Dragon Goddess’s chosen

“Nngh…” I groaned, stretching a bit as I started coming around again. I heard a sleepy whine that protested the movement before a face was buried between my tits.

“N-not yet…” Rei whimpered, muffled from where she had her face, and one of her hands squeezed the breast it was on as she tensed up slightly. That got me to jolt even more awake and I barely managed to suppress the resulting moan.

I quickly found that I was in the middle of a tangle of bodies when I opened my eyes: Max on my wing and pressed against my side while hugging my arm. Rei was on top of me right where I left her after cleaning us up and taking care of her the previous night. Kat was nearby, not in the mess but still on the bed with us, clothed and happily just reading a book in the light of the last lantern still lit in the den. Me waking up didn't escape her notice and she flashed a smile. I couldn't help but be slightly embarrassed about the noise she definitely heard come out of me.

‘Morning, cutie~’ she greeted, going right into using Message.  

‘Morning’ I replied. ‘U-up first as always, huh?’

‘Yep…  still hard to sleep through the night,’ she shrugged before crawling closer and kissing me softly. Her tone changed to playfully accusatory as she pulled away. ‘You stole Max when I got up to find somewhere to use the bathroom. Can't be happy with just your new girlfriend, can you?’

‘Didn't try to, I've been out since cleaning her- us up… ’ 

‘Sure~’ she smiled more and looked us over, eyes focusing on the dragoness's shoulder. ‘You bit her didn't you? Quite a bit actually, her neck is covered in marks… there's more under those bandages isn't there?’

‘... probably… none were there when I was treating her… I was just worried about the actual bite…’

‘Did it again, huh? Why didn't it heal?’

‘You didn't hear what she told me, did you…?’

‘Little busy with our boyfriend's knot stuffing me~ but you know that, don't you?’ Aroused warmth flared in my abdomen and I shivered slightly at the thought.

‘It didn't take… um, luckily between dragons both have to do it to make the bond…’

‘Lucky for you, she can hold back,’ she prodded my cheek a little with a finger. The subject of our conversation started to stir a bit and did a very cat-like stretch with a pained whimper, her hand squeezing me yet again.

“Nngh… R-rei…” I gasped softly and she gave a squeak before bolting upright on me.

“Y-you stayed…” she murmured, almost relieved, then she noticed where her hand was and quickly pulled it back to her chest. The little statement concerned me, how hurt was she from her previous courting attempts?

“Good morning,” Kat laughed. “Sleep well?”

“Y-yes…” she shyly slid off of me, flinching slightly from the movement.

“Sore…?” a little nod to answer and my girlfriend prodded me more. “Sounds about right, someone is rough when she tops.”

“I don't try to be!” I interjected but that accidentally got Max to stir a bit.

“I-it's fine. I c-can take it…” Rei sighed then her face flushed as her stomach growled in protest.

‘Wasn't hungry yesterday, huh?’ I mused softly.

“Sorry, I would've tried to get breakfast started if it wasn't just us and seagulls up here. We can go find a place to get breakfast at, whenever Max wakes up.” Kat suggested, the mage’s ears flicking a little against my arm, and she playfully nudged Rei. “Another date maybe?”

“o-oh um…” she looked away. “We h-have to go down to a guild hall a-anyway… so… so I can join the party…”

“Noisy…” Max complained sleepily with a stretch. He ended up resting his chin on my shoulder.

“Sorry, pup, just trying to figure out plans for this morning.” I tried to make up for waking him with a kiss. He happily accepted and his curly tail was still lazily wagging when we broke it. I found Rei shyly, watching soon afterwards but she quickly looked away again.

“Nngh… ok…”

“What sounds good for breakfast?” Kat asked him.

“Eggs.” he answered with a yawn and nuzzled back into my arm.

“So just about anywhere is good with you,” I chuckled and playfully pulled him to the spot Rei vacated so I could sit up. He complained more, at first, but soon relaxed again.

“He's just going to fall back asleep. Your boobs are the best pillows~” Kat pointed out and smiled at Rei. “Right?”

“U-um…they are r-really soft…” the dragoness reluctantly admitted. “He's awake now… can we go…? The sooner we do, the sooner I-I can get joining the party over with.” Despite her words, she did seem at least slightly excited about joining. I smiled a little and gently and repeatedly poked at Max's side.

“Come on, pup, we have a dragon getting hungry and impatient.” I encouraged my squirming boyfriend to get up. 

“You don't have to say it like that! I-I can't be the only one who is hungry,” she huffed as Max reluctantly slid off my lap, still trying to blink himself awake.

“Sorry being with Kat has started to rub off on me a bit,” my girlfriend playfully elbowed me and got up. 

“I'm going to go get our stuff, don't let him fall back asleep~” she announced.

“I'll try.”

“I should gather my clothes too…” the dragoness sighed and went to try to stand. The thought of her look when I kissed Max crossed my mind briefly.

“Hey, Rei, wait,” I stopped her and she gave me a curious look. “A bit ago… you wanted a kiss too right?” Her gold eyes lit up instantly but she hesitated before responding.

“... I… I won't stop you if that's what you wanted.”

‘Not going to admit it...’ I smiled a little, gently cupped her cheek and kissed her. A happy little murmur escaped her almost immediately and her face flushed as she broke it.

“T-there, you got it… I-I’m going to go find my clothes now…” she shakily got to her feet before wandering off.

“... so… she's going to be joining us…? L-like me and Kat…?” Max asked quietly, still a little tired sounding and leaning against me as we watched her go around the den.

“Like another girlfriend…? Looks like it… if that's what she… and all of us want…”

“... I-I'm willing to try it… just… if she does… no more after her… please?”

“Like I told you before… I wasn't even sure about accepting her advances even when part of me did want it… current ma- partners are my priority,” I said softly. “I couldn't hurt you and Kat…”

“Thank you…” he nuzzled me more. I smiled and patted his head a bit.

“That said, you are the first one that said yes, so if this does turn into a long term thing, it's all thanks to you~” 

“H-hey!”

“I'm not wrong and I'm just messing with you~ now come on, now that you're awake let's go find our clothes.” I stood up, shifting back to my smallest form, and offered him a hand that he immediately took.

 

---

 

“Is courting for you always meals…?” Rei asked along the way to the closest adventuring guild hall from our inn, where we got our breakfast. It was obvious she had been waiting to ask while we were on the move instead of sitting still where someone could listen in.

“You're still calling it courting.” I observed.

“Is there a difference…? They mean the same thing in our language.” She tilted her head slightly. I paused, actually thinking it over, and realized, like boyfriend, dating didn't really directly translate back to Draconic.

“They're close, I guess,” Kat answered with a shrug. “Courting is such an old word where we're from, it's not really used as much.”

“Is it always meals…?” The dragoness repeated. “I've only been able to enter towns for a little more than a decade and I haven't paid much attention to how others do it…”

“Not always. It’s fun to find something little to do together, just spend time together as more than friends,” my girlfriend elbowed me slightly. “We need to figure out some more creative things, it's not like we can take them to movies or a coffee shop.”

“Or amusement park…” I agreed and smiled a bit as the mage and monk shared a confused look. “I think I saw a tea house a few blocks away from here before, close enough to coffee for here?” 

“Eh… I don't like tea as much,” I rolled my eyes at her.

“What about the other things…?” Max spoke up.

“Um… I guess movies are similar to a theater play if that helps you think about it…?” I offered. “I… I don't think we'd find anything similar to an amusement park here… um Kat, you have pictures of one we went to before, right…?”

“It's been a few years… might take a bit to find but my phone needs more power.” His ears perked up at her answer, definitely excited to see more of Earth.

“I'll try to figure something out with that,” I sighed and looked back at Rei. “What about us? What does courting look like for us?”

“Oh! um…” she murmured, shyly tugging the hood of her cloak over her more. “O-one normally gives the other a treasure to start it…”

‘Yep… that definitely explains how flustered she got over just the sword…’

“... the other is supposed to hunt for the first meal together if they accept it… after… um the two would spend time flying together… hunting… it's… normally started before mating season so what we did… isn't normal…”

“Like what we were doing was normal in the first place,” Kat scoffed with a slight laugh.

“So when you were acting like you wanted to fly together the other day…?” I thought aloud and the other dragoness tensed up immediately. 

“U-um….” she stammered.

‘No tsundere excuse for that, huh?’

“There's the guild!” She quickly pointed out before bounding ahead of us to the door.

“You got close to something there…” Max observed softly with a little laugh.

“Yep~” Kat agreed.

“Don't tease her too much,” I chuckled softly.

“Hmm… I'll think about it~” I rolled my eyes and followed Rei over to the door with them. As soon as we entered, Kat pulled Max along to the job board and left me to go with Rei up to the counter.

 

“Good morning! How can I help you?” A friendly human clerk greeted us as he put something that I could only assume were records away.

“Morning, we were hoping to add her to my party?” I replied.

“I can do that for you, just need her card and the party card of the party she wants to join.” He retrieved the familiar-looking runic contraption used in forming parties from under the counter immediately. At the same time Rei produced her personal card with surprising speed from her canvas bag, leaving me to fish out the party card. Without a prompt, I slotted my contribution in the center slot. “Oh you've done this before, that's good, makes everything easy”

“Um…” Rei hesitated a moment then figured it out on her own and slotted her card in one of the radial slots. The device came to life after a slight delay then both cards started to get engraved with the new information.

 

Tempest Adventuring Party

Composed of Parties:

Cœur de Lion and Tempest 

 

Rank: C

 

Tempest Members:

Alexandra “Wyrm of Rookport” Steele, 25, Dragon  1/4 Dragon, Dragon-blood Bloodrager Rank:C

Maximillian Wells, 21, Half-Inugami, Dragon-blood Sorcerer Rank:C

Nicolas Jager, 20, Demi-angel Human Light Domain Cleric of Azion Rank:D

Saerrei Sokolova, 113 21, Dragon Human, Way of the Storm Monk Rank: D

 

Cœur de Lion Members:

Eris Castellane, 20, Human, Duelist Fighter Rank: C

Katrina Torres, 24, Wood-elf, Hunter Ranger Rank: C

 

As usual, the popup above the device had some glitches about us that were corrected. Most I saw before, but Rei's caught my attention. I never considered how much older she was than the rest of us before but her comment earlier made sense now. Back when I first got my medicine that helped with the heat, Dr. Moreau did say that dragons were only recorded to be able to change form after 100. The last name also stood out, I didn't catch it during the arena event we did and I hadn't really heard any names like it here yet.

 

“Oh! Y-you're the Dragon!” the clerk blurted out and I could feel the attention of the few other adventuring parties in the building turn their attention to us.

“Yep… I'm the dragon…” I sighed, retrieving the very cluttered-looking party card. ‘Here we go again… this happened last time too…’ “ It's just something I don't want announced just yet."

“I'm so sorry, I just thought the ‘Wyrm of Rookport’ -” I caught sight of Rei going completely rigid when he said that title out of the corner of my eye. “-was a lot bigger. Especially with the gossip going-”

“Why did you call her that?” The dragoness demanded, no longer shy and startling the poor clerk.

“H-huh?”

“Why are you calling her Wyrm?”

“... it's part of the title Lord Hargreave bestowed on her…?” Her attention snapped to me.

“He gave you a title like that???”

“... yes? He did it at that party the other night…? Why? Is something wrong? ” I answered with a raised eyebrow.

“Agh! That idiot! He has no clue what he did!” she growled. “We need to talk to him! Now!”

“We can't really just bar-” I tried to say but she already took off, leaving her card behind. “-ge… into… the keep…”  I sighed, thanked the clerk, and grabbed the card before giving chase. ‘So much for a relaxing day…’

“Where's she going?” Max yelped as I passed him and Kat at the job board.

“The Keep.” I called back as I threw open the door and continued to follow Rei. 

---

The other dragoness was really nimble even in her human form. It was hard to keep up, let alone close the distance. I would've lost her entirely in the meandering passer-bys if I didn't know where she was going and Kat didn't also get involved. Max and I only managed to catch up with the two when Rei was inevitably stopped at the gates by six guards brandishing shortswords and spears.

“-go over the walls if I have to,” I heard her huffing at them as she crossed her arms. 

“Sorry, couldn't catch her in time…She's fast for being sore…” Kat sighed, breathing a bit harder than normal but not as bad as I was. Max was even worse off than me.

“It's fine…” I replied and moved in to intervene, my partners right behind me. The guards got even more tense as I got close, eying the poleax on my back and Kat’s bow across hers. “Rei, slow down… you can't just barge in there…”

“Are you with her?” One guard demanded, his spear still directed at our monk.

“She's in my party… yes…” I answered as I scanned over their faces, hoping for one I've seen before but no, I wasn't allowed to be that lucky.  “Rei, come on.”

“No! That lord put you in danger with that title. We have to speak to him!” 

“Sounds like you care a lot more about me now…” I gently tease in an attempt to break her sudden anger. “Just tell me what is going on…”

“I-I…” She sputtered, trying to find words again before looking away. “Alex… please… we have to talk to him.”

“Lord Hargreave is not currently taking visitors without invitation. Especially not armed visitors. Please turn around and return to the city.” A different guard said flatly. I sighed and glanced between them and Rei then back at Kat and Max as I formulated a plan. My girlfriend looked like she was spacing out for a moment just as I came up with a rough one then gave a thumbs up. “Are you listening? Clear off or we-"

“Can you call Smythe and see if the Lord is willing to make an exception?” I interrupted.

“Who are you to request that?” the first guard asked.

“... Alexandra Steele… um…” I gave a sigh, never wanting to use the title like I was a ‘Thane’ to the city or something to get my way, especially not this soon. “The ‘Wyrm of Rookport’ I've been up here before… and I helped at the party a couple nights ago.”

“Y-you cannot be calling yourself that!” Rei hissed but it did its job: five of the guards focused on me, unsure of whether to keep their weapons pointed at me or not while the sixth pulled out a Sending Stone.

“Smythe, there's a girl out here claiming to be the dragon from the other night. Short, redhead, purple scales on her arms. Says her name is Alexandra Steele. A friend of hers is asking for Lord Hargreave.”  There was a moment of silence before the butler's voice came from the stone.

“Ms. Steele is an ally of our Lord, I will inform him that she is requesting a meeting.” Upon being told I was an ally, the guards relaxed their stance. There were a couple awkward minutes of silence before Smythe's voice returned. “Our Lord will meet them in the front garden. Allow them entry.”

“And their weapons?”

“They may keep them. Precautions are in place to protect him.” 

“As he wishes,” the guard speaking used a hand to signal another at the top of the wall and the gate slowly opened. “Go on ahead”

“Brandishing their weapons at us again…” Rei grumbled as she went on ahead into the courtyard. The rest of us made sure to keep up this time.

“I… I don't blame them after everything that happened …” Max said softly. 

“Still…”

“You still need to explain what's going on.” I reminded her and she looked away again. “What's so bad about that title?”

“... it's the Wyrm part… you're not a Wyrm and the dragons that are… know of the others, all ancient. We need to stop you from getting known as that…” 

“Doesn't sound like a problem yet…”

“You're a new ‘Wyrm’ none of them heard about that just appeared… and allied herself with a city…”

“And some of them will come to the city to see what's going on…” Kat thought aloud. “This is going to hurt but I'll start checking for that, get some warning at least…”

“If they do, It… it shouldn't be until spring. Now and wint-”

“Ms. Steele!” Lord Hargreave's voice greeted with a tired cheerfulness, directing our attention back forward to find him coming our way.

‘Back to the Ms. Steele thing…’

“Apologies for not being able to invite you in, my office was one of the rooms the thieves went through,” he further greeted me with the same hand-kiss thing he did last time. 

“It's fine, we understand…” I glanced towards the side yard that still had shallow craters from my fight with Shenzi as he greeted the others.

“Ms. Torres… Mr. Wells…” He did the same to Kat as he did me and shook Max's hand. He paused when he got to Rei. “I don't believe we have met.”

“We have.” She said flatly, the fire I thought I got cooled down lighting in her eyes again. "I'm Saerrei.”

“Oh you're the other dragon, please forgive me for not recognizing you.” She put her hands behind her back before he could greet her the same way he did Kat and me but he seemed unfazed by it. “Thank you again for your  assistance. Now, come, come, we can take a walk through the garden while we talk.” He motioned for us to follow him along a path towards the opposite side of where my scuffle with the gnoll was. “What do I owe the pleasure of a meeting so soon? I figured you were taking a well-deserved break.”

“Something dragon-related has come up,” I answered, trying to pick my words correctly as I examined flowers that we passed. My underused Apprentice Herbalist skill prompted some pop ups of a few that had alchemical uses but I quickly dismissed them to try to focus on the task at hand.

“Does that mean you also want to make a deal with me, Saerrei? I can have the exact same contract as Ms. Steele drawn u-”

“No. You need to take back or change the title you gave Alex,” Rei cut in.

“That… can't be done quite as simply as you think…”

“Why not?”

“As part of my side of the agreement, I already pushed through a law that banned any attempts to hunt Ms. Steele. In the wording I have it, it included her title. Notifications were sent out to all the towns in my jurisdiction… and the Empire itself as an appeal to grant the same protection in other regions.”

“Agh! It's too late!” She growled. “It would've already spread by the time you get the change out! You have no clue what you did with that!”

“Guaranteed a visit from the Emperor for sure.” The noble chuckled, still unbothered. 

“We’re more worried about- Wait the Emperor…?” I jumped in, seeing how irritated the other dragoness was getting over how calm he was, but what he just said just clicked for me.

“Yes, the Emperor, knowing him, my request to extend your protection would catch his interest. You don't need to worry about that, though, it will take time for the request to reach Imperius and he would have a small fleet as an entourage to coordinate.”

“Saerrei just told us a bit ago when she heard it,” Kat steered the conversation back to the original topic. “The title will cause dragons, ancient ones, that actually call themselves Wyrms to come check it out. ”

“Hmm… that is concerning.” The lord mused and looked at me. “And you did not know of this before?”

“I told you I was human before. Rei here has been trying to teach me a bit of things I didn't  know about…” I answered then flinched a little when the dragoness grabbed my hand suddenly, with an expression like she realized something.

“We need to teach you how to fly as soon as possible. If they get here and you still can't…” she hissed, “It's going to be bad enough with us both being young…”

“This was my doing,” Lord Hargreave said, stopping us in the middle of the rear garden. “I'll have my guards keep an eye out and have them let you know if anything is found.”

“M-maybe I can convince my Dad to come back by then? I think h-he would help too. He's still here… I can go find him later…” Max offered. “You said they would come as early as spring, r-right?”

“Depends… any female, definitely, if males are considerate they would too,” Rei sighed then noticed she was still holding my hand and quickly dropped it.

“Good, a quarter of a year away to prepare,” Hargreave pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. “My city's name is in the title so they will still arrive here even if you leave… would it be too much to request you to continue to work in the area just in case?”

“Eris has been kind of itching to get back to adventuring jobs…” Kat pointed out.

“That is fine. I would never stop you from doing jobs that aid my citizens. I meant more of staying within a week's journey from here if you can.”

“That… might be doable… right?” I thought aloud as I looked at my present party members, who all gave a small signal of agreement. “We need to talk that over with our other two members too just to be sure.”

“Just keep giving Eris things to fight and she'll be fine.” Kat joked softly.

“I know it is a big request for adventurers to stay relatively in place. If I have to, I can arrange for accommodations for you once… current matters in my own home are settled.”

“You don-” I started to say but Kat hugged my arm.

“That's very generous of you, just let us know what ends up happening with that,” she replied for me then I felt her presence in my mind again: 'If he wants to offer us a free house or something, we might as well take it."

“Of course. The least I could do for this.” He pulled out a pocket watch and checked it. “Apologies, it is cutting it close to breakfast, I should go join my family, you are free to continue enjoying the garden as long as you want before you leave.”

“How are they by the way…?” I asked as he turned to leave, genuinely concerned that I traumatized the kids.

“Still shaken, but alive and still here. Thomas has asked me to let you take him flying. I'm not sure where he got that from but I'm not allowing it until I see you fly safely myself.” He laughed, walking back the way we came. “Take care, all of you”

“You too…”

“...” Rei cautiously watched him until he was far enough away before hissing. “I don't fully trust him…”

“He's safe as far as I've seen,” Kat assured her as she stretched. “I'm gonna head back, finish checking out the job board.”

“We should go work on your flying…” Rei insisted softly to me, a hand hesitantly touching my arm. Max looked kind of distressed, not sure what to do at the moment but Kat spoke up again.

“You can come with me, Maxie~ You should probably work on your letter to your mom anyways~”

“O-oh… yeah… I forgot about that…” he murmured then his face turned bright red as he looked at Rei. I didn't even need Message to know he didn't think of maybe needing to mention a possible third girlfriend, a second dragon one even, to his mother. 

“I'll help with what I can with that when I get back, pup,” I told him. “So meet back up… um…”

“Around dinner at the inn,” Kat answered cheerfully before grabbing Max's hand and leading him away… and leaving me to realize she set me up to have a solo date with Rei essentially.