Dragon Goddess’s chosen

A couple days later

 

Plasma Dragon Walnut Staff (unattuned)

Spells that inflict lightning or fire damage use less mana and are heightened in strength.

 

‘I hope he loves this,’ I thought excitedly as I briefly examined the staff Kat handed off to me by the city gates. We had coordinated with each other for me to drag Max there while she went and picked up this staff we commissioned. He had been suspicious of course: I had let her put eye makeup on me again, same style as last time (she suggested it, probably for her own fun) since he seemed to like it, and I led him all over town, even shopping some at the market, to buy her time and throw him off of where we were going.

“Hey, Maxie!” My girlfriend laughed, sneaking up on him right before she utilized his until-now unused 9S blindfold to cover his eyes.

“H-huh?” he yelped and his ears and tail shot up in surprise. “K-kat? What are you doing?”

“We got you something~”

“What?”

“Happy birthday, pup,” I said softly before kissing him and pushing his present into his hands. He cocked his head and shyly uncovered one of his eyes. It went wide immediately when he looked at it then at me.

“... A-alex… Kat… this is too much… it's not an important birthday…” he whined softly but clutched the staff close. 

“We know, it's every fifth here but you lost yours and you guys gave me this,” I insisted, touching my necklace before I helped him uncover his other eye. “I wanted to give you something to replace your old one but with a bit of a personal touch. ”

“I… t-thank you…” he shyly looked over it, focusing on the forked head of the staff where my horn was integrated with the wood itself and came back together at the tip almost looking like a crab claw. “...there's a spot for a focusing crystal too…?”

“We wanted you to be able to upgrade it if you wanted,” Kat chimed in happily. 

“Upgrade it? I-it's a staff made with a dragon horn!” He half-yelped, attracting the attention of passers-by.

‘Shit… 1/8th form was working… might not anymore if someone recognizes me… ’ I thought worriedly as I checked the sleeves of my shirt to make sure my scaled forearms were covered. Thankfully they seemed more interested in the staff he was announcing to have dragon parts than potentially seeing the ‘city’s dragon’.

 “Why would I have to upgrade it?!” Our boyfriend continued.

“It's better to leave the option open, Maxie.” She playfully poked his nose. “Come on, I want to see you test it out~”

“O-oh are we going down to the beach…?”

“Yep, that's the plan~” I laughed and kissed his cheek. “If we leave now we might have time for you to attune to it to test it before the others get there.”

“... t-the others are coming? Please d-don't tell me they're giving me stuff too… I really don't need it…”

“I think it's just this, Eris apparently has our next quest picked out, a B rank one, and she said it was fine to meet up out there.” I shrugged.

“We're heading out…? S-shouldn't we get our stuff?”

“It's fine, I gave it all to Eris when I was picking this up,” Kat assured him as she tapped the staff. “Come on, the sooner we get there the more time it's just the four of us~” she playfully grabbed his wrist and started pulling him along.

“O-oh um Ok!” I smiled a little and happily followed my partners out through the gates.

 

---

 

“Incinero Fragor!” Max shouted, the end of his new staff leveled at a boulder about a hundred feet away. A large circular orange rune etched into the air in front of the point then a second, smaller one half a foot in front of it. An orb of fire the size of a kickball took a couple seconds to form in front of the second rune before it was tossed in an arc that fell short of the target by a few yards. It was still in the area of effect though, the boulder and everything within a pretty sizable radius from the point of impact was scorched with a whoosh of flames spreading out and sending a heat wave out that ended up hitting me where I was sitting.

“... aaand that's why I told you to back up for that one,” I called over, watching my boyfriend's ears fold back shyly as he lowered the staff. I glanced over at Kat sitting next to me in the sand, happily capturing this on her phone camera. “That spell is a lot more terrifying than just thinking about it in a game….”

“Yep…” she agreed softly then put her phone down, “Shit… already dead… hope I got one good one…” she sighed and put it away. “You know… I kinda expected to feel it from here… like more than just heat…”  

“That was amazing!” Max yipped happily, finally recovering from the surprise and looking back at us with an excited glint in his eyes. He was looking slightly more drained than he was before that spell, though.

“Oh no he enjoyed it,” our girlfriend laughed. 

“W-what? It was!”

“I wasn't disagreeing. Honestly, it's kind of cute how much fun you're having~” he stuck his tongue out at her and went back to target practice.

“Vis Fragor!” A purple rune formed in front of the staff  before a chain of two shots of plasma went screaming into the boulder, each taking a chunk off when they exploded against it. “Hehe, this is great! It's so easy to cast now!”

“Did we just make a Megumin?” I joked softly.

“You mean that little explosion witch?” My girlfriend grinned at me. “Maybe~ you know I have an extra copy of Fabricate before he has to copy more~”

“Don't… a witch hat might be cute on him though…” A four-winged shadow passing over the beach alerted me to Rei's approach as I spoke and I glanced up to watch her circle back around. “Huh, wonder what took her so long, she's normally pretty quick about getting to us.”

“Who knows?” Kat shrugged as our ‘friend’ (definitely more than that but she hadn't talked about being more, other than courting) landed nearby with a simple backpack with a faint magic aura in her mouth. “Hey Rei~”

“Mmph,” the dragoness gave a muffled reply and dropped her bag next to the one I had with the items I got on my short ‘date’ with Max. She then plopped down really close behind us, close enough that I could feel a feather brush up against my back. 

‘... you want contact don't you…?’ I thought with a slight smile as I looked back at her. She tried not to meet my eye and instead cocked her head in Max's direction.

“What is he doing?”

“Testing out our birthday present for him” I answered, looking back at him just as he loosed another set of Plasma Bolts at his target.

“Those amphibians are going to come looking and get themselves hurt…” 

“The Xolotl? Surely they'd know better…” I got incredulous looks from both Rei and Kat. “They have to have some basic survival instincts… anyways they have the kobolds with them… um what was her name… um… Vahri? She seemed to be handling them.”

“Uh huh… you remember how they were last time…?” Kat pointed out. “There's only so much a handful of kobolds can do for them.”

“True…” I sighed and shrugged before playfully leaning back against Rei's fluffy wing. She gave a surprised squeak, and I couldn't stop the giggle from escaping me over her cuteness. “You… don't mind if I do this right? I can get up if you want.”

“.... you may stay…” she huffed then another squeak escaped her when Kat also leaned on her with me. “F-fine… you too…”

“Oh! Hi Rei!” Max greeted cheerfully as he finally noticed the dragoness.

“Hello…” she murmured, flustered now.

“So… what took you so long? You're normally quick about coming down,” I asked.

“Oh… um yes… I was getting something I-I need to turn back to get it though…” I smiled slightly and sat up again.

“Ugh fine,” Kat feigned annoyance and also sat up. She then playfully poked her snout. “If we camp out tonight we can continue this with all three of us if you and Max want~”

“U-um, t-that would be…  fine…” Rei poofed up for a brief moment then shyly shifted to her human form. 

‘Shit, forgot she's naked when she changes back…’ I thought to myself, feeling slightly warm at the sight. I also felt some amusement and pride when I noticed that she still had a trail of marks from my fangs down one side of her body before I averted my eyes. Max was blushing hard and also looking away when my eyes settled on him instead. There was some shuffling behind me then something about the size of a softball that was rough and dense was placed on my lap.

“Is that…” I glanced down and sure enough she had given me a chalky grey-white rock. “... a rock…” I looked back at her, finding her clutching a bundle of clothing, including her Raven cloak and my old Ciri-like blouse I came to the world with, with a raised eyebrow.

“I told you there's some things we have to be eating to help us during this time…”

“I remember that, I got some fruit like you suggested at the market,” I sighed, “but Rei… this. is. a. rock…” 

“It is limestone. I am not sure why but it helps with the eggs… Without it or eating bones I get cramps, and feel tired and irritable…” she huffed softly and I heard a short laugh escape my girlfriend.

“And here I thought you were lucky to get out of the normal shit for girls but it sounds like you get about the same thing,” she giggled and playfully prodded my side. “We need to figure out how to make ice cream for you~”

“... Ice… cream?” Max questioned, cocking his head.

“Ooh, we definitely need to figure it out, I forgot that you would never have had it before!” She grinned. “It's great, sugary frozen milk.”

“Sounds weird… why would somebody freeze milk…?”

“Anyways…” I addressed Rei with a sigh as she got dressed and held up her ‘gift’,“What am I supposed to do with this…? Are we really able to just eat rocks…?”

“Lick it? That's what I do normally but I also eat more bones at this time too,” she tilted her head a bit thoughtfully. “I suppose you can try crushing it and adding it to food?”

“So weird to hear a cute tiny girl just talk about eating bones and rocks… sounds insane…” I groaned and her face immediately turned red. 

“...um, ah…” the compliment seemed to get to her pretty bad and it took a moment to find her words again as she finished getting dressed “U-um what fruit d-did you get…? I-I want to make sure it's the right kind…”

“Mostly apples and berries… Oh and this,” I answered then remembered something else I got: a weird blue spherical fruit that smelled good and I was told was called Sapphire fruit after how its edible seeds look. I quickly retrieved it out of the bag I brought along to show her. Her eyes went wide instantly.

“A-alex! You cannot eat that!” She yelped and took it out of my hand.

“What? She can eat rocks but a blue pomegranate is out of the question?” Kat laughed as she jumped back into our conversation.

“This is a Nyaraen poison for us! We just got done with heat! You don't need this!”

“H-hold on… poison?! I drank like two pints of ale made from it a month ago and I was fine…” I pointed out.

“You… drank alcohol made of it?!” One of her hands hit her face. “Goddess help me… Alex… it's… not a normal poison… the Goddess of Love has at least one poison for all the races… that causes lust, understand…? Alcohol makes ours,” she held up the blue sphere. “Worse and makes it a lot easier for us to get intoxicated…”

“That explains a lot for that day…” Max mumbled softly.

“...what happened?”

“Alex went into heat, Max and I officially got together and Alex marked him as her mate as she fucked him into me,” Our girlfriend answered with absolutely no shame. “Told both of them to think about it but they weren't listening.”

“Kat!” We chastised simultaneously.

“What? It's true, and we slept with her twice already so it's not like it's TMI.”

“Uh… agh…” Rei blushed even harder as she pinched the bridge of her nose and whispered to herself in draconic. “Goddess, I'm going to be the one that decides when we become mates…”

‘At least she's not put off by that…’ I thought with a sigh as I turned my gaze out to the water. To my surprise, I spotted a small boat turning from the main path in and out of the city  and heading towards the cove we were in. As I curiously watched it approach, half listening to the others, I noticed a couple figures on the bow, their features slowly becoming apparent: a redhead girl in a Duelist's outfit and a taller guy next to her with light brown hair and chain armor. They were waving at us. “You've got to be fucking kidding me.”

---

“Eris. I hate you.” I grumbled as I leaned over the railing of the bow fishing ketch as my stomach tied itself in knots over the side-to-side pitching of the vessel. Rei wasn't faring much better next to me.

“What? I found something that paid well and gave us transport. I don't see the problem here.” The fighter replied nonchalantly.

“The problem is,” I hissed while casting a glare her way. “Apparently all dragons get seasick, that includes us!”

“Oh… so that wasn't just an excuse for you and Saerrei to get handsy,” she shrugged, slipping a bit into her French-like dialect at the end. Rei narrowed her eyes at her for a second but quickly turned back to leaning over the railing.

“Should have flown… Goddess damn being found out…” the dragoness growled under her breath in her native tongue.

“Sorry… I checked my spell list…” Nicolas started apologizing “There's Remove Sickness… I'm not sure if it would work but I don't have any more spell choices left…”

“Ugh… don't worry about it…” I groaned and looked back out at the ocean. There was some relief from watching the horizon along with Max's hand rubbing my back.

“What's this quest you got anyways?” I heard Kat's voice asked from her spot on the other side of our boyfriend. “It's a B-rank so you met with the quest giver, right?”

“Yep!” Eris answered cheerfully “She said that her company has been having problems with something attacking their boats in a certain area up north, something big, and it's been hitting every time they tried to bring up their nets.”

“... does the crew know what they're getting into?” I asked, glancing at the dozen or so people milling about with tasks across the rest of the boat. Nearly all of them were human, a single dwarf, and a large wolfish Inugami man, none looked weak but it could be unfair to bring them into combat if they weren't ready.

“Their boss talked to them before we left the docks.” Our cleric answered.

“Good… as long as they know…Kat… can you check what it is…?” I requested quiet enough I was sure none of the crew heard.

“If it's an animal it's going to be less predictable than you, babe,” my girlfriend pointed out. “I wouldn't even know how far ahead to check”

“They told us the fishing spot is half a day from Rookport… so we'll get there tomorrow morning…?” Nicolas said with a slightly hopeful tone.

“We have to spend the night on here???” Rei grumbled. I silently tried to comfort her by letting my arm brush up against hers.

“Thanks but I'm not looking that far ahead just in case it's an animal… I'll give a warning a couple hours ahead if I can…” Kat sighed.

“U-um… you said something big… is… is there anything more that they told you…?” Max asked.

“Eh, it's big, big enough to rock a boat this size, has big claws and teeth and blends into the water.” I didn't even need to be looking at her, I could hear the fighter shrug in her voice as she gave the answer.

“Really helpful, Eris…” I sighed.

“What? I'm not worried we have you and Saerrei and maybe this time I get the kill of the big monster.”

“I dunno, you didn't see Max practicing earlier, he might get it this time,” I joked, gently nudging my boyfriend. My mood to joke around was nearly immediately dashed as a particularly strong wave made the side we were on buck a little higher than what the rhythm had been and reinstilled my nausea. I dug my nails into the wood of the railing over the feeling and I felt Rei grab my arm at the same time. “Ugh… I hope this gets better by then…”