Waking in the morning Owa found he was alone in the pile of bedding they had slept on. Hearing voices from outside the tent, he got up and looked out between the flaps.
Anna was sitting on a blanket by the fire talking with Gren, Barwen, and Luskleor. A delicious aroma told Owa that breakfast was ready to be eaten. Dressing hurriedly, he went out to join them and get some food.
"Good morning." Anna called as she saw him come out. "I was wondering if you were going to sleep all day."
"This is fascinating Owa." Luskleor told him. "Did you know that Anna knows quite a lot about elven magic?"
"No" Owa answered him. "We had only had about a minute to really talk when you knocked her unconscious."
"Well I did stab him." Anna said with a grin as Luskleor hung his head. "It's ok Luskleor." She reassured him. "We have already forgiven each other," she looked at Owa, "and Owa should just be happy I didn't stab him."
The fire that flashed in her eyes as she said this last had Owa feeling that maybe Luskleor wasn't wrong to fear her a bit.
She knew about elven magic did she? Garak and the mages at the school would want to question her. Owa still didn't like magic, but it was information the orcs needed if they wanted to survive.
Anna having something to contribute to his people's struggle to make a homeland made him feel strangely proud of her. They finished breakfast and packed up to head out for the day. Owa was pleased to be back on the road with Anna riding by his side.
He had never had anyone at home to miss. His first wife had been killed in the first year of the war. A large group of the enemy had come to stomp the newly formed and disorganized orc army into the ground before they could become a threat.
By blind chance they had stumbled upon the village where the wives and children had been staying. Before the orcs knew they were in the area, they had killed every man, woman, and child they could find.
When the orcish army came upon the human force amidst the burning huts and battered corpses of the ones they had loved, the slaughter had been just as horrific. Blind with rage and hate the orcs had swarmed into the enemy, catching them by surprise. The human army had been killed to the last man. The next day the first human fortress had fallen to the orcs.
It had been a long hard road since that day. Owa had fought in more battles than he could count. He had been stabbed, slashed, and crushed. Twice his men had dragged him, broken and bloody, from the field to the healers so they could put him back together with their magic. He had lost many friends and killed hundreds of enemies. Owa was tired of war, but he wondered if he was capable of anything else.
They made good time that day and the next. They were one day out of Orchaven when Luskleor came to talk to Owa.
"Can you come somewhere with me Owa?" Luskleor asked. "I need to show you something. Leave Gren in charge and bring Anna. She should see it too."
"I suppose so Lusk." Owa answered. "But what is it? And why do you need me to see it?"
"I can't tell you," he said. "It is something you need to see though. That, I promise you."
Puzzled by the uncharacteristically solemn dragon, Owa worried about what it could be that the dragon wanted him to see. Luskleor had never been able to keep a secret in his life, but this he simply would not talk about
"I trust you Lusk." Owa finally said. "I will come."
"I will come as well." Anna added. "I can't trust the two of you to not get in trouble without me."
His bodyguards didn't like it, but he decided to leave them behind. This close to Orchaven there was little danger, and he wanted some time alone with his new wife. Luskleor would show them whatever it was and they would head into the city on their own.
Luskleor was acting very strange. They made arrangements to go. They now had two packhorses and enough supplies to stay out a couple days. Then he had waited until everyone had moved out of sight before he pointed the way to go.
He took them west, toward the nearest of the mountains. Owa knew some of the dragons lived in those mountains, including Lusk's mother. But when he asked, the dragon refused to answer.
They traveled the rest of the day and into the night. As Owa was about to tell Luskleor that they had to stop, the dragon looked over at him.
"We are here." Luskleor said nervously. "No one must ever know of what you see here, or where you saw it."
"Agreed," Anna assured him. "I see nothing but the side of a mountain though."
"I think I know where we are." Owa said. "And I will tell no one."
Luskleor looked at them to make sure he held their attention, then he concentrated for a second and a cave opened in the side of the mountain. As the dragon led them into the cave, the entrance closed behind them. All three could see in the dark, at least somewhat, but Owa felt much better when a warm glow of real light began to shine from up ahead.
As they came into the lighted chamber, Owa saw where they were. It was a dragon's horde. Sculptures in more materials than he could name were arranged around the floor of the chamber. Paintings and tapestries hung side by side around the walls. It wasn't the sprawl of jumbled treasures that the old tales spoke of. It was arranged so that every single statue or painting in the enormous chamber could be appreciated by itself.
There were statues of all shapes and sizes. As they entered, they passed near a granite statue of a man and a woman that made Owa blush and Anna grin. A bit further in, as Luskleor led them along, they passed an enormous gold statue that appeared to be a giant phallus. Anna reached out toward it, but Owa slapped her hand away. Luskleor stopped ahead, but Owa was engrossed by a small sculpture of an orc. As he watched, it was slowly changing shape. The orc was shrinking and becoming something else.
Hearing Anna gasp, he looked over at her. She was staring at the wall where Luskleor was pointing a talon at a painting. Losing his train of thought about the orc, he stared. It was a painting of them. All three of them.
They stood in the frame against a dark background. Owa in his armor and holding a battleaxe, Anna holding a sword in one hand with her other hand upraised with a light of some sort shining from it, and Luskleor far in the background. The perspective making him seem small as his scales flashed in the light.
"That painting . . ." Anna started.
"It's a painting of . . ." Owa went on.
"Us." Luskleor finished for them. "But when I asked my mother about it, she said it had been here for as long as she could remember." Seeing the other two had not really understood the point, he added. "Mother is almost two thousand years old, and dragons never forget a work of art."
"But how?" Anna asked. "How could a painting of us have been painted two thousand years ago?"
"I felt it had to be just a strange resemblance at first." Luskleor said. "It wasn't unknown for dragons to have servants from among the orcs, and this could just be a painting that happened to uncannily resemble us." He nodded at Owa. "But when I met Anna I knew it had to really be. The odds are just too improbable."
"Hey if you look close." Owa said, pointing. "The light isn't right, it shouldn't reach . . ." As his finger got close to the painting a spark shot out from it and knocked him back onto the floor.
"Why did it shock me?" Owa got up shaking his head to clear it. "That hurt."
"Think about it Owa," Anna said, scolding him. "Luskleor said this painting had been here at least two thousand years. Did you think it would stay that bright and clean this long without magic protecting it?"
"Thinking has never been his strong point," Luskleor said. "And now I think we should be leaving. This is a kind of community horde, select items left in this place by dragons when they died. And now they know someone is here. It would be painful for me should we be found. And quite possibly deadly for you."
"You brought us here without permission?" Owa couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Stab him Anna. He really is trying to kill me."
They hurried through the tunnel and out of the cave mouth as it opened. They were streaking across the field, Anna back on her horse and the packhorses trailing, when they heard the other dragons come out in pursuit.
"Keep running," Luskleor yelled at them as he turned to fly back. "I will go back and turn myself in. They won't hurt me. Well, they won't injure me at least."
With that, he was gone. Owa knew the dragons would never really hurt Lusk. Pain was a teaching tool they believed in, but not torture. He would get the equivalent of a spanking, just like one used to teach an orc child what was wrong. But Owa couldn't help feeling that he was leaving his friend to face a grim fate.
When they had made it out of the mountains without a dragon popping out of thin air and burning them into cinders, Owa decided they could stop for the night. Rather than set up a big camp they put down bedrolls and curled up together without a fire. A quick meal of jerky and cheese and they were ready for sleep.
...................................................................................
Anna cuddled up against Owa feeling warm and safe as he wrapped his arms about her. She thought about it for a minute and decided she was too tired to play around, unless Owa wanted to.
"Owa?" She asked. "I am feeling really tired. Are we going to sleep?"
Snores were all that answered her.
"Owa?" She poked him. "Owa!"
"Hmm? What?" he yawned in a sleep-muddled voice. "Oh, sorry, I fell asleep."
"I am feeling really tired." Anna said again. "So unless you really want to do something I am going to just sleep."
"Oh," Owa said sounding a bit puzzled. "So I can go back to sleep?"
"Well maybe just something fast," she answered with a glare. "Since you think I am so irresistible."
As he finally got the hint, she felt his hands reaching up under her tunic stroking her breasts. He pinched a nipple with each hand and started gently pulling and twisting them. At the same time, he started kissing the back of her neck, sending tingles down her spine.
As her breath quickened and her skin flushed, he reached down with one hand and untied her belt. She felt him reach inside her pants and stroke her, feeling that she was hot, wet, and ready.
He let her go for a minute, fumbling with his pants, she guessed. He grabbed her by the waist and she felt him enter her from behind. The magic started, changing the tingles and pleasure she felt into a roaring torrent of lust.
