***I'm hitting the pause button to back time up a few weeks as we look elsewhere for a little while. Don't worry, this is not far from the mountain where the others live. I also need to explain a couple of things.
To me, the fact that I have to explain outside of a story is an indication of failure as a writer, but I'd rather do this than leave readers in the wilderness wondering what the heck just happened.
Yuan is half-human and has three forms to choose from. In the largest - which looks something like this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quetzscale1.png - Yuan is a male, a little larger than the one in the picture. In the middle form, she can be either, and there's always the original human female form as well.
You'd think that would lead to some interesting situations, but she's quite lonely most of the time.
Just so you know - if it matters - there is some fooling around in this chapter and some of it is male-male, but to a human observer, if that were possible, you and I would likely never know it anyway. These things have one opening like birds do. That's what is referred to as a cloaca in this. It's a single opening, though in some species (the dragons in this since it's convenient to the story) there is a penis as in turtles and crocodiles.
There. All done. 0_o
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Book of the Dragon Part 9
Yuan guessed that she'd been right about a few things, anyway.
Beyl'eth's male had eyes for little other than her body, it seemed. He'd come to claim her as Narreth had said that he would, but to her, it hadn't been the same as what they'd had before. He'd seemed to like the effort that she'd made at becoming as close to being a Tarkroth as she could as far as that went, but after the first and only time, he'd made no effort since.
Every time that she looked, they were together and usually mating. If they weren't, they were sleeping. Yuan slept in the dwelling far down the ledge, not wanting to hear them. The one time that she'd managed to summon the courage to ask -- and that had been after almost a week -- Beyl'eth had almost snarled that they weren't finished.
Yuan stood in shock, and Beyl'eth knew what she'd done and pushed Ayt'han off to try to mend this, but the damage had been done and Yuan had no reply to make. The tear in her eye said it all.
They'd both gotten up apologizing and Yuan knew that they were sincere, but she also knew that this wasn't completely due to their hearts and their minds. Their bodies were voting in a big way and she guessed that it was needed. She'd begun to walk away, but they'd followed, trying to get her to stop so that they could plead with her. Yuan had a fair idea that the trouble was mostly a biological drive -- the last Tarkroth's bodies demanding to mate. She could even allow for that and she had, but after most of a week and to be snarled at, ...
She looked down, not listening as she thought about a way to make this a little more fair, and she knew that she'd made a promise to her friend that she wouldn't show her human form to him again. Yuan was almost certain that if she went to that form, it would likely even things up, but what was the point if no matter what they said they wanted, they needed to do this? She'd already seen a look on Beyl'eth's face that she never wanted to see again. She snorted to herself a little bitterly.
She'd tied her own hands.
She remembered what Narreth had said about asking her own question to him. They looked at her as though she'd lost her mind as she'd looked up at the ceiling of the overhang and laughed bitterly. She had a wish to ask him the question twice, once as she looked then, and once as Yuan the human girl. She was fairly confident that while his words might be the same both times, she'd see something far different in his eyes then if she asked in her human form, and she doubted that he could help it, so she changed then.
It was harder to speak like this, as the leathery-winged beast, but she managed it a little.
"Not what you want?" she asked, and the answer was plain in his eyes. She turned and began to move slowly away toward the other end of the ledge in her ungainly way.
Beyl'eth kept following. She was in tears herself for what she'd done. "Please Yuan, I'm so sorry. It came out of me before I knew it and -- "
"I know," Yuan replied, not looking at the demon as she continued on, "this cannot be done, what we wanted. I see this now. I have what is important to me, that you are happy, but it is very empty as well. You have your mate. I wish to be alone now. I need to consider."
"Wh-what are you talking about?" the Rohn asked.
Yuan turned then and lifted her head higher, "I believe you, Beyl'eth. I know that you are sorry. I am as well, but I am happy for you.
I need to think. There is no place for me here, and all that I do now is waste my time. Neither of you wish me harm, but I can be just as alone anywhere else, and I would not have to listen to your joy."
She smirked, "I was sent here to kill ones like you."
She turned away again, and this time, the Rohn didn't follow.
When Yuan reached the dwelling where her belongings were, she changed to walk into the door and then she sealed it so that there was no doorway. When she reached the room where they'd slept when they'd first arrived, a cold and sick dragon carrying what she was sure was no more than the dead and frozen body of her friend, she wrapped herself in her blankets and sat against the wall weeping softly.
After a time, Yuan looked across the room and created a surface like a mirror and then she brought forth two small points of light, both of them shrouded in fog to soften the light that they gave off. She stood up and looked at herself.
She decided that she liked the shape of the Rohn dragon-girl, but she now saw no need to restrict herself to the size that she had out of consideration for Beyl'eth, so she'd changed herself again so that her height was now what felt a lot better to her for many things -- flying while in that form for one. She stood at about five feet, nine or ten inches and she liked that better.
She was still a little lanky-looking, but she'd allowed for a bit more muscle, thinking that it looked a bit better and kept her from looking like a stick thing while retaining a willowy feel to her shape at the same time. After a long period of quiet thought, she added just a little to her hips and her breasts, though not a lot. She'd liked what she saw in the reflective surface, she just thought it still looked a bit too thin, so she'd made the additions.
As she turned and looked at everything, she saw the striped markings of the Rohn on the skin that she'd tried so hard to make smooth for them. It made her sigh. Despite her strong desire to belong, she couldn't see that the effort had brought her any return.
Yuan frowned, deciding not to think about it or she'd likely start to cry again. She didn't need to be reminded that she was still all alone.
She shook her head quickly and the markings were gone -- the dark gray replaced by another color which came to her mind. She liked this better, though she decided to keep the light eyes for now at least, and she stood for a time admiring her blue-black skin. It looked a little like a soft satin robe that she'd had a long time ago.
But she thought that if she was to go on searching, she'd feel a little better if she had a bit of protection, and in a second, the soft satin sheen was replaced with the tiny glints of millions of little scales. She ran her hand over her belly and up to one breast, liking the feel. She could still feel everything this way, and she still felt soft, and anyway, she thought, this was more natural for her.
The last thing that she'd done was make it easier to be a male this way. Her clitoris could still function, but with only a thought, it could now become a true penis, and though the testicles were still internal as they were in her large shape, she'd taken care of her earlier oversight.
Though she hadn't tried it, she knew that like this, she could deliver sperm -- to her hand, she smirked bitterly. It was just something that she wanted to do, that was all, and it made her feel more complete.
Who knew, she asked herself, maybe one day she might find a stable life for herself all alone somewhere and use what she'd done to impregnate herself, since she could do that now if she wished. She only had to get it inside her lips fairly early on before it finished stiffening. She would likely need to experiment a great deal, but she had time.
The dawn was not far off when she came out of the dwelling carrying her large pack as quietly as she could. She set it down and walked down to find a place to urinate. As she did, she looked a little and noticed that her mound and lips were the same as everything else, and when she was done and walking back for her pack, she thought about the pattern of tiny scales which she couldn't change on herself in her human shape and the way that she'd felt embarrassed to let Billy see that part of her.