Dragon Goddess’s chosen

A week later.

 

“Ugh!” I yelped as a ghostly white and blue spider lunged at my face in a web-filled corner of the woods. I diverted it with a quick bat from the butt end of my weapon and went to bury the ax side into its head but it phased out of existence. I shuddered a bit after it was gone, I was fine with spiders before but not ones the size of a bulldog where I could see all of their face parts. “Kat! Just had to be spiders, huh?”

“I did warn you!'' My girlfriend called back, releasing an arrow into another spider that just materialized. I gave a sigh and focused on staying next to Max to protect him. This whole ‘investigate missing animals’ quest for one of the farther out farms was her idea in the first place.

“Not about a nest of Phase Spiders!”

“Oh stop complaining! This is fun!” Eris chimed in as she pierced the abdomen of another with her sword. She and Nicolas were doing fine working as a pair, the cleric casting Enhance Ability that let her rival Rei's agility.

“Alex!” Max yelped and my attention snapped to him in time for me to lift my tail in the way of another lunging spider. Its fangs clinked on my scales before my boyfriend zapped it with Shocking Grasp. I double-tapped it before it could phase out with the spear point of my weapon.

“These are more annoying than the mother…” Rei muttered, stopping by us, her fists covered with the green hemolymph from the spiders she managed to hit so far. I shuddered again over the reminder of the short fight we had with the much bigger mother just outside. “Do we have to kill all of them?”

“If we don't the problem will come back” I huffed. Another clink of fang on the scales of my foot made me jump. My surprise made my weapon light up with electricity as I brought it down on the arachnid, frying it as it was cleaved in two.

“Last two!” Kat announced. “Eris, Nicolas, on you in three, two...” A pair of spiders materialized by the two on que. Nicolas jumped in front of one with his shield while Eris dealt with the other with her sword. I searched for a way to assist for a moment but it was quickly brought to the end when the cleric brought his mace down on the one he stunned by blocking.

“Haha I knew our training was paying off!” The fighter exclaimed cheerfully as she practically jumped into his arms and kissed him.

“... did… I miss something here…?” I asked softly as I tried to let myself calm back down.

“Oh… you missed their first one…” Max responded softly, still breathing hard from the excitement. “T-they kissed back at the party… and they were close at the beach…”

“Oh… I didn't…” Kat wandered past us, over the couple dozen corpses, drawing an arrow and heading towards the webs. “... notice… um… Kat… whatcha doin there?”

“Grabbing some of this~” she answered happily.

“... can I ask why…?”

“It's free silk. If you want, I'd appreciate the help,” my head tilted on its own in my confusion as I looked at the webs and all the debris stuck in them.

“... Kat… I… don't think it's usable… what do you want it for anyways?”

“I was going to try one of those Fabricate scrolls. Are you helping or no?" She paused by the web and gave me a questioning look. I sighed and kissed Max's cheek, earning a momentary slightly jealous look from Rei, before crossing over to my girlfriend. I would've given the other dragoness attention too but she still expressed reluctance about Eris knowing for some reason. I stuck my weapon through the center of the largest web and rotated it in my hands. The concept of spider silk being strong held up in this world too, it took a lot more effort than I thought it would to just wrap it like a giant ball of gross cotton candy around the end of the poleax. 

“Still didn't answer what you wanted it for.” I grunted softly.

“Easy~ I still want to do fun outfits ~”

“You're still on about that?” I sighed.

“Come on, you've been stressing about the other dragons and learning how to fly…  It'll be fun and Halloween is coming up too, so it's the perfect time for it.”

“Halloween…?” Max asked, pausing in cleaning Rei up with his magic to cock his head at us. She did look a bit flustered about his touch, ever since the night we helped her, it's been obvious she had been more ‘aware’ of my partners and been a bit tsundere towards them too.

“The 31st of this month,” our girlfriend explained happily.

“U-um…”

“You call the Return of Zytos. Halloween? That's a weird name,” Eris chimed in. She, Max and Rei all had curious expressions. 

“That… sounds ominous…” I remarked, tugging the gathered silk free from the nearby trees. “Fucking hell, glad none of us got caught in this…”

“It kinda is… The God of Death is returning to this side of the world… and he visits Circaea for a week…” Max explained. 

“Souls try to cross back over while he is not watching.” Rei added.

“... So… look out for ghosts…?”

“Cities with temples are safe,” Eris shrugged.

“We carve pumpkins to scare them away in the country…” Max murmured. 

“Oh! You do jack-o-lanterns too?” I asked.

“You… know about them? I thought you said your world didn't have monsters…?”

“... no solid proof of any. We just did it for decoration, it's fun,” I shrugged.

“So… nothing really happens for you?”

“People dress up, give out candy to kids that come to their door in costume, adults sometimes have fun costume parties,” Kat happily explained.

“And… you're planning to… make some…?” Nicolas asked.

“Yep! If you want, I might be able to get something together for you guys to have ‘fun’ in too.”

“U-um… I… don't know about that,” The cleric’s face immediately turned red as he glanced at his girlfriend. He definitely had something in mind that he might've wanted to see her in. The implications of it still seemed to go over Eris's head though. 

“Is this really a place for that topic?” I sighed, motioning to the evidence of our fight around us with my wing. She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at me. She then smiled at the couple.

“If you guys want, you can go ahead and bring news back to the farmer, just grab a fang off the big one for proof, I need a bit more for what I want to do.” 

‘So I need to go to another one,’ I sighed and moved onto the next biggest web to repeat the process and add to the growing ball on my weapon.

“So I get to claim it as my kill?” Eris teased but she was already starting to drag Nicolas towards the entrance of the nest.

“Hey! You know that was mostly Max, Alex, and my work, noble!” Our monk yelled after her.

“Just let her have it, Rei,” Kat laughed. “She's just jealous she hadn't killed anything big yet. Hey, Eris, don't forget! Your cousin is leaving later! We can meet you back at the docks!”

“Ugh, Ok!” the fighter's voice replied, the owner already out of sight.

“Hmph…” Rei grumbled, relenting to Max again to let him finish using Prestidigitation to get the green blood off of her. At the same time Kat went around and collected all of her recoverable arrows. Eventually My girlfriend stopped my collection of webbing before she retrieved a scroll from her bag then used it to convert the tangled mess around my weapon into a surprisingly large roll of fabric with a flash of light, the debris just dropping to the ground.

“Alright I got what I wanted, let's go catch up with the others,” Kat announced cheerfully as she hefted the roll up onto her shoulder.

“So, you had us fight spiders just to get silk?” I asked, sliding my weapon back into its spot between my wings and following her as she immediately led the way out with her prize. “... a lot of silk…”

“Eh, I did want to help the farmer, the free silk was just a bonus. You could've said no when I mentioned what we're fighting,” she playfully stuck her tongue out at me before she hopped over a fallen log to the clearing we fought the pony-sized spider in. I took a brief moment to offer a hand to my boyfriend to get over the same log then Rei as well. He was clumsy enough that I wanted to help him but I didn't figure she'd take it as well, albeit hesitantly.

“Oh! And I finally figured out my choice for you, Alex~”

“... oh no… what is it…?” I sighed, deciding to let her get back to the earlier conversation since we were leaving and she seemed excited to share. 

“Bowsette~”

“... really?” I paused, giving her an incredulous look.

“Come on, you'll look great! It's this or Starfire for you~” She giggled with a grin and I could feel my face grow hot right away.

“U-um what version??? I know you read the comics more than me! It better not be that really skimpy one!”

“Hmm maybe it is, maybe it isn't~ Do you really trust me not to pick it?”

“... not really!”

“Bowsette it is then~ And good thing too. Rei's getting Raven~ Might be weird if half of us are Titans and the other isn't,” Even more warmth came from that image in my head. It certainly wasn't helping that we had been holding off until heat ended in a few days to do much about what had built up since last time. 

“... should I be concerned…? You turned red…” the dragoness murmured.

“U-um… it'll be tight…um…”

“It’s up to you if you wanna wear it~” Kat chimed in again, letting us catch up to her just past the monster we slayed earlier. “But I think you'd look cute in it, and it looks like Alex was imagining you in it too” 

“Hey!”

“... I will have to see it before I make a decision…” the dragoness murmured. 

“... Wait… if you're making one for her…” Max observed.

“Yep. I got one in mind for you too~” Kat grinned even more.

“... what is that one…?” I pressed, concerned for our boyfriend.

“Gerudo Li-”

“D-don't do that to him!”

“I'm joking,” she grinned as the other two shared a confused look. “Is 9S better? Or… we can do the maid outfit again~ I saw how she looked at you in that,” An embarrassed yip escaped the half-Inugami as she kissed his cheek. “I’m the last one that doesn't have one~ so what’ll be, Alex?”

“...um…” I mumbled, trying to come up with something. I'd been so busy I hadn't really put much thought into this little deal of ours. I looked her over as we kept walking, running through every character I could think of that was an elf or had white hair. Eventually I landed on one. “Black Cat.” My girlfriend faltered a bit.

“Like… Spiderman… Black Cat…?” I smirked a bit at this opening and sped up to catch up to her more.

“Yep. And I'm picking the version myself ~ You got a problem with it? You're putting me in a dress again.” I playfully scooped her up from behind, making her yelp and almost drop the silk.

“I thought you were going to pick Zelda or Lara Croft or something!” She squirmed a little but made no real effort to get away.

“Croft would be interesting but that would just be normal clothes basically… We can do Black Canary if you want~ your hair is close enough to blond~” I laughed and nuzzled her a bit.

“It's not! And That's not any better!” 

“So Black Cat~?” I nipped at the pointed end of one of her ears, still wanting to press this opening I had to tease her back for once. To my surprise, that little action drew a cute gasp out of her as she tensed up in my arms and a blush spread all the way out to her ears. “What was that~”

“S-shut up! I-I wasn't expecting it to f-feel like that!” 

“I wonder what would happen if…” I flicked my tongue out by where I nipped and made it crackle with electricity.

“Eep! Don't you do it!” Que even more squirming.

“I'm totally gonna use this next time~” I purred softly as I glanced back to find the other two watching with great interest but they quickly averted their gazes.

“Not if I leash you first!… j-just put me down, we need to get going to make it back to the docks…”

“Hehe as you wish~” I kissed her cheek before releasing her.

 

---

 

“You're tense,” my girlfriend gently pointed out as we walked across the docks towards where Adrian told us where his ship was among the dozens moored there. “It's the attention isn't it? You could've turned back you know.”

‘Figured you'd see right through me,’ “What's the point, even people are recognizing me in that now…” I sighed, trying to control my tail's flicking and ignoring the mixed looks I was getting from the sailors we passed. Some were fearfully suspicious, others seemed to be sizing me up if they could take me on or not. “Might as well just get everyone used to this so I can have a chance of hiding again…”

“... you think that's going to work…?” Max asked softly just as I felt him squeeze my hand.

“Worth a shot… at least I'm not being hit on by  beastfolk anymore.”

“Brave scaleless,” Rei remarked quietly, walking slightly behind us. “Or stupid… you smell like dragon even in that other form…”

“Guys can be stupid sometimes,” Kat shrugged and playfully grinned at our boyfriend and me. “No offense of course, you too, Max”

“Mhmm, as if I count as one anymore,” I chuckled softly and stuck my tongue out at her before going back to checking the ships around us for Adrian’s. I didn't need to look long before yelling up ahead attracted my attention right to it. Eris… squaring off with a couple of burly sailors on the deck of a twin-masted ship only one deck higher than the docks with even more watching at the bottom of the gangplank.

“That noble just had to cause trouble…” Rei sighed.

“Hey, Alex…” Kat started.

“Really? Why me? You've been her friend longer,” I pointed out.

“I got her out of trouble back when we got kicked out of that bar. You can have a turn."

“We can just leave her in the mess she started” the other dragoness suggested with a stretch.

“You're the best bet anyways~ big scary dragon lady… that'll put a stop to it”

“Fine…” I grumbled, my tail flicking.

“Be careful…” Max requested softly.

“I don't plan on doing anything stupid like Kat expects, pup,” I joked as I let go of his hand and walked ahead. I took the time to examine the scene as I walked over. The obvious route was blocked off by onlookers, I could either shove my way through and piss off more people or find a different way.

“Just fuck of Nores, we know you're just here to cause trouble.” One of the sailors in front of Eris barked just as I got in earshot.

“I told you. I. was. invited.” the redhead retorted, her hand on the hilt of her sword as she put herself more between him and Nicolas.

‘Goddammit you hothead.’ I growled and scanned for more routes. My eyes settled on a spot near the bow that had a break in the railing where a ladder built into the hull led to. I gave a sigh, glanced at my wings then back at the opening. ‘Already going to go back on not doing something stupid… alright… just like Rei's training…’

“Alex?” Kat called over as I backed up to the other side of the dock walkway. I flinched at this but just focused on what I was about to attempt. I took a deep breath then sprinted to the other side and jumped off. One. Two flaps (barely) of my wings before I clipped the claws on my foot on the ledge. I stumbled the rest of the way to the front mast. 

‘Haha it actually worked!’ A sense of pride welled up immediately then disappeared when the ship was rocked with a wave and with it a slight nausea washed over me. ‘Ugh… what the fuck…?’

“Clear off, now, girl,” the sailor's voice yelled again, refocusing me. I shook my head and pushed off from my support to the railing.

“Hey! You can't be-” a different sailor tried to stop me on my way to my friends but shut up with just a glare.

“Eris… let's just wait for the others,” Nicolas urged just as I made it over from his side. She glanced back to say something but a smug grin broke out across her face.

“Hey, Alex! Come to help us?” She greeted me cheerfully.

“Kat sent me to get you out of this mess, princess,” I grunted, ignoring more nausea with another strong rock of the boat as I posted myself between her and the pair of sailors, both obviously surprised from my sudden appearance.

 “By Abyssius, of course the dragonspawn is with her,” the second sailor blocking Eris's way mumbled under her breath.

“... dragon not dragonspawn…” I hesitantly corrected, earning lots of murmurs from everyone listening that didn't know already.  “Sorry for my friend here.”

“Hey don't apologize for me!” Eris huffed but I ignored her. “They're only giving me shit because they work for the Armand side!”

“Might want to reconsider your friends, heard the Norres got a bit of Orin's wrath, especially this one,” the first sailor warned. He was eyeing me even more cautiously as if trying to figure out it was worth squaring off with someone a foot taller than him.

‘Orin… that was another god… War maybe?’ “I'm stuck with her. We're friends of Adrian though, can someone go get him and he can prove that we were invited?” 

“Tried to tell your friend: He's not here. He would've come out with all this racket,” he gave Eris a pointed look.

“Really? Eris?” I sighed.

“What? He could've been lying!” She huffed.

“Alright you lot! Back to work!” A gruff woman's voice ordered and the two sailors stood at attention immediately, looking past us down to the dock below with slight panic in their eyes. I followed their gaze to find that the crowd had scattered and in their place stood an elf woman in a long leather coat and tricorn hat along with Adrian, Miyuki, and my partners behind her.

“Captain! Lord Castellane,” the two greeted then the man took over for the pair. “Sorry, ma'am we were trying to remove these intruders…”

“Hi, Adrian!” Eris called down cheerfully as if she wasn't the one that caused the mess. 

“She sounds familiar with you, young lord, friend of yours?” the captain commented, looking at Adrian.

“My cousin,” he sighed as she started her way up the gangplank. “I invited her with the others to talk before we leave.”

“You have two hours before we set off. You can use my quarters,” she glanced up and down at me. “Lookin’ a little green there, dragon, I know being on deck isn't for everyone but please try not to dig your claws into my ship like that.”

“What?” I began to question then another wave made me shift a foot over and instinctively sink my claws into the deck boards. “Blegh…”

“I just had everything repaired, don't need you undoing it already. Hope you're not coming with either, you'd never survive at sea like that.” With that she continued past towards an opening that led below deck with the two sailors that confronted Eris as the others made their way on board.

‘I almost forgot about that…’

“It's actually what I wanted to talk to you all about,” Adrian said as he passed by with Miyuki in tow to the doors directly below the helm. He opened them ahead of her and waved us in to follow them. I stayed where I was at first, waiting for my partners and I quickly found my arm being hugged by Rei.

“L-looks like your training is p-paying off back there…” she mumbled, her grip tightening as the boat was rocked once again. “W-won’t be much longer before we can fly together…”

“I knew you were going to add her too!” Eris taunted from the doors.

“Quiet, noble! I-I just don't like how the ground moves!”

“You too, Alex…?” Max gently prodded, taking my other arm. 

“Kinda… just a little woozy… we should probably just go in and sit down…” I admitted.

“You were never seasick before and it's not even moving that much…” Kat commented.

“We aren't meant to ride on these…” Rei muttered. 

“So it's a dragon thing… come on hopefully there's a place to sit” I sighed then gently guided her with me to the doors after the others.

“Of course… inside too…” she huffed. I squeezed her hand and that seemed to help her settle a little before I ducked into a furnished room with a bed off to the side and a table and chairs at the back window. I immediately led Rei over to the remaining open chair next to where Miyuki coiled up. Afterwards I leaned on the back of it for support against further rocking of the ship.

“Here I thought we were here to be friendly and say bye,” Eris said. “Can't believe I just said that about you out of all people…”

“I thought you were going to go easy on him after you…” Nicolas lightly got onto her.

“Found out why he's weird? Still getting used to that, had to put up with years of being compared to him…” she grumbled.

“It's on top of that… this is important…” Miyuki responded “We've… already talked about it…”

“I meant to bring it up to everyone a week ago but I didn't want to ruin the mood at the beach,” Adrian explained, spreading out a map on the table. On it, there was a route along the coastline near Rookport with an X further north past the Xolotl village and where the Orca king was nesting.

“What's this?” Kat asked, leaning over the map.

“It's the route we took to get here,” he pointed at the X. “And this is where we got attacked by a demon ship… a few boarded, flying and Misty Stepped… but mages on the ship only took a few shots at us and no shots from weapons as it sailed away without their boarders…”

“Weird… What do you think it was about?” I questioned. 

“I suggested that they weren't out to fight…” Miyuki said. 

“And I think they were running from something.” Adrian agreed. “If they wanted to sink us, they would've rammed us, the entire front of the ship was covered in stone.”

“Demons… running from something…?” Eris scoffed. “I know your parents told you the stories of how bloodthirsty they were when the Rift opened on their continent”

“I actually fought some and they seemed like they were just trying to delay us more than anything.”

“Ok… so what do you want us to do with this information …?” I asked.

“Can you go see if they landed somewhere? I know it's been a couple weeks but we should have heard something if they attacked another ship or the next town along the coast."

“And do what? We kind of have other big things to worry about after what happened at that party.”

“Other big things…?” He gave me a confused look. 

“Like worrying about ancient dragons coming here. Apparently that title Lord Hargreave gave me is more than likely going to get some to come here…”

“... That is… also concerning…” Miyuki muttered thoughtfully. “But this is also important… we think it's related to why we're all here… and I'll be leaving soon and I have my own responsibilities…”

“I would take this ship over myself but no one would listen to an Eighteen year old kid about something like this…” Adrian added.

“Of fucking course…” I grumbled, unhappy about everything practically landing on my shoulders lately. 

“Where do you think they went? Just show us and maybe if a quest brings us that way we'd also check it out,” Kat suggested.

“W-What? I don't want to fight demons!” Max yelped.

“Just checking it out if anything, Maxie.”

“I'm not too sure about it either…” Nicolas added.

“Same… we have a lot on our plate with the other dragons….” I agreed then groaned, cursing a heroic part of myself. “... but… they could make things worse if they are bloodthirsty like those stories say… fine… just show us, if anything we'll give it to Hargreave if we decide not to check it out ourselves…”

“Thank you… Now they were traveling West by Northwest while we were coming southeast…” he started, using a quill to mark points of interest on the map in a specific area from where they encountered. Afterwards, he continued to brief us on possible tactics they would be doing to conceal themselves for so long and what kind of features to look out for that they'd be taking advantage of where they ended up. It was hard to focus with part of my attention occupied with trying not to be nauseous from the ship but he certainly sounded the part of an experienced soldier despite his apparent age in this world. I was worried, though, about adding another potential threat to our lives and wondered if Kat was right about using Halloween fun to help distract us.