When I first started to mature - a boyish girl child becoming a body of soft curves and long legs, I didn't understand how my parents could be disappointed. My mother, for my first few years did not encourage me to so much as brush my hair and I became a bit of a wild child for a few years, Running about with the boys my age like a colt that has never known a halter. By the time I started to truly develop the first aching points of breast flesh on my chest and my hips to fill the promise of a woman's body, I started to notice more and more of my friends parents keeping their boys away from me, that my own brothers trailed after me, and eventually I was never left alone with any of my old friends.
I was almost forced to make friends with girls, to brush my hair, and to dress and look as I "should". In time I even became aware that I was very pretty and well formed. When I was old enough to attend the first autumn Rite I began to put pieces together. The Rite only took place on one day of the year, and it was my birthday. The only thing I did not know, was when they would come for me, and what way my fate would be during the Rite when I came of age.
The first Rite I was an onlooker at, the girl was in a panic and did everything she could to escape. She was executed by the giant lizard who later sent word that the next girl to do so would ensure the destruction of us all. That dragon was red. I remember it well.
Even then I thought she was a complete fool for trying to escape. Not just because of the thought that none can escape a dragon - but because I also wondered who would want to. We all wish for the loss of our maidenhead someday. Why should it be so bad to become the lover of our Lord Drake's kin? They are known for how well they treat those who pass the Rite.
I knew after that first Rite I was witness to that I would be brave. My day on the rock alter I would be a match for the dragon that came for me, and whatever happened, I would not be disgraceful. I would be the pride of my line, my house, my people.
Perhaps my years of playing noble knights and warriors with the boys had rubbed off and made me odd. Perhaps it's just my strange curiosity, always from a distance as we watched the Rite each autumn, wondering what the dragons look like up close. What their scaled hides felt like under ones fingers.
The year I had grown my bright red hair down to the length of my thighs the village priests came to my parents. It was the day after that years Rite and I had completed my 21st autumn. That girl had not tried to escape but had still died, screaming in agony as she was torn by the dragon's hard member that her body simply could not take being entered by. That one had been silver and sent a gift to the girl's family, expressing regret that she'd not survived to be with him.
They asked me if I were still virginal as flesh tainted by a mere man cannot be offered to a dragon. To my embarrassment and horror I was forced to submit to an examination to prove this because my word was not good enough. They took me from my parent's home to the temple for the rest of that year. Part of me resented my year as a fatted calf... The better part of me was fascinated by the things I never knew about the girls taken for the Autumn Rite and that only girls born on the same day as the rite are even considered to be a part of it.
I was given more education than I expected could exist. I was taught without being touched by any man's hand about the many... Acts I could attempt to perform in order to appease the dragon survive his attentions. They are more intelligent than we - not beasts at all, and I might prolong my life and ease my own suffering if I could learn how to accept such attentions and my body would receive.
The more I learned about the dragons though the less I became afraid that I would die from his attentions. All I wanted was to look this being in the eye and offer myself bravely. Many girls I understand spend their last year among fellow humans trying not to think of what was to come and even actively avoid trying to prepare themselves. Me? I spent my time strengthening my resolve. Reading. Exercising. Teaching myself that I was brave.
I spent hours and hours a day exercising... I don't just mean my limbs. I was taught much about controlling my inner body. The priests, the midwife and the town whores all spent time explaining how to move the muscles inside my own body. To tighten the sacred channel that leads to my womb and strengthen it just as a swords man works to strengthen his arms. I was taught that the dragon might not choose my womanly entrance at all, and I was to prepare my ass to submit to him if he desired it instead. A few girls have lived through the first use only to be destroyed physically by the second, or died when it was chosen as the first.
A series of polished rods were given to me to wear, mostly at night as I slept, to train my body to further and further stretching. The smallest the size of my smallest finger, the largest nearly as big as a drinking horn. I was left to my own devices as it were and was never asked if I'd been making use of them. My fate was my own to control in this one respect.
Those nights I spent dreaming of my Dragon. I would sleep on my belly in my little room at the temple, with my body achingly full as I tried to accustom myself to the foreign object inside myself, wondering if there was any possibility that I could please a dragon by offering such a thing to it. I wondered what color he would be and how his scales would feel on my body. And yes, of course I wondered how much it might hurt to die beneath him. That doesn't mean I was scared or unwilling. Just that I wondered, and, would often become aroused and moist in these musings as I fell asleep, my hips rocking on their own moving the rod held within me.
The equinox morning I spent chilled, and had my last breakfast as a maiden girl. I was 21 and ready for the Rite. The day was grey and cold when the priest took away my clothing to replace it with a lightly belted white robe that was only to be worn for the walk to the Alter. I fought the urge to feel small, to try and hide my body or be modest. I forced my chin up and head high... Inside, my bravery wavered when faced with my village all standing along the street as I was led through town and to the stone alter. Some small part of me resented these people who were once my friends and family. Yes, give me to the dragon. YES. that's fine. Do not attempt to debase me or leer at me as though I were yours to look on. I'm HIS; I do not belong to you people anymore. I had even taken pains to convince one of the attending women to remove all of my body hair during the ritual bath. Not just my legs and arm pits you understand, my sacred petals were as smooth as the day I was born, and as the robe moved in the breeze, anyone looking knew as much.
