Dragon Goddess’s chosen

Lord Hargreave took everything surprisingly well. He definitely wasn't happy about the damage but keeping his children safe and finding his wife seemed to be enough for him. He was concerned about the guests and his staff as well but the flood of town guards brought in by the bolt of my plasma breath helped with getting aid to those who needed it. They even managed to find the real Caitlyn bound up in the furthest unused guest rooms in their sweep of the manor for the safety of the foreign guests that were staying there and they arrested the living thieves left behind, including Meti. 

In a quiet moment among all the bustling of the guards all around Kat decided to invite everyone in our group to a “beach day” the day after the next. Saerrei agreed surprisingly eagerly then quickly made the excuse of using some of the time to teach me how to fly. Adrian also agreed to join, Miyuki was more hesitant, however, mentioning that she still had a protection job for the Shogunate nobles she came with.

 

---

 

“At least it's kind of warm today,” I observed softly as I stabbed my poleaxe into the sand in the shade of the cliff overlooking the beach and tossed my bag down next to it. 

“A little hot actually, Ms. heat resistant,” my girlfriend corrected, hugging my waist. “Kind of great for the middle of October, huh? And all of you thought I was crazy~”

“It was a lot cooler last year. Did you look ahead…?” Max shyly asked. 

“Maybe~ but not for the weather.” She replied before dropping her bag and digging through it. After a few moments she produced a small bundle of black fabric with the slightest shimmer of magic from it that she offered to me. “For this”

“And it is…?” My turn to question her and she flashed a playful grin up at me.

“A swimsuit~” I raised an eyebrow at her, taking the surprisingly soft fabric for this kind of clothing and quickly finding that it was in fact two separate pieces.

“R-really, a bikini…?” I grumbled, glancing at her then at Eris and Nicolas (back to wingless after Azion disappeared again) nearby, the two of them working on getting out the food we packed into the bag of holding. 

“What? It's not that revealing and you have the body for it~ You could have had more input if you came with to pick it out with me instead of sleeping.” My girlfriend giggled. “Anyways, we've all seen you with less on.”

“...” I couldn't really argue with any of her points. Anxiety about the thieves guild coming after us led to me not falling asleep until after she got up and didn't end up joining her shopping trip. How revealing it was, hadn't been tested yet but definitely should be less embarrassing than more people seeing me naked.

“Come on, it's going to be fine, just go put it on~” she smiled over at our boyfriend, offering him some clothes as well. “You too.”

“W-what?” he quickly stammered. “I w-wasn't planning on getting in the water…”

“Too late, I already got you some shorts and we’re working on your swimming today too,” she pushed it into his hands.

“Might as well take it, pup, I don't think she's taking no for either of us,” I sighed, sticking my tongue out at her before bending down and kissing his cheek.

“I'm not~ but only cuz he needs to know how to swim, what if we have to take a boat somewhere?” she took the opportunity of me bending down to steal a kiss as well. “Go get changed, ok? Before the others get here.” 

“Fine, come on, pup,” I grabbed Max's hand   with my tail and led him towards the closest boulder I'd be able to hide behind. 

Once in privacy, I dropped his hand and started to strip down, getting a cute surprised squeak from my boyfriend. I wanted to tease him about it but I found that he was following my lead and really enjoyed the view. I had to turn away from him while changing or my heat would have gotten me too excited myself. The issue didn't go away, though, when a shadow later passed over the beach followed closely by a gust of wind carrying Saerrei's scent that made it flare up again. I ignored the warmth it caused me and just focused on finishing tying off the last string on my hip to secure the bottom part of the new outfit. 

“She's coming over,” Max warned softly, already finished in less than half the time I took and peaking out from the boulder.

“It's fine… I'm done now.” I sighed. “You're lucky you're a guy and you can just wear those… fucking string everywhere on this…”

“The m-maid uniforms are probably worse t-tho-” he glanced back at me as he spoke but his attention very obviously got fixated on my chest.

“Worse trying to put on, I guess,” I agreed, then playfully crossed my arms under where he was looking. “But this shows a lot more cleavage than that, huh?” He blushed hard and looked away immediately just as the sound of a lot of shifting sand announced the arrival of the other dragoness.

“Hello! I did not realize you would be here so soo…" She greeted adorably cheerfully for once, coming around the boulder in her true form, then her eyes visibly drifted down a bit before quickly averting.

‘Really? You too?’ I uncrossed my arms, her scent was already affecting me, I didn't need to get her worked up like that and affect me even more.

“W-why didn't you signal for me…?” She stumbled into trying to cover up and recover.

“Good to see you too, Saerrei,” I gave her a polite smile, sticking to common, and decided to give into a very Kat-like urge to tease her. “I didn't realize you were so eager to see us-” 

“D-don't take it like that! I asked you to s-signal for me!” She interrupted, the feathers on all four of her wings poofing up like the fur of a surprised cat. “If I did not wake up on my own you would've missed your chance for me to teach you…” Max glanced back and forth between us with a lost expression.

“Common, please,” I requested while holding back a laugh. “I haven't gotten around to trying to teach them Draconic too."

“... I… I'm not repeating myself” she huffed softly but in the correct language while still looking away. “It shouldn't have been difficult to use your lighting once…”

“I just figured Rookport had enough of me making thunder for a bit. The guards have been pretty jumpy after the other night.” I replied with a shrug as I gathered up my clothes along with Max's.

“Awfully thoughtful towards the scaleless that brandished weapons at us as soon as they saw us…” she huffed softly.

“... you… you were covered in blood when t-they came through…” my boyfriend pointed out.

“And? They didn't put their weapons away until that noble gave the order…  Surprising for one of them to do a kindness for us…” 

“I did save his kids and helped save most of his guests…” I shrugged and started off towards the others, briefly pausing when I noticed Kat. She apparently had her swimsuit on under her now-missing clothes: a red bikini top a little more conservative than mine and the bottom looked closer to a pair of shorts than anything. Seeing this, I sped up a little while her back was turned and scooped her up in a hug from behind “Really Kat? You could've at least done a full bikini too!”

“Not for me~ I like boyshorts more~” she giggled, looking up at me in  my arms with an innocent smile. “Like I said, you could've picked your own if you went with me. How's it feel?”

“Weird… softer than I expected… and isn't the top supposed to be … um thicker?”

“Yeah… there's no padding… so um… the water is gonna be interesting.”

“... great…” I rested my head on top of hers.

“Oh Hey Saerrei~ you want yours or- ” there was a cute kind of squeak of surprise I would never expect to hear from a dragon.

“Hold on, hers…?”

“N-not yet!” she said quickly. “We should actually g-get to the flying first… the others are not here yet so it should be a good time to…”

“Oh so you're stealing her away already? Ok then” my girlfriend replied cheerfully.

“Steal me away?”

“Just up there” Saerrei clarified, pointing up to the cliff as if it was the most sane idea ever. My heart sank a bit.

“... you want to teach me… up there…? That's like, what, three times the height of the city walls.”

“It is the best place we have to do it. You should have learned as a hatchling but that wasn't an option for you.”

“How do hatchlings learn? Maybe I can start there?”

“... I learned by leaping off my mother's tail…”

“Dammit…”

“Aww is a dragon afraid of heights?” Eris taunted and I cast a glare her way.

“Would you want to jump off of that and hope you can fly?!” The fighter grinned.

“If I had wings like you? Definitely, looks like fun,” she nudged Nicolas. “You have to bring me with you when you start learning.”

“U-um I-I have to figure out how to get my wings out again f-first… a-and not that high either…” the demi-angel responded.

“Maybe… we can find a lower spot…?” Max shyly suggested.

“This is the best location,” Saerrei insisted. “Good updraft and you have the water to land in.” 

“Alex… it'll be ok,” Kat said in a comforting tone, turning to face me in my grasp. My attention went back to her in time for her to cup my cheek and kiss me. “I would be stopping you if it was a bad idea, ok?”

“Fine… if you say it's going to be fine…” I sighed. 

“So we can still do it…?” Saerrei asked, barely masking her excitement. 

“Yeah…” I caught sight of a slight smirk crossing my girlfriend's face.

“Just…” she giggled, hooking a finger under one of the strings of my top, “...make sure these are tight before you lose something.” Warmth immediately rushed to my face over the thought of somehow coming out from the water with a piece of the outfit missing.

“I-I'll keep that in mind…” I mumbled, now doubting the knots I made. I took a breath, kissed her back then also gave Max a quick kiss before looking at Saerrei.  “Let's… just get to it before I change my mind.”

“Ok!” the dragoness happily responded and practically bounded away halfway back towards the rock she met Max and I at. She got as far as spreading the wings on her back to take off before freezing and folding them up again. “Oh… um… I can take you up there…”

“Cute…” Kat giggled softly then patted my arm. “Have fun.”

“And please be careful…” Max added. I smiled and playfully ruffled his hair, making his ears fold down.

“I'll try, pup, if something happens it's Kat's fault for making me think this was safe.” I laughed before pulling away from her to walk over to Saerrei.

“We should probably get started too, huh?” I overheard our girlfriend think aloud behind me. I couldn't quite hear Max's response but his tone sounded almost as nervous as it was about what I was about to do.

“L-let's… let's get going,” the dragoness said impatiently, shifting her weight a bit then shyly lowering herself onto the sand as I approached.

‘You didn't think about needing me to ride on top of you, did you?’ I took another breath, immediately regretting the warmth that caused from being so close to her and swung a leg over her body between her neck and the wings on her back. It was so awkward to sit down on her back, I was made way too aware of how thin the swimsuit bottom was and on top of that, how both of our bodies were, I wasn't sure where exactly to put my feet or tail. 

“You're heavy…” she complained quietly.

“Sorry… can you still fly? Um… maybe my quarter form …”

“No… it's fine… just don't expect this after you learn how to on your own.” she sighed then spread the wings on her back. Without a warning, she reared up, forcing me to hug her neck so I didn't slide off her smooth scales, and used both sets of wings to take off vertically with some effort. It was a little clumsy, like when she took off with soaked wings back when we first met, but we soon passed the height of the cliff… then kept climbing a bit higher. She eventually leveled off at twice the height we were aiming for and slowed the flapping of her wings. Being so high up, with nothing but my arms, legs and tail securing me to her made my heart race, both out of fear and how incredibly exciting it was. I wanted to try to open my wings back up to feel what it was like but more fear of messing up Saerrei's rhythm held me back. After a couple minutes of circling, she eventually coasted down to the cliff again, hovering for a moment before gracefully touching back down a good distance from the ledge.

“We're on the ground again, you don't have to hold on so tight,” she chirped with a playful tone, craning her neck around to look back at me.

“Maybe if you warned me before takeoff I wouldn't have to!” I replied and pushed myself back up into a normal sitting position then slid off onto the rocky soil of the clifftop. For a brief moment, it seemed like she was a bit disappointed I got off so soon but that look disappeared as soon as it appeared.

“Let's get started. This height isn't a problem anymore after I did that, right?” Saerrei chirped again, her excitement leaking more into her voice. 

“I guess not but that's something you should've warned me about too,”  she gave a bit of an incredulous snort and rolled her eyes.

“You had to be convinced to just come up here, I was not going to waste more time trying to convince you to go on more of an actual flight with me.” she gently started nudging me to walk to the ledge. “Come on, let's get started!” 

“Fine, fine,” I laughed, letting her push me. The fear from earlier reared back up a little as we got closer but went away as Saerrei stopped and moved between me and the ledge.

“Spread your wings but not all the way,” she instructed. Confused, I did as she asked, opening my wings halfway at my sides and she studied me for a moment.

“You know… stopping me after giving me a little taste of it, the little adrenaline high I got is going to go away.” I pointed out. It was her turn to give me a confused look before ignoring my comment and gently nudging the ‘index digit’ further away from the others with her snout.

“A little more… here… this is where you are going to keep them to glide.” I copied where she adjusted my wing on the other one. “Try just going straight this time but if you want to try turning, curl these…” Again with her snout, she tapped the tips of the ‘middle’, ‘ring’, and ‘pinkie’ digits. The little touches felt weirdly almost intimate but I had to ignore that in order to pay attention. “in the wing in the direction you want to turn in. Keep your talon forward and up slightly. If you point it down, you will dive. Understand?”

“Yep. What about slowing down?”

“Talon up to the sky more, you will feel your wings catch the air, don't do it too much or you'll lose all your speed from this,” she motioned towards the drop for emphasis. “You ready to try?”

“As much as I can be…” I admitted and she moved out of my way and I heard her circle around behind me. I was already doubting how smart of a decision it was as I approached the edge and saw more and more of the drop.

“Remember, keep the talons pointed slightly above parallel with the ground and the water, not down at them or you will dive.”

“Yep, got it.” I took a breath, the logical part of my mind starting to get louder about this potentially being suicide.

“... you… actually are going to have to take the leap…”

“...” I shakily tried curling the parts of my wings she pointed out earlier, making sure I could at least do it. “Ok… ok… Jesus this is fucking stupid.” Another breath and I finally took the plunge.

In my old life, I could never understand adrenaline junkies and the need to put yourself at such a big risk for a thrill but this… It was a whole different kind of rush than riding Saerrei as she flew just barely a minute ago. I dropped at first, but thanks to blindly following the extremely brief instruction, and strong instincts that I never even considered being in play, my wings caught the air. The beach quickly disappeared below me, going far out over the water, lots of distance put behind me without a lot of drop in height. I probably could have made it to the other side of the little cove if I wasn't brave enough to try turning. With that I discovered a slight adjustment made a big difference, I lost a lot of forward speed, even started banking a little as I turned out towards the open ocean. That loss of speed made the end of this first try come faster than it was before and the water was coming up quick. I tried what the other dragoness told me to slow down but not nearly as aggressively as I should have. 

When I finally hit the water, it was less of jumping into a pool kind of entry, and more like ‘wiping out on a wakeboard’. My feet and tail made contact and I skidded across the surface at first then I found myself tumbling into the cold water. Various parts stung all over, especially my wings but they felt more like slaps than anything. My chest and lungs were certainly burning for the air by the time I surfaced again, my nose too from the salt water. Then, to make matters even worse, my top bobbed up right in front of me just as I was getting my bearings again and sent a wave of panic through me. 

‘Dammit! She even warned me!’ Using my wings to help tread water, I grabbed my top and covered up with one arm and used my other hand to check the remaining strings. Turned out it was only the lower string of the top came undone, the others were still fine. The whole time in my panic, I had to watch Saerrei come around and end up hovering right above me, offering her tail to grab onto. With how far out I got, I had to accept this help, grabbing tight on with my free arm and legs while keeping the other arm firmly across my chest for the entire embarrassing ride/drag back to shore. 

Despite the disastrous ending, the whole thing was exhilarating and I found myself wanting to do it again.

 

---

 

“Agh, Ok, this might be the last time before we take a break… I didn't realize I was using my back so much…” I groaned, sliding off Saerrei’s back and onto the top of the cliff for the fifth time and wringing out my hair yet again. We had been at it for awhile and by that time I figured out at least how to not further bruise myself, (especially the tender spots currently missing scales from my newest scars) with my water landings… and prevent additional wardrobe malfunctions. Kat had a kick out of seeing me rush to re-tie my top from where she was helping Max with his own needed practice. Luckily she seemed to be the only one that noticed it thanks to Saerrei landing between me and everyone when they ran over to check on me.

“Maybe it would be easier in your true form,” she suggested as she shook off the water I brought onto her.

“Told you already, wish I could but I can't do that at-will,” I sighed. I walked closer to the ledge and took a moment to check on my partners far below. I had been trying to watch his progress too, but it was hard to. In the snippets I managed to catch, he seemed to be getting less nervous in the water, at the very least.

“I suppose it would make it harder to get you up here…” she mused and I heard her circle around behind me before she nudged my side softly. “You're heavy enough as is and I do not want to be dragged into the water again when I go get you.”

“At that point I might as well try making it to the other side and walk around.” I laughed.

“You're doing really good like this, you probably would only need to do that a couple times before we can just fly together…”

“Pretty high hopes there. You saw me drop when I tried flapping last time!”

“You weren't doing it right!” she gave a snort that sounded like she was laughing. 

“Plenty of time to teach me that too if not today we can figure out some other time, especially if you're going to join our party.” She shifted a bit in place and shyly looked away. “What? did… I say something wrong, you were still going to join right?”

“I-I am… it's just that I'm not sure if we'd get another chance for the next few weeks… um...”

“Is something wrong? We can probably help if you need it, it's the least we can do after what you've done today… and saving me…twice”

“By Rissaeth… she was right…you are oblivious” she sighed.

“Huh…?”

“...” she let out a groan and moved away, pacing and clearly torn about something.

‘Shit… did I offend her somehow? Why was she talking about me being oblivious… fuck I just had to ruin the fun we-”

“I-I need help with my heat ok?!” She suddenly blurted out without stopping. 

‘What…?’ I became painfully aware of her scent again and the growing warmth in my core contrasting the cold water dripping off of me. 

“Everything I do to deal with is working less and less the more I'm around you! A-and it has to just be our heats and both of us being… agh!” She continued. “Goddess, I'm just ruining everything now… You're just going to reject me…” 

“O-ok, this is a bit sudden for me,” I admitted, glancing back down at my partners below, my heart racing once again from a confusing mix of feelings. A loyalty to Max and Kat and what I had with them but also they and Saerrei were the only three people that actually could make my heat flare up.

“Sorry… I know you are with them… that's why I didn't want to say anything! I should have just stayed quiet… but… I need help… j-just with dealing with it…say no if you have to, I-I'll just take you back down…”

“...” I groaned, trying to figure out what to say. There was no denying that a part of me was definitely attracted to her. Then a few thoughts occurred to me. Kat sort of flirted with her before and Max also acted weird around her. It could have just been her heat affecting them but then again Kat never seemed directly affected by mine.

“... just say something… It's going to be like all the other times anyways…”

“Kat and Max… ask them too… I… I can't give an answer without theirs…”

“... What…?”

“W-we're a package deal… ok? I'm not going to do something like that without them… I love them and I can't risk hurting them like that…”

“... are you sure…? You… you can just tell me no… I'm… I’m used to it…” she shyly approached the ledge again.

“Just ask them… maybe we can figure something out…” I sighed and glanced down at the others again, trying to calm back down. As I did so I spotted a couple figures coming around the cove, one of them definitely a lamia with a shiny tail. “Shit… um the others are here…um,” I shyly gave the nervous dragoness the best comforting smile I could manage. “Say… um, you want to do that one last try with me…? Get our minds off of this…?”

“Really…? I can just take you down…”

“Come on… this has been fun doing this with you… end it on a high note at least and not both of us worrying about this,” she glanced at me then out to the water again.

“N-no word of this to that noble! Understand?” I smiled a little more.

“Eris doesn't have to hear about it,” I half-laughed. “Now come on, last time then I'm taking a break.”