The Princess And The Dragon 2

Elwisia saw a faint flicker of light as she entered the cave. The light quickly vanished, but she strolled over towards where she'd last seen it. "Ah ha! I saw you! Don't hide now." Ducking and weaving past stalactites, she moved through the large, roughly circular cavern.

As Elwisia got closer, she spotted the source of the earlier light. At one spot on the cave floor there were the faintly glowing remnants of a campfire, and crouched behind the campfire was a large quadrupedal creature. As Elwisia approached, the dragon backed away until his tail bumped against the cave wall.

"Why are you moping about in the dark? Did you blow out your campfire when you heard me coming?" Elwisia gestured at the now extinguished campfire. "

Moctus

!" she muttered, and a flash of colourful magic jumped from her hand. The magic pulled together all the embers and reignited the campfire in a flash, filling the cavern with a warm, flickering glow.

The dragon looked surprised by this display of magic, and Elwisia used the improved light to examine the creature. Four legs, two wings, a long slender neck balanced by an even longer, slenderer tail—all the characteristics which were expected on a dragon. The dragon was covered in smooth, flat, dark grey scales, and a pair of short, pointy horns extended backwards from the dragon's head, meaning that this was a male dragon—a drake. He was watching Elwisia with two large dark eyes.

The dragon growled at her. "Grrr... Human knight, if you have come to slay me, you will fail. Leave now or die," he said in a resonant voice which it seemed to originate from his chest as well as his mouth.

Elwisia found it rather amusing how this dragon was trying to threaten her, and doing a very poor job. "I'm not a knight, and I'm not here to slay you. Although I can see why you might get that impression, given all the posters that the king's men have been putting up everywhere." Elwisia reached into an inner pocket of the long cloak she was wearing and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. She unfolded the crumpled poster and showed it to the dragon.

In large text, the poster read: "

BELOVED

PRINCESS KIDNAPPED BY DRAGON. KING OFFERS HUGE REWARD FOR HER SAFE RETURN.

" Below the words was a very dramatic picture of the princess, who was screaming as she was snatched up into the air by a monstrous fire-breathing dragon, with the king and the princess's bridegroom looking up in despair.

The dragon's tail twitched. "If you are here to rescue the princess, I did not kidnap her. Go away."

Elwisia turned the poster around and stared at it. To be fair, the dragon in front of her looked nothing at all like the twisted fire-breathing monstrosity in the picture, which appeared to have been drawn by an artist who had never even

seen

a dragon before.

As far as dragons went, this one here was a fairly small specimen. His main body was about the size of a small horse, though his features were nothing at all like an equine. The tip of his slender tail was flicking from side to side, and his wings were loosely furled on his back; all signs of nervousness, as Elwisia was fully aware. She lowered the poster and frowned at the dragon. "Hmm, you're kind of small, aren't you? Are you young, or are you just a naturally small dragon?"

The dragon bared his teeth, and tendrils of dark smoke wafted out of his jaw. "I'm warning you, human! Leave this cave and never return, or be incinerated!"

"Haha." Elwisia chuckled at the sight of this cute little dragon puffing smoke at her. "So you must be young then. Firebreath? Nice. Won't work on me, but nice try."

The dragon looked taken aback by Elwisia's boldness, but after a moment's hesitation he opened his jaws. "

Moctus

!" he roared, the spellword channelling power through his body and out through his open jaws.

A burst of intense heat and light flew towards Elwisia, yet it went high over her head, and she didn't even flinch. "You missed. Aim more carefully."

The dragon looked increasingly nervous. "I missed on purpose! I was giving you a chance to flee. Leave now, knight, or I will incinerate you."

"I'm not a knight, and you can't incinerate me." Elwisia spread her arms wide. "Go on. Just try."

"Seriously, I'm warning you! Leave or die! It's going to be horrible, and painful, and completely unnecessary!" The dragon glanced to the side, as if he was contemplating fleeing the cave, but then he turned back to Elwisia. "

Moctus

!" he roared again, spitting a blast of fiery magic directly at her.

Elwisia instantly dropped the poster she'd been holding and raised both her hands. "

Moctus del

!" she yelled back, summoning her own magic to redirect the dragon's flame just before it would have hit her. She cleaved the stream of magic in two and directed both beams away from herself, leaving scorch marks on the cave floor and ceiling just in front of her. Dragons could put out huge bursts of magical power, but if there was one thing good about human magicians, it was that their spellwork could be nice and precise. The dragon kept up his firebreath, sending a continual torrent of energy towards Elwisia which she easily deflected.

But then a third voice suddenly shouted out from the side of the cave. "

Prictan moctus

!"

Elwsia realized immediately that the dragon hadn't been looking at the cave exit; he had been looking at someone else inside the cave. A flash of magic came from the side, but Elwisia took it in stride. Keeping one hand forward to deflect the dragon's firebreath away, she waved her other hand to redirect the firebolt which had been tossed at her. "

Pricatan moctus, del

!" The fireball came close enough that Elwisia felt the heat of the flames even through her cloak, but she altered the ball's trajectory and spun it behind her, sending it curving around towards the dragon to splash right onto his rump.

"Ow!" The dragon yelped in surprise, and cut off his firebreath. He curled around and hurriedly waved his wings, fanning out the flames on his rear. Dragon scales were largely immune to magic, but taking a hit from a firebolt would still sting. It took a few seconds for the dragon to put himself out, but now Elwisia had focused her attention on the cave's

other

occupant.

A skinny, freckled young woman with long brown hair was standing by the side, with one hand raised and pointing a magical wand at Elwisia. She was dressed in a simple tunic and long pants, and looked shocked that Elwisia had somehow managed to stand up against two simultaneous attacks.

"Hahaha! Did you just...?" The whole scene made Elwisia burst into laughter, and she pointed at the skinny woman with brown hair. "Lisette, is that you? By the sky spirits, the whole damn kingdom's been searching for you. What are you doing here? How did you let that cute little dragon kidnap you?"

"Don't call me cute!" grumbled the dragon.

"Wait, I don't understand... Elwisia? Is that you?" asked Princess Lisette.

Elwisia flipped back the hood of her cloak, freeing her short, messy black hair. "Indeed! Nice to see you again, your royal highness. I see that you've finally taken some of my lessons to heart. Good effort with that firebolt."

Lisette was frowning. "How did you find me?"

"I wasn't trying to find you. I was trying to find

him

." Elwisia pointed towards the dragon, who was still crouched back on his hindlimbs, as if about to pounce at her. "Don't you give me that look, youngling."

"You know this person?" the dragon asked the princess.

"She's the master wizard at the palace, and used to give me magic lessons," Lisette replied. She turned back to Elwisia and gestured with the wand she was holding. "And I am

not

going back with you."

Elwisia waved her hand dismissively. "Put that wand down, princess, before you embarrass us all again. So how'd you manage to get yourself kidnapped? I thought the stories of your kidnapping were just nonsense made up by your father."

"They

are

nonsense! The king is a liar!" Lisette slowly lowered her wand, then stuck it back into her belt. "I wasn't kidnapped, I ran away."

"Yeah, I can't say I'm surprised. I don't blame you for not wanting to be married to that idiot, Prince Beriton. Plus, your father's a bit of a tyrant," Elwisia said.

"That's treason for you to say! But it's true," murmured the princess. She walked over to the dragon and examined his rear. Taking out her wand and pointing it at the spot where the firebolt had struck him, she murmured a healing spell. "

Rejorin

! Sorry about that, Firn." Lisette patted the dragon on his flank. "You can relax. I don't think Elwisia is our enemy."

"That doesn't make her our friend," replied the dragon.

"Wise of you." Elwisia nodded towards the dragon. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Elwisia the Arcane, master wizard (or wizardress, if you care for that linguistic nonsense). And who are you supposed to be?"

The dragon made a noise which sounded rather like an exasperated sigh. He straightened out of his crouch and sat back on his haunches, in much the way a dog might have. "My name is Firn, son of Ilutrisia and Ashtail, of clan Farser. Though all of my clanmates have flown away..."

"Yes, they have. Every single dragon in this whole country has left, ever since that idiot king began spreading stories about dragons burning houses and stealing cattle, sending dragonslayers everywhere," Elwisia muttered. "So why are you still here, young drake? And why is the princess with you?"

Lisette spoke up. "Firn is my friend. He might be a dragon, but I trust him more than any of those, sleazy, scheming, scumbag

nobles who roam the palace, licking the king's boots and vying for his favour! It's... a bit of a long story how we met, but suffice to say that we've been friends for a long time, and he agreed to fly me out of the country."

Firn shifted his weight between his paws. "Lisette, my life was

far

more straightforward before I met you, and before I let you drag me into all this excitement."

"Shh, you know you'd miss me if I was gone," Lisette said to the dragon, patting his neck again. She turned back to Elwisia. "We've been trying to flee the country, but there's some sort of magical spell sealing off the border. I don't understand much about it, but I think it's to try and track me if I leave. That's why we're stuck here. I don't want to pass the border until I understand what that spell will do."

Elwisia shook her head, unimpressed. She snapped her fingers and muttered a spell. "

Germina lox marlan, viga moctusirin

." Her magic caused the flames of the campfire to leap up and form into the shape of the entire kingdom as if viewed from far overhead, in miniature fiery façade with rivers, hills, mountains, and land. A large shell of magic encompassed the whole country, like a massive dome. "It's not to track you, although that would be an unexpected benefit. That area spell's real purpose is to serve as early-warning against an invasion by neighbouring countries, which your father has grown increasingly paranoid about. He's going mad."

"You created this spell, master wizard?" Firn asked, speaking up curiously.

"I did. It's fantastic work, isn't it? Of course, I thought it was an immense waste of time, so I left it to the Royal Mage Corps to perform implementation after I finished the spellwork design. And they did a patchy, shoddy job, as could be expected from those incompetent magicians. If I'd cast that spell myself, you'd never even have known it was there, until it spotted you leaving and sent an alert right to the palace."

Lisette nodded. "Yes, I get it, Elwisia! You're a master wizard. But since this was your spellwork design, you can help us escape the country, right? I'm not going back to be used as a pawn, and Firn is begin hunted by dragonslayers. Help us elude those tracking spells. Please."

Elwisia snapped her fingers again, and the campfire returned to just being a fire. "I could help. But I have a price."

"I don't suppose I could persuade you to help us out of the good of your heart?" Lisette tried. She gestured over herself, waving over her plain tunic and pants. "I didn't take any of the king's wealth with me, and I can give you no promises of power or favours."

"You didn't even take your tiara? Shame. But there are other things you can help me with." The master wizard looked at the princess and the dragon, standing side by side. "Now as you both already know, the king is having dragons hunted down. I've been searching the realm, and Firn here is one the last dragons who hasn't fled the country yet. Now, being the incredible master wizard that I am, I have need of magical items and objects for potions, spells, and such. And as you probably also know, dragons are

the

strongest magic users known. Even without the slightest bit of training, magic runs thick through dragon blood, which makes it valuable to me."

"You want my blood?" Firn asked, shuffling his wings nervously.

Elwisia shook her head. "No, I don't need your blood. I have other sources to obtain dragon blood, if I needed it. What I need is your seed."

It took a moment for both Firn and Lisette to process what Elwisia had said. Then in unison, their jaws dropped open.

"Wait, what? You want my

what

?" said Firn.

"I beg your pardon?" said Lisette.

Elwisia reached into her thick wizard's robe and removed a small empty glass jar. "If you'd prefer to give me your blood, I guess that would be acceptable too. But there is a different life-infused bodily fluid which a drake can much more readily release, without needing to inflict you with any pain or injury. What do you want to fill this jar with?"

Lisette took the jar from Elwisia. "Hmm, could you actually fill this whole jar with semen?" she asked Firn, who was looking very embarrassed. "Wow. That would be... impressive to see."

"Well, he doesn't need to fill the

whole

jar, just most of it," Elwisia said. "But I bet he could."

"What?! This is... this is not... Are you asking me to prostitute myself?" exclaimed Firn, nervously shifting his weight from paw to paw.

"No, of course not. Prostituting yourself would involve you having sex with me, which would be acceptable but is unnecessary. I was just thinking I'd have you lie on your back, and then we'd just give you some

manual assistance

." Elwisia made an obscene gesture with her hand.

"We? Who's

we

?" Lisette loosely clenched her fist and imitated the obscene gesture which Elwisia had done, which was decidedly not princess-like. "You want me to help you stroke Firn off? Since when was I involved in this?"

"Well, of course you've got to help me, right, Lisette? After all, I'm helping to breach the spells for both of you, so you ought to earn your part of it. Don't let poor Firn do all the work by himself," Elwisia replied. "Besides, you two are already friends. It'll help calm him down and get him in the mood."

Lisette crossed her arms as she thought about it. "Ok, so to be clear, we just do this once, and then you'll help us get through the border. No other tricks or nonsense."

"Yep. Just get Firn to shoot once, catch it all in this jar, and then I'll get you two out of the country," Elwisia agreed.

"And you don't tell anyone else about this," Lisette added.

"Of course not. I keep far bigger secrets than this." Elwisia extended her hand. "Deal?"

Lisette hesitated for a moment, then she uncrossed her arms and shook Elwisia's hand. "Deal."

"Wait, wait, wait. Don't I get a say in this?" Firn asked.

Lisette reached over and pushed Firn's snout shut, and she patted the dragon on the head. "It's ok. We'll do whatever it takes to get out of here."

"Uh, you know... you know..." stammered the dragon. "That jar really isn't that big. I was just thinking, um, I've got a lot of blood in my body. And so it probably wouldn't hurt me that much if—"

"Don't be a spoilsport," Elwisia told him. "This way is easier, faster, and it'll be more fun for everyone. Lie on your back."

Firn shuffled his wings nervously, and his tail wrapped around his paws. "We're doing this right

here

? Right

now

?"

"Where else? What—you want to go out for dinner first? Take a bath? Light some scented candles?" Elwisia let out a bark of laugh. "Hah! Come on. On your back."

With the greatest possible hesitation, Firn found a spot of the cave floor that was smooth and flat, and he lay down onto his side, then rolled onto his back. The young dragon unfurled his wings and wrapped them around himself, blocking his chest and underbelly. "Um..."

"Don't be shy now." Elwisia sat down to the left of the dragon's hindlegs, and Lisette sat down on his right side.

Firn didn't move his wings. "You've done this before, have you?"

"Yes, of course. I had agreements with a few of the dragons living near the capital, but they all flew away when the king first started hunting them down. So that's why I tracked you down." Elwisia reached into her cloak and took out a small cloth, which she wiped her hands with. She passed the cloth to Lisette.

"It's... wet." The princess stared at the cloth, then she wiped her hands too.

"There's an enchantment on that cloth to keep it always wet and clean. I value hygiene." Elwisia took the cloth back, and then she reached for Firn's wing. "Now let's see what we've got here."

Despite the indecency of such matters, Lisette found herself rather curious as her friend's wing was pulled back, revealing his underbelly. As Lisette had seen before, Firn was unlike a male mammal, and he had no obvious external genitalia. Instead, the numerous smooth scales which covered his body grew smaller and smaller on his underside, right up until the lines of scales met in what appeared to be a slit right between his hindlegs. In the many months they'd known each other, Lisette had talked with Firn about many different things and he was definitely a male, yet she'd never dared to probe further and ask why his reproductive anatomy seemed so outwardly androgynous.

Unlike Lisette, Elwisia had no shame or embarrassment. The master wizard used her cloth to quickly wipe down Firn's underbelly, with the casual indifference with which someone might wipe a table. "You're already pretty clean. Good! I like people who take care of their own body hygiene."

"Can I try?" It was unbecoming of a princess, but Lisette had already decided that she wasn't to be a princess any more. She took the cloth from Elwisia and began gently wiping Firn. Then she moved the cloth away and hesitantly let her hand brush directly against the dragon's underbelly. His scales felt smooth, flat, and warm as usual, as well as faintly damp from the cleaning they'd just received. Lisette slowly trailed her finger down Firn's slit. The flesh there felt warmer, and yet softer than usual. Then she glanced up to see his reaction.

Firn was as wide-eyed as she'd ever saw him. He looked awkwardly cute and vulnerable, lying on his back with his wings splayed out, and with his forepaws curled up to his chest.

Elwisia noticed the dragon and the princess staring at each other, and she rolled her eyes. "Is this your first time?" she asked.

Firn snapped his gaze to the master wizard. "Did you expect that I've let a human touch me in such a manner before? It's not a normal sort of thing."

"Perhaps not. But have you allowed another dragon to touch you?" Elwisia asked. Firn remained silent, which was an answer in itself. "Alright then. What about you, Lisette? You a virgin, just like your friend here?"

Lisette slowly nodded. "I never dared to take that step. Just look at me now—the virtuous maiden princess, fleeing my life of royalty."

"Inexperience is not a virtue, but I'm sure you two can work on that in your free time. Let's get on with it." Elwisia pointed at Firn's underbelly. "That's a genital slit. When unaroused, male and female dragons look fairly similar on the outside. Unlike humans, there nothing just dangling about. It's more aerodynamic to keep everything stowed internal when not in use. Go ahead... feel him up."