe- it’s better to stay where the horrors are known, at least. There’s nothing for him outside. There’s no one for him.

The dragon lifts a single wing. It looks like it’s taking a tremendous effort. At first, Theo wonders if it’s broken. Then he receives images of narrow, short caves. This dragon hasn’t had access to a space large enough to fly in for decades, if ever. It doesn’t remember ever flying. The brush outside is too thick to pass through in dragon form. It couldn’t leave like this even if it wanted to.

“We’ll find a way. I’ll set a bonfire and burn a path if I have to. This forest could use some fire anyways.”

The dragon huffs again and looks around as if trying to figure out how to convey a second concept. Theo sees a mental image of the god on the left side of the altar room- the paladin god, as he’s been calling him.

“So what?”

It shakes its head. Theo sees another image of the god, dead and burning with blinding, hideous white light. It keeps sending over images that just aren’t clicking.

“Alright, so something about one of the death gods is keeping you from going outside, despite the fact that he’s dead and gone. Sounds like a load of shit to me. Gods are big. They’re not going to be interested in us little guys. You’re just making excuses.”

The glaring silence and accompanying stillness sends a shiver up his spine. Maybe he’s just stupid, but there’s something he’s not getting here. The dragon is very much afraid of something that it’s convinced is a real and present danger. Theo doesn’t understand enough to convince it otherwise. It seems he doesn’t need to think of a better argument, though, as the dragon lets out a deep sigh, appearing to drop the topic. He can tell it wants to leave this place. It just doesn’t believe it’s possible, and it’s frozen by fear.

He’s again struck by how much this dragon reminds him of himself. Freedom is just a few paces away. But something as simple as a doorway, or opening his mouth to greet another living soul feels like climbing a mountain. There’s no reason to trust, to explore, to play. It feels trapped in this cave. Trapped within itself.

When it meets his eyes again, Theo sees that familiar anger there. This time, it’s a low, smoldering blaze like embers. It hates Theo just a bit, simply for the fact that his arrival made it think about the outside world for the first time in a long time. The knowledge of what it's been missing stings more than it thought it ever could. With a half-hearted snarl, it lunges at Theo. Theo gets the sense that whatever this connection between them is, it’s not something the dragon sprouted and nurtured willingly. Everything about this hurts. Theo’s arrival disrupts its entire existence, no matter how empty and dull that existence may be. He feels through their link that more than anything, this dragon wants a distraction. It wants to feel something in its bones and not just be some faceless servant and keeper of dead gods. There’s even envy. Theo has a human form, and that’s something not every creature can have.

Theo lets the dragon tackle him. He curls up around the creature as the pace of their fight slows. Somehow they roll and switch places. Maybe the other dragon wanted it to happen that way. Theo finds himself once again crouched over the smaller black dragon. This time when he gently takes its neck in his jaws, the dragon responds with a submissive, needy whine. Theo lets the human part of his mind take a step back.

Instinct guides him to open his jaws drag his long tongue across the dragon’s scaly neck. He licks up to the dragon’s mouth, his long tongue easily reaching all the way around to its muzzle. Theo continues licking at its snout in an attempt to calm it. The dragon huffs again and makes a half-hearted attempt to get out from underneath him. The movement excites Theo more as he nudges the dragon with his nose and cozies up against it. The dragon startles and turns its head, looking back at Theo.

He laughs nervously and gives it an apologetic slurp behind the ear. He steps back, curious about how he looks when he’s in a form that’s fully draconic. True to his guess, his dick has prominent, intricate ridges and ripples across its surface. They look like waves- maybe not in water, but in cooled lava flow or obsidian. The dragon gives an alarmed yet curious chirp as it takes notice of what’s rubbing up against it. Its head tilts as it looks him over.

While Theo is preoccupied with self-discovery, the dragon grins and topples him. Theo lands on his back with an abrupt squeak. The smaller dragon begins lapping at his sides, tickling him terribly. He snaps his jaws and shakes the dragon off. They lock bodies together once again, squirming and play-fighting with a lot more enthusiasm this time. He doesn’t have to second-guess himself, as the other dragon begins rolling its hips to meet his. He feels as he slips inside the other dragon. The sensation is shocking, but pleasant. The surface of its body is cold, but warmer as he goes deeper. There’s resistance, especially from their size difference.

The other dragon makes a frustrated sound, whining and nipping at his shoulder as it attempts to make their bodies fit together. Theo licks it and sets an easy, steady pace. Its movements are awkward, hurried, needy. He keeps it in line and makes sure it doesn’t hurt itself in its haste with a few well-timed bites or whips from his tail. He’s thankful that he doesn’t feel an immature egg ready to be fired off. He doesn’t want to impregnate the dragon, just have a little fun- make a connection. Maybe it’s not possible to form one while he’s already knocked up, or something has to trigger their formation.

They eventually make it work. Theo doesn’t feel any indication that he’s going to form a knot. That must only accompany an egg. There’s no struggling to take something monstrous in size, and he doesn’t get any indication that this dragon would be down for that right now.

They fuck in just about every corner of the room. With no bed, pool, or nest to anchor their lovemaking session, they end up moving around a lot. Theo eventually sinks all the way in. The dragon responds with a relieved, delighted sound. It wraps its tail around Theo and locks him there. As he pleasures it, the dragon keeps making contented little noises. All his anger from before has faded. The egg settled down a long time ago.

When the other dragon shudders and whines into his neck, sinking its teeth in, Theo licks its face all over. It whines, ready to be done. He goes a little longer just to hear it plead for mercy and rest. After he releases, they lie in an exhausted, fulfilled tangle of limbs. Theo feels completely sapped of strength. His ability to maintain this form is fading.

Scales morph into skin. His tail retracts. Claws turn into nails blunted from biting. Sleep calls to him like an old lover.

Theo yawns and stretches. He’s already beginning to drift off. When he reaches out to take the black dragon in his arms, he could swear he feels soft skin and hair like crow feathers.

Chapter Text

Theo awakens to see his own face staring back at him. He blinks in surprise and sits up. His doppelganger mirrors him, making Theo wonder if there’s some kind of mirror image magic going on. But no, this is clearly someone else. The man yawns, revealing sharp canines just like his own. He tilts his head, then looks between them in shock. His brows furrow as he pokes Theo, looking him over. Neither of them are clean to any degree, but they at least have clothes due to simple enough magic.

“Hey, that tickles!” he complains half-heartedly, batting away the curious dragon. The other responds by sticking his tongue out and tackling Theo, knocking him flat. “Don’t tell me you’re ready to go again?!”

The dragon grins and shakes his head, giving Theo’s cheek a playful lick. He nods his head in the direction of the doorway with an expression of excitement and nervousness.

“Oh... you’re ready to leave?”

The dragon nods again uncertainly.

Theo reaches up curiously, running his fingertips over the other boy’s neck. He shivers and closes his eyes, enjoying the sensation. “You can’t talk yet, can you?” In response, the dragon opens and closes his mouth, attempting to say something. He shakes his head. Wide eyes and a trembling lip tell Theo just how much this is bothering the other dragon.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out. I know someone who might be able to help. Come back to my den with me. It’s a nice flight... you’ll like it.”

He smiles weakly and collapses onto Theo, happily burying his face in his neck. There’s a faint rumble that suggests a purr, but that’s the only sound that comes out of him. They cuddle for a few minutes and just enjoy each other’s company. Even in a humanoid form, the other dragon’s body runs cold. He snuggles up to Theo like he’s a radiator.

The other boy abruptly sits up, tilting his head. He’s staring at Theo’s middle curiously, sniffing the air. Scooting back, he nudges Theo’s shirt out of the way and touches his belly with his nose. His eyes go wide with surprise, guilt, and confusion as he stares at Theo.

“Oh, yeah, I’m knocked up. You didn’t hurt me, just made me a little woozy that time you sent me flying.” The dragon whines pitifully and continues nudging him, curling up over his lower half. “Really, I’m okay. You didn’t know.” He fluffs the dragon’s hair, still amused that they look exactly like each other. “My mate doesn’t mind me being with others. I think they’ll like you, too.”

They lay there as Theo runs his fingers through soft black locks. He can feel the dragon’s heart thundering in his ribcage. “There’s no rush.” It’s strange, looking at a creature that looks exactly like himself in such a vulnerable state. Did he look this small when he was half frozen at the entrance to the cave? He scratches behind the dragon’s ears.

Eventually, he calms down enough for them both to walk out of the cave together. The dragon hovers close to him, so much so that they bump into each other often around curves. Theo doesn’t mind. He notices the way the dragon looks at some of the statues apprehensively as they pass. He supposes a steward of a hallowed, secret place would be close enough to the gods to have a healthy measure of fear toward them.

The dragon becomes more nervous as they get closer to the exit. Theo knows he doesn’t remember when was the last time he ever left, that for a number of reasons this dragon fears the outside. He whimpers as soon as he sees the first dim hint of light from around a corner. It’s not even enough light to see colors by, but it has the dragon closing his eyes and shielding them.

“Ah, guess it’s going to take you a while to adjust to that, huh? I got excited about heading out, but we’re probably going to have to take this slow.”

They do just that, going a few more paces forward until the light strengthens enough to be uncomfortable for the dragon even with his eyes shut. He huffs in frustration and nudges Theo. Taking the hint, Theo pulls him close. They sink against the wall. Theo gets comfortable, and the other dragon curls up against his chest, burying his face against his shirt. His heart is pounding again. The dragon breathes in deeply, seemingly taking in Theo’s scent, and becomes visibly less tense.

Theo pets the dragon’s head and begins rambling quietly about anything that comes to mind. It always calmed him down when Reyn did that. He doesn’t have nearly their knowledge of wild plants, or insect life, or weather patterns. But he knows about the care of old books from ongoing correspondence with Colette. From his upbringing, he knows how to coax dozens of ingredients from the same plants or animal specimens. He knows potions, and magic, and traveler’s tales. The dragon eventually nods off. When he awakens an hour or so later, he looks much more at ease. He blinks a bit and lifts his head, only squinting a little now.

“Ready to go out?”

The dragon nods excitedly, jumping up quickly and pulling Theo to his feet. His heart does a flip. He can't help but smile. The other dragon might not speak aloud, but his actions leave nothing unsaid. Whereas Reyn is confident, flirty, dominant, and intelligent, this dragon is boisterous, nervous, and playful. He wears his emotions on his sleeves, and it's incredibly endearing.

When they reach the exit of the cave, they're both relieved to see slanted, afternoon light. The dragon makes a happy chuffing sort of sound, pulling Theo out of the cave. His eyes are wide as he morphs into his dragon form, darting around and taking everything in. Theo laughs and stands with his arms crossed, watching the other's antics. Everything is fascinating to the dragon. He sniffs flowers, smiling in delight even as he sucks up pollen and lets out a powerful sneeze. He transforms back and forth between his true form and his borrowed one as easily as if he were putting on a familiar shirt.

Eventually, the dragon looks back at the entrance to the cave system. His expression is complicated but determined. Theo remembers agreeing that they ought to seal it off as the best defense against robbers. A few simple wind spells send rubble tumbling down over the entrance. The other dragon supplies a few illusion and shielding spells. It's simple, and they're done with it in a matter of minutes. The dragon frowns, as if processing how easy it was to leave everything behind.

He shakes his head, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at Theo.

“I bet you're looking forward to feeling the wind on your face. I doubt you've ever ridden on a dragon's back before, but I promise... it's really fun. First time I can ever remember being happy was on the back of a dragon.”

Theo transforms. The other dragon approaches with mild apprehension, nudging him tentatively. He circles him a few times. Theo stays still, crouching and letting the other do his thing. When he climbs on, Theo adjusts to help him settle in the right spot. The dragon grips his horns tightly. Theo can feel him shaking. It's an interesting way to come full circle. He stands slowly and walks around for a bit until he feels the other dragon settle.

“There’s nothing quite like this feeling. I didn’t trust anyone in the world the first time I went up. It was out of necessity, and it was trust or die in that case. It was terrifying but... freeing. Don’t worry, I won’t drop you. I’d like to rough you up again, but not at that kind of height.”

He feels the other dragon’s body shake with a silent laugh. Theo’s walk turns into a gallop as he takes off. The other boy grips his horns and digs his legs into Theo’s sides, getting as low as possible. Theo hears him gasp as soon as they clear the treetops. He keeps a tight grip, but Theo feels it loosen almost as soon as he sees the view.

“Thought you might like it up here. Welcome to Srivena. I hate all the damn snow, but... even I have to admit there’s nice things about it. Are you okay if I turn?”

He releases one of his hands and pats Theo’s horn, which he takes as a sign that he’s comfortable enough for Theo to do some acrobatics. Starting with a light turn, he lets his body lean just a little. The hand quickly goes back to its previous death grip. The boy is still as Theo glides through the air. He makes sure to activate the stone in his gut to keep them both warm despite the winter chill. They climb higher until they can see the entire province and beyond. There are sprawling cities, cliffs that end at an endless ocean, wandering forests, and lazy, wild plains.

Theo feels the other dragon slowly sit up. His legs stop squeezing quite so tightly as he realizes he doesn’t have to hold on as hard as he thought. Slowly but surely, he lets go of Theo’s horns. Theo glances back just long enough to see the black dragon has his arms out to the side. His eyes are closed, and there’s a small yet blissful smile on his face.

A tiny, unsure sound comes out of his mouth. It builds in sincerity and boldness, becoming an elated laugh. It’s a beautiful sound that Theo hopes to hear more of. He whoops as Theo whips his tail and dives. It’s the most wonderful gift. He thinks he’ll treasure that sound forever.

A strange thing happens that he’s never experienced with Reyn. The other dragon begins using minute movements of his limbs to guide Theo. They move in such perfect sync that they feel like one organism. Theo does barrel rolls, hairpin turns- any and every daring move the other requests.

He remembers learning through their connection that the dragon didn’t remember his own name. This experience feels too special not to commemorate with something.

“Maybe you’ll want to pick one for yourself, but I think I just found a name for you.”

The dragon sits up, then leans forward eagerly, pressing his cheek to the crown of Theo’s scaly head, waiting.

“You look so at home up here with the wind in your face. There’s a name I read in a story that a friend sent me- it means west wind. How do you feel about Zephyr?”

Although the other dragon doesn’t respond with words, his approval comes pouring through their link in a river of the purest happiness.

Chapter Text

Everything feels right as Theo and Zephyr soar through the skies. They feel elated and free, trading emotions back and forth across their link and building off of the feedback. Everything feels so warm, so bright...

Theo squints as he turns, getting blasted with the rays of golden hour. No, that’s not right... the sun is behind him. He tilts his head, confusion apparent in his body language. Zephyr picks up on his change in mood. He leans forward, resting his arms over Theo’s head and watching with interest.

“That... doesn’t look right...”

The sky up ahead is unnaturally bright for how late it is in the day. It’s not the gentle light of golden hour. This is a punishing brilliance like a magnesium fire. Suddenly, he feels recognition and alarm from Zephyr. The other boy quickly steers Theo away from the blinding haze. When Theo probes as to why they’re turning, the other boy shuts down. It’s like his mind has become a solid wall.

“Alright, we’ll go around it. You’re right. That definitely doesn’t feel natural.”

Theo turns left, intending to go past the light and take the long way home. It might take a day by flight, if that. Zephyr shows no signs of settling down. He sits still as the idols he used to guard, watching the light like it was a living thing. Theo flies in as straight of a line as possible. He keeps parallel to the haze. Around twenty minutes later, he starts to understand why Zephyr hasn’t stopped staring at the light.

It’s expanding. When they first turned, it was probably three miles away. Now it’s no more than a mile to their right. Zephyr whimpers and nudges him with his right leg. They continue diverting their path. Theo knows that if they keep going, eventually there will be a mountain range to their left that will be too high to fly over. They either need to beat this haze back to the den, or turn back and outrun it going left. He gets the sense, despite Zephyr’s silence, that they desperately do not want to end up caught in whatever that is. However, if it’s advancing, he doesn’t want Reyn to get caught up in it- maybe even trapped inside the cave with no way out.

Theo picks up the pace. He’s breathing heavily as he puts every muscle into overdrive. The wall of light continues to encroach on their flight path.

He feels a presence in his mind- and it isn’t Zephyr.

“You are not ready. Do not let yourself get caught in the light. It is the symptom, not the source. In time... I will prepare you to face it.”

Theo startles so strongly that he drops in altitude. After he rights himself, he checks with Zephyr. It seems like the other dragon heard the voice as well, or at least an echo of it.

“Any idea what that means?”

Theo receives a vision of the altar room. It doesn’t focus on any particular god.

“The one who chose me is trying to warn us? Guess I should listen to them...”

He keeps up the breakneck pace, determined to get home. Just as he feared, the light reaches them right as they’re pushed up against the mountain. Soon they’ll be swallowed by it. There’s an acrid smell in the air. Not like death or blood, but like the harsh concoctions that his master used to clean things with. He’s reminded of ammonia or alcohol. It’s nauseating. The smell invades their noses to the point that it feels like it’s scratching at his mind.

Theo feels Zephyr sway. Panicking, he looks around for somewhere to land. Is Zephyr about to pass out? Before Theo can touch down, he feels it, too. It’s like his body is being purified by the power of the sun. It’s too harsh, too unforgiving. The light feels like vengeance and misplaced judgment. Or maybe he’s just losing his mind. Theo can’t puzzle on it for long as he plummets to the ground.

---

He’s not sure how much time has passed when he eventually recovers from his crash landing. Theo sits up and hisses in pain, clutching at his side. He’s shocked to feel fresh cotton bandages under his fingertips. His vision swims. There’s a lingering burning feeling in his nose. Worst of all, everything looks like a firework was set off inside his skull. And high up above... the moon and stars are out.

“I’m glad to see that the fall did not injure you too badly. You are a resilient one, aren’t you?” an unfamiliar female voice says.

Theo scrambles away from the voice, trying to lock in on it. It’s hard to focus on anything with that damn haze in the air. A delicate, cool hand touches his cheek and turns his face. A tall, elegant, and immaculately dressed woman is bending down to peer at his face.

“Who the hell are you?”

She frowns lightly. It’s hard to guess her age, but the action emphasizes faint lines around her lips. There’s a strange, ageless quality about her. The woman sighs and pushes long, ash-colored hair behind her ears, crouching down in front of him.

“Just a passerby. I saw you fall from the sky. I tended to your injuries while you were out.”

“What of my companion?”

The woman’s face is a mask of crafted innocence. “I saw only you. On my way to you, I searched the area, but found no others.”

“She’s lying.”

Theo digs his nails into his palms to try to focus and keep a neutral expression. He’s not sure what his god represents, but he trusts his unknown patron more than this woman with a blank face.

“He must have gone on ahead, then,” Theo responds carefully. He narrows his eyes. “How are you not bothered by the light? Aren’t you nauseous?”

She just tilts her head as if she doesn’t understand the question. The woman helps him up, ignores him, and simply replies, “My name is Viola.”

“Theo.”

The two of them walk together in the direction of the lair. Theo doesn’t think he wants to lead this woman straight there, so he might stop at the town and go back to the den on his own. He really hopes Zephyr is able to pick up the scent of Theo’s trail and follow it back home. He’s worried about exposure to the elements if he can’t carve a path in his dragon form.

Viola doesn’t volunteer much information, other than to offer to walk with him as an extra set of eyes to look for Zephyr.

“So, what are you doing in the middle of a dead forest in winter?” Theo asks, not expecting to get an honest answer. Still, his master had taught him that even lies reveal useful information.

Viola hums thoughtfully. That distant, vacant expression never leaves her eyes. She never quite looks at him when she’s speaking. “I am looking for someone as well.”

“And... what is that person doing out here...?”

“They’re lost,” is all she offers. Her voice is quiet, carefully scrubbed of all emotion as they push through the trees. Theo has to keep stopping to catch his breath. The light is likely extra nauseating due to his connection to dark magic, being a black dragon, and being connected to a death god now. It worries him that she doesn't even seem to register it, let alone mind it.

The land is as bright as noon on the summer solstice despite the late hour. It's probably close to ten or eleven PM. He wonders if this is something briefly passing through or something more sinister. He doesn't bother with asking. The woman has her guard up, despite her casual manner.

“Where were you headed before? Or where were they supposed to be?” He asks instead.

Viola crouches down to check something in the dirt. “Those are two different questions.” She runs her fingers across a track dragged through some loose soil. “I originally intended to head back home with him- my husband. Things didn't go according to plan.”

“Sorry to hear that,” he responds, crossing his arms. “I'm worried about being away from my companion too long. He doesn't know this area. If I tried to fly in this would I crash again?”

“In what?” She responds dreamily. When she stands up and brushes off her pants, her eyes are unfocused and far away. Reyn would say she had graveyards in her eyes.

He lets the topic drop. They continue searching. Theo stops, realizing something odd.

“Why do I hear birds?”

“It's a forest... full of life. It should be full of birdsong.”

He shakes his head. “No, it shouldn't. This forest doesn't have a caretaker. It's been dead for years. Besides, it's nighttime. There shouldn't... be any... birds,” he breathes, freezing in place.

Theo swallows hard as he tilts his head back. He's assaulted with a terrible sense of wrongness before he even registers what he's looking at. Perched on a branch just above him is a bird with golden feathers. It's dirty and dingy. Its wings are dotted with holes and marred by bite marks. The lower half of its beak has a crack in it. Its eyes are glassy and milky.

The bird tilts its head and chirps, regarding him curiously.

Theo stumbles backwards until he hits a tree. “What the fuck is that?”

Viola doesn't stop walking, nor does she look at the bird. He's suddenly seized by the terrifying, desperate need to get away from this woman. He doesn't know what her deal is, but the fact that she's not bothered by animal carcasses walking around covered in dirt and rot tells him that she's got a screw loose. Just when he's about to tell her he would rather search for Zephyr on his own, he sees a crumpled figure on the ground.

“Zephyr!” Theo calls out, racing over. Viola finally shows a little of genuine emotion. She follows him with a look of relief. They both crouch down.

The other dragon is banged up pretty badly. He's dirty and scraped up. Upon closer inspection, Theo sees scratches on his side. Before he can protest, Viola kneels down next to him. At first, he's worried that she might try to blast the dragon with some kind of light magic he's not compatible with. But what comes out is a gentle, mournful grey that drifts over his side like mist. The wounds on his side knit together easily. After a few minutes, his breathing becomes more even.

Zephyr sniffs the air, likely getting that same burning, intense odor that Theo is picking up. His eyes fly open. He scrambles backward instinctively just as Theo did. Instead of questioning the woman and getting his bearings, Zephyr bares his fangs and hisses.

“Hey, what’s-” Theo starts. His words die in his throat as he sees the strange reaction that the black dragon is having. His lips peel back as he grinds his teeth, a growl building up. Viola steps back with much less caution than she ought to be showing. Before Theo can process what’s happening, Zephyr lunges at her in a flurry of snapping teeth.

He lands on a patch of dead leaves with a confused “ooph” as Viola disappears. His head whips around. Still snarling, he scans the trees for any sign of the odd woman. When at last he’s confident that she’s no longer with them, Zephyr regards Theo with suspicion. He stands up and circles Theo. With his nose to the air, he takes a few whiffs of his scent. Satisfied, he turns around and begins walking quickly in the direction they had originally been traveling.

“Hey, wait up! We need to stay together!”

Zephyr responds with a chirp that seems to suggest Theo needs to keep up- the less time they spend here the better. Theo increases his pace so that they’re walking quickly side by side. “Have you seen them yet? The animals?” When Zephyr shakes his head in confusion, Theo sends him over an image of the rotten yet animated bird. Zephyr stops so quickly that Theo runs into him. When their gazes meet, the other boy’s face is pale. He sends an image to Theo, much calmer than the last time he attempted to share this.

Theo sees a radiant, glowing god. He’s in a glass casket with the most elaborate burial shroud he’s ever seen. His body is in suspended animation as though he’s sleeping. Theo sees strange, unnatural magic around him from some kind of ritual. The view zooms in on the god’s face as his glassy, lifeless eyes snap open. Reflected in the glass is Viola, holding a beating heart. The vision bursts into sickening, blinding light as the ground around the coffin bursts open, freeing the dead under the earth.

Chapter Text

“What... the hell?” Theo asks, holding his head as he comes crashing back to the present. “So a death god, previously assumed dead, was... brought back to life?”

Zephyr nods anxiously.

“That’s not possible.”

Bad idea, not impossible, floats over their link in a form halfway between images and words.

“Oh fuck me,” Theo mutters. Zephyr sticks his tongue out, a little of his playful nature coming back as he tugs Theo along the path again. Later!

Theo bumps the dragon and shakes his head. “You’re gonna be a handful, aren’t you? So... this god came back Wrong, then? No wonder why that woman was so dodgy. Wait, was she a goddess?!”

Zephyr nods emphatically, jumping over a rotten log crawling with equally desiccated beetles. He doesn’t receive any other information from the dragon, focused as he is on getting out of the light. Theo is exhausted, but the brightness of the false day is messing with his internal clock.

“Hopefully Reyn can dig up some more information.” Theo feels Zephyr's mood lighten a bit at the mention of Reyn. He's glad the dragon is looking forward to meeting them.

They continue along at as efficient of a pace as they can manage. Eventually, they reach the edge of the blight. It seems to have changed course or found what it was looking for. When Theo and Zephyr emerge on the other side of it, they suck down grateful lungfuls of air. It immediately soothes the burning in their lungs, noses, and eyes.

“Whatever that was, I felt nauseous inside my bones. You?”

Same, Zephyr responds, panting while he nods. He collapses against a tree. Sweat rolls down his brow despite the snow on the ground, as though the unnatural light had made him feverish. The sight of his doppelganger flushed and panting should not turn him on as much as it does.

“All the more reason for us to get back home,” Theo says in what he hopes is a normal tone.

They make good time. In wider spaces, they transform into their dragon guises and gallop along the forest floor. By the time they arrive at the base of the mountain, they're exhausted. They both leap to the cliff that looks out over Reyn's forest, staggering along a few extra feet until their unsteady wings can halt their awkward landings.

Theo returns to his humanoid form and falls to his knees. He feels exhausted down to his soul. The journey that had taken him days, he'd just covered in what he thinks might have been less than one, although the brightness had clouded his judgment. Judging by the heavy panting to his right, Zephyr has shed his dragon form as well.

There's an amused chuckle in front of them. Theo hadn't even heard Reyn approach.

“Ever full of surprises,” Reyn murmurs. He approaches and kneels down in front of the identical boys.

Theo and Zephyr raise their heads. Zephyr looks a little nervous about making an impression, but mostly curious and eager. His demeanor is always more bubbly, more hyper, whereas Theo always looks like he's overdue for a thousand year nap. Reyn looks between them thoughtfully. Theo bites his lip to stifle a giggle. Reyn is up to something, and poor Zephyr is about to get a very embarrassing introduction to the playful dynamic at the den.

“Two Theos? Or does the second one just look like you? Well, I don't want to be rude.” Reyn flashes an innocent smile. “I've missed you so much, my heart,” he says sweetly. He flashes Theo a secretive and scheming look. Theo's eyes widen as Reyn cups Zephyr’s face in his smooth hands.

Zephyr lets out a strangled squawk that sounds like someone wringing out a bird of prey like a washrag. Reyn traces his thumbs over Zephyr’s jaw and cheekbones. After recovering from the initial shock, he melts into the touch of the older dragon, leaning into his hand like a cat. Reyn leans in, dusting his lips over Zephyr’s, waiting for permission. The dragon shifts forward, bracing one hand on the cool rock while another clumsily grasps at Reyn’s tunic. Reyn kisses Zephyr slow and sweet, welcoming him to his new home in a way only Reyn could get away with.

When Zephyr finally pulls back from the steamy kiss, his pupils are blown. He licks his lips, blinking rapidly as he turns to look at Theo. A comical expression of delight paints his face, tongue lolling happily as he sends a message mentally to the both of them, Oh, I really like Reyn!

Reyn pretends to be shocked, placing a hand over his mouth. He looks perfectly, honestly mortified.

“Oh dear. Did I accidentally kiss a stranger before my own mate? Let me make it up to you, my love.”

Before Theo can react, Reyn grabs him by his shirt and pulls him in close for a kiss that would set any church within the province alight. Zephyr manages to make an amused whistling sound, leaning back to observe them shamelessly. He licks his lips, already shockingly comfortable with their dynamic and showing no sign of jealousy or awkwardness. Theo's happy sounds are swallowed up by Reyn as they reunite. When the kiss ends, he leans forward and rests his forehead against his mate's.

“I missed you,” Theo breathes, eyes fluttering shut. He feels relief in every cell of his body, sinking in more with every minute spent at home where he belongs.

“And I, you. I can see we have much to catch up on. Let's come inside and get comfortable.”

Theo follows Reyn inside. Their hands slip together, fingers interlacing without a word. Zephyr lets out a quiet trill and leans into Theo while they walk along. He pulls the other dragon close, wrapping an arm around him. Each sound he makes is quiet, unsure, but Theo feels Zephyr’s body rumbling with the force of a purr building up.

“Your new companion is adorable,” Reyn remarks honestly. “He's a good complement to you.”

Zephyr gives an embarrassed and flattered chirp, hiding his reddening face in Theo's shoulder. Theo ruffles his hair and turns to Reyn.

“As it turns out, once he's not cooped up in a creepy-ass cave, he's kind of goofy. We have... some kind of connection. I'm not sure if it goes beyond us both being black dragons.”

Reyn smirks and raises an eyebrow knowingly. “Judging by his appearance, you two made more of a connection than that,” he muses.

Theo chokes out a babbling, nonsensical response, blushing to match his doppelganger.

“You know, I could adopt your appearance as well and the thr-” Reyn's suggestive comment is cut off by Theo unlocking their fingers to slap his hand over his lover's lewd mouth.

“Little early for that! And we have things to talk about.”

As much as he's enjoying this playful reunion/introduction, they have pressing things to discuss. They come to a stop in one of the sitting rooms of the library. There's a skylight in this room, allowing for natural light to accent the sconces on the walls. The smell of books immediately makes Theo feel at home. He lets out a slow breath, sinking into a plush chair. Reyn sits diagonal to him on another chair, cheek resting thoughtfully in his palm.

Zephyr looks around in confusion, unfamiliar with conventional seating. He lets out a confused, mildly frustrated huff. Theo waits for him to settle down before they start speaking. After circling the room for a bit, Zephyr grabs a cushion from the sofa. He plops it at Theo's feet and curls up in a croissant shape, resting up against Theo's legs and purring quietly. His posture is relaxed, but Theo and Reyn can feel his full attention on them, a mental image binding their thoughts together to enhance the conversation. Theo has never seen glimpses of Reyn’s thoughts like this. The way Zephyr is speaking with them makes it feel like Theo is hearing echoes of Reyn's thoughts, or seeing their reflection in a mirror.

“Where do I even start...” Theo murmurs, scratching his temple thoughtfully. His head and lungs are still itchy from the brightness.

Zephyr lifts his head, confirming permission to jump in. He uses images to convey their journey, showing more detail once the light appeared. Reyn's face remains impartial. He listens quiestly, not interjecting or clarifying. Only when he receives an image of the god being revived does a startled expression cross his face.

“To say this is troubling news would certainly be an understatement. You said the blight seemed to be following you specifically?”

“That, or we had really bad luck. Why... would it be following me?”

Reyn bites his lip, deep in thought. “I don't have an immediate answer for that. I have theories, but they need investigating before I give us all something else to worry over. For now, I suggest we don't stray far from the den until we figure out what's going on.”

Theo nods, needing no convincing. “We'll only go out night, when we can easily tell if the light is artificial or not. I get the feeling it won't find us this far inside the mountain. I mean, nothing else has so far.” Saying it aloud reassures him, as if speaking it makes it true.

They all exchange a few more thoughts on what happened. Whatever Reyn recognized in the vision, he doesn't feel inclined to reveal until he gathers more information. Reyn leaves to pull some books from the shelves. He returns some time later with a cart of books, tea, and dinner. The three of them eat while they pore over history and theology books, each having a vague idea of what they're looking for. They work long through the day and night, stopping to eat and take care of themselves. Eventually, it becomes apparent that they aren't going to get answers immediately. Whatever has been set in motion is something too wrong, too unnatural to be recorded in any mainstream text.

Reyn rises and goes to Theo where he is sitting on the sofa. He takes the open textbook from his lover's limp hands and sets it aside. Theo blinks slowly, trying to get his eyes to focus on Reyn. Reyn smoothes Theo's hair back, tucking a long lock behind his ear. He presses a gentle kiss to his forehead, then each of his cheeks and his lips.

“Want me to carry you to the bed? I think we ought to call it a night,” he whispers, careful not to wake Zephyr. The younger boy is curled up on the couch, draped over Theo like a blanket. Reyn runs a hand over Zephyr's side, smoothing his hair as well with a feather-light touch. Zephyr shivers and smiles in his sleep, looking perfectly at peace.

“I would feel like a monster if I woke him up. I'll stay here if you don't mind?”

Reyn smiles and shakes his head. “I don't mind at all. He's lovely. I'm happy you brought him here. He seems happy, too. I see a lot of happy days in our future. Get some rest, my love.” He kisses Theo once more for good measure before departing for bed.

Theo takes a deep breath, trying to process everything through the haze of drowsiness around him. They set something in motion, or were the last puzzle pieces of a greater picture someone else was assembling. That much he knows. For now, though, all he wants to focus on is the feeling of soft hair run through his fingers, and the gentle rise and fall of Zephyr's chest as he sleeps. His calm is contagious. Theo feels a comfort, a feeling of fulfillment, that feels so right. They'd all instinctively known that the three of them would just work even without having met yet. Maybe it was a dragon thing. With everything Theo was discovering about his true nature, and how he wanted to show and receive love, he felt more and more like the person he wanted to be.

He smiles, thinking how his past self could never have imagined having not one but two people to curl up with at night. It was a beautiful thing. Every day was something to look forward to. The problem of the blight felt further and further away with each passing moment. He wanted his family, and he wanted to curl up in the safety of their home.

Despite their frantic research, it would be many, many months before they found enough answers to allow them to make a move and take back their forest and the infected lands surrounding it. As Theo's belly grew, it became increasingly apparent that certain things would require urgent attention before their next adventure could begin.